World News Korner

Courtesy of the LA Times:

A student at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colo., opened fire at the school, then killed himself, officials said Friday.

At a televised news conference, County Sheriff Grayson Robinson said the student entered the building armed with a shotgun looking for a specific teacher. At least one student was injured in the shooting, he said. Hospital officials reported one student in critical condition.

A second student sustained minor injuries, but authorities were unsure if it was related to the shooting.

The latest attack comes as the nation prepared to commemorate the first anniversary of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., where 20 children were killed by lone gunman Adam Lanza. Six adult educators also died in that shooting before Lanza committed suicide.

Centennial is roughly 15 miles south of downtown Denver and less than 10 miles east of Columbine High School in Littleton, the scene of a shooting rampage in 1999, when two teenage shooters killed 12 classmates and a teacher.

This school is also within fifteen miles of Aurora which is where James Eagan Holmes killed 20 moviegoers and wounded 70 more.

For whatever reason Colorado has been the location for a number of America's horrific gun murders, and yet after the Sandy Hook shootings, when two Colorado lawmakers voted for stricter gun laws to protect their constituents, they lost their jobs.

I wonder if this will be enough to get Colorado to stand up against the NRA and finally do something for their community to protect them against gun wielding lunatics?

And what about the rest of the country in general? Have we finally had enough?

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Courtesy of the Stand by Schaeffer Facebook page:

Amnesty International - 350 Sansome St., Suite 210 – San Francisco CA 94104 Re: Please Consider Case – November 2, 2013

Dear Sir or Madam:

My name is Schaeffer Cox. I am a young political prisoner from Alaska. I have a wife and two small children. I am currently being held in a highly secretive prison unit for political or high profile prisoners called the “Communication Management Unit,” or “CMU”. The purpose of the CMU is to censor one’s communication with the outside world, especially with attorneys or members of the press. It is my great hope that if this letter safely reaches you, you would give diligent consideration to the possibility of rendering me what assistance you are able.

I haven’t done anything illegal and I most definitely haven’t done anything morally wrong. I just made some extraordinarily power people extraordinarily angry with my extraordinarily idealistic charisma. In 2008 I ran for the Alaska State House of Representatives. I came in 2nd in a 3 way race with roughly 38% of the vote. This was not bad for a 24 year old political newcomer with very little support from Party Establishment.

My relative success is likely attributable to the fact that I loved knocking on doors in my district, something few candidates will even do. Though from where I sit now I question whether anything I did can really be called a success at all.

After the election I needed something to do with all the money and support I had raised. The next election wasn’t for 2 years. So I tried to keep the energy going by organizing several groups that focused on Bill of Rights issues as well as whatever else had popular interest. One such area of popular concern was police corruption, especially in the area of drug trafficking and sales. So at 25, with my enthusiasm surpassed only by my naivete, I devised a “brilliant” way to out the dirty cops by setting up hundreds of hometown people with a sort of video twitter we called “The Liberty Bell System.” Less than a week later the State Wide Drug Enforcement Unit opened an “investigation” on me. Now at this point mind you, I’m Duddley Do-Right Boy Scout who had never even smoked a cigarette let alone had anything to do with drugs.

Consequently the State drug cops, being unable to obtain a warrant due to a lack of probable cause, had difficulty furthering their efforts. So I was passed off to the FBI who are allowed to run cameras and listening devise into people’s homes without a warrant or even reasonable suspicion, which is just what they did to me. They also became very aggressive about sending undercover provocateurs who tried to convince me I was doing things all wrong and that acting out violently was the only way to make things change. When that failed they tried to provoke me by going after my children. Though this really shook me up bad, I still managed to refuse to respond to their escalating provocations until several undercover agents threatened to kill me if I didn’t join them in attacking the government. Fearing for our lives, my family and I tried to flee the country but were caught before we made it to Canada. I was arrested and sentenced to 26 years in prison for “Conspiring against the government.”

Into the mind of a madman. Alaska's own domestic terrorist, Schaeffer Cox, writes letter to Amnesty International saying he was set up by the government.While the prosecutor admitted I had refused to act out violently and had in fact said repeatedly that I was “going to be like Gandhi, not like Rambo,” he argued that the only reason I hadn’t attacked the government was because I didn’t have the capability to actually pull such a thing off. He then waxed spooky as he imagined what a murderous revolutionary I would become if given enough time. Reality faded into the background as everyone argued about hypothetical crimes in hypothetical futures and what was in my heart. The crimes in this case were abstract fantasy but what’s left is a concrete reality, a concrete room with a concrete floor, a concrete ceiling and a concrete bed. Here I sit. This is the only thing that’s real.

I know I was fantastically naïve and foolish. I have included a copy of my story along with excerpts from supporting legal documents. I have also included a copy of a letter I sent to Rolling Stone magazine that you may find interesting. If after an initial review you have questions or would like further documentation, please write me back and I will see to it that you get what you need.

With, Great Respect – Schaeffer Cox

Whew! And you thought the craziest person to come out of Alaska was Sarah Palin!

This is an incredibly brazen attempt at revisionist history, but also speaks to just how insane this lunatic is.

His version of events is so far removed from what actually happened that it is almost amazing that Schaeffer would think that anybody who read about his case would buy his bullshit.

Especially since his own own words were used to convict him.

It is interesting that Cox believes that he can charm an organization like Amnesty International with a jailhouse letter, but then again he always did have far too much confidence in his powers of persuasion.

For those of us who followed his case carefully, there is little doubt that justice was served and that Francis Schaeffer Cox is exactly where he needs to be.

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This from old Ridden Hard and Put up Wet's Facebook page:

It was an honor to participate today in a luncheon for the Justin Cowboy Crisis Fund at the Southpoint in Vegas. The JCCF, sponsored by Justin Boots, helps pay medical bills for injured professional rodeo athletes and their families. It’s a great cause honoring our cowboy tradition and those who participate in America’s original “extreme sport.”

Vegas? She's in Vegas?

I am a little confused as to why Palin would support a charity, since as we all know she never does anything which is not in some way beneficial to herself. I mean sure these are people who abuse animals for a living so she may identify with them in that way, but how does this help her to sell more of her crappy books and get free stuff?

P.S. That’s Michael Gaughan and his family in the photo. They’re the owners of the Southpoint Casino, which sponsored the event today. I mention Michael in “Good Tidings and Great Joy.”

Ooooh, now I get it. She shows up for a charity function and gets a free night in a hotel and the opportunity to pimp her book. Palin does NOTHING for charitable reasons.

Here's a rather odd coincidence. MY father was a professional rodeo cowboy when I was a boy. That is until he was forced to quit after having his legs shattered by a bull.

In fact your favorite Alaska blogger also participated in a little bull riding. (I was young, my father and I were trying to bond, and there may have been some girls involved.) I sucked at it of course, and besides I like animals too much to participate in a sport that is so incredibly abusive to them.

Palin may also have misjudged her audience with this one.

Here is the top comment on her Facebook page as of this posting:

For once, I must respectfully disagree with you. Why pay for injuries sustained while torturing animals? We can eat em, ride em, enjoy them in every way, but torture them, no way!!!!

It is one thing to attack the President at every opportunity or abandon her family while pursuing fame and fortune, but hurting animals? Nope that may be the one thing that both liberals and conservatives can agree is indefensible.

And she may have also miscalculated with this angry ghostwritten attack on the conservative golden boy Paul Ryan:

No one can argue with the fact that Paul Ryan’s compromise budget bill raises taxes and increases spending. Show me one Republican who got elected on that platform. Spare America the Orwellian word games. If the government is taking money out of your pocket to fund its growing Big Brother operations, it’s a tax. Whether money is taken from you via your phone bill, your airline ticket, or your income, it’s a tax. If politicians can’t be honest about this, it’s time to go home.

The TEA Party’s very acronym stands for “Taxed Enough Already.” We sent these politicians to Congress in an historic landslide election in 2010 with a mandate to stop the runaway spending train bankrupting our nation, not to wave to it from the station or – heaven forbid – increase its speed.

Not at all surprising that Palin has decided to throw her lot in with the obstructionists and Tea Party saboteurs who do not understand how government works, and who work overtime to prove that it does not.

However this is the beginning of the civil war that will determine the future of the Republican party and somehow I doubt that Palin is going to end up on the side with the victors.

More popcorn anyone?

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Courtesy of Reuters:

Pope Francis said in the first peace message of his pontificate that huge salaries and bonuses are symptoms of an economy based on greed and inequality and called again for nations to narrow the wealth gap.

In his message for the Roman Catholic Church's World Day of Peace, marked around the world on January 1, he also called for sharing of wealth and for nations to shrink the gap between rich and poor, more of whom are getting only "crumbs".

"The grave financial and economic crises of the present time ... have pushed man to seek satisfaction, happiness and security in consumption and earnings out of all proportion to the principles of a sound economy," he said.

"The succession of economic crises should lead to a timely rethinking of our models of economic development and to a change in lifestyles," he said.

This has GOT to be driving the Religious Right, and the Republican party out of their damn minds!

First they convince themselves that the President is a socialist and now this guy comes along.


Oh well perhaps he just knows which way the economic wind is blowing these days.


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Courtesy of Talking Points Memo:

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) on Thursday held firm in his criticism of outside conservative groups after a war of words Wednesday, questioning their credibility and saying they've gone "over the line" for attacking a budget deal brokered by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA).

"Frankly I think they're misleading their followers. I think they're pushing our members in places where they want to be. And frankly I just think they've lost all credibility," he told reporters at his weekly press conference Thursday. "There comes a point when people step over the line. When you criticize something and you have no idea what you're criticizing, it undermines your credibility."

Boehner was visibly agitated with the conservative groups, who are influential among House Republicans and are pushing lawmakers to vote against the bill set to come up Thursday.

"Yesterday, when the criticism was coming, frankly I thought it was my job and my obligation to stand up for conservatives here in the Congress who want more deficit reduction," he said. "Stand up for the work that Chairman Ryan did."

Boehner didn't mention any by name, but the conservative advocacy organizations who have gone against him include Club For Growth, Heritage Action and FreedomWorks.

"This budget bill gets us more deficit reduction than what we have under the Budget Control Act," he said. "I came here to cut the size of government -- that's exactly what this bill does. And why conservatives wouldn't vote for this -- or criticize the bill -- is beyond any recognition I could come up with."

"You know, they pushed us into this fight to defund Obamacare and shut down the government," he said. "It wasn't exactly the strategy I had in mind. But if you recall, the day before the government re-opened, one of the people at one of these groups stood up and said, 'well we never really thought it would work.' Are you kidding me?"

Asked if he thinks the groups should "stand down," Boehner said, "I don't care what they do."

I heard somebody the other day, it may have been Luke Russert, say that if this keeps up, and the establishment Republicans stick to heir guns, that there may be a mas exodus of Tea Party types who will leave. And that if that happened it would completely change the landscape for the 2014 and 2016 elections.

Personally I don't think that right now there is ANYTHING as entertaining right now as watching the Republicans stab each other in the back.

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Courtesy of Raw Story:

The Republican-dominated Michigan state legislature pushed through a bill on Wednesday requiring women to purchase separate insurance policies if they want to have an abortion, the Detroit Free Press reported.

“I don’t think elective abortion should be a part of insurance,” state Rep. Nancy Jenkins (R) told the Free Press. “This doesn’t affect access to abortion. It will still be legal when this law takes effect. Who should be required to pay? Not Michigan taxpayers.”

However, the law, which takes effect in early 2014, will also ban women from purchasing the policy after becoming pregnant under any circumstances, including rape and incest, causing opponents to refer to it as a policy on “rape insurance.”

The bill passed by a 27-11 margin in the Senate, and a 62-47 vote in the House, mostly along party lines. According to the Associated Press, state Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer (D) said during the debate that she was raped 20 years ago.

“Thank God it didn’t result in a pregnancy because I can’t imagine going through what I went through and then having to consider what to do about an unwanted pregnancy from an attacker,” Whitmer was quoted as saying. “If this were law then and I had become pregnant, I would not be able to have coverage because of this. How extreme, how extreme does this measure need to be?”

Supporters of the law cited a petition drive by the anti-abortion group Right To Life that gathered 315,477 signatures — covering about 4 percent of the state’s population — as a response to Gov. Rick Snyder’s (R) vetoing a similar bill in 2012 as a reason to avoid a statewide referendum on this year’s bill, saying residents in each of the state’s 83 counties signed the petition.

I guess being raped once in Michigan is simply not sufficient.

They would rather you be raped and be forced to give birth to your attacker's child, or purchase extra rape insurance so that when you get raped you can relax and take solace in the fact that the extra money you have spent each month means that you don't have to spend the next eighteen to twenty years raising the child that was gifted to you by God through brutality.

And the War on Women continues on.

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