FL Reverses On Voter Suppression

Florida Governor Signs Election Reform Bill Reversing His Own Voter Suppression Laws | ThinkProgress:

Last November, Florida voters endured massive lines and chaotic polling places largely thanks to a barrage of election law changes pushed by Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL) and other GOP lawmakers. Republicans slashed the number of early voting days in half, changed ballot length restrictions to add lengthy and frivolous constitutional amendments to 12-page ballots, restricted voter registration, and tried to purge mostly minority voters from the voting rolls.

On Wednesday, Scott signed a bill to reverse his own election laws by restoring early voting days and ballot limits, among other measures...

Clinton Wins Iowa

Hillary Clinton Wins in Iowa | The Guardian Express:

In a poll released today, Hillary Clinton would defeat all opponents in the significant state of Iowa.

Is it too early to begin discussions about the 2016 Presidential election? Maybe, but at least three Republicans have already begun their run for the White House, and one of them is not pretending otherwise...

Diapers Dumps

David Vitter’s hypocritical, punitive, horrible new amendment - Salon.com:

In a sleepy moment on the Senate floor Wednesday, Senate Democrats accepted an amendment to the long-delayed farm bill that, if passed in its current form, would represent another step in turning previously incarcerated Americans into a permanent underclass. Certain classes of ex-convicts would be denied food stamp benefits for life, under the amendment offered by Sen. David Vitter (cannily, the crime of soliciting prostitutes is exempted from this ban). While the amendment may sound like common sense, it’s actually a harshly punitive, counter-productive policy that will only increase crime and trap people in the criminal justice system...

Is Terror War Over?

Bush's war on terror is over - CNN.com:

...For the first time on Thursday, President Obama laid out the full scope of his proposed counterterrorism strategy, and it boiled down to this: George W. Bush's endless war on terror is over.

And that's appropriate, since the enemy Bush went to war with after September 11 has largely been defeated...

Voter Fraud Not Found (much)

This Is Important. Give It a Read | TPM Editors Blog:

... Second, there are clearly people who will vote in two states or try to vote absentee and then vote on election day. No sane person has ever denied this. But there are very, very, very few of them. The issue with election policy is always balancing the costs with the benefits. There’s no free lunch...

I wouldn't say "very few" since I've heard four people bragging about it over the past two election cycles, and I live in a low-density area. Of course, these four gentlemen were Republicans, Christians, with one hard core gun-nut Teabagger. All these gentlemen owned homes here in WNC and in Florida and made a point of voting in all elections. No, I could not pick them out of a line-up --unless everyone was nekkid then I might could.

Go Canada!

Canadian drug policy experts recommend decriminalizing all drugs | The Raw Story:

In a report issued Thursday (PDF), a group of Canadian drug policy experts at the Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Applied Research in Mental Health and Addiction recommend that the Harper administration immediately take up decriminalization of all drugs as the first step toward fundamentally reforming the nation’s drug war to fight addiction instead of the Canadian people...

The Real IRS Scandal

Heilemann Calls Out Priebus for Trying to Involve Obama in IRS 'Scandal' | Video Cafe:

...Never mind as they noted that the IG's report found nothing of the kind, and as Lawrence O'Donnell has been pointing out over and over again, the real scandal here is that any of these organizations doing political activities have been given tax exempt status as "social welfare" groups.

We Have The Scientists

...but not at minimum wage.

Business ruined science in this country | The Confluence:

...Anyone who thinks that all you need to make good science is cheap, well educated labor should really give it a whirl sometime. Let me know how you’re doing after a decade of lab work and half a dozen restructurings.

The idea that we need to import more foreign engineers when American engineers can’t get work here and have to go work in Canada and Japan is just beyond cruel and stupid.

As Colin McIlwain says, the idea that there is a shortage of well educated, technically proficient and experienced American scientists is something the business community conjured up in order to push wages down. Congress is either willfully ignorant or completely bamboozled if it seriously thinks that we need more foreign STEM graduates...

All You Need To Know About Taxes

Bible Says Cut Food Stamps

...and the Devil can quote Scripture for his own purposes.

Food Stamp Cuts Backed By Farm Subsidy Beneficiaries:

House Agriculture Committee Republicans who vocally supported billions in cuts to federal food assistance are big-time recipients of government help in the form of farm subsidies.

Reps. Stephen Fincher (R-Tenn.) and Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.) both cited the Bible last week to argue that while individual Christians have a responsibility to feed the poor, the federal government does not...

Four Dead In Drone Strikes

White House: Drones have killed 4 Americans:

The Obama administration acknowledged for the first time yesterday that four American citizens have been killed in drone strikes since 2009 in Pakistan and Yemen. The disclosure to Congress comes on the eve of a major national-security speech by President Obama...

Issa In On IRS Scandal

Republicans Knew About IRSgate Too, Will Now Have To Investigate Themselves:

...Oh MAN. When Rep. Darrell Issa finds out that some of his own knew about this IRS thing since last summer, he is going to be so steaming mad, he’ll just start investigating everyone and then — wait, what? What’s this?

In a letter dated July 11, 2012, the man who conducted the investigation – IRS inspector general J. Russell George – wrote to Rep. Darrell Issa, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, telling him that he was investigating the issue and offering to keep him updated as the investigation progressed.

“The Oversight Committee knew about the audit because it requested it,” an Issa aide told ABC News. Issa released the letter, along with his own letter dated June 28, 2012 requesting the investigation, last week..

No Talking From IRS Official

IRS' Lerner says did nothing wrong, refuses to answer questions | Reuters:

The Internal Revenue Service official at the center of a tax scandal about extra scrutiny of conservative groups told a congressional hearing on Wednesday she had done nothing wrong but asserted her constitutional right not to answer questions...

Immigration Reform Creeping Forward

Senate panel approves sweeping immigration bill | Reuters:

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday approved legislation that would bring about the biggest changes in U.S. immigration policy in a generation, setting up a spirited debate in the full Senate next month...

Evil Apple: Tax Dodging Edition

Apple’s Web of Tax Shelters Saved It Billions, Panel Finds - NYTimes.com:

Even as Apple became the nation’s most profitable technology company, it avoided billions in taxes in the United States and around the world through a web of subsidiaries so complex it spanned continents and went beyond anything most experts had ever seen, Congressional investigators disclosed on Monday...

Will Men Report Prostate Problems?

GOP attorney general candidate tried to force women to report miscarriages to police - Salon.com:

Virginia Republicans selected state Sen. Mark Obenshain as their candidate to succeed fellow right-winger Ken Cuccinelli as the state’s top prosecutor over the weekend, a move that has invited additional scrutiny of Obenshain’s track record by state Democrats and other progressive activists.

One of the first bits of legislative flotsam to resurface was a measure, introduced by Obenshain in 2009, to force women to report miscarriages to the police within 24 hours or face up to a year in jail...

Union Losses Part Of Econ Inequality

The 1 Percent Are Only Half the Problem - NYTimes.com:

...The decline of labor unions is what connects the skills-based gap to the 1 percent-based gap. Although conservatives often insist that the 1 percent’s richesse doesn’t come out of the pockets of the 99 percent, that assertion ignores the fact that labor’s share of gross domestic product is shrinking while capital’s share is growing. Since 1979, except for a brief period during the tech boom of the late 1990s, labor’s share of corporate income has fallen. Pension funds have blurred somewhat the venerable distinction between capital and labor. But that’s easy to exaggerate, since only about one-sixth of all households own stocks whose value exceeds $7,000. According to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, the G.D.P. shift from labor to capital explains fully one-third of the 1 percent’s run-up in its share of national income. It couldn’t have happened if private-sector unionism had remained strong...

Hemp Coming?

Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul Push For Hemp Legalization In Senate Fight:

Kentucky's two senators, Republicans Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell, have been working to include a provision that would legalize industrial hemp into the farm bill, according to Senate and Kentucky sources, an effort that is likely to result in a floor vote on the issue this week...

Mole At ABC

Expect no less from the Kingdom of Mouse.

A Right-Wing Mole at ABC News — FAIR: Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting:

...Conservatives don’t just complain loudly, endlessly and inaccurately about liberal media bias. They also train right-leaning journalists to make their way into the supposedly hostile terrain of Beltway media. And one of the most famous alums of a conservative media training program is now a major star at a network news outlet: ABC’s senior political correspondent Jonathan Karl.

Backfiring Scandals

Scandals Backfire on Republicans as Obama's Approval Ratings Go Up:

Despite the many attempts by Republicans to generate a scandal, a new CNN/ORC poll found that the president’s approval ratings have increased by two points...

Teh Stoopid Is Strong In This One

This Is No Ordinary Scandal - WSJ.com:

We are in the midst of the worst Washington scandal since Watergate. The reputation of the Obama White House has, among conservatives, gone from sketchy to sinister, and, among liberals, from unsatisfying to dangerous. No one likes what they're seeing. The Justice Department assault on the Associated Press and the ugly politicization of the Internal Revenue Service have left the administration's credibility deeply, probably irretrievably damaged. They don't look jerky now, they look dirty. The patina of high-mindedness the president enjoyed is gone...

Mouse Empire Investigates Line Cheating

Disney World Scheme: Entitled Families Hire Disabled Guide to Bypass Lines, Says Report | Parenting - Yahoo! Shine:

 ...Instead, according to the New York Post, the moms pay $130 an hour to hire a disabled, “black-market” guide, who uses her position—sitting in a motorized scooter—to help entitled families gain special access to rides.

“On one hand, you can say she’s a great entrepreneur,” disability activist Kleo King, of the National Spinal Cord Injury Association, told Yahoo! Shine. “On the other hand, she’s kind of pimping herself out. And it’s outrageous she would help people commit fraud...”

IRS To Kill Cons?

Grasping For New Scandals, Fox Fearmongers That Obamacare Will Allow IRS To Deny Medical Treatment | Research | Media Matters for America:

Fox News' Steve Doocy Suggests The IRS Could Use Health Records To Interfere With Conservatives' Healthcare. Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy suggested that the IRS would be able to access Americans' private health information and meddle in specific health procedures:...

Karl Won't Admit Error

Jon Karl makes things worse - Salon.com:

...CNN’s Howard Kurtz, who knows a little bit about being in the line of media fire for his own work, offered ABC News’s embattled Jon Karl the chance to defend himself on Reliable Sources Sunday. Karl, of course, is in hot water because his “scoop” revealing that the White House tampered with Benghazi talking points relied on doctored email leaked by House Republican sources...

Heritage Foundation Shoots Other Foot

Heritage Foundation To GOP: Attack Obama, Don't Govern | Crooks and Liars:
...“To that end, we urge you to avoid bringing any legislation to the House Floor that could expose or highlight major schisms within the conference. Legislation such as the Internet sales tax or the FARRM Act which contains nearly $800 billion in food stamp spending, would give the press a reason to shift their attention away from the failures of the Obama administration to write another ‘circular firing squad’ article...”

IRS Outs Self

Lawyer confirms she asked planted question that broke open IRS scandal | Fox News:

...The first revelation that the IRS was targeting Tea Party groups came in a planted question during a lawyers’ conference earlier this month, the attorney who asked the question confirmed Saturday with Fox News...

Koch Pile Grows

Mountain of Petroleum Coke From Oil Sands Rises in Detroit - NYTimes.com:

...Detroit’s ever-growing black mountain is the unloved, unwanted and long overlooked byproduct of Canada’s oil sands boom...

Scandal In VA

Virginia Governor and Attorney General Linked in Scandal - NYTimes.com:

... Virginia is in the grip of an old-fashioned, finger-licking political scandal linking all these figures. There are overlapping plot lines, a cameo by the governor’s wife and, in an offstage role portending a possible dark denouement, F.B.I. agents...

Whining About Winning

Conservative Groups Granted Exemption Vastly Outspent Liberal Ones - OpenSecrets Blog:

...Conservative nonprofits that received tax-exempt status since the beginning of 2010 and also filed election spending reports with the Federal Election Commission overwhelmed liberal groups in terms of money spent on politics, an analysis of Internal Revenue Service and FEC records shows.

Of the 21 organizations that received rulings from the IRS after January 1, 2010, and filed FEC reports in 2010 or 2012, 13 were conservative. They outspent the liberal groups in that category by a factor of nearly 34-to-1, the Center for Responsive Politics analysis shows...

Scandals 101

The scandals are falling apart:

 ...On Tuesday, it looked like we had three possible political scandals brewing. Two days later, with much more evidence available, it doesn’t look like any of them will pan out. There’ll be more hearings, and more bad press for the Obama administration, and more demands for documents. But — and this is a key qualification — absent more revelations, the scandals that could reach high don’t seem to include any real wrongdoing, whereas the ones that include real wrongdoing don’t reach high enough. Let’s go through them...