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ProSense

Van Hollen: Boehner May Be Waiting Til After He’s Re-Elected Speaker To Cut Budget Deal

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) explained why he thinks House Speaker John Boehner can't get to yes on a budget deal before automatic, across the board tax increases and spending cuts take effect after New Years: Once he's re-elected Speaker he'll have greater flexibility to cut a deal.

"I'm getting increasingly concerned that one of the reason the Speaker is deciding to, I think, string out these discussions is that he wants to wait til January 3 when the election for Speaker takes place and he's concerned that any agreement he reaches if it violated the so-called Hastert Rule could undermine support for him in his caucus and make it more difficult on January 3," he told reporters at a Wednesday breakfast roundtable hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

cal04

Pelosi On Raising Medicare Eligibility Age: ‘Don’t Go There’

(TPM) House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Wednesday morning that she and other Democrats would "object" to raising the Medicare eligibility age in deficit reduction talks.

"Don't go there because it doesn't produce money," she said on "CBS This Morning." "Raising the retirement age does not get you that much money... so you're doing a bad thing when it comes to seniors and you're not achieving your goal" of lowering the deficit and improving the economy.

louis c

What "Right to Work" really means

First off, it's not "Right to Work". It's really not even "Right to Work for Less". The true description of these various laws is "The Unions are forced to represent workers who refuse to pay dues or an agency fee".

For instance, somebody gets hired at a good job at good wages. Let me use my little union as an example. Mutuel Clerks are part of the group I represent. Those are individuals that sell tickets to horse and dog racing patrons on races delivered to Boston from around the country (in the Summer, we have live racing). We have just completed a long and costly negotiation that increased our pay to nearly $20 an hour. In the other tracks in New England, the pay ranges from $12 and hour to about $16 an hour...

Lefty48197

Photos from the rally in Michigan

Melinda

Americans for Prosperity stages phony altercation at Michigan Right to Work rally

There’s a video on heavy rotation at Fox News, being massively retweeted by conservatives and Americans for Prosperity, where they talk about the “brutality” and “violence” of union members at today’s rally in Lansing, Michigan to protest Right to Work legislation. The video shows an Americans for Prosperity tent coming down on the front lawn of the Capitol Building.

As it turns out, American for Prosperity (AFP) themselves were responsible for at least one of the tents coming down. Tom Duckworth watched one of the folks that had been in the AFP tent go around and loosen the straps on the tent. According to Duckworth, “the tent came down from the INSIDE.”

kpete

Worst Marketing Decision Ever: Drycleaner Puts "Pro-life" Message on Their Hangers

There is a branch of anti-choice activists that will use pretty much anything as a medium for their message: newspaper ads, graphic signs displayed in front of schools, bus stop benches. You would think they would know well enough to leave one place untouched, though. Wire coat hangers.

You would be wrong.

fightthegoodfightnow

Confronted by NJ Princeton student, Scalia defends arguments that strike some as anti-gay

(AP) U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on Monday found himself defending his legal writings that some find offensive and anti-gay. Speaking at Princeton University, Scalia was asked by a gay student why he equates laws banning sodomy with those barring bestiality and murder.

Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin

Stephen Colbert Leading In South Carolina Poll To Replace Jim DeMint In Senate

(HuffPo) Stephen Colbert is the favorite choice of South Carolinians to replace Jim DeMint, who is vacating his U.S. Senate seat at the end of the year. According to a new poll released Monday afternoon by Public Policy Polling, Colbert tops the wish list of possible Senate replacements, with 20 percent polled wishing to send him to the Senate. His closest runner-up is Tim Scott at 15 percent.

Bucky

As I get older, I find myself becoming more conservative.

I'm 49. I may act like a kid most times, but there's no denying that I'm officially middle aged now. I have high blood pressure and a receding hairline. And even if I don't shout at them about it, I don't like it when those damned kids are on my lawn. That's a metaphor, of course. My "those damned kids" I mean Fox News and their Republican muppets. By "my lawn" I mean Medicare and Social Security. By "high blood pressure" I mean "hypertension"--which somehow sounds worse.

But I really am becoming more conservative as I age along...

michigandem58

School Districts Closed As Teachers Skip Work To Attend Protests (Michigan)

(CBS Detroit) School has been canceled in two Michigan school districts as hundreds of teachers are expected to call in sick Tuesday to join right-to-work protests in Lansing.

Taylor Public Schools will be closed down because of the high number of staff that have already called in, apparently to attend the demonstrations. Superintendent Diane Allen told WDIV-TV there won’t be enough teachers to cover classrooms. She said she had heard from a principal about where the teachers were going.