Thursday, December 19, 2013 1:58:39 AM
Sheriffs Refuse to Enforce Laws on Gun Control
John Cooke is among the Colorado sheriffs who are resisting enforcement of new state gun laws.
Michael Ciaglo/The Colorado Springs Gazette, via Associated Press
Interactive Graphic
State Gun Laws Enacted in the Year Since Newtown
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/10/us/state-gun-laws-enacted-in-the-year-since-newtown.html
By ERICA GOODE
Published: December 15, 2013
GREELEY, Colo. — When Sheriff John Cooke of Weld County explains in speeches why he is not enforcing the state’s new gun laws, he holds up two 30-round magazines. One, he says, he had before July 1, when the law banning the possession, sale or transfer of the large-capacity magazines went into effect. The other, he “maybe” obtained afterward.
He shuffles the magazines, which look identical, and then challenges the audience to tell the difference.
“How is a deputy or an officer supposed to know which is which?” he asks.
Colorado’s package of gun laws, enacted this year after mass shootings in Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn., has been hailed as a victory by advocates of gun control. But if Sheriff Cooke and a majority of the other county sheriffs in Colorado offer any indication, the new laws — which mandate background checks for private gun transfers and outlaw magazines over 15 rounds — may prove nearly irrelevant across much of the state’s rural regions.
Some sheriffs, like Sheriff Cooke, are refusing to enforce the laws, saying that they are too vague and violate Second Amendment rights. Many more say that enforcement will be “a very low priority,” as several sheriffs put it. All but seven of the 62 elected sheriffs in Colorado signed on in May to a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the statutes.
The resistance of sheriffs in Colorado is playing out in other states, raising questions about whether tougher rules passed since Newtown will have a muted effect in parts of the American heartland, where gun ownership is common and grass-roots opposition to tighter restrictions is high.
In New York State, where Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed one of the toughest gun law packages in the nation last January, two sheriffs have said publicly they would not enforce the laws — inaction that Mr. Cuomo said would set “a dangerous and frightening precedent.” The sheriffs’ refusal is unlikely to have much effect in the state: According to the state’s Division of Criminal Justice Services, since 2010 sheriffs have filed less than 2 percent of the two most common felony gun charges. The vast majority of charges are filed by the state or local police.
In Liberty County, Fla., a jury in October acquitted a sheriff [ http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/31/us-usa-florida-guns-idUSBRE99U13320131031 ] who had been suspended and charged with misconduct after he released a man arrested by a deputy on charges of carrying a concealed firearm [ http://www.cljnews.com/20130604liberty-co-sheriff-nick-finch-arrested-fdle-special-agent-to-be-interim-sheriff ]. The sheriff, who was immediately reinstated by the governor, said he was protecting the man’s Second Amendment rights.
And in California, a delegation of sheriffs met with Gov. Jerry Brown this fall to try to persuade him to veto gun bills passed by the Legislature, including measures banning semiautomatic rifles with detachable magazines and lead ammunition for hunting (Mr. Brown signed the ammunition bill but vetoed the bill outlawing the rifles).
“Our way of life means nothing to these politicians, and our interests are not being promoted in the legislative halls of Sacramento or Washington, D.C.,” said Jon E. Lopey, the sheriff of Siskiyou County, Calif., one of those who met with Governor Brown. He said enforcing gun laws was not a priority for him, and he added that residents of his rural region near the Oregon border are equally frustrated by regulations imposed by the federal Forest Service and the Environmental Protection Agency.
This year, the new gun laws in Colorado have become political flash points. Two state senators who supported the legislation were recalled in elections [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/11/us/colorado-lawmaker-concedes-defeat-in-recall-over-gun-law.html ] in September; a third resigned last month rather than face a recall. Efforts to repeal the statutes are already in the works.
Countering the elected sheriffs are some police chiefs, especially in urban areas, and state officials who say that the laws are not only enforceable but that they are already having an effect. Most gun stores have stopped selling the high-capacity magazines for personal use, although one sheriff acknowledged that some stores continued to sell them illegally. Some people who are selling or otherwise transferring guns privately are seeking background checks.
Eric Brown, a spokesman for Gov. John W. Hickenlooper of Colorado, said, “Particularly on background checks, the numbers show the law is working.” The Colorado Bureau of Investigation has run 3,445 checks on private sales since the law went into effect, he said, and has denied gun sales to 70 people.
A Federal District Court judge last month ruled against a claim in the sheriffs’ lawsuit that one part of the magazine law was unconstitutionally vague. The judge also ruled that while the sheriffs could sue as individuals, they had no standing to sue in their official capacity.
Still, the state’s top law enforcement officials acknowledged that sheriffs had wide discretion in enforcing state laws.
“We’re not in the position of telling sheriffs and chiefs what to do or not to do,” said Lance Clem, a spokesman for the Colorado Department of Public Safety. “We have people calling us all the time, thinking they’ve got an issue with their sheriff, and we tell them we don’t have the authority to intervene.”
Sheriffs who refuse to enforce gun laws around the country are in the minority, though no statistics exist. In Colorado, though, sheriffs like Joe Pelle of Boulder County, who support the laws and have more liberal constituencies that back them, are outnumbered.
“A lot of sheriffs are claiming the Constitution, saying that they’re not going to enforce this because they personally believe it violates the Second Amendment,” Sheriff Pelle said. “But that stance in and of itself violates the Constitution.”
Even Sheriff W. Pete Palmer of Chaffee County, one of the seven sheriffs who declined to join the federal lawsuit because he felt duty-bound to carry out the laws, said he was unlikely to aggressively enforce them. He said enforcement poses “huge practical difficulties,” and besides, he has neither the resources nor the pressure from his constituents to make active enforcement a high priority. Violations of the laws are misdemeanors.
“All law enforcement agencies consider the community standards — what is it that our community wishes us to focus on — and I can tell you our community is not worried one whit about background checks or high-capacity magazines,” he said.
At their extreme, the views of sheriffs who refuse to enforce gun laws echo the stand of Richard Mack, a former Arizona sheriff and the author of “The County Sheriff: America’s Last Hope.” Mr. Mack has argued that county sheriffs are the ultimate arbiters of what is constitutional and what is not. The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, founded by Mr. Mack, is an organization of sheriffs and other officers who support his views.
“The Supreme Court does not run my office,” Mr. Mack said in an interview. “Just because they allow something doesn’t mean that a good constitutional sheriff is going to do it.” He said that 250 sheriffs from around the country attended the association’s recent convention.
Matthew J. Parlow, a law professor at Marquette University, said that some states, including New York, had laws that allowed the governor in some circumstances to investigate and remove public officials who engaged in egregious misconduct — laws that in theory might allow the removal of sheriffs who failed to enforce state statutes.
But, he said, many governors could be reluctant to use such powers. And in most cases, any penalty for a sheriff who chose not to enforce state law would have to come from voters.
Sheriff Cooke, for his part, said that he was entitled to use discretion in enforcement, especially when he believed the laws were wrong or unenforceable.
“In my oath it says I’ll uphold the U.S. Constitution and the Constitution of the State of Colorado,” he said, as he posed for campaign photos in his office — he is running for the State Senate in 2014. “It doesn’t say I have to uphold every law passed by the Legislature.”
Jack Healy contributed reporting from Denver.
© 2013 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/16/us/sheriffs-refuse-to-enforce-laws-on-gun-control.html [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/16/us/sheriffs-refuse-to-enforce-laws-on-gun-control.html?pagewanted=all ] [with comments]
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Gun safety laws draw attacks from outsiders
The Rachel Maddow Show
December 16, 2013
State Rep. Rhonda Fields, (D) Colorado, talks with Rachel Maddow about the intrusion of national gun groups to punish local politicians working for gun safety.
©2013 NBC UNIVERSAL
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/rachel-maddow/53849542 / http://video.msnbc.msn.com/rachel-maddow/53849542/#53849542 [with transcript; show links at http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/links-the-1216-trms-0 (with comments)]
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Buy This for Someone You Hate: an $100,000 Original Painting by George Zimmerman
By Juli Weiner
9:07 AM, December 17 2013
A very conspicuous omission from VF.com’s first-annual Gift Guide for People You Hate [ http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2013/12/gifts-people-you-hate ]: this painting, pictured just above. It is not merely a hideous piece of art that looks like a Lana Del Rey album cover or “creative” A.P. Government project hastily crayoned on the bus ride to school: its true wretchedness derives from its creator, national villain George Zimmerman.
“Florida’s infamous neighborhood watchman is trying to pull himself out of debt by selling his original artwork online,” The New York Post reports [ http://nypost.com/2013/12/17/bidding-for-george-zimmerman-painting-nears-100g/ ]. Because if there’s a surefire way to make heaps of cash in no time at all, it’s painting. Per an actual artist statement on the eBay page [ http://www.ebay.com/itm/George-Zimmerman-original-painting-/111239922810?pt=Art_Paintings&hash=item19e66a847a ]: “My art work allows me to reflect, providing a therapeutic outlet and allows me to remain indoors
.” America is a safer place when George Zimmerman is indoors.
Vanity Fair © Condé Nast Digital
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2013/12/george-zimmerman-painting-ebay [no comments yet]
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Did Zimmerman Copy a Stock Photo for His ‘Original’ $100k Painting?
December 17th, 2013
http://www.mediaite.com/online/did-zimmerman-copy-a-stock-photo-for-his-original-100k-painting/ [with comments]
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The Rush Limbaugh Guide To Sexual Harassment
Rush: "Walk Up To The Woman And Say, 'Will You Please Ask Your Breasts To Stop Staring At My Eyes?'"
MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
December 9, 2013
From the December 9 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIGHqdJRbHg (next below, as a non-YouTube version of same embedded]:
LIMBAUGH: I know a lot of you, you hear this thing -- a bunch of leftists want to try to stop men from looking at women and you think, 'they can't do that.' That's not the point. Whether they can or can't, it will gain momentum. And it may not be for years, but this is who they are. This is -- this is how inane and inviolate they are of basic human nature. It's one of the biggest ways to understand liberals. They just despise human nature and try to alter it and change it and create it. Because many of them just don't fit in with it in many ways.
But there's a way around this, guys. You got to have fun with this kind of stuff, as you know. So let me offer a first suggestion, the first way to deal with this that came into my mind. You find yourself staring, looking at, casually glancing at a woman, but you know that it's now socially taboo. You shouldn't be doing it. And you think everybody is noticing you doing it and condemning you in their minds. You shouldn't -- so you walk up to the woman and say, "Will you please ask your breasts to stop staring at my eyes?"
Try that. Might help. And you don't know 'til you try it.
Previously:
Limbaugh: Feminism Rooted In "Sexual Perversion"
http://mediamatters.org/video/2013/08/27/limbaugh-feminism-rooted-in-sexual-perversion/195624
Limbaugh: Sandra Fluke Is "Having So Much Sex, It's Amazing She Can Still Walk"
http://mediamatters.org/video/2012/03/01/limbaugh-sandra-fluke-is-having-so-much-sex-its/155137
"Slut": The Voice Of A Right-Wing Bully
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/03/01/slut-the-voice-of-a-right-wing-bully/186625
© 2013 Media Matters for America
http://mediamatters.org/video/2013/12/09/the-rush-limbaugh-guide-to-sexual-harassment/197197 [with comments] [via/more at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/09/rush-limbaugh-breasts-eyes-woman_n_4414157.html (with embedded video, and comments)]
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Nicki Minaj's Big Boobie Birthday Cake
December 9, 2013
http://www.celebuzz.com/2013-12-09/nicki-minajs-birthday-was-filled-with-a-big-boobie-cake-and-stripper-pole/ [with comments]
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Miley Cyrus Supports Free The Nipple Campaign
12/13/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/13/miley-cyrus-free-the-nipple_n_4439241.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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If Only All Moms Could Breastfeed Like Gisele
[ http://ca.shine.yahoo.com/blogs/shine-on/gisele-bundchen-breastfeeding-photo-sparks-controversy-190808425.html ]
12/11/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/10/gisele-breastfeeding-instagram_n_4421101.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Pope Francis Rebukes "Marxist" Attack From Rush Limbaugh & Conservative Media
OLIVER WILLIS
December 15, 2013 10:59 AM EST
Pope Francis pushed back on attacks from conservative media figures who described him as a "Marxist" after he commented on wealth inequality.
Pope Francis recently released [ http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Item/2748/pope_francis_and_the_gospel_of_joy.aspx ] Evangelii Gaudium [ http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium_en.html#A_JOY_EVER_NEW,_A_JOY_WHICH_IS_SHARED ], which included criticisms of the "idolatry of money" and wealth inequality around the world. In response, numerous conservative media figures attacked him.
Rush Limbaugh described the Pope's writings having "gone beyond Catholicism" and into "pure Marxism [ http://mediamatters.org/video/2013/11/27/rush-lashes-out-at-the-pope-over-critique-of-in/197083 ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg977VrdFlY (next below)]."
Other conservative media figures soon followed [ http://mediamatters.org/research/2013/12/05/conservatives-attack-the-pope/197170 ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Dzxg2KQIdI (next below)] suit.
In an interview [ http://lastampa.it/2013/12/14/esteri/vatican-insider/en/never-be-afraid-of-tenderness-5BqUfVs9r7W1CJIMuHqNeI/pagina.html ] with Italy's La Stampa newspaper, Pope Francis defended his remarks: "Marxist ideology is wrong. But I have met many Marxists in my life who are good people, so I don't feel offended." He added, "There is nothing in the exhortation that cannot be found in the social doctrine of the church."
The Pope expanded on his critique of "trickle-down" economics, noting that "The promise was that when the glass was full, it would overflow, benefitting the poor. But what happens instead, is that when the glass is full, it magically gets bigger nothing ever comes out for the poor."
© 2013 Media Matters for America
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/12/15/pope-francis-rebukes-marxist-attack-from-rush-l/197273 [with comments]
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Don't Call Us Marxist Because We Critique Capitalism -- Call Us Christian
12/15/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-raushenbush/pope-francis-unfettered-capitalism_b_4449643.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Mormon Church Explains Past Racism, Ban On Black Priests
By BRADY McCOMBS
12/10/13 12:06 AM ET EST
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — After Mormon church leaders lifted the ban on blacks in the priesthood in 1978, church leaders offered little official explanation for the reasons behind the ban, saying only they received a revelation it was time for the change.
In the three decades since, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have struggled to understand the roots of the old ban and grappled with how best to respond to questions about the touchy historical topic.
Even as recently as 2012 — when the issue flared up during Mitt Romney's run for president — the church said it has always welcomed people of all races into the church but that was not known precisely why, how or when the restriction on the priesthood began.
Now, finally, Mormons can point to a new 2,000-word statement posted on the church's website that offers the most comprehensive explanation of why the church previously had barred men of African descent from the lay clergy, and for the first time disavows the ban.
The statement, posted Friday, says the ban was put into place during an era of great racial divide that influenced early teachings of the church. It pins the prohibition on an announcement from church president Brigham Young in 1852. Perhaps most importantly, it addresses the once widely held notion that blacks were spiritually inferior.
"The Church disavows the theories advanced in the past that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse, or that it reflects actions in a premortal life; that mixed-race marriages are a sin; or that blacks or people of any other race or ethnicity are inferior in any way to anyone else," the statement read. "Church leaders today unequivocally condemn all racism, past and present, in any form."
Mormon scholars and church members who have followed the issue closely called it a landmark moment.
"History and changes all happen due to time. This is way past due," said Don Harwell, a 67-year-old president of a black Mormon support group in Utah. "These are the statements they should have made in 1978, but better late than never."
Margaret Blair Young, an adjunct professor at Brigham Young University who made a documentary about the untold stories of black Mormons, called the new article a miracle. She said she'll carry printouts with her to hand out and that she plans to call missionaries in Africa who are often asked about the reasons behind the old ban.
"I'm thrilled," Young said. "It went so much further than anything before has done."
Mormon church officials declined comment on the article but said it is part of a series of new online postings to explain or expand on certain gospel topics for its members. Other topics include, "Are Mormons Christian?" and one about founder Joseph Smith's first visions.
Armand Mauss, a retired professor of sociology and religious studies at Washington State University, said the article is the most comprehensive explanation yet about the past exclusion of blacks from the priesthood and marks the first time the church has explicitly disavowed its previous teachings on the topic.
Mormon scholars over the years have written much of what is in the posting, but it is noteworthy coming from church headquarters in Salt Lake City, he said. He and other scholars were interviewed several months ago by staff from LDS Public Affairs in preparation for the new article, Mauss said, adding that it reflects a "new Church commitment to greater transparency about its history, doctrines, and policies."
The LDS church has come a long way since the Genesis Group was founded in 1971, said Harwell, who converted to Mormonism in 1983. While he noted that he doesn't speak for the church, he said he believes the next step is getting more black Mormons into church leadership positions. He serves as counselor to the bishop in his local congregation and can see how that is helping young church members change their perceptions. He didn't question the timing of the explanation.
"Maybe the Lord just determined this is the time for it to happen," Harwell said, "that this is when people are going to be able to accept it for what it is."
Matthew Bowman, an author and assistant professor of religion at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, said the posting is being widely circulated in the Mormon blogosphere.
"They were a lot of people really hoping for this," Bowman said. "Among the Mormon chattering classes, the statement is being taken as a pretty big deal."
Online: Church's statement:
Race and the Priesthood
http://www.lds.org/topics/race-and-the-priesthood?lang=eng
© 2013 Associated Press
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/10/mormon-church-black-racism-_n_4418703.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Mormon Church: Justifications for black priesthood ban rooted in racism
LDS Church President Brigham Young
Dec 10, 2013
http://www.religionnews.com/2013/12/10/mormon-church-justifications-black-priesthood-ban-rooted-racism/ [with comments]
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School Named For Klu Klux Klan Leader Nathan Bedford Forrest To Be Rebranded
Posted: 12/17/2013 5:03 am EST | Updated: 12/17/2013 11:17 am EST
(Reuters) - A Florida high school whose name commemorates a leader of a white supremacist group known for lynchings and other violent acts against blacks is to be renamed, officials said on Monday.
The Nathan Bedford Forrest High School in Jacksonville, Florida, founded 54 years ago, will change its name from that of the Ku Klux Clan's first grand wizard from the start of the next school year in August.
A new name will be proposed in January.
"We recognize that we cannot and are not seeking to erase history," said Constance Hall, a board member for the Duval County school, where more than half the students are black.
"For too long and too many, this name has represented the opposite of unity, respect, and equality," Hall said in a statement.
With its roots in the U.S. Civil War era, the Ku Klux Klan has long been associated with hooded, white-robed night riders who menaced blacks with cross burnings, lynchings and other acts of violence.
The honoring of Confederate heroes and emblems has been a divisive issue in the United States, with proponents saying it pays homage to regional history and opponents saying it amounts to racism.
Memphis, Tennessee in February this year dropped Confederate names from three city parks - one was named after Forrest, a slaveholder before the Civil War and a general during it.
The Florida name change comes after incidents that sparked racial tension in the southern U.S. state.
In July, white former community patrol guard George Zimmerman was acquitted of murder charges in the 2012 killing of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in central Florida.
Also last year, a federal lawsuit alleged civil rights violations in a west-central Florida school district after two black women who scored well on an adult skills test were accused of cheating.
Omotayo Richmond, who moved to Jacksonville from New York, wrote in a Change.org petition that garnered more than 160,000 signatures in support of changing the school's name that doing so would go toward healing "so much racial division" in Florida.
"African American Jacksonville students shouldn't have to attend a high school named for someone who slaughtered and terrorized their ancestors one more school year," Richmond wrote.
The 1,300-student public school, which became racially integrated in 1971, had voted some five years ago to keep the name, but those officials had been replaced, the petition said.
(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson, editing by Elizabeth Piper)
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/17/nathan-bedford-forrest-school-named-for-kkk-leader-renamed_n_4457849.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Iowa Republican Spent $150,000 To Expose Voter Fraud, Instead Found Nothing Significant
By Shadee Ashtari
Posted: 12/16/2013 6:15 pm EST | Updated: 12/17/2013 2:02 am EST
Eighteen months and $150,000 later, a rigorous voter fraud investigation commissioned by Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz (R) has failed to produce [ http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20131216/NEWS09/312160041/Iowa-voter-fraud-probe-nets-few-cases-no-trials-since-July-2012 ] any statistically significant evidence of voter fraud in Iowa, according to The Des Moines Register.
Since taking office in 2011, Schultz has made safeguarding the ballot box [ http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/10/iowa-voter-fraud ] from fraud a top state priority, striking a two-year deal with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation in 2012 that directed $280,000 of federal funds toward voter fraud inquiries. Additionally, a full-time agent was hired and assigned to pursue voter fraud cases.
Although Schultz had expected to unveil “a lot [ http://qctimes.com/news/local/schultz-expect-a-lot-of-voter-fraud-cases/article_53f73833-e6f5-5e46-a333-147cb54effe6.html ]” of voter fraud cases, the investigation so far has yielded just five guilty pleas and five dismissals, The Des Moines Register reported late Sunday.
Of the five guilty pleas [ http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20131216/NEWS09/312160042/Guilty-pleas-resolve-all-five-voter-fraud-convictions-in-Iowa ], three of them involved felons who had completed their prison terms but whose voting rights had not yet been restored when they went to vote.
In another case, a woman cast an absentee ballot for her daughter, who had recently moved to Minnesota and told her mother that she had missed the registration deadline there. After learning her daughter ultimately did vote in Minnesota, the mother self-reported the double-voting incident to the local county auditor’s office, resulting in a $147.75 fine, according to The Des Moines Register [id.].
In the fifth guilty plea, a man was incidentally charged with voter fraud after a drunk driving arrest revealed that he had stolen his dead brother’s identity to obtain a driver’s license.
Schultz’s critics have attacked his efforts to ferret out voter fraud as a waste of state money and time.
“Secretary Schultz’s actions not only waste a tremendous amount of money that should be used to increase access to voting in Iowa,” Ben Stone, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, told The Des Moines Register [ http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20131216/NEWS09/312160041/Iowa-voter-fraud-probe-nets-few-cases-no-trials-since-July-2012 ]. “Ultimately, they make it demonstrably harder for eligible people to vote.”
Schultz told the newspaper that voter fraud has been incorrectly viewed as a non-issue and that the results of the investigation will lead to changes in thinking, especially with six months remaining in the investigation.
"[B]efore, the narrative was that there’s no such thing as voter fraud. That’s obviously changed," Schultz said [id.]. "I don’t think you can judge the initiative until it’s over."
Other studies have found little evidence of in-person voter fraud [ http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/11/13236464-new-database-of-us-voter-fraud-finds-no-evidence-that-photo-id-laws-are-needed ] being a significant problem. Despite that, numerous Republican-led states, including Texas [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/07/us/politics/texas-stringent-voter-id-law-makes-a-dent-at-polls.html ] and North Carolina, have implemented stricter voting laws in a purported effort to curtail such crimes [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/05/republican-imaginary-enemies_n_3832142.html ].
In August, former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell criticized [ http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/08/22/colin-powell-to-north-carolina-governor-there-is-no-voter-fraud/ ] the argument of North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) that his approval of a more restrictive voting bill would combat voter fraud.
“You can say what you like, but there is no voter fraud,” Powell said [ http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/23/colin-powell-lashes-out-at-the-gop-s-bogus-claims-on-voter-fraud.html ] at the CEO Forum in Raleigh, N.C. “How can it be widespread and undetected?”
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/16/iowa-voter-fraud_n_4455110.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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John McCain Admits Castro-Hitler Comparison Was 'Gross Exaggeration'
12/15/2013
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Sunday that his comparison [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/12/10/mccain-compares-obama-castro-handshake-to-chamberlain-hitler/ ] of President Barack Obama's handshake [ http://www.msnbc.com/thomas-roberts/mandela-memorial-obama-castro-handshake ] with Cuban President Raul Castro to one between Adolf Hitler and Neville Chamberlain was a "gross exaggeration [ http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/bestoftv/2013/12/15/exp-sotu-mccain-castro-handshake.cnn.html ]."
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/15/john-mccain-castro-hitler_n_4449821.html [with embedded video clip, and comments]
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Mitch McConnell Predicts Debt Ceiling Won't Be Raised Without A Hostage
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters on Dec. 17 that he doubts the Senate "is willing to give the president a clean debt ceiling increase."
Alex Wong via Getty Images
By Michael McAuliff
Posted: 12/17/2013 4:09 pm EST | Updated: 12/17/2013 4:19 pm EST
WASHINGTON -- Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that the nation's debt limit won't be raised unless Republicans can extract concessions from Democrats and President Barack Obama.
The borrowing limit, which was suspended until Feb. 7, 2014, as part of the deal to end the government shutdown in the fall, stands at about $17.2 trillion. The Treasury Department estimates that without a hike, it can keep paying the nation's bills only until sometime in March.
The budget agreement that passed the House overwhelmingly last week and is set for passage in the Senate -- likely on Wednesday -- would also require a boost in the debt ceiling in order to carry out the spending that it mandates. But McConnell said Republicans would not allow that.
"I doubt if the House or, for that matter, the Senate is willing to give the president a clean debt ceiling increase," McConnell told reporters on Capitol Hill. "Every time the president asks us to raise the debt ceiling is a good time to try to achieve something important for the country."
He added that holding the borrowing cap hostage is the only way the GOP can get Obama to negotiate.
"I think the debt ceiling legislation is a time that brings us all together and gets the president's attention, which with this president, particularly when it comes to reducing spending, has been a bit of a challenge," McConnell said.
He did not lay out what demands the GOP would make. "We'll have to see what the House insists on adding to it as a condition of passage," McConnell said.
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) made similar remarks on Sunday [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/15/paul-ryan-debt-ceiling_n_4449213.html ], saying, "We don’t want nothing out of this debt limit."
For his part, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he didn't see Republicans being up for another damaging showdown over something that's essential to keeping the government and economy moving after they were so battered over the October shutdown.
"I can't imagine the Republicans want another fight on debt ceiling," Reid told reporters. "We've passed two debt ceilings in the very recent past, and we should do another one."
Still, Republican lawmakers are taking criticism from right-wing groups over the current budget deal, and those same groups oppose hiking the debt limit. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) suggested last week that such organizations would no longer have much influence in Congress [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/14/john-boehner-right-wing-groups_n_4445626.html ], but they have sway with GOP lawmakers facing primaries next year, such as McConnell.
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/17/mitch-mcconnell-debt-ceiling_n_4461484.html [with comments]
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Largely White Audience Turns Out To Hear Rand Paul Speak At African-American Outreach Event
Bill Pugliano via Getty Images
By Amanda Terkel
Posted: 12/09/2013 9:43 am EST | Updated: 12/09/2013 4:02 pm EST
WASHINGTON -- The Michigan Republican Party is seeking to increase its visibility in Democratic- and minority-heavy Detroit, and last week, it brought Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to the city [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/22/rand-paul-minority-outreach_n_4319239.html ] to open the party's African-American Engagement Office. But if anything, the launch event put into stark relief just how much work the GOP has to do, when a largely white audience turned out to hear the senator speak.
Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus has said that attracting more minorities to the GOP is crucial for the party's future [ http://www.usatoday.com/story/onpolitics/2013/08/16/rnc-hispanic-outreach-boston/2663993/ ]. He visited Michigan last month, hired radio personality Wayne Bradley to head [ http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/11/12/rnc-rolls-out-african-american-outreach-effort-in-detroit/comment-page-1/ ] the African-American Engagement effort in the state and launched the Michigan Black Advisory Council.
In the 2012 election, President Barack Obama earned the support of 90 percent [ http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970204755404578103210057244462 ] of the black voters who turned out at the polls.
Paul initially spoke at the new African-American Engagement Office on Livernois Avenue in Detroit for about four minutes on Friday. According to the progressive site Eclectablog, "The seats in the tiny space were filled with well-dressed supporters, most of whom were African-American [ http://www.eclectablog.com/2013/12/photos-audio-video-white-libertarian-rand-paul-from-kentucky-opens-republican-black-outreach-office-in-detroit.html ]."
“Today’s opening of this office is the beginning of a new Republican Party [ http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/politicsnow/la-pn-rand-paul-detroit-minorities-gop-20131206,0,5668979.story ],” Paul said. “This is going to be a Republican Party that is in big cities and small cities, in the countryside, in the city. It’s going to be about bringing a message that is popular no matter where you’re from, whether you're rich or poor, whether you’re black, white or brown.”
Paul then went [ http://www.freep.com/article/20131206/NEWS/312060015/GOP-comes-Detroit-trying-win-over-African-American-voters ] to a larger grassroots event [ http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131206/METRO01/312060086/Paul-Economic-plan-would-1-3B-stimulus-Detroit- ] at the Grace Bible Chapel, where there were protesters from the civil rights group National Action Network outside. The online invitation [no longer available] said the event was intended to "celebrate the opening of our African-American Engagement Office in Detroit."
Tracking footage from the Democratic super PAC American Bridge 21st Century, however, shows an overwhelmingly white audience ended up turning out [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GVOPMLcf-Y (next below)]:
Detroit is approximately 83 percent [ http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/26/2622000.html ] African-American.
Paul also spoke Friday at the Detroit Economic Club, where he proposed a plan to revitalize U.S. cities through the creation of "economic freedom zones [ http://www.freep.com/article/20131206/NEWS06/312060079/Rand-Paul-Detroit-economic-club-presidential-hopeful ]," which would cut federal taxes in communities that have an unemployment rate of 12 percent or higher.
The Michigan Democratic Party rejected Paul's advice for Detroit.
"Sen. Paul was a vocal opponent of the auto rescue, which saved over a million jobs, and led the Republican effort to shut down the government, costing Michigan's economy hundreds of millions," said party spokesman Joshua Pugh. "His special interest tax handout plan is nothing new. Here in Michigan, Rick Snyder gave $1.8 billion to wealthy special interests, and paid for it with billions in devastating cuts to our local communities and public schools. It's time for our elected leaders to stop the tax giveaways, invest in communities and improve education."
Paul has been trying to do more minority outreach in recent months. In April, Paul spoke [id.; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crDfHfIc2Co (next below, source http://www.mediaite.com/tv/maddow-tears-into-rand-paul-for-denying-he-questioned-civil-rights-act-you-did-question-it-on-my-show/ , also at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_mGiVTcX3w )]
Still, he continues to generate skepticism, in part due to his criticism of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In 2010, he said, "I think it’s a bad business decision to exclude anybody from your restaurant, but, at the same time, I do believe in private ownership [ http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2010/05/19/98217/paul-civil-rights/ ]."
On Sunday, Paul said he opposed extending long-term unemployment benefits, because doing so would be a "disservice [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/08/rand-paul-unemployment-benefits_n_4408046.html ]" to workers. African-Americans have consistently had a significantly higher unemployment rate [ http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/08/21/through-good-times-and-bad-black-unemployment-is-consistently-double-that-of-whites/ ] than whites.
Neither Paul nor the Michigan GOP returned a request for comment.
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/09/rand-paul-african-american_n_4409356.html [with (separate) embedded video report, and (over 12,000) comments]
*
Rand Paul: GOP ambassador to black America
All In with Chris Hayes
12/09/13
Chris Hayes looks at Rand Paul’s outreach to African American voters.
©2013 NBC UNIVERSAL
http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/rand-paul-gop-ambassador-to-black-america-85902915512 [with comment; the above YouTube of the segment at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zqlq7hkL_k (with comments)]
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The Return of the Welfare Queen
Republicans see class warfare as a winning message, but they risk hurting the blue-collar whites the party depends on.
Dec 14 2013
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/12/the-return-of-the-welfare-queen/282337/ [with comments]
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Oklahoma Plan For School Storm Shelters Thwarted By Tax Cut
Gov. Mary Fallin of Oklahoma speaks at the second day of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, Tuesday, August 28, 2012.
(Harry Walker/MCT via Getty Images)
BY SEAN MURPHY
Posted: 12/16/2013 1:56 pm EST
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — After a huge tornado ripped through the Oklahoma City suburbs this spring and demolished two elementary schools, killing seven children, a longtime legislator thought the time was ripe for the state to act on a well-known problem.
Although Oklahoma averages more than 50 tornadoes a year, and sometimes gets more than 100, about 60 percent of public schools have no shelters. Cash-strapped districts can't afford to build them.
Rep. Joe Dorman, who represents the small farming town of Rush Springs, proposed a bond issue, taking advantage of the state's rebounding economy and revenue from a business tax that was already on the books.
But the response to his proposal has made clear that there's something more ominous than tornadoes these days in one of the nation's most conservative states: taxes and borrowing.
The idea has been snubbed by Oklahoma's political leadership, including Gov. Mary Fallin, triggering a debate over the current push by some GOP-controlled states to cut taxes to improve their business climate instead of using available revenue for longstanding problems.
"It would be nice if every kid in Oklahoma had a safe room to go to," said Bill Pingleton, the superintendent in the rural town of Tushka, where the school and much of the town were destroyed by a tornado in 2011.
But top officials said the schools shouldn't expect state help for shelters.
"Just adding on a new tax burden on Oklahomans is not the answer," said Republican State Superintendent Janet Barresi, Oklahoma's highest ranking education official.
Republican leaders want to eliminate the franchise tax, a $1.25 levy on every $1,000 a corporation invests in Oklahoma, to help fund the shelter plan. The tax, which has existed since 1963, generates about $40 million annually, but was recently suspended. Since 2010, the Republican-controlled Legislature has cut the personal income tax and several taxes on businesses as part of an aggressive fiscal agenda.
Supporters of the shelter proposal, including teachers and families of children killed in the suburban Moore tornado, are trying to collect 155,000 signatures to put the question on the 2014 ballot.
Oklahoma is dead center in the Great Plains corridor known as tornado alley. Every spring when twister season arrives, school children follow a familiar ritual of filing to interior hallways, gymnasiums or — in the more affluent districts — reinforced shelters for state-mandated storm drills.
At the new Ronald Reagan Elementary School in Norman, a fast-growing college town in one of the wealthiest counties, every fourth classroom has been outfitted as a shelter with steel-reinforced concrete walls, no windows and a solid steel door.
Parents say the rooms ease their fears.
"I love the idea of having safe rooms in the schools. I wish all schools were like that," said Alicia McBane, 35, who was selling T-shirts at a recent PTA benefit at the elementary school, where her son is in kindergarten.
At another elementary school in Norman, Truman Primary, children take shelter in a gymnasium with concrete walls designed to withstand winds of 250 mph.
But many more schools in Oklahoma, where median income ranks 36th in the nation, are in WPA-era buildings in rural districts.
"Safe rooms are a tremendous cost when you don't have the support and the growth for bond issues," said Robert Trammell, the superintendent in Snyder, a ranching town with 1,400 people, about the same size it was in 1940. The town has three schools built in the 1930s and one in the 1950s. A twister killed 97 people in Snyder in 1905.
After budget cuts during the recession, the district is still retrenching. It dropped the wrestling program this year.
"There's no meat left on the bone," said Trammell, who said students will use hallways and bathrooms for storm protection though they don't meet federal standards.
In Norman, reinforcing the gym added $200,000 to the cost.
Students in Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore were also following the traditional procedure when they clustered in hallways at about 3 p.m. May 20 when an EF-5 tornado swept into the community. Winds measured at more than 200 mph collapsed a concrete wall on the children, ages 8 and 9.
Dorman, a Democrat, said he wasn't trying to put Republicans in a difficult political position with his proposal. He said he chose the franchise tax because the Legislature had temporarily suspended it so the money wasn't spoken for. The revenue would be used for the bond payments.
"That just seemed like the best place to draw the money without hurting the budget," he said.
But Republican leaders maintain that eliminating taxes, especially those on businesses, will encourage more investment in the state, generating more money for communities to pay for their own needs.
Since the rebuff, supporters of the shelter initiative, organized as Take Shelter Oklahoma, have become embroiled in a dispute with Republican Attorney General Scott Pruitt and the state Chamber of Commerce over Pruitt's use of wording in the ballot initiative that emphasizes the funding mechanism.
Some fear the issue is becoming hopelessly entangled in politics.
"When people are holding press conferences in front of the attorney general's office attacking the state chamber, we have gone far afield from the issue of our children's safety," said Republican Sen. David Holt of Oklahoma City.
© 2013 Associated Press
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/16/oklahoma-school-storm-shelters_n_4454451.html [with comments]
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Victims of Misclassification
By MARJORIE ELIZABETH WOOD
Published: December 15, 2013
WASHINGTON — LAST month, a Michigan construction worker named Matt Anderson testified in a Senate hearing about being a victim of employee misclassification. Mr. Anderson said that his employer forced him, after six years as an employee, to switch to “independent contractor” status. Though the move stripped Mr. Anderson of basic employee rights and protections, he went along with the change, he said, because “my fellow workers and I had families to support and we saw how bad the economy was.”
Today, millions of American workers in a wide variety of sectors, from construction and trucking to I.T. and professional services, are victims of misclassification, a tactic employers use to avoid paying taxes and providing benefits that are guaranteed to employees, such as workers’ compensation, overtime pay, minimum wage and unemployment insurance.
In 2000, a United States Department of Labor study estimated that up to 30 percent of employers misclassify workers. This year, the Treasury Department’s inspector general concluded that the problem had worsened. Fifteen states have now teamed up with the Department of Labor and the Internal Revenue Service to reduce misclassification through information sharing and joint investigations.
By federal law, employee status is determined by the degree of an employer’s control over the manner and means of work, not any written agreement. As Mr. Anderson testified, though his employer changed his status from employee to independent contractor, the conditions of his work stayed the same.
The costs of misclassification are considerable. The Department of Labor estimates that the lost revenue for Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation is in the billions of dollars. States are also bearing the burden. A 2007 Cornell University study estimated that New York State’s unemployment insurance fund lost $176 million annually to misclassification. Workers suffer financial losses as well. This past May, the Department of Labor recovered more than $1 million in back wages and damages for misclassified employees of a Kentucky-based cable company.
What is to be done? To start, Congress should pass the Payroll Fraud Prevention Act of 2013, introduced by Senator Robert P. Casey Jr., Democrat of Pennsylvania, which would make employee misclassification a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The bill would impose stiff penalties on offending employers.
But combating this abuse will require more than Senator Casey’s bill. Being denied their status as employees strips workers not only of basic employment protections but also of the collective bargaining rights that enabled workers to secure these protections in the first place. The 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act, which established modern employment law, resulted from decades of labor organizing. Without the right to unionize, workers will lose hard-won protections. The right to bargain collectively should thus be guaranteed by adding it to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
As the widespread practice of misclassification suggests, employers today are engaged in organized tactics to disempower workers. Workers must therefore be empowered under the law to fight back.
Marjorie Elizabeth Wood is a historian and labor rights advocate.
© 2013 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/16/opinion/victims-of-misclassification.html
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AP survey: U.S. income gap is holding back economy
By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
The growing gap between the richest Americans and everyone else isn’t bad just for individuals.
It’s hurting the U.S. economy.
So says a majority of more than three dozen economists surveyed last week by the Associated Press. Their concerns tap into a debate that’s intensified as middle-class pay has stagnated while wealthier households have thrived.
A key source of the economists’ concern: Higher pay and outsize stock market gains are flowing mainly to affluent Americans. Yet these households spend less of their money than do low- and middle-income consumers who make up most of the population but whose pay is barely rising.
“What you want is a broader spending base,” said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James, a financial advisory firm. “You want more people spending money.”
Spending by wealthier Americans, given the weight of their dollars, does help drive the economy. But analysts said the economy would be better able to sustain its growth if the riches were more evenly dispersed. For one thing, a plunge in stock prices typically leads wealthier Americans to cut sharply back on their spending.
“The broader the improvement, the more likely it will be sustained,” said Michael Niemira, chief economist at the International Council of Shopping Centers.
A wide gap in pay limits the ability of poorer and middle-income Americans to improve their living standards, the economists said. About 80 percent of stock market wealth is held by the richest 10 percent of Americans. That means the stock market’s outsize gains this year have mostly benefited the already affluent.
Those trends have fueled an escalating political debate. In a speech this month, President Obama called income inequality “the defining challenge of our time.”
Obama also called for an increase in the federal minimum wage, now $7.25. Republican leaders in the House oppose an increase, arguing that it would slow hiring.
Several states are acting on their own. California, Connecticut and Rhode Island raised their minimum wages this year. Last month, voters in New Jersey approved an increase in the minimum to $8.25 an hour from $7.25.
Income inequality has steadily worsened in recent decades, according to government data and academic studies. The most recent census figures show that the average income for the wealthiest 5 percent of U.S. households, adjusted for inflation, has surged 17 percent in the past 20 years. By contrast, average income for the middle 20 percent of households has risen less than 5 percent.
The AP survey collected the views of private, corporate and academic economists on a range of issues. Among the topics were what policy decisions, if any, the Federal Reserve might announce after it ends a policy meeting today.
Three-quarters of the economists surveyed don’t think the Fed is ready to announce a pullback in its economic stimulus. Speculation has been rising that the Fed will soon scale back its $85 billion in monthly bond purchases because of the economy’s steady gains. The bond purchases have been intended to keep long-term loan rates low to induce people to borrow and spend.
Most of the economists think the Fed will begin slowing its bond buying in January or March.
And most don’t think the economy needs the Fed’s help. Just over half say they believe growth could reach a healthy 3 percent annual pace even without the Fed’s extraordinary help.
As Janet Yellen prepares to succeed Ben Bernanke as chairman early next year, most of the economists expect the Fed to become more “dovish” — that is, more focused on fighting unemployment than on worrying about higher inflation that might result from the Fed’s actions. The Senate could confirm Yellen as soon as this week.
The economists are also confident that U.S. growth is picking up. Three-quarters said the recovery, which officially began 4½ years ago, has yet to reach its peak. And nearly all think the next recession is at least three years away; half think it’s at least five years away.
The economists forecast that growth will average 2.9 percent in 2014. That would be the healthiest annual pace since 2005.
One reason they expect healthier growth is that the effects of tax increases and government spending cuts that kicked in early this year should fade.
A budget bill that passed a pivotal test in the Senate on Tuesday will reverse some of those spending cuts. That should add slightly to economic growth. The bill also removes the threat of another government shutdown next year.
Among the economists’ other views:
— The Obama administration’s health care law will make little or no difference to the job market. About two-fifths said the law would cost jobs. None said it would increase hiring. The law has drawn fierce opposition from many small business owners, who say it will raise hiring costs by requiring companies with 50 or more employees to provide coverage starting in 2015.
— The stock market isn’t in a bubble. While the Dow Jones industrial average reached record highs earlier this year, most economists said that higher profits largely justified the gains.
— Europe will keep growing and avoid a recession in 2014. But growth will remain so tepid that inflation will be nearly non-existent. Nearly two-thirds of the economists forecast that inflation won’t consistently reach the European Central Bank’s inflation target of 2 percent until 2016.
— Inflation in the United States will remain low for the long run. A majority of economists think consumer inflation won’t consistently meet or exceed the Fed’s 2 percent target level until 2015 or later.
Economists appear to be increasingly concerned about the effects of inequality on growth. Brown, the Raymond James economist, says that marks a shift from a few years ago, when many analysts were divided over whether pay inequality was worsening.
Now, he says, “there’s not much denial of that ... and you’re starting to see some research saying, yes, it does slow the economy.”
© 2013 Associated Press
http://www.concordmonitor.com/news/work/business/9841267-95/ap-survey-us-income-gap-is-holding-back-economy
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The Twelve Days of Wall Street
By ERIC OWLES
December 13, 2013
On the first day of bonus season
my supervisor sent to me:
12 Dwarves for Tossing
[ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/06/17/wolf-of-wall-street-boiler-room-antics-on-the-big-screen/ ]
11 Padded Bills
[ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/03/25/suit-offers-a-peek-at-the-practice-of-padding-a-legal-bill/ ]
10 Leads a Left
[ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/10/04/twitters-i-p-o-and-the-league-table-fight/ ]
9 Bailout Lawsuits
[ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/01/07/rescued-by-a-bailout-a-i-g-may-sue-its-savior/ ]
8 ‘Issues With Bloomberg’
[ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/05/31/hunch-about-bloomberg-brought-rivals-together/ ]
7 Hedge Fund Hot Dogs
[ http://pagesix.com/2013/10/21/he-paid-100k-to-become-guy-fieris-friend-for-a-day/ ]
6 “Sons and Daughters”
[ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/08/29/jpmorgan-hiring-put-chinas-elite-on-an-easy-track/ ]
5 Tommy John’s
[ http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/yes-please-ode-to-the-undergarment/ ]
4 Housing Booms
[ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/06/03/behind-the-rise-in-house-prices-wall-street-buyers/ ]
3 Twitter #Fails
[ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/11/13/after-twitter-fail-jpmorgan-calls-off-q-and-a/ ]
2 Bitcoin Moguls
[ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/04/11/as-big-investors-emerge-bitcoin-gets-ready-for-its-close-up/ ]
and a $13 billion settlement.
[ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/11/19/13-billion-settlement-with-jpmorgan-is-announced/ ]
Copyright 2013 The New York Times Company
[from] http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/12/13/weekend-reading-the-twelve-days-of-wall-street/ [no comments yet]
John Cooke is among the Colorado sheriffs who are resisting enforcement of new state gun laws.
Michael Ciaglo/The Colorado Springs Gazette, via Associated Press
Interactive Graphic
State Gun Laws Enacted in the Year Since Newtown
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/10/us/state-gun-laws-enacted-in-the-year-since-newtown.html
By ERICA GOODE
Published: December 15, 2013
GREELEY, Colo. — When Sheriff John Cooke of Weld County explains in speeches why he is not enforcing the state’s new gun laws, he holds up two 30-round magazines. One, he says, he had before July 1, when the law banning the possession, sale or transfer of the large-capacity magazines went into effect. The other, he “maybe” obtained afterward.
He shuffles the magazines, which look identical, and then challenges the audience to tell the difference.
“How is a deputy or an officer supposed to know which is which?” he asks.
Colorado’s package of gun laws, enacted this year after mass shootings in Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn., has been hailed as a victory by advocates of gun control. But if Sheriff Cooke and a majority of the other county sheriffs in Colorado offer any indication, the new laws — which mandate background checks for private gun transfers and outlaw magazines over 15 rounds — may prove nearly irrelevant across much of the state’s rural regions.
Some sheriffs, like Sheriff Cooke, are refusing to enforce the laws, saying that they are too vague and violate Second Amendment rights. Many more say that enforcement will be “a very low priority,” as several sheriffs put it. All but seven of the 62 elected sheriffs in Colorado signed on in May to a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the statutes.
The resistance of sheriffs in Colorado is playing out in other states, raising questions about whether tougher rules passed since Newtown will have a muted effect in parts of the American heartland, where gun ownership is common and grass-roots opposition to tighter restrictions is high.
In New York State, where Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed one of the toughest gun law packages in the nation last January, two sheriffs have said publicly they would not enforce the laws — inaction that Mr. Cuomo said would set “a dangerous and frightening precedent.” The sheriffs’ refusal is unlikely to have much effect in the state: According to the state’s Division of Criminal Justice Services, since 2010 sheriffs have filed less than 2 percent of the two most common felony gun charges. The vast majority of charges are filed by the state or local police.
In Liberty County, Fla., a jury in October acquitted a sheriff [ http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/31/us-usa-florida-guns-idUSBRE99U13320131031 ] who had been suspended and charged with misconduct after he released a man arrested by a deputy on charges of carrying a concealed firearm [ http://www.cljnews.com/20130604liberty-co-sheriff-nick-finch-arrested-fdle-special-agent-to-be-interim-sheriff ]. The sheriff, who was immediately reinstated by the governor, said he was protecting the man’s Second Amendment rights.
And in California, a delegation of sheriffs met with Gov. Jerry Brown this fall to try to persuade him to veto gun bills passed by the Legislature, including measures banning semiautomatic rifles with detachable magazines and lead ammunition for hunting (Mr. Brown signed the ammunition bill but vetoed the bill outlawing the rifles).
“Our way of life means nothing to these politicians, and our interests are not being promoted in the legislative halls of Sacramento or Washington, D.C.,” said Jon E. Lopey, the sheriff of Siskiyou County, Calif., one of those who met with Governor Brown. He said enforcing gun laws was not a priority for him, and he added that residents of his rural region near the Oregon border are equally frustrated by regulations imposed by the federal Forest Service and the Environmental Protection Agency.
This year, the new gun laws in Colorado have become political flash points. Two state senators who supported the legislation were recalled in elections [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/11/us/colorado-lawmaker-concedes-defeat-in-recall-over-gun-law.html ] in September; a third resigned last month rather than face a recall. Efforts to repeal the statutes are already in the works.
Countering the elected sheriffs are some police chiefs, especially in urban areas, and state officials who say that the laws are not only enforceable but that they are already having an effect. Most gun stores have stopped selling the high-capacity magazines for personal use, although one sheriff acknowledged that some stores continued to sell them illegally. Some people who are selling or otherwise transferring guns privately are seeking background checks.
Eric Brown, a spokesman for Gov. John W. Hickenlooper of Colorado, said, “Particularly on background checks, the numbers show the law is working.” The Colorado Bureau of Investigation has run 3,445 checks on private sales since the law went into effect, he said, and has denied gun sales to 70 people.
A Federal District Court judge last month ruled against a claim in the sheriffs’ lawsuit that one part of the magazine law was unconstitutionally vague. The judge also ruled that while the sheriffs could sue as individuals, they had no standing to sue in their official capacity.
Still, the state’s top law enforcement officials acknowledged that sheriffs had wide discretion in enforcing state laws.
“We’re not in the position of telling sheriffs and chiefs what to do or not to do,” said Lance Clem, a spokesman for the Colorado Department of Public Safety. “We have people calling us all the time, thinking they’ve got an issue with their sheriff, and we tell them we don’t have the authority to intervene.”
Sheriffs who refuse to enforce gun laws around the country are in the minority, though no statistics exist. In Colorado, though, sheriffs like Joe Pelle of Boulder County, who support the laws and have more liberal constituencies that back them, are outnumbered.
“A lot of sheriffs are claiming the Constitution, saying that they’re not going to enforce this because they personally believe it violates the Second Amendment,” Sheriff Pelle said. “But that stance in and of itself violates the Constitution.”
Even Sheriff W. Pete Palmer of Chaffee County, one of the seven sheriffs who declined to join the federal lawsuit because he felt duty-bound to carry out the laws, said he was unlikely to aggressively enforce them. He said enforcement poses “huge practical difficulties,” and besides, he has neither the resources nor the pressure from his constituents to make active enforcement a high priority. Violations of the laws are misdemeanors.
“All law enforcement agencies consider the community standards — what is it that our community wishes us to focus on — and I can tell you our community is not worried one whit about background checks or high-capacity magazines,” he said.
At their extreme, the views of sheriffs who refuse to enforce gun laws echo the stand of Richard Mack, a former Arizona sheriff and the author of “The County Sheriff: America’s Last Hope.” Mr. Mack has argued that county sheriffs are the ultimate arbiters of what is constitutional and what is not. The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, founded by Mr. Mack, is an organization of sheriffs and other officers who support his views.
“The Supreme Court does not run my office,” Mr. Mack said in an interview. “Just because they allow something doesn’t mean that a good constitutional sheriff is going to do it.” He said that 250 sheriffs from around the country attended the association’s recent convention.
Matthew J. Parlow, a law professor at Marquette University, said that some states, including New York, had laws that allowed the governor in some circumstances to investigate and remove public officials who engaged in egregious misconduct — laws that in theory might allow the removal of sheriffs who failed to enforce state statutes.
But, he said, many governors could be reluctant to use such powers. And in most cases, any penalty for a sheriff who chose not to enforce state law would have to come from voters.
Sheriff Cooke, for his part, said that he was entitled to use discretion in enforcement, especially when he believed the laws were wrong or unenforceable.
“In my oath it says I’ll uphold the U.S. Constitution and the Constitution of the State of Colorado,” he said, as he posed for campaign photos in his office — he is running for the State Senate in 2014. “It doesn’t say I have to uphold every law passed by the Legislature.”
Jack Healy contributed reporting from Denver.
© 2013 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/16/us/sheriffs-refuse-to-enforce-laws-on-gun-control.html [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/16/us/sheriffs-refuse-to-enforce-laws-on-gun-control.html?pagewanted=all ] [with comments]
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Gun safety laws draw attacks from outsiders
The Rachel Maddow Show
December 16, 2013
State Rep. Rhonda Fields, (D) Colorado, talks with Rachel Maddow about the intrusion of national gun groups to punish local politicians working for gun safety.
©2013 NBC UNIVERSAL
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/rachel-maddow/53849542 / http://video.msnbc.msn.com/rachel-maddow/53849542/#53849542 [with transcript; show links at http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/links-the-1216-trms-0 (with comments)]
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Buy This for Someone You Hate: an $100,000 Original Painting by George Zimmerman
By Juli Weiner
9:07 AM, December 17 2013
A very conspicuous omission from VF.com’s first-annual Gift Guide for People You Hate [ http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2013/12/gifts-people-you-hate ]: this painting, pictured just above. It is not merely a hideous piece of art that looks like a Lana Del Rey album cover or “creative” A.P. Government project hastily crayoned on the bus ride to school: its true wretchedness derives from its creator, national villain George Zimmerman.
“Florida’s infamous neighborhood watchman is trying to pull himself out of debt by selling his original artwork online,” The New York Post reports [ http://nypost.com/2013/12/17/bidding-for-george-zimmerman-painting-nears-100g/ ]. Because if there’s a surefire way to make heaps of cash in no time at all, it’s painting. Per an actual artist statement on the eBay page [ http://www.ebay.com/itm/George-Zimmerman-original-painting-/111239922810?pt=Art_Paintings&hash=item19e66a847a ]: “My art work allows me to reflect, providing a therapeutic outlet and allows me to remain indoors
.” America is a safer place when George Zimmerman is indoors. Vanity Fair © Condé Nast Digital
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2013/12/george-zimmerman-painting-ebay [no comments yet]
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Did Zimmerman Copy a Stock Photo for His ‘Original’ $100k Painting?
December 17th, 2013
http://www.mediaite.com/online/did-zimmerman-copy-a-stock-photo-for-his-original-100k-painting/ [with comments]
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The Rush Limbaugh Guide To Sexual Harassment
Rush: "Walk Up To The Woman And Say, 'Will You Please Ask Your Breasts To Stop Staring At My Eyes?'"
MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
December 9, 2013
From the December 9 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIGHqdJRbHg (next below, as a non-YouTube version of same embedded]:
LIMBAUGH: I know a lot of you, you hear this thing -- a bunch of leftists want to try to stop men from looking at women and you think, 'they can't do that.' That's not the point. Whether they can or can't, it will gain momentum. And it may not be for years, but this is who they are. This is -- this is how inane and inviolate they are of basic human nature. It's one of the biggest ways to understand liberals. They just despise human nature and try to alter it and change it and create it. Because many of them just don't fit in with it in many ways.
But there's a way around this, guys. You got to have fun with this kind of stuff, as you know. So let me offer a first suggestion, the first way to deal with this that came into my mind. You find yourself staring, looking at, casually glancing at a woman, but you know that it's now socially taboo. You shouldn't be doing it. And you think everybody is noticing you doing it and condemning you in their minds. You shouldn't -- so you walk up to the woman and say, "Will you please ask your breasts to stop staring at my eyes?"
Try that. Might help. And you don't know 'til you try it.
Previously:
Limbaugh: Feminism Rooted In "Sexual Perversion"
http://mediamatters.org/video/2013/08/27/limbaugh-feminism-rooted-in-sexual-perversion/195624
Limbaugh: Sandra Fluke Is "Having So Much Sex, It's Amazing She Can Still Walk"
http://mediamatters.org/video/2012/03/01/limbaugh-sandra-fluke-is-having-so-much-sex-its/155137
"Slut": The Voice Of A Right-Wing Bully
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/03/01/slut-the-voice-of-a-right-wing-bully/186625
© 2013 Media Matters for America
http://mediamatters.org/video/2013/12/09/the-rush-limbaugh-guide-to-sexual-harassment/197197 [with comments] [via/more at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/09/rush-limbaugh-breasts-eyes-woman_n_4414157.html (with embedded video, and comments)]
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Nicki Minaj's Big Boobie Birthday Cake
December 9, 2013
http://www.celebuzz.com/2013-12-09/nicki-minajs-birthday-was-filled-with-a-big-boobie-cake-and-stripper-pole/ [with comments]
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Miley Cyrus Supports Free The Nipple Campaign
12/13/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/13/miley-cyrus-free-the-nipple_n_4439241.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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If Only All Moms Could Breastfeed Like Gisele
[ http://ca.shine.yahoo.com/blogs/shine-on/gisele-bundchen-breastfeeding-photo-sparks-controversy-190808425.html ]
12/11/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/10/gisele-breastfeeding-instagram_n_4421101.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Pope Francis Rebukes "Marxist" Attack From Rush Limbaugh & Conservative Media
OLIVER WILLIS
December 15, 2013 10:59 AM EST
Pope Francis pushed back on attacks from conservative media figures who described him as a "Marxist" after he commented on wealth inequality.
Pope Francis recently released [ http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Item/2748/pope_francis_and_the_gospel_of_joy.aspx ] Evangelii Gaudium [ http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium_en.html#A_JOY_EVER_NEW,_A_JOY_WHICH_IS_SHARED ], which included criticisms of the "idolatry of money" and wealth inequality around the world. In response, numerous conservative media figures attacked him.
Rush Limbaugh described the Pope's writings having "gone beyond Catholicism" and into "pure Marxism [ http://mediamatters.org/video/2013/11/27/rush-lashes-out-at-the-pope-over-critique-of-in/197083 ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg977VrdFlY (next below)]."
Other conservative media figures soon followed [ http://mediamatters.org/research/2013/12/05/conservatives-attack-the-pope/197170 ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Dzxg2KQIdI (next below)] suit.
Fox Business host Stuart Varney said the Pope was engaging in "neo-socialism" while Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano said the document "reveals a disturbing ignorance" by the Pope. FoxNews.com called him "the Catholic Church's Obama," adding, "God help us."
In an interview [ http://lastampa.it/2013/12/14/esteri/vatican-insider/en/never-be-afraid-of-tenderness-5BqUfVs9r7W1CJIMuHqNeI/pagina.html ] with Italy's La Stampa newspaper, Pope Francis defended his remarks: "Marxist ideology is wrong. But I have met many Marxists in my life who are good people, so I don't feel offended." He added, "There is nothing in the exhortation that cannot be found in the social doctrine of the church."
The Pope expanded on his critique of "trickle-down" economics, noting that "The promise was that when the glass was full, it would overflow, benefitting the poor. But what happens instead, is that when the glass is full, it magically gets bigger nothing ever comes out for the poor."
© 2013 Media Matters for America
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/12/15/pope-francis-rebukes-marxist-attack-from-rush-l/197273 [with comments]
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Don't Call Us Marxist Because We Critique Capitalism -- Call Us Christian
12/15/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-raushenbush/pope-francis-unfettered-capitalism_b_4449643.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Mormon Church Explains Past Racism, Ban On Black Priests
By BRADY McCOMBS
12/10/13 12:06 AM ET EST
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — After Mormon church leaders lifted the ban on blacks in the priesthood in 1978, church leaders offered little official explanation for the reasons behind the ban, saying only they received a revelation it was time for the change.
In the three decades since, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have struggled to understand the roots of the old ban and grappled with how best to respond to questions about the touchy historical topic.
Even as recently as 2012 — when the issue flared up during Mitt Romney's run for president — the church said it has always welcomed people of all races into the church but that was not known precisely why, how or when the restriction on the priesthood began.
Now, finally, Mormons can point to a new 2,000-word statement posted on the church's website that offers the most comprehensive explanation of why the church previously had barred men of African descent from the lay clergy, and for the first time disavows the ban.
The statement, posted Friday, says the ban was put into place during an era of great racial divide that influenced early teachings of the church. It pins the prohibition on an announcement from church president Brigham Young in 1852. Perhaps most importantly, it addresses the once widely held notion that blacks were spiritually inferior.
"The Church disavows the theories advanced in the past that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse, or that it reflects actions in a premortal life; that mixed-race marriages are a sin; or that blacks or people of any other race or ethnicity are inferior in any way to anyone else," the statement read. "Church leaders today unequivocally condemn all racism, past and present, in any form."
Mormon scholars and church members who have followed the issue closely called it a landmark moment.
"History and changes all happen due to time. This is way past due," said Don Harwell, a 67-year-old president of a black Mormon support group in Utah. "These are the statements they should have made in 1978, but better late than never."
Margaret Blair Young, an adjunct professor at Brigham Young University who made a documentary about the untold stories of black Mormons, called the new article a miracle. She said she'll carry printouts with her to hand out and that she plans to call missionaries in Africa who are often asked about the reasons behind the old ban.
"I'm thrilled," Young said. "It went so much further than anything before has done."
Mormon church officials declined comment on the article but said it is part of a series of new online postings to explain or expand on certain gospel topics for its members. Other topics include, "Are Mormons Christian?" and one about founder Joseph Smith's first visions.
Armand Mauss, a retired professor of sociology and religious studies at Washington State University, said the article is the most comprehensive explanation yet about the past exclusion of blacks from the priesthood and marks the first time the church has explicitly disavowed its previous teachings on the topic.
Mormon scholars over the years have written much of what is in the posting, but it is noteworthy coming from church headquarters in Salt Lake City, he said. He and other scholars were interviewed several months ago by staff from LDS Public Affairs in preparation for the new article, Mauss said, adding that it reflects a "new Church commitment to greater transparency about its history, doctrines, and policies."
The LDS church has come a long way since the Genesis Group was founded in 1971, said Harwell, who converted to Mormonism in 1983. While he noted that he doesn't speak for the church, he said he believes the next step is getting more black Mormons into church leadership positions. He serves as counselor to the bishop in his local congregation and can see how that is helping young church members change their perceptions. He didn't question the timing of the explanation.
"Maybe the Lord just determined this is the time for it to happen," Harwell said, "that this is when people are going to be able to accept it for what it is."
Matthew Bowman, an author and assistant professor of religion at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, said the posting is being widely circulated in the Mormon blogosphere.
"They were a lot of people really hoping for this," Bowman said. "Among the Mormon chattering classes, the statement is being taken as a pretty big deal."
Online: Church's statement:
Race and the Priesthood
http://www.lds.org/topics/race-and-the-priesthood?lang=eng
© 2013 Associated Press
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/10/mormon-church-black-racism-_n_4418703.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Mormon Church: Justifications for black priesthood ban rooted in racism
LDS Church President Brigham Young
Dec 10, 2013
http://www.religionnews.com/2013/12/10/mormon-church-justifications-black-priesthood-ban-rooted-racism/ [with comments]
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School Named For Klu Klux Klan Leader Nathan Bedford Forrest To Be Rebranded
Posted: 12/17/2013 5:03 am EST | Updated: 12/17/2013 11:17 am EST
(Reuters) - A Florida high school whose name commemorates a leader of a white supremacist group known for lynchings and other violent acts against blacks is to be renamed, officials said on Monday.
The Nathan Bedford Forrest High School in Jacksonville, Florida, founded 54 years ago, will change its name from that of the Ku Klux Clan's first grand wizard from the start of the next school year in August.
A new name will be proposed in January.
"We recognize that we cannot and are not seeking to erase history," said Constance Hall, a board member for the Duval County school, where more than half the students are black.
"For too long and too many, this name has represented the opposite of unity, respect, and equality," Hall said in a statement.
With its roots in the U.S. Civil War era, the Ku Klux Klan has long been associated with hooded, white-robed night riders who menaced blacks with cross burnings, lynchings and other acts of violence.
The honoring of Confederate heroes and emblems has been a divisive issue in the United States, with proponents saying it pays homage to regional history and opponents saying it amounts to racism.
Memphis, Tennessee in February this year dropped Confederate names from three city parks - one was named after Forrest, a slaveholder before the Civil War and a general during it.
The Florida name change comes after incidents that sparked racial tension in the southern U.S. state.
In July, white former community patrol guard George Zimmerman was acquitted of murder charges in the 2012 killing of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in central Florida.
Also last year, a federal lawsuit alleged civil rights violations in a west-central Florida school district after two black women who scored well on an adult skills test were accused of cheating.
Omotayo Richmond, who moved to Jacksonville from New York, wrote in a Change.org petition that garnered more than 160,000 signatures in support of changing the school's name that doing so would go toward healing "so much racial division" in Florida.
"African American Jacksonville students shouldn't have to attend a high school named for someone who slaughtered and terrorized their ancestors one more school year," Richmond wrote.
The 1,300-student public school, which became racially integrated in 1971, had voted some five years ago to keep the name, but those officials had been replaced, the petition said.
(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson, editing by Elizabeth Piper)
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/17/nathan-bedford-forrest-school-named-for-kkk-leader-renamed_n_4457849.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Iowa Republican Spent $150,000 To Expose Voter Fraud, Instead Found Nothing Significant
By Shadee Ashtari
Posted: 12/16/2013 6:15 pm EST | Updated: 12/17/2013 2:02 am EST
Eighteen months and $150,000 later, a rigorous voter fraud investigation commissioned by Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz (R) has failed to produce [ http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20131216/NEWS09/312160041/Iowa-voter-fraud-probe-nets-few-cases-no-trials-since-July-2012 ] any statistically significant evidence of voter fraud in Iowa, according to The Des Moines Register.
Since taking office in 2011, Schultz has made safeguarding the ballot box [ http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/10/iowa-voter-fraud ] from fraud a top state priority, striking a two-year deal with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation in 2012 that directed $280,000 of federal funds toward voter fraud inquiries. Additionally, a full-time agent was hired and assigned to pursue voter fraud cases.
Although Schultz had expected to unveil “a lot [ http://qctimes.com/news/local/schultz-expect-a-lot-of-voter-fraud-cases/article_53f73833-e6f5-5e46-a333-147cb54effe6.html ]” of voter fraud cases, the investigation so far has yielded just five guilty pleas and five dismissals, The Des Moines Register reported late Sunday.
Of the five guilty pleas [ http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20131216/NEWS09/312160042/Guilty-pleas-resolve-all-five-voter-fraud-convictions-in-Iowa ], three of them involved felons who had completed their prison terms but whose voting rights had not yet been restored when they went to vote.
In another case, a woman cast an absentee ballot for her daughter, who had recently moved to Minnesota and told her mother that she had missed the registration deadline there. After learning her daughter ultimately did vote in Minnesota, the mother self-reported the double-voting incident to the local county auditor’s office, resulting in a $147.75 fine, according to The Des Moines Register [id.].
In the fifth guilty plea, a man was incidentally charged with voter fraud after a drunk driving arrest revealed that he had stolen his dead brother’s identity to obtain a driver’s license.
Schultz’s critics have attacked his efforts to ferret out voter fraud as a waste of state money and time.
“Secretary Schultz’s actions not only waste a tremendous amount of money that should be used to increase access to voting in Iowa,” Ben Stone, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, told The Des Moines Register [ http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20131216/NEWS09/312160041/Iowa-voter-fraud-probe-nets-few-cases-no-trials-since-July-2012 ]. “Ultimately, they make it demonstrably harder for eligible people to vote.”
Schultz told the newspaper that voter fraud has been incorrectly viewed as a non-issue and that the results of the investigation will lead to changes in thinking, especially with six months remaining in the investigation.
"[B]efore, the narrative was that there’s no such thing as voter fraud. That’s obviously changed," Schultz said [id.]. "I don’t think you can judge the initiative until it’s over."
Other studies have found little evidence of in-person voter fraud [ http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/11/13236464-new-database-of-us-voter-fraud-finds-no-evidence-that-photo-id-laws-are-needed ] being a significant problem. Despite that, numerous Republican-led states, including Texas [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/07/us/politics/texas-stringent-voter-id-law-makes-a-dent-at-polls.html ] and North Carolina, have implemented stricter voting laws in a purported effort to curtail such crimes [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/05/republican-imaginary-enemies_n_3832142.html ].
In August, former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell criticized [ http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/08/22/colin-powell-to-north-carolina-governor-there-is-no-voter-fraud/ ] the argument of North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) that his approval of a more restrictive voting bill would combat voter fraud.
“You can say what you like, but there is no voter fraud,” Powell said [ http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/23/colin-powell-lashes-out-at-the-gop-s-bogus-claims-on-voter-fraud.html ] at the CEO Forum in Raleigh, N.C. “How can it be widespread and undetected?”
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/16/iowa-voter-fraud_n_4455110.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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John McCain Admits Castro-Hitler Comparison Was 'Gross Exaggeration'
12/15/2013
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Sunday that his comparison [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/12/10/mccain-compares-obama-castro-handshake-to-chamberlain-hitler/ ] of President Barack Obama's handshake [ http://www.msnbc.com/thomas-roberts/mandela-memorial-obama-castro-handshake ] with Cuban President Raul Castro to one between Adolf Hitler and Neville Chamberlain was a "gross exaggeration [ http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/bestoftv/2013/12/15/exp-sotu-mccain-castro-handshake.cnn.html ]."
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/15/john-mccain-castro-hitler_n_4449821.html [with embedded video clip, and comments]
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Mitch McConnell Predicts Debt Ceiling Won't Be Raised Without A Hostage
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters on Dec. 17 that he doubts the Senate "is willing to give the president a clean debt ceiling increase."
Alex Wong via Getty Images
By Michael McAuliff
Posted: 12/17/2013 4:09 pm EST | Updated: 12/17/2013 4:19 pm EST
WASHINGTON -- Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that the nation's debt limit won't be raised unless Republicans can extract concessions from Democrats and President Barack Obama.
The borrowing limit, which was suspended until Feb. 7, 2014, as part of the deal to end the government shutdown in the fall, stands at about $17.2 trillion. The Treasury Department estimates that without a hike, it can keep paying the nation's bills only until sometime in March.
The budget agreement that passed the House overwhelmingly last week and is set for passage in the Senate -- likely on Wednesday -- would also require a boost in the debt ceiling in order to carry out the spending that it mandates. But McConnell said Republicans would not allow that.
"I doubt if the House or, for that matter, the Senate is willing to give the president a clean debt ceiling increase," McConnell told reporters on Capitol Hill. "Every time the president asks us to raise the debt ceiling is a good time to try to achieve something important for the country."
He added that holding the borrowing cap hostage is the only way the GOP can get Obama to negotiate.
"I think the debt ceiling legislation is a time that brings us all together and gets the president's attention, which with this president, particularly when it comes to reducing spending, has been a bit of a challenge," McConnell said.
He did not lay out what demands the GOP would make. "We'll have to see what the House insists on adding to it as a condition of passage," McConnell said.
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) made similar remarks on Sunday [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/15/paul-ryan-debt-ceiling_n_4449213.html ], saying, "We don’t want nothing out of this debt limit."
For his part, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he didn't see Republicans being up for another damaging showdown over something that's essential to keeping the government and economy moving after they were so battered over the October shutdown.
"I can't imagine the Republicans want another fight on debt ceiling," Reid told reporters. "We've passed two debt ceilings in the very recent past, and we should do another one."
Still, Republican lawmakers are taking criticism from right-wing groups over the current budget deal, and those same groups oppose hiking the debt limit. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) suggested last week that such organizations would no longer have much influence in Congress [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/14/john-boehner-right-wing-groups_n_4445626.html ], but they have sway with GOP lawmakers facing primaries next year, such as McConnell.
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/17/mitch-mcconnell-debt-ceiling_n_4461484.html [with comments]
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Largely White Audience Turns Out To Hear Rand Paul Speak At African-American Outreach Event
Bill Pugliano via Getty Images
By Amanda Terkel
Posted: 12/09/2013 9:43 am EST | Updated: 12/09/2013 4:02 pm EST
WASHINGTON -- The Michigan Republican Party is seeking to increase its visibility in Democratic- and minority-heavy Detroit, and last week, it brought Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to the city [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/22/rand-paul-minority-outreach_n_4319239.html ] to open the party's African-American Engagement Office. But if anything, the launch event put into stark relief just how much work the GOP has to do, when a largely white audience turned out to hear the senator speak.
Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus has said that attracting more minorities to the GOP is crucial for the party's future [ http://www.usatoday.com/story/onpolitics/2013/08/16/rnc-hispanic-outreach-boston/2663993/ ]. He visited Michigan last month, hired radio personality Wayne Bradley to head [ http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/11/12/rnc-rolls-out-african-american-outreach-effort-in-detroit/comment-page-1/ ] the African-American Engagement effort in the state and launched the Michigan Black Advisory Council.
In the 2012 election, President Barack Obama earned the support of 90 percent [ http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970204755404578103210057244462 ] of the black voters who turned out at the polls.
Paul initially spoke at the new African-American Engagement Office on Livernois Avenue in Detroit for about four minutes on Friday. According to the progressive site Eclectablog, "The seats in the tiny space were filled with well-dressed supporters, most of whom were African-American [ http://www.eclectablog.com/2013/12/photos-audio-video-white-libertarian-rand-paul-from-kentucky-opens-republican-black-outreach-office-in-detroit.html ]."
“Today’s opening of this office is the beginning of a new Republican Party [ http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/politicsnow/la-pn-rand-paul-detroit-minorities-gop-20131206,0,5668979.story ],” Paul said. “This is going to be a Republican Party that is in big cities and small cities, in the countryside, in the city. It’s going to be about bringing a message that is popular no matter where you’re from, whether you're rich or poor, whether you’re black, white or brown.”
Paul then went [ http://www.freep.com/article/20131206/NEWS/312060015/GOP-comes-Detroit-trying-win-over-African-American-voters ] to a larger grassroots event [ http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131206/METRO01/312060086/Paul-Economic-plan-would-1-3B-stimulus-Detroit- ] at the Grace Bible Chapel, where there were protesters from the civil rights group National Action Network outside. The online invitation [no longer available] said the event was intended to "celebrate the opening of our African-American Engagement Office in Detroit."
Tracking footage from the Democratic super PAC American Bridge 21st Century, however, shows an overwhelmingly white audience ended up turning out [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GVOPMLcf-Y (next below)]:
Detroit is approximately 83 percent [ http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/26/2622000.html ] African-American.
Paul also spoke Friday at the Detroit Economic Club, where he proposed a plan to revitalize U.S. cities through the creation of "economic freedom zones [ http://www.freep.com/article/20131206/NEWS06/312060079/Rand-Paul-Detroit-economic-club-presidential-hopeful ]," which would cut federal taxes in communities that have an unemployment rate of 12 percent or higher.
The Michigan Democratic Party rejected Paul's advice for Detroit.
"Sen. Paul was a vocal opponent of the auto rescue, which saved over a million jobs, and led the Republican effort to shut down the government, costing Michigan's economy hundreds of millions," said party spokesman Joshua Pugh. "His special interest tax handout plan is nothing new. Here in Michigan, Rick Snyder gave $1.8 billion to wealthy special interests, and paid for it with billions in devastating cuts to our local communities and public schools. It's time for our elected leaders to stop the tax giveaways, invest in communities and improve education."
Paul has been trying to do more minority outreach in recent months. In April, Paul spoke [id.; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crDfHfIc2Co (next below, source http://www.mediaite.com/tv/maddow-tears-into-rand-paul-for-denying-he-questioned-civil-rights-act-you-did-question-it-on-my-show/ , also at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_mGiVTcX3w )]
at the historically black Howard University, becoming the first Republican elected official to speak on campus in years.
Still, he continues to generate skepticism, in part due to his criticism of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In 2010, he said, "I think it’s a bad business decision to exclude anybody from your restaurant, but, at the same time, I do believe in private ownership [ http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2010/05/19/98217/paul-civil-rights/ ]."
On Sunday, Paul said he opposed extending long-term unemployment benefits, because doing so would be a "disservice [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/08/rand-paul-unemployment-benefits_n_4408046.html ]" to workers. African-Americans have consistently had a significantly higher unemployment rate [ http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/08/21/through-good-times-and-bad-black-unemployment-is-consistently-double-that-of-whites/ ] than whites.
Neither Paul nor the Michigan GOP returned a request for comment.
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/09/rand-paul-african-american_n_4409356.html [with (separate) embedded video report, and (over 12,000) comments]
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Rand Paul: GOP ambassador to black America
All In with Chris Hayes
12/09/13
Chris Hayes looks at Rand Paul’s outreach to African American voters.
©2013 NBC UNIVERSAL
http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/rand-paul-gop-ambassador-to-black-america-85902915512 [with comment; the above YouTube of the segment at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zqlq7hkL_k (with comments)]
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The Return of the Welfare Queen
Republicans see class warfare as a winning message, but they risk hurting the blue-collar whites the party depends on.
Dec 14 2013
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/12/the-return-of-the-welfare-queen/282337/ [with comments]
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Oklahoma Plan For School Storm Shelters Thwarted By Tax Cut
Gov. Mary Fallin of Oklahoma speaks at the second day of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, Tuesday, August 28, 2012.
(Harry Walker/MCT via Getty Images)
BY SEAN MURPHY
Posted: 12/16/2013 1:56 pm EST
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — After a huge tornado ripped through the Oklahoma City suburbs this spring and demolished two elementary schools, killing seven children, a longtime legislator thought the time was ripe for the state to act on a well-known problem.
Although Oklahoma averages more than 50 tornadoes a year, and sometimes gets more than 100, about 60 percent of public schools have no shelters. Cash-strapped districts can't afford to build them.
Rep. Joe Dorman, who represents the small farming town of Rush Springs, proposed a bond issue, taking advantage of the state's rebounding economy and revenue from a business tax that was already on the books.
But the response to his proposal has made clear that there's something more ominous than tornadoes these days in one of the nation's most conservative states: taxes and borrowing.
The idea has been snubbed by Oklahoma's political leadership, including Gov. Mary Fallin, triggering a debate over the current push by some GOP-controlled states to cut taxes to improve their business climate instead of using available revenue for longstanding problems.
"It would be nice if every kid in Oklahoma had a safe room to go to," said Bill Pingleton, the superintendent in the rural town of Tushka, where the school and much of the town were destroyed by a tornado in 2011.
But top officials said the schools shouldn't expect state help for shelters.
"Just adding on a new tax burden on Oklahomans is not the answer," said Republican State Superintendent Janet Barresi, Oklahoma's highest ranking education official.
Republican leaders want to eliminate the franchise tax, a $1.25 levy on every $1,000 a corporation invests in Oklahoma, to help fund the shelter plan. The tax, which has existed since 1963, generates about $40 million annually, but was recently suspended. Since 2010, the Republican-controlled Legislature has cut the personal income tax and several taxes on businesses as part of an aggressive fiscal agenda.
Supporters of the shelter proposal, including teachers and families of children killed in the suburban Moore tornado, are trying to collect 155,000 signatures to put the question on the 2014 ballot.
Oklahoma is dead center in the Great Plains corridor known as tornado alley. Every spring when twister season arrives, school children follow a familiar ritual of filing to interior hallways, gymnasiums or — in the more affluent districts — reinforced shelters for state-mandated storm drills.
At the new Ronald Reagan Elementary School in Norman, a fast-growing college town in one of the wealthiest counties, every fourth classroom has been outfitted as a shelter with steel-reinforced concrete walls, no windows and a solid steel door.
Parents say the rooms ease their fears.
"I love the idea of having safe rooms in the schools. I wish all schools were like that," said Alicia McBane, 35, who was selling T-shirts at a recent PTA benefit at the elementary school, where her son is in kindergarten.
At another elementary school in Norman, Truman Primary, children take shelter in a gymnasium with concrete walls designed to withstand winds of 250 mph.
But many more schools in Oklahoma, where median income ranks 36th in the nation, are in WPA-era buildings in rural districts.
"Safe rooms are a tremendous cost when you don't have the support and the growth for bond issues," said Robert Trammell, the superintendent in Snyder, a ranching town with 1,400 people, about the same size it was in 1940. The town has three schools built in the 1930s and one in the 1950s. A twister killed 97 people in Snyder in 1905.
After budget cuts during the recession, the district is still retrenching. It dropped the wrestling program this year.
"There's no meat left on the bone," said Trammell, who said students will use hallways and bathrooms for storm protection though they don't meet federal standards.
In Norman, reinforcing the gym added $200,000 to the cost.
Students in Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore were also following the traditional procedure when they clustered in hallways at about 3 p.m. May 20 when an EF-5 tornado swept into the community. Winds measured at more than 200 mph collapsed a concrete wall on the children, ages 8 and 9.
Dorman, a Democrat, said he wasn't trying to put Republicans in a difficult political position with his proposal. He said he chose the franchise tax because the Legislature had temporarily suspended it so the money wasn't spoken for. The revenue would be used for the bond payments.
"That just seemed like the best place to draw the money without hurting the budget," he said.
But Republican leaders maintain that eliminating taxes, especially those on businesses, will encourage more investment in the state, generating more money for communities to pay for their own needs.
Since the rebuff, supporters of the shelter initiative, organized as Take Shelter Oklahoma, have become embroiled in a dispute with Republican Attorney General Scott Pruitt and the state Chamber of Commerce over Pruitt's use of wording in the ballot initiative that emphasizes the funding mechanism.
Some fear the issue is becoming hopelessly entangled in politics.
"When people are holding press conferences in front of the attorney general's office attacking the state chamber, we have gone far afield from the issue of our children's safety," said Republican Sen. David Holt of Oklahoma City.
© 2013 Associated Press
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/16/oklahoma-school-storm-shelters_n_4454451.html [with comments]
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Victims of Misclassification
By MARJORIE ELIZABETH WOOD
Published: December 15, 2013
WASHINGTON — LAST month, a Michigan construction worker named Matt Anderson testified in a Senate hearing about being a victim of employee misclassification. Mr. Anderson said that his employer forced him, after six years as an employee, to switch to “independent contractor” status. Though the move stripped Mr. Anderson of basic employee rights and protections, he went along with the change, he said, because “my fellow workers and I had families to support and we saw how bad the economy was.”
Today, millions of American workers in a wide variety of sectors, from construction and trucking to I.T. and professional services, are victims of misclassification, a tactic employers use to avoid paying taxes and providing benefits that are guaranteed to employees, such as workers’ compensation, overtime pay, minimum wage and unemployment insurance.
In 2000, a United States Department of Labor study estimated that up to 30 percent of employers misclassify workers. This year, the Treasury Department’s inspector general concluded that the problem had worsened. Fifteen states have now teamed up with the Department of Labor and the Internal Revenue Service to reduce misclassification through information sharing and joint investigations.
By federal law, employee status is determined by the degree of an employer’s control over the manner and means of work, not any written agreement. As Mr. Anderson testified, though his employer changed his status from employee to independent contractor, the conditions of his work stayed the same.
The costs of misclassification are considerable. The Department of Labor estimates that the lost revenue for Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation is in the billions of dollars. States are also bearing the burden. A 2007 Cornell University study estimated that New York State’s unemployment insurance fund lost $176 million annually to misclassification. Workers suffer financial losses as well. This past May, the Department of Labor recovered more than $1 million in back wages and damages for misclassified employees of a Kentucky-based cable company.
What is to be done? To start, Congress should pass the Payroll Fraud Prevention Act of 2013, introduced by Senator Robert P. Casey Jr., Democrat of Pennsylvania, which would make employee misclassification a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The bill would impose stiff penalties on offending employers.
But combating this abuse will require more than Senator Casey’s bill. Being denied their status as employees strips workers not only of basic employment protections but also of the collective bargaining rights that enabled workers to secure these protections in the first place. The 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act, which established modern employment law, resulted from decades of labor organizing. Without the right to unionize, workers will lose hard-won protections. The right to bargain collectively should thus be guaranteed by adding it to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
As the widespread practice of misclassification suggests, employers today are engaged in organized tactics to disempower workers. Workers must therefore be empowered under the law to fight back.
Marjorie Elizabeth Wood is a historian and labor rights advocate.
© 2013 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/16/opinion/victims-of-misclassification.html
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AP survey: U.S. income gap is holding back economy
By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
The growing gap between the richest Americans and everyone else isn’t bad just for individuals.
It’s hurting the U.S. economy.
So says a majority of more than three dozen economists surveyed last week by the Associated Press. Their concerns tap into a debate that’s intensified as middle-class pay has stagnated while wealthier households have thrived.
A key source of the economists’ concern: Higher pay and outsize stock market gains are flowing mainly to affluent Americans. Yet these households spend less of their money than do low- and middle-income consumers who make up most of the population but whose pay is barely rising.
“What you want is a broader spending base,” said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James, a financial advisory firm. “You want more people spending money.”
Spending by wealthier Americans, given the weight of their dollars, does help drive the economy. But analysts said the economy would be better able to sustain its growth if the riches were more evenly dispersed. For one thing, a plunge in stock prices typically leads wealthier Americans to cut sharply back on their spending.
“The broader the improvement, the more likely it will be sustained,” said Michael Niemira, chief economist at the International Council of Shopping Centers.
A wide gap in pay limits the ability of poorer and middle-income Americans to improve their living standards, the economists said. About 80 percent of stock market wealth is held by the richest 10 percent of Americans. That means the stock market’s outsize gains this year have mostly benefited the already affluent.
Those trends have fueled an escalating political debate. In a speech this month, President Obama called income inequality “the defining challenge of our time.”
Obama also called for an increase in the federal minimum wage, now $7.25. Republican leaders in the House oppose an increase, arguing that it would slow hiring.
Several states are acting on their own. California, Connecticut and Rhode Island raised their minimum wages this year. Last month, voters in New Jersey approved an increase in the minimum to $8.25 an hour from $7.25.
Income inequality has steadily worsened in recent decades, according to government data and academic studies. The most recent census figures show that the average income for the wealthiest 5 percent of U.S. households, adjusted for inflation, has surged 17 percent in the past 20 years. By contrast, average income for the middle 20 percent of households has risen less than 5 percent.
The AP survey collected the views of private, corporate and academic economists on a range of issues. Among the topics were what policy decisions, if any, the Federal Reserve might announce after it ends a policy meeting today.
Three-quarters of the economists surveyed don’t think the Fed is ready to announce a pullback in its economic stimulus. Speculation has been rising that the Fed will soon scale back its $85 billion in monthly bond purchases because of the economy’s steady gains. The bond purchases have been intended to keep long-term loan rates low to induce people to borrow and spend.
Most of the economists think the Fed will begin slowing its bond buying in January or March.
And most don’t think the economy needs the Fed’s help. Just over half say they believe growth could reach a healthy 3 percent annual pace even without the Fed’s extraordinary help.
As Janet Yellen prepares to succeed Ben Bernanke as chairman early next year, most of the economists expect the Fed to become more “dovish” — that is, more focused on fighting unemployment than on worrying about higher inflation that might result from the Fed’s actions. The Senate could confirm Yellen as soon as this week.
The economists are also confident that U.S. growth is picking up. Three-quarters said the recovery, which officially began 4½ years ago, has yet to reach its peak. And nearly all think the next recession is at least three years away; half think it’s at least five years away.
The economists forecast that growth will average 2.9 percent in 2014. That would be the healthiest annual pace since 2005.
One reason they expect healthier growth is that the effects of tax increases and government spending cuts that kicked in early this year should fade.
A budget bill that passed a pivotal test in the Senate on Tuesday will reverse some of those spending cuts. That should add slightly to economic growth. The bill also removes the threat of another government shutdown next year.
Among the economists’ other views:
— The Obama administration’s health care law will make little or no difference to the job market. About two-fifths said the law would cost jobs. None said it would increase hiring. The law has drawn fierce opposition from many small business owners, who say it will raise hiring costs by requiring companies with 50 or more employees to provide coverage starting in 2015.
— The stock market isn’t in a bubble. While the Dow Jones industrial average reached record highs earlier this year, most economists said that higher profits largely justified the gains.
— Europe will keep growing and avoid a recession in 2014. But growth will remain so tepid that inflation will be nearly non-existent. Nearly two-thirds of the economists forecast that inflation won’t consistently reach the European Central Bank’s inflation target of 2 percent until 2016.
— Inflation in the United States will remain low for the long run. A majority of economists think consumer inflation won’t consistently meet or exceed the Fed’s 2 percent target level until 2015 or later.
Economists appear to be increasingly concerned about the effects of inequality on growth. Brown, the Raymond James economist, says that marks a shift from a few years ago, when many analysts were divided over whether pay inequality was worsening.
Now, he says, “there’s not much denial of that ... and you’re starting to see some research saying, yes, it does slow the economy.”
© 2013 Associated Press
http://www.concordmonitor.com/news/work/business/9841267-95/ap-survey-us-income-gap-is-holding-back-economy
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The Twelve Days of Wall Street
By ERIC OWLES
December 13, 2013
On the first day of bonus season
my supervisor sent to me:
12 Dwarves for Tossing
[ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/06/17/wolf-of-wall-street-boiler-room-antics-on-the-big-screen/ ]
11 Padded Bills
[ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/03/25/suit-offers-a-peek-at-the-practice-of-padding-a-legal-bill/ ]
10 Leads a Left
[ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/10/04/twitters-i-p-o-and-the-league-table-fight/ ]
9 Bailout Lawsuits
[ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/01/07/rescued-by-a-bailout-a-i-g-may-sue-its-savior/ ]
8 ‘Issues With Bloomberg’
[ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/05/31/hunch-about-bloomberg-brought-rivals-together/ ]
7 Hedge Fund Hot Dogs
[ http://pagesix.com/2013/10/21/he-paid-100k-to-become-guy-fieris-friend-for-a-day/ ]
6 “Sons and Daughters”
[ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/08/29/jpmorgan-hiring-put-chinas-elite-on-an-easy-track/ ]
5 Tommy John’s
[ http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/yes-please-ode-to-the-undergarment/ ]
4 Housing Booms
[ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/06/03/behind-the-rise-in-house-prices-wall-street-buyers/ ]
3 Twitter #Fails
[ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/11/13/after-twitter-fail-jpmorgan-calls-off-q-and-a/ ]
2 Bitcoin Moguls
[ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/04/11/as-big-investors-emerge-bitcoin-gets-ready-for-its-close-up/ ]
and a $13 billion settlement.
[ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/11/19/13-billion-settlement-with-jpmorgan-is-announced/ ]
Copyright 2013 The New York Times Company
[from] http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/12/13/weekend-reading-the-twelve-days-of-wall-street/ [no comments yet]
Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
F6
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