Source: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
29 JUL 2015 AT 08:56 ET

Th e White House rejected a call Tuesday to pardon Edward Snowden, saying the former intelligence contractor should “be judged by a jury of his peers” for leaking US government secrets.

The US administration re-iterated its tough stance against the exiled fugitive, whom supporters regard as a whistleblower, in response to a petition on the White House website signed by more than 167,000 people. Lisa Monaco, an advisor on homeland security and counterterrorism, said Snowden’s “dangerous decision to steal and disclose classified information had severe consequences for the security of our country and the people who work day in and day out to protect it.”

She said that Snowden, who has been granted asylum in Russia after he leaked documents on vast US surveillance programs to journalists, is “running away from the consequences of his actions.”

“If he felt his actions were consistent with civil disobedience, then he should do what those who have taken issue with their own government do: challenge it, speak out, engage in a constructive act of protest, and — importantly — accept the consequences of his actions,” she wrote.

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2015/07/white-house-says-edward-snowden-should-come-home-to-face-trial/

Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer on Monday night condemned former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's (R) "outrageous comments" comparing the Iran nuclear deal to the Holocaust and said that Huckabee's statements reminded him of the "incitement" that led to the assassination of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

"There are serious issues to be debated here but for anybody to equate what the president’s doing to what Adolph Hitler did in World War II is just extraordinary. And in some ways it’s a form of incitement, and we’ve seen the results of that 20 years ago in Israel. There was the same kind of incitement against Yitzhak Rabin and that led to a tragic outcome," Kurtzer, who served as ambassador under President George W. Bush, said on MSNBC's "All In With Chris Hayes."

"I just hope that people really stand back and understand that Mr. Huckabee has crossed a very serious line here," he continued. "Every Republican candidate should stand up, condemn this and ask him to retract it."

Rabin was assassinated in 1995 after he helped broker the Oslo Accords between Israel and Palestine.

more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/daniel-kurtzer-huckabee-incitement

By Steve Benen

At a right-wing rally last week, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) railed against the international nuclear agreement with Iran in ways that seemed extreme even by Ted Cruz standards. “If this deal goes through, without exaggeration, the Obama administration will become the world’s leading state sponsor and financier of radical Islamic terrorism,” the Republican presidential candidate said.

But perhaps more interesting than the senator’s ridiculous rhetoric was his willingness to engage Code Pink and its co-founder, Medea Benjamin, in debate. As Roll Call reported, that may not have been the senator’s best idea.

“Let’s have some dialogue,” Cruz told her. “So one of the things you said is ‘if Iran is trying to get nuclear weapons.’ Well the nice thing is I believe … truth matters. You know one entity, one person with whom there is no ambiguity in terms of whether Iran wants a nuclear weapon is the Ayatollah Khamenei. Is President Rouhani. Both of whom explicitly said they are developing nuclear weapons. There is no doubt about it.”

Benjamin retorted, “That is absolutely false,” prompting jeers from a crowd of Iran deal opponents and a protest from Cruz that he not be interrupted.

The problem in this case is that Cruz’s claim is demonstrably wrong. The Texas Republican may believe that Iranian leaders will one day violate the terms of its agreement and develop such a weapon, but in reality, neither Khamenei nor Rouhani have “explicitly said they are developing nuclear weapons.”

That just hasn’t happened. It’s not a matter of opinion. The fact that Cruz made the false claim while stressing that the “truth matters,” made this slightly more amusing, but nevertheless wrong.

When Roll Call asked the senator’s office to substantiate the claim, his press secretary could not “back up the statement.”

A day later, Roll Call again tried to clarify matters, but it reported that Cruz “still hasn’t acknowledged he flubbed one on Iran during a debate with CodePink.”

more
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/i-think-debates-truth-matters?cid=eml_mra_20150728

Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS

GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio says the United States must acknowledge a “painful” history of racial discrimination that still affects many minorities.

Rubio told reporters in South Carolina on Monday that the biggest problems are a lack of economic opportunity and sour relationships between minority communities and law enforcement.

The Florida senator said the federal government should address the issue by creating better economic conditions and educational opportunities. He said existing discrimination laws are sufficient.

Rubio is on his first campaign trip to South Carolina since the June massacre of nine churchgoers at a black congregation in Charleston. The Florida senator did not mention the killings or race relations during two campaign speeches in Greenville before overwhelmingly white audiences.

Rubio said he will discuss race more prominently “when it’s appropriate.”

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http://www.salon.com/2015/07/28/rubio_us_has_long_and_painful_history_of_discrimination/

Read more: http://www.salon.com/2015/07/28/rubio_us_has_long_and_painful_history_of_discrimination/

A Republican Missouri state senator claims that he spent five years as a homosexual because he was abused as a child. Sen. Bob Dixon, who is running a campaign for governor, says his "teenage confusion" was a direct result of the abuse. “I have put the childhood abuse, and the teenage confusion behind me,” he said. “What others intended for harm has resulted in untold good. I have overcome, and will not allow evil to win.” His mother, who is also a politician, told a reporter in 1992 that Dixon had a change of heart after having a religious experience.

Read it at Springfield News-Leader

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2015/07/27/mi-senator-child-abuse-made-me-gay.html

Source: TDB/NBC New York

New York City will gradually tear down and rebuild LaGuardia Airport beginning next year. Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the plan on Monday saying it's "what New Yorkers deserve and have deserved for a long time." The new structure will be a joint public-private venture and cost $4 billion. Vice President Joe Biden, who once called the airport "third-world," attended the announcement. "LaGuardia and JFK are economic anchors for his city and they deserve to be the best in the world," he said.

Read it at NBC New York

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Read more: http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2015/07/27/nyc-will-tear-down-laguardia.html

Jay Michaelson

Some of Cosby’s accusers weren’t unconscious when he allegedly assaulted them. Many were awake, and unable to do anything about it.

“Quaaludes happen to be the drug that kids, young people were using to party with,” Bill Cosby said in his 2005 deposition. And that is probably the image most of us have of the pills, popular in the ’70s, the decade of disco and decadence. “Disco Biscuits,” they were called—I can almost picture a lipsticked Mick Jagger slipping one to Jerry Hall at Studio 54.

But in the wake of New York magazine’s instantly iconic cover featuring 35 of Cosby’s accusers (and one empty chair), the real effects of Quaaludes (methaqualone) are back in the headlines. And they are far more terrifying than the reputation suggests.

“I cannot keep balance. I cannot keep consciousness… I think I may have lost reasoning. I am death.” That’s what one Quaaludes user posted on the psychedelic website Erowid during his trip. And that was one he took voluntarily. Many of Cosby’s victims, assuming their stories are true, did not have that choice.

The testimony published in New York is similar. Some victims say things like “I really don’t remember much, except waking up in his bedroom. He was naked, and he was forcing himself into my mouth.”

more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/07/27/quaaludes-cosby-s-alleged-rape-drugs-of-choice-were-somehow-even-scarier-than-you-think.html

Source: Reuters

A federal judge on Monday rejected Citizens United’s effort to block New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman from demanding that the conservative group disclose more information about its major donors.

U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein in Manhattan refused to impose a preliminary injunction that would stop Schneiderman from requiring charities to disclose names, addresses and total contributions of big donors in order to solicit funds in the state.

Citizens United argued that Schneiderman’s interpretation of a 2006 state regulation on donor disclosures violated its First Amendment free speech and association rights, and invaded the privacy of donors who wished to remain anonymous.

But the judge said Schneiderman’s policy was substantially related to the important government interests of enforcing charitable solicitation laws, and protecting residents from illegitimate charities.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2015/07/citizens-united-loses-new-york-ruling-over-donors/

Source: TDB/Sydney Morning Herald

The Jehovah's Witness church hid child sex abuse allegations against more than 1,000 of its members, a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Australia heard Monday. The reports came across a 60-year period, and the church followed a policy of internal investigation into the allegations. Testimony to the commission also said that 401 members were kicked out of the church since 1950, but half were later allowed back in—and that the requirement that two witnesses testify to the crime meant that many of the sex abuse allegations went uninvestigated. The counselor presenting evidence said that the church looked at the "spirituality and the seductiveness" of accusers when evaluating their abuse claims, and that it blamed at least two victims for their own abuse.

Read it at Sydney Morning Herald

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Read more: http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2015/07/27/jehovah-s-witnesses-hid-1k-sex-abusers.html

Source: TDB/Houston Chronicle

An outside prosecutor will look into the death of Sandra Bland, the traffic stop, and the jail she died in, the district attorney for Waller County, Texas, announced on Monday. Lewis White, a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor, has been named as the prosecutor. The Texas Rangers and FBI are also investigating the death, which was ruled as suicide by asphyxiation by a medical examiner.

Read it at Houston Chronicle

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Read more: http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2015/07/27/outside-prosecutor-for-sandra-bland-case.html