Half-baked Republican Presidential Fruitcakes (and fellow confections)

CNN wrote:

(CNN) - The unmarried 17-year-old daughter of conservative Republican congressman and Louisiana Senate candidate Bill Cassidy is pregnant, according to a published report on Thursday. "Earlier this year, Laura and I learned we will become grandparents this summer," Cassidy, a physician, said in a statement to NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune.

"Our children have been the greatest blessing of our lives and we welcome our grandchild as a joyous addition to our family," he continued. "Our daughter now faces a more challenging future than her peers. She has our unconditional love and support." The announcement comes as Cassidy is considered the leading GOP contender challenging Democratic incumbent Sen. Mary Landrieu.

It's a closely watched race, as Republicans consider Landrieu one of the most vulnerable Democrats running for re-election in a midterm race where control of the Senate hangs in the balance. Cassidy's daughter is a rising senior at a high school in Baton Rouge. The campaign did not provide any additional information to the Times-Picayune, and did not immediately return calls from CNN.

The statement was similar to the one released by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in 2008 about her then-17-year-old daughter, Bristol. The announcement came shortly after Palin was picked to be Sen. John McCain's running mate on the GOP presidential ticket, and just before she was set to deliver her big speech at the Republican National Convention.

Think Progress wrote:

A prominent Kentucky state Senator on Thursday gave a glimpse of detail on why he doesn’t accept that global warming exists and is caused by humans, and his argument is a bit out of this world. At a hearing to discuss how the state could deal with the Environmental Protection Agency’s new proposed greenhouse gas regulations for coal plants, Majority Whip Brandon Smith (R-Hazard) argued that carbon emissions from coal plants can’t be causing climate change because Mars is also experiencing a global temperature rise — and there are no coal plants emitting carbon on Mars.

“I think that in academia, we all agree that the temperature on Mars is exactly as it is here. Nobody will dispute that,” Smith said. “Yet there are no coal mines on Mars, there’s no factories on Mars that I’m aware of. So I think what we’re looking at is something much greater than what we’re going to do.” At first glance, it seems as though Smith was saying that the temperature on Mars is exactly the same as it is on Earth, an argument that is both incorrect and makes no sense, as many other news outlets have already pointed out. Smith clarified his comments on Twitter on Thursday, however, saying he meant not to imply that temperatures were the same, but that climate shifts on Earth and Mars have been the same. His implication, really, is that climate change is a solar system-wide phenomena, and can’t be caused by humans on Earth.

Smith’s argument that Mars is warming is likely based on observations of ice melt on Mars’ South Polar Cap. But there is absolutely no scientific evidence that one sole instance of melting is the result of a planet-wide trend. In fact, as Skeptical Science points out, there is virtually no historical data about the climate of Mars prior to the 1970s, except for drawings — meaning it is scientifically not possible to tell if current observations reveal long-term trends.

The irony here is that Smith claims that one instance of ice melt on Mars is a sure sign that climate shifts are occurring there, but at the same is not persuaded by the incredible mass of long-term data climate scientists have proving human-caused climate change here on earth. To quote Skeptical Science, “Here on earth we have direct measurements from all over the globe, widespread glacial retreat, reduction of sea ice, and satellite measurements of the lower troposphere up to the stratosphere. To compare this mountain of data to a few photographs of a single region on another planet strains credulity.”

Smith’s office did not immediately return ThinkProgress’ request for comment. Though his argument against the reality of climate change may be unusual, Smith’s opposition to fighting it isn’t exactly a surprise. In 2010, he sponsored a resolution calling on Congress to block the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from regulating heat-trapping gases. That action came the same week that the EPA laid out its timetable for imposing climate regulations if Congress didn’t pass its own greenhouse gas-reducing legislation.

BBC wrote:

The governor of the US state of Texas, Rick Perry, has been charged by a grand jury with abusing his powers of office.

A special prosecutor said there was evidence the Republican had broken the law by using a funding veto in a bid to force a local prosecutor to resign. The potential presidential hopeful was investigated for cutting funds to a state anti-corruption unit run by District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg.

He becomes the state of Texas's first indicted governor in nearly a century. Governor Perry, who has been in office since the year 2000, says he has violated no laws. The 63-year-old faces two counts of abuse of power and coercion related to his decision to veto $7.5 million (£4.5 million) in funding for the Public Integrity Unit run by the office of the Travis County district attorney last year.

Governor Perry "with intent to harm another, to-wit, Rosemary Lehmberg and the Public Integrity Unit of the Travis County District Attorney's Office, intentionally or knowingly misused government property," the indictment read. Ms Lehmberg, a Democrat, had earlier pleaded guilty to drink driving charges, but had rejected Governor Perry's calls to resign.

"The veto in question was made in accordance with the veto authority afforded to every governor under the Texas Constitution," the governor's general counsel said after the announcement was made. "We will continue to aggressively defend the governor's lawful and constitutional action, and believe we will ultimately prevail," Mary Anne Wiley added.

The special prosecutor, Michael McCrum, called up numerous witnesses to argue his case that the governor had broken the law. Announcing his veto in 2013, Governor Perry said of the Public Integrity Unit: "I cannot in good conscience support continued state funding for an office with statewide jurisdiction at a time when the person charged with ultimate responsibility of that unit has lost the public's confidence."

The Texans for Public Justice, which filed a complaint in the case, said "the grand jury decided Perry's bullying crossed the line into law breaking". Abuse of office can carry punishments of between five to 99 years in prison, while coercion of a public servant carries sentences ranging from two to 10 years. Governor Perry is the longest-serving governor in the state's history.

His recent movements between key Republican battleground states is seen by analysts as laying the groundwork for a possible presidential run in 2016. Mr Perry announced that he would retire from the Texas governor's office instead of seeking a fourth term in July 2013.

The Guardian wrote:

Ukip has struck a deal with a Polish MEP whose far-right party leader casually uses racial slurs and questions the Holocaust following fears that its grouping in Europe would lose millions of pounds in taxpayers’ funds. Nigel Farage’s Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy group recruited an MEP from the Congress of the New Right with the blessing of its controversial leader Janusz Korwin-Mikke, according to reports from Poland. The Polish MEP Robert Iwaszkiewicz is to join the EFDD’s ranks as an individual, which will restore the group, a Ukip spokesman said.

The deal means that the EFDD group, set up by Farage, has 25 MEPs from seven countries, which should guarantee that Ukip will maintain about £1m a year in funding. The group received €2.6m (£2.1m) in 2013. Ukip accounts for 53.3% of the group. The deal is yet to be confirmed by the European parliament, after Iwaszkiewicz’s application was handed in this afternoon. Korwin-Mikke, whose party has two remaining MEPs and received 7.5% support in Poland during May’s European parliamentary elections, is one of the most outspoken figures within the far-right groupings of parliament.

In July, he declared in English that the minimum wage should be “destroyed” and said that “four million ****” lost their jobs in the US as a result of President John F Kennedy signing a bill on the minimum wage in 1961. He went on to claim that 20 million young Europeans were being treated as “negroes” as a result of the minimum wage. He refused to apologise and was fined 10 days of allowances for his comments.

Korwin-Mikke has also called for the vote to be taken away from women, has claimed that the difference between rape and consensual sex is “very subtle” and said that Adolf Hitler was “probably not aware that Jews were being exterminated”. Marine Le Pen, the leader of the Front National, ruled out forming an alliance with the Congress of the New Right after the European elections. “His [Korvin-Mikke’s] remarks, his political views ran contrary to our values,” she said at the time. The EFDD has been desperate to recruit a new MEP since last Thursday, when Iveta Grigule, a Latvian member of the group, resigned. This meant that the group only had MEPs from six EU member states, just below the number needed to qualify for official group status.

Farage accused Martin Schulz, the president of the European parliament, of acting as the head of a “banana republic”. He said that pressure was placed on Grigule to stand down if she wanted to lead a parliamentary delegation to Kazakhstan. Polish newspapers reported that a Ukip official negotiated with the Congress of the New Right in Poland this weekend over plans to give a single MEP to EFDD. A spokesman for Ukip did not respond to questions asking what Ukip has promised the Congress of the New Right in return for allowing the EFDD to be revived or whether they had negotiated directly with Korwin-Mikke.

In a statement to the BBC, Farage accused Schulz, a German socialist, of “manipulative backroom politics of the worst kind”. “EU federalists will be sitting in a corner somewhere slowly rocking, muttering the words ‘please make the Eurosceptics go away’ over and over,” Farage said. Last week Schulz denied any wrongdoing in connection with Grigule’s decision to leave the EFDD. Iwaszkiewicz said he joined EFDD “because of two important values – opposition to EU bureaucracy and support for free markets”.