Politics

On Friday, Fox News' Monica Crowley informed Hannity's audience that President Obama and his administration have an "ideology of control" just like communist, socialist, and fascist regimes of times past. Over the weekend, we heard comparison after comparison of the IRS so-called scandal to Watergate. Even David Gregory chimed in on that chorus by legitimizing the claims rather than forcing the squawkers to justify their claims. Similarly, Paul Ryan's claim that connection between the IRS and Obamacare is somehow sinister and threatening is yet another dog whistle to the Tea Party masses. Meanwhile, Rand Paul is trumpeting the fanfare over Benghazi and trying to flog Hillary Clinton with it. Of course, it's not just intended to flog Hillary, but also to serve as a clarion call for the masses to rise up this summer yet again. On the extreme side of things, we have radio hosts claiming Obama is really the first openly gay president who hasn't come out of the closet yet. Um, okay. But wait! There's more. According to Virginia's Republican Lieutenant Governor candidate, winger pastor EW Jackson, Democrats are slave masters and Obama is really a Muslim. Did I mention that Mr. Jackson happens to be black? What we have here are the beginnings of a long, hot summer, with tons of manufactured discontent. Unlike 2009 and 2010, wingers don't have Obamacare to kick around anymore even though they think they do. They've had control of the House since 2010 but haven't done anything with it other than repeal ObamaCare 37 times, block every job bill that had a chance of actually improving the lives of Americans, and thump their chests about Benghazi and other stupid inventions. All of this is, as Katrina Vanden Heuvel called it, are weapons of mass distraction, sacrificing real issues and governance for political point-scoring, brewing a summer with town hall meetings full of angry elderly white people shaking their fists at evil Democrats for scandals Republicans caused. Over the weekend I watched The Billionaires' Tea Party, which is an updated version of AstroTurf Wars made during the health care town halls. It includes footage from American Majority training sessions where participants are instructed in the fine art of gaming everything from Amazon reviews to social media. It was a good review in anticipation of what they plan for this summer and 2014. The Occupy movement and all activists should be prepared to take them on this time. They do not get to benefit from the element of surprise. Most people who aren't insane know there's an effort afoot to gin up everything they possibly can to keep this president and Democrats from doing anything worthwhile, but we don't have the Villagers on our side, nor should we ever expect to. If I were you, I'd put those local town hall dates in my planner and plan to attend, if only to counterbalance the insanity they're about to unleash on us all.

As some may have heard, in the late hours of Friday night, a young man was shot in cold blood on the streets of New York City. Some people see such violence as a fact of life that comes with living in a large city, but this was not just any act of violence. What happened last weekend was yet the latest in a series of recent attacks on gay men in New York City. With one brutal shot from a pistol, Mark Carson, a gay man who recently moved to Brooklyn from Harlem, died not for his money or because of his race but because of his sexual orientation, at the hands of an individual who allegedly uttered anti-gay epithets before pulling the trigger. Amid the recent strides that LGBT issues have been making on a national level, Mark Carson's death is a glaring reminder that there's still much work to do on many levels, particularly in the realm of hate crimes.There were many ironies in the death of Mark Carson. The first is that he lived in a city that has the largest population of LGBT people in the nation. (San Francisco comes in first place if ranked by percentage of the total city population.) The high number of LGBT people in New York City doesn't guarantee that no violence will be inflicted on them, but one would think that there would at least be more tolerance. The second irony is that Mr. Carson was killed in Greenwich Village, a neighborhood that is home to many gay-owned businesses and gay residents. It's not lost on anyone that he was only a short distance from the Stonewall Inn, a historic landmark where the famous Stonewall riots of 1969 occurred, sparking the modern LGBT rights movement. One would think that there, LGBT people would be free to safely express themselves more than they would in less tolerant neighborhoods. How can something so brazenly horrific happen in a city inundated with LGBT people, in a neighborhood that is so progressive when it comes to free expression? The third irony is that the incident happened on the same weekend that a large, diverse group of people of all sexual orientations comes out in full force every year to participate in the New York City AIDS Walk. I was one of the many people who came out for the walk this rainy Sunday. Perhaps the rain was a symbol of the sadness that the tragedy had wrought.More...

As people in central Oklahoma emerge from the wreckage of the tornado that flattened entire neighborhoods, some will face another bitter realization: Residents of Moore and neighboring areas may lack insurance coverage to compensate them for the loss of all of their worldly possessions.About 98 percent of homeowners carry insurance, according to the Insurance Information Institute. Standard homeowner and business insurance policies cover wind damage from tornadoes and thunderstorms, but some individuals and companies choose to buy less insurance than they need to keep costs down. As a result, some Oklahoma homeowners and businesses will find that they lack enough insurance to fully rebuild, even though their policies may cover a portion of their losses.More...

Couples decide to get married for many reasons, with love hopefully taking the top spot.But not all marriage motivations are created equally. Jordan Campbell stopped by HuffPost Live late last week and dished on some of the reasons he ended up tying the knot.More...

After a relaxing honeymoon, a pair of English newlyweds returned home on Sunday and discovered a shocking surprise: their house had been painted pink!The BBC tweeted this photo Tuesday of Steve and Hayley O'Rourke's home, which Steve's brother, Russell, painted in the style of Mr. Blobby, a pink polka-dotted character from the 1990's British TV show "Noel's House Party."More...

After the educators at Plaza Towers Elementary School learned that a raging tornado was headed their way Monday, they had few options. The decades-old building -- one of five schools hit in the area -- didn't have a "safe room," or a shelter deemed safe for storms of that size.All hell broke loose. The roof caved in. Teachers carried students out. "They literally were lifting walls up and kids were coming out," Oklahoma State Police Sergeant Jeremy Lewis said, according to Reuters. "They pulled kids out from under cinder blocks without a scratch on them." Tornado drills in Oklahoma traditionally train kids to leave their classrooms, head to the hallways, and duck for cover in fetal position.More...

Bill Murray may be one of the funniest men on the planet. Unfortunately, this tot didn't get the memo. Though their first meeting ended in tears, we have full confidence that Bill and Baby can work out their differences. Baby Steps.More...

Siempre preocupada por el bienestar, la salud y el crecimiento de los niños, en especial desde que se convirtió en madre, Bárbara Bermudo decidió unirse a una línea nueva de alimentos de la marca Goya dedicada especialmente para la primera comida de los bebés y orientada a los latinos.La comida de bebé latina, Beech-Nut/Goya anunció una campaña nacional mediática dirigida a ayudar a las nuevas y futuras mamás latinas a alimentar bien a sus bebés desde el momento que empiezan a ingerir comida sólida. Bárbara, presentadora de "Primer Impacto" y mamá de Mía Andrea de 4 años y Camila Andrea de 2, es la vocera de este nuevo emprendimiento.More...

WASHINGTON -- Two prominent old-line Senate Republicans threw down the gauntlet to their more conversative colleagues on Tuesday, challenging them to stop obstructing the passage of a budget.Led by tea party Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), Republicans have been preventing the Senate from sending the budget it passed earlier this year to a conference committee with the House, at which major differences between the two chambers' budget bills would in theory be worked out. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been supportive of the blockade.More...

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