Ginsberg's Dissent

The 8 Best Lines From Ginsburg's Dissent on the Hobby Lobby Contraception Decision | Mother Jones:

On Monday, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg penned a blistering dissent to the Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling that the government can't require certain employers to provide insurance coverage for methods of birth control and emergency contraception that conflict with their religious beliefs. Ginsburg wrote that her five male colleagues, "in a decision of startling breadth," would allow corporations to opt out of almost any law that they find "incompatible with their sincerely held religious beliefs."

Here are seven more key quotes from Ginsburg's dissent in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby:

Wounded At Gun Show

Oops: Gun dealer shoots woman at gun show - The Washington Post:

Shooting a customer rarely results in a sale.

Yet, at a gun show in Bloomsburg, Pa., on Saturday, a gun dealer may have done just that...

Blackwater Blackmail

Before Shooting in Iraq, a Warning on Blackwater - NYTimes.com:

Just weeks before Blackwater guards fatally shot 17 civilians at Baghdad’s Nisour Square in 2007, the State Department began investigating the security contractor’s operations in Iraq. But the inquiry was abandoned after Blackwater’s top manager there issued a threat: “that he could kill” the government’s chief investigator and “no one could or would do anything about it as we were in Iraq,” according to department reports...

If The Shoe Fits...

Real Time Guest Brooks Compares 'Right Wing Reactionary' 'Tea Party' To Nazis | Crooks and Liars:

It seems the right is none too happy with one of Bill Maher's guests, Max
Brooks, author and son of filmmaker Mel Brooks, for his comments on this Friday's Real Time. Brooks compared the extremists in the Republican party who have decided to brand themselves as the so-called "tea party" to the rise of the Nazis in post-WWI Germany...

Pain And The DEA

Cannonfire-- "Drugs, pain and the whole damned thing"
:

...It’s not just a war on black-market, “street” drugs, it’s a four decades-long societal blitzkrieg to control and micromanage every kind of illegal and legitimate psychopharmacological agent that has any conceivable anesthetic, euphoric or dissociative mind-altering properties. Many hundreds of thousands of arrests, prosecutions, convictions and imprisonments later, along with god knows how many wasted hundreds of billions and illegal drug activity in the USA is so demonstrably worse than it ever was when war was first declared back in 1970, that nobody knows whether to laugh or cry. Except, that is, the movers and shakers of the criminal underworld who of course are absolutely thrilled, along with the many legitimate businesses that prosper handsomely from this immensely self-destructive national crusade. Their greatest fear is that America might have an attack of common-sense and repeal drug prohibition...

Screech Harpy Hates Soccer

Ann Coulter: “No American whose great-grandfather was born here is watching soccer” - Salon.com:

...“If more ‘Americans’ are watching soccer today, it’s only because of the demographic switch effected by Teddy Kennedy’s 1965 immigration law,” Coulter writes. “I promise you: No American whose great-grandfather was born here is watching soccer,” she continues. “One can only hope that, in addition to learning English, these new Americans will drop their soccer fetish with time.”

SOS Clinton As Scapegoat

Narcissists, scapegoats and the golden child | The Confluence:

...Their most significant triumph to date has been to get their golden child elected. The scapegoat is Hillary Clinton. Look at any comment section of a left leaning blog and you will find this is true. Obama inherited the financial crisis. That’s why the economy sucks. The Republicans hate Obama. That’s why the ACA is FUBAR. Obama didn’t start the war in Iraq. So, it’s not his fault if the void we left when we pulled out of Iraq has destabilized the country...

Hillary can do nothing right. Everything she says is scrutinized in order to put the worst possible spin on it. She’s not perfect, that’s for sure, and right now, unless I see her move to the left boldly, I’m not voting for her. But, golly gee, nobody is as bad as the left seems to think she is. According to the left, she and her husband single handedly wrecked welfare and imposed an unconstitutional piece of legislation on gay people. Then they wickedly danced around the fire while chanting incantations and laughing evilly at the suffering of others. It’s an image of the Clintons that completely cuts out the crazy Whitewater scandal, the crazy Monica scandal, the hours of congressional hearings and special prosecutions and the millions of dollars that they and their friends and everyone who ever worked for them were forced to spend on what turned out to be harassment suits. This during the Newt Gingrich years. Remember Newt??...

Consumers Lose One

Broadcasters cheer as Aereo loses Supreme Court fight�-�Los Angeles Times:

In a major victory for the broadcast television industry, the Supreme Court ruled that Aereo — the start-up tech firm that distributes local television signals over the Internet — is illegal.

The 6-3 decision in the case of ABC vs. Aereo is likely to sound a death knell for the tiny company that launched in 2012 as a low-cost alternative to high-priced cable and satellite television. It promised to change the way that people watched TV...

Cruelty In America

The United States Of Cruelty - Esquire:

...We cheer for cruelty and say that we are asking for personal responsibility among those people who are not us, because the people who are not us do not deserve the same benefits of the political commonwealth that we have. In our politics, we have become masters of camouflage. We practice fiscal cruelty and call it an economy. We practice legal cruelty and call it justice. We practice environmental cruelty and call it opportunity. We practice vicarious cruelty and call it entertainment. We practice rhetorical cruelty and call it debate. We set the best instincts of ourselves in conflict with each other until they tear each other to ribbons, and until they are no longer our best instincts but something dark and bitter and corroborate with itself. And then it fights all the institutions that our best instincts once supported, all the elements of the political commonwealth that we once thought permanent, all the arguments that we once thought settled -- until there is a terrible kind of moral self-destruction that touches those institutions and leaves them soft and fragile and, eventually, evanescent. We do all these things, cruelty running through them like hot blood, and we call it our politics...

Another Casualty Of The Military Police Attitude

A SWAT team blew a hole in my 2-year-old son - Salon.com:

...After the SWAT team broke down the door, they threw a flashbang grenade inside. It landed in my son’s crib.

Flashbang grenades were created for soldiers to use during battle. When they explode, the noise is so loud and the flash is so bright that anyone close by is temporarily blinded and deafened. It’s been three weeks since the flashbang exploded next to my sleeping baby, and he’s still covered in burns.

There’s still a hole in his chest that exposes his ribs. At least that’s what I’ve been told; I’m afraid to look...

Drug Reform Summary

Why Conservatives Should Want to End the Drug War�|�James Carli:

The issue of drug policy reform is well-understood among commentators and activists on the left. The stark facts that drug use is roughly equal among all racial groups yet brown and black people bear the brunt of drug law arrests and incarceration is a glaring violation of civil rights and social justice, two buzzwords common among the progressive set...

Custom Religion

ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES: Fairness And Other Nonsense in the Gospels:

...Religions also have wonderful aspects, great messages and the ability to help those who suffer. At the same time, humans interpret presumed divine words (or their ideas of those) pretty poorly, on the whole. We are very clever at stressing the bits we like and ignoring the bits we don't like. Those who support literal readings of holy books are not much bothered by the fact that they talk about aspects of cultures which existed centuries ago and sometimes refer to very specific historic events or by the fact that literal readings are ultimately not feasible, because of both the internal inconsistencies they create and because of the problems of interpreting the meanings of ancient languages today.

What are you going to nail your view of life to? That might be the ultimate question which religions try to answer, but as the case of Erick Erickson demonstrates, the answer depends on the wielder of the hammer.

1% Gun Alert

The Rude Pundit: A Few Notes on Our Continuing Gun Derangement:

...There's a near-psychotic attachment people have to their guns, which is a sad commentary on where we are as a people here in the United States. But we've been through that tangled thicket of conflicted emotions before.

Instead, the Rude Pundit wants to ask a question of the people who bankroll the pro-gun movement, like the sinisterly wealthy Koch brothers, who give ass-tons of money to the NRA: Do you, as a rich person, really think it's smart to keep supporting policies that promote income inequality while at the same time fostering a belief in guns as the solution to Americans' problems? Have you really thought this through?

No So Fast, Montana

Court strikes down Montana immigration law:

A Montana judge has ruled that enactment of the state's 2012 voter-approved law banning undocumented immigrants from accessing state services is pre-empted by federal law and is unenforceable.

The law, which aims to deny government jobs and assistance to people in the U.S. illegally, required certain state agencies to certify through a federal database that those requesting services were United States citizens. If a person was not in the country legally, the Montana agency must turn over the name to federal immigration officials...

MSM Takes A Poll Pounding

MediaPost Publications Stop the Presses! Trust In News Media At All-Time Low 06/23/2014:

The proportion of Americans who say they have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the main sources of news -- newspapers, TV news and the Internet -- has fallen to an all time low of around 20%, according to a poll of 1,027 U.S. adults conducted by Gallup from June 5-8...

Inequality Defined

5 Ways Massive Inequality Is Paralyzing American Society | Alternet:

...1. A Broken System of Compensation: The Combined Salaries of 350,000 Pre-School Teachers is Less Than That of Five Hedge Fund Managers...

Much more here (Salon).

Will Getting Snark Raped

Gentleman George Will is getting damned tired of having to explain rape to you guttersnipes:

...It seems that, after explaining the ins and out of rape to you ungrateful curs, he was shocked and dismayed to discover that you promiscuous info-trollops on the intertubes are unable to comprehend the pearls of wisdom that he dispenses to the riff-raff gratis, courtesy of Ye Olde Washminster Poste...

Where Ignorance Is Power

Today's Conservatives: Pioneers of our new idiocracy - What Would Jack Do:

...Here’s the problem with this new emphasis on ignorance: There’s no way for America to retain even a shred of the “American Exceptionalism” Conservatives gleefully trumpet at every opportunity. How is ignorance of truth and denial of discernible reality supposed to help America compete in an increasingly global economy? There’s no benefit to be realized through aggressive, willful ignorance, and the damage done will not be easily undone.

Is it any wonder why I fear for the future of this (soon to be formerly) great country? We’re allowing agents of ignorance and idiocy to chart our course based of falsehoods and disinformation. There’s no telling which shore we’ll wash up on…but one day we’ll awaken to an American where idiots rule and the educated are shunned and treated like criminals. The transition to our American idiocracy will be complete...

Palin Stumbles Left

This One Issue Is Driving Sarah Palin To 'Renounce' Her 'Republican Ties':

In response to recently leaked images of hundreds of undocumented, unaccompanied minors warehoused in crowded federal cells, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) threatened to “renounce" her "Republican ties" over the GOP's failure to prevent the growing humanitarian crisis...

Yes, That's Their Job

Clinton: Matt Drudge, Karl Rove Planting ‘False Information’ � CBS DC:

Former secretary of state and potential 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton ridiculed Matt Drudge and Karl Rove as “gamers” simply looking to “divert attention” from real issues facing Americans...

Beck Gets It Right

Glenn Beck Admits Liberals Were Right About Iraq War | Crooks and Liars:

Has there been a lunar eclipse lately? I know we one in April, but that was three months ago. We had a full moon five days ago, but I don't think Glenn Beck was bitten by a werewolf, do you? Either way, this is something I thought I'd never hear come out of his mouth. He actually admitted that liberals were right about about the Iraq war...

Reid Roasts Dead-Eye Darth

Harry Reid: 'Being On The Wrong Side Of Dick Cheney Is Being On The Right Side Of History':

...On Tuesday, former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz Cheney joined the chorus of critics accusing President Barack Obama of abandoning Iraq to radical Islamic militants who have been gaining territory in their march to Baghdad.

"Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many," they wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.

But Reid was having none of it.

"If there's one thing this country does not need, is that we should be taking advice from Dick Cheney on wars," he said. "Being on the wrong side of Dick Cheney is being on the right side of history. To the architects of the Iraq War who are now so eager to offer their expert analysis, I say, Mr. President, thanks, but no thanks. Unfortunately, we have already tried it your way and it was the biggest foreign policy blunder in the history of the country..."

US Lousy Health Care

Why U.S. Health Care Is So Expensive and So Pathetic - The Daily Beast: 

America has flunked yet another health care test, finishing dead last in a Commonwealth Fund comparison of 11 industrialized nations across a wide range of health measures.

We are at the bottom of the barrel on just about every outcome one can measure, from lifespan after 60 years of age to care access—aka being insured—and having a regular doctor or place to be seen when sick or well. (The entire 32-page report, presented mostly in tables and big font, is here in pdf.)...

Why? Greed. GOP. Media propaganda. The repeal of the Fairness Doctrine by Raygun. Why? The inevitable chain of consequence.

US Lousy Health Care

Why U.S. Health Care Is So Expensive and So Pathetic - The Daily Beast: 

America has flunked yet another health care test, finishing dead last in a Commonwealth Fund comparison of 11 industrialized nations across a wide range of health measures.

We are at the bottom of the barrel on just about every outcome one can measure, from lifespan after 60 years of age to care access—aka being insured—and having a regular doctor or place to be seen when sick or well. (The entire 32-page report, presented mostly in tables and big font, is here in pdf.)...

Why? Greed. GOP. Media propaganda. The repeal of the Fairness Doctrine by Raygun. Why? The inevitable chain of consequence.

Weird Bergdahl Story

Twin Sisters Say Bowe Bergdahl's Dad Was Peeping-Tom STALKER | The Daily Caller:

The father of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl creepily harassed a pair of twin sisters in Hailey, Idaho, for several months, according to police reports obtained by the Daily Mail.

In 2011, long before Robert “Bob” Bergdahl began learning Pashto and Arabic or tweeted a Taliban spokesman, the bizarro bearded dad stalked Lacey and Allie Hillman, police documents say. He allegedly tried to steal a peek at one of the twins in the shower and even stole a little gnome from their garden.

For anyone who has a daughter – or is a daughter – the allegations are frightening....

Crazy In NC: Tillis Racist Edition

How We're Avoiding Saying "White People" These Days - Esquire:

...Not even trying very hard, are we? Tillis clearly cited both Hispanic and African Americans as a comparison to what he believes are "traditional" North Carolinians. And, we hasten to point out that many African American familes have been in North Carolina long enough to be considered "traditional," although how those families happened to arrive in the state differs a bit from the way the families like that of Thom Tillis happened to get there.

Gun Control Wins One

Supreme Court sides with gun control groups on straw purchase law | The Rundown | PBS NewsHour:

A divided Supreme Court sided with gun control groups and the Obama administration Monday, ruling that the federal ban on “straw” purchases of guns can be enforced even if the ultimate buyer is legally allowed to own a gun.

The justices ruled 5-4 that the law applied to a Virginia man who bought a gun with the intention of transferring it to a relative in Pennsylvania who was not prohibited from owning firearms...

Bad News For Dems?

Breaking news: Americans despise Congress; dislike Obama | OnPolitics:

...The news for President Obama is not much better — his approval rating is 44%, which is the same place it was in 2010 when a Republican/Tea Party wave pushed Democrats out of the majority in the House. President George W. Bush had a 38% rating in 2006 and Congress was at 35% when Democrats back took control of the House for the first time in 12 years. Since nobody expects Republicans to lose control of the House, the numbers seem most ominous for Democrats in the Senate. Or, as Gallup explains:...

A Good First Step

Starbucks offers workers free college tuition:

Starbucks employees nationwide will be eligible for a free college education through Arizona State University's online program beginning this fall.

The new initiative, touted as the first of its kind, will allow many of Starbucks' 135,000 workers to graduate debt free from ASU with no requirement to repay or stay on with the company. The funding will come from a partnership between ASU and Starbucks...

Greed To The Nth

The world’s richest people are sitting on gigantic piles of cash that aren’t earning them anything | Financial Post:

Canny caution or bumbling oversight, the world’s richest people have retained huge stockpiles of zero-yielding cash throughout the recent surge in financial asset prices.

Their persistence may have, counter-intuitively, prolonged the buoyancy of those very assets in the process — helping to inflate the outsize wealth of the super-rich further.

With the debate about rising inequality re-invigorated this year by French economist Thomas Piketty’s best-selling book on ballooning wealth gaps, the spending and savings behavior of the so-called “plutonomists” has rarely seen more scrutiny or had more influence on the economy and markets...

Iraq Analysis

ISIS Rampages, the Middle East Shakes :: Daniel Pipes:

...Republicans: Republicans unfairly blame the ISIS victories on Barack Obama: no, George W. Bush made the commitment to remake Iraq and he signed the "Status of Forces Agreement" in 2008 that terminated the American military presence in Iraq at the close of 2011. For the Republican Party to progress in foreign policy, it must acknowledge these errors and learn from them, not avoid them by heaping blame on Obama.

Democrats: The execution of Osama bin Laden three years ago was an important symbolic step of vengeance. But it made almost no difference operationally and it's time for Obama to stop crowing about Al-Qaeda being defeated. In fact, Al-Qaeda and its partners are more dangerous than ever, having moved on from terrorism to conquering territory. The well being of Americans and others depend on this reality being recognized and acted upon...

The Return Of Rmoney

Romney says he's not running but criticizes Clinton like a candidate�-�Los Angeles Times:

Mitt Romney insisted Friday that he would not attempt a third presidential run in 2016. But he sounded very much like the candidate he once was as he sharply criticized Hillary Rodham Clinton's record and denigrated the "Obama-Biden-Clinton" foreign policy as a "monumental bust..."

Fighting The Ammosexuals

It’s Time to Think Big or Shut Up on Gun Control - The Daily Beast:

...The reality is that the NRA will keep winning unless something changes in the approach by those like myself who desperately want to see a reduction in the number of people killed by guns each and every day. It’s either time we try a different approach or shut up. I’m not being rude, just being honest. Simply repeating the same arguments and hoping for a different result is a waste of time.

So what can be done that’s different? Well, here are a few suggestions. Some are activities already happening that need more support, while others are more long-term ideas...

Cops Just Now Charged In 2012 Killings

6 Cleveland officers plead not guilty in car chase - Houston Chronicle:

Six Cleveland police officers charged in a November 2012 car chase that ended with 137 gunshots and the deaths of two unarmed people have pleaded not guilty to various charges...

That's a long time between incident and action.

I've Been Flogging This Since Raygun

It’s time to fight Fox News: “The right wing wants to destroy everything great about this country” - Salon.com:

...I’d like to end with something else Payne said about one of her core concerns: courage.

The question they [today's Democrats] have to answer now is, “Are they brave enough to change?” And understand the word “brave” – and its sister word “courage”: Courage is not the absence of fear, it is the understanding that there is something that is more important than fear. What political leaders must assess is whether they think our country – and its citizens – are more important than their next reelection. And as long as they continue to think their next reelection is more important than the country, we will continue to underperform our potential as a nation. In the same way that companies who focus on short-term returns ultimately underperform.

What better long-term legacy could Obama want than to encourage others to take the long view as well?

Senate Finally Makes Good Move On VA

Senate passes bill that allows veterans to seek medical care outside VA system | The Rundown | PBS NewsHour:

After two overwhelming votes in two days, members of Congress say they are confident they can agree on a bill to improve veterans’ health care and send it to the president’s desk by the end of the month.

The Senate easily approved a bill Wednesday to help shorten wait times for thousands of military veterans seeking medical care, a day after the House unanimously adopted a similar measure...

The Viet Nam Effect Continues

It Wasn’t Just Bergdahl. On Afghanistan, All of America Is AWOL. - The Daily Beast:

...Even as we rightly made so much of the 70th anniversary of D-Day and the bravery of those who landed there, too many of us gave not a thought to the continuing war in Afghanistan and the 38,000 Americans who remain in harm’s way.

The soldiers who landed at Normandy knew that the whole country was thinking of them.

Cantor's Loss Gives New Life To Dems

Jack Trammell is the Democrat who no longer has to face Eric Cantor - CNN.com:

Jack Trammell unanimously won the Democratic nomination for Virginia's 7th Congressional District seat at the party convention last weekend. That's because no one else wanted to run against Rep. Eric Cantor, the second most powerful Republican in the House...

And he's a writer.

The Daily Flashback: Clinton Vs. Obama

Insulting the Wimmin Brains on Hillary vs Obama | The Confluence:

...Savor that for a moment. Just an instant and no more. What Digby is saying is what all of us Clintonistas have known for 6 years: the primary was a virtual dead heat and at any other convention, there would have been a floor fight. But *someone(s)* didn’t want a real primary. Those someones found it more expedient to ram Obama down our throats whether or not the country wanted it or not and they were willing to rig the nomination to get it. I suspect those someones were the same people who looked a bit further into the future and didn’t want any cramdowns on securitized mortgages or policies that would force the medical/insurance business to negotiate on costs...

O'Gun Weary

Obama: Gun law inaction ‘my biggest frustration’ - Jennifer Epstein - POLITICO.com:

President Barack Obama said Tuesday that it was “stunning to me” that Congress did not take real action to tighten gun laws following the late 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut...

The Daily Flashback: SOS Clinton Rules Edition

Achieve this | Uppity Woman:

...Let’s rewind to 2008. She lost the primary. Some say Obama was a better campaigner. Some say her campaign organization was a mess. Some say the media burned her. Some say the Democratic Party Effed her over by redistributing her delegates and then added insult to injuery by not even having the decency to hold a legitimate floor vote (the purpose of a convention) to honor the achievement of getting more primary votes than any other presidential candidate. Ever.

If I were she, I’d have been pissed and not ready to make nice. But not Hillary. She kept her promise and did “campaign her heart out” for Obama. It was lucky for him too because he was done and exhausted halfway through the primaries. (Hence the media drumbeat for WWTBQ...)

The Raging Patriots

Stupidest Man On The Internet: Vegas Spree Killers Were Socialists, Because ‘Neo-Nazi’:

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said it was contacted by the FBI about the Bundy Ranch showdown.

Jerad and Amanda Miller, the super-patriots who gunned down a couple of cops and a lady who was going to Wal-Mart in Vegas yesterday, may have bragged constantly to all their neighbors about their guns and about how they’d been hanging at Bundy Ranch with fellow super-patriot Cliven Bundy, but Jim Hoft, the Stupidest Man on the Internet, knows what really drove them: They were Socialists, Dude. Say what you want about their tenets, at least it’s an ethos...

The Shafting Of The Veteran, Part Infinity

Here's The Simple Reason Congress Hasn't Fixed The VA:

...Last Wednesday, when Shinseki came to receive his congressional tongue lashing, the hearing was packed, O'Rourke noted. But a subcommittee hearing the next day was sparsely attended by camera crews and, not coincidentally, members of Congress. "Subcommittees are where the real work is done -- questioning officials, listening to testimony from VSOs [veterans' service officers] and veterans, hearing from the inspector general, marking up bills," said O'Rourke.

Or, in the case of Congress, not done.

War Gear Reinforces Public As Enemy Perception

War Gear Flows to Police Departments - NYTimes.com:

...When the military’s mine-resistant trucks began arriving in large numbers last year, Neenah and places like it were plunged into the middle of a debate over whether the post-9/11 era had obscured the lines between soldier and police officer.

“It just seems like ramping up a police department for a problem we don’t have,” said Shay Korittnig, a father of two who spoke against getting the armored truck at a recent public meeting in Neenah. “This is not what I was looking for when I moved here, that my children would view their local police officer as an M-16-toting, SWAT-apparel-wearing officer...”

On American Terrorists

Georgia Courthouse Shooting - Sedition On Friday Afternoon - Esquire:

...Let's not kid ourselves. This guy is a product of more than his own psychoses. He is a product of a conservative movement that has lost its moral bearings, a gun culture than imbibes paranoia the way some people drink iced tea, a media infrastructure -- from Roger Ailes's empire through the poison from which Clear Channel and other media conglomerate profit, all the way down to the guys broadcasting on short-wave from their root cellars in upper Michigan -- that enables and encourages and empowers armed political paranoia and does so for the cheapest possible reasons, for political power and for corporate profit. And, no, Both Sides do not do this. There is nothing comparable on the Left to the vast ideological bunker of the mind that has been created and sustained by the institutions of modern conservatism within which Dennis Marx found a home. In a week in which Bowe Bergdahl has been slandered for cheap points and cheaper laughs, the emergence (once again) of an actual American terrorist should be a very sobering moment.

McMedia Flogged

Media Hold McCain Accountable For His Flip-Flop On Prisoner Exchange | Blog | Media Matters for America:

A growing number of mainstream media outlets are holding Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) accountable for flip-flopping on his support of a deal to release Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl from Taliban capitivity...

Comment Of The Day: Veteran Edition

I don't normally publish quotes with profanity so be forewarned, but sometimes profanity is appropriate and necessary.

Things In Politico That Make Me Want To Guzzle Antifreeze, Part The Infinity - Esquire

Bill Denaro · Top Commenter · League City, Texas

I am sick of this bullshit arguing amongst veterans. All of us served when we were asked, some of us made it back, some didn't. We all were affected by the war in our own way, and we all reacted to it in our own way. Every GD veteran alive knows you go over to war prepared for the worst you can possible think, and when you get there you realize you under estimated what the fckng word "worst" meant. I don't give two gd shits if this guy walked away, he went over just like all of us did, we owed him the decency to at least make sure we got him home. The fact we got him home alive is even better. The score keeping is for fckers that are either bitter fcks, stupid fcks, or fcks that never ever fckng went to war or served during war time. The fact that we have news agencies now attacking the gd family is sickening. It was sickening when they attacked Kerry, it still is. The same mofos that were in office when they attacked Kerry are there now. Nobody stepped up to stop it, hell we even re-elected some of them. Now this kid needs our support, webetter fckng step up or pretty soon we aren't going to have any kids tostep the fck up for. EIther that, or we are going to have another draft. The fact of the matter is that the two wars Iraq, and Afganistan have destroyed our armed forces. These kids are being chewed up and spitout in a staggering gd record. All our gd press can do is report that one of them might have cracked, and then go out and grab some of the others and splash them up in the screen saying shit about those that served with them. None of the press us giving the time of fckng day, or asking the important questions of why. All of us veterans know that answer, why the hell are we not telling the others? Why is it we are calling our fellow soldiers weak? Here is a little study that puts this in perspective, read it and weep.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/21836566/ns/us_news-military/t/army-desertion-percent-iraq-war/#.U5CUryqF_TJ

Reply · Like · 19 · 6 hours ago

My 1st Amendment Trumps Your 1st Amendment

Backlash cancels Hailey's celebration of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's return | Bowe Bergdahl | Idahostatesman.com:

...“The people down here in Texas think all you folks in Idaho are ready to give this boy a hero’s welcome,” Pringle said. “If there’s a hero’s parade, we will be there. We’ll stop the parade.”

Last year’s “Bring Bowe Back” gathering attracted 3,500 supporters, and organizers expected that to double with his safe return...

The world is filled with tiny, hateful, horrid people. More:

Man tied to cross draws small crowd on north Lubbock street

LUBBOCK, TX (KCBD) - Tuesday night a small crowd gathered in north lubbock to hear a message from a man who was tied to a cross.Gary Pringle is beginning what he calls a "personal mission" near Riversmith's at Avenue Q, near the Marsha Sharp Freeway. "I'm praying for several things," says Pringle.  "I'm praying I will be a better man, I'm praying that I will have a pure acceptable heart to a lady I love, and I'm hoping God will help us find Peggy Merimon..."

Comment Of The Day: Open Carry Edition

Guns Voting Locations Shelby County - Don't Take Your Guns To Vote - Esquire

Doug Telling · Top Commenter

A FB friend noted a sign in a bar he likes: "If you're too scared to walk around without your gun, you're not man enough to drink here."

SOS Clinton And The Media

Enough Already: Why The Press Should Stop Lecturing Hillary Clinton About The Press | Blog | Media Matters for America:

...Fast-forward to today and there's already a disingenuous, everything-could-go-wrong-for-Hillary brand of coverage that flourishes within the Beltway press corps. For instance, the New York Times last winter published a page-one article claiming the Clintons had to "rebuild" their bond with black voters, despite the fact the Clintons remain hugely popular with black voters.

More recently, the D.C. press has begun warning that Clinton's tenure as secretary of state could damage a potential presidential run. Yet a Pew Research poll this year indicated a strong majority of Americans (67 percent) applaud Clinton's time as secretary of state. In fact, when asked to identify the biggest positive of her long public career, the top response was Clinton's time as secretary.

So maybe that's why she doesn't trust the Beltway media?

And maybe it's time for reporters to stop with the navel gazing.

Another Berghdal Possibilty

Cannonfire: Berghdal The Spy

...If Berghdal were actually an infiltrator, then Hastings' piece went a long ways toward establishing cover. It's clear from the article that Hastings received a lot of help from the military and/or American intelligence. Obviously, someone "on high" wanted that portrait to appear in Rolling Stone...

Tea Bagger Helping Dems?

Thad Cochran and Chris McDaniel Tied in Primary - NYTimes.com:

The hard-fought Mississippi Republican Senate primary appears certain to go to a runoff in three weeks, with both the six-term incumbent, Senator Thad Cochran, and his Tea Party-backed challenger, State Senator Chris McDaniel, each garnering less than 50 percent of the vote in the achingly close first round of balloting Tuesday...

Medical Pot Wins In House

House's Pro-Medical Marijuana Vote Shocks Even Longtime Supporters:

Even longtime supporters of marijuana legalization were surprised early Friday morning when the House of Representatives voted for an amendment that would prevent the Drug Enforcement Administration and federal prosecutors from targeting medical marijuana in states where it is legal.

"Quite frankly, many of us who were sponsors of this amendment… didn't expect to win and were surprised by the margin of that victory this morning," Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) said at a press conference Friday morning, less than nine hours after the vote...

Tax Dodging Corps

America’s 10 Worst Sleazy, Mooching, Tax-Dodging Companies | Atlas Left:

...1. Verizon

Verizon paid nothing in taxes from 2008 to 2012, while making $19.3 billion dollars. Instead of paying taxes, it instead received a nice gift of $535 billion from the American Taxpayers in tax subsidies — it’s really nice of us to keep giving these companies all this money, isn’t it? We’re so generous — meaning their effective tax rate was negative 2.8% from 2008 to 2012.

That’s right. Their tax rate was negative.

Don’t you wish that you were a corporate person so you could get a negative tax rate?

Not All GOPer Trolls Are Completely Stupid

Conservative Writer Stephen Hayes Agrees: Critics Mischaracterized Clinton's Benghazi Testimony | Blog | Media Matters for America:

Weekly Standard writer and Fox News contributor Stephen Hayes broke ranks from his fellow conservatives and colleagues at Fox by agreeing with Hillary Clinton's assessment that her critics have mischaracterized her congressional testimony on the Benghazi attacks...

The Daily Flashback: Bad GOPers

Simply Left BehindThe Non-Rapturist's Guide To The Galaxy: Republicans Suck:

...The hearkens back to the firestorm Republicans raised back in the early 1980s, when it was revealed that President Ronald Reagan first demanded the Iranians hold Americans hostage until after the Presidential election that saw him garner the office, then traded them for arms to a nation we had embargoed from any materiel dealings with us.

Oh wait…! I forgot! There was none! Somehow the concerns that other Americans might be targeted were non-existent, despite the fact that the Iranians had far more at stake than the Taliban does. Somehow the concern that we were endangering American lives both here and abroad disappeared into the great gasball of Republican bloviating. Somehow the fact that no fewer than thirteen Reagan administration officials and employees were indicted for their involvement in this treasonous scandal eluded the Republican laser-like focus that seems to encapsulate their whole “breathholding until blue” over Benghazi and a dying American soldier...

Mississippi GOPer Fight

Haley Barbour Palin Santorum 'Outside Celebrities' Daniels | The Daily Caller:

Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is dismissing Sarah Palin and Rick Santorum as “outside celebrities” who have gotten involved in the highly-charged Mississippi GOP Senate primary to “help themselves nationally.”

Voters in Mississippi head to the polls on Tuesday, when incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran will face a challenge on the ballot from state Sen. Chris McDaniel...

Terror Faction Splits

Pakistan Taliban splits over 'un-Islamic' practices - CNN.com:

...The breakaway faction had made attempts to convince the TTP to give up what it said were "un-Islamic" practices, such as attacks in public places, extortion, and kidnappings, and decided to separate from the banned terrorist outfit after these attempts failed, a spokesperson for the newly-formed faction, Azam Tariq, said in a statement released to the media last week...

Why Does The GOP Hate GIs?

Both current military and veterans have been very ill served by the GOP. Yet, a great many of both groups still support their noxious politics, probably because of phony GOP flag waving.


Republicans claim Bowe Bergdahl release deal encourages terrorists | World news | theguardian.com:

Republicans have lambasted the White House for releasing five Taliban leaders in exchange for Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, saying the “dangerous” deal violated US policy on not talking to terrorists and may have broken the law.

GOP leaders rounded on the Obama administration on Sunday, accusing it of bypassing Congress and of encouraging terrorists to seize other US service members as hostages...

btw, they had to release at least three or our secret operative would have been easily exposed. Five? That means two of them will be working for the U.S.