February 2, 2015

Anti-Vaccine Doctor: I Don't Care If My Kids Make Others Gravely Sick (VIDEO)

Source: TPM

An Arizona cardiologist told CNN in an interview that went online Monday that he doesn't care if his refusal to vaccinate his kids gives other children grave, preventable diseases.

“I’m not going to sacrifice the well-being of my child. My child is pure,” Dr. Jack Wolfson said in the interview. “It’s not my responsibility to be protecting their child.”

Wolfson was responding to a public appeal for all parents to vaccinate their children from Arizona pediatrician Dr. Tim Sacks, whose leukemia-stricken daughter was exposed to measles after an unvaccinated American family introduced the disease into the greater population during a trip to Disneyland.

Wolfson was interviewed last week by television station KPNX as a source on the debate over vaccinations, calling himself "the paleo-cardiologist," according to the report. The doctor said that children should not avoid getting infections such as measels and mumps. "These are the rights of our children to get it," he told KPNX.

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/jack-wolfson-vaccines-doctor-measles

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February 2, 2015

Christie's Office Does Damage Control On Vaccine Remarks

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's (R) office did some damage control on Monday after Christie said the government should strike a "balance" between requiring parents to immunize their children and allowing them "some measure of choice" on vaccinations.

"To be clear: The Governor believes vaccines are an important public health protection and with a disease like measles there is no question kids should be vaccinated," Christie's office said in a statement. "At the same time, different states require different degrees of vaccination, which is why he was calling for balance in which one's government should mandate."

The comments came as health officials try to contain a measles outbreak in the western United States that is believed to have started at California's Disneyland park.

Christie's office furnished a full transcript of the governor's remarks at the London facility of American company MedImmune, which manufactures a flu vaccine, that went beyond his remarks reported by the New York Times.

more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/chris-christie-vaccines-damage-control

February 2, 2015

Will Rubio Really Give Up His Senate Seat?

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) “is moving full throttle towards a White House bid, hitting the road hard to raise money and elevate his profile. While allies and advisors say he hasn’t made a final decision, most now privately expect he’ll take the plunge,” The Hill reports.

“It’s a gamble for the 43 year-old Rubio, who has to choose between running for another Senate term next year and undertaking a White House bid. Staying in the Senate is the surer bet, though reelection isn’t guaranteed in swing-state Florida.”

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http://politicalwire.com/2015/02/02/will-rubio-really-give-senate-seat/

February 2, 2015

A right-wing hack undone: Sharyl Attkisson’s White House “hacking” allegation takes a hit

Sharyl Attkisson says the government hacked her, but she's been stingy with the proof. A new report may explain why

SIMON MALOY

Former CBS News investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson is a person of special significance to conservatives. When she quit CBS last year, she alleged that her bosses at the network had interfered with her work and discouraged her from reporting critically on Benghazi, Operation Fast and Furious, and other Obama scandals that the right focuses obsessively on. And she also made the wild accusation that someone – probably from the government – had hacked into her home computer and deleted stuff from it. Attkisson provided conservatives with confirmation that the mainstream media is incurably biased against conservatives and, more significantly, a juicy scandal that would expose the Obama administration as a bunch of thuggish criminals. Only one thing was missing: proof.

Attkisson’s claims that she’d been hacked have always been vague and lacking much in the way of evidence. She explained that the hacking had been confirmed by an independent investigator, whose findings she refused to divulge. She released a video of the purported “hacking” that showed text being deleted from a document she was working on, leading many people to surmise that the “hack” was actually just a stuck backspace key. There was also a lot of weird, circumstantial stuff that Attkisson obsessed over, like her computer making a weird noise in the night, and a stray cable attached to her internet service box. Attkisson herself has been inconsistent in her story, claiming at various points that she knows and doesn’t know who hacked her. All the bits of evidence she marshalled in building her case had plausible, inoffensive explanations. If there was a hack, where was the proof?

Well, the Justice Department has been investigating that very question (at Sharyl Attkisson’s request), and they’ve arrived at an answer: there is no evidence of a hack. As reported by the Washington Post’s Erik Wemple and Media Matters (disclosure: my former employer), DOJ’s inspector general completed a forensic examination of Attkisson’s home computer and “did not find evidence of remote or unauthorized access.” Pretty much everything Attkisson identified as proof of the hacking was found to be innocuous. The stray cable she found was of the sort her internet provider uses all the time, and “could not be used to monitor or otherwise affect the phone or internet service at her residence.” Attkisson’s video of text being deleted from a document? That “appeared to be caused by the backspace key being stuck, rather than a remote intrusion.”

It’s also interesting that Attkisson apparently furnished DOJ with the name of the person she believes is responsible for ordering the “hack” of her computer. “Attkisson claimed that former White House Associate (REDACTED) directed either the FBI or an Intelligence Agency to monitor her computers.” So Attkisson clearly believes this goes all the way to the top – what she hasn’t done is provide any reason for why she believes this.

more
http://www.salon.com/2015/02/02/a_right_wing_hack_undone_sharyl_attkissons_white_house_hacking_allegation_takes_a_hit/

February 2, 2015

Mike Huckabee’s Christian Sharia Law

Dean Obeidallah

First of all, Governor, nobody in this country gets to force their religious views on others. And, while we’re at it, Muslims can own dogs.

Mike Huckabee is known as a former governor, an author, a onetime Fox News host, and as a possible contender for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. And now we have a new way to describe Huckabee: Christian Wahhabist.

For those unaware, Wahhabism is a sect of Islam, primarily practiced in Saudi Arabia, which follows a very conservative interpretation of the faith. Wahhabis demand that their religious principles be imposed as the law of their country. And Huckabee, in an interview that aired Sunday on CNN, made it clear that on certain social issues, he too believes that his religious beliefs should be the basis for the laws of the state.

But before we get to that issue, let me start with the reason Huckabee’s interview came to my attention. Huckabee stated that his continued opposition to same-sex marriage is based on the Bible, and that he can’t “evolve” on the issue “unless I get a new version of the scriptures.” He then added that it would be comparable to “asking a Muslim to serve up something that is offensive to him or to have dogs in his backyard.”

Being a Muslim who has offered many times before to be people’s “Muslim friend,” and to answer their questions the best I could about the faith, Huckabee’s dog comment immediately caused some friends to reach out on social media. “Are Muslims religiously prohibited from owning dogs?” they asked.

The simple answer: no. Nowhere in the Quran does such a prohibition appear. However, there are mentions of dogs in the Hadith, which are the sayings and teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. Many Muslims view the Hadith as second only to the Koran in terms of being authoritative. But it should be noted that not all Muslims follow the Hadith and there are questions about the veracity of some of its passages.

more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/02/01/mike-huckabee-s-christian-sharia-law.html

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A comment below the above article at TDB

“Rousas John Rushdoony is widely credited as the father of Christian Reconstructionism which advocates for theocracy based on Old Testament law and a death sentence for crimes as homosexuality, adultery, lying about ones virginity. He advocated for segregation and believed some people were born to be slaves. He was a strong advocate for home schooling. Two of his followers were Jerry Falwell, and James Dobson. Falwell, before his death was president of Liberty University. He was also a major leader in Virginia’s “Massive Resistance” that lead to closing the public school system in Virginia following Brown V Board. Dobson is the founder and leader of Focus on the Family and holds Value Voter conferences where Republican candidates can appear to prove they are conservative enough and Christian enough.

I recommend two books for those who would like to explore this more: Republican Gomorrah by Max Blumenthal and Biblical Nonsense by Jason Long

February 1, 2015

Rand Paul Hits Jeb Bush For 'Hypocrisy' On Prep School Pot Use

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on Friday seized on a Boston Globe report about Jeb Bush's prep school days to criticize the former Florida governor's "hypocrisy" on marijuana policy.

"You would think he’d have a little more understanding then," Paul told The Hill of Bush's reported marijuana use as a student at the elite Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass.

“I think that’s the real hypocrisy, is that people on our side, which include a lot of people who made mistakes growing up, admit their mistakes but now still want to put people in jail for that,” he added. “Had he been caught at Andover, he’d have never been governor, he’d probably never have a chance to run for the presidency."

Bush admitted his youthful marijuana use to the Globe. The newspaper also spoke with some of the potential Republican presidential candidate's former classmates, who described him as a stoner who was indifferent to politics at the time and allegedly bullied smaller students.

more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/rand-paul-jeb-bush-pot-hypocrisy