World News Korner

Courtesy of Raw Story:

A California pastor and two members of his congregation admitted in court that they physically abused a 13-year-old boy and made him dig his own grave.

According to affidavits published by The Los Angeles Times, 56-year-old Heart of Worship Community Church Pastor Lonny Lee Remmers, 24-year-old Nicholas James Craig and 30-year-old Darryll Duane Jeter Jr. said that they were following instructions to “scare” the victim. All three of the men had worked at a group home where the boy lived.

In March of 2012, the men reportedly took the victim to the desert where he was forced to dig a grave. After he got in the grave, the men threw dirt on him.

The men also rubbed salt into his wounds while he was showering, tied him to a chair with zip ties, and sprayed mace on his face until he bled.

At one point, the boy was made to sit in the middle of a Bible study group and pinch his own nipples with pliers, investigators said.

Well you know what it says in the Bible, spare the pliers spoil the child.

This kind of thing is fucking medieval torture, and using religion to excuse it is pathetic.

This is one of the problems with Christian run facilities which sometimes are excused from the kind of documentation and oversight that secular facilities are subjected to.

Though the idea that grown men would consider this kind of treatment reasonable without somebody having to tell them it's not is quite troubling to me.

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Resplendent in John Boehner brand Oompa Loompa skin tanner and wearing a modified shower curtain with her wig firmly stapled and shellacked into place, responds to a question from Hannity about whether she is serious about he republicans impeaching President Obama.

"Yes, it is time. A great awakening is due in this country, and this is the message that will be sent to our President, that he is not an imperial president, and lawlessness will not be accepted by the American people. That's not what he was elected to do, is to create his own laws as he goes along. I think it's time...a little less talk a lot more action. When we see even GOP lawmakers who are recognizing and proclaiming Obama's violation of the Constitution, and then ignoring that Constitution, and the power they have to impeach...gets kind of frustrating for the American people. Somebody needs to look out for the working class Americans and the tipping point in this drive towards impeachment for me has been the illegal immigration issue, the crisis created by Obama, where nobody is looking out for the working class of Americans, including good, hardworking, wonderful, legal immigrants. Impeachment is a message that has to be sent to our President that we're not going to put up with this lawlessness."

Hannnity then tries to list some reasons that the Republicans might be able to impeach the President, none of which would pass the smell test.

"Yes, and it also means lying to the American people, and it means fraud. He has allowed fraud...his..his subordinates, and he himself, to fraud the American people on these programs, these policies, that he promised will work or will not impact debt or deficit. These have been lies by our President. Yes, those are impeachable offenses. Sean, experts, attorneys, they have a list of at least 25 impeachable offenses. (I believe she got that list from this blog which lists among other "offenses" Fast and Furious, the IRS targeting of Republicans, and Obama's "attack" on Christianity.) Now GOP lawmakers know this too, I really want Congress to do its job. The constitutional power that they HAVE to halt an imperial presidency. To halt this fundamental transformation of America that is making us an unrecognizable mess of a nation at this time."

Hannity then quotes Jonathon Turley to provide support for Palin's crazy statements, as well as Right Wing radio host Mark Levin who he calls a "constitutional scholar," and a poll on Drudge that, believe it or not, finds that 70% of Americans believe the President should be impeached.

But then he also brings up the fact that Pat Buchanan said that pursuing impeachment would be a political loser for Republicans, and asks if that should matter.

"I think politics come into play more when you consider not rocking the boat, if you will, and allowing the liberalism agenda to fail on its own. I..I..that's kind of a political bent right there. And with all due respect to Pat Buchanan, and I do respect his opinion, I disagree with him. I think, you know keep politics out of this then. (WTF? This whole thing is political.) This is a bipartisan issue. (No it's not!) Americans! Congress! Those who are concerned about protecting our Constitution, and using the one tool that Congress does have to halt what is going on. This lawlessness coming from the top. The one tool they have are articles of impeachment, let's get going on that. And it's not necessarily Sean. A lawsuit being filed by Congress? Because you don't bring a lawsuit to a gun fight. (Again, WTF?) And there's no place for lawyers on the front lines. (She does know that Congress is filled with lawyers right?) Where are the front lines in America? They are our borders!"

Hannity tries to diffuse the crazy a little by agreeing with her but then adds that he has no confidence that Congress would have the "courage," or political backbone, to do this.

"That they don't have the cojones to do it, if that's what you mean? Sean you're absolutely right."

Hannity then claims he was trying to be more delicate.

"I know, I know. Not me man I...mumbling...go rogue. I'll say what I want to say. Sean absolutely man. Bingo, when you say wait a minute they had constitutional tool to unfund Obamacare, and that was just fulfilling all of their campaign promises, that they were going to repeal Obamacare right? Look what happened to the one, or two, or three good guys like Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, who stood up to fulfill their constitutional duty, and their campaign promises, man they got thrown under the bus. And the view is not very good from under the bus. (Yeah just ask Trooper Wooten, Frank Bailey, and Walt Monegan.) Well the American people, I believe, are going to say this time...this go around...no okay we learned our lesson. And it will be us. We get the government that we support. We get the government obviously that we vote for, but that we put up with. How about we don't put up with this lawlessness. Washington is broken. If people care about the future of this country, and defense of our republic, they will join this cause of articles of impeachment against Barack Obama because enough is enough.

Finally Hannity asks if Palin is still considering leaving the Republican party.

"I've been a Republican since I was 18 years old, so wholeheartedly believed in EVERY plank in the platform. The planks in the platform will make this country strong, and safe, secure again Sean. So I hate to think that the Republican party is going to be leaving me, I don't want to leave it, but if it leaves me, and if it keeps straying towards that liberal failed agenda that the Left, that Barack Obama just exudes then yeah, I am not going to hesitate to unenlisting myself from a party that you know I just can't support anymore."

And right now Republicans all over the country are fervently praying that she is not bluffing about leaving their party.

Okay my hands are tired from typing all of this out, so I leave it to all of you to add the much needed snark.

And I have every confidence in your ability to do so.

P.S. Oh and for those truly sadistic among you here is the video of Palin's word for word rendition of her Breitbart article from her Facebook page.




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Courtesy of USA Today:

The day Linda Drain put baby's breath in her hair and said "I do," she had no idea that government policies would tear her apart from her husband.

But 33 years later, she and her husband, Larry Drain, separated so she could keep her health insurance.

Six months into the full implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the Drains are among 162,000 Tennesseans who got caught in a coverage gap. Their household income is too little to qualify for a government subsidy to buy health insurance, and they live in a state not expanding Medicaid.

Their predicament was caused by a combination of Larry's decision to take early retirement from Social Security, which for some reason rendered his wife ineligible for her Supplemental Security income, and their Governor's decision to turn down the expansion of Medicaid offer3ed by the Affordable Care Act.

Mrs. Drain has epilepsy, and has undergone brain surgery, so her medications are quite expensive. Too expensive for the couple to afford without some assistance.

And Larry Drain is not taking any of this lying down:

Every day, Larry Drain writes a letter to Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam asking him to expand Medicaid and posts it on a blog.

"In some ways, it is like a virtual sit-in," he said. "I couldn't go sit in his office, but in some way I need to say, 'I am here. I am going to be here. I'm going to talk about things you don't want talked about.'"

It is inexcusable for this to happen in this country, and doubly so with the remedy so readily available in the form of an expanded Medicaid program.

If Tennessee simply had a Governor who was not a partisan asshole these nice people would not have to end a marriage that neither of them wants to end.

And here I thought the Republicans were the pro-traditional marriage people.

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Courtesy of Liberaland:

Generation Opportunity, the Koch-funded nonprofit group that created the Creepy Uncle Sam anti-Obamacare campaign last fall, is back with an extremely elaborate new anti-Obamacare ad, which they are taking on the road as a circus-type event. You can’t make this stuff up.

Ironically, the first image in the ad looks exactly a coal runner, not Obamacare, coming into town intentionally spewing out toxic black smoke just to stick it to Obama. The Koches are notorious polluters so this totally makes sense.

You know I am not sure how this is supposed to convince people to fear Obamacare.

Convince them to fear clowns sure, but who needs help with that once they have seen Pennywise?

The facts are millions of people now have access to health care who did not have it before, or access to better health care which they now cannot have taken away and can follow them from job to job.

The Koch brothers lost this war awhile ago, and no nightmare inducing advertisements are going to change that.

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"Wait are you gong to believe me, or the professional election officials?"

Courtesy of TPM:

The Mississippi Republican Party says U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran won the state's Republican primary runoff over challenger Chris McDaniel by 7,667 votes.

The party sent results to the Secretary of State on Monday, the legal deadline.

The GOP's numbers showed Cochran winning by more than the 6,800 votes counted by The Associated Press after the June election. Tallies change as county parties examine provisional ballots and finalize results.

If you guessed that McDaniel has no intention of accepting these results and giving up his fight for a do over, well you are absolutely right:

State Sen. Chris McDaniel’s attorney confirmed Monday the campaign’s plans to challenge the results of last month’s Senate runoff, arguing the only solution is to hold a new election for the GOP nomination.

McDaniel lost to Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., in the June 24 GOP runoff by about 6,700 votes. Since then, McDaniel’s allies have contested the results and his team offered a cash prize for anyone who can provide evidence of voter fraud.

“The correct remedy is a new election,” said Mitch Tyner, lead counsel for the McDaniel campaign. He added campaign volunteers have reviewed runoff results in 82 counties and have found evidence of voter fraud.

“I don’t know the exact numbers,” said Tyner, speaking in front of the Hinds County Courthouse in Jackson. “I know there’s several thousand that are absolutely ineligible voters.”

Once the review is complete, Tyner said, the legal challenge will be filed with the Mississippi Republican Party and later for a judicial review.

Kind of reminds of a kindergarten class I had where the little fat kid kept telling everybody he was the fastest runner no matter how many times he was beaten in a race.

I always wondered what happened to that kid.

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Courtesy of ADN:

The second grizzly bear mauling in less than two months on the outskirts of Alaska's largest city has sent another runner to the hospital with serious injuries. The attack this time came in Bird Valley, just south of Anchorage. It follows on an attack at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in mid-May.

Both attacks involved people surprising grizzly sows with cubs. The JBER attack involved a sow with small cubs of the year. The latest attack was launched by a sow with two nearly grown cubs, probably 2-year-olds.

Runner Suzanne Knudsen, who lives in a roadside community called Indian south of Anchorage, was less than a mile down the Bird Valley Trail near her home on Monday morning when she encountered the sow and cubs, according to Jessy Coltrane, area wildlife biologist with the Alaska State Troopers.

This poor woman was hit from behind by the mother after almost running into her two cubs.

The bear really did a number on her, and after it left she still had to wait an hour before she was rescued. Not too many things I can imagine that are more frightening than that.

Like I said in the headline this is only about 28 miles from my house and it is very close to one of my favorite hiking trails near McHugh Creek. (Which itself was the scene of one of the most brutal attacks in Alaska history.)

I take kids into the woods all of the time to go hiking, and these stories always send a chill up my spine.

I am very cautious and make very careful choices as to where to hike, how big of a group to take, and how to behave on the trails, but of course there is always the chance that my precautions will not be enough to avoid a confrontation.

Living in Alaska has been described as being surrounded by terrifying natural beauty, and I think that about sums it up.

I love it here but part of living in Alaska is also living with the fact that the state is almost like a serial killer waiting to take me out if I ever let my guard down. (By the way we have a lot of serial killers too.)

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Apparently Palin and her ghostwriter jotted this cry for a mental health intervention down and sent it to Breitbart, who as we know will print just about anything.

Hang onto your hats kids, this is yet another wild ride:

Enough is enough of the years of abuse from this president. His unsecured border crisis is the last straw that makes the battered wife say, “no mas.” (Did this bitch just compare the President to a wife beater? How do you say "Fuck you" in batshit crazy word salad gibberish?)

Without borders, there is no nation. Obama knows this. Opening our borders to a flood of illegal immigrants is deliberate. This is his fundamental transformation of America. It’s the only promise he has kept. (You know besides all of these.) Discrediting the price paid for America’s exceptionalism over our history, he’s given false hope and taxpayer’s change to millions of foreign nationals who want to sneak into our country illegally. Because of Obama’s purposeful dereliction of duty an untold number of illegal immigrants will kick off their shoes and come on in, competing against Americans for our jobs and limited public services. (Actually this current crisis is the result of the Child Trafficking bill signed into law by George W. Bush in 2008. Not Obama.)There is no end in sight as our president prioritizes parties over doing the job he was hired by voters to do. Securing our borders is obviously fundamental here; it goes without saying that it is his job. (Actually one of many. And if he had some help from Congress I am sure he would solve it as well.)

The federal government is trillions of dollars in debt, many cities are on the verge of insolvency, our overrun healthcare system, police forces, social services, schools, and our unsustainably (That's not a word.) generous welfare-state programs are stretched to the max. We average Americans know that. So why has this issue been allowed to be turned upside down with our “leader” creating such unsafe conditions while at the same time obstructing any economic recovery by creating more dependents than he allows producers? (Actually the economy has improved by leaps and bounds. And is now being compared to the Clinton economy of the 90's.) His friendly wealthy bipartisan elite, who want cheap foreign labor and can afford for themselves the best “border security” money can buy in their own exclusive communities, do not care that Obama tapped us out.

Have faith that average American workers – native-born and wonderful legal immigrants of all races, backgrounds, and political parties – do care because we’re the ones getting screwed as we’re forced to follow all our government’s rules while others are not required to do so. Many now feel like strangers in their own land. (Well racists, misogynists, and radical Christian fundamentalists at least.) It’s the American worker who is forced to deal with Obama’s latest crisis with our hard-earned tax dollars while middle class wages decrease, sustainable jobs get more scarce, and communities become unrecognizable and bankrupted due to Obama’s flood of illegal immigration.

Who’s looking out for the American workers? Who has their backs? Who fights for them? (You know I would usually guess Obama here, with his fighting for an increased minimum wage an all, but something tells me that is not the crazy lady's first choice.)

We should.

President Obama’s rewarding of lawlessness, including his own, is the foundational problem here. It’s not going to get better, and in fact irreparable harm can be done in this lame-duck term as he continues to make up his own laws as he goes along, and, mark my words, will next meddle in the U.S. Court System with appointments that will forever change the basic interpretation of our Constitution’s role in protecting our rights. (God, I hope so!)

It’s time to impeach; and on behalf of American workers and legal immigrants of all backgrounds, we should vehemently oppose any politician on the left or right who would hesitate in voting for articles of impeachment. (Hah! Sorry that one made me laugh out loud.)

The many impeachable offenses of Barack Obama can no longer be ignored. If after all this he’s not impeachable, then no one is.

Well he's not impeachable, but I am quite sure that the next Republican to occupy the White House WILL be.

Okay is there something beyond going full retard, that I just don't know about?

Perhaps we should just call it going "full Palin?"

I really thought that Palin had gone right off the deep end with her earlier rant, but damn this one makes that one seem like a moment of menstruation induced crankiness.

The idea that this lunatic, who apparently chose to quit her job rather than face possible prosecution, would suggest that our hard working President should be impeached is so ridiculous that it should be the new litmus test for determining a person's sanity.

And guess who just failed?

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