August 29, 2014

Baby, I'm Yours...

Thirty-seven years ago, April 12, 1977 to be exact, a blind date arranged by a mutual friend, brought David and I together. Today, after travelling through life's peaks, valleys, a national controversy, and the adoption of a sibling group of four boys, we're ready for the next step. Tomorrow, at 11 a.m., Dave and I will be legally married in a private ceremony at which three of our four sons will be present. The fourth won't be able to attend solely because he just started a new job at a community college in AZ two weeks ago. Drove himself from our home in Massachusetts to AZ, and he's settling in there. He graduated from the University of Mass last May (with a degree in Political Science, no less)

This one's for David, my legal husband as of manana but the love of my life all these many years:

August 29, 2014

Mike Pence headed to Iowa

By Robert Costa August 28 at 4:27 PM

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R), a conservative favorite, will soon visit Iowa to support the re-election campaign of the state’s governor.

Pence’s trip, set for Sept. 8, is the latest sign that he is considering a 2016 presidential bid.

Pence will be the keynote speaker at a Des Moines luncheon for Gov. Terry Branstad (R) and his running mate. Cam Sutton, a retired insurance executive, will host the event.

Three years ago, Sutton participated in an effort by a group of Iowa businessmen to draft Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) into the 2012 presidential race. Branstad, who has served multiple terms as governor since 1983, has long been a key player in the state that holds the first nominating contest in the GOP presidential primary.

more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/08/28/mike-pence-headed-to-iowa/

August 29, 2014

Vote for the (Alleged) Crooks! How Rick Perry, Chris Christie, and Scott Walker and Running While Un

Vote for the (Alleged) Crooks! How Rick Perry, Chris Christie, and Scott Walker and Running While Under Investigation

Olivia Nuzzi

You might think a criminal probe would stop a GOP presidential contender in his tracks. Not for these three governors.

Laugh off the investigation. Ignore it. Or shake your ass with Jimmy Fallon. Three governors who have been seriously floated as possible contenders for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 are under investigation in their home states. How they are coping varies dramatically. Texas Governor Rick Perry seems to have benefited from his troubles; New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was declared dead and is now bobbing back into the running; and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has mostly stayed quiet, perhaps thinking that ignoring the scandal will make it go away.

It is important, former Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards told me, that the candidates “don’t dodge or evade.” Instead, he advised them to, “step up to the plate. Tell it like it is—especially if it’s going to come out later from somebody else. It’s important that you admit it, and if you’ve done something wrong, to ask for understanding and forgiveness. If you haven’t done anything wrong, you need to explain your position.”

And Edwards would know.

Edwards (who was governor for a total of sixteen, staggered years from 1972 to 1996) was long-dogged by charges of corruption. He was also known for his candor in addressing them. Asked about receiving illegal campaign contributions, he once said: “It was illegal for them to give, but not for me to receive.” In 1991, having lost his bid for reelection, Edwards declared his candidacy against David Duke, who was revealed to be a neo-Nazi. Bumper stickers supporting Edwards read, “VOTE FOR THE CROOK. IT’S IMPORTANT.” Edwards won. In 2001, Edwards was found guilty on charges of racketeering and sentenced to ten years in Federal prison. Ahead of entering the Big House in Fort Worth, Texas, he told the press: “I will be a model prisoner as I was a model citizen.” Edwards is now running for Congress in Louisiana’s 6th district.

more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/29/vote-for-the-alleged-crooks-how-rick-perry-chris-christie-and-scott-walker-and-running-while-under-investigation.html

August 29, 2014

Top Aide to Mitch McConnell Linked to Shady Deal

Ben Jacobs

Controversial campaign manager Jesse Benton, a Ron Paul protégé, is being edged closer to a bribery scandal from the 2012 Iowa caucuses—and no one knows where the investigation’s going.

Politics makes strange bedfellows and there was no pairing stranger in the 2014 election cycle than when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell hired Jesse Benton to be his campaign manager. Benton is closely aligned with Ron and Rand Paul. He worked on both of Ron’s presidential campaigns and ran Rand’s 2010 Senate campaign. The easy line about Benton is that he’s so close to the Pauls that he could be family, except for the fact that he is family: Benton is married to one of Ron Paul’s granddaughters.

The hiring seemed to inaugurate a détente between Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell. Paul had won his Senate primary in 2010 by beating Trey Grayson, a McConnell protégé, and by effectively shredding the Kentucky Republican establishment. Mitch McConnell is the Kentucky Republican establishment. But both needed each other: Paul needed to build a strong relationship with McConnell to gain national credibility for a presidential bid and McConnell needed Paul to be able to win his primary in 2014. As a result of this shotgun marriage, Benton became McConnell’s campaign manager.

The relationship has had hiccups since. Most notably in August of 2013, a recording was leaked in which Benton said he was “holdin’ my nose” to run the McConnell campaign “because what we’re doing here is going to be a big benefit to Rand in ’16, so that’s my long vision.” The campaign blew it off by releasing a picture of Benton holding his nose while standing next to a smiling McConnell. Peter Hamby at CNN later reported that the leak “genuinely hurt” McConnell’s feelings.

Now McConnell could face real harm from his connections with Benton, as an unfolding campaign-finance investigation into the 2012 GOP presidential primaries is making headlines.

On Wednesday, former Iowa state senator Kent Sorenson pleaded guilty in federal court to endorsing Ron Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign in exchange for secret payments and then lying about the payoff to investigators. Sorenson, who had previously been backing Michele Bachmann in exchange for alleged illegal payments, jumped ship to back Paul only days before the Iowa caucuses in exchange for $73,000. So far, there is no evidence that Benton dealt directly with the disgraced legislator. However, leaked emails from Dennis Fusaro, a former aide to Rep. Paul, imply that Benton may have had knowledge of the campaign’s negotiations with Sorenson.

more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/29/top-aide-to-mitch-mcconnell-linked-to-shady-deal.html

August 29, 2014

Obama cautions against using force to solve crises

Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) — Faced with deepening crises in the Middle East and Ukraine, President Barack Obama is putting the brakes on the notion that American military power can solve either conflict.

That stance is in keeping with Obama’s long-standing aversion to military entanglements. But it comes at a time when the effectiveness of his preferred options is being challenged and there are indications that some in the administration are ready to take more robust actions.

In the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Obama has relied largely on coordinated U.S. and European Union economic sanctions to try to shift Russian President Vladimir Putin (POO’-tihn)’s calculus. While the White House can claim credit for inflicting some pain on Russia’s economy, Putin appears to be only getting more aggressive.

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Read more: http://www.salon.com/2014/08/29/obama_cautions_against_using_force_to_solve_crises/

August 29, 2014

GOP’s crazy scapegoat: What their next shutdown will really be about

Republicans know shutdowns are toxic, but that doesn't mean they won't do one. They'll just blame you-know-who

SIMON MALOY

With Congress on the verge of reconvening and government funding set to expire at the end of September, people are understandably beginning to wonder if the Republicans will shut down the government again. What issue could possibly lead them back down that path? Will it be immigration? Perhaps the Export-Import Bank? Speculation has been fed by comments from leading Senate Republicans like Mitch McConnell and Marco Rubio, both of whom have hinted at using the appropriations process at some point to force policy concessions from the administration. But will we actually arrive at the point of a shutdown?

The going theory is that the Republicans won’t risk a shutdown because they’re not so stupid as to do something that politically disastrous just before an election. That’s a fine theory on paper, though it clashes slightly with the fact that House Republicans voted less than a month ago to end President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protects young undocumented immigrants from deportation. In doing so they angered all the liberals they’re hoping won’t turn out this November, and stomped all over their own rebranding efforts with Latino voters. Trusting that the House GOP won’t shoot itself in the foot politically isn’t the safest of bets.

And it’s looking like immigration will be the focus of the shutdown fight, should there be one. President Obama is set to take executive action on deportations, and that’s going to drive conservatives in the House absolutely insane. As the Atlantic’s Molly Ball reports, Republicans are worried that those same conservatives – emboldened by their successful push to force a vote on killing DACA earlier this month – will stage a rebellion if the leadership doesn’t use the upcoming funding battle to fight Obama on immigration. One of those immigration hard-liners, Rep. Steve King, told the Washington Post that “if Obama does move forward with an executive action, many House Republicans will be unwilling to extend funding for the government that is set to expire at the end of September.”

more
http://www.salon.com/2014/08/29/gops_crazy_scapegoat_what_their_next_shutdown_will_really_be_about/

August 29, 2014

Conservative host scrambles to stop doctor from debunking anti-immigrant virus claims

Conservative TV host J.D. Hayworth hurried to cut off a guest on Thursday who was debunking the conservative argument that Central American immigrants are bringing infectious diseases into the U.S., Right Wing Watch reported.

“I actually think the threat of diseases coming into the United States from Central America is fairly remote,” Dr. Peter Horetz — who specializes in treating those types of diseases at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston — told a surprised Hayworth during an interview on Newsmax. “The problem is not so much immigration. We call them neglected tropical diseases, and that’s a bit of a misnomer. They’re diseases of poverty.

Hayworth, a former Republican congressman from Arizona, broached the topic by asking Horetz to focus on the country’s “southern borders.”

“We are hearing widespread infectious diseases coming into the United States,” Hayworth argued, without identifying his sources. “Tell us about the nature of the threat of these diseases coming into the United States.”

In fact, medical professionals like Horetz have stated that Central American countries actually have a higher rate of vaccination against diseases like tuberculosis than the U.S.

more
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/28/conservative-host-scrambles-to-stop-doctor-from-debunking-anti-immigrant-virus-claims/

August 29, 2014

Florida appeals court rejects state attorney general’s bid to delay ruling marriage equality

Source: Reuters

MIAMI (Reuters) – An appeals court in Florida on Thursday rejected a motion by its attorney general that urged the state’s top court to delay a ruling on its same-sex marriage ban until the U.S. Supreme Court eventually decides on the issue.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi argued that the debate about gay nuptials involves issues central to the U.S. Constitution, and that therefore only the nation’s highest court has the authority to make a decision.


In a brief ruling, a judge in Florida’s Miami-based Third District Court of Appeal rejected Bondi’s motion.

On Wednesday, Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal asked the state Supreme Court to rule on what it said was a matter “of great public importance and will have a great effect on the proper administration of justice throughout the state.”

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/28/florida-appeals-court-rejects-state-attorney-generals-bid-to-delay-ruling-marriage-equality/

August 29, 2014

Ferguson and St. Louis cops sued for $40 million over ‘militaristic displays’ during protests

Source: Reuters

By Carey Gillam

(Reuters) – A group of people caught up in unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, after a white officer killed a black teenager, sued local officials on Thursday, alleging civil rights violations through arrests and police assaults with rubber bullets and tear gas.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, says law enforcement met a broad public outcry over the Aug. 9 killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown with “militaristic displays of force and weaponry,” (and) engaged U.S. citizens “as if they were war combatants.”

The lawsuit seeks a total of $40 million on behalf of six plaintiffs, including a 17-year-old boy who was with his mother in a fast-food restaurant when they were arrested. Each of the plaintiffs was caught up in interactions with police over a period from Aug. 11 to 13, the suit allege.

Named as defendants are the city of Ferguson, St. Louis County, Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Delmar, Ferguson police officer Justin Cosmo, and other unnamed police officers from Ferguson and St. Louis County.

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/28/ferguson-and-st-louis-cops-sued-for-40-million-over-militaristic-displays-during-protests/

August 29, 2014

Five of Cliven Bundy’s grandchildren pulled from school over ban on carrying pocket knives

Five of anti-government rancher Cliven Bundy’s grandchildren were removed from their Nevada schools because of a ban on bringing knives onto their respective campuses, KSNV-TV reported.

Bundy’s son Ryan Bundy pulled the children after officials with the Clark County School District informed him that his 15-year-old daughter would not be allowed to bring her pocket knife to Virgin Valley High School because it fell under the district’s zero-tolerance policy against weapons.

“They’re trying to make my child a criminal – and any other child a criminal – for simply having something, and that is not right,” Ryan Bundy told KSNV, adding that he planned to speak to the school’s principal and ask that she be allowed to circumvent the policy.

Ryan Bundy stated that each of his children owns a pocket knife and uses it at home for chores, and were also allowed to bring them while attending charter schools and schools in Utah in the past. The other children were pulled from a local middle school and elementary school.

more
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/28/five-of-cliven-bundys-grandchildren-pulled-from-school-over-ban-on-carrying-pocket-knives/