World News Korner

Courtesy of HuffPo:

Faced with the threat of legal action over his use of executive power, President Barack Obama pointed his finger squarely back at congressional Republicans on Friday, stating that their historic inaction prompted him to go it alone to address the nation's problems.

"They don't do anything except block me and call me names," Obama said in a speech on the economy at Lake Harriet in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Without citing which specific executive actions he intended to challenge, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced this week that he would bring legislation to the floor authorizing the House to file a lawsuit against the president to "compel" him to enforce existing law. "We elected a president, Americans note; we didn’t elect a monarch or king," he wrote in a memo to his colleagues.

That set the president off on Friday. In an interview with "Good Morning America," he dismissed the suit as nothing more than a "stunt." And in his remarks in Minnesota, he argued that he was forced to take action on immigration, the federal minimum wage and pay discrimination because this Congress, which has been called the least productive Congress in history, refused to compromise on legislative priorities.

"They've decided to sue me for doing my job," Obama said.

"If you’re mad at me for helping people on my own then join me and we’ll do it together," he added. "I want to work with you, but you gotta give me something. You gotta try to deliver something. Anything."

Good for him goddamn it!

It is well past time for the President to stop treating these assholes as if they are public servants trying to do the best thing for their constituents and the country, who simply have a differing point of view.

They are essentially traitors, that this point who are being driven to obstruct ANY progress at the behest of big business groups and crazed fringe elements within their party.

If they were the doctors and administrators of a mental health facility (Which of course they might as well be.), they would be facilitating the sharing medications between patients, taking them on field trips to strip clubs, and encouraging them to follow the advice of the voices in their head to kill random strangers.

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Did this guy actually feel it necessary to point out to a bunch of folks carrying long guns and assault style rifles where the muzzle is located? And then call it "the dangerous end" as if he were talking to preschoolers?

This Open Carry Texas group recorded and posted this video, I'm sure, to help put people's minds at ease about their activities. But it actually had the opposite effect on me.

At one point the guy conducting the instruction says "Keep your hands away from the trigger mechanism. We have no reason to be shooting at anybody today." As if that is something that individuals openly carrying weapons designed for warfare must be reminded of.

If this is the level of confidence these organizers have in the people participating in their silly little protests, that just convinces me even more that somebody, somewhere. is going to get shot by one of these ammosexual idiots.

(H/T to Americans Against the Tea Party.)

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Courtesy of The Clarion-Ledger:

Sources have confirmed that attorney Mark Mayfield has committed suicide.

Mayfield, vice chairman of the Mississippi Tea Party, and is one of the three men charged with conspiring with Clayton Kelly to photograph U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran's bedridden wife in her nursing home and create a political video against Cochran.

Mark Mayfield of Ridgeland, an attorney and state and local tea party leader, was arrested last month along with Richard Sager, a Laurel elementary school P.E. teacher and high school soccer coach. Police said they also charged John Beachman Mary of Hattiesburg, but he was not taken into custody because of "extensive medical conditions." All face felony conspiracy charges. Sager also was charged with felony tampering with evidence, and Mary faces two conspiracy counts.

Damn this McDaniel guy is like a magnet for negative karma.

Or is it simply Karma, as there are some lingering questions as to whether or not this is indeed a suicide. Not that I am accusing anybody of anything, I am simply saying that this is a rather convenient death for some people.

I wonder if this will convince McDaniel to finally admit defeat or, with one less person connecting him to the nursery home break in, will convince him that he is untouchable?

Boy that Sarah Palin sure can pick'em!



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Courtesy of NPR:

Aaron Carapella, a self-taught mapmaker in Warner, Okla., has pinpointed the locations and original names of hundreds of American Indian nations before their first contact with Europeans.

As a teenager, Carapella says he could never get his hands on a continental U.S. map like this, depicting more than 600 tribes — many now forgotten and lost to history. Now, the 34-year-old designs and sells maps as large as 3 by 4 feet with the names of tribes hovering over land they once occupied.

"I think a lot of people get blown away by, 'Wow, there were a lot of tribes, and they covered the whole country!' You know, this is Indian land," says Carapella, who calls himself a "mixed-blood Cherokee" and lives in a ranch house within the jurisdiction of the Cherokee Nation.

For more than a decade, he consulted history books and library archives, called up tribal members and visited reservations as part of research for his map project, which began as pencil-marked poster boards on his bedroom wall. So far, he has designed maps of the continental U.S., Canada and Mexico. A map of Alaska is currently in the works.

These were proud people, living a subsistence lifestyle that was in harmony with the nature around them.

Just imagine how different America would look today if the white settlers had respected their sovereign right to the lands that they had lived on for thousands of years.

But sadly they were non-Christian heathens and were at the mercy of Manifest Destiny:

The religious fervor spawned by the Second Great Awakening created another incentive for the drive west. Indeed, many settlers believed that God himself blessed the growth of the American nation. The Native Americans were considered heathens. By Christianizing the tribes, American missionaries believed they could save souls and they became among the first to cross the Mississippi River.

At the heart of manifest destiny was the pervasive belief in American cultural and racial superiority. Native Americans had long been perceived as inferior, and efforts to "civilize" them had been widespread since the days of John Smith and MILES STANDISH. The Hispanics who ruled Texas and the lucrative ports of California were also seen as "backward."

Just another shameful chapter in the book of horrors visited upon those ethnically impure heathens who dared to stand in the way of the Christian Caucasians who felt duty bound to destroy their cultures and bring them to Jesus whether they wanted it or not.

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Must I do everything?

Courtesy of The Hill:

The Obama administration is "not bluffing" in its intent to take executive action on immigration policy if House Republicans don't act soon, top Democratic leaders warned Thursday.

President Obama has delayed any potential changes to his deportation policy to allow House GOP leaders time to bring legislation to the floor this summer. But if the Republicans don't act in July, the Democrats say, unilateral changes by Obama are inevitable.

"We're at the end of the line," Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said Thursday during a press briefing in the Capitol. "We're not bluffing by setting a legislative deadline for them to act.

"Their first job is to govern," Menendez added, "and in the absence of governing, then you see executive actions."

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) piled on. Noting that a year has passed since the Senate passed a sweeping immigration reform bill with broad bipartisan support, he urged House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to bring a similar bill to the floor.

"I don't know how much more time he thinks he needs, but I hope that Speaker Boehner will speak up today," Durbin said. "And if he does not, the president will borrow the power that is needed to solve the problems of immigration."

The Republicans are opposed to doing anything on the immigration policy, in fact many of them believe that is why Eric Cantor lost his primary.

So it is pretty clear that Boehner and the House Republicans are not going to bring the bill to the floor anytime soon, and if the President attempts to pass immigration reform on his own and they do nothing, they are at risk of losing their seats in the next election cycle.

Now the only question remaining is are the Republicans serious about trying to sue the President, or is all of this simply a way to save face while forcing the President to take all of the heat for immigration reform while allowing the Republicans to stand back throwing mud and staying squeaky clean themselves?

I tend to think it is the latter, which makes the Republicans a party of shiftless cowards.

Not that that is any news to most of us.

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Photo courtesy of Saul Young

Okay folks I did my best to dig up some info on last night's pathetic Teabagger support group in Tennessee and there is barely a hint to be found that the thing even happened.

(If a conservative teabags you in the woods, and you don't notice it, should you still feel disgusted?)

The local ABC outlet jotted down a few notes:

An event featuring a former vice presidential candidate like Sarah Palin and other well known politicians wrapped up in Sevierville around 11 p.m. They were speaking for a series called America's Last Stand.

6 News could only take pictures inside where well known politicians like former Senator Rick Santorum and former Governor Sarah Palin spoke to dozens. Other speakers included Fox News personality Judge Jeanie Pirro and Col. Allen West.

The 6 News team asked to interview Palin but were turned down due to "limited time in her schedule."

Yeah right!

Or it could be due to the fact that she looked like this:

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Looks like she brought one of those feisty uncooperative wigs with her.

However thankfully there were a few folks tweeting during the event.

One Breitbart News contributor provided these gems:

- @SarahPalinUSA says that Cochran team chose to "manipulate and exterminate" the integrity of the Mississippi primary
— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) June 27, 2014

- @SarahPalinUSA says she carries a gun because a cop is too heavy to carry...
— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) June 27, 2014

- @SarahPalinUSA says that govt can have her moon pies and R/C Cola when they pry it from her "cold sticky hands"
— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) June 27, 2014

- @SarahPalinUSA now mocking liberals who slap coexist stickers on their "Berkeley branded butts" while military is fighting terrorists...
— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) June 27, 2014

"God doesn't drive parked cars" - @SarahPalinUSA says encouraging Americans to get involved
— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) June 27, 2014

Hang on I have to take a moment to breathe into a brown paper bag at the memory that she was once the governor of my state.

But wait, there's more.

Fashion report: jeans, tank top, with a UT orange shirt. #PalinRally pic.twitter.com/EkZHZn9dZP
— Bean Counter (@TNBeanCounter) June 27, 2014

Palin: The radical left is so dimwitted when they try to call us racists. #PalinRally pic.twitter.com/GxcrCyzCmz
— Bean Counter (@TNBeanCounter) June 27, 2014

From what I can gather this was yet another incoherent speech gleaned from various conservative bumper stickers delivered by what looked like a bag lady that somebody lured in off of the street.

Earlier the organizers had bragged that CNN was going to cover the event, but if that was true it kind of looks like partway through they said "Fuck it!" and walked out.

Well since that whole thing was barely newsworthy I thought it appropriate to share something a little more interesting.

Here is an excerpt from a new book by longtime Tonight Show producer Dave Berg, where he discusses the crazy requests made by guests. Including one from 2010:

PALIN'S PLANE

Sarah Palin asked for a private jet to fly her from Alaska to Burbank for her 2010 appearance. The cost? $35,000. She got it.

Who in the hell would spend $35,000 to fly this loser down from Alaska, when they could have bought 1st class round trip tickets for the whole family for around $12,000?

But of course this fits the well established pattern that Palin is known for of trying to get as much money or swag as possible.

Remember this is the woman who charged the state of Alaska a per diem to stay in her own house.

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