Stephen Colbert Hijacks Mic at RNC

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Apple Dumps Trump By Refusing To Provide Money Or Technology To GOP Convention

Apple has taken a stronger stance than other corporate giants against Trump and his Republican convention by announcing that they will not provide money or technology to Trump's Cleveland self-love fest.

Politico report:

Apple has told Republican leaders it will not provide funding or other support for the party’s 2016 presidential convention, as it’s done in the past, citing Donald Trump’s controversial comments about women, immigrants, and minorities.

Unlike Facebook, Google and Microsoft, which have all said they will provide some support to the GOP event in Cleveland next month, Apple decided against donating technology or cash to the effort, according to two sources familiar with the iPhone maker’s plans.

http://www.politicususa.com/2016/06/18/apple-dumps-trump-refusing-provide-money-technology-gop-convention.html

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Truth takes a beating when LePage comes to town

AUGUSTA, Maine — When Gov. Paul LePage comes to your town, expect his defiant brand of bombast. Just don’t expect all the facts to check out.

The Republican governor started doing town hall-style meetings last year as a way to take his case to the public during a budget battle with the Maine Legislature. Since then, he’s held approximately 30 across the state. On Wednesday, he’ll be in Boothbay Harbor.

They’ve led to some of his most infamous comments, including assertions that out-of-state drug dealers often impregnate “young, white” girls in Maine and refugees spread diseases such as the nonexistent “ziki fly.” But his more normal rhetoric often is unscrutinized.

The Bangor Daily News took a transcript of LePage’s June public forum in Richmond and checked about 80 statements of fact. The analysis found scores of mistruths and misunderstandings of basic government functions.

http://bangordailynews.com/2016/07/05/the-point/truth-takes-a-beating-when-lepage-comes-to-town/

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Truth takes a beating when LePage comes to town

ast modified July 05, 2016, at 8:06 p.m.

AUGUSTA, Maine — When Gov. Paul LePage comes to your town, expect his defiant brand of bombast. Just don’t expect all the facts to check out.

The Republican governor started doing town hall-style meetings last year as a way to take his case to the public during a budget battle with the Maine Legislature. Since then, he’s held approximately 30 across the state. On Wednesday, he’ll be in Boothbay Harbor.

They’ve led to some of his most infamous comments, including assertions that out-of-state drug dealers often impregnate “young, white” girls in Maine and refugees spread diseases such as the nonexistent “ziki fly.” But his more normal rhetoric often is unscrutinized.

The Bangor Daily News took a transcript of LePage’s June public forum in Richmond and checked about 80 statements of fact. The analysis found scores of mistruths and misunderstandings of basic government functions.

http://bangordailynews.com/2016/07/05/the-point/truth-takes-a-beating-when-lepage-comes-to-town/

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Bill Kristol encourages floor revolt at GOP convention

Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol joined a conference call on Tuesday night to encourage Republican delegates to protest on the floor of the convention in a last ditch effort to block Donald Trump from obtaining the party’s nomination.

Kristol, who has spearheaded the charge for an independent candidate to enter the race, was the guest speaker on an organizing call of conservatives who are seeking to deny Trump the nomination at the party’s convention in Cleveland next month.

The group of delegates, lawyers, rules experts and political action committees insist that delegates are not bound to any primary or caucus vote, and are looking to pass convention rules that allow them to vote their “conscience.”

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/286609-bill-kristol-encourages-floor-revolt-at-gop-convention

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Could Delegate's New Lawsuit Derail Trump's Nomination?

A Virginia delegate to the Republican National Convention filed a class action lawsuit in federal court Friday challenging a state law that binds delegates to support the primary winner at the nominating convention.

The outcome of the lawsuit could have significant implications for Donald Trump's nomination, as it will be a test case of a key argument being pushed by some Trump opponents who want to see him stopped at a contested convention.

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Former Iowa Republican official admits to taking payment for support of Ron Paul’s presidential bid

Kent Sorenson said he was paid $73,000 to switch his allegiance from Michele Bachmann to Ron Paul in 2011

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A former Iowa state senator who abandoned then-presidential candidate Michele Bachmann to endorse Ron Paul a week before the 2012 Iowa caucuses has pleaded guilty to “concealing payments” from Paul’s campaign in exchange for his support, the Department of Justice announced Wednesday.

In December 2011, state senator Kent Sorenson, then the Iowa chairman for Bachmann’s campaign,made a surprise announcement that he had switched his endorsement to Paul. At the time, Sorenson said he made the decision based on his support for Paul’s policies, but this week he admitted to accepting tens of thousands of dollars from the Paul campaign as part of the deal. According to a DOJ release, “from October to December 2011, he met and secretly negotiated with a second political campaign to switch his support to that second campaign in exchange for concealed payments that amounted to $73,000.”

The payments were delivered in $8,000 installments, which were “concealed by transmitting them to a film production company, then through a second company, and finally to Sorenson and his spouse,” the DOJ statement read.

“An elected official admitted that he accepted under-the-table payments from a campaign committee to secure his support and services for a candidate in the 2012 presidential election,” DOJ Assistant Attorney General Caldwell said in a written statement.

Paul, a Texas Republican who retired from Congress in 2013, went on to place third in the state caucuses behind Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney. He continued to campaign through the spring and ended his run in May 2012. Paul’s son, Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul, is considering his own bid for the presidency in 2016.

The consequences for those involved with Paul’s campaign are unclear. Jesse Benton, a Paul campaign spokesman at the time, did not return a request for comment. Benton is currently the campaign manager for  Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, who is running for re-election.

In an interview with Yahoo News, DOJ spokesman Peter Carr declined to discuss details of the agreement but said that the investigation “remains ongoing.”

Sorenson resigned from his office in 2013 amid allegations that he had also taken illegal contributions from a political action committee aligned with Bachmann.

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Republican: If a Woman Has Right to an Abortion, a Man Should Have Right to Force Himself on a Woman

Republican: If a Woman Has Right to an Abortion, a Man Should Have Right to Force Himself on a Woman

Republican Maine state Representative Lawrence Lockman is under fire for comments he’s made in the media regarding rape, abortion, and homosexuality.

An investigation by Mike Tipping, an activist with Maine People’s Alliance, found numerous offensive comments made by the Republican in various newspaper interviews.

Perhaps the most inflammatory was a press statement from 1995 in which Lockman says “If a woman has (the right to an abortion), why shouldn’t a man be free to use his superior strength to force himself on a woman? At least the rapist’s pursuit of sexual freedom doesn’t (in most cases) result in anyone’s death.”

That wasn’t all.

According to the report, Lockman once implied that the HIV virus can be spread through mosquitoes and bed sheets. Lockman also asserted that liberals helped exacerbate the AIDS epidemic by assuring “the public that the practice of sodomy is a legitimate alternative lifestyle, rather than a perverted and depraved crime against humanity.”

In a letter to Bangor News, Lockman once wrote “Clearly the practice of sodomy is learned behavior, and those addicted to this form of biologically-insane sex are at high risk for all manner of serious medical problems.”

Lockman also spoke out against HIV infected students attending school, saying “It’s peculiar that the government is telling health care workers that surfaces contaminated with bodily fluids should be thoroughly disinfected, but at the same time they are telling us that toilet seats have some magical property that they are able to resist viruses.”

He also tried to alert people to a “secret gay affirmative action plan,” saying “You can bet the rent money they will demand that employers set up goals and timetables to achieve 10 percent homosexual representation in the workforce and in government contracts.”

Ben Grant, the chairman of the Maine Democratic Party, called for Lockman to resign in light of these statements, calling them “hateful, vicious, and offensive.” Grant also called Lockman “disturbed individual who holds some of the most abhorrent beliefs ever heard from a public official in Maine.”

Lockman has refused to respond to direct questions but released a statement, saying “I have always been passionate about my beliefs, and years ago I said things that I regret. I hold no animosity toward anyone by virtue of their gender or sexual orientation, and today I am focused on ensuring freedom and economic prosperity for all Mainers.”

Read more at http://issuehawk.com/igor/2014/03/04/republican-if-a-woman-has-right-to-an-abortion-a-man-should-have-right-to-force-himself-on-a-woman.html#rkhUFVjcO40A5Q4l.99
Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Michigan Redistricting Congressional District Maps: House Republicans - 2011 Proposed Congressional Plan

Michigan Redistricting Congressional District Maps: House Republicans - 2011 Proposed Congressional Plan

Bipartisan Lawsuit Against Obama On Libya

Libya Lawsuit Against Obama

Scott Brown: I'm Not A Tea Party Member, 'I'm A Republican'

First Posted: 02/22/11 11:22 AM Updated: 02/22/11 01:29 PM

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Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.), the freshman legislator who won a special election in the blue state of Massachusetts thanks in part to widespread support from the Tea Party, said Tuesday that he doesn't consider himself a member of their ranks.

"I'm a Republican from Massachusetts," Browntold USA Today when asked if he identified with the Tea Party.

As a candidate for the late Ted Kennedy's Senate seat in 2010, Brown had a notoriously complex relationship with the conservative groups. While he understood the grassroots power of the Tea Party, as evidenced by his willingness to hold fundraisers touting his support of the movement, he alsoseemed hesitant to get too cozy with them, perhaps considering the liberal nature of Massachusetts.

On Tuesday, Brown made himself quite clear on the political distinction.

"I'm a Republican, period," Brown said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "I have respect for the Tea Party. I'm a fiscal conservative - I always have been. When you talk about national security, I'm a hawk, probably more than anybody that I know in Massachusetts."

Brown later continued, saying that he had no plans to be a "social crusader" or an "ideologue," and that he was prepared to test his record against that of a potential challenger from the right.

"If you're talking about a primary for me, hey, nothing wrong with a primary," he said. "I welcome all challengers."

At least one former backer has already promised to fund a more conservative competitor
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Michael Grebe Wisconsin Political Puppeteer was Obamas Boss and was General Council for the RNC

Michael Grebe Wisconsin Political Puppeteer was Obamas Boss and was General Council for the RNC

Michael Grebe is named in a Massive Shareholder Fraud - SEC Complaint, Click Here for the Complaint. 

Michael Grebe was President Obama's Boss while Obama was at Foley and Lardner. Michael Grebe was in Good with the Bush Administration and with the Cheney Family (which give Michael Grebe powerful connections to the Lockheed Martin Corporation.)

Michael Grebe was the General Council for the RNC, Republican National Committee and well has all kinds of connections and favors to call in.. and Now Michael Grebe is pulling strings, fixing elections and causes mass economic damage with this "Grooming of Scott Walker Party". Pay attention folks, Michael Grebe is Very Corrupt..

www.Foley-Lardner.com

www.DeniedPatent.com

Levi Johnston: Policy Questions 'Over My Head'

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Republican Contract, Pledge and Promise to America

First there was the Contract With America...

REPUBLICAN CONTRACT WITH AMERICA

As Republican Members of the House of Representatives and as citizens seeking to join that body we propose not just to change its policies, but even more important, to restore the bonds of trust between the people and their elected representatives.That is why, in this era of official evasion and posturing, we offer instead a detailed agenda for national renewal, a written commitment with no fine print.
This year's election offers the chance, after four decades of one-party control, to bring to the House a new majority that will transform the way Congress works. That historic change would be the end of government that is too big, too intrusive, and too easy with the public's money. It can be the beginning of a Congress that respects the values and shares the faith of the American family.
Like Lincoln, our first Republican president, we intend to act "with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right." To restore accountability to Congress. To end its cycle of scandal and disgrace. To make us all proud again of the way free people govern themselves.
On the first day of the 104th Congress, the new Republican majority will immediately pass the following major reforms, aimed at restoring the faith and trust of the American people in their government:

• FIRST, require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply equally to the Congress;
• SECOND, select a major, independent auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of Congress for waste, fraud or abuse;
• THIRD, cut the number of House committees, and cut committee staff by one-third;
• FOURTH, limit the terms of all committee chairs;
• FIFTH, ban the casting of proxy votes in committee;
• SIXTH, require committee meetings to be open to the public;
• SEVENTH, require a three-fifths majority vote to pass a tax increase;
• EIGHTH, guarantee an honest accounting of our Federal Budget by implementing zero base-line budgeting.

Thereafter, within the first 100 days of the 104th Congress, we shall bring to the House Floor the following bills, each to be given full and open debate, each to be given a clear and fair vote and each to be immediately available this day for public inspection and scrutiny.
1. THE FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT: A balanced budget/tax limitation amendment and a legislative line-item veto to restore fiscal responsibility to an out- of-control Congress, requiring them to live under the same budget constraints as families and businesses. (Bill Text) (Description)
2. THE TAKING BACK OUR STREETS ACT: An anti-crime package including stronger truth-in- sentencing, "good faith" exclusionary rule exemptions, effective death penalty provisions, and cuts in social spending from this summer's "crime" bill to fund prison construction and additional law enforcement to keep people secure in their neighborhoods and kids safe in their schools. (Bill Text) (Description)
3. THE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT: Discourage illegitimacy and teen pregnancy by prohibiting welfare to minor mothers and denying increased AFDC for additional children while on welfare, cut spending for welfare programs, and enact a tough two-years-and-out provision with work requirements to promote individual responsibility. (Bill Text) (Description)
4. THE FAMILY REINFORCEMENT ACT: Child support enforcement, tax incentives for adoption, strengthening rights of parents in their children's education, stronger child pornography laws, and an elderly dependent care tax credit to reinforce the central role of families in American society. (Bill Text)(Description)
5. THE AMERICAN DREAM RESTORATION ACT: A S500 per child tax credit, begin repeal of the marriage tax penalty, and creation of American Dream Savings Accounts to provide middle class tax relief. (Bill Text) (Description)
6. THE NATIONAL SECURITY RESTORATION ACT: No U.S. troops under U.N. command and restoration of the essential parts of our national security funding to strengthen our national defense and maintain our credibility around the world. (Bill Text) (Description)
7. THE SENIOR CITIZENS FAIRNESS ACT: Raise the Social Security earnings limit which currently forces seniors out of the work force, repeal the 1993 tax hikes on Social Security benefits and provide tax incentives for private long-term care insurance to let Older Americans keep more of what they have earned over the years. (Bill Text) (Description)
8. THE JOB CREATION AND WAGE ENHANCEMENT ACT: Small business incentives, capital gains cut and indexation, neutral cost recovery, risk assessment/cost-benefit analysis, strengthening the Regulatory Flexibility Act and unfunded mandate reform to create jobs and raise worker wages. (Bill Text)(Description)
9. THE COMMON SENSE LEGAL REFORM ACT: "Loser pays" laws, reasonable limits on punitive damages and reform of product liability laws to stem the endless tide of litigation. (Bill Text) (Description)
10. THE CITIZEN LEGISLATURE ACT: A first-ever vote on term limits to replace career politicians with citizen legislators. (Description)
Further, we will instruct the House Budget Committee to report to the floor and we will work to enact additional budget savings, beyond the budget cuts specifically included in the legislation described above, to ensure that the Federal budget deficit will be less than it would have been without the enactment of these bills.
Respecting the judgment of our fellow citizens as we seek their mandate for reform, we hereby pledge our names to this Contract with America.

Then there was the Pledge to America...



A Pledge to America

What's next, the Promise to America?

Because we have the internet, now.

America's Ruling Class -- And the Perils of Revolution

America's Ruling Class -- And the Perils of Revolution
Who are these rulers, and by what right do they rule? How did America change from a place where people could expect to live without bowing to privileged classes to one in which, at best, they might have the chance to climb into them? What sets our ruling class apart from the rest of us?...more

President Obama Pushes for Up-or-Down Vote on Help for Our Laid Off Friends & Neighbors

President Obama Pushes for Up-or-Down Vote on Help for Our Laid Off Friends & Neighbors

President Obama Pushes for Up-or-Down Vote on Help for Our Laid Off Friends & Neighbors
The President opened his remarks today describing some of the people he is focused on as he deals with the economy every day:

Right now, across this country, many Americans are sitting at the kitchen table, they’re scanning the classifieds, they’re updating their resumes or sending out another job application, hoping that this time they’ll hear back from a potential employer. And they’re filled with a sense of uncertainty about where their next paycheck will come from. And I know the only thing that will entirely free them of those worries –- the only thing that will fully lift that sense of uncertainty –- is the security of a new job.

The warnings surrounding America’s economic free fall when the President came into office were grave – “another Great Depression” was one common refrain.  It’s undoubtedly good news that those dire warnings are all but forgotten now, as the Recovery Act and other tough choices from the Obama Administration brought us back from the brink, but there is no question that the difficulties facing millions of America’s workers – through no fault of their own – are nothing short of tragic.
That’s why it’s not only imperative to pass the job creation programs the President has supported, such as small business tax cuts and support for the clean energy economy, but to extend unemployment insurance to those still struggling to find work. These are our friends and neighbors, who find themselves in the same situation so many of us have at some point in our lives if we were out of work during a tough economic time – seemingly endless applicants for every job, where even a final round interview seems like hitting the lottery.  And that leaves out the fact that because these benefits go to people who will immediately spend them and put them back into the economy, there is wide consensus that it is one of the best ways to stimulate the economy.
And yet, as the President explained, Republicans in the Senate have taken a different perspective in justifying their blocking of unemployment insurance to help our neighbors stay afloat – that is their fault, and they are simply not looking hard enough for work. They say this even as they consistently attack the President over the state of the economy. They claim we cannot afford to extend the benefits, even as they push for massive, permanent tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans to be put on the national credit card:

And for a long time, there’s been a tradition –- under both Democratic and Republican Presidents –- to offer relief to the unemployed.  That was certainly the case under my predecessor, when Republican senators voted several times to extend emergency unemployment benefits.  But right now, these benefits –- benefits that are often the person’s sole source of income while they’re looking for work -– are in jeopardy.
And I have to say, after years of championing policies that turned a record surplus into a massive deficit, the same people who didn’t have any problem spending hundreds of billions of dollars on tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans are now saying we shouldn’t offer relief to middle-class Americans like Jim or Leslie or Denise, who really need help.
Over the past few weeks, a majority of senators have tried  -– not once, not twice, but three times –- to extend emergency relief on a temporary basis.  Each time, a partisan minority in the Senate has used parliamentary maneuvers to block a vote, denying millions of people who are out of work much-needed relief.  These leaders in the Senate who are advancing a misguided notion that emergency relief somehow discourages people from looking for a job should talk to these folks.
That attitude I think reflects a lack of faith in the American people, because the Americans I hear from in letters and meet in town hall meetings –- Americans like Leslie and Jim and Denise -- they’re not looking for a handout.  They desperately want to work.  Just right now they can’t find a job.  These are honest, decent, hardworking folks who’ve fallen on hard times through no fault of their own, and who have nowhere else to turn except unemployment benefits and who need emergency relief to help them weather this economic storm.
Now, tomorrow we will have another chance to offer them that relief, to do right by not just Jim and Leslie and Denise, but all the Americans who need a helping hand right now -- and I hope we seize it.  It’s time to stop holding workers laid off in this recession hostage to Washington politics.  It’s time to do what’s right -- not for the next election but for the middle class.

As described in the background sent out from the White House, the President was joined by three people typifying the kind of Americans this help will go to – see if they don’t remind you of people you know in your community:

• Jim Chukalas, from Fredon Township, NJ, was laid off as a parts manager at a Honda dealership in 2008. He ran out of Tier III benefits and his Tier IV expired two weeks ago because Congress has failed to act.  Jim has persistently searched for work and fights to keep his spirits up for his family’s sake.
• Leslie Macko, from Charlottesville, VA, lost her job as an aesthetician in 2009.  She received, and exhausted, Virginia unemployment compensation benefits.  She has also exhausted her Tier I benefits and had 4.9 weeks of Tier II EUC for which she is eligible.  However, there has been a 6-week delay in the Tier II benefits and once she receives these benefits, she will not be eligible for additional unemployment insurance.  She has persistently searched for work, and continues to do so.  To pay her rent, utilities, food, and other expenses she has had to borrow money from her father on a monthly basis. 
• Denise Gibson from Queens, NY, was laid off as a maintenance supervisor in January and has been receiving unemployment insurance benefits since February.  She will receive the benefits only until August unless the extension is passed.  She is currently late on her rent and due back in housing court in early August.  She is interviewing for jobs and has plans to go to nursing school later this year.

GOP Senator Privately Admits Tax Cuts Make the Wealthy Lazy

GOP Senator Privately Admits Tax Cuts Make the Wealthy Lazy
By Don Davis

GOP Senator Jon Kyl, who along with his fellow party cretins has blamed unemployment benefits for unemployment, was caught in an embarrassing betrayal of conservative dogma today, when he acknowledged that continuation of the Bush-era tax cuts will only incentivize the wealthy to slack off.

Kyl, who thought television cameras and microphones were off during a taping of the new FOX News Sunday morning program, This Week in 1931, cackled heartily as he was overheard saying “if our rich friends who bankroll our campaigns get to keep their windfall tax cuts, they won’t even bother to get off their fat asses to to clip their bond coupons.”

Kyl further “gave away” his real beliefs by adding, “if we really wanted to spur growth and job creation, we’d double taxes on the super-rich; after all, just to maintain their lifestyle of luxury houses and boats, they’d have to work twice as hard.”

To make matters even worse, Kyl expressed amazement that “Democrats buy the bullshit about even more favorable tax rates for capital gains on passive investments.” “After all,” Kyl added, “if low tax rates are supposed to encourage and reward hard work, how are lower tax rates supposed to incentivize doing nothing?”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell hastily called a press conference to claim that Kyl had been out in the Arizona sun too long, apparently unaware that the sanity of his entire party had been adversely affected by the very global warming that they vehemently deny.

It was not a brick

‘The BIG Black Lie’ Author Debates MSNBC’s Shuster...


‘The BIG Black Lie’ Author Debates MSNBC’s Shuster on Tea Pa
Uploaded by burghnews. - News videos hot off the press.

He did not throw a brick, he threw a tea bag, so I guess he considers it alright.

I could have made a direct link to MSNBC but I wanted everyone to read the comments on this site.

You said it...

[22:00]audio here

THOM HARTMANN: Welcome back. There's a — an amazing piece of this whole health-care drama, really the Republican/Democratic drama, the Hard Right vs. the rest of America drama, the racists vs. the rest of us drama, that's being played out beneath the radar. And I want to lay it out for you. Because I think it's just a cryin' shame that America is not talking about this...more

We are not talking about this, we are posting it.