“Shoot with Cruz” Campaign Fundraiser Reserves the Right to Conduct Background Checks on Potential Winners

Posted on June 6, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

ShootwithCruzPic - CopyBy Elaine Magliaro

Brendan James has an interesting article about presidential candidate Ted Cruz and one of his campaign fundraisers over at Talking Points Memo. As part of a recently launched “Shoot with Cruz” fundraiser, the Republican senator from Texas is planning to take a “lucky supporter with him on an upcoming ‘shooting excursion.’” James said there was one catch though: The winner may have to undergo a background check first.

James:

The caveat is an interesting one given that Cruz helped lead the effort to defeat a 2013 bill that would have expanded background checks for gun sales nationwide. The bill, which was championed by President Obama in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, ultimately went down after an intense lobbying effort from pro-gun groups.

Sen. Ted. Cruz: Universal Background Check Aimed at Creating Federal List of Every Gun Owner

James:

In an interview with TPM on Friday afternoon, Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler defended the contest’s background check requirement and said it was “not inconsistent” with the senator’s track record.

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Posted in Campaign Finance, Conservatives, Constitutional Law, Government, Political Science, Politics, Short Video, United States | Tagged , , , , | 14 Comments

Wisconsin Judges Considering “John Doe” Criminal Investigation into Scott Walker May Be Implicated in Same Kind of Offense

Posted on June 5, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro
Governor Scott Walker (R-Wisconsin)

Governor Scott Walker
(R-Wisconsin)

By Elaine Magliaro

In April, I wrote a post about the Wisconsin Supreme Court being slated to take up a “John Doe” criminal investigation of alleged coordination between Friends of Scott Walker and “independent” groups during the tumultuous 2011-2012 recall elections.

Mary Bottari of PRWatch:

The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) has detailed the bipartisan state investigation into the Walker campaign and the secretive big money groups that bankrolled his 2012 recall victory. Wisconsin Club for Growth (WiCFG), headed by Walker campaign manager R.J. Johnson and the “third Koch Brother” Eric O’Keefe, spent at least $9.1 million on Wisconsin’s unprecedented recall elections, and funneled almost $10 million more to other politically-active groups, including Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce. Yet, WiCFG, which enjoys tax free status, told the IRS that it spent $0 in political activity during that period.

Earlier this week, Billy Corriher (ThinkProgress) wrote an article on the subject of the “John Doe” investigation and whether Walker’s 2012 recall campaign “illegally coordinated with nonprofit groups that spent money to support him.”

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Posted in Campaign Finance, Conservatives, Corruption, Courts, Government, Political Science, Politics, States, United States | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Picture of the Day for June 5, 2015: A Cherry-Picked Edition of the Bible

Posted on June 5, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

Posted by Elaine Magliaro

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Posted in Christianity, Conservatives, Fundamentalism, Hypocrisy, Politics, Religion, United States | Tagged , | 1 Comment

POETRY FRIDAY: “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver

Posted on June 5, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

Posted by Elaine Magliaro

WILD GEESE, illustrated poem recited by Mary Oliver

Click here to read the full text of Mary Oliver’s poem Wild Geese.

Mary Oliver (Poetry Foundation)

Excerpt:
Poet Mary Oliver is an “indefatigable guide to the natural world,” wrote Maxine Kumin in the Women’s Review of Books, “particularly to its lesser-known aspects.” Oliver’s verse focuses on the quiet of occurrences of nature: industrious hummingbirds, egrets, motionless ponds, “lean owls / hunkering with their lamp-eyes.” Kumin noted that Oliver “stands quite comfortably on the margins of things, on the line between earth and sky, the thin membrane that separates human from what we loosely call animal.” Oliver’s poetry has won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award and a Lannan Literary Award. Reviewing Dream Work (1986) for the Nation, critic Alicia Ostriker numbered Oliver among America’s finest poets, as “visionary as [Ralph Waldo] Emerson.”

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Injustice in America: Regarding Texas’s Restrictive and Racist Voter ID Law and the Innocent Citizens It Disenfranchises (VIDEOS)

Posted on June 4, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

TexasSealBy Elaine Magliaro

Patrick Svitek of The Texas Tribune reported yesterday that presidential hopeful and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would use her speech today in Houston “to call for expanded early voting across the country and criticize states like Texas for tightening election laws.” He said that Clinton is planning to “propose a national requirement of at least 20 days of in-person early voting in every state…” He added that the Democratic front-runner is also “expected to advocate for early voting on weekends and evenings across the country, all part of an effort to cut down on long lines and generally make it easier to cast a ballot.”

Svitek:

In her remarks, Clinton also will go after Republicans who have backed efforts to make it harder to vote… The critique likely will include Texas, whose voter ID law is considered the toughest in the nation. The measure was signed into law by former Gov. Rick Perry, who is set to launch his second bid for the White House outside Dallas a few hours before Clinton takes the stage in Houston. 

According to The Dallas Morning News, the Texas voter ID law “requires voters to provide one of seven kinds of photo ID to cast a ballot. Four are available from the state Department of Public Safety — driver’s licenses, personal IDs, concealed-handgun permits and election identification certificates. Federally issued passports, citizenship certificates and military IDs also are acceptable.”

This may not seem like much of a problem…but it can be a major—if not near impossible—hurdle to overcome for some individuals. Watch the following video and you’ll understand why.

Texas Voter Identification Assistance Project

Under Texas’ new restrictive photo/voter ID law, more than 600,000 Texans now lack sufficient identification to vote in elections, with little to no help from the State of Texas to resolve the problems. The Texas Voter Identification Assistance Project, coordinated by the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit, provided assistance to Texas voters who wished to vote but lacked the newly required identification, and thus were disenfranchised. (Published April 24, 2015)

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Posted in Conservatives, Constitutional Law, Courts, Democracy, Equal Rights, Government, Justice, Political Science, Politics, Racism, RNC, SCOTUS, Short Video, Society, States, United States | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 24 Comments

Picture of the Day for June 4, 2015: On the Subject of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, the Koch Brothers…and ALEC

Posted on June 4, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

Posted by Elaine Magliaro

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FYI: Brendan Fischer and Mary Bottari posted an article titled Scott Walker: The First ALEC President? over at the Center for Media and Democracy’s PRWatch yesterday. I have an excerpt from the article below the fold.

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Posted in Campaign Finance, Conservatives, Democracy, Fascists/Corporatists, Government, Politics, States, United States | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

A Poem for Charlton in Memory of His Daughter Brandi Nicole Stanley (1988-2015)

Posted on June 2, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

 By Elaine Magliaro

The following poem, which I wrote several years ago, is called a CENTO. I am posting it today in memory of Brandi Nicole Stanley.

From the Academy of American Poets:

From the Latin word for “patchwork,” the cento (or collage poem) is a poetic form made up of lines from poems by other poets. Though poets often borrow lines from other writers and mix them in with their own, a true cento is composed entirely of lines from other sources. Early examples can be found in the work of Homer and Virgil.

March-April 2010 121

A Poem for Charlton
(In memory of Brandi Nicole Stanley “Celtic Lassie” 1988 – 2015)

Have you ever found something beautiful, and maybe just in time?
Lift up your lovely eyes and look.
I’m going to somewhere gentle.
I have a secret power, and
I can fly to where the sky begins…
Into the white fire of a great mystery,
Feel stars and sun and bells singing,
Swing through the shadows like warm gray whispers…
Spinning and dancing.
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free…
And I consider eternity another possibility.

Sara's Wedding 152

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In Memoriam: Brandi Nicole Stanley “Celtic Lassie” 1988 – 2015 “I will NOT go without a fight.”

Posted on May 31, 2015 by Chuck Stanley

Her name was Brandi Nicole Stanley.

Brandi Stanley

Brandi Stanley

I am her father. Please remember her.

Brandi lost her battle with cancer the evening of Memorial Day, last Monday. I was with her, holding her hand, as I had promised.

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Posted in Health Care, Memorial | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 49 Comments

Norman Solomon Writes about Jeffrey Sterling and the CIA: “An Untold Story of Race and Retribution”

Posted on May 31, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro
Jeffrey Sterling

Jeffrey Sterling

By Elaine Magliaro

Norman Solomon has an article titled Jeffrey Sterling vs. the CIA: An Untold Story of Race and Retribution over at ExposeFacts. Sterling is the former CIA officer and whistleblower who was convicted of leaking classified information to New York Times reporter James Risen about “Operation Merlin”–a failed U.S. effort to undermine Iran’s nuclear program.” Earlier this month, Sterling was sentenced to serve 42 months in prison.

NOTE: Solomon is the individual who produced the documentary “The Invisible Man: NSA Whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling” for ExposeFacts.

Risen is the investigative journalist who exposed how “Operation Merlin” could have actually aided the Iranian nuclear program. The US government claimed that Sterling had violated the Espionage Act by revealing details about that covert operation during the Clinton Administration, which “was to provide Iran with flawed designs for nuclear weapons components, ostensibly to delay the alleged Iranian nuclear weapons program, or frame Iran.

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In his article at ExposeFacts, Solomon tells about how Jeffrey Sterling “was in the midst of a protracted and fruitless effort to find someone in Congress willing to look into his accusations about racial discrimination at the agency” a dozen years prior to his recent sentencing.

Solomon:

ExposeFacts.org has obtained letters from Sterling to prominent members of Congress, beseeching them in 2003 and 2006 to hear him out about racial bias at the CIA. Sterling, who is expected to enter prison soon, provided the letters last week. They indicate that he believed the CIA was retaliating against him for daring to become the first-ever black case officer to sue the agency for racial discrimination.

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Posted in Barack Obama, CIA, Courts, DOJ, Equal Rights, Government, Government Propaganda, Iran, Justice, Propaganda, Racism, United States, War on "Terror" | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Norman Solomon Writes about Jeffrey Sterling and the CIA: “An Untold Story of Race and Retribution”

Picture of the Day for May 31, 2015: Republican Jesus

Posted on May 31, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

Posted by Elaine Magliaro

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Posted in Campaign Finance, Capitalism, Christianity, Conservatives, Democracy, Economic Policy, Economics, Government, Political Science, Politics, Religion, Socialism, United States | Tagged | 12 Comments