In an interview with a local radio station on Thursday, longtime Alaska Congressman Don Young used the racial slur “wetback” while discussing the economy.

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During a sit down interview with Ketchikan Public Radio this week, I used a term that was commonly used during my days growing up on a farm in Central California. I know that this term is not used in the same way nowadays and I meant no disrespect.

Migrant workers play an important role in America's workforce, and earlier in the said interview, I discussed the compassion and understanding I have for these workers and the hurdles they face in obtaining citizenship. America must once and for all tackle the issue of immigration reform.

Apparently the TNM's end game involves Texas transforming into an island and floating around in the Gulf of Mexico. Don't forget to send postcards, guys!

Seceding from the Union is easy!

Here are some choice comments from the post.

Via: @castroksu

LINK: Texas Nationalist Movement

The last great mystery of Obama’s marriage shift.

Image by Scott Olson / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — In 2004, Barack Obama cited his Christian faith while explaining his opposition to same-sex marriage. "What I believe, in my faith, is that a man and a woman, when they get married, are performing something before God, and it's not simply the two persons who are meeting," he said.

Eight years later, he cited his faith again when he became the first sitting president to endorse marriage equality.

"When we think about our faith, the thing at root that we think about is not only Christ sacrificing himself on our behalf, but it's also the golden rule, you know? Treat others the way you'd want to be treated," Obama said.

What changed in Obama's understanding of the Bible and Christianity in between 2004 and 2012 is one of the last mysteries of his transformation from opponent to champion of marriage equality. While the president has explained this evolution in personal and political terms — citing conversations with gay friends, and the changing attitudes of the public — he has never directly explained how he came to believe that God approves of same-sex marriage.

The unexplained shift in Obama's religious worldview — and its neat tracking of public opinion polls — has led many to see his election-year marriage equality endorsement as a cynical flip-flop — a political calculation on an issue that, for him, never really had anything to do with faith.

The White House declined to speak on the record about the religious element to the president's evolution on this issue. But in a range of interviews with BuzzFeed, Christian leaders said that Obama's journey is not unique, and that a growing number of believers are successfully reconciling Biblical teachings with modern-day acceptance of homosexuality and marriage rights for gay couples. And sincere or not, the president's evolution represents a faith journey being taken by millions of Christians across the country, as a broad section of American Protestantism move from Old Testament stringency to New Testament tolerance.

Rev. Delman Coates is a pastor in Maryland, where he starred in ads supporting marriage equality in that state in 2012. He was also among the first African American preachers Obama reached out to after making his public shift on marriage equality last May. Back then, most of the talk about Obama and faith related to how the president's new stance on marriage equality might alienate him from his African-American base. Coates told BuzzFeed he didn't recall Obama talking about the Bible at all on that call.

"No, only to say that he respected people's personal beliefs and practices and respected the rights of any religious institution to define marriage in accordance with their beliefs and practices, but that after talking to staff, talking to family, [and] his daughters, he had arrived at the conclusion that every American should be treated equally under the law," Coates said. "I'm under the belief that that was the right decision. Because Barack Obama was elected as president of the United States and not pastor of the United States."

Coates is a Biblical scholar and said his own views on marriage equality came from studying his faith's holy book. Just as Obama's change on same-sex marriage actually had the effect of changing African American poll numbers on the issue, Coates said his belief that Christianity actually teaches tolerance toward the LGBT community has led his Clinton, MD mega-church to its best year ever in 2012, with over 1,000 new members joining the congregation.

He said his understanding of Christian faith has always required flexibility and open-mindedness.

"We are evolving. Not just in our understanding of civil marriage, but we're also evolving in our understanding of what the scripture is affirming and what it is condemning," Coates said. "I think as more reasoned Christians take a look at scripture, it's pretty clear."

Coates also said the stories in Leviticus and other Old Testament books cited by opponents of homosexuality have been misconstrued for years, and that fresh views of what they teach have emerged through "progressive evangelical" scholarship.

"For example, saying that the infamous story of Sodom and Gomorrah, which is often used as you know, 'Sodom and Gomorrah was condemned because of homosexuality.' Well, no," Coates said. "The request in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis is a request to rape the guests of Lot... which is not the same as a consensual relationship. So, the so-called wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah has nothing to do with same-gender loving relationships. It's dealing with something totally different."

This new reading has led to faith-based changes in the views of same-sex marriage, and it could help explain how Obama cited Christian teachings while arguing both sides of the marriage issue.

"Yes, I think Christians can evolve as we reassess the meaning of these texts," Coates said. "And if scripture is our source of authority, then we don't want to be found guilty of misreading scripture."

Other Christians, meanwhile, are distancing themselves from the Old Testament altogether — rather than reinterpreting it — as they seek to emphasize Christ's words in the New Testament. And some speculate that this could be the tack Obama has taken.

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat from Missouri, is a practicing pastor, former leader of the Congressional Black Caucus, and supporter of same sex marriage. His position astride both the political and faith worlds has given him unique insight into how Christian politicians can cite the Bible when opposing same-sex marriage and then turn around and cite it again after changing their minds.

"Actually, they're right on both counts," Cleaver told BuzzFeed when asked how a politician can cite the Bible to defend both sides of the marriage equality argument. "And I say that because it is important when discussing or considering same-sex marriage to acknowledge that it is as complex a theological and Bible issue as there is in at least two of the monotheistic religions, Christianity and Judaism."

Obama, Cleaver said, is now espousing a view of Christianity more focused on the teachings of Jesus, and not the more black-and-white demands of the Law of Moses that came before him.

The Old Testament or "Hebrew Testament" as Cleaver prefers to call it, "does speak with great condemnation to the subject of a man laying with a man," he said. "[Leviticus] is not only anti-gay, it is violently anti-gay. And many people who have expressed over the years great intolerance on the issue of same-sex marriage, homosexuality and so forth were doing so from the Hebrew Testament only."

"What the president said... that comes only, exclusively from the New Testament, or the Christian Testament," Cleaver said. "And by that I mean Jesus Christ, who we believe to be Lord, never one single time addressed the issue of LGBT issues. Not once. I was trained in Seminary that the main thing is the plain thing and the plain thing is main thing. And so Jesus is very clear. He never stumbled over the issue, he never condemned anybody for it, never praised anybody for it."

"What he did do," Cleaver said, "and I can say this without fear of contradiction, is to preach love."

Cleaver said it may seem strange that Jesus's words, which of course are as old as Christianity itself, are only now driving large numbers of Christians to support marriage equality.

"People now say 'I used to be against it but now I've thought about it and now I'm informed by love, I'm embracing the teachings of Jesus now,'" Cleaver said. "To be sure, the Christian Testament has been around for almost 2000 years, so it's not like somebody just gave them a new document. But I'm OK with people who want to come to the conclusion that Jesus was not homophobic. There's no evidence, not even a piece of evidence, that that was the case."

The reality is that the church has been well behind cultural progress on this issue for decades, Cleaver said, and that as gay rights become mainstream, Christians are looking to their faith to reconcile the tolerance they yearn to show.

"The tragedy of this is that we're supposed to change society as opposed to society changing us," Cleaver said of the church. "And so what many people are doing is changing as society changes. And the justifications that they've known [are changing.] And I don't think anybody did it consciously, it's just that the voters are way ahead of the politicians on this."

The president is a good example of that dynamic. In 2004, he sounded like a modern conservative Republican when it came to marriage and faith — though he was always a proponent of other gay rights. (He was open to civil unions, which many current marriage proponents oppose, and he ran for president supporting the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell and other expansions of LGBT rights.)

In early 2008, Obama gave one of his first hints that his reading of the Christian scripture was starting to change when it comes to marriage. At a speech from the altar of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, the home church of MLK, Obama told the mostly African-American audience the Bible was telling them to be more tolerant of the LGBT community.

"If we're honest with ourselves, we'll acknowledge that our own community has not always been true to King's vision of a beloved community," he said. "We have scorned our gay brothers and sisters instead of embracing them."

Scripture, Obama went on to say, "tells us that we are judged not just by word, but by deed." The speech was viewed at the time as an attempt by the then-Senator to send a message to the black community, which polls showed was still deeply skeptical of expanding gay rights.

In the May, 2012 interview with ABC's Robin Roberts, Obama again said faith was helping to drive him to his new position.

"When we think about our faith, the thing at root that we think about is not only Christ sacrificing himself on our behalf, but it's also the golden rule, you know? Treat others the way you'd want to be treated," Obama told Roberts. "And I think that's what we try to impart to our kids. And that's what motivates me as president. And I figure the more consistent I can be in being true to those precepts the better I'll be as a dad and a husband, and hopefully the better I'll be as a president."

To conservative Christians, Catholic and Protestant, this argument from faith is, at best, a stretch, one that ignores millenia of tradition and the plain language of the Old Testament. And to those who see the president as a political operator, these shifts are not a surprise. Some on both sides of the marriage debate believe Obama has followed the political winds on the topic, first supporting same sex marriage in 1996 as a liberal Chicago community organizer before opposing it as his profile rose and then finally supporting it again after Vice President Biden boxed him into a corner ahead of the 2012 elections.

But Obama hasn't only said that faith and marriage equality can coexist — he's said that his Christianity is part of the reason he supports expanded marriage rights at all.

It's a view many Christians are coming to these days, Coates said.

"To define faith as fixed is not what faith is about. That's science," he said. "Faith is a journey. It is a process.... I haven't talked to him about his faith journey, he can only speak to that, but there's no better example of what the mystery of faith is about then one that is evolving. What you believe when you're 10 ought to be different by the time you're 20. We grow. We mature. We evolve."

This is exactly what it sounds like.

Imgur user MikePayne points out that Dubya had a weird fascination with bald men's heads.

Source: i.imgur.com

Look at this guy's face he's just like, "really?"

Source: i.imgur.com

"Okay Mr. President, if you insist ha ha, okay, please stop."

Source: i.imgur.com

"Its nice to meet your President Bu—oh, okay, yeah, you can touch my head."

Source: i.imgur.com

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Via: imgur.com

Get ready!

North Korean Dictator Kim Jong-un is plotting in his lair.

Image by Kcna / Reuters

But what is this? Behind Dear Leader appears to be a strategic map of the United States!

So first thing we can deduce is:

If you zoom in on the map and raise the contrast, you can see it clearer, along with bombing routes!

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A trade embargo between the U.S. and North Korea doesn't stop Kim from being a Mac guy. Did he get it from China?

Image by Kcna / Reuters

WASHINGTON — One of the North Korean photos going viral on Friday — apart from the one showing plans to attack the U.S. with missiles — shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un with a shiny iMac desktop computer.

But Apple complies with U.S. trade embargoes on countries including North Korea, meaning its computers aren't meant to end up there. How did Kim get his iMac?

For ordinary North Koreans, up-to-date phones and computers are difficult, if not impossible, to get. North Korean companies have produced their own knockoff iPad competitors and cell phones, but the sale of Apple products is actually prohibited.

According to Apple's website:

The U.S. holds complete embargoes against Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria

The exportation, reexportation, sale or supply, directly or indirectly, from the United States, or by a U.S. person wherever located, of any Apple goods, software, technology (including technical data), or services to any of these countries is strictly prohibited without prior authorization by the U.S. Government. This prohibition also applies to any Apple owned subsidiary or any subsidiary employee worldwide.

An Apple spokesperson didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Nor did a press contact at the Department of Commerce, which regulates trade embargoes.

This isn't the first time Kim's been seen with what might be an Apple product. Kim was photographed in February with a smartphone that looked like either an HTC model or an iPhone 3 — or even a Samsung, the South Korean company.

Personal computers are available in North Korea — in 2011, state TV reported that there were three new models being manufactured there — and there is a North Korean operating system, similar to Linux, called "Red Star." But most of the hardware North Korea has touted has been shown to be Chinese.

“When you drink together, the possibility of harm becomes greater every day,” the Alaska Congressman said.

Image by Dan Joling, File / AP

WASHINGTON — In the same week he called migrant workers "wetbacks" in an interview, Rep. Don Young suggested that drinking alone was the best way to curb domestic violence.

At a "Choose Respect" rally against domestic violence at the state Capitol in Juneau, Alaska, on Thursday, Young said that violence in the home could be reduced if only couples would "watch the alcohol and drugs," according to a report in the Anchorage Daily News.

Young, in office since 1973, has made the news over the years for malapropisms and worse. On Thursday, he addressed a Choose Respect noon rally at the Capitol in Juneau and appeared to advise people to drink alone to reduce the risk of domestic violence.

"Watch the alcohol and the drugs," Young said from a podium on the Capitol steps. "You look at the relationship between violence against the loved ones you love, [it] is usually related to either one of those. And I'm going to suggest for those that may be drinking together — stop it! If you want to drink by yourself, you may do it. But when you drink together, the possibility of harm becomes greater every day."

House Speaker John Boehner scolded Young on Friday for his "wetbacks" comment, calling it "offensive and beneath the dignity of the office he holds."

"I don't care why he said it — there's no excuse, and it warrants an immediate apology," Boehner said.

Iowa Rep. Bruce Braley drew the ire of Twitter last night when he compared Ohio State's last-minute wins in the NCAA tournament to the “trail of tears” — a term used to refer to the forced removal of Native Americans by the United States government in the early 19th century resulting in tens of thousands of deaths. Braley later deleted his tweet and apologized to “anyone who was offended.”

Via: politwoops.sunlightfoundation.com

“After marriage passed in the Netherlands, the movement more or less collapsed,” said the lawmaker who sponsored the Dutch marriage equality bill. Could that happen in the United States?

Image by Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press/MCT

If same-sex couples secure a victory on marriage equality, it will have come largely from years of work from a cadre of LGBT activists. But a win on marriage could ironically leave the organizations leading the effort in a weaker position to target the other forms of discrimination that remain.

That's what's happened to other leading LGBT rights organizations in places with marriage equality. Hate crimes, workplace discrimination, and bias against transgender people persisted, but marriage equality convinced many people — both gay and straight — that their work was done.

"After marriage passed in the Netherlands, the movement more or less collapsed," said Boris Dittrich, the former member of the Dutch parliament who won passage of the world's first-ever same-sex marriage law in 2000. After that, it was very hard to get people to engage on other issues the movement cared about, like discrimination against LGBT seniors in nursing homes and bullying in schools.

Tanja Ineke, head of COC-Netherlands, said that it took some time before they could get LGBT concerns back on the national radar. "There were a lot of people in the movement and in society at large who thought the emancipation is over and done now that marriage is open to us … People in society didn't understand there was a need to fight."

Canada's national LGBT organization, Egale, saw a 30 to 40% drop-off in monthly donations once marriage became legal for same-sex couples in 2004, said its executive director, Helen Kennedy. Their problem was not only convincing the public that gays and lesbians still faced discrimination; they also had lost the issue that kept a broad coalition of LGBT organizations on the same page.

"The movement was extremely united for one common cause, and that was marriage," Kennedy said. "After marriage there has been a certain amount of apathy towards other issues that are still extremely important for basic human rights in the LGBT community."

Leaders in the major U.S. LGBT rights organizations say that they may be better prepared than the organizations in these other countries to refocus their efforts. They were around well before marriage, and say they've never been entirely focused on the marriage issue.

"Even in a country where we have marriage equality … I don't think there's any lack of issues to keep working on," said Human Rights Campaign Senior Legislative Counsel Ty Cobb. Marriage won't deliver one goal sought by the organization for more than 20 years, passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would ban employers from discriminating against LGBT people. Addressing school bullying and advancing public education against homophobia will also remain top priorities, he said.

But having issues to work on isn't necessarily the same thing as having people to do the work. LGBT rights organizations will need to be prepared to find that many of the grassroots activists who turned out to fight for marriage equality — gay and straight — may not be there to fight for other issues.

That's the concern of Katherine Franke, a longtime LGBT rights advocate who directs Columbia University Law School's Center for Gender and Sexuality Law.

"I think people who are not part of the gay rights movement, whether they are gay or straight, who have identified emotionally with this issue will move on," she said. "Many of them are invested in marriage, not in [LGBT] rights. A lot of those well-meaning donors and elites who have identified with this issue will disappear."

Marriage occupies a paradoxical position in many LGBT movements around the globe; it often figures as the sine qua non of legal equality. But it is a right that is accessed unevenly — it can remain out of reach to people in poorer and more rural communities where homophobia remains pervasive.

This is most striking in South Africa, which enacted unprecedented LGBT protections in its post-apartheid constitution and legalized same-sex marriage under court order in 2006.

"In terms of marriage and what the constitution really said, it doesn't really help," said Funeka Soldaat of Free Gender, a black lesbian organization working against hate crimes in black townships.

Despite its progressive laws, South Africa suffers staggering rates of anti-LGBT hate crimes, and black lesbians are especially vulnerable. This has led international donors and human rights organizations to assist groups like hers, she said, but their commitment has not been matched by gays and lesbians at home.

"Within the country, between black and white and township and the city, there are a lot of things that make people not work together," Soldaat said.

Marriage equality legalization is not necessarily to blame for this gap, said feminist activist Melanie Judge, who is white and sits on the board of Gay and Lesbian History in Action and was integrally involved in making same-sex marriage a reality in South Africa.

LGBT activists there are working in a country that is still struggling with centuries of inequality established by colonialism and apartheid. But the fact that LGBT activists have pursued protections like marriage through the courts and savvy lobbying of high-level lawmakers means that there isn't a broad-based movement that could translate these rights on paper into a lived reality.

"The reality is that many of those gains were made in the courts, and it wasn't made on the bases of a mass-movement of LGBT people advocating for equality and justice," she said.

Judge said groups like Free Gender show that this new movement is emerging. The challenge is trying to politicize better-off and white LGBT folks in the city and convince them to support those working with the most vulnerable.

"What's a very significant characteristic of these movements for change is that it's mainly black, mainly young, and mainly lesbian. And that's where the future of our struggle for substantial equality really sits — in supporting these organizations," she said.

Gay rights activists Temistocles Villanueva, 23 (left), and Daniel Ramos, 24, kiss during a march in favor of the legality of adoptions by gay couples outside the Supreme Court in Mexico City, Thursday, Aug. 12, 2010.

Image by Alexandre Meneghini / AP

Regional divisions slowed momentum around LGBT rights in Mexico after Mexico City became the first jurisdiction in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage in 2010.

"We are not an [LGBT] 'community.'… It does not exist as such," said longtime Mexico City journalist and LGBT advocate Antonio Medina when discussing the issue in Nov. 2012. "The big problem that we have had, I think … is that the states were outside" the process of getting marriage passed in Mexico City.

This largely remained the case until a long-shot lawsuit was brought in 2012 by a law student from the state of Oaxaca, Alex Alí Méndez Díaz. In December, he won a judgment from the country's Supreme Court allowing three same-sex couples to wed in the state. Technicalities in Mexico's legal system mean that several more lawsuits must be filed before this precedent will make same-sex marriage a universal right through the country.

But Méndez said he received no help from the activists who passed the marriage law in Mexico City and then successfully defended it in court.

In Mexico City, he said, LGBT activists think that "they've already won marriage … so there is nothing left to do. They think [Mexico City] is all of Mexico."

His legal victory has opened the door to lawsuits in many states and nudged some state lawmakers to start introducing marriage bills. But in some states, Méndez said, the homophobia remains so pervasive that no couples will step forward to sue, fearing reprisal.

One example of continued movement after a marriage victory is Argentina. After a difficult fight to pass an Equal Marriage Law in 2010, it found renewed purpose as an engine for promoting marriage equality efforts in other South American countries. The LGBT Federation helps couples from other countries organize marriages in Argentina and provides support for them to fight for recognition once they return home. Fifty couples from at lest a dozen countries have now married in the country, according to the organization's president, Esteban Paulón.

The Federation also held together a broad coalition of groups to win passage of the world's most sweeping law protecting transgender people, which includes the right to change one's gender on state-issued identification by signing a simple affidavit and access to state-funded gender reassignment surgery. For the activists involved, this was not only a victory for some of the most marginalized members of the LGBT community. It was also a blow at economic inequality, since the discrimination trans people face in education and employment also kept them trapped in low-wage jobs or prostitution.

The test facing the LGBT rights movement after marriage has been achieved, international experience shows, is whether it can broaden its case in popular debate.

"The challenge for us as a movement is to refocus people's attention on the baseline needs of our communities," said Rea Carey of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, who regards health care and immigration reform as two of the most important fights for LGBT people. "We want to make sure that we are continuing to educate even in our own community on the needs of LGBT people."

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House Democrats and Republicans told their members to talk about the budget and spending cuts at home. Meanwhile, one of the most prominent legislative issues gets little attention.

Sens. Chuck Schumer, John McCain, Jeff Flake and Michael Bennet held a news conference following their tour of the Arizona-Mexico border in Nogales, Ariz.

Image by Samantha Sais / Reuters

WASHINGTON — Immigration reform is among the most talked-about legislative issues of this Congress so far — but hardly any lawmakers are talking about it with their constituents during recess.

After Sens. Jeff Flake, Chuck Schumer, John McCain and Michael Bennet toured the Mexico-Arizona border Wednesday, Schumer declared at a news event that they are "90 percent there" on an immigration reform package.

But most other members of Congress have remained mum during the two-week recess on the issue of immigration, in part because party leaders did not make it a messaging priority in briefing packets distributed to offices prior to the break.

House Democrats received tips for talking about the House Republican budget; suggested community and press events, most of them related to the budget or sequestration; and even a sample op-ed about the budget and automatic across-the-board spending cuts.

Notably absent from these materials, as well as from those distributed to the House Republican conference, is any mention of immigration — likely to be the hot topic when Congress returns to session during the second week of April.

That hasn't stopped some members of Congress from organizing events on their own: Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley will appear at two immigration-related events next week, his office confirmed. Democatic Reps. Jim Himes, Jared Polis, Sandy Levin and Xavier Becerra also notified their caucus of plans to participate in similar events, although their offices did not independently confirm.

Ed Gillespie said Sunday Republican opposition to benefits for same-sex couples may change, but the party won't be embracing marriage rights for gay couples on their platform.

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A mix of political amateurs and diehard fans are convinced that Clinton will run for president — and that they can help her.

Image by Mendel Ngan / Getty Images

That Hillary Clinton hasn't announced or even hinted at her plans to run for the presidency in 2016 doesn't unsettle the minds of the three individuals who have, to varying degrees of dedication, already launched political action committees this year in support of her candidacy.

With the first presidential primary contest more than 1,000 days away — and with Clinton's possible participation in it still unclear as it's ever been — founders readily admit that putting together a super PAC in earnest so early in the game demands a level of blind faith and borderline delusion.

Allida Black, chairman of Ready for Hillary, the most legitimate of the three groups, has already thrown her own money and hundreds of hours into the PAC since registering it with the Federal Election Committee in January. If Clinton doesn't end up running in three years, Black said, "it'll break my heart."

"I'll pull myself up and I'll support whatever project she's in next, but I just want to say that I don't think that's gonna happen," said Black, adding that, although she knows Clinton, she hasn't spoken with her or members of her inner circle about the PAC or the next presidential race. "I just think that Hillary's gonna run. I wouldn't spend this money and spend all of these sleepless nights if I didn't think she was right for the job and think she was gonna do it."

While Clinton's political future remains unknown, no other potential presidential candidate — many of whom have been more forthright about their presidential ambitions — has a super PAC set up in support of their candidacy, according to FEC searches for a wide sampling of the leading contenders from both parties.

Black, 61, is a teaching consultant who ran George Washington University's Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project for 12 years. She says she spends at least 30 hours a week working from her Northern Virginia home on the PAC while holding down her full-time job.

It's a routine she's used to from the 2008 election, when she campaigned tirelessly, and on her own dime, in support of the then-senator; in 18 months, Black traveled to 14 states, hosted 500 house parties, raised $15,000, knocked on 5,000 doors — and when Clinton ultimately lost to Barack Obama, she circulated a petition at the Democratic National Convention to put her name in nomination.

She spent just four weekends at home during the campaign, and often slept in her car as she crisscrossed the primary states. Asked how she paid for it all, Black said, "I got a new credit card, and it took a while to pay it off."

The Ready for Hillary PAC already has four part-time volunteers working with Black, including the her cofounder, former Clinton aide Adam Parkhomenko, and the group has two full-time staffers on board — Seth Bringman, a former communications director for the Ohio Democratic Party, and Nickie Titus, who was director of digital media on Sen. Tim Kaine's campaign last year.

The PAC doesn't purport to rival the big fish of the political fundraising world — she calls her group a "grassroots effort," and a "lean, mean operating machine" — but in its nascent stages, aspects of the operation take on a shade more amateur than grassroots.

Black says she is not yet paying her two staff employees, and won't be able to "until the money comes in." And with little to do so early in the process for a Clinton campaign that might not ever launch, the group appears to focus largely on building a presence on Facebook and Twitter, where they often post pictures and themed Photoshopped graphics meant to rally support — Clinton's name over a four-leaf clover on St. Patrick's Day, or more recently, a cartoon Easter bunny carrying a painted "HRC 2016" egg and a note that reads, "Ready!"

Black, though, says the group's popularity online is measure enough of its early success — Ready for Hillary has an email list of 100,000 and about 60,000 followers on Facebook and Twitter, and 30,000 on Instagram. (A graphic posted to the Ready for Hillary Facebook page proudly points out that Restore Our Future, the foremost pro-Romney super PAC, had just 2,600 followers by the end of last year's election.)

And with Black's experience in the political arena, the Ready for Hillary group is already better established than any other pro-Clinton effort.

Nigel Wallace, a resident of Davenport, Iowa, was the first to file paperwork with the FEC to create a group in support of Clinton's candidacy. His PAC, named HillaryClintonSuperPac, is inactive save for a website whose homepage promises, "Future home of something quite cool." Wallace runs an antique store with his mother, who is listed as PAC's bookkeeper, and said his reason for launching the group was to reserve the name "HillaryClintonSuperPac," which he thought could have been snapped up soon by some other supporter had he and his mother not taken it themselves.

"We knew it was a great idea, and from a business stand point," said Wallace, "HillaryClintonSuperPAC would be, like, the name."

Wallace, who has volunteered locally for Democratic campaigns in years past, said that even if Clinton doesn't run, he'll use the group to advocate for issues that matter most to the former secretary of state. "Obviously we would want to support her, but it also stands for her ideology. It'll be more of a whole brand," Wallace said, when reached by phone.

"We are an anti-negativity campaign, as we feel slander is spite and only success in our de-evolution. :)," Wallace added later in a text message.

A group called HillaryFTW — or Hillary for the Win — is the most recent PAC filed with the FEC in support of the possible candidate. Hector Pacheco, the group's founder, is a 26-year-old entertainment litigator living in Los Angeles. Asked why he decided to launch his group, Pacheco said, "I'm a registered Democrat, so I'm definitely on 'team blue,' and I was a Barack Obama supporter in 2008 when I was still in college. Now that I'm a professional, I'm still looking for ways to stay politically involved."

Pacheco, who says he has about four volunteers working with him on the project, has plans to purchase ad space for the group, funded by contributions, on billboards in Los Angeles and in publications like LA Weekly and Hollywood Reporter. "Since she hasn't even announced her candidacy yet, but we want to try to let her know that there are people her on the West Coast that want to see her run," Pacheco said.

There is even a group now, registered late last month with the FEC, that wants to make clear there are people who don't want Clinton running. Republican lobbyist Laurence Socci founded the Defeat Hillary Super PAC along with as many as six other political operatives he declined to identify but did say three were "at a national level" and "the kind of people who have been down this path before and know what they're doing."

Socci, who said the group wouldn't be making any public statements for at least a few weeks, seemed convinced that Clinton would indeed be launching a presidential campaign between now and 2016. "Anybody who's been around politics and knows the Clintons knows that she's going to run, so we managed to start something early," he told BuzzFeed. "Besides, there are already several super PACs supporting her."

For now, though, Black's Ready for Hillary PAC remains the only serious effort underway. Their website will launch in the coming weeks, and the group has continued to grow in following and in staff; most recently, Bringman said, they brought on Matt Felan, Clinton's deputy finance director in 2008, to run the operation's fundraising arm.

But all it takes, of course, to start a PAC like Black's or Wallace's or Pacheco's is a mailing address, a bank account, and a single six-page form signed and mailed to the FEC in Washington, D.C. And with the speculation surrounding Clinton's candidacy at a fever pitch following her recent statement in support of marriage equality, more committees are bound to roll in before the former secretary of state makes up her mind one way or the other about 2016.

As Pacheco said, "I saw that pretty much anybody can do it. So I thought, 'Why not me? I'll give it a shot.'"

The Dirty Dozen of porn.

Image by Bill Haber / AP

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder heads up the list of the nation's top facilitators of pornography, beating out titillating powerhouses like Google, the American Library Association, and the Department of Defense, according to conservative advocacy nonprofit Morality in Media.

"Holder's actions keep the porn industry thriving. He not only refuses to enforce obscenity laws currently on the books that prohibit the distribution of hardcore pornography, but he even disbanded the office charged with enforcement," Morality in Media President Patrick Trueman said in a statement announcing his organization's "Dirty Dozen List of Sex Exploiters."

Other porn facilitators that made this year's list include LodgeNet Interactive Corporation and Hilton for providing adult movies in hotels; Cosmo for relying "on sexually explicit content to sell magazines to young girls;" the American Library Association for pushing "libraries not to use any Internet filters to prevent children from stumbling across porn while doing their homework;" Comcast for providing porn at "the click of your remote;" and Twitter for not eliminating pornography from users' feeds.

The Defense Department made the list because "pervasive porn causes harassment in the workplace, addiction, and problems at home," although it's unclear what the military has done to spread pornography.

The entire list can be found at www.PornHarms.com/dirtydozen.

“Oh man,” Obama said.

Image by Jason Reed / Reuters

WASHINGTON — President Obama did not have a great day on the White House basketball court Monday.

During the White House Easter Egg Roll, Obama stopped off at the White House court to shoot a few hoops with NBA stars and some of the kids crowding the grounds during the festivities. It was not Obama's best performance.

From the White House pool report, written by the Tampa Bay Times' Alex Leary:

POTUS stepped to free throw line and kids were asked to stand on opposite sides, depending on whether they think he would sink it. Most kids moved in one direction, but one boy went to the "miss" side.

"Oh, man," a stunned POTUS said, hands on hips. The boy didn't budge. And three others joined.

In sharp form, POTUS released the ball. It bounced off the rim and circled it -- miss.

"Come on. Come on. Did you see that?" Obama said.

It got worse.

A little while later, after playing tennis, Obama started to take shots amid the kids and pros.

Miss. Miss. Off the rim. Miss. Miss. Off the rim. Airball.

He moved closer to the net.

But time and again, he missed. Of 22 shots POTUS took, he made two.

In total, there were 16 missed long range jumpers:

Along with one total air ball.

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“They're so just done with this.”

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For the win!

Every Easter, the White House lawn is opened to thousands of diverse citizens and vegetables.

Image by Mark Wilson / Getty Images

The President gives an address flanked by a large bunny costume.

Image by Jason Reed / Reuters

A Patriotic Bunny at least.

Image by Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press/MCT

He then gives this 'derp' expression while playing a lawn sport.

Image by Jason Reed / Reuters

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“They are relentless, viscous and hell-bent,” Lloyd Marcus says of gay rights advocates.

Lloyd Marcus

Source: a57.foxnews.com

Leading Massachusetts Senate Republican candidate Michael Sullivan is getting some unsolicited help from a Tea Party leader who has called the same-sex marriage movement "dangerous" and "relentless, viscous, and hell-bent."

Lloyd Marcus, chairman of the Conservative Campaign Committee — formerly known as the known as the Campaign to Defeat Barack Obama — has pledged to raise $45,000 for radio ads and $115,000 for TV ads in support of Sullivan. Sullivan told the Boston Globe he has already raised $25,000 and sent out an e-mail asking for volunteers in Boston to film an ad in support of Sullivan.

Marcus's anti-gay comments appear to run contrary to Sullivan's more moderate stance on gay rights, and his closeness to Marcus could hurt Sullivan's general election hopes if he wins the Republican primary.

"Think of us as crew members on the Starship Enterprise, boldly going where no one has gone before. That's what it feels like challenging the 'homosexuality is normal' movement. It is dangerous," Marcus wrote in one blog post.

"The 'homosexuality is normal' movement is not staffed with passive, well-meaning victims seeking tolerance and their place in the sun. They are relentless, viscous and hell-bent on forcing all of us, particularly Christians, to say their behavior is normal. God help us," Marcus added concluding his post.

The Sullivan campaign manager offered tactic approval of the support, telling the Globe, "We don't have a litmus test for someone who walks in the door and wants to lick an envelope" and "anyone who wants to get out and help Mike is welcome to get out and help Mike"

Although Sullivan has said he personally believes marriage is between one man and one woman, he supports the repeal of DOMA and supports giving the same-sex couples benefits similar to heterosexual married couples, and thinks each state should be free to make up their decision on marriage equality

Sullivans says "it is up to the people of each individual state to define marriage and provide benefits as they see fit, including whether or not to recognize same sex marriage, and not the federal government," adding he supports Massachusetts decade-long decision recognizing gay marriage.

The Sullivan campaign responding saying "Mike is a candidate who welcomes everyone to be involved," adding that they "certainly can't control what people do on the outside."

A spokesman for Congressional candidate said it was because they had “an over amount of retweets” and were “overwhelmed with retweets” and that people looking for information for events would “get lost in the retweets.” The spokesman added “we wanted to make it more organic.”

The vast majority of the tweets deleted were retweets of other people.

Via: politwoops.sunlightfoundation.com

A cached version of her Twitter feed shows the large numbers of retweets.

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Gov. Peter Shumlin, the chair of the Democratic Governors Association, had choice words for his Republican colleagues.

Image by Toby Talbot / AP

The chair of the Democratic Governors Association, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, called Virginia's Republican gubernatorial candidate a Tea Party radical who makes "Mitt Romney and his '47 percent' comment look moderate."

Shumlin, whose role at the DGA has made him a player in this year's two governor's races in Virginia and New Jersey, singled out Cuccinelli in an interview with BuzzFeed as a candidate whose conservative policies would make more moderate Republicans weary.

"Look at moderate Republicans like the Virginia lieutenant governor Bill Bolling," Shumlin said. "He knows what Ken Cuccinelli is. Go to Virginia and ask him how comfortable he is with Ken Cuccinelli."

Asked if he would describe the candidate as more radical than the state's current Republican governor, Bob McDonnell, who has given Cuccinelli his endorsement, Shumlin said, "Oh god, yes."

"There is no more extreme example of a Tea Party candidate for governor than Cuccinelli," Shumlin said. "McDonnell will look like a balanced, middle-of-the-road governor in comparison. Have you read his book? He characterizes both social security and Medicare as 'goodies.'"

The DGA has already used Cuccinelli's book, The Last Line of Defense, to launch attacks against the candidate. The group, which is charged with helping recruit and elect Democratic gubernatorial candidates, held a Cuccinelli book give-away in February as a fundraiser.

"This guy is way out there," said Shumlin.

Shumlin had more fighting words for the current class of Republican governors, citing what he called large portions of the electorate "left behind" by conservative policies. "Whether its immigration, civil rights, or women's rights, you lose a whole ton of the electorate," he said. "Then you promosise jobs and instead implement policies that take care of one percent of the population."

Asked about this year's other gubernatorial race — where New Jersey's Democratic candidate, state Sen. Barbara Buono, is up against the popular Gov. Chris Christie — Shumlin was fiercely critical of the Republican incumbent, though he acknowledged that Democrats enjoy better odds in Virginia. A poll out last week has Buono trailing Christie by 35 points.

But Shumlin maintained that the DGA is splitting its time and effort evenly this year between New Jersey and Virginia.

"We're making equal efforts in New Jersey and Virginia. No question," said Shumlin. "You can read the polls as well as we can. We know right now, if the election were held today, we've got a better chance of winning Virginia than New Jersey, but we think that could change."

After transgender and immigrant rights activists criticized exclusion from this past week's Supreme Court rally, the Human Rights Campaign apologizes. “We failed to live up to the high standard to which we hold ourselves accountable and we will strive to do better in the future,” HRC's vice president says.

Image by Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press/MCT

WASHINGTON — The Human Rights Campaign apologized Monday for treatment of transgender and immigration rights activists at the Supreme Court last week, days after the nation's largest LGBT group initially had sought to brush aside the criticisms.

HRC, which has been much celebrated on social media for its red marriage equality logo's takeover of Facebook, found itself the subject of scrutiny on Tumblr and YouTube for what many saw as marginalizing transgender people and LGBT immigrants.

A Tumblr post since deleted (but shown below) detailed that transgender rights activists were asked repeatedly to remove a flag supporting transgender rights from behind the podium, a fact confirmed to BuzzFeed by multiple people. Additionally, as detailed at YouTube, an undocumented immigrant was asked to remove information about his immigration status from the speech he gave at the rally.

Although HRC initially brushed off the concerns raised in the Tumblr post, the group's vice president referenced both incidents in an apology Monday.

In a statement on its website, HRC vice president Fred Sainz wrote Monday, "HRC regrets the incidents and offers our apologies to those who were hurt by our actions. We failed to live up to the high standard to which we hold ourselves accountable and we will strive to do better in the future."

The incidents reignited long-standing criticism of HRC for being overly concerned about a media-friendly picture being presented at public events and had the potential to reopen old wounds in the LGBT community about HRC's treatment of transgender issues.

In 2007, HRC made the decision to support a version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act that would have excluded transgender protections from the long-sought job discrimination bill. In part because, as then-HRC president Joe Solmonese noted to this reporter in a 2012 interview, then-President George W. Bush would have vetoed the bill so "there was no chance that bill was going to get signed into law," HRC backed the trans-exclusive bill as part of "the complexities of legislative process and building a bill."

The move, however, "was a divisive moment" that Solmonese described as "a difficult time" at HRC. "[T]he community felt as though it had been divided through that act," he said. Although HRC has worked to repair that division over the past years, the organization has been particularly sensitive to criticism of its treatment of transgender issues in the years since the 2007 vote.

HRC's current president, Chad Griffin, took over for Solmonese in June 2012. Though his job before this was running the American Foundation for Equal Rights — which brought the court challenge to California's Proposition 8 marriage amendment — Griffin has made a clear effort to include non-marriage issues and to highlight transgender issues in his work as president. His first effort as the group's head was a survey that looked at anti-LGBT bullying and other youth issues across the country.

Although HRC officials did not respond late this afternoon to a request for information about Griffin's involvement in the decision to issue the apology, there's no question that Griffin does not want questions about the group's commitment to transgender issues to be raised again — let alone during a time in which LGBT issues, and his group, are getting particularly prominent coverage in the media.

The Trans Issue

The since-removed Tumblr post

Via: foxski.tumblr.com

The Immigration Issue

Via: youtu.be

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