http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/03/01/436006/ninth-circuit-opens-misconduct-review-on-judge-who-sent-racist-anti-obama-email/

The Judicial Council of the 9th Circuit will conduct a formal misconduct hearing into Chief Judge Richard Cebull’s decision to email a racist joke about President Obama’s mother having sex with a dog. According to the Ninth Circuit, Cebull initiated the inquiry. Additionally, Cebull told Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-MT) that he will formally apologize to the president.

http://www.theolympian.com/2012/03/01/2011996/apnewsbreak-judge-to-apologize.html

http://www.metroweekly.com/poliglot/2012/03/omalley-signs-marriage-equalit.html
Just watched it "And the Bill is signed"
Live stream
http://www.governor.maryland.gov/stream.asp

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) signed into law HB 438, a bill legalizing marriage equality, in a 5 p.m. ceremony held at the State House in Annapolis Thursday evening.

Saying, "We are one Maryland," he declared, "The bill is signed," at 5:15 p.m.
http://www.metroweekly.com/poliglot/2012/03/omalley-signs-marriage-equalit.html

Martin O'Malley ‏
Good morning. At 5pm today, we'll sign the marriage equality bill into law.
Watch live here: http://bit.ly/eou96N #MD4Equality

https://twitter.com/GovernorOMalley

Source: The Hill

President Barack Obama intends to press lawmakers Thursday to quickly strip billions of dollars in oil industry tax breaks, remarks that will come during his second energy-themed speech in two weeks aimed at blunting GOP attacks over gasoline prices.

Obama will speak Thursday afternoon at Nashua Community College in the swing state of New Hampshire.

“In Nashua, the President will . . . reiterate his call to repeal the unwarranted $4 billion in annual subsides handed out to oil and gas companies, and will urge Congress to take a vote on the repeal in the coming weeks,” a White House official said ahead of Obama’s remarks.

(snip)
“We plan to show that when (gasoline) is approaching $4 per gallon, oil companies don’t need the extra help from taxpayer subsidies,” the aide told The Hill. “As a matter of fairness, Republicans should not be continuing to defend this loophole.”



Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/213527-obama-to-demand-capitol-hill-vote-on-killing-oil-tax-breaks

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/barbara-boxer-to-gop-quit-saying-ted-kennedy

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) emphatically called on Republicans Wednesday to stop invoking the late Ted Kennedy to justify their support for the Blunt contraception amendment. She said he was a great champion of women's health.

"So I ask my colleagues here in this debate. Come here and state your views," Boxer said on the Senate floor. "But don't misstake the views of a dear departed colleague, who for 12 years supported a women's right to have access to contraception."


Boxer: Contraception amendment a 'radical departure'
http://thehill.com/video/senate/213417-boxer-contraception-amendment-a-radical-departure
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) blasted the proposed amendment from Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) that would exempt employers and insurers from covering healthcare procedures they object to on moral or religious grounds a "radical departure from what we've always done in this country" during an interview Wednesday. Boxer went on to say Republicans "can't help themselves" from engaging in battles over social issues, and criticized the GOP for attempting to attach the amendment to a highway transportation bill.

by Jed Lewison
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/27/1068820/-Warren-Buffett-mocks-Chris-Christie?via=blog_1


The lunchroom bully just got socked in the jaw:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0212/73323.html

Warren Buffett hit back at Chris Christie on Monday for recently suggesting that the billionaire “just write a check and shut up,” sarcastically calling the New Jersey governor’s remarks “a touching response.”

“It’s sort of a touching response to a $1.2 trillion deficit, isn’t it? That somehow the American people will all send in checks and take care of it?” Buffett said in an interview with CNBC.

Christie wasn't Buffett's only target. He also took aim at Mitch McConnell for having said the same thing:

“It’s sort of astounding to me that somebody that has the responsibility for being the minority leader in the Senate would think that you attack a $1.2 trillion or so deficit by asking for voluntary contributions,” Buffett said, referring to McConnell’s suggestion last month that the billionaire “send in a check” if he’s feeling so “guilty” about his low tax rate.

He added, “Since he did, I offered to triple his. But that’s a side show. The real problem we have is we’re taking in too little money and we’re spending too much. And that’s not going to be solved by voluntary contributions.”

As Greg Sargent points out, Warren Buffett is smart enough to understand something that modern Republicans do not believe and cannot comprehend: that American capitalism and prosperity depends on a healthy government. America's economic success has not come about in spite of our government, it's come about in part because of our government. And those who have reaped the biggest rewards also have the biggest responsibility to make sure the next generation is blessed with the same opportunities that they had.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/warren-buffett-versus-chris-christie-and-the-just-shut-up-caucus/2012/02/27/gIQAuSJMeR_blog.html


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Rick Santorum on Sunday took on of separation of church and state.

"I don't believe in an America where the separation of church and state are absolute," he told 'This Week' host George Stephanopoulos. "The idea that the church can have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country...to say that people of faith have no role in the public square? You bet that makes me want to throw up."

The GOP candidate was responding to comments he made last October. He had said that he "almost threw up" after reading JFK's 1960 speech in which he declared his commitment to the separation of church and state.

Santorum also on Sunday told Meet The Press host David Gregory that separation of church and state was "not the founders' vision."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/26/santorum-church-and-state_n_1302246.html?ref=politics

Santorum: JFK speech on church and state makes me want to ‘throw up’
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/212589-santorum-continues-to-face-questions-on-nclb-vote-


Santorum: ‘I Don’t Believe In An America Where The Separation Between Church And State Is Absolute’
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/02/26/432573/santorum-i-dont-believe-in-an-america-where-the-separation-between-church-and-state-is-absolute/

Rick Santorum took issue with President John F. Kennedy’s famous speech on the separation of church and state on Sunday, telling This Week’s George Stephanopoulos that he does not believe the separation is absolute:

I don’t believe in an America where the separation between church and state is absolute. The idea that the church can have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and visions of our country.

Watch it:
&feature=player_embedded

Obama says no quick fixes to energy squeeze, derides GOP drilling plan as a gimmick
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/obama-says-no-quick-fixes-to-energy-squeeze-derides-gop-drilling-plan-as-a-gimmick/2012/02/25/gIQAf6KKZR_story.html

President Barack Obama says there is no easy answer to the problem of rising energy prices, dismissing Republican plans to address the problem as little more than gimmicks.

(snip)
Obama said Republicans have one answer to the oil pinch: Drill.

“You know that’s not a plan, especially since we’re already drilling,” Obama said, echoing his remarks earlier in the week. “It’s a bumper sticker.”

Obama is pushing what he calls an “all-of-the-above” approach to the problem of limited energy resources, meaning an attempt to seek out alternative energy sources while reducing consumption of traditional fuels.

Weekly Address
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/02/25/weekly-address-all-above-approach-american-energy

In the State of the Union, I laid out three areas we need to focus on if we’re going to build an economy that lasts: new American manufacturing, new skills and education for American workers, and new sources of American-made energy.

These days, we’re getting another painful reminder why developing new energy is so important to our future. Just like they did last year, gas prices are starting to climb. Only this time, it’s happening earlier. And that hurts everyone – everyone who owns a car; everyone who owns a business. It means you have to stretch your paycheck even further. Some folks have no choice but to drive a long way to work, and high gas prices are like a tax straight out of their paychecks.

Now, some politicians always see this as a political opportunity. And since it’s an election year, they’re already dusting off their three-point plans for $2 gas. I’ll save you the suspense: Step one is drill, step two is drill, and step three is keep drilling. We hear the same thing every year.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/25/us/politics/uaw-tries-to-help-obama-win-working-class-voters.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

The United Automobile Workers union, a primary beneficiary of President Obama’s decision to rescue domestic carmakers, is now trying to return the favor.

As Mitt Romney prepared to deliver an economic address here on Friday declaring Mr. Obama’s three years in office a “failed presidency,” hundreds of union members gathered on the top level of a parking deck as a freezing drizzle fell.

“Thank you, President Obama!” shouted the union’s president, Bob King. He gripped a bullhorn as he exhorted the crowd, “Everyone!” They roared back, “Thank you, President Obama!”

It was the beginning of an effort by the U.A.W. and others in the labor movement to put their vast political organizations into motion behind Mr. Obama, testing their power in a difficult economy after years of declining membership. This is an election that both parties say could turn on their ability to win over working-class voters in the industrial Midwest, where battlegrounds like Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin could determine the outcome.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/senior-police-officer-gave-ni-executive-details-of-phonehacking-inquiry-7440666.html

Rupert Murdoch's former chief executive, Rebekah Brooks, is at the centre of a new inquiry into whether a senior Scotland Yard officer gave her inside information about the progress of the original failed phone-hacking investigation, The Independent understands.

Two days before the launch of Mr Murdoch's new Sun on Sunday, the Independent Police Complaints Commission was examining the nature of an apparent link between the senior Metropolitan Police officer and an executive at News International.

The unnamed senior officer worked in 2006 on the original phone-hacking inquiry, which failed to follow-up evidence of widespread wrongdoing at NI's now-closed Sunday tabloid, the News of the World. The NI executive was not named by investigators but is understood to be Ms Brooks, who resigned as chief executive last July in the wake of revulsion at the NOTW's hacking of the mobile phone of the missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler. there is no suggestion that Ms Brooks is implicated in the investigation, other than as a witness. The Independent has been unable to reach Ms Brooks to confirm or deny the allegations. There is no suggestion at this stage that the officer was paid. Ms Brooks is being treated as a witness and a statement is expected to be taken.

Next week, the Leveson Inquiry into press standards will start to examine the entangled relationship between News International and London's police force, whose senior officers enjoyed close relationships with NI executives.