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Nancy Pelosi: GOP Response To Border Crisis Treats "People In A Way That Is Almost Subhuman"

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“The fact is the way it is happening in Washington, D.C., is not away any Republican I know would take pride in.”

Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi says the Republican response to the border crisis and immigration policy treats "people in a way that is almost subhuman."

"The fact is the way it is happening in Washington, D.C., is not away any Republican I know would take pride in," Pelosi said during a town hall meeting at the College of Marin last week. "This is really something — how can they talk about all of their religious fervor and how they respect the dignity and worth of every person, the spark of divinity that exists in everyone of us, including themselves hopefully, and treat people in a way that is almost subhuman? It is really a remarkable thing."

Here's the video of her remarks:

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White House Spokesman Says They Don't Look At Things "Through A Political Lens"

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Never.

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White House officials don't view things through a political lens, according to the White House press secretary.

"I think understandably people look at a lot of things that happen in this town through a political lens. That's an understandable pursuit. That's just not that we look at them," said White House press secretary Josh Earnest at the daily press briefing Monday. "When the president's out making these decision about which foreign leader to call, what sort of military actions to order up, balancing the pros and cons of a specific strategy or intervention. The president's not worried about politics, he's worried about the safety and security of the American people and that's what he's focused on."

Earnest was answering a question about the optics of the president golfing following the death of James Foley, and a pair of articles in the New York Times and Washington Post on the topic.

Paul Ryan Doesn't Think Sending Troops To Fight ISIS Should Be Taken Off The Table

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“We have to have a long-term, effective program to put them out of existence.”

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Republican Rep. Paul Ryan thinks a long-term program is needed to fight ISIS and doesn't think the possibility of American ground troops should be taken off the table.

"We have to have a long-term, effective program to put them out of existence," Ryan said in an interview with radio host Larry Elder Saturday to promote his book The Way Forward. "Many of us have been watching this group for a while now, getting the intelligence reports, seeing what they were doing. They have been masterful in their rise, in their organization...acquisitions of money, munitions, property, and territory. We need to finish them off because we will either fight them here or we will fight them there. That in my mind is basically the choice."

"It sounds to me like, at some point, you anticipate combat boots on the ground," Elder said in the interview.

"I don't know the answer to that, but you certainly don't take that off the table," Ryan responded.

Ryan expressed concern with what he called the Obama administration's "day-by-day" strategy in Iraq in absence of a long-term plan to fight ISIS militants.

Police Demilitarization Advocates To Washington: End The Giveaways And Do It Now

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The moment is now when it comes to police demilitarization, say advocates — but it won’t stay that way for long.

Joshua Lott / Reuters

WASHINGTON — Advocates of police demilitarization are calling on Washington leaders to move as quickly as possible with efforts to restrict or end the practice of giving free military hardware to local police forces. That could mean presidential action, or legislation in Congress. Advocates don't care. They just want it now.

"If there were votes on the floor of the House in next two weeks, the sentiment would be there to change things," said Tim Lynch, director of the libertarian Cato Institute's Project on Criminal Justice. "But I am concerned people's concerns will move on to other matters in the next two weeks."

Police demilitarization's moment has arrived, thanks to the images of heavily armed police on the streets of Ferguson, but activists aren't willing to say the current outrage will translate into action in Washington. Hopes were bolstered over the weekend when the White House ordered a top-down review of federal programs that funnel military weapons to local police forces. Advocates aren't sure what to make of the review yet, though they mostly see it as a positive sign.

"We're definitely encouraged," said Kara Dansky, lead author on the ACLU's comprehensive report on police militarization, released just weeks before the shooting of Michael Brown. "We hope that it results in legislation."

Danksy called on the president to immediately end several military equipment giveaway programs right away by ordering the Department of Defense to stop giving local forces free surplus gear, among other options. She also said Obama could order the Department of Homeland Security to forbid local forces from using DHS grant money to buy military weaponry and other equipment.

After that's done, she said the focus could shift to moving several demilitarization-related bills filed since Ferguson through Congress.

Lynch is more wary of the White House review, warning that a long look at the issue could slow down the legislative gears and cause demilitarization legislation to lose momentum as politicians shift focus to the midterm election. He called on Congress not to wait for Obama's review to be finished before going ahead with a legislative push.

The issue is a complex one; many police departments want military equipment and many politicians still want them to have it, too. Like Dansky, Lynch said the best and easiest place to start the conversation about militarized police is by ending the federal giveaway programs.

"I think the decision making at the local level has been distorted by these giveaway programs. Everything has been distorted by these giveaways," he said. "If a chief has to decide whether to buy two cop cars or to give raises to his officers...or buy a mine-resistant truck from the Pentagon, these things will sort themselves out pretty well."

The "direct relationship between local police forces and the Pentagon" when it comes to surplus military equipment means civilian leadership is often out of the loop and don't know their local force has an MRAP until they see it, Lynch said. Ending the giveaways would force more oversight of police equipment by the governments that have to buy it.

"If the state legislature of Texas wanted to set aside money to buy military equipment there's more check and balance there than to have a direct relationship between DoD and a small police department," he said.

The ACLU study is one of the few comprehensive looks at militarization in local police forces. Dansky said the administration could easily dramatically increase the amount of data available to scholars by requiring beneficiaries of the free military hardware to track when they're used, the "underlying purpose," and data "on the race and ethnicity" of those affected. The ACLU study found a "disparate impact" from military surplus police equipment on minority communities and found that 80% of the time the equipment was not used to help in an emergency situation, but rather in the service of a police raid, generally on a property suspected of being involved in the drug trade.

Danksy said Obama should also direct the Justice Department to create more and readily available data on the use of surplus military equipment in local police force hands.

The White House says its review is meant to audit good programs that have gone awry.

"The goal of those programs is ostensibly a good one, that it was recognized after 9/11 that there were some local law enforcement organizations that didn't have the kind of equipment that they might need in the event of an emergency," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said at Monday's regular press briefing. "The question, though, is, is the program operating as was intended? Are there situations in which local law enforcement organizations are getting equipment that they don't actually need? Are they using government funds to acquire equipment and use it in a way that's consistent with that way that equipment was intended to be used?"

Earnest said the White House's office of Management and Budget will oversee the review to "ensure that ultimately these local law enforcement organizations and the Department of Defense are being good stewards of taxpayer dollars."

Earnest did not provide a timeline for the review. Lynch said whatever happens, it needs to happen now. Though conservative critics of militarization are seeing their stock rise after Ferguson, Lynch said it would be wrong to assume that the politics of arming police with military surplus has changed forever. It's better to focus on the short term, he said

"The potential is there. There's been the tension of the last two weeks," he said. "There's tensions and there's concern but…I don't see a huge new moment that it's inevitable. That remains to be seen."

Martin O'Malley Sends Staffers To Support Campaigns In Iowa, New Hampshire

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The Maryland governor is the only Democrat sending people out this year. A way to build favor in early-voting states ahead of 2016.

AP Photo/Patrick Semansky

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley will pay for more than two dozen staffers to work on Democratic campaigns in Iowa, New Hampshire, and several other states ahead of the midterm elections this fall, his spokesperson confirmed Monday.

The move to dispatch campaign workers, first reported by the Washington Post, signals the extent to which O'Malley is pursuing a possible White House bid.

The governor's spokesperson, Lis Smith, would not discuss details about how many staffers would travel to which states. But she said the staffers would be helping Senate and gubernatorial campaigns across the country, including those races in Iowa and New Hampshire, the states that host the first caucuses and primary.

The staffers, Smith said, will be paid for by O'Malley's political action committee, O'Say Can You See, also called O'PAC.

Politicians considering a national run will often send money or manpower to early-voting states during the election cycle before a presidential race. In 2006, before Democrats' last open primary, workers paid by former Democratic Sens. John Edwards and Evan Bayh, for example, hit New Hampshire and Iowa.

But this year, O'Malley is the only known Democrat providing such support.

Raymond Buckley, chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, said he had no knowledge of plans for other Democrats to engage in races in his state.

He hadn't heard of O'Malley's intentions to send staffers until Monday, he said.

Ready for Hillary, a super PAC preparing for a possible Hillary Clinton campaign, has been set up in primary states for the last year. The group made its first organizing trip to Iowa last January. But Clinton herself has yet to engage in midterm races. She is scheduled to appear in Iowa at Sen. Tom Harkin's annual steak fry next month.

O'Malley will finish his second and last term as governor in January. He has spent much of the last year traveling on behalf of Democrats, while putting together what he has called "the framework" for a possible presidential campaign.

The campaign workers will meet with O'Malley on Friday and will dispatch to states "imminently," Smith said.

Lawyer Behind Strategy To Defeat DOMA Joins Legal Team Fighting Utah Marriage Ban

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Mary Bonauto and other lawyers at Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders are now helping to represent the Utah couples fighting the state’s ban on same-sex couples’ marriages.

Moudi Sbeity, Derek Kitchen, Laurie Wood, and Kody Partridge after the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Utah's ban on same-sex couples was unconstitutional.

George Frey / Getty Images

CHICAGO — The woman whose arguments led Massachusetts to become the first state to legalize marriages for same-sex couples is joining the legal team fighting Utah's ban on same-sex couples' marriages.

Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders' Mary Bonauto has joined a growing team of lawyers defending two same-sex couples seeking to marry in Utah and one same-sex couple seeking to have their Iowa marriage recognized by the state. Bonauto will be joined by GLAD's legal director, Gary Buseck, and others at the organization.

The ban in Utah was one of 11 on the ballot in November 2004 — a wave of amendments that all passed and that many argued were a backlash to the Massachusetts decision won by Bonauto.

A decade later, she's now on the team that will soon be asking the Supreme Court to hear a case ending Utah's ban — a case that could end all such bans across the nation.

GLAD is joining Peggy Tomsic, whose firm, Magleby & Greenwod, defended the Utah same-sex couples from the start of the lawsuit and who successfully argued the case before the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. GLAD is not the first to join Tomsic. After the couples' trial court win in December 2013, lawyers at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, including Kate Kendell and Shannon Minter, joined the team for the appeal to the 10th Circuit. In the past month, as the attention turns to the Supreme Court, former Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal, now at Hogan Lovells, joined the team.

"We are thrilled to be adding Mary Bonauto, Gary Buseck and GLAD to the Utah legal team," Minter told BuzzFeed on Monday evening. "Mary and Gary bring an unparalleled depth of experience and expertise litigating the constitutional issues raised by these historic cases. NCLR and GLAD have a long history of working together, and we are honored to be partnering on such an important case at such a critical time in the movement for marriage equality."

Things are already heating up at the Supreme Court, as Utah officials earlier this month asked the justices to hear their appeal of the 10th Circuit ruling that the ban is unconstitutional, a filing called a certiorari petition. In an unusual move, the plaintiffs in the case — despite having won at the 10th Circuit — are expected to file a response supporting the state's request that the Supreme Court take up the appeal.

Bonauto told BuzzFeed tonight that she and her GLAD colleagues are "very excited" to be join what she called "such a strong team."

Of what they bring to the team, she pointed to GLAD's experience with legal fights for same-sex couples' relationship recognition from before the 2003 Massachusetts ruling through to her work filing the first litigation successfully challenging the Defense of Marriage Act and then supporting Edie Windsor's challenge to the law that eventually was heard by the Supreme Court.

"GLAD brings the perspective, insights, and distillation that come from long experience on marriage and the related issues, and the good sense to take nothing for granted," Bonauto said. "We've also won this issue in courts, and worked with others to win in state legislatures and at the ballot box. That has given us a deep feel for the concerns and hesitations out there and insights about how to make our case and find shared values that move us forward."

Specifically as to the DOMA litigation, she added, "We hope that the strategic thinking on DOMA — about how to get to a win on DOMA that would also position us to keep moving forward to marriage — will be useful here as well."

Mary Bonauto speaks to reporters after the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments over the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act in 2012.

John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Now, Bonauto and the GLAD lawyers — who coordinated the friend-of-the-court, or amicus, briefing for the Utah and Oklahoma cases at the 10th Circuit — will be working for the Utah plaintiffs themselves.

Evan Wolfson, the founder and president of Freedom to Marry, praised GLAD's addition to the team, saying that "the already stellar" legal team "is going all-star" by adding Bonauto and Buseck to the team.

"Not only did GLAD lead in teeing up the litigation strategy that brought down DOMA, but Mary was the unsung engine of the friend-of-the-court presentations made to the Supreme Court in both marriage cases last year," Wolfson said.

He said it is "urgent" that the Supreme Court act on the issue, adding, "The Utah freedom to marry case is super-clear and clean, and whichever case or cases the Court elects to hear, the collective presentation lawyers like this will make will be strong, compelling, and thorough."

In addition to the Utah case, certiorari petitions have already been filed with the court for cases out of Oklahoma and Virginia.

Other petitions could be coming in short order, as appellate arguments in cases from nine other states will have been heard before the justices return from their summer recess. Appellate arguments were heard earlier this month in cases out of Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals is hearing arguments in challenges to Indiana and Wisconsin's bans on Tuesday, and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is hearing cases out of Idaho and Nevada, as well as Hawaii, in September.


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Indiana Women Fight For Right To Marry In Case At Appeals Court

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“She is the love of my life, and I will die with her.” Judges at the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear their case, and others from Indiana and Wisconsin, on Tuesday morning.

Marilyn Rae Baskin speaks at a marriage equality rally in Chicago on Aug. 25, 2014.

CHICAGO — Marilyn Rae Baskin and Esther Fuller were in Chicago's Federal Plaza on Monday evening for a rally, taking to the stage to tell the assembled why marriage was so important to them.

But Baskin and Fuller don't want to get married in Illinois, where same-sex couples now have that right. They want to marry in Fuller's home state, the state they have made their home: Indiana.

"Why should we have to travel — when every other couple not of the same gender doesn't have to travel?" Baskin asked on Monday evening, talking to BuzzFeed about the case before her time on stage.

Earlier this year, the couple sued the state of Indiana, arguing that the state's law banning them from marrying is unconstitutional. After a trial court judge agreed, their case, along with several other cases from Indiana and Wisconsin, are due to be heard by a three-judge panel of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals at 10:30 a.m. ET Tuesday.

The case has moved very quickly, only having been filed in March.

"It's so exciting," she said. "The train left the station, and it's just picking up steam, and I love it. I'm just absolutely thrilled to be able to watch it happening instead of just reading about it later, because I think this is history — I'm hoping this is history in the making."

This modern history, though, comes after a long time. Fuller and Baskin met, they said, 25 years ago, when Baskin's former business partner introduced them in Indianapolis.

There was a potential stumbling block: Baskin lived in Manhattan, and Fuller lived in a very small town in Indiana.

"I had to drag her to Indiana," Fuller said.

"That's where Esther lived, and she wouldn't leave," Baskin echoed. "She's relentless when she needs to be."

So, to Whitestown, Indiana — population 476, in the 1990 Census — Baskin went.

"That was a huge move for her," Fuller said. "She was really very brave to come to Whitestown, Indiana. In fact, there were more people in her apartment building than there were in the town of Whitestown, Indiana, when she came there. No kidding. So, that's real bravery."

Why did she do it?

"She is the love of my life, and I will die with her," Baskin said. "Indiana is her home, and as much as I thought I was attached to Manhattan, I was not nearly as attached to Manhattan as I am to Esther."

Marilyn Rae Baskin, left, and Esther Fuller at Chicago's Federal Plaza on August 25, 2014.

Chris Geidner/BuzzFeed

Then, there was another stumbling block: Baskin — in Manhattan or small-town Indiana — was unapologetically out.

"I've always been very lucky. I worked for myself, so nobody could fire me. And pulling my pronouns was not something I was not something that I was remotely willing to do," Baskin said. "I am who I am —"

"Used to scare the crap out of me," Fuller piped in. "Used to scare me to death. She would meet somebody brand new and start talking about her wife and what have you, and it was like, 'Ohhh, my goodness.'"

Again, they moved forward. On Monday, with the lawsuit on appeal before the 7th Circuit, Fuller sounded more like Baskin than she did like her own description of herself early on in their relationship.

"This happened at a very fortuitous time for me," Fuller said. "I have a responsibility to go ahead and go with this thing because there's so many people that cannot do what I am doing because of personal discrimination at work —"

"Workplace discrimination or rental discrimination," Baskin interjected, "or families that would take their kids away —"

"There's still kids who know that they're gay when they're 13 years old," Fuller said, "and if they tell their parents, they get booted out of their house. That's horrible. We're making strides, but that's almost criminal as far as I'm concerned."

On Tuesday morning, Baskin and Fuller will wait to see what three judges of the 7th Circuit think about their case — and, from their perspective, their past 24 years together.

"It's a civil rights issue to me," Fuller said. "When I see prejudice and bigotry of any kind, it bothers me. I want it to end."

Baskin is ready, as well. "The thing that matters is the civil rights … being able to get married and be recognized, have all the protections of marriage and the dignity of marriage — for us, for other people, for the citizens of Indiana — which our case will do. Hopefully, the Wisconsin case as well," she said. "And then, hopefully it will just roll across the country, for crying out loud. Let's stop this piecemeal thing and get it done."


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National Progressives Want A "Federal Czar" To Oversee Local Police Forces

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“The proliferation of machine guns, silencers, armored vehicles and aircraft, and camouflage in local law enforcement units does not bode well for police-community relations, the future of our cities, or our country.”

Lucas Jackson / Reuters

WASHINGTON — A coalition of unions, members of Congress, progressive groups and others wrote a joint letter to President Barack Obama calling for drastic changes to local police forces around the country after the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

The letter, which was distributed via an ad in the Washington Post, calls for a demilitarization of police forces, an effort to increase diversity, and the establishment of a "federal czar" to promote "the professionalization of local law enforcement."

"The proliferation of machine guns, silencers, armored vehicles and aircraft, and camouflage in local law enforcement units does not bode well for police-community relations, the future of our cities, or our country," the letter said.

Demilitarization advocates have already been calling for swift action in Washington, but this letter goes much further than what they were asking for.

The letter is signed by more than 100 individuals. Several members of Congress signed the letter, including Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Marcia Fudge, Rep. Barbara Lee, and Rep. John Lewis.

Other notable names who signed on include AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, ACLU Executive Directory Anthony Romero, and co-founder of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream, Ben Cohen.

One prominent progressive name missing from the list is New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. But actress Cynthia Nixon, who has close ties to the de Blasio administration, does appear on the list.

"Youth of color, black boys and men especially, who should be growing up in supportive, affirming environments are instead presumed to be criminals and relentlessly subjected to aggressive police tactics that result in unnecessary fear, arrests, injuries, and deaths," the coalition writes in the letter.

In cities across America, local law enforcement units too often treat low-income neighborhoods populated by African Americans and Latinos as if they are military combat zones instead of communities where people strive to live, learn, work, play and pray in peace and harmony. Youth of color, black boys and men especially, who should be growing up in supportive, affirming environments are instead presumed to be criminals and relentlessly subjected to aggressive police tactics that result in unnecessary fear, arrests, injuries, and deaths.

Michael Brown, an unarmed African American teen shot multiple times and killed by a Ferguson, Mo police officer, is only the latest in a long list of black men and boys who have died under eerily similar circumstances. Investigations into the Ferguson shooting are ongoing, and many of the specific facts remain unclear for now. However, the pattern is too obvious to be a coincidence and too frequent to be a mistake. From policing to adjudication and incarceration, it is time for the country to counter the effects of systemic racial bias, which impairs the perceptions, judgment, and behavior of too many of our law enforcement personnel and obstructs the ability of our police departments and criminal justice institutions to protect and serve all communities in a fair and just manner.

In addition, the militarization of police departments across the country is creating conditions that will further erode the trust that should exist between residents and the police who serve them. The proliferation of machine guns, silencers, armored vehicles and aircraft, and camouflage in local law enforcement units does not bode well for police-community relations, the future of our cities, or our country.

And surely neither systemic racial bias nor police department militarization serves the interests of the countless police officers who bravely place their lives at risk every day.

In light of these dangerous trends, we, the undersigned, call on the Administration to pursue the following actions:

Training: Racial bias is real. Whether implicit or explicit, it influences perceptions and behaviors and can be deadly. Law enforcement personnel in every department in the country, under guidelines set by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), should be required to undergo racial bias training as a part of ongoing professional development and training.

Accountability: Police departments should not be solely responsible for investigating themselves. These departments are funded by the public and should be accountable to the public. Enforceable accountability measures must be either established or reexamined for impartiality in circumstances where police shoot unarmed victims. DOJ must set and implement national standards of investigation that are democratic (involving independent review boards broadly representative of the community served), transparent, and enforceable.

Diversity: Police department personnel should be representative of the communities they serve. Police departments must adopt personnel practices that result in the hiring and retention of diverse law enforcement professionals. Using diversity best practices established in other sectors, DOJ must set, implement, and monitor diversity hiring and retention guidelines for local police departments.

Engagement: Too often law enforcement personnel hold stereotypes about black and brown youth and vice versa. Lack of familiarity breeds lack of understanding and increased opportunities for conflict. Police departments must break through stereotypes and bias by identifying regular opportunities for constructive and quality engagement with youth living in the communities they serve. The Administration can authorize support for youth engagement activity under existing youth grants issued by DOJ.

Demilitarization: Deterring crime and protecting communities should not involve military weaponry. Effective policing strategies and community relationships will not be advanced if police departments continue to act as an occupying force in neighborhoods. The Administration must suspend programs that transfer military equipment into the hands of local police departments and create guidelines that regulate and monitor the use of military equipment that has already been distributed.

Examination and Change: It is possible to create police departments that respect, serve and protect all people in the community regardless of age, race, ethnicity, national origin, physical and mental ability, gender, faith, or class. The Administration must quickly establish a national commission to review existing police policies and practices and identify the best policies and practices that can prevent more Fergusons and vastly improve policing in communities across the nation.

Oversight: If somebody isn't tasked with ensuring the implementation of equitable policing in cities across the country, then no one will do the job. The Administration must appoint a federal Czar, housed in the U.S. Department of Justice, who is specifically tasked with promoting the professionalization of local law enforcement, monitoring egregious law enforcement activities, and adjudicating suspicious actions of local law enforcement agencies that receive federal funding.


Brother: Obama Administration Attendance At James Foley's Mass Didn't "Enter The Family's Thoughts"

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Some have criticized the White House for staying away from James Foley’s memorial mass.

James Foley

Handout / Reuters

WASHINGTON — The brother of the American journalist murdered by ISIS terrorists last week says James Foley's family was not concerned by a lack of White House representatives at Foley's memorial mass in New Hampshire.

"That wasn't his funeral — that is Oct. 18," Foley's brother, Michael, told BuzzFeed in an email. "Regardless it isn't even enter [sic] the family's thoughts one way or another."

Conservative news site CNSNews.com quoted a staffer at the Foley family parish Monday who said no White House officials attended the memorial mass at Our Lady of the Holy Rosary in Rochester, N.H., on Sunday. CNS noted "President Obama, however, did send three White House aides to Monday's funeral for Michael Brown."

Michael Foley has been critical of the Obama administration in the days since his brother's death, saying the White House could have "done more" to secure James' release.

A "former White House official" quoted by the Daily Mail said the lack of White House representatives at Foley's memorial service was "embarrassing."

New Hampshire elected officials, including the Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, attended the Foley mass. The White House told CNS Obama has reached out to the Foley family in the days since his death was posted to YouTube by ISIS.

"The president expressed his profound condolences to the family in his statement last week," a White House official told CNS. The official said Obama "continues to keep them in his thoughts as we attempt to bring the other American hostages home."

Obama Wants To Bomb Syria Again But Congress Is Much, Much Quieter This Year

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“The circumstances are different entirely [this time],” said Rep. Trent Franks.

classypic/classypic

WASHINGTON — Almost a year ago this week, lawmakers rushed back to Washington, cutting the summer recess short after President Obama announced he wanted Congressional approval to strike Syria.

This year, the administration is reportedly mulling an intervention on the other side of the conflict: strikes against the Islamist terrorist group ISIS in Syria, which is one of a number of groups fighting to overthrow Bashar al-Assad, rather than the regime itself. And lawmakers on Capitol Hill calling for congressional approval are much more subdued, even among conservative Republicans who vehemently opposed intervening against Assad.

It's a sharp contrast to 2013. Then, many lawmakers flew back for briefings from administration officials. And in the days and weeks prior to the president's announcement, members of both parties demanded explicit approval before a U.S. intervention in the Syrian conflict. Some 116 members of the House signed onto a letter spearheaded by Rep. Scott Rigell that called for the White House to seek approval from Congress before carrying out military action in Syria. At that time, the president wanted to conduct strikes in Syria in response to the Assad regime's use of chemical weapons against its own people.

But 2014 is different. The prompt for airstrikes is now twofold: the ISIS takeover of swathes of Iraq, which has already elicited U.S. airstrikes in that country for the past two weeks, and the videotaped murder of American journalist James Foley at the hands of ISIS terrorists last week.

The normally noisy Syria doves have been abnormally quiet in the weeks since Obama began strikes against ISIS in Iraq. Sen. Rand Paul has said very little on this issue, compared to last year when he vocally opposed striking the Assad regime. And Rep. Justin Amash, who often takes to Twitter to share his views, hasn't said much either. A spokesman for Amash didn't respond to requests for comment about the possibility of strikes against ISIS in Syria.

"There's a reticence on our part to readily say that [Obama] should just do what comes instinctive to him because it's nearly always wrong," said Republican Rep. Trent Franks, who signed on to the Rigell letter last year. "However, when we see a demonstrated monstrous enemy like ISIS that is murdering and beheading its way across Iraq then of course we have a different perspective of trying to get this president to respond."

In part, the argument is that the threat of ISIS (or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) to the United States is far greater than the threat Assad posed, despite his savagery against his own people.

"ISIS is a clear unequivocal monstrous enemy of the innocent and let me just suggest to you that if the president hadn't been caught asleep at the wheel he would have known that before we would have," Franks said. "The circumstances are different entirely [this time]."

Foley's brutal murder has also quieted some in demanding the president seek immediate approval to attack ISIS.

"The video did curb the discussion, let alone the call for a vote. We're also out of session and that's a factor," said Rep. Peter Welch, a Vermont Democrat who believes the president needs to seek congressional approval for more attacks.

Welch believes that as the recess draws to a close, more members will begin to speak out and ask that Obama come to them for approval for additional airstrikes. While he said that Obama's decision in early August to strike Iraq to defend military interests in Irbil and conduct a humanitarian mission to help Yazidi refugees on Mt. Sinjar had broad congressional support, further escalation would require a full debate in the House and Senate.

"The recent airstrikes that President Obama ordered initially were about addressing a humanitarian disaster and the decision had to be made immediately or not at all. It was an emergency where quick action or no action needed to be taken," he said. "The Foley murder has galvanized the collective horror of Congress…but there are a lot of unanswered questions, and we need to have a debate before we can have a vote. And if we go into Syria that literally puts us on the side of Assad. What are the implications for the U.S with respect to our opposition to Assad?"

The White House has indicated that they have consulted with Congress on the staff level but would not commit to seeking a congressional vote.

"What we're talking about now is not about the Assad regime, but about this threat that's posed by [ISIS] that's operating both in Iraq and in Syria," said White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest.

On Tuesday, Earnest appeared to rule out the possibility of seeking Congressional approval, telling reporters on Air Force One, "The goal of the mission from last year was aimed squarely at the Assad regime ... The situation a year later is markedly different."

The situation is indeed different: last year, the administration was calling for Assad's ouster, while it is now reportedly sharing intelligence with the regime about the jihadist threat and conducting drone surveillance of ISIS over Syria. Though Earnest said there are "no plans" to coordinate with Assad against ISIS, the administration's potential decision to combat the terrorist group inside Syria would put it on the same side as Assad — a stunning reversal from last year.

Some of those in Congress who are staying quiet on the subject of strikes against ISIS in Syria say that they are giving the administration more leeway because ISIS poses a greater threat to the United States than Assad.

"Of course" ISIS poses more of a threat, Franks said. Though Assad is a "failed leader," he said, "that's unfortunately one of the conundrums you have in the Middle East, you have sort of a disaster on both sides of a particular equation and that's the case in Syria."

There are signs that Congress won't stay quiet for too much longer. On Monday, Sen. Tim Kaine — who has long argued for repeal of the 2001 Authorized Use of Military Force — was among the first members to release a statement calling for congressional approval.

"This fight, and the threat posed by ISIL, is serious enough that Congress and the Administration must be united on U.S. policy going forward," he said. "I urge the Administration to use the next two weeks to clearly define the strategy and objectives of its mission against ISIL, then bring it to Congress for a debate and authorization vote."

And members say that they would come back early and be involved — if the administration wanted them to.

"If the president feels like it is an immediate crisis I know that I and that most of colleagues are willing to go back tomorrow to discuss this," said Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who signed the Rigell letter last year. "But he has not made a point of consulting with Congress on this."

Nearly Every Founding Fathers' Quote Shared By A Likely Future Congressman Is Fake

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A future “constitutional conservative” member of Congress.

This is Jody Hice, a pastor and talk radio host, who recently secured a win in a Republican primary to replace Rep. Paul Broun. Hice is almost guaranteed to be the next congressman from Georgia’s 10th District.

This is Jody Hice, a pastor and talk radio host, who recently secured a win in a Republican primary to replace Rep. Paul Broun. Hice is almost guaranteed to be the next congressman from Georgia’s 10th District.

Hice represents an anti-gay viewpoint based on pseudo-science and seriously outdated myths about gay Americans.

He also really loves freedom. He calls himself a "constitutional conservative" and LOVES the Founding Fathers. Check out these posts of his from his Facebook:

Jody Hice Facebook


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Indiana, Wisconsin Lawyers Get Tough Questions Over States' Marriage Bans

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The three 7th Circuit Court of Appeals judges appeared ready to strike down Indiana’s law and Wisconsin’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex couples from marrying.

The ACLU's James Esseks talks with some of the Wisconsin plaintiffs after arguing for them at the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Chris Geidner/BuzzFeed

CHICAGO — Lawyers for Indiana and Wisconsin on Tuesday tried, with little success, to explain to three judges why their laws banning same-sex couples from marrying were constitutional.

In the most lopsided arguments over marriage bans at a federal appeals court this year, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals judges clearly were ready to strike down the bans — with the only real question being what reasoning they will use to do so.

From the start of the arguments over Indiana's ban at a little past 9:30 a.m. until the end of the arguments over Wisconsin's ban at 11:11 a.m., 7th Circuit Judges Richard Posner, Ann Claire Williams, and David Hamilton pounded the two lawyers defending the bans with dismissive, incredulous questions about the basis and purpose for their respective states' bans.

For the lawyers representing the same-sex couples, the judges almost assumed that the bans violate the constitutional guarantee of equal protection of the laws. The only question in the hearing Tuesday was whether the bans also violated due-process guarantees because marriage is a fundamental right.

Within minutes of Indiana Solicitor General Thomas Fisher taking to the podium to start his arguments, the tone was set.

"Why do you prefer heterosexual adoption to homosexual adoption?" Judge Posner, appointed to the bench by President Reagan, asked. When Fisher began responding that the marriage laws were unrelated to adoption, Posner was almost vitriolic in his response, saying of the state's treatment of the children of same-sex couples, "You want them to be worse off."

The reason for Posner's unbending focus on the impact of the marriage ban became clear later in the arguments, when he talked about the "harrowing" stories of the discrimination faced by the children of same-sex couples that were detailed in the Family Equality Council's amicus curiae, or friend-of-the-court, brief submitted in the Wisconsin case.

During Fisher's rebuttal time, generally used to respond to arguments made by opposing counsel, Posner returned to the issue of the children, describing the amicus brief and asking Fisher, "It didn't make an impression?"

At different times, Posner referred to Fisher's arguments as "pathetic," "ridiculous," and "absurd."

Remarkably, Wisconsin's counsel fared worse. Wisconsin Assistant Attorney General Timothy Samuelson, at several points, said that he had no answer to several of the questions posed by multiple judges. When he did answer, his two go-to responses for the purpose and justification for Wisconsin's constitutional ban were "tradition" and that it was a "legislative choice."

Posner was having none of it.

"How can tradition be the reason?" he asked, mocking the answer by responding that saying "we've been doing a stupid thing" for a long time certainly wouldn't be enough of a justification to uphold a law or practice.

When Samuelson offered "deference to the democratic process [as] another purpose," Posner wanted more, telling the frustrated lawyer, "You have to have something better."

Hamilton and Williams, though slightly more kind to the counsel defending the bans, were no more receptive to their arguments.

Although Indiana's counsel said the ban was about "nudging" opposite-sex couples into marriage to lessen the impact of accidental procreation, Williams, appointed by President Clinton, said it sounded more like the ban was actually about the "transgression against social norms" that same-sex couples' marriages would represent to some.

Hamilton, appointed by President Obama, was more direct when questioning Wisconsin's lawyer, calling the argument a "reverse-engineered theory" aimed at avoiding the constitutional precedent set when the court struck down sodomy laws and other historical developments more broadly.

LINK: Listen to the arguments in the 7th Circuit arguments over Indiana's marriage ban.

LINK: Listen to the arguments in the 7th Circuit arguments over Wisconsin's marriage ban.


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GOP Congressman: Impeachment Would Probably Cost Republicans The Senate

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Rep. Kenny Marchant says despite the “very slim chance” the House would vote to impeach Obama, “that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done.”

A Republican congressman said there's a "slim" chance that President Obama will be impeached, and if the House began impeachment proceedings, they would would probably fail and cost the Republican Party a chance at winning the Senate.

Speaking at a town hall in Coppell, Texas, last week Rep. Kenny Marchant said despite the "very slim chance" the House would vote to impeach Obama, "that doesn't mean it shouldn't be done."

Marchant cited National Review writer Andrew McCarthy's "excellent" book Faithless Execution: Building the Political Case for Obama's Impeachment as evidence "all the legalities for impeachment proceeding to begin against the president."

The congressman added "the will of the American people is not there" and said if Republicans went against that and attempted to impeach Obama there would be "a violent reaction" that would keep Republicans from winning the Senate. He said Republicans should wait until after the November elections to "proceed on that question."

Marchant also cited Democrats raising money off impeachment talk as a reason to leave any consideration of impeachment until after the November elections.

Here's the video of Marchant's remarks:

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21 Years Of Evasive Answers From The White House

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George Stephanopoulos dodged the press more than any other briefer-in-chief since 1993. But every briefer had their quirks.

This chart shows the number of “weasel phrases” per 1,000 words for each press secretary (official and de facto) during the stretches of time each was the primary daily briefer.

John Templon / BuzzFeed

Have an important question about the president's foreign policy, immigration agenda, or tax plan? White House press secretaries have all the answers:

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Dorsey Shaw / BuzzFeed

Since 1993, 12 brave souls have accepted the challenge of briefing the White House press corps on a daily basis. As the chief communicators of White House goings-on, press secretaries (official and de facto) must walk a fine line between answering important questions and…not answering them at all.

BuzzFeed analyzed more than 5,000 press briefings since the beginning of the Clinton administration in 1993, looking for "weasel phrases" such as "I can't comment on," "I'm not aware [of/that/etc.]," and "I don't know." (For more details, see the methodology at the bottom of this post. Counting weasel phrases is, of course, an imperfect measure of evasiveness. It does not, for example, capture idiosyncratic methods of misdirection.) Here's what we found:


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Bill O'Reilly's White Privilege Memo

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Here’s America’s highest rated cable news host explaining why he doesn’t believe in white privilege, a concept he says is “the big lie” being perpetuated by “racial hustlers.”


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Iowa Politician Admits To Accepting Illegal Money From Ron Paul Campaign

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The end of an ugly 2012 scandal.

Steve Marcus / Reuters / Reuters

WASHINGTON — A former Iowa state senator has pleaded guilty to hiding money received from Ron Paul's presidential campaign in exchange for ending his support for Michele Bachmann, the Department of Justice announced on Wednesday.

Kent Sorenson was a supporter of Bachmann's campaign in the 2012 primaries. He later switched his allegiance to Paul's campaign, after Paul deputy campaign manager Dimitri Kesari wrote him a $25,000 check, the Associated Press reported. Sorenson eventually received $73,000 in payments that were linked to the campaign, an investigator found. Sorenson has now admitted taking the bribes, and pleaded guilty to one count of concealing federal campaign expenditures.

"According to a statement of facts filed with the plea agreement, Sorenson admitted that he had supported one campaign for the 2012 presidential election, but from October to December 2011, he met and secretly negotiated with a second political campaign to switch his support to that second campaign in exchange for concealed payments that amounted to $73,000," the Department of Justice wrote in a release on Wednesday. "On Dec. 28, 2011, at a political event in Des Moines, Iowa, Sorenson publicly announced his switch of support and work from one candidate to the other."

According to the DOJ, the payments came in monthly installments of $8,000 each, concealed by paying them out to a film production company before they made it to Sorenson.

The controversy over Sorenson's switching sides and allegations of bribery led to several ugly incidents, including a former Paul staffer secretly recording and releasing a conversation with Paul's 2012 campaign manager.

There Is An Epidemic Of Republicans Misquoting The Founding Fathers

Rick Perry Is Selling T-Shirts With His Mugshot On It

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Because why not.

For a minimum donation of $25 you can get a t-shirt with Rick Perry's mugshot on it. Perry's political action committee RickPAC began selling the t-shirts Wednesday.

Via rickpac.org

Perry was indicted by a state grand jury two weeks ago on charges of abusing his official capacity and the coercion of a public servant.

In April 2013, Perry attempted to force Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg to resign after she was arrested for drunk driving. Lehmberg refused and later took a plea bargain where she served 45 days in jail and paid a $4,000 fine.

Perry then threatened to veto more than $7 million in state funding for a program she runs, with the acknowledgment that Travis County could continue to fund it if the state stopped funding it. The program, called the Public Integrity Unit, investigates allegations of political corruption. Perry later vetoed the funding.

The two charges stem from this incident.

LINK: A big ole H/T to the Wall Street Journal


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Hundreds Rally In L.A. For Obama To Include Immigrant Workers In Executive Actions

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The National Day Laborer Organizing Network wants to ensure immigrant workers are included in President Obama’s executive action.

Juan Gastelum/BuzzFeed

Hundreds of immigrant workers and supporters rallied in downtown Los Angeles Wednesday urging President Obama to include protections for laborers in the series of executive actions he is expected to issue on immigration policy in the coming weeks.

Organizers want those protections to include measures that protect workers who denounce unfair labor practices, as well as extend visas to victims of violent crimes and wage- and hour-violations. They are also emphasized that any actions taken should not exclude people — such as domestic workers and day laborers — who are not employed continuously.

"The city of L.A. wouldn't function without migrant labor," Pablo Alvarado, the director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), told BuzzFeed. "You go to the neighborhoods here and it's the immigrant workers who keep the gardens green, who make sure that people come and work to the big buildings here because workers are taking care of their kids, cleaning their homes.

"Everyone, from friend to foe, is willing to accept people's labor, but they are not willing to accept people's humanity," he added.

Obama is expected to announce the administrative actions, a source of controversy with some Republicans, in the next few weeks. The actions follow an administration-wide review of deportation policy, following intense pressure from activists in the past year.

Juan Gastelum/BuzzFeed

Juan Gastelum/BuzzFeed


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How One Union Is Playing For Both Sides In The Battle Between Uber And Taxis

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East Coast vs. West Coast.

Lucy Nicholson / Reuters

WASHINGTON — As the bitter divide between ride-sharing and taxi companies continues to grow, one union is trying to unite all the drivers, no matter who they work for.

The Teamsters think they can have it both ways — organizing drivers from Uber and Lyft on the West Coast and defending the taxi unions on the East Coast.

In Seattle, the Teamsters have aligned with both traditional taxi drivers and drivers who use apps like Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar. The recently created California App-Based Drivers' Association, an affiliate of the Teamsters, is recruiting ride-sharing app drivers in some of the Golden State's largest cities. And representatives say that though there's nothing in the works as of yet, they wouldn't be opposed to having traditional cabbies sign on as well.

But back east in D.C., the Teamsters refuse to work with the Uber drivers. The union said Uber and Lyft drivers in D.C. are operating "illegally," and before they even consider working with them, they'll have to adhere to local law.

In fact, the Teamsters are working directly against Uber.

And organizer Joel Wood said they'll stand by their affiliate, the D.C. Taxi Operators Association, to fight Uber until it complies with the law.

"Our cab drivers are not afraid of fair competition," Wood said. "What they are afraid of is a billion-dollar corporation coming in and thumbing their nose at regulations."

In California, the Teamsters are unfazed by the D.C. efforts. Ron Seamans Jr., a Teamsters organizer and business representative in California, said the heart of their organizing efforts are to provide protections for drivers.

A statement from Seamans' union pointed to one example of a female driver who spoke at a recent meeting for a local Teamster affiliate based out of El Monte this Wednesday. At a meeting to decide if the drivers wanted to join the California App-Based Drivers' Association, the driver said a client "sexually harassed her," according to a statement from Teamsters Local 986. Because of fear she would receive a bad rating and potentially have her right to drive for Uber revoked, she said, the driver continued on with the ride.

When she reached out to Uber for help afterwards, the statement alleges she received "no meaningful response."

Uber and Lyft did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this story.

"There's no equality when it comes to Uber and how drivers are deactivated on a daily basis," Seamans said.

Wood, the Teamsters organizer, didn't rule out East Coast efforts to organize drivers. In Virginia, Uber recently worked out a deal with the state to operate legally. Wood said he's fielded some calls from drivers in the area looking to organize, but that's in the early stages as they evaluate how the company complies with the new guidelines.

The AFL-CIO, a labor federation that does not include the Teamsters, has been organizing taxi drivers, as well. They've unionized taxi drivers on both coasts, from Maryland to San Francisco. But that doesn't mean they aren't also interested in getting Uber drivers as well.

At a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor Thursday morning, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said wherever there are workers, he sees an opportunity to organize. But he wasn't willing to share the federation's strategy just yet.

"Can you imagine going up to a football coach the Friday before the game and saying, 'tell us what your plan is,'" Trumka said.

Ultimately, the Teamsters want to add as many drivers as it can to union coffers — Uber, Lyft, traditional cab, or anyone else. Whether that affects negotiations with the companies, or their lobbying efforts in statehouses, is a bridge they say they'll cross when it comes.

For now, though, the CADA is mostly focused on building up membership, which is still relatively small.

"If it's 1,000 drivers knocking down City Hall's door or marching up to the State Capitol, that's a force to be reckoned with," Seamans said.

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