Clipmarks | masbury's clips

US citizens sue over illegal detention during immigration raid

Thu, 01 May 2008 22:23:06 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Good for them - long overdue.

US Citizens, Lawful Residents Sue Government for Illegal Detention in LA Immigration Raid

In what’s believed to be a first, a group of US citizens and lawful residents have brought claims against the government for being illegally detained during an ICE raid earlier this year. If the claims are successful, this legal strategy could force the Department of Homeland Security to change its policy about workplace raids. [includes rush transcript]

Tags: immigration

Exxon Mobil shareholders disappointed - 2nd highest profit ever

Thu, 01 May 2008 20:14:02 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Boo-hoo; a mere $10.9 Billion. Super-rich getting super richer at slightly slower pace than expected. Better bomb Iran.

Clip Source: www.truthdig.com

$10.9 Billion Ain’t What it Used to Be

Exxon Mobil made $10.9 billion last quarter, but investors were disappointed that the world’s biggest oil company had only its second-biggest quarter ever.

Extraordinary profits are also turning into a real, if somewhat incongruous, embarrassment of riches. Rising gasoline and diesel prices have ignited resentment among drivers and truckers, and are threatening to create a backlash against oil companies that could be especially resonant in an election year.

Tags: exxon, corporate, profiteering, oil

Methodists reject SMU Bush Prez Library 844-20

Thu, 01 May 2008 19:58:46 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Good for them - the conflicts between Mr. Bush's aims and the goals of Methodism are simply too great to overlook

Clip Source: www.democraticunderground.com

Methodists reject SMU Bush Presidential Library 844-20

Source: The People of the United Methodist Church website

News Flash: SMU Bush Presidential Library Rejection, passed 844-20

This rejection passed on Wednesday morning, 30-April-08, at the quadrennial General Conference of the United Methodist Church that is still meeting in Fort Worth, Texas.

This body is the highest authority of the denomination and cannot be over-ruled by any other body within the denomination.

Tags: bush, presidential library, methodists, smu

McCain had "Mission Accomplished" moment, too

Thu, 01 May 2008 19:41:44 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "We won a massive victory in a few weeks"

Clip Source: www.motherjones.com

McCain Had His Own "Mission Accomplished" Moment

Five years ago today, George W. Bush got all gussied up and landed a jet on an aircraft carrier floating off the Southern California coast, where he declared "mission accomplished" in Iraq. Roughly 97 percent of American military deaths in Iraq have come after that moment.

Less well known is the fact that John McCain also prematurely declared a win in Iraq. In the congressional record on May 22, 2003, he declared "massive victory":

"We won a massive victory in a few weeks, and we did so with very limited loss of American and allied lives. We were able to end aggression with minimum overall loss of life, and we were even able to greatly reduce the civilian casualties of Afghani and Iraqi citizens."

Tags: mccain, war on terror, mission accomplished

Does changing capital gains tax hurt middle class?

Thu, 01 May 2008 19:21:22 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: FoxNews' Chris Wallace and FactCheck.org disagree

Clip Source: www.factcheck.org

Would raising the capital gains tax rate hit the middle class?

"Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace suggested that Sen. Barack Obama's proposal to raise the rate would be a "substantial" tax increase on the "middle class."

Wallace, April 20: [When] half the tax returns reporting capital gains come from households making less than $50,000, why isn't that a considerable, substantial, middle class tax increase?

Those are the tax filers who, overwhelmingly, would be affected by any increase in the rates, even if there were no exemptions such as Obama proposes.

On the Republican side, John McCain's Web site says he'll maintain the current capital gains tax rate.

Tags: foxnews, factcheck, taxes, capital gains, politics, obama, clinton, election, news

Wow: Fox News says Lincoln-Douglas debate included Frederick Douglass

Thu, 01 May 2008 19:09:51 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Video and everything. Yow. Back to the cartoons.

Clip Source: www.crooksandliars.com

Turns out the Rhodes Scholars over at “Fox and Friends” think Abraham Lincoln debated Frederick Douglass in the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858. Of course it was Stephen Douglas. Something tells me Frederick would have had a tough time winning a Senate seat back then. Just a thought.

Download | Play Download | Play

Tags: fox, media, lincoln

Graph: change in party affiliation among 18-29 yr olds

Thu, 01 May 2008 18:56:36 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: potential for long-term shift; major changes since '92, '04. And lots of these, I'll bet, are young evangelicals. Voters who stick with one party thru three cycles are usually there for keeps.

Clip Source: www.dailykos.com

In fact, the Democrats' advantage among the young is now so broad-based that younger men as well as younger women favor the Democrats over the GOP -- making their age category the only one in the electorate in which men are significantly more inclined to self-identify as Democrats rather than as Republicans.

Political scientists argue that the more often someone votes for a party, the more that preference gets locked in. Each vote marginally increases your personal identification with the party you pulled the lever for. Three election cycles, and you're probably a partisan for life, or something near to it. Which means an advantage like this, though potentially temporary, also opens the door to a more enduring electoral edge with this generation.

Tags: politics, party, democrats, republicans

Things I learned from this election

Thu, 01 May 2008 18:47:51 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: One can only stop and wonder.

Clip Source: www.dailykos.com

Lessons Learned

In a race that includes a former First Lady of the United States and a multimillionaire Republican senator rumored to share up to eight residences with his wife, the black guy from Chicago is unforgivably elitist.

Racism in America is caused primarily by black Chicago preachers.

The guy who keeps getting confused over the relationship between Iraq, Iran, and al Qaeda is the foreign policy expert.

The guy who goes to campaign stops on his wife's private jet aircraft is the most down-to-earth.

The guy who changed his stance on tax cuts, Roe v. Wade, immigration, gun control, the confederate flag, torture, public financing, and his own anti-earmark rhetoric is the "straight talker".

Flag pins are the measure of a man.

Success in Iraq consists of any reduction in violence, except when violence increases that's good too.

Tags: election, politics, obama, clinton

Why the gas tax cut is a bad idea

Thu, 01 May 2008 18:40:17 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: likely to boost consumption, increase emissions, drive up gas price

Clip Source: www.dailykos.com

"Score one for Obama," wrote Greg Mankiw, a former chairman of President George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers. "In light of the side effects associated with driving ... gasoline taxes should be higher than they are, not lower."

Economists said that since refineries cannot increase their supply of gasoline in the space of a few summer months, lower prices will just boost demand and the benefits will flow to oil companies, not consumers.

"You are just going to push up the price of gas by almost the size of the tax cut," said Eric Toder, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center in Washington.

Obama threw out a great quote about the proposal yesterday; "This isn't an idea designed to get you through the summer, it's an idea designed to get them through an election."

This is not an energy policy. This is money laundering: we borrow money from China and ship it to Saudi Arabia and take a little cut for ourselves as it goes through our gas tanks.

Tags: politics, economy, fuel, obama, clinton, mccain, election

Former DNC chair, Indiana superdel, switches to Obama

Thu, 01 May 2008 17:47:09 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "Don't settle for the tried and true and simplistic slogans, but listen to your heart and dare to be inspired"

Clip Source: www.abcnews.go.com

Clinton Ally Switches to Obama, Expects 'Attack Dogs'

Influential Indiana Superdelegate Calls Obama the 'Bill Clinton of 2008'

A former leader of the Democratic Party who last year endorsed Hillary Clinton with lavish praise has switched to Barack Obama — and now predicts that the Clinton "attack dogs" will be after him.

Joe Andrew, who was elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee in 1999 with Bill Clinton's blessing, held a news conference Thursday in Indianapolis to announce his support of Obama and to urge other superdelegates to unite behind Obama in order to "heal the rift in our party."

"I have been inspired," Andrew said in a lengthy letter to superdelegates and Indiana voters

"Don't settle for the tried and true and simplistic slogans, but listen to your heart and dare to be inspired," he wrote.

The same words will come out of the [Clinton campaign's] surrogates' mouths to attack me that the Republicans used — and that demonstrates the very hypocrisy of the old politics

Tags: election, obama, clinton, indiana