Prank call, effort to sell power plants prompt worries about GOP ties to Koch brothers

Assembly Democrats tried but failed Wednesday to prevent Gov. Scott Walker from selling state-owned power plants without bids amid growing concerns by Democrats that the owners of a multi-billion dollar oil-and-gas company are driving the governor's legislative agenda.

That suspicion grew Wednesday after Walker was secretly recorded revealing his strategy for pushing through his anti-union budget repair bill during a 20-minute phone conversation with a blogger who purported to be David Koch, executive vice president of the Wichita, Kan.-based Koch Industries.

The defeated amendment, which would have required that the sale be approved by the Public Service Commission, is among dozens likely to be shot down by the Assembly's Republican majority.

The $43 billion Koch Industries, which Koch owns with his brother, Charles, includes numerous energy-related enterprises, including a natural gas pipeline, refineries and a company that supplies coal to Wisconsin power plants.

Attack on Woman's Reproductive Health

First, House Republicans started with H.R. 3, a bill that would raise taxes on families and businesses that purchase insurance covering a full range of reproductive health care. Now they've turned to the budget to enact their extremist agenda:

• How can they justify eliminating all funds for Title X, which provides health care services for 4.7 million women nationwide and prevents almost 1 million unintended pregnancies a year?
   
• How can they justify defunding Planned Parenthood, an organization that provides 720,000 breast exams and 730,000 pap tests annually, tests that literally save the lives of American women?
   
• How can they justify taking away basic health care from millions of women

the House Republicans passed an outrageous "budget" bill that completely defunds Title X -- which provides cancer screenings, HIV testing, and family planning to low-income women.There's no other way to put it: The House GOP is waging an all-out war on women's health, and we must stop them this week in the U.S. Senate.

And it gets worse: They also voted to eliminate all funding for Planned Parenthood, thereby denying health care to millions of women across the country.

Conservative Violence

Earlier this week, Tim Profitt, who was at the time the Bourbon County campaign coordinator for KeEntucky GOP Senate nominee Rand Paul, stomped on a female MoveOn.org activist's head outside a debate between Paul and his Democratic opponent Jack Conway. Profitt threw the activist, Lauren Valle, to the ground and then smashed her head to the pavement with his foot. Valle was taken to the hospital where she was treated for a concussion and a sprained arm. Conway supporter Michael Grossman said a Paul supporter also assaulted him at the same event. Despite recently touting Profitt's endorsement, Paul distanced himself from the incident but refused to return Profitt's $2,000 campaign donation. Just two weeks prior, private security guards for Alaska GOP U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller physically restrained a local blogger who was trying to ask Miller questions during a campaign event. While this incident did not mirror the brutality of Profitt's attack, it -- along with the incident outside the Paul-Conway debate -- is emblematic of a wider pattern of violence coming from the right wing, or threats of violence, scattered throughout the past two years. Indeed, as progressive blogger Digby noted on Daily Kos, "The average American is frightened and confused while the rightwing is excited and overstimulated. The toxic combination of Bircerism, big money, xenophobia and social conservatism that defines the Tea Party is happening at a moment of maximum danger."


(the guy is an idiot)

GOP-Linked Group Urges Latinos Not to Vote in Nov. Election

In Nevada, a group with close ties to the Republican Party has begun running ads on Spanish-language stations urging people not to vote in the upcoming election. The narrator in the ad says, "Don’t vote this November. This is the only way to send them a clear message. You can no longer take us for granted." The ad was paid for by a group called Latinos for Reform headed by Robert Deposada, the former director of Hispanic affairs for the Republican National Committee.

GOP ‘Pledge To America’ Is An Oath To Big Oil

Our guest blogger is Daniel J. Weiss, Senior Fellow and Director of Climate Strategy, Center for American Progress Action Fund.

House Republicans just released “A Pledge to America,” its agenda for the 112th Congress if they take charge. The Republicans claim that their document — written byformer Exxon lobbyist Brian Wild — is “one in which the people have the most say and the best ideas trump the most entrenched interests.” When it comes to energy policy, the GOP leaders actually ignore public opinion, ignore science, and instead promote the same old ideas flogged by big oil lobbyists and other energy interests. The entire Republican energy policy is a single sentence:

We will fight to increase access to domestic energy sources and oppose attempts to impose a national “cap and trade” energy tax.

The Scam On America

With great fanfare, House Republicans unveiled their "Pledge to America" yesterday, a document comprised primarily of attacks on legislation passed under President Obama. "The 45-page booklet explaining the Pledge contains archaic fonts reminiscent of the founding texts," writes the Washington Post's Dana Milbank. "Yet for all the grandiosity, the document they released is small in its ambition." Further investigation of the final release -- once the attacks on an "arrogant and out-of-touch government of self-appointed elites" and the full-color photographs of the House Republican elite are overlooked -- reveals that the "2010 Republican Agenda" is little more than a re-affirmation of the "Party of No."Yesterday's Progress Report noted that the entire economic platform of the pledge is a return to Bush's tax cuts and spending levels, the failed policies that brought us the worst recession since the Great Depression. The promised combination of regressive tax cuts, deficit reduction, and new spending in the Pledge is "fuzzy Washington math," charges Newsweek's Ben Adler. Energy policy is dispatched in one sentence. The Republican plan on health care is to replace the Affordable Care Act with provisions from the Affordable Care Act. "The Pledge to America should have been called the Scam on America because it does nothing to help Americans," writes the Examiner's Maryann Tobin, "unless of course they are CEOs of big oil companies, drug companies, or Wall Street bankers." Conservatives found the document risible as well. "It is a series ofcompromises and milquetoast rhetorical flourishes in search of unanimity among House Republicans because the House GOP does not have the fortitude to lead boldly in opposition to Barack Obama," charged right-wing blogger and CNN contributor Erick Erickson. "We're not going to be any different than what we've been," House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said at the Pledge's revealing. "It's not even a sequel!" the Daily Show's Jon Stewart responded. "It's like a shot-by-shot remake."

Is The New GOP ‘Pledge’ A Way To Bring Ryan’s Radical Budget Plans In Through The Backdoor?

Today, House Republicans released their “Pledge to America,” a document styled after 1994’s Contract with America that the GOP claims is “an outline of the party’s targetsin the final weeks of the legislative session.” We’ve already explained how the Pledge promises to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act with portions of the Affordable Care Act and how it represents a blood oath to Big Oil, so let’s turn to another aspect: its effect on the deficit.

Of course, the Pledge includes a promise to extend all of the Bush tax cuts — including those for the richest two percent of Americans — for a total price tag of $4 trillion over the next decade, while laying out spending cuts that, even if the numbers are taken at face value, don’t come close to covering that cost. ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) — the ranking member of the House Budget Committee — to explain how the GOP can square its desire for huge, regressive tax cuts with its supposed commitment to deficit reduction:

Tea Party Backer David Koch Becomes Wealthiest New Yorker

New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg is no longer the wealthiest New Yorker according to Forbes Magazine. Tea party backer David Koch is now number one after his income soared from $16 billion to $21.5 billion in 2009. The New Yorker magazine recently revealed that David Koch and his brother Charles have quietly helped bankroll the tea party movement and dozens of other right-wing causes. The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer reported the Kochs are longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry—especially environmental regulation.

BLOCKING UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS

: Senate Democrats tried and failed on three separate occasions this month to pass a tax extenders bill that included an extension of expired unemployment benefits. Republicans, along with Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE), killed it by threatening a filibuster, potentially forcing states to cut 200,000 jobs, putting in jeopardy health and education programs, and denying benefits to 1.2 million out-of-work Americans. As a result, as Garofalo notes, Senate Democrats whittled the bill down to appease the GOP and "subjected more and more of the bill to spending offsets, ultimately leaving just the jobless benefits extension unpaid for." While Republicans still refused to budge, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) -- who joined the filibuster threat all three times -- is now advocating for a benefits-only bill, even if it adds to the deficit. "Of course, passing a stand-alone bill neglects all the other important provisions that were in the extenders bill, including COBRA subsidies to help laid-off workers purchase health insurance and aid to states to help them with their Medicaid bills," adds Garofalo. "Failing to pass such measures is only going to add to the economic misery that Snowe at least seems aware is occurring." There are currently 15 million Americans unemployed, and almost half of them have been out of work for at least six months -- a post-World War II record. The House plans to vote on extending unemployment benefits again today, after an attempt to do so was blocked by 139 Republicans and 16 Democrats yesterday.

News?

1. House Approves Financial Regulation Overhaul
2. GOP Continues Senate Filibuster of Unemployment Benefits
3. Senate Panel Votes to Remove Spill Liability Cap
4. BP Fined $5.2M for False Reporting on Colorado Leases
5. House Panel Votes to Undo Cuba Trade, Travel Restrictions
6. Puerto Rican Police Quash Protest at State Capitol
7. Israeli Peace Group Calls for New Flotilla Probe
8. Study: Media Stopped Calling Waterboarding "Torture" Following Its Disclosure as Routine U.S. Practice
9. ACLU Sues U.S. over No-Fly List
   
   

:Fucked.

Yesterday morning, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that corporations can spend freely in federal elections.

It's a green light for a new stampede of special interest money in our politics, giving their lobbyists even more power in Washington. Now, every candidate who fights for change could face limitless attacks from corporate special interests like health insurance companies and Wall Street banks.

While the GOP is celebrating a victory for its special interest allies, President Obama is working with leaders in Congress to craft a forceful response that protects the voices of ordinary citizens.

Semi-Bull shit link, Sorry