April 30, 2015

Shortened Primary Calendar Could Backfire on Republicans

First Read: “The shortened nominating calendar: After the party’s 2012 loss, the Republican National Committee decided to shorten its nominating calendar. The logic: The long-ish slog between Mitt Romney and underfunded Rick Santorum didn’t do the party any good, especially when facing an incumbent Democratic president. But the unintended consequence of a shortened nominating calendar is that about 70% of the delegates might not be decided until May. And with no incentives for candidates to drop out (because of well-financed Super PACs supporting them or with a convention in July), it’s possible that no one candidate has a majority of delegates by May or even later.”

“Does that mean a contested convention, with no candidate able to snag enough support to nail down the nomination? Maybe not, but it could mean behind-the-scenes agreements and forced alliances between campaigns as they limp to the finish line, or it could mean the ultimate winner has to pick a running mate who otherwise wouldn’t be their first choice.”

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http://p.feedblitz.com/r3.asp?l=104714926&f=17571&u=37190363&c=4938201

April 30, 2015

Americans don’t like ‘big government’ — just big government programs: poll

Source: Reuters

Conservative presidential candidates hitting the 2016 campaign trail are firing up crowds with calls to shrink the U.S. government, but a new poll shows that Republican voters who rally to that cry still want to maintain many federal programs.

Ideas such as abolishing the U.S. income tax and shifting many of the federal government’s responsibilities to the states draw robust support from Republican voters, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. But there is much weaker support for curbing government’s role in providing a social safety net and for curbing some of its regulatory functions.

The results, from an online poll of 4,770 adults from April 10 to 24, highlight a dilemma for Republican candidates such as Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas who have made reducing the size of government a top campaign theme. While many Americans, particularly Republicans and independents, favor decreasing government’s size and reach, specific policies for doing so are far less popular.

Among Republicans, 51 percent support abolishing the U.S. federal income tax versus 39 percent who disagree. By 60 percent to 28 percent, Republicans said they believe state governments should have more authority than the federal government. Fifty-six percent of Republicans said the federal government should have very little authority over domestic affairs.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2015/04/americans-dont-like-big-government-just-big-government-programs-poll/

April 30, 2015

Rand: I'll Look Into Whether The Military Is Planning To Takeover The Southwest

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said in a recent interview that he'd "look at" a planned U.S. military training exercise that conspiracy theorists believe may be a cover for the implementation of martial law.

Des Moines, Iowa radio host Jan Mickelson asked the Republican presidential candidate in an April 21 interview whether he was up to speed on the training exercise dubbed "Jade Helm" that's scheduled to take place in several southwestern states.

"You know I've gotten a few questions about it on the road and I really don't—" Paul responded. "I'm not sure about exactly what is going on with that."

"It's making some people nervous, but it doesn't take much to make people nervous nowadays," Mickelson said. "If you get a chance to, I'd like to know what the rest of the story is on that."

"We'll look at that also," Paul assured him.

more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/rand-paul-jade-helm

April 30, 2015

Maryland lawmaker proposes law to take food stamps from families of kids who protest

Republican Maryland state Delegate Patrick McDonough suggested this week that parents did not deserve to continue receiving food stamps if they refused to stop their children from protesting the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore.

In audio obtain by First Look’s Lee Fang, a caller on a Baltimore radio program asks McDonough why the government could not “take away benefits from families, from like the parents who are collecting welfare” if the protesters were “too young.”

“That’s an idea and that could be legislation,” McDonough volunteers. “I think that you could make the case that there is a failure to do proper parenting and allowing this stuff to happen, is there an opportunity for a month to take away your food stamps?”

Listen to the audio below.

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/04/maryland-lawmaker-proposes-law-to-take-food-stamps-from-families-of-kids-who-protest/

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April 30, 2015

Has Chris Christie's Old High School Chum Struck A Deal With The Feds?

According to reporting from Bloomberg – apparently single-source reporting that no other outlets feel comfortable confirming yet – David Wildstein, a political fixture in New Jersey and formerly one of Gov. Chris Christie’s top appointees at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, is set to plead guilty to a still-unknown charge or charges “as early as” Friday at the federal courthouse in downtown Newark.

Originally, Bloomberg’s story pegged the date for that plea as Thursday. Then Friday. Now “as early as” Friday, which could mean that we’ll see flying cars sooner.

The ratio of speculation-to-verifiable facts in Bridgegate has always been lopsided when it comes to reporting on the activities and intentions of U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman. For months - and by months, I mean since last June (!) - I’ve had well-placed sources warning me that Fishman’s office had indictments waiting just around the corner. The first of those claims was made in print a year ago, and as enthusiasm for the story ebbed amid a burgeoning presidential campaign and string of aviation disasters, these warnings became a kind of background noise. Reporting on the prosecutorial side of Bridgegate has always been difficult because the prosecutor and his deputies simply do not let information flow freely – a corrective reaction to the habits of Fishman’s predecessor: Chris Christie. Christie was the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey from 2002 until 2008 and relished marching handcuffed pols before cameras. The scalps he collected through corruption stings built up the kind of resume a Republican needed if he wanted a shot at winning the governorship from an incumbent Democrat in a labor-friendly northeastern state that’s run blue in every presidential contest since 1992.

Crucial to Christie’s ascendancy was the narrative crafted week after week by David Wildstein. The two went to high school together in Livingston, N.J., then Wildstein returned from college and won election to local office in that town. He subsequently became the anonymous force behind PoliticsNJ.com (now PolitickerNJ.com) using as a nom de plume the visage of deceased early 20th century GOP Gov. Walter ‘Wally’ Edge.

more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/chris-christie-david-wildstein

April 30, 2015

Huckabee: The Supreme Court ‘Cannot Overrule God’ On Gay Marriage

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R), no stranger to mixing religion and politics, might have outdone himself on Wednesday night when he greeted the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.

"I do not come to you tonight with the ability to speak Spanish. But I do speak a common language: I speak Jesus," he said, according to CNN.

Huckabee addressed the Supreme Court, which this week listened to oral arguments in its highly anticipated hearings on gay marriage. "I respect the courts, but the Supreme Court is only that — the supreme of the courts. It is not the supreme being. It cannot overrule God," he reportedly told the audience. "When it comes to prayer, when it comes to life, and when it comes to the sanctity of marriage, the court cannot change what God has created," Huckabee added.

A favorite of the Christian conservative crowd, Huckabee also brought up the political skirmishes on recent "religious freedom" laws in Indiana and Arkansas, saying that Christianity is becoming "criminalized." The ex-governor added that someone must be ready to take on the institutions that "challenge and threaten our ability to believe as we believe."

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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/huckabee-scotus-gay-marriage-god

April 30, 2015

White House On A Possible Military Takeover Of Texas: Um, No

The White House said Wednesday that a planned U.S. military training exercise called "Jade Helm 15" would not infringe upon Americans' constitutional rights, as some conspiracy theorists have posited in recent weeks.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest was asked to weigh in on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's (R) request that the State Guard monitor the training exercise to ensure that Texans' "safety, constitutional rights, private property rights and civil liberties will not be infringed."

"I have no idea what he’s thinking," Earnest said Wednesday in a press briefing, according to a transcript.

"I think what is clear is that I feel confident in expressing to you without having a lot of detailed knowledge of the particular exercise is that the civil liberties and constitutional rights of Americans citizens will be in no way affected by this exercise," he added.

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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/white-house-texas-military-takeover

April 30, 2015

Fox News gone wild: The ludicrous stories about how Freddie Gray injured himself - Joan Walsh

Tales of a car crash, or Gray harming himself in the police van, don't hold up. So where is the police report?

JOAN WALSH

Late Wednesday night, the Washington Post dropped a bombshell in the Freddie Gray case: according to a second-hand report from the prisoner who traveled in the same police van, Gray was “banging against the walls” of the van as though he “was intentionally trying to injure himself.” On Fox, Sean Hannity went predictably nuts about the “blockbuster,” and used it to blame President Obama for weighing in on race relations “before the facts are known.”

The Post has done some good reporting from Baltimore, but this “scoop” is curious. Police Commissioner Anthony Batts had previously cited the same prisoner as saying the ride he shared with Gray was quiet and uneventful.

NBC affiliate WBAL’s Jayne Miller took the story apart within about an hour, reporting that the prisoner in question only got aboard on the van’s fourth stop, and was with him for five or six minutes. Gray had been alone in the van, with police, for at least a half hour, Miller said, citing the cops’ own timeline, during which time the vehicle made a curious stop to place the young West Baltimore man in leg irons.

The Post called the story the “first glimpse” of what actually happened inside the van, and added that “it is not clear whether any additional evidence backs up the prisoner’s version.” That’s one way to put it.

more
http://www.salon.com/2015/04/30/fox_gone_wild_the_ludicrous_stories_about_how_freddie_gray_injured_himself/

April 30, 2015

Right-wing lunatics think the military is planning to invade Texas. Here’s why.

The Tea Party actually thinks the military is about to attack the Lone Star State. We wish we were making this up

HEATHER DIGBY PARTON

You have probably heard the selyrics at least a thousand times at televised Republican rallies:

And I’m proud to be an American
Where at least I know I’m free
And I won’t forget the men who died
Who gave that right to me

Those of course are the words to “Proud to be an American” by Lee Greenwood, a song that could almost be described as the conservative national anthem. It perfectly expresses the patriotism of the Real American, the man and woman who love their country without reservation, the ones who boldly invite dissenters to “love it or leave it” and attack anyone who would dare besmirch the red, white and blue. These colors don’t run, hippie…

But something has changed. In fact, it appears that the right wing in this country has become downright hostile to the one government institution they heretofore had defended with every fiber of their being: the military. This week, members of the conservative fringe, having apparently become convinced that the army is holding a large training exercise in the American southwest in order to prepare the ground for a federal government takeover of Texas, are themselves metaphorically spitting right in the faces of U.S. soldiers:

“It’s the same thing that happened in Nazi Germany: You get the people used to the troops on the street, the appearance of uniformed troops and the militarization of the police,” Bastrop resident Bob Wells told the Statesman after the meeting. “They’re gathering intelligence. That’s what they’re doing. And they’re moving logistics in place for martial law. That’s my feeling. Now, I could be wrong. I hope I am wrong. I hope I’m a ‘conspiracy theorist.’”

Yes, we all hope that Bob is a conspiracy theorist. It would be disturbing indeed if the U.S. military were preparing to invade Texas and turn it into Nazi Germany.

Here’s what the U.S. military says its doing with this so-called simulation:

more
http://www.salon.com/2015/04/30/right_wing_lunatics_think_the_military_is_planning_to_invade_texas_heres_why/

April 30, 2015

Limbaugh furious that Bud Light dropped offensive slogan;claims “rape culture” is a “concoction...

Rush Limbaugh furious that Bud Light dropped offensive slogan — claims “rape culture” is a “concoction of the Left”

Only politically motivated people hear "the perfect beer for removing 'no' from your vocabulary" and think "rape"

SCOTT ERIC KAUFMAN

Rush Limbaugh insisted yesterday that the response to Bud Light’s infelicitous new slogan — “the perfect beer for removing ‘no’ from your vocabulary for the night” — was overblown because “there’s no such thing as ‘rape culture’ in America.”

Even though Bud Light already apologized for the ambiguity built into its new slogan, Limbaugh claimed that the only people who would understand it as a tacit endorsement of sexual assault are people who politically motivated to. “What must be your baseline of knowledge to read that tagline and assume that the company was promoting rape?” he asked.

“There is no such thing as ‘rape culture’ in America!” Limbaugh shouted. “It’s a myth! Like so much of liberalism!” He acknowledged that “we have people that rape — we have bad actors in virtually every aspect of life — but to call it a ‘rape culture’ is a concoction of the left, done so as to demand more liberalism in society and more limits on freedom.”

more + audio
http://www.salon.com/2015/04/30/rush_limbaugh_furious_that_bud_light_dropped_offensive_slogan_claims_rape_culture_is_a_concoction_of_the_left/

Limbaugh lit into liberals who are concerned with “raising awareness,” claiming that because there are only rapists, but no “rape culture,” all this talk of “raising awareness” is merely “the vehicle for moving the agenda of the Democrat (sic) Party.”