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A Marine's response to the Presidential umbrella umbrage; 226 recs : By A HERETIC I AM

The Media's Take If Romney Had Won... 93 recs : By stopbush

Wanna Know Why We the People Really Don't Know Squat? 83 recs : By Octafish

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The Left Column

Segami

MADDOW: Fair Game to DISCLOSE NAMES of Republicans WHO LIED to ABC News

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.

Galraedia

Texas Judge Forbids Lesbian Woman From Living With Her Partner

(ThinkProgress) Carolyn Compton is in a three year-old relationship with a woman. According to Compton’s partner Page Price, Compton’s ex-husband rarely sees their two children and was also once charged with stalking Compton, a felony, although he eventually plead to a misdemeanor charge of criminal trespassing.

And yet, thanks to a Texas judge, Compton could lose custody of her children because she has the audacity to live with the woman she loves.

kpete

Reporter To Rumsfeld:"I sorta can’t believe these words are coming out of your mouth 10 years later"

Ryssdal: It’s easier, you say, to get into something than it is to get out of it. And I, I can’t help but wonder where we would be in this country today if you guys had been thinking of that ten years ago.

Rumsfeld: I thought of that when I was President Reagan’s Middle East envoy and we had 241 Marines killed at Beirut (in 1983), at the airport. And I concluded then that the United States has to be careful about putting ground forces in because we’re such a big target. And I also over the years came to the conclusion over the years that the United States really wasn’t organized, trained and equipped to do nation-building. So if you think of Afghanistan…

Ryssdal: …Yeah, wait, hang on a minute. I sorta can’t believe these words are coming out of your mouth, ten years later. So this was on your mind as Iraq was burbling up?

Rumsfeld: Absolutely.

Ryssdal: And yet here we are.

bigtree

Palin tried to play POTUS... and then WaPo posted this pic

tweeted by, ZerlinaMaxwell@ Zerlina Maxwell 4m
I love how @sarahpalinusa tried to play POTUS w/ "most Americans hold their own umbrellas" and then WaPo posted this pic.twitter.com/iJiO9lGqpP

SHRED

Republicans Altered Benghazi Emails, CBS News Report Claims

(HuffPo) One day after The White House released 100 pages of Benghazi emails, a report has surfaced alleging that Republicans released a set with altered text.

CBS News reported Thursday that leaked versions sent out by the GOP last Friday had visible differences than Wednesday's official batch. Two correspondences that were singled out in the report came from National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes and State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

Bill USA

Ezra Klein: The scandals are falling apart

(WaPo) The crucial ingredient for a scandal is the prospect of high-level White House involvement and wide political repercussions. Government wrongdoing is boring. Scandals can bring down presidents, decide elections and revive down-and-out political parties. Scandals can dominate American politics for months at a time.

On Tuesday, it looked like we had three possible political scandals brewing. Two days later, with much more evidence available, it doesn’t look like any of them will pan out. There’ll be more hearings, and more bad press for the Obama administration, and more demands for documents. But — and this is a key qualification — absent more revelations, the scandals that could reach high don’t seem to include any real wrongdoing, whereas the ones that include real wrongdoing don’t reach high enough. Let’s go through them.

Galraedia

Another Obama ‘Scandal’? Nope… GOP Rep Claims Responsibility For AP Surveillance

(Addicting Info) Just when you thought another event was about to be added to the growing list of Obama ‘scandals’ – what with the Benghazi ‘cover-up’ (debunked by a single e-mail), the IRS surveillance of Tea Party-supporting groups (which flame-throwers like Allen West attempted to conflate into ‘conspiracies’ with no success), and the continuing heat on the military for its policies on sexual abuse – the Department of Justice investigation of Associated Press telephone records, widely expected to be another partisan blowtorch, has just been defended by a Republican congressman who claims it was the Republicans themselves who demanded the investigation last year.

Representative Trey Gowdy (R-SC) spoke to Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren about the issue, one libertarians, journalists, and freedom of information advocates all believe demands review and reform, and instead of using it to bludgeon the administration for overstepping (which most of his party, the media, and even the President’s own party are doing), he instead claimed it was the natural evolution of a GOP demand for a probe. From Think Progress:

“Think back a year ago. We had the attorney general and other Department of Justice employees, and we grilled them over national security leaks. And here they are doing what we asked them to do, investigate the leak.”

alp227

FBI seeks source of prostitution, corruption allegations against Sen. Robert Menendez

(WaPo) Months after the FBI began probing allegations against Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), investigators are now looking at whether someone set out to smear him while he was running for re-election last year and then ascending to his new post as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, according to four people briefed on the inquiry.

The scene of federal agents interviewing two of the world’s wealthiest sugar barons, whose business holdings include Domino Sugar, underscores the unusual twists of the saga centered on Menendez, who has been battling allegations that he did special favors for a major campaign donor.

marmar

Elizabeth Warren slams pro-Wall Street bill

(HuffPo) Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said Thursday that she will fight legislation in the Senate that would roll back key parts of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, just a week after the package made it out of the House Financial Services Committee with support from fellow Democrats.

"Wall Street’s aggressive determination paid off last week when the House Financial Services Committee reported out several bills to roll back reforms to the derivatives markets included in the Dodd-Frank Act," Warren said in a statement. “I strongly agree with Treasury Secretary Lew’s opposition to the bills. The Dodd-Frank Act put in place a variety of measures that work together as a system to protect consumers, hold big banks accountable, and reduce the risk of future crises. It is dangerous for Congress to amend the derivatives provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act without at the same time taking accompanying steps to strengthen reform and maintain the law’s equilibrium."

ProSense

LOL: White House Mocks GOP’s Obamacare Hashtag (PHOTO)

When Republicans on Thursday sought to highlight their latest repeal effort by encouraging Twitter followers to describe "Obamacare" in three words, the White House decided to get in on the action.

With the GOP-promoted hashtag included, the White House's official Twitter account posted a reminder that the Affordable Care Act still carries the force of law:

Cool

Microscopic crystal 'flowers' build themselves in a Harvard lab - MSNBC Science : By WillyT

Saratoga Teen’s Research Takes Science World By Storm Science : By NBachers

Your Sunday LOLcats (dial-up warning) Comfort And Support Edition The DU Lounge : By SalmonChantedEvening

George Takei Responds To "Traditional" Marriage Fans LGBT : By Xipe Totec

Super-Bright Explosion Seen on the Moon Science : By dipsydoodle

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