It's amazing how many people ask the same exact questions every single week. Does anybody read the thread? Most of the answers are a few posts before..

Helpful guide for people who actually get paid to write things for a living but still haven’t the foggiest clue what went down in the 7th District this past week.

This is not the story of how Dave Brat won – this is the story of how Eric Cantor lost. Additional storylines relating to this race are not fully articulated here.

Miscellaneous preliminaries
8/20/2013 Obama Economy Claims Latest Victim: Boyd Marcus who was apparently the brains of the outfit, the remaining half of which managed Cantor’s historic defeat
9/5/2013 How Virginia Congressmen will vote on Syria Cantor out of touch, playing ball with Obama – business as usual
The Establishment Strikes Back – Slating in Virginia Beach
Escalating contention dating back years between grassroots Republicans and the party establishment came to a head in early March of this year. Establishment allies deployed a shocking and repulsive new-old tactic called “slating” to maintain their loosening control over the party. Then the fun began…

Looks like Kyle decided to not pay dividends this week, surprise 

Hold tight, Chef Ramsay.  Tom & Jeff are are probably exhausted after teh traditional American Father's Day Bash.  I'm sure they have quite a treat waiting for you.

CNN poll: Paul 14, Bush 12, Huckabee 11, Ryan 10, Cruz 9, Christie 8, Rubio 8, Perry 6, Walker 5, Santorum 4

um, are we talking about the same thing? maybe you should read what i wrote.. i didn't defend any cable news network, i'm just saying fox says way crazier shit than any of the other networks.

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer Sunday morning that the developments in Iraq portended a new 9/11, a consequence he deemed “inevitable.”

“The decision to withdraw U.S. forces created a vacuum,” Graham said. “Syria is launching pad. …If the central government in Iraq collapses — and that’s the goal of ISIS — Iran will own southern part of Iraq, that’s where the Shiites live; they can operate ISIS from Baghdad to Kurdistan all the way in to Syria. They will eventually march on Jordan and Lebanon — our best ally in the region is the King of Jordan — and they will attack us from that part of Iraq and Syria. According to our own Director of National Intelligence, FBI Director, the next 9/11 is coming from here.”

“That a very serious statement,” Schieffer said.

“I think it’s inevitable,” Graham replied. “They plan to drive us out of the Mideast by attacked us here at home.”

New York (AFP) - The detained US soldier convicted of leaking a trove of secret documents to WikiLeaks made a rare foray into public life Saturday to warn Americans they were being lied to about Iraq once more.

Chelsea Manning is serving a 35-year prison sentence on espionage charges and other offenses for passing along 700,000 secret documents, including diplomatic cables and military intelligence files, to anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks in the largest-scale leak in US history.

"I understand that my actions violated the law. However, the concerns that motivated me have not been resolved," the soldier formerly known as Bradley Manning wrote in a New York Times editorial.

"As Iraq erupts in civil war and America again contemplates intervention, that unfinished business should give new urgency to the question of how the United States military controlled the media coverage of its long involvement there and in Afghanistan."

President Barack Obama said this week he was "looking at all the options" to halt the offensive that has brought militants within 50 miles (80 kilometers) of Baghdad's city limits, but ruled out any return of US combat troops.

Obama has been under mounting fire from Republican critics over the swift collapse of Iraq's security forces, which Washington spent billions of dollars training and equipping before pulling out its own troops in 2011.

While the US military was upbeat in its public outlook on the 2010 Iraqi parliamentary elections, suggesting it had helped bring stability and democracy to the country, "those of us stationed there were acutely aware of a more complicated reality," Manning wrote.

"Military and diplomatic reports coming across my desk detailed a brutal crackdown against political dissidents by the Iraqi Ministry of Interior and federal police, on behalf of Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki. Detainees were often tortured, or even killed."

Manning, a former US Army intelligence analyst, said he was "shocked by our military's complicity in the corruption of that election. Yet these deeply troubling details flew under the American media's radar."

Criticizing the military's practice of embedding journalists, Manning charged that "the current limits on press freedom and excessive government secrecy make it impossible for Americans to grasp fully what is happening in the wars we finance."

Manning is serving out the prison sentence at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas and had requested a name change after court-martial proceedings revealed the soldier's emotional turmoil over sexual identity.

A US Army general denied clemency to Manning in April, upholding the 35-year sentence.

Mitt Romney’s ideas summit in Park City, Utah, was intended to be a passing of the torch to the Republican Party’s would-be saviors, with five potential 2016 presidential candidates jetting in to schmooze with many of the GOP’s biggest donors and present their agendas for the country’s future.

Instead, the scene at a luxury resort in the Rocky Mountains quickly became a Romney revival. Minutes after the 2012 Republican presidential nominee welcomed his 300 guests, Joe Scarborough, the former GOP congressman and MSNBC host, urged them to begin a “Draft Romney” movement in 2016.

“This is the only person that can fill the stage,” Scarborough said at the opening night private dinner, according to attendees.

The Republican elite rose early yesterday morning to go skeet shooting with 2016 hopeful Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. Then over breakfast they questioned Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, another potential candidate, about how he thinks he could defeat Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.

....................

The establishment lights here eyed Paul with interest. He made the case that he is growing the Republican Party and talked about his recent visits to black and liberal audiences.

When a donor asked whether Clinton was beatable, Paul said he believed she was “really vulnerable” on foreign policy and for being too hawkish, according to one attendee.

At this point the U.S. Federal Reserve is well aware of Bitcoin, including all of its advantages and disadvantages. The Federal Advisory Council, which regularly consults with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, held a meeting on May 9 where the banking industry representatives discussed whether Bitcoin poses a threat to the traditional financial system and regular consumers.
The verdict: Bitcoin is potentially risky only for people who buy it, but as these risks are addressed over time, the digital currency could drastically change the world’s finances for the better.
First of all, the FAC’s report notes that “Bitcoin’s nascency makes it more curiosity than threat” and it only accounts for a “fraction of today’s global fund flows.” In other words, Bitcoin is still in its adolescent stages with plenty of room to grow. In fact, the FAC sees the possibility of Bitcoin having a great impact in the long term as “the network self-refines and adoption increases, requiring traditional payment processors to adapt and respond.”
Greater Financial Inclusion

The FAC’s meeting report lists several of Bitcoin’s most popular advantages, including lower transaction fees for merchants than credit cards. In addition, the report notes that digital currency “enables cheap international remittance to the developing world and the developed world’s ‘unbanked,’ expanding financial inclusion.” Essentially the FAC is acknowledging that the vast majority of people on Earth don’t have access to a bank, and that Bitcoin could give them more power over their money.
The Federal Reserve even sees a scenario where traditional banks join the cryptocurrency fun and “participate increasingly in Bitcoin fund flows,” an idea that is supported by the fact that more people are using accounts with multiple currencies. It appears that the Fed sees nothing intrinsically wrong with financial institutions dealing in cryptocurrency.
Consumer Protection

Bitcoin’s greatest flaw, according to the FAC report, is the risk it poses to consumers who buy the digital currency. This risk is mainly that Bitcoin is highly susceptible to theft, a problem magnified by unsecured wallets and unreliable exchanges like Mt. Gox.
However, the Fed suggests a few solutions. “Supervised risk management of Bitcoin exchanges” would ensure their solvency, and further regulations could require that the exchanges invest in appropriate cybersecurity measures to prevent hacking. These efforts would theoretically prevent another Mt. Gox from occurring in the future.

Coinbase is now offering its merchant partners a way to incentive bitcoin payments with a new feature that will allow businesses to extend discounts of up to 25% to consumers.


The California-based company framed the move as one that will provide merchants with a dynamic way to incentivize their customers to shift away from traditional payment methods.


As the costs of a credit or debit card transactions fall largely on the merchant – who may find themselves charging more to make up for these expenditures – a discounting feature can make it more enticing for customers to spend bitcoin.


Coinbase said in a statement:
“[Transaction] expenses are passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices for goods and services. Bitcoin significantly reduces transaction fees and costs associated with fraud and chargebacks. And now, merchants can share these savings with consumers by enabling instant discounts on orders paid in bitcoin.”
How it works

Setting the discount is designed to be relatively simple for merchants.
Merchants who use Coinbase can opt to apply an automatic discount to purchases by making the change in their Merchant Settings menu.