The Revolt and The Revolting

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Just the other day Senator John Cornyn attacked his fellow Senator by stating how can a Red State Democrat vote against funding Obamacare.

No surprise here now that Cornyn made the bed, Americans for Prosperity joins him in it.

This is the billboard in North Carolina inspired by Senator Cornyn.

Submitted by robchristensen on 2013-09-20 10:50

Read more here: http://projects.newsobserver.com/under_the_dome/anti_hagan_billboards_going_up_across_nc#storylink=cpy

Americans for Prosperity (click here) said Friday that it is planning a billboard campaign in the Research Triangle and the Piedmont Triad questioning Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan's stance on the issue of carbon emissions tax....

What Senator Cornyn doesn't bother noticing about his fellow Senator from North Carolina is a cause that has needed to be addressed for as long as Cornyn has been in office.

Hagan pushes infant mortality legislation

Submitted by robchristensen
2013-09-24 10:22

Sen. Kay Hagan Tuesday (click here) touted two bills designed to reduce infant mortality by improving screening of new borns and the training of those who care for new babies.
"As a mother, I can not imagine the pain of losing a child, especially when that death may have been easily prevented,'' Hagan, chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Children and Families, said in a teleconference call from Washington.
One measure, that Hagan co-sponsored with Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, and Democrat Diane Feinstein of California, reauthorizes a program to provide training for child care providers on CPR, first aid, and other safe practices....

Senator Kay Hagan is Carolina Blue through and through which means chidlren are at the center of her concerns.

In North Carolina in 2011: (click here)

7.2 babies died for every 1,000 born alive
5.5 white babies died for every 1,000 live births
5.4 Latino babies dies for every 1,000 live births
12.9 African American non-Hispanic babies died for every 1,000 live births
866 babies died in North Carolina
2008 - preliminary date for the U.S. shows 6.6 deaths for every 1,000 babies born alive

The infant death rate in North Carolina has decreased 43 percent, from 12.6 deaths per 1,000 live births, since 1988 when the state's rate was among the worst in the country.

In 2010, North Carolina ranked the 15th highest infant mortality rate in the 50 United States at 7.1 deaths per 1000 infants born, Mississippi was Number 1 in infant mortality at 9.67.

16.1 % of citizens in North Carolina live in poverty.

Poor Children: 24% (525,983) of children live in poor families (National: 22%), defined as income below 100% of the federal poverty level.

For 2011, (click here) the federal poverty level is $22,350 for a family of four. Children living in families with incomes below the federal poverty level are referred to as poor. But research suggests that, on average, families need an income of about twice the federal poverty level to meet their basic needs. The United States measures poverty by an outdated standard developed in the 1960s.

She doesn't stop at advocating for children. She seeks to assist our heroes into the benefits they deserve.

Sep 19, 2013 Fayetteville Observer
By Greg Barnes

U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan (click here) said Tuesday that she has sent letters to the secretaries of defense and veterans affairs demanding that more be done to relieve the backlog of veterans benefits claims.

Hagan, a North Carolina Democrat, acknowledged that progress is being made to relieve the backlog at the VA’s Winston-Salem Regional Claims Office, but she said “we can all agree that there is still work to be done.”

This is the second time this year that Hagan has written to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki urging faster claims processing in Winston-Salem, which serves most veterans in North Carolina.
In a March letter, Hagan called the situation “deplorable” and urged Shinseki to send senior-level staff members to the Winston-Salem office to get results....

And jobs are at the top of Senator Hagan's list:

September 6, 2013
By John Ostendorff

U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan (click here) told workers at research equipment maker Thermo Fisher she was disappointed that Congress allowed automatic spending cuts this year.
The sequester, as the cuts are known, required government researcher National Institutes of Health to cut 5 percent from its budget, hurting companies like Thermo Fisher that make some of the products it uses.

North Carolina lost $50 million in funding for academic research, she said on Friday, meaning a loss of about 1,000 jobs....

A palace without a king or queen.

Published: September 10, 2013

...Aquila (click here) was the last survivor of triplet polar bears – two males and a female – that were born at the Louisville Zoo in November 1992. The three siblings became the first bears in the N.C. Zoo’s polar bear exhibit when it opened in August 1994.

Aquila and the zoo’s other male polar bear, Wihelm, were sent to other zoos in summer 2011 as the zoo began an $8.5 million renovation and expansion of its polar bear exhibit. Aquila returned from the Detroit Zoo in April when renovations to part of the exhibit were completed, but Wilhelm remains at the Milwaukee Zoo while work on the exhibit continues....

Arctic exhibit on thin ice at zoo (click here)
by Katherine Ferguson
The Daily Tar Heel
Updated: 8 hours ago
With a babbling creek, an alpine meadow and arctic flora, the North Carolina Zoological Park’s refurbished polar bear exhibit is only missing one thing: polar bears.

The zoo, located in Asheboro, is planning to unveil the $8.5 million project in spring 2014 — but the lack of polar bears currently at the zoo and a decreasing wild population could pose obstacles for zoo curators.

Ken Reininger, general curator of animal collections at the zoo, said the exhibit may be home to another species for the near future.
“There’s just not a lot of (polar bears) there, either in the wild or in captivity,” Reininger said.

After the unexpected death of Aquila, one of the zoo’s polar bears, earlier this month, the zoo has only one left. But that bear, 29-year-old Wilhelm, is staying at a zoo in Milwaukee and may be too elderly to return to the exhibit....

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/09/10/3183184/polar-bear-dies-at-nc-zoo.html#storylink=cpy

I can't help but wonder with all the cuts in education, how has that effected student outcomes.

By Maureen Downey

Despite a national effort (click here) to raise high school rigor, the SAT, treated as a key barometer of student progress, refuses to budge.
The average national score on the high-stakes college admissions test has remained virtually unchanged over the last five years.
The U.S. high school graduating class of 2013 scored on average 1498, the same as last year, out of possible 2400. (Critical reading: 496, Math: 514, Writing 488.)...

I think today's learning underestimates the power of book learning vs computer learning. Computers are fine for enhancing ability, but, I don't believe they should be the primary source of any learning. It is too easy to cheat, especially in math, when learning from a computer. Computers can enhance the classroom and reinforce learning, but, there isn't anything like a teacher, a book and plenty of homework.

Thomas C. Frolich and Michael B. Sauter
24/7 Wall St. Staff Writers
2:55 p.m. EDT September 25, 2013

In some states, per-pupil spending fell more than 20% since recession. (click here)

Since the recession began, K-12 education spending has declined dramatically in some states. In Alabama and Oklahoma, per-pupil spending fell by more than 20%.
While the majority of state school systems have cut spending between fiscal year 2008 and the upcoming fiscal year 2014, the cuts have been much more severe in some places than in others. According to the latest school spending data compiled by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), seven states have cut per-pupil spending by more than 15% in that time....

I never took the ACT. I was in the Class of '73 where most of my peers and I earned over 500s in all our SAT scores. We did well in high school and college. When I look at most statistics about learning in the USA there is always this negative dip in reading competency about 1995. It was in 1995 when the PC came into majority of American households. In all sincerity, I believe computers have hurt learning.

Mary Beth Marklein
USA TODAY
12:06 a.m. EDT September 26, 2013
...In a report out today, (click here) the non-profit College Board says just 43% of SAT takers in the high school class of 2013 earned a score that indicates they will succeed in the first year of college. That percentage has remained "virtually unchanged" for at least five years, said Cyndie Schmeiser, chief of assessment for the College Board, based in New York.

Last month, an annual report by the Iowa-based non-profit ACT found that just 26% of high school graduates in the class of 2013 met college readiness benchmarks in all four of the subjects its tests cover: English, reading, math and science. That's up from 25% last year and 23% five years ago, but far too low, ACT chief executive officer Jon Whitmore said. "As a nation, we must set ambitious goals and take strong action to address this consistent problem."...

And Congress wants to defund what, exactly?

How Congress Leaks Favors to Fossil Fuels (click here)

The move to eliminate a tax on medical-device manufacturers - heavily concentrated in Pennsylvania - represents a smaller but more attainable goal in the GOP offensive against Obamacare. Even many Democrats who back President Obama's health law have supported repealing the tax.
The 2.3 percent excise tax on medical-device makers affects companies that manufacture a wide range of items, including stents, artificial knees, and pacemakers. It does not affect over-the-counter items such as contact lenses or hearing aids.

Toomey said the GOP realistically cannot repeal the health law while Democrats hold the White House and Senate. "What we can and should do," he said, "is repeal the parts of this bill that we can."

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/nation_world/20130926_Toomey_calls_for_repeal_of_a_tax_funding__Obamacare_.html#YdTt9SYUxietAjO8.99

Jonathan Tamari, Inquirer Washington Bureau
Posted: Thursday, September 26, 2013, 2:01 AM

Jonathan Tamari, Inquirer Washington Bureau

Posted: Thursday, September 26, 2013, 2:01 AM
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/nation_world/20130926_Toomey_calls_for_repeal_of_a_tax_funding__Obamacare_.html#YdTt9SYUxietAjO8.99

...The move (click here) to eliminate a tax on medical-device manufacturers - heavily concentrated in Pennsylvania - represents a smaller but more attainable goal in the GOP offensive against Obamacare. Even many Democrats who back President Obama's health law have supported repealing the tax.

The 2.3 percent excise tax on medical-device makers affects companies that manufacture a wide range of items, including stents, artificial knees, and pacemakers. It does not affect over-the-counter items such as contact lenses or hearing aids.

Toomey said the GOP realistically cannot repeal the health law while Democrats hold the White House and Senate.

"What we can and should do," he said, "is repeal the parts of this bill that we can."...

$2.4 Billion: subsidies to the Big Five producers debated and defeated in the Senate in 2011 and 2012

$4 Billion: Subsidy cuts President Obama proposed in the 2013 budget.

President Obama has proposed cutting fossil fuel subsidies every year

he’s been in office. The projections for savings have varied slightly each year but always hover around $4 billion annually. Congress has never even proposed voting on all of them.

This was proposed by never passed. The Royalties to the USA are still suspended under 42 USC § 15905.

(B) DEEP WATER PRODUCTION- Section 345 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (42 U.S.C. 15905) is repealed. (click here)

Mr. ELLISON introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, and in addition to the Committees on Transportation and Infrastructure, Natural Resources, Science, Space, and Technology, Energy and Commerce, Agriculture, Appropriations, Financial Services, and Foreign Affairs, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned...

This is one of the most egregious laws the American people know very little about. It not only allows the drilling that killed the Gulf Coast fisheries, it provides for 'royalty free' profits by the petroleum industry. Rep. Ellison attempted to end this crony permission for exploiting USA natural resources of future generations to benefit Wall Street profiteers.

42 USC § 15905 - Royalty relief for deep water production (click here)

(b) Suspension of royalties

The suspension of royalties under subsection (a) shall be established at a volume of not less than—

(1) 5,000,000 barrels of oil equivalent for each lease in water depths of 400 to 800 meters;

(2) 9,000,000 barrels of oil equivalent for each lease in water depths of 800 to 1,600 meters;

(3) 12,000,000 barrels of oil equivalent for each lease in water depths of 1,600 to 2,000 meters; and

(4) 16,000,000 barrels of oil equivalent for each lease in water depths greater than 2,000 meters.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Wendy had a better filibuster under more harsh conditions and she won hers.

According to Liberty News (click here): Texas Senate Bill Number Five would have shut down most abortion clinics in the Lone Star State, died early this morning after a successful filibuster by Democratic Senator Wendy Davis....

Texas Senate Bill Number Five, which would have shut down most abortion clinics in the Lone Star State, died early this morning after a successful filibuster by Democrat Senator, Wendy Davis. - See more at: http://www.libertynews.com/2013/06/texas-senators-ten-hour-filibuster-kills-strongest-pro-life-legislation-in-america/#sthash.N89OnTBN.dpuf

The demand for Food Stamps/S.N.A.P. is going to seem disproportionate to past years.

The minimum wage is stagnant in comparison to the cost of living.

The minimum wage went from $5.15 in 1997 to $5.85 in 2007. The ten year hiatus was probably because the wages were better in the USA compared to the cost of living. The Congress was dogged to raise the cost of living because the poverty rate was low then.

The poverty rate (click here) decreased in 1997 to 13.3 (±0.3) percent, down from 13.7 (±0.3) percent in 1996. The number of poor people in 1997, 35.6 (±0.9) million, remained statistically unchanged from 1996. The declines in the poverty rates of Blacks and people of Hispanic origin accounted for most of the decrease in the overall poverty rate between 1996 and 1997....

That is a difference of 1.8%, but, the difference in the number within that percentage is vastly different.

The population in the USA in 1997 was 267,743,595 (click here).

How many people were poor in 2010? (click here)

In 2010, 15.1 percent of all persons lived in poverty. The poverty rate in 2010 was the highest poverty rate since 1993. Between 1993 and 2000, the poverty rate fell each year, reaching 11.3 percent in 2000.

There was a recession in the 1990s that President Clinton saw through a recovery, but, it did not at all have the characteristics of the Great Recession of 2008.

The recovery under President Clinton took unemployment from over seven percent to under four percent. At the beginning of 1997 unemployment was a hair over 5%.

So, the characteristics of the poverty from 1997 to 2007 was very different in regard to work.

So, let's do the math.

In 1997 the population was 267,743,595 with a poverty rate of 13.1 percent. That means 35,074,410 people were in poverty.

In 2010 the USA population was 308,745,538 with a poverty rate of 15.1 percent which leaves 46,620,575 living in poverty. That is a difference of 11,546,165 more people in living in poverty in the USA today. The moral content of the USA is suppose to improve every year on the poverty rate, but, we all know what happened in 2008.

The thing about the S.N.A.P. program and when the country needs it is also related to Cost of Living.

This is the increase in the cost of living between 1997 and 2013. These are official rates according to the Social Security Administration. Benefits to our seniors are determined by this as well as the retired military.

January 1997 -- 2.9% (click here)
January 1998 -- 2.1%
January 1999 -- 1.3%
January 2001 -- 3.5%
January 2000 -- 2.5%
January 2002 -- 2.6%
January 2003 -- 1.4%
January 2004 -- 2.1%
January 2005 -- 2.7%
January 2006 -- 4.1%
January 2007 -- 3.3%
January 2008 -- 2.3%
January 2009 -- 5.8%
January 2010 -- 0.0%
January 2011 -- 0.0%
January 2012 -- 3.6%
January 2013 -- 1.7%

I think this makes the point to justify the continued need for S.N.A.P. There are more poor, there are more unemployed and there are higher costs of living. There is a great injustice and lack of morality in cutting food stamps to our citizens. While there has been complaining about ONE person receiving food stamps that is viewed as a young man in need of a job, that has been the case for decades. Two decades ago the Republicans complained about university students receiving food stamps. No one cared they might have children to support or a degree program to finish that would ultimately benefit the country, they were the lazy ones then.

People that receive food stamps still have to pay for housing, which can be ridiculously expensive for the poor, pay utilities, etc. There is no reason for Republicans to complain about the level of food stamps NEEDED in the USA. They caused it, now, they need to live with it. Two unfunded wars and host to a global economic collapse. The Republicans need to grow up. Their childish tantrums are not appreciated among the adults in the country.

Oh, one other thing, I am tired of hearing the 'slogan' "The Working Poor." It is an oxymoron and should not exist. I don't mean change the words, I mean get rid of the need for them.

Cutting taxes to Wall Street does not create jobs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A different kind of geography. Complete conflict of interest.

Gov. Rick Snyder's secretive nonprofit foundation is paying for Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr's condominium in a previously undisclosed financial arrangement. Orr and Snyder are shown in July 2013 at the Free Press. / Eric Seals/Detroit Free Press

The NERD fund, as it is called, carries Snyder's signature. The idea Detroit's EM is directed by the Governor while the Governor's friends are paying his rental is corruption. I don't care if Snyder and Orr state they are transparent about everything, the donors to the NERD Fund are unknown and could easily be getting kick backs in the way Orr administers the policies in regard to Detroit. Additionally, there is nothing to say those 'not to be disclosed' are not directing the Governor in what they want out of this venture.

...Snyder’s NERD Fund, (click here) which stands for New Energy to Reinvent and Diversify Fund, is footing the rental bill for Orr’s two-room condo at the Westin Book Cadillac in downtown Detroit, Orr spokesman Bill Nowling confirmed.

The NERD Fund, which raises money from private donors who are not legally required to disclose their identities, has come under scrutiny because of its role in funding the governor’s operations. For example, the organization is funding the salary of Snyder adviser Rich Baird, who helped recruit Orr to serve as emergency manager.

And according to e-mails obtained by the Free Press today, Orr made at least one suggestion for funding the EM job back in January, months before he was hired....

...The state’s emergency manager law, known as Public Act 436, says Orr’s “compensation shall be paid by this state” and can be further supplemented by “private funds” provided to the state. It also says “compensation for security personnel will be the obligation of the city.”

Sara Wurfel, a spokeswoman for Snyder, confirmed Monday the NERD Fund has paid $4,200 a month for Orr’s condo since April....

It is corruption, plain and simple. Superfunds. They are a problem.

What Snyder has done with PA436 is basically legalize racketeering.

A pattern of illegal activity carried out as part of an enterprise that is owned or controlled by those who are engaged in the illegal activity.

Those involved with Detroit now have to be investigated for conflict of interest as to whether they are involved with the Snyder administration in an inappropriate way. Their financial records will have to be subpoenaed and investigated for donations to 'blind superfund' activity. There is 'probable cause' now.

Surprise was not my first reaction.

By Fakhar ur-Rehman and Mujeeb Ahmed, NBC News

QUETTA, Pakistan -- The death toll (click here) from a powerful earthquake that struck northwest Pakistan rose to at least 327 early Wednesday, authorities said.

The Pakistani military said it had rushed almost 1,000 troops to the area and was sending helicopters in the wake of Tuesday's temblor.

Most of the victims were killed when their houses collapsed. At least 350 people were injured....

This is not as much of a surprise as some might think. (click here) Pakistan is where land mammals were believed to evolve into whale species. There are fossil records to prove it. I am not very surprised to realize a land mass would rise to the surface, it wasn't all that deep to begin with. Pakistan needs to prevent people from entering the island until some archeologists can be found to explore the soils. There is also the possibility this is not a stable island so much as an opportunistic one. It is seismically dangerous.

That all changed with the discovery of a huge trove of fossils (click here) in central Asia (specifically, the country of Pakistan), some of which are still being analyzed and described. These fossils, which date from only 15 to 20 million years after the demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, prove that the ultimate ancestors of whales were closely related to artiodactyls, the even-toed, hooved mammals represented today by pigs and sheep....

There are all kinds of geological structures in that area of the ocean, so the fact there was a huge displacement, probably subduction doesn't surprise me. I am sorry to hear so many people died.

The rock doesn't look like basalt, so much as volcanic soil. However, there are some basaltic volcanos in the region, but, they are further south near the Mascarene Plateau.

I think there is a strong indication this seismic activity may have originated deep under India's coastal region.

Northwest Deccan Volcanic Province. It would make complete sense. The energy wave would have moved from the deep reaches of that volcanic layer across the Arabian Sea and into the very spot there was surface effects from it. I'd bet real money on it. I doubt anyone would change my mind about it without conclusive evidence.

This area of Earth is highly seismic due to the fact India is not attached to the Eurasian Plate. As a matter of fact the arrows in the picture below illustrate the chronic movement of India into the Eurasian continent. It is the mass of the continent that stops India from moving more north than it is. India came across the Indian Ocean to slam into the Eurasian Plate a long time ago. That is where the Himalayas came from. There was so much land mass displaced when these two huge land masses collided it pushed the lithosphere upward. There was no place else for it to go.

It all looks right to me.

Imprints of volcanism in the upper mantle beneath the NW Deccan volcanic province (click here)

G. Mohan1,*,

M. Ravi Kumar2,

Dipankar Saikia2,

K.A. Praveen Kumar1,

Pankaj Kumar Tiwari1 and

G. Surve1

Abstract

In this study, we investigate the transition zone discontinuities beneath the northwestern Deccan volcanic province of India through analysis of ∼1000 high-quality receiver functions abstracted from three-component teleseismic waveforms from 428 earthquakes recorded by six broadband stations in the northwestern Deccan volcanic province. Our analysis reveals that the P₄₁₀s and P₆₆₀s time lags are delayed by ∼1 s relative to those predicted by the IASP91 model. A largely unperturbed mantle transition zone, revealed by the transition zone time lag (t_P660s – t_P410s) of 23.83 s, implies that the observed delays are primarily associated with reduced shear velocities in the upper mantle above the 410 km discontinuity. The velocity reduction is likely to be associated with lithospheric thinning coupled with compositional and reduced thermal variations in the shallow upper mantle. Our results contrast with the normal shield-like velocity structure imaged beneath the south-central Deccan volcanic province in an earlier receiver function study. For comparison, a revised composite receiver function plot for the south-central Deccan volcanic province was constructed by employing identical receiver function processing techniques on an updated high-quality data set of 1400 receiver functions from 11 stations, which reaffirms, with better precision, the earlier results. We propose that the relative differences in the lithospheric thicknesses beneath the northwestern and south-central parts of the Deccan volcanic province possibly governed the melting and flow patterns of the upwelling mantle material, resulting in the contrasting seismic signatures. The lithospheric architecture of the northwestern Deccan volcanic province, coupled with the reactivation of preexisting rift systems, appears to have facilitated the eruption of the Deccan basalts, for which source signatures are still retained in the upper mantle.

Banned Book Week

Captain Underpants leads the list. Amazing. It is fairly terrible book about 4th graders that intimidate others through misbehavior. But, ban it? That's silly.

September 22 - 28, 2013 (click here)

The American Library Association has a reporting service.

Online challenge reporting form (click here)

This is discrimination and invasion of privacy.

This practice takes the IRS W-4 and turns into a discriminatory tool. It will ultimately create a hostile employment practice.

Applicants cannot be discriminated against by their marriage status. This is already discriminatory, but, there needs to be a lawsuit filed against UPS to bring their unfair practice to their attention.

UPS won't attack the unionized employees, will they? You betcha.

If there is a way for Wall Street to play with pennies and dimes they'll do it. It doesn't mean it is legal. So, Wall Street is playing with pennies and this is an example.

By David Koenig

August 22, 2013

UPS said it was making (click here) the change because of rising health-care costs and President Obama’s signature health insurance initiative. The company said it considered letting employees pay extra to cover their working spouses but decided that would be difficult to do.
“Since the Affordable Care Act requires employers to provide affordable coverage, we believe your spouse should be covered by their own employer — just as UPS has a responsibility to offer coverage to you,” the company said in a memo to employees....

Brian X. McCrone, PHILLY.COM

Last updated: Tuesday, September 24, 2013, 6:22 PM

A monthlong donation drive for school supplies kicks off Wednesday to help augment teachers and students in Philadelphia schools affected by the city district's large deficit.
Interstate General Media, publisher of philly.com, The Inquirer and The Daily News, is teaming up with Global Citizen, the city-based civic engagement organization, to gather the supplies from public donations through Oct. 25.
Officials with IGM and Global Citizen said Tuesday that the effort is in response to the well-publicized failure by local and state elected officials to close a massive deficit that at one point was roughly $304 million and led to a bare bones opening of Philadelphia's public schools this month. A similar effort by the city is currently underway to raise $500,000 in private donations by Oct. 15.

Brian X. McCrone, PHILLY.COM

Last updated: Tuesday, September 24, 2013, 6:22 PM

Brian X. McCrone, PHILLY.COM

Last updated: Tuesday, September 24, 2013, 6:22 PM

The politics of desperation. Republicans have lost their integrity.

According to a caller at "The Washington Journal" there are many federal employees, not Congressional staff, but federal employees seeking to find new employment due to the politicking of the Republicans. The Republicans have created a roller coaster ride within the USA government and employees are looking to leave.

The furloughs are viewed as a pay cut and the hideous attacks on their benefits are scarey. When this reality is reported to the Congress they are ignored and continue to be at the center of politics rather than valued as federal employees the country depends on.

Here is an absolutely hideous proposal that treats federal employees as toys to constituents. Coburn gives conservative an entirely new definition.

The Huffington Post By Kate Sheppard
Posted 09/12/2013 12:24 pm EDT
Undated 09/12/2013 12:31 pm EDT

...Coburn's proposed amendment (click here) would amend the bill by changing a line that calls for "providing information to employees of the Federal agency on the importance of turning off the lights" at the end of the day to "requiring employees" to turn off the light before they go home...

Federal employees are sincerely effected by the Republican politics. They are at the center of ridicule within the government. The Right Wing is scapegoating the federal employees in order to hold onto their party line.

The Republican constituents are crying because October 1st is coming. Literally crying over established law and this so called landmark date. They believe the filibuster is the only answer to end this law. Seriously. The Republican constituents are brainwashed to think if they can stop the funding as the Waterloo of October 1st. People deeply believe if October 1st comes and the health care exchanges go forward they have lost their democracy. For real. The politics of the Republicans have become that deceptive and dysfunctional. Men are crying over the beginnings of the health care exchanges. It is the most hideous stupidity I have ever heard. There is stupidity and then there is the stupidity of the Republican constituent.

By Kellie Lunney
September 24, 2013

Roughly 800,000 federal civilian employees (click here) would be furloughed if the government shuts down on Oct. 1, according to news reports and data from 2011 -- the last time the government nearly shuttered.
Most federal employees, however, would continue to work if there’s a lapse in appropriations, because the government considers them “essential” workers. The size of the federal workforce, including civilians, Postal Service employees and active-duty service members, is approximately 4.1 million. Of that figure, there are about 1.4 million active-duty military personnel and 2.7 million civilian employees, including the Postal Service.
Active-duty military and about 1.3 million civilian workers are exempt from furloughs in the event of a government shutdown because they have jobs in defense, health care or other areas of national security and/or emergency-related fields. Postal employees also don’t have to worry about unpaid leave because the Postal Service does not depend on annual congressional appropriations.....