Keith Olbermann ousted from Current TV talk show | Detroit Free Press | freep.com
Keith Olbermann is looking for a new job after less than a year as a talk show host at Current TV.
The left-leaning cable network announced just hours before airtime on Friday that Olbermann's show "Countdown" would be replaced with a new program called "Viewpoint" hosted by former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, beginning that night...
Calif. lawmakers vote to overturn Citizens United - CBS News
...California lawmakers waded into the ongoing battle over corporate money in politics Thursday with a resolution that supports overturning the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the Citizens United case, which has led to a flood of money from deep-pocketed donors in this year's presidential race.
"People are tired of getting beat up by a few corporations that sometimes have a fringe point of view," said Assemblyman Bob Wieckowski, D-Fremont, who introduced the resolution with Assemblymen Michael Allen, D- Santa Rosa.
The Assembly passed the resolution on a 48-22 vote. It rejects the notion of corporate personhood and calls on Congress to pursue a constitutional amendment overturning Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the 2010 decision saying corporations can spend unlimited sums to influence elections...
And I bet he's secretly thanking Zimmerman.
...The liberal group Media Matters, which has been targeting his advertisers and lobbying for affiliate stations to drop him, says 58 advertisers have left. Plumbing supply company Kohler said this week it would no longer advertise with him.
Limbaugh fired back this week by saying advertisers who left were getting “creamed” by the loss of business from Limbaugh listeners.
Verifying Limbaugh’s claims is a challenge, because measuring sales driven by radio ads is a long-term process.
While the Trayvon Martin case, Supreme Court health care hearings and other stories have gradually pushed Limbaugh off the front pages,...
The Gated Community Mentality - NYTimes.com
...The perverse, pervasive real-estate speak I heard in these communities champions a bunker mentality. Residents often expressed a fear of crime that was exaggerated beyond the actual criminal threat, as documented by their police department’s statistics. Since you can say “gated community” only so many times, developers hatched an array of Orwellian euphemisms to appease residents’ anxieties: “master-planned community,” “landscaped resort community,” “secluded intimate neighborhood.”
No matter the label, the product is the same: self-contained, conservative and overzealous in its demands for “safety.” Gated communities churn a vicious cycle by attracting like-minded residents who seek shelter from outsiders and whose physical seclusion then worsens paranoid groupthink against outsiders. These bunker communities remind me of those Matryoshka wooden dolls. A similar-object-within-a-similar-object serves as shelter; from community to subdivision to house, each unit relies on staggered forms of security and comfort, including town authorities, zoning practices, private security systems and personal firearms...
What the church is really worried about: MONEY « The Confluence
...In fact, I would go so far as to draw comparisons between pre-reviolutionary France and 21st century America. Religious institutions benefit greatly from tax breaks and faith based initiatives. In the latter case, that’s OUR tax money going into their pockets. If you’re going to accept help from a church based institution, you’re going to get a sermon. And some of those sermons have to do with homosexuality, female inferiority and birth control. Why should we be paying the government to help these churches out? The first estate has it pretty nice compared to some of the rest of us and they are determined to keep it that way. The church would very much like to continue to sink its teeth into us.
Trinity Church owns some prime real estate in lower Manhattan worth zillions. The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (the Jehovah’s Witnesses) owns a good chunk of Brooklyn. And then there are all the Catholic institutions and hospitals and such. They have a lot to lose if the country becomes more secular. And what will happen when Americans finally start demanding that churches stop freeloading on the taxpayer’s largess? What are their property taxes like? Hmmmm….
Lawmaker wearing hoodie removed from House floor - CNN.com
A congressman was removed from the House floor Wednesday after giving a speech about Trayvon Martin while wearing a hoodie.
Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Illinois, told House members, "racial profiling has to stop."
Rush, a former Black Panther who was active in the civil rights movement in the 1960s, then took off his suit jacket, pulled a gray hoodie on over his head and put on sunglasses.
"Just because someone wears a hoodie does not make them a hoodlum," he said...
The Supreme Court is not expected to rule on the U.S. healthcare law's contentious individual mandate for another three months.
But that did not stop partisans on both sides of the political battle from claiming - or at least trying to salvage - an early victory in the court of public opinion on Tuesday...
Jonah Goldberg: Trayvon Martin and the race card - latimes.com
"White Hispanic." That's how the New York Times, Reuters and other media outlets have opted to describe George Zimmerman, a man who would simply be Hispanic (or Latino in this newspaper) if he hadn't shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. The term, rarely if ever used before this tragedy, is necessary in telling the Martin story in a more comfortable way.
What's the comfortable way? It's the way the blame for Martin's death belongs squarely at the feet of "the system." And "the system" is a white thing, don't you know...
Jimmy Carter Leaves Church Over Treatment of Women
After more than 60 years together, Jimmy Carter has announced himself at odds with the Southern Baptist Church -- and he's decided it's time they go their separate ways. Via Feministing, the former president called the decision "unavoidable" after church leaders prohibited women from being ordained and insisted women be "subservient to their husbands." Said Carter in an essay in The Age:
At its most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives, and continues to deny them fair access to education, health, employment and influence within their own communities...
Breaking: Bill Clinton Endorses Kane for AG | PoliticsPA
Former President Bill Clinton has thrown his support behind Kathleen Kane for Pa. Attorney General. It’s the highest-profile endorsement of any candidate in Pennsylvania so far this cycle...
The Weekend Interview with Gina Raimondo: The Democrat Who Took on the Unions - WSJ.com
So this is Gina Raimondo? The state treasurer who single-handedly overhauled Rhode Island's pension system and has unions screaming bloody murder? I had imagined her a bit, well, bigger. If not larger than life like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, then at least life-size. Ms. Raimondo couldn't be much taller than five feet, which may have caused some to underestimate her. That isn't the only thing that may have surprised people...
Egypt military looking to keep its grip at least on economy - latimes.com
The Egyptian military stamps itself as protector of the nation, but behind this carefully tended mythology the army controls a multibillion-dollar business empire that trades in products not normally associated with men in uniform: olive oil, fertilizer, televisions, laptops, cigarettes, mineral water, poultry, bread and underwear...
That practice some employers have of demanding workers' online passwords? Facebook doesn't like it.
The social media giant weighed in via the Facebook Privacy blog on Friday, supporting proposed laws in Illinois and elsewhere that would ban companies from requiring employees or potential employees to surrender their passwords. By logging in, employers can gain access to a user's private activities that might not otherwise be viewable...
Paranoia Strikes Deeper - NYTimes.com
Stop, hey, what’s that sound? Actually, it’s the noise a great political party makes when it loses what’s left of its mind. And it happened — where else? — on Fox News on Sunday, when Mitt Romney bought fully into the claim that gas prices are high thanks to an Obama administration plot.This claim isn’t just nuts; it’s a sort of craziness triple play — a lie wrapped in an absurdity swaddled in paranoia. It’s the sort of thing you used to hear only from people who also believed that fluoridated water was a Communist plot. But now the gas-price conspiracy theory has been formally endorsed by the likely Republican presidential nominee..
Senator: Ban bosses from asking for Facebook passwords - Tony Romm - POLITICO.com
Sen. Richard Blumenthal has a status update for employers who ask job seekers for access to their private Facebook accounts: He’s writing a bill to outlaw the practice.
The Connecticut Democrat and former state attorney general told POLITICO that those kind of requests from prospective employers amount to an "unreasonable invasion of privacy" for those looking for work. Blumenthal said it ought to be prohibited, just like other banned employment practices such as administering polygraph tests to screen applicants...
Study Shows How House Members and Families Reap Benefits - NYTimes.com
...The 346-page report by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, is an extraordinary compendium of creative accounting, self-interested budgeting and generous expense reimbursements. It highlights common practices that translate into tens of millions of dollars in payments to relatives or the lawmakers themselves.
There are hundreds of examples to choose from, but here are just a few:
Campaign accounts of Representative Ron Paul, a Republican of Texas who is running for the party’s presidential nomination, paid salaries or fees to his daughter, brother, grandson, daughter’s mother-in-law, granddaughter and grandson-in-law, totaling more than $300,000, according to the report.
Mr. Paul did not dispute the findings, though Jesse Benton, a spokesman, said, “Any implication that there is anything inappropriate is wildly off base.”
Representative Rubén Hinojosa, Democrat of Texas, who paid two grandnieces and a son-in-law with his re-election campaign funds, also contributed money from his campaign account to his daughter’s election bid for county clerk in Texas, and he helped secure a federal budget appropriation for a hospital where his wife serves on the board, according to the report..
The Republicans could win the 2012 presidency by reminding the american people of the media and talk show host abuse that Hillary Clinton was exposed to in 2008...
The sawbones in this post attacked, and solved, this ridiculous problem/law/stupidity perfectly. Guest Post: A Doctor on Transvaginal Ultrasounds – Whatever
Why "Big Picture Only" Bosses Are The Worst | Fast Company
...I am all for big ideas, visions, and dreams. But the best bosses do more than think big thoughts. They have a deep understanding of their industries, organizations, and teams, the people they lead, as well as other mundane things. For example, Anne Mulcahy’s efforts to turn around Xerox were successful in part because of her in-depth knowledge of the company’s operations; she was especially detail-oriented during the crucial early years of her reign when Xerox was so close to collapsing...
Travelers flying into Little Rock will now be reminded of Arkansas’ most famous political couple after officials voted Tuesday to rename the city’s airport after Bill and Hillary Clinton.
The Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission unanimously agreed to change the name of the Little Rock National Airport to honor former President Bill Clinton and his wife, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The former president, an Arkansas native and the state’s former governor, said they were humbled...
Buffett millionaires tax to raise $47 billion: report | Reuters
A proposed 30 percent minimum tax on millionaires backed by President Barack Obama - dubbed the Buffett tax after investor Warren Buffett who supports it - would raise about $47 billion over a decade, according to a congressional report...
U.S. exempts 11 states from Iran sanctions; China, India exposed | Reuters
The United States exempted Japan and 10 EU nations from financial sanctions because they have significantly cut purchases of Iranian oil, but left Iran's top customers China and India exposed to the possibility of such steps...
Ex-scientist gets 13 years in prison over spying | Reuters
Former U.S. government scientist Stewart Nozette was once on the cutting edge of space exploration, but instead of resting on those laurels he will spend 13 years in prison for trying to sell some of his country's most closely guarded secrets.
He once sketched on a napkin a concept for satellite technology that eventually helped confirm that there was water on the moon, but in 2009 Nozette sought to sell classified information to someone he thought was an Israeli intelligence officer but was an FBI agent in an undercover sting operation...
This Week in Poverty: Me, Mom and Reagan | Coffee Party News | Scoop.it
...Here’s the new American reality: about half of all kids will spend at least part of their childhood in a family headed by a single mother, and the typical single mother is white, has one kid, is separated or divorced, works and probably earns less than $25,000 a year...
Soraya Chemaly: 10 Reasons the Rest of the World Thinks the U.S. Is Nuts
This week the Georgia State Legislature debated a bill in the House, that would make it necessary for some women to carry stillborn or dying fetuses until they 'naturally' go into labor. In arguing for this bill Representative Terry England described his empathy for pregnant cows and pigs in the same situation.
I have a question for Terry England, Sam Brownback, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry and too many others: I have three daughters, two of them twins. If one of my twins had been stillborn would you have made me carry her to term, thereby endangering both the other twin and me? Or, would you have insisted that the state order a mandatory fetal extraction of the living twin fetus from my womb so that I could continue to carry the stillborn one to term and possibly die myself? My family is curious and since you believe my uterus is your public property, I am, too.
Mr. England, unlike the calves and pigs for which you expressed so much empathy, I am not a beast of burden. I am a woman and I have these human rights:..
Community colleges downsize programs – USATODAY.com
Community colleges across the USA, faced with tight budgets and competing priorities, are downsizing or shuttering programs that in many cases have been held near and dear for years by students and other local constituents...
Obama should fire advisers over gas prices: Romney - Yahoo! News
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Sunday called for President Barack Obama to fire three top administration officials as he sought to harness voter anger over rising gas prices ahead of nominating contests in Puerto Rico and Illinois...
Reality shows revolutionize Arab TV - CNN.com
This is the true story of seven strangers, picked to live in a house, work together and have their lives taped to find out what happens when Sunnis and Shias, Christians and Jews, boys and girls, 20-somethings from across the Arab world, stop hating each other and learn how to get along.
That might be the opening for an Arab version of "The Real World." The MTV show, which debuted in 1992, was considered a groundbreaking social experiment. Its creators bet that if young people from vastly different backgrounds lived together, they would eventually -- through fits and fights and hugs -- find common ground. And by watching, the show's audience might, too...
In abortion battle, White House defunds Texas Women Health Program - The Washington Post
After Texas blocked abortion providers’ participation in its Medicaid Women’s Health Program, the White House officially notified the state Thursday afternoon that it will pull all funds from the program, which totalled about $39 million last year...
George Edwards and the Powerless Presidential Bully Pulpit : The New Yorker
...Nor was Reagan’s Presidency distinguished by an unusually strong personal connection with the electorate. A study by the Gallup organization, from 2004, found that, compared with all the Presidential job-approval ratings it had on record, Reagan’s was slightly below average, at fifty-three per cent. It was only after he left office that Americans came to see him as an unusually likable and effective leader...
...When they say it’s not about the money, it’s about the money. The reason why the Republicans are pulling out all of the stops over paying for women to have sex is because they are working for insurance companies. Insurance companies do not want to have to pay for this. They are going to pass the costs onto someone. Are you kidding?! Did you think the CEO of United Healthcare is going to take a cut to his bonus just because some broad in Washington wants to have sex? Please...
Rick Santorum | Fox News | Mitt Romney | Shilling | The Daily Caller
n Tuesday’s “Kilmeade & Friends” radio show on Fox News Radio, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, accused Fox News of being in the tank for his competitor, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
Santorum made that claim as part of a larger point, that despite having a lot of things in his favor Romney has been unable to seal the deal...
Exec slams Goldman Sachs in open resignation op-ed - Mar. 14, 2012
A Goldman Sachs executive has resigned in a very public manner -- calling the firm "toxic" and disrespectful of its clients in a scathing op-ed piece published in Wednesday's New York Times.
"I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it," wrote Greg Smith on his "last day at Goldman Sachs," capping 12 years with Wall Street's gilded firm...
FCC should clear Limbaugh from airwaves - CNN.com
...This isn't political. While we disagree with Limbaugh's politics, what's at stake is the fallout of a society tolerating toxic, hate-inciting speech. For 20 years, Limbaugh has hidden behind the First Amendment, or else claimed he's really "doing humor" or "entertainment." He is indeed constitutionally entitled to his opinions, but he is not constitutionally entitled to the people's airways.
It's time for the public to take back our broadcast resources. Limbaugh has had decades to fix his show. Now it's up to us.
I agree with nearly everything in this article-- and they do have at least one excellent point, which I bolded.
At some point while watching HBO’s absolutely smashing (and terrifying) movie “Game Change,” it occurred to me that Sarah Palin has ruined America. The movie has been scalloped out of the book by the same name and focuses on Palin, rather than on the entire 2008 presidential campaign. The decision to do so was absolutely correct. With her selection as John McCain’s running mate, American politics lost its way — and maybe its mind as well...
...So far, the Palin effect has been limited to the GOP. Surely, though, there lurks in the Democratic Party potential candidates who have seen Palin and taken note. Experience, knowledge, accomplishment — these no longer may matter. They will come roaring out of the left proclaiming a hatred of all things Washington, including compromise. The movie had it right. Sarah Palin changed the game.The lurker in the Democratic Party has already become President.
Former Sarah Palin Adviser Says ‘Game Change’ Was ‘True Enough to Make Me Squirm’ - ABC News
While Sarah Palin has denounced the HBO docudrama “Game Change” about her rise to national stardom during the 2008 presidential campaign as a “false narrative,” one of Palin’s top advisers said today that the film was actually “true enough to make me squirm...”
The Weekend Interview with Michio Kaku: Captain Michio and the World of Tomorrow - WSJ.com
...Now, he says, the U.S. is losing its edge because we're not producing enough scientists. "Fifty percent of Ph.D. physicists are foreign-born, and they're here compliments of the H1-B visa," Mr. Kaku relates. "There's a brain drain into the United States; that's why we're still No. 1. But it can't last forever." China and India are slowly luring back their natives, while our top students are eschewing the hard sciences for lucrative careers in areas such as investment banking.
"I have nothing against investment banking," Mr. Kaku says, "but it's like massaging money rather than creating money. If you're in physics, you create inventions, you create lasers, you create transistors, computers, GPS." If you're an investment banker, on the other hand, "you don't create anything new. You simply massage other people's money and take a cut..."
Ignorance Is Strength - NYTimes.com
...But now one of our two major political parties has taken a hard right turn against education, or at least against education that working Americans can afford. Remarkably, this new hostility to education is shared by the social conservative and economic conservative wings of the Republican coalition, now embodied in the persons of Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney.
And this comes at a time when American education is already in deep trouble...
..For the past couple of generations, choosing a less expensive school has generally meant going to a public university rather than a private university. But these days, public higher education is very much under siege, facing even harsher budget cuts than the rest of the public sector. Adjusted for inflation, state support for higher education has fallen 12 percent over the past five years, even as the number of students has continued to rise; in California, support is down by 20 percent...
Soraya Chemaly: The Slut Manifesto
...Rush Limbaugh did us an unintended service, however. He made this clear to everyone, when he repeatedly called Sandra Fluke a slut and a prostitute and asked her to make a sex tape for him: every woman, even one simply speaking civilly and intelligently in her own interest, can be called a slut for no other reason that she's a woman. That's because the defining characteristic of a slut is not her sexual behavior - it's her gender. In this way, more people now understand that a slut is any woman who wants to control her reproduction (for whatever reason), build a life, earn a living of her own, dress how she wants, and take care of her health and her family.
Every woman knows the word slut has power. No woman alive hasn't thought about what it means to be labeled in this way. In some cultures, where honor killings take place, it is a matter of life or death. If you're a "good" woman, don't kid yourself. No one wants to be a slut, well some people don't. But by not acknowledging how it is used, you are embracing its power over you and other girls and women. It means you've spent your life and will continue to spend your life calibrating your appearance, speech and behaviour so that you are not a slut. And you will pass that corrupt and misguided abuse of power on to your daughters and mine. That's because you know, deep down, that at any point that word can be used against you. Every woman is a slut waiting to happen. Women who abhor the word, find it vulgar, and fear it, the ones who slut-shame others, gain a little bit of power by participating in a system that denigrates them.,,
SC Lieutenant Governor Resigns, Indicted Over Alleged Campaign Finance Schemes | Fox News
South Carolina's lieutenant governor resigned Friday as he was indicted on a string of ethics charges over an alleged scheme to fake campaign contributions while at the same time using thousands of dollars in donations for personal shopping sprees and trips.
Ken Ard resigned as the state's No. 2 official just hours before the indictment was handed down. In a statement, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson called the investigation "unprecedented..."
Kristin Powers observes that Rush Limbaugh Isn’t the Only Media Misogynist - The Daily Beast
Did you know there is a war on women?
Yes, it’s true. Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, Bill Maher, Matt Taibbi, and Ed Schultz have been waging it for years with their misogynist outbursts. There have been boycotts by people on the left who are outraged that these guys still have jobs. Oh, wait. Sorry, that never happened...
Is there a difference in genderism from the Left compared to the Right? I think there is a difference but that doesn't make Left genderism acceptable-- just different.
Justice Department may sue Apple, publishers on e-books | Reuters
The Justice Department has warned Apple (AAPL.O) and five major publishers that it plans to sue them, accusing them of colluding to raise the prices of electronic books, a person familiar with the probe said on Thursday...
Virginia woman: The GOP’s War on Women makes me feel ‘unwelcome in my hometown’ | The Raw Story
...“I’ve felt a little unwelcome in my hometown,” she added. “To think that people would take that control away to protect myself or minimize my fears [about cancer], it’s so intense.”For instance, she said, “A friend of my sister’s posted a Fox news article on Facebook about birth control coverage being a First Amendment issue,” and she tried to stop herself from picking a fight. But then she realized, “‘I’m going to go there. I’m going to go there on Facebook.’” She added, “I said, contraception aside, I take birth control for serious health issues. And he just came back and said, ‘Yeah, but that’s a violation of my rights.’ My continued health, he said, was a violation of his rights...”
Rush Limbaugh: Over 40 Advertisers Flee, Host Says 'Everything's Cool' - Yahoo! News
Talk show host Rush Limbaugh sought to reassure listeners Wednesday after the tally of local and national companies that have pulled their advertisements from his time slot topped 40, insisting that the show will go on and that the program is not losing revenue from the exodus.
At last count, 42 advertisers, two radio stations and two musicians have closed the door on Limbaugh following incendiary comments he made last week about a Georgetown law student who testified before Congress in favor of having birth control covered under insurance plans...
Actor212 does an excellent job of looking both ways at Obama's "Latino support." Simply Left BehindThe Non-Rapturist's Guide To The Galaxy: Why Obama Picked This Fight
Rush Limbaugh To Be Honored With Bust In Missouri Statehouse
The Hall of Famous Missourians in the Missouri State Capitol is filled with the busts of famous people from the Show-Me State. There are political figures (Harry Truman, John Ashcroft), writers (Laura Ingalls Wilder), musicians (Scott Joplin, Charlie Parker) and even a game show host (Bob Barker). Right-wing radio personality Rush Limbaugh, who is currently embroiled in controversy after he called a female law student advocating for contraception coverage a "slut," will soon be joining that esteemed group...
Will he be in the sub-hall "Famous Asses From The Show-Me State?"
Are we being fair to Rush Limbaugh? - CNN.com
...Most fundamentally, why the impulse to counter one outrageous stunt by rummaging through the archives in search of some supposedly offsetting outrageous stunt? Why not respond to an indecent act on its own terms, and then -- if there's another indecency later -- react to that too, and on its own terms?
Instead, public life is reduced to a revenge drama. Each offense is condoned by reference to some previous offense by some undefined "them" who supposedly once did something even worse, or anyway nearly as bad, at some point in the past.
The House intelligence committee: A rare example of bipartisanship | Coffee Party News | Scoop.it
The House intelligence committee used to be one of the meanest snake pits in Congress, a place where members were so busy sniping at each other that they failed to provide effective oversight of the intelligence community. It was a model of what was wrong with Washington.
Amazingly enough, the committee has found its way out of the wilderness under a new chairman and ranking Democrat, Reps. Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican, and C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, who is from Maryland’s 2nd District. With their leadership, the House has approved intelligence-authorization bills by lopsided, bipartisan margins the past two fiscal years, after many years when the committee was too divided to pass such legislation...
Limbaugh slurs heighten political hostility over contraception rule - Washington Times
Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh’s derogatory remarks about a leading female advocate for President Obama’s new contraception coverage mandate only served to heighten hostility between House Republicans and Democrats this week as they exchanged heated letters accusing each other of hypocrisy...
Senate kills controversial 'conscience' amendment - CNN
The U.S. Senate voted Thursday to kill a controversial proposal pushed by Republicans that would have allowed employers to opt out of providing health care coverage they disagree with on moral grounds...
Obama calls for Congress to vote on oil subsidies - CNN.com
A day after Republicans signaled possible compromise with the White House on energy issues, President Barack Obama called Thursday for Congress to vote in the coming weeks on ending billions of dollars in subsidies for the oil industry...
U.S. News - Limbaugh: Contraception advocate should post online sex videos
Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh, already under fire from Democrats over his language in discussing a Georgetown University law student who testified about contraception, ratcheted up his rhetoric on Thursday, saying the student should post an online sex video if taxpayers are forced to pay for contraception.
Limbaugh on Wednesday had referred to student Sandra Fluke as a “slut” for supporting a requirement that health insurance cover contraception. On his radio show Thursday, Limbaugh went a little further:..
Words fail me. Maybe later.
