The Hollywood Liberal

Charles Koch Personally Founded a Group Protecting Oil Industry Handouts
From: Lee Fang

Documents reveal Charles Koch founded the group that’s protecting oil industry handouts.

From Ferguson to Miami, a Generation Demands Justice
From: StudentNation

Michael Brown, John Crawford, Reefa Hernandez—and a national youth movement.

Minnesota Home Care Workers Unionize
From: Michelle Chen

Home healthcare workers in Minnesota just established a union, opening the door for negotiating higher wages. 

Top Ten Labor Day Songs
From: Peter Rothberg

In honor of Labor Day, here’s a stab at the impossible task of naming the best songs ever written about working people.

Yes, I ‘Question the NFL’s Commitment’ to Being a Force Against Domestic Violence
From: Dave Zirin

The NFL’s stance against domestic violence is just a PR stunt.

Why the “No Strategy” Gaffe Stings
Aaron Blake, Washington Post
By now, President Obama’s remark that “we don’t have a strategy yet” has made the rounds. Republicans were quick to pounce on it, as well they should have.But while the White House went into damage-control mode, emphasizing that it was a reference to the lack of decisions about increasing military action in Iraq and/or Syria and not a lack of a broader strategy there, the damage was already done.

A Dark Obsession With Vigilante Justice
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Time
Our belief that the government wants to help us achieve fairness is lower than ever—leading to fantasies of lawless revenge

The Republican Obamacare Battle Plan for 2015
Lanhee Chen, Bloomberg
If Republicans capture control of both houses of Congress in November, they will have a golden opportunity to lay the groundwork for a market-based health-care overhaul — a goal that can only be achieved after the next presidential election.

Judge Tosses Part of Utah Polygamy Ban
A federal judge declared a portion of Utah’s polygamy ban unconstitutional late Wednesday, essentially decriminalizing polygamy in the state. U.S. District Court Judge Clark Waddoups ruled the phrase in the law “or cohabits with another person” is a violation of the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and is without a rational basis under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

Attempt to call missing jet may alter search area
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The search area for a missing Malaysian airliner in the southern Indian Ocean has been refined based on the latest analysis, while the investigation into how the plane came to crash cannot proceed until the wreckage and black boxes are recovered, officials said Thursday.

UN: Armed group detains 43 peacekeepers in Syria
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — An armed group detained 43 U.N. peacekeepers during fighting in Syria early Thursday and another 81 peacekeepers are trapped, the United Nations said.

FedEx Cup: Where a week can change everything
NORTON, Mass. (AP) — Stuart Appleby knows how one week can change everything during the FedEx Cup playoffs.

Obama on ISIS: “We don’t have a strategy yet”
The president said voices in Congress “will be heard” once there are plans to defeat Islamic militants

Obama threatens further consequences against Russia
President Obama said the recent Russian incursion is an extension of months of interference in Eastern Ukraine, and while a military response is out of the question, he said there may be “additional steps” taken by the U.S. and its European allies “primarily because ewe have not seen any meaningful action on the part of Russia to try to resolve this in a diplomatic fashion.”

The end of the Scott Walker experiment?
John Dickerson: The Republican Wisconsin governor’s theories for winning aren’t panning out

AAJA And MPAC Demand Action After Fox Host Advocated For Violence Against Muslims

The Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) are demanding action from Fox News after a host linked all Muslims to terrorists and advocated for violence against practitioners of the faith. 

In an August 27 statement, the Asian American Journalist Association condemned Fox co-host Andrea Tantaros for making blanket statements conflating all Muslims to the Islamic State and advocating for violence against them. AAJA called on the network to apologize:

AAJA calls for Tantaros and Fox News to apologize for the irresponsible, inflammatory statements. We also call on Fox News to discourage its journalists from making blanket comments that serve to perpetuate hate and Islamophobia.

Muslims and Islam are not interchangeable terms with terrorists or ISIS. We in the media know better and must be vigilant in our choice of words.

The AAJA joined the Muslim Public Affairs Council in their outrage over the offensive Fox segment. MPAC previously called for the network to fire Tantaros following her inflammatory statements.

The growing call for action from Fox News comes after an August 20 segment of Outnumbered featured co-host Andrea Tantaros discussing the death of journalist James Foley at the hands of the Islamic State. Suggesting that the history of Islam set a precedent for the murder, Tantaros declared that “this isn’t a surprise,” and that the only way to solve the situation was “with a bullet to the head. It’s the only thing these people understand”:

2014 and the Limits of Rage
E.J. Dionne, RealClearPolitics
WASHINGTON — The short-term future of politics in the nation’s capital will be determined in large part by which party ends up in control of the Senate. But for a sense of the long-term future of politics in the country as a whole, watch the governors races. The question to ask: Do voters begin to push back against the tea party tide that swept governorships and legislatures into Republican hands four years ago and produced the most radical changes in policy at the state level in at least a generation? On the Senate races, two things are true. Simply because so many Democratic seats are at…

Tacos, Beer, and the Banality of Evil
Heather Wilhelm, RealClearPolitics
Over the past few weeks, countless Americans have cheerfully doused themselves with ice-filled water to raise money to fight ALS, otherwise known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. With the mind-boggling success of this simple viral campaign, it didn’t take long for copycat efforts to arrive. Not all of them, alas, are heartwarming. Take the “Taco or Beer Challenge,” dreamed up by writer and abortion enthusiast Andrea Grimes. The effort calls for Americans to “eat a taco or drink a beer”—that part, I suppose, should not be surprising—and then, in a…

How Dems Can Hold the Senate; Ducey Wins in Ariz.; Thwarting Yellow Fever
Carl M. Cannon, RealClearPolitics
Good morning. It’s Wednesday, August 27, 2014. On this date in 1900, two U.S. Army physicians performed an experiment that saved the South, prevented the deaths of thousands of Americans, and restored the reputation of an unfairly blamed Florida saloonkeeper — all in a single experiment. What those Army doctors did in their lab at the Columbia Barracks Hospital outside Havana, with help from a heroic Cuban colleague, was solve the terrible mystery of Yellow Fever. And it came at considerable personal cost. I’ll tell the tale in a moment. First, I’d direct you to…

Obama’s Back-to-Work Challenge
David Ignatius, RealClearPolitics
WASHINGTON — It’s “back to school” week for President Obama, after what a CNN analyst called “the vacation from Hell.” So perhaps it’s a good time to examine what’s been going wrong for Obama recently and whether he can fix it. The common complaint of late is that Obama is “disengaged.” This has always been somewhat of an issue, given his reticent public style, but the criticism intensified during his Martha’s Vineyard holiday. It’s an odd critique: Obama works at least as diligently as George W. Bush did during his frequent trips to Texas. Even during this golf-besotted vacation, Obama…

VIDEO: Douglas Carswell announcement in full
Watch the full statement as Tory MP Douglas Carswell defects to the UK Independence Party. He will stand down as MP for Clacton to seek re-election in a by-election.

Will Clacton’s voters opt for UKIP?
Will the seaside seat’s greyer voters win UKIP its first MP?

New evidence coming in Chris Christie’s Bridgegate scandal?
Dems believe texts could show details of the extent of Gov. Christie’s knowledge of closures.

Listening Post: Asking Congress to Back ISIS Strikes in Syria Is Tricky for Obama
A broad authorization of airstrikes against Sunni militants in Syria would carry echoes of the Bush era, outrage President Obama’s liberal base and raise the specter of an open-ended conflict.

Over 1,000 Russian Soldiers Join Fight, NATO Says
Satellite photos released publicly for the first time appear to corroborate NATO assertions that Russian forces are operating in Ukraine territory.

Ukraine Leader Says ‘Huge Loads of Arms’ Pour in From Russia
President Petro O. Poroshenko of Ukraine said that mercenaries and regular Russian servicemen were trying to overrun positions held by the Ukrainian military.