Wed May 08, 2013 at 09:57 AM PDT.

Issa accuses Benghazi commission chairman of refusing to testify, then refuses to let him testify

byJed Lewison

As today’s big Benghazi hearing gets underway, Republicans are saying Ambassador Thomas Pickering – the co-chairman of the State Department’s committee investigating of the Benghazi attack – has…[Read more]

Wed May 08, 2013 at 09:10 AM PDT.

Elizabeth Warren: Students should get the same loan rate as big banks

by Joan McCarter

Sen. Elizabeth Warren introduced her first bill, a simple proposal to give students the same loan rates as the nation’s biggest banks. Her proposal would allow the cut-rate loans for students for one year, to give Congress…[Read more]

Newark’s field of dreams: An ex-con’s crusade to bring baseball to the inner city

Wed May 8, 2013 9:33 AM EDT

The statistics are sobering. Newark, N.J., has a murder rate double that of the Bronx. A third of its residents live in poverty. Only 40 percent of its students graduate from high school. Behind those numbers, though, are people trying…[Read more]

A deficit shift the GOP may struggle to explain
By Steve Benen
Wed May 8, 2013 1:44 PM EDT.

For deficit hawks, all of the news is good news.

The Congressional Budget Office reported Tuesday that the federal budget deficit is declining this year compared to fiscal 2012.

For the first seven months of 2013, the deficit was $489…[Read more]

I got grimy and found copies of Batman Beyond on a source I have, and if I’m correct, they have Aeon Flux on Netflix-it’s certainly better quality than scouring Youtube for Liquid Television Cartoons, especially since the ads were annoying on the MTV site.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) announced Wednesday on twitter that the chamber will vote to fully repeal the Affordable Care Act next week.

The House will vote next week for a full repeal of #Obamacare. twitter.com/EricCantor/sta…
— Eric Cantor (@EricCantor) May 8, 2013

Jason Richwine and the wonk gap
By Steve Benen
Wed May 8, 2013 12:34 PM EDT.

There’s no great mystery as to why the Heritage Foundation released its widely-panned report on immigration reform this week. The goal was to give far-right opponents of the bipartisan proposal rhetorical ammunition: reform would cost taxpayers over $6 trillion.

Of…[Read more]

The looming fight over ‘debt prioritization’
By Steve Benen
Wed May 8, 2013 11:10 AM EDT.

The question isn’t whether congressional Republicans will launch another debt-ceiling crisis; it’s what they’re prepared to write on the ransom note. GOP leaders, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell yesterday, now freely…[Read more]

The deficit is shrinking. Can we talk about unemployment now?

Posted by Jamelle Bouie on May 8, 2013 at 11:17 am

Is the United States close to running a budget surplus? So suggests the American Enterprise Institute’s James Pethokoukis, who highlights an analysis from Potomac Research, which notes two things.

First, the United States…[Read more]

Oprah Winfrey Returns to Acting With a ‘Misbehaving’ Costar in ‘The Butler’
.
.By Matt McDaniel | Movie Talk – 15 hours ago

It’s easy to forget now that before Oprah Winfrey had a nationally syndicated talk show, she was an Academy Award-nominated actress.

Ten months before “The Oprah Winfrey Show” debuted coast-to-coast, Winfrey made her acting…[Read more]

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The Texas Senate approved something called the Tim Tebow Bill, and it’s a big deal
By Ben Rohrbach | Prep Rally – Mon, May 6, 2013 5:21 PM EDT…
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The Texas Senate passed the Tim Tebow Bill to allow home-schooled student-athletes to play for their local public schools in the Lone Star State, according to multiple reports.

The bill, which…[Read more]

Kerry Washington Graces the June Cover of Elle Magazine

http://goodblacknews.org/2013/05/07/kerry-washington-graces-the-june-cover-of-elle-magazine/

State Legislatures

The Republican Power Grab in North Carolina

By Melba Newsome

It’s not often that 250 people pack in to see the city council in Asheville, N.C., in the middle of a workday. Yet there they were on the afternoon of April 3, when the city’s elected officials met with citizens to discuss a plan by the Republican-led General…[Read more]

@hswindell
Charles Ramsey: “Give the reward check to the girls, I got a job.”