Democrats Short Circuit Bogus GOP Scandal By Demanding State Dept. Release Clinton Emails

House Democrats who sit on the Benghazi Select Committee has taken the air out of the Republican attempt to turn Benghazi into something by demanding that the State Department make public all Clinton emails related to Benghazi.

In a brief two-paragraph letter to Sec. of State John Kerry, all five Democrats on the Benghazi committee wrote, “Since the Department has already produced approximately 850 pages of these documents to the Select Committee on Benghazi, we request that the Department begin its review for public release with this subset of 850 pages of Benghazi-related documents in order to make them available to the public first without waiting for the full review of all 55,000 pages of documents.”

Democrats are calling the Republican bluff on the Clinton emails. If the Republicans think that there is anything in the 850 pages of emails related to Benghazi, why won’t they release them? If Republicans had any evidence of wrongdoing by former Sec. Clinton, they would have made the information public. Since they won’t release the emails, it is a safe bet that the Republicans have nothing.

By tying the emails to Benghazi, House Republicans are looking for a way to take a scandal that no one cares about outside of Republicans and the chattering Beltway media and inject it into the mainstream. Republicans know that people don’t care about emails, so they are trying to invent a Benghazi “smoking gun.”

The Democrats on the Benghazi Select Committee aren’t going to play along with this ruse. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), who is the ranking member of the Select Committee, spent years calling out Darrell Issa’s endless stream of lies and mythmaking during his time as the ranking member on the House Oversight committee. Cummings and his fellow Democratic members are stopping the Republicans dead in their tracks.

Democrats are putting the brakes on the Republican attempt to link the Clinton emails to Benghazi. It is put up or shut up time for Republicans. Since they don’t have any evidence to back up their claims, the Clinton emails are looking like another empty path down the Benghazi conspiracy road.

Republican Judge Deploys Extraordinary New Method Of Politicizing The Federal Judiciary

by Ian Millhiser 

A federal judge opposed to President Obama’s immigration policy tossed a new roadblock in front of that policy on Monday evening, in an order that may be designed to prevent a higher court from staying his decision.
When Republican state officials opposed to the immigration policy learned that George W. Bush-appointed Judge Andrew Hanen would hear their lawsuit challenging much of that policy, it was obvious that they had hit the jackpot. Hanen has a history of handing down opinions calling for harsher treatment of immigrants in cases that have only a tangential relationship to the views Hanen expresses in those opinions. In one case, he called the federal government’s decision to permit an undocumented mother to be reunited with her child without facing criminal charges a “dangerous course of action.”
So when Hanen ordered President Obama’s recently announced immigration policies halted, policies that include the Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) program and that could enable nearly 5 million undocumented immigrants to temporarily live openly in the United States for a period of time, that decision was not a surprise.
Hanen did not stay his February 16 decision halting the new immigration policies, which was handed down just over a day before immigrants were supposed to begin registering to benefits from one of these policies (a stay would put a hold on his decision and allow these policies to take effect). As a result, a single judge in Texas who holds no elected office and who few Americans have ever heard of effectively prevented the United States of America from implementing a policy impacting millions of people. When the Justice Department requested a stay from Hanen, Hanen gave the plaintiffs seven days to respond to that request. On Monday evening, he handed down yet another order delaying resolution of that stay request — declaring that he would “not rule on any other pending motions” until he conducts a hearing on a different motion filed by the state officials. That hearing won’t take place until March 19.
Stay requests are subject to a multi-factor test, but the primary inquiry when a party requests a stay is whether that party has demonstrated a “substantial case on the merits.” The remaining factors overlap considerably with matters Hanen already considered in deciding to halt DAPA in the first place. For this reason, Hanen’s request for additional briefing and a considerable amount of time to consider the Justice Department’s motion for a stay is an odd request, as he is already familiar with the issues presented in the case and has, indeed, already decided several questions that are relevant to the issue of whether his original order should be stayed.
There is, however, a practical reason why a judge like Hanen, who appears to feel very strongly about thwarting President Obama in this particular case, would want to delay his resolution of the government’s stay request for as long as possible: Hanen may be able to prevent a higher court from ruling on the Justice Department’s stay request if he simply sits on that request and refuses to decide it.
Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 8(a)(1) provides that “[a] party must ordinarily move first in the district court” for “a stay of the judgment or order of a district court pending appeal.” Thus, under normal circumstances, the Justice Department may not seek a stay of Hanen’s order from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and, if necessary, the Supreme Court, until after they first ask Hanen to stay his own order. Moreover, in a normal case, when DOJ does request a stay from an appellate court, they must first show that the trial judge denied that request.
Rule 8 does account for certain unusual circumstances where an appeals court may bypass a trial judge and stay that judge’s order before the judge weighs in on the stay request — Hanen can be bypassed if “moving first in the district court would be impracticable” or if DOJ can show that Hanen “failed to afford the relief requested.” But motions asking an appeals court to bypass a trial judge are extraordinary motions. We searched the legal database Lexis and were only able to find one Fifth Circuit opinion where the court permitted such a bypass.
Nevertheless, given Hanen’s indication that he will delay resolution of the Justice Department’s stay request indefinitely, it is likely that DOJ will file a stay request in the Fifth Circuit soon — where they could argue that Hanen’s repeated decisions to delay resolution of their stay request amounts to a failure to “afford the relief requested.”
When DOJ does seek relief in the Fifth Circuit, they may want to consider making another, even more unusual request. Federal law provides that “[a]ny justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned,” and federal appeals courts have, on very rare occasions, relied on this provision to remove judges from cases where their actions create an “appearance of partiality.”
Smart attorneys are reluctant to file a motion asking an appeals court to remove the trial judge from their case, as such motions typically are not granted and they anger the judge. In this case, however, Hanen has already displayed such disdain for the Obama administration’s policies that DOJ may have nothing to lose if they ask for him to be removed.

Same Old Shit

Obama Is 50% White, 46.75% Arabic, And 6.26% Black, Says 100.01% Idiotic RNC Member

Another insight from the “not racist” party.
Read more 

Iran’s Foreign Minister Schools GOP Traitors on Constitution and International Law

Many Americans are rightly incensed at the revelation that 47 Republican Senators signed on to an open letter to hardliners in Iran warning them that according to their pledge of loyalty to a foreigner leading the nation of Israel, they will make sure that America does not abide by its international agreements. Although there is no doubt the Republicans’ goal is sabotaging American efforts for a peaceful resolution with Iran over its alleged nuclear ambitions, it is somewhat surprising so many Americans were stunned at the news. After all, the only reason corrupt John Boehner brought Benjamin Netanyahu to America was to lobby the full Congress to pass a piece of neo-con  war power legislation to sabotage the United Nation’s (P5+1) attempt to avoid another American Middle East war Netanyahu is desperate to start.

The reason Boehner appeared to violate the Logan Act was not necessarily for communicating with a foreigner, but because he summoned the foreigner to help the GOP “influence the measures or conduct of a foreign government (Iran), and defeat the measures of the United States.”

Having failed in the first Netanyahu ploy, Senate Republicans displayed their fealty to the Israeli foreigner by warning Iran that despite the Constitution or international law, Republicans and Netanyahu set America’s Middle East policy; not the leader of the Executive branch President Obama. It is something that astonished Iran’s Foreign Minister Zarif who took time out of his busy schedule to inform “the letter’s authors” that they are as ignorant of their own Constitution as their stupid Confederate base of supporters.

Zarif said, “in our view, this letter has no legal value and is mostly a propaganda ploy.  It is very interesting that while negotiations are still in progress and while no agreement has been reached, some political pressure groups are so afraid even of the prospect of an agreement that they resort to unconventional methods, unprecedented in diplomatic history.  This indicates that like Netanyahu, who considers peace an existential threat, some are opposed to any agreement, regardless of its content.” Republican and Netanyahu war mongering is certainly not a secret, but it is a very prescient statement coming from so-called “warmongering” Iranians.

Last week, two Republican traitors, war mongers Lindsey Graham and Tom Cotton, pledged to “derail Iran negotiations,” and the treasonous 47’s letter was an attempt to fulfill that promise. Graham told an audience at the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) that besides killing the Iranian negotiations, he will defund the United Nations because the P5+1 (permanent members of U.N. Security Council plus Germany) are the principles negotiating with Iran. It is not, as the GOP traitors’ letter asserted, a negotiation between Barack Obama (America) and the Ayatollah Khomeini (Iran).

In fact, that GOP assertion puzzled the Iranian Foreign Minister and incited him to school the traitors. First Zarif said he was astonished that “some members of US Congress find it appropriate to write to leaders of another country against their own President and administration” at all, but particularly over a multi-national negotiation effort. So he took the GOP traitors back to eighth grade history class. An Iranian had to point out that “from reading the open letter, it seems that the authors not only do not understand international law, but are not fully cognizant of the nuances of their own Constitution when it comes to presidential powers in the conduct of foreign policy.” Republicans have not been fully cognizant of any presidential powers since January 2009 because Barack Obama is not white; a fact likely not lost on the savvy Iranian.

Zarif added that “I should bring one important point to the attention of the authors and that is, the world is not the United States, and the conduct of inter-state relations is governed by international law; not US domestic law. The authors may not fully understand that in international law, governments represent the entirety of their respective states, are responsible for the conduct of foreign affairs, are required to fulfill the obligations they undertake with other states, and may not invoke their internal law as justification for failure to perform their international obligations.”

The Iranian Foreign Minister also reminded the GOP traitors that regardless their allegiance to foreigner Netanyahu, a “change of administration does not in any way relieve the next administration from international obligations undertaken by its predecessor in a possible agreement about Iran’s peaceful nuclear program. I wish to enlighten the authors that if the next administration revokes any agreement with ‘the stroke of a pen,’ as they boast, it will have simply committed a blatant violation of international law.” However, in the same manner that Republicans violated the Logan Act, they have blatantly violated international laws forbidding discrimination, inhumane treatment of American citizens, and torture; it is something the United Nations should be very cognizant of in monitoring America to ensure it honors any Security Council agreement with Iran.

As the Iranian had to remind  the 47 traitors, “the current negotiation with P5+1 [Britain, China, France, Germany Russia and the United States] will result in a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. It is not a bilateral agreement between Iran and the US, but one concluded with five other countries including all permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, and endorsed by a Security Council resolution.” It is also not a treaty regardless what the traitors contend. That moronic idea was proposed by John McCain to give Republicans in the Senate power to scuttle any proposed deal; all to expedite and ensure Netanyahu’s plan for an American-Iranian war stayed on schedule. As an aside, Netanyahu has already pledged to bomb Iran in protest if the P5+1 and Iran negotiations are successful and reach a peaceful agreement.

The Iranian may know the Constitution and international law better than the treasonous 47, but it seems he does not understand that in America, Republicans are not bound to any law; domestic or international. Still, he hoped to “enrich the knowledge of the authors to recognize that according to international law, Congress may not ‘modify the terms of the agreement at any time’ as they claim, and if Congress adopts any measure to impede its implementation, it will have committed a material breach of US obligations.” Since January 2009, Republicans have done nothing but breach their obligations as legislators and have no desire to adhere to any American obligation implemented under an African American President.

The Iranian Foreign Minister stated “the Islamic Republic of Iran has entered these negotiations in good faith and with the political will to reach an agreement, and it is imperative for our counterparts to prove similar good faith and political will in order to make an agreement possible.” Mr. Zarif can rest assured that America, as part of the so-called P5+1, will act in good faith regardless the gang of 47 Republicans effort to sabotage their own government. What remains to be seen, is if their government will take any punitive action against them for aligning with a foreign enemy (Netanyahu) to derail a U.N. Security Council agreement to maintain peace with Iran. With Netanyahu now a powerful member of America’s government, it is highly doubtful there will be any negative consequences for yet another blatant act of Republicans conspiring with a foreigner to sabotage America.

Time to Question the GOP’s Patriotism

VIDEO: Time to Question the GOP’s Patriotism

Forty-seven Republican senators sent an “open letter” to Iran Monday to tell the Islamic Republic any deal it makes with President Obama may not be permanent. … 

Republicans Are Worried That Treasonous Tom Cotton’s Iran Letter Is Backfiring

Republicans are starting to realize that trying to sabotage the President Of The United States might not have been such a good idea. Republicans are openly worrying that Tom Cotton’s letter to Iran may end up backfiring by uniting Democrats around their president.

Politico reported:

Not every Senate Republican signed on to Tom Cotton’s extraordinary letter to Iran’s leaders, and several of those who didn’t are fuming about the freshman senator’s Monday-morning foray into nuclear diplomacy.

….

With Republicans needing significant Democratic support to achieve their goal of derailing the talks — or at least altering the emerging deal — some senators said Cotton’s effort could backfire by injecting excessive partisanship into the debate over how best to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran.

What Cotton, and the Republicans who signed his letter really want is war with Iran. During his interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Cotton said, “I think we need to have a credible threat of military force on the table.” Republicans don’t want any agreement that could be viewed as a victory for diplomacy. Republican foreign policy is still straight out of the George W. Bush playbook of shoot first and figure the rest of it out later.

It is common sense that an attempt to sabotage the president would do the exact opposite of what the Republicans intended. Democrats are now free to make sure that Republicans don’t have the ability to override any presidential veto of bills related to a potential agreement with Iran.

Cotton’s letter has made Republican priorities clear. They hate this president more than they love their country.

Instead of killing a deal with Iran on their nuclear program, Cotton’s letter may have guaranteed that Democrats will support it.

GOP Senators Who Signed Treasonous Iran Letter Called “Traitors” By New York Daily News

On the cover of its Tuesday edition, the New York Daily News featured a picture of four Republican Senators with the caption “Traitors” in huge bold letters underneath in response to the letter 47 GOP Senators sent to Iran undermining President Obama’s negotiations with the country. The four Senators represented in the picture were Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR). Paul and Cruz are 2016 Presidential candidates while Cotton is the freshman Senator who came up with the bright idea to write a letter to Iranian leadership informing them that any agreement reached with Obama could easily be revoked by either another President or Congress.

Accompanying the Daily News’ provocative headline was a scathing editorial calling all 47 Republicans who signed the letter “un-patriotic” and an “embarrassment to our nation.” The paper’s editorial board stated that while they aren’t in total agreement with the White House regarding the potential nuclear pact with Iran, they condemn the Republican Senate’s betrayal of the Constitution.

They are an embarrassment to the Senate and to the nation.

How the executive and legislative branches come to terms in the event that Obama presents his version of a done deal to America will be of grave national and international concern. There will be no place for juvenilia, and there should not have been at this expectant juncture.

Rather than offer objections domestically in robust debate, as is their obligation, ringleader Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and his band trespassed on presidential turf by patronizing Iran’s leaders with the suggestion “that you may not fully understand our constitutional system.”

…

The plain intent was to sabotage Obama by pushing the Iranians into balking at a deal out of fear that a turn of the U.S. political wheel could doom the pact in the not-so-distant future.

Late Monday evening, Vice President Joe Biden released a blistering statement through the White House attacking the Republicans who took part in this treasonous stunt. He took special umbrage with Cotton for authoring the letter, pointing out that if this sabotages talks with Iran, then the very real possibility of war is on the horizon.

The author of this letter has been explicit that he is seeking to take any action that will end President Obama’s diplomatic negotiations with Iran. But to what end? If talks collapse because of Congressional intervention, the United States will be blamed, leaving us with the worst of all worlds. Iran’s nuclear program, currently frozen, would race forward again. We would lack the international unity necessary just to enforce existing sanctions, let alone put in place new ones. Without diplomacy or increased pressure, the need to resort to military force becomes much more likely—at a time when our forces are already engaged in the fight against ISIL.

The President has committed to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. He has made clear that no deal is preferable to a bad deal that fails to achieve this objective, and he has made clear that all options remain on the table. The current negotiations offer the best prospect in many years to address the serious threat posed by Iran’s nuclear ambitions. It would be a dangerous mistake to scuttle a peaceful resolution, especially while diplomacy is still underway.

Cotton appeared on Morning Joe Tuesday morning to address Biden’s statement and defend the letter he wrote to Iran. Of course, he personally attacked Biden, claiming he’s been wrong on “nearly every foreign policy and security decision in the last 40 years” and telling the Veep to “respect the dignity of the Senate” by telling POTUS to submit any deal with Iran to Congress for approval. Cotton also told the hosts that he would only agree to total nuclear disarmament of Iran — ummmm, they don’t have nuclear weapons yet — while stating Iran could not be negotiated with.

With those statements, Cotton was pressed by the panel that no diplomatic solutions or options would only leave military intervention. He finally copped to the fact that he would be completely fine with that, stating that Israel has done a good job with air strikes on facilities in Iran and America could join in with that.

To Joe Scarborough’s credit, he pointed out during Tuesday’s broadcast that if he were still in Congress, he would not have signed on to this letter. Regardless of your personal feeling about the President or the philosophical disagreements you may have over foreign policy or tactics, you do not undercut the nation’s leader in their dealings with other countries. That is way beyond the pale and potentially in violation of federal law. Many have already pointed out that the 47 GOP Senators may very well have violated the Logan Act with their actions.

While I am not positive that is the case, one thing I do know is they violated the trust of the American people. They decided it was more important for them to act like petulant children in an attempt to embarrass the President of the United States than to allow him to find peaceful solutions to real-world issues.

Crazy GOP “Reform” Forces EPA to Ignore Science

Crazy GOP “Reform” Forces EPA to Ignore Science

Can we all agree that the House Republicans have lost their ever-loving minds? How else can we explain their efforts to pass two anti-science bills (again) that will…

Michigan Republicans Re-Introduce Plan To Rig State’s Electoral Votes To Favor GOP

GOP lawmakers in the Michigan Legislature, have re-hatched a plan to divvy up the state's electoral votes to help the Republicans in 2016.…

Republicans in the Michigan State Legislature have re-hatched a plan to divvy up the state’s electoral votes to give an advantage to the Republican presidential candidate in 2016. Michigan House Bill 4310 would change the way the state assigns its 16 electoral votes. The proposal was introduced by Cindy Gamrat, Thomas Hooker, Gary Glenn, and Todd Courser. All four are Republican lawmakers.

The proposal, referred to the Committee on Elections, would award one electoral vote for each of the 14 congressional districts carried by a presidential candidate. The candidate who wins the state’s popular vote would receive the remaining two electoral votes.

Under the present system, all 16 electoral votes are awarded to the candidate who wins the state. Democrats have carried Michigan’s 16 electoral votes for six consecutive presidential elections. The last Republican to win Michigan was George H.W. Bush, back in 1988.

A similar bill to rig the state’s electoral votes to help Republicans was introduced in the previous legislative session, but it never came up for a vote. In 2011, Republicans in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Virginia all hatched schemes to rig the Electoral College for their advantage, but backed down because of fear of a public backlash. In 2008, California Republicans tried to put together a ballot initiative to divide up their state’s 55 electoral votes, but those plans proved unsuccessful.

While most electoral vote rigging plots have been launched by Republicans, Democrats’ hands aren’t completely clean either. In 2004, Democrats in Colorado tried to advance a ballot measure to split up Colorado’s electoral votes. That proposition was crushed by Colorado voters 65-35. Ironically, Colorado has gone blue in the last two presidential elections, so had Democrats been successful in their efforts, Republicans would have been the unintended beneficiaries.

The Michigan proposal is legal, as state’s are allowed to determine how to allocate their electoral votes. Two-low population states, Maine and Nebraska, already divide their electoral votes by congressional district. However, the winner of each of those states usually carries all of the congressional district’s within the state, and gerrymandering isn’t a significant factor, so it has been uncontroversial. Barack Obama did actually manage to eke out an improbable victory over John McCain in Nebraska’s, Omaha-based 2nd Congressional District in 2008, but in 2012, that district voted Republican with the rest of the state.

Although gaming the electoral votes in a state, to secure a partisan advantage, may be constitutionally legal, the Michigan plan is fundamentally undemocratic. In 2012, Democrat Barack Obama carried Michigan by a decisive 54.3-44.8 margin over Republican Mitt Romney. If the current Republican proposal had been in place in 2012, Romney would have earned 9 electoral votes to Barack Obama’s 7, in the state of Michigan, despite losing the state by over 400,000 votes. That is a fundamentally undemocratic way to allocate electoral votes in a democracy.

The Michigan plan would essentially multiply the effects of partisan gerrymandering. The way districts are drawn already creates skewed representation in Congress. There is no need to inject the same level of partisan rigging into presidential contests. Indeed, blatantly self-serving schemes like the Michigan proposal, will further undermine American faith in the democratic process by producing more undemocratic outcomes. Republicans don’t care however, because voter cynicism plays to their advantage anyway.

Ideally, the president should be chosen by popular vote. However, the electoral college, as it presently exists, has served the nation reasonably well. To alter the formula, so that state legislatures can thwart the will of the people, and game the system to the advantage of their party is unconscionable. The Michigan scheme, and any plan in another state that seeks to imitate it, should be killed by the legislature on arrival.

Wingnut Dreams

Florida’s Not The Only State Where Officials Censored The Term ‘Climate Change’

Censoring "climate change" is not unusual -- at least in states with governors who do not accept the scientific validity of human-caused climate change.

This Map Is Really Awful News For (Racist) White Christian Conservatives

Dear (racist) white Christian Conservatives….
Read more 

Secession Group Claims Texas Never Joined U.S., Mints Its Own Money And Claims To Be Diplomats

An extremist group from Texas whose members carry their own form of ID, mint their own currency, and threaten officials claim Texas has never been part of the Union – another Waco group?

Read more

Jon Stewart Holds Fox News Accountable for Faux Victimization

Isn’t it amazing how committed Fox News is to the myth of white victimization? Over the weekend, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery march for voting rights. In a stunning example of media bias, Fox, our #1 nation’s #1 news source, honed in on the “liberal bias” of the New York Times for cropping former president George W. Bush from a front page photo of Selma festivities.

Okay, let’s be real – if the New York Times is liberal with anything, it’s those online paywalls.

But more importantly, Fox has somehow turned a historical celebration of equal rights into yet another opportunity to bash the White House. Perhaps they should stop questioning President Obama’s love for America, and look in a freaking mirror instead.

Corporations Suddenly Don’t Have Religious Freedom if They Support Marriage Equality

Corporations apparently have religious freedom if they are against contraception, but they have no right to speak up about marriage equality…

Ever since the Supreme Court decided on January 16 to tackle the issue, everyone is waiting to see how the SCOTUS will rule in the matter of marriage equality. Hundreds of briefs have been filed.

Most surprising of all, last Thursday, 300 Republicans filed a brief asking the Supreme Court to recognize same-sex marriage.

Time magazine reveals a surprise or two among the signatories (view the full list here):

Among the signatories are 23 current and former Republicans members of the House of Representatives and Senate and seven current and former Governors. Sens. Susan Collins and Mark Kirk have signed onto the brief, as has Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman. Other notables include former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal and billionaire GOP mega-donor David Koch.

Breitbart has determined that this brief shows the “GOP elite” wants the Supreme Court to “impose gay marriage on America.” This, despite the fact that a January CNN/ORC International survey “showed that 57% of Americans think gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to get married.”

How conservatives love those “majority rules” situations except when they don’t work in their favor.

The court will hear oral arguments on April 28 and rule by June. Naturally, the Religious Right is beside itself with worry that other people they despise will suddenly have the same right they do.

Matt Staver of Liberty Counsel says if the Supreme Court rules in favor of marriage equality it will de-legitimize itself by somehow creating a “special right” for gays over and above the rights the rest of us have:

I’m warning them, and I think the rest of the country is willing to come together and warn them, that they need to come back in line with their constitutional duty, and that is to interpret the law, not create brand new law and be our social engineers.

The Catholic News Agency (CNA) – ironically, since the Catholic Church was all for making corporations people with religious rights – now talks about of “big business overreach” because, as Reuters reported last week,

[A]lmost 400 businesses had filed a “friend of the court” brief favoring a redefinition of marriage in a set of cases before the Court that will decide whether states, under the Fourteenth Amendment, must grant same-sex “marriage” licenses and recognize “gay marriages” conducted in other states.

The list of overreaching companies include Facebook and Twitter, as well as Thompson Reuters Corporation, Disney, Starbucks, PepsiCo, Coca Cola, Viacom, Inc., Bloomberg, Verizon, DirectTV, Google (for once, doing no evil), Comcast, CBS, and AT&T. Even the NFL’s Super Bowl winning New England Patriots signed the brief.

CNA quotes one “expert” as telling them, “There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that requires the states to redefine marriage, and big business should not lobby the Supreme Court to say otherwise.”

Oh dear. So corporations only have religious freedoms when their desires coincide with yours. It’s okay for corporations to oppose contraception but how dare they support marriage equality? How morally relative of you!

Rick Wiles, who has previously asserted that America is a godless, Pagan cesspool, and fantasized about being enslaved by sodomites, is taking it a step further. He is now urging his flock to emulate their feckless leader by fleeing these shores for safe havens abroad.

I am not sure who the bigger clown is. There are so many to choose from.

Wiles fled to Costa Rica three years ago because God told him to “flee from the daughter of Babylon and not stay and participant in her sins and not be around when the nation is destroyed.”

So much for a thirst for martyrdom! But you have to wonder, don’t you, why God told him to flee while he’s telling other Republicans to run for president? Just imagine how differently the Bible would read if God had ordered all the old prophets to flee Israel.

Mysterious are the ways of the Lord.

Wiles’ guest, John Price, whom Right Wing Watch describes as “a onetime failed Republican Senate candidate from Indiana and author of “The End of America,” said the upcoming Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality shows that America “truly is the daughter of Babylon.”

“For Christians, there’s a really major troublesome thing coming and it’s going to be set loose on the country sometime between now and the end of June,” and that, Price said, is that “same-sex marriage [will become] the law of the land.”

Wiles agreed:

I honestly believe this is going to be the ruling that America crosses the line. What would a human father do with a son or daughter that had been blessed, had been a fairly good child most of his or her life and then suddenly just goes off the rails and becomes evil, wicked, rebellious, defiant? What would that father do? He would strip away that child’s blessings, and that’s exactly what our heavenly father is going to do to the United States of America. We’re about to get an old-fashioned paddling that is going to be extremely painful for this nation.

So Wiles and Price say God is going to “paddle” America and that “people who don’t want to be paddled” should “flee” the country.
Good riddance. Take your friends in the KKK with you.

The Supreme Court ruling will obviously have a serious effect on the 2016 presidential race, as Republican candidates may be forced to decide between what SCOTUS says is the law of the land and what their bigoted constituents want.

It is one thing for Alabama to defy the federal government. Presidential elections are not parochial affairs decided by a small clique of racist crackers. As the last two elections have shown, the American people are far more open minded and socially liberal than the GOP chooses to believe.

So you can be like Price, who claims that, “He’s a loving God and he would allow persecution for a good purpose.” Or you can accept that gays and lesbians are just folks like us who want the same things we want, or at the very least bow to the inevitable, like those 300 Republicans, and even if only out of self-interest, do the right thing.

But if you want to flee America instead, feel free. You won’t be missed.

Teabaggers are Fascists

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Venezuela a threat to US national security

Obama declares Venezuela a threat to US national security

Iran Foreign Minister Gives GOP Senators A Dose Of Reality Medicine

by karoli

 

Whatever our response as a country is to Senate Republicans' shameless attempt to undermine the President's negotiations with Iran, I think we can all agree that foreign minister Javad Zarif's response is a terrific one.
Here it is, via Metaquest:

Asked about the open letter of 47 US Senators to Iranian leaders, the Iranian Foreign Minister, Dr. Javad Zarif, responded that "in our view, this letter has no legal value and is mostly a propaganda ploy. It is very interesting that while negotiations are still in progress and while no agreement has been reached, some political pressure groups are so afraid even of the prospect of an agreement that they resort to unconventional methods, unprecedented in diplomatic history. This indicates that like Netanyahu, who considers peace as an existential threat, some are opposed to any agreement, regardless of its content.
Zarif expressed astonishment that some members of US Congress find it appropriate to write to leaders of another country against their own President and administration. He pointed out that from reading the open letter, it seems that the authors not only do not understand international law, but are not fully cognizant of the nuances of their own Constitution when it comes to presidential powers in the conduct of foreign policy.
Foreign Minister Zarif added that "I should bring one important point to the attention of the authors and that is, the world is not the United States, and the conduct of inter-state relations is governed by international law, and not by US domestic law. The authors may not fully understand that in international law, governments represent the entirety of their respective states, are responsible for the conduct of foreign affairs, are required to fulfil the obligations they undertake with other states and may not invoke their internal law as justification for failure to perform their international obligations.
The Iranian Foreign Minister added that "change of administration does not in any way relieve the next administration from international obligations undertaken by its predecessor in a possible agreement about Irans peaceful nuclear program." He continued "I wish to enlighten the authors that if the next administration revokes any agreement with the stroke of a pen, as they boast, it will have simply committed a blatant violation of international law.
He emphasized that if the current negotiation with P5+1 result in a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, it will not be a bilateral agreement between Iran and the US, but rather one that will be concluded with the participation of five other countries, including all permanent members of the Security Council, and will also be endorsed by a Security Council resolution.
Zarif expressed the hope that his comments "may enrich the knowledge of the authors to recognize that according to international law, Congress may not modify the terms of the agreement at any time as they claim, and if Congress adopts any measure to impede its implementation, it will have committed a material breach of US obligations.
The Foreign Minister also informed the authors that majority of US international agreements in recent decades are in fact what the signatories describe as "mere executive agreements" and not treaties ratified by the Senate.
He reminded them that "their letter in fact undermines the credibility of thousands of such mere executive agreements that have been or will be entered into by the US with various other governments.
Zarif concluded by stating that "the Islamic Republic of Iran has entered these negotiations in good faith and with the political will to reach an agreement, and it is imperative for our counterparts to prove similar good faith and political will in order to make an agreement possible."

Republican idjuts like Tom Cotton may think it's cool to play cowboy with international relations, but we're fortunate to have some adults in the room still.

Obama White House Rips Senate Republicans For Their Treasonous Letter To Iran

Press Secretary Josh Earnest was asked about the Senate Republican letter to Iran where they promised to undermine any agreement that President Obama makes on their nuclear program. …

The White House ripped Senate Republicans for their attempt to undermine negotiations with Iran, and stopped just short of accusing the 47 Republicans who signed a letter to Iranian government of treason.

Press Secretary Josh Earnest was asked about the Senate Republican letter to Iran where they promised to undermine any agreement that President Obama makes on their nuclear program.

Video:

Video Link

Earnest said:

I would describe this letter as a continuation of a partisan strategy to undermine the president’s ability to conduct foreign policy and advance our national security interests around the globe.

….

The fact is that we have heard Republicans for quite some time, including the principal author of this letter, make clear that their goal is to undermine these negotiations. Again, that is not a position that I am ascribing to Sen. Cotton, that is a position that he has strongly advocated. He described it as a feature of his strategy, not a bug.

….

I think the other thing that is notable here is that when you have a letter that is signed by forty-seven senators of the same party being sent to a leader of a foreign country, it raises some legitimate questions about the intent of the letter…It’s surprising to me there are some Republican senators who are seeking to establish a backchannel with hardliners in Iran to undermine an agreement with Iran and the international community.

The letter that the Republicans sent suggested that any agreement made with President Obama would be meaningless, “The next president could revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time.” Earnest accused the Republicans of being on a march towards the military option in dealing with Iran. It is clear that the letter from the Republican senators was an attempt to destroy the diplomatic process.

The Press Secretary stopped short of calling out the Senate Republicans for treasonous behavior, but his description of the Republican behavior of trying to undermine the goals and national security of the United States left little doubt about how the White House feels about this issue.

Senate Republicans are attempting to undermine the United States government by establishing communications with hardliners in Iran who promote and fund terrorism. Republicans have taken their campaign to undermine and delegitimize the President Of The United States global.

The White House is ripping the Republicans in the bluntest way possible.

Senate Republicans have shown their true colors, and those colors are not red, white and blue.

Iran Letter Backlash Grows As Bernie Sanders Accuses Senate Republicans Of Sabotage

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) hit Senate Republicans right between the eyes by accusing them of an act sabotage in an attempt to start a new war in Iran.

In a statement, Sen. Sanders said:

It appears that for most of my Republican colleagues in the Senate, a war in Afghanistan and a war in Iraq were not enough. They now apparently want a war in Iran as well. President Obama is working with the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia and China to try to negotiate a peaceful means to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. These negotiations must be allowed to continue and, hopefully, will succeed. It is an outrage that my Republican colleagues are trying to sabotage that effort.

Sen. Sanders’s statement came after White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest accused Senate Republicans of trying to undermine President Obama, “I think the other thing that is notable here is that when you have a letter that is signed by forty-seven senators of the same party being sent to a leader of a foreign country, it raises some legitimate questions about the intent of the letter…It’s surprising to me there are some Republican senators who are seeking to establish a backchannel with hardliners in Iran to undermine an agreement with Iran and the international community.”

The Republicans have so grossly miscalculated the public reaction to their letter that even Iran’s Foreign Minister called it propaganda. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said, “In our view, this letter has no legal value and is mostly a propaganda ploy. It is very interesting that while negotiations are still in progress and while no agreement has been reached, some political pressure groups are so afraid even of the prospect of an agreement that they resort to unconventional methods, unprecedented in diplomatic history.”

The Senate Republican letter revealed how far they are willing to go in order to sabotage their own government. Republicans may have crossed the line into treasonous territory with their letter, but Sen. Sanders was correct. The letter was a definite act of sabotage.

Senate Republicans demonstrated that they were unwilling to support this president in foreign or domestic affairs. Republicans went far beyond having a difference of opinion with the president. They are now actively trying to jeopardize the foreign policy of their own country.

This sort of behavior is unprecedented in American history. Republicans are sabotaging their own country because they despise the president and are lusting for a new war in the Middle East. Republicans have once again brought shame to their country and embarrassed every American on the world stage. The Senate Republican saboteurs deserve to be punished.

Law Professor: GOP’s Letter To Iran Explaining How Constitution Works Gets Constitution Wrong

by Jameson Parker 

Yesterday, a group of 47 Republican senators became an international embarrassment when they published a letter to Iran telling its leaders to ignore Obama. Today, they become a national one.
The group of Republicans had hoped that by sending a letter to Iran highlighting the way America’s “constitutional system” works, it would become clear to the Iranians that while the president has been working tirelessly with them on an historic nuclear deal, the Republican controlled Congress was planning on derailing any negotiations they could.
In a page oozing with condescension, they wrote in part:

While the president negotiates international agreements, Congress plays the significant role of ratifying them. In the case of a treaty, the Senate must ratify it by two-thirds vote. A so-called congressional-executive agreement requires a majority vote in both the House and the Senate… Anything not approved by Congress is a mere executive agreement.

However, despite the confident tone, it seems the lawmakers don’t really have a firm grasp on what their role in the treaty-process is exactly. According to a detailed analysis of the letter’s contents by a Harvard law professor named Jack Goldsmith, who teachers and writes about presidential power and international law, the members of Congress got huge portions of this wrong:

The letter states that “the Senate must ratify [a treaty] by a two-thirds vote.”  But as the Senate’s own web page makes clear: “The Senate does not ratify treaties. Instead, the Senate takes up a resolution of ratification, by which the Senate formally gives its advice and consent, empowering the president to proceed with ratification” (my emphasis).  Or, as this outstanding  2001 CRS Report on the Senate’s role in treaty-making states (at 117):  “It is the President who negotiates and ultimately ratifies treaties for the United States, but only if the Senate in the intervening period gives its advice and consent.”  Ratification is the formal act of the nation’s consent to be bound by the treaty on the international plane.  Senate consent is a necessary but not sufficient condition of treaty ratification for the United States.

In other words, it’s a two-sided process that involves the president just as much as it involves Congress. The group probably wanted to de-emphasize the sharing of power with the Obama administration because: One, they hate Obama and petty insults are not beneath them. And two, they want to feel more important than they actually are.
As Goldsmith points out, the error in their letter is certainly technical, however that doesn’t mean it is any less embarrassing. The people who, one would think, have the best grasp on constitutional law, seem to have a few blindspots regarding their own limitations in it.
Making matters even more cringeworthy for the Republicans who had hoped this letter would be their shining moment of “screw you” politics to Obama: One of the letter’s chief architects, Sen. Tom Cotton actually graduated from Harvard Law. Apparently, he didn’t get his money’s worth – or at least slept through Goldsmith’s classes.

Always Wrong ...

Merle Haggard - It's Almost 'Criminal' What They Do To President Obama

by Leslie Salzillo

A Merle Haggard quote has been circulating social media over the last two days, almost as if it appeared in response to the incredible disrespect shown to President Obama by Republicans in Congress and foreign leader, Benjamin Netanyahu. The quote is from a 2010 Rolling Stone interview. Patrick Doyle spoke with music legend Merle Haggard, who was attending the 33rd Kennedy Center Honors. Haggard was invited to the White House to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award. Doyle asked Merle Haggard about President Obama, and the traditional 'stone-country' singer-songwriter said he enjoyed meeting Obama and found the President to be quite different from what he had seen in the media. Then Haggard interestingly added:

Merle Haggard: "It's really almost criminal what they do with our President. There seems to be no shame or anything. They call him all kinds of names all day long, saying he's doing certain things that he's not. It's just a big old political game that I don't want to be part of. There are people spending their lives putting him down. I'm sure some of it's true and some of it's not. I was very surprised to find the man very humble and he had a nice handshake. His wife was very cordial to the guests and especially me. They made a special effort to make me feel welcome. It was not at all the way the media described him to be."

Doyle asked, 'What's the biggest lie out there about Obama?'

Merle Haggard: "He's not conceited. He's very humble about being the President of the United States, especially in comparison to some presidents we've had who come across like they don't need anybody's help. I think he knows he's in over his head. Anybody with any sense who takes that job and thinks they can handle it must be an idiot."

When Doyle asked if Haggard talked to the President much, the interview took a much lighter tone:

Merle Haggard: "I told him, "You and I have something in common: our wives are both taller than we are." And he said "No! She's got on 3-inch heels! And she is not that tall!" He was like me. He grabbed that real quick."

Merle Haggard's compassion and straightforwardness in this interview seem to be what many of us needed after the GOP once again shamed themselves, and this nation, by seditiously spiting the President of the United States. Reading Haggard's words again, was like a glorious breath of fresh air - an affirmation and validation of the thoughts many of us have been feeling. Merle Haggard was 73 at the time the Rolling Stone interview. That night he stood alongside other living legends like Sir Paul McCartney and Oprah Winfrey. And this was not his first invitation to the White House. Merle Haggard has also been the guest of both President Nixon and President Reagan.
It's easy to see why Merle Haggard is loved by millions. He's the 'real deal'. Having been involved in the music industry in Nashville, I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Haggard years ago - a truly charming man. It's as if that rough exterior, from once leading a very rough life, just sort of melts away when you shake his hand. You can feel his warmth. And looking into his eyes, you can almost see through to his beautiful heart.

Visit/Like Merle Haggard's Facebook Page here. At 77, he is still touring, and last year Merle teamed up with pals Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson to make an album.

Thank you, Merle Haggard. You are loved.

Fox News Would Probably Say President Obama was Being UnAmerican Here

by Sarah Burris

Republicans LOVE to trash talk the President and claim that he hates America. Most famously, New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said:

“I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the president loves America,” Giuliani said to the crowd, sounding a well-worn dog-whistle. “He doesn’t love you. And he doesn’t love me. He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up, and I was brought up through love of this country.”

But, Senator Claire McCaskill hit back hard on Twitter while watching President Obama’s speech on the 50th Anniversary of the March in Selma:

  Claire McCaskill        ✔ @clairecmc Follow

I dare anyone to listen to the speech the President gave today and then say he doesn't love America. #we

4:03 PM - 7 Mar 2015

I’m truly shocked that Fox News didn’t have the guts to follow through with their accusations that the President is unpatriotic. Here’s a quick excerpt we put together of President Obama’s references to his faith in America:

Video Link

Every time Fox News says something like this, we talk about it. We highlight the absurdity. We shout about racism. We demand apologies and respect. Instead of respect, we get more of the same.

A leader’s patriotism should never be called into question. I don’t care if you’re George W. Bush or Barack Obama, if you’re serving as the President of the United States of America you’ve dedicated your life to America. Period. If you’re sitting in that office, chances are you’re getting shot at and you and your family are being threatened. Can we all agree that if you’re putting your life in harm’s way for your country, whether you’re a soldier, elected leader, or a first responder, that you’re not doing it for a free steak at The Sizzler?

Let’s be realistic, if the criteria for ranking patriotism is based on a scale created by the Republican Party and Fox News my guess is they wouldn’t even meet their own expectations.

Tennessee’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Republican hit ex-wife with his car — twice

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Republican hit ex-wife with his car — twice

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