WI Unions Reap stimulus Money, Use It To Recall Walker

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When Obama pushed through his stimulus package shortly after taking office, the money going to bail out GM andW Chrysler was not so much intended to shore up those corporations as it was intended to shore up the unions at those corporations. In other words, although one of the ubiquitous reasons given was saving these two iconic American companies, the real goal was to pass tax-payer dollars to Democrat-dominated union members (to keep them voting for Democrat candidates for the foreseeable future). In a real sense, this is nothing more than a sophisticated money laundering scheme. And it’s one that should outrage every American taxpayer regardless of party affiliation.

Read More at breitbart.com By AWR Hawkins

Photo Credit: Dustin C. Oliver Creative Commons

Lesson in Arrogance of Power: John Edwards’ betrayed wife ‘tore off bra’ in fit of rage over affair

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Former US presidential candidate John Edwards’ wife ripped off her shirt and bra in a confrontation with her husband over his affair, a court has heard.

Breast cancer sufferer Elizabeth Edwards also collapsed during the fight in an airport car park, a witness said.

Mr Edwards’ daughter left the court in tears during the latest evidence in her father’s campaign finance trial.

He denies using donations to hide a pregnant mistress, and faces up to 30 years in jail if convicted.

He could also be hit with $1.5m (£930,000) in fines. Mr Edwards has pleaded not guilty to six counts of campaign finance law violations.

Read more at the BBC HERE.

College student forced to drink his own urine by DEA insanity, sues for $20 million

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The California student who was forgotten about by agents and left alone in a holding cell for five days without food or water filed a $20 million claim Wednesday against federal drug officials.

Attorney Eugene Iredale sent the demand notice on behalf of UC San Diego senior Daniel Chong, 23, to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) general counsel, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

“The deprivation of food and water for four and one-half days while the person is handcuffed the entire time constitutes torture under both international and domestic law,” the claim said.

Chong has said he was eventually forced to drink his own urine to survive after being detained and locked in the five-by-10-foot windowless cell after a drug raid on April 21.

He was discovered April 25 and rushed to the hospital, where he spent five days being treated for a perforated lung, possible kidney failure and other illnesses.

Read more at FoxNews.com HERE.

Romney’s openly gay adviser, kept “under wraps because of…attacks on his homosexuality”, resigns

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Richard Grenell, an openly gay foreign policy spokesman for GOP presumptive presidential nominee Mitt Romney, resigned Tuesday over what he called “the hyper-partisan discussion of personal issues that sometimes comes from a presidential campaign.”

“While I welcomed the challenge to confront President Obama’s foreign policy failures and weak leadership on the world stage, my ability to speak clearly and forcefully on the issues has been greatly diminished,” Grenell said in a resignation statement in a statement obtained by the Washington Post.

Grenell’s hiring was widely criticized by those both on the left and right and he also came under fire for a number of Twitter posting he deleted poking fun at the physical appearances of many women politicians and pundits, including Callista Gingrich and Rachel Maddow.

But it was Grenell’s sexual orientation that he said ultimately led to his exit from the campaign. Grenell’s hiring earlier was announced April 19 but he had yet to make any public remarks or on-the-record comments on foreign policy issues for the campaign, even during the days marking the one-year anniversary of the Osama bin Laden raid.

Many pundits found this fact puzzling considering the Osama raid was a major international incident on which Grenell could have commented officially. Some posited the campaign hired Grenell to fill a diversity quota and they were keeping him under wraps because of conservative and liberal attacks on his homosexuality. Other said he was hired in April but officially wouldn’t begin his tenure as spokesman until May 1.

Read more at RTTNews.com HERE.

Teleconference Tonight: Property Tax & Education Finance Reform, with Joe Miller & David Baldinger

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David Baldinger is a full-time volunteer taxpayer advocate and political activist from Pennsylvannia whose exclusive focus is the elimination of school property taxes and education finance reform.  He became involved in this effort in 2004 during work with former PA legislator and gubernatorial candidate Sam Rohrer, and since then has become a leading expert on property tax elimination issues.  Mr. Baldinger administers the Pennsylvania Taxpayer Cyber Coalition (PTCC), a web-based taxpayer organization, and is a founder and organizer of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Taxpayer Associations (PCTA), a statewide alliance of sixty-five advocacy groups that are working as one for the elimination of school property taxes.

Please join us tonight at 6 p.m. Pacific Time/9 p.m. Eastern Time for this informative event.  Participation is limited, so please sign in early.  There is no cost for participation but donations are welcome.

To join the meeting from your computer or mobile device, click or copy and paste this URL into your browser:

https://www.fuzemeeting.com/fuze/001c01f3/16440913

To join by telephone, please call:

Dial-in Number: +17759963560

When prompted enter the room number:

Room #: 926281 and press the # key.

To join by Skype: fuzemeeting

When prompted enter the room number:

Room #: 926281 and press the # key.

As Clinton Visits China, State Dept. Stalls Release of Human Rights Report; 67 Days Late

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(CNSNews.com) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in China on Wednesday, knee-deep in human rights issues.

Clinton, along with Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Michael Posner and other top State Department officials, met with Chinese officials about human rights activist Chen Guangcheng, who is now believed to be under U.S. protection in Beijing.

Diplomats are scrambling to resolve the thorny issue presented by the blind legal activist, who made a daring escape from house arrest.

Ironically, Clinton, who is in the position of having to choose whether to defend the human rights of a human rights activist, is now 67 days late in sending to Congress the latest State Department reports on Human Rights conditions in China and other countries.

Chen was prominently mentioned in the last human rights report on China — the 2010 report — which was released by the State Department last year, and covers activities in the year 2009.

Read More at CNS News. By Pete Winn.

Photo Credit: Aaron Webb Creative Commons

Video: Blind Chinese Activist Leaves US Embassy

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A blind Chinese activist left the US embassy and went into a Beijing hospital after China gave officials promises about his safety. But a friend of Chen Guangcheng says he was pressured, and agreed to stay in China to protect his family.

Private Survey Shows US Hiring Slowed Last Month

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A private survey shows U.S. businesses sharply reduced hiring in April, a cautionary sign two days before the government reports on monthly job growth.

Payroll provider ADP said Wednesday that businesses added just 119,000 jobs last month, far lower than a revised total of 201,000 jobs in March.

The number of jobs added was the fewest ADP has reported in seven months. Stock futures fell slightly after the report was released.

The survey covers hiring only in the private sector. And it has been known to deviate sharply from the government’s figures, which will be released on Friday. For example, the government said employers added just 120,000 jobs in March — much lower than ADP’s estimate.

Many economists said the ADP figures would not lead them to change their forecasts. Analysts expect the government will report Friday that employers added 163,000 jobs in April, according to a survey by FactSet. The unemployment rate is expected to stay at 8.2 percent.

Read More at OfficialWire. By Christopher S. Rugabar.

Photo Credit: Rodrigo_Soldon (Creative Commons)

May Day Protests Erupt

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Thousands of protesters in New York demanded an end to income inequality and housing foreclosures. Police fired tear gas to disperse marchers in Oakland, Calif. And black-clad demonstrators smashed windows in Seattle and occupied a building owned by the Catholic archdiocese in San Francisco.

Activists across the U.S. joined in worldwide May Day protests Tuesday, with anti-Wall Street demonstrators leading the way in some cities as they tried to recapture the enthusiasm that propelled their movement last fall.

While some protesters clashed with police, the melees were far less violent than ones that erupted last fall when the movement was at its peak. Marches and strikes led to a handful of arrests but no major disruptions.

Many of the rallies, which drew activists pushing a variety of causes, also did not have the same drawing power that gatherings had last year for the Occupy movement or a half-dozen years ago for May Day rallies for immigration reform.

In recent years, activists in the U.S. used May Day to hold rallies for immigrant rights, but the day has been associated for more than a century with workers’ rights and the labor movement both in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Read More at OfficialWire. By Terry Collins, AP.

Photo Credit: DoctorTongs (Creative Commons)

CNN’s Ratings Plunge in April, Worst in Over a Decade

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CNN, which had been making some strides at unseating MSNBC as the number two cable news network, took a giant step backward in April with its lowest rated daytime ratings in the A25-54 demo in over a decade. In addition, compared to last year, the network is down 21% in total viewers and 29% in the A25-54 demo, while Fox News was up and MSNBC was down slightly in the demo.

The news was almost as bad in primetime, with CNN suffering its lowest rated month since August 2010 in total viewers and the demo. That made it CNN”s sixth worst primetime ratings ever in total viewers, as it shed 16% in that category and 22% in the A25-54 demo compared to last year. Fox News was flat in total viewers and MSNBC was down slightly, while both lost 9% in the demo, underscoring the steep decline of CNN.

On top of that, every single hour of CNN primetime was down by double digits compared to last year except for AC360 at 8 p.m., which was down “just” 8%.

CNN, which benefited in 2011 from major news events like the tsunami in Japan and the Arab Spring, has suffered from a lack of those types of events this year, but the steep drop-off can’t be explained away solely by the dearth of major news events.

Until now, CNN executive vice president Ken Jautz thought he had been making progress in reviving the network, even beating MSNBC in the ratings a couple of times. But the latest report has CNN largely back to where it was when Jautz was hired in September 2010.

Read More at Accuracy in Media. By Don Irvine.