June 29, 2015

Bush, Walker eye new ‘nuclear option’

By Steve Benen

In his weekly address over the weekend, President Obama made a straightforward vow, intended to set families’ minds at ease: the Affordable Care Act is “here to stay.” His confidence is understandable, since the King v. Burwell case was effectively the anti-healthcare forces’ last real shot to undermine the law and take benefits from millions.

But, skeptics might say, what about 2017? What about the not-at-all-fanciful possibility that, a year and a half from now, Americans will have elected a Republican president to work with a Republican Congress? It stands to reason that a GOP-dominated federal government might get to work dismantling the current American health care system.

Democrats believe the law is “here to stay,” however, because of the legislative process – Senate Dems would obviously filibuster any attempt to start taking benefits away from families. Unless GOP senators had 60 votes – an unlikely scenario – a Republican repeal plan would fail.

Unless, that is, Republicans change the rules. Bloomberg Politics reported late last week:

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush said Friday he’s open to eliminating the Senate’s 60-vote threshold if it helps Congress repeal Obamacare and enact “free-market oriented” health care reforms.

-snip-

more
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/bush-walker-eye-new-nuclear-option?cid=eml_mra_20150629

June 29, 2015

GOP candidates’ same-sex marriage test: Who’s willing to be honest about what just happened?

A candidate pledging to push a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage is not a serious candidate

JIM NEWELL

The big political question coming out of last week’s historic ruling recognizing a constitutional right to same-sex marriage is: How will the Republican presidential candidates react? Kidding, kidding. I’m kidding! The big question is really: who cares how they’ll react? They can run around saying whatever. They lost the central fight and now will exert most of their energy protecting those local government clerks whose religion prevents them from issuing marriage certificates. Go nuts.

But hey, just for fun. Which candidates will at least be honest with socially conservative voters about what’s just transpired? About the losing part?

Here is an honest thing that these candidates will say, or at least imply: that there will be no amendment to the Constitution rolling back the right to same-sex marriage. This couldn’t go anywhere a dozen years ago, when the Supreme Court first recognized gay peoples’ right to have sex, and it won’t go anywhere now, when strong majorities of the country support the right to same-sex marriage. It is hard to pass any constitutional amendment that rolls back an extension of freedoms. That’s sort of the point.

This is a simple test of integrity in the solicitation of votes. If the candidate promises to pursue a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage: Fraud! If the candidate rejects or even just sidesteps that question: Not fraud! (At least on that issue.)

Mike Huckabee, for example, would be a “fraud” here. His campaign sent out an ACTION ALERT that, like most ACTION ALERT emails, is a means of collecting email addresses for his database. His six-point plan to fight an Out-of-Control Supreme Court (emphases his) includes such specific policy measures as “End Judicial Tyranny & Restore the Balance of Power Between the 3 Branches of Government,” “Nominate Commonsense Constitutional Judges and Justices,” and, of course, “Pass a Constitutional Amendment Defining Marriage As Between One Man & One Woman.” I don’t know what those First Two Things mean, but I do know what the Last One means and I know that It will never happen, and that Mike Huckabee is bullshitting.

more
http://www.salon.com/2015/06/29/gop_candidates_same_sex_marriage_test_whos_willing_to_be_honest_about_what_just_happened/

June 29, 2015

Is the “Obama Crime Family” blackmailing Chief Justice John Roberts?

For conservative commentator Wayne Root, it's the only possible answer for his decisions of late

SCOTT ERIC KAUFMAN

In his column for The Blaze, conservative commentator Wayne Root proffered a unique theory for why Chief Justice John Roberts has twice voted to save the Affordable Care Act — like former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, the “lifelong conservative warrior appointed by George W. Bush to become the key conservative vote in important decisions” is being blackmailed.

“Justice Roberts was born, raised and groomed for one job in this life,” Root wrote, “to join that Supreme Court, strike down Obamacare, protect the Constitution and end big government overreach. Yet he is the man responsible for saving Obamacare – twice.”

“This doesn’t seem odd to you?” he asked. “This doesn’t smell rotten?”

Root noted that Democrats would only need to blackmail one or two key Republican figures — the other possibility he floats is House Majority Leader John Boehner — in order to effectively nullify all of the GOP’s recent electoral victories. The “Obama Crime Family” certainly has the means to acquire information on conservative targets, after all.

“What makes anyone think the government and its three-letter agencies (IRS, NSA, DOJ, FBI, SEC) don’t know everything bad about everyone in key positions in Washington, D.C.?” Root asked. “What makes you think that blackmail isn’t happening every day to conservative politicians — except it’s the government doing the blackmailing?”

more
http://www.salon.com/2015/06/29/is_the_obama_crime_family_blackmailing_chief_justice_john_roberts/

June 29, 2015

They’ll never stop fighting the culture wars: Why the GOP won’t seize its “opportunity” to give up e

They’ll never stop fighting the culture wars: Why the GOP won’t seize its “opportunity” to give up extremism

SCOTUS decisions on marriage equality and Obamacare could let 2016 contenders turn the page. But they don’t want to

JOAN WALSH

Writing for the New York Times on Sunday, Jonathan Martin thought he found some good news for the GOP in the Supreme Court’s decision on marriage equality. Here’s how the headline put it: “As Left Wins Culture Battles, GOP Gains Opportunity to Pivot for 2016.”

That’s an “opportunity,” indeed.

Former Bush speechwriter David Frum laid it out this way: “Every once in a while, we bring down the curtain on the politics of a prior era. The stage is now cleared for the next generation of issues. And Republicans can say, ‘Whether you’re gay, black or a recent migrant to our country, we are going to welcome you as a fully cherished member of our coalition.’ ”

Or not.

Former Minnesota Tim Pawlenty tried another angle: Decisions about Obamacare, marriage equality and the Confederate flag get divisive issues off the table for the GOP. “Whether the presidential candidates agree or disagree with the results of all this, it allows them to say these issues have been settled and move on to things that offer more of a political home-field advantage,” the optimistic Pawlenty suggested. He neglected to say what those issues are. But there’s no evidence anyone is doing that.

more
http://www.salon.com/2015/06/29/theyll_never_stop_fighting_the_culture_wars_why_the_gop_wont_seize_its_opportunity_to_give_up_extremism/

June 29, 2015

Pastors call for stonings and warn of God’s wrathful judgment after marriage equality ruling

-snip-

Pastor Steven Anderson, of Faithful Word Baptist Church, called for stoning to death ministers who performed same-sex marriage ceremonies and repeated his call for the execution of all LGBT people.

“I hate them with a perfect hatred,” Anderson shouted. “I count them mine enemies.”

Anderson said the Bible consistently called Christians to “have the guts to stand up to our culture that is now accepts homos.”

“Where’s the call to repentance?” Anderson said. “Where’s the hope, where’s the love and the grace? It isn’t there.”

Another pastor, William Tapley – the self-described Third Eagle of the Apocalypse – said the ruling that “legalizing the crime of sodomy” would hasten the end of the world, in accordance with the prophesy.

“The Soviet Union, today’s Russia, opposes gay marriage,” Tapley said. “God is going to make it clear that he is destroying a country that legalized gay marriage by a country that opposes gay marriage. This is very significant.”

He praised the Russian president for comparing LGBT to child molesters.

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more
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/06/pastors-call-for-stonings-and-warn-of-gods-wrathful-judgment-after-marriage-equality-ruling/

June 29, 2015

Mississippi Lawmaker Floats Getting Rid Of Marriage Licenses Altogether

Now that the Supreme Court has ruled that same-sex couples have a right to marry, some state officials are looking into opting out of issuing marriage licenses entirely.

Republican Mississippi state Rep. Andy Gipson, the chairman of the state house judiciary committee, told the Clarion-Ledger that the state is looking into eliminating state marriage licenses.

"One of the options that other states have looked at is removing the state marriage license requirement," he said. "We will be researching what options there are. I personally can see pros and cons to that. I don't know if it would be better to have no marriage certificate sponsored by the state or not. But it's an option out there to be considered."

Clerks in Mississippi were ordered on Friday not to issue marriage licenses to gay couples until the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals lifts its stay on gay marriage.

Lawmakers in two other states have considered bills that would nix state marriage licenses. Oklahoma legislation would eliminate marriage licenses and instead allow officials to sign off on marriage papers.

more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/andy-gipson-mississippi-marriage-licenses

June 29, 2015

Guthrie Grills Cruz On Difference Between Gay And Interracial Marriage

After Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said he would support Texas county clerks' ability to deny marriage licenses to gay couples on religious grounds, "Today Show" co-host Savannah Guthrie pressed the presidential candidate on the difference between gay marriage and interracial marriage.

"If a state clerk refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple, would you agree with that too?" she asked Cruz on Monday morning, noting that people who once objected to interracial marriage used religion to support their beliefs.

"There’s no religious backing for that," Cruz responded.

Guthrie then asked Cruz whether interracial marriage should be a state issue, even though the Supreme Court ruled that interracial marriage bans are unconstitutional.

"Of course not,' Cruz answered. "We fought a bloody civil war over the original sin of our country, that was slavery. Slavery was grotesque and immoral and some 600,000 Americans lost their lives, spilled their blood on American soil to expunge it."

more + video
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ted-cruz-today-show-interracial-marriage

June 29, 2015

Ala. Chief Justice Roy Moore Comes Undone After Gay Marriage Ruling

Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who has vehemently opposed same-sex marriage in his state, broke down over the weekend after the Supreme Court ruled that gay couples have the right to marry.

"Just who do they think they are when one person can reverse 200-and-something years of precedent in our country and thousands of years of precedent in western civilization," Moore said on Sunday while speaking at the Kimberly Church of God's "God and Country Day," according to the Associated Press.

The justice warned that ruling could infringe upon the religious freedoms of Christians in the U.S. "Welcome to the new world. It's just changed for you Christians. You are going to be persecuted according to the U.S Supreme Court dissents," he said.

"Is there such a thing as morality anymore?" Moore continued. "Sodomy for centuries was declared to be against the laws of nature and nature's God. And now if you say that in public, and I guess I am, am I violating somebody's civil rights? Have we elevated morality to immorality? Do we call good, bad? What are we Christians to do?"

more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/roy-more-supreme-court-gay-marriaeg

June 29, 2015

Donald Trump hasn’t voted in last six presidential elections: conservative website reports

According to an investigation by the conservative National Review Online, businessman and 2016 GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump has not voted in the last six presidential elections.

Trump, who announced his campaign to run for the top spot on the GOP ticket in the 2016 election a week ago doesn’t seem to have a lot of fans at National Review, which previously featured a piece describing Trump’s announcement under the headline: “Witless Ape Rides Escalator.”

An investigation by Jillian Kay Melchior of Trump’s voting record shows that the self-promoting businessman hasn’t found his way to the polls for the last six election cycles, including 2000 and 2004, years in which he floated his own name as a possible presidential contender.

Despite not exercising his right to vote, Trump has a history of exhorting others to show up at the polls and make their voice heard, once tweeting in 2012: “I will be watching the GOP primary results very closely. We need the right candidate to beat @BarackObama.”

more
.http://www.rawstory.com/2015/06/donald-trump-hasnt-voted-in-last-six-presidential-elections-conservative-website-reports/

June 29, 2015

Fox Guest: Charleston Shooter Is 'A Product Of The Left Wing'

Fox News guest Kevin Jackson said on Monday that the suspect in the killing of nine black parishioners in a Charleston, South Carolina church was clearly "a product of the left" and that his killing spree "absolutely adds up to leftism."

The "Fox & Friends" segment focused on a recent study by the New America Foundation that reported killings in recent years attributed to right-wing extremism, including the Charleston shooting, far outnumbered cases of Islamic terrorism in the US.

Calling it "the biggest hack job" he'd ever seen, Jackson went on to specifically take issue with the report's decision to categorize Dylann Roof — who was photographed sporting white supremacist flags and badges and whose alleged manifesto cited the white nationalist group the Council of Conservative Citizens — on the right rather than the left.

"They've just thrown him over into the right because he passed by a right wing building or something," said Jackson, author of "The Big Black Lie: How I Learned The Truth About The Democrat Party."

"Dylann Roof is a product of the left wing. He's a product of their education system," he continued. "As much as they wanna blame it on the right, as far as I'm concerned — you can look at everything he's done and it absolutely adds up to leftism."

more + video
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/kevin-jackson-fox-dylann-roof-left