We are organic & we are ONE!

"Forget all those other votes if you don't keep the Ohio Supreme Court conservative."

"Let me tell you something: The Ohio Supreme Court is the backstop for all those other votes you are going to cast. Whatever the governor does, whatever your state representative, your state senator does, whatever they do, we are the ones that will decide whether it is constitutional; we decide whether it's lawful. We decide what it means, and we decide how to implement it in a given case. So, forget all those other votes if you don't keep the Ohio Supreme Court conservative."

Secretly Taped: Hard-Nosed Advice From Veteran Energy Lobbyist: ‘Win Ugly or Lose Pretty’

Hard-Nosed Advice From Veteran Lobbyist: ‘Win Ugly or Lose Pretty’
Richard Berman Energy Industry Talk Secretly Taped:

...The company executives, Mr. Berman said in his speech, must be willing to exploit emotions like fear, greed and anger and turn them against the environmental groups. And major corporations secretly financing such a campaign should not worry about offending the general public because “you can either win ugly or lose pretty,” he said...

...“I get up every morning and I try to figure out how to screw with the labor unions — that’s my offense,” Mr. Berman said in his speech to the Western Energy Alliance. “I am just trying to figure out how I am going to reduce their brand.”...

...Mr. Berman repeatedly boasted about how he could take checks from the oil and gas industry executives — he said he had already collected six-figure contributions from some of the executives in the room — and then hide their role in funding his campaigns.

“People always ask me one question all the time: ‘How do I know that I won’t be found out as a supporter of what you’re doing?’ " Mr. Berman told the crowd. “We run all of this stuff through nonprofit organizations that are insulated from having to disclose donors. There is total anonymity. People don’t know who supports us.”...

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/us/politics/pr-executives-western-energy-alliance-speech-taped.html?_r=0

"We pave the sunlit path toward justice together, brick by brick. This is my brick."

If you guys haven't read Tim Cook's plain statement, I recommend it highly. The last sentence is very moving:

When I arrive in my office each morning, I’m greeted by framed photos of Dr. King and Robert F. Kennedy. I don’t pretend that writing this puts me in their league. All it does is allow me to look at those pictures and know that I’m doing my part, however small, to help others. We pave the sunlit path toward justice together, brick by brick. This is my brick.

NC Teacher's Reveals Bucket List: "If she only had 10 days to live she would kill all black people”

Teacher suspended for alleged racist remarks



North Carolina teacher is under investigation for racist remarks students said she made in class.

Cynthia Ramsey, who teaches math at Camden County High School, was speaking to a student eating lunch in the classroom when she discussed an item on her “bucket list,” the student’s mother said.

“She conveyed to me that Mrs. Ramsey had indicated that if she only had 10 days to live that she would kill all black people,” mother Kimberly Ashcraft told WAVY-TV.


Ashcraft said other students were nearby when Ramsey made the comment.

“I was completely shocked,” Ashcraft said. “I asked her again, ‘Are you sure that was what you heard?’ I could not have imagined a teacher saying that.”


http://wavy.com/2014/10/29/teacher-suspended-for-alleged-racist-remarks/

Pentagon Overpaid Supplier With Exclusive Contract By As Much As 85%

Pentagon Found to Overpay Supplier With Lock on Old Parts
By Tony Capaccio Oct 29, 2014 1:18 PM PT 6 Comments Email Print

Pentagon contract officers paid prices exceeding their own targets by as much as 85 percent for replacement aircraft parts from a company that got exclusive rights to supply them from original equipment manufacturers, according to the Defense Department’s inspector general.

Parts needed to avert the grounding or reduced readiness of two of the military’s workhorse helicopters -- the Army’s AH-64 Apache and the Marine Corps’ CH-53 Sea Stallion -- were among those cited in a report by the internal watchdog office on purchases from Ontic Engineering and Manufacturing Inc., a unit of London-based BBA Aviation Plc. (BBA)

The Defense Logistics Agency “did not conduct sufficient analysis to establish the reasonableness” of Ontic’s proposed prices compared with those paid in the past, according to the report dated Sept. 15 and marked “For Official Use Only.” It said the agency “paid approximately $8 million more than is fair and reasonable for 21 sole-source parts” that were reviewed and should seek return of that money.

The agency this year struck a deal with Chicago-based Boeing Co. to settle a case of $13 million in alleged overcharged parts. In that instance, the company agreed to provide $3.2 million of “in-kind” compensation under existing contracts, including free parts.



the rest:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-29/pentagon-found-to-overpay-supplier-with-lock-on-old-parts.html?hootPostID=6e7be5197289ae370595a7f9679ee07d

While overpaying a defense contractor $8 million is not the crime of the century it is indicative of a broken procurement process at the Pentagon that has led to unprecedented taxpayer loses from waste, fraud, and abuse. The “unauditable” finances of the Department of Defense make stories like these inevitable and much too common.

via:
http://news.firedoglake.com/2014/10/30/pentagon-overpaid-supplier-with-exclusive-contract-by-as-much-as-85/

a reminder:

"It's Not Halloween, It's A Polling Place"

Chris Christie blows his top after angry constituent confronts him at press conference

Sen Rand Paul: "The Republican Party brand sucks & so people don't want to be a Republican."

(CNN) -- It might not be the term that Republican Party leaders prefer, but Sen. Rand Paul had a choice word about the GOP's brand: It "sucks."

While in Michigan on Wednesday spreading his message about building a more inclusive party, Paul -- as he has many times before --acknowledged that Republicans need to collectively improve their image.

"Remember Domino's Pizza? They admitted, 'Hey, our pizza crust sucks.' The Republican Party brand sucks and so people don't want to be a Republican and for 80 years, African-Americans have had nothing to do with Republicans," the Kentucky Republican said, according to The Hill.

His comments came in remarks at a GOP field office in a predominantly black neighborhood in Detroit.




http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/30/politics/rand-paul-gop-brand/index.html

BREAKING AP:Nurse Defies State's Forced Quarantine, Goes for Bike Ride With Her Boyfriend in Maine

Nurse Defies State's Forced Quarantine, Goes for Bike Ride With Her Boyfriend in Maine
FORT KENT, Maine — Oct 30, 2014, 9:06 AM ET
Associated Press

Nurse defies state's forced quarantine, goes for bike ride with her boyfriend in Maine.