Missouri Senator: Illinois Woes Tied to Gay Rights

found online by Raymond

 
From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

JEFFERSON CITY • The sponsor of a proposed constitutional amendment giving Missouri businesses the right to refuse to serve same-sex couples is suggesting that Illinois’ gay rights laws are dragging down its economy.

Sen. Bob Onder, R-Lake Saint Louis, told reporters Tuesday that he disagrees with business groups and others who say his proposed constitutional amendment would hurt Missouri.

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Obama Has Now Commuted the Sentences of 248

found online by Raymond

 
From the White House:

Today, the President announced 61 new grants of commutation to individuals serving years in prison under outdated and unduly harsh sentencing laws. More than one-third of them were serving life sentences. To date, the President has now commuted the sentences of 248 individuals – more than the previous six Presidents combined. And, in total, he has commuted 92 life sentences.

Underscoring his commitment not just to clemency, but to helping those who earn their freedom make the most of their second chance, the President will meet today with commutation recipients from both his Administration and the previous administrations of Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. During the meeting, the commutation recipients will discuss their firsthand experiences with the reentry process and ways that the process can be strengthened to give every individual the resources he or she needs to transition from prison and lead a fulfilling, productive life.

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Bentley Ordered Law Enforcement to Target Critics

found online by Raymond

 
From the Alabama Political Reporter:

MONTGOMERY—Gov. Robert Bentley pressured law enforcement officers to use federal and state resources to target those critical of his relationship with senior advisor Rebekah Caldwell Mason, according to high ranking officers and staff.

In an effort to find potentially damaging information on those who spoke out against the couple, Bentley instructed top law enforcement agents to investigate private citizens, in direct conflict with the law, said those close to the matter…

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Ancient Bogs Yield Evidence of Torture, Murder

found online by Raymond

 
From MadMikesAmerica:

Danish peat harvesters have been discovering well-preserved human remains in the bogs of England and throughout Northern Europe for centuries.

Most of these bodies date from about 700BC to 200AD, and they represent people of varying age, sex, and social status. But they do have one thing in common: Violent deaths.

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The Beast Shambles Toward Washington

found online by Raymond

 
From Green Eagle:

So many lies are going to be told in the next eight months, and so many myths about our country’s history that it is unfortunately going to be necessary for us to repeat the truth over and over again, if we have any hope of being heard above the right wing din. Well, the truth I want to write about today has to do with the real origins of the overwhelming anger and hatred that have flooded the Repubican party’s base.

I don’t want to hear a single person say that it is because the “government” has screwed the white people of this country, or that it is a reaction to Obama’s failure to “bring the country together” in the face of Republican leaders who would never let that happen. I don’t want to hear these things- lies told every day by Republican spokesmen- because they are false.

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Talking to Ourselves

found online by Raymond

 

From Human Voices:

26 dead in Brussels, reads the sign. 26 dead in Newtown. It isn’t something meant to inform us. Close the borders says the rubric. Get used to it says the counterpoint. Forget for the moment that this is a conversation between two straw men, their lines scripted by someone with a purpose — and forget that the death toll in Belgium has escalated beyond that number and is only a small part of a much larger number, this isn’t about accuracy anyway. It’s about energizing the base, giving them something to contemplate with masturbatory self-satisfaction while mocking an opposition created of straw for the purpose. But wait, there’s more.

Focus on the false equivalence.

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Cruz, Kasich, and a Future President Ryan

found online by Raymond

 
From Elijah Sweete at The Moderate Voice:

Opinion and Baseless Speculation

Ted Cruz and John Kasich are either dumb as rocks or they’re part of the scam. Who are the scammers and scammees? The scammers are the Republican power brokers, who some pundits foolishly claim have lost their brokering power. The scammees are Republican voters who think their votes will actually have meaning in selecting the Republican nominee. Cruz and Kasich may also be scammees if they are, in fact, dumb as rocks and not in on the ruse. One other possibility is that Cruz is being taken by his ego for a ride, while Kasich is in on the joke.

For all the endorsements and general tomfoolery, nobody who is anybody in the Republican Party really wants Ted Cruz to be their presidential nominee. As recently as today, Lindsey Graham, who officially has endorsed Cruz, said that Kasich would be a better president. That means he is endorsing someone, Cruz, he thinks would not be a good president. Huh? Explain please.

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Not Too Late for Trump to Lose the Nomination

found online by Raymond

 
From Jonathan Bernstein Bloomberg:

There are three ways that Donald Trump still could be denied the Republican nomination.

He could lose the delegate lead: Trump is ahead of Senator Ted Cruz by a little less than 300 delegates. That’s a large advantage, but there are still more than 800 bound delegates remaining to be selected, almost all of them in winner-take-all or winner-take-most states. There isn’t enough polling data to indicate what’s going to happen in most of these.

And that delegate lead is a little shakier than it might seem.

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Lady and the Trump

found online by Raymond

 
From Infidel753:

So. You thought the spectacle of the Republican front-runner reassuring the world concerning the yuuuge size of his “pocket Donald”* during a televised official debate was the lowest this campaign season could sink? Pshaw. Just before the Utah caucus, an anti-Trump PAC bafflingly named “Make America Awesome” began the bathysphere plunge into even profounder depths of nastyness with this ad:

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