DonViejo
DonViejo's JournalMartin O’Malley shreds Rubio: You can’t ‘multiply the bread and fishes’ by starving kids
By David Edwards
Sunday, January 12, 2014 13:23 EST
Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) on Sunday lashed out at Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) for thinking he could “multiply the bread and fishes” like Jesus Christ by limiting the amount of federal funds available to help hungry children.
Last week, Rubio declared former President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty a failure and proposed ending most federal social saftey net programs and replacing them with block grants to the states. Experts argued that the current programs like unemployment benefits and food stamps are “counter-cyclical” in that they increase during recessions, something that would end under Rubio’s proposal.
“What he’s saying is, ‘We’ll send you less money because this year we want to cut dollars to feed hungry children,’” O’Malley told CNN’s Candy Crowley on Sunday. “The answers to feeding hungry children is not fewer dollars to feed hungry children, it’s to do more… We believe in doing more of the things that actually work, not in this cynical shell game of cap and block grant and then dismantle.”
“If your goal is to dismantle government for some ideological purpose then it doesn’t work,” he added. “But this notion that somehow that by capping the dollars that the federal government puts into feeding hungry children that somehow that will miraculously multiply the bread and fishes is poppycock, and it’s part of this ideology that we’ve been suffering from and our economy has been suffering from.”
“What we need to do is enact policies that actually help our middle class rather than follow this ideology of dismantling Washington and getting Washington out of everything we do. We’re all in this together and we need our national government.”
Watch this video from CNN’s State of the Union, broadcast Jan. 12, 2014.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/12/martin-omalley-shreds-rubio-you-cant-multiply-the-bread-and-fishes-by-cutting-funds-for-kids/
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Full article posted with the permission of Raw Story
Host calls out Reince Priebus for ‘deflection’ after Benghazi rant over Christie scandal
By David Edwards
Sunday, January 12, 2014 11:36 EST
NBC host David Gregory suggested on Sunday that Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus was guilty of “some deflection” after he tried to turn New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) bridge scandal into and indictment on President Barack Obama over Benghazi.
In an interview on Meet the Press, Priebus argued that Americans would forgive Christie after his administration closed part of the busiest bridge to hurt his opponents because “we all make mistakes.”
“They’re forgiving when you take ownership, you take corrective action. And that’s what Chris Christie showed,” the chairman explained. “He stood there for 111 minutes in an open dialog with the press. Now, only if Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton would give us 111 seconds of that, would we find out some of what we want to find out about Obamacare, Benghazi, the IRS. I mean, Chris Christie has been totally open here.”
Gregory pointed out that Priebus had accused Obama of setting a tone that allowed scandals to happen and wondered if the same was true of Christie.
“Did he set the tone because that’s what you said the president did?” the NBC host said.
“He trusted people that lied to him and he fired those people,” Priebus argued. “The president doubles down on [Attorney General] Eric Holder, he doubles down on [former Secretary of State] Hillary Clinton and [former IRS official] Louis Learner and [National Security Advisor] Susan Rice. It’s the opposite effect.”
“There’s some deflection going on here, and I respect your position,” Gregory observed.
“You can judge a person, you can judge a person’s character,” Priebus replied. “We had an opportunity to do that [during Christie's press conference]… The president never offered that open dialogue.”
President Obama repeatedly answered questions from members of the media about health care reform, the terrorist attacks in Benghazi and the IRS scandal. At one press conference in May of last year, he took questions on both Benghazi and the IRS.
Watch this video from NBC’s Meet the Press, broadcast Jan. 12, 2014.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/12/host-calls-out-reince-priebus-for-deflection-after-benghazi-rant-over-christie-scandal/
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Full article posted with the permission of Raw Story
Obama Will Veto Iran Sanctions During Nuclear Negotiations
Source: TPM
:::snip:::
Today’s agreement to implement the Joint Plan of Action announced in November marks the first time in a decade that the Islamic Republic of Iran has agreed to specific actions that halt progress on its nuclear program and roll back key parts of the program. Beginning January 20th, Iran will for the first time start eliminating its stockpile of higher levels of enriched uranium and dismantling some of the infrastructure that makes such enrichment possible. Iran has agreed to limit its enrichment capability by not installing or starting up additional centrifuges or using next-generation centrifuges. New and more frequent inspections of Iran’s nuclear sites will allow the world to verify that Iran is keeping its commitments. Taken together, these and other steps will advance our goal of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
In return, over the next six months the United States and our P5+1 partners -- the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, and China, as well as the European Union –- will begin to implement modest relief so long as Iran fulfills its obligations and as we pursue a comprehensive solution to Iran’s nuclear program. Meanwhile, we will continue to vigorously enforce the broader sanctions regime, and if Iran fails to meet its commitments we will move to increase our sanctions.
Unprecedented sanctions and tough diplomacy helped to bring Iran to the negotiating table, and I’m grateful to our partners in Congress who share our goal of preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Imposing additional sanctions now will only risk derailing our efforts to resolve this issue peacefully, and I will veto any legislation enacting new sanctions during the negotiation.
With today's agreement, we have made concrete progress. I welcome this important step forward, and we will now focus on the critical work of pursuing a comprehensive resolution that addresses our concerns over Iran’s nuclear program. I have no illusions about how hard it will be to achieve this objective, but for the sake of our national security and the peace and security of the world, now is the time to give diplomacy a chance to succeed. In return, over the next six months the United States and our P5+1 partners -- the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, and China, as well as the European Union –- will begin to implement modest relief so long as Iran fulfills its obligations and as we pursue a comprehensive solution to Iran’s nuclear program. Meanwhile, we will continue to vigorously enforce the broader sanctions regime, and if Iran fails to meet its commitments we will move to increase our sanctions. Unprecedented sanctions and tough diplomacy helped to bring Iran to the negotiating table, and I’m grateful to our partners in Congress who share our goal of preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Imposing additional sanctions now will only risk derailing our efforts to resolve this issue peacefully, and I will veto any legislation enacting new sanctions during the negotiation. With today's agreement, we have made concrete progress. I welcome this important step forward, and we will now focus on the critical work of pursuing a comprehensive resolution that addresses our concerns over Iran’s nuclear program. I have no illusions about how hard it will be to achieve this objective, but for the sake of our national security and the peace and security of the world, now is the time to give diplomacy a chance to succeed.
Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/obama-veto-threat-iran-sanctions
That's the full statement, above. I snipped out the rest of the news about the announcement but, it's at the link
Giuliani Compares Bridge Scandal To Benghazi, IRS Controversies
CAITLIN MACNEAL – JANUARY 12, 2014, 11:54 AM EST
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) on Sunday compared the controversy surrounding New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and the George Washington Bridge lane closures last year to the IRS scandal and Benghazi when defending the governor.
"The reality is, things go wrong in an administration. And frankly, you know, he was in campaign-mode at the time, during campaign-mode you miss a lot of things. You're not paying as much attention," he said on ABC's "This Week." "We see that with Benghazi."
When asked whether Christie's office culture encouraged his aides and appointees to use the lane closures as political retribution, Giuliani said Christie's staff should not have interpreted his style that way, comparing the situation to the IRS controversy.
"The people in the IRS though President Obama wanted them to do this. President Obama didn't want them to do this. But they got the sense because of that culture that they were supposed to target right wing groups. It was totally wrong," Giuliani said. "I think it was totally wrong for these people to have interpreted Chris Christie this way."
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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/guiliani-compares-bridge-scandal-irs-benghazi
One-Party Rule: A National Strategy Funds State Political Monopolies
NEW YORK TIMES
January 12, 2014
By his third year as chairman of the Alabama Republican organization, Mike Hubbard believed his party had just about everything it needed to win control of the state Legislature.
He had a plan with detailed, district-by-district budgets and precise voter turnout targets. He had candidates, most of them political novices recruited with an eye toward the anti-establishment fervor roiling the country.
What Hubbard did not have was enough money. Alabama law barred corporations, a deep-pocketed natural ally for state Republicans, from giving more than $500 to candidates and parties - a limit that did not apply to the state's unions.
So began a nationwide quest for cash that would take Hubbard to the Republican Parties in states like Florida and Ohio, to a wealthy Texan who was one of the country's biggest Republican givers and to a Washington organization that would provide checks from dozens of out-of-state corporations.
Exploiting a loophole in the state law and a network of political action committees in Alabama and Washington, Hubbard shuffled hundreds of thousands of out-of-state dollars into the Republican organization in Alabama, vastly outraising the state Democratic Party. On Election Day, Republicans won majorities in both the state Senate and House of Representatives for the first time since Reconstruction - and Alabama joined the rapidly growing fraternity of states where government is controlled by a single political party, now the largest it has been in more than half a century.
more
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/politics/article/A-national-strategy-funds-state-political-5135321.php
Christie bridge controversy exposes a GOP rising star to new scrutiny
By Karen Tumulty and Robert Costa, Published: January 11
The brash qualities that have made Chris Christie one of the fastest-rising stars in politics — and a putative Republican front-runner for the presidency in 2016 — are suddenly looming as the biggest threat to his future prospects.
Is he the pragmatic, bracingly forthright leader seen by his admirers, who include much of the GOP establishment? Or is Christie a petty, unprincipled bully, whose only agenda is his own aggrandizement, as his growing list of adversaries say?
“On the one hand, I think he’s got a lot to offer. I think he’s the most able politician since Bill Clinton,” said former New Jersey governor Thomas H. Kean (R), a revered figure who was one of Christie’s earliest political mentors but who has since had a falling-out with him.
“On the other hand,” Kean said, “you look at these other qualities and ask, ‘Do you really want that in your president?’ ”
more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/christie-bridge-controversy-exposes-a-gop-rising-star-to-new-scrutiny/2014/01/11/f49dee40-7aed-11e3-b1c5-739e63e9c9a7_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines
Karl Rove: Bridge scandal proves Christie is ‘what we want’ in a president
Source: Raw Story
By David Edwards
Sunday, January 12, 2014 10:14 EST
Republican strategist Karl Rove asserted on Sunday that New Jersey’s Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) handling of the George Washington Bridge Scandal showed he had the right qualities to be president of the United States.
During a panel segment on Fox News Sunday, host John Roberts pointed out that many Republicans were praising Christie for firing one of his top aides after a newspaper exposed his administration’s role in closing part of the busiest bridge in the world as part of political retribution plot, but President Barack Obama had not fired anyone over the health care reform law.
“I think he did himself a lot of good,” Rove said of Christie’s reaction to the scandal. “I think he did himself some good by contrasting with the normal, routine way of handing these things, which is to be evasive, to sort of trim on the edges.”
“You’ll notice we haven’t been hearing a lot from the Clinton camp about this,” he added. “Contrast both with Bill Clinton and Secretary Hillary Clinton’s handling of Benghazi.”
Later in the segment, Roberts asked the panel: “Where was this media coverage on Benghazi, the NSA or the IRS?”
Columnist George Will admitted that “this was not a phony scandal” because Christie’s administration had used the machinery of government to “screw our enemies.”
“There are reasons why conservatives had disagreements with Chris Christie, I don’t think that the tea party is going to seize upon Fort Lee and the George Washington Bridge as their defining difference with Christie,” Rove opined. “In fact, I think his handling of this, being straightforward, taking action — saying, ‘I’m responsible’ — firing the people probably gives him some street cred with some tea party Republicans, who say that’s what we want in a leader, somebody who steps up and takes responsibility.”
The Washington Post‘s Bob Woodward noted that the media needed to uncoverthe mindset of Christie’s staff because the decision to close the bridge “came out of that office.”
“So did Benghazi, and so did IRS… come out of appointees of President Obama and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton!” Rove shot back. “The amount of attention paid this week to Chris Christie makes the coverage of Benghazi at the same time and the coverage of the IRS pale in significance.”
Watch this video from Fox News’ Fox News Sunday, broadcast Jan. 12, 2014.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/12/karl-rove-bridge-scandal-proves-christie-is-what-we-want-in-a-president/
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Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/12/karl-rove-bridge-scandal-proves-christie-is-what-we-want-in-a-president/
Full article posted with the permission of Raw Story
Christie Fails to Muscle Gas Pipeline Through NJ's Protected Forests
On a tie vote of 7-7, Pinelands commissioners turned down a 22-mile natural gas pipeline the Christie administration supported with strong-arm tactics.
By John H. Cushman Jr., InsideClimate News Jan 10, 2014
The George Washington Bridge and the Pinelands are at opposite ends of New Jersey – almost in different universes. One is a double-decker of steel and cable, groaning with bumper-to-bumper traffic. The other is a delicate, protected ecosystem, the intersection of pristine aquifers and seven counties of conifers.
One is the bailiwick of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and the other is the fief of the New Jersey Pinelands Commission. Both these agencies are under the influence of Governor Chris Christie, who has recently come under fire for his strong-arm political style.
As it turned out, the 15-member Pinelands Commission was the agency more willing to stand up to the Christie administration. After a hard-fought battle, the sharply divided commission overruled its own staff and refused to give a green light to a 22-mile natural gas pipeline the administration supported. The line would cross a short stretch of protected forest to carry natural gas to a BL England power plant that has been ordered to stop using coal or shut down.
Many residents and environmental advocates opposed the pipeline – as did four former governors from both parties.
The commissioners who voted against the pipeline may have been influenced by what happened at the bridge, where the governor's senior staff apparently persuaded the Port Authority to deliberately tie up traffic in a bizarre exercise of political muscle. That incident has become a cause celebre, with Christie forced to deny that he is a bully.
more
http://insideclimatenews.org/content/christie-fails-muscle-gas-pipeline-through-njs-protected-forests
US House passed bill ravaging toxic-waste law - on same day as W. Virginia chemical spill
As West Virginians were learning Thursday of a devastating chemical spill in the Elk River that has rendered water undrinkable for 300,000 people, the US House of Representatives was busy gutting federal hazardous-waste cleanup law.
The House passed the Reducing Excessive Deadline Obligations Act that would ultimately eliminate requirements for the Environmental Protection Agency to review and update hazardous-waste disposal regulations in a timely manner, and make it more difficult for the government to compel companies that deal with toxic substances to carry proper insurance for cleanups, pushing the cost on to taxpayers.
In addition, the bill would result in slower response time in the case of a disaster, requiring increased consultation with states before the federal government calls for cleanup of Superfund sites - where hazardous waste could affect people and the environment.
The bill amends both the Solid Waste Disposal Act and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act - often referred to as Superfund, which was created in 1980 to hold polluter industries accountable for funding the cleanup of hazardous-waste sites.
There are over 1,300 priority Superfund sites in the US.
more
http://rt.com/usa/hazardous-toxic-waste-law-445/
The Rev. Robert Nugent, priest who ministered to gay Catholics, dies at 76
By Emily Langer, Published: January 10 E-mail the writer
Robert Nugent, a Catholic priest who became nationally known for his pastoral work with gay men and lesbians, a ministry that was officially ended in 1999 when the Vatican declared it “erroneous and dangerous,” died Jan. 1 at a religious retirement community in Milwaukee. He was 76. The cause was cancer, said a niece, Kathleen Moran.
By the time of his confrontation with the Holy See, Father Nugent had developed both a community of devoted followers and a collection of angry critics. His admirers revered him for what they regarded as his courageous efforts to open wider the doors of the church, while opponents charged that he had violated Catholic dogma.
According to church doctrine, homosexuality is not sinful, but homosexuals acts are — a stance that has alienated many gay Catholics and others. When he began working with gay Catholics in the early 1970s, Father Nugent said, he was profoundly moved by the experience.
“What I found was people who loved the church very much,” he once said. “It was their family, their home. But they felt like the church didn’t want them. There was a great love-hate relationship.”
more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/the-rev-robert-nugent-priest-who-ministered-to-gay-catholics-dies-at-76/2014/01/10/54b3d4ec-7491-11e3-8b3f-b1666705ca3b_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines
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Name: DonGender: Male
Hometown: Massachusetts
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