World News Korner

Courtesy of the Washington Post:

Phil Robertson, the controversial star of the hit TV show "Duck Dynasty" will address the upcoming Republican Leadership Conference on Thursday.

Robertson will talk to the annual confab in the evening of its opening day, the conference announced Tuesday. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) are among the people also scheduled to speak Thursday evening at the conference in New Orleans, Louisiana.

That's right Republican party keep right on openly embracing the intolerant, misogynist, and xenophobic.

After all that IS your base.

Source

Courtesy of the Washington Post:

Two-thirds of Americans in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll disapprove of the Republican strategist raising questions about Clinton's age and health in advance of her potential presidential run. The lopsided negative reaction to Rove's commentary -- just 26 percent approve of his topic of criticism -- includes majorities of every age group as well as Democrats and independents. Republicans split evenly on the issue, with 45 percent approving and 46 percent disapproving of Rove broaching the issue.

In the overall category, combining all political groups it was 66% to 26% disapproval. For Democrats it was 84 to 11 percent. Independents 64 to 27. And of course as pointed out in the above paragraph only the Republicans were evenly split on the issue.

Of course since most Republicans will undoubtedly vote against Clinton based simply on principle, and every other demographic is turned off by this, it is probably not something that the rest of the GOP should adopt as a viable method of attack against Hillary.

Of course this information comes too late to stop a certain Grizzled Mama from stuffing her Naughty Monkey pumps into her gaping maw.

Source

Courtesy of the Kiss of Death's Facebook page:

Steve Lonegan gave liberals a fright in 2013 by putting on a fight like the Garden State had never seen against liberal Cory Booker in the special election for U.S. Senate. (Actually he lost in 55% to 44% during a special election which historically favors Republicans.) Never backing down from his conservative principles, Steve won support from Democrats, independents, and a unified GOP in his campaign. This good mayor isn’t done fighting for what’s right! 2014 has called him to run for the open U.S. House seat in New Jersey’s 3rd Congressional District, an area he carried by five points in the Senate election.

Steve is the type of conservative leader we need. He believes in the free market principles this country was founded on because he has seen first hand how they can lead to success. Overcoming adversity in his own life, Steve built his successful business from the ground up and was elected mayor of Bogota, NJ. In Washington, he will be a dedicated fighter for lower taxes, balanced budgets, and lessening the burdens of regulation on small businesses. Todd and I enjoyed joining our friend Mark Levin in getting to know Steve and his wife Lorraine on the campaign trail, and I know these patriots are just the type of fighters we need in Congress.

As Palin mentions she endorsed Lonegan back in 2013 as well, and of course he lost. Same will probably hold true this time.

Lonegan gave it his all last time, whihc included questioning Cory Booker's sexuality. But still came out the loser.

Of course for me the most iconic moment of that campaign came during his concession speech.


Oh yeah, the consummate compassionate conservative.

I think I will very much enjoy watching this blowhard lose again.

Source

Sarah Palin sure can pick winners can't she?

Courtesy of TPM:

Samuel Wurzelbacher gave his condolences this week to the families of the victims of the mass shooting near the University of California, Santa Barbara. But no tragedy is going to stop "Joe The Plumber" from defending the Second Amendment.

In an open letter published Tuesday on the website Barbwire, Wurzelbacher went out of his way to explain to the victims' parents that the deaths won't undermine his "Constitutional rights."

"I am sorry you lost your child. I myself have a son and daughter and the one thing I never want to go through, is what you are going through now," wrote Wurzelbacher, who became something of a mascot for John McCain's failed 2008 presidential campaign. "But: As harsh as this sounds – your dead kids don’t trump my Constitutional rights."

I think that just about sums it up.

To these people who believe that the 2nd Amendment is the MOST important part of the Constitution, there is nothing that they hold more dear.

Not even the lives of our children.

Source

Gotta love that free speech.

Source

Courtesy of Radar Online:

RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned that Johnston has dragged Palin back into court in Alaska in a bid to get more time with their five-year-old son, Tripp, and to curb Palin’s repeated trips out of state with the boy.

“I was never EVER ok with u taking my son anywhere or put[ting him] on your tv show,” Johnston snaps in bitter text messages submitted as evidence in the case, and only Radar has all the details.

Radar also finally learned that there has never been a legal custody agreement between Levi and Bristol, and that all of this time he has been at her mercy as to when, and for how long he could see Tripp. (Just another way that he was screwed over by Rex and Tank.)

Instead of having a solid visitation agreement, Bristol just up and took Tripp whenever she wanted to, and often this came as a surprise to Levi:

“Hey I thought our flight left tomorrow, but it leaves midnight tonight,” a supposed text from Palin sent January 6, 2014, reads.

“When does my son get back?” Johnston’s response reads. “I told u … There is not chance you are taking him there for another 3 months. TRIPP wants and needs his father, Bristol. U need to let him stay with me or fly him back up to me when I’m back from work. That’s completely reasonable.”

“Look Levi, bfeore sunny got involved in this, you were fine with me being in school,” Palin snapped back in the alleged text. “Tripp is enrolled in school in AZ and will be back when I’m done with training.”

Johnston insisted, “Tripp needs to be in Alaska. We’re [sic] the rest of his family is. How can u be so selfish and no I was never EVER ok with u taking my son anywhere or put on your TV show. It’s all crap. He deserves more then [sic] that. He needs his dad and my family just as much as yours. And more importantly. Tripp needs stability and a routine and sports. And all that. I really hope and pray u put 2 and 2 together one day. It’s not right. Or fair to our son.”

“Go ahead and ask him if he want to stay with dad or go with u,” he taunted. “Bet he says dad. Just saying Bristol. Tripps old enough to tell u what he wants now.”

I have been told that Levi often did not even realize that Tripp was out of town until days after he left.

I remember that Sadie would complain bitterly that there would be agreed upon visitations, often around holidays and birthdays, and then at the last minute Bristol would simply cancel, without bothering to give a reason.

Hopefully this time there will be an actual agreement that will protect Levi and his parental rights, and introduce some stability into the child's life.

Which by the way is more than Bristol apparently ever had.

Source

Courtesy of Raw Story:

Rev. Franklin Graham told a group of conservative pastors that he loves LGBT people enough to warn them they risked falling into the “the flames of hell.”

“I love them enough to care to warn them that if they want to continue living like this, it’s the flames of hell for you,” Graham said Thursday night at the Watchmen on the Wall National Pastor’s Briefing in Washington, D.C.

“Now, if you don’t like that, don’t get mad at me,” Graham said. “I didn’t write the rule book. Almighty God wrote it, and it’s a sin against Him.”

He said religious leaders were stifled by political correctness.

“We don’t want to be called a homophobic,” he said, “and I tell people, listen, I’m not afraid of homosexuals, I’m really not — matter of fact, I love them.”

Graham, who has repeatedly praised Russian President Vladimir Putin for his anti-gay policies, cautioned the pastors not to compromise in their teaching.

“Listen gentlemen — we live in a world where there is so much compromise,” said Graham. “This city that we’re in, that’s all they do is compromise. We cannot go down that road because you and I are going to have to stand before God one day and give an account to Him, and you don’t want Him to say from His lips, ‘You were a coward.’”

A man who openly praises Vladimir Putin who is invading neighboring countries and murders reporters who dares to question him, and who condemns men and women for loving in a way that he does not condone.

And yet he claims to love the people who he insists must deny their nature and live a life with love or sexual fulfillment.

Fuck him.

Source

Courtesy of Slate:

If you’ve followed the story of Uganda’s infamous “Kill the Gays” law over the past few years, you’re probably aware that prominent American evangelicals like Scott Lively and Lou Engle have been harshly criticized for their role in introducing a strain of zealous social conservatism—including an especially vicious condemnation of homosexuality—to Africa. But media reports of this phenomenon have been mere hints compared to the dense epidemiological survey that God Loves Uganda represents. Williams’ vision of the relationship between American missionary groups—like the Kansas City-based International House of Prayer that he profiles here—and the Ugandan government and culture is one of contagion, infection. Early in the film, an animated map of the globe shows salvation spreading like a plague across the world. A little later, a young woman on her first mission trip to the country describes her goal as one of virality:

"One of my greatest hopes is to deposit what I’ve kind of received at IHOP, that DNA of prayer and worship. DNA replicates itself, and so I think that everybody wants to replicate their values and the core parts of who they are."

And as Williams shows, the evangelical movement’s vector-teams have been successful—images of spirit-struck white people wailing and “rapid-fire” praying for Africa in Missouri transform into scenes of wild-eyed Ugandan ministers screaming at strangers in a traffic jam, of white-walled rooms full of people jumping and flailing and lifting chairs in the air, of sweat-drenched Africans speaking in tongues. Williams has created a zombie movie, only the dreaded mutation is one of hateful Christian ideology rather than cells: Call it “World War C.”

Tracing the origins of this epidemic prove upsettingly simple. “The West has been in a decline,” Lou Engle, founder of prayer rally program “The Call,” explains in the gruff, breathy, slightly crazed tone that a certain kind of minister uses to convey his fervor. “But right now I think that Africa, it’s the firepot of spiritual renewal and revival. It’s very exciting to me.” America is becoming increasingly resistant to his bigoted version of Christianity; time to find greener pastures elsewhere. And as another missionary explains, Uganda is the perfect place: “50 percent of the population is under 15 years old. … What [we] can do is limited, but we can multiply ourselves in these young people.” Add that to the strategy of tying aid and charity work to values exportation in order to ensure a captive audience, and it’s easy to see why many Ugandans so readily accept the evangelical message.

I discovered the sordid side of evangelism and missionary work right here in Alaska, after finding out how the early Christian workers separated families, punished children for speaking their native languages, and renamed them with Biblical names while insisting that they forget their birth names.

What I learned up here was more than enough to put me off religion for the rest of my life, but when you research the spread of Christianity throughout the world, the brutality, oppression, and destruction of ancient customs and beliefs is enough to make a truly moral person sick to their stomach.

World War C, is the perfect description of the plague that has swept this planet and which continues to tear apart communities, turn family members against each other, and inspire hatred toward homosexuals and those unwilling to leave the religion of their ancestors.

If you have not yet seen the film, worry not, you can see it right here.

Source

Okay so as we have discussed before this last Saturday there was a convention in Wasilla that featured speakers like Rafael Cruz, Sharron Angle, and the Bundy Ranch supporter who thought protesters should hide behind their women.

As I posted later there was absolutely NO coverage from any of the local press.

Until now.

Yesterday Amanda Coyne, formerly of the Alaska Dispatch, posted this story on her blog.

Here are some of the lowlights:

There’s going to be a time, I predict sooner rather than later, when reasonable Republicans aren’t going to be able to sit through a speech like the one given at the Alaska Republican Assembly convention in Wasilla by Assembly President Sharron Angle, the Nevada politician who ran for Senate in 2010.

“One out of every six bundlers on the Democratic side is homosexual,” she told the 150 or so people at the Wasilla Sports Complex on Saturday. “Are you starting to see the trend? If we want to stop their agenda we have to stop their money,” she said.

One day reasonable Republicans in the room will get up and walk out, in the same way they’d walk out if she substituted “black” or “Hispanic” for “homosexual. “

Coyne then goes on to report that there were apparently none of these "reasonable Republicans" of whom she speaks, because everybody kept their seats and clapped politely.

So who was there? Among the attendees:

Reps. Bill Stoltze, Lynn Gattis, Shelley Hughes, Wes Keller, and Lora Reinbold. Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan worked the room. Sen. Lesil McGuire made an appearance, as did Russ Millette, the former GOP chair who just announced that he was running for governor as a Republican. Bill Walker had a booth, manned by his running mate Craig Fleener. Anand Dubey, who’s running for state House in West Anchorage, and John Cox, a candidate for the U.S. House, were there. Senate candidate Dan Sullivan also had a booth. Mead Treadwell had a presence. Joe Miller was there, getting the most shout-outs from the speakers. (Hmm, no mention of Sarah Palin? How interesting.)

Most of them sat or stood around the edges, chatting with occasional passersby, and occasionally even rolling their eyes at some of the speakers’ more fulsome pronouncements. None of them, however, left. The people in the room represented a slice of the electorate that they’re going to need in in the primary, and they can’t afford to offend them.

In other words these were the nuttiest of the wingnuts, and these politicians realized that in this state in order to win a primary, that is exactly who they needed on their side.

Coyne goes on to report that the other speakers were just as crazed as Angle:

You can say a lot about Sharron Angle, but at least she doesn’t yell. Two of the other keynote speakers did a lot of that. For hours. God. Guns. Socialism. Obama.

Richard Mack, a sheriff from Arizona, yelled about how Alaska should be able to elect sheriffs. Right now!!!

“Are you a David?” he yelled. “Do you have the courage to go against the Goliath?… Did you know that gun control is against the law?… How many God given rights are in the First Amendment?”

“Five!” he yelled.

Ted Cruz’s father Pastor Rafael rounded out the afternoon. Like the sheriff, the senior Cruz’s voice rose. But the sheriff’s shouts seemed aimed at hitting you, individually, in your gut. The senior Cruz’s voice was the voice of stern pastors everywhere, the one that rips right through you, through the walls, into some land beyond that only they envision.

“Nobody is taking my gun or my bible,” he shouted. “Vote according to principle.”

"Nobody is taking my gun or my bible." Wow if that does not sum up the essence of the conservative wing of the Republican party I don't know what does.

Coyne does not report on exactly how many people showed up on Saturday, but if her tweeted photo from the convention is any indication, not very damn many.

Alaska Republican Assembly in Wasilla: Lots of politicos. Most creative? Treadwell's posse in neon shirts. #aksen pic.twitter.com/q4YBvKC5zu
— Amanda Coyne (@Amanda_Coyne) May 24, 2014

Let me just reiterate how glad I am that I did not waste my Saturday at this gathering of mental midgets.

Source

The purpose of life is to nurture and protect those that follow our own.

Source

As all of you know I posted about Palin's hypocrisy concerning Hillary's health right after she made her clumsy attempt at an attack last week.

Sadly for Andrew Sullivan he was out of the office that week. However now that he is back in front of his laptop, he is ready to take Palin head on.

First Sullivan takes a moment to agree with Palin about the importance of a candidate releasing their medical records when running for office. Then he reminds his readers that he was vilified for doing the exact same thing in regard to Palin in 2008:

When did Palin actually release something about her health? She released a two-page letter from her doctor one hour before polling day.

No records at all. Was she subjected to a press grilling? I know of no reporter who asked her to verify her Trig stories; there were no questions ever about her weird stories about giving a speech while having contractions or getting on an airplane eight months pregnant and already in labor. The McCain campaign never asked her for verification or explanation of any of these stories. Those of us who did ask were then ridiculed and slimed by the press and the campaign.

These facts need to be remembered when Palin tries to rewrite history. And one above all: all Hillary Clinton needs to do, if she is to follow Palin’s example, is to wait until an hour before the polls open, and release a brief doctor’s note saying nothing is wrong. Somehow, I don’t think the press will let her get away with that. Which raises the question of why the press let Palin get away with the same thing. And still do.

EXACTLY!

And that is really the crux of the argument put forward by those of us taunted with the "Trig Truther" label.

IF Palin had released comprehensive medical records, or released a verifiable birth certificate for Trig, then I think she could have legitimately mocked those who kept accusing her of faking her pregnancy, or continued questioning the circumstances surrounding it.

However to this day, she has done neither.

Nor are their any pictures of her bare pregnant belly, no testimonials of any friends who felt a baby kick, or any photos of her in the delivery room holding her newborn. (Which by the way is something that I believe EVERY mother has in their possession.)

And let me just say how nice it is to see that Andrew has not stepped away from the babygate controversy. He obviously rarely has need to bring it up, but if Palin gives him an opening he is certainly not shy about taking it.

And isn't Palin an idiot for giving it to him?

Source

Courtesy of Mother Jones:

Two videos posted on YouTube on May 19 by the San Antonio chapter of Open Carry Texas—since removed from public view but obtained by Mother Jones—show its armed members being refused service at both restaurants. The two companies have not made official statements on open carry but have since indicated that they are reviewing their policies. From the nervous and angry reactions of some patrons to comments from some of the gun activists themselves, it's not difficult to see why these spectacles haven't been winning many people over.

When a young woman approaches the group in Chili's and expresses her dismay, a guy with an assault rifle strapped across his back offers her a flyer. "Um actually, there's children here," she replies, "and you're a dumbass." As she walks away one member of the group comments mockingly, "Yes, I'm a dumbass," and then says of her, "must be Moms Demand Action," referring to the national gun reform group.

In the Sonic video, as the thwarted gun group lingers in an adjacent parking lot, one member says: "I just wish I had my kids in there when that one dumb chick come up and started rattin' her mouth."

Personally I think these inbred morons should keep right on showing up at restaurants with those long guns and their bellies hanging over their belts.

They might literally do more to usher in stricter gun control laws, than the recent mass shootings have managed to do.

Which, of course, is nothing.

Source

Courtesy of TPM:

"Have we learned nothing? These things are going to continue until somebody does something," Richard Martinez said in an interview with CNN. "So where the hell is the leadership? Where the hell are these people we elect to congress that we spend so much money on? These people are getting rich sitting in Congress, and what do they do? They don't take care of our kids. My kid died because nobody responded to what happened at Sandy Hook."

Martinez's son, Christopher, was the last of six victims allegedly killed by Elliot Rodger before the suspected shooter took his own life. An emotional Martinez had railed against "craven, irresponsible politicians" and the National Rifle Association for their support of gun rights at a Saturday press conference. He redoubled his criticism of Congress in his interview with CNN, calling lawmakers a "rudderless bunch of idiots."

A visibly angry Martinez expressed dismay that no legislative action has been taken since 20 elementary school students were killed by shooter Adam Lanza in Newtown.

"Those parents lost little kids. I had 20 years with my son. That's all I'll ever have," he said. "But those people lost their children at 6 and 7 years old. How do you think they feel? And who's talking to them now, who's doing anything for them now? Who is standing up for those kids that died back then in an elementary school? Why wasn't something done? It's outrageous."

It is outrageous. It's outrageous that no mater how many people die from gun violence everyday in this country, that our politicians are too cowardly to stand up and fight against a lobby that is really not nearly as powerful as we are led to believe.

And the most heartbreaking thing of all is that after we are finished lamenting this latest shooting, and after our memories start to fade, we will all go back to our lives as if it never happend until the NEXT terrible massacre occurs, and you know it will, which angers us enough to yet again speak out and demand that something be done to stop the violence.

But of course very little actually will change, and more grieving parents will soon join the Sandy Hook parents, and Mr. Martinez, in asking WHY.

Source

Courtesy of Raw Story:

A California Republican touted his commitment to Second Amendment rights and support from pro-gun groups a day after a deadly shooting rampage in a recorded phone call made to voters.

A spokesman for Tony Strickland, who is running for the state’s 25th congressional district, said the robocall was scheduled before a 22-year-old killed seven people and wounded seven others Friday night in Isla Vista.

The calls, which pointed out that Strickland was a founding member of the NRA Member Council and former California Rifle and Pistol Association Legislator of the Year, were made Saturday to voters outside of Los Angeles.

“Tony has been a longtime supporter of the rights of citizens to keep and bear arms and will continue to oppose, and actively fight, any legislation that would take away our Second Amendment right to bear arms,” the call stated. “As the founder of the Freedom Firearms Coalition and with a lifetime ‘A’ rating from the NRA, we can count on Tony Strickland to protect our constitutional rights.”

The problem with gun violence in this country is NOT due to the fact that there is not enough money spent on helping those with mental health issues, though in fact there is not. It is that there are simply too many Goddamn guns on the streets, and they are MUCH too readily available, to ANYBODY, regardless of why they may want to purchase them.

To put it simply, you can shoot somebody to death whether you are mentally ill, too drunk to make rational choices, to angry to think clearly, or too young to know what you are doing.

But you CANNOT shoot somebody to death if you do not have a gun with which to do it.

THAT should be the focus for keeping us safe.

And insensitive, asshole politicians like this one, do nothing but exacerbate the problem.

Source

President Obama placing a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington Cemetery.

Courtesy of the Obama Diary:

President Obama on Monday honored all the Americans who have given their lives for their country, from the Civil War of a century-and-a-half ago to the Afghanistan war that is wrapping up this year. In Memorial Day remarks delivered a day after a surprise visit to Afghanistan, Obama said the U.S. troops there “are coming home” from the conflict that began a month after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. “By the end of this year, our war in Afghanistan will finally come to an end,” Obama said during the annual Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. During his speech, Obama praised veterans from all the nation’s wars. “Everything that we hold precious in this country was made possible by Americans who gave their all,” Obama said.

Here you can find the video of the President's remarks.

Though there is much to criticize, the President took no cheap political shots.

Because it would be disrespectful to their memories to do so, and a REAL leader recognizes that.

And of course last night President Obama went to honor the troops still with us and tell them that he is going to get them out of harm's way as soon as possible.

Because a REAL leader also tries to limit the number of new headstones that are placed in Arlington Cemetery during his term in office.

Source

Courtesy of the NewsMiner:

A massive wildfire pushed by wind in Alaska's Kenai Peninsula south of Anchorage continued to explode in size, leading to mandatory evacuations of 1,000 structures, officials said Sunday.

The number of people told to flee their homes isn't clear, said Michelle Weston, spokeswoman with the Alaska Interagency Management Team, which includes the state Division of Forestry and federal and local officials.

Officials said that as of 4 p.m. Alaska time, the fire covered nearly 243 square miles and may continue to grow as it burns in the 1.9 million-acre Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.

Reports came in last night that the fire had jumped the Kenai River, putting the town of Sterling in jeopardy as well.

The air quality in Anchorage continues to be pretty bad, and I went outside just now and there is a definite smell of smoke in the air.

The good news is that it is supposed to rain tomorrow, and that should help quite a bit.

At least that is what we are hoping for.

Source

Courtesy of Lady Liberal Libation's Facebook page:

Enjoy this long, glorious spring weekend, and please never forget the true meaning of Memorial Day. We set this time aside to honor the men and women who for generations have ensured our safety and our ability to spend a day like this in freedom and peace. They are more than just names on gravestones in national cemeteries and battlefields. They were someone’s child, sibling, spouse, parent, and friend. As President Reagan said, on Memorial Day we remember “those who were loved and who, in return, loved their countrymen enough to die for them.”

Thank you, God, for instilling the passion for freedom in these patriots. Thank you for equipping America with the resources to defend the liberty You have given us. (Did she just thank God for the Military Industrial Complex? You know, the people who donate millions of dollars to politicians so that they will keep starting wars that allow them to sell their murderous products to the government.)

Please remember our active veterans today as well as those who have fallen. Every American should feel outrage at any injustice done to our veterans seeking what was promised them when they volunteered to defend the homeland. They are owed the health care they have already paid for. Friends, be determined to right the wrongs our vets face today. (Ah, gotta twist that knife buried in President Obama's back, don't you nasty?)

President Lincoln knew our military heroes as "those who gave the last full measure of devotion” for our freedom; let’s continue Lincoln’s legacy of respect and always keep faith with our veterans. They, more than any, deserve our country’s unending respect and gratitude.

- Sarah Palin

Reagan, Lincoln, did you ever notice that Palin likes to mention the same American presidents that Barack Obama said that he admired in past speeches and comments? Calling Dr. Freud.

Yes today is a day to honor our fallen soldiers who gave their lives in service of our country.

However it should not be a day for half term governors, failed reality stars, and current D-list celebrities to attack the President of this country, while pretending to care about the deaths of the actual soldiers whose lives were put in the kind of jeopardy that her own political connections protected her own son from facing.

In other words this should be a day free from hypocrisy.

Source

Courtesy of The State:

Reginald Wayne Miller, the president and founder of Cathedral Bible College, is not allowed to set foot on the college campus in Marion or communicate with any of the school's current or former foreign students as an investigation continues into allegations that Miller threatened to cancel foreign students' visas if they did not work long hours for little pay.

Those terms are part of a $250,000 secured bond that Magistrate Judge Thomas Rogers set for Miller during a detention hearing Friday in federal court. In addition, Miller will be on home detention and will be required to wear an electronic monitoring device.

"I don't think we've identified all of the potential victims yet," said Carrie Fisher, the assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the case. Fisher said some victims may have already left the country and some may be former students who have yet to come forward. "Our investigation just started this week."

Miller, who wore shackles and orange prison garb at the hearing, did not speak except to tell Rogers that he understood and agreed to the bond requirements. His public defender, William Nettles, said Miller's friends and family will attempt to raise the money needed for bond. Miller also turned over his passport to court officials. He was still booked into the Florence County Detention Center as of Friday afternoon.

Agents with Homeland Security Investigations filed a criminal complaint against Miller this week saying they have probable cause to charge him with forced labor, a felony that carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years for each count. Investigators say Miller forced foreign students to work at the campus and his personal residence for as little as $25 per week. Miller threatened to cancel the students' visas if they complained or didn't comply with his demands, according to an affidavit filed this week.

You know what continues to piss me off, is that people insist on believing that being an Atheist automatically makes you an immoral person, when there is so much evidence to suggest that it is Christians who seem to lack any sense of morality.

Of course if I were to suggest such a thing I would be completely unjustified in doing so, but that never stops those on the other side now does it?

And just how many young people sat it this man's feet while the preached to them about love, morality, and sin? Perhaps instead what they really learned was oppression, hypocrisy, and greed.

Source

Courtesy of Raw Story:

Ben Sasse, who is widely expected to to win the seat being vacated by Sen. Mike Johanns in November, authored a dissertation — The Anti-Madalyn Majority: Secular Left, Religious Right, and the Rise of Reagan’s America — in which he argued that the modern conservative movement began not with “the Reagan Revolution,” but with two Supreme Court decisions in the early 1960s in which mandatory public school prayer and Bible reading were struck down as unconstitutional.

The first of them, Engel v. Vitale, inspired a Republican Congressman from New York, Frank Becker, to action. He was a true believer — a man who, according to Sasse, was a “tenacious focus derived less from a studied assessment of his audience than from his heartfelt conviction that the hope of America lay in its special relationship with the Almighty, and in the nation’s resolve to doggedly oppose the most formidable system of atheistic imperialism the world had ever known.”

Sasse identified Becker’s failed efforts to “oppose the most formidable system of atheistic imperialism the world had ever known” as the origin of a “bottom-up” rebellion against the “elites” — many of whom were Jewish — who wanted to remove religion from public life. He claimed that Nixon and his rhetoric of the “silent majority” spoke “effectively to and for the small-town values still prized by most of the country.”

“Indeed angst about secularization, more than any other complaint,” he wrote, “provided a lens through which Americans could see all other social problems as sharing a common root, a liberal root.” He claimed that these forces existed outside of conventional politics, a sentiment he echoes today on the campaign trail.

Great, another religious zealot who believes all the country needs is a little more Jesus.

This is exactly the kind of politician that this country cannot stand to have any more of in Washington.

Source

Apparently many people have been asking filmmaker Michale Moore for his thoughts on the shooting in California.

Finally he replied.

I think it is well worth sharing. With due respect to those who are asking me to comment on last night's tragic mass shooting at UCSB in Isla Vista, CA -- I no longer have anything to say about what is now part of normal American life. Everything I have to say about this, I said it 12 years ago: We are a people easily manipulated by fear which causes us to arm ourselves with a quarter BILLION guns in our homes that are often easily accessible to young people, burglars, the mentally ill and anyone who momentarily snaps. We are a nation founded in violence, grew our borders through violence, and allow men in power to use violence around the world to further our so-called American (corporate) "interests." The gun, not the eagle, is our true national symbol. While other countries have more violent pasts (Germany, Japan), more guns per capita in their homes (Canada [mostly hunting guns]), and the kids in most other countries watch the same violent movies and play the same violent video games that our kids play, no one even comes close to killing as many of its own citizens on a daily basis as we do -- and yet we don't seem to want to ask ourselves this simple question: "Why us? What is it about US?" Nearly all of our mass shootings are by angry or disturbed white males. None of them are committed by the majority gender, women. Hmmm, why is that? Even when 90% of the American public calls for stronger gun laws, Congress refuses -- and then we the people refuse to remove them from office. So the onus is on us, all of us. We won't pass the necessary laws, but more importantly we won't consider why this happens here all the time. When the NRA says, "Guns don't kill people -- people kill people," they've got it half-right. Except I would amend it to this: "Guns don't kill people -- Americans kill people." Enjoy the rest of your day, and rest assured this will all happen again very soon.

Kind of hits home, don't you think?

Source

Okay so as all of you know I skipped attending this Wasilla nutjob convention this weekend.

Instead I went to see the new X-Men movie, which I HIGHLY recommend, so I feel I made the better choice.

However I figured I would go ahead and do a follow up post on whatever was written up by whatever poor reporter was sent to cover this "event."

So I waited. And I waited. And I waited.

Nothing, nada, zilch.

I checked ADN. Not a word.

I checked Alaska Dispatch. Only the sound of crickets.

Well since its a small event I thought perhaps the Fairbanks Newsminer and Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman might cover it.

Nope, they did not even seem to notice.

Well surely Sarah Palin will post something on her Facebook page about it, after all it is down the street, and it features Teabaggers speaking in the sports center she had built to honor her ex-lover.

Not a peep.

So then I began to wonder, was the damn thing held at all?

So I went to their site. Where I see this:


So apparently they held a straw poll. But how many people were even there to vote in it?

Absolutely NO idea!

So I thought about it, and decided that this is probably very telling.

After all if an uber Right Wing convention, held in the backyard of the person who is arguably most responsible for the formation of the Tea Party, garners ABSOLUTELY no interest from the media, and in fact does not even attract Palin herself, then I think we can assume that for all intents and purposes the Tea Party is over.

Damn, am I glad I didn't waste my time driving all the way out to Wasilla yesterday.

Source

Courtesy of Mother Jones:

America's latest mass shooting took place in Santa Barbara on Friday night. The New York Times reports: "A college student who posted videos that documented his rage against women for rejecting him killed six people and wounded 13 others during a spasm of terror, the police said. He stabbed three men to death in his apartment and shot the others as he methodically opened fire on bystanders on the crowded streets of this small town." According to the LA Times, the guns he used—two Sig Sauer p226 model handguns and a Glock 34—were legally purchased from federally licensed dealers and were registered to the killer, who after a shootout with police ended his own life with a bullet to the head.

It is perhaps too easy to forget how many times this has happened. The horrific mass murder at a movie theater in Colorado in July 2012, another at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin that August, another at a manufacturer in Minneapolis that September—and then the unthinkable nightmare at a Connecticut elementary school that December—were some of the latest in an epidemic of such gun violence over the last three decades. Since 1982, there have been at least 70 mass shootings across the country, with the killings unfolding in 30 states from Massachusetts to Hawaii. Thirty-three of these mass shootings have occurred since 2006. Seven of them took place in 2012, and another five occurred in 2013, including in Santa Monica, California, and at the Washington Navy Yard. The first five months of 2014 brought another bloodbath at Fort Hood, Texas, and mass killings in northern and southern California.

Weapons: Of the 143 guns possessed by the killers, more than three quarters were obtained legally. The arsenal included dozens of assault weapons and semi-automatic handguns with high-capacity magazines. (See charts below.) Just as Jeffrey Weise used a .40-caliber Glock to slaughter students in Red Lake, Minnesota, in 2005, so too did James Holmes, along with an AR-15 assault rifle, when blasting away at his victims in a darkened movie theater. In Newtown, Connecticut, Adam Lanza wielded a .223 Bushmaster semi-automatic assault rifle as he massacred 20 school children and six adults.

The killers: More than half of the cases involved school or workplace shootings (12 and 20, respectively); the other 30 cases took place in locations including shopping malls, restaurants, and religious and government buildings. Forty four of the killers were white males. Only one of them was a woman. (See Goleta, Calif., in 2006.) The average age of the killers was 35, though the youngest among them was a mere 11 years old. (See Jonesboro, Ark., in 1998.) A majority were mentally troubled—and many displayed signs of it before setting out to kill.

Mother Jones provides and interact map on their site, which provides information about each shooting going back three decades, when your mouse scrolls over each state.

The statistics are horrifying, and they should certainly make all of us ask the question posed by Mr. Martinez the other day. "When will enough people say, “Stop this madness!”"

Now gun advocates will point out that the most recent killer, Elliot Rodger, also killed three people with a knife before his shooting spree. And yes that is true, but the knife certainly did not allow him to drive down the street indiscriminately killing and wounding people from the safety of his car.

Knives have many uses, guns have only one.

And it is time we stopped treating them like fashion accessories and started treating them for what they are. Weapons of mass destruction.

Source

Courtesy of KTUU:

The effort to extinguish two large wildfires is nearly a week old. While hundreds of firefighters from across Alaska, around the Lower 48 and Canada try to get the fires under control.

The fire that has covered Anchorage in a blanket of smoke is the Funny River fire:

The Funny River fire has grown to 106,000 acres as of 9 p.m. Saturday. Fire officials say 20% of the blaze has been contained, and the evacuation advisory is still in effect. No major activity is expected overnight.

The smell outside is pretty strong, and the skies are overcast with this nasty grey haze.

I had planned on going hiking tomorrow, but I think I will wait until this all clears up.

I am too far away from the fire to have to worry about the flames, but the smoke is pretty nasty here in town, and I have noticed that I have been sneezing a lot and have had occasional coughing spells.

Which is no surprise considering the fact that just two days ago the air quality was considered unhealthy for everyone. That does not make hiking or camping terribly attractive right now.

So much for Memorial Day weekend.

It has been a particularly dry spring, and I have little doubt that the fire season is just now getting started.

Source