Sen. Tom Coburn to resign at the end of current Congress
By Chris Casteel - NewsOK
Modified: January 16, 2014 at 9:35 pm • Published: January 16, 2014

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WASHINGTON – Sen. Tom Coburn, who has spent a combined 15 years here rooting out government waste and warning about mounting U.S. debt, will resign after the current session of Congress, foregoing the final two years of his term.

Coburn, R-Muskogee, has been battling a recurrence of prostate cancer but said he wasn’t leaving early because of his health. In a brief interview, Coburn said he wanted to focus on the next stage in his life. “I’ve had a lot of changes in my life,’’ Coburn, 65, said. “This is another one.”

In a prepared statement, he said, “My commitment to the people of Oklahoma has always been that I would serve no more than two terms Our founders saw public service and politics as a calling rather than a career.

“That’s how I saw it when I first ran for office in 1994, and that’s how I still see it today. I believe it’s important to live under the laws I helped write, and even those I fought hard to block.”

Coburn’s decision could set off a major scramble among Republicans hoping to replace him. U.S. Reps. Tom Cole, R-Moore; James Lankford, R-Oklahoma City; and Jim Bridenstine, R-Tulsa, will likely consider the race, along with Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt.

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More: http://newsok.com/sen.-tom-coburn-to-resign-at-the-end-of-current-congress/article/3924557

DULink: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4341148

DULink: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024343686

Sorry... it doesn't feel like hyperbole.

In the Debate About the NSA, Will Facts Trump Fear?
David Sirota - creators.com
1/16/14

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In order to have a genuinely constructive debate, data must be compiled, evidence must be amassed and verifiable truths must be presented. This truism is particularly significant when it comes to debates about security and liberty. When public policy disputes involve such grave issues, facts are a necessity. Without facts, we get the counterproductive discourse we are being treated to right now — the one hijacked by National Security Administration defenders throwing temper tantrums, tossing out fear-mongering platitudes and trying to prevent any scrutiny of the agency.

You don't have to look far to find this sad spectacle. Tune into a national news program and you inevitably will hear pundits who have spent the last decade mindlessly cheering on wars and warrantless wiretapping now echoing the talking points emanating from surveillance-state apparatchiks like Reps. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., and Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md.

This week, these two lawmakers who head the House Intelligence Committee summarized all the bluster in a press release that should be enshrined for posterity. In an attempt to defend the NSA, the bipartisan duo breathlessly claimed that whistleblower Edward Snowden ended up "endangering each and every American" by exposing the government's mass surveillance (i.e., metadata) programs. Additionally, they insisted that "the harm to our country and its citizens will only continue to endure," they indicted Snowden's patriotism and they said his disclosures of the NSA's unlawful and unconstitutional programs "aligned him with our enemy."

If these talking points and all of their media-promoted derivatives had been backed up by a tranche of corroborating facts, you might be able to argue that they represent a productive if caustic contribution to the conversation about national security. But the facts now leaking out of the government's national security apparatus are doing the opposite. They are debunking — rather than confirming — the NSA defenders' platitudes.

Back in October, for instance, ProPublica reported...

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More: http://www.creators.com/liberal/david-sirota/in-the-debate-about-the-nsa-will-facts-trump-fear.html

Obama's NSA Speech: Just What Eisenhower Warned About?
by Mark Memmott - NPR
January 16, 201412:43 PM

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On Jan. 17, 1961, President Eisenhower used his farewell address to warn Americans that:



As Slate has said, "with the possible exception of George Washington's departing speech," Eisenhower's speech may be "the best-known presidential farewell address in U.S. history." (An argument could be made, of course, for President Nixon's good-bye as well.)

Tomorrow — Jan. 17, 2014 — President Obama will announce the changes he does and does not want to see in the National Security Agency's surveillance programs. His speech will come after more than six months' worth of debate about the NSA's programs and how they do or don't trample on civil liberties. The debate has been sparked by the leaks from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Obama is expected to endorse some, but not all, of an independent panel's recommendations about scaling back NSA's efforts.

As USA Today says, Obama "picked an interesting date ... and not just because it is wife Michelle's 50th birthday."

"Ike's 1961 speech," USA Today continues, "has echoed over most subsequent disputes over American power: Vietnam, Watergate, revelations of assassination plots and overthrows of other governments, Iran-Contra, the first Gulf War, the response to 9/11, the second Iraq war — and disclosures over National Security Agency surveillance policies."



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The rest: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/01/16/263078896/obamas-nsa-speech-just-what-eisenhower-warned-about

Executed Killer Dennis McGuire Gasped And Snorted For 15 Minutes Under New Lethal Drug Combo
By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS - AP/HuffPo
01/16/14 11:07 AM ET EST

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LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) — A condemned Ohio killer appeared to gasp several times during his prolonged execution with the first use of lethal injection process never before tried in the U.S.

Death row inmate Dennis McGuire made several loud snorting or snoring sounds during the more than 15 minutes it appeared to take him to die.

It was one of the longest executions since Ohio resumed capital punishment in 1999.

McGuire's stomach rose and fell several times as he repeatedly opened and shut his mouth.

McGuire's adult children sobbed a few feet away in a witness room as they watched him die.

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Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/16/dennis-mcguire-execution_n_4610582.html

Gov. Christie and David Koch in Cahoots? It's Time to Subpoena the Committee for Our Children's Future
By Greg Palast - Truthout
Thursday, 16 January 2014 11:26

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Far more insidious, more corrosive and dangerous than the Governor of New Jersey playing traffic warden is the story of Gov. Chris Christie's secret meetings with a gaggle of billionaires - and the legality of the spending by the front organization set up following these hidden hugger-muggers.

In 2012, a tax-exempt "social welfare organization" called Committee for Our Children's Future, CCF, ran a series of TV ads telling America that Governor Christie has performed more miracles in New Jersey than Jesus did with loaves and fish. The New York Times found some old college chums who said they set up the "Children's" crusade for Christie. But the ads cost about $6 million. The Times didn't ask how Christie's buddies, not wealthy guys, found the six big ones.

But CCF was not started in 2012. When I heard "Children's Future," my nose started twitching. I smelled Koch.

The whiff of sulfur took me back to seven thick investigation binders nearly two decades old - each one marked "KOCH." In Volume 3, I found it: CCF - Campaign for Our Children's Future.

Just days before the 1996 election, "Campaign for our Children's Future," previously unheard of, paid for some of the most vicious smear ads ever run. The nasty blast, disseminated in coordination with a mysterious operation called "Citizens United," accused one Democrat of associating with a child molester (false), another of being "a Jewess" (true) and so on.

Most of the 29 targeted Democrats, blindsided and unable to swing at the phantom "Children" and "Citizens," were creamed. The result, to everyone's surprise, was that the Republicans kept control of Congress.

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More: http://truth-out.org/news/item/21258-gov-christie-and-david-koch-in-cahoots-its-time-to-subpoena-the-committee-for-our-childrens-future

First subpoenas could go out Thursday in Christie traffic jam probe
By Erin McClam, Staff Writer, NBC News
1/16/14

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A special committee investigating the manufactured traffic jam at the George Washington Bridge could issue its first round of subpoenas Thursday to allies of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Among those most likely to receive subpoenas, state lawmakers have said, is Bridget Kelly, Christie’s since-fired deputy chief of staff, who sent the email last August — “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee” — that appeared to set the jam in motion.

Aides to the committee, formed by state lawmakers to focus exclusively on the bridge fiasco, said it would probably seek documents first, before ordering testimony from witnesses.

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Link: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/16/22325075-first-subpoenas-could-go-out-thursday-in-christie-traffic-jam-probe?lite

Push back on what?

Hillary has not declared.

Brian Schweitzer has not much juice...

Now put Bernie Sanders, or Elizabeth Warren into the mix... and then we're talkin...

But WHY does somebody approaching the 2016 Presidential Election from the LEFT...

Cause so much consternation here?