Motley Moose – Archive

  Make sure you let your peeps

  know where to find you!  

  Make sure you let your peeps

  know where to find you!  

  Make sure you let your peeps

  know where to find you!  

On November 4, 2014, Wisconsinites will have the opportunity to take back our state and undo a terrible mistake made in November 2010.

Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice? WI won’t be fooled again.

In a low-turnout midterm election, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker (R-Talk Radio) was elected governor of Wisconsin. He ran with money from national Republicans – including the Koch brother’s Americans For Prosperity (AFP) – and ideas from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), quietly promising his donors that he would do their bidding and destroy unions (and the family supporting jobs they represent), despoil our natural resources (and sell what’s left to the highest bidder), and defund our educational systems (and use that money to pay for tax breaks to the wealthiest): all things that Wisconsinites would never have consented to had they known.  

  Make sure you let your peeps

  know where to find you!  

From the White House – Weekly Address

This week, President Obama took action to lift more workers’ wages by requiring that federal contractors pay their employees a fair wage of at least $10.10 an hour. In this week’s address, he highlights that executive action and calls on Congress to pass a bill to raise the federal minimum wage for all workers.

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The domino effect …

From Justice Antonin Scalia’s DOMA dissent:

“As I have said, the real rationale of today’s opinion, whatever disappearing trail of its legalistic argle-bargle one chooses to follow, is that DOMA is motivated by ‘bare . . . desire to harm’ couples in same-sex marriages. How easy it is, indeed how inevitable, to reach the same conclusion with regard to state laws denying same-sex couples marital status.”

How easy, how inevitable, indeed. And disdainful eye-rolling by Justice Scalia becomes precedent for district court judges across the country.

Federal Judge: Virginia Gay Marriage Unconstitutional

A federal judge ruled Thursday that Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, making it the first state in the South to have its voter-approved prohibition overturned.

U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen issued a stay of her order while it is appealed, meaning that gay couples in Virginia will still not be able to marry until the case is ultimately resolved. Both sides believe the case won’t be settled until the Supreme Court decides to hear it or one like it.

Allen’s ruling makes Virginia the second state in the South to issue a ruling recognizing the legality of gay marriages.

“Through its decision today, the court has upheld the principles of equality upon which this nation was founded,” the plaintiffs’ lead co-counsel, Theodore B. Olson, said in a statement.

The Virginia Attorney General’s Office took the unusual step of not defending the law because it believes the ban violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. In her ruling, Wright Allen agreed.

Kentucky Judge Turns Gay Marriage Tide in the South

On Wednesday, a federal judge with deep ties to the Republican Party became the first in the South to rule in favor of gay marriage, offering the best proof yet that the balance in the nation’s long and contentious clash over how to define marriage has been tipped irrevocably in favor of gay rights.

The brief but remarkable ruling by U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn, a former lawyer for Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell who was put on the bench 22 years ago by President George H.W. Bush, invalidates a key part of Kentucky’s ban on gay marriage, and requires the state to recognize as valid same-sex unions sealed elsewhere.[…]

Borrowing heavily from Kennedy’s reasoning in last year’s decision, and in plain language aimed directly at the many voters in Kentucky who still oppose gay marriage, Heyburn found gay marriage laws are illegal for the simplest of reasons. At worst, he ruled, they are aimed at hurting gays and at best, are based on religious convictions that can’t pass constitutional muster.

“Kentucky’s laws treat gay and lesbian persons differently in a way that demeans them,” wrote Heyburn. Since none of the reasons put forward to justify that treatment can withstand constitutional scrutiny, he ruled that the laws are invalid.

More …

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Found on the Internets …

Walmart’s Labor Practices Backfire

“Walmart U.S.’s relentless focus on costs does seem to have taken some toll on in-store conditions and stock levels,” the note says in regards to understaffing. “[O]ur store visits over the last six months show a repeating pattern of stocking issues in many departments in the store.” When products aren’t on the shelves, that means Walmart can’t sell them, depressing overall sales. And if the shelves are empty and the lines are long, there may not be a reason for consumers to frequent the stores.[…]

The research report also points out that the labor struggles that have ignited around its poor practices have come with a cost, noting, “Today, Wal-Mart spends a good deal of time and money in hopes of easing Washington scrutiny, bolstering its corporate image and assuaging labor groups.” […]

Walmart says it pays full-time workers $12.78 an hour, on average, but other reports put average pay just over $8 an hour. Costco, on the other hand, pays workers nearly $22 an hour on average. Its sales are up 6 percent over last year.

Psstt!! Walmart!!! Spend some of that money to pay a living wage instead of fighting the regulators and maybe you will gain some goodwill (and business) from that. Just a thought.

Suicide Bomber Instructor Blows Up Suicide Bombers-In-Training

The commander of an Iraqi militant group accidentally killed 22 members of his unit Monday who were training to become suicide bombers after he conducted a demonstration with live explosives, the New York Times reported.

The Sunni militants belonged to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, also known as ISIS, according the Times. They have been engaged in fighting with the Iraqi government army and conducted suicide bombings throughout the country.[…]

An Iraqi army official described the commander as a “prolific recruiter,” adding that he was “able to kill the bad guys for once”.

More …