Day: September 17, 2014

GOP Senator’s Desperate Reboot Turns Out to Be Based on Votes He Took During Bush Administration

Jon Ponder

Raw Story:

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow pointed out on Tuesday that Sen. Pat Roberts’ (R-KS) campaign “reboot” is built on an apparent misrepresentation of his stance on a federal building that was supposed to be built in his state.

Roberts’ campaign debuted an ad on Tuesday portraying the longtime incumbent as a staunch opponent of President Barack Obama’s “failed policies.” Roberts, the ad claimed, led the push for the establishment of the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility on the campus of Kansas State University.

But Maddow noted that the two headlines touting Roberts’ efforts dated back to 2007 and 2008.

“That was even before Barack Obama was elected president,” she said. “That was before this term for Kansas Senator Pat Roberts in the Senate.”

In fact, Roberts voted against a bill this past January that would have provided $404 million in funding for the project, which has now stalled.

Conservatives Who Fear an Epidemic Crossing the Border Should Stop Blocking America’s First Line of Defense: Access to Healthcare

Jon Ponder



Via: The Advisory Board Company

In July, Rep. Phil Gingrey, a Georgia tea partyist, claimed in a letter to his constituents that amid the “crisis at our southern border,” there are “reports of illegal migrants carrying deadly diseases such as … Ebola virus.” Even the widely discredited fact-checker Politifact labeled Gingrey’s dire assertion a “Pants on Fire” lie. Gingrey, who also happens to be a physician, should know better — and probably does.

The world has been one chicken sneeze away from a global pandemic for decades, even centuries.

Despite having been labeled a lie, Gingrey’s assertion set the right-wing propaganda machine in movtion. Fox News ran with a story headlined, “Ebola Outbreak Fuels Concerns over Health Risks along US-Mexico Border.” Breitbart.com, the website started by the late racist and notorious news-faker Andrew Breitbart, warned that “experts” claim “Ebola Could Cross Unsecured Border.” The birther site World Net Daily asked, “Could Ebola Sneak Across U.S. Border?” The lawsuit-happy Clinton-haters at Judicial Watch expanded the threat level beyond Ebola, warning that, “Illegal Alien Minors Spreading TB, Dengue, Swine Flu.”

The threat of an epidemic in the United States is not unrealistic, nor is it new. The world has been one chicken sneeze away from a global pandemic for decades, even centuries. If the worst were to occur — if the GOP’s fears were realized — it would hit the United States where it is most vulnerable, in its first line of defense: Its healthcare system.

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Is Congress Abdicating Its War Powers to Obama?

Buck Banks

“There’s one power Congress has that it doesn’t want: The power to declare war. And that’s certainly so seven weeks before congressional elections.

— Bloomberg reports. “The House will vote today on an amendment that gives the administration the authority to train and equip Syrian rebels as part of President Barack Obama’s strategy for destroying Islamic State. But it is silent on whether the president can deploy U.S. forces in the region. Some say Congress is setting a dangerous precedent by abdicating its war powers.”

Democratic PAC Spending More in Midterms

Buck Banks

$36 million

Amount the Senate Majority PAC, fueled by billionaires and labor unions, has has spent so far in the 2014 midterm contests, reports the Washington Post. “Together with an allied tax-exempt group, Patriot Majority, the … early, aggressive presence in pivotal Senate races spotlights how, four years after being dramatically outgunned in the outside money game, Democrats are now some of its most adept players.”

Women Politicians Busting Campaign Findraising Myths

Buck Banks

One of the most persistent myths in politics — that women shy away from campaigns because they don’t ‘have the stomach’ for fundraising — is taking a beating this election cycle as women have emerged as top money makers, both for their own campaigns and on behalf of other candidates and national campaign committees.

— Patricia Murphy, writing in the Daily Beast.