Senate Votes to Block Obama’s Controversial DOJ Civil Rights Nominee

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In a surprisingly strong vote, the Senate on Wednesday blocked President Barack Obama’s controversial choice to head the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.

The bipartisan rejection came after the widow of a slain Philadelphia officer pleaded with senators to vote “no.”

On a 47 to 52 tally, Republicans were joined by seven Democrats voting to continue a filibuster of Debo Adegbile’s nomination for the influential post, which enforces the nation’s anti-discrimination laws.

Under new Senate rules that were put in place by the Democrats who control the chamber, only 51 votes were needed to overcome the filibuster, not the 60 that used to be required.

Critics charged Adegbile helped turn the appeals process for Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was found guilty in 1981 of killing police officer Daniel Faulkner, into a racially-charged political cause, and, in doing so, went far beyond his duties as a lawyer.

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Administration Offers 2-Year ObamaCare Extension for Canceled Health Plans

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Photo Credit: Fox News The Obama administration announced Wednesday that it will let people keep health insurance plans that would otherwise be out of compliance with ObamaCare for another two years, in a delay Republicans portrayed as an election-year ploy.

The administration had already given people a one-year reprieve after millions had their health plans canceled last year, despite President Obama’s promises that people could keep their plans if they wanted. The so-called “fix” was meant to ease the transition as well as the political headache for Democrats — but the “fix,” and the latest extension, will have limited impact, since it is up to individual insurance companies and state commissioners whether to re-offer canceled policies.

Republicans blasted the latest announcement as another sign the health law is faltering and Democrats want political cover. A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner said the move “reeks of politics.”

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell called it a “desperate move to protect vulnerable Democrats in national elections later this year.”

“By announcing a new delay in requiring that policies meet minimum coverage standards, the administration avoids a new round of health policy cancellations set to hit shortly before the November elections,” he said in a statement.

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Top Generals Identify Major Shortfalls In Nation’s Defense Capabilities

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Photo Credit: OLIVIER DOULIERY — Abaca Press/MCTThe nation’s top military commander painted a dark picture Tuesday of future U.S. defense capabilities clouded by shrinking Pentagon budgets and adversaries’ technological advances that he said would erode American battlefield superiority.

Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, provided his sobering views as part of the Quadrennial Defense Review, a congressionally mandated evaluation of U.S. military strength issued every four years.

Dempsey predicted that it would become increasingly difficult to balance the competing demands of protecting allies abroad, securing Americans at home and deterring future wars.

“The smaller and less capable military outlined in the QDR makes meeting these obligations more difficult,” he said. “Most of our platforms and equipment will be older, and our advantages in some domains will have eroded. Our loss of depth across the force could reduce our ability to intimidate opponents from escalating conflicts.”

Dempsey added: “Moreover, many of our most capable allies will lose key capabilities. The situation will be exacerbated given our current readiness concerns, which will worsen over the next three or four years.”

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Unlikely GOP Tax Plan the Result of Changing Politics

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Photo Credit: AP/J. Scott ApplewhiteThe tax reform plan from Michigan Rep. Dave Camp was unimaginable as a Republican document just a few years ago, the result of a shifting political landscape that has seen the triumph of President Obama’s tax message and the influence of conservative populism.

The House Ways and Means Committee chairman sought a blueprint that was impervious to charges that it would benefit the wealthy and burden the middle class. That was a direct reaction to the beating Republicans took on the issue in the 2012 presidential contest, with Obama’s “fairness” pitch to increase taxes on the so-called wealthy resonating better than GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s traditional Republican proposal for across-the-board cuts to stimulate economic growth.

Breaking with GOP orthodoxy, Camp also wanted a plan that, while lowering tax rates for all income brackets, received a “revenue neutral” score from Congress’ nonpartisan accounting agencies. Camp wanted to avoid potent Democratic attacks that tax cuts increase the deficit and cost Washington money it needs for cherished programs. Republicans had long dismissed the concept of paying for tax cuts on the grounds that they create jobs and boost revenue, while asserting that the government’s money belongs to the people and reducing their tax load shouldn’t require offsets.

Camp’s draft has received perhaps the most attention for proposing to simplify the tax code by scaling back typically politically sacred exemptions, such as the mortgage interest deduction popular with voters and the housing industry. For years, Republicans — including Camp — promoted these carve-outs as crucial economic drivers. But in a nod to the Tea Party’s sway with House Republicans, Camp was liberated to target a host of breaks the conservative grassroots deride as “crony capitalism.”

“We have to recognize the [political] environment we’re in today, and the fiscal circumstances we’re facing, and take all that into account,” said Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., a senior member of the Ways and Means Committee who had a hand in writing the Camp plan.

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Dem Says GOP Would Back Abortion ‘If Their Daughter Got Pregnant by a Black Man’

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Photo Credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty ImagesAn Alabama Democrat with a history of making incendiary racial remarks claimed that Republicans wouldn’t oppose abortion “if their daughter got pregnant by a black man.”

Alvin Holmes, a black Democrat who represents Montgomery, was debating Rep. Mary Sue McClurkin, a Republican who had proposed a bill that would ban abortions of fetuses with a detectable heartbeat.

The Tuesday debate quickly steered towards race, with Holmes saying that Republican support for abortion was based on a double standard.

“Ninety-nine percent of all of the white people in here are going to raise their hand that they are against abortion,” said Holmes, according to the Huntsville Times. “On the other hand, 99 percent of the whites who are sitting in here now, if their daughter got pregnant by a black man, they are going to make their daughter have an abortion.”

“She’s got two other white children and then she’s going to have a little black baby going to be running around there, in the living room, in the den, with the rest of them,” Holmes continued.

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Bitcoin Firm CEO Found Dead After ‘Suicide’

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Photo Credit: LinkedinIt appears bitcoin’s recent turmoil has claimed its first life.

Autumn Radtke, a 28-year-old American CEO of bitcoin exchange firm First Meta, was found dead in her Singapore apartment on Feb. 28.

Local media are calling it a suicide, but Singapore officials are waiting for toxicology test results.

Radtke formerly worked with Apple and other Silicon Valley tech firms on developing digital payment systems.

Radtke’s death brings the number of questionable financial sector deaths this year to eight.

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Obama Budget Proposal Won’t Tame Debt, Interest Would Soon Exceed Military Spending

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Photo Credit: AP

President Obama’s latest budget proposal paints a troubling picture of America’s fiscal future.

Here’s a startling snapshot:

— By 2024, the total national debt would rise from $17.4 trillion to nearly $25 trillion.

— By 2020, U.S. taxpayers would be paying more in interest on the debt than they would on the entire Defense budget.

— By 2017, those interest payments would be bigger than the budget for Medicaid.

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Photo Credit: J. Scott Applewhite/APObama budget: 4 things to know

By By Mark Trumbull.

President Obama’s proposed budget for 2015 seeks to nudge Congress to spend more money to improve the nation’s roads and rails, more on early childhood education, and more on job skills for adult workers.

To pay for it while also holding down federal deficits, Mr. Obama proposes further tax hikes on high-income Americans – in the form of closing “loopholes” rather than raising tax rates.

From poverty reduction to helping manufacturers improve productivity, the president’s clear priority is to use the government as a lever boost the economic well-being of ordinary Americans. Although the budget also offers proposals aimed at fiscal sustainability, it does little to reduce a public debt load that stands at a historically high level.

The four themes below summarize the budget proposal and Washington’s fiscal state of play.

Taxes would rise (again) on the rich. In an era of chronic deficits, the Obama budget calls for raising new tax revenue by making it harder for high-earning Americans to shield income from taxes. Reducing various deductions and tax breaks, and imposing a “Buffett rule” that ensures millionaires couldn’t have below-average tax rates, would raise some $651 billion between 2015 and 2024.

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Obama: Dems Paid ‘Dear Price’ in 2010 Midterms

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Photo Credit: ReutersPresident Barack Obama says Democrats paid a “dear price” for not paying enough attention to the 2010 midterm elections and urged donors to not repeat the same mistakes this year.

Democrats lost control of the House and gave up seats in the Senate in the 2010 midterms. Speaking at a fundraiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Obama says Democrats may be good at presidential elections, but “get a little sleepy” in the midterms.

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President Obama’s Budget Sends $286,479,000 to Planned Parenthood Abortion Biz

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Photo Credit: LifeNewsPresident Barack Obama and Planned Parenthood have been bosom buddies since his election — and the president has kept flow of taxpayer funds on ever since entering the White House in 2009. This year’s budget proposal is no exception.

Obama wanted God to bless Planned Parenthood and, this year, he wants them blessed with hundreds of millions.

As Tom Minnery of March for Life explains:

The good news in President Obama’s budget is that Title X funds (p. 434) that generally give money to entities like Planned Parenthood have gone down from $297,400,000 to $286,479,000. (That is still higher than the figure in 2007 ($283,146,000.))

Also it appears that $5,000,000 is set aside for true abstinence education (p. 490) while almost six times that amount is reserved for “comprehensive” abstinence education that does everything from encouraging young kids to shower together to helping fund online “How to BDSM” videos for teens.

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Justice for 16-Year-Old Boy Who Was Beaten Bloody by Police and Sent to Hospital

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Photo Credit: WikipediaA teenager who was beaten bloody by a Parma, Ohio police officer wielding a flashlight will receive a $40,000 settlement, according to local news.

The family of the unnamed 16-year-old boy filed suit as a result of a November 2012 traffic stop, during which officer James Manzo repeatedly hit him on the head with a flashlight. The teenager was hospitalized and has lingering headaches as a result of the brutal attack, according to Cleveland.com.

The boy was being driven in a car by his father when they were pulled over by Manzo. Manzo accused the father of circling the block, but his son challenged the officer’s assertion. In response, Manzo pulled the boy out of the car, telling him, “If you want to be a smartass, come here.”

Read more this story HERE.