Marmel: It's time for Sen. Jeff Flake to focus on his family.
Bulletin of Atomic Sciences: "Pandora's Promise," a pro-nuclear energy documentary is chock full of problems - mainly by completely ignoring any nuclear power problems.
I am so tired of the same ancient, wrinkled BS arguments against every single inch of progress we try to make as a nation. Gun debate? No problem, that one's easy, just cue up the argument that they're "trying to take away your guns." Health care reform? Yeah, "government takeover of health care."
Now we get the usual baloney argument over immigration reform. OH NOES, we'll have to have a national identification card!!! This time, it's coming from Democrats who have concerns about E-Verify.
Driver’s license photographs and biographic information of most Americans would be accessible through an expanded Department of Homeland Security nationwide computer network if the immigration legislation pending before the Senate becomes law.
The proposed expansion is part of an effort to crack down on illegal immigration by requiring all employers to confirm the identity and legal status of any new workers by tapping into a Homeland Security Department system called E-Verify, which is now used voluntarily by about 7 percent of employers in the United States.
But the proposal already faces objections from some civil liberties lawyers and certain members of Congress, who worry about the potential for another sprawling data network that could ultimately be the equivalent of a national ID system.
In two previous pieces (here and here), I discussed the phenomena of scandal narratives in American politics, first stressing how such narratives reflect a right/left divide—emphasizing mythos (the construction of meaning) on the conservative side and logos (the discovery of facts) on the liberal side—and then showing how even a symmetrical approach to understanding scandals over the past 30+ years still produces evidence of how asymmetrical they actually are.
I now want to conclude my discussion by looking at scandalmania in the larger context of left/right ideology in America over the past few decades.
But first, let's ground that discussion in the recent round of scandalmania, and it what it portends. What does all this mean going forward? Obviously, Obama scandalmania has served to distract attention from severe problems confronting the GOP.
House Speaker John Boehner is not going to bring a comprehensive immigration-reform plan to the floor if a majority of Republicans don't support it, sources familiar with his plans said.
"No way in hell," is how several described the chances of the speaker acting on such a proposal without a majority of his majority behind him.
Boehner, R-Ohio, does not view immigration in the same vein as the fiscal cliff last December, when he backed a bill that protected most Americans from a tax increase even though less than half of the GOP lawmakers were with him, said multiple sources, who spoke anonymously to allow greater candor.
I just don't see Republicans passing anything that a) grants SHAMNESTY!; b) adds to Obama's legacy; and c) riles the rubes.
There are a few not-quite completely crazy Republicans who understand that the demographics are stacked against them, and that immigration reform might help the GOP move the needle a bit with non-white, non-Southerners.
But the Teamams could care less about tactics and brand building. They care deeply, however, about law and order preserving America by keeping out the brown people.
James O'Keefe has a book release coming up on Tuesday and so he's dropping new video wherever he can in anticipation of it, I guess. But this one had me laughing because of the title he chose for his book chapter and the way he let his hurt feelings flow all over the 'interview' with New Hampshire Assistant Attorney General Richard Head.
O'Keefe, you may recall, scammed some poll workers in New Hampshire and in the process, committed voter fraud in order to prove there might be voter fraud happening. That made officials angry, and an investigation was launched, which seems to have hurt O'Keefe's feelings.
Never one to forgive and forget, O'Keefe grills Mr. Head about law enforcement activities undertaken in furtherance of the state investigation of him, including a search of the property where he lived and interviews with his family.
But what really has O'Keefe steamed is that Mr. Head demanded the emails Nadia Naffe had in her possession showing that O'Keefe had conspired to frame Rep. Maxine Waters and run other operations. He's definitely not happy about that, and so he ambushes Mr. Richard Head in his office.
The video is just hilarious. Trust me, I wouldn't bother except that it really is funny. First, O'Keefe offers Mr. Head a copy of his book, which is refused because its value exceeds the limit on acceptable gifts to state officials. Then he turns to the chapter he has written about his adventures with Richard Head, which he has entitled "The Rise of Richard Head."
No lie, that's the title of the chapter. Maybe a cheap shot, a low blow, but I am having trouble writing this post with a straight face because really, I'm surprised he didn't entitle it "The Rise of Dick Head". That would be much more in line with Mr. Frat Boy's attitude toward officials who object to his games, right?
Watch the video. It's funny in a pathetic kind of way.
You know how Texas Senator John Cornyn just hates, hates, hates government? But even worse how he hates people who get “entitlements” like social security and Medicare?
$48,807— is from the Judicial Retirement System of Texas. He served on the state Supreme Court from 1991 to 1997.
$10,132 in retirement benefits last year from the Employees Retirement System of Texas because he was Attorney General for three years.
$6,444 retirement distribution from the Texas County and District Retirement System because he was a district court judge for three years.
So, my math ain’t perfect but he gets about $65,000 a year retirement for 12 years of work. That’s probably better than your average social security retiree. Probably.
Plus, he makes about $200,000 as a Senator.
So, he’s just scraping by, whining about how everybody is taking money from the government.
The man has no shame. Lots of leather jackets. But no shame.
Welcome to an exclusive C&L live blogchat with Jerry DeWitt, author of Hope After Faith, which we reviewed yesterday.
A quick recap: For twenty-five years, Jerry DeWitt was a deep south Pentacostal evangelical preacher. A little over two years ago, he became an open atheist. As a result, his home town of DeRidder, Louisiana, has been rather unforgiving: friends deserted him, most of his family shunned him, his wife left him, he was kicked out of his ministry, fired from his secular job and he is still struggling to hold on to his house after bankruptcy. He regularly receives hate mail and threats. Walking away from his fundamentalist Christian faith was not a trivial decision.
Over the next two years, DeWitt became the first graduate of The Clergy Project, is the former Executive Director of Recovering From Religion, and wrote a fascinating book about his experiences as he lost his belief in God but rediscovered his faith in humanity as an atheist. Please join me in welcoming Jerry DeWitt to C&L where our readership can engage in real time questions and answers.
I’ll admit from the start that the Snowden chat at the Guardian was a brilliant journalistic and technical feat. At the same time, it’s clear that Snowden is still closely following the news, and presumably shaping his answers for maximal political effect.
So I take this comment, the last words he spoke on the chat, with a grain of salt.
This is the precise reason that NSA provides Congress with a special immunity to its surveillance.
Certainly, it would seem technically feasible to block all Verizon numbers associated with official Congressional communications devices. It would be far harder to block the abundant communications devices tied to campaign activity.
From this, shall we assume the White House and Courts are also immune?
Contrast that with Snowden’s claims about we peons’ communications.
Looky here: Gov. Chris Christie won't be able to play games with that open Senate seat after all -- that is, if the courts uphold the law as written:
TRENTON — Two liberal groups say they’ve found a “smoking gun” in a century-old state law that could force Gov. Chris Christie to schedule the general election in November.
New Jersey Citizen Action and New Jersey Communities United in a brief today, told the state Supreme Court today that the state’s 1915 law on filling U.S. Senate vacancies said that unless the vacancy occurred shortly before the next general election, it should be filled at the closest general election.
The purpose, according to drafters of the original law, was to “avoid the expenses of special elections for United States Senators and Congressmen.”
