TQ NEWZ: March 2011

Mar 31, 2011

Mar 30, 2011

O'REILLY TRUMPS TRUMP

For once (well, maybe it's more than once) Bill O'Reilly doesn't make me ashamed to be Irish. He hit the nail on the head. I know Trump doesn't believe it too. But what that MF does believe is that he's very smart and went to the best school and the rest of the American people aren't and didn't. Fuck him!

GE RIDES FREE

Dear MoveOn member,

According to The New York Times, last year General Electric (GE) made over $14.2 billion in profit, but paid NO federal tax.¹ None.

In fact, thanks to the millions GE spent lobbying Congress, we American taxpayers actually owed GE $3.2 billion in tax credits.²

Now GE is slashing health benefits and retirement benefits for new employees among non-union workers and is expected to push unions to accept similar cutbacks³, while its CEO, Jeff Immelt, gets a 100% pay raise.⁴

What's worse? Immelt now sits as chair of the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness (Jobs Council), representing corporate America to the President on matters like job creation and corporate taxation. That's a slap in the face to every hardworking, tax-paying American—especially GE employees.

That's why we're teaming up with Russ Feingold and his new group Progressives United today to call for Immelt to go. Will you join the call?

Sign the petition calling for GE CEO Jeff Immelt to step down as chair of the President's Jobs Council.

One of the chief ways GE avoids paying taxes is by shifting a large portion of its profits overseas, and jobs follow.⁵ Now GE's CEO is the person charged with helping the President create jobs here in America. That's just perverse.

And if the American people got back just the $3.2 billion GE took in tax credits, it would pay for the programs that House Republicans want to gut, like community health centers providing care to over three million low-income people⁶ and food and health care assistance to pregnant women, new moms, and children.⁷ We'd even have enough left to save the jobs of over 21,000 teachers across the country.⁸

The American deficit is being weighed down by hundreds of billions spent on bailing out major corporations. The tea party's plan is to make working families pay through devastating cuts, instead of making corporations with billions in profits pay their fair share.

But if we can hold Immelt accountable for GE's corporate irresponsibility, the nation will turn its attention to the injustice of corporate tax evasion in the face of the Republicans' budget-slashing attack on working families.

Make it all happen by signing the petition calling for Immelt to go. Just click below—and share this email with your friends, family, and social networks today.

http://pol.moveon.org/immelt_must_go/?id=26713-17630246-f38RRHx&t=2

Thanks for all that you do.

–Lenore, Tim, Marika, Kat, and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. "G.E.'s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes All Together," The New York Times, March 24, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=207259&id=26713-17630246-f38RRHx&t=3

2. Ibid.

3. "After Paying Zero Income Taxes, GE Plans To Ask Its Union Workers To Make Wage and Benefits Concessions", ThinkProgress, March 28, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=207260&id=26713-17630246-f38RRHx&t=5

4. "UPDATE: GE Doubles CEO Immelt's Compensation, Shrinks Board", Smart Money, March 14, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=207261&id=26713-17630246-f38RRHx&t=6

5. "G.E.'s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes All Together," The New York Times, March 24, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=207259&id=26713-17630246-f38RRHx&t=7

6. "NACHC Statement in Response to the Budget from the House Appropriations Committee," National Association of Community Health Centers website, February 9, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=206514&id=26713-17630246-f38RRHx&t=8

7. "Bye Bye, Big Bird. Hello, E. Coli.," The New Republic, February 12, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=206104&id=26713-17630246-f38RRHx&t=9

8. Based on an annual teacher's salary of $42,500, as noted in the Payscale website (updated March 19, 2011), accessed March 30, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=207263&id=26713-17630246-f38RRHx&t=10

Want to support our work? We're entirely funded by our 5 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.

PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. This email was sent to Terry Travers on March 30, 2011. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.

FW: Another exclusive download from Europe '72: The Complete Recordings

Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2011 15:25
From: GratefulDeadNews@e.dead.net
To: tenacraq blog
Subject: Another exclusive download from Europe '72: The Complete Recordings

Message body

On April 17, 1972 in Copenhagen, Denmark, the Dead played their first-ever live performance of "He's Gone," although you couldn't tell by the confidence of this version. You'll notice that the "Goin' where the wind don't blow so strange..." bridge is absent here, as it had not yet been incorporated into the song. It was added to the song later in the tour. Download this exclusive previously unreleased performance here.

As mentioned last week, while going through the monumental task of transferring, backing up and restoring the Europe '72 multi-track recordings, our team of engineers discovered several tracks that were not listed on any previously circulating track sheets or recordings. Here's the scoop on the latest uncovered track ...

4/21/72 Beat Club, Bremen: At this TV taping in a studio in Bremen, there is an alternate version of "Playing In The Band" to go along with the first version that circulates (we've always said 'you can't have enough 1972 versions of Playing In The Band...') and a very tight "Beat It On Down The Line." Of course, this discovery will be included in the Europe '72 boxed set and the All The Music edition.

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Mar 29, 2011

ABORTION: A BREAK IN THE FOOD CHAIN?

@tqnews8
Posted 5 mins ago
I haven't been able to figure out the right's obsession with abortion. I would guess that if every aborted fetus from the inception of Roe v. Wade to 1989-90 had been born and were eligible to vote today, the vast majority of those poor souls would not be conservatives. Is it that they're so confident of their ultimate victory that they overlook that possibility and are just counting on the increased population of the downtrodden as a future source of slave labor? I hesitate to believe that "soylent green" has anything to do with it. On the other hand...

Ry Cooder - Maria Elena

Mar 28, 2011

BEASTiality

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MARCH 28, 2011

Rebels Aim for Gaddafi's Hometown

Have the Libyan rebels gotten their act together? They retook several key towns along 150 miles of coastal road over the weekend-and are aiming now for Muammar Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte. A rebel spokesman says that they have, in fact, already retaken Sirte after finding it unprotected. The Guardian says, however, there is "no sign the city has fallen." The rebels have also retaken the oil-rich towns of Brega and Ras Lanuf, which could provide them with revenue. Leslie H. Gelb writes that President Obama's speech tonight will convincingly explain U.S. policy toward Libya, and that while he won't say anything new-like committing to removing Gaddafi by force-he will say it better.

Read it at The Daily Beast

New Photos from Army 'Kill Team'

Rolling Stone has published new photographs and video of the alleged crimes of 12 U.S soldiers in Afghanistan accused of forming a "kill team" to murder Afghan civilians. The images feature several mutilated corpses, and the video shows two U.S. soldiers, believed to be members of the "kill team," shooting two Afghans on a motorcycle. Rolling Stone says the Army tried to cover up the photos in its efforts to avoid an Abu Ghraib like scandal: They deleted files from the computers of more than a dozen soldiers and even went to soldiers' families' homes to confiscate copies of the files. Rolling Stone says, "the Army may also have been trying to keep secret evidence that the killings of civilians went beyond a few men in 3rd Platoon."

Read it at Rolling Stone

Japan: Partial Meltdown Occurred

After indications to the contrary, it turns out that a partial meltdown did, in fact, occur at the No. 2 reactor at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant in Japan: Water 100,000 times more radioactive than usual is ''believed to have temporarily had contact with fuel rods [in the reactor's core] that have partially melted," according to Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano. The water is so radioactive that relief workers can only be near it for 15 minutes before falling ill. Workers are currently laboring to remove radioactive water from reactor No. 1 using three pumps.

Read it at Kyodo News

White House to Offer $20B in Cuts

The White House and Senate Democrats are preparing to offer $20 billion in new spending cuts in order to avoid a government shutdown-but will it be enough for the Tea Party? The offer, which is Democrats' highest yet, comes on top of $10 billion in cuts that have already been enacted. The House GOP, however, has so far stood by its demand for $61 billion in cuts as it faces pressure from the Tea Party activists. Congress returns from recess Monday and has until April 8 before funding runs dry.

Read it at The Wall Street Journal

Libya Claims Arrests in Rape Case

Libyan authorities say they have arrested five men after a woman burst into a hotel where foreign journalists were staying and claimed to have been raped. The woman, Iman al Obeidi, is reportedly a law school graduate, but a Libyan spokesman said she was a prostitute. Despite the arrests-which include the son of a high-ranking Libyan police officer-Obeidi has not been seen since Sunday. Libyan authorities say she is with her family and may soon participate in do interviews.

Read it at Sky News

Facebook May Hire Robert Gibbs
To handle company's communications.

Super Glue Inventor Dies
Harry Coover was 94.

Amy Adams to Play Lois Lane
In Zach Snyder-directed Superman.

Clinton: No Syria Intervention
Despite growing violence.

Simpsons Nuclear Jokes Cut
In Germany, Switzerland, and Austria.

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Eman al-Obeidi's Rape Accusations Against Gaddafi's Regime
by Eliza Griswold

The Libyan government said late Sunday that Eman al-Obeidi, the woman who burst into a Tripoli hotel and tried to tell foreign journalists about being raped by Gaddafi's men, has been released. But no one who knows al-Obeidi has heard from her. Eliza Griswold explains why the case may reveal brutal new war crimes against Libya's women.

25 Smartest College Towns
by The Daily Beast
With the NCAA Tournament Final Four now set, The Daily Beast crunches the numbers for the second time to find America's smartest-and dumbest-college towns.

The Trouble With Britney Spears
by Jacob Bernstein
Britney Spears is promoting a new album, though it's unclear if she's fully recovered from her breakdown. But industry sources tell Jacob Bernstein that won't hurt her career.