World News Korner

Courtesy of Crooks and Liars:

What if militias announced a showdown with the feds and nobody came?

That’s pretty much what happened in Texas this week, after a handful of militia activists called on their fellow militia members to intervene in the increasingly fraught humanitarian crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border, involving large numbers of children from Central America who are straining the government’s ability to process their complicated cases.

For a Texas militiaman named Chris Davis, there was nothing complicated about it. In a video he posted at YouTube – which he has since been removed – he offered a simple solution for dealing with the young border crossers.

“How?” Davis asked rhetorically. “You see an illegal, you point your gun right dead at them, right between the eyes, and say ‘Get back across the border, or you will be shot.’ Simple as that. If you get any flak from sheriffs, city, or feds, Border Patrol, tell them look — this is our birthright. We have a right to secure our own land. This is our land. This is our birthright.”

So did manly man Chris Davis and his rag tag group of camouflaged dipshits show up at the border to wave their metal penises at the immigrant children seeking asylum?

It appears not.

However, Davis’ militia muster call quickly vanished into virtual thin air. Shortly after he began receiving media attention – including accounts in the McAllenville Monitor, Brownsville Herald, San Antonio Express-News and Los Angeles Times – he not only took down all his YouTube videos and deleted his channel there, he also deleted his Facebook page and all its incendiary antigovernment content.

Bummer it looks like Captain Courageous has a yellow streak running down his spine.

And guess what else we know about him.

Courtesy of TPM:

Chris Davis, the reported leader of the militia that encompasses many of the same groups that supported Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy in his standoff with federal authorities, was cited by San Antonio police for disorderly conduct because he and two other men were openly carrying firearms outside a Starbucks last year, the newspaper reported. It identified him as a member of Open Carry Texas.

Davis was also reportedly discharged from the U.S. Army in 2001 "under other than honorable conditions in lieu of trial by court martial." Davis had served in the Army from 1996 to 2001. The Express-News reviewed a summary of his military service, which relayed those "other than honorable conditions" for the discharge, but did not provide more details.

So dishonorably discharged from the military and now trying to pass himself off as a poor man's General Patton.

What more could we expect from this bunch of idiots?

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The folks over at Progressive Inc. and the Center for Media and Democracy are publishing new information from uncovered documents that prove Charles Koch was an active member of the Kansas John Birch society even up through the civil rights era.

Here is just a little of what The Progressive writes about the findings:

Charles Koch was not simply a rank and file member of the John Birch Society in name only who paid nominal dues. He purchased and held a "lifetime membership" until he resigned in 1968. He also lent his name and his wealth to the operations of the John Birch Society in Wichita, aiding its "American Opinion" bookstore -- which was stocked with attacks on the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King, and Earl Warren as elements of the communist conspiracy. He funded the John Birch Society's promotional campaigns, bought advertising in its magazine, and supported its distribution of right-wing radio shows.

The reactionary ideas learned from his father and stoked by his ideological ally in Wichita, Bob Love of the Love Box Company, were not simply passing fancies of the young scion of an oil fortune. The tools of the trade he absorbed in his late twenties and early thirties appear to continue to animate some of his actions decades later, as with his 2014 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal claiming those who criticize him are "collectivists." The echoes of his past role reverberate along with the millions he and his brother David Koch have spent fueling a John Birch Society-like "Tea Party" peopled with right-wingers like Birchers of decades past who contend against all reasoning that the president is a communist. David Koch himself has claimed President Obama is a scary "socialist." These roots run deep in the Kochs.

In many ways, the playbook deployed by the Kochs today through myriad organizations resembles a more sophisticated (and expensive) playbook of the John Birch Society back then. Even the recent announcement of the Kochs to give a $25 million gift to the United Negro College Fund (with strings attached requiring the recruitment of free market African American college students) echoes that past. In 1964, in the face of criticism for its assault on the civil rights movement, the John Birch Society also funded a scholarship program to give college funds to African Americans who were not active in the civil rights movement, according to documents the Progressive.org/Center for Media and Democracy has obtained.

It has been pointed out repeatedly that the modern Tea Party is simply a reboot of the same organization famous for its numerous communistic conspiracy theories, anti-civil rights stance, and homophobic mindset.

This organization almost doomed the Republican party in the 1960's and it looks like the modern day reincarnation is ready to do the same in 2014.

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Courtesy of Politico:

Sarah Palin this week joined a long line of Republican firebrands in raising the specter of impeachment against the president, writing in a Breitbart.com op-ed: “The many impeachable offenses of Barack Obama can no longer be ignored. If after all this he’s not impeachable, then no one is.”

And like clockwork, the Democratic outrage machine sprang to life — using her comments to mobilize grass-roots supporters and raise small dollar campaign donations from Obama die-hards.

The result was a flood of grass-roots donations, according to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

The DCCC sent at least two emails in 24 hours about Palin’s remarks to supporters — one unsigned under the subject line “BREAKING: Impeachment” and another under House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s name.

In a third email to supporters with the subject line “Palin HUMILIATED,” the DCCC claimed it received nearly 10,000 donations in just 24 hours — double the committee’s typical donation rate.

The committee said as a result of the flood of grass-roots donations, it was just short of a $3 million fundraising goal it set after House Speaker John Boehner threatened to sue Obama late last month — although it’s unclear how much of the money raised was in direct response to the impeachment-related emails.

“Republican overreach continues to be a huge motivating factor for our grass roots. The response to impeachment has been well over six figures,” DCCC spokesman Josh Schwerin told POLITICO.

I know it's not true, but every once in awhile I completely understand why some people think that Palin is an undercover operative for the Democratic party.

Without her help the Democrats would not be doing nearly so well, and the Republicans might not be falling apart quite so rapidly.

P.S. And she is doing it again with yet ANOTHER ghostwritten op-ed over at Fox News.

In it she lays out a whole bunch of bogus reasons for why the President should be impeached.

I think this about sums up Palin's frustration at the fact he refuses to pay any attention to her:

Obama can keep laughing and say, “so sue me” to the House’s tepid lawsuit threat. Let’s hear him laugh off impeachment. At the very least, despite his mocking the Constitution, this Constitutional process will put him on notice.

In my opinion not only is the President going to laugh off the idea of impeachment, so is the majority of the Republican party while the Democrats are crossing their fingers and hoping they go ahead with it.

You know I have seen Palin manic before but this time somebody might need to trank her and slap a straightjacket on her before she hurts herself. Or somebody else.

Update: Well it looks like we can add Bill O'Reilly to list of people who are going to laugh off Palin's idea of impeaching the President.

Damn, that's gotta sting!

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Click image to play video

Courtesy of Politicususa:

That web based Funny or Die clip has been nominated for an Emmy Award in the Outstanding Short-Format Live-Action Entertainment Program category.

Really, Republicans deserve the credit for this Emmy nod (which is good since they can’t credit Obama for anything except blaming him for things they did), because if they hadn’t been fear-mongering about Obamacare in the first place, the President never would have had to take such extreme measures to get the word out.

I am sure that this is yet another thing that the Republicans will say the President is doing to distract from Benghazi, or the IRS "scandal," or the border problem, of whatever is the crisis du jour.



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So as has now become apparent to just about everybody Sarah Palin is damned and determined to be noticed in the media so she has become a whirling "derpish" of televised appearances, Facebook posts, and even Facebook videos.

Well now you can add Fox News op-ed writer as well.

And by that we mean she babbled into a tape recorder and had some poor SarahPAC paid hack attempt to form it into a coherent article.

Epic fail by the way. (For those seeking an op-ed that was almost ALL Palin's creation click here.)

Here are some of the lowlights.

First off she is pissed that the President is the Democrat's rainmaker:

President Obama was absolutely swamped the other night, staving off the munchies at a pizza party in the Mile High city, hobnobbing as headliner at numerous Democrat shindigs, collecting big bucks from big donors all day.

Whew. Exhausting. Especially exhausting must be trying to change pace and pivot through the fundraising parties, knowing they’re thrown by those much maligned “fat cats” (Obama’s words, not mine).

The president conveniently disparages these fat cats in public, but in private their group hugs are a whole lot of cuddlin,’ purrin’ and rolling over for more tummy tickling from the one who feeds them. And it wasn’t hairballs any felines coughed up Tuesday just to hear Obama talk…and talk…and talk some more.

Donors forked over up to $32,000 just to get in the door to hear some fancy talk and scratch each other’s backs. These parties may be quite boring, too, making the outings even more exhausting, because politics isn’t a passionate cause for most attendees, it’s a money maker.

Yes how dare the President attract money for Democrats. I mean can't he simply find one or two Koch style sugar daddies like the Republicans?

And how it must burn little Miss Irrelevant's ass to know that people are willing to shell out that kind of money to see the President while she still has to negotiate for air fare and lodging.

Palin then essentially calls the President "boy" by reducing him to the status of an out of control teenager:

After watching what’s going on, does anyone else feel an urgency to take away the proverbial teenager’s car keys to prevent the inevitable crash down the road? But maybe that’s just the mama in me. Maybe I really should give the busy guy a break because with all the screaming chaos around the globe, Obama’s completely tone-deaf, disengaged, and unfocused actions perhaps can be explained.

The "mama" in her? Where was THAT when her kids were off doing drugs, breaking into liquor stores, and getting pregnant?

Palin then goes on to complain that the President in having the bowling alley in the White House renovated, which seems particularly trivial unless she believes the money spent on that could instead be used to send more border agents to Texas.

(Later she has to walk the criticism back after finding out that the project has been axed. I have to believe that this was not a project that the President personally championed as I have seen him bowl, and it does not look as if he spends much time practicing.)

Palin then goes on to criticize the President for visiting Denver:

I love this picture!

But, seriously, our commander-in-chief is busy, as Rome burns. For instance, after satisfying those munchies in Colorado, he carved out room for some super duper important games of pool in a bar with that state’s enabling governor. Ironically, Hickensooperdooper is his name. I think. (Actually it's Hickenlooper, but why bother trying to get it right when you can simply mock somebody instead?) Anyway, Obama won. He told us so. (Funny, he always wins. Golf, basketball, brackets and bets, his grand pronouncements afterward is always, miraculously, humph, he won again!)

Whew. Racking balls, getting buzzed on suds, maybe humming “Rocky Mountain High” while kicking it in those Rockies, hard choices had to be made – stripes or solids? And that beer – do I drink it if the mountains aren’t blue? Talk about miscues.

WTF?

Well it looks as if, unlike the President, when somebody altered Palin a mind altering substance she said "You betcha!"

Next Palin criticized the President for his visit to Texas:

President Obama was in Texas next. No time to visit the porous U.S. border, but lots of time for more fancy talkin’, photo-opin’ and fundraisin’. No plugging holes this time down South.

Yeah why did the President visit Texas for "photo-opin'," and avoiding the "porous" border, instead of doing what Governor Rick Perry was doing.


You know "photo-opin'" ON the porous border. (Isn't there only like one body of water on the Texas-Mexico border? Yet every picture of Perry has him in a boat.)


Well enough screwing around, Palin needs to bring up those "impeachable offenses" again:

But Barack Obama has most certainly engaged in impeachable offenses. Many. That’s a given. No need to waste ink trying to educate the “deniers” on how things are guaranteed to get worse unless this lawless administration, led by an imperial president, is legally slapped down on the House and Senate floors; so instead I’ll use what we’re told are the world’s superpower’s scariest weapons – a pen and a phone – to talk to sane Americans about taking our country back. That’s up next.

Yes this President has done some things that Palin believes are "impeachable offenses" though she has yet to name a single one. (I'm pretty sure that one of them is "Won't acknowledge my existence.")

Palin also believes that she understands what is holding lawmakers back from jumping onto the impeachment bandwagon to hell:

With all due respect, listen up, politicians; you’ve ignored your 7th grade American government lessons long enough.

Yes it is that THEY who are the undereducated ones.

If only they would have paid as much attention in school as little Sarah Heath did in between proselytizing to her classmates, stuffing her bra, and showing the boys that the barracuda did not always use its teeth.

As the great Keith Olbermann once opined, "This woman, is an idiot!"

P.S. By the way I thought this was as good a place as any to remind everybody that the current problem at the border with the unaccompanied children is NOT due to a porous border.

These children, and often adults as well, are TRYING to get captured.

They are not climbing over border fences in order to disappear into the country. They are actively seeking border patrol agents and surrendering because they are terrified and need protection.

There is no influx of guards, or addition of National Guard troops, that is going to curtail this migration into the country. All it will do is help the immigrants find the help they are seeking more quickly.

Somehow this fact seems to be evading the Republicans.

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Courtesy of Raw Story:

A Missouri man reportedly told police that he shot his wife over the weekend because he was “tired of her.”

Ripley County Cpl. Earl Wheetley was called to a home in Naylor on Saturday evening where he found Carolyn Leonard “laying on the front porch covered in blood,” the Southeast Missourian reported.

The woman “stated her and her husband was arguing, and he shot her” in the shoulder, Wheetley wrote in an affidavit.

Her husband, 59-year-old Bobby Leonard, emerged from the trailer, and was handcuffed by Wheetley.

“I asked him if he had any weapons on him, and he stated, ‘No, the gun is in the house on the counter,’” Wheetley recalled.

In Alaska we used to call this a "Spenard divorce." Of course that is usually said by misogynist assholes.

Using guns to win an argument is what cowards do.

But at least this guy did not kill his entire family execution style like the guy in Texas.

Boy that 2nd Amendment is certainly making all of us much safer. Don't you think?

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Courtesy of HuffPo:

In a condemnatory speech last week against the Obama administration’s new Environmental Protection Agency carbon emission regulations, Kentucky state Sen. Brandon Smith (R) claimed that man-made climate change is scientifically implausible because Mars and Earth share “exactly” the same temperature.

Smith, the owner of a mining company called Mohawk Energy, argued that despite the fact that the red planet doesn’t have any coal mines, Mars and Earth share a temperature. Therefore, Smith reasoned, coal companies on Earth should be exempt from emission regulations.

During a Natural Resources and Environment Committee meeting Thursday, Smith, the Senate majority whip, said:

"As you [Energy & Environment Cabinet official] sit there in your chair with your data, we sit up here in ours with our data and our constituents and stuff behind us. I won’t get into the debate about climate change but I’ll simply point out that I think in academia we all agree that the temperature on Mars is exactly as it is here. Nobody will dispute that. Yet there are no coal mines on Mars. There’s no factories on Mars that I’m aware of."

According to NASA, the average temperature on Earth is 57 degrees Fahrenheit -- 138 degrees above Mars' average of -81 degrees.

I am beginning to think there should be a mandatory entrance exam covering the functions of government, how science works, and economics that every potential candidate for local or national office must pass before being allowed to waste the voter's time.

I mean come on, this is getting ridiculous!

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Courtesy of The Hill:

President Obama on Thursday claimed he is “not that partisan of a guy” as he mocked calls in the Republican Party for his impeachment.

The president spent much of his address in Austin, Texas, hammering congressional Republicans, saying they have "blocked or voted down every serious idea to strengthen the middle class."

“I’m just telling the truth now," Obama said. "I don't have to run for office again so I can just let her rip.”

He teed off on Republicans such as Sarah Palin who have suggested in recent days that he be impeached, and dismissed Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) proposed lawsuit over his executive actions.

"'Sue him! Impeach him!' Really? For what? You're going to sue me for doing my job?" Obama said. "I mean think about that — you're going to use taxpayer money to sue me for doing my job, while you don't do your job? Huh."

The president said that the "best thing you can say" about Republicans this year is that they haven't forced a shutdown of the federal government.

"Of course it's only July, so who knows what they may cook up in the next couple of months," he added.

"I'm not that partisan of a guy," Obama said. "My favorite president is a Republican president."

Obama heralded the accomplishments of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower, saying the nation had "great" Republican leaders.

"Richard Nixon started the EPA!" Obama said.

He suggested Republicans had cynically chosen to abandon positions they believed in simply because he had embraced them.

"At least agree with me for the things you used to say you were for, before I was for them," Obama said, adding that "Ronald Reagan passed immigration, and you loved Ronald Reagan."

"It's lonely just me doing stuff," Obama said. "I'd love if the Republicans did stuff too."

The President is absolutely right, the very things he is being attacked for these days are the same things that the Republicans would be celebrating if there was a Republican in the White House.

Or maybe even simply a white President living there.

You know sometimes I think that the President needs somebody around all the time just to give him a big hug once in awhile and tell him he is doing a good job.

They say that the loneliest job in the world is to be President of the United States, but sometimes it seems that Obama is far more isolated than those that came before him.

And fuck the Republicans for putting him in that spot.

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Courtesy of ABC News:

It's official -- Rosie O'Donnell is returning as a host for "The View."

The show tweeted out the news today saying, "ABC confirms Rosie O'Donnell returns as co-host of #TheView w/ moderator Whoopi Goldberg for Season 18."

The host is back after being on the show before from 2006 to 2007. While on the show, she famously clashed with Donald Trump and even some former "View" co-hosts like Elisabeth Hasselbeck.

I don't usually cover this kind of thing on IM, however since Palin set tongues a wagging about the possibility that SHE might like to join the show it made this news just too delicious not to share.

Not only is Rosie back on for sure, there is also talk that Meghan McCain might be offered a slot.

Now there is a truly evil side of me that wants desperately for Sarah Palin to feel the need to promote something that convinces her to be a guest on The View.

Simply the idea of Palin being interviewed by the likes of Rosie O'Donnell, Whoopi Goldberg, and Meghan McCain is the kind of thing that liberal bloggers can only dream of having the opportunity to watch.

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Yeah it really does not look like Perry enjoyed the encounter.

So of course he went on Fox News afterward to complain about it:

Hours after their meeting, Governor Perry appeared on Sean Hannity’s television program Wednesday night, and criticized the President. “A leader acts, and what I haven’t seen out of this president are actions that makes me think he understands what’s going on.”

For his part, President Obama says he hopes Governor Perry will talk to the Texas Republican Congressional delegation and pressure them to pass his proposal for nearly $4 billion in emergency funding to shore up the border. “If the Texas delegation is prepared to move, this thing can get done next week.”

Rick Perry is such a douchenozzle.

Here the President is trying to find a workable solution to the problem, and he even said “There’s nothing that the Governor indicated he’d like to see that I have a philosophical objection to,” and yet all Perry can do is attempt to garner street cred from the Right Wing lunatics running his party these days by dogging the President behind his back.

Well that and engage in border guard cosplay with Sean Hannity.

Yep, douchenozzle.

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This is actually from former CNN reporter Howard Kurtz, of whom I am not exactly a fan, but he is now at Fox and he certainly does not hold back one bit:

There is simply no downside for Sarah Palin in calling for Barack Obama’s impeachment.

She grabs a nice bit of media attention. She rallies her conservative base. She gets to talk about it on Fox. And since she holds no elective office, she doesn’t have to worry about whether her rhetorical broadside has the slightest chance of succeeding.

In fact, the chances that the House will impeach a second straight Democratic president are extremely remote. But so what? Palin gets the issue and positions herself on the leading edge of anti-Obamaism.

In other words Sarah Palin is a nobody, with few prospects, and virtually nothing of any value to lose, so there is no chance that her hateful rhetoric will cost her any future elections or opportunities since she really does not have many options anyway.

Kurtz then goes on to explain to Palin why this impeachment thing is a non-starter.

But while various GOP congressmen have openly mused about impeachment, the House leadership hasn’t given any indication that such proceedings would be seriously considered. With the Republicans appearing to be in a strong position in the 2014 midterms, why introduce an explosive new element that would divide the country and enable critics to turn the spotlight on their motivation?

The impeachment of Bill Clinton didn’t work out so well from the GOP point of view, as the country turned against the effort and the Democrats actually picked up House seats in the 1998 midterms.

I’m sure a chunk of the country would love to see Obama run out of office. But being a bad president isn’t grounds for impeachment. The Constitution requires evidence of “high crimes and misdemeanors”—say, like authorizing burglaries and orchestrating a coverup, as Richard Nixon did.

Kurtz then goes on to list all of the ways that this impeachment groundswell could sabotage the Republican party and potentially hand Democrats ammunition for both 2014 and 2016.

I was thinking about this the other day and to be honest if this thing builds any steam it really can do nothing but help the President, whose opponents will appear to be vindictive nutjobs, and the Democrats, who can use this in their campaigns to illustrate just how completely dedicated the Republicans are to obstructionism and the destruction of a President that was elected to office twice by huge margins.

One has to ask once again, is Sarah Palin really this stupid? Or is somebody paying her to sabotage the Republican party from within?

Update: Peter Wehner of the Wall Street Journal has some choice words as well:

Impeachment is such an obviously bad idea that one could plausibly assume this is a desperate shout-out to garner attention, an effort to win praise from the few remaining Palinites in America. (It tells you something when the controversial culture warrior Pat Buchanan is a temperate, restrained voice compared with Ms. Palin.)

On the other hand, Ms. Palin does seem to represent a certain mind-set. What matters to her is not mastering issues or even being conversant on them; it’s politics as theatrics, as a show, as a way to prove one’s purity. The conservatism of prudence and of realism, of moderate temperament and judicious judgments, seems alien to her. She wants to fight, even (and maybe especially) if it means losing. And notice the threat, too. She’s calling for Americans to “vehemently oppose any politician on the left or right who would hesitate in voting for articles of impeachment.” So voting for President Obama’s impeachment isn’t enough; those who even hesitate to do so deserve scorn. Impeachment of the president has now risen to a self-evident truth. For Ms. Palin, advocating a suicide run isn’t enough; she wants to punish those who don’t join her in self-immolation.

Look she is finally getting the attention that she craves so much.

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Courtesy of Variety:

“Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey,” which premiered this spring on Fox and National Geographic Channel and received an unprecedented rollout in 180 countries, has become the most-watched series ever for National Geographic Channel International.

A whopping 135 million people — including 45 million in the U.S. — watched at least some of the 13-part science series, National Geographic Channel announced today. Overall, it aired on all 90 National Geographic Channels as well as 120 Fox-branded channels in 125 countries, making this the largest global launch ever for a television series.

Its March 3 premiere Stateside attracted roughly 8.5 million viewers across 10 channels. In addition to the Fox broadcast network and National Geographic Channel, “Cosmos” aired on cablers FX, FXX, FXM, FOX Sports 1, FOX Sports 2, Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo Mundo and FOX Life.

All I can say is that I hope this inspires other networks to create science programs of their own and put them on prime time, because I really think this country could really benefit from well done educational programs like "Cosmos."

Hey, and maybe Fox could stop focusing on making the country dumber through their Fox News channel, and instead focus on making more programs which make us all smarter.

Yes I know what you're thinking, "Then where would the Republicans find voters ignorant enough to vote for them?"

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Courtesy of Raw Story:

Vance County Sheriff Deputies were called to the home of 84-year-old Lloyd Woodlief late Monday night. A family argument had turned violent, Vance County Sheriff Peter White said, leading Lloyd Woodlief to shoot his 49-year-old son, Lloyd Peyton Woodlief, with a .22 caliber pistol.

Authorities said that they believe the unnamed 11-year-old then shot his grandfather with a 12-gauge shotgun.

Lloyd Peyton Woodlief was taken to Duke Medical Center, where is he recovering from his wounds. His father died on the scene shortly after authorities arrived. The 11-year-old was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon.

“A juvenile petition has been taken out against the 11-year-old,” Sheriff White said. “He is in the custody of juvenile services.”

I am not sure that this boy should be charged with anything.

If he lives in a house where there is violence, and he sees his grandfather shoot his dad, what's he supposed to do?

He responded in the way that he had been taught to respond by the adults in his life.

In my opinion the boy will need a lot of counseling, his father needs to take parenting classes, and the grandfather got what was coming to him.

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What else can you expect from a state once they legalize marijuana?




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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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