World News Korner

Wonkette provided part of a transcript, but I fleshed it out because apparently I am just that much of a glutton for punishment.

Here it is:

Hey friends! Y’know, back in the 1990s, Bill Clinton said that he wanted abortion to be safe, legal, and rare. Well, things really have changed since then, this is so unfortunate now — it appears as if Democrats, most Democrats, they want abortion to be safe, legal, and…celebrated? Mmmm.

Feminists, lately, who are in favor of abortion, they’re encouraging women to write or speak publicly and glowingly about how great having an abortion is, how great it was for them and their careers. My goodness, I find this really, really sad. It's dark. It's tragic in itself. Mmm, very sad.

In the past, even those in favor of abortion knew that it's a tragic event, not something to be celebrated like a rite of passage.

Look I know from personal experience how difficult it is when you find yourself in less than idill (sic) circumstances and you are pregnant. (Yep, it's called the Wite-Out solution.)

I know the strain it can have on you. On your family, On your career. So I can sympathize with women who find themselves in THAT situation. I know what she's going through.

But I also know that you will never regret choosing life. (You KNOW that? What, do you have crystal balls or something?)

In the sunset of your life, when you look back on all your choices that you made, and all of the things that you have accomplished you will never regret giving life to your children. I promise you they'll be your greatest joy. (And boy we all know how much a Sarah Palin promise is worth, don't we kids?)

I've never met anyone at their end of their life regrets having their kids. (What, is she hanging out in old folk's homes and critical care units these days?) But I have heard of many people who regret snuffing the life out of their child. (Okay for the record, abortion does not entail choking a baby to death.)

You know a final not for these would be feminists. They're not real feminists, They're not pro-women when they're celebrating women snuffing the life out of , say the youngest sisters in our society. (Wait, what?)


Little baby girl in the womb even.

No a real feminist is someone who fights for women to have real choices. (She does realize it's called the "pro-choice" movement right?) And that means having the choice to keep your child and pursue a career. Or give life to your child and allow another family to raise that child and then pursue your career. (Actually Planned Parenthood supports all of these choices as well. So her idea of having MORE choices is to do away with one of the choices offered by the pro-choice movement. Yeah okay.)

Having children is really a part of so many women's lives obviously. (But not ALL women's lives. Or does she simply not get that?) And in this day and age with the amazing technology we have that transcends the old office structure, right in the corporate world or in the big or small business world, women shouldn't have to sacrifice her career to raise a child.

You may take a break, if you will, to spend that valuable time with a child but you don't have to sacrifice your career and never go back in order to give life to a child.

Building a culture of life which America needs. A culture of life where we respect the sanctity of innocent life. It means encouraging a world where career women can raise their children. It's something that everyone, from both sides of the political aisle, should get behind.

Mmm, and I hope and pray that America will.

God hearing Palin condemning women for making choices concerning their own bodies is like hearing Mike Huckabee or Chris Christie telling somebody that they should not be taking that second helping of pie.

P.S. For those wondering just what in the hell Palin is blabbering about I think this might help to explain it.

P.P.S. For those who are wondering the post you are waiting for will publish at 6:15 AM Alaska time, or 10:15 EST time depending where you live.

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Courtesy of Politico:

Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor who is considering a run for president, said in an interview aired this weekend that he’s going to release about 250,000 emails from his time in office.

The move seems designed to get ahead of opposition researchers poring through his time in office — the Democratic research super PAC American Bridge already has started digging in on the candidates — but also to contrast Bush with people like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, both of whom have been accused of creating a fog of secrecy in their government offices.

Unlike the records of Christie and Clinton, Bush’s document trove is fairly dated — he was in office from 1999 to 2007. But the idea, he told WPLG-TV in Miami, is to create “transparency.” Bush was known as an active emailer while in office, often responding to queries himself.

Old Jebby is also writing an ebook. (Can't get an actual publisher?)

So yeah, I think we can all assume that Jeb is definitely throwing his hat into the ring.

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Courtesy of the Washingtonian:

In 2007, 15-year CIA veteran John Kiriakou told an ABC News reporter that his agency had waterboarded an Al Qaeda detainee, Abu Zubaydah, whom Kiriakou was involved in capturing in 2002. His revelation confirmed to the American public the CIA’s torture program and helped spur a years-long Senate investigation and a damning, 6,000-page report, the abstract of which was released this week.

Kiriakou pleaded guilty in 2012 to disclosing classified information, including the name of a fellow CIA operative, to a New York Times reporter. In early 2013, he reported to the a federal prison in Loretto, Pennsylvania, to begin serving a 30-month sentence. Kiriakou, along with supporters that include his congressman, Virginia Democrat Jim Moran, says the real point of his prosecution was to silence him and others from talking about torture.

To be clear, torturing detainees, many of who had no intelligence to share, is not an offense requiring imprisonment,

Ordering that practice, even though America is morally and legally against such practices, is not an offense requiring imprisonment.

However blowing the whistle on these illegal and immoral activities IS an offense requiring imprisonment.

Just so we are clear.

Just what exactly have we become?

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Sarah Palin in her "puffed up leather coat."

Courtesy of Sarah "Whip it, whip it good" Palin's Facebook page:

America Asks: "Whose Side Are You On"; Necessarily Directing This At Our President

In debauched minds it is fine for our young, once potentially unifying President to boast, "I'm pretty good at killing" while speaking of his own secret kill list, but all hell breaks loose if America's expert and experienced CIA (Even CIA Director Brennan recognizes that the CIA was not adequately trained to conduct these "enhanced terrogations.") keeps known terrorists up at night for questioning, plays annoying music to get the evil ones' attention, and considers whatever else necessary to keep us safe. (Yuck it up much, Nobel Peacenik President?) From the cozy confines of the White House he blusters a willingness to assassinate whomever he chooses, no need for judicial balance or seasoned military brass strategy – in fact the Community Organizer canned nearly 200 of our top military officials. And leftist response to their leader's suspiciously opaque drone game plan? Crickets.

(Wrong Brenda Bitchface, liberals have talked about our frustration with the drone programs quite frequently. Drone programs that, by the way, were started by George W. Bush and only exist due to the illegal wars that he started in the first place.)

Mr. President: newsflash ignored by your yapping lapdogs – many of our finest whom you unprecedentedly refer to as "YOUR" own troops confide that the only thing legitimizing your being Commander in Chief is that puffed up leather coat you sport with an embroidered title on your left breast. They want to respect you; they know to obey you; they deserve better.

(Like who? John McCain who never saw an adversary that he did not want to bomb back to the stone age. Or Mitt Romney who may actually have known less about foreign relations than even the woman whose credentials were all based on her state's proximity to Putin's backyard?)

Want to talk "torture"? Evidence #1: Innocent Americans tortured and murdered by guilty terrorists on 9/11. Note the accurate terms "innocent" and "guilty". (The 9-11 attacks can be called all kinds of terrible things, but they certainly cannot be defined as "torture.") Innocent 9/11 families are still tortured. Torture is slicing off the heads of investigative journalists and American charity workers serving in the Middle East who are used as political pawns. (No, actually that's just murder.) Torture is what radical Islamists routinely do to women and minorities.

True Americans say "never again." These perpetrators are evil monsters sharing dark demonic (Demonic?) intentions with radical Muslims who are beheading Christian children today overseas. True Americans serving as watchmen on the wall say, "Not on our soil. Not on my watch." And any American-loving leader should promise, "Whatever it takes to stop evil, to protect this nation, we shall do."

(No! That is where you are wrong crazy lady. An "American-loving leader" recognizes that America should do NOTHING that damages the country's integrity in the eyes of the world, or undermines the moral high ground it needs to compel other nations to treat their prisoners, women, and everyday citizens with respect for their human rights. George Bush stole that from us, NOT President Obama.)

You're on one side or the other. What is it, liberals: sympathy for inconvenienced terrorists who would murder our children or saving America?

- Sarah Palin

And that in a nutshell is what is wrong with Sarah Palin and her ilk. They see the world through the eyes of children, where everything is good or evil, right or wrong, black or white. Without recognizing that most things are rendered in varying shades of gray.

However America using torture, well that really is a case of good and evil. And evil would be those who use the fear that most Americans felt after the 9-11 attacks to justify engaging in tactics that would forever damage us long after we had overcome the panic that gripped us in its aftermath.

Speaking of torture can you imagine what is going through John McCain's mind right now as he listens to this garbage?

It's your damn fault old man. It's your damn fault.

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(Source.)

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Courtesy of CNN:

More than 300 former Obama campaign staffers signed an open letter Friday morning urging Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren to run for president in 2016.

The letter draws parallels between Obama's come-from-behind insurgent candidacy and Warren, who would enter the race an underdog against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton if the latter runs, as expected.

Clinton is seen as the likely Democratic nominee if she jumps in the race, and leads every survey of the potential Democratic field by double digits. But the same was true during her first run for president, in 2008, when a then little-known senator from Illinois jumped in and upended what many expected to be a coronation for the former first lady.

"We believed in an unlikely candidate who no one thought had a chance," the letter opens.

"We know that the improbable is far from impossible," it goes on.

Once again I am conflicted.

Like many others I have some reservations concerning Hillary. Though I still see her as the Democratic party's best hope in 2016.

That being said the speech that Warren delivered on the Senate floor Friday spoke to me in a way that I have not felt since Obama's amazing speeches during his campaign and in the early days of his presidency.

If there were no Hillary, I have no doubt that I would be pushing with all my might to encourage Warren to run.

However I also believe that Warren will be a powerful voice in the Senate and that in those chambers she can electrify the Democrats like few others can these days.

Of course if Hillary taps Warren as her running mate then for me that would be the best of all possible options.

Anybody care to disagree?

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Courtesy of My Fox Chicago:

Officials for the state of South Dakota have removed a “Don't Jerk and Drive” safety campaign after complaints about the sexual overtones of the message.

The campaign, created by the state's Department of Public Safety, was meant to ask drivers not to overcorrect, or jerk, steering wheels while driving on icy and snowy roads.

But officials opted to kill the campaign after multiple complaints that the phrase wasn't appropriate.

So to be clear, it IS okay to masturbate while driving in South Dakota?

I'm asking for a friend.

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Courtesy of TPM:

While Republican senators were fuming at Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) for holding up a $1.1 trillion spending bill aimed at preventing a government shutdown, Democrats saw a silver lining: the move by Cruz and Lee gave Democrats an opening to move a number of President Barack Obama's nominees for federal judgeships and the executive branch.

What happened was that when Cruz and Lee scuttled a deal between Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) that would have allowed lawmakers to leave Washington D.C. for the weekend and come back Monday they gave Democrats a chance to advance Obama's presidential appointees by having to stay in D.C. to deal with the spending bill.

The extra time over the weekend gave Reid the opportunity to, through the Senate's executive session, file cloture on the nominations and move them sooner than they would have under the deal Reid and McConnell had planned on and that Cruz and Lee blocked. Under the original deal Reid would have had to schedule votes on the nominees later in the upcoming week, when Democrats may not have wanted to stick around to vote.

Was worried Dr. Vivek Murthy might not get confirmed but thanks to @TedCruz, looks like he will. #TopDocNow #SurgeonGeneral
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) December 13, 2014

Courtesy of Politico:

The nominations may take days of procedural votes and a lot energy but are likely to be a boon to the president’s hopes of winning approval of as many nominees as possible before his party loses the Senate.

“A lot of these people have been sitting in the calendar for a long time. So if this prompts my leadership to stay a little longer to get a lot of nominations done, then I’m happy about that,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) of the unusual Saturday session.

That's Ted Cruz for you. He always knows exactly where to find his foot. Right next to his molars.

Update: Well the bill passed.

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On Wednesday a group of Tea Party enthusiasts gathered outside the White House to protest immigration reform. And then thinks got just a touch racist.

Courtesy of Right Wing Watch:

“Hang the traitor!”

“Hang the lying Kenyan traitor!”

“We’ve got rope.”

“Plenty of trees in the front yard, wouldn’t be the first one hung on one of them trees.”

“Whatever happened to those good ol’ days?”

“Don’t snap his neck, you watch him choke to death.”

“He’s just biding his time until Satan takes him home to where he belongs.”

Gosh isn't it great that we live in a country where just about any toothless inbred dipshit can stand outside the home of the President of the United States and discuss exactly how they would hang him from a tree?

I simply cannot imagine why people keep insisting that the Tea Party is racist. Can you?



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Courtesy of CNN:

Rep. Michele Bachmann says now that she's leaving Congress, she can "take the handcuffs off."

In an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Friday, the eight-year Minnesota congresswoman said she wants to play a major role in the 2016 presidential campaign -- even though she has no plans to seek the Republican nomination.

"I intend to go around the country and speak nationally on a variety of issues. I'll be writing. I'll be affiliating with groups," she said.

Well I don't know who had Bachmann handcuffed, but that just seems wrong.

If they really wanted to control her they would have gagged her instead.

As for her plans to "go around the country and speak nationally on a variety of issues," I think she might be trespassing on somebody else's turf.

Besides who can really take her seriously until she gets her own channel?

Right?

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Courtesy of MSNBC:

“You know,” Warren said Friday, “there is a lot of talk lately about how Dodd-Frank isn’t perfect. There is a lot of talk coming from Citigroup about how Dodd-Frank isn’t perfect. So let me say this to anyone who is listening at Citi – I agree with you. Dodd-Frank isn’t perfect. It should have broken you into pieces.”

I cannot remember when the last time was that I wanted to stand up and cheer for a speech on the Senate floor, but I certainly did yesterday.

Elizabeth Warren has now thrown down the gauntlet for her fellow Democrats, and I really don't think they can ignore it.

And you can tell that Warren really frightens the Republicans by who is coming after her since this speech.

Courtesy of HuffPo:

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), responding to Sen. Elizabeth's Warren (D-Mass.) criticism of the $1.1 trillion government spending bill's provision that allows banks to take more risk with taxpayer money, on Friday evening went after Warren and other Democrats who sided against the bill.

"If you follow the lead of the senator of Massachusetts and bring this bill down … people are not going to believe you are mature enough to run the place,” Graham said on the Senate floor. “Don’t follow her lead. She’s the problem."

"I'm sure on MSNBC you're going to be well thought of, and on the liberal version of talk radio you'll have your moment with that crowd," Graham said, chiding Warren and other Democrats who deplored what has been called a Wall Street giveaway.

"You're tired, you're frustrated, you're upset about a provision in the bill you don't like," he added of Warren.

Yeah way to talk down to somebody who is clearly your intellectual superior.

By the way as you may have noticed from the previous post Warren has at least one well known conservative figure essentially agreeing with her about the Cromnibus bill. Sarah Palin.

Gee I guess we can all look forward to an impassioned ghostwritten Facebook post in favor of Senator Warren. Right?

Right?

Not right?

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Courtesy of Politico:

Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said the House Republicans who passed $1 trillion-plus funding bill late Thursday “flipped American voters the bird.”

“It’s baffling really,” Palin said in an interview with Breitbart News on Friday. “The Republican Leadership in the House just flipped American voters the bird by sidelining the new Congress we just elected.”

Palin’s criticisms come the morning after the House passed a spending bill by a 219-206 vote. While the bill will keep the government open for another year, Palin and other conservatives are not happy that the legislation will fund President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration and the Affordable Care Act — or as Palin calls it, “the mother-of-all unfunded mandates.”

“It stinks to high heaven,” Palin said of the bill. “Did arrogant politicians not get the memo that Obama’s agenda was decisively defeated in last month’s historic midterm landslide?”

She continued, “Good Lord, America said loud and clear, not just ‘no,’ but ‘hell no’ to Obama’s failed policies.” Palin said she hopes that the 162 Republicans who backed the bill face backlash and called this an “example of the GOP establishment campaigning one way and then governing another.”

“It’s quite nauseating,” she said. “They promised they would do everything in their power to stop Obama’s executive amnesty — I heard their darn campaign speeches promising to do so! — and yet when they have the power to do so (power that we the voters just gave them) they tacitly endorse Obama’s failed agenda.”

Aww, her's feelings are hurt because the Republicans are not doing what she is gosh darn telling them to do.

You know it's almost like you DO need a title to get things done in this country.

At this point Palin has become reminiscent of the old lady who constantly writes letters to the electric company complaining that the power lines next to her house have rendered her parakeets sterile. Or the amateur astronomer bitching to the Mayor's office because the new highrise is blocking his view of Venus.

Nobody listens to them either.

Gosh kids remember when that Sarah Palin woman could make a statement and it was covered by hundreds of media outlets?

Yeah, whatever happened to her?

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Courtesy of TPM:

Kentucky's proposed "creationist theme park," Ark Encounter, won't receive tax incentives from the state because of potentially discriminatory hiring practices, the news website Insider Louisville reported on Wednesday.

The secretary of the state's tourism and arts cabinet sent a letter to the theme park's lawyers on Wednesday explaining the decision. The park, being built in Williamstown, Ky., may have been eligible for up to $18 million in tax breaks from the state, according to the website. But Kentucky backed out after the proprietors of Ark Encounter refused to agree to hiring practices that wouldn't discriminate on the basis of religion, the site reported.

Loss of the tax incentives will likely signal the end of the project because:

Answers in Genesis, the group behind Ark Encounter, has experienced funding issues throughout. In 2011, the company had only managed to garner $4.3 million in donations, a far cry from the proposed $24.5 million.

You know I hate to bring this up, but I do believe that according to the Bible Noah built HIS without benefit of tax incentives.

I'm just saying.

I saw an earlier story about this where a commenter said, "Well I'm bummed. I was really looking forward to that awkward moment when the fire inspectors posted the maximum occupancy allowed inside the Ark."

Good point.

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I have often in my life felt unsure of myself. Especially when I took on a new job or task that was outside of my comfort zone or required a skill set that I was not sure I possessed.

I can remember starting jobs and worrying that my employers would soon discover I was a fraud and that I could not accomplish what was being asked of me.

In all of those cases I did in fact manage to rise to the challenge despite my misgivings or insecurities. And in fact often the jobs evolved to fit my personality so well that finding a replacement for me when I left was a real challenge.

When I started The Immoral Minority I felt much the same way. After all who cared what some dude in Alaska thought about politics, religion, and world affairs? But then I discovered that quite a lot of people did.

And when this job evolved into one that required actual reporting, and conducting interviews, all of those insecurities came right back.

In many ways I lack the essential component that makes a good reporter. I am not all that nosy.

Part of that is undoubtedly from living in Alaska where we tend to have a live and let live philosophy, and part of it is that I am kind of shy and not very aggressive when it comes to talking to people I don't know.

However I have discovered that I am in somewhat of a unique position so I have attempted to put my insecurities and self doubts aside in the interest of getting the story.

All of the above may seem a little off topic, but in fact it is background to help explain why I have not posted the stories that I talked about starting way back in September.

You see at that time I was quite confident that we would be getting all of the information out before Halloween. And besides that I was pretty sure that Korey Klingenmeyer was about to press charges.

Obviously things did not work out quite that way.

Bringing everybody up to speed.

To be honest I don't know what happened with Klingenmeyer, but I can explain what happened with my source and the story we were working on.

Essentially I lost contact with her.

The first thing that happened was that work responsibilities for both of us kept making it hard to get together, and then she had a training to attend out of state, and then, to be honest, I simply lost track of her.

Suddenly my e-mails and text messages were not being returned, and phone calls went to voice mail. This started at the end of October, and I did not hear from her again until the beginning of this month and only had a real conversation with her just last night.

Right up until last night I was beginning to worry that I had been left hanging. (Something which has happened more than once in my blogging career.) And due to my reticence to badger this person or pursue her more aggressively, as a trained journalist might do, I sort of let things slide.

Ultimately I came to believe that I had somehow blown it and that I might not get the really gritty stuff that I had been promised.

In response I started to construct a post of the information that she had already shared with me over lunch that day at The Outback, and in text messages and e-mails afterward.

So I wrote up most of that, picking through it carefully so that it would not reveal her identity (The one journalistic trait that IS firmly part of my DNA is that I NEVER burn a source.), only to realize that there was no way to trim it down to the point where the Palins themselves would not be able to figure out who I must be talking to. Or at least narrow it down to a handful of suspects.

So I decided that I simply could not write the post without letting her know that she might be outed, even if I didn't mention her by name.

After I sent that e-mail I received this one back in response:

Not opposed at all to working with you- just got busy it's the crazy time of year for me! What do you need? I'm Not focused on them right now- work has my undivided attention.

After that we had several e-mail conversations back and forth, and last night we talked on the phone for forty plus minutes where she assured me that she is still gung-ho to get her story out there and is also committed to coming out publicly so that the Palins cannot simply dismiss it as based on anonymous sources. (Which by the way is great news, as she was not sure about that earlier.)

There is one hitch however, and that is that though she is determined to reveal her identity, she wants to wait until after a certain legal issue has been sorted out.

She also explained some of the things that she has been dealing with and by comparison the blog post is simply not as important as the other real life things that she currently has on her plate. (As it turned out I was only one of several people who she was not responding to while dealing with her difficulties.)

So what we agreed to is for me to go ahead and publish that post that I was working on before (The one with the information from our previous conversations.), and keep her identity secret enough so that Palin supporters cannot track her down and start harassing her (Though as I said the Palins will still likely have a pretty fair idea who is talking to me.), and then continue to post new information based on conversations we will have moving forward, as well as photos and documents that she will share, until finally she is in a place where she feels comfortable in stepping completely out of the shadows.

That first post, as somebody already guessed earlier, will show up Monday.

And what can you expect from that post, and the ones that will follow?

Drinking, drug use, family fights, dark secrets, and "I don't know whose baby that is, but it is NOT Sarah's."



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Courtesy of AOL:

The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee released new information on Thursday that he claims is evidence that the Bush administration misled the nation in the run-up to the war in Iraq.

In a speech on the Senate floor, retiring Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., outlined a 2003 CIA cable that warns George W. Bush administration officials against making references to claims that Mohammad Atta - the man who led the 9/11 hijackers - met with an Iraqi intelligence officer in the Czech Republic before the Sept. 11, 2011, attacks. Levin claims Bush officials used the unconfirmed meeting to link Iraq to 9/11 to justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

"There was a concerted campaign on the part of the Bush administration to connect Iraq in the public mind with the horror of the Sept. 11 attacks. That campaign succeeded," said Levin, who cited opinion polls from that time showing many Americans believed former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was involved in the attacks. "Of course, connections between Saddam and 9/11 or al-Qaida were fiction."

He referenced a Dec. 9, 2001, appearance by Vice President Dick Cheney on "Meet the Press." Cheney said: "It's been pretty well confirmed that he (Atta) did go to Prague and he did meet with a senior official of the Iraqi intelligence service in Czechoslovakia last April, several months before the attack."

"Far from 'pretty well confirmed,' there was almost no evidence that such a meeting took place," Levin said. "Just a single, unsubstantiated report, from a single source, and a mountain of information indicating there was no such meeting. ... Travel and other records indicated that Atta was almost certainly in the United States at the time of the purported meeting in Prague."

Of course I am relatively certain that all of you already know that the Bush Administration lied us into the Iraq War. (And if you don't know that you need to drop everything and watch Hubris right now.)

However with all of the hubbub over the Senate report on torture right now it is a good time to remind ourselves that virtually everything we think we know about why we went to war in the first place is a lie.

And speaking of the torture report as I am sure many of you have heard, there is a concerted effort to convince the American people that President Bush himself was out of the loop when it came to the harshest interrogation techniques, but the CIA Director wants you to know that is all bullshit.

Courtesy of the Daily Mail:

The CIA's enhanced interrogation technique program was authorized by President George W. Bush, the bureau's current director John Brennan said on Thursday, and it had his full support.

Brennan, who worked at the CIA at the time as a deputy to a high-ranking CIA official, told reporters that Bush ordered up the program six days after al Qaeda attacked America, despite the fact that the spy agency did not have adequate space to house detainees nor did it have the correct training to interrogate them.

'In many respects the program was uncharted territory for the CIA, and we were not prepared,' he said, later stating that officers 'inadequately developed and monitored' the program and 'the agency failed to establish quickly the operational guidelines needed to govern the entire effort.'

Brennan also said that whether or not these "enhanced interrogation techniques" provided any intelligence that could not have been gathered without them is "an unknowable fact."

So to sum up, the Bush Administration lied us into a war that cost thousands of American lives, and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Iraqi lives. Bush ordered the use of torture techniques even before we had captives on which to use them. And yet to hear the conservatives tell it President Obama is the one who has tried to "fundamentally change this country."

Simply put, George W. Bush is a criminal and a traitor to his country.

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Courtesy of 3 Chics Politico:

Redditt Hudson a former police officer with St Louis County police says Darren Wilson processed his own evidence. Reddit also says he was in the room when Ferguson police chief Tom Jackson told them, Darren Wilson had no knowledge of Michael Brown being involved in a store robbery before the encounter with Wilson.

Hudson also wrote a rather incredible piece for the Washington Post about how being a cop taught him about racism within law enforcement.

I think Chris Hayes is one of the last television hosts still digging into Ferguson, for which I admire him greatly.

It seems since the Eric Garner situation hit the front pages, with incriminating video and everything, that the shooting of Michael Brown has been permanently pushed to the side.

And that is too bad, because in my opinion there is still much to learn about the Ferguson case, and it will never be uncovered now that most news outlets have moved on to the next hot story.

However Michael Brown remains dead, Darren Wilson remains free, and justice remains unserved.

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Sarah Palin's ghostwriter helped her compose a rather meandering post which included a bit about her friend Juanita's first moose kill, an article her brother wrote about hanging out with the Duck Dynasty dipshits, and this:

Running joke among the family is “we never win anything!”, so what a cool surprise today that Willow won the Wasilla High School Swim Team fundraiser raffle – a Remington with a sweet scope! (I know... only in Alaska.)

I have to mention that I am a life long Alaskan and have never heard of a high school affiliated raffle giving away a hunting rifle, but let's face it Wasilla marches to its own tone deaf drummer.

I have also never heard of Willow wanting to go hunting, so one has to wonder just how useful of a prize a Remington with a "sweet scope" really is to the budding hair stylist.

What I do know is that Willow tends to hold a grudge, so I will make sure that my curtains are closed at night just to be on the safe side.

Considering what I am about to share I think I will be moving up the list of people who the Palins would like to see eliminated.



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Veronica Dunnachie supporting Open Carry in Tarrant County

Courtesy of The Dallas Morning News:

An Arlington woman faces a charge of capital murder Wednesday after two people were discovered dead in her home, police said.

Officials said they were treating the slayings as a domestic homicide. Veronica Dunnachie, 35, is being held in the Arlington City Jail, said Sgt. Jeffrey Houston, a police spokesman. Bail had not yet been set.

The victims had not been identified and the cause of death had not been released.

Since this article the bodies were identified as her estranged husband Russ Dunnachie and his adult daughter.

After the slayings the suspect drove herself to Millwood Hospital, a mental health facility, where she was taken into custody. She was uninjured.

Separations, divorces, child custody battles, happen everyday in this country. Usually there are harsh words, recriminations, and lawyer fees.

But when you see the world as a dangerous place, and carry a gun on your person for protection, a verbal confrontation can escalate into something far more dangerous than simply hurtful words.

Despite what the NRA might want all of us to believe, in this case at least the presence of a gun is directly responsible for the taking of life, not the protection of life.

The equation is simple; no gun = no death.

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Courtesy of Real Clear Politics:

GOV. RICK PERRY: I think over the course of the last two years, people, you know, they realize that what they saw in 2011 is certainly not the person they're looking at in 2013, 2014, 2015.

KASIE HUNT, MSNBC: And are you smart enough to be president of the United States?"

PERRY: I think the standpoint of life's experiences. Running for the presidency is not an IQ test. It is a test of an individual's resolve. It's a test of an individual's philosophy. It is a test of an individual's life's experiences. And I think Americans are really ready for a leader that will give them a great hope about the future.

Yeah but she asked a question, and he never answered it.

You know a smarter person might have been able to do that.

And no running for the presidency is NOT an IQ test. But as Sarah Palin learned to her great consternation IQ does in fact play a significant role in preparing a candidate to answer reporter's questions.

And she also demonstrated that wearing glasses in not enough to project an air of intelligence.




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Courtesy of Mashable:

An anonymous Wikipedia user from an IP address that is registered to United States Senate has tried, and failed, to remove a phrase with the word "torture" from the website's article on the Senate Intelligence Committee's blockbuster CIA torture report.

The unknown individual has attempted on at least two occasions — first on Dec. 9 and then on Dec. 10 — to remove a line describing the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques as "a euphemism for torture."


Gee it looks like somebody REALLY doesn't like it when we call torture done by the United States "torture."

Perhaps somebody should have thought of that before they, you know, tortured people.




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Boy ain't that the truth!

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"Duck Jews!" Sincerely Scott Walker

Courtesy of AOL:

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker may want to try using spell check.

The union busting Republican politician tried and failed to wish a happy Chanukah in an undated letter to a local group representing Jewish voters.

"Thank you again and Molotov," said the letter.

The incendiary remark came in a reply to letter from Milwaukee attorney Franklyn Gimbel, according to The Cap Times. The letter is undated but believed to have been written prior to him being elected governor.

He likely meant to write "mazel tov," a common Jewish phrase.

Perhaps Walker is to be excused for this gaffe, as he is a Baptist and the only thing they want from the Jewish people is for two thirds of them to die off so that Jesus will come back.

Yet another prime example of the kind of intellect that the Republican party believes fit to run the country.

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Courtesy of the Independent:

Atheists and humanists are increasingly being targeted as distinct minorities in “hate campaigns” across the globe, according to a new report which found that religious and political leaders are ratcheting up rhetoric against those who believe there is no God.

The report claims that the “hate speech” against atheists does not come exclusively from reactionary or radical religious leaders, but increasingly from political leaders, including heads of state.

The Freedom of Thought report, published by the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), states: “In 2014, in addition to laws such as those targeting ‘apostasy’ and ‘blasphemy’, we have seen a marked increase in specific targeting of ‘atheists’ and ‘humanism’ as such, using these terms in a broadly correct way (the users know what they are saying) but with intent clearly borne of ignorance or intolerance toward these groups.”

The report singles out Najib Razak, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, who has called “humanism and secularism as well as liberalism” a “deviant” threat to Islam and the state. In a speech to the Quran Recital Assembly Razak said: “We will not tolerate any demands or right to apostasy by Muslims.”

Saudi Arabia is criticised for a new law equating “atheism” with “terrorism”. The very first article of the kingdom’s new terror regulations banned: “Calling for atheist thought in any form, or calling into question the fundamentals of the Islamic religion”.

Secular critics of Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the general who toppled Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, have found themselves targeted, through what the report calls “an organized backlash against young atheists”.

The report seems to mainly focus on predominantly Muslim countries, but of course Atheists are also oppressed and vilified here in the United States. And in our not to distant past we were even hung as witches or tortured for daring to have freedom of thought.

I often hear the Christians in this country complaining about their people being persecuted for their religion. But if they want to experience real persecution and oppression around the world, try telling people you are an Atheist.

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Courtesy of The Washington Free Beacon:

“I think months after 9/11 there were three people who we thought knew about imminent attacks, and we did whatever we had to do, and I pray to God that until the end of time we do whatever we have to do to find out what’s happening,” Wallace said on Tuesday’s Morning Joe. “And the notion that this somehow makes America less great is asinine and dangerous.”

Wallace also slammed White House Spokesman Josh Earnest for failing to admit that the CIA’s interrogation techniques did not yield information instrumental in finding and killing Osama bin Laden.

“I have never felt more frustrated with this White House’s inability to speak clearly than I was yesterday when Jon Karl was pushing Josh Earnest to say whether Obama found the information gleaned helpful in killing bin Laden,” Wallace said.

“That’s what this is about… The notion that what we do affects the behavior of terrorists is a lie. It’s a lie perpetrated by political correctness and by liberals and it’s dangerous.”

I know that when dealing with Sarah Palin we often embrace the adage "The enemy of my enemy is my friend," but in the case of Wallace we need to remember who she is and where she came from.

By the way the Senate torture report says that there were more than three detainees waterboarded and that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times. And the "intelligence" he gave up was absolutely worthless.

What I find most damning is that Wallace's opinion is in direct conflict with her old boss John McCain's position.

The Bush Administration is guilty of war crimes and of lying to the American people. Period.

And nothing that Nicolle Wallace, Dick Cheney, or any other conservative pundit has to say will change that.

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Courtesy of Not the Voice of America's Facebook page:

Grant me this use of America's voice: When you cut through all the “inside baseball” stuff in this Omnibus Spending Bill that's in front of Congress, you're left with two cold hard facts: this bill doesn't defund Obama's amnesty (so he gets to reward lawbreakers with your tax dollars) and it adds to our dangerous, unsustainable debt. It also breaks campaign promises made by quite a few of our incumbent politicians on both sides of the aisle. Hey, if you thought we wanted more of the same as we worked our butts off to get good folks elected in November, then why did we vote to oust liberals who got America into this mess in the first place? Guess what, GOP: our victory party is over and voters are wide awake and trusting you to keep your promises to America. Get a handle on your debt. Stop Obama's amnesty to illegal aliens. Support our military. Bottom line: we elected you to stop Obama's “fundamental transformation of America.” Do it – especially you Republicans who promised to do it. Or face America's wrath next go 'round because an elephant never forgets.

"Grant me the use of America's voice." Does that remind anybody else of Palin writing that letter she wrote in God's voice about her easy pregnancy over a week before Trig was actually born?

For the record she does NOT speak in America's voice.

And also for the record the newly elected 2014 House members are not yet able to vote on this bill, and some of the members who are still there she actively tried to get replaced, so who the hell is she talking to?

However I am thrilled that she now refers to herself as an "elephant," because I have been looking for a new nickname.

Not to shock you or anything but I do almost agree with Palin on this, only not for the same reasons of course.

This Omnibus bill actually does suck and there are legitimate reasons to be against it.

Here are a few:

Congressional appropriators ordered four more F-35 joint strike fighters at a cost of $479 million dollars, even though the Pentagon didn’t ask for them.

Since those shiny new F-35s aren’t going to pay for themselves, Congress did manage to trim a few areas of the budget. For example, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, commonly referred to as WIC, was on the receiving end of a $93 million budget cut.

The 2014 Midterms saw voters in Oregon, Alaska, and Washington, D.C. vote to legalize Marijuana for recreational use. Unlike in Alaska and Oregon, however, the D.C. ballot measure is subject to congressional approval. So, despite the fact that the actual citizens of Washington, D.C. voted for legalization by a margin of more than 2 to 1, anti-legalization advocates in Congress attached a rider that completely undoes the voter-backed change and keeps Marijuana illegal.

The current budget deal includes a repeal of the Dodd-Frank derivatives rule that was literally written by big bank lobbyists — A leaked document obtained by the New York Times revealed that 70 of the 85 lines of derivatives language reflect recommendations made in a piece of model legislation drafted by lobbyists for Citigroup, another bank that played a major role in the 2008 crisis and also received billions of federal stimulus dollars.

If all of this sounds familiar, it’s because the House passed the exact same CitiGroup-written law last year, but it died after resistance from the Senate and Treasury Department. Now, Wall Street’s allies in Congress have effectively copy-pasted the CitiGroup-approved language out of the old bill and into the current budget deal, which is much less susceptible to a veto threat since a veto would shut down the government. In a provision conveniently located on page 1,599 of a 1,603 page document,

Congress lays out donation rules that would allow individuals to give more than $300,000 directly to political parties every year. According to the Washington Post’s Matea Gold, under the new rules, one couple could legally funnel nearly $1.3 million to a party’s various account.

So yes there are real reasons to be frustrated by this bill, however they are certainly not the ones pissing off the Wasilla Wendigo.

By the way this is the picture that Palin used for her Facebook post on this.

That's Sarah Palin in a nutshell.

Claiming to speak for American while wrapping her feet in it's flag.

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Here is brief portion of the article courtesy of Time Magazine:

The death in Dallas of Thomas Eric Duncan, the first Ebola patient diagnosed on U.S. soil, and the infection of two nurses who treated him, shook our faith in the ability of U.S. hospitals to handle this kind of disease. From there the road to full freak-out was a short one. An Ohio middle school closed because an employee had flown on the same plane as one of Duncan’s nurses. Not the same flight, just the same plane. A Texas college rejected applicants from Nigeria, since that country had some “confirmed Ebola cases.” A Maine schoolteacher had to take a three-week leave because she went to a teachers’ conference in Dallas. Fear, too, was global. When a nurse in Spain contracted Ebola from a priest, Spanish authorities killed her dog as a precaution, while #VamosAMorirTodos (We’re all going to die) trended on Twitter. Guests at a hotel in Macedonia were trapped in their rooms for days after a British guest got sick and died. Turned out to have nothing to do with Ebola.

The problem with irrational responses is that they can cloud the need for rational ones. Just when the world needed more medical volunteers, the price of serving soared. When nurse Kaci Hickox, returning from a stint with MSF in Sierra Leone with no symptoms and a negative blood test, was quarantined in a tent in Newark, N.J., by a combustible governor, it forced a reckoning. “It is crazy we are spending so much time having this debate about how to safely monitor people coming back from Ebola-endemic countries,” says Hickox, “when the one thing we can do to protect the population is to stop the outbreak in West Africa.”

I don't know if it was purposeful or not, but Time is certainly going to ruffle more than a few conservative feathers with this choice.

After all it was the conservatives, and their propaganda channel that were yelling "The sky is falling, the sky is falling" when all that was really happening was that America discovered that they were no more immune from getting sick than everybody else.

The treatment of Kaci Hickox was simply embarrassing and I think it is awesome that she is being vindicated for her understanding that she was not a risk to her fellow citizens, and recognition for her selflessness in trying to help those who desperately needed her even at risk to her own health.

Oh and by eh way, and fuck Governors Chris Christie and Paul LePage.

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Funny.

What is not quite as funny is that this is based on an actual product printed by the Alaska Mint.

Actually come to think of it that kind of funny as well.

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Courtesy of The Nation:

The debate in Washington over Bush-era torture at the Central Intelligence Agency took a large leap forward Wednesday morning when Senator Mark Udall took the Senate floor and disclosed portions of an internal CIA review, while renewing his demand for a change in the intelligence agency’s leadership and criticizing the Obama administration for not doing enough to ensure torture doesn’t happen again.

The so-called “Panetta Review” has dominated much of the drama leading up to the torture report’s release. The document is an internal CIA examination that reportedly validated many of the worst claims about the torture program, including much of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s findings. (The CIA was after this document when it breached Senate computers in January.)

On Wednesday, Udall described the Panetta Review as a “smoking gun”—proof from the CIA itself that there were serious problems with the torture program. It undercuts almost every contemporary statement made by CIA Director John Brennan and other top intelligence officials, he said, who have vocally been defending what occurred.

Here is what Udall disclosed on the Senate floor today:

"The Panetta Review found that the CIA repeatedly provided inaccurate information to the Congress, the president, and the public on the efficacy of its coercive techniques. The Brennan Response, in contrast, continues to insist that the CIA’s interrogations produced unique intelligence that saved lives. Yet the Panetta Review identifies dozens of documents that include inaccurate information used to justify the use of torture—and indicates that the inaccuracies it identifies do not represent an exhaustive list.

The Panetta Review further describes how detainees provided intelligence prior to the use of torture against them. It describes how the CIA—contrary to its own representations—often tortured detainees before trying any other approach. It describes how the CIA tortured detainees even when less coercive methods were yielding intelligence. The Panetta Review further identifies cases in which the CIA used coercive techniques when it had no basis for determining whether a detainee had critical intelligence at all. In other words, CIA personnel tortured detainees to confirm they didn’t have intelligence—not because they thought they did.

To date, there has been no accountability for the CIA’s actions or for Director Brennan’s failure of leadership. Despite the facts presented, the president has expressed his “full confidence” in Director Brennan, and demonstrated that trust by making no effort at all to rein him in. The president stated that it wasn’t “appropriate” for him to wade into the issues between the Committee and the CIA. […]

The White House has not led on this issue in the manner we expected when we heard the president’s campaign speeches in 2008 and read the executive order he issued in January 2009. To CIA employees in April 2009, President Obama said, “What makes the United States special, and what makes you special, is precisely the fact that we are willing to uphold our values and ideals even when it’s hard—not just when it’s easy; even when we are afraid and under threat—not just when it’s expedient to do so. That’s what makes us different.”

This tough, principled talk set an important tone for the beginning of his presidency. However, fast forward to this year, after so much has come to light about the CIA’s barbaric programs, and President Obama’s response was that we “crossed a line” as a nation, and that, quote, “hopefully, we don’t do it again in the future.”

That’s not good enough. We need to be better than that. There can be no cover-up. There can be no excuses. If there is no moral leadership from the White House helping the public understand that the CIA’s torture program wasn’t necessary and didn’t save lives or disrupt terrorist plots, then what’s to stop the next White House and CIA Director from supporting torture?"

Excellent question!

Senator Udall is damn right. If nobody is punished for this, and some are even allowed to keep their jobs, then there is NOTHING to prevent this same thing from happening again the next time the terrorists successfully attack us here at home.

Which I think we all know id bound to happen at some point.

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Courtesy of The Independent:

The Newsroom has been accused of having a “women problem” before, but now Aaron Sorkin has come under fire for a rape storyline that implies male perpetrators are to be believed over female victims.

The latest episode has been criticised for its portrayal of female rape victims after TV news producer Don Keefer said he felt morally obligated to believe the man’s side of the story because he had not yet been convicted of rape.

The episode’ storyline followed a Princeton student who starts a website allowing women on campus to out their rapists after the city justice system failed to prosecute two fraternity members who she claimed raped her.

The student is tracked down by the fictional news network ACN for a debate with her alleged attacker live on air. Don had also interviewed the man she claims raped her and when she asks him who he believes, the producer says he felt obliged to take the man’s side over hers.

This received quite a lot of backlash from all corners.

Including from a writer on the show who claims her misgivings about the segment were ignored, and that she was "kicked out" of the writer's room.

Sorkin himself responds here.

Actress Olivia Munn, who plays the character Sloan Sabbith on the show, also weighed in:

“…The reality is that Sorkin writes things so that they can be talked about, and so we show both sides of it,” she said. “I think it was important to show what it’s like for women to be a rape victim, want to speak out, and then have somebody come in and say, ‘Hey don’t do that. That’s going to be bad for you.’

“Sorkin wasn’t saying ‘Don’t do that,'” Munn said. “He was saying ‘This is what happens.'”

Personally I liked the episode. Partly because it left me conflicted, and not sure whose side I should take in the exchange between the Don Keefer character and the college student.

But that to me is the mark of great television.

I don't often watch shows that make me feel all warm and cuddly inside. I watch shows that make me think, piss me off, or make me grieve for the loss of a character that I have, against my better judgement, grown attached to. (Still miss you Beth.)

I think the show did everything that I would expect it would do with such a controversial subject.

And in the light of the Rolling Stone campus rape scandal, it could not have been more timely.

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In case image does not expand click here.

Oh well, now it all makes sense.

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I have been listening to reporting on this all morning, from essentially every cable news outlet, and I have to say that I think I am going to have some trouble sleeping tonight.

I knew some of this, but to have it all laid out like this...well it's like being punched in the stomach.

Here are the most horrific revelations according to TPM:

Torture didn't work, though the CIA told everyone it did.

I knew this, but still........

The CIA used brutal and gruesome methods like 'rectal feeding' and 'rectal hydration'

Coercive interrogation methods included waterboarding, sleep deprivation for up to 180 hours, nudity, slaps, slamming detainees against a wall. At least three detainees were threatened with harm to their families, including the threat of raping a detainee's mother. And it gets worse.

"At least five CIA detainees were subjected to 'rectal rehydration' or rectal feeding without documented medical necessity," the report reads, documenting in gruesome detail one such example involving detainee Majid Khan.

The CIA once used harsh interrogation tactics on two of its own informants.

Seriously?

The CIA was extremely secretive and fought congressional oversight.

This part should not surprise anybody.

Potential congressional oversight scared the CIA into destroying its interrogation tapes.

In late 2005, Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) proposed an independent commission to investigate U.S. interrogation policies, which prompted interest within the CIA in destroying videotapes of its interrogations. Although Levin's amendment failed on Nov. 8 of that year and the committee was not yet aware that the tapes existed, the CIA went ahead and destroyed them one day later anyway.

Yeah they clearly broke the law here. Gee I wonder if anybody will be punished for it?

The LA Times has more:

One detainee in CIA custody was “chained to a wall in the standing position for 17 days” and another looked like “a dog who had been kenneled,” according to a CIA description cited in the report.

Some detainees were kept awake for nearly 180 hours, “usually standing or in stress positions, at times with their hands shackled above their heads.” Some were placed in ice water baths.

At least five captives were subjected to painful rectal rehydration or rectal feeding, without documented medical necessity. In one case, the CIA put a captive’s lunch — hummus, raisins, pasta and nuts — into a blender and inserted the food into his colon through a tube.

The CIA applied its methods “in near nonstop fashion for days or weeks at a time,” the document states. If you torture someone long enough, they'll confess to being Santa Claus. All people eventually break under torture, and the victims will do whatever the interrogators want in order to end the pain.

Some of the agency officers responsible had “documented personal and professional problems of a serious nature — including histories of violence and abusive treatment of others — that should have called into question their employment,” let alone their suitability to run a sensitive CIA program, the report states.

The most gruesome conditions described occurred at a site in a former brick factory north of Kabul, Afghanistan, that was used by the CIA for interrogations starting in November 2002.

In the facility, referred to as “COBALT” in the Senate report but code-named Salt Pit by the CIA, conditions were so dungeon-like that interrogators wore headlamps to navigate pitch-dark passageways.

“At times, detainees there were walked around naked and shackled with their hands above their head,” the report states. “At other times, naked detainees were hooded and dragged up and down corridors while being slapped and punched.”

An Afghan militant named Gul Rahman died in the Salt Pit of suspected hypothermia in November 2002 after he was beaten, stripped naked from the waist down and left chained to a concrete floor in near-freezing temperatures.

This thing reads like a Stephen King horror novel.

Make no mistake we did this. This is us.

Perhaps we were not the ones slapping the detainees, depriving them of sleep, or leaving them to die in the cold, but this is now how America is defined. And we are, after all, Americans.

We can shrug off the blame and claim we did not know what was going on, but we knew for quite some time that the US was using "enhanced interrogation techniques," what exactly did we think those were?

And though some of us spoke out back then we simply did not yell loudly enough, and others simply pretended that we were justified in doing ANYTHING so long as it made us safe at home.

Well it didn't. If anything it prolonged the risk, and has done much to help create terrorist groups that will continue to frighten the American people for many, many years to come.

Simply put the Bush Administration is an organized crime syndicate, who broke multiple laws, sent thousands to an early grave based on lies, and destroyed the very fabric of what makes us America by doing to these suspected terrorists what we have condemned others for doing for decades.

If this is not enough to keep Americans from electing another Bush in 2016, or ever again for that matter, I cannot imagine what will.

By the way as to the idea that the release of this report will inspire attacks against Americans, there was one analyst today who said "We are currently actively bombing ISIS. They already have plenty of reasons to want to attack us. It is unlikely that the release of this report will give them any more."

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I am simply not in the mood to attempt a transcript today so you will have to go to the link to hear the whole thing, but here is some of what Palin said courtesy of EXTRA TV:

Palin explained, "2016 is a long time away… that's a big darn deal when it comes to family."

This was in response to the invariable question about whether Palin is running in 2016 or not. (Spoiler alert: She's not!)

Thompson asked, "Hillary Clinton's name has been floating out there for a long time as the Democratic nominee. Are we ready for that?" Sarah responded, "I would love to see a woman on both sides of the aisle shooting for that top spot."

"Shooting for that top spot?" Oh look more gun metaphors.

As for the second season of "Amazing America with Sarah Palin," Palin said, "There's so much to show… we're going to focus a lot on those who are reaching out and helping others. We're going to showcase a lot of these people who can inspire others to get out there and live vibrantly. It's about work ethic, but still keeping that connection between faith, family, and love of freedom. That's America!"

Some day, some reporter is going to have the balls to ask Palin just what in the hell she means by "living vibrantly." Because unless it means "living drunkenly" I don't think it relates to her family's way of life.

Palin also shared that her family is doing well. "My family is awesome. Perhaps they have some kind of target on their back because the liberal media types, they do not like constitutional conservatives who are going to call it like they see it and speak truth. So they'll do whatever they can to get you to sit down and shut up, but I'm not wired to sit down and shut up."

That may be but according to those police audio tapes from the brawl the family is programmed to fall down and drink up.

And just to be clear the family does not "have a target on their backs" because they are "constitutional conservatives," which by the way I don't think any of them really are.

They attract attention for doing crazy disruptive things, or because Palin herself draws attention to them in order to hide behind, make them promote one of her pet issues, or, in Bristol's case, use their blog to attack the President.

Essentially this interview was just the same old crap as usual.

I did however notice that the wind was making Palin's wig super obvious. At one point she reaches up to fix her hair, and then stops right above the bangs so as not to knock the wig loose.

If it had taken flight this might have been the most entertaining Palin video yet. Perhaps even better than the Thanksgiving turkey slaughter video.

Well, maybe.

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