Greg Abbott, the Republican candidate for Governor of Texas, won't debate Wendy Davis, his Democratic challenger in this year's gubernatorial election in Texas:
Republican candidate Greg Abbott has reversed his decision to appear in the only gubernatorial debate to be broadcast statewide on television.
Abbott and his Democratic opponent, Wendy Davis, had both agreed to participate in a roundtable debate in Dallas on Sept. 30.
But on Friday morning, Abbott's team reversed an earlier decision and said it will not participate alleging concern over the format.
In other words, Greg Abbott broke his promise to Texas voters to debate Wendy Davis. Abbott originally agreed to the terms of the debate, but he turned around and complained about the terms of the debate, so he now refuses to debate Davis.
Greg Abbott has completely disrespected Texans by refusing to appear for a debate he originally agreed to.
Montana Democratic Party (MDP) officials nominated Amanda Curtis, a teacher and state legislator from Butte, to be the replacement Democratic nominee in this year's U.S. Senate race in Montana.
Unlike what Republicans and the mainstream media are saying about her, she's far more than some woman with a nose piercing.
As a state legislator, Curtis has opposed the proliferation of guns in Montana schools, has supported increased funding for Montana schools, has opposed efforts to privatize public education in Montana, and has supported voters' rights and stricter campaign finance laws. Sure, she might have a few non-progressive positions (after all, she's running in a statewide race in Montana), but she's supported many progressive causes.
Amanda Curtis would make a good U.S. Senator for Montana, and I encourage Montanans to vote for her on November 4.
On the afternoon of August 9, 2014, Michael Brown, a 17-year-old black male who was not armed and had no prior criminal record, was shot and killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis where two-thirds of the population is black, but the vast majority of the local police officers are white.
As a result of the senseless shooting of Brown, the FBI has opened a federal civil rights violation into the matter, and violent protests have taken place in Ferguson. While I believe that rioting and vandalism is the wrong thing for people to do, police crossed the line once again when they arrested Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post and Ryan J. Reilly of the Huffington Post, two journalists who were simply providing media coverage of the protests, for no valid reason.
Despite the fact that few elected officials in this country have made any attempt to address the issue of police brutality, police brutality is one of the most serious problems in our country.
Less than a month earlier, Eric Garner, a 43-year-old resident of New York City, was put in a chokehold by New York Police Department (NYPD) officer Daniel Pantaleo in violation of the NYPD's own protocol, and Garner died due of neck compression suffered as a result of being placed in a chokehold by a police officer. Additionally, there have been numerous incidents of police brutality in this country in the past few decades, most notably the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) beating of Rodney King in the early 1990's.
The culture of police brutality is absolutely rampant in this country, and there needs to be a large-scale effort to get rid of the culture of law enforcement officers beating, shooting, choking, and killing people when such force is not necessary. I have five ideas to end the rampant police brutality culture in this country:
Establish police review boards that have the power to review instances of police brutality and, with due process, fire law enforcement officers who use excessive force across the country
Train police officers on how much and what kind of force they can use in various situations
Ensure that hiring discrimination based on race, gender, etc. by law enforcement agencies is prohibited
Hire more minority police officers where whites make up a large part of the police force in areas with significant minority populations
Make instances in which a law enforcement officer uses excessive force that results in the death of one or more individuals punishable by manslaughter or murder charges
It's time to end the police brutality culture in this country.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and top state legislators are heading to Israel this week for a two-day visit as a "demonstration of solidarity" with that country in the conflict in Gaza, the Democratic governor announced Sunday.
Cuomo, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate co-leaders Dean Skelos and Jeff Klein will travel to Israel on Tuesday. Cuomo said the delegation would meet with Israeli leaders and visit residents affected by the fighting.
"Friends stand together in times of crisis, and I am proud to lead this bipartisan delegation to Israel to reaffirm our friendship and support," Cuomo said in a statement emailed to reporters.
If you thought Cuomo tampering with witnesses who testified before the Moreland Commission was bad (it's not only bad, it's illegal), this, in my opinion, is even worse. Cuomo, along with Democratic and Republican leaders in the New York State Legislature, publicly support an ongoing genocide that is being carried out by the Zionist, Benjamin Netanyahu-led government of Israel against Palestinian people.
To those who accuse me of being "anti-Israel" or "pro-Palestine", I'm not "anti-Israel" or "pro-Palestine" at all. I support the right of both Israel and Palestine to exist as sovereign countries. However, I don't support is the current Zionist government of Israel, and I don't support the current Hamas government of Palestine. Most importantly, I don't support genocide.
Zephyr Teachout, who is running against Cuomo in the Democratic primary (provided that the courts allow Teachout to run against Cuomo), won't be a shill for Israel or Palestine. She'll fight for progressive policies that will restore New York's middle class and improve the quality of New York's public education system. I strongly encourage Democrats in New York state to support Teachout for governor should her name appear on the primary ballot.
While Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois has proposed legislation to discourage these so-called "inversions", in which U.S. companies merge with foreign companies and then set up their new headquarters overseas, I'm going to go even further than Durbin's proposal, which, if enacted, would prohibit companies that undergo inversions from accepting federal contracts, and propose enacting a globalization tax, which would require companies that conduct any business in the United States to pay U.S. corporate taxes, regardless of which country their headquarters is located.
While the globalization tax wouldn't completely do away with economic globalization, it would certainly put the reins on the economic globalization that is hurting our country's economy and costing our country millions upon millions of dollars in tax revenue. While Senator Durbin's proposal is certainly a step in the right direction, we can certainly do more to discourage companies that do business in our country from moving overseas to avoid paying corporate taxes here.
Andrew Cuomo, the Governor of the State of New York, could have to face a federal criminal investigation for obstruction of justice and witness tampering.
Preet Bahara, the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, has issued a warning to Cuomo and his crones that he is threatening to investigate Cuomo and his cronies over Cuomo's closing of the Moreland Commission, which was tasked with weeding out political corruption in New York state government:
The letter from prosecutors, which was read to The New York Times, says, “We have reason to believe a number of commissioners recently have been contacted about the commission’s work, and some commissioners have been asked to issue public statements characterizing events and facts regarding the commission’s operation.”
“To the extent anyone attempts to influence or tamper with a witness’s recollection of events relevant to our investigation, including the recollection of a commissioner or one of the commission’s employees, we request that you advise our office immediately, as we must consider whether such actions constitute obstruction of justice or tampering with witnesses that violate federal law.”
If you need another reason to support Zephyr Teachout, who is running against Cuomo in the Democratic primary, there it is. Cuomo shut down the Moreland Commission because they were going to expose Cuomo for the morbidly corrupt politician that he is, and now federal prosecutors are seriously considering investigating Cuomo and his cronies.
I live in Illinois, the state that twice elected Rod Blagojevich, who was one of the most corrupt individuals to have ever held elected office in this country's history, and New York's Andrew Cuomo strikes me as another Blagojevich.
Stuart Mills, the Republican candidate in the 8th Congressional District of Minnesota who is running against Democratic incumbent Rick Nolan, recently hired Keith Gilkes, who has been implicated in two criminal investigations into violations of campaign laws by Republican Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, as a consultant:
GOP 8th District congressional candidate Stewart Mills has tapped into Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s political organization for his race against Democratic U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan.
A story on Minnesota’s 8th District race from the Rothenberg Political Report (behind a paywall) reported Mills has hired Keith Gilkes to serve as a general consultant for his campaign. A campaign spokeswoman said Gilkes is working with another group to “provide media and general consulting services to the campaign.”
Gilkes has a long track record of being associated with Walker and his long track record of corruption and cronyism. When Walker was the county executive of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Gilkes was one of several people (which also included Walker) who were implicated in Walker's corruption and cronyism, and, although neither Gilkes nor Walker were charged with any crimes from that investigation, six people connected to Walker were either convicted of, or plead guilty to, various criminal charges as a result of the probe. An ongoing, but officially stalled, investigation into Walker's corruption while Governor of Wisconsin has found that Walker, Gilkes, and two other people connected to Walker illegally coordinated with Republican/conservative outside groups, although neither Walker nor Gilkes have been charged with any crimes at this time.
Furthermore, Gilkes, then Walker's chief of staff, was one of two people, the other person being Walker, that fell for a prank caller who pretended to be David Koch, one of the Koch Brothers who have bankrolled Republican and conservative causes (including Walker's gubernatorial campaigns in Wisconsin), but was actually Ian Murphy, the editor of the online alternative newspaper The Beast. Gilkes, not realizing that the person on the other end of the line was a prank caller, forwarded Murphy's prank call to Walker, and Walker, also not realizing that the person on the other end of the line was a prank caller, admitted to using and planning to use vindictive, Nixonian tactics against Democratic members of the Wisconsin State Senate and also admitted to planning to illegally coordinate with Republican front groups:
Mills's ties to Wisconsin Republican corruption don't stop there. Earlier this year, Mike Ellis, the Republican Wisconsin State Senate President, admitted to planning to start his own SuperPAC in order to run attack ads against Penny Bernard Schaber, the Democratic candidate for the Wisconsin State Senate seat currently held by Ellis, and Ellis named Mills as one of the big-money donors who would have funded Ellis's planned illegal SuperPAC:
Ellis ended his re-election campaign not long after his plot to violate campaign finance laws became public knowledge.
Stuart Mills, who is a Republican candidate for Congress in Northeastern Minnesota, has extensive ties to flagrant political corruption that is rampant in the Republican Party of Wisconsin. The fact that he's hiring campaign operatives who once worked for Scott Walker, one of the most corrupt, vindictive politicians to have ever held public office in this country's history, is more than enough for me to say that a Mills victory would be an absolute disaster for Northeastern Minnesota.
