On Voting Republicans Out Of Office

Did you miss the question about the Koran mentioning America? And if you don't want to answer that try explaining how denying the problem is going to fix it?

Ok coward?

Like the gang rapes they decided not to report on?

N0pe. More like this mook:
Wisconsin Gov. Walker refuses to answer evolution question
Source: Associated Press

Wisconsin Gov. Walker refuses to answer evolution question
By SCOTT BAUER, Associated Press | February 11, 2015 | Updated: February 11, 2015 4:21pm

MADISON, Wisconsin (AP) — Likely 2016 presidential candidate Scott Walker refused to say Wednesday whether he believes in the theory of evolution, dodging that question and several others about foreign policy after delivering a speech about global trade in London.

"I'm going to punt on that one as well," said Wisconsin's Republican governor when asked about evolution at the end of an hour-long appearance at the prestigious Chatham House think tank. "That's a question a politician shouldn't be involved in one way or the other. So I'm going to leave that up to you."

Walker, an evangelical Christian and the 47-year-old son of a Baptist preacher, also declined to answer a series of questions about foreign policy, including how the West should combat the Islamic State group, whether the U.S. should arm forces in Ukraine and whether it's wise for Great Britain to remain in the European Union.

"I don't think it's polite to respond on policy in the United States when you're in a foreign country," Walker said when asked about Islamic State. "That's certainly something I'll answer in the future."


Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/politics/article/Walker-meets-with-British-finance-minister-in-6075161.php


BTW, I loathe Hillary Clinton.

Oh. UK has a rape problem but the US doesn't.

Nitwit.

Jeb Bush dumps emails including social security numbers of Florida residents online

Jeb Bush, a rumored 2016 Republican presidential candidate, just decided to publish hundreds of thousands of emails sent to him during his time as governor of Florida. On its face it seems like a great idea in the name of transparency, but there's one huge problem: neither Bush nor those who facilitated the publication of the records, including the state government, decided to redact potentially sensitive personal information from them.

"In the spirit of transparency, I am posting the emails of my governorship here," a note on Bush's website says. "Some are funny; some are serious; some I wrote in frustration." Some also contain the email addresses, home addresses, phone numbers, and social security numbers of Florida residents. The emails are available in Outlook format, and can be searched on the web at Bush's website.

The Verge did not receive a response from Mr. Bush or his Political Action Committee's office at the time of publication.

""In the spirit of transparency, I am posting the emails of my governorship.""

We reviewed many of the emails released by Bush, and found a wide variety of communications — everything from religious parables, to praise of the governor's support of creationism, to routine bureaucratic correspondence. But some of the emails appear to be highly sensitive or personal. Many, like the one excerpted below, share tales of personal struggle or sorrow.

This is just a sharing...today..i feel beaten down... ... want to help many and hope I can get there some day....through my empowerment it will be a testament to my message and the ability to share my future resources...its a lonely road...so many seem actively against you...your back is to the wall...you have many another two months of business survival...

P.S. this is just sharing with a friend... please no action or follow-up or any communications or assistance sought of nay kind...its my struggle to work through and find a way...just feeling "beaten" today...at 37 I feel like 60 today .....and tomorrow will be better.

Confidential communications intended for indicated recipient only

Other emails include potentially sensitive details about government operations. One email reviewed by The Verge discussed termination of a Florida Lottery employee; the email revealed the reasons for his termination, including "conduct unbecoming a public employee, insubordination, and neglect of duty." The employee had emailed then-governor Bush to appeal for reinstatement. Bush followed up with a lottery official to see if his request could be granted.

Some include personal appeals from citizens with medical or employment issues. And a subset of these messages contain sensitive data like social security numbers, as in the email shown below. (The redactions are our own.)

SSN jeb bush

Another email, sent on behalf of a healthcare representative and shown below, contains information about a child with a life-threatening medical condition. The email exposes the child and mother's name, the mother's home state and phone number, her social security number, and her healthcare identification number.

SSN2

Florida's freedom of information laws are very broad. As Bush notes in the signature of many of his emails, "Florida has a very broad public records law," and "your email communications may therefore be subject to public disclosure." However, social security numbers in particular are protected. As Florida private attorney Richard A. Harrison tells The Verge, social security numbers are "both confidential and exempt" from public disclosure under state law. "They can be released only for the limited purposes specified in that section, of which this is not one," Harrison says. "It doesn't matter how an agency or official obtained the information; once obtained it is a public record and the SSNs are confidential and exempt under the law." But that doesn't mean the former governor is legally responsible for the data leak. Harrison says the state's legal custodian of records is charged with ensuring no confidential or exempt information is released.

Under Florida law, that custodian might get off with just a scratch. Violation of the public records statute in this circumstance is considered a "noncriminal infraction" that's punishable by a fine "not exceeding $500." Someone who knowingly or willfully violates the privacy law is subject to harsher penalties — but it might be pretty easy to avoid those given the immense size of the records.

Jeb Bush's camp was quick to shift blame to the state. Kristy Campbell, a spokesperson for Bush, told BuzzFeed News that the release is "an exact replica of the public records on file with the Florida Department of State and are available at anyone's request under Chapter 119 sunshine laws." Of course, that statement isn't entirely true, since social security numbers are definitely exempt (and confidential) under that same chapter of the law.

"Social Security Numbers are both confidential and exempt from disclosure under Florida law"

Many of the same emails Bush released today may have already been available online as of December, 2014, thanks to a request made by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting. Some publications, including The Washington Post and The Hill, combed the email records for policy insight, but did not appear to stumble upon sensitive personal information.

Obviously one of the lessons here is that you shouldn't email information to public officials that you want to keep private, at least not in Florida. But even if most of these emails are broadly subject to disclosure under the state's sunshine law, it's concerning that such a huge, indiscriminate data dump could include so much personal information. "Emails that bear on public decisions should be made public, but certainly emails with social security numbers or private medical information are not relevant to that," Bruce Jacob, a constitutional and criminal law professor at Florida's Stetson University told The Verge. "It's hard to imagine a court finding a persona guilty of a crime if it was a mistake, but certainly this is not a good thing for private information of that kind to be released."

At minimum, the data dump shows a serious ignorance of the volume of sensitive information in the records and a carelessness about their disclosure. And while a Florida bureaucrat may ultimately be to blame, it's not a good look for Jeb Bush — someone who called himself the first "eGovernor," and a man who may want to sit in the White House.

egovernor

Update, 3:10 PM: This story has been updated to include additional emails from the archive, as well as prior reports on the archive from December, 2014.

Update, 3:22 PM: Updated with a statement by a spokesperson for Jeb Bush.

Update, 3:53 PM: Time reporter Zeke Miller, reporting from a Q&A with Jeb Bush, reported on Twitter that Bush is now aware of the personal information in the email dump, and that it will be removed. Miller reports that Bush's PAC posted only what is already in the public record, echoing the statement given by Bush's spokesperson to BuzzFeed News. We're not sure how long that will take, or if Bush's PAC will take down the emails temporarily in the meantime (it will presumably take a while to scan through hundreds of thousands of emails), but we'll keep you updated.

Jeb on private info in emails: "we’re going to take it off"
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) February 10, 2015

Jeb says his PAC only posted what was in the public record but says they’ll remove the personal info
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) February 10, 2015

Update, 5:35 PM: Researchers are now poring over the email dump for personal information. It appears Bush's team, and perhaps Florida state government, will have lots of work to do if they want to purge the data from the records — and some explaining about how this happened. It's more than a few bits of personal information.

Ran a few tools over the Jeb Bush emails. And...yeah. Pages of SSNs, DOBs, CCNs in the output. pic.twitter.com/7CxpWlHDUM
— kamwoods (@kamwoods) February 10, 2015

Update, 11:00PM: The raw .pst files have now been removed from Jeb Bush's site. "We were informed that some personal information was available in the raw data so we removed these files," reads an error message. "You may still read these emails on the email calendar link, where we have redacted personal information we have been able to locate."

Jeb Bush's tech officer resigns after controversial tweets

By: Catalina Camia 23 hours ago Follow @ccamia


Jeb Bush’s chief technology officer said Tuesday night he resigned from his post, a day after he removed tweets from his personal account that the likely presidential candidate considered to be “inappropriate.”

Ethan Czahor announced his resignation from Bush’s political committee following an uproar about tweets dating back to at least 2009 that referenced women as sluts and made other derogatory comments about them. The deleted tweets were first reported by BuzzFeed, which published screen grabs of the messsages.

“The Right to Rise PAC accepted Ethan Czahor’s resignation today,” said Bush spokeswoman Kristy Campbell. “While Ethan has apologized for regrettable and insensitive comments, they do not reflect the views of Governor Bush or his organization and it is appropriate for him to step aside. We wish him the best.”

The Huffington Post reported earlier Tuesday that Czahor had once praised Martin Luther King Jr. for not speaking in “jibberish” or “slang” and for not wearing “pants that sagged to his ankles.” Czahor made those remarks while hosting a radio program in January 2008 at East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania.

After the controversy over Czahor’s old tweets erupted, Bush’s office sent out a statement Monday hailing him as a “great talent in the tech world” and said they were “very excited” to have him working for the Right to Rise PAC. Czahor is the co-founder of Hipster.com.

Czahor’s resignation came on the same day Bush published thousands of e-mails from his eight years as Florida governor on a new website. Bush is moving ahead with his consideration of a White House bid by making policy speeches, hiring staff and raising money for a likely 2016 campaign.

i only hope that my recent news won't dissuade future techies from entering politics, regardless of political affiliations/backgrounds…

— Ethan Czahor (@czahor) February 11, 2015

… and i've resigned my role at right to rise. best of luck to everyone there, and i apologize in advance to whoever fills my position.

— Ethan Czahor (@czahor) February 11, 2015

He's just pissed off because he can't enter the UK without the required vet's certificate.

Actually its because he doesn't speak the language very well. He wonders why UK doesn't speak English like the rest of the world.

Boehner rages against Dem obstruction.....Harry Reid trolls him right back

The GOP actually has to govern instead of block everything....and it isn't working out so well.....

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/house-gop-rebuffs-mcconnell

WASHINGTON — House Republican leaders on Wednesday flatly rejected a plea from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to pass a separate Homeland Security funding bill to avert a shutdown of the department on Feb. 27.

<...>

Boehner showed a flash of anger when pressed on the GOP's failing strategy.

"Why don't you ask the Senate Democrats when they're going to get off their ass and do something," he told reporters, "other than to vote no?"

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's (D-NV) office shot back at Boehner, with a hint of glee over GOP struggles to resolve the standoff.

"We know Speaker Boehner is frustrated but cursing is not going to resolve the squabbling among Republicans that led to this impasse," Adam Jentleson, Reid's spokesman, said in an email. "The Republican Congress is a mess, pure and simple."

He claimed Republicans are in this jam because Boehner and McConnell are "unwilling to stand up to Senator Cruz."

Like I said. He may be able to avoid the US press, but the British press are bulldogs, to strike an image.

And he pissed all over himself just like I knew he would. A punter for President? Who wants a President of such shallow depth he punts an easy question like that and to a friendly nation's press, yet. I bet he doesn't make four primaries.




"Governor Walker- Barbara Waters, Cosmopolitan Magazine - sir, our readers want to know: are you circumcised?"
"I'm going to punt that one .... that's not a question politician ought to be involved with one way or another."s

Republican Voters Responding to Walker’s Opposition to Knowledge

Borowitz

LONDON (The Borowitz Report)—Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is steadily rising to the top of the 2016 Republican Presidential field because voters are connecting with his “strong and consistent opposition to knowledge,” an aide to Walker said on Thursday.

While Republican candidates of the past, such as Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann, have capitalized on G.O.P. voters’ hostility toward verifiable facts, the aide said, “Compared to Scott, those two look like rookies.”

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/republican-voters-responding-walkers-opposition-knowledge

Jindal to leave Louisiana's next governor with budget mess
Associated Press
By MELINDA DESLATTE February 11, 2015 11:51 FILE - In this Feb. 9, 2015, file photo, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal talks about his plan for national education reform at a policy breakfast on Capitol Hill in Washington. His budget maneuvers have created shortfalls and hefty debts for the state's next governor. Now, the Republican is running out of short-term patches and is struggling to plug a $1.6 billion budget hole just as he tries to build support for a possible 2016 presidential run. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
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View photo
FILE - In this Feb. 9, 2015, file photo, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal talks about his plan for national education reform at a policy breakfast on Capitol Hill in Washington. His budget maneuvers have created shortfalls and hefty debts for the state's next governor. Now, the Republican is running out of short-term patches and is struggling to plug a $1.6 billion budget hole just as he tries to build support for a possible 2016 presidential run. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Year after year, Louisiana didn't have enough money to cover its expenses, yet Gov. Bobby Jindal refused to roll back income tax cuts or ever-increasing corporate tax breaks. Instead, he raided reserve funds and sold off state property.

Jindal suggested job growth from his economic development wins would replenish those assets once the recession ended. It hasn't — and money from the lucrative oil industry has taken a nose dive with crude prices. Now, the Republican is running out of short-term patches and is struggling to plug a $1.6 billion budget hole just as he tries to build support for a possible 2016 presidential run.

Funding for higher education and health care services will almost certainly be subject to cuts deeper than what they already have endured in recent years, and Jindal's successor will have to repay a string of debts and IOUs.

"They've used all the smoke that was in the can and all the mirrors that they could buy and now they're out of tricks. Their solution is to gut higher education like a fish," said Republican state Treasurer John Kennedy.

As for Jindal, he said in a recent interview that the shortfall isn't his fault, and he dodged any talk of his temporary fixes.

"The shortfall next year is almost entirely due to the declining revenues, and the vast majority of that is due to falling oil prices," he said.

The numbers, however, don't back up the governor's explanation.

More than $1 billion of the shortfall on the horizon for the fiscal year that begins July 1 can be tied to Jindal's refusal to match the state's spending to its yearly revenue over his two terms in office — as he also steadfastly refused to consider tax increases.

When Jindal took office in 2008, he positioned himself as a fiscal conservative who decried budget shell games akin to "using your credit card to pay your mortgage." It didn't take long to ditch that rhetoric and shift the focus to saving critical services with any money available.

Jindal scraped together what he could from all sorts of funds: railroad crossing safety, artificial reef construction, housing programs and the blind. He pieced together money from one-time legal settlements and property sales, using it to pay for continuing programs. Lawmakers went along, and Louisiana has careened from one budget crisis to the next as the dollars either don't pan out or the sources of financing dry up and need replacing.

"Our budget has been full of sleights of hand — it's almost a Ponzi scheme of moving moneys around, one-time money around, to serve recurring needs," Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne, one of the Republicans vying to be Louisiana's next governor, said at a recent forum.

In early February, national credit rating agency Moody's Investors Service described Louisiana's budget as having a "structural deficit," raising worries from Kennedy the state could be threatened with a rating downgrade that could make borrowing more difficult.

Jindal said those patchwork fixes aren't really "one-time dollars" because the state has similar types of money available to pull together annually. "They have been here year after year," he said.

The governor has successfully trimmed some spending by cutting more than 30,000 full-time state employees. He's reduced the state's vehicle fleet, privatized much of the Medicaid program, turned over the state's charity hospitals to outside managers and looked for ways to make state government more efficient.

That hasn't closed all the gaps, however, and Jindal's short-term solutions leave a string of debts for Louisiana's next governor to pay off.

The state owes $190 million to federal officials for improper Medicaid spending in hospital privatization deals, an order being appealed, and a $270 million repayment to the state "rainy day" fund in 2017 as part of a legal settlement. Economic development deals will cost the next governor at least $340 million over his first four years.

Far fewer savings accounts will be left to pay those liabilities because Jindal drained or reduced trust funds.

As complaints grew louder in recent years, the Jindal administration defended attacks from Democrats and conservative Republicans who decried budgets reliant on accounting gimmicks, claiming its budgeting protected needed programs without raising taxes.

When he talks of his record in national appearances, Jindal doesn't mention the budget troubles. He describes cutting Louisiana's budget from $34 billion in 2008 to $25 billion — but doesn't explain much of that drop comes from spending down one-time federal recovery dollars after hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The state's general fund, by comparison, has only dipped from $8.7 billion to $8.4 billion during Jindal's seven years in office.

Previous governors have used piecemeal financing to fill budget gaps over the years. Jindal's two immediate predecessors, Republican Mike Foster and Democrat Kathleen Blanco, each used up to $600 million in such "one-time" funding to stop cuts in particular years.

But Jindal's use of such financing reached new highs, a situation the chair of the Louisiana Democratic Party, state Sen. Karen Carter Peterson of New Orleans, called "a ticking time bomb."

New money hasn't rolled in, despite promises that tax revenue would increase from multibillion-dollar manufacturing and petrochemical projects announced by the Jindal administration in the last few years.

The escalating price tag for tax breaks has only made things worse.

In his first year in office, Jindal signed off on the largest individual income tax cut in Louisiana history, stripping hundreds of millions from the state treasury at the same time the national recession hit.

Meanwhile, the cost for the state's various tax credits, rebates and exemptions has ballooned by more than $600 million in the last five years alone, according to the Department of Revenue.

The Legislature's chief economist, Greg Albrecht, has described Louisiana's tax break programs as spending with no annual oversight from state lawmakers before the money goes out the door.

But Jindal considers any attempt to scale back a tax break equal to a tax hike and has successfully fought legislative efforts to rein in the state's giveaways.

As they ran into Jindal's resistance to tax break changes, lawmakers who voted for budgets packed with the governor's patchwork funding say removing the dollars would force harmful cuts to colleges, public safety and health care. For the upcoming session that begins in April, lawmakers are scrambling to find loopholes to generate new money but allow Jindal to call the plans "revenue neutral."

"Everybody says, 'Oh, you're using one-time money.' I tell people that say that, 'Well, tell me what you want to cut,'" said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Jack Donahue, a Republican. "'Is it higher education? Or is it health care? What university do you want to close?' The truth is, from a political standpoint, that's not possible."

Scott Walker's laid-off teacher story turns out to be a phony

http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/editorial/scott-walker-s-laid-off-teacher-story-turns-out-to/article_54823f49-58de-5e30-9526-6722b3be5f96.html

"SNIP.................


Scott Walker raised Wisconsin educators' eyebrows late last month when he told an Iowa audience that the 2010 "outstanding teacher of the year in my state" was laid off to make room for a teacher protected by union rules.

This was one of the reasons he fought so hard for Act 10 — his "bold way" of dismantling teachers unions and their contracts — Walker told the impressed Iowa Republican audience.

Many in Wisconsin education circles suspected the governor was telling yet another of his trademark fibs.

And, indeed, he was.




..................SNIP"[/img]

Hey it works for pedophile teachers, why not state officials?

Maybe he is child molester, too.

http://weaselzippers.us/214082-dem-billionaire-environmentalist-tom-steyer-has-deep-ties-to-the-oregon-corruption-scandal/

http://soopermexican.com/2013/02/10/vote-in-the-great-liberal-valentines-card-contest/

Shall we compare the things being obstructed?

Keystone XL, obliterating the affordable care act, voting against equal pay, infrastructure bills, woman's rights, raising the minimum wage, taxing the obscenely rich...????