Expanding tasteless analogies...tastelessly

I suppose this writer at National Review thought he'd avoid making a tasteless analogy to a victim of gun violence as a supporter of gun violence...by taking it international.

Nevada cattle rancher Cliven Bundy's armed stand against federal officials this weekend is reminiscent of Mahatma Gandhi, the civil rights hero who championed civil disobedience through nonviolent means, according to one National Review correspondent.

Yeah...he'd have every reason to be pro-gun...he liked 'em so much, his last interaction was with one.

Plus Gandhi was TOTALLY famous for strategies like this...

“We were actually strategizing to put all the women up at the front,” Mack said in a Fox News clip pulled by The Blaze. “If they are going to start shooting, it’s going to be women that are going to be televised all across the world getting shot by these rogue federal officers.”

Tolerance is the province of people, people you cannot stand

No matter the nationality, there is seemingly nothing too petty and dickish for the far right. It's always short-term bigotry in the name of long-term cultural war.

Following its significant gains in last month's local elections, the French Front National leader, Marine Le Pen, swiftly announced that school cafeterias would no longer serve non-pork substitution meals to children living in towns won by FN candidates. Targeting Muslims for another ritual round of public humiliation, while also excluding Jewish children, Le Pen declared: "There is no reason for religion to enter the public sphere."

Unless, of course, you are doing so...and incapable of identifying irony. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

The Community of Sports

I'm an "American" fan of the English Premier League -- meaning I enjoy it a great deal, but the sport isn't in my marrow the way baseball or American football are. Nonetheless, I am aware of its history -- including tragedies we've rarely encountered in this country.

In 1989, at an FA Cup Semifinal at a stadium known as Hillsborough in Sheffield, England Liverpool played Nottingham Forest (like the Super Bowl, the game was at a "neutral" venue).

At the time, many fans were stacked -- standing up -- into places known as terraces, kept off the field by fencing. Because of sloppy work by the authorities a crush of Liverpool fans was stacked haphazardly into one section, six minutes into the game, the action as stopped and 96 people were dead or destined to die from being crushed to death.

The police and the Thatcher Administration immediately, and wrongly blamed Liverpools fans for the deaths.

This was a lie -- they knew it to be a lie -- but they blamed them anyway.

It took more than two decades for the truth to come out. ESPN has what purportedly is an amazing documentary on the subject tonight at 7 p.m. Central.

Watch it, not for the sports, but the the too familiar story of negligence covered up and lies perpetuated the the government that is supposed to serve the interests of its people. Meanwhile, in Liverpool, at it's home stadium of Anfield, one of the most moving spectacles in sport occurred on Sunday.

Watch this...as their traditional song is cried out and the 96 victims are remembered. And be moved. Of all the traditions I have seen in sports that I would like to see just once in my life, it is this...and it never meant more than yesterday.

Remember when?

For the first few weeks of the Obama Administration when Republicans went all "Hulk-Smash" on the Homeland Security Report saying some right-wing extremists were too extreme? Yeah, good times.

The law center said the suspect has been involved in the white-supremacist movement for most of his life. He founded the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and was its "grand dragon" in the 1980s. The Army veteran and retired truck driver later founded another white supremacist group, the White Patriot Party, the center said. He was the subject of a nationwide manhunt in 1987 for violating the terms of his bond while appealing a North Carolina conviction for operating a paramilitary camp. The search ended after federal agents found him and three other men in an Ozark mobile home, which was filled with hand grenades, automatic weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition.

And naturally, he most likely bought his latest armory without any impediment whatsoever. Of course, maybe if more than one-person at Homeland Security was still monitoring these things. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

And I wonder what, if any laws, he could have possibly broken in amassing his undoubtedly HUGE stockpile of "final solution implements"?

To the shock of ABSOLUTELY NO ONE (except the assholes who bet it was an Islamic Extremist) the guy who shot up a Jewish Community Center and killed three people was a KKK Member and White Supremacist.

According to the law center, Miller has been involved in the white supremacist movement for most of his life. He founded the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and was its "grand dragon" in the 1980s. The Army veteran and retired truck driver later founded another white supremacist group, the White Patriot Party, the center said. Miller was the subject of a nationwide manhunt in 1987 for violating the terms of his bond while appealing a North Carolina conviction for operating a paramilitary camp. The search ended after federal agents found Miller and three other men in an Ozark mobile home, which was filled with hand grenades, automatic weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition. Miller tried running for U.S. House in 2006 and the U.S. Senate in 2010, espousing a white power platform each time.

I lived for a time in Overland Park when I was a kid -- one of the biggest suburbs I have heard of, it has a population the size of the City I know live in Des Moines. It also had a large and vibrant Jewish Community. In fact, it was the place where at the age of five I became aware of what Jewish people were.

They go together

Deliberate, harmful, ignorance.

The cost of keeping global warming in check is "relatively modest," but only if the world acts quickly to reverse the buildup of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, the head of the U.N.'s expert panel on climate change said Sunday.

Has always been paired with guys with two first names like...Jefferson Beauregard.

Another presidential nominee may have trouble getting confirmed, this time for believing science that shows a connection between climate change and extreme weather. At a confirmation hearing for Janet McCabe, President Obama’s pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency’s Air and Radiation office, Alabama Republican Senator Jeff Sessions said he could not support her because of her views on climate change.

Yeah how dare an EPA official believe in the overwhelming science on the environment. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Ruh Roh

This could be interesting.

Scientists who examined a controversial fragment of papyrus written in Egyptian Coptic in which Jesus speaks of his wife concluded in papers published on Thursday that the papyrus and ink are probably ancient and not a modern forgery.

Wait until they find the fragment that says it was a dude.

That will be an interesting day in the Huckabee household.

Never one to let a sad event be unexploited

America's greatest Americans (just ask them) always ready to put on the best possible lipstick on the face of human suffering.

The way to beat Vladimir Putin is to flood the European market with fracked-in-the-USA natural gas, or so the industry would have us believe. As part of escalating anti-Russian hysteria, two bills have been introduced into the US Congress – one in the House of Representatives (H.R. 6), one in the Senate (S. 2083) – that attempt to fast-track liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, all in the name of helping Europe to wean itself from Putin's fossil fuels, and enhancing US national security.

Yes, make Putin "pay" by making more Americans suffer (unless, of course they are Mobil or BP).

Excelsior!

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Tough day for Richard Cohen

That guy "knows funny" and was so very sure he was getting this gig.

He even had a "Stupid Human Trick" -- getting paid to be Richard Cohen.

We couldn't have done it without you!

Congratulations. 'Murica, congratulations world!

The concentration of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas that drives climate change, hit 402 parts per million this week — the highest level recorded in at least 800,000 years. The recordings came from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association’s Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, which marked another ominous milestone last May when the 400 ppm threshold was crossed for the first time in recorded history.

So many of us have done our part...but some have done quite a bit more than others.

Now let's go have a nice glass of tap water...oops, sorry West Virginia.

 [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Sorry everybody

Been a really busy couple of weeks...very busy.

The true value of hard work is not earning enough

Well what a thorough surprise.

Democrats' push for pay equity between men and women is "condescending," one of the top women in the House Republican leadership argued Tuesday, suggesting that the campaign for equal pay for equal work reflects a lack of understanding of women's contributions to the workforce. Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-Kan.), the GOP conference's vice chair, made her comments flanked by her fellow leaders in the House at their weekly news conference, and suggested that the campaign for equal pay for equal work reflects a lack of understanding of women's contributions to the workforce.

Ms. Jenkins -- seriously -- went to on say she supports the concept of "equal pay for equal work" -- she just does not want to lift a finger for it to occur. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Bravery beyond all bounds

One thing that has been consistent about the Democratic Party since Reagan, if they can whatever they can do...

The White House has defended a four-fold increase in the deportation of undocumented immigrants for minor crimes such as driving offences, insisting it is simply complying with “administration priorities” by removing foreign law-breakers from the country.

They do to placate the Republicans...only to turn around and tell their base, "well we could be worse?"

Add another quasi-surrender to the list.

[Firedoglake]

Combining the worst of both worlds...in the third

I know that you all are comfortable with the thought that the international banking system is consistent in one thing...delivering quality services to the less privileged.

Oh right, this is not an alternative reality.

A flagship hospital built in Lesotho using public/private financing with advice from an arm of the World Bank threatens to bankrupt the impoverished African country's health budget. More than half the country's entire health budget (51%) is being spent on payments to the private consortium that built and runs the hospital in the capital, Maseru, led by South-Africa-based Netcare, the biggest private healthcare provider in the UK.

I'm sure this system works as well as America's though right?

Oxfam, whose report is published on Monday, says the healthcare of the poorest people is at risk, as the Queen Mamohato memorial hospital draws off money that is badly needed for clinics in rural areas.

It sure does!

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Enabling higher profits

Shocking to believe...sort of.

Law enforcement officials told CNN that Wednesday's shooter, who has been identified in media reports as Ivan Lopez, passed a background check when he bought a .45-caliber Smith & Wesson handgun at Guns Galore, a store in Killeen, Texas. In 2009, ABC News reported that Hasan purchased a FN Herstal Five-seveN tactical pistol from the same store in August of that year.

Yes, "Guns Galore" you cannot spell it without "G-o-r-e". And the thing about being go-to place for spree killers? In modern 'murica, the more spree-killing, the higher the profits.

As sure as summer follows spring, gun sales rise after a mass shooting. It happened after the shooting rampage at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999. It happened after the Tucson, Ariz., shootings last year that killed six. Now, after the killing of 12 people last week at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., gun sales are spiking again - not just in Colorado but around the country.

And yet they sleep at night. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

...just like you, only better

So to update things based on yesterday's events. Super rich people are just like you, except for the following. 1. They get to have ever more of the pie. 2. Their tender life-experiences help keep them from going to prison if they murder or rape someone because they might have to be within a few feet of a filthy peasant who tried to sell his nephew a joint. 3. They can now fully invest in the political candidate of their choice. And to think they got the first two before they got the last one? What have they not yet been given immunity from? Oh yeah.

Charles H. Keating Jr., the notorious financier who served prison time and was disgraced for his role in the costliest savings and loan failure of the 1980s, has died. He was 90.

Let 'em keep a few more GDP percentages and they no longer will have to worry about inheritance taxes either. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

They're on a Tiffany Roll

Well, at least they did not put small charges in gas tanks.

CBS News says an editor made an "audio error" in dubbing the sound of a loud traditional car engine over footage of the much quieter Tesla electric car in a "60 Minutes" story that aired Sunday.

Hey, at least it didn't involved Lara Logan going "vrrooom vrrooom". It hasn't exactly been a great period for the network of the now long dead Morrow and Cronkite.

It's been a rough year at television's most popular newsmagazine, with correspondent Lara Logan still on leave after an internal CBS report questioned her reporting and objectivity on a story about an attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya. Critics also questioned the show's reporting on stories involving the National Security Agency and Amazon.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Well obviously

Somebody's dad smelt of elderberries

It's no cheeto-based shape but....

Curators were forced to remove a precious cup from display in a Spanish church when crowds swarmed there after historians claimed it was the holy grail, staff said. Visitors flocked to the San Isidro basilica in the north-western city of León after two historians published a book saying the ancient goblet was the mythical chalice from which Christ sipped at the last supper.

Two ‘Muricas

On the day we discovered how the other hundredth live...

A judge has ruled that Robert H. Richards IV, an heir to the du Pont fortune, should not face jail time after raping his three-year-old daughter. The reason Judge Jan Jurden gave for sentencing Richards to probation was that he “would not fare well in prison.”

Not that it's a trend or anything. And let us compare our sympathies for how the rich are just like you...only better...with this.

Homeless people experienced a 23 percent surge in targeted attacks last year as compared to the number of assaults in 2012, according to preliminary figures released by the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH).

But in America, the fact you may not fare well without money or mental health care can never be considered. Pity the rich pederast. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Compare and contrast

Political "dynasties" suck.

And let us look at the alleged dynasties.

George Washington...no kids.

For a democracy great strategy.

John Adams and John Quincy Adams...sort of the original Bushs only with some real accomplishments outside of the office.

Thomas Jefferson...well, let us just say...ineligible then.

The Roosevelts...do not count, they were actually distant cousins, which is why Eleanor (who was TR's niece) could marry Franklin (fifth or sixth cousins).

The Kennedys well, let's face it, they've been rendered ineligible via Second Amendment and it's exercise (abuse).

So why do we keep getting Bushs...it's not like the first two have been awesome?

And dodos made the best wings

Imagine if in the entire world there were maybe 150,000 of something...how "scientific" would it be to spend the last three decades permanently eliminating a twelfth of it? Somebody wants you to think that's great preservation strategy.

Japan insists its programme is scientific, while admitting that the resulting meat ends up on plates back at home. Japan has killed more than 10,000 whales under the programme since 1988, according to Canberra, allegedly putting it in breach of international conventions and its obligation to preserve marine mammals and their environment.

"We killed them in the name of science...and they were DELICIOUS!"

This pathetic joke of putting a whole class of species (which just happens to contain the largest animals in the world) on the road to extinction has been challenged in the world court.

The leading court at the UN will rule on Monday on whether Japan has the right to hunt whales in the Antarctic, an emotive case that activists say is make-or-break for the mammals' future.

Australia took Japan to the international court of justice (ICJ) in The Hague in 2010, accusing Tokyo of exploiting a loophole by hunting whales as scientific research to get around a 1986 ban on commercial whaling.

Australia has asked the ICJ to order Japan to stop its Jarpa II research programme and "revoke any authorisations, permits or licences" to hunt whales in the Southern Ocean.

Don't worry Japan, you can still lead the world...according to American corporate lackeys...of leading the world in safe nuclear energy.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Dancin' over the ratings graveyard

Hard as it is to believe, apparently Americans have made a choice...and that choice is David Gregory sucks.

'Meet The Press' continued its ratings slide last week, finishing a distant third to CBS' "Face The Nation" and ABC's "This Week." "Meet the Press" drew 2.804 million viewers for its March 23 show, while "This Week" had 3.400 million, and "Face The Nation" 3.938 million. It's the fourth time in five weeks that the venerable program lost to its two main competitors.

Of course there's only one solution that they'll try.

More John McCain. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

It is fitting however

Madison Rising is a rock band so bad, Nickelback makes fun of them.

So it is appropriate that they -- the band which gave the worst National Album performance ever -- performed the theme song for Sarah Palin's new show.

Behold a portion of the lyrics:

"From the snowy passes to the desert sun 
 With the dogs and the horses and the trucks and the guns."

Yeah, I think Woody Guthrie's legacy is pretty secure.

Simply biased towards stupidity

Well the three major cable news networks all have to have their biases. CNN's apparently has a bias towards having faces cast into palms.

Two CNN journalists were arrested for trying to sneak past security at the World Trade Center in New York City on Tuesday in an attempt to report on recent security lapses at the site, police said.

Whoops. In their defense, they may have been looking for either Malaysian Airlines Flight 370...or their souls. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Dick move

No matter how one slices it.

Gov. Rick Snyder says Michigan won't recognize more than 300 same-sex marriages performed last weekend. The marriages were performed Saturday before a federal appeals court suspended a decision that overturned the state's ban on gay marriage. Snyder's announcement Wednesday closes the door to certain benefits granted to Michigan married couples. The move comes after a day after an appeals court indefinitely stopped any additional same-sex marriages. Snyder says the marriages were legal at the time but the stay means the ban now is back in effect.

"Legal at the time" is the theme of many of Newt Gingrich's marriages.

You can only claim somebody is full of it...

If you are not in need of emptying your own bucket of bullshit.

If "reality" is your guide, then this week Harry Reid said a whopper.

“Since a few Republicans blocked these important sanctions last work period, Russian lawmakers voted to annex Crimea and Russian forces have taken over Ukrainian military bases,” Reid said. “It’s impossible to know whether events would have unfolded differently if the United States had responded to Russian aggression with a strong, unified voice.”

Yeah...it is 'impossible' to know...but it probably didn't now did it?

Of course many Republicans have been asserting for weeks that if Obama were willing to annihilate civilization then this wouldn't have happened either. 

And, of course, there's this.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) on Tuesday defended Russia's annexation of Crimea, arguing that the people of the region had a right to secede from Ukraine, Buzzfeed reported. "From what I understand, what happened in Crimea, not one person was killed. Maybe one — maybe there was one".

Dana's always been one to pick 'em.

"[Rohrabacher] says the Taliban are devout traditionalists—not terrorists or revolutionaries. He believes a Taliban takeover [of Afghanistan] would be a positive development."

Blown lines

Well, this certainly is some progress from the Church.

The Vatican's new No. 3 has accused Holy See officials of downplaying the clerical sex abuse scandal in the 1990s, saying they were generally skeptical of victims and often considered them "enemies of the church."

Hey, who was leading the Church at that time? Oh yeah, a future Saint. Like this guy.

Still, it's some progress that Church officials are admitting error now, twenty or so years later...it took them three-hundred-fifty years to apologize to Galileo.

On the other hand, maybe they are moving too fast.

 

German customs officials have intercepted a package addressed to the Vatican containing 14 condoms filled with cocaine.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Don Lemon wonders if that's where the black hole is?

How could this not have been announced days ago?

Malaysia’s prime minister said Monday that further analysis of satellite data confirmed that the missing Malaysian airliner went down in the southern Indian Ocean with its passengers and crew. The announcement narrowed the search area but left many questions unanswered about why it flew to such a remote part of the world.

Missed opportunity

It is hard to believe that for once we may have missed the opportunity for some needless violence and death from a tragic mistake.

A replica of a U.S. aircraft carrier spotted near the coast of Iran is nothing more sinister than a movie set, Iranian media said on Sunday. The New York Times, quoting U.S. intelligence, said last week that the Iranians were building a mock-up of a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, possibly so they could then blow it up for propaganda purposes.

If they didn't blow it up, you know every American would-be war lord from John McCain to John Bolton would be for bombing it. But whenever they lack the opportunity, there is only one possible response.

“I wish that there were. … I do not see a military option and it’s tragic.”

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Well, that will be an interesting challenge

To prove there was no merit in this discharge.

A high school science teacher in Parkersburg, WV got suspended for four days after he published a badly-spelled rant against the school’s gay-straight alliance on Facebook.

I'm sure he could really misspelled evolutionary theory.

Indubitably

How could this not happen?

Yeah, that makes sense

Because many people know, among the most patriotic Americans are non-Americans who loved America before there was one.

In Sen. David Vitter's (R-LA) book, conservative billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch are some of the most "patriotic Americans" in the history of the planet. 

Vitter made the comments during a March 18 town hall at Blanchard Elementary School in Blanchard, Louisiana. 

"I think the Koch Brothers are two of the most patriotic Americans in the history of the Earth," Vitter said. That line sparked applause from the audience.

 History of the Planet?

That means they are as patriotic an American as ... Jesus!

Also, sorry New England Patriots fan in Papua New Guinea.

Double-Brain lock Fundy logic.

New ad for Lee Jeans

Or Levi's or whatever. It's the restraining order violators clothing option of choice.

Last Friday night, a woman allegedly tried to cut off her husband's penis with a box-cutter, only to be thwarted by his denim pants.

As I was saying...well, someone else actually

You are not going to get a more concentrated dose of accurate commentary than what Charles Pierce dealt to Bill Kristol's latest crusade to have other folks die in the name of his shitty ideas.

Blow me, you monstrous, bloodthirsty fraud, you silly, stupid chickenhawk motherfker who plays army man with the children of people who are so much better than you are, and who would feed innocent civilians in lands you will never visit into your own personal meatgrinder to service your semi-annual martial erection. You and the rest of your cowardly cohort helped prepare the ground for the worst geopolitical mistake the country has made in 30 years. You fought the battle of the Green Rooms and the think tanks while other people's sons and daughters died for your fantasy of how the world would work if you really were the pimply, adolescent Zeus you see when you look in the mirror every morning.

The Department of Good Timing

I imagine there are more appropriate times to emphasize just how capable of wretched behavior you can be...but when has good taste and rationality ever been a problem for Franklin Graham?

Evangelist Franklin Graham is praising Russian President Vladimir Putin for his aggressive crackdown on homosexuality, saying his record on protecting children from gay “propaganda” is better than President Barack Obama’s “shameful” embrace of gay rights...

“In my opinion, Putin is right on these issues,” Graham wrote. “Obviously, he may be wrong about many things, but he has taken a stand to protect his nation’s children from the damaging effects of any gay and lesbian agenda.

Apparently that "agenda" is conveniently located in the heart of Sevastopol.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/03/18/3713063/franklin-graham-putin-is-better.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/03/18/3713063/franklin-graham-putin-is-better.html#storylink=cpy

Thank goodness...I guess

America is not the only country comprised of 12-year olds.

The jury in the trial of a British publicist accused of sexual assault had to be dismissed from the courtroom today after they couldn't stop laughing about testimony concerning the defendant's two-and-a-half inch penis.

Ha, ha!

So funny, the guy only committed at least seven sexual assaults...

Not so funny now, is it?

Long-term planning

Somebody at GM in the early part of this century had the kind of idea their corporate forebears had perfected in the generations before.

Pretending no one would ever find out about bad stuff.

And that always works well.

General Motors Co Chief Executive Mary Barra said on Tuesday that she did not learn details about defective GM cars linked to 12 deaths until January 31, just two weeks after she took over as CEO and nearly 13 years after GM engineers first documented problems.

The automaker last month recalled more than 1.6 million cars from 2003 to 2007 to replace faulty ignition switches that could cause the engine to shut down and turn off the airbags. The first death linked to the defect occurred in Maryland in July 2005.

I'm sure the always successful legal defense of "whoops" will play out really well with those future juries.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Shorter Republicans unchallenged on Cable News Talkshows

"THIS OUTRAGEOUS OUTRAGE SHOULD BE MET ONLY WITH THE THERMONUCLEAR ANNIHILATION OF THE HUMAN RACE --

BUT BARACK OBAMA DOESN'T HAVE THE BALLS TO END CIVILIZATION AS WE KNOW IT BY KILLING BILLIONS OF PEOPLE!!!!

WHAT 

A


WIMP!!!!!!" 

Speaking of which...nice that they imported a couple of dudes from "War & Peace, on Ice" to stand witness.

 

(l to r: Bond Villain, Henchman, Bond Villain, Bambi, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Thumper, Most Interesting Bond Villain in the World)

"Dance, Sugarplum Faeries, Dance!"

(Photograph: Maxim Shematov/Reuters)

 

Ruh roh!

Shocked, SHOCKED! To hear that Christie lies about a bridge closing like he lies to himself about the number of calories in a nine-egg omelet.

Newly released emails involving a political payback plot orchestrated by Gov. Chris Christie's aides show the governor's campaign manager was kept informed of complaints over the closures even while lanes remained blocked.

Couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch of footnotes

While Russia's determination to make the Ukrainian borders into the political equivalent of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, there is some good news on ill-conceived political movements.

Greece's far-right Golden Dawn party has been thrown into crisis after one of its MPs broke ranks before a crucial vote by the parliament in Athens that is likely to pave the way for criminal charges to be brought against the party's 18 MPs. As the legislature prepared to cancel politicians' immunity from prosecution in the coming days – following charges that the MPs ran the neofascist force as a criminal organisation – Chrysovalantis Alexopoulos abandoned the party, citing ignorance of its activities. The extremists, whose emblem bears a resemblance to the swastika and whose leadership is prone to giving Nazi salutes, are seen as Europe's most violent political force.

And what are these activities which could lead to criminal charges?

Since the extremists were catapulted into parliament with 7% of the vote on the back of widespread fury with the political establishment almost two years ago, immigrants, leftists and gay people have been attacked, often brutally, by black-clad Golden Dawn supporters. An in-depth investigation of the group by magistrates was triggered by the fatal stabbing of a popular leftwing musician at the hands of a party operative last September.

Looks like a new kind of dawn is on the horizon. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

...and take your effing green beer with you!

I'm not Irish, but I have an additional tendency to ignore St. Patrick's Day. First, I generally dislike any holiday that becomes a adopted day to drink, and drink to excess. I'm talkin' to you too Cinco De Mayo and New Year's Eve. This isn't to criticize the ethnic bases of these holidays, just what they have become. But St. Patrick's Day also has the additional detriment of being "gay exclusion day", so good for the Mayor of Boston (and Sam Adams Brewery).

Hey, here's a way to apologize

Libertarian fantasist Paul Ryan got himself in some trouble (not with his base mind you) by seeming to imply that poor people, especially African-American males, are lazy. The shock of this lay in the fact that the race and class-baiting was implied, rather than explicit. Nevertheless, Ryan, with Presidential aspirations, spent the next few days pretending to care. If Paul Ryan actually cares...or at least wants to pretend he cares, maybe he can support this.

Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday urged the U.S. Sentencing Commission to reduce the recommended prison time for certain low-level drug offenses. Citing prison overcrowding, and the fact that nearly half of the nation’s 216,000 federal prisoners are incarcerated on drug charges, Holder said sentencing reform is desperately needed.

And it absolutely is. And, of course, the vast majority of these low-level offenses with maximum penalties affect the poor and disproportionately affect African-American men. If Paul Ryan is actually a libertarian, and actually wants to reach out to those groups he systematically offends, here is a place to start. Obviously, this will not actually happen.

AnRead more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/03/13/221114/justice-department-backs-reduced.html#storylink=cpy

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

From the "Holy Roman Empire" Files

Perhaps another line of work?

Bobonanism

Shorter David Brooks.

I'm so tired, I cannot even masturbate. 

He gets well into the six-figures...in a dying industry for this shit...and somehow unions are at fault, I'm sure.

"Why yes, I was born yesterday...and in this very State!"

One of the truly great universal hypocrisies of politics, cutting across Party lines is the convenient carpetbagging of the ambitious politician...and those who call it out. But it takes a truly flexible spine to pull off what two prominent Republicans are doing...a double-jocklock of baggery of one kind, or another. First, Pat Roberts, ostensibly of Kansas...not that he even bothers being there. And, Scott Brown, just two-and-a-half years from proclaiming Elizabeth Warren a "carpetbagger" for the crime of having been born in another state (plus, her mother and father were totally "doin' it", that's probably a crime in Oklahoma). To moving to New Hampshire and...

Former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown has begun seeking campaign staff while aggressively courting New Hampshire’s political elite

Well, could be worse, I guess. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Not really all that interesting a question but...

What does Reagan/Eddie Munster impersonator Paul Ryan have less knowledge about...

African-Americans or Poverty?

Bizarre

The explanation may end up being mundane (and, of course, tragic) but this Malaysian Airlines mystery is suddenly something out of a Bond movie.

U.S. investigators suspect that Malaysia Airlines 3786.KU -2.04% Flight 370 stayed in the air for about four hours past the time it reached its last confirmed location, according to two people familiar with the details, raising the possibility that the plane could have flown on for hundreds of additional miles under conditions that remain murky.

Well, that all worked out

Boy that short-lived dose of "Shock and Awe" sure continues to work its magic eleven years later.

Since the US military left Iraq in December 2011, and within two months of the first national election since then, Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq has quietly emerged as one of the most powerful players in the country's political and public life. Through a mix of strategic diplomacy, aggressive military operations and intimidation – signature methods of its main patron, the Iranian general Qassem Suleimani – the group is increasingly calling the shots in two countries.

Those countries are Iraq and Syria. Making, as predicted by us effing hippies so long ago, Iran as the real-winner of the Iraqi invasion and occupation. Now, if we hadn't had that plan all along, this would not have happened. But of course, there is only one real plan for us now in regard to dunghills of our own making.

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan says al-Qaida is in "survival mode," but that if all international forces left this year, the terrorist network would regroup and use the region to plan and conduct operations against the West.

We must stay...forever. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

"Sock it, to me?"

Apparently, Obama is just like Hitler again.

If Hitler did a few improvs and open mic nights. 

Granted, the latter did have the perfect facial hair for the modern hipster.

DiFi draws a line "now it affects me!"

For years there have been few more reliable excuse makers for the intelligence agencies snooping into your life than Dianne Feinstein. For example, two weeks ago.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) offered a full-throated defense of the government's collection of data on billions of American phone calls, saying Wednesday that the National Security Agency’s practices have safeguarded the nation without trampling on civil liberties.

Boo who Mr. and Ms. Non-Dianne Feinstein, your privacy concerns matter not when it comes to amorphous undocumented threats to our security...in perpetuity. But when spying gets too close to DiFi, well things are somehow different yesterday.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) accused the CIA on Tuesday of illegally searching her committee’s computers to find an internal CIA review of Bush-era interrogation policies... Feinstein also said the search may have “violated the Fourth Amendment,” which prohibits unreasonable government searches.

Here's a thought, maybe both acts violate the Fourth Amendment?

Maybe if Dianne Feinstein cared more about the Fourth Amendment's protections for ordinary citizens, she wouldn't be in a position to complain about being treated like one of them?

[Cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Truthers United!!!

Damn the facts, it is how I feel.

Americans for Prosperity, the conservative advocacy group backed by the Koch brothers, is running Obamacare attack ads featuring a cancer patient who claimed her treatments were "unaffordable" under the new health law.

On Monday, The Detroit News reported that the patient will actually save more than $1,000 a year. Julie Boonstra says in the anti-Obamacare ad that she was diagnosed with leukemia five years ago, and her health care plan was canceled when Obamacare went into effect. "Now, the out-of-pocket costs are so high, it's unaffordable," she said.

Before her plan was canceled, Boonstra was paying a $1,100 monthly premium. That's $13,200 a year, without adding out-of-pocket expenses like co-pays and prescription drugs. But under her new plan, the Blue Cross Premier Gold, Boonstra's premiums are down to $571 a month, and out-of-pocket costs are capped at $5,100. That's a maximum annual expense of $11,952 a year.

According to The Detroit News, Boonstra said it “can’t be true” that her new coverage is cheaper than her old. “I personally do not believe that,” Boonstra said.

Your modern GOP, ladies and gentlemen.

One picture to summarize FoxNews

Tells a thousand words, 307 of them undoubtedly misspelled.

Nothing like first-hand experience to affect one's perception

I can see a future FoxNews or FoxBusiness "pundit" now..."What does Japan know about affects of the atom anyway?"

Just a day before the 3rd anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant accident, national broadcaster NHK released the results of a survey about nuclear power in Japan. The results show that 80% of the respondents are in favor of scrapping some or all of the existing nuclear reactors in the country.

But then again, why should 80% of the public get what they want, Tokyo Electric & Power says it's universally awesome, like some other nearby guy. Why should a minority of 4/5ths get any say in the matter, they are just people! [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Your public twitter-farts are making it hard for me to stay classy

fuckhead.

Minnesota State Representative Pat Garofalo sent out a tweet today stating that no one would notice a decrease in NBA teams except for the possible exception of an ‘increase in streetcrime.’ Garofalo (R-Framington) tweeted: “Let’s be honest, 70% of teams in NBA could fold tomorrow + nobody would notice a difference w/ possible exception of increase in streetcrime.”

All the craziness is down to science

Another day another bit of bad news that the manufacturers of their own reality can ignore.

...researchers from the University of East Anglia have discovered evidence of four new gases that can destroy ozone and are getting into the atmosphere from as yet unidentified sources. Three of the gases are CFCs and one is a hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC), which can also damage ozone. "Our research has shown four gases that were not around in the atmosphere at all until the 1960s which suggests they are man-made," said lead researcher Dr Johannes Laube.

Naturally, few if any of the participants at this weekends annual Clown Show that David Gregory treats like a seminar, CPAC, but they still manage to convolute something into an outrageous and offensive slur.

Conservative firebrand Ann Coulter and the Daily Caller's Mickey Kaus held a one-sided debate on Saturday that mostly served as a 50-minute screed from Coulter on the "browning of America" due to immigration.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Light blogging

During CPAC.

Because how can I be more ridiculous than that?

Cannot stop kicking a poor person and succumb to good policy

Good luck with dodging that virus.

A new analysis from the Institute for Women's Policy Research, a nonprofit that advocates for pro-family policies, found that in 2012 it was primarily poor, Hispanic workers who were most likely to go without paid sick days. Overall, the organization found that 39 percent of private-sector workers over the age of 18 must choose between getting paid or staying home when they fall ill.

Which means you show up for work if you are sick...and poor.

And if you are poor, you much more likely work at a restaurant.

And if you work at a restaurant, why would you ever be near other people?

So it would make perfect sense to require businesses, especially restaurants, to allow a few paid sick days every year. Well, we cannot have sound policy like that now, can we? 

Meanwhile, 10 states have passed laws prohibiting local governments from establishing sick-leave laws.

Why it is almost as if poor people don't have anyone representing their interests.

Almost?

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

I'll be believe it when I see it...

And it still isn't all that revolutionary...but also I so want to see Bill Donahue and Cardinal Dolan's reaction.

Pope Francis has signalled that he could see the Catholic church tolerating some forms of same-sex civil unions -- though not marriage -- when it comes to situations such as medical care and property for gay couples. In an interview with the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, the pope said that "matrimony is between a man and a woman," but moves to "regulate diverse situations of cohabitation (are) driven by the need to regulate economic aspects among persons, as for instance to assure medical care," according to a translation by Catholic News Service. "It is necessary to look at the diverse cases and evaluate them in their variety," Francis said.

This should go over well

"Hey Jews, be less and yet more Jewy as I, an insane person, define it!!!!"

Bachmann also skewered the Jewish community in the US for its wide support for Obama. She said that Obama “was helped enormously by the Jewish community,” who she says care more about supporting Obama than Israel

This was after the more predictable yet crazy-on-top-of-crazy logic earlier that had her saying she's an evangelical waiting for the "end times" and that Obama is awful because he's bringing the "end times" about.

Jokes somebody else has probably already made, part infinity

How do they know it was LeBron James that scored 61 points the other night? It could have been any 6'9" guy -- wearing a mask?

The thing about twitter jokes, I can always ignore them, so I do not know I'm the 59,083rd person to make that lame joke.

Because every day is "Opposite Day"

Another stellar day for logic in 'Murica and the world yesterday.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Tuesday sought to link the Russian invasion of Ukraine to ... Benghazi.

So why not just add some more of that?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told President Barack Obama on Monday that “Israel has been doing its part” to forge peace, but that it’s been met with “incessant Palestinian incitement.”

Netanyahu's part?

Out of diplomatic courtesy, and because the Americans specifically asked it to, the Israeli government postponed announcing plans to build new housing in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem — at least while Secretary of State John F. Kerry was in town last week trying to broker a peace deal. On Friday, it went ahead, announcing that 1,400 more new houses and apartments will be constructed in the contested areas that Palestinians claim as part of their future state.

Nothing to get incited about I guess. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

And at the moment

We are the most intelligent species (here's the pertinent and ironic kicker)...that we know of.

Teen Explains Why He Had Sex With A Hot Pocket

Oh surely, NO EXPLANATION NECESSARY!!!

Please alert Jim Gaffigan.

Nice career move

The Michigan Attorney General's office, continuing to serve the people of the state by reflecting the true tolerance of a far-right political position have been struck by incompetence yet again.

A judge barred an Ivy League law student Monday from testifying at Michigan’s gay marriage trial, saying he might become an expert witness someday but his opinions wouldn’t help sway this case.

It was a blow for the Michigan attorney general’s office, which had offered Sherif Girgis as its first witness in defense of a 2004 constitutional amendment that bars same-sex marriage.

Girgis has written and talked about a historical defense of marriage between a man and a woman going back to ancient philosophers such as Cicero and Plato.

First of all, could have saved some money by calling some high schoolers in the Gross Point AP History class.

Second, unless you are aiming for the FoxNews gravy train becoming the "expert" on old-timey marriage is a bit like becoming an expert on modern Austria-Hungary.

Third, you know what goes back further than Cicero and Plato? Slavery. After all, those two didn't start the institution, they just participated in it. You going to testify about how awesomely sacred that institution is bub?

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Oh boy...

It's not like they've got tanker trucks full of WMD or anything! You tell 'em John Kerry!

”You just don’t in the 21st century behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pretext,” he said. He went on to repeat the assertion on Meet the Press, keeping a straight face as he told host David Gregory: ”You just don’t invade another country on phony pretext in order to assert your interests.”

Next thing you know Jonah Goldberg will be outraged because Putin just wants to throw a little country against the wall once in a while.

Seventy years of 'the classics'

The irony of post-Second World War America is how consistently immature our politics has been about foreign policy...the arguments never change, we just cut and paste the locations.

In the late 1940s the Republicans blamed the Truman Administration for not adequately pouring in enough tax dollars into the last cause of the hopeless corrupt Chang government.  The fact that there was little to practically do about it was never really considered, or the point.

Seventy years later, a whole litany of wasted lives and wasted dollars that under the best case scenario led to stalemates have come and sadly often not gone.

Naturally, this leads to the only possible reaction to events in the Ukraine.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) accused President Obama on Sunday of being too soft in his dealings with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who just received the Russian parliament's permission to move troops into Ukraine.

Yes, because clearly if only Obama had been willing to drop bombs, things would have gone differently. Besides how can last week's Hitler have any chance against this week's Hitler?

Or maybe he should have done this?

"I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straight forward and trustworthy and we had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul."

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Like teacher, like student

Doin' it for hundreds of years.

Well that's no surprise

Amongst the favorite "revolutionaries" in the Ukraine are right-wing ultranationalists who really, really hate Jewish people.

And, as always, somebody like John McCain (and let's be fair Democrat Chris Murphy is in that pic) is there stumbling and bumbling.  He's always one to get with the Pogrom.

Alls fair in love and war...well not for you sailor

For years veterans in countries around the world have had to deal with the dishonesty and intransigence of their own governments in providing accurate details of what they may have been exposed to.

The U.S. is famously (infamously) no different.

But when two different countries who are allies and reasons to be ashamed get together and do this act good luck, you'll need it.

A stunning new report indicates the U.S. Navy knew that sailors from the nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan took major radiation hits from the Fukushima atomic power plant after its meltdowns and explosions nearly three years ago...on March 12, 2011 the ship was within two miles of Fukushima Dai’ichi as the reactors there began to melt and explode.

In the midst of a snow storm, deck hands were enveloped in a warm cloud that came with a metallic taste. Sailors testify that the Reagan’s 5,500-member crew was told over the ship’s intercom to avoid drinking or bathing in desalinized water drawn from a radioactive sea. The huge carrier quickly ceased its humanitarian efforts and sailed 100 miles out to sea, where newly published internal Navy communications confirm it was still taking serious doses of radioactive fallout.

There are numerous indications of radiation-caused illnesses, leading to a lawsuit against the Navy and TEPCO the operator of the nuclear power plant. Naturally, in this suit the American government is clearly up to its standard practice in protecting its service-people.

Officially, Tepco and the Navy say the dose levels were safe.

Officially always comes with the nods and winks done off-camera.

 [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

I cannot believe Americans cannot start tuning in ... in droves

Sure, the Scottish Premier League isn't what it even used to be, as it is only half of what it once was (two dominant teams...now just one).   But how could one resist this?

...a Scottish Premiership match was delayed several hours from airing on television because fans in the crowd were swearing too loudly.  The game between St. Mirren and Ross County was supposed to be aired on tape delay by BBC Alba in Scotland at 5:30 PM, directly after the game had finished. However, the game didn't air until 11 PM in the evening because the channel had to edit out audible curse words from the Ross County crowd at Global Energy Stadium. 

The good ol' boys long for the good ol' days

Nevermind the ongoing embarrassment a similar bill caused Arizona -- the thought of having a chance to kick certain people out of diners has an appeal to some in the South, tradition and all that.

A bill moving swiftly through the Georgia House of Representatives would allow business owners who believe homosexuality is a sin to openly discriminate against gay Americans by denying them employment or banning them from restaurants and hotels.

Not only identical to Arizona's awful attempt, but particularly rich coming from one of the ol' cornerstones of the Confederacy.

Similar argument's were made in the 1950s and 1960s.

One could note they failed...eventually, though apparently stupid arguments are both immoral and immortal.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Oh look, they even imported a guy from the mid-80s for an opinion

Yet, as usual, FoxNews couldn't be bothered to get one of those "lady characters" on the panel.

Then the guy on the right went out and paid a "woman" so he could snort coke off of her while listening to Tears for Fears.

Who gets a show on FoxNews

This kind of guy.

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook

That is comforting

It had to happen eventually.

Researchers say radioactive cesium isotopes from Japan's severely damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant have made their way to the waters just off the coast of Canada. Scientists confirmed the arrival of radioactive Fukushima water at the annual American Geophysical Union's Ocean Sciences Meeting in Honolulu today

The good news is, the initial readings show a low level of radioactivity. So nothing to worry about. Meanwhile, at the same time in Japan.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501) is re-analyzing 164 water samples collected last year at the wrecked Fukushima atomic plant because previous readings “significantly undercounted” radiation levels.

Gulp! (While it isn't painful) [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Well, that took about 10 minutes

To move from really disturbing to fucking outrageous.

A Ugandan newspaper published a list Tuesday of what it called the country's "200 top" homosexuals, outing some Ugandans who previously had not identified themselves as gay one day after the president enacted a harsh anti-gay law...

The Red Pepper tabloid published the names — and some pictures — of alleged homosexuals in a front-page story under the headline: "EXPOSED!"

The list included prominent Ugandan gay activists such as Pepe Julian Onziema, who has repeatedly warned that Uganda's new anti-gay law could spark violence against homosexuals.

"Boy the way Glenn Miller played..."

Because "those were the days" are still the "days" the modern Republican Party holds dear.

Some Kansas lawmakers are worried about those precious bodily fluids. The Kansas House's Health and Human Services Committee has on its agenda Monday a bill that would require cities to warn citizens if fluoride is added to drinking water. The measure, which declares fluoride dangerous, has been criticized by public health officials and the Kansas Dental Association, according to The Associated Press.

When you are digging up policy punch lines used against you 50 years ago...you might be a Red State.

Well it was only marginally less-offensive while it lasted

Well, yesterday morning it appeared that Uganda's awful President would delay the signing of it's reprehensible proposed law making being gay illegal. Forced, it appeared by the power of moral condemnation, by the international community -- including the American government.

Appeared being the operative word.

At a public ceremony in a packed room at the State House in Entebbe, Yoweri Museveni formally initialled the anti-homosexuality act, which also outlaws the promotion of homosexuality and requires citizens to denounce to the police anyone suspected of being gay. "No study has shown you can be homosexual by nature. That's why I have agreed to sign the bill," Museveni said in a speech at the presidential palace near the capital, Kampala.

"Outsiders cannot dictate to us. This is our country. I advise friends from the west not to make this an issue, because if they make it an issue the more they will lose. If the west does not want to work with us because of homosexuals, then we have enough space to ourselves here."

Ironically, and just as tragically, with a few replaced words a Dixiecrat of the 1950s could not have stated it more offensively.

There is, of course, substantial economic pressure the West can bring on Uganda (foreign assistance is one-third of the nation's government budget).  Unfortunately, a huge portion of that aid comes in the form of food and medical assistance.  

Because clearly famine and illness are not Uganda's problem, gay people are.  And yes, it it hard to roll my eyes that much.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

All together now...

Awwwwww.... 

 CNN says Piers Morgan is out — thanks to awful ratings, his show is getting canceled as early as next month.

The only question is, what even worse show (and sadly that's possible) can Jeff Zucker put on in its place.

"The Bill Kristol Let's go to War Hour"?

Operation, "When will you stop paying attention?"

The public outcry over Uganda's newest round of American-evangelical inspired anti-gay laws has managed to get notice.

President Yoweri Museveni is asking the US to advise Uganda's scientists about homosexuality, as he considers whether to sign a law increasing punishments.

Mr Museveni's spokesman said the president would not sign the law until he had received the scientific advice.

Last week he said he had decided to sign the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which parliament has passed.

The US - one of Uganda's largest aid donors - has warned that enacting the bill would complicate relations.

Yes, because the science denoting a genetic-link to sexual preference is so rare, so very rare, so rare indeed.

But importantly, if this self-inflicted political wound over a reprehensible policy can be delayed until everybody forgets it...well then, maybe they can try again.

After all, the American evangelicals who pushed this legislation upon them, are always willing to push it.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

But having it illegal it didn't keep your great uncle and aunt from getting married...

And becoming your parents when they were clearly brother and sister.

Kentucky Republican Senate candidate Matt Bevin suggested that legalizing same-sex marriage could lead to legalizing marriage between a parent and child.

Way to look out for justice

From preventing Hitler from seeing an American Jew win a gold medal, to ignoring terrorist acts, to tolerating host-country bigotry the International Olympic Committee has a sterling history. Of being heartless.

So why break from form?

The International Olympic Committee has banned Ukrainian competitors at the Sochi winter Games from wearing black armbands to commemorate the deaths of protesters and police in Kiev.

Ah, tradition!

At least some of the Ukrainian athletes are doing the one form of protest the IOC has not prevented.

More than half of the athletes on Ukraine's Olympic team have left the Games in protest after clashes in Kiev intensified

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Just critics

Not necessarily Newsmax. Get this qualifier at the end.

Many in Abbott's conservative base agree with Nugent's pro-gun views, as does Abbott. But Nugent's description of Obama as a "communist-nurtured, subhuman mongrel" in a January interview amounts to racism, critics say.

Oy.

Another comforting thought

On the kind of crazy assholes George Bush appointed to positions of leadership.

Currently executive vice president of the conservative Family Research Council, Boykin put in an appearance at a conference for "pro-family legislators" last November, where he offered his gospel of Jesus Christ as a rough-and-tumble bloodthirsty Rambo. No, really. Not metaphorically: Really. Jesus is a killer, He wants you to be armed with an assault rifle like His when He comes to claim the throne of the King of Kings, and the Second Amendment was His idea all along. Right Wing Watch just obtained audio of the event, and it is in-fucking-sane:

And the "catch" is?

Sounds good...but you just know there's a catch.

Walmart, America’s largest private employer, said Wednesday it is looking into supporting an increase in the federal minimum wage. The surprise move from the giant retailer comes after it has resisted years of protests from workers and union leaders to increase wages. Bloomberg News, which broke the news, said company spokesman David Tovar was looking at improving wages for its US workers so that they would have “additional income”.

And by "looking at" of course they mean, just not verbally oppose so publicly.

House of Kochs

Scott Walker, who with the backing of the Koch-Brothers has hopes of making it two out the the last three Presidents with the beady, close-set-eyes, of a stereotypical simpleton, has hit a snag. Perhaps a snag as metaphorically big as that created on the George Washington Bridge by his biggest competitor?

At a secret hearing the day before the 2010 election, an investigator for the Milwaukee County district attorney testified that he had uncovered email evidence that Scott Walker, then-county executive, was likely aware of campaigning by his staff on county time using laptops and a wireless internet router. That very afternoon, Nov. 1, 2010, officers seized computer hard drives and other equipment from the suite of offices occupied by Walker and his staff. The next day, Walker was elected governor.

Funny how it went down that way, huh? [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

That's just wrong

Leave Ed Koch's remains in peace.

Short of being Drano or rat-poison how could they tell?

Hot Pockets recalled after meat found ‘unfit for human food’

 

That sounds an awful lot like a normal Hot Pocket.

Yeah, that sounds like justice

A new highlight in the history of American jurisprudence, but one example of how Missoula County, Montana dispensed justice between the genders.

...federal officials said, when one mother asked a county attorney why an adolescent boy who assaulted her 5-year-old daughter had only received two years of community service, the attorney responded, "boys will be boys."

And assholes will be assholes.

Federal investigators added that Missoula prosecutors had failed to pursue "nearly every case" where a mentally or physically disabled woman claimed sexual assault, "even in cases where there was evidence such as a confession or incriminating statements by the perpetrator."

Sadly, this isn't even an isolated recent incident in Montana.

Baugh generated outrage in August after sentencing high school teacher Stacey Dean Rambold to 15 years in prison with all but one month suspended. Rambold had pleaded guilty to one count of sexual intercourse without consent and had been kicked out of a sexual offender treatment program for breaking rules.During the hearing, Baugh blamed Rambold’s 14-year-old victim, who committed suicide before the case went to trial.

Apparently, it should be renamed "Free Pass County, Montana".

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

"What's another five-dozen dead people compared to the love of my life?"

The price of obsessive gun-love and dropping the first clause of that Second Amendment.

Researchers claim a new study provides some of the most compelling evidence yet for tighter gun controls in the US. The team followed the consequences of the State of Missouri repealing its permit-to-purchase handgun law in 2007.

The law had required purchasers to be vetted by the local sheriff and to receive a licence before buying a gun.

Reporting soon in the Journal of Urban Health, the researchers will say that the repeal resulted in an immediate spike in gun violence and murders.

The study links the abandonment of the background check to an additional 60 or so murders occurring per year in Missouri between 2008 and 2012.

"Coincident exactly with the policy change, there was an immediate upward trajectory to the homicide rates in Missouri," said Prof Daniel Webster, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research.

And undoubtedly, nothing more will be heard of this study again. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Other than pretty much everybody, nobody could have anticipated

I imagine health and medical insurance is hard to come by in this line of work...for a reason.

Pastor Jamie Coots, one of the stars of National Geographic's "Snake Salvation," died on Saturday after he was bitten by a snake, police told WBIR.

Coots was allegedly bit while handling a snake at his Pentecostal church in Kentucky, Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name, and later died in his home, according to WBIR.

A medical team went to Coot's house, but he refused medical care, Middlesboro Police Chief Jeff Sharpe told WBIR.

Coots was a "serpent handler" who believed that snake bites will not hurt believers, according to CNN.

Time to write another check...

The ever going battle between the world's two largest sports organizations (the International Olympic Committee and FIFA) over who is the most venal and corrupt continues.

More than 400 Nepalese migrant workers have died on Qatar's building sites as the Gulf state prepares to host the World Cup in 2022, a report will reveal this week.

The grim statistic comes from the Pravasi Nepali Co-ordination Committee, a respected human rights organisation which compiles lists of the dead using official sources in Doha. It will pile new pressure on the Qatari authorities – and on football's world governing body, Fifa – to curb a mounting death toll that some are warning could hit 4,000 by the time the 2022 finals take place.
.

When contemplating that number, remember this is just an estimate of deaths from one nationality. Nepalese are just one-fifth of the migrant worker population employed in Qatar. That means, the number of dead committed in the name of soccer's governing body will be approximately 20,000.

A number of human sacrifices an Egyptian Pharaoh could respect.

But not to fear, FIFA, is going to prepared to "harrumph!".

According to German paper Die Welt, a person only identified as a “senior FIFA employee” said that despite FIFA’s public claims that they are adamant about making Qatar 2022 work, moving the event to another country is a “serious option.”

And I'm sure FIFA's governing body is going to keep saying that until their board members get as many euros, dollars, or francs, that Qatar's ruling family can transfer to a Zurich bank account.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Puting it all into perspective

Via Democratic Underground.

How can we up the wanking...another notch?

On a day where performance artist (Ayn Rand Division) Rand Paul hilariously managed to file a lawsuit that, true to his record, was plagiarized comes this.

Brent Bozell uses his books and columns to rail against liberal media bias and dishonesty, but he reportedly doesn't write a word.

Jim Romenesko spoke to some people affiliated with Bozell's Media Research Center and learned from a former employee that the group's media analysis director, Tim Graham, writes “almost everything published under [Bozell's] name.”

The former employee also noted that, despite not actually writing any of the content, Bozell still collects 80-90 percent of the profits.

Like Paul, Bozell is someone who decries government affirmative action programs while essentially inheriting his position from daddy.  Unlike Paul, Bozell has done it while wearing the world's ickiest ginger-beard.

And then, the punchline, on top of the punchline.

 The president of Creators Syndicate, which carries the column, told Romenesko that it's "absolutely false to say that Brent Bozell does not write his column," but nevertheless, Bozell and Graham will begin sharing a byline.

That statement had to be accompanied by a sad trombone sound.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]