madness of the GOP is the central issue of our time

[DMX7]

Cuts to public education are usually one of the first orders of business undertaken by newly elected Republican governors.

In a broader context, the Republican Party has transitioned into the party of belief. Republicans have stopped relying on facts to support their policies. There is a definite distrust of the public education system. Republicans run their states based on a belief in conservative ideology, so it isn’t surprising that states that support a political party that has decided to create its own reality, have lower education rates.

http://www.politicususa.com/2015/11/...iticus+USA+%29

Truth bomb.

[boutons_deux]

exposing yet another eternal REPUG LIE about bishop gecko's "47%"

Economists tested 7 welfare programs to see if they made people lazy. They didn't.

For as long as there have been government programs designed to help the poor, there have been critics insisting that helping the poor will keep them from working. But the evidence for this proposition has always been rather weak.

And a recent study from MIT and Harvard economists makes the case even weaker. Abhijit Banerjee, Rema Hanna, Gabriel Kreindler, and Benjamin Olken reanalyzed data from seven randomized experiments evaluating cash programs in poor countries and found "no systematic evidence that cash transfer programs discourage work." Attacking welfare recipients as lazy is easy rhetoric, but when you actually test the proposition scientifically, it doesn't hold up.

No effects in Honduras, no effects in Indonesia, no effects in Morocco…

The programs covered in the study have a pretty wide geographic spread. There are four in Latin America (two in Mexico, one each in Nicaragua and Honduras), two in Southeast Asia (Philippines and Indonesia), and one in Morocco.

Most of the programs the study analyzes are what's known as "conditional cash transfers" (CCTs), where households receive help on the condition that they, say, have their kids attend school, or get them vaccinated. The idea is both to help poor people and to use the aid as a lever with which to ensure kids are getting educated and receiving health services. CCTs first caught on in Latin America, so it makes sense that most of the programs analyzed in the paper are from countries in that region. But the study also includes a Mexican program that provided a $13-a-month unconditional cash transfer to families in poor regions.

Exactly zero of the seven programs saw a statistically significant change in either employment levels or hours worked per week:



http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politi...-transfer-work

[boutons_deux]

The Craziest Thing About This Supreme Court Case Isn't That One Plaintiff Believes Unicorns Are Real



On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will examine the bedrock principle of "one person, one vote" in a major case that could yield the Republican Party a critical advantage in future elections. In Evenwel v. Abbott, the court is being asked to change how states draw legislative districts in a way that would boost the electoral power of white, rural voters, who lean Republican, at the expense of Latinos and African Americans, who tend to vote Democratic. The plaintiffs behind this high-stakes legal challenge are an unusual pair.

One is a Texas tea party activist who has promoted a conspiratorial film suggesting President Barack Obama's real father was Frank Marshall Davis, a supposed propagandist for the Communist Party.

The other is a security guard and religious fundamentalist who believes the Earth doesn't revolve around the sun and that unicorns were real.

Evenwel is a Texas GOP and tea party activist who was a big supporter of former Gov. Rick Perry, who appointed her to serve on the Texas Funeral Service Commission, which oversees the funeral industry. She's the longtime chair of the us County Republican Party and a member of the Texas state Republican Party executive committee.

In the past, she's been a political booster of tea party favorites including former Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), Sarah Palin, and former Florida Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.). Lately, she's championed the presidential bid of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

In 2012, the Evenwel-led us County GOP was a screening of Dreams From My Real Father: A Story of Reds and Deception, the docudrama that suggests Obama's real father was Frank Marshall Davis, a man the film's promotional material describe as a "Communist Party USA propagandist who likely shaped Obama's world view during his formative years." On her Facebook page, Evenwel has also approvingly touted a story from the conservative website WorldNetDailyquestioning whether Obama was really born in America.

Ed Pfenninger, has expressed some equally eyebrow-raising views. A Christian fundamentalist who works as a security guard in Porter, Texas, Pfenninger operates a YouTube channel where he's posted hours of videos of himself expounding on his beliefs. For instance, he's described the Catholic Church as "the Mother of Harlots." He's also said that Jews are "enemies of the cross," and that God created Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust because he "wanted the Jews back into the Land." Pfenninger also cites the Bible to justify his belief that women with short hair are somehow shameful. In response to a commenter on one of his videos, he wrote:

Pfenninger has scorned science and claimed that "geocentricity"—the medieval belief that the Earth is the center of the universe—"is a Bible fact. It its not theory…the earth is standing still in the middle of the universe." The notion that the Earth revolves around the sun, according to Pfenninger, "is part of the Copernican revolution, which is anti-Biblical, and in fact led to the acceptance of evolution. Christians will fight against evolution but you've got to go a little further back and fight against the root of evolution, which is the heliocentric movement."

And then there's the unicorn, which appears repeatedly in Pfenninger's online posts. Arguing with a commenter to one of his YouTube videos, Pfenninger wrote in 2013 that the "unicorn was a real creature known for it's [sic] great strength, and is also referred to in ancient literature." Pfenninger did not respond to an email requesting comment.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/...-redistricting

And you rightwingnuts about "frivolous" personal injury suits?

[boutons_deux]

GOP Candidates Jewsplain Jewing To Jewishes. Goes Well As You’d Expect, Only Worse



We all of us know Republican presidential candidates are far more comfortable addressing Jesus-Americans — what with our country being a Christian nation, for Christians only, especially in the Oval Office. But on Thursday, they explored their bicurosity about The Judeos, to talk Jew Talk to Republican Jewishes (you can fit all of ’em in one room; they call themselves the Republican Jewish Coalition, LOL), and to beg for their famously good-with-money Jew dollars.

Trump’s performance was arguably the least awkward, receiving laughs and claps when he said “Israel” and “Jews” and “Obama sucks.” He referred to his audience repeatedly as “you folks” and “you people” and praised you people’s renowned negotiating skills (you know how cheapskate Jews don’t pay retail, dontcha?), and he kept coming back to the topic of you people’s money and how he doesn’t want it and how the you folks in the room “stupidly” won’t support him, even though he will be The Best at Making Israel Great Again. Stupid Jews.


The brilliant doctor’s address to The Jewishes was, um, yeah:

He repeatedly botched the pronunciation of Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, making it sound instead like the chickpea dish hummus — all while impugning President Barack Obama’s understanding of the Middle East. […]

In his remarks, Mr. Carson delivered a lengthy history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, arguing that generations of skirmishes could have been avoided if the Palestinian Arabs had accepted a two-state par ion of British Mandate Palestine after World War II.

That’s right. Ben Carson, who described Israel’s system of government as “complex” and suggested they just do it like how we do in America, with Republicans, Democrats, and independents — and whose own advisers say they cannot shove any intelligence on foreign things into his brain, no matter how hard they try — was giving a history lesson on Israel to a roomful of Jews. That’s what our people call chutzpah.

The Ohio governor who suggested creating a new federal department of doing Crusades to foreigners, to teach them our “Judeo-Christian values,” tried to charm the crowd of Judeos with a great story of Stereotypes His Mama Taught Him:

“My mother told me one time, she said, Johnny — when I was a very young man — she said, Johnny, if you want to look for a really good friend, get somebody who’s Jewish,” Kasich said. “And you know why she said that? She said, no matter what happens to you, your friend, your Jewish friend will stick by your side and fight right with you and stand by you.”

Rick Santorum

The not-safe-for-work former senator of Pennsylvania said that some of his best friends in the Senate — before the voters double-digit fired his ass, but for some reason, he always leaves that part out — were Joe Lieberman. You know, Joe Lieberman, wink wink, the Jew one.

Mike Huckabee

Of course he was there, touting his expertise on Israel, since except for believing there is but one true god and his name is Jebus, he’s practically a Jewish himself:

Huckabee said he has traveled to Israel for more than 42 years and has been a tour guide for “literally thousands” of Americans who have visited the country with him. This was the proof he offered that he would actually deliver for Israel if elected president.

But now that the Republicans have checked off “ask for Jew money” from their list, they can all resume talkin’ ’bout the War on Christmas and the War on Christians and how the First Amendment protects your right to pray to any Jesus you want, so long as it’s Jesus.

http://wonkette.com/596641/gop-candi...ect-only-worse

[boutons_deux]

Here's Conservatives practicing "free market" "laissez-faire" bull .

Actually, it's Jews buying enough politicians to implement Israel-protecting govt and private policies


Ban on Israel divestment angers pension officials

The UK government has angered some of the country’s most senior pension officials over proposed rules that have been widely interpreted as political interference in pension funds’ investment decisions.

The ruling Conservative party published a statement in October outlining “new rules to stop politically motivated boycott and divestment campaigns against UK defence companies and against Israel”.

The rule change follows similar legislation in the US state of Illinois banning the state’s five pension funds from investing in companies that boycott Israel.

The bill, which was passed in May, was widely considered an attempt to undermine the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which calls for investors to pull money from companies it believes are complicit in violating Palestinian rights.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/f3503208-0621-11e5-89c1-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3syGB1dhO

===============

and in USA:

US pension funds to divest from Israel boycotters

Pension funds across the US could soon be forced to withdraw money from companies perceived to have boycotted Israel if a legislative initiative under way in the state of Illinois gains traction.

Last month, Illinois became the first US state to pass a bill banning the state’s five pension funds from investing in companies that boycott Israel.

The bill is widely considered an attempt to undermine the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which calls for investors to pull money from companies it believes are complicit in violating Palestinian rights.

Some BDS resolutions and activists advocate a blanket boycott of Israel; others only of companies and ins utions linked to Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, which most of the outside world sees as illegal and an obstacle to peace.

While a growing number of European pension funds have blacklisted several Israeli companies due to their operations in the occupied Palestinian territories, it seems increasingly unlikely that their US counterparts will adopt a similar stance.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/f3503...#axzz3syGB1dhO

[boutons_deux]

Fox pundit says ‘white privilege is racist’: I confront my whiteness by ‘going to the tanning salon’




http://www.rawstory.com/2015/12/fox-...tanning-salon/

[boutons_deux]

It All Begins With The GOP

When your jaw drops watching every step in the battle for the heart of the Republican Party and the selection of their national leader, you should always keep in mind who now identifies with this party. It is a lot fewer voters than it used to be and their popularity has fallen to Watergate levels on many measures.

The evangelicals and the Tea Party are the heart of the Republican Party. About seven in ten strongly identify with the Republican Party, and they are the base segments most likely to vote straight Republican on Election Day.

They do not look like the new American majority. The evangelical, observant Catholic, and Tea Party base voters are nearly 90 percent white, and two-thirds are married—in stark contrast to a country that is growing more racially diverse and increasingly single.



http://www.nationalmemo.com/it-all-b...with-the-gop/#

[boutons_deux]

Fox News Teaches Kids How To Run Toward Gunfire, What Could Go Wrong?

http://wonkette.com/596794/fox-news-teaches-kids-how-to-run-toward-gunfire-what-could-go-wrong

[boutons_deux]

Rep. Steve King Wants To Know Why His Muslim Colleagues Hate America



Ah, Steve King.

The pride of Iowa.

Lover of rape babies,

hater of puppies.

How we haven’t missed you one tiny little bit. And yet here you are, catching that nasty case of Trump that’s going around. King hit the pause button, with his greasy butter cow fingers, on his usual tirade against cantaloupe-shaped Mexicans and their drug mule children, to dry-hump another of his favorite topics: those damned Muslims, all up in his Christian-nation America.

“Sharia law is incompatible with the United States Cons ution and so if they want to demonstrate that they are open to being Americanized, the first thing they should do is renounce Sharia law,” King told TPM. “You won’t get Keith Ellison or Andre Carson in this Congress to renounce Sharia law, let alone somebody that’s just come out of the Middle East that is someone who has been steeped in Islam for a lifetime.”

Conservatives have been trying to force Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison to renounce his own faith and prove he isn’t a terrorist (“no offense”) who hates America since, oh, about the second he was sworn into office in 2007, back when the Iraq War had been won, the mission accomplished, the terrorist threat shocked and awed into its last desperate throes.

And then the next year there were TWO of them — that makes it a conspiracy! — when Indiana Rep. André D. Carson was special electioned into Congress, and both of those Muslims have consistently refused to stop being Muslims.

http://wonkette.com/596831/rep-steve...s-hate-america

[boutons_deux]

Florida kicks 9,000 chronically ill, disabled kids out of healthcare system

The Miami Herald obtained thousands of pages of health department do ents under the state's public records law, including nearly 800 emails and hundreds of memos and reports that detailed the state's plan to "restructure" CMS.

They show that the elimination of children from CMS was the result of a plan to slash spending on sick kids at a time when Florida had a $635.4 million surplus.

For the legislative session that begins next month, Gov. Rick Scott has proposed $1 billion in new tax cuts. The spending plan would eliminate an additional 718 health department positions. […]

The parents of one Palm Beach County infant learned on the eve of a critical craniofacial surgery that their 6-month-old son had been "screened out" of CMS. The little boy is profoundly disabled, records show, having been born deaf, without eyes, and with a disfiguring cleft palate. The child's mother called CMS in preparation for the surgery, only to be told "the screening is showing 'NO,' so they would not do anything."

"URGENT" read the subject line of a Feb. 2 internal email. "There is nothing that we can do?"

There was something they could do. Within a few days, the infant was re-enrolled. Thousands of other youngsters, though, did not fare as well.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/1...28Daily+Kos%29

"Compassionate conservatism" was always ing lie.

[boutons_deux]

Rep. Steve King's defenseof anti-Muslim bigotry will someday appear in our history books

Steve King believes Muslims are violent and bad; Steve King believes Christians like himself are peaceful and good. There's no bit of reality you can throw at him that will shake these beliefs.

HAYES: Congressman, let me just stop you right there. Congressman, there was a man named Robert Dear who in court today said he was a warrior for the babies, whose ex-wife talked about his Christian beliefs motivating his desire to attack and murder three people, including a police officer, in Colorado. That man is a Christian, he’s an avowed Christian. He appears to have acted on those Christian beliefs to undertake that act of violence. KING: I don't think that he's following Jesus' teachings --

HAYES: But who are you to say? He says he's a Christian.

KING: That's what he says, all right. But that's not Jesus' teachings. Jesus didn’t teach people to kill.

HAYES: But you’re doing the exact same thing that every Muslim I’ve seen on air says do in the wake of what happened in San Bernardino. They say they weren’t following actual Islam. Islam does not preach hatred and violence and destruction, right?

I mean, why is this any different? You understandably as a Christian are someone of the faith, right? You look at what happened at Planned Parenthood, you said that's not the faith that I believe in. Millions and billions --

KING: What Planned Parenthood is doing is not the faith that I believe in, but Jesus never ordered anyone to be killed and he never raised his hand to injure anyone specifically. But Mohammed did, and there is a big difference in this. And so they’re carrying on the traditions that are centuries old --

And he knows that America doesn't face a problem from Christians murdering people because they're not Christians so problem solved.

stupidity-based bigotry is a movement. His insistence on what things are true and what are not—all real-world happenings be damned, all contrary evidence a plot against him—is the movement.

He had previously muttered to another reporter that not even his Muslim colleague Keith Ellison would renounce "Sharia law"—that Rep. Ellison was, therefore, just another bit of evidence that the entire Muslim religion was "incompatible" with Americanism and needs to be winnowed out. He says so again here. He is sure of it.

KING: Well, when Congressman Ellison takes an oath to support and defend the Cons ution of the United States, and also -- you'll get to ask him. I'm glad he is going to be there to answer this question. And it is, which is superior? The Cons ution or Sharia law? And in Sharia law, by their teachings, is superior to everything else. It replaces everything else. It replaces the Cons ution itself. So you can't be assimilated into the American civilization and accept Sharia law as being superior to our Cons ution. It’s an hetical to Americanism.

ask Rep. Steve King which he believes to be more important: American law, or God's law. His God's law, the Christian one. Ask Mike Huckabee. Ask Ted Cruz. Ask every conservative Christian Republican in the House, for that matter, just to get a proper tally.

They will tell you that American law must not be enforced when it conflicts with Christianity—their particular Christianity, and no other. They will bring it to the Supreme Court. They will pass laws insisting upon it.

And Steve King will not see the slightest conflict in that—he will say, in fact, that insisting on his version of Christianity above all other religions makes him more American than anyone else, not less. And he will curl his lip in that special sneer of his and again opine that Rep. Keith Ellison and his fellow violent religious zealots are up to something.

You cannot reason with radical Christian extremists. There is no evidence you can present to them, no headstone or history you can show them to deflect them from their beliefs.
Also they are as dumb as a can of peas.


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/12/12/1458944/-Rep-Steve-King-s-defense-of-anti-Muslim-bigotry-will-someday-appear-in-our-history-books?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_ca mpaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos%29

The King "Christian sharia" crowd will "officially" condemn shooting up, bombing, burning PP clinics and staff, but they are probably very pleased in private about it.

Violence in the name of their self-serving brand of perverse Christianity is ok, but Muslims' violence in reaction to Christians invading Muslim countries and killing Muslims is bad.

[tlongII]

[boutons_deux]

b u l l s h i t because it's ALL WRONG for the Repug party of the last 40 years.

[boutons_deux]

Repug/Christian Taliban War on Women

Kentucky shelter tosses out all women days before holidays because they tempt men with ‘ungodly’ sex

Emergency Christian Ministries Director Billy Woodward told WYMT that he had to put a stop to the “sex problem.”

“They may want to meet or slip in a room occasionally, we can’t have that,” Woodward explained. “It seems like these last days it’s getting worse … the ungodly type.”

“They say, ‘We’re homeless, maybe we can find somebody, a mate or something,'” he continued. “If they done it right, it would be fine. But, you know, they go overboard with it.”

Emergency Christian Ministries forced up to a dozen women to leave, according to WYMT. It was not immediately clear if the women had been able to relocate because Emergency Christian Ministries is the only shelter for the homeless in Williamsburg.

Woodward insisted that the decision had been made based on teachings in the Bible, but he admitted that women were not completely to blame for the “sex problem.”

“It takes two to do that,” Woodward said. “We are not biased or prejudice whatsoever.”

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/12/kent...e+Raw+Story%29

Kentucky Christ says "Merry Christmas, Ladies"

[boutons_deux]

Backpacking While Black in Slave State

Georgia school says teacher had no ‘ill intent’ asking Muslim student if she had a bomb in her backpack

A Georgia middle school teacher is not facing any repercussions after she asked a Muslim 8th grader if she had a bomb in her backpack, the Atlanta Journal-Cons ution is reporting.

Saying there was no “ill intent” involved,

the unidentified teacher at Shiloh Middle School in Gwinnett County was only told by school administrators that her comments were “not appropriate,”

which has the father of the girl disgusted with the whole incident.

“I was upset,” explained the girl’s father, Abdirazik Aden, who owns a business in the area. “I was going to take my daughter out (of that school). “

According to Aden, his daughter was stopped on Monday by the teacher who asked the young girl what she had in her book bag. After the girl replied “books,” the teacher inquired further, asking if she had a bomb in the bag.

Aden said his daughter called him afterwards upset with the line of questioning.

“My daughter wanted to know why she was asking her that,” he explained, adding that he went to the school where he spoke with a vice principal who explained that it was a mistake on the teacher’s part.

According to Gwinnett County Public Schools spokesperson Sloan Roach, the district is not denying the incident happened.

“The remark was not appropriate, but based on their conversation and investigation,” school officials don’t believe it was made with “ill intent,” Roach explained, adding that the comment was made by the teacher as an off-handed remark while trying to get students to put their backpacks away.

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/12/geor...e+Raw+Story%29

[boutons_deux]

Conservative actress tells Fox: Darth Vader is black because it’s in the Bible and ‘Jesus talks about it’



http://www.rawstory.com/2015/12/cons...alks-about-it/

[DMX7]

so George Lucas is GOD?

[boutons_deux]

Maine’s Republican Governor Oversees Decline in Food Assistance

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) last week notified the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) that it was breaking the law regarding its Supplemental Nutrition Assistant Program (SNAP). The USDA told Maine’s government agency in a letter that its application response times were too low and that its data were insufficient.

The state now ranks last in response time out of 53 SNAP programs in the nation. In 2014, it ranked 36 out of 53, marking a drastic drop in efficiency for a state with one of the highest rates of food insecurity—hunger—in the nation.

At 7.5 percent, Maine ties with Ohio for having the third highest percentage of people with very low food security; Arkansas and Missouri are only marginally worse.

These eligible families are not receiving the help they need in a timely manner, and a high percentage of families with children and the elderly are affected. In 2013, about 17 percent of Maine households received SNAP benefits, and about 43 percent of those households had children under 18.

The USDA has been in contact with Maine’s health department multiple times regarding its slow SNAP response times and failure to produce data for the agency, according to the letter from the USDA.

“Maine’s poor timeliness performance negative impacts SNAP clients across the state and must be addressed,” the letter reads. “We stand ready to provide technical assistance to improve program administration to serve eligible Maine households in a timely manner and to help the state avoid suspension or disallowance of administrative funding.”

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

Maine is less the 1% black, so Repugs are screwing poor white people.

[boutons_deux]

Slave State Congressman Argues Obama’s Immigration Policy Is Based On ‘Skin Pigmentation’

A Republican congressman argued this week that the only thing preventing a complete pause on new immigration to the United States is “a president of the United States who wants to change the way America looks.”

“A lot of it has to do with skin pigmentation,” Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) continued during an appearance on the Matt Murphy Show. “

A lot of it has to do with religious values,” the Alabama congressman, who has previously peddled conspiracy theories about President Obama’s childhood in Indonesia, said.

http://thinkprogress.org/immigration...-pigmentation/

[boutons_deux]

From darkest, deepest, most corrupt Repug Kockenstan

Wisconsin Loosens Campaign Finance Rules For 'Dark Money'

Advocates on all sides of the campaign finance debate are watching Wisconsin, where new laws are removing limits on the use and reporting of "dark money" from secret sources.

The laws enable coordination between political campaigns and advocacy organizations, something almost all other states forbid.

Wisconsin, like other states, limits how much money individuals can contribute to the campaign committees for political candidates and ballot measures. It also requires campaigns to disclose their contributors. Nonprofit advocacy groups, on the other hand, are usually able to accept unlimited donations, and are not required to report where the money came from, even when it is used to influence elections.

Wisconsin's new laws explicitly allow coordination, as long as the advocacy group doesn't call specifically for the election or defeat of a candidate, or the approval or rejection of a ballot measure. The legislation also replaces a nonpartisan election law enforcement commission with two partisan boards, and stops requiring campaigns to disclose the employers of people who donate more than $100.

GOP majorities in both houses approved the legislation for Gov. Scott Walker's signature after an outside group connected to the billionaire Koch brothers was accused of illegally coordinating with the governor's successful campaign against a recall effort in 2012.

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

meanwhile, Americans know money corrupts politics, and disenfranchises Human-Americans

Americans’ Views on Money in Politics

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...tics-poll.html

[boutons_deux]

Repugs poison the water, poison the blacks,

Repug authoritarian "emergency managemer" MISgovernance

High Lead Levels In Michigan Kids After City Switches Water Source

Doctors are finding elevated levels of lead in the children in Flint, Mich., and local tap water is the likely cause.

That's the latest alarming news to come out of the city, which switched its water source about a year and a half ago.

A pediatrician with Hurley Medical Center analyzed lead levels of hundreds of children. She compared blood tests before and after April 2014. That's when Flint, unable to come to an agreement on a short-term contract with Detroit, quit buying water from its system and signed on with a new system that will draw water from Lake Huron.

But that system won't be online until next year. So in the interim, with assurances from the state that it would be safe, the city decided to pump water from the Flint River.
Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha's research found that the percentage of Flint children 5 years and younger with elevated lead levels nearly doubled after the switch, from 2.1 percent to 4 percent.

More Children With Elevated Lead Levels After Water Change

The city of Flint, Mich., started drawing its water from a local river in April 2014. Recently, doctors at Hurley Medical Center compared lead levels in Flint children with those from elsewhere in Genesee County.

A Cascade Of Problems

The news did not surprise Lee Anne Walters, who suspected the water had something to do with health problems in her 4-year-old son, Gavin.

"I kept talking to the doctors, trying to figure out why he wasn't growing," she says. "He was 27 pounds at 4 years old. His hair was thinning, breaking out in rashes."

Complaints about foul-smelling, discolored water began soon after the city started drawing water from the Flint River. In the summer of 2014, the city issued a notice for residents to boil their water because of E. coli contamination.

And I got a frantic phone call from the water department telling me to please make sure my kids didn't drink the water, don't mix their juice with it, because they had never seen a number that high for lead.

Lee Anne Walters, whose 4-year-old son's lead level more than tripled after Flint switched its water source

Then the city was found to be in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act because of high levels of a disinfectant byproduct called total trihalomethanes — an unintended consequence from all the chlorine the city had to use to kill the E. coli.

Walters says her whole family broke out in rashes, and they stopped drinking the water in December.

Then, in February of this year, the city tested her water for lead.

"And I got a frantic phone call from the water department telling me to please make sure my kids didn't drink the water, don't mix their juice with it, because they had never seen a number that high for lead," she say

http://www.npr.org/2015/09/29/444497...s-water-source

Flint toxic water tragedy points directly to Michigan Gov. Snyder

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/toxic-water-tragedy-points-directly-to-snyder-588635715518

[tlongII]

[baseline bum]

That racist Democratic base became the racist Republican base


1860 Election: Dem = green, blue, Rep = red


2012 Election: Dem = blue, Rep = red

[boutons_deux]

hate-filled Repugs pandering to hate-filled Christian Taliban (sex and private life regulators)

Six GOP Candidates Pledge To Sign Anti-Gay Discrimination Into Law




Six of the Republican candidates vying for the presidency have signed a pledge promising to support legislation during their first 100 days in the White House that would use the guise of “religious liberty” to give individuals and businesses the right to openly discriminate against LGBT people.

Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, Rick Santorum, and Mike Huckabee vowed to push for the passage of the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA), legislation that would prohibit the federal government from stopping discrimination by people or businesses that believe “marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman” or that “sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage.”

The pledge is supported by three conservative groups: the American Principles Project, Heritage Action for America, and Family Research Council Action.

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/20...es-fadapledge/

Freedom! (but not those disallowed by white Christian supremacist Taliban)

[boutons_deux]

Carly Fiorina surrounds self with puppies, still makes it creepy


"Ya know, President Obama ate one of your cousins," Fiorina tells a dog in the Independent Journal video before turning to the camera and adding, "Vote Republican."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/12/19/1460466/-Carly-Fiorina-surrounds-self-with-puppies-still-makes-it-creepy?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_c ampaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos%29

CarLIE sez Obama eats dogs.