Vote BLUE in November!

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Kentucky – A very typical ‘Red State’

In 2014, vote Mitch McConnell OUT, by electing Alison Lundergan Grimes.

Turn Kentucky  BLUE!

http://alisonforkentucky.com/

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Related Post:

 

Creationists believe that the Flood began approximately 4,359 years ag0.

Scientists have found that dinosaurs went extinct by the end of the Cretaceous Period about 65 million years ago.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/04/18/creationist-carl-kerby-insists-dinosaurs-were-on-noahs-ark-they-took-the-younger-ones/

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4,359 years, or 65,000,000 years – Perhaps, a simple rounding error?

https://seattle98.wordpress.com/?s=noahs+ark

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Republicans More Likely to Have Constituents Who Use Food Stamps

Via: Time

When the House voted in September to cut $40 billion from the federal food-stamp program over 10 years, all but 15 Republicans supported the measure while not a single Democrat did so.

But according to a TIME analysis of county-by-county food-stamp-enrollment data compiled by the nonprofit Feeding America, it appears that House Republicans represent more districts with high levels of participation in the program than House Democrats.

Of the 350 congressional districts in which TIME was able to estimate the percentage of people enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), 76 had levels of 20% or higher.

Of those, 43 are held by Republicans while 33 are controlled by Democrats. (whoops!)

Interactive: Republicans More Likely to Have Constituents Who Use Food Stamps

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The Modern Day American ‘Debtor’s Prison’

Via: Huffington Post

Virginia Dickerson says she’s devoted the last three years to recovering from the drug problems that entangled her in the criminal justice system throughout her teens and 20s.

Now in her mid-30s, she’s been out of prison for more than a year, working 30 hours a week as a cook and server at a restaurant in Richland, Wash. She says she’s also looking for a full-time job, and volunteering for two organizations that help people overcome addictions and a third that provides arts programs to teens.

Still, if she fails to pay off the $8,000 in fines that she still owes county courts in southern Washington as a result of her arrests several years ago, she could end up right back in jail. District and Superior courts in Benton County ordered her to pay a total of $130 a month toward fines and fees stemming from two drug arrests in 2010 and 2011, one for possession of methamphetamines and the other for delivery. Dickerson was fined about $6,000 for her two drug charges, but has accrued about $2,000 in interest.

“I’ve done my time, and I’m doing anything in my power to clean up the wreckage of my past,” Dickerson said. “But I can’t pay the amount they want me to pay.”

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In Benton County, the problem is particularly severe; about 20 PERCENT of the jail population is there because of unpaid legal charges. The county’s District Court fines people for misdemeanors like driving without a license, and the Superior Court orders defendants who are convicted of violent crimes and property offenses to pay restitution to their victims. In both courts, defendants are often ordered to pay for the cost of their trials.

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Under the U.S. Constitution, Americans can’t be jailed for failing to pay their debts when the reason for their failure to pay is poverty. But in Washington and other states, county governments get around that by insisting poor defendants could find a way to pay if they simply tried hard enough. “You hear judges say, ‘Oh, you have a tattoo, you can pay,’” said Vanessa Hernandez, a co-author of the report. “Or, ‘Why don’t you just mow some lawns?’ There’s not a specific enough standard for whether they have the ability to pay.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/12/debtors-prisons-report_n_4768320.html

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Soaring number of elderly U.S. women live in EXTREME poverty

Via: Raw Story

According to the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), the number of elderly U.S. women who live in extreme poverty has spiked abruptly since the previous year. Think Progress reported that a study by the NWLC showed an 18 percent increase in the population of women over 65 who are living on LESS than $5,500 per year.

According to the study, in 2012, 135,000 more elder women were living in extreme poverty than in 2011, raising the national number to 733,000.

Alan Pyke at Think Progress wrote, <em>”Put another way, there are more elderly women living on $15 per day than there are residents of Detroit, Michigan.“

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Read more, HERE:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/28/soaring-number-of-elderly-u-s-women-live-in-extreme-poverty/

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“A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.”
– Mahatma Ghandi

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Louisiana Rated Worst State For Women

Women in the United States earn an average of 77 cents for every dollar that men make, face many barriers to reproductive health care and are significantly underrepresented in leadership roles.

But the worst state for women BY FAR is Louisiana, according to a state-by-state examination of these issues released Wednesday by the Center for American Progress.

In terms of economic security, health and leadership representation, the analysis rates Louisiana the lowest. Full-time working women in Louisiana earn only 67 percent of what men earn, on average, and more than one in five women and girls in Louisiana are currently living in poverty.

Only 12 percent of Louisiana’s congressional seats are held by women, and the state has one of the top 10 worst maternal mortality rates in the country. There is only one OB-GYN for every 13,136 women in Louisiana, and nearly 20 percent of non-elderly women in the state are uninsured. Louisiana also requires an ultrasound, waiting period and counseling session before a woman can have an abortion.

The report also considered in its ratings the state’s minimum wage, family leave policies, percentage of 4-year-olds enrolled in pre-K, the gender management gap and publicly funded contraceptive services.

Other states that earned an “F” overall in these categories are Utah, Oklahoma, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, Arkansas, South Dakota, Indiana and Georgia. (ALL Republican, imagine that!).

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Read more, HERE:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/25/worst-state-for-women_n_3984544.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

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Tell ya what I think might help.

In 2016, Elect Hillary Clinton President!
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Dr. Cornel West

Cornel Ronald West (born June 2, 1953) is an American philosopher, author, critic, actor, civil rights activist and prominent member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

West is a 1973 graduate of Harvard University and is currently employed as a Professor at Princeton University, where he teaches in the Center for African American Studies and in the Department of Religion.

West is known for his combination of political and moral insight and criticism and his contribution to the post-1960s civil rights movement.

The bulk of his work focuses on the role of race, gender, and class in American society and the means by which people act and react to their “radical conditionedness.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornel_West

(2 of 2) “… the true gold mines of culture”

“A test of people is how it behaves toward the old. It is easy to love children, even tyrants and dictators make a point of being fond of children.

But the affection and care for the old, the incurable, the helpless are the true gold mines of culture”

– Abraham J. Heschel (1907-1972)

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C.E.O. pay UP, new jobs pay . . .

via: Huffington Post

Despite a falling unemployment rate and encouraging signs of a healing economy, a new report suggests America is NOT adding the RIGHT kind of jobs.

Most newly-created jobs don’t pay enough to meet even the most basic of needs, according to a reportreleased by Wider Opportunities for Women on Friday.

The report came as a USA Today study found CEO pay climbing back to pre-recession levels. In data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national unemployment rate inched down to 8.8 percent from 8.9 percent.

But with wages virtually static, job creation modest and the cost gas and energy rising, the timing couldn’t be worse for low-wage workers, who are bearing the brunt of the recession that has seen state and federal governments slash their safety nets in the name of deficit reduction.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/01/ceo-pay-living-wage_n_843481.html

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There are two ways to reduce the deficit:

1. CUT costs

2. INCREASE Revenues (taxes)

Gawd forbid, I’m NOT suggesting taxes should be incrreased, but we need to generate BETTER PAYING JOBS.

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basic facts:

People with BETTER PAYING JOBS pay more taxes – federal, state, FICA, sales taxs, >>>

People with LOW PAYING JOBS, often need MORE government services.