Headlines - Friday June 16

 

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Yikes. Hot on the heals of a story from Ari Melber about Obama's secret (but fully revealed) drone program comes this. Drone bases in the U.S. What could they be for?

From the Danger Room crew at Wired: There are 64 drone bases on American soil. That includes 12 locations housing Predator and Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles, which can be armed.

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Mitt "Major pornographer" Romney now "major gambler" too

 

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Apparently the words vasectomy and vagina, when uttered by women, requires silencing said women:

A male Republican House leader in Michigan silenced two female Democratic state legislators on Thursday after the pair tried to advance a measure that would have reduced access to vasectomies.

While discussing a bill that would erode the availability of abortion, Reps. Barb Byrum and Lisa Brown introduced an amendment to apply the same regulations to vasectomies that GOP lawmakers wanted to add to abortion services. The debate grew heated, as Republicans sought to gravel down the women. Byrum was not permitted to speak in favor of the measure and Brown was repeatedly interrupted. "I'm flattered that you want to get in my vagina, but no means no," she said. The next day both were silenced.

What is up with these guys- they remind me of 6 year olds who would giggle when someone says the word penis. And when did Michigan turn into Alabama? I'm all for starting a country where men are not allowed to hold public office unless they can pass a mental health test. Who's with me?

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HBO apologizes for depicting George W. Bush's head impaled on a pike

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Chimpy and the Repugs owe us $8.7 trillion

Don't vote for a single one of them until they pay up in full.

Kevin Drum:

A few days ago the Congressional Budget Office released a short analysis explaining why the $5.6 trillion surplus they projected for the decade following 2001 instead turned into a $6.1 trillion deficit. Bruce Bartlett summarizes:

Putting all the numbers in the C.B.O. report together, we see that continuation of tax and budget policies and economic conditions in place at the end of the Clinton administration would have led to a cumulative budget surplus of $5.6 trillion through 2011 - enough to pay off the $5.6 trillion national debt at the end of 2000.

Tax cuts and slower-than-expected growth reduced revenues by $6.1 trillion and spending was $5.6 trillion higher, a turnaround of $11.7 trillion. Of this total, the C.B.O. attributes 72 percent to legislated tax cuts and spending increases, 27 percent to economic and technical factors. Of the latter, 56 percent occurred from 2009 to 2011.

Even if we absolve George W. Bush of responsibility for those "economic and technical factors" - mainly the Great Recession - his policies are still responsible for a turnaround of about $8.4 trillion in the deficit projections. In other words, if we had merely hung onto the policies of the Clinton administration, paid for things like Medicare Part D, and avoided the disastrous war in Iraq, we would have entered the Great Recession with one of the lowest debt levels in the advanced world. That in turn would probably have kept the housing bubble a bit smaller than it was, making the Great Recession a little less catastrophic, and would have given us more headroom for fiscal stimulus in 2008 and 2009, which also would have reduced both the length and depth of the recession.

But none of that happened thanks to Republican economic policies. This year, they swear they've learned their lesson and will never do this again. Do you believe them?

Not until they pay up, that's for sure. $8.7 trillion ought to be a stretch even for all of Willard's billionaire buddies put together.

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But we're so much safer...

 

The U.S. military reached an unfortunate milestone in Afghanistan on Wednesday: 2,000 Americans have died in Operation Enduring Freedom since it began in 2001. The Star-Tribune reports that "Marine Cpl. Taylor J. Baune of Andover, Minn., was killed in Helmand province, Afghanistan, according to the Star-Tribune. Baune had married his wife just three months prior to his deployment." President Obama has signed an agreement pledging to pull military forces out of the country in 2014.

 

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Honest to fucking god...

There's a 2-year-old in New Jersey whose cerebral palsy makes it impossible for him to walk or even sit up without support. But according to the computers at Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, he should give a cane a try before Anthem forks over the cash for a wheelchair.

The boy's parents have had to carry him around the house and wherever they go, but when he grew heavier than 30 pounds, doctors prescribed a specialized wheelchair at the cost of around $5,000.

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Back in September, WellPoint announced it was "hiring" Watson, the IBM supercomputer that had competed on Jeopardy, to help it make better treatment decisions for policyholders.

 

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Notable egoist white guy ("cavefish white") Grandpa Walnuts holds a grudge forever, and now says that President Carebear never reached out to him after the 2008 elections. Jeebus, what does that old coot want? "Let's get real here," McCain told The Hill. "There was never any outreach from President Obama or anyone in his administration to me." (The Hill)

 

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A Florida literacy teacher has been charged with child abuse after telling students to cut each other in order to allow the release of the demons which infected them.

 

Duh: Neighbors told the press that Harkins had "extreme religious beliefs."

 

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Kentucky's Creation Museum has a new campaign highlighting how the existence of dinosaurs totally validates the bible.

"Through animatronic dinosaurs that move realistically and a collection of real dinosaur fossils, the Creation Museum uses dinosaurs to help teach the true history of the world, according to the Bible," said Looy. "Evolutionists use dinosaurs as much as anything to promote their naturalistic worldview, but we show how they support the biblical worldview."

 

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In other news, kindergartners are now running the Romney campaign.

Leading up to President Obama's speech today, the Romney campaign bus circled the venue honking the horn.