Politics & Government

The Atlantic | A little over 12 hours after blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng was released from the U.S. embassy in Beijing, to which he had fled after escaping house arrest, Chen now says that American officials encouraged him to leave the safe haven of the embassy building, in part by making promises that they failed to keep.

Politico | Just as the House Rules Committee convened to weigh amendments to the measure, spearheaded by Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), the administration released a formal policy statement that raised the stakes: It said President Barack Obama’s advisers would recommend that the president veto the bill unless there are significant changes to boost privacy protections, add new protections on users' personal information and alter its liability protection language.

Boston.com | The Republican candidate for president and former Massachusetts governor estimated his 2011 tax liability at $3.2 million, according to the extension filing. He reported paying more than that, $3.4 million.  Romney plans to file his return sometime in the next six months, and prior to the election will release it, “when there is sufficient information to provide an accurate return,’’ according to a spokeswoman, Andrea Saul.

Think Progress | Raising children is hard work. And no one is arguing that Ann Romney — who has been the center of attention since Democratic strategist Hillary Rosen contended that she “never worked a day in her life” — or any other stay-at-home mom doesn’t deserve our respect. But the question is not whether child-rearing is work. It’s whether the policies championed by the candidates afford the same respect and deference to the moms who have no choice but to balance the demands of being a breadwinner with the demands of motherhood.

Quora | It started with an American 12-year-old girl’s desire to trace her own heritage back to France.  Along the way, she discovered that every single US President (except Martin Van Buren) are relatively closely related to just one man. 

The Ticket - Yahoo News | "The president's secretary pays a slightly higher rate this year than the president on her substantially lower income, which is exactly why we need to reform our tax code and ask the wealthiest to pay their fair share," Amy Brundage, a White House spokeswoman, told Yahoo News by email.

Think Progress | Yesterday, 47 United States Senators voted to kill 37,000 American jobs, while giving $24 billion in tax breaks to big oil companies. It’s clear where these Senators’ loyalties lie: They would rather give handouts to the dirty energy of the past rather than invest in the clean energy of the future.

The Atlantic | Earlier this week, as the Senate considered a bill to impose even tougher sanctions on Iran than the ones already in place, Senator Rand Paul blocked its bipartisan passage pending the addition of an amendment. "My amendment is one sentence long. It states that nothing in this act is to be construed as a declaration of war or as an authorization of the use of force in Iran or Syria," he said. "I urge that we not begin a new war without a full debate, without a vote, without careful consideration of the ramifications of a third or even a fourth war in this past decade."

New York Times | On Jan. 22, 1973, when the Supreme Court struck down laws criminalizing abortion in Roe v. Wade, President Richard M. Nixon made no public statement. But the next day, newly released tapes reveal, he privately expressed ambivalence.

Examiner | Maine – It is no longer disputable. In almost every state thus far in the 2012 race for the Republican nomination, vote fraud and its instigators have viciously stolen the innocence from the American people, as the voters in the State of Maine become the latest to be hijacked by the establishment and its army of pro-status quo minions.

Tech Dirt | There's been a lot of interest in the story of the Secret Service completely shutting down JotForm.com through a request to GoDaddy. It appears that the suspension is now ending, though it hasn't fully propagated

Blog Critics | For untold millions, Walmart is not simply a place to shop, but the place. Considering that the quintessential big-box retailer claims to, and often does, offer just about every conventional item necessary for the family at an affordable price, this should be none too surprising

Tech Dirt | The federal government has been paying lip service to the idea that it wants to encourage new businesses and startups in the US. And this is truly important to the economy, as studies have shown that almost all of the net job growth in this country is coming from internet startups.

FOX | Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is back on track after winning the Maine caucuses.  What the headlines haven't told you is that what happened in Maine is the messiest caucus Republicans have had so far, and it may not be over yet.  So, was there rampant voter fraud in Maine? Ben is investigating in a Reality Check you won't see anywhere else.

Watch the Vote 2012 | According to these stats, Ron Paul allegedly won Maine...

FOX Business | The Judge said on his facebook page the final show is Feb 13th 8:00 PM

Watch The Vote 2012 | Voting results...

Fox News Insider | A voter fraud controversy is currently taking place in South Carolina after the Department of Motor vehicles discovered that 953 deceased registered voters appeared to have voted in state elections. The state’s attorney general, Alan Wilson (R), is now asking the Feds to investigate elections dating back to before the 2008 presidential election.

Associated Press | A 715-year old copy of Magna Carta will soon return to public view at the National Archives after a conservation effort removed old patches and repaired weak spots in the English declaration of human rights that inspired the United States' founding documents.

Huffington Post | A Republican member of the Indiana General Assembly withdrew his bill to create a pilot program for drug testing welfare applicants Friday after one of his Democratic colleagues amended the measure to require drug testing for lawmakers.

Torrent Freak | In most reports following the MegaUpload shutdown, the site is exclusively portrayed as a piracy haven.  In a response, Pirate Parties worldwide have started to make a list of all the people affected by the raids, and they are planning to file an official complaint against the US authorities.

Russia Today | Ron Paul has long opposed the TSA and has campaigned for its abolishment for years. Following an episode on Monday that left his son, Sen. Rand Paul, stranded in a Nashville airport, the presidential hopeful is asking for help to finally end the TSA.

Salon.com | Developments in three legal cases, just from the last 24 hours, potently illuminate the Rules of American Justice. First, the Justice Department yesterday charged a former CIA agent, John Kiriakou, with four felony counts for having allegedly disclosed classified information to reporters about the CIA’s interrogation program

Tech Dirt | Reinforcing the fact that Chris Dodd really does not get what's happening, and showing just how disgustingly corrupt the MPAA relationship is with politicians, Chris Dodd went on Fox News to explicitly threaten politicians who accept MPAA campaign donations that they'd better pass Hollywood's favorite legislation... or else:

Natural News | Any normal person found guilty of stealing $40,000 from, say, a bank or an employer, would likely be sentenced to at least five years of prison. But when you work for the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA), you can expect to be given special legal treatment and sent on your way.

CNN | According to a new poll from the Pew Research Center, fewer than half of registered voters identified South Carolina as the next primary state on the road to the White House, with slightly more Republicans, at 50%, than Democrats, at 43%, offering the correct answer.

Video | CBS New Hampshire Poll results showing the candidates but one candidate is missing from the poll.

Video | Former CIA Bin Laden unit leader, Michael Scheuer, explains why he endorsed Ron Paul and why he says Rep. Paul has the strongest stance on national defense.

Video | Infowars said it best: Once again, Judge Andrew Napolitano tells us the truth. It really is amazing Fox News allows this sort of unvarnished truth to be broadcast over their propaganda venue.  "What If" segment aired on TV showing the concept of the left/right paradigm political arena in place as a control mechanism

AllGov.com | These days, special teams of TSA officials can be seen appearing randomly at the country’s train stations, bus depots and ferry launches. Twenty-five “viper” (Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response) teams have made 9,300 unannounced visits at various transportation centers around the U.S. These included testing passenger bags for explosive residue at a Greyhound station in Orlando, Florida; inspecting trucks at weigh stations in Tennessee; checking passengers of cruise ships in the Carolinas; and inspecting spectators at NASCAR races and tourists boarding ferries in North Carolina.

TheRealNews.com | Thomas Drake blew the whistle on a massive domestic information gathering scheme and was called "an enemy of the state" (speech at Sam Adams Awards) Watch full multipart Whistle Blower Threatened with 35 Years in Prison, Warns of Developing Tyranny

Extreme Tech | The battle against SOPA reached fever pitch just before Christmas when a Reddit-led boycott of Go Daddy over the domain registrar’s support for the controversial legislation led to some 37,000 domains leaving the company for greener, freedom-loving pastures. Go Daddy, meanwhile, is now buried in complaints that it’s improperly blocking domain transfer requests to rival Namecheap.

Addicting Info | Global Revolution is considered to be the most important channel covering Occupy Wall Street, broadcasting live feeds of the protests all around the world. So when protesters tell police that the world is watching as the officers beat and pepper spray innocent Americans, they mean it. So it was shocking when Global Revolution ceased their livestream of Occupy protests against the National Defense Authorization Act in New York, and switched to Occupy Maui in Hawaii.

CNN | Shortly before Christmas, Colorado became the fourth state to ask the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to reclassify marijuana as a narcotic in the same league as heavyweight painkillers including oxycodone. The governors of Washington and Rhode Island filed a formal petition with the agency in November, and Vermont signed onto that request shortly afterward.

Reddit | Reddit.com user "DrowningSink" has compiled a mega-list on the voting records of vulnerable seats in Congress. To explain how I deduced which seats were "vulnerable," I used the Cook Partisan Voting Index, or PVI.

Al Jazeera | In a statement accompanying his signature to the $662bn bill, Obama said that he was signing it despite having "serious reservations" about the provisions relating to terrorism, contending that politicians in the US congress were attempting to restrict the ability of counterterrorism officials to protect the country.

USA Today | A USA TODAY analysis of state voter registration statistics shows registered Democrats declined in 25 of the 28 states that register voters by party. Republicans dipped in 21 states, while independents increased in 18 states.

PrisonPlanet.com | Yet another TSA screener has been exposed as a pervert after police raided the Maryland home of 41-year-old TSA screener Scott Wilson and discovered videos and photos of child pornography contained on over two dozen different storage devices.

The Guardian | The US Republican candidate Michele Bachmann's Iowa campaign chairman has resigned and endorsed rival Ron Paul, six days before Iowa voters begin the nomination process to select the party's 2012 presidential nominee.

Boing Boing | TorrentFreak continues to crawl through YouHaveDownloaded, a database of IPs that have been logged by a BitTorrent-spying tool run by some folks in Russia. They've already revealed the downloading habits of the RIAA and DHS as well as the behavior detected at Nicholas Sarkozy's official residence, and now they're publishing stats on the US House of Representatives.

The Innocence Project | As the pace of DNA exonerations has grown across the country in recent years, wrongful convictions have revealed disturbing fissures and trends in our criminal justice system. Together, these cases show us how the criminal justice system is broken – and how urgently it needs to be fixed.

OpEd News | Moving quickly on Christmas Day after the US Senate voted 86 - 14 to pass the National Defense Authorization Act of 2011 (NDAA) which allows for the indefinite military detention of American citizens without charge or trial, Montanans have announced the launch of recall campaigns against Senators Max Baucus and Jonathan Tester, who voted for the bill.

Washington Post | Former House speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Gov. Rick Perry failed to submit enough valid signatures to qualify for the Virginia primary ballot, state GOP officials said Friday evening and early Saturday.  The Republican Party of Virginia announced early Saturday that Gingrich and Perry failed to submit 10,000 signatures of registered voters required to get their names on the ballot for the March 6 primary.

Seattle Times | A new book that was the basis of a recent "60 Minutes" investigation into congressional insider trading alleges Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Seattle, made almost $40,000 in 2005 by flipping shares in a Canadian biotech firm that stood to benefit from a massive bioterrorism-defense bill he voted for.

Before Its News | In a 2009 shocker,  Sinclair revealed in his book stunning revelations about Barack Hussein Obama, including that he had had a gay lover in Illinois. Shortly after addressing the National Press Club in Washington, DC in 2008, Sinclair revealed that Senior Advisor David Axelrod spearheaded a vindictive smear campaign against him, while Vice President Joe Biden and his son Beau arranged for his arrest after the NPC speech.

Associated Press | An Ohio third-grader who weighs more than 200 pounds has been taken from his family and placed into foster care after county social workers said his mother wasn't doing enough to control his weight.

Willamette Week | For three decades we have conducted a massive economic experiment, testing a theory known as supply-side economics. The theory goes like this: Lower tax rates will encourage more investment, which in turn will mean more jobs and greater prosperity—so much so that tax revenues will go up, despite lower rates. The late Milton Friedman, the libertarian economist who wanted to shut down public parks because he considered them socialism, promoted this strategy. Ronald Reagan embraced Friedman’s ideas and made them into policy when he was elected president in 1980.

Common Dreams | Advocates for the poor and often hungry in the US say that problems for the nation's needy could intensify if the agriculture department bows to pressure from congress to reduce food-assistance schemes.  Politicians are looking at ways to stimulate the economy and balance the federal budget with a proposed $4.2bn cut in its food-stamps program that currently assists 45 million people.

Since these petitions are ignored apart from an occasional patronizing and inane political statement amounting to nothing more than a condescending pat on the head, we the signers would enjoy having the illusion of success. Since no other outcome to this process seems possible, we demand that the White House immediately assign a junior staffer to compose a tame and vapid response to this petition, and never attempt to take any meaningful action on this or any other issue. We would also like a cookie.

CNN | "It did happen regularly, for a period of time, and I could tell, because of the pattern, that things were escalating again," Hillary Adams, now 23, said on NBC's "Today." She said she left her video camera on her dresser recording and covered its light with a scarf in order to capture the video.