Politics
Jon Stewart: The U.S. needs a miracle to beat Russia in the 'Homophobic Olympics'
With the Winter Olympic Games fast approaching, Daily Show host Jon Stewart lamented on Tuesday that the U.S. was a long shot to beat host country Russia in the real competition -- the "Homophobic Olympics."
"We're running out of time," Stewart told correspondent Aasif Mandvi. "It's gonna take a Lake Placid hockey-like miracle to pull this thing out."
Stewart was worried that the "run-of-the-mill homophobia" in the U.S., which is showing signs of withering more each year, was no match for the anti-LGBT policies being enacted elsewhere in the world. Of particular interest was the "race" between Uganda and Nigeria to see who could have the most homophobic laws, with Nigeria coming out on top after ruling that anyone found to be leading a "gay organization" or "patronizing" gay people can be brought up on charges.
"What the f*ck?" Stewart marveled, before alluding to an old NBC show.. "They're not just going after Will; now they're going after Grace?"
But overall, Stewart said, Russia was the "gay-phobic country to beat this year," with both homefield advantage and President Vladimir Putin's tactical approach to intolerance, like his insistence that gay competitors and spectators can feel safe, as long as they "leave children alone."
"What the hell was that, Putin?" Stewart demanded. "That's like me saying, 'We have no problems with Russians. Just please, if you come here, don't f*ck our bears.'"
Undaunted, Mandvi produced a clip of Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett's (R) October 2013 interview in which he compared same-sex marriages to incest.
"Do you believe in ignorance?" Mandvi hollered a la Al Michaels. "Do you believe in ignorance?"
Watch Stewart and Mandvi break down the field, as posted online on Tuesday, below.
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford caught drunk in bizarre late-night video
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford admitted that he was drinking again -- "a little bit, yeah" -- after being filmed late Monday night ranting about his city's police chief at a local fast-food restaurant, the CBC reported.
Ford also confirmed the date of the video, placing it about a week after he swore to local reporters that he had given up drinking. The footage shows Ford making reference to what appears to be surveillance ordered by Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair against himself and his driver Alexander Lisi last year, and was reportedly shot by a restaurant employee around 1 a.m.
"They're chasing me around five months," Ford says in the video, filmed in the suburb of Rexdale. "They're counter surveillance [sic] me. He's hiding here. He's hiding here. F*ck off."
The mayor also seems to be attempting to speak in a "Jamaican" patois, using the prejorative "bumbaclot" several times. But on Tuesday he brushed off the suggestion that his use of the word was offensive.
"I met some friends," Ford told reporters. "If I speak that way, that's how I speak with some of my friends and no, i don't think it's discriminative at all," he said. "It's my own time."
The Toronto Star reported that Ford refused to say who drove him to the eatery.
Before the mayor admitted he had been drinking, his brother, Councilor Doug Ford, told the Star that he talked to him last night, and that the video could not have been filmed so recently.
"I'll repeat what he said 10 million times," Doug Ford was quoted as saying. "[Since] the beginning of November, he hasn't taken a drink. So, very simple."
Ford became a target of international ridicule last year after admitting to smoking crack, to the point that city councilors voted to strip him of many of his powers.
Watch the footage, as posted online on Tuesday, below.
Rev. Jeremiah Wright slams Tea Partiers: 'A 2.0 upgrade of a lynch party'
Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who became a source of controversy during President Barack Obama's first election campaign, was criticized by Tea Party conservatives after lambasting them in a speech on Monday in Wilmington, Delaware, the Wilmington News-Journal reported.
"We've got some unfinished business on the agenda, with one branch of the Tea Party being nothing but a 2.0 upgrade of a lynch party," Wright said at an event honoring Martin Luther King Day. "We've got some unfinished business on the agenda, with some folks doing everything they can to get that Black man out of their White House."
The remarks came toward the end of a 32-minute speech that also slammed "millionaires in Congress" for letting long-term unemployment benefits expire last month, and also contained Wright's challenge to the audience to fill in the gaps often missing from the celebration of King's "I Have A Dream" speech during the August 1963 March on Washington.
"That was not Martin Luther King's march," Wright said. "He was one speaker, 50 years ago, at a march for jobs and for justice."
Tea Party conservatives denied Wright's claims that any member of their organizations opposed President Barack Obama because of his race.
"I have been involved with the Tea Party since its inception here in Delaware and I have never once heard or seen anything at a Tea Party rally, 9-12 meeting or Patriot group event that was racist or ever even suggested that the president's race has anything to do with the concerns raised," former Christine O'Donnell campaign member Evan Queitsch told the News-Journal, while Theresa Garcia, executive director of the 9/12 Delaware Patriots, was quoted as saying, "If there was a white man in office with [Obama's] policies, we would dislike him. It has nothing to do with Obama being black."
In the speech, Wright also argued that there was still "unfinished business" from the Civil Rights Movement, with the country still facing the same "three-headed demon" -- racism, capitalism and militarism -- against which King marched.
"Tell your children we have some unfinished business on the agenda with the Voting Rights Bill gutted by a right-wing dominated Supreme Court," "We've got some unfinished business on the agenda, with mass incarceration robbing Black and brown communities of any positive future. We've got some unfinished business on the agenda, with jobs being shipped overseas. [King] was marching for jobs 50 years ago, now we're giving them overseas."
Wright, who officiated the president's marriage to First Lady Michelle Obama, came under fire in 2008 after remarks came to light from sermons in which he suggested the U.S. government created the HIV virus and used it against minority communities. Obama subsequently condemned Wright's remarks and left his congregation at Trinity United Church of Christ.
Watch the entire speech, as posted online on Monday, below.
[Image via Trinity United Church of Christ Facebook page]
One person dead, man in custody after shooter with rifle reported at Purdue Univ.
At least one person was in custody on Tuesday after reports of shots being fired at Purdue University in Indiana.
According to campus officials, the shooting occurred in the Electrical Engineering building and a shelter in place order was given at around 1:30 p.m.
Multiple tweets from Purdue students showed a light-skinned man with short hair carrying a rifle. An expert told Raw Story that the firearm appeared to be an AR-style rifle, but it was impossible to confirm if the images were authentic.
News crews captured video of a man being taken away in handcuffs. Another person was taken to a local hospital for medical attention, according to reports.
University officials had planned to provide more information at a 2:30 p.m. news conference.
Update (2:55 p.m. ET): Police confirmed that there was at least one male fatality. Purdue Police Chief John Cox said that the shooter appeared to have targeted the victim.
Watch this video from WTHR, broadcast Jan. 21, 2013.
Ten-year-old wows MLK event with 'Jesus Wept' speech: I'm 'scared to wear my hoodie!'
A 10-year-old in North Carolina has been praised for embodying the spirit of Dr. Luther King in a speech on Monday.
Donovan Summers, who attends Rand Road Elementary School in Garner, told the Triangle Interfaith Prayer Breakfast that he had based his speech on the shortest verse in the Bible, "Jesus wept," because both King and the Christian savior had tried to teach people to love one another and had "both met their deaths because of haters."
"If Dr. King was here today in 2014, he would have wept," Summers said. "And sometimes I feel like weeping too. Because when I think about some of these kids trying to be bullies, threatening their teachers and bringing guns to school, you see, I'm halfway scared to go to school because I might get shot."
"I'm halfway scared to play in my own backyard because some fool might take me hostage," he continued. "I'm halfway scared to go down to the store and get a pack of Now and Later's and I'm halfway scared to wear my hoodie because some neighborhood watch person might think I look suspicious."
"Y'all know what I'm talking about. Jesus wept. Martin wept. And so have I."
Watch this video from WRAL, broadcast Jan. 20, 2013.
Michigan GOP official: 'Herd all the Indians' to Detroit, build a fence and throw in corn
A Republican county official in Michigan is in hot water after making racial comments about Detroit, including the idea that the city should be turned into a detention center for "all the Indians."
In a recent interview for a profile by The New Yorker titled "Drop Dead, Detroit!" Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson admitted, "Anytime I talk about Detroit, it will not be positive. Therefore, I'm called a Detroit basher. The truth hurts, you know? Tough sh*t."
Patterson recalled telling his children to "get in and get out" if they needed to go to Detroit.
"And, before you go to Detroit, you get your gas out here. You do not, do not, under any circumstances, stop in Detroit at a gas station! That’s just a call for a carjacking," he said.
Patterson also proposed a fix to Detroit's financial problems: Turn the city into a reservation for Native Americans.
“I made a prediction a long time ago, and it’s come to pass. I said, ‘What we’re gonna do is turn Detroit into an Indian reservation, where we herd all the Indians into the city, build a fence around it, and then throw in the blankets and the corn.’”
After Detroit officials and activists reacted with outrage, Patterson's office released a statement accusing The New Yorker of having an "agenda."
"It is clear Paige Williams had an agenda when she interviewed County Executive Patterson," the statement said. "She cast him in a false light in order to fit her preconceived and outdated notions about the region."
Activists with Reverend Al Sharpton's National Action Network had planned a news conference on Tuesday to call for Patterson to apologize.
National Action Network’s Michigan chapter president Rev. Charles Williams II said that the comments were "repulsive" because they were an insult to the city's African-American population and "a direct slight to the American Indians who occupied the land before Detroit was Detroit, and Oakland County.”
In recent years, Patterson has also come under fire for comparing Michigan House Speaker Jase Bolger to Hitler and for suggesting that Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano kill himself.
Watch this video from WXYZ, broadcast Jan. 20, 2014.
Virginia Democrat seeks to outlaw discredited 'gay cure' therapy for minors
A Virginia state lawmaker is attempting make it illegal in that state to practice so-called "reparative therapy" on minors. According to the Washington Post, Rep. Patrick Hope (D-Arlington) proposed a bill that would make the controversial therapy -- which purports to eliminate feelings of same-sex attraction -- a crime when practiced on people under the age of 18.
Reparative therapy has been banned for people under 18 in California and New Jersey as child abuse. Christian conservative groups have protested that the ban infringes on their right of free speech, but they have been unable, so far, to establish that in court.
The American Psychiatric Association long ago removed same-sex attraction from its list of disorders and has declared that not only is conversion therapy ineffective, it is actively harmful. People exposed to the therapy have reported negative effects for years afterward, including depression, anxiety, self-destructive behavior and a heightened risk of suicide.
The American Academy of Pediatrics said in 1993 that “therapy directed specifically at changing sexual orientation" in children is not recommended. Doctors said that it can “provoke guilt and anxiety while having little or no potential for achieving changes in orientation.”
Conservatives say that even though the practice will still be legal for adults, the new law would thwart the ability of religions to exert their influence over whole families.
“It’s astonishing that the party that claims to defend choice and free speech [is] bent on limiting both for counselors, parents and kids struggling with their sexuality,” said Family Foundation President Victoria Cobb in a statement.
Cobb said the new law would discriminate “against people that leave the homosexual lifestyle” and that it is “insulting to thousands of people who have made this change.”
April Prentiss, an out lesbian who struggled for years to rid herself of her natural attraction to women, said that reparative therapy left her scarred, miserable and full of self-loathing.
“It has taken me over a decade to work through the damage done by those years,” she said at a press conference on Monday.
And unlike minors forced into conversion therapy by their families or churches, she said, “I had the power to walk away from conversion therapy.”
Hope said on Monday, “To be very clear, organized psychiatry maintains that sexual orientation is not changeable, that conversion therapies do harm and that conversion therapies should not be practiced."
Watch video about this story, embedded below:
GOP Florida House candidate on Obama: 'It's time to arrest and hang him high'
Joshua Black, a candidate for Florida House District 68, said on Monday that the time had come to "hang" President Barack Obama.
In a tweet on Monday afternoon, Black wrote that he was "past impeachment."
"It's time to arrest and hang him high," he added.
Republican candidate for House District 67 Chris Latvala replied in shock.
"You aren't seriously calling for the killing of Obama are you?" he asked. "I know you are crazy but good heavens.U R an embarrassment."
"Execution is the appropriate punishment for traitors," Black shot back in another tweet.
At that point, Latvala recommended that the "tin foil hat crazy" candidate take his medication.
"I don't do drugs," Black insisted. "Not intimidated by the secret service, or #criminalpoliticians like you."
In a Facebook post later that night, Black cited the administration's actions against terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki, Army whistleblower Bradley Manning and former NSA contractor Eric Snowden as the reason that Obama should be executed.
"I make no apologies for saying that the President is not above the People. If ordinary Americans should be executed for treason, so should he," he explained. "So, don't stop at impeachment. Remove him. Try him before a jury (the very right that he arbitrarily denied to al-Awaki and his 15-year-old son), and, upon his sure convictions, execute him. Thus has he done, thus it should be done to him."
He later added: "I guess that makes me a racist, according to the President's latest speech."
Democratic state Rep. Dwight Dudley, who is running against Black in the House race, told the Tampa Bay Times that his opponent had gone too far.
"It's dangerous and unbecoming for someone who wants to lead to call for such violence and extremist action," Dudley said. "Wow. I'm stunned."
On Black's campaign website, even he seemed to argue that Republicans were making a mistake by using extremist rhetoric.
"Republicans have a serious communication problem," the self-proclaimed evangelist wrote. "Everything we say sounds like spears. We find ways to energize our core supporters, the people who will always only ever vote Republican, but we have a hard time explaining to anyone else why they should listen to our solutions."
[Photo credit: JoshuaBlack2014.com]
Colorado GOP rep. tells Fox News: 'Matter of time' before legal pot turns violent
Colorado state Rep. Jared Wright (R) warned on Tuesday that it was just a "matter of time" before marijuana legalization started causing violence and increased crime.
In an interview with Fox News' Brian Kilmeade, Wright said that he was sponsoring a bill to make it illegal for food stamps recipients to use their electronic benefits cards (EBT) to access funds at ATM machines in marijuana dispensaries.
Wright explained that homeless people he spoke to around the state Capitol agreed that his bill was reasonable.
"As a lower-middle class American myself, I think it's unfair to be encouraging a lot of these folks who are coming off of addiction, who we should be encouraging to come out of their addictions," the Colorado Republican noted.
"Overall, Representative, how is it going in Colorado with pot being legal?" Kilmeade wondered.
"We've had reports from our law enforcement officials. Recently, the Denver police chief commented that the roll-out has gone smoothly," Wright admitted. "As a couple of days ago, they hadn't attributed any acts of violence or increased crimes to the facts that we have these shops on our street corners."
"I think it's a matter of time though," he added. "I think it's a matter of time before we start seeing some problems."
Wright introduced his legislation banning the use of EBT cards in marijuana dispensaries after the satirical website, National Report, published a fake report claiming that food stamps were being used to purchase weed.
A similar bill was also introduced by Sen. Vicki Marble (R).
Watch this video from Fox News' Fox & Friends, broadcast Jan. 21, 2013.
Rachel Maddow to Chris Christie's administration: You want a piece of me?
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow responded on Monday to accusations by members of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's (R) staff that her network is out to get him, pointing out that Christie's administration has still not explained the September 2013 lane closures on the George Washington Bridge that has led to several Christie appointees being subpoenaed.
"The question of why matters," Maddow said. "Governor Christie's office has tried to shame people for asking what the reason might plausibly have been. But they have offered zero explanation of their own."
A Christie spokesperson released a statement to NBC News criticizing not only the allegations by Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer (D) on Saturday, but Maddow's Jan. 9 commentary wondering if the lane closures were not part of a vendetta against Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, but instead the latest of Christie's clashes with state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D) and other lawmakers.
"Yes, it is pure speculation," Maddow acknowledged. "It has always been presented as such by us, and by me. We presented that theory as a way to get at the most important and, as yet, totally unexplained question still at the center of this unfolding scandal which is, Why? What is the plausible explanation for this? Why did whoever ordered those lanes closed order those lanes closed?"
Maddow pointed out that Christie admitted to not asking former deputy chief of staff Bridget Anne Kelly why she called for "some traffic problems in Fort Lee" in an August 2013 email to a Port Authority appointee, David Wildstein, even after firing her, saying he was "not interested at the moment."
"Maybe he was just mad," Maddow said. "But we still don't know if Governor Christie is interested in the explanation now. So far, nobody on his side has offered any explanation whatsoever as to why this happened, what was the trigger. And until that question is answered, people are going to keep asking what the answer might plausibly be, even if Governor Christie's spokesman prefers that we all stop doing that and attacks us when we do."
Watch Maddow's commentary, as aired on Monday, below.
GOP strategist can't admit even one white person is racist toward Obama
A Republican Party strategist refused to acknowlege the possibility on Monday that even one white person resented President Barack Obama because of his race, instead accusing Obama of being divisive.
"He refused to acknowledge the fact that he has made history," Alice Stewart told CNN host Don Lemon. "He is the first African-American president of the United States -- and re-elected. We have gone far beyond where MLK started, and he sees, anytime there is opposition or when he says someone doesn't like him, he claims it's because of his race."
"He's never said that," co-panelist Marc Lamont Hill protested. "Not one time has he said that."
Stewart also backed former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's Facebook message to Obama saying, "No more playing the race card," blaming the entirety of the animus toward Obama on his policy decisions.
Lemon responded by pointing out that Obama was not speaking in absolutes during his recent interview with The New Yorker touching on the role of race in his popularity.
"Don't you think it would be disingenuous to think that all people who dislike the president dislike him because of his policies?" Lemon asked Stewart. "I know people who didn't like George Bush because he was white. That's the truth. You don't think there are white people who don't like the president because he's black."
"I think the concerns people have, the reason people don't like President Obama is because of his policies," Stewart insisted.
"That wasn't the question," Hill said, cutting in. "The question was, do you think there are any, not, 'Do you think they're a majority?' First of all, 31 percent of all white people voted for Obama. Most white people did not vote for Barack Obama. And I have no doubt that some of them did it on racial grounds."
Watch the discussion, as aired Monday on CNN, here.
Bill Kristol: Mike Huckabee would beat Chris Christie in a Republican primary
Conservative pundit Bill Kristol seemed to distance himself on Monday from endorsing New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) as a presidential candidate in 2016, instead offering former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) as a more electable contender.
"Mike Huckabee would beat Chris Christie right now for the Republican nomination," Kristol told Crossfire host Van Jones. "Which isn't to say that Chris Christie wouldn't be a strong candidate, as well. [Wisconsin Gov.] Scott Walker would be a strong candidate; [Indiana Gov.] Mike Pence would be a strong candidate."
"You're throwing [Christie] under the bus already," Jones shot back.
Kristol also rejected Jones' description of Christie as a Republican "superstar,' scoffing that "the world of liberal media and rich donors" was painting Christie in that light. He did not mention his September 2011 column in the Weekly Standard saying Christie was a better choice than the GOP field at the time.
"With the magnitude and urgency of the problems we face, don't we deserve someone with a bigger sense of the task ahead, and a deeper sense of the solutions needed, combined with a proven record of bold governance, than the current field provides?" Kristol wrote.
Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen, pointed out that under state law, Christie can install more appointees into key positions, giving him more power than most governors.
"You really can actually just be a politician in that state, as opposed to governing," Rosen said. "And what everybody says about Chris Christie for the last year-and-a-half is that he is completely focused on beefing up his margins, running for president, masquerading everything that he was doing, to help him. That's the point that [Hoboken Mayor] Dawn Zimmer's raising."
"I think New Jersians would disagree with you and say that he's done a lot for the state," co-host S.E. Cupp interjected.
"The point that Dawn Zimmer raises, though, is important," Rosen responded. "What she's saying is, 'Look, he's using the cronyism for extra purposes.'"
"We have to believe her for that to be an important revelation," Cupp said.
Watch the discussion, as aired Monday on CNN, below.
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