August 26, 2015

Outside the U.S., ‘the hawks are satisfied’ - By Steve Benen

It’s not exactly a secret that congressional Republicans and GOP presidential candidates are disgusted by the diplomatic nuclear agreement with Iran, so much so that Republican policymakers still hope to derail the international policy, consequences be damned.

But the deal itself was multilateral, not bilateral. The talks that produced the agreement were given the “P5+1” label because the United States was joined by allies and negotiating partners – the five members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany – in crafting the policy.

Are other countries also struggling with opposition from their own conservative officials? Apparently not.

Given the sound, fury and millions of dollars swirling around the debate in Washington over the Iranian nuclear deal, the silence in Europe is striking. It’s particularly noticeable in Britain, France and Germany, which were among the seven countries that signed the deal on July 14.

Here in France, which took the toughest stance during the last years of negotiation, the matter is settled, according to Camille Grand, director of the Strategic Research Foundation in Paris and an expert on nuclear nonproliferation.

more
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/outside-the-us-the-hawks-are-satisfied?cid=eml_mra_20150826

August 26, 2015

Trump Must Rule Out Third Party Bid by September 30

Donald Trump “must rule out a third-party bid before October if he wants to compete in South Carolina’s Republican primary, a crucial test in the nominating contest,” CNN reports.

“Trump has repeatedly refused to rule out a third-party candidacy, noting that he could use the threat of an independent bid as leverage, but he cannot appear on the South Carolina primary ballot unless he pledges to support the GOP nominee in the general election.”

Said Trump: “We certainly have plenty of time. We’re leading every poll, we’re leading every state, from Iowa to New Hampshire to South Carolina, polls have come in from virtually every place … so my whole desire is just fairness, and I want to run as the Republican nominee, I want to win, I think we will win.”

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http://politicalwire.com/2015/08/26/trump-must-rule-out-third-party-bid-by-september-30/

August 26, 2015

Donald Trump leading the GOP presidential field nationally with a stunning 40%

A new Gravis Marketing survey finds Donald Trump leading the GOP presidential field nationally with a stunning 40%, followed by Ben Carson at 13%, Jeb Bush at 10%, Ted Cruz at 7%, John Kasich at 5%, Carly Fiorina at 5% and Marco Rubio at 5%.

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http://politicalwire.com/2015/08/26/trump-holds-massive-lead-over-gop-rivals/

August 26, 2015

Biden’s Very Personal Decision

First Read: “He’s never been as close to a 2016 bid, and yet he’s still far away: As for Biden, we want to share this insight about his decision-making process after reporting and gathering string as he mulls a 2016 bid. First, it’s a very personal decision for him — it won’t be based on metrics. He knows that the odds will be stacked against him, but he also knows that the minute he closes the door on a presidential run, he knows his political career is over, especially after leaving office in Jan. 2017.”

“Right now, he’s also open to a White House bid because in his previous runs (in 1988, 2008), there never was a demand by other Democrats (and the news media) for him to get in. But he also realizes that if he runs, he’ll be required to attack Hillary Clinton, and he’s never been comfortable attacking folks from his own party.”

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http://politicalwire.com/2015/08/26/bidens-very-personal-decision/

August 26, 2015

The World’s Greatest Troll

Nate Silver: “What’s interesting is how Trump seemed to go out of his way after the debate to ensure that he’d remain the center of attention, with his tirade against Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly (a feud that he’s since resurrected). That tended to drown out most of the coverage of whether, say, Fiorina or Kasich had gained momentum after the debate, perhaps preventing them from having the sort of feedback loop of favorable attention that can sometimes trigger surges in the polls.”

“I don’t know whether this was a deliberate strategy on Trump’s behalf. But if so, it’s pretty brilliant. Trump is perhaps the world’s greatest troll, someone who is amazingly skilled at disrupting the conversation by any means necessary, including by drawing negative, tsk-tsking attention to himself. In the current, ‘free-for-all’ phase of the campaign — when there are 17 candidates and you need only 20 percent or so of the vote to have the plurality in GOP polls — this may be a smart approach. If your goal is to stay at the center of attention rather than necessarily to win the nomination, it’s worth making one friend for every three enemies, provided that those friends tell some pollster that they’d hypothetically vote for you.”

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http://politicalwire.com/2015/08/26/the-worlds-greatest-troll/

August 26, 2015

Why Did This Senator's Name Show Up In A Little Black 'Ledger Of Prostitution'?

When FBI agents searched the practice of a wealthy Florida ophthalmologist for evidence of health care fraud, they came across a black notebook filled with names and phone numbers, including that of Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), in addition to some photos of women in lingerie printed with their body measurements.

Federal prosecutors say Menendez was referenced on nine separate pages in the notebook, which belonged to Dr. Salomon Melgen, the longtime friend and donor accused of bribing the senator in exchange for his advocacy on behalf of Melgen's business interests. An FBI agent wrote in a search warrant that agents at the scene said the notebook "looked to be a ledger of prostitution activities," according to an affidavit.

The notebook was entered under seal Monday as one exhibit in flurry of legal filings by the Justice Department that responded to motions to dismiss the federal corruption charges against Menendez and Melgen. The men have denied any wrongdoing and are fighting the charges; last month, Melgen's attorneys filed a motion to have the notebook suppressed as evidence on the grounds that it was illegally seized from his offices.

Health care fraud agents first came across the notebook while executing a search warrant in January 2013 at Melgen's West Palm Beach, Florida practice. They found it on the bottom shelf of a bookcase in Melgen's office and noted that Menendez's name was listed inside, according to an affidavit signed by FBI Special Agent Gregory Sheehy.

In Sheehy's recollection, the notebook contained the names of several women that were almost always listed along with a phone number and, sometimes, a nationality. One page had an entry for a woman by the name of "Dixi" that was accompanied by "what appears to be a daily rate or price of '1200-1500,'" according to the affidavit.

Sheehy wrote that Menendez's information appeared alongside the names and phone numbers of other women and men, including one woman who was identified as being from "Spain" and another from "Macoris," a city in the Dominican Republic.

-snip-

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/bob-menendez-salomon-melgen-notebook

August 26, 2015

Ted Cruz Makes A Fool Out Of Himself During Interview with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly

During his short time in the Senate, Ted Cruz has proven himself to be an absolute joke. It baffles me that there are millions of people in this country who actually take this clown seriously. Not only is he one of the most ridiculous politicians we have in this country, but almost nothing he says is actually true.

It really shouldn’t come as a shock that when Cruz went on The Kelly File last night on Fox News, he made an absolute fool out of himself. It started with Megyn Kelly asking him if he would deport American citizens born to illegal immigrants, like Donald Trump said he would do.

“Do American citizen children of two illegal immigrants get deported under a President Cruz?,” Kelly asked. After saying he didn’t want to “play her game” – because apparently asking a serious policy question that has major implications on the lives of millions of Americans (as well as our Constitution) is unreasonable to Cruz – he finally tried to blame her question on the “liberal” mainstream media. No, seriously… “I get that’s the question you want to ask,” Cruz responded. “That’s also the question every mainstream media liberal journalist wants to ask.”

Read more at: http://www.forwardprogressives.com/ted-cruz-makes-fool-himself-interview-fox-news-megyn-kelly/?

August 26, 2015

51 Christian Faith Leaders Smack Down Republicans By Supporting Obama on Iran

By: Hrafnkell Haraldsson
Tuesday, August, 25th, 2015, 6:30 pm

While Republicans voice ever more strident opposition to President Obama’s Iran nuclear deal, seeming to have no other suggestion than bombing yet another country and triggering a third Middle East war in little more than a decade, more and more groups have come forward to support the president, including, recently, 70 nuclear nonproliferation experts.

The latest is a group of 51 Christian leaders, who represent dozens of Christian denominations and organizations. In a letter to Congress today, they voiced their support of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) as the best means of keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of Iran.

Their letter reads as follows:

Dear Member of Congress:

As Christian leaders in the United States, we are writing to urge you to vote in support of the negotiated settlement over Iran’s nuclear program. We live by God’s call to “seek peace and pursue it” (Psalm 34:14). After decades of hostility, the international community has crafted a nuclear accord to limit Iran’s nuclear program and prevent the United States from moving closer toward another devastating war in the Middle East.

The July 2015 diplomatic agreement with Iran will dramatically shrink and impose unprecedented constraints on Iran’s nuclear program. In exchange, the international community will begin to lift sanctions on Iran. It also establishes the most robust monitoring and inspection regime ever negotiated to verify Iran’s compliance with the restrictions on its nuclear program.

As Christians, we feel called to speak out for the possibility of peace. As faith leaders from the only country that has ever used nuclear weapons in war, we have a particular responsibility to speak boldly when opportunities arise that lead to nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation at home and around the world. This historic accord moves us one small step closer to a world free of nuclear weapons.

This agreement helps de-escalate tension in a region that is already suffering the effects of war and violence in ways unimaginable to most of us in the United States. It is also a testament to the effectiveness of diplomacy to take countries from the brink of war and resolve concerns peacefully.

This is a moment to remember the wisdom of Jesus who proclaimed from the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God” (Matthew 5-9). This agreement moves us further away from the possibility of war and another nuclear-armed nation. There is no question we are all better off with this deal than without it. Rejection of this deal would be a rejection of the historic progress our diplomats have made to make this world a safer place.

The stakes on this matter have never been higher. That is why more than forty national organizations, including more than a dozen faith-based groups, wrote a letter earlier this year urging lawmakers to vote in support of this deal. The groups noted that this “will be among the most consequential national security votes taken by Congress since the decision to authorize the invasion of Iraq.”

As people of faith, we urge you to support the international agreement with Iran and reject legislation to undermine the deal. We will be praying for you.

-snip-

It is interesting that while Sen. Tom Cotton (who can’t find Tehran on a map) claimed today that “Harry Reid wants to deny the American people a voice entirely by blocking an up-or-down vote on this terrible deal,” while himself ignoring the many voices raised in support of the Iran nuclear deal, like the letter here.

Obviously, it is too much to hope that this letter, or any number of letters from the various groups that have expressed support for peace, will have any effect on Republicans in Congress. What letters like this do accomplish is to unite those in opposition to war, and to make public the broad support diplomacy enjoys in this war-weary nation. It puts Republicans on notice that their decisions will be remembered, and in future elections, come back to haunt them.

http://www.politicususa.com/2015/08/25/religious-wont-actual-christians-support-iran-deal.html

August 26, 2015

Jeb Bush’s Campaign Is Collapsing As Voters Say No More Bushes In The White House

By: Jason Easley
Tuesday, August, 25th, 2015, 2:01 pm

Jeb Bush’s has raised loads of super PAC money, but it isn’t helping him with voters as early state polls show that Bush’s campaign is completely bombing.

A new PPP poll of New Hampshire revealed that Jeb Bush has fallen into a tie for fourth in the state that was supposed to be his firewall. Bush trails Donald Trump 32%-7%. He also trails Trump in a head to head match up 56%-33%.

The big finding in the poll was that Bush is struggling with conservatives, “Bush is really struggling. Only 38% of primary voters have a favorable opinion of him to 41% with a negative one. This is largely a function of his unpopularity with conservatives- among voters who identify themselves as ‘very conservative’ just 34% have a positive opinion of him to 48% who have a negative one. Only 3% say he’s their first choice for the nomination, putting him in a tie for 8th place with that group.”

The latest Monmouth University poll of South Carolina revealed that Bush is trailing Trump 30%-9%. Bush has a net positive favorability in South Carolina, but he isn’t what the electorate there wants. According to the poll, “South Carolina GOP primary voters say that, regardless of who they support in the primary, the country needs a president from outside of government who can bring a new approach to Washington (61%) rather than someone with government experience who knows how to get things done (28%).”

Bush is also getting crushed in Iowa according to the Suffolk University poll. Bush is in seventh place in Iowa, where he trails Trump 17%-5%.

more
http://www.politicususa.com/2015/08/25/jeb-bushs-campaign-collapsing-voters-reject-bush-white-house.html

August 26, 2015

Wall Street Journal Warns Republicans Are Greatest Threat To America’s Economy

By: Rmuse
Tuesday, August, 25th, 2015, 9:30 am

-snip-

The devoutly Republican Wall Street Journal’s economic round table noted that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made a solemn promise that Republicans would never shut down the government, or ever hold the debt ceiling hostage again. However, McConnell, or Speaker John Boehner for that matter, does not lead the Republican-controlled Congress; that power belongs to evangelical maniac Ted Cruz and his extremist clergymen in both chambers.

According to the WSJ Survey: Economists Cite Budget Battle as Top Threat, “After watching Congress repeatedly crash into fiscal deadlines in recent years, a majority of economists are expecting a repeat performance, with 55% of respondents to the latest Wall Street Journal survey of 62 economists predicting that there will be some disruption to the economy and financial markets in the months ahead.” And it will be the result of Republicans who intend on using the upcoming budget deadline and debt ceiling to achieve their neo-American Christianity’s goal of abolishing Planned Parenthood. According to current crop of GOP-theocrats, the Supreme Court illegally used the Constitution’s 14th Amendment to “allow” women to choose when they give birth.

The WSJ economists are fearful that yet another evangelical Republican economic disruption will have a really serious impact on their forecast for 2.2 percent GDP growth and a 5.1 percent unemployment rate by the end of 2015. The economists, who have witnessed Republicans “produce significant damage to the American economy” three times over the past six years said they are convinced Republicans will do a repeat performance such as the debt ceiling crisis of 2011, the fiscal cliff showdown in 2012, and the 2013 government shutdown that adversely affected the American economy and won Republicans control of the entire Congress. The economists, particularly the chief U.S. economist of High Frequency Economics forecasting firm, Jim O’Sullivan, said if Republicans as varied in extremism as Ted Cruz and John McCain follow through on their threat to shut down the government if Planned Parenthood is not destroyed, especially with a new budget and borrowing authority due by October 1st, they will repeat their past “serious damage to the economy by harming consumer confidence.”

The economists are not just imagining a worst-case scenario without empirical data, they noted that in 2011 when Republicans held the debt-ceiling hostage, not only did it cost the Treasury billions and billions of dollars in higher borrowing costs due to a first-in-history credit downgrade, it destroyed American consumer confidence. The result was, according to economic experts, real data, Reuters and the Christian Science Monitor, “the Republican debt-ceiling debacle caused job creation, consumer confidence, and economic growth to nose-dive.” It was “mission accomplished” for Republicans who have been stellar at killing jobs and thwarting a robust economic recovery since they crashed the world’s economy just seven years’ ago.

It is important to remember that when Standard & Poor (S&P) downgraded America’s stellar credit in 2011, it was solely because Republicans “expressed skepticism about the serious consequences of a credit default,” and that “the stability and effectiveness of American political institutions were undermined by the fact that “people in the political arena were even talking about a creating a credit default. That a country even has such voices is something notable. This kind of rhetoric is not common amongst AAA sovereigns.”

-snip-

http://www.politicususa.com/2015/08/25/wall-street-journal-warns-republicans-greatest-threat-americas-economy.html