News & Politics Blog 1328 items | updated May 17 2013

By Stephanie Miller / host of "Talking Liberally"

Did you hear about this over the weekend? The National Socialist Movement, a white power, neo-Nazi organization based in Detroit (location, location, location) just declared that they will protect “white citizens in the [Sanford, Florida] area who are concerned for their safety.”

It's hard to find anything funny about neo-Nazis -- but let's try! First question: What if the white people they're protecting turn out to be Jewish? I know it's unlikely -- Jews in Florida -- just go with me on this. Imagine a group of Nazis who march all the way from Detroit and discover that the only white people they have to protect are an elderly Jewish couple, Sylvia and Herman Cohen.

By Victor Balta / current.com

In case you didn't get the memo, we've apparently entered the point in our nation's history when it's OK for mainstream media commentators to call the President of the United States a "thug."

And this was no accident or momentary slip. It was a coordinated effort this week on the part of some of the conservative wing's most influential names: Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Karl Rove.

Over the span of two days, first Limbaugh, then Hannity, then finally Rove spewed the word while deriding President Barack Obama for taking a stand this week on the Supreme Court's consideration of the Affordable Care Act and for strongly noting the general philosophical difference between himself and conservatives as we head toward this year's presidential election.

Rather than feign outrage, demand an apology or start a boycott, it's more useful in this case to take a closer look at the intention behind the the use of this particular word, "thug," and expose it for what it is: A blatant effort to undermine the president's authority and power by using racially charged, fear-evoking code words they can later deny.

This week, vigils took place across America to commemorate those lost, from Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington, to Trayvon Martin in Florida. Also, tornadoes touched down in Texas, and Michelle Obama visited with military families in Maryland. Get caught up with The Week in Photos:

LINK: http://current.com/photo-galleries/week-in-photos-april-6/

By Stephanie Miller / Host of "Talking Liberally"

Well, it's been a full two weeks now and I'm still on TV! I believe that's a broadcast record for me. My new goal is to last at least 36 days, which is the time it took for the Supreme Court to take Florida away from Al Gore. I'm expecting a drunk-dial call from Virginia Thomas any time now telling me that her husband wants me off the air.

One of the amazing things about being on Current is that I do get calls from brand new parts of the country that never hear the radio show or, for that a matter, have never even seen a liberal.

By Stephanie Miller / Host of "Talking Liberally"

Well, I don't know about you, but I'm totally EXHAUSTED from all this Mitt-mentum. The spine-tingling excitement of his staggering victories in Wisconsin, Maryland and D.C. has left me spent. So much so that I can't even bring myself to take Ann Romney up on her offer of "unzipping" her husband. I don't think I want to know what's really inside that suit, although I assume there are a lot of wheels and gears. I wonder if he rusts in the rain? Life has so many Mitt-mysteries left to be explored...

By Stephanie Whiteside / current.com

Nine medical groups are launching a campaign to discourage doctors from ordering what they call unnecessary tests. The effort is headed by the American Board of Internal Medicine and includes medical specialty societies representing family physicians, cardiologists, radiologist, gastroenterologists, oncologists, kidney specialists and others.

The Choosing Wisely campaign targets 45 diagnostic tests that the groups say are overused, including imaging tests, including CT scans and MRIs, and preventative tests like colonoscopies. The group is also targeting use of drugs, urging shorter courses and lower drugs to manage symptoms and avoiding prescriptions for mild-to-moderate conditions like sinus infections.

Cutting superfluous testing could save billions; the American College of Physicians CEO Dr. Steven Weinberger estimates that unnecessary diagnostic tests account for around $250 billion in health care spending.

But while much of the media is reporting on the group's effort, which was announced today in a press release, few are asking the question of why are so many tests being ordered in the first place?

By Carrie Mihalcik / Current.com

Gas has been spewing into the air for over a week due to a major leak at the Elgin offshore platform in the North Sea. All 238 workers were evacuated and a two-mile evacuation radius was set up around the platform, which is about 150 miles off the coast of Scotland. The New York Times reports that the volume of gas leaking from the well threatens to make the air both poisonous and explosive over a wide area and poses a significant environmental danger.

Total, the French energy company that owns the platform, has been spending $1 million dollars a day to plug the leak, according to Reuters. Their efforts to plug the leak last week failed. Total now plans on drilling two relief wells to stop gas from leaking at the top of the platform once conditions have been deemed safe for both men and equipment.

Total has enlisted the help of international experts to stop the leak, including U.S. firefighting and engineering firm Wild Well Control, which helped tackle BP's Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010.

By Carrie Mihalcik / current.com

Mitt Romney leads Rick Santorum in national polls as the two Republican front runners face off in primaries today in Wisconsin, Maryland and Washington D.C.

Current's Poll Positions tracker shows that Romney has a solid 11-point lead over Santorum going into today's primaries -- and has been leading Santorum for over a month. 

By Stephanie Miller / Host of "Talking Liberally"

Well, babies, it's been a whole week and Mama wasn't canceled! Obviously no one at Current was watching.

I know we're on early, guys, but I serve coffee topless on camera -- something Joe Scarborough almost never does.

The great news is that a lot of people have been watching -- we've tripled the ratings in our time slot! I'd say that was just my immediate family, but they're mostly Republicans and they stop watching right after after the opening music. My 89-year-old Republican mother just wants to make sure that I'm eating. I know it must have been a great comfort to her to see me swallow a whole Italian sausage on camera this morning. That's something Scarborough also never does, by the way. Pay attention Joe. You'll get the hang of this TV thing yet.

By Stephanie Whiteside / current.com

The American Legislative Exchange Council has made news recently as one of the driving forces behind Florida's "stand your ground" legislation that has come under scrutiny during the Trayvon Martin case. 

ALEC's membership is comprised of legislators, who pay a minimal fee to join, and corporations, who pay significantly more for membership. In theory, ALEC allows legislators to work with experts to craft legislation on a broad range of topics; in practice, it gives corporations veto power over unpopular ideas and allows them to write their interests into model legislation.

This model legislation, effectively ghostwritten by corporate interests, is then spread across the country as state officials introduce bills based on the ALEC model. Spreading far and wide, ALEC is able to easily affect policy in states and push a cohesive agenda that favors the interests of corporations over those of the public.

Gun laws aren't the only item on ALEC's agenda. In fact, there are few areas untouched by ALEC's models, and we've rounded up five areas where ALEC has been heavily influencing public policy:

By Kim Barker and Al Shaw / ProPublica

For an example of the fluidity of campaign finance rules, as well as the tangled web of connections between candidates and super PACs, look no further than the digital consulting firm Targeted Victory.

So far, the firm's hauled in $4.1 million working for Mitt Romney's presidential campaign and American Crossroads, the super PAC launched by GOP strategist Karl Rove. Just down the hall, its neighbors in Arlington, Va., include an office housing four other companies working for Romney, American Crossroads or the pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future.

By Lois Beckett / ProPublica

President Obama's re-election campaign is reportedly building a massive database of information about potential supporters.

The database seems to bring together information about supporters gathered from all branches of the campaign -- everything from an individual's donation records to volunteer activity to online interactions with the campaign -- aimed at allowing the campaign to personalize every interaction with potential supporters.

This week, protesters collided over health care, violence erupted in Barcelona during a 24-hour strike and one lucky winner could claim one of the largest lottery jackpots in history. Get caught up with The Week in Photos:

LINK: http://current.com/week-in-photos-3-24-30/

By Stephanie Whiteside / current.com

Rounding up 101 assaults in the War on Women from this year alone might make you think that we've exhausted the pool of anti-woman legislation and policy.  But the right keeps coming with more efforts aimed at restricting women's rights.

From misinformation on birth control to more attempts to shame women who speak up by launching personal attacks, here's the latest:

By Victor Balta / current.com

In an interview with CNN's Piers Morgan this week, Ron Paul seemed outraged at the suggestion that he should bow out of the GOP Primary. But a look at the handy Poll Positions tracker on our Politically Direct election hub shows it's at least a fair question.

We all know it's become a two-horse race between Mitt Romney and -- astonishingly -- Rick Santorum. But the Poll Positions tracker allows us to go back in time to see that Paul has been bringing up the rear in national polls for nearly three months, and is showing no signs of surging.

By Stephanie Whiteside / current.com

Beef Products, Inc., the meat supplier that produces a significant portion of the "pink slime" that was the center of a recent controversy, has shut down three of its four plants. While that's a victory for those who wanted pink slime out of food, there are still issues that demand attention.

The term pink slime was coined by USDA scientist Gerald Zirnstein to describe a filler being used by the beef industry. The substance is a mixture of beef by-products -- trimmings and connective tissue that would have previously been turned into pet food or cooking oil -- that is ground up and treated with ammonium hydroxide to kill germs. Known in the meat industry as "lean finely textured beef," it has been found in about 70 percent of the ground beef at supermarkets. It doesn't appear on the labels, because despite objections from its own scientists, the USDA considers it meat. 

The Environmental Protection Agency today announced its long-awaited rules on greenhouse gas emissions for power plants. In 2007, the Supreme Court made a landmark decision that allowed the agency to deem carbon to be a pollutant, and now the EPA is going forward on that front, saying in a press release that “greenhouse gas pollution threatens Americans’ health and welfare by leading to long lasting changes in our climate that can have a range of negative effects on human health and the environment.”

The Washington Post reports the new rules will require any new power plant to emit no more than 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt of electricity produced. That puts the average gas plant in the clear, but has repercussions for coal plants, which emit an average of 1,768 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt. Republicans are already arguing that the Obama administration is bypassing Congress to create what they call job-killing rules and have introduced legislation to delay implementation.

By Kyle Leighton / Talking Points Memo

In the two years since its passage, heath care reform has been different things to different people. It was a landmark, generational accomplishment to Democrats. It was an enormous overreach of government to conservatives that sparked the Tea Party, pushing Republicans to the right. Americans in the middle, according to public polls, are against the law as a whole but are for its individual components.

Yes, the public's opinion on health care reform is disparate, riddled with qualifications and subject to change when new information is introduced. And it turns out Americans don't really hate it.

By Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo

Appearing on two Sunday talk shows, the GOP's top budget guru Rep. Paul Ryan promised to close enough loopholes to pay for the large tax cuts in his budget blueprint unveiled last week -- but he repeatedly refused to specify any.

"We're proposing to keep revenues where they are, but to clear up all the special interest loopholes, which are uniquely enjoyed by higher income earners, in exchange for lower rates for everyone," Ryan said on CBS' Face The Nation. "We're saying get rid of the tax shelters, the interest group loopholes and lower everybody's tax rates."