Lawmakers Are Beginning to Get It

 Politics
May 232013
 

When the IRS scandal broke, the first thing I did was to read the statute.  I was most surprised to discover that the regulation people at the IRS violated and the language of the statute itself are completely unrelated.  O’Donnell has continued his campaign to educate Americans, but to date, he seems the only broadcast journalist of note to do so.

23Hearings…After the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling freed corporations — including nonprofits organized under sections 501(c)(4), (c)(5) and (c)(6) — to spend money directly on political campaigns, 501(c)(4) spending on politics soared from an infinitesimal amount in 2006 to $294 million in the 2012 election. Nonprofits, unlike political committees and campaigns, are not required to disclose their donors, and the surge in their spending has raised concerns among lawmakers and campaign-finance watchdogs that groups are improperly claiming tax-exempt status when their primary purpose is electioneering.

This spending is allowed thanks to a difference between the tax law and IRS regulations for these nonprofit groups. The law says that 501(c)(4) organizations must be operated "exclusively" for the purpose of social welfare, while the IRS regulation defines "exclusively" as "primarily." This difference has created a substantial amount of confusion within and outside the agency around what constitutes political activity, and officials say it played a part in the abuses uncovered in the inspector general’s report.

Nearly every Democrat on the panel called for clearer rules governing how the IRS determines political activity and for a better definition of how much political campaign activity is allowable for 501(c)(4) groups.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said Citizens United had created a situation where "groups that ought to be [political organizations] are applying for 501(c)(4) status to hide their donors."

"The lines blurred between [political organizations] and 501(c)(4), and you all don’t seem to have done anything about it," Wyden said, addressing the panel of former and current IRS and Treasury officials who appeared before the committee…

Inserted from <Huffington Post>

By law, none of the political 501(c)(4) groups should have that status.  Republicans made the regulation illegal in 1959.

Lawrence O’Donnell discussed this with Joy Reid and Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC).

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The statute is crystal clear, and finally, a few Democrats are beginning to get it that the real scandal is that any political activity exists under 501(c)(4). Now, it’s time for the rest of the news media to do their job instead of infotaining sheeple.

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Open Thread–3/30/2013

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 302013
 

My back still hurts like hell, but it’s nowhere near as bad as it was yesterday.  If I keep recovering at the same rate, I’ll be back soon.

Jig Zone Puzzles:

Yesterday’s took me 4:32 (average 5:22).  To do it, click here.  Today’s took me 4:11 (average 4:57).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: How Many Times Did You Need To Hear The Word ‘Yes’ Before You Did This?

 

That really puts it into perspective, doesn’t it?

From The New Yorker: Justice Antonin Scalia dropped a bombshell on the Supreme Court today, announcing his decision to resign from the Court “effective immediately” and leave the United States forever.

Calling this week “by far the worst week of my life,” Justice Scalia lashed out at his fellow-Justices and the nation, saying, “I don’t want to live in a sick, sick country that thinks the way this country apparently thinks.”

Justice Scalia said that he had considered fleeing to Canada, “but they not only have gay marriage but also national health care, which is almost as evil.”

He said the fact that nations around the world recognizing same-sex marriage are “falling like deviant dominoes” would not deter him from leaving the United States: “There are plenty of other countries that still feel the way I do. I’ll move to Iran if I have to.”

Of course this is satire, but resigning the Court and leaving the US is the greatest gift he could possibly give America.

From Crooks and Liars: Jon Stewart roasts Rupert Murdoch over his bid to buy the LA Times. Murdoch already had a chance at the news publishing business with his News of The World rag, which blew up in his face over criminal activities and now new arrests. So why would he be given a special waiver to buy the storied newspaper?

 

Murdoch, owner of the Republican Ministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise, and the formerly respectable Wall Street Journal, deserves a waiver… to his FCC license!

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Idiot, Son of Idiot, Named after Idiot is so blatantly ignorant that the highly acclaimed poet he quoted to court Latinos, Pablo Neruda, was an avowed Communist.

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Open Thread–3/20/2013

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 212013
 

The good news is that Spring has sproinged.  The bad news is that I haven’t and am still down.  I’ll keep you posted.  Happy Lady Day to our Wiccan friends.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:48 (average 6:00).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The Guardian: At the conservative gathering CPAC last week the enormity of this media world was remarkable. The hall was packed with talk radio shows, conservative publishers and authors signing their latest books, many of which were bestsellers. This is a world where it is seriously believed that the United Nations is trying to take over the US, and Obama is a Kenyan socialist, an Islamist, a Marxist or the biological son of communist-sympathiser Frank Marshall Davis. This is a world where Obama wants to take away all guns, where he has dictatorial powers worthy of an emperor and where the US media is a liberal conspiracy pushing abortions and being gay. This is the world where Glenn Beck, former Fox TV host turned popular publisher of The Blaze website, is hugely powerful and shock jock Rush Limbaugh is king.

Nothing of its kind exists to the same degree on the left, despite the recent best propagandistic efforts of MSNBC. Limbaugh is a man who can bring GOP politicians down if he wants. If they stray from orthodoxy, he can bring them back into line with some vitriol on his show. The words of MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, or even New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, do not carry anything near the same weight with Democrats.

On the left, we have our extreme wing-nuts too, but we marginalize and ignore them. On the right, Republicans celebrate and elect them.

From Salon: CNN congressional corespondent [sic] Dana Bash tried to ask Bachmann Tuesday about her the inconsistencies in her speech. It didn’t go too well, as she explained to Anderson Cooper last night. Bash, who has gotten pretty good at chasing Bachmann in heels, tried to speak with the Tea Party Caucus chairwoman in the basement of the Capitol, but the congresswoman took off running. Bash kept pace, valiantly trying to keep up her questions as they careered through the narrow corridors, but Bachmann refused to play ball.

 

If you thought that Batshit B would keep her trap shut, you thought wrong. She gave us another splendid example of projection.

From National Memo: A new poll from Gallup has some unsurprising results — Democrats and Independents support new government spending to create jobs — and one surprising result — so do Republicans.

Lyin’ Ryan claimed that his newest old budget will stimulate the economy, and he’s right.  It will stimulate the economy of the Cayman Islands.  It will stimulate the economy of Switzerland.  It will stimulate the economy of Red China.  But in the US, only the economy particular to the 1% will be stimulated.

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Open Thread–2/22/2013

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 222013
 

Yesterday I slept all day and all evening.  I feel better, but I am way too groggy!  I’m current with replies.  Tomorrow appears routine.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:29 (average 6:36).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: Bill Nye The Science Guy Made A Video For Those Who Wonder About These Crazy Weather Patterns

 

This does NOT require rocket science. What the article missed is that Congressional Republicans are the world’s largest source of methane. ;-)

From Media Matters: On February 7, Breitbart.com’s Ben Shapiro reported that Defense Secretary nominee Chuck Hagel (according to "Senate sources") received money from a group called "Friends of Hamas." The report spread quickly through the conservative media as damning of Hagel, until Dave Weigel at Slate.com pointed out a salient fact — there’s no evidence that "Friends of Hamas" exists. Now, New York Daily News reporter Dan Friedman is claiming that a joke he shared with a GOP source is the provenance of "Friends of Hamas." In response to their story falling apart, Shapiro and Breitbart.com — who angrily and self-righteously demand accountability from the rest of the media for every slip-up, real or imagined — are lashing out and refusing to accept responsibility for publishing a report based on a falsehood.

Needless to say, Republican Senators and the Republican Ministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise, reported this Breitfart InsaniTEA as gospel.

From MSNBC: Ed Schultz covered the previous item with Dan Rather.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world target="_blank" news, and news about the economy

I do disagree with Rather’s implication that, since the Internet is where the bad information often starts, information from the Internet is not reliable.  I am a commentator, not a reporter, but personally, I rarely post any article I have not confirmed from at least two main stream sources. When I do, I say so at the time, so readers know that the information is not as solid as my norm. What integrity problem there is on the left, comes almost only from the extreme fringes. But on the right, integrity is the exception, not the rule.  That distinction is too important not to make.

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Open Thread–2/13/2012

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 132013
 

I am sooooo pooped, after spending the day in prison, but I could not be more proud on my guys.  One had his parole hearing last week.  We’ll call him S.  He has been in prison for 23 years, and I know only a couple other people who have worked as long or as hard to change.  The board will deliberate on him in the next couple months.  Prayers, good thoughts, and good wishes please.  Critter sends greetings to critter.  I’m current with replies.  I will hopefully be sufficiently rested to be back to normal tomorrow.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:27 (average 5:24).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

SOTU:

Here’s the speech in its entirety.

This may have been Obama’s best yet. Rubio’s speech, except for his brief deception that creating a permanent underclass of immigrant serfs is favoring immigration reform, could have been delivered by Little Lord Willard before the election. Rand ‘asshole, son of asshole’ Paul never wandered from beneath his tin foil hat. His tax plan would hand billionaires in the 0.1% a bigger tax break each year than most Americans earn in a lifetime.

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: Words From A President Many Never Expected To Hear During Their Lifetime

13BOLGBT500

I fully agree. That we love must be all that matters, not who we love.

From NY Times: …At times, the meeting slipped into an unusually accusatory and bitter back-and-forth, with Republicans like Ted Cruz, a freshman senator from Texas, going as far as to suggest that Mr. Hagel had accepted money from nations that oppose American interests.

Saying that he had serious doubts about the source of payments that Mr. Hagel had accepted for speaking engagements, Mr. Cruz declared, “It is at a minimum relevant to know if that $200,000 that he deposited in his bank account came directly from Saudi Arabia, came directly from North Korea.”

Senator Bill Nelson of Florida and other Democrats countered by saying that Republicans had unfairly questioned the integrity of both Mr. Hagel, a two-time Purple Heart recipient, and had undermined the work of the normally bipartisan committee itself.

“Senator Cruz has gone over the line,” Mr. Nelson said. “He basically has impugned the patriotism of the nominee.”

Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, who is opposing his former colleague, also bristled at the attacks on Mr. Hagel, saying that “no one on this committee should at any time impugn his character or his integrity.”

Teabag Cruz was way over the line with is lies about Hagel. On the other hand, rare kudos for McCain for having the integrity to defend an enemy against a vile, unjustified attack.

From Reuters: Comcast Corp clinched full control of NBC Universal for $16.7 billion on Tuesday, the latest in a series of deals that have taken the cable operator from humble roots in Tupelo, Mississippi, to Manhattan’s iconic Rockerfeller Center.

To give you a better idea just how much media is concentrated, here’s what Comcast gets, according to Wikipedia.

Subsidiaries

  • NBC Broadcasting
    • NBC Advertising Sales
    • NBC Owned Television Stations
    • Affiliate Relations
    • Network Research
    • Domestic Television Distribution
    • NBCUniversal Digital Entertainment
    • Special Events
  • NBC Entertainment
    • NBC programming
    • Universal Television
  • Universal Pictures
    • Focus Features
    • Working Title Films
    • Universal Studios Home Entertainment
    • Universal Animation Studios
    • Illumination Entertainment
  • NBCUniversal Cable
    • Syfy
    • Chiller
    • Cloo
    • E!
    • G4
    • USA Network
    • Universal HD
    • Universal Cable Productions
  • NBC Sports Group
    • Comcast Sports Group
    • Golf Channel
    • NBC Sports
    • NBC Sports Digital Network
    • NBC Sports Network
  • Entertainment & Digital Networks and Integrated Media
    • (entertainment networks)
      • Bravo Media
      • Oxygen Media
      • Style Media
      • Telemundo
      • mun2
      • PBS Kids Sprout (JV)
      • TVOne (JV)
    • (digital networks)
      • DailyCandy
      • Fandango
      • iVillage
      • Television Without Pity
      • Integrated Media group
  • NBCUniversal News Group
    • NBC News
    • CNBC
    • MSNBC
    • The Weather Channel (JV)[31]
  • Canal+ Group (50%)
    • Canal+
    • StudioCanal
    • i-Télé
    • Cyfra+ (75%)
    • CanalSat

Joint Ventures

  • United International Pictures

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Open Thread–12/28/2012

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Dec 282012
 

Unfortunately, I’m still not out of the woods from a health perspective.  I’m current with replies.  Maybe tomorrow.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:38 (average 5:12).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: Despite clear public support for women’s reproductive rights, Michigan’s Republican-controlled Legislature used the just-ended lame-duck session to ram through harmful measures eliminating insurance coverage of abortions and imposing medically unnecessary regulations on providers of safe and legal abortion care.

The state’s Republican governor, Rick Snyder, can show real leadership and demonstrate respect for women in his state by refusing to sign these ideologically driven bills into law.

Click through for the details. His insistence on continuing the Republican War on Women demonstrates that Snyder, like his Republican cronies, has no respect for women.

From MSNBC: Ezra Klein and EJ Dione discuss the media tendency to blame both sides for the current impasse.

 

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The notion that both sides are to blame is a media lie. One side has given much more trying to come together, while the other side, if anything has moved further away. This misinformation is deceiving the American people, and enabling the Republican Party to insist that, as losers, they should get even more than the winners’ share.

From Huffington Post: Users of the White House’s "We the People" digital petition platform have flooded the site in support of an effort to officially designate the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group.

The most popular petition was submitted on Dec. 14, the same day as the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., an incident that Westboro responded to by announcing its intent to picket the funerals of the 26 victims, including 20 young children.,

This group of Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians is arguably the most extreme example of the Republican love affair with hate.

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Open Thread–12/22/2012

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Dec 222012
 

Today I’m on a very light schedule, but I do have one additional article for you.  I’m current with replies.  Tomorrow I have a month’s grocery delivery coming, and I’ll be hard presses to just get it put away.  It’s also a holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb.  My Broncos’ meditation with the Browns will not be televised here.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:20 (average 6:03).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Media Matters: Misinformer Of The Year: Rush Limbaugh

"Slut." "Prostitute."

These words defined Rush Limbaugh in 2012 after he smeared Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown law student who testified before Congress about women’s health care. Limbaugh’s misogynistic attack, which spanned three days of his radio show, did incalculable, long-term damage not only to Limbaugh’s brand, but also to the right-wing talk-radio format he helped to build and the conservative movement he has shaped for decades.

Limbaugh’s attacks on Fluke led to a paradigm shift in talk radio, as advertisers reassessed their support for inflammatory hosts. Limbaugh’s toxic rhetoric helped shine a glaring spotlight on the broader conservative movement’s policies toward women, focusing public attention on the radical right-wing effort to dismantle reproductive rights and the social safety net.

They could not have picked a more deserving recipient than Limbarf, the de facto head of the Republican Party.

From MSNBC: Wreckage of the GOP

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Bought Bitch Mitch could not be more wrong. It’s Congress’ job to legislate, not the President’s. In my opinion, Obama has offered the Republicans far more than they have a right to expect. America’s problem is strictly a Republican problem.

From Think Progress: House Republicans let the five-year farm bill expire at the end of September without a new law to replace the massive measure covering billions of dollars in programs, including food stamps and agriculture subsidies. The Senate passed its own bipartisan, 10-year farm bill in June, and House Democrats and farm state Republicans attempted to force the House to consider a bill to replace it. But the GOP leadership steadfastly refused to vote on it.

As a result, milk prices could jump as high as $6 to $8 per gallon after Jan. 1, when the government will revert to following antiquated 1949 regulations without a farm bill in place.

Because they have declared war on America, may congressional Republicans find a lump of coal in their stockings, and may those stockings be in boots, and may those boots be buried deep between their nether cheeks.

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