Thank you for voting , should she surrender le booty?

The MTA is outsourcing the Verrazano Bridge renovation, North America's longest suspension bridge, to a Chinese steel fabrication manufacturer. Not only does this deal ship good-paying manufacturing jobs overseas, it returns inferior building and construction materials for a bridge millions of New Yorkers use everyday. In 2002, California commissioned a Chinese steel fabricator to expand the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and shoddy steel and faulty welds delayed construction for months, costing taxpayers thousands of dollars for cheap "made in China" steel. Add your name to the petition to tell the MTA to stopping racing to the bottom at the expense of domestic jobs and buy American.

PROPORTIONAL PUNISHMENTS are required for individual and corporate responsibility. Current law allows the worst offenders against humanity to pay minuscule fines instead of facing punishments that deter crimes. My proposed law would make responsibility paramount in every industry and act as a REAL deterrent to violations of regulations and laws. It would also make individual punishments equal by fining people a percentage of their wealth and not continue to have a system that allows unequal punishments for identical crimes. Deterrents to crimes are only effective if punishments are more just and equal, and based on the wealth of individuals and corporations. All people and corporations should face proportional punishments based on their wealth when they commit a crime, violate a regulation or violate any law. As an example, currently corporations violate regulations with impunity and consider fines as just another expense in conducting their business. Current punishments have zero detrimental effects on crimes for the very wealthy. If we used proportional punishments a corporation's first offense could be say 1% of their total wealth. A 2nd violation would increase the penalty to 5% and so on. Since corporations or the wealthy can only be forced to adhere to laws and regulations by hitting them in the only area that truly hurts them then proportional punishments would act as a perfect deterrent to their crimes. In another example, if a poor person gets a littering ticket any fines should be proportional to their net wealth, which if close to zero, the fine would be say $5. If a billionaire committed the same offense their penalty would be a proportional one based entirely on their wealth. If their wealth was $1 billion and the percentage of the fine was 1% then their resulting fine would be $10,000,000. I've seen warnings that if an individual poured even one can of used oil on the ground they can be fined up to $25,000 and face time in jail. Corporate executives do not face any repercussions when their corporations release toxins into our air, land or waters because they know government oversight is lax because of gutting of enforcement and lack of adequate laws that would deter such heinous acts. My proposed law would make personal & corporate responsibility a reality because only when the wealthiest face severe financial punishments corporate carnage against people and the environment will these crimes become less frequent. Since fines and punishments are supposed to be deterrents to violations of laws and regulations then the only way to enforce them fairly and equally is through proportional punishments. Financial punishments that are identical no matter what a person's or corporation's total wealth are currently ignored. The current system is regressive and punishments only truly affect the poorest in society. Fining an unemployed person $200 & a billionaire $200 isn't equality under the law. It's a regressive punishment which can devastate the poorest. The wealthy couldn't care less if they receive a $200 fine. It doesn't provide a penny of deterrent. To make proportional punishments even more effective corporate fines should be also paid by the entire executive level of corporations and their boards of directors. Currently, CEOs, CFOs, COOs and the like suffer no punishments for the unlawful actions by the corporations they run. Fines against corporations now are merely added on to the cost of products corporations make so we the cunsumer pay 100% of a corporation's wrongdoing while the poorest individuals pay 100% of any fine they receive. Individuals cannot pass on fines as expenses to others. Corporate executives should be forced to pay a percentage of their personal wealth in addition to any corporate fines. If an executive presiding over a corporation has a net wealth of $100 million and their corporation violates a regulation or law they should face the identical punishments based on a percentage of their wealth. If a corporation has commited multiple offenses and the proportional punishment percentage has risen to 10%, the the CEO with a net worth of $100 million would be forced to pay a fine of $10,000,000.00. Only then would a corporate executive act responsibly to have his corporation adhere to the law. Except in a minuscule number of cases corporate executives are 100% protected from any financial punishments no matter how heinous the acts of the corporations they lead. Executives are fully aware that they don't have to have any personal responsibility because they are insulated from ramifications of any offenses they or their corporations commit. To have a fair & equitable deterrent to violations of regulations and laws THAT HAS TO CHANGE. Currently, if a corporation has 20 violations of regulations or laws executives are often rewarded with even greater salaries and perks. Executives benefit from a defective system by willfully violating laws knowing they will suffer zero consequences. Until we have PROPORTIONAL PUNISHMENTS our country will continue to deteriorate because the worst offenders are shielded and all fines are paid for by the customers of any corporation. We must force executives who benefit from willful violations of regulations and laws to be held personally responsible, and in addition, corporations must also face financial punishments that increase with each infraction. The proportional punishment law I am proposing doesn't affect any other laws or regulations. The punishments I am advocating are in addition to all existing laws. Anyone who is opposed to my proposal is in effect against corporate & personal responsibility and opposed to equitable punishment under the law.

North Carolina Republicans—who control both houses of the legislature and the governorship—are on a rampage to pass some of the most right-wing laws in the country. They have ended unemployment benefits for 71,000 people, passed a voter suppression law that disenfranchises college students and people of color, and pushed a draconian abortion bill even worse than the one in Texas. But since April 29, a coalition led by the North Carolina NAACP has been staging weekly nonviolent protests at their statehouse, called Moral Mondays. So far, more than 900 have been arrested—but more keep coming back each week to keep up the pressure. Join Daily Kos in thanking these protesters for their persistence.

Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said this week that Republicans might be willing to repeal the sequester - but only in exchange for cuts to Social Security and Medicare. The sequester is bad policy and I've voted to end it. But cutting Social Security and Medicare is not the answer. Social Security and Medicare embody our nation’s promise to our seniors, and we must not abandon our obligation to care for our retirees and the millions who depend on these vital safety net programs. I hope you'll join me in telling Eric Cantor and House Republicans that cuts to Social Security and Medicare are unacceptable.

Imagine waking up one day to find yourself in the position of our European cousins that were unknowingly eating horse and donkey meat mixed in with their beef? What are you willing to do to make sure that never happens here in America or elsewhere in the world? Start contacting your Representatives in Congress and ask them to support the SAFE Act to put an end to horse and donkey slaughter once and for all.

My wife and others are having to wait for treatment drugs because of delays in manufacturing. This is wrong, people should know that drugs are available to help in their fight against cancer.

A Budweiser affiliate, L&H Distributing of Tullahoma, TN, is to be an official sponsor of the 75th Annual Tennessee Walking Horse Celebration in Shelbyville, TN later this month. This show is the epicenter of the worst horse abuse in the world. At last year’s show, 190 horses were chosen at random by U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors and 145 of them tested positive for caustic substances that had been used to “sore” the forelegs of the animals to produce the exaggerated front end movement known as the "Big Lick". Soring is illegal in the United States, prohibited by the federal Horse Protection Act. Budweiser’s involvement with the National Celebration comes as a huge shock, but it seems that L&H Distributing Co., located in Tullahoma, has cut a deal with the cash-strapped show to provide alcoholic beverages for the first time ever at what has been previously billed as “a family event.”

Unlike public schools, Achievement First Charter Schools gets to cherry pick which students they serve. They don't admit very many special needs students, or students who are learning English as a secondary language. Recently, it was also revealed that they were suspending huge numbers of elementary school students. In a state Department of Education report, Achievement First Hartford Academy elementary school ranked at the very top of the list of student suspensions. In one year, they suspended 32% of their students in pre-k through fifth grade. They also reported 114 suspensions of students under the age of 6. Now, Achievement First wants to open another elementary school in Hartford. Not only will this take money out of Hartford's public school budget, but it would also likely mean closing down an existing public elementary school. This is unacceptable. We need public schools that teach all our students, not just some of them. Tell the Hartford Board of Education not to let Achievement First open another elementary school.

Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko stated yesterday that athletes and spectators attending the 2014 Sochi Olympics will be punished if they endorse gay rights in any way. Tell US corporations who are sponsoring the Olympics to withdraw their support.

Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature cut desperately needed funding for services to people living with HIV/AIDS. These cuts have placed great hardships on those who counted on this help to buy life-saving medications and payment of co-pays for medical care. Many of these people are having to choose between eating and taking their medications. We call on Rick Scott and the FL Legislature to increase funding for these vital services.

Scranton should send a clear message that violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender citizens of Balakovo is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Russia’s sports minister, Vitaly Mutko, has said that foreign nationals, including Olympic athletes and spectators, will be subject to Russia's anti-gay laws during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Russian law allows police officers to arrest tourists and foreign nationals they suspect of being homosexual, lesbian, or “pro-gay” and detain them for up to 14 days. Russia's “gay propaganda” law makes any parents who tell their children that being gay is okay, any Pride parade organizer, any health official distributing information regarding safe sex between same-sex partners, and even judges and lawyers subject to arrest or fine. Already people are being arrested, beaten, intimidated, and more.