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Is a Koch Industries factory getting away with murder? While the brothers wage war against safety precautions, every day their factory is dumping millions of gallons of wastewater into streams that flow near a small rural town in Arkansas.

What if the Tea Party Occupied Wall Street?
Corporate media skip anti-corporate protests

In an action called Occupy Wall Street, thousands of activists took to the streets of Lower Manhattan on September 17. The protests are continuing, with demonstrators camped out on the Financial District’s Liberty Street in support of U.S. democratization and against corporate domination of politics (Adbusters, 9/19/11).
But you wouldn’t know much about any of this from the corporate media–outlets that seem much more interested in protests of the Tea Party variety. (more…)

If you’re uninsured and on the brink of death, that’s apparently a laughing matter to some audience members at last night’s tea party Republican presidential debate.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul, a doctor, was asked a hypothetical question by CNN host Wolf Blitzer about how society should respond if a healthy 30-year-old man who decided against buying health insurance suddenly goes into a coma and requires intensive care for six months. Paul–a fierce limited-government advocate– said it shouldn’t be the government’s responsibility. “That’s what freedom is all about, taking your own risks,” Paul said and was drowned out by audience applause as he added, “this whole idea that you have to prepare to take care of everybody …”

“Are you saying that society should just let him die?” Blitzer pressed Paul. And that’s when the audience got involved.
Several loud cheers of “yeah!” followed by laughter could be heard in the Expo Hall at the Florida State Fairgrounds in response to Blitzer’s question.
You can watch the exchange below via CNN–the clip begins at the 23:30 mark: (more…)

Matt Damon went on a populist hitting streak on Saturday, giving voice to progressive frustration simmering in the nation. Damon, as has been previously reported, spoke at the Save Our Schools March, and afterward, ripped both a reporter who challenged the notion of motivated teachers and a cameraman who insisted 10% of teachers are bad at their jobs. He also took to task Republicans, the Tea Party and what he called the lack of shared sacrifice in both the economy and the just-passed debt ceiling bill.

“I’m so disgusted,” he told a reporter about the protracted negotiations. “I mean, no, I don’t know what you do in the face of that kind of intransigence. So, my heart does go out to the President. He is dealing with a lot.”

Still, despite any sympathy, he was furious with the negotiations’ outcome, as well as the greater thrust of American economic policy. “The wealthy are paying less than they paid at any time else, certainly in my lifetime, and probably in the last century,” Damon said. “I don’t know what we were paying in the roaring 20′s; it’s criminal that so little is asked of people who are getting so much. I don’t mind paying more. I really don’t mind paying more taxes. I’d rather pay for taxes than cut ‘Reading is Fundamental’ or Head Start or some of these programs that are really helping kids. This is the greatest country in the world; is it really that much worse if you pay 6% more in taxes? Give me a break. Look at what you get for it: you get to be American.” (more…)

Poster’s Note: We’re definitely no fans of Christie on just about anything but props to him for speaking up on this one.

In the days following the 9-11 terrorist attacks, you may recall that over 1,000 Arabs and Muslims were detained by the FBI and other law enforcement in an effort to root out domestic terrorism. Of course, many detainees were not lawbreakers or even material witnesses. They were just American citizens living lawfully with the “wrong” skin tone, “wrong” religion — even the “wrong” facial hair.

Sohail Mohammed was a New Jersey immigration attorney representing some of these people, impressing many in the process — including the future Republican governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie. In January, Governor Christie nominated Mr. Mohammed to become the state’s first Indian-American Superior Court justice. He was sworn in last week.

In the time between his nomination and his swearing-in, Mr. Muhammad had accusations thrown his way, the same ones that have become all too common in conservative circles: allegations that he was a Muslim zealot who would impose Shariah law on New Jersey from the bench (insert panicked screams here).

Governor Christie gave a fiery response to such fears during a town hall last week:

Charles and David Koch are worth $42 billion and make $13 million every day while vulnerable Americans struggle to afford shelter and groceries. Meet three Florida seniors who rely on Social Security and are fighting back against the Koch brothers attempt to make them homeless. They told the Kochs what’s on their minds. What would you tell the Kochs? Have your say at http://kochbrothersexposed.com (more…)

Justice Thomas Accused of Possible Ethics Violations
Common Cause Investigation Uncovers Omissions Relating to Wife’s Earnings from Conservative Entities
Source: by AFRO Staff

Common Cause, a watchdog group that monitors government and industry, is raising questions about the ethics of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas over his failure to disclose income data for his wife Virginia, over a six-year period from 2003-2009.

“Common Cause is concerned about omissions in Justice Thomas’s annual financial disclosures,” said Common Cause President Bob Edgar. “… we discovered apparent gaps over seven years in Justice Thomas’s disclosures of his wife’s earnings.”

The day after the group raised questions about the conservative Black jurist’s ties to a right-wing industrial giant, they zeroed in Jan. 21 on compliance with Ethics in Government rules. Common Cause pointed out to the Judicial Conference of the United States, the nation’s court regulator, that Virginia Thomas’ earnings while at the Heritage Foundations, a conservative advocacy organization, were not reported from 2003 to 2007. During that period, Common Cause indicates that Thomas earned $686,589, a salary of $120,000 or greater each year. (more…)

The Tea Party of Tennessee wants to remove incidents of slavery and genocide from American textbooks for fear they would besmirch the image of the Founding Fathers:

The Memphis Commercial Appeal reports.

As a result, the Tea Party organizations argue, there should be “no portrayal of minority experience in the history which actually occurred shall obscure the experience or contributions of the Founding Fathers, or the majority of citizens, including those who reached positions of leadership.”

“The thing we need to focus on about the Founders is that, given the social structure of their time, they were revolutionaries who brought liberty into a world where it hadn’t existed, to everybody — not all equally instantly — and it was their progress that we need to look at,” Rounds explained of his interpretation of the legacy of the Founding Fathers.

The issue of revising curriculum to teach history in a manner that encourages the glossing over of the uglier factors of the past has popped up in other states over the past year.

TUCSON, Ariz. – Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was shot in the head Saturday by a gunman who opened fire outside a grocery store during a meeting with voters, killing a federal judge and five others in a rampage that rattled the country and left Americans questioning whether divisive politics had pushed the suspect over the edge.

Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said Giffords was the target of a gunman whom he described as mentally unstable and possibly acting along with an accomplice. He said Giffords was among 13 people wounded in the melee that killed six people, including Arizona’s chief federal judge, a 9-year-old girl and an aide for the Democratic lawmaker. He said the rampage ended only after two people tackled the gunman.

The sheriff pointed to the vitriolic political rhetoric that has consumed the country as he denounced the shooting that claimed several of his friends as victims, including U.S. District Judge John Roll. The judge celebrated Mass on Saturday morning like he does every day before stopping by to say hello to his good friend Giffords.

“When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous,” the sheriff said. “And unfortunately, Arizona I think has become the capital. We have become the mecca for prejudice and bigotry.” (more…)

House Republicans’ reading of the Constitution was interrupted Thursday by a woman who shouted “except Obama, except Obama” to the venerable document’s words on a U.S. citizen’s eligibility to be president.

Just as Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., was reading “no person, except a natural-born citizen, or a citizen of the United States” is eligible for the presidency, a woman in the visitor’s gallery yelled out that it did not apply to President Barack Obama.

Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, who was presiding over the House, banged the gavel and halted the proceedings, warning that such action from members of the public was a violation of House rules. The woman was quickly removed by Capitol police. (more …)

Meanwhile Howard Dean thinks:

- Former Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean today described the Tea Party movement as being fueled not only by economic concerns but also by discomfort with the nation’s growing diversity and the reality of an African-American president.

“I think it’s the last gasp of the 55-year-old generation,” he told reporters. “It’s a group of older folks who have seen their lives change dramatically … They don’t know what to do. It’s just a huge change. They never thought the day would ever come. Every morning they see the president they’re reminded that things are totally different than when they were born.”

“I don’t believe these people are racist,” he said. “I see it as an evolutionary thing of getting used to something that’s new and different and unsettling.”
(more …)

Mark Williams, the tea party leader who wrote a blog post this week calling the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) racist, has been “expelled” from the National Tea Party Federation.

Williams wrote the blog post on Thursday in response to the NAACP’s Tuesday declaration accusing the tea party movement of tolerating racist elements in its midst. It was written as an imaginary letter to President Abraham Lincoln and accused the NAACP of being racist for using the word “colored” in its name. When some reacted to it in outrage, Williams deleted it from his website, declaring it time to “move forward.” (more…)

Curious How many of these million members are non white? Curious as to how the secret service can keep an eye out on all of this?
Wonder how many people are there just out of curiosity and how many are serious?
A Facebook group accused of “praying” for the death of President Barack Obama has raised controversy online, with many calling for Facebook to remove the group as “offensive speech.”

The group, which lists its location as “Marysville, OH, 43040,” currently has over 1 million members–Facebook users who say they “like” the group. It includes an album of anti-Obama imagery uploaded by the group’s members–what Facebook labels “fan photos–that show the president against a communist flag, juxtaposed with insulting and derisive captions, or even a cartoon “associating Obama to Hitler.”

The group is called, “DEAR LORD, THIS YEAR YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE ACTOR, PATRICK SWAYZIE. YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE ACTRESS, FARAH FAWCETT. YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE SINGER, MICHAEL JACKSON. I JUST WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW, MY FAVORITE PRESIDENT IS BARACK OBAMA. AMEN.” (more…)