Dems Improving

Midterm Outlook for Democrats is Better, But Far From Good - NBC News.com:

Better vs. Good  Bill McInturff, the Republican half of our NBC/WSJ poll, perhaps summed up our latest survey the best: The poll shows that things are better for President Obama and the Democrats after eight million Americans enrolled on the health-care exchanges. But they are still far from good. Obama’s job-approval rating now stands at 44%, a three-point increase from last month, though that movement falls within the poll’s margin of error...

Krugman Flogs Bundyites

High Plains Moochers - NYTimes.com:

It is, in a way, too bad that Cliven Bundy — the rancher who became a right-wing hero after refusing to pay fees for grazing his animals on federal land, and bringing in armed men to support his defiance — has turned out to be a crude racist. Why? Because his ranting has given conservatives an easy out, a way to dissociate themselves from his actions without facing up to the terrible wrong turn their movement has taken.

For at the heart of the standoff was a perversion of the concept of freedom, which for too much of the right has come to mean the freedom of the wealthy to do whatever they want, without regard to the consequences for others...

Environment Wins One

It's AP so I can't give you a teaser quote without engaging AP lawyers. Court Upholds EPA Rule on Cross-State Pollution - ABC News

From The Second Amendment Drone Factory

The NRA has declared war on America | Ana Marie Cox | Comment is free | theguardian.com:

...He rattled the audience with a listicle of abuses of power that included Solyndra and and Benghazi (those are Second Amendment issues now, I guess!), but consoled those gathered with the factoid that there are 100m gun owners in America – a third of the country. He railed against "the elites'" rejection of the NRA's "more guns in schools" solution to Sandy Hook, but reassured his listeners that "city after county after school board after statehouse" adopted the strategy anyway.

You cannot have it both ways. You cannot be both winning and losing, alone but united, the minority but the majority. It is almost (almost!) as if Wayne LaPierre intended to mislead his audience with this whiplash oratory, intended to dizzy them into acceptance of his underlying message, which is almost disappointingly mundane: give us money. Give the NRA money. Give us money so we can create the legal environment that allows gun manufacturers to make more money so that they can give us more money...

Bundy's Messiah Complex

Terrific article. If you are at all supportive of this criminal, please read and receive your own revelation. My bold in the snippet.

Life at The Bundy Ranch, Uncensored - Esquire:

...The crowd, fresh off their victory at the Battle of Bunkerville, gives Bundy a standing ovation. But he doesn’t seem pleased. He reproaches the crowd for failing to follow the word of God – to the letter – which he says is being delivered through him. They failed, for example, to follow his instructions to tear down the toll booths at Lake Mead and disarm the Park Service.

"The message I gave to you all was a revelation that I received. And yet not one of you can seem to even quote it...”

Crazy In NC: Tillis Baggage Edition

Kay Hagan, Dems try to buy time before facing Thom Tillis - Tarini Parti - POLITICO.com:

...Brannon, who doesn’t have enough money for large media buys, targeted Tillis in a debate this week in an effort to boost his profile. The Rand Paul-endorsed candidate and Harris had been using similar attacks against Tillis in fundraising emails and push polls as the Democrats even before their ads went up, hitting Tillis on the romantic relationships his two aides had with lobbyists and the severance packages he gave them when they resigned...

Doughy Pantload Is Out Of His Depth

Conservative Pundit Jonah Goldberg Calls For More Attention To Ocean Acidification | Blog | Media Matters for America:

Jonah Goldberg criticized environmental reporters for focusing on climate change, saying that they were missing "serious problems, such as ocean acidification." However, ocean acidification is caused by the same carbon pollution driving climate change...

An Amazing Tale Of Harassment

Thorough, long study of Con attack tactics.

How Maryland's Domestic Violence Laws Became A Right Wing Weapon Of Personal Destruction | Crooks and Liars:

...The misuse of legal statutes in this story speaks to the larger story of how the right wing uses the law as a hammer for their own benefit -- whether campaign finance or non-profit disclosure laws -- for the sole purpose of scorched-earth destruction of their opponent. It is a way of life for those who see engagement in warfare against their fellow citizens as their sole purpose. This is but one example of that, but it's one that happens every day to thousands of people.

Leviticus Said Nothing About Public Schools

Hero SC Lt. Gov. Candidate Will Close All The Public Schools Cause They Ain’t In The Bible:

Just in case you were worried that South Carolina might start making a little more sense now that it’s been spared from thermonuclear destruction, here is a story about the latest innovation to issue forth from the Palmetto State: Retired Army chaplain Ray Moore, a candidate for Lt. Governor, has pledged that he will work to end public education in the state, because for most of early America’s existence, we didn’t have public schools, and now that we do have them, they’re on a mission to destroy Christianity. Plus, there’s nothing about state-run education in the Bible, so who needs it?...

CA Leads The Way

California Considers Tax Hike On Companies That Pay Their CEOs 100x Their Workers | ThinkProgress:

If California companies want to keep paying their CEO’s a hundred times better than their workers, they could face higher tax rates. A bill to impose higher tax rates on companies with excessively high CEO-to-worker pay ratios passed its first legislative hurdle on Thursday, advancing out of a state Senate committee on a 5-2 vote...

Killing The Post Office

The Post Office Was Targeted By Bain Capital Vultures All Along | Crooks and Liars

The 109th United States Congress held a vote back in 2006 that did irreparable harm to one of the largest unions in the country and one of the most functional institutes of our government.  A Republican Congress—acting at the behest of the Bush-Cheney administration—enacted a law that required the postal service to “pre-fund” retiree health benefits seventy-five years into the future. NO corporation has ever been asked to shoulder such insane financial burdens and Americans had no idea this was even happening. The US Post Office is one of the top employers of veterans.  Yet the GOP has repeatedly slashed any means of assistance for the “troops” they claim to support. Not only did those brave men and women fight a senseless war without being properly equipped with safe gear, but their means of livelihood when they return to civilian life has been systematically eradicated by Republicans...

Boner Talks Tea Bagger

Boehner mocks GOP colleagues on immigration reform:

...On the tea party: "There's the tea party and then there are people who purport to represent the tea party.

"I've gone to hundreds of tea party events over the last four years. The makeup is pretty much the same. You've got some disaffected Republicans, disaffected Democrats. You always have a handful of anarchists.They are against everything. Eighty percent of the people at these events, are the most ordinary Americans you've ever met. None of whom have ever been involved in politics. We in public service respect the fact that they brought energy to the political process...

Grazing Nut Talks Race

Cliven Bundy Muses On What He Knows 'About The Negro' | Crooks and Liars:

...“And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?” he asked. “They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”

Two things to remember about this. First, Rand Paul and Dean Heller think this guy is a patriot and a hero. Second, the United States Supreme Court thinks race is no longer an issue any of us need to worry about...

Even Non-Hippies Are Noticing

The United States of SWAT? | National Review Online:

...“Law-enforcement agencies across the U.S., at every level of government, have been blurring the line between police officer and soldier,” journalist Radley Balko writes in his 2013 book Rise of the Warrior Cop. “The war on drugs and, more recently, post-9/11 antiterrorism efforts have created a new figure on the U.S. scene: the warrior cop — armed to the teeth, ready to deal harshly with targeted wrongdoers, and a growing threat to familiar American liberties...”

Another One Bites The Dust

Al Qaeda's chief bombmaker Ibrahim al-Asiri believed to have been killed in ambush | Mail Online:

Al Qaeda's chief bombmaker is believed to have been killed in an ambush by U.S- backed special forces in Yemen.

A 4x4 vehicle, believed to be carrying Ibrahim al-Asiri, 32, mastermind of the 'underwear bomb plot', was engaged in a gun battle with special forces, dropped in by helicopter.

Witnesses have described seeing soldiers take up position in the road, waiting for the vehicle to pass before opening fire...

Crazy In NC:Firing Edition

Tillis seeks to rewrite history | CharlotteObserver.com:

The initial response from Tillis’ side rang true with many voters: Liberal Washington Democrats were meddling in North Carolina’s Republican primary because they saw him as the biggest threat to Democratic U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan in the general election. Then Tillis, the House speaker, took things a step too far.

He launched an ad in response that says: “Seen those ads attacking Thom Tillis? They’re false. Tillis fired the staffers.”

Uh-oh. The employees and Tillis himself said at the time they were resigning. News coverage repeatedly referred to the staffers’ resignations, not firings...

Protecting The (Oil) Rich

Oklahoma Will Charge Customers Who Install Their Own Solar Panels | ThinkProgress:

Oklahoma residents who produce their own energy through solar panels or small wind turbines on their property will now be charged an additional fee, the result of a new bill passed by the state legislature and expected to be signed into law by Gov. Mary Fallin (R)...

The GOP vs, Jobs

Walsh vs Daines: An easy choice - Daily Inter Lake: Members:

...Now, because of the radicalization of the national Republican Party and party leadership in the House, a Democratic sponsored jobs bill to repair those 60-year-old roads and bridges cannot make it through the House. Thanks to Daines and other radical Republicans. This bill, if passed, would create millions of jobs nationwide; raise much needed revenue without raising taxes. And, most of all would help our struggling middle class, which, many of us are here in the valley.

However, there is a catch. If Daines and other Republicans voted across party lines and passed this much needed legislation, it would make our Democratic president and his party look good. This is just one example of how badly the Republican Party and Congress are broken. It is all about party over country. What a disgrace...

GOPers Getting In Rape Politics Again

Denounce the Republican Rape Audit Bill | LeftAction:

House Republicans have gone too far: A panel of 12 men on the House Judiciary Committee actually held hearings on a bill that could allow the IRS to audit survivors of rape or incest for using their contraceptive health care coverage...

Reaganomics (With Democratic Help)

Reaganomics killed America’s middle class - Salon.com:

...You can see this trend today in America. When we had heavily regulated and taxed capitalism in the post-war era, the largest employer in America was General Motors, and they paid working people what would be, in today’s dollars, about $50 an hour with benefits. Reagan began deregulating and cutting taxes on capitalism in 1981, and today, with more classical “raw capitalism,” what we call “Reaganomics,” or “supply side economics,” our nation’s largest employer is WalMart and they pay around $10 an hour...

The hatred and envy of anti-South Democrats undermined Carter's presidency from day one, and once he lost to Reagan, Tip O'Neil et. al. went along with Raygun's proposals, thinking the country will get so mad at him they will never vote Republican. How'd that work out, bigots?

This Is The Clinton Question

Politics - The Daily Beast:

They famously supported her in 2008—until they helped Obama win Iowa. So will the grandmother-to-be inspire female voters next cycle, or will they judge her on a harsher scale?...

Yankee Rebels

And you thought that was a Law & Order bike gang.

Wisconsin Republicans To Vote On Secession:

Wisconsin Republicans will vote next month on whether they support allowing the state to secede from the United States of America.

Last month, one of the Republican caucuses in the state passed a resolution asserting the state's right to secede...

Fox News Advocates Sedition

Fox News Carnival Barkers Gin Up A Range War | Blog | Media Matters for America:

Media Matters examined Fox News' weekday programming from 4 p.m. through 11 p.m. ET since it first started covering the story.

Fox News began agitating for a range war on April 9, sympathetically portraying Cliven Bundy as a folk hero based on the Nevada rancher's refusal for two decades to pay the required fees for grazing his cattle on public land. While Nevada reporters have made clear that Bundy is "clearly wrong" and "breaking the law," Fox has waged a PR campaign romanticizing Bundy and the armed militia groups that fled to his ranch and forced a standoff with federal agents who were executing a court order that allowed them to impound his cattle...

Advice For Dems

The Master Of Bad Timing - Esquire:

...It's now becoming pat to say this, but Democratic politicians in this year's elections should run on their support for the law -- if, for no other reason, than the fact that the Republicans are going to hang the ACA around their necks anyway. They should hammer hard on the indecency of the Republican governors who, out of rancid ideological meanness, refuse FREE MONEY (!) to provide their poor people with health care, especially now that people are starting to die for the lack of it. There should be ad after ad of people who demonstrate the sheer relief of not having to worry about choose between sick children or hungry children...

The Special Xians

Cliven Bundy syndrome: Why Christian conservatives think they’re above the law - Salon.com:

...When Justices Kagan and Sotomayor pressed Clemente to explain how being able to opt out of the contraception mandate wouldn’t lead to being able to opt out of offering insurance that covers vaccines or blood transfusions, Clemente waved their concerns off, saying that contraception was “so religiously sensitive, so fraught with religious controversy” in a way those other things aren’t. But, of course, there are religious groups that do think vaccines or blood transfusions are just as “fraught” as contraception, if not more so. The only difference is those groups don’t have the backing of the Christian right. Even without stating so explicitly, therefore, Clemente’s arguments rested on the assumption that the opt-out opportunities he’s pushing for would be for Christian conservatives and only them. The rest of you can go hang...

Reid Lays Out The Obvious Truth

Boom! Harry Reid Calls Renegade Nevada Rancher Bundy and Supporters 'Domestic Terrorists' (Video) | Progressive Populist:

Finally, a politician has the stones to call law-breaking Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and his fervent supporters exactly what they are – domestic terrorists.

Nevada Democratic Senator Harry Reid did just that on Thursday afternoon as he addressed an audience at a Las Vegas Review-Journal “Hashtags & Headlines” event at the Paris Hotel and Casino.

“They’re nothing more than domestic terrorists,” Reid said. “I repeat: what happened there was domestic terrorism.”

“Clive Bundy does not recognize the United States,” Reid continued. “The United States, he says, is a foreign government. He doesn’t pay his taxes. He doesn’t pay his fees. And he doesn’t follow the law. He continues to thumb his nose at authority...”

What The Kochs Want

Who are the Koch Brothers and What do They Want?�|�Sen. Bernie Sanders:

... And let's be very clear. Their goal is not only to defund Obamacare, cut Social Security, oppose an increase in the minimum wage or cut federal funding for education. Their world view and eventual goal is much greater than all of that. They want to repeal every major piece of legislation that has been signed into law over the past 80 years that has protected the middle class, the elderly, the children, the sick and the most vulnerable in this country. Every piece of legislation!

The truth is that the agenda of the Koch brothers is to move this country from a democratic society with a strong middle class to an oligarchic form of society in which the economic and political life of the nation are controlled by a handful of billionaire families.

Our great nation must not be hijacked by right-wing billionaires like the Koch brothers.

For the sake of our children and our grandchildren, we must fight back.

But but Benghazi! Guns! Gays! Abortion!  Jesus! Football! NASCAR! Freeeeeeeeeeeedom!

Clinton Leader Of The Pack

Clinton way ahead among 2016 Democrats; Republican field scrambled | Washington | Modesto Bee:

Hillary Clinton's way ahead in the race for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination and the Republican field is scrambled with no clear front-runner, according to a new Fox News poll.

The April 13-15 survey found that among Democrats, the former Secretary of State was far ahead with 69 percent. Vice President Joe Biden trailed with 15 percent and Sen. Elizaveth Warren of Massachusetts was next at 6 percent...

Fire In A Crowded Fox Theatre

Is Sean Hannity Trying To Provoke A Bloody Conflict With Nevada Rancher Cliven Bundy And Feds? | Crooks and Liars:

...I can't believe Hannity is ratcheting this situation up. Here we have commando militia freaks joining in with anti-federal government types. just waiting to see if they can make this into the Gunfight at the OK Corral.

If there is gunfire, I'll put a lot of blame on Hannity's shoulders. He's acting like a demented instigator. I truly believe he's hoping for an armed conflict to happen so he can make cash from the suffering and boost his ratings.

And You Support These Idiots?

Women On Front Of Bundy Standoff - The Latest From The Front - Esquire:

...Mack made the chilling revelation on Fox News' "The Real Story" Monday, two days after the tense standoff between Bundy and the federal government came to a peaceful end. "We were actually strategizing to put all the women up at the front," he said. "If they are going to start shooting, it's going to be women that are going to be televised all across the world getting shot by these rogue federal officers."

Mack obviously was inspired by the hundreds accounts of how the Minutemen hid behind their wives' skirts on Lexington Green and Concord Bridge, and of how the ladies of the Old North Church were arrayed in battle lines up on top of Breed's Hill in Charlestown. And surely I can't be the only one who noticed that Mack's account is remarkable devoid of comment from the actual women he says he was going to use as human shields. I'm sure this is an oversight...

Cumo In Trouble

Why New York Democrats Have Turned Against Andrew Cuomo - Alex Seitz-Wald - The Atlantic:

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo once earned plaudits from liberals for his tough talk on gun control and success in legalizing gay marriage in the state. But, lately, he's found no shortage of frenemies to his left.

In the past month, liberal protesters outside Cuomo's office have dubbed him "Governor 1 Percent"; a prominent progressive activist has suggested that he run for reelection as a Republican; the head of a major labor union has called for someone to challenge the governor in the Democratic primary; and a series of behind-the-scenes feuds between Cuomo and other top Democratic officials have spilled out into public view...

Tea Baggers Make WI Error

WisOpinion:

...But today's Tea Party-led GOP has no use for an intelligent and principled legislator like Petri, or reverence for the party of Lincoln, founded in Ripon (part of Petri's congressional district). Gov. Walker and the Tea Party / GOP-led legislature have turned the Wisconsin Idea upside down. All historic pacesetting reforms of Wisconsin progressive Republicans are being eviscerated or eradicated. Political debate has become toxic mudslinging. No internal dissent or independence is tolerated. The extreme, narrow and super-ideological Wisconsin GOP is no longer the party of Lincoln. It is now the party of "Loony Tunes". However, the changing demographics of Wisconsin, coupled with a Tea Party-led GOP marching backwards, will eventually end this bad nightmare. All the Walker shenanigans to curtail voting only postpone the future. Better days are coming.

The End Result Of Con Rhetoric

Kansas City Shooting - It's A Day For All This - Esquire:

... I am sensing a theme on today's blog. This is the vicious Id of so much of the conservative rhetoric that is leaching far too close to mainstream conservative thinking. This is where loose talk about "sovereignty" ends up. This is where the loose talk about the Tenth Amendment, and nullification, and secession ends up. This is where the crazed rambling about the president's secret plans to grab all your guns ends up. This is where the fire stoked by people like Wayne LaPierre and Sarah Palin ends up, burning out of control. This is the dark side of Cliven Bundy's ranch.

Wealth Discrimination

Glaring limits of the Civil Rights Act: We need to redistribute wealth - Salon.com:

...As Thomas Piketty’s groundbreaking book “Capital in the 21st Century” has detailed: wealth has a tendency in a capitalist economy to concentrate into the hands of a few and travel down generations through gifts and inheritances. Even if racism were wiped out tomorrow and equal treatment became the norm, it would never cease being the case that the average white person has more wealth than the average black person. We could equalize everything else in society, and racial wealth inequality–plus all of the political power disparities that accompany such a thing–would continue into perpetuity.

Thus, those actually serious about righting the wrongs of enslavement and Jim Crow apartheid must support more drastic leveling efforts. Beefed up anti-discrimination, which is both necessary and good, will not be enough. Ideally, we could work towards reparations in the form of redistributing wealth along racial lines. With that an unlikely possibility though, we can at least think about ways to redistribute wealth more generally from those with wealth to those without it, something that would have a similar, albeit more attenuated, effect as reparations given who the wealthy and non-wealthy happen to be.

Examine Judicial Failures!

Don't Let the Prosecutor Off the Hook�|�Bennett L. Gershman:

Jonathan Fleming is the 1,350th person officially exonerated in the U.S. since 1989, when the National Registry of Exonerations began to record wrongful convictions. He spent nearly 25 years in jail for a murder he didn't commit. He had a powerful alibi that the prosecutor didn't believe. And he was represented by an attorney who was no match for the prosecutor. The media's report of Mr. Fleming's ordeal, and exoneration, is similar to the hundreds of other reported exonerations -- dry, clinical, and not overly curious about how it happened. It appears from the reports that Fleming was a victim of a tragic mistake, and a series of blunders by law enforcement that caused an innocent man to spend half of his life in prison. But nobody, certainly nobody in the media, has attempted to examine this case more closely and to ask probing questions about how this human tragedy could have happened? Indeed, almost never do commentators, reporters, or the U.S. justice system itself ask this question. There is hardly ever a postmortem of a derailment in the criminal justice system, as there typically is when a train derails, or a plane crashes....

Couldn't agree more with this post.

Climate Deniers Dinged

Global warming is man-made with 99.9% certainty, study says - Nature & Environment Israel News | Haaretz:

... In a paper enticingly titled "Scaling fluctuation analysis and statistical hypothesis testing of anthropogenic warming," Shaun Lovejoy can't prove a negative – that humans aren't ruining our planet. What he can do is demolish the claim that natural variability is the root cause of the warming world, not to mention extreme weather phenomena the world has been experiencing.

"This study will be a blow to any remaining climate-change deniers," Lovejoy said in a statement. "Their two most convincing arguments - that the warming is natural in origin, and that the computer models are wrong - are either directly contradicted by this analysis, or simply do not apply to it..."

Dems Get Rights Message?

Democrats finally make voting rights a top priority | MSNBC:

For years, voting-rights advocates have been quietly urging Democrats and the Obama administration to fully embrace the fight over access to the ballot as a defining civil-rights issue of our day. This was the week when it finally happened.

The heightened rhetoric, which came from President Obama and other heavyweights in his party, is the latest sign that voting rights are likely to be a front-burner issue when Americans go to the polls this fall—at least if Democrats have their way...

Koch Base Enraging

"Feds Turn From Landlords To Warlords": Koch Groups Back Rancher Making Violent Threats Against Federal Gov't | Blog | Media Matters for America:

Two affiliates of the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity are helping conservative media promote the cause of a Nevada rancher who has made violent threats against the federal government.

Cliven Bundy, a cattle rancher in Nevada, has refused to remove his animals from public property in violation of a federal court order.

In 1993, Bundy declined to pay government fees that are required in order to allow his cattle to graze on the public land. In 1998 a court order told Bundy to remove his cattle as part of an effort to protect an endangered desert tortoise in the area. He refused. In July 2013, a federal court order told Bundy to remove his cattle from the land or they would be confiscated. He disobeyed the order, and confiscation has begun. The government will auction the animals and use the proceeds to pay off the $1 million in fines that Bundy owes the government...

Go, Al, Go!

Franken’s Campaign Against Comcast Is No Joke - NYTimes.com:

...After a failed attempt to block the Comcast-NBC Universal merger, Mr. Franken again finds himself playing a trustbusting role in Washington — against the same adversary. He has emerged as the leading congressional opponent of Comcast’s $45 billion bid to take over Time Warner Cable, a merger that would unite the nation’s two biggest cable companies.

In a three-hour Senate Judiciary hearing on Wednesday, Mr. Franken adopted a prosecutorial stance as he interrogated executives from both companies, asking pointed questions, often repeatedly, like a dog with a particularly tasty bone. He was the only lawmaker to explicitly say he wanted the merger blocked...

Franken is one of the few politicians who have a clear view of the world we live in and where it is headed.

Tea Baggers Looking For Orange Scalp

House Tea Party Conservatives Plan To Oust John Boehner As Speaker | Crooks and Liars:

Oh noes! There's a Tea party revolt underfoot in the House of Representatives and they have Speaker John Boehner's scalp in their sights as being reported by the National Journal:...

Clinton Dodges Shoe

A Heckler Threw a Shoe At HIllary Clinton. She Dodged It. Here's the Video. | Mother Jones:

On Thursday, Hillary Clinton gave a speech before a meeting of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada. Just after taking the stage, an as-yet unnamed women rose from the crowd and threw something at her...

Biting The Rotten GOPer Apple Again

U.S. Indicts Ex-Connecticut Governor Again - NYTimes.com:

John G. Rowland, who resigned as governor of Connecticut 10 years ago in a corruption scandal, was indicted on Thursday on charges that he tried to hide his involvement in congressional campaigns in 2010 and 2012.

The seven-count indictment was handed up by a federal grand jury in New Haven. The United States attorney’s office said Mr. Rowland, a Republican who served as governor from 1995 to 2004 and as a congressman from 1985 to 1991, would be arraigned there on Friday afternoon...

Not A Civil Rights Issue

Armed Fed Agents and Snipers? Nevada Rancher Is Taking on the Gov’t in a Battle That’s Reaching a Breaking Point | TheBlaze.com:

Cliven Bundy, the last remaining rancher in the southern Nevada county, stands in defiance of a 2013 court order demanding that he remove his cattle from public land managed by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management...

Xian Victimology

The Myth of Christian Discrimination in the LGBT Rights Movement�|�Eliel Cruz:

You can't victimize yourself in a situation you started in the first place. Christians, in general, have a hard time remembering that as we choose to oppress, due to our sincerely held religious beliefs, yet cry "discrimination" when we feel a push back. This is especially true when those people are queer. Within the Christian community, there are those who believe we are being discriminated against. However, no one is pushing legislation that excludes Christians from basic legal rights in the U.S. (such as job protection and marriage). Nor is anyone physically assaulting Christians due to their religious beliefs or advocacy. Christians are not facing actual tribulations, rather, the "discrimination" they cry comes from not being allowed to discriminate others. It's a double standard and they keep crying wolf. Or we, I should say, since, like many other LGBT people, I am also a Christian...

The Race To 1880: Kansas Entry

Kansas GOP Legislature Eliminates Due Process For Teachers In War On Public Education | Crooks and Liars

Teachers in Kansas can now be fired from their jobs simply because a principal doesn’t like them — or because a student who received a C instead of an A has a vengeful parent on the school board.  There will be no fair hearing, no appeal, no due process of any kind. That’s it, you’re out the door...

GOPer Groping

GOP leader: La. lawmaker's apology appropriate - seattlepi.com:

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor says he's pleased a Republican congressman from Louisiana apologized after a newspaper published a video it says shows him kissing a woman who isn't his wife. But Cantor stopped short of calling for U.S. Rep. Vance McAllistir to resign...

Right Wing Pundit Corruption

Hullabaloo- "Wingnut Welfare Goes Global":

There's a reason why they went to the right wing for this. It's the first place you'd look for that very special combination of corruption and authoritarianism:...

An Actual Liberal Running!

Meet America’s most progressive Senate nominee: Shenna Bellows of Maine - Salon.com:

In a cycle which may see Democrats pick off zero GOP Senate seats, longtime Maine ACLU head Shenna Bellows is out to oust popular incumbent Susan Collins. Bellows out-raised Collins in the last fundraising quarter, but was only endorsed by the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee after the passage of last month’s deadline for alternate candidates to file. Running unopposed in the primary, it looks like she’ll be this cycle’s most progressive Democratic Senate nominee...

On Stop And Frisk

What I Learned About Stop-and-Frisk From Watching My Black Son - Christopher E. Smith - The Atlantic:

When I heard that my 21-year-old son, a student at Harvard, had been stopped by New York City police on more than one occasion during the brief summer he spent as a Wall Street intern, I was angry. On one occasion, while wearing his best business suit, he was forced to lie face-down on a filthy sidewalk because—well, let’s be honest about it, because of the color of his skin. As an attorney and a college professor who teaches criminal justice classes, I knew that his constitutional rights had been violated. As a parent, I feared for his safety at the hands of the police—a fear that I feel every single day, whether he is in New York or elsewhere...

Tea Baggers Explained

Spite Is Good. Spite Works. - NYTimes.com:

...Psychologists are exploring spitefulness in its customary role as a negative trait, a lapse that should be embarrassing but is often sublimated as righteousness, as when you take your own sour time pulling out of a parking space because you notice another car is waiting for it and you’ll show that vulture who’s boss here, even though you’re wasting your own time, too...

SOS Clinton Speaking True

Hillary Clinton: 'There Is A Double Standard' Against Women In The Media:

Hillary Clinton spoke out against the treatment of women in the media at the "Women in the World" conference in New York on Thursday.

“There is a double standard,” Clinton said, according to Politico. "We have all experienced it.”

Clinton blamed the media for their role in perpetrating criticisms of women in the public eye.

“The double standard is alive and well, and I think in many respects the media is the principal propagator of its persistence,” she added. “I think the media needs to be, you know, more self-consciously aware of that...”

GOP Pushing European Model

Republicans Want Us To Be Europe | TIME.com:

But the policies that created the mess in Europe are not Obama’s policies. They are the policies—especially tight money and fiscal austerity—that Republicans have pushed for America. And where economics is concerned, the GOP is still the party of croissants and lederhosen...

Krugman Celebrates Obamacare

Rube Goldberg Survives - NYTimes.com:

...Remember, giving everyone health insurance doesn’t have to be hard; you can just do it with a government-run program. Not only do many other advanced countries have “single-payer,” government-provided health insurance, but we ourselves have such a program — Medicare — for older Americans. If it had been politically possible, extending Medicare to everyone would have been technically easy.

But it wasn’t politically possible, for a couple of reasons. One was the power of the insurance industry, which couldn’t be cut out of the loop if you wanted health reform this decade. Another was the fact that the 170 million Americans receiving health insurance through employers are generally satisfied with their coverage, and any plan replacing that coverage with something new and unknown was a nonstarter...

On The Recent Fort Hood Shooting

Fort Hood Shooting - Death In The Afternoon - Esquire

...The terrible combination of factors that led to yesterday's events is going to take weeks, if not months, to unravel, but it seems as though this is a case of workplace violence at a very unique workplace that already was struck by workplace violence in 2009. It is not to stigmatize veterans to observe that the soldier in question may have been influenced by his time in a war of dubious origins and mendacious purpose. It is to point out that wars should not be launched idly, or on false pretenses, or for reasons other than the ones that are publicly stated at the time of their launching. Those are the wars that never really end, that go on and on, wounding the people who fought them, and the country, with decades of gratuitous heartbreak. Those are the real politics -- national and personal -- behind these events. This may well turn out to be the result of wounds that were concealed, and not weapons that were not.

The Wrong Voters

North Carolina probes possible double voting - Tal Kopan - POLITICO.com:

Republican legislators in North Carolina are calling new information suggesting hundreds of instances of voter fraud “shocking” and “outrageous” and are pushing for a criminal investigation.

Election officials told lawmakers on Wednesday that a system that checks state voter rolls against one another found 765 cases of voters with the same first and last names, birth dates and last four Social Security number digits voting in multiple states in the 2012 election, according to the Raleigh News & Observer...

This voting pattern, along with its accompanying first cousin, tax fraud, has been going on for years. Wealthy retirees own multiple homes in multiple states and vote in multiple elections. I overheard one guy bragging about how he voted against Obama in Florida and then flew upto WNC (in his private plane) so he could vote against him again, though the more common pattern is to use absentee ballots. What the GOP has uncovered is voting fraud all right but moreso from Republicans than Democrats. At least that what's I think will happen if
the investigation continues, but don't count on it since the tax fraud is going to cost some richies some big bucks.
 
Update from MSNBC:

...In North Carolina, that will depend on just how many of the cases the board found ultimately hold up. And on that score, Levitt isn’t the only election expert who’s expressing skepticism.
“There’s no guarantee that the North Carolina story will follow the multi-step pattern of: 1) big initial number; 2) partisan outrage; 3) further investigation; 4) much smaller actual number; 5) partisan indifference,” Doug Chapin, who as the director of the Program for Excellence in Election Administration at the University of Minnesota, is among the country’s foremost experts on running elections, wrote online. “But in my experience, that’s the way to bet.”

Crazy In NC: Gasoline Lunacy

North Carolina drivers to be charged by the mile? | abc11.com:

The proposal would be to charge a half cent per mile for cars, which would generate almost $500 million in annual state revenue. A driver who travelled 15,000 miles in a year...

No GIs Killed In March

March Was First Month Without U.S. Fatalities in Iraq or Afghanistan In 11 Years | TIME.com:

There were no American troop casualties in Afghanistan or Iraq in March, for the first time since February 2003, ending 133 straight months when at least one U.S. service member was killed. U.S. deaths in Iraq peaked in November 2004, and in Afghanistan in August 2011...

Politics Today

More Ryan Budget Hypocrisy

From the guy (Ryan) who spent his entire life sucking on the government teat...



Paul Ryan Budget - Mr. Ryan's Opus - Esquire:

...This is going nowhere, obviously, but it once again illustrates that Ryan's devotion to zombie-eyed granny-starver does not arise from his profound concern about The Deficit, but, rather, is based in a nearly theological opposition to the government's efforts to do anything except raise an army and protect the prerogatives of the upper classes. (A top rate of 25 percent? Lovely.) He wants to destroy Medicaid not because of its alleged fiscal problems. He wants to destroy it because he doesn't think it should exist as a government program. There's no point to pretending otherwise. He is trying, always, to pick a fight with a century of progressive legislation. Someone really should give him one...

Corporate Roosters Come Home

Corporate Lobbyists Assail Tax Overhaul They Once Cheered - NYTimes.com:

But this gathering ended up serving a decidedly different purpose: the unofficial kickoff of a push to make sure that Mr. Camp’s tax plan dies, a campaign that is highly likely to succeed, particularly now that Mr. Camp himself essentially conceded defeat, announcing this week he will not seek re-election this year...