Quantcast
Channel: BuzzFeed News
Viewing all 15742 articles
Browse latest View live

Alex Jones Downplays Connection To "Boston Bomber"

0
0

Tamerlan Tsarnaev reportedly listened to the conspiracist radio host. “My show is anti-terrorism.”

Via: The Lowell Sun & Robin Young, File / AP

WASHINGTON — Alex Jones is not surprised that the media is reporting that Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a fan of his Infowars website, he told BuzzFeed on Tuesday.

"It's just standard," Jones said. "Anyone you talk to is familiar with my show. When I go out in public, half the people I meet in this country, and in other countries too, say they listen to my show. The show is bigger than the mainstream media admits."

Jones — whose site has peddled conspiracy theories about the Boston Marathon bombing and suggested that Tsarnaev is innocent — conceded that Tsarnaev "may have actually been a listener."

"He could be a listener," Jones said. "It could be true. I've talked to the family and most of them are listeners. My show is anti-terrorism and my show exposes that most of the events we've seen have been provocateured."

The AP reported on Tuesday that Tsarnaev "took an interest" in Infowars and was also interested in getting a copy of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," the anti-Semitic fraud that purports to show a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world.

"I've seen this before," Jones said. "The federal government trying to connect me to tragedies. That's the media and the government's own conspiracy theories."

Jones compared the situation to when Richard Andrew Poplawski, a Pittsburgh man who killed three police officers in 2009, was shown to be a conspiracy theorist who frequently visited the Infowars website.

"It's standard for them to talk to people, go through computers, and any time someone's done something bad, they connect it to us," Jones said. In the case of Poplawski, he said, Infowars eventually showed they had nothing to do with him: "We went and showed that he was a white supremacist who hated me and was attacking me."

Jones said that he had spoken with an aunt of the Tsarnaevs on the record and other family members off the record.

"They're scared to death," he said. "That whole family is genuinely shocked."

"They think it's a setup," Jones said, adding that "the State Department openly funds radical Islam in Dagestan."

Jones said the bombing was one of a number of plots "hatched" by the FBI, and Chechen militants, among others, have seized on his claims, which are not supported by evidence, to make the case for a sweeping conspiracy behind the deadly blasts.

He also claimed that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's throat wound had been inflicted by the authorities, calling it "that special throat surgery they did."


High Hopes For Bill Aimed At Ending Anti-LGBT Job Bias

0
0

“If we have a bipartisan vote coming out of the Senate … I think there's a very good chance that the House will decide to take it up,” Merkley says of his hopes to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act this Congress.

Via: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Two days before he is set to reintroduce the long-standing bill to prohibit anti-LGBT job discrimination on Thursday, the Senate's lead sponsor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act is pushing an ambitious — if extremely optimistic — agenda that could end with the bill being sent to President Obama's desk to be signed into law.

Talking with BuzzFeed Tuesday morning, Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon said he expects a Senate markup of ENDA by early summer, believes supporters will meet the 60-vote threshold for Senate passage, and even holds out hope for House action on the bill to outlaw anti-LGBT job discrimination.

"We'll be introducing it on Thursday. We'll have Sens. [Tom] Harkin and [Tammy] Baldwin and myself on the Democratic side and Sens. [Susan] Collins and [Mark] Kirk" on the Republican side, he said. "I feel like there's a lot of momentum behind this effort."

Harkin is the chairman of the Senate's Housing, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee that will be considering the legislation.

"We will have both a hearing and we will have a markup. It hasn't been marked up in committee since 2002," he said, noting, "Sen. Harkin has said he wishes to do it as soon as possible. I think that, realistically, we have a shot of getting this done in May. ... It would be my hope for us to have a markup in May or June."

As for the full Senate, Merkley added, "I think we have a very good chance of meeting even the higher 60-vote test, if you will, for ending discrimination in employment."

Merkley said he has spoken with several Republican members beyond Kirk and Collins, although he would not say who they were, broadly noting, "I do feel like there is a warming feeling, a sense of momentum when it comes to folks' willingness to take a stand against discrimination."

But, even if the Senate were to act on the bill, the House Republican leadership has not supported the legislation in the past. Merkley's office said that Reps. Jared Polis and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen will be reintroducing ENDA Thursday in the House as well.

Asked if he thinks there's any chance of the bill moving in the Republican-led House, Merkley said, "I do. I think if you have a bill that goes through the Senate, has met the higher 60-vote test — if we have a bipartisan vote coming out of the Senate, I think it sends a strong message to the House that it's time to consider this."

"I think there's a very good chance that the House will decide to take it up," he said, citing the House's approval of the Violence Against Women Act reauthorization earlier this year.

Potential McConnell Opponent Defends 2011 Meeting With Progress Kentucky Founder

0
0

Alison Lundergan Grimes talked to Shawn Reilly about her Secretary of State race. “There wasn't any grand conspiracy,” a consultant says.

WASHINGTON — A top political aide to Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes — who some Democrats hope will take on Republican Mitch McConnell in the Senate race next year — defended her 2011 meeting with Shawn Reilly, the founder the scandal-plagued progressive group Progress Kentucky in a call to BuzzFeed Tuesday.

"There wasn't any grand conspiracy," said Dale Emmons, a top political consultant to Grimes's Secretary of State race. "She just met him and talked to him and it was about her race for Secretary of State, it certainly was nothing to do with with Mitch McConnell."

Progress Kentucky has been giving Kentucky Democrats headaches for months, and Republicans quickly tried to tie Lundergan Grimes to the group after an image of her meeting with Reilly was published at BuzzFeed Monday.

Emmons said the Feb. 2011 meeting between Reilly and Lundergan Grimes was just part of campaigning.

"It was a chance encounter i'm sure. I don't have any recollection of him, I worked for her campaign and I don't believe she had any meeting on her schedule," he said. "I believe I would have known about that."

BuzzFeed tried to reach Emmons and another political consultant linked to Lundergan Grimes, as well as her office in state government, before publishing the photo with Reilly. Emmons did not reply to a voicemail message. On Tuesday, he said he had been out with the flu.

He noted out that politicians on the campaign trail often have their pictures taken with people they don't know. "When you're out campaigning, going to events and receptions, you encounter all kinds of people. Anybody that runs for office does that. Every event has the rope line, and if people want their picture made so they can put it on Facebook, I mean that's part of it," he said. "Alison was a bit of [a] celebrity and she's certainly more of one after she won."

Lundergan Grimes has not made a decision about running for Senate, despite public pressure from many Democrats after Ashley Judd ruled out a run. Asked if he thought Progress Kentucky had made it tougher for Democrats to take on McConnell, Emmons criticized the group but said the race won't be about them.

"McConnell's making a tempest out of a teapot here, OK? It's comical for Mitch McConnell to claim to be a victim of somebody who attacked him. That's stand up comedy," he said. "This guy has made fodder out of everybody he's run against or has even thought about running against him. And for him to say that someone's attacking him unfairly? There's no such thing as unfair when it comes to Mitch McConnell."

But Emmons was quick to call out Progress Kentucky for "over the line" behavior like racially-charged tweets from the group's official account attacking McConnell's wife and the alleged taping of a McConnell strategy session by one of the group's founders.

"What has been described of it…I think it's over the line, OK? In Kentucky, you have to have a consenting party to tape a conversation that's going on. You have to be part of the conversation, or at least in the room where the conversation's going on. What what we think we know — and I don't know anything beyond what I've read in the newspapers, I haven't talked to anybody about what took place — it should not have happened."

Emmons is the current president of the American Association of Political Consultants, a bipartisan national industry group. He said that Progress Kentucky aren't the only ones who should be feeling the heat after the release of the McConnell tape, which recorded an opposition strategy session targeting Judd.

"For that matter, I don't think that what Mitch McConnell and them were talking about in that room should have been talked about, either," he said. "There's certainly some gender strategies that were being talked about in that room against women. I think that's over the line."

Emmons confirmed that Lundergan Grimes is considering a Senate bid but wouldn't discuss a timeframe for her decision, noting that candidates don't have to file until January.

The US Has Few Ties To Chechnya, And Less Influence

0
0

“We just don't have a role.”

Security guards walk near the museum of late Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov, with his portrait seen in the background, in Grozny in Chechnya.

Via: Maxim Shemetov / Reuters

Long before the son of Chechen immigrants attacked Boston, America had given up on Chechnya.

The American government never found a way to exert much leverage in Boris Yeltsin's and Vladimir Putin's brutal wars to put down the insurgency in the restive southern republic, though debates over it, a former administration official said, at times divided the Bush Administration. But there is, in reality, scarcely any American connection to the region. There is no Chechen-American advocacy group; and no program for Chechen refugees.

"It's out of sight, out of mind," said Bruce Jackson, a veteran of Republican foreign policy circles who was active in the move to extend NATO into Cenral and Eastern Europe. "We just don't have a role."

"Perhaps the State Department thought it was interference in internal Russian affairs," said Jackson, who personally hosted two young Chechen women who came under the aegis of a French program called Students Without Borders. "But it's also the case that nobody in these societies would speak a word of English, nor that this would be their destination."

The sorts of programs that America has run on behalf of refugees from other countries is done largely in Europe, primarily in Austria, though on the American side, a pair of groups whose skepticism of Russia was formed by the Cold War have played small roles. The Jamestown Foundation, founded in 1984 to support Soviet defectors, has testified on behalf of ethnic Chechens seeking asylum — but its president, Glen Howard, told USA Today that of the mere 200 Chechen immigrants to the United States, few are granted asylum — because of Russian complaints, he said.

The pro-democracy group Freedom House has also run, for a decade, the American Committee for Peace in the Caucasus, which pushes for human rights in the region in reports and briefings to Congress.

Ella Asoyan, a senior program officer with Freedom House's Eurasia program, said that the group hopes that the Boston bombings will not prompt the American government to follow some European governments in further cutting down on admitting refugees and asylum-seekers from the North Caucasus.

"We trust that whatever the US government's response to the horrendous tragedy in Boston is, it will not undermine the spirit of the immigrant culture on which the US is built, or interfere with the US historical support for human rights worldwide," she said.

And a few voices continue to make the case that the U.S. should do more. The Boston bombings are a sign, to them, that Russia has not actually succeeded in pacifying the Caucasus, and that what exists of Chechnya's civil society — opposed both to the Islamists and the brutal and corrupt pro-Russian regional government — needs more support.

"The north Caucasus increasingly is out of control," said Jackson. "It is no longer being governed by Russia, or anyone else."

Glenn Beck Did An Insane Impression Of Janet Napolitano

0
0

Imagine Jon Stewart doing his version of a Brooklyn gangster and you're halfway there.

View Video ›

Former Romney Intern Arrested For Blackmailing Women Into Sending Him Nude Photos

0
0

He also has a Facebook profile full of photos of him posing with almost every Republican politician from the 2012 election cycle.

Adam Savader, a 21-year-old campaign intern for Mitt Romney's 2012 campaign was arrested in Great Neck, Long Island on Tuesday, charged with cyber-stalking and blackmailing young women online.

Adam Savader, a 21-year-old campaign intern for Mitt Romney's 2012 campaign was arrested in Great Neck, Long Island on Tuesday, charged with cyber-stalking and blackmailing young women online.

Savader posing for a photo with Mitt Romney.

Source: facebook.com

According to an FBI press release, the SUNY Farmingdale political science student blackmailed 15 women into sending him nude photographs.

According to an FBI press release , the SUNY Farmingdale political science student blackmailed 15 women into sending him nude photographs.

Savader posing for a photo with Paul Ryan.

Source: facebook.com

He used a practice commonly referred to as "sextortion."

He used a practice commonly referred to as "sextortion."

Savader posing for a photo with Rick Santorum.

Source: facebook.com

Savader would anonymously contact women via Google Voice and tell them he already had nude photos of them.

Savader would anonymously contact women via Google Voice and tell them he already had nude photos of them.

Savader posing for a photo with Newt and Callista Gingrich.

Source: facebook.com


View Entire List ›

The Nine Most Terrifying Covers Of Al-Qaeda's Magazine To Inspire Western Terrorist Attacks

0
0

The magazine, meant to inspire terrorist attacks in Western nations, offers advice to build bombs, acquire weapons, and carry out terrorist acts. The magazine also features articles such as “Losing a Friend in Jihad,” “Why Did I Choose al-Qaeda,” as well as a “Letter from the Editor.” Sections in the magazine include “History and Strategy,” “The Latest and Opinion,” “Arts and Misc.,” and a review section.


View Entire List ›

What Would Your Life Be Like If You Were Born In North Korea?

0
0

Not great.

What would your life be like if you were born in North Korea?

What would your life be like if you were born in North Korea?

Much of this information is based on the "Quality of Life of North Korean" report compiled by the Korea Institute for National Unification.

Via: AP

There's a one in three chance you would have been born stunted or with malnutrition defects, according to the World Food Program.

There's a one in three chance you would have been born stunted or with malnutrition defects, according to the World Food Program.

Source: Damir Sagolj  /  via: wfp.org

There's a 50% chance you would have been born into "extreme poverty." In that case, your diet would consist of corn and kimchi as you would have "severely restricted in access to fuel for cooking and heating."

There's a 50% chance you would have been born into "extreme poverty." In that case, your diet would consist of corn and kimchi as you would have "severely restricted in access to fuel for cooking and heating."

Source: Damir Sagolj  /  via: latinospost.com

You would have grown up having to depend on a fireplace for warmth as it is unlikely that you would have been born into a family with indoor heating privileges.

You would have grown up having to depend on a fireplace for warmth as it is unlikely that you would have been born into a family with indoor heating privileges.

Source: Lee Jae-Won  /  via: kinu.or.kr


View Entire List ›


Could Max Baucus Save The Gun Bill?

0
0

“The whole thing hinges on one guy now.” And he has nothing to lose.

Via: J. Scott Applewhite / AP

Max Baucus' decision to resign could give gun control advocates a chance to revive their failed background-check legislation with a simple plan: Make it all about Baucus.

The legislation failed last week by six votes. One was Majority Leader Harry Reid, who voted no on procedural grounds. Among the others were North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp, who had reportedly signaled that she might be willing to cast a crucial 60th vote — but that she would not risk her career for a symbolic 57th. Similarly, it has been reported that the bill's supporters had an unnamed Republican who might have voted for a winning bill but wouldn't go down in flames with a losing one.

The bill failed, then, by well under six votes. And the nature of contested legislation is that senators may be willing to cast the 60th vote when they won't cast the 59th. Were Baucus to shamelessly directly change his mind, he could well pass the bill.

Baucus has not exactly given eloquent defenses for his opposition to background checks. He explained his "no" vote to reporters with a single word: "Montana."

He was also never a particular target for advocates, because his vote wasn't considered in play.

"He was decidedly uninterested in it when we met," Jen Bluestein, the communications director for Americans for Responsible Solutions, the group led by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, told my colleague Evan McMorris-Santoro. Baucus "seemed to be suggesting he didn't believe the polls showing strong support for it among Montanans," Bluestein said.

So what if that changed? It's not something gun control advocates or the White House, currently licking their wounds, are considering, but it's a provocative thought, and one that some senior Democrats have begun to weigh.

"The whole thing hinges on one guy now," one top Democratic political operative suggested to me Tuesday. "If you want background checks, lock on to Max Baucus and do not let go."

This is not, superficially, beyond the scope of imagination. Indeed, those of us who watched anything from the health care fight to the passage of marriage equality through the New York State Senate have seen what imaginative, muscular executives and legislative leaders can do. This White House saw its health care overhaul declared dead, then rise again. And there's a hallowed path for this sort of reversal: Leadership could give Baucus and two more senators cover to switch their votes with a modest change to the legislation for which they could claim credit.

I should pause to note that people who watch the Senate closely — including my colleagues in BuzzFeed's Washington bureau — tell me this is not likely to happen. My flight of fancy requires ignoring the fact that people close to Reid say he has no intention of putting the bill back on the floor, an extremely unusual move, and ignoring Baucus' reputation for stubbornness.

But if there's a consistent trend in the Senate, it's that retiring senators often trade in one constituency for another. They stick with their adopted homes, taking lucrative lobbying jobs in the Capitol. They may not like the legislation in Montana. But how about the District of Columbia?

Progressives Emerge As Brian Schweitzer's Unlikely Ally

0
0

Just hours after Sen. Max Baucus's retirement announcement, a progressive group comes out for a pro-gun, pro-Keystone candidate. PCCC calls Schweitzer a “bold progressive populist.”

Via: Alex Wong / Getty Images

Less 24 hours after Sen. Max Baucus's surprise retirement announcement, his potential sucessor, former Montana governor Brian Schweitzer, already has support from an unlikely corner of the Democratic Party: Progressives.

A liberal political action committee, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, launched a "Draft Brian Schweitzer for Senate" campaign just hours after Baucus announced he would step down at the end of his sixth term in early 2015. The group has already raised more than $18,700, spokesman Matt Wall told BuzzFeed, with a pitch that asks progressives to replace the "Senator from K Street" with Schweitzer, whom they call a "bold progressive populist."

Schweitzer may lean left in red-state Montana — he supports, for example, a single-payer health care system — but his center-right positions on a host of other issues make him an unlikely pick for a national progressive advocacy group.

The former governor is a strong advocate of the Keystone XL pipeline — to which progressives and environmentalists are vehemently opposed — and he is a pro-gun lawmaker in good fettle with the National Rifle Association: In 2008, the powerful gun lobby sealed Schweitzer's "A" rating with a reelection endorsement.

(Schweitzer did tell the National Journal in February that he supports background checks, but he has not said whether or not he would have supported the bill to expand background checks, which failed in the Senate last Wednesday despite the bipartisan sponsorship from Sens. Joe Manchin and Pat Toomey.)

Asked why Schweitzer would be popular with a progressive group, Wall said, "It's the fact that he was a populist governor, he's been a supporter of single-care health care, he opposed Citizens United, and has a record of standing up to big corporations for the little guy."

Adam Green, PCCC co-founder, highlighted the contrast between Schweitzer and Baucus.

"Unlike Max Baucus, who cares mostly about his special-interest donors, Brian Schweitzer actually cares what the people of Montana think. We are confident that when he sees polls showing that 79 percent of Montanans support common-sense background checks, he would do the right thing," Green said.

PCCC has been critical of Baucus in the past; just last week the group announced a $10,000 ad campaign against the senior Senator for his vote against the bill to expand background checks, which failed in the Senate last Wednesday despite the bipartisan sponsorship from Sens. Joe Manchin and Pat Toomey.

Other progressive groups have yet to weigh in on Schweitzer's possible campaign; CREDO told BuzzFeed they didn't have anything planned for the race, and MoveOn.org said they would wait to hear from their members before moving forward.

"We're obviously watching this Senate race as it develops and will follow our standard process, which means that MoveOn members in Montana will determine the path forward — including whether to make an endorsement — once the field is set," said Ilya Sheyman, the campaign director of MoveOn Political Action.

But even within the first five hours of its campaign, PCCC saw a strong showing of support for the former governor, raising $10,000 from its one million members, 3,300 of whom live in Montana.

As of Wednesday morning, the group had raised $18,787 from 1,321 donors. A total of 13,500 people signed "Draft Brian Schweitzer" petition, according to Wall.

"We had an overwhelming response from our members," Wall said, adding that an 3,600 more people have pledged a combined total of $145,300, should Schweitzer decide to run for the open seat next year.

Schweitzer, who has said he will consider running for the veteran Senator's seat, was governor for two terms, serving from 2005 to 2013, and was well-liked during his time in the State House; a 2011 poll showed Schweitzer had the best approval rating among statewide officeholders, while Baucus had the worst.

Correction: PCCC's Montana membership is 3,300. An earlier version of this article misstated the number.

Famed Chechen Surgeon "Mortally Ashamed" By Bombings

0
0

Dr. Khassan Baiev, author of “The Oath,” condemns the act. A glimpse into how Chechen Americans are feeling.

Via: youtube.com

WASHINGTON — A Chechen-American doctor who is one of the most prominent figures of the small Chechen diaspora has spoken out about the Boston marathon bombings, saying that he is "mortally ashamed" over the actions of the Tsarnaev brothers.

"As a Chechen surgeon, who was granted U.S. citizenship in 2012, I want to condemn in the strongest terms the terroristic act, which marred the Boston Marathon this year," Dr. Khassan Baiev, who lives in Needham, Mass. but is currently away in Chechnya, said in a statement sent to BuzzFeed. "The actions of Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, suspects in the Marathon bombing, were truly despicable and I am confident, the full details will be brought to light in an eventual trial."

Baiev also spoke for other Chechens, saying the bombing had "cast a terrible shadow over all the Chechen people and Chechnya":

We who live here want our children, educated in the United States, to be a credit to American society. This ghastly catastrophe has cast a terrible shadow over all the Chechen people and Chechnya. I can barely find words to express my sorrow over this event, which has left us mortally ashamed. We, who have deep ties to our original homeland of Chechnya and our adopted country the United States, want you to know that our hearts go out to all the victims of this tragedy.
I want also to take this opportunity to thank the United States for myself, my family, and many Chechens, I am sure, for granting us political asylum and assistance when we fled the horrific conflicts in the Caucasus region of Russia. The United States government and the American people we have come to know welcomed us with open, friendly arms. We will always be grateful for your generosity.

Baiev is the author of The Oath: A Surgeon Under Fire, a memoir of his time as a war surgeon during the war in Chechnya in the 1990s. He received death threats from both sides of the conflict for treating soldiers from the other side — upholding the Hippocratic oath of the book's title and earning him praise from a number of human rights organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Baiev immigrated to the United States in 2000. He and his family became, like the Tsarnaevs, one of a handful of Chechen families to settle in the Boston area; according to AFP, Baiev knew the family.

He still makes trips to Chechnya to treat children as well as performing cosmetic surgeries.

Abortion Opponents Declare Victory After Obama Moves Planned Parenthood Speech

0
0

Anti-abortion advocates say the Kermit Gosnell case forced Obama to distance himself from Planned Parenthood. Nonsense, says Planned Parenthood.

Via: Philadelphia Daily News, Yong Kim, File / AP

WASHINGTON — Abortion opponents declared victory Wednesday when the White House announced President Obama will not address Planned Parenthood's national gala Thursday night in D.C..

But abortion rights supporters say not to read too much into the decision.

Citing Obama's desire to spend time with victims of the West, Texas fertilizer plant explosion, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters Wednesday that Obama's planned keynote address at Planned Parenthood's gala will be postponed until Friday morning so Obama can stay longer on his planned trip to Texas.

Obama's decision to address the Planned Parenthood gala was met with criticism from anti-abortion conservatives, who said it was in poor taste due to the Philadelphia trial of abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell.

The pro-life right has been eager to turn the Gosnell trial into a national conversation about abortion, and they say Obama's changing schedule is a sign that's happening.

"Backing out of keynoting a gala, different than 'postponing' a meeting," Mallory Quigley, spokesperson for the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony List, told BuzzFeed.

"Planned Parenthood last week admitted to knowing about the horrors going on inside Kermit Gosnell's squalid Philadelphia clinic, but chose not to exercise its position as the leader in the abortion industry to put an end to the butchering of women and children," the group said in a statement. "No matter the reason for his backing out, it is certainly a good time to distance oneself from Planned Parenthood."

After this story was published, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer responded to the abortion opponents on Twitter. "This makes no sense," he wrote. "POTUS is attending a memorial service Waco that prevents him from getting back in time for the dinner."

For its part, Planned Parenthood doesn't see the change in schedule as a snub. Thursday night's gala is part of the group's national conference, which brings thousands of Planned Parenthood supporters and activists to the capital. Obama will address that crowd Friday morning, when the schedule called for various plenary sessions. Activists with the group are excited to get Obama at all: his speech to a Planned Parenthood gathering Friday will be the first by any sitting president (Obama is closely allied with the abortion rights movement and spoke at a Planned Parenthood event while a candidate in 2008.)

Mark Sanford Bravely Debates A Poster Of Nancy Pelosi

0
0

The same guy who made “hiking the Appalachian Trail” a euphemism for cheating.

Follow NowThis News on Facebook and Twitter.
The NowThis News app is live -- and it's FREE! Download it.

Why Everybody Hates Max Baucus

0
0

The retiring Senator's name is mud on both sides of the aisle in Washington. “Maybe we'll actually get things done now,” one Democrat snarked.

Via: J. Scott Applewhite, File / AP

There are very few things that can bring the Tea Party and liberal Democrats together.

The retirement of Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) was one of them.

Since Baucus announced his retirement on Tuesday, the news has been met with near jubilance among House Democrats and conservative groups alike. Everyone in Congress has critics, but the base of Baucus detractors is broad, bipartisan, and vocal, arguing that his long career has been governed not by ideology or conviction, but by self-interest and an unrelenting focus on helping out his friends and sending pork back home.

Asked about Baucus's retirement, one progressive House Democrat snarked, "Oh, is he? How sad. Maybe we'll actually get things done now."

Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash) simply smiled and replied, "Brian Schweitzer?" referring to the former Montana governor who may jump into the race. "I like him. He'll make a good Senator."

The general dislike for the Montana Democrat even inspired a satirical 2001 column in The Onion "written" by Baucus headlined, "I'm Such A Shitty Senator."

The reasons for the anti-Baucus sentiment vary depending on the critic.

The Tea Party Patriots blasted out a statement that "claimed victory" for the retirement. Baucus is reviled among Tea Party groups because of his role in creating the health care law. The Montana Republican Party blasted him in a statement last week, accusing him of being two-faced on guns and healthcare: a liberal when he is not running for re-election and a conservative when he is.

There's no love lost between Baucus and the liberal arm of his party. As the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Baucus was an accomplished but at times an infuriating figure to his party. He helped pass the Bush Tax cuts with Republicans, but was key in blocking the privatization of Social Security. He was critical in passing the Affordable Care Act but Democrats griped that he slowed down the process in a futile attempt to try and get Republicans on board. He supported an assault weapons ban in 1994, but last week voted against a bill for expanded background checks to the dismay of Democrats and the White House.

"I wish that Sen. Baucus, since he wasn't going to run again, would have voted for the gun control measure. That was a little bit confusing to me. Because it's hard to imagine that he has a principled position on background checks," said Rep. Jan Schakowsky.

At a recent Senate Finance hearing, Baucus told Obama administration officials that implementation of the health care law had been a "train wreck." Republicans pounced on the remark, pointing out repeatedly that Baucus had been instrumental in creating the law. Democrats were equally stunned by the remark.

"He had a lot to do with the passage of Obamacare, and I'm hoping that this period of his retirement, he'll help out with the implementation and get it moving," Schakowsky said.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a group that immediately launched a "Draft Schweitzer" campaign, didn't mince words when it came to Baucus.

"Max Baucus was a major roadblock to popular progressive reform. Whether it was holding up healthcare reform and opposing the public option, or being one of the few Senators to vote against background checks, Max Baucus has a history of taking millions from Wall Street, insurance companies, and lobbyists -- and then turning his back on the people of Montana," said PCCC co-founder Adam Green.

His retirement was a surprise to nearly everyone, including his Senate colleague Jon Tester, and Baucus aides say he did not make the decision lightly. He has been aggressively fundraising, and is now sitting on a $5 million war chest. At the time of the vote against the gun control measure, Baucus had not yet made the decision to retire.

The news even stunned donors in Montana, who were shocked to learn that Baucus would step down so soon after the checks had been written.

"He was beating the drums and everything was in motion," said one Baucus donor. "He was raising just tons of money, and voted against the gun control measure and we were just going to shut the fuck up and support him. He told everyone, '100 percent, I'm running.' So yeah, I'm a little pissed right now."

Baucus said in a statement on Tuesday that it was he wanted to spend more time with his family, and called the decision not to run "extremely difficult."

"After thinking long and hard, I decided I want to focus the next year and a half on serving Montana unconstrained by the demands of a campaign," he said in a statement. " Then, I want to come home and spend time with Mel, my son Zeno, and our family enjoying the Montana public lands we've fought hard to keep open and untarnished."

Much of the animosity, particularly among Senate Democrats, can be traced to the Bush tax cuts. Democrats, led by former Majority Leader Tom Daschle, were trying to hold the line on the massive cuts to tax rates, particularly for the wealthiest Americans.

Despite — or, some who know Baucus would say, because of — Daschle's aggressive efforts to keep the Montana Democrat in line, Baucus broke with his party to support the cuts.

"Daschle was furious that Baucus was playing footsie with the Bush administration," a lobbyist close to Baucus's world said.

The episode put even greater strain on an already difficult relationship: "I don't think they ever personally connected, and I don't think he felt like Baucus was a team player," the lobbyist said. Daschle's tight control of the conference also rubbed Baucus the wrong way, as did his insistence on loyalty.

Baucus's close personal and working relationship with Republicans like Sen. Chuck Grassley helped pave the way for a prescription drug benefit bill that became one of Bush's only domestic policy achievements. The pair were a rare bipartisan operation, but for Democrats, that was a bad thing. Regardless of Baucus' intentions, Daschle and many other Democrats "felt Baucus put his own self interests above the caucus, above the party," the lobbyist explained.

Not that the strong-willed Baucus seemed to care. "That's why everyone hates Max," one former aide said.

Ironically, it was Reid, one of Baucus' few friends in the Senate, who worked to keep the Montanan within the fold and to blunt criticism of him in Democratic circles.

When he took control of the Conference following the 2004 election, Reid decided to pursue a different approach with Baucus, giving him more autonomy to run his committee how he saw fit, and Baucus seemed to settle back into the flock. And then came the gun vote.

His supporters say that Baucus inspires animosity on both sides of the aisle precisely because he isn't beholden to any party.

"Republicans hated him when he killed privatization social security, Republicans loved him when he did the tax deal and Democrats hated him. When he did Medicare part D, Democrats hated him and Republicans loved him. When he passed health care, Democrats loved him again," said a Democrat with close ties to Montana politics. "Because he's independent and does what he thinks is right, he's not predictable and that makes people angry."

"And people need to remember, there is no one, I mean no one, who has done more for the Montana Democratic Party," the Democrat added. A source close to Baucus said that though the Senator was a Democrat, he was a "Montana Democrat," and the recent feuds that Baucus was having with his party had more to do with the left-ward drift of the caucus than it did with the positions Baucus has been taking.

As Baucus stays in charge of the Senate Finance Committee, he'll attempt to move forward working out a deal overhaul of tax code with Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.).

But a former longtime senior Senate aide was skeptical that leadership would let him attempt a deal.

"They learned a long time ago to very skeptical of any deal that he's going to cut with Republicans," the former aide said. "Any deal that he cuts is probably going to be so bad I doubt he can sell it to Democrats much less Republicans."

John Stanton contributed to this report.

Shepard Fairey To Publicly Unveil New Anti-NRA Work In DC Thursday

0
0

“America: The land where God saves and Satan invests in assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.” A plan to keep the gun control fight alive in DC.

WASHINGTON — Artist Shepard Fairey will paper downtown D.C. Thursday with copies of a new work aimed at reigniting the push for gun control.

Fairey and hundreds of copies of a new version of his controversial "GOD SAVES & SATAN INVESTS" print focused on the National Rifle Association will be on hand at a rally sponsored by the progressive group Occupy The NRA. The orignal version of the work debuted last month and featured Fairey's trademark "OBEY" where the letters "NRA" can be found on the new work.

The Occupy The NRA rally and the debut of Fairey's work was originally planned for the days preceding the Senate vote that effectively ended the gun control debate with a defeat for advocates looking for new laws after the shootings in Newtown, Conn. Protesters plan to highlight lobbyists paid by the NRA to fight gun control laws with a march down K Street and deliver "crime-scene photos illustrating the devastating effects of gun violence to those firms' offices," according to an Occupy The NRA release. The organizers' original plan to deliver child coffins to the offices of NRA lobbyists appears to have been scrapped after the protest was postponed by the Boston bombings.

Fairey will sell a limited edition of the new poster on his website in conjunction with the rally Thursday.


Rhode Island Senate Passes Marriage Equality

0
0

The vote was 26-12. The House previously voted for the bill but needs to vote again on minor changes in the Senate version before the bill will be signed by the governor.

The Rhode Island Senate approved a marriage equality bill 26-12 on Wednesday afternoon, after a spirited if lopsided debate.

A marriage equality bill was approved by the House in January, but slight differences in the Senate bill will need to be approved by the House before being sent to Gov. Lincoln Chafee, who supports the measure. Once law, Rhode Island will become the 10th state with marriage equality.

Democratic Sen. Donna Nesselbush, the chamber's sole out member, introduced the debate on the bill, saying it would impact her more personally than any other bill and adding, with a laugh, "I even wore a dress."

All five Republicans in the chamber voted for the bill, which supporters said was the first time an entire party delegation in a chamber has voted for a marriage equality bill.

Several lawmakers gave a nod and thanks to former Sen. Rhoda Perry, a Democrat who had introduced the bill in several previous sessions Sen. Gayle Goldin, who now represents the district Perry had represented, said she was honored to have Perry in the chamber Wednesday.

Sen. Elizabeth Crowley, one of several undecided senators who decided to vote yes, said, "I did not decide until today how I was going to vote," concluding, "This won't change my life one bit, but it will change the lives of so many people."

One of the few lawmakers to speak against the bill, Sen. Harold Metts, quoted from the Bible and dismissed comparisons between the civil rights movement of the 1960s and today, saying, "I can change my sexual preference tonight if I want, but I can't change my color." Later, he added, "You can laugh or ignore me if you want, but let me assure you, I did not write the Bible."

The final speech before the vote, however, came from Sen. Maryellen Goodwin, who said the she struggled with the issue, noting, "I've been unable to sleep." After detailing her pride in her Roman Catholic faith, Goodwin pointed to elsewhere in the Bible for her guidance, concluding, "I will be casting my vote today on the side of love, Madame President."

The Final Speaker, The Vote, And The Celebration:

View Video ›

The Vote:

The Vote:


View Entire List ›

Log Cabin Republicans Tell Party To End "Obsession" With Opposing LGBT Equality

0
0

“If you don't make the tent bigger, you might as well fold it up and go home.”

WASHINGTON — Log Cabin Republicans will debut a new ad campaign Thursday pushing the GOP to abandon its "obsession" with opposing LGBT equality.

In a full-page ad to run in Politico on Thursday, LCR argues the Republican party "must put an end to its obsession with opposing equal rights for LGBT Americans. ... If you don't make the tent bigger, you might as well fold it up and go home."

The ad push comes on the heels of Rhode Island's Republican senators unanimously backing marriage equality, and the organization hopes to see further movement across the country on the issue.

LCR executive director Gregory Angelo said in a statement Wednesday evening following the Senate passage of a marriage equality bill that his group "applauds the Rhode Island State Legislature for making marriage equality a reality for the residents of the state, with special thanks to the leadership shown by the Republican Senate delegation who made history as the first caucus of any party to vote unanimously in favor of the freedom to marry."

Log Cabin's New Ad:

Log Cabin's New Ad:

Barney Frank Doesn't Care What Al-Qaeda Thinks Of His Marriage

0
0

“I wonder how the right wing in America feels about being aligned with al-Qaeda.”

Former Congressman Barney Frank in the March 2013 issue of al-Qeada's Inspire Magazine.

Via:

Former Congressman Barney Frank doesn't care that al-Qaeda attacked him in the latest issue of their Inspire magazine, which al-Qaeda publishes intermittently to inspire terrorist attacks in Western nations.

In fact, Frank said he finds it "ironic," comparing al-Qaeda's opposition to his marriage to a man to opposition he said he received from the American right wing.

"I thought there was an irony there," Frank told BuzzFeed when reached by phone Wednesday night. "It sounded like what the tea party said when I got married."

Frank married his partner of seven years, Jim Ready, last year in a ceremony in Newton, Massachusetts, that was officiated by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. Newton was part of the district Frank represented as a congressman for more than 30 years. In 1987, Frank became the second member of Congress to say he was gay.

"I wonder how the right wing in America feels about being aligned with al-Qaeda," Frank continued. He later said, "There is an irony that the most active anti-gay [groups] are al-Qaeda and the American right-wing."

Frank noted that Islamic fundamentalism was very anti-gay as whole.

"Islamic fundamentalism is very anti-gay," he said. "Saudi Arabia is a very anti-gay place, al-Qaeda carries it to the violent extreme."

Anderson Cooper Has A "Breaking News" Problem

0
0

Anderson Cooper's regular abuse of the words “breaking news” on CNN has almost rendered the term meaningless. Here are seven of his worst offenses so far this year.

"Good evening, everyone, there's breaking news tonight: one of the government's leading disease fighters becoming the top health official to say this year's flu outbreak has now reached epidemic levels."

1/10/13, around 8 p.m. ET

"Good evening, everyone, there's breaking news tonight: one of the government's leading disease fighters becoming the top health official to say this year's flu outbreak has now reached epidemic levels."

Source: archive.org

This breaking news was reported by CNN sometime before 7:18 a.m. CT, when ABC 2 in Wisconsin posted it to their website.

"We have a lot going on. Two breaking stories. Americans held hostage by armed Islamic extremists in a remote part of Algeria. The hostages were taken when 20 extremists attacked this petroleum operation in Algeria."

1/16/13, around 8 p.m. ET

"We have a lot going on. Two breaking stories. Americans held hostage by armed Islamic extremists in a remote part of Algeria. The hostages were taken when 20 extremists attacked this petroleum operation in Algeria."

Source: archive.org


View Entire List ›

ACLU, LGBT Groups Raise "Grave Concerns" About Job Bill Religious Exemption

0
0

The broad religious exemption to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act “gives a stamp of legitimacy to LGBT discrimination,” activists say.

From left: ACLU executive director Anthony Romero, Lambda Legal executive director Kevin Cathcart, NCLR executive director Kate Kendall, TLC executive director Masen Davis.

WASHINGTON — The American Civil Liberties Union LGBT legal organizations said Thursday that a key religious exemption in new legislation banning anti-LGBT job discrimination "undermines the core goal" of the bill and should be removed.

In a statement released Thursday morning, the ACLU, Lambda Legal, National Center for Lesbian Rights, and Transgender Law Center state they "stand united in expressing very grave concerns with the religious exemption" to the bill, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

Although the groups say they strongly support the underlying legislation, their decision to release a statement warning of "very grave concerns" with the religious exemption on the day of ENDA's reintroduction in the House and Senate certainly puts a damper on efforts to ramp up early support for the bill.

In the past, it's primarily been religious groups criticizing the religious exemption language, and the language has been made more broad over time in order to blunt opposition to the bill from religious groups. Now, it appears, some on the left are ready to fight back.

Lambda Legal attorney Greg Nevins, who has litigated some of the group's employment discrimination cases in the past, talked with BuzzFeed about the religious exemption.

"In Title VII, there's an exemption for certain religious-affiliated entities that says that they can basically engage in religious discrimination but they cannot engage in race, color, sex, or national origin discrimination. The words [religious-affiliated entities] have been sometimes interpreted very broadly," Nevins explained, noting, "For instance, a Presbyterian hospital might in some jurisdictions be considered to qualify, which is decidedly different than saying a church or a convent can do these things."

The religious exemption in ENDA "would say that sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination are not actionable against those entities as defined in Title VII," he added.

"It would be setting up a two-tiered system saying that race, color, sex, and national origin discrimination cannot be engaged in by one of these entities, but sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination can," Nevins said.

In the statement, the groups warn the religious exemption "gives a stamp of legitimacy to LGBT discrimination that our civil rights laws have never given to discrimination based on an individual's race, sex, national origin, age, or disability."

For some time now, the ACLU has expressed concerns that the religious exemptions in legislation to ban LGBT job discrimination were too broad, but this is the first time they've laid down a marker on such concerns so early in the legislative process. It also is the first time they've been joined early in the process by several LGBT legal groups — Lambda Legal, National Center for Lesbian Rights and Transgender Law Center — in raising the concerns. Those LGBT organizations — along with Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders — had described their concerns with the provision in October 2007.

Although the ACLU and LGBT legal groups are pressing for a more narrow religious exemption, religiously affiliated organizations have raised their own concerns about the impact of passage of ENDA on religious liberty.

The National Religious Broadcasters warned in 2012 that ENDA "would assault the constitutional rights of faith-based organizations and lead to a 'chilling effect' in religious communities." The group's senior vice president and general counsel, Craig Parshall, testified against the bill before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in June 2012.

Peter Sprigg from the Family Research Council went further, recently writing that there might not be a religious exemption broad enough to meet with his approval. Writing for CNN, Sprigg stated, "Although ENDA contains a limited 'religious exemption,' there remain serious questions as to whether any exemption would be adequate to meet the concerns of people with religious and moral scruples against homosexual conduct."

[Update: The article was updated to include prior comments from the LGBT legal groups expressing concerns about the religious exemption. 4/25/13.]

The ACLU & LGBT Legal Groups' Statement:

The ACLU & LGBT Legal Groups' Statement:

UPDATE: ENDA, As Introduced In The Senate:


View Entire List ›

Viewing all 15742 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images