Republican Senators Do Your Job! SCOTUS

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Rolling Stones play historic free concert in Cuba following Obama visit

March 26, 2016

Kate Linthicum
Los Angeles Times via RAW STORY

HAVANA — A few days after President BarackObama’s historic visit to Cuba, an arguably bigger rock star played Havana.

Hundreds of thousands of Cubans flocked to a massive sports complex in central Havana on Friday night for a free Rolling Stones concert that some compared to Woodstock.

A festival atmosphere prevailed at the show, with thousands sprawling on blankets in the grass and some stripping off layers of clothing in the humid Havana night. Many climbed fences and crowded onto nearby rooftops to get a better view of Mick Jagger and his bandmates, who kicked off the show with a booming version of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” one of the band’s earliest hits.

“We all wanted to be at Woodstock,” said Nilda Dominguez, 60, who said that as a teenager she struggled to get her hands on music by the Stones and other bands because Cuba’s revolutionary leaders looked down on rock music. “Tonight is the best.”

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TRUMP CARTOON

The latest from Matt Wuerker.

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Maya Angelou’s poem in praise of Hillary

Bill Clinton, embracing the poet Maya Angelou after a reading at his inauguration ceremony. Photograph: Arnold Sachs/Getty Images

The Guardian

Vanessa Thorpe, arts and media correspondent

Saturday 19 January 2008 20.49 EST

Maya Angelou, the African-American poet who is one of the most influential and respected literary voices of the modern age, has written a poem praising Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign for The Observer.

Angelou, author of an autobiographical series of books, including the international bestseller I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, was moved to send the verse after being asked by the newspaper for her reflections on Clinton.

She is supporting Clinton despite her close friendship with television personality and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey, a prominent backer of rival Democrat Barack Obama, the first black presidential hopeful with a real chance of reaching the White House.

Angelou is steadfast in her loyalty to Clinton. She said recently: ‘I made up my mind 15 years ago that if she ever ran for office I’d be on her wagon. My only difficulty with Senator Obama is that I believe in going out with who I went in with.’

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jan/20/usa.poetry

 

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STOP PLAYING GAMES WITH MY COUNTRY!

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DON’T SHOOT

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California Republicans Create Fake Healthcare Website To Mislead Constituents

California Republicans created a fake healthcare website with the specific purpose of misleading people about the Affordable Care Act.

Addington Info  Author: Randa Morris December 3, 2013 10:40 pm

Starting in mid-November, Republican members of the California State Assembly began sending out mailings to CA residents. The mailings, titled “Covering California, A Resource Guide,” are meant to steer people away from the state’s real healthcare exchange, pointing them instead to a fake healthcare website.
State resources were used for the flier and fake website.

The fake healthcare website appears to have been created by CA state Assembly member staff and paid for with state funds. It is nothing more than a right wing propaganda site.

The misleading flier “Covering California,” which directs people to the fake healthcare website, was also paid for by the state’s taxpayers. The flier is clearly marked with a standard mailing label, “US postage paid California State Assembly.”
The flier is meant to mislead voters about the ACA.

The mailing itself gives constituents bad information. For instance, it claims that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) contains “18 separate tax increases, estimated to cost taxpayers $503 billion dollars between 2010 and 2019.” The flier does not mention that the majority of new taxes will be paid by the medical and pharmaceutical industries, not the average taxpayer. It also does not mention the $5,548 tax credit that an average taxpayer will get, to help offset the cost of health insurance.

But the purpose of the mailer isn’t to educate. It is to mislead. More importantly, the flier is being used to direct people to the fake healthcare website, instead of the state’s real healthcare exchange.

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In Loving Memory- Sandy Hook Victims (Photos)

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Paul Ryan Address: Convention Speech Built On Demonstrably Misleading Assertions

Huff Post

Ryan Grim

Posted: 08/30/2012 12:29 am Updated: 08/30/2012 11:52 am

TAMPA, Fla. — Paul Ryan pledged Wednesday that if he and his running mate Mitt Romney were elected president, they would usher in an ethic of responsibility. The Wisconsin congressman and GOP vice presidential candidate repeatedly chided President Barack Obama for blaming the jobs and housing crises on his predecessor, saying that his habit of “forever shifting blame to the last administration, is getting old. The man assumed office almost four years ago -– isn’t it about time he assumed responsibility?”

Ryan then noted that Obama, while campaigning for president, promised that a GM plant in Wisconsin would not shut down. “That plant didn’t last another year. It is locked up and empty to this day. And that’s how it is in so many towns today, where the recovery that was promised is nowhere in sight,” Ryan said.

Except Obama didn’t promise that. And the plant closed in December 2008 — while George W. Bush was president.

It was just one of several striking and demonstrably misleading elements of Ryan’s much-anticipated acceptance speech. And it comes just days after Romney pollster Neil Newhouse warned, defending the campaign’s demonstrably false ads claiming Obama removed work requirements from welfare, “We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers.”

Ryan, for his part, slammed the president for not supporting a deficit commission report without mentioning that he himself had voted against it, helping to kill it.

He also made a cornerstone of his argument the claim that Obama “funneled” $716 billion out of Medicare to pay for Obamacare. But he didn’t mention that his own budget plan relies on those very same savings.

Ryan also put responsibility for Standard & Poor’s downgrade of U.S. government debt at Obama’s doorstep. But he didn’t mention that S&P itself, in explaining its downgrade, referred to the debt ceiling standoff. That process of raising the debt ceiling was only politicized in the last Congress, driven by House Republicans, led in the charge by Paul Ryan.

The credit rater also said it worried that Republicans would never agree to tax increases. “We have changed our assumption on [revenue] because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues,” S&P wrote.

Jodie Layton, a convention goer from Utah watching the Ryan speech, said she was blown away by the vice presidential candidate. But she said she was surprised to hear that after his speech about taking responsibility, he’d pinned a Bush-era plant closing on Obama.

“It closed in December 2008?” she asked, making sure she heard a HuffPost reporter’s question right. After a long pause, she said, “It’s happening a lot on both sides. It’s to be expected.”

Ryan has referenced the GM plant before, and his attack was debunked by the Detroit News, which called it inaccurate. “In fact, Obama made no such promise and the plant halted production in December 2008, when President George W. Bush was in office,” Detroit News reporter David Sherpardson wrote earlier this month. “Obama did speak at the plant in February 2008, and suggested that a government partnership with automakers could keep the plant open, but made no promises as Ryan suggested.”

After the speech, CNN’s political commentators focused mostly on Ryan’s misstatements, demonstrating the degree to which they were evident.

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These Five People Just Saved Millions Of Americans By Protecting Health Care

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