World News Korner

Uh oh!

Courtesy of the Washington Post:

A Palin confidant tells the Erik Wemple Blog that Palin’s contract with Fox News guarantees the cable-news leader exclusive rights to her work on television and on the Internet, an arrangement confirmed by a Fox News source. The Breitbart.com posting violates the terms of Palin’s relationship with Fox News.

“It was a mistake,” says the Palin confidant. “She had in her mind that she was propagating something under the auspices of the PAC.” That would be SarahPAC, “a federally registered political action committee (PAC) dedicated to building America’s future by supporting fresh ideas and candidates who share our vision for reform and innovation.”

So Palin is falling back on the PAC-byline-contributor-contract loophole. That’s a savvy, insider-ish move for someone who so routinely claims to abhor the ways of Washington.

To be honest I would have thought that Fox News would not want their name associated with this particular level of lunacy, but then again is there any level of lunacy for which Fox will not provide air time?

This of course is not the first time that Palin has crapped on her contract with Fox.

You might remember that Palin announced the fact that she was not running for President in 2012 on the Mark Levin show.

Which of course was months after most people realized that she had no intention of launching a campaign.

I find the fact that Fox News entertains any perception that Palin is in any way loyal to be completely pathetic on their part. After all this is the woman who quit her job halfway through, teased money out of supporters for years about a possible presidential run, and threw staff and family members under the bus without a second thought.

And now she is threatening to quit the party that brought her to national attention because they will not do what she wants.

There is not a loyal or honorable bone in this nasty woman's entire immediate body.

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Compared to U.S. Presidents from Truman to Bush, Obama stacks up well. http://t.co/HZq8RjfOWa pic.twitter.com/9P6AAECpVh
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) July 2, 2014

Boykin is referencing this Op-ed he posted on July 2nd refuting the findings of the Quinnipiac poll which states among other things:

Under President Obama, the unemployment rate has fallen from 10 percent in 2009 to 6.3 percent today. Under George W. Bush, on the other hand, the unemployment rate rose from 4.2 percent to 7.8 percent.

Under President Obama, the U.S. economy is gaining 200,000 jobs a month. When Bush left office, however, we were losing 700,000 jobs a month.

Under President Obama, at least 24 million people have gotten health insurance. The rate of uninsured has declined from 18 percent to 13.4 percent and the rate for Blacks has dropped dramatically from 20.9 percent to 14.7 percent. And despite all the exaggerated GOP claims that Obamacare would be a "job killer," we've actually added more than 9 million new private sector jobs since the president signed the law.

Under President Obama, businesses are also booming again. In the first few weeks of his presidency, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was sitting at 6547. Today it's close to 17,000, a 10,000 point increase in five years! And corporate profits hit an all-time record high just last year.

Don't forget Obama inherited from Bush a deeply divided country, engaged in two wars, in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, with banks collapsing, housing prices plummeting and the domestic auto industry on the verge of extinction.

President Obama ended the war in Iraq, drew down troops in Afghanistan, captured Osama Bin Laden, averted a second depression, helped to rescue the financial sector, stabilized home prices and saved more than a million jobs in the auto industry.

At the same time, he enacted the most sweeping health care reform legislation in 50 years, something Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton couldn't do, and which Ronald Reagan and the two Bushes never wanted to do.

Compared to Bill Clinton, Obama also stacks up well.

Boykin then goes on to explain why that last statement is true.

And Boykin is not the only pundit to take great umbrage at the findings by Quinnipiac. Talk Show host Joe Madison held nothing back:

Quinnipiac you bastards.

Obama the worst President? Hardly!!!.

Obama caught the Times Square Bomber in 52 hours; you bastards.

Obama caught the Boston Marathon Bombers in less that 10 days; you bastards.

Obama caught Bin Laden in 2 years; something Bush could not do in 8; you bastards.

Obama caught the Benghazi attackers in 2 years; you bastards.

Obama got rid of Gaddaffi without one loss of American life; you bastards; it took Bush $3 Trillion to get rid of Saddam; and 4000 American lives.

Obama got rid of Sarin, GB, VX in Syria without firing a shot; you bastards.

Obama has 50 plus months of private sector job growth; you bastards.

The damned stock market is within 1000 points of tripling under Obama since the March 8, 2009 low; that means $3000 is now worth $9000; $30,000 is now worth $90,000; $90,000 is worth $270,000; $270,000 is now worth $810,000; $30 billion is now worth $90 billion; you bastards.

Corporate profits are at record highs under Obama; you bastards.

Obama has 50 plus months without a double dip recession; you bastards.

Obama has given us 9 million new jobs; you bastards.

You know I could read that all day long.

You know this President is by no means perfect. But by any rational measure he is doing an incredible job while withstanding some of the worst partisan attacks in American history.

What he inherited from the Bush administration would have traumatized a weaker man but President Obama rolled up his sleeves and started digging through the rubble on his first day in office.

And what he has accomplished since is nothign shy of miraculous.

Personally I don't think the Right Wing hates him becasue they see him as a failure, instead they fear him because they realize how well he has succeeded.

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Courtesy of Wall Street Journal:

Sarah Palin is the politician Americans most want to be quiet, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News/Annenberg poll that asked respondents to weigh in on six prominent figures.

More than half – 52% — of people surveyed said the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, who was recently seen calling for President Barack Obama’s impeachment in a Brietbart News column, should just “be quiet.”

I am beyond surprised that it was only 52%.

100% of the people I know want her to shut the fuck up and drop off the edge of the world.

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Courtesy of Raw Story:

A California pastor and two members of his congregation admitted in court that they physically abused a 13-year-old boy and made him dig his own grave.

According to affidavits published by The Los Angeles Times, 56-year-old Heart of Worship Community Church Pastor Lonny Lee Remmers, 24-year-old Nicholas James Craig and 30-year-old Darryll Duane Jeter Jr. said that they were following instructions to “scare” the victim. All three of the men had worked at a group home where the boy lived.

In March of 2012, the men reportedly took the victim to the desert where he was forced to dig a grave. After he got in the grave, the men threw dirt on him.

The men also rubbed salt into his wounds while he was showering, tied him to a chair with zip ties, and sprayed mace on his face until he bled.

At one point, the boy was made to sit in the middle of a Bible study group and pinch his own nipples with pliers, investigators said.

Well you know what it says in the Bible, spare the pliers spoil the child.

This kind of thing is fucking medieval torture, and using religion to excuse it is pathetic.

This is one of the problems with Christian run facilities which sometimes are excused from the kind of documentation and oversight that secular facilities are subjected to.

Though the idea that grown men would consider this kind of treatment reasonable without somebody having to tell them it's not is quite troubling to me.

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Resplendent in John Boehner brand Oompa Loompa skin tanner and wearing a modified shower curtain with her wig firmly stapled and shellacked into place, responds to a question from Hannity about whether she is serious about he republicans impeaching President Obama.

"Yes, it is time. A great awakening is due in this country, and this is the message that will be sent to our President, that he is not an imperial president, and lawlessness will not be accepted by the American people. That's not what he was elected to do, is to create his own laws as he goes along. I think it's time...a little less talk a lot more action. When we see even GOP lawmakers who are recognizing and proclaiming Obama's violation of the Constitution, and then ignoring that Constitution, and the power they have to impeach...gets kind of frustrating for the American people. Somebody needs to look out for the working class Americans and the tipping point in this drive towards impeachment for me has been the illegal immigration issue, the crisis created by Obama, where nobody is looking out for the working class of Americans, including good, hardworking, wonderful, legal immigrants. Impeachment is a message that has to be sent to our President that we're not going to put up with this lawlessness."

Hannnity then tries to list some reasons that the Republicans might be able to impeach the President, none of which would pass the smell test.

"Yes, and it also means lying to the American people, and it means fraud. He has allowed fraud...his..his subordinates, and he himself, to fraud the American people on these programs, these policies, that he promised will work or will not impact debt or deficit. These have been lies by our President. Yes, those are impeachable offenses. Sean, experts, attorneys, they have a list of at least 25 impeachable offenses. (I believe she got that list from this blog which lists among other "offenses" Fast and Furious, the IRS targeting of Republicans, and Obama's "attack" on Christianity.) Now GOP lawmakers know this too, I really want Congress to do its job. The constitutional power that they HAVE to halt an imperial presidency. To halt this fundamental transformation of America that is making us an unrecognizable mess of a nation at this time."

Hannity then quotes Jonathon Turley to provide support for Palin's crazy statements, as well as Right Wing radio host Mark Levin who he calls a "constitutional scholar," and a poll on Drudge that, believe it or not, finds that 70% of Americans believe the President should be impeached.

But then he also brings up the fact that Pat Buchanan said that pursuing impeachment would be a political loser for Republicans, and asks if that should matter.

"I think politics come into play more when you consider not rocking the boat, if you will, and allowing the liberalism agenda to fail on its own. I..I..that's kind of a political bent right there. And with all due respect to Pat Buchanan, and I do respect his opinion, I disagree with him. I think, you know keep politics out of this then. (WTF? This whole thing is political.) This is a bipartisan issue. (No it's not!) Americans! Congress! Those who are concerned about protecting our Constitution, and using the one tool that Congress does have to halt what is going on. This lawlessness coming from the top. The one tool they have are articles of impeachment, let's get going on that. And it's not necessarily Sean. A lawsuit being filed by Congress? Because you don't bring a lawsuit to a gun fight. (Again, WTF?) And there's no place for lawyers on the front lines. (She does know that Congress is filled with lawyers right?) Where are the front lines in America? They are our borders!"

Hannity tries to diffuse the crazy a little by agreeing with her but then adds that he has no confidence that Congress would have the "courage," or political backbone, to do this.

"That they don't have the cojones to do it, if that's what you mean? Sean you're absolutely right."

Hannity then claims he was trying to be more delicate.

"I know, I know. Not me man I...mumbling...go rogue. I'll say what I want to say. Sean absolutely man. Bingo, when you say wait a minute they had constitutional tool to unfund Obamacare, and that was just fulfilling all of their campaign promises, that they were going to repeal Obamacare right? Look what happened to the one, or two, or three good guys like Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, who stood up to fulfill their constitutional duty, and their campaign promises, man they got thrown under the bus. And the view is not very good from under the bus. (Yeah just ask Trooper Wooten, Frank Bailey, and Walt Monegan.) Well the American people, I believe, are going to say this time...this go around...no okay we learned our lesson. And it will be us. We get the government that we support. We get the government obviously that we vote for, but that we put up with. How about we don't put up with this lawlessness. Washington is broken. If people care about the future of this country, and defense of our republic, they will join this cause of articles of impeachment against Barack Obama because enough is enough.

Finally Hannity asks if Palin is still considering leaving the Republican party.

"I've been a Republican since I was 18 years old, so wholeheartedly believed in EVERY plank in the platform. The planks in the platform will make this country strong, and safe, secure again Sean. So I hate to think that the Republican party is going to be leaving me, I don't want to leave it, but if it leaves me, and if it keeps straying towards that liberal failed agenda that the Left, that Barack Obama just exudes then yeah, I am not going to hesitate to unenlisting myself from a party that you know I just can't support anymore."

And right now Republicans all over the country are fervently praying that she is not bluffing about leaving their party.

Okay my hands are tired from typing all of this out, so I leave it to all of you to add the much needed snark.

And I have every confidence in your ability to do so.

P.S. Oh and for those truly sadistic among you here is the video of Palin's word for word rendition of her Breitbart article from her Facebook page.




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Courtesy of USA Today:

The day Linda Drain put baby's breath in her hair and said "I do," she had no idea that government policies would tear her apart from her husband.

But 33 years later, she and her husband, Larry Drain, separated so she could keep her health insurance.

Six months into the full implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the Drains are among 162,000 Tennesseans who got caught in a coverage gap. Their household income is too little to qualify for a government subsidy to buy health insurance, and they live in a state not expanding Medicaid.

Their predicament was caused by a combination of Larry's decision to take early retirement from Social Security, which for some reason rendered his wife ineligible for her Supplemental Security income, and their Governor's decision to turn down the expansion of Medicaid offer3ed by the Affordable Care Act.

Mrs. Drain has epilepsy, and has undergone brain surgery, so her medications are quite expensive. Too expensive for the couple to afford without some assistance.

And Larry Drain is not taking any of this lying down:

Every day, Larry Drain writes a letter to Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam asking him to expand Medicaid and posts it on a blog.

"In some ways, it is like a virtual sit-in," he said. "I couldn't go sit in his office, but in some way I need to say, 'I am here. I am going to be here. I'm going to talk about things you don't want talked about.'"

It is inexcusable for this to happen in this country, and doubly so with the remedy so readily available in the form of an expanded Medicaid program.

If Tennessee simply had a Governor who was not a partisan asshole these nice people would not have to end a marriage that neither of them wants to end.

And here I thought the Republicans were the pro-traditional marriage people.

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Courtesy of Liberaland:

Generation Opportunity, the Koch-funded nonprofit group that created the Creepy Uncle Sam anti-Obamacare campaign last fall, is back with an extremely elaborate new anti-Obamacare ad, which they are taking on the road as a circus-type event. You can’t make this stuff up.

Ironically, the first image in the ad looks exactly a coal runner, not Obamacare, coming into town intentionally spewing out toxic black smoke just to stick it to Obama. The Koches are notorious polluters so this totally makes sense.

You know I am not sure how this is supposed to convince people to fear Obamacare.

Convince them to fear clowns sure, but who needs help with that once they have seen Pennywise?

The facts are millions of people now have access to health care who did not have it before, or access to better health care which they now cannot have taken away and can follow them from job to job.

The Koch brothers lost this war awhile ago, and no nightmare inducing advertisements are going to change that.

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"Wait are you gong to believe me, or the professional election officials?"

Courtesy of TPM:

The Mississippi Republican Party says U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran won the state's Republican primary runoff over challenger Chris McDaniel by 7,667 votes.

The party sent results to the Secretary of State on Monday, the legal deadline.

The GOP's numbers showed Cochran winning by more than the 6,800 votes counted by The Associated Press after the June election. Tallies change as county parties examine provisional ballots and finalize results.

If you guessed that McDaniel has no intention of accepting these results and giving up his fight for a do over, well you are absolutely right:

State Sen. Chris McDaniel’s attorney confirmed Monday the campaign’s plans to challenge the results of last month’s Senate runoff, arguing the only solution is to hold a new election for the GOP nomination.

McDaniel lost to Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., in the June 24 GOP runoff by about 6,700 votes. Since then, McDaniel’s allies have contested the results and his team offered a cash prize for anyone who can provide evidence of voter fraud.

“The correct remedy is a new election,” said Mitch Tyner, lead counsel for the McDaniel campaign. He added campaign volunteers have reviewed runoff results in 82 counties and have found evidence of voter fraud.

“I don’t know the exact numbers,” said Tyner, speaking in front of the Hinds County Courthouse in Jackson. “I know there’s several thousand that are absolutely ineligible voters.”

Once the review is complete, Tyner said, the legal challenge will be filed with the Mississippi Republican Party and later for a judicial review.

Kind of reminds of a kindergarten class I had where the little fat kid kept telling everybody he was the fastest runner no matter how many times he was beaten in a race.

I always wondered what happened to that kid.

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Courtesy of ADN:

The second grizzly bear mauling in less than two months on the outskirts of Alaska's largest city has sent another runner to the hospital with serious injuries. The attack this time came in Bird Valley, just south of Anchorage. It follows on an attack at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in mid-May.

Both attacks involved people surprising grizzly sows with cubs. The JBER attack involved a sow with small cubs of the year. The latest attack was launched by a sow with two nearly grown cubs, probably 2-year-olds.

Runner Suzanne Knudsen, who lives in a roadside community called Indian south of Anchorage, was less than a mile down the Bird Valley Trail near her home on Monday morning when she encountered the sow and cubs, according to Jessy Coltrane, area wildlife biologist with the Alaska State Troopers.

This poor woman was hit from behind by the mother after almost running into her two cubs.

The bear really did a number on her, and after it left she still had to wait an hour before she was rescued. Not too many things I can imagine that are more frightening than that.

Like I said in the headline this is only about 28 miles from my house and it is very close to one of my favorite hiking trails near McHugh Creek. (Which itself was the scene of one of the most brutal attacks in Alaska history.)

I take kids into the woods all of the time to go hiking, and these stories always send a chill up my spine.

I am very cautious and make very careful choices as to where to hike, how big of a group to take, and how to behave on the trails, but of course there is always the chance that my precautions will not be enough to avoid a confrontation.

Living in Alaska has been described as being surrounded by terrifying natural beauty, and I think that about sums it up.

I love it here but part of living in Alaska is also living with the fact that the state is almost like a serial killer waiting to take me out if I ever let my guard down. (By the way we have a lot of serial killers too.)

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Apparently Palin and her ghostwriter jotted this cry for a mental health intervention down and sent it to Breitbart, who as we know will print just about anything.

Hang onto your hats kids, this is yet another wild ride:

Enough is enough of the years of abuse from this president. His unsecured border crisis is the last straw that makes the battered wife say, “no mas.” (Did this bitch just compare the President to a wife beater? How do you say "Fuck you" in batshit crazy word salad gibberish?)

Without borders, there is no nation. Obama knows this. Opening our borders to a flood of illegal immigrants is deliberate. This is his fundamental transformation of America. It’s the only promise he has kept. (You know besides all of these.) Discrediting the price paid for America’s exceptionalism over our history, he’s given false hope and taxpayer’s change to millions of foreign nationals who want to sneak into our country illegally. Because of Obama’s purposeful dereliction of duty an untold number of illegal immigrants will kick off their shoes and come on in, competing against Americans for our jobs and limited public services. (Actually this current crisis is the result of the Child Trafficking bill signed into law by George W. Bush in 2008. Not Obama.)There is no end in sight as our president prioritizes parties over doing the job he was hired by voters to do. Securing our borders is obviously fundamental here; it goes without saying that it is his job. (Actually one of many. And if he had some help from Congress I am sure he would solve it as well.)

The federal government is trillions of dollars in debt, many cities are on the verge of insolvency, our overrun healthcare system, police forces, social services, schools, and our unsustainably (That's not a word.) generous welfare-state programs are stretched to the max. We average Americans know that. So why has this issue been allowed to be turned upside down with our “leader” creating such unsafe conditions while at the same time obstructing any economic recovery by creating more dependents than he allows producers? (Actually the economy has improved by leaps and bounds. And is now being compared to the Clinton economy of the 90's.) His friendly wealthy bipartisan elite, who want cheap foreign labor and can afford for themselves the best “border security” money can buy in their own exclusive communities, do not care that Obama tapped us out.

Have faith that average American workers – native-born and wonderful legal immigrants of all races, backgrounds, and political parties – do care because we’re the ones getting screwed as we’re forced to follow all our government’s rules while others are not required to do so. Many now feel like strangers in their own land. (Well racists, misogynists, and radical Christian fundamentalists at least.) It’s the American worker who is forced to deal with Obama’s latest crisis with our hard-earned tax dollars while middle class wages decrease, sustainable jobs get more scarce, and communities become unrecognizable and bankrupted due to Obama’s flood of illegal immigration.

Who’s looking out for the American workers? Who has their backs? Who fights for them? (You know I would usually guess Obama here, with his fighting for an increased minimum wage an all, but something tells me that is not the crazy lady's first choice.)

We should.

President Obama’s rewarding of lawlessness, including his own, is the foundational problem here. It’s not going to get better, and in fact irreparable harm can be done in this lame-duck term as he continues to make up his own laws as he goes along, and, mark my words, will next meddle in the U.S. Court System with appointments that will forever change the basic interpretation of our Constitution’s role in protecting our rights. (God, I hope so!)

It’s time to impeach; and on behalf of American workers and legal immigrants of all backgrounds, we should vehemently oppose any politician on the left or right who would hesitate in voting for articles of impeachment. (Hah! Sorry that one made me laugh out loud.)

The many impeachable offenses of Barack Obama can no longer be ignored. If after all this he’s not impeachable, then no one is.

Well he's not impeachable, but I am quite sure that the next Republican to occupy the White House WILL be.

Okay is there something beyond going full retard, that I just don't know about?

Perhaps we should just call it going "full Palin?"

I really thought that Palin had gone right off the deep end with her earlier rant, but damn this one makes that one seem like a moment of menstruation induced crankiness.

The idea that this lunatic, who apparently chose to quit her job rather than face possible prosecution, would suggest that our hard working President should be impeached is so ridiculous that it should be the new litmus test for determining a person's sanity.

And guess who just failed?

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So on Palin's Facebook page today she has the following headline:

I Want to Hear From Anyone Who Still Supports This Guy; I Want to Try to Figure You Out

Of course she is referencing President Obama and offers a link to a Right Wing blog that is attacking something on his official Facebook page.

She then offers up this graphic.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Palin some kind of politician as well?

With this explanation:

Hey guys: If the General Patton quote offends you, take it up with the General, not me; and then ask your parents why they raised such an overly sensitive intolerant little fellow. (See? Full retard.)

I used to not feel this way, as I sought some redeeming value in everyone's opinion (Yeah, right!), but today's hijacking of the nefarious political party drives me to agree with the good General. Under its present leadership only the dishonest or frighteningly naive could claim allegiance to the Left wing of the party symbolized by the ass. If you consider yourself one of the good-old-day's Blue Dog democrats or a "Reagan democrat" of old, know those days are long gone. Your party left you. Go Independent. I'd love to hear from any of you who conclude the democrat party has morphed into a fundamentally transformed, unrecognizable monster, thus you've strengthened your spine and walked out of their room. You're better than the contributors to these days of bread and circuses. Save America, go Independent.

- Sarah Palin

Okay is she really trying to divide members of Democratic party, while her own Republican party rips itself in two over ideological differences?

Everything she says up at the top is far more descriptive of the Republican party as it is today than any disagreements on the other side of the aisle.

I think what we are seeing is a classic case of projection, not to mention Sarah Palin giving her inner troll free rein to say whatever her editors have kept it from saying for lo these many years.

Of course Palin has virtually nothing to lose at this point.

She will write no more books.

She will have no more contracts with Fox.

Her political career is a bloated corpse that even modern science could never revive.

And her money is running through her fingers faster than she can turn (political) tricks to earn more.

So all she has is her hatred for the man who she believes snatched from her the destiny that she had been convinced was hers for the taking.

Which then reveals the ugliness that many of us knew was there all along.

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Courtesy of Raw Story:

An Indiana man accidentally shot himself and his wife Sunday evening while cleaning his gun.

Phillip Vincze thought the weapon was clear of bullets when he pulled the trigger and shot himself through the hand, said Elkhart County sheriff’s deputies.

The bullet then struck his wife, Jennette Collins, in both legs, deputies said.

Vincze and his wife were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.

The shooting, which deputies described as an accident, remains under investigation.

You know we have heard repeatedly the mantra, "guns don't kill people, people kill people."

However the more of these stories I see the more it seems that the guns are REALLY trying to take people out, and are simply biding their time until somebody handles them and gives them the opportunity to blow an innocent bystander away.

And actually since some of these shootings, and gun deaths, happen when a person is NOT actively aiming the weapon at anybody it almost seems that the gun deserves the majority of the blame.

After all when was the last time you were cleaning your car and it suddenly roared into life and ran down a neighbor?

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Courtesy of TPM:

Republicans have hammered President Obama in recent weeks for the unraveling security situation in Iraq, arguing that he should have left some American troops behind in the troubled country. But a poll released Monday found that Americans widely disagree with the GOP.

The latest national survey from Quinnipiac University showed that 58 percent of American voters believe Obama's decision to withdraw troops in 2011 was the right thing to do.

Conversely, 61 percent said that George W. Bush's decision to invade in 2003 was the wrong thing to do. Fifty-one percent of voters blame Bush for the current calamity in Iraq.

I find that only 51% of Americans think the current Iraq situation is Bush's fault to be troubling since he is the reason we were there in the first place and also brokered the deal for our withdraw.

It is clearly 100% his fault and anybody who does not know that is probably too stupid to understand the questions in this survey.

And further evidence of that fact is that 39% thought that Bush did a better job at conducting foreign policy than Obama who got 35%.

On the other hand 51% of the respondents said that we should NOT send troops into Iraq to defeat Islamic militants, as opposed to 39% who think we should.

There were also some gun control questions in this poll whihc showed that 50% of the respondents thought that there should be stricter gun control laws, to 47% opposed. And a full 92% who believe that ALL gun owners should be subjected to a background check.

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You know if they could, they would.

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Courtesy Mother Jones:

In a new court filing, attorneys for two Guantanamo Bay detainees have invoked the Supreme Court's controversial decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, which allowed certain corporations to ignore the Obamacare contraception mandate if their owners object to it on religious grounds. The motions, filed with a Washington, DC, district court on behalf of Ahmed Rabbani of Pakistan and Emad Hassan of Yemen, ask the court to bar military officials from preventing Gitmo inmates from participating in communal prayer during Ramadan.

"Hobby Lobby makes clear that all persons—human and corporate, citizen and foreigner, resident and alien—enjoy the special religious free exercise protections of the [Religious Freedom Restoration Act]," the lawyers argue.

A spokesman for the Department of Defense told Al Jazeera America on Friday that the "Defense Department is aware of the filing," and that the "government will respond through the legal system."

Gee I wonder if the Justices who were supposedly trying to protect the non-existent religious freedom of corporations recognized the can of worms that they were opening?

I also wonder how all of those Right Wing supporters who touted the decision as a victory for religious freedom will feel if it helps these prisoners get more of their own religious freedoms back?

Yeah I somehow doubt that Chad and Christie Christian will be terribly thrilled with their newly protected religious freedom being extended to people who pray to Mecca five times a day and think that Jesus was a great prophet but no son of God.

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Courtesy of The Brownsville Herald:

A group that identifies itself as a coalition of “Patriots” has put out a call for people to go to the Texas-Mexico border and help with a citizen militia operation called “Secure our Border - Laredo.”

A spokeswoman for the group, Denice Freeman, said the operation is a call for civilian militia members — both armed and unarmed — to voluntarily guard private property in the Laredo area and other Texas locations where owners feel threatened by “drug cartels and from gangs, particularly the MS-13 gangs,” a Salvadoran-based gang that is considered among the most dangerous in this country by law enforcement.

Freeman said she expected militia members to become visible in border communities, including the Rio Grande Valley, in the coming weeks but she wanted to stress that the operation’s commander — Chris Davis — is warning members against using any violent means.

“This is not a ‘go-in-guns-blazing’ kind of thing,” Freeman said. “This will be handled with the utmost professionalism and security and safety for everyone involved.”

However, in a 21-minute Youtube video featuring a man who identifies himself as Cmdr. Chris Davis, the person said it’s time to secure the borders. “How?” he asked on the video. “You see an illegal. You point your gun dead at him, right between his eyes, and you say, ‘Get back across the border or you will be shot.’”

Okay I have a question. What exactly happens if an actual border agent is forced to shoot a militia member threatening to kill an undocumented immigrant?

I don't see this going well at all.

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Courtesy of the Roanoke Times:

More than 300 people were invited on Facebook to walk down Cary Street on July Fourth with handguns, rifles and other so-called “long guns” proudly displayed.

Two showed up — and they were the organizers of the midday event in the family-oriented Carytown shopping district.

“I don’t know why,” said organizer Jason Spitzer, 29, when asked to explain the low turnout for what he described as an Independence Day demonstration to “spread Constitutional awareness” of Americans’ Second Amendment right to bear arms.

“But even if nobody came I’d still walk,” the Chesterfield County steel mill worker said, holding a large American flag in his hands, with a rifle slung over his shoulder and a holstered handgun on his hip. “It’s the Fourth of July and I love my country.”

Yes and loving your country inspires you to terrify its residents during a holiday?

The fact that nobody except these two nitwits felt that the demonstration was a good idea is nice to know, but exactly what the hell is the motivation for these people?

Salon thinks they have the answer:

Meditate for a moment on the notion of making people comfortable with the sight of guns in public via habituating them to the instinctual terror of seeing one, and two issues immediately arise: firstly, it resembles other illogical forms of activism in which the goal is wholly incompatible with the means, such as murdering abortion providers to achieve a culture of life; secondly, it is, above all else, an effort at achieving control.

After all, it isn’t as though the advocates of openly carrying guns in public are unaware of the effect they have on the public; they are usually met with resistance precisely because they terrify innocent bystanders, while their constitutional concerns – such as they are – tend to be swallowed up by the technique of their “protest.” It is rather the case that they claim the period of fear they deliberately inspire is one they intend to force the public to endure until they are no longer met with resistance. If their narrative is to be thought genuine, then their intention is literally to forcibly habituate the public to the idea that they are constantly in danger, and that there is little that can be done about it. Or, as Open Carry Texas puts it, the goal is to: “condition Texans to feel safe around law-abiding citizens that choose to carry [guns].” Of course, the fact that they are willing to inflict terror to achieve, bizarrely, a sense of safety demonstrates that people feeling safe isn’t really a goal here; otherwise pictures of guns or speech campaigns would surely suffice. The fear is, in other words, intentional.

In other words these folks are attempting to terrify us with their guns into also carrying guns so that we will not longer feel defenseless against their guns.

So what we are dealing with are bullies.

Bullies who have no problem terrifying you, and putting you in fear for the lives of your children, simply so that they can intimidate you into buying and carrying a gun of your own to put your mind at ease.

However this will undoubtedly fail, because most of us are far too civilized to believe that having more guns around increases our safety.

Especially in the hands of individuals who believe in using fear tactics to get their message out.

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So apparently the Sportsman Channel is thrilled that Palin helped the channel nobody can find to attract six more viewers, so they are renewing "Amazing America" for a second season. (I wonder if this next season will see Palin actually do something out in that amazing America, and not just in front of a green screen?)

So to celebrate Palin agreed to an interview with the Hollywood Reporter.

Not a face to face interview where she might say something stupid mind you, but an e-mail interview where she can have her answers edited for her by one of her SarahPAC paid writers, in the hopes that she will seem slightly less like a dipshit.

"Slightly less" being the key phrase here.

First the Hollywood Reporter asks her which episode was her favorite and of course she answers the one with the military hero, because you know mom of a combat veteran and all that crap.

Then HR asks her about plans for next season.

Her reply:

We're really excited about the second season of Amazing America! We’re working on stories about people that go above and beyond to help others, really inspirational stuff that will encourage the entire nation. We’ve also got some amazing craftsmen lined up as well. I love showcasing skill and work ethic that deserves to be rewarded. It’s going to be a great season, families will love it together. I guarantee it!

In other words it is going to suck just like this season .

HR then asks which shows she watches with her family, and she of course answers Amazing America because she is really never home to watch TV with her family, and this is a better option than admitting that fact.

HR then asks her if there are any other shows that she would like to do.

Her answer:

Maybe. But the politics would have to be interspersed with a whole lot of fun and real life and inspiration showcasing American work ethic, because those topics are all pretty much the antithesis of today's politics, which I find incorrigibly disastrous! It'd be so much fun to shake it up taking on issues that make audiences objectively consider all sides, and I'd do it with my own real-life groundedness, candor and commonsense that I'm known for. (Hah!) Media needs that today, versus the condescension that oozes from TV and radio. I hear everyone recently got canned from The View, maybe a show like that needs a punch of reality and a voice of reason from America's heartland to knock some humble sense into their scripts. You know, someone willing to go rogue.

"Incorrigibly disastrous?"

"Condescension that oozes?"

"Knock some humble sense into their scripts?"

Who talks like that?

Anyhow this completely nonsensical bowl of tossed word salad piqued the interest of HuffPo who teased the idea that she might be serious about joining the cast of the View, before deciding later that she was probably full of shit.

However it was Palin's final response to a question from HR that really demonstrates why Palin can never actually have a real on air hosting job for a reputable network.

HR asks her whether she has read Hillary's book "hard Choices."

Her answer (Which I bet most of you can predict.):

So far just the passage about me because an attorney sent the passage to me. (Of course.) Hillary wrote about the 2008 campaign when the Obama camp asked her to basically engage in their familiar "politics of personal destruction" just hours after I was announced as the GOP's first female VP candidate. They couldn't attack my record as an executive, a Mayor, a Governor, an energy resources commissioner, nor a wife and mother, (Actually they could have attacked her on all of this. And in fact I believe that I and others did just that.) so ratcheting it all down she surmised the attacks would be based on gender! How passé. (Oooh, is that French?) How mighty hypocritical. Hillary refused to engage. I appreciated her boldness in explaining that behind-the-scenes campaign tactic of Obama's. (Now here is where the word salad gets deep and covered in a rich dressing of batshit crazy.) I've since pointed out there's no "war on women" if one doesn't react to that immature shot across the bow from the Liberal Left like America saw during that entire campaign. Don't retreat from such a shot. Just reload like I've been blessed to have the opportunity to do. And hey, I'm still standing! So flipping proud to be an American where I know first hand that anything is possible if you work hard, put your life in God's hands, serve something greater than self, and live life vibrantly!

Damn! Even if you wanted to write a parody response for Palin you could not do a better job than that!

No Sarah Palin is NOT going to be offered, or accept, a job on The View. (Could you imagine what Whoopi would do to her?)

However it does appear that she is actually going to return to cable televisions in her barely watched capacity as the green screen host for a show that features the hillbilly version of that 1980's classic "Real People."

And you thought cable TV could not get any worse.

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