January 30, 2015

Conservative Scold Ken Starr Got a Billionaire Pedophile Off

M.L. Nestel

Many believe Jeffrey Epstein could have been jailed for life for violating scores of underage girls, but Ken Starr and the rest of his legal team got him a deal.

It was supposed to be a probe into the first family’s finances. But when independent counsel Judge Ken Starr mounted an investigation into the Clintons’ real-estate deals, the “Whitewater” probe took a peep-show turn. Starr and his team began to obsess over every lurid detail of Bill Clinton’s philandering, issuing a 473-page report that was a catalog of misuse of funds but mostly torrid sexcapades in the White House and the president accused of committing perjury to cover it up.

The Starr Report came out in 1998. And all of this would be history, if it weren’t for the fact that Starr, the legendary moral ninny now serving as the chancellor at Baylor University, was handpicked nearly a decade later to negotiate a sweetheart plea deal with state and federal prosecutors for billionaire pederast and Clinton crony Jeffrey Epstein.
On Wednesday, some of Epstein’s lawyers were back in court, arguing that the negotiations over that deal must remain secret.

“I had given Epstein a list of lawyers I worked with in the past that had been exceptionally able and Jeffrey picked from the list,” Alan Dershowitz, the world-famous criminal attorney and Harvard professor, told The Daily Beast. He also worked on Epstein’s behalf. “Starr had experience in investigating sex

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/30/conservative-scold-ken-starr-got-a-billionaire-pedophile-off.html

January 30, 2015

Most Americans Support Government Action on Climate Change, Poll Finds

Source: New York Times

An overwhelming majority of the American public, including nearly half of Republicans, support government action to curb global warming, according to a poll conducted by The New York Times, Stanford University and the nonpartisan environmental research group Resources for the Future.

In a finding that could have implications for the 2016 presidential campaign, the poll also found that two-thirds of Americans say they are more likely to vote for political candidates who campaign on fighting climate change. They are less likely to vote for candidates who question or deny the science of human-caused global warming.

Although the poll found that climate change was not a top issue in determining a person’s vote, a candidate’s position on climate change influences how a person will vote. For example, 67 percent of respondents, including 48 percent of Republicans and 72 percent of independents, said they were less likely to vote for a candidate who said that human-caused climate change is a hoax.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/31/us/politics/most-americans-support-government-action-on-climate-change-poll-finds.html?&_r=0

January 29, 2015

Bibi & Boehner blow it: How they strengthened the White House’s hand

The speaker and Israeli prime minister had the perfect plan to subvert diplomacy with Iran. It failed spectacularly

JIM NEWELL

John Boehner and the Republican Party had what it thought would be a fun idea to tweak the president, assert congressional authority, give U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East a rightward shove, and earn “the Republican Senator from Israel” another term. (Those last two items being one and the same.) He would invite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak before Congress shortly before his election, without consulting the White House. That would offer Netanyahu the chance to show off his influence in American politics ahead of Israeli elections and put pressure on fence-sitting lawmakers to pass a new round of Iran sanctions that threatens to unravel nuclear negotiations at its most critical stage.

This plan has not gone over very well.

The only real shove that the invitation has produced is one in the other direction: getting certain Democrats, who were either actively pushing or considering voting for the Kirk-Menendez Iran sanctions bill, to lay off. Earlier this week, Sen. Menendez — crazy Bob Menendez! — and fellow Democrats sent a letter to the White House saying they would hold off voting on sanctions for a couple more months to let negotiations play out. The bill advanced out of the Senate Banking Committee today but, at least until the end of March, won’t have the votes to get through the Senate.

The New York Times reports today that Netanyahu’s acceptance of Boehner’s invitation was just what it needed to persuade enough Democratic senators to hold off on sanctions:

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http://www.salon.com/2015/01/29/bibi_boehner_blow_it_how_they_strengthened_the_white_houses_hand/

January 29, 2015

Bryan Fischer: Losing One Of My Jobs Means I Can Finally Speak My Mind

Evangelical radio host Bryan Fischer warned his listeners Thursday not to believe the "rumors" swirling around his status with the American Family Association. Then he went ahead and confirmed those rumors: Fischer was no longer serving as a spokesman for the social conservative group.

"I've taken off my hat as spokesman for AFA," Fischer said on his radio program "Focal Point," which streams on AFA's website.

MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show" reported Wednesday night that AFA President Tim Wildmon fired Fischer from his spokesman position because of statements he'd made in the past about homosexuality and the Holocaust. The alleged firing came as AFA and its subsidiary, the American Renewal Project, prepared to host members of the Republican National Committee, reportedly including Chairman Reince Priebus, on a trip to Israel beginning Saturday.

Fischer disputed that report. He explained that he gave up his spokesman duties since they conflicted with his duties as an AFA radio host.

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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/bryan-fischer-confirms-out-afa-spokesman

January 29, 2015

Ex-KKK Leader David Duke Says He Might Run Against Steve Scalise

By CAITLIN MACNEAL Published JANUARY 29, 2015, 3:12 PM EST

Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke on Wednesday said that he may run for Congress against House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) because he thinks the congressman is a "sellout."

In an interview on Jim Engster Show on Wednesday, Duke blasted Scalise for saying his appearance at a white nationalist event in 2002 was a "mistake."

"I call upon Steve Scalise to step down from his position of House of Representatives, in fact, he should resign his seat," Duke said, according to audio published by Buzzfeed.

Duke said that Scalise insulted the residents of his district who supported Duke and his organization.

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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/david-duke-considers-challenge-scalise

January 29, 2015

SURPRISE, SURPRISE FOX ‘NEWS’ LIES MORE THAN THEY TELL THE TRUTH, FACT-CHECKING SITE FINDS

Only ten percent stands between Fox and fiction.

Ten percent is the number of times the Fox News Channel (FNC) tells the complete truth. Ten percent. Let that sink in a moment.

According to Politifact, a fact-checking website which runs news channels through their Truth-O-Meter regularly throughout the year, also found that eleven percent of the time the FNC tells the partial truth, and 18 percent of the time are spouting half-truths. Most sickening of all, they outright “Pants on Fire” 9 percent of the time, tell mostly false stories 21 percent of the time, and tell completely false stories 31 percent.

Which means if we combine the truths vs. the lies, they tell some semblance of the truth 39 percent of the time, while they’re majorly lying to their audience 61 percent of the time.

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http://www.ifyouonlynews.com/politics/surprise-surprise-fox-news-lies-more-than-they-tell-the-truth-fact-checking-site-finds/

January 29, 2015

Police ID Suspect In Hockey 'Hate Crime' Against Native American Kids

Source: TPM

By AHIZA GARCIA Published JANUARY 29, 2015, 2:46 PM EST

Police said they have identified one of the men involved in an alleged verbal and physical attack on 57 Native American children at a hockey game in South Dakota and are investigating it as a hate crime, KOTA reported Wednesday.

The case involves potential charges of assault, hate crime and child abuse, Rapid City, S.D. Police Chief Karl Jegeris told the station.

The children were attending a Rush hockey game on Saturday as part of a school event when belligerent fans reportedly began pouring beer on and shouting racial slurs at them. According to one of the chaperones, the fans told the students to "go back to the rez."

After the incident, the students were escorted out of the arena by chaperones and on Tuesday the school's board filed a complaint with Rapid City police, KOTA reported.

-snip-



Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/native-american-sd-hockey-hate-crime

January 29, 2015

Graham On 2016: Take Me Seriously, 'I Won South Carolina By About 41 Points'

Sen. Lindsey Graham, who is setting up a political committee to test the waters for a 2016 presidential run, told reporters to take him seriously because he reflects a "center-right" consensus within his party.

"I won in South Carolina by about 41 points," he said, referring to the margin of victory in the GOP primary for his 2014 reelection bid.

The South Carolina Republican, best known as an outspoken military hawk and a fixture of the Sunday talk show circuit, was responding to a reporter's point-blank question Thursday in the Capitol about why he should be taken seriously.

"How could a guy win in South Carolina by 41 points who voted for (Sonia) Sotomayor, (Elena) Kagan, embraces climate change, Israel and (thinks) immigration reform is necessary?" Graham said, echoing part of the question. "My party is center-right, and I'm in the right ditch. There's an element of the left and the right, and I think it reflects both parties."

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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/lindsey-graham-take-me-seriously-2016

January 29, 2015

Rand Paul’s prevarication problem: Afflicting the afflicted & comforting the comfortable

He’s been caught lying about the poor by neutral observers. And then there's his flacking for the Koch brothers

JOAN WALSH

Last week I called Sen. Rand Paul the most interesting man in Republican politics, and I still think that’s true. I also expressed some anxiety about the threat he could pose to the Democratic presidential nominee in 2016. That’s subsiding. In the last week Paul’s been caught in some big fibs, degrading struggling workers while defending the Koch brothers. That’s an interesting guide to his values.

Like all the GOP contenders, Paul is now talking piously about the problem of poverty, which modern Republicans have discovered because Barack Obama hasn’t made it go away. You can almost hear the briefing from a Frank Luntz type: “He’s the first black president, and he hasn’t ended poverty! Not even black poverty!” It also lets them slyly play on the notion of Obama as a privileged, uppity Ivy Leaguer – a “snob,” in Rick Santorum’s parlance — who doesn’t care about the poor or working class.

Whatever you say, Mitt Romney.

I still give Rand Paul some credit for identifying the criminal justice system as a source of black disadvantage. And if he ever figures out something meaningful to do about it, I promise to revise my thinking about him as mostly an opportunist. But when it comes to policies that might ease either poverty or the suffering of the working and middle classes, Paul learned at his father’s knee that government is the bad guy – and that slackers and moochers are playing the system and exploiting the rest of us.

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http://www.salon.com/2015/01/29/afflicting_the_afflicted_and_comforting_the_comfortable_rand_paul%E2%80%99s_prevarication_problem/

January 28, 2015

Rubio Favored by Koch Brothers Donors

January 28, 2015 By Taegan Goddard

In an informal straw poll of donors at a conference hosted by the Koch brothers, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) came out ahead of four other possible GOP presidential candidates who had been invited, Politico reports.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) – who received the least enthusiastic response from donors during a forum of prospective candidates that also featured Rubio and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) – finished last.

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http://politicalwire.com/2015/01/28/rubio-favored-koch-brothers-donors/