CIA Spying Summary

The Snowden Effect: Who Ever Could Have Predicted? Cont'd - Esquire:

...Let's translate from the original weaselspeak, shall we? The CIA hacked Senate computers. They spied on the legislative committee that (theoretically, at least) is responsible for overseeing its operation. (Tell me again that Snowden is a schmendrick because oversight works so very well.) The spying concerned a still-secret report regarding the CIA's complicity in the war crimes committed by the previous administration. if it isn't clear by now, keeping this damn report secret is not only an offense against self-government, it has become a vehicle for corruption within all the institutions of government. This seems serious. I think somebody should probably get fired behind this...

Wingnut Welfare Recycles Morris

Catastrophically Wrong Forecaster Dick Morris Is Reinventing Himself As A Financial Expert | Blog | Media Matters for America:

Conservative pundit Dick Morris, who wrote 2005's Condi vs. Hillary: The Next Great Presidential Race and predicted Mitt Romney would win the 2012 election in a "landslide," now wants you to trust him with your retirement savings...

GOPer Israeli Agent?

Everything you need to know about Israel's view of the U.S. My [ ].

Familiar Bedfellows - Esquire:

The Israeli ambassador to the United States used to work for Frank Luntz [GOPer Operative]. Wonderful. Just what this whole mess needed -- some good old-fashioned propaganda and ratfking...

Report On Palin TV

Sarah Palin TV: America's 'Mom-in-Chief' made me reach for the remote - Telegraph:

Got a spare �6 a month? What better way to spend it watching Sarah Palin (and her sizeable family) opine on everything from impeaching President Obama to trimming the welfare state, with cheery scenes of family meals and hunting trips thrown in – gratis...

Turks Might Find It Hard To Rebottle Genie

Turkish deputy prime minister says women should not laugh out loud | World news | The Guardian:

One of the most senior members of the Turkish government sparked an outcry on Tuesday, after declaring that women should not laugh loudly in public...

Crazy In NC: Killing Voters Edition

Dana Milbank: North Carolina Republicans put ideology above lives - The Washington Post:

On July 1, the hospital in rural Belhaven, N.C., closed — a victim, in part, of the decision by the state’s governor and legislature to reject the expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare.

Six days later, 48-year-old Portia Gibbs, a local resident, had a heart attack. The medevac to take her to the next-nearest hospital (as many as 84 miles away, depending on where you live) didn’t get there in time...

Boner Lawsuit Backfire

Proposed GOP Lawsuit Against Obama Backfires, Helps Democrats Raise Millions:

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee raised $1 million in a single day on Monday, chairman Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) said. The fundraising juggernaut was driven by Democratic opposition to a lawsuit House Republicans intend to file against President Barack Obama related to the enforcement of certain Obamacare provisions...

Climate Change Producing Morlocks

The Town of Coober Pedy, Australia, Has Moved Underground to Escape Extreme Heat - weather.com:

Faced with seasonal dust storms and temperatures that regularly reach above 110 degrees, citizens of a remote Australian town have made a drastic move — underground.

The desert town is called Coober Pedy, which was founded in 1915 when opal was first discovered in the region and miners began settling in. As they mined the earth to discover one of the world's richest gem deposits, they also found why people hadn't settled in this barren region of Australia before: the extreme heat. The settlers dug underground dwellings to escape the temperatures, and the practice still continues today...

Dealing With The Open Carry Nuts

PQED: [Follow-up] Should people run away from open-carry activists? A response to a thousand comments.:

Last week I argued that people encountering a gun activist who is openly carrying a weapon should leave restaurants immediately and make the activist pay for their meal. This struck a chord. As of right now, that post has been shared by over 70,000 people and there are almost 1,000 comments. By the time you read this, there will be more. First and foremost, THANK YOU! Thank you to everyone who read it, shared it, and commented on it. Even if we disagree, I am deeply honored that you all took the time to consider what I wrote and I look forward to continuing the discussion. Here is my response to all those who took the time to post their thoughts. It is long, but 1,000 comments are a lot to consider...

Let The Weed Grow!

The New York Times Calls for Marijuana Legalization - NYTimes.com:

It took 13 years for the United States to come to its senses and end Prohibition, 13 years in which people kept drinking, otherwise law-abiding citizens became criminals and crime syndicates arose and flourished. It has been more than 40 years since Congress passed the current ban on marijuana, inflicting great harm on society just to prohibit a substance far less dangerous than alcohol.

The federal government should repeal the ban on marijuana.

We reached that conclusion after a great deal of discussion among the members of The Times’s Editorial Board, inspired by a rapidly growing movement among the states to reform marijuana laws...

Great Essay On Higher Ed

Ivy League Schools Are Overrated. Send Your Kids Elsewhere. | New Republic:

...High-quality public education, financed with public money, for the benefit of all: the exact commitment that drove the growth of public higher education in the postwar years. Everybody gets an equal chance to go as far as their hard work and talent will take them—you know, the American dream. Everyone who wants it gets to have the kind of mind-expanding, soul-enriching experience that a liberal arts education provides. We recognize that free, quality K–12 education is a right of citizenship. We also need to recognize—as we once did and as many countries still do—that the same is true of higher education. We have tried aristocracy. We have tried meritocracy. Now it’s time to try democracy.

More Media Should Correct Distortions

Conservative Media's Favorite Economist Caught Distorting Facts About Taxes And Job Creation | Blog | Media Matters for America:

...On July 24, The Kansas City Star published a correction to Moore's op-ed, specifically stating that the author had "misstated job growth rates for four states and the time period covered." The editorial board of the Star inserted this annotation to Moore's inaccurate claims:...

On Fox "Polling"

Adventures in Fox News polling, Part VII | MSNBC:

...Fox News’ habit of playing political games with its polling has been ongoing for a while. I first noted it back in March 2007, when the network’s poll asked, in all seriousness, “Do you think the Democratic Party should allow a grassroots organization like Moveon.org to take it over or should it resist this type of takeover?” Soon after, another Fox poll asked, “Do you think illegal immigrants from Mexico should be given special treatment and allowed to jump in front of immigrants from other countries that want to come to the United States legally, or not?”...

Where Things Work (Or Not)

Left Coast Rising - NYTimes.com:

The states, Justice Brandeis famously pointed out, are the laboratories of democracy. And it’s still true. For example, one reason we knew or should have known that Obamacare was workable was the post-2006 success of Romneycare in Massachusetts. More recently, Kansas went all-in on supply-side economics, slashing taxes on the affluent in the belief that this would spark a huge boom; the boom didn’t happen, but the budget deficit exploded, offering an object lesson to those willing to learn from experience...

Let The Heads Roll

We want answers from the pols: Why do Americans have to put up with Exploitative Profit Mining? | The Confluence:

This is an invitation to the politicians out there to answer this question. Why are Americans expected to tolerate exploitative profit mining by the wealthy and well connected? Why are we supposed to just sit here like crops to be harvested? As soon as there is even a teensy bit of disposable income, that we are supposed to sock away for the future, some capitalist on steroids has to find a way of siphoning it off for his own use and profit.

We all know the game is rigged and yet we’re expected to put all of our precious savings in the stock market or in the hands of fund managers or pay a steep tax penalty to cover our living expenses if we have the misfortune to suffer periods of extended nemployment before we turn 59.5...

We won't see real change until OWS et.al. leave the park and head to Westchester et. al., reminding everyone that gated communities don't.

Cruz Returns True Blood Snark

Ted Cruz bares fangs at ‘misogynist’ True Blood episode mocking him:

...On Twitter, Cruz used the slight to joke about Democrats committing voter fraud.

“Then again, I guess I never had a chance w/ the vampire vote since the dead tend to vote overwhelmingly for Dems,” he tweeted.

Oh Teddy, you're so witty.

Stay Classy, Ted

Ted Nugent Fires Back At ‘Unclean Vermin’ After Native American Tribe Canceled His Show | Crooks and Liars

No Amount Of Practice Can Fix Crazy

Michelle Bachmann: What if I decide to run in 2016? | Early & Often:

While talking about another presidential run in 2016, Michelle Bachmann says "practice makes perfect..."

Corporate Freeloaders

America’s Top 10 Corporate Tax Avoiders - Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont

HTwoOH In MoTown

My bold.
Walk On The Water, Cont'd - Esquire:

...I walked with some of those folks on Saturday. I walked with nurses who have been trying to do their jobs in homes without water. I walked with retired autoworkers who wonder why the golf courses get to be hundreds of thousands of dollars in arrears while they lose their water for owing $150...

Death Of A Liberal

James Garner: An Appreciation Of A Liberal | Liberaland:

Garner once said, “I’m a ‘bleeding-heart liberal,’ one of those card-carrying Democrats that Rush Limbaugh thinks is a communist. And I’m proud of it.”

When The Dems Failed

Right-wing obstruction could have been fought: An ineffective and gutless presidency’s legacy is failure - Salon.com:

...In point of fact, there were plenty of things Obama’s Democrats could have done that might have put the right out of business once and for all—for example, by responding more aggressively to the Great Recession or by pounding relentlessly on the theme of middle-class economic distress. Acknowledging this possibility, however, has always been difficult for consensus-minded Democrats, and I suspect that in the official recounting of the Obama era, this troublesome possibility will disappear entirely. Instead, the terrifying Right-Wing Other will be cast in bronze at twice life-size, and made the excuse for the Administration’s every last failure of nerve, imagination and foresight. Demonizing the right will also allow the Obama legacy team to present his two electoral victories as ends in themselves, since they kept the White House out of the monster’s grasp—heroic triumphs that were truly worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize. (Which will be dusted off and prominently displayed.)...

The Mexican Border War

Ranchers in Brooks County, Texas, Round Up Illegals:

...He sleeps near a Beretta, precisely close enough so that he can reach for the gun in the dark. He keeps a loaded AR-15 assault rifle and a Ruger 380 in the truck, a comfort that does not stop him from persistently rubbing his fingers together...

Wonder how many ranchers have been killed by illegals who crept up on them in the dark.

Comment Of The Day: Copping For Profit Edition

Cops. Cash. Cocaine. How Sunrise police make millions selling drugs. - Sun Sentinel

Stephen's Leap Page Downing · Top Commenter · Cal State University Los Angeles 

 The below letter has been emailed to the Sunrise Commissioners:

Dear Mr. Mayor and Members of the Commission;

Your police department and its management have brought shame upon your city as well as the profession that I have been a part for more than forty years. Policing for Profit is a corruption that has metastasized across our Nation and unfortunately the scope of abuse exploited by your police department has now become the most infamous due to the viral dissemination of "How Sunrise Police Make Millions Selling Drugs, " the outstanding investigative reporting supported by the Sun Sentinel.

Public safety is clearly not a factor in what you are allowing to continue. What is "legal" today is merely a governmental substitute for the bags of cash delivered to those who ran the police departments during the Capone era. Police resources are diverted from public safety in favor of a corrupted drug war that has now clearly corrupted your police department. The sooner the Sunrise Commission admits that this ill-conceived program, one that your chief of police grounds in nobel cause corruption, is in fact injurious, perverse and offensive to a democratic society the sooner you will be able to end the practice of policing for profit and restore the image of the City of Sunrise back to a level of professionalism that lends truth to what is now a lie in your Chief's web page message:

"We have assembled one of the finest teams in law enforcement, whose loyalty and professionalism is demonstrated by its commitment to surpassing the level of excellence we have achieved in prior years. We
will never be satisfied with the status quo."

Unfortunately your police officers and their chief are clearly married to, and corrupted by, the status quo and should you choose to end this perverted evil in your city, be prepared for the Sunrise Police Union to protest, label you as being soft on crime and undertake a program to instill fear in the electorate, not because they believe that crime and violence will increase, but because a good part of their venal income will end and scare tactics are the only instrument they have in their tool box to stop you. I have attached a white paper and the link to an article that may benefit your education related to this subject. I wish you luck in restoring the image of Sunrise.

Best Regards,

Stephen Downing
Deputy Chief, Los Angeles Police Department (ret.)

A Victory For Americanism

Liberals and Libertarians Find Common Ground in House - NYTimes.com:

From abortion to electronic privacy to background checks for gun purchases, a strange thing has been happening on the floor of the House as it debates its spending bills for the coming fiscal year: the stirrings of liberalism.

The House on Thursday voted 221 to 200 to approve an amendment by one of its most vocal liberal members, Representative Rosa DeLauro, Democrat of Connecticut, to ban federal contracts for companies that set up sham headquarters in offshore tax havens like Bermuda. Thirty-four Republicans bucked their party to push it to passage...

A GOPer Enlightenment

I was poor, but a GOP die-hard: How I finally left the politics of shame - Salon.com:

...I finally “got it.” In 2012, I shunned my self-destructive voting habits and supported Obama. I only wished there were a major party more liberal than the Democrats for whom I could vote. Even as I saw the folly of my own lifelong voting record, many of my friends and family moved further into the Tea Party embrace, even as conservative policies made their lives worse.

I have a close friend on permanent disability. He votes reliably for the most extreme conservative in every election. Although he’s a Nevadan, he lives just across the border in California, because that progressive state provides better social safety nets for its disabled. He always votes for the person most likely to slash the program he depends on daily for his own survival. It’s like clinging to the end of a thin rope and voting for the rope-cutting razor party...

Blame It On O

Republicans Respond to the Ukraine Crash by...Blaming President Obama - NYTimes.com:

The Gaza Strip is in flames, Israeli troops and tanks rolling in for what is certain to be a bloody military operation in which the region’s battered civilians will once again absorb most of the pain. Meanwhile governments around the world are scrambling to find out who shot down a Malaysian airliner in eastern Ukraine (probably Kremlin-backed secessionists) and why (probably by accident). There are thousands of questions to answer about this nightmare, which is a direct result of the fact that there are gangs of armed men fighting with powerful and dangerous weapons in one of the most volatile places in the world, where Russia bumps up against Western Europe.

So how do Senator John McCain, the self-styled expert on all things military, and Representative Peter King, the equally self-styled expert on national security, respond? By attacking President Obama...

Disturbing Article

Like the author, I have no idea how to process the data, but I do find it unsettling. It offers no hope in identifying haters. The Data of Hate - NYTimes.com

KS Reds Turning Blue

Kansas Democrat Paul Davis endorsed by 104 Republicans:

...On Monday 104 Republicans who served or are serving in federal, state, and local offices have endorsed Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Paul Davis and Democratic Lieutenant Gubernatorial Candidate Jill Docking. The group calls themselves Republicans for Kansas. The list off Republicans is comprehensive and will likely give Sam Brownback heartburn...

Crazy In NC: Illegal Entry Edition

Exposed: N. Carolina cops lied about 911 calls to illegally search homes | The Free Thought Project:

...According to the transcript of the exchange provided by Tucker, Beck admitted on the stand to the defense attorney that he “entered the house based on a lie,” and considers this tactic on par with departmental “policy for domestic violence warrants.”

Durham County Chief District Judge Marcie Morey responded by dropping the weed charges against the defendant.

“You cannot enter someone’s house based on a lie,” the justice said, according to Tucker...

Teacher Pay

Are you sick of highly-paid teachers?:

Teachers' hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work nine or ten months a year! It's time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do -- babysit!

We can get that for less than minimum wage...

Pierce Flogs Darth

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

...You [Deadeye Darth Dick Cheney]  cheap fraud. You people didn't "face" any threat before 9/11. Every damn one of you fell asleep at the switch. You abandoned counterterrorism in favor of chasing porn merchants and Tommy Chong. You exiled Richard Clarke. You started worrying about missile defense. Your boss took a vacation and blew off his CIA briefings and failed to read his presidential daily briefings. You watched the towers fall, at least partly through your sheer dereliction of duty, and you turned a national tragedy into a personal opportunity to get rich.

He acknowledged that "you can't blame [Obama] for the entire problem developing," but insisted that Obama has "never admitted his problem" because he sees Iraq as more stable after the withdrawal of U.S. troops than it actually is. "The world's not getting safer, it's getting far more dangerous," he said, as Lynne nodded in agreement...

More Proof MTP Is Fox-Plus

David Gregory showed his blatant GOP bias on MTP:

...Rick Santorum did a very good job of keeping the topic on the problems within the Republican Party. He even stated that they needed a positive message that spoke to the blue collar worker. He said that was the reason for writing his book “Blue Collar Conservatives: Recommitting to an America That Works.”

Unasked, out of context, and out of the blue David Gregory blurted out ‘the Obama economy’’. It is obvious where his thoughts were. You could see a slight controlled surprise on Jennifer Granholm’s face.

Many in the Conservative sphere love to talk about the Liberal Media. Most Liberals are still trying to find it.

What Teachers Told Obama

What 4 teachers told Obama over lunch - The Washington Post:

...In place of literature, science experiments, and engineering design challenges, students in these schools often receive scripted curricula, test prep booklets, and worksheets. Drudgery has been substituted for rigor...

Doubling Down At VA

Alabama VA falsifications continued even after caught:

The Central Alabama Veterans Health Care System pulmonologist who falsified more than 1,200 patient records kept doing it even after he was caught, and even when he was caught again, little was done to discipline him, according to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel...

MoDo, Clinton Hater, GOPer Shill

NYT's Maureen Dowd: "There's Something Unseemly" About Chelsea Clinton Charity Speeches | Blog | Media Matters for America:

...Even after paying Clinton's fee, which she has noted goes to the Clinton Foundation, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Foundation expects to profit from an upcoming Hillary Clinton speech. Dowd failed to mention that point, or the fact that the evidence-free claim that Clinton has not been truthful about the donation of the fees comes from America Rising PAC, a Republican-aligned opposition research outfit.

Dowd's criticisms of Chelsea and Hillary Clinton over speaking fees that are donated to a charitable foundation are largely in line with Dowd's take on Hillary Clinton over the years.

According to a June 18 Media Matters report, 72 percent of 195 columns authored by Dowd about Hillary Clinton since November 1993 had a negative bent. Among the repetitious tropes used by Dowd, she often accused Clinton of being an enemy to or betraying feminism (35 columns, 18 percent of those studied), power-hungry (51 columns, 26 percent), unlikeable (9 columns, 5 percent), or phony (34 columns, 17 percent).

Fracking The Constitution

Children given lifelong ban on talking about fracking | Environment | The Guardian:

Two young children in Pennsylvania were banned from talking about fracking for the rest of their lives under a gag order imposed under a settlement reached by their parents with a leading oil and gas company.

The sweeping gag order was imposed under a $750,000 settlement between the Hallowich family and Range Resources Corp, a leading oil and gas driller. It provoked outrage on Monday among environmental campaigners and free speech advocates...

A Message For The Cons

John Fugelsang to GOP: Not a Christian if don't help the sick:

...Later on in the segment Dr. Michael Dyson who was subbing for Ed Schultz, asked John Fugelsang why Republicans were against something, Obamacare in general, the Medicaid Expansion in particular, that could help many of their own constituents. John Fugelsang gave one of his classic logical rhetorical answers.

If you are afraid about a public option and competition stop calling yourself a capitalist. If you don’t want to help the sick stop calling yourself Christian. And if you don’t want to save American lives stop calling yourselves patriots. I think what the President is up against right now is a party that is at war with itself. And I do think there is a great chance here for the President to step in and remind the American people especially socially conservative Republican voters, these guys shutdown the government and cost you billions. These guys had over 50 attempts to repeal this and now a lawsuit we all know is not going anywhere. If you are not a millionaire, why are you still supporting the GOP?...

Con To Con Advice

The Impeachment Delusion - WSJ:

...Republicans aiming to rebuild a governing majority should be making a systematic case about the failures of Democratic governance that include slow growth and stagnant incomes, fewer health-care choices and higher costs, growing world disorder, and more. Trying to impeach Mr. Obama now is firing at the wrong target at the wrong time with the wrong ammunition.

Bad Deals For People

Good deals for vampiric businesses.

Middle Class Political Economist: Stopping Job Piracy in Dayton, Denver,... and maybe even Kansas City:

As I have reported before, job piracy is a big problem in metropolitan areas like New York City and Kansas City. Giving subsidies to relocate existing facilities is a net loss for the country and for the region as well. The flip side is that the existence of job piracy makes it possible for companies to threaten to leave their current location unless they get a subsidy, as Sears has done twice in Illinois. I showed in my book Competing for Capital that several multi-state agreements to end job piracy have been total failures...

Comment Of The Day: Bundy Bunch Edition

SPLC Issues Bundy Ranch Report | Crooks and Liars

Bammac 4 hours ago

The Sagebrush Rebellion, The Whiskey Rebellion, and now the Tiny DickCommando Uprising. Welcome to Foxland. Check your brains at the door.

Popcorn Murderer Walks Free

The article is behind a subscription wall but it appears the mook was released on a $150k bond, which seems awfully low to me. Wonder how much bond a black kid would have to put up for the same crime, assuming he arrived alive in jail? For that matter, how much would a white non-cop have to post, if he could get bond? Maybe the only color that really matters is blue. Ex-cop charged in Fla. popcorn shooting released on bond - CSMonitor.com

GOP Paying Their Sponsors

House Republicans vote for business tax cut | Politics - KXLY.com:

House Republicans, who fervently pound the podium against the deficit, didn't blink Friday at passing a whopping $287 billion business tax cut measure with no effort to pay for or offset that amount.

GOP lawmakers argued the bill helps the economy, but budget-watching organizations outside Congress proclaimed it an irresponsible move.

The 258-160 vote marked one of the largest unpaid-for measures passed by the House in years, but was also the latest sign that tax cuts are at the center of the Republican universe and the ballyhooed deficit fight is not on the same level as a priority...

WNC Is King Of Severe Weather!

The Severe Weather Capital Of The United States Is... North Carolina? - YouTube
No wonder I can't get any fishing in.

The Daily Flashback: Raygun's Beirut Blunder

Wasting tax dollars on Benghazi? Then why not Beirut!:

On October 3, 1983, a truck full of explosives hit the Marine Barracks at the airport in Beirut, Lebanon. The Marines were ordered there by then president Ronald Reagan. The result was 241 American service men killed: 220 Marines, 18 Sailors, and 3 Soldiers. Wounded: 128. Of those wounded, 13 would later die of their injuries and are counted among the dead. This was the biggest single day loss of Marines since Iwo Jima 1945.

The fact is these Marines should not have been in this position. The Marines were under strict orders not to load their weapons. This order came from President Reagan himself. The commander of the Marines in Beirut, Col. Timothy J. Geraghty stated, “It didn’t take a military expert to realize that our troops had been placed in an indefensible situation. Anyone following the situation in Lebanon in ordinary news reports could realize a tragedy was in the making” (phillyburbs.com)...

AP Reports On FL Districts

Judge rules Florida Legislature broke laws on maps:

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The Florida Legislature illegally drew the state's congressional districts to primarily benefit the Republican Party, a judge has ruled, and has ordered them redrawn...

Yes, it's AP so I dare not quote too many of their words lest the Heavens open, the seas flood, and the earth quake.

Who's Working The Job?

'I'M THE GUY DOING MY JOB:' Obama chides GOP for opposing his agenda at rally-like Texas speech - NY Daily News:

...But his now regular derision toward the GOP took a seemingly unscripted Hollywood turn when he again scoffed at House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) for threatening to sue him for allegedly illegal executive actions.
Obama referenced the 2006 movie 'The Departed,' in his comments about the GOP. In the movie, Sergeant Dignam (played by Mark Wahlberg) says, 'I'm the guy doing my job. You must be the other guy.' Warner Bros. Pictures Obama referenced the 2006 movie 'The Departed,' in his comments about the GOP. In the movie, Sergeant Dignam (played by Mark Wahlberg) says, 'I'm the guy doing my job. You must be the other guy.'

“Really? Sue me for doing my job? Use taxpayer money to sue me for doing my job while you don’t do your job?”...

Rush Goes Nuts

Limbaugh Praises FEMA's Response To Hurricane Katrina: "One Of The Most Effective Emergency Responses In Our History" | Video | Media Matters for America:

LIMBAUGH: And by the way folks, there's another thing, and I challenge anybody to independently verify this: The FEMA U.S. government response, to Katrina, was one of the most massive, one of the fastest, and one of the most effective emergency responses in our history. Go, independently verify that, if you doubt me. I imagine even some of you in the audience who would call yourselves conservative Republicans are saying, "Rush, be careful now, you know that's not true..."

I watched it on tv. I think I'll believe my lying eyes.

Nugent Accuses O'Voters Of Racism

NRA's Ted Nugent: Americans Spat On MLK's Grave By Electing Obama | Blog | Media Matters for America:

 National Rifle Association board member Ted Nugent wrote that some people who supported President Obama "defiled the sacrifices and vision of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and spat on his grave" because they voted for Obama "based on the color of his skin instead of the content of his character..."

Darth The Fire Bug

Dick Cheney Is Yelling Fire and Wonders Why No One Is Listening�|�David Paul:

...In his broadside against President Obama, Dick Cheney fails to grasp the central irony of his situation. Cheney wants us to respond to his cries of "fire," but does not understand that all we see when he speaks is the arsonist. Speaking to Charlie Rose, Cheney admonished those fixated on how we got into Iraq and, despite repeated prodding, he refuses to amend or apologize for a single word of an historical record on his watch that has been so deeply contradicted. Even as he scorns the president in a manner never seen before by one administration toward a successor, Cheney is a man with no sense of accountability for his own actions and his impact on the world around him...

NOLA Ex Goes Down

Ray Nagin, Former New Orleans Mayor, Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison - NYTimes.com:

C. Ray Nagin, the former mayor of New Orleans, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Wednesday on federal corruption charges.

The sentence was less than the recommended 15 years, but Judge Ginger Berrigan of United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana told the court that the evidence failed to show that Mr. Nagin had organized or had been a leader of a corruption scheme...

Con Duped By A Commie

The Strange Trials Of Bob Menendez - Esquire:

...The latest—and perhaps greatest—example features not only Menendez, but Castro and Tucker Carlson, as well, and its historical resonance echoes through everything from the George Washington Bridge affair to ABSCAM. Let us explain...

Not Pot Is Not Not On Crime

Here's the Lawless Hellscape Colorado Has Become Six Months After Legalizing Weed - Mic:

...Marijuana-related arrests, which make up 50% of all drug-related crimes, have plummeted in Colorado, freeing up law enforcement to focus on other criminal activity. By removing marijuana penalties, the state is estimated to save somewhere between $12 million and $40 million, according to the Colorado Center on Law and Policy.

According to government data, the Denver city- and county-wide murder rate has dropped 42.1% since recreational marijuana use was legalized in January. This is compared to the same period last year, a time frame encompassing Jan. 1 through May 31. Violent crime in general is down almost 2%, and major property crimes are down 11.5% compared to the same period in 2013.

As the Huffington Post notes, this is a far cry from wild-eyed claims by legalization opponents that legal weed was the devil's work and Colorado would see a surge in crime and drug use...

Crazy In NC: Hands Of Time Edition

How North Carolina Turned So Red So Fast:

On a wall in Larry Hall’s North Carolina House office is a poster that welcomes visitors to the state. It’s in the style of an interstate highway sign and advises those who look at it to set their clocks back 50 years. That touch isn’t a demonstration of nostalgia -- it’s a reminder from the House Democratic leader of his belief that the Republican majority currently running North Carolina has undone 50 years of moderate-to-progressive state government.

Hall sees the last half-century as one of steady achievement that pulled the state ahead of most of its Southern neighbors in everything from voter participation to higher education. Democrats, who ran the state during most of those years, now find themselves on the sidelines, watching a Republican legislature turn back decades of Democratic priorities and enact a starkly conservative agenda in a state that helped elevate Barack Obama to the White House. “Right now the environment is so antagonistic, so confrontational, you don’t get to do those gradual changes,” he says...

Your Police State At Work

Four librarians gagged and threatened with prison time under the Patriot Act | Police State USA:

Using the broad powers granted under the USA PATRIOT Act, the FBI demanded that 4 librarians produce private information about library patrons’ reading habits, then used an endless gag order to force them to remain silent about the request for the rest of their lives under penalty of prison time...

TX Insanity

Crazy Land - Esquire:

...It seems almost pointless to mention this but there is simply no state Democratic party in any of the 50 states that is so clearly, obviously demented. This is the Republican Party. Yuval Levin and Ramesh Ponnuru are not. In fact, I think all those bold conservative thinkers of whom the New York Times thinks so much should bring their Big Ideas down to the next Texas state Republican convention and see how far they get. John Boehner, and Mitch McConnell, and especially obvious anagram Reince Priebus, who nominally presides over Bedlam, need to be asked every day which parts of the Texas Republican platform they support and which parts they don't. They don't get to use the crazies to get elected and then hide behind fake Washington politesse when the howls from the hinterlands get too loud. We allow ourselves only two major political parties. One of them is completely out of its fcking mind. This is a national problem.

Nasty Parade

Float targeting Obama, library draws criticism:

A float comparing President Barack Obama's future presidential library to an outhouse has drawn criticism from some after it appeared in the Fourth of July parade in Norfolk.

It featured a wooden outhouse labeled "Obama Presidential Library" and a figure in overalls standing outside the structure...

Once again, Not In The South.

A Good Idea On Science Cranks

BBC staff told to stop inviting cranks on to science programmes - Telegraph:

BBC journalists are being sent on courses to stop them inviting so many cranks onto programmes to air ‘marginal views’

The BBC Trust on Thursday published a progress report into the corporation’s science coverage which was criticised in 2012 for giving too much air-time to critics who oppose non-contentious issues...

Americans Could Learn Here

Comment: Facing the ugly truth | JPost | Israel News:

...It raises questions about who we are and who we are becoming. Granted, Israeli and Palestinian societies reacted so differently to the murders of their countrymen. Israelis grieved, held rallies, called for unity and struggled with how to make things better. A few thugs amid the vast majority decided to take revenge. Arab communities, on the other hand, have reacted by widespread rock throwing, dragging Jews out of their cars and setting the vehicles on fire, and violent civil disobedience. The fact that Arab society still doesn't know how to express itself without violence is an issue that only they can deal with, if they so choose...

What You Didn't Hear About The Clinton Speaking Fees

Hillary Clinton defends $200G speaking fee for colleges: it goes to charity - NY Daily News:

Hillary Clinton defended her $200,000 fee for university speeches since its all for charity.

The former Secretary of State, in London promoting her book, said on Friday that she doesn’t hang on to the money she has earned from college events.

“All of the fees have been donated to the Clinton Foundation for it to continue its life-changing and life-saving work. So it goes from a foundation at a university to another foundation,” she told ABC News about past gigs, including a February speech at the University of Miami, a March appearance at UCLA and an April stop at UCONN...

Many universities are sitting on multibillion dollar endowments. They can afford it.

Here's Hoping...

My bold.

Unease in G.O.P. Over Mississippi Tea Party Anger - NYTimes.com:

The stormy aftermath of Mississippi’s Republican Senate runoff has sent Tea Party conservatives around the country to the ramparts, raising the prospect of a prolonged battle that holds the potential to depress conservative turnout in November in Mississippi — and possibly beyond...

Good Labor News

Unions representing government workers gain ground in labor movement | The Rundown | PBS NewsHour:

Unions representing government workers are expanding while organized labor has been shedding private sector members over the past half-century.

A majority of union members today now have ties to a government entity, at the federal, state or local levels...

Wingnut Welfare Donor Dies

Richard Mellon Scaife, billionaire famous for attacks against Bill Clinton, has died - The Washington Post:

Richard Mellon Scaife, a billionaire publisher whose philanthropy helped redefine the American right-wing in the 1980s and 1990s and who helped underwrite a range of anti-liberal causes, most famously his political attacks against President Bill Clinton, died July 4 a day after his 82nd birthday...

Unfinished Banking Business

Obama says he has unfinished business with the banking industry | The State Column:

In a radio interview on Wednesday, President Barack Obama said that he has unfinished business with the banking industry, despite the reforms passed in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act...

 Don't we all.

NC Had One Of These

Elizabeth Dole...


Incumbent Roberts Struggles With Residency Questions - NBC News.com:

Kansas Republican Sen. Pat Roberts is struggling to combat criticism from opponents who say he shouldn't represent a state where he no longer lives permanently.

Roberts, who owns a property in Dodge City that he currently rents out, didn’t help that perception with a verbal slip-up during an interview with KCMO radio. “Every time I get an opponent – I mean, every time I get a chance, I’m home,” Roberts said in the interview. “I don’t measure my record with regards as a senator as how many times I sleep wherever it is...”

Dems Compared

Why Democrats insist on lying about how ‘poor’ they are | New York Post:

...Drug dealers create more middle-class jobs than these people do...

Wonder Who Got Polled?

Poll: Obama 'worst president' since World War II:

President Obama has topped predecessor George W. Bush in another poll, but not one he would like.

In a new Quinnipiac University Poll, 33% named Obama the worst president since World War II, and 28% put Bush at the bottom of post-war presidents...

Raygun was the best... bwwhahahahahah.

My '08 Vote Exactly

The Confluence | A weblog for Democrats in Exile:

...The reason I didn’t vote for him in the primary in NJ on SuperTuesday in 2008 was because I didn’t think he was ready to be president and wasn’t familiar enough with the mechanisms of government to be effective. It was pre-ordained that the Republicans were going to be a defiant, ruthless opposition party. I felt that Hillary Clinton would have a better grasp of how to get around the Republicans to get things done. Plus, I didn’t feel that Obama had been in Washington long enough to develop a working coalition of allies and congressional members. His coalition was going to be “gifted” to him from his campaign funders. It couldn’t be any other way given his lack of experience and time in Washington. Annnnnnd, it looks like I was right...