August 28, 2015

Cheney’s staggering Iran hypocrisy: Why we need to ignore his sinister war games at all costs

Dick Cheney’s staggering Iran hypocrisy: Why we need to ignore his sinister war games at all costs

The former vice president is saying whatever he can to torpedo negotiations with Iran. Here's what he's not saying

MARCY WHEELER

The photo accompanying a Washington Post article published yesterday, which reported on a letter signed by nearly 200 Generals and Admirals opposing the Iran deal, showed Lt. General William “Jerry” Boykin. This matters because Boykin took part in Operation Eagle Claw, the failed 1980 attempt to rescue the Americans taken hostage in the embassy in Iran. More recently, Boykin played key roles running the Bush Administration’s covert operations, ultimately serving as one of DOD’s top intelligence officials. He’s best known for a 2003 speech he gave in uniform, pitching the War on Terror as a crusade against Satan. “We’re a Christian nation, because our foundation and our roots are Judeo-Christians. … And the enemy is a guy named Satan.” Boykin’s inclusion on the letter associates the opposition to the Iran deal with his Islamophobia, though the vast majority of those who signed the letter have no such stain on their record.

Two other signatories — John Poindexter and Richard Secord — offer perhaps a more troubling indicator of how familiar the propaganda campaign against a nuclear deal with Iran is. Both men were key players in — and then National Security Advisor Poindexter was tried for — the Iran-Contra scandal. Thus, these two men, who claim that an agreement to forestall nuclear weapons would “enable Iran to become far more dangerous (and) render the Mideast still more unstable,” were key players in doing just that, back when they armed Iran in the 1980s.

Again, most signers of the letters aren’t notorious for their extra-legal efforts to sow chaos in the Middle East for fun and — in Secord’s case — profit, but the involvement of Poindexter and Secord taint the effort nonetheless.

Above and beyond the involvement of these unscrupulous figures, there is one attempt to defeat the Iran deal that actually does discredit all others: former Vice President Dick Cheney’s plan to give a speech at American Enterprise Institute on September 8, one week before Congress will vote on the deal.

Before joining the Bush Administration, Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney opposed sanctions against Iran because American businesses would be “cut out of the action” (Halliburton is still one of the biggest likely beneficiaries of the easing of Iran sanctions).

more
http://www.salon.com/2015/08/28/dick_cheneys_staggering_iran_hypocrisy_why_we_need_to_ignore_his_sinister_war_games_at_all_costs/

August 28, 2015

Paul Krugman: “Talking nonsense” is job requirement for GOP presidential nomination

When it comes to money, Republicans would rather "embrace fantasy" than deal with hard truths

SCOTT ERIC KAUFMAN

Paul Krugman unloaded on the Republican Party’s “deep bench” in his New York Times column Friday, excoriating the presidential hopefuls for their nonsensical views on all matters economic.

“How would the men and women who would be president respond if crisis struck on their watch?” he asked, answering that on the GOP side, the answer is all “bluster and China-bashing.” He singles out Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who said that he if he were president, he’d “solve” the China-problem by telling its leader, Xi Jinping, to cancel his planned visit to the United States. “That would fix things!” he added.

Donald Trump’s non-solution is no better, Krugman argued. He constantly says that he wouldn’t let China “dictate the agenda,” but no one — not even Trump — knows precisely what that means. It is, however, an almost perfect talking point, playing as it does both to the GOP delusion that Obama’s a weak president and the party’s rampant xenophobia. “Not only can Obama not stop the Chinese, but they’re Chinese!” is the general impression they’re attempting to create.



more
http://www.salon.com/2015/08/28/paul_krugman_talking_nonsense_is_job_requirement_for_gop_presidential_nomination/

August 28, 2015

Senator powerfully indicts colleagues for gun control cowardice: “We are essentially sending...

Senator powerfully indicts colleagues for gun control cowardice: “We are essentially sending a message of quiet endorsement of these murders”

Conn. Sen. Chris Murphy says Congress' inaction "has become complicity"

SOPHIA TESFAYE

Sen. Chris Murphy is completely fed up with his congressional colleagues’ failure to act on gun safety reforms, and after yet another high-profile mass shooting this week, he’s blasting his fellow elected leaders for “sending a message of quiet endorsement of these murders.”

On CNN’s “Newsroom with Carol Costello,” the Connecticut Democrat said he thinks “it’s an absolute stain on this nation that there are have been more mass shootings this year than there have been days in the year. We shouldn’t accept that in Congress.”

The Washington Post reported this week that America is averaging more than one mass shooting per day in 2015.

Since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, in Newtown, Connecticut, Murphy has become a fierce advocate for expanded gun control and in the wake of this week’s execution of two journalists live on-air, the senator is making his disgust with his colleagues’ inaction perfectly clear, telling CNN he believes Congress’ failure to act after Sandy Hook inspires further violence:

This whole culture of mass violence in which Congress does nothing, I think sends a message to a lot of these individuals who are becoming unhinged in their mind that it’s OK to go out and commit these murders because no one seems to be doing anything to stop it, and so why should I think any differently than everybody else that I see on the news carrying out this kind of violence.

more
http://www.salon.com/2015/08/28/senator_powerfully_indicts_colleagues_for_gun_control_cowardice_we_are_essentially_sending_a_message_of_quiet_endorsement_of_these_murders/

August 28, 2015

Donald Trump: 'I'm The King Of The Tax Code!'

Republican presidential candidate and real estate mogul Donald Trump reminded us of his business prowess, calling himself "king of the tax code" during a Friday morning interview with MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

"What I want to do is I want to simplify the tax code," Trump told MSNBC. "Look, nobody knows the tax code better than I do," he said. "OK. I know it better. I'm the king of the tax code."

Trump, in a move that distanced him from many Republicans, said he wants to raise taxes on the extremely rich. He also said he wants to lower taxes for middle-class Americans. "We're going to simplify the tax code, take away some of the deductions," he said. "And hedge fund guys have to pay up."

Watch the clip, from MSNBC, below:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/donald-trump-tax-code-king

August 28, 2015

Trump Mocks Jeb For Getting Eric Cantor's Endorsement: He's A Loser!

Republican presidential candidate and frontrunner Donald Trump remains unimpressed by members of the GOP establishment.

After former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) announced his endorsement of Trump's rival, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the real estate mogul did what he does best: Remind everyone that Cantor was a loser. Formerly one of the most powerful Republicans in the nation, Cantor stunningly lost his primary race in 2014 to a political novice and college professor, Dave Brat.

Here's Cantor's endorsement:

Eric Cantor ✔
@EricCantor

.@JebBush is a true leader w/ a long-term vision for our country and the know how to implement it– not just talk about it. I'm #AllInForJeb.

5:37 PM - 27 Aug 2015
108 108 Retweets 72 72 favorites

And Trump's response:

Donald J. Trump ✔
@realDonaldTrump

Who wants the endorsement of a guy (@EricCantor) who lost in perhaps the greatest upset in the history of Congress?

6:27 PM - 27 Aug 2015
1,891 1,891 Retweets 3,592 3,592 favorites

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/donald-trump-eric-cantor-loser

August 28, 2015

Report: Clinton Campaign Says She's Already Locked Up 1/5 Of Delegates

Source: TPM

Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign is reportedly laying claim to a fifth of the delegates needed to secure the Democratic nomination, months before a single primary vote is even cast.

Bloomberg Politics' Mark Halperin appeared Friday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" to report on purported conversations between Clinton's senior advisers and delegates at the Democratic National Committee's summer meeting in Minnesota. Advisers informed Democrats that Clinton already has a fifth of the delegates she needs to lock up the party's nomination, according to Halperin.

Clinton's campaign reportedly boasted that more than 440 superdelegates have already publicly or privately committed to the candidate, according to Halperin.

###

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/hillary-clinton-locking-up-delegates

August 28, 2015

The Bill That Could Break Joe Biden in 2016

Ben Collins

The vice president likes to talk up the crime bill he helped pass in 1994. But if he decides to run, he’ll face questions about its contribution to our exploding prison population.

Twenty-one years after helping to pass the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act as a Delaware senator, Joe Biden is still touting it.

“It put another 100,000 cops on the street, and it cost $1 billion,” he wrote in April, in a release through NYU’s Brennan Center for Justice. “But because crime was rampant, everybody signed on. And it worked.”

The landmark legislation, now known as the 1994 Biden Crime Bill, was expansive and wide-reaching, and it outlaws civilian ownership of assault rifles, possibly the most substantial gun ban in recent American history.

But advocates for prison reform, one of the key issues in the upcoming 2016 presidential race, say one part of the bill is indefensible and contributed to the mass incarceration problem that has made America the most imprisoned citizenry in the Western world.

“It’s a big bill, but it’s a pretty bad bill,” said Marc Mauer, the executive director of the Sentencing Project. “There’s no question it was designed to be a tough on crime bill. That’s how President Clinton talked about it at his State of the Union address. The only reason there’s some half-decent stuff in there is because the Congressional Black Caucus was very adamant about the direction of the bill.”

more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/08/28/the-bill-that-could-break-joe-biden-in-2016.html

August 28, 2015

Republicans Devastated By Planned Parenthood Scandal Collapse As Videos Found To Be Edited

By: Jason Easley
Thursday, August, 27th, 2015, 11:39 am

The Planned Parenthood scandal has collapsed as expert analysis of the videos has revealed that they were edited, manipulated, and have no legal value.

The Fusion GPS analysis commissioned by Planned Parenthood concluded:

Fusion GPS analysts reviewed all four of the “full footage” videos released by the Center for Medical Progress, totaling more than 12 hours of tape. This analysis did not reveal widespread evidence of substantive video manipulation, but we did identify cuts, skips, missing tape, and changes in camera angle. A forensic video expert, Grant Fredericks, reviewed segments of tape identified as suspicious during this preliminary review. This professional analysis revealed that the full footage videos contained numerous intentional post-production edits.

-snip-

A video forensics expert, a television producer, an independent transcription agency, and Fusion GPS staff reviewed this material. While these analysts found no evidence that CMP inserted dialogue not spoken by Planned Parenthood staff, their review did conclude that CMP edited content out of the alleged “full footage” videos, and heavily edited the short videos so as to misrepresent statements made by Planned Parenthood representatives.

In addition, the CMP transcript for the “full footage” video shot at Planned Parenthood’s Gulf Coast facility in Texas differs substantially from the content of the tape. At this point, it is impossible to characterize the extent to which CMP’s undisclosed edits and cuts distort the meaning of the encounters the videos purport to document.

However, The manipulation of the videos does mean they have no evidentiary value in a legal context and cannot be relied upon for any official inquiries unless supplemented by CMP’s original material and forensic authentication that this material is supplied in unaltered form. The videos also lack credibility as journalistic products.

more
http://www.politicususa.com/2015/08/27/republicans-devastated-planned-parenthood-scandal-collapse-videos-edited.html

August 27, 2015

Republicans squeal when Hillary Clinton compares them to ‘terrorist groups’ on women’s issues

Source: RawStory

At a campaign appearance in Ohio, former Secretary of State and Democratic 2016 frontrunner Hillary Clinton said that Republicans’ “extreme views” on women’s issues are like those of a “terrorist group.”

Mashable.com reported that Clinton was speaking to an audience at Case Reserve Western University Thursday.

“Now extreme views about women, we expect that from some of the terrorist groups, we expect that from people who don’t want to live in the modern world, but it’s a little hard to take coming from Republicans who want to be the President of the United States,” said Clinton. “They are dead wrong for 21st Century America. We are going forward. We are not going back,” she said.

Republicans were quick to take umbrage to the candidate’s suggestion that their views on abortion, contraception, equal pay and gender identity are the same as al Qaeda’s or those of the Islamic State.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2015/08/republicans-squeal-when-hillary-clinton-compares-them-to-terrorist-groups-on-womens-issues/

August 27, 2015

Woman strips to show fresh mastectomy scars as Virginia official calls to defund Planned Parenthood

Roanoke County Supervisor Al Bedrosian was interrupted by a breast cancer survivor as he was pushing to defund Planned Parenthood at a recent press conference in Virginia. According to The Roanoke Times, Bedrosian had been on a “crusade” to defund the United Way since a conservative group released deceptively edited videos of Planned Parenthood employees speaking about fetal tissue donations.

“Let’s make everybody happy,” Bedrosian told a group of anti-abortion activists in front of the county administration building. “Those that want to support Planned Parenthood, go for it. Do it. We’ll continue to pray on our side that we get out of this business of killing babies, but you can do it if you want. That’s freedom in America. But to actually enhance, facilitate or enable it through county government is where I have a problem.”

A woman who was identified as Leigh Anne Woods by WDBJ walked up the podium and took her shirt off as Bedrosian was speaking. “You have a problem because they perform abortions, look at everything else they do, they save lives!” Woods said. “It’s more than birth control,” she insisted. “It’s more than abortion. They save lives.”

Woods told WDBJ that she wanted to show the county supervisor the scars from the mastectomy she had just weeks earlier, and she credited Planned Parenthood for saving her life.

Full story + video
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/08/woman-strips-to-show-fresh-mastectomy-scars-as-virginia-official-calls-to-defund-planned-parenthood/