Employees' Jobs Threatened if they Vote for Obama, Romney Encourages It

With encouragement from Mitt Romney, a number of employers have told their employees that, if they vote for President Obama on November 6th, it will cost them dearly.  They have been informed that if they vote for Obama, they may have their hours cut back . . . lose their insurance . . . or lose their jobs.

This is not a joke.  I wish it were.

As illegal as this tactic sounds, I was shocked to learn that the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United ruling makes this sort of employee intimidation and coercion completely legal!

If there was any doubt in your mind that next week's election has far-reaching consequences -- well beyond who occupies the White House for the next 4 years -- this ought to put your doubt to rest.

This is all the more reason why we need to do everything we can to encourage everyone we know to vote on November 6th.

Because, if we don't -- they will.


Please share this information with your friends.  It's not just our country, but our entire Democracy that is at stake.


Here's a few quotes from the articles (links to articles follow below):

"Terry McTaggart, the president of a Michigan convenience store, liquor and home heating conglomerate, sent his employees a letter this month suggesting they vote for GOP nominee Mitt Romney and threatening to cut their hours in order to save money under President Barack Obama's health care reform law.

McTaggart joins a handful of CEOs who have urged their employees to oppose Obama, including Westgate Resorts founder David Siegel and the Koch Brothers. Corporations were banned from pressuring their employees on voting for decades, but the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision freed employers to campaign among their workers as a form of free speech.

Romney has encouraged employers to pass their views along to their employees. The National Federation of Independent Business, which almost exclusively backs GOP candidates, will host an event this week to educate bosses on how best to pressure their workers come Election Day."


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/17/mitt-romney-employees-voting_n_1975636.html


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/28/terry-mctaggart-forward-corporation-obamacare_n_2034907.html?ref=topbar


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/27/us/politics/bosses-offering-timely-advice-how-to-vote.html?pagewanted=all


http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/10/can-your-boss-threaten-to-fire-you-if-you-dont-vote-for-romney/263709/
   
 

Romnesia Alert Issued

  

WARNING: U.S. Health Alert Issued Earlier Today

The Federal Center for Disease Control issued a warning earlier today that an outbreak of Romnesia has been identified in several states and is spreading rapidly. All Americans are advised to remain calm, but to be alert for common symptoms, which include:

Rapidly shifting statements of your positions and beliefs
Shortness of memory
Discomfort with 47% of Americans
Absence of self-awareness


Additional Romnesia symptoms may include:
believing women dwell in binders;  mistaking corporations for actual people;  confusing your dog with your luggage;  eagerness to randomly and casually make $10,000 bets;  not knowing which of your houses your key unlocks;  and believing $200,000 to $250,000 is middle-class income


At risk groups include:
women, seniors, students, the working class, immigrants, gays and lesbians, scientists and researchers, and the easily deceived

The risk to your health remains high.


This afternoon, President Obama issued an urgent statement to all Americans regarding Romnesia:  (it's pretty funny!)

The FCDC reminds you to take all necessary precautions when you vote on Tuesday, November 6th in order to prevent Romnesia from reaching epidemic proportions.



If you found this announcement helpful, you may also like:  
37 Reasons You Might Want to Vote Republican:
http://johnsvor.blogspot.com/2012/10/37-reasons-you-might-want-to-vote.html 

FDR's Post-Crash 1936 Speech Provides Surprising Parallel to 2012 Election

The parallels between the recovery in 1936 and in 2012 are unexpectedly surprising. In many ways, FDR could have been describing the circumstances of the past 4 years and the current political climate . . .



[note: the following introduction is taken from David Remnick's 10/13/12 New Yorker blog]:

In 1936, Franklin Roosevelt was faced with a vicious reelection campaign. He was vilified for the New Deal reforms. The word “boondoggle” was popularized in the U.S. the year before to describe alleged abuses of the New Deal. Opposition politicians and critics compared F.D.R. to Lenin. The Depression was still on, and unemployment, which had dropped significantly, was still high, over fourteen per cent. What Roosevelt had going for himself was a real set of policies and the capacity to speak on their behalf—a willed capacity to state things plainly, forcefully, and effectively. Never more so than on September 29, 1936, at the New York Democratic State Convention, in Syracuse.

Excerpts from FDR's speech to the New York Democratic State Convention 9/29/1936:

The task on our part is twofold: First, as simple patriotism requires, to separate the false from the real issues; and, secondly, with facts and without rancor, to clarify the real problems for the American public.

There will be—there are—many false issues. In that respect, this will be no different from other campaigns. Partisans, not willing to face realities, will drag out red herrings as they have always done—to divert attention from the trail of their own weaknesses.

This practice is as old as our democracy. Avoiding the facts—fearful of the truth—a malicious opposition charged that George Washington planned to make himself king under a British form of government; that Thomas Jefferson planned to set up a guillotine under a French Revolutionary form of government; that Andrew Jackson soaked the rich of the Eastern seaboard and planned to surrender American democracy to the dictatorship of a frontier mob. They called Abraham Lincoln a Roman Emperor; Theodore Roosevelt a Destroyer; Woodrow Wilson a self-constituted Messiah.



In the spring of 1933 we faced a crisis which was the ugly fruit of twelve years of neglect of the causes of economic and social unrest.

Most people in the United States remember today the fact that starvation was averted, that homes and farms were saved, that banks were reopened, that crop prices rose, that industry revived, and that the dangerous forces subversive of our form of government were turned aside.

A few people- a few only—unwilling to remember, seem to have forgotten those days.



Why did that crisis of 1929 to 1933 pass without disaster?

The answer is found in the record of what we did.

We met the emergency with emergency action.



Let me warn you and let me warn the Nation against the smooth evasion which says, "Of course we believe all these things; we believe in social security; we believe in work for the unemployed; we believe in saving homes. Cross our hearts and hope to die, we believe in all these things; but we do not like the way the present Administration is doing them. Just turn them over to us. We will do all of them- we will do more of them we will do them better; and, most important of all, the doing of them will not cost anybody anything."

But, my friends, these evaders are banking too heavily on the shortness of our memories. No one will forget that they had their golden opportunity—twelve long years of it.

Remember, too, that the first essential of doing a job well is to want to see the job done. Make no mistake about this: the Republican leadership today is not against the way we have done the job. The Republican leadership is against the job's being done.



You cannot promise to repeal taxes before one audience and promise to spend more of the taxpayers' money before another audience. You cannot promise tax relief for those who can afford to pay, and, at the same time, promise more of the taxpayers' money for those who are in need. You simply cannot make good on both promises at the same time.



Who is there in America who believes that we can run the risk of turning back our Government to the old leadership which brought it to the brink of 1933?

Franklin Delano Roosevelt




You can watch or read FDR's entire speech here:
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=15142 


Here is a link to Davdi Remnick's New Yorker article which brought FDR's 1936 speech to everyone's attention:
www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/10/roosevelts-message-to-obama.html#ixzz29LQv3i9h

Intimidating Billboards Attempt to Suppress Black Voters in Ohio, Wisconsin

Tell me once again that the Republican-sponsored Voter ID Laws in numerous states are intended only to preserve American Democracy and not to suppress minority votes (which, typically lean heavily Democratic).

Just last week, intimidating billboards began appearing in predominantly black neighborhoods in Cleveland and Cincinnati, Ohio (battleground state) and in Milwaukee, Wisconsin informing residents that "Voter Fraud is a Felony!" and is subject to "3 1/2 years imprisonment and a $10,000 fine".  The sole image is one of a judge's gavel striking a block.

As if it's not bad enough that Republican legislators and Republican operatives have altered voting regulations in many states in order to remove legitimate Democratic voters from the voter rolls, NOW they have erected billboard signs in predominantly poor, lower-education, minority neighborhoods implying that simply casting a vote can land you in jail.

This is absolutely outrageous and the only way to fight this blatant attempt at voter intimidation is for every one of us to redouble our efforts to get out the vote on November 6th.

You can read the full article here on Bill Moyers web site:
http://billmoyers.com/2012/10/11/ohio-voter-fraud-billboards-target-minorities/

In 2010, the right attempted to suppress the Latino vote by creating a front group called "Latinos for Reform" and running an ad on Spanish language TV instructing viewers that the "only way to send a clear message to Washington is to NOT vote!"  You can read about that attempt here:

http://johnsvor.blogspot.com/2010_10_19_archive.html 

Mitt Romney Explains Republican Education Policy to America's School Children

37 Reasons You Might Want to Vote Republican:

1. If you think that those Americans who fight our wars, police our streets and heal our sick don’t deserve equal rights and protections under our laws because they happen to be gay – then you might want to vote Republican.
  
2. If you think that another war in the Middle East is the best way to prove America’s superiority, then you should be voting Republican.
  
3. If you believe that global warming/climate change isn’t real, then you might want to vote Republican.
  
4. If you think that those who have amassed vast fortunes in America earned it because they worked harder than you and I, then you should be voting Republican.
  
5. If you think that our Constitution imbues corporations with the same inalienable rights as people (despite the fact that corporations are never mentioned in the Constitution), then you might want to vote Republican.
  
6. If you think that legislators have the right to force women who have been raped or who are the victim of incest, to bring the resulting pregnancies to full term, you might want to vote Republican.
  
7. If you think that those with extreme wealth should be allowed to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence America’s elections, (and the resulting laws and public policies created by those they elect), then you should be voting Republican.
  
8. If you think that “clean coal” is real, and that coal is America’s 21st century energy solution, then you should probably vote Republican.
  
9. If you think that women seeking an abortion should be forced to go through invasive – and medically unnecessary – vaginal ultrasounds, you might want to vote Republican.
  
10. If you think that access to affordable health care for every American should be considered a privilege rather than a basic human right, then you might want to vote Republican.
  
11. If you think that Big Oil companies should be subsidized by collecting more taxes from middle-class Americans, then you should be voting Republican.
  
12. If you think it’s justifiable that, over the past 25 years, the wealthiest 1% of Americans have seen their income increase by 275% while the rest of us have seen our incomes increase by only 40%, then you should be voting Republican.
  
13. If you think that the greed-fueled banks and financial institutions which caused America’s 2008 economic collapse should be rewarded with less oversight – rather than more oversight – then you should be voting Republican.
  
14. If you think the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should be gutted or abolished, then you might want to vote Republican.
  
15. If you think that creating obstacles for legal citizens to vote (including immigrants, minorities, the poor and the elderly) furthers our American democracy, then you might want to vote Republican.
  
16. If you think anyone with the cash should be able to buy automatic, military-style assault weapons – weapons which are specifically designed to kill other humans – then you should be voting Republican.
  
17. If you think that life-saving, embryonic stem-cell research should be prohibited in the U.S. because of certain religious beliefs, then you should be voting Republican.
  
18. If you think that President Obama should have allowed our automobile industry to collapse, along with nearly 1,500,000 related American jobs, then you should be voting Republican.
  
19. If you think that immigrants to America are a problem, then you should be grateful that your ancestors arrived when they did, and you should probably vote Republican.
  
20. If you think that America should create laws to enforce religious ideology and beliefs upon all citizens – then you should be voting Republican.
  
21. If you think that businesses and corporations should be allowed to influence our elections and public policy, then you should be voting Republican.
  
22. If you think we actually need to cut back on the number of American school children who go on to college, you might want to vote Republican.
  
23. If you think the U.S. Department of Education should be abolished, you might want to vote Republican.
  
24. If you think that environmental and consumer protections (like food safety; workplace safety; toxic waste; air and water quality; drug and medical testing; etc.) should be weakened or eliminated because it costs businesses money to ensure their products will not endanger the lives of American citizens, then you might want to vote Republican.
   
25. If you think that industries like banking, Wall Street, oil and gas exploration, insurance and food production should be unfettered and allowed to police themselves, then you should be voting Republican.
  
26. If you think that women do not deserve the same pay as men for equal work, you might want to vote Republican.
  
27. If you think that the safety of retired Americans’ Social Security earnings should be dependent upon the whims and integrity of Wall Street investment bankers and the stock market, then you should be voting Republican.
  
28. If you think that “drill now, drill everywhere” is a sound energy policy for America’s future, then you should be voting Republican.
  
29. If you think that the current national minimum wage of $7.25/hour is too high and should be eliminated to make businesses more competitive, then you should be voting Republican.
  
30. If you think the interest rate on student loans should be allowed to double, making it harder for America’s children to get a college education, then you should probably vote Republican.
  
31. If you think that businesses should be allowed to get tax breaks for sending American jobs overseas, then you should be voting Republican.
  
32. If you think that the law-abiding children of illegal immigrants, who were born and have lived their entire lives here, should not be given a path to citizenship, and the ability to further their education, then you might want to vote Republican.
  
33. If you think that Medicare should be turned into a “you’re on your own” voucher system, you definitely want to vote Republican.
  
34. If you think that the poorest and most impoverished amongst us should be required to pay taxes so they “have some skin in the game”, then you should probably vote Republican.
  
35. If you think America’s school children – the hope for America’s future competitiveness in the world – should be taught that creationism and evolution hold equal weight in the scientific world, then you might want to vote Republican.
  
36. If you think this election is about Bain Capital or President Obama’s birth certificate . . . then you haven’t been paying attention.
  
37. If you care about what kind of country America becomes over the next 4 years, you better get out and vote on Tuesday Nov. 6th
  
38. If you think that I made all this up, then you need to click on these links:
  
  
http://www.diffen.com/difference/Democrat_vs_Republican

http://www.diffen.com/difference/Conservative_vs_Liberal 

http://www.diffen.com/difference/Democrat_vs_Republican#Democratic_vs_Republican_stand_on_controversial_issues

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/texas-gop-rejects-critical-thinking-skills-really/2012/07/08/gJQAHNpFXW_blog.html

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/06/26/506357/the-5-craziest-policies-in-texas-republicans-2012-platform/

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

http://www.voanews.com/content/comparing-the-democratic-and-republican-party-platforms/1501610.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_(United_States)#Ideology_and_political_positions

http://www.ontheissues.org/republican_party.htm

http://debatepedia.idebate.org/en/index.php/Debate:_Democrats_vs._Republicans

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2096055,00.html

http://crankalicious.hubpages.com/hub/What-Do-Republicans-Believe


and on the humorous side, though with more than a bit of truth:
http://www.wrko.com/node/1012666