DonViejo
DonViejo's JournalFox News is tearing us apart: Race baiting and divisiveness hits disgusting new low
Night after night, Fox News doubles down on hate. Whether George Zimmerman, Bundy or Ferguson, it just gets worsePAUL ROSENBERG
The continuing right-wing effort to make a hero out of Michael Brown’s killer, Darren Wilson, may not turn out so well, if the past is any guide. Remember Cliven Bundy? Donald Sterling? George Zimmerman?
Just because liberals don’t like someone doesn’t mean he should automatically be a hero to conservatives. There was a point when even the National Review seemed to recognize this — editor Rich Lowry once wrote a column titled “Al Sharpton Is Right,” about the need for charges to be filed against George Zimmerman, when Florida officials were dragging their heels.
But that time is long gone, apparently. And as a result, the right seems well on its way to aligning with the reemergence of a 21st century form of lynching, even while furiously insisting that they are totally post-racial. Cliven Bundy and Donald Sterling — the more readily and thoroughly renounced — didn’t kill anyone, of course. But Zimmerman and Wilson both did, and both, to varying degrees, acted under color of law, which is precisely how plain old-fashioned lynching used to work, in a shadow realm that would not have allowed the killing of whites (except, of course, for “race traitors” who allied with blacks).
It didn’t take long for people to start rallying to Darren Wilson’s defense. In less than a week, several hundred thousand dollars had been raised on his behalf — with a healthy smattering of hateful racist messages in support, such as “I would have donated double this amount, but you missed his accomplice” — and Fox News had run a flood of false, unsourced stories, claiming that Wilson’s eye socket had been broken, implicitly “proving” that he had been in a heroic struggle for his life.
more
http://www.salon.com/2014/08/28/fox_news_is_tearing_us_apart_race_baiting_and_divisiveness_hits_disgusting_new_low/
Iowa Lawmaker Guilty of Receiving Illegal Payments
Source: Political Wire
Former Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson (R) has pleaded guilty in federal court to receiving concealed payments from then-Rep. Ron Paul's (R) presidential campaign and then obstructing the investigation into the incident, the Des Moines Register reports.
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Read more: http://politicalwire.com/archives/2014/08/27/iowa_lawmaker_guilty_of_receiving_illegal_payments.html
Iowa Lawmaker's Plea Deal Could Get Awkward for Rand Paul
State Sen. Kent Sorenson’s guilty plea could implicate campaign staffers linked to the Kentucky senator through his father.
Former Iowa state senator Kent Sorenson pleaded guilty on Wednesday to endorsing former Rep. Ron Paul’s campaign in exchange for secret payments and then lying about the payoff to investigators. In particular, he admitted “one count of causing a federal campaign committee to falsely report its expenditures to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and one count of obstruction of justice in connection with the concealed expenditures.” The plea bargain prevents Sorenson from facing prosecution for allegedly previously being paid in secret to support Michele Bachmann’s campaign before jumping ship to back Paul and guarantees that his wife also will not face criminal charges.
None of the allegations around Sorenson directly involve either Ron or Rand Paul, but they do involve top staffers on the Ron Paul campaign. Sorenson’s wife allegedly accepted a $25,000 check from Dimtri Kesari, Ron Paul’s deputy campaign manager in 2012, and other key figures in Paul’s political orbit like Jesse Benton, who was Ron Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign chairman and was Rand’s campaign manager in his 2010 Senate race.
If Sorenson’s plea deal involves further testimony against any of these operatives, things could get awkward for Rand Paul. After all, while the only Ron Paul staffer linked to Sorenson to have worked for Rand Paul is Benton, all of those named have long-standing ties to the Paul family’s political efforts through organizations like National Right to Work, and legal issues for even one of them would be embarrassing for Paul 2016. After all, nothing good can happen for your presidential campaign when federal prosecutors start issuing subpoenas to your father’s former staffers.
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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/27/iowa-state-senator-s-guilty-plea-has-2016-implications.html
Same-sex marriage advocates to urge Supreme Court to strike down state bans
Source: Reuters
In a bold legal move that few litigants try, gay marriage advocates plan to urge the U.S. Supreme Court in three pending cases across the country to decide once and for all whether states can ban same-sex unions.
Gay and lesbian plaintiffs won before appeals courts in cases involving bans in Virginia, Utah and Oklahoma, and lawyers for those states have already asked the justices to take up their appeals. Lawyers defending the bans contend that the U.S. Constitution gives the states the role of defining marriage.
In what is a relatively unusual strategy, all three sets of challengers have said they want the justices to review the lower court rulings, even though those decisions favored their side by striking down individual state bans.
The parties that won in lower courts do not usually seek review. It is seen as a sign of the plaintiffs’ optimism that the justices would side with them that they are joining the appeals.
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Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/27/same-sex-marriage-advocates-to-urge-supreme-court-to-strike-down-state-bans/
Thieves cause ‘immeasurable damage’ to former Alabama home of civil rights icon Rosa Parks
Source: Reuters
By Verna Gates
BIRMINGHAM Ala. (Reuters) – Alabama police are seeking help in catching thieves who ransacked a Montgomery apartment building where black civil rights activist Rosa Parks lived when she was famously arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man in 1955.
The vandals damaged some items in Parks’ onetime home, which serves as a small museum and is on the National Register of Historic Places, in their hunt for copper pipes and tubing, authorities said.
The apartment was hit in “a random act of vandalism,” Montgomery police Sergeant Denise Barnes said. The incident was reported to police on Monday.
Targeted or not, “it is a travesty that someone could disrespect the dignity and honor of Mrs. Parks by causing immeasurable damage to her home,” said Montgomery Housing Authority Executive Director Evette Hester.
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Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/27/thieves-cause-immeasurable-damage-to-former-alabama-home-of-civil-rights-icon-rosa-parks/
Sister of Boston marathon bombing suspects arrested for her own bomb threat
Source: Reuters
By Victoria Cavaliere
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The sister of the accused Boston Marathon bombers was arrested in New York City for threatening a woman over the phone, saying she could “put a bomb on you,” police said on Wednesday.
Aliana Tsarnaev, 23, sister of Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was facing charges of aggravated harassment, a New York City Police Department spokesman said.
Tsarnaev, of North Bergen, New Jersey, was accused of calling a woman in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood and telling her “I have people that can go over there and put a bomb on you,” the spokesman said.
The two have “some kind of dispute,” he added but gave no further details. Tsarnaev, who turned herself in after being contacted by detectives, was arrested and released. She was expected to be arraigned within days, law enforcement said.
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Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/27/sister-of-boston-marathon-bombing-suspects-arrested-for-her-own-bomb-threat/
US to consider spousal abuse in immigration claims
Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a first-of-its-kind ruling that could make it easier for some immigrant women to win permission to remain legally in the United States, the Justice Department Board of Immigration Appeals has determined that Guatemalan women who fled their country due to domestic violence can qualify for asylum.
The board, which decides appeals in cases first heard by immigration courts run by the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, ruled that married women in Guatemala who have been victims of domestic violence and are unable to leave their relationship can be considered a particular social group in asylum cases.
The ruling, issued Tuesday, is important because it establishes for the first time that domestic violence victims can qualify for asylum in the United States.
More than 62,000 people traveling as families, most of them women and young children from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, have been apprehended at the Mexican border since Oct. 1. The new case involved a Guatemalan mother of three who crossed the border illegally in December 2005 after fleeing her husband. She said she called local police in Guatemala several times to report the abuse, but was repeatedly told that the authorities would not interfere in her marriage. She said that the abuse and the lack of police response should make her eligible for asylum.
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Read more: http://www.salon.com/2014/08/27/us_to_consider_spousal_abuse_in_immigration_claims/
Texas’ Wendy Davis escalates push for female votes
Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS
PFLUGERVILLE, Texas (AP) — Democrat Wendy Davis is brandishing a darker and tougher edge in an aggressive courtship of female voters who are essential to her chances of pulling an upset in the Texas governor’s race.
The state senator’s push to win the support of Texas women once was symbolized by the bright coral sneakers she wore during a filibuster of abortion restrictions. But she’s striking a far different tone in her first statewide TV ad.
The spot is a shadowy dramatization of a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman who raped a Texas mother in the 1990s.
Davis then toured rape crisis centers and blasted her Republican opponent, Attorney General Greg Abbott, for siding against the victim when her lawsuit reached his courtroom when he was a judge.
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Read more: http://www.salon.com/2014/08/27/texas_wendy_davis_escalates_push_for_female_votes/
TV station pulls anti-Shaheen ads off air
Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A super PAC’s negative ads against Sen. Jeanne Shaheen were pulled off the air Wednesday after the New Hampshire Democrat’s attorneys flagged inaccuracies in the spot.
Ending Spending Action Fund, a conservative outside group, claimed in ads that “Shaheen’s wealth has surged while in public office.” Her financial disclosure forms filed with the Senate show the opposite, with her personal wealth dropping by at least $562,000 and perhaps as much as $1 million.
The anti-spending group’s 30- and 60-second ads had aired on Boston’s NBC affiliate, WHDH. Boston’s media market covers the population-heavy southern tier of New Hampshire and campaigns often buy airtime on those stations.
“Scott Brown’s Wall Street buddies put up an outrageous attack ad against Jeanne Shaheen that’s being pulled off the air because it’s dead wrong and completely false,” Shaheen campaign manager Mike Vlacich said. A spokeswoman for Ending Spending did not immediately respond to a message seeking reaction.
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Read more: http://www.salon.com/2014/08/27/tv_station_pulls_anti_shaheen_ads_off_air/
Final ruling issued against part of polygamy ban
Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A federal judge in Utah has issued a final ruling that strikes down parts of the state’s anti-polygamy law in a lawsuit filed by the family that appears on the TV show “Sister Wives.”
U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups ruled in favor of the stars of the TLC reality show in December, but he held back on a final ruling as he weighed whether Kody Brown and his four wives could collect attorneys’ fees. Waddoups ruled in their favor on that issue Wednesday, capping a landmark decision for the family that sued Utah in 2011 after a county prosecutor threatened to charge them following the premiere of the TV show. It wasn’t immediately clear how much the Browns could collect in attorneys’ fees.
Waddoups had ruled that a provision of Utah’s law forbidding cohabitation violated the Browns’ freedom of religion. Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes said in February he intended to appeal the ruling once it was made final. His office had no immediate comment Wednesday.
The Brown family was overwhelmed and thankful for the ruling, said their attorney, Jonathan Turley. “This was a historic ruling that I believe will stand the test of time,” Turley said. He said the family would continue the legal battle to an appeals court or even the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.
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Read more: http://www.salon.com/2014/08/28/final_ruling_issued_against_part_of_polygamy_ban/
Ex-College President: Women Should Drink Less To Stop Men Who 'Misbehave'
By CAITLIN MACNEAL Published AUGUST 27, 2014, 5:55 PM EDT
The former president of The George Washington University on Tuesday joined the chorus of individuals telling college women to simply drink less in order to avoid sexual assault.
During a discussion of Greek life at U.S. colleges on The Diane Rehm Show, Dr. Stephen Joel Trachtenberg weighed in on the issue of sexual assault, Jezebel noted on Wednesday.
Trachtenberg tried to hedge his remarks on drinking and rape by first noting that sexual assault victims should not be blamed, but he still asserted that women really need to learn to drink less.
"Without making the victims responsible for what happens, one of the groups that have to be trained not to drink in excess are women. They need to be in a position to punch the guys in the nose if they misbehave," he said. "And so part of the problem is you have men who take advantage of women who drink too much and there are women who drink too much. And we need to educate our daughters and our children in that regard."
more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/former-gwu-president-women-rape-alcohol
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Name: DonGender: Male
Hometown: Massachusetts
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Member since: Sat Sep 1, 2012, 03:28 PM
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