"I believe there is a direction connection" (between being gay and being a pedophile).

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"These people are out to transform the culture. And they believe that sexuality is how everybody ought to be defined. And that means sexual freedom, sexual license to do whatever you want to do. And I know their people say well 'it's unfair to associate homosexuality with pedophilia or some of these other previsions. But I believe that there is a direction connection because what they really want is absolute sexual freedom."

Via: goodasyou.org

Lead the fight to end the open practice of homosexuality, bisexuality and, transgender behavior in the armed forces, and stop our government from using the law to promote the normalization of homosexuality in society and persecute Christians for holding to the biblical view that it is sin.

Via: web.archive.org

I could not agree with you more. Look, it also attempts to poison our children, divide them from their parents and the teaching of the church and basically turn them into pawns for that movement so that they can sexualize them at the earliest possible age. It really is insidious and I agree with you, it is a super sin.

Via: rightwingwatch.org

Their minds are perverted, they're frankly very sick people psychologically, mentally and emotionally and they see everything through the lens of homosexuality. When they talk about love they're not talking about love, they're talking about homosexual sex. So they can't see clearly.

Via: rightwingwatch.org

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The Virginia Republican Party picked conservative minister E.W. Jackson as their nominee for lieutenant governor Saturday night. Jackson will run along side Ken Cuccinelli and is the first black candidate the party has nominated for statewide office since 1988 according to the Associated Press.

In 2010 Jackson formed a political action committee called the Stand America PAC "to recruit and support conservative black candidates to run against liberals in Congressional Black Caucus districts" according to a press release. Jackson also maintained a now defunct blog on his site, where he argued in one post that President Obama saw the world "from a Muslim perspective."

Obama clearly has Muslim sensibilities. He sees the world and Israel from a Muslim perspective. His construct of "The Muslim World" is unique in modern diplomacy. It is said that only The Muslim Brotherhood and other radical elements of the religion use that concept. It is a call to unify Muslims around the world. It is rather odd to hear an American President use it. In doing so he reveals more about his thinking than he intends. The dramatic policy reversal of joining the unrelentingly ant-Semitic, anti-Israel and pro-Islamic UN Human Rights Council is in keeping with the President's truest – albeit undeclared – sensibilities

Those who are paying attention and thinking about these issues do not find it unreasonable to consider that President Obama is influenced by a strain of anti-Semitism picked up from the black community, his leftist friends and colleagues, his Muslim associations and his long period of mentorship under Jeremiah Wright. If this conclusion is accurate, Israel has some dark days ahead. For the first time in her history, she may find the President of the United States siding with her enemies. Those who believe as I do that Israel must be protected had better be ready for the fight. We are. NEVER AGAIN!

The blog post is also archived under Jackson's name on the site IsraelPundit.com and on the website OurObamaNation.com.

Via: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

The Treasury Department Inspector General for Tax Administration sent a letter to Congressman Darrell Issa and Congressman Jim Jordan on July 12, 2012 informing them they would be auditing the IRS in response to their concerns that certain groups might be receiving extra scrutiny. The letter came in response to a June 28th letter of that year from Congressman Issa and requests for an investigation.

The letter states that after meeting with the staff of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which Issa chairs, the IG Office of Audit began work on the issue. The IG offered in the letter to provide a status update to the staff of the committee throughout the investigation as well as provide copies of interim and final reports.

"We would be happy to provide a status update to the Subcommittee staff and provide a copy of our interim and final reports on the matter when they are issued," the letter reads.

The Huffington Post also reported Saturday that an aide to Congressman Issa said he asked the IG for an investigation after hearing allegations of selective targeting of conservative groups.

Issa said earlier in the week he "knew" what the IRS would report about the IRS targeting of conservative groups but said it wouldn't be appropriate to comment until the investigation by the IG was complete. The interview, which took place with Bloomberg Businessweek on Monday were also noted in the Huffington Post report.

"I knew what was approximately in it when we made the allegations about a year ago. This is one of those things where it's been, in a sense, an open secret, but you don't accuse the IRS until you've had a nonpartisan, deep look," Issa said. "That's what the IG has done. That's why the IGs in fact exist within government, is to find this kind of waste and fraud and abuse of power."

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew also said Friday that he learned in March the IG was looking into accusations of IRS targeting of conservatives but did not know of the details until last Friday.

An aide to Congressman Issa told BuzzFeed the "the Oversight Committee actually expressed frustration to TIGTA on a number of occasions about their unwillingness to provide substantive details on the investigation."

An email sent to the Oversight Committee in December read "we are leaving no stone unturned as part of our due diligence. As such, we won't be able to provide a detailed, substantive briefing until late April/early May."

This article has been updated.

Via: Benoit Tessier / Reuters

Marriage equality is the law of the land in France, with the bill passed by the legislature having been signed into law Saturday by French President Francois Hollande.

Same-sex couples will be able to marry starting May 28, 10 days from Saturday.

From the BBC:

France's president has signed into law a controversial bill making the country the eighth in Europe, and 14th globally, to legalise gay marriage.

On Friday, the Constitutional Council rejected a challenge by the right-wing opposition, clearing the way for Francois Hollande to sign the bill.

He said: "I have taken [the decision]; now it is time to respect the law of the Republic."

The bill also legalized adoption for same-sex couples, although the Constitutional Council noted Friday that, as the BBC reported, "the interest of the child would be paramount in adoption cases, cautioning that legalising same-sex adoption would not automatically mean the 'right to a child'."

The Front Page Of Le Monde, One Of France's Largest Newspapers, Declared: "The law on gay marriage officially promulgated"

Via: lemonde.fr

Saturday's signing followed an intense debate in the legislature before final passage of the bill April 23.

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Via: John Moore / Getty Images

President Obama's organizing operation is warning its volunteers that they may be the target of progressive protests and urging its membership to stress their "mission of changing the conversation on climate!" in any confrontations with environmentalists.

Organizing for Action — Obama's outside grassroots organizing group designed to put Republicans' feet to the fire on behalf of the administration — has found itself on the receiving end of late for its refusal to take a position on the Keystone XL pipeline.

In a statement to BuzzFeed Thursday, spokeswoman Katie Hogan said OFA would wait for the State Department to complete its review of the pipeline. "It has been made clear since our first day as an organization that we support the President's plans from comprehensive immigration reform, to reducing gun violence to climate change, including the completion of the State Department review," Hogan's statement read.

OFA circulated a set of talking points to its members for use in dealing with unruly activists. The document, obtained by BuzzFeed, includes information on the science behind climate change and the president's environmental positions, and ends with a section titled "Keystone Talking Points."

An official confirmed the fact sheet was OFA's, and said they "supply regular material to supporters who want information on any issue."

The talking points come with a warning: "Volunteers from Credo Action or other organizations may attend your planning session and want to demand that we work on the Keystone XL pipeline."

Earlier this week, CREDO Mobile called on its 3 million members to attend OFA planning sessions "to make sure stopping Keystone XL is part of the conversation."

"We understand that there are groups and individuals who would like to work to influence the President and the State Department on a variety of environmental decisions, but OFA's plan is to do great organizing on building clean energy locally, turning up the heat on Congress and helping individuals and communities switch to clean energy," the document reads. "They are more than welcome to work with those groups, but we encourage all volunteers to be part of our work and the mission of changing the conversation on climate!"

OFA asks its members to point to the State Department review process when asked about the pipeline.

"Organizing for Action's mission is to support President Obama's agenda. The Keystone XL pipeline is still under review, and OFA supports and respects the process as it is currently underway," the talking points say.

Daniel Kessler, media campaigner with the anti-Keystone group, 350.org, said the document points to a "real anxiety within OFA — and maybe at the White House — that their supporters want a rejection and that in some way they need to be held in check."

"The thing about grassroots organizing is that you have to listen to the grassroots, and they want Keystone rejected," Kessler said.

This article has been updated.

Roger Ebert

A 2005 edit was made to note "Ebert's interest in journalism began in his teens. As a high school student, he was a sports writer for 'The News-Gazette' in Champaign, Illinois, and in his senior year he was co-editor of his high school newspaper, 'The Echo.'"

Via: The News-Gazette, Robert K. O'Daniell, File / AP

Albert Haynesworth

A 2010 edit was made to note "during the 2010 season Haynesworth had a career low 13 tackles and just 2.5 sacks in 8 games (averaging about $500,000 per tackle)."

The Beatles Discography

A 2006 edit was made to add the section about the "Magical Mystery Tour."

Star Trek Character Kathryn Janeway

Seven extensive edits were made in 2007 to an article on Star Trek character Kathryn Janeway.

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Via: Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

WASHINGTON — National Republicans are demanding Democrats return tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from the IRS's union in the hopes of capitalizing on the scandal surrounding the targeting of tea party groups by federal agents.

But the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, which is spearheading the attacks on Democrats, might want to check the financial records for its members.

The National Treasury Employee's Union, the union that represents IRS employees, gave $16,500 to current Republican members of Congress last cycle. Additionally, the union gave $6,500 to candidates who lost or retired, according to OpenSecrets.

Granted, that's not even close to the near $392,000 they gave to Democratic candidates, but it's interesting considering the NRCC is calling on House Democrats to "give back this tainted money."

As MSNBC reported this morning, "The GOP's House campaign arm will start running paid Facebook and StumbleUpon ads calling on Democrats to return contributions they may have received from the IRS union."

Current GOP members who took money from the NTEU are Candice Miller, Peter King, Frank Wolf, Frank LoBiondo, David McKinley, Shelley Moore Capito, Chris Smith, and Tim Murphy.

NRCC spokesman Daniel Scarpinato said the discrepancy between the spending on Democrats and Republicans proved the point that the agency and its employees were politically biased.

"Clearly this agency is not only scandal-ridden but also highly biased, which is reflective in both the cash they've pumped into Democrat candidates and the fact that they have targeted conservative groups," he said.

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WASHINGTON — Rep. Charlie Rangel, the New York Democrat who was once censured by the House for ethics violations that included tax evasion, spoke out against tax abuse at a hearing Friday.

Rangel was questioning Steven Miller, the outgoing director of the Internal Revnue Service, at hearing on the ongoing scandal that the IRS improperly targeted conservative nonprofit groups.

"This is wrong to abuse the tax system, this screams out for tax reform does it not?" Rangel asked.

Rangel's questioning of Miller focused on the fact that applications for 501c(4) tax-exempt groups increased after the Supreme Court's Citizen's United ruling. Rangel momentarily forget the name of the case.

"After the Supreme Court decision in Citizen's Union," Rangel said, until a colleague corrected him. "What? United, whatever."

Via: John Moore / Getty Images

Newark Mayor Cory Booker made a total of $1.3 million from 90 paid speeches from 2008 to April 2013, according to financial disclosure forms filed by his office ahead of a campaign for U.S. Senate next year.

Booker paid roughly $467,000 in taxes on the speeches during the five-year period. The filings, provided to BuzzFeed by Booker's office, show he gave nearly $620,000 — or just under 75% of the earnings after taxes — to charities and nonprofits. That leaves an income of about $232,000 from the speeches over the last five years.

Booker has come under fire for traveling outside the city of Newark to deliver speeches and make public appearances. But earlier this year, he told The New York Times he gives nearly all of his speaking fees to charity.

"Even though I am entitled to keep it," he said, "after Uncle Sam takes his share and after I've given away hundreds and hundreds of thousands, I've kept very little of it, if any."

Most of the charitable donations, said Booker's campaign spokesman Kevin Griffis, went to Newark nonprofits and churches.

The filings show Booker made a salary during the 2012-2013 reporting period of $174,500. The forms show Booker did not take in any earnings from his digital media company, Waywire.

The majority of the speeches — 42 in total over the last five years — took place at institutions of higher learning. Twenty two took place at corporations, including Google, MetLife, and General Mills.

"The speaking opportunities have provided benefits for the city of Newark," Griffis told BuzzFeed in a statement. "They have helped the mayor connect to philanthropists and developers and attracted talented people to the city. Further, his talks have helped to increase and improve the city's profile, and allowed the mayor to make significant contributions to Newark non-profits and organizations hit especially hard during this difficult economic time."

Booker only released a U.S. Senate financial disclosure form for the 2012-2013 reporting period, but his office provided reporters with a full list of compensated speeches since 2008, as well as a list of entities to which he has given and during what year. But the list does not specify how much Booker gave to which charities, and on how many occasions.

The filing shows he gave a donation of some amount the Newark Now, the charity Booker founded in 2003, every year from 2009 to 2013.

Correction: Booker earned a salary of $174,500 during the 2012-2013 reporting period. An earlier version of this item mischaracterized the figure.

Booker's financial disclosure filing:

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Via: Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will keynote Canada's "Top 100 Employers" conference this November in Toronto, earning at least $250,000 for the speech, according to a source familiar with the event.

The speech is one of nearly a dozen Clinton has lined up for the rest of the year. After leaving the State Department in February, she signed with the Harry Walker Agency to hit the lucrative speaking circuit, as she weighs a bid for president in 2016.

Clinton reportedly rakes in north of $200,000 for each speech.

She is also booked in the fall to speak at a realty conference, and to deliver Hamilton College's annual "Great Names" lecture, which will be free and open to the public.

The Toronto conference this November costs more than $2,000 to attend, according to a registration form for the event.

Via: John Moore / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — President Obama is heading to Baltimore Friday for what the White House is billing as "his second Middle Class Jobs and Opportunity Tour." The brief trip out of DC may also prove to be a detour into the politics of Keystone, which have caused deep divisions in the Democratic base.

Obama is scheduled to make a stop at Ellicott Dredges Friday, just a day after Ellicott president Peter Bowe testified before a Congressional subcommittee and called on Washington to approve the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline.

Bowe testified on behalf of the National Association of Manufacturers Thursday before a subcommittee of the House Committee On Small Business at a hearing about Keystone. He called on the federal government to build the pipeline, telling the subcommittee that the pipeline is a job creator. He said the project would create longterm employment for workers in the dredging sector.

"For us, it's all about jobs, not construction jobs for the pipeline itself, but ongoing jobs every year for decades to come, all related to the production of oil from the Alberta oil sands deposits," Bowe said in his prepared remarks.

Obama hasn't said if he supports Keystone, and the administration has noted the State Department is still reviewing the pipeline. But a vocal group in his base hope Obama will publicly reject project. Republicans have criticized Obama over delays in the pipeline decision, saying he's playing politics with the project. The White House says it won't take a public stance until State has completed its review.

Most recently, Keystone opponents have hung their hopes on Vice President Biden, who they believe to be a strong pipeline opponent.

Progressive activists have continued pressuring Obama on Keystone, protesting his events and publicly calling on him to shut the pipeline project down. The advocacy group founded from the remnants of Obama's reelection campaign, Organizing For America, has upset progressives by saying it will steer clear of the Keystone debate until the administration takes a stand on the project.

Update: In keeping with standard practice when talking about Keystone, which is under review at the State Department, the White House referred questions about the project to state.

Via: Joshua Roberts / Reuters

President Obama's grassroots operation has a message for environmentalists upset with their refusal to get involved with Keystone XL pipeline: Go someplace else.

"The people who want to work on that issue, they should go work with 350.org and the organizations that are doing great work [on Keystone]," a senior official with Organizing for Action told BuzzFeed.

"We've been explicit about that," the official added. "You can't go into an organization and say, 'Well, I want to work on something else,' when the organization says, 'No, we're not set up to do that.'"

Despite launching a national climate change campaign, OFA has come under fire from progressives because it has refused to become involved in the fight over the pipeline, which would transport oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast for refinement. Instead, their new effort will target members of Congress who deny the science behind global warming.

Although OFA has made clear it won't weigh in on the controversial project until Obama's administration does, activists complain that's not good enough.

With several actions this week — a 500-person anti-Keystone rally outside the president's Manhattan fundraiser Monday, and a call for advocates to storm OFA planning sessions with questions about the pipeline — the progressive community hopes to push OFA to not only start talking Keystone, but to pressure the White House to reject it.

Eddie Scher, a spokesman for the Sierra Club, said it was only a matter of time before activists push OFA to more directly address the issue. "They're gonna have to deal with it. We're all gonna have to deal with this one," said Scher. "This is the front line right now in this fight, and you can't ignore it. You have to grapple with it, and there's no subtle way out of it."

But OFA officials maintain they've been clear about their position from day one, and to ask the group to go against the president on Keystone would be to turn their mission statement on its head. The outcry from the left on the pipeline amounts to an attempt to "drum up conflict," said the OFA official.

Founded after the 2012 election, OFA was billed as Obama's grassroots arm — an organizing juggernaut that could rally Democrats and help push through legislation on issues like immigration and gun control.

But there are limits to what the group can do: Its mission statement explicitly ties it to Obama ands requires OFA to support the president "in achieving enactment of the national agenda Americans voted for on Election Day 2012."

And that means OFA won't be getting involved in the Keystone dispute until the administration announces its decision, which may not come until next year.

"Our mission is to advance the president's agenda. So how do you go out there and advance the president's agenda, when he hasn't made a decision yet," said the OFA official. "If there's an action that needs to be taken [after the decision], we'll look at that. This is an issue now because a set of activists groups are trying to push us to do something we said we'd never do."

"It is what it is — we understand the tension, but there are other avenues to do this," the official added. "OFA is not going to change its mission."

OFA spokeswoman Katie Hogan said the group would stick to Obama-backed policies. "OFA was founded to support the president's agenda, an agenda a majority of the American people voted for in 2012," Hogan said in a statement. "It has been made clear since our first day as an organization that we support the President's plans from comprehensive immigration reform, to reducing gun violence to climate change, including the completion of the State Department review."

That said, OFA hasn't been completely silent on Keystone. In a fundraising pitch to supporters, for instance, OFA slammed Republicans for trying to "circumvent the State Department's process evaluating the Keystone XL oil pipeline."

OFA's climate campaign manager, Ivan Frishberg, told BuzzFeed that the group often discusses the pipeline in meetings with its members. "To say we're not talking about it is a little ironic," he said. "Because we talk about it all the time when people ask, and we talked about it in our very first email."

But activists vehemently opposed to the pipeline aren't taking no for an answer, even if they sympathize with OFA's awkward position.

Belinda Rodriguez, a member of the climate change advocacy group 350.org, spoke at an OFA climate breakout session at the group's conference in March, where she said members and officials "talked Keystone a lot."

"It's a tricky issue," Rodriguez told BuzzFeed before the rally Monday outside Obama's fundraiser. "I noticed there was some caution around the Keystone thing. They weren't sure how they wanted to approach it. But it's obviously something they care about, and they have no illusions about the fact that it's a terrible project that's going to have terrible impacts."

Daniel Kessler, also with 350.org, said OFA knows that Keystone is the "central" issue for the environmental community, but agreed their hands are essentially tied.

"In some way, you have to dance with the person you picked to dance," Kessler said. "I know anecdotally that when Ivan is doing meetings, he'll say, 'Don't ask me the Keystone question. I'm here to talk about the president's agenda and the climate denier program.' But he knows that every time he does a public meeting, people ask him about Keystone."

Others are less forgiving. CREDO Mobile, which has a membership of three million, asked its supporters to attend an OFA-hosted climate meeting Wednesday to "make sure stopping Keystone XL is part of the conversation." Becky Bond, CREDO's political director, told BuzzFeed that the Obama group has been "silent on Keystone," and has made a conscious effort to "not talk about it."

But OFA leaders say they're happy to have discussions about the pipeline.

"I don't know that many people showed up," said the official of CREDO's action. "I think the handful that did had very thoughtful conversations about it."

"They're trying to drum up conflict. You can do that on email and blogs and list-serves, but when you're actually sitting down and talking to people, it's different," said the OFA source. "People look for conflict in particular places, but I don't think that's true at the grassroots level."

Barack Obama

Via: Jason Reed / Reuters

George W. Bush

Source: media.boreme.com

Bill Clinton

Source: images2.sina.com

George H.W. Bush

Via: newshopper.sulekha.com

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell listens as Rep. Michele Bachmann speaks at a press conference with tea party leaders on Capitol Hill.

Via: Yuri Gripas / Reuters

WASHINGTON — Remember Michele Bachmann?

Tea party star, momentarily plausible presidential candidate, and the face of the conservative reaction of 2010, she seemed to diminish with the tea party movement. She struggled for reelection in 2012, found herself investigated for alleged misuse of campaign funds, and she was panned for making claims at the Conservative Political Action Conference that President Obama was living a lavish tax payer–funded lifestyle.

But Bachmann's political obituary was premature. She turned out dozens of activists and — perhaps more important — key Republican Party figures for a Thursday morning press conference. Standing beside her were Senators Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Mike Lee, and even Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. To top it off, House leadership had scheduled a vote on her bill to repeal Obamacare for the same day.

"This is a momentous day," she glowingly proclaimed at the top of the event.

Bachmann was there as one of her party's leading spokeswomen on revelations that the Internal Revenue Service had improperly targeted conservative and tea party groups.

"It's very important to ask, and now it is reasonable to ask, could there potentially be political implications regarding health care: Access to health care? Denial of health care? Will that happen based on a person's political beliefs or their religiously held beliefs?" she asked. "These questions would have been out of bounds a week ago. Today these questions are considered more than reasonable and more than fair."

Bachmann, though she maintained a large national following, had struggled to find friends in Washington, beyond close conservative allies like Iowa's Rep. Steve King, and had been estranged from her party's leadership. The final straw seemed to come last July, when Bachmann and four other Republicans signed onto a letter suggesting that Huma Abedin, a top aide to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. She was widely criticized by Republicans, including House Speaker John Boehner, for pushing the theory.

But now she is back — a sign that those Republican leaders see a new national moment electrifying their conservative grassroots.

And the fact that McConnell appeared with Bachmann Thursday, and that House leadership's bill to repeal Obamacare is Bachmann's legislation, could boost Bachmann's muscle in the House. McConnell spoke only briefly at the event and promptly left, but still he had shown up.

The IRS scandal has been a call for action for Bachmann. It didn't matter, she said, that President Obama had condemned the actions of the IRS or that he had ousted the head of the agency.

"The American people have not been told the truth," she said. "What we need to know is what did the White House know and when did they know it."

Bachmann would not say whether she believed the president should be impeached, but told reporters that she was asked at least every weekend why Congress wasn't moving to do so.

"I have been home in my district, there hasn't been a weekend that has gone by that someone says to me Michele, what in the world are you waiting for in Congress? Why aren't you impeaching the president? He's been making unconstitutional actions since he came into office," she said.

Bachmann told the conservative website World Net Daily that people were right to ask about "the credibility of the elections" in light of the IRS revelation.

The thought of allowing Bachmann to become the public face of the fight against the Obama administration is making some Republicans cringe. While there are plenty of legitimate reasons to investigate the president and his administration, some members say they don't want to be seen as endorsing Bachmann's often over-the-top rhetoric.

"The administration has basically handed us a gold mine of legitimate scandals," said a Republican congressman. "If she starts to turn them into conspiracy theories, it's not going to be good for any of us."

And as the House got ready to vote yet again on repeal of the health care law, Democrats were happy Bachmann's name was attached to the effort.

"Doing something over and over and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity," said a senior Democratic aide. "Michele Bachmann is the perfect poster child for this effort."

So you don't think a BRO can get elected to congress?

Meet Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA)

He wears short-shorts.

Via: facebook.com

He Bros out with other tie wearing Bros.

Via: facebook.com

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Via: Steven Senne / AP

Republican Massachusetts Senate candidate Gabriel Gomez was sued by his plumber over unpaid toilet repairs from 2007, according to court records.

According to the plaintiff, Lundy Plumbing, the case was brought in 2008 in response to two attempts to get Gomez to pay for repairs to a leaky toilet in Gomez's home. Lundy Plumbing alleged that Gomez was billed in January 2008, to which he did not respond. Lundy Plumbing then says it sent another bill and called several times before bringing the case.

The case was settled out of court according to court records.

A representative of Lundy Plumbing couldn't remember the specific case but speculated Gomez must have sent a check in before the court case.

A Gomez spokesman said, "This small matter was settled in 2008, and unlike Ed Markey, Gabriel's check did not bounce." The Gomez campaign was referring to checks Markey bounced during the House banking scandal in 1991, which the campaign has made an issue.

An appraiser for Gomez's Massachusetts home also recently also filed a small-claims court case against Gomez saying he didn't pay for a 2005 valuation of his home. A source tells BuzzFeed the appraiser was paid as of this morning.

Via: Elise Amendola / AP

WASHINGTON — Democratic Rep. Ed Markey is consolidating his base ahead of the June 25 election to replace Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, a new poll sponsored by the League of Conservation Voters found.

The poll, conducted by Public Policy Polling, finds Markey up seven over Republican nominee Gabriel Gomez. After the tough Democratic primary fight with Rep. Stephen Lynch — a split Republicans hoped to leverage to Gomez's advantage — the poll finds Markey has brought Democrats to his side.

Markey has gone "from a 68/21 lead with Democratic voters two weeks ago to a 77/12 one now," the PPP analysis of the poll finds.

The LCV spent big to boost Markey in the primary, pumping more than $850,000 into a field campaign. That's "the largest investment in the primary by any group," according to the LCV.

Read the polling results:

Read PPP's analysis:

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The Pentagon formally recognized earlier this month that there are transgender veterans — a step that LGBT advocates say is a long way from open transgender service in the military, but also a significant first step in that process.

In a short letter dated May 2, a Navy official told Autumn Sandeen, a veteran and transgender activist: "Per your request the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS) has been updated to show your gender as female effective April 12, 2013."

Sandeen's military identification card now reflects the change, a move called "quite significant" by the head of OutServe-SLDN, a national organization for LGBT service members and veterans and their families.

"The fact that a process exists [to change the gender listed] indicates that there are people in the Department of Defense who are aware of the needs of transgender retirees and who are working to see those needs met. And, in that sense, the significance of this symbolic act for our broader work and for our goal of open service becomes I think a little bit more apparent," OutServe-SLDN executive director Allyson Robinson told BuzzFeed.

Although gay, lesbian and bisexual service members have been able to serve openly since September 2011, transgender people — those whose self-perception of their gender does not match the gender they were assigned at birth — continue to be discharged if they try to serve openly.

Sandeen had previously worked with the National Center for Transgender Equality to establish the standards used by the Department of Veterans Affairs for addressing transgender issues, and she also had changed her gender with other governmental entities.

"I have now done California, the Veterans Administration, State Department with a passport, and the Social Security office, I have changed all of this," she said. "The one last place that shows me as male is the Department of Defense — from being a retiree there."

Despite being a veteran, Sandeen is still listed in DEERS — a system generally used for current service members — because many veterans have their records and many of their benefits maintained by the Department of Defense, rather than the Department of Veterans Affairs, Robinson said.

Sandeen decided to address the fact that the Pentagon still listed her as a man by asking the Navy to change her gender to female.

"I had heard that it could be done; I had never heard of anybody actually doing it. So, I went and called up OutServe-SLDN, and told them, 'OK, what I did with NCTE and checking the system there [in the Veterans' Affairs Department], trying to find out what the rules are, what do you want me to try and do to see what … policy is.' And they said, 'If you can just show us that it can be done.'"

Sandeen did, submitting the documentation requested, and then, in May, receiving the notification that the change had been made.

"To our knowledge, this is the first time that the Department of Defense has recognized and affirmed a change of gender for anyone affiliated, in a uniformed capacity — in this case a military retiree. That alone makes it very significant, not just for this veteran herself, but for likely thousands of others who can have these corrections made to their DEERS documents," Robinson said.

Sandeen said she saw it as a path forward for more movement.

"By showing you can actually change your gender marker with the Department of Defense, it shows that the Department of Defense actually will do that, and if they do that then it's another stop toward figuring out a way to have open service for trans people," she said.

Robinson noted that the decision itself is "limited in its reach" because "[i]t does not go back and correct historical records that the Department of Defense maintains on retirees, but it does correct all documents going forward, including the ID cards that veterans are issued that allows them access to the same kinds of military facilities that active-duty service members have."

Robinson pressed the importance of that change because it would mean that trans military retirees would have ID cards coded with the gender that the retiree would be presenting themselves as if they were using a military service.

"When transgender people are inadvertently outed on documents that don't match … that they become more susceptible to harassment and discrimination, more likely to face those kinds of responses. In a broad sense, having documentation that matches one's day-to-day presentation of gender is very important," Robinson said.

The limits to the move are significant. As both Sandeen and Robinson noted, the military will not alter the gender listed on a DD-Form-214, the Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty, because the Pentagon considers it to be an historical document.

Sandeen, though dissatisfied with the military's unwillingness to alter that form, said the DEERS change is an important first step.

"They're starting with 'you can change your reported gender with the Department of Defense,' and then [transgender people can] take that into the next couples of questions: 'Why can't we update our DD-214s?' and 'Why can't we serve openly?'" she said.

"I would say that it is a very early and very small step in a long process to achieve our goals here," Robinson said. "But, it is significant, as the earliest steps always are, because it reflects a shift, even if it is a small one, in the way that transgender people are viewed within the institution of the United States military."

For Sandeen, it is that simple. "I'd like to see trans people being able to serve openly, and that's my end, and I think this is going to be a step to get there," she said.

UPDATE: Department of Defense spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Nathan Christensen released the following statement to BuzzFeed Thursday afternoon:

For the last several years, the Department has made requested changes to gender in the Defense Eligibility Enrollment Reporting System (DEERS) for military retirees. A gender change in DEERS may be accomplished by the retiree presenting the following documents:

- A letter from the doctor who performed the surgery, documenting completion of a gender reassignment surgery
- A court order, legally changing the gender in accordance with applicable state law
- An original birth certificate
- A document, reflecting the sponsor's name and if applicable, gender following completion of the gender reassignment procedure for a spouse

The Department will not change a gender in DEERS if it results in a loss of benefits to the spouse of the retired member due to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

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U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) announces that he will resign from the United States House of Representatives during a news conference in Brooklyn, New York, June 16, 2011.

Via: Mike Segar / Reuters

Former Congressman Anthony Weiner's former admakers — the same firm that made many of President Barack Obama's campaign ads — won't work with him in his likely 2013 campaign for mayor of New York, the New York Times reported Thursday.

But the firm, GMMB, has also been doing work for another candidate: New York City Comptroller John Liu, whose campaign has been hobbled by the convictions of two top aides in illegal fundraising schemes. Weiner, for his part, is attempting a comeback the scandal that ended his congressional career, in which he sent graphic pictures to women he met on Facebook.

Liu paid GMMB $57,475 in March for radio ad placement, according to a campaign finance report. GMMB's Anson Kaye (a former Weiner campaign aide) said the money was spent on media placement, which is separate from the firm's creative and strategy side.

"We haven't produced any spots for Liu and aren't going to," Kaye, told BuzzFeed in an email.

Weiner's nascent campaign has barely begun A review of his campaign filings show he spent just over $12,400 between March 12 and May 11. Other than hiring a playwright, Jessica Provenz, to update a set of policy proposals, Weiner spent most of his money on office rent and other minor expenses.

In contrast, Weiner's top mayoral contenders (if he does decide to run) spent hundreds of thousands on their campaigns.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, NYC Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and Liu all spent more than $200,000 in the last two months. Republican candidate Joseph Lhota spent more than $300,000.

And John Catsimatidis, a billionaire supermarket magnate, spent more than $600,000 out of his own pocket. He is not participating in New York City's public match program and thus is not limited by its fundraising and spending limits.

These candidates, other than Catsimatidis, also raised hundreds of thousands of dollars during the filling period, while Weiner raised $0.