Tag Archives: republican

The Latest Benghazi Freakout In Ten Sentences

Mother Jones

Last week, in response to a Freedom of Information request filed by Judicial Watch, the White House released a memo related to Benghazi that was authored by Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser for strategic communication. The four-page memo, written a few days after the attacks, was designed to prep Susan Rice for her upcoming appearances on several Sunday talk shows. Among other things, it addressed the anti-American protests that had first sprung up in Egypt and then spread throughout the Middle East, including this line as one of the goals of her appearances:

To underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader failure of policy.

Republicans say this is a “smoking gun” of a White House cover-up on Benghazi. But is it? Here are ten things you should know:

  1. First things first: this memo should have been released earlier, and conservatives are fully justified in asking why it took a FOIA request to finally shake it loose.
  2. That said, as an adviser for “strategic communication”—what the rest of us call spin—Ben Rhodes’ job is explicitly political, providing guidance on how to put the administration’s foreign policy actions in the best light.
  3. Nine hours before Rhodes sent his email, the CIA had provided its assessment of what caused the attacks in Benghazi: “We believe based on currently available information that the attacks in Benghazi were spontaneously inspired by the protests at the US Embassy in Cairo and evolved into a direct assault against the US consulate and subsequently its annex.”
  4. The Cairo protests, in turn, were inspired by the YouTube video “Innocence of Muslims,” which is why Rhodes mentioned the video in his memo.
  5. As it happens, it turned out that there were no protests earlier in the day in Benghazi—but at the time, that was what the CIA believed.
  6. However, multiple sources—including McClatchy, Al Jazeera, the New York Times, and then deputy CIA director Michael Morell—have confirmed that anger toward the YouTube video did play a role in motivating the initial attacks.
  7. Multiple sources also confirm that that the Benghazi attacks were opportunistic—organized hastily to take advantage of the Cairo protests, not planned days or weeks ahead of time.
  8. Susan Rice, in all her Sunday show appearances, was properly cautious about the role of the video, the nature of the attacks, and the fact that everything she said was tentative and based on “the best information we have to date.”
  9. Like any administration, the Obama White House wanted to put the best face on its Middle East policy, and there’s no question that their public statements were designed to do just that.
  10. Nevertheless, the Republican theory that Obama was afraid to blame Benghazi on terrorism has never really made any sense; there’s simply never been any evidence of anything more than a fairly routine amount of spin in the aftermath of the attacks.

So: A “smoking gun”? “Cold, hard evidence” of an Obama cover-up? Just like Watergate? Hardly. Even George Will doesn’t believe that. The video really did play a role in the Cairo protests and then the Benghazi attacks, and there was never anything wrong with saying so. It’s inexplicable that Republicans think this memo proves anything more damning than that.

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The Latest Benghazi Freakout In Ten Sentences

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GOP leader calls anti-fracking congressman a terrorist

Define “terror”

GOP leader calls anti-fracking congressman a terrorist

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Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) thinks local communities should be able to decide how fracking is regulated in their areas, and whether it’s allowed at all. He’s among the backers of some initiatives proposed for the November ballot that could increase local control over oil and gas drilling.

And the chair of the Colorado Republican Committee, Ryan Call, says that makes Polis a terrorist. Here’s a screen grab that ColoradoPols.com took of a Twitter exchange before Call deleted the offensive tweet:

ColoradoPols.com

Another Republican, state Rep. Jerry Sonnenberg, picked up the theme, saying, “Polis’ jihad against responsible energy development is reckless.”

The Boulder Daily Camera reports that Call apologized for using the T word:

“It’s a fact that Congressman Jared Polis’ proposed regulations will put thousands of Colorado jobs and our state’s economic future at risk,” [Call] said. “While I passionately believe that we must protect these jobs and energy development in our state, I understand that my comment has distracted from this important conversation.” …

On Friday, Polis said his fight for local control over drilling may have to be settled in November’s election, in which his seat also will be on the ballot.

“Fundamentally, what my constituents feel needs to occur is that communities need to have a role in the siting of fracking activities in their areas,” he said. “Currently, that debate is co-opted by the state, which allows fracking to occur anywhere and everywhere.”

What’s really more terrorizing – run-of-the-mill democracy, or energy companies pumping poisons into the ground and the air for short-term financial gain with limited government oversight?


Source
Republicans Cry “Terrorism” As Local Control Negotiations Falter, ColoradoPols.com
Colo. GOP chair labels Jared Polis ‘terrorist’ over Boulder Democrat’s fracking stance, Daily Camera
Untangling Colorado’s Flood of Anti-Fracking Ballot Initiatives, DeSmogBlog

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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GOP leader calls anti-fracking congressman a terrorist

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For Republicans, Fear and Confusion Are All They Have Left

Mother Jones

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We know that 8 million people have signed up for Obamacare on the exchanges. But how many of them have actually paid their premiums? Yesterday, as part of their long, twilight effort to convince everyone that the Obama administration is lying about the enrollment numbers, Republicans issued a laughable report saying the number was only 67 percent. A third of the enrollees are phantoms!

As it happens, I didn’t bother writing about this because, as political deceptions go, it was about as sophisticated as a kindergartner throwing a mud pie. The Republican numbers only went through April 15, even though a ton of people signed up at the end of March and don’t even owe their first premium payment until the end of April. Of course there are lots of people who haven’t sent in their checks yet. So how do Republicans justify this dumb talking point? Michael Tomasky asked:

Talking Points Memo’s Dylan Scott got hold of the questionnaire the committee sent to insurers, and it’s a joke. One industry source—not a Democratic operative—told Scott: “Everyone who saw it knew exactly what the goal was.”

I asked the GOP staff at the committee if they had a counter to the argument that their numbers were incomplete and in essence rigged. On background, one staffer there basically told me that they didn’t have a counter. The committee press release makes it clear, I was told, that these data represent payments only through April 15, and the committee will seek another report May 20.

In other words, this staffer is saying: Yep. Which makes it rather hard to avoid the conclusion that the committee knowingly put out a bad number. Why would a committee of the House of Representatives do something like that? Well, what am I saying? We know why.

Republicans got what they wanted: some headlines suggesting that Obamacare enrollment rates were lower than the White House says. And of course, it became a routine talking point on Fox News. Mud has been thrown on the walls, and by the time the final numbers come out, plenty of people will remain confused.

And that’s all Republicans care about right now: manufacturing doubt. They know perfectly well that by next month, when the final numbers come out, something like 90 percent of enrollees will have paid their premiums and total signups will be over 7 million. But they don’t care. As long as people are confused, life is good for Republicans. So confusion is what they’re selling.

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For Republicans, Fear and Confusion Are All They Have Left

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GOP Operative Pulls Election "Shenanigans" In New York House Race

Mother Jones

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“What kind of shenanigans are going on now?” That’s what Darin Robbins, a Green Party member in Corning, New York, thought when he learned that a stranger had circulated a petition to place his name on the ballot for a House race.

Robbins had no plans to seek office, so he was shocked a couple of weeks ago when a Green Party secretary called to tell him that a petition had been filed in his name to run against GOP Rep. Tom Reed, the vulnerable first-term Republican who represents the 23rd congressional district in upstate New York.

The story gets stranger. A Republican operative was behind the attempt to put Robbins on the ballot. Aaron Andrew Keister, a notary public who has worked as a video tracker for the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the political committee dedicated to electing GOPers to the House, filed ballot access petitions—each bearing the signatures of about 75 registered voters—for Robbins and a second Green Party member. If Keister’s plan had succeeded, it could have helped Reed—the Northeast regional chairman of the NRCC—by putting on the ballot a progressive candidate who would likely draw votes away from his expected Democratic opponent, county legislator Martha Robertson. But Keister messed up: Because he filed the Robbins petition late and got the other Green Party member’s address wrong, neither Green will appear on the ballot for the June primary or the November general election, according to New York election officials.

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GOP Operative Pulls Election "Shenanigans" In New York House Race

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A Federal Judge Just Struck Down Wisconsin’s Voter ID Law. Read The Decision.

Mother Jones

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Wisconsin voters won’t be forced to present a photo ID to gain access to the ballot thanks to a new federal court decision. U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman ruled on Tuesday that the state’s voter ID law violates the constitutional rights of minority and low-income voters. In his decision, Adelman cited the Voting Rights Act to invalidate the 2011 Wisconsin law—passed by the state legislature and signed by Republican Gov. Scott Walker—that implemented a photo ID requirement for all voters.

Voting rights advocates despaired last summer after the Supreme Court blocked Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, a key provision of the law that required the government to approve any voting changes in states and jurisdictions with a history of discrimination (Wisconsin was not one of those states). Since that decision, states previously covered by Section 5 have rushed to add voter restrictions. But based on Adelman’s logic, these controversial photo ID requirements that have been implemented across the country run afoul of a part of the Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court left untouched.

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A Federal Judge Just Struck Down Wisconsin’s Voter ID Law. Read The Decision.

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Does This Secret Drug Cocktail Work To Execute People? Oklahoma Will Find Out Tonight.

Mother Jones

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Tonight Oklahoma will continue the nation’s ongoing experiment in executing people with untested drug combinations as it moves forward to kill death row inmates Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner using a new, secretly acquired drug cocktail.

Officials in Oklahoma and other states have resorted to these methods because they can no longer access sodium thiopental, the anesthetic traditionally used in lethal injections, and another drug used to paralyze the condemned. The lone US manufacturer quit producing sodium thiopental in 2011, and international suppliers—â&#128;&#139;â&#128;&#139;particulalry in the European Union, which opposes the death penalty on humanitarian grounds—â&#128;&#139;â&#128;&#139;have stopped exporting both drugs to the United States. This has left states like Oklahoma scrambling to find new pharmaceuticals for killing death row inmates. Some have been reduced to illegally importing the drugs, using untested combinations, or buying from unregulated compounding pharmacies, a number of which have a history of producing contaminated products.

Death row inmates and their lawyers have protested on the grounds that these untested protocols could produce a level of suffering that violates the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, and they’ve sued for more information about the source and purity of the drugs. In response, several states have passed secrecy laws, allowing them to keep the names of their suppliers, and in some cases the contents of the lethal injection, under wraps. (Oklahoma is so eager to hide the source of its death drugs that it buys them with petty cash so there are no transaction records.) Death row inmates, in turn, have filed suits challenging the constitutionality of these secrecy statutes.

In February, Lockett and Warner prompted a high-profile showdown between Oklahoma officials when they sued the state, asserting that its execution protocol could inflict “severe pain” in violation of the Eighth Amendment. A lower state court found the drug secrecy law patently unconstitutional, and the state Supreme Court ultimately stayed the two men’s executions until the issues were fully litigated. But Republican Gov. Mary Fallin insisted they be executed regardless of the court’s ruling, prompting a political crisis. On April 23, the Oklahoma Supreme Court, whose justices are now being threatened by the Legislature with impeachment, caved and allowed the executions to move forward.

The public knows very little about the drugs that will be used to kill Lockett and Warner who stand convicted of murder. â&#128;&#139;â&#128;&#139;Lockett shot a teenage girl, then buried her alive, while Warner raped and killed his girlfriend’s 11-month-old daughter in 1997. Initially, the state said it would deploy a three-drug cocktail, including the sedative pentobarbital (normally used to euthanize animals); vercuronium bromide, which paralyzes the inmate; and potassium chloride, which stops the heart. The first drug is supposed to knock out the inmate so he doesn’t feel pain. The second drug paralyzes him so onlookers can’t tell if he’s suffering. But pentobarbital, which states substituted for sodium thiopental after it went off the market, works more slowly than the old drug, and wasn’t tested in advance to make sure it was an appropriate substitute. Also, lawyers argue that it doesn’t prevent pain during an execution. For that reason, injecting it into a conscious animal in California is actually a crime.

Due to a shortages of pentobarbital and vercuronium bromide, Oklahoma planned to buy the drugs from an unnamed compounding pharmacy. This was problematic because such pharmacies are unregulated, and contaminated pentobarbital can result in excruciatingly painful deaths. (Experts say it can feel as though the insides of a person’s veins are being scraped with sandpaper.) South Dakota used a compounded pentobarbital contaminated with a fungus to execute Eric Robert in 2012. During the execution, he repeatedly opened his eyes—a sign that the drug wasn’t working, some experts said. Oklahoma has had similar problems. In January, it executed another man, Michael Lee Wilson, using pentobarbital from an unidentified compounding pharmacy. During the execution he sputtered, “I feel my whole body burning,” another sign that the drug wasn’t doing its job.

In March, Oklahoma backed away from this approach and said it would instead use one of five possible drug combinations, including a two-drug cocktail of midazolam (a sedative) and hydromorphone (a pain killer). When states first proposed using those drugs in lethal injection mixes last year, defense lawyers and medical experts warned that inmates receiving them would essentially suffocate to death. Brushing aside these concerns, in January Ohio used the drugs to execute Dennis McGuire, who gasped and convulsed horribly for more than 10 minutes before taking a record 26 minutes to die. His family, who watched in horror, is now suing over what they allege was cruel and unusual punishment.

Oklahoma has since shifted course again and announced that it would use a three-drug combo that includes midazolam and pancuronium bromide. According to Madeline Cohen, an assistant federal public defender representing Charles Warner, the state claims that both drugs are being purchased from manufacturers rather than compounding pharmacies but wouldn’t provide any other information. The only known use of this drug combination for executions was in Florida in 2013, but Florida used five times the dose of midazolam that Oklahoma plans to use, meaning Lockett and Warner will essentially be human guinea pigs. “It is an experiment, and I don’t think anybody is absolutely certain what will happen in Oklahoma,” says Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. Dieter adds that we’ll never know whether the drugs worked properly or caused needlessly painful deaths because the people who could tell us will be dead.

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Does This Secret Drug Cocktail Work To Execute People? Oklahoma Will Find Out Tonight.

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Who Said It: Donald Sterling or Donald Trump?

Mother Jones

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var quiz = jQuery(‘#quiz_container’).quiz(‘0AuHOPshyxQGGdF9CMUVJeFM2UkJDb0txOUNxemZ6U3c’);
On Fox & Friends today, Donald Trump stood up for fellow aggrieved billionaire Republican Donald Sterling, claiming that the Los Angeles Clippers owner was “set up by a very, very bad girlfriend.” Sterling, of course, is under fire for the recently released audio recording in which he tells onetime girlfriend V. Stiviano to, among other things, stop associating publicly with black people, including Lakers great Magic Johnson. With sponsors rushing to drop the Clippers, it must be a great relief for Sterling to know that he’s got The Donald on his side.

Trump’s comments made us wonder, though: Could you tell the two Donalds apart by the wacky (and creepy) things they’ve said over the years? Try your luck with our Which Donald Is It? quiz below:

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return question_container;
},
build_possible_answer_elements_from_row : function(question, question_index)
var answers_container = $(”);

function bindClick(question_index, answer_index, possible_answer)
possible_answer.bind(‘click’, function()
// was it the right answer?
var was_correct = self.quiz_dataquestion_index.possible_answersanswer_index.correct;

// Add correct classes to possible answers
answers_container.find(‘.selected’).removeClass(‘selected’);
$(this).addClass(‘selected’);
$(this).removeClass(‘possible_answer’);
answers_container
.find(‘.answer_’ + answer_index)
.addClass(
was_correct ? ‘correct_answer’ : ‘wrong_answer’
);

//track how many you got right the first time
cheater_answer_trackingquestion_index = was_correct;
if ( typeof(answer_trackingquestion_index) === ‘undefined’ )
answer_trackingquestion_index = was_correct;
cover.find(‘.question_’ + question_index).addClass(
‘first_guess_’ +
(was_correct ? ‘right’ : ‘wrong’)
);

self.update_how_you_did_element();

//show new slide
self.display_answer(self.quiz_dataquestion_index, question_index, self.quiz_dataquestion_index.possible_answersanswer_index);

// track that this was selected last
self.quiz_dataquestion_index.previously_selected = self.quiz_dataquestion_index.possible_answersanswer_index;
});
}

for (var i = 0; i < question.possible_answers.length; i++)
var answer_data = question.possible_answersi;
var possible_answer = $(” +
answer_data.answer +
”);
bindClick(question_index, i, possible_answer);
answers_container.append(possible_answer);
this.note_answer_images(answer_data);

return answers_container;
},
answer_images : {},
preload_answer_images: function()
for (var url in this.answer_images)
var img=new Image();
img.src=url;

},
note_answer_images: function(answer_data)
var image_elements = ‘backgroundimage’, ‘topimage’, ‘bottomimage’;
for (var i = 0; i < image_elements.length; i++)
if (!answer_data[image_elementsi]) continue;
this.answer_images[answer_data[image_elementsi]] = true;
}
self.possible_display_elementsi.name;
},
add_display_in_correct_place: function(container, place_in_display_elements, slide)
for ( var i = place_in_display_elements; i > 0; i– )
if (self.possible_display_elementsi – 1.finder(container).length )
self.possible_display_elementsi – 1.finder(container)
.after( self.possible_display_elementsplace_in_display_elements.create_element(slide) );
return;

}
container.prepend(
self.possible_display_elementsplace_in_display_elements.create_element(slide)
);
},
display_answer : function(question, question_index, answer)
var displayed_slide = question.previously_selected ?
question.previously_selected :
question.question;
var slide = container_elem.find(‘.question_’ + question_index + ‘ .question’);
slide.addClass(‘revealed_answer’);
for (var i = 0; i < self.possible_display_elements.length; i++)
var display_value = self.possible_display_elementsi.name;
if ( answerdisplay_value !== displayed_slidedisplay_value )
if ( !answerdisplay_value )
self.possible_display_elementsi.finder(slide).remove();
else if ( !displayed_slidedisplay_value )
self.add_display_in_correct_place(slide, i, answer);
else
self.possible_display_elementsi.finder(slide).replaceWith(
self.possible_display_elementsi.create_element( answer )
);

}
}
},

create_cover : function()
cover = $(‘#’ + self.container);
container_elem = $(”);
cover.append(container_elem);
container_elem.addClass(‘quiz_container’);
container_elem.css(‘padding’, ‘0px’);
,
update_how_you_did_element: function()
var right_answers = 0;
var user_answers = self.cheating ? cheater_answer_tracking : answer_tracking;
var unfinished = false;
for (var i = 0; i < self.quiz_data.length; i++)
if (typeof(answer_trackingi) === ‘undefined’)
unfinished = true;

if (user_answersi)
right_answers++;

}
var html;
if (unfinished && typeof(this.not_finished_html) !== ‘undefined’)
html = this.not_finished_html;
else
html = this.results_dataright_answers;

how_you_did_element.html(html);
}
};
return quiz.init(quiz_data, results_data, options);
};

$.fn.quiz = function(quiz_data, results_data, options)
if (!options) options = results_data; results_data = null;
if (!options) options = ; }
options.container = this.attr(‘id’);
this.quiz = $.quiz(quiz_data, results_data, options);
return this;
};
})(jQuery);

var quiz = jQuery(‘#quiz_container’).quiz(‘0ArjPQkXVuVJudDVzRnpXTVRzelRGVTVfMnV0ZDltU2c’);

Original post: 

Who Said It: Donald Sterling or Donald Trump?

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Rick Perry Dismantled Texas’ Public Integrity Unit. Now He’s Facing a Grand Jury.

Mother Jones

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Rick Perry—Republican Texas governor, failed 2012 presidential candidate, and potential 2016 retread contender—is battling legal trouble at home, thanks to his controversial veto that demolished the state office tasked with investigating political scandals. On Monday, a Texas judge convened a grand jury to probe Perry’s decision last year to axe funding for the state’s Public Integrity Unit. The special prosecutor investigating the case, Michael McCrum, has not filed any charges. But earlier this month he said, “I cannot elaborate on what exactly is concerning me, but I can tell you I am very concerned about certain aspects of what happened here.”

Perry’s troubles started when he attempted to to displace the government official in charge of the Public Integrity Unit, a state-funded watchdog agency that investigates charges of public corruption. The unit is led by whoever is serving as the Travis County district attorney, who is based in Austin. The Current DA is Rosemary Lehmberg, a Democrat. Last April, she was arrested for drunk driving.

After Lehmberg’s arrest, Perry called for her resignation, claiming that the public could no longer place its trust in an official who herself ran afoul of the law. But the governor has no direct control over her job, a locally-elected position, and a grand jury rejected a former opponent’s attempt to have Lehmberg removed from office. For her part, Lehmberg refused to resign, though she said she won’t run for reelection in 2016. That wasn’t enough for Perry. With Lehmberg holding on to her job, the governor decided to cut off the two-year $7.5 million in state funding for the watchdog unit with a line-item veto. “Despite the otherwise good work the Public Integrity Unit’s employees,” a Perry statement said after the veto, “I cannot in good conscience support continued State funding for an office with statewide jurisdiction at a time when the person charged with ultimate responsibility of that unit has lost the public’s confidence.”

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Originally posted here: 

Rick Perry Dismantled Texas’ Public Integrity Unit. Now He’s Facing a Grand Jury.

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The Hottest Conservative Campaign Gimmick of 2014: Free Guns

Mother Jones

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Ron Paul announced recently that he is giving away a gun because “there can be no liberty without the ability to defend it.” As part of its “Defend Liberty Gun Giveaway,” one lucky donor to the former Texas congressman’s organization, Campaign for Liberty, will receive a DDM4 AR-15. But Paul isn’t alone. More than a dozen candidates for national and local office have offered up free firearms to their supporters during the 2014 election cycle, with gifts ranging from pistols to shotguns to an AR-15 customized by the gubernatorial candidate himself. It’s the year’s hottest conservative campaign gimmick.

More Mother Jones reporting on the role of guns in American society.

While candidates may be exploiting right-wing fears of an impending Obama firearm confiscation, the phenomenon isn’t new. The tactic traces back to at least 1994—not coincidentally the last time fears of a gun-grabbing Democratic president reached a fever pitch. Surprise: All the gun-giving candidates are Republicans. Historically, these gun giveaways haven’t been terribly successful. With the exception of three incumbent politicians, none of the candidates who have tried to entice voters with firearms have ever gone on to win their races.

Here’s a quick history:

Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.), 2014: The US Senate candidate gave away a Colt AR-15 and a Colt Marine Corps 1911 Rail Pistol to two members of his email list.

South Carolina state Sen. Lee Bright, 2014: Bright, who is challenging Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), is handing out an AR-15 from Palmetto State armory to a member of his email list.

Tennessee state Rep. Joe Carr, 2014: Sen. Lamar Alexander’s tea party challenger enticed voters to sign up for his email list by gifting a Beretta 92A1.

Steve Wagner, 2014: The Hendricks County, Indiana, sheriff candidate is raffling off four shotguns.

Former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), 2014: The former presidential candidate and current Colorado gubernatorial contender is teaming up with Ted Nugent—who once told his rivals to “suck on my machine gun”—to hand out an AR-15 to one supporter (no donations necessary).

Tancredo for Governor

Colorado state Sen. Greg Brophy, 2014: Not to be outdone by Tancredo, his rival for the gubernatorial nomination is offering a Smith & Wesson M&P15—personally modified by the candidate, to one lucky member of his email list. “I tricked this baby out with all the MagPul stuff you can add!” he explains.

Steve French, 2014: The Alabama Republican state rep candidate offered a Remington 870 shotgun to a randomly selected supporter. Said French: “I hope the winner brings home a nice gobbler.”

Conrad Reynolds, 2014: Reynolds, a retired Army colonel who is a seeking a congressional seat in Arkansas, is giving supporters wooden nickels that enter them in a lottery to win an AR-15.

Timothy Delasandro, 2014: The Texas Republican candidate for state representative gave away a Sig Sauer SIGM400 AR-15.

Mike Boudreaux, 2014: A $20 raffle ticket gave supporters of Boudreaux, a candidate for sheriff in California’s Tulare County, a chance to win pistols and shotguns.

Chuck Maricle, 2014: This handgun instructor and GOP candidate for state rep gave an AR-15 to one rally attendee.

Alan Wilkins, 2014: This police sergeant’s campaign to be Platte County, Nebraska, sheriff hit a snag when his gun raffle was deemed illegal.

Chris Fiora, 2014: A Maryland sheriff candidate, Fiora gave away a DPMS/Panther Arms AR-10 at a fundraiser in which he also roasted a cow.

Maryland Del. Don Dwyer, 2013: He raffled off an AR-15 and an AK-47 at “Delegate Dwyer’s Gun Rights and Liberty BBQ Gun Raffle, Auction & Strategy Meeting.”

Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas), 2013: Stockman, who advocated using liberals’ tears as a gun lubricant, gave away an AR-15 on the Fourth of July to entice people to sign up for his email list.

Curtis Coleman, 2013: The Arkansas gubernatorial candidate offered up a Palmetto PA-15 from Don’s Weaponry in North Little Rock to a lucky supporter.

Missouri state Sen. Brian Nieves, 2013: He gave a Sig Sauer 516 Patrol to an attendee at a $100-a-ticket fundraiser to benefit his campaign committee.

Missouri state Rep. John McCaherty, 2012: During his reelection campaign, McCaherty raffled off an AR-15 provided by the National Rifle Association. He had just one simple request of his supporters: “Do not answer any questions about the event at all.”

Illinois state Rep. Josh Harms, 2012: Harms, who bragged to a local newspaper that he once shot a bear in Canada, sold $5 raffle tickets for a chance to win a revolver, shotgun, or rifle.

Dean Allen, 2009: The candidate for South Carolina adjutant general, which manages the state national guard, gave away an AK-47 at a “machine gun social” fundraiser. “I like to tell people I’m not the country club conservative,” Allen told the Greenville News. “I’m the machine gun one.”

Peter James, 2007: The Maryland GOP congressional candidate announced his intent to give away 100 pistols and a few machine guns. Reporters who showed up for the big event were disappointed to discover the weapons were in fact water guns.

Mike Curtiss, 2000: Supporters of the downstate Illinois congressional candidate who bought $5 raffle tickets got a chance to bring home an AR-50 dubbed the “Rod Blagojevich Special,” in honor of the then-Chicago congressman, who was pushing to have the gun outlawed. “I see the humor in this,” Blagojevich told the Chicago Sun-Times. “God love the guy. It’s OK. With all due respect to Curtiss, he is nuts about guns.” Curtiss also gave away a $400 box of cigars.

Michael Concannon, 2000: The North Carolina state Senate candidate raffled off a gun to fund his campaign.

Mark Detro, 2000: This Oklahoma Republican congressional candidate scrapped plans to offer guns in exchange for campaign donations—and a planned raffle—after discovering it violated state gambling laws.

C. Ronald Franks, 1994: The Maryland Senate candidate sold $5 raffle tickets for a chance to win an AR-15.

Randy Linkmeyer, 1994: The California state Senate candidate held a “Family Firearm Safety Day” to give guns and ammunition to a select few supporters. Kids were welcome.

Source – 

The Hottest Conservative Campaign Gimmick of 2014: Free Guns

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Meet the Preacher Behind Moral Mondays

Mother Jones

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On a recent Sunday afternoon, the Reverend William Barber II reclined uncomfortably in a chair in his office, sipping bottled water as he recovered from two hours of strenuous preaching. When he was in his early 20s, Barber was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, a painful arthritic condition affecting the spine. Still wearing his long black robes, the 50-year-old minister recounted how, as he’d proclaimed in a rolling baritone from the pulpit that morning, “a crippled preacher has found his legs.”

It began a few days before Easter 2013, recalled Barber, pastor at the Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro, North Carolina, and president of the state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). “On Maundy Thursday, they chose to crucify voting rights,” he said.

“They” are North Carolina Republicans, who in November 2012 took control of the state Legislature and the governor’s mansion for the first time in more than a century. Among their top priorities—along with blocking Medicaid expansion and cutting unemployment benefits and higher-education spending—was pushing through a raft of changes to election laws, including reducing the number of early voting days, ending same-day voter registration, and requiring ID at the polls. “That’s when a group of us said, ‘Wait a minute, this has just gone too far,'” Barber said.

On the last Monday of April 2013, Barber led a modest group of clergy and activists into the state legislative building in Raleigh. They sang “We Shall Overcome,” quoted the Bible, and blocked the doors to the Senate chambers. Barber leaned on his cane as capitol police led him away in handcuffs.

That might have been the end of just another symbolic protest, but then something happened: The following Monday, more than 100 protesters showed up at the capitol. Over the next few months, the weekly crowds at the “Moral Mondays” protests grew to include hundreds, and then thousands, not just in Raleigh but also in towns around the state. The largest gathering, in February, drew more than 15,000 people. More than 900 protesters have been arrested for civil disobedience over the past year. Copycat movements have started in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Alabama in response to GOP legislation regarding Medicaid and gun control.

With Moral Mondays, Barber has channeled the pent-up frustration of North Carolinians who were shocked by how quickly their state had been transformed into a laboratory for conservative policies. “He believed we needed to kind of burst this bubble of ‘There’s nothing we can do for two years until the next election,'” explains Al McSurely, a longtime NAACP organizer. But what may be most notable about Barber’s new brand of civil rights activism is how he’s taken a partisan fight and presented it as an issue that transcends party or race—creating a more sustained pushback against Republican overreach than anywhere else in the country.

Barber’s activism is rooted in his family’s history. In the 1960s, his parents moved back to eastern North Carolina from Indianapolis to help desegregate the local schools. His father, also a preacher, taught science at a formerly all-white high school. His mother became the school’s first black office manager. Students called her “nigger” before they finally learned to call her “Mother Barber.”

Barber fears that Republican lawmakers’ efforts to expand private-school vouchers will resegregate the very schools his parents worked to integrate. As NAACP president, he helped pass legislation establishing same-day voter registration and expanding death penalty appeals—bills that Republicans repealed in the last legislative session.

In 1993, a flare-up of his condition left him hospitalized, and he spent the next dozen years relying on a walker to get around. Exercise, faith, and “a little miracle and medicine” fueled his recovery—along with a good health plan. “I never want to have health insurance and see other members of the human family denied,” he says. “It’s immoral.” He shakes his head at lawmakers who receive generous benefits only to try to deny their constituents access to Obamacare or expanded Medicaid. “The logic doesn’t compute.”

Barber says his emphasis on morality is inspired by his predecessors in the civil rights movement. “They first had to win the moral high ground, and they had to capture the attention and consciousness of the nation,” he explains. “When those two things came together, it gave space for people like Lyndon Baines Johnson, who was a segregationist, to step out of his normal pattern of politics into a new way.” Barber says that Moral Mondays’ broad appeal is reflected in state Republicans’ sagging popularity: A February poll found that just 36 percent of North Carolina voters approved of Gov. Pat McCrory’s job performance; 28 percent approved of the General Assembly’s.

With North Carolina Democrats still in disarray following their drubbing in 2012, some progressives are looking to Barber to lead them out of the wilderness. “It’s our job to take this energy and turn it into reality at the polls,” says Democratic Party chairman Randy Voller.

But to Barber, the movement’s success is not tied to the ballot box. Rather, it’s in moments like the cold Saturday morning in February when tens of thousands of people flooded the streets of the capital. Black, white, gay, and straight, they came from churches and synagogues wearing rainbow flags for marriage equality, pink caps for Planned Parenthood, and stickers reading “North Carolina: First in Teacher Flight.” When it was Barber’s turn to speak, the crowd fell silent.

“Make no mistake—this is no mere hyperventilation or partisan pouting,” he intoned, his voice rising and breaking. “This is a fight for the future and soul of our state. It doesn’t matter what the critics call us…They can deride us, they can try to deflect from the issue. And we understand that, because they can’t debate us on the issue. They can’t make their case on moral and constitutional grounds.”

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Meet the Preacher Behind Moral Mondays

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