The Hollywood Liberal

Washington Post Detects Some Mitt-Mentum
Officially, Mitt Romney returned to Iowa, the quadrennial presidential proving ground, to give a boost to Joni Ernst. But at a closed-door breakfast fundraiser here Monday, the first question from a donor had nothing to do with Ernst’s Senate campaign. “When you get elected to the Senate, your job should be to convince Mitt Romney to run for president again,” a donor told Ernst, according to several attendees. Romney has huddled with prominent donors and reconnected with supporters in key states in recent months. Because of the vacuum of power within his party and the lack of a clear 2016 front-runner, confidants said Romney is grappling with this question: If drafted, would he answer the party’s call?

Denver jury: Deputies used too much force in death
DENVER (AP) — A federal court jury on Tuesday found five Denver sheriff’s deputies used excessive force against a homeless street preacher who died in 2010.

Syrian Kurds feel abandoned as Kobani battle rages
SURUC, Turkey (AP) — Kneeling over his brother’s fresh grave, Ali Mehmud gathered clumps of dirt in his hands, raised them to his lips to kiss them, then softly placed them back on the small mound.

The lesser of two lessers
John Dickerson: Which Kentucky Senate candidate was more disingenuous?

NRA’s Ted Nugent Calls For The “Evil Carcasses” Of Obama And Other Democrats In Gun Groups Pitch

Ted Nugent called for “freedom” or the “evil carcasses” of President Obama and other progressive politicians in a Facebook post where he told followers to support the National Rifle Association and discredited gun advocate John Lott’s Crime Prevention Research Center.

Nugent is a longtime member of the NRA’s board of directors, conservative columnist, and spokesperson for Outdoor Channel. In his October 14 post, Nugent named President Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder, “Clinton,” Sen. Charles Schumer (D-IL), Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA), Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) as participants in a “propaganda jihad against our right to self-defense.” He added, “JOIN THE NRA! Be the best American you can be. Freedom or their evil carcasses for traction back to it.”

Nugent also called on supporters to donate money to the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), a group founded by economist John Lott. Lott’s research on gun issues, including his famous “more guns, less crime” theory, has been discredited in academic circles and he has faced credible accusations of data manipulation and fabrication. He often twists statistics on gun violence in order to advance a pro-gun agenda. A recent CPRC report purporting to point out errors in a study on mass shootings from Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety was actually itself riddled with errors that undermined its claims.

Nugent regularly helps fundraise for CPRC and has reportedly served on the group’s board of directors.

Nugent’s Facebook post:

Growing Pressure on Obama to Escalate
David Ignatius, RealClearPolitics
WASHINGTON — As fighters from the Islamic State surge toward control of Anbar Province in western Iraq and the border town of Kobane in Syria, U.S. commanders and diplomats are signaling that the U.S. must expand its military operations before the extremists control even more territory. “Too few and too slow,” is the way one official characterizes efforts so far. Supporters of an expanded American role appear to include Secretary of State John Kerry and Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. President Obama is facing difficult new options to bolster allies in both Syria…

Hague and Brown in devolution clash
William Hague and Gordon Brown clash in the Commons over calls for “English votes for English laws” as MPs debate the next steps for UK devolution.

Deadline for SNP job approaches
The deadline for nominations to be the new SNP leader approaches, with Nicola Sturgeon the only candidate to succeed Alex Salmond.

Police commissioners decommissioned?
Why police and crime commissioners would be decommissioned under a Labour government

Video: In Iraq, a Cache of Abandoned Weapons
The United States went to war in Iraq expecting to destroy an active weapons of mass destruction program. Instead, it found only remnants of chemical arms built in close collaboration with the West.

ISIS Bomber Hits Baghdad, Killing 24
A Shiite member of Parliament was among the dead, and an online statement from the Islamic State implied that the attack had targeted the lawmaker.

Bellevue Hospital to Be a Focus if Ebola Hits New York
The hospital will treat any confirmed cases from within the public hospital system and also be able to receive transfers from private city hospitals or airports.

The Secret U.S. and Iraqi Casualties of Hussein’s Abandoned Chemical Weapons
The Pentagon kept silent as munitions left over from earlier wars found new targets from 2004 to 2011: American and Iraqi troops.

U.N. Chief Offers Stark View of Gaza Devastation
Reconstruction efforts fail to soften the harsh critique by the secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, who called the destruction “beyond description.”

Scott Brown: Ebola-Infected Terrorists Can Easily Enter The U.S. Through The Mexican Border

New Hampshire is at low risk for an Ebola outbreak.

The post Scott Brown: Ebola-Infected Terrorists Can Easily Enter The U.S. Through The Mexican Border appeared first on ThinkProgress.

Amelia Rosch is an intern with ThinkProgress.

Republican nominee for Senate Scott Brown

CREDIT: AP Images – Elise Amendola

Republican Senate nominee Scott Brown (R-NH) warned that U.S. border policies are so lax that Ebola-infected terrorists can easily enter the country, saying it would be “naive” to think otherwise.

When asked on WGIR, a New Hampshire news radio station, if he supported travel restrictions to West Africa, Brown instead focused on the U.S.-Mexico border.

“We have a border that’s so porous that anyone can walk across it,” the former Massachusetts senator said. “I think it’s naive to think that people aren’t going to be walking through here who have those types of diseases and/or other types of intent, criminal or terrorist. And yet we do nothing to secure our border. It’s dangerous.”

Brown has called for tightened border security in order to combat the current Ebola crisis before. “My concern is with our unprotected border where people with Ebola and other infectious diseases can enter the country without being challenged,” he said in a statement last week. He used the idea of Ebola entering due to a lack of border security to contrast himself with his opponent, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, saying that the difference between them is that he voted to “secure our borders” and she did not. Earlier this month, however, Brown said that “it’s everybody’s fault” that issues in border security currently exist.

In recent weeks, several Republicans have connected border security to potential international threats, such as Ebola or the entrance of terrorists from ISIS. The Republican senate nominee for North Carolina, Thom Tillis, said earlier this month that the United States should close the border with Mexico to prevent the spread of Ebola. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has suggested that Ebola could enter the United States through Mexico. As early as July, Rep. Phil Gingrey of Georgia claimed that there were reports of immigrants from Mexico and Central America carrying Ebola into the United States. There have not been any cases of Ebola in Central America so far.

Republicans have also connected border security to ISIS trying to infiltrate the United States. Republican Senate nominee for Arkansas Tom Cotton has put forward the claim that ISIS is working with Mexican drug cartels to gain a foothold in the United States. Other leading Republicans, such as Rick Perry and Paul have said that ISIS could enter the United States through the “porous” border with Mexico. Last week Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson had to issue a statement saying that there was no “credible, specific intelligence” to the suggestion that ISIS fighters had enter the United States; he was responding to a claim by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Ca) that U.S. Customs and Border Patrol had captured 10 ISIS fighters trying to enter the country.

The post Scott Brown: Ebola-Infected Terrorists Can Easily Enter The U.S. Through The Mexican Border appeared first on ThinkProgress.

Scott Walker Thinks $7.25 Is a Living Wage—He’s Wrong
From: John Nichols

Wisconsin's governor refuses to act on behalf of low-wage workers.

From St. Louis to South LA, American Youth Move the Moment
From: StudentNation

Across the country, young people rally, converge and stage sit-ins to end mass criminalization—and more.

Grimes Beats McConnell in Kentucky Debate
From: Leslie Savan

But mainstream media find it hard to admit. 

How the ‘War on Women’ Is Deepening Racial Inequality
From: Zoë Carpenter

A new report suggests that racial disparities in women’s health are aggravated by states’ refusal to expand Medicaid.

How to Close the Pay Gap
Catherine Rampell, Washington Post
Don’t ask. Just trust that the system will reward you for your compliance.That is the message Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella delivered last week, when prodded for advice to give women who are reluctant to request raises.

Life Lessons From Larry David
Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker
Larry David cleans up good. On Saturday afternoon, sitting in a director’s chair at a theatre on West Thirty-seventh Street and preparing to be grilled about his life and work by David Remnick, he looked less like Larry David, the schlubby nebbish he plays on “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” and more like Larry David, the guy who has made a very successful career out of creating and playing schlubby nebbishes. That is to say that instead of a windbreaker, he wore a sports jacket with leather elbow patches, and instead of sneakers, he wore—well, he was definitely wearing…

The GOP’s Incoherence on Obamacare
Tim Murphy, Mother Jones

Reducing Inequality Is Right and Necessary