World News Korner

Courtesy of Raw Story:

In an interview that aired on Sunday, ABC’s Martha Raddatz asked the former president if the new initiative helped him cope with the 6,800 service members killed, and 51,000 wounded.

“No question it helps,” Bush stuttered. “I have a duty.”

“I obviously get slightly emotional talking about our vets because I’m in there with them,” he added with a single tear spilling down his right cheek.

“But my spirit is also uplifted when I visit with vets. As I say, there is no self-pity… They don’t say, ‘Woe is me.’ They say, ‘What can I do to continue to serve?’”

There are NO amount of tears this asshole could shed that would ever match the number shed by the families of the soldiers that he sent to their deaths based on a lie.

A lie by the way that I believe he knew about all along.

There were too many people telling him that Saddam Hussein did not have nuclear weapons,and lacked the capability to manufacture them, for Bush to claim he was ignorant of that fact.

He used the terror from 9-11 to wage a war of choice, to get revenge for his daddy, that sent thousands of trusting soldiers, and hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis, to their deaths.

No he is a POS and there should be NOBODY who wastes an ounce of their precious sympathy on the likes of him.

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Courtesy of Addicting Info:

Audio of outrageous comments made by Frank Taaffe, on a weekly podcast called ‘Stand Our Ground,’ prove that in spite of denials to the contrary, Taaffe is a full blown white supremacist. Taaffe’s podcast was produced and distributed by ‘The White Voice Network.‘

Here are just a few of Taaffe’s podcast comments:

‘The only time a black life is validated is when a white man kills him.’

“That minority group, they don’t do anything productive for this country, except for the NBA.”

“If it wasn’t for the NBA Joe like I always say, the country would have the tallest garbage men. Thank God for the NBA.”

“I always say if you lie down with dogs, you’re going to get up with fleas – especially if they’re black dogs.”

“Yeah she’s a nigg** (Oprah Winfrey). She keeps spewing out all that bullshit. She Keeps defending her boy Obama, who can do no wrong. You know it’s birds of a feather they flock together and stick together and to me she’s a NIGG**, Oprah Winfrey is a NIGG**.”

Seriously which respectable news outlet would put this guy on their show.

Well apparently quite a few, including Dr. Drew, CNN, and Nancy Grace.

Why? Well as it turns out he is apparently a friend of George Zimmerman.

Taaffe, supposedly a neighbor and close friend of George Zimmerman, became a regular on cable TV stations during the Zimmerman trial. He is best known for his many appearances on CNN and HLN’s ‘Nancy Grace,’ and ‘Dr. Drew.’ As a guest on the Nancy Grace show, Taaffe argued in defense of George Zimmerman, during the Trayvon Martin murder trial.

A "close friend" to George Zimmerman? Now why doesn't that surprise me?

Now you would think, considering what a pig this guy is, that after the Zimmerman trial this guy would be cut lose immediately. But you would be wrong.

Even after the Zimmerman trial ended, however, cable programs continue to give Taaffe air time. During the trial of Michael Dunn, a white man, who, like Zimmerman, shot and killed an unarmed black teenager, Taaffe was invited on cable tv shows, to share his views on the Dunn case.

Gee I wonder what a white supremacist believes about a man who shot an unarmed teenager over the issue of loud music?

It is pretty much what you would expect:

Taaffe's task is defending Dunn, who shot 17-year-old Jordan Davis outside of a Jacksonville gas station after arguing with the teen and his friends over loud music. Dunn claims he saw Davis holding what looked like a shotgun and that he fired at the boys in self-defense, but witnesses maintain that Davis was unarmed. On air, Taaffe has argued that the killing was justified, even if Davis wasn't pointing a firearm, because young black men are prone to violence.

Yes of course "everybody" knows that black men are violent, so apparently simply shooting them dead to prevent that violence from occurring makes perfect sense.

Frank Taaffe, was the man that George Zimmerman stayed with while he was waiting to be arrested for the shooting of Trayvon Martin, and he was the one that he asked to go to the media and speak on his behalf.

I think that speaks volumes as to who Gerorge Zimmerman is, and how he views people like Trayvon Martin.

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Courtesy of Alternet:

Atheists want the benefits of a secular society, but too many refuse to do the work. They are more concerned with a dictionary definition of atheism that they forget what is at stake.

Without atheists united in some form of community, the US would be lost overnight to a theocratic right. Ready to overturn whatever secular laws remain in the constitution.

While some atheists are worried about definitions, the right is worried about overturning women's rights, ending marriage equality and enforcing bad economic policies that drive more Americans into poverty. While we are busy infighting claiming, "no one speaks for me", the right is speaking and gathering followers. If we continue to run around unorganized, they will overtake this nation.

So there is, and should be a strong atheist movement, groups like American Atheists, American Humanist Association, Secular Coalition for America, Freedom From Religion, The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science and countless others are atheist based organizations all fighting to enforce secular laws in this country and around the world.

These are the groups who put the weight on their shoulders to make sure the theocratic right do not overtake the US and anyone who believes in upholding the secular history of this nation and the further secularization that rebuilds the wall that separates church and state that the right has spent decades taking apart. We should be thanking these groups and individuals in this fight, not chastising them for being "the face" of atheism as many have.

We may not elect atheist leaders, but many people shine through and stand up for all of us. We don't have to claim to agree with what every group does or says all the time either. Just as each atheist is unique in many of their own ways, so are groups.

Just so you know I am the king of the non-joiners.

Sure I can work as a part of a group for short periods of time, but after awhile things like clashing egos, mismatched ambitions, and attempts to define ourselves always force me to reevaluate why I joined and typically I walk away.

I identify as an Atheist simply becasue it is the label that best reflects my view of God, mankind, and the universe.

I have never formally joined any Atheist group and never really planned to in the future.

However there is some sense in what the author of this piece, Dan Arel, is saying.

As a group we are woefully unorganized, and we are often dealing with a group that is not only organized, but also well funded and with vast political connections.

As much as I hate to say it, the time may have come for those of us who want to keep religion from infiltrating our schools, and fight the oppressive laws that are dictating what women can do with their own bodies, as well as whose love is worthy of marriage, to get off our asses and start working together to help shape the world that we want our children to inherit.

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And you know she's right. Just wait for it.

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Courtesy of the Tundra turdslinger's Facebook page:

Congratulations Iron Dog champs Team #16 Minnick/Olstad! It was great seeing racers cross the finish line on the frozen Chena River in Fairbanks yesterday.

Team #11 Palin/Huntington had to leave the hunt early due to a rarely seen crank shaft bearing failure (yes, these racers are mechanics speaking their own language), so they jumped in support mode for others in the extended family of hardcore endurance racers.

They jumped into "support mode?"

Didn't they simply run right back to Wasilla?

How exactly was that supportive to the other teams?

Okay I have a silly question. How is it that there was a crank shaft bearing failure so quickly along the trail with this group of guys supposedly working to make the snowmachine race ready?

Here is how Palin described this photo right before the race:

The guys doing last minute wrenching before the start of the 2000-mile long Iron Dog race tomorrow! And taking a break to "fuel up" on (the usual) moose chili and blueberry pie.

So that "last minute wrenching" did not include checking the crank shaft bearings? How odd.

Well on the plus side I understand that the Sportsman Channel got all the footage they needed for the first episode of Amazing America.

And really once you have that what's the point in actually finishing the race?

Especially when you know there is no way to win?

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Courtesy of The Palm Beach Post:

Officers responded to the area of South Congress Avenue and Neptune Drive where a man said he had accidentally shot himself. He was found sitting in the bed of his pickup with a gunshot wound to his right leg. He told police he’d just left a firearms safety class and pulled over to inspect his new Glock 17 handgun. He said he removed the magazine and was manipulating the slide when the gun discharged. He was treated by fire-rescue at the scene, then taken to an area hospital.

Does this mean he earned and F?

I always thought that lesson one in any good firearms class was that you always handle every gun as if it was loaded.

Lesson two should be that you never play with your gun sitting next to a busy street.

This could have been much, much worse if that bullet had struck a passing car or hit a child playing on the street.

This leads me to believe that either the safety class this guy took was woefully inadequate, or he simply is not somebody intelligent enough to be trusted with a firearm.

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Courtesy of Freakout Nation:

After it’s come to light that illegal activities, not to mention, extremely bad business decisions took place, folks in the area are fighting back, asking for three board members’ resignations.

In a surprise move, a Tea Party member tried to implement a vote for the school board to use a different attorney, and when asked why, he said, it’s because he’s less expensive. That of course, was found to be a lie. The attorney turned out to specialize in fighting unions. In addition, that attorney has no experience with education law. On top of that, the attorney costs $15,000 more than the board’s lawyer.

John Prager at Americans Against the Tea Party explains, “The lawyer who, under their plan, would be representing the school district is Kevin Maloof. Maloof is the President of the West Clermont Education Foundation, a fund-raising group. School board members Mark Merchant and Tina Sanborn are also on the board of the WCEF.”

So much for Tea Party transparency.

This same thing is being attempted up here in Alaska as well, only for us the pressure is coming from our Governor, and in Anchorage the mayor, whose decisions to cut funding have resulted in the layoff of 6% of our teachers thus far.

These people do not want to fix public education, they want to sabotage it.

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