2012

post from Daily Kos on 01 October 2012 05:51:47 PM. © Daily Kos

It was a big weekend for our Orange to Blue races. Here's what's new.

FL-18: This one is a little weird, but, well, it's Allen West, so ... just read it, if you dare. In less weird FL-18 news, new polling from Kimball Political Consulting, a Republican firm, has Patrick Murphy up, with a 49-45 edge. Also, too, the House Majority PAC, courtesy of Garin-Hart-Yang, has Murphy up 52-43.

And here's the cherry on top: Murphy raised $1.05 million in the third quarter.

FL-26: Rep. David Rivera, the GOP's clumsiest crook, is floundering, "according to a poll conducted this week by McLaughlin & Associates, a well-regarded GOP firm." Joe Garcia has a 44-33 lead.

OH-16: The Republicans thought they'd get rid of Democratic Rep. Betty Sue Sutton when they redistricted her into a race against their incumbent freshman Jim Renacci. She's made it a real race, and is making the National Republican Congressional Committee spend some money there. They're going into the district with ads for the first time this week.

WI-07: Pat Kreitlow is still sneaking up on reality "star" Rep. Sean Duffy. Internal polling released by Kreitlow shows him down just three points, 43-41. That basically confirms PPP's findings from last week, though this one has much higher undecideds, at 15 percent. Kreitlow's campaign gave the DK Elections crew the rest of the findings:

"Obama's up 52-41 over Romney, not too far off his eight-point margin in 2008. If those numbers hold up, then Duffy will be facing some serious headwinds in his attempt to claw his way to 50%+1."

Upgrade the Senate:

CT-Sen: Republican Linda McMahon got some very bad press over the weekend following her idea to "sunset Social Security." Sez the Hartford Guardian:

McMahon flirts with a wide range of approaches toward solvency for Medicare and Social Security, a stance she says would allow her to participate in bipartisan negotiations if elected to succeed Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman.[...] But she ultimately shrinks from specific plans, especially when they bring controversy. In interviews Thursday and Friday, McMahon and her communication director, Todd Abrajano, were more emphatic about what McMahon doesn?t mean than what she does.

Ouch. And the Journal Inquirer [sub req.]:

In an age of women?s empowerment, in an age when men are generally called out for disrespecting women, McMahon has built her fortune, and gained the business experience she says qualifies her for high office, exploiting and degrading women. World Wrestling Entertainment, which now calls itself ?PG,? family friendly, and wholesome, became successful depicting acts of rage, pseudo-rape, and subjugation against women. That?s a fact.?

With the media out there reminding Connecticut voters why they rejected McMahon in 2010, Chris Murphy will likely see undecideds lining up behind him.

HI-Sen: Here's one that can probably be put to bed. Honolulu's Civil Beat poll has Mazie Hirono up 16 points over Republican Linda Lingle, 55-39.

OH-Sen: Sen. Sherrod Brown's opponent, Josh Mandel, is starting to show the strain of losing. Meeting a tracker from American Bridge in an elevator, Mandel tried to take his camera away:

Mandel approached the tracker, called him loudly by name, and at one point grabbed the monopod attached to the tracker?s camera.
The tracker said ?please don?t,? and Mandel relented, asking the tracker ?how you been? and said ?good to see you.? He also asked the tracker if he knew a Dispatch reporter who was in the elevator.

Yeah, not a good move in front of a local reporter.

WI-Sen: Tommy Thompson doesn't act much like a candidate who wants to win. He complains to the National Review that he was "exhausted" after the primary, and that he was at the point where "you hope that the other guy gets tired and stops hitting you.? As for his race against Tammy Baldwin:

?We should end the quarter with north of a million dollars, plus having paid for our TV through the 1st of October,? Thompson says. ?It?s not nearly enough, but I?m out there raising money every day.?
For weeks, Thompson says, his money woes were real. ?In order to get to the finish line on the primary, I had to borrow $600,000,? he says. ?The campaign doesn?t want me to say that, but I did.? By late August, ?We were hurt, but we won.?

There's also trouble in campaign paradise, apparently: ?Let?s put all of the cards on the table,? Thompson says as he glances at his political aides. ?People in this campaign are always trying to, you know, put me in a silo. Well, I will never be put in a silo.?

Thompson's money woes could worsen if the polling continues as the last few weeks' have, with Baldwin shown no signs of losing momentum. National groups could decide that throwing money in for Thompson isn't their best bet, and move on to other races. On the other hand, they've already spent a ton against Baldwin, with little to show.

Daily Kos for Marriage Equality:

Maryland: A poll by OpinionWorks for the Baltimore Sun brings good news for marriage equality.

Five weeks before the election, a measure to legalize same-sex marriage in Maryland has seen a surge of support and is now favored by likely voters, 49 percent to 39 percent, a new Baltimore Sun poll has found. [...] In March, the OpinionWorks poll found 43 percent of likely voters opposed and only 40 percent in favor.

They attribute much of the turnaround since March to much less opposition to gay marriage among African Americans, only a third of whom supported the measure, whereas in this week's poll, "more than half of likely black voters favor legalizing same-sex marriage, compared with a quarter who are opposed."

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/1Lzj5JqXQGw/-Orange-to-Blue-roundu
p-10-01-2012

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We Are All Vulnerable: Health Care Expert Tells
Personal Story In Defense Of Medicaid

post from ThinkProgress on 01 October 2012 05:43:21 PM. © ThinkProgress

Underneath the potentially dry data involved with health care reporting are millions of untold human stories — the Americans saved by the social safety net, the Americans left in destitution when the safety net is cut, and the Americans sometimes struggling to receive help from that net even when it is in place. Harold Pollack, [...]

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http://thinkprogress.org.feedsportal.com/c/34726/f/638927/s/24045b72/l/0Lthinkpro
gress0Borg0Chealth0C20A120C10A0C0A10C9358410Cwe0Eare0Eall0Evulnerable0C/story01.htm

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Chicago Fed Officials Warned Regulators About
Perils Of High-Speed Trading Two Years Ago

post from ThinkProgress on 01 October 2012 05:40:05 PM. © ThinkProgress

Two years ago, the Federal Reserve of Chicago warned the Securities and Exchange Commission about the dangers high-frequency trading posed to financial markets and the overall economy, but SEC regulators have been slow to move on reforms and rules that would limit the practice, according to a Reuters report. High-frequency trading has caused multiple damaging [...]

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http://thinkprogress.org.feedsportal.com/c/34726/f/638927/s/2404c62c/l/0Lthinkpro
gress0Borg0Ceconomy0C20A120C10A0C0A10C9381510Cchicago0Efed0Eofficials0Ewarned0Eregulators0Eabout0Eperils0Eof0Ehigh0Espeed0Etrading0Etwo0Eyears0Eago0C/story01.htm

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Tucker Carlson: Eric Holder and His Bitchin Fro
Was Once an Angry Black Man

post from Firedoglake on 01 October 2012 05:35:39 PM. © Firedoglake

Apparently, in a speech, Holder once said he participated in the ROTC occupation when he was a senior BUT IT REALLY HAPPENED WHEN HE WAS A FRESHMAN which can only mean that Holder is LYING ABOUT EVERYTHING and has actually been packing heat since 1970[...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/firedoglake/fdl/~3/EJ5LOCg2Ydk/

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Tucker Carlson: Eric Holder And His Bitchin Fro
Was Once An Angry Black Man

post from Firedoglake on 01 October 2012 05:35:39 PM. © Firedoglake

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Would you trust a Red Sox fan who invested in the
New York Yankees

post from Daily Kos on 01 October 2012 05:30:03 PM. © Daily Kos

Neither would I, but that's exactly what Mitt Romney is asking you to do, because according to his 2007 financial disclosure forms, Romney?who claims to be a Red Sox fan?was invested in the Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network, the broadcast arm of the New York Yankees corporate empire.

As the anchor says at the end of this clip from 2007, "You never know until you look at somebody's stock portfolio what they're thinking."

By 2012, Romney had apparently sold his investment.

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/WJVtkPw5OMM/-Would-you-trust-a-Red
-Sox-fan-who-invested-in-the-New-York-Yankees

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Barney Frank Opposes Medical Treatment For Trans
Prisoners

post from ThinkProgress on 01 October 2012 05:22:45 PM. © ThinkProgress

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) is the latest public figure to come out against providing sex reassignment surgery to transgender prisoners when deemed medically necessary, joining opposing Senate candidates Scott Brown (R) and Elizabeth Warren (D). Defending Massachusetts’s decision to appeal the case against Michelle Kosilek, Frank told MetroWeekly that the prescribed surgery is not “a [...]

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gress0Borg0Clgbt0C20A120C10A0C0A10C9383910Cbarney0Efrank0Eopposes0Emedical0Etreatment0Efor0Etrans0Eprisoners0C/story01.htm

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Irony Alert: Postal Services New Forever Stamp Is
Shrinking Alaskan Glacier!

An eagle-eyed reader directs us to this new ‘Forever’ stamp from the U.S. Postal Service. On Sunday, National Parks Traveler online explained: Come Monday, you can send Kenai Fjords National Park around the country. At least figuratively, thanks to a new stamp from the U.S. Postal Service. On Monday the Postal Service releases its Earthscapes stamp series featuring [...]

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gress0Borg0Cclimate0C20A120C10A0C0A10C9329910Cirony0Ealert0Epostal0Eservices0Enew0Eforever0Estamp0Eis0Eshrinking0Ealaskan0Eglacier0C/story01.htm

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Federal judge smacks down challenge to Obama
administration's birth control insurance coverage rule

three types of birth control bills A federal judge in Missouri has ruled that the Catholic owner of a mining and ceramics business cannot invoke his religious views to avoid paying for an employee's birth control coverage as part of her health insurance. The case is one of 30 initiated around the country in such matters.

Plaintiffs were Frank O?Brien and O?Brien Industrial Holdings, LLC, an 87-worker St. Louis-based company engaged mining, processing and distributing refractory and ceramic raw materials and products. They claimed that the provision of the Affordable Care Act requiring birth control to be included in company-supplied employees' health care insurance would violate their religious beliefs and that the alternative of paying fines for not providing insurance coverage "would have a crippling impact on their ability to survive economically.?

What would mining and ceramics processing, production and distribution have to do with religion? Perhaps nothing?

The plaintiffs argued much of their case under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which bars the government from ?substantially burden[ing] a person?s exercise of religion" with a rule or law unless there is a paramount government interest. The U.S Health and Human Services defendants argued, among other things, that a corporation is not a person and therefore cannot "exercise" a religion under RFRA.

District Court Judge Carol Jackson, a George H.W. Bush-appointee who has served on the court for 20 years, chose to reject plaintiffs' claims on "subtantial burden" and thus did not rule on whether a corporation is a person under RFRA. That leaves open the probability that we'll see that objection being raised in other cases being heard on this matter. What Jackson did say was this:

The burden of which plaintiffs complain is that funds, which plaintiffs
will contribute to a group health plan, might, after a series of independent decisions
by health care providers and patients covered by OIH?s plan, subsidize someone else?s
participation in an activity that is condemned by plaintiffs? religion. This Court rejects
the proposition that requiring indirect financial support of a practice, from which
plaintiff himself abstains according to his religious principles, constitutes a substantial
burden on plaintiff?s religious exercise.
RFRA is a shield, not a sword. It protects individuals from substantial burdens
on religious exercise that occur when the government coerces action one?s religion
forbids, or forbids action one?s religion requires; it is not a means to force one?s
religious practices upon others. RFRA does not protect against the slight burden on
religious exercise that arises when one?s money circuitously flows to support the
conduct of other free-exercise-wielding individuals who hold religious beliefs that differ
from one?s own.

In other words, as Ian Millhiser points out, the "plaintiffs can hardly claim they refuse to provide a benefit to their employees that those employees could later use to purchase birth control, because they are already providing those employees with a benefit they can use to purchase birth control?money."

Until the appeal, assuming one occurs, chalk up one defeat for the Right in its war on women.

???

4:24 PM PT: Armando has pointed out that the O'Brien decision is in direct conflict with the Hercules decision from Colorado in July.

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/4uSAY2NLuYs/-Federal-judge-smacks-
down-challenge-to-Obama-administration-s-birth-control-insurance-coverage-rule

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Tebowed

Johnson: Presidential Politics Trumps Jets' FateBy LYNN ZINSER, The New York TimesOctober 1, 2012, 2:34 pm(Jets owner Woody) Johnson, in a statement likely to irk Jets fans unhappy with the team's 2-2 start, said: "Well, I think so you always have to put[...]

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http://www.docudharma.com/diary/30996/tebowed-by-ek-hornbeck

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