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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (756634)	12/7/2013 3:31:01 PM
From: bentway	Respond to of 1573921

"the Medicare prescription drug benefit was a major victory for liberals" Not true. Liberals wanted the program to negotiate drug prices. That didn't happen in a gift from Bush to the pharma lobby.

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (756634)	12/7/2013 3:55:46 PM
From: Wharf Rat	1 Recommendation Recommended By bentway Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573921

Nope. It's cuz the night of the first inauguration, a meeting of the AAOWG decided they would go out of their way to block everything, and made even being seen in the presence of Obama a failure in the litmus test of purity. WASHINGTON -- As President Barack Obama was celebrating his inauguration at various balls, top Republican lawmakers and strategists were conjuring up ways to submarine his presidency at a private dinner in Washington. The event -- which provides a telling revelation for how quickly the post-election climate soured -- serves as the prologue of Robert Draper's much-discussed and heavily-reported new book, "Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives." According to Draper, the guest list that night (which was just over 15 people in total) included Republican Reps. Eric Cantor (Va.), Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), Paul Ryan (Wis.), Pete Sessions (Texas), Jeb Hensarling (Texas), Pete Hoekstra (Mich.) and Dan Lungren (Calif.), along with Republican Sens. Jim DeMint (S.C.), Jon Kyl (Ariz.), Tom Coburn (Okla.), John Ensign (Nev.) and Bob Corker (Tenn.). The non-lawmakers present included Newt Gingrich, several years removed from his presidential campaign, and Frank Luntz, the long-time Republican wordsmith. Notably absent were Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) -- who, Draper writes, had an acrimonious relationship with Luntz. huffingtonpost.com

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (756634)	12/7/2013 11:07:14 PM
From: bentway	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1573921

Westboro Baptists ‘booking flights’ for Johannesburg to protest Mandela’s funeral By George Chidi rawstory.com Saturday, December 7, 2013 17:02 EST The Westboro Baptist Church has a long history of media-soliciting domestic and international hate protests, with pickets targeting the funerals of dead children at Sandy Hook, fallen soldiers and celebrities like Paul Walker drawing outsized attention. Their next dive into the fray is a triple-gainer by their historical standards, though — a protest of Nelson Mandela’s funeral. In South Africa. In a series of deliberately-provocative Twitter posts, the church says it is buying plane tickets to South Africa and is hoping to coordinate with South African police while they stage a protest at the funeral, citing Mandela’s divorce and remarriage as evidence of damnation. The Westboro Baptist Church has gained international infamy for picketing the funerals of dead soldiers with offensive signs such as “God hates f*gs” and is widely considered to be a hate group. WBC founder Fred Phelps is — perhaps surprisingly — a veteran of the civil rights movement, but the group’s more offensive picket signs and statements may run afoul of South Africa’s limitations on free speech. The 1996 constitution contains more protection for free speech in law and practice than most countries in Africa, but “advocacy of hatred that is based on race, ethnicity, gender or religion, and that constitutes incitement to cause harm” is not protected. And if the early Twitter reaction to the WBC announcement is any indication, incitement may already be happening.

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (756634)	12/8/2013 7:41:22 PM
From: bentway	Respond to of 1573921

Satanists Seek Monument at Oklahoma Statehouse TEN COMMANDMENTS PROJECT INSPIRED THEM TO APPLY By Neal Colgrass, Newser Staff newser.com ( Let's wait for the lawsuit, and then see NO religious monuments at the OK statehouse! ) Posted Dec 8, 2013 4:00 PM CST (NEWSER) – Republicans trying to bring church and state closer together in Oklahoma have opened the door to an unlikely group: Satanists. To recap, a Ten Commandments monument was installed at the Capitol Grounds last year with funding from the GOP-controlled legislature, despite outcry from legal experts who called it unconstitutional. The ACLU's Oklahoma chapter even sued for its removal. In the meantime, the Satanic Temple stepped in, saying hey, since you're open to merging church and state, we'd like to have a monument there too, the AP reports. Temple spokesman Lucien Greaves said he's thinking pentagram design or possibly interactive display for kids. It would "be in good taste and consistent with community standards," he said. Rep. Mike Ritze, who championed the Ten Commandments display, had no comment—but Greaves tipped his hat to him, saying Ritze is "helping a satanic agenda grow more than any of us possibly could." The Oklahoma Legislature would have to approve the project, which hardly seems likely in a Bible Belt state. "I think these Satanists are a different group," said a state GOP state rep. "You put them under the nut category."