Emma Berry

17 Billion Dollars of Our Tax Dollars!

Our “representatives” in Congress hand  out  taxpayer subsidies to profitable corporations including ADM, Cargill and Monsanto that are pocketing tens of billions in taxpayer dollars and turning subsidized crops like corn into junk food ingredients like high fructose corn syrup. It’s all the more outrageous at a time when one in three kids is overweight or obese, and obesity-related diseases like diabetes are turning into an epidemic.

THEY ALL MUST GO IN 2012!

GO HERE TO STOP THIS RIDICULOUS WASTE OF OUR TAX DOLLARS!

Comments on the Last 2012 Florida Debate

OOPS!   There goes another Republican myth! They don’t balance the budget.  They just claim they balance the budget!  They rob social security and the working class to make it appear as if they balance the budget.

Last night we learned what the Republicans REALLY mean when they say they “balanced” the budget.  They mean they took money out of Social Security–a fully funded entitlement by the American workers that should be hands off.   Anything but making the investor class pay a fair percentage of income tax–that the way of the investor class, Democrats and Republicans alike who are currently in Washington DC.

In spite of his other short-comings, the American people owe Ron Paul a cheer for calling the public’s attention to what Gingrich really meant when he said he “balanced” the budget.

Newt has been claiming that he “balanced the budget four times when he was Speaker.  Ron Paul pointed out last night that Gingrich didn’t balance the budget.  What the Republicans did was to take money out of Social Security.  Borrowing money is not balancing a budget.  Ron Paul even attacked the party’s sacred cow–Ronald Reagan whose administration did the same thing.

Ron Paul pointed out that the national debt during those four years Newt brags about actually went up about a trillion dollars. He pointed out that Gingrich doesn’t count the money he took out of Social Security.  Paul said. “So neither Reagan nor you had a truly balanced budget, because the national debt goes up and that’s what we pay the interest on.”

Gingrich responded: “Under the system that was used, we were $405 billion in balance.”  [What a lying weasel.]

At this point, the audience booed Gingrich.  Good!  I’m glad the point wasn’t missed on them.

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It’s not just the Republican brand that’s coming apart at the seams!

THEY ALL MUST GO!   WASHINGTON ENTRENCHED DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS ALIKE! Vote for anyone but a Democrat or a Republican in 2012.

If you are thinking that this is all about the Republicans, it is not.  The Washington leadership of BOTH parties are to blame!  Many of the same jackasses who were in Congress when Gingrich was in Congress and robbing Social Security are still there today.  In case you have forgotten, Bill Clinton, the president who turned the American people over to the Wall Street financial institutions was the guy in charge of balancing the budget.  Clinton worked hand in glove with Gingrich on that one.

If you will remember the ‘bipartisan’ Deficit Commission that President Obama appointed to reduce the deficit, you will remember that the first thing those jackasses went after was Social Security. You will realize that the more things “change” with the entrenched investor class, the more things remain the same.

Deficits are created by budget items–things that we purchase like war munitions for example.  Social Security is not a budget item because it is a totally funded and self-sustaining program.  But that didn’t stop the investor class a-holes who were hand-selected by President Obama from going after Social Security the first thing.  Social Security as a fully funded program was not even in the scope of this group’s discussions.  If  Obama were a leader, he would have pointed that out to the committee instead of giving them free reign to ride rough shod over the American people with his silence.

BUT FOR NOW FLORIDIANS:  VOTE FOR GINGRICH TO KEEP THE CONVERSATION GOING FOR AMERICA!  This is the best education the American people have ever had regarding the criminal behavior of BOTH parties.

Note on Social Security and the investor class.  Since they robbed the coffers of the working class, they should be required to return that money and here is how:

ALL Americans should pay Social Security tax on all of the income.  Currently only the majority of Americans, those of us who earn less than $106,000 a year are required to pay Social Security on 100% of our income.  Any American earning more than $106,000 doesn’t pay a cent of social security tax on amounts earned above that.

In other words, the members of the US Congress don’t pay Social Security taxes on at least half of their annual incomes.

It’s time for us to start refereeing them!

On January 24, hundreds of Americans, dressed in referee shirts descended on the nation’s Capitol, blowing whistles like crazy and throwing penalty flags. The final stop of the day was the American Petroleum Institute.

What was the result? Senator Bernie Sanders announced at the demonstration that he’s introducing a bill to remove all the subsidies from the fossil fuel industry. And  Barack Obama, eight hours later in his State of the Union address, joined us to demand that handouts to the world’s richest companies stop.

for those of you with representatives who have been taking lots of oil money and then voting for handouts for oil companies, then the task is clear — they need to hear from some refs. For those of you with representatives who are doing what’s right already, get in touch with us – I’m sure there is some other elected official nearby who needs to hear from some refs.

To sign up to lead an action to blow the whistle on Congress, click here.

Even five or ten of you can form a “referee squad.” All you need are shirts and whistles (and maybe some strips of cloth to throw as penalty flags!) — and you need some knowledge: how much money did your Congressperson or Senator take from the fossil fuel industry. The 350.org organizers are ready to help you with the supplies, and information on your representatives is available here.

(Note: these suggestions and photo are taken from an email I received from Bill McKibben this morning.)

TWINS SEPARATED AT BIRTH?*

In addition to an exaggerated sense of self-worth, they are both Quitters who chose Personal Profit over Service

Gingrich cares more about making money than he cares about serving the people.  In that aspect he is a Sarah Palin junior. In 1998 Republicans lost five seats in the House in the 1998 elections—the worst midterm performance in 64 years for a party that didn’t hold the presidency. Polls showed that the attempt to remove President Clinton from office, by Gingrich and the Republican Party, was deeply unpopular among voters. (Considering their campaign these last three years against President Obama, it doesn’t look like they have learned anything.  But  President Obama has his own unpopularity issues to deal with.)

Gingrich suffered much of the blame for the election loss. Facing a rebellion in the Republican caucus, he announced on November 5, 1998, that he would not only stand down as Speaker, but would leave the House as well.  Gingrich made this announcement only a day after being elected to an 11th term from his district. Commenting on his departure, Gingrich said, “I’m willing to lead but I’m not willing to preside over people who are cannibals.

Sarah Palin, was elected Governor of Alaska in 2006.  In July of  2009, 18 months before the end of her term as governor, she left office.  It was a great choice for her in terms of personal profit.  Palin’s salary as governor of Alaska was $68,000 a year.  It’s not likely that she would have been re-elected in 2010.  Palin would have been forgotten by the end of 2010 had she stayed in Alaska.  Her total earnings for that time period from the state of Alaska would have been about $102,000.  Sarah Palin’s net worth in 2011 was reported at $14million.  There is no way that Palin could have stayed down on the farm in Alaska with the people who elected her to serve them and garnered that kind of money.

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*The difference in their years would explain a lot in regard to the younger twin–what with oxygen deprivation from having been in the birth canal for 21 years.

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PREDICTION:

In the coming days in Florida, the Romney Campaign will launch attacks against Gingrich labeling him as a “quitter.”  No one hates a quitter worse than a Republican–regardless how deep the rut.

An IlWQ Pie Hole Award for Newt Gingrich

Shades of racist Ronald Reagan’s lies about his fake Black Welfare Queen!

The Conservatives and all Americans who give a damn about human decency need to be reminded that Ronald Reagan’s Black Welfare Queen was no more real than the Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq were real–both are just big whoppers brought to us by conservatives ideologues that ended up harming millions of people–most of them women and children.  Newt Gingrich and all the conservative talk show hosts who are jumping on the bandwagon of calling President Obama the Food stamp president are no better than racist thugs who are obviously more interested in proving their racist theories and stirring up racist hatred among the ignorant than they care about telling the truth.  Anything goes to deflect the heat from their own greedy asses.

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HERE IS THE TRUTH

1.  Obama is NOT the Food Stamp President. George Bush is.

FACT: During Bush’s Presidency 14.7 million NEW people were put on Food Stamps.   During President Obama’s presidency 14.2 million people are on food stamps and not all of them are new. To listen to Newt Gingrich you would think that Obama’s plan is to put poor people on food stamps.  That’s a lie–a damned lie.
[WXIA 11 Alive News in Atlanta has checked the facts: "The highest in history so far is President George W. Bush. The number of food stamp recipients grew to nearly 14.7 million while he was in office." That's 500,000 higher than the peak under President Obama.]

2. Even though the Depression/Recession has proportionally affected a larger portion of the Black population than the White population, more white people are on Food Stamps than Black People. [Note: According to CNN Money, Black unemployment soared to 16.7% in August of 2011--about twice the rate of the national average.]

But when asked what he would do about the food stamp issue, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said yesterday he is willing to go before the NAACP and urge blacks to demand paychecks instead of food stamps. He didn’t say he would go before the white people–even though it is the majority of them who are on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)–not black people.

But here are some more even sadder facts:  47% of all Americans on food stamps are children. But I guess coming from the leader of a party who took away hot lunch programs for children during Reagan’s presidency we shouldn’t expect any empathy from a bunch who don’t give a damn if children go hungry.

3. On the topic of telling poor people to “demand paychecks”, here is yet another salient fact that is ignored by Gingrich and his gang:

Most of the people on SNAP do work.  They are members of the working poor

(And the program is not called “food stamps” any more.  The program is officially called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [SNAP].)

Most of the people on SNAP do work–However, they are not paid a living wage.  Getting a paycheck is not enough.  You must earn a paycheck that is sufficient to put a roof over one’s head and feed ones family.  But this is NOT going to happen as long as the investor class are allowed to take more than their fair share from the paychecks of the 77%–those of us who live from paycheck to paycheck.

Two parts that Gingrich and the conservative talk show hosts over look:

1.  First there have to be jobs.
2.  Second, these jobs must pay a living wage.

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These conservatives love to bash European nations. but the truth is that if you work in Europe you are paid enough money to support yourself and your family.  This is not true in the USA.  Just ask all the part-time workers–another corporate scheme to keep labor costs down.  Don’t hire full time workers.  Then you don’t have to pay them benefits and a living wage–more money for the investor class like Gingrich, Romney, the conservative talk show hosts and the majority of the U.S. Congress.

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A Job in the USA is no Guarantee of a Living Wage

Just because you work in the USA, it is no guarantee that you can earn enough money to support yourself, much less a family.  There is a minor detail called “living wages.”

Conservatives like Romney and Gingrich love to bash European nations for their “socialism.”  However, not only are poverty rates lower in all western European countries  than in the USA, they all have fewer working poor than we do.

Consider Pete Sessions Comments shortly after the passage of the three Trade Agreements this fall.

“I applaud the House’s approval of three job-creating agreements that will stimulate our economy by allowing manufacturers to expand their exports of American-made goods with important trading partners. Now more than ever, our economy needs this kind of growth.

“Eliminating trade barriers through these FTAs will place the United States on a level playing field with our foreign competitors and boost the creation of much-needed jobs across the country and North Texas.  According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, exports directly support 467, 305 jobs in Texas – including 64,881 jobs in the 32nd Congressional District.  With unemployment 9.1 percent nationally and 8.5 percent in Texas, passage of these long-pending trade agreements that could create approximately 250,000 new jobs is welcome news.”

Pete Sessions

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The hyperbole has grown.  Here are the key words to Mr. Sessions statement:  ”According to the  U.S. Chamber of Commerce. . .”  NOTE:  The Chamber of Commerce sent around a Key Vote Letter Supporting H.R. 3078, 3079, 3080 and 2832 to all members of Congress prior to their vote on these trade agreements in October of 2011.  Included in their coercive attempt to influence Congress, was this unsubstantiated claim that all three trade agreements would create 250,000 jobs for Americans. (Do members of Congress even ask about sources any more? The fact is that many of them don’t think either. They just accept the propaganda and disinformation that corporate owned media feed them without even questioning it.)

Now just two months later, Pete Sessions is telling us that the Korean Free Trade Agreement will support (a weasel word that does not mean the same as “create”) 467, 305 jobs in Texas alone – including 64,881 jobs in the 32nd Congressional District. Notice he does not say that it will create jobs but if you do not read carefully, you are left with the impression that the trade agreements will create half a million job and 64,811 in the 32nd District.  That’s a bold-faced piece of disinformation, if not an outright lie. False promises of empty hope that will never come to fruition. Sounds good, though, doesn’t it?

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At least part of the source that Mr. Sessions used to build on came from from a Key Vote Letter Supporting H.R. 3078, 3079, 3080 and 2832 that the Chamber of Commerce sent to all members of Congress prior to their vote on these trade agreements.  Included in their coercive attempt to influence Congress, was this unsubstantiated claim that all three trade agreements would create 250,000 jobs for Americans.

The truth is that not only did Pete Sessions greatly embroider the hyperbole, those statements even in their original form from the Chamber of Commerce were a total fabrication–a massive hyperbole, pure propaganda issued forth from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce–an organization that many Americans today are beginning to realize is not on the side of Main Street and the 99%.  Like Congress, they are representatives of the multilevel marketing scheme called “Wall Street.”

Elected officials like Pete Sessions voted (just with the Korean Trade Agreement alone) to approve sending 159,000 American jobs overseas and to raise the deficit $16 billion dollars.  Furthermore they all had this information before they cast their votes.  They knew what they were doing and they didn’t give a damn.  They did it because, as Wall Street investors, this trade agreement means more money in their pockets.  The Economic Policy Institute (a source a great deal more reliable than the Chamber of Commerce) estimates that the agreement with Korea, which is expected to be the largest trade deal since NAFTA, will increase the US trade deficit by $16.7 billion and displace 159,000 US jobs within the first seven years after it takes effect.

U.S. Job Creation from the Korean Free Trade Agreement is about as likely as it was from NAFTA. Learn from history folks–not the hyperbole BS that politicians like Pete Sessions feeds you.

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Here is the Final Kicker:  Even if the BS were true, it is still not good enough.

Let’s just say purely for the sake of argument here that these trade agreements actually did, over a period five to seven years create 250,000 jobs for Americans.

SO WHAT!  We need people in Washington who can do better than that.  We have over 14 million people who are currently out of work.  250,000 new jobs over a period of five to seven years is not even enough to keep people’s heads

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Translation of Pete Sessions statement regarding the Trade Agreements into Plain English:

No, the three trade agreements will not create 467, 305 jobs in Texas.

No, the three trade agreements will not create 64,881 jobs in the 32nd Congressional District.

As a matter of fact, the three trade agreements will likely not create a single job in the State of Texas.

It is much more likely that these three trade agreement will, as the The Economic Policy Institute tells us, kill hundreds of thousands of more jobs.

When multimillionaire members of Congress like Harry Reid, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell or even the President himself speak of “shared sacrifice”, they are not talking about themselves “sharing” any sacrifice.  To simplify things, I’ve drawn a picture of what they mean, using the model for the US economy as a pyramid scheme as the base of this illustration.  Believe me folks, no elected official in Congress is sacrificing a darn  thing.  However, I would like to see Americans vote in a real sacrifice for them in 2012 by voting them out of office and replacing them with citizens like yourselves. That’s my American Dream. Won’t you help me realize it by running for office as an Independent?  Here is a free guide to help you get started. You can do it.  I know you can.  To misquote Goethe on purpose:  ”If I can dream it, you can do it!”

[Note:  All numbers below the 20% marker on the diagram below represent the 80% of us who earn less than $100,000 a year.]

And the best that our millionaire Congress can do to raise money is to cut the meager benefits to those in our society who have the least?

F THE MILLIONAIRE CONGRESS!  VOTE THEM ALL OUT I N 2012!

The day before 9/11 Rumsfeld declared war on the Pentagon.  At that time and still today $2.3 trillion cannot be accounted for.  After 9/11 trillions more has been thrown to the pentagon.  And the best that our lame Congress can do is argue about a Debt Ceiling for 7 months?  Then their proposed solution is to cut benefits for those in our society who can least afford it.  We need a huge change in Washington DC,  Kick all their asses out!