Category: Politics As Usual

Rahm Emanuel Is Sending Rich, Dumb Dems To Christie

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

From Down With Tyranny’s Howie Klein:

Frank Lautenberg died Sunday night. He was, at 89 the oldest member of the Senate, had been ill for a long time and his death doesn’t surprise many. Now Obama’s BBF, Gov. Chris Christie gets to appoint a successor. Lautenberg was a dependable progressive across the board. His ProgressivePunch crucial vote score was 94.05, just between Barbara Boxer and Tammy Baldwin. Although, like many of his wealthy liberal colleagues, he sometimes joined with the Republicans to pass corporate-friendly policies, there were no issues he wasn’t one of the best in the Senate on. Christie is not likely to pick someone nearly as good– on any issues.

Today is primary day in New Jersey, although neither Republican incumbent Christie nor Democratic challenger Barbara Buono has any real competition. Buono’s problem is that– largely thanks to Obama and a superficial media– Christie has an undeserved reputation as a moderate. His record is that of a hard core right-winger, far out of step with most New Jersey voters. Buono has been having a hard time raising money and Christie is busy defining her before she can define herself. So far Christie has raised $6.6 million and Buono has raised $2.3 million. The Newark Star-Ledgerreported yesterday that Christie has been reaping a great deal of money from Democrats, many sent his way by Rahm Emanuel, a conservative with many of the same pro-Wall Street policy agendas as Christie. I know it isn’t politically correct to say “retarded,” but that’s probably the best way to describe the “Democrats” writing big checks to Christie.

Christie’s partnership with New Jersey [super-corrupt] Democratic leaders and his warm relationship with Obama after Hurricane Sandy could be enticing donors who don’t often give to GOP candidates, even if they are closer ideologically to Democrat Barbara Buono, Christie’s lesser-known challenger, political scientists and Democratic fundraisers say.

“While I do not agree with his stance on every issue, he is one of the best political leaders I have talked to in a long time,” said Ken Rosen, a UC-Berkeley professor who cut a $3,800 check to Christie after chatting with him at two events. “He is willing to take on tough issues such as pension reform, education reform, mental-health issues, even if his views are not politically correct.”

…Tim Mullen, a Chicago investor who gave more than $100,000 to Emanuel’s campaign for mayor in 2011 and bundled from $200,000 to $500,000 for Obama in 2008, has also sent Christie a maximum donation, as has his wife Alice. Mullen was already a Christie donor in 2009, state records show.
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Ugh

~ susie ~ 3 Comments

I don’t understand why so many NJ voters think Chris Christie is some kind of moderate. He isn’t. He just plays one on TV:

In 2010, Christie eliminated $7.4 million in his very first budget for basic reproductive healthcare services. This money included life-saving cancer screenings, pap tests and breast health services. In 2009, these funds helped over 136,000 patients. Last year, New Jersey’s family planning providers saw at least 33,000 fewer people – a 24% drop. On Christie’s watch, six such centers have closed due to state cuts. Some patients immediately lost services and didn’t have access to other providers. Others experienced longer wait times or were forced to pay more out-of-pocket. The number of clinical breast exams alone performed at these providers fell from 70,506 in 2009 to 48,441 in 2012 – a 31% plunge.

Christie has since vetoed attempts to restore women’s health funding…four times. He claimed the state was broke. But just don’t look too close into the palm of Christie’s hand – as he protects a tax break for multi-millionaires, doles out over $2 billion in corporate subsidies and proposed $540 million in business tax cuts. It’s clear where his priorities lie, and it’s not with the women and families of New Jersey.

Rather than reflect Jersey values, Christie is firmly in line with the most severe fringe on women’s rights. He’s the state’s first governor to oppose abortion rights since Roe v. Wade, and was the first to ever speak at Trenton’s annual pro-life rally. It’s no surprise Christie defunded Planned Parenthood and hopscotched the country supporting extremist Republican candidates who would outlaw abortion in the cases of rape and incest. In fact, he endorsed a North Dakota Senate candidate who voted to make it a felony to perform an abortion.

It isn’t only health where Christie fails to have women’s best interests at heart. He’s also trying to buttress the glass ceiling with cement. Christie vetoed legislation making it illegal for companies to pay women less for the same work as their male counterparts. He even supported allowing this discrimination at companies hired by the state with New Jerseyans’ hard-earned tax dollars. Apparently, Christie simply doesn’t believe in equal pay for equal work.

Breadwinners and vixens…

~ Boohunney ~ 8 Comments

Last week Fox News commentators expressed their concern with the breakdown of American society due to 40% of households having a female breadwinner. The conclusion was this is tearing at the warp and weave of the American family.

Daniel Bergner wrote an article in New York Magazine (May 22) last month about researching, case studies and trials of a female Viagra. There are some researchers concerned about creating sexually “overly aggressive” women with the development of a “female Viagra.”

Journalist Daniel Bergner, whose story on the still-being-developed wonder drug was published last week in the New York Times Magazine, says researchers worry about creating an orgasm-hungry nympho. Yeah, the author expressed surprise at that, too.

So drug companies may actually temper the potency of these easy-to-swallow menthol-flavored passion-stimulants, lest these crazy sex-having females have, you know, crazy amounts of sex. Whenever they feel like it, which would, presumably, be way more often…

Page eight of the article quotes Andrew Goldstein, a researcher on the drug, has some concerns about women and this soon to be available drug…

You want your effects to be good but not too good, there was a lot of discussion about it by the experts in the room … the need to show that you’re not turning women into nymphomaniacs. There’s a bias against — a fear of creating the sexually aggressive woman.

***Giggle***Snort***   REALLY? Oh, my! You perceive that as a problem?

The image of the perfect woman on teevee when I was a young adult was a breadwinner and vixen.

What happened?

Gee

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

I wonder how that got there?

WASHINGTON — Japan has suspended some imports of U.S. wheat after genetically engineered wheat was found on an Oregon farm.

The Agriculture Department announced the discovery of the modified wheat on Wednesday. No genetically engineered wheat has been approved for U.S. farming.

Japan is one of the largest export markets for U.S. wheat growers. Katsuhiro Saka, a counselor at the Japanese Embassy in Washington, said Thursday that Japan had canceled orders of western white wheat from the Pacific Northwest and also of some feed-grade wheat. He said the country was waiting for more information from the Agriculture Department as it investigates the discovery.

“In most countries the unapproved genetically modified wheat would be a target of concern,” Saka said. “The Japanese people have similar kinds of concerns.”

USDA officials said the wheat was the same strain as a genetically modified wheat that was designed to be herbicide-resistant and was legally tested by seed giant Monsanto a decade ago but never approved. Monsanto stopped testing that product in Oregon and several other states in 2005.
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The high cost of incarcerating the high

~ susie ~ 3 Comments

This really is incredibly stupid and pointless:

NEW YORK — American taxpayers could spend upwards of $1.2 million over the next decade imprisoning Jerry Duval, a Michigan medical marijuana patient who was convicted of distributing the drug.

Duval has a kidney and pancreas transplant, as well as glaucoma and neuropathy. His family grew marijuana on his Michigan farm in part to treat his ailments. But when the Department of Justice prosecuted him in federal court, Duval was barred from presenting evidence of his compliance with Michigan’s medical marijuana law. He will report to prison on June 11.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons initially told Duval he would have to serve out his 10-year sentence in a prison that lacked specialized medical facilities but then relented after an outcry from marijuana reform advocates. He will now serve his time at the Federal Medical Center in Devens, Mass. — the same facility where Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is being held because of injuries he sustained during his apprehension.

According to Bureau of Prisons estimates, on average the annual cost of a stay in a federal medical center prison works out to $51,420. After support costs are included, the total comes to about $157.74 per day per prisoner.

But Duval believes he is no ordinary prisoner, even for a medical center prison. In a request to the Bureau of Prisons’ compassionate release program he made in a letter on Tuesday, he estimated that preserving his kidneys and pancreas alone costs more than $100,000 annually. All told, he writes, keeping him out of prison would save the federal taxpayer $1.2 million over 10 years.