We have HUMINT, or human intelligence gathered from agents. We have SIGINT or signals intelligence. And now we have LOVEINT or NSA analysts occasionally reading the emails of ex-lovers. It doesn’t happen a lot, the NSA told the WSJ, but often enough that there is a word for it.I don't even think it's necessarily always being done with bad intentions. Who hasn't done an internet search on an ex-lover or even a long lost friend to see what happened to them? Which is not to say LOVEINT isn't a concern.
@mcbyrne: List is 1900 hundred long to speak. #StandWithTXWomenKind of wish I could go down there and personally thank every one of them individually.
In general, attacking women’s health choices costs taxpayers. Family planning programs save the federal government $3.74 for every dollar spent by providing women with access to contraception and avoiding unplanned births. Providing women who seek an abortion with the services they need doesn’t just avert government spending on unwanted births. A recent study found that women who were unable to obtain an abortion were three times more likely to fall into poverty in the subsequent two years than those who succeeded. That likely means more women who need to access federal programs.Yet these same Big Daddy theocrats who insist every pregnancy must be brought to term -- because, Jesus -- are the first in line with the machetes to slash assistance for children born into poverty as a result of these damn nanny state moralists and their anti-choice laws. Bless every single person standing out there in the Texas sun trying to stop them. They stood them down once. Here's hoping they can do it again. [Livestream of the speakers outside the statehouse here.]
Initially, Republicans insisted the vote started before the midnight deadline and passed the bill that Democrats spent the day trying to kill. But after official computer records and printouts of the voting record showed the vote took place Wednesday, and then were changed to read Tuesday, senators retreated into a private meeting to reach a conclusion.They concluded there were too many witnesses to get away with lying and the bill was deemed officially deceased. Chalk up a win for the forces of good and check out the numbers to fully appreciate how big a victory this was for women's rights.
But around four in the morning, Republicans cut off the ongoing debate so they could finally force a vote, a decision that the Associated Press characterized as a “highly unusual and partisan move.” SB 5 won preliminary approval with a 97-33 vote. The bill still needs final approval from the House, and then it will head to a Senate vote before the special session comes to a close on midnight on Tuesday. There’s still a chance that it can be blocked if Senate Democrats successfully filibuster the vote on Tuesday.Last I heard, the only reason there's even a chance the Dems could filibuster is because the protesters bought them another 12 hours of time by delaying the vote. So there's that.
Texas lawmakers are currently rushing an omnibus anti-abortion bill through a special session, after each of its provisions failed to advance separately during the regular legislative session. But not without being met with a fight. Over 700 Texans traveled to Austin on Thursday to testify against the anti-abortion measure before it could come to a vote in the House — and their “people’s filibuster” successfully prevented the legislation from advancing.The Republican chairman of the House committee tried to shut down their testimony while 300 more people who signed up to speak were still waiting. The crowd prevented him from doing it. So far the vote has still not been taken up. The fight isn't over yet, and the people's filibuster may ultimately fail to block passage of the bill, but how great is it to see people battle the crackpots on their own ground rather than allow them to blithely force it through without any challenge at all?
Lots of people talking about the heckler who rudely interupted Michelle Obama yesterday during the First Lady's speech at a private fundraiser. The heckler was said to be a 56 year old lesbian activist who demanded our FLOTUS get the President to immeditaely sign an executive order on gay rights in the workplace. I'm seeing Michelle's response being called confrontational, but we can't know for sure since there's no video. I imagine in reality the FLOTUS was polite but firm, though clearly she wasn't going to ignore it. “One of the things that I don’t do well is this,” she said to applause from most of the guests, according to a White House transcript. “Do you understand?”The heckler spun it like this:
A pool report from a reporter in the room said Obama “left the lectern and moved over to the protester.” The pool report quoted Obama as saying: “Listen to me or you can take the mic, but I’m leaving. You all decide. You have one choice.”
“Basically, I was asked by the first lady to be quiet, and I can’t be quiet any longer,” Sturtz told the Huffington Post. “I was surprised by how negative the crowd seemed to be. It was actually a little unsettling and disturbing.”Well actually FLOTUS told her to stop rudely interupting while it was her turn to talk, not that the Ms. Self-Important Heckler should shut up about the issue altogether. And the heckler was surprised the crowd wasn't applauding her disrupting the event and clamoring for her to take the mic instead? Maybe she should consider they paid their $500 bucks or more to hear Michelle Obama speak and heckler woman was abridging their right to do so.
@atidman: @jaketapper @TheLeadCNN I was there and I agree with Jay Carney @PressSec that she handled it brilliantly!And Laura tweets that the heckler claims she hadn't planned in advance. But Laura links to the heckler's tweets from May 30 that suggest otherwise.
The narrow defeat of the background-check bill, it turns out, was not the end of hopes for gun reform, but the beginning.Newtown really did change everything and the the conventional wisdom is outdated. The NRA's power to swing elections is waning.
Senator Chris Murphy, a rookie Connecticut Democrat who has taken a lead on the issue since the Newtown massacre, points out that, of the 16 Senate races the NRA participated in last year, 13 of its candidates lost. “The NRA is just all mythology,” he says. “The NRA does not win elections anymore.”The forces for gun sense are gaining strength. Their resolve was not broken by one legislative defeat, it's hardened into a determined force that will prevail in the end. From Bloomberg's Mayors Against Illegal Guns to Gabby Giffords' group to Moms Demand Action and a growing list of gun safety activists, a coalition is growing larger every day. Their tactics are improving. The NRA's gun absolutists are loud but their numbers are shrinking. The gun sense lobby is determined to prove to the political class that aligning with that minority comes at a greater cost than defying it. We'll all be safer because of their good work.
The question of why the 1960s matter to me is one thing, but what's important is, should the events of 50 years ago matter to the rest of us? Is what happened on May 4, 1970 - and in the tumultuous years leading up to it -- still relevant on May 4, 2013? OK, I've clearly revealed my bias, but I think the answer is undeniably yes -- because there is a straight line between the skirmishes people fought then and the all-too-real war for the future of America that is taking place today.Much of what's happening today feels like the 60s revisited to me. We're fighting the same battles all over again.
The DC-based watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics and Washington has asked the FBI to investigate.Not going to get much help from the media on that one. CNN is wondering did the guy say "thank them three times" or "thank them for their free time." Reminds me of old comedy routines. Only I don't feel like laughing.
CREW officials said the audio recording obtained by Mother Jones magazine raises questions "whether Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), violated federal law and Senate rules by misusing Senate staff or resources to conduct opposition research on potential campaign opponents."
A member of Moms Demand Action said that she felt unsettled by their presence and said that the organizers would have to think twice before holding another event, particularly one where children could be present.Seriously. Not that hard to imagine some idiot dropping a loaded gun that goes off and kills an innocent bystander. These are the people who should not be allowed to own guns at all. [video at the link]
