Category: Top Stories

George Zimmerman Tip Of The Iceberg

Please click on this picture to read Nicole Flatow’s blog…

 

Nicole Flatow covers justice for Think Progress and has a great piece today on the fallacy that guns keep you safe.

In the wake of the Newtown Shooting, the National Rifle Association perpetuated messages that more guns would have prevented shootings like Newtown, and has warned repeatedly that gun confiscation is imminent. But existing research shows that civilians with guns have been wholly ineffective at blocking mass shootings, and that more guns means more homicides. The bugaboo of widespread gun confiscation, meanwhile, has been flatly rejected by lawmakers and the U.S. Supreme Court. These fears have nonetheless prompted a wave of new lax gun laws, gun purchases, and gun permit applications, with many saying they feel safer carrying a gun.

via Concealed Carry Applications Approach Record Pace In Many States | ThinkProgress.

She’s a constitutional scholar who speaks clearly. My conversation with her below…

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Here’s Why IRS Scandal Is Not A Scandal

Please click on this picture to read Andy’s latest…

 

Andy Kroll covers dark money for Mother Jones. Today he shines a light on why precisely the IRS “scandal” targeting Tea Party groups is nothing more than republicans cherrypicking what the IRS does to everybody.

You’ll remember that the Treasury Department inspector general report that first looked at the “targeting” of groups with “tea party” and “patriots” in their name found no evidence of political bias. At the time, Republicans in Congress didn’t buy that. Clearly, they argued, this was the work of anti-conservative IRS staffers, or a meddlesome Obama White House looking to suppress its opponents in a closely fought election year. Then we learned that the manager of the IRS Screening Office in Cincinnati, where most of the alleged targeting took place, identified himself as a “conservative Republican.” Still, Republicans forged onward.

via Even Republicans Admit It: Politics Did Not Drive the IRS Tea Party “Scandal” | Mother Jones.

My conversation with Andy below:

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Who We Are As A People

Please click on this picture to read Ben’s latest post…

 

Ben Armbruster from Think Progress is covering the hunger strike in Gitmo. What we do to others we soon do to ourselves. He writes…

The military said on Tuesday that 45 detainees at Guantanamo Bay who are on hunger strike are being tube-fed against their will, the most the military has reported since the latest hunger strike began back in February. The military also said that 106 detainees are refusing food, up from 104 last week.

via The U.S. Military Reports Highest Number Of Gitmo Detainees Being Force Tube-Fed | ThinkProgress.

Listen to my conversation with Ben below.

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Seven Myths About Edward Snowden

Chase Madar has a great post on The Nation’s website about Edward Snowden.

Though the NSA-Snowden affair is scarcely three weeks old, all manner of official folklore and panic-infused idées reçues have already glommed on, limpet-like, to media accounts, often deforming the story beyond recognition. Below is your handy myth-stripping guide to understanding this critical news item.

via Seven Myths About Edward Snowden, NSA Whistleblower | The Nation.

My conversation with Chase below:

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Second Tony For Second City’s Andrea Martin

Andrea Martin appears and writes on this program all the time, and tonight she won her second Tony. We are so happy for her. Listen to one of our episodes with her, and then read what they have to say about it from her hometown of Portland, Maine:

Portland-born Andrea Martin won for best performance by an actress in a featured role in a musical for her performance in “Pippin.”

She was introduced by another Portlander, actress Anna Kendrick.

Martin plays Pippin’s grandmother and sings the music hall favorite “No Time at All.” She stuns audiences nightly by doing jaw-dropping stunts that would make someone a fraction of her age blanch.

Portland native Andrea Martin wins Tony | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram.

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