Gingrich Warns Republicans About Overreach

Journalist Michael Hastings dies at the age of 33

Hannity’s lame justification for partisan hypocrisy

Surveillance foiled many terror attacks, officials say

Rand Paul: Intelligence Chief Lied Directly To Congress

Taliban Step Toward Afghan Peace Talks Is Hailed by U.S.

Obama Has Plans to Cut U.S. Nuclear Arsenal, if Russia Reciprocates

Biden: You Will Pay A Political Price For Not Dealing With Gun Control

NSA director: Surveillance programs foiled about 50 terrorist plots – The Detroit News

White House: “By Fixing Our Broken Immigration System…We Can Grow The Economy”

Often someone makes a generous gesture that literally makes you go…”wow!”  That happened on Sunday, June 17th 2013, Father’s Day here in Atlanta…

WSBTV ATLANTA —

New York Magazine

World’s most powerful leaders pose under a dark, ominous storm cloud.

“How was the G8?”

“It was good. We discussed economic cooperation and anti-terror policies and sacrificed a baby calf to the gods of capitalism and laughed maniacally.”

Republicans on Immigration Reform

As I’ve said repeatedly, Mario Piperni stands out with his extraordinary political art and his political website.  John Boehner is his latest target.

Mario Piperni

It might still be possible to get a bipartisan bill on immigration through the Senate regardless of what the bill looks like and how well it addresses true reform. But it’s getting likelier that there won’t be any immigration legislation coming out of the House any time soon.

John Boehner:

“I don’t see any way of bringing an immigration bill to the floor that doesn’t have a majority support of Republicans,” Boehner said during a press briefing with reporters Tuesday.

“I frankly think the Senate bill is weak on border security, I think the internal enforcement mechanisms are weak and the triggers are almost laughable,” he said of the bill drafted by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Republican Sens. Marco Rubio, Lindsey Graham, John McCain and Jeff Flake. “So if they’re serious about getting an immigration bill finished, they should reach out to their GOP colleagues to broaden support.”

There you go. That just about kills any chance of an immigration bill getting through Congress. Boehner is essentially saying that unless he gets the support of teapublican house members, he will not bring an immigration bill to the floor. We know, of course, that there is no bill that addresses immigration reform in any serious manner that would ever satisfy the xenophobic madness running rampant in the radical right.

It’s all going to come down to how much pressure the GOP establishment can exert on the orange man between now and the elections to get an immigration bill through the House. Tea Party idiots might not get it but most Republicans do: there will not be another Republican president in the White House if Hispanics believe that the Republican party blocked immigration reform. End of story.

Related articles

• Republican’s “Demographic Death Spiral” (kstreet607.com)
• Boehner: Border Security & Majority of GOP Essential to Pass Immigration Reform in the House (speaker.gov)
• Boehner sets high hurdle for immigration reform bill (politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com)
• Boehner speaks out on immigration bill (abc15.com)
• Boehner About to Betray the Country in Favor of Amnesty (independentsentinel.com)
• Boehner: No immigration bill without GOP majority support (firstread.nbcnews.com)

NBC News

http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nbc-news/52241371 via @nbcnews

National Security Agency surveillance programs helped disrupt plots to bomb the New York Stock Exchange and the New York subway system, an FBI official told Congress on Tuesday.

The official, Deputy Director Sean Joyce, said that the programs also linked an American citizen in Chicago to the 2008 terror attacks on hotels in India and to a plot to bomb the offices of a Danish newspaper that published a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad.

Joyce and other officials appeared before the House Intelligence Committee to defend the surveillance programs after a 29-year-old NSA contractor, Edward Snowden, provided details of them to The Guardian and The Washington Post.

Gen. Keith Alexander, the NSA director, told the committee that the programs had helped stop more than 50 “potential terrorist events” since the Sept. 11 attacks. He said he would provide classified details of all of them to the committee Wednesday.

“I would much rather be here today debating this point than trying to explain how we failed to prevent another 9/11,” Alexander said.

Joyce gave limited details on the foiled plots. In the stock exchange plot, he said, the NSA used Internet surveillance to find an extremist in Yemen who was in contact with an operative in the United States. He said that intelligence agents were able to detect “nascent plotting” to bomb the exchange.

In the subway plot, he said, the NSA intercepted an email from a terrorist in Pakistan in 2009 who was talking with someone in the United States about perfecting a recipe for explosives. He said that person turned out to be Najibullah Zazi, who later pleaded guilty in the plot and is in federal prison.

The NSA director said that the programs are critical to protecting the country, are limited and subject to rigorous oversight, and carefully protect the civil liberties of Americans.

In introducing Alexander, the committee chairman, Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., said that Americans’ trust in government to protect the country has been damaged by “inaccuracies, half-truths and outright lies” about intelligence programs.

“It is at times like these when our enemies within become almost as damaging as our enemies on the outside,” Rogers said.

Alexander said that Snowden’s disclosures would have a “long and irreversible impact” on the security of the United States and its allies.

“This is significant,” he said.

http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nbc-news/52240543 via @nbcnews

Related articles

• Officials say surveillance foiled NY terror plots (wyff4.com)
• NYC subway bomb plot stopped by NSA secret phone program, official says (newsday.com)
• Officials: NSA Programs Broke Plots In 20 Nations (kake.com)
• Phone Spying Prevented NYC Subway Attack: Sources (newser.com)
• Officials: NSA surveillance programs helped foil terror plots in 20 countries – Fox News (foxnews.com)
• FIRST ON CNN: Alexander to reveal two new terror plots (politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com)
• NSA programs thwarted plots in 20 nations, officials say (ctvnews.ca)

The Huffington Post

Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) said Monday that abortion should be banned as early as 15 weeks after conception because he has witnessed male fetuses masturbate at that stage.

RH Reality Check first reported Burgess’ comments, which came during a late-night House Rules Committee hearing on a GOP bill that would ban abortions starting at 20 weeks after conception.

“This is a subject that I do know something about,” said Burgess, a former OB/GYN. “There is no question in my mind that a baby at 20 weeks after conception can feel pain. The fact of the matter is, I argue with the chairman because I thought the date was far too late. We should be setting this at 15 weeks, 16 weeks.”

“Watch a sonogram of a 15-week baby, and they have movements that are purposeful,” Burgess continued. “They stroke their face. If they’re a male baby, they may have their hand between their legs. If they feel pleasure, why is it so hard to think that they could feel pain?”

The bill, called The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, is scheduled for a House vote later Tuesday.

Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), the bill’s author, sparked outcry last week after saying heopposed an exception for rape victims in the bill because “the incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low.” Members of the House Rules Committee later, and quietly, added in exceptions to the bill for rape and incest victims. It’s unclear who was behind the change. A spokesperson for Franks did not return a request for comment.

Related articles

• Republican cites masturbating fetuses to support new abortion restrictions (rawstory.com)
• What The Hell?? GOP Rep Says He’s Witnessed Male Fetuses “Pleasuring Themselves” 15-weeks After Conception (bossip.com)
• GOP congressman: I oppose abortion because fetuses masturbate (video) (americablog.com)
• Texas Republican Congressman: Fetuses Can Fap, Must Not Abort (littlegreenfootballs.com)
• Politics – GOP – Fetal Masturbation is reason to ban abortion (championshipsubdivision.com)
• Politics – Re: GOP – Fetal Masturbation is reason to ban abortion (championshipsubdivision.com)

Huffington Post

States can’t demand proof of citizenship from people registering to vote in federal elections unless they get federal or court approval to do so, the Supreme Court ruled Monday in a decision complicating efforts in Arizona and other states to bar voting by people who are in the country illegally.

The justices’ 7-2 ruling closes the door on states independently changing the requirements for those using the voter-registration form produced under the federal “motor voter” registration law. They would need permission from a federally created panel, the Election Assistance Commission, or a federal court ruling overturning the commission’s decision, to make tougher requirements stick.

Justice Antonin Scalia, who wrote the court’s majority opinion, said federal law “precludes Arizona from requiring a federal form applicant to submit information beyond that required by the form itself.”

Voting rights advocates welcomed the ruling.

“Today’s decision sends a strong message that states cannot block their citizens from registering to vote by superimposing burdensome paperwork requirements on top of federal law,” said Nina Perales, vice president of litigation for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. “The Supreme Court has affirmed that all U.S. citizens have the right to register to vote using the national postcard, regardless of the state in which they live.”

Under Proposition 200 approved in 2004, Arizona officials required an Arizona driver’s license issued after 1996, a U.S. birth certificate, a passport or other similar document before the state would approve the federal registration application. It can no longer do that on its own authority.

Less than 5 percent of people registering to vote in Arizona use the federal form, said Matt Roberts, a spokesman for Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett. The rest register through the state, meaning they will continue to be asked to provide proof of citizenship when signing up to vote.

Continue reading here…

Related articles

• U.S. Supreme Court Strikes Down Arizona Voter I.D. Law (newsy.com)
• SCOTUS says states can’t require proof of citizenship to register voters (watchdog.org)
• SCOTUS rejects Arizona voter registration rule – Josh Gerstein (shortformblog.com)
• Supreme Court: Federal election law trumps Arizona’s proof-of-citizenship mandate (azfamily.com)
• Supreme Court Struck Down Arizona’s Voter Registration Law (americanlivewire.com)
• Supreme Court strikes down AZ law requiring proof of citizenship for registration (nbclatino.com)
• SUPREME COURT DECISION | Keeping Noncitizens Out of the Polling Place (heritage.org)
• Supreme Court strikes down Arizona voting law (cbsnews.com)

I have another website that I eventually stopped updating because after Barack Obama won his second term, my job was done on that site.

However, I’ve noticed quite a number of anonymous searches after I stopped blogging on the site.  Their search options allowed me to speculate that they were probably looking for dirt on the president or  perhaps just researching the many negative claims  about the President.

Some of you may be familiar with the site called Sinclair Watch a website dedicated to exposing a man who claimed to have had a homosexual affair with Obama back in 1999.

If you haven’t heard about this it may be because as much as the media wanted to jump on the story if it were true, their investigations showed that Larry Sinclair had a checkered past (to say the least) and there were a few other issues as well.  So his story never hit the mainstream media but he had an internet following that was pretty massive…for a while.  That is, until Orly Taitz and her birther movement came into play.

Now it seems that although the birther movement has  fizzled out, the die-hards in the GOP have decided to find something in the “birther movement” meme that may stick.

I can’t begin to discuss the insanity and the inanity of such a move.

Think Progress

Another Republican is accusing President Obama of secretly being a Kenyan man who forged his birth certificate in order to get elected President of the United States. This time the theorist is Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC), chairman of the House Homeland Security Oversight Subcommittee.

Duncan appeared on the radio program TruNews with Rick Wiles on Friday where the host asked the South Carolina congressman whether the House would go after Obama’s “phony identification papers.” Duncan initially demurred, but then agreed with Wiles that Obama could be lying about his birth certificate, calling for Congress to “revisit” the issue of “the president’s validity.”

WILES: While you guys are rounding up and deporting the illegal immigrants, any chance the House may actually pursue Barack Obama’s phony identification papers? That’s the original scandal, congressman.

DUNCAN: People should have voted against him in November. I’m afraid that that wouldn’t get to the Supreme Court where it ought to get.

WILES: But if we know they’re lying about all these other things, why not go back and say, “well maybe the first scandal was a lie, too?”

DUNCAN: There you go. I’m all with you. Let’s go back and revisit some of these things because Americans have questions about not only the IRS scandal but also about the president’s validity.

Watch it:

Other prominent Republican birthers include Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R), Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R), and Reps. Steve King (R-IA), Richard Hudson (R-NC), Mike Coffman (R-CO), and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA).

At this point, the birther conspiracy is so thoroughly debunked that Republicans could accuse Obama of secretly being a Snorlax and it would be no less credible than accusing him of being a modern-day Manchurian candidate.

In his three years in Congress, Duncan has developed a reputation for controversial statements. He has invoked other conspiracy theories peddled on websites like the Drudge Report, falsely claimed that he didn’t vote to extend big oil subsidies, and warned that background checks will lead to Rwandan-like genocide in the United States.

(HT: RightWingWatch)

Related articles

• Obama has paid $5 million to keep his personal and professional records sealed (rare.us)
• In Birther News: GOP Rep. Jeff Duncan Says President Obama’s ‘validity’ should be revisited (freakoutnation.com)
• Clambake wishing birthers Happy Birthday at ORYR (nativeborncitizen.wordpress.com)
• The NSA “scandal” isn’t important. Keep your eyes on the IRS plot, where the criminality lies. (fromthetrenchesworldreport.com)
• In Midst of 3 Scandals, the Birther Movement Creeps Back Up (servehiminthewaiting.wordpress.com)
• Could Cruz Spark A Leftist ‘Birther’ Movement? Alex Wagner’s MSNBC Panel Tackles Ted’s Canadian Roots (mediaite.com)

Mario Piperni

I dislike Lindsey Graham about as much as I can dislike any politician but he’s got this one right.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) — one of the Republican co-sponsors of an immigration reform bill that would provide a pathway to citizenship for the nation’s 11.1 million undocumented immigrations — told fellow Republicans that the GOP will fail to exist if reform does not become law.

“If we don’t pass immigration reform , if we don’t get it off the table in a reasonable, practical way, it doesn’t matter who you run in 2016,” Graham warned during on appearance Sunday on NBC’s Meet The Press. “We’re in a demographic death spiral as a party, and the only way we can get back in good graces with the Hispanic community, in my view, is pass comprehensive immigration reform. If you don’t do that, it really doesn’t matter who will run, in my view.”

I applaud Graham’s honesty on this issue in as much as I can applaud the honesty of any self-serving dick. He makes no pretense that he or his party give a damn about the lives or fate of 11 million undocumented immigrants. Clearly, there is no compassion at play here. Graham’s only concern has to do with Republicans winning in 2016. Nothing else matters and if there was a way to secure the Hispanic vote while herding 11 million men, women and children on to cattle cars and shipping them out of the country, I suspect that Graham wouldn’t be putting up much of a fight.

As for that death spiral thing – the sooner, the better.

Reblogged from MSNBC: