While journalists examined thousands of newly released documents from the Clinton White House in search of salacious details, Fox News' Shepard Smith mocked the coverage as "beat-up-the-Clintons day again" before concluding that the documents show "Hillary didn't do anything..."
Rep. Steve King says the Republican Party needs to be “better obstructionists.”The mind boggles at the possible rebuttals for this fool.
“This country wouldn’t be in this angst that it’s in today if we had been better obstructionists when they tried to jam Obamacare at us,” the Iowa Republican said on CNN’s “New Day” on Friday...
King said that “stopping bad ideas” is his job, so long as Democrats are in control of the White House and Senate.
[Sen.Sandders] ..."Don't tell me that enabling a family to have a child is a political issue," he said. "When you have a 70-year-old woman taking care of her husband who had both legs blown off in Vietnam, and she's taking care of him 24 hours a day, don't tell me that's a political issue. I find it incredible that we had several Democrats come down to speak but very few Republicans, and then, when they did, I heard Iran sanctions and I heard Benghazi. Tell me what Benghazi or Iran sanctions have to do with caring for our veterans."
And thus it is that the sausage doesn't get itself made.
SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine — Masked gunmen seized government buildings in the capital of the Crimea region of Ukraine, barricaded themselves inside and raised the Russian flag, raising the specter of a separatist rebellion that could tear the country apart...
When did conservatives become prisoners to idiotic vulgarity? I ask that question as someone who self-defines as conservative and who is sick and tired of being embarrassed by Ted Nugent.
Last month the aged rocker called President Barack Obama a "subhuman mongrel" in an interview with Guns.com. That was bad enough, but what was just as shocking was the willingness of Texas GOP gubernatorial nominee Greg Abbott to keep him aboard his campaign...
An Arizona bill passed last week that would allow business owners to deny service to gays and lesbians has made a lot of people angry. Now it looks like Apple’s CEO Tim Cook may be one of them. After the Arizona statehouse passed measure bill last Thursday, Apple urged Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer to veto it, reports CNN Money...
Following the passing of a controversial bill which allows Arizona business owners to turn away lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) patrons, "Star Trek" alum George Takei posted a scathing open letter on his blog calling for a boycott of the state itself if the law is enacted...
...It's this devaluing of middle-class workers, says economist William Galston in The Wall Street Journal, that more than any other factor has created the cavernous income gap between the wealthiest 1 percent and everyone else. The implicit contract that created America's postwar economic boom — in which loyal, productive employees got big raises when the company enjoyed big profits — has given way to a new ethos. Nearly all profits go to executives and stockholders; workers get tiny raises at most, along with a cut in benefits. This philosophy, Harold Meyerson points out in The Washington Post, got its start in the 1970s and '80s, when American business "abandoned its earlier stakeholder model," in which workers were valued partners. In the current "shareholder model," the only goal is to maximize profits and stock value. Until corporations get consciences or workers get more leverage, the income gap will keep widening. Got that? Now stop whining, you ingrates, and get back to work.
...I am no liberal and I'm not preoccupied with the consequences of income inequality. But I can't figure out why the liberal elite that purports to care about inequality isn't asking these questions: Why do we provide favorable tax treatment that primarily benefits these wealthy schools? Why not at least phase out tax preferences to donors and to schools with more than, say, a $200,000 endowment per student? Why allow schools that show legacy admission preferences the right to claim special tax privileges?
Maybe many of these liberal leaders went to one of these highly endowed schools -- and want their children and grandchildren to have the same opportunity.
...Perhaps the biggest scandal in Amazon’s recent history took place at its Allentown, Pennsylvania, center during the summer of 2011. The scandal was the subject of a prizewinning series in the Allentown newspaper, the Morning Call, by its reporter Spencer Soper. The series revealed the lengths Amazon was prepared to go to keep costs down and output high and yielded a singular image of Amazon’s ruthlessness—ambulances stationed on hot days at the Amazon center to take employees suffering from heat stroke to the hospital. Despite the summer weather, there was no air-conditioning in the depot, and Amazon refused to let fresh air circulate by opening loading doors at either end of the depot—for fear of theft. Inside the plant there was no slackening of the pace, even as temperatures rose to more than 100 degrees...
...Kathleen Willey, Monica Lewinsky, Paula Jones and the rest of those "wronged women" are not the key to electoral success for Republicans. Neither is a complete focus on bashing Hillary Clinton. It might make certain conservative Republicans feel good, but it won't win them the White House in 2016.
...Bachmann, the only female GOP candidate in 2012's presidential election, says in a new interview that people "aren't ready" for a female commander in chief.With one breath, Crazier manages to insult two major voting blocs. Fight on, crazy warrior.
"I think there was a cachet about having an African-American president because of guilt," she told columnist Cal Thomas. "People don't hold guilt for a woman..."
...Democrats and Republicans alike see Nugent as a turn-out catalyst, in Texas and perhaps beyond. He outrages Democrats and mainstream Republicans — but he fires up a segment of the GOP base, which is so enamored of Nugent’s fiery anti-Barack Obama rhetoric and defense of gun rights that it can overlook the singer’s tawdry history. A case in point: Sarah Palin wrote on her Facebook page that if Greg Abbott “is good enough for Ted Nugent, he’s good enough for me!”....
...Osterloh, who is also on VW’s supervisory board, added, “If co-determination isn’t guaranteed in the first place, we as workers will hardly be able to vote in favor” of new production facilities in Southern American states.
That’s not exactly the outcome Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and his allies presented during the voting process last week...
...Her charges are part of a federal lawsuit filed by seven former employees against Harris and its parent company, Premier Education Group, which owns more than two dozen trade schools and community colleges operating under several names in 10 states. The suit contends that while charging more than $10,000 for programs lasting less than a year, school officials routinely misled students about their career prospects, and falsified records to enroll them and keep them enrolled, so that government grant and loan dollars would keep flowing...No surprises here.
TransCanada Corp. (TRP)’s Keystone XL pipeline route through Nebraska was ruled illegal by a state court judge in a decision seen as setting back the project by as long as a year as U.S. officials consider needed approval.
The ruling prolongs the approval process in Nebraska as the Obama administration reviews whether to approve the multi-state extension of the international project.
“This gives the U.S. State Department and Obama an out,” said Bob Schulz, a University of Calgary business professor, who predicted there will be an appeal of the ruling. “Why would they decide if they don’t have to decide? I think he’s going to push it back another year...”
An employee at a Myers Park gourmet food store was fired after Gov. Pat McCrory’s security detail complained Sunday about a comment the worker made to the governor...Yes, there's a gourmet food store that needs to be go out of business.
Texas Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott is facing criticism over his decision to campaign with National Rifle Association board member Ted Nugent because of the rocker's inflammatory attacks on women and racially charged commentary about President Obama...
Is it us, or have America’s ultrawealthy been sounding increasingly unhinged lately? Despite the fact that the wealth of the 1 percent jumped 31 percent from 2009 to 2012 while the other 99 percent of America saw a gain of only 0.4 percent, the rich are very upset, and they need to tell us about it. Maybe it’s all the talk about income inequality that’s gotten them so stirred up. Whatever it is, here are five signs that the zillionaires seem to be losing it...
Mitt Romney's revisionist history regarding Bill Clinton needs to be thoroughly cleansed. Romney thinks that Bill Clinton embarrassed the country...Great response by the Daily PUMA. Check it out here.
Handicappers in the presidential race abhor the opposite of a vacuum—a campaign two years out where one candidate seems to blot out the entire field. Thus a mini-chorus now rises, and may swell, questioning Hillary Clinton’s apparent lock on the 2016 Democratic nomination. It’s a predictable reflex, but in cold, hard reality, logic suggests that the lock is authentic, not just apparent. And in modern history, or virtually all American history, Hillary’s inevitability is unprecedented for a non-incumbent...
Yates County Republican Chairwoman Sandy King says Donald Trump will run for governor if Republicans back him...The Democrats say: "Run, Donald. Run!"
Mitt Romney revisited Bill Clinton’s White House escapades during an interview with NBC’s David Gregory on Sunday, saying the former Democratic president “embarrassed the nation” and “breached his responsibility as an adult and a leader.”
The 2012 Republican nominee for president made the remarks while discussing the resurgence of talk surrounding Bill Clinton’s sexual dalliances with many women, including White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
Led largely by Republican senator and 2016 presidential hopeful Rand Paul, Republicans have tried to put Hillary and other Democrats on the defensive, calling Bill Clinton a sexual predator who disrespects women...When you have no issues, dredge the past. Two words for anyone wanting to use past political personal issues as campaign fodder: George Bush.
Warning that weather-related disasters will only get worse, President Barack Obama said Friday the U.S. must rethink the way it uses water as he announced new federal aid to help drought-stricken California.
Obama drew a clear connection between California's troubles and climate change as he toured part of a farm that will go unsown this year as the state faces its worst drought in more than 100 years. Even if the U.S. takes action now to curb pollution, the planet will keep getting warmer "for a long time to come" thanks to greenhouse gases that have already built up, Obama said....
For some reason many of the wealthy have been speaking out about feeling persecuted. Are these people living in a different world? It is the working poor and the working middle class that has afforded them the lifestyle they have.
It is not true that they work more or harder than the average American. What is true that the American economic system is designed to favor those who have chosen certain professions. Those benefits are extended with favorable laws that give them an inordinate advantage. Why does a stock broker or banker make more than an engineer? The engineer makes things. The stock broker moves money.
The only ones that should feel persecuted are the working poor and working middle class.
As billionaire Warren Buffet puts it, “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning...”
A casually clad Joe Biden rallied House Democrats at a party retreat in Maryland on Friday - blasting the GOP for disorganization and affirming liberal allies that the country was with the Democrats.Another reason for Joe to stay out of the presidential race-- he cannot see the forest for the trees. The real GOP is alive and well and screwing the country at every turn while the Obama Administration either can't or won't see the shades of evil lurking in the jumble of GOP deforestation.
The Vice President said “there is no Republican Party. I wish there were.”
"I wish there was one person you could sit across the table from and make a deal," he continued, about the competing factions of the GOP.
Though the bulk of the Republican Party has no appetite for more economic brinksmanship, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) apparently does. This week, he demanded a cloture vote on raising the debt ceiling, which requires 60 votes to pass, thus ensuring that at least some Republicans would have to side with Democrats on the procedural motion...
...The contract, which actually called for the purchase of up to 450 million rounds over five years, would only provide the 100,000 law enforcement agents that serve DHS and its subsidiaries a maximum of 900 rounds per year, hardly an unusual figure for law enforcement agents who need to show proficiency with a firearm. According to DHS, the amount of ammunition purchased by the agency -- which comprises just a small fraction of the overall ammo market -- has actually fallen since 2010:...
Without fanfare, Fox News host Megyn Kelly finally acknowledged that the network's campaign to sink Susan Rice's potential nomination to President Obama's cabinet was rooted in fundamental dishonesty...
Daily PUMA: Krystal Ball is the latest Hillary Clinton Concern Troll, and yes, she works for MSNBC.: 29 year old Krystal Ball, who claims to have been a big Hillary Clinton supporter in 2008 (lol, to that), has voiced her "concern" in an MSNBC commentary that 2016 is just not the right year for a Hillary Clinton presidency. This is known as "concern troll" commentary, pretending to want someone but then sobbing as they explain why "it just can't be, sigh"...Apparently, "the right year" will occur sometime after SOS Clinton is dead.
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| The horror, the horror. |
A House committee report released Tuesday refuted claims that any stand-down order was given to prevent military support from reaching Benghazi, dismantling a central story in right-wing media mythology of a Benghazi cover-up.
The House Armed Services Committee report, released February 11, concluded that "There was no 'stand down' order issued to U.S. military personnel in Tripoli who sought to join the fight in Benghazi." As The Washington Post explained, the report further determined that "no U.S. military assets could have arrived in Benghazi in time to affect the outcome of the attack, according to committee staff members who briefed reporters on the report..."
Democratic senators up for reelection in 2014 are reportedly staying away from Obama and choosing to not campaign with him while Republicans try to pin his policies on the perceived vulnerable candidates.
But McCaskill brushed off the reports, saying the Democrats still have a good chance of holding the Senate in November...
Over the last year, environmental groups have tried three times to use the federal Clean Water Act to force Duke Energy to clear out leaky coal ash dumps like the one that ruptured last week, spewing enough toxic sludge into a North Carolina river to fill 73 Olympic-sized pools.
Each time, they say, their efforts have been stymied — by the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources...
It sounds like an endorsement -- an interesting one.
Former Gen. David Petraeus tells the authors of a new book on Hillary Rodham Clinton that "she'd make a tremendous president..."
....Benmosche later described the metaphor as a "poor choice of words" in an email to The Huffington Post. For the record, more than 4,700 people were lynched in the United States between 1882 and 1968, according to data made available by the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Not a single high-level executive has been prosecuted for their role in the most devastating recession since the Great Depression...For the record, the first people lynched were white Southerners who backed the British during the Revolution. There's no account of their numbers. Lynch was one of many judges who were quick to condemn the Loyalists.
...Keep in mind that to be a Christian one only needs to follow Christ. He set 2 rules. Love God the Father and treat each other the way you want to be treated. No where does it talk about binding to a creation story. If you need to get more technical, a Christian needs to accept the Apostles' Creed -- no creation story. There are variations inside Christianity as to what gets you past the Pearly Gates. Some people take the predetermination route, others go for good works, and some of us are just hoping for the Grace of God. Still -- no adherence to the Creation Story of Genesis. Had Bill Nye used the overstepping of this sect of Christianity using the terms of Christianity, we could be looking at another 100 years of Creationists building fortresses.
...The House GOP’s new debt-limit demands raise the powerful suspicion that its purpose these past few years, in playing chicken with government default, was never to limit government spending. It was just to mess with Obama. The strategy won Republicans spending concessions early on, but October’s government shutdown proved a complete fiasco for them. Now they’re just trying to show that they can get something—anything–out of Obama. What that something is scarcely matters.
Soon after the October shutdown began, Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., blurted out to the Washington Examiner, “We have to get something out of this. And I don’t know what that even is.” Now that lament is the official position of the House GOP. They want something in return for keeping the U.S. Treasury out of default. They’re no longer (and probably, deep down, never were) terribly interested in what that is. It’s a lousy bargaining position, and an even lousier justification for years of damaging equivocation about whether Congress would fulfill its responsibility to pay its bills.
...Jon Stewart is able to make a very serious and important subject funny. It is essential that the hypocrisy is not lost. It is important that every American understand that absent Obamacare they would still be tethered by an employer whose interests may not include theirs. Americans now have the freedom of choice. The employer/employee balance of power is improving. Now it is time for every American to engage. Employees must unionize to ensure complete and equal bargaining power. That is how the working middle class succeeds.
Sen. Sanders put the blame for the government shutdown square on the Koch Brothers, “Let’s not kid ourselves. This shutdown is not something that just came about a couple of weeks ago through Ted Cruz. This has been planned by the Koch brothers and other very, very wealthy people from the day after Obama was reelected, and what their feeling is. Let us go to the extreme. Let us be prepared to shutdown the government, not pay the national debt. Let us use every ounce of leverage that we have. Even if it means catastrophic pain for America and the world, so long as we get our way...
What’s going on? Top officials from JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, and the Federal Reserve have all turned up dead over the course of six days...Hat tip to Daily Puma's boss for posting this on Facebook.
Today a special on "kids for cash," the shocking story of how thousands of children in Pennsylvania were jailed by two corrupt judges who received $2.6 million in kickbacks from the builders and owners of private prison facilities...I saw this on an episode of L&O:SVU before it happened.
Vice President Biden can’t think of a reason to not run for president in 2016, but one way or another, he’ll decide by summer 2015 whether to wage another campaign for the White House...I'll give you one: you won't win. I'll give you two: we don't want you.
We’ve long argued that the Republican Party is no longer a legitimate governing party. Never mind whether we agree with them on any particular policy issue, they are simply no longer a serious organization.
That fact was underscored again this week and over the weekend, in light of the release of two different official reports, one from the U.S. State Department on the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline project and another from the Congressional Budget Office on the economic outlook in light of the Affordable Care Act.
Never mind whether you agree with the Republican position on either of those two policies. The fact that the party feels it necessary to blatantly lie about what’s in each of those reports, specifically with regard to “job creation,” in order to advocate for their own policy positions, underscores yet again that these are simply not serious people are worth being taken seriously anymore …
Last we checked in on the latest polling in Kentucky's U.S. Senate election, just one point separated Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell from Democratic challenger and Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, proving that Kentucky is in serious danger of going blue this fall...
Faux News hoser and television personality Bill O’Reilly went on an epic tirade during an interview with Hugh Hewitt about the criticism he has been getting from other reporters about his handling of an interview he did with President Obama...
Clay Aiken is indeed running for Congress from his home state of North Carolina. He announced his candidacy on Tuesday night after weeks of rumors that he’d try to oust incumbent Rep. Renee Ellmers (R) from her Raleigh-area 2nd District seat...
Team Wendy just landed an all-star running back.
Former Dallas Cowboys running back and NFL MVP Emmitt Smith donated $10,000 to the committee backing Wendy Davis’s campaign for Texas governor last month...
The U.S. will post the narrowest budget deficit this year as a share of the economy since 2007 as stronger growth helps boost tax revenue, according to the Congressional Budget Office...
...The president is "lawless." He is acting contrary to the Constitution and in violation of his oath of office. If Ryan really believes this swill, then he has only one option, if he intends to keep his own oath to uphold the Constitution, and that is to begin impeachment proceedings forthwith. But he won't do that because he knows it's a political loser for his party, because it would mark him as Less Than Serious, and because he has plans for the future that don't include setting up his deck chair on the Lido deck of the S.S. Louie Gohmert. He wants to be able to use the scary words -- "lawless," "contrary to the Constitution" -- without taking them seriously enough to act on them. He is talking no other language except fluent Fund-Raising Letter. There is no bigger fake in public life than Paul Ryan and, yes, I think it's time again to consult Blog ethicist, Mr. Doyle Lonegan of New York City...
President Obama, in an interview with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, tried to put behind him the scandals that have hung over his second term, suggesting his administration did not mislead the public on the Benghazi attack and going so far as to say the IRS targeting scandal had “not even a smidgen of corruption...”
The U.S. Senate race in Colorado this year is drawing national attention to see whether Republicans can avoid mistakes that kept them from taking control of the Senate for the past two elections...
Q: What do you have when you have two large balls in your hands?Reminds me of this very thorough and interesting article.
A: Complete control of the Jolly Green Giant.
The man holding the key to Chris Christie’s political future is David Wildstein, who quit his job on December 6, when it became clear that closing local access lanes to the George Washington Bridge three months earlier was much closer to an act of war than a traffic study. The job, director of interstate capital projects at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, was created for Wildstein by his old Livingston High School pal, Chris Christie. Wildstein didn’t work cheap -- his annual salary was $150,000 -- and his career as a political consultant and a pseudonymous blogger named Wally Edge didn’t match his title, which had zero to do with his actual work at the PA. Wildstein was installed there as New Jersey muscle, Christie’s spy and enforcer...Also...
