May 6, 2015

Reid’s Power Play Rankles Republicans

“Senate Republicans emerged from their weekly luncheon Tuesday with a clear directive from party leaders: Don’t let Harry Reid get away with acting like he’s still majority leader,” Politico reports.

“They reacted with frustration and amusement to the Nevada Democrat’s latest gambit to block bipartisan trade legislation that he and much of his caucus oppose unless Republicans first address his demands. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell implored his caucus to band together against Reid, sources inside the room said.”

Wonk Wire: Is Congress really that divided?

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http://p.feedblitz.com/r3.asp?l=104890841&f=17571&u=37190363&c=4941567

May 6, 2015

Netanyahu struggles to form Israeli coalition before midnight deadline

Source: The Guardian

Prime minister seeks backing of far-right Jewish Home party after Avigdor Lieberman’s shock resignation plunges coalition talks into crisis

Binyamin Netanyahu is still struggling to put together a new rightwing coalition government in Israel before a looming deadline at midnight on Wednesday.

Although the prime minister is expected to scrape together a coalition by the thinnest of margins – with the key support of the far-right Jewish Home party led by Naftali Bennett – it appears it will be at the head of an unstable and vulnerable government. Failure to meet the deadline would mean that the Israeli president, Reuven Rivlin, would be required to ask another Israeli MP to try to form a government.

The coalition talks were plunged into crisis on Monday by the surprise announcement by the foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, that he intended to resign and lead his party into opposition, unhappy with the shape of the emerging government. The announcement – made at a highly publicised press conference – has left Netanyahu, who won the largest number of seats in March’s elections, scrambling to seal a deal in the hours remaining.

Before Lieberman bailed out, Netanyahu had hoped to forge a rightwing religious lineup with a majority of 67 of parliament’s 120 seats. Although he has signed coalition agreements with two ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties and the centre-right Kulanu, led by Likud defector Moshe Kahlon, Netanyahu still needs to bring on board the Jewish Home party. Bennett is reportedly demanding a higher political price for signing up following Lieberman’s departure.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/06/binyamin-netanyahu-israeli-coalition-avigdor-lieberman-defects
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May 6, 2015

De Blasio to Unveil a ‘Contract with America’

Source: Political Wire/Politico/Rolling Stone



New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), “using his muscular perch to try to nudge the national Democratic Party to the left, next week will unveil a 13-point progressive agenda that he hopes will be the left’s answer to the ‘Contract with America,’ which helped propel Newt Gingrich and the Republican Revolution of 1994,” Politico reports.

Rolling Stone: “Bill de Blasio is trying to remake America’s biggest city — and he doesn’t plan to stop there.”

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Read more: http://p.feedblitz.com/r3.asp?l=104890840&f=17571&u=37190363&c=4941567

May 6, 2015

Bibi Gets the Shiv - By Josh Marshall

I wanted to update you on a weird turn of events in the Israeli election over the last couple days. Now you're probably saying, what Israeli election? That happened going on two months ago. Well, pretty much ... but not quite. The voting and distribution of Knesset seats is always followed by the 'winner' - usually the leader of the largest party - forming a coalition with smaller parties. That process has now been going on for almost six weeks, with Netanyahu taking his time, playing parties off each other, making his future coalition members sweat and trying to build a coalition with as much freedom and flexibility for himself as he can manage. The entire time it's seemed virtually certain that he would assemble a government with a 67 seat majority (out of 120) made up of rightist parties, religious parties and one center-left party, Kulanu. That was until Monday when Avigdor Lieberman, head of the now greatly diminished Yisrael Beiteinu party said F'it - and more specifically F'you to Netanyahu - and took his party's six seats into opposition.

From all the reports I have seen, no one seems to believe Lieberman is bluffing. There's intense bad blood between the two men, which seems to have been aggravated over recent weeks. And there's a decent argument that Lieberman's and his party's chances of revival are better served outside the government than in it. Regardless, it seems clear Lieberman is out. And that means that the maximum size of a Netanyahu government is now the same as the minimum number of seats he needs to form a majority, 61 seats.

He has zero margin for error.

Netanyahu has already used up the month he has to form a government and the statutory extension he can get from the President. The deadline for the extension is tomorrow night. If he can't seal a deal by then, President Rivlin has to give someone else a chance to form a government.

Now, I would not bet any money on Netanyahu's managing to throw away his incredibly hard fought election victory. But the options he's left with are not good ones. The most immediate of these is that he now has 53 seats taken care of and he needs Naftali Bennett's 8 seats to get to 61. That means Bennett - who has a similarly strained or acrimonious relationship with Netanyahu - holds Netanyahu's fate almost totally in his hands and can demand almost anything of him. The main demands seem to be the foreign ministry and/or the Justice ministry. But both of those are tough asks because Bennett's party is radioactive to the international community on his total rejection of a two state solution and dismal stance on civil rights and minority rights. You may say, who cares? What do they care? Well, Netanyahu cares a lot because as we've discussed in the past, his angle has always been to form governments which are a) substantially right wing b) give him personally a maximally free hand and c) have some figleaf of moderation to placate the US and Europe.

-snip-

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/bibi-gets-the-shiv

May 6, 2015

Lindsey Graham’s unfortunate beef with the word ‘the’

By Steve Benen

Do you ever see a news headline and find yourself saying, out loud, “Uh oh”? This is not an uncommon occurrence at my desk, and just such an occasion happened this afternoon.

The Haaretz headline read, “Senator Lindsey Graham: Everything that starts with ‘Al’ in the Mideast is bad news.” Like I said, uh oh.
“Everything that starts with ‘Al’ in the Middle East is bad news,” said U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina at an AIPAC dinner in Boston on Monday. “Al-Qaida, Al-Nusra, Al-Qaida in the Arab Peninsula,” said the senator, who may be running for president. (…)

The problem – linguistically – with Graham’s comment is that “Al” is the definite article in Arabic (i.e. equivalent to English’s “the”), and usually appears before most Arabic proper nouns, especially place and personal names.
Lindsey Graham is not without his folksy charms, and on Capitol Hill, the South Carolina Republican has developed a well-deserved reputation for being good humored.

But I’m going to hope that this is one joke Graham wishes he could take back.

Matt Yglesias noted the obvious problem of criticizing the frequent appearance of “al” in Arab countries, since even translating the words “United States of America” needs an “al” – al-Wilayat al-Muttaḥidah al-Amrikiyah – as does the word “algebra.” From Matt’s piece:
It’s at least possible that Graham is so ignorant of foreign countries that he doesn’t know this about Arabic – although given his keen interest in foreign policy, and Middle East policy in particular, that’s a bit damning. Alternatively, he maybe just wants to clarify that he thinks anything and everything coming from the Arab world is bad news.
It’s not the first time Graham’s attempts at humor have gotten into him trouble. Two months ago, the senator took a cheap shot at House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) – he later apologized – and last month, the Republican lawmaker raised the prospect of creating an “all-Jewish cabinet” if elected in light of his financial supporters.

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http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/lindsey-grahams-unfortunate-beef-the-word-the?cid=sm_fb_maddow

May 6, 2015

Poll: Christie No Longer New Jersey Republicans' 2016 Favorite

Source: TPM

New Jersey Republicans no longer think Gov. Chris Christie (R) would be the best presidential candidate in 2016, according to a Monmouth University poll released on Wednesday.

According to the poll, 44 percent of Republicans in the state said Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) would make a better president, while just 30 percent said Christie would make a better president. And 54 percent of New Jersey Republicans think Christie cares more about his political future than his job as governor.

Christie's approval rating has dropped in recent weeks. According to a Quinnipiac poll released in April, 56 percent of voters disapproved of the job he was doing. According to Quinnipiac, it was the "lowest approval rating ever and the lowest approval rating for any governor this year in the nine states surveyed by Quinnipiac University."

Christie's low poll numbers come as he may have to testify in the corruption case against his former staffer, Bridget Kelly, in the BridgeGate scandal.

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Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/polltracker/christie-2016-new-jersey-republicans

May 6, 2015

Pam Geller lashes out at critics: You’re saying the ‘pretty girl caused her own rape’

Mayor Douglas Athas of Garland, Texas said this week that anti-Muslim crusader Pam Geller and her group put the lives of law enforcement and citizens in danger by bringing a “draw Muhammad” cartoon contest to their city.

In an interview this week, Athas told BBC News that he did not know why Geller chose Garland for the event that inspired two Muslim men to open fire with assault-style rifles before being killed by police.

“Of course we’d been happy if they’d stayed in New York and had their activity there,” Athas said. “But they chose to come here. From all the reports I’ve gotten from our officers that were on the scene, most of the people there were not from Garland. They were not even from Texas.”

According to Geller, the mayor’s assessment of her event was akin to blaming a rape victim.

“How ridiculous,” she opined to the BBC. “I mean, that’s like saying the pretty girl was responsible for her own rape. The mayor is going after the defenders of free speech, and clearly giving a free pass to the savages who came with guns to kill innocent people because of a cartoon.”

more
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/pam-geller-lashes-out-at-critics-youre-saying-the-pretty-girl-caused-her-own-rape/

May 6, 2015

Judge orders competency hearing for Ohio woman who accused employer of rape

An Ohio woman was ordered to undergo a competency hearing after she accused her employer of rape.

Dani Brewer had been working as a branch manager in a new office for about a month when she said her employer – a family friend – sexually assaulted her in October, reported WXIX-TV.

She reported the attack late last year, but the case has not yet gone to trial.

Brewer said a judge ordered a hearing this week to determine whether she was competent – which both she and her attorneys believe is unfair. “It’s really ridiculous that it’s being required of me,” Brewer said. “It’s insulting, it’s invasive, it’s upsetting, and I feel like I’m on trial.”

The Justice League of Ohio, a victims advocacy legal group, is baffled by the judge’s order.

more
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/judge-orders-competency-hearing-for-ohio-woman-who-accused-employer-of-rape/

May 6, 2015

A president for the tinfoil hat crowd: Huckabee has his finger on America’s (electromagnetic) pulse

A president for the tinfoil hat crowd: Mike Huckabee has his finger on America’s (electromagnetic) pulse

Would-be president Mike Huckabee is very concerned about a science-fiction attack on the United States

SIMON MALOY

Mike Huckabee kicked off his 2016 presidential campaign yesterday in quintessentially Huckabee-ish fashion. His speech from Hope, Arkansas, was by turns folksy, preacher-like, populist and combative. Huckabee had some pointy words for the other politicians in and around the 2016 race, but there was one line from the foreign policy portion of his speech that caught my attention. “We face not only the threats from terrorism but also the threat of new kinds of dangers,” Huckabee said, “from a cyberwar that could shut down major financial markets, to threats from an electromagnetic pulse from an exploded device that could fry the entire electrical grid and take this country back to the Stone Age in a matter of minutes.”

Oh dear. Here we go with the electromagnetic pulses again. The “exploded device” Huckabee mentioned is a nuclear weapon that some nefarious actor – Iran, North Korea, al-Qaida, ISIS, [insert other international villain] – has managed to detonate in the atmosphere high above the United States. The nuclear blast sends gamma rays flying in all directions, which produce high-energy electrons, which create an electromagnetic pulse that will damage electronic systems. According to the Federation of American Scientists, to create an EMP that would affect the entire country, the malefactor in question would have to detonate a “large device” some 400-500 kilometers over Wichita – roughly the altitude at which the International Space Station orbits earth.

This isn’t what you’d call a “likely” event, but it’s nonetheless on Huckabee’s mind. He’s actually been on the EMP fearmongering beat for a long time. A few years ago he gave a speech to EMPACT – the country’s leading EMP preparedness nonprofit – in which he invoked the Holocaust to warn that measures must be taken now to prevent an EMP-related tragedy. Since he’s running for president and using that platform to bring up EMPs, let’s dive into the weird world of conservative electromagnetic pulse mania.

more
http://www.salon.com/2015/05/06/a_president_for_the_tinfoil_hat_crowd_mike_huckabee_has_his_finger_on_the_electromagnetic_pulse/

May 6, 2015

Mike Huckabee is an evil genius: How the GOP candidate perfected the art of right-wing resentment

Huckabee threw his hate into the 2016 yesterday. Here's a look at what makes him so scarily effective

HEATHER DIGBY PARTON

Yesterday, Mike Huckabee, the guitar-playing, Nugent-loving, ex-Governor preacher from Arkansas, announced that he is running for president. This was not unexpected, but it’s always a treat to hear him give a full-blown speech. He’s very talented, after all, at doing what he does best — stoking resentment among the white working class and lifting up the spirits of social conservatives. Often they are the same people. And they are all Mike Huckabee’s people.

In his speech yesterday, Huckabee hit all the right notes to get crowd excited. He pledged to repeal Obamacare and promised instead to adopt what he called a “curative approach,” which means he thinks we should concentrate on curing diseases rather than treating them. It’s an unusual policy, to say the least, but considering who he is and his background as a fundamentalist preacher it’s always possible that he thinks this can be accomplished through faith healing. So there’s that.

On the other hand, he heartily defended Social Security, a very wise move that you would think all the Republican candidates would adopt, considering the average age of their base voter. He also, however, defended Medicare against the encroachment of the evil Obamacare, following a successful GOP strategy since 2010: convincing the elderly that the federal government wants to put them all on the proverbial ice floe in order to give their hard earned health care to people who don’t deserve it.

Huckabee also took a very hard line on national security, characterizing Islamic militants in serpentine terms:

When I hear our current president say he wants Christians to get off their high horse so we can make nice with radical jihadists, I wonder if he could watch a Western from the 50s and be able to figure out who they good guys and the bad guys really are. As president, I promise you that we will no longer try to merely contain jihadism, we will conquer it! We will deal with jihadis just as we would deal with deadly snakes.

more
http://www.salon.com/2015/05/06/mike_huckabee_is_an_evil_genius_how_the_gop_candidate_perfected_the_art_of_right_wing_resentment/