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Mark truly blasted, if not utterly destroyed, Republican leaders in the U.S. Senate for opposing amendments to the now notorious Iran bill. The first amendment literally says this: "To require a certification that Iran has not directly supported or carried out an act of terrorism against the United States or a United States person anywhere in the world." You’d think that’s a rather low threshold to hold a country to, but for Republican leaders it's “a bridge too far.” “We have eight Republicans who voted ‘no’ on this amendment. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee. Just got reelected. Had gone back to...

There is a concrete reason why ‘shooting yourself in the foot’ is an idiom as this man found out.Police have not revealed the 35-year-old’s name who was admitted to hospital last weekend in the Spanish town of Elda near Alicante.However, it currently appears that he shot himself in the foot with a handgun to find out what it would feel like.MORE: Police smell cannabis through letter box, then find this in the looAuthorities have not yet found the firearm which they believe he threw out of his car window on the way to hospital, according to i100.Investigators have not ruled out sending...

Finally, an answer to the most important question of the 2016 election.Kidding aside, though, this is a bit surprising. The question of whether or not a candidate would attend the gay wedding of a loved one has become an increasingly common litmus test for candidates on the issue…The poll showed 56 percent of Republicans would attend the gay wedding of a loved one if invited. That compares with 80 percent of Democrats and 70 percent of independents, who said they would go.Overall, 68 percent of Americans would attend, the poll showed, while 19 percent would not and 13 percent...

After writing about an MSNBC talking head’s comment about the “niggerization of politics” yesterday, and watching the latest threat by the New Black Panther Party against the Republican National Convention, I thought it time to update my posts on racism and the timeline of action and inaction. In a discussion of Civil Rights in America, how often do you hear the name of Republican Senator Everett Dirksen (R-IL)? Not often. How often do you hear the name of Democrat Senator Robert Byrd in connection to civil rights? Not often but for very different reasons. Dirksen was a champion for civil...

The Civil War was the first major test of whether the Constitution and Lincoln’s vision of a government, “of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth,” were true, noble and worthy aspirations of man in a new relationship with government or merely words that politicians said but really didn’t mean. The chasm between those who would continue and advance slavery and those who held dear the idea that all men are created equal became so great that the only possible resolution to the crisis was an armed conflict with blood running on our...

Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz is happy Bruce Jenner will continue to embrace the GOP, telling us his party needs all the Cali support it can get. Chaffetz -- an ultra conservative from Utah who has become extremely influential in DC -- told our TMZ photog it's not his job to judge Jenner's choices. It's interesting ... Chaffetz has become a powerful voice promoting the right of privacy. Although it seems Chaffetz is saying live and let live, he clearly has limits because he has opposed both gay marriage and medical marijuana use in the past. Jenner told Sawyer he's a...

Voting to confirm an attorney general who won’t uphold the Constitution isn’t a way to inspire confidence among conservatives. Hillary Clinton didn’t have such a bad week after all. Sure, she’s reeling from the latest unseemly revelations about the Clinton Foundation family piggy bank. But they’re only marginally worse than earlier unseemly revelations about the Clinton Foundation. They are roughly on par with the revelations about how Mrs. Clinton obstructed Congress’s Benghazi investigations by purging her unlawful private e-mail system, which was worse than her obstruction of the State Department’s Benghazi investigation. Yet it may not have been as bad...

Bristol Palin says that Stephen A. Smith has it right when he declares that for one election cycle, every black person should vote Republican. She says that when you listen to his logic, it “just makes sense.” Tricks to get large groups to swap parties, without a solid political reason, aren’t exactly uncommon, but the logic Smith and Palin are employing here is mind-boggling. Here’s Stephen A.’s idea, initially published by Breitbart. Currently, the majority of black voters vote for Democrats. He believes this demonstrates that the average black person would never vote Republican, leaving both parties’ candidates thinking they...

Republican leaders refuse to take the gloves off, and are doing nothing to promote conservatism, so their true agenda must be to facilitate the continuation of liberalism. It happened again yesterday, a painful reminder that the GOP leadership in Congress is pathetic. The President’s radical nominee for Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, was confirmed with ten Republican votes. Without Republican votes, Lynch could not have become U.S. Attorney General. Lynch will now replace Eric Holder, the most controversial and racially divisive Attorney General in American history. In her testimony to Congress, Lynch made it clear that she would continue the policies...

During the ramp-up to the 2014 midterm election, we were given many promises of what would be done if we would support Republican candidates and put them in the majority. We held our nose after primary shenanigans that favored some incumbents, poured donations into so-called Tea Party groups that blew off the candidates they supported. Some of us even believed the new-found conservatism some incumbents suddenly embraced in the weeks prior to November 4th. And it didn’t take long after the midterm election for the Republicans to look at us all like chumps as they excused themselves from the promises...

A Republican congressman ripped congressional leadership for their inaction on President Obama’s executive amnesty plan for illegals and pointed a finger at Sen. Marco Rubio for U.S. problems with open borders. Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks was a guest on Tim Constantine’s “Capitol Hill Show” on Tuesday and the conversation was dominated by the topic of illegal immigration and the effort by the Obama administration to circumvent existing law and grant amnesty to millions. “What I am very disappointed in is the House and Senate leadership,” Mr. Brooks explained....

The Upshot’’s Nate Cohn is making the contrarian case for Mike Huckabee. I give him credit for seeing things that others might not, but—despite the optimistic headline: “Mike Huckabee Would Be a More Important Candidate Than You Might Think,” he actually underestimates Huck’s potential as a disruptive factor in this campaign. It’s unclear what’s in the water in Hope, Arkansas, but that Bill Clinton and Huck are both from the same hamlet is nothing short of miraculous. Put aside the snake oil salesman stuff, and the numerous ridiculous things Huckabee has said to get attention, and you’re left with a...

With one well-received January speech in Iowa, Scott Walker shot to the top of the polls. After a successful campaign launch, Marco Rubio is slowly gaining ground with donors and with conservatives who see a candidate with an inspiring biography and exceptional skills as a communicator. Yet it’s Jeb Bush who’s frequently described as the front-runner in a crowded field of more than a dozen Republican candidates. The reality is that he’s not — at this stage in the nominating contest, no one is. “The Republican nomination is wide open,” said Ana Navarro, a Miami-based strategist who is close to...

The Republican presidential hopefuls — declared and undeclared — descended on New Hampshire this past weekend for the First in the Nation Republican Leadership Summit.But what issue was first on the agendas of those eyeing a shot at the Oval Office?Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush tried to varnish the family name for a new campaign. “We’re not always like our brother or sister or mom and dad. We all have our own unique DNA and our own life experiences,” he said, telling a bit of his life story including the love-at-first-sight meeting with his wife at age 17 in...

Senator Marco Rubio has been criticized by many Tea Party activists for his stance on illegal immigration, but that doesn’t seem to hold him back in the polls. Look at these results from CNN’s latest poll among Republican voters: "Overall, 17% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents back Bush for the GOP nomination, while 12% support Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. Paul and Rubio stand at 11% each, with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee at 9% and Cruz at 7%…" Remarkable: Bush and Rubio both poll at 18% when respondents are asked which candidate best represents the future of the Republican Party....

Parliamentary maneuvering and a strategic partnership between moderate Republicans and Democrats in the Montana State legislature have provided Democrats with de-facto control over the House of Representatives on two key issues this session. In a move reminiscent of the underhanded wrangling by national Democrats used to pass Obamacare in 2010, a handful “moderate” Republican legislators joined with Montana Democrats to bypass opposition by changing chamber rules to pass a state Medicaid expansion plan (SB 405) and the controversial CSKT Water Compact (SB 262). SB 405 passed the House earlier this month on a 54-42 vote. SB 262 passed 2nd reading...

Rand Paul has cast himself as a Diogenes for the modern era, a truth-seeker who can't seem to find an honest man — or woman — no matter where he shines his lamp in Washington. That's why his willingness to say almost anything about himself and other Republicans, regardless of whether it's true, poses an existential threat to his brand. It's only a matter of time before the offended start punching back publicly, and that will surely start with fellow Republicans. Many of them had a right to be aggrieved after Paul's speech this weekend at the First in the...

Ted Cruz headlined the daytime portion of the Republican Leadership Summit in Nashua, N.H., Saturday, where 20 presidential candidates or those seriously thinking about it came to speak. “What a testament to the desire for Americans: We want something new, we want new leadership to change the page, and to turnaround,” the 44-year-old U.S. senator from Texas said as he began his remarks. “You know the Democratic version of this I’m pretty sure is Hillary Clinton having a conversation with a Chipotle clerk,” he said. It was one of countless times Republicans jabbed Clinton for her clandestine appearance at the...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/politics/2015/04/18/ted-cruz-scott-walker-jeb-bush/25987009/

fter five years and more than 50 votes in Congress, the Republican campaign to repeal the Affordable Care Act is essentially over. GOP congressional leaders, unable to roll back the law while President Obama remains in office and unwilling to again threaten a government shutdown to pressure him, are focused on other issues, including trade and tax reform. Less noted, senior Republican lawmakers have quietly incorporated many of the law's key protections into their own proposals, including guaranteeing coverage and providing government assistance to help consumers purchase insurance. And although the law remains very unpopular with GOP voters, more than...