TV News LIES

Administrative judges, the adjudicators of regulatory law at U.S. government agencies, may face a threat to their independence from political influence under a recent court ruling.

A federal appeals court ruled in July that the Copyright Royalty Board, a panel of administrative judges who set the rate broadcasters pay for copyright licenses, was unconstitutional because of the way its panelists are appointed and the job protections they are given.

That the revolving door between the U.S. government, both the executive or legislative branches, and the defense industry is alive and well is no secret. But chalk another one up for Capitol Hill. In addition to a top Northrop Grumman official joining the House Armed Services Committee in 2011 (after receiving a lucrative severance bonus on his way out) to oversee the very same weapons systems he lobbied for, now it's the Senate Armed Services Committee's turn.

Mitt Romney was booed Wednesday at the NAACP conference for promising to repeal the president's signature health care reform law, bringing him to an awkward halt in the middle of an otherwise civilly-received pitch for black voters.

It was an awkward moment that forced him to go off script, after giving a somewhat pained smile as the booing continued.

GOP congressional candidate Chris Collins knows health care is expensive these days, but he argues it's for good reason: People are no longer dying from deadly forms of cancer.

"People now don't die from prostate cancer, breast cancer and some of the other things," he told The Batavian in an interview that was flagged Tuesday by City & State NY. Collins was discussing his desire to repeal Obamacare.

Earlier this year, Mitt Romney nearly landed in a politically perilous controversy when the Huffington Post reported that in 1999 the GOP presidential candidate had been part of an investment group that invested $75 million in Stericycle, a medical-waste disposal firm that has been attacked by anti-abortion groups for disposing aborted fetuses collected from family planning clinics.

Coming during the heat of the GOP primaries, as Romney tried to sell South Carolina Republicans on his pro-life bona fides, the revelation had the potential to damage the candidate's reputation among values voters already suspicious of his shifting position on abortion.

Have you heard about the small U.S. government agency engaged in years of closed-door negotiations that could undermine the Obama administration’s declared goals of creating jobs, reregulating the financial sector and lowering healthcare costs?

With the direct participation of 600 corporations and shocking levels of secrecy, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) is rushing to complete the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Branded as a trade agreement (yawn) by its corporate proponents, TPP largely has evaded public and congressional scrutiny since negotiations were launched in 2008 by the George W. Bush administration.

The United States Justice Department said it will not prosecute Attorney General Eric Holder for contempt of Congress.

"The Department has determined that the Attorney General's response to the subpoena issued by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform does not constitute a crime, and therefore the Department will not bring the congressional contempt citation before a grand jury or take any other action to prosecute the Attorney General," the Deputy Attorney General told House Speaker John Boehner in a letter.

Conservatives were united in their disappointment over the Supreme Court's upholding of President Barack Obama's health care law on Thursday. But one former GOP spokesman took things a bit further than the near-uniform vows to repeal the law.

Matt Davis, a Michigan attorney who was once the state Republican Party's spokesman, sent out an email that asked whether armed rebellion would be justified in the wake of the court's decision.