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May 23, 2013
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Featured News

American Drones: Hitmen for Hire

JP Sottile for LA Progressive Posted May 22, 2013

Everyone is a potential target in the War on Terror’s lingering “With Us or Against Us” protection racket, and drones are the crooked-nosed enforcers that kill without remorse, without hesitation and without accountability.


Read full story

Keep Your Pants On: Anthony Weiner's Running for Mayor but He's Already Down 10 Points

Steve Cooper for TheContributor
May 22, 2013

Anthony Weiner is embarking on an audacious comeback quest, hoping to go from punch line pol whose tweeted crotch shot was emblazoned on the nation's consciousness to Mayor of America's biggest city, New York. The Democrat is jumping into a crowded field for September's primary.


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House Panel to Vote Today on Rules Change Which Would Enable 'Vigorous Prosecution' of Military Sex Offenders

Richard Lardner for Associated Press
May 22, 2013

"I think the leadership of the military is confused," said Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, who along with Rep. Niki Tsongas, D-Mass., wrote several of the provisions before the subcommittee. "They believe as long as they have programs where they say sexual assault is wrong that they've done enough. No. They have to support the victim, and they have to support vigorous prosecution."


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No Arrests on Wall Street, But Over 7,700 Americans Have Been Arrested Protesting Big Banks

Zaid Jilani for The Daily Change
May 22, 2013

As Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has said, the nation’s biggest banks have essentially gained “too big for trial” status, and the federal government has failed to prosecute any executive at a Big Bank for financial fraud.


While Wall Street has escaped prosecutions, thousands of Americans have been arrested in the course of protests against the banks. As of May 2013, that number is 7,736 — according to the website Occupy Arrests, which tracks arrests.


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The Latest Lie: IRS Targeted Conservatives

Dave Johnson for Campaign for America's Future
May 21, 2013

The corporate media is blasting out the story that the IRS “targeted conservative groups.” This story that is being repeated and treated as “true” is just not what happened at all. It is one more right-wing victimization fable, repeated endlessly until the public has no choice except to believe it.


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Dept. of Veterans Affairs: 1 in 5 Women Screen Positive for Military Sexual Trauma

Kevin Freking for The Associated Press
May 20, 2013

The hurdles are steep for military sexual abuse victims that seek disability compensation — too steep for some veterans groups and lawmakers who support legislation designed to make it easier for veterans to get a monthly disability payment.


"Right now, the burden of proof is stacked against sexual trauma survivors," said Anu Bhagwati, executive director of the Service Women's Action Network. "Ninety percent of 26,000 cases last year weren't even reported. So where is that evidence supposed to come from?"


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Republican Judge Forces Lesbian Texan Out of Her Home

Ben Sherman for Burnt Orange Report
May 20, 2013

This month in McKinney, just outside of Dallas, Republican judge John Roach kicked Page Price, a lesbian, out of her home. Why? Because she was helping raise her partner's two children. As of May 7th, Price has 30 days to evacuate her home.


This sick, anti-family judge is involved at all because Price's partner, Carolyn Compton, is going through a divorce. Roach inserted a "morality clause" into Compton's divorce papers which forbids Compton from having anyone she is not related to "by blood or marriage" in her home past 9:00 p.m. if the children are present. The aptly named Roach wrote that he didn't approve of Compton's "lifestyle". Her lifestyle of living with the person she loves and raising two kids.


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Crowdfund the Tribune Co and Keep it Out of Koch Bros Hands

Steve Cooper for The Contributor
May 18, 2013
WI Firefighters Union Pres. Mahlon Mitchell Joined Anti-Koch Protesters in LA

They only need a meager $660 million to make the Tribune Company into a newspaper-based NPR.


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House Republicans Have Spent 15 Percent of Their Time Trying to Repeal Obamacare

Zaid Jilani for The Daily Change
May 17, 2013

As the provisions of the Affordable Care Act — referred to as Obamacare for short — begin to come online, congressional Republicans have continued to obsess over repealing the law altogether. Republicans don’t seem to have any regret over the fact that repealing Obamacare has taken precedence over other issues, like jobs.


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New Fracking Rules Show U.S. Bowing to Industry

Jacob Chamberlain for Common Dreams
May 17, 2013

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management released new draft rules for fracking on public lands Thursday afternoon that would vastly weaken safeguards against the highly toxic gas extraction process, which has already done untold damage to public water, land and air.


"Comparing today’s rule governing fracking on public lands with the one proposed a year earlier, it is clear what happened: the [BLM] caved to the wealthy and powerful oil and gas industry and left the public to fend for itself," Legislative Representative for Earthjustice Jessica Ennis stated.


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The Real IRS Scandal: Agency Audits Found Wealthy Taxpayers Failed to Pay $4.8 Billion in Taxes

Zaid Jilani for The Daily Change
May 17, 2013

In 2012, the IRS ramped up its audits of wealthy taxpayers, and shockingly found a massive rate of under-paying taxes. It audited one in eight tax filers with incomes over $1 million, concluding that about 75 percent of these millionaires failed to pay the taxes they owed.


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The Right Wing Outrage Industrial Complex’s Complicated Week

Tina Dupuy for The Contributor
May 16, 2013
Photo by Fibonacci Blue

Since the president who touted torture as a foreign policy, lied us into two quagmires and outed an undercover CIA agent in retaliation for her husband’s New York Times op/ed, has been out of office for a couple of years, our bar for scandal is pretty low.


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The Tea Party IRS Nontroversy and Where's the Birth Certificate?!

The Contributor Staff for The Contributor
May 15, 2013

TheContributor.com Editor-in-Chief Tina Dupuy joined Forbes.com contributor Rick Ungar and Tea Party News Network News Director Scottie Nell Hughes in a discussion about the IRS "nontroversy" on Current TV's The Viewpoint.


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Graphics

Rob Tornoe for The Contributor
May 21, 2013 - 11:32pm
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BlogRoll

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Economy

Deficit Fixed: Now Fix the Job, Wage, and Trade Gaps

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Dave Johnson for Seeing The Forest
about 14 hours ago
Deficit Fixed: Now Fix the Job, Wage, and Trade Gaps
The deficit is now down 60 percent as a percent of gross domestic product. It is down more than deficit hawks Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles asked for. This rapid reduction is seriously hurting the economy and jobs, but demands for cuts continue. It is time for Congress and the President to “pivot” to focusing on our real problems: the jobs gap, the wage gap and the trade gap.
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This Isn’t Smart: House GOP Bill Would Raise Student Loan Interest Rates

Derek Pugh for Campaign for America's Future
May 22, 2013 - 1:40am
This Isn’t Smart: House GOP Bill Would Raise Student Loan Interest Rates
House Republicans are scheduled this week to put forward a student lending bill called the “Smarter Solutions for Students Act.” But the label is misleading. A more appropriate name would be the “Making College More Expensive Act.”
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Civil Rights

What if Kaitlyn Hunt Was an 18-Year Old Black Male?

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Julie Driscoll for LA Progressive
about 18 hours ago
What if Kaitlyn Hunt Was an 18-Year Old Black Male?
Call me crazy, but I believe firmly that the statutory laws are in place for a reason – to prevent the exploitation of young men and women who don’t have the ability to make informed decisions, who don’t have the ability to “consent.” Moving the boundaries on what constitutes statutory rape is a slippery slope. After all, would we be hearing this same outcry in Chicago, if an 18-year-old black male were given a similar plea offer or a similar charge with a 15-year-old white female victim?
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52 YEARS LATE: Peace Corps Leaves Dark Ages Behind, Will Allow Same-Sex Couples to Serve Together

Associated Press for TheContributor
May 21, 2013 - 3:20pm
52 YEARS LATE: Peace Corps Leaves Dark Ages Behind, Will Allow Same-Sex Couples to Serve Together
The Peace Corps says it will begin accepting applications from same-sex domestic partners who want to serve together as volunteers overseas.
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Congress

House GOP Aims to Exacerbate Already Painful Austerity by Further Slashing Education, Interior, State Departments

ANDREW TAYLOR for Associated Press
about 18 hours ago
House GOP Aims to Exacerbate Already Painful Austerity by Further Slashing Education, Interior, State Departments
Republicans controlling the House pressed ahead Tuesday with efforts to slash funding for the departments of Education, Interior and State that go deeper than those already implemented under a painful round of automatic austerity.
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Environment

With U.S. Awash in Oil, National Interest Argument for Keystone Weakens

John H. Cushman Jr. for InsideClimate News
about 20 hours ago
With U.S. Awash in Oil, National Interest Argument for Keystone Weakens
U.S. oil production is suddenly growing so fast that some analysts are questioning how much the country really needs the Canadian tar sands oil that would move through the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
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Politicians

Tom Davis Jumps the Shark, Media Calls Move 'Moderate'

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lowkell for Blue Virginia
about 16 hours ago
Tom Davis Jumps the Shark, Media Calls Move 'Moderate'
Former Rep. Tom Davis, a Republican who represented Virginia, has drawn criticism for his backing of extremist candidate EW Jackson in upcoming 2013 race for his state's Lieutenant Governorship. Although, the corporate media would just prefer to call him a moderate and, well, let's all go home. Nothing to see here.
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Keep Your Pants On: Anthony Weiner's Running for Mayor but He's Already Down 10 Points

Steve Cooper for TheContributor
about 17 hours ago
Keep Your Pants On: Anthony Weiner's Running for Mayor but He's Already Down 10 Points
Anthony Weiner is embarking on an audacious comeback quest, hoping to go from punch line pol whose tweeted crotch shot was emblazoned on the nation's consciousness to Mayor of America's biggest city, New York. The Democrat is jumping into a crowded field for September's primary.
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Immigration

Head of Hispanic Outreach for FL RNC Leaves GOP Following Nasty Heritage Foundation Remarks

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Victoria DeFrancesco Soto for LA Progressive
May 20, 2013 - 12:50pm
Head of Hispanic Outreach for FL RNC Leaves GOP Following Nasty Heritage Foundation Remarks
Last week, a high profile Latino Republican — the former head of Hispanic outreach for Florida’s RNC — publicly left the party. For Pablo Pantoja, the straw that broke the camel’s back, or in this case the elephant’s back, was the Heritage Foundation’s anti-immigrant report and its co-author’s public defense of Latinos as a group having low IQ scores.
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FL Congresswoman Stops Father of Four's 4 a.m. Deportation

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SamSeder for SamSeder
May 16, 2013 - 10:10am
FL Congresswoman Stops Father of Four's 4 a.m. Deportation
A last minute plea at a town hall event stopped a father of 4's deportation as Congresswoman Frederica Wilson took action.
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Humor

The Crazy GOP and Their Benghazi Smoke Screen

Will Durst for Cagle Cartoons
May 21, 2013 - 2:00am
The Crazy GOP and Their Benghazi Smoke Screen
Up until about an hour ago, most Americans thought Benghazi was the guy who palled around with John Cassavetes back in the '60s, but now it's obvious we're talking about the foreign policy arm of a multi-ramped tar pit the president has found himself swimming -- up to his armpits. Yes, friends, it's pity time at the White House.
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Gun Safety

for The Contributor
May 9, 2013 - 2:55am
Maher, Guns and Thor
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Media

Watch Wolf Blitzer Awkwardly Assume Tornado Survivor 'Thanks the Lord' For Her Survival

The Contributor Staff for The Contributor
about 22 hours ago
Watch Wolf Blitzer Awkwardly Assume Tornado Survivor 'Thanks the Lord' For Her Survival
On Tuesday, Wolf Blitzer was speaking to a survivor of a deadly tornado that ripped apart an Oklahoma City suburb, and awkwardly assumed that she owed her survival to God.
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Did Alex Jones Just Claim the OK Tornado Was Created by a Govt.-run Weather Weapon?

The Contributor Staff for The Contributor
about 23 hours ago
Did Alex Jones Just Claim the OK Tornado Was Created by a Govt.-run Weather Weapon?
We know nutjob radio host Alex Jones is always good for one or two harebrained conspiracy theories involving the government coming up with ways to kill us. But he's outdone himself with his latest rant about a deadly tornado that devastated an Oklahoma City suburb.
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Business

Undertaxed Apple Looks for More Tax Savings

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Dave Johnson for Seeing The Forest
May 21, 2013 - 2:30pm
Undertaxed Apple Looks for More Tax Savings
Apple has avoided billions and billions of dollars in taxes they owe to the country by setting up foreign subsidiaries in tax-haven countries, all while moving jobs and profit centers out of the country. Now they want a special tax break to reward them for doing that.
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Will Bankers at JPMorgan Chase Finally Pay for Their Misdeeds?

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Richard (RJ) Eskow for United SteelWorkers
May 21, 2013 - 12:58pm
Will Bankers at JPMorgan Chase Finally Pay for Their Misdeeds?
Will California Attorney General Kamala Harris hang tough in her new lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase, the first to target individual bankers accused of defrauding the public? If so, it would be the first time in five years that executives at a major bank have personally paid a price for their wrongdoings.
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War

American Drones: Hitmen for Hire

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JP Sottile for LA Progressive
about 16 hours ago
American Drones: Hitmen for Hire
Everyone is a potential target in the War on Terror’s lingering “With Us or Against Us” protection racket, and drones are the crooked-nosed enforcers that kill without remorse, without hesitation and without accountability.
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Warnographic Bin Laden Raid Images and Video Need Not See Light of Day, Court Says

Steve Cooper for TheContributor
May 21, 2013 - 1:53pm
Warnographic Bin Laden Raid Images and Video Need Not See Light of Day, Court Says
A federal appeals court Tuesday backed the U.S. government's decision not to release photos and video taken of Osama bin Laden during and after a raid in which the terrorist leader was killed by U.S. commandos.
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Education

BREAKING: Rogue Bridgeport Schools Superintendent Sued by Teachers Union

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ctblogger for My Left Nutmeg
May 21, 2013 - 2:57pm
BREAKING: Rogue Bridgeport Schools Superintendent Sued by Teachers Union
Bridgeport School Superintendent Paul Vallas is breaking the law by not allowing teachers, parents, and community leaders to participate in the educational process as outlined in state statutes, according to a complaint filed by the Connecticut Education Association (CEA) with the State Department of Education today.
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Health Care

'The Only True Republican Alternative to Obamacare is Nothingcare'

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Katherine Haenschen for Burnt Orange Report
May 16, 2013 - 7:10pm
'The Only True Republican Alternative to Obamacare is Nothingcare'
On Thursday, as Republicans in Congress tried to come between Americans and their doctors with their 37th feckless attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act, staunch progressive and champion of healthcare Congressman Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) stood up and offered his strong defense of the bill.
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Local

Texas Hold 'Em: Legislature Blocks Medicaid Expansion, Stalls Guns on Campus

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Katherine Haenschen for Burnt Orange Report
about 15 hours ago
Texas Hold 'Em: Legislature Blocks Medicaid Expansion, Stalls Guns on Campus
As the 83rd Legislative session draws to a close, Texas' elected officials are burning the midnight oil. Whether anything gets done is another story all together.
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Editor's Contribution

The Right Wing Outrage Industrial Complex’s Complicated Week

Tina Dupuy for The Contributor
May 16, 2013 - 11:52am
The Right Wing Outrage Industrial Complex’s Complicated Week
Since the president who touted torture as a foreign policy, lied us into two quagmires and outed an undercover CIA agent in retaliation for her husband’s New York Times op/ed, has been out of office for a couple of years, our bar for scandal is pretty low.
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Editor's Column: Donald Trump: The Rape Apologist

Tina Dupuy for The Contributor
May 8, 2013 - 3:17pm
Editor's Column: Donald Trump: The Rape Apologist
The natural product of men and women together is not sexual assault. Rape is not an eventuality. It’s not a method of conception as (thankfully still-a-Congressman) Paul Ryan likes to refer to it. It’s not a means of god “gifting human life” like former Senator Rick Santorum believes. There’s not illegitimate rape and legitimate rape as former Congressman and 2012 senatorial candidate Todd Akin felt the need to clarify.
There’s just consensual sex and a felony.
Rape is a crime.
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Opinion

The Scandal of Scandal in Washington

Cliff Schecter for Cagle Cartoons
about 21 hours ago
The Scandal of Scandal in Washington
If you listen loud enough you can almost hear the siren song of the Republican Party spread its dulcet tones across Washington. It's scandal season boys and girls, and for the GOP it's Mardi Gras, Christmas and The Spanish Inquisition all in one!
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Boston Marathon Bombing

Worcester Police Officer Asks Someone with a Grave to Step Forward

Bridget Murphy for The Associated Press
May 8, 2013 - 4:00pm
Worcester Police Officer Asks Someone with a Grave to Step Forward
Police said it's costing the department tens of thousands of dollars to provide security at the funeral home that is holding Tsarnaev's body, and officer details are wasting precious resources.
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The Contributor's Columnists

Critics of Sequester Forget All About BRAC

Robert W. McKnight for The Contributor
March 12, 2013 - 12:55pm
Critics of Sequester Forget All About BRAC
It was 25 years ago that our country struggled with what to do with the surplus military bases around the country. Prudent management of our national budget dictated that a large number be shuttered and that could be done without any threat to our defense capability.
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POTUS

Four Historic Obama Speech Moments

Robert W. McKnight for The Contributor
about 21 hours ago
Four Historic Obama Speech Moments
As President Barack Obama moves more and more into his second term, scholars will begin making note of some of his most memorable speeches and public remarks that might mark his presidency and his two successful campaigns.
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