Born on January 15, 1929, Martin Luther King, Jr. was a key leader of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s in the United States. President Lyndon B. Johnson issued this proclamation for a national day of mourning after King was assasinated on April 4, 1968. This year we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. with a Federal Holiday on January 16th.
Happy King Day America. Overcome.
How many jobs did Mitt Romney help create during his time as a corporate buyout specialist? Even he can’t get his story straight. Click through for a larger image.
That’s because Mitt Romney knows that every time he hired someone and then fired them they probably went on to get ANOTHER job. Therefore, by the transitive property he got them BOTH jobs. Economix master!
Can you believe it? Mitt Romney’s tax plan favors the rich EVEN MORE than President Bush’s plan did.
… I just can’t believe it.
Florida Senate pushes to privatize prisons in 18 counties
The Florida Senate Rules Committee has proposed a bill that would require the state’s Department of Corrections to privatize all prisons and other correctional facilities in 18 counties, according to the News Service of Florida.
The state legislature passed nearly the same measure last year, but the law was ruled unconstitutional in court because it didn’t go through the committee process, violating the Florida Constitution.
The second largest private prison company in the world, GEO Group, has donated $822,000 to political campaigns in Florida, according to the nonpartisan National Institute on Money in Politics. The company also spent $25,000 for Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s (R) inauguration party.
“We’ve been saying all along that these proposed prison closures are about turning Florida’s prisons over to for-profit corporations,” Ken Wood, Acting President of Teamsters Local 2011, said. “This is payback to the powerful prison corporations that spend millions on lobbyists and political donations.”
Because as we all know, indentured servitude is a great way to maximize profits and “save the government money”.
Read more about fat cats banking on the disproportionately colored “criminals” they justifiably lock up for 15 years over weak dime bag charges. Three strike laws= BIG MONEY!
The United States imprisons more people — both per capita and in absolute terms — than any other nation in the world, including Russia, China, and Iran
(Source: diadoumenos)
Rick Perry condemns the Obama administration for their condemnation of the US marines who haven’t yet been condemned for their actions toward the Taliban. That action being… pissing on their dead bodies… and filming it. I know, Rick who? But this guy is still in the race! His margin for qualification is thinner than Betty White’s skin but that’s neither here nor there. Kudos to Rick Perry this week, for finally finding a message he can forget at the upcoming debate.
South Carolina’s newspaper The State endorsed John Hunstman. Newspapers can do that because nobody reads them anymore. This isn’t really news because this is exactly what happened in New Hampshire… where Huntsman came in third. Third. That’s behind Ron Paul. (who you honestly have to question. If you hate government so much Mr. Paul, why are you always running to head it?) If I were Huntsman I would reject the endorsement. That would create more headlines for his candidacy… and maybe then he could stop being the ghost candidate that only small town Middle-American newspaper editors can see. (“I see dead campaigns.”)
But you know what? In New Hampshire, John Huntsman still did better than Newt Gingrich. (crazy I know. google it.) Newt Gingrich used to be Speaker of The House (where he resigned and was disciplined for some of the 84 ethical sanctions filed against him). Now he can barely place in a Republican primary.
Newt Gingrich… sigh… oh Newt. As if Newt Gingrich hasn’t shoved his proverbial Italian-loafer wearing hoof down his proverbial escargot-eating gullet enough in the past (remember when he announced that spanish was the language of the ghetto? and then apologized for it in la lengua del barrio?) But now he comes out with the brash idea that we should be able to fire federal workers for being too liberal. Not enough? How about just getting rid of them over their beliefs in general? Hey! If that’s not doing the job we can always place them in “work camps”(wink, wink).
Newt also decided to make President Obama’s yearly “Holiday” card list by doing all of Jim Messina’s work for him! A super-PAC that is clearly not affiliated at all with Newt Gingrich just put out this ad in South Carolina ignoring Obamacare and instead attacking its sister-wife Romneycare all while calling the frontrunner for the GOP candidacy “RINO Romney”! Wow, after that they took his lunch money and stuffed him into a locker. The ads also go after Romney’s business background:
“Romney’s objective was never a focus on creating jobs,” the ad states. “In South Carolina, Romney took $12 million then laid off hundreds. No wonder some see a questionable business background.”
Damn. I’m pretty sure Obama Headquarters called it an early night, ordered pizza and beer for the entire staff, all while flexing their huge-from-programming-deltoids and high-fiving each other. Yes, the only thing it could have resembled is this scene from Top Gun.
The campaign is getting so real. More to come…
this is a nice picture of an American Apparel model getting arrested in the fight against corporate greed.
Hot chicks of Occupy Wall Street
The Occupy Wall street protests were hands down the most significant news story of 2011. It cannot be debated. And what’s even barmier for the brain is that they managed to become the most conversed story of 2011 in little more than 3 months.
Occupy (while itself being a chain-reaction to mass protest in Tunisia, Bahrain, and Egypt) swept the entire world with their very own chain-reaction of mass protests, solidarity marches and celebrity shout-outs (Americans are such usurpers). Occupy was so indie cool that Jeff Mangum crawled out from under his rock and performed for them. (The rest of this article is written with scathing jealousy.)
From taking over Times Square like an apocalyptic horde of hipster zombies, to shutting down the ports in Oregon that are run by unions while “fighting for union workers”, it seemed the entire world had turned into one huge occupation! The NYC subway was going ape-shit! Every youtube clip looked like Burning Man met up with Bonnaroo at an Apple product convention. All of this was happening so fast while still “not being reported” by mainstream media.
Unbeknownst to the uninformed, a massive call to arms had been sent to the “apathetic” generation (via this poster). The vagueness and ambiguity of the call to arms did not matter. What mattered was that Americans by the thousands turned into occupiers over night because the only requirement was being one of the 99%. (everyone wants to be on the winning team)
Occupiers everywhere were giving people who wore a suit to work a massive middle finger. Take that 1%! There are way more 99% than 1%! (that’s just simple math)
Clearly, this message struck the core of the mega-rich on Wall Street. And they drowned out their pain by popping bottles of Cristal while overlooking a march.
It was all so invigorating and exciting and so easy to be swept up in. Everyday there was some headlining news story about how Mayor Bloomberg had really screwed himself over this time by not allowing protesters to do this or that. Amy Goodman almost smiled on one episode of “Democracy Now!”
The world was looking so erratic and chaotic and interesting.
The word “occupy” was used so much that it became an actual caricature of itself! I thought the only thing that could do that was Charlie Sheen and Cash Money records! Any action was now grounds for “occupation”. Occupying shit was so tres chic in the last 3 months of 2011 that Americans made an app for it… damn.
This was it. This was the revolution. We were all going to go back to zero. The Mayans had predicted it. Chuck Palahniuk gave us Tyler Durdin which gave us the manifesto. Occupy was the next big movement since the anti-war movement and the civil rights movement!
So… what the hell?
Where did they all go?
Why is the only thing really left of Occupy Wall street a small clickable link in the dark corner of Huffington Post?
Every damn pundit from here to Instanbul was pontificating on the effects of Occupy Wall street and their affect on the reelection of President Obama and his affects on effection (last part only half untrue). Bandwagon occupations popped-up in towns faster than CVS drugstores.
So… what the hell?
What happened?
In a recent news article, ” a group of about 50 protesters“ protested at the opening day of the FL senate. The opening day. In Florida. A state where the Governor has a 26% approval rating. And at his new year debut in the Senate only 50 people could show up? That’s LESS THAN 1% of the population of FL.
That is the revolution?
What went wrong?
For a moment is seemed that America and everyone around the globe was astounded and awed by the ignition of passion from the seemingly too-busy-to-be-interrupted crowd of American populous. And a wave of solidarity crashed unto their shores in support of their dissent in ways that we had not seen in almost half a century.
It would be idealist to say that America is still wearing their solidarity badge. Clearly excitement for the “movement” has waned and I don’t think it’s just the weather.
Was it that Occupy became the very thing that they wanted to eradicate? (note: “hot chicks of occupy”) or The Daily Show: Zuccotti Park Divided or trying to trademark the name.
Was it possibly that by having perpetuated a broad “we are the 99%” mantra it allowed “occupiers” to coalesce in a state of excitement only to realize after the ticker tape had fallen that many ideologies were diametrically opposed to one another? Is this why Occupy could not hang on to an issue and work toward bringing gratifying change within the political system? Or is it really just the winter hibernation?
Did they marginalize themselves by getting swept up in the politics of protecting their space instead of their message?
Did they lose members by treading into the vast and heavy waters of anti-capitalism and anarchism?
It’s tricky to know and something to ponder.
The question remains, will Occupy have a lasting effect on our country? Our world? The future looks bleak as criticism of protesters grows. But we can still wonder what can happen to reignite the embers of the fading revolution.
