May 5, 2015

Hillary Clinton to call for path to citizenship at Nevada campaign stop

Source: Reuters

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will announce at a Nevada campaign stop that she supports a full path to citizenship for undocumented workers as part of an overhaul of the U.S. immigration system.

Clinton is scheduled to appear at a Las Vegas high school Tuesday afternoon during her third campaign trip in an early-voting state after declaring last month that she would be seeking the presidency in November 2016.

Rancho High School, where Clinton will appear at a roundtable discussion, is less than 10 miles north of the famous Las Vegas strip of casinos. Its student body is approximately 70 percent Hispanic and includes some students who would be eligible for a special residency status for those who entered the U.S. as children under a stalled Democratic immigration proposal.

Clinton is expected to say in her remarks that a “true solution” to the country’s immigration problems would include “nothing less than a full and equal path to citizenship”, according to an advisory provided by a campaign aide.

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Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/clinton-to-call-for-path-to-citizenship-at-nevada-campaign-stop/

May 4, 2015

Obama Plans to Name Marine Corps Commandant to Lead Joint Chiefs of Staff

Source: New York Times

President Obama plans to name Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., a former commander in Afghanistan who now serves as commandant of the Marine Corps, as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, officials briefed on the selection said on Monday.

If he is confirmed by the Senate, General Dunford will take over the top military leadership position at a time of daunting challenges for the armed forces.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/05/us/politics/joseph-dunford-named-to-lead-joint-chiefs.html?

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May 4, 2015

U.S. Attorney Clears Christie's Lt. Gov. And Two Others In Sandy Aid Probe

Source: TPM

The U.S. attorney for New Jersey has cleared three current and former officials in Gov. Chris Christie's (R) administration of wrongdoing in an alleged scheme to cow the mayor of Hoboken into supporting a development project by withholding Hurricane Sandy relief funds.

Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer came forward in January 2014 to accuse Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno (R) and a former Cabinet official, Richard Constable, of pressuring her in May 2013 to approve a development project for the Rockefeller Group, which was repped by a law firm with close ties to Christie. Zimmer produced journal entries to support her case.

Guadagno shared a letter from U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman's office Saturday on Twitter and said it vindicated her initial responses to Zimmer's allegations:

Kim Guadagno

?@LtGovGuadagno

This morning,the US Attorney,the FBI and DOJ's Public Integrity Sec agreed with what I have said from the start. Look

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Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/kim-guadagno-hoboken-cleared

May 4, 2015

Mitt Romney accuses Hillary Clinton of politicizing Baltimore tragedy

In a Fox News interview Monday, Mitt Romney criticized Hillary Clinton's recent speech on police reform, saying Clinton was trying to "get more support in the African-American community."

Last week, Clinton called for the use of body cameras in every police department to increase transparency. During her speech at Columbia University, Clinton said that millions fewer Americans would live in poverty if it weren't for the U.S.' mass incarceration practices.

Romney, meanwhile, is having none of it, calling Clinton's speech "political in nature" and "very inappropriate."

"I was concerned that her comments really smacked of politicization of the terrible tragedies that are going on there," Romney said on Fox & Friends Monday, referencing the events in Baltimore. "We don't have mass incarcerations in America. Individuals are brought before tribunals, and they have counsel, they're given certain rights. Are we not going to lock people up who commit crimes, is that what she's suggesting?"

article + video
http://theweek.com/speedreads/553236/mitt-romney-accuses-hillary-clinton-politicizing-baltimore-tragedy

May 4, 2015

Hillary Clinton Will Testify Before Congress About Email Scandal

Hillary Clinton has agreed to testify during the week of May 18 before the Republican-led House Select Committee on Benghazi, where she is expected to take questions on both the 2012 Benghazi consulate attack and her use of a private email account during her tenure as Secretary of State. Politico quotes her attorney David Kendall on the planned appearance:

“Secretary Clinton has been and remains ready and willing to testify in public…..about the tragic events of September 2012,” Kendall wrote. “At that time, she will, of course, address any other questions the committee believes to be pertinent to its charge, including the questions posed…about her email.”

South Carolina representative Trey Gowdy leads the committee in question, whose inquiry into the 2012 Benghazi deaths of Libya ambassador Christopher Stevens and another foreign service officer has been cautious to the point of alienating the right-wing writers and activists who have insisted since the days after the attack that it was a consequence of grave executive-branch negligence and malfeasance. More moderate news outlets (like Slate), meanwhile, have treated the issue of Clinton's seeming circumvention of transparency rules via private email as a potentially serious transgression (and a realer threat than Benghazi to her 2016 presidential run). Her upcoming appearance thus seems likely to be watched closely by observers from all over the political spectrum.

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http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/05/04/hillary_clinton_email_benghazi_congressional_testimony_may_18.html?

May 4, 2015

Ben Carson Is No Herman Cain - He’s far more paranoid.

By Jamelle Bouie

As Ben Carson begins his run for the 2016 Republican nomination—he officially announced his campaign on Monday at a music hall in Detroit—it’s easy to compare him with Herman Cain, the last black American to play presidential politics in the GOP. But other than race, the two men are incomparable. Cain, a businessman and radio host, was a showman—a personality whose flamboyant defense of the Tea Party fueled a quick rise to conservative stardom and whose attacks on President Obama carried a racial comparison. The media, he said during his campaign, “Are … scared that a real black man may run against Barack Obama.”

Carson is far from exuberant—he speaks in calm, even tones—and joins the political stage after a long career in medicine and as a motivational speaker. A famed pediatric neurosurgeon, Carson is an icon in the black community. His book Gifted Hands—the story of his rise from inner-city Detroit to the pinnacle of his field—made its way to countless black kids in countless black homes. “Carson is a great American success story,” writes Joel Anderson for BuzzFeed, “a rags-to-riches hero who embodied achievement against long odds. His achievement turned him into an icon of black triumph, a Horatio Alger figure in hospital scrubs.”

But while his career was made in hospital wards and inner-city schools, his recent fame comes from his address at the 2013 National Prayer Breakfast, where he criticized Obamacare and offered his own alternative for health care reform. From there, he became a conservative celebrity, so famous that by the end of the year, supporters had founded a political action committee to draft Carson into the presidential race.

Carson’s announcement speech was light on substance, but it’s clear he doesn’t stray far from the rest of the Republican pack. He’s opposed to Obamacare, of course; called for an end to social programs that “create dependency”; and told supporters, “It’s time to rise up and take government back.”

With that said, there is one important difference between Carson’s rhetoric and that from the rest of the presidential field: It’s in the paranoid style. Throughout his speech, Carson made reference to the assorted conspiracies of the far right. People are afraid to speak up, he said, because the “IRS might audit them.” The government, he continues, just wants you to “keep your mouth shut.” Likewise, he says, we can’t trust unemployment statistics because, he claimed, “You can make the unemployment rate anything you want it to be.”

more
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2015/05/ben_carson_announces_his_presidential_run_his_political_rhetoric_is_incredibly.html

May 4, 2015

Civil rights expert on Texas shooting: Pam Geller’s hate group got ‘the response they were seeking’

Source: RawStory

Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center SPLC, said on Monday that he was not surprised that Pam Geller’s anti-Muslim group had been targeted by gunmen in Texas because she seemed to be trying to provoke that response.

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Potok told CNN on Monday that the shooting would “give a little boost to Geller and her friends.”

“Absolutely nothing justifies this attack,” he pointed out. “That said, Pam Geller, to describe her as anti-Islam and her groups as anti-Islam barely covers it.” Potok noted that he and the SPLC were both defenders of the First Amendment, “but Pam Geller and her organization is a hate group today just as they were day before yesterday.”

Geller’s stunt in Texas was similar to Florida Pastor Terry Jones burning Korans, according to Potok.

“Certainly that was protected activity under the First Amendment, but it also led fairly directly to the killing of 10 or 15 people abroad,” he recalled. “These are provocations that are aimed at stirring the pot, and it doesn’t seem terribly surprising that, in fact, that they get the response that they — in a sense — they are seeking.”

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Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/civil-rights-expert-on-texas-shooting-pam-gellers-hate-group-got-the-response-they-were-seeking/

May 4, 2015

Church Attendance Will Plummet 50 Percent If Gay Marriage Is Legalized, Glenn Beck Predicts

“If this goes through, persecution is coming,” Glenn Beck cautioned listeners of his hate show last week. “I mean serious persecution!”

He was talking about same-sex marriage, of course. According to Beck (and absolutely no one else) the government is intent on legalizing gay marriage so it can launch a secret mission to strip churches of their tax exempt status if they refuse to perform same-sex weddings.

“Mark my words,” Beck babbled. “If gay marriage goes through the Supreme Court and gay marriage becomes fine and they can put teeth in it so now they can go after churches, like the president’s lawyer says, 50% of our churches will fall away!”

How long will it take for Christians to abandon their places of worship?

“Within five years,” Beck predicted, claiming that “the stigma of going to church will be too much” for some Christians, who do not want to risk their jobs, livelihoods and reputations. “They’ll say, ‘I can’t do that, I’ll lose my job, people are picketing my house, I just can’t do that,” Beck said.

http://www.queerty.com/church-attendance-will-plummet-50-percent-if-gay-marriage-is-legalized-glenn-beck-predicts-20150504

May 4, 2015

Ian Reisner Calls Gay People “Cheap” And “Entitled” While Trying To Defend His Dinner For Ted Cruz

"You know, it’s so ironic — I wanted to build kind of a community center in the gateway to Hell’s Kitchen, which in 2008–2009 was already a gay place and now it’s even gayer. Very close to Broadway. We decided there’d be so many different ways to give back to the community. We show gay artists there. For gay performers, we have let this cabaret club go on for three and a half years. And you don’t make money when you let drag queens in on Tuesday night and 30 people drink at $10 a drink and you have to pay five people to watch over the place. You don’t make money … My only point is, this has not been a profitable venture. Gays are cheap. They’re frugal; gays are frugal. Let me retract that … gays are entitled … Do you know how challenging it is to make a penny off a gay person? I’m gay, I don’t pay cover. I’m gay, where’s my comp drink? No, I’m being serious! The Out NYC has not shown a profit yet …”

— Ian Reisner attempting to explain to New York magazine why he and business (and former romantic) partner Mati Weiderpass recently hosted an event for antigay presidential candidate Ted Cruz, but perhaps managing to outrage the community even more, if that’s possible

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http://www.queerty.com/ian-reisner-calls-gay-people-cheap-and-entitled-while-trying-to-defend-his-dinner-for-ted-cruz-20150503?

May 4, 2015

Fox Issues Startling On-Air Retraction: 'Nobody Has Been Shot'

Source: TPM/Fox

Fox News host Shepard Smith issued a startling on-air retraction on Monday, saying the channel had "screwed up" when a reporter said an hour earlier that he'd witnessed a black man being shot while running from Baltimore police.

"What's happened is we screwed up what it sounds like," Smith said. "I can tell you one thing, Mike Tobin would never — I've been through this. Mike Tobin thought he saw somebody get shot. And there was a gun. And there was a patient on a stretcher. And there was a woman who said she saw the cops gun him down and there's gonna be violence and all the rest of that. And what we have is nothing."

"Nobody has been shot," Smith said. "No police officer pulled the trigger." Smith said the conditions were unusual and that the news crew had made an "honest" mistake.

The retraction came after Baltimore police flatly denied that a shooting had even taken place.

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Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/fox-baltimore-on-air-retraction

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Fox News Reporter Says He Saw Black Man Shot While Running From Police

Fox News correspondent Mike Tobin said that he and his news crew witnessed what he described as a "young, black male" being shot by a police officer in Baltimore while running away on Monday afternoon.

Tobin described seeing the man run "right in front of us" and that he never saw the man turn. "I was getting ready to do a live shot for my shift ... I was sitting in the car, scribbling on my notes for the next live shot, and he ran right in front of us," Tobin said. "I never saw the individual turn and do anything I would consider an aggressive act, but we did see the officer draw his weapon and I counted one gunshot."

Tobin also mentioned he "clearly saw a revolver on the sidewalk" after the shooting.

The man, who Tobin said "looked to be in bad shape," was taken to the hospital by paramedics.

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