Government Shutdown Will Not Shut Down Obamacare, Says New CRS Report

Government Shutdown Will Not Shut Down Obamacare, Says New CRS Report: WASHINGTON -- If the federal government shuts down, don't expect the implementation of Obamacare to stop.

The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service issued a report on Monday stating that the law would still be in effect even if lawmakers hold up the functioning of the government over budget disputes.

"It appears that substantial [Affordable Care Act] implementation might continue during a lapse in annual appropriations that resulted in a temporary government shutdown," the report says.

Pope Francis On Gays: Who Am I To Judge Them?

Pope Francis On Gays: Who Am I To Judge Them?: Pope Francis has had a busy week at World Youth Day in Rio as he visited his slums and prisons, blessed the Olympic flag and brought three million people to Copacabana Beach for a final Mass on Sunday morning.

Now he has made another headline, this time when the pontiff said, "Who am I to judge a gay person?"

Pope Francis On Gays: Who Am I To Judge Them?

Pope Francis On Gays: Who Am I To Judge Them?: Pope Francis has had a busy week at World Youth Day in Rio as he visited his slums and prisons, blessed the Olympic flag and brought three million people to Copacabana Beach for a final Mass on Sunday morning.

Now he has made another headline, this time when the pontiff said, "Who am I to judge a gay person?"

Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton To Meet For Breakfast Tuesday

Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton To Meet For Breakfast Tuesday: Vice President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet for breakfast Tuesday morning.

Biden's office confirmed to Politico that the two would meet at the Naval Observatory.

Their meeting will come less than 24 hours after Clinton met with President Barack Obama for a private lunch in the White House. A White House spokesman said it was "largely friendship that's on the agenda" at the private meeting on Monday.

Eliot Spitzer: I Would Have Fired Anthony Weiner For His 'Improper' Behavior

Eliot Spitzer: I Would Have Fired Anthony Weiner For His 'Improper' Behavior: Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D), who resigned from office due to a sex scandal, came down hard on former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) on Monday for his inappropriate online conversations with women.

During an appearance on MSNBC's "Hardball" on Monday, host Chris Matthews asked Spitzer, "If a public official used their office equipment to engage in the kind of pastime that Anthony Wiener's been involved in in the last couple years, would you fire them?"

House GOP To Hold 40th Obamacare Repeal Vote

House GOP To Hold 40th Obamacare Repeal Vote: WASHINGTON -- House Republicans plan a 40th attempt at repealing Obamacare next week, with legislation that would block the Internal Revenue Service from enforcing or implementing any portion of the health care reform law.

House Republicans have scheduled a vote next Friday on Rep. Tom Price's (R-Ga.) Keep the IRS Off Your Health Care Act of 2013.

"Public distrust continues of agency that has dozens of powers under Obamacare, and whose actions President Obama has called outrageous," said Doug Heye, spokesman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.). "As an ever increasing number of Americans -- including labor unions and moderate Democrats -- worry that Obamacare has become a nightmare, it is critical to prevent the IRS from implementing any portion of the law."

Meet Weiner's Latest Sexting Partner - BuzzFeed identifies her as Sydney Elaine Leathers

Meet Weiner's Latest Sexting Partner - BuzzFeed identifies her as Sydney Elaine Leathers: Newser) – BuzzFeed has identified Anthony Weiner's newly revealed sexting partner as Sydney Elaine Leathers, a progressive activist in her early 20s who lives in Indiana. Pictures on her Facebook and Formspring accounts look pretty close to the blurred images offered up on The Dirty when it broke the sexting story, and she's talked about Weiner quite a bit online (often on accounts that are now deleted). For example, in a June 2011 Facebook post, she declared: "Rep. Weiner can continue sending dick pics every single day for the rest of his life as long as he continues to legislate like he does. I decided." Her TwitPic account identifies her as an Obama for America field organizer.

Liz Cheney-Founded Neocon Group Quietly Scrubbed From The Internet | ThinkProgress

Liz Cheney-Founded Neocon Group Quietly Scrubbed From The Internet | ThinkProgress: A Liz Cheney co-founded group promoting neoconservative foreign and counterterrorism policy has been quietly scrubbed from the Internet with its last discernible web presence weeks ago.

Keep America Safe, co-founded in 2009 by Cheney, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol and Debra Burlingame, the “hawkish sister of an American Airlines pilot killed in the September 11 attacks,” was meant to be a one-stop shop for attacks on President Obama’s foreign policy and spotlighting the founders’ neoconservative friends.

Conservative Paper Invokes Lynching In Anti-Sharpton Editorial Cartoon | ThinkProgress

Conservative Paper Invokes Lynching In Anti-Sharpton Editorial Cartoon | ThinkProgress: Investors’ Business Daily, a business newspaper widely viewed as having a conservative editorial page, decided to dip its toes into racial politics over the weekend with a political cartoon about the case of Trayvon Martin. But instead of presenting a valid criticism of the negative reactions to George Zimmerman’s not guilty verdict, the publication invoked lynchings — one of the great tragedies committed against Black Americans — to try to make its point.

In an attempt to level criticism at Al Sharpton, the Black reverend-turned-TV host who has been deeply involved in cases of racial injustice, the cartoonist depicted various incidents in which Sharpton has been active as people being hanged from a tree:

John Boehner: Congress 'Ought To Be Judged On How Many Laws We Repeal' | ThinkProgress

John Boehner: Congress 'Ought To Be Judged On How Many Laws We Repeal' | ThinkProgress: In an interview on CBS’s Face The Nation on Sunday morning, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said that Congress passes too many laws and should actually be working to undo existing measures.

When asked about the lack of legislative activity in the current Congress, Boehner told host Bob Schieffer that the lawmaking body “ought to be judged” on how many laws it repeals:


BOEHNER: Well, Bob, we should not be judged on how many new laws we create. We ought to be judged on how many laws we repeal. We’ve got more laws than the administration could ever enforce. And so we don’t do commemorative bills on the floor. We don’t do all that nonsense.

Religious Progressives Predicted To Outnumber Conservatives, Survey Finds

Religious Progressives Predicted To Outnumber Conservatives, Survey Finds: A new study has found that while the number of religious conservatives is still greater than that of progressives, the religious left may have a better chance of maintaining its foothold with Americans over time.

"If you’re using a generational snapshot today as a proxy for the future, it is is safe to say that religious progressives hold a stronger appeal among Millennials," said Robert Jones, CEO of Public Religion Research Institute, which surveyed 2,000 adults in partnership with the Brookings Institute.

While the Christian right makes up 28 percent of the population and garners more cultural attention -- Jones found that there are 27,000 global monthly Google searches for “Christian Right" compared with just over 8,000 searches for “Christian left" -- religious progressives are only 9 percentage points behind, with 19 percent of the population.

Ivy League professor calls God a 'racist' after Zimmerman verdict | Fox News

Ivy League professor calls God a 'racist' after Zimmerman verdict | Fox News: An Ivy League professor blogged after George Zimmerman was found not guilty of murdering Trayvon Martin that the verdict shows God is a “white racist” who stalks “young black men.”

Anthea Butler, an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Religious Studies, made the unusual comments in a blog post released on Monday on ReligionDispatches.org, where she is a regular contributor.

“God ain’t good all of the time. In fact, sometimes, God is not for us,” she wrote in the post. “As a black woman in an [sic] nation that has taken too many pains to remind me that I am not a white man, and am not capable of taking care of my reproductive rights, or my voting rights, I know that this American god ain’t my god.

Virginia Republican Suffers Abortion Backlash From Donors - Bloomberg

Virginia Republican Suffers Abortion Backlash From Donors - Bloomberg: Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli has less than half as much cash as Democratic opponent Terry McAuliffe, with a prominent list of Republican donors sitting out this year’s most competitive U.S. political contest -- and in some cases switching sides.
The financial disadvantage four months before the election illustrates the difficulties confronting an attorney general who is campaigning on an economic growth plan yet is best known for his opposition to gay marriage and abortion.

CIA Backs $630,000 Scientific Study on Controlling Global Climate | Mother Jones

CIA Backs $630,000 Scientific Study on Controlling Global Climate | Mother Jones: The Central Intelligence Agency is funding a scientific study that will investigate whether humans could use geoengineering to alter Earth's environment and stop climate change. The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) will run the 21-month project, which is the first NAS geoengineering study financially supported by an intelligence agency. With the spooks' money, scientists will study how humans might influence weather patterns, assess the potential dangers of messing with the climate, and investigate possible national security implications of geoengineering attempts.

Florida's Racist History: The Role It Played in Trayvon's Death

Florida's Racist History: The Role It Played in Trayvon's Death: The journey of Trayvon followed a pattern that is woven into Florida's racist past. Independent actions of black people are often perceived as threatening to white people. When provoked, the expected reaction of black people is to submit, and any defensive action is perceived as a legitimate threat, which becomes the basis of "self-defense" for white people and "justifiable homicide" against black people.

Trayvon was not only a victim of murder; he was also a victim of a 10-day suspension from school, which severely disrupted his education and displaced him from his community. Many argue that Trayvon's drug paraphernalia, not the system, was responsible for the suspensions. However, no 10-day suspension is reasonable. Studies show that white kids use more drugs than black kids but rarely are subject to these lengthy suspensions. The racial differences in the way that schools handle drug experimentation and aggressive behaviors between black and white kids mirrors racial differences in the criminal justice system.

Florida's Racist History: The Role It Played in Trayvon's Death

Florida's Racist History: The Role It Played in Trayvon's Death: The journey of Trayvon followed a pattern that is woven into Florida's racist past. Independent actions of black people are often perceived as threatening to white people. When provoked, the expected reaction of black people is to submit, and any defensive action is perceived as a legitimate threat, which becomes the basis of "self-defense" for white people and "justifiable homicide" against black people.

Trayvon was not only a victim of murder; he was also a victim of a 10-day suspension from school, which severely disrupted his education and displaced him from his community. Many argue that Trayvon's drug paraphernalia, not the system, was responsible for the suspensions. However, no 10-day suspension is reasonable. Studies show that white kids use more drugs than black kids but rarely are subject to these lengthy suspensions. The racial differences in the way that schools handle drug experimentation and aggressive behaviors between black and white kids mirrors racial differences in the criminal justice system.

Jefferson: The face of the modern gun debate - CNN.com

Jefferson: The face of the modern gun debate - CNN.com: (CNN) -- Thomas Jefferson may not have penned the Second Amendment, but the paradoxical Founding Father comes galloping into the present whenever there's a gun debate. Quotes attributed to him and tied to the right to bear arms litter the social sphere. But how did a man 200-plus years past his prime become today's gun-debate darling?

"Jefferson becomes this great political Rorschach in which people pour into him different things," says Saul Cornell, a professor at Fordham University who studies early American political and constitutional thought.

People read into the inkblots of antiquity, molding Jefferson into who they want him to be on the subject of guns.

"Basically, what the Internet has done is democratized or Starbucks-ified discussions of the Founding Fathers. Everyone can talk about them without actually knowing anything about them," Cornell says.

It's the Wikipedification of knowledge, and it doesn't matter if it's true.

Real or fake, the Internet has spoken; it's loudest after tragedies like Aurora and Newtown. Read these Jeffersonian quotes fueling the debate. What do they say to you?