Category: Shame

  • Blunt, Roy (R-MO)

    • Republicans Vote Against Veterans

      “Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked a bill to help veterans exposed to toxic burn pits weeks after the measure initially sailed through the Senate with 84 votes, angering Democrats, veterans groups and comedian Jon Stewart, a leading proponent to aid the community.” 1

      “A bill aimed at protecting veterans exposed to toxic materials during their service was shut down yesterday in the Senate, in a 55 to 42 vote that failed to meet the 60-vote threshold necessary to advance the legislation. Of the 42 senators who voted against the PACT Act, 41 were Republicans.” 2

      ‘Republican lawmakers blocked passage of a bill in the U.S. Senate Wednesday that expands healthcare coverage for military veterans who were exposed to toxins and burn pits during their service.’ 3

      “He was among the veterans, military family members and advocates staged on the Capitol steps for the fourth night on Sunday, pledging to remain until Congress passes a bill that covers health care for those exposed to toxins while serving in uniform. Earlier that day, the head of the Department of Veterans Affairs warned that a new Republican proposal could leave the agency “rationing” veterans’ health care. GOP lawmakers blocked the aid from passing last week in what comedian Jon Stewart, a longtime veterans advocate, blasted as “a disgrace.”” 4

  • Blackburn, Marsha (R-TN)

    • Republicans Vote Against Veterans

      “Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked a bill to help veterans exposed to toxic burn pits weeks after the measure initially sailed through the Senate with 84 votes, angering Democrats, veterans groups and comedian Jon Stewart, a leading proponent to aid the community.” 1

      “A bill aimed at protecting veterans exposed to toxic materials during their service was shut down yesterday in the Senate, in a 55 to 42 vote that failed to meet the 60-vote threshold necessary to advance the legislation. Of the 42 senators who voted against the PACT Act, 41 were Republicans.” 2

      ‘Republican lawmakers blocked passage of a bill in the U.S. Senate Wednesday that expands healthcare coverage for military veterans who were exposed to toxins and burn pits during their service.’ 3

      “He was among the veterans, military family members and advocates staged on the Capitol steps for the fourth night on Sunday, pledging to remain until Congress passes a bill that covers health care for those exposed to toxins while serving in uniform. Earlier that day, the head of the Department of Veterans Affairs warned that a new Republican proposal could leave the agency “rationing” veterans’ health care. GOP lawmakers blocked the aid from passing last week in what comedian Jon Stewart, a longtime veterans advocate, blasted as “a disgrace.”” 4

  • Barrasso, John A. (R-WY)

    • Republicans Vote Against Veterans

      “Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked a bill to help veterans exposed to toxic burn pits weeks after the measure initially sailed through the Senate with 84 votes, angering Democrats, veterans groups and comedian Jon Stewart, a leading proponent to aid the community.” 1

      “A bill aimed at protecting veterans exposed to toxic materials during their service was shut down yesterday in the Senate, in a 55 to 42 vote that failed to meet the 60-vote threshold necessary to advance the legislation. Of the 42 senators who voted against the PACT Act, 41 were Republicans.” 2

      ‘Republican lawmakers blocked passage of a bill in the U.S. Senate Wednesday that expands healthcare coverage for military veterans who were exposed to toxins and burn pits during their service.’ 3

      “He was among the veterans, military family members and advocates staged on the Capitol steps for the fourth night on Sunday, pledging to remain until Congress passes a bill that covers health care for those exposed to toxins while serving in uniform. Earlier that day, the head of the Department of Veterans Affairs warned that a new Republican proposal could leave the agency “rationing” veterans’ health care. GOP lawmakers blocked the aid from passing last week in what comedian Jon Stewart, a longtime veterans advocate, blasted as “a disgrace.”” 4

  • Wershe, Richard; Jr. – White Boy Rick

    “Richard Wershe Jr. (born July 18, 1969), known as “White Boy Rick”, is an American former drug trafficker and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) informant. The youngest known informant in the history of the FBI, Wershe became a confidential informant when he was 14 to 16 years old.” 5

    “White Boy Rick,” the youngest paid FBI informant in history, filed a $100 million lawsuit against the city of Detroit, former Detroit police officers, former FBI agents, and former federal prosecutors.” 6

    • Top Books Regarding “White Boy Rick”
      Prisoner of War by Vince Wade
      Prisoner of War: The Story of White Boy Rick and the War on Drugs – Available from Amazon.com

      Prisoner of War: The Story of White Boy Rick and the War on Drugs by  Vince Wade – What authoritative voices are saying about Prisoner of War: The Story of White Boy Rick and the War on Drugs: “Meticulously researched and brutally honest. It tells the true story of White Boy Rick.” The tale of a Detroit boy recruited by the FBI—at age 14—to be a paid informant against a politically-connected drug gang is so amazing it inspired a Hollywood film—White Boy Rick—starring Matthew McConaughey as the teen’s father. What kind of father would take FBI cash to let his youngest child be an undercover operative in the murderous drug underworld? This book answers the question.

      White Boy Rick became the Detroit FBI’s most productive drug informant of the ‘80s, but as the book explains, things went awry amid FBI misdeeds. Rick tried to become a cocaine wholesaler, got caught and has spent 30 years behind bars. He became a Prisoner of War: The War on Drugs. Rick Wershe is the central character in a wide-ranging exploration of the nearly half-century trillion-dollar policy failure known as the War on Drugs. See also VinceWade.com

      White Boy Rick by Scott M. Burnstein
      “White Boy Rick” and Crime in Detroit – Available from Amazon.com

      “White Boy Rick” and Crime in Detroit by Scott M. Burnstein – The years between the late 1970s and the final decade of the 20th century on the streets of Detroit represent one of the most violent eras of crime in American history.

      The death toll in those years has been placed at well over 1,000 drug-related homicides. Besides the violence of that era, it was a time known for its decadence.

      The men who made their names in this period lived their lives lavishly with media-friendly charisma and panache. This was the era of Young Boys, Inc., better known as YBI, representing a new wave in the Detroit drug scene. Kingpins with memorable names entered that scene, including Milton “Butch” Jones, Raymond “Baby Ray” Peoples, Dwayne “Wonderful Wayne” Davis and Mark “Block” Marshall.

      The Trials of White Boy Rick by Evan Hughes
      The Trials of White Boy Rick – Available from amazon.com

      The Trials of White Boy Rick by Evan Hughes – It was the spring of 1987, and crack cocaine had turned whole swaths of Detroit into veritable combat zones. The city thought it had seen everything—until one evening that May, when the police arrested a 17-year-old kid named Rick Wershe. They called him White Boy Rick. In a city known for its fraught racial divide, Wershe had somehow joined the ranks of the drug kingpins on the predominantly black East Side before he was old enough to shave. He flew in kilos of cocaine from Miami and drove a white Jeep with THE SNOWMAN emblazoned across the back. An incredulous judge once compared him to the gangster “Baby Face” Nelson. He seemed more an urban legend than a real person—and then his story got even stranger. Years later, while he was in prison for cocaine possession, Wershe claimed he had been working with the FBI since he was 14. Was one of Detroit’s most notorious criminals also one of the feds’ most valuable informants in the city?

  • Allen, Rick W.

    Republican U.S. House of Representatives – (Oath of Office: Jan. 03, 2021)

    • Republicans That Voted Against the Veteran “Honoring Our PACT Act”
      Common Defense

      Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives

      “Republicans just gave us the middle finger by voting against the Honoring Our PACT Act, which protects toxin-exposed veterans.

      We can’t say we’re surprised. Time and time again Republicans have shown they couldn’t care less about improving the lives of their constituents – and that includes veterans.

      This is the same party that proclaims to fight for our freedoms and “advocates” for veterans. But clearly, when it comes time to step up and give us what we deserve, they decide to stand in the way.

      Common Defense has been on the frontlines of the fight to get this bill passed because we know what a big difference it’ll make in the day-to-day lives of us veterans. And we’re thrilled that we’re one step closer to getting it signed into law – no thanks to the Republicans who tried to shoot it down.” 7