Omstreden bill in Wisconsin is erdoor, en nu?

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carrycandy RT @laughingliberal: #Moonwalker MEETUP POINT: State St. Statue, Madison, WI ~ 11 AM Google Arial View: http://tinyurl.com/45r4psf #Anonymous Wants You! #WeAreWI about 1 hour ago via web

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carrycandy RT @P1edPiper: Saturday in #Madison! Mass Mooning of the capitol! Details- http://twitpic.com/4a8b3o #anonymous #moonwalker #wiunion #weareWI about 1 hour ago via web

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Op zaterdag 12 maart 2011 08:23 schreef Lyrebird het volgende:
Het linkse gaies hier maakt van een olifant van een molshoop.

De nieuwe situatie in Wisconsin is hetzelfde als die in bijvoorbeeld Maryland, een staat die nou niet echt bekend staat als hillbilly of redneck.

Het feit dat ambtenaren verplicht contributie aan een vakbond af moesten staan in Wisconsin, was natuurlijk een veel kwalijkere zaak. Misschien dat de huilies daar commentaar op willen geven?

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Op dinsdag 22 maart 2011 01:35 schreef Kees22 het volgende:

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Dat ambtenaren verplicht lid zijn van de vakbond, lijkt me onjuist en het zou terecht zijn als die verplichting opgeheven werd.
Maar de wet gaat veel verder en, gezien de achtergrond van de indieners, was dat ook te vrezen. Het gewoon voeren van de normale vakbondsacties wordt nu ook verboden. Kijk, dat voert de VSvA, of tenminste deze staat, terug naar de middeleeuwen. Naar de tijd dat studenten doodgeschoten werden bij een demonstratie, naar de tijd dat negers als merkwaardig fruit aan bomen gehangen werden.

Maar goed, zoals iemand al zei: die mensen in de VSvA stemmen zelf op de Republikeinen.

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Op dinsdag 22 maart 2011 05:08 schreef tjoptjop het volgende:
Is het in de VS niet zo dat een politieagent met 20 (oid) dienstjaren al met een goed pensioen kan?

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Police officers in the United States are typically allowed to retire at half pay after only 20 years of service or three-quarter pay after 30 years, allowing people to retire in their early forties or fifties.

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Op dinsdag 22 maart 2011 06:03 schreef Lyrebird het volgende:
BTW, de meeste Amerikaanse ambtenaren sparen niet voor hun pensioen.

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Op dinsdag 22 maart 2011 06:03 schreef Lyrebird het volgende:
BTW, de meeste Amerikaanse ambtenaren sparen niet voor hun pensioen. Die wordt gewoon uit de lopende rekening betaald, en is welvaarts/inflatievast.

De staten lopen hierdoor een enorm financieel risico. Zouden staten verplicht zijn om die bedragen meteen af te boeken, ipv ze pas bij pensioen uit te keren, dan zouden er bij lange na niet zo veel ambtenaren (kunnen) zijn, of zou de inkomstenbelasting voor de staat die iedereen af moet dragen, hoger worden.

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Op dinsdag 22 maart 2011 08:04 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Je liegt.

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Governments tend to give their workers light workloads and generous pensions in lieu of higher wages (which have to come out of the current budget).

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Enrollment in FERS is automatic for new federal employees, and it comes at a cost of 1 percent of salary as the employees contribution to the pension plan. The federal government picks up the rest of the cost.

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Op dinsdag 22 maart 2011 05:35 schreef tjoptjop het volgende:
Dat schaal omhoog verhaal deden ze in NL ook toen het eindloonstelsel nog gelde

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Op dinsdag 22 maart 2011 13:36 schreef Lyrebird het volgende:

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Uit het stuk van Reya's Economist:

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Op woensdag 23 maart 2011 01:45 schreef Kees22 het volgende:

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gelde
Als je het dan toch fout wilt doen, schrijf dan geldde, dat heeft nog een schijn van taalbesef.
De juist verleden tijd van gelden is gold.

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Op woensdag 23 maart 2011 01:50 schreef tjoptjop het volgende:

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Amai, die is wel ernstig ja

Maar doet niets af aan de inhoud....

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Op woensdag 23 maart 2011 01:53 schreef truepositive het volgende:
Blijft een feit dat mensen ontslaan wegens deelnaame aan een demonstratie belachelijk is.

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Op woensdag 23 maart 2011 01:49 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Wat is dat voor neo-con propaganda? Ambtenaren hebben gewoon zelf voor hun eigen pensioen gewerkt. De enige reden voor het verschil met de private sector is dat die al veel eerder kapot gemaakt is.

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Op woensdag 23 maart 2011 03:59 schreef truepositive het volgende:
En hier ben ik gestopt met lezen. Niet om vervelend of reactionair te zijn, maar het eerste is gewoon elitair, en het tweede is een leugen.

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Op woensdag 23 maart 2011 03:59 schreef truepositive het volgende:

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Hier gaat het fout.

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Op woensdag 23 maart 2011 10:57 schreef Lyrebird het volgende:

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Vijf van de tien belangrijkste donoren (dwz meeste geld) aan de verkiezingscampagne van Obama waren Amerikaanse vakbonden. Hoe veel duidelijker wil je het hebben?

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Op woensdag 23 maart 2011 10:59 schreef Lyrebird het volgende:

Maar dat verklaart niet alles.

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Op woensdag 23 maart 2011 10:59 schreef Lyrebird het volgende:

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Het gemiddelde inkomen van Amerikaanse ambtenaren, met name de federale ambtenaren, ligt hoger dan die van de gemiddelde Amerikaan. Daarnaast genieten ambtenaren uitstekende secundaire voorwaarden, wederom beter dan die van de gemiddelde Amerikaan.

Deels komt dit doordat ambtenaren gemiddeld gezien hoger opgeleid zijn. Maar dat verklaart niet alles.

Governor Christie Responds To Teacher During Town Hall

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Op woensdag 23 maart 2011 11:05 schreef fruityloop het volgende:

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Er is een prachtige youtube clip van een pas gekozen gouverneur, ik meen van New Jersey, die tijdens een publieke Q&A sessie wordt besprongen door een lerares en zo te zien ook radicaal vakbondslid. Die geeft helder en duidelijk aan hoe het zover heetft kunnen komen dat hij zo hard moet snijden in de budgetten, en wat de rol van de unions daar in waren.

Governor Christie Responds To Teacher During Town Hall

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Op woensdag 23 maart 2011 11:05 schreef fruityloop het volgende:

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Er is een prachtige youtube clip van een pas gekozen gouverneur, ik meen van New Jersey, die tijdens een publieke Q&A sessie wordt besprongen door een lerares en zo te zien ook radicaal vakbondslid. Die geeft helder en duidelijk aan hoe het zover heetft kunnen komen dat hij zo hard moet snijden in de budgetten, en wat de rol van de unions daar in waren.

Governor Christie Responds To Teacher During Town Hall

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Op woensdag 23 maart 2011 11:01 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Dat de Amerikaanse politiek niets te maken heeft met het fatsoenlijk besturen van een land, en alles met het kopen van belangen, was ons al bekend.

Dat maakt jouw standpunt (en "mening" of die van het Cato-instituut) ook zo zwak.

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Op woensdag 23 maart 2011 11:46 schreef Lyrebird het volgende:

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Chris Christie is briljant. Zie ook: [US 2012] Chris Christie for President

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Op woensdag 23 maart 2011 11:58 schreef Lyrebird het volgende:

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De wetten in Wisconsin zijn een poging om het kopen van belangen minder eenvoudig te maken.

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Op woensdag 23 maart 2011 12:36 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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De Koch bros kopen politieke invloed om het kopen van politieke invloed moeilijker te maken?

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Op woensdag 23 maart 2011 13:29 schreef Lyrebird het volgende:

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Als jij met een bron komt die niet door George Soros wordt gesponsord (die per jaar miljoenen uitgeeft om zijn linkse droom te realiseren), dan kunnen we daarover discussieren.

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Op woensdag 23 maart 2011 13:32 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Als jij met objectieve bronnen komt om jouw zaak te ondersteunen, zal ik gaan kijken.

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Op woensdag 23 maart 2011 14:14 schreef Lyrebird het volgende:

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Ik heb je eerder de NYT (fanclubblad van de Democraten) als bron gegeven.

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Op woensdag 23 maart 2011 12:36 schreef fruityloop het volgende:

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Het zou mooi zijn als het hem lukte, maar dan zit hij nog steeds met die jokers met hun "pork barrels" van het congres en de senaat. Uit beide partijen.

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Op woensdag 23 maart 2011 14:17 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Nou roep je zelf dat het geen objectieve bron is.

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Op woensdag 23 maart 2011 10:57 schreef Lyrebird het volgende:

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Vijf van de tien belangrijkste donoren (dwz meeste geld) aan de verkiezingscampagne van Obama waren Amerikaanse vakbonden. Hoe veel duidelijker wil je het hebben?

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Op woensdag 23 maart 2011 11:05 schreef fruityloop het volgende:

[..]

Er is een prachtige youtube clip van een pas gekozen gouverneur, ik meen van New Jersey, die tijdens een publieke Q&A sessie wordt besprongen door een lerares en zo te zien ook radicaal vakbondslid. Die geeft helder en duidelijk aan hoe het zover heetft kunnen komen dat hij zo hard moet snijden in de budgetten, en wat de rol van de unions daar in waren.

Governor Christie Responds To Teacher During Town Hall

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Op donderdag 24 maart 2011 02:44 schreef popolon het volgende:

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Unions verschillen per staat maar zoals dat hier geschetst wordt, in NJ, zullen die ambtenaren echt eens een toontje lager moeten gaan zingen. Het nadeel van unions wordt hier vrij duidelijk aangegeven.

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Op donderdag 24 maart 2011 08:44 schreef fruityloop het volgende:

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Hier in Europa kunnen we er ook wat van overigens, er is een Duitse metaal-bond die elk jaar standaard 10% loonsverhoging eist, recessie of niet.. En sommige bonden in Nederland willen ook nog wel eens een bok schieten, alhoewel hier het poldermodel de scherpe randjes er bij beide partijen wel redelijk af haalt gelukkig.

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Op donderdag 24 maart 2011 16:54 schreef tjoptjop het volgende:
Ik mag die Chris Christie wel qua ideeen. Jammer dat hij door z'n postuur waarschijnlijk geen kans zal maken bij presidentsverkiezingen

Chris Christie's Govt Shut Down Story: I'll Open A Beer, Order A Pizza & Watch The Mets!

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Op vrijdag 25 maart 2011 02:29 schreef popolon het volgende:
Toch een beetje een masochist dus, als je voor de Mets bent moet dat wel.

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Op zondag 27 maart 2011 18:50 schreef truepositive het volgende:
Er is nog meer aan de hand:

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http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/23/buried-provision-food-stamps/

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Plan To Destroy JP Morgan, Crash The Stock Market, And Redistribute Wealth In America

A former official of one of the country's most-powerful unions, SEIU, has a secret plan to "destabilize" the country.

The plan is designed to destroy JP Morgan, nuke the stock market, and weaken Wall Street's grip on power, thus creating the conditions necessary for a redistribution of wealth and a change in government.

The former SEIU official, Stephen Lerner, spoke in a closed session at a Pace University forum last weekend.

The Blaze procured what appears to be a tape of Lerner's remarks. Many Americans will undoubtely sympathize with and support them. Still, the "destabilization" plan is startling in its specificity, especially coming so close on the heels of the financial crisis.

Lerner said that unions and community organizations are, for all intents and purposes, dead. The only way to achieve their goals, therefore--the redistribution of wealth and the return of "$17 trillion" stolen from the middle class by Wall Street--is to "destabilize the country."

Lerner's plan is to organize a mass, coordinated "strike" on mortgage, student loan, and local government debt payments--thus bringing the banks to the edge of insolvency and forcing them to renegotiate the terms of the loans. This destabilization and turmoil, Lerner hopes, will also crash the stock market, isolating the banking class and allowing for a transfer of power.

Lerner's plan starts by attacking JP Morgan Chase in early May, with demonstrations on Wall Street, protests at the annual shareholder meeting, and then calls for a coordinated mortgage strike.

Lerner also says explicitly that, although the attack will benefit labor unions, it cannot be seen as being organized by them. It must therefore be run by community organizations.

Lerner was ousted from SEIU last November, reportedly for spending millions of the union's dollars trying to pursue a plan like the one he details here. It is not clear what, if any, power and influence he currently wields. His main message--that Wall Street won the financial crisis, that inequality in this country is hitting record levels, and that there appears to be no other way to stop the trend--will almost certainly resonate.

A transcript of Lerner's full reported remarks is below, courtesy of The Blaze. We have heard the tape, but we have not independently verified that the voice is Lerner's. You can listen to the tape here.

Here are the key remarks:

Unions are almost dead. We cannot survive doing what we do but the simple fact of the matter is community organizations are almost dead also. And if you think about what we need to do it may give us some direction which is essentially what the folks that are in charge - the big banks and everything - what they want is stability.

There are actually extraordinary things we could do right now to start to destabilize the folks that are in power and start to rebuild a movement.

For example, 10% of homeowners are underwater right their home they are paying more for it then its worth 10% of those people are in strategic default, meaning they are refusing to pay but they are staying in their home that's totally spontaneous they figured out it takes a year to kick me out of my home because foreclosure is backed up

If you could double that number you would you could put banks at the edge of insolvency again.

Students have a trillion dollar debt

We have an entire economy that is built on debt and banks so the question would be what would happen if we organized homeowners in mass to do a mortgage strike if we get half a million people to agree it would literally cause a new finical crisis for the banks not for us we would be doing quite well we wouldn't be paying anything...

We have to think much more creatively. The key thing... What does the other side fear the most - they fear disruption. They fear uncertainty. Every article about Europe says in they rioted in Greece the markets went down

The folks that control this country care about one thing how the stock market goes what the bond market does how the bonuses goes. We have a very simple strategy:

* How do we bring down the stock market
* How do we bring down their bonuses
* How do we interfere with there ability to be rich...

So a bunch of us around the country think who would be a really good company to hate we decided that would be JP Morgan Chase and so we are going to roll out over the next couple of months what would hopefully be an exciting campaign about JP Morgan Chase that is really about challenge the power of Wall Street.

And so what we are looking at is the first week in May can we get enough people together starting now to really have an week of action in New York I don't want to give any details because I don't know if there are any police agents in the room.

The goal would be that we will roll out of New York the first week of May. We will connect three ideas

* that we are not broke there is plenty of money
* they have the money - we need to get it back
* and that they are using Bloomberg and other people in government as the vehicle to try and destroy us

And so we need to take on those folks at the same time. And that we will start here we are going to look at a week of civil disobedience - direct action all over the city. Then roll into the JP Morgan shareholder meeting which they moved out of New York because I guess they were afraid because of Columbus.

There is going to be a ten state mobilization to try and shut down that meeting and then looking at bank shareholder meetings around the country and try and create some moments like Madison except where we are on offense instead of defense

Where we have brave and heroic battles challenging the power of the giant corporations. We hope to inspire a much bigger movement about redistributing wealth and power in the country and that labor can’t do itself that community groups can’t do themselves but maybe we can work something new and different that can be brave enough and daring and nimble enough to do that kind of thing.

Read more: http://www.businessinside(...)morgan#ixzz1HwbDsG9O

Read more: http://www.businessinside(...)morgan#ixzz1Hwau8IKM

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How General Electric avoids paying taxes

In a jaw-dropping exposé in The New York Times, David Kocieniewski explains how General Electric, the country's largest corporation, has managed to accumulate $26 billion in the last five years while not just paying zero taxes but receiving a net tax benefit of $4.1 billion from the IRS. The author dives deep into the company's regulatory filings and interviews a number of tax law and policy experts. Below, we've pulled out from the multi-page report the various schemes and tactics the corporation uses to keep exploiting the tax system. It's worth reading in full here.

-Lobbying The company spent more than $200 million in the last ten years, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. One of its major lobbying coups includes the 2004 American Jobs Creation Act, which allowed it to "defer taxes on overseas profits from leasing planes to airlines." That law saved the company more than $1 billion just three years after it was enacted.

-Greasing Palms When GE needed to change Rep. Charlie Rangel's mind about support for a key tax break, it awarded $11 million to various schools in Rangel's district. Afterward, Rangel, who then headed the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, pledged his support for the tax provision. He says the donation had no effect on his decision. Rangel has also been under intense scrutiny recently for ethics violations unrelated to GE.

-Anointing Tax Kings At many of its major manufacturing facilities across the world, GE has elevated the role of tax strategist to an executive decision-making post. The company's tax department has expanded to 975 employees.

-A Culture of Tax Avoidance The company's mission statement of GE's tax department urges employees to "evenly" divide their time between obeying the law and "looking to exploit opportunities to reduce tax.”

-Leasing and Lending Abroad In the late '90s GE won passage of a tax provision known as "active financing" allowing it to "avoid taxes on lending income from abroad," that in turn gave the company an array of tax credits and write-offs used to offset taxes on its U.S. operations.

-Cutting Its Domestic Work Force "Since 2002, the company has eliminated a fifth of its work force in the United States while increasing overseas employment," writes the Times. "In that time, G.E.’s accumulated offshore profits have risen to $92 billion from $15 billion."

Update: GE has posted a response to the article here

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Congressman Wants YouTube Video Covered Up

"Wisconsin Republicans claim that no one else can republish a video of United States Representative Sean Duffy (R-WI) complaining about how he is 'struggling' to get by on his $174,000 salary without their permission, even though they originally released the video on YouTube for the whole world to see. Now the GOP is trying to take legal action to stop anyone else from republishing the video. The tape caused a stir for Duffy, a first-term conservative best known for his past as a reality TV show star on MTV's The Real World after Democrats flagged the comments about his taxpayer-funded salary, which is nearly three times the median income in Wisconsin, and criticisms began to flow Duffy's way. Here is a one minute clip, excerpted from roughly 45 minutes of video of the public Duffy townhall, that the Polk County GOP doesn't want anyone to see."

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Goldman Sachs CEO's pay nearly doubles despite slump in profits

An era of bonus "restraint" at Goldman Sachs came to a shuddering halt as the Wall Street bank almost doubled the pay package of its chief executive, Lloyd Blankfein, to $18.6m (£11.5m) for 2010 in spite of a slump in profits.

Blankfein, 56, who once quipped that his firm does "God's work", received share awards of $12.6m on top of a $5.4m performance-related cash bonus, and a salary of $600,000. He also received additional benefits worth $464,000, according to a filing by Goldman at the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The postal worker's son from Brooklyn became a lightning rod for controversy over the banking industry's excesses during the financial crisis. Goldman was obliged to pay $550m in July to settle fraud charges laid by US prosecutors over the alleged mis-selling of toxic mortgage-related derivatives. Blankfein described being hit by the charges as "one of the worst days in my professional life".

Blankfein's pay was still far below the record $68m that he received for 2007, before the credit crunch began to bite. But his earnings are almost double last year's $9.8m – when Goldman declared it was exercising "restraint" in response to public and political pressure over the size of bonuses.

"The fact that they would return to a more market-based pay is probably not surprising," Rose Marie Orens, a senior partner at Compensation Advisory Partners in New York, told Bloomberg News. "They're not quite back to anything remotely like what they paid in prior years."

It was the first time in three years that Goldman paid a cash bonus to Blankfein. His top lieutenants – including chief financial officer David Viniar and chief operating officer Gary Cohn – got identical $5.4m payouts. This was despite a 38% drop in profits to $7.71bn due to a sharp fall in income from trading and investment banking.

Goldman is renowned for being the most hard-driving bank on Wall Street. It has a fiercely competitive ethos but rewards its employees better than any of its rivals. Unlike other top banks, it sensed the imminent implosion in US mortgages in 2007 and heavily hedged its position to protect itself against the credit crunch. Its bonus pool, shared by 35,700 employees worldwide,, including 5,000 in London, amounted to $15.3bn this year – equivalent to nearly $430,000 per person.

Blankfein's remuneration comfortably outstrips the £6.5m bonus paid to Barclays' chief executive Bob Diamond, who is the highest-paid of Britain's banking chiefs. In a sign of Goldman's culture of rewards, even Blankfein's driver appears to have done well – the bank paid out $185,110 for the CEO's car and chauffeur, more than double last year's figure. And Blankfein's son, also at Goldman, was paid $170,000.

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Op zondag 3 april 2011 13:24 schreef Lyrebird het volgende:
Ik weet dat logica niet je sterkste kant is PV, maar wat hebben je laatste twee bijdragen met Wisconsin te maken?

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US budget: federal government faces shutdown over deadlock

Obama and Republican House Speaker fail to agree details on how £33bn cuts to government spending can be made

The US federal government faces a shutdown from Saturday after the White House and the Republican-led House failed to reach an agreement on Tuesday on budget spending cuts.

Barack Obama met the House Speaker, John Boehner, at the White House but the two were unable to bridge differences. Obama, speaking afterwards at a press conference, said the two were closer than ever before over the amount of cuts, but he blamed politics and ideology for the continued differences.

If there is no deal by Friday, the shutdown in federal services will start the following day. The armed forces and emergency services will not be affected, but there will be disruption to such things as payments to military veterans, passport applications, visits to national parks and monuments and loans to small businesses, Obama said.

The Democrats and Republicans are locked in a battle over last year's budget. Obama told the press conference that he had agreed to the $33bn (£20bn) in cuts originally sought by Boehner, but that the speaker was quibbling about the details.

The main disagreement is not over the figure but where the cuts should be made: the Republicans want reductions that would hit both Obama's healthcare plans and the environmental protection agency.

Obama and Boehner both held press conferences, intent on trying to avoid the blame for a shutdown. "The American people do not like these games," Obama said, calling on his Republican opponents to behave like grown-ups and reach a compromise.

Boehner said there was no agreement because the $33bn cuts proposed by the White House were smoke and mirrors. "There was no agreement reached so those conversations will continue," Boehner said.

Boehner is under pressure from a new Republican intake in the House who owe their victories to the Tea Party movement which campaigned for deep cuts in federal spending.

Obama offered to hold further meetings on Wednesday and Thursday with Boehner. It has been 15 years since the last US shutdown, during the Clinton administration.

In a separate development, the Republicans introduced their spending plan for the future, one that would cut the federal deficit by $5.8tn over the next decade, compared with the $1tn Obama is proposing. The Republican budget has no chance of being implemented, with Obama in the White House and the Democrats in charge of the Senate.

The Republican cuts would come from healthcare and tax reforms.

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Proof The Fix Is On: Election Decided Two Days Before Polls Open

The Fix Is On: Election Decided Two Days Before Polls Open

Madison Wisconsin - Breaking News: In yet another twist to this on going saga in Wisconsin, politiscoop.com has been tipped off and given documents by Defending Wisconsin PAC that Prove that the Government Accountability Board has been in on the Supreme Court Election fix since at least April 3, 2011. According to the documents below dated APRIL 3, 2011 Justice Prosser was already granted a new term from 2011-2021 and yet this was two days before voters went to the polls. Is there some Prophet that works down at the GAB that can predict the outcome before it even happens? If so, please oh great one down at the GAB tell us who wins in 2012 and let us know when King Walker will be recalled. Anyone else find this funny? I am sure not laughing. It's not at all funny that King Walker picks his Supreme Court minion by hand, then has a County Clerk pull 7,500 votes out of her nose and last but not least the GAB already making it public 48 hours before.

Interesting math going on in Waukesha it seems that a very high percentage of the voters came out and voted Prosser. It seems 29 hours went by before the incompetent clerk Kathy Nickolaus reported the human error to Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh (Ok just guessing) but she didn't call the GAB, why is that? THEY ALREADY KNEW! Get the word out on this folks, copy/paste click the share button but do not stop sounding this alarm. There is no plausible excuse for this error on the GAB. Is Obama on 2013? I don't see that but again We will hear the excuse but can not stand for it. We need to demand a federal probe into what is going on with our Government. These papers do not lie. Get angry folks. Get Signatures for recall. Get the word out now. If you can not see the pdf below click here to read it

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Koch brothers under attack by leftwing film-maker

Robert Greenwald is taking the fight to billionaires David and Charles Koch, who fund much of the US's rightwing politics

Even for the Lincoln Centre it was an unusual show, and an unscheduled one. Several hundred protesters turned up outside the arts complex on Manhattan's Upper West Side last week for the guerrilla screening of a short film. From a hotel on the other side of the street, a video was projected on to the centre's walls. The unwitting stars of the films were David and Charles Koch, the reclusive rightwing billionaire brothers whose secretive empire and network of influence and funding is emerging as a liberal rallying cause in America.

As bemused theatregoers watched the boisterous crowd, the videos depicted facts and figure showing Koch support for Tea Party groups, global warming sceptics and thinktanks seeking to strip away regulations on the environment, cut social security and oppose healthcare reform. On the David H Koch Theatre in the complex – renamed when one of the brothers donated $100m (£62m) in 2008 – activists climbed a ladder to post a giant sticker above the sign bearing Koch's name. "I am the Tea Party's wallet," it read. When the police vans finally arrived, the activists had gone.

For Koch Industries, one of the largest private businesses in America, it was another attempt by liberal groups to drag it into the public eye over accusations that it is corrupting US politics in pursuit of its business interests. There have been lengthy magazine articles investigating its activities, growing protests and a legion of bloggers scouring the company's every move.

At the forefront of the movement is the unlikely figure of Hollywood director Robert Greenwald, 65, who brought the world the Olivia Newton-John dance movie Xanadu. Greenwald reinvented himself as a leftwing documentary maker, and has his focus on the Koch brothers. His Brave New Foundation group organised the Lincoln Centre film show.

"David Koch spent $100m to put his name on that theatre, but we want people to understand what it really should be named," he told the Observer.

Brave New Foundation, with a team of 15 including three full-time researchers, is running a web competition where suggestions for a new sign are plastered over a picture of the theatre. "Treasonous Plutocrats R Us" and "Evil Greed Incarnate" are some of the entries.

Greenwald said that the popularity of the contest is another way to keep public attention on the brothers. Indeed last week Jack O'Dwyer, a leading Manhattan PR professional, called on the Lincoln Centre to drop the Koch name. That was music to Greenwald's ears. "The Kochs have always been very smart. They did not need the spotlight. But the more people we can impact with our actions showing what the Kochs have been doing, the better off we will be."

Greenwald is determined to make the fight personal. His activists have found five homes of the brothers in the US and filmed themselves knocking on the doors, from the ski resort of Aspen, Colorado, to Palm Beach in Florida. The homes are profiled in "luxury porn" detail and juxtaposed with the hard times of working-class Americans. In one scene three financially struggling pensioners picnic on the beach outside a Koch mansion and wonder why anyone would need a house so big. In another, a researcher ambushes David Koch at the Economic Club of New York and asks: "How many houses do you really need?" The stone-faced Koch rapidly retreats behind a security guard without a word.

The personal tactics have brought Greenwald criticism, but he is unconcerned. He says that the political activities and donations of the brothers have affected the lives of millions of less wealthy Americans. "The least we can do is ring their doorbell. What they are doing is hurting people's lives. Ideology has consequences."

Anger is focused on the mix of conservatism and libertarianism, especially in economics. The sprawling Koch Industries has vast oil and energy interests. The brothers, each worth an estimated $22bn, are joint seventh on Forbes magazine's 2011 list of the richest Americans.

Their money helped start Americans For Prosperity, a Tea Party-linked organisation that has campaigned vociferously against Barack Obama's healthcare reforms. It admitted helping to organise anti-union moves by the controversial Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, which led to some of the largest protests in recent American history.

The Kochs have also given millions to thinktanks and groups that fight environmental legislation, especially to oppose the scientific consensus on global warming and try to lift regulations on air pollution and potentially dangerous chemicals. They believe in drastically cutting the role of government and slashing benefits such as social security.

A recent report on the Politico website detailed how they planned to spend $88m in the 2012 election supporting conservative causes and politicians.

The Kochs share the Tea Party view that Obama is a threat to the American way of life. Last week David Koch made a rare comment to a reporter from New York magazine, calling Obama "a hardcore socialist". "He's marvellous at pretending to be something other than that, but that is what I believe he truly is, a hardcore socialist. He's scary to me," he added.

There is nothing illegal about the Kochs' political activities. Greenwald concedes they have every right to fund whatever organisations they like.

Some groups have said however that their business practices are sometimes the opposite of their public campaigns. A non-partisan Washington watchdog group, the Centre for Public Integrity, reported last month that Koch Industries' ethanol business enjoys high incomes thanks to government subsidies, despite their disapproval of such policies. Equally, while they oppose a cap-and-trade system in the US to control carbon emissions, the trading arm of Koch Industries makes millions in Europe from such a system.

The report also detailed their lobbying interests. From $857,000 in 2004, Koch Industries spent a staggering $20m in 2008 and $20.5m from 2009 to 2010

The company employs about 30 people in Washington seeking to influence more than 100 pieces of federal legislation. Greenpeace has expressed concern at the lobbying activities: "Organisations funded by Koch foundations have led the assault on climate science and scientists, green jobs, renewable energy and climate policy progress," it said in a report on the brothers in March.

Last week it was reported that a Koch foundation had funded two academic posts in the economics department of Florida State University – with the proviso that it would decide which candidates could be considered. Giving such power to a donor is an unusual move, especially at a public university. It also emerged that 60% of the university's suggestions were vetoed by the Kochs.

Not surprisingly, the brothers are fighting back. They rarely respond directly to their press critics. Emailed questions from the Observer to a Koch Industries representative received no response. But some reporters have been approached by PR people hired by the brothers to put forward their point of view.

The Kochs have also used more hardline tactics. One of the most revealing recent articles was a long exposé in the New Yorker by Jane Meyer. But when the report was nominated for a national award, a Koch executive wrote to the American Society of Magazine Editors criticising it for considering the article.

The brothers also sued pranksters who set up a fake Koch Industries website and sent out a bogus press release. Though a Utah judge dismissed the case, such lawsuits could easily be seen as a threat to others not to do the same. The Kochs also apparently bought online advertising against the Centre for Public Integrity report so that Google searches for it would also find statements rubbishing the claims.

Despite such efforts, the anti-Koch campaigners are unlikely to go away. Greenwald – whose previous targets have included Fox News, Walmart and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani – says that he has at least seven more anti-Koch videos in the works.

Greenwald said the threat of a Koch backlash against his organisation was a concern but that he would not be intimidated: "The Kochs are the poster boys for a system that has become deeply unbalanced. We know that they are not happy with what we have done so far. They are going to be a lot less happy as we go on."

FAMILY FORTUNES

A conglomerate specialising in chemicals, energy and technology, Koch Industries is America's second-largest private company, with more than 70,000 employees worldwide and annual revenues of more than $100bn.

Originally called Rock Island Oil & Refining, the company was founded in 1940 by Fred Koch. Following his death in 1967 his son Charles became president, renaming it Koch Industries in his father's honour.

In 1983 Charles and his youngest brother David bought out their other two siblings, William and Frederick, for $1.1bn to become the principal owners. Both have a 42% stake, which makes chief executive Charles (now 75) and vice-president David (71) the joint 18th-richest people in the world.

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Amerikaanse rechter beschuldigt collega van wurgpoging

Een lid van het gerechtshof in de Amerikaanse staat Wisconsin zegt dat een collega tijdens een verhitte discussie haar keel heeft dichtgeknepen. Het incident tussen de twee rechters zou zich eerder deze maand hebben voorgedaan.

Rechter Ann Walsh Bradley deed haar verhaal dit weekeinde in de Milwaukee Journal Sentinel nadat de collega in kwestie, David Prosser, geruchten over het voorval had ontkend. Bradley nam daarop contact op met het dagblad en bevestigde dat Prosser haar tijdens een discussie in een wurggreep had genomen.

Zolang de zaak in onderzoek is, zullen Bradley en Prosser zich vanaf nu onthouden van commentaar. Het zevenkoppige gerechtshof in Wisconsin is al geruime tijd ernstig verdeeld over wie de rekening moet betalen van de ziektekostenverzekering en de pensioenregeling van duizenden ambtenaren.

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Wisconsin justice accuses colleague of choking her

Confrontation allegedly takes place in front of several members of the court

MADISON, Wis. — A member of the Wisconsin Supreme Court's liberal faction has accused a conservative justice of choking her during an argument in her office earlier this month — a charge he denied.

Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Justice David Prosser put her in a chokehold during the dispute. She contacted the newspaper late Saturday after Prosser denied rumors about the altercation.

"The facts are that I was demanding that he get out of my office and he put his hands around my neck in anger in a chokehold," Bradley told the newspaper.

A message could not be left at her home listing, and her former campaign manager did not return a call from The Associated Press.

Wisconsin Public Radio and the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, quoting anonymous sources, first reported the argument occurred before the Supreme Court's decision earlier this month upholding Republican Gov. Scott Walker's bill eliminating most of public employees' collective bargaining rights. Prosser then released a statement denying the allegations.

"Once there's a proper review of the matter and the facts surrounding it are made clear, the anonymous claim made to the media will be proven false," he said. "Until then I will refrain from further public comment."

Prosser's spokesman Brian Nemoir declined to comment on Bradley's later statement and told The Associated Press that Prosser probably wouldn't either. Other members of the court either did not return messages or declined to comment on the incident.

The argument took place June 13, the day before the court, in a 4-3 decision that included a blistering dissent, ruled that Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi overstepped her authority when she declared the polarizing union law void. While accounts differ, the justices were apparently discussing the decision and its timing.

Leaders in the Republican-controlled Legislature had pushed for a decision by June 14 because they were working on the state budget, and Walker's proposal depended on expected savings from the law. Along with limiting most public employees' bargaining rights, it requires them to pay 12 percent of their health insurance costs and 5.8 percent of their pension costs.

Tens of thousands of people gathered for weeks at the Capitol to protest the proposal after Walker unveiled in February. Once it passed, opponents began to focus on Prosser's re-election campaign in the hope that by replacing him with a liberal justice, they could get the court to overturn the legislation.

Prosser, who had been expected to walk away with the election, found himself in a tight race with liberal challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg. Initial results showed she had defeated Prosser by about 200 votes, and she declared herself the winner the day after the election. Then a county clerk who once worked for Prosser announced she had failed to report 14,000 votes.

A bitter and nearly month-long recount ended with Prosser's re-election. He defeated Kloppenburg by about 7,000 votes.

The recount ended about three weeks before the Supreme Court issued its opinion in the union case. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinal, quoting an anonymous source, said the argument erupted after Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson said she didn't know whether the opinion would be released in June. Prosser allegedly questioned Abrahamson's leadership, leading Bradley to defend her.

Prosser and Abrahamson, another of the court's liberal minority, had had problems before. Prosser told the newspaper in March that he had used profanity in a meeting the month before and threatened to destroy Abrahamson.

Bradley sent all the justices an email after that meeting, saying Prosser's behavior was unacceptable. She said later that she considered making a report to law enforcement but decided against it.

The Center for Investigative Journalism reported the altercation between Prosser and Bradley had been brought to the attention of the Wisconsin Judicial Commission, which investigates allegations of misconduct involving judges. The commission's executive director, James Alexander, said he couldn't confirm nor deny an incident was under investigation

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Op zondag 3 april 2011 08:45 schreef Lyrebird het volgende:

EAT THE RICH!

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Op maandag 27 juni 2011 12:50 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

[..]

[..]

Recount!

Het gaat lekker met de democratie in USA.

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Op maandag 27 juni 2011 13:05 schreef Pietverdriet het volgende:

[..]

Je hebt echt geen idee hoe democratisch de VS is.
Serieus, je hebt geen flauw idee,

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First Cairo Egypt And Now Washington DC: Tent City Occupation Begins Oct. 6, 2011

Finally, a large, and rapidly growing, coalition of left wing and progressive activists, and organizations, is coming together with a clear and united platform. Hundreds of thousands are expected to descend on DC this coming October, 111 days from now, not just to march in a permitted parade and then return home, but to stay and occupy Freedom Plaza indefinitely, until their demands have been met.

quote:

Op maandag 27 juni 2011 13:07 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

[..]

ik ben bang dat ik het democratisch gehalte van de VS nog overschat.

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Op maandag 27 juni 2011 14:22 schreef Pietverdriet het volgende:

[..]

Fixed

SPOILER

Om spoilers te kunnen lezen moet je zijn ingelogd. Je moet je daarvoor eerst gratis Registreren. Ook kun je spoilers niet lezen als je een ban hebt.

quote:

Op maandag 27 juni 2011 13:05 schreef Pietverdriet het volgende:

[..]

Je hebt echt geen idee hoe democratisch de VS is.
Serieus, je hebt geen flauw idee,

quote:

Financial Reform: Republicans Fight To Dilute Wall Street Regulations
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's financial overhaul law is nearly a year old. For congressional Republicans, the fight to weaken it is just starting.

Wary of trying to repeal the entire statute and being portrayed as Wall Street's protectors – banks rank among the country's least popular institutions – GOP lawmakers are trying to nibble away at the behemoth measure. It's a crusade they're waging despite lacking the White House and Senate control they need to prevail.

Days ago, one Republican-run House committee approved bills diluting parts of the law requiring reports on corporate salaries and exempting some investment advisers from registering with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Another House panel voted to slice $200 million from Obama's $1.4 billion budget request for the SEC, which has a major enforcement role.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are continuing a procedural blockade that has helped prevent Obama from putting Elizabeth Warren or anyone else in charge of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which opens its doors in two weeks.

The law hurts "the formation of capital, the cost of capital and access to capital, and you can't have capitalism without capital," said Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, a leader of the House Financial Services Committee. "So Republicans in the House will be examining each and every one of the 2,000-plus pages" of the law, which he called "a job creator's nightmare."

Confident that Obama and the Democratic-controlled Senate can prevent the House from doing major damage, Democrats view the Republican drive as a political exercise – for now.

"It's mostly setting a marker for the election. And it helps with their campaign contributions," said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., who chaired the Financial Services Committee last year and was a chief author of the law. "But it also tells people in the financial community that if they win the next election, they'll be able to undo it all."

The financial industry leans Republican in its campaign contributions but not overwhelmingly. Sixty-one percent of the $9 million that commercial banks gave federal candidates for the 2010 elections went to Republicans, while 54 percent of the securities and investment industry's $9 million went to Democrats, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

Democrats are using the GOP drive for their own fundraising.

In one email sent last week under Frank's name soliciting money for House candidates, the party wrote that Republicans want to "bring back the days of unrestrained excess, deception and de-regulation of Wall Street." The mailing called it "payback to their big contributors in the financial services industry."

Obama signed the banking and consumer protection measure last July 21, a keystone achievement that responded to the biggest financial crisis and most severe recession since the 1930s. It passed Congress with solid Democratic support and near-uniform GOP opposition.

Among its provisions, the law:

_ Created the consumer protection agency to oversee mortgages, credit cards and other financial products.

_ Established a body of regulators to scan the economy for threats to the financial system.

_ Required banks to hold back money for protection against losses.

_ Curbed the trading of derivatives, speculative investments partly blamed for the 2008 financial crisis.

_ Gave the Federal Reserve powers to oversee huge companies whose failures could jeopardize the entire financial system.

Yet the law was just a start, since it ordered federal agencies to craft rules to enforce it. As of July 1, out of an estimated 400 regulations to be written, 38 are complete. That leaves 362 proposed, facing a future deadline or having missed due dates for completion, according to the law firm Davis Polk.

Republicans say the overhaul went too far and has saddled banks and other companies with requirements that harm their competitiveness. The House Financial Services panel alone has held more than a dozen hearings on the law, in part to underscore to administration witnesses that some provisions – like forcing banks to hold back capital as a hedge against losses – will hurt business, according to the committee's chairman, Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala.

"What we are doing is rational, it is sensible, it is entirely practical, it is compassionate," said Rep. Nan Hayworth, R-N.Y., a tea party-backed freshman on that panel. "So we are doing the right thing, and it behooves the Senate and the administration to follow suit."

The highest-profile fight has been over Warren, picked by Obama to set up the new consumer bureau. Many Democrats and liberal groups want her to become its first director.

Following a May clash between Warren and a House subcommittee chairman, House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., plans to question the Harvard law professor and long-time consumer activist at a July 14 hearing about her role shaping the new agency.

Meanwhile, 44 GOP senators have promised to block a vote on any nominee unless the bureau is made "accountable to the American people" by replacing the director with a board of directors and giving Congress control over its budget. Forty-one senators can prevent a nomination from coming to a vote.

"You try to get leverage where you can. In the Senate, nominations are your leverage," said Mark A. Calabria, who monitors financial regulation at the conservative-leaning Cato Institute.

On another front, Republicans want to cut the budgets of agencies that are supposed to enforce the overhaul.

Besides denying the SEC extra money next year, the House Appropriations Committee would limit the consumer protection bureau to $200 million, well below the $329 million Obama wants. The full House has voted to hold the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which oversees derivatives, to $171 million, short of this year's total and less than two-thirds of what Obama wanted.

Republicans cast the cuts as part of their deficit-cutting drive, but Democrats say the reductions are designed to obstruct the new law.

SEC Chairwoman Mary Schapiro said in a speech this spring that budget cuts would mean "an investor protection effort hobbled."

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Colbert exposes Koch brothers’ voter suppression in Wisconsin

Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert joked Thursday that if Wisconsin voters were going to follow the instructions from Koch brother-funded Americans for Prosperity then they might as well send their absentee ballots to Santa.

“Americans for Prosperity has even sent out these actual helpful absentee ballot applications to Democratic districts,” Colbert explained. “Now, they had to rush these to print, so some people have complained about inaccuracies, but it’s minor stuff, like instead of instructing you to send your ballot to the local municipal clerk, where ballots are officially collected, the address on this ballot is ‘Absentee Ballot Application Processing Center,’ which, and this is interesting, does not exist.”

The Comedy Central host also noted that Americans for Prosperity had told voters the wrong day to send in their ballots, and he offered a rhyme to help people remember.

“On August 11th, make your selection / That’s just two days after the actual election.”

Matt Seaholm, the State Director for Americans for Prosperity, told TMJ4 that the misinformation was “just a typo.”

“I accidentally put 11 when I mean nine all the time, because one and nine are so close to each other on the keyboard!” Colbert said. “Who cares whether they typed nine or 11. Point is, American for Prosperity and I want Wisconsinites to vote sometime in August.”

“But if you still don’t trust them, don’t send you’re ballots to the Koch brothers. Send it to Santa at the North Pole, U.S.A. He’ll get it to the right people.”

Watch this video from Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, broadcast Aug. 4, 2011.

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Wisconsin judge strikes down law that ended collective bargaining rights

Law that led to push to recall governor Scott Walker is found unconstitutional after two public-workers unions sue

A Wisconsin judge has struck down the state law championed by governor Scott Walker that effectively ended collective bargaining rights for most public workers.

Dane County circuit judge Juan Colas ruled Friday that the law violates both the state and US constitution and is null and void. The ruling comes after a lawsuit brought by the Madison teachers union and a union for Milwaukee city employees.

Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie says he is confident the decision will be overturned on appeal.

It was not clear if the ruling means the law is immediately suspended. The law took away nearly all collective bargaining rights from most workers and has been in effect for more than a year.

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Op zaterdag 12 maart 2011 08:49 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

[..]

Je liegt.

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Op zaterdag 15 september 2012 01:53 schreef sp3c het volgende:

[..]

kap daar is mee

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Op zaterdag 12 maart 2011 08:49 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

[..]

Je liegt. In heel Amerika staan de journalistiek, mensenrechten en vakbonden onder druk. Het HBGary avontuur bewijst een systematische afbraak daarvan.

De arbeidersklasse is al kapot, nu is de middeklasse al half weg.

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Op vrijdag 11 maart 2011 19:26 schreef Nielsch het volgende:

[..]

Als je je al druk gaat maken over wat er aan de andere kant van de wereld gebeurd, neem dan tenminste nog iets dat echt erg is.

quote:

Op maandag 27 juni 2011 13:05 schreef Pietverdriet het volgende:

[..]

Je hebt echt geen idee hoe democratisch de VS is.
Serieus, je hebt geen flauw idee,

quote:

Op maandag 27 juni 2011 13:05 schreef Pietverdriet het volgende:

[..]

Je hebt echt geen idee hoe democratisch de VS is.
Serieus, je hebt geen flauw idee,

quote:

Op zaterdag 15 september 2012 09:31 schreef Refragmental het volgende:

[..]

Als je met democratisch "gekocht" bedoelt, dan heb je wel gelijk