May 28, 2015

Ted Cruz — who voted against Hurricane Sandy aid — calls for federal relief following Texas floods

Oh lookie here...


Texas Sen. and Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz — who voted against aid in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy — called for federal relief Wednesday in the wake of devastating floods and storms that have ravaged his home state.

The Tea Party darling said he supports “the federal government fulfilling its statutory obligations, and stepping in to respond to this natural disaster,” in regards to the barrage of storms that have left at least 21 people dead and 11 others missing.

Cruz, 44, voted against a federal disaster relief bill after Sandy ravaged the East Coast in October 2012 calling the measure “symptomatic of a larger problem in Washington – an addiction to spending money we do not have.”

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ted-cruz-calls-federal-flood-relief-texas-article-1.2238227


Stop being a TAKER Ted. Now you know you'l be branded a socialist if you take it

May 20, 2015

This you have to see!!!!

‘N--ga House’ Search Takes You to the White House on Google Maps

This vandalization of Google Maps proves how deep-seated America’s race problem is.

BY: YESHA CALLAHAN
Posted: May 20 2015 7:16 AM

http://www.theroot.com/blogs/the_grapevine/2015/05/_n_ga_house_search_takes_you_to_the_white_house_on_google_maps.html

Google Maps has been vandalized, and its recent victim is the White House. The service, which relies on its users to make sure listings are accurate, is now in the spotlight after a user discovered that searching for “n--ga house” will have the map point you to the White House.

How does this happen? Many suspect it’s caused by what’s known as a “Google bomb." Users bombard sites with keywords that link to a certain page, and doing this can trick Google and mess up its algorithms. Another way to have something like this happen is if a user creates a fake business listing using a particular address and then moves that business to another address, such as 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

There’s no telling how long “n--ga house” has been on Google Maps, but last month, Edward Snowden’s residence was listed as 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. as well. In addition to the White House’s location being vandalized, Howard University and the University of Maryland’s College Park campus also have locations referring to them as “n--ga campus” and “n--ga university.”

On Wednesday morning, Google issued an apology for the listing.

“Some inappropriate results are surfacing in Google Maps that should not be, and we apologize for any offense this may have caused. Our teams are working to fix this issue quickly.”

If you ever needed any more proof that America has a race problem, I’m sure Google Maps can point you in the right direction.


* I tried it and it took me to the White House*

May 15, 2015

Rethugs wanted to get rid of Amtrak some time ago..

Mica revives Amtrak privatization effort
By Keith Laing - 02/12/13 09:48 PM EST


Former House Transportation Committee Chairman Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) is aiming at of his favorite targets when he led the panel, Amtrak, with legislation to end its "monopoly" on rail service. The legislation mirrors a 2011 House Republican effort to privatize Amtrak service in the Northeast that was unsuccessful when moderate suburban Republicans joined Democrats on the transportation panel in opposition to eliminating the rail company's federal funding.

Mica vowed Tuesday to press ahead with his rail privatization plan anyway, however.“Since 1971, Amtrak has run a costly monopoly with Soviet style operations,” Mica said in a statement.

"The debate in Congress over the last 40 years since Amtrak was created…a lot of Republicans say 'it's a disaster, sell it off, let the private sector do it'," Shuster continued in his post-2012 elections comments.

“Four years ago President Obama promised to provide access to most of the nation to high speed rail in 25 years," Mica said. "Since then, his costly proposals have been rejected by at least three states; his California boondoggle is over budget and focused on a route with few passengers; his Midwestern route is a slow-speed excuse for high speed rail; and his all-government Northeast corridor project has soared to $151 billion and a 30-year timetable.”

During his tenure as Transportation Committee Chairman, Mica repeatedly held hearings about Amtrak's financial operations. He memorably went to a Capitol Hill area McDonald's to order a $1 burger and $1 fries to argue that Amtrak was spending too much on its onboard concession sales.

http://thehill.com/policy/transportation/282593-mica-revives-gop-amtrak-privatization-effort

--------------------------

GOP: Amtrak really needs to get out of the commuter rail business

POSTED AT 8:01 PM ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2012 BY ERIKA JOHNSEN

Heartily seconded, Chairman Mica. Via The Hill:

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee released a report Tuesday arguing that Amtrak should privatize more of its rail service, which has been a longtime Republican goal.

“We already know that Amtrak’s losses in food and beverage service are a staggering $833 million over the last decade,” Transportation Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) said in a statement.

“Now we know that Amtrak wastes the taxpayers’ money bidding on commuter rail contracts that it cannot win, and that hundreds of millions of dollars in savings can be realized if the private sector is given a chance to compete with Amtrak in commuter rail and passenger rail service,” he continued. …

Mica has frequently referred to Amtrak as a “Soviet-style operation.” Amtrak, which was founded by Congress in 1971 to replace a network of private railways, receives an approximately $1 billion subsidy from the federal government every year.

http://hotair.com/archives/2012/09/11/gop-amtrak-really-needs-to-get-out-of-the-commuter-rail-business/

May 13, 2015

House Republicans vote to cut Amtrak funding one day after crash

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/democrats-and-republicans-debate-amtrak-cuts-day-after-crash

By Benjy Sarlin

The deadly derailment of an Amtrak train Tuesday hovered over an ongoing infrastructure debate the next day on Capitol Hill, where a bill to slash rail subsidies came under fire from Democrats who cited the disaster in opposing the cuts, while Republicans bristled at efforts to link the incident to Amtrak spending. The measure passed along partisan lines after the House committee repeatedly voted down Democratic amendments aimed at boosting funding for Amtrak.

At a previously scheduled House Appropriations markup of a Transportation, Housing and Urban Development funding bill, Democratic members demanded more spending for capital investments in rail service and for agencies that oversee safety. The bill, which covers a variety of infrastructure and housing agencies and programs, would cut Amtrak funding to $1.13 billion from $1.4 billion.

After Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) told the committee that Congress had “failed to invest in their safety,” an irate Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) accused him of exploiting the incident.
“You tied it directly to an accident and a tragedy and suggested because we hadn’t funded it that caused that accident and you have no idea what caused it – and that’s a shame,” Simpson said.

Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY), who noted that he’s ridden Amtrak exclusively to his Bronx district over his 25 years in the House, said that Congress should be open to the possibility that inadequate funding had contributed to the crash.

“We cut their budgets, we reduced their spending,” he said. “Maybe last night, while not mixing one tragedy with our local or in-House politics, maybe last night is something we should look at to see what if any of that is caused by infrastructure deficiencies.”


*This is going to get really really ugly

May 12, 2015

Citizens United head’s mother-in-law calls immigrants ‘rats and roaches’ during GOP event

ARTURO GARCIA
11 MAY 2015 AT 21:24 ET

A woman identified as the mother-in-law of Citizens United Foundation head Dave Bossie was cheered for disparaging remarks about immigrants during the South Carolina Freedom Summit on Saturday, the Huffington Post reported.

The woman was asked to speak during a focus group conducted by Republican pollster Frank Luntz. Footage of the event shows Luntz joking that Bossie told him he would “kick [his] butt” if he ended the session without asking her what advice she would give GOP presidential candidates in the 2016 election.

“One man, one vote. People are comin’ in this country across the borders like rats and roaches in the wood pile,” she says, drawing applause. “We’ve got a state like Minnesota that says it’s not our business to check ’em out, we just register ’em. We’ve got to get control. That’s what they need to know.”

“Years ago, I might have been a Democrat,” she says. “But I saw the problem and I went to the Republican Party. I didn’t wait for them to come looking for me. Why do these young people have to be solicited? We are all intelligent people. We need to be voting our convictions and choose a party.”

The audience cheers again when Luntz asks, “How many of you would vote for her for president?”

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/citizens-united-heads-mother-in-law-calls-immigrants-rats-and-roaches-during-gop-event/



"When people show you who they are, believe them"--Maya Angelou

May 6, 2015

With the latest Chlamydia outbreak among teens in Texas, Mn. Pat Robertson has alot to say about it.

May 4, 2015

This morning I heard the funniest thing...

Ben Carson is officially running for POTUS. It was really difficult to type this.