Top 1% Control 39% of World's Wealth

I plan to be part of this group one day!

Top 1% Control 39% of World's Wealth: "The wealthiest 1 percent now control 39 percent of the world's wealth, and their share is likely to grow in the coming years, according to a new report.

The world's total private wealth grew 7.8 percent last year to $135 trillion, according to the Boston Consulting Group's Global Wealth report. The top 1 percent control $52.8 trillion, and those worth $5 million or more control nearly a quarter of the world's wealth."

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What Do the ‘Revised’ U.S. Jobs Numbers Mean? - Businessweek

What Do the ‘Revised’ U.S. Jobs Numbers Mean? - Businessweek: "The best news, however, may have been what the numbers told us about what happened before April. The government revised upward its estimate for the number of jobs created in March and February. The original March numbers had been disappointing, a measly 88,000 jobs created, but the new number rose sharply to 138,000. The revised February estimate reached 332,000, up from 236,000."

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False Flags, Sharia Law, and Gun Grabs: GOP Lawmakers Embrace The Crazy - The Daily Beast

False Flags, Sharia Law, and Gun Grabs: GOP Lawmakers Embrace The Crazy - The Daily Beast: "A few days after the Boston bombings, Stella Tremblay went to Glenn Beck’s Facebook page to express her conviction that the terror attack was, in fact, orchestrated by the U.S. government."

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Texas Will Deny Health Coverage To 1.5 Million Low-Income Residents | ThinkProgress

Texas Will Deny Health Coverage To 1.5 Million Low-Income Residents | ThinkProgress: "1.5 million low-income Texans may go without health care coverage after lawmakers in the state voted against expanding Medicaid using $100 billion in federal funds offered under President Obama’s health care law. The decision comes almost a year after the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government cannot require states to enroll more Medicaid beneficiaries.

The proposal, sent to Gov. Rick Perry (R) on Sunday, says state health officials “may only provide medical assistance to a person who would have been otherwise eligible for medical assistance or for whom federal matching funds were available under the eligibility criteria for medical assistance in effect on December 31, 2013.”"

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The Obamacare Shock - NYTimes.com

The Obamacare Shock - NYTimes.com: "Obamacare is a deeply conservative reform, not in a political sense (although it was originally a Republican proposal) but in terms of leaving most people’s health care unaffected. Americans who receive health insurance from their employers, Medicare or Medicaid — which is to say, the vast majority of those who have any kind of health insurance at all — will see almost no changes when the law goes into effect."

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Nonprofit Applicants Chafing at I.R.S. Tested Political Limits - NYTimes.com

Nonprofit Applicants Chafing at I.R.S. Tested Political Limits - NYTimes.com: "The Wetumpka Tea Party, from Alabama, sponsored training for a get-out-the-vote initiative dedicated to the “defeat of President Barack Obama” while the I.R.S. was weighing its application."

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California Confronts Budget Surplus - Business Insider

California Confronts Budget Surplus - Business Insider:
"California now has so much projected revenue that Sacramento legislators don't what to do with it, The New York Times' Adam Nagourney reports.

The final budget surplus figure for 2014 will fall somewhere between $1.2 and $4.4 billion, depending on who's counting. "

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Obama Heckled On Guantanamo Bay - Business Insider

Medea Benjamin is awesome! 


Obama Heckled On Guantanamo Bay - Business Insider: "Medea Benjamin three times during a major foreign policy speech Thursday when talking about closing Guantanamo Bay and discussing his administration's policy on drone strikes.
The second time she interrupted, Obama became irritated.
"Part of free speech is you being able to speak, but also me being able to speak. And you listening," Obama said to applause."

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BBC News - Stockholm riots throw spotlight on Swedish inequality

BBC News - Stockholm riots throw spotlight on Swedish inequality: "Rioting in the city's suburbs has raised the national debate about immigration, unemployment and social inequality.

The cars attacked in the violence are not high-end - not the BMWs and Porsches you might expect to see torched by class warriors - but the vans which ordinary people need to go about their business.

Schools, a station and a library have been attacked as well as a bank and a police station."

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The Fascist History Behind Dominique Venner’s Suicide at Notre Dame - The Daily Beast

The Fascist History Behind Dominique Venner’s Suicide at Notre Dame - The Daily Beast: "A veteran of French neo-fascist groups, Venner was a longtime militant of the far right who had gradually eased into a new life as a respected historian, known for his expertise on weapons and hunting. But his suicide manifesto, as well as a blog post he published earlier that morning, took him directly back to the dark themes that drove his life: the “great replacement of the people of France” and the prospect of France “falling into the hands of Islamists.” He praised an upcoming protest of France’s new law legalizing gay marriage, which he called “detestable.”"

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U.S. Acknowledges Killing 4 Americans in Drone Strikes - NYTimes.com

President Obama is a Badass!

U.S. Acknowledges Killing 4 Americans in Drone Strikes - NYTimes.com: "One day before President Obama is due to deliver a major speech on national security, his administration on Wednesday formally acknowledged that the United States had killed four American citizens in drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan.

In a letter to Congressional leaders obtained by The New York Times, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. disclosed that the administration had deliberately killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Muslim cleric who was killed in a drone strike in September 2011 in Yemen."

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Woman Finds Dog Lost During Tornado While Being Interviewed « CBS Houston

Very cool!
Woman Finds Dog Lost During Tornado While Being Interviewed « CBS Houston:



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Tornado survivor Barbara Garcia was relating her harrowing tale of survival to CBS News, recalling in a deliberate voice the details of feeling her house coming down around her as the storm wreaked havoc on the area.

“I was sitting on the stool, holding my dog … this was the game plan all through the years … to go in that little bathroom,” she said, recalling to CBS News reporter Anna Werner her experience. “… I felt the stool come up out of the floor and I rolled around a little bit.”

It's Back: Shadow Banking Hits Post-Crisis Highs

It's Back: Shadow Banking Hits Post-Crisis Highs:

What Warren Buffett once called "financial weapons of mass destruction" are firing again, with securitization and shadow banking at post-financial crisis highs.

The twin powers of bank funding that helped propel the nation into turmoil have regained ground swiftly, and analysts say it's both a challenge for regulators and a sign that the economy is recovering.

Securitization, or the channels through which banks repackage loans and farm them off to investors, has hit volume of $225.6 billion by way of 365 deals this year, according to Dealogic.

That's a 14 percent increase over 2012 but still miles away from the heady days of 2007, which saw a staggering $777 billion in volume at the same point—right before securitization, and the rest of the mortgage market, came crashing down.

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Oklahoma Senators Jim Inhofe, Tom Coburn, Face Difficult Options On Disaster Relief

Oklahoma Senators Jim Inhofe, Tom Coburn, Face Difficult Options On Disaster Relief: "As frantic rescue missions continued Monday in Oklahoma following the catastrophic tornadoes that ripped through the state, it appeared increasingly likely that residents who lost homes and businesses would turn to the federal government for emergency disaster aid. That could put the state's two Republican senators in an awkward position.

Sens. Jim Inhofe and Tom Coburn, both Republicans, are fiscal hawks who have repeatedly voted against funding disaster aid for other parts of the country. They also have opposed increased funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which administers federal disaster relief."

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Oklahoma Tornado: Updates And How To Help | Here & Now

Oklahoma Tornado: Updates And How To Help | Here & Now: "Donate to the American Red Cross: give online at redcross.org or text REDCROSS to 90999 to give $10.
Donate to the Salvation Army: give online at SalvationArmyUSA.org or text “STORM” to 80888 to give $10.
Donate to Moore & Shawnee Tornado Relief Fund: give online at TulsaCF.org or mail to TCF offices at 7030 S. Yale, Suite 600, Tulsa, OK, 74136."

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Ja'Nae Hornsby, Plaza Towers Elementary School Student, Reportedly Dead After Oklahoma Tornado

Ja'Nae Hornsby, Plaza Towers Elementary School Student, Reportedly Dead After Oklahoma Tornado: "Nine-year-old Ja'Nae Hornsby was confirmed dead by multiple news sources following a tornado that tore through Moore, Okla., on Monday.

Ja'Nae's father confirmed the girl's death to KJRH on Tuesday, telling the news station that her body was found in the rubble of Plaza Towers Elementary School."

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How much ammonium nitrate is stored in East Texas Plants?

How much ammonium nitrate is stored in East Texas Plants?: "The Tyler Morning Telegraph contacted the Texas Department of State Health Services in an effort to check locations in East Texas that store ammonium nitrate, the fertilizer involved in the West explosion last month.

The plant that exploded in West last month, by comparison, can store up to 2,400 tons."

1. Tyler: El Dorado Chemical on County Road 490: Daily average of ammonium nitrate on hand, 100 to 500 tons. 

2. Athens: El Dorado Chemical on Farm-to-Market Road 753: Daily average of ammonium nitrate on hand, 100 to 500 tons.

3. Pittsburg: El Dorado Chemical at 204 Fulton: Daily average of ammonium nitrate on hand, 100 to 500 tons.

4. Elkhart: El Dorado Chemical at 100 Lewis St.: Daily average of ammonium nitrate on hand, up to 5,000 tons.

5. Terrell: El Dorado Chemical at 500 E. Temple; Daily average of ammonium nitrate on hand, 100 to 500 tons. 

6. Bullard: Richard O. Barham Supertree Nursery on Farm-to-Marjet Road 3198 west; average amount on hand, three tons.

7. Tyler: Kinney Bonded Warehouse on County Road 1114; four tons of ammonium nitrate mixed fertilizer.

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RNC FL Hispanic Director is Now a Democrat | The Florida Nation

RNC FL Hispanic Director is Now a Democrat | The Florida Nation: "It doesn’t take much to see the culture of intolerance surrounding the Republican Party today. I have wondered before about the seemingly harsh undertones about immigrants and others. Look no further; a well-known organization recently confirms the intolerance of that which seems different or strange to them."

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Benghazi Truth Obama Clinton - Business Insider

This doesn't look go no matter how you look at it.

Benghazi Truth Obama Clinton - Business Insider: ""These changes don't resolve all of my issues or those of my building's leadership." With that sentence, one in a series of emails and draft "talking points" leaked to Jonathan Karl of ABC News, the Obama administration was caught playing politics with Benghazi."

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Ted Cruz vs. Marco Rubio on immigration - Manu Raju - POLITICO.com

Ted Cruz vs. Marco Rubio on immigration - Manu Raju - POLITICO.com: "The Texas freshman is sharply critical of the pathway to citizenship for the nation’s 11 million undocumented immigrants, a central part of the bipartisan bill that Rubio helped write. Cruz is weighing whether to aggressively oppose the immigration overhaul, a decision that could neutralize Rubio’s outreach to conservative activists in order to minimize their opposition."

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After Calling Sandy Aid Wasteful, Ted Cruz Asks For All Available Resources for Texas

After Calling Sandy Aid Wasteful, Ted Cruz Asks For All Available Resources for Texas: "In January of 2013, before he became infamous for modernizing McCarthyism in the Senate halls, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) claimed he couldn’t support aid for Sandy victims because of the “pork” and “wasteful spending” in the Disaster Relief Act of 2013.

"

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Fox News Invites Convicted Cover-Up Expert Oliver North To Comment On Alleged Benghazi Cover-Up | ThinkProgress

Fox News Invites Convicted Cover-Up Expert Oliver North To Comment On Alleged Benghazi Cover-Up | ThinkProgress:

On Wednesday, in a moment of rich irony, Fox News invited Oliver North, a military official who was convicted of covering up the government’s role in the Iran-Contra scandal, to discuss the Obama administration’s alleged cover-up of the Sep. 11, 2012 attacks on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi. North joined host Megyn Kelly to analyze the House Oversight Committee’s hearing featuring three witnesses who claim that the government could have done more on the night of the attack to save American lives.

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US Jobs Report Crushes Bears - Business Insider

US Jobs Report Crushes Bears - Business Insider: "Now the market is back to making new highs again, and the market bears are crushed.
A new note from Olivier Korber at SocGen is titled "US payrolls annihilated 'sell in May.'" Basically, whatever temptation there was to dump risky assets starting in May (as the cliche goes) has been sapped."

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‘Terror attack disrupted’ after agents bust Minnesota man armed with Molotov cocktails, suspected pipe bombs: FBI - NY Daily News

‘Terror attack disrupted’ after agents bust Minnesota man armed with Molotov cocktails, suspected pipe bombs: FBI - NY Daily News: "The FBI believes “a terror attack was disrupted” when authorities arrested a man after they converged on a mobile home in western Minnesota that contained Molotov cocktails, suspected pipe bombs and firearms, the agency said Monday.

Buford Rogers, 24, was arrested Friday and charged with one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He remains in federal custody it is not immediately clear if he has an attorney."

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Bob McDonnell Scandal By The Numbers | TPMMuckraker

Bob McDonnell Scandal By The Numbers | TPMMuckraker: "It’s a sprawling, messy story. It involves the Virginia governor’s mansion, a wedding, undisclosed vacations, a “naturally-occuring alkaloid” called anatabine, a struggling company, a corporate jet, and, just to top things off, a chef facing embezzlement charges. But most importantly it involves Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R), along with Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli."
Here are some of the story’s key facts and figures:

$15,000: Amount of money Williams reportedly paid to foot the bill for the food at the June 2011 wedding of Bob and Maureen McDonnell’s daughter Cailin. 

158: Miles between Smith Mountain Lake, southeast of Roanoke, Va., and Richmond, Va. In July 2011, the McDonnell family enjoyed a (disclosed) vacation at Williams’ Smith Mountain Lake house. According to the Post, they drove back to Richmond in Williams’ Ferrari.

$120,000: Publicly disclosed campaign donations given by Williams and Star Scientific to McDonnell and his political action committee.

3: Number of days before her daughter’s wedding that Maureen McDonnell spoke at a Florida seminar for scientists and investors interested in anatabine, the key ingredient in Anatabloc. 

$9,600: Reported value of food, lodging, transportation, and entertainment that McDonnell has disclosed receiving from Williams and his company in 2011 and 2012.

4: Embezzlement charges filed against Todd Schneider, a former executive chef at the Virginia governor’s mansion.

$4,500: Value of two stays at Williams’s Smith Mountain Lake vacation house that Cuccinelli disclosed on Friday. Cuccinelli had previously disclosed receiving nearly $13,000 in gifts from Williams and the company.  

$22.9 million: Amount of money Star Scientific reported losing in 2012, the company’s 10th consecutive money-losing year.

47th: Virginia’s rank in The State Integrity Investigation, a collaborative project of the Center for Public Integrity, Global Integrity, and Public Radio International.

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Bob McDonnell on FBI Probe: 'I've Been Blessed to Have a Lot of Friends' - US News and World Report

Bob McDonnell on FBI Probe: 'I've Been Blessed to Have a Lot of Friends' - US News and World Report: "he Federal Bureau of Investigation is probing the close relationship between Gov. Bob McDonnell, R-Va., and a donor who paid $15,000 to cover catering expenses at the June 2011 wedding of McDonnell's daughter, according to news reports. McDonnell declined to specifically address the probe on Tuesday, but explained his relationship with the donor on WTOP Radio's "Ask the Governor" program by saying, "I've been blessed to have a lot of friends.""

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Donor gave McDonnell and family a lake-house vacation - Washington Post

Donor gave McDonnell and family a lake-house vacation - Washington Post: "Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell took a lake-house vacation in 2011 courtesy of the same major campaign donor who paid for the food at the wedding of the governor’s daughter that summer.

When the July vacation ended, the McDonnell family borrowed a Ferrari owned by Star Scientific’s chief executive Jonnie R. Williams Sr. for the three-hour ride back to Richmond. The model had a retail price of $190,000."

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Burkesville, Kentucky Shooting: Trip Gabriel Interview - Business Insider

Burkesville, Kentucky Shooting: Trip Gabriel Interview - Business Insider: "New York Times reporter Trip Gabriel traveled to the small town of Burkesville, Ky., to cover the horrific aftermath of an incident in which a 5-year-old boy accidentally shot his 2-year-old sister.
Gabriel and other reporters outside the girl's funeral experienced some animosity from local residents, which Gabriel said was surprising but nonetheless atypical."

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The Biggest Mistake Heritage Makes About Immigration Reform - Business Insider

The Biggest Mistake Heritage Makes About Immigration Reform - Business Insider: "Robert Rector and Jason Richwine released a Heritage Foundation report they claim describes the fiscal cost of comprehensive immigration reform."

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Conservatives Are Piling On The Flawed New Immigration Study From The Heritage Foundation - Business Insider

Conservatives Are Piling On The Flawed New Immigration Study From The Heritage Foundation - Business Insider: "In chief opposition to the Heritage plan is Americans for Tax Reform.
Grover Norquist's group has been in favor of immigration reform on the right, and called the Heritage study's cost estimates "vastly overblown."
Rep. Paul Ryan, the well-respected Chairman of the House Budget Committee, told CQ Roll Call that he didn't agree with the findings of the study.
"The Congressional Budget Office has found that fixing our broken immigration system could help our economy grow," he told Roll Call's David Drucker. "A proper accounting of immigration reform should take into account these dynamic effects."
Robert Costa at the National Review reports that Florida Senator Marco Rubio — the chief Republican patron of the immigration bill — also disputes the study. "

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Mark Sanford Gets Tea Party Support

Say what!!!!

Mark Sanford Gets Tea Party Support: "With three days to go to election day, former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford picked up the support of the Tea Party Express and local Tea Party leaders.
"I'm here because this is the beginning of the 2014 election cycle. This race is extremely important and it's going to have consequences all across this country," said Amy Kremer, chairman of the Tea Party Express. "South Carolina is a conservative state and the people want a conservative representative."
"

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NRA lobbyist, arms dealer played key role in growth of civilian market for military-style guns - The Washington Post

NRA lobbyist, arms dealer played key role in growth of civilian market for military-style guns - The Washington Post: "Rene Carlos Vos, an arms dealer in Alexandria, began hanging around the Washington headquarters of the National Rifle Association in the mid-1980s. The NRA’s staff was intrigued to see the garrulous, backslapping Vos in the group’s seventh-floor suite, home to its lobbying operation and the chief congressional lobbyist, Wayne LaPierre."

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Tech Firms Take Lead in Lobbying on Immigration - NYTimes.com

Tech Firms Take Lead in Lobbying on Immigration - NYTimes.com: " The television advertisement that hit the airwaves in Florida last month featured the Republican Party’s rising star, Senator Marco Rubio, boasting about his get-tough plan for border security.

But most who watched the commercial, sponsored by a new group that calls itself Americans for a Conservative Direction, may be surprised to learn who bankrolled it: senior executives from Silicon Valley, like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn, who run companies where the top employees donate mostly to Democrats."

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Obama Administration Appeals Judge's Order On Plan B : The Two-Way : NPR

Obama Administration Appeals Judge's Order On Plan B : The Two-Way : NPR: "The Obama administration filed an appeal Wednesday of a U.S. district court ruling that ordered it to end all age restrictions on the Plan B emergency contraceptive pill.

The move came a day after the Food and Drug Administration lowered the age for which the product can be purchased without a prescription from 17 to 15."

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STOCKS GO WILD AFTER AWESOME JOBS REPORT: Here's What You Need To Know

Today was great.

First the scoreboard:

Dow: 14,973, +142.3 pts, +0.9%
S&P 500: 1,614, +16.8 pts, +1.0%
NASDAQ: 3,378, +38.0 pts, +1.1%

And now the top stories:

• It's jobs day in America.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. employers added 165,000 nonfarm payrolls in April.  This was much higher than the 140,000 expected by economists.  Even better, the March number was revised up to 138,000 from 88,000, and the February number was revised up to 332,000 from 268,000.

So, what about the "sell in May and go away" rule? "We want to take the other side of this trade for multiple reasons," said JP Morgan's Tom Lee reiterating his bullishness.  Among other things, he noted that hedge funds were quite bearish already.  This wasn't the case going into the previous three Mays.  Lee also added that falling gas and commodity prices would act as a big stimulus to the economy.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/closing-bell-may-3-2013-2013-5#ixzz2SGkqCebA

Jobs and Rate

The United States economy created an estimated 165,000 jobs in April, averting fears of a sharp slowdown and pushing the unemployment rate to its lowest level since the end of 2008.

The latest jobs figures from the Department of Labor paint a brighter picture of the overall economy than other recent data, which had been weaker and prompted economists to warn of a spring swoon for the third year in row. Those worries had been heightened after the March jobs report, which initially showed the economy to have added just 88,000 jobs, much fewer than had been expected.

On Friday, however, the government sharply revised upward its estimates for job creation in February and March, concluding that the economy actually generated 332,000 jobs in February and 138,000 in March. The unemployment rate, which is based on a separate survey, fell by 0.1 percentage point to 7.5 percent, from 7.6 percent in March.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/04/business/economy/us-adds-165000-jobs-in-april.html?hp&_r=0&pagewanted=print

Barry West: Tennessee politician posts photo of man taking aim with a double-barreled shotgun with outrageous caption | Mail Online

If you're a Bigot and you know it send a racist pic!

Barry West: Tennessee politician posts photo of man taking aim with a double-barreled shotgun with outrageous caption | Mail Online: "'I’m prejudiced against anyone who’s trying to tear down this country, Muslims, Mexicans, anybody,' Mr West told The Tullahoma News.

'If you come into this country illegally or harm us or take away benefits, I’m against it.'

When he was later interviewed by The Tennessean, he didn't understand why he was being questioned.

'No I did not create this picture... yes I shared it... so why am I being singled out?' he said."

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GOP Needs A Hispanic Takeover - Business Insider

Bam!  Latinos are and will be Democrats for a generation!

And therein lies the Republican problem. The party's makeover will fail unless it roots out the discrimination -- even racism -- that's embedded within the GOP. Redistricting, housing, identification, restrictive voting, and other Republican-sponsored laws affect Latinos and other minorities disproportionately. According to a Pew Research Center report, more than 80 percent of Latinos believe discrimination is an obstacle to their success in America -- and they see that discrimination as most deeply rooted amongst Republicans.

Latinos remember past efforts to exclude them, like signs in restaurant windows that read "no dogs or Mexicans allowed." They see the same attitude in many contemporary Republican-sponsored actions, like Sheriff Joe Arpaio's raids targeting Mexican communities in Arizona. Mitt Romney's calls for "self-deportation" recalled episodes from the 1930s and 1950s when millions of Mexicans -- labeled as economic burdens, Communists, and other kinds of threats -- were forcibly removed from the country. Alaskan Republican Rep. Don Young's recent comment about "wetbacks" on his father's farm did not exactly help.

Read more: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/05/the-gop-doesnt-need-hispanic-outreach-it-needs-a-hispanic-takeover/275401/#ixzz2S5Xlu2eB
GOP Needs A Hispanic Takeover - Business Insider:

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