ELIJAH CUMMINGS DEFENDS HIS 23 YR BALTIMORE REPRESENTATION (SO DO THE RATS)

ELIJAH CUMMINGS DEFENDS HIS 23 YR BALTIMORE REPRESENTATION (SO DO THE RATS):

WAS TRUMP RIGHT? IS BALTIMORE STILL “THE WIRE”??

HOW MANY BLACK MEN HAS CUMMINGS HELPED TO (SECRETLY) INCARCERATE INSTEAD OF HELPING THEM TO BECOME GAINFULLY EMPLOYED?

CONGRESSMAN ELIJAH CUMMINGS (“THE BULLY”) IS KNOWN TO RETALIATE AGAINST ANYONE WHO DOESN’T AGREE WITH HIM OR CHALLENGES HIM.

IN FACT, MANY OF HIS CONSTITUENTS ARE AFRAID OF HIM WHICH EXPLAINS WHY HE’S BEEN IN PUBLIC OFFICE 23 YRS.

SO WILL CUMMINGS USE HIS CONGRESSIONAL JUDICIAL COMMITTEE POWER TO RETALIATE AGAINST PRES TRUMP OVER HIS BOLD TWEETS ABOUT BALTIMORE?

WILL CUMMINGS RETALIATE AGAINST ALL THE JOURNALISTS & BLOGGERS WHO REPORTED ON THIS STORY?

STAY TUNED.


Post Sources: Baltimore Sun, DW News, Fox News, NBC News, Turning Point USA, Washington Examiner, Youtube



**** The trouble with Trump's tweets about Baltimore is that they are true


President Trump’s recent tweets about Baltimore, rats, and the city’s political leadership have roiled Washington and prompted another round of cries of “racism” from the usual race hustlers, who are seeking out every camera they can find. But rather than focus on whether or not Trump is a racist, how about we focus on the man’s words? Are they true?

Yes, they are.

First elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1995, Elijah Cummings has represented Maryland’s 7th Congressional District (which includes Baltimore City) for the past 23 years. Prior to that, Cummings was an elected member of Maryland's House of Delegates, representing District 39 (also Baltimore City) beginning in 1983. In all, Cummings has represented Baltimore for 36 years.

What has Baltimore to show for Cummings’ years of representation? Here are a few examples. In 2017, 13 high schools in the city of Baltimore were found to have zero students — not a single one — who were proficient in math. And out of the 3,804 students in all who took the state math proficiency test, only 14 were proficient.

Baltimore’s schools perform this poorly despite the fact that residents of Baltimore pay 3.2% city income tax, the maximum local income tax rate allowed by state law in an already high-tax state. Take that as further proof that throwing money at problems doesn’t necessarily solve them.

Crime in Baltimore is, simply put, out of control. With over 2,000 violent crimes per 100,000 people, in the year 2017 Baltimore was well within the most dangerous 1% of U.S. cities.

And then, there’s the rats, the mention of which generated much of the ire directed at Trump. He claimed that Baltimore is “rat infested," causing some left-wing pundits to claim he was using code to refer to “black and brown people.” Yet, once again, the issue is whether he was right. And he was. The city has a very real rat infestation problem.

Baltimore’s rats have long been the subject of commentary in the news and in social media. From both sides of the political aisle, everyone from Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders to Ben Carson and Baltimore’s former Mayor Catherine Pugh (who resigned in May amid federal and state corruption investigations) have been outed on the web for having publicly commented on the city’s filth and squalor in years past. A 2018 video has surfaced of Pugh touring her miserable city and nearly gagging on her own words as she exclaimed, “You can smell the rats … Oh my God, you can smell the dead animals.”

So, yes, there are rats. A lot of rats. So many rats that one citizen created a full feature-length documentary film about Baltimore’s rats. The city and county themselves launched the “Rat Attack Program” to battle the epidemic, sadly without much success.

On Monday, Baltimore’s local Fox broadcasting affiliate WBFF was reporting on Trump’s tweetstorm when, as if sensing its opportunity for two seconds of fame, a rat ran through the frame effectively photobombing the Fox45 reporter’s live shot!

As a black American pundit, I am often asked whether I think Trump is a racist. I do not, but the answer I always give is that I don’t care. What I care about is the truth.

The point is that the overarching focus on race accomplishes nothing. And if the focus is simply on truth, then in this case, Trump is unquestionably right.

That Baltimore’s political leadership has failed its constituents is inarguable. That's why those same political figures, along with the race hustlers of the day, repeatedly pull out the same card they’ve been playing for decades. They get away with it by accusing their own accusers of racism. They choose to focus on accusations of intent rather than substance of the issue.

Baltimore is steeped in squalor, and the black community there bears the brunt of its inept, corrupt political leadership. Trump hasn't had time to cause that in his less than three years in office. But in less than three seconds, his tweet has shone a glaring spotlight onto it, and that bright light is causing the rats to scurry.

DACA ENDS TEMPORARILY; TRUMP PUNTS PROGRAM TO CONGRESS TO FIX IN 6 MOS

#DACA

DACA ENDS TEMPORARILY; TRUMP PUNTS PROGRAM TO CONGRESS TO FIX IN 6 MOS:

ILLEGAL ENTRY INTO THE USA IS STILL A CRIME JUST AS ILLEGAL ENTRY IS STILL A CRIME IN OTHER COUNTRIES.

ILLEGALS COST MORE TO EDUCATE, SUCK UP JOBS, DON'T PAY TAXES AND DRIVE DOWN AMERICAN WAGES.

DREAMERS ARE NOT ANIMALS NEITHER ARE THOUSANDS OF BLACK MEN INCARCERATED AND KILLED BY POLICE THE LAST 8 YRS WHILE OBAMA WAS IN OFFICE.

FIXING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION WILL CLOSE THE GAP OF DIVISION BETWEEN BLACKS AND HISPANICS.

PERHAPS THAT IS WHY CONGRESS DOESN'T WANT TO FIX IT.


Sources: CNBC, CBS News, CNN, Youtube


***** Trump administration is ending DACA immigration program, AG Sessions says


President Donald Trump is ending the Obama-era program that protects hundreds of thousands of people who entered the United States illegally as children, with a six-month delay intended to allow Congress to act.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who announced the Trump administration decision on Tuesday, argued that Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals was an unlawful overreach by President Barack Obama and said he could not defend it.

It sets up a potential rush for lawmakers to pass a bill protecting so-called dreamers before the Trump administration's deadline. It is unclear if the GOP-held Congress, which has failed to pass similar legislation in the past, can do so in the near future as it faces multiple crucial deadlines to approve legislation.

Public opposition to rescinding the program had mounted recently amid protests around the country. Top Republican lawmakers like House Speaker Paul Ryan and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, as well as technology sector leaders, had pushed Trump not to scrap DACA.

Trump allies like Sessions urged him to end the program, arguing it will be difficult to defend in court. Critics have said that Obama exceeded his authority with the policy.

"Simply put if we are to further our goal of strengthening the constitutional order and rule of law in America the Department of Justice cannot defend this overreach," Sessions said Tuesday.

Scrapping DACA, which started in 2012 under Obama, could affect roughly 800,000 young people registered under the program.

It gives the immigrants a two-year period of protection from deportation and permit to work in the United States.

Here's what the Trump administration will do, according to the Department of Homeland Security:

Acting DHS Secretary Elaine Duke has issued a memo formally rescinding DACA and starting what the administration calls an "orderly wind down."

The government will not process any new applications or requests for DACA protection.

People currently protected will not be affected before March 5, 2018, "so Congress can have time to deliver on appropriate legislative solutions," according to Duke.

In a tweet Tuesday, the president said Congress needs to "get ready to do your job" on DACA. Trump did not signal what, specifically, what action he wants Congress to take in relation to the program.

Republican state officials had threatened to sue the Trump administration over DACA if had not been rescinded by Tuesday.

As a candidate, Trump pledged to end the program, but later softened his stance, saying he wanted to treat the immigrants with "heart."

On Friday, Trump said he had a "great feeling for DACA."

"We love the dreamers," Trump said, using the name for the people protected under DACA. "We love everybody."

The decision could drag on American GDP.
In a statement Tuesday, Ryan criticized the Obama executive order but called for Congress to act to protect dreamers.

"It is my hope that the House and Senate, with the president's leadership, will be able to find consensus on a permanent legislative solution that includes ensuring that those who have done nothing wrong can still contribute as a valued part of this great country," the Wisconsin Republican said.

In an open letter Thursday, nearly 400 U.S. executives, including Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon's Jeff Bezos, urged Trump to retain the protections.

NO BLACK MEN WANTED, ONLY LATINO MEN FOR TEMP AGENCIES (CLASS ACTION RACISM LAWSUIT)

NO BLACK MEN WANTED, ONLY LATINO MEN FOR TEMP AGENCIES (CLASS ACTION RACISM LAWSUIT):

TEMP AGENCIES SUED FOR REFUSING TO HIRE BLACK MEN, HIRING LATINO ONLY MEN INSTEAD.

YET BLACK MEN BEING SENT TO JAIL FOR UNPAID DEBTS DUE TO UNEMPLOYMENT.

CALLING BLACK MEN LAZY, VIOLENT THUGS BUT WON'T GIVE THEM JOBS.


Sources: CBS News, Chicago Tribune, NY Times, NJ.com, The Advise Show, Youtube


**** Discrimination suit alleges black temp workers passed over for Hispanics


group of African-American men filed a lawsuit Tuesday in Chicago federal court alleging systematic discrimination by a temporary staffing agency and several of its clients they say passed over black applicants in favor of Hispanic workers.
The lawsuit against Personnel Staffing Group, which does business as MVP Staffing, is seeking class-action status. The clients named as defendants are Blommer Chocolate Co., Segerdahl Graphics, Mercury Plastics, MPS Chicago (which does business as Jet Lithocolor), The Penray Cos., ARI Packaging and Lawrence Foods.
The alleged discrimination took place at MVP Staffing's Cicero branch office, which the lawsuit claims was directed by clients not to send African-American workers to their companies for assignments.
Those wishes allegedly were communicated using code words, according to testimony from former dispatchers and on-site representatives given in prior cases and attached to the filing as evidence. For example, according to the lawsuit, "guapos," which translates to pretty boys, would be used to refer to African-Americans to suggest they don't want to do dirty work. The terms "feos" (translated to mean "dirty ones")," "bilingues" (bilinguals) and "los que escuchan La Ley" (referring to people who listen to Spanish-language radio station La Ley) were used to refer to Hispanic laborers, the lawsuit alleges.
Christopher Williams of Workers' Law Office, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, said such a model is prevalent in the fast-growing temporary staffing industry, where competition between agencies puts pressure to keep wages low.
An immigrant-dominated workforce, with language barriers and legal status concerns, is less likely to complain about failure to pay overtime, workplace injuries, wage theft or overwork, according to Williams. He described dozens of white vans that pick people up in the Little Village neighborhood, populated mostly by Mexican immigrants, and drive them to the suburbs for jobs, while black applicants will show up early at the agency office and wait all day before being told there's no work.
"They get up early, they make their way there, they get there on the promise that there might be work for them," Williams said. "And they watch as it changes from a very mixed room in the morning to mostly African-Americans left in the afternoon."
Williams, who has filed several federal discrimination lawsuits against individual companies before Tuesday's class action, said the complaints have spurred some staffing agencies to hire more African-Americans, but cultural issues inside the companies create a revolving door. Because of the emphasis on Hispanic recruiting, often the company plant managers and assembly line leaders are Hispanic as well, and "they didn't want them there," Williams said.
A person who answered the phone at MVP Staffing said no one was available to comment. None of the other companies named as defendants in the lawsuit immediately responded to requests for comment.
In Illinois, the unemployment rate among blacks, at about 14 percent, is nearly three times that of whites (5 percent) and nearly twice that of Hispanics (7.8 percent), according to a May report from the Economic Policy Institute, which at the time said Illinois had the highest black unemployment rate in the country.
Williams, who has spent most of his career focused on immigrant workers' rights, said he sees the devastation of joblessness in black communities where there are already barriers to employment, such as criminal records, that leads to "a level of desperation."
"These (temp) jobs are the entry level to the entry-level jobs," Williams said. "They would be perfect for this class of people who make up the extremely large population (of people with criminal records) and they end up being denied these jobs."
Norman Green, one of the five plaintiffs, said he has felt the discrimination at MVP and other staffing agencies in Chicago.
He described arriving at the agency early, around 4 or 5 a.m., with his steel-toe boots on and ready to work, signing his name at the top of a check-in paper. He said he would sit for hours and wait while Hispanics would arrive and be sent out to work sites right away. But the agencies would tell him to come back, he said, so he would borrow from money from friends and family to make the trip and get there early only to sit and wait again.
"A lot of black people just sitting there mad that they can't work," said Green, 33, who lives in the East Garfield Park neighborhood. When he has gotten jobs he feels everyone is talking about him in Spanish, and "it's just uncomfortable."
Green said the pattern, based on the perception that blacks don't want to work, is "clear-as-day racist" and unfairly applied to him even though "every time I walk into a temp agency I work my butt off."
Green, who has eight kids, seven of whom live with him, said he lost faith in the temp industry and instead supports his family doing construction and other manual work for family members.
In an exhibit attached to the lawsuit, former MVP dispatcher Rosa Ceja testified that she had been yelled at by representatives of client companies when she assigned African-American workers to jobs and was warned by MVP managers and owners not to send blacks because MVP could lose the account if they did.
Another MVP employee, Pamela Sanchez, who worked as an on-site manager at a bakery named in a prior lawsuit, said in an exhibit that she was instructed directly by bakery employees not to send black workers and to "DNR" (Do Not Return) them on the rare occasions she did. She said she would review lists of laborers to be sent to a shift and if a name didn't sound Hispanic, she would cancel them, even once they had already been assigned, because she knew they would be rejected. She added that she was told to have black applicants complete criminal backgrounds disclosures but not Hispanics.
Williams estimated there could be 8,000 to 10,000 potential class members for Tuesday's lawsuit.
Andrew Wells, director of workforce development at the Chicago Urban League, said he believes hiring discrimination plays "a fairly big role" in persistently high black unemployment, which he links to high crime rates.
"You see so much chaos and violence in the community, that's because you're seeing so many people not working," said Wells, who is not connected to the complaint.
Wells said spotlighting discriminatory patterns is one step toward starting conversations across sectors — government, nonprofit and private — about how to address the problem. His organization also helps people build workplace skills, buy homes, rebuild credit and start their own businesses that employ people from the community.
"People should be employed based on their ability to do the job, their talent," Wells said.
The lawsuit comes during a heightened debate over immigrant labor as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office with promises of restoring American jobs.
Williams said there are plenty of jobs for everyone as the temp industry continues to expand, but hiring needs to be fair and better reflect the population that is applying. Currently about 70 percent of the population around the Cicero office is Hispanic and 30 percent is African-American, but 98 percent of job placements go to Hispanics, he said.
"If we can shift the balance, our hope is that the jobs continue to be available to anyone in the community who wants to work," he said.

ANGELO COLON-CORTIZ IS VANESSA MARCOTTE'S KILLER (SANCTUARY CITIES)

ANGELO COLON-CORTIZ IS GOOGLE EMPLOYEE VANESSA MARCOTTE'S KILLER (SANCTUARY CITIES):


ANGELO COLON-CORTIZ IS NOT INNOCENT.

HE IS NOT AN INNOCENT IMMIGRANT.

HE BRUTALLY MURDERED VANESSA AND TRIED TO BURN HER BODY.

CORTIZ'S BAIL IS $10 MILLION.


Sources: Daily Mail, MassLive, YouTube


****** Married FedEx worker, 31, accused of raping and murdering Google executive while she jogged appears in court and has bail set at $10million

Angelo Colon-Ortiz, 31, pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated assault, aggravated assault and battery, and assault with intent to rape.

Prosecutors expected to file murder charges against him in about a month
Colon-Ortiz is accused of raping and killing Vanessa Macrotte, whose naked body was found on August 7, 2016 in Massachusetts.

Police arrested Colon-Ortiz on Saturday after DNA found on her hands was linked to him.

Colon-Ortiz is a recent transplant from Puerto Rico who is married and works for FedEx in the Worceset area.

A suspect accused of raping and murdering a Google executive while she was out jogging near her mother's Massachusetts home last summer was arraigned this morning on assault charges and ordered held on $10million cash
bail.

Angelo Colon-Ortiz, 31, was taken into custody on Saturday in connection to the August 2016 killing of 27-year-old Vanessa Marcotte in Leominster, Massachusetts.

The suspect, a US citizen who had only recently moved from his native Puerto Rico to Worcester, Massachusetts, was led into Leominster District Court on Tuesday morning and used the services of a Spanish-English interpreter to follow the legal proceedings.

Ortiz was arraigned on criminal counts of aggravated assault, aggravated assault and battery and assault with intent to rape.

Prosecutors said they sought the multimilion-dollar bail because they expect to charge him with murder within about a month.

Judge Mark Noonan agreed to set Colon-Ortiz’s bail at $10million and scheduled his pre-trial conference for May 24.

Attorney Edward Ryan Jr representing the 31-year-old suspect, who was described in court as a married FedEx employee, according to the Boston Globe, entered not guilty pleas to the assault counts on Colon-Ortiz’s behalf. He did not argue for lower bail, but reserved the right to seek lower bail later.

Vanessa Marcotte’s father, John Marcotte, and uncle Steven Therrien were present at the arraignment but made no statements to the press.

State police arrested Colon-Ortiz in Worcester after police used DNA found on Marcotte's hands to link him to the killing.

Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr commended Marcotte's bravery at a press conference on Saturday.

'It was through her determined fight and efforts that we obtained the DNA of her killer,' he told the crowd.

Residents from the community applauded as Early confirmed Colon-Ortiz's arrest, which came after police built a DNA profile of Marcotte's killer.

They used that profile - and a report of a dark SUV spotted near the scene of the August 7, 2016 killing - to identify the suspect, Early said.

In a written statement, her parents said: 'After eight long months, we're able to take the first step toward justice for Vanessa.

'She was a beautiful, intelligent, and generous young woman whose passion for giving back to the community will always be remembered.

'As we move forward, her spirit will live on through The Vanessa T Marcotte Foundation that strives to empower women to live boldly and fearlessly.'

According to its website, the foundation's goal is to to help women 'live free from the fear of violence.'

It aims to to that by 'partnering with organizations that deliver educational programs to promote female empowerment, challenge and undermine gender stereotypes, and provide mentorship opportunities [for women].'

Marcotte, a graduate of Boston University, was found near her mom's Princeton, Massachusetts, home on August 7, 2016. Her hands, feet and head had been burned.

The New Yorker, who was visiting her mother at the time, was found dead after she didn't return to their home from a run.

Colon-Ortiz is being held in at the state police barracks in Millbury on $1 million bail.

Early Jr said that a Massachusetts State Trooper saw a dark SUV in Worcester, similar to the one that had been spotted driving from the scene.

The man driving fitted a description of the suspect, he said, so the trooper went to the man's home and was able to take a DNA sample from the man's cheek.

The test results, which came in on Friday, said that the sample matched DNA found on Marcotte's body.

Colon-Ortiz was then arrested, and is set to make his first appearance in court on Tuesday.

Early Jr said that Colon-Ortiz was working near where Marcotte was killed on the day of her brutal death. He has no criminal history.

In February, Early Jr said they had made a DNA breakthrough in the case, and revealed that they were seeking a Hispanic man of average height.

The suspect was also likely to have had scratches or cuts on his face, neck, hands and arms that day, police said.

They added that they believed him to be the same man seen driving a dark colored SUV in the area around the time that the young jogger was killed.

Police have not revealed how they acquired the DNA, saying only that they got it during the course of their investigation, and that it was on Marcotte's hands.

Marcotte vanished on an afternoon run while on a visit to the home of her mom in Worcester from New York.

Her naked body was found at around 8.20pm in woodlands near the home.

It's believed she was killed some time between 1pm, when she left her mom's home, and 4pm.

She had been sexually assaulted, and her hands, feet and part of her head were burned.

Marcotte's shocking murder left her family shattered, they said towards the end of last year.

Her uncle, Steven Therrien, read an emotional statement at a church in the town on December 31, asking for help finding the young woman's killer.

'Not a day goes by that we don't reflect on the enormity of our loss. She had already achieved much but we know she had much more to do.

'She was a loving, caring, intelligent young woman who had her whole life ahead of her.'


Marcotte's parents, Rossana and John Marcotte, stood silent next to Therrien at the news conference, holding back tears.

Her father held a banner that read: 'Justice for Vanessa.'

And at Marcotte's funeral, her best friend, Leah Abrahams, gave a moving eulogy to her slain friend.

'She was so perfect, it was otherworldly,' she said.

'Something about Vanessa always reminded me of the ocean - so breathlessly beautiful, quiet and peaceful.'

She later said: 'You epitomize grace, light, humility, and absolute magic.'

Marcotte was killed just weeks after Queens jogger Karina Vetrano was brutally raped and murdered while she was out for a run. A suspect in her death, Chanel Lewis, admitted murdering her in February.

MARCO RUBIO LOVED BY GOP LEADERS BECAUSE HE CAN NOT DEFEAT HILLARY CLINTON

‪#‎MarcoRubio‬

MARCO RUBIO LOVED BY GOP LEADERS BECAUSE HE CAN NOT DEFEAT HILLARY CLINTON

GOP LEADERS KNOW TED CRUZ WOULD NEVER PLAY ALONG.

So why do GOP Establishment leaders want U.S. Senator MARCO RUBIO to be the 2016 front runner instead of DONALD TRUMP?

It's because they know RUBIO can not defeat Hillary.

It appears as if the GOP & DEMOCRAT Establishment leaders have agreed to some kind of secret pact regarding the 2016 election outcome.

I'm extremely disappointed because I wanted to see a REAL Campaign like the one between ROMNEY and OBAMA in 2012.

~ Ted Cruz has built his Senate career and presidential campaign on his willingness to stick it to the Republican establishment.
And now that he’s gaining momentum in the primary, his many GOP nemeses in Congress are returning the favor by quietly coalescing behind Marco Rubio.

Senior Republican senators who’ve clashed with Cruz for years have had nothing but nice things to say about Rubio even as he’s dissed — and largely ditched — his day job in the Capitol.
Just this month, Rubio has racked up endorsements from nine members of Congress, compared with two for early GOP front-runner Jeb Bush.

More House endorsements for Rubio are set to roll out in December, according to campaign sources, and several GOP senators said privately they expect their colleagues to get behind Rubio once the GOP field thins.

The movement toward Rubio appears to be as much about anxiety over the possibility of Cruz going up against Hillary Clinton as it is affection for the Florida senator.
The idea of Cruz as the nominee is enough to send shudders down the spines of most Senate Republicans.

Mainstream elected Republicans now see Cruz as a bigger threat than Donald Trump or Ben Carson to clinch the nomination — but equally damaging to their party’s chances of winning the White House and keeping the Senate next fall.
Rubio would be a much stronger general election standard bearer, they believe.

“Marco is a true next-generation conservative,” said Steve Daines (R-Mont.), one of three senators who endorsed Rubio in November.
“Every time there’s a debate, his stock goes up.”

Cruz winning the nomination "could happen with the angry situation we have out there” among the GOP electorate, said one Republican senator who hasn't endorsed in the race but does not want Cruz.

Rubio's GOP colleagues are looking to exploit what they see as Rubio's advantage on national security in the aftermath of the Paris terrorist attacks.
They're heaping praise on Rubio's hawkish foreign policy views and panning Cruz’s attempt to find middle ground on national security.

Asked about Rubio’s attacks on Cruz’s votes for the USA Freedom Act, which scaled back federal surveillance authorities, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas replied:
“It’s always fair to question votes and hold people accountable.”

As for Cruz’s attempt to stake out a centrist position on national security between the party’s hawkish and libertarian poles, Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) said: “I don’t think you can split that baby."

“Candidates running for national office who are articulating strong, firm, decisive positions that are well-thought-out are going to have an advantage,” said No. 3 Senate Republican John Thune of South Dakota. Rubio, he added, is “well positioned to make the arguments.”

Cornyn, Thune and Coats have not endorsed in the presidential primary, and lawmakers interviewed for this story said many senior Republicans do not want to embarrass long-shot presidential hopeful Lindsey Graham by endorsing Rubio while the South Carolina senator is in the race.

They’re also aware that endorsements from top GOP lawmakers at this point in the primary wouldn’t help Rubio’s cause with the Republican base.
Cruz scoffed at the notion that Rubio is more electable, telling POLITICO that that’s precisely the logic that paved the way for Democrats to win five of the past six popular votes for the White House.

“Democrats also told Republicans Bob Dole was more electable, Democrats also told the press John McCain was more electable, Democrats also told the press Mitt Romney was more electable,” Cruz said.

“Then the Democrats were quite happy to go to their inauguration balls."

Cruz predicted that millions of blue-collar Democrats would rally behind him in a general election, like they did with Ronald Reagan three decades ago.

Rubio's earlier support for comprehensive immigration reform — or a “massive amnesty plan,” in Cruz's words — would preclude that kind of crossover appeal, the Texan said.
But congressional Republicans say the truest indicator of Rubio’s strength is the abuse he’s getting from Democrats.

They’ve been pounding him daily over missed votes and briefings, while dissectinghis policy plans.
Cruz, by comparison, has been getting kid-glove treatment, to the extent Democrats mention him at all in opposition dumps from the party apparatus and outside liberal groups.

Democrats for two years have held up Cruz as the de facto leader of the Republican Party, dubbing him "Speaker Cruz" after he prodded former Speaker John Boehner into a 2013 battle over Obamacare that shut down the federal government.
Just this month, Democrats annoyed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell by insinuating he had agreed to take up a hard-line immigration bill heavily touted by Cruz.

The idea that McConnell would take cues from Cruz after the Texas senator’s withering criticisms of the GOP leader was perceived by Republicans as a subtle Democratic attempt at boosting Cruz.
Meanwhile, in separate interviews with POLITICO and The Huffington Post last month, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) ripped Rubio for his chronic Senate absences and called on him to resign his Senate seat.

Rubio's political ambitions, Reid said, reminded him of disgraced former senator and 2008 Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards.

“Obviously, Marco was bitten by the national limelight like John Edwards,” Reid said in the POLITICO interview.
“Marco Rubio, somehow someone told him, ‘Why don’t you run for president?’ OK, great idea. So he just walked away from the Senate. He has been a nonentity here.”

Asked this month why he isn’t unleashing on Cruz in similar fashion, Reid replied: “I haven’t heard Cruz talk about how he didn’t like the Senate.”
Meanwhile, Chuck Schumer of New York, who’s poised to become the next Democratic Senate leader, told CNN early this month that Rubio’s “fingerprints are all over” a comprehensive immigration reform bill.

Schumer then told The New York Times that “Senator Cruz was always against the path to citizenship, and Senator Rubio was for it.” Both remarks were an attempt to hurt Rubio with conservatives and could have easily come out of Cruz’s mouth.

Rubio's backers, for their part, say Democrats are trying to meddle in the GOP primary, adopting the strategy they've used in recent Senate elections of propping up unelectable Republican candidates in primaries in the hopes of facing a weaker general election opponent.

Still, “the way Clinton's allies obsess about Marco must mean we're doing something right," said Rubio spokesman Alex Conant.
The Republican senators who see Rubio as a stronger general election candidate have ample reasons to worry about Cruz outmaneuvering their man.

Cruz is closing in on Donald Trump in Iowa, according to recent polls and the Texan has the financial heft to endure a drawn-out nomination battle.
Cruz also believes he also has the upper hand on immigration, a key issue for primary voters and Rubio's Achilles' heel.

But Senate Republicans who are subtly rallying behind Rubio are also thinking about their own power.
With the GOP defending a slim Senate majority next year, lawmakers want a nominee who can win over moderate voters in battleground states.

They don’t say explicitly that means Rubio, but in a two-man race, their preference isn't hard to detect.

“Marco would have more reach to independents” especially in key swing states like Ohio and Florida against Clinton, said a Republican senator who has not endorsed in the race but gushed with praise for Rubio.

“Democrats I know don’t like the matchup.”

Post Sources: Politico, YouTube

KOCH BROTHERS SEEK LATINO VOTERS FOR 2016 WHILE IGNORING BLACK VOTERS

As the 2016 general election approaches, Billionaire brothers David & Charles Koch, are pumping money into Republican Party outreach for Latino and Hispanic voters.

But what about 2016 GOP outreach for BLACK voters?

Are the Koch brothers interested in helping to attract BLACK voters into the GOP tent?

Have the Koch brothers given up on BLACK voters and replaced them with Latino voters?

Sources: NY Times, Washington Post, YouTube

Eric Holder Vows To Protect Voting Rights At La Raza Meeting In Vegas (Decision 2012)

Holder vows fight for civil rights at La Raza meeting

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Saturday told an Hispanic civil rights group that the nation's fight to ensure racial equality, fairness and justice for all "remains far from over" and he vowed to step up prosecution of those who discriminate against Latinos, African-Americans and other minorities.

He thanked the National Council of La Raza for leading the way for decades to protect Latinos and other disenfranchised immigrants and Americans. And he said President Barack Obama's Justice Department would work hard this election year to ensure voters have equal ballot access no matter their heritage or race.

"Our nation's struggle to overcome injustice and eliminate disparities remains far from over," Holder said, speaking to a luncheon audience of 1,850 people on the opening day of the four-day conference in Las Vegas. "We have further to travel on the road to equality."

The nation's first African-American attorney general, Holder was the keynote speaker at the conference of the largest U.S. civil rights organization representing Latinos, a rising political power in Nevada and the nation. In general, Hispanics are a Democratic-leaning voting bloc that could decide the White House race.

President Obama is sending Vice President Joe Biden to address the group on Tuesday, the last day of the conference of 5,000 La Raza members at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center.

Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney sent one of his top Hispanic advisers to the conference. Former U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez wasn't offered a speaking role, but he greeted people attending a Latino Expo on Saturday as part of the conference.

Holder appeared relaxed, joking it was good to get out of Washington. Two weeks ago, lawmakers voted to hold him in contempt of Congress as Republicans pummel him over a botched government gun-tracking operation nicknamed " Fast and Furious."

"It's particularly nice to be outside of Washington, D.C.," Holder said.

A member of the audience shouted, "We love you!"

"I love you back," Holder said. "It's been an interesting few weeks in Washington."

In his 18-minute speech, Holder said he was pleased the U.S. Supreme Court recently threw out most of an Arizona law to crack down on illegal immigrants in the border state next to Mexico. But Holder said he was disappointed the high court upheld the most controversial part of the law that would allow police to ask for papers proving a person's immigration status if the person is stopped for some other reason.

The "show me your papers" part of the law must be narrowly enforced, the high court said, or it, too, would be open to a separate legal challenge.

The attorney general said the Justice Department would be watching enforcement of the Arizona law carefully, ready to intervene if it is abused and used to indiscriminately stop suspected illegal immigrants.

"Such laws cannot be seen as a license to engage in racial profiling," Holder said to applause.

Holder praised Obama for recently instructing federal authorities not to deport young adult children of undocumented immigrants who grew up in the United States. Instead, the Obama administration will launch a program to let young immigrants apply for two-year work permits.

Holder said the administration would continue to press Congress to pass the DREAM Act, which would provide a path to U.S. citizenship for those young immigrants who attend college or join the U.S. military. Meanwhile, he said there's no reason to waste money and effort to deport them.

Obama's new policy will "make our immigration enforcement effort not only more efficient and cost-effective, but also more just," Holder said. "There's no question this action represents a significant and a long overdue improvement of our immigration policy."

U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., addressed the conference lunch ahead of Holder. She, too, praised Obama's actions on immigration and called for passage of the DREAM Act . She also contrasted her views with those of her Republican opponent for U.S. Senate, incumbent Sen. Dean Heller, who doesn't support the DREAM Act and has praised the Arizona law.

"He says he wants to bring it here to Nevada," Berkley said. "Nevada doesn't want the Arizona law. Nevada doesn't need the Arizona law. And Nevada will do just fine without it."

Holder praised Berkley, calling the Democratic supporter of Obama "an extremely effective advocate for the people of Nevada."

"And I think she would make an excellent U.S. senator," he said.

Heller did not attend the La Raza conference. His campaign said he was spending the weekend celebrating his 28th wedding anniversary with his family and campaigning in Reno. Heller is among the Nevada politicians on the conference's honorary host committee, however.

Heller and Romney campaign officials manned booths at the Latino Expo, a free event for Hispanics and other members of the community being held with the conference. Democrats also reached out to the Latino crowd with more than 25,000 people expected to visit the free expo.

In an interview at the expo, Romney's Hispanic adviser, Gutierrez, said Latinos should have a natural affinity for Republicans' conservative policies, including "family, faith and hard work."

Gutierrez criticized Obama for not working on comprehensive immigration reform and only offering Hispanics short-term solutions in an election-year pitch for votes. He said stimulus spending didn't offer long-term job prospects for Americans, including Hispanics who suffer higher rates of unemployment - about 11 percent compared with 8.2 percent overall.

Gutierrez said Obama's offer of two-year work permits for young adult children of immigrants was a "patchwork solution" that didn't solve the long-running undocumented immigrant problem.

The presidential election, Gutierrez said, would come down to who could do a better job at boosting the economy to create jobs and improve the lives of Hispanics and all Americans. He said Romney's business experience makes him more qualified than Obama, a former U.S. senator.

"It's about who can do the job because this country is in trouble," Gutierrez said. "We need the right leadership. This is the biggest CEO job in the world. … It is obvious that we need a change. We need a positive change."

In recent weeks, Romney has been stepping up his outreach to Latinos, particularly in battleground states such as Nevada where they made up about 15 percent of the electorate in the last election. Four years ago, Obama overwhelmingly won Hispanics in Nevada by a ratio of 3 -to-1 over his GOP presidential foe, John McCain, and he remains popular among Latinos.

In June, Romney named dozens of top Republican Hispanics as national and state advisers to his campaign, including Gutierrez and Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval. Gutierrez was commerce secretary for four years under former President George W. Bush.

Sandoval delivered a videotaped welcome to the La Raza conference.

Lisa Navarrete, an adviser to the president of the La Raza organization, said Romney lost a good chance to address Latinos. She said his Hispanic adviser Gutierrez could only come on Saturday and the conference organizers couldn't fit him into the schedule at the last minute.

"We think it was a missed opportunity," Navarrete said. "Our community doesn't know Governor Romney very well. If he wants to engage the community he has to address the community. For us, we're disappointed."


View Larger Map


Sources: AP, lvrj.com, Youtube, Google Maps

Enrique Peña Nieto Calls Arizona's Immigration Law "Discriminatory", Seeks New Debate On Drug War

Mexican President-Elect Tells Fareed Zakaria: Solution To AZ Law Is Fixing Mexican Economy

Mexican President-Elect Enrique Peña Nieto spoke to CNN’s Fareed Zakaria this week for an interview airing tomorrow, and in a preview released today, Peña Nieto reacts to our Supreme Court upholding parts of Arizona’s controversial SB-1070 law.

While calling the law “discriminatory,” he acknowledged that the solution was making immigration “a decision and not a necessity for Mexicans.”

Zakaria asked Peña Nieto to respond to the Arizona law and explain how, as president of Mexico, his administration would address the immigration problem, particularly the criminal side of it.

He called the law “discriminatory” and argued that said laws “do not recognize the contribution and the value of millions of immigrants” to the American economy.

He added, however, that as President of Mexico, “I understand that Mexico must facilitate conditions for greater economic development through structural reforms, treasury reform, labor reform… in order to generate jobs and great opportunities in our culture.”

The bottom line for him was to make “immigration a decision and not a necessity for Mexicans.”





Mexico's Peña Nieto calls for 'new debate' on the drug war

Mexico's Enrique Peña Nieto called for a "new debate" on the drug war and said the United States must play an important role in that discussion.

The presumptive president-elect spoke this week to Fareed Zakaria in an interviewing airing on this week's "Fareed Zakaria GPS."

"Yes, I do believe we should open up a new debate regarding how to wage war on drug trafficking. Personally, I'm not in favor of legalizing drugs. I'm not persuaded by that as an argument.

However, let's open up a new debate, a review, in which the U.S. plays a fundamental role in conducting this review," said Peña Nieto.

More than 47,500 people have died in drug-related violence since Felipe Calderon, Mexico's current president, made combating cartels a top priority when he took office in 2006.

Peña Nieto has pledged to focus more on reducing violence and less on catching cartel leaders and blocking drugs from reaching the United States.

"What we seek now in our new strategy is to adjust what's been done up until now. It's not a radical change.

It's to broaden the coverage and above all, the emphasis I aspire to of reducing the violence in our country," he told Zakaria.

"I'm persuaded that if we achieve the specialization in the work carried out by the various branches of the federal police and the inspector general's office, waging war on impunity will allow us to combat crime," he said.

The presumptive president-elect also weighed in on Arizona's immigration law, which allows police to check a person's immigration status while enforcing other laws if "reasonable suspicion" exists that the person is in the United States illegally.

The controversial provision was recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

It struck down other parts of the law.

"Clearly, it seems to me that these are discriminatory laws that don't recognize the contribution and the value of millions of immigrants, particularly from my country, who make enormous contributions to the United States' economic development.

It's clear to me that Mexico must facilitate conditions for greater economic development through structural reforms, energy reforms, treasury reform, labor reform, in order to generate jobs and greater opportunities in my country, so that immigration is a decision and not a necessity for Mexicans," he said.

An official tally of returns Friday confirmed Peña Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, as the winner of Mexico's presidential election.

But until the country's electoral tribunal ratifies the results - and challenges are virtually assured - he remains the presumptive president-elect.

Peña Nieto's closest rival, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has vowed to challenge the results, accusing the PRI of vote-buying, and said that he would take his complaints through the legal system.

The federal electoral tribunal, known as TRIFE, will begin to accept complaints Monday of voting irregularities.

The tribunal will have until September 6 to complete its investigation and ratify - or reverse - the official election results.

The new president will be sworn in December 1.





Police in Arizona arrest 20, dismantle drug trafficking cell of Sinaloa Cartel

Authorities in Tempe, Arizona, dismantled a drug trafficking cell associated with Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel, arresting 20 people and seizing three tons of marijuana, 30 pounds of methamphetamine and $2.4 million in cash, police said.

A six-month investigation by Tempe police and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency also concluded with the seizure of an airplane, 10 vehicles and 14 firearms, police said Friday.

The cartel delivered illegal drugs in Tempe and branched out to customers in New York, Alabama, California and other states, police said.

"This operation demonstrated a collaborative effort by state and federal law enforcement agencies," Tempe Chief of Police Tom Ryff said in a statement.

The drug trafficking "stretched across the Mexico border and into Arizona and beyond," said Doug Coleman, special agent in charge of the DEA's Phoenix office.

The Sinaloa Cartel is one of Mexico's most powerful drug-trafficking groups, and cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera is widely known as Mexico's most-wanted fugitive.

Forbes magazine has placed him on its list of the world's most powerful people, reporting his net worth at $1 billion as of March.


View Larger Map


Sources: CNN, Mediaite, Google Maps

Voter ID Suppression Laws Disenfranchise 50% Of Registered Voters In 2012; POLL TAXES!

Increasing Numbers of Registered Voters Could Lose Right to Vote because of New ID Laws

Generally speaking, election tacticians for both major parties pursue two strategies: make sure your supporters actually go to the polls on Election Day and try to persuade undecided voters to lean your way when they cast their ballots.

But this year, Republicans have aggressively added a new tactic…limiting the number of Democrats who are able to vote.

They have done this by passing state laws requiring voters to present ID, often with photos, on the assumption that voters who are too old or too poor to have photo IDs are more likely to vote Democratic.

For example, new laws requiring voters in Pennsylvania and Mississippi to show ID at polling places could result in thousands not voting in November.

State elections officials in Pennsylvania say more than three quarters of a million registered voters do not have the most common required documentation: a drivers license or ID card from the state Transportation Department.

In Philadelphia alone, more than 186,000 registered voters (18% of the city’s total registration) lack a license or state ID.

Many of these voters could be turned away in November unless they can provide the above forms of identification or a U.S. passport, student ID card, current military identification or ID cards issued to government employees.

The percentage of registered voters statewide at risk of not being allowed to vote is 9.2%, out of 8.2 million people.

The administration of Governor Tom Corbett had previously claimed that only 1% of registered voters did not have the required photo ID.

The new law was adopted by Republican lawmakers and Corbett over the objections of Democrats who argued that the restriction would disenfranchise thousands of voters, especially the poor, elderly and young.

A similar conundrum faces voters in Mississippi, where the voter ID law has a Catch-22 aspect.

Those who need to obtain an ID to qualify to vote must show a certified birth certificate, but for those who don’t have a birth certificate, they need to show an ID to get one.

Besides Pennsylvania and Mississippi, five other states have passed strict photo ID laws…Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Tennessee and Wisconsin, although Wisconsin’s law is being challenged in the courts.

Texas and South Carolina have also passed such laws, but they are being challenged by the federal government.

In Virginia, a law enacted in May requires those who show up without ID to cast a provisional ballot and then present ID within a few days for their ballots to count.



After 50 and 70 Years of Voting, Two 93-Year-Olds Sue to Keep Right to Vote without Photo ID

Viviette Applewhite, 93, of Philadelphia has become the face of a civil liberties lawsuit against the state of Pennsylvania for requiring voters to show identification before voting. The new requirement was signed into law by Republican Governor Tom Corbett on March 14.

The wheelchair-bound Applewhite says she has voted since 1960, but won’t be able to do so this November because of the new legal requirement. She doesn’t possess a driver’s license and is unable to obtain a birth certificate from the state, she says, making it impossible for her to show the requisite ID at the polls.

Another 93-year-old plaintiff, Bea Bookler, first voted for Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1940. She has the documents needed to obtain a valid photo ID, but state law requires that she present them in person and she is too frail to do so.

Representing Applewhite, Bookler and eight other plaintiffs are the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association for the Advancement of Color People. They contend the law will disenfranchise tens of thousands of eligible Pennsylvanians who lack ID.

A 2006 survey by the Brennan Center for Justice concluded that about 13 million adult American citizens lack the kind of proof needed to comply with voter ID laws.


View Larger Map


Sources: AllGov, MSNBC, Political Articles, TPM Muckracker, Uptake Video, Young Philly Politics, Youtube, Google Maps

North Carolina's "Stop & Frisk" Problem Is Similar To New York's: Profiling BLACK Citizens

Report: Blacks, Hispanics in North Carolina get searched by police more than whites

A trial lawyers task force has studied a decade's worth of law enforcement traffic stops in North Carolina and found that blacks and Hispanics are "systematically searched at much higher rates than whites."

The N.C. Advocates for Justice, formerly the N.C. Academy of Trial Lawyers, analyzed almost 13.5 million traffic stop records covering a period from 2000 to mid-2011.

In a report this spring, the authors called their findings "deeply disturbing and may be indicative of a problem." They have called for the creation of a broad-based state commission to study the causes of the racial disparities at traffic stops and make recommendations.

The comprehensive report is a first of its kind in North Carolina, but not many state officials are aware of it.

The report was sent to only a half dozen of the state's top leaders, including Gov. Bev Perdue and state Attorney General Roy Cooper. No legislators from Cumberland County were aware of the report's existence until a reporter contacted them this week.

The Fayetteville Observer obtained a copy of the report's summary and analysis from a source at the N.C. General Assembly on the condition of anonymity.

Among other findings, the report said blacks and Hispanics are "almost twice as likely to be searched and twice as likely to be arrested" as white drivers.

State Rep. Marvin Lucas, a Democrat from Spring Lake, expressed concern about the disparities.

"That sounds like something we ought to address," Lucas said.

The statewide findings are similar to the racial disparities in Fayetteville, where recent statistics showed almost three of every four people searched by police at traffic stops were black.

The Fayetteville City Council has responded to the controversy over the past year with police policy changes, the introduction of written consent forms and the installation of about 200 camera systems in patrol cars. The former city manager was asked to resign in March because of his handling of the issue.

Dick Taylor, the chief executive officer of the N.C. Advocates for Justice, said the task force was formed in response to a call by the American Bar Association that each state explore the role of racial bias in the criminal justice system.

Taylor said members of his organization did not feel they should lead such a statewide examination of the issue, but they wanted to at least examine public traffic-stop records that most law enforcement agencies are required to submit to the state.

"We thought it might be a good way to demonstrate the need for North Carolina to have just a broad-based study," Taylor said Thursday.

Taylor said his group has reached out to top state leaders with the results of the analysis, urging action.

Noelle Talley, a spokeswoman for the N.C. Department of Justice, said Cooper and his staff had a productive meeting about the report on March 29 in his office with members of the N.C. Advocates for Justice.

"We agreed as a group that these issues deserve deeper examination and said the DOJ would participate," Talley said in an email Thursday. "We urged continued collaboration with state leaders and legislators and inclusion of more stakeholders."

Those stakeholders would include members of law enforcement, prosecutors and judges, she said.

Spokesmen for the General Assembly's two leaders - House Speaker Thom Tillis and Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger - could not be reached for comment.

According to the task force's report, Cabarrus, Onslow, Mecklenburg and Orange counties were among those "where disparities are significantly above statewide averages" for blacks.

Cumberland and Forsyth were among six counties that had the "lowest levels" of disparities for Hispanics.

Reporting Requirement:

In 2000, the state began requiring the State Highway Patrol to report traffic-stop data in response to complaints of racial profiling. The law eventually was applied to many other law enforcement agencies around the state, including Fayetteville and Hope Mills police and the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office. Police departments in cities with fewer than 10,000 people are not required to report the data.

One state senator, Thom Goolsby, a Republican from Wilmington, filed Senate Bill 923 on May 30 that seeks to repeal the traffic-data reporting requirements. No one else has sponsored the bill, which has been assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Goolsby did not return a message Thursday to comment about this bill.

Troy Williams, a former Cumberland County sheriff's deputy, first raised the issue of Fayetteville's racial disparities in traffic stops in a guest column published in the Observer in October 2010. He said the task force's report shows "a system of biased-based policing statewide."

"It's certainly not something that just happens in Fayetteville," Williams said. "But I give them credit for the policy changes they've instituted."

Fayetteville's outgoing police chief, Tom Bergamine, has vehemently denied accusations that his department has violated drivers' rights.

In March, city consultants with the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives said the racial disparities in the city were a concern, but they were unable to document instances of racial profiling. They made 24 recommendation, mostly procedural.







Study: NC Minorities Get More Scrutiny In Stops


A review of data on traffic stops in North Carolina finds law enforcement officers are twice as likely to conduct searches of vehicles driven by minorities than whites.

Researchers for North Carolina Advocates for Justice reviewed state data collected on more than 13 million traffic stops conducted between 2000 and 2011. In addition to the higher risk for being stopped and searched, the data showed blacks and Hispanics are almost twice as likely as whites to be arrested following a traffic stop.

Dick Taylor, the chief executive of the trial lawyers' group behind the study, supports the creation of a broad-based commission to study the issue of racial and ethnic disparities in how laws are enforced on the state's roads and highways.

"When you are stopped, you are more likely to have a negative outcome if you're Hispanic or African-American," Taylor said. "The disparities are there. We need to look in a serious way at why that is the case."

The data used in the report was collected by the law officers themselves, following the passage of a 1999 state law intended to monitor racial profiling.

The new report was quietly sent in March to Gov. Beverly Perdue, Attorney General Roy Cooper, legislative leaders and other state policy makers, many of whom Taylor said he and other members of the lawyers' group have met with. The report became public Friday after a copy was obtained by The Fayetteville Observer.

Taylor said the group kept the results of the study quiet, recognizing the sensitivity of the topic. While he stressed that the Advocates were not suggesting the state's law enforcement agencies are institutionally racist, he said the data does raise troubling questions that need to be addressed, possibly with new training and educational programs.

The group's report cited other recent studies have focused on racial disparities within North Carolina's criminal justice system.

Black youths are three times more likely than whites to be referred to the state's juvenile courts, and once in the system three times more likely to be sent to a juvenile correctional facility or transferred to adult court.

Blacks make up 57 percent of the state's prison population, but only 22 percent of the state population as a whole. Blacks are twice as likely as whites to be sentenced to prison for drug crimes, with the disparity growing even wider in some North Carolina jurisdictions.

In Wilson County, for example, blacks charged with drug offenses are 10 times more likely to be sent to prison than whites charged with similar crimes, according to the report.

Perdue spokeswoman Chris Mackey said the administration had arranged for members of the advocacy group to meet with the Governor's Crime Commission, which could potentially provide money for further study.

Cooper's spokeswoman, Noelle Talley, said the attorney general agrees more study is needed of the roots of the racial disparities reflected in the data.

"We urged continued collaboration with state leaders and legislators, and inclusion of more stakeholders, especially those involved in the criminal justice system at the community level, including law enforcement, prosecutors, judges and other members of the criminal justice system," Talley said.


View Larger Map


Sources: Fayetteville Observer, Fox News, Huffington Post, WRAL, Youtube, Google Maps

"Outsourcing Pioneer!" Mitt Romney Invested Heavily In Companies That Outsourced American Manufacturing Jobs!

That's Right! Mitt Romney was responsible for the Outsourcing American Jobs trend by large Corporations.





Romney’s Bain Capital invested in companies that moved jobs overseas

Mitt Romney’s financial company, Bain Capital, invested in a series of firms that specialized in relocating jobs done by American workers to new facilities in low-wage countries like China and India.

During the nearly 15 years that Romney was actively involved in running Bain, a private equity firm that he founded, it owned companies that were pioneers in the practice of shipping work from the United States to overseas call centers and factories making computer components, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

While economists debate whether the massive outsourcing of American jobs over the last generation was inevitable, Romney in recent months has lamented the toll it’s taken on the U.S. economy. He has repeatedly pledged he would protect American employment by getting tough on China.

“They’ve been able to put American businesses out of business and kill American jobs,” he told workers at a Toledo fence factory in February. “If I’m president of the United States, that’s going to end.”

Speaking at a metalworking factory in Cincinnati last week, Romney cited his experience as a businessman, saying he knows what it would take to bring employers back to the United States. “For me it’s all about good jobs for the American people and a bright and prosperous future,” he said.

For years, Romney’s political opponents have tried to tie him to the practice of outsourcing American jobs. These political attacks have often focused on Bain’s involvement in specific business deals that resulted in job losses.

But a Washington Post examination of securities filings shows the extent of Bain’s investment in firms that specialized in helping other companies move or expand operations overseas. While Bain was not the largest player in the outsourcing field, the private equity firm was involved early on, at a time when the departure of jobs from the United States was beginning to accelerate and new companies were emerging as handmaidens to this outflow of employment.

Bain played several roles in helping these outsourcing companies, such as investing venture capital so they could grow and providing management and strategic business advice as they navigated this rapidly developing field.

Over the past two decades, American companies have dramatically expanded their overseas operations and supply networks, especially in Asia, while shrinking their workforces at home. McKinsey Global Institute estimated in 2006 that $18.4 billion in global information technology work and $11.4 billion in business-process services have been moved abroad.

While the export of jobs has been disruptive for many workers and communities in the United States, outsourcing has been a powerful economic force. It has often helped lower the prices that American consumers pay for products and created a global supply chain that has made U.S. companies more nimble and profitable.

Romney campaign officials repeatedly declined requests to comment on Bain’s record of investing in outsourcing firms during the Romney era. Campaign officials have said it is unfair to criticize Romney for investments made by Bain after he left the firm but did not address those made on his watch.

In response to detailed questions about outsourcing investments, Bain spokesman Alex Stanton said, “Bain Capital’s business model has always been to build great companies and improve their operations.

We have helped the 350 companies in which we have invested, which include over 100 start-up businesses, produce $80 billion of revenue growth in the United States while growing their revenues well over twice as fast as both the S&P and the U.S. economy over the last 28 years.”

Until Romney left Bain Capital in 1999, he ran it with a proprietor’s zeal and attention to detail, earning a reputation for smart, hands-on management.

Bain’s foray into outsourcing began in 1993 when the private equity firm took a stake in Corporate Software Inc., or CSI, after helping to finance a $93 million buyout of the firm. CSI, which catered to technology companies like Microsoft, provided a range of services including outsourcing of customer support. Initially, CSI employed U.S. workers to provide these services but by the mid-1990s was setting up call centers outside the country.

Two years after Bain invested in the firm, CSI merged with another enterprise to form a new company called Stream International Inc. Stream immediately became active in the growing field of overseas calls centers. Bain was initially a minority shareholder in Stream and was active in running the company, providing “general executive and management services,” according to SEC filings.

By 1997, Stream was running three tech-support call centers in Europe and was part of a call center joint venture in Japan, an SEC filing shows. “The Company believes that the trend toward outsourcing technical support occurring in the U.S. is also occurring in international markets,” the SEC filing said.

Stream continued to expand its overseas call centers. And Bain’s role also grew with time. It ultimately became the majority shareholder in Stream in 1999 several months after Romney left Bain to run the Salt Lake City Olympics.

Bain sold its stake in Stream in 2001, after the company further expanded its call center operations across Europe and Asia.

The corporate merger that created Stream also gave birth to another, related business known as Modus Media Inc., which specialized in helping companies outsource their manufacturing. Modus Media was a subsidiary of Stream that became an independent company in early 1998. Bain was the largest shareholder, SEC filings show.

Modus Media grew rapidly. In December 1997, it announced it had contracted with Microsoft to produce software and training products at a center in Australia. Modus Media said it was already serving Microsoft from Asian locations in Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan and in Europe and the United States.

Two years later, Modus Media told the SEC it was performing outsource packaging and hardware assembly for IBM, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Computer Corp. The filing disclosed that Modus had operations on four continents, including Asian facilities in Singapore, Taiwan, China and South Korea, and European facilities in Ireland and France, and a center in Australia.

“Technology companies, in particular, have increasingly sought to outsource the business processes involved in their supply chains,” the filing said. “. . . We offer a range of services that provide our clients with a one-stop shop for their outsource requirements.”

According to a news release issued by Modus Media in 1997, its expansion of outsourcing services took place in close consultation with Bain. Terry Leahy, Modus’s chairman and chief executive, was quoted in the release as saying he would be “working closely with Bain on strategic expansion.” At the time, three Bain directors sat on the corporate board of Modus.

The global expansion that began while Romney was at Bain continued after he left. In 2000, the firm announced it was opening a new facility in Guadalajara, Mexico, and expanding in China, Malaysia, Taiwan and South Korea.

In addition to taking an interest in companies that specialized in outsourcing services, Bain also invested in firms that moved or expanded their own operations outside of the United States.

One of those was a California bicycle manufacturer called GT Bicycle Inc. that Bain bought in 1993. The growing company relied on Asian labor, according to SEC filings. Two years later, with the company continuing to expand, Bain helped take it public. In 1998, when Bain owned 22 percent of GT’s stock and had three members on the board, the bicycle maker was sold to Schwinn, which had also moved much of its manufacturing offshore as part of a wider trend in the bicycle industry of turning to Chinese labor.

Another Bain investment was electronics manufacturer SMTC Corp. In June 1998, during Romney’s last year at Bain, his private equity firm acquired a Colorado manufacturer that specialized in the assembly of printed circuit boards. That was one of several preliminary steps in 1998 that would culminate in a corporate merger a year later, five months after Romney left Bain. In July 1999, the Colorado firm acquired SMTC Corp., SEC filings show. Bain became the largest shareholder of SMTC and held three seats on its corporate board. Within a year of Bain taking over, SMTC told the SEC it was expanding production in Ireland and Mexico.

In its prospectus that year, SMTC explained that it was in a strong position to meet the swelling demand from other manufacturers for overseas production of circuit boards. The company said that communications and networking companies “are dramatically increasing the amount of manufacturing they are outsourcing and we believe our technological capabilities and global manufacturing platform are well suited to capitalize on this opportunity.”

Just as Romney was ending his tenure at Bain, it reached the culmination of negotiations with Hyundai Electronics Industry of South Korea for the $550 million purchase of its U.S. subsidiary, Chippac, which manufactured, tested and packaged computer chips in Asia.

The deal was announced a month after Romney left Bain. Reports filed with the SEC in late 1999 showed that Chippac had plants in South Korea and China and was responsible for marketing and supplying the company’s Asian-made computer chips. An overwhelming majority of Chippac’s customers were U.S. firms, including Intel, IBM and Lucent Technologies.

A filing with the SEC revealed the promise that Chippac offered investors. “Historically, semiconductor companies primarily manufactured semiconductors in their own facilities,” the filing said. “Today, most major semiconductor manufacturers use independent packaging and test service providers for at least a portion of their . . . needs. We expect this outsourcing trend to continue.”


Sources: Boston Globe, CBS News, Washington Post, Youtube