madness of the GOP is the central issue of our time

[boutons_deux]

Kansas bans welfare recipients from seeing movies, going swimming on government’s dime

The measure — called the HOPE Act by supporters — “provides an opportunity for success,” Brownback said in a statement after signing the bill. “It’s about the dignity of work and helping families move from reliance on a government pittance to becoming self-sufficient by developing the skills to find a well-paying job and build a career.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...31429269961669

ing puritannical Bible humping hypocrites punish the poor for being poor because God doesn't love them.

And in Kansas, there are plenty of WHITE RURAL poor, not only the racist Repugs targeted blacks and browns.

[boutons_deux]

Gov. Paul LePage Will Protect Maine From Threat Of Decent Wages



Maine Gov. Paul LePage is working really hard to earn the le of Most Loathsome Governor in America, which is a difficult task in a nation containing Rick Scott, Bobby Jindal, Chris Christie, Sam Brownback, and so many other worthy candidates.

We’re thinking his latest move, pushing a bill that would prevent Maine cities from setting a minimum wage higher than the state’s minimum wage of $7.50 an hour, just might be the thing to make him stand out from the rest of the crowd of assholes, making him the head of all heads, or cazzo di tutti cazzi.

The bill, with the beautifully Orwellian le “An Act to Promote Minimum Wage Consistency,” is yet another of those brilliant rightwing efforts to promote States’ Rights — particularly the right of states to keep troublesome municipalities from having any of that “local control” stuff that is good when Republicans run a city, and terrible when Democrats do.

It seems that Mayor Michael Brennan, of the People’s Republic of Portland, wants to raise the local minimum wage to $9.50,

and in the Revolutionary Democratic Collective of Bangor, Councilor Joseph Baldacci is pushing for a minimum wage of $9.75, to be phased in over several years.

This is obviously just too much democracy for LePage, who knows that if you give local control to the wrong people, they’ll do all kinds of crazy amamie stuff like insisting that good virtuous job creators pay something more than starvation wages to the undeserving wretches who work in minimum wage jobs.

It’s bad enough that Maine is already — according to LePage — just crawling with lazy unemployed human garbage, but now municipalities want to pay semi-decent wages to the lazy jerks who do work?

How will the poors ever get off the couch and learn that work is a noble, honorable means of self-improvement if we don’t keep them from actually benefitting from work?
Where’s the incentive in that?

http://wonkette.com/583511/gov-paul-...0sOdeElPxBm.99

[boutons_deux]

mad man socialist Sanders slaps the Repug as the UN-maker of jobs

Bernie Sanders Torpedos Republicans By Revealing GOP Budget Kills 2.3 Million Jobs

Sanders sent letters to the governors of all 50 states that broke down the cuts and job losses that each state would face if the Republican budget is enacted. The lowlight of the letters is that the Republican cuts to transportation, education, and other programs would kill more than 2.3 million jobs across the country.In a statement, Sen. Sanders said:

The Republican budget moves this country in exactly the wrong direction. At a time of massive wealth and income inequality, it gives huge tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires while making devastating cuts to education, Medicare, affordable housing and prescription drug coverage.

Instead of creating jobs, it will lead to the elimination of more than 2 million jobs.

Instead of making college more affordable, it will increase the cost of college for millions of Americans. Instead of eliminating hunger in America, it will add to the financial problems of low-income families with children and will create more hunger.

This budget is the Robin Hood principle in reverse. It takes from the poor to give to the rich.

Some of the hardest hit states would be those that have Republican governors.

Texas would lose 193,000 jobs.

Florida would lose 141,000 jobs.

Ohio would lose 84,000 jobs.

Georgia would lose 70,000 jobs.

North Carolina would lose 68,000 jobs, and

Wisconsin would lose 46,000 jobs.

It is important that the American people understand exactly what the Republican budget does. Not only does the Republican budget lower taxes for the wealthiest people while raising them for everyone else, it also kills millions of jobs.

Republicans in Congress don’t want to talk about many services will be cut, and jobs lost because of their budget.

Republicans especially don’t want to discuss the number of jobs that will be lost in red states due to their budget.

http://www.politicususa.com/2015/04/27/bernie-sanders-torpedos-republicans-revealing-gop-budget-kills-2-3-million-jobs.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&ut m_campaign=Feed%3A+politicususa%2FfJAl+%28Politicu s+USA+%29

[boutons_deux]

Paranoid Texans grill Army spokesman on Jade Helm 15 exercise that’s sparking fears of military takeover

Concerned citizens confronted county and military officials Monday in Texas over the planned Jade Helm 15 training exercise that has ignited fears of a military takeover.

Elite forces from all four branches of the military will take part in the July 15-Sept. 15 operation in seven states across the southwest, where role players will stand in for hostile and less-hostile forces.

Residents packed the Bastrop County Commission, where a U.S. Army spokesman answered questions while an overflow crowd watched from downstairs on closed-circuit television.

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/04/para...e+Raw+Story%29

[boutons_deux]

TX Repug Christian Supremacist Taliban news

Texas GOPers ripping each other to shreds over education reform: A “socialist” plot to create a “Godless environment”

Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) is coming under fire from the advisers of incoming Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick (R) who insist that a bipartisan effort to improve the state’s preschool and kindergarten programs represents a “socialist” attempt to expose children to a “Godless environment,” MSNBC’s Steve Benen reports.

During his campaign, Gov. Abbott promised to push hard for state-funded preschool programs, claiming that years of cuts had led to Texas students being behind their peers in other states from the get-go. Democrats like state Representative Justin Rodriguez agreed, telling the San Antonio Express-News’ Maria Luisa Cesar that “I think we’re getting past the point where we have to convince folks of the importance of pre-K.”

The only issue, Rep. Rodriguez said, would be who exactly would pay for the program. Advisers for newly elected Lt. Gov. Patrick — who represented themselves as a “grassroots advisory” committee — clearly indicated that they do not believe it should be the tax payers.

“We are experimenting,” they wrote, “at great cost to taxpayers with a program that removes our young children from homes and half-day religious preschools and mothers’ day out programs to a Godless environment with only evidence showing absolutely NO LONG-TERM BENEFITS beyond the 1st grade.”

Any attempt to ins ute a program, be it initiated by Democrats in the state legislature or Republicans from the governor’s office, would be considered “interference by the state” — a “trampling” of parental rights. “The early removal of children from parents’ care is historically promoted in socialistic countries, not free societies which respect parental rights.”

Lt. Gov. Patrick did not respond directly, but his spokesman, Alejandro Garcia, told the Associated Press that “the letter in question was unsolicited and expresses the individual viewpoints of Texas citizens” — even if those citizens do work as advisers to Lt. Gov. Patrick.

As for the governor, his spokeswoman Amelia Chasse said that Gov. Abbott’s plan is “a conservative antidote to ineffective pre-K programs” and not, as the “grassroots” letter suggested, an attempt to indoctrinate impressionable children into a secular, socialist ideology.

http://www.salon.com/2015/04/27/texa...s_environment/

So the Christian Taliban "advisors" are calling taxpayer funded pre-K a godless, anti-parental-rights, SOCIALIST scheme?

who's running the ing state? elected politicians, or "advisors"

if taxpayers don't pay for universally available pre-K (and TX admits it's way down in the pre-K, which matches it being about the worst state for school spending), who does?

let me guess where this is going: pre-K run buy for-profit, unaccountable corporations, or worse, by Christian "God-ful" indoctrinators.

You want pre-K for yout kids, poor lady, so you can obtain, and maintain, ty work? You gotta pay for pre-K through the nose, just like hyper-expensive day care.

[boutons_deux]

Kansas Gov. Brownback stages weird ‘re-enactments’ of himself signing anti-abortion bill

Republican Kansas Governor Sam Brownback promoted a bill banning a rare abortion procedure by holding four different re-enactment ceremonies of himself signing it around the state, Think Progress reported.

Brownback held the ceremonies at three different Catholic high schools, as well as a Catholic church education building, touting his approval of Senate Bill 95.

The measure prevents women from undergoing a second-trimester procedure known as dilation and evacuation, which is used in about 8 percent of abortions in the state.

Opponents have described the procedure as “dismemberment abortions.”

“I am profoundly disappointed that Governor Brownback has chosen to hold a publicity tour for this reprehensible law,” South Wind Womens’ Center head Julie Burkhart said in a statement. “Reenacting this bill signing in front of children is not only a publicity stunt, but also spreads hate and disrespect.”

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/04/kans...e+Raw+Story%29

Kansas!

[boutons_deux]

Republicans Prove They Can’t Govern As Military Funding Bill Collapses Into Chaos


The ghost of chaos past haunted the House Wednesday night, as Republicans tried desperately to navigate around their ownsequestration level spending caps in order to appease the war hawks in their party.Republicans slipped a nifty $532 million deficit-funded credit card to the DoD to get around the Republicans’ own spending caps – only to be busted by both a Republican war and budget hawk and a Democrat who wants to return to the way budgets are supposed to be done, pre-sequester days.It was a clustermuck of epic proportions, immediately recognizable as the House that Speaker Boehner (R-OH) runs. Naturally, the vote was “stalled”.

Emma Dumain reported how the cluster went down for Roll Call, noting that Republicans have been bragging about their early start to appropriations season, “but consideration of the very first spending bill — considered the least controversial of all 12 annual measures — hit a snag Wednesday night.” Republicans tried to float innocuous reasons for giving up, but Roll Call got the real scoop.

But several senior House aides, including those who work in leadership offices, confirmed to CQ Roll Call that part of the reason for stalling MilCon-VA votes had to do with GOP leaders’ anxiety that members on both sides of the aisle were prepared to adopt an amendment that would strip from the underlying bill the ability to spend money from the Overseas Contingency Operations account

This was all put an end to by Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC), who used amendments to kill the secret money:

House Republican leaders included that $532 million account to make the spending bill, which is limited due to sequester-level spending caps, more attractive to defense hawks who insist the Pentagon needs more cash to fight terror. But Budget ranking member Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., teamed up on three related amendments to eliminate the ability to use the money

Mulvaney (the Republican) was not impressed, objecting that the money wouldn’t be used on war-related matters, noting that there was not enough money under the (Republican) spending caps imposed by sequestration:

“It spends $532 million in the OCO budget for matters that the Department of Defense admits are not war-related,” said Mulvaney, a two-term budget hawk who said last month he’d rather raise taxes than add to the deficit.

“These are matters that the Department of Defense included in its original base defense budget request, but which there isn’t enough money under the … caps,” he said during House floor debate earlier Wednesday. “The appropriators have taken those requests, which are admittedly not war-related, and buried it in this appropriations bill using the OCO money.”

Van Hollen (the Democrat) said in a statement reported by Roll Call that there was clearly bipartisan objection “to using the Overseas Contingency Operations budget as a slush fund for non-war related projects.” He called for a return to the debate process.Last night’s cluster is awkward since Republicans have beenbragging that they are starting the appropriations process super early. Woo hoo! They were going to get to work finally and do something. Republicans announced that they were starting early to avoid “another Washington-made cliff.”

Apparently “Washington-made” is way of saying “Republican-made”.

The Department of Veterans Affairs and Military Construction Projects appropriations bill was meant to kick off Republicans showing America “YES THEY CAN GOVERN!”

http://www.politicususa.com/2015/04/30/republicans-prove-govern-military-funding-bill-collapses-chaos.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&u tm_campaign=Feed%3A+politicususa%2FfJAl+%28Politic us+USA+%29

[boutons_deux]

Colorado GOPers claim IUDs cause abortions, scrap program that reduced teen birthrate by 40 percent

Republicans on a Colorado state Senate committee this week voted to end a contraception program that proponents said had helped to reduce the teen birthrate by 40 percent in recent years.

“Senate Republicans on the State, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee defeated legislation to continue the Long Acting Reversible Contraception or ‘LARC’ program, a bipartisan bill to reduce unintended pregnancies and abortions,”

the teen birthrate had dropped dramatically during the five-year period that the program was privately funded, but the funding had run out.

“The program was effective, helping the teen birth rate in Colorado drop 40 percent from 2009 through 2013,” according to the statement. “The abortion rate also dropped 42 percent in that same time period.”

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/04/colo...e+Raw+Story%29

[boutons_deux]

House GOP Moving To Block DC's Anti-Discrimination Abortion Law

House Republicans are moving to block a local District of Columbia law that's aimed at preventing discrimination against workers who have abortions.

A House bill that would revoke the city's law is largely symbolic. The local law takes effect on Saturday, unless Congress approves the measure by then and President Barack Obama signs it. Neither is likely.

GOP lawmakers say the city's law would force employers to violate their own religious beliefs and provide contraceptive coverage to their workers.

Supporters of the D.C. law say it would not do that. They say the measure would forbid companies from discriminating against employees who seek abortion or contraceptives or make other reproductive health decisions.

Congress can block measures approved by the District of Columbia government. But it hasn't done that since 1992.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/ho...+%28TPMNews%29

[boutons_deux]

Repugs continuing their scorched-earth destruction of govt

The GOP's New Budget Proposal is a Big Middle Finger to Earth Science

The GOP is trying to eviscerate NASA’s Earth science program. At best, the House Science Committee’s new budget proposal would slash NASA’s Earth science funding by $300 million. At worst, the Earth sciences stand to lose over half a billion federal dollars.

Reminding us, yet again, that the anti-science, climate change-denying Congressional Republicans responsible for doling out US science dollars don’t give a about our planet.

The budget, which covers the 2016 and 2017 fiscal years, would add hundreds of millions of dollars to the Orion spacecraft’s and Space Launch System rocket’s bank accounts. It also allots an extra $150 million to NASA’s planetary science research. But the GOP apparently doesn’t think planet Earth is worth much of our attention at all, because where does the additional spending for these select programs come from? From gutting NASA’s Earth science budget.

The actual amount cut will depend on whether caps enacted in 2011 are lifted. If they are, Earth science would get 1.45 billion, if not, 1.2 billion. The 2015 fiscal year budget is 1.77 billion, so either way, its a big middle finger to some of NASA’s most important and productive areas of scientific research.

Oh, and lest we forget, this comes a week after the very same committee reauthorized theAmerica Competes Act, slashing geoscience funding to the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy.

In the committee’s press release on the budget, Congressman Steven Palazzo pats himself and his fellow Earth-haters on the back for loving space so much. “We all want NASA to be successful so that America can continue to lead the world in space,” he says. “American leadership in space is a matter of both national pride and national security. We will continue to support NASA with the resources and the guidance it needs to lead the way into the future.”

How noble. Thing is, NASA itself is calling Congress’s bull . Here’s what administrator Charles Bolden had to say about the new budget, in a statement released Thursday:

“The NASA authorization bill making its way through the House of Representatives guts our Earth science program and threatens to set back generations worth of progress in better understanding our changing climate and our ability to prepare for and respond to earthquakes, droughts, and storm events.”

The Planetary Society, which makes out quite well under Congress’s plan, was specifically singled out by the science committee as staunchly supporting the new bill. But Planetary Society leaders give us a more accurate depiction of their views on their website:

Obviously, the cuts to Earth Science make this a hard bill to support, therefore The Planetary Society cannot support the full bill as written at this early stage.

And in case you were wondering if the bill has the across-the-aisle support its proponents are claiming, it doesn’t. Rep. Eddie Johnson (Dem., Texas), the House committee’s ranking member, writes that GOP members of the committee introduced the bill without any bipartisan negotiation whatsoever. Johnson, who has promised to fight the budget, points out that it’s is not only a direct attack on NASA’s climate science research, it tragically fails to appreciate other aspects of NASA’s Earth science program.

They’re too busy throwing snowballs to realize it, but Earth science actually encompasses many critical areas of non-climate related research, like earthquake monitoring and wildfire tracking. Johnson writes:

In addition to other problems in the bill, it cuts earth science funding by more than $320 million. Earth science, of course, includes climate science. Despite the fact that in January NASA announced 2014 was likely the warmest year since 1880, it should come as no surprise that the majority wants to cut funding for climate science. Embarrassingly, just last week, every single Republican member of this committee present voted against the notion that climate change might be caused by people.

Of course, NASA’s earth science program is much, much more than just climate science. The research is used by the Department of Defense to help keep our troops safe. It is used to improve electric and gas utility load forecasts and to do ent the variability of water available for agricultural use. It helps us understand the implications of thinning ice cover in the Arctic. It helps us predict floods, droughts and hurricanes. And it helps us track wildfires and volcanic ash. Basically, NASA’s earth science program provides critical measurements and research on planet Earth as a system and how it is changing over time.

It’s hard to believe that in order to serve an ideological agenda, the majority is willing to slash the science that helps us have a better understanding of our home planet.


http://gizmodo.com/the-gops-new-budg...+%28Gizmodo%29

Repugs executing the VRWC/BigCarbon strategy to perfection.

[boutons_deux]

Louie Gohmert: It would be a ‘real shame’ to end the mass incarceration of non-violent drug offenders

When it came to non-violent drug offenders, Gohmert argued that it was a “real shame” that Democrats would not want them to be incarcerated.

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/louie-gohmert-it-would-be-a-real-shame-to-end-the-mass-incarceration-non-violent-drug-offenders/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaig n=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story%29

[boutons_deux]

Lawmakers Try To Block Funding For A Crucial Solution To Mass Homelessness

Last week, the House Subcommittee for Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development approved a bill that cuts funding for affordable housing for the lowest income households. The move by House Republicans imperils a crucial resource that canhelp address homelessness.

The National Housing Trust Fund is the only resource dedicated solely to funding affordable housing for people most at risk of becoming homeless. In December, money started flowing into the fund for the first time from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But the House bill directs money reserved for the fund to cover a congressionally created deficit in funding for another affordable housing program, the HOME program.

Widespread, mass homelessness can be traced to a sharp increase in affordable housing: today there is a 5.5 million shortfall in affordable housing units compared to the need, but there was actually a 300,000 surplus as recently as 1970. If that need were met, however, homelessness would be effectively ended.

While both the National Housing Trust Fund and the HOME program seek to foster affordable housing, the National Housing Trust Fund focuses on the most vulnerable and low-income populations, making it a key resource toward that goal. Most Trust Fund money must go to support housing for extremely low-income families, those whose incomes are not greater than 30 percent of area median income. Through their latest bill, House Republicans would effectively eliminate the Housing Trust Fund.

Meanwhile, the HOME program, which targets people who make 60 or 50 percent of median family income, has also been cut by over 50 percent since 2010.

The House bill isn’t the first attempt to end the Housing Trust Fund. House Republicans strongly opposed Federal Housing Finance Agency director Mel Watt’s decision to allow money to start flowing into the Trust Fund in December.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/201...d-republicans/

Repug/VRWC/1% strategy: screw the 99%, esp screw the Bishop Gecko 47%, and protect/enrich the 1%

[boutons_deux]

Paul Ryan Knows Real Problem With Welfare Is How Rich Those Poor People Get Off It

I would consolidate many of our federal poverty programs into flexible programs that go to our states to customize a welfare benefit for a person’s particular need, because what you do when you stack up all these poverty programs on top of each other — we have this thing called the poverty trap, where we’re actually disincentivizing a person from getting on with their life and going to work. It actually pays not to take that risk to take a job to help go improve your life because of the benefits you lose.

allow Americans living in poverty to continue receiving benefits, even if they manage to get a job, because there are lots of crap jobs out there that pay crap wages that don’t cover things like rent and food and healthcare. So maybe, just maybe, we should provide aid to any American who needs it? Nah. Better to just take away all that aid, so they’re more “incentivized” to get one of those high-paying jobs. Like, say, being a member of Congress. It pays six figures, includes some really terrific perks, and you only have to work part-time.

But if the useless federal government would just write out checks to the states and let them decide how best to motivate impoverished citizens to stop being poor, we’d definitely see better results.

Why, in Ryan’s own state of Wisconsin, plenty of innovative Republican leaders have some really creative ideas to tackle the underlying issues of poverty. Newly elected Rep. Glenn Grothman thinks folks in Oshkosh should spy on each other at the grocery store and report su ious-looking shoppers who boast of receiving disability benefits because, as he’s been saying for years, letting people eat “discourages work” and “encourages cheating.”

Then there’s state Rep. Jesse Kremer, who thinks we should be carding the poors to make sure their photo IDs say “Yeah, this person is poor for reals,” and also, while we’re at it, why not make them shop at specialty Just For Poors grocery stores, so they don’t get their poor cooties all over decent hardworking not-poor Americans who would like to buy their Cheez Whiz and frozen scrambled eggs without having to dirty their beautiful minds with the sight of, ugh, poor people?

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker thinks it would be a swell idea to drug test recipients of food stamps or unemployment benefits because that will help poor people not do drugs, like they are always doing all the time, and then they will get jobs and be able to afford food all by themselves. This has yet to work in any other state that has drug tested welfare recipients, and also it is uncons utional too, but maybe we just haven’t given it enough time to work yet. Like with magic tax cuts for the rich, if you just wait and wait and wait … and wait some more, eventually it’ll work. We’re waiting to see it work in Kansas, another fine state that knows the best way to tackle poverty is to ensure that poor people can’t use their moocher government benefits on cruises and strip clubs.

Read more at http://wonkette.com/584587/paul-ryan...h6erwod9rqI.99

Repugs love transferring Federal taxpayer money, the kind of socialism they about, to the RED states in no-strings-attached/no-accountability block grants for the states to misuse, abuse, steal as they see fit.

[boutons_deux]

Lawmakers Pitched 32 New Abortion Bills in Texas This Year, and a Few Might

http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/20...ality+Check%29

(TX) Repug governance!

Thanks, you Repug asshole voters!

[boutons_deux]

Kansas Schools Close Early As Brownback Tax Cuts Squeeze Revenue




Income tax cuts in Kansas championed by Gov. Sam Brownback have led to credit downgrades, political turmoil, and deepening budget deficits. This week, they’ll start forcing schools to close early.

As lawmakers work to erase a projected $800 million budget gap for the fiscal year starting July 1, at least eight school districts that saw their funding cut this year because of a greater-than-projected slide in state tax collections will begin shutting down before the scheduled end of classes.

Dozens of others have eliminated or cut programs.

“We felt we didn’t have a choice,” said Janet Neufeld, superintendent of Twin Valley schools, which will end the academic year on Friday, 12 days early.

http://www.nationalmemo.com/kansas-s...&utm_content=D

Repug mis-"governance"

[boutons_deux]

Repug governance!
GOP Rep: Congress Will Launch Investigation Based On 'Clinton Cash' Book

On “The Sam Malone Show” this week, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Tex., said that Congress will launch an investigation into Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation based on the findings of the book “Clinton Cash,” in which right-wing activist Peter Schweizer suggests that the former secretary of state used her role in the State Department to benefit foundation donors.
The book has faced a bevy of criticism for its sloppy reporting and false allegations, but Poe told Malone that “Congress will investigate yet one more scandal. We need to hire a whole department just to investigate the Clintons and the Clinton scandals. There is going to be some investigation about it.”
Poe accused the Justice Department of unfairly investigating Tea Party groups such as True the Vote, time he said would have been better spent investigating the Clinton family.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/gop-rep-congress-will-launch-investigation-based-clinton-cash-book

[boutons_deux]

Scott Walker Wrecks Wisconsin And Proves That Tax Cuts For The Rich Don’t Work

Governor Scott Walker (R-WI) promised Wisconsinites that he could jump start the economy with tax cuts for big business, even though this Republican economic model was partially responsible for the recession from which the state — and indeed the nation — was suffering.

Just days ago, the Republican Governor trolled President Obama,claiming the country needed Walker’s “pro-growth economic policies”.

Enter crazy Republican math, stage right. Things are not adding up for Walker’s budget.When the first troubling revenue numbers came out, Walker and Wisconsin Republicans, who make up the legislative majority, said oh, they will be revised.

Well, that time has come and guess what, no new revenue is coming from the Reagan trickle down skies to save them.

A new memo from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB) broke down the crazy math and wishful but dashed hopes of Wisconsin Republicans that the revenue to cover their tax cuts for big business would just magically appear (a charge made by Wisconsin Democrats, but with which logic concurs).

Bob Lang, Director of the nonpartisan LFB, revealed in a memoissued May 6th that Wisconsin will see no additional revenue growth in the next two years and indeed, any additional revenue in the current fiscal year will likely be offset by reduced growth in 2015-16 and 2016-17.

Any adjustments would be offset by the fact that “recent forecasts of the U.S. economy have been downgraded from the January forecast.”

In other words, the national economy isn’t going to save Walker from his bad math and the fact that within the region (and actually nationally), his state is performing poorly.

In fact, the state’s GDP growth and personal income growth have trailed the national rate.

Republicans have tried to blame Democrats for the economic failure of their policies by saying they were in charge “for many years”, but PolitiFact threw water on that false notion.

Lang killed the trickle down dream with, “On balance, we believe that the current estimates for the three year period are still reasonable and should not be adjusted.”

This means that Gov. Walker’s budget is officially a real mess.

http://www.politicususa.com/2015/05/06/scott-walkers-crazy-republican-math-home-roost-wi-gop-wrestle-revenue.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed &utm_campaign=Feed%3A+politicususa%2FfJAl+%28Polit icus+USA+%29

Brownback!

Jindal

Walker

Repug mis-governance!

trickle down works for the 99%!

right-to-work for less while free-loading on union members!

[boutons_deux]

A full plate of hate: Texas lawmakers literally can’t clear all the anti-woman, anti-LGBT measures off their desks

The regular session of the 84th Texas legislature ends in less than 30 days, which means state lawmakers officially have more hateful bills to consider than they have time to do the considering.

HB 1648, the “Coerced Abortion Prevention” Measure

Antiabortion activist Molly White became antiabortion lawmaker Molly White last year, and used her freshman term at the statehouse to craft an abortion restriction so overreaching that several religious groups — as well as her colleagues in the Texas GOP — wouldn’t touch it. The bill would initiate an automatic 72-hour waiting period and criminal investigation if women indicate that they have been coerced or forced to have an abortion, which White claimed was in the interest of assisting victims of assault.

“Pregnant women are most frequently victims of domestic violence,” White explained during a House State Affairs Committee hearing. “Their partners often threaten violence and abuse if the woman continues her pregnancy.”

But, as representatives from two antiabortion groups highlighted in their challenges to the measure, increasing Texas’ existing abortion waiting period for DV victims could put them at even greater risk.

SB 575, the “ No We’re Not Providing Insurance Coverage For Abortion” Measure

On Tuesday, the Texas Senate approved State Sen. Larry Taylor’s measure to prohibit health insurance coverage — be it private or purchased through the Affordable Care Act marketplace — for all abortions that are not considered medical emergencies. The bill requires women who seek coverage for abortions — including victims of rape or incest, or women carrying non-viable pregnancies due to fetal anomalies — to purchase supplemental insurance, effectively making abortion inaccessible to those who cannot afford additional insurance (or any insurance at all).

When asked to explain why the bill did not contain exceptions for victims of rape or incest, Taylor acknowledged that the measure “just doesn’t address it,” and also dismissed very realistic, detrimental outcomes of his law as “extreme.”

SB 2, the “We Are Going To Try Again To Defund Planned Parenthood” Measure

It seems the only sport that might be as popular as football in Texas is trying to defund Planned Parenthood — so, naturally, the state legislature tried to shut down funding for the organization once again this session. In its 2015 budget, the Texas Senate proposed a reallocation of state funding for breast and cervical cancer screenings, which would effectively eliminate funding to Planned Parenthood’s program— and, of course, to the thousands of Texans who rely on the program to, you know, determine if they have cancer.

State Sen. Jane Nelson, who crafted the reallocation measure, was transparent about her goals: “There are many members that feel very strongly that the facilities that receive that funding should not be facilities that are performing abortions, so the answer is: Don’t perform abortions and you get the money.”

HB 2510, the “This Bill Is Actually About The Health Code, But We’re Going To Try To Make Women Carry Non-Viable Pregnancies To Term Because The World Is Full Of Sin” Measure

Republican Rep. Matt Schaefer sneakily attempted to add one of the session’s most abhorrent, misogynistic measures to a bill about the bureaucratic operations of the state health department, which would prohibit health centers from performing abortions “on the basis that the fetus has a severe and irreversible abnormality.” Essentially, the bill would have required pregnant women to carry non-viable fetuses to term, likely under the most heartbreaking of cir stances.

Schaefer’s reason? Because the fetuses “are going to suffer, they’re going to feel pain,” and “that’s part of the human condition, when sin entered the world, and it grieves us all.”

SB 2065, the “It’s A Hate Crime Not To Allow People To Say They Won’t Marry Same-Sex Couples” Measure

Earlier this week Texas’ Senate State Affairs Committee refused to amend a measure that has been likened to Indiana’s controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act (don’t worry, it’s not the only bill to be compared to the Indiana law this session). The bill, which was filed long past the filing deadline but allowed after a suspension of the rules, would allow clergy to refuse to marry same-sex couples, but does not apply specifically to marriage ceremonies.

The law could therefore open the door for officials to refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in secular contexts on the basis of religious liberty, and could also allow for other forms of marriage discrimination (such as denying an interracial couple a marriage license). Supporters of the measure claim it’s an important protection for religious groups who oppose marriage equality, the enforcement of which they believe would be a “hate crime” and its own form of “bigotry.”

HB 1942, the “Let’s Prevent Judicial Bypasses For Abortion By Publicizing Approving Judges’ Personal Information” Measure and HB 3994, the “Let’s Prevent Judicial Bypasses For Abortion By Making It Virtually Impossible For A Minor To Meet The Burden Of Proof” Measure

Texas currently offers pregnant minors the ability to seek judicial bypass for parental consent laws in order to access abortion care, but Republican lawmakers introduced two bills this session that would sharply reduce its effectiveness.

One measure would make Texas the first state to publicly release personal information about judges who approve judicial bypasses for abortion, which would likely instigate a chilling effect that prevents minors from terminating pregnancies.

The other bill would update the burden of proof on minors seeking judicial bypass, requiring they be “mature and sufficiently well informed” about their decision to terminate, that notification of a parent would not serve the teen’s best interest, or that notifying a parent “may lead to physical, sexual or emotional abuse” to access an abortion.

Phil King, who introduced the changes, said he would change the requirements so that the current burden of proof — that minors prove just one tenet — could stay in place. But then he…didn’t.

SJR 10, the “We Don’t Have Enough Religious Liberty Protections As It Is So Let’s Give Businesses License To Discriminate” Measure

Remember how I mentioned that there was more than one Texas bill that had been compared to Indiana’s anti-LGBT religious freedom law? Yeah, well: State Sen. Donna Campbell introduced a cons utional amendment — for a second time — that would effectively grant business owners a “license to discriminate” against LGBT people (but, really, anyone).

The amendment would be in addition to the state’s existing Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and would have a number of unintended consequences — some of which don’t sound so bad. In addition to opening an opportunity for, say, the Westboro Baptist Church to picket military funerals, Campbell’s amendment could also allow pregnant women to cir vent Texas’ antiabortion laws on the basis of their religious beliefs.

http://www.salon.com/2015/05/06/a_fu...f_their_desks/

Texas!

Repug governance!

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Just like a Federal level, TX Repug lawmakers are more extreme nutcases, ignore the majority of Repug popular sentiment

Poll: Majority of Texans Favor Legal Protections for Their LGBT Neighbors

A new survey of likely Texas voters shows that a majority believe that discrimination against LGBT Texans is either a “major” or a “minor” problem and that they would support a state law protecting LGBT Texans from employment discrimination.

These poll results come in a year that has seen Texas lawmakers propose nearly two dozen laws that single out lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Texans for discrimination—in some cases even creating criminal penalties if transgender people use certain public or school restrooms.

Texas Wins, a statewide coalition “committed to demonstrating true Texas values and protecting all Texans from discrimination,” on Wednesday released the results of the poll, which surveyed 800 Texans who identify across the political spectrum.

Close to 80 percent of respondents said that religious freedom “does not give any of us the right to harm others.”

http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2015/05/06/poll-majority-texans-favor-legal-protections-lgbt-neighbors/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaig n=Feed%3A+rhrealitycheck+%28RH+Reality+Check%29

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Virginia GOP congressman claims ISIS has invaded Texas: ‘You can’t make up what a terrible problem this is’




http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/virg...e+Raw+Story%29

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Texas Republican: Rape victims shouldn’t receive abortion coverage because their claims aren’t “measurable”



Sen. Donna Campbell moved to require women to report incest and rape to police to receive insurance coverage

Texas Republican State Sen. Donna Campbell fought an amendment on Wednesday that would allow exceptions for rape and incest victims from a measure that otherwise prohibits all insurance coverage for abortion. Instead, the GOP lawmaker countered the proposal with her own, which would require victims to report their assaults to police in order to receive exemptions, because otherwise the state might be “enabling” perpetrators.

“I’m concerned that we may be unintentionally providing cover for perpetrators of crimes,” Campbell said. She was then challenged by Democrat Kirk Watson, who pressed her to consider the real-life implications of the law and her amendment.

“Would you agree with me that there are instances where a woman could be raped, and because she fears for her life otherwise, would not want to report that to law enforcement officials?” Watson asked. “Can you conceive of that situation?”

Campbell agreed, but continued by identifying the measure as as strictly “an insurance bill.” “Instead of encouraging that hypothetical situation from moving into protection for her by law enforcement, we’re saying, let’s cover that violation with an insurance payment,” she said.

“When she gets the abortion…are we empowering the perpetrator, because now out of a coercion…she gets an abortion, and it’s paid for by an insurance company — and then it may happen to her again?”

http://www.salon.com/2015/05/07/texa...nt_measurable/

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Wisconsin’s F*ck-The-Poor Food Stamps Bill Will Cost Millions, Totally Worth It

Gosh, absolutely no one could have seen this coming: Wisconsin’s exciting new bill to shame the poor – by sharply restricting what items can be bought with food stamps — would actually cost the state millions of dollars to implement, even as the state learned that it won’t be raking in any new revenues due to tax cuts.

Turns out that if you actually want

to make sure EBT cards can’t be used to pay for wild, high-living luxury items like sharp cheddar cheese or white rice, you also have to develop and install new software for all the cash registers and scanners, so that the prohibited items can be excluded. That would come at a cost that the state’s budget office estimated only as “several million dollars” — and possibly more.

Who knew?! Plus there’s the costs of drawing up the guidelines, managing the program, managing and updating the database of what foods the filthy takers would be allowed to buy, and so on. Food Police don’t work for free, after all (unless maybe the Masonic Police offer to help out).

Not a big deal, said one of the bill’s supporters, state Rep. Mark Born, a Republican who chairs the Public Benefit Reform Committee (and also represents a place called “Beaver Dam,”

http://wonkette.com/584932/wisconsins-fck-the-poor-food-stamps-bill-will-cost-millions-totally-worth-it

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Alabama Rep. Saves Schoolkids From Learning They Are Disgusting Monkeys



Alabama state Rep. Mack “Not a Porn Name” Butler has introduced a bill that will encourage students to “think critically” about science by allowing teachers greater la ude to add stuff to science classes that isn’t so much science as not science, so everyone can learn more better! As Butler explains on his highly amusing Facebook page, it’s all about freedom and openness, and learning that we didn’t come from monkeys!

House Bill 592, which is not at all a means of sneaking creationism into the science classroom — NOT AT ALL, why would you think that? — is simply asking students and teachers at all grade levels to:

explore scientific questions, learn about scientific evidence, develop critical thinking skills, and respond appropriately and respectfully to differences of opinion about scientific subjects; and to allow teachers to help students understand, analyze, critique, and review the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of all existing scientific theories covered in a science course.

See? It uses “science” and “scientific” so much that it obviously is about teaching the best possible science ever, whether it’s the “theory of gravity” or the “theory of intelligent falling.”

http://wonkette.com/585090/alabama-rep-saves-schoolkids-from-learning-they-are-disgusting-monkeys

Christian Bible humping theocrats!

Alabama!

Confederacy!

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tyranny of the extreme, destructive, nihilistic Repug fringe

Iowa Dem reveals cabal of homeschooling lawmakers are sabotaging public education funding

Democratic Iowa state Sen. Tom Courtney has alleged that a group of lawmakers who homeschool their own children have been working to sabotage public schools in the state.

After days of working to hammer out an agreement on public school funding, reportsindicated this week that Republicans and Democrats were close to a deal.

According to the Democratic state senator, a group of homeschooling Republicans in the House and the Senate shouldered much of the blame for blocking public school funding.

“We’ve got about 20 percent of this Legislature are home schoolers,” he pointed out. The Daily Democrat confirmed that “16 members of the House and four or five members of the Senate” home schooled their children instead of sending them to public schools.

And Courtney said that those members were not interested in tax dollars funding public education.

“They don’t have any desire to keep public schools funded if they vote in a block that’s enough,”

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/iowa...ation-funding/

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Ohio Republicans Want To Enact A Literal Poll Tax Before The 2016 Election

Twenty-four members of the Ohio House of Representatives — all Republicans — cosponsored a bill introduced last week that would require many Ohio residents to pay an actual poll tax in order to vote.

Poll taxes are forbidden by the Cons ution.

Under this legislation, many voters would have to pay a fee in order to obtain an ID card that they need to vote, thus effectively imposing a tax on the right to vote.

The poll tax is tucked into a voter ID bill, another common form of legislation that prevents many Americans from casting a ballot.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/201...2016-election/