“House Republicans plan to sidestep a charged debate over the distinction between ‘forcible rape’ and ‘rape’ by altering the language of a bill banning taxpayer subsidies for abortions… The modifier ‘forcible’ will be dropped so that the exemption covers all forms of rape, as well as cases of incest and the endangerment of the life of the mother.” [Politico]

“Clay Duke, the man who opened fire on a Florida school board Tuesday, posted a ‘last testament’ on Facebook decrying the wealthy and linking to a slew of progressive sites including theprogressivemind.info and MediaMatters.org.” [TheBlaze]

P.J. Crowley is Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs.

Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer have been held on trumped-up espionage charges by Iran since July 2009, when they were captured near the Kurdistan border while hiking. Fattal is “an environmentalist who worked for three years at the Aprovecho Research Center in Cottage Grove, Oregon, which teaches sustainable living skills.” (Cottage Grove is near Eugene.) Bauer is a freelance journalist and photographer. Both are 28.

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Tea Party/Republican Sharron “You Look Asian To Me” Angle has decided that last month’s ad featuring a photo of Mexican men in Mexico was apparently too subtle in its fear-mongering appeal to voters in her challenge to Sen. Harry Reid, and in true Nevada fashion has decided to double down and go for broke.

Her new ad depicts images of menacing-looking Latino men next to images of white school children. Keep it KKKlassy, Sharron!

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Our afternoon guest columnist is Drummond Pike, CEO and founder of the Tides Foundation.

Dear Fox Advertiser,

I am writing to ask your company to take a simple step that may well save lives in the future. And it is not unimportant that taking this action will remove your company and its products from any connection to what could very likely be an unpleasant tragedy, should things remain as they are today. On behalf of my organization, and many others like it, I ask that you cease advertising on the Fox News Channel.

This is neither a hollow request, nor one rhetorically made. There is an urgency to it born of our own direct experience as the target of a would-be assassin inspired by Fox’s Glenn Beck Show.

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“Mao Zedong, founder of the People’s Republic of China, qualifies as the greatest mass murderer in world history, an expert who had unprecedented access to official Communist Party archives said yesterday… At least 45 million people were worked, starved or beaten to death in China over these four years [of the Great Leap Forward]; the worldwide death toll of the Second World War was 55 million.” [Independent UK]

Human beings with a sense of decency are demanding that Montana’s Big Sky Tea Party remove Tim Ravndal from his position as President of the state party after he joked about killing LGBTQ people and the torture and murder of Matthew Shepard.

Ravndal had stated in a Facebook post that marriage should be between a man and woman (blah blah blah) and one of his fans commented, “I think fruits are decorative. Hang up where they can be seen and appreciated. Call Wyoming for display instructions.”

Ravndal’s response: “Where can I get that Wyoming printed instruction manual?”

The original commenter then responds to Ravndal, “Should be able to get info Gazette archives. Maybe even an illustration. Go back a bit over ten years.”

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