Ryan J. Reilly, Huffington Post: Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore Threatens to Defy ‘Tyranny’ of Federal Courts on Gay Marriage

The chief justice said [in a letter to the Governor] Alabama’s state constitution and morality “are under attack by a federal court decision that has no basis in the Constitution of the United States.” He said any Alabama judges who obey the federal court order and allow licenses to be issued would be in “defiance of the laws and Constitution of Alabama.”

“Be advised that I stand with you to stop judicial tyranny and any unlawful opinions issued without constitutional authority,” Moore wrote.

This nutjob already got himself removed as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in 2003 over his refusal to remove a massive Ten Commandments monument from the State’s courthouse, but ‘Bama being ‘Bama, voters returned him to office in 2012. I can’t think of worse optics for an Alabama Governor than trying to bar citizens from exercising their civil rights in defiance of the Constitution.

The Atlantic’’s Jeffrey Goldberg has added his voice to the growing chorus of reasonable people greatly dismayed by the bizarre and destructive behavior of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Speaker Boehner.

Israel has been, for several decades, a bipartisan cause in Washington. Bipartisan support accounts for the ease with which Israeli prime ministers have historically been heard in Washington; it accounts for the generous aid packages Israel receives; and it also explains America’s commitment to maintaining Israel’s qualitative military edge.

Netanyahu’s management of his relationship with Obama threatens the bipartisan nature of Israel’s American support. His Dermer-inspired, Boehner-enabled end-run has alienated three crucially important constituencies. First, the administration itself: Netanyahu’s estrangement from the Obama White House now appears to be permanent. It will be very difficult for Netanyahu to make the White House hear his criticisms of whatever deal may one day be reached with Iran.

Netanyahu has also alienated many elected Democrats, including Jewish Democrats on Capitol Hill. One Jewish member of Congress told me that he felt humiliated and angered by Netanyahu’s ploy to address Congress “behind the president’s back.” A non-Jewish Democratic elected official texted me over the weekend to say that the damage Netanyahu is doing to Israel’s relationship with the U.S. may be “irreparable.”

A larger group that Netanyahu risks alienating is American Jewry, or at least the strong majority of American Jews that has voted for Obama twice. Netanyahu’s decision to pit U.S. political party against U.S. political party—because that is what his end-run does—puts American Jewish supporters of Israel in a messy, uncomfortable spot, and it is not in Israel’s interest to place American Jews in a position in which they have to choose between their president and the leader of a Jewish state whose behavior is making them queasy.

The “Dermer” he mentions is the Israeli ambassador to the US….but Ron Derner is much more than that. He has a long record of deep involvement in GOP politics, going back to working alongside Frank Luntz during the 90s. That is bad enough, but even worse is the fact he has more than a passing relationship with Sheldon Adelson. He is, of course, the casino billionaire who has flooded US elections with money in order to protect his interests by banning online gambling and started a free Israeli newspaper called Yisrael HaYom in order to promote his desire to drop an atomic bomb on Iran.

I personally find the whole affair sickening. It is also my personal opinion that one would have to be a fucking asshole and a plain old idiot to think that Netanyahu/ Boehner/Dermer’s political theater piece is likely to advance the interests of Israel or the world at large.

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“While we’re all obsessed with DeflateGate, let’s keep in mind that’s there’s something about which you should give a fuck!” he continued. “Yes, like Tom Brady, the world is getting hotter and hotter, because we humans are pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.”

But what you do about it? “You should vote for congressmen and senators that appreciate the threat of climate change and the rate at which the world is getting warmer, so that we can preserve the Earth for humankind for generations to come!”

More: Bill Nye on DeflateGate Climate Change Funny or Die VIDEO

Many who are critical or supportive of Israel in the United States rarely understand that Israeli politics are quite complex, probably even more so than the US. Netanyahu’s planned speech to Congress in March might have ruffled some feathers here, but in Israel Bibi’s opponents and many others are calling foul.

Criticism of Netanyahu’s planned U.S. speech mounts in Israel
By Joel Greenberg, McClatchy Foreign Staff

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing growing criticism in Israel for a planned speech to the U.S. Congress about Iran, accused by his political rivals of damaging ties with Washington to promote his election campaign.

Netanyahu accepted an invitation from House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to address a joint session of Congress on March 3, two weeks before the Israeli elections.

The invitation was not coordinated with the White House and it was widely seen as a Republican attempt to enlist Netanyahu, who advocates tougher measures against Iran, in the dispute with President Barack Obama over whether to impose new sanctions on Iran.

In Israel, critics have characterized Netanyahu’s trip as an election ploy and a slap in the face of the Obama administration after it’s worked hard to deflect challenges to Israel at the United Nations and most recently at the International Criminal Court.

Israeli media have highlighted the White House announcement that Obama would not meet with Netanyahu during his visit, calling it a sign that Netanyahu’s strained relationship with the president had sunk to a new low.

But the prime minister’s rivals in the election campaign accuse him of alienating Obama and damaging Israel’s strategic alliance with Washington.

“Netanyahu is directly hurting the president of the United States,” Yitzhak Herzog, head of the opposition Labor party, told Army Radio on Sunday. His joint slate with Tzipi Livni, a former justice minister, is running neck-and-neck with Netanyahu’s Likud party, according to recent polls.

“What Netanyahu is doing with this brutish behavior is harming Israel’s security interests,” Herzog added. “The American political system can’t stand this behavior.”

Yair Lapid, a former finance minister who heads Yesh Atid, a centrist party, accused Netanyahu of “destroying our strategic relations with the United States for an election speech.”

Zehava Galon, leader of the leftist Meretz party, filed an appeal to the head of the Israeli election commission, demanding that it bar live broadcasts of Netanyahu’s address to Congress. Under Israeli election laws, campaign messages are prohibited on radio and television starting two weeks before the vote.

Michael Oren, Israel’s previous ambassador to the United States, joined the chorus of criticism Saturday, urging Netanyahu to cancel his planned speech.

Running for Parliament with a new party, Kulanu, Oren said Netanyahu’s conduct had “created the impression that this is a cynical political move, and it could hurt our efforts to act against Iran.”

More at McClatchyDC

Just “Lovely.” David Neiwert has more,

While most American-born activists who become involved in defending Palestinian rights avoid becoming overt anti-Semites even while steadfastly criticizing Israel, Kenneth O’Keefe is not one of them.

O’Keefe, a former Marine-turned-antiwar and anti-environmental activist who specializes in what he calls “direct action,” has morphed in recent years into a raving, David Duke-endorsing anti-Semite, particularly in the speeches he gives to well-known white-supremacist groups.

The most noteworthy of these was O’Keefe’s speech to the IONA London Forum, a gathering of academically oriented white supremacists and anti-Semites held last August. The speech was noteworthy for its crude ugliness: the 50-plus-minute-talk by O’Keefe revolved around the repeated phrase “fucking Jews.”

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Read more at Hate Watch

Let’s be careful out there.

This could be any of us without even taking a sip of beer.

Be careful driving on Super Bowl Sunday. Your chance of being involved in a crash tied to drunk driving can be as much as double that of a normal Sunday in January or February, according to California safety officials and the Auto Club of Southern California.

They looked at five years of California crash data and found there was a 77% increase in alcohol-related crashes causing injury or death on Super Bowl Sunday.

In Los Angeles, the number of alcohol-related crashes runs 57% higher on Super Bowl Sunday. And in San Diego, the number is more than double, up 117%.

“Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest one-day sporting event in the United States and unfortunately one of the most dangerous days on California’s roads and highways,” state Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said. “Every one of us has a responsibility to ensure we do not contribute to the problem by allowing a drunk or drugged driver to hit the road on Super Bowl Sunday.”

More: Sunday Is the Super Bowl of Drunk Driving, Crash Data Show

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More: Pat Robertson Advises Elderly Woman: Reverse Mortgage Is ‘Good Deal’ to Help Pay ‘700 Club’ Dues

TV preacher Pat Robertson on Tuesday advised a senior citizen who was a paying member of his 700 Club teleministry that a reverse mortgage was a “good deal” if she was having trouble making ends meet.

“I have been a 700 Club partner for many years,” a woman named Maria explained in an email. “I am 67 years old and still working because retirement money does not cover our basic expenses.”

“I was thinking about a reverse mortgage but have my doubts,” Maria wrote. “What do you think?”

Robertson pointed out that a reverse mortgage prevented the bank from taking “your house away from you as long as you are alive and living.”

“You don’t have to pay it off, but somebody has to pay it off, namely the United States taxpayer,” Robertson continued. “So, it’s not a good deal for the taxpayers, but for most people it’s a pretty good deal.”

The televangelist recommended that Maria speak to a financial adviser, but added that “it could be a good deal for you.”

Becoming a 700 Club partner starts at $240 a year for a basic membership. A Chairman’s Circle membership runs $10,000 a year.

More at Rawstory.

Remember this multimillionaire scammer/grifter has told other destitute elderly folks to sell their stuff on eBay and take jrrbs as Walmart greeters to be able to pay their “tithes” to him.

Comcast has been supported by many politicians in its bid to acquire Time Warner Cable, but the testimonials from elected officials aren’t quite as organic as the cable company would have you believe.

A report today by The Verge, based on documents obtained through public records requests, shows that in August three politicians sent letters to the Federal Communications Commission that were ghostwritten by Comcast. We reported several months ago that letters from politicians closely mimicked Comcast talking points and re-used Comcast’s own statements without attribution, and the documents revealed today show just how Comcast was able to get politicians on board.

“For instance, a letter sent to the FCC by a town councilman from the small community of Jupiter, Florida was in fact largely orchestrated by some of the biggest players in corporate telecom,” The Verge wrote. “Not only do records show that a Comcast official sent the councilman the exact wording of the letter he would submit to the FCC, but also that finishing touches were put on the letter by a former FCC official named Rosemary Harold, who is now a partner at one of the nation’s foremost telecom law firms in Washington, DC. Comcast has enlisted Harold to help persuade her former agency to approve the proposed merger.”

More: Comcast Ghostwrote Pro-Merger Letters That Politicians Sent to FCC

More: What a Soviet Soldier Saw When His Unit Liberated Auschwitz 70 Years Ago

When the Soviet Army’s 322nd Rifle Division entered the concentration camp at Auschwitz on Jan. 27, 1945, they found a desolation. Mounted on shaggy ponies, they had proceeded with caution as they entered the camp, fearful of a Nazi ambush. But there was no trace of the German enemy.

Eventually, Ivan Martynushkin, then a 21-year-old lieutenant, and his comrades spotted “some people behind barbed wire.” The Nazis had evacuated the facility in Poland, the site of one of the world’s most horrific slaughters. But some 7,000 of the weakest and most infirm inmates remained. The Soviet soldiers also came across more than 600 moldering corpses.

“It was hard to watch them. I remember their faces, especially their eyes which betrayed their ordeal,” Martynushkin told Agence France Presse this week, ahead of the 70th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation. Martynushkin is one of the few surviving Soviet soldiers from that day, and has spoken on numerous occasions about his experience then.

“At first there was wariness, on both our part and theirs,” he said in an interview with Radio Free Europe. “But then they apparently figured out who we were and began to welcome us, to signal that they knew who we were and that we shouldn’t be afraid of them — that there were no guards or Germans behind the barbed wire. Only prisoners.”

There was a grim sense of relief. “We saw emaciated, tortured, impoverished people,” Martynushkin told CNN five years ago. “Those were the people I first encountered. … We could tell from their eyes that they were happy to be saved from this hell. Happy that now they weren’t threatened by death in a crematorium. Happy to be freed. And we had the feeling of doing a good deed — liberating these people from this hell.”

Between 1941 and 1945, the Nazis killed at least 1.1 million people in Auschwitz’s gas chambers and execution grounds — the vast majority of them were Jews, but the victims also included Poles, Roma, homosexuals and Soviet prisoners of war. Ten days prior to the arrival of the Soviet Army, which had been sweeping through Nazi-held territory in Poland, retreating Nazi troops abandoned Auschwitz and forced some 60,000 inmates on a “death march” away from the site.

The Nazis had attempted to destroy parts of the camp, but could not erase all evidence of the genocide they had perpetrated. At Auschwitz, Martynushkin and his unit found some 370,000 men’s suits, 837,000 women’s garments, and 7.7 tons of human hair, reports AFP.

More at Washington Post.

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Jones, who is a black transgender woman and an activist, was charged with violating a vague local statute that considers waving at cars or engaging a passerby in conversation as evidence of “manifesting” an “intent” to sell sexual services. Jones and other activists argue that this “manifesting prostitution” statute allows police to unfairly profile transgender women, poor people and woman of color, and Jones may have been specifically targeted because she is an outspoken activist.

“When an undercover officer saw Monica Jones … walking down the street just a few blocks from her house, in an area that the officer described as being ‘known for prostitution,’ that was enough to convince him that she intended to engage in prostitution,” wrote Chase Strangio, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). “It was on that basis that he approached and stopped her.”

As Truthout has reported, police in cities across the country routinely profile transgender women and other gender nonconforming people - especially people of color - as sex workers for simply walking down the street, or “walking while woman.”

More: Arizona Court Vacates Monica Jones’ Prostitution Conviction