Headlines - Tuesday May 24

GOP response to town hall backlash: ban recording devices and censor citizen journalists.

 

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NYC bans smoking outdoors.

 

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Fixer: Obama's speech decrypted ...

 

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A group of people were trapped inside a convenient store when the tornado—the deadliest single tornado in the US since 1947 and the ninth-deadliest tornado of all time—ripped through Joplin, Missouri. The video is horrifying.

It sounds like something out of a disaster movie.

Whether or not you believe that the recent floods, hurricanes, and tornados are the result of natural or human-caused climate change, it seems fairly obvious that the weather as of late has been bizarre, to put it mildly; so the question becomes what now? Keep reading: http://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/05/24/the-joplin-tornado-video-shot-from-inside-a-store/#more-70220

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"All we need is a preacher to say global warming will bring an end to the world, then people might listen." - Neil deGrasse Tyson

 

 

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Two headlines I saw today reminded me how truth finds a way to bubble to the surface. One was from a 'real' newspaper and the other was from The Onion. And yet both seemed to reveal some obvious truths about our current politics.

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Pete DeGraaf (R-DICK) Analogizes Getting Pregnant By Rape with GETTING A FLAT TIRE.

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You could always tell when Callista had just heard Newt say, "Honey, let's go shopping at Tiffany."

 

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Jill: You can't vote to keep subsidies to Big Oil and then say that the sick elderly have to sacrifice

 

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Because nothing succeeds like failure

M.C. Sassy Steele gets a gig with MSNBC.

Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, whose tumultuous two-year stewardship ended earlier this year, has been hired by MSNBC as a political analyst, NBC announced in a statement this morning.

I have no words.

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GOP to Gulf and Atlantic coast residents: "You can die soon."

Because hurricane warning satellites are so overrated.

Earlier this year, Congressional Republicans decided accurate weather forecasting and hurricane tracking were services the American people could live without. The GOP-sponsored 2011 spending bill slashed the budget for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, slashing $700 million targeted for an overhaul of the nation's aging environmental satellite system. NOAA scientists have stated unequivocally the existing satellites will fail and if they aren't replaced, the agency's ability to provide life-saving information to the American people will be compromised.

Those satellites provide critical hurricane tracking information vital to both preparedness and relief efforts.

Republicans would rather have people die ignorant of the approaching danger.

 

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Family values

This will go over well with the "family values" crowd. Tim "Gomer Pyle" Pawlenty pardoned a sex offender so the man's wife could open a daycare center in their home. It turns out that the wife was his previous victim. He was convicted of statutory rape for knocking her up when she was just 14, but he married her so apparently all was forgiven in T-Paw's eyes. And maybe it would have stayed quiet and off the blogs, except molesters who don't get intensive therapy keep molesting, and that is exactly what this creep did. This month, he was arrested for molesting the daughter he conceived with his wife when she was just fourteen.

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IMF creep staying at fancy NYC apartment building

Dominique Strauss-Kahn is just too French and Fancy for normal jail with the other accused rapists. So he's staying at a New York building called "71 Broadway," wherever that is. The building manager sent out an email to the tenants, just to let them know there might be TV news reporters and other weirdos hanging around all the time. It's funny how the big concern isn't that there's an accused sex criminal in the building, but that there might be a "media presence" outside the lobby. The rich, they are different! READ MORE »

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Another front in the war on women and children opens up A new law in an Atlanta suburb deems breastfeeding a child older than 2 in public in violation of the town's indecency ordinance.

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Utah goes full-wingnut "Conservative lawmakers across the country seem determined to crucify mankind upon a cross of gold. In the past week, a string of articles have exposed how once-fringe conservative economic theories have migrated into the political mainstream - with alarming consequences. ... Perhaps the most obvious example is the conservative gold craze, which is based on apocalyptic beliefs that the U.S. dollar is on the verge of collapse, runaway inflation is imminent, and gold is a more stable and reliable currency than paper money. The tough economic times have spurred many Tea Partiers in particular to rush to invest in gold, pushing its price to a record high. Glenn Beck and other talk show hosts frequently advertise gold on their shows - along with fallout shelters - "as a way to weather the end of the world as we know it." And presidential contender Ron Paul (R-TX), who was made chairman of the House committee overseeing federal monetary policy, has long advocated returning to the gold standard and abolishing the Federal Reserve. ... This month Utah became the first state in the country to officially recognize gold and silver coins as legal currency."