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Labor Secretary: I'm Not Worried About Boehner's Concerns With The Unemployment Insurance Bill

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“The Department of Labor has consistently worked with states to implement these extensions in an effective, collaborative and prompt fashion, and will do so again,” Thomas Perez wrote in a letter.

Win McNamee / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — In a letter to senators Friday, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez said that House Speaker John Boehner was wrong to say the Senate's unemployment insurance extension bill is "unworkable."

In the letter addressed to Sens. Harry Reid, Mitch Mcconnell, Jack Reed, and Dean Heller, Perez addressed major issues brought up earlier this week by the National Association of State Workforce Agencies, which Boehner cited Wednesday to denounce his support for the UI deal.

"From the Great Recession to the present, the Congress has worked in a bipartisan fashion to enact twelve different expansions or extensions to the EUC program," Perez wrote. "A number of the extensions included changes to the program that were as or more complex than those included in the current bill. The Department of Labor has consistently worked with states to implement these extensions in an effective, collaborative and prompt fashion, and will do so again."

One GOP aide told BuzzFeed he wasn't impressed by the secretary's response.

"Is their rapid response team using carrier pigeons? Did a magnetic cassette get jammed in their Commodore 64?" the aide said. "Look, the state insurance administrators raise serious issues, and a Friday night news-dump isn't going to change that."

Perez's letter parses the NASWA's concerns into four issues: antiquated technology that could make it difficult for states to implement the program, lack of clarity in some aspects of the bill, difficulty administering the millionaire exemption, and difficulty to make the retroactive payments.

Though Perez offers little in terms of specifics, he commits to the Labor Department's ability and willingness to make sure all goes according to plan if the bill passes.

"It would be virtually unprecedented for the Congress to fail to extend EUC benefits under the current circumstances," Perez wrote.

Read the letter here:


Labor Secretary Says Agency Hasn't "Fallen Behind" On Trans Workers' Rights

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“It is under review. It continues to be under review, and I’m in charge of it,” Secretary Tom Perez says of the nondiscrimination question that has been pending with the department since April 2012.

Labor Secretary Tom Perez, center, after making a milkshake at Shake Shack restaurant in Washington Friday, March 21, 2014.

Chris Geidner/BuzzFeed

WASHINGTON — Labor Secretary Tom Perez said his agency hasn't "fallen behind" the Department of Justice in protecting transgender workers — despite the fact that his agency is still reviewing a question long since resolved by Justice and other agencies.

More than 23 months after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act protects transgender employees from discrimination under its ban on sex discrimination, the Labor Department is engaged in a review about how that ruling applies Executive Order 11246, which bans federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sex and other factors.

Perez said Friday that he is "in charge" of the review and denied that the White House had "forbade" the Labor Department from acting, but he could not say when the review began or what its current status is beyond ongoing.

"It is under review. It continues to be under review, and I'm in charge of it," he said. "I'm in charge of our overtime rule that we're putting together pursuant to the president's directive, I'm in charge of implementing the home health care rule, I'm in charge of all the things that the Department of Labor has enforcement authority over, and we're continuing to work on a wide range of issues, including the issue that you asked."

As for the claim by Freedom to Work's Tico Almeida from July 2013 that he had been told that "senior White House staff" had "forbidden" the Labor Department from acting on the issue, Perez flatly denied it.

"Nobody's told us not to work on anything," he said. "We're working on it because we want to get all the issues — if it's overtime, minimum wage, everything — our goal is to get things right, to review things, to involve all the stakeholders, and that's precisely what we're doing."

Perez spoke with reporters in the Shake Shack restaurant in Chinatown at an event promoting the administration's support for raising the minimum wage.

The EEOC ruled on April 20, 2012, that Title VII's sex discrimination ban included discrimination against transgender people, a ruling that the EEOC has applied in employment discrimination cases brought against private companies and that the Justice Department has applied in cases brought against government agencies. The Education Department cited the ruling in its decision to include anti-transgender discrimination in the sex discrimination ban in Title IX.

The Labor Department has reached no such conclusions. The department's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, headed by Patricia Shiu, is responsible for enforcing Executive Order 11246. Neither she nor other Labor Department officials have been willing to say whether the department is interpreting the executive order in the same way the EEOC interprets Title VII, something that OFCCP should be doing under its previously existing policies.

"I don't believe the Department of Labor has fallen behind," Perez said, when asked about those other agencies' actions as compared to the Labor Department. "I can only give you the answer that I've given you, which is that we continue to review it and we continue to have all of the people involved in that review who are working very hard on this."

Perez would not give specifics about the review team, saying that "[a]ll of the relevant people at the Department of Labor" were involved, including "our lawyers, our policy people and others who are working on that issue."

The review, however, had never been mentioned by any Labor Department officials until Perez said in response to a question at a White House press briefing on Feb. 12 that the "review" was ongoing.

Asked when the review began, Perez suggested but would not confirm that the review began before he took over at Labor last summer.

"I don't know precisely the date of the review because I started at the Department of Labor in July of 2013, so I don't know," he said. When asked if that meant the review was ongoing when he began, he said, "I don't know, and I would be happy to get back to you on that."

Congressional Aide Says He Received Death Threats From Russian Email Address

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The email was sent to one of the top Russia experts on the Hill after the U.S. imposed sanctions on a host of Russian officials and businessmen. Opposition leader Alexei Navalny also threatened.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was also threatened in the emails sent to a top Helsinki Commission aide.

Tatyana Makeyeva / Reuters / Reuters

WASHINGTON — A top policy advisor to the Helsinki Commission has reported death threats sent to him and to Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny by a Russian email address to the Capitol Police, BuzzFeed has learned.

Kyle Parker, the senior policy advisor for Russia at the Helsinki Commission, received threatening emails in Russian from a mail.ru email address saying "sorry I cannot personally execute you Anglo-Saxon geek… now whore, prepare the vaseline," among other threats.

BuzzFeed obtained a copy of one of the emails, including Parker's communications with Capitol Police about them and his exchange with a Russian Embassy official about the threats. The name of the Russian Embassy official has been redacted. The email cited in this exchange also contains threats against Alexei Navalny, the Russian dissident activist.

Parker mentions in the email to Capitol Police that lobbyists for Patton Boggs, who represent Russian oil tycoon Gennady Timchenko, one of the Russians added to the Treasury sanctions list this week, came to see him in 2011 after Navalny testified in front of the Helsinki Commission. The lobbyists sought to find out more information about Navalny's appearance in front of the Commission and wanted to know whether Timchenko might be added to the Magnitsky List and whether the Commission might target his oil conglomerate Gunvor. Patton Boggs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The email begins:

From: Parker, Kyle (Helsinki)
&gtSent: Friday, March 21, 2014 1:32 PM
> To: 'threats@uscp.go'
> Cc:
> Subject: death threats from Russia
>
> Agent Blasi, nice speaking with you. On second glance, the email below is even viler than I though and--by far--the most threatening of those I received yesterday as the United States imposed stinging sanctions on Russia. –Kyle
>
> PS I've made a rough translation in brackets.
>
>
> From: Lost Soul [mailto:lost_souls@mail.ru]
> Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2014 7:32 AM
> To: Parker, Kyle (Helsinki)
> Subject: Сгори в аду сука [Burn in hell]
>
> Ну что сука американская, готовь свою изнеженную жопу теперь тебя точно выебут. За одно и крысу по кличке леша, ты же все понимаешь в твоем случае лучше сказать правду, всю правду о ваших корыстных намерениях... жаль что не могу лично казнить тебя выродка англосакского... давай бля готовь вазелин ахахаха
>
> [Well, well, American bitch, get your cosseted ass ready for a fucking. And we'll do the same to that rat called Lyosha, you well know in your case it's better to tell the truth, the whole truth about your selfish intentions… sorry I cannot personally execute you Anglo-Saxon geek… now whore, prepare the vaseline hahahah]

Parker then writes: "The Lyosha mentioned in this email is Alexei Navalny, Russia's leading opposition figure. He testified before the Commission in 2010 and I've corresponded with him by email occasionally since then. He's currently under house arrest in Moscow and will likely be in a real jail soon." Lyosha is a diminutive form of Alexey. Navalny, currently under house arrest, had exposed many of the people targeted by U.S. sanctions last week. He speculates that the writer of the threatening email may have gotten his email address from a batch of unconfirmed emails from Navalny's account that have been leaked online.

Later in the email, Parker notes that "Lobbyists representing Gennady Timchenko (sanctioned by the president yesterday) came around asking about Navalny's appearance before the Commission." He then includes an email he sent to Commission staff following his meeting with the lobbyists.

> From: Parker, Kyle (Helsinki)
> Sent: Thursday, August 04, 2011 6:34 PM
> To: Everyone
> Subject: we have their attention, let them worry...
>
> Patton Boggs lobbyists (Nicholas Allard, Joe Brand, and Larry Harris – who I believe also represents the PRC) stopped by yesterday, ostensibly, to discuss our work on corruption/corporate raiding in Russia. It turns out the real reason for the meeting was that Gennady Timchenko's Gunvor retained them to look into Alexey Navalny's brief mention of Timchenko at our November briefing, "Beyond Corporate Raiding: A Discussion of Advanced Fraud Schemes in the Russian Market." They said they weren't looking to sue Navalny, but wanted to find out if Gunvor was of interest to the Commission or if Timchenko could possibly be a target of the Magnitsky sanctions. I reminded them that Timchenko is widely considered to be Putin's bagman in Europe and should grow a thicker skin instead of suing (The Economist, Nemtsov, maybe others) those who write things he doesn't like. I further emphasized that we are not remotely interested in being remotely helpful to anyone who is remotely associated with anyone who is remotely associated with Gennady Timchenko.

Parker then includes an email from an official "who's accredited to Russia's embassy in Washington and watches Congress closely," to whom he had shown the threatening email.

> From: [redacted]<[redacted]@gmail.com>
> Date: March 21, 2014 at 0:24:31 EDT
> To: "Parker, Kyle (Helsinki)"
> Subject: Re: Сгори в аду сука
> You know Kyle, I don't share this guy view)
> We have to be gentlemen despite anything. Though I would agree, Navalny is done. And one more thing -I really doubt you will see Russia again, at least as long as Vladimir stays in Kremlin.
> Look at what our civil society is doing. You can take credit)
> http://www.newsru.com/russia/20mar2014/obamaneprojdet.html

A spokesperson for the Capitol Police did not immediately return a request for comment.

Parker declined to comment but confirmed that the emails were real.

Federal Appeals Court Puts Michigan Same-Sex Weddings On Hold

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A federal appeals court put weddings on hold while it reviews the state’s request to stop same-sex marriages during its appeal of Friday’s marriage ruling . The move comes after a day in which several counties allowed same-sex couples in Michigan to marry.

Obama Administration To Take Action In Response To Uganda's Anti-Gay Law

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Key members of Congress were briefed on immediate steps the United States would be taking as the administration continues its review all U.S.-funded programs in Uganda. Update: A National Security Council spokesman confirms the details and says the administration will continue “to look at additional steps we may take.”

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

Pool / Reuters

WASHINGTON — The United States will immediately take several key actions involving U.S. funding in response to Uganda's anti-gay law, multiple sources on and off of Capitol Hill told BuzzFeed.

Key members of Congress and leadership were briefed on the Obama administration's plans Sunday afternoon. The move comes as the administration and the State Department has been "reviewing" all U.S.-funded programs in the country after Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed legislation imposing up to a lifetime prison sentence for homosexuality.

The administration has settled on four steps to be taken immediately in response to Uganda's anti-gay law, sources who were briefed on the matter said. Following the publication of this story, National Security Council spokesman Jonathan Lalley confirmed the steps in an email and provided some additional details on the plans. He said that in addition to the immediate action, the U.S would continue "to look at additional steps we may take, to work to protect LGBT individuals from violence and discrimination, and to urge Uganda to repeal this abhorrent law."

"As we continue to consider the implications of President Museveni's decision to enact the Anti-Homosexuality Act, the United States has taken certain immediate steps to demonstrate our support for the LGBT community in Uganda, deter other countries from enacting similar laws, and reinforce our commitment to the promotion and defense of human rights for all people — including LGBT individuals — as a U.S. priority," Lalley said.

Money will be shifted away from the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda, a group that has publicly come out in support of the anti-gay law and has received millions of dollars in grants from the United States to help fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Some $2.3 million will continue to go to the IRCU to continue treatment for some 50,000 current patients, but an additional $6.4 million intended for the IRCU will go to other organizations.

Second, because the law makes "promoting homosexuality" illegal, a U.S. funded study to help identify populations at risk of contracting HIV/AIDS has been suspended. The study, which was going to be conducted by a Ugandan university and the Center for Disease Control, has been suspended out of fear that both staff and survey respondents could be put in danger.

Third, because any LGBT person or LGBT ally who now enters Uganda is at risk, money intended for tourism programs will be redirected.

"Therefore, approximately $3 million in funding designated for tourism and biodiversity promotion will be redirected to NGOs working on biodiversity protection," Lalley said.

And finally, the Department of Defense had several events scheduled in the country later this spring and those will be moved to other locations. "Certain near-term invitational travel" for Ugandan military and police personnel has also been suspended or canceled.

These are the most forceful steps the Obama administration has taken since it began reviewing U.S. aid to Uganda. Additionally, Secretary of State John Kerry said last week that the United States was sending a team of American "experts" to meet with President Museveni about homosexuality. Museveni had claimed he signed the law in part because he became convinced that no one is "born gay."

"I talked personally to President Museveni just a few weeks ago, and he committed to meet with some of our experts so that we could engage him in a dialogue as to why what he did could not be based on any kind of science or fact, which is what he was alleging," Kerry said.

Kerry also said that the review is broad and will include how to deal with the 80 countries that "have laws of one kind or another that discriminate."

The administration has come under pressure in the last month to move more swiftly in response to the Ugandan law and Capitol Hill has been kept mostly in the dark until now.

This post has been updated with comments and additional details from a National Security Council spokesman.

Xavier Becerra And Luis Gutierrez On Deportations And The Search For The Next DREAMers

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Both leaders believe deportations are breaking up families, that a review will bear fruit, and that the House GOP needs to vote. But they continue to call for the use of prosecutorial discretion by the administration.

Alex Wong / Getty Images, left, and AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, right.

After a recent Friday meeting with President Obama on efforts to slow or suspend deportations, activists leaving the White House could agree on one thing: The president had been furious.

"He was pretty angry for Obama — he doesn't show it, but you could feel it," one activist said.

The president, activists said, was frustrated by the attacks on his deportation record. In recent months, the issue has swept to the front of the immigration policy debate, first among activists, then bubbling over onto Capitol Hill.

Two weeks ago, under pressure from activists, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus was ready to vote on a resolution that threatened to expose a rift within the Democratic Party on deportations for the world to see.

Then the White House intervened. A calm and measured Obama also met with lawmakers from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus last week, seeking to make an emotional connection on the contentious issue. The president subsequently announced an administration review of deportation policy to be led by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson.

"The president was pretty emphatic; he said, 'You can tell folks publicly that I said I recognize we should not be in the business of separating families, no one agrees with that,'" Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) told BuzzFeed.

The House Democratic Caucus chairman described the legal constraints on the administration — if House Republicans won't agree to allow votes on the deportation issue.

"What he's trying to do is work within the confines of the law and make enforcement actions work," Becerra said of the president. "He pointed out — and it's hard to deny — that if Congress provides through law and budget the authority to do something, the president can't say I'm not going to do it."

But what the DHS review will entail, and what the next steps on the deportation issue are remain questions.

"The outcome I'm looking for is humanizing," said Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), who also attended the White House meeting. "A more human, tender, much more humane process of deportations, while still understanding that regardless of what we accomplish, it won't be over until one man, Mr. Boehner, gives us a vote."

This week, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson will meet about the forthcoming deportation review. Activists, impatient, want the review to proceed immediately, rather than lingering for months.

Becerra and Gutierrez hesitated to lay down a timeframe that would be unacceptable but did say it is important to them that the process not be drawn out.

"We're going to have a deep discussion with Secretary Johnson on how their executive discretion can be used to enforce the law," Becerra said.

Both lawmakers were quick to note that the Congressional Hispanic Caucus advocated for deferred action for DREAMers long before the policy gained widespread attention.

Bryan Rivera and his mother.

Courtesy Congressman Horsford office

En route to the airport, Gutierrez told BuzzFeed he was running on only two and a half hours of sleep and hoped he wouldn't say anything crazy. Beloved by many immigration advocates, Gutierrez also knows his penchant to shoot from the hip is what garners him supporters and angers colleagues on both sides of the aisle.

Gutierrez has begun putting together a new strategy: defining the next group of undocumented immigrants that would be politically acceptable for executive action, in the same way DREAMers were when Obama announced deferred action in 2012.

The new push includes the parents of U.S. citizens and families with an undocumented immigrant who is also a member of the U.S. military.

The tabled draft of the CHC resolution stated that "an estimated 200,000 deportees in a two-year period were reported to be the parents of U.S. citizens, most of whom were born and raised in the United States" and that "there are more than 5,000 children in the U.S. child welfare system because a parent has been detained or deported, and a majority of those children are U.S. citizens."

Gutierrez related the story of Bryan Rivera, a 20-year-old Nevadan who was out of options for his mother when he went to an immigration meeting last week in North Las Vegas. His mother, Rivera said, was beaten by her ex-husband — even while she was pregnant. When she asked for child support payments, her ex-husband called immigration authorities, Rivera said.

"He was this young kid, he was 20 years old and he told us that the father beat the shit out of his mother," Gutierrez said, adding that because she was beaten while pregnant, her son was born prematurely and deaf in one ear. "The guy was going to use Homeland Security as a tool; we have to fix the system so that guys that beat women can't use it as a weapon."

Thelma Martinez Soto was released the next afternoon after Gutierrez and Nevada Congressman Steven Horsford appealed to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Rivera told the Las Vegas Review Journal he was worried about whether he would have to quit school at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Las Vegas if his mother had been deported — but he argues his situation isn't isolated. "I'm speaking on behalf of hundreds of thousands of children and families who are being separated from one another," Rivera said.

Although Becerra, more measured in his language than Gutierrez, emphasized the congressional and legal component, he also argued for the expanded use of prosecutorial discretion.

"There are two levels, one is making sure we're enforcing the laws so no one can claim with any credibility that the president is not fulfilling his executive obligations, he can't turn off the spigot when it comes to enforcement or tell authorities to stand down," Becerra said, adding that the focus should be on criminals like drug traffickers.

Becerra said immigration authorities shouldn't, for instance, be placed at grocery stores or schools, giving the example of a mother picking up her children at school.

But Becerra, considered an ally of the administration, argues executive action is not enough.

"Even though this president has the authority to move aggressively on deportations we're never going to get there through deportations only," he said. Legislative action is needed, Becerra believes.

"At any moment what we need is to have a vote in the House. What we've seen from the 50-plus votes to repeal or dismantle the Affordable Care Act is a bill can be on the floor and we can do it that day," Becerra said. "The Republican leadership hasn't wanted to."


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CNN May Never Stop Covering Flight MH370

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The Malaysian government announced Monday that the plane crashed in the southern Indian Ocean.

Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak announced Monday that it's been determined that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 crashed in the southern Indian Ocean.

In lesser stateside news, the announcement begs the question, "What will CNN do now?"

When asked by BuzzFeed if CNN would stay committed to the story despite the Malaysian government's determination, a spokesperson from the network provided a non-reply of sorts in the form of a list of reporters CNN has covering the story:

We are in live simulcast coverage now, with Anderson Cooper anchoring.

Here's a list of all our reporters and their locations:

Kuala Lampur, Malaysia
Sara Sidner
Jim Clancy
Saima Mohsin
Atika Shubert

Perth, Australia
Kate Bolduan
Andrew Stevens
Kyung Lah

Beijing, China
Pauline Chiou
David McKenzie

In the US, Richard Quest, Jim Scuitto, Martin Savidge, Rene Marsh, Evan Perez, Barbara Starr and Tom Foreman.

Will keep you posted.

Thanks.

With Anderson Cooper anchoring at 11 a.m., and the wealth of overseas resources highlighted in the email, this is a less-than subtle message that CNN is prepared to continue its "over-coverage" of this story — a strategy that, thus far, has raked in ratings for the network and divided media watchers across the country.

New Line Cinema

LINK: Malaysian Prime Minister Announces That Flight 370 Is “Lost”


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The Sad State Of The Draft Mitch Daniels For President Campaign

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It ain’t what it used to be. Vote for him, buy this.

Via AP Photo/Journal & Courier, Michael Heinz

When a draft campaign to get a politician to run for president fails, what happens to all those once-relevant domains and social media accounts? In the case of former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, it isn't pretty.

In 2011, the fiscally minded Daniels was at the height of his political sway, delivering the GOP response to the State of the Union. This buzz resulted in a national "draft" Daniels campaign that included a robust social media presence and tens of thousands of signatures urging him to run.

youtube.com

Daniels ultimately decided against the run, and later took over as the president of Purdue University.

But the infrastructure for the Draft Daniels campaign still remains active as a peculiar, monetized hybrid of GOP messaging and cheap Twitter ads.

The account @Mitch_Daniels was the key messaging handle in the Draft Mitch campaign. The account is still followed by more than 6,000 people, including Speaker John Boehner, Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, and Karl Rove. The account appears to have since monetized the tweets, which now consist of internet marketing for products and services.


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Libertarian Group Comes Out Against Ron Paul On Russia

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“Former Congressman Ron Paul, whose views are interpreted by many as wholly representative of the libertarian movement, gets it wrong when he speaks of Crimea’s right to secede,” Students for Liberty’s founder says.

Steve Marcus / Reuters / Reuters

WASHINGTON — A key young libertarian group is publicly opposing Ron Paul on Ukraine, saying that Paul is wrong to suggest that the United States is to blame for Russia's actions.

Alexander McCobin, a co-founder of the group Students for Liberty, put out a statement on Monday criticizing Paul, who has characterized Crimea's largely unrecognized referendum as a secession and has called for the United States not to act against Russia in this crisis. In the statement, McCobin praises Paul's son, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, for condemning Russia's actions.

While it's important criticize misconduct of the United States and some of its Western allies exacerbating the turmoil in the Middle East over the past two decades, it is also important to remember that there are other aggressors in the world; Russia — with it's ongoing wars in the Northern Caucasus, the invasion of South Ossetia, and it's most recent annexation of Crimea — being key among them.

Former Congressman Ron Paul, whose views are interpreted by many as wholly representative of the libertarian movement, gets it wrong when he speaks of Crimea's right to secede. Make no mistake about it, Crimea was annexed by Russian military force at gunpoint and its supposedly democratic "referendum" was a farce. Besides a suspiciously high voter turnout with legitimate international observers, the referendum gave Crimeans only two choices — join Russia now or later.

It's much too simplistic to solely condemn the US for any kind of geopolitical instability in the world. Non-interventionists that sympathize with Russia by condoning Crimea's secession and blaming the West for Ukrainian crisis fail to see the larger picture. Putin's government is one of the least free in the world and is clearly the aggressor in Crimea, as it was even beforehand with its support of the Yanukovych regime that shot and tortured its own citizens on the streets of Kyiv.

The recent spate of anti-war activists arrested in Russia is just one of many examples that illustrate that the Russian Federation is not a free country and everyone should be very careful with showing sympathies to an autocratic leader such as President Putin.

In contrast to his father, Senator Rand Paul gets it right by condemning Russian aggression while not subscribing to hawkish calls for military intervention at the same time. It is one thing to not intervene; it is another thing to applaud an autocrat for the sake of blaming our own government.

Reached by phone, Students for Liberty spokesperson Frederik Roeder said that the group was not calling for U.S. intervention in Ukraine, but that "we think that it's important to condemn what Russia's doing."

"Russia is one of the least free places in the world," Roeder said.

"In the Ukrainian case it's obviously not the U.S. government who is the aggressor but the Russian government who have invaded parts of a sovereign nation," Roeder said. "I think a lot of people got confused by this including Ron Paul and some libertarians who would say, 'Oh, that's secession,' but we did not observe a secession from Crimea, but a military annexation."

He added that Students for Liberty had organized a protest outside the Russian Embassy in Berlin last week.

Obama Trolls Libertarians And Tea Partiers With New Obamacare Bumper Sticker

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Don’t tread on my Obamacare.

theamericanmaverick.com

AP

Now Obama allies have made their own version of the emblematic banner in support of Obamacare:

Now Obama allies have made their own version of the emblematic banner in support of Obamacare:

The sticker replaces the original 13 colonies snake with a stethoscope in a not-so-covert dig at the political groups who have been fighting tooth and nail for Obamacare's repeal.


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Watch Ted Cruz Scream As He Impersonates Winston Churchill

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Cruz made the impression while receiving the Claremont Institute’s Winston Churchill Award for statesmanship at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles last week.

(Click the speaker button on the upper left corner of the Vine to turn the sound on.)

vine.co

Can You Find President Obama In This Rembrandt Painting From 1642?

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“The Night Watch.” Weird .

AP Photo/Frank Augstein

The 25 Biggest Bromance Moments Between George W. Bush And Vladimir Putin

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U mad?

Back in the day, even though it was an ultimately doomed effort, George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin had some real bromance moments.

Back in the day, even though it was an ultimately doomed effort, George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin had some real bromance moments.

Bush once called Putin "one cold dude" in private, but was determined to win over the Russian president. As his presidency went on, Bush got frustrated by the whole thing and it came to a crushing end. But before that, there was a lot of bromance.

Mark Wilson / Getty Images

Like when they had this romantic cheers while locking eyes.

Like when they had this romantic cheers while locking eyes.

Eric Draper/White House / Getty Images

AFP / Getty Images


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Michigan's Republican Governor Refuses To Take Position On Marriage

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“I didn’t get hired to deal with social issues,” Snyder says. But while running for election, he was clear about his opposition.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder repeatedly declined Monday afternoon to say whether he personally supports legalizing marriage for same-sex couples, telling reporters that he "didn't get hired to deal with social issues."

On Friday, a federal judge tossed out a state ban against marriage for same-sex couples, leading couples in some counties across Michigan to wed until an appeals court put a stop to the weddings by issuing a temporary stay. In an interview in New York hosted by Bloomberg View, Snyder said he would follow the lead of the courts on the issue.

"I'm there to follow the laws of the state of Michigan. If the judge changes the law... then I'm going to follow what's been redefined as the law," Snyder said.

Asked whether Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, who has appealed the federal judge's ruling in defense of the marriage ban, was engaging in a futile effort given the national momentum toward accepting marriage for same-sex couples, Snyder said, "If you look at it, you could say, again, the trend is generally toward changing those rules... [Schuette] is going contrary to that."

Asked if he has personal views on the issue, Snyder said, "I do. But I don't share that."

He went on to explain that he wouldn't talk about his personal opinions because it would invite unproductive press attention, and he wanted to keep his focus on economic issues.

"I didn't get hired to deal with social issues," he said. "I got hired because we had the worst economy in the country." He said he had not publicly taken a stand on the marriage issue.

But in a 2010 debate while he was running for governor, he clearly articulated his opposition to marriage for same-sex couples: "On gay marriage, marriage is between a man and a woman. But people should also have the ability to make contracts between themselves."

Republican Congressional Candidate's Website Full Of Gibberish Spam


Exclusive: For A New Type Of Targeted Killing, Yemenis And Americans May Co-Pilot Crop Dusters Armed With Missiles

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The new program could put more of a Yemeni face on killings that have been carried out by U.S. drones.

This Air Tractor is similar to the one the U.S. has plans to provide to Yemen. The plane shown here is being used by Israeli Defense Forces in a firefighting drill.

Israel Defense Forces / Wikimedia Commons / Via en.wikipedia.org

Faced with growing questions about civilian deaths in its secret drone war in Yemen, the Obama administration has plans to equip the small and poorly trained Yemeni military to run its own "targeted killing" program, according to documents and three sources familiar with the effort.

Instead of supplying the Yemenis with high-tech drones, though, the Pentagon would arm the Yemen Air Force with a fleet of 10 rugged, two-seater propeller planes of a type usually used as crop dusters. The specially modified versions for the Yemeni program would be armed with laser-guided missiles and high-tech electronic intelligence equipment. One reason these slow, single-engine planes were chosen is because even poorly trained Yemeni pilots could learn to fly them, according to people familiar with the project.

One significant twist: American pilots may fly the planes along with Yemenis on the missions, keeping Americans involved in the controversial attacks.

Still, both critics and supporters of the drone war agree that the move could help the U.S. put more of a Yemeni face on the controversial targeted killing program.

According to a Central Command memorandum dated Feb. 3 and obtained by BuzzFeed, the "Precision Strike" program for Yemen would "greatly enhance counter terrorism (CT) objectives to support action against Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula." The U.S. government says AQAP is a Yemeni-based group that has tried to launch terrorist attacks against the U.S., including the infamous failed effort by the "underwear bomber," Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, in 2009.

It's not clear when the planes would get sent over. After repeated requests for comment, a Pentagon official told BuzzFeed that "the Department of Defense is reassessing the program at this time."

An official with the government of Yemen says the project is going forward, though it's at its early stages. The point, he said, "is that eventually Yemen will be able to carry out precision strikes without the aid of its allies."

One choice for Yemen's "Precision Strike" plane, according to documents and the sources, is a version of an "Air Tractor" plane called a 802U. It's a hardy airplane, manufactured in Texas. The fuselage resembles a World War II Spitfire fighter plane, though it flies more slowly.

Asked about the Yemen project, Air Tractor Inc.'s president, Jim Hirsch, said, "I'm not at liberty to discuss that program." Although the Air Tractor is widely used as an agriculture plane for crop spraying, the company makes a version it says is for "counterinsurgency operations," and Air Tractor's website bills it as "a true irregular warfare aircraft."

The other plane in the running is a Thrush, which looks similar to the Air Tractor and is also usually used as a crop duster. It is manufactured in Georgia by Thrush Aircraft. Documents indicate that a specially designed version of the plane, outfitted by a North Carolina contractor named IOMAX, was being considered. IOMAX and Thrush officials did not respond to requests for comment.

According to the Centcom document, the planes would be armed by some combination of Hellfire missiles, GBU-12s, GBU-58's, and laser-guided rockets. The document says that four planes would be delivered this year. Another six would be delivered later, according to sources.

The American targeted-killing program has sparked protests in Yemen. Here, members of the Yemeni al-Houthi Shiite rebel group burn an effigy of a U.S. aircraft during a demonstration to protest against the U.S. and Saudi interference in Yemen last April.

Hani Mohammed / AP Photo

A PowerPoint document obtained by BuzzFeed indicates that the 6th Special Operations Squadron, a unit that trains foreign air forces, would spearhead the mission. The document emphasizes that the 6th SOS has the rare legal authority to actually fly planes owned by a foreign government.

The Yemeni official said that he believed the planes are to be flown by Yemeni Air Force pilots, but two U.S. sources say that American Air Force pilots would fly the missions too. "The intent was one Yemeni and one American pilot," explained a source involved since the beginning. Because the planes are two-seaters, this could be simple. One pilot could "paint" the target with a laser beam designed to guide the missiles, and the other pilot could pull the trigger.

The total cost of the program isn't clear, but a recent report by the Congressional Research Service states that "in December 2013, the Department of Defense notified Congress of its intent to spend $64 million in FY2014 Section 1206 funds on precision strike aircraft, unmanned aerial surveillance, and training for Yemen's national military forces." Section 1206 is a special Defense Department aid program that lets the Pentagon spend money training and equipping other nations for counterinsurgency and stability operations.

An American businessman familiar with the program, though not involved in the contracts, said that it "changes the optics, which is important. As much as you can put a Yemeni face on it, it feels better." He also said the program would give the U.S. some deniability in the killings. "If a Reaper" — a type of drone — "kills someone, you know if it's America that did it," he said. "If an Air Tractor, which looks like a World War II aircraft, kills someone, you might think, 'Well, that might be Yemen.'"

One former Air Force officer familiar with the program explained that while the Yemenis might be given drones for reconnaissance, they would not get armed drones. He said using piloted aircraft to launch missiles has some advantages over using drones. "More and more they don't want to use the drones. It looks bad. But it's still going to be people getting killed whether you do it from a manned platform or an unmanned platform."

Attorney Alka Pradhan of Reprieve, a human rights organization that represents drone victims in Yemen, said equipping Yemenis to do targeted killing "doesn't remove the tough legal questions about the drone program, it just hides them." Part of the criticism in Yemen, she says, is over sovereignty. "If the Yemeni government is doing it, then it becomes that government is potentially infringing on the right of its own people," not the United States.

Drone strikes in both Pakistan and Yemen have been a signature tactic of the Obama administration's counterterrorism policy. The administration says it takes care to limit collateral damage but does not provide figures on drone-strike casualties. According to statistics collected by the Long War Journal, a respected conservative website, 53 civilians have been killed in Yemen in drone strikes since 2012, while 308 members of al-Qaeda have died in the attacks.

Some deaths have been counterproductive: An outspoken critic of al-Qaeda, Salim bin Ahmed Ali Jaber, was killed in 2012 in Yemen. And in a widely publicized strike last December, drone strikes hit a wedding procession in Yemen, killing 12 people, of whom Human Rights Watch says at least some were just civilians.


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Polish Radio: Obama Could Visit Kiev In June

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On the 25th anniversary of the first free elections in Poland, the president will travel to the nation bordering Ukraine. A signal to Russia?

Cris Toala Olivares / Reuters

WASHINGTON — A commercial radio station in Poland reported Monday that President Obama is expected to visit Warsaw in early June to help celebrate the 25th anniversary of Poland's first free elections in 1989.

The report from RMF Radio cites "unofficial" information, and quotes a Foreign Ministry official saying more details on the June event will be available after world leaders meet in The Hague this week.

A visit to Poland would come amid Russia's occupation of the Crimea, and at a time that former Communist bloc countries feel more intensely threatened by Russia than at any time since the fall of the Soviet Union.

And the report also suggests that Obama might visit the capital of neighboring Ukraine, Kiev.

"It is said that the American president could also fly from Warsaw to Kiev and there to give a clear signal to Russia that the United States support the allies," the RMF report continues.

A member of Poland's majority Civic Platform party government confirmed the Obama visit in a radio interview Monday with RMF, though she said she did so "unofficially."

Polish president Bronisław Komorowski first invited Obama to join the celebration of the June 4, 1989 elections while on a visit to the U.S. last year. Rumors that Obama had agreed to make the trip first surfaced in Polish media in February.

Should he make the trip, Obama would be the second top-ranking American to travel to the former Communist bloc since Russia invaded the Crimea. Vice President Biden visited Poland last week.

A White House spokesperson didn't confirm or deny the Polish radio report.

"No travel to announce," the spokesperson said.

Poll Shows Democrats' Big Push Against The Kochs Might Not Make Any Sense

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“Trying to make the Koch brothers into that red meat is going to be about as effective as what we tried to do for several cycles with George Soros,” Republican pollster Ed Goeas said.

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WASHINGTON — More than half of Americans have no idea who the Koch Brothers are, according to a new poll released Tuesday morning.

Democrats have spent a large amount of time in the last few weeks posturing Charles and David Koch, the billionaire oil tycoons who donate significant amounts of money to conservative causes and candidates, as the sort of bogeyman of the Republican Party. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid even blamed them in part for Russia annexing Crimea.

But according to a new bipartisan George Washington University Battleground Poll, that strategy may be less than fruitful. The poll shows 52% of Americans still don't even know who the Kochs are and another 11% have no opinion on them.

"Trying to make the Koch brothers into that red meat is going to be about as effective as what we tried to do for several cycles with George Soros," Republican pollster Ed Goeas told reporters during a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor.

As far as Reid's numbers go, the poll shows 25% of Americans don't know who he is and another 16% have no opinion on him.

That suggests Reid, someone many Americans don't care much about, going on the Senate floor multiple times a week to decry the actions of the Kochs, who a majority of Americans have never even heard of, may not be the most effective strategy for protecting a Democratic majority in the Senate come November.

Aside from an overall 53% disapproval rate of the job the president has done compared to a 44% approval rate, the poll also shows 54% of Americans disapprove of his foreign police efforts, which a large 63% majority opposes his spending policies.

The poll showed Democrats did have a key advantage on at least one front — the middle class. And that's where they can pick up votes for 2014 and avoid losing the Senate, according to Democratic pollster Cellinda Lake.

"The challenge is we need to move ahead," Lake said. "Democrats need to solidify a bigger economic agenda."

Republican Who "Grew Up Castrating Hogs On A Farm" Wants Your Vote

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Senate candidate Joni Ernst enters the Political Advertisement Hall Of Fame with her new video called, “Squeal.”

"I grew up castrating hogs on an Iowa farm. So in Washington, I’ll know how to cut pork. Washington’s full of big spenders…let’s make ‘em squeal."

Comedy Central / Via giphy.com

President Obama: I'm More Concerned About A Nuke In New York Than Russia

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Former New York deputy mayor: “I guess I am now too.” Obama was responding to a question about whether Mitt Romney was right about Russia.

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President Obama said Tuesday he's more concerned about a nuclear weapon detonating in New York City than Russia when it comes to U.S. security.

"Russia's actions are a problem; they don't pose the number-one security threat to the United States," Obama said. "I continue to be much more concerned, when it comes to our security, with the prospect of a nuclear weapon going off in Manhattan, which is part of the reason why the United States, showing its continued international leadership has organized a forum over the last several years that has been able to eliminate that threat in a consistent way."

Obama was asked about whether former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was right when he called Russia the top geopolitical threat for the United States.

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