Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn's FBI Files Reveal A Boston University Official's Efforts To Oust Him

Megan Carpentier | July 30, 2010, 7:12PM

Howard Zinn

In perusing the 423-page FBI file that the FBI kept on Howard Zinn, who was a life-long activist and political science professor at Boston University from 1964-1988, we discovered something interesting: someone in the upper echelons of the university's management was an FBI informer who reportedly plotted to oust Zinn in 1970.

The files, which detail the FBI's somewhat absurd practice of collecting newspaper clippings, public speeches and publicized speaking dates for people it declared dangerous to the country, also contained some interesting details about the official's plans to end Zinn's academic career at Boston University -- where he published his seminal text A People's History of The United States in 1980.

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Hiram Monserrate

Expelled NY Sen Monserrate Gets On The Ballot

Rachel Slajda | July 30, 2010, 6:25PM

Former State Sen. Hiram Monserrate (D-NY)

Hiram Monserrate, a Democrat who was kicked out of the New York State Senate in February for a domestic violence conviction, got enough signatures to get on the ballot for a state assembly seat.

Monserrate gathered 823 signatures. He'll be on the ballot against Francisco Moya, running for the seat that was vacated by the man who took Monserrate's seat when he was expelled.

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Al Gore

DA Won't Pursue Charges Against Gore

Rachel Slajda | July 30, 2010, 6:10PM

Former Vice President Al Gore

The district attorney in Portland, Ore., announced today that he will not pursue charges against former Vice President Al Gore stemming from allegations of sexual assault.

From local TV station KOIN:

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Charles Rangel

Ethics Investigator 'Misspoke' About Reprimand For Rangel

Rachel Slajda | July 30, 2010, 5:30PM

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY)

The lead House ethics investigator in the case against Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) said this afternoon that he misspoke when he said his subcommittee had recommended a reprimand for Rangel.

Rep. Gene Green (D-TX), who lead the investigation subcommittee, told reporters earlier today that the panel had recommended a reprimand for Rangel, who is charged with 13 ethics violations.

Returning a call for clarification from TPMmuckraker, Green's spokesman now says the congressman "misspoke."

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John Ensign

Ensign Staffers Allowed To Testify Before Grand Jury

Rachel Slajda | July 30, 2010, 5:20PM

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)

Staffers for Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) are expected to testify before a grand jury on their boss's sex-and-lobbying scandal.

The Senate this week approved a resolution allowing the staffers to speak to the grand jury. Senate employees are normally prohibited from testifying outside of Congress.

Ensign's staff has reportedly already been speaking to the Senate ethics committee, and Ensign's campaign is paying for several of their related legal bills.

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Tea Party Comix

The Strange Case Of The Mysterious Uber-Racist 'Tea Party Comix'

Evan McMorris-Santoro | July 30, 2010, 5:02PM

Tea Party Comics

The progressive webscape has been alight for the past couple days with the story of a truly amazing bit of racism -- the Tea Party Comix. These black and white pages, resembling one of those free zines the nerds among us used to pore through before the days of blogs, are reigniting the debate over tea party racism in the days before the movement's latest diversity-themed event.

Today, some top tea partiers are disavowing the truly impressively bigoted comic books, claiming that they're an obvious plant by tea party opponents. But at the same time, no one seems to know much about them. The mystery is still unsolved and the comics remain.

The books were first flagged by Ethan Persoff, the comic book blogger who brought us the hilarious Defense Department Don't Ask, Don't Tell explanation comic book "Dignity and Respect." Pershoff told Rachel Maddow's blog that he bought the first issue of the comic (there are at least three) somewhere in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Here's a taste of what that looked like:

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Charles Rangel

Ethics Investigator: We Recommended Reprimand For Rangel

Rachel Slajda | July 30, 2010, 2:00PM

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY)

The House ethics panel's investigatory subcommittee says that they recommended to the full committed that Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) be reprimanded for his 13 alleged violations.

Rep. Gene Green (D-TX), who led the investigation, told reporters today that his committee recommended Rangel be reprimanded instead of the more serious penalties of censure or expulsion.

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Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck: I Stand By Criticism Of Tides -- It's Not My Fault CA Gunman Targeted Them (VIDEO)

Jillian Rayfield | July 30, 2010, 1:58PM

Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck denied yesterday that his long history of criticizing the Tides Foundation had anything to do with the alleged targeting of the group by Byron Williams, the anti-government gunman suspected of engaging in a shootout with police in Oakland, California, possibly while he was on his way to targeting Tides and the ACLU.

"I expose the Tides Foundation and show you what it is, and I am now responsible for terrorists attacks?" Beck asked.

As we've reported, the fairly obscure Tides Foundation has been brought up several times on Beck's show, characterized as part of what Beck sees as a conspiracy by President Obama and other left-wing people and organizations to spread socialism.

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Immigration

Right-Wingers Stand By Their Fabricated Mexican Drug Cartel Raid Story

Eric Lach | July 30, 2010, 1:21PM

According to anonymously-sourced reports pushed by right-wing blogs last weekend, members of Mexico's notorious Zetas drug gang crossed the border into Texas and, "in what could be deemed an act of war," seized two ranches near the border town of Laredo. The situation was dire, wingers warned, but a government enforced media blackout kept knowledge of the raid from the general public.

Really?

No, not really.

Here's the thing: the "raid" never happened.

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Muslims

Koran-Burning Pastor: Muslims Are Welcome In America (VIDEO)

Evan McMorris-Santoro | July 30, 2010, 12:38PM

Dr. Terry Jones, leader of the Dove World Outreach Center

Dove World Outreach Center pastor Terry Jones -- the man who hopes to lead his flock in a mass Koran-burning in September to commemorate 9/11 -- says that he's as welcoming of other faiths as the next guy. Assuming, that is, that the next guy also thinks that "Islam Is Of The Devil," as Jones likes to say to anyone and everyone who drives past his Gainesville, Florida church.

In a recent interview with CNN's Rick "The List" Sanchez, Jones said that the book burning was all part of his plan to welcome Muslims to American while simultaneously reminding them that their faith is an evil thing that must be destroyed at all costs (or, saving that, desecrated publicly in the name of Jesus.)

"We have nothing against Muslims," Jones told Sanchez. "They are welcome in our country."

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'Ground Zero Mosque'

Anti-Defamation League Comes Out Against Ground Zero Mosque

Rachel Slajda | July 30, 2010, 11:54AM

Abraham Foxman, Director, Anti-Defamation League

The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish organization whose programs "counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry," has released a statement excoriating plans to build an Islamic community center and mosque near Ground Zero.

"Proponents of the Islamic Center may have every right to build at this site, and may even have chosen the site to send a positive message about Islam. The bigotry some have expressed in attacking them is unfair, and wrong," the statement reads.

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Howard Zinn

FBI Releases 400-Page File On Howard Zinn

Rachel Slajda | July 30, 2010, 11:25AM

Howard Zinn

The FBI today released a 423-page file on Howard Zinn, the radical progressive historian who wrote A People's History of the United States.

Zinn died in January.

We're digging through the file right now. Help us out -- leave what you find in comments or email us.

Charles Rangel

Charlie Rangel's Ethics Trial: How Did He Get Here?

Rachel Slajda | July 30, 2010, 9:54AM

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY)

At the beginning of the first House ethics trial since Jim Traficant was kicked out of Congress, lawmakers yesterday rattled off a list of charges against Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY).

Unless Rangel cuts a deal in which he admits wrongdoing -- something his lawyers are reportedly still trying to do, although Rangel has been adamant about professing his innocence -- he will face a very public trial on the 13 alleged violations, just weeks before the midterm elections. The trial could end with a recommendation to expel Rangel from the House.

So how did we get here?

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Michigan Tea Party

Evidence Mounts That Michigan Tea Party Is Democratic Front

Evan McMorris-Santoro | July 29, 2010, 6:09PM

Tea Party activists in Washington, D.C.

As state officials in Michigan review a proposed Tea Party's petition to appear on the November ballot, evidence is mounting that the party is a front for Democratic supporters hoping to rescue embattled Democrats this fall.

Earlier this week, the party submitted the names of 23 candidates it wants to place on ballots across the state this fall. Though several are for statewide offices, most are running in districts where Republicans are threatening incumbent Democrats. The Detroit Free Press reports today that a local Democratic party official had a role in helping some of the candidates become members of the Tea Party. Combine that with previous reporting showing the nearly 60,000 signatures the party gathered to earn a place on the ballot having been collected by a Democratic firm called Progressive Campaigns, Inc., and you've got a recipe for some serious skepticism about the party's legitimacy.

Democratic party figures in Michigan continue to deny any connection with the Tea Party, just as tea party movement figures in the state continue to claim the party is in no way connected with them, either.

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Robert Gates

Gates And Mullen: Wikileaks Might Already Have Blood On Their Hands

Jillian Rayfield | July 29, 2010, 3:43PM

Defense Secretary Robert Gates

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen held a press conference today to address the leak of 92,000 documents about the Afghanistan War by the website Wikileaks. Gates condemned the leaks, warning "the battlefield consequences" are "potentially severe and dangerous for our troops."

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Muslims

Anti-Mosque Protester To TPM: Muslims Hate Dogs And America Too

Evan McMorris-Santoro | July 29, 2010, 2:57PM

Let's get one thing straight, Diane Serafin told me this afternoon -- the people (and their dogs) protesting a planned mosque in Temecula, California tomorrow are not bigots. It's not Muslims per se that they have a problem with -- it's the fact that Imams are slowly infiltrating American society, hoping to force Sharia law on us all.

Muslim construction projects have been the subject of public protests nationwide these days (as we've reported), but Serafin's demonstration is different from all the rest. She's calling on people to bring their dogs and join in song tomorrow afternoon because, she told me, Muslims just hate dogs and songs. Of course, Muslim antipathy toward canines isn't their worst offense, she told me.

"They hate Jews, they hate Chrisitans, they hate women, they hate dogs," Serafin said. "[The idea of the new mosque] scares the daylights out of me."

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J. Christian Adams

Black Panther 'Whistleblower's' Latest Charge: Holder Hates The Troops

Rachel Slajda | July 29, 2010, 2:21PM

J. Christian Adams, former Department of Justice attorney

In its latest tale about how President Obama is out to attack all that is good and right about America, Fox News yesterday alleged that the Justice Department is now purposely disenfranchising America's troops, too.

The charges come originally from Sen. John Cornyn, courtesy of Fox resident ginner-upper J. Christian Adams -- the same Adams who's pushing allegations of racial favoritism against the DOJ.

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Charles Rangel

House Ethics Panel Announces 13 Charges Against Rangel

Rachel Slajda | July 29, 2010, 2:21PM

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY)

Despite reports of a deal, the House ethics panel just began its first public meeting on the charges against Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY). And for the first time, we're hearing the charges.

The panel is charging Rangel with 13 violations. They fall into four groups:

One, violations regarding fundraising Rangel did for a City College educational center named after him.

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Charles Rangel

Ethics Hearing Or Not, Rangel Sends Out 'Birthday Gala' Invites (VIDEO)

Jillian Rayfield | July 29, 2010, 12:31PM

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY)

Today may be the day a House ethics panel announced its charges against Rep. Charlie Rangel for alleged ethics violations, but that didn't stop him from sending out invitations this week to a "birthday gala" for his other special day.

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New Black Panthers

Judiciary Dems Decline To Revisit New Black Panthers Case

Rachel Slajda | July 29, 2010, 12:23PM

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has declined to hold another hearing on the New Black Panthers case, which had been requested by the committee's Republicans.

From Leahy's letter, via Greg Sargent:

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Goldman Sachs

After The Uproar Over 'Sh***y Deal,' Goldman Sachs Bans Employee Swearing In Emails

Eric Lach | July 29, 2010, 11:30AM

Lloyd Blankfein, Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs & Co.

Going forward, Goldman Sachs employees' written correspondence will be the model of decorum, will aspire to a higher level of discourse, and will not contain those pernicious profanities which caused the firm so much public embarrassment this year. I shit you not.

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Insurance

Life Insurers Profit By Withholding Cash From Military Families: Bloomberg

Rachel Slajda | July 29, 2010, 9:31AM

Arlington National Cemetary

Life insurers -- including Prudential, which provides life insurance for the Department of Veterans Affairs -- keep payouts to families in their own corporate accounts, earning more interest on the money than they give to the beneficiaries.

Bloomberg reports that many life insurance companies send beneficiaries a "checkbook" when they opt to get their money in a lump sum. The companies assure families that the money is safe with them until they need it.

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Sarah Palin

Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad Mosque? TPM Rounds Up The Latest In Right-Wing Fear-Mongering

Jillian Rayfield | July 29, 2010, 8:30AM

Clockwise from top left: Former Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin, former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA), Rep. Peter King (R-NY), and NY Gov. candidate Carl Paladino (R). Center: A mosque.

The right-wing controversy du jour? Construction of several mosques throughout the U.S. -- perhaps most notably, a Muslim community center near Ground Zero in New York City. In many cases, the right-wing fear-mongering has fed a shrill campaign warning against Muslims inevitably using their places of worship to conspire to implant sharia law in the lives of unsuspecting Americans.

So which right-wingers are most afraid of the big bad mosques? TPM rounds up the worst offenders.

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Arizona

Report: Sheriff Joe Has Helped Kick Out 26K Immigrants Since '07

Eric Lach | July 28, 2010, 2:04PM

Sheriff Joe Arpaio

Who needs a new immigration law? Sheriff Joe's been booting immigrants out of the country at an astonishing rate for the last three years.

Under a government program that allows local law enforcement agencies to deputize officers to work on immigration enforcement, Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Maricopa County office has helped deport or force the departure of 26,146 immigrants since 2007, according to The Associated Press. That's more than 20 percent of the nationwide total made through the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement program.

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David Paterson

Judge Recommends No Charges For Paterson; Cites 'Errors In Judgment'

Rachel Slajda | July 28, 2010, 1:53PM

New York Gov. David Paterson

A retired judge investigating New York Gov. David Paterson's role in a domestic violence case involving a close aide recommended today that no criminal charges be pressed against the governor. She did say, however, that Paterson had in "errors in judgment" when contacting the alleged victim.

"It is hard to reconcile this conduct with the Governor's expressed commitment to the cause of domestic violence prevention," wrote Judge Judith Kaye in her report. Kaye was asked to conduct the investigation after Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who is running for governor, recused himself.

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Corruption

Duke Cunningham Briber Rakes In $10K At Poker Tourney (VIDEO)

Rachel Slajda | July 28, 2010, 1:30PM

Brent Wilkes, the former defense contractor who was convicted in 2007 of bribing then-Rep. Duke Cunningham, in March raked in $10,900 when he recently won a World Series of Poker tournament at a California casino.

Wilkes, a professed poker aficionado, used cards as a way one way to bribe Cunningham, letting the Congressman win at poker, as his nephew testified. He also hosted poker games for lawmakers at the Watergate and other hotels.

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Bell, CA

County DA Expanding Probe Of Bell, CA To Include Allegations Of Voter Fraud

Jillian Rayfield | July 28, 2010, 12:56PM

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office has expanded its probe of the city of Bell, widening the investigation from a scandal over inflated salaries to include allegations of voter fraud and possible conflicts of interest involving city businesses.

Bell City Council members have taken a lot of heat this month after it was revealed that many of them had inflated their salaries to $96,000 a year for part-time elected positions, with one city staff member banking nearly $800,000 a year.

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MI-GOV

Michigan AG: Ex-Con's Claims That I Was At Ex-Mayor's Mansion Stripper Party Are 'Bold-Faced Lies'

Eric Lach | July 28, 2010, 11:56AM

Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox (R)

With days to go before Michigan's gubernatorial primary, Michigan Attorney General and Republican candidate Mike Cox is dealing with the fallout of a leaked affidavit that puts him on the scene of a long-rumored party supposedly thrown at the Detroit mayor's mansion in 2002 by then-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

Cox called the allegations "bold-faced lies," and says he's never set foot in the mayor's mansion. In an interview on WJR-AM, Cox suggested the leak of the affidavit was timed close to the primary to draw the most headlines.

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BP

Feds To Focus On Oil Co's, Gov't Regulators In Criminal Probe

Rachel Slajda | July 28, 2010, 11:29AM

Oil from the Deepwater Horizon disaster washes ashore in Louisiana

The federal criminal investigation into the Gulf oil spill will focus on BP, Transocean and Halliburton -- and their connections to federal regulators.

The Washington Post reports today that investigators known as the "BP Squad," including people from the EPA, the Coast Guard, the FBI and other agencies, are assembling in New Orleans. They'll investigate not only the oil companies, but the role the former Minerals Management Service may have played in the disaster.

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Dove World Outreach Center

Florida 'Church' Demonstrates How Christians Should Burn Koran (VIDEO)

Evan McMorris-Santoro | July 28, 2010, 10:01AM

Pastor Wayne Sapp

On Sept. 11, 2010, members of the Dove World Outreach Center -- a non-denominational Christian church of dubious credibility in Gainesville, Florida -- plan to burn copies of the Koran in a public ceremony billed as a memorial for the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

"Uh, what?" you may be asking. How about we let Dove World pastor Wayne Sapp explain it:

"Why would we burn the Koran?" he says in a video the church posted to YouTube last week. "The Koran, the holy book of Islam? Because we're Christian."

Prior to the whole book burning scheme, Dove World Outreach Center was best known for using the slogan "Islam Is Of The Devil," which it has plastered across its website and in large signs outside the church's headquarters. Sapp says in the video that Islam's devilishness is why the Koran must burn.

"Being Christian does not mean you go to church. Being Christian does not mean you believe in God. Being Christian means you are Christ-like, or at least attempting to go in that direction," he says. "And Jesus, the Christ, he was sent -- he appeared -- to destroy the works of the Devil. So that's what we're gonna do."

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BP

BP's Silver Lining: Cutting $10 Billion From Its U.S. Tax Bill

Rachel Slajda | July 28, 2010, 9:25AM

BP executives Lamar McKay, Bob Dudley, and Tony Hayward

BP told investors yesterday that it plans to deduct oil spill costs from its U.S. tax bill, cutting its taxes by $9.9 billion.

As WaPo reports, BP estimated in its second-quarter earnings report that it will spend $32.2 billion on costs related to the oil spill.

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Commission On Civil Rights

Commission on Civil Rights: Protecting America From (Reverse) Racism

Rachel Slajda | July 28, 2010, 8:46AM

Gerald Reynolds, chairman of the US Commission on Civil Rights

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights' investigation into the New Black Panthers case -- specifically, whether racial bias played a role in the Justice Department's decision to close the case -- is part of a pattern at the commission: A pattern of investigating almost exclusively, for lack of a better word, reverse racism.

The conservative majority on the commission, as well as former DOJ lawyer J. Christian Adams and much of the right-wing (including many Republican senators), believe that black members of the New Black Panther Party engaged in widespread intimidation of white voters on Election Day 2008. Further, according to Adams, the Obama administration is purposely dropping cases against black defendants in a blanket policy of pro-black racism.

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Michigan Tea Party

Is Michigan's Mysterious 'Tea Party' A 'Sham Organization' Hatched By Dems?

Evan McMorris-Santoro | July 28, 2010, 8:29AM

A mysterious "tea party" is causing a stir in Michigan politics this summer. It doesn't sound like the conservative-backed tea party you've heard so much about this year, and better known elements of the movement are disavowing it. To hear many political watchers in Michigan tell it, the new Michigan Tea Party -- which has submitted 60,000 signatures to the state in an attempt to get on the ballot, mostly in races where Democrats are facing tough Republican opposition -- is nothing but a Democrat-hatched plot to siphon votes from the right and help Dem candidates win.

The state Democrats have denied any involvement in the Michigan Tea Party.

Founded by Mark Steffek, a retired UAW worker in the Thumb area, the Michigan Tea Party is trying to field "23 candidates for offices ranging from Secretary of State to Oakland County Commission," the Detroit Free Press reported yesterday. Steffek says the party's for real, though he doesn't want to talk much about it. The Free Press only managed to snag an interview with him earlier this month after "weeks of avoiding the media," and even that didn't shed much light on the mystery.

Steffek says his party is focused on "concern over deficit spending and government debt, but is also opposed to free trade agreements like NAFTA that he believes cost American jobs." Those are all solidly tea party issues. But the man helping Steffek get the party off the ground is a former Democratic party operative and aide to former Gov. James Blanchard (D). That fact, coupled with other nuggets about the party, like Steffek's refusal "to identify the source of tens of thousands of dollars" that paid for a 60,000-name signature drive that got the party on the ballot, has left many conservatives in the state crying foul.

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Danziger Bridge

Two NOLA Cops Plead Not Guilty In Danziger Case

Rachel Slajda | July 27, 2010, 6:09PM

The Danziger Bridge in New Orleans

Two more New Orleans police officers have pleaded not guilty to charges that they conspired to cover up the alleged police shootings of unarmed civilians on the Danziger Bridge in the days after Hurricane Katrina.

Archie Kaufman and Gerard Dugue were charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice.

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Bell, CA

Salary Scandal In CA: Bell City Council Members Resign, Take Pay Cuts After Inflated Earnings Uncovered

Jillian Rayfield | July 27, 2010, 5:08PM

An angry crowd at the Bell, CA City Council meeting

In the wake of a major salary scandal, some City Council members in the small working-class community of Bell, California have resigned and others have announced that they will take a 90% pay cut. Many officials in the 40,000-person city near downtown L.A. were making $96,000 a year for part-time elected positions that are typically paid about 1/20 of that amount.

The revelations of inflated salaries in Bell -- where one city official banked nearly $800,000 a year -- have caused massive public outrage and triggered a review by the state's top fiscal officer.

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Muslims

CA Anti-Mosque Protest Organizers: Bring Dogs Because Muslims 'Hate Dogs'

Evan McMorris-Santoro | July 27, 2010, 3:26PM

It seems the anti-mosque protesters in California have torn a few pages from the Abu Ghraib field manual. Protesters of a planned mosque and Muslim community center in Riverside County, California are calling on locals to come to a rally outside an existing mosque with their pet dogs because, as the protest organizer says, Muslims "hate dogs."

As the Valley News of Fallbrook reports, the leader of the anti-community center rally -- who the paper does not name -- has "been active with Republican and Tea Party functions" in the past. Recently, the activist distributed an email to area media outlets calling on those opposed to the construction of the Islamic Center in Temecula to come to a "one-hour 'singing - praying - patriotic rally'" July 30 at the site of the town's existing Islamic center, which local Muslims are trying to replace with new construction.

Details on the event, from the Valley News:

"We will not be submissive," the notice proclaimed. "Our voices are going to be heard!" The alert went on to question what its authors described as Islamic beliefs. It suggested that participants sing during the rally because Muslim "women are forbidden to sing." It suggested that rally participants bring dogs because Muslims "hate dogs."

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George Rekers

McCollum On Rekers: He Was The Best Anti-Gay Expert We Could Find (VIDEO)

Rachel Slajda | July 27, 2010, 2:17PM

George Rekers and Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum yesterday stuck by his decision to hire anti-gay activist George Rekers -- the George Rekers who was later caught with a male escort -- when the state had to defend its ban on adoption by gay couples.

Rekers, who himself has adopted a child, testified in 2008 in defense of Florida's gay marriage ban, which McCollum supports. As AG, McCollum pushed to hire Rekers over the objections of Department of Children and Families.

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Shirley Sherrod

Sherrod's Potential New Title: Deputy Director Of Advocacy And Outreach

Rachel Slajda | July 27, 2010, 1:19PM

Former USDA Official Shirley Sherrod

CBS News reports today that the job offered to Shirley Sherrod by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack would carry a new title for Sherrod: deputy director of the Office of Advocacy and Outreach.

Sherrod told CBS that she's still reading the official written job offer and has not made a decision about accepting it.

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Al Gore Sexual Assault Allegations

Portland Police Finally Interview Al Gore In Assault Case

Megan Carpentier | July 27, 2010, 1:03PM

Fmr. Vice President Al Gore (D)

Portland ABC affiliate KATU confirmed yesterday what the National Enquirer reported last week: Portland law enforcement officials interviewed former Vice President Al Gore as part of their investigation into massage therapist Molly Hagerty's allegation that Gore assaulted her in 2006 during a massage.

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Ethics

Dems Nervous Over Reports Rangel Aiming For Ethics Settlement (VIDEO)

Christina Bellantoni | July 27, 2010, 12:20PM

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD)

Democrats are increasingly nervous that Rep. Charlie Rangel's ethics investigation will bleed over into the November elections as Rangel negotiates behind the scenes for a last-minute settlement.

The Associated Press is reporting that Rangel (D-NY) former chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, is trying to settle his case in advance of Thursday's open hearing. That would mean he would have to agree he committed some ethical misconduct, the AP reported with citations to "people familiar with the situation."

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David H. Brooks

Contractor On Trial For Buying Porn, Prostitutes And $100K Flag Belt Buckle

Rachel Slajda | July 27, 2010, 11:06AM

David H. Brooks. On the right, with co-defendant Sandra Hatfield and the $100k buckle.

The former head of a military contractor is on trial in Long Island for fraud, having allegedly used company funds to buy porn for his son, a burial plot for his mother, prostitutes for his employees and a ruby-encrusted American flag belt buckle worth $100,000.

David H. Brooks, the founder and former chief of body armor manufacturer DHB, is facing charges of fraud, insider trading and using millions of dollars in corporate cash to fund, as the New York Times puts it, "personal extravagance."

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Senate Judiciary Committee

Judiciary Republicans Demand Probe Into New Black Panther Case

Rachel Slajda | July 26, 2010, 6:45PM

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL)

Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee want a hearing to investigate how the Department of Justice handled allegations of voter intimidation made against the New Black Panther Party.

The minority, led by Sen. Lindsey Graham, wants to look into allegations of racial bias within the DOJ. The charges come most vocally from J. Christian Adams, a former DOJ lawyer who says the Obama administration purposely drops cases against black defendants, including an NBPP member who stood outside a Philly polling station with a nightstick in 2008.

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Gulf Coast Oil Spill

Enviro Agency Just Guessed At Size Of Major Spill When OK'ing Gulf Wells

Rachel Slajda | July 26, 2010, 5:19PM

Aerial view of oil being burned from the BP Deepwater Horizon platform

Earlier this month, we told you how the National Marine Fisheries Service, charged with protecting endangered marine life in the Gulf, drastically underestimated the size and effects of an oil spill in the Gulf. Its opinion allowed the government to sell leases to oil reserves in the Gulf -- including the now-leaking Macondo well -- to various oil companies.

Fisheries estimated that a "major" oil spill would be about half the size of the Ixtoc I disaster, which dumped an estimated 3.5 million barrels in the Gulf of Mexico in 1979.

TPMmuckraker has now found proof that Fisheries did little more than throw up their hands and guess when coming up with that estimation. But the former Minerals Management Service did much worse, estimating that such a spill would be about 15,000 barrels -- less than one percent of Fisheries' estimate.

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Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck Defends Bashing Non-Profit Targeted By CA Shooting Suspect (AUDIO)

Jillian Rayfield | July 26, 2010, 3:39PM

TV host Glenn Beck.

On his radio show today, Glenn Beck defended repeatedly trashing the Tides Foundation over the last year -- saying that he is just trying to "turn the light of day" onto the organization -- even after it was allegedly among the planned targets of an anti-government gunman in California.

Beck's focus on the Tides Foundation has been scrutinized in recent days, after it was reported as being among the targets of Byron Williams, the California gunman charged after a shootout with authorities on an Oakland, California highway. Williams allegedly planned to target Tides and the ACLU.

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Charles Rangel

Rangel Faces Tough Fight In Ethics Committee Trial

Brian Beutler | July 26, 2010, 3:39PM

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY)

In the coming days, Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) has a choice to make. He can listen to his Democratic colleagues and cut a deal, or he can face a full trial before a House panel over several allegations of misconduct.

It's extremely rare for congressional ethics proceedings to reach this stage. Members more commonly acknowledge some wrongdoing, or resign, well before they're forced to defend themselves before an official body. But the gravity of the Rangel allegations, combined with his intransigence to this point, leave him poised, potentially, to be the first House member to be tried, and even expelled, by his own colleagues since James Traficant, in 2002.

"We're kind of astonished it's gone this far," says Peter Flaherty, President of the National Legal and Policy Center, whose work led to one investigation of Rangel and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus. "We always believed the allegations against Rangel were serious, but we never thought the Ethics Committee would do anything."

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Dove World Outreach Center

CORRECTED: Florida 'Church' Plans To Burn Korans On 9/11

Evan McMorris-Santoro | July 26, 2010, 3:22PM

Dr. Terry Jones, leader of the Dove World Outreach Center

On September 11, members of the Dove World Outreach Center -- a Gainesville, Florida church -- plan to burn copies of the Koran to commemorate the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The protest is just the latest in a series of provocative actions from the self-described "New Testament Church," which seems as interested in getting attention as it is in sharing the Word with the world. Unfortunately, their plan seems to have worked -- and local investigators began probing the church's tax-exempt status last year after reports that Dove World Outreach Center is essentially a scam.

The church, which was founded in 1986, has long been controversial in Gainesville. The Koran-burning protest is just the latest in a string of high-profile "protests on other issues, such as homosexuality, same-sex marriage, and abortion," Religion News Service reports. But it seems clear that taking on Muslims is the one of the church's central goals. The church's leader, Dr. Terry Jones -- who before heading up the Dove World Outreach Center ran a sister church in Cologne, Germany -- has published a book entitled "Islam is of the Devil" and last year posted a large sign outside his church that offered passing commuters the same message. Last year, members sent their kids to public schools wearing "Islam Is Of The Devil" t-shirts (the students were sent home, creating more headlines.) The church's website features a number of videos where Jones takes on Islam as...well, you can probably guess.

But as the Gainesville Sun reported last year, there is one thing Jones likes doing more than burning books -- and that's making money. Sun reporter Megan Rolland delved into the church's numerous for-profit business interests and found a church that local officials say may be violating its tax-exempt status.

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Rod Blagojevich

Storage Facility Auctioning Off Blago's Stuff After He Falls Behind On Payments

Eric Lach | July 26, 2010, 2:39PM

Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (D)

Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich's corruption trial moved on to closing arguments today, and a storage facility which has been holding a bunch of Blago's stuff is moving on too. According to The Chicago Tribune, Boyer-Rosene Moving & Storage is planning to auction off several crates worth of Blagojevich's belongings, because the former governor has fallen a year behind on his payments.

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Charles Rangel

Rangel: Ethics Commitee Investigated 'More Alleged Violations'

Rachel Slajda | July 26, 2010, 12:25PM

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY)

At a press conference this morning, Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) told reporters that the House ethics committee looked into "more alleged violations" than have been reported in the press.

"They finally have investigated and guess what, they have some more alleged violations so they're going to report this to the full committee," he said, reports Politico's Maggie Haberman.

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Pigford settlement

Senate Strips Funding For Legal Settlement To Black Farmers From War Bill

Rachel Slajda | July 26, 2010, 10:27AM

Members of the National Black Farmers Association march outside the USDA in 2002.

Five months after President Obama announced a $1.25 billion settlement for black farmers who faced overt discrimination by the USDA in the eighties and nineties -- and several days after the Sherrod case brought the issue up again -- Congress again refused to authorize the money.

On Thursday, the Senate quietly stripped the funding for the Pigford II settlement and several other programs from a supplemental war funding bill. Senators then unanimously passed their version of the bill, which will go back to the House.

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Wikileaks

Wikileaks Releases Docs Showing Pakistan-Taliban Cooperation Against U.S. In Afghanstan

Rachel Slajda | July 26, 2010, 9:50AM

Soldiers in Afghanistan

The web site Wikileaks has released 92,000 documents related to the Afghanistan War, many of them classified, that paint a bleak picture of the ongoing war.

Wikileaks released the documents, which amount to a daily war diary dating from 2004 to 2009, to the New York Times, Der Spiegel and The Guardian, in addition to publishing them online themselves.

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Ted Haggard

Ted Haggard: 'I Over-Repented' For My Meth-Gay Prostitute 'Crisis'

Jillian Rayfield | July 26, 2010, 9:47AM

Evangelist Ted Haggard

Rev. Ted Haggard has been leading his own new church for the past few months, and in a Wall Street Journal profile says he thinks he "over-repented" for an affair with a male prostitute, which he refers to as "my crisis." He also insists he's not gay -- and that his affair was just a massage gone wrong.

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