World News Korner

I thought I would share my favorite Halloween themed music video with you.

The director, John Landis, was also responsible for some of my favorite movies of the seventies and eighties like Animal House, An American Werewolf in London and The Blues Brothers.

And the video holds a very special place in my daughter's heart because it was instrumental in getting her interested in theater and movie making.

We had an old VHS tape of "The Making of Thriller" lying around the house that she found when she was two years old. That damn thing played non-stop for weeks, but the interesting thing is that she was just as fascinated with the behind the scenes makeup, choreography, and special effects, as she was with the actual music video itself.

Since then she has been fascinated with the way movies are made, and is now involved in making them herself.

Now if you will excuse me I think there are some scary creatures at my door.

I wonder what they want?

Source

Our new friend Kenny Pick's Turn Up the Night radio show starts in a few minutes (7-10 PM Eastern time) and there was some talk of discussing not only more about Sarah Palin but also perhaps a mention or two of our favorite blog.

Anyhow if you are interested, and able, you can click here to listen to the show.

Source

Courtesy of Salon:

Consider the remarkable number of races that remain tossups at this late stage. According to RealClearPolitics’ polling averages, less than three points separate the candidates in Alaska, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Kansas, Georgia, and Iowa. Moreover, based on pollsters’ recent history of overestimating GOP strength and underestimating Hispanic turnout, there’s reason to believe that the Colorado Senate race is even closer than the 3.6 point edge held by Republican Cory Gardner over Democratic Sen. Mark Udall suggests. The razor-thin margins that separate the candidates in these contests all but ensure that at a clear victor won’t emerge in at least one or two of them on election night. Accordingly, some candidates, including Iowa GOPer Joni Ernst and Republican Thom Tillis and Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan in North Carolina, are gearing up for weeks-long legal battles.

Meanwhile, up in Alaska, where Democratic Sen. Mark Begich appears to be making something of a comeback, the state’s time lag and relatively slow vote-counting process mean that a winner probably won’t be declared until November 5 at the earliest. In 2008, Begich wasn’t proclaimed the winner of his race against Sen. Ted Stevens until two weeks after Election Day. Though polls suggested Begich was headed to an easy victory, he ultimately only won by a point. Observers expect the Democrat’s race against Republican Dan Sullivan this year to be similarly close.

Add it all up, and it’s increasingly clear that political junkies hoping for a firm Senate result next Tuesday night will probably find themselves disappointed. At this point, the likeliest scenario for a definitive election night answer is a GOP wave. If Republican Scott Brown knocks off Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire early Tuesday night, for instance, that portends an excellent night for the Republicans and substantially increases the odds that the GOP will have 51 Senate seats in its column by the end of the night. Despite polls indicating a tightening race, however, Brown’s ceiling of support appears to be roughly 48 percent, and a new survey showing Shaheen with an eight point lead underscores the likelihood that she’ll ultimately hold on.

So fasten your seat belts — it could be a bumpy few weeks.

You know I am a tried and true TV watcher, and I get really sucked into the reality of my favorite shows sometimes.

For instance I about jumped out of my skin when the Mountain suddenly gained the upper hand during his epic battle with Prince Oberyn Martell. (NSFW gore.) And I was on the edge of my seat during that Terminus Slaughter Scene. (More gore.) But I have no doubt that all of that will seem like nothing compared to my stress level while waiting for the votes to be counted and the elections to finally be decided.

There is just so much hanging in the balance here.

Part of me wants to have confidence in the voting public. but then the other part of me thinks "Fuck those people they never know what's good for them." So you see I am conflicted.

It's an easy choice folks. Either we embrace the future, and cast our votes to move the country toward a brighter tomorrow. Or we allow fear and cowardice to rule the day and choose once again to give power to the party of "You have to be this white, and this male, to ride this ride."

How hard of a choice is that?

Source

From the Urban Cowpie's Facebook page:

I love to tease our Texan relatives and friends that they're living down in our "Little Sister State of Texas!" I do love your state, and you are blessed to have Greg Abbott there as such a strong leader. He's fighting to defend freedom! Like Alaska, Texas is all about personal and economic liberty. But did you know President Obama is determined to undermine that with a “blue takeover” he envisions? Well, thankfully Greg Abbott will assure that won’t happen. Support a true patriot and proven leader as your next governor, and send a message to Team Obama at the same time: Texas—and the nation—will NOT go the way of any liberal state! Please find a polling location in your county before early voting ends tomorrow.

And, by the way, this Greg Abbot campaign sign is the best I've seen yet!

Oh yeah, that's just adorable.

Well unlike Rob Maness at least Abbott has a better than even chance of winning his race. In fact right now he is leading Wendy Davis by over 15 points.

You're just breaking my heart Texas, you really are.

You know you can tell a lot about a candidate by the friends he keeps. Besides Palin Abbott has been cozying up to a certain poopy pants pedophile (Warning link takes you to WND):

I already got my invitation to Greg Abbott’s victory party for the evening of Nov. 4 as we celebrate his landslide victory over Wendy Davis as the new and well-deserved governor of the Great Republic of Texas.

This Texas race is a microcosm of elections across the country. Thank God there are still way more Texans that stand in defiance of the lying, scamming, America-hating, Texas-hating scammers and scoundrels that infest and steer the Wendy Davis campaign of deception.

Oh yeah, he's a gem.

But come on, if an endorsement from Sarah Palin AND Ted Nugent is not enough to sink your campaign, what does that say about your state?

I am beginning to wonder if Texas is a lost cause for liberals, despite the demographic shifts.

And Jon Stewart of the Daily Show shares my concerns.

Source

"She doesn't look so damn smart to me."

Courtesy of Newsmax:

Republican political strategist Dick Morris shrugged off the news that former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin might run for office again, telling Newsmax TV on Wednesday that there's a new and improved Palin on the campaign trail these days — and her name is Joni Ernst.

"Ernst is Sarah Palin, but with much more in the way of gray cells," Morris told "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner, calling Iowa's Republican candidate for the Senate "one of the superstars of American politics."

Wow, a smart Sarah Palin. That's the kind of thing that gives children nightmares here in Alaska.

Dick Morris at one time was all in for Sarah Palin, but then he seemed to get over her. (Perhaps he saw her without her makeup or something.)

More recently Morris has become the political analyst who cannot get anything right.

Though I have to say that on this one he is undoubtedly correct.

I think that Joni Ernst IS just as much of a wing nut as Sarah Palin.

And as for the intelligence thing, well damn who isn't smarter than Klondike Kardashian?

Source

As everybody who visits here regularly already knows, one of the consistent charges leveled at commenters here and myself, is that we lie about conservatives and are hateful people who attack people "we don't even know."

The point is also made that liberals are the worst when it comes to saying hateful things on the internet.

Of course that is completely false.

I am not saying that liberals are always paragons of virtue who never say a cross word about anyone, because of course that would be a lie. However if you REALLY want to see some ugliness you have to go no further than any number of Right Wing news outlets and blogs all over the internet.

Which is exactly what a writer over at a site called Propaganda Check did.

They went to Breitbart.com. And this is what they found in the comments section:

Oh and did I mention the racism? Yeah, there is a LOT of racism.

Source

To play video click the Gohmert

"People have said to me 'Stephen you gotta understand you don't even know your history. You're dumb, you're dense. You're a mental midget with an IQ of a butter dish whose mind is a black hole that sucks all surrounding thought into it in an infinite singularity of pure stupidity. Stephen I'm surprised you can dress yourself. I bet you have to rub peanut butter inside your lips to remember to open your mouth to breathe. I have never met, and I hope to never meet again, a man so pervasively, astoundingly, unyieldingly, ignorant.' To which I say well then you haven't met Louis Gohmert."

God that was a thing of beauty.

Source

Courtesy of CBS Detroit:

A planned event on creationism at Michigan State University is raising concerns among faculty and graduate students.

The Saturday conference includes workshops such as “The Big Bang is Fake” and “Hitler’s Worldview,” on how evolution influenced the views of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, MLive.com reported.

The Origin Summit is sponsored by the organization Creation Summit, which aims to promote creationism in places it feels have banned teaching it.

The conference will focus on scientific evidence that points to creationism instead of religious doctrine, according to Creation Summit executive director Mike Smith.

“We want to show the scientific evidence that shows intelligent design,” he said. “We’re not coming to the campus to promote Bible verses or sermons.”

First off there is no scientific evidence that "points to Creationism." That in fact would be an impossibility. (I am working on a post that will explain why that is.)

Secondly unless this "conference" is presented in a similar fashion to how one might allow KKK members to give a speech to students simply so that their arguments can be picked apart and demonstrated to be fatuous, then there is no reason to allow this bullshit anywhere near university students.

And thirdly the idea that Hitler's holocaust was the fault of Charles Darwin is false.

The "Social Darwinism" that Hitler may or may not have embraced, was the result of a misunderstanding of Charles Darwin's work, and was not something that he created or promoted. Which might explain why Hitler never once mentioned Darwin in any of his writings.

If one is looking for the origin of Hitler's distrust and even hatred for the Jews, that is as simple as can be.


If one is looking for reasons to hate their fellow man, that is rarely found in scientific research. But religion is fairly saturated with them.



Source

So that ad appeared on Palin's Facebook page again followed by this:

Here's a man of true grit and a servant's heart who knows full well when road kill needs to go. Our government must have the values we see in Col. Rob Maness to function properly. I hope Louisianans will send him to Washington because he’s the real deal – heck he fixes his own truck and he’ll do the same in Washington to fix the broken machine there!

Palin then links to an article over at Real Clear Politics, which quotes her as saying:

“Like a gator in the swamp, Col. Rob Maness may have been seen as sharply lurking, but is now ready to pounce,” Palin said in the statement. “It is time. This is the election that will be the shocker on Tuesday.”

What?

The Real Clear Politics article then goes on to say this:

According to the latest RealClearPolitics average of polls, Maness (9 percent) is trailing far behind Landrieu (38 percent) and Cassidy (33.8 percent) in Louisiana’s “jungle primary” system, in which all candidates appear on the same general election ballot, regardless of party.

If no candidate receives 50 percent of the vote on Tuesday -- a scenario that appears likely -- the top two finishers will square off in a Dec. 6 runoff.

So once again, to be clear, Maness has NO shot at winning this election in November, or in being one of the two candidates who will face off again in December.

So as I have mentioned before I simply do not get WHY Palin is so hell bent on promoting this guy well past his sell by date. She has promoted plenty of other candidates, but never it seems with this much aggression, especially when he has virtually NO chance of winning.

Which begs the question, what's in it for her?

And to be honest her fawning is getting kind of ludicrous. If she were a household dog, she would be humping this guy's leg 24/7.

Even for a Palin, that is pretty pathetic.

Source

Wow, what a dick!

Here is how Raw Story covered this exchange:

A New Jersey activist and Hurricane Sandy survivor filmed during a confrontation with Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Wednesday accused his administration of short-changing a $1.1 billion federal relief package meant to help residents.

“Only 20 percent of those dollars have gotten to the people,” James Keady told MSNBC host Chris Hayes. “Of the $1.1 billion, $219 million has gone out. That means that the governor and his staff in Trenton are sitting on $800 million.”

According to Keady’s advocacy group, Finish The Job, Christie’s administration has mismanaged the Rehabilitation, Reconstruction, Elevation and Mitigation (RREM) while boasting about its success in the public eye.

“Photo ops, Christie, President Obama, everybody walking on the beach, kumbaya, giving the hugs,” he said.

Keady faced off with Christie as the governor gave a speech in Belmar commemorating two years since the hurricane devastated New Jersey. Video of the encounter shows Keady standing in front of Christie bearing a sign saying, “Get Sandy families back in their homes,” prompting Christie to berate him from the stage.

“I’m glad you had your day to show off, but we’re the ones who are here to actually do the work,” Christie told him. “So turn around and get your 15 minutes of fame and then maybe take your jacket off and roll up your sleeves and do something for the people of this state.”

By the way it seems that in a contest as to who has rolled up their sleeves and done something for the people of this state, that this James Keady guy is miles ahead of Chris Christie:

“When the hurricane happened, I actually took a month off from work, dropped everything and volunteered to help clean out peoples’ homes,” James Keady told MSNBC host Chris Hayes. “It actually reached the point within a day or two [that] the borough gave me a borough dump truck running all the clean-up crews all over town.”

You know there has always been this criticism of President Obama that he is a little TOO cool, and does not express his emotion enough for people to relate to him.

But I do not think for a second that that means they would rather replace him with a wannabe "Sopranos" stand in wielding a temper that would make Joe Pesci say "Hey calm the fuck down."

Christie is angry man with virtually no filter. That might play in New Jersey but would do him no favors in the national arena.

After all what's he gonna do, leave a panda head, in China Premier Li Keqiang's bed?

Source

Okay so just for fun I tool a jaunt over to the Brancy's blog to see what's up in the land of denial.

As it turns out Nancy French and Bristol, assuming Bristol has read what it printed under her name, are very, very upset at an article in the Daily Mail about a 69 year old woman's heartbreaking admission that she wishes she had never had her Down syndrome son, now 47 years old.

Here is what Brancy had to say:

I can’t even believe what I just read. Gillian Relf, the mother of a 47-year-old man with Down syndrome, publicly said she wishes she’d had an abortion. Her son has made her life so difficult, she wishes he had never been allowed to live.

Can you actually claim to love someone and wish they were dead at the same time?

If that’s not horrifying enough, she spoke “in support of the 92 per cent of women who choose to abort their babies after discovering they have Down’s syndrome.” Parents of children with Down syndrome (including my own parents!) have shown the greatest demonstration of selfless love I’ve ever seen. To read this mom’s statements that are so opposite is just stunning.

Actually I think that any person who has sat at the bedside of a dying loved one knows exactly what it is like to love somebody and wish them dead at the same time. At some point their pain is just impossible to endure and all you want is for them to find peace, even if it means you will never have them in your life again.

Brancy goes on to say this:

My family probably wouldn’t have chosen to have a child with Down syndrome. But God gave us Trig – and our family wouldn’t be complete without him! Now, I realize that kids with Down syndrome are amazing and wonderful – we are soooooo blessed to have him in our lives.

Actually that is a lie. Her family absolutely DID choose to have Trig in their lives. He is not Sarah's child, and I have no reason to believe that he is Bristol's child, so yes he was absolutely brought into the family as a choice. (Hopefully I will have more on that at a later date.)

By the way the woman, Gillian Relf, anticipated this response and this is what she said in the article:

But I'd challenge any one of them to walk a mile in the shoes of mothers like me, saddled for life as I am, with a needy, difficult, exasperating child who will never grow up, before they judge us. They should experience how it feels to parent a grown man, who is no more able to care for himself than a toddler - and at a time of life when your children should, all things being equal, be taking care of you. They should know how it feels to live every single day under a crushing weight of guilt. They should know how it feels to watch Stephen's constant suffering and witness the almost daily destruction wreaked on all our lives.

As you all know I actually work with children and parents who are dealing with Down syndrome, FAS, ADHD, Reactive Attachment Disorder, PTSD, Mental Retardation, etc., and I can tell you that wishing not to have had a child with such complicated and disruptive issues is almost universal among the parents.

They don't always say it out loud to support staff, but they certainly discuss it in private, and sometimes you can simply see it written all over their faces.

The idea that all babies are a gift from God and that HE will provide you with the strength to deal with any complications which might arise is happy holy horseshit.

The truth is that sometimes these parents simply have to give up and walk away, and put their children into residential facilities or foster homes. Sometime they mistreat their children out of sheer frustration, even though they realize it is not the child's fault. And sometimes they contemplate, or actually follow through with, plans to take their own lives. (One of the worse cases I ever dealt with.)

We have already seen that Sarah is having significant trouble parenting Trig, and let me tell you that is only going to get worse, especially when he hits his teen years.

I predict right here and now that Trig ends up in a facility, either in state or out, that will care for him within the next ten years or so.

Simply put neither Sarah Palin, or any of her family members, have the intelligence or patience to deal with a Down syndrome child for the long haul.

And that is why judging this poor woman, who has spent the last 47 years selflessly putting her child's needs above her own, should never be done by the likes of Bristol Palin.

OR her internet doppelganger.

Source

Courtesy of the Washington Post:

To help him deliver his closing argument to voters in one of the country's most contentious Senate races, Republican candidate Dan Sullivan is bringing a political odd couple to Alaska.

Mitt Romney, the GOP's 2012 nominee and tacit head of the party's establishment, and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a tea party firebrand, are both jetting to the Last Frontier to boost Sullivan in the runup to Election Day.

Sullivan, campaigning to unseat Sen. Mark Begich (D), will spend this Saturday and Sunday flying around the state with Cruz. The two will headline get-out-the-vote rallies in four of the state's main population areas -- Anchorage, the Mat-Su Valley, Fairbanks and the Kenai Peninsula -- according to a Sullivan campaign source who requested anonymity because the events have not yet been announced.

Next Monday, on the eve of the election, Romney will hold a rally with Sullivan as well as Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell (R) in the Anchorage area, the source said.

"Sniff sniff" is that desperation I smell?

I'm sorry but when you are being beaten up for relying on millions of dollars of out of state money to finance your campaign, and having advertisements made on your behalf featuring political heavyweights from the Bush administration, how in the hell does it help you to have the last failed GOP presidential candidate and the head nut from the GOP looney bin fly up to give you support?

Yes I realize that Mitt Romney won Alaska in the 2012 election, but I also know that since then he has become a pitiful shadow of his formal self, who was at that time a pitiful shadow of Ronald Reagen.

As for Ted Cruz, I think the only place in the state where he would be welcomed with open arms is in a thirty mile circumference around the home of a certain half term Governor who I am sure is getting ready to cook up that one moose chili recipe she knows in anticipation of his arrival.

Source

So you guys might remember that I posted some soundcloud audio clips from the Kenny Pick show talking about he Palin's drunken brawl over the weekend.

They included Track Palin's "Super Swearing Cut" and "Thonghazi." Both of which were highly entertaining.

Well apparently somebody who was listening took great umbrage at the show's depiction of the family, and in particular Bristol Palin. See if this person, starting around 4:40, sounds familiar.

Oh yeah, I would recognize that brand of insanity just about anywhere.

(Source.)



Source

Courtesy of USA Today:

"The best way to protect Americans from Ebola is to stop the outbreak at its source," Obama said in an East Room ceremony honoring doctors and nurses who have been or are going to West Africa.

"If we are not dealing with this problem there, it will come here," Obama said.

The president lauded his guests for their "sense of duty," and of "serving a cause greater than themselves." He called them "shock troops" who should be applauded.

"And when they come home," Obama said. "they deserve to be treated properly. They deserve to be treated like the heroes that they are."

Obama and aides have criticized New Jersey, New York and Illinois over quarantine policies for returning workers.

These doctors and nurses can help explain the challenge of Ebola to Americans, and how to beat it. "We respond with common sense and skill and courage," he said, and not "fear," "hysteria" or "misinformation."

Obama seemed to nearly choke up as he discussed his frustration with state officials who have called for quarantines of health care workers from Africa.

"I put those on notice who think that we should hide from these problems," Obama said. "That's not who we are, that's not who I am, that's not who these folks are. This is America, and we do things differently."

I listened to this speech live earlier today during the Alex Wagner show, and I was incredibly proud of my President for standing up to the Right Wing over this issue.

I especially loved this part:

"The reason I am so proud of this country is because when there are times when we need to step up and do the right thing, we do the right thing. That's who we are. That's what we do. No other nation is doing as much to help in West Africa as the United States of America. When I hear people talking about American leadership...and then are promoting policies that would avoid leadership...and have us running in the opposite direction...and hiding under the covers, it makes me a little frustrated."

That must be the very definition of an understatement.

His cool, calm, and intellectual response to this issue stands in stark contrast to the fear mongering, the sky is falling, hysterics of those on the Right.

Source

Courtesy of Slate:

According to a six-month-long investigation conducted by Greg Palast for Al Jazeera, “voting officials in 27 states, almost all of them Republicans, have launched what is threatening to become a massive purge of black, Hispanic, and Asian-American voters. Already, tens of thousands have been removed from voter rolls in battleground states, and the numbers are set to climb.”

Specifically, officials have a master list of 6.9 million suspected “potential double voters.” And in Virginia, Georgia, and Washington the lists are “heavily over-weighted with names such as Jackson, Garcia, Patel, and Kim,” all common to Democratic-leaning minority groups.

The process for checking those names, a computer program called Crosscheck—touted by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a vocal supporter for voter identification—is incredibly inaccurate. “The actual lists,” notes Al Jazeera America, “show that not only are middle names mismatched, and suffix discrepancies ignored, even conflicting birthdates are disregarded. Moreover, Crosscheck deliberately ignores any Social Security mismatches, in the few instances when the numbers are even collected.”

Given the tight races in Georgia and other battleground states, even a small number of false positives could turn the tide of an election, giving a strong advantage to Republican candidates for statewide and congressional offices.

In Georgia they simply misplace voter registrations that they don't want to accept:

On Tuesday, Judge Christopher Brasher of the Fulton County Superior Court denied a petition from civil rights advocates to force Georgia’s Secretary of State to process an estimated 40,000 voter registrations that have gone missing from the public database.

All of that bullshit the conservatives have been throwing around about voter fraud, and the need for stricter restrictions at the polls, was all to lay the groundwork for crap like this.

You know there are a whole lot of reasons to vote for the Democrats in this next election. But perhaps one of the best is because they respect EVERY American's right to vote, and rather than attempt to suppress any group's ability to cast their ballot, they work overtime to make it easy for all of us.

I for one am beyond fed up with this underhanded shit.

Source

Courtesy of Alaska Dispatch:

Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan vetoed a recently approved ban on metal palisade fences Tuesday, referring to it as “government intrusion.”

The ban, approved by the Anchorage Assembly in a 6-5 vote last week, was essentially a moose-protection measure. South Anchorage's Jennifer Johnston proposed it at the request of constituents who were alarmed by reports and photos of moose gored on sharp pales.

“While the ordinance is well-intentioned, the cost/benefit analysis does not warrant this level of government intrusion,” Sullivan wrote in his veto message.

Biologists have estimated that between two and four moose a year are gored on the fences, an incidence that Sullivan referred to as “very, very low.” The fence ban was supported by Anchorage area state wildlife biologist Jessy Coltrane, who testified at the Assembly hearing last week and said the moose gorings were both traumatic and preventable.

In his veto message, Sullivan wrote that the total financial impact to property owners outweighed the benefits of “saving a few moose.”

We talk so much about the Dan Sullivan running against Mark Begich for his Senate seat, that we often forget about another equally unlikeable Dan Sullivan who is the current Mayor of Anchorage, and who is also running with Sean Parnell as a potential Lt. Governor.

By the way one thing that almost all Anchorage citizens agree with is that they love having wildlife in their city. It is just one of those things that makes us especially unique.

And I can tell you right now that to most of us there is virtually NO financial burden that would outweigh the benefits of "saving a few moose."

I see this yet another black mark against the Parnell/Sullivan ticket. As if they needed any more of those.

Source

Courtesy of KTNV:

Las Vegas police were called to the home of former Major League Baseball outfielder Jose Canseco on Tuesday afternoon after an accidental shooting.

Police said Canseco accidentally shot himself in the hand and was transported to University Medical Center in Las Vegas.

Officers said he was cleaning his handgun and didn't realize it was loaded. The gun went off, badly injuring one of the fingers on his left hand.

His fiance leila Knight spoke with KTNV-TV Channel 13 Action News on Tuesday evening, and said she was in the kitchen when she heard the shot. She told Action News that Canseco visited the gun range last week and forgot there was still a bullet left in the gun.

It is not known if Canseco's finger had to be amputated. He was released from the hospital early Wednesday morning.

You probably all know Conseco best for his tell all book about his steroid use and rock star lifestyle.

Gee he drove a sports car, used steroids, AND carries a gun with him everywhere he goes.

Really working hard to resist the urge to state the obvious.

But hey don't forget, the only thing that stops a bad finger, is a good finger on the trigger of a gun.

Source

Deputy Jeremy Martin

Courtesy of Raw Story:

A New Mexico sheriff’s deputy shot and killed another deputy during a drunken argument after transporting a prisoner out of state.

Police said two Santa Fe County deputies were returning from the transfer when they rented a hotel room at 4 p.m. Monday in Las Cruces, reported the Albuquerque Journal.

The deputies later went to Dublin’s Street Pub, where they began arguing after drinking alcohol.

Police said the argument escalated when the deputies returned to their seventh-floor hotel room, and one of them attempted to flee to an elevator.

Deputy Tai Chan fatally shot Deputy Jeremy Martin several times in the back and arms with a semi-automatic gun, police said.

The 29-year-old Martin was pronounced dead at an area hospital.

You know the NRA is always saying that gun deaths are the result of criminals getting access to guns and not something that "good guys" with guns are ever involved in.

Wrong!

After all these are trained individuals who are suppose to be the very definition of the "good guys with a gun."

The fact is that reasonable people sometimes get unreasonable, especially when drinking, and the presence of a firearms can often mean that a simple shoving match, or exchange of punches, can instead become the taking of a life.

Source

Courtesy of the Facebook page for a woman whose icy disposition kills viruses on contact:

I enjoyed talking On the Record with Greta Van Susteren, and you can catch the replay of it later tonight. In discussing the response to Ebola, I made the point that every crisis will be capitalized on by a liberal federal government as an excuse to expand government authority. (Does she mean like the Bush administration did in response to terrorism? The Right Wing has predicted that Obama would do this since his inauguration, so far nothing.) The Obama administration made clear early on that they abide by the Alinsky tactic to “never let a crisis go to waste.” (Once again, a false allegation.) The latest crisis has been drummed up by their incompetent reaction to the spread of Ebola. The purpose of any crisis for them is to ultimately exert more control over people as more Americans become fearful; the "solution" they'll offer will be another false big government promise: "Hey, little people, just give up more freedom in exchange for our promise of a little security!" Obviously with this Washington liberal M.O. we are losing both. (She does realize that what she is describing above is EXACTLY what Chris Christie did to a nurse, even though she does NOT fall into the high risk group requiring quarantine, right?)

We do need to keep each level of government accountable. I agree with state governors who are filling this Obama leadership void and setting rules to tackle Ebola because the leader of the country cannot do it (Does she not know that we only have one confirmed case of Ebola in this country? How much better could this be handled?), and the 10th Amendment protects states rights in a case like this. But beware of allowing any level of government (especially the federal government) even an inch more power over the people. Liberals can turn that inch into the LAST mile toward statism. That's why politics must be excised from the Ebola issue, and the medical and scientific community must be listened to by the Obama Administration. They MUST put Americans first, and we must not buy into any hysteria as we calmly yet aggressively keep the Ebola virus out of our country.

- Sarah Palin

Okay once again the main group of individuals using the Ebola virus for political purposes are the conservatives.

The CDC has very definite guidelines on how to handle this disease and the reason such a federal agency exists is to fight panic, and to keep local politicians from using fear to manipulate their constituents. Which is exactly what we see some politicians, and Fox News, doing right now.

Besides Palin knows less about this than she does foreign relations, economics, or even parenting. And that is REALLY saying something.

She is simply being used as one more yapping mongrel attempting to fill the air with white noise to keep Americans from hearing any truth which might quiet their fears.

Remember unafraid people are less likely to vote Republican.

Source

Courtesy of The Independent:

There’s good news for the Casanovas of the world – sleeping with numerous women could help to protect men from prostate cancer, according to a new study.

Researchers at the University of Montreal and INRS-Institut Armand-Frappier found that men who had slept with more than 20 women during their lifetime were 28 per cent less likely to develop the disease.

They were also 19 per cent less likely to develop an aggressive type of cancer, compared to those who had had only one female sexual partner.

Meanwhile, men who were virgins were almost twice as likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer as those who were sexually experienced.

Well I'm in the clear. In fact I might be okay even if I were triplets.

I knew being a man-whore would pay off someday.

I can just see husband's caught flagrante delicto by their wives using this to their advantage.

"Honey I am not betraying our vows, I am simply fighting cancer."

I wish all cancer fighting was this easy. Sure beats the hell out of avoiding red meat and exercising.

Source

Courtesy of Ivan Moore's Facebook page:

600 sample of registered voters, fielded Friday 24th - Sunday 26th. MOE +/- 4%.

There are two likely voter subgroups for this survey, one fairly loose (544 sample), and one tighter (330 sample). I'm giving results for both screens for transparency. Suffice to say, the 544 sample suggests a 90% turnout, which is highly unlikely, even this year... while the 330 suggests a 55% turnout, which is historically very close to reality. Also the age distribution of the 330 sample is exactly what you would see if you combined Alaska census data for age with average turnouts by age group. In other words, the 544 gives us good sample size in our view of the electorate, the 330 is the closer modeling of turnout on election day:

Senator Mark Begich

US SENATE:

544 sample: Begich (D) 48.3% Sullivan (R) 41.6% Other 6.5% Undecided 3.6%

330 sample: Begich (D) 50.1% Sullivan (R) 42.2% Other 5.3% Undecided 2.4%

Forrest Dunbar

US CONGRESS:

544 sample: Dunbar (D) 42.6% Young (R) 44.4% McDermott (L) 9.5% Undecided 3.5%

330 sample: Dunbar (D) 46.1% Young (R) 40.6% McDermott (L) 9.6% Undecided 3.7%

Not much of a difference in the Senate race between the two screens... Begich has a 6.7% lead in one, 7.9% in the other.

The Congress race is interesting... Young up by 1.8% when you look at the wider population, but zero in on the people who are the highest probability to turn out and Dunbar has a lead of 5.5%.

That's what happens when you really tick people off two weeks before an election.

I had been avoiding pollsters lately so I was not part of this one, however yesterday I did participate in two back to back polls, and one was for Moore, so I imagine that the next poll will include my input.

I have to say that if these polls are accurate it indicates some very good news for Alaskans.

It would be very unusual for Dan Sullivan to win against a lifelong Alaskan, as regardless of politics we tend to protect our own. Begich may not vote the way that many Alaskans want him to in Washington, but he is still one of us.

As for Don Young, well one of us or not, he is becoming too much of an embarrassment for Alaskans to tolerate any longer.

Quite literally every time I hear his name come up it is right before somebody expresses anger and frustration at having him represent us in D.C..

I really think that Don Young may finally have pissed off too many people to wind the election.

About damn time!

Source

Courtesy of the You Tube page:

Sarah Palin stopped by Stuart Varney’s Fox Business Network show Tuesday afternoon to share her thoughts on a variety of topics, including recent comments about her family by CNN anchor Carol Costello.

“The hatred level directed against you is extraordinary and a disgrace,” Varney said at the top of his interview with Palin. “Has it driven you out of politics, driven you away from public office for good?”

“No, bless their hearts, those haters out there,” Palin replied, saying the comments only “invigorate” her to keep doing whatever it is she does. "

“It invigorates me it wants me to get out there and defend the innocent," she said. "It makes me want to work so hard for justice in this country. So, hey, the more they are pouring on, the more I’m going to bug the crap out of them by being out there with the voice, with the message, hopefully running for office in the future too.”

“What’s it like dealing with that kind of mockery — and that’s what it is, mockery — for more than six years?” Varney asked Palin, turning specifically to Costello’s commentary. “And this is a personal question, what does it feel like?”

Rather than take the opportunity to attack Costello directly, Palin demurred, saying she knows “a lot of people have it a heck of a lot harder than the Palins do.” But, she added, liberals love to play “the politics and personal destruction.”

“They do want to destroy personally those they disagree with,” she continued. “They are very, very intolerant of those who maybe hold opposing views to their liberal, failed agenda views. So they want to crush us.”

When Varney posited to Palin that the “war on women” is really more of a “war on you,” the former governor agreed wholeheartedly, saying, “Absolutely.”

You will notice that Varney did not once ask Palin any questions about the brawl, or why her entire family were so publicly inebriated.

And comparing the challenges that her family faces in keeping the truth hidden from public scrutiny to the challenges of a family with a military member fighting overseas, is one of the lowest things she has ever done.

As for all of that talk about wanting to "defend the innocent" and "fight for justice," who does she think she is kidding? I know a certain innocent Anchorage homeowner who could use a little justice right about now.

And I simply cannot believe, after all of this time, that anybody would take her political prick teasing seriously.

No folks she is NEVER running for office again. EVER!

So yes, her so called "haters," or as we call ourselves "truth tellers," HAVE indeed driven her out of politics.

Oh and by the way, there is still more truth to tell.

Source

I have also heard that Obama is bringing down unemployment and gas prices.

Definitely time to grab those pitchforks and torches.

Source

Courtesy of Religion News:

Pope Francis on Monday (Oct. 27) waded into the controversial debate over the origins of human life, saying the big bang theory did not contradict the role of a divine creator, but even required it.

The pope was addressing the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, which gathered at the Vatican to discuss “Evolving Concepts of Nature.”

“When we read about Creation in Genesis, we run the risk of imagining God was a magician, with a magic wand able to do everything. But that is not so,” Francis said.

“He created human beings and let them develop according to the internal laws that he gave to each one so they would reach their fulfillment.”

“God is not a divine being or a magician, but the Creator who brought everything to life,” the pope said. “Evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation, because evolution requires the creation of beings that evolve.”

Unlike much of evangelical Protestantism in the U.S., Catholic teaching traditionally has not been at odds with evolution. In 1950, Pope Pius XII proclaimed there was no opposition between evolution and Catholic doctrine. In 1996, St. John Paul II endorsed Pius’ statement.

Now see there is still some magical think there, but it does not interfere with the understanding of science, or our ability to see the world as it is rather than as faith demands that it be seen.

So that's something at least.

Now if only Catholicism could move into the 21st Century in regards to abortion, women's rights, and birth control there might actually be a chance for it to survive into the 22nd Century.



Source

Courtesy of Mediaite:

Arguably the biggest media story in the last few days has been CNN anchor Carol Costello‘s inappropriately lighthearted tease of audio about that now-infamous fight involving the Palins. Glenn Beck today expressed his disgust with how Costello was “reveling in the abuse” of Bristol Palin.

Beck found it striking that CNN and Costello “took such pride” in scolding the NFL over domestic abuse and yet she presented this case of a woman being assaulted an in unserious manner.

Beck called it “really despicable” and said rather than pressuring Costello to resign, he just wants to appeal to her humanity. Beck said that Costello’s clearly “become so politicized” when it comes to the Palins, “she’s lost the humanity of this family.”

At one point Beck says that she was "dragged by the feet across the law, with her dress coming off of her." No, no she wasn't ever dragged by the homeowner.

She was carried away, in a full nelson, by her father's good friend Mark McKenna, who admits to that fact on the audio. (Go to "Police interview the Palin family and Mark McKenna" and fast forward to 18:30 on the audio.)

Now according to McKenna Bristol was knocked down by "some girls" who were coming to Korey Kingenmeyer's aid. But that was totally appropriate in response to Bristol's drunken, assaultive behavior.

So if Glenn Beck wants to waste his time worrying about anybody's "humanity" then he needs to direct his concerns to this white trash family, and their inherent need to constantly play the victim and attempt to destroy anybody who dares to defy them in any way.

Source

Courtesy of Salon:

Moms Demand Action, a group formed after the Sandy Hook shooting to crack down on gun violence, began pressuring the Kroger supermarket chain to prohibit “open carry” in its stores after gun extremists used Kroger stores to demonstrate their “rights.” Gun laws are lax in many states, and it can be legal to openly carry a firearm with no training, and, in some cases, no background checks. The Kroger campaign is the most recent in a string of corporate responsibility efforts in which mothers, flanked by other gun violence prevention advocates, have asked companies to tighten gun policies, arguing that the businesses have an obligation to keep their customers safe.

Of course, gun extremists did not respond kindly to the Kroger campaign. What follows is a recounting of their disturbing tactics, from the shocking intimidation and harassment of unsuspecting commenters on Kroger’s Facebook page to right-wing media propaganda that disingenuously portrayed Kroger as being allies of the gun extremists.

Secret Facebook groups such as “People Who Were Blocked by Moms Demand Action Demand Action Now” — which has well over a thousand members — disseminated gun rights propaganda and helped orchestrate attacks on individuals commenting on Kroger’s page. Some gun nuts combed the profile pages of people commenting in support of gun reform, harvested personal photos of them and Photoshopped them to include obscene or humiliating comments, before reposting the photos on Kroger’s page, or on other social media sites. Because Kroger frequently bans users who post that kind of content, the gun extremists created disposable fake accounts — sometimes using the name and profile photo of an opponent— to quickly dump posts without being held accountable.

In one case, they found a photo of a woman’s preschool-age child and wrote on it, “My mom sucks more cock than Richard Simmons” and circulated it online. In another case, they grabbed a photo of a mother and her child and wrote “Big retard, little retard” on it before reposting it. One woman posted to Kroger a photograph of a receipt showing money she spent elsewhere, and gun extremists swarmed her post, with hundreds of responses, including comments like “what you could do is shut your god damned whore mouth,” “calm your tits,” and “fuck her right in the pussy,” which Kroger’s Facebook admin allowed to stand over a day later.

The article goes on to say that the approach of these extremists seems to be to attack protesters en masse and intimidate them into walking away from the debate. And that is some cases that is working.

There really is no way to have a reasonable disagreement with people like this, and since they literally view gun rights as something bestowed upon them by their creator they see all attempts to apply oversight to gun sales as an attack on their deeply held faith.

I think the first thing that anybody who wants to work toward creating responsible gun policies in this country needs to do is to develop a thick skin, and to recognize that the more hate and vitriol they attract the better they are doing their jobs.

Besides if we even prevent one more unnecessary death, isn't that worth being called a few ugly names on Facebook?

Source

Courtesy of Politico:

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin agreed Monday that there should be a quarantine for medical workers coming from West Africa as she took President Barack Obama and his administration to task over its “incompetency” in handling the Ebola crisis.

“I do think that there needs to be that quarantine but, see, this is par for the course that Obama’s incompetency, his administration’s incompetency, is really shining bright in this one,” the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee said on Fox News’ “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren.”

Palin added that Washington is “trying to call the shots for these governors. There is a void of leadership here and the governors need to step up and step in.”

“We’re going to demand of our leadership in Washington and on the state level to get politics out of this and allow the medical community to tell us factually, what needs to be done,” Palin said.

Palin said she would talk to other governors about enacting a quarantine, if she were still serving in that role in Alaska.

“And I betcha we would come to the conclusion that you can’t trust the Obama administration,” she said, adding that liberals are using “Saul Alinsky tactics” to capitalize on crisis.

Who in the HELL would ever ask this woman about contagious diseases or how the government should respond to an outbreak in this country?

She is not only completely fact free in this completely unnecessary interview, she is also histrionic and attempts to drum up panic from Fox viewers in order to undermine the President.


A President, who by the way, has this completely under control.

Look I live in a state where Sarah Palin had to deal with crisis. Her never wavering approach was to first pretend that there was no problem, slowly respond after being pressured by constituents and the media, and finally have Franklin Graham fly up here and go with her to deliver cookies.

If we had an Ebola outbreak in Alaska while Palin was in charge, we would all be dead right now.

Update: Perhaps somebody should show Princess Panic Attack this:

As the number of ebola cases in the U.S. dwindled to one Tuesday, a new CNN/ORC poll found the American public surprisingly confident in the federal government’s response to the virus in the U.S.

54% of those surveyed said the government had done a good job in handling the virus, while 71% were confident the government could prevent a widespread outbreak — somewhat contradicting the punditry that decried the public’s despair in the face of institutional failures.

Yeah, the American people know that the President has got this.

But hey, nice try Fox news.

Source

I'm baaack.

Courtesy of CBC News:

Jeb Bush's son said it's "more than likely" his dad will run for president in 2016 in an interview that aired Sunday.

George P. Bush, Jeb Bush's eldest son, was interviewed by ABC News. The younger Bush is knee-deep in his own campaign this year, running for Texas land commissioner.

ABC's Jon Karl asked Bush whether his father is running for president.

"I think he's still assessing it," Bush said, offering the same demurral his father and other members of his family have given in recent months.

When Karl pressed Bush to offer a specific probability, Bush said, "It's more than likely that he's giving this a serious thought...and moving forward."

"More than likely that he'll run?" Karl asked.

"That he'll run," Bush responded. "If you had asked me a few years back, I would have said it was less likely." He added that if his father does decide to run, "The family will be behind him 100 percent."

Well since you would have had to have been in a coma the last two years not to realize that Hillary Clinton is also running in 2016, that means, if Jeb's son is accurate, that 2016 will be the battle of the presidential dynasties.

As much as we may all want newer blood in the White House the fact is that we are going to be witnessing yet another clash of the titans.

And lucky us we will all get to watch the past scandals of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush dredged up and splattered across our TV and computer screens for probably several months or more.

Personally I think in this day and age that hearing the conservatives trying to use Bill's sexcapades with Monica Lewsinky to hijack the "War on Women" and use it against the Democrats, will have a significantly smaller impact than seeing all of George Bush's lies and manipulations that he used to get us into two unnecessary wars trotted out for the voters to revisit.

But of course I am a Liberal and I would not vote for another Bush even under threat of torture. Which is ANOTHER thing Americans did under a Bush administration.

Source

I don't want to skew the result but I am kind of hoping for a cross between and armadillo and a giraffe.

I think we can all agree that the world would be a much better place with arma-giraffe's walking around.

Source

So after making some incredibly insensitive remarks during an appearance at Wasilla High, where he essentially told an audience of students still mourning the loss of their friend to suicide that "suicide shows a lack of support from friends and family," Don Young tried to make nice with the the Alaska natives, whose communities have been ripped apart by the epidemic of suicide, by kind of sort of apologizing.

However one native Alaskan in attendance did not hear that apology, so she decided to talk to her Congressman in person.

Here is how that went.

Courtesy of TPM:

Gloria Poullard approached Young to ask him about a profane speech he gave last week at Wasilla High School, in which the congressman offended students by arguing that suicide was caused by a lack of support from friends and family.

"You know, it really put a hamper on my faith in you because my elders voted for you, and this is my state, I'm an Alaska native," Poullard said to Young, according to video of the exchange from local TV station KTUU. "How do you feel within yourself, what possessed you to even make a comment like that? My nephew just committed suicide."

Young shushed her and shook her hand, to which Poullard responded "You don't tell me to shush."

"Hey, I lost a nephew," he said. "I know what it feels like and I gotta ask myself, did I support him enough? Did I? I don't know."

"Don't you get angry with me, don't even squeeze my hand," Poullard said. Young then released her hand and walked away.

Earlier I reminded you that Lisa Murkowski's successful write in campaign would probably have failed if not for the support of the AFN.

And a whole lot of Young's support comes from his ties to the Alaska native community.

I am not native but I am guessing that getting in their face and squeezing their hand until it hurts is not going to help him to gain back their confidence.

Source

Courtesy of RH Reality Check:

Iowa State Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Red Oak), candidate for U.S. Senate, has quickly become a national figure by making outlandish statements that appeal to the far right, including comments charging that she would use a gun to defend herself “from the government.”

“I have a beautiful little Smith & Wesson, 9 millimeter, and it goes with me virtually everywhere,” Ernst reportedly said in 2012 at the NRA and Iowa Firearms Coalition Second Amendment Rally in Searsboro, Iowa. “But I do believe in the right to carry, and I believe in the right to defend myself and my family—whether it’s from an intruder, or whether it’s from the government, should they decide that my rights are no longer important.”

I don't know about any of you but what I look for in a candidate seeking a position in the Federal Government is the assurance that at any moment they might murder a fellow federal employee if they dare to touch their gun.

I am also very impressed when they refer to the attractiveness of their murderous accessory and claim to take it with them "virtually everywhere."

Nothing creepy or frightening about that.

Source

Courtesy of The Guardian:

Even in the deep South, the Republican base of white evangelical Christians is shrinking – and in some traditional conservative redoubts like Arkansas, Georgia and Kentucky, it’s declined as a percentage of the population by double digits. Even Alabama is becoming less Christian. Meanwhile, there’s been a corresponding increase in the religiously unaffiliated, who tend to vote more Democratic.

While the effect on evangelicals is new, the general pattern isn’t. The Catholic church, the largest single religious denomination in America, was the first to feel the pinch. Church leaders and Catholic apologists have been fretting for years over the problem of aging and shrinking congregations, declining attendance at Mass and fewer people signing up to become priests or nuns – although their proposals for how to solve the problem all consist of tinkering around the edges, or insisting that they need to try harder to convince people to believe as they do.

America’s next-largest denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, held out a bit longer but has now come down with the same affliction. Membership has been declining for the last several years – to the point where half of SBC churches will close their doors by 2030 if current trends persist. And as with the Catholic church, the SBC defenders with the biggest platforms have insisted that they don’t need to change anything if they just double down on their existing policies and pray harder for revival.

What’s driving the steady weakening of Christianity? The answer, it would seem, is demographic turnover.

The so-called millennials (Americans born between 1982 and 2000) are far more diverse, educated and tolerant than their predecessors. They’re also the least religious generation in American history – they’re even getting less religious as they get older, which is unprecedented – and the majority of them identify Christianity as synonymous with harsh political conservatism.

As older, more religious generations fade away and younger generations replace them, the societal midpoint shifts. And this trend is going to accelerate in coming years, because the millennial generation is big. They’re even bigger than the baby boomers.

You know the main focus of this blog has never been about Sarah Palin, she actually came along four years after I started it. It has always been about taking down the Religious Right and destroying their stranglehold on our politics.

Remember back in 2004, when The Immoral Minority came to be, George W. Bush had just won his second term in office, we were in the middle of two unnecessary wars, the Evangelicals had insinuated themselves into every facet of government and the military, and secularism was under assault from all directions.

As an Atheist it is no exaggeration to say that I was terrified about the direction we were headed, and what that meant for my daughter and the future of this country.

It is for that reason that I have worked so hard to reveal the ugly truth about the Evangelicals chosen star of 2008, and what she demonstrates about the hypocrisy of that politically powerful group.

In fact Sarah Palin has been incredibly helpful in revealing much of the sordid underbelly of politics and religion in America. Her fake pregnancy to attract the pro-life folks, her fake Christianity to attract the Bible thumpers, her fake conservatism to attract the Reagan-ites, have all been revealed on this blog and many, many others.

And through those revelations we have also been able to get a look inside the true agenda of the Right Wing which is to use the easily deceived religious folks to amass great power and influence, and then use that to essentially line their own pockets at the expense of those who trusted them and bought into their line of bullshit.

That is why I am such a fan of the Millenials. THEY are the result of greater access to information on the internet. THEY are the result of the Religious Right's power grabs. And THEY are the what we need to break the grip of ignorance and superstition, and to move toward greater enlightenment and a better understanding of our place in the universe, and our responsibilities here on this planet.

And boy am I glad they are here, for it is not a moment too soon.

Source

Courtesy of Slate:

Barack Obama displayed inspiring leadership on Friday. He also promoted public health, fought bigotry, and helped calm raging paranoia. His heroic act? He hugged somebody.

Nina Pham, the first person to be infected with Ebola within the United States, had just been declared disease-free and discharged from the National Institutes of Health. Obama is a rational, science-friendly guy, so he knew she wasn’t any danger to him. It didn’t take courage to hug her.

And yet, another modern president failed a similar test. Facing the greatest public health crisis of his administration, Ronald Reagan was not heroic. He was a dithering coward.

The hateful, homophobic, racist response to the AIDS crisis is one of the most shameful episodes in recent American history. Within a few years after the first AIDS cases were reported in 1981, scientists knew the disease was transmitted primarily by sex, blood transfusions, and shared needles.

The article goes on to revisit the fear mongering and hatred displayed by the conservatives, while others worked diligently to provide accurate information to help put American minds at ease.

Sadly when the country needed a strong leader there were none to be found.

But Ronald Reagan? He didn’t do a goddamn thing. He was president when the first cases were reported. He was president when Congress, the National Academies of Science, and anybody with a sick loved one or a conscience called for the federal government to do more to fight the medical and social crisis.

Reagan could have spoken out against panic and called for compassion; the man knew how to give a powerful speech. He could have hugged an AIDS patient, or at least shaken hands. He knew (or should have known) that wouldn’t have been dangerous—just as well as Obama knew hugging a recovered Ebola patient wasn’t dangerous. It would have made a difference.

I love pointing out all of the ways that Barack Obama is a better President than Ronald Reagan. Partly because it drives conservatives crazy, but mostly simply because it's true.

Thankfully we have a leader like Barack Obama in these troubled times and not a "B" actor playing the role of a leader like we did back in the 80's.

Source