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Bachmann: Muslim Brotherhood Has ‘Penetrated’ The U.S. Government

By Eli Clifton on Jun 22, 2012 at 4:40 pm

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is no stranger to outlandish conspiracy theories but the former GOP presidential primary candidate took her theories to a new height in an interview earlier this week with the American Family Assocation’s Sandy Rios. Bachmann claimed that the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated various department of the U.S. government.

Bachmann told Rios (HT RightWingWatch):

It appears that there has been deep penetration in the halls of our United States government by the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood has been found to be an unindicted co-conspirator on terrorism cases and yet it appears that there are individuals who are associated with the Muslim Brotherhood who have positions, very sensitive positions, in our Department of Justice, our Department of Homeland Security, potentially even in the National Intelligence Agency. I am calling upon the Justice Department and these various departments to investigate through the Inspector General to see who these people are and what access they have to our information.

Listen to her (HT RightWingWatch):

Bachmann’s bizarre conspiracy theorizing about a “penetration” of the U.S. government matches closely with the conspiracy theories espoused by Center for Security Policy (CSP) President Frank Gaffney who in recent months has found himself ostracized by mainstream Republicans for his accusations about a Muslim Brotherhood infiltration of the George W. Bush and Obama administrations as well as the American Conservative Union.
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Election

Joe The Plumber Defends Campaign Ad Tying Holocaust To Gun Control

By Adam Peck on Jun 22, 2012 at 4:36 pm

Earlier this week, Samuel Wurzelbacher — known to most as Joe the Plumber — posted a campaign ad on YouTube that sought to blame gun control laws for human atrocities, including the Armenian genocide of the early 1900s and the extermination of 6 million Jews during World War II.

Amazingly, Wurzelbacher kept digging. Yesterday in an interview with the Toledo Blade, Wurzelbacher defended the ad by denying he ever mentioned the Holocaust:

“All I said was gun control was implemented, and then governments proceeded to violate human rights,” Mr. Wurzelbacher said. “Nowhere did I mention the Holocaust or was I even talking about it.”

Let’s go to the videotape:

Apparently, Wurzelbacher can’t find any references–explicit or otherwise–to the Holocaust in the lines “In 1939, Germany established gun control. From 1939 to 1945, 6 million Jews and 7 million others, unable to defend themselves, were exterminated.” Worse, he goes on to blame “the liberal media” for pointing out the obvious–and deeply offensive–Holocaust reference.

His campaign spokesman Phil Christofanelli told the paper that the story was “generated by left-wing liberal blogs and picked up by the ‘sympathetic liberal media.’” Jewish groups were swift to condemn the ad, as were Democrats and the overwhelming majority of viewers on YouTube. As of publication, the ad has been viewed almost 50,000 times and most of the feedback has been negative.

For good measure, Christofanelli expanded on the ad as well, adding slavery to the list of atrocities that can be traced back to gun control. “Well, blacks weren’t allowed to own guns in the South, that’s a historical fact as well,” he told Politicker on Tuesday.

NEWS FLASH

Arkansas Supreme Court: Execution Law is Unconstitutional | Today the Arkansas Supreme Court struck down the state’s execution law, calling it unconstitutional. The Court ruled the current law, passed in 2009, is unconstitional because it empowered the Department of Corrections to make execution policy, and under the Arkansas constitution only the legislature can make execution policy. Arkansas has not put anyone to death since 2005, and it is not immediately clear how today’s ruling will affect the 40 men currently on death row. The state could rely on a 1983 law, which adopted the lethal injection for executions, or amend the current law. –Alex Brown

By Guest Blogger on Jun 22, 2012 at 4:14 pm

Economy

4 Policies That Can Help Women (And Men) ‘Have It All’

By Guest Blogger on Jun 22, 2012 at 4:05 pm

Our guest bloggers are Sarah Jane Glynn, a policy analyst at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, and Tara Dawson McGuinness, Senior Vice President for CAPAF.

Former State department official Anne-Marie Slaughter’s piece in the Atlantic, entitled “Why Women Still Can’t Have it All,” has set off a fire-storm of discussion about women and men in the work force. Whether you agree with Slaughter, Salon writer Rebecca Traister (who takes on Slaughter’s arguments), or facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg (who has provided advice on this topic), there are certainly policy solutions that would address the problems facing parents in the modern workplace. Here are four policy ideas that could help America’s government and businesses keep up with its families:

1) Paid Family And Medical Leave Insurance: In spite of the fact that all of the adults in most families are employed, the United States is the only industrialized nation that does not guarantee workers paid parental leave, and one of only a handful that does not provide other types of paid caregiving leave. The Center for American Progress’ proposal for paid family and medical leave would increase women’s employment and promote gender equity.

2) Paid Sick Days: Nearly 4 in 10 working women do not have access to paid sick days and female-dominated industries are the least likely to offer paid sick days, in spite of the fact that women are the most likely to need to miss work to care for a sick child, partner, or parent. The Healthy Families Act would provide workers with the right to earn paid sick days to recover from their own short-term illnesses or to care for an ill family member.

3) Right To Request Workplace Flexibility: Discrimination against workers with family caregiving responsibilities is illegal throughout Europe, but not in the United States, where workers also lack the ability to request workplace flexibility without retaliation. Modeled on similar legislation in the U.K. and Australia, the Working Families Flexibility Act would allow workers to request flexible working conditions without fear of negative consequences, and would ensure that employers take those requests seriously.

4) Equal Pay: Women are more likely than men to withdraw from the workforce to provide family care, in part because they tend to earn less money than their male partners. Some employers justify paying women less because they fear their female workers will leave in order to stay home. The Paycheck Fairness Act would help empower women to demand equal pay, and would make it harder for employers to discriminate against women.

73 percent of the country’s moms are working, and it is about time that policy took into account this important change in the makeup of the workforce.

NEWS FLASH

DC Mayor Signs LGBT-Inclusive Anti-Bullying Law | On Friday, Washington, DC Mayor Vincent Gray signed the Youth Bullying Prevention Act of 2012. The Act establishes a task force to develop a model anti-bullying policy, which will protect sexual orientation and gender identity, to serve as the standard for all D.C. governmental agencies, notably schools. “This is a very, very important piece of legislation,” said DC Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson. “…We can’t insure that our young people are prepared and they have a world class education that ensures that they’re ready for college or a career if they don’t feel safe, if they don’t feel confident, if they don’t feel able to be themselves because other people are bullying them.” Across the country, 17 states have anti-bullying laws that include sexual orientation and gender identity.

– Ben Sherman

By Guest Blogger on Jun 22, 2012 at 3:55 pm

Climate Progress

UN’s Sustainable Energy For All Initiative Gets A Boost At Troubled Rio Summit

By Climate Guest Blogger on Jun 22, 2012 at 3:52 pm

by Gwynne Taraska

Ban Ki-moon’s initiative “Sustainable Energy for All” (SE4ALL) did not receive a strong endorsement in the final draft of the Rio+20 declaration.  It should have.  Nevertheless, SE4ALL leaves the summit with something that is arguably better: strong support from governments, the private sector, multilateral development banks, and civil society groups.  We should continue to support the initiative so that it survives – and thrives – after the summit.

About SE4ALL

SE4ALL, led by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, has three objectives to be achieved by 2030.

1. Ensure universal access to modern energy services.

2. Double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency.

3. Double the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix.

The initiative’s High Level Group, chaired by Kandeh Yumkella (Director-General of the UN Industrial Development Organization) and Charles Holliday (Chairman of Bank of America), has produced a Global Action Agenda to “to guide efforts undertaken in support of achieving the initiative’s three objectives.” Secretary of Energy Steven Chu is the U.S. representative to the group.

Ban Ki-moon labored for months to put SE4ALL at the center of the Rio agenda.  The strategy made sense.  Rio was the biggest sustainable development event on the global agenda in the last ten years, and it possibly won’t be duplicated for another ten years.  It was the optimal moment to call the world’s attention to the problem of energy poverty.  It’s impossible to imagine a fair and effective distribution of global climate mitigation that would be acceptable to the developing world without a robust companion sustainable development agenda.  Ban Ki-moon’s process therefore fills a needed gap in the global effort to reconcile climate and development needs.

Unfortunately, SE4ALL didn’t get much support from the Rio text.  In the one paragraph on the initiative, the three specific objectives and target date are not mentioned.  The paragraph even provides an out to parties who won’t be able to meet its goals, or who won’t try to accomplish them.

129. We note the launching of the initiative by the Secretary General on “Sustainable Energy for All”, which focus on access to energy, energy efficiency and renewable energies. We are all determined to act to make sustainable energy for all a reality, and through this, help eradicate poverty and lead to sustainable development and global prosperity. We recognize that countries’ activities in broader energy-related issues are of great importance and are prioritized according to their specific challenges, capacities and circumstances, including energy mix.

SE4ALL Beyond Rio+20

The good news is that the success of SE4ALL does not rely on the Rio text.  In fact, the initiative received an impressive boost from many parties at the summit.

Read more

Alyssa

‘Seeking a Friend for the End of the World’ and the Heroism of Niceness

By Alyssa Rosenberg on Jun 22, 2012 at 3:36 pm

In our age of anti-heroes and fabulous villains, niceness has often fallen along the wayside as an embodiment of dull virtue, evidence of a distasteful unwillingness to commit to strong emotion or decisive action. It’s no mistake that Steve Carrell’s emerged as a surprisingly significant movie star during this past decade. He’s the one person who can get away with making nice interesting, the end goal of hard-fought battles for control in a world that often takes advantage of or mocks decency. And Carell’s rarely used his core strength to better effect than in Seeking a Friend For the End of the World, a lovely, emotionally precise apocalypse romantic comedy that seems at unfortunate risk of being drowned out by this summer’s louder, cruder entertainments.

FX Photo Studio HD Image

Seeking a Friend begins with a news announcement that immediately sets it apart from other movies about the potential end times: “The final mission to save mankind has failed.” Upon hearing that awful pronouncement, Dodge’s (Carell) wife Linda bolts from the car they’ve pulled over to the side of the road to hear the radio report on a last-ditch effort to divert an asteriod that’s headed towards earth with cataclysmic consequences. She, as it turns out with, wants to spend her final month on earth with someone other than her husband.

But Dodge wasn’t harboring a secret yearning—unlike the other guests at a dinner party thrown by his unhappily married friends, a very funny Connie Britton and Rob Corddry, he doesn’t want to have an orgy or try heroin—or an alternate plan. So he goes about his job as an insurance adjustor at an increasingly-depleted office, telling callers “Sorry, sir, I’m afraid that’s not covered under your current policy. Yes, the Armageddon package is extra,” and attending meetings where is boss lets the dwindling staff “know of a few positions in upper management that have become available. Anyone want to be Chief Financial Officer?”

It seems Dodge will continue to wind down the end of his life and everyone else’s with these small acts of decency—he adopts an abandoned dog as his sole act of adventure, and tries, unsuccessfully, to convince his housekeeper to spend more time with her family—until a neighbor he’s never spoken with breaks up with her boyfriend and ends up crying on his fire escape. The real source of her heartache, it turns out, is that she isn’t going to be able to spend her last days with her family. “I missed two planes,” Penny sobs. “I missed them all. The end of the world and I’m still fifteen minutes late.” Along with her woes, Penny brings Dodge’s undelivered mail, which includes a letter from a woman he loved and lost years ago, giving him sudden forward momentum. Penny has a car, and Dodge knows someone with a plane, and they strike a bargain: Penny will help Dodge find his old girlfriend, and he will help her make one last attempt to cross the Atlantic home to England.

What’s striking about their roadtrip is its warmth. When they’re arrested for speeding, another cop lets them out of jail in the morning with an apology and a plea for understanding: his colleague is reacting badly to the end times and trying to restore as much order to his universe as he can. Dodge and Penny stop by a Friendsy’s restaurant where the employees are hilariously, cultishly high and reveling, determined to satisfy as many customers as possible before they close forever. “Everyone’s welcome!” the host tells them. ” A dude brought in a wolf last week.” And they’re brought closer, and Dodge comes entirely out of his shell in an almost worldless sequence when he and Penny run across what appears to be a mass baptism on a gorgeous beach. The scene could have been played for sneers or rank sentiment, but instead, it’s a quiet testament to the power of connection. Who wouldn’t want to spend one last perfect day at the beach with someone they love before the world ends, surrounded by people who are eager to share the small bounties in their possession?

The fact that the end is inevitable liberates Seeking a Friend from the cliched, last-minute heroics that consume so many apocalypse movies. There’s nothing wrong with wanting the world to keep on turning, but those stories are in service of future love and kindness, rather than appreciating what you have. The movie gently pokes fun at that kind of planning when Dodge and Penny stop by to see one of Penny’s old boyfriends, a hyper-prepared survivalist who asks Dodge to convince Penny to stay in his bunker because “Can we restart society without her? Sure, but she deserves to be one of the top-quality females in contention.” Seeking a Friend is a movie about the people who aren’t really in contention, and about the fact that whether you can save the world or not, it’s possible to be the hero of your own life.

Justice

Five More Issues To Watch Out For On State Ballots this Fall

By Guest Blogger on Jun 22, 2012 at 3:31 pm

This November, voters will face ballot questions on a variety of issues. Some initiatives are targeted at denying the rights of working families, women, LGBT people, communities of color, immigrants, and the poor, while others are targeted at implementing better public policy. Ten important issues to watch this November can be found here and here are five more issues to watch:

  1. Marijuana laws in Colorado, Montana, and Washington: Colorado, Montana, and Washington all have ballot questions that could lead to partial decriminalization. In Colorado and Washington, voters will choose whether to legalize and regulate sales of small quantities of marijuana to residents 21 years and older. In Montana, voters will decide whether to repeal a law that itself was aimed at repealing a voter approved initiative legalizing medical marijuana in 2004. Seventy-seven percent of Americans believe that doctors should be able to proscribe medical marijuana and 75% believe that the federal government should defer to a state’s decision to legalize marijuana for certain uses.
  2. Three-Strikes Law in California: California voters will choose whether or not to alter elements of the state’s “three-strikes law,” which was originally approved as a ballot measure in 1994. The modifications would reserve life sentences for a third strike only in cases where the new felony conviction is serious or violent, and allow re-sentencing for offenders already serving a life term for a non-violent felony. Proponents of the initiative include top prosecutors in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and, according to a recent study, the three-strikes law as it stands is both costly and ineffective.
  3. Courts Composition in Florida: In Florida, voters will face a ballot question on the size and composition of Florida’s Supreme Court. The proposal would add three justices to the seven-member court and create two five justice divisions, one criminal and one civil. While the proposal is backed by business groups like the Florida Chamber of Commerce, opponents are concerned about further politicizing the courts and giving Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) more influence over the courts by allowing him to choose three new justices.
  4. Repealing Emergency Managers Law in Michigan: Michigan voters may get a chance to repeal the state’s emergency managers law. If placed on the ballot and passed, the repeal would undo a law that gives “emergency manager sweeping powers to override local elected officials, including the power to amend or throw out union contracts” if the governor declares that a local government is in financial distress.
  5. Election Laws in Ohio: Ohio voters may get a chance to repeal HB 194, a controversial law that curtailed voting rights in the state. The bill restricts early voting, eliminates the requirement that poll workers direct voters to the proper precinct, and makes it harder to vote absentee. The initiative is embroiled in a legal controversy because Republicans in Ohio’s legislature are attempting to undercut the initiative by repealing some parts of the law. Voters may also decide whether to change the redistricting process in Ohio by creating a citizen panel to draw maps.

–Alex Brown

Election

Partisan Republicans Aggressively Seeking To Become Election Officials In Florida

By Adam Peck on Jun 22, 2012 at 3:03 pm

Republican lawmakers in states like Georgia, Texas and Wisconsin have spent the last several months introducing — and, in some cases, passing — laws designed to suppress largely Democratic voters ahead of the general election.

Nowhere have these efforts advanced further than in Florida, where Governor Rick Scott has defied the Department of Justice’s order to cease his highly controversial and ineffective voter roll purge, in which hundreds of eligible voters — including many Latinos and self-identified Democrats — have been booted from the rolls.

All of this has succeeded in politicizing the most impregnable institution of democracy: elections.

The Herald-Tribune in Sarasota, Florida reports that election supervisors, long considered dull administrative desk jobs with little to no influence on policy, have become hotly contested jobs attracting political heavyweights in some counties along the state’s West Coast:

• In Sarasota County, three-term county commissioner Jon Thaxton, a Republican, is challenging supervisor Kathy Dent.

• In Manatee County, state Sen. Mike Bennett, a Bradenton developer known for antagonizing Democrats in Tallahassee, is banking that his decade of name recognition will help him succeed retiring supervisor of elections Bob Sweat.

• In Charlotte County, former four-term county commissioner Adam Cummings is looking to unseat first-term incumbent Paul Stamoulis.

• In Hillsborough County, former state Rep. Rich Gloriso, a Republican, passed up an opportunity to run for the state Senate to instead run for supervisor of elections.

The trend is troubling, and could perhaps signal the next front in an ever-expanding political battlefield. Already, a handful of isolated Election Day incidents—most notably Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus’ botched 2011 special election in Wisconsin—have stirred controversy.

NEWS FLASH

Half Of States Protect Men’s Health More Than Women’s | Twenty-two states will not offer coverage of contraception to women on the same basis as it is offered to men if the Affordable Care Act is overturned. The Progressive States Network put together this map, which shows that no matter how the Supreme Court rules on the law, women in 28 states will have contraceptives covered on the same basis as men’s reproductive care. In the other states, though, women are less lucky:

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