FactCheck On The Air

WATCH: FactCheck.Org Director Makes Rare TV Appearance To Shut Down Recent GOP Lies (Video) |:

Factcheck.org is the “internet arm” of the Annenberg Public Policy Center. It was founded by William and Lenore Annenberg in Philadelphia back in 1993. Annenberg was a very successful businessman and philanthropist. While many on the radical right like to claim that FactCheck.org is “liberal media,” especially when their statements and positions are proven false, a “fact check” would show Annenberg being a GOP stalwart. He served Presidents going as far back as Eisenhower and was a friend of Ronald Reagan’s. Lenore was appointed to serve in the Reagan White House as the Head of Protocol for the Administration in 1981. They also hosted parties for not only Reagan, but Queen Elizabeth II and other celebrities and dignitaries. If anything, a case could be made that they lean a little to the right at least personally, don’t ya think?...

Video at link. Good watch.

Advice For Democrats

Imagine. | Uppity Woman:

...2). Fight the Republicans. Do not cave into them. Use the power of the presidency for all it is worth. Use Executive Orders; threaten to withhold funds from legislators’ pet projects; go directly to the people and urge them to voice their support for the President’s position. Do not make bad deals just to avoid conflict. Call the Republicans out, and explain to the American voters what is at stake; and how pernicious are the Republicans’ views on these crucial issues. In other words, try to change the national dialogue. That is something that has not been tried since Bill Clinton was president. No one in recent times was more effective in winning the national debate on economics. If it weren’t for Clinton explaining this all once again to the American people at the last Democratic convention, Obama would probably have lost the election, because he somehow lacked the ability to make the case in simple but strong fashion. Or maybe he did not identify closely enough with the Democratic Party. Democrats have to win the national debate to be able to gain popular support for their positions and programs. Otherwise, the Republican-dominated media drowns it all out, and we are in a state of perpetual deadlock, at best...

Crazy In NC: Teacher Edition

NC teachers being ‘voluntarily exploited’ | News & Observer:

...To do her job with commitment, oddly, Angie Scioli has to be willing to work for free at her Wake County high school. That’s hardly the American way. “We lost our longevity pay this year. I would have gotten $2,000 in June,” she says. But last month, master’s degree, national board certification and past recognition as Wake County’s teacher of the year notwithstanding, she didn’t have the money to go to the grocery store. She is 44 and has been teaching in Raleigh for over two decades...

Walkering The Toddery On Obama

Gov. Scott Walker Can't Explain Why Obama Has A Better Approval Rating In Wisconsin | Crooks and Liars:

Gov. Scott Walker joined Chuck Todd on Meet The Press this morning and couldn't give a straight answer as to why President Obama has a much better approval rating in his home state of Wisconsin than he does.

The only response he could muster was to read off his preapproved and per-sanitized work resume. There was no follow up question from Todd (who made this an easy interview for the governor) to the question so his nonsensical answer stood alone...

Canada Would Support This

Anything to keepp the Americans out...

Scott Walker Open To Building Wall Along Border With Canada:

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), a staunch advocate of beefing up security on the southern border, said Sunday he is open to building a wall on the U.S. border with Canada as well.

The Republican presidential candidate said the idea of building a northern wall was brought up to him during a recent town hall in New Hampshire....

Kicking Carter: Sigh

To those kicking an ailing Jimmy Carter: How low can you go? | Norwalk Reflector

Remembering Katrina

My rage over Katrina is what got me started in the blogging biz. My rage continues.

Hurricane Katrina: Ten Years Later | Crooks and Liars:

These two interviews by Fox News' Shep Smith and Geraldo Rivera were heart breaking in so many ways. It showed the raw emotion of these two newsmen, who were confronted by trying to cover these horrific events - in real time - while trying not to let Hannity, a paid stooge of Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch, color the events in a positive George Bush light...

Clinton Foundation Money Destination

Cannonfire "The Big Smear": (my bold)

Yada yada yada. Basically, ABC News is giving us the usual smear job. If you read their piece carefully and skeptically, you'll discover the truth of the matter: Clinton runs a charity, and he goes around the world trying to drum up millions for his charity. Where the money comes from doesn't matter as much as where it goes to. As far as I'm concerned, if dictators and thugs pony up some dough and starving villagers in India receive the benefit, fine. Would you feel comfortable telling the starving villagers to keep starving?

Unfortunately, our "unbiased" news media insists on writing stories which convey the impression (without directly stating) that the money goes into the Clintons' own pockets, not to the starving villagers. A number of alleged progressives go along with this hallucination, because doing so makes them feel hip. This situation persists even though the watchdog groups who keep track of charities all say that the Clinton Foundation is clean and transparent.

Funding Socialists And Poetry

Literary Magazines for Socialists Funded by the CIA, Ranked - The Awl:

In May of 1967, a former CIA officer named Tom Braden published a confession in the Saturday Evening Post under the headline, “I’m glad the CIA is ‘immoral.’” Braden confirmed what journalists had begun to uncover over the previous year or so: The CIA had been responsible for secretly financing a large number of “civil society” groups, such as the National Student Association and many socialist European unions, in order to counter the efforts of parallel pro-Soviet organizations. “[I]n much of Europe in the 1950’s,” wrote Braden, “socialists, people who called themselves ‘left’—the very people whom many Americans thought no better than Communists—were about the only people who gave a damn about fighting Communism...”

Labor Wins One

Unions Plot Major Push After Landmark Labor Ruling:

U.S. union leaders said on Friday that a landmark U.S. labor board ruling on companies' obligations toward contract and franchise workers would help them organize manufacturers and e-commerce companies as well as fast food chains.

On Thursday the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled the owner of a California recycling plant was a "joint employer" with the contractor that hired workers at the plant, essentially forcing both to bargain with the union together or risk violating U.S. labor law...

The Sorry State Of Political Discourse

Where G.K. Chesterton and B.F. Skinner Meet: On Real Time with Bill Maher, 21 August 2015 | PopMatters:

...Trump’s jingoism, however, isn’t really much different from that of his Republican rivals — it’s just more colorfully unapologetic and imbued with television’s sense of inane fun. Everything Trump utters can be filed under the rubric of nationalism, which probably explains his support from evangelicals, who normally would blanch at his gluttony and wanton libido. But perhaps Trump’s omnivorousness explains his popularity: even prudes can tire of their own chastity and sexual repression, and Trump’s the only candidate who isn’t an uncloseted prude.

As for Real Time, there are two moments worth mentioning. In an exchange with Maher, National Review’s Charles Cooke admitted that leftists should indeed gloat over Trump’s embarrassing and destabilizing success, but then only mustered a spineless rhetorical retort: “Are [Republicans] going to be a party of classical liberals (in the old sense of the term) or the party of white identity politics”? Sadly, this constitutes the oratory of the conservative intelligentsia. That his idea must be phrased rhetorically already admits that classical liberalism no longer exists on the right — but it hasn’t existed since Reagan tied the knot with the Moral Majority.

The argument continued as Maher expressed incredulity over the alleged scandal of Hillary Clinton’s email accounts, but again Cooke reverted to weak rhetorical tactics. When Maher asked, “Even if the scandal is what you say, is it as important as climate change or income inequality,” or, we presume, any of the issues to which conservatives claim blindness. Cooke answered, “Here’s why it’s important… it’s about privilege,” and went on to explain that the Obama administration prosecuted lower-level peons for lesser offenses.

True, but Maher’s question remained unanswered — Maher had asked why this alleged scandal is more important than the real scandals of income inequality and so forth, but Cooke responded by ignoring the qualifier, as if his earnest voice alone could erase the comparative framing inherent in the question...

tRump Cause & Effect

Time to Ask the Question: Is Donald Trump Just Dumb?:

...Only Trump tells it exactly like it isn’t. Long story short: The reason so many Americans are supporting a dumb guy for president is that there are a lot of dumb people out there. Trump’s rising poll numbers should send a shiver down your spine.

Polling Lojinks

Bernie Fans And Republicans Agree: Hillary Clinton Should Drop Out NOW! - Wonkette:

...Okay, let’s not even get mired down in why Rasmussen is bad at polling and has this weird habit of making things look rosier for Republicans than they are. That’s just a well-established fact. And even if the numbers are wrong (they probably are), it makes sense that 73 percent of Republicans would want her to suspend her campaign over the piddly ass email “scandal,” because they consume Fox News and are thus pretty sure President Hillary Clinton would spend each and every day of her presidency sending American ambassadors to Benghazi, getting them killed dead, and lying about it. In fact, 73 seems like kind of a low number...

The Danger Of The Donald

Donald Trump Just Stopped Being Funny | Rolling Stone:

...Trump is probably too dumb to realize it, or maybe he isn't, but he doesn't need to win anything to become the most dangerous person in America. He can do plenty of damage just by encouraging people to be as uninhibited in their stupidity as he is...

Comment Of The Day: China Scotty Edition

Scott Walker Tries, Fails to Understand China

Larry Crofford ·Wheeling Jesuit University

So let's look at the big board of Republican Presidential Contenders: Donald Trump has his exclusive clothing line of shirts and ties made in China and complains China is stealing our jobs; HP failed CEO Carly Fiorina off-shored thousands of jobs to China and makes similar complaints; now we learn that failed college student Scott Walker is trying to cut deals with the Chinese while criticizing any official contact with them. Here's what I wonder. How many more Republican White House hopefuls are also double agents working for China?

More tRumping

Donald Trump Takes on Megyn Kelly, Jeb Bush and Lindsey Graham - ABC News:

Donald Trump spent Tuesday doing what he does best: Antagonizing everyone from Fox News host Megyn Kelly to fellow Republican presidential candidate Lindsey Graham, and sparking pointed responses from all quarters.

Monday night, Trump unleashed a fresh tirade against Kelly, who he has been disparaging ever since she moderated the first GOP presidential debate earlier this month...

The Creaming Of Christie

Is Chris Christie Finished? | Crooks and Liars:

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. To think that only a few years ago, the Beltway media and the conservarazzi were universally celebrating Christie's bullying of teachers that made their eyes well up with tears. What a man, what a conservative hero. Earlier this month he continued his assault on our educators and said that the national teachers union deserved a punch in the face.

He thought he was the straight-talk-express guy, but what he didn't understand is that the Republican base of the party is made up of angry xenophobes, and Donald Trump has captured their hearts. Since Trump took away his thunder and with his drop in the polls, it now appears he's headed for the kiddie table at the CNN debate. Rumors are flying that he's going to pull the plug on his candidacy...

Exhaustive Email Takedown

Anatomy of a Hillary Clinton pseudo-scandal: How Republicans and their media lackeys are trying to manufacture her downfall - Salon.com:

...But what’s important to note in all this that nothing that happened on that email server appears to have been corrupt, unethical, illegal or dangerous. It’s all smoke, no fire. And that’s the point. The smoke obscures the truth and makes everything vague and formless, leaving only an impression of being under siege...

Finally, A Sensible Commentary About Biden/Warren

Could There Really Be a Biden/Warren 2016 Democratic Ticket?:

...So what does this covert confab really mean? Well, one thing is for certain. Even with Bernie Sanders in the race and tearing up the countryside, the Senator Professor doesn't think the putative frontrunner is doing enough on the issues to which the Senator Professor has devoted her entire career and that, therefore, those issues are not playing a big enough role in the campaign so far. This goes along with something we've been saying around here for a while now. You dismiss the Senator Professor's political chops at your peril. This move is how you broker power from where you are at the moment, and not where people want you to be.

Brown On Email MAAN

That's Much Ado About Nothing...

Gov. Jerry Brown Calls Clinton Email 'Scandal' A Vampire | Crooks and Liars:

...Like many of us who feel the media has already convicted Hillary Clinton over something that was perfectly legal when she was Secretary of State, Brown thinks that this is being made too much of a big deal. We know from the press's relationship with the Clintons that the attempt to pin scandals on both Bill and Hillary has been happening for over a quarter century and will likely continue ad infinitum.

Brown was asked if he considered running for president because, in Chuck's mind, every Republican is doing it, why not him? He explained that he is committed to the job of handling the 7th or 8th largest economy on the planet in his state and dealing with massive wildfires burning all over California. That's enough responsibility for him, and he supports Democrats, no matter who gets the nod, because the alternative is more terrifying than the fires burning the Western United States.

Horrifying Future Blog Post

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

...An article in the Washington Post, entitled, “Were We Unfair to Hillary Clinton?” has gotten some coverage, though most of the broadcast media has ignored it. The article wonders whether the media was unfair to Clinton during her campaign, ignoring most of her policy proposals, in favor of covering matters such as her email, her speaking style, and her wardrobe...

Have We Finally Reached A Bridge Too Far?

IA Radio Host Jan Mickelson: Enslave Undocumented Immigrants Unless They Leave | Blog | Media Matters for America:

Iowa radio host and influential conservative kingmaker Jan Mickelson unveiled an immigration plan that would make undocumented immigrants who don't leave the country after an allotted time "property of the state," asking, "What's wrong with slavery?" when a caller criticized his plan...

Howling At The Moon In GOPerville

The GOP has become the party of infantile rage - Salon.com:

...On the other hand, the Republican Party and the modern conservative movement are so utterly at the mercy of their most extreme elements — on everything from Benghazi, to racism people, to reproductive health, and now even the contents of key sections of the U.S. Constitution. Indeed, while the left can suffer its own unhinged moments, there’s simply no comparison when it comes to what’s happening on the far-right. Especially now. While Clinton and Sanders are talking about the middle class, the minimum wage, foreign policy and voting rights, here’s a sampling of what the Republican presidential candidates are discussing:...

Anchor Baby Not

The Washington Post Debunks Conservative Media's "Anchor Baby" Myth | Blog | Media Matters for America:

....But, as The Washington Post explained in an August 20 article, "the anchor baby, while potent politically, is largely a mythical idea." Writing that the term has "little legal underpinning" as "being the parent of a U.S. citizen child almost never forms the core of a successful defense in immigration court," the articles notes that most children born in the U.S. to undocumented parents "must wait until their 21st birthday to begin the lengthy process" of helping their parents become citizens:...

Anchor Baby Not

The Washington Post Debunks Conservative Media's "Anchor Baby" Myth | Blog | Media Matters for America:

....But, as The Washington Post explained in an August 20 article, "the anchor baby, while potent politically, is largely a mythical idea." Writing that the term has "little legal underpinning" as "being the parent of a U.S. citizen child almost never forms the core of a successful defense in immigration court," the articles notes that most children born in the U.S. to undocumented parents "must wait until their 21st birthday to begin the lengthy process" of helping their parents become citizens:...

GOPer Insults Woman--- Surprised?

The insult was nasty.

Yet Another Shining Example Of How Republicans Respect Women | Crooks and Liars:

...As male board member Jeff Weilbrecht spoke in defense of Gremaud, calling the response to the comment “petty,” KFVS reports that half of the people in attendance applauded.

“I’m not saying Mark Gremaud is the perfect board member, I’m not saying I’m one either. I do ask that the rest of us stop and put our petty differences aside once and act like adults and accept that we have differences,” Weilbrecht said.

Differences? As in the male members of the school board believe that the female members should stay in the bedroom, where they belong? Or possibly as in the male members believe that they can degrade and insult their female colleagues if they feel like it, and their female colleagues disagree?

Winning By Losing

“The War on Drugs is Over, and We Lost,” Meet the Police Chief Who’s Starting a Revolution | The Free Thought Project:

...The idea of treating an addict with compasion instead of violence is a revolutionary notion in this country. However, in other countries, such as Portugal, its effects have been realized for more than a decade. In 2001, the Portugeuse government decriminalized all drugs.

14 years later, drug use, crime, and overdoses have drastically declined in Portugal exposing the horrid reality of prohibition.

News of Campanello’s initiative is spreading, and three other cities in Massachusetts will soon launch similar programs, as well as two cities in Illinois. While Campanello’s initiative not perfect, it is radically different than anything we’ve seen thus far. It will undoubtedly lead to decriminilization being pushed into the mainstream...

Lest We Forget: Propaganda Edition

Cannonfire "Crap!":

...The Cato Institute is, of course, a notorious libertarian think tank, originally called the Charles Koch Foundation. The Fraser institute is a notorious libertarian think tank in Canada, funded by the Koch brothers. The Liberales Institut of Zurich is devoted to promoting "classical liberalism" -- i.e., libertarianism. (So far, I can't find a Koch connection beyond the ideological overlap.)

In other words: The Daily Caller -- founded by Tucker Carlson and Dick Cheney's chief aide Neil Patel -- has just hit us with a shotgun blast of libertarian propaganda...

Trumping Up A Fight

The Republican Party Is Becoming a Bloodbath | The New Republic:

...Of the many drawbacks to this kind of myopic voyeurism, the biggest of all is that it obscures the carnage his candidacy is creating on the right as he mows down its sacred cows. Within the conservative movement, the fight over Trump is being waged mostly by surrogates, but surrogates can’t elevate or ennoble it. Instead it has degenerated into a vulgar farce befitting its main object—Trump himself.

The battle line runs between factions of the conservative movement that care about winning, and ones that specialize in entertainment and charlatanism, with Fox News caught appropriately in the middle...

Don't Be A Kerry!

Hillary Clinton emails: Allies fault her response - POLITICO:

As Hillary Clinton faces a new round of questions about her email use as secretary of state, some longtime allies are increasingly worried that she’s learned little from past scandals, and is falling back on her tendency to mount a legalistic defense that only encourages perceptions that she has something to hide...

Support For Iran Deal

Hundreds of Rabbis Tell Senate to Support Iran Deal (VIDEO):

...So as is often the case for conservative causes, it’s not the majority who are standing with conservative politicians. In fact, the majority of American Jews think that the Iran deal is great. It’s the special interest groups, the minority with huge bank accounts, who are trying to slow things down.

Search Warrants And SWAT

Documents Reveal the Fearmongering Local Cops Use to Score Military Gear From the Pentagon | Mother Jones:

...But civil rights advocates have observed that SWAT teams—the specialized officers who use these vehicles—are now overwhelmingly deployed for drug raids and search warrants. In a 2014 report examining 800 raids, the American Civil Liberties Union found that SWAT teams replaced regular uniformed police officers in executing search warrants, mostly on private homes, in 80 percent of cases. The raids disproportionately targeted minority residences, and evidence that the raid would be dangerous for the officers was often scarce. Sixty percent of the raids involved a drug search—meaning the subject of the search warrant had not yet been convicted of a crime—and 36 percent of the raids turned up no contraband at all. Raids for minor drugs charges, the report continued, have frequently resulted in officers killing and maiming unsuspecting residents and even children—including a 19-month-old boy who was injured when an officer chucked a flash-bang grenade into his crib...

HRC For The Vets

The veterans candidate | TheHill:

...I think this veteran knows her. We’re not from the same political party and I don’t agree with all her policy positions and sometimes don’t understand why she does or doesn’t do certain things. However, over the past 13 or 14 years I have observed an uncommon combination of core common sense, honest sense of responsibility, intelligence, and wit. She has been kind and accessible to me and my family, so one might say I’ll naturally say nice things. But so have other senior government and military officials been kind and accessible. Yet I don’t see them as White-House-ready. I have observed her one-on-one and in group settings, with the young and the old, with veterans and non-veterans, Democrats and Republicans, when the cameras and media were not watching. In such unscripted settings she demonstrates sincere concern and provides insights that, if ever actually reported by the media, would blow up all the nonsensical talk about a cold and standoffish person...

Fox Manipulators

Gun Advocate John Lott Was The Real Author Of A Viral FoxNews.com Op-Ed Written From Perspective Of A Female Stalking Victim | Blog | Media Matters for America:

Taylor Woolrich, who made national headlines in 2014 over her efforts to carry a gun on her college campus after being stalked, revealed that John Lott, a discredited gun researcher, was the actual author of an op-ed published at FoxNews.com under her name that portrayed her as an unconditional supporter of campus carry laws and was picked up by dozens of media outlets...

Return Of The Obots?

petition: Hold Bernie Sanders Accountable for Bullying by his Supporters:

There are several petitions being circulated by the supporters of Bernie Sanders asking people NOT to support the Democratic nominee if Bernie doesn't win the primary election. This is not activism, this is anarchy, and it subverts the election process upon which our democracy was founded.

In addition to petitions, Sanders’ supporters have taken over the majority of neutral liberal and Democratic social media groups, bullying Hillary Clinton supporters relentlessly until they leave the groups. Some friction during an election is to be expected, but the vitriol and persistence of Bernie Sanders' supporters in their personal attacks against Hillary Clinton's supporters is unprecedented. They are resorting to Tea Party tactics, such as character assassination, accusing people of being trolls, shills or HRC campaign operatives to get them kicked out of groups, flashmob attacks in which a dozen Sanders supporters gang up on an individual, reporting of opposing comments as spam, attacking individual social media profiles of Hillary supporters, thread stalking (following a person across several conversations, groups, and even sites), and even doxing (investigating and posting personal data online). Many group administrators have abandoned their own groups because they cannot deal with the level of hostility from these people. It must be stopped.

Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption

Oh yes brethern! There's hope for redemption from your sinful ways. Find it at



John Oliver Goes After 'Prosperity Gospel' TV Preachers | Crooks and Liars:

...Seeing an opportunity at hand, Oliver created his own church — Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption — with an assist from Sister Wanda Jo Oliver (played by former SNL star Rachel Dratch) and encouraged his new followers to quietly meditate on the nature of fake non-profit money-grubbing tax-avoiding churches...

About That Clown Car

Inside the GOP Clown Car | Rolling Stone:

...In the meantime, though, the race for the Republican Party presidential nomination sure seems funny. The event known around the world as hashtagGOPClownCar is improbable, colossal, spectacular and shocking; epic, monumental, heinous and disgusting. It's like watching 17 platypuses try to mount the queen of England. You can't tear your eyes away from it...

The Daily Flashback: The First Missing Email Edition

The SEKRIT Drones in Hillary’s [Staffers’] Emails | emptywheel:

...Not only are there real governance reasons it was wrong, but it was an own-goal given that she knew Republicans would pounce on anything that hints of corruption (even though most GOP presidential candidates have done the same thing). In the grand scheme of things, however, I’m most interested in fixing the email and accountability problem, because it has been a recurrent problem since Poppy Bush tried to destroy some PROFs notes to cover up the Iran-Contra scandal...

The Really Long Arm Of The Law

Law enforcement, attorney among 9 arrested in man's death:

A long and largely forgotten death investigation in California's Central Valley has led to a vast and unexpected set of arrests that included three current and former Highway Patrol officers and a prominent defense attorney.

They were among nine people arrested in the 2012 disappearance and killing of Korey Kauffman, stemming from the belief that he was stealing the attorney's antiques, law enforcement officials said at a news conference Friday in Modesto, California....

Carter Cancer GOPer Tweets

Disgusting Right Wing Tweets Edition: Debbie Schlussel | Crooks and Liars:

Get ready folks for some of the most vile tweets and comments to ooze through the Intertubes as former US President Jimmy Carter, announced he has cancer...

Crazy In NC: Budget Edition

NC leaders bungle the state budget | News & Observer:

...House members want a budget that boosts spending a modest 5 percent, too modest, really, given the toll the Great Recession took on public agencies, services and employees. But the Senate, led by Phil Berger, Tom Apodaca and Bob Rucho, wants only a 2.7 percent increase in the name of more tax cuts for the wealthy and businesses and cuts in valuable programs like historic tax credits and incentives for what’s sure to become a vanishing film industry.

House members see this trio as bullies, and they’re right. Senators talk down to the House, dismissing the lower chamber’s budget ideas and in particular the House’s belief that teacher assistants are vital to the quality of public education delivered in early grades. In the Senate budget, thousands of assistants would lose their jobs because of a plan to reduce class size and hire more regular teachers. In fact, assistants should be retained and more teachers should be hired, both of which would be possible with a $445 million budget surplus. But Senate leaders who have shown little support for public education since taking charge apparently couldn’t care less.

That there would be a second delay is ridiculous and shows that even after five years in power Republicans are amateurs at drawing a budget. They are embarrassing themselves and the state.

Abortion From Those Who Know

The Big Secret of Abortion -- The Cut:

...Sixty-one percent of women who seek abortions already have at least one child. More than a third already have at least two children. Women know what pregnancy is and what abortion does. Perhaps it’s this common calculation that keeps so many women (and men) grateful to an organization dedicated to the maintenance of women’s bodies. An NBC News–Wall Street Journal poll, released after the fetal-parts videos, showed Planned Parenthood with a net favorability rating of 45 percent, higher than Donald Trump, the Democratic and Republican parties, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, the Supreme Court, and the National Rifle Association...

Fiorina Tweet Slapped

Carly Fiorina 2016: Vaccinations should be left up to parents - POLITICO:

...Fellow GOP presidential candidate and former New York Gov. George Pataki took to Twitter on Friday to condemn her comments.

“Pandering for votes isn’t going to win us back the Presidency,” Pataki tweeted. “Optional vaccinations is bad for public health & bad politics. @CarlyFiorina. Not sure how you run a major tech company @HP & reject accepted science that has eradicated diseases like small pox & polio @CarlyFiorina...”

Clinton Email Point

Cannonfire "They're Going After Huma":

...For a reasonable response to the right's hysteria about the emails, go here. Basically, what you're not being told is that the classifications were retroactive. The material was not classified at the time, according to this McClatchy report...

Comment Of The Day: Cruz Pro-Molester Edition

Ted Cruz Has an Award for a Known Child Abuser - News From Charlie Pierce

Brian Robin ·

Senior Account Executive at Brener Zwikel & Associates Inc.

So let's recap, shall we?

Mikie Huckabee coddles and defends a child molester without an iota of irony because "They're One of Us." Now, Tailgunner Teddy -- a.k.a. Canada's revenge for acid rain -- coddles "re-homers." Also known to normal people as "child traffickers and pimps."

All that's missing is the piano player. I read that somewhere.

More Head Spinning Hypocrisy From The Right

After Banning Trump For Sexism, Erick Erickson's RedState Calls Clinton A "Homely Woman" Who Slept "Her Way Into Power" | Blog | Media Matters for America:

A RedState post claimed that Hillary Clinton proves "even a homely woman can sleep her way into power." RedState's editor-in-chief Erick Erickson recently disinvited Donald Trump from the RedState Gathering event for Trump's sexist attacks on Fox's Megyn Kelly...

A Teacher's Lament: Killing Kids With Testing

Why I Can No Longer Teach in Public Education�|�Stephanie Keiles:

...Coming from the Republicans at the state level and the Democrats at the national level, I have been forced to comply with mandates that are not in the best interest of kids. I am tired of having to perform what I consider to be educational malpractice, in the name of "accountability."

The amount of time lost to standardized tests that are of no use to me as a classroom teacher is mind-boggling. And when you add in mandatory quarterly district-wide tests, which are used to collect data that nothing is ever done with, it's beyond ridiculous...

Jebberwockery©

The media is ignoring this telling Jeb Bush gaffe - Vox:

...More than a bungled answer, this seems to be a genuine blind spot. Just before Nameghazi, Bush contended that he faces "a higher bar" as a presidential aspirant due to his family connections, when the reality — obvious to anyone but a member of his immediate family — is that there's no way an ex-governor who left office in 2007 would be leading in fundraising or endorsements absent a vast political network bequeathed to him by his father and brother. Just ask George Pataki...

The Donald Extends A Helping Hand

Thanks To Donald Trump, GOP Approval Ratings Hit Lowest Point Since 1992:

...According to the Pew Research Center, Republican Party approval ratings are now the lowest they’ve measured since 1992, and that spells disaster for the GOP. Meanwhile, Democrats have gained a couple of points, very likely due to the recent rhetoric coming from 2016 Republican presidential candidates...

The End Of GoodHair?

Is this the end for Rick Perry? - The Washington Post:

The news that Rick Perry has stopped paying all of his campaign staff following Thursday's debate is a sure sign of major troubles -- and could be the leading edge of the collapse of his campaign.

If this is the end -- and Perry's super PAC support could well keep him on life support for a bit longer -- it would be a remarkable bit of timing: Perry entered the 2012 presidential race as its frontrunner on August 13, 2011 -- almost four years to the day when it's become clear that his second bid for the presidency has faltered badly...

Rich Tax Hike Or Salvation For Students

Hillary Clinton's $350 billion plan to kill college debt - Nirvi Shah and Kimberly Hefling - POLITICO:

Hillary Clinton on Monday rolled out a sweeping higher education plan — a $350 billion proposal that would help millions pay for college and reduce interest rates for people with student loans.

The plan, which would change the way a large swath of Americans pay for college, borrows ideas from the left and the right and even expands a program enacted by her husband. It includes ideas already being discussed in Congress and for which groundwork has been laid by the Obama administration. The proposal, dubbed the New College Compact, is unlikely to win over many in the GOP because the $350 billion over 10 years would come from cutting tax deductions for the wealthiest Americans...

Toeing The Line

The GOP Debates Showed How Fox News Enforces Republican Orthodoxy:

Fox News is the enforcer of Republican orthodoxy.

At Thursday night's GOP debates in Cleveland, moderators Bret Baier, Bill Hemmer, Megyn Kelly, Martha MacCallum and Chris Wallace peppered the party's 17 presidential candidates with tough questions. But several of those questions had one key thing in common: They hit candidates for deviating from Republican orthodoxy.

These are fair questions. But they show the role journalists play in highlighting when one or two candidates profess views that are different from the majority of the field -- and the pressure those candidates face to bring their positions in line with other Republicans...

Trump Trumping Trump?

Trump camp in crisis - Ben Schreckinger and Katie Glueck - POLITICO:

Fallout from a crude attack on Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly and the departure of a top political adviser roiled Donald Trump’s campaign Saturday, leading Republicans to question whether the laws of political gravity have finally caught up with the real estate mogul.

Trump’s insinuation Friday night that Kelly’s tough questioning during Thursday’s debate was a result of her menstruating — an assertion that followed a series of other attacks on the popular Kelly — left many wondering whether he could weather the latest controversy and remain in the race, even as his campaign continued to act as if nothing was amiss...

When Will A Con Whacko Strike?

Losers: A list by Donald Trump - The Washington Post:

RedState's Erick Erickson is a total loser who "has a history of supporting establishment losers in failed campaigns," according to Donald Trump, who didn't want to go to Erickson's stupid meeting anyway and is probably glad he got banned, just as he's glad that Macy's ended its relationship with him. Trump has no time for losers like Erickson, and like the thousands of other losers he has identified over the last few years....

Did You Hear About The White Teen Killed At A Drive-Through?

...by cops. Unarmed. Suspcious circumstances. Didn't think you'd heard about it. At least the young man had ab accident or something. The white teen did nothing except being with the "wrong" girl.
More here.

Christian Taylor, Texas Teen Killed By Cop, Tweeted: 'I Don't Wanna Die Too Young' - NBC News:

The black Texas teen shot dead by police Friday openly expressed fears about his safety and questioned law enforcement on social media, tweeting last week, "I don't wanna die too young."

Christian Taylor, 19, was shot and killed in the Dallas suburb of Arlington during a struggle with an officer after crashing his car through a Buick dealership around 1 a.m. Friday, authorities said.

The Arlington Police Department said officers were responding to a burglary call when they shot the unarmed Taylor....

All lives matter.

Cincy Has A Light Bulb Moment

City Of Cincinnati Terminates UCPD After Spike In Minority Arrests | New Pittsburgh Courier:

The death of Samuel DuBose by the hands of former University of Cincinnati officer Ray Tensing revealed some disturbing numbers about their traffic stops off campus.

According to Fox 15, the entire University of Cincinnati police force off-campus patrolling has been terminated. The Law and Public Safety Committee approved the ordinance as stops dating back to Jan. 1, 2013 were reviewed. In that year, the city approved the UC police to enforce traffic stops off campus...

Biting The Hand That Feeds You

Conservatives are mad at Fox News and Megyn Kelly. They shouldn’t be. - The Washington Post:

There is no more galvanizing force against the political establishment today than Donald J. Trump. But the real-estate tycoon and (still-hard-to-believe) GOP front-runner has now galvanized the conservative base against a more unlikely foe: Fox News...

Who's Your Daddy, Schumer?

Leading US Democrat speaks out against US-Iran deal - BBC News:

Leading US Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer has announced that he is breaking ranks with President Obama by opposing the Iran nuclear deal...

Comment Of The Day: Multiple Anniversary Edition

Why the FBI Is Investigating Hilary Clinton's Private E-Mail Security

Augustino Patti ·

St. Louis Community College at Forest Park

I know I'm getting old when I know EXACTLY who you mean by Steno Sue Schmidt.

Today is the 50th anniversary of LBJ signing the Voting Rights Act (now toothless, thanks, Chief Roberts!) into law. Today is the 70th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima.

It is also the 14th anniversary of the 'bin Laden determined to strike in U.S.' Presidential Intel memo given to George W. Bush in the comfort and security of his Crawford, Texas 'ranch', to which he replied:

"Okay. You've covered your ass." With those five words, the ensuing ethos of our national security into the unforeseen future was born.

Let's Talk Fish

O.K. O.K. It's not politics but it does win the Mad In The Middle award for Best Descriptive News Writing. I don't won't to spoil your image, so you'll have go the link to see the actual creature.


New scary-looking fish species comes from ocean's dark depths - CNN.com:

Now and again, marine scientists plumbing the dark depths of the sea pull out a new fish species that is just out-and-out ugly.

The latest discovery looks like a hunchbacked, rotting old shoe with spikes, a scraggly mustache and a big mouth with bad teeth. And it has a long, angular fishing pole-looking thing growing out of its head...

GOP Oppose O'Climate Plan

GOP candidates wrong on climate change | Opinion Columnists | IslandPacket.com:

The reaction of Republican presidential candidates to the Obama administration's new environmental plan yet again shows their wrongheadedness on climate change....

CDS Fundamentals

From Whitewater to Benghazi: A Primer on Bill and Hillary Clinton Scandals - The Atlantic:

Another week, another new front on the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails...

Positive Ferguson Fallout

The Ferguson Protests Worked:

...In the ensuing decades, those “kangaroo courts” enabled small towns, especially in St. Louis County, to pad their budgets by extracting fines from people for extraordinarily minor violations of municipal codes -- under threat of jail. Arrest warrants were issued for thousands of people, for supposed crimes like wearing baggy pants, missing a special sticker on their car, or failing to subscribe to a designated trash service. Residents who had to endure these local courts described them as “out of control,” “inhumane,” "crazy,” “racist,” “unprofessional” and “sickening.”

The decades between Lauer's warning and 2014 brought no significant reforms to Missouri's municipal courts. Then, on Aug. 9, a Ferguson police officer's bullet that killed 18-year-old Michael Brown brought an end to the inaction...

The Return Of Who Inhaled And Is Is

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

...If you have followed national politics for any reasonable period of time, you know that the Republicans have an essential gameplan which they bring out for every election. It is to attack the character of the Democratic nominee, on as personal grounds as they can get away with. Note that they rarely want to engage on issues. This is because, 1) they sense that the voters favor the Democratic positions on major issues; and, 2) their own candidates are not very well versed in facts, or the intricacies of complex matters. So, figuring that enough of the populace also doesn’t know or care much about real issues, they try to turn elections into some kind of personal popularity contest. Like, who would you rather have a beer with? Or who do you prefer to come into your living room and talk? Whom would you most want to be friends with?...

JEB! Sez Rake Time!

Hillary Clinton Criticizes Jeb Bush Remarks on Women’s Health | TIME:

...But mid-thought, he stopped to muse that the federal government might not need to spend as much as it does.

“The argument against this is … it is a war on women and you are attacking women’s health issues,” he said. “You could take dollar for dollar—although I’m not sure we need a half a billion dollars for women’s health issues—but if you took dollar for dollar, there are many extraordinarily fine organizations, community health organizations that exist...”

Not the right Bush. but hey, seen one bush, seen all shrubs.

Votin' And Lawin'

Advocates Strike Deal on Voter Registration in Oklahoma - The Atlantic:

...Such warnings are often a precursor to lawsuits, the kind of knock-down, drag-out legal fights that are filled with accusations of voter suppression and partisan chicanery. In North Carolina and Texas, the courts are weighing challenges to new voter ID laws, and the Supreme Court recently delivered voter advocates a victory when it ruled that Arizona and Kansas could not require people to show proof of citizenship when they register to vote...

Post 10,656!

I had planned to have a massive internet party for post 10,000 but somehow it slid right by me.

Oddly, I had thought I needed to address the same issue I wrote about in my second post from October of 2005: here, so maybe I'll quote myself. I began blogging because I was so utterly outraged about Bush et. al.'s response to Katrina that I felt I had to do something, I quickly learned that I was a Z list blogger and no one was gonna pay attention, but I trudged onward. I figured that if I had to spend the rest of my life trying to turn one person away from the poison of the neocon GOPers (I think I actually was the first to use the GOPer term back in the day), it would be worth the trek.

I was a Edwards, then Clinton supporter, and was sitting on The Confluence the night the PUMAs became real and I still identify with them. I never supported Obama, and I received death threats from some Obots, something the right-wing loons have never bothered to do. Thank you. I did support Obama against R$money and must admit I've become a fan during his last two years, probably because of all the ludicrous Facebook accusations that I've been countering. I still think Clinton would have been a far better president since she absolutely knows what the Republicans are all about. Too late,  Obama realized that his bipartisan friendship  hand had been reduced to a bloody stump.

I guess I will toil on here in a dark, empty corner of cyberspace, gazing wistfully at the stars clustered at the center of this Universe. At least until death do part me from this electronic coil and I upload to the netherspace. Even then, I'll be back.

Cop On Trial For Killing Black Man

It's the South, people. Name all the other areas where a white cop has been tried for killing a black man.

Live updates: Trial of CMPD Officer Kerrick is underway | The Charlotte Observer:

Monday begins the trial phase of the voluntary manslaughter trial for Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Officer Randall “Wes” Kerrick, who is accused of wrongfully killing Jonathan Ferrell in a late-night encounter in 2013.

Twelve jurors and four alternate jurors have been selected. They will decide whether Kerrick used excessive force when he fired 12 shots at Ferrell, or whether he was justified because he thought Ferrell posed a deadly threat. If convicted, Kerrick faces three to 11 years in prison...

Let Anyone Debate?

Can Fox News exclude candidates just because they aren’t mentioned in polls? - The Washington Post:

Former IRS commissioner Mark Everson (R) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission on Monday morning, arguing that Fox News has unfairly excluded him from participation in the candidate forum that will precede Thursday night's debate. The complaint asks that he be added to the event -- though an expert we spoke with is skeptical that it will work....

More Media Corruption

Journalists Attend Private Koch Brothers Gathering, But Agree Not To Name Donors:

Several news organizations gained rare access Saturday into a private gathering of influential Republican donors hosted by Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, a nonprofit organization backed by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch.

But journalists covering the three-day event, held at a luxurious California resort, had to agree to an unusual restriction. They weren’t allowed to report the names of any of the 450 donors attending without the individual’s permission...

The Political Doldrums

Trump and Sanders surge, Congress stalls, voters seethe | The Kansas City Star:

...But it’s business as usual on Capitol Hill, where too-common political Band-Aids and fiery appeals to narrow constituencies trump thoughtful debate and long-term solutions....

On Truth And Journalism

Why you can't trust journalism | Fusion:

...Journalism would be greatly improved were it to learn a lesson from empirical science, which is that even the best and most assiduous work can turn out on examination to be deeply flawed. That doesn’t mean the original piece was sloppy, it just means that everybody is human, and that the truth is usually messy, and hard to find, and even harder to encapsulate in a neat story with a compelling narrative. Whenever there’s only one story on any given subject, then relying on that one story is always going to be dangerous. And yet, the way the journalism world works, once there’s one big compelling story, no one else tends to ever go near that area again...

The Daily Flashback:: Lying Media Edition

At Least Six Times The Media Shouldn't Have Trusted Selective Leaks From Congressional Sources | Research | Media Matters for America:

The New York Times was forced to issue two corrections after relying on Capitol Hill anonymous sourcing for its flawed report on emails from former Secretary of State and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The Clinton debacle is the latest example of why the media should be careful when relying on leaks from partisan congressional sources -- this is far from the first time journalists who did have been burned...

Flogging The NYT--- Again

The NY Times’ Criminal Headline | Uppity Woman:

Last week, the NY Times published a false, fake, made-up, lying-liar story about Hillary, claiming she was the target of a criminal investigation. She wasn’t. The sources were likely Gowdy’s lackeys. (But I don’t *know* that.) Here’s the link, but be advised, the story has been repeatedly “corrected” from it’s original really, really wrong form to a moderately incorrect form...

Lil'Lindsey's Error

Lindsey Graham on War with Iran and the Lessons of Iraq - The Atlantic:

...Lindsey Graham’s notion that the question of war between America and Iran is coherently reducible to “we win” or “they win” is facile, dangerous, and especially galling from a man who ought to have learned better from the last war he urged. Even the most severe Iranian losses would not necessarily mean that “we win.”

$$ Corrupting Politics

‘Super PACs’ Spent Millions Before Candidates Announced, Filings Show - The New York Times:

 Acting as shadow campaigns, the political committees backing the major presidential candidates supported them with tens of millions of dollars in chartered planes, luxury hotel suites, opposition research, high-priced lawyers and more, spending reports showed Friday.

Campaign disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission underscored just how far the candidates — particularly Jeb Bush — went in outsourcing many of their traditional campaign operations to “super PACs,” which face much looser regulation...