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Experts predict an increase in lawsuits in states that are no longer covered under the Voting Rights Act after the Supreme Court ruling last month. 
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"Elections have real consequences. These Supreme Court decisions had less to do with evolving legal theory than with who appointed the justices. Whether historically good or disastrous, all these decisions were decided by just one vote. In 2016, let's not forget what happened this week."
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When federal regulators told Congress in April that they lacked basic plans for the oversight of consulting firms that advise big banks, one lawmaker had blunt advice: start adopting guidelines “this afternoon.” With changes yet to materialize, the lawmaker, Senator Sherrod Brown, plans to ratchet up the pressure on Friday in a letter to the nation’s top banking regulators.
In the letter — a draft of which was reviewed by The New York Times — Mr. Brown will urge the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to keep a closer watch on the multibillion-dollar consulting industry, which has become something of a shadow regulatory force on Wall Street...
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The Virginia GOP's nominee for lieutenant governor, E.W. Jackson, gave a speech Wednesday in which he claimed government social programs have done more harm to the "black family" than slavery.
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Before Its News has an anonymous source who has provided this information on the scandal Glenn Beck promises to reveal on Thursday, June 13, 2013.
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(Yahoo News)
It's no joke. An Austrian hotel is advertising for a modern-day court fool, who is communicative, extroverted, musical, creative and imaginative.
Applicants are asked to bring — and play — their musical instrument during the job interview. Also welcome: creative costumes. The successful candidate will earn 1,400 euros — around $1,900 — a month.
Hotel director Melanie Franke says those interested should not think they're on a fool's errand in applying. She says the idea is to treat guests like royalty, noting that "jesters were a luxury that royal families indulged themselves in."
The hotel in Austria's Styria province was designed by famed Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser and Franke says the jester concept fits its hotel's colorful appearance.
Michael Charney's comment,
June 13, 2013 10:45 AM
I can think of a dozen or so U.S. politicians who could easily fit the bill.....
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From
www
NPR
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(CNN) -- The Republican National Committee has brought on a director of evangelical outreach to massage the party's complicated relationship with religious conservatives, GOP sources told CNN on Saturday.
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America is not broke. We are not in a time of "scarcity" and when we buy into this fallacy, we contribute to political decisions that actually will do damage to our standard of living and that of our children.
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BY GERRY MULLANY (NY Times)
Representative Michele Bachmann, the Minnesota Republican who made an ill-fated run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, announced Wednesday that she would not seek a fifth term in Congress next year.
Representative Michele Bachmann, the Minnesota Republican who made an ill-fated run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, announced Wednesday that she would not seek a fifth term in Congress next year.
“I have decided next year I will not seek a fifth Congressional term,” she said in a video on her campaign Web site. “This decision was not impacted in any way by the recent inquiries into the activities of my former presidential campaign or my former presidential staff,” she added. Mrs. Bachmann is known for her strong anti-abortion stance and adherence to Tea Party values but her presidential campaign was marked by frequent stumbles and her candidacy failed to catch fire in a crowded field of candidates that included Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas and Herman Cain, who all eventually lost to Mitt Romney. ....
Read more at: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/30/us/politics/michele-bachmann-wont-seek-re-election-next-year.html?_r=0
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...Jake Baker, writing at a blog called No Compromise offers an interesting new theory: he thinks that the Obama administration may have threatened to take Roberts’ children away from him. You see, they’re not his biological children. Instead, the Chief Justice and his wife adopted them in 2000. Roberts has never talked about the circumstances of their adoption, which is perfectly understandable, given the privacy such a personal transaction deserves. To the extent it’s mentioned, they’ve been said to have been adopted from a Latin American country – something inconsistent with their Nordic coloring....
Michael Charney's comment,
May 20, 2013 6:18 PM
It just doesn't get any weirder than this.... Let's just think of the craziest shit we can, and pretend it might be true....
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One day after The White House released 100 pages of Benghazi emails, a report has surfaced alleging that Republicans released a set with altered text.
Michael Charney's insight:
The plot thickens, and the story lines solidify. Some in the GOP will, no doubt claim mainstream media bias, while some on the left will undoubtedly decry those "rethuglicans," or some such....
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NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Gold prices plummeted on Friday as a breakthrough technical support triggered broad selling.
Gold for June delivery at the COMEX division of the CME dropped $32 to settle at $1,436.60 an ounce. The gold price traded as high as $1,461.20 and as low as $1,418.50 an ounce, while the spot price was slumping $22, according to Kitco's gold index.
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From
tv
Rush Limbaugh and other Republicans now argue that the party's future can be secured by motivating more whites to vote. Are they making a dangerous mistake?
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Openly gay Pennsylvania state Representative Brian Sims (D) planned to speak on the legislature floor on Wednesday about the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act — but he was blocked from talking by a Republican colleague...
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Ted Cruz loves to tout how his dad, Rafael, got here the "right way." Here's the 12-step program Rafael followed. It's so simple why doesn't every immigrant simply follow it? 1. Fight alongside Com...
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From
thehill
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) is the most popular potential 2016 candidate in the Republican Party — and the least popular with the GOP base, according to a new Gallup poll.
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How long, as the song says, has this been going on? In this three-part series about electronic surveillance, we learn the answer is "pretty damn long." PRISM is, in fact, only the most developed stage in the art which began with Project SHAMROCK after World War II. Like Prism, communication companies like Western Union and others, to deliver millions of private messages. Representatives from the intelligence agencies and the Attorney General himself assured these nervous companies they would be protected from legal action. All without the knowledge of their customers. Most shockingly SHAMROCK went on for 30 years. To learn more, follow the link to Nomadic Politics. Via Nomad
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From
www
Revelations that the federal government is collecting massive amounts of data about telephone calls and Internet traffic has some people nervous that George Orwell's vision of Big Brother constantly watching them has come true. Via Monica S Mcfeeters
Party Recon's comment,
June 10, 2013 12:30 PM
Repeal The Patriot Act, FISA, and NDAA. I would rather live in fear of my enemy than my government.
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DENVER (AP) — Not even Chewbacca and his light saber get a free pass with airport security before being cleared to travel.
Transportation Security Administration agents in Denver briefly stopped "Star Wars" franchise actor Peter Mayhew recently as he was boarding a flight with a cane shaped like one of science-fiction's most iconic weapons. Airport officials say they wanted to inspect the huge walking stick before allowing Mayhew, who is more than 7 feet tall, on the plane.
Mayhew tweeted "Giant man need giant cane" from his verified Twitter account when the incident happened June 3. He also posted photos showing a TSA agent holding the replica laser sword, which comes up to his chest.
Many subsequent media reports made it seem as though security officials buckled to pressure from Chewie's fans in allowing the actor to board the flight to Dallas with the cane, but officials say that characterization is inaccurate.
"Because of the unusual weight of the passenger's cane, a security officer alerted a supervisor. Less than five minutes later the passenger and cane were cleared to travel. Social media played no role in the determination," the TSA said in a brief statement released to The Associated Press on Saturday.
There was no word on whether agents were initially suspicious that Chewie had a weapon more commonly associated with other "Star Wars" characters, including Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader and Yoda. Attempts to contact Mayhew, 69, for comment — or roar — were not immediately returned.
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Michael Charney's insight:
The “conservative” senator Marco Rubio on Monday told a whopper to his Tea Party constituents, outright lying to them about the investigation into Obama’s forged birth certificate. Apparently, the RINO Rubio isn’t aware that Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Cold Case Posse, after hundreds of hours of forensic analysis, two major press conferences, and dozens of conferences with local groups, announced that Barack Hussein Obama’s birth certificate is a computer-generated....
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The GOP isn't the only party in need of an overhaul. Liberals ought to be demanding big changes, too -- starting with campaign-finance reform. Via Monica S Mcfeeters
's comment May 30, 2013 1:10 AM
Corruption is a bipartisan problem in congress. A classic example would be Keystone pipeline because it isn't just GOP who support the pipeline but also most senate democrats. If the corrupt politicians in the democratic party can't be removed through the election process then I agree that we need to form a new political party. Until then, I will not be coming back to the democratic party will continue to keep my party affiliation as "non-partisan/decline to state".
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Our mission is to support scientific education and critical thinking to overcome religious fundamentalism, superstition, intolerance and suffering Via Religulous
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The Internal Revenue Service is feeling the sort of heat that targeted taxpayers feel from the tax agency. It’s the sense that a powerful someone is breathing down your neck.
Republicans in Congress are livid with the IRS over its systematic scrutiny of conservative groups during the 2010 and 2012 elections. Democrats agree that something must be done. Likewise, President Barack Obama isn’t at all happy with the tax collectors.
Greg Russak's curator insight,
May 27, 2013 1:27 PM
"It’s all complex, squishy and in some ways subjective, so it might not come as a shock that the IRS would look for shortcuts such as political buzzwords and slogans when deciding what a group is really up to. But the record as yet known does not show that the scrutiny cut both ways." This is the part that I think is the biggest red herring. I don't claim to be an expert, but this concept of a need for equivalent scrutiny strikes me as ridiculous. There was no tidal wave of liberal organizations flooding the IRS under the pretense of "social welfare" but with a mission to defeat their political enemies. It does, however, seem to me that there was, and still is, such a movement coming from the right and their surrogate astroturf tea party groups. They deserve extra scrutiny, and using keywords and phrases and lengthy investigations seems to me to be the IRS simply doing their job. I wonder, but not all that much, about what the right would be saying if it had been discovered that the IRS was giving extra scrutiny to groups with the words "green" or "clean energy" or "human rights" or "single payer healthcare" in their names.
Party Recon's comment,
May 30, 2013 2:13 PM
Greg, this is where credibility on the left is lost. Why are you making excuses for and ole'ing reality? The President of the United States, who happens to have a -D after his name called it outrageous! He said, ""Because the IRS as an independent agency requires absolute integrity, and people have to have confidence that they're ... applying the laws in a non-partisan way." And the IRS fully admitted culpability and apologized for “Targeting groups with “tea party” or “patriot” in their names”
So those of us that aren't willing to turn a blind eye (and I AM NOT A REPUBLICAN, they stink too, in their own ways) can't help but wonder what folks like you would have said if the IRS under Bush was caught targeting groups with the word "progressive" in their application. Would you make the same shoulder shrug, saying "eh, who really cares" and "C’mon. This is no big deal". Would you have called it a red herring? No way Jose. You folks lit up the Bush administration like a Christmas tree every chance you had – and Lord knows they gave you plenty of reason. But to sit here and act as an apologist for this President who admitted wrong-doing, well, there goes any hint of fairness or intellectual honesty. And once that’s gone, meaningful conversation aimed at finding common ground is simply impossible. I hate to say it Greg; but this partisan-based “pardon” you’ve granted our Commander in Chief is straight out of the Fox News playbook. Fair and balanced my eyeball.
Greg Russak's comment,
May 31, 2013 6:27 PM
Lost all credibility, huh? Lit up Bush while acting like an Obama apologist, am I? Gone is any hint of fairness and intellectual honesty, eh? And, what's wrong with your eyeball?
Well, thanks for dropping by to insult me, Party Recon, while apparently choosing to remain safe and secure in your anonymity. You don't seem to have read my comments at all. You attribute quotes to me I never made. Your behavior is borderline troll. Tell you what. When you're ready to muster the courage to come out from behind your nom de plume to engage me directly without insulting me then maybe we can have a civil discussion. Until then, I'd just as soon you keep your insults to yourself. Have a nice day.
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by JOHN LIGHT (Moyers & Company)
It’s a distressing milestone that you likely read about: On Friday, the average daily level of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere passed 400 parts per million — about 50 ppm over what scientists said was the “safe upper limit.” The gas, of course, is a byproduct of our fossil fuel economy, and is the key driver of climate change.
The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has increased dramatically since 1958, when the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii — the gold standard for measuring the gas — first began tracking levels. That year, the daily average was 316 ppm — since then, the level has increased by 26.5 percent.
And yet, Washington is doing very little to rein in CO2 emissions and slow the climate change that’s already underway. The Sunlight Foundation provides a glimpse into one possible reason for D.C.’s inaction. In a new chart, Sunlight graphed CO2 levels alongside campaign donations....
Read more at: http://billmoyers.com/2013/05/14/what-stalled-carbon-emissions-legislation/
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