Headlines For Today

Headlines - Friday February 10

2012-02-10T08:53:00.000-06:00

Catholic Dems are 'bailing' on Obama on birth control, eh?

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Catholic Church silent on child rape, taking to the streets over 'intrinsically evil' birth control

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Wisco: GOP incoherent on abortion, contraception

"....The most perplexing part of this whole debate is that so many of the people who oppose abortion seem to go out of their way to make it more necessary. They want to slash funding for anti-poverty programs and make it harder for people to collect unemployment benefits -- both measures that increase the demand for abortion services. But perhaps least rational of all, many oppose contraception and sex education. I'm constantly amazed at how people can house two obviously contradictory ideas in the same skull. Amazed, but a lot less than impressed."

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Bob Cesca: A Big Victory in the Fight Against Foreclosure Fraud

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Bob Cesca: Moment of derp

So I got this green bag right here. And I filled it up with the black market light bulbs. And I brought them back to my office here in the Capitol. Whenever I need to put a bulb in the lamp, I reach in this green bag and I screw it in there and smile. A little bit of my liberty back. A little bit of our freedom back. And I want to challenge you to do the same thing. Bring back some of that liberty, some of that freedom. -Rep. Steve King at CPAC

Is this what they mean when they talk about "taking our country back?" "Black market light bulbs" in a green tote-bag? Freedom filaments!

Representative Steve King is of course referring to his life-or-death battle against the Bush Administration's (George Bush signed it into law) tyrannical regime of energy-efficient light bulbs which includes a ban on using incandescent bulbs in government offices. An inescapable horror!

Some things are simply beyond parody. Derp.

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Socialist Presidents? Who Comes Closer: FDR, Obama, Or Reagan? (Short Answer: Reagan)

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It's obvious why BP wants a settlement but why would those impacted settle? BP wants nothing more than to have a cap on the payouts so their books and their shareholders can have closure, but for everyone else, there's no reason to think the problems will end just because a settlement is reached. Environmental problems - which impacts the fishing industry along with tourism - is likely continue for decades. If there's a settlement and the money runs out, what happens? Unless there are clauses in the final settlement to take this into account, there should be no reason to settle. Bloomberg:

BP Plc (BP/) is negotiating with U.S. officials to settle pollution claims over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill that may leave the company liable for as much as $17.6 billion in fines, a person familiar with the talks said. The government cited the energy company with violations of the federal Clean Water Act for the offshore spill, the biggest in U.S. history. Officials are seeking fines of as much as $4,300 for each of the 4.1 million barrels spilled after the explosion of the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon oil rig

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Syria moving past massacre and approaching genocide. "Activists in Syria say scores of people have been killed in Homs as government forces reportedly shelled the city for a sixth day. The Local Co-ordination Committees, an umbrella opposition group, reported the deaths of 110 people in Homs on Thursday, but said it could not document the names of the victims due to heavy shelling .... Human Rights Watch, the New York-based organisation, said in a report on Thursday that makeshift hospitals in besieged opposition areas of Homs were overflowing with dead and wounded from government bombardments and snipers. Medical supplies are running out and at least three field hospitals have been hit and people are bleeding to death as it is too dangerous for rescuers to bring them to safety, HRW said. The rights watchdog said since the military operation against opposition neighbourhoods was launched on Friday night, government forces have fired hundreds of shells and mortar bombs, killing more than 300 people and wounding hundreds more, including women and children."

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MoJo's Nick Baumann again does us an invaluable service by pointing out the obvious fact that President Obama's "unprecedented assault on America's religious freedoms" by requiring church-related hospitals and universities to cover contraception at the federal level has actually been on the books for, oh, about 12 years now.

This fight has been long settled based on Title VII law. Clinton put it on the books on the way out without controversy, and it was on the books for every single day of the Bush 43 administration without controversy. It was on the books for three years under the Obama administration, without controversy. Nine out of ten businesses in the country, including religiously affiliated hospitals, schools, and charities, provided contraception coverage. 27 states went on to put similar provisions on their books without incident.

It wasn't an issue at all until an African-American Democrat in the White House decided during an election year that "Hey, this is a good idea, let's put this on the books for all 50 states" just after getting yet another monthly unemployment report that showed that his policies were starting to bring the jobs numbers back around, and that his prospects for re-election were improving along with that uptick on what basically everyone agreed up until that millisecond was the most important issue of the day, the economy itself.

Then, the existing rules of the game for the last dozen years changed literally overnight to fit the theory that the President was "declaring war on Americans' religious freedoms." Then the rules immediately changed to create "a firestorm of controversy". Then the rules changed so that people questioned why Catholics in the Obama administration, including the Vice-President and the Secretary of Defense, hadn't resigned in protest yet.

It wasn't an issue until the GOP started openly asking if they were going to lose big in November and Newt Gingrich had melted into babbling radioactive slag and Rick Santorum became the latest Anti-Romney, revealing the fatal weakness of "the frontrunner".

Only now do the god-botherers and the institutional misogynists and the bigots and the pinheads and the weasels have an issue.

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The Marine Corps is going with the "our guys are really stupid" defense:

The Marines weren't charged with any crime or disciplined because they didn't understand the Nazi connotation and thought "SS" was short for "scout sniper"-- the elite Marine unit in which they serve, said Master Gunnery Sergeant Mark Oliva, a spokesman for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.

"They didn't know what the 'SS' stood for," Oliva said. "They had no idea it actually connected them to a Nazi-related organization."

Bullshit.

This is an SS flag:

At least one of those clowns knew exactly what he was doing.

Only now. They are this desperate to defeat President Obama.

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Here's how real Democrats reform taxes in response to a budget crisis, by Tanya Somander at Think Progress

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Seriously, Mitch McConnell??? The projection is...let's just say if we had a gob, it would be smacked black-and-blue. "Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Thursday painted conservatives as victims of President Barack Obama and other "liberal thugs." ... Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), McConnell said he always loved the event "because conservatives are just simply more fun" than liberals. ... "There's a reason for that, by the way," he explained. "It's because we are always right. Now, the reasons liberals are always wringing their hands all the time -- you notice that? They always wring their hands all the time because they know we've got better arguments than they do. So, they spend half their time trying to convince people what's wrong is right, and the other half looking for conservatives to tear down or CPAC conferences to disrupt." ... The Kentucky Republican continued: "You all know the liberal playbook. Here's how it works: Pick a target, freeze it, personalize it and then polarize it. But rarely have we seen those kind of tactics employed with the kind of zeal that we see today. The White House and it's lieutenants have made an art form out of the orchestrated attack. ... You know the drill. Expose the folks to public view, release the liberal thugs on them, and then hope the public pressure or the unwanted attention scares them from supporting similar causes down the road." ... McConnell went on to accuse the Obama administration of using the resources of the government to "intimidate or silence" its critics. ... "The president seems to have forgotten that he was elected to lead all Americans, that he was elected to be president of the United States, not the Occupy Wall Street fan club!" he exclaimed. "I think the leader of the free world has better things to do than to dig through other people's tax returns." ... "At a time when nearly 13 million Americans are looking for a job and can't find one, I think the president of the United States has higher priorities than picking on Fox News!""

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This is why ~~they call him~~ no one calls him Classy Cal "In the "closed circuit world on the right," MSNBC's Rachel Maddow is often the subject of ugly denigrations. Whether it's being mocked for her sexual orientation, her name, or even her education, right-wingers can't get enough of slamming her. ... During a political discussion at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) today, Fox News pundit and conservative columnist Cal Thomas continued the ugliness. After the Heritage's Genevieve Wood played a quote of Maddow eloquently debunking the conservative argument on contraception, Thomas said: I'm glad that you played the Rachel Maddow clip because I think she is the best argument in favor of her parents using contraception. I would be all for that. And all of the rest of the crowd at MSNBC, too, for that matter. No one on the panel condemned the comment. "

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House Financial Services Chair, Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL) faces an insider-trading probe by the Office of Congressional Ethics. Bachus received over 44 percent of his campaign donations last quarter from the industries he oversees.

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Lawmakers in Virginia passed legislation that will allow adoption agencies to deny placement of children based on their religious or moral beliefs, including gay couples in the state. Governor McDonnell has said he will sign it, making Virginia the second state after North Dakota to pass such a law.

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Scalia: The Soviet Union's Constitution was much better than ours.

Headlines - Thursday February 9

2012-02-09T10:13:00.000-06:00

Mr. Monaco!

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Female Dem state senator adds 'Every sperm is sacred' clause to 'personhood' bill

Sen. Johnson, who represents Oklahoma's 48th District has introduced an amendment to the personhood bill mandating that the same rights and benefits be granted to spermatozoa, writing, "However, any action in which a man ejaculates or otherwise deposits semen anywhere but in a woman's vagina shall be interpreted and construed as an action against an unborn child."

This would outlaw masturbation by men, anal sex, sex with condoms, all forms of fellatio to completion, as well as numerous other acts. She later withdrew the measure, but stated that she had inserted it to highlight the absurdity and sexism inherent in the current bill.

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Flying spy-death machines, coming to an airspace over you

Americans seem a tad unhappy with the club of corrupt kleptocrats running their government these days; seems about as good a time as any for Congress to give the go ahead to the military and private corporations to fill our skies with stealth spy-death machines to help keep an eye on protesters traffic conditions, maybe? To be fair, it must be incredibly annoying for the Department of Homeland Security to have to sit there combing Twitter all day long trying to figure out who needs some reedumacating, in Gitmo. And anyway, why should the CIA be the only ones having all the surveillance drone FUN? READ MORE »

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This graph (click to embiggen) shows the teenage pregnancy and abortion rate for the last 20 years. Guess what? When teens get pregnant less often, they abort less often. Add this in with the fact that effective birth control (like IUDs and some of the new Pill formulations) can be a serious expense for middle-class households, while Viagra is covered by most health plans, and the 55-40 split in public opinion supporting insurance payment for contraception, and you have a solid political winner.

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Here's the story- cops pull over a diabetic man in shock who they think is drunk driving.

I will bet that every one of those goons is still on the job today. The worst thing they probably got was a mildly admonishing memo which was in their personnel files.

If you want to know why more and more Americans are regarding the police as an occupying force, this is why.

The cops had best get over their "blue wall of silence" shit and start dealing with the bad apples. Those six thugs have tarnished the badges of every police officer in their area.

Sooner or later, it ought to be apparent to local governments that brutal cops cost them money and maybe they ought to get rid of them.

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Jill: I've been saying for years that once they get abortion, they're going after birth control

".....Of course the solution is very simple, then: Let Catholic hospitals refuse to provide contraception coverage. But then they get not one thin dime of government money. And while we're at it, let them create an unsafe environment in which employees are not protected from toxic substances and where children are hired to empty bedpans. And let's see just how long that hospital stays in business. Besides, amidst all the foofarah about "I don't want my tax money paying for things that might allow dirty sluts to get away with it," when do I get to decide what MY tax money will pay for? And I don't want my tax money going to misogynists and bigots."

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Who the real terrorists are.

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We liked Ellen when she was just the ditzy receptionist on one of the early Fox sitcoms, back in the freakin' 80s. Now we love her, because she's a stand up kind of gal. "Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres is finally responding to an anti-LGBT rights group that called on JC Penney to fire her as their spokesperson because she is a lesbian. ... In a taping of the "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," which will air on Wednesday, DeGeneres used the opportunity of California's same sex marriage ban being declared unconstitutional to pivot to the self-described "conservative, pro-family" group "One Million Moms." ... "Normally, I try not to pay attention to my haters," she said. "But this time, I'd like to talk about it because my haters are my motivators." ... "This organization doesn't think that I should be the spokesperson because I'm gay. For those of you just tuning in for the first time, it's true. I'm gay. I hope you were sitting down," the TV host joked. ... "So, they wanted to get me fired and I am proud and happy to say that JC Penny stuck by their decision to make me their spokesperson. It's great news for me because I need some new crew socks. I'm really going to clean up with this discount." ... "I usually don't talk about stuff like this on my show," she confessed. "But I really want to thank everyone who is supporting me, and if you don't know me very well, if you're just watching for the first time or maybe you are just getting to know me, I want to be clear. Here are the values that I stand for: I stand for honesty, equality, kindness, compassion, treating people the way you want to be treated and helping those in need. To me, those are traditional values. That's what I stand for.""

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New Hampshire's GOP legislature has come up with all manner of absurd bills recently, including a proposal making public school curriculum optional, another to prevent police from protecting domestic abuse victims, and even a measure mandating that new laws be based on the Magna Carta. Some of the Granite State's GOP lawmakers have even proposed doing away with the law that requires employers to give their workers time off for lunch, under the rationale that all employers will simply grant lunch breaks out of the goodness of their hearts:

"This is an unneeded law," [Republican state Representative Kyle Jones] said. "If I was to deny one of my employees a break, I would be in a very bad position with the company's human resources representative. If you consider that this is a very easy law to follow in that everyone already does it, then why do we need it? Our constituents have already proven that they have enough common sense to do this on their own."

The bill's sponsor, state representative J.R. Hoell, argued that companies failing to provide lunch breaks would be shamed over social media, thus rendering the law unnecessary. "If they are not letting people have lunch, they could put it out though the news media, though social media. I don't think that abusive behavior would continue, the way communications are today," he said.

Of course, not every employer can be counted to to follow even the easiest of requirements to look after workers' health and rights. Back in 2005, Walmart was forced to pay $172 million for denying workers their lunch breaks. Pyramid Breweries Inc. settled a case in 2008 for $1.5 million. Just a few months ago, California ordered Embassy Suites to pay workers tens of thousands of dollars for forcing them to skip breaks.

"The fact that in 2012, I would be even sitting in front of the Labor Committee talking about eliminating the lunch hour is outrageous," said Mark MacKenzie, New Hampshire's state AFL-CIO representative. "People should at least be able to be given the opportunity to eat." Fortunately, the bill does not seem too appealing to most of the New Hampshire legislature, and the state House's labor committee adjourned yesterday without voting on it.

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Over 650 Physicians Speak Out in Favor of Contraception Ruling | Over 650 physicians and medical students, including 70 self-identifying Catholics, from 49 states signed an open letter to President Obama and Secretary Kathleen Sebelius urging them to maintain a recent HHS contraception rule providing women access to cost-free contraception through their insurers. The petition, which was drafted by grassroots organization Doctors for America, argues that "Women and their doctors should be allowed to make contracpetive decisions based on medical reasons and personal beliefs — not based on someone else's religious doctrine." An infographic posted on the website points out that 11.2 million American women ages 15-44 use oral contraceptives, and 58 percent of them use contraception for reasons other than family planning. — Fatima Najiy

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Mississippi Legislator Proposes Renaming Gulf Of Mexico As 'Gulf Of America' | Mississippi state Rep. Steve Holland (D) has introduced a bill that in Mississippi, would rename the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America." According to HB 150, "For all official purposes within the State of Mississippi, the body of water that is located directly south of Hancock, Harrison and Jackson Counties shall be known as the 'Gulf of America.'" The Mississippi House's Marine Resources Committee will hold a hearing on the bill, and if it is approved by the legislature, Mississippi would begin recognizing the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America" on July 1.

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Republicans in Congress, outraged over Obama's proposal for health insurance companies to cover contraception, are neglecting to mention that the free insurance we provide for them has covered contraception (even the morning after pill) since 1998.

And this: Six Republican senators - including Snowe and Collins - co-sponsored federal contraception mandate in 2001

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Frothy goes from contraception to the guillotine in 60 seconds.

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The gathering of crazies known as the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) finally slithers about as far to the right as is possible. In inviting Peter Brimelow, the founder of VDARE, they've now embraced honest-to-god white nationalists with open arms. The next time some dumbass challenges you to give them an example of racism on the right, go ahead and point them toward this Nazi.

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Bill Clinton Spawned Demonic Sex Parties!

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The above full-page ad will appear in today's edition of Roll Call in Washington DC.

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Cardinal Edward Egan has withdrawn his apology for the child molestation scandals that were exposed when he was the Archbishop of New York. That 2002 letter of apology was read to all of the congregations under his control.

A decade after that letter, the former archbishop of New York, and former bishop of Bridgeport, now describes the handling of the priest-abuse crisis under his watch as "incredibly good." He said of the letter, "I never should have said that," and added, "I don't think we did anything wrong." "I never had one of these sex abuse cases." he said, before adding pompously, "If you have another bishop in the United States who has the record I have, I'd be happy to know who he is."

He also claimed that the Church had no obligation to report abuse to the civil authorities. These are lies, strutting around with pride. The Church is required to report abuse, according to laws on the books since the 1970s. Bishop Egan ran a diocese that was notoriously dangerous for children. Contrary to his claim, during his twelve-year enthronement at Bridgeport, Egan repeatedly failed to investigate priests where there were obvious signs of abuse, according to The Hartford Courant. His diocese had to settle the cases and awarded victims some $12-15 million in damages.

In 2009 Egan was succeeded by Archbishop Timothy Dolan, who himself is about to be elevated to Cardinal. Like Dolan, he is a vocal opponent of LGBT rights.

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American Family Association: JCPenney And Ellen Will Give You Breast Cancer

"Will America's young women be just a bit more likely to experiment with lesbianism now that JCPenney is mainstreaming it? Too any objective observer, the answer must be yes. Is this a good thing? To any objective observer, the answer must be no. Research has indicated that lesbians suffer from increased levels of depression, suicidal ideation, substance abuse, breast cancer and vaginal diseases compared to heterosexual women. Thus what JCPenney has done, by increasing, even if ever so slightly, the chances that young women will experiment with this behavior will turn out to be a tragic thing for some. JCPenney will have to share some culpability for that." - American Family Association radio host Bryan Fischer. (Via Right Wing Watch)

RELATED: Last night Jeebus came to me in a dream and told me that Bryan Fischer takes it up the ass from male goats. What? How DARE you doubt a revelation from God?!? STOP OPPRESSING ME™!

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Roland Martin was suspended from CNN for tweeting very homophobic things during the Super Bowl including this:

Who the hell was that New England Patriot they just showed in a head to toe pink suit? Oh, he needs a visit from #teamwhipdatass

And this:

If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham's H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him

Yeah, I would have suspended him too. But also for being a shitty pundit. While I was at it, I would fire Erick Erickson, too, for saying far worse things online since forever.

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Keep Going John Boehner!

Here's Speaker of the House John Boehner speaking out against the Obama Administration's requirement that all health insurance plans cover birth control without co-pays.

"If the president does not reverse the Department's attack on religious freedom, then the Congress, acting on behalf of the American people and the Constitution we are sworn to uphold and defend, must," Boehner said. "This attack by the federal government on religious freedom in our country cannot stand, and will not stand."

The Speaker said the House would take matters into its own hands with committee hearings and legislative action to push back if the administration declines to act.

"In the days ahead, the House will approach this matter fairly and deliberately, through regular order and the appropriate legislative channels," Boehner said. He called on the Energy & Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over the issue, to take steps against the rule and "consider all possible options."

Yes! Do it!

Please, take time out of congress's busy schedule to legislate reproductive healthcare. Please, display to the nation that the culture war is more important to you than jobs or the economy. Demonstrate to America that nothing will get you moving like the tyranny of contraception.

Whatever action the House of Boehner takes, it will never become law. They're just flailing. And I encourage them to keep going! Show America your ass.

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Boehner Raises the Debt Ceiling on DOMA Spending

The House of Boehner previously raised the expense-cap for their $520 per hour lawyer Paul Clement, who was hired to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in court, from $500,000 to $750,000, and now the cap has been tripled to $1.5 million.

The U.S. House has tripled the cost cap for the legal expenses of hiring a private attorney to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court to reach a potential total sum of $1.5 million.

According to recently approved contract modification dated Sept. 30, House General Counsel Kerry Kircher has agreed to pay Bancroft LLC private attorney Paul Clement a sum not to exceed $750,000 to defend DOMA, but this cap may be raised to $1.5 million under written notice.

"It is further understood and agreed that, effective October 1, 2011, the aforementioned $750,000.00 cap may be raised from time to time up to, but not exceeding, $1.5 million, upon written notice of the General Counsel to the Contractor specifying that the General Counsel is legally liable under this Agreement for a specific amount," the contract modification states.

Paul Clement was also recently hired by Governor Nikki Haley to defend South Carolina's Voter ID law on behalf of South Carolina taxpayers at a rate of $500 per hour.

Both South Carolina's voter suppression law and the Defense of Marriage Act have been designated unconstitutional by the Department of Justice.

Why do the Republicans hate the constitution? Why is it okay to arbitrarily raise the spending cap for defending prejudice but not for helping the sick and poor or the victims of natural disasters?

Headlines - Wednesday February 8

2012-02-08T09:48:00.000-06:00

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Don't let the Komen Foundation corner office door hit you in your misogynstic ass, you fuckwit.

Looks like Karen Handel will be packing up her desk (novelty coffee mug, Jesus riding a dinosaur Precious Moments statue, stolen office supplies emblazoned with pink ribbons) because a job may be opening at the Komen Foundation very soon.

Ninth Circuit strikes down Prop 8 as unconstitutional!

"Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples," Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote in the decision. The court concludes that the law violates the 14th Amendment rights of gay couples to equal protection under the law. Access to gay marriage will remain on hold pending appeals to the decision.

Man, first that jackwagon Handel gets fired, and now this!

Woo hoo!

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The Christianists who want it to be legal for their children to assault and harass LGBT kids have now focused their ire on Rolling Stone, who last week published a lengthy expose of a Minnesota school system.

According to Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute, teachers should not be allowed to intervene when gay children are being beaten:

Teachers are employees of the government. In that role, they have no right to affirm controversial moral beliefs, even if they believe that doing so will reduce the incidence of bullying. There are ways to curb bullying without affirming controversial, non-factual moral (or political assumptions). Schools must ensure that teachers not exploit their government-subsidized employment to engage in moral or political philosophizing. To prevent the kind of ideological propagandizing in which homosexual activists and their allies seek to engage in the classroom, policy must explicitly prohibit teachers from expressing their personal views on controversial issues.

NOTE: The Illinois Family Institute is an SPLC-certified hate group and the former employer of Peter LaBarbera.

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Stop Congressional Repugs from killing the post office.

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Mitt Romney is financially invested in the birth control he seeks to restrict.

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It's good to be da' king. I wonder how much of it is stashed away in Switzerland and the Cayman Islands.

Mitt Romney's five sons -- Matt, Tagg, Craig, Ben and Josh -- are sitting pretty with a trust fund worth $100 million. Getting there took investments that produced great growth, according to the Romney campaign. It also took smart tax strategies. Romney and his wife Ann have been giving to the boys since 1995, and, according to a spokesperson for the Romney campaign, all of their contributions have been below gift-tax contribution limits.

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It never stops:

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and several other lawmakers say the U.S. should consider arming the opposition forces in Syria as President Bashar al-Assad continues to kill civilians in a government crackdown.

Graham cautioned that before arming the opposition, he would want to know that they have a plan to govern "so that we don't just have another civil war."

"That is probably where we are headed, is giving the opposition forces capacity, humanitarian aid, medical aid and maybe even military assistance," Graham said Tuesday. "Before arming them I would want to know what efforts have they made to put together a governing coalition."

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, also told reporters Tuesday that "we should start considering all options, including arming the opposition. The blood-letting has got to stop."

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Ct.) made similar comments on Sunday, suggesting at a conference in Munich that the U.S. should ultimately provide the opposition with weapons.

Lieberman, McCain, and Graham are a domestic axis of evil- there is literally no worldwide situation that, according to them, can't be made better with American guns and bombs.

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"Anti-government extremists opposed to taxes and regulations---usually referred to as the 'Republican Base'---pose a growing threat to local law enforcement officers in the United States, the FBI warned on Monday."

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Some grade "A" whining from Salon:

It's official: Barack Obama has decided — not for the first time — that leading by example is just too risky.

On January 27, 2010, in one of the most celebrated moments of his presidency, Obama stood in the rostrum of the U.S. House and called out to their faces the five members of the Supreme Court who had ruled six days earlier that the federal government has no authority to limit the independent political activity of corporations and unions.

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But all of that abruptly changed last night, with word that Obama has decided to give in and play the Super PAC game just as aggressively as his Republican opponents. As the New York Times reports:

Aides said the president had signed off on a plan to dispatch cabinet officials, senior advisers at the White House and top campaign staff members to make clear to donors that they should support Priorities USA Action, the leading Democratic "super PAC," whose fund-raising has been dwarfed by Republican groups. The new policy was presented to the campaign's National Finance Committee in a call Monday evening and was set to be announced Tuesday.

"Dwarfed" is definitely the right word. Fund-raising reports released last week showed that the pro-Mitt Romney Super PAC Restoring Our Future has outraised Priorities USA by more than seven-to-one. And that's just one component of the Republican Super PAC arsenal. Sheldon Adelson, the casino magnate who has given $10 million to a Newt Gingrich-aligned group, is sending signals that he'll move his support to Romney if the former Massachusetts governor is Obama's fall opponent, while a Super PAC launched by Karl Rove has taken in more than $50 million.

It's not good enough that Obama win re-election, he has to do it with one hand tied behind his back. We went through this crap in 2008 with public financing, and I imagine we will be hearing kvetching from the usual suspects for a while about this.

Look- I wish Super PACS didn't exist. I wish politicians weren't as beholden to monied interests and slaves to raising campaign cash. I really do. But that is the reality we live in, and I'm not going to hamstring my candidate and demand he play by different, tougher rules.

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"I predict, gentlemen, that in 200 years, this Constitution will be so misinterpreted by the Roberts Court that we may as well have stayed home and filleted our kumquats."

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"Go ahead, right-wing punk, diss my ad and make my day!"

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In its comprehensive examination of federal disclosure forms, the Washington Post has discovered that members of Congress have steered millions of taxpayer dollars to institutions where their relatives work. The Post found 16 representatives whose actions aided their immediate families.

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Ron Paul calls for elimination of public lands.

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Have you ever wished that Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert would stop and take some time to explain what makes caribou want to hump? Sure you have. Here you go: "So when they want to go on a date, they invite each other to head over to the [oil] pipeline," he says, and you can imagine the rest. HINT in case you can't: it involves "warm oil" and "flowing." In conclusion, America needs to build thousands more oil pipelines in Alaska, to make caribou horny. READ MORE »

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One unfortunate Mitt Romney supporter in Florida seems to have discovered a novel way of getting kicked out of a campaign event: Alan Reynolds showed up to a Mittens rally with a sign bearing the (mysterious?) collection of words, "Tea Party Includes Cuban Coffee Romney." NOT COOL, said Romney campaign staff. Because Mitt Romney does not drink coffee. It is against his magick moon religion. Therefore this hilarious nonsense phrase must be kept away from Mitt AT ALL COSTS and Reynolds was told to leave. No, we don't understand it, either! Does Mitt Romney melt away like the Wicked Witch if he so much as reads one of the special Mormon naughty words?

That's one theory. The other conclusion one might draw is that Mitt Romney's campaign staff does not know how to properly interpret teabagger signage, ha ha:

[Reynolds] thought his sign would be well received at an event with a few hundred mostly Hispanic supporters and a heavily Cuban flavor — including a heap of lechón.

But he may have touched off trouble with his other signage, a piece that read: "No Newt-ist Colony on the Moon, Vote Romney."

"They saw the word, 'Newt," and thought I was a Gingrich supporter," Reynolds says.

To smooth things over, he tried to demonstrate his Romney support by showing off his Cuban coffee masterpiece:

That's when things really got bizarre, with the staffers bringing up Mormonism's ban on drinking caffeine. "I said, 'This sign is clever!,'" he says. "They said it was offensive because he's Mormon."

Anyone caught drinking coffee in Mitt Romney's White House will be sent to Mormon baptize dead popes, as punishment. [Miami New Times]

Headlines - Tuesday February 7

2012-02-07T10:29:00.001-06:00

Members of Congress on Friday questioned why nobody has been prosecuted as part of a criminal investigation of mismanagement at Arlington National Cemetery, nearly three years after reports of problems that included misidentified graves first surfaced in the press.

And in a related story of no one being prosecuted......

Charges dropped against U.S. soldier in Afghan murder. Of course they were.

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The Seed Emergency: The Threat to Food and Democracy

Patenting seeds has led to a farming and food crisis - and huge profits for US biotechnology corporations.

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"My husband can't fucking throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time." Tom Brady's wife Link

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House GOP Memo: "Abortion Is the Leading Cause of Death in the Black Community"

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As civil unrest intensifies, the United States has closed its Syrian embassy and ordered diplomats to leave the country.

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Komen Site Hacked!

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From the department of "you can't make this shit up."

The Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) has found that Representative Vern Buchanan (R-Derp) has failed to disclose 17 sources of income on his financial disclosure forms.

Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) failed to disclose income on his disclosure forms and didnt report 17 positions he held at various companies and organizations from 2007 through 2010, according to an Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) report released Monday.

The report was issued to the House Ethics Committee on Nov. 8 but disclosed publicly on Monday. The House Ethics Committee said in a statement that it had decided to "gather additional information necessary to complete its review." [...]

Buchanan has been under an ethics cloud in recent months and is currently the subject of several ongoing investigations involving his finances and alleged violations of campaign finance law. His campaign claimed a Federal Election Commission report had exonerated him of the later allegations, but the FEC general counsel report actually said that several of his statements were not credible.

Vern Buchanan is the finance chairman for the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC).

The finance chairman can't even report his own finances correctly!

Vern is also still under investigation by the Department of Justice for allegedly reimbursing the employees of his former car dealership for donating to his campaign.

You're doing great, Republicans!

###

Mario: "We the Rich"

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The Hidden Face of Food

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Margaret and Helen: Pink Razors

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From Republican Report: This morning, Republic Report published a post revealing the backers of an anti-union ad that ran during the Super Bowl. We realized after publication that one of the actors playing a disgruntled union mechanic was actually Rick Berman, the consultant advising the anti-union lobbying campaign. A call to Berman and Company confirmed that Berman, who owns a $3.3 million dollar house and is known for his elaborate astroturf campaigns on behalf of big corporations, played the part of a mechanic in the ad.

###

Gingrich spokesman constantly fiddling with Newt's Wikipedia page

The number one reason nobody likes pedantic swamp bubble Newt Gingrich is because of all the horrible things they are reading about him on his Wikipedia page, obviously. Why else would Newt campaign spokesman Joe DeSantis spend so much time glued to his computer belaboring minor edits to Newt and Callista's Wikipedia entries that even CNN finally bothered to notice and make fun of it? READ MORE »

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Chrysler ran an ad about coming back during the halftime of the Super Bowl, saying that it was "halftime in America" as well

Of course, Karl Rove and the rest of the Right Wing Outrage Machine took that to be political. Probably because they were pushing back in 2008 and 2009 to take Chrysler (and GM) into Chapter 7 and dismember both companies,[1] throwing millions of more people out of work.[2]

That didn't happen because two American presidents[3] stood up to the Randistas and called "bullshit" on a cabal of fools who were willing to destroy a major chunk of this country's industrial base, just because their ideology[4] told them to.

What Clint Eastwood had to say was this:

"There is no spin in that ad. On this I am certain. l am certainly not politically affiliated with Mr. Obama. It was meant to be a message about just about job growth and the spirit of America. I think all politicians will agree with it. I thought the spirit was OK."

Except the professional Republicans don't want to see job growth. They want to see the country continue to slide down into a depression. At a time when thousands upon thousands of jobs were still being lost, the Republican (and minority) leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, pronounced that his party's number one objective was to make this president a one-term president.

Not "put Americans back to work". Not "Turn the economy around". Not "improve the educational system for America's youth". McConnell's sole objective for the last four years has been to destroy this president, to make it impossible to do anything that would help this country pull out of the Great Recession.

Once you realize that, then the Wingnut outrage over the Chrysler ad makes complete sense.

Do these douchebags really want to make the election a contest between people who are rooting for American industry and assholes who want it to fail? They probably don't, they just can't help themselves.

###

The Indoor Tanning Industry's political action committee has contributed $5,000 House Speaker John Boehner's (R-OH) campaign account and another $5,000 to the National Republican Congressional Campaign's Boehner for Speaker Committee.

The trade association "actively lobbies against legislation that would place unfair restrictions on salon businesses." Boehner no doubt earned the group's gratitude with his staunch opposition to inclusion of tanning salon taxes in the Affordable Care Act.

Ironically, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who famously tweeted to Jersey Shore star Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi that he would not tax her tanning bed received no contributions from the PAC this cycle or last. (HT: @lukerosiak)

###

As the bankrolls of GOP-aligned Super PACs continue to grow, President Obama's campaign announced that it will no longer oppose the use of Super PAC funding to aid the reelection bid. Obama made the decision reluctantly and simultaneously announced that he supports a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United.

###

A new Washington Post investigation shows Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) directed more than $100 million in federal earmarks to renovate downtown Tuscaloosa near his own commercial office building, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) got $6.3 million in taxpayer dollars to fix-up the beach next to his island vacation home — two examples of how Congressional earmarks have been used to fund projects near lawmakers' properties.

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Daniel Radcliffe told a British magazine that he is "disgusted, amazed, stunned" by the candidates, especially on gay rights. "But they disgusted me less than candidates like Rick Perry, who made that ridiculous advert wearing 'the Brokeback jacket," he said.

###

Santorum Longs For Good Old Days Of 'Shadow Abortions' When Women Obtained Back-Alley Procedures

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The Asian Lady In Pete Hoekstra's Ad Was Named 'Yellow Girl'

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What can America ever do to make it up to Michele Bachmann? She gave up the ghost on her presidential aspirations (THIS TIME) after voters in Iowa ditched her for a robot, a frog, a sweater vest, and a belt with an onion tied to it. Wouldn't you take this insult to your grave? Bachmann certainly intends to, sure as you're born, since by her own admission, "America had their chance with the perfect candidate," i.e., Michele Bachmann. READ MORE »

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Oh, so the war in Afghanistan is supposed to end soon-ish, like next year, maybe? Sure, we've done a pretty good job leaving that country on the brink of yet another horrifying civil war, NEXT. It is now Iran's turn to be liberationed! Forty-nine percent of Americans, which for you statistically-minded folk means "probably at least one or even multiple people that you know," believes the United States should start a preemptive war with Iran despite otherwise appearing in possession of the requisite faculties to breathe, eat, take a shit and respond to basic questions from a pollster that should denote sentience. Kind of weird, right!? Also weird: Americans felt as recently as November of last year (by a two-to-one margin) that other famed preemptive war "the Iraq thing" was a really awful waste of human life, money, human life, human life, time, etc. But HELLO, it is February 2012 already, and the troops are home since December! Which means it is time to send them all back out again. READ MORE »

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John Fleming (R-Idiot) fell for a nine-month-old hilarious article in The Onion which touted the grand-opening of an Abortionplex:

TOPEKA, KS—Planned Parenthood announced Tuesday the grand opening of its long-planned $8 billion Abortionplex, a sprawling abortion facility that will allow the organization to terminate unborn lives with an efficiency never before thought possible.
Read the rest of this post »

Headlines - Monday February 6

2012-02-06T10:30:00.000-06:00

Andy Borowitz: In a gaffe that could doom him with Republican voters, Mitt Romney said today that he does care about poor people...

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Common Dreams: Obama's Drone Program Includes Targeting Rescuers and Funerals

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Did Mitt Romney's Dog Seek Asylum In Canada?

###

This is nuts:

Yesterday, ThinkProgress exclusively reported Ari Fleischer's involvement — dating back at least to December — with the Komen Foundation, including issues related to Planned Parenthood. Tonight, the Washington Post reports that Komen is now publicly confirming that Fleischer, a prominent right-wing pundit and former press secretary for George W. Bush, will help "on crisis communications" related to Planned Parenthood. Komen stressed that Fleischer, who is a long-time critic of Planned Parenthood, "had nothing to do with the funding decision."

Ari Fleischer sounds like a great choice, since Phyllis Schlafly and Pat Robertson were apparently unavailable.

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Ron Paul: Honest Rape

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"I believe every American should be allowed the same rights and civil liberties. Without legalized same-sex marriage, most of the time you cannot share the same health benefits, you are not considered next of kin and you are not granted the same securities as a heterosexual couple. How is this different than having someone sit in the back of the bus because of their skin color? We all should be tolerant of one another and embrace our differences. My dad, who is a real man's man, lives on the farm and is as Southern and straight as they come. He loves my gay friends and even supports same-sex marriage. If my father can do it, anyone can. This is America, the nation of dreams. We're so proud of that. And yet certain people are excluded. It's just not right." - Miley Cyrus, writing for Glamour Magazine.

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Chevron Refuses to Apologize for Ecuador Pollution

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Glaciers face new threat as ice is stolen

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The abortion mill that conservatives just love. They can't get enough of funding THIS abortion mill!

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Here's Rush Limbaugh picking his nose at the game last night:

Full size

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Rolling Stone - One Town's War on Gay Teens

In Michele Bachmann's home district, evangelicals have created an extreme anti-gay climate. After a rash of suicides, the kids are fighting back.

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Hoekstra Latest Candidate To Run Xenophobic Ad Showing Prejudiced Chinese Stereotype

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According to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, President Obama holds a clear lead over GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney. By a 2-1 margin, Americans said the more they learned about Romney, the less they liked him — likely a function of the overwhelmingly negative primary campaign the candidate has waged against his fellow contenders.

The same poll shows 68 percent of Americans think the tax code favors the wealthy, including 56 percent who strongly believe so, while two-thirds think Romney is not paying his fair share in taxes.

Headlines - Sunday February 5

2012-02-05T10:33:00.001-06:00

Abby Zimet: Empathy Is A Wave

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Let's contrast Republican and Democratic priorities in the House: Outsourcing and truck size

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When ~~Joe the Plumber~~ Samuel Wurzelbacher announced he was running for Congress against Democratic incumbent Marcy Kaptur, the big question was why he'd bother. As David Nir wrote, Ohio's "new 9th District was drawn as a deliberate Democratic vote sink ... It's a clever gerrymander, which means any Republican who would try to run here just isn't very clever at all."

But it turns out Wurzelbacher had a solid plan, in the grand tradition of Republican grifters: He's paying himself a $5,000 monthly salary as a candidate.

According to a campaign spokesman:

"The salary is significantly less than what he made as a plumber," Schroeder told The Plain Dealer. "The reason why candidates accept salaries from campaigns, particularly working-class candidates, is that they can't run unless they can support themselves."

Which would be a decent reason—you shouldn't have to be wealthy to run for office—except that Wurzelbacher wasn't a licensed plumber in 2008 when he became a semi-celebrity and given that he's spent the years since on the wingnut welfare circuit, writing books and making motivational speeches, it's unlikely he was doing a lot of plumbing in the weeks before he kicked off his campaign. But a run for office puts him back in the public eye just as his least last shred of relevancy was expiring, so the campaign should pay off beyond the salary it pays him.

###

Why Can't Romney be Attacked for Promoting Intolerance Through Mormonism?

###

Now if we could only get this kind of ruling here.

A French court has slapped a fraud sentence on the Church of Scientology, saying it targets vulnerable people for commercial gain. The ruling is a major setback for Scientologists in France, and it marks the first time here that the Church of Scientology has been convicted of organized fraud. The development puts its famous recruitment methods under a spotlight. Scientologists vehemently reject the conviction, saying that they are the victims of anti-cult organizations trying to destroy them. "Respect my religion," chanted several dozen Scientologists, braving sub-zero temperatures in the front of a courthouse in Paris.

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Bill Maher: The Socialism Bowl

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China's largest freshwater lake dries up

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Watch Stephen Colbert's Defense of Planned Parenthood

###

Afghan civilian deaths hit a record high in 2011, making it the worst year for them since the U.S. invasion began, according to a United Nations study released Saturday. The report said 3,021 civilians were killed in 2011, an 8 percent increase since 2010—and the fifth consecutive year that the number of deaths increased. The insurgency was responsible for 2,332 of the causalities, and civilians were often the target of the attacks rather than merely collateral damage from attacks on military personnel. The report attributed 400 of the deaths to NATO and Afghan forces, a small decrease from 2010, and said aerial attacks were responsible for about half of those deaths. The news comes just days after Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the U.S. would remove its combat forces from Afghanistan as early as mid-2013.

###

As you may have heard, Anonymous hacked into and released a conference call between the FBI and Scotland Yard discussing their efforts to crack down on the hackers' group.

What makes the hack all the more ironic is its release comes just days after Robert Mueller bragged of the FBI's cyber expertise at the Threat Assessment hearing on Tuesday (the actual call took place on January 17, which makes me wonder whether they have gotten subsequent calls as well). In response to MD (and therefore NSA's) Senator Barbara Mikulski's suggestion that the NSA was the only entity able to investigate cybercrime, Mueller insisted (after 2:01) the FBI can match the expertise of NSA. He even bragged about how important partnering with counterparts in other countries–like Scotland Yard–was to the FBI's expertise.

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Man, if Leon Panetta doesn't get into trouble for revealing details of Anwar al-Awlaki's targeting or confirming that Pakistani doctor Shikal Afridi was working for the CIA when he collected DNA from Osama bin Laden's compound, I wonder if he'll get in trouble for (apparently) telling David Ignatius when Israel will attack Iran?

Panetta believes there is strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June — before Iran enters what Israelis described as a "zone of immunity" to commence building a nuclear bomb.

Now perhaps this is another sanctioned leak meant to ruin Bibi Netanyahu's surprise (though I'm not sure how Iran would prepare to defend against an Israeli attack).

If so, Ignatius' article sure sends a divided message. On one hand, it suggests the US would not participate.

The administration appears to favor a policy of staying out of the conflict, unless Iran hits U.S. assets, which would trigger a strong U.S. response.

This U.S. policy — signaling that Israel is acting on its own — might open a breach like the one in 1956, when President Eisenhower condemned an Israeli-European attack on the Suez Canal.

Yet at the same time it lays out the circumstances under which the US would get involved.

Administration officials caution that Tehran shouldn't misunderstand: The United States has a 60-year commitment to Israeli security, and if Israel's population centers were hit, the United States could feel obligated to come to Israel's defense.

I'm sure the Israelis would never be able to cock up a Scary Iran Plot targeted at Tel Aviv.

What Ignatius doesn't emphasize–though he does hint at it–is the real reason for this schedule.

Complicating matters is the 2012 presidential campaign, which has Republicans candidates clamoring for stronger U.S. support of Israel.

Bibi Whatayahoo's biggest political donor, Sheldon Adelson, has already dumped $10 million into the GOP primary. To imagine that Bibi is not, at the same time, gaming out how the electoral schedule might play into the optimal time to pick a war with Iran is naive.

Which, I guess, may be why Panetta is blabbing this particular detail.

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Margaret and Helen: The Race for Respect

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Bill Maher: Atheism is not a religion.

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John Cole: They Fucking Hate You

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C&L: SuperPAC Super Payday: How Rich Donors Could Get Billions from Taxpayers

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Privatizing public services always - ALWAYS - costs more for worse service. And in Kentucky it's destroying jobs by killing small businesses.

From the Courier:

Kentucky legislators are threatening to subpoena three managed care companies after the state's 550 small pharmacies complained that they're being pushed out of business by the companies' low Medicaid reimbursements.
Sen. Jimmy Higdon, a Lebanon Republican and co-chairman of the House-Senate Program Review Committee, said the panel has sent letters inviting officials from three managed care companies to appear at a meeting Feb. 13 to answer questions. If the committee doesn't get the information it wants, it is prepared to subpoena the companies to get it, he said.
"This is a drastic measure (issuing subpoenas), but they are putting our independent pharmacists out of business," Higdon said. "You can't sell things for less than they cost and stay in business."
SNIP
The situation is bad enough that the Kentucky Medical Association says some doctors have discussed taking out short-term loans to offset delays in claims reimbursement from the companies.
Independent pharmacists have been among the most vocal critics because of the complicated pricing formula the managed care industry uses to pay for prescription drugs.
"This has hurt a lot of Main Street pharmacies," said Rosemary Smith, who operates eight Eastern Kentucky pharmacies with her husband, Luther. "We are the fabric of the economy in these small communities, and they are killing us."
The managed care system was implemented Nov. 1 by Gov. Steve Beshear's administration as a cost-saving measure.

Three months later it's a massive failure on all counts, as was completely predictable at the time.

Headlines - Saturday February 4

2012-02-04T08:42:00.001-06:00

Orrin Hatch: Obama thinks he's Jesus Christ

I think Orrin Hatch is a douchebag.

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Conservative radio host, Neal Boortz, calls the poor 'toenail fungus'

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The Komen Foundation Vice President in charge of ruining their brand, Karen Handel, is really an awful person in every way. Aravosis found this interview with Handel when she was running for GA governor less than two years ago.

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Digby: Body Parts

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StandUpforEllen and Thank J.C. Penney for Making The Right Choice

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"On October 11, I made public a letter I sent that day in the overnight mail to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell asking him not to extend the invitation to Madonna. He chose not to respond; subsequently, the 53-year-old pop star was selected to perform at the Super Bowl. The ball is now in Goodell's court. Unfortunately for him, he no longer has control of it—Madonna does. Now let's see if she behaves. If she doesn't, Goodell will have to answer to all Americans." - Catholic League blowhard Bill Donohue.

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Many Americans were shocked last month to learn that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney only paid an effective tax rate of 13.8 percent in 2010, but a recent report shows that corporations are paying even less.

Corporations in the U.S. paid only an average of 12.1 percent in taxes on the profits they earned inside the U.S in fiscal 2011, according to statistics from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

The Wall Street Journal reports that it's the lowest percentage corporations have paid on those profits since at least 1972, and it's less than half of the 25.6 percent they paid on average between 1987 and 2008.

Corporations saw their profits, however, reach an all-time high at the end of 2010. The $1.68 trillion in annualized profits in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2010 beat the previous record of $1.65 trillion in the third quarter of 2006.

The Journal credited the low rate to a temporary tax break, known as "bonus depreciation," which allowed companies to immediately write off certain investments instead of taking write-offs over a period of years.

In an interview with NBC earlier this year, Romney flat-out stated that President Barack Obama had raised taxes on corporations.

"If you want to get the economy going, lower corporate tax rates," he said. "He's raised them."

Since 1993, the marginal corporate rate has been at 35 percent. Romney has proposed that it be reduced to 25 percent.

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has said the he would "create a boom of new American entrepreneurship by dramatically cutting the corporate tax rate" to 12.5 percent (PDF), one of the lowest in the developed world.

During his State of the Union Address last month, the president also opened the door to lowering the corporate rate "without adding to our deficit." In their 2010 report (PDF), the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board discussed lowering the marginal rate to 28 percent.

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Romney's Latest Gaffe: Sings 'Cayman Islands The Beautiful'

O beautiful, offshore accounts
For ample waves of gain,
For green eye-shaded accountants
... All from the fruits of Bain!
Cayman Islands, Cayman Islands
Frank-Dodd can't trace the funds on thee
And crown thy good, with reverse Robinhood
From C-corps to LLCs!

###

The Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure didn't quit donating money to Planned Parenthood because they're being investigated by Congress. They quit donating money to Planned Parenthood for the same reason they quit supporting stem cell research -- because they've been taken over by right-wing zealots such as Karen Handel, former campaign adviser to Sarah Palin and former GOP candidate for governor of Georgia.

Apparently the only cure you're going to support if you donate money to this organization from now onwards are going to be faith-based cures -- I guess they're going to work on developing better prayers for praying the cancer out, sorta like praying the gay away. So if you're looking for an organization that supports real, evidence-based approaches to diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer, I'd suggest looking elsewhere.

###

So, you are wondering, how do you ruin a successful brand and embroil yourself in a pointless controversy that scares the shit out of your corporate sponsors and enrages both the left and right wing of the political spectrum, all while doing it in such a ham-handed and offensive manner that you manage to get $3 million in donations to organization you want to destroy in just a few days? Hire this guy:

Ari Fleischer, former press secretary for George W. Bush and prominent right-wing pundit, secretly helped guide Komen Foundation's disastrous strategy regarding Planned Parenthood. Fleischer personally interviewed candidates for the position of "Senior Vice President for Communications and External Relations" at Komen last December. According to a source with first-hand knowledge, Fleischer drilled prospective candidates during their interviews on how they would handle the controversy about Komen's relationship with Planned Parenthood.

There is literally nothing the Bush gang can not screw up. Nothing. They have this reverse Midas touch, where everything they touch just goes to shit. They hire him to advise them into how to turn their vile theocratic fantasies into action, and here is what he accomplishes:

The outpouring of support online for Planned Parenthood and women in need of breast cancer screenings has been nothing short of astonishing, and because of it, the Planned Parenthood Breast Health Fund has received more than $3 million from thousands of people across the country in only three days.

Every dollar we received for this fund will go directly for breast exams and diagnostic services, as well as breast health outreach and education. And now that the Komen Foundation plans to continue their support, even more women will receive lifesaving breast cancer care.

Well done, Ari, Karen, and company. I can't remember another time when the ugliness of wingnuts led to a positive outcome. Well, there was also that 2008 election.

###

That geriatric pictured above thinks he knows what is best for you ladies and your lady parts:

Springfield's Roman Catholic Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell has joined religious leaders everywhere in a fierce reaction to the national healthcare law's mandate to include free contraceptives and other birth control.

McDonnell will release a letter at local Catholic Masses on Sunday denouncing the mandate as an attack on religious liberties of all faiths.

"The federal government, which claims to be 'of, by, and for the people,' has just dealt a heavy blow to almost a quarter of those people – the Catholic population – and to the millions more who are served by the Catholic faithful," the letter reads, in part.

***

"Catholic Bishops in principle are, of course, not opposed to health care in this country … but the government is really crashing though our constitutional protections. Our expectation is that if someone works for us they shouldn't violate any key moral principals we hold dear," and the church certainly shouldn't have to pay for it," said diocesan spokesman Mark Dupont.

First off, they aren't being forced to do anything- they could stop taking public money and do whatever they want. Second, if these octogenarian bullshit peddlers spent 1/100th the energy they spend focusing on rubbers and the pill instead worrying about their organization's global conspiracy of child rape and their gay-bashing, I'd actually maybe give a shit about their consciences and moral principles. But they don't, so screw 'em.

###

Fun fact: Fox only mentioned the new unemployment rate 9 times through 2:30 yesterday afternoon, far less often than its competitors. Notably, Fox's less-ideological sister network Fox Business mentioned the rate three times more often:

Fox News — 9 mentions
MSNBC –18 mentions
CNN –17 mentions
CNBC –12 mentions
Fox Business — 27 mentions

In December, after another good jobs report, Fox displayed a misleading and inaccurate graph that downplayed the drop in the jobless rate.

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You're not entitled "to special treatment under the law…[Marriage is] not a right, it's something that has existed since the beginning of human history as an institution where men and women come together for the purposes of forming a natural relationship as God made it to be. And for the purposes of having children and continuing that civilization. It is an intrinsic good…And as a result of that, we extend a privilege. We extend certain privileges to people who do that because we want to encourage that behavior. [...]

Two people who may like each other or may love each other who are same-sex, is that a special relationship? Yes it is, but it is not the same relationship that benefits society like a marriage between a man and a woman. –Frothy Santorum to a gay member of his audience

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The Rise of Big Meat-Bred Super Bugs

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Arizona GOP Lawmaker Wants A State Holiday To Celebrate White People

Headlines - Friday February 3

2012-02-03T10:34:00.000-06:00

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Ted Rall: Want More Wars? Raise Taxes on the Rich

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McDonald's using less poison - no longer using chemical fertilizers or household cleaners in their burgers! Link

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The Florida Senate has approved a bill that would allow students to pray in public schools as long as the prayers weren't organized by adults. Oh, right.

One legislator warns that the bill will backfire once a "smart-alecky" kid organizes a student prayer from the Koran.

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New Komen Foundation policy also refuses funding for embryonic stem cell research

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The Obama Administration today shredded miles of red tape and announced the approval of off-shore wind turbine farms off the Atlantic coast, paving the way for private leases.

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I find this argument bracing:

Every single House Republican votes against the Peters Amendment to insert factual findings about how the Bush Tax Cuts added over $2 trillion to the deficit.

Washington, D.C. – Today every single House Republican voted against an amendment by U.S. Rep. Gary Peters to insert factual findings about the Bush Tax Cuts into a Republican budget bill (H.R. 3582). The Peters Amendment was defeated by a vote of 174 to 244 with every Republican voting no.

[....]

(3) The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 have added over $2 trillion to budget deficits from 2002-2011.

But hey, they're the daddy party of fiscal responsibility. And, if not, both sides do it, if the Republicans are cut-cut-cut with taxes, the Democrats are spend-spend-spend. Fred Hiatt told me so.

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Two words: Christian. Porn.

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The Beast: The 50 Most Loathsome Americans

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When in Rome - Is anyone surprised that the decision to shut down adoption agencies rather than allow same-sex couples from adopting children is mandated from Benny-the-Rat's Vatican itself? (Gay City News)

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Everyone is out to get your child - Sweet Baby Jeebus in a white van, what the hell is up with the Wingnuts who think their ~~little drooling jughead porkers~~ children are about to be molested by everyone in the known world? Oh. Dr. Dobson has been speaking to them again. (Family Talk)

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Minnesota Hate Group Lists Major Donations From Catholic Church & NOM

###

Indiana Senate Passes Controversial Creationism Bill

Can we insist on teaching science classes in church?

###

What will progressives do about apparent right-wing "fog shops" like Komen?

###

How to destroy a million dollar brand in 24 hours.

I love a good train wreck, and this is one for the ages

###

Guns don't kill people

Abortions do:

Well, here's an interesting weapon!

The Susan G. Komen Foundation, which collects and distributes money for Breast Cancer research and prevention is in the news for withdrawing its (relatively small) grant from Planned Parenthood.

So the Komen Foundation doesn't want to be associated with the nation's largest abortion-provider. But they don't mind partnering up with a handgun maker.

Komen took off the mask, and people don't like what they see. Right wing lunatics.

###

Mike Bloomberg has stepped up and pledged to donate $250,000 in matching funds to PP. He will match every grant of "new money", which I take to mean that if a person who has not previously donated to PP does so, he'll match your donation. He can do good once in awhile and he has this time.

So if you've never donated to Planned Parenthood before, do so and let Bloomberg double your donation.

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"Why should someone who has worked and accumulated some equity and is investing that in American businesses no longer be able to do that when they're elected to public office?"

–Sen. Jon Kyl (Ariz.), the second-ranking Senate Republican leader arguing that he should be allowed insider trading.

####

Some facts about Mitt's disdain for the poor:
50% of the US Households make under $50,000
14% of the US lives in POVERTY – 12% of Whites, 26% of Blacks
Top 2% of the US Households control over $10 trillion dollars in Net Worth

The 10 states with the most amount of poor households are ALL STATES VOTE REPUBLICAN
West Virginia, Mississippi, Arkansas, Kentucky, Alabama, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Montana, South Carolina, Louisiana

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Your slip is showing... "Progressives have long tried to expose the influence the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) wields in state house across the country, but one Florida lawmaker is making it too easy. ... Funded almost entirely by large corporations, ALEC produces "model legislation" favorable to industry that state lawmakers can introduce as their own bills. Usually, the legislators tweak the language of the bills to make them state-specific or to obfuscate their origins. Usually, but apparently not always. ... In November, Florida state Rep. Rachel Burgin (R) introduced a resolution (PDF here) that would officially call on the federal government to reduce corporate taxes, but she apparently forgot to remove ALEC's mission statement from the top of the bill, which she seems to have copied word-for-word from ALEC's model bill."

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Hyperbole, much, Mikey? "Last week, Tea Party Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) threatened to exact revenge for President Obama's decision to recess appoint four officials by engaging in a scorched earth campaign of obstruction against each of the president's nominees. In an apparent effort to cede what little remaining credibility he has on this issue, he then followed this threat up yesterday by comparing Obama's decision to appoint four consumer and worker protection officials to an unprovoked attack that killed 2,402 Americans and thrust America into the final four years of a bitter world war. ... Lee's phrase "a day that will live on in infamy," is nearly a word for word transcription of the opening line in President Franklin Roosevelt's speech seeking a declaration of war following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Nearly 420,000 Americans would die in that war, and we were in many ways the lucky ones. Over 2.5% percent of the world's population died in World War II -- totaling more than 60 million lives lost. ... It's common, of course, to express outrage at this point in a blog post highlighting such a bizarre and offensive comparison as Lee's analogy between Obama's wholly legal appointments and America's forced entry into an horrific war. And Lee's comment is unquestionably outrageous. Nevertheless, the most appropriate emotion is pity. Pity for this angry little man who can't tell the difference between an constitutional maneuver he disagrees with and a global calamity that ended only after humankind birthed and detonated a weapon that continues to threaten our very existence seven decades later. ... Ultimately, however, far more pity should be reserved for the people of Utah who, for at least five more years, must be represented in the Senate by a man who confuses personal disagreements with great human tragedies, who confuses our Constitution with a mandate to destroy Social Security and Medicare, and who openly admits to using sabotage and extortion in order to push his dangerous agenda"

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SLTrib: GOP wary of Mike Lee's battle with Obama

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According to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the economy created 243,000 jobs in January, and the unemployment rate fell to 8.3 percent. The numbers far surpassed analysts' expectations of about 140,000 jobs.

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In the first full year since President Obama's health care reform law took effect, the cost of prescription drugs to those on Medicare fell $2.1 billion in 2011. A total of 3.6 million people took advantage of the bill's provisions, which provided beneficiaries with a 50 percent discount on certain brand-name drugs and another seven percent discount on generic prescriptions, or about $600 per person.

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EXCLUSIVE: Major Romney Bundler Is Agent Of Foreign Government

Headlines - Thursday February 2

2012-02-02T09:07:00.001-06:00

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I'd love to see the U.S. end ALL roles in Afghanistan by the end of next week, but this at least gives us a light at the end of the tunnel.

In a major milestone toward ending a decade of war in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said on Wednesday that American forces would step back from a combat role there as early as mid-2013, more than a year before all American troops are scheduled to come home.

There are currently 90,000 troops left in Afghanistan, with a batch of 22,000 due home by the fall. There will be 68,000 left, scheduled to be completely out by the end of 2014.

Mr. Panetta offered no details of what stepping back from combat would mean, saying only that the troops would move into an "advise-and-assist" role to Afghanistan's security forces. Such definitions are typically murky, particularly in a country like Afghanistan, where American forces are spread widely among small bases across the desert, farmland and mountains, and where the native security forces have a mixed record of success at best.

At last count, American forces have suffered 1,889 killed in action in Afghanistan a number that rises to 2,882 when you include other allied forces, and untold hundreds of thousands if you include Afghans themselves (remember them?). We lost 25 soldiers in January of this year alone.

Dragging this thing out for over another year (and more) is going to get a lot more good people killed. Not that anyone cares much anymore.

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House Republicans order arrest of 'Gasland' filmmaker Josh Fox

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David and Charles Koch have it so bad. Here they are, innocently trying to buy states like Wisconsin and using their vast fortunes to whip up 'bagger frenzies, and all they get for their trouble is misery.

OK, so not misery so much as well-earned criticism.

But never mind that. Dave and Chuck have taken to the pages of the Wall Street Journal to decry the White House's shameless prejudice against meddling gazillionaires.

OK, so not them personally, but their lawyer. Things like speaking to the public -- even through the filter of print -- are entirely beneath them. But this so-called "President" Obama has been talking smack about them and they're not going to stand for it. Enough is enough. They're just people like everyone else -- except when they get a bug up their collective ass, they can hire former Solicitor General Theodore Olson to write them an op-ed in the freakin' Wall Street Journal. I'm sure their butlers hold the page up for them to read it, so they don't get newsprint ink on their hands. Otherwise, they're just folks.

Of course, some people don't see them that way. Some people insist on being distracted by reality.

"On issues ranging from climate change to health reform to tax policy to corporate regulation, in venues far and wide from Congress to state legislatures to Tea Party rallies to every foot of nearly every campaign trail, the Kochs have become an omnipresent force in right-wing politics, and a big factor in the polarization of the country," writes Ed Kilgore. "With the collapse of campaign finance rules, their ability to wield influence with little or no accountability is becoming almost unlimited. Even if you agree with them on every conceivable issue, the idea that they are cowering victims of the big-bad-bullies in the White House has to make you just burst out in derisive laughter. If I, God forbid, were a Koch Brother I'd fire Olson instantly for making me look so weak and feckless."

Olson begins his piece with a question. And it's a question I'm more than willing to answer.

"How would you feel if aides to the president of the United States singled you out by name for attack, and if you were featured prominently in the president's re-election campaign as an enemy of the people?" he asks, in all apparent seriousness.

Is this for the bonus round? Because it's way too easy: I'd feel like George Soros or every goddam Hollywood liberal or celebrity who spoke out against the invasion of Iraq.

Victim card rejected. (Wall Street Journal)

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Super PACs and the Power of Negative Thinking

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"We know that pumping oil out of the ground does not create many jobs. It does not foster an entrepreneurial spirit, nor does it sharpen critical faculties." [...]

"Greenhouse gas emissions and global warming are among humanity's most pressing concerns. Societal expectations on climate change are real, and our industry is expected to take a leadership role." -Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi

The Saudi oil minister, who probably knows more about oil than anyone on the planet, says oil doesn't create jobs and that climate change is very real.

I'm fairly certain the Saudis aren't socialists or diabolical liberals, so what will the Fox News spin be on this one?

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According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the supposed out of control spending of the Obama Administration is actually in control and will shrink another $200 billion in 2012.

The Congressional Budget Office said yesterday it expects this year's gap between spending and revenue to total $1.1 trillion, down from last year's $1.3 trillion. It attributed the decline to stronger tax revenue and the smallest increase in spending in years.

Read that again. The deficit has decreased by another $200 billion under the uber-socialist President Obama.

The CBO report isn't all roses, and it concedes that the automatic spending cuts that will take effect next year unless congress acts may increase unemployment, however it also indicates that allowing the Bush Tax Cuts to expire may be the best thing since sliced bread.

It seems likely to me the automatic triggers will end up being postponed by the current congress and then immediately swept under the rug by the next congress.

Why? Because the Republicans love making the economy look worse before an election, but after the election is over their primary concern will be stopping the automatic cuts coming to the Pentagon. Some Republicans, including John McCain, have already expressed their wish to see the automatic triggers go away if it means the Pentagon will be spared.

As far as the president is concerned, I doubt he would try to get in the way of ending the automatic triggers. They've already served their purpose, politically speaking.

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Steve Benen, now writing for Maddowblog, adds:

The health care law (1) is combating fraud and abuse, which in turns saves Americans quite a bit of money; (2) has brought coverage to 2.5 million young adults; (3) is delivering major savings to seniors on prescription drugs; (4) is giving a boost to small businesses through ACA tax credits; (5) has slowed the growth of Medicare spending; (6) has provided new treatment options for cancer patients; and (7) has offered new coverage protections for those with pre-existing conditions.

Also, the Obama administration's mandated that all contraception be covered without deductibles or copays.

Meanwhile, did you know the California Senate voted on a single-payer, "Medicare for All" plan on Monday? It happened. And I didn't hear a word from the usual single-payer-or-kill-the-bill people because they probably didn't even know about it, much less rally in support of it.

The bill failed. By two goddamn votes. Two votes.

This is why we lose. Too many of us are almost exclusively concerned with parroting the agenda of certain activists and their collection of two or three pet issues, so we miss the big picture. California won't get a single-payer healthcare system built into the new structure of the president's healthcare reform act partly because progressives didn't even show up to fight. But we'll scramble over each other to bitch and screech about the "centrism" and "compromised" nature of above list of successes because they're not progressive enough.

It's infuriating.

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David "I love to have prostitutes put diapers on me" Vitter boasts about Komen move

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Yesterday we learned that a top Komen official is also a GOP anti-abortion activist who promised less than two years ago to shut down funding to Planned Parenthood.

Today we learn from Kate Sheppard at Mother Jones that Komen's founder, Nancy Goodman Brinker, is a major Republican donor who served as an ambassador in the George W. Bush administration, one assumes as payback for the more than $175,000 she gave to Republican candidates and the RNC since 1990.

Kate has more:

This is all to say that perhaps the Planned Parenthood decision isn't all that big of a surprise, given the politics of people involved with Komen. The flap might end up benefiting Planned Parenthood in the end, however. The group has raised more than $400,000 since the news broke, a spokesman said Wednesday afternoon.

And now that there are serious concerns as to whether the Race for the Cure and its founder are simply an arm of the anti-abortion wing of the Republican party, it's hard to imagine any Democrats or Independents wanting to be a part of that fundraiser any more - unless of course it's to protest it.

Let this be a case study in how to destroy an amazing brand in just 24 hours.

The best, most delicious aspect of this is the fact that there simply is no way for the Komen foundation to undo the damage they have done. They simply can't- this action will forever leave them branded as a tool of the reactionary right. And even if they wanted to reverse course, and begin working with Planned Parenthood again, they couldn't because of the weaselly way they rolled this out. Are they going to change their rules back and claim they no longer care if someone is under investigation? Preposterous. Are they going to just hope that Republicans will drop their politically motivated investigations? Fat chance- PP, Acorn, and all the other boogeymen the right have created are constantly going to be heckled by wingnuts in congress with nuisance investigations.

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This seems like a no-brainer to me:

Rep. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) will introduce a bill Wednesday requiring large U.S. companies to disclose how many of their jobs are based on U.S. soil and how many are based abroad, an attempt to shed light on the number of American jobs being outsourced.

Such data is closely guarded by some of the country's biggest multinationals, including Pfizer, Apple and IBM. Public filings by these firms disclose their total number of employees, but don't specify where those jobs are located. Meanwhile, other data shows that multinationals overall cut 2.9 million jobs in the United States and added 2.4 million overseas between 2000 and 2009.

The Outsourcing Accountability Act would require firms with revenues over $1 billion to report how many employees they have in the United States and break them down by state; jobs abroad would have to be broken down by country. Firms would also have to track the percentage increase or decrease of these figures from the previous year.

"This is fairly easy for a company to do," said Peters. "They certainly have that information readily available, and I think it'd be surprising for a company to say it doesn't know where it sends its paychecks."

I understand that companies might have perfectly good reasons for outsourcing jobs but given how much today's Galtian ballers/shock-collars like to brag to the American people about all the jobs they've created, it's only fair that they be required to disclose how many of these jobs are in the US and how many are elsewhere.

Apple (directly and indirectly) employs about 700K people worldwide but only 43K in America. Those kinds of numbers need to be part of the debate and that requires more transparency.

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"Unlike Jesus, I'm not concerned about the very poor and I'm not concerned about the very rich. I'm only concerned about saying whatever it takes to get middle-income Americans to vote for me."

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Shadrack McGill, Alabama State Senator, Says Keeping Teacher Pay Low 'A Biblical Principle'

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Amanda Marcotte: Anti-choicers are modern day witch hunters

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The Great Debate: America and Equality

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Five GOP senators are trying to stop the automatic defense cuts triggered by the super committee's failure to reach an agreement to reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion. Their bill, to be released today, is expected to be similar to a proposal by House Armed Services Chairman Buck McKeon (R-CA), who introduced a bill to halt the first year of sequestration cuts by slashing federal jobs.

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House Republicans are bringing a bill to the floor today to ensure that low-income Americans don't use federal benefits to pay for "lap dances."

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GOP's Pro-Python Policy Devastates Florida's Everglades

Headlines - Wednesday Feb 1

2012-02-01T09:40:00.000-06:00

Kermit and Piggy Fire Back at Fox News

Several weeks ago, Dan Gainor of the conservative Media Research Center told Fox Business host Eric Bolling that "The Muppets," the new movie starring Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy, had a liberal agenda….

The difference between a Fox News anchor and a Muppet is one is a puppet who says whatever their handler wants, no matter how ridiculous or factually incorrect…and the other is a Muppet.

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Glad our soldiers are fighting for our freedom

More than 400 anti-Wall Street protesters were arrested in Oakland during a night of skirmishes in which police fired tear gas and bean bag projectiles, the city said on Sunday, marking one of the biggest mass arrests since nationwide economic protests began last year.

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Wasteful spending

No, this isn't a story about the federal budget. It's a story about the Republican governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, hiring a 500 dollar an hour attorney to defend the state's voter ID law which the Department of Justice has declared unconstitutional.

South Carolina taxpayers will be on the hook for a high-powered Washington attorney's $520-an-hour rate when the state sues the federal government this week to protect its voter ID law.

That litigation could cost more than $1 million, according to two South Carolina attorneys who have practiced before the U.S. Supreme Court.

S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson has more than five dozen staff attorneys to handle the state's legal affairs, but Wilson hired a former U.S. solicitor general to litigate the voter ID case at a rate of $520 an hour, a contract obtained last week reveals.

The Department of Justice labeled the South Carolina voter ID law unconstitutional because, according to the state's own data, it would disproportionately effect minority voters because minority voters are more likely to not have an ID.

As ThinkProgress reminds us, Paul Clement, the lawyer hired by Nikki Haley, is also the man hired by Speaker of the House John Boehner to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) which the Department of Justice has also labeled unconstitutional.

Why do the Republicans hate the constitution?

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"Prayerful And Devout" Employee Rips Off NY Archdiocese For More Than $1 Million

But she prayed and went to Mass every day!

Anita Collins, 67, was wearing a crucifix and handcuffs at her arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court for grand larceny and falsifying business records — charges that could send her to jail for up to 25 years if she is convicted. The white-haired bookkeeper alternately prayed and glared at the news photographers as investigators laid out her alleged scam. She did not enter a plea and was ordered held on $750,000 bail. "She held herself out to be a religious woman going to church every day," said Assistant District Attorney Amy Justiniano said. "Yet, behind their backs she would lie and steal."

Compared to their kiddie-fucking payouts, the Archdiocese will probably just file this loss under "miscellaneous." Meanwhile Collins will go to confession, be ordered to say ten "my bads," and she'll be square with the house.

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Did you know President Obama received everything he wanted during his first two years in office, and that there was absolutely no Republican obstruction, Blue Dogs, or excessive use of the filibuster?

That's not exactly how I remember it, but that's exactly what Mitch McConnell is selling.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has embraced the argument that President Obama was able to pass every bit of his legislative agenda in his first two years thanks to large Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress. It's intended as a counterpoint to the President's re-election strategy of attacking the congressional GOP as do-nothing obstructionists. But it's also a revisionist history of the 111th Congress, during which McConnell more than any other Republican in Washington stood athwart Obama's agenda to great effect.

The White House has "been trying to pretend like the President just showed up yesterday, just got sworn in and started fresh," McConnell declared Sunday on CNN's State of the Union. "In fact, he's been in office for three years. He got everything he wanted from a completely compliant Congress for two of those three years… We are living in the Obama economy."

Right. A completely compliant congress that featured a Democratic majority for a whopping 5 months which included Blue Dogs and the likes of Joe Lieberman.

The president was lucky to find bipartisan support within his own party to pass healthcare reform, and taxes didn't go up because there wasn't enough votes to bypass the filibuster.

Mitch McConnell is many things, but he's not stupid. He knows what he said is complete bullshit and he said it with a straight face. He knows because he personally spearheaded the movement to stall all legislation in an effort to "ensure President Obama is a one-term president."

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Excellent piece by Daniel Burke in the Washington Post about the Mormon church's recent racist past, and the fact that the Mormons refuse to this day to fully repudiate their past racism. Even Mitt Romney refuses to criticize it.

Keep in mind that the Mormons didn't change until they faced a boycott. I did not know, however, that the Mormons to this day - Romney included - refuse to fully expunge themselves of their racist past. As the article notes, this is an issue that's going to dog Romney for the campaign, at the very least with the black community, but really anyone who has an issue with racism. (Of course, the Mormons are extremely homophobic as well.)

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Running away from the cure

Komen for the Cure Cuts Planned Parenthood Funding for Breast Cancer Screening and Health Services

In case you've been donating to the Komen Foundation, perhaps you'd want to reconsider. CharityWatch gives the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, founded by the late Evelyn Lauder, an A+ rating and the National Breast Cancer Coalition Fund an A rating. Neither of those is looking to de-fund Planned Parenthood or to deny women health care in the name of ideology.

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I don't care about your invisible Jeebus

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Pakistan helping Taliban: secret NATO report

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From Common Dreams:

OWS Stands With Farmers, Says Enough! to Monsanto
Movement is calling for protests to support 60 family farmers, small seed businesses, organizations challenging Monsanto's patents on genetically modified seed.
The Occupy Wall Street movement has highlighted the tremendous corporate greed and power that has benefited the 1%.
One company helping the 1% is Monsanto. Food Democracy Now! writes that:

Monsanto's seed monopoly has grown so powerful that they control the genetics of nearly 90% of five major commodity crops including corn, soybeans, cotton, canola and sugar beets.

Monsanto's genetically modified seed can contaminate non-gmo fields allowing the company to sue for seed theft. Food Democracy Now! continues:

In many cases farmers are forced to stop growing certain crops to avoid genetic contamination and potential lawsuits. Between 1997 and 2010, Monsanto admits to filing 144 lawsuits against America's family farmers, while settling another 700 out of court for undisclosed amounts. Due to these aggressive lawsuits, Monsanto has created an atmosphere of fear in rural America and driven dozens of farmers into bankruptcy.

Today, the Occupy movement is seizing the moment to highlight this corporate power.
The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) writes:

On January 23, over 20,000 people poured into the streets of Berlin to say that they have had enough of industrial agriculture. The demands made in Germany can be heard all over the world starting with fair treatment of farmers and consumers, safe food, an end to food speculation and a respect for nature and the welfare of animals.
[Today], in New York City, the Occupy Wall Street movement is calling for protests to support 60 family farmers, small and family-owned seed businesses, and agricultural organizations that are challenging Monsanto's patents on genetically modified seed in federal court.
Like the Germans, it time for us to say, "We've had enough!" of Monsanto's agriculture. From super weeds to pest resistance in corn, genetically modified seeds have failed. Now Monsanto is turning to even more dangerous products with new varieties that will only increase the amount of herbicides in the environment.
At the heart of industrial agriculture is a long running conflict between corporations and farmers on who will control food production. Occupy Wall Street has come out on the side of farmers and all who eat to say, "We've had enough!"

Writing on the Care2, Beth Buczynski adds this background:

On January 31st, family farmers from across the county will take part in the first phase of the OSGATA et al. v. Monsanto court case filed to protect farmers from genetic trespass by Monsanto's genetically modified (GMO) seed, which can contaminate organic and non-GMO farmers' crops and open them up to abusive lawsuits.
As a result of aggressive lawsuits against farmers with contaminated crops, Monsanto has created an atmosphere of fear in rural America and driven dozens of farmers into bankruptcy.
But farmers are fighting back! The Federal District Court judge has agreed to hear oral arguments in this landmark case to decide whether or not this case will move forward.
Occupy Wall Street Food Justice, Occupy Big Food and Food Democracy Now! will assemble in solidarity with farmers on the front lines of the struggle against corporate domination of our food system.

Annoy a One-Percenter: Plant a Victory Garden.

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Romney: "I'm not concerned with the very poor."

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Washington Lawmakers Introduce Bill Claiming The Dollar Is Unconstitutional

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New disclosures show that conservative Super PACs are helping Republicans close a massive fundraising gap between them and President Obama. Obama raised $224.6 million for his campaign and Democrats in 2011, but outside groups that can raise unlimited funds, like American Crossroads, which raised $51 million, hope to shrink the gap between him and the eventual GOP nominee.

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At his first Senate hearing as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Republicans warned Richard Cordray not to get used to his job. President Obama recess appointed Cordray, which Republicans contend was unconstitutional. "I can't imagine how anybody could maintain…that your appointment and your service is valid," said Sen. Mike Johanns (R-NE).

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ExxonMobil Made $41.1 Billion In 2011, But Pays Estimated 17.6 Percent Tax Rate

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Christians Should Boycott Starbucks Because Homosexuals Only Live To 42

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Headlines - Tuesday January 31

2012-01-31T10:05:00.000-06:00

Bwahahahaha! To protest a bill that would require women to undergo an ultrasound before having an abortion, Virginia State Sen. Janet Howell (D-Fairfax) on Monday attached an amendment that would require men to have a rectal exam and a cardiac stress test before obtaining a prescription for erectile dysfunction medication.

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John Boehner must resign from Congress because of his conflicting interests regarding the Keystone XL Pipeline. In 2010 he invested between $15,001-50,000 in Canadian Natural Resources, Ltd, a tar sands oil company. He is poised to reap financial gain if the pipeline gets built. Sign this petition to pressure Congress for his resignation!

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The Animal Victims of Fukushima. Maybe if Japan hadn't spent $28 million of donated tsunami relief funds on illegal whaling, these animals could have been / could be helped.

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Not breaking news: Whether it's claims about her father's death at the hands of the Nazis, the landscape being littered with headless bodies, or accounts of her encounters with President Obama, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer "often has trouble with the truth."

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Speaking to a gathering of Florida Republicans, Rep. Allen West added a layer of cement to his already solid reputation for right-wing lunacy:

"We need to let President Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, (audience boos) and my dear friend the chairman of the Democrat National Committee, we need to let them know that Florida ain't on the table," West said. "Take your message of equality of achievement, take your message of economic dependency, take your message of enslaving the entrepreneurial will and spirit of the American people somewhere else. You can take it to Europe, you can take it to the bottom of the sea, you can take it to the North Pole, but get the hell out of the United States of America."

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Impeachment redfux, just for the hell of it

The crazy will be strong when Obama gets reelected.

[Grover] Norquist: If the Republicans have the House, Senate, and the presidency, I'm told that they could do an early budget vote—a reconciliation vote where you extend the Bush tax cuts out for a decade or five years. You take all of those issues off the table, and then say, "What do you want to do for tax reform?"
Then, the question is: "OK, what do we do about repatriation and all of the interesting stuff?" And, if you have a Republican president to go with a Republican House and Senate, then they pass the [Paul] Ryan plan [on Medicare].

NJ: What if the Democrats still have control? What's your scenario then?

NORQUIST: Obama can sit there and let all the tax [cuts] lapse, and then the Republicans will have enough votes in the Senate in 2014 to impeach. The last year, he's gone into this huddle where he does everything by executive order. He's made no effort to work with Congress.

Ignore the nonsense about Obama not trying to work with Congress. I doubt even Norquist, the GOP's top anti-tax crusader, believes that idiocy.

Instead, note that Norquist doesn't pretend that there's any "high crimes or misdemeanors" in question. It's simply—if Obama doesn't extend tax cuts for the one percent, then he'll be impeached.

For some bizarre reason, the reporter interviewing Norquist didn't follow up on that point. But lest we forget, this is Norquist's GOP. He says "jump!" and Republicans across the land shout back, in unison, "HOW HIGH?"

If you don't care for Obama, then whatever. Do something constructive and focus on getting Nancy Pelosi her gavel back. And if you do care for Obama, then also work to get Pelosi her gavel back.

Because if Republicans remain in charge of the House, impeachment of Obama—despite running what is clearly the most scandal-free administration in decades—is virtually guaranteed.

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Digby: If we can just get those taxes down to nothing and eliminate all impediments to inheritance, we should be able to successfully recreate the British aristocracy in a generation. The founders would be proud.

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In case you need reminding.

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The Europeans just cannot get enough of our First Lady Michelle Obama. She is all they have right now, with their money spinning down the toilet and Heidi Klum experiencing a divorce tragedy, etc. Last week, the French shared their opinions about Michelle Obama and her brave decision to not dress like MC Hammer. Now, of course, the British have decided that they do not like competing with France for the title of "Country With Best Insane Published Writing About FLOTUS." But their take on Michelle Obama is a little more "saucy," as they would say, because it involves (tee hee!) underpants! READ MORE »

Now that Michelle Obama's underwear is up for discussion at all the usual wingnut sites, can we start talking about Mitt Romney's? After all, for a Mormon, it's "the most sacred of all things in the world, next to their own virtue, next to their own purity of life", so I'd think that it's something that Romney should discuss. Or are there two sets of standards, one for Mrs. Obama, and one for Mitt Romney?

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The entry fee for playing politics should be having their tax exempt status taken away: "In a surprising move over the weekend, thousands of Catholic parishioners were read letters that condemn the Obama administration and its recent decision to make birth control available to women through virtually all private health insurance plans. ... The letters were written by Catholic Bishops in the U.S. and read aloud at hundreds of Catholic churches on Sunday. In one of the letters (PDF), written by a Catholic Bishop in Phoenix, Ariz., the church attacks the Obama administration for having "cast aside the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, denying to Catholics our Nation's first and most fundamental freedom, that of religious liberty." ... But far from taking away their religious liberty or any of their "God given rights," the Obama administration's decision to make private insurers cover birth control will ensure that the church cannot deny these services to their employees if they choose to utilize them."

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Despite a promise of "zero-tolerance" for unethical behavior, House Republicans are facing increasing number of ethics probes. As the 2012 session begins, almost a dozen GOP lawmakers face questions about their financial dealings, and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) "has not publicly admonished them."

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Congress has finally decided to do something about its dismal approval ratings. A 93–2 procedural vote on Monday cleared the way for the Senate to pass a ban on congressional insider trading later in the week. The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act requires disclosure of stock transactions within 30 days and prevents members of Congress from initiating trades based on nonpublic information. The bill is technically symbolic, because lawmakers are already subject to the same laws as other investors who use nonpublic information to make money, but no one in Congress has been charged with insider trading in recent memory. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid explained that the bill "will clear up any perception that it's acceptable for members of Congress to profit from insider trading." Read it at The Associated Press

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Note to Republicans:

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The Bistro at the Bijou in Knoxville refused service to one Sen. Stacey Campfield. They posted a FB message that said, "I hope that Stacy Campfield now knows what if feels like to be unfairly discriminated against." From all that I can ascertain, that was a response to not serving him for his well documented views of ignorance and bigotry towards the GLBT community.

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All these "polarizing" polls show is just how radical Republicans are.

Obama could cut taxes, expand the War on Terror, preside over a 50% stock market surge and kill bin Laden -- and the Republicans would still hate him.

Oh wait.

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Jurassicpork: Top 10 Reasons Why the 99% Should Take Turns Kicking CEOs and Lawmakers in the Nut Sack

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Kafka never wrote anything more terrifying. "A New Mexico man, who expects to suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) for the rest of his life, was awarded $22 million last week after he was tossed in solitary confinement for two years and never given a trial, but he remembers very little of the ordeal, Raw Story has learned. ... In August of 2005, Stephen Slevin was arrested for driving while intoxicated (DWI). He spent most of the next two years in the Dona Ana County Detention Center without his case ever going before a judge. ... Slevin was rarely allowed to go outside, fungus grew underneath his skin and his toenails curled around his foot because they were so long. At one point, he even had to pull his own tooth. ... Attorney Matt Coyte explained to MSNBC.com that police had mistakenly believed that Slevin had stolen the car he was driving when police pulled him over and arrested him for a DWI. Slevin informed authorities that he had been depressed, but instead of getting mental help, he found himself on suicide watch in a padded cell. Three days later, he was transferred to solitary confinement. ... "Their policy is to then just put [detainees with mental health issues] in solitary," Coyte said. "He disappeared into delirium, and his mental illness was made worse by being isolated from human contact and a lack of medical care." ... "Your insanity builds. Some people holler or throw feces out their cell doors," he continued. "Others rock back and forth under a blanket for a year or more, which is what my client did.""

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With all due respect, Sir, answer the god-damned question. "President Barack Obama ignored a question about marijuana legalization during his "Your Interview With the President" event Monday, despite the fact that it was the most popular video question. ... As part of the White House's ongoing social media engagement initiatives, Americans were given the chance to submit questions to the president, which others could vote on. Obama answered some of the most popular questions during a virtual interview from the West Wing of the White House, but declined to respond to the most popular video. ... That video was submitted by Stephen Downing, a board member for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP)."

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Continuing to avoid their pledge to focus on jobs, Congressional Republicans are moving toward a vote on making English the official language of the United States. Their aim is to "put the Obama administration on the defensive."

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WSJ Publishes Op-Ed From 16 Climate Deniers, Refused Letter From 255 Top Scientists

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Boy oh boy is Arizona governor Jan Brewer ever so lucky that Barack Obama came to visit her state — his visit has already started to generate new revenue! No no, not for Arizona or anything, no, ha ha. It's revenue for Jan Brewer, America's neediest governor, which she is collecting via some tragic website that asserts her right to a monetary reward in exchange for performing the valuable service of yelling at the President like a deranged twit in view of a few news photographers. Who says it's getting hard to make a buck in America these days? READ MORE »

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This is what tar sands development looks like in Canada. Similar projects are slated for School Trust Lands in the Bookcliffs and potentially near Canyonlands, Grand Staircase and Capitol Reef National Parks.

http://www.suwa.org/category/blog/

Headlines - Monday January 30

2012-01-30T11:22:00.001-06:00

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Our allies: Pakistan is trying the doctor who helped catch Osama bin Laden for treason.

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Callista must need a new Tiffany diamond-studded pressure gauge.

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Sarah Palin continues to be the dumbest person in national politics. Here's why Republicans should support Newt Gingrich (warning — link points to Brietbart's site):

"So, if for no other reason to rage against the machine vote for Newt, annoy a liberal."

No, see, Newt Gingrich has absolutely no chance of winning the general election. This delights and comforts liberals. We want Gingrich to win the nomination because he will crash and burn far worse than Goldwater, McCain or anyone else the modern Republican Party has elevated to prominence.

Also, supporting someone just because they annoy someone else? It's this kind of childish nonsense that's dooming the Republican Party to second-rate status.

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Oddly named head of the RNC Reince Priebus has compared President Carebear to the Italian cruise ship captain who took off in a lifeboat after his ship ran aground at Isola del Giglio killing 17 people:

"In a few months, this is all going to be ancient history, and we are going to talk about our own little Captain Schettino, which is President Obama who is abandoning the ship here in the United States and is more interested in campaigning than doing his job as president."

(Think Progress)

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If Boehner was a Democrat, he would be run out of office on a rail over this. "It is an ethics violation for elected officials to use their political office to perform official acts on behalf of special interests, and particularly when special interests are campaign donors. There is also a serious problem when a sitting congressional representative performs official acts for personal financial profit by promoting a project the representative has a financial stake in. The problem becomes egregious when the elected official lies about a project to profit himself and campaign donors and our current Speaker of the House has taken those issues a step farther. On Thursday, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) received a complaint from an environmental group with accusations that the proposed Keystone XL pipeline's owners (TransCanada) are in violation of SEC Rule 10b(5) - Employment of Manipulative and Deceptive Practices to bolster stock prices. ... The complaint sent to the SEC said TransCanada is using "false or misleading statements about the proposed Keystone XL pipeline" and that they "consistently used public statements and information it knows are false in a concerted effort to secure permitting approval of Keystone XL from the U.S. government." The complaint continues that the fallacious information misleads investors, U.S. and Canadian officials, the media, and the public "in order to bolster its balance sheets and share price," and who is the point-man pushing the Keystone XL pipeline with lies and misinformation? Speaker of the House John Boehner."

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Today, the National Park Service will crack down on "sleeping activity" at the two Occupy DC camps at McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza, which some say is an effective eviction. Park Service officials told protesters on Friday that they "may be subject to arrest and their property subject to seizure as evidence" if there are evident "camping violations" by noon today.

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We've been asking about this since David Petraeus was the Mayor of Mosul -- The money went missing on his watch. "The U.S. Defense Department cannot account for about $2 billion it was given to cover Iraq-related expenses and is not providing Iraq with a complete list of U.S.-funded reconstruction projects, according to two new government audits. ... The reports come from the office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. ... The Iraqi government in 2004 gave the Department of Defense access to about $3 billion to pay bills for certain contracts, and the department can only show what happened to about a third of that, the inspector general says in an audit published Friday. ... Although the Department of Defense (DoD) had "internal processes and controls" to track payments, the "bulk of the records are missing," the report says, adding that the department is searching for them. ... Other documents are missing as well, including monthly reports documenting expenses, the audit says. ... "From July 2004 through December 2007, DoD should have provided 42 monthly reports. However, it can locate only the first four reports.""

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Keeping a campaign promise, the Obama campaign is refunding money donated by federal lobbyists. "When we catch [a contribution] from a federal lobbyist that slips through the cracks, we immediately return the contribution," said a campaign spokesman. "Unlike our opponents, our campaign does not accept contributions from Washington lobbyists."

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Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White (R) will face seven felony voting fraud charges at a trial beginning this morning. White, who maintains his innocence, allegedly registered to vote at a home that was not his residence and served as a councilman in a district where he did not live.

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NEW YORK—We left you on Friday with some rather unsettling developments in the coming War Against the Machines, and we're afraid to report there's more bad news on that front today: the US military apparently left behind some drones during its "withdrawal" from Iraq last December—and the Iraqi people are not happy about this! (something something nobody could have predicted.) The State Department has contracted a "small fleet" of drones to serve as part of a security detail for the various American diplomats still remaining in Iraq. "The State Department drones," reports the Times, "carry no weapons and… are much smaller than armed drones, with wingspans as short as 18 inches, compared with 55 feet for the Predators." Catch that? "Much much smaller than armed drones"—as if this is supposed to comfort us! No, sorry, this is even more terrifying. Because, seriously, think about it: if those 55-foot Predators are basically like the Decepticons of the War Against the Machines, then these little foot-and-a-half long guys are like that one miniature Transformer jobber that turned himself into a boombox and hacked Air Force One. Well! Happy Monday, everyone: we all live in a Michael Bay movie now. READ MORE »

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SOUTH DAKOTA: House Votes To Include Bible Study In Public Schools

Tax payer money should not have to pay for this. That's what tax free churches are for.

Headlines - Sunday January 29

2012-01-29T10:31:00.001-06:00

Slow news day....

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The Arizona Brewers

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Earlier today, Scotland Yard arrested five more individuals, including a police officer, in the ever-growing News Corporation phone hacking scandal in the United Kingdom. While previous arrests focused on phone hacking at the now-closed News of the World tabloid, today's arrests are related to allegations of phone hacking at Rupert Murdoch's flagship tabloid, the Sun. According to the BBC, those arrested today include: "Graham Dudman, a former managing editor; Fergus Shanahan, a former deputy editor; Mike Sullivan, the paper's crime editor; and Chris Pharo, the paper's head of news." With today's arrests, 13 total people have been arrested in the course of the investigation into News Corporation's alleged bribery of police officers. If News Corporation is found to have bribed police officers or other public officials, the company could also face serious legal consequences in the United States under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

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Herman Cain has endorsed Newt Gingrich. That seems about right.

The former pizza executive, who left the race before the first nominating contests after facing accusations of unwanted sexual advances, suggested the two have both undergone intense scrutiny. "I know that Speaker Gingrich is running for president and going through this sausage grinder," Cain said. "I know what this sausage grinder is all about." Cain is set to campaign with Gingrich on Monday in an 11th hour push for support. Gingrich is in a fierce fight for Tuesday's Florida's GOP primary with Mitt Romney.

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The Freedom From Religion Foundation is pissed off about PA declaring the "year of the bible":

Our constitution grants sovereignty not to a deity or a 'holy book,' but to 'We, the People.' There is no reference to God, the bible, the Ten Commandments or Jesus in the U.S. Constitution, just as there are no references to 'consent of the governed,' 'civil liberties' or 'democracy' in the bible. Those who have truly studied the bible realize that it is a moral quagmire, a behavioral grab bag, which has been used to justify automatic rule, tyranny, slavery, the degradation of women and gays, child abuse, war, atrocity and mayhem.

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According to the Department of Justice, the primary schedule recently proposed by the Texas Republican Party would violate the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act because it would not provide enough time for military voters to participate.

I thought the Republicans love the military?

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Quotes don't get much better than this one by Bob Dole.

"Why do people take such an instant dislike to me?" asked a perplexed Gingrich, to whom Dole bluntly explained: "Because it saves them time."

That one's a keeper.

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Mario: Republicans preach a "keep 'em stupid" policy

President Obama at the SOTU.

"Higher education can't be a luxury — it is an economic imperative that every family in America should be able to afford," Obama said in his speech.

An obvious enough statement, right? Well, not for the buffoons performing in the Republican clown show.

"It's no wonder President Obama wants every kid to go college," Santorum said Wednesday in Florida, according to CBS News. "The indoctrination that occurs in American universities is one of the keys to the left holding and maintaining power in America. And it is indoctrination. If it was the other way around, the ACLU would be out there making sure there wasn't one penny of government dollars going to colleges and universities, right?"

It's getting too stupid for words. It doesn't matter what this President says, the wingnuts will find fault with it and turn it into an us-against-them issue. Only a paranoid group of psychopaths obsessed with turning their country into a land of God-fearing, Christian Luddites hoping to go back to a make-believe time when milk and honey flowed from the ground would find fault with a president seeking higher education for all.

But there is a method to their madness. Keeping 'em stupid is just about the only way the right can cling on to a base who has been spoon fed lies and propaganda for the last four decades. If they could find a way to keep these people away from universities of supposed liberal propaganda and instead keep them focused on fair and balanced news sources like Fox, they might just be able to get a bigoted, delusional prick like Rick Santorum elected President some day.

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NBC/WSJ poll: Majority would vote out every member of Congress

Headlines - Saturday January 28

2012-01-28T10:17:00.001-06:00

Andy Borowitz: For those who missed the Republican debate, there's a great piece about it in the Book of Revelation.

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I Hope They Don't Remove the Bleeding Crucifixes from Their Restrooms

Sarah Palin spoke out on Thursday against Alaska Airlines' decision to stop including prayer cards with its meal trays. The airline announced the move a day earlier, ending the tradition that lasted for 30 years.

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Apple has created 700,000 jobs - in Asia.

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Second Mayor calls @GovBrewer ~~Otis the Drunk~~ a prevaricator. "Out of the three officials who met President Obama on an airport tarmac near Phoenix earlier this week, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) is now the only one who has characterized the president as anything other than cordial. ... In numerous TV and radio interviews since the meeting, Brewer has said the president was "tense to say the least" and took issue with a book she wrote last year. She said Obama walked away from her while she was in mid-sentence and even told one Phoenix television station she felt "a little bit threatened" by the encounter. ... But Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton, who was standing just feet away from the president and the governor on Wednesday during their now-infamous encounter, told TPM that Obama seemed calm the whole time. ... "He wasn't tense at all," Stanton said on Friday. "The guy's a pro." ... Though Stanton declined to discuss exactly what the governor and president said to each other, he said Obama's classic coolness was evident. ... "He doesn't get animated, but he looks you in the eye and tells you what he thinks," Stanton said. "And I think that's honestly what he did is he looked the governor in the eye and spoke and told her what he was really feeling." ... Stanton, a Democrat, is now the second elected Arizona official whose account of the incident contradicts the way Brewer has described it."

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Republican Representative Larry Pittman of Cabarrus County, NC thinks, sort of like Newt Gingrich did back in the '90s, that capital punishment is the only way to scare people like "abortionists, rapists and kidnappers" (what, no murderers?) into being better citizens (and more conservative). But Pittman goes a step further than Newt: he thinks we should bring back public hanging. It's the only way, etc. Well, about every 36 seconds a Republican calls for the return of some barbaric practice or another, so big deal. But Pittman had a funny way of expressing his views: not boldly or proudly, in front of his fellow lawmakers or at the very least, atop a milk crate in some park, but in an e-mail that he accidentally sent to every member of the General Assembly of North Carolina. Ah, well.

Pittman, like Taco Man before him, is using the excuse that he was just in a bad mood. Apparently Pittman's lightbulb of an idea was generated by the pompous e-mail that murderer inmate Danny Robbie Hembree Jr. recently sent to North Carolina's Gaston Gazette bragging about how wonderful life in prison is and how he'll never be executed thanks to endless appeals.

Pittman apparently thinks that if we could just hang Hembree, everything would be fine. So presumably just get rid of the court system as well. Have angry mobs vote over whether someone committed a crime and then have them gather in the town courtyard to watch the suckers die. Pittman's e-mail:

We need to make the death penalty a real deterrent again by actually carrying it out. Every appeal that can be made should have to be made at one time, not in a serial manner," Pittman wrote in the email. "If murderers (and I would include abortionists, rapists, and kidnappers, as well) are actually executed, it will at least have the deterrent effect upon them. For my money, we should go back to public hangings, which would be more of a deterrent to others, as well.

And then, somewhat swiftly, the apology:

I was filled with anger, disgust, and frustration, as well as a profound sense of grief for the family of the young woman he killed. I felt a need to 'vent' some of these feelings and intended to do so to him alone. In the process, I got a bit carried away and overstated my case. I am sure I am not the only one who has ever done that.

No, sir, you are not even the only person (Republican) to have done it this week. Get in line! [WRAL]

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Let the under-oath finger-pointing begin! "A former aide to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) will testify against her former colleagues after officials filed charges of illegal campaign activity while working on taxpayer time, local media has learned. ... Darlene Wink, a 61-year-old former public employee charged on Thursday with two misdemeanor counts of political solicitation by a public employee, could be the weak link that spills yet another major scandal over the embattled governor, even as he appears likely to face a recall election later this year. ... Prosecutors on Thursday announced four felony charges for another Walker insider, 43-year-old Kelly Rindfleisch, who worked with Wink as one of Walker's aides. ... That brings the total number of Walker insiders facing criminal charges to six, according to The Wisconsin State Journal, which concluded the ongoing investigation had turned up a "pattern of illegal fundraising" and confirmed that Wink was working on a plea bargain that would include testimony."

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A recent history of the GOP's dehumanizing and divisive language that threatens to plague the primary process for weeks to come.

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Arizona cop not sure what big deal is over his bullet-riddled Obama photo

What had we gone, a whole week or so without a news story about a public official cracking jokes online about murdering Barack Obama? That's kind of a long time! Don't "worry," however, Mexico still does not want Arizona back, so we will never go too long without one of these kinds of things while a black guy is president: the Secret Service is investigating Sgt. Pat Shearer, a Peoria, Arizona police officer, after he posted a Facebook picture of a group of assault rifle-wielding teenagers holding up a bullet-riddled t-shirt with Barack Obama's face on it during one of their Future Gas Station Attendants of America meetings. Shearer has taken the photo down, but come on, he just wants to know, what is everyone's problem? Since when did everyone start taking assassination so seriously? READ MORE »

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Pennsylvania House votes to declare bible most awesomest book of 2012

Oh thank goodness, IT WAS ABOUT TIME: Pennsylvania lawmakers unanimously approved a resolution declaring 2012 the "Year of the Bible" in their state, to publicly recognize some of the important famous people in American history who have owned Bibles and talked about Bibles — George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, and of course possibly most famously and importantly of all, Ronald Reagan. OH and, also, to recognize "our national need to study and apply the teachings of the holy scriptures," AHEM AHEM. No mention of which teachings, though. Maybe some of the fun ones about the rules for public stonings in Deutoronomy or something? READ MORE »

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Internet mean girl Sarah Palin is forgoing her usual illiterate tweeting in order to defend, on teevee, Newt Gingrich, a multimedia huckster who may or may not have illegally promised Palin a cabinet position in his fantasy moon presidency. The former governor must have really pissed someone off at Fox because she's been relegated to commentating on some closed-circuit feed called Fox Business News, where she told John Stossel that the establishment (BOO!) is "trying to crucify this man and rewrite history and rewrite what it is that he has stood for all these years." Never change, Sarah. Never change! READ MORE »

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Oh look, Romney attacked Kennedy's blind trust during 1994 Senate race.

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The newly-released GDP numbers fell a little short of expectations, but given the larger trajectory, it was at least encouraging to see the domestic economy moving in the right direction in the final three months of 2011.

The American economy picked up a little steam last quarter, with output growing at an annualized rate of 2.8 percent, the Commerce Department reported Friday.

The pace of growth was faster than in the third quarter, when gross domestic product expanded at an annual rate of 1.8 percent.

The fourth quarter was easily the best three-month period of 2011, and the strongest the U.S. economy has seen since the spring and early summer of 2010.

It's important to realize, though, that 2.8% growth is hardly a breakthrough or evidence of a robust recovery. Under normal conditions, a figure like this would suggest the economy was fairly healthy and growing at a steady pace, but therein lies the point: these are not normal conditions. Given the severity of the Great Recession, and how much ground there is to make up, we'd much prefer to see a significantly higher number.

This should be of particular interest to policymakers, who may be tempted to see stronger growth as an excuse for inaction -- or worse, austerity measures intended to slow the economy down on purpose. The fact remains that we're slowly crawling out of a ditch -- taking money out of the economy and ignoring high unemployment may very well push us backwards. This is especially true in light of the ongoing risks posed by outside economic forces beyond the nation's control.

With that, here's a chart showing GDP numbers by quarter since the Great Recession began. The red columns show the economy under the Bush administration; the blue columns show the economy under the Obama administration.

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The least shocking news of the day is that Ron Paul was both fully aware of the contents of the Ron Paul Survival Report, his racist newsletter, and that he personally reviewed each issue.

Oh, but, he's against drones!

These latest revelations do not conclusively demonstrate that Paul is a racist scumbag, who just happens to apologize for the South while speaking in front of Confederate flags, but they do show he knew full-well what was contained in the newsletters.

It's unfortunate some fellow liberals wasted their time pretending Ron Paul was a secret-progressive hero.

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Headlines - Friday January 27

2012-01-27T09:21:00.001-06:00

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It's a real shocker, but Newt Gingrich's campaign has conceded to ABC News that witnesses supposedly ready to testify he was not unfaithful to his second wife were, in fact, imaginary.

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Low IQ & Conservative Beliefs Linked to Prejudice

There's no gentle way to put it: People who give in to racism and prejudice may simply be dumb, according to a new study that is bound to stir public controversy.

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Mother Jones: Mitt Romney's Kids Pay an Even Lower Tax Rate Than He Does

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Longstanding tension between Republican Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and Democratic President Barack Obama flared into the public spotlight Wednesday just after Air Force One touched down in Phoenix.

Brewer, who was on the tarmac to greet Obama, hand-delivered a letter before engaging the president "intensely" for several minutes, including pointing her finger directly at him, according to Politico's Carrie Budoff Brown, acting as a pool reporter for other media…

Fun facts about Jan Brewer: One of her sons died in 2007 from cancer and AIDS - the rumor in Arizona was that she had disowned him for being gay and had not spoken to him in years. Another son was declared criminally insane for the kidnapping and rape of a Phoenix woman - he spent 20 years in a mental institution. Although Brewer may or may not bear any responsibility for her son's serious mental illness, she is totally responsible: for having his criminal record sealed while running for governor, aka Abuse of Power, and for collecting approximately $75,000 in Social Security benefits for him WHILE his care was being provided for by the taxpayers of Arizona."

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Laura Flanders: Not A Peep About President's Praise for War

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Pot calls kettle black - Notable dancing felon and former House Majority Leader Tom Delay says that staff-banging serial adulterer Newt Gingrich was erratic and unprincipled. (Think Progress)

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Nancy Pelosi is holding an anvil over Gingrich's bulbous head:

A little while ago, Pelosi said in an interview that she was familiar with "a thousand pages" of documents related to the ethics probe of Gingrich that got him bounced from Congress. That triggered the first round of right-wing consipracy-mongering; her office quickly cleared up that all those documents are already public. They're online right here.

Undaunted, Romney picked up this line the other day, calling on Gingrich to "release" the probe. Many news outlets pointed it out again: The probe is already public.

Yesterday, Pelosi told CNN in an offhand comment that Gingrich will never be president, because "there's something that I know." Drudge madly flacked this "revelation" with a massive headline claiming: "PELOSI THREAT: NEWT WON'T BE PRESIDENT."

Who knows how something like this could work. The Marianne revelations actually helped Gingrich in South Carolina where "hike the Appalachian Trail" is commonplace by now.

Unless there are photos of Gingrich performing abortions, I can't imagine what could possibly harm Gingrich beyond the litany of other scandals and skeletons. This is guy who survived "right wing social engineering", the Pelosi global warming video, Marianne, Tiffany's, etc, etc.

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Corporations are good people (according to Romney)

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Endorsements - Hey guys, remember that time when dancing felon Tom Delay destroyed Newticles' chances of winning the felon vote? Me Neither, but anyway all is not lost! Our favorite (GOP) staff-banging serial adulterer is winning 80% of the felons in Duke Cunningham's cell block! (Voice of San Diego)

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The Republicans in the Colorado state legislature are making another run at expanding gun rights, reintroducing legislation that would allow concealed weapons in schools and expand the "castle doctrine" to businesses. Republicans say they are just defending the Second Amendment while Democrats accuse them of grandstanding and straying from the job-creation agenda that both parties promised would be their legislative focus this year.

A proposal running simultaneously in the House and Senate would allow concealed weapons on school grounds and college campuses if a person has a permit and another bill would let business owners and employees use deadly force against intruders. Both proposals have previously failed, including last year when Senate Democrats rejected the concealed weapons bill.
Another proposal would prevent state officials from restricting the use of firearms during a declared state of emergency. Another bill would eliminate background checks done by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for firearm purchases. Republican Rep. Mark Waller, the legislation's sponsor, said the state is spending unnecessarily on its background check program because it duplicates checks already done federally.
CBI spokesman Lance Clem said the agency opposes Waller's bill because the federal checks are not as fast or thorough as the state checks.
Republican Rep. Kevin Priola, a sponsor of the concealed weapon legislation, said the goal is to improve public safety by allowing people to protect themselves.

Just what the state that gave us the Columbine massacre needs! Guns on every campus!

The presence of guns in schoos does not make anyone safer. In fact, the presence of guns on campus creates a negative learning environment and increases the level of inherent danger by increasing the odds of a tragic accident occurring, as well as increasing the odds of a gun falling into the wrong hands via theft, a more common occurrence in communal settings than private residences.

But they aren't stopping there. Oh heavens no! They are also considering legislation that would eliminate background checks for firearms purchases, which would make it even easier for people who shouldn't have guns to get their hands on one -- and that's a problem that is already manifesting itself in tragic ways. It certainly doesn't need to be helped along and made worse, which is exactly the results that would be realized if the GOP legislators in Colorado get their way.

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On the day Gabrielle Giffords resigned from Congress to continue to recover from being shot in the head, it looks like someone in Missouri has decided that the way to get rid of Democratic lawmakers is via a gun barrel.

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It's not just about abortion...OR birth control. They just hate women and want a legally-enforced patriarchy. Period.

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Buddhists have a saying; money is suffering. Mitt Romney is about to live those words. The twitter tells me the Romney camp optimistically predicted earlier that Willard's tax returns would cease making news after tomorrow. I assume that was before Romney's inconsistent financial filings hit the news wires.

Some investments listed in Mitt and Ann Romney's 2010 tax returns – including a now-closed Swiss bank account and other funds located overseas – were not explicitly disclosed in the personal financial statement the GOP presidential hopeful filed in August as part of his White House bid. [...]

A review by the Los Angeles Times/Tribune Washington Bureau found that at least 23 funds and partnerships listed in the couple's 2010 tax returns did not show up or were not listed in the same fashion on Romney's most recent financial disclosure, including 11 based in low-tax foreign countries such as Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and Luxembourg.

The Romney campaign described the discrepancies as "trivial." Of course they are. What's a few foreign tax shelters, more or less, among friends?

Paraphrasing a bit, a campaign spokesmouth pointed out Romney released 600 pages of tax returns for Pete's sake so why is anyone surprised that it's hard to keep track of that much money? Also they would like to point out they will have to pay an army of accountants overtime to straighten the filings out, thus Willard's personal contribution to the job creation just doubled.

Also, too, Romney may have paid zero taxes in 2009.

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From the Herald:

A Senate committee approved two bills on Thursday that would place more restrictions on women seeking abortions.
Republican Sen. Jack Westwood of Erlanger, who is chairman of the Senate Veterans, Military Affairs and Public Protection Committee, said he hopes the bills will reduce the number of abortions in Kentucky.
One bill would require women to have ultrasounds prior to abortion. The other would clarify existing law by requiring women to have a face-to-face consultation with a physician, licensed nurse, physician's assistant or physician-delegated social worker prior to having an abortion.
Sen. Perry Clark, a Louisville Democrat, said that similar proposals have been included in a single bill in years past, but the sponsors are politicizing the issue by dividing them into separate measures this year.

Don't be fooled. The "ultrasound" is not an external ultrasound with a goop-covered computer mouse rubbed on the belly. The "ultrasound" this bill requires is internal and beyond merely "invasive:" it's a camera on a probe shoved up the vagina and deep into the uterus. It's painful and horrifically traumatic. It is against her will. It's rape.

(And no, morons, you don't have to use a penis to rape. Anything that forcibly penetrates is an instrument of rape.)

Your tax dollars at work. Forcing doctors to rape their patients. For the sole purpose of shaming women into back-alley, illegal abortions.

Because making abortion illegal - or just expensive, inconvenient, difficult and/or humiliating - doesn't reduce the number of abortions. It only reduces the number of women who survive them.

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According to the latest data from the Commerce Department, the economy expanded by 2.8 percent last quarter, coming in a bit below expectations. Analysts had expected about 3 percent growth.

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Ford Motor Company announced record annual profits of over $20 billion after announcing a net income of $13.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011. This marks the third consecutive year of profitability for the American automaker after nearly falling into bankruptcy in 2008.

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After resisting for months, Mitt Romney finally released one year of his tax returns this week. Here's what we learned:

Mitt Romney's father George released 12 years of his taxes when he ran for president in 1968, stating, "One year could be a fluke, perhaps done for show."

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Thrice-married Newt Gingrich, who has previously described same-sex marriage as "a temporary aberration that will dissipate," told a right-wing radio show this afternoon that gay and lesbian unions are akin to "pagan" behaviors:

GINGRICH: It's pretty simple: marriage is between a man and a woman. This is a historic doctrine driven deep into the Bible, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, and it's a perfect example of what I mean by the rise of paganism. The effort to create alternatives to marriage between a man and a woman are perfectly natural pagan behaviors, but they are a fundamental violation of our civilization.

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Did Romney Secretly Baptize Holocaust Victims To Make Them Mormon?

Here's a wacky fun-time ritual thing the Mormons do that you may or may not have heard about: they love to baptize dead people and thus declare them members of their magic moon faith, mostly so that the Mormons can claim a 7 billion person membership similar to the way that those McDonald's signs claim "50 billion anusburgers served since 1940″ to reassure you that it's, like, really popular. This has, throughout history, not always pleased the relatives of the dead people who were baptized — say for instance, the relatives of Jewish Holocaust victims who found their family members' names among those who had been posthumously converted to Mormonism. And so hey, know where there are lots of Jewish people these days? Florida. What's happening in Florida next week? A Republican presidential primary. Who's leading the polls in that primary right now? A Mormon. Has Mormon Mitt Romney been secretly baptizing Holocaust victims in his spare time?

Headlines - Thursday January 26

2012-01-26T09:24:00.000-06:00

"Newt Gingrich's ex-wife went on nightline and said that he wanted to have an open marriage. This is the second wife, talking about him when he was fooling around with what became the third wife. Newt wanted apparently to have his wife and his marriage and also women on the side giving him oral sex. This way he could be nice and relaxed when he went to work and accused blacks of feeling entitled." –Bill Maher

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Romney gave $100 million to his sons and paid zero gift tax.

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Buffett just seems like such a good guy:

Buffett, a Democrat and Obama-supporter, had one question for Mitt Romney: "Do you think the tax system should be perpetuated?"

He doesn't blame the former Massachusetts governor or any of the ultra-rich for paying lower tax rates than most Americans and challenged Congress to make a change.

"I don't pay hardly any payroll taxes," Buffett said. "Gov. Romney hardly pays any payroll taxes, Newt Gingrich hardly pays any payroll taxes. Debbie pays lots of payroll taxes."

He lashed out at assertions from many Republican leaders that the "Buffett rule" is class warfare.

"If this is a war, my side has the nuclear bomb," Buffett said. "We have K Street. … We have Wall Street. Debbie doesn't have anybody. I want a government that is responsive to the people who got the short straw in life."

Of course he is 100% accurate.

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It's hard to believe (no, actually it isn't), but Willard and his number 1 wife own or owned millions of dollars worth of a Goldman Sachs investment fund invested heavily in mortgage-backed obligations. And the current owners of those mortgage debts began foreclosure proceedings against thousands of Floridians. Whoopsie!

Bob Cesca:

I'm not going to shame Mitt Romney for doing business with Goldman since the bank is so large, however not everyone can say they are invested in an "elite division" — gasp! Elite! — only open to those who have $10 million in their pocket to invest. And given that $10 million is only half of Romney's yearly income, it's another sign that he has absolutely nothing in common with average Americans. It's also why he struggles to appear as though he does.

Aside from being invested in an "elite" division of Goldman Sachs, a new report from ThinkProgress also indicates his investments in Goldman may have benefited from the foreclosure crisis and bailout funds.

Along with his investments in Bain Capital funds linked to offshore tax havens, the Romneys have large investments in the Goldman Sachs Strategic Income Fund (institutional class). The firm's March 2011 annual report for the fund notes that about 8 percent of the fund is invested in banks and 24.5 percent is invested in mortgage-backed obligations. Romney's form says he has invested between $1,000,001 and $5,000,000 in the fund and his wife Ann has invested an additional $1 million-plus. Since the 2008 economic meltdown and the enactment of the Troubled Asset Relief Fund, this fund has done quite well, growing 7.88 percent between April 2010 and March 2011.

Woops! It just so happens that Florida was hit particularly hard by the recession, however this could also be very damaging to Romney heading into Nevada where the wrath of the foreclosure crisis was greatest.

Question: Why should we Let Detroit Go Bankrupt while investments made by Mitt Romney are rescued? Does Mitt Romney secretly love bail outs?

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Newt Gingrich, pandering in Florida: "By the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be American," Gingrich said to applause. He said the development would include commercial and private efforts, and will make apparent, "we clearly have the capacity that Chinese and the Russians will never come anywhere close to us." Gingrich also said he would push to develop propulsion technology that would get man to Mars. He emphasized that it doesn't have to be expensive, exploration in partnership with private companies can lower the cost.

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Today former Cuban president Fidel Castro weighed in on the GOP field of candidates.

Castro said he always assumed the candidates would try to outdo each other on the issue of Cuba, but that he was nonetheless appalled by the level of debate. "The selection of a Republican candidate for the presidency of this globalized and expansive empire is — and I mean this seriously — the greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance that has ever been," said the retired Cuban leader, who has dueled with 11 U.S. administrations since his 1959 revolution.

What could you possibly add to that?

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Westboro Endorses Obama

Timothy Phelps tells HuffPo:

"He's a liar, thief, and adulterer... that's Newt Gingrich, the so-called "champion" of the conservative party. These people claim to be Christian, New Gingrich and Mitt Romney and some of them others. They aren't pure followers of Jesus Christ. I wouldn't trust [any] of them with a handful of change to go get me some bubble gum. There's nothing of any value in [any] of those human beings. I would rather have Obama."

Wow. And they think THEY are followers of christ?

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"You have to live in a world of Swiss bank accounts and Cayman Island accounts and making $20 million for no work, to have some fantasy this far from reality." -Newt Gingrich on Mitt Romney's immigration policy

Keep going GOP candidates! You're doing great!

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Krugman: Finding the truth

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So what do you say to a news reporter when asked how you'll improve relations with the Latino community after four of your police officers were just busted by the FBI for racial profiling? Well, you probably wouldn't say this.

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Former Bushie, Mitch Daniels Attacks Obama for Not Fixing the Mess He Helped Make

And here's Charles Pierce on his "fuzzy-wuzzy math"

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"Lemon tree very pretty and

the lemon flower is sweet

But the fruit of the poor lemon

is impossible to eat."

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Niger, El Salvador Beat United States in Press Freedom Last Year

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Wonkette:

Were you, like us, very ultra super secretly sighing to yourself — under your breath when you were absolutely sure no one could hear you — hasn't this campaign season gotten sorta boring since Michele Bachmann dropped out? WELL SIGH NO MORE: her surrealist sideshow is coming BACK following Michele's announcement today that she will run for re-election to Congress! Will the voters of Minnesota's 6th District once again choose to be represented by a whacked out, pill-snarfing lunatic screamer over any other available adult human? True, it's not like America will be in any DANGER if she wins again — she never actually does anything in Congress, ever. She is more like very expensive, taxpayer-funded entertainment. But hey, maybe Minnesota's 6th District is feeling flush again this year? UPDATE: HAHA oh god we love it, Michele Bachmann has no idea what words mean in English and went on Fox News to qualify her initial statement of "yes" with more of a "maybe definitely yes" declaration of non-candidacy candidacy. Who knows!

The AP reports:

"I'm looking forward to coming back and bringing a strong, powerful voice to Washington, D.C.," Bachmann said.

Bachmann will be a formidable candidate in Minnesota's 6th District, where other Republican hopefuls had stood aside until she made a decision on running for re-election. Some experts had speculated that Bachmann might instead turn to a career in talk media.

TALK MEDIA!!!! No, that is only for second-tier entertainers that the public doesn't want to pay for with taxpayer money, like Sarah Palin. [AP]

Headlines- Wednesday January 25

2012-01-25T10:32:00.000-06:00

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Magic panties enthusiast Willard Romney released his taxes last night: his effective tax rate is 13.9% and he made $42M+ over the last two years. Oh, yeah: he created zero jobs. (Think Progress)

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Romney advisers stressed that the holdings in the Caymans — along with those in a Swiss bank account that was closed in 2010 after an investment adviser decided it could be politically embarrassing to Romney — were reported on tax returns and were not vehicles to avoid taxes. Uh-huh. So when Willard ran in 2008, they thought it was no big deal? (NYTimes)

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Gingrich won't 'allow' moderators to silence crowd at future debates.

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In Texas, investigators are demanding answers from Dallas meat-packing company Columbia Packing Company after photos appeared to show the company dumping pig blood into the Trinity River. The case raises some interesting legal questions. Keep reading here.

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Mitt Romney's just-released tax records reveals donations to viciously anti-gay hate groups. The Human Right Campaign reports via press release:

The tax returns for Mitt Romney's charitable foundation reveal that the GOP presidential hopeful has given at least $35,000 in recent years to groups actively working to halt the spread of LGBT equality and, in some cases, intentionally demonize LGBT people. The revelation comes two weeks after Romney said in New Hampshire that he opposed discrimination against LGBT Americans. But according to CNN, Romney donated to the extremist group Massachusetts Family Institute, as well as the Becket Fund. The Massachusetts Family Institute received $10,000 from Romney in 2006, while the Beckett Fund received $25,000 in 2009. The donations came from the Tyler Charitable Foundation, set up and funded by the Romneys.

"This is just another example of Mitt Romney saying one thing while doing the complete opposite. It's crystal clear that while Governor Romney claims to oppose discrimination, he is beholden to groups who make it their mission to vilify LGBT people," said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. "Romney's financial support of extremist groups is indicative of a politician with rising national ambitions who knew he had to cozy up to those on the far-right in order to secure his party's nomination."

Among their many anti-gay agenda items, the Massachusetts Family Institute, you may recall, opposes efforts to reduce anti-gay bullying. They also advocate for destructive "reparative therapy."

RELATED: Romney also donated millions to the Mormon Church, which was one of the two primary institutional backers of Proposition 8. We've not yet learned how much, if any, of Romney's money was meant to support Prop 8.

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Looks like the clowns at Politifact are following DougJ's advice and just going full wingnut:

Politifact—the self-anointed fact checkers—grade this statement from the President speech tonight as "half-true:"

"In the last 22 months, businesses have created more than three million jobs. Last year, they created the most jobs since 2005."

This is not half true or two-thirds true. It is just true.

So why, I ask you, why do they go where they go? Because of this:

In his remarks, Obama described the damage to the economy, including losing millions of jobs "before our policies were in full effect." Then he describe [sic!] the subsequent job increases, essentially taking credit for the job growth. But labor economists tell us that no mayor or governor or president deserves all the claim or all the credit for changes in employment.

Really? That's it? That makes the fact not a fact? I've seen some very useful work by these folks, but between this and this, Politifact just can't be trusted. Full stop.

Three million jobs were created, but according to the "fact-checkers," they don't exist because… Well, I have no idea.

Straight up pathetic. Those jobs were created, they were created under Obama's time in office. It's that simple. It's 100% true. Nothing about the statement that three million jobs being created in 22 months is inaccurate- he never even claimed he created them.

Just fucking worthless.

*** Update ***

From the comments:

Christ, he didn't even say he created 3 million jobs. He said "businesses" have.

Tom Brady: The Patriots won last week to go to the Super Bowl.

Politifact: Half-true. Tom Brady shouldn't get all the credit for the Patriots win.

They are just clowns. They aren't concerned with facts at all- they are concerned with their own relevance and status as fact-checkers.

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Remember when ol' Willard said that he was "unemployed"? Well, it seems that unemployment isn't too harsh for Mittens, since his investments pay him over twenty million dollars a year.

That's four hundred thousand dollars a week. No wonder he thought that his speaking fees weren't "much money". In comparison, if you made thirty grand a year and you had a side job where you took in an extra six hundred dollars: That would be comparable to the scale of Romney's little side work.

Remember Romney's offer to bet ten grand with Baby Dubya? That'd be like most people offering to bet fifteen or twenty bucks.

I suspect that anyone who believes that Mitt the Ripper cares about middle class Americans, let alone the working poor, probably needs to have their head examined.

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Dinosaur News of the Week "A nesting site for dinosaur eggs found in South Africa is 100 million years older than the previous oldest site. Palaeontologists found 10 separate nests, each containing clutches of up to 34 eggs measuring 6-7cm. The fossils are of the prosauropod Massospondylus, a relative of the long-necked sauropods such as Diplodocus. They suggest that Massospondylus returned to the site repeatedly, laying their eggs in groups in the earliest-known case of "colonial nesting". The 190-million-year-old finds also included embryonic dinosaur skeletons, and are described in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They were found in a 25m stretch of rock in South Africa's Golden Gate Highlands National Park. The researchers suggest that many more sites remain embedded in the rock, which will be exposed as natural weathering processes continue. But the current find already vastly extends what is known about dinosaurs in their earliest days on Earth. "Even though the fossil record of dinosaurs is extensive, we actually have very little fossil information about their reproductive biology, particularly for early dinosaurs," said David Evans, associate curator of vertebrate palaeontology at the Royal Ontario Museum. "This amazing series of 190-million-year-old nests gives us the first detailed look at dinosaur reproduction early in their evolutionary history, and documents the antiquity of nesting strategies that are only known much later in the dinosaur record." "

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A terrible documentary film called "The Third Jihad," allegedly bestowed upon the New York Police Department by someone at the Department of Homeland Security, was used to "train" new policepersons, was apparently put "on a continuous loop" at NYPD HQ, and was viewed by nearly 1,500 officers in total during its run, which began in 2010. The film was created by the Clarion Fund, which put out another awful anti-Muslim film called "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West" prior to the 2008 election. The new one is filled with similarly violent imagery like deadly shootings and car bombs, and depicts an Islamic flag flying at the White House. "This is the true agenda of much of Islam in America," a voiceover says. "A strategy to infiltrate and dominate America." READ MORE »

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Headlines - Tuesday January 24

2012-01-24T10:43:00.001-06:00

F**k Joe Paterno

I wholeheartedly agree.

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Who would ever guess that someone working for Rupert Murdoch was against law and order? In this case, the police report details how the Murdoch reporters lied to police during an investigation of a murdered girl. The reporters seemed to have a strange fascination with delaying and confusing the investigation. Imagine how any of Murdoch's news outlets would report on such a scandal if it was a competitor. How twisted does someone have to be to drag a family through such an ordeal when the police were trying to solve a murder? As someone who lived through the untimely death of a brother, I can say that dragging out the conclusion is very painful. Murdoch owes that family a personal apology followed by a lot of money for such cruelty. When it's so obvious that the sleaze was so widespread within the newspaper, you have to look at the top management and put the blame there. They created the environment which made this all possible. Murdoch and his team are as slimy as they come.

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It's people like this who love Romney and who are backing him. Of course, this is also the type of work Romney did himself while at Bain. To them, buying another 15,000 sq. foot mansion or renting out another yacht is normal. They hide their money in offshore accounts and dump companies and employees to help fund their next party. Great people, really. They're a real credit to society and add so many minimum wage jobs while they skim off millions. Take away the parties and this is Romney's life except instead of wanting to buy a sports team, he wants to buy the Oval Office. This is one time where I'm going to agree with Rick Perry when he referred to private equity types like Romney and his type as "vulture capitalists."

So is chewing through companies, skimming fees and handing out minimum wage jobs really the best capitalism can offer? If that's the case it's no wonder so many people question the system. We have to do a lot more than this if we're going to save the middle class. It's wonderful for the playboy class but not so much for everyone else.

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Who knew being unemployed was so profitable:

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney released tax records on Tuesday indicating he will pay $6.2 million in taxes on a total of $45.2 million in income over the years 2010 and 2011.

Bowing to increasing political pressure to provide more detail about his vast wealth, the former private equity executive released tax returns indicating he and his wife, Ann, paid an effective tax rate of 13.9 percent in 2010. They expect to pay a 15.4 percent rate when they file their returns for 2011.

Romney's tax rate is below that of most wage-earning Americans because most of his income, as outlined in more than 500 pages of tax documents, flows from capital gains on investments.

Under the U.S. tax code, capital gains are taxed at 15 percent, compared with a top tax rate of 35 percent for wage earners.

He closed his Swiss bank account shortly after UBS named names, in case you were wondering.

How many of you lucky duckies paid 13% on your income last year? Ahh, patriotism.

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Remember, they hate us for our freedom

A little more than three days time served for each victim:

A Marine sergeant who told his troops to "shoot first, ask questions later" in a raid that killed unarmed Iraqi women, children and elderly pleaded guilty Monday in a deal that will carry no more than three months confinement and end the largest and longest-running criminal case against U.S. troops from the Iraq War.

The agreement marked a stunning and muted end to the case once described as the Iraq War's version of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam. The government failed to get one manslaughter conviction in the case that implicated eight Marines in the deaths of 24 Iraqis in the town of Haditha in 2005.

Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, 31, of Meriden, Conn., who was originally accused of unpremeditated murder, pleaded guilty to negligent dereliction of duty for leading his troops to disregard rules of combat when they raided homes after a roadside bomb exploded near their convoy, killing one Marine and wounding two others.

Amazing.

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At long last, someone will face a waterboarding related prosecution

So much fail:

The Justice Department on Monday charged a former Central Intelligence Agency officer with disclosing classified information to journalists about the capture and brutal interrogation of a suspected member of Al Qaeda, Abu Zubaydah — adding another chapter to the Obama administration's unprecedented crackdown on leaks.

In a criminal complaint filed on Monday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation accused John Kiriakou, the former C.I.A. agent, of disclosing to several journalists the identity of a C.I.A. analyst who worked on a 2002 operation that seized and interrogated Abu Zubaydah, including using the suffocation technique known as waterboarding. The journalists included one at The New York Times, the complaint charged.

"Safeguarding classified information, including the identities of C.I.A. officers involved in sensitive operations, is critical to keeping our intelligence officers safe and protecting our national security," said Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., in a statement. "Today's charges reinforce the Justice Department's commitment to hold accountable anyone who would violate the solemn duty not to disclose such sensitive information."

Mr. Kiriakou, 47, played an important role in the fight against Al Qaeda after the Sept. 11 attacks. He is the sixth person to be charged in connection with accusations of leaking classified information by the Obama administration, more than under any previous president.

At the same time, the Justice Department cleared the American Civil Liberties Union of wrongdoing for its efforts, on behalf of defense attorneys representing Abu Zubaydah and other "high value" Qaeda suspects, to identify officials involved in their clients' interrogations. The attorneys were hoping to call such officials to testify in eventual trials to make the case that their clients should not be executed because they had been tortured while in the custody of the United States government.

Among other things, the F.B.I. complaint accuses Mr. Kiriakou of being a source for a June 2008 front-page Times article, written by reporter Scott Shane, that identified a C.I.A. employee who played a major role in the capture and interrogation of Abu Zubaydah and another high-level Qaeda figure, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

Robert Christie, a spokesman for The Times declined to discuss the matter. "We're not commenting at all," he said.

Remember, folks, in the national security state, the real criminals are not the torturers, but those who talk about the torturers. All the criminals who did this shit? We need to keep on walking, not look backwards, yadda yadda yadda. The people who talked about the criminals? Lock those fuckers up.

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Rick Santorum suggests that when life gives you rape, you should make rapeanade

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Just another isolated incident:

Ken Aden's Campaign Manager Comes Home To Find Cat Killed; "LIBERAL" Written On Its Corpse

Here's what happened: Jake Burris, campaign manager for Ken Aden, who is a Democrat running for Congress from Arkansas 3rd district, came home last night with his four kids. One of the children got to the front porch first, and found the family cat dead, its head bashed in, and the word "Liberal" scrawled on its side.

And no, my wingnut friends, this is not one of those "both sides do it," moments.

I could go on and do some windy speculating about the nature of right wing politics as a traditionalist reflex in the face of implacable and (life-by-life) incomprehensible technological, economic and social change.

But really, all I can think is that these folks are sick, and dangerous, and need to be out of politics as fast as we can get them gone.

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This is great news, and completely shocking:

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that law enforcement authorities need a probable-cause warrant from a judge to affix a GPS device to a vehicle and monitor its every move.

The decision (.pdf) in what is arguably the biggest Fourth Amendment case in the computer age, rejected the Obama administration's position. The government had told the high court that it could even affix GPS devices on the vehicles of all members of the Supreme Court, without a warrant.

"We hold that the government's installation of a GPS device on a target's vehicle, and its use of that device to monitor the vehicle's movements, constitutes a 'search,'" Justice Antonin Scalia wrote.

In a footnote, Scalia added that, "Whatever new methods of investigation may be devised, our task, at a minimum, is to decide whether the action in question would have constituted a 'search' within the original meaning of the Fourth Amendment. Where, as here, the government obtains information by physically intruding on a constitutionally protected area, such a search has undoubtedly occurred."

In all, five justices said physically attaching the GPS device to the underside of a car amounted to trespassing and was a search requiring a warrant. The majority said "the present case does not require us to answer" whether police may employ GPS monitoring of a vehicle via an already onboard navigation system "without an accompanying trespass."

Props to whoever can come up with the best excuse for the Obama admin coming out on the appallingly wrong side of this.

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OWS protesters. We should now by now that the people we're dealing with simply don't care what you have to go through to keep their trough full just as long as you make damned sure you do keep it full and other than that, here's what they think of you courtesy of Julianne Escobedo Shepherd @ Alternet: Disgusting: Wall Streeters Mock Occupy and Poor People at Fancy Frat Party.

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United Nations: U.S. Operation Of Gitmo Is 'Clear Breach Of International Law' | The United States' continued operation of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba is a "clear breach of international law," United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay said today, Reuters reports. Only six trials have been completed in 10 years, while eight detainees have died at the prison. "While fully recognizing the right and duty of states to protect their people and territory from terrorist acts, I remind all branches of the U.S. government of their obligation under international human rights law to ensure that individuals deprived of their liberty can have the lawfulness of their detention reviewed before a court," Pillay said. "Where credible evidence exists against Guantanamo detainees, they should be charged and prosecuted. Otherwise, they must be released."

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Colorado Republicans push bill to allow guns in elementary schools

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Buffett On Why Romney Should Pay Higher Taxes: He's Just 'Shoving Around Money,' Not 'Straining His Back'

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SOPA author breaks copyright law

Rep. Lamar Smith has unauthorized photo on his website Link

"I'm a pirate who belongs in prison."

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The Onion for the win!

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Blast from the 2008 Past: An Avowed Muslim

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Bad news for Willard:

Mitt Romney's shady financial train-wreck just became an international train-wreck with a member of British parliament proposing legislation to close the Cayman Islands as a tax haven.

Can you imagine electing a president that is internationally well-known to be sheltering vast amounts of wealth in an off-shore territory?

Headlines - Monday January 23

2012-01-23T09:06:00.001-06:00

Borowitz: In Confident Sign, Gingrich Changes Facebook Status to 'In an Open Relationship'

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TurleyBlog: who could have predicted that the GOP would lie, cheat, and steal to prevent people from voting for Democrats?

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An Afghan soldier who shot dead four French troops has said he did it because of a recent video showing US Marines urinating on the dead bodies of Taliban insurgents. Read More

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President Obama released a statement today regarding the anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision.

As we mark the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we must remember that this Supreme Court decision not only protects a woman's health and reproductive freedom, but also affirms a broader principle: that government should not intrude on private family matters. I remain committed to protecting a woman's right to choose and this fundamental constitutional right. While this is a sensitive and often divisive issue- no matter what our views, we must stay united in our determination to prevent unintended pregnancies, support pregnant woman and mothers, reduce the need for abortion, encourage healthy relationships, and promote adoption. And as we remember this historic anniversary, we must also continue our efforts to ensure that our daughters have the same rights, freedoms, and opportunities as our sons to fulfill their dreams.

Issuing a statement on Roe vs. Wade may seem like a no-brainer, but this is a particular well crafted statement which stresses the need to promote and support the institutions that actually reduce the need for abortions, such as proper reproductive healthcare, rather than focus entirely on abortion itself. Recent data shows abortion rates are actually higher in countries with stricter laws.

Every GOP candidate for president has conveyed their wish to overturn Roe vs. Wade, including the pot-for-everyone-and-no-drones candidate Ron Paul. And if a Republican were to win the election, it's entirely possible that they would be granted their wish because the next president, whether it's President Obama or Mitt Romney, will be nominating future Supreme Court justices.

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Mike Huckabee offers advice to Mitt Romney concerning his unreleased tax returns.

Let him [Romney] make this challenge: "I'll release my tax returns when Barack Obama releases his college transcripts and the copy of his admission records to show whether he got any loans as a foreign student. When he releases that, talk to me about my tax returns."

A foreign student? For all his supposed good ol' boy charm and much-touted Christian values, Huckabee is just another run-of-the-mill, right-wing, lying jackass spewing the same birther-crap that's been refuted time and time again.

And what exactly does the President's college transcripts have to do with Romney releasing his tax returns? Nothing.

Bill Maher had a great comment last night about how Romney and his cohorts on the right have created a fictional person to do battle with. They refer to this opponent as Barack Obama but, in truth, bears no resemblance to the actual person. Their President Obama is a Marxist who cannot put two thoughts together without the help of a teleprompter. Their Obama is a tax-raising, money-spending, freedom-hating, Constitution-abusing, power-hungry simpleton who goes around the world apologizing for the U.S.

Any resemblance between the right's Obama and the one who sits in the White House is nonexistent.

And the further to the right one goes on the political spectrum, the more bizarre the accusations. Obama is then attributed with siding with the terrorists, is of the Muslim religion and in all likelihood was born in Kenya. Hello, Orly Taitz and Mike Huckabee.

The right has gone completely mad. There's no other rational explanation.

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H/t Dick: Everything You Need to Know About Wall Street, in One Brief Tale

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NYT: Chefs, Butlers, Marble Baths: Hospitals Vie for the Affluent

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Whether you believe that the Republicans will self-destruct in November or not, the Birther component of the anti-Obama campaign will never, never end unless the people who continue to spew this nonsense are actually made to pay a price.

A judge has ordered President Barack Obama to appear in court in Atlanta for a hearing on a complaint that says Obama isn't a natural-born citizen and can't be president.

It's one of many such lawsuits that have been filed across the country, so far without success. A Georgia resident made the complaint, which is intended to keep Obama's name off the state's ballot in the March presidential primary.

An Obama campaign aide says any attempt to involve the president personally will fail and such complaints around the country have no merit.

The hearing is set for Thursday before an administrative judge. Deputy Chief Judge Michael Malihi on Friday denied a motion by the president's lawyer to quash a subpoena that requires Obama to show up.

If the President shows up, every other state GOP machine will file similar complaints with friendly judges and he'll have to show up there as well. If the President ignores the complaints, it will "prove he has something to hide" and feed the nasty e-mail whisper campaign that basically hasn't stopped since early 2008. The sinister point of all this is not to prove or disprove anything, but to so demoralize voters that they'll entertain the notion that if the Republicans win, all this idiocy will go away and that the GOP will behave themselves again.

It's complete bullshit, of course. All of it. The idiocy was always there and surrender by the electorate is the only way the GOP wins with their current field of cartoon villain mouth-breathing doucheknockers. But that's the point: no matter how many times the President personally staples his birth certificate to people's foreheads, they'll never believe him. Jesus Christ could descend from the sky with John Wayne's pet T-Rex that's piloting the Millennium Falcon, during halftime at the Super Bowl, grab the mic while Sam Elliott hands him his own mustache and say "You guys, he was born in Hawaii, knock this crap off already" and they would wonder how POTUS managed to brainwash America and the world into seeing such a perfect simultaneous mass hallucination. They would in fact blame fluoridated water. I shit you not.

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A Message from Gabby :'(

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The embattled Gov. Scott Walker's (R-WI) former county staffers are facing a fresh round of criminal charges in the next week or two, as part of the "John Doe investigation" into Walker's aides and associates during his time as Milwaukee County executive. Two of his ex-staffers have already been arrested, and now, at least a couple of Walker's staffers will be charged with "doing extensive campaign activity while on the taxpayers' dime." At least eight of Walker's former aides and associates have hired criminal defense lawyers and the upcoming charges "will not mark the end of the 20-month criminal investigation."

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After a swift decline in his health, former Penn State coach Joe Paterno passed away this morning at 85. I'll be thinking of his family, but his death is a tragedy in that it cuts short what could have been a process of education and seeking forgiveness. If Paterno had lived, and had been lucid enough to come to terms with his abdication of responsibility; if he had sought forgiveness for it and worked to help other programs become safer, more responsible and responsive organizations, he could have made a contribution to coaching far beyond his work elevating the Nittany Lions into a nationally competitive program.

Maybe he would have done none of those things had he lived, out of denial or a lack of capability. But his death forecloses an opportunity, however slight, to make recompense, and to remind the students who still saw him as a deity that there are more important things than football.

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Wonkette: Mitt Romney Believes in an American America Full of American Americans

Headlines - Sunday January 22

2012-01-22T09:45:00.001-06:00

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Oklahoma Republicans Introduce Bill That Prohibits The Consumption Of Human Fetuses, Would Ban Stem Cell Research

".... if Democrats vote in favor of the bill, Republicans will have succeeded in banning embryonic stem cell research and treatments. On the other hand, if Democrats vote against it, Republicans will accuse Democrats of wanting to eat fetuses.

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Will there be a Prop 8 bombshell hidden in Romney's tax returns?

Newly uncovered stock contributions made during Romney's Bain days suggest there is another dimension to Romney's support for the church -- one that could involve millions more than has been previously disclosed.
As part of just one Bain transaction in 2008, involving its investment in Burger King Holdings, filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission reveal that an unnamed Bain partner donated 65,326 shares of Burger King stock to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, holdings then worth nearly $1.9 million. And there were numerous others, giving the church a stake in other Bain properties, such as Domino's Pizza, the electronics manufacturer DDi, the phosphates company Innophos Holdings, and Marquee Holdings, the parent to AMC Theaters.

Good thing they're tax free!

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In a recent full-page paid advertisement in the Washington Post, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and dozens of leaders of Catholic organizations voiced their opposition to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) rule which they describe as forcing private health providers to provide "preventive services." The HHS plan mandates, without charging a co-pay, co-insurance or a deductible, the provision of FDA-approved contraception methods. The advertisement claims these drugs may cause abortions which, by their definition, includes any single-celled fertilized egg that doesn't implant.

The ad claims that following the HHS rule would violate their religious liberty and freedom of conscience.

Continue reading 'Framing Discrimination As Religious Freedom'

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Andy Borowitz: "Callista" would be an awesome name for an antidepressant prescribed for people married to Newt Gingrich.

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Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who was recently presented with over 1 million signatures to recall him from office, which is almost as many votes as he received in the 2012 election, announced this week that he plans to reject money set aside under the Affordable Care Act to aide states in implementing healthcare exchanges.

The real devastating economic impact will come when the Affordable Care Act is ruled constitutional and buffoons like Scott Walker are left scrambling at the last minute to abide by the law. Because rejecting a federal grant to create an exchange, money for which has already been set aside, means Scott Walker will leave the cost of implementing the exchange up to Wisconsin taxpayers.

In the end, the result will be similar to when Walker rejected money set aside for high-speed rail. The state lost jobs and prior commitments ended up costing the state more money than it would have had he not rejected the funds. And the reality is that he didn't achieve some great ideological victory by his actions, because the money afforded to Wisconsin will simply be granted to another state instead.

But, what does he care? He'll probably be recalled from office before he is forced to explain that to his constituents.

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Very Serious Chuck Todd is criticizing Stephen Colbert for mocking the political system again.

"He is making a mockery of the system," Todd said. "…Is it fair to the process? Yes, the process is a mess, but he's doing it in a way that feels like he's trying to influence it with his own agenda and that may be anti-Republican."

So the guy who never talks about policy and only treats politics like a horse-race, while routinely euphemistically discussing it like a sports match-up, is criticizing a satirist for mocking the system.

This is the second time Todd has done this, by the way. Previously, when Colbert testified to Congress in character, Todd did the same snooty song and dance about Colbert.

First of all, Colbert is absolutely mocking the system. That's what he does and it's brilliant. But Todd thinks that's a bad thing. Probably because Colbert is reporting on the flaws in our system in a significantly more profound way — from the studios of Comedy Central where he only gets 30 minutes of airtime compared with Todd's 24/7 appearances.

Second, Colbert's agenda isn't necessarily anti-Republican as much as it is anti-lies, anti-bullshit and pro-reality. And, as he's said before, reality has a well-known liberal bias. But mainly, Colbert is a satirist taking aim at politics, yes, but more than anything else the type of cable news punditry that Chuck Todd is a part of.

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Hitler reacts to SOPA

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Now Romney's bragging that he's the only candidate who spent his entire life in the 'real world.' Yes, that's because for twenty some years now Romney has been trying, and failing, to win elected office. From The State:

"If we think we need a Washington insider to run Washington there are a lot of people to choose from, but I'm the only guy whose spent his life in the real world — I'm going to fight to put America back to work," he said

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Tweets from Borowitz last night:

Gingrich leading Romney by 16%, which is more than Romney pays in taxes.
BREAKING: Stung By Defeat, Romney Considers Adultery

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Don't think there aren't school officials in your state who are quietly - or not so quietly - applauding this abomination and plotting to how implement something similar.

Now that it's popular.

In a page right out of Newt Gingrich's alternate-history science-fiction wingnut-polygamy utopian epic Candyland Space Land, the school district in Tucson has completely banned Mexican-American studies, seized all the textbooks and even wall posters from the classrooms, and punished the students who protested by sentencing them to janitorial duty. The self-hating Latina lady who oversees the now-illegal ethnic studies program even comically told the kids, "Mexico is where Mexican studies is taught, not America!" Why oh why does the Newt have to be in stinky old South Carolina during such a historical moment in stomping the Mexican, for freedom?
The insanely racist Arizona law, HB 2281, specifically targets ethnic studies in the public schools. Tucson's Mexican-American Studies program was specifically shut down to meet the law's requirements, although administrator Lupita Garcia - who sure sounds like a Mexican to us - seemed utterly delighted to shut down the district's program and shout racist idiocy at the students.
The students bravely marched five miles from Cholla High School (better change that name!) to the Mexican-American Studies headquarters ... and as punishment for this crime against white society, they were all put on janitorial slave duty. Sounds like Tucson needs to be occupied! (Weather is very nice this time of year. It's a good season for a Mexican-sounding revolution.)

Somebody give each and every one of those kids a full Mario Savio Free Speech scholarship to Berkeley right now.

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Forecast The Facts Exposes America's Climate-Denier TV Weathermen

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Bill Maher New Rules - Romney is Like A Rapper

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How to drive in the snow Utah-style.

Headlines - Saturday January 21

2012-01-21T07:58:00.000-06:00

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Video: Newt Gingrich: Serial Adultery

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Borowitz: I worry that the focus on Gingrich's adultery will distract us from the fact that he's also a racist asshole.

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Good news — the Department of Health and Human Services under the direction of Kathleen Sebelius has announced nearly universal coverage of contraception in employer healthcare plans.

Today, in a huge victory for women's health, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that most employers will be required to cover contraception in their health plans, along with other preventive services, with no cost-sharing such as co-pays or deductibles. This means that after years of trying to get birth control covered to the same extent that health plans cover Viagra, our country will finally have nearly universal coverage of contraception. [...]

Twenty-eight states already require employers, including most religiously affiliated institutions, to cover contraception in their health plans. The only change is that now they must cover the full cost.

The right wing outrage will be palpable, but the joke is on them because this will undoubtedly lead to fewer abortions and fewer unwanted pregnancies. The connection between readily accessible reproductive healthcare and lower abortion rates is something they always neglect to mention while sermonizing the War on Women.

Employers have one year to comply with the new rules.

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The Rude Pundit: Moments in the life of Newt Gingrich from the 1990s

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Fox News: Gingrich's multiple marriage infidelities mean he'll be a great president

Seriously. It's pretty sick.

I want to be coldly analytical, not moralize, here. I want to tell you what Mr. Gingrich's behavior could mean for the country, not for the future of his current marriage. So, here's what one interested in making America stronger can reasonably conclude—psychologically—from Mr. Gingrich's behavior during his three marriages:

1) Three women have met Mr. Gingrich and been so moved by his emotional energy and intellect that they decided they wanted to spend the rest of their lives with him.

2) Two of these women felt this way even though Mr. Gingrich was already married.

3 ) One of them felt this way even though Mr. Gingrich was already married for the second time, was not exactly her equal in the looks department and had a wife (Marianne) who wanted to make his life without her as painful as possible.

Conclusion: When three women want to sign on for life with a man who is now running for president, I worry more about whether we'll be clamoring for a third Gingrich term, not whether we'll want to let him go after one.

4) Two women—Mr. Gingrich's first two wives—have sat down with him while he delivered to them incredibly painful truths: that he no longer loved them as he did before, that he had fallen in love with other women and that he needed to follow his heart, despite the great price he would pay financially and the risk he would be taking with his reputation.

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Tough day in court for Rupert Murdoch.

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Who would have guessed that top Justice Department honchos would show such little interest in prosecuting Wall Street after working for them for years? It's a lot easier to chase side shows like insider trading cases or chasing file sharing sites. Sure they don't address the real problems of the day, but Washington insiders are too concerned with their own future career paths to really care.

The never-ending, cross-party revolving door in Washington has to stop. They're fleecing America, and care more about themselves than they do the country. Reuters

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Super PAC spending has now surpassed the $30 million mark (full breakdown from the Center for Responsive Politics here). Paul Blumenthal explains the shift depicted in the above chart:

Super PACs supporting the remaining four Republican candidates have spent $7.1 million in South Carolina. Nearly all of that money comes from [Gingrich's PAC] Winning Our Future and the pro-Romney Restore Our Future, which have spent $2.93 million and $2.84 million, respectively, to launch attacks against each other's candidate. That's a dramatic departure from the terms of battle in Iowa, where Gingrich had promised to run a positive campaign, only to watch his campaign and super PAC being woefully outspent by the Romney machine. After going down in flames at the hands of Restore Our Future, Gingrich pledged to turn his campaign to the dark side and, voila, negative ads were unleashed by the pro-Gingrich super PAC.

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It looks like Chris Dodd, who yesterday was launching threats at the President, may have overstepped his bounds just a tad:

The White House appeared to brush back a suggestion from the Motion Picture Association of America on Friday that the president step in on negotiations over controversial online piracy legislation.

MPAA Chairman and former Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) suggested Thursday that the White House would be the perfect place to convene a summit between Hollywood and the tech industry, which are at odds over a pair of online piracy bills that were shelved by congressional leadership Friday morning following massive protests earlier in the week.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said the Obama administration has made its position clear on the issue and appeared to dismiss the suggestion in a press briefing on Friday. The White House expressed concern about the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act last week, adding fuel to the growing opposition.

Obama rode into the White House on the backs of a tech savvy operation made up of people, who, unlike Chris Dodd and too many congresscritters to count, actually understand the internet. It's not surprising that the Obama admin understands why these bills suck and opposed them. That Dodd was just trying to throw his weight around yesterday just makes this all the sweeter.

BTW, via the always excellent Jon Rogers, here is a great rundown of why the bills were so bad, from a tv writer's perspective.

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Jurassicpork: What's Mitt Fudging?

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Romney: We need someone who's lived in the real streets of America as president

I'm not sure which one of Mitt Romney's mansions he considers to be on the "real streets" of America, but here he was attempting to paint himself as some Washington outsider, everyday businessman during the CNN Republican primary debate.

Think Progress summed this up pretty nicely:

It's unclear whether those "real streets" are the ones by Romney's beach house in California, his mansion in New Hampshire, or his multi-million dollar "colonial" in Massachusetts. Of course, Romney has attempted to paint himself as an everyday, middle-class guy before. But as a Wall Street millionaire who keeps money in offshore accounts and is comfortable making $10,000 bets, it's seems like most streets Romney spends time on are the ones paved in gold.

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On Thursday, Willard got very testy with an Occupy protestor who dared to ask him what he was going to do for the 99 percent. Check out this response.

Let me tell you something. America is a great nation, because we're a united nation. And those who are trying to divide the nation, as you're trying to do here, and as our president is doing, are hurting this country seriously. The right course for America is not to try to divide America, and try and divid us between one and another. it's to come together as a nation.

And if you've got a better model — if you think China's better, or Russia's better, or Cuba's better, or North Korea's better — I'm glad to hear all about it.

First of all, since when are Republicans opposed to dividing Americans? These people invented division as a tactic to win elections.

Nixon's Southern Strategy and "Silent Majority." Reagan's "Welfare Queens." Bush/Cheney's "With Us or Against Us." Palin's "Real America."

Not to mention the constant demonizing of immigrants, homosexuals, teachers, union members, Occupy Wall Streeters, Democrats, "elites," academics, Hollywood, Muslims, scientists, progressives, anti-war protestors, attorneys, environmentalists, the media, California -- and on and on.

Also, someone might want to point out to Willard that Russia hasn't been a communist country since he was making millions by raiding corporations and firing workers.

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Charles Pierce: Our Mr. Brooks Climbs the Romney Family Tree

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You don't even have to read past the headline to know that Thomas and Scalia were the two nutcases who dissented. "An Alabama death row prisoner should not be prevented from appealing because he missed a deadline after his lawyers dropped his case and failed to tell him, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled by a 7-2 vote Wednesday. ... The two lawyers at the New York office of Sullivan and Cromwell did not alert Alabama court authorities that they were withdrawing, so that when a court clerk sent papers to the lawyers, the firm's mailroom sent them back unopened and marked, "Return to Sender -- Left Firm" and "Returned to Sender -- Attempted, Unknown." ... "Abandoned by counsel, (Cory) Maples was left unrepresented at a critical time ... and he lacked any clue of any need to protect himself," Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote for the majority. "In these circumstances, no just system would lay the default (arising from a missed deadline) at Maples' death-cell door." ... The justices reversed a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit against Maples, who was convicted and sentenced to die for the 1995 killings of two companions after a night of heavy drinking. ... Only Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented. They insisted that a state can enforce its deadlines and other procedures related to death penalty appeals even when lawyers are to blame."

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Swingrich says 'work is a strange, distant concept' to Juan Williams.

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That god he worships can't really exist, otherwise his tongue would have flipped off its rollers. "The Family Research Council's Tony Perkins appeared on MSNBC this morning to discuss last night's GOP presidential debate and the recent revelations that Newt Gingrich allegedly asked his second wife for an open marriage. ... The conservative leader -- who regularly condemns gay people, "churns out brochures that compare same-sex marriages to those bonds which might exist between a man and a horse," likens gays to terrorists, calls LGBT rights a battle of "good versus evil," and claims gay teens kill themselves because they know that they're "abnormal" -- expressed concern about Gingrich's personal past, but also raised questions about the wisdom of asking about his marriage during the debate. Ultimately, he suggested that Evangelical Christians are "not judgmental" and understanding, and could embrace a candidate who has sinned."

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How a modern democracy regresses to the Dark Ages

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Kentucky Gov. Cuts Education Funding While Preserving Tax Breaks For Biblically-Themed Amusement Park

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Wonkette: Wingnuts 'uniting behind Santorum', obviously

What are the Christian wingnut conservative Republicans doing about 2012 now? Uniting behind Santorum, of course! Because when you're stuck with a slate of candidates including a liberal billionaire foreigner who loves the wrong Jesus and a repulsive kidney-shaped punching bag who is so venal and amoral he makes Bill Clinton look like a family man, what are you going to do, support the principled libertarian Texan family man with three decades of campaign success? No, of course not. You're going to support the corrupt airhead dipshit who believes abortions are okay for his wife but a FELONY for everyone else in America. Rick Santorum, truly the conservative wingnut base is uniting behind you!

How much do GOP primary voters hate themselves, these days? A lot, we bet! Now that their front-runner can't even claim an Iowa victory and the "oh I guess we'll support him" sleazeball Newt has again exploded in a frothy ejaculate of Tiffany whore diamonds and bile, full-time loser Rick Santorum is getting another round of desperate attention.

We just want to remind everyone, again, that beyond all the Santorum fecal spooge jokes and his creepy/convenient abortion policies and his stupid sweater vest and his insane obsession with gay men having gay sex, Rick Santorum was a two-term senator who got his frothy ass handed to him in 2006 and hasn't won anything but scorn since that day — he can't even claim a real Iowa victory, because who knows where the votes from those eight missing precincts went, maybe Romney's god is God after all, right? Maybe Ron Paul won, in space. Maybe, in this idiotic alternate universe, Rick Perry's endorsement of Gingrich means something.

HAHAHA, and in the time it took to prepare this frothy little post, the ConservativeHQ.com website realized they handed us a very easy joke, and have now corrected the headline to something less obviously homosexual.

Santorum is never going to be president of anything, except the gay sex resort he operates 24/7 in his fevered, shrunken brain.

Headlines - Friday January 20

2012-01-20T09:08:00.001-06:00

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US Thirst for Fossil Fuels is Decimating Nature's Wildlife

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Jerry Springer—yes, that Jerry Springer—schools the Fox "News" bobbleheads:

SPRINGER: If the point of this discussion is to be upset with a magazine that — even if it took the position that they're pro-Obama — again, everybody in the media is doing things like that. We're here on Fox News. Every single day, in fairness, you guys, every single day, bash President Obama.
CARLSON: I'm going to take you to task on that because on this panel right here, we have a fair and balanced panel right here. And I'm the independent.

SPRINGER: But, what's the rest of the show? The rest of the show, every single morning, you guys are slamming Obama. You know you are. I'm not saying you don't have a right to. But every single conversation is something bad about Obama.

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American Family Association: The False Faith Of Mormons Threatens America

"[Mormonism] is not a Christian faith. It is, as Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church in Dallas says, a false religion. So it's kind of a striking things and I know it concerns a number of spiritual leaders, and I count myself among them, is what this would mean for the spiritual health of the United States of America is a worshiper of a false god occupied the White House. You know, what that would mean for the spiritual future of America and what it might reveal about the spiritual weakness of America if the American people, particularly the so-called conservatives, the people of faith in America, would promote someone to the highest office in the land who is a follower of a counterfeit faith, a false religion." - American Family Association radio host Bryan Fischer, who will be eating his words before too long.

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It's official, ~~Government~~ General Motors is once again the world's largest automaker, topping the global sales charts in 2011 with sales in 2012 projected to increase by another million

General Motors surpassed Toyota and Volkswagen to reclaim the crown of world's largest automaker with global sales of 9.03 million vehicles in 2011.

That was 11% higher than Volkswagen, which last week reported 2011 global sales of 8.16 million. Toyota has not yet reported its final 2011 sales, but last month the Japanese automaker estimated it sold 7.9 million vehicles globally last year. [...]

GM's 2011 sales rose 7.6% from [2010]. Sales in the U.S. led the way for Chevrolet with total vehicle sales of 1,775,812, up more than 13%. China posted record sales of 595,068, up 9.5% from the previous year. Other markets that posted significant year-over-year increases include Vietnam (79%), Russia (49%), Turkey (30%) and Germany (21%).

Of course Mitt Romney's solution for the American auto-industry was to let them go bankrupt.

IF General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won't go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.

Good job, Mitt.

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Sign this petition to reverse Citizens United.

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A fascinating new analysis from RAND Research Highlights, via The Conversable Economist. Health care costs have increased over the past decade about as much as your pay raises, pretty much eating any increase in income you've had over the years.

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Newt Gingrich Attacks John King for Asking About Ex-Wife Saying He Wanted an Open Marriage in the 90's

"Every person in here knows personal pain. Every person in here has had someone close to them go through painful things. To take an ex-wife and make it two days before the primary a significant question for a presidential campaign is as close to despicable as anything I can imagine."

Oh, I can think of something closer — dumping the second of two chronically ill wives because you were banging a staffer for six years and then, while you're running for president, making a talking point out of your pain.

Wonkette: Cheating, Serial-Divorcing Pig Upset By Adultery Question

Was there a highlight to tonight's GOP debate? No. There is a GOP debate every four or five hours, constantly, forever, and there cannot be a highlight to something that is ongoing and eternal, like CNN Headline News or the Lake of Fire, in Hell. But CNN number-reader John King did manage to really get the amoral jewelry-debt piglet Newt Gingrich in full squeaking rage because, boo hoo, somebody asked Newt about his endless adultery and divorcing and banging other ladies while he's married, etc.

So did the multimillionaire academic-politician-author Newt come clean and apologize to America for being such a disgusting sleazebag who always buys new whores with his $500,000 Tiffany line of credit? Haha, of course not. Instead, he said this:

"I am tired of the elite media protecting Barack Obama by attacking Republicans."

The elite! Barack Obama!

Nothing else happened in this stupid debate.

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Suicides among active-duty soldiers hit a record high in 2011. According to a report released Thursday, 164 active-duty Army, National Guard, and Reserve soldiers took their own lives, compared to 159 in 2010 and 162 in 2009. When non-mobilized National Guard and Reserve troops are included, suicides dropped to 278 in 2011, from 305 in 2010.

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President Obama sings at the Apollo - Al Green - Let's stay together

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Scarah Palin Says Interview With Ex-Wife Will Help Gingrich 'Soar'

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North Koreans React to Newt Gingrich's Mistreatment of John King