World News Korner

Courtesy of Salon:

Moms Demand Action, a group formed after the Sandy Hook shooting to crack down on gun violence, began pressuring the Kroger supermarket chain to prohibit “open carry” in its stores after gun extremists used Kroger stores to demonstrate their “rights.” Gun laws are lax in many states, and it can be legal to openly carry a firearm with no training, and, in some cases, no background checks. The Kroger campaign is the most recent in a string of corporate responsibility efforts in which mothers, flanked by other gun violence prevention advocates, have asked companies to tighten gun policies, arguing that the businesses have an obligation to keep their customers safe.

Of course, gun extremists did not respond kindly to the Kroger campaign. What follows is a recounting of their disturbing tactics, from the shocking intimidation and harassment of unsuspecting commenters on Kroger’s Facebook page to right-wing media propaganda that disingenuously portrayed Kroger as being allies of the gun extremists.

Secret Facebook groups such as “People Who Were Blocked by Moms Demand Action Demand Action Now” — which has well over a thousand members — disseminated gun rights propaganda and helped orchestrate attacks on individuals commenting on Kroger’s page. Some gun nuts combed the profile pages of people commenting in support of gun reform, harvested personal photos of them and Photoshopped them to include obscene or humiliating comments, before reposting the photos on Kroger’s page, or on other social media sites. Because Kroger frequently bans users who post that kind of content, the gun extremists created disposable fake accounts — sometimes using the name and profile photo of an opponent— to quickly dump posts without being held accountable.

In one case, they found a photo of a woman’s preschool-age child and wrote on it, “My mom sucks more cock than Richard Simmons” and circulated it online. In another case, they grabbed a photo of a mother and her child and wrote “Big retard, little retard” on it before reposting it. One woman posted to Kroger a photograph of a receipt showing money she spent elsewhere, and gun extremists swarmed her post, with hundreds of responses, including comments like “what you could do is shut your god damned whore mouth,” “calm your tits,” and “fuck her right in the pussy,” which Kroger’s Facebook admin allowed to stand over a day later.

The article goes on to say that the approach of these extremists seems to be to attack protesters en masse and intimidate them into walking away from the debate. And that is some cases that is working.

There really is no way to have a reasonable disagreement with people like this, and since they literally view gun rights as something bestowed upon them by their creator they see all attempts to apply oversight to gun sales as an attack on their deeply held faith.

I think the first thing that anybody who wants to work toward creating responsible gun policies in this country needs to do is to develop a thick skin, and to recognize that the more hate and vitriol they attract the better they are doing their jobs.

Besides if we even prevent one more unnecessary death, isn't that worth being called a few ugly names on Facebook?

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Courtesy of Politico:

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin agreed Monday that there should be a quarantine for medical workers coming from West Africa as she took President Barack Obama and his administration to task over its “incompetency” in handling the Ebola crisis.

“I do think that there needs to be that quarantine but, see, this is par for the course that Obama’s incompetency, his administration’s incompetency, is really shining bright in this one,” the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee said on Fox News’ “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren.”

Palin added that Washington is “trying to call the shots for these governors. There is a void of leadership here and the governors need to step up and step in.”

“We’re going to demand of our leadership in Washington and on the state level to get politics out of this and allow the medical community to tell us factually, what needs to be done,” Palin said.

Palin said she would talk to other governors about enacting a quarantine, if she were still serving in that role in Alaska.

“And I betcha we would come to the conclusion that you can’t trust the Obama administration,” she said, adding that liberals are using “Saul Alinsky tactics” to capitalize on crisis.

Who in the HELL would ever ask this woman about contagious diseases or how the government should respond to an outbreak in this country?

She is not only completely fact free in this completely unnecessary interview, she is also histrionic and attempts to drum up panic from Fox viewers in order to undermine the President.


A President, who by the way, has this completely under control.

Look I live in a state where Sarah Palin had to deal with crisis. Her never wavering approach was to first pretend that there was no problem, slowly respond after being pressured by constituents and the media, and finally have Franklin Graham fly up here and go with her to deliver cookies.

If we had an Ebola outbreak in Alaska while Palin was in charge, we would all be dead right now.

Update: Perhaps somebody should show Princess Panic Attack this:

As the number of ebola cases in the U.S. dwindled to one Tuesday, a new CNN/ORC poll found the American public surprisingly confident in the federal government’s response to the virus in the U.S.

54% of those surveyed said the government had done a good job in handling the virus, while 71% were confident the government could prevent a widespread outbreak — somewhat contradicting the punditry that decried the public’s despair in the face of institutional failures.

Yeah, the American people know that the President has got this.

But hey, nice try Fox news.

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I'm baaack.

Courtesy of CBC News:

Jeb Bush's son said it's "more than likely" his dad will run for president in 2016 in an interview that aired Sunday.

George P. Bush, Jeb Bush's eldest son, was interviewed by ABC News. The younger Bush is knee-deep in his own campaign this year, running for Texas land commissioner.

ABC's Jon Karl asked Bush whether his father is running for president.

"I think he's still assessing it," Bush said, offering the same demurral his father and other members of his family have given in recent months.

When Karl pressed Bush to offer a specific probability, Bush said, "It's more than likely that he's giving this a serious thought...and moving forward."

"More than likely that he'll run?" Karl asked.

"That he'll run," Bush responded. "If you had asked me a few years back, I would have said it was less likely." He added that if his father does decide to run, "The family will be behind him 100 percent."

Well since you would have had to have been in a coma the last two years not to realize that Hillary Clinton is also running in 2016, that means, if Jeb's son is accurate, that 2016 will be the battle of the presidential dynasties.

As much as we may all want newer blood in the White House the fact is that we are going to be witnessing yet another clash of the titans.

And lucky us we will all get to watch the past scandals of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush dredged up and splattered across our TV and computer screens for probably several months or more.

Personally I think in this day and age that hearing the conservatives trying to use Bill's sexcapades with Monica Lewsinky to hijack the "War on Women" and use it against the Democrats, will have a significantly smaller impact than seeing all of George Bush's lies and manipulations that he used to get us into two unnecessary wars trotted out for the voters to revisit.

But of course I am a Liberal and I would not vote for another Bush even under threat of torture. Which is ANOTHER thing Americans did under a Bush administration.

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I don't want to skew the result but I am kind of hoping for a cross between and armadillo and a giraffe.

I think we can all agree that the world would be a much better place with arma-giraffe's walking around.

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So after making some incredibly insensitive remarks during an appearance at Wasilla High, where he essentially told an audience of students still mourning the loss of their friend to suicide that "suicide shows a lack of support from friends and family," Don Young tried to make nice with the the Alaska natives, whose communities have been ripped apart by the epidemic of suicide, by kind of sort of apologizing.

However one native Alaskan in attendance did not hear that apology, so she decided to talk to her Congressman in person.

Here is how that went.

Courtesy of TPM:

Gloria Poullard approached Young to ask him about a profane speech he gave last week at Wasilla High School, in which the congressman offended students by arguing that suicide was caused by a lack of support from friends and family.

"You know, it really put a hamper on my faith in you because my elders voted for you, and this is my state, I'm an Alaska native," Poullard said to Young, according to video of the exchange from local TV station KTUU. "How do you feel within yourself, what possessed you to even make a comment like that? My nephew just committed suicide."

Young shushed her and shook her hand, to which Poullard responded "You don't tell me to shush."

"Hey, I lost a nephew," he said. "I know what it feels like and I gotta ask myself, did I support him enough? Did I? I don't know."

"Don't you get angry with me, don't even squeeze my hand," Poullard said. Young then released her hand and walked away.

Earlier I reminded you that Lisa Murkowski's successful write in campaign would probably have failed if not for the support of the AFN.

And a whole lot of Young's support comes from his ties to the Alaska native community.

I am not native but I am guessing that getting in their face and squeezing their hand until it hurts is not going to help him to gain back their confidence.

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Courtesy of RH Reality Check:

Iowa State Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Red Oak), candidate for U.S. Senate, has quickly become a national figure by making outlandish statements that appeal to the far right, including comments charging that she would use a gun to defend herself “from the government.”

“I have a beautiful little Smith & Wesson, 9 millimeter, and it goes with me virtually everywhere,” Ernst reportedly said in 2012 at the NRA and Iowa Firearms Coalition Second Amendment Rally in Searsboro, Iowa. “But I do believe in the right to carry, and I believe in the right to defend myself and my family—whether it’s from an intruder, or whether it’s from the government, should they decide that my rights are no longer important.”

I don't know about any of you but what I look for in a candidate seeking a position in the Federal Government is the assurance that at any moment they might murder a fellow federal employee if they dare to touch their gun.

I am also very impressed when they refer to the attractiveness of their murderous accessory and claim to take it with them "virtually everywhere."

Nothing creepy or frightening about that.

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Courtesy of The Guardian:

Even in the deep South, the Republican base of white evangelical Christians is shrinking – and in some traditional conservative redoubts like Arkansas, Georgia and Kentucky, it’s declined as a percentage of the population by double digits. Even Alabama is becoming less Christian. Meanwhile, there’s been a corresponding increase in the religiously unaffiliated, who tend to vote more Democratic.

While the effect on evangelicals is new, the general pattern isn’t. The Catholic church, the largest single religious denomination in America, was the first to feel the pinch. Church leaders and Catholic apologists have been fretting for years over the problem of aging and shrinking congregations, declining attendance at Mass and fewer people signing up to become priests or nuns – although their proposals for how to solve the problem all consist of tinkering around the edges, or insisting that they need to try harder to convince people to believe as they do.

America’s next-largest denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, held out a bit longer but has now come down with the same affliction. Membership has been declining for the last several years – to the point where half of SBC churches will close their doors by 2030 if current trends persist. And as with the Catholic church, the SBC defenders with the biggest platforms have insisted that they don’t need to change anything if they just double down on their existing policies and pray harder for revival.

What’s driving the steady weakening of Christianity? The answer, it would seem, is demographic turnover.

The so-called millennials (Americans born between 1982 and 2000) are far more diverse, educated and tolerant than their predecessors. They’re also the least religious generation in American history – they’re even getting less religious as they get older, which is unprecedented – and the majority of them identify Christianity as synonymous with harsh political conservatism.

As older, more religious generations fade away and younger generations replace them, the societal midpoint shifts. And this trend is going to accelerate in coming years, because the millennial generation is big. They’re even bigger than the baby boomers.

You know the main focus of this blog has never been about Sarah Palin, she actually came along four years after I started it. It has always been about taking down the Religious Right and destroying their stranglehold on our politics.

Remember back in 2004, when The Immoral Minority came to be, George W. Bush had just won his second term in office, we were in the middle of two unnecessary wars, the Evangelicals had insinuated themselves into every facet of government and the military, and secularism was under assault from all directions.

As an Atheist it is no exaggeration to say that I was terrified about the direction we were headed, and what that meant for my daughter and the future of this country.

It is for that reason that I have worked so hard to reveal the ugly truth about the Evangelicals chosen star of 2008, and what she demonstrates about the hypocrisy of that politically powerful group.

In fact Sarah Palin has been incredibly helpful in revealing much of the sordid underbelly of politics and religion in America. Her fake pregnancy to attract the pro-life folks, her fake Christianity to attract the Bible thumpers, her fake conservatism to attract the Reagan-ites, have all been revealed on this blog and many, many others.

And through those revelations we have also been able to get a look inside the true agenda of the Right Wing which is to use the easily deceived religious folks to amass great power and influence, and then use that to essentially line their own pockets at the expense of those who trusted them and bought into their line of bullshit.

That is why I am such a fan of the Millenials. THEY are the result of greater access to information on the internet. THEY are the result of the Religious Right's power grabs. And THEY are the what we need to break the grip of ignorance and superstition, and to move toward greater enlightenment and a better understanding of our place in the universe, and our responsibilities here on this planet.

And boy am I glad they are here, for it is not a moment too soon.

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Courtesy of Slate:

Barack Obama displayed inspiring leadership on Friday. He also promoted public health, fought bigotry, and helped calm raging paranoia. His heroic act? He hugged somebody.

Nina Pham, the first person to be infected with Ebola within the United States, had just been declared disease-free and discharged from the National Institutes of Health. Obama is a rational, science-friendly guy, so he knew she wasn’t any danger to him. It didn’t take courage to hug her.

And yet, another modern president failed a similar test. Facing the greatest public health crisis of his administration, Ronald Reagan was not heroic. He was a dithering coward.

The hateful, homophobic, racist response to the AIDS crisis is one of the most shameful episodes in recent American history. Within a few years after the first AIDS cases were reported in 1981, scientists knew the disease was transmitted primarily by sex, blood transfusions, and shared needles.

The article goes on to revisit the fear mongering and hatred displayed by the conservatives, while others worked diligently to provide accurate information to help put American minds at ease.

Sadly when the country needed a strong leader there were none to be found.

But Ronald Reagan? He didn’t do a goddamn thing. He was president when the first cases were reported. He was president when Congress, the National Academies of Science, and anybody with a sick loved one or a conscience called for the federal government to do more to fight the medical and social crisis.

Reagan could have spoken out against panic and called for compassion; the man knew how to give a powerful speech. He could have hugged an AIDS patient, or at least shaken hands. He knew (or should have known) that wouldn’t have been dangerous—just as well as Obama knew hugging a recovered Ebola patient wasn’t dangerous. It would have made a difference.

I love pointing out all of the ways that Barack Obama is a better President than Ronald Reagan. Partly because it drives conservatives crazy, but mostly simply because it's true.

Thankfully we have a leader like Barack Obama in these troubled times and not a "B" actor playing the role of a leader like we did back in the 80's.

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Courtesy of Mediaite:

Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter, who’s taken up the mantle as CNN’s unofficial ombudsman, said that fellow anchor Carol Costello deserved the widespread criticism she received last week for laughing at audio of Bristol Palin describing a drunken brawl.

“If you’re sitting at home shaking your head at the way she handled that, you’re not alone,” Stelter said.

Actually if you are sitting at home shaking your head it is only because you actually believe that Bristol Palin's version of what happened to her that night bears even a passing resemblance to the truth. Which it does not.

The problem with the media is that they STILL seem to think that the Palins are capable of telling the truth, and the fact is that they are absolutely NOT able to do that. About anything.

But that point seems to be lost on some in the media. Including Joe Concha of Mediaite who said the following:

So should Costello–a straight news anchor and not an opinion host–apologize on the air Monday morning? Yes. Note: She has only done so in a statement to Politico, which hasn’t silenced her critics.

But will she? Yes…because she has no other choice.

Why? Because it’s the only way to defuse the controversy swirling around her.

A controversy it must be remembered that was created by the same Right Wing media that sprang to Palin's defense after David Letterman made a fairly innocuous joke about Bristol, suggested that I should be sued after my Splitsville post, and dug a conservative media moat to protect her after her blood libel statements following the attempted murder of Gabby Giffords.

And while I am on this topic I want to bring up the fact that The Daily Caller's Matt Lewis, who you briefly saw in that Morning Joe clip, completely manufactured the allegation that Bristol Palin might have possibly been sexually assaulted by Kory Klingenmeyer out of whole cloth.

There is NO allegation of that from any witness, nor even from the Palin clan, though honestly it is probably because they did not think of it themselves.

The scuffle between Klingenmeyer and Bristol happened in front of dozens of people, and not one of them even backed up the fact that Bristol was physically assaulted by the homeowner, much less sexually assaulted by him.

And yet that same charge has been repeated in comment sections of blogs and news sites all over the internet.

Carol Costello is certainly not deserving of the vitriol that is currently directed her way, but Matt Lewis deserves all of that and more. Much more.

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Courtesy of NBC Montana:

Galen Hawk, 26, appeared in a Polson courtroom Friday afternoon on a negligent homicide charge.

Court documents say Hawk shot and killed 3-year-old Lonato Moran-Allen in a Ninepipes-area home Wednesday night.

Investigators say Hawk and two others took the boy to a Ronan hospital, where he died.

Court documents say Hawk and Moran-Allen were playing "gun tag." Moran-Allen had a toy gun and Hawk had a real one.

Prosecutors say Hawk told detectives he'd been drinking whiskey and alcoholic lemonade the night of the shooting.

Just another good guy with a gun keeping America safe, right NRA?

More guns, equal more deaths, period.

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First up it's Mark Begich who recently received the very influential Alaska Federation of Natives endorsement:

The resolutions included an endorsement of Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Begich, who is seeking to be re-elected Nov. 4, and an endorsement of the so-called “unity” ticket of independent gubernatorial candidate Bill Walker and his running mate, Democrat Byron Mallott.

As you see the Walker/Mallott ticket also got an endorsement which might help to balance out the endorsement from the Wasilla Wendigo.

To understand the importance of the AFN support, there are many who believe that it was they who were instrumental in helping Lisa Murkowski win against Joe Miller in 2010.

However they are not 100% behind the liberal agenda:

The AFN delegates also approved a resolution in opposition to a ballot measure that would legalize and regulate recreational marijuana in Alaska.

That may seem counter intuitive until you realize how overwhelming of a problem substance abuse is in rural villages. It is not at all surprising that they are officially against the measure.


Now let's take a look at Kentucky where Alison Lundergan Grimes received some very good news yesterday:

Two major Kentucky newspapers have endorsed Alison Lundergan Grimes for Senate over incumbent Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R).

The Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader both ran editorials Sunday in support of the Democrat, who currently serves as Kentucky's Secretary of State.

In its endorsement, the Courier-Journal's editorial board praised Grimes' stance on issues like the minimum wage and early childhood education, while accusing McConnell of "lacking a vision for Kentucky."

The Lexington Herald-Leader's endorsement strongly rebukes McConnell, who the editorial board says has "repeatedly hurt the country to advance his political strategy."

"The Senate may never recover from the bitter paralysis McConnell has inflicted through record filibusters that allow his minority to rule by obstruction," reads the editorial. "He poses as a champion of the right to criticize the government, but it's really his rich buddies' right to buy the government that he champions."

"If McConnell had a better record, he would not have to argue for six more years by obsessively linking Grimes to Obama, who will be gone in two years no matter what," the editorial continues.

Damn, that's going to leave a mark.

The most recent polls show McConnell still with a six points lead. But who knows, with this kind of support Grimes might just pull this off.

I have my fingers crossed for both of these races. If we can not only hold onto the Senate but also kick McConnell to the curb this may usher in a whole new era of bipartisanship moving forward.

I know, I'm a dreamer.

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"I'll fucking beat your ass."

"I was cold clocked from behind."

"Like a fucking fish."

"Let's fucking fight, motherfuckers."

You know every word is a testament to Todd and Sarah Palin's parenting.

So much class in such a young man.

Update: For those who have the time this Kenny Pick guy also posts some of Bristol's crying and swearing under the heading "Thonghazi."

It is over three hours long but his comments, and those of his co-hosts, are highly entertaining.



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Palin starts off making fun of the computer models the climate scientists use to make predictions concerning global warming, and calls their concerns about our warming planet a "con job.'" Which considering she lives in Alaska is especially egregious.

But don't worry she is no climate science denier (Except of course she is.):

"Look I'm not a denier, I don't doubt that climate change exists. I live in an arctic state as Governor traveling around the coastline, especially up in the arctic you can see changes based on the cyclical pattern of climate and weather, always changing. We can see the effects of changing weather patterns, not only on the coast line, elsewhere on land, but no one has proven that these changes are caused by anything done by human beings, via greenhouse gasses. There’s no convincing scientific evidence for manmade climate change. The climate has always been changing. Climate change is to this century what eugenics was to the last century. It’s hysteria, and a lot of it’s junk science. And when it’s as discredited as eugenics, y’know a lot of people are going to look very foolish and heartless. Why heartless? Because this global warming, climate change hysteria hurts the poorest among us. We hear all the time about how liberals care supposedly more for the poor than conservatives do. But for the sake of climate change? Liberals hold back the poorest parts of the world from the kind of development that we have in America."

Holy crap! Is it even possible to be this disconnected from reality?

She lives in a state where the effects of climate change are negatively impacting its residents every day and entire communities have had to leave villages they established hundreds of years ago in order to keep from being washed out to sea.

But then what can you expect from the woman who did nothing while Alaskan natives nearly froze to death and starved in their homes on her watch?

So yes Sarah Palin is one of the most mockable people on the planet, and that was BEFORE audio was released which demonstrated to the world that she and her family are a bunch of drunken Wasilla-billies.

And thank you Wonkette for reminding us of that fact.

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Billionaire Paul Singer, whose Right Wing organization is behind the mailings.

Courtesy of KTUU:

A series of letters from a shadowy group is telling Alaskans’ friends and neighbors whether they voted in previous elections -- and threatening to release their voting records in the Nov. 4 general elections.

In letters photographed by Channel 2 viewers who received them, the Alaska State Voter Program lists 10 friends and neighbors, along with their home addresses and whether -- but not how -- they voted in the 2008, 2010 and 2012 elections. At least one person reported subsequently receiving an email from the group containing the text of the mailed letter.

An introduction in the letters rhetorically asks why people don’t vote, then poses the group’s solution to the issue. The language is mirrored on the group's website, which allows people to generate a list similar to those in the letters by entering their name and mailing address or their Facebook account.

“This year, we’re taking a new approach,” ASVP members wrote. “We’re sending this mailing to you, your friends, your neighbors, your colleagues at work, and your community members to publicize who does and does not vote.”

Channel 2 viewers have uniformly condemned the Alaska mailings as an unwarranted intrusion on their privacy, with one saying a friend who received a copy of the letter at his Wasilla home did not respond well.

“He and his wife are furious because the letter lists names and addresses of their neighbors and what years they voted -- which means their names are probably on a letter in other people's households,” the viewer wrote. “These types of shaming and bullying tactics are unacceptable and they cross the line.”

A second viewer pointed out the possibility of information from the letters enabling criminal activity.

“We recently had ID theft and the last thing we want to publicize is where we live,” the viewer wrote. “I wonder how many people are outraged like us.”

A third viewer said the mailings represent a threat to Alaska-based service members’ operational and personal security.

“How is this even okay to send out people’s names and addresses?” the viewer wrote. “What about the military families in this state who are trying to maintain proper OPSEC and PERSEC, who just had their names and addresses sent out to random other people?”

This Alaska State Voter Program attempts to camouflage itself as a local political outfit, even using some of our beautiful scenery on its website, but it is certainly NOT an Alaskan organization.

And by the way when they say "this year we're taking a new approach" that is bullshit as this seems to be the first year they have even been in existence. In fact they really don't seem to even exist today.

Gee I wonder where they came from, and who is paying for all of this?

Well KTUU has some of those answers:

While ASVP isn’t registered with the Alaska Public Offices Commission according to Fenumiai, she said the interstate nature of its PAC would leave it covered by the Federal Election Commission. State officials have been unable to uncover much more about the nature and origins of the group, she said.

An attribution at the bottom of the letters says they are paid for by the Opportunity Alliance PAC, a political action committee associated with the Republican-affiliated American Opportunity Alliance. The alliance’s website doesn’t list a page for Alaska, but includes links to an attack ad against U.S. Senate incumbent Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), as well as endorsements of Republicans Joni Ernst in an Iowa U.S. Senate race and Martha McSally for an Arizona U.S. House seat.

Apparently the Opportunity Alliance PAC is run by billionaire Paul Singer who it just so happens donate $600,000 to Dan Sullivan's campaign last year.

Gee an out of state PAC supporting the carpetbagger trying to steal an Senate seat in Alaska? You could have knocked me over with a feather.

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"Hey, I don't know the meaning of the word 'lose.' No really, I don't."

Courtesy of TPM:

Chris McDaniel's months-long quest to overturn the results of the Mississippi Republican Senate primary appeared to reach its end when the state supreme court rejected his legal challenge Friday.

McDaniel lost to Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) in the June primary, but he has been using the legal system ever since to undermine the election. Allegations of voter fraud and illegal crossover voters have abounded, and the case eventually made its way to the Mississippi Supreme Court.

But the court dismissed McDaniel's challenge on Friday, citing timing and political considerations, according to election law expert Rick Hasen's analysis.

"Sometimes these rulings are a mercy killing. McDaniel’s evidence of fraud seemed weak, and his legal theories about crossover voting even weaker," Hasen wrote. "This timing ruling was a way for the courts to end the process without going through a long drawn out trial. Not that the courts would ever admit they were doing that, but I guess this was in the back of at least some Justices’ minds."

Okay I have seen some sore losers in my time, but this asshole takes the cake.

I hate to say it but I really think that this is the plan for other GOP candidates in the general election as well.

I think that is why Joni Ernst of Iowa is already gathering information about recounts even though the election is still ten days away.

If I am right about this many of our elections may not be decided for weeks, or even months, after November 4th, and some of us could be in for a very long, expensive, and frustrating battle that undermines our democracy and leaves voters stuck in a kind of political purgatory.

Oh joy.

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I early made the case, in a somewhat tongue in cheek manner, that Palin had now realized that her endorsements were the kiss of death and THAT was why she was endorsing Bill Walker instead of her former Lt. Governor Sean Parnell.

Yes there are various reasons why she is no longer seeing eye to eye with Parnell, but to endorse his opponent is a rather huge step guaranteed to gin up controversy, and to ultimately help the Parnell campaign. (NOBODY dislikes this woman more than we do.)

However yesterday I think Palin removed any doubt, at least in my eyes, that she is working against Bill Walker and not for him.

Here is her Facebook post from yesterday:

Alaska Wins With Independence;

Stepping Aside for the Greater Good Our family is proud to support Bill Walker to lead Alaska! Bill Walker, Byron Mallott, and their families joined with ours and other Alaskans in Todd’s airplane hangar this week in a show of true Alaskan support, complete with a potlatch brimming with salmon, moose, and caribou hors d’oeuvres. Life-long Alaskans Bill and Byron have proven that they truly have our state’s heart and believe in putting Alaska first and ignoring status quo politics that get in the way of Alaska’s destiny. This is refreshing and productive, and Alaska wins when Team Walker wins! This unity ticket came about when winners of their respective primary races selflessly stepped aside for the sake of Alaska! This is rarely done in politics and proves that this strong independent ticket represents an Alaskan-sized heart, putting people over party machine politics and Alaskans over egos. (Now remember Walker is a former Republican, now running as an Independent. And Mallott is the Democrat who won his party's nomination. Neither one of these are the uber-conservative tea party types that Palin typically aligns herself with.)

Bill’s blue collar history and professional experience in practicing law fit perfectly with policies to move our state forward by developing our abundant natural resources. He and Byron are proven fiscal conservatives who know state government’s recent practice of deficit spending will halt development and make us dependent on a dysfunctional federal government. (While Walker/Mallot are in favor of protecting Alaska's sovereignty (All Alaskan politicians have to say that.) They are not anti-government types and have no problem working with the federal government. In fact once elected Walker intends to allow the Obamacare Medicaid expansion that Parnell adamantly fought against.)

The Last Frontier’s destiny as the nation’s leader in energy development, which will lead to Alaskan independence while helping secure our union, can only be fulfilled with decisive leadership that puts our residents first. The ability to move us forward by empowering a thriving private sector takes unifying action. Too many long-awaited projects and challenges – like the National Guard scandal – are made worse because of indecisive leadership, and that’s debilitating. We can’t afford to put development on the back burner while other states and nations surpass our opportunities, and we can’t sweep ethics problems under the table. (Okay now using the National Guard scandal against Parnell is perfectly reasonable for Walker, but it freaking started under the Palin administration. SHE was the one to first turn a blind eye. As a matter of fact there is a new political ad featuring Parnell's wife that makes that case.)

Unfortunately, in desperation to halt Team Walker’s momentum, lies are running rampant. Sadly, one such lie is about their faith. Don’t believe the million dollar Outside money ads perpetuating misrepresentations; just ask the guys themselves where they stand. For example, on the issue of respecting a culture of life, a pro-family group is grossly misrepresenting Bill’s position. He is unapologetically pro-life. Groups, individuals, and incumbent politicians telling you otherwise are untruthful, and that says everything about their character. Shame on people who know better and are in positions to counter lies but turn a blind eye instead. This kind of politics of personal destruction is why our country is hurting; adding to the pain are attempts here in Alaska to destroy a good man. Participants in this do not deserve your support. (Bringing up the fact that Walker is pro-life is NOT going to do him any favors with the Democrats and Independents he needs to win this election, and that is why it is not mentioned on his site. By bringing this up now all Palin is doing is making those who are firmly on Walker's side reevaluate their decision. And it will certainly NOT bring one Parnell voter over to Walker's side and she knows it!)

I’m proud of the ethics reform my administration ushered in, and I know Bill and Byron will re-start and build on that with an independent spirit beholden only to the people of Alaska, not to any political party. Nothing’s been handed to these guys. They’ve worked alongside us all over the state in true Alaskan spirit and know the value of a good job. They want that for every Alaskan family! So our diverse family, enjoying years of connections with both candidates, take a stand for Bill and Byron’s unity team. It’s time to get our state back on track to fiscal discipline so we can grow with the surplus Alaska had enjoyed under my administration. (See? She is essentially saying that Walker and Mallott will continue the work started by HER administration. She might as well have hired a contract killer and put a hit out on them instead. Same result.)

Please support Walker/Mallott on November 4th. Alaska First! It’s time.

- Sarah Palin

And there you have it.

There is NO way that Palin does not know what this will do to Bill Walker and his campaign.

By the way if she is so gung-ho about giving out endorsements in Alaska, then where is Dan Sullivan's?

No, she knows exactly what she is doing.

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Courtesy of Religion News:

If you’re dismayed that one in five Americans (20 percent) are “nones” — people who claim no particular religious identity — brace yourself.

How does 38 percent sound?

That’s what religion researcher David Kinnaman calculates when he adds “the unchurched, the never-churched and the skeptics” to the nones.

He calls his new category “churchless,” the same title Kinnaman has given his new book. By his count, roughly four in 10 people living in the continental United States are actually “post-Christian” and “essentially secular in belief and practice.”

If asked, the “churchless” would likely check the “Christian” box on a survey, even though they may not have darkened the door of a church in years.

Kinnaman, president of the California-based Barna Group, slides them into this new category based on 15 measures of identity, belief and practice in more than 23,000 interviews in 20 surveys.

The research looked at church worship attendance and participation, views about the Bible, God and Jesus, and more to see whether folks were actually tied to Christian life in a meaningful way or tied more by habit or personal history.

Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research, once called nominals — people attached by name only — “survey Christians.” They don’t want to cut ties with their parents or go all the way to atheism, Stetzer said, “so they just say ‘Christian’ since it is the default category from their heritage.”

I think these findings probably reflect what most of us see in our own lives.

I have met numerous self described Christians who have not attended church services for years, or who only show up for holiday celebrations like Christmas or Easter.

Many of those people also have a perfunctory understanding of the Bible, and embrace few, if any, of the doctrines of Christianity.

I personally believe that a number of these people are actually agnostic of atheist but lack the courage to come out of the closet if you will and risk attracting the wrath or disappointed of family and friends.

That is why it is so important in my opinion to remove the stigma attached to atheism so that people will feel more comfortable in allowing people to accept them for who they truly are.

Heathen scum who hate Jesus. (Sorry couldn't resist.)

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So I don't usually link to the Onion because when dealing with some of the things I write about you really have to struggle to define the line between reality and parody.

However yesterday I saw this amazing faux description of what the TLC producers should be doing in response to the loss of one of their biggest stars.

Take a look:

Saying that he didn’t “give two shits” if they had to knock on the door of every trailer and halfway house in the country, TLC producer and programming director Mark Livingston reportedly told his staffers Friday that he expects to see a list of at least 100 fucked-up families on his desk by the end of the workday. “We’re up shit creek right now, so I need each one of you assholes rooting through every gutter in the goddamn Ozarks to find me a household of inbreds, addicts, or fat-as-fuck morons that we can put in primetime,” a visibly aggravated Livingston said to his staff following the cancellation of the network’s popular Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, stressing that the new families had better be “borderline brain-dead” and “messed up as all fuck.” “If they have 20 dipshit kids, that’s great. If they only have one greasy dimwit kid who can barely string a sentence together, that’ll work too. Hell, you get me some snarl-toothed family of backwoods idiots who all call their dad Papa Pig or some shit like that, and I’ll sign them immediately. Just find me some family of sewer people I can throw in front of the goddamn camera, got it?” At press time, Livingston was angrily telling his staffers that they could all find a new job wiping asses at the Disney Channel if they brought him one more suggestion for a morbidly obese teen mother.

Okay I'm sorry, I know they might think this is a joke but c'mon we all know who they are describing, right?

And it's not like they have not worked with them before, so they will not have to struggle to learn all of their bizarre names or anything.

And NOW they are even a better fit for TLC now that they have taken to crashing parties and attacking the hosts.

I mean come on, the scripts for the unscripted reality show almost write themselves.

One episode could be all about Track ripping off various articles of clothing before he gets his ass beat by a bunch of "little bitches,"

And another could focus on a highly intoxicated Bristol telling the TLC camera crew about being sexually assaulted by imaginary men, or possibly aliens, and them stealing her expensive accessories. As well as possibly probing her.

Another episode would feature Willow demonstrating her incredible expletive filled vocabulary. "Did you know there are like a hundred and ninety five different variations on saying 'fuck you' to somebody?"

And of course Sarah herself will yelling "Don't film that," and "Stop cussing Track," and of course "I'll buy the film from your camera."


Yep I think it is meant to be.

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Eric Liu founder of Citizen University and a former speechwriter for President Clinton, has written a rather compelling article on CNN concerning the 2nd Amendment, school shootings, and Open Carry advocates.

Here are some of the highlights:

A child was killed Friday because that child went to school.

The shooting Friday at a high school in Marysville, Washington -- just miles from my home in Seattle -- is a tragedy on two levels. First, most profoundly, two people are dead, four others wounded, and the parents, relatives, friends, teachers and classmates of the shooter and his victims have had their lives grievously changed.

But this is not the first school shooting in America this year. It is the 50th. It is the 87th since Sandy Hook, according to data compiled by the gun reform group Everytown For Safety. The other tragedy, then, is that gun violence -- in schools, in workplaces and across our communities -- has become virtually normal in America.

It should not be. It cannot be. It is not normal, in a civilized nation, to have over 30,000 gun deaths a year. It is not normal, in a civilized nation, to expect educators and parents and first responders to have plans at the ready for a shooting at their school. It is not normal, in a civilized nation, to assert that the best solution to gun violence is for more people to have more access to more guns.

Liu goes on to discuss the epidemic of gun violence in this country and how simple laws such as mandatory background checks could have a significant impact on the number of people killed each year and that a growing number of Americans are starting to see that.

However it was his description of the Open Carry advocates that really caught my eye:

When middle-aged "open-carry" activists walk into Kroger with semi-automatic rifles slung over their shoulders, they aren't exercising their rights with an ethic of responsibility. They're trying to intimidate their way to respect and esteem. They're acting out, demanding attention and rejecting curbs on their desires. That's not being a citizen. It's being a toddler.

We the people get to decide whether that's normal. Whether it's acceptable or laughable to brandish firearms in the produce aisle. Whether it's tolerable or disgraceful that we average more than one school shooting a week now. Laws like background checks can help set a tone for what's OK. But ultimately, with our family and friends and neighbors, each one of us must decide what kind of civilization we expect in the United States.

In my opinion that is not only well written but it is also spot on in identifying the fact that Americans now accept as normal behaviors, and policies, that are in fact teetering on the edge of lunacy.

The idea that we should all be armed, and that the solution to dangerous people having guns is to make sure that supposedly non-dangerous people have guns as well, is madness.

And yet thanks to the NRA and Ammosexuals that has now become a normal, and widely accepted, way to view life in America.

This has to stop, and it has to stop now.

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Okay hang on, don't get cocky.

Courtesy of TPM:

An Anchorage polling firm is giving Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK) an unexpectedly huge lead in his re-election bid less than two weeks before Election Day and with early voting underway.

Hellenthal and Associates shows Begich up 10 points over Republican challenger Dan Sullivan, 49 percent to 39 percent. It is by far the biggest lead that Begich has seen and runs counter to most public polling, which has shown Sullivan with a consistent advantage since mid-September.

Another poll released Friday and sponsored by Democratic PAC's supporting Begich showed the race tied at 44 percent.

The Hellenthal and Associates poll, conducted Oct 15 to 21, surveyed 403 likely voters. Its margin of error is 4.9 points.

I am having a hard time trusting the polls right now. Partly because I have stopped participating in them, and I know I am not alone.

It is no exaggeration to say that I get between four and five phone calls a day asking that I participate in a poll, or giving me unsolicited information on the candidates or issues.

I have also had at least five visits from the unions asking me if I am going to support Begich. Which I point out they should already know as illustrated by the fact that I have a Mark Begich sign on my front lawn.

However I will tell you something that I firmy feel to be true and that is that the glut of anti-Begich ads that pop up EVERY SINGLE time that you try to watch a YouTube or Hulu video is turning people against Dan Sullivan in a big way.

The overkill is absolutely incredible, and there is no escaping it since trying to watch television or listen to the radio also exposes you to yet another series of never ending attacks on Mark Begich, many of them filled with completely false statements that many Alaskans know are bullshit.

What I keep telling everybody is that a vote against this guy is a vote against attempts to buy local elections by outside corporations. And that if we allow Sullivan to win we can expect all of this to escalate even more in the years to come.

And not just in Alaska. If this formula works here, these billionaires have no reason to think it will not work EVERYWHERE.

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So Chez Pazienzaof the Daily Banter finally decided to compare the Palin family to their equally famous reality show doppelgangers the "Honey Boo Boo" clan. (They probably have a last name but I simply don't care enough to look it up.)

Anyhow apparently the "Honey Boo Boo" show was recently cancelled after "Mama June" started dating a convicted child molester. Which is kind of a surprise to me since I thought they were probably ALL child molesters.

Well anyhow Pazienzaof (A name I have to cut and paste to get right.) makes the following, fairly obvious, point:

Boo Boo. I bring this up because the white trash drama of the Honey Boo Boo clan segues quite nicely into the latest developments in the ongoing saga of the Palin family’s big drunken brawl, which happened at a party back in September. Family matriarch and incurable social disease Sarah Palin is finally breaking her silence about the whole thing, taking to her overworked Facebook page to both defend herself and her kinfolk and to, of course, slam the media for mocking them instead of taking seriously what was a “humiliating” experience for the entire family.

The author then links to the Facebook post by Palin condemning the media for reporting on her family's drunken behavior.

For those who may have forgotten:

I understand that the CNN host who laughed at my daughter describing her assault has issued an apology to Politico. (Why Politico needs an apology is anyone’s guess. No one at CNN contacted my family regarding an apology, in case you were wondering. CNN contacts us directly on a regular basis with inquiries and requests for comment, so it’s not for lack of contact information that they didn't reach out. But perhaps Carol Costello should phone Martin Bashir. He knows how to reach us.)

What happened on the night in question wasn’t funny. It was humiliating and frightening. The broken ribs, black eyes, and messed up elbows and knees suffered by people in our party that night were no laughing matter. Neither were Bristol’s bruises on her arms and leg from being dragged by a man. My kids aren’t proud of what happened, nor are they seeking sympathy by playing the victim card – that’s why they haven’t commented on this for all these weeks. Instead, they had to have faith that the truth would come out, despite those who did the cold-cocking actually using social media to brag, “’bout to get famous!” Screen shots of tweets captured their bold intentions, and they’ve certainly enjoyed the publicity.

Looking at the reports, it strikes me as bitterly ironic that the same people who tell us there is a “war on women” have no problem laughing at the recording of my daughter crying as she tells police about being assaulted by a man. I’d like to say shame on the media and those on the left laughing at her or at any young woman in a similar situation, but I no longer think they have any shame.

Now Todd and I are headed to an exciting middle school girl’s basketball game along with dozens of other families proud to cheer on their daughters.

- Sarah Palin

Pazienzaof continues:

Families bring with them unexpected issues, sometimes embarrassing ones. But most people’s families — particularly families in a position to represent in some small way the United States of America — don’t get into wild drunk melees at parties. Most families don’t ride around places like Alaska in garish Hummer limos because they think it’s an awesome way to show off. Most families don’t rant about “faggots” on Facebook. Most families aren’t recorded after wild drunk party melees calling somebody “a little pussy” and using the word “gay” in a derogatory manner. But the Palins do. They do all that shit and more. Because they’re not the family of a former elected leader and ex-candidate for Vice President of the United States — they’re a reality show family. They’re a finer-coiffed version of Mama June, Sugar Bear and Honey Boo Boo with delusions of both grandeur and unpretentiousness at the same time.

They’re a living, breathing punchline and a national embarrassment — and there’s no reason to treat them as anything more.

Very well said.

And Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo makes essentially the same point:

So no. Bristol is not a battered woman. She is a battering woman, which may give her some claim to being a feminist icon, as she suggests. I don't blame or care if the Palins are defending themselves or making up stories or doing whatever else. That's just the drama and involuntary performance art that makes up their public lives. But their dead-ender defenders need to accept that if you're a public figure, a recent candidate for national office, and you crash a party drunk and the fists start flying and the police have to show up to sort everything out, people may end up hovering over the details and getting a chuckle out of it. That's life.

I think it is important that all of us support the journalists who are not buying into the Palin victim hood meme, and leave comments on the sites they write for in support of their logic and ethics.

I also support going to the places where they are buying into all of this like horny conservative bidders at an auction for Palin's crusty panties, and leave comments correcting their ignorance.

However on that last one you will really only get so far as, at least at Breitbart, since they may delete your comment almost as fast as you make it.

P.S. I have it on pretty good authority that there is another shoe yet to drop and this one will certainly NOT support the Palin's version of events.

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Author Chris Mooney has written a book entitled "The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Don't Believe in Science."

In it the author explains the findings of seven different studies and what they tell us about how viewers of Fox News think or, more often than not, choose not to think.

Here Alternet offers a description of the book's findings:

In June of 2011, Jon Stewart went on air with Fox News’ Chris Wallace and started a major media controversy over the channel’s misinforming of its viewers. “Who are the most consistently misinformed media viewers?” Stewart asked Wallace. “The most consistently misinformed? Fox, Fox viewers, consistently, every poll.”

Stewart’s statement was factually accurate, as we’ll see. The next day, however, the fact-checking site PolitiFact weighed in and rated it “false.”In claiming to check Stewart’s “facts,” PolitiFact ironically committed a serious error—and later, doubly ironically, failed to correct it. How’s that for the power of fact checking?

There probably is a small group of media consumers out there somewhere in the world who are more misinformed, overall, than Fox News viewers. But if you only consider mainstream U.S. television news outlets with major audiences (e.g., numbering in the millions), it really is true that Fox viewers are the most misled based on all the available evidence—especially in areas of political controversy. This will come as little surprise to liberals, perhaps, but the evidence for it—evidence in Stewart’s favor—is pretty overwhelming.

the article then goes on to itemize and evaluate the studies that Mooney used in his book.

I will spare you all of that, though if you are interested I invite you to click the Alternet link or purchase the book, and will instead offer you the article's summation:

In summary, then, the “science” of Fox News clearly shows that its viewers are more misinformed than the viewers of other stations, and are indeed this way for ideological reasons. But these are not necessarily the reasons that liberals may assume. Instead, the Fox “effect” probably occurs both because the station churns out falsehoods that conservatives readily accept—falsehoods that may even seem convincing to some liberals on occasion—but also because conservatives are overwhelmingly inclined to choose to watch Fox to begin with.

At the same time, it’s important to note that they’re also disinclined to watch anything else. Fox keeps constantly in their minds the idea that the rest of the media are “biased” against them, and conservatives duly respond by saying other media aren’t worth watching—it’s just a pack of lies. According to Public Policy Polling’s annual TV News Trust Poll (the 2011 run), 72 percent of conservatives say they trust Fox News, but they also say they strongly distrust NBC, ABC, CBS and CNN. Liberals and moderates, in contrast, trust all of these outlets more than they distrust them (though they distrust Fox). This, too, suggests conservative selective exposure.

And there is an even more telling study of “Fox-only” behavior among conservatives, from Stanford’s Shanto Iyengar and Kyu Hahn of Yonsei University, in Seoul, South Korea. They conducted a classic left-right selective exposure study, giving members of different ideological groups the chance to choose stories from a news stream that provided them with a headline and a news source logo—Fox, CNN, NPR, and the BBC—but nothing else. The experiment was manipulated so that the same headline and story was randomly attributed to different news sources. The result was that Democrats and liberals were definitely less inclined to choose Fox than other sources, but spread their interest across the other outlets when it came to news. But Republicans and conservatives overwhelmingly chose Fox for hard news and even for soft news, and ignored other sources. “The probability that a Republican would select a CNN or NPR report was around 10%,” wrote the authors.

In other words Fox News is both deceiver and enabler simultaneously. First, its existence creates the opportunity for conservatives to exercise their biases, by selecting into the Fox information stream, and also by imbibing Fox-style arguments and claims that can then fuel biased reasoning about politics, science, and whatever else comes up.

But at the same time, it’s also likely that conservatives, tending to be more closed-minded and more authoritarian, have a stronger emotional need for an outlet like Fox, where they can find affirmation and escape from the belief challenges constantly presented by the “liberal media.” Their psychological need for something affirmative is probably stronger than what’s encountered on the opposite side of the aisle—as is their revulsion towards allegedly liberal (but really centrist) media outlets.

And thus we find, at the root of our political dysfunction, a classic nurture-nature mélange. The penchant for selective exposure is rooted in our psychology and our brains. Closed-mindedness and authoritarianism—running stronger in some of us than in others—likely are as well.

But nevertheless, it took the emergence of a station like Fox News before these tendencies could be fully activated—polarizing America not only over politics, but over reality itself.

I think understanding what is laid out in this article, and book, is vitally important as we move forward in this country.

Simply put Fox News has been incredibly, and possibly irrevocably, damaging to our politics, our ability to seek compromise, and the future of this nation.

If ever there were a clearer case of blatant treason I have certainly never seen it.

It is damaging the psyche of our citizens in ways that may have long term, and potentially devastating, effects on generations to come.

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Alaska honey bucket. No, there is nothing sweet about this.

Courtesy of ABC News:

A remote Alaska Native village where only half the homes have indoor plumbing is among rural communities nationwide that will receive upgrades to rural water and wastewater systems with $352 million in grants and loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is scheduled to announce the funding Thursday at a convention of Alaska Natives in Anchorage.

In a telephone interview Tuesday, Vilsack told The Associated Press that ultimately, the future goal is to bring the entire nation into the modern world.

"It's really designed to make sure people live in communities and in areas that provide the basic protections and the guarantee of basic protections that we all, as Americans, ought to have," he said. "It's an adequate supply of quality water. It's the ability to treat sewage properly so that it doesn't to harm or damage to the environment."

This may seem almost impossible to believe for those living in the lower 48, and actually those of us in Alaska cities often forget about ti as well, but there are thousands of residents who have to carry their own waste to a dump site for disposal, rather than simply pulling a lever like most people in the modern world.

Not too long ago I worked with a client from a very small village in Western Alaska who had never been out of his community before.

He was taken from his village after an incident and transported to a mental health facility in Anchorage. It was the first time he had flown on a plane, or ridden in a car, but those two things did not freak him out as much as indoor plumbing did.

After check in one of the doctors noticed that he was hopping around and realized that boy, who did not yet speak hardly any English, had to use the facilities.

He was taken into a room, which completely confused him as his family went out of doors to relieve themselves, and was encourage by male staff to pee into the toilet bowl.

Finally unable to hold it, he did just that. However when the toilet was flushed he became terrified and ran out of the room and almost out the front door of the building in terror.

So yes, this would be an incredibly huge deal for rural Alaskans.

Oh and by the way. These are the kinds of things that happen under Democratic administrations. And the kinds of things facilitated by Democratic Senators.

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