May 27, 2014

The right’s new horror show: What reform conservatives are really peddling

Forget the talk about modernizing conservatism and making it less nutty. The future's more dangerous than you think

MATT BRUENIG

The so-called reform conservatives released a book of policy proposals last week to much fanfare. On the whole, it’s the usual hodgepodge of conservative ideas, though dressed up in slicker graphics. There is the ever-present call to repeal Obamacare in favor of tax credits, which is neither new nor interesting. There is the “drill baby drill” energy policy that makes not even a single mention of climate change. But the biggest horror show of all is the tax reform proposal, which is nothing more than the usual screw-the-poor pablum.

At its essential core, the reform conservative tax plan is actually two proposals. The first proposal gets rid of our seven marginal tax rates that span from 10 to 40 percent and replaces them with two marginal tax rates of 15 and 35 percent. The second proposal massively expands the American welfare state by dramatically increasing the cash transfers parents of children receive. Well, it increases the cash transfers some parents will receive, namely middle- and upper-class parents, while totally neglecting the rest.

More specifically, their proposed welfare state expansion consists of adding a $2,500 child tax credit to the existing $1,000 child tax credit and personal tax exemption for children. Although a massive expansion in child-related welfare spending is a great idea, the restrictions the reform conservatism plan places on who can claim these benefits leaves poor families totally out in the cold.

The two pieces of the child benefit welfare state that they keep intact — the personal tax exemption and $1000 child tax credit — already deliver far more benefits to middle and upper class families than to poor families. This is because the personal tax exemption operates as an income deduction, meaning the amount of benefit families receive from it increases as their marginal tax rate increases. In 2013, families with incomes that placed them in the 10% tax bracket received $390 of benefits from the personal exemption for each of their children. Families in the 33% tax bracket received $1,287 of benefits.

more
http://www.salon.com/2014/05/27/the_rights_new_horror_show_what_reform_conservatives_are_really_peddling/

May 27, 2014

Family tragedy: Teen shoots brother dead in fight over clothes, then takes his own life

Source: Raw Story

Police in Miami are investigating the shooting deaths of two teenage brothers that occurred late Sunday night.

Family members told CBS4 News that 14-year-old Stephen Odeus shot his brother, 16-year-old Stanley Blanc, after the two fought over who could wear each other’s clothes.

After realizing what he had done — and before anyone could stop him — Stephen ran across the apartment complex and used the same gun to take his own life.

The teenagers’ older brother, Marc Blanc, told CBS4 News that it “started off as a small petty argument, but escalated into a fight.”

Kedner Louis, a friend of the family who was present at the scene, said that “Stanley wanted to wear Stephen’s clothes, Stephen didn’t want him to.”

He says family members separated the pair inside the apartment, but the fight spilled over into the grounds outside, where Stephen Odeus shot his brother Stanley.

“Right before my eyes, my brother just shot my other brother,” Blanc said. He saw Stephen run away, and shortly thereafter, heard another gunshot.

“I heard my second brother die, because he shot himself. In my mind, I think [Stephen] didn’t really mean to [shoot Stanley],” Blanc continued. “Nobody, that’s blood nobody wants to kill their own brother. At the same time, I’ve got mixed feelings about a lot of stuff right now. I really don’t know how to feel.”

At this time, police do not know who owned the gun Stephen used to kill himself and his brother, or whether it was purchased legally.

Watch a report on the tragedy via CBS4 News Miami below.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/26/family-tragedy-teen-shoots-brother-dead-in-fight-over-clothes-then-takes-his-own-life/

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Posted with permission

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/26/family-tragedy-teen-shoots-brother-dead-in-fight-over-clothes-then-takes-his-own-life/

May 27, 2014

Germany’s representative to EU Parliament is son of Nazi, once called Hitler ‘a great man’

Source: Agence France-Presse


By Agence France-Presse
Monday, May 26, 2014 18:58 EDT

Udo Voigt, the first member of Germany's far-right anti-immigrant party to enter the European Parliament, has faced legal action in the past with comments such as Hitler was "a great man".

The son of a Nazi SA assault division member, Voigt, 62, was the chief candidate for the extremist National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD), which scored one percent in the German vote for the EU-wide election Sunday.

Three years after being found guilty in 2004 of promoting Nazism after he called Hitler "a great man", Voigt questioned the number of Holocaust deaths and demanded the return of German land lost after World War II.

He also received a four-month suspended jail sentence for inciting violence after calling in a 1998 campaign speech for voters to engage in "armed combat".

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Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/26/germanys-representative-to-eu-parliament-is-son-of-nazi-once-called-hitler-a-great-man/

May 26, 2014

Karl Rove: Jeb Bush Is "The Biggest Thinker on Our Side"

May 26, 2014

The Battle for LGBT Equality Isn’t Over Yet - By Gene Robinson

The celebrations in Oregon last week made it easy to feel that victory is inevitable. But even if gay marriage becomes legal in all 50 states, we’ll still have work to do.

Stepping off the plane last Monday in Portland, Oregon, something felt different. It was not just that the sun was shining brilliantly in a place infamous for its cloudiness. It was the broad smile and exuberant expression on the face of the Oregon Equality for Marriage representative who was meeting my plane.

I knew that Judge Michael McShane was scheduled to rule on Oregon’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage that very day. I could tell by the face of the young man who met me that his ruling had gone well for marriage equality. Indeed, not only had Judge McShane declared the amendment to be in violation of the Constitution, but there would be no more appeals and no stay on the ruling. Excitedly, this campaign worker told me that marriages were already occurring, as we spoke. It was a new day for gay or lesbian Oregonians wishing to exercise their constitutional right to marry the person they love.

Arriving at the Melody Ballroom, the atmosphere was a frenzy of joy, jubilation and holy bedlam. Eight makeshift altars had been set up around the hall, each adorned with a white covering and fresh flowers. Organizers had miraculously transformed the hall into a holy and special place; buckets of fresh flowers were placed all around, so that each expectant couple could carry or wear free-for-the-taking flowers for the occasion. Gay and lesbian couples stood in line, most accompanied by friends and family, waiting to offer their public vows of commitment to one another. And clergy, bedecked in liturgical vestments and stoles, provided leadership and blessing for the nuptials. Indeed, there were more willing clergy than could be effectively employed.

And this is what was so striking to me: Clergy and people representing many denominations were there to celebrate the victory and offer themselves in service to the gay and lesbian couples who had waiting so long for this day, this moment. Not very long ago, religious people were the biggest barrier to this day happening at all. And here they were, standing with their gay and lesbian brothers and sisters, offering God’s blessing on the unions taking place.

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/25/the-battle-for-lgbt-equality-isn-t-over-yet.html

May 26, 2014

The Pope's Pivotal Palestinian Moment

Barbie Latza Nadeau

Pontiff stops to pray at the graffiti-covered Palestinian side of the “separation wall”

In the days ahead of Pope Francis’s visit to the Middle East, his handlers in Rome were adamant that it would be a “purely religious”, not political, journey. But apparently, no one told the pope.

On Sunday, in what will be the epochal image from his visit, the pontiff diverted his popemobile to stop and pray at the graffiti-covered Palestinian side of the “separation wall” that divides the West Bank. A young girl holding a Palestinian flag stood at his side. He placed his hand near the words “Free Palestine” written in red paint in English before touching the wall with his forehead. The pope then went one step further by inviting both the Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas and the Israeli president Shimon Peres to visit what he referred to as “my home” in the Vatican on June 6 for what will be an impromptu peace summit at the Holy See.

The stop was a surprise even to the pope’s own people. Papal spokesperson Father Federico Lombardi told reporters traveling in the papal entourage, “I was not informed. It was planned by him the day before. It was a very significant way to demonstrate his participation in suffering. It was a profound spiritual moment in front of a symbol of division."

Later, after a mass in Manger Square attended by thousands of Palestinian Christians, he underscored his hope for peace in the Middle East, sending a clear message by calling the conflict “increasingly unacceptable” and using the term “State of Palestine” which Israel rejects. He had flown in by helicopter from Jordan to Bethlehem in order to avoid traveling through Israeli checkpoints, which delighted Palestinians. “There is a need to intensify efforts and initiatives aimed at creating the conditions for a stable peace based on justice, on the recognition of rights for every individual, and on mutual security,” he said.

more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/26/the-pope-s-pivotal-palestinian-moment.html

May 26, 2014

Likely Nebraska Senator wrote dissertation at Yale advocating populist Christian uprisings

By Scott Kaufman
Sunday, May 25, 2014 11:37 EDT

The GOP candidate for the open Nebraska Senate seat who believes that the “government cannot force citizens to violate their religious beliefs under any circumstances” wrote a dissertation while at Yale documenting the number of times the government did just that — and how the unintended consequences of doing so were key to mainstreaming conservative politics.

Ben Sasse, who is widely expected to to win the seat being vacated by Sen. Mike Johanns in November, authored a dissertation — The Anti-Madalyn Majority: Secular Left, Religious Right, and the Rise of Reagan’s America — in which he argued that the modern conservative movement began not with “the Reagan Revolution,” but with two Supreme Court decisions in the early 1960s in which mandatory public school prayer and Bible reading were struck down as unconstitutional.

The first of them, Engel v. Vitale, inspired a Republican Congressman from New York, Frank Becker, to action. He was a true believer — a man who, according to Sasse, was a “tenacious focus derived less from a studied assessment of his audience than from his heartfelt conviction that the hope of America lay in its special relationship with the Almighty, and in the nation’s resolve to doggedly oppose the most formidable system of atheistic imperialism the world had ever known.”

Sasse identified Becker’s failed efforts to “oppose the most formidable system of atheistic imperialism the world had ever known” as the origin of a “bottom-up” rebellion against the “elites” — many of whom were Jewish — who wanted to remove religion from public life. He claimed that Nixon and his rhetoric of the “silent majority” spoke “effectively to and for the small-town values still prized by most of the country.”

“Indeed angst about secularization, more than any other complaint,” he wrote, “provided a lens through which Americans could see all other social problems as sharing a common root, a liberal root.” He claimed that these forces existed outside of conventional politics, a sentiment he echoes today on the campaign trail.

He told The Washington Times that “our voters are as fed up with Republicans as they are with Democrats. They don’t think there’s an urgency in either party.”

He also identified “the real conservative battle” as “protecting our values, traditional marriage, the right to life, the Second Amendment, stopping the rampant borrowing and spending, even taking on the Supreme Court if that’s what it takes” — which is exactly what he wrote catalyzed the populist conservative movement in the 1960s and led to the Reagan Revolution in the 1980s.

Watch an interview Glenn Beck conducted with Ben Sasse below.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/25/likely-nebraska-senator-wrote-dissertation-at-yale-advocating-populist-christian-uprisings/

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Posted with permission

May 26, 2014

‘Time running out’ as CO2 levels hit new high in Northern Hermisphere: UN

Source: Agence France-Presse

Geneva (AFP) 5/26/2014 6:21:07 AM

Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations have crossed a new threshold, the UN's weather agency said Monday, highlighting the urgency of curbing manmade, climate-altering greenhouse gases.

In April, for the first time, the mean monthly CO2 concentration in the atmosphere topped 400 parts per million (ppm) throughout the northern hemisphere, which pollutes more than the south, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said.

"This should serve as yet another wakeup call about the constantly rising levels of greenhouse gases which are driving climate change," WMO chief Michel Jarraud said in a statement.

"If we are to preserve our planet for future generations, we need urgent action to curb new emissions of these heat-trapping gases. Time is running out," he warned.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/26/time-running-out-as-co2-levels-hit-new-high-in-northern-hermisphere-un/

May 26, 2014

Franklin Graham warns gays to change their ways or ‘it’s the flames of hell for you’

By Travis Gettys
Monday, May 26, 2014 9:52 EDT

Rev. Franklin Graham told a group of conservative pastors that he loves LGBT people enough to warn them they risked falling into the “the flames of hell.”

“I love them enough to care to warn them that if they want to continue living like this, it’s the flames of hell for you,” Graham said Thursday night at the Watchmen on the Wall National Pastor’s Briefing in Washington, D.C.

“Now, if you don’t like that, don’t get mad at me,” Graham said. “I didn’t write the rule book. Almighty God wrote it, and it’s a sin against Him.”

He said religious leaders were stifled by political correctness.

“We don’t want to be called a homophobic,” he said, “and I tell people, listen, I’m not afraid of homosexuals, I’m really not — matter of fact, I love them.”

Graham, who has repeatedly praised Russian President Vladimir Putin for his anti-gay policies, cautioned the pastors not to compromise in their teaching.

“Listen gentlemen — we live in a world where there is so much compromise,” said Graham. “This city that we’re in, that’s all they do is compromise. We cannot go down that road because you and I are going to have to stand before God one day and give an account to Him, and you don’t want Him to say from His lips, ‘You were a coward.’”

The son of famed evangelist Rev. Billy Graham made similar remarks about the risk of eternal damnation faced by gay people in a March newspaper interview, when he also questioned the motives of LGBT couple who adopted children.

“You can adopt a child into a marriage, but you can also recruit children into your cause,” Graham told a reporter. “I believe in protecting children from exploitation – all exploitations.”

The Family Research Council sponsors the annual Watchmen on the Wall conference to promote the idea that Judeo-Christian values should inform politics.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) made the misleading claim at last week’s event that Senate Democrats intended to repeal the First Amendment through a new constitutional amendment.

In fact, Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) has proposed an amendment – which stands virtually no chance of passing – that would again permit federal and state government to regulate campaign financing.

The U.S. Supreme Court loosened those regulations in its recent rulings on the Citizens United and McCutcheon cases.

Watch this video of Graham’s remarks posted online by CNS News:

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/26/franklin-graham-warns-gays-to-change-their-ways-or-its-the-flames-of-hell-for-you/

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May 26, 2014

GOP’s post-Obama problem: Why they’re lost without him — and with the electorate he helped create

GOP’s post-Obama problem: Why they’re lost without him — and with the electorate he helped create

The establishment vanquished the Tea Party by drinking its poison — but has no plan for life after this president

JOAN WALSH

With the 2014 congressional primary season almost behind us, the conventional wisdom has hardened: The Republican establishment has vanquished its Tea Party tormentors. The progressive response to that narrative — that the establishment only “won” by capitulating to the Tea Party — is hardening, too. I want to challenge that a little.

When North Carolina State Sen. Thom Tillis won the GOP Senate nomination in early May, it seemed ridiculous to claim the Tea Party had been defeated, though he technically had a Tea Party rival: Tillis was as extreme as his opponent, supporting personhood legislation and tax cuts for the wealthy, opposing immigration reform and boasting that he’d personally stopped the state’s Medicaid expansion. I argued at the time that the story was not the Tea Party’s defeat, but its victory: the extent to which it had taken over the Republican establishment.

That didn’t seem true in the wake of Tuesday night’s election results, particularly in Kentucky. Credit where it’s due: Mitch McConnell crushed Matt Bevin. Sure, he did it by courting his Tea Party junior Sen. Rand Paul and by sliming and outspending Bevin. And sure, he won by a smaller margin than any incumbent GOP senator who’d faced a primary in the last 80 years.

But he won, even after making a deal with Harry Reid to reopen the government that was supposed to be his undoing. So did Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson, a Boehner ally with a Tea Party rival, while in Georgia, the three candidates tied to the Tea Party lost, to two more polished and mainstream conservatives, Rep. Jack Kingston and businessman David Perdue, who face a July run-off. And looking ahead, South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham, Kansas’s Pat Roberts and Tennessee’s Lamar Alexander look likely to beat back Tea Party challengers. In 2010, when even conservative incumbents like Utah’s Bob Bennett and South Carolina’s Bob Inglis lost their seats in Congress, all of those races likely would have turned out differently.

more
http://www.salon.com/2014/05/26/what_happens_to_the_gop_after_obama/