Last Call For Kansas Torna-derps

Looks like Kansas Republicans are going to fight until the end over stopping same-sex marriage, which they can't legally stop for much longer.

On Wednesday, a judge in Johnson County, which borders Kansas City and is the state’s most populous county, ordered court clerks to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. Kansas bans same-sex marriage by state law and its state constitution, a position expected to be overturned following a U.S. Supreme Court decision on Monday.

The high court decided not to review a U.S. appeals court decision striking down bans in Oklahoma and Utah, which are in the same U.S. appeals court circuit as Kansas, meaning the state is bound by that court’s rulings.

Kansas Governor Sam Brownback said the attorney general’s petition would ensure an orderly process and avoid confusion created by inconsistent judicial rulings.

“An overwhelming majority of Kansas voters amended the constitution to include a definition of marriage as one man and one woman,” Brownback said in a statement. “Activist judges should not overrule the people of Kansas.”
Johnson County has announced that it would issue marriage licenses and Shawnee County is accepting applications for license while awaiting court action before issuing licenses.

The ACLU of Kansas plans to file a federal lawsuit early next week challenging the ban on same-sex marriage, Doug Bonney, its chief counsel and legal director, said on Friday.

And I expect in short order that the ACLU's lawsuit will swiftly result in Kansas having same-sex marriage recognized the way North Carolina did on Friday when a judge overturned the ban in that state.

A federal judge in North Carolina struck down the state's same sex marriage ban Friday, opening the way for the first same-sex weddings in the state to begin immediately.

U.S. District Court Judge Max O. Cogburn, Jr., in Asheville issued a ruling shortly after 5 p.m. declaring the ban approved by state voters in 2012 unconstitutional.

Cogburn's ruling follows Monday's announcement by the U.S. Supreme Court that it would not hear any appeal of a July ruling by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond striking down Virginia's ban. That court has jurisdiction over North Carolina.

"North Carolina's laws prohibiting same-sex marriage are unconstitutional as a matter of law," wrote Cogburn, who was appointed to the federal bench by President Barack Obama. "The issue before this court is neither a political issue nor a moral issue. It is a legal issue."

 But it's okay.  Sam Brownback most likely won't be governor of Kansas for much longer.

Rand On Race, Regretfully

Not even Washington Post columnist Nia-Malika Henderson buys Rand Paul coming to Ferguson as the Kentucky senator being "helpful".

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) made one of the boldest and most memorable statements on the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Mo., going a place members of his party wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole. 

Now, he's literally gone to the place -- as in, Ferguson -- where he's meeting with the NAACP, the Urban League and other church and business leaders about criminal justice. 

A cynic would say that Paul, a likely 2016 presidential contender, is simply trying to expand his appeal. 

That cynic wouldn't be entirely wrong.

Look, Rand Paul seems genuinely baffled as to why black voters vote Democratic, in the same way that Rep. Paul Ryan seems genuinely baffled as to why poor people vote Democratic.  There are some problems that Paul admits still exist, namely the black cradle to prison pipeline, but like Paul Ryan, Rand Paul's solutions actually would make things even worse.

“I am a politician, and I do recognize that [Republicans] haven’t done very well with people who live in cities -- primarily African Americans -- and I do think we need to do better,” he said in a phone interview from Ferguson. “The thing I found is that you might interview 20 people, and you find that they are not ready to vote for a Republican yet, but they are interested in Republicans competing for their vote and showing up in their communities.” 

Paul has been on something of an urban America tour, meeting with leaders all over the country. He is the closest thing the GOP has to a race man, unafraid to put himself in the shoes of African Americans and to talk about disparities 

But at the same time, this is a relatively new effort for him. And for a guy who in his first campaign struggled with questions about the Civil Rights Act, the discovery does coincide with his increasing national political ambitions. 

"I think I’ve discovered more of urban America from being elected than not being elected. I grew up in a small rural town, so from a firsthand experience, I wasn't as aware," he said. "But as a senator ... I’ve tried to learn about problems that I frankly didn’t know as much about. And as I met with community leaders, I’ve discovered that there were things like … many people didn’t have the right to vote, and I wasn’t aware of that. And since that time, I’ve become more active in those issues."

The thing is that the standard in the GOP, that is that belief that the 90% plus of black America that votes Democratic are nothing but stupid, savage animals who live on government largess, is so unrelentingly awful and incredibly racist that Rand Paul's slightly less insulting approach of relatively cynical pandering comes across as making him look like a "civil rights leader" by comparison.  It's like trying to tend poison ivy as the only living thing in a field of blackened, scorched, and salted earth and telling your friends how awesome your garden is.  Here's where Henderson really makes a complete fool out of herself.

But in steadily talking about race, about hopelessness and a sense of powerlessness -- as well as what the federal government can do to help -- Paul is up to something entirely different. He is becoming the closest thing the Republicans have to an Al Sharpton or a Jesse Jackson, a comparison that prompted laughter from the man himself. 

"I will leave that to others I don’t know," he said. "I am trying very hard to show that Republicans do have policies and plans and do care about trying to fix problems in our nation's cities."

Look, just because Rand Paul admits that black Democratic voters are actual human beings, putting him several steps ahead of your average Republican, people are fawning all over the guy.  It's great that Rand Paul admits black Democratic voters may in fact be actual human beings.  If that's your bar for why we should vote Republican, please kindly go screw yourself.

In Which Zandar Answers Your Burning Questions

"Hey Zandar, you're in IT and stuff. Is there really a lack of qualified software engineers and computer programmers out there that necessitates us importing qualified tech workers from Asia? If so, and the Obama administration doesn't increase these H-1B visas, will US tech firms will continue to threaten expand overseas instead?"

Well I'm glad you asked.

What engineer shortage are you talking about?  It doesn't exist.

A compelling body of research is now available, from many leading academic researchers and from respected research organizations such as theNational Bureau of Economic Research, the RAND Corporation, and the Urban Institute. No one has been able to find any evidence indicating current widespread labor market shortages or hiring difficulties in science and engineering occupations that require bachelors degrees or higher, although some are forecasting high growth in occupations that require post-high school training but not a bachelors degree. All have concluded that U.S. higher education produces far more science and engineering graduates annually than there are S&E job openings—the only disagreement is whether it is 100 percent or 200 percent more. Were there to be a genuine shortage at present, there would be evidence of employers raising wage offers to attract the scientists and engineers they want. But the evidence points in the other direction: Most studies report that real wages in many—but not all—science and engineering occupations have been flat or slow-growing, and unemployment as high or higher than in many comparably-skilled occupations.

"Wait a minute.  Unemployment is higher among engineers and college-level tech workers? But why are we insisting on importing foreign engineers when we produce more engineers now than we need?  What could possibly be the reason, Zandar?"

Hispanics, Asians and blacks are not getting equal pay for equal work in the high-tech industry. 

That's the finding of new research that shows Hispanics earn $16,353 a year less on average than their colleagues who are not Hispanic. 

In the same high-skilled positions such as computer programmers and software developers, Asians make $8,146 less than whites and blacks $3,656 less than whites, according to the report from the American Institute for Economic Research. 

"What this tells us is that race and ethnicity matter, and they matter a lot," said Nicole Kreisberg, the senior research analyst who conducted the research. "Simply increasing diversity is not enough. We also have to talk about money."

Gosh, you mean Asian and Hispanic tech workers make $8-16k less per year than white ones?  I can't imagine why huge Silicon Valley tech firms would be so keen on hiring foreign employees then.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• Leaders in Iraq's Anbar Province are asking for US ground forces to help halt the advance of as many as 10,000 Islamic State fighters nearing Baghdad.
• Kmart is the latest major retailer to be hit by a data breach that may have compromised millions of credit card numbers and bank accounts.
• Weekend protests in the St. Louis area are starting off peacefully after a recent incident where an unarmed black teenager was shot and killed by police in St. Louis County.
• North Korean leader Kim Jong Un hasn't been seen publicly in more than a month, fueling speculation that he may be gravely ill, dead, or even that he was deposed by his sister.
• President Obama says that he is still "unequivocally committed to net neutrality" and that he wants the FCC to ban pay-for-play "fast lane" internet access.

Last Call For No Mo Gitmo

"Well," I imagine President Obama saying.  "They're going to hate me anyway, so I might as well go for it and close Guantanamo."

The White House is drafting options that would allow President Barack Obama to close the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by overriding a congressional ban on bringing detainees to the U.S., senior administration officials said. 

Such a move would be the latest and potentially most dramatic use of executive power by the president in his second term. It would likely provoke a sharp reaction from lawmakers, who have repeatedly barred the transfer of detainees to the U.S.

Officials, who declined to say where detainees might be housed if taken to the mainland, said the U.S. has ample space in its prisons for several dozen high-security prisoners. The administration has reviewed several facilities that could house the remaining detainees, with the military brig at Charleston, S.C., considered the most likely.

I honestly think Huckleberry Graham will pass out/come close to an aneurysm from this.  I really do. On national TV, no less.  Meet John McCain With Your Host Chuck Todd is really, really going to hate this too.

Of course, if President Obama actually tries this, as Steve M. points out, it'll set up a shutdown fight that President Obama will almost assuredly lose.

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) on Friday vowed to block all legislation in the Senate with a prolonged filibuster if President Obama tries to transfer detainees from Guantanamo Bay to the United States.... 

Roberts made a similar threat back in 2009, when Obama originally signaled he wanted to relocate detainees to the United States. At the time, the disciplinary barracks at Fort Leavenworth, as well as a maximum-security prison in Obama's home state of Illinois were being considered to house the prisoners.... 

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who is traveling through the state this week on Roberts's campaign bus, said he would join the filibuster. Roberts predicted he would have broad support from his colleagues. 

"I will have help on this. I can see John McCain there and I can see Lindsey Graham there and I can see Kelly Ayotte there and I can see a whole bunch of other people there," Roberts said.

And why will Obama lose on this?  Because Democrats in the Senate will line up around the block to stab him in the back over this.

Wonder how soon this is going to start showing in campaign ads for Roberts -- and for Mitch McConnell, Joni Ernst, Scott Brown, etc., etc.

I'm sorry to say that this effort will not succeed. On this, America is provincial and irrational, and not even remotely liberal.

Can you imagine what Senate Democrats will do when this happens?  Let me put it to you this way: the only think preventing impeachment hearings and a Senate trial is the fact that it takes 67 Senators to convict.  If this Gitmo thing goes down, well...

It's a nice thought.  But as Steve M. says, Obama will never be able to close Gitmo.  In the future some President may be able to.  That President will not be Obama.

Meet The Glibertarian Here In Kentucky

I haven't talked too much about David Patterson, the Libertarian candidate here in Kentucky's Senate race between Mitch McConnell and Alison Grimes, but he may end up a major factor anyway, as TPM's Sahil Kapur points out.

Libertarian U.S. Senate candidate David Patterson clocks in at 3 percent in the latest Bluegrass Poll, which may be enough to tilt the potentially decisive — and hotly contested — Kentucky race between Sen. Mitch McConnell (R) and Alison Lundergan Grimes (D), who are 2 points apart.

Patterson is hardly a seasoned politician: He lacks the killer instinct to seamlessly rip into his opponents and he freely admits when he doesn't have an answer to a question. He wants to end the drug war, legalize marijuana and let same-sex couples marry ("love is love," he says); he wants to get rid of Obamacare, the Patriot Act, the NSA's spying program and the income tax.

"My message is freedom," Patterson told TPM in an interview on Thursday, vowing to impose a two-term limit on himself if elected — "and that's if my wife lets me run for a second term. She may not."

"The NSA, Patriot Act — there's a whole lot of very, very heavy legislation that has come down in the name of the war on terror. Many citizens may not see it, but I certainly do. And it very much bothers me that the U.S. government can hold and detain a U.S. citizen indefinitely without trial and without charge," Patterson said. "The majority of both parties are interventionists. They like going into other countries. They both enjoy spending money — our money."

Don't get me wrong, I like some of his positions.  But the majority of them are terrible for Kentucky and his rhetoric on those areas are indistinguishable from Mitch:

Asked what he'd do about the roughly half-a-million Kentuckians who would lose insurance coverage if he repeals Obamacare, Patterson said, "Obviously we'd need to put something in place to help those individuals until such time as we can determine how we're going to — once again, I don't have all the answers. But we have to have something set up to assist them."

Like what?  Well, "something".  Some sort of big government approach I guess, right?  Well, who's going to pay for that "something" if you get rid of Kentucky's income tax?  And note he's fine with getting rid of income tax, not sales tax.  He'd send us down the same road as Sam Brownback in Kansas, only as a US Senator he'd push for that everywhere.  You figure there's about what, $2 trillion or so in federal and state revenue from income tax?  If that goes away, we'll have to do what, cut $2 trillion in spending yearly?  Sure, that'll add up.

Patterson claims that if he siphons votes from either McConnell or Grimes, he'd do so "kind of equally" from both. But the surveys tell a different story. According to the Bluegrass Poll, Patterson's support comes mostly from independents, but he has five times as much support from self-identified Republicans than Democrats, and more support among conservatives than liberals. That suggests that Patterson is likelier, if anything, to take votes from McConnell.

So yeah, he may actually help give Grimes the win.  That'll be his lasting legacy, and not his horrendously stupid policies.

GOP Minority Outreach, Part The Endless

Once again I'm just floored by the notion that Latino/Hispanic grassroots advocacy groups are seriously considering sitting out the 2014 elections when lower turnout favors pendejo Republicans like Texas AG and candidate for Lt. Governor, Dan Patrick.  Greg Sargent explains:

Patrick, a former radio host who is basing his run on remarkably lurid claims about the need to secure the border, is an important figure to watch to understand the GOP’s trajectory on immigration, and by extension, the party’s future relations with Latinos. Patrick is almost certain to win; he will be in a position of great influence in a state that is home to much of the border with Mexico — and well positioned to pull the party further right on the issue, particularly if another crisis flares up. 

To see what this might look like, check out Patrick’s latest ad. It raises the specter of ISIS terrorists crossing the border to kill Americans, links that to his Democratic opponent’s opposition to sending the National Guard to the border and her support for in-state tuition for residents brought to this country illegally. “National security begins with border security — and that begins with the Texas Rangers and National Guard,” Patrick says. “Border security will be my top priority.”

But y'all gonna sit out and let this guy win, and let his party win.  Because Patrick is far from the only one.

Perhaps Patrick is a rhetorical outlier in the party. But consider the broad sweep of what we’ve seen lately. Arkansas Congressman and Senate candidate Tom Cotton, who is supposed to be a uniter of the Tea Party and GOP establishment, claims that ISIS terrorists are collaborating with Mexican drug gangs to infiltrate the border and kill people in Arkansas. This didn’t really register at all with the national press corps, as if this has now become par for the course. And it has: GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter went on national TV and casually claimed a bunch of ISIS fighters were detained at the border, citing a far right legal group as a source. 

Meanwhile, even more “moderate” Republicans running for Senate in purple-ish states, such as Scott Brown and Terri Lynn Land, are flogging the migrant crisis to fear-monger about the border. As David Weigel has noted, Karl Rove’s outside group is running ads hitting Democrats over “amnesty,” even though Rove had previously urged the GOP to adopt immigration reform (which would include said “amnesty”) for the long-term good of the party. RNC chair Reince Priebus — who had alsopreviously urged the GOP to adopt reform, lest its appeal “shrink to its core constituencies only” — recently rolled out another rebrand that appeared to abandon reform as a goal. 

House Republicans voted to end Obama’s program to defer deportations of people brought here illegally as children, and will mount another stand if Obama unilaterally expands that program, locking the GOP into a stance that calls for ever more deportations. One imagines Ted Cruz willdemagogue that to the hilt as part of his 2016 presidential run. Even Marco Rubio — the great Latino hope of the GOP — was recently spotted dressing down DREAMers as a crowd of South Carolina conservatives hooted and jeered, another signal of where this is all headed once the GOP primary heats up.

Republicans will never allow immigration reform to pass.  They've killed it repeatedly for ten years now, but you're going to blame Obama and stay home.

You do that, 'mano.

StupidiNews!

• 17-year old Pakistani peace activist Malala Yousafzai will split this year's Nobel Peace Prize with 60-year old Indian activist Kailash Satyarthi for their work with children's' rights to be educated.
• The US Supreme Court has blocked Wisconsin's voter ID law from going into effect for November, pending appeal from voting rights groups who say the law disenfranchises minorities and the poor.
• Another night of protests in Ferguson, Missouri drew police as a second black teenager was killed by police this week in St. Louis, ahead of this weekend's planned rallies of slain teenager Mike Brown.
• A US District Judge has blocked Texas's voter ID law from going into effect because of the law's "unconstitutional discriminatory purpose" of preventing minorities from voting.
• Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk has unveiled the electric carmaker's newest product: an all-wheel drive, twin motor variant of the Tesla S sedan named the Tesla D.

Last Call For The Battle Of Harpers Ferry

To recap, West Virginia has just surrendered to the Fabulousness.

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey will not continue his defense of the state’s ban on same-sex marriage, soon clearing the way for same-sex marriage in West Virginia, according to a press release issued Thursday afternoon. 

It comes in light of this week’s U.S. Supreme Court decision that turned away appeals from five states, including Virginia, and rendered bans on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. 

Huntington’s William Glavaris, one of six plaintiffs who challenged West Virginia’s law in federal court, praised the decision. 

“I'm emotional and speechless,” he said. 

Casie McGee, another Huntington plaintiff, heard the announcement at work. 

“I’m just hearing it,” she said. “I’m still speechless. Amazed, excited, and speechless.” 

The state Department of Health and Human Resources announced its bureaus have amended paper forms and online technology to implement the necessary changes. 

“We expect that county clerks across the state will be able to issue marriage licenses for same-sex couples by Tuesday, October 14, 2014 at the latest,” said DHHR spokeswoman Allison Adler in a prepared release.

Wild, Wonderful West Virginia, folks.  Oh, and at this point, about 20 or so other states (including Ohio and Kentucky, good job on that guys) get stuck with "Behind even West Virginia on marriage equality", which is pretty failtastic if you ask me.

The War Of The Jokers

Doug Mataconis argues that the GOP same-sex marriage war is over, and that Republicans should be grateful for it.  A lot of them in fact are, as evidenced by their tacit acceptance of this week's various judicial rulings (and non-rulings).

Looking at this issue purely as a matter of electoral politics, this would seem to be the smart move for Republican politicians who want to appeal to voters outside of the party’s socially conservative base. While opposition to same sex marriage may have helped Republicans in the past, such as in the 2004 election, it now seems clear that this is no longer a viable strategy. 

Polling has now firmly established that a majority of Americans support granting marriage rights to gays and lesbians, for example, and that support is only likely to grow over time. Additionally, the forces opposed to same-sex marriage have not had an electoral victory since North Carolina voted to ban same-sex marriage in April 2012. Since then, three states have voted in referenda to legalize same sex marriage, one state (Minnesota) rejected a referendum that would have banned same-sex marriage, and six states have legalized same-sex marriage through the legislative process. Furthermore, polling has shown that a majority of young Republicans support same-sex marriage notwithstanding their party’s official position on the issue. Were it to continue to oppose same-sex marriage, it would only be a matter of time before the GOP found itself out in the cold alone on an issue that most Americans consider to have already been decided. 

At the very least, that will hurt the party’s efforts to reach out to younger voters, minorities, and other groups outside of the traditional Republican base that it is going to need to win in 2016 and beyond. If the GOP were to modify its position on this issue, there would of course be push back from the right such as what we’ve seen from social conservative groups who are openly campaigning against Republicans who have endorsed marriage equality. In the long run, though, the GOP would be much better off if it didn’t have the millstone of opposition to same-sex marriage around its neck, and in some sense that is what many Republican leaders seem to be recognizing in their silence in response to yesterday’s news.

I'd argue that Mataconis is wrong, for one simple reason: immigration.  A lot of the same arguments that he correctly and logically points out for same-sex marriage can be applied to immigration: states are taking action on it, it's the demographic future of the voting public, there have been a lot of victories on it that favor the left, and support for a national immigration policy is broadly popular.  The main difference is that there's no SCOTUS decision possibly forcing a national immigration plan.

But in that case, the GOP has opposed it at every turn and demonized it at the specific level in order to delay any federal action for as long as possible, and have done so for years.  It's openly costing them the Latino vote, especially in Presidential elections, but the far right of the GOP doesn't particularly care, and in the short term they've been successful on splitting off some Dems from it as a result.

The right will try this on same-sex marriage in 2016.

Discriminating Tastes

The adage that "Since President Obama was elected, white people think discrimination against black people is over" is pretty much exactly the case, as evidenced by new research from Harvard.

Work by Harvard University professor Michael I. Norton, who examined data from a series of polls through the years, found in 2011 that although both blacks and whites believe anti-black racism has diminished through the decades, whites tend to think it has been all but eliminated. 

In many cases, he found, white perceptions of racial disparities diverge far from reality.
For instance, two-thirds of blacks think that African Americans earn make less money than whites, a view in line with official statistics. But just 37 percent of whites believe that blacks make less money than whites, and a narrow majority think black and white’ incomes are about the same. Also, although many objective health measures suggest blacks are in worse overall health than whites, a majority of whites think blacks and whites are equally healthy. 

So it is no surprise that just 16 percent of whites believe that there is “a lot” of discrimination in America today, a view held by 56 percent of blacks. What may be surprising is that the polls found that white perceptions of anti-black bias have diminished to the point where they are more now likely to think anti-white discrimination is a bigger problem than bias against blacks. The chart below is from Norton's work.

In other words, since about 1998 or so, there are more white Americans who believe white people are discriminated against than they believe black people are discriminated against.  The data doesn't come anywhere near to this, but that's where we are today.

You know, people like Chief Justice John Roberts.  "Racism is over" is reality to a lot of white America in 2014.  Judging by the trajectory, we're soon going to arrive at the point where white people believe anti-white discrimination is worse than black people believe anti-black discrimination is.

Hell, if you ask me, we've reached that point now.

StupidiNews!

• Dallas Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan has died of the disease and his family has questions about how and why it happened when other US Ebola patients survived.
• Demonstrators in St. Louis marched and chanted early Thursday morning in response to St. Louis police shooting an 18-year old 16 times.
• Five of the nation's busiest airports will begin screening incoming passengers from West African nations for symptoms of Ebola.
• Home prices in Brooklyn have jumped to a new pre-recession high as the median price of a home nears $600,000.
• Lexington, Kentucky's city council will vote on blocking Time Warner Cable being able to transfer ownership to Charter Communications in the city as part of their merger with Comcast.

Last Call For Suddenly, South Dakota

Don't look now, but according to a new Survey USA poll, South Dakota's senate seat is not only in play, the Republican everyone expected to win, former governor Mike Rounds, is in real trouble.

The Senate race in South Dakota is unexpectedly tightening as the former Republican governor who had been leading the polls has been losing ground in a three-way race.

A new poll from Survey USA shows support among likely voters for Republican Mike Rounds falling to 35%, while Independent Larry Pressler is at 32%, and Democrat Rick Weiland is at 28%, according to the Aberdeen News, which commissioned the poll along with two local radio stations. Tea party activist Gordon Howie, who’s also running as an Independent, is at 3%, while 2% remain undecided. The poll surveyed 616 likely voters and has a 4% margin of error. 

Rounds has long been favored to win the seat, which has largely fallen under the radar this election cycle. Even Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid publicly wrote the race off as a loss,refusing to endorse Weiland, and most previous polls had Rounds leading by double digits. 

But Rounds’s support appears to have fallen amid the growing controversy over a foreign investor visa program known as EB-5, which expanded under his term as governor. Investigators flagged suspicious financial transactions in the program, and the Rounds official who oversaw the program was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound before he was called to testify in front of a state grand jury last year.

Survey USA found that 56% of voters believe the former governor needs to say more about the EB-5 program, which gives green cards to foreign investors who sink at least $500,000 into economic development programs, provided that they create a certain number of U.S. jobs.

If these numbers are anywhere close to being true, Rounds is very, very beatable.  In fact, if Democrats pulled a Kansas here and Weiland withdrew from the race, I'm betting Pressler would end up with a big lead the way Independent Greg Orman has in the Sunflower State right now.

It would be a real gamble, but all the "GOP wins the Senate" models have Rounds winning this seat that retiring Democrat Tim Johnson is giving up.  If that's suddenly not the case, November just got real interesting.

The Service's Dirty Secret, Con't

As the Indianapolis Star reminds us, the reason why the recent stories on the US Secret Services many failures are so frustrating is that President Obama regularly faces more threats than any US President in history, and by a significant amount.  This was evident in the President's visit to Evansville, Indiana last week.

President Barack Obama faced threats against his life during a recent visit to Southern Indiana, police have confirmed. 

While verbal or written threats against the president occur with some frequency, a threat preceding Obama’s visit to the Evansville area apparently was considered serious enough to prompt an increased Secret Service presence. 

“We had received information throughout the week (preceding the Oct. 3 visit),” said Indiana State Police Sgt. Jason Allen in Evansville. “There was some intel that was received. I think there was one individual of particular interest to (the U.S. Secret Service). Anything that is said on social media sites or whatever has to be taken seriously and investigated, and some (posts) could definitely be considered a serious threat.” 

Obama flew to Evansville on National Manufacturing Day and spent 90 minutes at Millennium Steel Service in Princeton. The firm is a major supplier for Toyota's auto assembly plant across the street. 

Maj. Craig Titzer of the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office also was aware threats were made, he said. 

“We were just given information to be alert and watch out,” Titzer said, adding that multiple area police agencies assisted with security efforts. 

The U.S. Secret Service oversaw the investigation into the individual who allegedly made threats, Allen said. 

“We committed well over 200 police officers to the detail,” Allen said. “The vast majority of those were traffic assignments in terms of motorcade support for the presidential limousine. But we also had a lot of different assets on the ground in intelligence-gathering.” 

The intense security surrounding the presidential visit minimized the dangers posed by anyone with malicious intent, Allen said. 

“At no time do we feel the president’s life was in danger,” Allen said.

The rise of Twitter during President Obama's administration really has been a source of serious problems for the White House as far as it being used as a vector for threats.  Before the USSS had to worry about threatening phone calls or letters, but those were things that could be traced.  Now, the Internet allows real time harassment of the President and his family, and we basically demand the USSS has to follow up on these things every time.

Perhaps Republicans shouldn't have reduced funding in last year's sequestration mess.  These guys need all the help they can get.

The Huckster Emerges, Refuses To "Evolve"

Mike Huckabee came out of political irrelevance Tuesday morning to scream how he'll throw himself into political irrelevance unless the GOP gets busy hating LGBTQ Americans, stat.  Speaking on the American Family Association's daily broadcast, The Huckster demanded that the GOP stop same-sex marriages or else.

Incensed by the decision, Huckabee declared that "I am utterly exasperated with Republicans and the so-called leadership of the Republicans who have abdicated on this issue," warning that by doing so the GOP will "guarantee they're going to lose every election in the future."

"Guarantee it," he said before proclaiming that the Republicans are going to "lose guys like me and a whole bunch of still God-fearing, Bible-believing people" if the party does not stand and fight on the issues of gay marriage and abortion.

"I'm gone," Huckabee warned. "I'll become an independent. I'll start finding people that have guts to stand. I'm tired of this."

Oh by all means Huckster, take your wing of the Bigoted Old Party and form a third party, splitting the Republican vote nationally heading into 2016.  Please do that.  I'm all for it.  Put your money where your mouth is and do it already.  Pick up your ball and leave, you bleating simpleton.

I couldn't be happier with that as a Democrat and a liberal.  Make it happen, Mike.

StupidiNews!

• Two Americans and a German have won this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work in optical microscopy, allowing science to peer into the workings of molecular functions.
• One day after the Supreme Court let rulings stand striking down state same-sex marriage bans as unconstitutional, the 9th Circuit has now overturned such bans in Idaho and Nevada.
• Canada is the latest country to join the anti-ISIS coalition in Iraq and Syria as legislators voted to send fighter jets to Iraq for participation in airstrikes against Islamic State forces.
• Wal-Mart is the latest company to eliminate health insurance benefits for part-time employees, a move that will cut benefits from 30,000 workers.
• A new study finds using voice-activated technology while driving is nearly as distracting to drivers as texting or making phone calls.

Last Call For Unbelieveable Numbers

Last week I noted that the black community in Ferguson had gained more than 3,000 voter registrations in response to the shooting of Michael Brown.

Today I find out that never actually happened.

Last week, numerous news outlets, national and local, reported on a huge increase in registered voters in Ferguson, Mo., following the Aug. 9 shooting of Michael Brown. But it apparently didn't actually happen.

The St. Louis County elections board reported that 3,287 Ferguson residents had registered to vote. That is a huge surge for a city of 21,000, particularly as controversy swelled about the racial make-up of the city government after the shooting. Ferguson is two-thirds African-American, but its mayor and all but one member of the six-person city council are white.

But apparently that first report was in error. There was no voter registration spike. The county elections board reversed course on Tuesday and said that, actually, only 128 people had registered to vote since the shooting.

That sucks.  I mean, I'm glad that the 128 people registered.  It's a start.  But it's heartbreaking to see that the news was too good to be true, especially when it comes to voting.

In Which Zandar Answers Your Burning Questions

A whole bunch of people are asking why SCOTUS punted on Monday, allowing to stand the various Circuit Court rulings overturning of several state bans on same-sex marriage on Constitutional grounds.

Answer is simple.  It's a compromise.  And it has everything to do with Justice Kennedy.

Here's what I've come up with having had a day to think about it: you need four justices to grant a review for a case (cert).  If the four liberal justices who sided with Kennedy on striking down DOMA were confident Kennedy would join them and that they had five votes, they would have taken up the case in a heartbeat. Likewise, if the four conservative justices were confident Kennedy would side with them, they certainly would have taken the case.

Now, you would think given the usual impasse (which is "What the hell will Kennedy do this time?") they'd all decide it was worth taking up the cases and deciding for the nation.  But that didn't happen, which means there's a reason why.

The why is that I believe Justice Kennedy made it clear that he was going to take his decision on DOMA to its logical endpoint: giving LGBTQ Americans protected status as a minority, meaning that they would be protected from discrimination under a number of existing laws and the four liberal justices were going to back him.  I think Roberts worked out a deal where SCOTUS then punted to keep that from happening, with the understanding that the other justices wouldn't interfere with Circuit Court decisions overturning these state bans on same-sex marriages.  This would immediately put same-sex marriage into effect in a number of states, and did.

In other words, SCOTUS is saying "Hey, remaining Circuit Courts, we expect all of your guys to come to the same conclusion on this issue."  Liberals get same-sex marriage now, instead of next June.  Conservatives avoid a Kennedy decision that gives LGBTQ Americans special status under the law across the board.

The turd in the punchbowl is the Fifth Circuit, heavily stocked with conservatives.  If they uphold Texas's ban on same-sex marriage when all of the other Circuit Courts rule to overturn various state bans, then SCOTUS can no longer punt. (It's also possible the 11th Circuit could do the same thing with Georgia's ban, or on an outside shot, the 6th Circuit with Ohio's ban.)  That would force SCOTUS to take up the case and issue a ruling next year sometime (probably June).

But it would also completely mess up existing same-sex marriages in the states where SCOTUS punted on Monday.  I don't think they'd do that unless they had to.

Thing is, the Fifth or 11th Circuit may force it.

We'll see.  Meanwhile, there's evidence that Republicans have effectively given up on blocking same-sex marriage because it's bad politics.

I don't buy it yet, but as I said, we'll see.

The Republican Non-Reaction To Marriage Equality

As BuzzFeed's Kate Nocera notes, Republicans were virtually silent on the Supreme Court's surprise decision to pass on hearing any same-sex marriage appeals from the states this term, meaning that Circuit Court rulings striking down same-sex marriage bans as unconstitutional in five states are now settled law.

There has been one notable (and loud) exception to that GOP non-response, however:  Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who vowed to stop same-sex marriages across the country.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz likewise criticized the decision on the part of the court and announced that he would introduce a constitutional amendment that would allow the states to define marriage.

”I will be introducing a constitutional amendment to prevent the federal government or the courts from attacking or striking down state marriage laws,” Cruz said.

Now, Cruz isn't being totally stupid here.  He knows there's zero chance of getting two-thirds majorities in both the House and Senate necessary for passing an amendment on to the states for ratification. But he's got the field to himself here on pushing that amendment, and that's going to mean intense fundraising from the millions of bigots who infest the GOP.  He knows what he's doing.

He also knows that he's put his 2016 competition in a bad spot.  Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum and yes, Jeb Bush are going to have to answer some uncomfortable questions about whether or not they back Cruz on this.

How much this SCOTUS decision will play in 2014, I can't tell you.  Depending on how quickly appeals move in the states affected by the Circuit Court rulings, North Carolina and Colorado could have marriage equality before Election Day, meaning that the ruling could play a part for both Kay Hagan and Mark Udall.  How much that will affect turnout, well I don't know.

We'll see how this plays out.

StupidiNews!

• The Nobel prize in Physics has been awarded to the three scientists who invented the blue LED, for revolutionizing light sources across the world.
• Seattle's City Council has unanimously voted to change Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples' Day in response to Native American history.
• Islamic State fighters are pushing into the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani near the Turkish border, increasing the pressure on Turkey to send ground forces into the area.
• Spanish health officials are seeking those who may have come in contact with a nurse diagnosed with Ebola in Madrid on Monday.
• A new Pew Charitable Trusts study finds online payday lenders are much more likely to threaten delinquent customers with action, and that a third of loans are designed to automatically renew.