DOWNLOADS: (107)

PLAYS: (800)

Embed

A Republican congressman who served in Iraq and Afghanistan on Sunday looked back at the Iraq war and declared that it was a "just and noble war."

During an interview on CNN, host Candy Crowley asked Rep. Tom Cotton (R-AR) for his views on the war 10 years after the U.S. invaded.

"The Iraq war noble and just war," the Arkansas Republican declared. "I would say it was worth it, but it's also a little too soon to tell because there's nothing ever certain in human affairs."

"But if you look at the accomplishments of our troops in Iraq, they deposed an evil tyrant who was an aggressive international dictator," Cotton continued. "He'd invaded across two boundaries. He had demonstrated the ability and the will to use weapons of mass destruction. He was believed by every Western government -- including senior high-ranking officials in President Obama's cabinet right now -- to be developing new weapons, who was in violation of numerous United Nations resolutions."

"But under those conditions, I think as I said, it was a just and noble war."

Many in Congress, however, now look back at the Iraq war as a mistake because President George W. Bush's administration used false information about weapons of mass destruction as a "pretext" to invade.

"You remember World War II, Korea, all the major wars of this nation," Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) said recently. "This is one that slips into the background, and people are comfortable with it slipping into the background. I think the legacy of this is always going to be that it was a mistake, that it was pre-emptive, that it wasn't based on real information, and that the whole struggle could have been handled differently."

DOWNLOADS: (127)

PLAYS: (400)

Embed

Republican state Rep. Ann Clemmer on Wednesday explained that Arkansas lawmakers were "not eliminating choice at all" by overriding Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe's veto of a ban on abortions after the 12th week of pregnancy.

"I really believe that we are not eliminating choice at all," Clemmer told KUAR. "We're just saying after 12 weeks, the choice is over. You have a choice for the first 12 weeks. That's almost three months. We're talking the second trimester here -- we're talking about second trimester abortions."

Benton also insisted to the public radio station that her bill, which is the most restrictive abortion ban in the nation, would not jeopardize women's health.

"I don't think that having an abortion aids a woman's health," she said. "I don't know under what circumstances having an abortion aids a woman's health because this bill deals with women who have serious health issues, this bill deals with babies who have lethal fetal disorders and it deals with rape and incest."

The Arkansas House on Wednesday overrode Beebe's veto by a vote of 56 to 33. The state Senate have voted to override it just one day earlier.

Before the vote, Clemmer argued that Republicans should support the abortion ban because state law declared "a 12-week-old baby in utero a person … [whose] life is to be protected not only from a third party, but from a mother herself."

A federal judge on Wednesday found for the first time that a 20-week abortion ban in Idaho was unconstitutional because it put "an absolute obstacle" the the path of women seeking abortions.

DOWNLOADS: (175)

PLAYS: (1433)

Embed

As David Atkins over at Digby's place noted in regard to this wingnut, "Republicans are reaping what they sowed. They rode this circus to power for 30 years using the Southern Strategy and now they get to live with it. Try as they might, the RNC isn't going to get away from this anytime soon. They can run Marco Rubio for President all they'd like, but countless politicians like this guy will be making headlines for years and years to come, wiping away Republican support from decent-minded communities everywhere.

Here's more from Lee Fang's article Rachel mentioned in the clip above: Meet Jason Rapert, the Koch-Backed Evangelical Steering Arkansas's Radical Abortion-Restriction Effort:

On Wednesday, the Arkansas legislature lurched forward with a radical measure to ban most abortions if a fetal heartbeat is detected within six weeks of a pregnancy, a requirement experts say will force the state to insert a probe into a woman’s vagina to detect.

The bill also penalizes doctors who perform abortions after the arbitrary cut-off date with a Class D felony, carrying up to six years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. The chief sponsor of the measure is Republican State Senator Jason Rapert, a fiddle-playing financial planner with his own evangelical outreach center that hosts mission trips to Uganda, Ghana and the Philippines. He has been among the loudest anti-abortion politicians in the state, and has sponsored a number of other radical bills, including a very strange effort to organize a constitutional convention to give state legislatures power over the national debt limit.

Here he is at a Tea Party rally from 2011, not only complaining about Obama’s Ramadan event but also warning the president that his people have had enough of “minorities” running the country (emphasis added):

RAPERT: I hear you loud and clear, Barack Obama. You don’t represent the country that I grew up with. And your values is not going to save us. We’re going to take this country back for the Lord. We’re going to try to take this country back for conservatism. And we’re not going to allow minorities to run roughshod over what you people believe in!

[...]

In another part of the same speech, Rapert proudly declares himself a birther and attacks the state Supreme Court for knocking down a ban on gay adoptions as example of “minority interests running roughshod over you and me.”

While Rapert certainly enjoys wide support in many corners of the evangelical movement (here he is Rev. John Hagee), what interests me is how many white-shoe corporations stepped in to support his candidacy last year. A look at his final campaign finance report reveals direct corporate dollars and corporate political action committees sponsored by companies supposedly friendly to women:

Here are some examples: Southwestern Energy Company PAC gave $2,000; ARCH PAC, of Arch Coal, gave $1,000; Eli Lilly and Company gave $500; Lisa Allen, an executive with Cox Communications, gave $1,000; Nucor Corp PAC of AR gave $500; AT&T Arkansas PAC gave $2,000; Verizon gave $1,000; and American Electric Power PAC gave $500. Read on...

Go read the rest for more on his donors, including as the title of the piece notes, the Koch brothers. Here's more on him from Think Progress:

Rapert’s other proposals include amending the U.S. Constitution to give state legislatures control of the federal debt limit and for the absolute elimination of all parole for state prisoners.

DOWNLOADS: (143)

PLAYS: (719)

Embed

As Lawrence O'Donnell rightfully pointed out this Tuesday evening, even if your leaders renounce the likes of Rep. "legitimate rape" Todd Akin, it doesn't mean much when you won't say a word about wingnuts like Rep. Paul Broun, who just said that denying evolution, embryology, and the Big Bang Theory are "lies from the pit of hell." And as he noted, they've yet to denounce this wingnut as well -- Arkansas State Rep: ‘If Slavery Were So God-Awful, Why Didn’t Jesus Or Paul Condemn It?’:

After Arkansas Republicans disavowed a book by state representative Jon Hubbard (R-AR) claiming slavery was “a blessing in disguise” for African Americans, Hubbard’s colleague, state Rep. Loy Mauch (R-AR) has been outed by the Arkansas Times for his pro-slavery, pro-Confederacy letters to the editor over the past decade. Mauch’s run for reelection this year is backed by the Arkansas Republican Party.

In letters to the Democrat-Gazette, Mauch vehemently defended slavery and repeatedly suggested Jesus condoned it:

If slavery were so God-awful, why didn’t Jesus or Paul condemn it, why was it in the Constitution and why wasn’t there a war before 1861?
The South has always stood by the Constitution and limited government. When one attacks the Confederate Battle Flag, he is certainly denouncing these principles of government as well as Christianity.

His other letters call Abraham Lincoln a Marxist and celebrate the Confederate flag as “a symbol of Christian liberty vs. the new world order.” He also organized a conference in 2004 praising John Wilkes Booth and calling for the removal of an Abraham Lincoln statue. Mauch has been supported mainly by contributions from the Republican Party and other Arkansas candidates. Now, the state GOP is pulling all funds from Mauch, Hubbard and another state legislative candidate, Charlie Fuqua, who wants to expel all Muslims from the country and thinks rebellious children should receive the death penalty.

These idiots have just thrown out the dog whistles. Forget subtlety, break out the blow horns.

DOWNLOADS: (158)

PLAYS: (964)

Embed

A Mississippi mother is accusing police in Jonesboro, Arkansas of killing her son after he was found shot in the head with his hands cuffed behind his back in a squad car.

A police report obtained by KAIT indicated that 21-year-old Chavis Chacobie Carter had been a passenger in a pickup truck when Officer Ron Marsh found "some marijuana" and plastic baggies in his possession. Marsh also determined that Carter had been wanted on a warrant after he missed a court date for drug charges in DeSoto County, Mississippi.

Marsh then had Carter “exit the patrol unit, placed him into handcuffs, searched him a second time then placed him into the back seat of the patrol unit.”

Jonesboro Police Sergeant Lyle Waterworth told WREG that Carter had been "handcuffed behind his back and double locked, and searched."

At that point, Officer Keith Baggett believed a passing car ran over a piece of metal in the road because he heard "a loud thump with a metallic sound." Baggett said he then heard "several thumps" after Marsh released the two other suspects. Marsh motioned Baggett over to the patrol car and said the 21-year-old had shot himself.

When the officers opened the patrol car door, they found Carter in a "sitting position slumped forward with his head in his lap." The report indicated that Carter was still handcuffed and a small caliber handgun was sitting beside him.

Carter was taking to St. Bernards Regional Medical Center and later died from the gunshot wound.

Authorities in Jonesboro suspect that Carter shot himself in the head but his mother, Teresa Carter, isn't buying it.

"I think they killed him, my son wasn’t suicidal," she explained to WREG, adding that police told her he was shot in his right temple, even though her son was left handed.

"I just want to know what really happened," Teresa Carter said. "That's all I want to know."

Officers Baggett and Marsh have been placed on leave pending an investigation.

DOWNLOADS: (682)

PLAYS: (83820)

Embed

Okay, can anyone explain to me why Anderson Cooper felt the need to bring on actor and Christian evangelist Kirk Cameron who starred in the Left Behind series to discuss the mysterious bird and fish deaths in Arkansas? I mean seriously Anderson... WTF? I'd like to know what the hell happened there as well, but the last person in the world I can think of that I would hope to get some answers from is this guy.

I guess someone at CNN thinks we haven't quite Jesus'd up our "news" enough already with right wing evangelicals getting some face time on their airways.

More than 1,000 dead birds fall from sky in Arkansas:

BEEBE, Ark. -- The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission says more than 1,000 dead black birds have fallen from the sky in Beebe.

The agency says its enforcement officers began receiving reports about the dead birds about 11:30 p.m. Friday.

Officials say the birds fell over a one-mile area of the city and that no other birds were found outside of that area.

Some of the dead birds will be sent for testing to the state Livestock and Poultry Commission lab and the National Wildlife Health Center lab in Madison, Wisconsin.

Commission ornithologist Karen Rowe says that similar events have occurred elsewhere. In other cases, she says test results "usually were inconclusive," although the birds showed physical trauma. She says the flock could have been hit by lightning or high-altitude hail.

Transcript via CNN below the fold.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (204)

PLAYS: (604)

Embed

Anderson Cooper is really terrible when it comes to covering politics a lot of the time, but when it comes to issues like this and standing up for the rights of the LGBT community, I've got to give the man a lot of credit. It is completely unacceptable for a member of a school board anywhere to be acting this way and I'm glad Cooper decided to give it some national attention on CNN.

Here's more from Think Progress -- Arkansas School Board Member Wants ‘Fags’ To ‘Commit Suicide’ And To ‘Give Each Other AIDS And Die’ :

Last week, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) asked people to “Go Purple” to call attention to the suicides of six teenagers who were victims of homophobic bullying. In response, a myriad of high-profile figures “jumped at the opportunity” to voice their support as part of YouTube’s “It Gets Better” campaign, including 40 Broadway actors, Google, Inc., Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and President Barack Obama. Yesterday, Obama’s Secretary of Education Arne Duncan sent new official guidelines on school-bullying to 15,000 school districts and 5,000 colleges and universities as a message that “bullying is not acceptable” and could violate federal civil rights laws.

Despite a chorus of support, GLAAD’s anti-bullying message is falling on deaf ears in Arkansas. Specifically, the ears of Arkansas District School board member Clint McCance. In response to GLAAD’s appeal to wear purple, McCance, an elected member of the Midland school board, unleashed a tirade of anti-gay bigotry on his facebook page. In a series of posts, McCance actually encourages “fags” and “queers” to kill themselves and says that, if his kids were gay, he’d “run them off“.

Cooper did a great job of pointing out that there are real faces and real children who have committed suicide because of this type of attitude and bullying. It's completely unacceptable that this man is still allowed to keep his job in the Arkansas school system after these revelations. This sort of hatred and bigotry should not be condoned and has real life and death consequences for children who are struggling with their own identities as Cooper pointed out.

Transcript from CNN below the fold.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (975)

PLAYS: (1900)

Embed

Keith Olbermann talked to Sam Seder about this report from The Hill where it looks like the DSCC is cutting their losses with Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas who is about 20 points behind her Republican challenger. As Keith and Sam discussed, it's expected for the party to back incumbents as they did here, but there was no excuse for the antagonistic attitude towards the unions for them backing Halter. He was the better candidate and would have had a better chance of winning than Lincoln. They would have been better off listening to their base in this case.

And Bill Clinton was one of the worst out there campaigning for Lincoln. I didn't post any of the video back in June because about all I really could have mustered at the time would have been one bleeped expletive after the other ending with telling him to bite me. I was really angry after watching him out on the stump for Lincoln. How's that union bashing working out for you now Bill?

Looks like the unions were not the ones wasting their money, the party establishment was. And now they're throwing their hands up in the air and admitting she can't win. But then we knew that back when we were backing Bill Halter. No one can say he'd have won either but he would have had a better chance than Lincoln does and Halter might have generated some enthusiasm from the base to vote for him. It looks like Arkansas is going to get a Republican that has an R behind their name instead of a D this time around.

DSCC must decide where to cut losses as tough races add up:

Democratic leaders face tough decisions on how much to spend on the campaigns of Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) and other party candidates whose chances for winning in November seem dim.

Money that goes to Lincoln rather than Democrats thought to have better odds at the polls may be seen as wasted. And it could upset one of the party’s biggest financial supporters, labor unions, which spent millions in an unsuccessful attempt to defeat her in the primary.

Four public polls this month showed the two-term incumbent, who chairs the Agriculture Committee, trailing her Republican challenger by an average of more than 20 points.

Where to prioritize Lincoln’s race is one of several difficult decisions Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) Chairman Robert Menendez (N.J.) has to make to fend off an anticipated anti-incumbent wave in November. Read on...

Transcript from last Friday's Countdown below the fold.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (676)

PLAYS: (1073)

Embed

Ed Schultz talked to the United Steel Workers President Leo Gerard about the "anonymous White House official" who decided to go shoot their mouth off to the Drudge rag Politico and slam labor for supporting Bill Halter in the Democratic Senate race in Arkansas. Gerard said he is extremely disappointed in what was said and that the person who said it is entitled to their opinion but not to make that opinion anonymously and that if the matter is not cleared up by the President it could likely fester.

Gerard made it clear that the objective of labor is not to be the "ATM Machine" of the Democratic Party and that Blanche Lincoln was not representing their members' interests.

He expressed his disappointment with Bill Clinton for going out there and campaigning against labor for Blanche Lincoln and said he'd do it again because they're obligated to stand up for the rights of working people. Leo, I refrained from doing any posts on Bill Clinton campaigning for Lincoln because I don't think I could have written anything about it when I first watched him in action without the post being full of obscenities every other word and ending with telling him to bite me, so you're being way kinder to Clinton than I would have been capable of.

Gerard is still giving the President the benefit of the doubt about the comments coming out of the White House. I'm not. If he disagreed with what one of his aides said to Politico, he should have said so immediately. Apparently he doesn't care if he pisses off labor any more than Rahmbo does - who is the one I suspect called up Politico, since taking cheap shots at liberal Democrats seems to be a hobby of his.

Organized labor knows what side of the debate they're on. The White House on the other hand seems confused about who helped put them in office and thinks that kicking the unions and progressives in the teeth is somehow a good idea just months before a midterm election. I guess we'll see how that genius plan works out for them this November.

DOWNLOADS: (586)

PLAYS: (1313)

Embed

Ed Schultz expresses his anger of the White House deciding to stick its finger in the eye of organized labor after Blanche Lincoln won her primary race for the Senate in Arkansas. I might have chalked this up to just Politico starting trouble had it not been for Robert Gibbs standing by the statement by an "unnamed senior White House official". I agree with Ed.

Schultz: The last thing the White House should be doing right now is picking a fight with working families across this country. And to come out and diss labor for spending millions of dollars to get rid of a corporate Democrat I think puts the White House on the wrong side of the fence.

If the White House doesn't like our democratic process and the right of the electorate to run primary challengers against these corrupt corporate Democrats who don't have the interest of the voters at heart, well that's too bad. And as Ed says, we'll see you at the next showdown. Why they think alienating organized labor publicly is some good political move beyond me as well. It sure as hell isn't going to help them win any elections in November.

Dave N.: Kinda makes you wonder if labor unions threw away all those millions in 2008 helping Obama win the White House, doesn't it?

Meanwhile, what Digby says.