World News Korner

ANNOUNCER: Meet Rachel. She’s a NEWS ANCHOR with a big personality. She’s smart, funny and passionate. But we’re about to find out what happens when she gets serious:

RACHEL MADDOW: This is a story of legitimate wrongdoing on a big scale.

MADDOW: Nope, that’s made up. Not true.

MADDOW: If we’re not going to ask these questions now then when exactly are we going to ask them?

ANNOUNCER: From MSNBC, The Rachel Maddow Show, weeknight’s at 9.

Okay so that's the promo, which I like, but I have to admit the change of title did not even catch my attention.

Did it catch yours?

Well it certainly caught the attention of some people:

You won’t likely see MSNBC host Rachel Maddow filling in for Brian Williams on “NBC Nightly News.” While Maddow is usually described as the “host” of a cable news show, she is rarely called a “news anchor.” Her own NBC bio describes her as a “host”–and never even uses the word “journalist.”

So it’s worth noting that a new MSNBC promo flips the script, describing Maddow as a “news anchor with a big personality. She’s smart, funny and passionate.” Conservative critics immediately jumped on the promo, noting that previous “Lean Forward” promos for MSNBC included hosts like Maddow talking about their passion for progressive issues. “Given the MSNBC host’s long track record of pushing her agenda it’s hard to imagine anyone seriously considering Rachel Maddow anything more than a liberal commentator with a cable news show,” writes Jeffrey Meyer at NewsBusters.

You know I would agree that Rachel is a liberal, I think that it obvious to everybody.

However if she has an "agenda" it is that facts are important, and that they, not political agendas, should determine if a story is newsworthy or not.

It is not her fault that facts tend to have a liberal bias.

Whenever I am asked by anyone who is the most trusted voice on any topic in the news I do not even hesitate to say "Rachel Maddow." I have a lot of respect for Lawrence O'Donnell, and many others on MSNBC, but my go to host, I'm sorry news anchor, is ALWAYS Rachel.

Some have even compared her to the great Edward R. Murrow, and I think that is a perfectly reasonable and appropriate comparison.

There are those who want to argue that MSNBC's low ratings indicate that none of the hosts are terribly impressive, but I would say that is mostly the fault of marketing and has nothing to do with Rachel's reporting.

In my personal opinion Rachel Maddow is the most trusted voice in news today. And I think it is high time she is recognized for that.

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"Christian women's group opposes building of women's history museum." Yep you read that right.

Here is the story:

The Christian group Concerned Women for America (CWA) has been trying to stop the construction of the National Women’s History Museum in Washington D.C.

The House approved the museum in a 383-33 vote earlier this year, but a similar bill has been blocked in the Senate by Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), noted the New York Daily News.

“Whose view of history is this going to be?” Penny Nance, CEO of CWA, told The Daily Caller earlier this year.

Concerned Women of America CEO Penny Nance.

Nance claimed that the museum would espouse pro-choice, anti-marriage and anti-family positions.

Incredibly enough the museum sponsors even offered Nance a chance to participate in the museum's direction. Guess how that went:

However, conservative Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), who sponsored the museum bill in the House, denied Nance's claims were true and even offered Nance a seat on the museum commission.

Nance called the offer an "exercise in futility and frustration" because it wasn't the chairman position.

“I am happy to either serve or find someone else to serve as chairman,” stated Nance.

Yes why wouldn't you put a person, who clearly has no concept of the struggles that women have undertaken to provide her the opportunity to participate in the the founding of a museum in their honor, the chairmanship?

Now you might find the idea of a women's group, ANY women's group, opposed to the building of a museum honoring women to be almost impossible to rationalize.

But that is because you do not yet realize that Concerned Women for America is not REALLY so much a women's group as it is a conservative group promoting Christianity, carefully hidden behind women's skirts.

In fact on their list of top issues are :

Sanctity of Life
Defense of Family
Religious Liberty
National Soveregnty
And of course Defense of Israel.

Somehow I do not think that these issues were among the top priorities for the women who fought for the right to vote, or own property, or hold elected office in this country.

Here is CWA's Mission Statement:

The mission of CWA is to protect and promote Biblical values among all citizens — first through prayer, then education, and finally by influencing our society — thereby reversing the decline in moral values in our nation.

Oh yeah, SO pro-women don't you think?

In fact it seems to me that this is really just the same anti-women, Christian misogynistic group, railing against the feminists, that we have seen for years now.

Only this one wears lipstick and nail polish.

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Speaking of Comedy Central pundits, this month is the Colbert Report's last month on the air.

It's finally episode will air on December 18th.

So Colbert is really pulling out all of the stops and will broadcast from Washington D.C. on Monday. His guest will be a certain President of the United States, which I think indicates the kinds of people who are fans of the show.

These two shows have often served as an oasis of sanity during incredibly divisive times, and I for one will be incredibly sad to see one of them coming to an end.

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Courtesy of Bristol's Facebook page.

So Brancy put up a new post yesterday about how the whole impeachment of President Obama that some Right Wing nutjobs are promoting was all her mama's idea:

A lot of people disagreed at first, saying it was too risky. But now more and more are seeing that Mom was right.

President Obama ignores court orders, makes up his own laws, and pretends laws he doesn’t like don’t exist. That’s pretty much the opposite of the President’s job description.

And now he’s gone and declared his own immigration policy that Americans clearly said they don’t want.

After his latest action, Fox News, Sean Hannity, and Chris Wallace started talking about impeachment. Mark Levin says he deserves it. And now Congress members are bringing it up.

Yes there are some fringe Republicans, conservative radio talk show hosts, and politicians desperate to get attention, talking about impeachment. However both Mitch McConnell and John Boehner have said there is no way they are allowing a vote like that to come to the floor.

And that is because on some level they realize that impeaching this President would be the best thing they could possibly do for his legacy.

Just think he would be the second Democratic President impeached by the Republicans IN A ROW!

There is no way that comes off looking good to the American voters.

However that rather obvious fact is a little too complicated for Snowdrift Snooki and her little snowflake. This is how Nancy French closed out the post for Bristol and her mom:

When the president gets out of control, impeachment is how the people can pull him back. Mom says making the case is the easy part — what’s hard is having the guts, courage and political will to do it.

All I have to say is PLEASE MAKE HIS HAPPEN!

If there were a way to make the Republicans waste the next two years fighting to impeach this President it would be a godsend to the Democrats, whose campaign ads would write themselves, and who would use the anger and frustration of the American people to take back not only the Senate, but very likely the House as well.

And if Bristol and Sarah somehow convince the country that it actually WAS the Wasilla Wendigo who first promoted this idea, which I don't think it was, then it is SHE who will be blamed for the benefit that it provides to the Democrats and the destruction that is visited upon the GOP in response.

But it is not going to happen. And that is because virtually all of the people in Washington are significantly more intelligent than this batshit crazy reality actress and her idiotic daughter.

(H/T to Wonkette.)

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Courtesy of Think Progress:

Moments after the decision was announced, Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson expressed her deep concern about the outcome. Not concern that the police killed Garner, who was allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes, without facing legal repercussions. But concern that anger over the decision could impact a “the tree lighting ceremony” scheduled for that evening at Rockefeller Center.

Sadly for Carlson her worst fears were realized.

The mayor’s appearance tonight at the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting has been canceled.
— Mike Grynbaum (@grynbaum) December 3, 2014

Yeah it really sucks when the unnecessary death of a black man, and a miscarriage of justice, screws up people's holiday plans.

And coming in a close second in tone deafness is potential 2016 presidential candidate Rand Paul, who blamed the whole thing on taxes. That's right taxes:

Well you know I think it’s hard not to watch that video of him saying ‘I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe’ and not be horrified by it. But I think there’s something bigger than the individual circumstances. Obviously, the individual circumstances are important. But I think it is also important to know that some politician put a tax of $5.85 on a pack of cigarettes so that driven cigarettes underground by making them so expensive. But then some politician also had to direct the police to say, ‘hey we want you arresting people for selling a loose cigarette.’ And for someone to die over breaking that law, there really is no excuse for it. But I do blame the politicians. We put our police in a difficult situation with bad laws.

Well so much for Rand Paul's attempt to court the African American vote.

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Courtesy of Poco-not-hot's Facebook:

Soooo, our Thanksgiving setting may be unconventional for those who spend time worrying about children spilling juice on the pretty carpets, sticky fingerprints on the good China, and gravy stains on the fine linen, but it's just right for those who want a few less worries when family gets together. Before that scrumptious holiday meal in the makeshift dining hall and a couple wild rounds of Eskimo Bingo in our dressed up workshop where no one worries about spills on the concrete (I just hose it down after dinner, literally).

In other words they eat like farm animals and dammit Sarah Palin wants you to know that's okay.

Why she wants us to know that I have no idea. I mean hell it is a week later and still she feels the need to post Thanksgiving day pictures and explain her redneck lifestyle.


In my opinion that is undoubtedly because she read comments over here giving her crap over the tacky decorations, cheap furniture, and those god awful boots on her feet.

Palin also links to Bristol's blog as an excuse for this post, but she's not fooling anybody.

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Courtesy of Raw Story:

Earlier this year, Carson had told the conservative news outlet Breitbart that the U.S. was “very much like Nazi Germany” because President Barack Obama was using the government to “intimidate the population.”

“What I heard the comparison of the United States of America — the greatest country in the world, the greatest country ever — to Nazi Germany, I said, what is he talking about?” Blitzer told Carson on Wednesday.

“See, what you were doing is allowing words to affect you more than listening to what was actually being said,” Carson insisted. “Nazi Germany experienced something horrible. The people in Nazi Germany largely did not believe in what Hitler was doing, but did they say anything? Of course not. They kept their mouths shut.”

“The fact that our government is using instruments of government like the IRS to punish its opponents, this is not the kind of thing, as far as I’m concerned, that is a Democrat or Republican issue. This is an American issue. This is an issue that threatens all of our liberty, all or our freedom.”

Blitzer, however, wasn’t satisfied: “But to make the comparison, Dr. Carson, to Nazi Germany, the slaughter of six million Jews by the Nazis, the devastation that erupted in Europe and around the world to the United States of America, I want you to reflect on what that means.”

“Well, again, you are just focusing on the words Nazi Germany and completely missing the point,” Carson replied. “And that’s the problem right now, that’s what PC-ism is all about: You may not say this word regardless of what your point is because if you say that word, you know, I go into a tizzy. We can do better than that.”

“We need to get to the point where we can look beyond the word, and look for the meaning,” he said, adding that he had no intention of revising his remarks.

Yes dammit, stop focusing on the actual words that Ben Carson is saying and try to instead derive the meaning of what he would have said if he had used entirely different words.

How hard is that?

By the way this is the guy that is currently leading the polls as a potential Republican presidential candidate if Mitt Romney's wife refuses to let him run again.

Of course that is all bullshit because I think that we all know that sometime before 2016 the conservatives are going to realize that he is black. And you may not have heard but they REALLY don't like black people.

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You know we rely on Jon Stewart, and Stephen Colbert, to find the humor in situations that seem to defy laughter.

However during last night's show Stewart's reaction was really the ONLY reaction that we could have expected him, or anybody, to have in response to this incomprehensible news.

Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Victor White III, Eric Garner, after awhile it is simply too much to take anymore.

Finally white America has discovered something about itself that minorities have known all along. And they don't like it.



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Courtesy of Raw Story:

A Texas school board member is facing disciplinary action over his racist Facebook post.

Chris Harris, an elected member of the Hooks Independent School Board, posted a viral image of a Ku Klux Klan member with the caption, “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas.”

He apologized for the post after receiving negative feedback in the comments, reported KTAL-TV.

Harris said he realized the post was inappropriate and offensive, but he insisted he was not racist.

His Facebook profile no longer appears to be active, and he declined requests for additional comment.

Okay look I am trying to give this guy the benefit of the doubt, but seriously, if you are not a racist then what in the hell would possess you to post this image?

And if he thought his Facebook friends would find it funny, then doesn't that sort of mean that his friends are probably racist too?

Oh I know, he has one black friend.

They ALWAYS have one black friend.

So my question is, does your black friend know you're racist?

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Courtesy of New York Daily News:

Eric Garner’s widow reacted with shock and dismay Wednesday after a Staten Island grand jury chose not to indict the NYPD officer who killed her husband with a chokehold.

“Oh my God, are you serious?” Esaw Garner, her voice rising in shock and anger, told The Daily News. “I’m very disappointed. You can see in the video that he (the cop) was dead wrong!”

Garner was referring to the shocking cellphone video first published on NYDailyNews.com that showed Officer Daniel Pantaleo placing Garner in a chokehold — a move banned by the NYPD — and wrestling him to the ground.

“The grand jury kept interviewing witnesses but you didn't need witnesses,” the anguished widow said. “You can be a witness for yourself. Oh my God, this s--- is crazy.”

Esaw Garner said she is now placing her hopes for justice with the U.S. Department of Justice. (A few minutes ago Attorney General Eric Holder said that there would definitely be an investigation.)


That man did nothing to put those police officers in danger and yet they felt it necessary to swarm him and take him down to the ground. Everybody knows that a man that size is going to have trouble breathing while on his stomach, ESPECIALLY with a bunch of cops on his back.

And this man was not robbing anybody or pushing around some convenience store owner, according to witnesses he was breaking up a fight. (Though police also say he was selling illegal cigarettes.)

Please somebody tell me again how we have to accept that the Grand Jury decision must be trusted and that we have no right to second guess them.

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Courtesy of NBC News:

A 55-year-old woman sued comedian Bill Cosby on Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court claiming sexual battery and infliction of emotional distress for allegedly molesting her in a bedroom at the Playboy Mansion when she was 15 years old.

According to the complaint, Judy Huth and a friend, who was 16 at the time, met Cosby at an outdoor film set at Lacy Park in Los Angeles County in 1974 and accepted an invitation to socialize with him at a tennis club the following week. When they got together, the lawsuit alleges, they played billiards and Cosby served them alcoholic beverages.

"Under the terms of Cosby's game, plaintiff was required to consume a beer every time Cosby won a game," the suit alleges. After the two girls consumed "multiple alcoholic beverages," Cosby allegedly told them he had a surprise for them "and led them to another house which turned out to be the Playboy Mansion."

He told the girls they should say they were 19 if they were asked, according to the lawsuit.

While at the mansion, Huth said she needed to use the bathroom. Cosby, who was 37 at the time, allegedly showed her to a bathroom inside a bedroom suite near the mansion's game room.

"When Plaintiff emerged from the bathroom, she found COSBY sitting on the bed," the suit states. "He asked her to sit beside him. He then proceeded to sexually molest her by attempting to put his hand down her pants, and then taking her hand in his hand and performing a sex act on himself without her consent."

It is hard at this point to give Cosby the benefit of any doubt, but we all know that sometimes people smell opportunity and pile on with fake lawsuits when they see the chance of an easy payoff from a famous person under media scrutiny for bad behaviors.

I am certainly not suggesting that this woman falls into that category, I am simply suggesting that from this point forward all new allegations should be scrutinized aggressively.

However it should also be noted that these allegation match those made by well over a dozen women already, and that many of Cosby's accusers were also teenagers at the time of the alleged attack.

At this point I am not even sure it matters how many more women come out of the shadows to point the finger at the former Cliff Huxtable. His reputation is already sullied beyond repair and his legacy is now one of sexual predator instead of perennial father figure.

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Stuart Varney, the guy with the British accent that Roger Ailes hired to class up Fox News (Yeah good luck with that!), had Palin on today to discuss Christmas, Russia, energy, and other things that she know absolutely nothing about.

Somebody sent me a link so I listened to it and for the most part found nothing but the same old incomprehensible word salad that we have come to expect from the Queen of Non Sequiturs. (Varney asks her a question about Russia but her answer is so convoluted that I simply cannot bring myself to attempt a transcript.)

But then Varney asked Palin to explain why the President does not want to open federal lands in order to drill them full of holes to get more oil.

"Our President has absolutely no clue about what that inherent link between energy and sovereignty, energy and security and prosperity is, because he has no experience, I think, in the real world, or even in the corporate world, and understanding how energy is so extremely important for our economy and for our security, So that being said, that our President is clueless about all this, you would thing though that the Democrats, especially from oil producing states would be able to influence Democrat leadership, like our President, and help explain to him that we could take away Putin's power. We could take away the threats from some of these emerging economies to, who are using..um..energy as a weapon, as a weapon against us, and like you say you take that away by being sovereign and secure in your own energy security, your own energy independence. You do that by drilling domestically and when you hear President Obama spew this BS about what he has done to increase domestic supplies of energy, remember it is BS. Because on federal lands he still locks it up, he still wants it locked up."

Holy shit, there is not enough dressing in the world to make that word salad palatable.

And God I hate it when this imbecile starts arguing that President Obama has no experience in the real world. THE MAN HAS BEEN PRESIDENT FOR SIX FUCKING YEARS NOW!

There is no way he could NOT have experience in the "real world." He is the fucking leader of it!

Besides Palin's contention that drilling domestically would "take away Putin's power" is just another giant load of moosenuggets.

In fact we get so little of our oil from Russia it would make literally no discernible difference if we stopped.

And in fact if Palin knew anything about what she is talking about she would know that America gets the majority of its oil from right here in North America.

And a whopping 60% of the oil we use comes from production right here in the good old US of A.

You know that is something that I would think a self identified "energy expert" might already know.

By the way the very last thing that any of us should want is for the ANY world leader to green light more oil exploration in this country or anywhere else in the world. And fortunately this President understands that the future lies in renewable energy sources and has made that a priority.

Perhaps a better use of Palin's time would be to stop making stupid videos about fake pie baking, and giving insipid interviews, and instead take a load off those spindly legs of hers and sit down to watch a little television.

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Courtesy of CNN:

The first-ever 3D-printed bust of a U.S. President -- a life-size replica of Obama -- is now on display at the Smithsonian Castle after a project that was inspired by the life masks of President Abraham Lincoln.

But unlike Lincoln, Obama didn't have to get plastered up. Instead, he took a seat as 50 LED lights, eight high-resolution sports cameras and six wide-angle cameras sparked off for about a second.

"This isn't an artistic likeness of the President, this is actually millions upon millions of measurements that create a 3D likeness of the President," 3D digitization program officer at the Smithsonian Adam Metallo says in a White House video released Tuesday.

So cool!

Now why do I have the inescapable feeling that this will freak out the Right Wing for some reason?

It will undoubtedly make creating decoys for him that can show up at events while he is plotting to overthrow the world that much easier I suppose.

Oops did I type that out loud?

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Courtesy of Salon:

A federal judge on Tuesday denied Glenn Beck’s request to dismiss a libel lawsuit that accuses the conservative talking head of defaming a Saudi man Beck falsely accused of funding the Boston Marathon bombing last year.

As Josh Gerstein explains, Beck sought to have the lawsuit tossed out on the grounds that Abdulrahman Alharbi, the man who brought the suit, was a public figure because of his presence near the finish line of the marathon, where two bombs exploded, killing three people. As a public figure, Alharbi would have had to clear a difficult hurdle in order for the lawsuit to proceed, proving that Beck intentionally lied or acted with malice in making the accusations.

But in ruling that the lawsuit could move forward, U.S. District Judge Patti Saris rejected the argument that the mere act of attending the event made Alharbi a public figure.

“Choosing to attend a sporting event as one of thousands of spectators is not the kind of conduct that a reasonable person would expect to result in publicity,” she wrote. “Quite to the contrary, a spectator at an event like the Boston Marathon would reasonably expect to disappear into the throngs of others, never attracting notice by the press. Because he did not ‘assume the risk of publicity,’ Alharbi does not meet the definition of an involuntary public figure.”

Of course the argument could also be made that Beck essentially MADE Alharbi a public figure when he plucked him from obscurity and essentially blamed him for the terrorist attack.

For those who may not remember Beck claimed to have information from a government source and proceeded to completely manufacture a relationship between the innocent bystander and the Tsarnaev brothers:

The broadcaster eventually called Alharbi an al-Qaeda “control agent” and the “money man” behind the attacks. “You know who the Saudi is?” Beck asked. “He’s the money man. He’s the guy who paid for it.”

“Is this speculation or are you reporting something?” a co-host asked.

Beck ignored the question. “He’s the money man.”

I hope this Alharbi guy takes Beck for millions.

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Courtesy of Right Wing Watch:

In a conference call with members of right-wing pastor E.W. Jackson’s STAND America that was posted online today, former senator Rick Santorum disputed the existence of the separation of church and state in the U.S. Constitution, dismissing it as a Communist idea that has no place in America.

A listener on the call told Santorum that “a number of the things that the far left, a.k.a. the Democrat [sic] Party, and the president is pushing for and accomplishing actually accomplishes a number of the tenets of ‘The Communist Manifesto,’ including the amnesty, the elevation of pornography, homosexuality, gay marriage, voter fraud, open borders, mass self-importation of illegal immigrants and things of that nature.” The likely presidential candidate replied that “the words ‘separation of church and state’ is not in the U.S. Constitution, but it was in the constitution of the former Soviet Union. That’s where it very, very comfortably sat, not in ours.”

Wow! And here I thought there were limits to how Christian revisionists could rewrite American history.

Of course as Right Wing Watch points out Thomas Jefferson himself referred to the separation of church and state in an 1802 letter:

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof", thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.

The intention of the founding fathers seems fairly clear. That is unless you are Rick Santorum of course, and you refuse to accept facts which will not support your hypothesis. Or your faith.



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Courtesy of The Hill:

Paul, a likely 2016 presidential contender, criticizes potential rival Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of State during the attacks, and vows to seek the truth about Benghazi.

"This new Benghazi ‘intelligence’ report is little more than a C.Y.A. attempt designed to protect incompetent politicians and government agents at the expense of justice for the victims of September 11, 2012," Paul writes in an op-ed for Breitbart, a conservative website, using an acronym for "cover your ass."

The report in question was issued by the House Intelligence Committee before Thanksgiving, and counters several claims made by some Republicans critical of the Obama administration's handling of the 2012 attacks that killed four Americans in Benghazi.

The report found that "there was no intelligence failure prior to the attacks," "no evidence" of a stand down order to U.S. personnel responding to the assault and no CIA operation to secretly ship arms from Benghazi to Syria.

Paul expresses skepticism at the report’s findings.

Now this is important because lately Rand Paul has been working pretty hard to portray himself as far less wingnutty than we know him to be. (Remember Paul has a fifteen year relationship with professional lunatic Alex Jones, and was once a frequent guest on his radio show.)

So for Paul to ignore the fact that this is just the latest of several investigations into Benghazi, all of which turned up no evidence of malfeasance on the part of the White House, nor any attempt to launch a coverup.

Now personally I expected certain individual to speak out against these findings, and so they have including Senator Lindsey Graham ("Full of crap!"), former Congressman Allen West, and various other Right Wing types. However I thought that Rand Paul was attempting to resist the conspiratorial whispers from the voices in his head and continue straightening his hairpiece and trying to play the grownup.

However I believe I may have given him too muhc credit. Take a look at how he justifies his reticence in accepting the findings of the report:

"None of these accusations contain even a modicum of truth?" he asked.

He points to a Fox News report that U.S. security personnel said the top CIA officer in Benghazi prevented them from responding faster, and to multiple articles on arms smuggling from Libya to Syria.

"The Obama Administration has tried to paint members of Congress who ask these questions as somehow being extreme or crazy — and perhaps the House Intelligence Committee will now follow suit," Paul writes. "But remember, this is the same administration that called the investigation into the IRS scandal a product of a 'conspiracy theory.' "

So to support his faith that there really is a Benghazi scandal, despite the fact that his has been debunked, Paul turns to the IRS "scandal," which has also been debunked.

Awesome plan.

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Courtesy of the Daily Mail:

In Wilson's now very public account of his encounter with Michael Brown and Dorian Johnson on August 9 he has claimed that he asked Brown and Wilson to move to the sidewalk rather than walk in the street.

When they walked on, Wilson has repeatedly stated, he realized they matched the description of two suspects wanted in connection with the robbery of nearby Ferguson Market. A youth matching Brown's description had stolen a box of Swishers cigarillos.

It was this realization, he stated, that caused him to reverse his vehicle and sparked the car-side confrontation that left Brown dead on the street with six bullets in his body.

But the sworn testimony of Wilson's squad supervisor directly contradicts this account.

Wilson's supervisor was the first officer to speak with the 28-year-old cop following the shooting. The men spoke before St Louis County Police had even been notified of the incident and before the medical examiner or investigating officers had arrived on the scene.

At that time, the supervisor said:'He [Wilson] did not know anything about the stealing call.'

When pressed by the attorney questioning him, the officer reiterated that Wilson, 'did not know anything'.

Asked, 'He told you he didn't know about there being a stealing at Ferguson Market?'

The officer responded, 'Correct.'

Now this is a key fact because, number one it proves that Wilson was not responding to a person that he knew to be violent, and number two it proves that Wilson lied to the Grand Jury.

And the part that I found particularly enlightening was that in fact Wilson could NOT have known about the robbery because the call came in AFTER the shooting had already taken place.

(Update: Okay somebody asked me how I know that the robbery call came in after the shooting. In point of fact I described that poorly. What I meant to say was that it was unlikely that other officers would be looking out for Brown as the responding officer only received the call after 11:54, which is immediately after the robbery took place. He then had to drive to the convenience, conduct his interview (At which time he received a more detailed description.) Brown was shot dead at 12:01 which means that quite literally this officer was probably in the process of conducting his investigation. And as this was a low priority, unarmed, snatch and grab it is very unlikely that he called for assistance or put out an APB.)

And remember 15 witnesses said that Michael Brown was running away when Wilson started firing at him, and 16 said he had his hands up before the last bullets were fired.



I think at this point the Justice Department has no choice but to launch their own investigation.

This whole thing stinks like crazy.

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Courtesy of CNN:

Bill Cosby's long relationship with his beloved Temple University has come to an end, another effect of the scandal engulfing the once adored television star and comedian.

Cosby's Monday resignation from Temple's board of trustees, a position he held for 32 years, was first reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Cosby also attended Temple.

At least 17 women have spoken publicly accusing the comedian of sexual misconduct, and many of the women say he drugged them before he raped them. Some of the alleged attacks took place decades ago.

Cosby's attorney, Martin D. Singer, has repeatedly denied the claims. Singer said in a written statement sent to CNN that it defies common sense that "so many people would have said nothing, done nothing, and made no reports to law enforcement or asserted civil claims if they thought they had been assaulted over a span of so many years."

That last point, the one about why the women supposedly assaulted by Cosby did nothing, is the kind of point brought up by an attorney for the accused who knows EXACTLY why the women did nothing. And in fact might be himself a large part of the reason why they did nothing.

The first time that I gave in and blogged about these allegations, I admitted to all of you that the catalyst for me was the admission of Carla Ferrigno that she had also been victimized.

What I did not reveal at the time was that one of the reasons that I was hesitant to chime in was when former model Janice Dickinson seemed to jump on the bandwagon.

Dickinson as some of you may know is kind of a nutjob. She has lived a rather erratic life, which included many messy affairs, issues with substance abuse, and reality show gigs. And to be honest she has not always come off as the most believable person in the world.

However as it turns out she may be the most believable of all of Cosby's accusers. And that is because of this segment from the Howard Stern Show, where Stern plays a portion of an interview he had with Dickinson in 2006.

I am not the biggest Howard Stern fan in the world by any measure, but I think this segment really provides, not only support for Dickinson's claims, but also a window into how hard it is to accuse such a powerful figure of such despicable acts.

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The above graphic was posted on Palin's Facebook page last night along with this post:

We’re very proud of all our U.S. military forces! That includes our National Guard units, which can't be taken for granted as they're needed more than ever in these tumultuous times. When provided with good leadership, the Guard can always be counted on to complete successful missions and assignments in defense of our nation. All supporters of our military look forward to being encouraged by a President who will respect the Guard and elected officials who will prioritize budgets to strengthen all our fighting forces. Of specific concern is the ratcheting down of units, qualified personnel and equipment, and this particular issue I cite is due acknowledgement by state and national leaders, asap. I look forward to politicians' response to this, as it's coming from the guys carrying the load in the Guard.

Her ghostwriter then links to a letter sent out to various Alaskan politicians, written by former Staff Sergeant Russell Throckmorton, pleading with them to protect the Guard's Long Range Surveillance program as well as C Company which is apparently in charge.

At the end of the letter Throckmorton writes this:

C Company has a unique set of capabilities, which are essential to protecting Alaskans. Eliminating LRS could damage the belief in Alaska’s homeland defense, and be detrimental to the Guard’s recruiting and retention efforts.

If you found that you recognized the term "recruiting and retention efforts," that is undoubtedly because of the recent scandals surrounding the unit responsible for recruitment and retention.

However there appears to be no evidence that Throckmorton or C Company are in an way directly involved with that scandal. (Though Throckmorton was involved with an anti-drug program affiliated with the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race called, oddly enough, "Stay on Track." Probably just another bizarre coincidence.)

I would imagine that Palin's feigned interest in this program is solely about getting her name attached to a military interest and positioning herself as an advocate for protecting the military against the perception that President Obama plans to gut it and therefore leave America defenseless against, well according to the graphic, the Russians.

However considering the current distrust by many in the state of the Guard due to allegations of rampant incompetence as well as sexual misconduct, it would seem risky for Palin to connect her name to them at this time. Even though it offers her the somewhat vague opportunity to attack the President as well.

After all sexual misconduct and rampant incompetence seem like things from which Palin would strive extra hard to remain distant, for quite a number of reasons.

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Courtesy of the Washington Examiner:

Conservative leaders who had a hand in key Republican victories including Ronald Reagan’s presidency, the Contract with America and the birth of the Tea Party, are ganging up to oppose a Jeb Bush presidential bid, declaring him easier to beat than Bob Dole or John McCain.

“I don’t know of any conservatives who are supporting him,” said Richard Viguerie, chairman of ConservativeHQ.com.

“Jeb is a very good moderate Democrat,” added top-rated talk radio host Mark Levin. “He's very boring. He doesn't elicit excitement and energy outside a very small circle of wealthy corporatists and GOP Beltway operatives. Time to move on.”

Wow! Easier to beat than Bob Dole! That is some nasty backstabbing right there my friends.

Okay now do you want to know what measuring tool they are using to judge Jeb's suitability to be President?

The Reagan-ometer that's what:

“The objection so many Reaganites have to another Bush is because he is another Bush,” said Reagan biographer Craig Shirley. “He, too, has an alarming belief in centralized authority. From the standpoint of history, the Bush family got their start in 1980 opposing Reagan and Reaganism, as they continue to do today.”

Of course as most of us realize even Ronald Reagan could not measure up to the Conservatives deified version of his memory.


And who do these conservative leaders want instead of the easily defeated Jeb Bush? Well I thought you'd never ask:

“We just don’t trust him,” said Viguerie, who favors Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and Sens. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz.

Oh yeah, thinking that Ted Cruz, Scott Walker, or Rand Paul are more electable than Jeb Bush.

Just things batshit crazy conservatives do.

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Sadly this is not that much of a parody.

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Courtesy of the USA Today:

The government will try to reduce the "simmering distrust" between police and minority communities, President Obama said Monday, in part by issuing new rules for military-style equipment and seeking more cameras to be worn by law enforcement officers.

"This is not a problem simply of Ferguson, Missouri," Obama said after a day of meetings with local government and law enforcement officials from across the country. "This is a problem that is national."

The president announced a new task force to study best police practices, as well as tighter controls on federal money that local law enforcement agencies use to buy military-style equipment.

The goal, Obama said, is "to make sure that we're not building a militarized culture inside our local law enforcement." The Obama administration also unveiled a three-year, $263 million plan to assist community policing, including a $75 million plan for 50,000 new body cameras to be worn by officers.

The president said that community policing can help make officers and their communities "partners" in battling crime and promoting safety. "We can build confidence and we can build trust, but it's not going to happen overnight," Obama said.

Dealing with the militarization of the police and putting more body cameras on more police officers will surely have a dramatic effect. But of course there are still the systemic problems of underlying racism, a lack of respect for the communities that they serve, and a John Wayne mentality that needs to be addressed as well among many police officers in this country.

For most communities in this country there is simply no need to provide armored vehicles and military style body armor and weapons to our police. And once they have them, it will obviously make them feel like soldiers at war instead of peace keepers at home.

I think even with the President taking these steps and expressing his frustration at the events that took place in Ferguson, that too many people still see the color of his skin and simply categorize this as a "black" problem that the majority of Americans simply do not need to worry about, or take steps to deal with.

Ultimately this needs to stop being seen as a "black" problem, and needs to be seen as an "American" problem.

Only then will there be serious, and long term attempt to protect ALL Americans from brutality at the hands of the people we hire to keep us safe.

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On his blog (Oh yes, he has one too!) Bill Maher decides that though he likes the new Pope, he simply cannot condone his praise for exorcists:

Pope Francis has quickly established himself as the progressive Pope – not your father’s Holy Father. Early on, he said atheists can get into heaven. He’s expressed compassion for gays and even said that there’s a place for them in the Church. He’s affirmed the Big Bang Theory and evolution. He’s got a gambling problem he jokes about and it’s long been an open secret that he has a wife and three kids.

But every time this Pope makes me think he’s dragging the Catholic Church kicking and screaming – like an altar boy into the rectory – into the modern, rational era, he goes and kicks it old school. The latest is that he met with and affirmed the work of the International Association of Exorcists, a group of 300 practicing Catholic exorcists.

Embracing the idea that people are possessed by demons and that there are rituals to cast these demons out – that’s not just crazy, that’s Antonin Scalia crazy. I’d like to believe that Pope Francis doesn’t really believe this crap, but rather just feels he has to stay “on script.”

Like Maher I think a lot of people want to give Pope Francis the benefit of the doubt in the hopes that he is the level headed reformer that he seems to want to portray himself to be.

However that is simply impossible when you realize that the Pope still supports some of the church's most egregious dogma as well as the idea that people can literally be possessed by invisible magical creatures that exist to spread evil and torment mankind.

Here is what the Pope said back in October:

Pope Francis has told a convention of exorcists from around the world that they are doing sterling service in combating "the Devil's works", as the Catholic Church warned of a rise in Satanism and the occult.

The Pope, who frequently cites the fight against Satan in his sermons, said that exorcists needed to show "the love and welcome of the Church for those possessed by evil". By treating people who were possessed, priests could demonstrate that "the Church welcomes those suffering from the Devil's works," he said in a message to a conference organised in Rome by the International Association of Exorcists.

On an almost daily basis I interact with, and treat, individuals with behaviors that two hundred years ago would surely have seen them beaten into submission (Spare the rod, spoil the child.), locked up in a sanitarium for their entire lives, or terrorized by a religious nut who would tell them that the source of their problems lies in their lack of faith and the fact that they have allowed themselves to become a dwelling place for evil.

Today we treat with patience, medications, and behavior modifications, people who would have received the kind of treatment that even farm animals were spared hundreds of years ago.

The idea that this Pope continues to promote this superstitious nonsense rips away any facade that he is reasonable or modern in his thought process.

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I read this New York Times article this morning by Timothy Egan that is ostensibly about the disrespect shown by Elizabeth Lauten toward the First Daughters. However the article makes the case that this is the kind of disrespect the President, and his entire family, have been receiving since the day he took office.

Here. take a moment to read what he says:

We know President Obama wants a lasting deal on immigration, something to make taxes fairer, a little help from a caveman Congress on climate change. If he’s lucky, he might get some of the above. But one thing his worst opponents have never given him, and probably never will, is respect. R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

From the day he took office, his legitimacy has been challenged, his American birth has been suspect, and he’s been personally insulted, lectured, yelled at and disrespected in public, by public figures, in a way that few if any American presidents have ever faced.

At this point Egan discusses the Lauten incident, which I think we all know quite a bit about so I will leave that out and instead share what he says a few paragraphs down:

I want to believe this is not about race, but it sure looks that way. Barely nine months into his presidency, a Republican congressman, Joe Wilson, shouted out “You lie!” at the president in the decorous setting of a joint session of Congress — a flagrant show of disrespect for the man and the office. For this, Wilson became a hero in conservative media.

The biggest slap at the president was the smear about his birth. It’s insulting and humiliating that Obama — alone among presidents — has been forced to release his long-form birth record to satisfy a clutch of fact-deniers. Leading the attack on the president’s very citizenship is the professional vulgarian Donald Trump, who gets away with the kind of preposterous, race-based comments granted few black public figures.

Trump’s displays of idiocy on Fox News are a staple of that network. I wait for the day when something Trump says that is both stupid and incendiary is held up as representative of all white people — and he’s asked to apologize for his race.

Also on Fox, Sean Hannity recently blamed President Obama for the troubles in Ferguson — because, I guess, he’s black.

The list goes on and on: Arizona’s governor, Jan Brewer, wagging her finger at President Obama while lecturing him on an airport tarmac, as if he were some errand boy and not the commander in chief. The complete fraud of the Benghazi nonstory — as even a Republican House panel had to conclude recently. The endless millions spent finding nothing scandalous about the president on Benghazi proved just one thing: how grass-roots conservative hatred of the president drives Republican congressional action.

The article goes on to talk about the disrespect demonstrated toward Michelle Obama as well, which included this rather satisfying paragraph:

The first lady cannot go on vacation without the Drudge Report hyping elaborate travel bills, playing to race insinuations. But when the family of Sarah Palin was involved in a beer-fueled, fist-flying brawl in Alaska this year, conservative media did not call them out for bad white family values, or failures as role models.

Yeah, I always love when the brawl shows up in an article just to remind all of us that despite all of her attempts to make it go away this thing stuck to Palin and her family, like a dingleberry on a dog's ass.

I don;t know about the rest of you but I found myself yelling "Goddamn right!" over and over as I read this article.

And that is really the thing after all. When people argue that this President could have done more, or that he failed to keep all of his campaign promises, or that he is "ineffectual," I want to grab them by the shoulders and shake them vigorously while yelling "What could YOU have accomplished with this level of disrespect, obstructionism, and partisan entrenchment?"

In light of what this President has faced since the very day of his inauguration, he is a fucking miracle worker.

His list of accomplishments is actually quite staggering, even without considering that he is piloting the country into unrelenting partisan headwinds that essentially never let up.

I told my brother during Thanksgiving that history is going to completely exonerate this man, and that he would hardly recognize his presidency in ten to fifteen years. After the historians get the chance to wipe way all of the mud that is being thrown at him everyday by the Right Wing politicians and conservative media, they are going to reveal some amazing accomplishments of which I really think most Americans are not even completely aware.

Ultimately, and I think this is going to anger the racists most of all, President Obama might really turn out to be the "Magic Negro."

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Courtesy of Salon:

Over the past few years, America has been divided by religion. The culture wars have heated up with secularists on one side and God-fearing Americans on the other, and to understate things: They disagree. But does that mean we hate one another? If the animosity is so intense, what kind of outrage goes too far? Bonnie Weinstein has tackled this issue in an important but very troubling book out Dec. 2, titled “To the Far Right Christian Hater … You Can Be a Good Speller or a Hater, But You Can’t Be Both: Official Hate Mail, Threats, and Criticism From the Archives of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.”

Married to Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), the author has collected and annotated a sampling of the hate mail the foundation has received over the past few years. This hate mail is not trolling or anonymous “Internet comments.” The letters are specific and threatening and most often include a return address or email. The Weinsteins’ home has been vandalized — many times — and the family has had to take serious and expensive security measures. It’s no joke. As I read the book, curled up on my couch, my wife kept asking if I was OK. My face was fixed in an expression of horror and disbelief as I read the rage, hate and cruelty cataloged on every page. Bonnie has uncovered a shocking reality: Self-professed Christians deny the fundamental humanity of other people they don’t even know.

As hard as it was to read in places, it’s important to read and understand. It offers an unflinching examination of a subset of American fundamentalism, created by a segment of our society that is whiter, more conservative and a lot angrier than the rest of America. For some people the future of their faith and of the nation are in danger, threatened by secular forces controlled by Satan himself. This existential threat to Christian supremacy justifies the most offensive, vulgar and cruel letters I’ve ever read. Think I’m overstating it? Read the book.

"Self-professed Christians deny the fundamental humanity of other people they don’t even know." Gee, ya think?

As somebody who has been on the receiving end of some of this vitriol I am completely unsurprised by the fact that so-called "Christians" can be filled with an almost bottomless pit of hatred which bubbles to the surface whenever they feel their religion or idols are under attack.

I have little doubt that the people who called the school where I worked and threatened to shoot me on the playground would self identify as Christians.

Just as the people who send the off times hilariously angry comments to Richard Dawkins. Which he enjoys reading aloud to his supporters.

Of course the idea that being a Christian, whether practicing or merely for ornamental purposes, makes you a more ethical or moral person is utter nonsense. Yet that is the conceit used to sell the religion to the masses, and impress upon people that these believers should be trusted and admired above all others.

These letters do much to disprove that assertion.

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Courtesy of TPM:

Hillary Clinton has recently met with two of the names most frequently floated to be her campaign manager in 2016, should she choose to run, Politico reported Thursday.

She met Wednesday with Guy Cecil, who oversaw the national Democratic Senate campaign arm during the 2014 election, according to Politico's sources. Clinton has also met with Robby Mook, who ran Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe's 2013 campaign, though Politico could not secure firmer details of the meeting.

No surprise here, I think we all know this is a given at this point.

But then check this out, also courtesy of TPM:

Republican operatives in New Hampshire have told Real Clear Politics that they've been contacted by a Jeb Bush confidant about running his operation in the state for a 2016 presidential campaign.

The unnamed GOP strategists told the news outlet that they had been told to "keep your powder dry" by those close to Bush.

"I think the decision’s been made, personally,” one of the strategists said. Another added: “I’ve definitely perceived an uptick in the perception of him doing this."

Yeah I tend to think the decision has been made as well.

In fact Bush said publicly that he was thinking of running, and let's face it you don't really say that in front of an audience unless you are convinced you are going to run.

And if he runs my friends, and I know that many of you don't want to hear this, he will more than likely win his nomination. And, your going to hate this part, he actually has the best chance against Hillary of ANY OTHER Republican candidate.

As much as people say they hate the idea of political dynasties there is a lot to be said for name recognition.

So in my opinion, barring some unforeseen event that derails one or both of these candidates, I think that image above represents the 2016 presidential campaign.

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Courtesy of USA Today:

Eight out of 10 Americans now believe the climate is changing, according to a new survey conducted for Munich Re America, the world's largest reinsurance firm.

"Our survey findings indicate that national sentiment over whether or not climatic changes are occurring has finally reached a tipping point," said Tony Kuczinski, president of Munich Re America.

Of course believing that the climate is changing is only part of the battle, WHY do they think it is changing?

The main survey question — "In your opinion, do you believe that climate change is occurring?" — did not specify whether the changes were due to man-made or natural causes, according to Peter Hoeppe, head of Munich Re's Geo Risks Research.

Hoeppe said that about 60% of people say the climate is changing due to man-made causes.

Well that's encouraging.

Now what do these respondents think we should to about it?

The survey found that 71% of respondents believed greater use of alternative energy sources, such as solar or wind power, would be the most effective in the battle against climate change.

Well there you go then.

Now if only we can get some of this 71% elected to Congress we might actually be able to do something to fight this problem before we all need to start growing gills in order to survive.

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