World News Korner

Courtesy of the LA Times:

State Sen. Leland Yee, a prominent figure in California's Democratic legislative majority, was arrested in a federal corruption investigation Wednesday along with an ostentatious gangster known as "Shrimp Boy" — who insisted that he had gone straight — and two dozen of their alleged associates.

An affidavit filed in federal court in San Francisco by FBI Special Agent Emmanuel V. Pascua said there was probable cause to believe that Yee had conducted wire fraud and had engaged in a conspiracy to deal firearms without a license and illegally import firearms.

Yee, 65, was taken into custody in San Francisco on Wednesday and was seen being loaded into an unmarked law enforcement vehicle under an umbrella, his wrists handcuffed behind his back. He was set to be released on $500,000 bond after surrendering his passport.

The affidavit paints a portrait of Yee that is by turns seedy and bumbling, and one deeply at odds with the high-minded image he had long cultivated. Yee, a candidate for secretary of state, is accused of being willing to take varied and numerous steps to solicit campaign donations and sidestep legal donation limits.

For instance, he is accused of seeking an official state Senate proclamation in the spring of 2013 praising the Ghee Kung Tong Freemason lodge in San Francisco. Yee sought the proclamation, according to the court complaint, in exchange for a $6,800 donation to one of his campaigns — a donation that was paid by an undercover FBI agent.

The organized crime figure known as Shrimp Boy, whose name is Raymond Chow, identifies himself as the "dragon head" of that Freemason organization on his Facebook page. The indictment says that Chow, 54, whose criminal history includes racketeering and robbery, has a position of "supreme authority" in the Triad, an international organized crime group.

You know much of the time when conservatives call out Democrats for shady dealings it is exaggerated or made up out of whole cloth, but THIS one is a solid hit.

The Right Wing will of course be even more over the moon since Yee was an avid gun control advocate who has now also indicted for running guns.

And for the cherry on top many of you may remember that it was Senator Yee who criticized how much Sarah Palin was paid by Cal State Stanislau for a speech she gave back in 2010, and received tons of hate mail for his troubles.

So you know there will be dancing around the old mansion in Arizona.

So go ahead conservatives take your shots. It is pretty clear this guy deserves it.

However that is one to your......your uh.......never mind I can't count that high.

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Courtesy of TPM:

It's a match made in heaven: An Alabama congressional candidate has a new campaign video in which he literally shoots holes in the Affordable Care Act.

The Daily Caller first reported on the new video from Will Brooke, a business executive who is running in the GOP primary to replace Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL).

"We're down here to have a little fun and talk about two serious subjects," Brooke says. "The Second Amendment and see how much damage we can do to this copy of Obamacare."

Then the Teabagger shoots his load at the bill and the result in less than impressive.

Probably not for the first time in his life either.

Of course this is the kind of ad that is going to stimulate Tea party nipples all over the country. In fact I am amazed that Sarah Palin has not already endorsed him on her Facebook page.



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Courtesy of Raw Story:

On Tuesday, Ted Nugent called the mayor of Longview, Texas “clueless,” “dishonest,” “racist,” and claimed that he had “bamboozled the good citizens of Longview.” Last month, the town withdrew its invitation to have him headline its annual July 4 Fireworks and Freedom Celebration.

When the invitation was revoked, Mayor Jay Dean said that Nugent’s concert “didn’t really fit what we trying to put together, a family oriented program…and I confirmed with his thoughts that that probably wasn’t the right act. And I still feel that it was the right decision. It just didn’t fit with what we were trying to put together.”

On Saturday, Nugent told the Forth Worth Star-Telegram that the real reason for the revocation of the offer was that Mayor Dean is racist. “I hear from reliable sources that the mayor is a racist and was offended that my band performs mostly African-American-influenced music,” he said.

“Everyone knows ol’ Uncle Ted is the ultimate Independence Day rockout with the ultimate all-American, soul music, rockin’ soundtrack of defiance, liberty and freedom. We shall carry on. We are the good guys. Clueless, dishonest people like the mayor are the bad guys.”

So its racism that is keeping Nugent from playing his 4th of July gig in Texas? And here I thought racism wasn't good for anything.

Nugent also dropped this bomb:

“Those that hate me are following the Saul Alinsky playbook on how to dismantle, fundamentally transform the greatest nation and quality of life the world has ever known,” he continued.

“Those that hate me hate America, plain and simple.”

Wow, I had no idea I hated America. Now I feel bad.

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Courtesy of Green Car Congress:

Honda marked the opening of Honda Smart Home US, showcasing technologies that enable zero net energy living and transportation, including Honda’s home energy management system (HEMS), a proprietary hardware and software system that monitors, controls and optimizes electrical generation and consumption throughout the home’s microgrid.

The home, located on the West Village campus of the University of California, Davis, is capable of producing more energy on-site from renewable sources than it consumes annually, including enough energy to power a Honda Fit EV for daily commuting. Honda Smart Home is expected to generate a surplus of 2.6 MWh of electricity over the course of a year, while a comparable home will consume approximately 13.3 MWh. The home’s occupant will be able to use less than half of the energy of a similarly sized new home in the Davis area for heating, cooling and lighting. The home is also three times more water-efficient than a typical US home.

A 10 kWh battery energy storage system in the garage, using the same lithium-ion cells that are used in the Honda Fit EV, allows stored solar energy to be used at night, when household demand typically peaks and electric vehicles are usually charged.

Honda’s HEMS leverages the battery to balance, shift and buffer loads to minimize the home’s impact to the electric grid. The system will also enable Honda to evaluate the second life, or re-use, of EV batteries in grid applications, home-to-grid (H2G) connectivity and other concepts.

Honda’s HEMS is also capable of improving grid reliability by automatically responding to demand response signals and providing other grid services. If the electricity grid is overloaded, for example, Honda Smart Home is capable of shedding its load and even supplying power back to the grid. This type of smart grid connectivity will enable the mass deployment of electric vehicles and renewable energy without sacrificing grid reliability, Honda suggests.

Damn this is absolutely amazing!

And it really shows that if we put our minds to it we could DRAMATICALLY cut down on green house gas emission and fossil fuel consumption within a very short span of time.

Of course places like Italy and Germany are already miles ahead of us in this area.

This is the kind of technological breakthrough that you know must cause energy executives buttholes to pucker all of the world.

This is another post done at my daughter's request. She is a huge green energy fan and is constantly on my to spread the word.

And she is right. This IS the future, and the faster we get there the better it will be for our country, our people, and the future of our planet.

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Courtesy of YouGov:

Even though 2/3 of Americans in the latest Economist/YouGov Poll think the country is ready for a woman president, there is no guarantee that a woman will even be on the ballot in 2016. Although her candidacy is greatly anticipated – or greatly dreaded -- by many, Hillary Clinton has not yet made a decision yet on whether or not to run.

Several media outlets (for example the Wall Street Journal and CBS News) have published stories about those who have doubts about her running. Others have speculated about what could happen if she chose not to run; the Washington Post, for example, predicted "chaos" on the Democratic field. But with so many Americans thinking the country is ready for a woman president, what other women do Americans think could or should run for the highest office in the land?

For the past several weeks, the Economist/YouGov Poll has asked Americans their opinions of other women who could potentially run for president. Last week, when people were asked what women other than Hillary Clinton Americans would want to run for president in either 2016 or 2020, 49 different names were mentioned. However, there were only 8 women named by at least 1% of survey takers, and nearly 2/3 of those in the survey couldn't name a single other woman beyond Clinton.

Okay first off it is important to note that a full 2/3 of the participants in this survey could not even name another female candidate except Hillary, which goes to show that she is without a doubt the best known potential presidential candidate in the country.

Second just because the majority of the country is ready for a female President does not mean they will cast their vote for any old uterus that decides to run. I think we learned that definitely in 2008.

And speaking of 2008, it is clear that the only reason that so many people know about Palin is due to the McCain campaign, and of course the constant mention on late night talk shows, for comedic reasons. That does not, in any way, translate into support.

Besides in this scenario Palin is much like General William Sherman in that if nominated she would not run, and if elected....well let's face it she would NEVER be elected.

Don't get me wrong she would love to run, but she simply cannot do so without all kinds of secrets coming out that would embarrass her to the point that she would have to run back to Wasilla with her vestigial tail between her knees. (Okay she might NOT have a vestigial tail but then again I think she might.)

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Click exasperated expression to play video.

I watched this last night with my jaw hanging open.

It was like watching somebody try to chase down a greased pig and explain Obamacare to it.

Here let Raw Story give you the highlights:

MSNBC host Chris Hayes clashed with a state official for the Koch Brothers-funded group Americans for Prosperity (AFP) on Wednesday after she claimed that extending the deadline to sign up for the Affordable Care Act by two weeks would have a negative impact on her childrens’ health care.

“It continues to not allow people to go back and change this law,” AFP Pennsylvania State Director Jennifer Stefano told Hayes. “This law has made seven million people lose their insurance.”

As Reuters reported earlier in the day, the deadline to sign up for Obamacare, as the law is commonly known, was extended until April 15 for people who have already begun the subscription process through the healthcare.gov website. As of March 17, more than 5 million people had signed up for coverage.

“People without health care right now, who don’t have health care for their children, don’t want this law, Chris,” Stefano said.

She did not mention that, in several instances, people who were refused coverage by their providers because their plans did not meet the minimum requirements set by the new law have in fact been eligible for coverage at a lower cost after factoring in government subsidies.

“As a mother, I take real offense that women are being forced to have no choices to cover their children,” Stefano continued.

“What are you talking about?” an incredulous Hayes responded, before arguing that much of the “heavy lifting” under the law would be accomplished by expansion of state Medicare programs, which have been frequently been opposed by conservatives.

“Throw out the mandate, throw out the exchange,” Hayes then told her. “Bumping up Medicaid eligibility from 100 percent of poverty line to 133 percent of poverty line so that some working poor people can get some health insurance — what is the objection to that? Why does every conservative Republican governor oppose that? Explain that to me.”

“Number one, not true,” Stefano answered. “Plenty of Republican governors, including Tom Corbett in Pennsylvania, including [Ohio Gov. John Kasich], there are Republican governors that have expanded Medicaid. Please, please, please, spare me that this is a Republican-Democrat thing.”

Well of course it IS a "Republican-Democrat thing" because though there have been some Republican governors who have seen the writing on the wall and expanded Medicaid, ALL of those who have not are in the Republican party.

At one point a little later in the conversation (Which was actually more like an air raid siren going off and one poor slob trying to find the off button.), Stefano actually claimed that raising the poverty level would mean that people making $94,000 a year would be considered to be living in poverty. And she repeated that multiple times.

Then when Hayes tried to reason with her, she took a comment he made COMPLETELY out of context and then raged that he was insulting her as a mother, and in fact was insulting all mothers.

Apparently this woman is from the Sarah Palin school of debate in which you misunderstand the conversation and then throw your children out in front of you like information deflecting sandbags while using white noise to pummel your opponent into submission.

I will hand it to Chris Hayes for at least trying to have a rational conversation with an irrational Koch supported Teabagger, but perhaps now he understand why others may not be quite as willing to do so.

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"Okay is that hog manure I smell? Or...."

Courtesy of the Hog Castration Groupie's Facebook page:

What a day for Iowa patriots! Very proud to stand with Joni Ernst because she will be a great commonsense conservative in the U.S. Senate! Her love of country, experience, and solid character – virtues that cross party lines and political ideology – bring real hope to a diverse populace. (A "diverse population" of predominantly white middle aged people she means.) Even Jimmy Fallon said to vote her in! (He as mocking her.) We heard the news that her likely Democrat opponent took a page from the Obama playbook and disparaged hard working Iowans in a closed-door fundraiser. Liberal Congressman Bruce Braley referred to U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley as "just a farmer from Iowa." Holy! As an admirer of the hardest workers in America, toiling to feed the world, I have to ask what's next from a man who would disparage the work ethic and know-how of a farmer? Is insulting the other half of Iowa by slamming them for "bitterly clinging to their guns and religion" up next? (Oh, look a dig at Obama, how completely expected.) I'd stay away from the Iowa State Fair this year if I were you, Mr. Braley. The good productive "just farmers from Iowa" and "bitter clingers" we've shared fried butter-on-a-stick with there may have a bone or two to pick.

Well that's a Sarah Palin endorsement for you, just chock full of old fashioned down home bullshit, insults toward liberals, and a veiled threat or two.

And believe me if Palin ever actually "shared" fried butter on a stick with anyone, it was only for as long as it took her to walk to the state fair port-a-potty and vomit it out.

As ya'll might remember we covered the Ernst testicle shriveling campaign video on Tuesday, and of course Palin endorsed her yesterday.

And the endorsing continues in high gear today, as she has just recently come out in support of Karen Handel form Georgia for the US Senate, in a long winded endorsement that seems to be cut and pasted from her previous endorsements. (Hey, creativity costs extra!)

Recent polling shows Handel running a distant fourth in a crowded field of potential GOP nominees, so her chances of pulling off a victory are between slim and none, and since slim is Sarah "Albatross" Palin that essentially leaves none.

I cannot help but to think that this recent spate of seemingly cookie cutter endorsements is in direct response to all of us calling her out as a fraud who is only using SarahPAC to line her own pockets and rarely ever uses the money to support candidates.

Now she is showing all of us "haters" how wrong we are by having SarahPAC paid ghostwriters type out her endorsements for her.

So there! People who don't believe that Sarah Palin is still a force to be reckoned with in politics anymore.

Which I'm guessing would be all of us.

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