Planned Parenthood Arizona Sues State Over Law On Non-abortion Funding

Leaders working on budget measures; $15.7 billion education bill approved.

Working through the night has left legislators and aides bleary-eyed.

* Says Washington beset by partisan politics * Gets personal about race, imperfections By Steve Holland ATLANTA, May 19 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama complained on Sunday that partisan battles in Washington are holding back stronger U.S. economic growth as he tried to recover from one of the most difficult weeks of his presidency. On a trip to Atlanta, Obama did not specifically mention the three controversies that engulfed his administration last week and raised questions as to how much of his second-term agenda he will be able to achieve. His message was clear when he told Democratic donors that an American economic revival is being held back by a "tendency in Washington to put politics ahead of policy, to put the next election ahead of the next generation, and that mindset is what we need to change." Obama's appearance in Atlanta came as he seeks to regain his footing from one of his worst weeks since taking office in early 2009. His Internal Revenue Service was found to have targeted his political tea party opponents for special attention, new questions were raised about security lapses at a U.S. compound in Libya last year where four Americans were killed, and it was revealed that his Justice Department had obtained phone records from Associated Press reporters in a leak probe. For now, voters seem not to be taking Obama to task. A CNN/ORC International poll released on Sunday showed 53 percent of Americans approve of the way Obama is doing his job, with 45 percent saying they disapprove. Obama found solace in speaking to donors at an event that raised money for Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate, and at a commencement address to hundreds of African-American graduates at all-male Morehouse College. To the donors, Obama said Washington needs to get beyond "the kind of short-term tactical partisan thinking that has come to so dominate" the U.S. capital and start trying to get some policy items completed. He said he remained optimistic that an immigration overhaul is possible despite the tumult. "It doesn't mean there's not going to be some rough and tumble," he said. "If you get into this business, folks are going to take their shots as you, and I've got the gray hair to prove it. But that kind of stuff doesn't bother me," he said. At Morehouse College, thunder rumbled overhead, lightning flashed in the distance and rain fell in buckets as Obama got personal about race. He urged the students to think about how they can serve the wider community as they move on in life and not just focus on material goods. "Yes, go get that law degree. But ask yourself if the only option is to defend the rich and powerful, or if you can also find time to defend the powerless," he said. Obama often speaks of how he wishes he could have had a father figure in his life growing up. His Kenyan-born father and Kansas-born mother divorced when Obama was a child, and he was raised by his mother and grandparents. On Sunday, he was more personal than usual, saying his wife, Michelle, "has a long list of my imperfections." "My whole life, I've tried to be for Michelle and my girls what my father wasn't for my mother and me. I've tried to be a better husband, a better father, and a better man," he said. PERSONAL REFLECTIONS Obama said he ultimately hopes to be remembered not for his record as president but as a family man. "I know that when I'm on my deathbed someday, I won't be thinking about any particular legislation I passed, or policy I promoted; I won't be thinking about the speech I gave, or the Nobel Prize I received. I'll be thinking about a walk I took with my daughters, a lazy afternoon with my wife, whether I did right by all of them," he said. Obama urged the graduates not to make excuses for hard times that may come their way. He said he made his own share of mistakes growing up. "And I have to confess, sometimes I wrote off my own failings as just another example of the world trying to keep a black man down," he said. He said he has tried to use his abilities to help people less fortunate than himself. "There but for the grace of God, I might be in their shoes," Obama said. "I might have been in prison. I might have been unemployed. I might not have been able to support a family - and that motivates me." Nowadays, he said, people need to look beyond racism and discrimination in order to work together for a country that can compete around the world. (Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Outspoken rocker Ted Nugent is now catching heat from his own brother on his uncompromising stance on gun rights. In a Washington Post op-ed published Friday, Jeffrey Nugent, Ted's older brother, wrote that while he agrees with his younger brother's fervent defense of the right to bear arms, he splits with the "Cat Scratch Fever" singer on expanding background checks. "I agree with Ted that our constitutional right to bear arms should not be undermined," writes Nugent, the former chief executive and president of Revlon. "I want all those who are qualified to purchase a gun to be able to do so. But — and here is where I part ways with my brother — not everyone is qualified to own a gun, so expanded background checks should be a legislative priority." He continues, "The NRA has it wrong: Irresponsible gun owners are bad for everyone. If you shouldn’t have access to a gun, then there should be no way for you to access a gun! Can anyone argue with that?" Earlier this year, Nugent spoke out against the background check legislation authored by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), deeming the measure the “the Ban Ted Nugent Act of 2013." In the Post op-ed, the elder Nugent details attending last month's NRA annual convention in Houston, Texas with his brother, who gave the last speech at the annual meeting. "Ted is someone who speaks in extremes to make his points," Jeffrey Nugent writes of his brother's often controversial rhetoric. "It reflects who he is, and it works for him and his audience." Ted Nugent responded to his brother's criticism in a Sunday column on Newsmax's website. "In this day and age of terminal apathy and soulless discontent, I adore anyone who is an activist and stands up for what he or she believes My loving brother Jeffery is becoming one of those activists, and I salute the great man," writes Nugent. "His recent opinion on his support for expanded background checks for firearms purchasers is dead wrong, however. Passing expanded background checks would do nothing to curtail or suppress thugs or psychos from accessing weapons and committing mass murder, carjacking, the nightly shootouts in Chicago or a gangsta shooting at the Mother’s Day parade in New Orleans."

Drugs can kill users. Drug warriors can kill anybody. A CBS report on street violence in Chicago makes clear that a major cause -- if not the major cause -- of these deaths is because drug gangs are fighting over turf. Jack Riley, the DEA chief for Chicago, says that he is absolutely sure that most the gun deaths are part of the fight for drug turf. This is absolutely true and drug warriors like Jack Riley are responsible for the fight. Consider what Riley considers a success for drug warriors: the arrest of drug dealers and the confiscation of their product. What exactly does this success do? If they are successful enough to reduce the street supply of drugs they increase the price of drugs. The first thing that happens is that they give windfall profits to all the dealers who they didn't arrest. They didn't hurt those dealers, they rewarded them. Second, the increased profits make drug dealing more attractive. Riley and his crew strap on their SWAT outfits, prepared for battled. They're armed, dangerous and prepared to kill. The DEA is willing to use war-like violence. This will drive out peaceful dealers and the more placid distributors. But with massive profits created by the DEA all they do is attract more and more violent dealers to the market. The more violent the DEA is willing to be, the more violent the dealers will be. We don't see beer distributors killing for "turf," at least not anymore. But, when we allowed the Jack Rileys of the country to set liquor laws from 1920 to 1933 we had violence, gang warfare and murder. When Prohibition was repealed and liquor legalized the violence stopped. We still have alcoholics, but their addiction isn't a crime. They aren't forced to deal with criminal gangs to get what they want. Drug users risk their lives, but even a good deal of that is due to impure drugs with varying qualities -- directly attributable to the illegality of the drugs themselves. If you take heroin, however, that in itself does not risk the lives of others. Drug warriors regularly raid the wrong homes and sometimes shoot innocent people. At least the drug dealers don't pretend they are a force for good. You can't say that for drug warriors. They are sanctimonious and self-righteous. They are convinced that their tanks, SWAT raids, concussion grenades and assault rifles, which they regularly point at their fellow citizens, are signs of their righteousness. They are really signs of everything that is wrong with the war on drugs. The DEA is acting like just another rival drug gang. They propel their competitors, the other drug gangs, to match them in violence. They raise the stakes -- and the dealers see them and raise them again. The way to destroy the drug gang violence is to take the profit out of it. The Drug Warriors know that, they just don't understand the most basic principles of economics. They think that they take the profit out by reducing the supply. That is entirely foolish. Reducing the supply, without touching the demand, only raises the profits. End the war on drugs and legalize the product and profits plummet, the cost of drugs decline. Users would no longer have to deal with street gangs. Of course, the DEA thugs will be out of a job. The war on drugs also profits the DEA and the local drug warriors. They get billions in funding, decent salaries, and the adrenaline rushes they are addicted to. They, and the bureaucrats who profit from the war on drugs, will fight attempts to treat drug use as a medical problem, instead of a criminal one. Portugaldecriminalized drugs and treats users as individuals who need help, not as criminals. Drug related deaths dropped as a result. As bad as drugs can be, Drug Warriors are worse. They raise the stakes of the drug fight, incentivize the drug gangs and push them to greater heights of violence. Then these pious frauds storm in, guns blazing, Constitutional rights being shredded, and high on the rush they get from their violence. They pat themselves on the backs and pretend they are making America a better place. When a solution becomes worse than the problem it is time to abolish the solution. The gun violence in Chicago is directly linked to the incentives created by the war on drugs. Ending the war on drugs will do more to end gun violence in America than any other policy change we can implement. But it is the only solution that the Drug Warriors, on both side of the aisle, won't contemplate.