Law Enforcement Officials Gunned Down In Possible White Supremacist Plot

Law Enforcement Officials Gunned Down In Possible White Supremacist Plot: A Texas district attorney and his wife were shot to death in their home just outside Dallas last night, the latest instance in a recent spate of suspicious shootings of law enforcement officials. The deaths of Mike and Cynthia McLelland follow the shooting of a Kaufman County assistant district attorney in January, which stoked suspicions [...]/p

GOP Rep. Calls Latino Workers "Wetbacks" | Alternet

GOP Rep. Calls Latino Workers "Wetbacks" | Alternet
"The Alaska Congressman says he "meant no disrespect" when he used a slur with a painful history for Latino migrants."

GOP Congressman Refuses To Apologize For Calling Latinos ‘Wetbacks’

GOP Congressman Refuses To Apologize For Calling Latinos ‘Wetbacks’: Rep. Don Young (R-AK) on Thursday night stood by his use of a racial slur to describe Latinos, saying that he “meant no disrespect” when he told an Alaska radio interviewer, “We used to hire 50 to 60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes”: “During a sit down interview with Ketchikan Public Radio this week, I used [...]/p

A Cinderella Story? How The Koch Brothers Use Florida Gulf Coast University To Promote Their Agenda

A Cinderella Story? How The Koch Brothers Use Florida Gulf Coast University To Promote Their Agenda: It’s a great story: the virtually unknown, 15th seeded Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU), has made it to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament. But there’s something you might not know about FGCU: its economics department is, as a consequence of grants from Randian businessman John Allison and the Charles G. Koch Foundation, a haven [...]/p

Report: Right-Wing Extremists Are ‘Highly Engaged’ With GOP On Twitter

Report: Right-Wing Extremists Are ‘Highly Engaged’ With GOP On Twitter: The authors of the study determined that the usage seemed to be “driven more by white nationalists feeling an affinity for conservatism than by conservatives feeling an affinity for white nationalism.” 

Slick, Paranoid Tea Party Video Aims for Violent Insurrection | Alternet

Slick, Paranoid Tea Party Video Aims for Violent Insurrection | Alternet
"The video, a thinly veiled advertisement for violent insurrection from the “Tea Party Patriots" group, boasts professional acting and Hollywood production values. But underneath its bright, professional sheen lurk dark overtones of End Times paranoia that will resonate with millions of American fundamentalists."

Rewriting 21st Century McCarthyism

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Conservative Morality: Free Pass for Criminal Bankers, Restrictions for Women and Gay Citizens | Alternet

Conservative Morality: Free Pass for Criminal Bankers, Restrictions for Women and Gay Citizens | Alternet
"We're still legislating and regulating private morality, while at the same time ignoring the much larger crisis of public morality in America."

Hateful Tweeter vs. Anti-War Leader

California Investigation Might Break the Koch Machine

California Investigation Might Break the Koch Machine
"The flow of money was traced as it passed through several non-profit organizations, ultimately going all the way back to a known dark money conduit known as Americans for Job Security."

Dear Right-Wingers, Here's How to NOT Seem Racist | Alternet

Dear Right-Wingers, Here's How to NOT Seem Racist | Alternet
"A tip for right-wingers angry about charges of racial bias: Try treating the Obama daughters with decency."

GOP Rebranding? Fox News Chief Roger Ailes Isn't Buying It | Alternet

GOP Rebranding? Fox News Chief Roger Ailes Isn't Buying It | Alternet
"There's been little public acknowledgement that there can be no effective rebranding of the Republican Party if Ailes doesn't sign off. Meaning, the GOP can turn itself inside out if it wants, but if Fox News, the self-appointed face and voice the GOP, doesn't change, none of it matters because Fox will still be pounding home every negative stereotype that party leaders now want to erase."

The Oligarchs are Sucking Dry America's Working Class

Racist Hate Group To Conduct Nighttime Patrols On College Campus

Racist Hate Group To Conduct Nighttime Patrols On College Campus: A racist hate group at Towson University has announced plans to conduct its own nighttime police patrols on campus. Founded last year, the White Student Union has stirred significant controversy already. The organization has been labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. In addition, its founder, Matthew Heimbach (who goes by the [...]/p

The Alternate Reality of Fox News

The Alternate Reality of Fox News
"At the very moment Obama was receiving the highest honor Israel can bestow, Fox News was quite literally declaring him an enemy of the state."

Does Irrationality Doom America? | Alternet

Does Irrationality Doom America? | Alternet
"The United States is on the verge of committing suicide. Slow suicide, perhaps, which may take decades to fully play out, but suicide nonetheless. The proximate event is the sequester - deep across-the-board cuts to military and discretionary domestic spending, originally conceived as a Sword of Damocles, but which Tea Party-dominated Republicans now see as just the perfect budget axe. And that's just one of several successive and mostly recurring crisis points at which Republicans are obstinantly demanding deep budget cuts that will inevitably slow, if not cripple the already weak economy - as well as debilitating or destroying vital government functions in the long run."

Michele Bachmann Turns Tail and Flees Interviewer

Michele Bachmann Turns Tail and Flees Interviewer
"God forbid conservatives should actually be held accountable for their lies. Michele Bachmann, who has a history of saying the most ridiculous, outrageous things about President Obama and who holds herself up as a high and mighty holy roller, has some real problems with the truth."

PERRspectives: Boehner, Ryan Undermine GOP's Next Debt Ceiling Extortion

PERRspectives: Boehner, Ryan Undermine GOP's Next Debt Ceiling Extortion
"Yet, House Republicans are preparing to do it all again. Even though, they tell us, there's no debt crisis now."

It's time for our media to offer us - and the people of Iraq - an apology

House GOP Approves Budget That Cuts Taxes For Millionaires, Slashes The Social Safety Net

House GOP Approves Budget That Cuts Taxes For Millionaires, Slashes The Social Safety Net: The House of Representatives this afternoon approved the Republican budget plan authored by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) by a vote of 221-207, with 197 Democrats and 10 Republicans voting against it. Three Democrats and one Republican did not vote. For the third consecutive year, the House GOP has approved a budget that ends the traditional [...]/p

Exclusive: Dying Iraq War Veteran Tomas Young Explains Decision to End His Life

Dying Iraq War Veteran Tomas Young Reads "Last Letter" to President Bush and Dick Cheney | Common Dreams

Dying Iraq War Veteran Tomas Young Reads "Last Letter" to President Bush and Dick Cheney | Common Dreams
"Iraq War veteran Tomas Young was left paralyzed in a 2004 attack in Iraq. Released from medical care three months later, Young returned home to become an active member in Iraq Veterans Against the War. He recently announced that he will stop his medicine and nourishment, which comes in the form of liquid through a feeding tube — a decision which will hasten his death."

US Media Sold Iraq War

Massachusetts Senate Candidate Stands By Sheriff Who Joked About Killing Obama

Massachusetts Senate Candidate Stands By Sheriff Who Joked About Killing Obama: Throughout the early stages of his campaign for the Republican nomination for Secretary of State John Kerry’s open U.S. Senate seat, former U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan has enjoyed the strong support of Plymouth County, Massachusetts Sheriff Joe McDonald (R). After McDonald “joked” that the nation would be better off if President Obama were assassinated at [...]/p

The Lies: No Doubt, No Question, Mountain of Evidence, We Know He Has Them, No Doubt | Common Dreams

The Lies: No Doubt, No Question, Mountain of Evidence, We Know He Has Them, No Doubt | Common Dreams
"Marking ten years of the unprecedented, ongoing debacle that was the Iraq War, acompilation by William Pitt of the flood of lies, told over and over, by an Adminstration that has yet to receive its just rewards. Chilling."

The US Invasion of Iraq Was a Crime and Its Perpetrators Are Murderers | Common Dreams

The US Invasion of Iraq Was a Crime and Its Perpetrators Are Murderers | Common Dreams
"On the tenth anniversary of the invasion, the only truly serious question about the war is whether President George W. Bush and those who participated in the decision to invade Iraq did anything illegal or unconstitutional or criminal."

Truthdig - The Last Letter

Truthdig - The Last Letter
"I write this letter on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War on behalf of my fellow Iraq War veterans. I write this letter on behalf of the 4,488 soldiers and Marines who died in Iraq. I write this letter on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of veterans who have been wounded and on behalf of those whose wounds, physical and psychological, have destroyed their lives. I am one of those gravely wounded. I was paralyzed in an insurgent ambush in 2004 in Sadr City. My life is coming to an end. I am living under hospice care."

Texas Tea party Leader Defends Fascist Party as 'Pro-Constitution, Pro-America'

Texas Tea party Leader Defends Fascist Party as 'Pro-Constitution, Pro-America'
"A tea party leader in Texas is defending his promotion of the American Fascist Party as something he thought was "pro-Constitution, pro-America"."

Massachusetts Sheriff ‘Jokes’ That President Obama Should Be Shot

Massachusetts Sheriff ‘Jokes’ That President Obama Should Be Shot: At a Massachusetts Republican Party St. Patrick’s Day breakfast Sunday, Plymouth County Sheriff Joseph D. McDonald, Jr. (R) “joked” that the nation would be better off if President Obama were assassinated. Blue Mass Group reports that the Boston Globe noted the stunning comment Sunday: McDonald offered a joke about Barack Obama being visited in a [...]/p

10 Crazy Things Heard at CPAC, the Giant Right-Wing Confab | Alternet

10 Crazy Things Heard at CPAC, the Giant Right-Wing Confab | Alternet
"When right-wingers from every corner of the movement gather in one place, you hear a lot of crazy stuff -- about slavery, booty calls and grocery bags, for starters."

CPAC: Wingnut Conspiracy Theorists Argue Over Most 'Substantial' Crackpot Theory

CPAC: Wingnut Conspiracy Theorists Argue Over Most 'Substantial' Crackpot Theory
"A panel hosted by Breitbart.com known as "The Uninvited" Panel (Because even the regular crackpot Republicans didn't want them there) had quite a moment when Orly Taitz wanted to discuss Obama's citizenship."

How Three Top Republicans Are Already Blowing Up The RNC’s Minority Outreach Strategy

How Three Top Republicans Are Already Blowing Up The RNC’s Minority Outreach Strategy: Well, that didn’t take long. This morning, the biggest political story in Washington was a Republican National Committee “autopsy” of the GOP’s 2012 election loss. In it, the RNC proclaimed that “[i]t is imperative that the RNC changes how it engages with Hispanic communities to welcome in new members of our Party” and that “the [...]/p

Stop Freaking Out About the Debt! 5 Reasons There Is No Debt Crisis | Alternet

Stop Freaking Out About the Debt! 5 Reasons There Is No Debt Crisis | Alternet
"In conclusion: the “debt crisis” is a mere phantom — only one of many possible futures, and far from a certainty. The interest America is paying on its debt  is currently lowerthan it was in the 1990s, despite a lower debt-to-GDP ratio then. When inflation is factored in, current real interest rates on our debt  are negative. Financial markets are willing to pay us to borrow from them.

Meanwhile, every dollar we cut — nay, every dollar we fail to borrow — is a dollar that isn’t going to shore up the safety net, to rebuild the country’s infrastructure, or to support struggling Americans while their livelihoods remain on the line. That we’re passing on this opportunity to repair our country, much less even considering the monstrosity that is the Ryan budget, really is absurd."

It’s The Policy, Stupid: 4 Policies That Undermine The GOP’s New Voter Outreach Strategy

It’s The Policy, Stupid: 4 Policies That Undermine The GOP’s New Voter Outreach Strategy: On Monday, following its loss in the 2012 presidential election, the Republican National Committee (RNC) released an autopsy report that aims to “grow the Party and improve Republican campaigns.” The so-called “Growth and Opportunity Project” spoke with “more than 2,600 people, both outside Washington and inside the Beltway” about how the party can appeal to [...]/p

CPAC Panel Decrying Conservative Racism Disrupted by Conservative Racists

CPAC Panel Decrying Conservative Racism Disrupted by Conservative Racists
"A CPAC session sponsored by Tea Party Patriots and billed as a primer on teaching activists how to court black voters devolved into a shouting match as some attendees demanded justice for white voters and others shouted down a black woman who reacted in horror."

CPAC Participant Defends Slavery At Minority Outreach Panel: It Gave ‘Food And Shelter’ To Blacks

CPAC Participant Defends Slavery At Minority Outreach Panel: It Gave ‘Food And Shelter’ To Blacks: "The exchange occurred after an audience member from North Carolina, 30-year-old Scott Terry, asked whether Republicans could endorse races remaining separate but equal. After the presenter, K. Carl Smith of Frederick Douglass Republicans, answered by referencing a letter by Frederick Douglass forgiving his former master, the audience member said “For what? For feeding him and housing him?” Several people in the audience cheered and applauded Terry’s outburst.

After the exchange, Terry muttered under his breath, “why can’t we just have segregation"?"

Right-Wing Group Spent At Least $300,000 To Keep Scott Walker Ally on Wisconsin Supreme Court

Right-Wing Group Spent At Least $300,000 To Keep Scott Walker Ally on Wisconsin Supreme Court: The Club for Growth, a right-wing group that supports tax cuts for the rich, privatizing Social Security and writing Tea Party ideology into the Constitution, spent $300,000 to keep a key ally of anti-union Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) on the Wisconsin Supreme Court — and that was just in the primary: Now, another member of [...]/p

South Carolina Republican Suggests GOP Opposes Medicaid Expansion Because Obama Is Black

South Carolina Republican Suggests GOP Opposes Medicaid Expansion Because Obama Is Black: On Tuesday, the South Carolina House rejected extra Obamacare funding for the state’s Medicaid program. One Republican legislator offered a novel reason for the Republican majority’s decision: the President’s race. State Rep. Kris Crawford’s comments came during the early stages of the state Medicaid debate in late January. Crawford suggested that it was politically beneficial [...]/p

Conservatives: The New Taliban

Conservatives: The New Taliban
"And don't for a minute think that it's really all about religion. Religion is just used to manipulate the useful idiots. It's really about money, power, and control. And that can only be held by thugs like the Taliban when the people are kept poor and stupid."

Right Wing Hate Groups Turn Violent

For the last four years, the number of people claiming to be a part of the Patriot Movement in the United States has risen exponentially. But these aren't patriots -- they are Tea Party-fringe types who have rejected their American citizenship and believe that there is an uprising around the corner in this country.

What Ryan's Budget Really Says: 'I Love Rich People' | Common Dreams

What Ryan's Budget Really Says: 'I Love Rich People' | Common Dreams
"Let's look at some of Ryan's trademark policies. Ryan repeatedly has proposed replacing Medicare with a voucher system or "premium support" as he likes to say. Note that Ryan has not proposed just eliminating Medicare and telling people when they turn age 65 (or 67) that they are on their own. 

What's the difference between handing people a voucher to buy insurance from private insurers and giving them access to a government-run Medicare system when they turn age 65? Over Medicare's 75-year planning period the difference is tens of trillions of dollars in additional money for private insurers and the health care industry, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). 

As CBO and many other independent analysts have documented, using private insurers raises rather than lowers costs."

11 Most Absurd Lies Conservatives Are Using to Brainwash America's School Kids | Alternet

11 Most Absurd Lies Conservatives Are Using to Brainwash America's School Kids | Alternet
"If recent elections have taught us anything, it’s that young Americans have taken a decided turn to the left. Young voters delivered Obama the election: the under-44 set voted Obama and the over-45 set broke for Romney. The youngest voters, age 18-29, gave Obama a whopping 60% of their vote. Now Republicans have a plan to try to recapture the youngest voters out there: Take over the curriculum in public schools, replace education with a bunch of conservative propaganda, and reap the benefits of having a new generation that can’t tell reality from right-wing fantasy."

10 Worst People on Forbes 2013 Billionaires List | Alternet

10 Worst People on Forbes 2013 Billionaires List | Alternet
"The Forbes list of billionaires is brimming over with oligarchs, monopolists, thugs, miscreants, and hustlers. Not to mention right-wingers, narcissists, and parasitic predators."

PERRspectives: New Budget, New Name, Same Old Ryan Medicare Rationing

PERRspectives: New Budget, New Name, Same Old Ryan Medicare Rationing
"But over time, traditional Medicare itself would become more expensive, as private insurers shun the sicker, older seniors the federal government would be forced to accept. The result is that more and more Americans would be left to the tender mercies of the private insurance market."

The 5 Worst Things About The House GOP’s New Budget

The 5 Worst Things About The House GOP’s New Budget: Top-income earners and corporations, meanwhile, would benefit from huge tax breaks.

Jeb Bush: 'History Will Be Kind to My Brother'

Jeb Bush: 'History Will Be Kind to My Brother'
"As for comparing W.'s record to "what's going on now," the Obama administration has produced more jobs in 4 years than Bush/Cheney did in 8 -- not to mention the fact that they haven't suffered the worst mass-casualty terrorist attack in US history, let a US city drown, and presided over the worst financial crash since the Great Depression.

Good luck with that "W. was a great president" stuff, Jeb! It's a winner for 2016."

Welcome to Ayn Rand Planet: Why the Rich Prosper from the Stock Market While We Get Screwed | Alternet

Welcome to Ayn Rand Planet: Why the Rich Prosper from the Stock Market While We Get Screwed | Alternet
"The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, the old and new testament of the Ayn Rand nation, which includes much of the Tea Party and its Republican allies."

Fox News Guest Receives Racist Rape And Death Threats After Arguing Guns Aren’t The Solution To Rape

Fox News Guest Receives Racist Rape And Death Threats After Arguing Guns Aren’t The Solution To Rape: Zerlina Maxwell is a feminist writer and frequent guest on Fox News. Last week, while a guest on Sean Hannity’s show, Maxwell argued that arming women is not a way to solve the problem of rape. Among other things, she pointed out that “if firearms were the answer, then the military would be the safest [...]/p

L.A. Times Warns Of 'Peril' From Home-Grown Extremists

L.A. Times Warns Of 'Peril' From Home-Grown Extremists
"An L.A. Times editorial warns of the dangers of right-wing extremism, and says the government should be keeping a close watch on militias and home-grown "patriot" cells. Those of us here at C&L have been saying the same thing for a long time, especially John Amato and David Neiwert, whose book warned that Obama's election was sending the right wing extremists "Over The Cliff"."

Sequester This! A Story of Sabotage and Theft

Sequester This! A Story of Sabotage and Theft
"The bottom line is the deficit is in sharp decline. The sequester monster has little to do with the deficit or even the debt. And it’s not even really about taxes. That’s a smokescreen. The sequester, and all of the related fiscal “crises,” are really all about sabotaging our government’s ability to function and creating opportunities for private/corporate corruption and pillage."

With Millions in Assets And Hundreds of Attorneys, Christian Right Is Waging War on the Church-State Wall | Alternet

With Millions in Assets And Hundreds of Attorneys, Christian Right Is Waging War on the Church-State Wall | Alternet
"Today these outfits have multi-million-dollar budgets, hundreds of allied attorneys and remarkable clout in the halls of government. And they are pressing courts and elected officials to fund religious schools and other ministries, open public schools to coercive prayer and proselytizing, limit reproductive rights and gay rights and give organized religion special privileges generally."

Antigovernment ‘Patriot’ Movement Expands for the Fourth Year in a Row | Alternet

Antigovernment ‘Patriot’ Movement Expands for the Fourth Year in a Row | Alternet
"Hate groups remain at near-historic highs."

Breitbart's Legacy: Self-Immolating Conservative Media

Breitbart's Legacy: Self-Immolating Conservative Media
"We've told pieces of Nadia's story here, here and here, but reporter Chris Faraone dug deep into the ugly that is conservative media and dredged a lot more sludge up to the surface. I highly recommend taking a few minutes and reading the whole thing.

Nadia's story is bad enough, but it isn't unique. Conservative media, particularly online, is nothing more than an organized and well-funded smear machine, and they don't care who they hit as long as they're viewed as an "enemy"."

Ted Cruz Leads TeaBirchers' Last Stand Against Obamacare

Ted Cruz Leads TeaBirchers' Last Stand Against Obamacare
"where do these nutbags come from? It's not implementation of Obamacare that could push us into a recession. It's these whacknuts who think their games with the budget and austerity won't push us into recession. Why didn't Cruz just say "Die, and die quickly"?"

Glenn Beck Tries To Save Lady Liberty's Bleeding Body With U.S. Flag

Glenn Beck Tries To Save Lady Liberty's Bleeding Body With U.S. Flag
"Now that Glenn Beck is perched over at The Blaze, we don't get to see much of his circus clown routine that he made famous on FOX."

Right-Wing Voucher Push Undermines Public Education & Constitution | Right Wing Watch

Right-Wing Voucher Push Undermines Public Education & Constitution | Right Wing Watch
"Religious Right leaders and anti-government ideologues have shared a decades-long dream: to dismantle public education through a system of vouchers that would divert taxpayer funds out of public schools and into religious schools and other private academies."

Extreme Militia Groups On An Alarming Rise

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Gov. Corbett Takes Thousands In Gifts From Execs, Lobbyists

Gov. Corbett Takes Thousands In Gifts From Execs, Lobbyists
"My buddy Will Bunch has a piece about our ALEC-dominated governor Tom Corbett and his penchant for taking goodies from lobbyists and special interests who have business before the state. It might not sound like a big deal, but it's typical of the way Corbett operates."

Number Of Radical Anti-Government Groups ‘Reached An All-Time High’ In 2012, Report Finds

Number Of Radical Anti-Government Groups ‘Reached An All-Time High’ In 2012, Report Finds: The Souther Poverty Law Center released a new report on Tuesday finding that “the number of conspiracy-minded antigovernment ‘Patriot’ groups reached an all-time high of 1,360 in 2012″ and that the number of hate groups has remained at “near record levels” of more than 1,000. The group is calling on the Departments of Justice and [...]/p

Americans for Prosperity Organizing To Defeat Medicaid Expansion

Americans for Prosperity Organizing To Defeat Medicaid Expansion
"Americans for Prosperity, the Koch-funded astroturf gang, had a Big Conference Call Monday evening to discuss their Super Seekrit Strategy for defeating the Medicaid expansion in Pennsylvania."

Republicans Fulfill Their Cruel Ayn Rand Obsession With the Sequester | Alternet

Republicans Fulfill Their Cruel Ayn Rand Obsession With the Sequester | Alternet
"America has the lowest tax rates of any developed country on the planet and the rich have a greater share of national wealth than at any point in our history. But poverty is stuck at a decades-high level, black and Latino wealth is the lowest ever recorded, and America remains flat on its back after the worst economic downturn in almost a hundred years.

Contrary to the “starve the beast” philosophy, holding up the 1 percent andweakening economic opportunity for the 99 percent has enfeebled America, not strengthened it."

The Sequester and the Tea Party Plot | Common Dreams

The Sequester and the Tea Party Plot | Common Dreams
"Imagine a plot to undermine the government of the United States, to destroy much of its capacity to do the public’s business, and to sow distrust among the population. Imagine further that the plotters infiltrate Congress and state governments, reshape their districts to give them disproportionate influence in Washington, and use the media to spread big lies about the government."