September 4, 2015

Florida security guard admits killing unarmed black man: ‘I was arrested because of George Zimmerman

A Miami security guard blamed George Zimmerman for his arrest after gunning down a black man and paralyzing another during a shooting in a strip club parking lot. Lukace Kendle, who is acting as his own attorney, was charged with murder in the June 1, 2012, shooting death of Kijuan Byrd outside Club Lexx in North Miami-Dade, reported the Miami Herald.

The 29-year-old Kendle, who has been declared mentally incompetent twice before the trial, insisted on representing himself after being rehabilitated — but the judge has warned him against citing the Zimmerman case.

“The reason the evidence was fabricated is because I’m white,” Kendle told jurors. “The subjects I shot were African-American, I can prove that,” he continued. “What they’re not allowing me to tell you is that I was arrested because of the George Zimmerman shooting.”

Like Zimmerman, the volunteer neighborhood watchman who was acquitted in the Feb, 26, 2012, shooting death of unarmed black teen Trayvon Martin, the Homestead man is claiming self-defense under Florida’s “stand your ground” law.

Kendle is also accused of wounding Michael Smathers, who remains paralyzed, after spotting him smoking a joint with Byrd in a pickup as the security guard began his 11 p.m. shift.

more
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/09/florida-security-guard-admits-killing-unarmed-black-man-i-was-arrested-because-of-george-zimmerman/

September 4, 2015

Donald Trump refuses to support Kentucky clerk Kim Davis: ‘We are a nation of laws’

Source: Reuters

REUTERS
04 SEP 2015 AT 09:17 ET

Leading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Friday broke away from stances held by many of his rivals on issues ranging from the Iran nuclear deal to the gay marriage fight in Kentucky. Trump’s statements in a lengthy interview on MSNBC came one day after signing the party’s loyalty pledge.

He called the Iran nuclear agreement “a disastrous deal” and “a horrible contract,” but said he would work with it.

Many of the 16 other Republicans seeking the party’s nomination for the 2016 presidential election have vowed to immediately undo the Obama administration’s agreement if they win office. But Trump, a wealthy businessman, reiterated his view that too much money was at stake and his rivals were wrong to say they would rip it up. “This is the perfect example of taking over a bad contract,” he said, adding that he would be tough in enforcing it.

Closer to home, Trump also eschewed rivals on the Kentucky battle over gay marriage. Some Republicans loudly backed Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, who opted for jail time rather than issue any marriage licenses following the U.S. Supreme Court’s June ruling in support of gay marriage. “We are a nation of laws,” Trump said. “The decision’s been made, and that’s the law of the land.”

-snip-

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2015/09/donald-trump-refuses-to-support-kentucky-clerk-kim-davis-we-are-a-nation-of-laws/

September 4, 2015

“Hillary likes ‘Parks and Recreation'”: The media’s breathless email scandal coverage reaches new...

“Hillary likes ‘Parks and Recreation'”: The media’s breathless email scandal coverage reaches new nadir

A week's worth of digging into her personal email reveals less than nothing. How much longer will this go on?

ERIC BOEHLERT, MEDIA MATTERS

Hillary Clinton likes to watch Parks and Recreation.

That’s what the Clinton email kerfuffle seemed to amount to this week. News organizations excitedly dove into the latest trove of emails released from Clinton’s time as secretary of state, only to have to settle for vacuous nuggets about her TV viewing habits.

We seem to be at the stage where the mere existence of publicly-available Clinton emails prompts journalists to hype each additional set as big news, even when the contents of the emails are non-descript. Hard-wired into the Republican way of thinking, the Beltway press often automatically treats Clinton’s electronic communications as damning and suspect. But they’re not.

We’ve seen this pattern repeated numerous times in recent days, and not just with the latest, monthly release of Clinton’s State Department emails. Last week, news outlets including CNN, Washington Post, and ABC News dutifully typed up reports about emails obtained by the Clinton-bashing group Citizens United, which filed lawsuits for the release of Hillary Clinton’s communications. Presented as containing some damning revelations, upon closer examination the emails simply produced more yawns. They contained nothing proving any kind of wrongdoing on the part of Clinton. (Unless Clinton aide Huma Abedin using emails to organize a small dinner for the former secretary of state now qualifies as wrongdoing.)

Ordinarily, I might chalk up this oddly breathless coverage about ho-hum emails to the summer doldrums, as journalists are hard-pressed to create compelling content during the traditionally slow news month of August. But the Beltway press did the exact same thing with the previous email release. And I suspect we’ll see this pattern continue for months to come, in part because a U.S. District court has decreed that the email dumps are going to be monthly events through January.

There have now been three enormous batches of State Department emails released, totaling more than 10,000 pages, and none of them have produced blockbuster revelations or truly fueled the so-called Clinton email scandal.

more
http://www.salon.com/2015/09/04/hillary_likes_parks_and_recreation_the_medias_breathless_email_scandal_coverage_reaches_new_nadir/

September 4, 2015

It’s Trump’s party now, Jeb! just lives in it:the GOP “loyalty pledge” is a win for Trump-Joan Walsh

It’s Donald Trump’s party now, Jeb! just lives in it: Why the GOP “loyalty pledge” is a win for Trump

The arrogant frontrunner’s “loyalty pledge” isn’t a cave-in. It represents his complete takeover of the GOP

JOAN WALSH

Donald Trump’s remarkable Thursday press conference, where he floridly swore a pledge of allegiance to the GOP – “and to the conservative principles for which it stands” – marks a crossroads for the party. Trump didn’t declare his fealty to Republicans; he exacted their fealty to him. It’s Donald Trump’s party now, and good luck getting anything but white votes anytime soon.

Jeb Bush says he’s signing the loyalty pledge, too. That commits him to endorsing Trump, if he’s the nominee, no matter how racist or misogynist he gets. Trump has already insulted Bush’s family, suggesting on Twitter that Bush has to support Mexicans because his wife is a Mexican immigrant (Trump deleted that tweet, in a shocking outbreak of discretion.)

By the way, does anyone else associate those Trump jabs at the “low energy” Bush with the commercials warning older men about “low-T?,” or testosterone? Being “low energy” is a sign of low-T, according to the shysters who peddle T-boosting products on daytime television. It’s a typical grade-school Trump attack on his manhood. It reminds me of Sarah Palin’s needling men about “manning up.”

In signing the loyalty pledge, Trump is giving up nothing, while exacting a guarantee from the GOP that the party won’t sabotage his candidacy. As I wrote yesterday, a man with three wives and four bankruptcies behind him has a proven track record of finding an exit clause from his commitments. He could still pursue an independent run if he doesn’t get the nomination.

The truth is that his threat to challenge a GOP nominee who isn’t named Donald Trump was always questionable. It would be incredibly complicated and expensive; and by definition it would come after he lost the GOP nomination, which might brand him with the ultimate Trump insult: loser.

But Trump doesn’t think he’ll have to make good on that threat; his leads in national and state polls (and, crucially, his favorability numbers) are growing, not shrinking. Now he’s gotten the entire GOP field to promise to support him if he’s the nominee, no matter how noxious his campaign turns out to be.

more
http://www.salon.com/2015/09/04/its_donald_trumps_party_now_jeb_just_lives_in_it_why_the_gop_loyalty_pledge_is_a_win_for_trump/

September 4, 2015

The GOP’s ludicrous Kim Davis primary: How raging homophobia took the Republican campaign by storm

Kentucky clerk Kim Davis has brought the worst out of the GOP — with one major exception

BOB CESCA

If someone were to hold a gun to my head and force me to vote in the Republican primary, I’d first attempt to desperately wrestle the gun away. But, short of that, I’d probably go ahead and vote for Lindsey Graham.

I hasten to underscore that I vigorously disagree with Graham on a wide range of issues, especially his interventionist posture on Iraq and the broader Middle East. Although from what I’ve witnessed, especially throughout the Republican nominating process, Graham has comported himself at least as a man of integrity. Not for nothing, but he appears on the surface to be a nice enough guy — at least compared with his GOP colleagues who mostly drive one to violent profanity-strewn outbursts.

Let’s talk about the integrity thing specifically.

This week’s big story is the saga of a Rowan County, KY, clerk Kim Davis, who was jailed indefinitely Thursday by U.S. District Judge David Bunning for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in compliance with an earlier court order. Davis will remain in federal custody until she agrees to issue the appropriate licenses. Last month, meanwhile, a Texas clerk named Katie Lang was hit with a court settlement to the tune of $44,000 in damages and legal fees for refusing to issue a license for a gay couple. But it clearly wasn’t punitive enough to scare Davis who’s clearly acting in contempt of Judge Bunning’s order.

Davis believes that by issuing the licenses she’ll be condemned to Hell. Of course her perceived biblical trespass is ridiculously cherrypicked, as it always is. Homophobes like Davis seem to only zero-in on Leviticus and a few letters written by the apostle Paul. (Regarding the latter, and briefly put, Paul was merely recruiting pagan gentiles to the ascetic Christian lifestyle. Paganism often included sex acts in temple rituals, so naturally converts would have to reject those old forms of worship. Paul, by the way, in Romans, also expressly forbid debating, boasting, deception, being unmerciful and wine-drinking. That’d be a quintuple Hell-worthy condemnation for John Boehner. It’s also worth noting that the terms “homosexuality” and “same-sex marriage” were anachronistic in the ancient world, making it impossible for the Bible to explicitly condemn either.)

more
http://www.salon.com/2015/09/04/the_gops_ludicrous_kim_davis_primary_how_raging_homophobia_took_the_republican_campaign_by_storm/

September 4, 2015

Disband the Benghazi Committee - By ADAM B. SCHIFF

Washington — NOT long after it was formed last year, members of the Select Committee on Benghazi gathered to meet privately with family members of the four Americans killed on that dreadful night in Libya in 2012. The meetings were emotional, and the chairman assured those present that the committee would be scrupulously nonpartisan and devoted to finding out the truth of what had happened.

Instead, the Select Committee became little more than a partisan tool to influence the presidential race, a dangerous precedent that will haunt Congress for decades. This is all the more painful when you consider how grievously the committee has let down those families, along with the rest of the American people.

On rare occasions, Congress has determined that an issue is of such surpassing significance that a focused, resource-intensive inquiry is called for, and it creates a special investigatory committee. Among the very first was one formed after the election of George Washington in order to investigate the disastrous defeat of the St. Clair expedition in the 1791 Battle of Wabash. Since then, Congress has convened select committees to investigate everything from Teapot Dome to Pearl Harbor, from Watergate to Hurricane Katrina.

With some exceptions, these committees have attempted to conduct their work in a bipartisan way, issuing consensus reports signed by both Democrats and Republicans. They have had well-defined scopes, moved quickly and dissolved when they were done. Congressional inquiries into Hurricane Katrina, Pearl Harbor and Iran-contra were all completed in less than a year. Even the bipartisan 9/11 Commission established by Congress produced its report in 19 months.

When the House speaker, John A. Boehner, announced the creation of the Select Committee in May 2014, he claimed it would “ensure the American people have the truth about the terrorist attack.” He took this step, despite the fact that eight standing congressional committees had already investigated the attacks, as had the independent Accountability Review Board.

-snip-
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/04/opinion/disband-the-benghazi-committee.html?_r=0

September 4, 2015

Top Dem On Benghazi Committee: Shut It All Down!

Source: TPM

A top Democrat serving on the House committee on Benghazi accused the panel's leaders of abusing its purpose and called for the committee's dissolution in a Friday op-ed.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) wrote in The New York Times that the committee has abandoned any pretense of investigating the 2012 terrorist attacks in Libya and become "little more than a partisan tool to influence the presidential race" instead.

"Whatever their original purpose, the Select Committee’s leaders appear no longer to have any interest in Benghazi," he wrote, "except as the tragic events of that day may be used as a cudgel against the likely Democratic nominee for president," Hillary Clinton. Schiff argued that sets a "dangerous precedent" by which Congressional committees could attack other likely presidential nominees in the future.

The California Democrat also drew attention to the the amount of money — $4 million in taxpayer dollars — and the amount of time — 16 months — the committee has spent ostensibly investigating the Benghazi attacks without gleaning any "additional insight" into what happened there on Sept. 11, 2012.

-snip-

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/adam-schiff-disband-benghazi-committee

September 4, 2015

Kim Davis Is Not a Christian Martyr: The Ky Court Clerk Deserves to Be in the Clink:By Ana Marie Cox

Kim Davis Is Not a Christian Martyr: The Kentucky Court Clerk Deserves to Be in the Clink

Ana Marie Cox

There are conservatives and presidential candidates who celebrate Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis as a martyr, but her beliefs are born of the same bigotry as segregation.

There are going to be some people who celebrate scofflaw county clerk Kim Davis sitting behind bars. Most of them are her allies. Not even the American Civil Liberties Union lawyers wanted to send poor Kim to the pokey—likely because they wanted to deny her (and her allies) the exact image they've now been granted: the long-faced Davis in handcuffs, dourly professing that she loves Jesus more than she does the law.

“Civil disobedience” is fine—but they don’t call it being a “civil servant” because the county courthouse is run by Christian Grey. She’s supposed to do her job, not decide what it is. But Davis, temperamentally, is obviously more of a top, anyway, and probably should have sought a job in line with her personality. Maybe at the DMV.

The only thing louder than Davis' protestations is the jingle of the coins being dropped in all the various collection boxes that lay claim to some similar cause. In our curious hate-donating economy, Davis will undoubtedly receive some monetary reward for showmanship—whether it comes via GoFundMe or a book contract—but it will be a fraction of what's raised by the political ambulance-chasers dutifully filing in behind her.

Already many of the GOP presidential candidates have weighed in, creating the curious spectacle of lawmakers pre-emptively breaking their oaths of office: How can you promise to "uphold the Constitution" if you have already admitted that it has a loophole big enough for Davis to fit through?

The judge who ordered Davis to be held in contempt, and the deputy clerks who started issuing marriage licenses, may be the only Republican left who realizes that Davis’ stunt is something besides a fundraising appeal. Or, rather, he seems to understand that Davis offers only the literal fundraising appeal to end all fundraising appeals. Follow her logic to its fiery end—the Bible as the ultimate legal authority—and there would be no political offices left to run for, just law enforcement positions.

There are regimes like that in the world; we’re fighting wars with a few of them.

Others have pointed out that Davis’ brand of Christianity is itself not too far removed from the sort of blinkered false-purity doctrine that rules radical Islam: the prohibition on make-up or clothes that come in anything besides a hazmat-suit cut. But if you want to understand just how antithetical to democracy Davis’ ideas are, don’t think about what her church doesn’t allow. Instead imagine what kind of world would make Kim Davis happy.

more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/04/kim-davis-is-not-a-christian-martyr-the-kentucky-court-clerk-deserves-to-be-in-the-clink.html

September 4, 2015

Joe Biden Talks 2016: ‘I Just Don’t Know’

Patricia Murphy

The vice president, still grieving his son Beau, addressed speculation for the first time about his intentions to join the 2016 presidential race.

Vice President Joe Biden addressed the speculation for the first time Thursday night about whether he'll get into the 2016 presidential race. But instead of an enthusiastic yes, or a politician’s non-answer, Biden spoke with the raw honesty of a still-grieving father.

“The most relevant fact is whether my family and I have the emotional energy to run,” Biden said, adding that he has no set timeline for himself to make a decision.

Biden’s eldest son, Beau Biden, died of cancer in May. His first wife and young daughter were killed in a car accident in 1972.

Biden said that the much-discussed mechanics of a potential presidential campaign, including fundraising, timing, and logistics, are playing no role in his decision-making process. “The factor is, ‘Can I do it? Can my family?’ The honest-to-God answer is, I just don't know.”

After a pause, he turned to his friend and host, former ambassador Stuart Eizenstat, and said, “But I have to be honest with you and everyone who’s come to me. I can’t look you straight in the eye and say now I know I can do it.”

-snip-

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/04/joe-biden-talks-2016-i-just-don-t-know.html

September 4, 2015

A welcome challenge to GOP’s tax-cutting dogma - Boston Globe Editorial

By The Editorial Board SEPTEMBER 01, 2015

SOME 3½ DECADES ago, the Republican Party abandoned the sober Main Street fiscal approach that had long been its calling card in favor of the sexier doctrine of supply-side economics.

One of the early claims of supply-siders was that the tax cuts they favored would pay for themselves. That is, that they would spur so much economic activity that the government would garner as much or more tax revenue as it would have gotten at the previous level of taxation.

That wishful thinking might not have seemed implausible under the much higher tax rates that prevailed at the time. But given the tax-cutting and deficit-incurring experience since, plus a top tax rate of only 39.6 percent — compared to 70 percent when Ronald Reagan took office — that notion is no longer remotely credible.

And that’s why it’s good to see Keith Hall, the new Republican-appointed director of the Congressional Budget Office, acknowledge as much.

“No, the evidence is that tax cuts do not pay for themselves,” Hall said recently when a reporter asked about the issue. “And our models that we’re doing, our macroeconomic effects, show that.”

Indeed, they show relatively modest revenue replacement. In 2005, under well-regarded conservative economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the CBO modeled a 10 percent income tax cut under a variety of different assumptions.

The agency’s analysts concluded that over the first half-decade, the net loss in revenue would range from 78 percent to 99 percent of the tax cut’s static cost. In other words, at very best, only about one-fifth of the lost revenue would be recouped; at worst, almost none at all.

more
http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/editorials/2015/09/01/welcome-challenge-gop-tax-cutting-dogma/4LsWKjkw8TcIKx0MIb1VlM/story.html