Fuzzy math

Yesterday the Canadian Ambassador to the United States, who you may be surprised to learn is not Don Cherry but Gary Doer, spoke about how terrible this continued non-approval of the Keystone XL pipeline is.

“Twenty people protesting do get more attention in the media than the 65 percent of Americans that prefer to get their oil from Canada rather than Venezuela or the Middle East,” Doer said in an interview broadcast Sunday on Platts Energy Week TV.

"Platts Energy Week TV" does sound like a quality television program to follow Girls on HBO but nonetheless about that claim of  the Keystone XL pipeline or no Canadian Oil in favor of other nations.   I'm pretty confident we're getting a lot of that Canadian Crude here already...and so is reality.

Canada reigns as the United States' leading oil supplier, exporting some 707,316,000 barrels of oil per year (1,938,000 barrels per day) — a whopping 99 percent of its annual oil exports, according to the EIA.

And about those "Twenty people protesting":

Over 35,000 people descended on the National Mall in Washington on Sunday, huddled together against a stinging cold wind to deliver a message of opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline.

Mr. Doer is really good at math.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Golly, I wonder why he's suddenly being pushed to the front then?

I mean the GOP has shown us over the years it is nothing if not completely cynical.  But this time I'm sure they aren't -- and also my tinfoil hat just came in.

Until recently, Rubio has not shown much interest in immigration reform. But in the last few months he has cast himself as a leader on the issue, seen as a crucial one for Republicans after their poor showing with Latinos in the 2012 elections.

Fair and balancing us into the abyss

Chuck Todd, ugh.

Elizabeth Warren's first chance to ask questions as a member of the Senate Banking Committee and to take some of these SEC chairs to task for not prosecuting anyone on Wall Street for their behavior, apparently hurt some of the bankers' feelings. MSNBC's Chuck Todd used the occasion to play the Villagers' favorite false equivalency game and compare wingnut McCarthyite Sen. Ted Cruz to Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Funny, how he sounds an awful lot like that anonymous Wall Street executive who was complaining about her.

And as Susie also pointed out, Warren telling the truth is not the same as Cruz' sorry display. What's really pathetic about Todd and and his cheap shot at Warren here is that even his colleague Chris Matthews went after Cruz and his attacks on Hagel for being the "new McCarthyism" in one of his segments on Hardball this Friday.

Priorities!

Good to know the GOP has learned the lessons of the election -- which apparently is "get the most crazy and awful policies passed we can, while we can".

At the Wisconsin Right to Life Legislative Conference this week, the state’s top Republican lawmakers assured attendees that they will do everything in their power to enact a forced ultrasound bill, which would mandate an invasive transvaginal probe for some women seeking first-trimester abortions. “This bill is a priority,” Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R) said. “It is long overdue.”

Well, something is certainly long over due, perhaps a conscience.

Freeance!

Awesome...why not just turn all everyone's webcams on 24/7 too?

A future in which unmanned drones are as common in U.S. skies as helicopters and airliners has moved a step closer to reality with a government request for proposals to create six drone test sites around the country.

The Federal Aviation Administration made the request Thursday, kicking off what is anticipated to be an intense competition among states hoping to win one of the sites.

The FAA also posted online a draft plan for protecting people's privacy from the eyes in the sky. The plan would require each test site to follow federal and state laws and make a privacy policy publicly available.

Yeah, I'm sure that last part will be foolproof.

More good PR

CNN's coverage, in particular, of the Carnival Cruise from Hell, has been particularly over-the-top. But I have to admit, it has been an experience that is going to have a lot of stories come out of it.

As a final indignity perpetrated on the passengers of the disabled Triumph cruise ship after it reached port last night, a bus ferrying tired and disheveled tourists back to their homes broke down halfway to New Orleans this morning. 

Could watch all day

Seeing Elizabeth Warren asking revealing questions of bank regulators.

The new sharks

It was just a matter of time before something like this happened.

A meteor streaked across the sky above Russia's Ural Mountains on Friday morning, causing sharp explosions and injuring more than 400 people, many of them hurt by broken glass. At least three people were reported hospitalized in serious condition.

"There was panic. People had no idea what was happening. Everyone was going around to people's houses to check if they were OK," said Sergey Hametov, a resident of Chelyabinsk, about 1500 kilometers (930 miles) east of Moscow, the biggest city in the affected region.

Let's just end this whole thing.

Another quarter, another sign that the long-lasting fugue-state "Hey, let's try austerity again, it'll be awesome this time"  in Europe is really reaping benefits.

A deepening recession in the 17-nation eurozone sent shares lower on Thursday amid evidence that the problems of the single currency's crisis-hit periphery were spreading northwards to affect monetary union's core economies of Germany and France.

Despite an easing of financial tensions in the second half of the year, gross domestic product in the members of the monetary union dropped by 0.6% in the final three months of 2012, a heftier decline than the markets had been expecting.

... The US grew by 2.2% in 2012 and Japan by 1.9%, while GDP in the eurozone contracted by 0.5%.

 Meanwhile in this country we stand on the precipice of "super austerity".

 “I’ll tell you the same thing I told my Republican colleagues at our retreat,” Boehner said. “The sequester will be in effect until there are cuts and reforms that put us on a path to balance the budget in the next 10 years.”

That, of course, is pretty much the Ryan Plan for a Randian Starvetopia.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

I'm pretty confident

Wayne LaPierre would not pass a mental health review for a gun license...so no wonder he's fighting so hard.

Also, black helicopters.

Well, this is awful

So much for that feel good story.

Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius was taken into custody and was expected to appear in court Thursday after his girlfriend was shot dead at his home in South Africa's capital, Pretoria.

Police Lt. Col. Katlego Mogale told The Associated Press officers received a call in the early hours of the morning that there had been a shooting at the double-amputee runner's home in a gated housing complex.

Mogale said when police arrived they found paramedics trying to revive the woman, who had been shot an unspecified number of times. Mogale, who was speaking to the AP from the scene, said the woman died at the house.

There are some reports that this may have been an accident (that Pistorius mistook his girlfriend for an intruder -- making it the kind of murder Wayne LaPierre can only wish happened in this country -- yes, tasteless, just like everything following or preceding the words that come from Wayne LaPierre).

Awwwwwww

So comically sad.

Less than 24 hours after Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) delivered a Tea Party response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address, TheTeaParty.net, a well-known conservative group, reached out to supporters to say that it is "deeply embarrassed" to have failed to raise enough money in the last several weeks to fund a nationwide series of pro-gun rallies scheduled for Feb. 23.

Couldn't afford Ted Nugent's contract demands, huh?

Shocking, I know

President Obama's call to raise the minimum wage and tie it to inflation went on the road yesterday:

Obama pushed for the rise again Wednesday while touring a manufacturing plant in Asheville, North Carolina. "If you work full-time, you shouldn't be in poverty," Obama said.

And rich guys you are on:

Business Roundtable president John Engler said: "We should be focused on our country's 'no wage' problem. We need an economic growth agenda to get our economy going and put Americans back to work."

The article "forgot" to mention that John Engler was also the Republican governor of Michigan from 1991 to 2003. He sure left that state in good shape, huh? Oh and he left to to resume his career as a highly-paid member of several Boards, including Munder Capital Management.

 And...of course, Mr. Tangerine Man had to add an old trickle down bromide.

"When you raise the price of employment, guess what happens? You get less of it," Boehner said.

The problem with trickle down bromides is they almost always leave a nasty stain on your shoes. Lies can do that.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

We officially have our bizzare old-time sports story

Of the day:

"So I guess Ohio State had lost the bowl game, so Earl Bruce brings in Woody Hayes. I had been there just a week and I'm thinking, 'Holy, this is Coach Hayes.' I'm sitting in the back. Coach Hayes was not healthy at the time, but stands up and starts laying into the coaching staff about toughness. That we have no toughness in the program. That's why we lost the game. On and on and screaming, this old guy pounding the table. He says, 'We have no toughness, and the reason is because you're not tough. No one on this staff is tough enough, and that's a problem.' "He reaches down and grabs this box, slides the top and there was something in the box moving around. He reaches in and he pulls out this turtle. He reaches down, this turtle's snapping and he says, 'I'm going to show you toughness.' He unzips his pants and takes out whatever he takes out. The turtle reaches up and snaps at him. You see the veins and the sweat (on Hayes). He screams at the coaches, 'That's toughness! That's f'n toughness!' He reaches down, pokes the turtle right in the eye and it falls off. He wipes the sweat off his forehead and says, 'That's the problem. We don't have anybody in this room tough enough to do that right there. "(One assistant) raises his hand and says, 'Coach, I'd do this. Just promise not to poke me in the eye.'"

So, how about it Lindsey Graham?

A little something for Poland Springs Rubio

A Tradition like no Other

Hilarious GOP responses to Obama. Glug, glug, glug.

Better punish the poors while we can

Right, Beltway Knob-Throb Chris Cilizza?

Because stuff like this might make a poor person think they'd like to be able to have a right to a modicum of benefits and respect.

In figures released last week, the Congressional Budget Office said it had erased hundreds of billions of dollars in projected spending on Medicare and Medicaid. The budget office now projects that spending on those two programs in 2020 will be about $200 billion, or 15 percent, less than it projected three years ago. New data also show overall health care spending growth continuing at the lowest rate in decades for a fourth consecutive year.

But never mind the good news, the poor and needy must be punished for being poor and needy.

[cross-posted at  Firedoglake]

"Hey, thanks for being an asshole God"

L'il Ricky Santorum -- candidate to be Pope Frothy I:

I believe and I think the right approach is to accept this horribly created -- in the sense of rape -- but nevertheless a gift in a very broken way, the gift of human life, and accept what God has given to you.

"Sorry 'bout letting you get raped, but I'm not a romance kind of Deity, plus my mysterious ways and all"
-Sincerely God.

"Pay ATTENTION TO ME!!!!!!"

North Korea explodes a nuclear bomb because it is lonely all for the cost of feeding several thousand starving citizens.

Father of the Every Year

As I was saying the other day, when he starts his PAC to fight the slightly less crazy Republicans the court will know what to levy.

Former Rep. and Tea Party darling Joe Walsh has filed a request in Cook County Circuit Court to cease paying child support payments because he is no longer employed, the Chicago Sun-Times reported on Monday

America's Concern Troll

Short version: "All those wars I advocated a decade ago in the region did not go so well -- but they are winding down now, so how about another?! I demand it! Not that I'll participate mind you, there are ladies to chat up."

That about sums it up

Republicans remain determined to prove that government doesn't work by trying to make sure nothing works...so they can blame Obama in 2014 and stay in control of the government they make sure does not work. Awesome. Booman sums up the idiocy in regard to Hegel:

Filibustering a major cabinet position like State or Defense would be unprecedented. The reasoning is just plain nuts. There are currently 12 Jewish Senators (all Democrats) who are all going to vote for Hagel's confirmation, yet we're supposed to believe that some Presbyterian yahoo from Oklahoma [James Inhofe] knows better than they do who is and is not a friend of Israel? A man whose main accomplishment in life has been to drive the Quaker Life Insurance Company into bankruptcy and liquidation? A man so deep in the pockets of Big Oil that he's been calling climate change a hoax since 2003? A man who is such a reckless pilot that one man complained to the FAA, “I’ve got over 50 years flying, three tours of Vietnam, and I can assure you I have never seen such a reckless disregard for human life in my life. Something needs to be done. This guy is famous for these violations.”

What no drone invited in the spirit of bipartisanship?

Well, compare and contrast amongst the invitees to Tonight's State of the Union.

Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX), who threatened President Obama with impeachment over his plan to reduce gun violence, has offered a ticket to the State of the Union to Ted Nugent — whose criticism of the president once resulted in a sitdown with the Secret Service.

“I am excited to have a patriot like Ted Nugent joining me in the House Chamber to hear from President Obama,” Stockman said in a statement Monday. “After the Address I’m sure Ted will have plenty to say.”

Yeah, I'm sure this pair of invitees would be happy not to hear it:

A White House official says the parents of a Chicago teenager slain just days after performing during President Barack Obama's inauguration will attend his State of the Union speech. Hadiya Pendleton, 15, was shot to death Jan. 29 in a park close to the Obama's Chicago home. Police say a gunman hopped a fence and opened fire on a group of young people.

And which one will our Villagers point their cameras at?

You know the answer already.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Boy this whole open Pope Position

Means Districts and Regionals are bigger than ever this year!

I sure hope Nicky Minaj and Mariah Carey can find out who the winner of Ol' Timey Latin Idol is gonna be this year.  It is said that Cardinal Rainer Woelki has the voice of a German Angel.

We'll have to see the 40-times in the forthcoming Combine in Indianapolis and then maybe Mel Kiper will have some insight.

Keep your eye on Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan who is believed to have the voice of a seasoned Clay Aiken and still runs a 4.6 like an old Percy Harvin.

The aforementioned Cardinal Woelki on the other hand is known for his hard defense and transition to offense like a theologically astute Franz Beckenbauer.

I'm gonna blame Twitter

Or a Kardasian sex tape!


Benedict to resign, first pontiff since Middle Ages to quit Now he and Sarah Palin have something in common.

The Huffington Post's Journalism

Has hit DefCom Double-D -- Alert the Pulitizer Committee!

The odds

So? At what time do the uberdouches of Fox & Friends postulate "What Global Warming?" for the first time today?

-- Once again showing the most base misinterpretation of what climate change actually means?

Which one will utter it first? I'd bet on Doocy.

He's even has an INXS CD still inside his old sony discman in his basement!

Jeebus,

Sunday on ABC’s This Week,  GOP operative Nicole Wallace argued that Rubio was good for the party as a whole because, “he knows who Tupac is.” That knowledge, she said, proved that he could connect to young voters, a demographic the GOP has typically sruggled to court.

The bilking Dead

Well you cannot say the Los Angeles Diocese of the Catholic Church hasn't gone out of its way to compound error.

Pressed to come up with hundreds of millions of dollars to settle clergy sex abuse lawsuits, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony turned to one group of Catholics whose faith could not be shaken: the dead.

Under his leadership in 2007, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles quietly appropriated $115 million from a cemetery maintenance fund and used it to help pay a landmark settlement with molestation victims.

The church did not inform relatives of the deceased that it had taken the money, which amounted to 88 percent of the fund. Families of those buried in church-owned cemeteries and interred in its mausoleums have contributed to a dedicated account for the perpetual care of graves, crypts and grounds since the 1890s.

It's not like they could talk back, I guess.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Wow, it's like a Newt Gingrich 2016 Rally!

She should be able to see oblivion from her porch by now

So long.

Sen. Mark Begich, a Democrat in Republican-leaning Alaska, is sure to be targeted by Republicans in 2014, his seat a “must” pickup if the GOP hopes to retake control of Congress’ upper chamber. But Begich is showing surprising strength and popularity, according to a new survey of the 49th State by Public Policy Polling. He has a 49 percent job approval rating, with only 39 percent disapproving of the job he’s doing. And Begich leads a bevy of likely Republican challengers. He has a big, big lead — 54-38 percent — over former Gov. and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. Palin was recently jettisoned from her pundit’s position by the Fox News Channel. She quit as governor in mid-term to make money. Palin does have financial resources, but her days of 80 percent popularity ratings are long gone. “Palin’s numbers are a reflection of her continuing to be very unpopular on the home front — 34 percent of voters see her positively to 59 percent with a negative opinion,” the pollster reported.

Here's a frightening thought, squared

Consider the possibility that the LAPD someday in the future got the ability to control and fire drones?

In a press conference Thursday morning, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck confirmed that police shot innocent bystanders during the hunt for Dorner. He detailed the two victims' gunshot wounds: "One has a minor gunshot wound and is in the process of being released. The second person is in stable condition, with two gunshot wounds," said Chief Beck. "Tragically, we believe this was a case of mistaken identity by the officers." Sources tell the Los Angeles Times that the people shot by police were two women delivering newspapers. One was shot in the hand and the other in the back.

Of course, the two individuals killed shot and wounded were not the very large African-American gentleman searched for in a dark 2005 Nissan pickup, but two older latino women in a different make and color of pickup that the police shot up, immediately, to the point it looked like Bonnie & Clyde's Death Car. Good job.

"Oh, yeah, various anonymous and unverified 3rd world taxi-drivers disagree!"

Krugthulu speaks the truth about Tom Friedman:

Krugman said that Friedman was often very wrong about the economic issues currently facing the country. "I often disagree with Tom," Krugman said. "I often disagree with a school of thought of which he is a member. Times etiquette is, I talk about the school of thought, not the guy. Tom's a good guy, but I think that, on these issues, he's just much too close to the Beltway conventional wisdom.

There are times when conventional wisdom is right, but right now, it's really, really wrong."

Krugman also spoke about columnist David Brooks. "David's a conservative. He and I really disagree on what kind of society we ought to have," he said. "I don't think Tom and I really do disagree, but Tom has a different view of how we get there. I'm much more confrontational ... on the straight economics, I've been taking positions that seem outlandish to a lot of Beltway types, except I've been right!"

The horrorer, the horrorer

I'm not an advocate of hacking personal emails and such -- but I have to say I'm rather bemused (because it beats saying "creeped out") by the notion that George W. Bush paints; that he sends recent paintings to his sister; AND that said paintings are of him in shower and bath tub.

Cross-eyed look at reality

Virginia Foxx, who's sentience at this moment bears a lot of similarity to Red Foxx, has the latest right-wing talking points down pat.  

In criticizing the private college presidents, Representative Virginia Foxx, the North Carolina Republican who leads the subcommittee on higher education [ED -- WHAT?!], adapted the famous statement from the German theologian Martin Niemöller on Germans who ignored Nazi persecution. ("First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out because I was not a communist.") 

" 'They came for the for-profits, and I didn't speak up...' " Foxx said. "Nobody really spoke up like they should have."

Yes, regulating for profit colleges equals Holocaust case (and mind) closed.

A royal ass-kicking of Not News Coming

Time to remind you once again, that Chuck Todd is a jackass.

Good luck Northeast.

New England braced on Thursday for a possibly record-setting winter storm, with forecasts of up to 2 feet (60 cm) of snow already causing airlines to cancel thousands of flights and utilities to prepare for power outages.

Time for Steve Doocy to ask what global warming?  By not understanding the effects of Climate Change again.

But then what in life does he understand other than depositing a paycheck?

The Polite Society

"An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life" - Robert Heinlein

And this throwaway line in a seventy year-old science fiction novel has formed the intellectual basis for gun advocates ever since. It's totally worked out that way, huh? In the wake of the manhunt for a former LAPD officer who went on a rampage yesterday, we see how the "armed society" has worked its magic.

Los Angeles police reportedly shot and injured two women delivering newspapers by accident while on a search in Torrance, Calif. for a former fellow officer who is suspected in several shootings. A second shooting was also reported involving Torrance police officers, but there were no known injuries.

There is no doubt that in these situation where police are looking for an armed assailant that nerves are on edge, the victims apparently drove a blue pickup truck that does not seem all that similar to a dark colored 2005 Nissan Titan pickup truck the former LAPD officer is thought to be driving. Similar pickup trucks should narrow the potential suspects in Los Angeles down to several tens of thousands.

But even if the LaPierre mantra of "only a good guy with a gun" can stop a bad one has any validity it is quite obvious that they are also quite good at stopping other non-involved people completely with the same deadly force.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

It goes without saying

That more Republican legislators seem to introduce the most patently stupid or hateful bills than Democrats (not that the latter are immune), and so without further adieu here is the latest incident of stupid is as stupid proposes:

State Sen. John Goedde has introduced legislation that would require Idaho high schoolers to read and pass a test on Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” before graduating, The Spokesman-Review reported.

“That book made my son a Republican,” Goedde said, when asked why Rand was his pick.

Well, your son, I assume is made of the same genetic gooberesque material you've got so it is not surprising he's as dumb as you.

Bill Donohue will be unavailable for comment

Though he'd never be asked.

The Irish Prime Minister gave a partial apology today for the government’s role in a 74-year scandal in which, a new official government report says, over 10,000 women were forced to work without pay at commercial laundries called Magdalene Laundries, operated by the Catholic Church for “crimes” as small as not paying a train ticket. ...

The last Magdalene laundry closed in 1996.

Women were locked in, couldn’t leave Magdalene Laundries for months, sometimes years The women were locked in and not permitted to leave. And if they tried to get away, the cops would catch them and bring them back. They were quite literally Catholic slave labor working for the government and even Guinness, which would pay the laundries for the women’s slave labor.

Half of the girls enslaved in these Catholic Church prisons were under the age of 23. The youngest entrant was 9 years old.

The ultimate HuffPo Left-hand column article

If that Asteroid hits, at least they went out big.

Bumfights for America

Karl Rove's $300 million sinkhole, American Crossroads, announced it planned to spend 2014 electing the kind of allegedly less crazy Republicans that focus on starting new wars and setting up global torture programs (as opposed to bi-partisan extrajudicial drone-killings). Well the Ayn Randian wing of the GOP is not going to take this, they are going to "putsch-back".

So now the Child Support Recovery Unit of Illinois knows where they can issue a levy for past-due amounts in the next few months.

[Cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Hey look everybody, shit to be ignored!

Blah blah RUNAWAY SPENDING blah blah THE POORS MUST BE PUNISHED blah blah!

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) lowered spending projections for Medicare on Tuesday, noting that the program's bills have been "significantly lower" than predicted for three years straight. The non-partisan budget office revised down its 10-year spending projection for Medicare by $137 billion, or two percent, in its latest long-term economic forecast.

ARGLE-BE-GARGLE!!!!!

The federal deficit will drop to less than $1 trillion for the first time in five years, but massive spending cuts that have improved the budget outlook are also slowing the economy, according to a report released Tuesday by the Congressional Budget office.

OUR WHOLE REPUBLICAN THEORY OF GOVERNMENT IS BULLSHIT -- FULL BULLSHIT AHEAD!

Well the FoxNews Lemon Party this year

Will be a bit more disappointing.

Because they won't have Old Dick around.

 Fox News contributor Dick Morris' contract is up and will not be renewed, Politico's Mike Allen reported Tuesday evening via Twitter. The network confirmed to Allen that it would not be renewing the pundit's contract.

A Sickness

Yet another story evoking disgust:

A 3-year-old boy in Greenville, South Carolina was shot in the head and killed on Friday after he started playing with a pink handgun because he thought it was a toy. Police responding to the shooting at Haywood Plantation Apartments said that Tmorej Smith was found with a gunshot wound to the head, according to The Associated Press. ... Fowler said that the shooting happened in a bedroom, while the boy’s grandparents were in the living room.

In a move that is endorsed by Gayle Trotter and the Susan G. Komen Foundation, guns that have designs made to allegedly appeal to women have become more common. It's the kind of thing you'd think poses such a hazard to children that if those supervising them are moronic enough not to keep them in a safe place (y'know like Gayle Trotter) that some sort of product liability would be justified.

Good luck with that, because thanks to Congress, you may be able to sue a manufacturer of a washing machine that shorts out, but you cannot sue a gun manufacture for making a gun look like a transformer.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Let your monkey order it for your Kindle

Coming soon to Amazon from "I was just joking Press!":

In other news, water still wet

Here's some breaking news of years of dedicated demographic research and my butt.

Some 131 House Republicans come from districts that are more than 80 percent white, the National Journal reports. That compares to just 31 Democrats elected from such districts. According to U.S. Census Bureau data cited by The New York Times, on average, the 232 House Republicans represent districts composed of 11 percent Latinos. The 200 Democrats, by contrast, come from districts where Latinos make up an average of 23 percent of the population.

The only surprise is that it isn't more disparate between the two Parties.

Nice!

From here.

There's not much more to say about this guy than

Holy shit, What An Asshole!

To put it mildly.

Good for him

Some headlines were recently made when some jackass in Oregon decided God did not want him to bake the wedding cake of a same sex couple.  Because the Lord works through pastry.

He and/or she sure does:

In the wake of the incident, Baltimore-based pastry chef and "Ace of Cakes" star Duff Goldman is sending out an open offer to the couple (whose names have not been released) saying he'll bake and transport their wedding cake completely free of charge. 

The executive chef of the Baltimore-based Charm City Cakes told HuffPost Live, "I saw this story and I was like, “Wait -- I can do something, there’s injustice involving a cake!”

The ol' ever malleable basis to attack

The alleged memo saying the President of the United States cannot drone anyone he pleases, doesn't really do all that much about what is actually occurring.

So here's what that means: Even if the person is NOT actively planning terrorist attacks against the US, because of the nature of terrorist attacks in general, merely his membership in an organization that IS planning those attacks meets the requisite definition of imminence.

So, basically, imminence does not mean imminent. And membership in Al Qaeda is seen as tantamount to being in a car when someone decides to shoot someone on the street, even if the other occupant had no knowledge beforehand that the drive-by shooter would act. Accessory to murder, drone edition.

And that is exactly what the Obama Administration is doing.

It still seems a rather slight of hand way to drone who you want to drone.

Another wall about to fall

As more American states legalize same-sex marriage our traditional European Allies are catching up, French lawmakers overwhelmingly passed legislation to legalize same-sex marriage late last week.

And today the British also appear to be ready to do so:

In an unprecedented joint letter amid a Cabinet split before tomorrow’s parliamentary vote, the ministers, who hold the three great offices of state [William Hague - Foreign Secretary; Teresa May - Home Secretary; and George Osborne - Chancellor of the Exchequer], have written a letter to The Telegraph saying that “attitudes to gay people have changed”.

Their intervention represents a late attempt to persuade other Conservatives to drop their deep-seated opposition to legalising gay marriage. The issue threatens to divide the Conservative Party with more than half of MPs and about four members of the Cabinet refusing to support David Cameron’s decision to champion the move.

This is almost like Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, and Eric Cantor suddenly coming out...for gay marriage -- as opposed to paying millions of tax payer dollars to lawyers to write ridiculous arguments.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

K-Lo demands return of UP WITH PEOPLE

Her 9th serving of chili and 56th wing was interrupted by Beyonce's wardrobe.

Another reason the Vikings will never win the Super Bowl

From an Onion AV Club comment section on the Super Bowl.

You see Minnesota will never make it to the Super Bowl (and lose) again because who wants to go to a party where the themed food is turkey, lutefisk and green bean casserole?

Some reform

All major sports have had gambling scandals, so this isn't an international soccer phenomena exclusively.

But when you are the world's most popular sport and where in many countries gambling on sports is not only legal, but encouraged as a business model -- and countries where corruption is rampant -- well, nobody can be surprised at this:

A Champions League tie played in England is one of 680 matches across the world investigators say was fixed. European police did not reveal the identity of the match they believe was corrupt in England.

Major American team sports are rather insular. The NFL, though it stages an occasional game overseas or Canada is exclusively American; MLB almost so, like the NBA so controls are gambling are easier, but we still have a Pete Rose or a Art Schlichter.

But for a sport spread around the globe, I don't know how you avoid trouble like this.

Now is the Winter of our Disinternment

 Look for the Hump

I know it's a myth, but still.

A skeleton found beneath a Leicester car park has been confirmed as that of English king Richard III.

Experts from the University of Leicester said DNA from the bones matched that of descendants of the monarch's family.

Lead archaeologist Richard Buckley, from the University of Leicester, told a press conference to applause: "Beyond reasonable doubt it's Richard."

Lose a battle, gain a parking lot.

BWAhahahahahahahaha!

There sure are a lot of real men of genius in the GOP -- a deep bench discussing a deep bench for sure:

Massachusetts Republicans are desperately scrambling to find a strong Senate candidate to replace Scott Brown, with some even trying to persuade Mitt Romney’s wife or son to jump into the race to avert another electoral disaster.

Because that will work like a charm for sure. UPDATE: Okay, now the same paper is pushing for Tagg Romney.

When are they moving on to Josh "American Psycho" Romney?

And the Republican Money Making Machine

That is Citizen's United comes out for the Supreme Court tossing those nettlesome bans on Jim Crow era laws.

What awful people.

If their paranoia wasn't so sickening, it would at least be entertaining

Well this weekend we found that the NRA has one more thing in common with Richard Nixon, an enemies list.

And like Tricky Dick it is rather top-heavy with Jewish groups and African-Americans. Among the hundreds of groups and individuals named are the AARP, American Academy of Pediatrics, the Anti-Defamation League, Black Mental Health Alliance, B`nai B`rith, the Central Conference of American Rabbis. And that just takes us into the Cs.

 Oh, and Tara Lipinski, Olympic Gold Medal winning figure skater; Barry Mannilow and of course, The Temptations.

Yeah, this is an organization whose leadership is taken seriously.

Seriously.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

A fart-making work of staggering stupidity

Ladies and Gentlemen, Glenn "whatever happened to that idiot?" Beck on women in combat:

War is the act of killing each other. And to win, you have to kill people faster than the other team. That's what war is all about. The enemy's not going to cower in defeat because we have a female Eskimo Hispanic dwarf cross-dresser and some handicapable, transgendered breast cancer survivor as a soldier on the front line, ready to unleash an attack of unparalleled diversity."

Who says you need pot to talk like you are baked out of your mind?

Yes, Glenn Beck, a guy who cried his eyes out taking about his hemorrhoid surgery, talks about the inherent toughness of men.

Look jackass, I long ago learned that a gender that doesn't have to push an 8 pound living thing out of a very small opening has no right to criticize the toughness of women.

Hey Wayne LaPierre, look at those "good guys" with guns

So this happens 'AT A GUN RANGE' and somehow despite all of the NRA's best bullshit theories and sayings...

Former Navy SEAL and "American Sniper" author Chris Kyle was fatally shot along with another man Saturday on a Texas gun range, a sheriff told local newspapers.

...

 Witnesses told sheriff's investigators that a gunman opened fire on the men around 3:30 p.m. Saturday, then fled in a pickup truck belonging to one of the victims, according to the Star-Telegram. The newspapers said a 25-year-old man was later taken into custody in Lancaster, southeast of Dallas, and that charges were expected.

White people problems...especially the assholes

Darwin Awards do love a bigot:

According to prosecutors, Perry was desperate to avoid spending more money on legal fees to divorce Mayer, and also sought to prevent her from obtaining a portion of money he inherited from his mother in 2011.

The probable cause affidavit states that Perry, who was employed at a local Valvoline Instant Oil Change, approached a coworker and asked him if he could help him kill someone.

"You're black," Perry said according to the coworker, Adrian Howard. "I know y'all know people."

Thinking it was a joke at first, Howard wasn't laughing a few weeks later, on December 8th, when Perry approached him again with the same request.

This time, Howard was ready with a cellphone to record their conversation.

Perry offered Howard $15,000 and a counterfeit currency printer in exchange for offing his wife. "I just want this to be over and done with," Perry said, according to a transcript of their conversation. "So if she dies, I can drop the divorce lawsuit, she's dead and I'm free."

Perry did have one caveat: "You hurt my dog, the deal's off."

They'll never forgive him for their being wrong...

Because our "serious people" are seriously stupid and petty...and they'll take us down with 'em:

What actually happened was an economic stall. Before the turn to austerity, Britain was recovering more or less in tandem with the United States. Since then, the U.S. economy has continued to grow, although more slowly than we’d like — but Britain’s economy has been dead in the water.

At this point, you might have expected austerity advocates to consider the possibility that there was something wrong with their analysis and policy prescriptions. But no. They went looking for new heroes and found them in the small Baltic nations, Latvia in particular, a nation that looms amazingly large in the austerian imagination. 

At one level this is kind of funny: austerity policies have been applied all across Europe, yet the best example of success the austerians can come up with is a nation with fewer inhabitants than, say, Brooklyn. Still, the International Monetary Fund recently issued two new reports on the Latvian economy, and they really help put this story into perspective. 

To be fair to the Latvians, they do have something to be proud of. After experiencing a Great-Depression-level slump, their economy has experienced two years of solid growth and falling unemployment. Despite that growth, however, they have only regained part of the lost ground in terms of either output or employment — and the unemployment rate is still 14 percent. If this is the austerians’ idea of an economic miracle, they truly are the children of a lesser god. 

Oh, and if we’re going to invoke the experience of small nations as evidence about what economic policies work, let’s not forget the true economic miracle that is Iceland — a nation that was at ground zero of the financial crisis, but which, thanks to its embrace of unorthodox policies, has almost fully recovered. 

So what do we learn from the rather pathetic search for austerity success stories? We learn that the doctrine that has dominated elite economic discourse for the past three years is wrong on all fronts. Not only have we been ruled by fear of nonexistent threats, we’ve been promised rewards that haven’t arrived and never will. It’s time to put the deficit obsession aside and get back to dealing with the real problem — namely, unacceptably high unemployment.

Seriously, who could have predicted?

That in a game between the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers it would be the former who had players standing up for the rights of the LGBT community and the 49ers who continually embarrassed themselves on the issue.

Apparently Chuck Hegel looked a lot like a Cumulus Cloud

Shouldn't this sort of self-rehabilitation be facilitated by pushing David Gregory on a tire swing?

Well that's a lovely story

Wow, "good job" country that apparently is the polestar of our foreign policy.  KKKlassy.

Israel has admitted for the first time that it has been giving Ethiopian Jewish immigrants birth-control injections, often without their knowledge or consent.

No wonder they are so loved by Southern Republicans, classy that they stopped short of abortions too.

Behold your Republican Future

They'll deny global warming as long as politically possible...and then they will copy this gentleman's style:

If there's a need, a Chinese entrepreneur will find a way. The foul smog swallowing much of China has inspired one such man to launch a humorous campaign to focus on environmental issues -- by selling canned fresh air.

Known for his showman flair, millionaire Chen Guangbiao stood on a Beijing sidewalk on Wednesday handing out cans filled with what he said was air procured from remote areas of the country untainted by air pollution, according to Reuters.

Mr. Guangbiao is doing this to make a point, a pro-environmental point.

But you can bet that if given a chance, the Koch Brother's will have an oxygen-can plant operating the moment their lungs threaten to turn as black as their hearts.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

If you're wondering how a guy like

Like Ernest T. Bass, Esq. gets tenure, it helps to recall just what a cesspool of intolerance Tennessee can be.

The bill, SB 234, still bars Tennessee teachers from discussing any facet of “non-heterosexual” sexuality with children in grades K-8. But the newest iteration also includes a provision requiring teachers or counselors to inform the parents of some students who identify themselves as LGBT.

As John Cole says, it's probably easier than making kids wear pink triangles on their shirts?

This guy and John C. Calhoun

Colbert makes himself crack up...

The Derpitudes

Gayle Trotter who apparently heads an organization I will call "Women Against the Violence Against Women Act" has some rather interesting fictional acquaintances:

“Young women are speaking out as to why AR-15 weapons are their weapon of choice,” Trotter explained. “The guns are accurate. They have good handling. They’re light. They’re easy for women to hold.”

As TBogg notes Trotter makes this evident in her testimony:

So Trotter has six kids and yet keeps an available loaded AR-15 at the ready at all times because, you know, blahs…

This will not end well.

You may have heard this one before

The only solution to the problems caused by austerity.

Cuts in government spending sent the economy into reverse following a 3.1% annualised increase in GDP in the third quarter. Government spending fell by 15%, dragged down by a 22% cut in defence spending, the biggest fall since 1972 and the end of the Vietnam war.

Is more austerity.

[there is] increasing resignation among both Democrats and Republicans that the across-the-board cuts will soon take effect. The cuts were an element of the so-called fiscal cliff that was partially averted this month with the extension of Bush-era tax cuts.

Goodness knows we cannot avert such crisis by not cutting spending -- those poor oppressed wealthy are already so heavily taxed at all levels.

Oh yeah, about that.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Check out how awesomely "austerity" works

Hey look at that...we better do it some more say all the talking heads.

Well, you got your wish:

Why did GDP fall in Q4?
Blame lower government spending.

Real federal government consumption expenditures and gross investment decreased 15.0 percent in the fourth quarter, in contrast to an increase of 9.5 percent in the third.  National defense decreased 22.2 percent, in contrast to an increase of 12.9 percent.  Nondefense increased 1.4 percent, compared with an increase of 3.0 percent.  Real state and local government consumption expenditures and gross investment decreased 0.7 percent, in contrast to an increase of 0.3 percent.

the NRA's 'Murica

Straight out of central (tragic) casting:

A gunman shot and killed a school bus driver in Midland City, Ala., Tuesday afternoon and escaped the scene with a 6-year-old passenger, which has prompted a hostage situation that is still going on this morning. 

The suspected gunman is identified as Jimmy Lee Dykes, a 60-something military veteran, a police source told ABC News. Dykes and the child are in an underground bunker behind his home.

Underground bunker?

Of course.

Cue the outcries from the Right of "She has little to no experience with firearms!"

Because you know it'll happen:

Former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.), who was shot in the head in the Jan. 2011 shootings in Tucson, Ariz., will give opening remarks in Wednesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun violence, a source confirmed to The Huffington Post.

I mean, she's clearly biased simply because she was nearly shot to death. It's not fair, it's not fair, it's not fair.  What about all those people who like to be shot in the head -- or shoot people in the head -- for shits and giggles?
 
Maybe the assholes who heckled the father of a child killed at Newtown can make it on time.

So, how many "Minutemen" involved

And did they even make it a minute?

 Mexican officials broke up a bizarre cult that allegedly ran a sex-slavery ring among its followers on the U.S. border, Mexican immigration authorities said Tuesday.

The "Defensores de Cristo" or "Defenders of Christ" allegedly recruited women to have sex with a Spanish man who claimed he was the reincarnation of Christ, according to an official of a victims' advocacy group, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak publicly about the case.

The latest in Chicken-Hawk fashion

Ted Cruz newly minted Senate dummy from Texas never served a day in the military and is so afraid of serving in the military he fled his native Canada because American draft-evaders scared him has a not so-novel theory for the Republican Right:

Non-serving freshman Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) says Vietnam combat vets Kerry and Hagel are “not ardent fans of the US military.”

Of course, Kerry and Hagel are not just combat vets, they are decorated combat vets.

Ted Cruz's last decoration was something out of the "Cake Boss" collection.

I'd cry a river of tears, but global warming would dry it up

So sad:

January marked Fox News Channel’s lowest 25-54 demo delivery for Monday-Sunday Primetime and Sales Prime (M-Su 7p-2a) since August 2001.

That's okay, they are still the go to channel for mouth-breathers.

Somebody is running to the right...surprise!

Lindsay Graham, hot off of pitching his latest faux fit about having rights extended to gay and lesbian immigrants decided to dig deeper and faster.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has upped his already harsh rhetoric against outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, claiming that she "got away with murder" in the Benghazi, Libya, attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. "I haven't forgotten about Benghazi. Hillary Clinton got away with murder, in my view," Graham said on Fox News Monday evening

Yep that and Vince Foster too, she's a regular Aileen Wuornos.

 Way to keep that base Lindsay.

But you'll still get your invite to Meet the Press once a month won't you?

[Cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Yeah, that'll work

Oh Arizona Republicans, you do try so hard:

A group of Republican lawmakers want to require Arizona students to recite a loyalty oath to the U.S. and its Constitution before they can graduate high school. They are sponsoring House Bill 2467 in the Legislature. If passed, it would make the loyalty oath a prerequisite for graduation from any public high school in Arizona starting with the 2013-14 school year.
Students would be required to say:

I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose or evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge these duties; so help me God.

The wording sounds somewhat similar to oaths of office taken by members of Congress and the U.S. president. Some states have required public employees, including school teachers, to take or sign similar oaths.

Nothing smacks of "freedom" more than loyalty Oaths to God.

(via here)

And he'll somehow survive

We often complain in this country -- with justification -- that no matter what stupid stuff a Republican says they'll get away with it.

Well, if you also own the media directly, like Silvio Berlusconi, it is exponentially worse...not only can you be a crook and a philanderer, you can survive even this:

Italy’s gaffe-prone former premier Silvio Berlusconi sparked outrage Sunday with remarks praising wartime dictator Benito Mussolini despite Il Duce’s persecution of Jews and allowing thousands to be deported to Auschwitz.

“The racial laws were the worst mistake of a leader, Mussolini, who however did good things in so many other areas,” Berlusconi, who is angling for a return to politics in elections next month, said on the sidelines of a ceremony marking Holocaust Remembrance Day in Milan.

Mussolini, of course, after some initial resistance eventually allow the deportation of around 7,500 Italian Jews to the death camps.

Sure he wasn't worse than Hitler, he just chose to ally himself with him.

Sort of like saying, other than a few crimes and getting other people to murder for him, Charles Manson is rather entertaining.

The Collective Shrug

We're one brave political system aren't we?

The State Department on Monday reassigned Daniel Fried, the special envoy for closing the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and will not replace him, according to an internal personnel announcement. Mr. Fried’s office is being closed, and his former responsibilities will be “assumed” by the office of the department’s legal adviser, the notice said.

In another decade it'll still be there more than likely, because no politician will do the right thing. Eventually some person probably picked up in Afghanistan will be the last prisoner there, wandering around like Rudolf Hess at Spandau.

 [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Um, yeah...

Like Pat Boone, Mike Love and Sister Janet Meade:

Performance (not very sm)Art

In interview someone at Breitbart managed to get in before they got off the line to finish their wanking session, America's Grifter parted with one last moronic statement on her FoxNews dismissal:

“I was raised to never retreat and to pick battles wisely, and all in due season”

There's not one word in that sentence that is accurate or not funny.

One for each chamber

America, 2013:

On Friday afternoon, an Iowa gun dealer closed out the week by becoming the sixth person shot at a gun show. The man claims he was “showing off a .25 caliber pistol he thought was unloaded when he slid the action of the gun.” The gun was not unloaded, and a bullet went through his left palm.

After this incident, police found a second loaded weapon on the wounded gun dealer’s table.

Pure Sophistry

And nonsense from Paul Ryan -- but also some real nice quotes for Clinton is she chooses to run in 2016.

Former Republican vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.) said Sunday that if Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were president, the nation's fiscal crisis would have been averted.

Better than us at a more than hockey

I know we just elected our first openly gay senator -- Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin.   Meanwhile, now there are four female Premiers of Canada's ten provinces...and this:

Ontario's Liberals have chosen a former cabinet minister to become the province's first female premier and first openly gay leader of a Canadian province.

In her acceptance speech as the new provincial Liberal party leader, Kathleen Wynne, 59, a former Ontario education minister, thanked her partner, Jane, for her support during a three-month campaign. Ontario was one of the first Canadian provinces to allow same-sex marriage.

A bit concerning

And then there's the other retirement:

“I’m going to have a life after this,” [Saxby] Chambliss said. “Sitting on a back porch drinking whisky with some of y’all is exciting to think about.”

Watch out for roofies.

Pretty Big Deal

Tom Harkin is one of the consistent liberal votes in the U.S. Senate, and he will be retiring at the end of his term -- making 2014 a pretty big campaign in Iowa as the GOP will want to try to grab that seat.

Combine that with the open 2016 campaign and Iowa just got more populated with candidates for office than ever.

Uh...lucky me?

Admitting he's wrong? Never!

Austerity breeds contempt (and, of course, more austerity):

George Osborne should recognise that his deficit-reduction programme is failing and change economic policy to avoid a triple-dip recession, a senior investment banker has warned.

Jim O'Neill, the chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, said the chancellor's continued pursuit of austerity despite signs that the economy was stagnating, including worse-than-expected GDP figures, risked a lost decade for the British economy with low growth and increasing public debt.

Figures unveiled on Friday showed that the British economy shrank in the last quarter of 2012. If the economy shrinks again in the first quarter of 2012, Britain will be in recession for the third time since the economic crash of 2008.

The infinite loop of stupidity

Okay,

So last year in Egypt 74 were killed and hundreds wounded in a Soccer riot.

Then yesterday 21 people were sentenced to death over their role in said riot.

Which caused another riot which killed 16 people.

THAT is some messed up shit.

Running out of jobs she isn't qualified for

Soon to be appearing on public access...or "illegally stolen (wink wink)" celebrity sex tapes.

Oh great, the Speaking in Tongues candidate

"Flauman Hipa Critta Necro Feelya Maximo"

Fox News personality and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) will travel to Iowa next month to participate in a pro-life conference organized by the state Republican Party.

Polling contagion

Apparently Netanyahu used the same polling techniques Mitt Romney made famous.

Not leading the parade — but giving the final push

It certainly wasn't something in which he led, but President Obama's statement in his Inaugural Address (the alliteration of which appeared last Spring) recognizing the need for marriage equality may signal the effective end of resistance in much of the country.

The Rhode Island House has overwhelmingly passed legislation to allow gay couples to marry. The House passed the legislation 51-19 Thursday following an emotional debate that touched on religion, civil rights and the nature of marriage.

If the measure passes the state senate and is signed, Rhode Island will join Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, Washington and the District of Columbia in recognizing same-sex marriage. And after a campaign where a ban on same-sex marriage was rejected at the polls, Minnesota looks ready to move as well.

A new PPP poll of Minnesotans shows a plurality now supports marriage equality, by a 47 to 45 margin. Fully 75 percent of Minnesotans (including 65 percent of Republicans) back at least allowing civil unions. PPP estimates that given the trend and the age demographics, a majority Minnesotans will likely support marriage equality by the next election.

And the express endorsement of a Presidential Address will only help all the more.

 [cross-posted at Firedoglake]