A controversial antiabortion leader with a checkered past has sparked outrage by staging demonstrations outside two north Texas high schools while holding signs that include graphic images appearing to show dead fetuses.;
MSNBC host Chris Hayes pushed back hard on Thursday against a member of a conservative group recently linked to a public relations firm that has consistently opposed raising the minimum wage on behalf of the restaurant industry.
"How many economists do you have on staff?" Hayes repeatedly asked Employment Policies Institute research director Michael Saltsman, who refused to answer.
"The only reason this is a story is because people like Salon magazine don't like our viewpoint," Saltsman countered.
"How many economists do you have on staff?" Hayes asked again.
"I am the research director at the Employment Policies Institute," Saltsman replied. "We work with economists --"
"Where did you get your Ph.D in Economics?" Hayes asked. Saltsman answered that he studied economics as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan and said that he did not conduct the group's studies.
Salon reported on Wednesday that while Saltsman's group is often called a "think tank" when cited by other media sources or in op-eds by Saltsman opposing a minimum wage increase, it is in fact run out of the same address as a public relations firm owned by its principal officer, Richard Berman, who was called "Dr. Evil" in a 2007 60 Minutes report.
"The Employment Policies Institute is actually far more independent than something like the labor-backed Economic Policy Institute," Saltsman began to say before Hayes accused his group of trying to troll.
Saltsman accused Salon of targeting his group because of its pro-business viewpoint, arguing to Hayes that "you don't like our facts."
"I do not like disingenuousness," Hayes shot back.
Watch the discussion, aired Thursday on MSNBC, below.
MSNBC host Ed Schultz called out President Barack Obama on Thursday for seemingly buying into conservatives' negative outlook surrounding the Affordable Care Act while in Washington and not displaying the campaign-worthy rhetoric he takes on the road to defend the new mandate.
"Mr. President, respectfully: the next time you go into the press room in Washington, you give it to them," Schultz yelled, punching the air. "You let them have it! This is good! This is great for America! This isn't about appeasing a bunch of negative Nellies that are sitting in the room that want to see you fail."
Schultz argued that Obama's "apologetic" demeanor during a White House press conference in which the president admitted to "fumbling" the implementation of the new law, commonly known as "Obamacare," showed signs that he was cowed by the non-stop opposition shown by the likes of House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), who argued earlier in the day that the law cannot be fixed.
"Don't you just feel like giving that guy the finger?" Schultz said of Boehner. "The Republicans just don't have a plan. They're heartless. They're mean-spirited."
Schultz also ripped Obama, though, over his announcement that individual health care buyers would be allowed to keep their policy for an additional year.
"Minutia, minutia, minutia, minutia, minutia, minutia, minutia," Schultz said. "Who's gonna understand that? I have come to the conclusion that the administration and a lot of Democrats just don't know how to talk about this."
Watch Schultz exhort the president to stand up for the law, as aired Thursday on MSNBC, below.
LGBT activists slammed House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) on Thursday for his latest refusal to move forward on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).
"Speaker Boehner has once again shown that he is out of touch with American voters," GetEQUAL co-director Felipe Sousa Rodríguez told The Raw Story via email. "Over 70 percent of Americans believe we need to end employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity."
ThinkProgress reported on Thursday that Boehner once again argued that there was "no basis or need" for ENDA, which would bar employers from discriminating against workers on the basis of their gender or sexuality.
"I am opposed to discrimination of any kind, in the workplace and any place else," Boehner was quoted as saying. "But I think this legislation, that I have dealt with as chairman of the Education Workforce Committee long before I was back in the leadership, is unnecessary and would provide a basis for frivolous lawsuits. People are already protected in the workplace. I am opposed to continuing this."
However, Equality Ohio executive director Elyzabeth Holford called Boehner's statement a false argument.
"The LGBT community is not covered in federal [non-discrimination] law," Holford told The Raw Story in a phone interview. "There's not currently any route for someone in the LGBT community who is discriminated against in the workplace to go to the EEOC."
Holford also pointed out that a study earlier this year by the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported "relatively few" discrimination complaints in the 22 states that currently have ENDA-like laws on the books.
Not only was Boehner's premise faulty, Holford said, but it runs counter to her group's findings regarding their home state's feelings on the issue. According to Holford, Equality Ohio is working with state lawmakers to put a state equivalent of the bill before the Ohio legislature.
"Our polling in Ohio shows that over three-quarters of Ohioans are in favor of having LGBT community included in non-discrimination laws," she said.
Meanwhile, Sousa-Rodríguez -- whose group protested Boehner's Washington D.C. office earlier this year -- said his refusal to move forward "presents the opportunity for President Obama to lead by signing an executive order protecting employees of federal contractors -- a much-needed change that would cover about 25 percent of the American workforce and would show the country that Democrats are serious about LGBT equality."
Watch Boehner's remarks, as posted by Think Progress on Thursday, below.
Even a hearing that was supposed to be dedicated to science could not escape the House Republican caucus' obsession with President Barack Obama's health care reform law on Thursday.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy was supposed to be appearing before the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology to talk about transparency within the agency when Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) veered off topic.
"Let me ask you one more question because my time’s running out. Are you signed up for Obamacare?" he asked.
"No, I am not," McCarthy replied.
"Why not?" Broun pressed.
"Well because I’m lucky enough as a federal government [employee] that I have health care available to me which I’ve signed up for," McCarthy explained. "In a few years, when that’s not the case, I’ll be happy to have other available health care opportunities."
"Well the president says health care opportunities is much better than forcing most federal employees into Obamacare and obviously if you are not signing up you don’t think it is," the Georgia Republican opined before yielding the floor.
Think Progress pointed out that Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) later decided to misquote McCarthy as saying she was "lucky enough not to have to sign up for Obamacare."
"I actually think I was referring to, I’m lucky enough to have access to good health care," McCarthy told Stockman.
"I still will take your quote for the record," Stockman insisted. "I wrote it down. It’s really good."
Watch this video from C-SPAN, broadcast Nov. 14, 2013.
LGBT rights advocates say that a hospital in Indiana is violating federal law by preventing a woman from visiting her unconscious same sex partner.
Sarah Bray, 34, told WXIN that she hasn't been able to see her partner, 28-year-old Jennifer Clemmer, since she was found unconscious Wednesday morning from a suspected prescription drug overdose.
According to The Indianapolis Star, Bray was allowed visitation until Clemmer's mother arrived at Franciscan St. Francis Health-Indianapolis and demanded that she leave.
Bray said that security told her that she was not even allowed to enter the intensive care unit because she had threatened legal action against the hospital.
"It’s just gut-wrenching because I’m afraid I’m going to get a phone call in the middle of the night and she’s gone," Bray explained to WXIN. “We got in there, and [the hospital] had already put her family in the room. I’ve seen her maybe an hour and half all day.”
“We are in a partnership. It’s heart-wrenching. If I were a man and this were my wife, there would be no issue,” she pointed out. “To know that she’s just beyond a set of doors and I’m stuck outside; they’re not acknowledging our rights.”
Bray was in the process of legally adopting Clemmer's son. And the couple had plans to get married in Iowa later this month.
President Barack Obama signed a memorandum in 2010 requiring hospitals that receive Medicare and Medicaid funding to grant visitation rights to same sex partners -- even in states like Indiana where same sex marriage is illegal.
"This is a clear violation of LGBT hospital visitation rights," GetEqual Indiana spokesperson David Stevens told The Indianapolis Star.
Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law Professor Jennifer Drobac agreed that a "hospital barring a same-sex partner in specifically a hospital that receives Medicare and Medicaid funding, which most hospitals do, is not in compliance with federal law."
"This shouldn’t be happening," she insisted to WXIN.
But Bray said she worried that she may not win the fight before it's too late.
“We all deserve equal rights. It doesn’t matter who we love. Love is love,” she observed. “The next time I see her could be at her funeral — one I might not have any say in because of what I’m fighting against.”
Watch this video from WXIN, broadcast Nov. 14, 2013.
The chairman of the Montgomery County Republican Committee in Pennsylvania is reportedly being investigated for allegedly getting drunk and sexually assaulting a woman following a GOP dinner last month.
According to the Philadelphia Daily News, Chairman Robert J. Kerns got drunk at what the paper called a "major GOP power-broker dinner" on Oct. 25 and then sexually assaulted the woman.
"Somebody alleged that he was drinking and sexually assaulted her," a source told the Philadelphia Daily News. "It was supposedly a woman that worked with him. It took place the following evening, 24 hours later - not associated with the county dinner."
WCAU reported that investigators had been seen at Kerns' home in Upper Gwynedd. One source told the station that a search warrant had been filed to obtain evidence in the case.
A Center City defense attorney confirmed to WCAU that he had been retained to represent Kerns, but would not say why. The District Attorney's office has also declined to comment.
Kerns, who is a partner in a Lansdale law firm, is married and has two grown sons.
Watch this video from WCAU, broadcast Nov. 13, 2013.
In what may have begun as an attempt to stem the tide of bad news out of the Toronto mayor's office, embattled conservative Mayor Rob Ford gave a press conference on Thursday that stirred up even more controversy.
Ford was answering accusations about a reportedly epic night of drug and alcohol-fueled misbehavior on St. Patrick's Day, 2013. The night of frenzied partying allegedly involved cocaine, OxyContin, vodka, a prostitute and Ford telling staffer Olivia Gondek, "I want to eat your p*ssy."
"I would never do that," Ford asserted at the press conference, which was broadcast live over Canadian television networks. "I've got more than enough to eat at home."
His full remarks, reprinted via Gawker, were as follows:
"It hurts my wife when they call a friend of mine a prostitute. Alana is not a prostitute. She's a friend. And it makes me sick how people are saying this. So unfortunately, I have no other choice. I'm the last one to take legal action, I can't put up with it anymore. So I've named the names. Litigation will be starting shortly. I've had enough. That's why I warned you guys yesterday be careful what you wrote. That's all I have to say for now. And the next thing I want to call Mayor Bratina in Hamilton and tell them we are going to have to spank their little tiger cats. Oh and the last thing was Olivia Gondek, it says it says that I wanted to eat her pussy. Olivia Gondek. I've never said that in my life to her. I would never do that. I'm happily married. I've got more than enough to eat at home. Thank you very much."
Watch video of the press conference, embedded below via Canada's National Post:
A tea party lawmaker cited the Bible during a speech Wednesday on the House floor criticizing the Obama administration for its treatment of Israel.
“There are many who have been aware of Scripture, and it has often been a guide in our relations with Israel,” said Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX). “'Some of us believe that the Bible is accurate. Certainly, so many prophesies have been fulfilled, and if that is true, this administration, unless they can find a verse that accurately says that those who betray Israel will be blessed, then this country is being dug in a deeper hole by this administration and its betrayals of Israel's trust and Israel's friendship.”
Gohmert said President Barack Obama had urged Israel to enter into a nuclear nonproliferation treaty with other Middle Eastern nations, which he said would require the nation to disclose and give up its undeclared nuclear weapons.
“This was viewed and discussed as being the first time in people's memory when the United States, by and through its administration -- the Obama administration -- had taken action that was very adverse to Israel and the international community, and particularly in the U.N.,” Gohmert told lawmakers. “Normally we did not side with Israel's enemies.”
He warned that pulling away from Israel had provoked its enemies and left it vulnerable to attack by Iran.
“The reason that it is important to point these things out now is, what is happening between the United States and Iran, as we leave Israel out of the equation -- even though it is Israel that is considered to be the little Satan and we are considered the great Satan, and Israel is probably to be the first attacked, if there is an attack -- they are certainly the most vulnerable, yet we leave our former friend Israel out of the equation,” Gohmert said.
The lawmaker said Obama administration officials had been telling Israel not to “dare attack Iran” without U.S. permission.
“We won't let them have nuclear weapons; and yet it is not the United States that is first threatened,” Gohmert said. “The great Satan, the United States, in the eyes of leaders in Iran -- not the Iranian people, but Iranian leaders -- would get around to attacking us. But first Israel is threatened.”
Gohmert said the president had warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that his nation “must defend itself by itself.”
“Our President said that, and yet, if we are not going to help Israel defend itself, which is actually defending us as well, then shouldn't we avoid jeopardizing Israel's own self-defense?” Gohmert said.
Actually, Gohmert used a heavily abbreviated formulation of the president’s quote that differed from his intended message.
"We will do what it takes to preserve Israel's qualitative military edge because Israel must always have the ability to defend itself, by itself, against any threat," Obama told the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in March 2012.
Netanyahu said at the time that he appreciated the president’s willingness to “take no options off the table” for Israel’s ability to defend itself.
Gohmert also said that Obama had thrown his support behind Israel’s enemies, including the Muslim Brotherhood, and engaged in an apology tour of Islamic nations, a debunked but persistent right-wing claim.
“My oath of office is to this country,” Gohmert said. “When I was in the Army for four years, my oath was to this country. My allegiance continues to this country, and I believe that being Israel's friend is helpful to this country; and that is why I so strongly support being a friend to Israel.”
Even though he devoted much of his speech to establishing biblical justification for American support of Israel, the lawmaker said that’s not the only reason to do so.
“Even if you took the Bible completely out, you took out most anything except just looking at the Middle East and who believes in the value of life like we do here in the United States, who believes more in democratic actions like we do in the United States, then Israel should certainly be our friend,” Gohmert said.
Watch video of Gohmert's speech posted online by GohmertTX01:
A New Hampshire man who had been accused of scrawling racist graffiti on the homes of African immigrants was hospitalized recently after shooting himself in the head.
According to court records obtained by the Concord Monitor, 43-year-old tattoo artist Raymond Stevens attempted suicide last week by walking into a cemetery and firing one round into his head. He reportedly survived the shooting but his current condition was not known.
In October, Steven had been charged in connection with racist graffiti written on the home of three African immigrants in 2011.
"Your subhuman culture has already brought many crimes linked to your mud people," one message said. "You are not welcome here... You lower the value and safety of our good town... You bring death wherever your cursed people go."
Messages on another home in August described a Somali family as “scum” and “primitive beasts."
On Facebook, Stevens noted that he was a "proud Aryan man" and often posted screeds against President Barack Obama. He was also known to be a member of white supremacist groups and sing in a heavy metal band.
The Associated Press reported that the Pembroke tattoo artist was eventually busted after police matched the graffiti to handwriting on gun permits. Stevens had the habit of writing a lowercase "b" like the number six.
After shooting himself, prosecutors asked the Merrimack County Superior Court to revoke Stevens' bail because he violated the terms of his release by carrying a gun.
Watch this video from the Nashua Telegraph, broadcast Oct. 15, 2013.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) faced howls of laughter from an audience in Washington, D.C. on Thursday when he claimed that he "didn't want a shutdown" over President Barack Obama's health care reform law.
At The Atlantic's Washington Ideas Forum, Fox News host Chris Wallace pointed out to the Texas Republican that many of his colleagues thought he hurt the party by forcing the government shutdown instead of letting Obamacare fail on its own.
"That ignores who I think was responsible for the shutdown," Cruz replied. "I didn't want a shutdown. Throughout the whole thing, I said we shouldn't have a shutdown."
That remark elicited laughter from the forum audience.
"Now, folks here can disagree," Cruz said, turning to the crowd. "But repeatedly, I voted to keep the government open."
"In my view based on where things are right now, I think stopping Obamacare is the essence of pragmatism," he added. "The most pragmatic thing we could do is say, 'Listen, this isn't working. Let's start over.'"
Wallace then turned to the 2016 race, but Cruz insisted that he was focused on the Senate instead of running for president.
"But, sir," Wallace said. "At the risk of being a smart aleck, for somebody who is focused on the Senate, you're spending a lot of time in Iowa."
"Well, I'll tell ya, I went on a lovely pheasant hunt in Iowa," Cruz quipped. "I'm spending a lot of time all over the country and the reason is -- since I've been elected, I think we've done 86 events in Texas, I think we've been to 14 or 15 states all over the country -- and the reason is, one of the things that has confused some observers, I'm not devoting my time and energy to try and make the case in smoke-filled rooms in Washington. I think Washington's broken."
"Can you envision a situation where you would decide, I'm the guy to lead the crusade?" Wallace wondered.
"I intend to support whoever is standing up and leading, whoever is effectively defending conservative principles, defending free market principles, defending the Constitution, bringing us back to defending liberty," Cruz explained. "That's who as a voter I intend to support."
"And it's my hope that we see a thousand flowers bloom, that we see lots of people stepping up providing that leadership because that's what it's going to take to turn the country around," he concluded.
"I never thought I'd hear you espousing the views of Chairman Mao," Wallace chuckled.
Watch the video below from The Atlantic's Washington Ideas Forum, broadcast Nov. 14, 2013.
Sen. John McCain (AZ) lashed out at fellow Republican Sen. Ted Cruz (TX) on Thursday for causing a government shutdown that made it difficult for hungry residents in rural Arizona to get food.
Speaking at The Atlantic's Washington Idea's Forum, McCain responded to a question about his differences with Cruz by saying he "admired and respected" the Texas senator.
"Where I disagree with Sen. Cruz -- and I made this statement to him publicly and privately -- was shutting down the government injured the people my state!" McCain said, becoming angry. "I am elected to represent them."
He noted that one community near the Grand Canyon had to have food flown in from food banks during an October government shutdown that was instigated by Cruz with the hope of repealing, defunding or delaying President Barack Obama's health care reform law.
"I have to say, 'Stop! You're wrong, you're crazy!'" McCain exclaimed. "That's what I have to say and if I sound angry, it's because I have met and talked to constituents of mine who are on minimum wage who had to resort to go to food banks. I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that doesn't happen again."
"There was no chance of success and anybody that believes that there is, is very naive about the Constitution of the United States."
Watch the video below from The Atlantic's Washington Ideas Forum, broadcast Nov. 14, 2013.
The president of a museum which teaches that dinosaurs walked the Earth at the same time as humans said this week that San Diego was "like Selma, Alabama in the 1950s" because his ministry was denied a seat on the local museum council.
San Diego Museum Council President Danielle Susalla Deery told KPBS that the reason that The Museum of Creation and Earth fell short of the necessary 21 "yes" votes was because of factors that had nothing to do with its anti-science mission of teaching that the Earth was literally created in six days.
"Like their animal care and the protocol and care of their exhibitions and storage," Deery explained. "They had a lot of areas that were not in line with membership guidelines. They have a staff member on the board of directors and that’s not good governance."
But Museum of Creation and Earth President Tom Cantor insisted to KPBS that the motives were more sinister.
"I’m afraid we are being opposed for nothing more than the old prejudice against God," Cantor lamented.
He likened the museum's current situation to some of the worst atrocities in the South during the Civil Rights Movement, when African-Americans were beaten and arrested to prevent them from exercising their right to vote.
"It’s like we’re in Selma, Alabama in the 1950s and I want to have a museum on black Americans," Cantor said. "Do you think I’ll be accepted by the council of museums in Selma, Alabama?"
The Museum of Creation and Earth plans to reapply for membership to the council next year.
Listen to the audio below from KPBS, broadcast Nov. 13, 2013.
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