January 27, 2014

Gay Son Of Indiana GOP Lawmaker 'Terribly Disappointed' Father Voted For Marriage Equality Ban

Gay Son Of Indiana GOP Lawmaker 'Terribly Disappointed' Father Voted For Marriage Equality Ban

WASHINGTON -- Indiana's House Elections and Apportionment Committee advanced a constitutional ban on marriage equality last week, voting 9-3 along party lines. Now, the gay son of the Republican committee chair who successfully pushed the measure through, state Rep. Milo Smith, is speaking out, saying he's "terribly disappointed" by what his father did.

Chris Smith first posted his thoughts on the Facebook page of the LGBT advocacy group Indiana Equality on Saturday, three days after his father's committee passed the ban.

"I'm not here to badmouth my dad," he wrote. "I'm terribly disappointed in his decision and beliefs, but he's not going to change them now if he hasn't after all these years of knowing I am gay. I am here to support you and my friends who remain in Indiana. They are my extended family."

On Sunday, he wrote another post on his own Facebook page that read, "My stand puts me in clear conflict with my own father, who is a state legislator and has voted to pass the resolution out of his committee and onto the full House for a vote."

more
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/27/milo-smith_n_4674998.html?utm_hp_ref=politics&ir=Politics

January 27, 2014

Conservative groups were incensed by the massive marriage ceremony performed at the Grammy’s last ni

‘The Gaymmys’: Conservatives go nuts after Grammy Awards feature same-sex weddings

By Scott Kaufman
Monday, January 27, 2014 12:31 EST

Conservative groups were incensed by the massive marriage ceremony performed at the Grammy’s last night.

The headline at The Drudge Report this morning spoke of “THE GAYMMYS,” and Twitter was overrun with people discussing the ceremony officiated by Queen Latifah during Macklemore’s performance of the same-sex marriage anthem “Same Love.”

At the conservative site Free Republic, a commenter who confessed to “see[ing] gays at the store” complained about how “[t]hey take every venue, every event, and have to gay it.” Another prayed that “the hands of the demented who applauded this sickeness rot off at their limp wrists.”

Those on the left generally applauded the ceremony. Hemant Mehta, the Friendly Atheist, tweeted:

Hemant Mehta @hemantmehta
Follow
Gay couples just got mass-married and now robots are embracing each other. All those conservatives' nightmares have come true. #GRAMMYs
11:38 PM - 26 Jan 2014

There was, however, some legitimate criticism. While there were many gay marriages on stage, there was very little gay kissing:

gregoryellwood @HitFixGregory
Follow
And yes - confirmed - CBS cut from any gay kissing. Sigh. #GRAMMYs
2:14 AM - 27 Jan 2014

And straight allies were reminded that gay marriage isn’t “the end-all/be-all” of LGBT issues:

Bhaswati Chattopadhy @BhaswatiChat
Follow
Macklemore and other straight "allies" need to understand that gay marriage isn't the end-all/be-all of queer rights and identity. #GRAMMYs
7:47 PM - 26 Jan 2014

But for the most part, conservatives felt like the aggrieved party both during and after the Grammy Awards, especially after learning that former NBA player Jason Collins, who came out last year, would be sitting next to Michelle Obama during the State of the Union address tomorrow.

“Every event in American has to be centered on homosexuality,” they complained. “The Russians” – whose strict anti-LGBT laws have come under international fire in the run-up tot he Sochi Winter Olympics – “might be civilization’s only hope.”

###

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/27/the-gaymmys-conservatives-go-nuts-after-grammy-awards-features-34-gay-weddings/

Full article posted with permission

January 27, 2014

Oops! GOP's Empty Threat On The Debt Ceiling Exposed

SAHIL KAPUR – JANUARY 27, 2014, 12:37 PM EST

Republicans have a strange new debt limit strategy: Demand conditions attached but promise not to default if Democrats refuse to comply.

"I think for the president to ask for a clean debt ceiling [increase] when we have the debt the size of our economy is irresponsible," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Fox News Sunday. "I think the president is taking an unreasonable position to suggest that we ought to treat his request to raise the debt ceiling like some kind of motherhood resolution that everybody says aye and we don't do anything, when we have the stagnant economy and this massive debt created under his administration."

Fighting words. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has similarly warned
that Republicans will insist on attaching conditions to any resolution that raises the country's borrowing limit and prevents a potentially disastrous breach in late February. They may tie it to legislation that scraps a stability mechanism in Obamacare that they call an insurer "bailout," Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) signaled.

-snip-

"We're never going to default. The Speaker and I made that clear. We've never done that," McConnell said. Boehner's spokesman Michael Steel, calling on the White House to negotiate a solution amenable to the House, similarly said the Speaker believes "we should not default on our debt, or even get close to it."

more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/republicans-level-empty-threat-debt-ceiling

January 27, 2014

CNN sorry after clumsy edit shows Hillary Clinton ‘laughing about’ Benghazi deaths

By David Edwards
Monday, January 27, 2014 13:26 EST

CNN apologized on Monday after a video edit made it appear that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was laughing about the Americans who died in Benghazi.

Speaking at the National Automobile Dealers Association, Clinton said that the deaths of Americans during the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi were her “biggest regret” while serving as secretary of state.

But that statement was immediately followed by laughter from Clinton while the words “Hillary: Biggest Regret Is Benghazi” remained on the screen.

It was not immediately clear from the editing that CNN had transitioned into a second portion of the question-and-answer session about the 2016 presidential race.

Host Ashleigh Banfield caught the error quickly after the clip aired.

“Alright, I want to be real clear here,” Banfield said. “Those were two separate sound bites that we tried to get to as quickly as possible. We call them tape turns. One of them was about Benghazi and another — that was completely separate at a different time — was about her thoughts about 2016.”

“That is our mistake, she was not laughing — let’s be very clear that the secretary of state was not laughing about the previous comments about Benghazi,” Banfield added. “But there you have it, comments about 2016.”

Watch this video from CNN, broadcast Jan. 27, 2014:

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/27/cnn-sorry-after-clumsy-edit-shows-hillary-clinton-laughing-about-benghazi-deaths/

Full article posted with permission

January 27, 2014

Chris Christie update: Yet another scandal?

Here's everything you need to know about the latest news in the Chris Christie scandal saga

ELIAS ISQUITH

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has kept a low profile since “Bridgegate” first broke, rarely making public appearances or engaging with the media. But despite the governor’s best attempt to keep his head down and let the whole scandal blow over, the weeks following the first revelation of coordinated “traffic problems in Fort Lee” have only revealed more questionable actions and decisions from Christie’s first term. This past weekend was no different.

Here’s the latest:

- Concerning Bridgegate, the Associated Press reported that Democrats in the New Jersey state Assembly and Senate have decided to “pool their resources” and create a “joint bipartisan committee with power to subpoena people and correspondence related to the lane closings and abuse of power allegations.”

- MSNBC’s Ned Resnikoff released a detailed and in-depth report on one of Christie’s now-forgotten but most controversial (and, Resnikoff argues, consequential) moves as governor: The decision to scrap the massive Access to the Region’s Core project (ARC), an attempt to build a new rail tunnel from New Jersey to New York that was years in the making and, many believe, remains absolutely necessary. Resnikoff’s reporting raises questions about whether Christie’s stated justification for nixing the plan at the time — that it was running over-budget and would cost New Jersey taxpayers billions — could be supported by the facts. Did Christie kill the ARC out of concern for his state’s fiscal future, as he claims, or was it rather a showy attempt to please the nation’s right-wing political class by grandstanding about public finances while simultaneously sticking his thumb in the eye of liberals everywhere who support new approaches to transportation?

- An editorial from the Star-Ledger, meanwhile, raises another potentially disturbing question for Christie: Did he have a prosecutor fired, and a case dismissed, because it involved a political ally? The Star-Ledger editors remind readers of Ben Barlyn, a former Hunterdon County prosecutor who alleges he was canned as a result of his refusal to drop a case against Hunterdon County Sheriff Deborah Trout, a political partner of Christie’s. Barlyn is pushing the state Attorney General’s Office to release transcripts he claims will prove his case was worth pursuing, but the state is strongly contesting the necessity of such a move — and the current attorney general, a Christie appointee, is even going so far as to request Barlyn and his lawyer are given a gag order.

more
http://www.salon.com/2014/01/27/chris_christie_update_yet_another_scandal/

January 27, 2014

GOP Predecessor Sen. John Warner Backs Dem Sen. Mark Warner

DANIEL STRAUSS – JANUARY 27, 2014, 12:33 PM EST

Former Republican Sen. John Warner (VA) has endorsed Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) for reelection, according to the Associated Press. Former Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie is challenging Warner in 2014.

The former Republican senator actually was Sen. Warner's predecessor. Sen. Warner's campaign will likely repeatedly highlight this endorsement as the Democratic senator's re-election campaign has focused on his bipartisan appeal.

The former Republican senator was known as something of a maverick during his three decades in the Senate. Sen. John Warner also defeated current-Sen. Mark Warner in 1996 when the Democrat made his first run at the Senate.

The Warners are not related.

###

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/john-warner-endorses-mark-warner

January 27, 2014

Rand Paul Says There Is No “War on Women” Because His Niece and Sister Are Doing Pretty Well

Rand Paul Says There Is No “War on Women” Because His Niece and Sister Are Doing Pretty Well

Monday, January 27, 2014, at 10:50 AM EST

Rand Paul grabbed headlines on Sunday by claiming on Meet The Press that "if there was a war on women, I think they won." While it would be a delightful change of pace if that was Paul's way of announcing a desire to see conservatives cease with the relentless attacks on women's rights, in context, it's clear that Paul was basically offering up a justification for continuing the war on women:

PAUL: This whole sort of war on women thing, I’m scratching my head because if there was a war on women, I think they won. You know, the women in my family are incredibly successful. I have a niece at Cornell vet school, and 85% of the young people there are women. Law school, 60% are women. In med school, 55%. My younger sister is an OB-GYN with six kids and doing great. I don’t see so much that women are downtrodden. I see women rising up and doing great things. In fact, I worry about our young men sometimes because I think the women are outcompeting the men in our world...

The women in my family are doing great. That’s what I see in all the statistics coming out. I have, you know, young women in my office that are the leading intellectual lights of our office. So I don’t really see this, that there’s some sort of war on women that’s, you know, keeping women down. I see women doing great and I think we should extol that success and not dumb it down into a political campaign that somehow one party doesn’t like women or that. I think that’s what’s happened. It’s all been for political purposes.

While Paul didn't mention little things like abortion or contraception, the implication was clear: Women have it pretty good, so there's no reason to get all bent out of shape about attacks on reproductive rights, ladies. You get to go to school now, so why complain about losing access to basic medical care? After all, Paul's own sister has six kids and a medical practice, so if unwanted child-bearing throws you off your game, it's your fault for not having a wealthy congressman for a father.

more
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/01/27/rand_paul_on_the_war_on_women_women_have_won_because_my_niece_goes_to_cornell.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content&mc_cid=fa06928356&mc_eid=7a8b58c8c3

January 27, 2014

Ted Cruz’s Shutdown Revisionism

By William Saletan

Yesterday on Face the Nation, Bob Schieffer asked Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, “Would you ever conceive of threatening to shut down the government again?” Cruz replied that Schieffer had his facts wrong:

Cruz: I didn't threaten to shut down the government the last time. I don't think we should ever shut down the government. I repeatedly voted to fund the federal government.

Schieffer: Senator, if you didn't threaten the shut down the government, who was it that did? ...

Cruz: It was Harry Reid and President Obama. … The reason we had a shutdown—Look, the Democrats were very candid. I know they told you, they said, “We think the shutdown benefits us politically.” Right now the Democrats are telling you that they want another shutdown, because they think it benefits them politically. Why is it hard to understand that they forced the shutdown, when they think it benefits them politically?”

more
http://www.slate.com/blogs/saletan/2014/01/27/ted_cruz_government_shutdown_his_revisionist_attempt_to_blame_obama_and.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content&mc_cid=fa06928356&mc_eid=7a8b58c8c3

January 27, 2014

Report: Maureen McDonnell Also Asked Donor For SUVs For Her Kids

ERIC LACH – JANUARY 27, 2014, 10:03 AM EST

Former Virginia First Lady Maureen McDonnell didn't always get everything she asked for from the Virginia businessman and political donor Jonnie Williams.

The Washington Post reported this weekend on a couple of instances when Williams felt "a little used and put her off," according to people familiar with the account Williams gave to federal prosecutors.

According to the Post, after the McDonnell family had spent a vacation at Williams' lake house, the McDonnells' sons had driven Williams' Range Rover home. Maureen McDonnell subsequently asked Williams if the boys could take the vehicle back to the University of Virginia. Williams said no. Not long after that, Maureen McDonnell called Williams with another idea: could he give her money to buy another of her children a used Ford Explorer. Again, Williams said no.

The McDonnells were indicted last week on more than a dozen charges related to the tens of thousands of dollars in gifts and loans they accepted from Williams, who previously ran a struggling dietary supplements company called Star Scientific.

###

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/maureen-mcdonnell-suvs

January 27, 2014

Preibus: I Rebuked Huckabee Because He Let Dems 'Spike The Ball'

CATHERINE THOMPSON – JANUARY 27, 2014, 9:49 AM EST

Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus said Monday that he criticized former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) over comments about women's libidos because it gave Democrats the perfect opportunity to "spike the ball" on the GOP's approach to women's issues.

Huckabee told an audience Thursday at the RNC's winter meeting that Democrats make women believe they can't control their libidos without government aid. Priebus at first said he wasn't sure what Huckabee was talking about, and told the crowd at the RNC's winter meeting that Republicans must be "very conscious of the tone and choice of words" in communicating GOP policies.

"The Daily Rundown" host Chuck Todd asked the RNC chairman to clarify if those statements rebuked Huckabee.

"Sure. Yes, I was," Priebus said. "And the reason is that, you know, you have to accept the political world we live in, in the sense that you cannot offer up words like libido -- wherever that came from -- you don't offer up these sorts of, you know, lobs and set up passes and serves that allow the Democrats to spike the ball."

more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/reince_priebus_rebuked_huckabee_libido_comment