Headlines - Saturday March 31

 

###

 

Good news! - An astonishing 931,000+ signatures were found valid in the recall campaign to oust notorious wall-eyed git and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, and the number required was 540,208. Lt. Gov Rebecca Kleefisch's recall received 808,990 valid signatures, making her the popular asset of the Koch Brothers Wisonsin subsidiary. (TPM)

 

###

 

Sam Stein reports at Huffington Post:

When Romney eventually made his donation, he did so quietly, and through an unusual channel. Records filed by Romney's Free and Strong America PAC with the Federal Election Commission did not include details of that $10,000 donation. Nor did NOM's public 990 form. In fact, record of the payment was only uncovered Friday when the pro-gay rights Human Rights Campaign was sent a private IRS filing from NOM via a whistleblower. The Human Rights Campaign shared the filing with The Huffington Post. Asked for comment, an aide to Romney said that the donation was made through the Alabama chapter of the Free and Strong America PAC. State records confirm this. However, the 990 NOM filed lists the donation as having come from PO Box 79226 in Belmont, Massachusetts.

###

 

Socialism on Parade

If we're all suffering under the tyranny of socialism as the Republicans would have you believe, perhaps socialism isn't so bad.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — U.S. stocks closed mixed Friday, with the Dow and S&P 500 ending the best first quarter in over a decade, as investors weighed a report on consumer spending and a boost in the eurozone bailout fund. [...]

Friday's gains capped a stellar three months for stocks, with the Dow and S&P posting the biggest first-quarter gain since 1998. Despite Friday's decline, the Nasdaq had its best first quarter since 1991, according to the Stock Trader's Almanac.

For the quarter, the Dow gained 8.1%, the S&P 500 advanced 12% and the Nasdaq rose a whopping 19% since New Year's Day.

And according to Mitch McConnell, we're "living under the Obama economy."

Whoops?

###

GOP running out of steam on Solyndra "scandal"

###

It must an election year. The Catholic church is again turning Democratic politicians away. It's like clockwork. Every four years there a presidential election, and suddenly the Catholic church starts kicking out Democrats. They get a tax break for this? Boston.com.

I'm sure they can replace Ted Kennedy's widow with a pedophile priest who's more than palatable to the church leadership.Read the rest of this post...

###

Olbermann out at Current TV. Now what? (How is it that Dear Leader Rush and his ilk get to spew hatred and bigotry and stay on the air, while someone generally decent and thoughtful, if admittedly also a tad egomaniacal, like Keith can't find a media home?)

###

Mario Piperni:

The quote below is a blatant and ugly racist comment written by a reader of right-wing blogger Sister Toldjah. She wrote a piece finding fault with Rep. Bobby Rush for wearing a hoodie on the floor of the House in support of murdered black youth Trayvon Martin. One of her reader's took the opportunity to lecture on blacks in America.

I fully understand the urge that many minorities in this country feel to participate in our system of government, which is not a Democracy as most people believe, but is in fact, a Republic. I'm not going to mince words here and try to align myself with all the politically correct idiots in the world. I can't name a more worthless bunch of individuals, than the politically correct idiots we deal with every day.

Yes, this country is made up of many people, from many different backgrounds and many different countries. Given that History of America, the only race that has not been able to assimilate into the fabric of this great country is Blacks. I refuse to call them African-Americans, because they are not African-Americans. They are Americans, just like you and I. But of all the people who have made it to these sacred shores, they are the only ones who have never found their place here. All the other strange people who came here from strange lands, found a way to make a home here. They assimilated. They found a way to make life work in this new country. In doing so, they enriched American life as we know it. Ever go to New York and visit, "Little Italy?" Yes, it is totally Italian, but at the same time it is totally American.

I am well aware of the sins upon black people that my relatives of previous generations have visited upon these people. My question is simple. How long do we, as individuals who had nothing to do with it, have to pay for it?

I am totally sick of this polite game we play with the Black people in this country. They contribute absolutely nothing to this country. Instead, they suck this country dry by their dependency on welfare. They vote Democratic. What a surprise.

Please email me the first time black people in this country actually contribute something that makes this country better. And don't tell me Obama was something they gave us that made this country better. I could shoot myself.

I publish the racist comments not because I believe every person on the right holds the same views on blacks as the bigot who wrote them. I published the comment because if the election of Barack Obama has revealed anything, it's that racism is alive and well in America. The only difference between the remarks above and those of many conservatives, those both in and out of politics, is that under the cover of anonymity, racists are more honest in expressing their bigotry.

Fox News personalities and Republicans in Congress don't have that luxury so their racism is couched in code words and faux rage over liberal angst. If Trayvon Martin was a white 17-year old kid shot by a black vigilante who was yet to be arrested, the right would openly be calling for the lynching of the killer.

I sense that the last three paragraphs of the racist rant I quoted above is one which is more prevalent in American society than many would wish to admit.

###

The more we learn about George Zimmerman, the sicker the feeling in the pit of our stomachs. A former co-worker of Zimmerman, perhaps horrified by the race-baiting and hatemongering his family spewed on Fox on Thursday, came forward to say that the man who armed himself and went hunting for a young black man, had been fired from a job as a security guard after he "snapped" on a woman who had imbibed too much alcohol. He became enraged, snapped and picked the woman up and threw her. Later that same year, he was arrested for violently resisting arrest and committing battery against an officer of the law. And Florida didn't even take his gun away after he stalked and killed a teenager. What. The. Fuck?

###

Reality Check: Effective U.S. Corporate Tax Rate Much Lower Than Most Other Developed Nations

###

Did Frothy almost call Obama the "N" word? I'm not convinced, I just report and let you decide.

 

 

 

Headlines - Friday March 30

 

###

 

Death panels: Pennsylvania goes from bad to worse with fracking. Besides the earthquake risk, besides the flammable tap water, besides the tax free business of fracking and besides the dangerous impact of chemicals being pumped into the ground with costs left for taxpayers to cover, Pennsylvania is now blocking medical doctors from having honest discussions with patients about the impact of fracking chemicals on their patients. Is there any question as to what industry owns the political class of Pennsylvania? The Atlantic

 

###

 

Homeless woman succumbs to bloodclot in jail after hospital has her arrested for trespassing Anna Brown was only 29 years old when she went to St. Mary's hospital in the St. Louis suburb of Richmond Heights, complaining of leg pain. A homeless woman with no means of payment, she was "treated and streeted." A few hours later, she returned by ambulance but the staff, assuming that she was just a drug seeker, told her that she had already been seen and she would have to leave. Police in the building on another call were summoned to the ER and they arrested Ms. Brown for trespassing. A short time later, she was dead in her jail cell after the blood clot that was causing her pain killed her. And her life could have been spared with a simple blood test (called a PT) of her clotting factors.

 

###

 

Senators Who Voted To Protect Oil Tax Breaks Received $23,582,500 From Big Oil

 

### 

 

 

###

 

Oh dear lord...we have not lived good enough lives for this to be real...yet...it is. Rick Santorum gave a "major foreign policy speech" in Fairfield, California. At the headquarters of the Jelly Belly candy company. For those for whom there is still hope of curing yor wonkitis, Jelly Belly makes jelly beans, and jelly beans were St. Ronald of the Ray-Gun's favorite treat. But don't call it pandering! It's an homage!

 

###

Add this to your "what's the matter with Kansas" file. The Kansas House of Representatives on Thursday approved the Orwellian-sounding Preservation of Religious Freedom act. The bill will likely pass the Senate and go on to Brownback for his signature, and there is no doubt that he will sign it, since his administration testified in support of it. Once it becomes law, it will be perfectly legal for any employer to fire any employee that they think might be gay, or liberal, or atheist or whatever -- and hide behind the petticoat of "religious liberty." Apparently, to these douchenozzels, religious freedom means "only the religious have freedom."

 

###

 

 

###

 

WTF? George Zimmerman's Father Blasts Obama: "So Much Hate Coming From The President" 

 

###

 

Rumors are swirling that South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley may soon face indictment for tax fraud.

Yesterday, Palmetto Public Record exclusively reported that the Internal Revenue Service has been investigating since March of 2011 the Sikh worship center run by Gov. Haley's father. At least five lawsuits have been filed against the Sikh Society of South Carolina since 2010, alleging that the group bilked contractors out of nearly $130,000 for the construction of a new temple.

I suppose that's either a step up or a step down from "hiking the Appalachian trail," depending on your perspective.

Why does South Carolina have such a problem with their Governors?

 

###

From the Derpartment of "you can't make this shit up."

Tax-cut magician Paul Ryan is accusing the Joint Chiefs of Staff of being dishonest in their budget request, and the reason is –wait for it– they're requesting less spending than expected!

Under normal circumstances you would assume that less spending would be music to the ears of a spending-obsessed man like Paul Ryan, but not in this case. In this case, an agreement between the Joint Chiefs and President Obama, wherein they agree to less spending, must be some kind of conspiracy.

House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., claimed Thursday that senior U.S. military officials and commanders were being dishonest in their budget requests to Congress.

"We don't believe the generals are giving us their true budget," Ryan said at the National Journal Live Budget Policy summit, adding, "I think there's a lot of budget smoke and mirrors in the Pentagon's budget." [...]

In his FY2013 budget, Ryan proposed dismantling the automatic sequestration of defense spending, replacing those cuts with unspecified savings from mandatory programs.

It gets better.

The spending levels being proposed by the Pentagon are the same levels previously agreed to, by both parties, under the Budget Control Act (the debt-ceiling deal).

Now that the Republicans have officially abandoned the debt-ceiling framework and have, once again, voted to pass Paul Ryan's Medicare-killing budget along party lines, they're pretending that automatically-triggered spending cuts at the Pentagon were never agreed to, even though they were.

By the way, I hear accusing your most senior commanders of lying and producing fraudulent budget requests is a great way to "support the troops."

###

Whether it's Mitt Romney himself or members of his staff, Team Romney simply can't stop saying stupid stuff.

In any case, swelling the IRA to the size Mr. Romney's reached has "created a tax problem" for the former Massachusetts governor, said a Romney campaign official. Tax-law changes since Mr. Romney's Bain tenure mean that long-term capital gains in regular accounts now are taxed at 15%. But IRA gains are taxed at ordinary-income rates upon withdrawal, which for Mr. Romney, under current law, would be 35%.

"Who wants to have $100 million in an IRA?" said the campaign official.

Yeah. Who would want $100 million in an IRA? What a drag would that be?

If you were to withdraw that $100 million dollars, you might have to pay an appropriate amount of tax on it, and that would just be a total buzz-kill.

Maybe Mitt can change the tax laws so he can withdraw his $100 million tax-free if he becomes president.

###

 

FRC: Christians Shouldn't Sell To Queers

Headlines - Wednesday March 29

 

###

 

Incarcerated Climate Activist Tim DeChristopher Moved to Restricted Cell

Supporters of jailed environmentalist build campaign against move, call attention to injustice of his imprisonment

 

###

 

Charles Pierce: Tony Scalia's Retirement Has Started Early

 

###

 

 

###

 

Experts: Radiation at Fukushima Plant Far Worse Than Thought

Water at surprisingly low levels; damage "worse than expected"

 

###

 

Bennie-the-Rat wants to have fun south of the border, if you know what I mean and I think you do.

 

###

 

The Supreme Court / health care fiasco here.

 

###

If the Sanford, Florida police department did not stink before, it positively reeks now. I'm iPad blogging and don't have the time or energy to dig up each link, but today I learned that the cops coached witnesses to say that they heard the shooter crying for help, that someone has systematically leaked private information to smear the victim's character and that the Martin's body did not have any sign of the kind of hand and knuckle injuries that you get when you severely beat someone with your bare hands, especially someone with a hundred pounds of muscle on you. I learned that the morgue identified the young victim right away but filed him as a 'John doe' until much later when his father filed a missing persons report. I read that the Sanford city council asked the DOJ to step in after they were utterly overwhelmed by police racism complaints at their last meeting.

The Martin/Zimmerman police report said that the shooter had a broken nose and grass all over his clothes, and Zimmerman claimed that his victim banged his head repeatedly on the road. Now ABC news has video of the night when they brought Zimmerman in for questioning and – surprise! – his shaved head looks pristine, his nose looks fine and his clothes look like he just washed them. If the cops thought he might have blood on him then protocol requires them to touch him with gloves. They seem fine with bare hands.

Anyone care to explain how this does not stink as bad as it seems? Anyone?

###

Notable humorist and magical panties enthusiast Willard 2.0 shares an amusing anecdote from his family history:

"One of most humorous [stories] I think relates to my father. You may remember my father, George Romney, was president of an automobile company called American Motors … They had a factory in Michigan, and they had a factory in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and another one in Milwaukee, Wisconsin," said Romney. "And as the president of the company he decided to close the factory in Michigan and move all the production to Wisconsin. Now later he decided to run for governor of Michigan and so you can imagine that having closed the factory and moved all the production to Wisconsin was a very sensitive issue to him, for his campaign."

Romney said he recalled a parade in which the school band marching with his father's campaign only knew the Wisconsin fight song, not the Michigan song.

"So every time they would start playing 'On Wisconsin, on Wisconsin,' my dad's political people would jump up and down and try to get them to stop, because they didn't want people in Michigan to be reminded that my dad had moved production to Wisconsin," said Romney, laughing.

That's so funny, Willard, you madcap raconteur! Oh, it just must have had all of the other swells at the club in stitches, simply in stitches! I bet Bunny Bixler wetted herself, didn't she, when she heard that old chestnut, eh?

There's nothing like how the misfortune of others–that you caused by laying them off–is inadvertently funny when it gets in the way of your plans to pursue oligarchy. Oh, you scamp, tell us another story!

(TPM)

###

Theocracy on the March - Jeebus, some people! Anyway a Xristian Xrazy Organization had a revelation and now is praying for the angels who helped the Founding Fathers to frame the US Constitution to smite Obamacare, or something:

"The strategy for the nine US Supreme Court judges that are hearing the case of constitutionality on Obamacare involves asking the Father to send angels to prick the hearts of the judges that they would follow the original intent of the framers of the Constitution."

I think it is safe to say that there a lot of pricks sitting on the bench. AmIRight? (The Oak Initiative!)

###

Because deep down inside, you hope you wake up tomorrow and discover Tyler Durden is real. Bank of America handed their failed CEO a $7.5 million golden parachute -- after he oversaw the bank losing more than half it's stock value. 

###

Remember this the next time a republican fuckwit grabs their skirts and jumps up on the table shrieking about the lack of transparency in government. They don't want it transparency, they just want to accuse Democrats of not wanting transparency. If they really gave a damn about it, they wouldn't have killed the amendment to a communications bill that was offered by Democratic Representative Anna Eshoo of California that would have disclosed the names of donors who kicked in more than $10,000 for third-oarty advertising.

 

###

 

Erik Loomis: Rand Paul is Very Special

 

###

 

Scott Brown's 'Strong-Willed' Women Have Taught Him Many Things About Household Chores

 

Abdominal hero Scott Brown, who is fighting the good fight against a Democratic woman in Massachusetts over who is nicer to women, is now getting support from an unlikely ally, outgoing existential philosopher Olympia Snowe, who says that Brown is great and stuff. Brown knows how to balance on the slippery balance beam of centrism, apparently, and that is good enough for Olympia. Because she is a woman and likes him, he must be friendly towards women. But someone who supported the recently offed Blunt amendment, which "would have let employers or health insurers deny coverage for services they say violate their moral or religious beliefs, including birth control"? That is a woman fan? Hmm. READ MORE »

 

###

 

Pakistani Acid Attack Victim Commits Suicide Because 'There Was No Justice Available To Her'

 

###

 

Cantor's 'Small Business' Jobs Bill Gives Millionaires An Average Tax Cut Of $45,000

Headlines - Wednesday March 28

 

###

 

The 2010 BP oil spill that spewed from a broken well on the Gulf of Mexico sea floor damaged coral as far as seven miles (11 kilometers) away, according to a scientific study published on Monday.

 

###

 

 

###

Divide and conquer for Jesus! They literally will do everything they can, including having this entire country at each other's throats, just to keep bigotry alive and to follow bizarre interpretations of a 2,000 year old piece of fiction. Stay classy, homophobes!

###

　

 

 

###

 

Worse Than Bush: Well, not really.

 

###

 

If Republicans on Supreme Court Kill 'Obamacare,' Ranks of the Uninsured Will Rise to 60 Million

 

###

 

 

###

 

Congressman Gets Kicked Off House Floor For Wearing Hoodie For Trayvon

 

###

 

Headlines - Tuesday March 27

Strauss-Kahn charged in alleged prostitution ring

 

###

 

###

"An international carbon tax program is one of the most hideous ideas forged in the minds of men. Since all known life forms are carbon-based, it is a proposal to control all life." Townhall.com blogger David Hoyt

Once again, conservatives, don't attempt math or science. You clearly don't understand. And if you do, and you're being deliberately ignorant about it to pander to your audience, you're truly pathetic.

Obviously, there's a major difference between carbon pollution and carbon inside of our molecules. Similarly, living creatures like humans have bodies that contain lots of water. But if we dive under a body water and don't come up for air, we die.

Science!

 

###

 

 

###

 

A defrocked Catholic priest about to begin trial on molestation charges in Philadelphia abruptly changed his plea to "guilty" on Friday. As part of his confession, Father Edward Avery declared that his diocese had been aware of his crimes, but had allowed him to keep his job.

In a statement of facts read as part of the guilty plea, Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington said, "Avery was aided in his efforts to remain in ministry with unsupervised access to parish children and altar servers and others in the Archdiocese. "Defendant Lynn and other Archdiocese officials acted in concert with Avery with a common purpose to conceal Avery's known acts of sexual abuse of a minor, so that Avery could remain in ministry without the knowledge of parishioners whose children would be exposed to a man that defendant Lynn and others in the Archdiocese knew presented a danger to children."

The trial of Monsignor William Lynn, who allegedly hid Avery's crimes, began today.

It was his job to investigate allegations of sexual abuse, but Coelho says Lynn paid lip service to the protection of children while protecting the priests now charged with (and in at least one case admitting to) abusing children. Coelho told jurors that Lynn, with a secret file of the complaints, was the keeper of the secrets. And he kept parishoners in the dark, she said, because there was a concerted effort to protect the church from scandal even if it endangered additional children.

 

###

 

The Rude Pundit: Conservatives Shouldn't Make Videos:

 

 

Headlines - Monday March 26

 

###

 

Betty Bowers: Join the Party!

 

###

 

 

###

 

Toxic cannibal Newt Gingrich manages to find Obama's Trayvon comments 'disgraceful'

 

Well, guess we got one more post in us this evening, huh? Here we were, drinking wine, sitting on the couch, and braiding Kirsten Boyd Johnson's hair, and this little bit of happiness and rainbows and unicorns and magic flitted across our (somewhat impaired) field of vision: Newt Gingrich, Great White Hope, has turned his attention from protecting the honor of white ladies from Robert DeNiro's terribly offensive (not at all offensive) jokes, and focused instead on the honor of everyone in this great nation of ours who had the misfortune to not be born black. See, the President noted, somberly and steadily, that Trayvon Martin looked like he could have been his son. Even the Daily Caller, try though it did, wasn't able to find anything wrong with Obama's statement itself, only that it had clearly been made at the behest of the Black Panthers, because duh of course it was. But you, Newton, are a special fellow. Open that pretty piehole, show us what you're working with: "What the president said, in a sense, is disgraceful." Because the president is racist? Yes. READ MORE »

 

###

 

 

330 people died last year waiting for a heart transplant. I wonder who got bumped down the list for Darth's heart. I hope the donor wasn't this woman:

A 32-year-old woman from Iraq who was found severely beaten next to a threatening note saying "go back to your country" died on Saturday.

Shaima Alawadi's 17-year-old daughter found her unconscious in a pool of blood Wednesday morning in the dining room of the house in El Cajon, police Lt. Steve Shakowski said.

"(They) took my mother away from me ... took my best friend away from me. Why?" the victim's daughter Fatima Al Himidi told KUSI-TV. She added that her mother had been beaten on the head with a tire iron.

Hanif Mohebi, the director of the San Diego chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said he met with Alawadi's family members Saturday morning and was told the mother of five was taken off life support around 3 p.m.

"The family is in shock at the moment. They're still trying to deal with what happened," Mohebi said.

Mohebi said the family had been in the United States since the mid-1990s.

Al Himidi told KUSI-TV her mother had been beaten on the head repeatedly with a tire iron, and that the note said "go back to your country, you terrorist."

Isn't it wonderful to know that one of the primary architects of the environment in which Shaima Alawadi's murderer could flourish is going to be with us for a while longer. /snark

 

This is obviously good news for those who care about Mr. Cheney. It is also good news for those who want to see justice for the many war crimes committed at his command. He may indeed now live long enough to not cheat the hangman.

###

 

A match made in hell

One evil empire has purchased another evil empire.

A report by Jeremy Scahill in The Nation (Blackwater's Black Ops, 9/15/2010) revealed that the largest mercenary army in the world, Blackwater (now called Xe Services) clandestine intelligence services was sold to the multinational Monsanto. Blackwater was renamed in 2009 after becoming famous in the world with numerous reports of abuses in Iraq, including massacres of civilians. It remains the largest private contractor of the U.S. Department of State "security services," that practices state terrorism by giving the government the opportunity to deny it.

 

So now GMOs will be guarded by trigger happy mercenaries. Good luck, family farmers. Buy Kevlar.

 

 

Headlines - Saturday March 25

Dick Cheney is recovering after having a heart transplant.

 

Former Vice President Dick Cheney was recovering Saturday at a hospital in Falls Church, Va., after undergoing a heart transplant, NBC News reported.

 

Cheney was in the Intensive Care Unit of Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, his officew said in a statement.

 

The former vice president has been on the cardiac transplant list for more than 20 months. In 2010, Cheney had a left ventricular assist device implanted for treatment of end-stage heart failure.

 

 

###

 

Bill Maher's starting to sound a little panicky. The false equivalence doesn't help any.

###

 

People who comment on articles at Fox News are assholes.

 

###

 

It's a liberal conspiracy! 

Damage estimates of the Texas drought that began in 2010 and carried through 2011, wherein the state suffered under 100 degree temperatures for over 90 days straight, have been revised upward.

Texas Agronomists have revised estimates for the cost of Texas' devastating drought, finding that it cost the agricultural sector $2 billion more than originally thought.
According to the Texas AgriLife Extension Service, the Texas drought has caused $7.62 billion in damages to crops and farming operations. That's up from $5.3 billion reported last August. [...]

Nearly every single agricultural sector in the state was hammered by the record-breaking drought that began in 2010, causing a ripple effect through global commodity markets. With livestock, cotton, peanut and even pumpkin crops hit hard, shortages of product is driving prices up and putting a squeeze on farmers in the state

"It's just a fluke" they'll say, and that's at least partially correct, but what they still refuse to acknowledge is that climate change greatly increases the likelyhood of such events and exacerbates pre-existing conditions.

Billion dollar climate-related disasters are going to become the norm but, on the bright side, that may force insurance companies to officially recognize climate change as a factor. When it starts to impact their own bottom line in a serious way, business may join the push to begin preparing for what is coming.

They'll never be willing to spend their own cash reserves to prepare, mind you, but they may lobby congress to spend ours to help them prepare. Either way, I'll take it.

If not, Rick Perry can always pray for rain.

###

Let's face it, Fox News is unabashedly opposed to Barack Obama and everything his administration represents. The network has virtually conceded that it is nothing more than a promotional vehicle for conservative Republican politics and politicians.

Now Fox News has stepped even further across the line of objectivity by taking up the case of a Marine sergeant whose adventures in social media are blatantly disrespectful to his superiors and teeter toward insubordination or worse.

Sergeant Gary Stein is the founder of a Facebook page called "Armed Forces Tea Party." According to reports from the Associated Press, Stein had been informed that he was in violation of Pentagon policy prohibiting political activities. The policy specifically forbids military personnel from using contemptuous words against senior officials, including the defense secretary or the president. At first Stein cooperated with his commanders by taking down the Facebook page, but he later restored it based on his own conclusion that he was not in violation of any code. As a result, he is now the subject of an administrative action that could result in a discharge.

Stein is adamant that he is innocent of any infraction. he contends that he was exercising his free speech rights by posting messages in which he declared that he would refuse to follow any order issued by the President, his commander-in-chief, that he deemed unlawful.

"I'm completely shocked that this is happening," Stein said. "I've done nothing wrong. I've only stated what our oath states that I will defend the constitution and that I will not follow unlawful orders. If that's a crime, what is America coming to?"

Technically, I agree with Stein on the matter of a soldier's obligation to refuse to follow an unlawful order. That is a standard set after World War II that resulted in the inadmissibility of the defense that "I was just following orders." But Stein had better have a damn good basis (and an opinion from a legal expert) before he engages in what might constitute mutiny. Stein had no such basis when he chose to ignore the orders of his commanders or to declare that he would refuse to follow orders from the President if those orders included detaining or disarming U.S. citizens. That overly broad standard would mean that Stein would not act against Adam Gadahn, the American who is presently the media adviser for Al Qaeda.

Stein's story was broadcast on Fox News' America Live with Megyn Kelly. Fox News also featured the story on both the Fox News web site and Fox Nation, where Stein has been treated as a hero for standing up to President Obama. However, he has a pretty thin case to make for his patriotism when he posts comments like this: "I say screw Obama. I will not follow orders given by him to me." That comment has since been deleted and Stein says that he later qualified his comment to reflect that he would only disobey unlawful orders. But you can still find this comment on his Facebook page without qualification: "Obama is the "Domestic Enemy" our oath speaks about."

That goes far beyond Stein's assertion that he was merely stating what the military code says about following unlawful orders. It is an exhibition of overt disloyalty that the military ought not to abide. In fact, it designates the President as an enemy of the state, which would make him a suitable target, in Stein's warped view, for hostile action or assassination. And that is exactly the view that Fox News, and their audience of pseudo-patriots, are applauding. Disgusting, isn't it?

###

###

George Zimmerman Refers To Trayvon Martin As A 'F***ing Coon' During 911 Call (AUDIO)

 

 

 

Headlines - Saturday March 24

 

### 

Try to remember the good things...

...when your drunk husband is beating you. That is what Wisconsin state Rep. Don Pridemore thinks you should do because he is against any kind of divorce and thinks you should be too.

According to Mr. Pridemore, women in abusive marriages should just shut their eyes, much like closing your eyes while you are being raped by the GOP's shaming wand, and remember the things they love about their husband -- "If they can re-find those reasons and get back to why they got married in the first place it might help."

He also said, according to the Yahoo article:

...that while he thinks women are capable of caring for a family "in certain situations," fathers are the only ones who provide structure and discipline. If they don't grow up with married biological parents, Pridemore says, "kids tend to go astray."

These comments stem from him being a co-sponsor of fellow GOP douchebag state Sen. Glenn Grothman's Limbaughesque "being single causes child abuse" Senate Bill 507.

He also hates puppies.

###

###

 

Study: Born-agains have smaller brains

 

### 

 

Symptoms Of A Syndrome

 

###

 

SHOCKER! Rick Santorum Endorses Barack Obama!

Looks like we're getting to the shirty, snitty, smegma-lipped-pout phase of the GOP primaries. Rick Santorum would like to take Mitt Romney's toys and go home!

"You win by giving people the opportunity to see a different vision for our country, not someone who's just going to be a little different than the person in there," said Santorum. "If you're going to be a little different, we might as well stay with what we have instead of taking a risk with what may be the etch a sketch candidate of the future." Watch Rick Santorum endorse Barack Obama, after the jump! READ MORE »

###

Is Roger Ailes blackmailing him with the threat of making the "Geraldo with a mustachioed goat" pictures public? I have heard no evidence to the contrary.

We report, you decide.

###

 

 

###

 

ACLU supports Facebook's threat to sue employers for demanding the login information to applicant's Facebook accounts as a condition of employment. It puts the applicants in direct violation of the Facebook terms of service, which state unequivocally that login information will not be shared with anyone else.

 

###

 

Stop praising Trayvon Martin

I don't want to read another fucking word about what a wonderful kid Trayvon Martin was. He was, of course, exactly the kind of smart, well-behaved, clean-cut, destined-for-success black kid white elitist repugs all claim to love to pieces.

And that's exactly the problem.

The murder of Trayvon Martin is an outrage and a tragedy not because Trayvon Martin was - in the words I am sure have been uttered many times in the repug cesspool that is the Florida legislature and law-enforcement community - "a good colored."

The murder of Trayvon Martin is an outrage and a tragedy because Florida law allows racist, mouthbreathing cop-wannabe crackers like George Zimmerman to gun people down for no reason.

If the person George Zimmerman shot had been a black, 6-foot-6, gang-tattooed, 300-pounds-of-muscle high-school dropout with a long juvenile and adult record of drug crimes, who did not live in the neighborhood, who was actually casing the area for burglary targets, and who was carrying a concealed weapon (Florida lets anybody carry concealed), the shooting still would have been murder.

Make no mistake; George Zimmerman is not going to spend a day in jail. I seriously doubt there's a judge or jury in Florida that would award Trayvon's parents a dime in wrongful-death compensation.

That's because the Stand Your Ground Laws - in Florida and a dozen other states - makes cold-blooded murder for fun legal.

Basing opposition to those laws on what a wonderful kid Trayvon Martin was is - you should excuse the expression - a dead-bang loser.

Victims of this law are far more likely to be big, ugly, dangerous felons than they are to be cute fluffy bunnies like Trayvon Martin.

But even big, ugly, dangerous felons who are not breaking the law have not earned execution.

###

 

 

###

 

Some Wisconsin GOP state Senate dude got recalled for being a dick and also banging some lobbyist chick who wasn't his wife, and then later he got a DUI and got arrested and now he is on trial. But was it a frame-up? IT WAS A FRAME-UP, he and his lawyers now say. Because of how all the Wisconsin public sector workers vowed to ruin his life! Also? Randy Hopper totally cried in court, like Darrell Issa, a known crybaby, who cries. READ MORE »

 

###

 

Shep Smith forgets Fox talking points, again

 

 

You guys, Shep Smith is mad (again), and he is not having any more of this nonsense. Somebody must have forgotten to send him Hannity's playbook on how to wonder whether this whole Trayvon Martin mishigas might not have just been a terrible misunderstanding, because he is almost in a fugue state of anger.

 

"He's walking home with Skittles for his sibling, and his iced tea. There was a confrontation, there was screaming, there was 'help help help,' there was a dispute over who was screaming help, it's widely believed that it was Trayvon. Hang on. Widely believed it was Trayvon who was screaming 'help' and then shots fired. And then silence. Ominous silence. And then a little boy lying face down in a pool of his own blood. And dying in the streets of that gated community. And then this man who did the shooting, his weapon is not even taken away? And it's not even taken into consideration whether this man is a danger to his community?" READ MORE »

 

###

 

Daily Caller: Obama Commented on Trayvon Because Black Panthers Told Him To

Whew! Tucker Carlson's Daily Callgirl couldn't quite figure out how to blame Barack Obama for Trayvon Martin's death, but thankfully star "reporter" Matthew Boyle came up with the next best thing: President Barack Obama only commented on the death of a young man shot by a guy muttering "fucking coons" because the Black Panthers told him to. READ MORE »

 

 

Headlines - Wednesday March 21

 

###

 

10 Reasons the Rest of the World Thinks the U.S. Is Nuts    

 

###

 

A torrent of bombings and shootings ripped across eight Iraqi cities on Tuesday, targeting police and Shiite pilgrims and killing 46 people. The deadly wave undermined the government's hopes for stability ahead of next week's meeting of the Arab world's top leaders.

 

###

 

 

###

 

 

###

 

"Now, with constant streams of torture videos coming out of Syria, with the savage crackdown on the uprising there, hearing President Obama condemning the "outrageous bloodshed" and demanding Bashar al-Assad to step down just makes the Rude Pundit's feel like he's gotten a gut punch. Because all he can think is, "Now, where did the Syrians get the idea that they could just go on with torturing and killing innocent people with only ongoing financial sanctions imposed?" And, of course, that'd be us when we gave them prisoners and said, "Oh, hey, you know that torture thing you're good at? I mean, I know we hate each other and shit, but can you do a bro a solid and break out the electric nut prod for these dudes?"" Rude Pundit Link

 

I wondered when someone would bring that up.

When Der Monkey Fuhrer was in charge, the CIA would fly SUSPECTS to Syria to be tortured.
Now America is demandng that Syria stop the torture? 

###

 

Reich: What Republicans Argue When They Have Nothing Left to Say     

 

###

### 

Good job, Alexandra Pelosi. By inadvertently feeding a right-wing racist stereotype that has little bearing in reality (black welfare recipients are lazy and only want handouts), you provided fuel for Bill O'Reilly and his wingnut panel to demand jail time for one of the black men in your Real Time video.

On Friday, Pelosi debuted her report on mostly black welfare recipients, many who appeared unwilling to work and relied on the government. The report appalled Bill O'Reilly, who told his panel tonight he would like to see at least one of the people in the report in jail. [...]

O'Reilly found the video "very troubling," and said of one person interviewed in particular– who expressed no desire to work and admitted to having five children with four women– "I'd put that guy in jail."

Great. That video was a disgrace, and we don't know if the guys in the Pelosi video actually received "checks".

###

This is just getting out of hand:

Personally I'd like to make a law that mandates a woman watch an abortion being performed prior to having a "surgical procedure". If it's not a life it shouldn't matter, if it doesn't harm a woman then she shouldn't care, and don't we want more transparency and education in the medical profession anyway? We demand it everywhere else.

Until the dead child can tell me that she/he does not feel any pain – I have no intentions of clearing the conscience of the living – I will be voting YES."

(Read the rest)

So now we're traumatizing women just for shits and giggles? Is that it? These people want every woman to be as traumatized as Carolyn Jones was when Texas forced her to undergo an unnecessary ultrasound? What is wrong with these people?

By the way, the quotes de sarcasm are a nice touch, Terri.

I can't even.

###

No time today, gotta run!

 

 

Headlines - Tuesday March 20

 

###

 

 

###

The CBO is projecting that the president's new budget would crush the deficit to almost zero by 2017. Via Kevin Drum, here's the chart.

Also, please note the "actual" side of the chart showing that the deficit has gone down since the president was inaugurated. Put another way: the president has reduced the deficit.

###

 

 

More than 2,200 warm temperature records have been set so far in March. Take a look at the map above to see where temps are crazy departures from normal.

This isn't your average heat wave. Its duration, set against more than a century of record keeping, makes it one for the climate change chronicles.

What will it take for people to get the picture? The bankruptcy of an agricultural industry? Wildfires in the Midwest? Mass sticker-shock at the grocery?

I'm afraid it will take certain areas of the country becoming practically uninhabitable before roughly 40 percent of the country begins to question the "climate change is a liberal hoax" narrative they've been fed by their politicians and Fox News. Because Al Gore is fat. Or something.

(via Mother Jones)

###

 

 

###

 

Bob Cesca: Far-Right Lied About CBO Healthcare Report

 

The other day I received a tweet from a far-right reader who accused me of being a "lying crook" for supporting the healthcare reform law, and, in the same tweet, the guy cited this item from the Washington Examiner insisting that the CBO has increased the cost of the ACA by almost a trillion dollars.

Holy effing crap on a stick! A treeeeeeellion dollars!

Of course if either this Twitter follower or the Examiner had actually read the CBO report, they would've learned that the CBO made no such claim.

The lie spread all around the wingnutosphere and Fox News and became so insane the CBO had to post an article debunking the lies. There's also this one from Media Matters. And this one from Krugman.

###

###

###

Wow: Woman in Indiana faces 45 years in prison for "attempted feticide" after attempted suicide

###

Catholic church reportedly castrated boys who reported priest sex abuse

###

We take our good news out of this Supreme Court where we can get it. "The Supreme Court on Monday announced that it would not hear an appeal brought by Christian student groups against San Diego State University because of its non-discrimination policy. ... The announcement lets stand a ruling last August by the U.S. Court of Appeals to the Ninth Circuit, which held (PDF) that the university's policy was constitutional, even though it prevented Alpha Delta Chi -- a Christian sorority -- and Alpha Gamma Omega -- a Christian fraternity -- from gaining official recognition on campus. ... The fraternity and sorority required members to adhere to certain Christian teachings, which conflicted with SDSU's policy prohibiting discrimination based "on the basis of race, sex, color, age, religion, national origin, marital status, sexual orientation, physical or mental handicap, ancestry, or medical condition.""

###

The science of climate change just keeps on piling up the proof. "Researchers have updated HadCRUT - one of the main global temperate records, which dates back to 1850. One of the main changes is the inclusion of more data from the Arctic region, which has experienced one of the greatest levels of warming. The amendments do not change the long-term trend, but the data now lists 2010, rather than 1998, as the warmest year on record. The update is reported in the published in the Journal of Geophysical Research. HadCRUT is compiled by the UK Met Office's Hadley Centre and the Climatic Research Unit (Cru) at the University of East Anglia, and is one of three global records used extensively by climatologists."

###

Trayvon Martin's Last Phone Call, Moments Before Tragic Death, Undermines Account Killer Gave To Police

###

Fact-Free Fox News Blames Gas Prices On Obama | Ignoring Big Oil's record profits and Wall Street speculators, Fox News repeatedly blamed President Barack Obama for rising gasoline prices, Media Matters research finds. "Our results show that Fox News covered gas prices far more often than other news outlets — more than CNN and MSNBC combined. 55% of Fox News coverage suggested that President Obama is to blame for rising gas prices. In total, Fox blamed Obama 144 times in two months – more than three times as much as all other news outlets combined."

 

###

Fox Ewes not all that interested in reporting on shooting deaths of unarmed teenagers

Fox News can generally be relied upon for a steady stream of artlessly jingoistic vomit, spewing forth from helmet-headed hairspray sacks who move their lips while reading important reports on hurricanes and other outrages against Heartland (= white, irrespective of actual location) America. What Fox usually fails at, though, is reporting on outrages against Urban (= black, etc.) America. (Kenneth Gladney excepted!) The latest such outrage to receive Fox News' patented bitchy silent treatment is the unprovoked shooting death of Trayvon Martin, a black teenager who found himself in the wrong Florida neighborhood (you know, where his father lived), being hunted like prey — ALLEGEDLY but also PROBABLY — by a local paranoiac vigilante known for being "fixated on crime and focused on young, black males." Hmm, that description… kind of sounds like every Fox scare-segment ever? READ MORE »