Thursday, July 18, 2013

This and That

 

(M) I sincerely hate the fact that we live in a country where people would cut funding for education, with no regard for the fact that we should want to fund an educated society.

Posted on the Being Liberal fan page.


Marie Osmond: She's a little bit country.

Aaron Osmond: He's a little bit asshat.

Hmm. Not a very catchy song chorus, is it?
...
Http://Facebook.com/TheMarmelPage

P.S. Yeah, I know. I dated myself with that reference.
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Thank to Quotable Liberals
~ldr
(M) Something too many people seem to forget.

Posted on the Being Liberal fan page.


Spot on from Carter! From Firebrand Progressives, a neat site that could use more likes

~LS

In a recent forum at the Carter Center, former President Carter expressed his concern and dissent in regards to the Citizens United ruling calling it "very stupid" and comparing current campaign finance practices with the "legal bribery of candidates." Read more: http://ow.ly/n6eX3
 
 
Watch a Doctor Destroy a Koch Brother-Funded Anti-Obamacare Ad in 2 Minutes
 
 
(M) Brought to you by the proponents of smaller government (let the puns begin).

Virginia GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Wants To Outlaw Oral Sex, Even For Married Couples

Author: July 18, 2013
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli; photo: Jay Paul @NYTimes
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli; photo: Jay Paul @NYTimes
Virginia Republican Gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli is now obsessed with oral sex in addition to his obsession with anal sex. Apparently he wants to spy on everyone’s bedrooms and arrest people who engage in either legal act, even if they are married couples.
Cuccinelli unveiled a new website on Wednesday dedicated to his cause of forever banning consenting adults from having oral and anal sex in the privacy of their bedrooms.


Read more: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/07/18/virginia-gop-gubernatorial-candidate-wants-to-outlaw-oral-sex-even-for-married-couples/#ixzz2ZS61O1pn
 




Speaking of horrible people saying horrible things, here's the always horrible Anne Coulter saying something inconceivably awful.

Hey, Bill Maher? You can stop having this monster on your show now.


... Via Lady Grey at Http://www.facebook.com/LadyMEGrey

- Steve Marmel
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The Platzner Post










Regardless of what you call it or where you are on the political spectrum, we're witnessing a subversion of the institutions of our democracy. The basic issue isn't the size of our government but who the government is for: Too often it's for large monied interests rather than average Americans. And the basic choice isn't socialism or capitalism: Wall Street and the largest corporations already function under a form of socialism that spreads the risks among all of us but privatizes the sizable gains, while most Americans are enduring the harshest form of capitalism we've seen in more than a century -- lousy jobs, shrinking paychecks, disappearing benefits, and vanishing security.

If you're angry and frustrated, you should be. But that shouldn't be the end of the story. It's up to us to change this. "We" is the first word of the Constitution of the United States -- "We the People." We can get big money out of our politics. We can reverse "Citizen...'s United," by constitutional amendment if necessary. We can provide for public financing of elections, and end the revolving door between public office and plum jobs in lobbying firms or on Wall Street. We can require full disclosure of the sources of all campaign contributions. We can restore the Fairness Doctrine in the media, and require broadcasters to offer free time for political ads. We can tax the massive concentration of wealth that now lets a handful of billionaires poison our politics. We can do all this, and much more.

How to begin? By getting involved: Finding and supporting responsible candidates in the 2014 midterms, and voting out of office current public officials who are stooges of the monied interests. Running yourself -- for school board, for city council, for state assembly, for congress. Joining and participating in organizations dedicated to getting big money out of politics -- such as the one I'm proud to chair, Common Cause. Reaching out to friends who are indifferent or cynical, and getting them involved. Also reaching out to people who disagree with you and finding common ground. None of this will be easy and change won't be quick. But rescuing and reviving our democracy is the most important thing we can do right now. Nothing else we want for our children and for our country is possible unless we do this.
Robert Reich
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American Women United shared Citizens Action Network's photo.
 
Citizens Action Network

That beard knew what it was talking about. . . . .

#PMDro

 





The Knowledge Movement added a new photo.
Walgreens has rapidly become one of the nation’s retail leaders in the installation of rooftop solar panels. http://ow.ly/n5HKJ


(M) An incredibly brave girl!

Posted on the Being Liberal fan page.







CEO pay surged 16% last year and the typical CEO raked in $15.1 million. Meanwhile, the median wage continued to drop, adjusted for inflation. You and I and other taxpayers are subsidizing sky-high executive compensation because corporations deduct it from their income taxes, causing the rest of us to pay more in taxes to make up the difference.

 When he was campaigning for the presidency, Bill Clinton promised that if elected he’d end the deductibility of executive pay in excess of $1 million, but once in office modified his pledge to allow corporations to deduct pay over $1 million if linked to corporate performance. Since then, corporations have gamed the system -- giving out performance awards on the basis of nothing more than an upward drift in the value of the stock market as a whole, back-dating executive stock options to match past dips in the companies’ share price, and setting the performance bar so artificially low that executives are... almost guaranteed to beat the threshold.

The Economic Policy Institute estimates that between 2007 and 2010, more than $121 billion in executive compensation was deducted from corporate earnings, and roughly 55 percent of this was for performance-based compensation. Given all the games, it’s likely much of this “performance” was baloney. As I argued (unsuccessfully) 20 years ago, we should get rid of the performance-pay loophole and keep the cap at $1 million. Executive pay in excess of $1 million shouldn’t be deductible from corporate taxes, period. (If you agree, you might want to write to the White House and to Sen. Max Baucus, urging that this be included in any tax reform legislation.)

PS: Under Dodd-Frank, the SEC was supposed to have issued a rule requiring corporations to disclose the ratio of the pay of its highest-paid executive to its average worker, but the SEC still hasn't moved on this.

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