August 29, 2014

Don't mess with nuclear Russia, Putin says

Source: Reuters

LAKE SELIGER Russia (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Friday Russia's armed forces, backed by its nuclear arsenal, were ready to meet any aggression, declaring at a pro-Kremlin youth camp that foreign states should understand: "It's best not to mess with us."

Putin told the assembly, on the banks of a lake near Moscow, the Russian takeover of Crimea in March was essential to save a largely Russian-speaking population from Ukrainian government violence.

He said continued fighting in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists launched an uprising in April, was the result of a refusal by Kiev to negotiate.

Ukraine, and Western governments, accuse Russia of sending troops and armor to back the separatists in a conflict that has already killed over 2,000 people. Russia denies the charge.

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Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/putin-says-russia-ready-respond-aggression-123956691.html

August 29, 2014

Palestinian Leader: Hamas Needlessly Prolonged War

Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS

By MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH AND IAN DEITCH Published AUGUST 29, 2014, 3:19 PM EDT

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas blamed Hamas on Friday for needlessly extending fighting with Israel in the Gaza Strip, casting doubt on the future of the Palestinian unity government that the Islamic militant group backs.

The remarks by Abbas come a few days after Israel and Hamas militants reached a truce after 50 bitter days of fighting.

More than 2,100 Palestinians were killed, including hundreds of civilians. Seventy one people on the Israeli side, including six civilians were killed.

Several Egyptian mediated cease-fire attempts during the conflict failed. Hamas eventually accepted almost the same truce offered at the beginning.

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/palestinian-leader-mahmoud-abbas-hamas-needlessly-prolonged-war

August 29, 2014

Florida GOP's Quasi-Obamacare Alternative Has Signed Up 30 People

Source: TPM

By DYLAN SCOTT Published AUGUST 29, 2014, 3:30 PM EDT

This March, as an alternative of sorts to the Affordable Care Act, Florida's Republican-led government launched a health insurance website called Florida Health Choices. It had no relation to HealthCare.gov, the federal Obamacare website, and offered limited-benefit options that cover things like prescription drugs and dental or vision services.

But since the launch of the Republican alternative, Florida Health Choices has signed up 30 people, the Tampa Bay Times reported Friday. By comparison, 984,000 Floridians enrolled in private coverage under Obamacare and 764,000 low-income residents were unable to obtain any kind of coverage through the federal law because the GOP- controlled state legislature refused to expand Medicaid.

As the Associated Press reported at the time of the website's launch, it was hoped that those stuck in that Medicaid expansion gap would use Florida Health Choices. The concept actually dates back to 2008, the brainchild of then-Florida House speaker Marco Rubio, now U.S. senator. Rubio had secured $1.8 million in start-up funding at that time, according to Reuters, and the state legislature then authorized $900,000 last year to fully launch the website.

Florida Sen. Aaron Bean (R), who the Times reported was one of the website's major supporters, acknowledged that people had flocked to HealthCare.gov, which offered tax credits and full insurance plans, instead of the Republican alternative, which did not.

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Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/florida-health-choices-30-people

August 29, 2014

Officer Who Told Protestors 'I Will F*cking Kill You' Forced To Resign

Source: TPM


By AHIZA GARCIA Published AUGUST 29, 2014, 3:22 PM EDT

Ray Albers, the police lieutenant who told protestors in Ferguson, Mo. to "go fuck" themselves, resigned from the St. Ann, Mo. police department on Thursday, after he was presented with the option of being fired or resigning, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The incident that spurred the evaluation of the lieutenant's behavior was caught on camera and showed Albers aiming his rifle at protestors before saying: "I will fucking kill you." In response, protestors asked for his name whereupon he continued his incendiary barrage of comments, saying: "Go fuck yourself."

After the incident, the ACLU campaigned to get Albers removed from active duty, a request that was discussed and agreed upon during a meeting this week of the city's board of police commissioners, the newspaper reported.

Police Chief Aaron Jiminez told the Post-Dispatch that he wasn't "condoning his behavior whatsoever" but defended Albers' action of pointing his gun at protestors, saying it was "totally justifiable." According to Jiminez, water and urine were thrown at Albers and he reportedly saw one of the protestors carrying a gun.

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Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ferguson-michael-brown-police-resignation

August 29, 2014

Herman Cain Uncovers Obama's Secret Plot To Get Impeached

By BRENDAN JAMES Published AUGUST 29, 2014, 3:55 PM EDT

Herman Cain took the conservative rhetoric of "impeachment bait" to the next level on Thursday by theorizing that President Obama is actually trying to get impeached in order to "laugh at the Republicans."

"I believe that he'll do it, and here's why," Cain explained in a radio interview. "First, it's going to stimulate some lawsuits and he knows that it'll take time for those lawsuits to make their way through the court system."

"So they'll play upon the slowness of the justice system," he said. "The whole reason that he would do that is to try and get the Hispanic vote of November of this year."

"They are padding Democrat votes for this upcoming election," he added. The former presidential candidate and current radio host delivered the remarks in an interview with Trunews, which touts itself as "the only newscast reporting the countdown to the second coming of Jesus Christ."

Cain went on to claim that the Democrats would rather Obama be impeached than talk frankly about issues such as national security or the economy.

more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/herman-cain-obama-impeachment-plot

August 29, 2014

Judge Tosses Out McDaniel Challenge To Senate Runoff Results

Source: TPM

By DANIEL STRAUSS Published AUGUST 29, 2014, 3:21 PM EDT

Judge Hollis McGehee on Friday dismissed state Sen. Chris McDaniel's (R) lawsuit challenging the runoff results in the Mississippi Republican primary for U.S. Senate citing that McDaniel was too late to file his complaint.

It's the latest speed bump for McDaniel since the June 24 runoff, which Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) won.

McDaniel's team, in response, argued that no such deadline existed in state law and that the decision the Cochran lawyers had been citing was for old elections. The law that included that deadline, McDaniel's lawyers argued, had been updated.

McDaniel can still appeal the lawsuit to the state Supreme Court. If the Mississippi Supreme Court disagrees with McGehee's Friday ruling then the case will go to trial. In the immediate response to McGehee's decision, McDaniel reportedly wanted time to decide whether he would appeal McGehee's ruling.

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/judge-hollis-mcgehee-ruling-motion-to-dismiss-thad-cochran-chris-mcdaniel

August 29, 2014

Ferguson isn’t about black rage against cops. It’s white rage against progress.

By Carol Anderson August 29 at 2:47 PM

Carol Anderson is an associate professor of African American studies and history at Emory University and a public voices fellow with the Op-Ed Project. She is the author of “Bourgeois Radicals: The NAACP and the Struggle for Colonial Liberation, 1941-1960.”

When we look back on what happened in Ferguson, Mo., during the summer of 2014, it will be easy to think of it as yet one more episode of black rage ignited by yet another police killing of an unarmed African American male. But that has it precisely backward. What we’ve actually seen is the latest outbreak of white rage. Sure, it is cloaked in the niceties of law and order, but it is rage nonetheless.

Protests and looting naturally capture attention. But the real rage smolders in meetings where officials redraw precincts to dilute African American voting strength or seek to slash the government payrolls that have long served as sources of black employment. It goes virtually unnoticed, however, because white rage doesn’t have to take to the streets and face rubber bullets to be heard. Instead, white rage carries an aura of respectability and has access to the courts, police, legislatures and governors, who cast its efforts as noble, though they are actually driven by the most ignoble motivations.

White rage recurs in American history. It exploded after the Civil War, erupted again to undermine the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision and took on its latest incarnation with Barack Obama’s ascent to the White House. For every action of African American advancement, there’s a reaction, a backlash.

The North’s victory in the Civil War did not bring peace. Instead, emancipation brought white resentment that the good ol’ days of black subjugation were over. Legislatures throughout the South scrambled to reinscribe white supremacy and restore the aura of legitimacy that the anti-slavery campaign had tarnished. Lawmakers in several states created the Black Codes, which effectively criminalized blackness, sanctioned forced labor and undermined every tenet of democracy. Even the federal authorities’ promise of 40 acres — land seized from traitors who had tried to destroy the United States of America — crumbled like dust.

more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ferguson-wasnt-black-rage-against-copsit-was-white-rage-against-progress/2014/08/29/3055e3f4-2d75-11e4-bb9b-997ae96fad33_story.html?

August 29, 2014

Cruz Builds Out Team for 2016

Source: Political Wire


Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) "is expanding his political operation, a move sure to stoke speculation that the Texas Republican plans to run for president in 2016," the Washington Examiner reports.

"In recent weeks, the Cruz team signed contracts with three Republican consultants with national experience and ties to some of the early presidential primary states."

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Read more: http://politicalwire.com/archives/2014/08/29/cruz_builds_out_team_for_2016.html

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August 29, 2014

Baker Catches Coakley in New Poll (Mass)

Baker Catches Coakley in New Poll

A new Boston Globe poll in Massachusetts finds Charlie Baker (R) has edged ahead of Martha Coakley (D) in the race for governor, 38% to 37%.

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http://politicalwire.com/archives/2014/08/29/baker_catches_coakley_in_new_poll.html

Martha Coakley is running but, she doesn't have the endorsement of the Dem Party. Steve Grossman, current State Treasurer and former head of the DNC does have the endorsement

August 29, 2014

Pat Robertson: Possibly Gay Teenager Will Be Straight If He Has A Man In His Life

SUBMITTED BY Brian Tashman on Tuesday, 8/26/2014 11:20 am

On today’s edition of the “700 Club,” a viewer told Robertson that her 13-year-old step-son, who “lives with his mother most of the time,” has “crushes on boys” and wanted the televangelist’s help.

Repeating the myth that homosexuality is the result of a lack of parental bonding, Robertson said “his attraction is now toward other men because he’s raised by a woman.”

“I would get him male companions, I’d get him some man to help him, some mentor, someone who cares about young men,” Robertson advised. “He is being raised by a single woman and that is skewing his orientation.”



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http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/pat-robertson-possibly-gay-teenager-will-be-straight-if-he-has-man-his-life#sthash.KUDT4e0T.dpuf