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West, Texas Explosion: The Price of Poor Regulation and Rick Perry's Budget Cuts? | Nomadic Politics
Did Texas Governor Rick Perry's budget cuts and his idea of limited regulations play a factor in the West, Texas fertilizer explosion?
Coffee Party USA's insight:
We continue to hear to push for less regulation and cut backs to regulations already on the books. We also see the push to do away with the EPA totally and other regulatory offices. Could this be causing these groups to hold back, be overcautious in what fights are taken on or even just plan underfunded and under-staffed?
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John Boehner, Speaker of the House, revealed why it’s politically naive for the President to offer up cuts in Social Security in the hope of getting Republicans to close some tax loopholes for the...
Coffee Party USA's insight:
Exceprt: "Get it? The Republican leadership is already salivating over the President’s proposed Social Security cut. They’ve been wanting to cut Social Security for years. But they won’t agree to close tax loopholes for the rich. They’re already characterizing the President’s plan as a way to “save” Social Security — even though the cuts would undermine it — and they’re embracing it as an act of “bi-partisanship.” Delete the scoop?
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Before joining the Department of Labor, Mary Beth Maxwell was a top organizer for the workers’ rights organization Jobs With Justice.
Coffee Party USA's insight:
Good interview touching on all the right points with practical solutions. Another example of our wealth inequities. Delete the scoop?
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What’s the worst that could happen? That’s what people ought to be asking Congress, in particular those senators who are holding up federal action on gun safety.
Coffee Party USA's insight:
The gun safety battle is a very good way to split hairs and get a lot of press for politicians. Brings back memories of plausable deniablity or promise them anything. Fear factors aside, there are solutions to this, but money not the NRA rule the day.Another word for the money is Profits. Delete the scoop?
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The GOP Chairman in Texas called the Democrat's voter databases "slimy and dark arts of campaigning" but the truth is that's something the Republicans have been doing since the early days of the Bush Administration. Delete the scoop?
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Politicians use the phrase to mean a number of different things, taking advantage of the public's ignorance on budget issues.
Coffee Party USA's insight:
This is another article on the budget plainly and accurately showing the flaws in a zero balanced budget. I really like the checking account statement. Saddens me that we can't come to better understandings. Our government is not a family household and doesn't die. Debt, within a reasonable means to pay, is a sound economic system. What puzzles me is, where is a solution? Do we go from one year to another doing the same thing again? Calls for safe guards and regulation, so it doesn't happen again? This needs fixing. Delete the scoop?
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America’s real economic problem.
Coffee Party USA's insight:
I think this is something we should talk about. Looking at all side of an issues can give us a better perspective. Delete the scoop?
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by STEPHEN ROSENFELD, AlterNet A Pennsylvania judge in the heart of the Keystone State’s fracking belt has issued a forceful and precedent-setting decision holding that there is no corporate right to privacy under that state’s constitution, giving citizens and journalists a powerful tool to understand the health and environmental impacts of natural gas drilling in their communities. “Whether a right of privacy for businesses exists within the prenumbral rights of Pennsylvania’s constitution is a matter of first impression,” wrote Washington County Court of Common Pleas Judge Debbie O’Dell Seneca late last month. “It does not.” Judge O’Dell Seneca’s ruling comes in an ongoing case where several newspapers sued to unseal a confidential settlement where major fracking corporations paid $750,000 to a family that claimed the gas drilling had contaminated their water and harmed their health. The Court ordered that settlement unsealed, enabling the papers, environmentalists and community rights advocates to examine the health issues and causes. “The ruling represents the first crack in the judicial armor that has been so meticulously welded together by major corporations,” said Thomas Linzey, executive director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, which has helped 150 communities in eight states adopt Community Bill of Rights to limit corporate powers. “It affirms what many communities already know, that change only occurs when people begin to openly question and challenge legal doctrines that have been treated as sacred by most lawyers and judges.” [MORE] 
Monica S Mcfeeters's curator insight,
April 12, 7:51 PM
New Win! We can do it if we have the will to push back and remind corporate bullies and our officials it's the nation of the people, by the people, for the people! Excerpt: “The ruling represents the first crack in the judicial armor that has been so meticulously welded together by major corporations,” said Thomas Linzey, executive director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, which has helped 150 communities in eight states adopt Community Bill of Rights to limit corporate powers. “It affirms what many communities already know, that change only occurs when people begin to openly question and challenge legal doctrines that have been treated as sacred by most lawyers and judges.” The Court’s ruling is significant because the fracking companies have relied on secrecy agreements with landowners to hide the environmental and........[.click the title to read more]... Delete the scoop?
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When it comes to reforming Washington, money in politics is the issue that trumps all others. Activist Josh Silver has some ideas on how to fix our coin-operated political system.
Monica S Mcfeeters's curator insight,
April 12, 7:54 PM
Yep, Go Bill Moyers! He has come out of retirement at least twice to provide media thats feeds our mind and our insight. Delete the scoop?
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The author of the bill promises to work with critics who say it could have an effect on domestic policy
Coffee Party USA's insight:
I find it very interesting that while hot topics like gun control and social security cuts are the focus that this panel may be silently ending the open internet that is the life line to so many citizen discussions and debates. The most dangerous weapon anyone could get hold of other than the biggest guns is the communication system and our internet.
Kole Carpenter's curator insight,
May 1, 3:53 PM
I think the internet should be free but there should be someone looking at it to try to but back on cyber crimes like credit card number stealing and things on that line. There should be someone looking for things that can link them to criminals and not just watching everyday people. Delete the scoop?
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Coffee Party USA's insight:
Check out ALEC State Chairmen in your area. 
Terry L Eaton's comment,
April 13, 3:37 PM
I was more than happy to share the contacts identified for our state. People should have a right to know not only that their representatives have been bought and paid for but who is paying them and what for.
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Hospitals, Medicaid and poor people stand to gain from the White House's budget. Farms, oil companies and the EPA lose out.
Coffee Party USA's insight:
The numbers say this is the biggest loser. Excerpt: Many Social Security recipients: The White House included a proposal to use “chained CPI” for Social Security. As my colleague Dylan Matthews detailed here, this is essentially a cut to benefits, which would grow more slowly over time than they currently do. (It would also hike taxes for everyone by altering tax brackets.) The White House insists that it will include “protections for the most vulnerable” — poorer and older seniors. All told, this change is expected to save $230 billion over ten years. Delete the scoop?
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Nunnelee is the Mississippi State Chairman of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), as of 2011.[2] About ALECALEC is a corporate bill mill. It is not just a lobby or a front group; it is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, corporations hand state legislators their wishlists to benefit their bottom line. Corporations fund almost all of ALEC's operations. They pay for a seat on ALEC task forces where corporate lobbyists and special interest reps vote with elected officials to approve “model” bills. Learn more at the Center for Media and Democracy's ALECexposed.org, and check out breaking news on our PRWatch.org site.
Coffee Party USA's insight:
Shine a little light on ALEC sponered officials in your state. Alan Nunnelee has now been promoted to congressman in DC so someone else may be the chairman in his home state. Nunnelee continues his work for ALEC in Washington now. Delete the scoop?
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According to recent polls, a strong majority of Americans have a coherent to-do list for Washington. The surprise is it's actually a smart set of solutions.
Coffee Party USA's insight:
You can always count on Bill Moyers for an earnest look at the world. Delete the scoop?
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Bill Moyers Journal: Bank Fraud / Net Neutrality List Price: List Price: Your Price: - In this edition of the Journal, Bill Moyers sits down with (New post: banking fraud: Bill Moyers Journal: Bank Fraud / Net Neutrality Delete the scoop?
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“The Seed Underground” is a love letter to the quiet revolutionaries who are saving our food heritage. Delete the scoop?
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They are rumored to want the Tribune chain. A look at Watchdog.org gives some clues about what that might mean.
Coffee Party USA's insight:
It might mean more Fox News style reporting.
Monica S Mcfeeters's curator insight,
April 20, 12:41 PM
Keeping your eye on what the Koch brothers are up to is probably better national defence for country, our job, resources and lives than the whole military and congress and white house put together. Turn your back and they will finish buying the country right out from under us and hand us some Ayn Rand designer hand-me-down shoes and make sure they don't include the boot straps or instructions on where to buy them. Delete the scoop?
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The free market is such a powerful catalyst of innovation that we need to be very careful about where we fail to employ it.
Coffee Party USA's insight:
This well written review keeps your attention, bringing out the books story describing our ecological problems. Pointed out are proposed solutions and a balanced free enterprize approaches to help them work.
Monica S Mcfeeters's curator insight,
April 20, 12:43 PM
Great ideas in this article and we could use more great ideas everyday. Delete the scoop?
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by ROBERT CREAMER, Huffington Post The big lie in American politics today is that "America is broke" or "in this time of austerity we have to tighten our belts." America is not broke. We are not in a time of "scarcity" and when we buy into this fallacy, we contribute to political decisions that actually will do damage to our standard of living and that of our children. This lie is used relentlessly to argue that "America just can't afford" investments in education, or infrastructure, or jobs programs. It is used as the justification for the need to cut Social Security benefits, shift the cost of Medicare to senior citizens, increase the costs families bear to send children to college, or cut back on food for low-income children. The fact is that for ordinary people times are tough. Median per-person income for ordinary Americans hasn't increased for 20 years. And the federal, state and local governments are short of revenue. [MORE] 
Party Recon's comment,
April 16, 1:04 PM
The problem with debunking a lie is that the liar remains in control of the conversation. Instead, reverse the energy flow back onto their argument. First, agree. Then, explain that the reason the country has no money for the infrastructure improvements and job programs we ALL want is because corporations and the wealthy have not paid their fair share of taxes in 33 years, so a tax hike on those who have not shared is not only needed, but justified. It's called Aikido and it works.
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by Jacob Chamberlain, Common Dreams
In the hearing, as Think Progress reports, Warren refers to a settlement made in January between federal regulators and several major banks in which regulators "abandoned a case-by-case review of foreclosure fraud conducted by some of the nation’s largest banks in favor of a $9.3 billion settlement," letting big banks off the hook. [MORE] Delete the scoop?
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by TRAVIS WALDRON, ThinkProgress Treasury Secretary Jack Lew appeared Thursday in front of the House Ways and Means Committee to testify about the Obama administration’s budget and corporate tax reform, and Republicans quickly peppered him with questions about the possibility of moving to a “territorial” tax system, favored by both the GOP and corporate lobbying groups, that would exempt most foreign profits from taxation.
Coffee Party USA's insight:
Excerpt;
A full territorial system would almost surely increase those numbers by exempting foreign profits from taxation and costing the country valuable revenue and investment. A study of a territorial system found that it would increase offshoring and overseas investment and lead to the creation of 800,000 jobs overseas that could have ..... Delete the scoop?
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President Obama's bid on Wednesday to offer a budget concession to Republicans by trimming the planned spending growth of Social Security is winning little support among progressives, with one former aide calling it a doozy of a mistake.
Coffee Party USA's insight:
"Doozy" is as good of summary as any when it comes to cutting back on those less likely to have another job option because some people think they are not a good job canidate at 70, 75 and 85. They are wrong in may cases but don't except too many that haven't seen their grandparents working loops around them to hire this age group too fast. That Tennessee up-bringing lets Van Jones tell things like they are. Delete the scoop?
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He says he'll protect the most vulnerable seniors - but he's not going to protect everyone. Delete the scoop?
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We think we elect our state and local officials to listen to the citizens that elected them for guidance, not the companys in some other state that paid for the fancy billboard, TV ads and slick, gloss finished fliers and mailouts to get them elected for reasons that serve their sponors interest.We should require officials to wear nascar style, sponsor jackets everyday..
This begs the question on whether or not we elected someone qualified for the job if he/she has to use outside help to be told what the job is by others besides the citizens they represent....WHO HIRED OR ELECTED ALEC? NO ONE! THEY AREN'T ELECTED OR HIRED AND YOU HAVE TO PAY DUES TO JOIN THIS PRIVATE CLUB....SO WHAT EXACTLY ARE THEY AND 50 OTHERS LIKE THEM DOING IN OUR STATE AND NATIONAL BUSINESS? DO WE REALLY TRUST THAT IT IS OUT OF THE GOODNESS OF THEIR HEART?