herding cats
herding cats's JournalAPNewsBreak: No 'stand down' order in Benghazi
Source: Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The testimony of nine military officers undermines contentions by Republican lawmakers that a "stand-down order" held back military assets that could have saved the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans killed at a diplomatic outpost and CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya.
The "stand-down" theory centers on a Special Operations team of four — a detachment leader, a medic, a communications expert and a weapons operator with his foot in a cast — who were stopped from flying from Tripoli to Benghazi after the attacks of Sept. 11-12, 2012, had ended. Instead, they were instructed to help protect and care for those being evacuated from Benghazi and from the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli.
The senior military officer who issued the instruction to "remain in place" and the detachment leader who received it said it was the right decision and has been widely mischaracterized. The order was to remain in Tripoli and protect some three dozen embassy personnel rather than fly to Benghazi some 600 miles away after all Americans there would have been evacuated. And the medic is credited with saving the life of an evacuee from the attacks.
Transcripts of hours of closed-door interviews with the military leaders by the House Armed Services and Oversight and Government Reform committees were made public for the first time on Wednesday. The Associated Press had reviewed the material ahead of its release.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the Oversight panel, has suggested Hillary Rodham Clinton gave the order, though as secretary of state at the time, she was not in the military chain of command.
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/apnewsbreak-no-stand-down-order-benghazi
Lawsuit: Former Georgia GOP Staffer Claims Party Officials Targeted Her With Racial Slurs
The onetime executive assistant to the state's GOP chair alleges she was fired after complaining of racist treatment.
A former staffer for the Georgia Republican Party has filed a lawsuit claiming that party officials discriminated against her because she's black and subjected her to racist slurs and comments. In one case, she alleges, a colleague called her "the house nigger."
Qiana Keith served as the executive assistant to Georgia GOP Chair John Padgett until she was fired in March, allegedly for complaining about racist treatment by fellow Republican Party staffers. Her lawsuit, which she filed July 8 in federal court, accuses the Georgia GOP and Padgett of "intentional and unlawful race discrimination" that culminated in her wrongful termination.
"Ms. Keith was terminated for consistently poor job performance," Anne Lewis, the general counsel of the Georgia Republican Party told Mother Jones in a statement. "More than two months later, she contacted the Party through a lawyer and made claims of race discrimination and retaliation. We immediately undertook a full investigation of those claims and found that there was no merit to any of them. The Party and Chairman Padgett will vigorously defend themselves in court against these completely unfounded claims."
According to Keith's lawsuit, she was hired in June 2013 and "it soon became clear that Ms. Keith's race set her apart from her co-workers, and she was treated differently throughout her employment. Keith was repeatedly…put in demeaning situations by her co-workers."
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/07/georgia-gop-lawsuit-racist-slur-john-padgett
GOP Congressional Candidate Says Obama Has Rare Mental Illness
Iraq War vet Larry Smith is the Republican nominee to take on Rep. Filemon Vela (D-Texas) in November. He's also, it turns out, an armchair psychiatrist. According to Smith, Barack Obama's handling of the child refugee crisis along the Mexican border suggests the president is suffering from Münchausen syndrome by proxy, a rare psychological condition that causes caretakers to abuse kids.
"Today, we hear of reports that children are being abused, being used by drug cartels, and even dying," Smith said in a statement on his website last Thursday. "If a high school administrator prompted such mass abuse, that person would quickly be without a job and perhaps even found behind bars. The mental stability of the school administrator would be in question. Is a President of the United States who does such horrific acts deserving of less scrutiny and accountability?…People who intentionally hurt children for attention can be accused of Münchausen Syndrome by Proxy."
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/07/larry-smith-obama-munchausen-syndrome
The stupid runs deep with this one! I often wonder if people like him even believe the half the shit that comes out of their mouths.
The good news is I looked into the district he's running in and it appears from my glance the Dem is pretty secure, so thankfully we won't have this nut in congress!
Tomorrow legal recreational pot goes on sale in Washington.
Tomorrow is the big unveil for new pot industry in Washington State after a 20 month wait since the law passed.
Washington State's First Legal Marijuana Shops Set to Open Amid Chaos
The prohibition of marijuana in Washington state fell early Monday as a small number of retail shop owners received an electronic copy of a license to sell just-for-fun cannabis.
Those 2 a.m. local time (5 a.m. ET) emails bang-started a scramble for the actual pot, now waiting in the warehouses of an equally small number of separately licensed growers. Exactly 24 hours after product orders are placed, per a mandatory waiting period, the owners will be allowed to open for business, launching a new experiment in the legal sale of a very old plant.
The cash registers are ready. The display cases are clean. But less than a day before the likely first retail sale of marijuana in Washington, no one knows for certain which stores will be open, or which growers will provide the chlorophyll of the hour.
“It’s going to come down to the wire,” says Sean Green, the founder of Kouchlock Productions, which got the state’s first official growing license back in March. Now there are about 80 licensed growers, and some 20 retail shops who expect a license this week.
Green said at least three retail shops will open Tuesday: Cannabis City Seattle, Top Shelf Cannabis in Bellingham and The Freedom Market" in Kelso.
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/legal-pot/washington-states-first-legal-marijuana-shops-set-open-amid-chaos-n147626
To add to the confusion of the big unveil they're expecting a huge shortage of product in the beginning, but overtime the situation should balance out.
I just wanted to wish them luck and give Washington a hat tip. Best wishes for a successful first day with their newly legal pot!
GOP Rep.: Hobby Lobby Ruling Keeps Liberals From Reinstating 'Stone Age Tribalism'
"Today is a great victory for religious freedom in America, which has been severely under attack by the anti-freedom Left and its special interest groups," Stockman said in a Monday statement. "It is ironic for the Left to scream no interference in a woman’s decision to obtain contraceptives, but then to argue the government should interfere in that decision to fulfill a supposed ‘inherent’ right to contraceptives."
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"Civilization is a society in which the rights of the individual trump the whims of the majority. This ruling is a reminder liberals seek to drag us back to Stone Age tribalism in which one can be subjugated to the tribe as a whole," he said. "The belief people can be forced to buy you something that violates their beliefs is the height of arrogance, greed, selfishness and brute force. The Court rejected that tribal belief and upheld the ideas upon which this nation was founded. You are an individual and no one owns your mind or conscience."
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/stockman-hobby-lobby-stone-age-tribalism
This coming from a Ted Nugent loving expert in sending women back to the stone age. What about the women's individual right to choose their own type of birth control? How is it acceptable for an employer to have more rights in that area than the individual these choices directly impact?
Sheriff, Feds: Rancher Must Be Held Accountable (Bundy)
Source: Associated Press
U.S. Bureau of Land Management officials say they agree with a Nevada sheriff's position that rancher Cliven Bundy must be held accountable for his role in an April standoff between his supporters and the federal agency.
Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie said Bundy crossed the line when he allowed states' rights supporters, including self-proclaimed militia members, onto his property to aim guns at police.
"If you step over that line, there are consequences to those actions," Gillespie told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "And I believe they stepped over that line. No doubt about it. They need to be held accountable for it."
Bureau spokeswoman Celia Boddington, in a statement released Saturday to The Associated Press, said the agency continues to pursue the matter "aggressively through the legal system."
Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/sheriff-feds-rancher-held-accountable-24440891
Breaking: Unaccompanied immigrant children being flown to IAH
Source: Houston Chronicle
Harris County officials have been told unaccompanied immigrant children caught in south Texas are being flown into George Bush Intercontinental Airport because of protests in California, a spokesman for Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said Thursday.
Joe Stinebaker said the judge's office has been notified by federal officials of the children's arrival at Houston airport, but he was not able to provide other details and referred all questions to federal authorities.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials did not immediately confirm or comment on the report. A spokesman for the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the agency responsible for the children's long-term care, referred calls for comment to ICE officials.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/California-protests-steer-immigrant-children-to-5598276.php?cmpid=bna
Fearing Rising Backlash, NRA Urges Gun Activists to Stand Down
There has also been a particularly dark side to the story of the gun activists: As I first reported in mid May, members of Open Carry Texas and their allies have used vicious tactics against people who disagree with them, including bullying and degrading women. Just last week they harassed a Marine veteran, pursuing him through the streets of Fort Worth on Memorial Day.
In an extraordinary statement, the NRA denounced the open-carry demonstrations as "foolishness" and "downright weird."
Evidently the National Rifle Association has come to realize that none of this is good for business. In an extraordinary move on Friday, the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action—the organization's powerful lobbying arm in Washington—issued a lengthy statement seeking to distinguish between "responsible behavior" and "legal mandates." It told the Texas gun activists in no uncertain terms to stand down.
"As gun owners, whether or not our decisions are dictated by the law, we are still accountable for them," the statement began. "If we exercise poor judgment, our decisions will have consequences…such as turning an undecided voter into an antigun voter because of causing that person fear or offense." The NRA praised the "robust gun culture" of Texas—which recently has loosened laws as aggressively as any state—but then laid into those Texans "who have crossed the line from enthusiasm to downright foolishness."
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/06/nra-open-carry-guns-backlash-texas
Looks like the monster the NRA created has finally managed to embarrass even them. Who would have ever thought that was possible?
Drug helps breast cancer patients keep fertility
Source: The Associated Press
CHICAGO —
Doctors may have found a way to help young breast cancer patients avoid infertility caused by chemotherapy. Giving a drug to shut down the ovaries temporarily seems to boost the odds they will work after treatment ends, and it might even improve survival, a study found.
"They're really exciting findings" that could help thousands of women each year in the United States alone, said the study's leader, Dr. Halle Moore of the Cleveland Clinic.
"This has implications far beyond breast cancer," for young women with other types of tumors, too, added Dr. Clifford Hudis, breast cancer chief at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.
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Chemotherapy often causes premature ovarian failure, or early menopause. Doctors think that active ovaries are more susceptible to chemo damage, and that making them go dormant and stopping a woman's monthly cycles might help shield them from harm.
"It's basically a temporary menopause to prevent permanent menopause," Moore explained.
Read more: http://www.statesman.com/ap/ap/ohio/drug-helps-breast-cancer-patients-keep-fertility/nf9wy/
O'Malley signs transgender rights bill
Source: The Baltimore SUn
Gov. Martin O'Malley signed a law this morning to make Maryland one of a handful of states to extend anti-discrimination laws to protect transgender people.
The measure that protects transgender people against job and housing discrimination was one of scores of bills the governor was scheduled to sign during the last scheduled public signing ceremony of his eight years as governor.
Among the legislation also to receive the governor's signature are bills outlawing so-called "revenge porn" – posting intimate pictures on the Internet as a way of getting back at a former spouse or lover – and overhauling the state's speed camera law to add new safeguards for drivers from malfunctioning systems.
The governor handed the pen he used to sign the transgender protection law to Sen. Richard S. Madaleno, a Montgomery County Democrat who fought for eight years to convince his colleagues to pass it.
Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/blog/bs-md-last-signing-20140514,0,6134049.story
Way to go Maryland!
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