March 2, 2015

Pat Robertson: Drinkers And Pot Smokers Are 'Enslaved To Vegetables'

Televangelist Pat Robertson said on Monday that marijuana users and drinkers are "enslaved to vegetables."

Speaking on his Christian Broadcasting Network television show "The 700 Club," Robertson said that addiction is contrary to God's will, because man has dominion over "all the vegetables."

Robertson continued: “Cocaine is the product of a vegetable, alcohol is the product of a vegetable, marijuana is a vegetable. And yet, people are enslaved to vegetables."

“Why would you become a slave to a vegetable?" Robertson said. "Why? Why would you do it?"



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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/pat-robertson-marijuana-vegetable-slavery

March 2, 2015

My libertarian vacation nightmare: How Ayn Rand, Ron Paul & their groupies were all debunked

My family and I traveled last month to a Honduras city known for its libertarian ideals. Here's what happened next

EDWIN LYNGAR

Last month, I spent my final vacation night in Honduras in San Pedro Sula, considered the most dangerous city outside of the war-torn Middle East. I would not have been scared, except that I traveled with my wife and our four children, aged 5, 7, 14 and 18. On our last taxi ride, we could not find a van to fit us all, so we rode in two taxis. Mine carried me and my two daughters, aged 5 and 14, while the driver blasted Willie Nelson singing “City of New Orleans” (a city that is also considered very dangerous).

It was a surreal moment, traveling in one of the most dangerous cities in the world with my babies in tow. I gave a nod to the radio. “Willie,” I said, and he gave me a grin and vigorous “sí.” There’s a lot of American cowboy culture in Honduras, but along with silly hats, Honduras has also taken one of our other worst ideas—libertarian politics. By the time I’d made it to San Pedro Sula, I’d seen much of the countryside and culture. It’s a wonderful place, filled with music, great coffee, fabulous cigars and generous people, but it’s also a libertarian experiment coming apart.

People better than I have analyzed the specific political moves that have created this modern day libertarian dystopia. Mike LaSusa recently wrote a detailed analysis of such, laying out how the bad ideas of libertarian politics have been pursued as government policy.

In America, libertarian ideas are attractive to mostly young, white men with high ideals and no life experience that live off of the previous generation’s investments and sacrifice. I know this because as a young, white idiot, I subscribed to this system of discredited ideas: Selfishness is good, government is bad. Take what you want, when you want and however you can. Poor people deserve what they get, and the smartest, hardworking people always win. So get yours before someone else does. I read the books by Charles Murray and have an autographed copy of Ron Paul’s “The Revolution.” The thread that links all the disparate books and ideas is that they fail in practice. Eliminate all taxes, privatize everything, load a country up with guns and oppose all public expenditures, you end up with Honduras.

more
http://www.salon.com/2015/03/02/my_libertarian_vacation_nightmare_how_ayn_rand_ron_paul_their_groupies_were_all_debunked/

March 2, 2015

GOP’s big health care plan: Say “freedom” a lot and let states figure something out

Three GOP senators insist that Republicans have a post-King v. Burwell "plan," but the details are nonexistent

SIMON MALOY

We’re just two days out from oral arguments in King v. Burwell, the Supreme Court case that will decide the future of the Affordable Care Act’s insurance subsidies in the majority of states, and Congressional Republicans are seizing what opportunities remain to work the refs. The GOP rightly views King v. Burwell as its last, best chance for doing significant damage to the law, but the party’s enthusiasm is tempered a bit by the knowledge that a ruling against the ACA will result in millions of people either losing insurance or paying significantly more for coverage. As such, the Republican strategy is to project to the world (more specifically, the court’s conservative justices) the GOP’s readiness to mitigate that fallout. They want to “make the world safe for [Chief Justice John] Roberts to overturn” the subsidies, as one conservative health policy advisor told TPM’s Sahil Kapur in January.

To that end, Republican Sens. Orrin Hatch, John Barrasso, and Lamar Alexander authored a Washington Post Op-Ed published over the weekend that bore the headline “We have a plan for fixing healthcare.” The three Republicans wrote in the lede that if the court rules against the ACA, then “Republicans have a plan to protect Americans harmed by the administration’s actions.” And just in case you were at all unclear whether or not Republicans have a plan, they wrote it again two paragraphs later: “Republicans have a plan to create a bridge away from Obamacare.”

So what is this great and wonderful thrice-declared plan? It’s tough to say. All we know for sure from reading the Hatch, Barrasso, Alexander Op-Ed is that the plan has two parts. Here’s what they write:

First and most important: We would provide financial assistance to help Americans keep the coverage they picked for a transitional period. It would be unfair to allow families to lose their coverage, particularly in the middle of the year.

more
http://www.salon.com/2015/03/02/gops_big_health_care_plan_say_freedom_a_lot_and_let_states_figure_something_out/

March 2, 2015

O’Reilly’s trouble deepens: A Kennedy tall tale that could unravel Fox News’ bully - By Joan Walsh

His Kennedy assassination lie is proven by a recording of O'Reilly himself. Why Fox's strategy may suddenly change

JOAN WALSH

Writers and advocates on the left have long catalogued the exaggerations, meltdowns and many stumbles of Fox’s Bill O’Reilly, to show that the guy who runs the No-Spin Zone is frequently unfair and relentlessly unbalanced. But now O’Reilly has a different sort of watchdog in CNN media reporter Brian Stelter, host of “Reliable Sources” – and Stelter is attracting more company.

Oh sure, the Fox bully dismisses Stelter — along with his critics at Mother Jones, Media Matters and for that matter Salon — as just another left winger out to get him. But that charge won’t stick. The bright, earnest, hardworking former New York Times reporter isn’t known for his ideological crusading; he goes after MSNBC, not just Fox. But when Stelter finds an important story, he digs in.

The CNN host just spent his second straight Sunday on the O’Reilly mess, this time advancing the story about what has become the most damning and incontestable charge against the Fox host: that he lied about personally hearing the suicide of a mysterious friend of Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, in Palm Beach, FL back in 1977, just as congressional investigators were closing in on the source. O’Reilly told the lie in his book “Killing Kennedy” as well as on the air at Fox.

In his book, O’Reilly wrote of tracking George De Mohrenschildt, who’d lived in Minsk and became friends with Oswald and his wife Marina in Dallas, after they returned from a stay in the Russian city. Kennedy assassination researchers believe De Mohrenschildt was a CIA asset, and he’s implicated in of a lot of theories about the real motive for Kennedy’s murder. O’Reilly doesn’t dig into that story, but he tells a dramatic tale of his search for the Oswald associate:

more
http://www.salon.com/2015/03/02/oreillys_trouble_deepens_a_kennedy_tall_tale_that_could_unravel_fox_news_bully/

March 2, 2015

Dysfunction In Congress Complicates GOP Lawsuit To Topple Obamacare

WASHINGTON — Congress just gave the Supreme Court a glimpse of what to expect if it drives a stake through the heart of Obamacare: CHAOS.

Oral arguments in King v. Burwell are this Wednesday, and they come amidst peak dysfunction in the new Republican-led Congress, which would be tasked with fixing the law if the justices rule that federal exchange subsidies for Americans in some three-dozen states are not allowed under the language of the Affordable Care Act.

The legal question is about how to interpret the relevant text of the law and its place in the overall statutory scheme. But the case poses grave consequences if premium tax credits are wiped out for more than 5 million Americans in one fell swoop. Persuading five justices to rule against Obamacare may require persuading the Court, most notably Chief Justice John Roberts, that Congress is prepared to fix the damage to the health care system, some court watchers say.

"As a rule, Supreme Court justices are reluctant to invalidate a law on which many relied. It will be far easier for the justices to enforce the law's existing language if they know there is a viable alternative that can be enacted by both houses of Congress and signed by the president within a week of their ruling," conservative law professor and litigator Randy Barnett wrote in a December op-ed for USA Today.

more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/congress-supreme-court-obamacare

March 2, 2015

Buffet: Sen. Warren More Effective If She Was 'Less Angry' (VIDEO)

Source: TPM

Billionaire and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett argued Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) would be more effective in her fight to remove Wall Street influence from the halls of Congress if she wasn't so angry.

Buffet made the comments in an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin on CNBC's Squawk Box. Sorkin first asked Buffett what he thought of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) but Buffett declined to weigh in. Then Sorkin asked about Warren and her views of Wall Street. Warren's signature issue is uprooting Wall Street influence from the halls of Congress. She's at times even gone against her own party over Treasury Department appointments.

"Well, I think she would be better if she was less angry and demonized less," Buffet said. "I mean, I believe in hate the sin and love the sinner. And I also believe in praising by name, and criticizing by category. And I'm not sure I've totally convinced Warren that's the way to go." Squawk Box co-host Becky Quick began to move to the conversation to a different question but Sorkin pressed Buffett if he'd tried to convince her.

"No, no, no and, listen, I – don't pick her out. There's plenty of the other candidates that their styles are not one hundred percent my style, but I do think it's a mistake to get angry with your – with people who disagree with you," Buffett said. "I mean, in the end we do have to work together. I mean, I think the whole nature of governing is particularly when you've got a divided government like we have now, is that you end up with bills that each side doesn't like but they like it better than doing nothing."

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Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/warren-buffet-elizabeth-warren-less-angry

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Video @ link, above

March 2, 2015

WSJ Editorial Excoriates House GOPers On Handling DHS Funding Bill

The Wall Street Journal editorial page published a scorching editorial Sunday evening excoriating House Republicans over their handling of Department of Homeland Security funding legislation.

The editorial follows House Democrats effectively bailing out House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) by helping him to pass a short-term DHS funding bill that averted a shutdown. The bill only lasts for one week though. Boehner needed House Democrats to come to the rescue after a number of House Republicans revolted against the speaker's plan to fund DHS for three weeks. That, according to the Journal editorial page, "effectively put Nancy Pelosi in charge of the House."

In the end though, the advantage is with President Barack Obama, the editorial said. "The sad if predictable irony is that this is exactly what Mr. Obama hoped to incite with his November immigration order," the editorial said. "He wanted to goad an overreaction that made the GOP look both anti-immigrant and intemperate enough to shut down the government."

In the event of a DHS shutdown, the editorial also warned, Obama would get an opportunity "to gain the political high ground on national security."

more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/wall-street-journal-editorial-page-dhs-funding

March 2, 2015

Bibi Watch: I Never Intended 'To Show Any Disrespect To President Obama'

Source: TPM

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Speaking at an American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference in Washington, Netanyahu talked about the elephant in the room: his acceptance of an invitation from House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) to address Congress just days before the Israeli elections and amid a heated debate over Iran sanctions. Boehner had made the invitation without consulting the White House or State Department.

"My speech is not intended to show any disrespect to President Obama or the esteemed office that he holds. I have great respect for both," Netanyahu said.

"My speech is also not intended to inject Israel into the American partisan debate," he added. "An important reason why our alliance has grown stronger, decade after decade, is that it has been championed by both parties and so it must remain."

Netanyahu said he regretted that some people "misperceived" his visit to Washington as partisan. The prime minister has come under fire from House and Senate Democrats -- including Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who said Sunday that Netanyahu doesn't "speak for all Jews" -- for accepting Boehner's invitation.

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Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/netanyahu-aipac-no-disrespect-obama

March 2, 2015

O'Reilly's Greatest Hits: 7 Times The Fox Host Had Trouble With The Truth

By BRENDAN JAMES Published MARCH 2, 2015, 6:00 AM EST

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For nearly 10 years, the host of "The O'Reilly Factor" and commander of "the no-spin zone" has plowed through his liberal critics on and off-air. Perhaps his only effective challenger from the left has been now-Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), whom Fox News ended up unsuccessfully suing after the former Saturday Night Live writer wrote a book calling O'Reilly a serial liar.

But in recent weeks, a report by Mother Jones magazine has kicked off a wave of investigations into O'Reilly's former war tales and reportage, from his time as a correspondent for CBS in the 80s to his gig at "Inside Edition" in the 90s.

Here are the best-known examples of times when there have been doubts about facts in O'Reilly's stories.

O'Reilly Told Al Franken He Won Two Peabody Awards

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O'Reilly Said He Was A Registered Independent

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O'Reilly Said He Was Outside As A JFK Figure Committed Suicide

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O'Reilly Said He Was Under Siege In The L.A. Riots

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O'Reilly Said He Rescued A Cameraman As Argentineans Were Shot Dead

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O'Reilly Cites His Work Of Fiction To Prove Real-Life War Tales

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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/bill-oreilly-factual-greatest-hits

March 2, 2015

Reports: Sen. Mikulski, Longest Serving Female Senator, To Retire

Source: TPM

Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) will not run for re-election in 2016, The Washington Post and CNN reported Monday.

Mikulski will announce her plans at a news conference at 11 a.m. on Monday Inn at Henderson’s Wharf. She plans to finish out her current term but not run for another one.

Mikulski, 78, is the longest serving female senator in the history of the country, and was also the first woman to chair the influential Senate Appropriations Committee.

Mikulski served five terms in office. She was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1976 and has served in the Senate since 1987.

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Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/barbara-mikulski-retiring