MAP: The Republican Crusade to End Insurance Coverage of Abortion

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/01/map-republican-war-obliterate-abortion-coverage-private-insurance-plans

i can see the republicans not wanting taxpayer money to pay for abortion, but isn't it more dictorial to say you can't get it even if you foot your own bill?

 Lawmakers have tried to eliminate private insurance coverage for abortion in 20 states. Molly Redden

Last week, the GOP-led House of Representatives passed the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, a bill that would radically limit Americans' ability to buy private-sector health insurance that covers abortion. With the Senate under Democratic control and Barack Obama in the White House, the bill is doomed to fail. But abortion foes can rest easy.

 Although their momentum has stalled on Capitol Hill, there is a quiet campaign underway in states across the country to outlaw private-insurance coverage of abortion—and it's working.

Lawmakers in 24 states have already prohibited plans on the Affordable Care Act's health insurance marketplaces from covering abortion. Now some states are going even further, targeting the tens of millions of women who receive health insurance from their private-sector employers. 

Nine states already have these broader bans, leaving 3.5 million women without insurance coverage for abortion. And since 2011, lawmakers in 10 more states have threatened the coverage of more than 9 million women, according to data assembled by the National Women's Law Center, a nonprofit legal foundation focused on women's rights.

can you trust those who lie to you for a living that you pay for that restriction, yes when we let them do these things remember we are paying them to do it indirectly but your tax bucks support their tyranny, how much longer?

Five states—Idaho, Kentucky, Missouri, North Dakota, and Oklahoma—have prohibited private insurers from covering abortion for years. (The oldest ban, in North Dakota, dates back to 1979.)

But the 2010 elections, which swept Republicans into power in state governments around the country, renewed interest in passing these bans. And since 2010, Kansas, Michigan, Nebraska, and Utah all have passed new laws banning private insurers from covering abortions.

From 2011 to 2013, lawmakers in another 10 states—Alabama, Indiana, Mississippi, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia—introduced bans on private-insurance abortion coverage, with many coming extremely close to passage, according to Elizabeth Nash, the state issues manager for the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion-rights think tank.

Now, just four weeks into the new year, lawmakers in Indiana, Ohio, and West Virginia are slated to consider new bills to eliminate abortion coverage from every insurance policy in the state, putting almost 2 million more women at risk of losing coverage for abortion.

(That's according to estimates by the National Women's Law Center, which calculated how many women of reproductive age are insured through the workplace in each state.)

The millions of women who now face having to pay for abortions out of pocket will find the procedures don't come cheap

this is IMO based on something other than God or caring for fetuses, you can't make that claim when immediately after birth nothing but crickets, that is tantamount to fake caring for a minute, no help before or after but the responsibility is forced on to those who cannot afford it or other reasons like rape baby.  

we've all seen the old movies when the rich White guy didn't want the kid he would just throw the mother down the steps, that for some might be more preferable then what they are forced into for at least 18 years.

O'Reilly Forgets To Fact-Check Before Lecturing Obama For Not Addressing Black Issues

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/02/04/oreilly-forgets-to-fact-check-before-lecturing/197904

in his zest for a gotcha moment O'Reilly is left pulling all ten toes out of his big mouth he came with a knife to challenge the CC of all the military, dumb.

Despite President Obama's efforts to address problems that plague the African-American community, Fox host Bill O'Reilly insisted Obama never addressed the problems explicitly and lectured him on how save the black community. In his interview with the president, O'Reilly continued his condescending effort to attribute historic problems in the black community to what he called "the culture."

On the February 3 edition of his Fox News show, O'Reilly played unaired portions of his interview with Obama. During the interview, O'Reilly asked the president why he and first lady Michelle Obama never "explicitly" address problems in the black community, citing statistics about families (emphasis added):

BILL O'REILLY: One of my points on the Factor is that poverty is driven by the dissolution of the American family; that is the prime mover. OK? On your watch, median income has dropped 17 percent among working families in this country. That's not a good record, it's not all your fault, part of it was this terrible recession, we all know that. Everybody knows that.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: OK.

O'REILLY: All right. But 72 percent of babies in African-American community are born out of wedlock now.

OBAMA: Yeah.

O'REILLY: Why isn't there a campaign, by you and the first lady, to address that problem very explicitly?

OBAMA: Yeah. Actually, Bill, we address it explicitly all the time. I'll send you at least 10 speeches I've made since I've been president, talking about the importance of men taking responsibility for their children. Talking about the importance of young people delaying gratification. Talking about the importance of when it comes to child rearing, paying child support, spending time with your kids, reading with them. So, whether it's getting publicity or not is a whole different question.

O'REILLY: But I don't see the pressure from the federal government to go in and say, "This is wrong. This is killing futures of babies and children."

OBAMA: Well first of all, I've just got to say it, Bill; we talk about it all the time. We'll continue to talk about it. We're convening, for example, philanthropists and business people city by city who are interested in addressing these problems at the local level. There is an economic component to it as well, though.

what's that saying, "don't assume it makes an fool out of you and me", he was successful

http://www.telecomasia.net/blog/content/assumptions-can-make-fools-us-all?Joanne+Flinn

Unfortunately for O'Reilly, President Obama has been consistent about his message to the African-American community. In a June 2008 speech in in one of the largest black churches in Chicago, Obama sharply criticized absent black fathers, explaining, "[w]e need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception." Obama continued:

"Too many fathers are M.I.A, too many fathers are AWOL, missing from too many lives and too many homes," Mr. Obama said, to a chorus of approving murmurs from the audience. "They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it."

During a May 2013 commencement address at the all-male, historically black Morehouse College, Obama explained the importance of having a positive black male role model:

that faction of White America has accepted their repetitive "reason for Black failings" as the family unit and environment, Gingrich, "they don't have anybody that works around them" the change the right needs to make is in personnel their "PRINCIPLES" formerly kinown as "VALUES" are why they finally admit they need to change but they denied the change had to be their manifesto, only help for them and salvation for America a major change in them.  time for trade ins

The End of American Exceptionalism

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/02/the-end-of-american-exceptionalism/283540/

can American exceptionalism exist when it only applies to a select group who self appoints?

Conservatives are right: The attitudes they say make America special—religiosity, patriotism, and mobility—are fading. And it has nothing to do with Barack Obama.

From the moment Barack Obama appeared on the national stage, conservatives have been searching for the best way to describe the danger he poses to America's traditional way of life. Secularism? Check. Socialism? Sure. A tendency to apologize for America's greatness overseas? That, too. But how to tie them all together?

Gradually, a unifying theme took hold. "At the heart of the debate over Obama's program," declared Rich Lowry and Ramesh Ponnuru in an influential 2010National Review cover story, is "the survival of American exceptionalism." Finally, a term broad and historically resonant enough to capture the magnitude of the threat. 

A year later, Newt Gingrich published A Nation Like No Other: Why American Exceptionalism Matters, in which he warned that "our government has strayed alarmingly" from the principles that made America special. 

Mitt Romney deployed the phrase frequently in his 2012 campaign, asserting that President Obama "doesn't have the same feelings about American exceptionalism that we do." 

The term, which according toFactiva appeared in global English-language publications fewer than 3,000 times during the Bush Administration, has already appeared more than 10,000 times since Obama became president.

this is a crutch IMO those who have destroyed this country and still try to prop up the mantra of exceptionalism but they fall miserably short of their reference or do they, like so many other things they say or proclaim that don't exactly apply to them.

exceptionalism (ɪkˈsɛpʃənəlɪzəm)
n
1. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) an attitude to other countries, cultures, etc based on the idea of being quite distinct from, and often superior to, them in vital ways.

To liberals, the charge that Obama threatens American exceptionalism is daft. He is, after all, fond of declaring, "In no other country on Earth is my story even possible."

For some progressive pundits, things hit rock bottom when conservativeWashington Post columnist Kathleen Parker flayed Obama for not using the words "American exceptionalism" in his 2011 State of the Union speech,

even though he had called America a "light to the world" and "the greatest nation on Earth." The entire discussion, declared liberal Post blogger Greg Sargent, had become "absurd," "self-parodic," and an exercise in "nonstop idiocy."

But that's not quite right. When conservatives say American exceptionalism is imperiled, they're onto something. In fundamental ways, America is becoming less exceptional.

Where Gingrich and company go wrong is in claiming that the Obama presidency is the cause of this decline. It's actually the result. Ironically, the people most responsible for eroding American exceptionalism are the very conservatives who most fear its demise.

and we are back Clinton, "takes a lot of brass to accuse someone of what you do",  me, "they do the dirt then try to sweep iyt on Pres.'s shoes", either way they create in the public mind a bogeyman, then go about pointing it out, just like the recent faux scandals they created an have been trying to tie Pres. and Progressive heir apparent Hilary to their daydreams can't work it's their lies not what happened so those two tales will not be pinned to those donkeys.

10 Reasons Why Republicans Love The New Patient CARE Act And You Won’t

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/02/02/gop-patient-care-act-worse-than-aca/

The Republicans have come out with an alternative to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) also known as “Obamacare.” The Patient Choice, Affordability, Responsibility and Empowerment Act (Patient CAREAct). Catchy anagram isn’t it? But what does it really involve?

The GOP’s ‘Patient CARE Act is a band aid.

Well, for starters, it’s basically the same thing. But there are a few glaring differences. Keep in mind that the ACA is a hybrid of originally Republican ideas. If Democrats and liberals had their way we would be talking about single payer. A simple, proven way to provide healthcare to a country’s citizenry. But nothing in Congress is done because it’s simple or proven. The Patient CARE Act is no different.

we all knew this was a sham they will fool their base maybe even a few fence walkers.  but the overwhelming population nah read the things listed in the article and make your own opinion why it's a waste of time and a thrown together probably in the last week.  they like to brag had they had something we would have known 5 years of beating up on and 49 times at the repeal bench to kill ACA and the only mention coming in the last couple of weeks, yeah stinks doesn't it?

Nebraska Lawmaker Seeks To End Private Prison Lockup Quotas

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/02/01/3237401/nebraska-prison-contracts-reform/

Promising to keep private prison cells full will be illegal in Nebraska if a proposal from state Sen. Amanda McGill (D) becomes law.

McGill, who is running for higher state office this year, has introduced legislation banning the government from guaranteeing payment to private contractors regardless of the level of service the contractor provide. 

While that may sound so obvious as to be unnecessary, states often make those kinds of promises to corporations when they privatize public services.

The most notorious examples are private prison contracts that guarantee companies like the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) a certain minimum occupancy level at prisons, and promise to pay CCA the difference should prison populations sag below that level. 

Such “lock-up quotas” appear in two-thirds of all prison privatization contracts, according to a report last fall by the anti-privatization group In The Public Interest (ITPI).

McGill’s legislation would ban those kinds of payment guarantees across all state contracts, but is specifically targeted at prison contracts. 

The bill also would amend the state’s corrections contracting law in a variety of ways to both protect taxpayers and regulate prison companies more tightly.

this will be interesting first if it passes and will false arrest and ridiculous sentencing pick up again can't have a pay per bed with no heads in the beds, something would have to give either the bill or the status quo.

If laws like McGill’s were to take root across the country, the prison industry would lose one of its biggest arguments in favor of investing in companies like CCA.

Skyrocketing profits aside, the prison industry saw some setbacks last year. In a single month last fall, CCA lost contracts in Idaho, Texas, and Mississippi.

The Idaho prison that closed was so violent and brutal that it was nicknamed “Gladiator School,” and CCA juiced its profits there by understaffing the facility, effectively outsourcing prison security to gangs of prisoners.

America spends 2.5 times as much per prisoner as it does per public school student. The country’s incarceration levels help drive economic inequality, and the combination of criminalization and neglect creates a “cradle-to-prison pipeline” for black and latino Americans.

another reason we are statistically behind most of the world we would rather warehouse mostly those who don't warrant sentences they got for the crime the may or may not have committed then spend money on education and keeping up with the rest of the world right no they make us the riches country in the world but also the dunbest.

http://rankingamerica.wordpress.com/how-does-the-united-states-rank-in/

pick a topic

New York City Domino's Workers Win $1.3 Million In Settlement Over Low Wages

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/02/03/3238331/dominos-wages-settlement/

A Domino’s franchisee in New York City has agreed to pay $1.28 million to 61 workers who charged the company with stealing wages, the New York Times reports.

The workers, who are all delivery people, will see awards ranging from $61,300 to $400, depending on how long they worked there. The lawsuit accused the company of withholding pay by making them pay for their own uniforms, do untipped work at the low tipped minimum wage, and go without a lunch break. 

While New York’s minimum wage is $8 an hour, the tipped minimum wage is just $5 an hour, but if tips don’t make up the difference, employers are supposed to fill the gap.

The settlement comes after three years of litigation. Carlos Rodriguez Herrera says he complained about improper payment to his manager in 2007 but was fired on the spot, so he took his complaint to the State Department of Labor. After little action for two years, he went to the Legal Aid Society, which represented the workers in winning the settlement. 

Karen Cacace, a lawyer with the organization, said of the settlement, “Hopefully it will inspire other delivery workers and low-wage workers to take action if they’re not being paid correctly, and hopefully it will make employers recognize that there can be a significant cost to violating wage laws.”

Twenty-four workers had also claimed they were fired for complaining about the wage practices in December, and after they protested to be reinstated, the New York State Attorney General ordered Domino’s to give them their jobs back.

“In any dispute people say things that may or may not be true, and that is the case here,” David Melton, the owner of the Domino’s franchise, said of the settlement. “We made some mistakes in our business.”

why do these things take years when the final decisions and efforts could have been done years ago, it seems to be a perk for business fairness is trumped by obstruction  this guy all but says the employee's were lying then comes back with "we made some mistakes, quoting the obvious three years later just shows that you knew it from the beginning

This is not the first time a Domino's has been charged with violating labor laws. A franchise in Florida had to pay nearly $400,000 in back wages to 401 workers after being found guilty of violating labor laws. But the company is far from unique. 

Nearly 85 percent of fast food workers in New York City report being victims of wage theft, leading many to speak out. Workers in other industries suffer these abuses as well, from federal contract workers tocheerleaders to Walmart subcontractors to exotic dancers.

While the practices are illegal, it can be costly and time consuming for workers to bring complaints. And even if they go through the trouble and prove they were cheated out of pay, they may not see compensation: 83 percent of workers who won a wage theft claim in California never got their money. These problems have led some places, like Houston andChicago, to strengthen their labor laws to make it easier to crack down on abuse

this is a hope that is much too late but let's not make it any more hopeless as they made it seem for those years of illegal practices for those now and to come, precedence being set by this dcsion will change the work experience and continue on though all jobs nationwide that would cheat employees for the sake of another dollar.

William Kristol Has A Long History of Shilling and Lying. Congrats, ABC!

http://crooksandliars.com/2014/02/william-kristol-has-long-history-shilling

I keep saying this: The Sunday shows are not for the general public! They are for Washington insiders, which is why they're just one big merry-go-round of the same familiar faces, selling the same familiar "centrist" talking points. These shows are how the Beltway elite telegraph messaging to each other, presenting their public relations swill without opposition by smiling new-style newsreaders whose motto is "Afflict the afflicted and comfort the comfortable."

You know what's the tipoff? Look at the commercials. They're not selling consumer products, they're selling multinational corporate branding. The networks charge a lot more money to advertise on these shows, and as a result, the networks are highly unlikely to stray from the reservation. So am I surprised that This Week brings on William Kristol? Of course not. What took them so long? Via Media Matters:

On the February 2 edition of ABC's This Week, host George Stephanopoulos noted that Kristol was one of the network's newest contributors. Kristol announced back in August 2013 that he no longer had an exclusive contract with his previous employer, Fox News, and was now "free to inflict my insights on viewers of the other networks as well." Kristol's decade of "insights" at Fox included inaccurate predictions about the Iraq War, saber-rattling for war with Iran, dismissing legitimate military scandals, and smearing Democrats.

He was one of the worst of the media's Iraq War boosters, insisting that there was "almost no evidence" that "the Shia can't get along with the Sunni," and that "American and alliance forces will be welcomed in Baghdad as liberators."He alsoclaimed that military sexual assaults were a "pseudo-crisis," helped lead a smear campaign against then-nominee for Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, dismissedthe devastating effects of the recent government shutdown by claiming "no one no one is going to starve in Arkansas," and claimed that Hillary Clinton only won the 2008 New Hampshire primary because "she pretended to cry; the women liked it."

In a statement to Politico, executive producer of This Week Jonathan Greenberger said Kristol is "'an original thinker' that will make their team stronger."

well to each his own but that each does not include those who prefer the truth over hyperbole, ABC is taking a chance at losing viewers if they are seen as supporting his type of misinformation and getting elephant dung on their shoes, we don't need another hate network they have done a grave disservice to the public by misleading and frankly not telling the truth. 

what prompted this move was it money trying to capture the right wing base and selling another type of commercialwell i guess it's up to their viewers if they want to except a questionable character such as he, feeding his right wing rhetoric

Obama Calls Out Fox Propaganda Machine: Fox Spins Comments To Push More Falsehoods

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/02/03/obama-calls-out-fox-propaganda-machine-fox-spin/197893

Fox News deflected from its role manufacturing scandals about the Benghazi attack by complaining that President Obama pointed to the network as a source of misinformation during a Super Bowl interview with Bill O'Reilly.

On February 2, Fox New host Bill O'Reilly conducted a live interview with President Barack Obama which aired before Super bowl XLVIII. During the interview, Obama responded to O'Reilly's claim that "your detractors believe that you did not tell the world it was a terror attack because your campaign didn't want that out" by pointing out that "they believe it because folks like you are telling them that," 

later noting "these kinds of things keep on surfacing, in part because you and your TV station will promote them."

During the February 3 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, co-hosts Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Steve Doocy, and Brian Kilmeade attacked Obama for pointing to Fox's role in pushing the manufactured scandal, complaining that the president "actually went on to blame Fox News for all the mistakes":

HASSELBECK: When Bill O'reilly, yesterday, sat down with the president, he asked him some tough questions and he said 'look let's go over some game tape here, you know, there have been some mistakes like Benghazi, the IRS scandals that's been bugging you.

KILMEADE: Obamacare.

HASSELBECK: Let's maybe review the tape and see what's wrong. Now most coaches would say this happened or the defense failed. No. He actually went on to blame Fox News for all the mistakes.  

everybody knew he would be going on a snipe hunt his accusatory rhetoric and reference to mistakes showed that he was trying unsuccessfully to conduct a gotcha interview but he wasn't slick enough for Pres. and he only brought up old news that had been finished but like other republicans hell bent on pinning their tales on the donkey,

 we are over the homemade scandals but he brings them up trying to revive their effort to create some kind of dirt they can say "i told you so".

it's like they forget it's their scandal they wrote that script so they are never ging to get what they think they want they ran out of ink unfinishedscript only for them.

Later, Kilmeade likened this to other administrations claiming, "Bill Clinton didn't blame the New York Times for his scandal. George Bush didn't blame every media outlet for running down the war or for Katrina. Why attack the people who are asking you questions?"

those were things that were true and actually happened what they were suggesting about Pres. was their wish list not the truth.

But Obama was right, Fox led the charge in misinforming about every aspect of the Benghazi attack, including thefalse claim that Obama refused to call the attack an act of terror. In a May 13, 2012, press conference,

Obama responded to an AP reporter's question by saying "The day after it happened, I acknowledged that this was an act of terrorism." In the days following the attack, Obama repeatedly called it an "act of terror."

remember Romney tried to say Pres. never said terrorist but his ten toes in his mouth gets embarrassed on TV that he was wrong, no research just repeating something of unknown origins is called fiction.   they were trying to turn their lies into truth and IMO got OutBama'd again.

Walmart's holiday profits are way down. Food stamp cuts are a big part of the reason.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2014_02/walmarts_holiday_profits_are_w048890.php

The Financial Times reports that, according to estimates, fourth quarter sales and profits were down for Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer. Previously, Walmart had announced that sales were expected to be flat, but now it’s saying sales are likely to be “slightly negative.” Official results are due out on Feb. 20.

What’s especially interesting is that Walmart is citing food stamp cuts as one reason for declining sales. Fully 20 percent of Walmart’s customers use food stamps.

The article notes that Walmart isn’t the only retailer that experienced a bad fourth quarter last year. Outlets from Sears to Best Buy to Amazon experienced flat sales or slowed growth. 

But all of this bad business news is continuing evidence that the economy has yet to recover from its prolonged, Japan-style slump.

I’m particularly struck by the example Walmart’s declining sales provides of the wages of austerity economics. The government induces cutbacks, people have less money in their pockets, businesses suffer. 

The next step is that those same businesses start laying off people. Then the G.O.P. geniuses start telling us “It’s time to tighten our belts,” and it’s lather, rinse, repeat.

if not for those affected by the heartless republican congress's cuts to food stamps i would throw a party, Walmart doesn't pay fair wages they ask employee's to help kick in so those who are suffering can have a good holiday all the while taking in a 39 Billion with a B net. 

the only thing they should do is pressure republicans to resend the food snatching tactic in favor of fair taxes of corporations and other super rich, or continue to lose customers.

a changing of ways and politics will bring things back and would have 5 years ago but they set about trying to destroy Pres. and the economy to make him look bad, but now the big business suffers because their denials forced a choice home and feed the kids or Walmart sale this weekend.

cutting into profits is a no no i think big business will not want to lose revenue for long and stat reeling in those who oppose.

Coca-Coca Baits Allen West With Vision of Dystopian, Multi-Lingual America

http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2014/02/03/coca_coca_baits_allen_west_with_vision_of_dystopian_multi_lingual_america.html

Allen West, the one-term congressman and possible candidate for something else, someday, wants you to know that the Coca-Cola Super Bowl ad disturbed him.

[I]t started rather patriotically with the words of “America the Beautiful.” Then the words went from English to languages I didn’t recognize. Now, I know the politically correct thing is to foster multiculturalism — working really well in Europe — but we should remember the words spoken by President Teddy Roosevelt: "Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or leave the country."

... If we cannot be proud enough as a country to sing “American the Beautiful” in English in a commercial during the Super Bowl, by a company as American as they come — doggone we are on the road to perdition.

well note to the Black republican wannabe, there are many Americans, there are many here that are not documented the business your party claims to care so much about knows that those same people buy their products and pay taxes when they do, so if they did not advertise bilingually they would lose a lot of retail business which makes the economy grow.

so sir what do you really believe except disrespect for women and the rest of America?

Here is my recommendation of what the Coca Cola marketing executives should have done. Coke's "America the Beautiful" should have been sung in English and showed Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen of diverse races, sex, and creed deployed all over the world drinking Coca Cola.

If you truly want to show a diverse commitment to service, sacrifice, and honor that enables us to live in "America the Beautiful" that would have been rated the best commercial advertisement of the Super Bowl. And we would be here talking about how we were all touched emotionally.

this guy was dismissed by his party and constituents he misunderstood the lenghts he could go to while being Republican, he was before his time because evidently now they can say anything regardless to how racist, bigoted, hateful, and mean spirited it is. maybe he's trying to get back in haven't seen them forgive Blacks like they do the "other" ones who are crazy.

if they truly wanted to show diversity they would have done just what they did honor everybody, but that is a character trait he and the party were absent the day empathy and respect was passed out.

Angry right's secret revulsion: Why they really dodge minimum wage questions

http://www.salon.com/2014/02/03/angry_rights_secret_revulsion_why_they_really_dodge_minimum_wage_questions/

It’s no great secret that Republicans oppose increasing the minimum wage. They don’t pretend it’s something they want to do under any circumstances. They don’t even really bother disguising their opposition. 

They cloak their view in dated and oversimplified economic arguments about labor demand and economic growth when the real impediment is ideological, and so it’s a somewhat better kept secret that many Republicans oppose the minimum wage altogether.

Opposing the minimum wage isn’t a politically seemly thing to do, though, and thus the great political consequence of President Obama’s decision, announced during his State of the Union address, to institute a $10.10 minimum wage for future federal contracts, will be to draw the extent of this opposition out into the open.

If there’s one thing conservatives agree upon with respect to Obama’s executive order, it’s that it won’t impact very many people. They’re actually probably correct about that. Yet despite the policy’s marginal impact, some conservatives abruptly turned discovering the means of denying a higher wage to a tiny number of workers into a top priority.

In the days since Obama’s State of the Union address, they’ve attacked the order itself, encouraged Congress to block it, and scoured federal law for a reason that the courts should throw it out.

i think it matters not how many but that some are payed fair wage, the only reason he can't do it nationwide is because as the article states and as they themselves have stated they don't want to raise wage, because of the same lie it hurts business, what about it hurts "we the people" who are more than the businesses so by their logic they should not be concerned because the businesses are a smaller group.

Irrespective of legal questions, the smart political play for Republicans is to let Obama have this one. Assume the order’s validity, note that it’s a fairly marginal change, and then move on. Don’t turn it into an ideological lightning rod.

House Speaker John Boehner understands this, which is why his reaction to the minimum wage order was fairly subdued.

“I think dealing with federal contracts and the minimum wage, he probably has the authority to do that. But we’re going to watch very closely because there’s a Constitution we all take an oath to — including him — and following that Constitution is the basis for our republic, and we shouldn’t put that in jeopardy,” he told reporters last week.

“Let’s understand something: This affects not one current contract,” Boehner said. “It only affects future contracts with the federal government. And so I think the question, Mr. President, is how many people will this executive action actually help? I suspect the answer is somewhere close to zero.”

for someone who seems to know constitution why do they walk all ove it and point at the Pres. as a potential violator aside from the violations they already accused him of, someone needs to take a tally and see who is the real perpetrator here.  most egregious voter blocking denying Americans the right to vote only so their guy can get more votes like gerrymandering.

remember we voted them out of the house by over a million votes but they are still there gerrymandering denying those million plus voters the right to have their votes counted.

Should the NFL Lose Its Tax-Exempt Status?

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/12/nfl-tax-exempt-status-rootstrikers-roger-goodell

Times are good for the National Football League. Viewership is up. For the 47th year in a row, Harris Interactive named pro football the most popular sport in America. And with overall revenues north of $9 billion, the NFL is the most lucrative sports league on the planet.

That's not enough for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. He wants to nearly triple the league's revenues to $25 billion by 2027—a mind-bogglingly large number. But here's an even more shocking fact: The NFL pays nothing in taxes on all those revenues. Not a nickel. And now the anti-corruption organization Rootstrikers wants to put an end to the NFL's free ride.

Over the weekend, Rootstrikers blasted out an email urging people to sign a petition in support of Sen. Tom Coburn's (R-Okla.) PRO Sports Act, which would ban big sports leagues from receiving tax-exempt status. "You know the NFL as the National Football League," says the Rootstrikers email. "

 But the IRS knows them better as the Nonprofit Football League—that's because the NFL has not paid any taxes since 1966 and average Americans are left paying higher taxes to make up for that lost revenue. Senator [Tom] Coburn is trying to change that, and we support his endeavor." Coburn's bill would ban pro sports leagues with more than $10 million in revenue from receiving tax-exempt status.

do not like the senator from OK. but i do agree with the bill surprised that a republican would vote to take tax advantage away from multi million dollar orgs. my vote a resounding "OH HELL NO YOU CAN'T" why is it a given the more you make the less you pay, those powers that be obviously intend to keep the status quo, but maybe the deficit might be cut even more if the paid a fair amount or even paid at all.  wonder if the congress yes that congress will vote it down or vote at all they tend not to bring things to the floor they don't like or don't have enough to vote the party line.  tour gov't not at work.