Clarence Thomas
Wednesday, 18 May 2011
Clarence Thomas wants a fight about his lying to the American people. So let's give it to him.
Here are the facts. Thomas' wife earned $700,000 from half the radical right-wing ideologues in Washington. Opposing health care reform was her specialty.
For 13 years, Clarence Thomas didn't disclose a penny of that income, even though he was legally and ethically obligated.
Thomas is trying to conceal a blatant conflict of interest. His family is getting rich off an issue that's very likely to come before the Supreme Court.
So 250,000 of us demanded he recuse himself from cases about health care. We must have struck a nerve because Thomas went apoplectic, accusing you and me of "undermining" the Supreme Court because we dare question a single justice's impartiality.
This week was another big financial disclosure deadline -- and the beginning of the next round of our fight.
These financial forms are a matter of public record, typically made available within 30 days of the filing deadline. But when a Supreme Court justice has broken the public trust repeatedly for over a decade, we deserve to know right away what conflict he has.
Stand with me to force Clarence Thomas to release his disclosure ASAP. We need to know how big a conflict Thomas is bringing every day to our Supreme Court.
There's clearly something fishy going on when a U.S. Supreme Court justice claims his wife's income was "inadvertently omitted due to a misunderstanding of the filing instructions" -- especially when those instructions are, "Spouse's Non-Investment Income -- If you were married during any portion of the reporting year, complete this section."
Already there are questions about Mrs. Thomas' 2010 earnings at Liberty Central, a right-wing action group she founded in 2009. She claims she had no salary -- the COO of the organization says otherwise.
Clarence Thomas shouldn't hide the truth behind stalling tactics. Stand with me today and demand he publicly release his financial disclosure immediately.
Thanks again to the 250,000 people who are already standing with me to hold Clarence Thomas accountable. Our work has been a great success so far.
But Thomas is gearing up for a fight. And, as a guy from Brooklyn, there's no way I'm backing down. I need you in my corner one more time.
Anthony
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On a day when the media tells us, over and over, that we all should "feel safer", I strongly disagree. I do not feel safer, and I know that I am not alone. Today, in fact, millions upon millions of Americans feel far less safe than they did that fate-filled day in 2001. Far less safe. And from a far more dangerous enemy.
But the enemy isn't a fringe militant organization sitting thousands of miles off our shores. The enemy, in fact, is in our midst, where we live. And the damage it has wrought on this nation, and the lives, livelihoods, and families it has destroyed or now threatens combine to make this enemy far, far more menacing, and one that no military can protect us against. Consider:
In 2001, Student loan debt stood at around $150 billion. In less than a decade, this amount has grown to where it now exceeds all other categories of consumer debt, and will be blowing past $1 trillion shortly, if it hasn't already.
But this debt is different from all other types of debt in this country. Unbeknownst to the borrowers, nearly every fundamental consumer protection was removed from these loans, and the schools, lenders and government conveniently failed to inform the students of this fact. Nor did they bother to warn the citizens that there was a 1 in 3 chance that these loans would wind up in default.
Nor did they bother to inform the public that the big lenders and their collection companies, the guarantors, and even the federal government stood to make far, far more money when these loans when they defaulted rather than remaining in good stead due to the penalties and fees that could legally be extracted from the borrowers through wage garnishment, tax refund confiscation, and even the taking of citizens social security and disability income.
Today, we learned that the Department of Education, which already makes a healthy profit (not loss) from defaulted loans, is planning to even further "ramp up" its collection activities, and stands poised to seize the bank accounts, assets, and even the homes of our fellow citizens in its unholy quest for more of the citizens money, extracted UNEARNED from our countrymen through a structurally predatory lending system.
And yet, we should feel safer?
Thanks to the boy king G.W. Bush the middle class got f*cked even more. It is time for bankruptcy laws to be returned at a miminum to PRIVATE LOANS which is the same unsecured debt as a mortgage, cedit card or car loan. Yet they receive the same protection as a federally funded loan and don't offer the same options for repayment? At least the direct loans program only asked for 15% of your early salary 150% above the poverty line. That way you can still make a living and not have half of your salary going to student loans just so you don't default and get more unpayable fees. A lot of people suffer from this but the mass media (mostly republican controled or owned) does a good job of downplaying it. The Dems need to do something fast. If bankruptcy protection is restored the lenders, epsecially private lenders like SALLIE MAE, would work with you to get some money at a reasonable repayment schedule.
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http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:Z80g0tyaOzcJ:www.judicialwatch.org/files/documents/2011/2010-judicialfinancialdisclosureinstructions.pdf+financial+disclosure+report+instructions&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl& srcid=ADGEESglEZ7HoYIzPiISxRb4kShhwj94Izc6pWuHlzaCc3MOV
73B7rJDeyFHVK3W_zsCC8jcuJk8Oj4ciJZJhcdXUyA2lLfdIbFlnJLe
5Ux6ddIOPH0pcTphcScSRkhU5LggIjq-cF7p&sig=AHIEtbRNJLxk53Xqp9bOQK32UKlAnd5IgQ
