Wednesday, August 07, 2013 7:08:31 AM
Republicans Confront Lady Problems in Congress
Republicans have struggled to approach the growing number of female Democratic representatives, even though they hold the House majority.
GOP groups are scrambling to expand outreach to women, as party operatives fear gender gap could grow.
August 6, 2013
http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/republicans-confront-lady-problems-in-congress-20130806 [with comments]
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Rick Perry Vetoed Texas Equal Pay Bill Under Pressure From Macy's, Kroger's
08/06/2013
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) vetoed a bill this summer to help prevent wage discrimination after receiving letters against the measure from retailers like Macy's and Kroger Food Stores, according to documents newly obtained by the Houston Chronicle.
The bill would have brought Texas state law in line with the federal Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/lilly-ledbetter-fair-pay-act ] ...
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/rick-perry-macys_n_3714546.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Reince Priebus, RNC Launch Full-Scale Attack On 'Liberal Media' Over Hillary Clinton Programs
08/07/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/rnc-hillary-clinton_n_3714811.html [with embedded video report, and (approaching 4,000) comments]
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Ralph Lang, Who Plotted To Kill Planned Parenthood Doctor, Sentenced To 10 Years In Prison
Ralph Lang was sentenced to 10 years in prison for attempting to kill a doctor at a Madison Planned Parenthood clinic in 2011.
(AP)
By Ashley Balcerzak
Posted: 08/06/2013 1:52 pm EDT | Updated: 08/06/2013 2:41 pm EDT
A Dane County, Wis., judge on Friday sentenced anti-abortion activist Ralph Lang to 10 years in prison [ http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/crime_and_courts/anti-abortion-activist-gets-years-for-murder-plot/article_4da29ec2-a570-5cb2-982f-d4ada9a99e8e.html ] for a failed plot to kill a doctor at a Madison Planned Parenthood clinic in 2011. Circuit Judge Nicholas McNamara said Lang was a dangerous man who had never expressed remorse or said he wouldn't revive his plot if released.
Two years ago, Lang accidentally fired his gun inside a Madison motel room located near a Planned Parenthood clinic. Police were called to the scene, and he was arrested after telling them that he was going "to lay out abortionists because they are killing babies [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/26/madison-abortion-clinic-mass-murder_n_867822.html ]."
In May, he was convicted of attempted first-degree intentional homicide.
McNamara said that Lang did not consider the lives of those at the Planned Parenthood clinic when he planned to kill a doctor and told the 65-year-old defendant, "That lack of consideration is what makes you dangerous."
The judge also noted that Lang had not expressed remorse despite many opportunities, leaving the impression that he would attempt the plot again if he were freed. During his testimony, Lang had said he wished he had a machine gun "to mow down" the clinic doctors.
"You have made choices that now require you to be out of society, out of the community," McNamara said, according to the Wisconsin State Journal [ http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/crime_and_courts/anti-abortion-activist-gets-years-for-murder-plot/article_4da29ec2-a570-5cb2-982f-d4ada9a99e8e.html ]. "You have forfeited your right to live among us."
In addition to 10 years in prison, Lang was also sentenced to 10 years of supervision and will not be allowed within a mile of any abortion or reproductive health clinic during that period. The length of the prison sentence fell between Assistant District Attorney Robert Kaiser's request for a 20-year sentence and defense attorney Eric Schulenburg's suggestion of three years.
Lang had faced federal charges, which were later dropped, for use of a firearm to intimidate or interfere with those using a program that receives federal funds and for use of a firearm during a violent crime. Federal prosecutors said they could reinstate the charges if the state's prosecution proved insufficient. U.S. Attorney John Vaudreuil for the Western District of Wisconsin told the Wisconsin State Journal [id.] that it was too soon to know whether the federal charges would be reinstated.
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/ralph-lang-planned-parenthood_n_3714157.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Moral Monday Shows No Sign Of Slowing Down As 5,000 Turn Out To Protest GOP Agenda In Asheville
08/06/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/moral-monday-asheville_n_3713891.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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How The Voting Rights Act Changed Congress In 1 Chart
08/06/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/voting-rights-act-anniversary_n_3715706.html [with comments]
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North Carolina Voting Laws Could Hinge On Evidence Of Racism
08/06/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/north-carolina-voting-law_n_3713411.html [with comments]
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Rick Scott Plans To Resume Voter Purge Effort In Florida
[ http://www.berfrois.com/2012/02/thank-you-governor-scott/ ]
08/06/2013
[...]
In a letter sent to Florida election supervisors last week, Maria Matthews, Florida's director of elections, said a renewed effort to "ensure due process and the integrity of Florida's voter rolls" was being planned.
"This is all part of our ongoing and continuing efforts to identify potentially ineligible registered voters," Matthews said.
Scott, a Republican, is preparing to run for re-election next year. He has repeatedly said the aim of any purge is to protect the integrity of the voter rolls.
Advocacy groups called the review of non-citizens a thinly veiled attempt to disqualify Hispanic and African-American voters, who tend to vote for Democratic candidates. A disproportionately large number of those identified in 2012 were either Hispanic or black, the groups said.
Last year, Florida officials said they had drawn up an initial list of 182,000 potential non-citizens. But that number was reduced to fewer than 200 after election officials acknowledged errors on the original list.
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/rick-scott-voter-purge_n_3710323.html [with embedded video report, and (over 11,000) comments]
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Resisting Republican Excess
August 6th, 2013
Very dark political forces stalk the land, and we do ourselves, and those who will come after us, no favors by pretending otherwise.
[...]
http://www.davidcoates.net/2013/08/06/resisting-republican-excess/ [no comments yet];
without the source-linked references included at the above link, also at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-coates/resisting-republican-exce_b_3712857.html [with comments]
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Ted Cruz gets confused by a BuzzFeed post
Cruz cited a post by the Heritage Foundation as proof that "the left-wing site" BuzzFeed turned on Obamacare
Aug 5, 2013
[...]
The post was created by a Heritage Foundation contributor to the Community vertical on BuzzFeed. As Nieman Journalism Lab describes [ http://www.niemanlab.org/2013/05/they-put-the-u-in-ugc-buzzfeed-builds-a-community-vertical-as-a-talent-incubator/ ], anyone can join BuzzFeed Community for free, as “a content-producing vertical of its very own, complete with featured posts by community members and a leaderboard with the latest on whose posts are getting the most traffic, likes, comments, and badges. It’s a competitive place, and anyone can join and enter the fray.”
[...]
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Rand Paul Gets Combative Over Jack Hunter Questions
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was combative in an interview on "On Point" when asked about a controversial former aide.
(Pete Marovich/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
By Ryan Rainey
Posted: 08/06/2013 7:15 pm EDT
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) took a combative tone Tuesday when the host of a radio interview pressed him on his former aide Jack Hunter and whether his ideology is "racist."
Paul, on the public radio show [ http://onpoint.wbur.org/2013/08/06/rand-paul ] "On Point," bristled at questions from guest host John Harwood of CNBC about a recent Economist blog post [ http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2013/07/libertarian-populism (next article below)] that criticized Paul's ideology and said it was "little surprise that a man styling himself a 'Southern Avenger'" would be an aide to Paul. Hunter, who quit Paul's office last month, wrote columns sympathetic to the Confederacy before Paul hired him.
Paul swiftly interrupted Harwood and said he wasn't going to respond to "every yahoo in the world who wants to throw up a canard."
"Why don't we talk about Rand Paul and what I'm trying to do to grow the party, and then we might have an intelligent discussion," Paul said.
Paul also defended libertarianism against the Economist post's assertion that libertarian movements have allied themselves with "racist and nativist movements." He argued that his commitment to civil liberties often brings him in line with the Senate's progressive members on racial issues.
"I will stand up there with the most progressive members of the caucus in the Senate and say, 'You know what? Civil liberties are important,'" Paul said. "And they're important particularly because of some of the egregious things that happened in America's history."
When Harwood began questioning Paul more broadly about the future of libertarianism, Paul took an equally defensive tone. Harwood pressed Paul on libertarians who oppose reforming government programs like Social Security, but Paul called the questions "straw man" arguments.
"You're rewriting history to your own liking so you can debate something that's not there," Paul told Harwood.
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/rand-paul-jack-hunter_n_3715135.html [with comments]
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUZI1w0Wec4
([linked in] http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=80049836 and preceding and following;
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=90119718 and preceding and following)
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN3QP6nJynQ
(id.)
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Libertarian populism
(Photo credit: AFP)
Unpopular and impolitic
Jul 20th 2013, 15:18 by W.W. | Houston
THE idea of "libertarian populism" has been frequently floated by conservative writers such as Tim Carney [ http://washingtonexaminer.com/libertarian-populism-the-economic-prescription-for-the-right/article/2533050 ] and Ben Domenech [ http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/06/05/the_libertarian_populist_agenda_118694.html ] as a potentially promising political strategy for the right. Ross Douthat of the New York Times, who is sympathetic but critical of the approach, fairly summarises libertarian populism [ http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/04/libertarian-populism-and-its-limits/ ] as
“a strain of thought that moves from the standard grassroots conservative view of Washington as an inherently corrupt realm of special interests and self-dealing elites to a broader skepticism of “bigness” in all its forms (corporate as well as governmental), that regards the Bush era as an object lesson in everything that can go wrong (at home and abroad) when conservatives set aside this skepticism, and that sees the cause of limited government as a means not only to safeguarding liberty, but to unwinding webs of privilege and rent-seeking and enabling true equality of opportunity as well.”
Mr Douthat examines the budget blueprint of Rand Paul, a Republican senator from Kentucky frequently identified with the libertarian populist programme, and sees a "reform of the welfare state that would dramatically reduce the tax burden for the wealthiest Americans while dramatically stripping down benefits and tax breaks for the poor and working class", and he quite reasonably doubts that this will prove at all popular among the disaffected working-class white voters libertarian populism is meant to mobilise.
Perhaps it is unfair to judge the idea based on an analysis of Mr Paul's budget plan. Paul Krugman's seething hostility [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/12/opinion/krugman-delusions-of-populism.html ] toward the ideas of Paul Ryan, a Republican congressman from Wisconsin, may have even less to do with it. An indignant Nick Gillespie, the libertarian editor-in-chief of Reason.com, chides Mr Krugman [ http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/19/paul-krugman-s-nasty-and-inane-attack-on-libertarian-populism.html ] for ignoring Mr Carney's credibly populist ideas, such as ending corporate welfare, breaking up the big banks, cutting the regressive payroll tax, and limiting the home mortgage deduction for the wealthy. Like Ramesh Ponnuru of Bloomberg [ http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-18/libertarian-populism-trashed-by-krugman-won-t-save-repubicans.html ], "I’m sympathetic to most of the items on Carney’s list—and those on the list [ http://washingtonexaminer.com/economic-populism-not-gang-of-eight-immigration-reform-will-boost-gops-future/article/2533017 ] that fellow populist Conn Carroll has compiled. Taken together, though, they do not seem to amount to a winning political platform." Mr Ponnuru's complaint is that not even these sorts of ideas are likely to win the affections of struggling voters, and he's right that proposing to abolish America's import-export bank is not exactly a scintillating political idea, and that cutting payroll taxes is probably less popular than the programme they are meant to finance.
Yet I don't think this gets to the core of the problem with libertarian populism. I see two problems. First, right-wing populism in America has always amounted to white identity politics, which is why the only notable libertarian-leaning politicians to generate real excitement among conservative voters have risen to prominence through alliances with racist and nativist movements. Ron Paul's racist newsletters were not incidental to his later success [ http://www.newrepublic.com/article/94477/ron-paul-distorted-libertarian-ideology ], and it comes as little surprise that a man styling himself a "Southern Avenger" numbers among Rand Paul's top aides [ http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/09/rand-paul-aides-past-as-southern-avenger/ ]. This is what actually-existing right-wing libertarian populism looks like, and that's what it needs to look like if it is to remain popular, or right-wing. Second, political parties are coalitions of interests, and the Republican Party is the party of the rich, as well as the ideological champion of big business. A principled anti-corporatist, pro-working-class agenda stands as much chance in the GOP as a principled anti-public-sector-union stance in the Democratic Party. It simply makes no sense.
There's a reason we see Republicans resort again and again to a fusion of racially-tinged American-nationalist Christian identity politics, empty libertarian rhetoric (an integral part of traditional white American identity), and the policy interests of high-tax-bracket voters. That's what works! Well-meaning, libertarian-leaning, small-government conservatives must find this awfully frustrating. I find it frustrating. Yet it seems to me a plain fact that there is no significant electoral faction in American politics that demands the joint reduction of government and corporate power. A subset of libertarian ideas has functioned historically with some effectiveness as a stalking horse for white identity politics, which has brought a few authentic and salutary libertarian ideas to public attention, but the integrated principled substance of the libertarian philosophy has never been very popular. Moreover, if it is ever to become truly popular—and I very much doubt it will—it won't be on the right.
Copyright © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2013
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2013/07/libertarian-populism [with comments]
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Government opacity tempts conspiracy-minded danger
The Rachel Maddow Show
August 6, 2013
Rachel Maddow shows how extremist hate groups prey on the weak minded with conspiracy theories and encourages government agencies, particularly the FBI, to be more transparent in order to not leave information gaps that can be readily filled by conspiracy theorists.
© 2013 NBCNews.com
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/rachel-maddow/52691293 [the above YouTube of the segment at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJSx_gue82o ; show links at http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/08/06/19902921-links-for-the-86-trms (with comment)] [the following/concluding segment next below]
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Increased FBI oversight sought as Boston bomber questions mount
The Rachel Maddow Show
August 6, 2013
Congressman Bill Keating, member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, talks with Rachel Maddow about the need for greater transparency from the FBI and other law enforcement agencies, and the role of Congress in holding federal law enforcement accountable.
© 2013 NBCNews.com
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/rachel-maddow/52691280 [the above YouTube of the segment at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf6RGKkQZjA ; show links at http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/08/06/19902921-links-for-the-86-trms (with comment)]
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Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Met Conspiracy Theorist Donald Larking Years Before Boston Marathon Bombing
08/06/13
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/tamerlan-tsarnaev-dzhokha_n_3715383.html [with comments]
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Republicans Against Reality
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: August 4, 2013
Last week House Republicans voted for the 40th time [ http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/08/02/19835524-recess-bound-house-votes-to-gut-obama-health-care-law-for-40th-time ] to repeal Obamacare. Like the previous 39 votes, this action will have no effect whatsoever. But it was a stand-in for what Republicans really want to do: repeal reality, and the laws of arithmetic in particular. The sad truth is that the modern G.O.P. is lost in fantasy, unable to participate in actual governing.
Just to be clear, I’m not talking about policy substance. I may believe that Republicans have their priorities all wrong, but that’s not the issue here. Instead, I’m talking about their apparent inability to accept very basic reality constraints, like the fact that you can’t cut overall spending without cutting spending on particular programs, or the fact that voting to repeal legislation doesn’t change the law when the other party controls the Senate and the White House.
Am I exaggerating? Consider what went down in Congress last week.
First, House leaders had to cancel planned voting on a transportation bill [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/04/opinion/sunday/republican-no-shows-in-the-budget-wars.html ], because not enough representatives were willing to vote for the bill’s steep spending cuts. Now, just a few months ago House Republicans approved an extreme austerity budget, mandating severe overall cuts in federal spending — and each specific bill will have to involve large cuts in order to meet that target. But it turned out that a significant number of representatives, while willing to vote for huge spending cuts as long as there weren’t any specifics, balked at the details. Don’t cut you, don’t cut me, cut that fellow behind the tree.
Then House leaders announced plans to hold a vote cutting spending on food stamps [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/02/us/politics/gop-push-to-slash-food-stamps-puts-farm-bill-in-jeopardy.html ] in half — a demand that is likely to sink the already struggling effort to agree with the Senate on a farm bill.
Then they held the pointless vote on Obamacare, apparently just to make themselves feel better. (It’s curious how comforting they find the idea of denying health care to millions of Americans.) And then they went home for recess, even though the end of the fiscal year is looming and hardly any of the legislation needed to run the federal government has passed.
In other words, Republicans, confronted with the responsibilities of governing, essentially threw a tantrum, then ran off to sulk.
How did the G.O.P. get to this point? On budget issues, the proximate source of the party’s troubles lies in the decision to turn the formulation of fiscal policy over to a con man. Representative Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, has always been a magic-asterisk kind of guy — someone who makes big claims about having a plan to slash deficits but refuses to spell out any of the all-important details. Back in 2011 the Congressional Budget Office, in evaluating one of Mr. Ryan’s plans [ http://www.cbo.gov/publication/22085 ], came close to open sarcasm; it described the extreme spending cuts Mr. Ryan was assuming, then remarked, tersely, “No proposals were specified that would generate that path.”
What’s happening now is that the G.O.P. is trying to convert Mr. Ryan’s big talk into actual legislation — and is finding, unsurprisingly, that it can’t be done. Yet Republicans aren’t willing to face up to that reality. Instead, they’re just running away.
When it comes to fiscal policy, then, Republicans have fallen victim to their own con game. And I would argue that something similar explains how the party lost its way, not just on fiscal policy, but on everything.
Think of it this way: For a long time the Republican establishment got its way by playing a con game with the party’s base. Voters would be mobilized as soldiers in an ideological crusade, fired up by warnings that liberals were going to turn the country over to gay married terrorists, not to mention taking your hard-earned dollars and giving them to Those People. Then, once the election was over, the establishment would get on with its real priorities — deregulation and lower taxes on the wealthy.
At this point, however, the establishment has lost control. Meanwhile, base voters actually believe the stories they were told — for example, that the government is spending vast sums on things that are a complete waste or at any rate don’t do anything for people like them. (Don’t let the government get its hands on Medicare!) And the party establishment can’t get the base to accept fiscal or political reality without, in effect, admitting to those base voters that they were lied to.
The result is what we see now in the House: a party that, as I said, seems unable to participate in even the most basic processes of governing.
What makes this frightening is that Republicans do, in fact, have a majority in the House, so America can’t be governed at all unless a sufficient number of those House Republicans are willing to face reality. And that quorum of reasonable Republicans may not exist.
© 2013 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/05/opinion/krugman-republicans-against-reality.html [with comments]
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The Three Biggest Lies About Why Corporate Taxes Should Be Lowered
By Robert Reich
08/05/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/corporate-tax-lies_b_3709157.html [with comments]
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DOJ Sues Bank Of America Over Mortgage-Backed Securities
08/06/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/bank-of-america-doj-justice-department_n_3714757.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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NRA President James Porter Wins 'Conservationist Of The Year' As Smear On Wildlife Nonprofits Begins
Unidentified quail hunter in Alabama. NRA president James Porter was honored as "Conservationist of the Year" on Friday by the Alabama Wildlife Federation, hours after the NRA added other conservation groups to its enemies list.
08/06/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/nra-james-porter_n_3715361.html [with comments]
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Scott A. Campbell Accused Of Shooting Friend Java Bowling Who Tried To Stop Him From Driving Drunk
08/05/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/05/scott-a-campbell-accused-_n_3709077.html [with comments]
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Christopher Dillingham Blew Up Family Dog, Won't Face Animal Cruelty Charges: Police
Cabella, a Labrador Retriever, was killed with an explosive device on Sunday, allegedly by his new owner.
08/06/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/christopher-dillingham-blows-up-dog_n_3713681.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Liz Cheney Received Wyoming Fishing License Despite Incorrect Application Information
08/06/2013
[...]
The Casper Star-Tribune reported Monday that Cheney received a Wyoming fishing license [ http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/liz-cheney-listed-as--year-wyomingite-gets-resident-fishing/article_d764ebbc-7d00-5358-88f2-8029198beff7.html ] hundreds of days earlier than state law allows. The Wyoming Game & Fish Department website [ http://wgfd.wyo.gov/web2011/hunting-1001081.aspx ] notes that a person must live in Wyoming for one full year before receiving a license.
According to the Star-Tribune, Cheney's application was processed 72 days after buying a home. It also contained incorrect information that listed her as a state resident for a decade -- a discrepancy which she denied being responsible for.
“The clerk must have made a mistake,” she told the Star-Tribune. “I never claimed to be a 10-year resident.”
Cheney's fishing controversy comes one week after records showed she was late paying property taxes [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/31/liz-cheney-late-taxes_n_3684247.html ] on her $1.6 million home in Jackson Hole, Wyo. The Associated Press reported last Wednesday that the error was due to a misunderstanding surrounding the purchase, and the tax paid as soon as she learned of the issue.
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/liz-cheney-wyoming-fishing-license_n_3712879.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Creationists May Be Helping To Choose Biology Textbooks In Texas
By Rebecca Klein
Posted: 08/06/2013 7:25 pm EDT | Updated: 08/06/2013 9:58 pm EDT
It seems as though creationists could have a sizable influence in the decision over what biology textbooks students in Texas will use in the coming years.
The Texas Freedom Network, a nonprofit civil liberties group, posted on its website last week [ http://tfninsider.org/2013/07/30/alarm-bells-are-ringing-creationists-get-influential-positions-in-texas-science-textbook-review/ ] that it had discovered that six people chosen to review biology textbooks for the state had ties to creationism. Of the 28 invited to review textbooks, around a dozen went to Austin recently to make final textbook recommendations, the Texas Freedom Network wrote.
The Texas Freedom Network charged in a subsequent blog post [ http://tfninsider.org/2013/08/06/creationist-chair-of-texas-ed-board-refuses-to-explain-her-interference-in-science-textbook-review/ ] that of that group of about 12, which approves the biology books used for at least the next eight years, four people had creationist backgrounds -- a sizable proportion of the review team.
According to the Texas Freedom Network, some of the textbook panelists with a history of creationist beliefs include Raymond Bohlin, who is a research fellow at an institute that promotes intelligent design [ http://www.discovery.org/p/53 ], and Walter Bradley, a retired professor who co-wrote a book about creationism [ http://www.discovery.org/p/50 ]. Bohlin and Bradley did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Texas A&M chemistry professor Daniel Romo [ http://www.chem.tamu.edu/faculty/faculty_detail.php?ID=85 ] –- who is listed as a “Darwin Skeptic” on the Creation Science Hall of Fame [ http://creationsciencehalloffame.org/darwin-skeptics/ ] website -- confirmed to The Huffington Post via email that he is a member of the panel, although he did not attend the final review in Austin. Romo, who said he served on a previous panel regarding science textbooks, noted that he got involved with the textbook review after being “initially invited to submit an application by someone who partnered with Liberty Legal Institute.” The Liberty Legal Institute is a right-wing [ http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/liberty-legal-and-troopergate ], nonprofit organization [ http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/plano/headlines/20100725-plano_s-liberty-institute-expands-reach-from-candy-cane-pens-to-palin-prayer-cross-on-federal-land.ece ] with the mission of “[restoring] religious liberty across America -- in our schools, for our churches and throughout the public arena [ http://www.libertyinstitute.org/about ],” according to its website.
According to the Texas Education Agency, the Lone Star State is one of 22 states with formal procedures for textbook adoption [ http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/textbooks/adoptprocess/overview.html ]. The process requires publishing companies to submit sample textbooks to the Texas Education Agency, textbook review panels and regional education service centers. The textbook review panels consider submissions and make recommendations to the state's commissioner of education about which books to adopt.
The Texas State Board of Education solicits nominations for textbook review panelists before it selects a final group [ http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index2.aspx?id=2147485614 ], according to the Texas Education Agency website.
Josh Rosenau, the programs and policy director for the National Center for Science Education [ http://ncse.com/ ], charged that creationists have disproportionate representation on the Texas panel because of board member influence.
“I know a lot of people who are professors and teachers [who were nominated], but somehow there was more room for creationists because [state education] board members have been able to say ‘I want these people,’” Rosenau told HuffPost by phone.
The political leanings of review panelists are especially noteworthy because Texas textbooks have the power to influence students not only in the state, but also across the country.
A 2012 New York Review Of Books article noted that Texas textbooks have disproportionate power throughout the nation [ http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/jun/21/how-texas-inflicts-bad-textbooks-on-us/?pagination=false ]. Because Texas serves such a large group of students, “national publishers tended to gear their books toward whatever [the state] wanted,” according to the article.
The biology textbooks currently under review are set to enter Texas classrooms [ http://www.tea.state.tx.us/Communications/State_Board_of_Education/2013/July/July_2013_Committee_of_the_Full_Board_Item_9/ ] at the beginning of the 2014 – 2015 school year, according to the Texas Education Agency.
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/creationists-textbooks-texas_n_3689154.html [with comments]
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Five Things Christian Fundamentalists Just Don't Get
08/06/2013
Right-wing Evangelical Fundamentalism claims to "go back to roots of Christianity." In fact, the "literal" (i.e., the earth was created in seven literal days) reading of the Bible was invented in the 19th century [http://books.google.com/books?id=Dgkf1Y1AHD4C&q=176#/h (use the "Front Page", or "Contents", drop-down and go to "The Modern Period c 1759 to ...", then scroll down 4 pages to "Postmodernism and a new theological agenda" and read down through "Biblical interpretation")]. Few fundamentalists care about the early church, the Gospels, the Catholic traditions, Augustine, Arian heresies, encyclicals and councils. Rather, they blend Southern Conservatism, bastardized Protestantism, some Pauline doctrine, gross nationalism and a heavy dose of naive anti-intellectualism for a peculiar American strain of bullshit. As Reverend Cornel West has noted, "the fundamentalist Christians want to be fundamental about everything, except 'love thy neighbor.'"
Here are some verses we liberal Christians wish they would get "fundamentalist" about:
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sean-mcelwee/christian-fundamentalists_b_3708416.html [with comments]
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Eric Brakey, Maine State Senate Candidate, Defends Swimsuit Dancing
Maine state Senate candidate Eric Brakey (R), pictured from an ad for Vita Coco coconut water
(YouTube)
By Chris Gentilviso
Posted: 08/06/2013 3:59 pm EDT
Maine state Senate candidate Eric Brakey (R) [ https://www.facebook.com/BrakeyForMaineSenate ] defended video of himself dancing in a swimsuit on Tuesday, clarifying that the footage was for an ad dating back to his time as an actor [ https://www.facebook.com/eric.brakey.actor ].
In an interview with the Bangor Daily-News, Brakey explained [ http://bangordailynews.com/2013/08/06/news/lewiston-auburn/maine-conservative-senate-candidate-defends-flamboyantly-prancing-around-in-his-underwear-in-youtube-video/ ] that the clip was from a national commercial for Vita Coco [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJGPxYreMsg (above, as embedded)] coconut water -- an ad campaign he was part of during his time living in New York.
“The idea is … people drink it, they want to dance and be Brazilian so you’ve got people dancing in Brazilian Speedos," said Brakey, who is running in Maine's 15th district. "It was a real fun time and I stand behind the work."
The Kennebec Journal adds that the video of Brakey [ http://www.kjonline.com/news/State-Senate-candidate-defends-speedo-dance-ad.html ], who turns 25 on Thursday, was posted on YouTube by Vita Coco. Church pastor Mike Hein, a former Christian Civic League employee [ http://bangordailynews.com/2012/01/24/news/augusta/maine-christian-league-cleared-for-firing-worker/ ] who circulated the videos, emailed that Brakey looked "demon possessed" in the clip.
Brakey, who currently serves as Chairman for the Defense of Liberty PAC [ http://mainedelegates.com/recent-solutions/item/77-eric-brakey ], saw otherwise, telling the Journal that "people need to know" who he is.
“It shows that I’m a full human being with more experience than just working in politics,” Brakey said. “I think that’s something that people want. It shows I’m not just a career politician.”
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/eric-brakey-maine_n_3714807.html [with comments]
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In Search Of Justice For Jesus Christ
Published on Jul 27, 2013 by kenyacitizentv
The trial of Jesus Christ is back in court literally. Dola Indidis, a man suing as a friend of Jesus, has petitioned the international court of justice at the Hague to declare that the trial of Jesus and the subsequent nailing on the cross went against the principles of fair trial and should therefore be declared a mistrial. The international court of justice has apparently formed a pre-trial panel to study his petition and decide whether the matter should proceed to trial. Sylvia Chebet spoke with Indidis to understand his passion about the case, who he is suing, who his witnesses will be and whether the petition has any basis at all in law.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIvFXrVAyhg ; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/dola-indidis-lawyer-overturn-jesus-conviction_n_3713610.html [with comments]
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Republicans have struggled to approach the growing number of female Democratic representatives, even though they hold the House majority.
GOP groups are scrambling to expand outreach to women, as party operatives fear gender gap could grow.
August 6, 2013
http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/republicans-confront-lady-problems-in-congress-20130806 [with comments]
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Rick Perry Vetoed Texas Equal Pay Bill Under Pressure From Macy's, Kroger's
08/06/2013
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) vetoed a bill this summer to help prevent wage discrimination after receiving letters against the measure from retailers like Macy's and Kroger Food Stores, according to documents newly obtained by the Houston Chronicle.
The bill would have brought Texas state law in line with the federal Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/lilly-ledbetter-fair-pay-act ] ...
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/rick-perry-macys_n_3714546.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Reince Priebus, RNC Launch Full-Scale Attack On 'Liberal Media' Over Hillary Clinton Programs
08/07/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/rnc-hillary-clinton_n_3714811.html [with embedded video report, and (approaching 4,000) comments]
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Ralph Lang, Who Plotted To Kill Planned Parenthood Doctor, Sentenced To 10 Years In Prison
Ralph Lang was sentenced to 10 years in prison for attempting to kill a doctor at a Madison Planned Parenthood clinic in 2011.
(AP)
By Ashley Balcerzak
Posted: 08/06/2013 1:52 pm EDT | Updated: 08/06/2013 2:41 pm EDT
A Dane County, Wis., judge on Friday sentenced anti-abortion activist Ralph Lang to 10 years in prison [ http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/crime_and_courts/anti-abortion-activist-gets-years-for-murder-plot/article_4da29ec2-a570-5cb2-982f-d4ada9a99e8e.html ] for a failed plot to kill a doctor at a Madison Planned Parenthood clinic in 2011. Circuit Judge Nicholas McNamara said Lang was a dangerous man who had never expressed remorse or said he wouldn't revive his plot if released.
Two years ago, Lang accidentally fired his gun inside a Madison motel room located near a Planned Parenthood clinic. Police were called to the scene, and he was arrested after telling them that he was going "to lay out abortionists because they are killing babies [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/26/madison-abortion-clinic-mass-murder_n_867822.html ]."
In May, he was convicted of attempted first-degree intentional homicide.
McNamara said that Lang did not consider the lives of those at the Planned Parenthood clinic when he planned to kill a doctor and told the 65-year-old defendant, "That lack of consideration is what makes you dangerous."
The judge also noted that Lang had not expressed remorse despite many opportunities, leaving the impression that he would attempt the plot again if he were freed. During his testimony, Lang had said he wished he had a machine gun "to mow down" the clinic doctors.
"You have made choices that now require you to be out of society, out of the community," McNamara said, according to the Wisconsin State Journal [ http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/crime_and_courts/anti-abortion-activist-gets-years-for-murder-plot/article_4da29ec2-a570-5cb2-982f-d4ada9a99e8e.html ]. "You have forfeited your right to live among us."
In addition to 10 years in prison, Lang was also sentenced to 10 years of supervision and will not be allowed within a mile of any abortion or reproductive health clinic during that period. The length of the prison sentence fell between Assistant District Attorney Robert Kaiser's request for a 20-year sentence and defense attorney Eric Schulenburg's suggestion of three years.
Lang had faced federal charges, which were later dropped, for use of a firearm to intimidate or interfere with those using a program that receives federal funds and for use of a firearm during a violent crime. Federal prosecutors said they could reinstate the charges if the state's prosecution proved insufficient. U.S. Attorney John Vaudreuil for the Western District of Wisconsin told the Wisconsin State Journal [id.] that it was too soon to know whether the federal charges would be reinstated.
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/ralph-lang-planned-parenthood_n_3714157.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Moral Monday Shows No Sign Of Slowing Down As 5,000 Turn Out To Protest GOP Agenda In Asheville
08/06/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/moral-monday-asheville_n_3713891.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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How The Voting Rights Act Changed Congress In 1 Chart
08/06/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/voting-rights-act-anniversary_n_3715706.html [with comments]
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North Carolina Voting Laws Could Hinge On Evidence Of Racism
08/06/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/north-carolina-voting-law_n_3713411.html [with comments]
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Rick Scott Plans To Resume Voter Purge Effort In Florida
[ http://www.berfrois.com/2012/02/thank-you-governor-scott/ ]
08/06/2013
[...]
In a letter sent to Florida election supervisors last week, Maria Matthews, Florida's director of elections, said a renewed effort to "ensure due process and the integrity of Florida's voter rolls" was being planned.
"This is all part of our ongoing and continuing efforts to identify potentially ineligible registered voters," Matthews said.
Scott, a Republican, is preparing to run for re-election next year. He has repeatedly said the aim of any purge is to protect the integrity of the voter rolls.
Advocacy groups called the review of non-citizens a thinly veiled attempt to disqualify Hispanic and African-American voters, who tend to vote for Democratic candidates. A disproportionately large number of those identified in 2012 were either Hispanic or black, the groups said.
Last year, Florida officials said they had drawn up an initial list of 182,000 potential non-citizens. But that number was reduced to fewer than 200 after election officials acknowledged errors on the original list.
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/rick-scott-voter-purge_n_3710323.html [with embedded video report, and (over 11,000) comments]
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Resisting Republican Excess
August 6th, 2013
Very dark political forces stalk the land, and we do ourselves, and those who will come after us, no favors by pretending otherwise.
[...]
http://www.davidcoates.net/2013/08/06/resisting-republican-excess/ [no comments yet];
without the source-linked references included at the above link, also at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-coates/resisting-republican-exce_b_3712857.html [with comments]
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Ted Cruz gets confused by a BuzzFeed post
Cruz cited a post by the Heritage Foundation as proof that "the left-wing site" BuzzFeed turned on Obamacare
Aug 5, 2013
[...]
The post was created by a Heritage Foundation contributor to the Community vertical on BuzzFeed. As Nieman Journalism Lab describes [ http://www.niemanlab.org/2013/05/they-put-the-u-in-ugc-buzzfeed-builds-a-community-vertical-as-a-talent-incubator/ ], anyone can join BuzzFeed Community for free, as “a content-producing vertical of its very own, complete with featured posts by community members and a leaderboard with the latest on whose posts are getting the most traffic, likes, comments, and badges. It’s a competitive place, and anyone can join and enter the fray.”
[...]
http://www.salon.com/2013/08/05/ted_cruz_gets_confused_by_a_buzzfeed_post/ [with comments]; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZagZIJrgns
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Rand Paul Gets Combative Over Jack Hunter Questions
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was combative in an interview on "On Point" when asked about a controversial former aide.
(Pete Marovich/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
By Ryan Rainey
Posted: 08/06/2013 7:15 pm EDT
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) took a combative tone Tuesday when the host of a radio interview pressed him on his former aide Jack Hunter and whether his ideology is "racist."
Paul, on the public radio show [ http://onpoint.wbur.org/2013/08/06/rand-paul ] "On Point," bristled at questions from guest host John Harwood of CNBC about a recent Economist blog post [ http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2013/07/libertarian-populism (next article below)] that criticized Paul's ideology and said it was "little surprise that a man styling himself a 'Southern Avenger'" would be an aide to Paul. Hunter, who quit Paul's office last month, wrote columns sympathetic to the Confederacy before Paul hired him.
Paul swiftly interrupted Harwood and said he wasn't going to respond to "every yahoo in the world who wants to throw up a canard."
"Why don't we talk about Rand Paul and what I'm trying to do to grow the party, and then we might have an intelligent discussion," Paul said.
Paul also defended libertarianism against the Economist post's assertion that libertarian movements have allied themselves with "racist and nativist movements." He argued that his commitment to civil liberties often brings him in line with the Senate's progressive members on racial issues.
"I will stand up there with the most progressive members of the caucus in the Senate and say, 'You know what? Civil liberties are important,'" Paul said. "And they're important particularly because of some of the egregious things that happened in America's history."
When Harwood began questioning Paul more broadly about the future of libertarianism, Paul took an equally defensive tone. Harwood pressed Paul on libertarians who oppose reforming government programs like Social Security, but Paul called the questions "straw man" arguments.
"You're rewriting history to your own liking so you can debate something that's not there," Paul told Harwood.
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/rand-paul-jack-hunter_n_3715135.html [with comments]
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUZI1w0Wec4
([linked in] http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=80049836 and preceding and following;
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=90119718 and preceding and following)
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN3QP6nJynQ
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Libertarian populism
(Photo credit: AFP)
Unpopular and impolitic
Jul 20th 2013, 15:18 by W.W. | Houston
THE idea of "libertarian populism" has been frequently floated by conservative writers such as Tim Carney [ http://washingtonexaminer.com/libertarian-populism-the-economic-prescription-for-the-right/article/2533050 ] and Ben Domenech [ http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/06/05/the_libertarian_populist_agenda_118694.html ] as a potentially promising political strategy for the right. Ross Douthat of the New York Times, who is sympathetic but critical of the approach, fairly summarises libertarian populism [ http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/04/libertarian-populism-and-its-limits/ ] as
“a strain of thought that moves from the standard grassroots conservative view of Washington as an inherently corrupt realm of special interests and self-dealing elites to a broader skepticism of “bigness” in all its forms (corporate as well as governmental), that regards the Bush era as an object lesson in everything that can go wrong (at home and abroad) when conservatives set aside this skepticism, and that sees the cause of limited government as a means not only to safeguarding liberty, but to unwinding webs of privilege and rent-seeking and enabling true equality of opportunity as well.”
Mr Douthat examines the budget blueprint of Rand Paul, a Republican senator from Kentucky frequently identified with the libertarian populist programme, and sees a "reform of the welfare state that would dramatically reduce the tax burden for the wealthiest Americans while dramatically stripping down benefits and tax breaks for the poor and working class", and he quite reasonably doubts that this will prove at all popular among the disaffected working-class white voters libertarian populism is meant to mobilise.
Perhaps it is unfair to judge the idea based on an analysis of Mr Paul's budget plan. Paul Krugman's seething hostility [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/12/opinion/krugman-delusions-of-populism.html ] toward the ideas of Paul Ryan, a Republican congressman from Wisconsin, may have even less to do with it. An indignant Nick Gillespie, the libertarian editor-in-chief of Reason.com, chides Mr Krugman [ http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/19/paul-krugman-s-nasty-and-inane-attack-on-libertarian-populism.html ] for ignoring Mr Carney's credibly populist ideas, such as ending corporate welfare, breaking up the big banks, cutting the regressive payroll tax, and limiting the home mortgage deduction for the wealthy. Like Ramesh Ponnuru of Bloomberg [ http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-18/libertarian-populism-trashed-by-krugman-won-t-save-repubicans.html ], "I’m sympathetic to most of the items on Carney’s list—and those on the list [ http://washingtonexaminer.com/economic-populism-not-gang-of-eight-immigration-reform-will-boost-gops-future/article/2533017 ] that fellow populist Conn Carroll has compiled. Taken together, though, they do not seem to amount to a winning political platform." Mr Ponnuru's complaint is that not even these sorts of ideas are likely to win the affections of struggling voters, and he's right that proposing to abolish America's import-export bank is not exactly a scintillating political idea, and that cutting payroll taxes is probably less popular than the programme they are meant to finance.
Yet I don't think this gets to the core of the problem with libertarian populism. I see two problems. First, right-wing populism in America has always amounted to white identity politics, which is why the only notable libertarian-leaning politicians to generate real excitement among conservative voters have risen to prominence through alliances with racist and nativist movements. Ron Paul's racist newsletters were not incidental to his later success [ http://www.newrepublic.com/article/94477/ron-paul-distorted-libertarian-ideology ], and it comes as little surprise that a man styling himself a "Southern Avenger" numbers among Rand Paul's top aides [ http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/09/rand-paul-aides-past-as-southern-avenger/ ]. This is what actually-existing right-wing libertarian populism looks like, and that's what it needs to look like if it is to remain popular, or right-wing. Second, political parties are coalitions of interests, and the Republican Party is the party of the rich, as well as the ideological champion of big business. A principled anti-corporatist, pro-working-class agenda stands as much chance in the GOP as a principled anti-public-sector-union stance in the Democratic Party. It simply makes no sense.
There's a reason we see Republicans resort again and again to a fusion of racially-tinged American-nationalist Christian identity politics, empty libertarian rhetoric (an integral part of traditional white American identity), and the policy interests of high-tax-bracket voters. That's what works! Well-meaning, libertarian-leaning, small-government conservatives must find this awfully frustrating. I find it frustrating. Yet it seems to me a plain fact that there is no significant electoral faction in American politics that demands the joint reduction of government and corporate power. A subset of libertarian ideas has functioned historically with some effectiveness as a stalking horse for white identity politics, which has brought a few authentic and salutary libertarian ideas to public attention, but the integrated principled substance of the libertarian philosophy has never been very popular. Moreover, if it is ever to become truly popular—and I very much doubt it will—it won't be on the right.
Copyright © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2013
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2013/07/libertarian-populism [with comments]
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Government opacity tempts conspiracy-minded danger
The Rachel Maddow Show
August 6, 2013
Rachel Maddow shows how extremist hate groups prey on the weak minded with conspiracy theories and encourages government agencies, particularly the FBI, to be more transparent in order to not leave information gaps that can be readily filled by conspiracy theorists.
© 2013 NBCNews.com
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/rachel-maddow/52691293 [the above YouTube of the segment at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJSx_gue82o ; show links at http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/08/06/19902921-links-for-the-86-trms (with comment)] [the following/concluding segment next below]
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Increased FBI oversight sought as Boston bomber questions mount
The Rachel Maddow Show
August 6, 2013
Congressman Bill Keating, member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, talks with Rachel Maddow about the need for greater transparency from the FBI and other law enforcement agencies, and the role of Congress in holding federal law enforcement accountable.
© 2013 NBCNews.com
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/rachel-maddow/52691280 [the above YouTube of the segment at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf6RGKkQZjA ; show links at http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/08/06/19902921-links-for-the-86-trms (with comment)]
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Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Met Conspiracy Theorist Donald Larking Years Before Boston Marathon Bombing
08/06/13
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/tamerlan-tsarnaev-dzhokha_n_3715383.html [with comments]
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Republicans Against Reality
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: August 4, 2013
Last week House Republicans voted for the 40th time [ http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/08/02/19835524-recess-bound-house-votes-to-gut-obama-health-care-law-for-40th-time ] to repeal Obamacare. Like the previous 39 votes, this action will have no effect whatsoever. But it was a stand-in for what Republicans really want to do: repeal reality, and the laws of arithmetic in particular. The sad truth is that the modern G.O.P. is lost in fantasy, unable to participate in actual governing.
Just to be clear, I’m not talking about policy substance. I may believe that Republicans have their priorities all wrong, but that’s not the issue here. Instead, I’m talking about their apparent inability to accept very basic reality constraints, like the fact that you can’t cut overall spending without cutting spending on particular programs, or the fact that voting to repeal legislation doesn’t change the law when the other party controls the Senate and the White House.
Am I exaggerating? Consider what went down in Congress last week.
First, House leaders had to cancel planned voting on a transportation bill [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/04/opinion/sunday/republican-no-shows-in-the-budget-wars.html ], because not enough representatives were willing to vote for the bill’s steep spending cuts. Now, just a few months ago House Republicans approved an extreme austerity budget, mandating severe overall cuts in federal spending — and each specific bill will have to involve large cuts in order to meet that target. But it turned out that a significant number of representatives, while willing to vote for huge spending cuts as long as there weren’t any specifics, balked at the details. Don’t cut you, don’t cut me, cut that fellow behind the tree.
Then House leaders announced plans to hold a vote cutting spending on food stamps [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/02/us/politics/gop-push-to-slash-food-stamps-puts-farm-bill-in-jeopardy.html ] in half — a demand that is likely to sink the already struggling effort to agree with the Senate on a farm bill.
Then they held the pointless vote on Obamacare, apparently just to make themselves feel better. (It’s curious how comforting they find the idea of denying health care to millions of Americans.) And then they went home for recess, even though the end of the fiscal year is looming and hardly any of the legislation needed to run the federal government has passed.
In other words, Republicans, confronted with the responsibilities of governing, essentially threw a tantrum, then ran off to sulk.
How did the G.O.P. get to this point? On budget issues, the proximate source of the party’s troubles lies in the decision to turn the formulation of fiscal policy over to a con man. Representative Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, has always been a magic-asterisk kind of guy — someone who makes big claims about having a plan to slash deficits but refuses to spell out any of the all-important details. Back in 2011 the Congressional Budget Office, in evaluating one of Mr. Ryan’s plans [ http://www.cbo.gov/publication/22085 ], came close to open sarcasm; it described the extreme spending cuts Mr. Ryan was assuming, then remarked, tersely, “No proposals were specified that would generate that path.”
What’s happening now is that the G.O.P. is trying to convert Mr. Ryan’s big talk into actual legislation — and is finding, unsurprisingly, that it can’t be done. Yet Republicans aren’t willing to face up to that reality. Instead, they’re just running away.
When it comes to fiscal policy, then, Republicans have fallen victim to their own con game. And I would argue that something similar explains how the party lost its way, not just on fiscal policy, but on everything.
Think of it this way: For a long time the Republican establishment got its way by playing a con game with the party’s base. Voters would be mobilized as soldiers in an ideological crusade, fired up by warnings that liberals were going to turn the country over to gay married terrorists, not to mention taking your hard-earned dollars and giving them to Those People. Then, once the election was over, the establishment would get on with its real priorities — deregulation and lower taxes on the wealthy.
At this point, however, the establishment has lost control. Meanwhile, base voters actually believe the stories they were told — for example, that the government is spending vast sums on things that are a complete waste or at any rate don’t do anything for people like them. (Don’t let the government get its hands on Medicare!) And the party establishment can’t get the base to accept fiscal or political reality without, in effect, admitting to those base voters that they were lied to.
The result is what we see now in the House: a party that, as I said, seems unable to participate in even the most basic processes of governing.
What makes this frightening is that Republicans do, in fact, have a majority in the House, so America can’t be governed at all unless a sufficient number of those House Republicans are willing to face reality. And that quorum of reasonable Republicans may not exist.
© 2013 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/05/opinion/krugman-republicans-against-reality.html [with comments]
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The Three Biggest Lies About Why Corporate Taxes Should Be Lowered
By Robert Reich
08/05/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/corporate-tax-lies_b_3709157.html [with comments]
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DOJ Sues Bank Of America Over Mortgage-Backed Securities
08/06/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/bank-of-america-doj-justice-department_n_3714757.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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NRA President James Porter Wins 'Conservationist Of The Year' As Smear On Wildlife Nonprofits Begins
Unidentified quail hunter in Alabama. NRA president James Porter was honored as "Conservationist of the Year" on Friday by the Alabama Wildlife Federation, hours after the NRA added other conservation groups to its enemies list.
08/06/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/nra-james-porter_n_3715361.html [with comments]
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Scott A. Campbell Accused Of Shooting Friend Java Bowling Who Tried To Stop Him From Driving Drunk
08/05/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/05/scott-a-campbell-accused-_n_3709077.html [with comments]
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Christopher Dillingham Blew Up Family Dog, Won't Face Animal Cruelty Charges: Police
Cabella, a Labrador Retriever, was killed with an explosive device on Sunday, allegedly by his new owner.
08/06/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/christopher-dillingham-blows-up-dog_n_3713681.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Liz Cheney Received Wyoming Fishing License Despite Incorrect Application Information
08/06/2013
[...]
The Casper Star-Tribune reported Monday that Cheney received a Wyoming fishing license [ http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/liz-cheney-listed-as--year-wyomingite-gets-resident-fishing/article_d764ebbc-7d00-5358-88f2-8029198beff7.html ] hundreds of days earlier than state law allows. The Wyoming Game & Fish Department website [ http://wgfd.wyo.gov/web2011/hunting-1001081.aspx ] notes that a person must live in Wyoming for one full year before receiving a license.
According to the Star-Tribune, Cheney's application was processed 72 days after buying a home. It also contained incorrect information that listed her as a state resident for a decade -- a discrepancy which she denied being responsible for.
“The clerk must have made a mistake,” she told the Star-Tribune. “I never claimed to be a 10-year resident.”
Cheney's fishing controversy comes one week after records showed she was late paying property taxes [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/31/liz-cheney-late-taxes_n_3684247.html ] on her $1.6 million home in Jackson Hole, Wyo. The Associated Press reported last Wednesday that the error was due to a misunderstanding surrounding the purchase, and the tax paid as soon as she learned of the issue.
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/liz-cheney-wyoming-fishing-license_n_3712879.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Creationists May Be Helping To Choose Biology Textbooks In Texas
By Rebecca Klein
Posted: 08/06/2013 7:25 pm EDT | Updated: 08/06/2013 9:58 pm EDT
It seems as though creationists could have a sizable influence in the decision over what biology textbooks students in Texas will use in the coming years.
The Texas Freedom Network, a nonprofit civil liberties group, posted on its website last week [ http://tfninsider.org/2013/07/30/alarm-bells-are-ringing-creationists-get-influential-positions-in-texas-science-textbook-review/ ] that it had discovered that six people chosen to review biology textbooks for the state had ties to creationism. Of the 28 invited to review textbooks, around a dozen went to Austin recently to make final textbook recommendations, the Texas Freedom Network wrote.
The Texas Freedom Network charged in a subsequent blog post [ http://tfninsider.org/2013/08/06/creationist-chair-of-texas-ed-board-refuses-to-explain-her-interference-in-science-textbook-review/ ] that of that group of about 12, which approves the biology books used for at least the next eight years, four people had creationist backgrounds -- a sizable proportion of the review team.
According to the Texas Freedom Network, some of the textbook panelists with a history of creationist beliefs include Raymond Bohlin, who is a research fellow at an institute that promotes intelligent design [ http://www.discovery.org/p/53 ], and Walter Bradley, a retired professor who co-wrote a book about creationism [ http://www.discovery.org/p/50 ]. Bohlin and Bradley did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Texas A&M chemistry professor Daniel Romo [ http://www.chem.tamu.edu/faculty/faculty_detail.php?ID=85 ] –- who is listed as a “Darwin Skeptic” on the Creation Science Hall of Fame [ http://creationsciencehalloffame.org/darwin-skeptics/ ] website -- confirmed to The Huffington Post via email that he is a member of the panel, although he did not attend the final review in Austin. Romo, who said he served on a previous panel regarding science textbooks, noted that he got involved with the textbook review after being “initially invited to submit an application by someone who partnered with Liberty Legal Institute.” The Liberty Legal Institute is a right-wing [ http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/liberty-legal-and-troopergate ], nonprofit organization [ http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/plano/headlines/20100725-plano_s-liberty-institute-expands-reach-from-candy-cane-pens-to-palin-prayer-cross-on-federal-land.ece ] with the mission of “[restoring] religious liberty across America -- in our schools, for our churches and throughout the public arena [ http://www.libertyinstitute.org/about ],” according to its website.
According to the Texas Education Agency, the Lone Star State is one of 22 states with formal procedures for textbook adoption [ http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/textbooks/adoptprocess/overview.html ]. The process requires publishing companies to submit sample textbooks to the Texas Education Agency, textbook review panels and regional education service centers. The textbook review panels consider submissions and make recommendations to the state's commissioner of education about which books to adopt.
The Texas State Board of Education solicits nominations for textbook review panelists before it selects a final group [ http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index2.aspx?id=2147485614 ], according to the Texas Education Agency website.
Josh Rosenau, the programs and policy director for the National Center for Science Education [ http://ncse.com/ ], charged that creationists have disproportionate representation on the Texas panel because of board member influence.
“I know a lot of people who are professors and teachers [who were nominated], but somehow there was more room for creationists because [state education] board members have been able to say ‘I want these people,’” Rosenau told HuffPost by phone.
The political leanings of review panelists are especially noteworthy because Texas textbooks have the power to influence students not only in the state, but also across the country.
A 2012 New York Review Of Books article noted that Texas textbooks have disproportionate power throughout the nation [ http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/jun/21/how-texas-inflicts-bad-textbooks-on-us/?pagination=false ]. Because Texas serves such a large group of students, “national publishers tended to gear their books toward whatever [the state] wanted,” according to the article.
The biology textbooks currently under review are set to enter Texas classrooms [ http://www.tea.state.tx.us/Communications/State_Board_of_Education/2013/July/July_2013_Committee_of_the_Full_Board_Item_9/ ] at the beginning of the 2014 – 2015 school year, according to the Texas Education Agency.
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/creationists-textbooks-texas_n_3689154.html [with comments]
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Five Things Christian Fundamentalists Just Don't Get
08/06/2013
Right-wing Evangelical Fundamentalism claims to "go back to roots of Christianity." In fact, the "literal" (i.e., the earth was created in seven literal days) reading of the Bible was invented in the 19th century [http://books.google.com/books?id=Dgkf1Y1AHD4C&q=176#/h (use the "Front Page", or "Contents", drop-down and go to "The Modern Period c 1759 to ...", then scroll down 4 pages to "Postmodernism and a new theological agenda" and read down through "Biblical interpretation")]. Few fundamentalists care about the early church, the Gospels, the Catholic traditions, Augustine, Arian heresies, encyclicals and councils. Rather, they blend Southern Conservatism, bastardized Protestantism, some Pauline doctrine, gross nationalism and a heavy dose of naive anti-intellectualism for a peculiar American strain of bullshit. As Reverend Cornel West has noted, "the fundamentalist Christians want to be fundamental about everything, except 'love thy neighbor.'"
Here are some verses we liberal Christians wish they would get "fundamentalist" about:
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sean-mcelwee/christian-fundamentalists_b_3708416.html [with comments]
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Eric Brakey, Maine State Senate Candidate, Defends Swimsuit Dancing
Maine state Senate candidate Eric Brakey (R), pictured from an ad for Vita Coco coconut water
(YouTube)
By Chris Gentilviso
Posted: 08/06/2013 3:59 pm EDT
Maine state Senate candidate Eric Brakey (R) [ https://www.facebook.com/BrakeyForMaineSenate ] defended video of himself dancing in a swimsuit on Tuesday, clarifying that the footage was for an ad dating back to his time as an actor [ https://www.facebook.com/eric.brakey.actor ].
In an interview with the Bangor Daily-News, Brakey explained [ http://bangordailynews.com/2013/08/06/news/lewiston-auburn/maine-conservative-senate-candidate-defends-flamboyantly-prancing-around-in-his-underwear-in-youtube-video/ ] that the clip was from a national commercial for Vita Coco [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJGPxYreMsg (above, as embedded)] coconut water -- an ad campaign he was part of during his time living in New York.
“The idea is … people drink it, they want to dance and be Brazilian so you’ve got people dancing in Brazilian Speedos," said Brakey, who is running in Maine's 15th district. "It was a real fun time and I stand behind the work."
The Kennebec Journal adds that the video of Brakey [ http://www.kjonline.com/news/State-Senate-candidate-defends-speedo-dance-ad.html ], who turns 25 on Thursday, was posted on YouTube by Vita Coco. Church pastor Mike Hein, a former Christian Civic League employee [ http://bangordailynews.com/2012/01/24/news/augusta/maine-christian-league-cleared-for-firing-worker/ ] who circulated the videos, emailed that Brakey looked "demon possessed" in the clip.
Brakey, who currently serves as Chairman for the Defense of Liberty PAC [ http://mainedelegates.com/recent-solutions/item/77-eric-brakey ], saw otherwise, telling the Journal that "people need to know" who he is.
“It shows that I’m a full human being with more experience than just working in politics,” Brakey said. “I think that’s something that people want. It shows I’m not just a career politician.”
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/eric-brakey-maine_n_3714807.html [with comments]
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In Search Of Justice For Jesus Christ
Published on Jul 27, 2013 by kenyacitizentv
The trial of Jesus Christ is back in court literally. Dola Indidis, a man suing as a friend of Jesus, has petitioned the international court of justice at the Hague to declare that the trial of Jesus and the subsequent nailing on the cross went against the principles of fair trial and should therefore be declared a mistrial. The international court of justice has apparently formed a pre-trial panel to study his petition and decide whether the matter should proceed to trial. Sylvia Chebet spoke with Indidis to understand his passion about the case, who he is suing, who his witnesses will be and whether the petition has any basis at all in law.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIvFXrVAyhg ; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/dola-indidis-lawyer-overturn-jesus-conviction_n_3713610.html [with comments]
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