Screwed By You

VA to Iraq war vet: 'We're not accepting any new patients':

Iraq war veteran Chris Dorsey figured that no one would believe he had been turned away from a U.S. Department of Veteran's Affairs clinic when he sought an appointment for post-traumatic stress disorder...

Good luck. I've been trying to get treatment for injuries I sustained in '67, '68, and 69 but have been rejected multiple times for various reasons, the latest being that I "made too much money."  But somehow guys who own multiple homes and businesses in multiple states can get treatment, and some ass who twists his ankle in football practice at a private military high school prep academy can get veteran's status without ever being in the service. I swear this country is getting as corrupt as Old Rome.

On Flogging Southerners

The US Army’s Response To Confederate Base Names Is Perfect - Grunt Report:

...The U.S. Army, on the other hand, refuses to budge and says that base names will remain the same.

“Every Army installation is named for a soldier who holds a place in our military history,” Brig. Gen. Malcolm B. Frost said in a statement, according to The Hill. “Accordingly, these historic names represent individuals, not causes or ideologies. It should be noted that the naming occurred in the spirit of reconciliation, not division.”

SCOTUS Got The Nasty Going

Supreme Court justices stop playing nice - POLITICO:

...And two, the gloves came off, with the justices hurling especially nasty words at each other, shattering the illusion that they are all good friends...

Moronic GOPer List

Republicans are in retreat | TheHill:

So the Republicans are all in a flurry to redefine, adjust or refocus their message, since the past week showed them to be out of step with both their normally conservative brethren on the Supreme Court and American public opinion. It wasn't just a matter of Obamacare, gay marriage or public anxiety over corporate sponsored trade agreements; it was a confluence of a whole host of data points that made them look out of step and quite silly...

Extensive list at the link.

Comment Of The Day: Bible Thumping Edition

Chuck Todd Takes on Bobby Jindal and His Presidential Run

Thom August · Top Commenter

As a prophylactic against the inevitable onslaught counseling resistance to gay marriage, I'll quote a discussion from the Maryland State Senate which, I think, sums it up quite nicely:

‘At a hearing in Maryland, after hearing testimony from Democrat Jamie Raskin, State Senator Nancy Jacobs, a Republican, said, ‘My Bible says marriage is only between a man and a woman. What do you say about that?’ Raskin replied: ‘Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You did not place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible.’

GOPers Linked To Racists

Council of Conservative Citizens Promotes White Primacy, and G.O.P. Ties - The New York Times:

...Since it rose in the 1980s from the ashes of the old and unabashedly racist White Citizens’ Councils, the Council of Conservative Citizens has drifted in and out of notoriety. But it is clearly back in: Last weekend, three Republican presidential candidates — Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky — announced that they were returning or giving away donations from the council’s president, Earl Holt III...

Amazing Origin

In case you didn't know...

The Incredible True Story Behind ‘Amazing Grace’ | TIME:

...Amazing Grace was written by an Englishman who in the early part of his life was an outspoken atheist, libertine, and slave trader. John Newton was born in London in 1725, the son of a Puritan mother and a stern ship commander father who took him to sea when he was 11 (“I am persuaded that he loved me but he seemed not willing that I should know it,” he later wrote)...

Fox Palin Hypocrisy

Dan Savage Slams Fox 'News' Hypocrisy Over Bristol Palin:

Bristol Palin is having another baby out of wedlock and columnist Dan Savage blasted Fox News for being hypocrites about it...

Today's Most Exciting Gay News

Here's Some Stupid For Lunch:

...Breaking News: Mike Huckabee will not get gay-married no matter what Anthony Kennedy says...

Paul's Founder Fiction

Rand Paul's First Two Books Are Full Of Fake Founding Fathers Quotes - BuzzFeed News:

Many of the quotes attributed to the Founding Fathers in two of Rand Paul’s books are either fake, misquoted, or taken entirely out of context, BuzzFeed News has found.

Paul’s first two books — Government Bullies, which was an e-book best-seller, and The Tea Party Goes to Washington — lay out the conservative manifesto he hoped to bring to Washington following the tea party wave in 2010...

GOP Really,Really,Really,Really,Really Hates Mother Earth

Republicans Are Waging An Unprecedented War Against The New Dietary Guidelines:

Congressional Republicans are pushing back against proposed dietary guidelines that urge Americans to consider the environment when deciding what foods to eat.

House and Senate spending bills say the guidelines must focus only on nutrition and diet. That's a clear effort to thwart a recommendation by the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee that eating a diet higher in vegetables and other plant-based foods is better for the environment than eating a diet based more on foods from animals...

ACA: You Win

Supreme Court Allows Nationwide Health Care Subsidies - The New York Times:

The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that President Obama’s health care law allows the government to provide nationwide tax subsidies to help poor and middle-class people buy health insurance, a sweeping vindication that endorsed the larger purpose of Mr. Obama’s signature legislative achievement...

The Flag Outrage Of The Coultergeist

Ann Coulter Attacks Gov. Nikki Haley As "An Immigrant" Who "Does Not Understand America's History" | Blog | Media Matters for America:

Conservative firebrand Ann Coulter lashed out at South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley (R), who recently called for the removal of the Confederate battle flag from the state Capitol. Rather than respond to the Republican governor's message, Coulter dismissed Haley as "an immigrant" who "does not understand America's history..."

One Technicality Too Many

Vanderbilt Rape Case Is Declared a Mistrial - The New York Times:

A Tennessee judge on Tuesday upended one of the country’s highest profile cases of campus sexual assault and declared a mistrial in the proceedings against two former Vanderbilt University football players who were convicted in January of aggravated rape.

The decision, announced in Nashville about five months after a jury quickly returned guilty verdicts against the former players, Cory Batey and Brandon Vandenburg, stemmed from a post-trial disclosure: that the jury foreman, Todd Easter, had not told lawyers during jury selection that he had been the victim of sexual crimes as a teenager. Mr. Easter’s lawyer has publicly identified him in interviews...

Lying Libatards

Global warming is totally a lie liberals tell to distract us from their commie agendas | Bonnie McFarlane | Environment | The Guardian:

Everybody is talking about global warming. Clearly, it’s got a great publicist. My guess is it’s the same one that Amy Schumer uses. However, unlike Schumer – whom I have on good authority is real – Global Warming is a big fat lie.

Now, before you spit out your fair trade coffee and start yelling about carbon emissions, let me assure you that this is not a conclusion that came easily to me. I thought about it a lot. Just this morning I was in the shower for a good two hours debating the pros and cons of dating someone with a giant global footprint. Once the water went cold and I dried myself off with a hair dryer, I knew I had my answer...

Clinton's New "Look"

Hillary’s Sixties Surge - Gail Sheehy - POLITICO Magazine:

...In 2008, Clinton allowed her husband and her chief strategist, Mark Penn, to run her as an alpha male commander-in-chief. From the start of the presidential campaign, she came across as brittle and overbearing. No wonder voters sensed an authenticity problem. This time, though, Clinton is not running as a made-over man. She is in a new stage of life, having become the kickass grandma with a cackle and a fierce new brand of feminism. Sure, as an older woman she is vulnerable to, well, age—but she’s also more genuinely nurturing than ever, and personally committed to protecting the young from erosion of the American dream. She’s gentler; she’s bolder. The hell with losing weight. Let her new image consultant worry about her hair, which is shorter, blonder, simpler. “When you’re in the spotlight as a woman,” she told Diane Sawyer last year, “you get a little worried about, ‘Okay, you know, people over on this side are loving what I’m wearing, looking like, saying. And people over on this side aren’t.’ … I’m done with that. I mean, I’m just done...”

Remember this post comes from Politico-- an outfit composed of mostly GOPer moles.

GOPer War Drums

The Koch Brothers - GOP Civil War Has Finally Arrived:

The Koch Brothers are trying to tighten their grip on the Republican Party’s infrastructure, and the result is a power struggle between GOP leadership and their wealthy donors...

GOP Papal Freakout

Ah Hypocrisy, thou name art GOP. Republicans have enjoyed beating everyone over the head with previous popes and religion in general-- when it agreed with their political positions, but if it doesn't suddenly religion is for fools. I always keep in mind that Jesus was a Democrat.


How Pope Francis just destroyed the GOP’s religious con artists - Salon.com:

Over the past few weeks, we’ve heard the initial cannon volleys from the parapets of the GOP hurled in the direction of Pope Francis. But as of yesterday, when the Pope delivered a major encyclical on the climate crisis, there was a thermonuclear freakout, from not just Fox News and AM talk radio, but nearly every Republican with internet access. Already, Greg Gutfeld from Fox News Channel’s The Five referred to the Pope as the “most dangerous man in the world...”

Delaware Joins Pot Club

Delaware decriminalizes recreational marijuana:

Delaware's passage of a marijuana decriminalization bill on Thursday makes it the 19th state — plus the District of Columbia — in the U.S. to allow the possession of recreational marijuana. After the Delaware Senate gave the nod of approval to the bill, Delaware Gov. Jack Markell almost immediately signed it into law...

The Daily Flashback: Edwards Inequality Edition

Democrats in 2014: The Party of John Edwards - The Atlantic:

...De Blasio’s speech was a bit like that. He left out the politician who more than any other kindled the Democrats’ renewed interest in economic inequality because that politician has been airbrushed from Democratic Party history. His name is John Edwards...

Jeberish & Slut Shaming

Jeb Bush stands by comments that single mothers should be publicly shamed - Toronto Political Buzz | Examiner.com:

...In this chapter Jeb Bush also says that the reason his state, Florida, is so morally bankrupt is because Florida doesn’t do this enough. And yet, from the other side of his mouth in other arguments, Jeb Bush will call countries that stone women accused of adultery a terrorist country. And, since, the United States Census reports that there are more women than men in America, that may pose a problem at Bush’s attempts to get into the Oval Office...

Torture Scorecard

Senate Passes Bill to Ban Torture - CIA Experimentation Techniques:

...So, if you're keeping score at home, that's 21 United States senators, all from one political party, including the Senate Majority Leader and his Majority whip, who voted to continue the practice of torture by the government of the United States. Presumably, they will all run on this issue the next time they come up for re-election...

The Donald Gets Daddy-Flogged

Donald Trump 2016: Campaigning for Great SNL Skits | National Review Online:

Donald Trump may be the man America needs. Having been through four bankruptcies, the ridiculous buffoon with the worst taste since Caligula is uniquely positioned to lead the most indebted organization in the history of the human race...

Who Gets Paid What To Talk

Uppity Woman | I'm just one of those Uppity Women. Live with it.:

...Donald Trump makes more for paid speeches than anybody on that list, but that’s really okay because he’s got a dick. has mastered the art of bankruptcies while being held harmless, and he possesses a big mouth. Condoleeza Rice does pretty damned well herself at $150k for the pleasure of her company–but then she is a former Secretary of State and that is worth something, right? Right?. Take your time to think about that. I’ll wait.

Tim Geithner still garners $200k per speech, which probably includes free advice on how to evade taxes. Ben Bernanke, that other thief, makes up to $400k per speech. That’s twice what Hillary makes and all he ever did was help to f*ck the middle class as quickly as possible and send our money to Wall Street. (Do not pass up clicking on that link)...

Jeb! Sez Get The Whitewash

Jeb Bush Is Running for President. Here Are 23 Reasons He Will Not Win. | Mother Jones:

On December 16, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush announced (via Facebook) that he plans to "actively explore the possibility of running" for president in 2016. It's the first step toward formally entering the race.

But there are plenty of reasons why Bush should think long and hard before subjecting himself (and his family) to the ruthless scrutiny of a presidential campaign. His history is an opposition researcher's dream—clouded by embarrassing family episodes, allegations of philandering, offensive comments to black voters, and dubious business dealings...

Drunk Again--Noonan Advises Pope

Noonan Warns Pope of Endorsing Climate Science -- NYMag:

Wall Street Journal op-ed columnist Peggy Noonan is very worried that Pope Francis’s reported plans to argue against the effects of climate change on the poor may be premature. “The Vatican feels the science of climate change is settled,” she frets, and also, “the European elite is all in on climate change and the Vatican is in Europe. The Church fears being tagged as antiscience and antifact. But is the science of climate change settled?”...

Is Krugman Correct?

Hope so.

Paul Krugman: Democrats have rediscovered their spines - Salon.com:

...As I said, you can describe all of this as a move to the left, but there’s more to it than that — and it’s not at all symmetric to the Republican move right. Democrats are adopting ideas that work and rejecting ideas that don’t, whereas Republicans are doing the opposite...

Scalia Nutty

Antonin Scalia is unfit to serve: A justice who rejects science and the law for religion is of unsound mind - Salon.com:

...Oh really, Justice Scalia? You were offended? You had just committed an outrage against reason, voicing belief in Beelzebub, a comic-book bugaboo the pedophile pulpiteers of your creed have deployed to warp the minds of their credulous “flocks” for two millennia. You had just declared yourself a biblical literalist, and therefore an enemy of historical fact. Your position on the Beelzebub question in particular gives reason to dread how your court will rule if, as seems inevitable, a test case reaches your bench involving one of the many Religious Freedom Restoration Acts disgracing the legal codes of far too many states. You managed all this, and you are offended?...

The Horror Of Student Loans

Why I Defaulted on My Student Loans - NYTimes.com:

...Some people will maintain that a bankrupt father, an impecunious background and impractical dreams are just the luck of the draw. Someone with character would have paid off those loans and let the chips fall where they may. But I have found, after some decades on this earth, that the road to character is often paved with family money and family connections, not to mention 14 percent effective tax rates on seven-figure incomes...

Battling The Banks

Elizabeth Warren and Jamie Dimon fued over the banking system - Fortune:

There are few words in the English language that strike fear in the hearts of Wall Street bankers like “Elizabeth Warren.”

The senior senator from Massachusetts has led the fight for tougher regulations on Wall Street, and she has an uncanny knack for marshaling public support for such an esoteric project...

Friends Of Money Lose

Hullabaloo: Obama trade agenda fails in the House

UPDATE: It's starting to be reported that House Republicans are going to take another run at passing TAA. Boehner made a motion to reconsider, and that motion could be voted on next week. More as it develops.

In a long awaited end to an epic struggle, pitting the "friends of money" in both parties against their populist wings, "friends of money" lost a big one today. This isn't final. But it's a big win for today...

But it hasn't been buried in a crossroads with a stake through its heart.

Good Riddance To A Bad Idea

The Iowa straw poll is dead: 7 reasons that matters - The Washington Post:

If you build it, it turns out that they will not necessarily come.

The Republican Party of Iowa reluctantly but unanimously voted Friday to kill its August straw poll...

Comment Of The Day: Miz Lindsey & The Rotating Ladies

Party Crashing: Why the Republican Party Should Disband

Jack Fitzgerald · Rollins College

Charlie
-- I've been waiting for you to say something about Huckleberry J. Butchmeup, and his rotating first ladies!!! And then a R Senator (of course), Mark Kirk from Illinois, says: “He’ll have a ‘rotating first lady.’ He’s a bro with no ho.” To go further and highlight the lunacy, Kirk says: “That’s what we’d say on the street.”

What street, Mean K Street?

Palin Screams With Caps Lock

Sarah Palin’s Bitter Cry for Attention - The Daily Beast:

By now you may have read Sarah Palin’s florid attack on Lena Dunham. She and her daughter Bristol both attempted the same pathetic sleight-of-hand to distract from the ongoing grotesquerie of the Duggar family values. Go take a look, if you have time and can get past the all-caps intro. The caps-lock key is the Palin family’s rhetorical open-carry, deployed in the mistaken belief that it makes the bearer seem more formidable, when really it underscores the weakness of the case...

Walker The Fraud

Scott Walker Wants to Kill Wisconsin's Watchdog Bureau:

...In other words, the problem with independent watchdogs is that they are independent. Far better to put the oversight function under the control of the hacks you've installed in the state agencies. This is especially egregious in this case because Scott Walker never has held a political office that he has not so deformed by his political ambitions that people actually went to jail over it. This is a singularly corrupt man, even by the standards of the our new era of decriminalized influence peddling. He never has run a campaign in his life that wasn't shot through with penny-ante grifting. There is no reason to believe this one is any different. It is an extended exercise in consumer fraud.

'Bout Time

Pope Creates Tribunal To Judge Bishop Child Sex Abuse Cases:

Pope Francis has created a new Vatican tribunal section to hear cases of bishops accused of failing to protect children from sexually abusive priests, the biggest step the Holy See has taken yet to hold bishops accountable...

Rubio's Wingnut Welfare

Struggles With Finances Track Marco Rubio’s Career - NYTimes.com:

For years, Senator Marco Rubio struggled under the weight of student debt, mortgages and an extra loan against the value of his home totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars. But in 2012, financial salvation seemed to have arrived: A publisher paid him $800,000 to write a book about growing up as the son of Cuban immigrants...

"Mind Our Business"-- The Best Option

The Middle East Is Falling Apart - POLITICO Magazine:

...The harsh reality is that the Middle East today is going through a period of tectonic and destructive change. If I took away anything from two years as the White House’s coordinator for Middle East policy, it’s that U.S. policy is not the main source of this change and the U.S. has no good options for dealing with it. Some of the proposed remedies for the region’s woes, such as U.S. military intervention in an effort to “transform” or “remake” the region or simply to impress our foes, would likely make things worse. This should be clear from the U.S. effort to do so in Iraq just over a decade ago. The lessons of that war seem to have been bizarrely forgotten by many today (though almost all the Republican presidential candidates seem to want to disown the results of the Iraq war while embracing the policy approach that produced it)...

Finally, I Agree With The Donald

In Raleigh, Donald Trump all but announces presidential bid | News & Observer News & Observer:

... Trump referred to the constantly growing field of Republican candidates as “clowns,” and said former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio have already made major gaffes.

“After watching Bush make a total ass---- of himself, Rubio makes an ass---- of himself,” Trump said of his potential opponents....

Lest We Forget: Fear Edition

9 senseless social panics that did lasting damage to America - Salon.com:

...America is a fearful and gullible nation with a media misinformation machine that is more than happy to stoke our anxieties. Like windup toys, we obediently point in whatever direction the fearmongers tell us to and run, screaming and flailing our arms while demanding that someone do something about it. Many of these false social panics have done horrible and lasting damage, often long after the country has seemed to come to its senses.

Here are 9 of the worst social panics in recent American history...

Evil Mouse Screws Americans

Random: Evil Mouse Screws Americans: Evil Mouse Screws Americans
Pink Slips at Disney. But First, Training Foreign Replacements. - NYTimes.com:

...Instead, about 250 Disney employees were told in late October that they would be laid off. Many of their jobs were transferred to immigrants on temporary visas for highly skilled technical workers, who were brought in by an outsourcing firm based in India. Over the next three months, some Disney employees were required to train their replacements to do the jobs they had lost...

Posted by Bob Harrison at 9:39 AM

This Day In Shrub Rehabilitation

5 reasons George W. Bush is still one of the worst presidents ever - Salon.com:

...None of this means that George W. Bush is a bad human being, or even that he set out to cause harm to the nation he professes to love. At the same time, no bounce in his approval rating can eclipse the damage that he did while in office. More Americans may like Bush than dislike him right now, but when his legacy is ultimately appraised, the final verdict will not be a kind one.

I agreed with the article except for this last paragraph. Even a stupid man with a decent heart would not have done some of things this miscreant did.

Ah, Intelligence

Carlisle: Air Force intel uses ISIS 'moron's' social media posts to target airstrikes:

OPSEC isn't the Islamic State group's strong suit.

Airmen at Hurlburt Field, Florida, used social media posts by the insurgent group to track the location of an Islamic State group headquarters building. Twenty-two hours later, three joint direct attack munitions destroyed the target, said Gen. Hawk Carlisle, commander of Air Combat Command, at a June 1 speech in Arlington, Virginia.

"The [airmen are] combing through social media and they see some moron standing at this command," Carlisle said at the speech, which was sponsored by the Air Force Association. "And in some social media, open forum, bragging about command and control capabilities for Da'esh, ISIL, And these guys go 'ah, we got an in.'

"So they do some work, long story short, about 22 hours later through that very building, three JDAMS take that entire building out. Through social media. It was a post on social media. Bombs on target in 22 hours.

"It was incredible work, and incredible airmen doing this sort of thing..."

The Daily Flashback: Mean Cons Edition

Two Kinds of Meanness: The Modern Conservative Movement�|�Mike Lux:

...At conservative conferences and Republican gatherings over the last decade, we have seen the crowds turn ugly. Remember the Republican presidential debates four years ago, with audiences cheering for torture and people dying because they had no health insurance, and booing soldiers, decorated for their heroism, because they were gay? Remember the McCain/Palin rallies of 2008 where the audiences were openly racist and called Obama a Muslim terrorist? Here's another example that still chills me: Glenn Beck giving a speech to CPAC a few years back, talking about how there should be no safety net because "in nature, the lions eat the weak." The audience burst into applause and laughter, and these are the same folks preaching Christian values...

Clown Car Foundering?

Ben Carson’s campaign faces turmoil amid staff exits and super PAC rivalry - The Washington Post:

The presidential candidacy of Ben Carson, a tea party star who has catapulted into the top tier of Republican contenders, has been rocked by turmoil with the departures of four senior campaign officials and widespread disarray among his allied super PACs...

Comment Of The Day: Duggar Clenis Edition

Megyn Kelly Interviews the Duggars on Fox News

Martha Howell

Ouch, my brain cells are in a bundle trying to follow this. Some "inappropriate touching" occurred between Bill Clinton, a consenting adult, and Monica Lewinsky, another consenting adult, and that was worthy of how many years and $millions to publicly shame them via the Whitewater Commission, but these people are victims of runaway justice?

Clinton Fights Voter Suppression

Hillary Clinton Will Call For Voting Rights Overhaul:

Seeking an expansion of voting rights, Hillary Rodham Clinton plans to call for an early voting period of at least 20 days in every state and push back against Republican-led states that have sought restrictions on voting access.

The Democratic presidential candidate is speaking Thursday at Texas Southern University in Houston, a historically black university. Democrats have filed legal challenges to voting changes from GOP lawmakers in the presidential battleground states of Ohio and Wisconsin...

Evil Oil

The fossil-fuel industry’s campaign to mislead the American people - The Washington Post:

Fossil fuel companies and their allies are funding a massive and sophisticated campaign to mislead the American people about the environmental harm caused by carbon pollution.

Their activities are often compared to those of Big Tobacco denying the health dangers of smoking. Big Tobacco’s denial scheme was ultimately found by a federal judge to have amounted to a racketeering enterprise...

Lying Liars: ABC News Edition

ABC News Privileges GOP Lie About Benghazi Document Redactions | Blog | Media Matters for America:

ABC News' article demonstrates a type of misinformation Media Matters has termed "privileging the lie." ABC News is legitimizing Issa's claim by headlining and beginning the article with an allegation its own reporting shows to be false. But rather than make that falsehood the focus of the story, the report is framed around Issa's allegations...

Obnoxious Policing

A Bad Arrest, on Video | Rolling Stone:

This police video isn't action-packed. It's not a dramatic institutional killing captured by a bystander, as in the Eric Garner or Walter Scott cases.

But if you want to understand where the pent-up anger toward police in inner-city neighborhoods comes from, scenes like this – showing the lead-up to the arrest of an 18-year-old from East New York named Jaleel Fields – are a big part of the equation...

Southern Democratic Sense

Why I'm a Dem - Rant from Southern White Male, Mid 40's, Business Owner:

...I am a mid forties white male living in the South. With my accent and business background, people assume I am a conservative. When they find out I am a democrat, many are surprised and often ask, “why am I a democrat?”

The short answer is because I like people more than I like money. Do not get me wrong, I like money too, but when an issue comes down to a choice between people or money, I like to err on the side of people. This is not to say I would always decide in the favor of people, often times the costs are too high, but lets not put money first all the time.

I believe the democratic party is the best choice for the US to gain greater social freedom and economic development...

Sounds Right

Pew Study: Right-Wing Radio Shows Among Most Distrusted Sources Of News | Blog | Media Matters for America: 

(sic) survey conducted by the Pew Research Center found that Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck's talk radio shows are more distrusted than trusted among three generations surveyed by Pew...

Crazy In NC: Sue Us Edition

Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post:

A slate of civil rights groups put North Carolina on notice Monday, writing in a pre-litigation letter that the state must meet its voter registration obligations or risk a lawsuit. The letter alleges that the state's motor vehicle and public assistance agencies are violating legal requirements set out in the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) to provide voter registration services to citizens and transmit registration information to election officials...

Sins of The Raygun: A List

THE RONALD REAGAN MYTH . . . The Progressive Review:

"Ronald Reagan must be the nicest president who ever destroyed a union, tried to cut school lunch milk rations from six to four ounces, and compelled families in need of public help to first dispose of household goods in excess of $1,000...1f there is an authoritarian regime in the American future, Ronald Reagan is tailored to the image of a friendly fascist." - Robert Lekachman...

The Daily Flashback: Liberal Bill Edition

Cannonfire-  :-News bites (Plus: The return of "progressive" Clinton-phobia!)

...Bill Clinton fought for a much better health care system than the one Obama gave us. Clinton was loathe to involve us in foreign wars, his NSA observed at least some limits, his SEC did at least some good, he preserved the Community Reinvestment Act against strong opposition, he gave enormous help to millions of poor working people with the Earned Income Tax Credit, and -- most importantly -- he raised taxes on the wealthy (in contrast to Obama, who preserved the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy). Let's also not forget that Clinton's government was infinitely more transparent. You didn't see Bill Clinton jailing whistleblowers by the truckload, and I strongly doubt that Clinton would have used drones with Obama-esque abandon...

Putting The Con In Conservative

Addicting Info – Guy Who Staged Anti-Muslim Hate Rally Now Wants You To Give Him $10 Million ‘For Protection’:

The organizer of an anti-Muslim hate rally in Phoenix, Arizona now says he needs patriots to donate $10 million to him so that his family can be safe from Muslims – even though none threatened him.

We all saw it coming, but 10 million?!...

No Carly Surprise Here

Carly Fiorina, in an Ambush of Hillary Clinton, Gets Defensive - First Draft. Political News, Now. - NYTimes.com:

Carly Fiorina spends a lot of her time as a Republican presidential candidate attacking Hillary Rodham Clinton, the leading Democratic candidate, and has earned considerable news coverage for it. On Wednesday, with Mrs. Clinton set to give a speech at a South Carolina hotel, Ms. Fiorina arranged a news conference outside – for little reason, it seemed, other than to taunt her...

Comment Of The Day: Vet Hating GOPer Edition

Derp in the Heart of Texas: Here's Greg Abbott

John Robinson · Top Commenter · Loyola College

That's what I find so amazing, Ronald - the modern Republican party despises the actual troops as much as it despises the Enemy Liberals,, but because it pumps out so much PR about "Patriotism" and "Honor The Veterans", what the Republicans actually do to harm the troops, and the disdain with which they actually treat the troops, is simply overlooked. Every day, the Republican Party spits on the troops, both active-duty and retired, and yet huge numbers of people seem to feel it's the Liberals who hate the vets. It's a shame and a disgrace.

Disgusting Training Model For Duggarism

Here’s how the Duggars’ patriarchal homeschool world teaches kids to shame sex abuse victims:

The recent revelation that Josh Duggar admittedly molested five young girls as a teenager has taken over social media for the last two days. There has been a wide array of reactions and speculations. But, for many who were raised in the same Quiverfull and patriarchal homeschool world, this has been a time of reliving their own traumas brought about by that dysfunctional culture. Those who lived it know all too well how the teachings and attitudes that are part of the Duggar family’s life affect families, victims, and even offenders...