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    Preston Maddock

    Preston Maddock

    Politics Intern

  • Oklahoma Republican Blasts Party For Crusade Against Birth Control

    In a scathing critique of his Republican colleagues in the Oklahoma state Legislature, Rep. Doug Cox (R-Grove) questioned his party's efforts to restrict women's access to birth control. "All of the new Oklahoma laws aimed at limiting abortion and contraception are great for the Republican family that lives in a gingerbread house with a two-car garage, two planned kids and a dog," Cox wrote in an op-ed published Wednesday in NewsOK. "And in the world I work and live in, an unplanned pregnancy can throw up a real roadblock on a woman's path to escaping the shackles of poverty," added Cox, a practicing physician who has delivered more than 800 babies, according to NewsOK.

  • Opponent On Bachmann's Move: 'Wise Choice'

    Rep. Michele Bachmann's (R-Minn.) surprising decision Wednesday to not seek a fifth congressional term was played down by her presumptive Democratic opponent Jim Graves during interviews with WCCO-TV and KSTP-TV. "I think she's definitely read the tea leaves and probably made a wise choice on her part to get out now," Graves, who narrowly lost to Bachmann in 2012 and has already announced his candidacy for the seat in 2014, said on WCCO-TV. In a web video emailed out early Wednesday morning, Bachmann said Graves' challenge hadn't played a role in her choice.

  • Senators Urge New Energy Secretary To Save Nuclear Fusion Experiment

    Elizabeth Warren (D) and Mo Cowan (D) are protesting a plan to shut down a nuclear fusion experiment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "We are concerned that failing to provide funding for the facility will threaten American leadership in fusion energy research, harm the American economy in the long term, and hinder innovative efforts to develop clean, safe energy production through fusion," the senators' letter read.

  • Corporate Welfare Scheme Exploited By Strip Clubs

    John Thomas and Hans Burkhardt have a lot in common. Thomas worked as a warehouseman for VWR International, a medical supply company with a warehouse in Brisbane, south of Candlestick Park. Burkhardt also worked as a warehouseman, for BlueLinx, a building products company with a facility across the bay in Newark.

  • Gingrich: Obama's National Security Speech Was 'Astoundingly Naïve'

    Former House Speaker and one-time presidential candidate Newt Gingrich did not mince words on Tuesday when asked to critique President Barack Obama's counterterrorism speech from last week. "I thought the president's speech was astonishingly naïve and a sign that he hasn't read much history," Gingrich told Laura Ingraham on her radio show. "[Obama] wants to somehow rise above the big government scandals that are gradually drowning his administration," he added.

  • GOP Senator: Obama Speech A 'Victory' For 'Terrorists'

    Code Pink activist and heckler Medea Benjamin wasn't the only one unimpressed with President Barack Obama's counterterrorism policy speech on Thursday. According to Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), it was a capitulation to the enemy. "The President’s speech today will be viewed by terrorists as a victory," Chambliss said in a statement.

  • State Department Official Who Helped With Benghazi Talking Points Nominated To Top Post

    President Barack Obama on Thursday nominated Victoria Nuland, a State Department spokeswoman, to become assistant secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, a move that could invite partisan tension in the confirmation process. A career diplomat who served as a foreign policy adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney and U.S. ambassador to NATO under President George W. Bush, Nuland has been a central character in the ongoing saga over the September attacks in Benghazi, Libya.

  • Anti-Abortion Leader Compares Rape And Incest To Accidents

    The head of a pro-life group in Michigan made a controversial comparison on Wednesday, arguing that women in the state should be forced to pay extra for health insurance that covers abortions, even in cases of rape or incest. "It's simply, like, nobody plans to have an accident in a car accident, nobody plans to have their homes flooded. You have to buy extra insurance for those," Barbara Listing, president of Right to Life of Michigan, told reporters on Wednesday when asked about the exceptions.

  • GOP Gov. Can't 'Find' Latino Staffers

    During the roundtable, Corbett also appeared to be confused about the distinction between ethnicity and "nationality." "Trying to grow jobs in Pennsylvania is in the interest of whatever nationality we are talking about," Corbett said. "When it comes to the economy, trying to grow jobs is in the interest of every nationality," he repeated.

  • Progressives Turn Up Heat On Mark Zuckerberg

    Progressive groups are turning up the heat on Mark Zuckerberg's immigration group FWD.us, calling on its backers to pull out in order to protest the organization's political strategy. The push comes after entrepreneurs Elon Musk and David Sacks recently withdrew their support. Zuckerberg launched FWD.us to press for comprehensive immigration reform.

  • Remembering Chuck Brown

    “Everybody who connected with Chuck misses him,” said Darryl Brooks, a concert promoter who worked with Brown, told the Washington Post. Chuck Brown died May 16, 2012, of complications from sepsis during a long hospitalization for pneumonia. Read the Post's whole piece here, to find out more about how Brown's family and bandmates are coping with their loss.

  • Tom Morello To Play Tribute Concert For Friend, Dying Iraq War Veteran, Tomas Young

    Tom Morello has played to millions of people in countless venues around the world, and yet a May 19 booking at a movie theater in Kansas City, Mo., could be more meaningful to him than any other. On that night, the lead guitarist of the band Rage Against the Machine will host “Tribute to Tomas Young.” Morello and Young became close friends long before the Internet came to know Young as the gravely wounded veteran who authored a viral open letter to former President George W. Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney on the tenth anniversary of the Iraq War. Morello and Young met in 2007 when Young was making a documentary, "Body of War" and wanted to use a song by The Nightwatchman -- the name of Morello's solo act.

  • Axelrod: GOP Hoping To Eliminate Hillary As Presidential Threat

    Former White House senior adviser David Axelrod said Wednesday that Republican efforts to make last year's attacks in Benghazi into a scandal are little more than a political hatchet job against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. It is no secret that Democrats are salivating at the thought of a Clinton run for president in 2016. Republicans investigating Benghazi deny that politics are a motivating factor for them.

  • Paul Ryan: Progressivism Is 'Arrogant And Condescending'

    Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) belittled progressives during a speech at the conservative American Enterprise Institute on Wednesday. “Progressivism is well-intentioned but it is also -- in my humble opinion -- arrogant and condescending,” Ryan said, according to a transcript. "The Left keeps winning elections,” Ryan continued.

  • Printing Handguns At Home? Maybe Not In D.C.

    Most people aren't particularly familiar with 3D printers, but their potential to be used for sinister purposes has already prompted D.C. Councilmember Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) to introduce legislation restricting them. In response to reports that a 3D printer was used to render a functioning handgun in Texas, Wells proposed the “Undetectable Firearms Act of 2013” on Tuesday. The bill would ban D.C. residents from creating weapons with 3D printers and emerging digital manufacturing technologies.

  • Democratic Lawmaker Uses Shocking Language To Discuss Voting Rights

    Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) rattled off a list of epithets, including the N-word, at an event in his home state last week, The Tennessean reports, in order to make a point about civil rights. Cooper appeared at a Nashville Bar Association luncheon to pitch constituents on a proposed constitutional amendment that would seek to eliminate voter discrimination. “What it would do is grant, for the first time in American history, a constitutional right to vote,” Cooper explained.

  • What Would Ronald Reagan Do?

    Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) believes that, were it his decision to make today, former President Ronald Reagan would force the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States to return to their native countries. "What would President Ronald Reagan do about illegal immigration?" Brooks asked during a speech on the House floor Tuesday. While using excerpts from a 2006 op-ed penned by Reagan's Attorney General Edwin Meese, Brooks proceeded to answer his rhetorical question.

  • Rob Portman Faces Heat For His Vote Against Background Checks

    Sen. Rob Portman's (R-Ohio) vote against bipartisan background checks legislation followed him home during the congressional recess, with protests at his events and a request for a meeting from the mother of a gun violence victim. Portman declined to meet with Jerri Jackson of Springfield, Ohio, who lost her son in the mass shooting in Aurora, Colo. and wanted to explain why she supports background checks. Jackson told reporters that she believes expanded background checks may have prevented James Holmes, who had a record of mental health issues, from obtaining firearms -- including an assault rifle and high capacity magazines.

  • Bill Keating: John Boehner 'Is The Captain Of A Mutinous Ship'

    Rep. Bill Keating (D-Mass.) channeled the maritime spirit of Martha's Vineyard on Thursday to take a swipe at House Republicans and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), The Martha Vineyard's Times reported. While speaking with a constituent about congressional intransigence, Keating pointed the finger at tea party members of the Republican conference. Later in the day, during a coffee roundtable, Keating continued to bemoan the performance of America's elected officials in Washington.

  • The Drones Are Coming Home

    State legislatures nationwide are looking at measures to restrict the use of drones domestically, as privacy and ethical concerns mount among the public about the use of the unmanned vehicles. The specter of drones surreptitiously hovering over American cities and neighborhoods has not sat well with many state legislators, who fear the technology may open the door to violations of the Fourth Amendment. In 39 state legislatures, 85 bills and resolutions have been proposed to set parameters on the uses of drones.