Tag Archives: Tuesday

June 6, 2013 · 12:45 PM

Ten injured in shotgun blast at gun show

 

Shotgun barrels and shooter via Shutterstock

The Raw Story

Ten people were hurt Tuesday night when a gun show worker fired a shotgun into the floor, thinking the weapon had been loaded with dummy ammunition.According to Elgin, Illinois Courier-News, the gun was accidentally fired during a gun show at the St. Charles Sportsman’s Club, the area Country Club.

The Kane County Sheriff’s Department reported to the Courier that officers responded to the club, located in Blackberry township, after reports of gunfire.

Seven people were treated at the scene for minor injuries. Three men, ages 81, 60 and 14 were transported by ambulance to a local hospital for treatment.

A 69-year-old St. Charles man was reportedly handling the shotgun when it went off. The man believed he had placed a “snap cap” in the barrel, a device used to protect the gun’s firing pin when it is in storage. Pointing the barrel of the gun at the floor, the man pulled the trigger, only realizing that he had placed a live shell into the weapon’s chamber when the gun went off, spraying lead shot into the floor, which ricocheted upward, injuring bystanders and the shooter.

Police, sheriff and fire units rushed to the scene, but fortunately, none of the injuries suffered are believed to be life-threatening.

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May 1, 2013 · 10:27 AM

10 things you need to know today: May 1, 2013

U.S. military guards move a detainee inside Guantanamo in 2010.

Busy day for me today.  This will be my only post until later this evening…

The Week

Obama recommits to closing Gitmo, investigators find ricin on suspect’s trash, and more in our roundup of the stories that are making news and driving opinion

1. OBAMA RENEWS PUSH TO CLOSE GUANTANAMO
President Obama said Tuesday that he was renewing his push to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, a goal he abandoned in the face of congressional opposition during his first term. Obama said the controversial facility is too expensive, and hurts America’s international reputation and counterterrorism efforts. The remarks came after the U.S. sent dozens of Navy nurses and medics to help deal with a hunger strike that has spread to 100 of the 166 inmates. [New York Times]
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2. RICIN FOUND ON SUSPECT’S DUST MASK
Investigators found ricin on a dust mask allegedly thrown into the garbage by a Mississippi man suspected of sending letters laced with the poison to President Obama and other officials, according to an FBI affidavit released Tuesday. A surveillance team reportedly watched suspect J. Everett Dutschke, who was arrested Saturday, leave a tae kwon do studio he once ran and discard the dust mask, latex gloves, and a coffee grinder — which can be used to extract ricin from castor beans. [Washington Post]
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3. FDA APPROVES MORNING-AFTER PILL SALES TO 15-YEAR-OLDS
Federal regulators are making it easier for women to get the morning-after pill Plan B One-Step. The emergency contraceptive is currently sold at pharmacies, and is only available without a prescription to those over age 17. The Food and Drug Administration, under court order to lift the age restriction, decided Tuesday to allow stores to sell the product to anyone 15 or older, and to stock it on drugstore shelves next to women’s health products and condoms. [Washington Times]
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4. BANGLADESH BUILDING COLLAPSE DEATH TOLL PASSES 400
The death toll from the collapse of a factory complex in Bangladesh has risen above 400, and it could climb further. So far, 399 bodies have been pulled from the rubble. Another three people have died in hospitals. A senior army official said relatives had reported 149 people still missing. Thousands of people participating in May Day parades on Wednesday demanded the death penalty for the owner of the eight-story building, which housed several garment factories. [BBC News]
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5. OBAMA CONSIDERS ARMING SYRIAN REBELS
President Obama is preparing to send weapons to Syrian rebels, according to The Washington Post. A final decision on the move, which would mark a major policy shift, could come within weeks. The Obama administration has been ramping up non-lethal aid, including medicine, to the Syrian opposition, but the president has come under pressure to supply arms following reports that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have used chemical weapons. [Washington Post]
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6. GREEKS PROTEST AUSTERITY WITH STRIKE
Greek unions held a general strike to protest government austerity measures on Wednesday to mark May Day, the international Labor Day holiday. Thousands of people stayed home from work, shutting schools and tax offices and disrupting public transportation. It was the second mass strike this year to call for an end to the deep spending cuts and tax hikes imposed under the terms of a European bailout designed to save the debt-burdened nation from financial collapse. [New York Times]
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7. BRAWL ERUPTS IN VENEZUELAN PARLIAMENT
A fight broke out in Venezuela’s parliament on Tuesday over the country’s recent disputed presidential election. Opposition lawmakers say supporters of President Nicolas Maduro ambushed and pummeled them. Maduro, the handpicked successor of late President Hugo Chavez, won a narrow victory, but supporters of opposition candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski have called the results illegitimate. State TV cameras pointed to the ceiling during the scuffle. [CNN]
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8. EUROPE’S UNEMPLOYMENT CONTINUES TO RISE
Unemployment hit another in a string of record highs in March, reaching 12.1 percent in the euro zone, according to Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics office. The figures reflected a host of problems, including Spain’s seventh straight quarter of contraction. Economists said the bad news suggested that the European Central Bank might be overly optimistic in predicting that the region will begin to recover this year. [Guardian]
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9. SCIENTISTS CREATE WORLD’S TINIEST MOVIE
IBM researchers have created the world’s smallest movie by manipulating a few dozen carbon atoms on a copper surface into a stop-motion animation clip. The Guinness Book of World Records has certified the feat, which was accomplished by moving around the individual atoms with the tiny tip of a scanning tunneling microscope. A thousand frames of what you see in the clip, “A Boy and His Atom,” would fit on the span of a single human hair. [BBC News]
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10. TEEN MOM STAR MAKES MILLION-DOLLAR PORN DEAL
Perhaps reports of the death of the celebrity sex tape were premature. Teen Mom reality TV star Farrah Abraham has reached a deal to sell the rights to a XXX tape she made with porn star James Deen to adult-industry powerhouse Vivid Entertainment for $1.5 million, according toRadar Online. Abraham, 21, reportedly made the professionally shot tape — which Vivid is callingFarrah Superstar: Backdoor Teen Mom — after attempts to sell another video, made with an ex-boyfriend, failed. [Radar Online]

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April 23, 2013 · 5:15 PM

Rush Limbaugh Compares Suspected Boston Bomber To Trayvon Martin

It’s too easy to say that the Limbaughs, Coulters and Hannitys of the world merely seek and need attention.  These people are simply unadulterated evil…

Think Progress

Conservative radio prognosticator Rush Limbaugh used his nationally syndicated show on Tuesday to try and tie Dzhakar Tsarnaev, the captured suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings last week, to murdered teenager Trayvon Martin.

Last March, weeks after 17-year-old Martin was shot and killed, Limbaugh and the rest of the conservative echo chamber spent a considerable amount of time attacking Martin’s character and pushing back against a widely circulated photograph of the teen, claiming that the media was trying to gin up sympathy for the murdered boy.

On Tuesday, Limbaugh compared the media’s portrayal of Trayvon to the treatment of the captured Tsarnaev, citing the media’s use of slightly outdated photographs in both instances:

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh called out a variety of media outlets on Tuesday for trying to [do] “to Dzhokhar [Tsarnaev] what they did to Trayvon Martin.” He said that showing images of Tsarnaev at 14-years-old is an effort to humanize him and frame him as a “normal” or “mixed-up kid,” rather than an accused murder[er] and terrorist.

‘The news media are doing to Dzhokhar what they did to Trayvon Martin,”Limbaugh observed. “They’re regularly showing a photo of Dzhokhar that was taken when he was about 14. Soft, angelic, nice little boy. Harmless. Cute. Big, loveable eyes.”

“Not at all what he looks like today,” Limbaugh added. “The way, when we’re shown Osama bin Laden, it’s in his shepherd pose with his walking stick, walking through the mountains or whatever.”

The implication, subtly made, is that the liberal media is somehow supportive of Tsarnaev, who is responsible for the murders of three people and the injuries of more than 170 others. In reality, the outdated photograph of the younger Tsarnaev brother is one of several photographs in constant rotation on every news network since he was first identified late last week.

The comparison is also deeply offensive for Trayvon Martin and his family. Martin was a victim of gun violence in a state that remains lenient towards gun owners who turn their weapons on other Floridians.

HT: Mediaite

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April 2, 2013 · 10:32 AM

10 things you need to know today: April 2, 2013

A boy pays his respects to the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary shootings during a December candlelight vigil in Tirana, Albania.

The Week

Connecticut lawmakers agree on strict gun laws, North Korea restarts its nuclear plant, and more in our roundup of the stories that are making news and driving opinion

1. CONNECTICUT LEGISLATORS AGREE ON TOUGH GUN LAWS
Connecticut lawmakers agreed on what they called the nation’s toughest gun laws on Monday, just over three months after their state was shaken by the deadly shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. The package, which is expected to be passed on Wednesday, requires eligibility certificates for the purchase of any rifle, shotgun or ammunition, requires people convicted of weapons offenses to register with the state, imposes universal background checks for gun buyers, and expands a state ban on assault weapons. It also bans the sale of high-capacity magazines with more than 10 bullets, although lawmakers declined to completely ban the clips despite pleas from relatives of 11 Sandy Hook victims. [New York Times]
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2. PROSECUTOR SEEKS DEATH PENALTY FOR JAMES HOLMES
A Colorado prosecutor announced Monday that he would seek the death penalty against James Holmes, who is accused of killing 12 people and wounding 70 others in a shooting rampage inside a movie theater last July. Defense lawyers had offered to have Holmes, a graduate school dropout with a history of psychiatric problems, plead guilty in exchange for a promise that he would not be executed, but District Attorney George Brauchler rejected the deal after speaking with 60 people who lost loved ones in the Aurora, Colo., massacre. “In this case, for James Egan Holmes, justice is death,” Brauchler said. [USA Today]
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3. NORTH KOREA SAYS IT’S RESTARTING MOTHBALLED NUKE PLANT
North Korea announced Tuesday that it would restart a nuclear reactor and uranium-enrichment facilities shut down under an aid-for-disarmament deal five years ago. The declaration demonstrated the commitment of the isolated regime’s leader, Kim Jong Un, to expanding its nuclear arsenal, and heightened tensions raised by weeks of war threats against the U.S. and South Korea. “It’s yet another escalation in this ongoing crisis,” said Ramesh Thakur, director of the Center for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament at Australian National University in Canberra. [CNN]
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4. KENNEDY REPORTEDLY HEADED FOR EMBASSY IN JAPAN
Caroline Kennedy is reportedly in line to become President Obama’s next ambassador to Japan. Kennedy, the daughter of slain President John F. Kennedy, is a lawyer and author, and provided Obama with an early endorsement in 2008 that helped him beat out Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. The appointment has been rumored to be in the works for weeks. If it goes through, it will thrust Kennedy into one of the world’s most visible diplomatic posts as China’s rise and North Korea’s belligerence are raising the stakes in the region. [Boston Globe]
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5. SANFORD FACES GOP RIVAL IN PRIMARY RUNOFF
Former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford takes the next step on the comeback trail on Tuesday, when he faces a lone rival in a GOP congressional primary runoff four years after an extramarital affair derailed his political career. Polls indicate that Sanford, who once held the seat in the Charleston-area district, is favored to beat personal-injury lawyer and former city councilman Curtis Bostic for the Republican nomination. Bostic is trying to catch up by enlisting help from evangelical preachers angered by Sanford’s affair. The winner will face Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch, a business development official and an older sister of political satirist Stephen Colbert, in May. [Bloomberg]
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6. EUROZONE UNEMPLOYMENT AT RECORD HIGH
Unemployment in the eurozone rose to a record 12 percent in the first two months of 2013, the European Union’s statistical agency, Eurostat, reported on Tuesday. That means that 1.8 more people are unemployed in the 17 nations using the common currency than at the same time last year. The loss of jobs has been part of the social cost of three years of government spending cuts and other austerity measures, and the latest data will raise pressure on the European Central Bank to keep interest rates at their current record low, or cut them further, at a Thursday meeting. [New York Times]
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7. FIRE KILLS 13 AT MYANMAR MUSLIM SCHOOL
A fire killed 13 boys in a dormitory at a Muslim school in Myanmar on Tuesday. Fire officials said the flames erupted and spread quickly after a transformer overheated under a staircase, filling the building with smoke and suffocating some of the 70 boys sleeping on the top floor. Some Muslims, however, were skeptical about the official version, as the tragedy came after a wave of anti-Muslim violence in the predominantly Buddhist nation. [Reuters]
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8. COURT OKs LIVE-STREAMING OF BROADCAST TV
An appeals court on Monday ruled that start-up Aereo can continue live-streaming local TV online and through its app, marking a potentially significant setback for TV broadcasters. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York backed up a lower court that ruled Aereo isn’t violating broadcasters’ copyrights. Each of Aereo’s subscribers, all in the New York City area for now, leases an antenna in the company’s warehouse, and gets feeds to their computers and other devices. Consumer groups praised the decision, saying it would give viewers flexibility without hefty cable bills, but a dissenting judge called Aereo’s system “a Rube Goldberg-like contrivance” designed to sidestep the law. [USA Today]
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9. MTV HALTS BUCKWILD AFTER REALITY SHOW STAR DIES
MTV has suspended filming of the second season of Buckwild, a reality TV show about a rowdy group of friends in West Virginia, after the death of cast member Shain Gandee. The popular 21-year-old, his uncle, and another man were found dead in a red-and-white 1984 Ford Bronco that was partially submerged in a deep mud pit. The men were last seen at 3 a.m. Sunday at a bar, where they told people they were going driving off-road. Authorities are still investigating the cause of death. If the muffler was submerged while the engine ran, the vehicle could have filled with deadly carbon monoxide from the exhaust. [Associated Press]
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10. A SEA LION WITH RHYTHM
For the first time, a non-human mammal has shown it can follow a musical beat. Scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, taught a sea lion named Ronan to “bob her head in time with rhythmic sounds,” starting with a simple beat and moving on to the Backstreet Boys’ “Everybody” and Earth, Wind & Fire’s ”Boogie Wonderland,” her favorite song. The success of the experiment challenges the conventional wisdom that only humans and some birds capable of vocal mimicry can keep time with a musical beat. [Mashable]

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February 26, 2013 · 7:40 PM

Chuck Hagel Confirmed By Senate As Obama’s Secretary Of Defense

Next…

Now on to the next manufactured crisis…oh, that would be the sequester fiasco.

Huffington Post

The U.S. Senate confirmed former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) as President Barack Obama’s next secretary of defense by a 58 to 41 vote Tuesday, marking an end to one of the most drawn-out fights for a president’s Cabinet pick.

The opposition to Hagel melted away Tuesday after the Presidents’ Day recess, with the Senate moving earlier in the day to end debate on his nomination by a 71-27 margin, and 18 Republicans voting in favor. On Feb. 14, Republicans succeeded in maintaining an unprecedented filibuster against the nominee.

Four Republican senators voted for Hagel: Sens. Thad Cochran (Miss.), Richard Shelby (Ala.), Mike Johanns (Neb.) and Rand Paul (Ky.)

Paul’s vote was most surprising because he had voted against cloture earlier Tuesday, moving to continue the debate on Hagel’s nomination. He had also said previously that Hagel had provided incomplete financial information since he left the Senate.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Tuesday the time had come. “The questions had been answered and it’s time for a vote,” he said.

Hagel will follow Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, coming into office just as across-the-board cuts are set to hit the Pentagon on March 1 as a result of the 2011 Budget Control Act.

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), a strong supporter of Hagel, defended the confirmation process. “This has not been that long a process on Hagel, by the way,” he said. “There was no more that needed to be brought out,” he noted, adding that Hagel had provided senators with his speeches and financial disclosure. “The fact that people around here are allowed to talk until 60 people decide to vote is the Senate rules.”

Hagel has been under fire during the confirmation process for his outspoken opposition to the war in Iraq, criticism of the Israeli lobby’s influence in Washington and past statements on Iran. Hagel also didn’t do himself any favors by performing poorly in his confirmation hearing.

Some Senate Republicans have spoken harshly about Hagel throughout the debate. McCain, once close with Hagel and one of the 18 Republicans to vote in favor of ending debate earlier Tuesday, had heated exchanges with him over the troop surge in Iraq. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) took his opposition further, accusing Hagel of taking money from North Korea and Saudi Arabia. GOP-leaning outside groups also attacked Hagel over his past statements on Israel.

That opposition campaign seemed to peter out Tuesday.

“They were so far over the top,” said Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.). “There were so many false, inaccurate statements that basically they ended up hurting themselves as much as helping themselves.”

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January 2, 2013 · 11:57 AM

10 things you need to know today: January 2, 2013

I had some internet connectivity problems over the holidays and had to wait until today for my provider’s tech to come out and resolve it.  Once again, Happy New Year everyone.

The Week

The House passes the fiscal-cliff deal, Sandy Hook students return to class, and more in our roundup of the stories that are making news and driving opinion

1. HOUSE PASSES FISCAL-CLIFF DEAL
In a dramatic conclusion of the fiscal-cliff showdown, the House approved a deal late Tuesday canceling tax increases for the vast majority of Americans and pushing off $100 billion in potentially damaging spending cuts for two months. The bill now goes to President Obama for his signature, ending the threat of potentially recession-inducing spending cuts and tax hikes before financial markets opened for the first day of trading in the new year. House Republicans allowed the bill to come up for a vote without any poison-pill spending-cut amendments — a strategy proposed by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and other conservatives. Most Senate Republicans backed the compromise, but a majority of House Republicans voted “no,” as many were angered that the compromise lets income tax rates rise on wages and investment profits for households making more than $450,000 a year — the first tax hike passed with broad GOP support in two decades.  [Washington Post]
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2. SANDY HOOK CLASSES RESUMING
The students and teachers of Sandy Hook Elementary are preparing to return to school on Thursday for the first time since a gunman killed 20 first graders and six educators — after, police say, he killed his own mother at home — in a shooting rampage three weeks ago. “I’m nervous about it,” parent David Connors said. “It’s uncharted waters for us. I know it’s going to be difficult.” The classes won’t be at the Newtown, Conn., school where the tragedy occurred, though. The students’ desks and belongings have been moved to a repurposed former middle school in the neighboring town of Monroe. An open house is scheduled for Wednesday so the children, along with their parents and teachers, can get accustomed to new classrooms set up to mirror the ones at Sandy Hook. [Associated Press]
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3. GANG-RAPE VICTIM’S ASHES SCATTERED IN INDIA
Mourners on Tuesday scattered the ashes of a 23-year-old Indian woman who died after being gang-raped and tortured with a metal bar by a group of men on a private bus in New Delhi on Dec. 16. The woman, a student, died of her horrific injuries on Saturday in a Singapore hospital. Police are preparing to file formal charges against six suspects. Protests over rampant sexual violence against women have erupted across India, prompting promises from the government to impose tougher punishments for rapists. As part of a campaign to change society’s treatment of women, India’s top court said Wednesday that it would decide whether tosuspend six lawmakers facing sexual assault charges. [Reuters]
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4. GROUNDED OIL-DRILLING SHIP NOT LEAKING
High seas have prevented rescuers from pulling a grounded oil-drilling rig back to sea in the Gulf of Alaska, but the Coast Guard says there’s no sign that the ship is leaking any of its 143,000 gallons of diesel or 12,000 gallons of lube oil and hydraulic fluid. The Royal Dutch Shell drilling rig — the Kulluk — was used this summer in the Arctic. It ran aground off a small island near Kodiak Island in a severe storm that hit as it was being towed to port. Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, said the crisis shows the potential for environmental disaster from Alaskan drilling. “Oil companies keep saying they can conquer the Arctic,” he said, “but the Arctic keeps disagreeing with the oil companies.” [Associated Press]
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5. EUROZONE ECONOMY WEAKENS FURTHER
Manufacturing output in the eurozone continued to shrink in December, according to a poll of manufacturing purchasing managers released by data company Markit on Wednesday. The figures add to a growing pile of evidence that the currency bloc’s “steep downturn” continued in the final quarter of 2012, and will probably continue in early 2013, says Markit’s chief economist, Chris Williamson. “The region’s recession therefore looks likely to have deepened, possibly quite significantly, in the final quarter,” he says. [Wall Street Journal]
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6. EXPERTS SAY ENERGY DRINKS FAIL TO DELIVER
Energy drinks are soaring in popularity, in part because consumers, especially teenagers, are convinced they deliver a mental and physical edge. The beverages are being investigated by the Food and Drug Administration, however, following reports of deaths and injuries possibly linked to their high caffeine content. No matter what the FDA finds, researchers have concluded that popular energy drinks offer little if any benefit other than a jolt of caffeine. “If you had a cup of coffee you are going to affect metabolism in the same way,” says Dr. Robert W. Pettitt, an associate professor at Minnesota State University in Mankato. [New York Times]
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7. PAPARAZZO KILLED BY CAR AFTER CHASING JUSTIN BIEBER
A photographer was struck by a car and killed on Tuesday as he crossed a Los Angeles freeway after snapping pictures of pop star Justin Bieber’s white Ferrari. Highway Patrol officers had pulled over someone driving Bieber’s vehicle, although the teen idol was not in the car. The paparazzo parked his own car and crossed the street to take pictures, and was killed as he tried to return to his car. Bieber, who has been chased by speeding photographers in the past, expressed sympathy for the victim but said he hopes the tragedy inspires laws to prevent potentially dangerous paparazzi feeding frenzies. [CNN]
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8. PENNSYLVANIA GOVERNOR PLANS TO SUE NCAA OVER SANDUSKY SANCTIONS
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett is expected to file a lawsuit against the NCAA on Wednesday, accusing the college athletic association of imposing illegal sanctions against Pennsylvania State University over the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse scandal. Corbett’s office provided few details about his plan, but said it would provide more information at a Wednesday morning news conference. The National Collegiate Athletic Association hit Penn State with a $60 million fine, a reduction in player scholarships for the football program, and a four-year ban on post-season play after an investigation by former FBI director Louis Freeh concluded that university administrators covered up abuse allegations to protect Sandusky, once an assistant to Penn State’s legendary head coach, the late Joe Paterno. [Philadelphia Inquirer]
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9. AVIS TO BUY ZIPCAR
The Avis Budget Group said on Wednesday that it would buy Zipcar for $500 million. With its $12.25-per-share cash offer, Avis will pay a 49 percent premium over Zipcar’s stock price, a sign that Avis sees a big future for the car-sharing pioneer’s strategy of letting its 760,000 members rent vehicles by the hour or by the day. “We see car sharing as highly complementary to traditional car rental, with rapid growth potential,” Ronald L. Nelson, Avis’ chief executive, said in a statement. [New York Times]
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10. SOME IPHONE USERS GET A LATE START IN 2013
Apple is launching a new ad on Wednesday promoting the iPhone’s “Do Not Disturb” feature, but the company’s timing could have been better. Some iPhone users are complaining that a bug in the function surfaced as 2013 began, causing it to fail to turn off when it was scheduled to, sending their calls to voicemail when their phones should be ringing, and causing some people to miss calls. [Guardian]

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December 12, 2012 · 3:29 AM

Wednesday Morning Roundup – 12-12-12

Washington’s Deceptions
‘Reform’ taxes? ‘Fix’ Medicare? Yeah, right.

Scalia equates being gay with murder
Scalia once famously complained that if sodomy is legal, then states couldn’t regulat..

Boehner’s crazy caucus juggling act 
It’s not easy being orange. House Speaker John Boehner’s floor rant on Tuesday did n..

Why Hillary Clinton Would be Strong in 2016
Nate Silver sees Hillary Clinton’s high favorability numbers falling if she moves to..

Claims of ‘School-to-Prison’ Pipeline in Mississippi
Claims of ‘School-to-Prison’ Pipeline in Mississippi

McConnell is Least Popular Senator in the Country
A new Public Policy Polling survey in Kentucky finds Sen. Mitch McConnell (R) with a ..

White House: North Korea Missile Launch ‘Highly Provocative’
WASHINGTON — The White House says North Korea’s launch of a long-range ba..

Michigan Governor Signs Union Busting Bills Behind Closed Doors
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) announced during a press conference on Tuesday afterno..

Beyond Fox News: The GOP is realizing it needs to talk to the rest of ..
If the GOP ever wants to reach Latinos and women, among others, it needs to move beyo..

Soledad O’Brien pins GOP’s Sessions over fiscal cliff proposal to cut ..
Soledad O’Brien was not amused that Mr. Sessions plans on taking food out of the mout..

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October 31, 2012 · 12:50 AM

3 ways Hurricane Sandy complicates Mitt Romney’s path to victory

The Week

Mitt Romney is rewriting his itinerary for the final days of the campaign thanks to the storm’s rampage. Will that hurt his chances?

Mitt Romney sits on his campaign bus on Oct. 29 en route to a rally in Avon Lake, Ohio: The Republican presidential nominee canceled his campaign events Monday and Tuesday due to Hurricane Sandy.

Mitt Romney canceled several campaign events Monday and Tuesday “out of sensitivity for the millions of Americans in the path of Hurricane Sandy,” his campaign said. The GOP presidential nominee was scheduled to attend a Tuesday event in Ohio dedicated to hurricane relief, but he has towalk a fine line, say experts, keeping his campaign going while avoiding any suggestion that he’s scoring points off the storm(which is no longer technically classified as a hurricane). “It’s a very difficult situation for the challenger to strike the right note to not look too political but to also [be] empathetic with the victims,” says Mary Kate Cary, a former speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush. How has the monster storm that hammered the Northeast made Romney’s final push toward next week’s election more difficult? Here, three obstacles it’s thrown in Romney’s path:

1. Romney has ceded the spotlight to Obama
Romney has been trying not to completely “cede the mantle of leadership to Obama,” say Jim Huhnhenn and Steve Peoples at The Associated Press. He has spoken by phone to officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Homeland Security Department, and the National Weather Service, and publicly warned those in the storm’s path to expect extensive damage. “In the competition for attention, Obama held the edge, however,” going on cable TV, live, to call for people to heed evacuation warnings and pull together. “Such is the advantage of incumbency, provided things don’t go wrong.”

2. This undermines Romney’s final pitch in Virginia and New Hampshire
Romney is tied with Obama nationally, but he still needs to eke out gains in a few critical swing states, says James Joyner at Outside the Beltway, if he hopes to collect the 270 electoral votes he needs to win. It’s “next to impossible to say how or whether the storm is going to impact [his] ability to persuade a relative handful of undecided voters” in the battlegrounds, but it’s distinctly possible that he could “lose the race because he’s unable to campaign in Virginia and New Hampshire in the final days.” On the other hand, he’s left with “an extra couple of days in Ohio,” which could be “a blessing in disguise” if it improves his chances of winning there.

3. The storm derailed Romney’s bid for Wisconsin
With Obama still favored in Ohio — the swing state many expect to decide next Tuesday’s election — Team Romney was making a compensatory play for the long-reliably blue state of Wisconsin. Now-post-tropical storm Sandy “may be a safe distance from Wisconsin,” says Matt Taylor at The Daily Beast, “but the Frankenstorm has upended Mitt Romney’s late push to claim [its] 10 electoral votes.” The GOP nominee “was compelled to ax an event in suburban Milwaukee, a GOP stronghold, Monday evening,” and his team “apparently decided to stop politicking with flooding, power outages, and even deaths on the horizon,” leaving Obama in command in Wisconsin, according to the latest polls.

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April 4, 2012 · 8:53 AM

10 things you need to know today: April 4, 2012

The Week online magazine’s daily briefing…

The Week

Romney wins three more primaries, tornadoes hit Dallas, and more in our roundup of the stories that are making news and driving opinion

POSTED ON APRIL 4, 2012, AT 8:30 AM
April Bridges pauses while digging through the remains of a home destroyed by one of several tornadoes that ripped through north Texas Tuesday.

April Bridges pauses while digging through the remains of a home destroyed by one of several tornadoes that ripped through north Texas Tuesday. Photo: Tom Pennington/Getty Images

1. ROMNEY SWEEPS THREE STATES
Mitt Romney made a big step toward wrapping up the Republican presidential nomination on Tuesday, sweeping primaries in Wisconsin, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., and winning the majority of the 100 delegates at stake in the three contests. In another sign that Romney is the one, President Obama singled him out in a major speech on Rep. Paul D. Ryan’s (R-Wis.) budget proposal, noting Romney’s support for what he called “social Darwinism” and a “prescription for decline.” Meanwhile, Rick Santorum is focusing on reviving his campaign in his home state of Pennsylvania, which holds its primary on April 24. [New York Times]
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2. TORNADOES TERRORIZE DALLAS
Between six and 13 tornadoes are thought to have touched down in north Texas on Tuesday, destroying at least 150 homes, sucking tractor-trailers into the air, and wreaking havoc on hundreds of flights at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. As of early Wednesday, there were no reports of any deaths associated with the twisters. [CNN]
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3. TEN DEAD IN AFGHANISTAN SUICIDE BOMBING
At least ten people were killed Wednesday in northern Afghanistan in an attack by a suicide bomber riding a motorcycle. Dozens more were injured. Details are still emerging, but NATO says three service members were among the dead. [Associated Press]
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4. FED’S COMMENTS TO DRAG DOWN STOCKS
Stocks are expected to open lower Wednesday following the release of details from the Federal Reserve’s last policy meeting. The minutes from the meeting suggest the Fed is unlikely to offer any new economic stimulus. Some investors had hoped for another round of quantitative easing. [CNN]
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5. TOP SPORTS OFFICIALS KILLED IN SOMALI SUICIDE BOMBING
Early Wednesday, a suicide bomber killed at least 10 people in Mogadishu at a ceremony at the national theater. The president of Somalia’s soccer federation and the president of the country’s Olympic committee were among the dead. [Associated Press]
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6. DETAILS EMERGE ABOUT OAKLAND SHOOTING SUSPECT
Police have begun releasing details about One L. Goh, the 43-year-old South Korean national accused of shooting and killing seven people at a small Christian college in northern California this week. Police say Goh had recently been expelled from the college “for behavioral problems” and “anger management,” and felt ostracized for his broken English. [Los Angeles Times]
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7. FRENCH ARREST 10 SUSPECTED TERRORISTS
On Wednesday, French police arrested 10 people with suspected links to radical Islamist websites. It’s the latest in the terrorism crackdown across the France following a series of recent attacks. [Associated Press]
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8. DOCTORS TO RECOMMEND FEWER TESTS
A coalition of nine medical specialty boards is expected to recommend Wednesday that dozens of common tests and procedures be performed less frequently. The recommendations are seen as an acknowledgement that many expensive tests are performed unnecessarily, potentially harming patients and vastly inflating the cost of health care. [New York Times]
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9. BAYLOR WINS WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP
Baylor beat Notre Dame 80-61 on Tuesday night to win the NCAA women’s basketball championship. The victory topped off a historic 40-0 season for the Lady Bears. They’re the first women’s team in NCAA history to win 40 games and the seventh to go undefeated. [Associated Press]
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10. INSTAGRAM FINALLY AVAILABLE FOR ANDROID
The wildly popular photo-tinting and sharing app is now available for Android. It was previously exclusive to Apple gadgets. Since launching in 2010, Instagram has racked up more than 30 million users and more than one billion photo uploads. [CNET]

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November 2, 2011 · 12:10 AM

FBI: Four Georgia militia members plotted to attacks

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As a resident of a suburb about twenty miles outside of Atlanta, this news is disturbing on so many levels…

MSNBC

‘I’d say the first ones that need to die is the ones in the government buildings’

Four Georgia men in their 60s and 70s were arrested Tuesday, accused of being members of a right-wing militia group that plotted to attack federal office buildings and to disperse a deadly biological poison in Atlanta.

Their alleged plot was revealed to the FBI by a confidential informant last spring, and members of the group have been meeting since May with someone they thought was a black-market weapons dealer but who turned out to be an undercover federal agent, according to court documents.

No attacks were ever attempted. Federal officials say the men were disrupted before they could act on the plot.

The documents say the men, Frederick Thomas, 73, of Cleveland, Ga.; Dan Roberts, 67, Ray Adams, 65, and Samuel Crump, 68, all of Toccoa, called themselves “the covert group” and began in March to talk about staging attacks against federal targets including the IRS.

A confidential informant secretly recorded some of the meetings for the FBI.

“I’d say the first ones that need to die is the ones in the government buildings,” Adams was overheard saying in an April 16 meeting, according to the FBI.

“When it comes down to it, I can kill somebody,” he allegedly said.

Read court documents on ricin allegations (.PDF)

They allegedly obtained a silencer from the undercover agent and plotted to buy explosives. Crump claimed he could produce ricin, a deadly biological agent, and talked about dispersing it from a car driving on an interstate highway, according to court documents.

Continue reading here…

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