• Five Senators Who Support Immigration Bill Don't Know If It Encourages Hiring Amnestied Immigrants Instead Of US Citizens
  
• Krauthammer Slams Coal Warrior Obama
  
• SCOTUS To Make Some Big Decisions Today
  
• Army To Cut 10 Combat Brigades
  
• The Party Of Death
  
• Australia's Female PM Ousted By Her Own Party
  
• Ed Markey Won Last Night's Special Election In Massachusset(e)s
  
• Rand Paul: Why I'm Voting No On Immigration Reform
  
• There Is Nothing A Democrat Can Do That Will End Their Political Career
  
• Deadliest US Soldier On Record
  
• Terrorist Supporter Welcome In The White House
  
• IRS Credit Cards Used For Wine And Porn
  
• Jim Crow Is Dead, Long Live The Constitution
  
• Yeah, I Won't Be Watching Crossfire On CNN
  
• This Is The Prosecution's Star Witness In The Zimmerman Trial
  
• Behold The Space Age Mustang That Never Was
  
• Zimmerman Trial Day 3
  

Shorter than usual. I have a feeling it's going to be a busy news day.

Follow me on twitter

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:17 AM | Comments (235)
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Happy Wednesday.

Today is the final decision day for the Supreme Court's term. There will be decisions in the DOMA and Prop 8 cases, so check back for posts on that shortly after 10AM. Oh, a bit of Supreme Court trivia: today is the tenth anniversary of the Lawrence v. Texas decision.

Environmentalists supporting President Obama's war on coal have issued talking points, which include suggestions to avoid discussion of jobs or the rising price of electricity, naturally.

You may have heard about the drama in Texas last night, as GOP legislators tried in a special session to pass a law restricting most abortions after 20 weeks. The Democratic filibuster wasn't technically successful, but it did manage to run out the clock. Gov. Perry has suggested that he might call another special session.

Also in Texas, the state AG says the Voter ID law passed last year and challenged by DOJ under section 5 of the VRA will go into immediate effect since Texas is no longer a covered jurisdiction.

In case anybody cares, the AP wire is saying that Marc Rich, the trader pardoned by President Clinton, has died in Switzerland.

The East Coast got hit by a tsunami on June 13 and no one noticed.

I'm confused at the focus on Jay-Z and "cool" in this piece about making Obamacare hip for young people.

And in news we already knew, no, the IRS did not target progressive groups like they targeted conservative ones.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:48 AM | Comments (456)
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So How Did Snowden Get a Top Secret Clearance?

The old fashioned way: Via incompetence, laziness, disorganization, and slipshod work.

• 87 percent of background checks are never fully completed. OPM (Office of Personnel Management) uses the information it has to make a judgment on whether to approve these checks.
  
• There are no uniform guidelines across the government for different levels of clearance. This means that top-secret clearance at one agency means something completely different at another.
  
• Within each agency, there are no strict guidelines for determining security clearance.
• USIS, a private contractor, conducts 65 percent of all U.S. government background checks.
• USIS, which conducted a background check on Snowden, is now under investigation by OPM's IG for failing to conduct proper background checks.
• OPM has already paid USIS $200 million this year.
• The $1-billion-dollar fund that OPM uses to pay for background checks has never been audited.
• Eighteen OPM investigators have been convicted of falsifying information contained in investigations they've conducted. Eleven work for OPM, while the other seven work for private contractors.

It's a wonder there aren't dozens of Edward Snowdens running around.

Why Armed Robbery in a CCW State is a Bad Idea

Because this happens.

A man trying to rob Atlanta customers waiting to buy the latest LeBron James sneakers was killed by a shopper who continued to wait on line after the shooting, according to NBC News.

The robber, a man who has not been identified yet, sauntered up to people before dawn in Atlanta, waiting in line to purchase the $180 Lebon X Denim kicks by Nike on the day they were released, CNN reported. The shoes, endorsed by the star forward on the Miami Heat, could be sold for a much higher price on eBay.

Witnesses said the thief pulled out a gun and tried to rob the crowd.

These are not worth your life. And your life certainty ain't worth losing a place in line either.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:47 PM | Comments (687)
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Up to $100k for a novel approach.

Another $50k for a mitigation strategy.

Consider this a pre-ONT open thread.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 05:08 PM | Comments (196)
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Especially for those living in Massachusetts.
Anyways, I'll call the race once it's obvious, which will probably be 15 minutes in.
Note: extremely low turnout reported in Massachusetts today. As of 6pm in Boston it was under 70k, just over half of 2010's through the same time. So who knows, we may get a slight surprise.

But I doubt it.
start-
stop- at 8:26est: Markey wins.

Posted by: CAC at 03:50 PM | Comments (340)
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Pondering menacingly while relaxing upon his throne of skulls (thank you Ben Domenech for that mental image), it seems the Governor has decided to maliciously target state workers yet again. more...

Posted by: CAC at 02:19 PM | Comments (259)
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Like the Berlin Wall, but of course without the actual wall.

As Allah says, McCain is selling the new compromise -- again, more promises and more money, but no required results -- as essentially "sinister" and draconian. He's selling it as so monstrous that the almost calls it vile -- because his read on us is that we want something vile.

We're monsters, and hence, should be attracted to the monstrous.

Which shouldn't give anyone much comfort as to his actual intention to deliver on the deal. From his own mouth he's suggesting his "plan" involves a delicious melange of Nazi racial purity laws and Soviet stupidity and cruelty.

That said, Open Thread. Sorry, just under the weather today, gotta knock off.

Posted by: Ace at 01:36 PM | Comments (252)
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Well, I mean.

How could he know? We've done a pretty good job in this country of hiding the fact that race and slavery are touchy issues.

Posted by: Ace at 12:57 PM | Comments (245)
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Liquid courage, my friends.

A pair of reporters from the Free Beacon infiltrated the convention. These are their stories of mystery and terror.

“When I think about the polar bears, I cry,” the young Netroots attendee sitting at the table next to us told his friend as he chowed down on a club sandwich.

Artist's depiction

...

I ran into Jon Carson, executive director of Organizing for Action.

“Oh, how about that?” Carson said when I introduced myself as a reporter for the Free Beacon. Then he artfully dodged my question about how he squares working for a 501(c)(4) organization closely aligned with the president.

“We’re focused on issues and advocacy,” said Carson, whose email address ends in “@barackobama.com.”

“There’s been (c)(4)s around a long time focusing on issues across the spectrum, and there’s nothing new about that at all.”

Translation of text:
"The Soviet Union is a 501(c)4 corporation!"

...

Then I found myself at a panel titled: “Free your Ass: Defining and Creating a Progressive Sexual Culture.”

Panelist Favianna Rodriguez, a new media artist, talked about her explorations into polyamory and kink.

“I’ll close it out with this image I created of an awesome sex party I went to,” Rodriguez said...

This just in from my penis: Nah bro

...displaying one of her paintings.

It was full of psychedelic colors and an arrangement of Picasso-style figures entangled in various sex acts. Kind of like Guernica, but with erections.

The loftiest purpose of art is to fill the viewer with a sense
of superiority that says, "I could do better than that with my feet"

...

A booth of artwork featured such revolutionary sloganeering as “Bradley Manning: Hero” and “Politicians off my poontang!”

Incidentally, the Netroots convention was almost completely white. Slightly less white than it had been in past years, because they made an effort to not have panels stocked floor to ceiling with white men. As had been the case in past years.

But still very, very white.

The panel also addressed the overwhelming pastiness of the confab.

“I want to touch on the lack of diversity at Netroots Nation,” one black audience member said to applause and nods of approval.

“It used to be worse,” Contee said. “That’s no defense, but I’m just saying it used to be much, much worse.”

It was whiter than this in years past?
How could that be?
Were there Yeti?

Netroots organizers go to great pains to overcome the pasty patriarchy. They donÂ’t allow panels with only white males, according to one blog.

The convention made pains to correct its previous cis-sexual normativity.

I don't know what that means either. But it has something to do with this:

Netroots also included several gender-neutral bathrooms and gave attendees tips on transgender etiquette.

“Please do not assume anyone’s gender, even people you may have met in the past,” advises the Netroots official program. “A person’s external appearance may not match their internal gender identity. Pay attention to a person’s purposeful gender expression.”

One little appendix to this story. I was curious about Netroots Nation's status as far as the IRS. I assume "Netroots Nation" is the same operation depicted here.

So I checked their website.

The article describes nothing except hardcore political activism, including never-ending tributes to unions and organizing for grassroots activism on behalf of the Democratic Party. In fact, some partygoers expressed their desire to turn the Netroots into the liberal Tea Party, so as to influence the Democratic Party more.

I didn't excerpt that kind of stuff because, while important, it's not sweet like Polar Bear Tears.

But at the bottom of Netroots Nation's website:

Netroots Nation is a 501(c)4 corporation.

I guess the IRS didn't see any flags here.

Posted by: Ace at 11:27 AM | Comments (516)
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Via The Conversation, the funk of forty thousand years. Well, four thousand, but Vincent Price says forty thousand on Thriller.

Now, I said it "moves" in the headline, because I learned to lie in the headline from the media. What I mean is that it rotates. Slowly. Which is still sort of scary.

In a Count Floyd sort of way.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 10:40 AM | Comments (235)
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