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State Rep. La Shawn Ford pleads guilty to misdemeanor
Mon, 08/04/2014 – 7:55pm
Kim Janssen AND STEFANO ESPOSITO
@kimjnews | Email
State Rep. La Shawn Ford always insisted that the felony charges against him were “ridiculous.”
As it turned out, he was apparently right.
On Monday he walked out of a Chicago courtroom smiling, with all 17 felony counts against him dismissed.
In a shocking deal with federal prosecutors, Ford pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor charge of tax fraud that will allow him to remain in public office and likely keep him out of prison.
It is a rare and embarrassing climbdown for the U.S. Attorney’s office, which charged Ford in 2012 with 17 far more serious felony counts connected to an alleged bank fraud.
From the start, the West Side Democrat, 41, has loudly protested his innocence, claiming the charges against him were motivated by race and his position as an elected official.
http://politics.suntimes.com/article/chicago/state-rep-la-shawn-ford-pleads-guilty-misdemeanor/mon-08042014-755pm
Looking over at Tom & Lorenzo and I’ll just say this…
If they do a movie of the 2012 Election, Jon Hamm MUST play Mitt Romney.
http://tomandlorenzo.com/2014/08/jon-hamm-for-gq-uk-magazine/
DonnaDem showing her beautiful grandbabies!
https://twitter.com/NoShock/status/496771380688322560/photo/1
Rand Paul Is Learning How To Be a Good Stage Actor
—By Kevin Drum
| Tue Aug. 5, 2014 11:12 AM EDT
Back when he was a reckless and irresponsible youngster, Rand Paul suggested cutting off all foreign aid, specifically including aid to Israel. “I want to be known as a friend of Israel,” he said, “but not with money you don’t have.”
Oh wait. That was actually 2011. Not so long ago after all. It’s certainly well after the internet was invented and politicians’ past statements became impossible to hide or fudge. Nevertheless, Paul is now running for president, so he needs to revise his position. That shouldn’t be too hard, really, but as usual, he’s making it hard:
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul on Monday denied that he once supported ending federal aid to Israel — an idea he proposed as recently as 2011.
“I haven’t really proposed that in the past,” Paul told Yahoo News when asked if he still thought the U.S. should phase out aid to Israel, which has been battling Hamas in Gaza for weeks. “We’ve never had a legislative proposal to do that. You can mistake my position, but then I’ll answer the question. That has not been a position — a legislative position — we have introduced to phase out or get rid of Israel’s aid. That’s the answer to that question. Israel has always been a strong ally of ours and I appreciate that. I voted just this week to give money — more money — to the Iron Dome, so don’t mischaracterize my position on Israel.”
This is starting to become one of Paul’s distinguishing features. He’s also done the same thing regarding the Civil Rights Act. Instead of simply saying that his thinking has evolved in some way or another, he aggressively denies he ever held his previous position and then pretends to be outraged that some liberal shill of a reporter is deliberately misrepresenting his position. How dare he?!? So far the mainstream press isn’t really giving him much grief over this, but that could change if he mounts a serious presidential run.
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2014/08/rand-paul-learning-how-be-good-stage-actor
Where are the black ballerinas?
By Stacia L. Brown
May 5
When was the last time you saw three black ballerinas on a magazine cover? I can save you some time. You’ve never seen that — unless you’ve already spotted Pointe magazine’s June/July 2014 cover. For its annual career issue, Pointe enlists Dance Theatre of Harlem’s Ashley Murphy, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet’s Ebony Williams and the American Ballet Theater’s Misty Copeland to discuss an ongoing problem in ballet communities: lack of diversity.
This isn’t a new situation and neither are attempts to call greater attention to it. In 2011, Sierra Leonean phenom Michaela DePrince was featured in the award-winning documentary First Position, which discussed the challenges she’s faced while ascending through the rarefied ranks of dance as a dark-skinned ballerina. At 19, DePrince currently dances with the Dutch National Ballet’s junior company, but she still experiences institutional racism in the artform. In a 2013 interview with DanceTabs, she astutely noted, “As a black ballerina racism is less about what happens to you and more about what doesn’t happen to you.”
An illuminating piece in The Guardian last year titled, “Where are the black ballet dancers?” reifies DePrince’s claim, interviewing a number of world-class black dancers, including the New York City Ballet’s Aesha Ash:
Black women are often perceived as rude, ostentatious and aggressive. In ballet, the meek, humble, innocent young girl roles are rarely given to black women. But we are all those things and then some. We don’t always have to be exotic – all fire, athleticism. The images we don’t see of black women as princesses: that speaks volumes.
Ash is speaking to the power of visual representation. Ballerinas have long been avatars of possibility for little girls. Watching them work is a real-life reminder that, with talent, drive and intense practice, it is possible for to become the closest thing our world has to a real-life fairy or a princess without royal pedigree. When black and brown girls don’t see black ballerinas in the world’s most prestigious troupes, the absence intimates diminished possibility. A career in professional ballet is already a long shot for most girls, but the odds seem even longer for black girls who rarely, if ever, see prima ballerinas of color succeed.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2014/05/05/where-are-the-black-ballerinas/?tid=pm_opinions_pop
Morning Plum: GOP moves from ‘self deport’ to ‘throw them all out’
By Greg Sargent
August 4
On Friday, House Republicans passed measures to address the border crisis that gutted protections for immigrants brought to this country illegally as children. This made it official: The border crisis has pushed the true GOP position on immigration out into the open, confirming Republicans have become the party of maximum deportations. Even the Wall Street Journal editorial board has now echoed this idea, castigating “Deportation Republicans.”
To understand the possible long term implications of this, note that two Republicans who have explicitly used this debate to raise their profiles — Ted Cruz and Rick Perry — also may well run for president next year.
On CNN’s State of the Union yesterday, Perry claimed the big story here is that Obama has failed to secure the border, repeating wildly inflated claims about illegal immigrants being responsible for thousands of homicides, and asserting that “some of them are from countries that have substantial terrorist ties.” And he appeared to link Obama’s coming executive action to ease deportations to suggestions of a border in chaos, claiming: “American citizens expect Washington to respect the Constitution and secure the border.” Meanwhile, Ted Cruz’s role in pressuring House Republicans to vote to deport all the DREAMers has already been documented.
It seems possible, then, that the House GOP’s lurch to the right on immigration is only a prelude for worse to come in the coming GOP presidential primary.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/08/04/morning-plum-gop-moves-from-self-deport-to-throw-them-all-out/
Obamacare opponents seek message to drive midterms
By KYLE CHENEY and SARAH WHEATON | 8/4/14 7:20 PM EDT
Three months before the midterm elections, political operatives and activists are groping for an anti-Obamacare message that sticks — or 57 of them.
Republican pollsters tested nearly five dozen criticisms of the health care law with likely voters and listed the most effective messages to combat the law, as well as ones that resonated best with target groups like seniors, tea partiers or independents.
Not all ways of attacking Obamacare are equally effective,” pollsters Whit Ayres and Dave Sackett noted in a memo prepared for Crossroads GPS and American Action Network and shared with POLITICO.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/08/2014-elections-obamacare-109710.html#ixzz39Z0qukw4
KOCH GROUP RUSHES TO MONICA WEHBY’S AIDE: Speaking of states (such as New Hampshire) where millions in Koch-aligned cash is going up in flames, the Koch-affiliated Freedom Partners is set to pour millions into Oregon to rescue the campaign of Monica Wehby, who is running to unseat incumbent Dem Jeff Merkley, and has become “one of this cycle’s conservative stars.”
My favorite bit, on the Wehby campaign: “Their internal polls show Wehby down by only two, while other public polls show Wehby lagging by double digits.” Looks like those internal polls may have persuaded folks that matter that this race is seriously in play…
Morning Plum: GOP in doghouse among women, nonwhites, young
By Greg Sargent August 5 at 9:00 AM
A new Washington Post/ABC News poll is getting a bit of a bounce this morning because it finds that a record high number of Americans disapprove of their own Member of Congress — reflecting, once again, just how poorly this Congress is viewed.
But the relative ratings of the Republican and Democratic parties are also noteworthy, particularly among key voter groups that GOP leaders have been hoping to improve their appeal among ever since the 2012 loss produced a round of soul searching about the party’s future. The toplines are that among registered voters, 38 percent view the GOP favorably, versus 60 percent who view it unfavorably; among Dems those numbers are 51-46.
Here’s a rundown among subgroups:
– Among women, the favorable/unfavorable numbers for the GOP are 33-62. For the Democratic Party they are flipped around, at 54-40.
– Among nonwhites, those numbers for the GOP are 25-70. For the Democratic Party they are flipped around at 68-26.
– Among Latinos, those numbers for the GOP are 29-65. For the Democratic Party they are flipped around at 61-33.
– Among adults aged 18-29, those numbers for the GOP are 31-61. For the Democratic Party they are flipped around at 51-35.
– Among moderates, those numbers for the GOP are 32-66. For the Democratic Party they are flipped around at 52-45.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/08/05/morning-plum-gop-in-doghouse-among-women-nonwhites-young/
Greg Sargent: Obamacare Causes Steep Drop in Uninsured — In Deep Red States
Gallup finds that three of the largest drops in the rate of the uninsured just happened to take place in states with the most hard-fought Senate races…..
In Arkansas, the rate of uninsured dropped from 22.5 percent in 2013 to 12.4 percent now — a change of over 10 percentage points.
In Kentucky, it dropped from 20.4 percent to 11.9 percent — a change of over eight percentage points.
In Colorado, it dropped from 17 percent to 11 percent — a change of six percentage points.
The Kentucky example is particularly interesting. Remember, Mitch McConnell still regards the the law that created this drop in the uninsured among his own constituents as a “disaster.” Yet hundreds of thousands have signed up for coverage on the Kentucky exchange….
….. Meanwhile, the Koch-founded Americans for Prosperity has spent big money on multiple ads in Arkansas featuring Obamacare “horror stories” in which the victim in each…received a cancellation letter. Yet according to Gallup, the drop in uninsured here has been steeper than in any other state
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/08/05/obamacare-causes-steep-drop-in-uninsured-in-deep-red-states/
McConnell digs deeper on record on women’s issues
08/05/14 03:11 PM—UPDATED 08/05/14 03:13 PM
By Steve Benen
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), facing a tough re-election fight, is clearly worried about the gender gap. In fact, he and his campaign team are worried enough to start stretching the truth to the breaking point.
To be sure, this is an ongoing problem. Last fall, Team McConnell insisted the senator supported fair-pay efforts for women, despite his repeated opposition to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act.
But as Election Day draws closer, the problem seems to be getting worse. Jennifer Bendery reports today:
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) unveiled a new campaign ad on Tuesday that gives an incredibly misleading account of his record on the Violence Against Women Act, a bill he has voted against repeatedly – most recently opposing it over its expanded protections for victims of domestic abuse.
In the ad, called “As If,” McConnell’s wife defends his record on women’s issues against “desperate” attacks from his Democratic challenger, Alison Lundergan Grimes. A narrator’s voice says McConnell co-sponsored the original VAWA and has “always supported its purpose.”
Someone certainly appears to be desperate, but in this case, it’s not Alison Lundergan Grimes.
The facts are clear and not in dispute. The “original” Violence Against Women Act was drafted in 1991 and never received a vote. Since then, VAWA has come to the Senate floor several times, and in each instance, McConnell voted to kill the legislation.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/mcconnell-digs-deeper-record-womens-issues
GTFOH Mr & Mrs. McTurtle.
McDaniel goes for broke in Mississippi
08/05/14 08:30 AM—UPDATED 08/05/14 09:30 AM
By Steve Benen
After losing a Republican primary runoff in June, Mississippi state Sen. Chris McDaniel vowed action. Sure, it looked like incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran had prevailed, but McDaniel was convinced the senator’s victory was illegitimate and the challenger made no secret of his intention to fight back.
It took much longer than expected – Cochran’s general election is now just 91 days away – but McDaniel moved the process forward yesterday.
McDaniel, who lost his Republican Senate primary challenge to incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran in late June, formally filed a challenge Monday with the Mississippi Republican Party’s executive committee over the election results of the runoff election.
“They asked us to put up or shut up,” McDaniel said in a short press conference Monday. “Here we are. Here we are with the evidence.”
One of the interesting things about yesterday’s announcement is the fact that McDaniel swung for the fences. I largely expected him to either call for a do-over or a recount based on a new ballot standard. But not this guy – the right-wing challenger said he should simply be declared the winner of the primary in which he received fewer votes. Indeed, he’d like that declaration to happen immediately.
His attorney made this quite plain: “We are not asking for a new election, we are simply asking that the Republican Party actually recognize the person who won the runoff election.”
And according to McDaniel’s lawyer, that’s McDaniel, election results notwithstanding.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/mcdaniel-goes-broke-mississippi
Andie the Obamanista @andie_walsh
Follow
I’m not here to argue about Hillary Clinton in 2016.
I’m here to support .@BarackObama & to get out the vote in #2014Midterms.
#17Seats
10:08 AM – 5 Aug 2014
How to Take Control of a Political Party
by BooMan
Tue Aug 5th, 2014 at 02:06:01 PM EST
Steve Baldwin, who appears to be insane, has brainstormed a way for the far right to create a third party to supplant the Republican Party without helping Democrats win elections in the interim. His idea is that the party would be built online, gaining members, supporters, donors, and potential candidates, but that it would remain virtual and inactive in elections until a certain threshold of support was met. When they reached, say, 20 million supporters, they would launch a slate of candidates.
It’s not a terrible idea as long as they realize that they’d still be trying not to win but to supplant the GOP as the second of the two big national parties. Whenever they launched, and however strong they managed to be in their inaugural election season, they would initially help the Democrats win elections. If they were strong enough, however, they could replace the Republicans as the dominant party on the right. Maybe by the second election season, they could emerge as the first choice of the right and perhaps the GOP would simply go away.
I still think a better way to go is to have candidates declare themselves as “constitutional Republicans” or “progressive Democrats.” The candidates would commit to voting for one of their own on the first ballot for Speaker of the House. Over time, pledged elected officials could become a majority within the respective caucuses, and gain control over the leadership.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2014/8/5/1461/55503
Republican Congressman: “Fair Of Number People” In House Would Say Obama Is Worthy Of Impeachment
But Rep. Bill Flores thinks it would be a bad idea because it would fail in the Senate and hurt the House politically.
posted on Aug. 5, 2014, at 2:44 p.m.
Texas Republican Rep. Bill Flores thinks that “a fair number of folks” in the House of Representatives would be willing to vote to impeach President Obama, but that such a vote would be meaningless because it would fail in the Senate and hurt House Republicans politically.
“If you were to ask many folks in the House is the president violated the law and will he be worthy of impeachment, I think a fair number of folks would say yes,” Flores said in a telephone town hall on July 30. “Well then you say, ‘OK, what do you do?’ Well, then you turn back to the Constitution. You look at Article 1, Section 2, Clause 5 and there is says the House of Representatives will have the sole power of impeachment. You say okay, so, what happens then?”
http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/republican-congressman-fair-of-number-people-in-house-would?bftw=pol
https://twitter.com/blippoblappo/status/496501777496547328/photo/1
BWA HA HA HA
Nothing to see here, folks. Move along!
Eric Holder Takes Another “Historic Step” Toward Ending The Drug War, Advocates Say
A little-watched speech is a big deal in criminal justice circles.posted on Aug. 1, 2014, at 4:41 p.m.
Evan McMorris-Santoro BuzzFeed Staff
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration took a “historic” step in changing the drug war Friday, activists said, when Attorney General Eric Holder said the rationale prosecutors often use to defend mandatory-minimum sentences was worthless.
“Some have suggested that these modest changes might somehow undermine the ability of law enforcement and prosecutors to induce cooperation from defendants in federal drug cases,” Holder said in remarks before the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers conference in Philadelphia, according to prepared remarks posted to the Justice Department website.
“But the reality is that nothing could be further from the truth,” Holder went on, citing his own past as a federal prosecutor.
“Like anyone who served as a prosecutor in the days before sentencing guidelines existed and mandatory minimums took effect, I know from experience that defendant cooperation depends on the certainty of swift and fair punishment, not on the disproportionate length of a mandatory-minimum sentence,” Holder said.
For the first time, advocates of ending mandatory sentences for drug criminals say, Holder was attacking a central tenet of those who fight to preserve the lengthy mandatory sentences. Supporters say mandatory-minimum sentences help induce drug offenders into cooperating with prosecutors and, the theory goes, lead to the nabbing more drug offenders.
The speech was a big deal, said Families Against Mandatory Minimums.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/evanmcsan/eric-holder-drug-sentences#
Scott Walker Is Reeling As Wisconsin Governor’s Race Is a Dead Heat
By: Jason Easley
Monday, August, 4th, 2014, 12:42 pm
A new poll of Wisconsin brings more bad news for Gov. Scott Walker as the Wisconsin Republican is locked in tie with Democrat Mary Burke 47%-47%.
Scott Walker has blown a five point lead. In March, Walker led the Gravis Marketing poll 49%-44%, but since then he has lost two points of support while his opponent Democrat Mary Burke has gained three. Wisconsin is a state where President Obama remains popular. Obama’s approval rating in this poll was a positive 49%-43%.
Walker’s biggest problem is jobs. In 2010, he promised that his tax cuts would create 250,000 new jobs but that pledge is destined to fail. Not only will Walker’s jobs pledge come up short, the state had negative job growth in May and June under his leadership. Instead of creating jobs, Wisconsin lost 1,700 jobs in May and June of this year.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/08/04/scott-walker-reeling-wisconsin-governors-race-dead-heat.html
Hee hee hee Mr. “Blow the Koch-Bros” Walker’s an all around LOSER!
Conservative military charity faces serious allegations
08/05/14 12:31 PM—UPDATED 08/05/14 12:32 PM
By Steve Benen
Any time a charity is accused of fraud, it’s alarming, but especially during a war, there’s something even more outrageous about dubious charities that claim to be helping veterans and active-duty military personnel.
Last year, for example, Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s (R) lieutenant governor, Jennifer Carroll, was forced to abruptly resign over her connections to something called Allied Veterans of the World. The Florida-based non-profit was accused of trying to “defraud the public and governmental agencies by misrepresenting how much of its proceeds were donated to charities affiliated with Veterans Administration.”
This year, a Tea Party affiliated group called Move America Forward, is facing allegations every bit as serious. Kim Barker’s piece in The Daily Beast raises serious questions the charity will have to answer quickly.
Move America Forward calls itself the nation’s “largest grassroots pro-troop organization,” and has recruited a bevy of Republican luminaries, including former Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney, to support its efforts.
Yet an examination of its fundraising appeals, tax records and other documents shows that Move America Forward has repeatedly misled donors and inflated its charitable accomplishments, while funneling millions of dollars in revenue to the men behind the group and their political consulting firms.
Barker’s report raises allegations that, if true, may point to illegalities, including the possible use the charity’s funds to subsidize conservative political action committees.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/conservative-military-charity-faces-serious-allegations
‘Up is down and down is up’ in Wisconsin
08/05/14 11:10 AM—UPDATED 08/05/14 11:24 AM
By Steve Benen
A recent report in Madison’s Capital Times noted that when it comes to Wisconsin’s gubernatorial race, “it’s starting to look like up is down and down is up.” It’s an observation rooted in fact.
Gov. Scott Walker (R), who makes no secret of his national ambitions, needs to prevail to keep his 2016 hopes alive, but polls show him struggling against businesswoman Mary Burke (D), who trails the incumbent by only a couple of points with three months remaining.
What’s especially interesting at this point, however, is what Walker and his campaign team intend to do about it. Dylan Scott reports on the Republican’s unexpected message:
Scott Walker, the Republican governor of Wisconsin, wants you to know his Democratic opponent Mary Burke is a one-percenter and an outsourcer whose family company doesn’t pay its fair share of taxes. That’s the brave new world in the Badger State, where the GOP incumbent is taking a page out of the Obama campaign’s strategy against Mitt Romney to attack his 2014 gubernatorial rival.
The state Republican Party has invited voters to get to know “outsourcing millionaire Mary Burke” who is “a definitive ‘one-percenter’ ” on a new website purporting to introduce Wisconsinites to Walker’s relatively unknown challenger.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/down-and-down-wisconsin
Paul Krugman: Obama’s Other Success
Although the enemies of health reform will never admit it, the Affordable Care Act is looking more and more like a big success. Costs are coming in below predictions, while the number of uninsured Americans is dropping fast, especially in states that haven’t tried to sabotage the program. Obamacare is working. But what about the administration’s other big push, financial reform? The Dodd-Frank reform bill has, if anything, received even worse press than Obamacare, derided by the right as anti-business and by the left as hopelessly inadequate. But also like Obamacare, financial reform is working a lot better than anyone listening to the news media would imagine. The decision to create a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau shouldn’t have been controversial, given what happened during the housing boom.
At this point, however, all accounts indicate that the bureau is in fact doing its job, and well — well enough to inspire continuing fury among bankers and their political allies. A recent case in point: The bureau is cracking down on billions in excessive overdraft fees. how do you rescue the banking system without rewarding bad behavior? The answer is that the government should seize troubled institutions when it bails them out, so that they can be kept running without rewarding stockholders or bondholders who don’t need rescue. In 2008 and 2009, however, it wasn’t clear that the Treasury Department had the necessary legal authority to do that. So Dodd-Frank filled that gap, giving regulators Ordinary Liquidation Authority, also known as resolution authority, so that in the next crisis we can save “systemically important” banks and other institutions without bailing out the bankers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/04/opinion/paul-krugman-dodd-frank-financial-reform-is-working.html?smid=tw-share&_r=1
Fox News Claims Obama The Black President Is Forcing Republicans To Impeach Him
By: Jason Easley
Monday, August, 4th, 2014, 5:42 pm
Fox News is already trying to impeach President Obama for action on immigration that he hasn’t taken yet. Fox is arguing that Obama is forcing the Republicans to impeach him.
On Outnumbered, Fox News’s Jedediah Bila blamed Obama for the Republican desire to impeach him, “I think everyone’s afraid to point out this impeachment issue when it comes to President Obama because everyone thinks it’s totally unrealistic, but the truth is we now have a president that’s not enforcing the law. He’s not enforcing the immigration law. He is getting up every day and deciding which components of this law he thinks should be enforced and which ones shouldn’t. I mean you’re talking about executive amnesty towards millions of people. So if you’re going to talk about who’s forcing the impeachment issue this president is forcing that issue. He’s forcing us to bring that up because he refuses to enforce the laws as they stand.”
The Fox News logic sounds a lot like victim blaming because that is what it is. Abusers blame the people that they abuse for “making them” abuse them. Slave owners blamed misbehavior by slaves for the violence that they inflicted on others.
The argument that impeachment is Obama’s fault, because he is refusing to enforce the law is impossible to believe when George W. Bush blatantly refused to enforce laws by adding 150 signing statements to pieces of legislation that he disagreed with. Republicans didn’t say a peep when Bush announced that he wouldn’t enforce the law, but when President Obama suggests that he may use his constitutional powers to set up new immigration deportation guidelines, Republicans scream impeachment.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/08/04/fox-news-claims-obama-black-president-forcing-republicans-impeach.html
Bryan Fischer Again Claims First Amendment Applies Only to Christians
By: Hrafnkell Haraldsson more from Hrafnkell Haraldsson
Tuesday, August, 5th, 2014, 8:06 am
Bryan Fischer is sticking with his claim that the First Amendment applies only to Christians. He has said before that the First Amendment “was not written to protect the religion of Islam,” that,
Islam has no fundamental First Amendment claims, for the simple reason that it was not written to protect the religion of Islam. Islam is entitled only to the religious liberty we extend to it out of courtesy…From a constitutional point of view, Muslims have no First Amendment right to build mosques in America.
Writing on the American Family Association website, he wishes to make clear that also excluded from First Amendment protections are every other religion outside of Christianity. And yes, that includes Judaism. Jews, not being Christians, are, in Bryan Fischer’s view, not protected by the First Amendment.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/08/05/bryan-fischer-first-amendment-christians-only.html
Gov. Scott’s Half True claim about Eric Holder and early voting
Posted by Amy Sherman at 5:24 PM on Monday, Aug. 4, 2014
As Florida heads toward a hotly contested governor’s race in November, Attorney General Eric Holder warned Gov. Rick Scott that the feds are “carefully monitoring” voter access in the state.
“I am deeply disturbed that during your tenure, your state has repeatedly added barriers to voting and restricted access to the polls,” Holder wrote in a July 21 letter to Scott.
Holder recapped changes in state election law during Scott’s tenure, as well as the state’s attempt to purge noncitizen voters from the rolls, disenfranchisement of felons and a dispute about where voters can return absentee ballots in Pinellas County.
When the Tampa Bay Times blogged about the letter Aug. 1, Scott’s campaign dismissed Holder’s letter as a “bizarre attempt to help Charlie Crist” — Scott’s likely Democratic opponent in November and an ally of President Barack Obama.
Holder and Scott’s campaign made some dueling claims about the state’s early voting law.
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2014/08/gov-scotts-half-true-claim-about-eric-holder-and-early-voting.html#
Keke Palmer on Becoming Broadway’s First African-American Cinderella
by Julie Miller
August 4, 2014 2:15 pm
This afternoon it was announced that Keke Palmer, the actress and singer who made television history earlier this year by becoming the youngest-ever talk-show host, will make her Broadway debut as Cinderella in an adaptation of the Tony-winning musical this September. The news means that, at 20 years old, the Illinois-born entertainer has claimed another historic milestone this year, by being cast as the first ever African-American Cinderella on Broadway.
When we called Palmer this past Friday, the actress told us that she had not commemorated the exciting news quite yet. “I don’t really celebrate,” she told us. “And besides, I still don’t believe it is real!” Palmer said that, growing up, she “always had an idea to approach Broadway for an audition,” perhaps because—as the daughter of two former actors who met in drama school—the desire to be onstage was embedded in her DNA.
Like many women, Palmer has her share of childhood memories involving Cinderella—both the 1950 “animated version” and “the Brandy version,” that is, the 1997 TV movie starring the singer opposite Whitney Houston’s fairy godmother. And while the very grown-up task of starring in a Broadway show—and playing to a live audience of hundreds twice a day, beginning this September—might seem daunting, terrifying, or even nightmare inducing to most, it seems to thrill Palmer. “Thinking about that [audience] gives me energy,” she told V.F. Hollywood. “Seeing that many people in the audience, who you can’t recognize, that’s what excites you and gets you pumped.”
Speaking to Palmer, it’s easy to understand why she has been so prolific and successfully varied in her professional pursuits in the 10 years since debuting on-screen opposite Queen Latifah—whom Palmer now counts as a mentor—in Barbershop 2: Back to Business. (She has since starred in films Akeelah and the Bee, Madea’s Family Reunion, Joyful Noise; starred on the Nickelodeon television series True Jackson, VP; released an album with Atlantic Records in 2007; guest-starred on Masters of Sex; and hosted the aforementioned daytime talk show, Just Keke, on BET for a four-week run.) She is upbeat, well-spoken, and unabashedly ambitious. But most impressively, she seems to have a wise-beyond-her-years understanding of the unique platform her professional pursuits have provided her, and a desire to use it to connect.
http://www.vanityfair.com/vf-hollywood/keke-palmer-cinderella-broadway
Atlanta Public Health Officials Treating Ebola Victims Are Getting Hate Mail
Atlanta public health officials are begging people to calm down and stop sending them nasty messages about their decision to treat two American relief workers who are suffering from Ebola.
The deadly virus, for which there is no vaccine or treatment other than caring for symptoms such as high fever, has claimed the lives of at least 887 people in West Africa. Dr. Tom Frieden, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (C.D.C.), revealed that the agency was on the receiving end of “nasty e-mails” and phone calls about the decision to bring home two American relief workers stricken with the virus.
“I hope our understandable fear of the unfamiliar does not trump our compassion when ill Americans return to the U.S. for care,” Frieden said.
A number of high-profile pontificators, who seemingly exist solely to torment the unknowing, contributed to domestic Ebola panic. Donald Trump has repeatedly tweeted in opposition to the idea of treating any Ebola patients in the United States, arguing, “People that go to far away places to help out are great-but must suffer the consequences!” Appearing on Fox and Friends to discuss his tweet storm, Trump pushed for a ban on inbound flights from countries in West Africa, and compared Ebola to AIDS.
Such hysterics seemed close to coalescing into a widespread panic on Monday, when New York City’s Mt. Sinai Hospital revealed that it was testing a patient for Ebola. The man, who had recently visited West Africa and was suffering from a high fever, was placed in an isolated ward within seven minutes of arriving to the hospital. Later Monday, however, doctors said it was unlikely that Ebola was involved.
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2014/08/atlanta-ebola-hospital-hate-mail?mbid=social_twitter
Just a DISTRACTION from the real THREAT to America- GOP VIRUS
Obama to announce $14 billion in U.S. corporate investments in Africa
By Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON Tue Aug 5, 2014 6:17am EDT
(Reuters) – President Barack Obama will announce on Tuesday that U.S. businesses have committed to investing $14 billion in construction, clean energy, banking, and information technology projects across Africa, a White House official said.
The announcement will occur at the U.S.-Africa Business Forum, part of a three-day Africa summit in Washington meant to showcase U.S. interest in improving trade and investment in the region.
“These investments will deepen U.S. economic engagement in Africa, fueling growth that will support broader African prosperity and emerging markets for US businesses, which will support jobs in both the United States and Africa,” the White House official said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/05/us-africa-summit-idUSKBN0G50Y720140805
DREAMers Erika Andiola & Cesar Vargas confront Steve King in Okoboji, Iowa for trying to end DACA
http://youtu.be/PI8rCleTbSo
Typical of this RACIST MOFO. You’re a tool King. He has NO intentions of listening to these young POC. Just REPEATING RIGHT WING, RACIST talking points against the president. “Disrespect for constitution, blah, blah, blah. SMGDH
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJqt5tU_Etg
Tell that to my ancestors, Mo Brooks. Tell that to all the BLACK people who where chained and brought here to America. This is where the WAR started.
White RESENTMENT, it’s really all the GOP has left
Fired Radio Host Anthony Cumia Appears on White Supremacist ‘Political Cesspool’ Show
today’s news from America’s caveman subculture, radio host Anthony Cumia, who was fired by SiriusXM for an extended racist tirade on Twitter, appeared Saturday on the Tennessee white supremacist radio show Political Cesspool: Radio Host Fired for Racist Tirade Resurfaces in “Pro-White” Media.
Read more at http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/43684_Fired_Radio_Host_Anthony_Cumia_Appears_on_White_Supremacist_Political_Cesspool_Show#5TteVy0ZbDDKki6P.99
What in the H.E.L.L?
LOL These White folks have LOST their collective MINDS
The NationVerified account @thenation·
Clinton is courting Wall Street, bashing Obama, and saying that George W. Bush made her “proud to be an American.” http://thenat.in/1s5PNyD
I didn’t even comment on Bill Clinton giving the eulogy for Richard Sciafe.
uh huh
uh huh
Mark Knoller ✔ @markknoller
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Singer Lionel Richie will perform at the WH dinner tonight. Might be livestreamed on http://WH.gov
7:26 AM – 5 Aug 2014
Getting thread ready for this gala now!
WHERE IS THE MEDIA’S REPORTING ON THE REPORT FINDINGS, HMM?
Shocker: MSNBC Only Network Reporting Good News for Obama on Benghazi
by Matt Wilstein | 7:42 pm, August 4th, 2014
A report from the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee has reportedly found there was “no deliberate wrongdoing by the Obama administration” in the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. But, perhaps unsurprisingly, that development has not been major news across the cable networks since it first broke on Friday. In fact, it was not until the end of the 4 p.m. ET hour today that any one of the three major cable news networks even mentioned the content of the House report’s findings.
For the final segment of her MSNBC show Monday, Alex Wagner reported that “the latest news on the Benghazi scandal is that there is no Benghazi scandal.” She was referring to comments Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA) gave to the San Francisco Chronicle last week, in which he said the unanimously-approved report “confirms that no one was deliberately misled, no military assets were withheld and no stand-down order was given.”
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/shocker-msnbc-only-network-reporting-good-news-for-obama-on-benghazi/
https://twitter.com/markknoller/status/496632330883432448/photo/1
Bill Harnsberger @BillinPortland
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Attention birthers: cardiologists will be on standby for you tomorrow night when you see 50 African leaders converge on the White House.
7:53 PM – 4 Aug 2014
10 most surprising six-figure jobs
You don’t have to be a CEO or surgeon to pull in six figures. The top 10 percent of earners in these eclectic occupations make $100,000 a year or more.
By Kathryn Dill, Forbes
http://money.msn.com/careers-and-education/10-most-surprising-six-figure-jobs
Politics
Africa agricultural initiative gets $7 billion boost from private companies
By Juliet Eilperin August 5 at 12:01 AM
A group of African and U.S. firms on Tuesday will announce an additional $7 billion in spending to promote agricultural development in Africa, nearly doubling an Obama administration initiative aimed at mobilizing private money to ease hunger and poverty on the continent.
The commitments — which are being made as part of this week’s U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit and include a $5 billion pledge by Coca-Cola to source more of its products from Africa by the end of the decade — highlight how U.S. food aid policy has shifted under President Obama. Rather than relying primarily on federal funds to support small farmers overseas, the administration has enlisted African companies and major multinationals to help address some of the development challenges Africans still face.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/africa-agricultural-initiative-gets-7-billion-boost-from-private-companies/2014/08/04/276214d2-1be3-11e4-ae54-0cfe1f974f8a_story.html?wpisrc=nl_politics&wpmm=1
Good Morning, Everyone:)
Good Morning, Everyone! I’ll BE There….. :-).