May 10, 2013

“Texas has always prided itself on its free-market posture. It is the only state that does not require companies to contribute to workers’ compensation coverage. It boasts the largest city in the country, Houston, with no zoning laws. It does not have a state fire code, and it prohibits smaller counties from having such codes. Some Texas counties even cite the lack of local fire codes as a reason for companies to move there.

But Texas has also had the nation’s highest number of workplace fatalities — more than 400 annually — for much of the past decade.”

After Explosion, Texas Remains Wary of Regulation - NYTimes (via brooklynmutt)

Yeah… and no OSHA requirements or a state income tax, either… We’re a ridiculous state, and I can’t rationally think of why I love it, but then I remember Austin and I say, “oh… yeah.”

(via brooklynmutt)




Tagged: Texas / GOP / TXLege / Session / Politics / Government / State /

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February 28, 2013

#VAWA's Final Roll Call Vote

I’m just going to leave this here to remind people of who and what they’re voting for in 2014.  

(ALL) Elections Matter.  (ALL) Elections HAVE CONSEQUENCES!



Tagged: VAWA / Violence Against Women Act / Women / Women's Rights / Women's Issues / Politics / Government / Elections / 2014 /

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January 26, 2013

“You can do polling and find that people who self-describe as pro-life actually believe in the rights of women to have access to abortion. These political labels mask what’s actually happening in this country.”

Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards talks to Brian Lehrer about why her organization wants to move beyond “pro-life” and “pro-choice.” Listen. (via wnyc)

(via kileyrae)




Tagged: Planned Parenthood / Cecile Richards / Politics / Government / Women / Women's Issues / Women's Rights /

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JFK keepsakes belonging to close pal up for auction

Was just about to go to sleep when I saw this… OMG!  OMG! OMG!!  

OMG!  JFK’s Air Force BOMBER JACKET?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Auction Catalog Here.

It’s so weird how my brain things… this morning, I woke up wondering about the golf clubs from the Estate Sale of Jackie Kennedy.  And, as I’m going to bed… another auction.  OMG, OMG, OMG! 

I’ll just let you know on Sunday what items I am salivating over?  But that Bomber Jacket?  Holy hell that would be cool.  

ETA: HOLD ME NOW…. Jack and Jackie’s WEDDING INVITATION!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?1?1/1/1

I’m dying.  Dying.  DYING!!!!!! 

_________________

E(again)TA: OMG… a SIGNED Wedding photo by both Jack and Jackie?

I’m only on page 14-15… Good LORD… I’m only on page 14-15!!!

I may faint.  

_____________________

E(final time)TA: I think I lost consciousness somewhere around an ORIGINAL (not reproduction) of the Kennedy for President 1960 campaign poster.  

OMG.  I’m going to sleep…. before I get to the bomber jacket.  



Tagged: JFK / John F. Kennedy / Jack Kennedy / David Powers / History / Politics / Government / News /

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January 25, 2013

“From Griswold, to Roe, to Casey, our courts have recognized that these personal decisions — the ability to take ownership of your own reproductive destiny — are inherent in the liberty and equality our Constitution protects. As we approach the next major reproductive rights case to reach the Supreme Court, the question now is whether those rights will be made subject to the religious beliefs of others.”

From On the 40th Anniversary of Roe v Wade, Why Talk About Birth Control?



Tagged: Roe v Wade / SCOTUS / Birth Control / Women's Rights / Women's Health / Women / Feminism / Women's Economic Freedom / Women's Issues / Planned Parenthood / News / Government / Affordable Care Act / ACA / Obamacare / Obamacares /

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January 24, 2013

"The Texas congressman, who is three weeks into his second term after a 16-year hiatus from the House, is almost certainly the only member of Congress to have been caught with 30 mg of valium hidden in a cellophane wrapper in his underwear. He's defended militia groups; accused an attorney general of "premeditated murder"; appeared on a Holocaust-denying radio program; waged a one-man war against Alfred Kinsey; compared his constituents—favorably—to Branch Davidians; and traveled to Denmark to protest climate change while wearing a red blindfold. The man who bested his 2012 opponent by 44 points isn't the most ballyhooed of incoming lawmakers. He's just the nuttiest."

motherjones:

Meet Steve Stockman, the (two-time) freshman Republican who wants to impeach Barack Obama because GUNS.

Because of course he’s from Texas… 



Tagged: Texas / Congressmen / GOP / Politics / Government /

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January 23, 2013

BuzzFeed Politics: Ron Johnson: Hillary Clinton Planned To Get Emotional To Evade Questions

In you’ve got to be kidding me news today: 

“I’m not sure she had rehearsed for that type of question,” Johnson told BuzzFeed Wednesday afternoon, after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. “I think she just decided before she was going to describe emotionally the four dead Americans, the heroes, and use that as her trump card to get out of the questions. It was a good way of getting out of really having to respond to me.”

Go to the link and read the rest, because I cannot… just.. cannot. 



Tagged: Hillary Clinton / Ron Johnson / Links / News / Government / Politics / Women / Women's Issues / Women's Rights / Feminism /

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think-progress:

A must see: Hillary Clinton SCHOOLS a Tea Party senator.



Tagged: Hills / Hillary Clinton / politics / government /

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whiferdill: texnessa: theweekmagazine: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton momentarily lost her cool Wednesday morning during a hearing on the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, blasting Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) after he accused the White House of misleading the public about the attack. (Watch the video here) Johnson started things off by dismissing her assertion that the immediate aftermath of the attack was too chaotic for the State Department to “interfere” and determine the precise nature of the attack. “I realize that’s a good excuse,” Johnson said. “Well, no, it’s the fact,” Clinton tartly responded.  Johnson continued to assail the administration for its initial claim that the attack stemmed from a spontaneous riot. That’s when Clinton went off (it starts around the 2:55 mark in the video above): “With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans! Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they’d go kill some Americans? What difference, at this point, does it make?” She went on to say, “It is our job to figure out what happened, and to do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again, senator.” Democrats have long viewed the GOP’s obsession with Benghazi as a political witch hunt, and Clinton’s impassioned response is already being seen as an expression of frustration at how Republicans have politicized the issue. Republicans, on the other hand, suggest that Clinton herself is the one politicizing the issue. On Benghazi, Clinton gets mad Photo: AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais You go girl. I am currently watching Department of State Friend rip our undergrad Conservative Political Science Professor a new one over this on Facebook. It’s glorious.  You’re messing with Hill’s legacy… I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Senator… 

whiferdill:

texnessa:

theweekmagazine:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton momentarily lost her cool Wednesday morning during a hearing on the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, blasting Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) after he accused the White House of misleading the public about the attack. (Watch the video here) Johnson started things off by dismissing her assertion that the immediate aftermath of the attack was too chaotic for the State Department to “interfere” and determine the precise nature of the attack. “I realize that’s a good excuse,” Johnson said.

“Well, no, it’s the fact,” Clinton tartly responded. 

Johnson continued to assail the administration for its initial claim that the attack stemmed from a spontaneous riot. That’s when Clinton went off (it starts around the 2:55 mark in the video above): “With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans! Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they’d go kill some Americans? What difference, at this point, does it make?”

She went on to say, “It is our job to figure out what happened, and to do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again, senator.”

Democrats have long viewed the GOP’s obsession with Benghazi as a political witch hunt, and Clinton’s impassioned response is already being seen as an expression of frustration at how Republicans have politicized the issue. Republicans, on the other hand, suggest that Clinton herself is the one politicizing the issue.

On Benghazi, Clinton gets mad

Photo: AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

You go girl.

I am currently watching Department of State Friend rip our undergrad Conservative Political Science Professor a new one over this on Facebook. It’s glorious. 

You’re messing with Hill’s legacy… I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Senator… 



Tagged: hillary clinton / benghazi / politics / government / secretary of state / foreign affairs /

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January 15, 2013

“The mere absence of war is not peace. The mere absence of recession is not growth. We have made a beginning—but we have only begun. Now the time has come to make the most of our gains—to translate the renewal of our national strength into the achievement of our national purpose.”

–President Kennedy, 1963 State of the Union Address, January 14, 1963 (via jfklibrary)



Tagged: State of the Union / JFK / Presidents / Politics / Government / Inauguration / Jack Kennedy / John F. Kennedy /

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