World News Korner

Yeah, still not sure.





Source

Courtesy of Elmer Dud's Facebook page:

Shooting promo shots for my new show “Amazing America” on the Sportsman Channel. Here’s a behind the scenes look. Can't wait for April 3 premiere!

Oh the fun we could have with Sarah Palin standing in front of a green screen.

I read the handful of news reports that came out yesterday about Palin's appearance at the press breakfast and from most accounts the Sportsman channel was just as ill prepared to do this show as Palin obviously is.

In other words it is the blind leading the ignorant, and with shows like Meat Eater, Pigman, and Quack Shack Duck Show, I think she has finally found a home.

Somebody asked me the other day when I was going to finally put an end to Palin's career and make her insignificant forever?

What do they call this?

Update: Based on a few of the responses to this post I thought I would once again elaborate on the information that I which may or may not "drive a silver stake" through Sarah Palin's career.

Yes there are a few nuggets that, if they reached the media at large, were verified on the record by the people who know them and who have access to methods of proving them, would very likely make Palin skitter off the grid and disappear forever.

However at this time I have no way of presenting that evidence in a way that would achieve that outcome.

I used to think that if I could just get these witnesses to come forward it would be enough, but since Bailey, McGinniss, and Dunn's books have all come out, I have recognized how high the bar is set for proving anything that would obliterate her reputation or drive her supporters away in droves.

I mean each of those books contained very damaging information, that any good reporter could have expanded on if they so chose to do so, but besides covering the more prurient portions there was never a deep dive by investigative reporters, who, to be honest, seem bored with Sarah Palin.

So for me to present my evidence, which really is nothing more than interviews I have conducted with people who have told me things off the record, on this blog would be to do virtually nothing to move the ball forward.

Besides if I volunteered my sources it is a given that they would NEVER go on record with any other journalist, and more importantly I would have broken my word to them. Which is something that I would NEVER do.

However do not think I am sitting on my laurels and not continuing to conduct interviews. or dig for information, because nothing could be further from the truth.

Trust me that I will have more for you in the coming months. However whether that "drives a silver stake" through Palin's heart, is a question that I cannot honestly answer at this time. (And yes Palin-bots that last part is metaphorical, we still do not want to cause Palin physical harm.)

Source

Courtesy of TPM:

Kentucky State Rep. Leslie Combs (D) accidentally fired her semi-automatic handgun in the state capitol building Tuesday night just before Gov. Steve Beshear (D) gave his state of the state address, WHAS11 reported.

Combs was unloading her gun in the Capitol annex office when it went off. The bullet hit the floor and ricocheted toward a bookshelf, according to WHAS11.

Rep. Jeff Greer (D) was in the room at the time, but Combs said she was following safety procedure and that nobody was in harm's way, WHAS11 reported. Nobody was injured.

"I thought it was totally clear," Combs told WHAS11 Wednesday. "I am a gun owner. It happens."

Remember kids guns don't kill people, but they do accidentally fire sometimes because "I am a gun owner. It happens."

Here is my question, who needs to carry a semi-automatic weapon to their job as a Kentucky State Representative? I mean if this woman worked as a security guard, or was carrying large amounts of cash, I might understand it, but she is a lawmaker who is supposed to create legislation and engage in debates.

I guess in a gun culture nobody has to explain why they are packing heat. You know unless you accidentally shoot somebody of course.

And in Kentucky, maybe not even then.

Source

Courtesy of New York Times:

The Obama administration on Friday said that it would recognize as lawful the marriages of 1,300 same-sex couples in Utah, even though the state government is refusing to do so.

Wading into the fast-moving legal battle over same-sex marriage rights in one of America’s most socially conservative states, the administration posted a video on the Justice Department’s website making the announcement. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said that the federal government would grant federal marriage benefits to the same-sex couples who rushed to obtain marriage licenses after a federal judge last month unexpectedly struck down Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage.

“I am confirming today that, for purposes of federal law, these marriages will be recognized as lawful and considered eligible for all relevant federal benefits on the same terms as other same-sex marriages,” Mr. Holder said in the video. “These families should not be asked to endure uncertainty regarding their status as the litigation unfolds.”

Well that is good news for those who were concerned that their marriages may be in legal limbo until Utah gets its act together.

And once again let me say that Utah may be in the throes of some kind of inner turmoil, but ultimately we all know that they will, like every other state at some point in time, allow marriage equality in their state.

Progress may get interrupted, but ultimately it arrives, whether people are ready to accept it or not.

Source

Courtesy of the New York Daily News:

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s one-hour-and-forty-seven-minute self-serving, self-pitying display of contrition on Thursday was a climactic act in a brazen cover-up that threatens to further unravel his political career.

Ever so thoroughly the governor scoured the thesaurus for words of apology, regret and painless self-flagellation while nervily playing the victim and mercilessly destroying the aide who played only a supporting role for the George Washington Bridge political revenge plot.

Christie needed blood to express his outrage to the public, so he drew it from deputy chief of staff Bridget Kelly for the sin, the governor said, of lying to him. Perhaps, Kelly did lie, although it seems incredible that anyone would flat-out attempt to deceive an intense, emergency inquiry.

Regardless, Christie made roadkill of Kelly and his former campaign manager while wholly exempting the close pals who were central to the lane-closure conspiracy that caused four days of gridlock and dangerously slowed emergency response in Fort Lee. Pathetic.

Ouch!

As if that were not enough of a shit sandwich for Christie to choke down there are many, many more servings headed his way.

One such serving is coming in the form of newly released documents which show that Governor Christie met with the Port Authority one week before the lane closures.

This was the statement by the New Jersey lawmaker leading the investigation:


“As with so much else we’ve discovered during this investigation, these documents raise many more questions. It’s obvious that senior members of the governor’s staff were involved in spin control once this story broke.

“Given everything we’ve seen and heard, there are two glaring questions that exist right now.

“How much of the full picture was the governor’s senior staff given regarding the development of this lane closure project? With the tight control this administration maintains, it doesn’t stretch the imagination that they were given more information than they let on. When they were preparing spin control, how could they not have been given the whole story?

“Secondly, the documents submitted by David Wildstein and his attorney are documents they deemed specifically related to the lane closures at the George Washington Bridge as per our subpoena request. Included in these documents is a reference to what appears to be a meeting between Port Authority Chairman David Samson and the governor one week before Bridget Kelly issued the order to cause ‘traffic problems’ in Fort Lee. By submitting these documents, Mr. Wildstein is telling us they are related to the lane closures in some way. The question that demands answering is how?

“These are just two of the many answers we will be seeking in the days and weeks ahead.”

O, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.

Then there are the lawsuits heading his way due to the closures themselves:

Six New Jersey residents have filed a federal lawsuit against Gov. Chris Christie, the state of New Jersey, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and others over traffic jams in September.

The suit filed in federal court Thursday appears to be the first civil claim over traffic that appear to have been caused as political punishment for the Fort Lee mayor.

The plaintiffs want it certified as a class action.

I have a feeling that these lawsuits are only the beginning, and that soon Christie will find his administration buried under legal paperwork and lawyer's fees.

But remember, he's not a bully.

Except, of course, he is.

I know that Fox News and many on the Right want this whole thing to blow over so they continue with their plans to slim Christie down, beef up his credentials, and polish his rough edges enough to run him against Hillary in 2016.

But I'm sorry, when it talks like a duck, waddles like a duck, and looks like it ate a whole flock of ducks, that is NOT somebody who is going to stand much of a chance on the national stage.

I mean how careless can the GOP be when it comes to choosing their Republican saviors? I mean the only thing dumber than choosing this arrogant bullying bag of wind, would be to send a team into the frozen backwoods of an isolated state, pluck the most ignorant, least educated female they could find, and then stick her on the national ticket without first vetting her enough to uncover a fake pregnancy and a husband who was into human trafficking.

Wait......

Source

Courtesy of Gallup:

Americans continue to be more likely to identify as conservatives (38%) than as liberals (23%). But the conservative advantage is down to 15 percentage points as liberal identification edged up to its highest level since Gallup began regularly measuring ideology in the current format in 1992.

The figures are based on combined data from 13 separate Gallup polls, including interviews with more than 18,000 Americans, conducted in 2013.

When Gallup began asking about ideological identification in all its polls in 1992, an average 17% of Americans said they were liberal. That dipped to 16% in 1995 and 1996, but has gradually increased, exceeding 20% each year since 2005.

The rise in liberal identification has been accompanied by a decline in moderate identification. At 34% in 2013, it is the lowest Gallup has measured, and down nine points since 1992. Moderates had been the largest ideological group throughout the 1990s, and competed with conservatives for the top spot during the 2000s. Since 2009, conservatives have consistently been the largest U.S. ideological group.

The shift toward greater liberal self-identification has been led by Democrats. Currently, 43% of Democrats say they are liberal, a nearly 50% increase from 29% in 2000. Over the same period, the percentage of Democrats identifying as moderate is down to 36% from 44%, and conservative identification is down to 19% from 25%. Republicans have become more likely to describe their political views as conservative over the past 13 years, from 62% in 2000 to 70% in 2013.

The percentage of Republicans saying their political views are moderate has dropped by an equivalent amount, from 31% to 23%. To some degree that may be a function of declining Republican Party identification in the U.S., now at a 25-year low of 25%. The smaller group of present Republican identifiers is likely more ideologically homogeneous than the larger group of Republican identifiers from a decade ago.

I have to admit that I am still puzzled by the size of the number of Americans who call themselves conservatives, but I really believe that these numbers are shifting faster than may be evident right now, and that if Gallup were to alter their methods of poll taking they would find a larger liberal segment of the population that simply does not respond to polls using the conventional methods.

If Gallup sent out a mass text to cellphone users for instance, with a simple yes or no option, I bet this number would change dramatically.

However it is the trend which is the story here, and the trend is definitely favoring those of us on the liberal side of the ideological divide.

Source

Courtesy of The Wrap:

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin can comfortably split her time between Fox News Channel and her new Sportsman Channel series because both aim to spread the pro-American message and restore the country’s global leadership, she told TheWrap.

“Fox really gets it, you know. They understand what it’s gonna take for American exceptionalism to be restored,” Palin said following her presentation for “Amazing America” at the Television Critics Association winter press tour on Friday.

At #TCA14 press b-fast with @SPORTSMANchnl to talk about our new show “Amazing America”. Can't wait until April 3 premiere!
— Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) January 10, 2014

“They understand that getting more people active and productive and living a real industrious type lifestyle – that our show will showcase – actually helps the cause of Fox too, so it’s mutually beneficial.”

(I'm sorry how does walking through the woods shooting creatures who are minding their own business going to "restore exceptionalism" in America?)

The Sportsman Channel series will follow Palin – who returned to Fox News as a contributor last year – as she visits people and places around the country that “embrace, and encourage, and inspire more of that American spirit that we need more of.”

“What our show is gonna do is help fundamentally restore that, restore that Americana spirit, that built us, that laid the foundation for where we are today,” Palin said.

(Yep, nothing says AMERIKA like killing everything in sight and then showing in on television so that overweight couch potatoes can feel the the visceral thrill of hunting hand raised animals chased through an enclosed area where the outcome is really never in doubt. Remember my daughter works on reality shows, she knows how these things are rigged.)

“I want young women to be inspired by the show that we’re gonna put together,” she said. “One of the reasons is that I think this world would be better off having more young women holding a fish in a picture and fewer of ‘em holding their camera in front of the bathroom mirror doing a selfie.”

(And we certainly know what a WONDERFUL example Palin has set for the young women living in her home. Right?)

Palin told TheWrap that her contract with Fox News needed to allow for filming on the Sportsman Channel series, which she says is her “most favorite thing” that she’s done in recent years.

“I am so thankful for Roger Ailes allowing me to do the Sportsman Channel show,” Palin told TheWrap. “It was part of the negotiations to come back to work with Fox, was to be able to do this.”

(Please, Ailes could NOT care less what Little Annie Oakey-Dokey does in her off time from the handful of minutes that he pays her to make the rest of his guests look more intelligent by comparison. He is probably hoping that somebody will mistake her wig for a muskrat and end her contract early.)

“In fact I’m more excited about this project than I have been about many of the other projects and things that I have done in the past,” she said during the presentation.

But pressed on what those less enjoyable past projects were, Palin didn’t kiss and tell.

“Oh I’ve done some things that, um, I’ve kind of been roped into that haven’t been my most favorite things to do in the world,” she said. (Give me a break! We know she begged for all of those reality shows and cable news appearances. Maybe she means those few appearances at charity events, when she was trying to appear compassionate.) “But this is my most favorite thing, is being in the great outdoors and inviting other people to come live that lifestyle with us even if it’s just through the airwaves.”

Palin also brushed off a question about a new book claiming Ailes offered a Fox News employee a raise in exchange for sex.

(What? They asked her about that?)

“That he paid what?” she asked, apparently unaware of Gabriel Sherman’s upcoming biography of Ailes, “The Loudest Voice in the Room.” TheWrap told her about the claim.

“I think bogus rumors like that are really a waste of time especially when I want to talk about being red, wild and blue in America,” she said, quoting the Sportsman Channel’s slogan.

(Now does that sound like she is surprised Ailes made the offer, or surprised that he offered so much. Hmmm.)

“But ask me something about the great outdoors and I’ll be happy to answer ya. Come on, think of something!”

Here's one, "What do you read about hunting?" Oooh, that would certainly stump her.

Can you believe the hard sell she is giving this program?

As if a hunting program, on a channel nobody has even heard of, is going to do anything for anybody, except give her an even smaller audience than she has on Fox News and Facebook.

Let's face it the only thing this program will "fundamentally change" is that it will fundamentally signal the end of her fifteen minutes of fame.

P.S. And here is a little advice Ms. Palin, since those of us on the Left are looking out for you. If you talk Dick Cheney into making an appearance on your program, dress in the brightest orange vest you can find and stay well behind him. He has a history of shooting first and sorting out the wildlife from the hunting partners afterward.

Update: Mediaite has a little more concerning her take on Bridge-gate. Check out her hair.

Update: Oh God, the shoes!

You've seen the buzz now check out the Amazing American shoes @SarahPalinUSA wore during #TCA2014 today. pic.twitter.com/VppOg9OTXC
— Sportsman Channel (@SPORTSMANchnl) January 10, 2014

Source