March 25, 2015

No Clear Leader in New Hampshire GOP Primary

Source: PoliticalWire

A new Gravis Marketing poll in New Hampshire shows Scott Walker just ahead in the GOP presidential primary with 19%, followed by Jeb Bush at 18%, Chris Christie at 10%, Rand Paul at 10%, Marco Rubio at 7%, Ted Cruz at 6% and Ben Carson at 6%.

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Read more: http://p.feedblitz.com/r3.asp?l=103474178&f=17571&u=37190363&c=4916387

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March 25, 2015

Jeb’s brazen cash grab: His “I’m my own man” campaign crumbles in face of big fundraiser with W.

Forced to choose between establishing his independence and cashing in on family ties? Bush will take the dollars

JOAN WALSH

It’s not surprising that Jeb Bush is raising money off the political ties of his brother, former president George W. Bush. It’s a little surprising he’s doing it this early. But on Wednesday night, the brothers will come together at a Dallas fundraiser hosted by a longtime W. pal. Invitations asked $100,000 per couple, in personal donations or commitments to bundle, according to Politico.

That’s a little brazen. After all, Bush is said to believe a central challenge for his 2016 candidacy will be to differentiate himself from his brother, the former president, and to a lesser extent his father. There are lots of reasons: Many voters don’t like the idea of a Bush dynasty. And specifically, many voters don’t like George W. Bush. Although his approval rating has climbed since he left office – voters also don’t like disliking their former presidents – the economic and foreign policy legacy of Bush 43 still represent potential baggage for his brother’s campaign.

Bush got high marks for facing down that challenge early and often, including in his first big speech on foreign policy last month. Though it wasn’t included in prepared text distributed to reporters, Bush apparently free-styled a riff about loving his father and brother while declaring “I’m my own man.” The Fix’s Chris Cilizza, among others, loved it: “Assuming the Bush folks did this on purpose — and I am very strongly suspicious that they did — then it’s a very smart strategic move.”

He’d said something similar in his economic speech in Detroit two weeks before:

If I have any degree of self-awareness, this would be the place where it might want to be applied. I love my brother. I think he’s been a great president. It doesn’t bother me a bit to be proud of them and love them, but I know for a fact that if I’m going to be successful … then I’m going to have to do it on my own.

more
http://www.salon.com/2015/03/25/jeb%E2%80%99s_brazen_cash_grab_his_%E2%80%9Ci%E2%80%99m_my_own_man%E2%80%9D_campaign_crumbles_in_face_of_big_fundraiser_with_w/

March 25, 2015

Jeb’s “James Baker” problem: Why hawks are turning on the “anti-Israel” Bush

Neocons have determined that Jeb Bush hates Israel, because he talks to James Baker sometimes

JIM NEWELL

Aren’t GOP presidential politics just great? You wake up one morning and suddenly Jeb Bush is the “anti-Israel candidate” in the Republican presidential primary field.

How did this happen? Last we checked, Jeb Bush loved the dickens out of Israel. He’s been very clear about his deep affection for any and everything that (the right wing of) Israel does. “Governor Bush’s support for Israel and its Prime Minister is clear,” Bush’s spokesperson, Kristy Campbell said Monday night. This is perfectly in line with his support for the dumb Tom Cotton letter, and his insistence that the nuclear deal being negotiated with Iran is “bad” and should be rejected because Israel. Et cetera et cetera, SO ON, AND SO ON. Jeb Bush has no interest in straying from the prevailing party line on Israel, which is that American foreign policy should be conducted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But why, pray tell, was Kristy Campbell issuing this reassurance of Jeb Bush’s deep, unwavering, total love for Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israel late on a Monday night? Because James Baker, the former White House chief of staff, Treasury Secretary, and Secretary of State under Presidents Reagan and Bush Sr., had just addressed the annual J Street conference.

J Street is the advocacy group founded as a more liberal counterpart to AIPAC. It is critical of the Israeli right wing and does not see it as helping the prospects for peace in the Middle East. So naturally conservatives see J Street as a radical extremist left-wing terrorist organization in bed with the mullahs of Iran and hellbent on securing the total annihilation of Israel. (The views of American Jews at large, meanwhile, tend to align with J Street’s.)

more
http://www.salon.com/2015/03/25/jebs_james_baker_problem_why_hawks_are_turning_on_the_anti_israel_bush/

March 25, 2015

Ted Cruz’s “country music” drivel: What’s really behind his musical conversion

After 9/11, the 2016 contender explains, he ditched classic rock for country music. Here's why he's full of it

HEATHER DIGBY PARTON

So Texas firebrand Ted Cruz explained that 9/11 changed him so much that he lost his former taste in music and found another He said:

Music is interesting. I grew up listening to classic rock. And I’ll tell you sort of an odd story: My music tastes changed on 9/11. I actually intellectually find this very curious, but on 9/11, I didn’t like how rock music responded. And country music — collectively — the way they responded, it resonated with me. And I have to say just at a gut level, I had an emotional reaction that says, ‘These are my people. And ever since 2001, I listen to country music. But I’m an odd country music fan because I didn’t listen to it prior to 2001.

I’m going to guess he figures Mike Huckabee has the Nugent vote all sewn up.

He “intellectually finds it very curious” that on 9/11 he didn’t like how rock responded? What is that supposed to mean? Apparently when they held all those concerts and fundraisers like the Concert for New York City he thought they were trashing America. Sure, the Dixie Chicks were famous for saying that they were ashamed George Bush was from Texas during the run up to the Iraq war, but they’re as country as they come. (And I think we can be fairly confident that Cruz endorsed the abusive treatment they received from radio stations for saying it. President Bush certainly did.)

But I’m hard-pressed to think of any rockers, classic or otherwise, who were disrespectful in the aftermath of 9/11. Certainly it wasn’t Bruce Springsteen or Paul McCartney or Neil Young or Fleetwood Mac or literally dozens of other rock and pop artists who penned heartfelt songs about the event. But then Cruz undoubtedly didn’t want to hear poetic songs about loss and pain. He wanted songs of revenge and killing, like Toby Keith’s famous anthem, “The Angry American” which featured the kind of language that gets Cruz and his voters very, very excited:

more
http://www.salon.com/2015/03/25/ted_cruzs_country_music_drivel_whats_really_behind_his_musical_conversion/

March 25, 2015

Supreme Court revives pregnant worker’s discrimination case against UPS

Source: Reuters

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday revived a woman driver’s pregnancy discrimination claim against package delivery company UPS Incby sending the case back to a lower court.

On a 6-3 vote, the court said worker Peggy Young would have another chance to litigate whether the company should have granted her request for temporary changes in work duties after she became pregnant in 2006. The case focused on whether employers must provide accommodations for pregnant workers who may have physical limitations on tasks they can perform.

Writing on behalf of the majority, Justice Stephen Breyer said that the lower court is required to determine if the employer had “legitimate, nondiscriminatory, nonpretextual justification” for treating employees differently.

Breyer said there is a “genuine dispute as to whether UPS provided more favorable treatment to at least some employees whose situation cannot reasonably be distinguished from Young’s.”

-snip-

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/supreme-court-revives-pregnant-workers-discrimination-case-against-ups/

March 25, 2015

Conservatives livid at bishop for not defending NJ teacher and her nutty antigay Facebook rants

A coalition of angry conservative Catholics is attempting to exert pressure on church officials in New Jersey and force them to side with a teacher who was suspended from her job at Somerville, New Jersey’s Immaculata High School.

According to MyCentralJersey.com, Patricia Jannuzzi was placed on administrative leave after she posted a string of inflammatory, anti-LGBT comments to her personal Facebook page.

The Catholic group — called the Lepanto Institute — have taken out radio attack ads against Bishop Paul Bootkoski of Metuchen, New Jersey, accusing the clergyman of siding with liberals against the teacher, who said that same-sex marriage is part of a plot to “reengineer western civ into a slow extinction.”

On March 8, Jannuzzi wrote on Facebook, “We need healthy families with a mother and a father for the sake of the children and humanity!!!!!”

The statement was part of a rant against same-sex marriage in which the teacher said that the LGBT “agenda” is “one minute they argue they were born this way and it is not a choice to get 14th Amendment rights equal protection…bologna…which was carved for permanent characteristics, unchangeable characteristics such as race or disability…but once they in [sic] the 14th Amendment they will argue everyone should be able to choose being they (sic) gay or lesbian lifestyle…in other words they want to reengineer western civ into a slow extinction.”

more
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/conservatives-livid-at-bishop-for-not-defending-nj-teacher-and-her-nutty-antigay-facebook-rants/

March 25, 2015

‘That’s right, fag’: Texas hotel bouncer hurled anti-gay slur before breaking man’s arm during SXSW

Source: RawStory

A Texas man said this week that he was planning to sue W Hotel in Austin because an employee shouted a racial slur at him and then fractured his arm.

Bobby Beltran, 31, told KVUE that he was at the hotel bar entertaining friends who were in town for South by Southwest last week when a hotel employee told them that they were too drunk and had to leave. Beltran said that the employee was escorting them from the building when the confrontation occurred.

“He was walking behind me and he said, ‘That’s right, fag,’ and continued to walk me out of the building,” Beltran recalled. “I turned around, looked at him, and I got really hostile with him with my words, and said, ‘You know, that’s not right, you can’t be doing that stuff.’”

-snip-

KVUE pointed out that there had been “a string of violent confrontations at local bars.” In several of those case, patrons claimed that they were attacked by bar bouncers.



Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/thats-right-fag-texas-hotel-bouncer-hurled-anti-gay-slur-before-breaking-mans-arm-during-sxsw/

March 25, 2015

Ben Carson calls Obama a psychopath in GQ interview because he looks ‘elegant’

Neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson called President Barack Obama a “psychopath,” a moment captured in a GQ Magazine profile of him published online on Tuesday.

According to correspondent Jason Zengerle, Carson insulted the president while watching this year’s State of the Union address with his business manager, Armstrong Williams. Zengerle wrote:

As the two men turned to the TV, they began dissecting Obama’s performance.

“He looks good,” Williams said. “He looks clean. Shirt’s white. The tie. He looks elegant.”

“Like most psychopaths,” Carson grumbled. “That’s why they’re successful. That’s the way they look. They all look great.”

more
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/ben-carson-calls-obama-a-psychopath-in-gq-interview-because-he-looks-elegant/

March 25, 2015

‘Gay nerd’ takes over anti-LGBT lawmaker’s website — and is taking suggestions for improvements

An anti-LGBT Idaho lawmaker’s campaign website will be undergoing extensive renovations after he neglected to renew the domain name and a self-described “gay nerd” bought it.

State Rep. Paul Shepherd (R-Riggins) called on the U.S. Congress last month to impeach federal judges who struck down Idaho’s ban on same-sex marriage.

A Reddit user who goes by the name TibitXimer noticed Shepherd’s campaign website domain was available, so he bought it and is soliciting suggestions for what to post there.

“First of all, things need to be very, very rainbow,” said a user called thehegelian. “Maybe you can turn it into a site where gay couples can submit photos of their weddings? Heh heh heh.”

Many users offered suggestions for avoiding legal trouble.

more
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/gay-nerd-takes-over-anti-lgbt-lawmakers-website-and-is-taking-suggestions-for-improvements/

March 25, 2015

Watch Sarah Palin push a Koch-backed scheme to kill the VA and replace it with vouchers

Sarah Palin is using recent scandals to apparently push for the dismantling of the Veterans Administration.

The federal agency has been rocked in recent months by scandals – including the deaths of at least 40 veterans awaiting care at facilities in Arizona — that resulted in a shakeup of its top leadership.

New VA Secretary Robert McDonald was recently forced to apologize after misstating his military service record while speaking to a veteran during a photo opportunity, which Palin said called his character into question.

Palin cited these and other incidents in a Facebook video posted Tuesday evening as justification to “clean house” at the VA and “fire bad employees like we do out in the private sector.”

more + the video
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/watch-sarah-palin-push-a-koch-backed-scheme-to-kill-the-va-and-replace-it-with-vouchers/