.This blog is for my various interests, such as bicycling, karaoke, clean living, internet memes, video games, roleplaying games, progressive politics, humor, and futurism.
“Koch Brothers, Allies Pledge $100 Million At Private Meeting”—
Koch Brothers, Allies Pledge $100 Million At Private Meeting To Beat Obama
Nobody is surprised by this.
A French court has slapped a fraud sentence on the Church of Scientology, saying it targets vulnerable people for commercial gain. The ruling is a major setback for Scientologists in France, and it marks the first time here that the Church of Scientology has been convicted of organized fraud.
This is good. Let’s try doing this again in Britain, Germany, the United States, and any other place this cancer has spread to.
Spinster Aunt on Komen Khaos
Man do I love Spinster Aunt’s screeds on the excellent I Blame the Patriarchy. Today’s post “Komen Sucks, Pt. 47” is no exception.
“Listen everyone, Komen doesn’t prevent cancer, and Komen doesn’t pay for breast cancer treatment. It “raises awareness” through “early detection” and funds “research” focused on pharmaceutical cures for cancers that many of Komen’s corporate sponsors might likely have a hand in causing in the first place.”
Return your pink Kitchen-Aids! Un-dye the City Hall foundation! Rouge pink nipples until they are as red as the necks and political beliefs of Komen’s CEO Nancy Brinker, Karen Handel and Jane Abraham!
Oh, boy, have I missed Twisty.
Her conclusion is killer:
“Komen is the most visible brand in the whole cancer industrial complex. It disguises itself as some big altruistic community effort for women’s health, but it’s really just another conservative, honky organization with a misogynist political agenda. A marketing juggernaut instrumental in raking in piles of cash for and cleansing the tarnished images of its evil corporate sponsors, Komen has successfully brainwashed millions to believe that the “problem” of women’s health can be solved by licking yogurt lids.”
(via stfuconservatives)
“Canada’s Radio Act requires that ‘a licenser may not broadcast … any false or misleading news.’ The provision has kept Fox News and right-wing talk radio out of Canada and helped make Canada a model for liberal democracy and freedom.”
America NEEDS an anti-lying law for the news. The First Amendment does NOT protect lying and false advertising.
This must be a TOP priority for activists. We can march and chant till we’re blue in the face and it’ll still be nothing compared to the billion-dollar-funded national propaganda machine for the right wing that snows a good half of our population.
Senate Votes To Stop Congressional Insider Trading
New York Times:
“In an effort to regain public trust, the Senate voted Monday to take up a bill that would prohibit members of Congress from trading stocks and other securities on the basis of confidential information they receive as lawmakers. The vote was 93 to 2.
This was in Obama’s SOTU. Pretty quick turnaround.
Congress was pissedddd when Obama mentioned that. It was one of the few times he was actually booed.
Had the same thing been carried out by a worker for the now-defunct ACORN, Republicans —- and even Newt Gingrich —- would have called it massive “voter fraud.” But the 1,500 acts of fraud, by Gingrich’s own admission, were carried out by a worker hired by his campaign, so it seems the media have barely noticed it.
Nonetheless, The BRAD BLOG has received confirmation from two different state agencies that the 1,500 alleged cases of ballot petition fraud said to have been carried out on behalf of the Gingrich campaign, in their unsuccessful attempt to qualify for the Republican primary ballot in Virginia, are now being carried out by the state Attorney General’s office.
In late December, after Gingrich had failed to turn in enough valid signatures to qualify for the Virginia primary ballot, he was caught on video tape telling a supporter in Iowa that the reason for the failure was due to a campaign worker who created 1,500 fraudulent signatures.
“We turned in 11,100 —- we needed 10,000 —- 1,500 of them were by one guy who, frankly, committed fraud,” Gingrich is seen and heard saying in video originally aired by CNN.
The former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives downplayed the incident, by explaining to the woman that the entire affair was “just a mistake,” after they had “hired somebody who turned in false signatures.”
Neither he nor his campaign, however, has made the name of the alleged “one guy” public, to our knowledge, despite the extraordinary number of fraudulent signatures created and turned in by that “one guy” in what an official at the Virginia State Board of Elections (SBE) described to us as “definitely an illegal act.”
News of the embarrassing criminal investigation is confirmed today, even as voters go to the polls for Florida’s 2012 GOP Primary, where Gingrich is facing off against front-runner Mitt Romney who, ironically —- and uncomfortably enough for Republicans —- may also find himself the subject of a criminal voter fraud investigation in the not-too-distant future…
“We will also establish a Financial Crimes Unit of highly trained investigators to crack down on large-scale fraud and protect people’s investments. Some financial firms violate major anti-fraud laws because there’s no real penalty for being a repeat offender. That’s bad for consumers, and it’s…