LWC's Other Ramblings

shortformblog:

• $150,000 the amount George Zimmerman’s bond was set at when he was released last week after a contentious bond hearing
• $200,000 the amount George Zimmerman had in PayPal donations sitting around at the time of that hearing; it wasn’t mentioned at all source

» Trayvon’s lawyer…

bohemiansouth:

Nancy Altman and Eric Kingson write:

Social Security’s projected long-range funding gap could be eliminated without cutting benefits, which are modest in size, yet crucial. Congress could eliminate Social Security’s entire projected shortfall, which amounts to around 0.8 percent of Gross Domestic Product (about the size of the Bush tax cuts going to the top two percent of the population), by raising the Social Security tax cap so that the 6 percent of workers who make more than $110,100 a year pay taxes on all of their wages, just like everyone else who makes less than that amount. This would guarantee full payment of Social Security benefits for the next 75 years and beyond. There are many other ways to address the projected shortfall without cutting benefits which are already very modest, averaging just $14,781 a year for retirees – less than is paid in a year of minimum wage work, yet vitally important. Two-thirds of seniors rely on Social Security for half or more of their incomes. The benefits are also vitally important to children and spouses of deceased workers, to workers who have sustained permanent and serious disabilities and to their families.

timekiller-s:

existentialistmumbojumbo:

On her show Monday night, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow explained that the National Center for Public Policy was expected to take over the role of the embattled American Legislative Exchange Council.

Liberal and progressive groups have waged a successful campaign against ALEC, which drafts corporation-friendly “model” legislation for state lawmakers. The little-known but influential organization has been a driving force behind voter ID laws, so-called “stand your ground” laws, business-friendly tort reforms, Arizona’s controversial immigration law, and efforts to privatize public education.

But as corporate members of ALEC continue to leave the organization, the National Center for Public Policy has stepped up to the plate. The organization announced it was launching a “Voter Identification Task Force” after ALEC disbanded its Public Safety and Elections task force.

“Corporate money has always wormed its way into politics,” Maddow said. “Guys like Jack Abramoff and Tom Delay and Ralph Reed and Tony Rudy made a transfixing illegal art form out of doing that.”

Bound and determined to have their way no matter what.

Educate yourselves.

A Mississippi state judge has declared a legislatively imposed cap on how much juries can award in non-economic damages unconstitutional.Circuit Judge Charles Webster in Coahoma County issued the ruling April 20 in a 14-page opinion. He criticized the Legislature for intruding into judicial authority.Webster’s ruling came in a motion filed by Cleveland attorney Ralph E. Chapman in lawsuit seeking damages in the death of a child in an apartment complex fire.

likethedew:

After nearly 700 people tried to push Gonzaga University to rescind its commencement speaker’s invitation to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, supporters of the anti-apartheid hero responded with 11,000 signatures of their own. Opponents claim the Jesuit school had lost sight of its Catholic values by inviting the former Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, to speak at next month’s commencement and receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. Now a second petition is circulating, this one protesting the anti-Tutu petition. “For some time now the religious right, and Catholic right in particular, has been succeeding in creating these ridiculous controversies around who speaks on Catholic college campuses,” said Michael Sherrard, director of Faithful America, an online community sponsored by Faith in Public Life.

Like the Dew adds: The wonderful Desmond Tutu used to teach occasionally at Emory University in Atlanta.