World News Korner

Courtesy of Levi's Facebook page.

Recently there have been questions as to why we should care about the Tripp Johnston custody situation. I understand that most of those come from trolls, and we all understand THEIR agenda, but in case there are any others who legitimately wonder why I waste time an energy on this cause let me explain.

First off as a father who had to fight in court to retain custody of his daughter, I care.

And as a child who was once abandoned by my own father, I care.

But as somebody who is tired of seeing people's lives destroyed by that vicious Wasilla bitch, I care even more.

One thing you cannot help but to discover when you interview people about Sarah Palin, is just how many lives she damaged during her rise to power, and her struggle to retain it.

This is something that all of us, Geoffrey Dunn, Joe McGinniss, reporters from various magazines, and I all learned while doing research on her over the years.

And these were not the exception to the rule either. Terrible things befell people who stood up to the Palins, spoke out against the Palins, or simply were perceived as problematic by the Palins.

Terrible things.

Talk show hosts, comedians, politicians, librarians, shopkeepers, former partners, high school acquaintances, sex partners, or just fellow Wasilla residents, have all felt the sting of Palin retribution.

There were stories that Joe McGinniss left out of his book every bit as damaging as the ones he put in, and in some cases more.

In most cases there is nothing that can be done for these people, and they are too terrified to seek compensation or justice themselves.

But in the case of Levi, what was done may have been the most egregious act of revenge ever perpetrated by the Palin family.

They were surely instrumental in getting Sherry locked up, scrubbed Mercede's computer clean of family photos in an attempt to hide something she may not even have realized she had, caused a rift between family members, somehow used his own lawyer and manager to destroy his reputation, and kept him away from his son for the vast majority of the young boy's life.

Most of this is almost impossible to prove. But not that last bit.

THAT is as well documented as anything I have ever seen. We have hours of television footage to prove that case, and the Johnston's have much, much more than that.

Do not forget that Levi was literally the first person close to the family to speak out publicly, and call Sarah out on her bullshit. And instead of the accolades and support he should have received for that courage, instead his lawyer stole his money, and his manager destroyed his credibility.

All this man wants is his child back in his life permanently.

I think he deserves much more than that, but if I can, in some way, help him to get Tripp, then that is the very least I can do.

So yes, we will continue to talk about it, and I will continue to provide whatever support I, and IM, can provide.

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Courtesy of Politico:

Rep. Michael Grimm is in federal custody as the New York Republican awaits his indictment on federal criminal charges, according to sources close to the case.

Loretta Lynch, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, will unveil a grand jury indictment against Grimm this morning. The allegations - Grimm will face well over a dozen charges - include mail and wire fraud, filing false tax returns and health care payments, hiring undocumented workers and obstruction of justice, according to sources close to the case.

You all might remember Grimm as the congressman who threatened to throw a reporter off a balcony and break him in half.

Of course Grimm is claiming that the charges against him are false and that he is not guilty:

Rep. Michael Grimm has vowed to stay in office after he pleaded not guilty Monday to a 20-count federal indictment that includes charges of mail, wire and tax fraud.

The Staten Island Republican was arraigned in Brooklyn and released on $400,000 bond.

“I will get right back to work as I always have — with honor and distinction, I will serve,” Grimm told reporters in Brooklyn on Monday. “And then, on top of all that, I have an election to win.”

But then what would you expect somebody like this to say when they are finally forced to face the music?

The guy is clearly a real piece of shit, and now it looks like he is about to get flushed.

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You know it is one thing to read Palin's comments as reported by a journalist, or as written on Facebook with or without a ghostwriter, but hearing her say this kind of crap in her own voice really underlines just what a nasty bitch she is.

The other day somebody pointed out that it seemed that she was becoming more hateful with every appearance, and I would agree that it certainly seems that way.

As if she is so angry that she has been marginalized, and that fewer people are reacting to what she says, that she is simply saying more and more horrible things in the desperate hope that somebody will be forced to respond to them in print.

Well they are responding to her alright. In fact a group Christians has even started a petition to make sure that people know she does not speak for them:

For Christians, torture is not a joke or a political punchline, but a ghastly reminder of the suffering of Jesus upon the cross. By equating it with Holy Baptism -- the act by which we are united with Christ in his death and resurrection -- Sarah Palin is blasphemously twisting our faith into a weapon of hatred and violence. No media outlet should cover her remarks without reporting on how sincere Christians of all theological and political persuasions are appalled.

However she DOES still have supporters, as the American Conservative found out recently after they called her out over her remarks.

I will restate what I have said before, and that was that the point of maintaining focus on Palin and blogging about her speeches, Fox News interviews, and reality show gigs was to continue to publicize her craziness, until everybody could see for themselves what I, and others, had been accused of making up about her.

I promised back in 2009, that I would stay on her ass until we finally saw her career in its death throes.

Well, now we are seeing just that.

Pretty entertaining isn't it?

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Letter sent to kindergarten parents

Courtesy of the Washington Post:

An annual year-end kindergarten show has been canceled at a New York school because the kids have to keep working so they will be “college and career” ready. Really.

That’s what it says in a letter (see above) sent to parents by Ellen Best-Laimit, the interim principal of Harley Avenue Primary School in Elwood, N.Y., and four kindergarten teachers. The play was to be staged over two days, May 14 and 15, according to the school’s calendar.

One mother who received the letter, Ninette Gonzalez Solis, wrote on Facebook that parents learned recently the play was being canceled and started calling the principal, leading the school officials to send out the new missive. Solis wrote that she was very upset about the cancellation.

Gee no kidding, I would hope that ALL of the parents who received this letter are upset.

Here is a portion of the letter for those having trouble reading it:

"The reason for eliminating the kindergarten show is simple. We are responsible for preparing children for college and career with valuable lifelong skills and know that we can best do that by having them become strong readers, writer, coworkers, and problem solvers. Please do not fault us for making professional decisions that we know will never be able to please everyone. But know that we are making these decisions with the interests of all children in mind."

That is such BS.

Look I worked in a kindergarten room.

These children are struggling to learn to sit still during lessons, take turns during free time, and to zip up their coats and tie their own shoes.

The skills we focused on was teaching them to cut out shapes in order to improve their small motor skills, identify and read letters to improve their memorization skills, and to respect other children's property and feelings to improve their social skills.

One of the first tasks we struggle with is teaching children to stand in line. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a bunch of five year olds to stand in line, without touching each other, wandering around aimlessly, or facing the wrong direction, for the first time?

A lot more challenging than one might imagine.

And what really helps with the teaching process is recognizing that this age group is barely out of the toddler stage, and they need to have lots of time to move, to play, and to distract themselves from the boring classroom work.

This school clearly does not understand what it takes to prepare children of this age for college or a career. One thing I can tell them for sure is that burning children out on school before they even reach the first grade is certainly NOT the way to put them on the path toward success.

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Yeah, you know what? I think it might be a little too late for this.

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"I meant what I said, and I say what I meant, I am just an idiot 100%."

Courtesy of the Lunatic from Lake Lucille's Facebook page:

Actions to stop terrorists who’d utterly annihilate America and delight in massacring our innocent children? Darn right I’d do whatever it takes to foil their murderous jihadist plots – including waterboarding. Whatever one thinks of my one-liner at the NRA rally about treating evil terrorists the way they deserve to be treated to prevent the death of innocent people, it’s utterly absurd for MSNBC to suggest that I could put our beloved troops in harm’s way, but we’ve come to expect the absurd from that failing network. If you want to talk about what really harms our troops, let’s talk about politicians who gut our military’s budgets, or a president whose skewed budgetary priorities slash military benefits, or an administration that puts our vets on endless waiting lists for care that comes too late to help those who’ve paid the price for our freedom, or those who break bread with those who think it makes no difference how our military heroes died in Benghazi or anywhere else trying to protect America. Those actions are a heck of a lot more harmful than declaring an appropriate message our enemies should receive. If some overly sensitive wusses took offense, remember the First Amendment doesn’t give you a right not to be offended. Perhaps hypocritical folks who only want Freedom of Speech to apply to those who agree with their liberal agenda might want to consider that the evil terrorists who were the brunt of my one-liner would be the first to strip away ALL our rights if given the chance. That’s why we do whatever we can to prevent them from killing innocent people. And for that, we should NEVER apologize. Good Lord, critics... buck up or stay in the truck. And if you love freedom, thank our troops! Thank our vets! And thank those who have the brains to support them and the guts to defend what they have earned!

- Sarah Palin

Well it looks like SOMEBODY'S ghostwriter stepped out for a quick smoke and left the Wasilla Wendigo pounding on her keyboard. "Overly sensitive wusses?" Really?

Of course as everybody outside of the Bush administration will now admit, torture did not keep Americans safe, nor did it help to find Osama Bin Laden.

In fact as this Daily Beast article explains, it actually hurt the U.S.:

We will never know how much information the U.S. lost because it failed to use time-tested, effective, and humane methods of interrogation. We will never know how many years earlier bin Laden could have been captured and how many lives spared if, instead of whisking them off to a prison outside the law, the U.S. had instead charged Mohammed and al Libi in federal courts and treated them properly and in accordance with due process. We do know that bin Laden’s death does not end the threat terrorists pose to the U.S. and other nations. But we also know that the best way to guard against future attack is by rejecting the use of torture outright and staying faithful to the rule of law and basic tenets of decency. This is true not only because it is the right thing to do, but because it works.

All Palin has demonstrated with her truly horrific remarks is that she knows NOTHING about fighting terrorism, and nothing about how much American lost when it allowed fear to frighten it into forget who we are, and what we once stood for.

And now she has helped to remind people what a colossal mistake it would have been to let her anywhere NEAR the White House, and the office of the President.

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Courtesy of the New York Times:

At long last, the Koch brothers and their conservative allies in state government have found a new tax they can support. Naturally it’s a tax on something the country needs: solar energy panels.

For the last few months, the Kochs and other big polluters have been spending heavily to fight incentives for renewable energy, which have been adopted by most states. They particularly dislike state laws that allow homeowners with solar panels to sell power they don’t need back to electric utilities. So they’ve been pushing legislatures to impose a surtax on this increasingly popular practice, hoping to make installing solar panels on houses less attractive.

Oklahoma lawmakers recently approved such a surcharge at the behest of the American Legislative Exchange Council, the conservative group that often dictates bills to Republican statehouses and receives financing from the utility industry and fossil-fuel producers, including the Kochs. As The Los Angeles Times reported recently, the Kochs and ALEC have made similar efforts in other states, though they were beaten back by solar advocates in Kansas and the surtax was reduced to $5 a month in Arizona.

But the Big Carbon advocates aren’t giving up. The same group is trying to repeal or freeze Ohio’s requirement that 12.5 percent of the state’s electric power come from renewable sources like solar and wind by 2025. Twenty-nine states have established similar standards that call for 10 percent or more in renewable power. These states can now anticipate well-financed campaigns to eliminate these targets or scale them back.

The reasons that they are giving for wanting this ridiculous tax is that the ability of the solar panel users to sell back unused energy to the utilities "would hurt older people on fixed incomes by raising electric rates."

But of course that's just bullshit. And even if it WERE true there is no way the Koch brothers give a shit about anything that does not provide a profit for them.

No these assholes simply know that once renewable energy catches on in this country that their businesses are going to take a serious hit, and that scares the crap right out of them.

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Courtesy of the Washington Post:

A Washington Post analysis found that some of the top national tea party groups engaged in this year’s midterm elections have put just a tiny fraction of their money directly into boosting the candidates they’ve endorsed.

The practice is not unusual in the freewheeling world of big-money political groups, but it runs counter to the ethos of the tea party movement, which sprouted five years ago amid anger on the right over wasteful government spending. And it contrasts with the urgent appeals tea party groups have made to their base of small donors, many of whom repeatedly contribute after being promised that their money will help elect conservative politicians.

Out of the $37.5 million spent so far by the PACs of six major tea party organizations, less than $7 million has been devoted to directly helping candidates, according to the analysis, which was based on campaign finance data provided by the Sunlight Foundation.

The dearth of election spending has left many favored tea party candidates exposed before a series of pivotal GOP primaries next month in North Carolina, Nebraska, Idaho and Kentucky.

So then the question becomes, if they are not spending the money on the candidates, then just were ARE they spending the money?

Roughly half of the money — nearly $18 million — has gone to pay for fundraising and direct mail, largely provided by Washington-area firms. Meanwhile, tea party leaders and their family members have been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in consulting fees, while their groups have doled out large sums for airfare, a retirement plan and even interior decorating.

What, no postage?

Of course we have reported fairly extensively on SarahPAC spending, but isn't it interesting to find that essentially Palin's PAC is following the same pattern as all of the others?

And of course this kind of money laundering will continue right up until the paint chip eaters who send money to these criminals wise up.

So essentially it will never end.

Well, until they all die off of course,

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