POLL: 51 Percent Agree With Obama On Marriage
Equality

post from ThinkProgress on 11 May 2012 04:00:03 PM. © ThinkProgress

A new USA TODAY/Gallup poll shows that 51 percent of voters approve President Obama’s endorsement of marriage equality, while 45 percent disapprove. It seems the President may lose some support to Mitt Romney, suggesting that those who oppose marriage equality feel more strongly about the issue than those who support it. According to the survey, though, 60 percent say Obama’s support for the freedom to marry will have no bearing on how they vote in the November election. For the past two years, polling has consistently shown that a majority of voters approve of same-sex marriage, particularly among Democrats and Independents.

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CEOs Of Tax Dodging Corpotations Want To Cut
Their Own Taxes Too

post from ThinkProgress on 11 May 2012 04:00:03 PM. © ThinkProgress

Earlier this week, the CEOs of 18 corporations wrote an open letter to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner opining that it would be a mistake to increase the tax rate on dividends and capital gains as called for in the Obama administration’s budget. The budget treats investment income the same as ordinary wage income for households making more than $250,000.

As Citizens for Tax Justice noted, the arguments used by these CEOs to protect their own low tax rates are bunk. In addition, the CEOs oversee companies that also have exceedingly low tax rates. For instance, signing the letter were:

– Gale E. Klappa, Wisconsin Energy Corp. ? Average Negative 13.2% tax rate 2008-11
– David M. McClanahan, CenterPoint Energy ? Average Negative 11.3 tax rate 2008-11
– Lowell McAdam, Verizon Communications Inc. ? Average Negative 3.8% tax rate 2008-11
– James E. Rogers, Duke Energy Corp. ? Average Negative 3.5% tax rate 2008-11
– Benjamin G.S. Fowke III, Xcel Energy ? Average 1.0% tax rate 2008-10
– Gerard M. Anderson, DTE Energy Co. ? Average 0.2% tax rate 2008-11
– Gregory L. Ebel, Spectra Energy Corp. ? Average 13.6% tax rate 2008-10
– Thomas A. Fanning, Southern Co. ? Average 17.4% tax rate 2008-10

It’s bad enough that these corporations are contributing so much to the fact that corporate taxes are at a forty year low. But to then turn around and advocate for preserving the low rate on capitals gains — which is a leading contributor to income inequality — really adds insult to injury. Remember, it was conservative icon Ronald Reagan who completely equalized the treatment of wage income and capital gains income, rejecting the conservative argument that a lower rate on investment income is necessary.

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http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/05/11/482923/ceos-taxes-corporations/

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Romney Really Doesnt Want to Talk About Medical
Marijuana

post from Firedoglake on 11 May 2012 03:50:08 PM. © Firedoglake

While in Colorado, local CBS Denver reporter Shaun Boyd asked Mitt Romney about his position on medical marijuana and the candidate was not happy. Romney became visibly upset about the question. He repeatedly interrupted the reporter and chided her for[...]

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

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Last chance to get your name on the Democratic
National Convention NASCAR

post from DemConWatch on 11 May 2012 03:40:52 PM. © DemConWatch

Monday is the last day for you to get your name on the “Powered by the American People” stock car. If you give $5 or more right now, we’ll add your name to our list of supporters.
This is the first convention to be funded by individuals like you and not corporations, lobbyists or PACs. Over 1,200 of our grassroots supporters from all over the country have already donated small amounts to have their name on this car.
I hope you will seriously consider being a part of our grassroots network and help make this convention a success. We are relying on you.
But remember, you only have until Monday to have your name included.
Will you join us?

Democratic Convention Watch will proudly have our name on the car... you should too!

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http://www.DemocraticConventionWatch.com/diary/5321/last-chance-to-get-your-name-
on-the-democratic-national-convention-nascar

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Connecticut and Alabama deal blows to Michelle
Rhee-style corporate education reform

post from Daily Kos on 11 May 2012 03:30:05 PM. © Daily Kos

Michelle Rhee (Hyungwon Kang/Reuters)

There's good news for public education in Alabama and Connecticut, as the Michelle Rhee breed of privatizers and corporate reformers were thwarted in both states, at least partially and at least for now. In Alabama, "a radical, far-reaching charter bill that would have allowed wholesale privatization of public education in the state" was declared dead in the state House for the session just ending. And in Connecticut, legislators fought Gov. Dannel Malloy's initial, teacher-scapegoating plan and gave teachers unions a voice in arriving at a compromise.

Michelle Rhee and StudentsFirst were involved in the efforts in both states. Though StudentsFirst is attempting to claim victory in Connecticut, even Malloy at the height of his teacher-bashing saw Rhee as "divisive" and refused to appear with her, and the presidents of the state's teachers unions make clear that the compromise legislation does not meet the Rhee standard:

?At its lowest point, the debate demonized teachers,? Apruzzese said. ?Fortunately, with leadership in the Education Committee and in the House and Senate, the state turned a corner and put the emphasis on where it belongs: more pre-K, early literacy, health and social supports for disadvantaged students, respect for teachers bargaining rights, improved and fair teacher evaluation and dismissal, and access to innovative programs with proven track records.?

Alabama's governor was a Rhee fan, calling her in to personally be involved in the charter schools push without the knowledge of the state's Board of Education or schools superintendent. When the state to which you were invited doesn't pass the bill you were there to work on, and you were considered too divisive even by the official working hardest to scapegoat teachers in the state that did pass a bill, it has to count as pair of losses. No matter what the StudentsFirst press release about Connecticut tries to claim.

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http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/9MGAWNgudL8/-Connecticut-and-Alaba
ma-deal-blows-to-Michelle-Rhee-style-corporate-education-reform

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AP: Elizabeth Warren didn't claim minority status
for law school. Will Scott Brown apologize

post from Daily Kos on 11 May 2012 03:13:54 PM. © Daily Kos

Scott Brown and Mitt Romney, BFFs. They even share a hatchet man. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)This AP story should put the non-issue of whether Elizabeth Warren used her heritage to get into school or to get a job to rest.

BOSTON (AP) ? Records show Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren identified her race as "white" on an employment record at the University of Texas and declined to apply for admission to Rutgers Law School under a program for minority students.

The heads of the recruiting panels at both University of Pennsylvania and Harvard have both stated that her hiring had everything to do with her scholarship and her achievements.

Should that be enough for Sen. Scott Brown to call off his hounds (in this case, the Boston Herald)? Of course, it should, but it won't. Because that's not how Scott Brown's team works. Specifically, it's not how Eric Fehrnstrom, the consultant Brown shares with Mitt Romney, works.

Meteor Blades explained earlier how Fehrnstrom operates, and how he learned every bullying trick he knows at the Boston Herald:

"The Herald was like the schoolyard bully," Howie Carr, the legendary Boston brawler who was the paper's top columnist and animating spirit, told me. "We were all about finding people and kicking them when they were down. And then we'd laugh about it."

And as Meteor Blades elaborates,

Carr mentored Fehrnstrom in his first days in the 1980s as a political reporter. Carr was also the author of a May 2 column filled with racist slurs attacking Elizabeth Warren, the Democrat who is challenging Scott Brown for his Senate seat. Brown-Fehrnstrom-Carr.

Maybe it's time enterprising reporters start looking into exactly where this story came from in the first place, and asking Scott Brown when he'll call off his racist attack dogs.

Please contribute $3 to Elizabeth Warren on Orange to Blue.

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idn-t-claim-minority-status-for-law-school-Will-Scott-Brown-apologize-

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Midday open thread

post from Daily Kos on 11 May 2012 03:05:04 PM. © Daily Kos

Today's comic by Matt Bors is The Bin Laden memos:

Cartoon by Matt Bors - The Bin Laden memos

What's coming up on Sunday Kos ...

Austerity, bullies and broken spirits, by Georgia Logothetis
40 years of Title IX, by Joan McCarter
The states to watch in November?an update, by Steve Singiser
Misogynistic Minister preaching patriarchy, by Denise Oliver Velez
Occupy and the Constitution Part 2, by Armando
California elections: what to watch for, by Dante Atkins
President Obama lays down the gauntlet on marriage equality, by Laurence Lewis

No-Fly List inclusion of 15 Muslim Americans being contested in federal court today:
The plaintiffs, who are U.S. citizens or permanent legal residents, said they learned they were on the list when prohibited, without advance warning, from boarding a commercial airliner, and were later denied any means of petitioning the government to be removed from the roster.
"The government has created this secret list, and the people on the list have no way of defending themselves," said Nusrat Choudhury, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), who is representing the group, which filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government in June 2010.
As budget surplus. Just one month's worth at $59 billion against a deficit of $1.2 trillion, but it's a good omen.
Say what? A championship baseball game was forfeited so Catholic school could maintain its antediluvian code:
The Arizona Charter Athletic Association state championship baseball game wasn't played Thursday night because Mesa Prep's second baseman is a girl.
Paige Sultzbach, a freshman, is playing baseball because her high school doesn't offer girls softball. But the school Mesa Prep was to face in the final, Our Lady of Sorrows Academy, said its boys would not compete against a team with a girl and forfeited the game ? and the state title ? to Mesa Prep.
"As a Catholic school, we promote the ideal of forming and educating boys and girls separately during the adolescent years, especially in physical education,? Our Lady of Sorrows said in a statement [...]
Forfeit? How about kicking Lady of Sorrows Academy out of all ACAA games?
"Santino" the chimpanzee carefully plans hits on humans from his enclosure at the Furuvik Zoo in Sweden. He has always thrown stones at visitors who irked him. But he's become wily about it:
"After a visitor group had left the compound area, Santino went inside the enclosure and brought a good-sized heap of hay that he placed near the visitor's section, and immediately after that he put stones under it," [Researcher Mathias] Osvath said.
"He also appeared to have placed projectiles behind, just before he went in after the hay. After this, he sat down beside the hay and waited. When the visitors came back, he waited until they were close by and, without any preceding display, he threw stones at the crowd."
You can help the Bullies 4 Romney build their own Tumblr site.
Prayer day banned in Colorado:
When the state sponsors the religious practice of prayer, the three-judge panel found, it sends a message that those who pray are favored members of Colorado's political community.
"In doing so, they undermine the premise that the government serves believers and nonbelievers equally," Judge Steven Bernard wrote in a 73-page decision.
Ta-Nehisi Coates plants a foot squarely on Florida Rep. Allen West's ass.
James Inhofe, the Republican Senator from Oklahoma who spends taxpayer money saying global warming is a hoax, has what David Roberts says may be his worst idea ever: requiring Senate confirmation of all 10 regional administrators of the Environmental Protection Agency.
The Guardian has posted an excellent interactive chart on the status of gay rights catalogued state by state.

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http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/1LZH7PzRcdk/-Midday-open-thread

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Breaking the Silence That Surrounds Bradley
Manning

I think there's a good chance that with enough support we could get some local media to start picking up this story. It would be enough to get some people talking about this case again, and as we near September's court-martial, that's exactly what we all[...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/firedoglake/fdl/~3/Vn1d9v35H2s/

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The Schlump-In-Chief

When you're the President, you get to have Sofia Vergara come by the office on a Saturday. But, dude ... is that a track suit?[...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/BJTNGDgrQ8Y/the_schlump-in-
chief.php

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Chris Matthews takes down Tony Perkins over gay
rights

Yes, Chris Matthews. There's an interesting backstory to this story (thanks to emailers for all of these links). Matthews had previously been all deferential to Tony Perkins of the "Family Research Council" ? not only by not challenging his lies and distortions, but by handing out cred like cookies with comments like those noted below (see first quote block).But thanks to Obama's...