The "best" revenge

This is more like it...unless they pass enough voter restrictions on time.

More than 3,000 people have registered to vote in Ferguson, Mo., since the death of Michael Brown — a surge in interest that may mean the city of 21,000 people is ready for a change. Since a white police officer shot the unarmed black 18-year-old on Aug. 9, voter registration booths and cards have popped up alongside protests in the city and surrounding neighborhoods. The result: 4,839 people in St. Louis County have registered to vote since the shooting; 3,287 of them live in Ferguson.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

War Cry

Not his boots of course...nor the boots of anyone who also ramps up for ever more war in the Forever War.

"At the end of the day, I think it's going to take more than airstrikes to drive them out of there," Boehner said Sunday. "At some point, somebody's boots have to be on the ground."

Asked if those boots had to be American, Boehner said, "We have no choice."

Unleash the "sophisticated" sophistry:

"These are barbarians," Boehner said. "They intend to kill us. And if we don't destroy them first, we're going to pay the price."

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Top 10 headlines

Thanks Josh Marshall:

PA Gov. Rocked By News Of Ex-
Staffers' Hardcore Porn Email Trove

Meanwhile...

Corbett is currently running for re-election as governor. The TPM Polltracker average on Friday showed him trailing his Democratic challenger, Tom Wolf, by 18.2 percent.

OTH this should stabilize his free-fall and "firm up" his "hard core" base. "Two wetsuits and Two Dildos!"

"We want to be bribed with a clean conscience!"

The International Olympic Committee, currently trailing FIFA in their never ending battle for most hypocritical sports organization (despite a recent challenge from the NFL) has done what it is so often best at.

Wait until the stakes are lowest and their pockets' fullest before sort of paying lip service to the right thing.

After the controversy that surrounded Russia’s anti-gay laws before the Sochi 2014 Winter Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has introduced a specific anti-discrimination clause to its host city contract.

In a letter to prospective bidders for the 2022 Winter Olympics informing them of changes to the contract, which acts as a binding agreement between the IOC and the winner, director of sport Christophe Dubi said the new clause would be based on principle 6 of the Olympic charter.

The clause reads: “Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic movement.”

One would think they could just say "sexual orientation", but no "otherwise" is a nice elastic statement allowing a nice payment for definitional obtuseness in the future.

 [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Better armed Baby Boomers

Violent crime has plummeted as the baby boomers get too old to physically dominate others (and they ingest less lead). But thanks to the NRA there is one thing they and their paranoia (passed down to the young) can do... Overcompensate:

A new study released Wednesday by the FBI shows that mass shootings, or "active shooter incidents," as the bureau calls them, are increasing in frequency. The study tracked 160 shootings between 2000 and 2013. Between 2000 and 2007, an average of 6.4 incidents occurred annually, according to the study. That number more than doubled—to 16.4 incidents annually—between 2008 and 2013.

God forbid they just work out more, or get a prescription for Viagra. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Winning those hearts and minds

Nice to know we're as smart with those "smart bombs" as ever.

When the bombs rained down on Raqqa in eastern Syria early on Tuesday, many families were already huddled in their homes awaiting the inevitable. The first strikes landed just after 2am, directed at sites that Islamic State (Isis) has openly used and that had long been flagged as targets. The jihadis were no longer there though, having blended in with Raqqa’s civilian population, where they knew they would be safer.

More fans of 'Murica that we earn via remote control.

It's Alaska, it's what they do!

"Fuck It, I Quit": Cannabis Club-Owning Reporter Quits On Air At least, unlike Sarah Palin, this quitter appears to have not only a more viable, but more legitimate, gig.

"Ummmm....yeah"

You would think after all these years of being demonstrably dishonest and even the "and" and the "the" the CIA remains the worst liars in Washington, which is a title like being the worst racist at a Klan rally. Get a load of this one:

Stung by the backlash over a German caught selling secrets to the US and the revelations of surveillance by the National Security Agency, the CIA has stopped spying on friendly governments in western Europe, according to current and former US officials.

. Oh yeah, real credible. "We're not spying on you anymore Angela Merkel...but you should really get that new mole on your backside checked out. Sincerely, the CIA." [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Something new to "drone" on about

Over the past several years several scandals have hit the Air Force with a familiar theme.

The AFA has long struggled with setting boundaries for religious expression. In 2004 a team of Yale Divinity School students and professors found "challenges to pluralism" at the academy. A memo expressed "concern that the overwhelmingly evangelical tone of general Protestant worship encouraged religious divisions rather than fostering understanding among basic cadets." An internal AFA investigative panel in 2005 found religious "insensitivity," but not "overt religious discrimination."

When steps were taken to end this over religious preference throughout the Air Force, you can guess what happened.

The gay agenda’s bullying tactics have escalated in the military. Evangelical Christians at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, are being persecuted for their position on gay marriage and, in some cases, are being ordered to support it.

One can only guess the fainting that will occur with this.

Air Force drops requirement to use 'So help me God' in oaths

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

The Wonder of it all

Today Scotland is voting whether to go for full independence. It is very close (which may not necessarily be the way you want it when you are right next door to the other country). Funny, it only took about 900 years for this to possibly happen peacefully...so far. (So good luck Iraq!)

So how would a "yes" vote go over in Northern Ireland, where things have not been of more recent vintage, so peaceful?

That really is a conundrum, especially with the old lately-compromising extremists are dying off.

But of all the results, maybe a 50-50 split is the most opaque possible outcome.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Speaking Truth to Glower

Oh oh, somebody said something clearly accurate and on point...WE...CANNOT...HAVE...THAT!

Bill Clinton has been recorded going off-message and criticising the Israeli government’s unwillingness to seek peace with Palestinians in unguarded comments that contrast with other leading Democrats, including his wife, potential presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Speaking to a member of the public at a Democratic fundraiser in Iowa this weekend, the former president agreed with the suggestion that Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu was “not the guy” to strike a lasting peace deal in the region.

“If we don’t force him to make peace, we will not have peace,” added Clinton, who proceeded to list the advantages for Israel of signing up to earlier peace efforts in the region allegedly on the table during his administration.

Strong series of pretend and/or ignorant blather to follow.

[Cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Next time, fly Northwest

Delays like this are expected.

Fury with a "VIP culture" that routinely sees commercial flights in Pakistan delayed to accommodate the schedule of politicians boiled over this week when passengers angrily prevented the country's former interior minister from boarding an aircraft. Fuming travellers had been waiting in their seats when Rehman Malik, one of the country's most recognisable politicians, sauntered down the air bridge to the Pakistan International Airlines jet more than 90 minutes after its scheduled departure from Karachi to Islamabad on Monday. Malik promptly turned tail when a furious group of travellers waiting by the door to the aircraft began heckling, with some chasing him back to the terminal building shouting and calling him a "stupid dog".

Some may call these passengers heroes.

 In this country, they'd be patted down by TSA twice before boarding.

Take it with a grain of salt...and Americans love taking salt by the pound!

Alright, the voters know the score!

An astounding 72 percent of Americans say they are unhappy with Republicans in Congress, according to a recent poll.

The sure do.

The findings may not have a strong bearing on the GOP's midterm elections chances. Recent polls show the Republicans have an edge in both the Senate and the House.

Americans may hate one side more than the other...but by golly they will still vote for 'em.

At least they stand for something...awful...well, more awful.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Four Score and 7 reported villains ago

Remember Boko Harem? The Nigerian terror-group that believed in mass kidnappings and viral videos that lost out to much better produced viral videos. There's been an update.

Soldiers killed scores of Islamic extremists in a rare victory, as the insurgents advanced on a town near the northeast city of Maiduguri, an officer and other witnesses said. One officer said a feared Boko Haram commander known only as Amir was among some 200 militants killed in a battle Friday in Konduga town, 35 kilometers (22 miles) from Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state and birthplace of the extremist group. Also killed was a Boko Haram video journalist and a suicide bomber, he said.

I'm not quite sure about the suicide bomber, but the others may be an accomplishment...at least until another couple dozen new aspirant for "ultimate villain" comes forward...should be by noon today EST. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

After a week of horrible videos

I just pray there's a video of this!

This weekend, Sarah Palin and many members of her family were reportedly involved in a big ol’, 20-person drunken brawl at a Wasilla snowmobile party, which, if you’re playing Palin bingo, means you’ve won. Anchorage police confirmed that an incident had indeed occurred, and that the Palins were definitely there, and it was real nasty. “None of the involved parties wanted to press charges at the time of the incident and no arrests were made,” they added, but did not disclose names. “Alcohol was believed to have been a factor in the incident.”

Oh please, oh please let somebody have pulled out there cell-phone for this. But it being the Palin's this technology is as difficult to use as birth-control, or reserved just for drunken internet rants. And finally:

It’s something to hear when Sarah screams, “Don’t you know who I am!” And it was particularly wonderful when someone in the crowd screamed back, “This isn’t some damned Hillbilly reality show!”

I beg to differ.

Allow me to ...

Broadly generalize.

-The President: "Bomb some, at a slightly higher level than we are bombing now, but allow me to explain we have been bombing all along -- and bombing is important to some folks, real important to others. I have...uh....over these five and a half years, learned to enjoy some bombing."  

- Other politicians with a microphone in front of them: "Bombing is not a some time thing, Bombing is an all-the-time thing! America wants to bomb shit as much as possible!! Why won't this President bomb more than just some, but bomb bomb bomb. It is what America wants, indiscriminate death from the skies is the only thing that gets me off anymore!"

 -"America": "Actually we wish we were Japan, because apparently they want this.

 ...okay, maybe not that...but we are not all that keen on bombing. Some decent jobs would be nice though".

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Roll Back to the 1880s

In other news, as I just cannot keep track of who's getting bombed this time? -- after all it's "9/11, 9/11 9/1l" and I don't know yet whether Rudy Giuliani has seen his hairline yet and has proclaimed six more wars. So today in other iniquities. Last year, the heirs to the Walton empire...who have accomplished nothing in life so much as surviving birth...each accumulated another $3.3 billion in wealth. Or as some call them, makers. Meanwhile, how is it going for the people propping them up on their medically uninsured backs?

Richard Reynoso, a Walmart employee working in a southern California store, sent a letter to Walmart’s corporate headquarters on Monday, claiming that he couldn’t afford to comply with a new company dress code that takes effect on September 29. It was written on letterhead with the logo of OUR Walmart, a union-backed organization advocating for Walmart workers. Under the new code, workers will have to a wear a collared blue or white shirt and black or khaki pants, along with a Walmart vest the company will provide. Employees can use clothes they already own or buy new clothes anywhere they want, but they have to pay for the shirts and pants out of their own pockets.

Seems fair. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Class with a big "C" instead of three "Ks"

Luol Deng...a man with more than just a "little African" in him...along with a lot of class.

You cannot beat a good P.R. campaign

Is Qatar taking advice from FIFA as well as the NFL?

Krishna Upadhyaya and Gundev Ghimire, the two British human rights researchers detained in Qatar for almost nine days, have reportedly been released from custody, but have not yet left the country.

There have been myriad reports on the virtual slave conditions foreign workers have suffered as blood money for the wealthy crooken financiers and FIFA officials (redundant?) behind the 2022 World Cup. So you know where this is going.

Upadhyaya and Ghimire went missing in Qatar on 31 August. After almost a week without any official statement on the men's whereabouts, the ministry of foreign affairs in Qatar announced on Sunday that the men had been arrested and were "being interrogated for having violated the provisions of the laws of the state of Qatar". According to their employer, the Global Network for Rights and Development (GNRD), the men were in Qatar researching a forthcoming report on the working and living conditions of Nepalese migrant labourers.

If there's video of their findings, Sepp Blatter has as strong an interest in not knowing about it as his American counterpart Roger Goodell. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Let's not go to the videotape

Remember ladies and gentlemen, If you are a prominent person, admitted domestic abuse only goes so far...without the videotape. And God forbid you are not a prominent person, and especially a non-prominent person of color -- because then you cannot ever see the videotape...unless the guy who got you killed gets to interpret it for you.

When Ronald Ritchie called 911 from the aisles of a Walmart in western Ohio last month to report that a black man was “walking around with a gun in the store”, he said that shoppers were coming under direct threat. “He’s, like, pointing it at people,” Ritchie told the dispatcher. Later that evening, after John Crawford III had been shot dead by one of the police officers who hurried to the scene in Beavercreek, Ritchie repeated to reporters: “He was pointing at people. Children walking by.” One month later, Ritchie puts it differently. “At no point did he shoulder the rifle and point it at somebody,” the 24-year-old said, in an interview with the Guardian.

And there's a videotape...but TMZ is not on the case.

They have pleaded with Mike DeWine, Ohio’s attorney general, to release the store’s surveillance footage of the shooting to the public. Having viewed it, they say that it disproves Ritchie’s version of what led to the deaths of both Crawford and a 37-year-old woman who collapsed and died in the ensuing panic. “It was an execution, no doubt about it,” alleged Crawford’s father, John Crawford II. “It was flat-out murder. And when you see the footage, it will illustrate that.” DeWine has said that releasing the footage would be “playing with dynamite”

Guess who DOES get to play with dynamite?

Ritchie told the Guardian that he, too, was shown the surveillance footage by officials in the attorney general’s bureau of criminal investigation, who are investigating the shooting. “That is very improper,” said attorney Michael Wright, who said that Ritchie’s statement on what happened should have been based only on what he remembered seeing. Ritchie said that he had also become aware of past criminal allegations against Crawford, which were dropped. He declined to say if he had learned this from DeWine’s officials. Asked four times by the Guardian whether they had told the witness about Crawford’s court record, a spokesman for DeWine declined to comment.

Under any reasonable standards, Mr. Ritchie should at a minimum be ashamed of playing the part in getting an innocent man murdered. But this is Mike DeWine's Ohio, and the Ferguson Playbook is in full-effect. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Let me guess

He wanted to draw the line at Ass-Kissing for access, while the remaining sycophants were for complete full-service rim-jobs?

Politico executive editor Rick Berke announced Sunday evening that he is parting with the Beltway-centric outlet, a surprise resignation that comes less than a year after his hire. In a memo sent to staff, and obtained by the Huffington Post, Berke said while he was leaving on amicable terms, he no longer saw eye-to-eye with Politico's co-founders John Harris and Jim VandeHei. "While our overarching goals are similar, Jim, John and I have agreed to disagree over the strategy for achieving those goals," he wrote in the memo.

Yep, time to taste the tainty-tang of John Boehner. "Mmmmm, that's a smokey oriface...both ends!"

Apparently, you can never dig deeply enough

FIFA, sure it's corrupt.  After all, it let itself be bribed into placing its biggest event consecutively in a place notable for invading other places (but not the U.S., trick question I know) and a place notable for modern slavery.

But fortunately for FIFA it has no conscience...and a penchant for ironic comedy.

FIFA's financial monitoring panel has asked one of its members to explain his arrest in a corruption case.


Canover Watson was detained in his native Cayman Islands on Aug. 28 by police anti-corruption and financial crime units.


Local media reported that Watson was quizzed about alleged money laundering and abuse of public office.

News story should come with laugh track.

Oh, and speaking of corrupt people.

 Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said that Iran "is a bigger problem than ISIS."

So many targets, so many bombs, so many assholes willing to drop them.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Meanwhile Politco requests -- nay, DEMANDS! -- you consider Glenn Greenwald as a big ol' meany!

It's about the important things people...you know like how Benghazi relates to this?

The Justice Department released two decade-old memos Friday night, offering the fullest public airing to date of the Bush administration’s legal justification for the warrantless wiretapping of Americans’ phone calls and e-mails — a program that began in secret after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The broad outlines of the argument — that the president has inherent constitutional power to monitor Americans’ communications without a warrant in a time of war — were known, but the sweep of the reasoning becomes even clearer in the memos written by then-Assistant Attorney General Jack Goldsmith, who was head of President George W. Bush’s Office of Legal Counsel.

“We conclude only that when the nation has been thrust into an armed conflict by a foreign attack on the United States and the president determines in his role as commander in chief . . . that it is essential for defense against a further foreign attack to use the [wiretapping] capabilities of the [National Security Agency] within the United States, he has inherent constitutional authority” to order warrantless wiretapping — “an authority that Congress cannot curtail,” Goldsmith wrote in a redacted 108-page memo dated May 6, 2004.

"Please do not think me irrelevant"

Oh the plight of the former person to be feared, but now sliding to irrelevance as a cartoonish villain.

But enough about Dick Cheney, he can still get on "Meet the Press"

No, this guy.

Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaida, has announced the formation of an Indian branch of the extremist organisation, calling on Muslims across the subcontinent to join the "caravan of jihad".

"Caravan of jihad"?   Nice little title, but the lyrics are pretty bad.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

9th or 10th verse, same as the first

Well, looky here, self-proclaimed genius Donald Trump has managed to unleash that brilliant "I inherited at least a quarter billion from my dad...making me a GENIUS at BUSINESS!" mind and have another enterprise go belly up.

Atlantic City's Trump Taj Mahal warned in a recent financial filing that it was in danger of running out of money to pay its bills and make debt payments.

Trump Taj Mahal Associates L.L.C., the legal name of the entity that owns the 24-year-old casino, said in the filing August 22 that it needed to borrow more money or restructure the existing $232 million in debt it had on June 30.

Can you please stop torturing your tortured analogies?

Why always he?

David Cameron has told European leaders that the west risks making similar mistakes in appeasing Vladimir Putin over Ukraine as Britain and France did with Adolf Hitler in the run-up to the second world war.

And David Cameron officially becomes the one millionth political leader since 1938 to make this analogy...and I think Putin becomes approximately the 10,000th political leader compared to history's greatest asshole.

They each should get something in celebration, maybe a case of Budvar or some other quality Czech product.

Can we not get better and more educated bad analogies from history from our political leaders? What's wrong with comparing Putin from land-grabbing war lords of the past? A Napoleon, Tamerlane, Genghis Khan or Pompey?

Have some imagination in your accusations people.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Touchy and Feely

And all of them, rather inappropriate. Anthony Mozilo spent much of the 1990s and early 2000s building up Countrywide into being the nation's number one Ponzi Scheme subprime lender...(strike the strikeout). So, on reflection how's he feeling? One would think if he is not a sociopath, sort of bad. So you know how this will go.

Six years after he lost control of the largest mortgage lender in the U.S., and days after news that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles plans to sue him, the Countrywide Financial Corp. founder is baffled by a new effort to punish him, proud of past triumphs and incensed by criticism.

Oh those accomplishments.

He remains a defender of Countrywide, even after Bank of America Corp., which bought it in 2008, agreed last month to pay more than $16 billion to end probes into mortgage-bond sales on top of about $55 billion in fines that came before. Mozilo doesn’t understand why he and his firm, blamed by lawmakers and authorities for lax underwriting and predatory lending, have been seen as villains. Photographer: Jay Mallin/Bloomberg Angelo Mozilo, former chief executive officer of Countrywide Financial Corp. “No, no, no, we didn’t do anything wrong,” he said

Yes, he didn't do anything wrong...and never earned a dime he doesn't think he deserved.

Mozilo's compensation during the United States housing bubble of 2001–06 has come under scrutiny. During that period, his total compensation (including salary, bonuses, options and restricted stock) approached $470 million.

But still what a guy.

Two of his friends, former Countrywide director Robert J. Donato and fellow mortgage-industry veteran Howard Levine, praised his spirit. Levine, a friend for at least 50 years, said Mozilo gives a $5 bill to each homeless person he sees on New York’s Fifth Avenue when they visit from California.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Allow me to summarize the sophisticated advice of our nation's Congressional "leadership"

BOMB SHIT, THEN RE-BOMB THE SHIT WE'VE BOMBED!

By my observation, Barack Obama has bombed a lot of shit in his tenure.

There's not a wedding or funeral in the general area of The Levant that is not potential drone-bait. I'd put him up there in the top-six of bombin' Presidents, right behind the Bushes, LBJ, FDR, Nixon, and Truman -- but ahead of Reagan and Clinton. Y'know right on the mid-level of the distribution of sky-borne murder-boners we have come to expect from our modern Commander-in-Chiefs.

Nonetheless, in modern parlance, no matter how much you make the rubble bounce, there are always almost universal calls four our "serious" 535 or so aspirants for the White House to bomb until the rubble turns to sand...and then glass...and then sand again...just for good measure.

Barack Obama was on Sunday urged to take a tougher approach towards Russia and Syria, as Republicans and Democrats returned from their summer vacations in confrontational mood.

Oh those "moods" without consequence...a summation of modern American Foreign Policy.

A sophisticated people who elect the sophisticated leadership we deserve...even if the rest of the world does not.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Don't worry we're good for it

There is something missing to add context to this story.

Israel has been presented with a hefty bill for 50 days of war in Gaza, as the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, moved to slash government spending by 2% this year to offset the $2.52 bn (£1.51bn) cost of the conflict. With only the Israeli military and domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet exempt from the sharp spending reductions, the area to be hit hardest emerged as the Israeli education system, with critics – including members of Netanyahu's cabinet – predicting that the poorest Israelis will feel the brunt of the cuts.

Of course they will. You cannot have the wealthy ever have a burden...as Israel knows, that's Un-American!

But in lieu of this, how will these expenses on a debatably over-reaction be borne?

I have an idea...well, less an idea, than a notion of history.

The FY2014 Consolidated Appropriations Act (P.L . 113-76) provides the President’s full $3.1 billion request in FMF for Israel. In addition, it provides another $504 million in funding for research, development, and production of Israel’s Iron Dome anti-rocket system ($235 million) and of the joint U.S.-Israel missile defense sy stems David’s Sling ($149.7 million), the Arrow improvement program (or Arrow II, $44.3 million), and Arrow III ($74.7 million). For FY2015, the Administration is requesting $3.1 billion in FMF to Israel and $10 million in Migration and Refugee Assistance. The Missile Defense Agency’s FY2015 request for joint U.S.- Israeli programs is $96.8 million. The Administration also is requesting $175.9 million for Iron Dome.

Why should the Israeli poor have the burden, when American poor will do?

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

I dunno...maybe men should be more intelligent?

Ugh.

The former president of The George Washington University on Tuesday joined the chorus of individuals telling college women to simply drink less in order to avoid sexual assault.

During a discussion of Greek life at U.S. colleges on The Diane Rehm Show, Dr. Stephen Joel Trachtenberg weighed in on the issue of sexual assault, Jezebel noted on Wednesday. Trachtenberg tried to hedge his remarks on drinking and rape by first noting that sexual assault victims should not be blamed, but he still asserted that women really need to learn to drink less.

Double ugh.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (R) thinks his state should reform its liquor laws. That way, he argued, women would have an easier job making dinner.

But don't drink any of that liquor ladies...that liquor is for dudes, enabling sexual assaults...just water for you, as to stave them off. 

 Oh and...

USA!   USA!   USA!

Hard to believe such a typically classless organization

Would exercise poor taste...

Less than two days after a 9-year-old girl in Arizona accidentally shot and killed a gun range instructor who was showing her how to fire an Uzi, the National Rifle Association on Wednesday touted new ways for children to "have fun" at shooting ranges.

Shoot gun nut somehow not one of the examples.

Not looking too good for the 20th or earlier Centuries

A three-judge panel of the 7th Circuit heard arguments of the conservative Attorney's General of Wisconsin and Indiana Tuesday as the latter sought to forbid same sex marriages from occurring in Madison or Indianapolis.

This is clearly not 2008 anymore.

Judge Richard Posner, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, was dismissive when Wisconsin Assistant Attorney General Timothy Samuelson repeatedly pointed to ‘tradition’ as the underlying justification for barring gay marriage.

“It was tradition to not allow blacks and whites to marry – a tradition that got swept away,” Posner said. Prohibition of same sex marriage, he said, is “a tradition of hate ... and savage discrimination.”
Posner frequently cut off Indiana Solicitor General Thomas Fischer, just moments into his presentation and chided him to answer his questions.

At one point, Posner ran through a list of psychological strains of unmarried same-sex couples, including having to struggle to grasp why their schoolmates’ parents were married and theirs weren’t.
“What horrible stuff,” Posner said. What benefits to society in barring gay marriage, he asked, “outweighs that kind of damage to children?”

The answer has to do with “procreation,” Fisher answered.

Yes...that's all they have left now...sex just isn't sex if a baby isn't made.

That's some powerful logic.

And Posner is THE conservative on that panel.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Way to take Irony right to the grave

The Second Amendment, is the Darwin Award catch-all for the illiterate Amendment reader (who needs an opening clause anyway?).

Anyhow there's this.

And ALSO this.

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook

"We're not going to repeat the mistakes that led to World War Two!"

And engage in appeasement. No instead we're going to have a series of actions that repeat the mistakes that led to World War One! This one's for you Franz Ferdinand!

Nato is to deploy its forces at new bases in eastern Europe for the first time, in response to the Ukraine crisis and in an attempt to deter Vladimir Putin from causing trouble in the former Soviet Baltic republics, according to its chief. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former prime minister of Denmark, said that next week's Nato summit in Cardiff would overcome divisions within the alliance and agree to new deployments on Russia's borders – a move certain to trigger a strong reaction from Moscow

I'm sure this will all work out just dandy for everyone. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Hobbies

Aside from being rather creepily obsessed with his female producers, middle-eastern grains, and killing people...I mean especially the latter, Bill O'Reilly styles himself as the premier old white guy expert on all things African-American (or as he says "Negro"). It gets rather embarrassing...this embarrassing.

Bill O'Reilly brought Megyn Kelly on his Monday show to have a discussion about the concept of "white privilege."

He asked Kelly if she believed it was real. "There's a lot of evidence behind it," Kelly said. No, this wasn't a rift in the space-time continuum.

Nostradumbass

One could literally put up post after post on the tragic stupidity of Paul Wolfowitz (still getting paid to utter his ever-erring pie whole)...and I guess I will take part.

There has been a good deal of comment—some of it quite outlandish—about what our postwar requirements might be in Iraq. Some of the higher end predictions we have been hearing recently, such as the notion that it will take several hundred thousand U.S. troops to provide stability in post-Saddam Iraq, are wildly off the mark. It is hard to conceive that it would take more forces to provide stability in post-Saddam Iraq than it would take to conduct the war itself and to secure the surrender of Saddam's security forces and his army—hard to imagine

And...of course, in spite of that little thing known as reality...Paul Wolfowitz declared "VICTORY!" (and HE went home). Behold the fruits of the easy victory.

The United Nations said on Sunday it had evidence that fighters from Islamic State (Isis) had killed as many as 670 prisoners in Mosul and had carried out further abuses in Iraq that amounted to crimes against humanity.

And least we can take comfort in Wolfowitz's other prediction that the Iraq War would pay for itself...at least if you are ISIS.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Just so you know where you stand

In Ferguson...

...the recent actions of other police officers have revealed the depth of the rift between the Ferguson community and local authorities On Wednesday, police officer Lt. Ray Albers was suspended after video surfaced of him threatening and pointing a weapon at a crowd of Ferguson protesters. Then on Friday, police officer Dan Page, who worked in Ferguson during the protests, was suspended after video surfaced showing him making racist, sexist and homophobic comments during a speech addressing the Oath Keepers of St. Louis and St. Charles. During the speech, Page unapologetically called himself "a killer." Around the same time, another St. Louis-area police officer, Matthew Pappert, was suspended for posting incendiary messages on Facebook, including a statement that reportedly said Ferguson protesters should be "put down like rabid dogs."

Meanwhile no criminal charges filed yet filed in the death of Michael Brown. But, hey, speaking of dogs...

A Wyoming police officer has pleaded not guilty to animal cruelty charges tied to the death of a dog left inside a sweltering patrol car for more than six hours, local media reported.

Priorities, I guess. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

"It was the best of times, it was the "Giuliani Time(s)""

One of the advantages of being soulless and ignorant is that you are not governed against the stench of your own stupidity in the past.

Hannity: "Let me educate you about the legal system in America." Bynes: "I don't need your kind of education."

Yes, if nothing else Sean Hannity can "educate" about the legal system in America and how it works for a person of color.

The father of chief defendant Justin Volpe, an NYPD police officer, regularly appeared on show during the 1999 trial. And Hannity and various guests repeated rumors that Louima's injuries resulted from a "gay sex act" and not from police brutality. Playing on the homosexual rumor and inconsistencies in Louima's story, Hannity and his producer sang a parody of Lionel Richie's song "Three Times a Lady," changing the words to "you're once, twice, three times a liar." Hannity stopped referring to the victim as "Lying Louima" only after Volpe confessed to sodomizing Louima with the help of another officer

I'm sure the "education" extends to the numerous times Louima's (and Michael Brown, Travon Martin etc.) treatment is compared to the contract FoxNews gave Oliver North. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

For more than a thousand words worth

This week's cover of Time.

If there's anything government haters can succeed at

It's bad, bad governing.

More than three times as many women have died here at the hands of current or former lovers than the number of Palmetto State soldiers killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined. ... The beat of killings has remained a constant in South Carolina, even as domestic violence rates have tumbled 64 percent nationwide over the past two decades, according to an analysis of crime statistics by the newspaper.

Maybe Lincoln should have just let 'em go? There is a lot more in the linked article that will make you sick...especially if you live in South Carolina. If nothing else, it's evidence that no policy and virtually no government serve the interest of one type of person most of all, a white male...or as that particular type of person too often calls it, "the good old days". Those days never ended in South Carolina, whose State Flag should perhaps replace the Palmetto Tree with a simple prehistoric club. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Yes, it has come to this

A proud day indeed.

Egypt on Tuesday urged U.S. authorities to exercise restraint in dealing with racially charged demonstrations in Ferguson, Missouri

In our defense (via FoxNews, naturally) it is possible that many political protesters in Cairo had not had a "one-hitter" within several weeks of when they were shot six-times at point blank range. It's all about context (as you wish to fashion it from reality). [Cross-posted at Firedoglake]

I'm guessing his remedy is "those people should be shot!"

What a bunch of assholes condensed into but one "ass-container":

Breitbart.com, a prominent far-right website, reported this morning, “Republicans are criticizing efforts by liberal organizers to set up voter registration booths at the site where Missouri teenager Michael Brown was shot and killed by a local police officer.”

In an interview with Breitbart News, Missouri RNC executive director Matt Wills expressed outrage about the reports.

 

“If that’s not fanning the political flames, I don’t know what is,” Wills said, “I think it’s not only disgusting but completely inappropriate.”

Wills is described by the RNC as the executive director of the Missouri Republican Party.

Of course he is.

'Murica 2014...(not "literally" Ferguson edition)

Delightful, nothing like an abhorrent technicality to help the wealthy stay in their bubble. This, after all, was a close one.

One new Manhattan skyscraper will greet residents of pricey condos with a lobby in front, while renters of affordable apartments that got the developer government incentives must use a separate side entrance — a so-called poor door. In another apartment house, rent-regulated residents can't even pay to use a new gym that's free to their market-rate neighbors. Other buildings have added playrooms and roof decks off-limits to rent-stabilized tenants.

I imagine the doors well at least replace Arbeit Macht Frei with the respective terms "takers" and "makers". [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Worrying story...needs more "panic"

One of the historical claims that is rooted into our social DNA about the plague (which seems to come around about once of twice a millennium, long enough to forget about the last time) is this one.

The plague started in China and made its way west across Asia to the Black Sea by 1347. One theory is that a group of infected Tartars besieged a Genoese outpost on the coast. To harass the trapped townspeople, the Tartars used their catapults to hurl the dead bodies of their comrades over the town walls spreading the epidemic among the Genoese. The panicked inhabitants fled the scene by ship showing up in the ports of northern Italy and bringing the Black Death to Europe.

Or just this not quite as old an allegation.

... Captain Simeon Ecuyer had bought time by sending smallpox-infected blankets and handkerchiefs to the Indians surrounding the fort -- an early example of biological warfare -- which started an epidemic among them. Amherst himself had encouraged this tactic in a letter to Ecuyer.

Public worry about Ebola just isn't World War Z-enough...so how about this claim?

Liberian officials fear Ebola could soon spread through the capital's largest slum after residents raided a quarantine center for suspected patients and took items including blood-stained sheets and mattresses.

[Cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Iowa's shame, part infinity

Oh sure, you have your Michelle Bachmanns and Louis Gohmerts, and even God forbid next year a fellow Iowan Jodie Ernst, but still no member of Congress is more proudly ignorant than Steve King...representative of Iowa's Fourth District. King's long run of racism is but one of his many low points -- and no situation like Ferguson can occur without King adding his less than two cents.

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) claimed that racial profiling is not a concern in Ferguson, Missouri, because all of the protesters are of a "continental origin." Speaking on conservative network Newsmax TV on Wednesday, King disagreed that racial profiling played a role in the fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown or the targeting of those protesting his death because, King claims, everyone protesting the situation is black.

Yep, just another dead African-American teen cared for only by his fellow "Continentals" [King loves all form of racial statements, but his default is the "old timey" phrases]. At least he didn't discuss the size of their calves. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Ever "Tricky" but he's just the trend setter

As noticed by these folks, George Will had a pretty startling reveal of one of Richard Nixon's less famous crimes.

On Nov. 2 at 8:34 p.m., a teleprinter at Johnson’s ranch delivered an FBI report on the embassy wiretap: Chennault had told South Vietnam’s ambassador “she had received a message from her boss (not further identified). . . . She said the message was that the ambassador is to ‘hold on, we are gonna win.’ ” The Logan Act of 1799 makes it a crime for a private U.S. citizen, which Nixon then was, to interfere with U.S. government diplomatic negotiations.

So Richard Nixon...delayed the end of the Vietnam War so he could help win himself the right to order the illegal bombing of Cambodia.

The fact this comes from George Will, makes one wonder whether a column in coming out in about six years revealing that Ronald Reagan and his campaign advisers mucked up the process of liberating Americans held prisoner in Iran.

Of course, those were the old days when the GOP felt it necessary to commit war crimes in the dark, as opposed to openly as part of the new Fall rollout.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

America 2014

"Land of the Free"*

"Home of the Brave"

Ironic...in that this doesn't even reflect the world's highest incarceration rate.

You cannot usually have strange bedfellows if the bed is on fire

What could be more comforting than plans going badly for those who primarily make the plans...why it's almost as if we don't know what we're doing so much that eventually we find a common ground of "hey, we haven't bombed this guy yet!?"
I bet Iran would have been even more supportive of our "soft-Dieming" if we'd followed the McCain/Graham plan of bombin' Iran 'till the rubble bounced. After all, to the frustration of many repressed unindicted war criminals, a bombing leading to even more bombing is the prescription to all ills so bomb as often and as many as possible. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

One of the useful aspects of Twitter

Is it allows you to recognize just who is a huuugggggge asshole, based on what they for no other reason than they just have to write something completely gratuitous.

Oh...hooray!

Well this surprises nobody.

Jobs growth in the U.S. since the 2008 recession has been undermined by lower wages, with workers earning an average 23 percent less than from jobs which were lost, a report by an organization representing U.S. cities said on Monday.

Middle-class, now with a quarter less value.

Meanwhile.

America's richest 0.1%, who have at least $20 million (£11 million) in net wealth, had at least 23.5% of the country's wealth in 2012, up from 21.5% from previous estimates.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Well, now we know

The sorts of things that give Lindsey Graham a chubby.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) warned on Sunday that militants in Iraq and Syria would attack the U.S. mainland if President Barack Obama did not immediately take military action to stop them.

“I think of an American city in flames because of the terrorists’ ability to operate in Syria and Iraq,” Graham told Fox News host Chris Wallace.

I believe an American city in flames (the sequel) is the kind of "HOPE" that Lindsey Graham not only believes in, but ejaculates to as well.

Good to know you can maybe get around to that...eventually

When it comes to the Fukushima reactor, it is comforting to know that TEPCO, the company running the thing always gets back to you...eventually...to let you know they were wrong the last several times but they've got it all under control...someday.

Almost all of the nuclear fuel in the No. 3 reactor of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant melted within days of the March 11, 2011, disaster, according to a new estimate by Tokyo Electric Power Co. TEPCO originally estimated that about 60 percent of the nuclear fuel melted at the reactor. But the latest estimate released on Aug. 6 revealed that the fuel started to melt about six hours earlier than previously thought.

Thanks TEPCO, any further words of reassurance you can provide those concerned about the safety of nuclear power?

The utility plans to start fuel removal operations at the No. 3 reactor no earlier than in the latter half of fiscal 2021.

Oh, sure, sounds swell...and quite an endorsement on the safety of radioactivity.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

He's also the Queen of Hearts and the awesomist member of Manudo!

In case you wondered whether he is not only allowed out in polite society...but also unaffected:

Paul Wolfowitz, a former senior George W. Bush administration official and one of the chief Iraq War architects, said on Tuesday that the U.S. "won" the war in Iraq. When asked his thoughts about the current situation in Iraq and whether the war was a mistake, Wolfowitz replied, "We have won it — in 2009." The Bush administration’s troop surge in Iraq in 2007 and a moderate Sunni movement against al Qaeda extremists helped quell sectarian violence throughout the country. The U.S. began to draw down combat troops in 2009.

In a room full of people worried about Ebola it figures Paul Wolfowitz is still the deadliest pathogen in the room. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Watching you, watching me, watching them

A real trust circle.

Israel eavesdropped on US Secretary of State John Kerry during doomed peace talks with the Palestinians last year, German news weekly Der Spiegel reported Sunday.

Of course they did. It's called Pollarding!

Or something like that...after all we undoubtedly knew the Germans were watching us, while we watched them...it would make a great movie about the ol' fashioned ways we used to go on about those totalitarian states that used to be...the states, not the totalitarianism.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

And then on to a "Gathering of Juggalos"

But all of them are far better behaved than the modern GOP he helped wrought.

 Churlish hamster Grover Norquist nearly brought the U.S. to the brink of default three years ago, pressuring legislators with his "Taxpayer Protection Pledge" into a debt ceiling battle that was both dangerous and inane. This year, Norquist plans to attend Burning Man, which he sees as a stateless capitalist Utopia.

What's old is new again

I appreciate the fact that you are calling them out in asking for balance, but... Were you people at the Guardian born yesterday, or have never watched American news before?

p [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

And Alito just turns the volume louder during his Real Housewives marathon

Truer words...never spoken.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said Thursday in an interview on Yahoo News that five men on the court have a "blind spot" when it comes to discrimination against women.

Who cares, it's just the general public!

In a world left with few things that are not completely predictable, there are some things more predictable than others.

Ancient water and sewage lines will be about as well maintained as your average post-collapse Roman Aqueduct, until they finally break. 

Unless, of course, something like the Keystone Pipeline suffers the inevitable catastrophic leak...in which case the government will totally give your tax dollars to fix that thing you totally did not want so its corporate ownership doesn't have to reduce their profits.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

In a nutshell...in a multitude of metaphors

It's long been noticed that the anti-choice crowd obsesses about fetuses until the umbilical cord is cut, then they could care less.

So why shouldn't Hobby Lobby just sum up the whole conundrum in one predictable case?

When a very pregnant Felicia Allen applied for medical leave from her job at Hobby Lobby three years ago, one might think that the company best known for denying its employees insurance coverage of certain contraceptives—on the false grounds that they cause abortions—would show equal concern for helping one of its employees when she learned she was pregnant.

Instead, Allen says the self-professed evangelical Christian arts-and-crafts chain fired her and then tried to prevent her from accessing unemployment benefits.

Why if she'd just taken birth control...oh, right.

Hobby Lobby's PR person will get back to you as soon as he goes and gets his plan-supported Viagra from the Walgreen's next door.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

I'd say I'm surprised

But I'm not at all surprised.

According to recently unearthed court records, Bob Dowlut—who for 30 years has been the architect of the National Rifle Association's legal and cultural agenda—was sentenced to life in an Indiana prison for shooting a shopkeeper during a robbery before murdering a single mother with the same gun.

Mr. Dowlut...I'm sorry, "Convicted Murderer...by gun" Mr. Dowlut, is however a very very white guy, so he didn't serve all that much of a sentence and got a job allowing guys...especially white guys...to carry all the guns and ammo they can carry, especially when they should not carry any of it.

Oh and it's not as if he has not long had an obsessive gun fetish...it's just he really really liked to put his fetish into action.

Dowlut was already well-known to police in his hometown of South Bend, Indiana, having escaped jail time after a juvie judge gave him a pass for robbing a local museum of several guns and using them to hold up a restaurant for $135. So when the mother of Dowlut's longtime girlfriend ended up shot twice in the heart and he was caught in a lie about his whereabouts that night, he explained how he'd come to kill her after trying to rob a store and shooting its proprietor in the stomach.

Well this is kind of embarassing

First their old leader loses a primary...and then...

"Listen, this whole talk about impeachment is coming from the president's own staff, and coming from Democrats on Capitol Hill. Why? Because they're trying to rally their people to give money and to show up in this year's election," the Ohio Republican told reporters, in response to a question.

Which means this can only mean one thing.

Rep. Lou Barletta of Pennsylvania said Monday that a resolution to impeach President Obama would “probably” pass the GOP-controlled House if brought up for vote.

Man, even the crazy Republicans are Democrats now.

Agent of Change

In the wake of a World Cup that showed the importance of building stadiums over the needs of the populace, FIFA was encouraged to consider moving the 2018 World Cup out of Russia in the wake of the shooting down of a Malaysian Airlines flight.

They refused with this statement:

The hosting of the FIFA World Cup with the global attention it attracts can be a powerful catalyst for constructive dialogue between people and governments, helping to bring positive social developments.

Behold the positive social developments.

Officials in Qatar's Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy [ed. the group helping to organize the 2018 World Cup] have been using offices on the 38th and 39th floors of Doha's landmark Al Bidda skyscraper – known as the Tower of Football – which were fitted out by men from Nepal, Sri Lanka and India who say they have not been paid for up to 13 months' work.

I did not realize the reinstitution of slavery was considered a positive social development. But then again, I'm not a FIFA Official getting money in brown envelopes either.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Silly

The way the American-political world works now -- the leader of the Israeli government CANNOT BE QUESTIONED...but the American President is a never-ending threat to be a traitor...especially to Israel, because for some reason another country is more important than our actual country and if you believe otherwise you are just enabling the next Holocaust and are worse than Hitler, or at least would be if this version of events was supported by anything resembling a viable fact.

Just so we have the irreality straight.

Complain all you want

But FIFA Officials' well-lined pockets are going to really enjoy the 2026 Men's World Cup in Somalia.

Glad to see the person who lost their "PR JOB" with Carnival Cruise Lines a couple years ago has found a new gig.

Ugh.

With Ukraine route off-limits, Malaysia Airlines plane flies over Syria instead

Will Sociopath for Votes

Jan Brewer, who was a heartless troll of an elected official before it was de rigueur, is back to remind us of the not so original article. First, the banality of evils.

A condemned Arizona inmate gasped and snorted for more than an hour and a half during his execution Wednesday before he died, his lawyers said, in an episode sure to add to the scrutiny surrounding the death penalty in the U.S. Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne's office said Joseph Rudolph Wood was pronounced dead at 3:49 p.m., one hour and 57 minutes after the execution started.

But it's all good.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) said Wednesday that she had ordered an internal review of the nearly two-hour-long execution of an inmate, but she said she believed the condemned man who gasped and snorted throughout most of the ordeal "did not suffer."

Soon Jan Brewer will launch her "I'll take your dog to a farm upstate Initiative". [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

The Circle of Strife

For every over the top offensive reaction, somewhere there's an equally offensive counter-reaction, and then a just as offensive counter-counter reaction will happen somewhere else.

Paris, for example.

Eighteen people were arrested for attacks on shops, including a kosher supermarket, a Jewish-owned chemist and a funeral home. Rioters, who carried batons and threw petrol bombs according to eyewitnesses, were yards from the synagogue when they were driven back by riot police who used tear gas.

“They were shouting: ‘Death to Jews,’ and ‘Slit Jews’ throats’,” David, a Jewish sound engineer told The Times. “It took us back to 1938.”

And about every year before that one too.

plus ça change.


[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Just lemme know

When a person in 'Murica can criticize Israel on rational grounds (even while also blaming Hamas as much or more) without being accused of being anti-semetic.

Especially if your pseudonym is "Attaturk".

Thanks.

Won't be holding breath.

Crazy Train, a neverending story

While the right-wing finds a way to go crazy over becaue children as less worthy than others...no not those children, these children...there remains a ever fertile field of insanity.

For example...

"And as to Secretary Kerry, he gave the most ridiculous and delusional summary of American foreign policy I could imagine," Graham said on NBC's "Meet the Press" while discussing Israel's ground operation in Gaza...

Host David Gregory then asked Graham how the Kerry has failed in addressing the Malaysian plane and evidence that pro-Russia separatists likely shot down the plane with Russian weapons.

"One, he didn't call Putin the thug that he is. He didn't call for arming the Ukraine so they can defend themselves against rebel separatists supported by Russia," Graham responded.

Yes, throwing arms around and threatening, or actually, bombing is the only "rational" course of action.

You betcha.  I guess it all started with Benghazi right?

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Not in the way I imagined

I have figured his adventurism in the Ukraine would come back to bite Putin in the ass, because they almost always do. But I was imagining the intermediate future. But I agree with Josh Marshall, the inevitable has happened, just in a different way than most anyone imagined.

But what about the fantasies of the gun-infatuated?

Damn that reality...somebody should put a cap in its ass!

Homicides increase under the "castle doctrine" or Stand Your Ground laws, according to two studies published since 2012, while the laws do not appear to deter crime in any significant way. Researchers at Georgia State and Texas A&M universities used different methodologies and data sources to reach their conclusions, but they ended up in the same place: More people are killed after these laws are passed. Researchers at Texas A&M University, for a study published in the Journal of Human Resources, concluded that homicides had increased by 8 percent in the more than 20 states that had passed "castle doctrine" laws, many of which include Stand Your Ground provisions. That equals 600 additional homicides every year in those states, they wrote. At the same time, however, the researchers found no detectable decrease in burglary, robbery or aggravated assault.

So, in short. Not having a gun but masturbating while thinking about one, more effective public policy for gun-nuts than masturbating while thinking about guns and actually having one.

It's like a victim of car theft was going to come forward

Darrell Issa's Marsupial Inspired Court hit sad trombone levels today.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, seemed to catch everyone off guard Wednesday when he suddenly pulled the plug on his committee hearing before witnesses could even testify...

But two things were apparent to those following the hearing: First, Issa began the hearing irritated that the White House had dismissed his subpoena to compel Obama's political office director, David Simas, to testify. He called it "deeply disturbing" that White House counsel Neil Eggleston said Simas was immune from a congressional subpoena. Second, and perhaps more tellingly, Issa may have wanted to prevent Lerner from testifying since, based on the written testimony she provided ahead of the hearing, she was planning to say the White House Office of Political Strategy and Outreach had done nothing inappropriate, which contradicted Issa's claims leading up to the hearing.

Lerner's shop is charged with enforcing the federal Hatch Act's prohibitions against federal employees engaging in political activity, which makes her the go-to person in the event of allegations of wrongdoing by the White House political office. She was prepared to tell the committee she did her homework and found nothing wrong.

On the other hand she really hate hate hates affirmative action

And wants to do away with all those things that are not based solely on merit (...y'know like merit-based Nepotism)

The best summation of the state of Republican discourse of climate this week came in Mike Allen and Politico’s friendly promotional luncheon for the Cheney family. Asked what to do about climate change, Liz Cheney quickly replied.

“Nothing.”

Scary thing is...

That seems kind of low...

A new Public Policy Polling survey found that 37 percent of Republicans who voted in the Mississippi primary runoff election between incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) and state Sen. Chris McDaniel (R) said they would back the Confederate side if there was another Civil War.

Rebels without a Clue.

You'd think he'd know this already, they are called "Sam's Clubs"

So many faces, so few available palms.

A senior Republican [ed. Michael McCaul, Texas, naturally] has proposed that the US government should build “warehouses” in Central America where thousands of unaccompanied children who have attempted to seek asylum in the US could be deported and processed on their return to their countries of origin.

Uh, what?

I'm sure those countries would be all in with that idea, right? I mean what could go wrong?

But at least he's not showing any signs of paranoia.

"It’s very heart-wrenching as a father to see that — mothers with their babies," McCaul said on "Fox News Sunday." "I also saw some 17-year-olds that I thought looked more like a threat to coming into the United States."

Yeah...

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

The "WHAT?!" percent solution

I mean, really?  You wanna go with that number?

Speaking to Italy’s La Repubblica daily, Francis also condemned child sex abuse as a “leprosy” in the Church and cited his aides as saying that “the level of paedophilia in the Church is at two percent”.

“That two percent includes priests and even bishops and cardinals,” he said.

Uh, you are saying that the PRESENT level is one of of every 50 priests is a what?

Blessed are the poor...

Apparently the only part of the New Testament that the modern conservative takes literally...outside of creationism which they are just told to take literally.

Today, more than three-quarters of American conservatives think the poor "have it easy," while fewer than 10 percent believe the "poor have hard lives"

Yeah, it's the rich who suffer...just like always!

Being poor, in fact, is so popular in modern America that many of us seem to be moving that way!

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

The rubble, make it bounce higher!

Because clearly years of overwhelming firepower have done the trick...if the trick is to keep escalating to exercise your overwhelming firepower.

Binyamin Netanyahu has instructed the Israeli military to "intensify even further" its assault on the Gaza Strip... The air assault continued throughout Wednesday morning bringing the Palestinian death toll to 32 in two days, including several senior Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants. More than 150 people have been injured. There have been about 440 air strikes since the beginning of the week.

And I'm sure it has worked and sure I am overstating whether the retaliation is disproportional?

Well, no and no.

One hundred and sixty-five rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel in the past 24 hours, according to Israeli military estimates.There have been no reports of deaths from the rocket attacks.

To be continued...apparently indefinitely...and profitably for a few.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

NRA's dream "Good Guy vs. Good Guy" circle jerk

I imagine this makes Wayne LaPierre orgasm so hard in David Carradine/Michael Hutchence fashion (sadly without what would be a happy ending for the rest of us).

A North Carolina man was shot to death allegedly by his 11-year-old grandson Monday night after the man shot his son during a family dispute, Raleigh TV station WRAL reported.

The Shape of Wanks to Come

Only a couple years ago, this was the headline.

Bolivia's child workers unite to end exploitation

That was the Fall of 2012, how'd that work out for everyone?

Bolivia to allow 10-year-olds to work

Yep, power to the people.

I'm guessing the Koch Brothers will take notice -- good luck, once again, oh let's just guess, Mississippi.

[Cross-Posted at Firedoglake]

Yeah, not racist just like Adolph Rupp

Yeah, this is the test.

A newspaper editorial in Mississippi state Sen. Chris McDaniel's (R) home county argued that McDaniel couldn't possibly be a racist since he played basketball in college.

As opposed to varments, blackguards, scoundrels and ne'er-do-wells!

Apparently the 19th century robber barons of the GOP are adopting the language of the time as well -- some heavy projection too.

Republicans such as Senator Tom Coburn have argued that the disability program is being “gamed” by “scalawags,” and that a third of claims are bogus, putting the program in financial trouble. Republicans may use the coming hearing to argue for benefits cuts.

May?

Oh the purposeful naivete is rich.

A headline that pretty much sums it all up

Congress May Spend More On The Benghazi Panel Than On The Veterans Affairs Committee

Bullshit before people.

Live and learn...nah, just open gob, swallow air

Oh the profundity.

Yeah, not quite that simple...but it was tragic.

What can we learn from that about the stupidity of jingoism and not considering the consequences of our actions or the morality of war in general?

If you are Jonah Goldberg...not much.

"Every ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business."

That was Jonah's endorsement of going to war with Iraq.  Now he gets to come back and pass judgment on other wars -- after all he's a self-proclaimed expert.

Say what you will about the Black Hand, Gavrilo Princip, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire at least they exited the scene eventually.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Funny how all that works

On the one hand Conservatives told us that if the minimum wage gets raised it hurts job growth.

As CEPR noted in March and April posts, economists at Goldman Sachs conducted a simple evaluation of the impact of these state minimum-wage increases. GS compared the employment change between December and January in the 13 states where the minimum wage increased with the changes in the remainder of the states. The GS analysis found that the states where the minimum wage went up had faster employment growth than the states where the minimum wage remained at its 2013 level.

Continuing the timeless level of inaccuracy the right-wing has had in America, from how awesome Iraq would be to how Americans will always hate soccer, a really really high rate of being wrong. But hey, when it works it works, even though it plainly does not actually work.

The Great Recession and Not-So-Great Recovery have been bad news for most Americans, but some people have suffered more than others. We call those people "Southerners." North Carolina and a handful of other Southern U.S. states saw the biggest increases in the number of people living in what are known as "poverty areas" between 2000 and 2010, according to a new Census Bureau report.

The GOP also knows this as "their base", their gullible, gullible base. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

If at first, and then repeatedly, you fail to succeed

Cash in, cash in, and cash in again.

Tony Blair has agreed to advise the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who came to power in a military coup last year, as part of a programme funded by the United Arab Emirates that has promised to deliver huge "business opportunities" to those involved, the Guardian has learned.

Blather, rinse, repeat.

Time for Blair to get booked on Meet the Press and dance closely with Dave.

Good to know that 238 years after independence we can reunite in mutually profitable exploitation of others.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

This report just covers up BENGHAZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Start the Impeachment Hearings!

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 288,000 in June, and the unemployment rate declined to 6.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains were widespread, led by employment growth in professional and business services, retail trade, food services and drinking places, and health care.

Health care too?

Damn you Obamacareghaziiiiiiiiiiii!

The Darjeeling Tea Party

It only makes sense that all that Koch Brothers' money eventually went to India to create politics that would feel right at home in any number of States.

An Indian MP who threatened to kill opposition workers and have women raped has apologised, saying it was a "gross error of judgement".

You think?

And about that being just the kind of language you'd expect in this country.

LePage denies he discussed ‘executing’ Maine Democratic leaders

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Well, so much for that...

I took a small bit of solace in the fact that the Hobby Lobby ruling seemed to be limited to four particular forms of birth control, such as the morning after pill. But noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...

The Supreme Court on Tuesday confirmed that its decision a day earlier extending religious rights to closely held corporations applies broadly to the contraceptive coverage requirement in the new health care law, not just the handful of methods the justices considered in their ruling.

Meanwhile at Hobby Lobby, the company happily allows its "dude" employees to continue to get their viagra and vasectomies.

And when will Sammy Alito ask whether the guard was a Christian or not?

After all, a mere border cannot keep him from practicing his "faith" -- in treating foreign teens as cannon-fodder.

A federal appeals court ruled Monday that a Mexican teenager killed by a Border Patrol agent was protected by the US constitution, even though the teen was on Mexican soil when he was shot. The ruling from the fifth US circuit court of appeals means the family of 15-year-old Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca can move forward with a civil lawsuit against the agent.

The next step for this process is the Supreme Court...and one can be pretty confident the five-vote cast of subjects who usually don't believe in international law, will have at least one find it a real convenient contrivance when killing a foreign kid is a possibility. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Some minds think alike

Not so great.


Isis announces Islamic caliphate in area straddling Iraq and Syria Meanwhile, in this country and with slightly less fanfare (and only slightly less gunfire) Samuel Alito announced roughly the same thing. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

How to make sure you elect a Lunatic

Make sure you split your major parties into fractions then you can get a 33% elected...and that person is often crazy. Minnesota got by somewhat luckily with Jesse Ventura...and I say that ONLY in relation to what Maine has obtained with their current dangerous lunatic in charge.