The Hollywood Liberal

Prosecutor Involved In Botched Ted Stevens Prosecution Commits Suicide
One of the federal prosecutors who was involved with the prosecution of the late Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens — which the Justice Department dismissed due to allegations of prosecutorial misconduct — has taken his own life.


Justice Department – United States Department of Justice – Ted Stevens – United States – Prosecutorial misconduct

DOJ Report: FBI Employees Cheated On Skills Assessment Test
A significant number of FBI employees cheated on an exam intended to assess their skills on criminal investigations, national security investigations and foreign intelligence collection, according to a Justice Department Inspector General report released Monday.



Federal Bureau of Investigation – United States Department of Justice – Inspector General – Robert Mueller – United States

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FOXhole Tales – Jive City Ad Woman

McMahon Closes the Gap in Connecticut
A new Quinnipiac poll in Connecticut finds Richard Blumenthal (D) barely edging Linda McMahon (R) in the race for U.S. Senate among likely voters, 49% to 46%.

Multiple polls have now shown McMahon nearly erasing Blumenthal’s once 25-point lead.

Said pollster Douglas Schwartz: “Blumenthal has to be concerned about Linda McMahon’s momentum. He can hear her footsteps as she closes in on him. Usually debates don’t make much of a difference, but in a race this close next month’s debates could be a game changer.”

One Third of Ballots Will Come Early
“At least one-third of all ballots across the country this year will be cast before Election Day, party officials said, reflecting a steady rise in early voting that is profoundly influencing how political campaigns are conducted in many parts of the country,” the New York Times reports.

“Democrats, who have been quicker to take advantage of the technique in the last two election cycles, say that a voting window of 30 days could allow them to win votes from people who might not otherwise cast a ballot and help level an enthusiasm gap that threatens their Congressional majority. Republicans concede being slower to adjust to the changes, but said they have stepped up their efforts in what they hope will be a strong year for the party.”

Hillary Clinton and State Dept. to Celebrate War Criminal Henry Kissinger, While the White House Repeats His Deadly Mistakes
Future historians will marvel at how U.S. leaders failed to learn from their horrific crimes in Indochina, and are instead repeating many of them today.

Future historians will marvel at how U.S. leaders failed to learn from their horrific crimes in Indochina, and are instead repeating many of them today.

Ariel: The Time-Bomb Goes Off
This week-end, the so-called settlements moratorium runs out, and the talks face–so the argument goes–their first moment of truth. Today, at the UN, President Obama called on Israel to extend the?moratorium and, pushing on an open door, is rallying international…



Middle East – East Jerusalem – Israel – Warfare and Conflict – Israel-Palestine

What Vulcan Ideology Does to Ancient History — and US Foreign Policy
In August, when PBS broadcast a shamefully worshipful, 3-hour “documentary” of Reagan Administration Secretary of State George Shultz’s supposedly heroic career, I posted “What Politics Does to History,” exposing the fraudulent scholarship of the man who’d written most of Shultz’s…


United States Secretary of State – George Shultz – Public Broadcasting Service – Documentary film – George P. Shultz

Tea Party Nullifiers Seek Revenge Against Florida Supreme Court Justices

Nineteenth century nullificationist John C. Calhoun

Earlier this year, the Florida Supreme Court nixed a state ballot initiative attempting to nullify part of the Affordable Care Act because the ballot language was misleading to voters.  In response, a Tea Party-affiliated group launched a campaign to remove two of the court’s justices from the bench:

Citizen2Citizen, partnering with the Central Florida Tea Party Council, is launching the “Restore Justice” campaign, advocating for a vote not to retain Florida Supreme Court Justices Jorge Labarga and James Perry this November, after placing politics above the law to deny Floridians of their constitutional right vote on Health Care Freedom (Amendment 9). Labarga and Perry upheld a circuit court ruling by Judge James Shelfer to remove Amendment 9 from the November ballot. As such, these justices sided with the liberal political agenda of four Florida citizens having close ties to the Obama administration who filed suit in late June, alleging that three statements (comprising a mere twenty words) in the ballot summary were misleading, to thereby disenfranchise millions of Floridians desiring to exercise their constitutional right to vote on the legislature’s proposed amendment.

This campaign is the second high-profile attempt by conservatives this election cycle to remove state supreme court justices who followed laws that they don’t like.  In Iowa, a Mississippi-based hate group called the American Family Association is funding a campaign to remove three justices who joined a marriage equality decision.

The Florida campaign is particularly bizarre, however, because it centers around an entirely useless ballot initiative. The U.S. Constitution expressly states that Acts of Congress “shall be the supreme law of the land…anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding,” thus expressly establishing that states do not have a veto power over federal laws. Even if Florida did enact a law nullifying the Affordable Care Act, such a law would clearly be unconstitutional.

And nullification isn’t just unconstitutional, it’s also a terrible idea. In 1830, when Vice President John C. Calhoun was stoking a Nullification Crisis that nearly led to an armed conflict between South Carolina and the United States, James Madison wrote that allowing nullification would “speedily put an end to the Union itself” because it would allow the states to simply ignore any law they want. Florida could nullify the income tax, but keep on accepting federal grant money.

Sadly, however, nullifiers don’t really seem to care about the consequences of their actions, just so long as they can stick it to President Obama.

(HT: Daily Loaf)

Defense Contractors Go All-In For Incumbents

Obama’s Wars: Revolt of the Generals
Jed Babbin, The American Spectator
How has President Obama mismanaged the Afghanistan war? Bob Woodward's new book counts the ways. There's a president retreating after a “generals' revolt,” domestic politics overriding any concern with the war's outcome and — according to the leaked portions of the book due out today — much more. But the White House is praising Obama's Wars, not condemning it.If you are confused, dear reader, take comfort in the fact that you are no more so than our president.

What’s Eating David Axelrod?
Noam Scheiber, The New Republic
Among the many distinctions David Axelrod has achieved in his career, there is one that requires special elaboration: He is, it turns out, one of the few customers to have ever run a tab at Manny’s, the Chicago cafeteria and deli. This is not because the odd knish ($4.25) or side of potato chips ($0.75) threatened to leave him cash-poor. It is, rather, because Axelrod has long styled himself someone who accumulates wisdom at places regular people frequent, not the lacquered haunts of downtown Washington. What the Oval Room is to Beltway consultant-dom, Manny’s is to…

Weariness With Obama Spreads Far & Wide
Hugh Hewitt, DC Examiner
President Obama has spent most of his professional life delivering speeches to crowds who were willing to accept without question the premises from which his rhetoric proceeded.Whether he believed this left-wing foolishness we cannot know, but the base that propelled his career forward certainly did.When, as he detailed in the description of his time as a community organizer in “Dreams From My Father,” he spoke to gatherings of urban poor in Chicago, he could tell them that if only the power elite cared, their lives would get better.

Tax Cuts Aren’t Key to Creating Jobs
Donna Brazile, CNN
Washington (CNN) — Neil, one of my neighbors on Capitol Hill, recalled this story to me the other day after watching President Obama's town hall meeting: "She was recently widowed, about 93, having lost her husband of over 60 years. When I came upon her in a darkened church hallway, standing alone, staring at the floor, I wanted to know what was wrong.

Christine O’Donnell’s Witch Tales

Paladino Within Striking Distance of Cuomo
A new Quinnipiac poll in New York finds Andrew Cuomo (D) leading Carl Paladino (R) by just six points among likely voters in the race for governor, 49% to 43%.

Said pollster Maurice Carroll: “The question was whether Carl Paladino would get a bounce from his big Republican primary victory. The answer is yes. He’s within shouting distance and — you can count on it — he will be shouting. Andrew Cuomo might be a victim of his own excess. Politicians and polls have depicted him so relentlessly as a sure thing that he might be a victim of the ‘throw the bums out’ attitude that hits incumbents in this angry year.”

Palin Looks Like a Candidate in New Video
Sarah Palin’s political action committee released a video “that makes it hard not to believe that she is making a 2012 run for the American presidency, or least seriously testing the waters wrapped in the Tea Party flag,” CBS News reports.

“The video is a highly produced campaign ad for the Tea Party movement. The one minute, 20 second video shows images of Palin giving speeches to large crowds, proclaiming that the Tea Party is ‘the future of politics,’ with ‘real people, not politicos’ speaking out for ‘common sense conservative principles.'”

“The video leaves no doubt as to who is the leader of the Tea Party and the person trying to remake the Republican party as well.”

Toomey Keeps Lead in Pennsylvania
A new Quinnipiac poll in Pennsylvania shows Pat Toomey (R) now leads Rep. Joe Sestak (D) by seven points among likely voters in the race for U.S. Senate, 50% to 43%.

Said pollster Peter Brown: “Toomey’s lead among independents is why he is ahead. With only 7% of the likely voters undecided and another 14% who are for a candidate saying they might change their mind, the battle for the Senate seat appears likely to come down to a relatively small number of voters and in the final weeks expect the campaigns to target their messages for those undecided and softly committed voters.”

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Election Day May Be A Bummer But, At Least, Evan Bayh Will Be Gone
Check this out from THINK PROGRESS. One thing I admire about the right (it’s the only thing I admire about the right) is that they will not tolerate Republicans who totally sleep with the enemy. No Evan Bayh, Joe Lieberman,…



Joe Lieberman – Evan Bayh – Ben Nelson – Republican Party – United States

The Defining Issue: Who Should Get The Tax Cut – The Rich Or Everyone Else?
Who deserves a tax cut more: the top 2 percent — whose wages and benefits are higher than ever, and among whose ranks are the CEOs and Wall Street mavens whose antics have sliced jobs and wages and nearly destroyed…


Wall Street – Tax cut – United States – President – Bill Clinton