Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

In the News: 2015!!

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A series of tubes filled with enormous amounts of material

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Millions Of Workers Will Get A Raise On New Years Day

On January 1, 20 states will raise their minimum wages, while one – New York – will increase its wage on Wednesday.

That means that all told, 3.1 million American workers will ring in the New Year with a pay raise.

Higher wages also put more money into low-wage workers’ pockets, alleviating poverty while boosting economic growth when they go out and spend it.

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Illinois governor pardons 1800s abolitionists

Three Illinois abolitionists who were convicted for anti-slavery efforts in the 1800s were posthumously pardoned Wednesday by Gov. Pat Quinn. […]

Efforts to pardon the three were spearheaded by Quincy historians and Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon, who filed petitions on their behalf last year as part of a special project. Among them was an Underground Railroad conductor – Dr. Richard Eells -whose Quincy home was declared by the U.S. National Park Service as one of the nation’s most important sites on the covert network that led escaped slaves to freedom and safety. […]

Illinois residents voted to abolish slavery in 1824. However, state and federal law prohibited the harboring or assisting of runaway slaves in free states.

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More …

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Maryland Governor Will Commute All Remaining Death Sentences To Life Without Parole

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) will commute all remaining death sentences for those in the state’s prison system to life without parole, he announced Wednesday. Maryland’s General Assembly repealed the state’s death penalty in 2013 for all future convictions.

In a statement, O’Malley said, “In a representative government, state executions make every citizen a party to a legalized killing as punishment.” He noted that the legality of executing the four remaining death row inmates was in question and argued that “leaving these death sentences in place does not serve the public good of the people of Maryland – present or future.”

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Why House Republicans Aren’t Dumping Scalise Despite White Supremacist Flap

Scalise was elected to leadership in July for two key reasons. First, many Republicans wanted a southerner in the ranks – before him, every leader hailed from a state won twice by President Barack Obama. Second, after former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s stunning primary defeat in June, Republican leaders wanted an effective liaison to their restive right flank.

May the restive right flank give John Boehner indigestion.

From the Twittersphere (DL Hughley @RealDLHughley)

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Not getting Boggsed down

In a victory for civil rights, abortion rights, and LGBT equality groups, President Obama will not re-nominate former Georgia legislator Michael Boggs to a lifetime position on the federal bench. Boggs, who was nominated last December as part of a deal with Georgia’s two Republican senators, did not receive a confirmation vote in the Senate before it adjourned.

Boggs drew the opposition of civil rights legend and Georgia Rep. John Lewis (D) – as well as Rep. David Scott (D-GA), another member of the Congressional Black Caucus – for his record, including a vote to keep the Confederate battle emblem as part of the Georgia state flag.

Abortion rights advocates opposed his confirmation based on his support for granting “personhood” to fetuses, his backing of an expanded parental notification law, and his co-sponsorship of a “Choose Life” license plate that helped fund anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers. In his May confirmation hearing, Boggs said he regretted a vote to post personal information about abortion providers online, despite the history of clinic violence against doctors. […]

… he was nominated as part of a deal with Georgia’s Republican Senators Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson to allow committee votes on six judges, four selected by the Republicans. Boggs was the only nominee not confirmed.

Good riddance. And thank you, Senate Democrats.

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Editor’s Note: Feel free to share other news stories in the comments.


Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 12 Comments

12 comments

  1. JanF

    There are no elections with national implications for the first time in 7 years. Perhaps this will be a year to heal and gain strength, to develop the issues that will be important next year, 2016, when the torch is passed to a new Democratic president.

     

  2. JanF

    Jan —

    If you’re working on your New Year’s resolutions, I have a suggestion:

    Say you’ll keep being the kind of person who fights for what you believe in.

    Whatever your goals are for 2015, that’s one thing I hope never changes.

    OFA is about stepping up to be part of something bigger than yourself — it’s a little about your ambitions, and a lot about what you’re willing to dedicate yourself to.

    These fights aren’t easy, but that doesn’t scare people like you and me.

    I have two years left as your president. The work you do with OFA — no matter what it is that drives you to fight for change — is so important. Let’s give it everything we’ve got.

    Add your name today — say you’ll finish what you started with OFA:

    http://my.barackobama.com/This-Is-On-Us

    Thank you,

    Barack Obama

  3. JanF

    Pope Francis drives a wedge between Catholic Church, GOP

    … Francis’s agenda, which also includes calls to address income inequality and limit climate change, is putting him at odds with Republicans, including GOP Catholics in the United States.[…]

    Since his papal inauguration in March 2013, the pontiff has publicly made policy remarks about income inequality and the environment that many American Catholics weren’t used to hearing coming from the Vatican, and not just from the pulpit.

    “Inequality is the root of social evil,” Francis tweeted in March, after months earlier slamming “trickle-down” economics as a “crude and naive” theory.

    Next year, as part of a speech he’ll give to the United Nations General Assembly, Francis will issue an edict urging the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics to do what they can to fight climate change.
[…]

    A closer look at the Catholic vote reveals that white Catholics have supported the Republican candidate in each of those elections, while Hispanic Catholics have supported the Democratic candidate, according to Pew Research polling.

    According to Pew, Catholics made up 24 percent of the electorate in the 2014 cycle, voting for GOP House candidates over Democratic ones 54 percent to 45 percent.

    


    Sr. Simone likes what she sees:

    Progressive Catholics, however, such as Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of NETWORK, a Catholic social justice organization, are cheering Francis on as he calls for the world’s elite to do more to help the poor. 



    “Oh my gloria, this is a definite change in tone from being a ‘scolder-in-chief’ to being the one who identifies with the pain in our world,” said Simone, who organized the “Nuns on a Bus” cross-country tours.

    “Pope Francis’s message and tone are making Catholic Republicans a little uncomfortable,” Simone said. “He’s stirring the concern on issues like poverty and the economy.”

    The Christian message used to include caring for the sick, feeding the hungry and giving shelter to the homeless. Catholic Republicans, focusing on forced birth, swore their allegiance to the party of cut-off-food-stamps, get-sick-and-die, anti-workers, pro-death-penalty, and pro-war. They will have to reconcile the cognitive dissonance that their Pope and their political party introduce.  

  5. princesspat

    GOODBYE TO ALL THAT


    We are a little lost here in America. Too many of us have tuned out, and too many of us are deeply tuned in to the wrong things. Our eccentricities have curdled into crochets. Our love for the strange and deeply weird has soured into a devotion to the mean and deeply angry. Our renegade national soul has given itself up to petty outlawry. We have tailored the principles of our founding documents — flawed though their authors were — into cheap camouflage for our boring traditional grudges. None of these things are good things. But none of those things is permanent, either. Imagination always has been the way out — a faith in that which seems impossible, a trust that not every mystery is a murder mystery, and that not every mysterious creature is a monster. Imagination is the way out — a belief that safety is not necessarily the primary (or even the secondary) goal of democratic citizenship, and that a self-governing political commonwealth does not always come with a lifetime guarantee. Yes, we are a little lost here in America, but we can find our way, and the best way that we can find is the one that seems like the least secure, the darkest trail, the one with the long, sweeping bend in the road that leads god knows where. We must trust what we can imagine, and we must trust that what we can imagine is the product of what is the best of us. And, whether we imagine it or not, it’s going to happen anyway.

  6. JanF

    4 Things That Were Supposed To Happen By 2015 Because Obama Was Reelected

    1. Gas was supposed to cost $5.45 per gallon.

    In March 2012, on the floor of the United States Senate, Mike Lee (R-UT) predicted that if Obama was reelected gas would cost $5.45 per gallon by the start 2015. Lee said that gas prices would rise 5 cents for every month Obama was in office, ultimately reaching $6.60 per gallon.

    2. Unemployment was supposed to be stuck at over 8%

    In September 2012, Mitt Romney predicted that if Obama is reelected “you’re going to see chronic high unemployment continue four years or longer.” At the time, the unemployment rate was 8.1% and had been between 8.1% and 8.3% for the entire year.

    3. The stock market was supposed to crash

    Immediately after Obama won reelection in November 2012, many commenters predicted that the stock market was toast.

    4. The entire U.S. economy was supposed to collapse

    Rush Limbaugh predicted that “the country’s economy is going to collapse if Obama is re-elected.” Limbaugh was confident in his prediction: “There’s no if about this. And it’s gonna be ugly. It’s gonna be gut wrenching, but it will happen.” The economic freefall would begin, according to Limbaugh, because “California is going to declare bankruptcy” and Obama would force states like Texas to “bail them out.” California currently has a $4 billion budget surplus.

    Also, Ebola will wipe out entire communities and ISIL will kill the rest of us. I saw it on the Internets!!!

  7. JanF

    Jeb Bush is resigning from all the for-profit boards he is on in preparation for not wanting to be blamed for their outsourcing or low wages or Cayman Island tax havens.

    And in a bold move: Jeb Bush Resigns as George W. Bush’s Brother

    In the strongest sign to date that he intends to seek the 2016 Republican Presidential nomination, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush has officially resigned his position as George W. Bush’s brother.

    “No longer being related to his brother is a key step to clearing Jeb’s path to the nomination,” an aide said on New Year’s Day. “We expect his poll numbers to soar on this.”

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