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To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (759853)	12/28/2013 1:33:31 PM
From: bentway	Respond to of 1575187

The Right Wing Watch Christmas Gift Guide: Gifts For Your Favorite Preppers, Tea Partiers & Obama Impeachers Submitted by Brian Tashman on Friday, 12/13/2013 3:20 pm We here at Right Wing Watch aren’t alwaysfighting the War on Christmas. In fact, we’ve positively gotten into the Christmas spirit as holiday gift suggestions from all of our favorite right-wing groups come flooding into our inboxes. So we’ve decided to put together a gift guide for those of you who are still looking for the perfect gift for your favorite conservative loved one. From preppers to amateur presidential impeachers to scientifically incurious children, we have something for everyone. Happy holidays! 7. Religious Right Reads Intellectual honesty has never been a great concern of many Religious Right authors, which is why we recommend you get a signed copy of David Barton’s “The Jefferson Lies,” a book so error-ridden that it was pulled off bookstore shelves by its publisher, and “A Call to Resurgence” by conservative megachruch pastor Mark Driscoll, who has recently been accused of plagiarizing part of the book, as well as some of his other work. 6. Prepper Blowout Sales For the prepper in your family, WorldNetDaily and similar shops offer such stocking stuffers as 20 pack dust masks, a home-made paracord survival bracelet and — for beginners — an emergency survival kit in a sardine can. In fact, while we’re at it, you should replace whatever Christmas stocking you currently have with an “ LA Police Gear Molle Elite Tactical Christmas Stocking,” which we are told “works well with 40mm projectile rounds.” Depending on your budget, you can prepare for the apocalypse by splurging for a $150 bucket of black bean burgers or just buy a packet of freeze-dried ice cream sandwiches to celebrate the end of the world. Planning to propose on Christmas? Make sure to get titanium escape rings that will help you and your future spouse break out of any FEMA camp. 5. Say Merry Christmas Or Else! Make sure to get that special someone a “Say Merry Christmas” button or bracelet, because there is nothing obnoxious about a person walking around a Christmas party wearing a button that simply reads, “Say Merry Christmas.” According to the far-right WorldNetDaily, the statement “Happy Holidays” is a sign that “we have reached an all-time low point in our nation’s history.” Can’t think of any lower points in American history? Neither can I! You can even get this bumper sticker for your rebellious loved one: “This is America! And I’m going to say it: Merry Christmas!” Liberty Counsel also offers a “ save Christmas” gift bag to make sure people know that you love Christmas. Alternatively, make a donation to the National Republican Campaign Committee for your hilarious “‘Happy Holidays’ is what liberals say” mug. Because the NRCC would never use the phrase “Happy Holidays”! 4. Let Your Kid Ride A Dinosaur Like The Early Humans Did A Few Thousand Years Ago Give your child the gift of education this year by taking them to the Creation Museum, which it will be hosting “ New Christmas Town.” “New this year will be the opportunity to ride a zip line over the museum’s scenic, three-acre lake” (just like the Three Wise Men), or you can put your kid on a dinosaur with a saddle, just like in the old days. 3. Sarah Palin Gold Coins Not only has Sarah Palin become a top lieutenant in fighting the War on Christmas, but now the reality TV star/former governor is the face of a coin collection from Alaska Mint. You can find Sarah Palin medallions in bronze, silver and gold. But at least the medallions will help a worthy cause: Alaska Mint says that “a donation from the sale of these medallions will be made to Wounded Warrior Project.” If that isn’t enough, there’s always the Sarah Palin Bobblehead doll. 2. Hip Cool Homophobic Bumper Sticker The anti-gay activists over at MassResistance are tired of seeing the Human Rights Campaign’s equality bumper sticker everywhere, but now they have a solution. “[L]ike the ‘equal’ sticker, the ‘not equal’ sticker is suitable for all kinds of creative uses,” the group writes on its website. “If they can do it, we certainly can! Good people need to be willing to tell it like it is.” The group also encourages activists to place the stickers in public schools just so young LGBT and allied students know they aren’tina safe space. Plus, the anti-equality symbol will look great next to your “Merry Christmas!” bumper sticker. 1. Impeach Obama Playing Cards As we know, Christmas is a time of year for families to gather around the dinner table to discuss ways to impeach President Obama. And WorldNetDaily is now offering us a fun way to do that, with a new card game that lets players “create the best cases for impeachment by collecting and displaying valuable evidence (Case) cards,” such as “Benghazi,” “ACA,” “IRS” and “Complicit Media.” “People are drifting apart, and games are a great way for family and friends to get back together,” an ad for the game says, because playing a card game about impeachment certainly won’t lead to any family arguments or spats. “Don’t just use it as a status symbol, play it and have some fun.” - See more at: rightwingwatch.org

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (759853)	12/28/2013 1:59:47 PM
From: bentway	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575187

A closer look at Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s (R) apparent confusion over the meaning of religious liberty: A&E announced late yesterday that Phil Robertson’s suspension over bigoted comments has ended and production will begin anew on the “Duck Dynasty” reality show. New episodes will begin filming in 2014. In response, Bobby Jindal described the news as a victory “for the freedoms of speech and religious liberty.” Perhaps now would be a good time for a refresher on Civil Liberties 101. As we discussed last week, Phil Robertson’s free-speech rights were never in jeopardy – A&E is a private entity, and Robertson, as a private citizen, has always been free to say whatever he pleases about minority groups he doesn’t like. Whether Jindal understand this or not, the Constitution does not entitle Americans to their own cable reality shows – Americans’ freedom of speech does not mean Americans are entitled to have someone pay us for our speech. But this applies equally to religious liberty. Americans’ ability to worship freely, or not, based on our beliefs and conscience is not dependent on paychecks from cable networks. Phil Robertson’s freedom of religion remains entirely intact whether or not he’s on A&E’s payroll. Let me try to explain this another way: 1. You are not the star of your own televised reality show. 2. Your ability to worship and exercise your religious beliefs remains unaffected. See how easy this was? Jindal and other conservatives have been eager to defend Robertson by arguing that religiously based contempt for minority groups is somehow more acceptable than garden-variety bigotry. They’re certainly welcome to believe that if they wish. But what Jindal and his allies should not do is change the meaning of the First Amendment to suit a misguided culture-war agenda. The freedom of religion means something rather specific, and if the governor of Louisiana finds that confusing, it’s not too late for him to brush up on the basics.

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (759853)	12/29/2013 2:26:28 AM
From: bentway	Respond to of 1575187

Wonkblog Ta-Nehisi Coates’s graph of the year By Wonkborg December 26 at 9:47 am Time has its " Person of the Year." Amazon has its books of the year. Pretty Much Amazing has its mixtapes of the year. Buzzfeed has its insane-stories-from-Florida of the year. And Wonkblog, of course, has its graphs of the year. For 2013, we asked some of the year's most interesting, important and influential thinkers to name their favorite graph of the year — and why they chose it. First up? Ta-Nehisi Coates. My nomination is Patrick Sharkey's look at neighborhood poverty levels for blacks and whites. This is from his deeply troubling book, Stuck In Place. There is some sense — and the president has affirmed this — that racism is no longer a real threat to mobility, that it is now class. This is wrong. And Sharkey's chart is just one reason why. Basically it shows that huge swaths of black people live in neighborhoods with poverty levels that virtually no whites ever experience. And this finding has been consistent across post-Civil Rights history. If you look at the chart, in the first generation, 62 percent of black people but only 4 percent of white people lived in neighborhoods where 20 percent or more of the people were poor. The numbers aren't much different in the second generation. And in both generations, only a third of black people live in neighborhoods with under 30 percent neighborhood poverty. Only 1 percentof all white Americans lived that way. The chart basically mirrors something that most black people know intuitively. I was not raised poor. I had two parents. I never worried about food, clothing or shelter. The same could not be said of most of my friends. I was directly exposed to levels of violence that most white people of the same income as my parents rarely experience. I made out okay. A lot of black people did not. So this idea that we can just change the subject and pretend that middle-class blacks and whites are, somehow, the same is erroneous. They aren't. Black people — regardless of class — live around way more poverty than even poor white people. Incidentally, this is also the reason one should be very skeptical when people say things like "controlling for income" or "controlling for class." For black people, class is racism. We should not be shocked by this. We've had some 350 years worth of policy with that exact goal. America is working as intended. Ta-Nehisi Coates is a senior editor at the Atlantic, where he writes about culture, politics and social issues. He is the author of the memoir The Beautiful Struggle.

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (759853)	12/30/2013 3:26:51 PM
From: bentway	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1575187

Elizabeth Warren: Every American Has the Right to Retire with Dignity—Why We Must Expand Social Security "The national debate about social security is starting in the wrong place." December 29, 2013 \| alternet.org For a generation now, working families have been squeezed by stagnant wages and rising costs for housing, health care, and college. Even as families have cut back on expenses for things like food, clothing, furniture, and appliances, it hasn't always been enough; many have been forced to take on more and more debt just to pay for necessities. One major consequence of these increasing pressures on working people is that the dream of a secure retirement is slowly slipping away. Families haven't been able to save as much as they used to, and only 18 percent of private-sector workers have defined benefit pensions today compared with 35 percent two decades ago. Forty-four million workers have no workplace retirement savings plan. With less savings and weaker private retirement protection, retirees depend more than ever on the safety and reliability of Social Security. Social Security also protects retirees' spouses and children, disabled workers, and family members who survive the death of the family's earner. Whenever I visit senior centers in places like Malden and Medford, I hear from retirees about how much they rely on Social Security benefits to make ends meet. Here in Middlesex County alone, 236,275 people receive Social Security benefits. Social Security works; no one runs out of benefits and the guaranteed payments don't rise and fall with the stock market. Two-thirds of seniors rely on it for the majority of their income in retirement, and for 14 million seniors, this is the safety net that keeps them out of poverty. And yet, instead of taking on the retirement crisis, instead of strengthening Social Security, some in Washington are actually fighting to cut benefits. The most recent discussion about cutting benefits has focused on something called the chained CPI. Supporters of the chained CPI say that it's a more accurate way of measuring cost of living increases for seniors. That statement is simply not true. Chained CPI falls short of the actual increases in costs that seniors face, pure and simple. Chained CPI is just a fancy way of saying "cut benefits." The Bureau of Labor Statistics has developed a measure of the real impact of inflation on seniors, called the CPI-E. If we adopted CPI-E today, it would generally increase benefits for our retirees, not cut them. This is just one example of how the national debate about Social Security is starting in the wrong place. The fact is that today, Social Security has a $2.7 trillion surplus. If we do nothing, Social Security will be safe for the next 20 years and even after that will continue to pay most benefits through the end of the century. With some modest adjustments, we can keep the system solvent for many more years, and could even increase benefits. The tools to build a future are available to us now. We don't start the debate by deciding who gets kicked to the curb. We are Americans. We start the debate by figuring out how to create better efficiencies, how to make small changes that will make the system fairer, how to grow the pool of those who contribute, how to rebuild a system that every single one of us can rely on to make sure that there is a baseline in retirement that no one falls below. Social Security isn't the answer to all of our retirement problems. We need to find ways to tackle the financial squeeze that is crushing our families. We need to help families start saving again. We need to make sure that more workers have access to better pensions. But in the meantime, so long as these problems continue to exist and so long as we are in the midst of a real and growing retirement crisis -- a crisis that is shaking the foundations of what was once a vibrant and secure middle class -- the absolute last thing we should be doing is talking about cutting back on Social Security. The absolute last thing we should do in 2013 - at the very moment that Social Security has become the principal lifeline for millions of our seniors -- is allow the program to begin to be dismantled inch by inch. The decisions we make about Social Security benefits are not just about math. At their core, these decisions are about our values. I believe we must honor our promises, make good on a system that millions of people paid into faithfully throughout their working years, and support the right of every person to retire with dignity and that means protecting and expanding Social Security.