May 22, 2013 · 11:32 AM

Man tied to Boston suspect shot amid FBI questioning

Reblogged from MSNBC:

Updated Wednesday 11:14 am

An associate of deceased Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was shot and killed in Florida after he attacked an FBI agent who was interviewing him along with other officials, NBC News reported.

Ibragim Todashev, 27, was being interviewed in Orlando, Fla., as part of the ongoing Boston Marathon bombing investigation, sources told NBC News. He was initially cooperative but then attacked the agent with a knife, sources told NBC News.

Read more… 257 more words

And you thought this was an open and shut case? Hmmmm...

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· 11:30 AM

Rise and Shine

Reblogged from The Obama Diary:

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Four years ago: President Obama looks out the window of Marine One as it lands at the White House, May 22, 2009 (Photo by Pete Souza)

****

Today:

11:0: VP Biden Gives the Commencement Address at the United States Coast Guard Academy (audio only at WH Live)

1:0 Jay Carney's press briefing

7:25: President Obama hosts a concert honoring Gershwin Prize winner Carole King…

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Absolutely...

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· 11:28 AM

Let Me Start: Taking the Fifth

Reblogged from MSNBC:

The IRS official who heads the tax exempt division is expected to exercise her Fifth Amendment rights and decline to testify today before a House panel. Make no mistake: This is a huge victory for Republican Congressman Darrell Issa. And an IRS official taking the Fifth will only make the scandal bigger.

Tea Party groups hope the scandal at the IRS…

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It'll be interesting to see how this unfolds...

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· 11:18 AM

10 things you need to know today: May 22, 2013

“I don’t have this burning, overriding desire to go out and run for office,” said Anthony Weiner in April.

The Week

A Senate committee approves immigration reform, Anthony Weiner launches his political comeback bid, and more

1. OKLAHOMA BEGINS CLEARING TWISTER DEBRIS

Rescue teams are winding down their search for survivors of the tornado that tore through Moore, Okla., and authorities are expected to start the mammoth task of clearing away debris. The mayor of Moore, Glenn Lewis, said he expected the death toll to remain at 24 people, including nine children. Officials had originally put the number of deaths at 51, but the state medical examiner’s office said that in the chaos after the storm some victims appear to have been counted twice. [NBC News, CNN]
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2. SENATE COMMITTEE APPROVES IMMIGRATION REFORM BILL
The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a sweeping immigration reform bill Tuesday. The legislation would provide a path to citizenship for up to 11 million people who entered the U.S. illegally. It would also include tougher border control. President Obama, who has made immigration reform a second-term priority, said the bill was “largely consistent” with his own proposals. The landmark legislation goes to the full Senate next month. [Washington Post]
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3. ANTHONY WEINER ANNOUNCES HE’S RUNNING FOR NYC MAYOR
Disgraced former Rep. Anthony Weiner on Wednesday launched a bid to become mayor of New York City. In a campaign video, he said he would fight to create jobs and reduce regulation on small businesses. He alluded to the sexting scandal that derailed his career two years ago, saying, “Look, I made some big mistakes… but I’ve also learned some tough lessons.” Polls show him ahead of all but one rival in the Democratic primaries, and he has a $5 million war chest. [New York Times]
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4. NORTH KOREA SENDS SPECIAL ENVOY TO CHINA
North Korea sent a “special envoy” of leader Kim Jong Un to China on Wednesday in an apparent bid to mend frayed relations between the communist allies. Ties between Pyongyang and Beijing were hurt by North Korea’s February nuclear test, then worsened again when China agreed to United Nations sanctions. The visit is considered important for North Korea, as the diplomatic crisis has made Pyongyang more reliant than ever on China for exports of food and fuel. [Reuters]
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5. GOVERNMENT SEIZED FOX NEWS PHONE RECORDS, TOO
Court documents indicate that the Justice Department seized records on several Fox News phone lines as part of a leak investigation, according to The New Yorker. The document was filed in the case against Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, a former State Department contractor accused of illegally leaking classified information to James Rosen, a Fox News reporter. Prosecutors obtained records on two White House phone lines and five others associated with Fox, including what appears to be Rosen’s personal cellphone. [New Yorker]
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6. TSARNAEV ACQUAINTANCE KILLED DURING QUESTIONING
An FBI agent shot and killed a man believed to have had ties to Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Little information was available early Wednesday, but the man, Ibrahim Todashev, reportedly was being questioned in his Orlando apartment when an altercation erupted. Investigators believe Todashev had spoken to Tsarnaev, who was killed in a shoot-out three days after the deadly April bombing, and had recently visited him in Boston. [CBS]
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7. ANTI-GAY-MARRIAGE FRENCH HISTORIAN KILLS HIMSELF IN NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL
A far-right French historian committed suicide on the altar of Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral on Tuesday in an apparent protest of gay marriage. Shortly after writing a blog post calling for radical action to oppose same-sex marriage in France, Dominique Venner, 78, walked into the famed cathedral, placed a letter on the altar, put the barrel of a handgun into his mouth, and pulled the trigger. Hundreds of visitors were immediately evacuated. Police did not immediately disclose what was in the letter. [Guardian]
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8. JUDGES RULE ARIZONA ABORTION LAW UNCONSTITUTIONAL
A panel of Ninth Circuit appeals judges struck down Arizona’s strict abortion law on Tuesday. The law, enacted in April 2012, made abortions illegal 20 weeks after a woman’s last menstrual period, even if the fetus had no chance of surviving. The judges said the Arizona law was unconstitutional because Supreme Court rulings guarantee women the right to end pregnancies until a fetus is deemed viable outside the womb, which typically occurs around 24 weeks. [New York Times]
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9. U.S. IDENTIFIES BENGHAZI SUSPECTS
The U.S. has identified five suspects in the attack on diplomats in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans last year. The men remain at large, however. Investigators have enough evidence to justify seizing them as suspected terrorists, but not enough to try them in civilian courts, as the Obama administration prefers to do, so the FBI will continue gathering proof. [Associated Press]
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10. GARCETTI WINS ELECTION TO BECOME L.A. MAYOR
City Councilman Eric Garcetti has won Los Angeles’ mayoral race. Rival candidate Wendy Greuel called Garcetti early Wednesday to concede, ending a two-year, $33 million battle to determine who would succeed Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as the massive city’s political leader. Garcetti will be L.A.’s first Jewish mayor, and, at 42, its youngest in a century. He takes office in July. [Los Angeles Times]

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· 7:17 AM

In Colorado, Blacks Make Up 4 Percent Of The Population And 100 Percent Of Death Row

The reality is this:  The stats in the title of this article are not surprising to the African American community because:

-  54% of African Americans graduate from high school, compared to more than three quarters of white
and Asian students.

-  Nationally, African American male students in grades K-12 were nearly 2½ times as likely to be suspended from school in 2000 as white students.

-  In 2007, nearly 6.2 million young people were high school dropouts. Every student who does not complete high school costs our society an estimated $260,000 in lost earnings, taxes, and productivity.

-  On average, African American twelfth-grade students read at the same level as white eighth-grade students.

-  The twelfth-grade reading scores of African American males were significantly lower than those for men and women across every other racial and ethnic group.

-  Only 14% of African American eighth graders score at or above the proficient level. These results reveal that millions of young people cannot understand or evaluate text, provide relevant details, or support inferences about the written documents they read.

-  The majority of the 2.3 million people incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails are people of color, people with mental health issues and drug addiction, people with low levels of educational attainment, and people with a history of unemployment or underemployment.

Source: PBS.org

Think Progress

In March, Colorado came close to becoming the 19th state to abolish the death penalty, but the bill failed after Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) voiced opposition and suggested a possible veto. A few months later, Colorado’s death penalty is still firmly in place, and the state is poised to complete what would be only the second execution in 45 years (the last was in 1997). Few dispute that Nathan Dunlap committed a horrific crime and murdered several people at a Chuck E. Cheese. But judges, university professors, and other prominent state leaders are urging Gov. Hickenlooper to commute Dunlap’s sentence, both because crucial errors that defined his trial may have led him to get a harsher sentence than others, and because killing anyone under the perverted state system would be a miscarriage of justice. According to letters filed with Hickenlooper’s office:

  • All three people on death row are black men. In a state that is only 4.3% African American, Colorado’s death row is 100% African American.
  • All three men on death are from the same one county, out of Colorado’s 64.
  • All three men committed their crime when they were under the age of 21.
  • Two law professors who studied Colorado’s application of the death penalty concluded it was unconstitutional, after finding that prosecutors pursue the death penalty in less than one percent of the cases where it is an option, and that the state failed to set “clear statutory standards for distinguishing between the few who are executed and the many who commit murder.”

“It appears that race, geography and youth largely determines who gets the death penalty in Colorado,” wrote a group of NAACP leaders in a letter urging Gov. Hickenlooper to grant clemency. They note that not a single black juror served on the panel that sentenced Dunlap to death.

In addition to the injustices that define the Colorado system, a group of former Colorado judges also point out that Dunlap’s bipolar disorder and psychotic tendencies were not even mentioned at trial. In fact, according to their letter, Dunlap’s lawyer told the jury that there was no explanation for his violence.

The judges add that “no clear evidence exists that the death penalty deters violent crime. What it does in our current system, as in this case, is to drain our judicial system of millions of dollars as mandatory appeals drag on for decades.” Studies have shown that the death penalty does not lower the homicide rate. In fact, the murder rate is lower in states without the death penalty. Hickenlooper says he continues to wrestle with the death penalty, and whether to commute Dunlap’s sentence.

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May 21, 2013 · 1:58 PM

Despite Sequester, High-Level Federal Executives Slated to Get Bonuses

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) speaks during a press conference in May, 2011. McCaskill introduced a bill Friday that would eliminate bonuses for members of the Senior Executive Service during sequestration.

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) speaks during a press conference in May, 2011. McCaskill introduced a bill Friday that would eliminate bonuses for members of the Senior Executive Service during sequestration.

From where I stand, this is absolutely outrageous!

Truthout

An elite group of federal employees is set to receive cash bonuses despite this year’s automatic budget cuts, according to a report that a Senate subcommittee issued Friday.

The report revealed that members of the government’s highly paid Senior Executive Service – who make up less than 1 percent of the federal workforce – had received more than $340 million in bonuses from 2008 through 2011. The bonuses came on top of annual salaries that ranged from $119,000 to $179,000.

In a process known as sequestration, $85 billion in across-the-board federal spending cuts took effect March 1, forcing the government to slash services and furlough workers. A month later, the Obama administration froze bonuses for the vast majority of federal workers.

But by law, agencies still must pay bonuses to Senior Executive Service employees who meet certain performance criteria, the report said.

Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, introduced a bill Friday that would eliminate bonuses for members of the Senior Executive Service during sequestration. McCaskill leads the Senate Subcommittee on Financial and Contracting Oversight, which produced the report.

“The idea that some of the highest-paid federal government employees could be getting bonuses while others are being furloughed is outrageous,” McCaskill said in a statement. “This legislation will ensure that doesn’t happen.”

Created by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, the Senior Executive Service is made up of leaders who serve in key positions just below top presidential appointees, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management website. They oversee the day-to-day activities of about 75 federal agencies.

Friday’s report found that the federal government had handed out more than 6,300 cash awards to members of the Senior Executive Service in 2011, for a total of $78 million. Most Senior Executive Service employees – 81 percent – received bonuses that year, the report said.

The agencies that spent the most money on Senior Executive Service bonuses were the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which paid more than $16,000 per employee; the National Science Foundation, which paid more than $14,000 per employee; the Department of the Navy, which paid $13,000 per employee; the Department of Health and Human Services, which also paid $13,000 per employee; and the Department of Commerce, which paid more than $12,000 per employee.

The report singled out the General Services Administration as doling out the most performance awards on average. The agency spent $1.1 million on bonuses in 2011, and each Senior Executive Service employee received an average of 1.6 bonuses, the report said.

The GSA is responsible for acquiring real estate, technology services and other big-ticket items for the federal government.

A GSA spokesman said in an email that the agency had cut executive bonuses by 85 percent last year and hasn’t paid any such bonuses this year. The agency also cut its Awards Stores program, in which employees could choose prizes such as iPods and digital cameras.

New leadership at the GSA is working to overhaul the entire performance awards system, said the agency’s spokesman, Dan Cruz. “Under this administration, GSA bonuses are coming down to their lowest levels in five years,” Cruz said.

A separate report published Thursday by auditors at the GSA’s Office of Inspector General criticized the agency, saying it violated many of the legal requirements for awarding bonuses.

The GSA is the same agency that came under scrutiny in Congress last year for a lavish conference in Las Vegas in 2010 and other such spending of taxpayer dollars, including exorbitant bonuses.

 

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· 10:05 AM

Darrell Issa: A Modern Day Joe McCarthy

I ran across this video on Democratic Underground and was compelled to share it with my TFC friends:

(From Monday’s show) Thom Hartmann compares Congressman Darrell Issa’s investigation hearings to those of noted Communist hunter, Joseph McCarthy.

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· 8:32 AM

10 things you need to know today: May 21, 2013

Apple really doesn't like paying taxes.

Apple really doesn’t like paying taxes.

The Week

1. 91 FEARED DEAD AFTER OKLAHOMA TORNADO
A massive tornado killed at least 51 people, including 20 children, as it blasted through Moore, Okla., on Monday. President Obama declared the area a major disaster, qualifying it for federal aid, as rescuers searched through the night for survivors and bodies. A state official said early Tuesday that as many as 40 more people might have died as the twister, with 200 mph winds, cut a two-mile-wide path through the Oklahoma City suburb, wiping out entire neighborhoods and two schools. [USA Today]
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2. SYRIAN REBELS FIRE ROCKETS AT HEZBOLLAH IN LEBANON
Israeli and Syrian troops exchanged fire over their shared border on Tuesday. The skirmish came after Syrian rebels fired rockets at Hezbollah militants in Lebanon on Monday. Hezbollah fighters over the weekend reportedly helped Syrian government forces retake the strategically important border town of Qusair. President Obama called Lebanese President Michel Sleiman to stress his concern about Hezbollah’s involvement, which diplomats say might help turn the civil war into a regional conflict. [Associated Press, CNN]
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3. SENATE PANEL SAYS APPLE SAVED BILLIONS WITH TAX SHELTERS
A Senate investigation unveiled Monday accused Apple of using a “complex web” of offshore shell subsidiaries to avoid paying taxes on $74 billion in profits earned overseas between 2009 and 2012. Such schemes are common, but Senate staffers said Apple’s tax strategy was unprecedented in its use of multiple affiliates with no employees or offices. Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly plans to forcefully defend the tech giant in testimony before a Senate subcommittee on Tuesday. [Washington Post]
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4. SECTARIAN VIOLENCE SURGES IN IRAQ
A string of car bombings and suicide attacks killed more than 70 Shiite Muslims across Iraq on Monday. It was the worst single day of sectarian violence since U.S. forces withdrew from the country in 2011. The attacks pushed the death toll from clashes between Shiites, who now rule Iraq, and minority Sunni Muslims to 200 over just the last week, raising fears that the country could be spiraling back into all-out civil war. [Reuters]
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5. GUATEMALAN COURT THROWS OUT RIOS MONTT’S CONVICTION
Guatemala’s highest court on Monday overturned a genocide conviction against former dictator Efrain Rios Montt, 86, who had been sentenced to 80 years for massacres of members of the Maya-Ixil ethnic group in 1982 and 1983. The ruling marked a setback for human-rights activists, who had hailed the May 10 conviction as a blow against impunity. Rios Montt will remain under house arrest, though, and prosecutors will try to re-do the disputed final weeks of the trial. [New York Times]
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6. OBAMA URGES MYANMAR LEADER TO CONTINUE REFORMS
President Obama welcomed President Thein Sein of Myanmar to the White House on Monday in the first visit by a leader from the once-pariah Asian state, also known as Burma, in 47 years. Obama urged Thein Sein to continue allowing democratic reforms. Obama also pointedly said that violent repression against minority Muslims “needs to stop.” Myanmar’s leader responded by saying that the country’s democracy is just two years old, and needs more time to take hold. [New York Times]
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7. MUSHARRAF GETS BAIL IN BHUTTO CASE
Former Pakistani military leader Pervez Musharraf was granted bail on Monday in the Benazir Bhutto assassination case. Musharraf has been accused of failing to provide proper security for the former prime minister after she returned from self-imposed exile in 2007. Musharraf will remain under house arrest, as he faces several other charges, but legal experts said the decision to grant him bail suggested that the military might be exerting pressure to get him out of his legal troubles. [BBC News]
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8. NORTH KOREANS RELEASE CHINESE FISHING BOAT
Gunmen in North Korean military uniforms released a Chinese fishing boat on Tuesday after holding the vessel’s crew for two weeks. The hijacking of the boat, which owner Yu Xuejun said was in Chinese waters, was the latest in a series of incidents that frayed relations between Pyongyang and its increasingly frustrated allies in Beijing, although foreign-policy experts said ransom-seeking rogue border guards — not the North Korean regime — were probably responsible. [Associated Press]
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9. VOLCANO DISRUPTS FLIGHTS IN ALASKA
An eruption from one of Alaska’s most active volcanoes has forced the cancellation of regional flights, local officials said Monday. Pavlof Volcano has been sending ash as high as 22,000 feet, and lava flowing from its 8,261-foot peak is sending up clouds of steam as it hits snow on the mountain’s sides. Commercial airliners, which fly higher than the small planes serving remote fishing towns and villages in the area, still haven’t been affected. [Reuters]
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10. DOORS KEYBOARDIST RAY MANZAREK DIES
Ray Manzarek, the keyboardist for the Doors, died Monday in Germany after a battle with bile-duct cancer. He was 74. Manzarek and Jim Morrison met at UCLA in 1965, and put together the band. Manzarek’s electric organ contributed to the Doors’ music its unmistakable sound. By the time Morrison died in 1971, the Doors had released six Top 10 albums and 15 hit singles on the Billboard Hot 100, including “Light My Fire,” “Hello, I Love You,” “Touch Me,” and “Riders on the Storm.” [Los Angeles Times]

 

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· 8:04 AM

Oklahoma Senators Repeatedly Opposed Disaster Relief Funds

Jim Inhofe Tom Coburn

Undoubtedly, they’ll have a rapid “change of heart” now that this horrible devastation has it home…

The Huffington Post

As frantic rescue missions continued Monday in Oklahoma following the catastrophic tornadoes that ripped through the state, it appeared increasingly likely that residents who lost homes and businesses would turn to the federal government for emergency disaster aid. That could put the state’s two Republican senators in an awkward position.

Sens. Jim Inhofe and Tom Coburn, both Republicans, are fiscal hawks who have repeatedly voted against funding disaster aid for other parts of the country. They also have opposed increased funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which administers federal disaster relief.

Late last year, Inhofe and Coburn both backed a plan to slash disaster relief to victims of Hurricane Sandy. In a December press release, Coburn complained that the Sandy Relief bill contained “wasteful spending,” and identified a series of items he objected to, including “$12.9 billion for future disaster mitigation activities and studies.”

Coburn spokesman John Hart on Monday evening confirmed that the senator will seek to ensure that any additional funding for tornado disaster relief in Oklahoma be offset by cuts to federal spending elsewhere in the budget. “That’s always been his position [to offset disaster aid],” Hart said. “He supported offsets to the bill funding the OKC bombing recovery effort.” Those offsets were achieved in 1995 by tapping federal funds that had not yet been appropriated.

In 2011, both senators opposed legislation that would have granted necessary funding for FEMA when the agency was set to run out of money. Sending the funds to FEMA would have been “unconscionable,” Coburn said at the time.

Hart said Coburn had “never made parochial calculations” about Oklahoma’s disproportionate share of disaster funds, “as his voting record and campaign against earmarks demonstrates.” Hart added that Coburn, “makes no apologies for voting against disaster aid bills that are often poorly conceived and used to finance priorities that have little to do with disasters.”

A representative for Inhofe could not immediately be reached for comment. Inhofe earlier tweeted: “The devastation in Oklahoma is heartbreaking. Please join me and #PrayforOklahoma. Spread the word.”

Coburn also put out a message on Twitter, writing, “My thoughts and prayers are with those in Oklahoma affected by the tragic tornado outbreak.”

Oklahoma currently ranks third in the nation after Texas and California in terms of total federal disaster and fire declarations, which kickstart the federal emergency relief funding process. Just last month, President Barack Obama signed a disaster declaration for the state following severe snowstorms.

And despite their voting record on disaster aid for other states, both Coburn and Inhofe appear to sing a different tune when it comes to such funding for Oklahoma.

In January of 2007, Coburn urged federal officials to speed disaster relief aid after the state faced a major ice storm.

A year later, in 2008, Inhofe lauded the fact that emergency relief from the Department of Housing and Urban Development would be given to 24 Oklahoma counties. “The impact of severe weather has been truly devastating to many Oklahoma communities across the state. I am pleased that the people whose lives have been affected by disastrous weather are getting much-needed federal assistance,” he said at the time.

The cost of the recovery effort for this week’s tornadoes is likely to be high. After a spate of tornadoes in the state in 1999, Oklahomans requested and received $67.8 million in federal relief funds.

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· 7:36 AM

Moore, Oklahoma

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“We are so thankful for our volunteers and staff who are working through the night and preparing for tomorrow.” American Red Cross

It’s not enough to write that our hearts and prayers go out to the residents of Moore, Oklahoma.   It’s not enough to look at the devastation on TV or on the internet.

Reading about this tragedy just reminds me of how vulnerable we all are against the forces of nature.

When Hurricane Katrina struck, I wanted to do something, anything to help, so  I decided to volunteer my services to the American Red Cross.  It allowed me to help in some small way.

I write a political blog and I’ll talk about the politics of disaster relief in a forthcoming post.

For now, the following is from the American Red Cross:

The American Red Cross has one shelter open in Moore and is working on locating others; we continue to operate three shelters that were opened Sunday in the Oklahoma City area following the storms on Sunday.

Red Cross volunteers are out tonight with food and supplies supporting first responders.

More than 25 emergency response vehicles are positioned to move at first light Tuesday, and we expect that the number will increase. The Red Cross is also sending in kitchen support trailers to support the upcoming operation to provide meals to those forced out of their homes.

People in Oklahoma near the tornado area are encouraged to connect with one another and let loved ones know that they are safe. This can be done through the I’m Safe feature of the free Red Cross tornado app. In addition, if you have access to a computer, go to redcross.org/safeandwell to list yourself as safe. If not, you can text loved ones or call a family member and ask them to register you on the site.

This has been a major disaster, and the Red Cross will be there for the people in this state and this community.

People who wish to make a donation can support American Red Cross Disaster Relief, which helps provide food, shelter and emotional support to those affected by disasters like the recent tornadoes in Oklahoma and Texas as well as disasters big and small throughout the United States by visiting redcross.org, dialing 1-800-REDCROSS or texting REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation.

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