World News Korner

Bros need brosurance. #doyougotinsurance? http://t.co/5f0rwNKJKp pic.twitter.com/p8Ajg2q7S0
— CCHI (@COHealthAccess) October 22, 2013

Courtesy of Political Ticker:

Keg stands. That's one way to promote Obamacare, it seems.

"Brosurance," reads a new web ad that shows a few bros having a good time. "Keg stands are crazy. Not having health insurance is crazier. Don't tap into your beer money to cover those medical bills. We got it covered."

The Colorado Consumer Health Initiative and ProgressNow Colorado Education launched the web ad, along with a series of other meme-like images that target young residents in Colorado, as well as Latino families–two demographics that tend to lack health insurance.

The ads are modeled after the successful "Got Milk?" campaign, with each image saying, "Got Insurance?"

Other ads feature mountain climbers, kayakers and cyclists. The health groups are trying to appeal to "our own Colorado twist," says Jenny Davies-Schley, of the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative.

The idea is to make the images go viral, and each ad is easily sharable through a number of different social media agents, like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Or blogs, don't forget blogs.

Can I just say that this marks the first time ever, that I have been jealous of Coloradans.

Brilliant campaign, and it makes me really WANT to sign up for their health care.

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Photo courtesy of the Guardian

Courtesy of CNN:

The 12-year-old boy, whose name has not been released, began by shooting a fellow student in the shoulder, police said Tuesday. Then he turned his gun on math teacher Mike Landsberry before shooting a second student in the abdomen, Washoe County School District Police Chief Mike Mieras said.

After that, he shot himself to death with his pistol, which Sparks Deputy Police Chief Tom Miller identified as a Ruger 9mm semiautomatic.

"We got a guy with a gun. He's down from a head shot wound. Could be our shooter," one of the responding officers is heard telling dispatchers on the 911 calls. "He's out there on the basketball court."

Landsberry walked toward the shooter on a playground basketball court after the first student was hit, saving lives, according to authorities.

"Mr. Landsberry's heroic actions, by stepping toward the shooter, allowed time for other students in the playground area to flee," Mieras said.

Despite previous reports indicating the two wounded students had been shot inside the school building, all the shots were fired outside, police said.

Miller, who said earlier on CNN's "New Day" that it wasn't yet clear if the boy was targeting specific people, declined to identify the boy out of respect for his family.

Mr. Landsberry was a Marine, but he did what just about any educator in the country would do, he protected his kids.

And no it is unlikely that having Mr. Landsberry armed would have changed the number of fatalities, so adding another gun would not have made the school safer. However, subtracting one certainly would have.

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Courtesy of Raw Story:

Speaking at daily Mass last Thursday, Pope Francis warned Christians against turning their faith into a rigid ideology.

“The faith passes, so to speak, through a distiller and becomes ideology,” he said, according to Radio Vatican. “And ideology does not beckon [people]. In ideologies there is not Jesus: in his tenderness, his love, his meekness. And ideologies are rigid, always. Of every sign: rigid.

“And when a Christian becomes a disciple of the ideology, he has lost the faith: he is no longer a disciple of Jesus, he is a disciple of this attitude of thought… For this reason Jesus said to them: ‘You have taken away the key of knowledge.’ The knowledge of Jesus is transformed into an ideological and also moralistic knowledge, because these close the door with many requirements.”

“The faith becomes ideology and ideology frightens, ideology chases away the people, distances, distances the people and distances of the Church of the people,” Francis added. “But it is a serious illness, this of ideological Christians. It is an illness, but it is not new, eh?”

He said Christian ideology was the result of a lack of true prayer.

I think that old joke, "Does the Pope shit in the woods," is now completely outdated.

The new joke should be, "Does the Pope shit all over his own religion?"

Look I am NEVER going to be able to trust this guy completely, I mean after all he's a Catholic, but if this guy keeps this up I may have to start cutting him some slack.

That is if he lives that long. I HAVE to imagine that the Cardinals and Bishops are having little meetings that center around just how long the life expectancy of a Pope should be allowed to extend.

I mean the guy is trying to make Christianity reflect the values of Jesus Christ! What is he thinking?

Personally I think they should pray for lightning to strike him. I mean if they have faith, and they consistently claim that they do, then they should leave it up to God to decide whether he keeps his job or not.

Until then, he IS supposed to be considered God's representative on earth. So suck it Catholics!

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I know I didn't just see this. No. @penn Connaissance is legit bringing BRISTOL PALIN AS A SPEAKER?! pic.twitter.com/lkunsC5QA2
— Andre Nicholas (@omg_its_anf) October 20, 2013

Courtesy of Town Hall:

Fliers scattered around the University of Pennsylvania campus read that Bristol Palin was going to be this year’s fall speaker. Penn’s Special Events and Planning Committee had apparently made its highly anticipated announcement and decided to host the advertised Teen Pregnancy Prevention Spokesperson, leaving some students dazed and confused.

Those posters turned out to be a hoax. Under the Button, UPenn’s “24/7 source for all things Penn,” apparently took the time to create the fake advertisements just to write this charming description on their web page,

"A proud teen mama, (and Teen Pregnancy Prevention Ambassador…huh,) Bristol Palin has travelled the U.S. advocating for abstinence, earning her the name “The Worst Person In The World”. Now, thanks to some questionably-legit fliers, she’s coming to Penn! No offense B, but Penn kids are active, and the university dishes out more free condoms than acceptance letters. But hey, make yourself at home, just don’t be shocked when we choose bad sex over no sex."

I hope the ink and paper these students wasted was worth it. The “active” link the author includes in the post takes you to a New York Times article called, “Sex on Campus – She Can Play That Game, Too,” which seems to approve of young women at UPenn choosing one-night stands over serious relationships.

Now this Town Hall is a Right Wing publication so they took some offense on behalf of the "Queen of Abstinence for you, but never for me."

These students’ hoax may have been “all in good fun,” but it wasn't all in good taste. After the negative media attention Palin received for her unplanned pregnancy during her mom’s vice presidential campaign, she has been an ambassador for pro-life and pro-family causes. By doing so, this 23-year-old has managed to change a negative into a positive. She even shared her joyful life with her son in a Lifetime documentary called, “Life’s a Tripp,” proving that from an unplanned pregnancy can come a blessing, not just a regret.

That’s a message any college student should hear.

"Her joyful life?" Yeah nice try, however I think that these young people can probably identify a scam when they see one. After all they undoubtedly learned all about Bristol in "Hypocrisy 101."

Let's face it Sarah Palin not only turned herself into a laughingstock, she helped to turn her entire family into one giant joke as well. Quite an achievement if you think about it.

And do you know the sad part is that this is probably as close to an actual speaking gig that Bristol will get for quite some time. If ever.

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Today's contribution comes from that Right Wing rag known as Breitbart.com, which is really only a small step up from having her post it on Facebook.

Essentially it is a post pimping a book by Peter Schweizer, who I am sure some of you will remember Palin hired as her "foreign policy adviser" back in 2011. (And what a bang up job he did.)

The book is about corruption, and buying favors, in Washington D.C., because you know nobody has ever made that connection before. Schweizer perhaps takes it a step further identifying this process as "mafia-style legislative tactics" and claiming that it is akin to paying "protection money" to insure that there will be no investigations for wrong doing into those companies that contribute. Once again a practice almost as old as Washington itself.

Of course since this IS coming from a Right Wing mouthpiece it tends to focus on President Obama and the Democrats:

Schweizer interviewed former Chairman of Apache Corporation Ray Plank. Plank said campaign cash and lobbying contracts now function as “protection money” to keep lawmakers and regulators from going after you.

“It’s what you expect from the mafia,” said Plank. “They basically come to you and say, ‘We are going to shove this bat up your ass and give you an enema. You better play ball.’ We saw a great deal of it. It’s an insidious blight.”

There are left-wing progressives on Wall Street and in the high-tech world who bankrolled President Obama’s campaign because they love his radical agenda. But as Schweizer points out, many gave because they know they have to; if they don’t, Obama will come after them.

That’s a lesson the Tea Party knows all too well. After the Tea Party’s historic 2010 midterm victory, Obama unleashed Attorney General Eric Holder to go after the oil and gas sector, which had given four times as much to Republicans as to Democrats. As Obama said in October 2010, “We are going to punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us.”

That last quote really bothered me, because it did NOT sound like anything the President would say. EVER.

So I found two different speeches the President gave in October 2010, one was a rally in Portland and the other was a speech with Harry Reid in Arizona. I combed through them carefully, and could find nothing that matched that quote exactly, nor anything that was very similar to it.

Now it is early in the morning here, and perhaps I just missed it, but like I said it doesn't sound like the President.

However it really doesn't matter, because the premise, at least in the President's case, does not add up.

If the idea is that people who donate a lot of money are safe from prosecution, then Schweizer, and his employer Sarah Palin, would have to explain what just happened to JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon.

Dimon was a huge contributor to numerous Democrats, including former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, as well as many prominent Republicans, and was very close to President Obama.

And yet the other day his company just agreed to a record setting settlement of 13 billion dollars for numerous civil suits filed against them, and are still under federal investigation. (I don't remember ANY investigations being launched against big businesses and unethical lenders during the Bush Administration. And not only that, but they relaxed regulations to the point that there were very few actions even considered illegal by them anymore.)

I cannot tell you how ironic I find it that these so-called conservatives are jumping all over Washington politicians now that there is a Democratic majority in the Senate, and a Democrat in the White House, for allegedly being corrupt, but said NOTHING during the eight years of the Bush-Cheney criminal enterprise.

Oh, but now that the Teabaggers are attempting to hijack the Republican party (On yesterday's Hardball Freedomwork's Matt Kibbe stated that fact out loud.), the Koch brothers are willing to sick Palin on the GOP as well:

And what about the GOP establishment? Why haven’t they been able to clean up the extortion racket in Washington? You have to ask yourself, has the party machine fought this corruption or does it participate in it? As a senior House Republican told Fox News on Thursday, it’s “highly unlikely” Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) will be challenged because few have the muscle to match his ability to “raise money.”

Then the ghostwriter decides to insert a little of Palin's whining into the article for the sake of authenticity:

The fact that these strong-arm tactics take place in Washington doesn’t surprise me at all. I’ve fought this type of corruption my entire political career. And those who disagreed with me politically used thug-like tactics to try to bankrupt my family with frivolous lawsuits in Alaska, and it hasn’t stopped to this day.

And that may be the most Palin-like portion of this clearly professionally written, and duplicitous, article.

The funny thing is that much of what the real author says are things that I agree with. Let's get corporate money out of politics, let's elect leaders that really represent their constituents, and let's make sure that big businesses are unable to buy their way out of trouble.

Hear, hear.

However then I remember that this is an article written for a political celebutard, by a ghostwriter hired by the Koch brothers (Perhaps the wealthiest, and more powerful political contributors in the country). And suddenly it occurs to me that I am simply reading propaganda, dipped in hypocrisy sauce, and promoted by a woman who quit her job in order to work as a flunky for wealthy puppet masters.

In other words, considering the source(s), this has no actual value to anybody.

It is simply camouflage, and an attempt at redirection, for those who only want you to notice a CERTAIN segment of Washington being corrupt, while missing out on the REAL puppeteers behind Washington politics. Remember, the politicians who the Tea Party is sending to Washington are there to shut down the government, and without government there is NO government oversight of business.

Personally I think I know who the REAL villains are (Koch brothers, Freedom Works, Heritage Foundation), and I will make sure to keep a very wary eye on everything that they do. And I have to say that it seems to me that their actions are becoming more desperate every day.

How else to explain taking the Palin out of mothballs and attempting to use her as the voice of reason concerning political corruption?

Update: Okay apparently the President DID say, “We are going to punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us.” However he did not use it in the context referred to by Palin's ghostwriter.

Here is the quote in context:

In a radio interview that aired on Univision on Monday, Mr. Obama sought to assure Hispanics that he would push an immigration overhaul after the midterm elections, even though he has not been able to attract Republican support.

“If Latinos sit out the election instead of saying, ‘We’re going to punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us,’ if they don’t see that kind of upsurge in voting in this election, then I think it’s going to be harder and that’s why I think it’s so important that people focus on voting on November 2.”

Referring specifically to Republicans such as Senator John McCain, who formerly supported an overhaul but now are stressing border security and supporting strict immigration laws like Arizona’s anti-illegal immigration measure, Mr. Obama said, “Those aren’t the kinds of folks who represent our core American values.”

So he was talking about immigration and Hispanic voters, and it had NOTHING to do with threatening big business and donors.

Of course this was directed at Right Wing readers, so they figured nobody would research their lies.

By the way, speaking of research, thanks to all of you who found that quote for me. Fortunately for us WE actually do our research.

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Courtesy of Politico:

Arkansas Rep. Tim Griffin, a second-term Republican, announced on Monday that he will not seek reelection in 2014, citing a desire to spend more time with his family.

“It has been an agonizing and difficult decision involving much prayer, thought and discussion. We have decided that now is the time for me to focus intently on my top priority, my family, as Elizabeth and I raise our two young children,” Griffin said in a statement to the Arkansas news site Talk Business.

“To that end, I will not seek reelection to a third term. I will complete my second term, but I have made no decision as to my plans after Congress except that I will continue in public service, including as a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve,” he said.

In an interview taking place only hours after his announcement Griffin claims that “This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody who actually knows me" Well I cannot say that I know this guy, thankfully, but I DO know that he seemed to gladly accept just about every underhanded thing that Karl Rove assigned to him in order to get ahead, and that included purging voting rolls in 2004 to help Bush beat Kerry, and even flying up here to help battle against Alaska's Clean Water Initiative.

So do I really think that little Timmy Griffin has suddenly decided that politics is not for him, and that it is time to stay at home with the kids?

Not on your life.

Stay tuned my friends, I'm pretty sure I smell the scent of a scandal drifting in from Arkansas.

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Courtesy of The Independent:

The British public has such “poor religious literacy” that a modern audience would be baffled by the Monty Python film The Life of Brian – because it would not understand the Biblical references, a senior BBC figure has claimed.

Aaqil Ahmed, the BBC’s head of religion and ethics, told The Independent that failings in religious education over two generations were undermining public understanding of contemporary national and international issues. “You had generations that missed out. We have poor religious literacy in this country and we have to do something about it,” he said.

He was speaking at the launch of an ambitious three-part BBC2 series which will address the subject of pilgrimage from a broad perspective and is intended to attract the interest of Atheists as much as religious believers.

“If you tried to make The Life of Brian today it would fall flat on its face because the vast majority of the audience would not get most of the jokes. They don’t have the knowledge,” Ahmed said. He questioned whether modern audiences would appreciate that the “great joke about the Sermon on the Mount” in the 1979 Python film, where a woman asks “What’s so special about the cheesemakers?”, was a reference to Jesus’s words “Blessed are the peacemakers” from the Bible.

He also claimed that comedians such as Eddie Izzard, Tim Minchin and Ricky Gervais – who he said he found “really funny” – tended to tackle religion in very general terms. “They don’t take on specific aspects of religion they take on bigger things – such as the Bible. They can’t go into specific stories anymore because no one knows what the stories are.”

Okay well I am going to go on record as saying that though I lament the fact that people cannot appreciate the genius of "The Life of Brian" (Which I love) that overall it is a very good thing that people are less indoctrinated into religion these days.

I actually hope for the day, here in America, when we see the Bible and Quran relegated to the mythology section of our local libraries, and when they will be treated as interesting fables and nothing more.

I don't believe I will see that in my lifetime, but there is always hope for the next generations.



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