This is why I hate some republicans only slightly less than progressives.

John McCain and Lindsey Graham Declared War on Rand Paul Today – Senator John McCain (R-AZ) took to the senate floor today and TRASHED Senator Rand Paul (R-KY). Sen. John McCain took the Senate floor on Thursday afternoon to respond to Sen. Rand Paul’s filibuster about drones — and made it abundantly clear that he does not in fact “stand with Rand.” Reading from the critical Wall Street Journal editorial urging Paul to “calm down,” McCain tore into Paul’s arguments.

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NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — There is no doubt who is responsible for the Newtown school massacre. The shooter is dead and the prosecutor handling the case has said he does not expect any charges.

Yet authorities are continuing to keep search warrants and police records secret. Media outlets have pressed for the release of more records, which could shed light on a crime that has revived the national debate over gun control and could change the way guns are regulated.

The massacre has led to proposals for universal background checks on gun buyers and bans on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines. It also prompted reviews of school security and mental health care and led to proposed legislation in Connecticut that would forbid arcades and other establishments from allowing children under 18 to play point-and-shoot video games. (more…)

7  8 9  10  11 12+ Hours and It’s Over…

UPDATE:  (Hufington Post) After nearly 13 hours on the Senate floor, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has ended his filibuster of the nomination of John Brennan as director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

“I will speak until I can no longer speak,” Paul said at the beginning of the filibuster, which he used to address concerns over President Obama’s policies on civil liberties, including the president’s controversial drone program.

Paul began the filibuster at 11:47 a.m. ET on Wednesday, and concluded at 12:39 a.m. on Thursday. After Paul ceded the floor, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) filed for cloture on Brennan’s nomination, adjourning the Senate until 10 a.m. Thursday.  (read more)

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Sharyl Attkisson

What it’s like to live in the land of the perpetually aggrieved

[excerpt from PhillyMag.com]  I’ve shared my view of North Broad Street with people—white friends and colleagues—who see something else there: New buildings. Progress. Gentrification. They’re sunny about the area around Temple. I think they’re blind, that they’ve stopped looking. Indeed, I’ve begun to think that most white people stopped looking around at large segments of our city, at our poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods, a long time ago. One of the reasons, plainly put, is queasiness over race. Many of those neighborhoods are predominantly African-American. And if you’re white, you don’t merely avoid them—you do your best to erase them from your thoughts.

At the same time, white Philadelphians think a great deal about race. Begin to talk to people, and it’s clear it’s a dominant motif in and around our city. Everyone seems to have a story, often an uncomfortable story, about how white and black people relate. (more…)

Epic crunchy moment…. Sorry, I can’t enjoy it with you because I can’t stand B.O.R. either.

Summary:  No we haven’t done it, but we could, and if needed – we might.

Trying to take full advantage of a faux-crisis….

WASHINGTON DC – Never say the White House isn’t affected by sequestration. The Visitors Office just notified Congress that tours of the White House are cancelled until further notice.

“Due to staffing reductions resulting from sequestration, we regret to inform you that White House Tours will be canceled effective Saturday, March 9, 2013 until further notice,” the White House email to legislative offices explains.

“Unfortunately, we will not be able to reschedule affected tours. We very much regret having to take this action, particularly during the popular Spring touring season.”  (more)

WASHINGTON DC – The Obama administration denied an appeal for flexibility in lessening the sequester’s effects, with an email this week appearing to show officials in Washington that because they already had promised the cuts would be devastating, they now have to follow through on that.

In the email sent Monday by Charles Brown, an official with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service office in Raleigh, N.C., Mr. Brown asked “if there was any latitude” in how to spread the sequester cuts across the region to lessen the impacts on fish inspections. (more…)

The most transparent administration evah just can’t seem to find folks not embroiled in some sort of manipulative cover-up.   Funny that.

WASHINGTON DC – President Barack Obama tapped Environmental Protection Agency official Gina McCarthy to head the agency on Monday, but a widening probe into the use of secret email addresses by high-level EPA officials could slow her nomination and cause headaches for the administration.

Obama chose McCarthy, current assistant administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation at the EPA, to replace former EPA administrator Lisa Jackson.

Jackson resigned amid growing scrutiny over her use of a secret email address to conduct official business, which watchdog groups say is a possible violation of federal record laws. (more…)