Saturday, July 12, 2014

There Was No Stand Down Order: The Release of the Benghazi Transcripts Busts Republicans

www.politicususa.com/2014/07/09/there-stand-order-democrats-bust-republicans-completely-baseless-benghazi-conspiracy.html
"Darrell Issa (R-CA) earned himself Four Pinocchios for claiming that Secretary Hillary Clinton ordered former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to “stand down” during the Benghazi attacks and now Democrats are demanding an apology."

Florida Court Declares One Of The Worst Partisan Gerrymanders In The Country Unconstitutional

www.thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/07/11/3459082/florida-court-declares-one-of-the-worst-partisan-gerrymanders-in-the-country-unconstitutional/
"Florida’s congressional districts are some of the most GOP-friendly in the country. Although President Obama won a narrow victory over Mitt Romney in Florida during the 2012 presidential election, Republicans control 17 of the state’s 27 congressional districts. That means that, even though Obama won a majority of the votes cast by Floridians in 2012, Romney’s Republican Party controls nearly two-thirds of Florida’s U.S. House delegation.
On Thursday, a Florida trial court held that the congressional maps that produced this lopsided result violate the state’s constitution."

GOP redistricting scheme blocked by court

Kansas Is Going Broke Due To The Republican Plan Of Cutting Taxes For the Rich

www.politicususa.com/2014/07/11/kansas-broke-due-republican-plan-cutting-taxes-rich.html
"None of the “trickle-down” economic benefits have materialized and Kansas’s job growth lags behind the rest of the nation “especially in the years following the first round of Brownback tax cuts.” The revenue shortfall prompted credit rating agency Moody’s cut the state’s credit rating in May, and it is entirely because of tax cuts for the rich"

Negative Obamacare ads likely backfired

Judge Rules that Florida Republicans Tried to Rig Congressional Elections

www.forwardprogressives.com/judge-rules-florida-republicans-tried-rig-congressional-elections/
"Unethical gerrymandering by the GOP is how Republicans currently control the House of Representatives, despite the fact that they lost the overall popular vote by over 1.5 million votes."

Friday, July 11, 2014

Numbnuts At Fox Nation Post Article That Contradicts Their Own Lying Headline

Numbnuts At Fox Nation Post Article That Contradicts Their Own Lying Headline

"They're shameless liars. What's more, the source for the story is the disreputable, GOP-run, Koch brothers affiliated, phony news service, the Washington Free Beacon. They are a brazenly biased organization for whom spreading lies is an integral part of their mission. With deception and disinformation being such an important facet of these operations, you would think that they would be better at it."

With Tea Party Controlling the House and Zealots in the Supreme Court, Hobby Lobby Is Only the Beginning for Religious Theocrats

www.alternet.org/tea-party-controlling-house-and-zealots-supreme-court-hobby-lobby-only-beginning-religious-theocrats?page=0%2C0
"The United States is still a democratic republic, formally, but what that actually means in practice is increasingly in doubt — and the Hobby Lobby ruling, deeply disingenuous and sharply at odds with centuries of Anglo-American law, exemplifies how that formal reality is increasingly mocked in practice. It is a practice best described as neo-feudalism, taking power away from ordinary citizens, in all their pluralistic, idiosyncratic diversity, and handing it over to corporations and religious dictators in both the public and the private realm."

'Legitimate Rape' Guy Takes Back His Apology & Makes It Worse

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Turns Out, Republicans Love Obamacare

www.thinkprogress.org/health/2014/07/10/3458577/even-republicans-are-satisfied-with-the-new-obamacare-coverage-poll-finds/
"The study also found that the percentage of uninsured has dropped, from 20 percent to 15 percent, after the first open enrollment period, with 9.5 million fewer people now uninsured."

Texas Pastor Warns Obamacare Will Lead To 'Mark Of The Beast'

Texas Pastor Warns Obamacare Will Lead To 'Mark Of The Beast'

"Someone really needs to ask Hagee whether Jesus wants people to have access to health care. If he says no, he should be forced to supply biblical evidence. He won't and he can't, because he doesn't really understand the crap he spews. Of course, neither does his congregation."

Deranged Todd Akin is back — and steps in it again!

Deranged Todd Akin is back — and steps in it again!

"Still, it would be wrong to see Akin as some sort of brave truth teller. Maybe Akin thinks women are lying about rape because he’s a liar himself, since he’s essentially admitting in the book that he was lying when he apologized to Missouri voters for his rape remarks back in 2012. Poor Todd. He doesn’t want to take responsibility for a decision made in the heat of lust – lust for a Senate seat, in his case – so he’s claiming he was cruelly assaulted by party bosses and coerced into apologizing. It’s too bad his conscience didn’t have a way to shut that whole thing down."

Todd Akin Takes Back Apology For ‘Legitimate Rape’ Comments In New Book

Todd Akin Takes Back Apology For ‘Legitimate Rape’ Comments In New Book

"Republicans would be happy if "legitimate rape" Akin would just go crawl under a rock somewhere, but with the release of his new book, it doesn't look like that's going to happen any time soon."

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Like His Dad, Charles Koch Was a Bircher

Like His Dad, Charles Koch Was a Bircher

"Charles Koch was an active member of the controversial right-wing John Birch Society during its active campaigns against the civil rights movement."

Koch Exposed

www.kochexposed.org/
"the billionaire industrialists and the power and influence of the Koch cadre and Koch cash."

How the Mainstream Media Is Propagating GOP Myths

www.alternet.org/media/how-mainstream-media-propagating-gop-myths
"On the guest list for this “invitation only” meeting were Republican Senators like Jim DeMint, Jon Kyl, Tom Coburn, John Ensign and Bob Corker.
Also in attendance were Congressmen Paul Ryan, Pete Sessions, Jeb Hensarling, Pete Hoekstra, Dan Lungren, Eric Cantor and Kevin McCarthy.
They promised each other that they would filibuster and obstruct any and all legislation supported by President Obama."

5 Terrible Life Tips for Women Courtesy of Fox News

www.alternet.org/gender/5-terrible-life-tips-women-courtesy-fox-news
"Whenever Fox decides to feature segments on “women’s issues,” the conversations are usually so appallingly misguided that you almost wish they hadn’t bothered."

Koch-Funded Texas Gubernatorial Candidate Limits Public Chemical Disclosure After Deadly Explosion

www.thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/07/09/3457624/greg-abbott-koch-chemical-west-texas/
"In reporting on Abbott’s decision, the Dallas Morning News wrote that “the fact that Abbott has taken thousands of dollars from political donors related to Koch Industries, a multinational corporation with extensive chemical interests, creates particularly noxious ‘optics’ for the Republican attorney general in his campaign for governor.”
That’s right, what Abbott was less willing to discuss was that his campaign has received more than $75,000 from Koch interests since the April 2013 explosion at the West Fertilizer Plant, including a $25,000 contribution from first-time donor Chase Koch, who recently became the head of Koch Industries’ fertilizer division."

Here Are The States That Raised Their Minimum Wages Without Congress

www.thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/07/09/3458361/minimum-wage-increases-state-map/
"While some warn that raising the minimum wage is a job killer, states that have taken action aren’t finding that to be true. Those whose wages increased on January 1 are experiencing faster job growth than the others. State minimum wage increases over the past two decades haven’t had an impact on job creation. Washington, which has the highest current minimum wage, experienced the biggest increase in small business jobs last year and has seen steady, above average job growth in the 15 years since it raised its wage."

Papantonio: Corporate Media Enables Tea Party Oddballs

PERRspectives: Say Goodbye to Bush's '52 Months of Job Growth' GOP Talking Point

PERRspectives: Say Goodbye to Bush's '52 Months of Job Growth' GOP Talking Point

"With word that the U.S. economy added a robust 288,000 jobs in June, the Obama White House noted that the private sector has added 9.7 million jobs over 52 straight months of job growth."

34 Most Demented Things in the Texas GOP Platform

www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/34-most-demented-things-texas-gop-platform
"The Texas GOP unveiled its platform recently, and it is one scary, feverish document."

Tony Scalia's Son Hard At Work Undermining Dodd-Frank Regulations

Tony Scalia's Son Hard At Work Undermining Dodd-Frank Regulations

"The apple didn't fall far from that tree, did it? Some people believe that any regulation is bad regulation, and will do anything in their power to stop them, and some of those people make quite a bit of money when they do so. Sounds like Eugene Scalia is one of those people"

Kansas Gov Sam Brownback Fulfills Promise To Destroy Kansas

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Republicans Blocking Medicaid Expansion In Tennessee Destroyed This Couple's Life

Republicans Blocking Medicaid Expansion In Tennessee Destroyed This Couple's Life

"Red states refusing the Medicaid expansion are doing it out of spite, but their victims are actual real people. Here is one of their stories."

Arsonists Posing as Firemen: How GOP Sabotages Government for Fun and Profit | Common Dreams

Arsonists Posing as Firemen: How GOP Sabotages Government for Fun and Profit | Common Dreams

"Across the board, Republicans have been sabotaging government by a variety of measures, then pointing to the resulting  – and inevitable – governmental failures to reinforce their Ayn Rand fantasy of government as inept and the private sector as the solution to all our problems."

Republicans, I Give In: Here’s a List of a Few Things You Can Blame on President Obama

www.forwardprogressives.com/list-of-things-you-can-blame-on-president-obama/
"And might I also remind conservatives, he’s done all of this without any help from congressional Republicans. In fact, he’s done all of this in spite of their best efforts to obstruct him at every turn. So, Republicans, I say blame away.Blame President Obama for everything I just listed above. I’ll go ahead and predict that you can also blame him for next month’s jobs report that will show we added jobs for the 53rd consecutive month. You know what, Republicans should probably just go ahead and blame President Obama for the unemployment rate falling below 6% sometime in the next 2-3 months, if not next month. Because you damn sure know if it were a Republican who presided over everything I just listed above, you’d be calling him an American hero and a conservative legend."

Did You Know That Antonin Scalia's Son Is Sabotaging Wall Street Reform?

www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/07/eugene-scalia-court-antonin-financial-reform-dodd-frank
"He's not just Scalia's son. Eugene Scalia is quietly freeing Wall Street from the rules meant to keep it from crashing the economy again."

The Kochs' Anti-Civil Rights Roots: New Docs Expose Charles Koch's Ties to John Birch Society

How politics derailed EPA science on arsenic, endangering public health

www.publicintegrity.org/2014/06/28/15000/how-politics-derailed-epa-science-arsenic-endangering-public-health
"It is a battle between politics and science. Mining companies and rice producers, which could be hurt by the EPA’s findings, lobbied against them. But some of the most aggressive lobbying came from two pesticide companies that sell a weed killer containing arsenic."

Koch-backed AG helps hide chemical plant dangers

Murrieta Pitchfork Brigade Leader Patrice Lynes Tied To Birchers, Other Extremists

Murrieta Pitchfork Brigade Leader Patrice Lynes Tied To Birchers, Other Extremists

"When stories of protests over undocumented immigrants spring up in the news and those stories emanate out of Murietta, California, count on the involvement of patriot groups and extreme political factions. Murietta and neighboring Temecula are enclaves for right-wing extremists and wineries alike."

Fox News Begins The Great Alito Rehabilitation Campaign

Fox News Begins The Great Alito Rehabilitation Campaign

"Of course Fox News felt compelled to peddle the kinder, gentler, 'better half' of the Alito partnership, so they trotted out Mrs. Alito for a warm and fuzzy interview about how she arranges for veterans to tour the Supreme Court and have tea with the justices.
This is somehow supposed to make us all feel better about the fact that her husband just aimed a death blow at women's reproductive options and aimed an arrow at the heart of labor unions all on the same day."

The Most Partisan Supreme Court Justice Of All

www.thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/07/02/3455366/the-most-partisan-justice/
"Year after year, their data shows that Alito is a corporation’s best friend on the Court"

This is a religious civil war: Hobby Lobby only the beginning for new religious theocrats

This is a religious civil war: Hobby Lobby only the beginning for new religious theocrats

"The United States is still a democratic republic, formally, but what that actually means in practice is increasingly in doubt — and the Hobby Lobby ruling, deeply disingenuous and sharply at odds with centuries of Anglo-American law, exemplifies how that formal reality is increasingly mocked in practice."

Monday, July 7, 2014

Members of Congress Declare 'Immunity' from Insider Trading Probe | Common Dreams

Members of Congress Declare 'Immunity' from Insider Trading Probe | Common Dreams

"The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee is refusing to cooperate with an insider trading investigation, saying its employees are “absolutely immune” from having to comply with subpoenas from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)."

Saturday, July 5, 2014

Warning: Corporate Interests Are Not Public Interests | Common Dreams

Warning: Corporate Interests Are Not Public Interests | Common Dreams

"Corporate profit is the foundation of this ideology.  Beneath the lies of the corporatocracy is directionless profit-making that is oblivious to—if not contemptuous of—common sense and the public’s best interests."

6 Rabidly Right-Wing Republican Governors Who Might Get the Boot

www.alternet.org/election-2014/6-rabidly-right-wing-republican-governors-who-might-get-boot
"The endangered Republicans include party leaders on a litany of issues that have come to define the modern GOP as being more driven by anti-government ideology and corporate giveaways than helping the middle- and working classes. The governors are known for cutting corporate taxes, public-sector union-busting, defunding education, gutting social safety nets, not expanding Medicaid for the poor under Obamacare, loosening gun laws and stripping voting rights. Many have used their office to reward their allies and bully opponents. In response, pollsters are saying they are in 2014’s closest races."

July 4th Note to Tea Partiers: Your Politics Would Baffle the Founding Fathers | Blog | BillMoyers.com

July 4th Note to Tea Partiers: Your Politics Would Baffle the Founding Fathers | Blog | BillMoyers.com

"Originalism as a school of constitutional interpretation has waxed and waned and has always competed with other schools of interpretation. Madison’s invaluable notes on the Constitutional Convention weren’t published until 1840, and nineteenth-century constitutional theory differed, dramatically, from the debates that have taken place in the twentieth century. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Supreme Court rejected originalist arguments put forward by southern segregationists, stating, in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, that “we cannot turn back the clock” but “must consider public education in the light of its full development and its present place in American life throughout the Nation.” Constitutional scholars generally date the rise of originalism to the 1970s and consider it a response to controversial decisions of both the Warren and Burger Courts, especially Roe v. Wade, in 1973."

Fox Talker Calls Workers 'Fascist Parasites'

Fox Talker Calls Workers 'Fascist Parasites'

"Hoenig doesn't have a clue what fascism is. Perhaps he should actually readMussolini's definition of it instead of spouting crap on Saturday how-to-keep-your-money-safe-from-the-poors shows on Fox News. Nah, better that he parades his ignorance even more, right?"

Papantonio: Kochs Buying What's Left of Our Democracy

The Koch Brothers Respond To Getting Busted For Running a Dishonest Ad With Bigger Lies

www.politicususa.com/2014/07/03/koch-brothers-respond-busted-running-dishonest-ad-bigger-lies.html
"The Koch front groups don’t need to worry about apologizing when they get caught in a lie. They just double down and spread an even bigger lie."

Papantonio: Conservative Media Creating Psychopaths

Obama Drops a Truth Bomb On The GOP: Move To The Center or Never Win The Presidency Again

www.politicususa.com/2014/07/03/obama-drops-truth-bomb-gop-move-center-win-presidency.html
"The Republican Party continues to try to fool voters into supporting their agenda. They like to disguise their extremist agenda with moderate sounding people and language, but voters aren’t buying. Eventually, Republicans are going to get sick of losing presidential elections, and decide to move to the middle. After they move back to the middle, Congress will start functioning and things will get done."

What Too Much Glenn Beck And Fox News Consumption Does

What Too Much Glenn Beck And Fox News Consumption Does

"Folks, this is what a steady diet of Fox News, Glenn Beck, and too many nutty newsletters in your email does to a fellow. He starts out fairly reasonable, and morphs into a raving lunatic. If he had had another minute or so, we probably would have heard about Agenda 21 and every birther theory on the planet."

Maine’s Gov. LePage Offers Feeble Excuse For Meetings With Extremist Sovereign Citizens Group

Maine’s Gov. LePage Offers Feeble Excuse For Meetings With Extremist Sovereign Citizens Group

"The topics of these meetings evidently revolved around classic antigovernment “Patriot” movement conspiracy theories, including the belief that American dollars are phony “fiat” money and that the Federal Reserve is a hoax. One of the meetings was dominated by discussion, led by noted conspiracy theorist Michael Coffman, revolving around the notion that the United Nations is out to seize Americans’ private property rights and impose a New World Order environmentalist regime."

We are a corporate theocracy now: The Christian right seeks cultural and political domination

We are a corporate theocracy now: The Christian right seeks cultural and political domination

"The Hobby Lobby case is yet another reminder that those who wish to transform America’s secular democracy into a tyrannical theocracy are on the march."

Thursday, July 3, 2014

States That Raised Their Minimum Wages Are Experiencing Faster Job Growth

www.thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/07/03/3456393/minimum-wage-state-increase-employment/
"The states that raised their minimum wages on January 1 have seen higher employment growth since then than the states that kept theirs at the same rate."

Dow pops above 17,000, S&P 500 at record as jobs jump

www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/03/us-markets-stocks-idUSKBN0F713U20140703
"Wall Street's holiday-shortened session ended with multiple records on Thursday, with the Dow topping 17,000 for the first time after the June jobs report came in much stronger than expected.
Both the Dow and S&P 500 ended at their third consecutive record highs. The Nasdaq closed at its highest since 2000 and rose for a third straight week. The three major indexes wrapped up a week of solid gains."

Thanks, Obama! Unemployment Rate Drops To Lowest Level Since September 2008

www.politicususa.com/2014/07/03/thanks-obama-unemployment-rate-drops-lowest-level-september-2008.html
"Fox News, on the other hand, barely mentioned it, pushing it off to the side in small print."

The South is America's poverty belt, and Republicans want to make all of America more like the South

www.dailykos.com/story/2014/07/02/1311236/-The-South-is-America-s-poverty-belt-and-Republicans-want-to-make-all-of-America-more-like-the-South
"It's terribly sad and kind of a blot on the entire country that such a large region of the country could have such high poverty. But what's worse is that Republicans want to expand the policies that heighten the distress in the South across the entire country."

Supreme Court Broadens Hobby Lobby Ruling to All Forms of Birth Control

www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/07/supreme-court-scotus-hobby-lobby-all-forms-contraception
"Less than a day after the United States Supreme Court issued its divisive ruling on Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, it has already begun to toss aside the supposedly narrow interpretation of the decision. On Tuesday, the Supremes ordered lower courts to rehear any cases where companies had sought to deny coverage for any type of contraception, not just the specific types Hobby Lobby was opposed to."

Corporations race into Ginsburg’s ‘minefield’ to claim post-Hobby Lobby religious exemptions

www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/07/03/corporations-race-into-ginsburgs-minefield-to-claim-post-hobby-lobby-religious-exemptions/
"Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg warned in a scathing, 35-page dissent that her colleagues had “ventured into a minefield” with their ruling, arguing that the majority had invited “for-profit entities to seek religion-based exemptions from regulations they deem offensive to their faith.”
It took only one day to prove her predictions accurate."

#HobbyLobbyLove is a thing, but it's not going well

www.dailykos.com/story/2014/07/03/1311503/--HobbyLobbyLove-is-a-thing-but-it-s-not-going-well
"But much like abstinence education, Twitter hashtags often do not work out quite as conservatives plan they might."

Hobby Lobby's Not Alone: Here are 4 of the High Court's Biggest Science Blunders

www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/07/supreme-court-worst-scientific-blunders
"The decision in Hobby Lobby wasn't the first case in which the court or one of its justices flubbed the facts."

GOP’s culture war disaster: How this week highlighted a massive blind spot

GOP’s culture war disaster: How this week highlighted a massive blind spot

"the right’s crippling panic over women’s autonomy will eventually doom it to irrelevance"

Jonah Goldberg’s sexual tumult: The right doesn’t get how birth control works

Jonah Goldberg’s sexual tumult: The right doesn’t get how birth control works

"The right's lame talking points on Hobby Lobby are wrong -- and show a misunderstanding of health insurance and sex"

Rush Limbaugh confirms he is made of garbage and lives in a garbage can, Hobby Lobby edition

Rush Limbaugh confirms he is made of garbage and lives in a garbage can, Hobby Lobby edition

"Limbaugh said something about Hobby Lobby. It barely made sense but still displayed his clear hatred for women"

The religious right’s No. 1 obsession: Policing women’s sex lives by any means necessary

The religious right’s No. 1 obsession: Policing women’s sex lives by any means necessary

"But a case like Hobby Lobby flushes the true motivations out into the public, forcing conservatives to defend their position by admitting that they want sexuality to be treated like a weird, marginalized behavior to be punished instead of a normal part of everyday life."

Dirty campaign tactics in Florida

Wal-Mart’s big July 4 lie: This is how it really treats veterans

Wal-Mart’s big July 4 lie: This is how it <em>really</em> treats veterans

"Walmart veterans have had enough of the company taking advantage of our service for their public relations campaigns. If Walmart really wants to honor us, it’s time to invest in us so we can support ourselves and our families."

Democrat Tom Wolf Is Blowing Out Gov. Tom Corbett in Pennsylvania 47%-25%

www.politicususa.com/2014/07/02/democrat-tom-wolf-blowing-gov-tom-corbett-pennsylvania-47-25.html
"Corbett has alienated every voting bloc in the state with the exceptions of the fracking industry and far right conservatives. He won election in 2010 because most of the state’s Democrats didn’t vote. They won’t be making that mistake again in 2014."

Laura Ingraham's Nativist Rhetoric Too Extreme For Bill O'Reilly

Laura Ingraham's Nativist Rhetoric Too Extreme For Bill O'Reilly

"Right wing hate talker and Fox regular Laura Ingraham and her anti-immigrant nativist rhetoric were even too much for Bill O'Reilly this Wednesday evening."