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Author: Mandy Nagy

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Mandy Nagy

Mandy Nagy (aka "Liberty Chick") was an investigative writer and researcher. She primarily covered the institutional left, protest movements, hacking and cybercrime, and technology. After suffering a serious stroke in September 2014, Mandy no longer was able to work at Legal Insurrection, but she's always on our minds and in our hearts. For more information, see here.

News on a closely watched campaign finance case today: From the Associated Press: The Supreme Court struck down limits Wednesday in federal law on the overall campaign contributions the biggest individual donors may make to candidates, political parties and political action committees. The justices said in a 5-4...

Did you catch all the good April Fools' Day posts on Tuesday? Here's just a small sampling of some of what was floating around out there in case you missed them. Domino's UK was "ridiculously excited to announce the launch of the #DominosEdibox, a world first...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has apparently fallen even deeper into the #Kochspiracy black hole. From Politico:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid preemptively slammed the budget proposal Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) will release Tuesday, calling it a document written to pander to the Koch brothers and other billionaires. “It’s a blueprint for a modern… how would we say this? Koch-topia. Yes, that’s it,” Reid said. “Call it whatever you want. We might as well call it the Koch budget because that’s what they’re doing, protecting the Koch brothers.” Reid’s remarks mark the latest volley in Democrats’ mid-term election year strategy of attacking the Kochs repeatedly, hoping to fire up their liberal base and associate Republicans with the brothers in the minds of voters. And while a poll last week showed that most Americans don’t know who the Koch brothers are, 45 percent of self-identified liberals said they have a negative opinion of them. Reid dared conservative outside groups to “fire away” at him for his fiery election-year attacks on the billionaire Koch brothers.
(Here's the House Budget Committee's budget blueprint) Reid's rant didn't end there, however. He (or his staff) took to Twitter to say much the same.

From Randy: Seen in Charlotte, NC March 28. I need both of these. ...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for about four hours on Sunday, where they discussed the situation in Ukraine and reportedly agreed at least on the need for a diplomatic solution. From USA Today:
Secretary of State John Kerry says the Russian buildup of troops on its border with Ukraine is creating a climate of fear and intimidation in that country. Kerry spoke after meeting Sunday night in Paris with Russian Foreign MinisterSergey Lavrov and said he told the diplomat that Ukrainians must be the ones who decide their own future. "The United States is is [sic] consulting with Ukraine at every step of this process, and we will not accept the path forward if the legitimate government of Ukraine is not at the table,'' Kerry said. Kerry described his talks with the Russian diplomat as "a frank conversation" about Russia's moves in Crimea and the large gathering of troops along the border with Ukraine. "I made clear the United States still considers the Russian actions to be illegal and illegitimate,'' Kerry said.

The staff over at National Review Online posted this video from NBC's Meet the Press that captures a compilation of recent efforts to promote Obamacare. "We wanted to put together a montage of what has been an incredible White House health care sales pitch," Chuck Todd...

Members of the 201st RED HORSE of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard received a special sendoff as part of a unique tradition this weekend as they prepared for deployment overseas. From ABC27-WHTM: A final wave of Pennsylvania Air National Guard engineers said good-bye to their families Saturday...

Last night's Saturday Night Live opening poked fun at the latest series of social networking efforts to push young people to sign up for Obamacare, which have included an appearance from President Obama on Zach Galifianakis' web series 'Between Two Ferns', among other things. The SNL...

Sad news today from Newsbusters: Our Noel Sheppard passed away yesterday (Friday) morning at about 5:00 AM. Say a prayer for the soul of a man we'll all miss professionally, and many, many of us will miss personally as well. Noel was not just a force...

In the last few minutes of the final broadcast of his program at CNN Friday evening, Piers Morgan said goodbye to his viewing audience. And he just couldn't help himself. Watch for yourself. Partial transcript below.
Regular viewers will know that the issue of gun control has been a consistent and often very controversial part of this show. And I want to say something more about that before I bow out. I have lived and worked in America for much of the past decade. It’s a magnificent country. A land of true opportunity that affords anyone, even British chancers like me, the opportunity to live the American dream. The vast majority of Americans I have met are decent, hard-working, thoroughly dependable people. As my brother, a British Army colonel, says, “You’d always want an American next to you in a trench when the going gets tough.” But that’s where I think guns belong – on a military battlefield, in the hands of highly trained men and women fighting for democracy and freedom. Not in the hands of civilians. The scourge of gun violence is a disease that now infects every aspect of American life.  Each day, on average, 35 people in this country are murdered with guns, another 50 kill themselves with guns, and 200 more are shot but survive. That’s 100,000 people a year hit by gunfire in America.

The chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has resigned, according to a statement from NJ Governor Chris Christie in a news conference Friday. From FOX News: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced Friday that the chairman of the Port Authority of New...

I have to admit, I saw this come across my newsfeed the other day and then on social media but I brushed past it initially because I assumed it was probably just satire. Or something. It wasn't. Apparently there will be a summer course on Miley Cyrus...

The findings of an internal investigation into the controversial September lane closures near the George Washington Bridge indicated on Thursday that NJ Governor Chris Christie had no involvement in the decision to close the lanes. From NorthJersey.com /The Record: Two former high-level Christie appointees share almost exclusive...

Police in Roseville, Michigan say a man suspected of trying to steal a drill from a local Home Depot repeatedly stabbed a store guard with a dirty syringe Monday until a customer with a concealed firearm license intervened and ordered the man to stop, according to an Associated Press report (via Michigan’s FOX 32 News). 26 year old Joshua J. Silva was arrested after the incident Monday, which began in the store parking lot. [Video news report after the jump]. The Detroit Free Press has the details:
Roseville Police Chief James Berlin said that Silva claimed he is addicted to heroin, but it is not believed he was on the drug at the time of the assault. Berlin said Silva began to fight with store loss prevention officers in the parking lot when they tried to apprehend him for stuffing a $179 battery-powered drill under his coat. Silva pulled a concealed syringe from his jacket and used it as a weapon, swinging it around in a slashing motion, police said. They said he stabbed one of the officers several times with the contaminated needle. Berlin said the victim had more than five puncture wounds on the top of his hand. A customer with a concealed pistol license saw the fight, pulled out his handgun and told Silva to drop the syringe and get on the ground. Silva stopped fighting and sat down in the parking lot, police said, but jumped up and ran when he heard approaching police sirens. The loss prevention officers allowed him to run and police officers arrested him without further incident. The citizen told police he got involved because the suspect was so violent and appeared to “be getting the best of” the loss prevention officers. He said he feared if he didn’t get involved, the suspect was going to kill one of the store officers, police said.

The Malaysian Prime Minister announced in a news conference Monday that new analysis showed Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went down in the southern Indian Ocean, which answered some questions about the missing plane but left many others still unanswered. From CNN: Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went down...

On CBS’ Face the Nation Sunday morning, host Bob Schieffer spoke with guest Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts governor and 2012 Republican presidential nominee, about the situation in Ukraine and President Obama’s response to it.  Romney was highly critical of Obama's handling of Russia's actions in particular, noting “the president's naiveté with regards to Russia, as well as the president’s “faulty judgment about Russia's intentions and objectives.” Schieffer began the interview by reminding Romney of his previous comments about Russia, which came up during one of the presidential debates in 2012. “During the campaign, and I want to start with this, you took a lot of heat for saying that Russia was our greatest geopolitical foe. In the third debate, the president came down pretty hard on you about that,” Schieffer began. After playing a video clip of that portion of the aforementioned debate, Schieffer asked Romney his thoughts on the situation today. “I'm sure, Governor, you're tempted this morning to say, "I told you so." But do you really believe that what happened in Ukraine had anything to do with what President Obama has or hasn't done?” Schieffer asked. Romney’s response was critical of Obama’s handling of the situation in Ukraine, and more specifically, the president's assessment of Russia's intentions.