US Politics Mega-thread - Page 2265

On September 04 2015 06:31 KwarK wrote:

One Nation Under God: My struggle to defend the sanctity of marriage available in a book store near you

As Barack Obama wraps up a three-day visit to Alaska centered on the urgency of tackling climate change, Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio on Wednesday previewed what energy policy would look like under his administration.

Rubio vowed to reverse key components of the climate agenda Obama has been touting in Alaska, while also making the case for turning back some of the nation’s energy authority to the states and away from the federal government. While outlining his proposals during a swing through Oklahoma – currently the fourth largest producer of natural gas in the United States – the Florida senator decried in particular the Environmental Protection Agency’s new rules to reduce greenhouse emissions under its Clean Power Plan.

The rules would have “a devastating impact on affordable energy in exchange for little to no environmental benefit”, Rubio said, while pledging to immediately stop them in their tracks.

“It would truly be one of the most expensive and costly regulations ever created. Yet Hillary Clinton has pledged to make defending and expanding it a ‘top priority’,” Rubio said in remarks before the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association in Oklahoma City. “As president, I will immediately stop this massive regulation. I’ll pursue a sweeping overhaul of the regulatory system to make sure costs and benefits of new rules are accurately accounted for and that localities, states, and industries can meet the timelines I set forward.”

Another key component of Rubio’s plan would be to lift the nation’s ban on crude oil exports, which has been in place for four decades. Rubio said lifting the ban would both boost job creation and bolster national security interests by “reducing the leverage of oil-rich anti-American governments”.

“This ban is a perfect example of just how outdated Washington has become,” Rubio said. “Lifting the crude-oil export ban will be an immediate boon to our economy.”

As domestic oil production has dramatically risen in the United States, the oil industry has been urging the White House to reverse the ban on crude oil exports.

On September 04 2015 06:39 Gorsameth wrote:
It was actually a serious question.
She is jailed. Still refuses to co-operate. What next? Can the Judge remove her from office?

Officials from eight cities in the Bay Area are set to announce a plan to raise the minimum wage across the region, the San Jose Mercury News reported Thursday. The move is the latest in the growing fight across the United States to increase the minimum wage.

Mayors from the California cities of San Jose, Campbell, Palo Alto, Cupertino, Milpitas, Morgan Hill and Monte Serano, as well as a representative from Santa Clara, were expected to make the formal announcement within hours, the Mercury News reported, without directly citing a source for the information.

Los Angeles this year approved raising its minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020. Fast-food workers in New York are set to get raises to take their pay up to $15 an hour over the next few years.

In the Bay Area — a place that has in recent years been increasingly cited as exemplifying the widening U.S. income gap — San Francisco has approved incremental increases to achieve a $15 an hour minimum wage by July of 2018. The Mercury News reported that City of San Jose in 2012 approved a plan that raised the minimum wage to $10.30 in January of 2015. California’s minimum wage is currently $9 an hour, and will rise to $10 an hour in January 2016. The federal minimum wage is currently $7.25 an hour.

"We have to do more to help those dependent on a minimum wage, but we need to proceed in a thoughtful manner that lifts the tide for all residents," the Mercury News quoted San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo as saying in a statement released Wednesday.

On September 04 2015 06:39 Gorsameth wrote:
It was actually a serious question.
She is jailed. Still refuses to co-operate. What next? Can the Judge remove her from office?

On September 04 2015 07:31 whatisthisasheep wrote:
Trump signed a Pledge with the RNC assuring them he wouldnt run as a independent
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU4J0dBatS0

The Justice Department says it will beef up legal requirements for using cell-site simulators, an increasingly controversial form of surveillance technology that secretly gathers data about mobile devices.

Under the new policy, federal investigators will be required to get a warrant from a judge demonstrating probable cause, in most domestic criminal probes. Agents will need to explain to judges how the technology is being used. And they'll be directed to destroy volumes of bystanders' data "no less than once daily."

"This policy is really designed to ... try to promote transparency, consistency and accountability, all while being mindful of the public's privacy interest," said Deputy U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates.

Yates said the devices, commonly known as StingRays or dirt boxes, have been critical in cracking drug cases, finding fugitives and determining the whereabouts of kidnap victims. She declined to provide numbers on how often cell-site simulators are used but said they're deployed in only "a fraction" of federal investigations in keeping with public safety.

The new policy applies to federal agents under Justice Department control and to state or local investigators who work on federal task forces. Yates also said she expects the FBI to modify the terms of its "nondisclosure" agreements with state and local entities, some of which have barred those law enforcement agencies from disclosing the use of the devices, even to criminal defendants.

Yates said the Justice Department is trying to balance privacy interests of citizens with a desire to solve crimes while "not giving a road map to the bad guys who are trying to defeat it." In emergency or "exigent" circumstances, agents may not need to secure a warrant, but approval of high-level attorneys will be required.

The federal action follows outcry from judges, privacy advocates and members of Congress over the intrusive nature of the technology, which mimics cellphone towers to collect identifying information from mobile phones in a particular area. The StingRays can sweep in high volumes of information from innocent people inside homes or parks.

On September 04 2015 06:35 Plansix wrote:

Opening page features her discussing how her 3 previous marriages lead to her having a deep understanding of how important the sanctity of marriage is.

In a new sign that Iran might consider freeing Jason Rezaian, a powerful Iranian politician tells NPR that there are "practical" ways to liberate the Washington Post reporter and other American prisoners. He then sketched the outline of a trade.

"That's one way," Ali Larijani, the speaker of Iran's Parliament, tells NPR's Steve Inskeep.

Rezaian was arrested in Tehran more than a year ago, prompting an outcry for his release. As they negotiated with Iran over its nuclear program this year, U.S. officials called on Iran to free Rezaian, as well as three other Americans.

The possibility of a prisoner swap came up in an interview Thursday in New York, where Larijani is attending a global conference of parliamentary speakers this week. The speaker does not have direct authority over Rezaian, but he's close to those who do: his brother is the head of Iran's judiciary.

Larijani's suggestion appears to be the most direct public consideration of a trade by an Iranian official. An Iranian diplomat recently hinted at the possibility, only to dismiss it.

Here's today's exchange:

Inskeep: Can you see a practical way that Iran's government could release Jason Rezaian and other Americans who've been held in Iran for months or years?

Larijani: There are practical ways of course. For example, there is a number of Iranians in prison here [in the U.S.]. Definitely for matters of this sort, one can come up with solutions. I think your politicians know about those ways.

Inskeep: There was an occasion recently with Cuba where the United States exchanged prisoners with Cuba. Is that what you're suggesting?

Larijani: That's one way. There are other ways that the judiciary systems of the two countries can come up with. It is the judiciary that has to decide about it.

The Iranian speaker's remarks contrast sharply with a recent statement by an Iranian diplomat who stated, "An exchange of Jason Rezaian is not on the agenda."

That comment by Iran's deputy foreign minister Hassan Qashqavi was seen as noteworthy partly because it was "the first time a high-level official has alluded to the possibility of such a trade," as the AP reported.

On September 04 2015 07:36 Saryph wrote:

Doesn't agree to sign pledge at debate: makes headlines, cheered on by his supporters.

Agrees to sign pledge: makes headlines again, still cheered on by same supporters.

If you believe in the strategy of whoever is talked about the most in the news is the one who wins, makes perfect sense. (Especially when you look at sore-loser rules in most states that would have prevented him from running as an independent.)

On September 04 2015 06:43 Plansix wrote:

There is a process to remove her, which will either start now if there is the political will to do so. Or the Plaintiffs will request the judge order that process to start if it doesn't happen naturally.

On September 04 2015 03:19 Plansix wrote:
I find the entire analogy to be sort of silly since the main goal of violating the law was to start the discussion about gay marriage and work through the process in the court and political system. His intent was clear and the people who lived in the city supported it.

This case is a clear example of someone pushing against a solved ruled upon issue, like a Governor standing in-front of a public school with a fire ax.