B4B News U Should Know


PATHETIC ! Be mindful of the GOP's well orchestrated, 'Never Again', strategic, master plan to destroy EVERY entity they FEEL helped get America's 1st Black President elected. First....ACORN...then the Unions...now AARP (and more). Further exemplifies the dangerous repercussions of handing The Power to the Evil Side (by listening to The Professional-whiny- Left....and not voting). SHAME !

Right Wing Congress to
Investigate AARP

Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON, D.C. – The powerful House Ways & Means Committee has asked the Internal Revenue Service to conduct a probe of the AARP, one of the nation’s largest and most powerful membership organizations. The committee released a new report, “Behind the Veil: The AARP America Doesn’t Know,” that charges the AARP with a conflict of interest between the interests of its members, its massive insurance business and its tax exempt status.

The committee report says that the AARP stands to make as much as $1 billion over the next decade because of the new health care law it helped push through Congress. The AARP spent $22 million lobbying Congress during the year-long health care fight. (read rest of article)

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BEWARE: Looks like she's finally being honest. Fact is...it never WAS a 'lefty' publication. To the contrary...it helped hand The Power to the Evil Side by de-energizing Dem voters. Time for Jane Hamsher at FDL to be honest too....with their non-stop 'teach Obama a lesson' ignorant, self-destructive rants. PLUS...keep I keen, mindful eye on MSNBC's Ed Schultz and the new guy Cenk Uyger as well as Adam Green (PCCC) who all have mastered the art of dissuading and de-energizing support through their regular " I was a strong supporter of The President.....BUT (then they fill-in the slam) !"....routine.

Arianna: The Huffington Post is not a
'lefty' Publication Anymore

(Raw Story) In a recent interview with The New York Times, Arianna Huffington revealed a bit of news that's not likely to show up on The Huffington Post's front page any time soon: the site is no longer "lefty" in its political bent.

That will likely come as a surprise to the massive audience of Democrats and liberals The Huffington Post has attracted over the years, who've turned the site into a powerful voice for progressive values and one of the largest online publications going.

Speaking to New York Times reporter Andrew Goldman, Huffington said that for the last three years she has been walking the post-partisan talk.

"The tag line that we’ve used a lot is 'Beyond left and right,'" she reportedly said.

The Times' writer fired back, suggesting that she was "trying to tell me that Smurfs aren’t blue" by claiming that The Huffington Post was not founded as a "lefty" publication.

"I’m just telling you that it is very clear that we have progressive views, but to call everything we’re doing lefty — it misses the whole point that American policy needs to be redefined beyond left and right," she reportedly said. "It’s a completely obsolete view of politics."

"Still, I’m amazed you’re trying to tell me that The Huffington Post wasn’t started as a lefty blog?" Goldman asked.

"I’m not trying to tell you anything," she reportedly replied. "I’m telling you things. I’m not trying, O.K.?"

The interviewer also claimed that "salacious," "boob-related" posts on Huffington's front page tend to get his clicks more than their original reporting -- a point Arianna said was "really a shame."

The published text of Huffington's interview was "condensed and edited," according to a tag below the piece.

Huffington has of late been feuding with Bill Keller, the Times' executive editor, who recently compared her business practices to "Somali piracy."

The Huffington Post has significantly more readers than The New York Times.

But in recent months Huffington has been under fire from liberals and progressives, namely due to AOL's announcement that it was purchasing the site and making Arianna the editor-in-chief of its new Huffington Post Media Group, under which all their editorial content now falls.

Some 900 of AOL's global employees were let go after the Huffington Post purchase, representing about 20 percent of its workforce. The majority were in back-office operations in India.

AOL reportedly paid $315 million for the site, sparking an outcry from a group of unpaid Huffington Post contributors who demanded to share in the proceeds. (read rest of article)

Knowledge is Power...
Pass It On !
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GET READY !
As we have been warning of for months....the actions in Wisconsin by the right-wing Governor exemplifies the GOP plot nationwide to crush unions...reduce employee pay forcing them to work for Chinese wages....with the ultimate goal being to bankrupt states...forcing massive layoffs....of which, then, 'privatization' (Halliburton & Co.) will 'come to the rescue' thru so-called private/gov't joint ventures which simply means the private co's will get the federal monies....and rehire all those layed-off at the Chinese wages. (B4B)

Wisconsin Protests
Governor's Plot to Crush Unions

(HuffPo) Wisconsin Democrats on Thursday fled the statehouse in an effort to prevent legislators from reaching a quorum and passing a bill put forth by Gov. Scott Walker (R), which would cripple the collective bargaining rights of public unions.

(Scroll down for the latest updates from Wisconsin)

The move produced a frantic political drama, as state troopers were reportedly sent out to find the fleeing lawmakers and Walker hinted that the National Guard would be called in to fill the void left by protesting union workers.

One Democratic senator told the Milwaukee-WIsconsin Journal Sentinel that most of the members of his caucus had already crossed state lines.

Their flight further heightened the drama that has surrounded the Wisconsin statehouse this week. On Wednesday there were an estimated 30,000 peacefully rallying in front of the state capitol building, and on Thursday that number is expected to be even higher.

Madison public schools are closed for the second day running, as teachers call in sick and students walk out.

Wisconsin is a stronghold of the labor movement -- the birthplace of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, one of the nation's largest labor unions -- with a long history of successful battles for workers' rights. This is part of the reason the pushback to Walker's bill has been so strong. It's also why, if the bill does pass, the precedent it sets for other conservative governors looking to go after collective bargaining rights is so powerful.
(read rest of article)

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GOP GAME PLAN TO GUT AMERICA
....BEGINS !

If their plan becomes law, it could lead to layoffs of tens of thousands
of federal employees, big cuts to heating and housing subsidies for the
poor, reduced grants to schools and law enforcement agencies. Also ahead....BEWARE of the GOP PLOT to bankrupt states to make pensions and union agreements null & void. All an orchestrated plot to lead to privatization of government entities while forcing workers to work for Chinese wages. Learn the plot...spread the word. (B4B)

They MUST BE STOPPED !

House Repubs Slash Domestic Programs

(HuffPo) WASHINGTON — Republicans now running the House are barely touching Congress' own generous budget even as they take a cleaver to many domestic agencies.

A new GOP proposal would reduce domestic agencies' spending by 9 percent on average through September, when the current budget year ends.

If that plan becomes law, it could lead to layoffs of tens of thousands of federal employees, big cuts to heating and housing subsidies for the poor, reduced grants to schools and law enforcement agencies, and a major hit to the Internal Revenue Service's budget.

Congress, on the other hand, would get nicked by only 2 percent, or $94 million.

Recent hefty increases to the congressional budget – engineered by Democrats when they held power in the House from 2007-2010 – would remain largely in place under a plan announced Thursday by the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky.

The plan, developed in close consultation with Republican Speaker John Boehner's office, would cut Congress' budget less than any other domestic spending bill, except for the one covering the Department of Homeland Security.

All 12 spending bills left unfinished by Democrats will go into a single, enormous measure that Republicans promise to bring up the week of Feb. 14.

"Charity begins at home, and Congress should lead the way with cuts to their own budget," said Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington-based watchdog group. "Instead they're protecting their bottom line while slashing everyone else's."

The cut to Congress gets a little deeper, to 3.5 percent, if it were imposed for a full calendar year instead of the seven months that will remain in the current budget year. But so, too, would the cuts to other agencies – growing to 16 percent. (read rest of article)

RELATED ARTICLE:
State Bankruptcy Weighed by Republicans
Blocking State Aid

(Bloomberg) Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives, emboldened by the majority they won in November elections, want to send a message to U.S. states grappling with soaring pension liabilities: Don’t come to us for a handout.

A broader option, being pressed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a potential presidential candidate in 2012, would be to change U.S. law to allow states to file for bankruptcy, giving them more leverage to renegotiate labor contracts.

Closing the door to U.S. aid may further stress states facing more than $140 billion in budget deficits next fiscal year, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington research group. Fewer than half of their pensions had assets to pay for 80 percent of promised benefits in the 2009 fiscal year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. States now face the end to federal stimulus payments granted two years ago to help them cope with the deepest recession in 80 years.

“We are not interested in a bailout,” Representative Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican and chairman of the House Budget Committee, said at a Jan. 6 forum in Washington.

“Should taxpayers in Indiana, who have paid their bills on time, who have done their job fiscally, be bailing out Californians, who haven’t?” he said. “No, that’s a moral hazard we are not interested in creating.”

Representative Devin Nunes of California introduced the Public Employee Pension Transparency Act last month, co- sponsored by Ryan and Darrell Issa of California. It requires more reporting from state and local pensions and prohibits federal bailouts of states.

Congressional Shift

It’s a shift from the previous Congress, where a Democratic majority in both houses passed the $814 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009 to aid states as the recession choked their tax collections.

“We’re going to look at state and municipal budget issues, their unfunded and underfunded pension liabilities as well as the impact defaults and bankruptcies of municipalities would have on the bond market,” Representative Patrick McHenry, 35, a North Carolina Republican and chairman of the newly formed TARP, Financial Services and Bailouts of Public and Private Programs subcommittee, said in a Jan. 12 telephone interview.

Utah Representative Jason Chaffetz said Republicans have contacted bankruptcy attorneys to discuss ways to change the law to allow states to restructure financial obligations such as debts to retirees. He said it hasn’t been decided whether that would mean allowing states to file for bankruptcy.

Chaffetz said he proposed legislation to oppose federal bailouts of pensions.(read rest of article)

HELP EXPOSE THE GOP PLOT....
(since the media won't)

IT'S WAKE UP TIME !
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Next Step for Health Care Reform ?
As I had reported a while back (and many disputed)
Get Ready for some PING-PONG !
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Dems Will Bypass Conference Committee
To Get Health Care Passed

Article by Sam Stein

HuffPo

Both chambers of Congress will skip a formal "conference committee" and instead negotiate informally on their respective health care bills, confirm Congressional aides and sources outside of government.

In what one health care reform activist calls a "quasi ping-pong" strategy, House and Senate leaders will each have a set of negotiators bounce variations of health care legislation back and forth until the disagreements between the two chambers are hammered out.

"Absent a stunning turn of events, it's true," said one Senate aide. "All of the motions that we need to go into conference with the House are amendable and debatable."

The basis for negotiations will be the Senate bill (which lacks a public option for insurance coverage and contains a tax on expensive health care plans), to which the House can add amendments.

"It doesn't preclude us from making major changes," explained one House Democratic aide. "We would basically be voting on the 'amendment'. But the amendment wouldn't be a two-page bill. It could be the entire bill itself." The House will hold a caucus meeting this week (with out-of-town members calling in over the phone) to begin discussing priorities for these negotiations.

The decision to skip formal conference negotiations -- which was first reported by The New Republic's Jonathan Cohn -- is not, it should be noted, the rarest of parliamentary maneuvers. Hill aides say it often happens with major or contentious pieces of legislation (though not apparently in this current Congress). "This is what we normally do," said one Hill aide, "it is pretty standard."

The goal, in the end, is to expedite the congressional process by keeping it removed from Republican procedural shenanigans. By skipping a formal conference committee, for example, Democrats can avoid dealing with motions to recommit on contentious issues (whether they be Medicare cuts, late-life consultation, abortion or anything else). This, in turn, provides a narrower window for the GOP to turn the bill into a series of wedge issues and means that there is less of a potential for moderate and conservative Democrats to grow skittish about supporting the legislation.

There are ample opportunities for Republican leadership to draw out the legislative process if it goes to conference committee. The Congressional Research Service, in a report published in April 2003, identified three steps that the Congress has to take simply to send a bill to conference.
READ REST OF ARTICLE

Getting It Done !

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Bill Clinton Keys Obama's Car
From Andy Borowitz (Huffington Post)

In what political observers called a shocking display of anger from a former President of the United States, Bill Clinton today keyed the car of Illinois Senator Barack Obama.
Mr. Clinton's attacks on Senator Obama have become more scathing in recent days, but few Democratic insiders expected his rhetorical attacks to turn into outright vandalism.
That is precisely what happened, however, in the parking lot of a Dunkin' Donuts in Nashua, New Hampshire, where Mr. Obama and his aides had stopped for an early morning campaign appearance.

Spotting the Illinois senator's car in the lot, a wild-eyed Mr. Clinton pulled out his key ring and "started twirling it on his finger like a six-shooter," according to one eyewitness.
Saying he was "damned sick and tired" of everything going Mr. Obama's way, the former President dragged his keys across the length of the senator's car, creating a deep gash in the paint job that experts said would cost hundreds of dollars to repair.
As news of Mr. Clinton's attack on Mr. Obama's automobile spread like wildfire across New Hampshire, political insiders branded the former president's move as a tactical mistake that could turn off Democratic voters.

"Keying another candidate's car is really beneath the dignity of a former President of the United States," said Carol M. Foyler, a longtime media advisor to Democratic candidates. "That's the kind of thing you want surrogates to do."
For his part, Mr. Clinton was unrepentant, telling reporters "you ain't seen nothing yet."
"Where does he live?" Mr. Clinton shouted at the press corps. "I'ma go TP that bastard's house."

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