The Pacific Legal Foundation has filed a motion in its pending suit against Obamacare asking the judge (1) to rule that, when it enacted the Senate health care reform bill that includes a “tax” for not purchasing health insurance, Congress violated the Origination Clause, which says that all revenue bills must originate in the House; and (2) that their clients are under no legal obligation to purchase health insurance under the ruling of the Court.
The first of these issues was never litigated before the Supreme Court and remains open; the second concerns the meaning and effect of the Supreme Court’s ruling that the “requirement” to purchase insurance was unconstitutional under the Commerce and Necessary and Proper clauses (and that only the “penalty,” not the requirement, was upheld as an exercise of the tax power).
(AP) TEHRAN, Iran - A senior commander in Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard warned that Iran will target U.S. bases in the region in the event of war with Israel, raising the prospect of a broader conflict that would force other countries to get involved, Iranian state television reported Sunday.
The comments by Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, who heads the Guard's aerospace division, came amid tension over Iran's nuclear program and Israel's suggestion that it might unilaterally strike Iranian nuclear facilities to scuttle what the United States and its allies believe are efforts to build a bomb. Tehran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
CNN is facing a backlash after broadcasting portions of slain Ambassador Chris Stevens’ journal in which he expressed his concerns about his security. On Sunday, a United States State Department spokesman released a statement calling CNN’s actions “disgusting” and “indefensible,” and claimed that the news network broke its pledge not to broadcast sensitive information contained within the journal.
According to the journal obtained by CNN, Stevens had expressed concerns about his security in Libya and the “rise of an Islamic extremism.” Stevens also said that he was afraid that he was on an “Al Qaeda hit list.”
Syrian rebels say they have brought down a fighter jet near the town of Atarib in Aleppo province, in video obtained by the Reuters news agency, as the commander of the country's main rebel group said was moving its command centre from the Turkish border into Syria.
Reuters could not confirm the authenticity of the video in which rebels also appeared to have surrounded a military building near the town of Awrem, said to be loyal to President Bashar al-Assad's government.
"God's willing the building 46 has been attacked which is located near Awrem. God also helped us and we brought down a Mig warplane," one rebel was reported as saying by the news agency on Saturday.
MILFORD, Pa. — As a 12-year-old seventh grader, Glenn and Kathy Kiederer’s older daughter wanted to play sports at Delaware Valley Middle School here. She also wanted to join the scrapbooking club.
One day she took home a permission slip. It said that to participate in the club or any school sport, she would have to consent to drug testing.
“They were asking a 12-year-old to pee in a cup,” Kathy Kiederer said. “I have a problem with that. They’re violating her right to privacy over scrapbooking? Sports?”
The Alternet piece begins with a certain Peggy Hayes, then a 21 year old Mormon and unmarried mother of a three year old daughter. One day Romney, her bishop asked if he could come over:
Hayes, the divorced, unmarried mother of a 3-year-old daughter, was struggling as a nurse’s aide in a working-class suburb of Boston. She had little in common with the successful Bain executive, but the request wasn’t as odd as it might seem. Hayes was a Mormon. Romney was her bishop. Romney walked into her small apartment, made small talk and then commanded her to give her baby up for adoption after it was born. He was her bishop, and as she knew, Mormonism disapproved of single motherhood. Hayes said no.
Romney did not like the answer and allegedly threatened Hayes with excommunication:
Mitt Romney’s lawyer admitted to the Democratic accusation that the Romneys could have paid a lot less in taxes in 2011, but they manipulated the returns so as to conform to an August Romney claim that he always paid at least 13%.
The AP reported:
But, Brad Malt acknowledged, the couple “limited their deductions of charitable contributions to conform to the governor’s statement in August, based on the January estimate of income, that he paid at least 13 percent in income taxes in each of the last 10 years.”
President Obama in this morning's weekly address this week blasted Congress—and in most instances, Republican members—for skipping town (yes, he used that expression) with bills languishing, problems proliferating and citizens strapped.
Last week, without much fanfare, Members of the House of Representatives banged a gavel, turned out the lights, and rushed home, declaring their work finished for now.
If that frustrates you, it should – because their work isn’t finished.
The Libyan authorities said late Saturday they had decided to dissolve all militias and armed groups that did not come under State authority.
The move, a day after Benghazi residents rebelled against the militias in violence that killed at least 11 people and wounded over 70, was announced by Mohammed al-Megaryef, head of the national assembly, in the eastern city.
The authorities also decided to put in place an "operations room" in Benghazi bringing together the army, forces of the interior ministry and defence ministry brigades comprising former rebels.
Its "National Prosperity Action Day." Tea Partiers, Republican volunteers, and conservative activists are being summoned by Americans for Prosperity -- the group founded and financed by several large corporations, and led by the billionaire Koch brothers -- to begin mobilizing to defeat President Obama and congressional Democrats.
They're gathering in newly set up offices in critical swing states. Some of the locations have a tinge of irony for a supposedly grassroots, ordinary citizens-led organization: In Saddlebrook, Arizona, they'll be meeting in a country club; in Clearwater, Florida, the local AFP field director rented space from an outsourcing company called TAC Worldwide. But the work the AFP machine is doing is no laughing matter for liberals. The Koch network has a sophisticated targeting system; as well as an army of experienced Republican campaign hands to guide the effort. The volunteers even receive Samsung Galaxy tablets to quickly log information and move o
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During an appearance on CNN’s Starting Point on Monday, Rep. Peter King (R-NY) could not explain when President Obama “apologized” for the United States, despite repeatedly claiming that he went on an “apology tour” across the Middle East shortly after becoming president.
Since violence broke out across the region, Republicans have charged that Obama’s “defeatist” policies have caused the unrest and contributed to the death of Libyan ambassador Christopher Stevens. But pressed to detail where Obama has apologized for America by CNN host Soledad O’Brien, King came up short:
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