Gov Meddling With ACA

GOP leader urges NFL, MLB, NASCAR, other leagues not to promote Obama health insurance - The Washington Post:

The Senate’s Republican leader is telling major league sports: Don’t play with “Obamacare...”

I thought the GOP was against government intrusion in private businesses. 

Pro-choice: Left And Right

Pro-choice hysteria | The Confluence:

I saw Wendy Davis’s filibuster the other night and was ecstatic to see someone from the left, besides Hillary, actually forcefully defending a woman’s right to choose. And then I witnessed all of the hysterical, emotional responses from the left blogosphere about just how incredibly awful it would be if we can’t get abortions at any point in time during a pregnancy, and despaired.

Both the right and the left seem to be hung up on something and it took me awhile to pin it down. Here it is:

Pregnancy is a temporary condition. Motherhood is FOREVER...

More Corporate Corruption

The Last Mystery of the Financial Crisis | Politics News | Rolling Stone:

...But what about the ratings agencies? Isn't it true that almost none of the fraud that's swallowed Wall Street in the past decade could have taken place without companies like Moody's and Standard & Poor's rubber-stamping it? Aren't they guilty, too?

Man, are they ever. And a lot more than even the least generous of us suspected...

Outrageous Prosecution

Teenager in jail since March for sarcastic Internet comment faces 8 years in prison — RT USA:

 A teenager from Texas could spend the next eight years in prison if a court decides that the sarcastic comment he made during an online argument is enough to convict him of issuing a terroristic threat...

Perry Waxes Stupid

Rick Perry Slams Wendy Davis for Being Alive | Crooks and Liars:

...Rick Perry’s arrogant comments were not just without dignity, reflecting a dark and negative point of view – they were calculatedly obtuse, an intentional ignorance of the English language. Because pro-choice means admitting women are not only capable enough to rise from the sort of adversity Wendy Davis did to become Harvard educated lawyers and members of the Texas Senate, but to make decisions about their lives and their bodies by themselves – whether that is an abortion, or choosing to have a child and raise it even in difficult circumstances. Rick Perry is deliberately equating abortion with women being intelligent enough to make decisions for themselves as is any white, male conservative, something he seems fundamentally incapable of recognizing. To have a child, or not, is a choice that belongs solely to a couple or individual woman involved, and the state has no right to insinuate itself into that decision...

Liberal Opportunists

Daily Politics Blog - Charles P. Pierce - Political Blogging - Esquire:
"...Meanwhile, my pal Glenn Smith, who's been fighting the madness down there for longer than many of y'all have been alive, is pretty damned fed up with the national Democrats who don't notice Texas until somebody like Wendy Davis raises hell. Glenn writes:

So, we've been working our asses off down here and Wendy and the Democrats had a good couple of days. Then today, on my email, I'm getting flooded with DLCC and DSCC and DWhateverthefk emails raising money off of Sen. Davis. National Democrats treat Texas as an extraction economy and I am fucking sick of it. Not one person who had anything to do with these national solicitations has a clue who Wendy Davis is. So, you national Democratic fks, stick it. You can use celebrity politics to sucker Texas donors and you can sucker national donors into exploiting our celebrities. While you are at it, real people you claim to care about are getting sick and dying under GOP policies here. Children are not being educated. Women are made second-class citizens. So, Democrats, if you'll spend money in Egypt or Syria or wherever the fk where, why not Texas? I am truly sick of your celebrity obsession and your willingness to let third-world Texas fund your campaigns while people here suffer and die...

And from all the Democrats and liberals in the South, may I add a hearty "AMEN!" I love it when someone else flogs one of my dead horses.

SOS Clinton Honored

Hillary Clinton Named Liberty Medal Recipient, Ceremony Set For September 10:

Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose lifelong public service career includes turns as secretary of state, presidential candidate, senator and first lady, is the recipient of the 2013 Liberty Medal...

Fighting Dems Win

Gomez was way out front in GOP-leaning Central Mass. - Worcester Telegram & Gazette - telegram.com:

U.S. Rep. Edward J. Markey’s win in Tuesday’s special Senate election confirmed one of the biggest hurdles Republicans face in running for congressional office in this blue state: As long as the Democrats are running an aggressive campaign — if they’re dispatching thousands of volunteers to knock on doors, call voters and drive them to the polls — they are almost assured a win...

ObamaCars?

The New Right-Wing "ObamaCars" Conspiracy Theory Is Heinously Dumb | Mother Jones:

A new rumor is making the rounds—first on Breitbart, then Fox News and beyond—that the Senate's immigration reform bill contains a provision that could provide free, taxpayer-subsidized cars, scooters, motorcycles, Segways, hovercraft, and god knows what to young Americans. The supposed nationwide government-sponsored "ObamaCar" giveaway would happen during a 15-month period following passage of the legislation. America will grow weaker and poorer; our enemies, foreign and domestic, will be emboldened...

Comment Of The Day: Gay Canadian Edition

Rand Paul Unlimbers Himself On Gay Marriage - Rand Paul, Liberal Lion, Thinks You'll Marry A Squid - Esquire
Sandy Young

When Canada legalized same-sex marriage ten years ago, I was promised roving gangs of gay and lesbian hooligans would break into my house and force my wife and I to have really hot gay sex with them, and perhaps the animals they kept as pets. We waited and waited and waited...I dunno, maybe they lost our address or something.

So we finally gave up and bought a Barcalounger instead.

A Note To Sen. Reid

Simply Left BehindThe Non-Rapturist's Guide To The Galaxy: Dear Senator Reid:

...You want to weed out the nonsense “filibusters” just being done to screw with the Democratic agenda? Force Senators who oppose a bill to stand their asses up and start talking about why. Passionate filibusters have a time honored place in American culture, not just in politics. Americans respect, even if they ultimately don’t agree with, someone who has strong and deep feelings about something...

Crazy In NC: Moral Monday in Mayberry

Moral Monday in Mayberry: A Tall Tale Toward the Truth:

...“Honey, tell me,” she says, “is this like that Moral Majority from back in the 80’s?”

“No mam,” I says. “It’s more like the March on Washington, back in the 60’s.”

“Well, good,” Granny says. “I always thought that Fallwell fellow was full of himself. But, tell me. What’s Timmy trying to do down there?”

“I reckon he’s trying to get word back to Mayberry that there’s a bunch of fellers down here in Raleigh who are full of themselves, too. Maybe they thought they was doing right when they got into this business. But the power’s done gone to their heads, Granny...”

SCOTUS Rules For Gay Rights

Gay Marriage: Supreme Court Strikes Down DOMA, Avoids Prop 8 Ruling - WSJ.com:

The Supreme Court delivered the history-making decision sought by gay-marriage supporters, striking down a 1996 federal law that denied benefits to same-sex couples and effectively clearing a path for gay marriage to resume in California...

Women Win One

Texas abortion bill killed by filibuster, 'unruly mob' in Capitol - San Jose Mercury News:

Despite barely beating a midnight deadline, hundreds of jeering protesters helped stop Texas lawmakers from passing one of the toughest abortion measures in the country...

SCOTUS Juveniles

Dana Milbank: Justice Samuel Alito’s middle-school antics - The Washington Post:

The most remarkable thing about the Supreme Court’s opinions announced Monday was not what the justices wrote or said. It was what Samuel Alito did.

The associate justice, a George W. Bush appointee, read two opinions, both 5-4 decisions that split the court along its usual right-left divide. But Alito didn’t stop there. When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg read her dissent from the bench, Alito visibly mocked his colleague...

Listen Up, Labor

Simply Left BehindThe Non-Rapturist's Guide To The Galaxy: Attention: American Labour:

...There’s a lesson here for American workers: if you don’t want your job outsourced, don’t go gently into that goodbye. Fight, claw, kick, scratch. You care about your job, and failing the job existing any longer, you care about how you’re treated.

Hell, this is China, fercrissake! A land filled with people who are obeisant to authority and who value even the crappiest jobs, and these folks are putting up a fight!

So why won’t you?

O To Destroy NFL!

Freakout! Freakout! Bengahzi! Bengahzi!  BENGAHZI! IRS! IRS! IRS! 

New GOP paranoia: Obama will destroy NFL! - Salon.com:

It’s just one scandal after another with this administration. Did you see that it is now trying to destroy the NFL? This is what’s happening, according to certain quarters of the Internet. Here’s the skinny: the Health and Human Services department is ”in talks with the National Football League to promote [Obamacare]’s insurance marketplaces that begin enrolling people Oct 1.” Who knows how deep this corruption goes — HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius also ”said the administration is also talking to other major sports franchises about improving public awareness of the Obamacare online insurance exchanges...”

Wingnut Welfare In Full Bloom

Santorum named CEO of Christian film studio - SFGate:

Former U.S. Senator and GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum is bringing Christian films to the big screen.

EchoLight Studios said Monday that Santorum, known for his socially conservative views, has been named CEO of the Dallas-based Christian film production company...

Mosque At Heart Of Turkish Troubles

Mosque Dream Seen at Heart of Turkey Protests - NYTimes.com:

...A local news article published in January 1997 reported that secular Turks objected to the mosque because it would “symbolize the power of the Islamists over Taksim as well as the whole country.” Those words could easily be spoken by today’s protesters...

Bet You Won't Hear Much About This

IRS targeting included liberal groups - CNN.com:

The Internal Revenue Service targeted liberal groups as well as conservatives seeking tax-exempt status, a Democratic congressman charged on Monday after the agency acknowledged the inappropriate practice continued until last month.

Rep. Sander Levin said the term "progressives" was included on IRS screening lists of applicants for tax-exempt status made available to Congress on Monday...

Same Old Song-- Louder

The GOP’s Kamikazes Are Back - The Daily Beast:

The Republican Party in the last month has taken a sharp turn to the right, confounding more moderate voices urging the party re-brand itself after last year’s election loss. A Tea Party rally outside the Capitol Thursday captured the defiant mood with the far right maligning the merely right. Talk-show host Glenn Beck called the GOP “the Whig party,” with John Boehner the head Whig for appearing open to compromise. There were cries of “learn English” when Florida Republican Mario Diaz-Balart spoke a few words of Spanish from the podium. Florida Senator Marco Rubio, once a Tea Party favorite, didn’t attend the rally. Part of the Gang of Eight working on a bipartisan immigration bill, his name drew loud boos...

No Safety Anywhere

Gunmen kill nine foreign tourists and their guide in northern Pakistan | Reuters:

Gunmen stormed a mountaineering base camp in northern Pakistan on Sunday and shot dead nine foreign trekkers and a Pakistani guide as they rested during an arduous climb up one of the world's tallest peaks, police said.

The night-time raid - which killed five Ukrainians, three Chinese and a Russian - was among the worst attacks on foreigners in Pakistan in a decade and underscored the growing reach of militants in a highland region once considered secure...

FBI v. NSA

Tough Stand Over NSA Programs Led to Comey's FBI Nomination:

James Comey's initial tough stand over a NSA surveillance program led in part to his being picked to replace Robert Muller to head the FBI.

President Barack Obama gave Comey the nod Friday as his nominee to head the FBI, saying his 2004 refusal to rubberstamp a National Security Agency surveillance program showed him as a man of "fierce independence and deep integrity," The New York Times reports...

Fox Sexism Again

Male Fox News guest to female Democratic consultant: “Know your role and shut your mouth” - Salon.com:

A finger-pointing political argument on Fox News Channel boiled over when a male conservative talk show host shouted at a woman to “know your role and shut your mouth.”

The man, Bill Cunningham, later asked Fox contributor Tamara Holder, “Are you going to cry?”

Fox on-air personalities on Friday were talking about the exchange on Sean Hannity’s prime-time show the night before. Commentator Juan Williams concluded that Cunningham “obliterated the line” of civil discourse in his argument with Holder. The two had been brought on by Hannity to discuss whether Attorney General Eric Holder — no relation to Tamara — had committed perjury...

Comment Of The Day: Shame Edition

Our Broken Social Contract - NYTimes.com: Greg K.
Cambridge, MA

NYT Pick

The one word I don't see mentioned here anywhere is shame. It is somewhat related to fairness, but in general, there is no shame in this country any more. CEO's should be ashamed to take a wage 400x their average employees...stock brokers should be ashamed of milking $500,000 salaries out of 401K's and the investments of retirees. Bankers should be ashamed of the scams they perpetrated which were one of the root causes the housing bubble and the Great Recession. Without shame the greed knows no bounds.
And it works on the other end of the spectrum, from a social worker friend I hear stories of parents on welfare with abusive situations with their kids being brought to a program to teach better parenting where they are provided a healthy meal and they complain that it isn't KFC or McDonalds. They should be ashamed of their ignorance and willing to accept assistance and be grateful for it.

Business Finally Catching On?

Comeback: Why the US Sits at the Brink of a New Boom | The Business Desk with Paul Solman | PBS NewsHour | PBS:

...The true costs of outsourcing often don't show up on earnings statements. For example, when General Electric, a pioneer of the original offshoring movement, began moving its appliance manufacturing back from China, they discovered how badly their designs had stagnated. With their production and design teams in the same plant and speaking the same language, they realized a 20 percent overall savings over their Chinese costs on their first "reshored" appliance by making big reductions in material and labor inputs...

Evil Apple: Wrecking The Economy Edition

Profits Without Production - NYTimes.com:

...Apple, by contrast, seems barely tethered to the material world. Depending on the vagaries of its stock price, it’s either the highest-valued or the second-highest-valued company in America, but it employs less than 0.05 percent of our workers. To some extent, that’s because it has outsourced almost all its production overseas. But the truth is that the Chinese aren’t making that much money from Apple sales either. To a large extent, the price you pay for an iWhatever is disconnected from the cost of producing the gadget. Apple simply charges what the traffic will bear, and given the strength of its market position, the traffic will bear a lot...

Bush FISA

Cannonfire:'"Nobody is listening to your phone calls": Oh REALLY...?'--

...As Ed Snowden pointed out in his interview, whatever protections we still have are really a matter of policy, not law. Policies change. Even if you trust Obama, one day you will live under a president you do not trust. That president will enact policies of his own.

Actually, as few now recall, Bush argued that FISA never applied to his administration.

Under Bush, anyone with even mildly left-wing views might find himself on a no-fly list. Peaceful nature conservancy groups were considered eco-terrorists and infiltrated by the FBI. If another Bush gets into power, what kind of protections do you expect to have when speaking privately on your cell phone?...

Crazy In NC:Taxing SS Edition

RALEIGH: Social Security tax bill could be political minefield for NC Republicans | State Politics | NewsObserver.com:

...As Republicans continue to work behind the scenes to strike a tax deal, Social Security is one major sticking points between the House and Senate bills – and a thorny political problem.

Senate leaders, in an unusual step, sent the tax legislation tentatively approved last week back to a committee Wednesday while they negotiate with House lawmakers and Gov. Pat McCrory to find a compromise measure before the end of session.

The Senate bill puts a state tax on Social Security income for some seniors with other sources of income. The House plan doesn’t touch it. And the governor has expressed concerns about the Senate approach...

O Snooped By Bush?

Russ Tice, Bush-Era Whistleblower, Claims NSA Ordered Wiretap Of Barack Obama In 2004:

Russ Tice, a former intelligence analyst who in 2005 blew the whistle on what he alleged was massive unconstitutional domestic spying across multiple agencies, claimed Wednesday that the NSA had ordered wiretaps on phones connected to then-Senate candidate Barack Obama in 2004...

More Leopard Spots

Rep. Davis calls for party official's resignation over racist email : News:

U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Ill., today called for the resignation of a county GOP chairman who derided Davis' black female primary opponent as a political "love child" and "street walker..."

Corps Are Not People Amendment

Tester’s Constitutional Amendment: Corporations are not ‘people’ | Jon Tester | U.S. Senator for Montana:

Senator Jon Tester today introduced a Constitutional Amendment clarifying that corporations are not "people," restoring the right of Congress to limit corporate influence in elections.

In introducing his amendment, Tester is heeding the call of Montana voters, who voted overwhelmingly in November to direct Montana's Congressional delegation to amend the U.S. Constitution to empower Congress to limit corporate spending in elections...

Crazy In NC: Meanie Edition

Raleigh sees orgy of meanness | The Asheville Citizen-Times | citizen-times.com:

...I covered politics throughout a long career in journalism without ever seeing a legislative session as overwhelmingly radical as that of the current General Assembly.

It’s an orgy of meanness, prejudice, nastiness, cruelty, shortsightedness, selfishness, spite, arrogance and conscious brutality. Three examples, among many, are the cynical forfeiture of extended unemployment insurance, expansion of Medicaid and repeal of the earned income tax credit. Now, they’re hatching a tax scheme that will increase the burdens of the poor and middle class, give a windfall to the wealthy and impose more destructive cuts on the schools and colleges...

Warren Says "No" To O-Man

U.S. Political News, Opinion and Analysis - HuffPost Politics:

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said Wednesday that she will vote against President Obama's top international trade nominee Michael Froman, over his refusal to make negotiations over a major trade agreement more transparent to the public. "I am voting against Mr. Froman’s nomination later today because I believe we need a new direction from the Trade Representative -- A direction that prioritizes transparency and public debate," Warren said on the Senate floor Wednesday...

Paul Flogs Darth

Rand Paul Attacks Dick Cheney, Bush Administration For Pre-9/11 Security Failures:

...When asked to respond to Cheney's comments that the Kentucky senator was wrong to criticize the National Security Agency surveillance programs, Paul hurled criticism at Cheney.

"Really, someone should have been removed from office for that, and they should have said this is never going to happen again," Rand said on the "really, really bad intelligence" and "really bad police work," that failed to thwart the attacks.

"Instead they said, ‘oh, we need to look at the records of all the innocent Americans’ phone calls every day.' And I think you need to have a respect for the Bill of Rights, a respect for privacy and particularly a respect for the fourth amendment," he said...

War Or Hope?

Iran's Last Chance | dagblog:

Hassan Rouhani, Iran's newly elected president, will serve for four years. By the end of his term, Iran and the U.S. will either reach an agreement, or they will go to war...

Good Medical News

CDC: HPV vaccine reduced disease rates in teen girls by 56 percent - CBS News:

Rates of HPV strains related to genital warts and some cancers have decreased 56 percent among American teen girls since a vaccine was introduced in 2006, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday...

BoA Whistleblowers

Bank of America whistle-blower’s bombshell: “We were told to lie” - Salon.com:

Bank of America’s mortgage servicing unit systematically lied to homeowners, fraudulently denied loan modifications, and paid their staff bonuses for deliberately pushing people into foreclosure: Yes, these allegations were suspected by any homeowner who ever had to deal with the bank to try to get a loan modification – but now they come from six former employees and one contractor, whose sworn statements were added last week to a civil lawsuit filed in federal court in Massachusetts.

“Bank of America’s practice is to string homeowners along with no apparent intention of providing the permanent loan modifications it promises,” said Erika Brown, one of the former employees. The damning evidence would spur a series of criminal investigations of BofA executives, if we still had a rule of law in this country for Wall Street banks...

No, Fetus Mastrubation Is Not Too Low

Rep. Michael Burgess Says 15-Week-Old Male Fetuses Pleasure Themselves - ABC News:

At what age do young boys begin sexual self-exploration? As early as 15 weeks in utero, according to Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas.

“Watch a sonogram of a 15-week baby, and they have movements that are purposeful,” said Burgess, a former obstetrician-gynecologist. “They stroke their face. If they’re a male baby, they may have their hand between their legs. If they feel pleasure, why is it so hard to believe that they could feel pain?”

The tea party congressman, 62, made the awkward argument during a House Rules Committee hearing today about H.R. bill 1797, which would ban abortions 20 weeks after fertilization...

Afghan Tunnel Light

Taliban Signal Readiness to Begin Peace Negotiations - NYTimes.com:

In a potentially groundbreaking move, the Taliban announced on Tuesday they were prepared to take the first step toward peace negotiations with the Afghanistan government after 12 years of war. The announcement was welcomed by the United States...

Clinton Gets Endorsement

Missouri Sen. McCaskill backs Clinton for president in '16 - First Read:

She's not a presidential candidate yet but Hillary Clinton is already starting to pile up the endorsements.

Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill Tuesday added her support to a growing roster of Democratic activists pushing the former secretary of state to make another bid for the White House in 2016. The nudge gives Clinton a marquee, swing-state backer and could be an early glimpse at a major source of support for any potential campaign -- Democratic women in the U.S. Senate...

Another Medical Horror Story

Chicago Hospital Accused of Cutting Throats for $160,000 - Bloomberg:

...Based in part on surreptitious tape recordings, an FBI affidavit lays out allegations that a Sacred Heart pulmonologist kept patients too sedated to breathe on their own, then ordered unneeded tracheotomies for them -- enabling the for-profit hospital to reap revenue of as much as $160,000 per case...

This is what you get when the profit motive rules the medical industry.

Stunner From SCOTUS

Supreme Court: Arizona law requiring citizenship proof for voters is illegal | Fox News:

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that states cannot on their own require would-be voters to prove they are U.S. citizens before using a federal registration system designed to make signing up easier.

The justices voted 7-2 to throw out Arizona's voter-approved requirement that prospective voters document their U.S. citizenship in order to use a registration form produced under the federal "Motor Voter" voter registration law...

Tax Cheaters Database

Offshore Tax-Haven Data Made Public As Companies Brace For Scrutiny:

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) on Friday made public what it calls the most extensive collection of records on offshore accounts in history, encouraging sleuths to ferret out possible tax evasion.

The online portal, called the Offshore Leaks Database, contains hundreds of thousands of records showing corporations set up in so-called "tax-haven" countries, gleaned from the contents of about 2.5 million emails and financial documents that ICIJ said it received in early 2012. Over the past year, the data have been used by journalists around the world to detail alleged tax evasion by billionaires, oligarchs, emirs, princes and multinational corporations on nearly every continent...

Darth Plays Pot And Kettle

Dick Cheney Calls Edward Snowden a 'Traitor' and Possibly a Chinese Spy | Video Cafe:

...Coming from the man who lied to the American people about WMD's. If old Deadeye Dick really thinks that this NSA leak is "one of the worst occasions [...] of somebody with access to classified information doing enormous damage to the national security interests of the United States," I've got a mirror he needs to go take a look in.

I've got plenty of questions about what Edward Snowden is doing in China as well, but this is the last guy on earth that I want to hear weigh in on it.

Perry's West Hypocrisy

Rick Perry Now Begging For Government Handouts (VIDEO):

...One must ask a question that few are asking. Why should the federal government and taxpayers be liable for the explosion of a private plant? Should not that plant be liable for rebuilding the damage caused from the company storing that quantity of explosive chemicals in an unsafe manner? This is a classic case of privatization of profits and socialization of losses/expenses. Perry fighting for a government handout for a private company explosion while refusing government subsidies to provide healthcare to the poor in his state is the height of immorality.

Texas Governor Rick Perry is more than a hypocrite. He is dangerous. While he claims to hate regulation, he systematically passes laws/regulations that infringe on women’s rights but refuses regulations to equalize their pay. He refuses government money that would go to the poor and needy even as he provides billions in incentives for business. He has become a conduit to move middle class taxes to the powerful.

Crazy In NC: Bully Edition

Moffitt, Ramsey engage in shameless bullying | The Asheville Citizen-Times | citizen-times.com:

...They also used to frown upon bullying, but no one seems to be putting the brakes on Moffitt, Ramsey and others who’ve decided to punish Asheville and other cities.

The people of North Carolina seem to be catching on to this, though, and we’re not going to sit down and shut up while these folks bully and intimidate those they should be representing.

ACA Plus Works For Sweden

What Sweden Can Tell Us About Obamacare - NYTimes.com:

...For that to happen, however, Congressional critics must abandon their futile efforts to repeal Obamacare and focus instead on improving it. Their core premise — that greater government involvement in health care provision spells disaster — lacks support in the wealth of evidence from around the world that bears on it.

The truth appears closer to the reverse: Because of pervasive market failures in private health care markets, this may be the sector that benefits most from collective action.

Your Congress At Not Work

Senators skip classified briefing on NSA snooping to catch flights home - The Hill - covering Congress, Politics, Political Campaigns and Capitol Hill | TheHill.com:

...“It’s hard to get this story out. Even now we have this big briefing — we’ve got Alexander, we’ve got the FBI, we’ve got the Justice Department, we have the FISA Court there, we have Clapper there — and people are leaving,” she said.

The Ghost Of Mitt

Miners Say They Were Forced To Attend Romney Campaign Event Without Pay: 'We Knew What Would Happen' | ThinkProgress:

When Mitt Romney campaigned at an Ohio coal mine earlier this month, he might not have realized that the miners were forced to be there — without pay — by the owner, Murray Energy...

Election Surprise In Iran

Moderate cleric Rohani wins Iran presidential election - Israel News, Ynetnews:

Moderate cleric Hassan Rohani won Iran's presidential election on Saturday, the interior ministry said, scoring a surprising landslide victory over conservative hardliners without the need of a second round run-off...

Comment Of The Day: San Diego Diocese Edition

San Diego Diocese: Domestic Violence Victims Attract Wrong Kind Of People To Parent-Teacher Night: SorosBot 144p � 6 hours ago

I can see why Rahm Emmanuel and the educations "reformers" hate the teachers' unions so much, why were this a public school they would have protected Ms. Charlesworth from this totally justified firing.

The Devil And Fox

Murdoch Divorce Stuns Satan : The New Yorker

Congress Leads...

...in the Scum of the Earth Sweepstakes.

Gallup: Congress hits rock bottom - Hadas Gold - POLITICO.com:

...“This is the lowest level of confidence Gallup has found, not only for Congress, but for any institution on record,” according to a statement by Gallup’s Elizabeth Mendes and Joy Wilke...

Congress did trail such luminaries as the clap and the Kardashians

Issa Fails Again

Darrell Issa's IRS Investigation Is Falling Apart - Businessweek:

...“We’re not anywhere near being able to jump to conclusions,” Camp told reporters, including Bloomberg’s Richard Rubin, on Wednesday. So the IRS investigations will continue. But it’s getting harder to imagine that they’ll turn up evidence of a Nixonian plot, and if they don’t, Issa will have failed again.

Amazing Gun Facts, 1

Toddlers Killed More Americans Than Terrorists Did This Year:

... Listed below are the 11 gun fatalities I found where a preschooler pulled the trigger (from Jan. 1 to June 9, 2013). Starting with a list of five toddler shooting deaths The Jewish Daily Forward published in early May, I unearthed six additional cases. This tragic, unthinkable event has happened every month, like clock-work...

Racist Snooping?

Simply Left BehindThe Non-Rapturist's Guide To The Galaxy: Big Whoop:

...Oh. Well. I see now. The program doesn’t track terrorists per se. Only brown-skinned ones. Well, that’s much better. We white people are free to bomb marathons, abortion clinics, and murder Arabic and Arabic-looking folks to our hearts content.

Terrorism is terrorism, whether it’s 19 Saudis flying planes into buildings, a couple of lunatics with rifles picking off passersby, or the NRA threatening your daughter with rape if you don’t buy her a gun. Period. It’s only security theater to think that only Muslims mean us harm.

Big Pharma Loses One

Supreme Court says human genes cannot be patented - CBS News:

The Supreme Court says companies cannot patent human genes, a decision that could profoundly affect the medical and biotechnology industries.

In a unanimous decision, the court struck down patents held by Myriad Genetics Inc. on two genes linked to increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer...

More GOPer Biology

Another Republican in hot water for claiming ‘very low’ pregnancy rate from rape | Toronto Star:

...Trent Franks, an Arizona congressman, made the comments at a House of Representatives committee meeting that was exploring a measure that would ban all abortions after 20 weeks without exception.

“The incidents of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low,” Franks, who authored the bill, said as he argued against a Democratic amendment to the legislation that would allow exceptions for rape and incest...

Speaking Lies To Power

Seeking to tamp fears, confusion, intelligence officials defend spy programs as safeguards - The Washington Post:

 Dogged by fear and confusion about sweeping spy programs, intelligence officials sought to convince House lawmakers in an unusual briefing Tuesday that the government’s years-long collection of phone records and Internet usage is necessary for protecting Americans — and does not trample on their privacy rights.

But the country’s main civil liberties organization wasn’t buying it, filing the most significant lawsuit against the sweeping phone record collection program so far. The American Civil Liberties Union and its New York chapter sued the federal government Tuesday in New York, asking a court to demand that the Obama administration end the program and purge the records it has collected....

Speaking of that...

Crazy In NC: Clergy Bustin' Edition

RALEIGH: Clergy lead Monday protests at General Assembly | State Politics | NewsObserver.com:

Despite tornado warnings across the state, several thousand demonstrators gathered Monday under rainy skies to continue the weekly protests of the new policies and laws coming out of the General Assembly.

This week, religious leaders from around the state led the rally that resulted more than 80 arrests, according to Jamie Phillips, an state NAACP attorney. A reporter with The Charlotte Observer, who was interviewing demonstrators, was among those detained.

Many arrested were clergy...

What We All Want

All That I Ask - Esquire:

...Please, if it's not too damn much trouble, can you tell me what's being done in my name?

That has been the essential plea of the citizen of a democratic political commonwealth for going on 70 years now, since the war powers and their attendant influence detached themselves from -- or were abandoned entirely by -- the constitutional authority in which they were supposed to reside. That was the plea that was answered, officially, by the incredibly brave Frank Church and his committee, and by the House Committee on Assassinations (the case of the murder of a president in broad daylight is still open, by the way). That was the plea that has been answered, unofficially, by Ron Ridenhour about My Lai, and by Sy Hersh about a lot of the things the Church committee opened up, and by those guys in Lebanon with the mimeograph machine concerning Iran-Contra, and by Bob Parry and so many others during the era of Reagan triumphalism, and by people like the invaluable Charlie Savage and Jane Mayer and others when the country lost its mind after 9/11, and, yes, by Jeremy Scahill and whoever he talks to, and, yes, by Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden, too...

Fascism Today

Forward Progressives — When Fascism Comes to America, It Will Be Cloaked In Patriotism:

...Working class people have been voting against their own self-interests for a long time now, especially here in the South since the beginning of Nixon’s “Southern Strategy.” They’ve been convinced that minorities and liberals will take their rights and jobs away, so they turn around and vote for the people who actually do take their rights and jobs away.

Fascism draws strength through the public’s need for patriotism and religion, hence the flag and cross reference in the misattributed Sinclair Lewis quote. Wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross, many of us have been duped by “patriotic” legislation like “Right To Work,” “Citizens United” and ”The Patriot Act” which has received a lot of attention lately with the NSA leak...

Comment Of The Day: NC Crazy Edition

A Teacher's Letter to the General Assembly - Chapelboro.com:
Gerald smith says:

June 7, 2013 at 10:32 am

To blah, etc, did you notice the very first thing our governor did was “give” his cabinet a 9% raise? And my sympath is with teachers, and all who work in our education system, there is no higher calling and am not a teacher. Speak for yourself as that really is the only one you can speak for! [sic]

Gun Deja Vu

Another kid with an AR-15 - Salon.com:

...And yet, the scene is all too quotidian and real. It follows a familiar script: A young man — Zawahri’s 24th birthday would have been on Saturday — who suffered from emotional and psychological problems — he was previously hospitalized for mental illness — wielding an AR-15 rifle — the same gun used at Sandy Hook and Aurora and Oregon and countless other shootings — to kill innocent people who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. In this case, five dead, including the gunman, and at least four others injured.

The parallels with alleged Newtown shooter Adam Lanza go even deeper. Zawahri’s parents were divorced and he lived with his mother, whom neighbors desired as a “lovely woman…with a crazy kid.” “John had a fascination with guns,” a friend told the Los Angeles Times. “We were all worried about it.” And, like Lanza, he shot his parent before launching his rampage...

Healthcare Math

The Healthcare Market Is Robbing The Middle Class And Here’s The Proof:

...Simple math dictates that if there are many entities managing the payment of medical bills, each with its own bureaucracy (CEO, President, Board of Directors, advertising, IT systems, shareholder profits, etc.), it is impossible for such an entity to be more efficient than one entity responsible for paying a medical bill. A single payer system, a system where one entity is standardized to pay all medical bills that ALL abled Americans pay into, is much more efficient. It is basic arithmetic...

...The 60 Minutes piece can be summarized as follows. In order to maintain high profits, Health Management Associates (HMA) hospital administrators forced doctors through coercion to admit patients to hospitals whether they needed to or not. Additionally they forcefully encourage doctors to provide unnecessary tests. ..

Who ARE You?

Play a little Who music as you read this.

Simply Left BehindThe Non-Rapturist's Guide To The Galaxy: I Don't Buy It:

...So he’s [Edward Snowden] a high school drop out (CNN’s wording), never got even an associate’s degree in computer science, was discharged from the Army at age 20, and was hired by the CIA to do computer security work...after spending most of his adult life shouldering a gun only.

Does any of that even begin to make any sense to anyone? The CIA requires experts in their field, either from experience or from education, neither of which appears to be the case for Snowden, unless he did some bang-up job for the Army fresh out of high school...

He does seem awfully articulate for a drop-out.

It's Not One World: Afghan Edition

2 Afghan boys beheaded by Taliban fighters, officials say | Fox News:

Taliban fighters sent a clear message to villagers about cooperating with the Afghan government when they beheaded two local boys – ages 10 and 16, officials say...

Brain Power

Helicopter takes to the skies with the power of human thought:

...Lead author of the study Professor Bin He, from the University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering, said: "Our study shows that for the first time, humans are able to control the flight of flying robots using just their thoughts, sensed from noninvasive brain waves."

The noninvasive technique used was electroencephalography (EEG), which recorded the electrical activity of the subjects' brain through a cap fitted with 64 electrodes...

Ok. When I can I start mind-typing?

NSA Leak ID'd

Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations | World news | guardian.co.uk:

The individual responsible for one of the most significant leaks in US political history is Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. Snowden has been working at the National Security Agency for the last four years as an employee of various outside contractors, including Booz Allen and Dell...

Koch Blocked: PBS Edition

Don't Let The Koch Brothers Censor PBS!:

"Citizen Koch," a documentary on how Citizens United has warped American politics, has been rejected by PBS because it offended billionaire industrialist David Koch...

Crazy In NC: Mayoral Edition

O Not Behind IRS

Democrat: IRS testimony shows no White House involvement - chicagotribune.com:

A conservative Republican overseeing Internal Revenue Service screeners in Cincinnati told congressional investigators that he does not believe the White House was behind IRS scrutiny of conservative groups, a leading Democratic lawmaker said on Sunday...

Political Horror Film?

"The Purge": A Horror Flick About…Income Inequality!? | Mother Jones:

...Blum is correct in saying that it is, at its heart, a genre picture. The Purge (made by Michael Bay's horror-movie-centric production house Platinum Dunes, and written and directed by James DeMonaco) is really about Ethan Hawke's family getting attacked in the middle of the night by a mob of ridiculous, bloodlusty college kids. But the film is also unavoidably, overtly, and intentionally political. On talk radio playing in the background, a couple commentators ponder whether The Purge might be nothing more

than a means to exterminate all "non-contributing" members of society. They discuss how the "real victims" of the annual bloodbaths are the poor who "can't afford to protect themselves." And the leader of the homicidal, plutocratic teens (a Joker-knockoff played by Rhys Wakefield) refers to his wealthy cohorts as "the haves," and the humane and homeless war veteran as a "pig" and social parasite. Basically, large chunks of the film scream the words, "INCOME INEQUALITY PLAGUING THE UNITED STATES" right into the audience's faces. (And, as the New York Times' Manohla Dargis points out, the emblem for the New Founders of America, or NFA, resembles an NRA logo.)...

Quit Exercising Your Rights!

Texas high school silences Valedictorian's microphone during speech on Constitution, report says | Fox News:

A Texas high school silenced its Valedictorian’s microphone during his speech when he diverted from his pre-approved remarks and instead spoke about the Constitution...

Spying-- Who Should Be In Jail?

Cannonfire: "PRISM and the plot AGAINST Obama"

...The State Department cables allegedly released by Manning were mostly harmless piffle. By contrast, this sealed Search Warrant, so kindly provided by the Washington Post, may have helped Kim Jong-Un identify an American intelligence source deep within the North Korean power structure. That, my friends, is pretty freakin' important.

So why is Manning on trial in Fort Meade as we speak, while the writers and editors of the Washington Post sleep the sleep of the protected?...

An Uncrazed GOPer

Republican Lawmaker Fearlessly Tells The Truth About Abortion | Liberals Unite:

In a downpour of Republican Anti-Choice and Anti-Women bills that drench the news, a ray of truth shines through.Rep. Doug Cox of Oklahoma, a rare Republican lawmaker who supports a woman’s right to choose, responded to a new onslaught of Oklahoma laws that aspire to deny women birth control, contraception and abortion. Cox, who is also a physician, wrote to Oklahoma’s NEWSOK. In his letter he made some pretty bold statements, which are quite contrary to the majority of his party:...

Doing Evil: Koch Edition, 1

Why the Shrinking Republican Party Could Kill Liberals | The Big Slice:

Two years ago, in a move that barely made headlines – even to those of us who follow these sorts of things – the Koch brothers’ older half, Charles Koch, bought the Florida State University Economics Department. What does this mean for this 64th ranked economics school in the country? It means that Florida’s taxpayers are no longer paying for a balanced education. As with the worst in private educational institutions, they are paying for an agenda.

The deal came at a price. Koch has veto power over all hires. He has ability to control the curriculum – including requiring the reading of Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged,” the modern libertarian’s bible.

Of course, the ramifications go far beyond the state of Florida. The Koch funded Florida State School of Economics will soon unleash a new batch of economists and people who will help mold the nation’s economic policies for generations to come.

We are witnessing the collapse of a party. The leaders of the Republican party are ideologues. It has devolved from a party of relatively pragmatic people to an unholy marriage of evangelicalism and libertarianism. Some, like Paul Ryan, are somehow able to pay lip service to both...

Judges Gone Wild

Judicial Diva Gone Wild? Chief Judge Jones Tells Judge Dennis to ‘Shut Up’ � Above the Law: A Legal Web Site – News, Commentary, and Opinions on Law Firms, Lawyers, Law Schools, Law Suits, Judges and Courts Career Resources:

Can you enforce civility by being… uncivil? That’s the question being raised, over and over again, by federal judges from Texas these days...

Hypocrisy In The Farm Bill

Welfare for the Wealthy - NYTimes.com:

... For the God-fearing Fincher is one of the largest recipients of U.S.D.A. farm subsidies in Tennessee history; he raked in $3.48 million in taxpayer cash from 1999 to 2012, $70,574 last year alone. The average SNAP recipient in Tennessee gets $132.20 in food aid a month; Fincher received $193 a day. (You can eat pretty well on that.) [4]

Fincher is not alone in disgrace, even among his Congressional colleagues, but he makes a lovely poster boy for a policy that steals taxpayer money from the poor and so-called middle class to pay the rich, while propping up a form of agriculture that’s unsustainable and poisonous...

O Loose From His Shackles?

Obama Unbound - The Daily Beast:

...Since the election, it’s been more Obama unbound. He’s appointed a wildly controversial Defense secretary who has talked bluntly about his determination to keep America out of future wars. Then, late last month, he gave a speech vowing to close Guant�namo Bay and declaring the “war on terror” over. Now he’s appointing Rice. It’s quite a change. In 2009, Obama chose a Defense secretary and a national-security adviser Washington Republicans loved. This year, he’s chosen a Defense secretary and a national-security adviser they hate. The reason: he no longer needs to care as much what they think...

General Says Respect All

General deals major blow to military’s superiority myth - Salon.com:

...But whether or not you like McChrystal, nobody questions his loyalty to the military itself, which makes his declaration particularly significant. Here you have the rare military leader who is willing to publicly reject Military Exceptionalism, to insist that America show equal respect to all kinds of public service, and to additionally declare that military service is one way to build patriotic character – but not the only way.

In America, that’s a radical notion – but it only is because we are so inculcated to accept the assumptions baked into the theology of militarism. But when even a general steps up and starts questioning those core assumptions, it is a welcome signal that the theology may finally be on its way out.

Screwing The Working Man: Part Infinity

This Is Capitalism Now: How a Coal Company Bilked 20,000 Workers Out of Health Benefits - Matthew O'Brien - The Atlantic:

...Well, guess what. Patriot went bust. And now, as the Wall Street Journal reports, a bankruptcy judge has ruled that it can discharge its $1.6 billion of union healthcare obligations and replace it with ... a $300 million trust, "tens of millions" more in revenue sharing, and 35 percent of the stock of the new Patriot Coal. Not much. Now, it's not completely clear if Peabody deliberately designed Patriot to fail -- that got a "maybe" or "maybe not" from the judge -- as Temple University business professor Bruce Rader has argued. But it is clear that Peabody dumped the legacy liabilities and assets it didn't want in Patriot, which, being generous, added several degrees of difficulty to it being a going concern...

Rice Liars Lambasted

Susan Rice 1, Rand Paul 0 - Salon.com:

...By lying about Rice’s role – she played no part in the behind-the-scenes controversy between the CIA and the State Department over how much and what to say about the attacks – Paul undermines his own moral authority. But lately that’s no impediment to influence within his party. (It’s possible that Paul isn’t smart enough to understand the details of what the Benghazi emails revealed, but that’s not a problem in his party either.)...

O'Keefe Kisses An ACORN Butt

James O'Keefe Pays $100,000 To ACORN Employee He Smeared-Conservative Media Yawns - Forbes:

 ...It seems that the master of the cleverly edited—if highly deceptive—video reel is now being required to pay the sum of $100,000 to Juan Carlos Vera, a one time California employee of ACORN. Mr. Vera had been portrayed by O’Keefe as being a willing participant when O’Keefe and his accomplice, Hanna Giles, proposed smuggling young women into the United States to work as prostitutes...

The Big Lies

Cover Up? Uncovered News Is The Real Scandal (VIDEO):

...Things are never as they seem. The mainstream media keeps the populace distracted generally with frivolities as decisions that are impactful and many times damaging to the middle class remain uncovered and under the radar. The real scandal in America is that there is a big cover up. There is a cover up of real news. The free press is really the owned and manipulated press.

There is hope and resolve however. As long as the fight to keep the Internet open and accessible remains, those wanting to provide real information and news will provide it. It is incumbent on them however to ensure it reaches the ‘necessary’ consumer.

Crazy In NC: Moral Monday Edition

U.S. Political News, Opinion and Analysis - HuffPost Politics:

 Upwards of 1,600 demonstrators amassed outside the North Carolina General Assembly in Raleigh on Monday, railing against the "extreme agenda" of the GOP-controlled legislature, WNCN reported. As attendees of the "Mega Moral Monday" protest spilled from the square outside the building and into the state Senate chambers, WRAL reported that 151 were arrested and released by 5 a.m. on Tuesday. Monday's demonstration is the latest in a series of "Moral Monday" events organized by the North ...

The Fiscal Sky Is Not Falling

The Geezers Are All Right - NYTimes.com:

...But haven’t all the great and the good been telling us that Social Security and Medicare as we know them are unsustainable, that they must be totally revamped — and made much less generous? Why yes, they have; they’ve also been telling us that we must slash spending right away or we’ll face a Greek-style fiscal crisis. They were wrong about that, and they’re wrong about the longer run, too.

The truth is that the long-term outlook for Social Security and Medicare, while not great, actually isn’t all that bad. It’s time to stop obsessing about how we’ll pay benefits to retirees in 2035 and focus instead on how we’re going to provide jobs to unemployed Americans in the here and now.

The Other White Minority

Update: Please read the comments.

Appalachian Americans: The Invisible Minority - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com:

Appalachian-Americans are not generally discussed in multicultural textbooks or thought of as a distinct cultural group, yet they exhibit major cultural differences when compared to the common social construct of 'white America'. For this reason they continue to be marginalised, even in a time when acceptance of ethnic minorities and ideals of a pluralistic society are the norm...

...Coal companies hired thugs to intimidate both miners and outsiders who might bring attention to exploitation that bordered on slavery. Union members' houses "were raided by dozens of machine-gun-carrying deputies. Miners were beaten and murdered..." (Rorrer, n.d.)...

...The centuries-old stereotype that anyone with an Appalachian accent possesses a "natural stupidity," is still perpetuated by the media. Television shows like "Beverly Hillbillies", "Green Acres" and "Hee Haw" have been described as "the most intensive effort ever exerted by a nation to belittle, demean and otherwise destroy a minority people within its boundaries" (Bower & Growick, 2003). In one night of reruns, hillbillies are shown being conned into buying the White House, cuddling a talking pig, and rising from a corn patch "to cark the sickest jokes on TV..." (Bower & Growick, 2003). ...

These excerpts are only part of the article, which is long, detailed, and well-cited.

 

Bill Flogs O?

Notice the source before you get too excited.

EXCLUSIVE: Obama was pushed by Clintons into endorsement of Hillary in 2016: book - NYPOST.com:

...According to two people who attended that meeting in Chappaqua, Bill Clinton then went on a rant against Obama.

“I’ve heard more from Bush, asking for my advice, than I’ve heard from Obama,” my sources quoted Clinton as saying. “I have no relationship with the president — none whatsoever. Obama doesn’t know how to be president. He doesn’t know how the world works. He’s incompetent. He’s an amateur!”...

Rove Lies Again

Karl Rove Melts Down When Confronted With Evidence of Bush IRS Investigation:

...Rove lied about his association with GPS by leaving out one important detail. Rove isn’t on the board, but GPS works in direct conjunction with the group Rove founded and still advises, American Crossroads. Rove saying that he isn’t involved with GPS was just like Mitt Romney claiming that his presidential campaign wasn’t involved with the pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future.

Plouffe was correct. Liberal groups were also targeted by the IRS. Bloomberg reported that the IRS sent the same letter to Democrats that they sent to tea partiers. The IRS did something to the liberal group Emerge America that they never did to the conservatives. They revoked their tax exempt status.

Stop me if you have heard this one before, but when confronted with evidence of the Bush administration targeting liberal groups, all Rove could do was stammer the word baloney repeatedly. Under George W. Bush, the IRS investigated the NAACP’s tax status for two years. Rove even gave the reason for the payback when he pointed to the Bush administration’s outrage over an ad that the NAACP had run...

The War On...Continues

...the weak, the powerless, the disenfranchised, the poor... continues.

From the Mouths of Babes - NYTimes.com:

 ...Indeed, estimates from the consulting firm Moody’s Analytics suggest that each dollar spent on food stamps in a depressed economy raises G.D.P. by about $1.70 — which means, by the way, that much of the money laid out to help families in need actually comes right back to the government in the form of higher revenue.

Wait, we’re not done yet. Food stamps greatly reduce food insecurity among low-income children, which, in turn, greatly enhances their chances of doing well in school and growing up to be successful, productive adults. So food stamps are in a very real sense an investment in the nation’s future — an investment that in the long run almost surely reduces the budget deficit, because tomorrow’s adults will also be tomorrow’s taxpayers.

So what do Republicans want to do with this paragon of programs? First, shrink it; then, effectively kill it...

Speaking For All Women...

Marsha Blackburn: Women 'Don't Want' Equal Pay Laws:

Republican congresswoman Marsha Blackburn said on Sunday that women "don't want" equal pay laws...

UnEvil Apple: Woz Edition

Apple Loop: Cook Says Apple is Still Cool, Woz Says Pay Up On Taxes, SFers Say Store Design All Wet - Forbes:

...To recap: the Senate says that Apple used tax loopholes, and an Irish holding company, to avoid paying billions of dollars in U.S. taxes. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, in an interview with Sky News, said “criticism of Apple’s tax policies is extremely warranted, in my mind” because the company was taking advantage of a system that allows it to maximize profit, even if ethically it appeared wrong. His solution for the U.S.: tax large firms like individuals. “People are not taxed on profit; they are taxed on income. Corporations should be taxed the same as people, in my mind that is how it should be, that would make things fair and right. That means corporations pay taxes on all of their revenues or people only pay it on a tiny amount called profit and until we rectify that, the whole problem is just with us forever...”

Imho, Woz was and will always be the real genius behind Apple's early success.

Crazier Exit Slam

Karl Rove Says Good Riddance To Michele Bachmann: She ‘Did Nothing’ | Mediaite:

On This Week With George Stephanopoulos, Karl Rove greeted Minnesota Republican Michele Bachmann’s retirement as an opportunity to fill both her congressional seat and her committee presence with a more effective Republican.

“It will be an opening for the Tea Party,” Rove said. “Michele Bachmann was the chairman of the Congressional Tea Party Caucus, and in that positon did nothing. Now the position is open, someone next year will accept the chairmanship of it, and they may do something with it...”

The Unquiet Ghosts Of The Left

Smartypants: Apparently its not just MSNBC that's in trouble:

...Cynicism doesn't attract eyeballs. But more importantly, it kills any effort to build a movement. Years ago Tim Wise pointed out how people of color (President Obama's REAL base) know better.

Invariably, it seems it is we in the white community who obsess over our own efficacy, and fail to recognize the value of commitment, irrespective of outcome. People of color, on the other hand, never having been burdened with the illusion that the world was their oyster, and thus, anything they touched could and should turn to gold, usually take a more reserved, and I would say healthier view of the world and the prospects for change. They know (as indeed they must) that the thing being fought for, at least if it's worth having, will require more than a part-time effort, and will not likely come in the lifetimes of those presently fighting for it. And it is that knowledge which allows a strength and resolve few members of the dominant majority will ever, can ever, know...

Is The Body Back?

Ventura dangles idea of 2016 presidential bid - Yahoo! News:

Just back from his part-time home in Mexico, former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura dangled the idea Friday that he could run for the U.S. presidency in 2016.

Ventura eagerly volunteered the possibility while at Minnesota's Capitol — and pushed back against skepticism that he would re-enter the political fray after being out of office since 2003. It's hardly the first time the publicity savvy Ventura has broached the idea he would run for the White House or Senate, only to pass on a campaign...