Scott Walker Backs Down, Rescinds $500,000 Grant

An e-mail sent to me by The Center for Media and Democracy 
September 6, 2013
CONTACT: Nikolina Lazic, nikolina@prwatch.org

Scott Walker Backs Down, Rescinds $500,000 Grant

Last week, CMD reported that a small GOP lobby shop tied to the Tea Party and David Koch's Americans for Prosperity group was awarded a $500,000 grant in a backdoor, sweetheart deal cooked up by ALEC leadership in the State Legislature and sanctioned by the Walker administration.
The United Sportsmen of Wisconsin Foundation was the only applicant for a newly-created grant to promote hunting, fishing, and trapping in the state, despite the organization having no record in outdoors training. The organization does have a record of lobbying on extreme gun measures, controversial mines, and other GOP priorities. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that the grant was slipped into the budget bill by outgoing Majority Leader Scott Suder with terms that excluded most sporting groups in the state. The grant was not properly advertised, conveniently leaving United Sportsmen as the sole applicant.
CMD documented Suder’s ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council and the extensive ties United Sportsmen staff had to the Kochs and the Tea Party, plus their history of partisan electoral politics in the state. Listed as “educators” on the grant were Americans for Prosperity's Luke Hilgemann, Sauk County Tea Party leader John Keegan, and Annette Olson, Americans for Prosperity "Activist of the Year" for 2012. CMD uncovered that the web domain for the group was registered by an Americans for Prosperity-Wisconsin staffer named John Connors.
We sent out an alert prompting almost 1,000 Wisconsinites to contact the committee overnight. The United Sportsmen representative couldn’t be bothered to show up at last week’s committee hearing (joining by phone) and couldn’t answer basic questions, prompting one committee member to say that the "whole deal just doesn't smell right.” One Wisconsin Now uncovered a loophole in the bill regarding the group's tax status and later United Sportsmen apologized for misleading legislators into thinking it was a tax-exempt charity.
Thanks to these efforts and yours, Scott Walker is backing down and rescinding the grant, showing that even in the land of the shameless, the people can sometimes win.

The TRUTH about The Keystone XL Pipeline - A Bad Deal for America

 

 The TRUTH about the Keystone Pipeline is that it is a BAD Deal for America

 

(from KeystoneTruth.com by Tom Steyer, an American Investor)

 

 Chapter One: Who Profits From The Keystone Pipeline? (Here's a Hint, it's NOT America)

 

TransCanada’s pipeline will pump oil through America, but not to America. It will make up to $4 billion in profits for foreign oil companies and drive foreign economies, but do nothing for ours. That’s the truth about Keystone. At every economic level, it is a bad deal for our country.

The Keystone pipeline will cause higher gas prices, only create a handful of jobs, and create billions in profit for the oil companies. By the way, the oil will be refined here and be shipped overseas to places like China, the oil is not going to come to America, it's going to go THROUGH America.

Go to this site www.KeystoneTruth.com and watch part one "Who Profits From The Keystone Pipeline? (Here's a Hint, it's NOT America")   and decide for yourself. They are looking at the Keystone pipeline over the next four weeks. See the TRUE information about why the Keystone pipeline is BAD for America. Then contact your Representatives in Congress and the Senate and tell them that this is UNACCEPTABLE for America.

Oil Truth Part 2:

 After watching the first video you will see a number of videos on a grid, hover over each video until you see "Oil Truth Part 2." You will see how the Tar Sands oil will come through six states to get to one of the largest oil refineries in the country. The refinery is owned by Shell Oil and a Saudi Arabian company, the refinery is located in Port Arthur, Texas, on the Gulf of Mexico. These companies will make $4 Billion dollars but some of the claims made in this video are outright lies! For example you will see claims that America will get 1 Million barrels a day of oil, that "we desperately need," only problem? America will NOT be getting this oil, it will be refined and shipped overseas to China and other countries! You will see Newt Gingrich state how it's important for lots of well-paying permanent jobs when in fact, once the pipeline is operational, only approximately 50 permanent jobs will be created. An independent study by Cornell University states that the pipeline will only create 2500-4650 construction jobs as opposed to Newt Gingrich's "20,000-50,000 construction jobs. The study also explains how gas prices will go up, not down.It is said in this video that "America can't afford to turn down a million barrels a day of oil" and that this will "lower gas prices," BULLSHIT! Once again, America will NOT be getting the oil, it will be refined and shipped overseas. The video then goes on to explain how the tar sands devastate the environment. This is indisputable. The proof can be seen in this video.

The pipeline is BAD for America so why do these politicians fight for building it? Easy, being on the right committees gets the politicians a LOT of money from the oil industry lobbyist! That's a fact NO ONE CAN DISPUTE!

CONTACT YOUR CONGRESSMAN AND SENATORS TODAY! TELL THEM THE OIL CO0MPANIES MAKING ANOTHER $4 BILLION DOLLARS WHILE OUR GAS PRICES GO UP, AND OUR ENVIRONMENT IS DEVASTATED IS NOT WHAT AMERICA NEEDS!

GET INVOLVED FOR A BETTER AMERICA!

33 States are making the Federal Government Set Up Their Exchanges

It disturbs me that 33 states are making the Federal Government set up the exchanges in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Congressman were paid $29,000 for working 9 nines in August, they receive a "Golden" healthcare plan for LIFE once elected, and spend most of their time raising money and satisfying their base. When their constituents let them know that as much as 95% of them want to require background checks for purchasing a gun, they vote against them. Now, with their given healthcare plans, for life, they want to deny 30 million Americans without affordable healthcare to go to the emergency room if they need care, the most expensive way to provide healthcare. What I find hard to believe is that people vote these useless, lying, greedy, politicians into office. WAKE UP AMERICA! Read the facts about states that have already implemented the law.

On September 5, 2013 the New England Journal of Medicine posted an article: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1308032?query=TOC#t=comments you might want to read to get real facts about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

The GOP leadership is still debating how to handle the pressure from conservatives for a vote on the CR to cut off all funding for health care reform.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/house-gop-spending-bill-96393.html#ixzz2eDgfETxL

The Obstructionist Tea Party is still pushing for shutdown of the government unless the ACA is completely defunded. Only 16 states and D.C. are going to run state based exchanges. The exchanges open October 1, 2013 with coverage to begin as early as January 1, 2014. The obstructionist continue the misinformation campaign to confuse the public as to what the Affordable Care Act does. They have a focus on young people to discourage signing up. The more young people that sign up, the lower the costs will be because it spreads the risk for insurance companies as they are healthier. It is advantageous for young people to sign up because studies show that they will see a doctor 2.7 times a year and for those visits, and any labs or x-rays will bring the cost to more than what a plan will cost.

Some technical glitches exist including how medical charges and deductibles are listed, industry officials say. Health insurers planning to sell policies say they expect the glitches to be fixed by the October 1, 2013 commencement of signing up. Huffington Post had an article recently posted on this: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/05/obamacare-health-insurance_n_3870784.html

Getting the 30 million people in America who can't afford health care is a good thing. Please contact you Congressman and Senators and tell them to do something other than for themselves. Contact information, if you need it, is on the "Pages" on the left side of the blog. ?Follow the blog with the button on the top left of this blog. Sign up for e-mails of new posts. Check out my Facebook page on Medic3569 "Stop the Obstructionist Tea Party" and LIKE the page. Thank you for reading this blog.

Labor Day

LABOR DAY

 

Where Labor Day Came From, and Where it's Going

The title is from an article by Nation of Change - Human Rights on September 1, 2013.

http://www.nationofchange.org/where-labor-day-came-and-where-it-s-going-1378041836-0

Did you know that to have a day "set aside" to honor America's labor force it took a 12-year grassroots effort before it was finally culminated by an act of congress in 1894?The link above brings you to a very interesting article about labor day.

The History of Labor Day

The next link is to the Department of Labor, a history of Labor Day.
http://www.dol.gov/laborday/history.htm

President Obama Speaks to the American Worker

The next article is by Voice Of America news. It involves a speech by President Obama and how "the journey of upward mobility has become harder."
 http://www.voanews.com/content/obama-praises-the-american-worker-for-labor-day-holiday/1740758.html

A Day To Applaud The American Worker

And finally to honor the American Worker a letter published by lehighvalleylive.com entitled "LETTER: A Day To Applaud The American Worker"
http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2013/09/letter_a_day_to_applaud_the_am.html

Enjoy these articles and remember the American Worker and his and her value. Support the "Raise the Minimum Wage" movement.

PHOTO: Thanks to Google Images - The American Worker PAC on Vimeo

ALEC - What is it? Are Your Representatives Involved?

 

Through ALEC, Global Corporations Are Scheming to Rewrite YOUR Rights and Boost THEIR Revenue

Check out this informative website to learn about ALEC, and whether your Congressman and Senators are involved:
 http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed

This is their website:   http://www.alec.org/

These are some other site4s that are exposing ALEC for what they are, and what they do;

 http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?b=7743229&c=dkLNK1MQIwG

 http://billmoyers.com/tag/alec/

http://www.prwatch.org/projects/alec-exposed

This link is to an article I recently tweeted about how they hid a Tea Party organization getting $500,000 of taxpayer money.   http://www.prwatch.org/node/12224

See if your Representatives are involved with them, and CONTACT THEM to let them know how you feel. You can use the "Pages" on the left panel of this blog to find your Senators and Congressman's contact information. Thanks for speaking out.