The urge, the longing, the itch and the craving to be in the White House is so overwhelming. The evidence of this ‘want’ used to seep through the edges and the cracks of Mitt Romney's skin but has now engulfed him, Mrs. Mitt and all five infantile, juvenile Mitts. 

The saliva-dripping, tongue-on-the-floor exhibit by this family is almost sinful.  There is nothing in life anyone should want so much that he/she will barter his or her soul at every opportunity and sell it to the devil for zero dollars.  But then again, a Tin Man has no soul and the offsprings - the “tin-nettes” or those who marry into this setting (classified as “birds-of- a-feather”) cannot be expected to have a soul – can they?.

The most practiced and honed quality of Mitt Romney is lying and he sucks big-time - school children in England can see through the lies! We ask for transparency and we get transparency we all see through him:

• On Abortion – Pro-Life with no exceptions on abortion. He is now underscoring his support for abortion and 
                         contraception.

• On Immigration – Originally in the presidential primaries Mr. Romney’s was for self deportation, vetoing the “Dream 
                               Act” then in speaking to Latino voters he said: “The kids of those that came here illegally, 
                               those kids I think should have a pathway to become a permanent resident of the United 
                               States”. As recently as early as this month (October) he said that if elected president, he would 
                               end the program that offers hundreds of thousands of those immigrants two-year reprieves from 
                               deportation, which the Obama administration began in August. October 2012

• On Healthcare – His Massachusetts sweeping healthcare law expanded the state’s Medicaid program and resulted 
                            into doubled the number of insured residents which required residents to secure coverage or be 
                            taxed.  Then he vilified President Obama’s healthcare system which is mirror-image of the 
                            Massachusetts’ law while criticizing benefits such as coverage of pre-existing conditions. In the 
                            Presidential campaign he is back and forth on repeal then accept, repeal then accept.

• On Taxes – Hike taxes on the middle class but give tax breaks to the rich, wealthy and famous. Then he says it will 
                     mean more take home pay for the middle class – more taxes resulting into more take-home is an 
                     oxymoron if ever there were one. But then again, Romney is a moron.

* On Foreign Policy – Summed up in the President’s words last night in the debate:
                                   “Governor, when it comes to our foreign policy, you seem to want to import the 
                                   foreign policies of the 1980s," Obama told Romney during the debate at Lynn University. 
                                   "Just like the social policies of the 1950s and the economic policies of the 1920s."

• On Women’s Rights – Scary!  Equal pay for equal work, a law enacted in what Mr. Romney would call a “Third 
                                     World” country Jamaica since 1975.  JAMAICA THE EMPLOYMENT (EQUAL PAY FOR 
                                     MEN AND WOMEN) ACT Act 34 of 1975. [1st: December, 1975.] This is thirty four (34) years 
                                     before President Obama signed it into law and Mr. Romney is opposing it.  Or no ... I forgot!!! 
                                     He has a binder full of women. The social policies of the 1950s and the economic policies of 
                                     the 1920s.

• On Outsourcing Jobs, or resting his money in tax-safe havens, OR ON JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING... 

                                                                  You suck Mr. Romney!

President Obama is everything that Governor Romney is not, cannot and will never be.  

The President is smart.  He did not get his entry to Harvard, his intellect, his suave, his pleasing personality, his sufistication, his charm by the affirmative action of a cash rich-father of a dunce kid, he had to earn it by his assets bestowed upon him by his Father, God. 

Mitt Romney and the far right of the Republican Party, including the Tea Party, use the term “entitlement” to demean and debase the very workers who are the backbone, the digestive system, the cardiovascular system and muscles of the country.  BUT on their side of the fence, the dictionary shows a different and elevating meaning for entitlement – because of who he is, he is entitled to the White House and the other guy for who he is, is not!

I cannot for the life of me understand why this President, with all his achievements under unprecedented harsh circumstances is so unappreciated and hated.  My mother has shared a song with me that she says sums up the answer to my question and it really does. 
Great melody – you should listen to it, especially the words some of which I have extracted and included below. 

Cut and paste......http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0c2Ub2EbSU

Pop Tops “Oh Lord, Why Lord”
I search the open sky to find the reason why
The color of my skin is said to be an awful sin 
Oh Lord, Why Lord

I have to live and live and 
Give much more than I can give
Oh Lord, Why Lord

I feel the weight of everlasting hate
But my strength will not grow faint
Oh Lord, why Lord

Pop Tops (or Los Pop-Tops) were a vocal/instrumental band, formed in 1967 in Madrid, Spain and consisting of José Lipiani, Alberto Vega, Ignacio Pérez, Julián Luis Angulo, Enrique Gómez, Ray Gómez plus lead singer Phil Trim (born January 5, 1940, Trinidad and Tobago)

Dedicated to all the Birthers: SONG: "Obama Born Ya" by Screwdriver. 
 http://youtu.be/CRlR7_Dv8PQ

“He’s gotten more done in three years than any president in decades. Too bad the American public still thinks he hasn’t accomplished anything…… Measured in sheer legislative tonnage, what Obama got done in his first two years is stunning."  The Incomplete Greatness of Barack Obama- Paul Glastris, Washington Monthly, March/April 2012.

President Obama is a man of courage. A president who does not allow anyone or anything to daunt his commitment or his resolve.  He successfully defied, confronted, dared, disregarded and treated with contempt the impeding, and the encumbering efforts of the GOP (Grand Obstructionist Party), and I include in this group of obstructionists, the pseudo conservatives who call themselves Blue Dog Democrats. 

Some Achievements in YEARS 1 AND 2 of Obama’s Presidency:

The U.S. Auto Industry take-over and turn-around: Injection of $62 billion in federal money in 2009 which has added over 100,000 jobs since, and for the first time in over 20 years Ford, General Motors and Chrysler the big three automakers all gained market share.  One does not have to call attention to the efforts of the GOP to stop that from happening. Romney our “Businessman of the Century” was the one to say “Let Detroit go Bankrupt” and he cannot to date, and will never in his lifetime, get rid of the egg in his face.  

Wall Street Regulated: We all accept as fact (except Romney and his crew who are passionate proponents and beneficiaries of the spoils of de-regulation) that regulation was and continues to be an absolute must after the Great Recession brought on by the suspect practices of Wall Street. Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (2010)

Avant-garde Reform of Student Aid: Rapacious banks were relieved of their middleman status with regards to the Federal Student Loan Program and Pell Grant spending was increased.  Students now go directly to the Federal Government and this results in a $67 billion savings over 10 years, $36 billion of which to be used in expansion of Pell Grants to low-income students.

Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act Signed in 2010: With the coordinated efforts with Michelle Obama the act mandating $4.5 billion additional spending to elevate nutritional and health standards for school lunches. 

Signed 2009 Children’s Health Insurance Authorization Act: The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) covers 4 million more children.  This is financed by tax increase on tobacco products.
Stem Cell Research Expansion:  Bush’s restrictions on embryonic stem cell research were eliminated in 2009.

Agreement for Speedy Compensation to Victims of Gulf Oil Spill (2010): BP (British Petroleum) was forced to act albeit in the absence of statutory power to compensate victims of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  $20 billion is secured for this compensation - over $6 billion of this is already honored without lawsuits compared to the approximately 10 years it took for plaintiffs to receive $1.3 billion in the Exxon Valdez Alaska oil spill case. 

Signed Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (2009): Equal pay for equal work, giving the right to women who are paid less than men for the same work to sue employers for this discriminatory act even in cases where the discrimination took place years ago. 

U.S. Supreme Court Liberal Seats (2009): Nominated Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic and third woman to serve and the fourth woman, Elena Kagan in 2010.

Bush Torture Policy Reversed: In second day in office the President invalidated the “enhanced interrogation techniques” of the Bush era which was in contravention of the Geneva Conventions and in so doing, released President Bush’s secret legal rulings that supported these techniques. 

America’s Image Abroad Improved: By his policies and diplomacy President Obama corrected the severe decline in world opinion of the United States.  The “favorable-factor” towards the US between 2008 to 2011 experienced a rise in 10 to 15 countries surveyed by the Pew Global Attitudes Project by an impressive 26%.

Healthcare Reform passed: 32 million uninsured Americans will be covered because of the Affordable Care Act (2010) and further, there are mandates to cut healthcare cost growth.  This is the primary contributor to the country’s current and future fiscal problems. 

Stimulus Passed: The country was suffering the greatest recession since the Great Depression brought on by the failed Bush Presidency. Boldly and against bad-mouthing coming from the GOP the President signed the $787 billion American Recovery Act in 2009.  Unemployment claims saw a decrease just weeks after the implementation of the stimulus, private sector produced more jobs than it was losing only 12 months after and to date has continued its unyielding growth in private sector jobs totaling over 5 million and counting

Mini-Stimuli beginning – July 22, 2010: These have helped families who are among the 47% of America who Mitt Romney cares nothing about.


Wall Street Regulated: We all accept as fact (except Romney and his crew who are passionate proponents and beneficiaries of the spoils of de-regulation) that regulation was and continues to be an absolute must after the Great Recession brought on by the suspect practices of Wall Street. The President signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (2010)

Recapitalized Banks:  Amidst the barrage of criticism and controversy President Obama applied good business sense - a quality believed by the GOP and Romney reserved for them and them alone. He approved Treasury Department’s plan, has successfully lured private capital into the largest banks and this has reinstated these financial institutions to a profitable position and at no cost to the government!!!

Credit Card Reforms: This reform under the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act (2009) prohibits credit card companies from raising rates without notification and implemented a mandated grace period on these increases while strictly limiting overdraft and other fees. 

War:  Ended the Iraq War with the last of America’s bravest souls returning home in December of 2011

Veteran Support Increased: Increased 2010 Department of Veterans Affairs’ budget by 16% while at the same time signing a new GI bill with $78 billion in tuition assistance to last over 10 years and provided multiple tax-credits as encouragement to businesses to hire veterans.

Killing Osama Bin Laden, bringing to an end Moammar Gaddafi’s 42-year dictatorship without the loss of one American life.  

February 1, 2011 Obama publicly told Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to go and the rest is history Mubarak’s 30-year rule ended 10 days after.

Missile Defense Trimmed and Reoriented: Saved $1.4 billion in 2010 by cutting the Reagan “Star-Wars’ missile defense budget. 

Stopped purchasing F-22 (2009): The 187 Lockheed Martin single-seat, twin-engine, fighter aircraft the military had built cost the country $358 million each, but have never flown a single combat mission. A saving of $4 billion. 

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”: Repealed and brought to an end the 1990s-era restriction on gays in the military.

Regulate Carbon Dioxide Production: Having recognized the dangers of Carbon Dioxide, it was declared a pollutant and regulations put in place as related to its production. 

Renewable Technology Investment: Invested more than his predecessors in research, electric cars, energy efficiency, clean coal and biofuels. 

Drawdown of Troops in Afghanistan has seen constant reduction of troops and combat mission is scheduled to be over by 2013.

Sanctions have been tightening on Iran, over 5 million private-sector jobs created, unemployment rate at 7.8% and despite of unrelenting opposition from the unpatriotic Tea Party-controlled House he could accomplish a $1.2 trillion deficit reduction deal.

With 17 days to go until the biggest election in modern American history, the polls show a dead even race between the two parties and the country is deluged by the anxieties of the left, the bile and evil cravings to seize power of the right, the hope and anxieties of the voters for a relief from this long drought of quality life.  The world looks on with anxious expectation to the results of the election with the hope that the greatest nation on earth and the trend-setter for world economic success would settle down and get back to business.


This why the America, and the World, still needs Barak Obama!!!

P.S. – Join me (Dave) and Lori Picarella at 11:00pm Monday, October 22nd to discuss the last presidential debate for this season. This is a half-hour internet radio show. We love to hear from you.  Call us at (619)789-1959.   Listen, call-in and make your comment on live radio: www.blogtalkradio.com/kitchenpolitics123
~DF  

By: David A. Franklin, Jr.
  
Romney, Ryan and Republicans (RRR) take heed you are striving (you believe) only because you are so comfortable with dishonesty. But I refer you to a simple song – I love these songs; these “message songs”.  This is by the artiste called Shine Head, “STRIVE” and I refer you to a particular stanza:

If yuh a tief tief remember God naw sleep
And although yuh rob a man and yuh get weh last week
Yuh ago laugh outta street but yuh beaten gwine steep
Caz God annuh silent river and jah know him run deep

TRANSLATION:
If you are a thief, remember God is not sleeping
And although you robbed a man (the American people) and got away with it last week
You are going to laugh in the street, but your punishment will be steep (severe)
Because God is not a silent river but God knows He runs deep!
                  
                        ****
Throughout history lots of great men and women
Went about things the old fashion way 
They just kept on winning and winning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZJRpJMKxB8 

“The old fashioned way” Romney, Ryan and Republicans (RRR) means pure unadulterated honesty and truth! When it’s not Ryan lying through his teeth at the GOP Convention, it is Romney in the Presidential debate with vomit-worthy, shameless, bare-faced, bone-numbing dishonesty!

Romney engages his Etch-a-Sketch pretending to turn away from his plan which he has been putting forward for the past year and saying the stark opposite is his promise.  And promise it is indeed because he knows he is only trying to hood-wink the American people. He says he will do these things AND  not only does he not explain how he will achieve them but knowing full well he is only feeding these “takers”, these “others” with the heat of the campaign aphrodisiac. He said in the debate he will keep bank regulations in place, hire more teachers, maintain tax on the wealthy in total contradiction of his true intentions and opposite to what he has been promising up until the last 18 seconds before the debate.

Pre-existing conditions benefits are provided for, under his health plan. The truth is, this clause in his plan applies only in instances where continuous healthcare coverage is held by the patient and in addition that right has existed since 1996 and would discard those patients who cannot get healthcare period. This neither matches Obamacare or Romneycare! Read more in “Repeal and Replace, Without the Replace” by Jonathan Cohn, The New Republic May 17, 2012
 http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-cohn/103422/republican-repeal-replace-obamacare-pre-existing-condition-guarantee

He would end Obama programs but does not think the American public needs to know how he would accomplish this without eliminating the very things he says he will keep.
 
The $5 trillion tax cut is a direct adaptation of the Ryan’s and Republicans’ stated goals to lower Capital Gains tax to zero which would have Romney and his filthy rich friends  paying zero tax to the Federal Government.  
This benefit for the rich would have to be borne by the “others” “those people” whom he cares nothing about. Middle and working Americans would lose tax deductions for childcare, mortgage interest among others.  Then we cannot forget that people who receive these deductions think they are entitled and while these ‘entitled’ souls lose their entitlement, they work harder and harder to support Romney’s program that allows him and his kind, to pay zero to the country to which they claim they are so patriotic. This is not patriotism it is treason!!!

His denial to the President’s charge that he promises to cut $5 trillion dollars from these wealthy entitled soul "I'm not asking for a $5 trillion tax cut.  What I've said is I won't put in place a tax cut that adds to the deficit. ... I've got five boys. I'm used to people saying something that's not always true, but just keep on repeating it and ultimately hoping I'll believe it." is jaw-dropping. Not to mention the air of entitlement he exhibits in this utterance being utterly rude and disrespectful to compare the President and the country’s business to shenanigans of he and his and “lie-raised” juveniles!

 He has promised to extend all the Bush tax cuts and has decided to go along with Ryan’s non-acceptance of even the slightest of higher revenue in attacking the deficit.  From which angle then is he saying that all this is untrue?
I have wasted enough time and ire on the pack of thieves so I purge my mind of these negative souls and think of the great men and women who go about things the old fashion way and who just keep on winning and winning!

By: David A. Franklin, Jr.

Mitt Romney And His Surrogates Are Plotting To Steal The 2012 Election.

   It says a lot about a person when the best he can do is lie. Not only lie but lie about lying. Although he has been repeatedly proven a liar by the Media, he keeps on lying without flinching, showing no kind of remorse or shame. That is a sure sign of a Class A narcissist. The psycho-analytic definition of a narcissist reads: “A person with a social personality disorder who has an exaggerated sense of self-importance and superiority and an excessive need for admiration”. Placed besides the meaning in the dictionary is a picture of Mitt Romney. 

This need for admiration and recognition extends from his sense of entitlement because of who he is. The child who was given everything he ever wanted or desired – the spoilt brat. So he sets his sight on the White House and if it takes lying, and lying and even assassination of character (those of his GOP colleagues in the presidential primaries and the President’s) he will do it. We need no more evidence than his cold and heartless behavior with his trampling of human lives and livelihood at Bain Capital, the times when by his own uttering we see his true self – “I like to fire people”, “…47% of Americans think they are entitled, dependent on government and aren’t willing to take personal responsibility for their lives… I don’t care about those people.”

Congressman Paul Ryan has underscored the “birds of a feather stick together” cliché. The common thread of lying and shamelessness, the kind of lies my grandmother would term barefaced, and dry-eyed lies”. Ryan has turned out to be a real albatross around Romney’s neck and vice versa Romney around his neck. But birds of a feather do stick together! 

The Group of Bandits:
Having defined the pillars on which this Republican 2012 campaign stands, with the two liars at the core – or no they are not the core, they are the water boys for the real captains of the ship. Although they seem to be front and center of the game, they are but the boys who work on the sidelines and provide water to the real players in this game saying and doing whatever they are told/instructed to do.  And I say “real players” because there are the Republican Governors (special shout out to the Florida posse and Governor Rick Scott) and the most recently discovered GOP’s potential voter registration fraud, the RNC, the Koch Brothers, Carl Rove, Sheldon Adelson to name but a few of the “GOP Steal the Presidency Group”.
• Nine (9) Republican governors and their secretaries of state control the electronic vote count in Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, Arizona, and New Mexico while Wisconsin  elections is controlled by the state’s Government Accountability Board that is the governor’s appointment.
• There is the nation-wide GOP disenfranchisement campaign and where the pre-election efforts fail, these governors could flip their states’ electronic votes to Romney and provide him Electoral College victory.  There is nothing to stop this from happening, is there?
• The disenfranchisement strategy designed to deny millions of Democrats the right to vote. The Brennan Center of New York estimates that this could result in tens of millions of American votes.
• Stripping voter rolls. In Ohio alone, approximately 1.1 million citizens have been purged from lists since 2009.  GOP surrogate groups such as True the Vote is perpetrating this "21st Century Jim Crow Law" which is criminal and morally wrong. 

Herein lays the problem:
1. Although this massive disenfranchisement drive has evoked strong reaction in the form of lawsuits, loud outcry from voting rights activists, et al it is not obvious if there is a parallel campaign that will guarantee that votes will be  efficiently counted once cast. 
2. Regardless of the serious problems with electronic tabulations in the elections of 2004 (the disgrace of the century) and in 2004 no less, these electronic voting machines have proliferated state electoral machinery; AND we must be aware that the GOP’s clandestine moves have no boundaries.  In Ohio for example we look at the resume of the contractor with the responsibility for Ohio’s vote count? 
GovTech, a Republican owned company who in turn contracts Smartech for servers and for IT support a company named Triad both Republican companies. 
3. Republican sympathetic companies have secured contracts to provide electronic voting machines not only throughout Ohio but throughout other key swing states and these are not easily traceable.  The irony of this is that these have been funded by Federal grants under the Help America Vote Act. The Federal Government funding the disenfranchisement machinery – depriving select Americans the legal right, the privilege to vote. 

All that and more are in the thrust to steal the 2012 elections by the Conservatives, the Christian Conservatives, the Family Values group and the “Honest, Holier than Thou” people.  But maybe the following is saving the best for last.


The best for the last, and the last straw:

    Strategic Allied Consulting owned by Nathan Sproul.  Who is this Mr. Sproul? He is a Mitt Romney’s paid political consultant and a seasoned GOP operative. Strategic Allied Consulting was paid $3 million over the August and September to register voters in the key swing states. This effort to rig the election is in the form of fraudulent voter registration applications. Addresses and party affiliations changed and a number of other irregularities including registration of dead people. 
The implications of addresses and party affiliations changes mean these voters if they are real, and the effort would be worthless if they are not real voters (GOP theft machine doesn’t waste time and effort on useless outcomes).  Some of these addresses are moved to shopping centers and gas stations so when the ‘real’ person turns up at the precinct to vote, their driver’s license would show a different address and by law they could not vote. I can bet that the party affiliation change is from known Democrats to Republican and would you vote for Romney or down the ticket Republican because the Supervisor of Election records show you are registered otherwise. Hell no! That is another way of disenfranchising Democrats.

The irony is that this fraud was first discovered in the Sunshine State where the Laws are historically the most transparent of all the states except when it comes to those involving electoral matters it seems. Florida is the state that is the pioneer for voter list purging, shortening early voting days, eliminating Sunday before election day voting, and the Governor’s raucous outcry of voter-list irregularities. Unless I am not listening closely enough, Mr. Righteous Rick’s (Scott) silence on Florida’s Voter Registration Scandal is deafening!  Were all Scott’s outcry and his pioneering of voters-list purging, and his request for INS citizens register to fine-tune his witch hunt nothing but a smoke-screen to take attention away from what he could have been fully aware of and maybe contributed to, in the orchestration of this Strategic Allied Consulting/GOP skullduggery? Please convince me otherwise.

 I reiterate - all this unfair and dishonest practice of Romney, Ryan, Scott, Rove, Koch and GOP cronies being executed in secrecy to trick and steal the election will not work.  You are up against truth and honesty. You are up against the Obama machinery which if you take your head from out of the sand for a few seconds you cannot but see that the records keep on working against all your efforts! You are up against a President with 3 C’s – Cool, Collected and in Control. He is an Attorney (a constitutional one no less) he is a Professor - and rarely does one see these two qualities/experiences meld so well with street smarts.  In this instance the melding is perfect between the lofty experience and qualities of Attorney/Professor and street smarts and everything in between. 

Romney and his group, the GOP ruled House of Representatives and obstructionists in the Senate, are applying the stealth of the Boogie Man but listen to the song Hush, Hush, Hush Here Comes the Boogeyman    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fAjyFbyb4o    
“Don't you be afraid of him if he should visit you 
 He's a great big coward so I'll tell you what to do…..
Say shoo shoo and stick him with a pin
Bogey man will very nearly jump out of his skin”

By: David A. Franklin, Jr.


The system has spawned and nurtured the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC)

  The facts speak for themselves:
  1.  In past 2 decades, States spending on prisons has risen an average of 6 times of spending on higher education.  A
       sample state spending per inmate per year reads like this - California $50,000, Michigan $34,000 and New York 
       $56,000.
“Why is this happening? Prisons are a big business. Most are privately run. They have powerful lobbyists and they have bought most state politicians.” — Fareed Zakaria, CNN, March 30, 2012

  2. Between 1970 and 2005, U.S. prison population increased by 700%. Currently it is estimated that 1 of every 182 
      Americans is incarcerated in a Federal or State Prison. Between 1990 and 2009 Public High School Graduation 
      rate has only increased by 2.9% to a high of 76.6%. The Condition of Education 2012, National Center for 
     Education Statistics State budgets have revealed that most states, despite spending more money overall on 
     education, are spending three to four times more per capita incarcerating prisoners than they are educating 
     students. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/03/14/states-spend-times-incarcerating-educating-
     studies-say-464156987/#ixzz27aWoqpDW

  3. In California, of the general fund, 11% goes to prisons and 7.5% goes to education. “Spending 45 percent more 
      on prisons than Universities is no way to proceed into the future” said Arnold Schwarzenegger former 
      governor of California

4.  America boasts to be the “freest country in the world” has incarcerated more of its citizens than the rest of the world 
     combined.  7.1 million to date (2012). The United States is ranked 37th in the world in education spending as a 
     percentage of gross domestic product.

5.  States project how many prison beds are needed it factors the number of kids who cannot read well in the 4th 
     grade. They build prisons relative to the projected graduation rate.

6.  Approximately 85% of juveniles are functionally literate and approximately 70% of prisoners exhibit the lowest level 
     of reading skills. The numbers of incarcerations continue to climb each year as more prisons are built in almost 
     every State.

The Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) is one of the monstrously negative effects of rapacious capitalism in the United States. Corporations and private individuals connive to maximize profits at the expense of human lives and human existence.  The wealthy individuals and corporations benefit from cheap labor provided by inmates of the country’s correctional institutions. 

More individuals and corporations than the general public know or believe are involved and benefit from prison industries and the cheap inmate labor.  As an example a number of the largest corporations in America use Fidelity Investments as the sole source of retirement investment for their employees. Fidelity is a funder of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) who in turn is a big supporter of Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and Geo Group (Geo) who are both corporate sponsors of ALEC. 

What/Who is ALEC? 

“ALEC is not a lobby; it is not a front group. It is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, behind closed doors, corporations hand state legislators the changes to the law they desire that directly benefit their bottom line. Along with legislators, corporations have membership in ALEC. Corporations sit on all nine ALEC task forces and vote with legislators to approve “model” bills. They have their own corporate governing board which meets jointly with the legislative board. (ALEC says that corporations do not vote on the board.) Corporations fund almost all of ALEC's operations. Participating legislators, overwhelmingly conservative Republicans, then bring those proposals home and introduce them in statehouses across the land as their own brilliant ideas and important public policy innovations—without disclosing that corporations crafted and voted on the bills. ALEC boasts that it has over 1,000 of these bills introduced by legislative members every year, with one in every five of them enacted into law. ALEC describes itself as a “unique,” “unparalleled” and “unmatched” organization. We agree. It is as if a state legislature had been reconstituted, yet corporations had pushed the people out the door” ALEC EXPOSED http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/What_is_ALEC%3F 

We must remember that among the group of corporations are global corporations who with state politicians rewrite the laws that govern your rights 
 McDonald’s contract with companies that use inmate labor to purchase their uniforms and some plastic utensils
K-Mart and J.C. Penny sell jeans made by inmates in the prisons in Tennessee
Services corporations such as banks, energy producers, oil, utilities, insurance companies, telecommunications, call centers many of whom not only fund ALEC with regard to prison labor and PIC, they  have foundations that contribute substantially to ALEC and have representation on ALEC’s Private Enterprise Board
The agricultural industry is not to be excluded. As a result of the tough immigration laws in the Western States the prison industries are vying to fill the void of the migrant workers.  Colorado for example is in partnership with its DOC to implement a program to use inmates on private farms.  All of the above except for the manipulative sell-out of the country to private and global corporations is acceptable on the surface BUT the Colorado experience breeds a situation worse than the illegal migrant worker scenario.  Corporate farm owners pay prisoners 60 cents per day (yes you read correctly).  While the prison guards who oversee the workers are paid handsomely and the corporations benefit big. This not only makes a  bad situation worse since it was believed that migrant workers take jobs from Americans but at this wage rate, employers will have no incentive to change from this source of labor.  This is modern day slavery! And who makes up most of the prison population?

-           Colorado sends female inmates to harvest onions, corn   
            and melons and Iowa is considering to do the same.

-          For more than 20 years, Arizona inmates are being used 
           to provide slave labor for private agriculture businesses. 

Is it plain the reason for not funding public school education - so as to produce fewer graduates. To supply the prison labor force that provides these corporations 60 cents per day inmate labor. The situation that is happening in Washington State is mirrored across the country.  To address the State’s deficit, the State has put the following cuts into play – notice the imbalance skewed against education:

-          $50 million from the Department of Corrections

-          $50 million from K-12 education including state funding to 
           keep class sizes small

-          $51 million from higher education 

-          $30 million from state-subsidized health insurance and 
           the elimination of non-emergency dental care for poor 
           adults

                  FROM SCHOOL TO PRISON