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Here we go again with more fearmongering from Fox and crazy-eyes, lying wingnut Rep. Michele Bachmann. The scandal-mongering continues with more attacks on the IRS. Now, not only is the department evil incarnate for going after those poor, poor tea partiers who are upset about delays in getting their tax exempt status -- that none of them deserved in the first place -- now the IRS is literally going to kill people as the "enforcer of Obamacare."

The death panels are back again and Bachmann has suddenly developed a concern about what Americans with pre-existing conditions are going to do to get insurance coverage. It's funny that they only care about that issue now that it involves repealing President Obama's health care law. I would love for someone to explain to me just what the Republicans and the likes of Bachmann have ever done or plan to do to help those who have been denied health insurance. Repealing the health care law with nothing to replace it will only make the matter worse, not better. That doesn't seem to matter much in wingnut world though.

It obviously didn't matter to Bachmann, who bragged to Cashin' In guest host Eric Bolling that they again wasted the taxpayers' time and money with yet another repeal vote this week, and who has convinced herself that after the mid-term elections, President Obama is going to be forced into having to sign a repeal of the law himself after the Senate follows the House's lead and passes it, I guess after half of the country dies from the IRS denying them health care... or something in the fantasy that is going on in Bachmann's mind.

Oh... and expect more hearings. I'm sure America can hardly wait for the clown show we already saw in Issa's committee last week to continue for months or years on end.

As Media Matters recently reported, this is typical of what the viewers over at Fox have been being treated to for some time now: Grasping For New Scandals, Fox Fearmongers That Obamacare Will Allow IRS To Deny Medical Treatment.

Go read the whole post for some debunking of Bachmann and Bolling's fearmongering here.

On Friday, May 17, the international hacktivist collective known as Anonymous, joined by Code Pink and other political action groups from the U.S. and the U.K., launched Operation Guantanamo to mark the 100th day of a hunger strike within the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.

The three day campaign of global action is intended to raise awareness of the human rights violations currently going on at Guantanamo Bay prison camp via social media and on the ground protests. Alleged violations at Guantanamo include the indefinite detention of prisoners, many of whom have been cleared for release years ago.

The following is an excerpt from a press release issued by Anonymous regarding Operation Guantanamo (#OpGTMO):

"With no hope for justice, over 100 men who have been held and tortured for years have gone on a hunger strike. On May 18th, it will have been 100 days since they have eaten voluntarily. Prisoners have died suddenly, violently, and suspiciously. All inmates in Guantanamo Bay have been locked in solitary confinement. Some are being force fed, an international crime. These men face the prospect of a terrible death in prison despite many of them having been cleared for release years ago.

Guantanamo Bay must be closed at once, and the prisoners should be either returned to their home countries or given a fair trial in a federal court. Guantanamo Bay is an ongoing war crime. Anonymous will no longer tolerate this atrocity.

On May 17 to May 19, to coincide with the 100th day of the hunger strike, we urge everyone to join global actions on the ground and hacktivist protests as well as twitterstorms, email bombs, and fax bombs, in 3 days of nonstop action.

Phone Bomb the representatives:

Call the White House and insist that President Obama fulfill his promise to close Guantanamo: 202-456-1111, 202-456-1414

Call the U.S. Southern Command to decry the conditions at Guantanamo: 305-437-1213

Call the Department of Defense, voice your concerns about the treatment of hunger strikers: 703-571-3343

Call your senators and representatives and urge them to support the closure of Guantanamo: http://congresslookup.com/

Sign the petition:

https://www.change.org/CloseGTMO

For updates:

Twitter : @opGTMO

Hashtag: #opGTMO"

It's incredibly ironic that after years of the Patriot Act, and actually sitting on information that the Bush administration had been monitoring millions of Americans' communications without warrants that the media is now up in arms and wailing "First Amendment!" when they find out that the Obama administration got a subpoena to check the phone records of AP journalists in an attempt to find a national security leak.

For what it's worth, I'm not sure that this is the case that the collective media wants to hang their "chilling whistleblowers" hats on. In the case of sensitive counterterrorism (and especially, as in this case, a turned operative), I think maybe it's a good thing that whoever had those loose lips feels chilled from leaking information to the media. This isn't a case where a crusading whistleblower exposes malfeasance. This could have potentially hurt future counterterrorism targets. However, because ultimately, this is about them feeling violated, they ignore the legal subpoena and groundwork they didn't report on when it was established and just clutch their pearls.

In any event, it's time to dispel the laughable notion that any of us has any privacy any more any way. From grocery store buyers cards to Facebook, Americans have essentially waived their privacy away. The amount of information available on any and all of us is astounding, and much of it is freely given away by us. I've logged into my Facebook account only to find friends "checking in" from gyms, restaurants and even holidays (nice to let the world know you're not at home for potential burglers). Amazon crafts special deals based on my browsing history. Tweet about Wegman's Deli and watch Whole Foods send you a tweet about their superior deli department, as happened to a friend of mine.

And yes, the government is listening as well. The Patriot Act has been strengthened, not weakened in the intervening years. To the best of my knowledge, Room 614A in the SBC Building in San Francisco is still operational.

Privacy in the Google age is a myth. The sooner the media catches up to the reality that affects all of us, the sooner we can start discussing the real issues surrounding our privacy and rights.

Just one day after France's Constitutional Council approved the country's gay-marriage and adoption bill, French President François Hollande signed the bill into law. Although it was adopted by both the Senate and the National Assembly last month, right-wing opponents had taken one last stab at blocking the bill's passage by contesting it to the Council. France is now the ninth country in Europe, and fourteenth in the world, to recognize gay marriage. The first same-sex weddings can take place as soon as ten days after the bill's signing.

BBC:

After a tortured debate, the same-sex marriage and adoption bill was adopted by France's Senate and National Assembly last month.

The bill was quickly challenged on constitutional grounds by the main right-wing opposition UMP party of former president Nicolas Sarkozy.

But the Constitutional Council ruled on Friday that same-sex marriage "did not run contrary to any constitutional principles," and that it did not infringe on "basic rights or liberties or national sovereignty".

It said the interest of the child would be paramount in adoption cases, cautioning that legalising same-sex adoption would not automatically mean the "right to a child".

Opinion polls have suggested that approximately 55-60% of French people support same-sex marriage, and about 50% approve of gay adoption.

France is now the 14th country to legalize same-sex marriage after New Zealand in April.

It is also the ninth country in Europe to allow same-sex marriage after legalisation in the traditionally liberal Netherlands and Scandinavia, but also in the strongly Catholic nations of Portugal and Spain. Legislation is also moving through the UK Parliament.

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After taking her viewers through the whole, long, ugly mess with ABC's big "scoop" on the Benghazi emails and the how the story pretty much fizzled out by the end of the week with the discovery that Republicans were responsible for doctoring the supposed quotes from the emails that they published, Rachel Maddow gave her two cents on ABC still protecting the sources who lied to them.

MADDOW: And now, part of the scandal here is a press scandal. You know what? When you get used like this and you end up publishing false information, false quotes, you have to correct it. But the bigger scandal here is not a process matter, not a press matter. There's a very stark fact that somebody in Congress right now, or somebody working for somebody in Congress right now, a staffer, concocted a big lie to try to make the White House look very desperately bad on this Benghazi scandal that they otherwise have not been able to get traction on.

Who told the lie? And a note to my journalist pals who got involved in this scandal. If your source lied to you, they are not actually a source. They are a con artist and you are their victim. It means you don't have to protect them any more. They're not a source.

When you get lied to, when you are a tool of somebody else's deception, when you get lied to, the person lying to you is no longer a source, they are news. Their lie to you is itself news and you can report that news. Republican Congressional offices shopped a false dossier as if it was a White House email. That is a story. The office and the staffers and the members of Congress maybe who did that... that is news. And if you know who it is, you can say so.

Boy do I wish they'd take her advice, but again, I'm not holding my breath.

Bluestem Prairie - idiot GOP Rep hates butt sex, United Nations, lots of other things;

Dependable Renegade - umbrellas? ... really GOP?

Joe.My.God - a gay man shot to death in ... Greenwich Village?

Sadly, No! - Benghazi forever!

Towleroad - asshole Texas judge splits up lesbian couple.

blogenfreude blogs at stinque.com, twatters @blogenfreude, and saw the new Star Trek movie today, and it pushed all of his 8-year-old buttons. GO SEE IT! send tips to MBRU at crooksandliars dot com.

We're definitely caught in a trap and I don't know that we can get out. Every single person outside the Beltway who lived through the Clinton years has to remember that the Republicans were relentless in their pursuit to take down the presidency. It was scandal after scandal thrown at the wall, to see what would stick. Kenneth Starr spent three years and $70 million looking at every possible avenue in which to justify impeaching a president who was distressingly competent in comparison to his Republican congressional majority.

Clearly, the GOP and the thinktanks they're constrained by think this is a winning strategy and we're in for more. I honestly am beginning to believe that impeachment is inevitable. Not for something justifiable, but because the Republicans are going to prey on those suspicious minds of their base. We've got real problems we need to address, but don't you think for one minute that they'll get noticed on the Sunday shows. Instead, it will be a parade of conservative talking heads trying to keep milking this trifecta of scandals for all their worth.

ABC's "This Week" -- White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer; Sen. Robert Menendez, D- N.J.; Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio; Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga.; Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y. Roundtable: ABC News’ George Will; National Journal Editorial Director Ron Fournier; American Urban Radio Networks White House Correspondent April Ryan; editor and publisher of The Nation Katrina vanden Heuvel; and ABC News Senior Washington Correspondent Jeff Zeleny.

NBC's "Meet the Press" -- Pfeiffer, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; Rep. David Camp, R-Mich.; Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif.; former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. Panel: chairman of the Democratic Caucus, Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA); Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan; and the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward.

NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" -- Kasie Hunt, NBS News Political Reporter; David Ignatius,
The Washington Post; Gloria Borger, CNN Senior Political Analyst; Howard Fineman, The Huffington Post Senior Political Editor.

CBS' "Face the Nation" -- Pfeiffer, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas; Sen. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah; Associated Press President and CEO Gary Pruitt. Panel: New York Times' David Sanger, POLITICO's Lois Romano, The Washington Post's Dan Balz and CBS News Political Director John Dickerson.

MSNBC's "UP with Steve Kornacki" -- Margie Omero, Democratic pollster, Managing Director, Purple Strategies; Alan Abramowitz, political science professor, Emory University; Rick Hertzberg, writer, The New Yorker; Liz Kennedy, counsel, Demos; Mark Elias, attorney, Perkins Coie and chairman of the firm’s political law practice; Kim Barker, reporter, ProPublica; Chaumtoli Huq, professor, New York Law School, with expertise in labor, employment and human rights.

MSNBC's "Melissa Harris-Perry" -- Valarie Kaur, Senior Fellow at Auburn Seminary; Irin Carmon, Staff Writer at Salon.com; Dr. Monica Peek, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago / Breast Cancer Survivor; Scot Ross, Executive Director of One Wisconsin Now; Brittany Brathwaite, Just graduated from Syracuse University; Andy Chan, VP for Personal and Career Development at Wake Forest University

CNN's "State of the Union" -- Pfeiffer, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. Panel: USA Today’s Susan Page, Democratic Strategist Donna Brazile, Republican Strategist Ana Navarro, and CNN Chief White House Correspondent Jessica Yellin.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" -- Former chief of staff to President Ronald Reagan, Ken Duberstein; Glenn Hubbard, dean of the Columbia Business School, and Zanny Minton Beddoes, economics editor at The Economist; Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt.

CNN's "Reliable Sources" -- Former AP White House reporter Jennifer Loven, Mediaite’s Joe Concha and Jane Hall of American University; the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin and Dave Shuster, host of Take Action News; Daily Beast reporter Michelle Cottle.

"Fox News Sunday" _ Pfeiffer, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis. Panel: Brit Hume, Fox News Senior Political Analyst; Kirsten Powers, Daily Beast Columnist; Karl Rove, Former Bush White House Senior Adviser; Dennis Kucinich, Fmr Rep (D-OH).

What's catching your eye this morning?

Happy Saturday night, folks! It's Blue Gal from The Professional Left Podcast, bringing you this week's podcast round up. Be aware that these podcasts are also available on i-Tunes, and may not be safe for work.

CNN / The Big Three (new podcast): Interview with Rep. Keith Ellison

The LEFT Show: The GOP only serves you if you have your papers, your incorporation papers, that is.

PBS Idea Channel (video) - Is a DOS Attack a Weapon?

Open Thread below....

Nightfall (Original Edition)
	Artist: Candlemass

Saturday!

Joy Reid at The Grio:

In a letter to members of Congress, which was obtained by NBC News, Heritage Action for America, the lobbying arm of the Heritage Foundation (which recently found itself in hot water over the racial IQ theories of the co-author of their widely panned immigration reform study, Jason Richwine, who resigned from the think tank last Friday), urged Republicans on Capitol Hill not to govern, and instead, to focus on the would-be “scandals” plaguing the Obama administration.

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