US Politics Mega-thread - Page 1599

On January 28 2015 06:24 GreenHorizons wrote:


Wow.

"Obama forgets to put the seat down in the bathroom, Could this be Obama's Katrina!?"

Do these people even know what happened during Katrina?

Days after a federal judge in Alabama ruled in favor of a same-sex couple who want their marriage recognized, the chief justice of the state's Supreme Court has sent a letter telling the governor that federal courts don't have jurisdiction over what constitutes a marriage in Alabama.

Chief Justice Roy Moore said that Friday's ruling by U.S. District Judge Callie V.S. Granade "has raised serious, legitimate concerns about the propriety of federal court jurisdiction over the Alabama Sanctity of Marriage Amendment."

Over the weekend, Granade placed a two-week hold on her decision that had given a victory to Cari Searcy and Kim McKeand, of Mobile, Ala., who were married in California and who are raising a son together.

The delay was created to allow time for the state's appeal, which was filed by Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange Monday. But on the same day, Granade ruled in favor of another gay couple, James Strawser and John Humphrey, who had filed their federal lawsuit without retaining a lawyer.

"I am just ecstatically pleased. We didn't realize it would be so soon and did not even think she would consider it," Humphrey told local news site AL.com. "This is the Bible Belt for Christ sake."

The Alabama ruling had been seen as another case of same-sex marriage suddenly becoming legal in a state that had forbidden such unions. But as member station WBHM reports, same-sex couples were turned away from courthouses where they had sought marriage licenses in at least two counties Monday.

Laws intended to protect children from abuse and neglect are not being properly enforced, and the federal government is to blame. That's according to a study by the Children's Advocacy Institute at the University of San Diego School of Law, which says children are suffering as a result.

The numbers are grim. Almost 680,000 children in the United States were the victims of abuse and neglect in 2013. More than 1,500 of them died.

Federal officials say they're encouraged that the numbers are lower than they were in 2012. But children's advocates say abuse is so often not reported that it's impossible to know if there's really been a decline.

"This is just something that's chronically underreported," says Elisa Weichel, a staff attorney with the Children's Advocacy Institute, which published the report Tuesday.

She says abuse and neglect cases — especially those resulting in death — are often not disclosed as required by law. That lack of information has led to other problems in the system.

"It all boils down to having the right amount of data about what's working and what's not," Weichel says. "And when your data is flawed, every other part of your system is going to be flawed."

White House to Propose Allowing Oil Drilling Off Atlantic Coast

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Tuesday will announce a proposal to open up coastal waters from Virginia to Georgia for oil and gas drilling, according to a person briefed on the plan. ...

Obama Administration Won't Seek To End 529 College Tax Break

Reversing what had been an unpopular approach, the White House says it is dropping the idea of ending a tax break for 529 college savings plans. Critics had called the proposal a tax hike. All 50 states and the District of Columbia sponsor 529 plans. ...

On January 28 2015 12:13 GreenHorizons wrote:
Listening to Palin on Hannity.... Please God, if you are out there, please, please, please, tell her to run for President.

She thinks she is mad at O'Reilly now... Pappa bear ain't going to like her ranting.

On January 28 2015 14:15 Mohdoo wrote:
So what do people think? On one hand, the GOP candidates are a complete train wreck. On the other hand, Koch brothers planning to spend nearly $900,000,000 on the next election. Who wins? I felt like Clinton was a shoe in, but that much money is just insane.

On January 28 2015 14:15 Mohdoo wrote:
So what do people think? On one hand, the GOP candidates are a complete train wreck. On the other hand, Koch brothers planning to spend nearly $900,000,000 on the next election. Who wins? I felt like Clinton was a shoe in, but that much money is just insane.

On January 28 2015 14:15 Mohdoo wrote:
So what do people think? On one hand, the GOP candidates are a complete train wreck. On the other hand, Koch brothers planning to spend nearly $900,000,000 on the next election. Who wins? I felt like Clinton was a shoe in, but that much money is just insane.

On January 28 2015 15:15 coverpunch wrote:

I dunno where you got that number, but both Obama and Romney topped a billion dollars in 2012, and the empty calories in politics has only gone up. You could probably correlate as a rule of thumb that the first candidate to get $1.5 billion is gonna win.

On January 28 2015 12:51 JonnyBNoHo wrote:

Link

If someone knows the rationale behind no to Keystone, stricter in Alaska, and yes to drilling off the Atlantic coast, let me know. At a glance it seems pretty contradictory / arbitrary.

On January 28 2015 15:44 Slaughter wrote:


The thing is that this one small group is donating that much just by themselves. Personally I think it would be hilarious if they threw that much money at it and still lost.

On January 28 2015 20:05 Simberto wrote:
And surely that is not corruption at all. People regularly spend a billion dollar on things and expect absolutely nothing in return. Especially super-rich people are known for that behaviour.

I find it exceedingly silly that you don't have any laws against that stuff.

“I can’t tell you the number of times a record or major snow storm has been forecast — this year alone — I was just trying to think last night, trying to recall a couple of instances where they forecast something that is going to be really, really bad, and it hasn’t even come close to being, not even close to bad, much less really, really bad. And not just in New York but elsewhere around the country. It’s been a horrible, horrible year for forecasts. And the reason is, if i can cut to the quick, the left has corrupted everything. Just like the left has corrupted the professoriate, the faculty at major institutions of higher learning, the left has populated all of these bureaucracies. The Department of Commerce runs the National Weather Service, and do not believe that they’re not politicized. Look at after Hurricane Katrina, look at the very next hurricane season, global warming was responsible for Katrina and that meant Katrina was just the first many that were going to follow.”