COMEDY CENTRAL’S TREVOR NOAH SAYS TRUMP’S DICK IS HUGE AND HE’S USING IT TO FUCK THE GOP

Trevor Noah attempted on Monday night to settle the “great debate” regarding Donald Trump’s penis.

“I’ve gotta say, personally? I think it’s huge,” Noah said. “After all, he’s using it to fuck the entire Republican Party.”

Noah showed footage of last week’s Republican candidate debate in Detroit, during which Trump “reassured the American public” regarding his genitalia following a swipe by Sen. Marco Rubio.

“The thing that people don’t actually know is, it’s someone else’s huge penis and Trump just licenses his name on it,” said Noah.

But Sen. Ted Cruz’s victories in Kansas and Maine over the weekend, Noah argued, showed that Trump was “more of a grower than a shower.”

VIDEO COURTESY OF COMEDY CENTRAL



Still, Republicans at this point are “praying for chaos” and hoping Trump’s rivals can hang on as long as possible in an effort to stop him from accumulating enough delegates from cinching the party’s presidential nomination. Noah pointed out that Rubio and his staff are working on a plan to upend Trump at the Republican National Convention if possible.

“Ah, democracy — where every vote counts,” Noah sighed. “As long as that vote doesn’t go against the people who actually control the party, in which case they will disregard your vote, replace it with their vote — and then, every vote will count.”

NFTOS
Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

AS ONLY HE CAN

Glenn Beck; “God had to kill Antonin Scalia to help put Ted Cruz in the White House”.

Glenn Beck has been campaigning for Ted Cruz this week in South Carolina, so he hasn’t been able to keep up his radio schedule. He did take a moment to call in on Tuesday to talk about the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

Beck’s co-host Pat Gray couldn’t understand why God wouldn’t allow Scalia to live on until the election had finished. According to Right Wing Watch, Beck swiftly called the show to explain that God’s motivation for taking the Justice had everything to do with Ted Cruz’s campaign for president. Evidently, Beck believes Scalia’s death will motivate Americans to elect him if they are faced with the haunting reality of a world without the Justice to fight for their liberty.

“I just woke the American people up,” Beck said, pretending to be the mind of God. “I took them out of the game show moment and woke enough of them up to say, ‘look at how close your liberty is to being lost. You now have lost your liberty. You replace one guy and you now have 5-4 decisions in the other direction. Just with this one guy, you’ve lost your liberty so you’d better elect somebody that is going to be somebody on the court because for the next 30 years, if you don’t, the Constitution as you know it is gone.'”

“The Constitution is hanging by a thread!” he proclaimed, repeating a line he has used on the stump. “That thread has just been cut and the only way that we survive now is if we have a true constitutionalist.”

Someone should make a montage of all these pro-Cruz videos from Beck after Cruz loses.

NFTOS 

Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

YOUNG TURK EVICERATES CONSERVATIVES

Young Turks host Ana Kasparian ripped conservatives on Tuesday who denied any link between anti-abortion statements and the physical shooting attack against a Planning Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs over the weekend.

“The only time the issue of abortion ever comes up — and you’ll notice this pattern – is when there’s a presidential election coming around. When there’s a presidential election, all of a sudden ‘Oh my god, we care so much about the babies,'” she said. “Babies this, babies that. You can’t kill any babies. It’s for political fucking gain. That’s all it’s about. That’s all they care about. It’s political gain — they don’t care about lives.”

Even as conservatives attack Planned Parenthood and accuse the organization of infanticide, she said, they rush to avoid any responsibility for possibly influencing the multiple attacks targeting the group since the release of the heavily-edited videos accusing it of profiting off the sale of fetal tissue.

“You can’t keep fucking saying ‘baby killer,’ because when you do that, crazy people will carry out acts of violence. That is violent rhetoric, and your violent rhetoric translates to violent actions,” Kasparian said. “If you don’t get that, you’re either in denial or you know it’s true and you just don’t want to admit it.”

While Republicans like Carly Fiorina — whose claim that the videos showed a “fully-formed fetus” was debunked — accused progressives of “hateful rhetoric” for criticizing her attacks on Planned Parenthood, co-host John Iadarola introduced a compilation of several extreme statements from conservatives like Newt Gingrich, Pat Robertson and Fiorina’s fellow presidential candidate, Ben Carson.

“Those statements came from the same individuals who are against providing health care to Americans,” Kasparian said. “It came from the same individuals who are against ‘food stamps,’ and governmental programs that help the poor to ensure that they stay alive, that they stay healthy. Those same statements came from people who deny our veterans — the same troops that they’re constantly talking about supporting — mental health care and things that would help them integrate back into society as healthy human beings.”

 

NFTOS
Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

PRO LIFE CONSERVATIVE WING NUT KILLS THREE IN "NO MORE BABY PARTS" RAMPAGE

ROBERT LEWIS DEAR "PRO-LIFE" MURDERER!

Robert Lewis Dear allegedly killed three people and injured 9 others yesterday at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In the hours after the shooting little was known about Dear or his motivations.

Saturday evening, those motivations began to come into focus. NBC News and the Washington Post reported that, after the shooting, Dear told law enforcement officials “no more baby parts.”

The phrase clearly references a series of videos released by the Center for Medical Progress, an anti-abortion advocacy group. The videos alleged that Planned Parenthood was illegally selling body parts from fetuses for profit. These allegations were untrue and the videos relied on deceptive editing.

CONSERVATIVE TWITTER ACCOUNT "RISKYS TOP" PROVING WHY THE REAL TERRORISTS ARE THE AMERICAN TALIBAN AKA THE REPUBLICAN WING NUT

Still, the videos have become a rallying cry for the right, including the Republican presidential candidates. In August, Marco Rubio said, “what’s happening at Planned Parenthood, what’s being revealed in these videos, is atrocious, it’s grotesque, it’s barbaric.” Rubio later accused Planned Parenthood of pushing women into getting abortions “so that those tissues can be harvested and sold for a profit.” He told TMZ that people should be more “fired up” about the Planned Parenthood video.

Speaking on the Senate floor in September Ted Cruz declared that “we are now a nation that harvests the body parts of little baby boys and girls. It is the very definition of inhumanity to treat children like agriculture, to be grown and killed for their body parts, to be sold for profit.”

NBC News cautions that Dear’s motivations could be multifaceted and the alleged shooter “also mentioned President Barack Obama in statements.”

NFTOS
Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

ADAM KINZINGER NO ORDINARY IDIOT

While police were still involved in a shoot-out with man who invaded a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood office, a Republican lawmaker attacked the organization saying he would expect an apology if the shooter didn't turn out to be an anti-abortion terrorist.

Appearing on CNN, right wing nut job Adam Kinzinger took offense at a statement issued by CEO of Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountains, Vicki Cowart — who said that the clinic might have been targeted by an extremist — and stated that he would be expecting an apology if she was proved wrong.

Before police apprehended Robert Lewis Dear — who killed three and wounded nine at the women’s health clinic in Colorado — Cowart, released a statement saying, in part: “We don’t yet know the full circumstances and motives behind this criminal action, and we don’t yet know if Planned Parenthood was in fact the target of this attack. We share the concerns of many Americans that extremists are creating a poisonous environment that feeds domestic terrorism in this country. We will never back away from providing care in a safe, supportive environment that millions of people rely on and trust.”



Kinzinger found Cowart’s statement unsettling.

“When I heard that statement, I thought that was very premature. We may find out this person was targeting Planned Parenthood, “the conservative lawmaker said. “If we find out he was not targeting Planned Parenthood, I would fully expect an apology from the Planned Parenthood director for saying that.”

He then went on to attack Planned Parenthood over the discredited videos produced by an an anti-abortion group that claimed the health organization was “harvesting” fetal parts for profit.

“Regardless, if somebody is targeting Planned Parenthood, it’s not indicative of what folks that are opposed to what some of the practices Planned Parenthood commits,” Kinzinger said. “We saw these barbaric videos and that is something many of us have a legitimate concern about. That doesn't mean we’re gonna take guns and walk into Planned Parenthood clinics.”

Congratulations Adam Kinzinger you are today's asshat of the day, enjoy numb nuts!

NFTOS
Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

FUCKFACE VON CLOWNSTICK TURNS TO CONSPIRACY GROUP FOR HIS BS

For the past several days, Fuckface Von Clownstick [AKA Donald Trump] has claimed that “thousands and thousands” of Muslims in New Jersey were celebrating the fall of the Twin Towers on 9/11.

The claim has been thoroughly debunked by multiple fact checkers. The New Jersey Attorney General investigated rumors of such celebrations immediately after the attack and found them to be “bogus.” Simply put, it did not happen.

Nevertheless, Trump is sticking to his story. On Wednesday night, Trump tweeted this to support his point:

Trump links to Infowars.com, a conspiracy website that pushes the idea that 9/11 was an inside job.

According to Infowars, the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary was a hoax, FEMA is setting up concentration camps and Andrew Breitbart was assassinated to prevent the release of damaging information about Barack Obama.

Even Infowars’ article doesn't support Trump’s claim that thousands of Muslims were celebrating on 9/11. It’s simply a woman who claims she saw a “pocket” of Muslims celebrating. Similar claims were investigated and found not to be credible.

Trump’s tweet came on a day when he also publicly mocked a reporter’s physical disability.

His antics, however, do not seem to be hurting his standings in the polls. Trump currently leads the Republican primary by 8 points and holds leads in the key early states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

NFTOS
Blogger-In Chief

Roger West

WATERBOARDING FOR REFUGEES?

Fuckface Von Clownstick aka Donald Trump said over the weekend that he would reauthorize the use of enhanced interrogation techniques in order to protect Americans from terrorism.

“When the Syrian refugees are going to start pouring into this country, we don’t’ know if they’re ISIS, we don’t know if they’re a Trojan Horse,” Trump told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Sunday. “I want to see a database and other checks and balances. We want to go with watch lists, we want to go with databases, and we have no choice.”

“It could be the great Trojan Horse of all time,” he continued. “When I look at the [immigration] line, I see all strong powerful men. And I see very few women, and I see very few children. There’s something strange going on. And if you look at what’s happening in Europe, a lot of bad things are happening in Europe.”

After pointing out that a majority of the Syrian refugees were, in fact, women and children, Stephanopoulos wondered if Trump would bring back waterboarding, which was banned by President Barack Obama.

“We have to be strong,” the candidate insisted. “You know, they don’t use waterboarding over there, they use chopping off people’s heads, they use drowning people.”

“I would bring it back, I think waterboarding is peanuts compared to what they do to us,” he opined. “I would absolutely bring back interrogation and strong interrogation.”

 NFTOS
STAFF WRITER

SNL PUNKS THE CONSERVATIVES AT THANKSGIVING

With the holidays just around the corner, the cast of Saturday Night Live has the perfect solution to ending contentious political arguments with crazy distant relatives over Thanksgiving dinner.

Called “A Thanksgiving Miracle,” the sketch parodies a holiday dinner gone wrong when one family member says, “I’m thankful our governor is keeping those refugees out,” which sets off a series of uninformed and ultimately racist comments.

“I saw an ISIS today in the A&P, when I was picking up the yams,” one woman states as her niece rolls her eyes and explains, “No you didn’t, Aunt Cathy. That was an Asian woman.”

VIDEO COURTESY OF NBC



From there it goes downhill with family bickering as Aunt Cathy asks the only black member of the dinner party, “Why is it that your ‘friends’ keep antagonizing the police?”

Having had enough, a little girl gets up from the table and goes to a boombox and introduces the one thing in the world that can bring everyone together: Adele singing “Hello.”

NFTOS
Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

ARE THEY CHRISTIANS OR TERRORISTS?

Stephen Colbert harshly rebuked Republicans who are refusing to allow Syrians to seek refuge in the U.S. from their nation’s brutal civil war.

The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the GOP-backed American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act — or ASAFEA — to suspend Obama’s program to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees in the next year and then intensify the process of screening them.

“Under the law (ASAFEA), no one with a name like that will be allowed into the country,” Colbert said.

He mocked Donald Trump, the presidential frontrunner, for suggesting that Syrians accustomed to “130-degree” temperatures would become angry if they were forced to live in colder climates, such as Minnesota.

“Yeah, it’s a tough call for the refugees — do I want to stay in a war zone where my family faces almost certain death, or do I want to go somewhere where I have to put on a jacket before I go to the mall?” Colbert said.

Every single Republican presidential candidate has spoken out against accepting Syrian refugees, and President Barack Obama ridiculed them for being as afraid of “widows and orphans” as they are GOP debate moderators.

“I don’t think the president is being entirely fair here — it’s not the little kids that concern the candidates, it’s adults who might come also,” Colbert said. “But since you brought it up, Mr. President, why shouldn’t we be scared of 3-year-olds? You think you can’t negotiate with terrorists? Try negotiating with a 3-year-old. They play hardball.”

Two candidates, Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz, have suggested limiting refugees to Christians only, saying that “there is no meaningful risk of Christians committing acts of terror.”

“That’s right, Christians have never committed acts of terror,” Colbert said, showing a photo of Ku Klux Klan members rallying around a burning cross. “I’m sure these guys right here are just campers roasting marshmallows. You can tell they’re campers because they’re each wearing one-man tents.”

Bush insisted that refugees should be able to easily prove they’re Christians, but he simply shrugged and repeated himself when asked exactly how they would do that.

“If you want to know if somebody is Christian, just ask them to complete this sentence,” Colbert said, quoting from Matthew 25:35. “Jesus said I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you — and if they don’t say welcomed me in, they are either a terrorist or they are running for president.”

Hence why the GOP is called the American Taliban! NEWSROOM AMERICAN TALIBAN






NFTOS
Blogger-In-Chief
Roger West

NRA FUNDED WING NUT SAYS REFUGEES CAN’T BE LET IN BECAUSE GUNS ARE TOO EASY TO GET

A Texas state legislator wants the U.S. to stop allowing Syrian refugees into the country. His reasoning: They might be able to buy guns in his state.

Rep. Tony Dale made this argument in a television interview on Monday and in letters to Texas’ U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz and U.S. Reps. Michael McCaul and John Carter R.

“While the Paris attackers used suicide vests and grenades,” Dale wrote, “it is clear that firearms also killed a large number of innocent victims. Can you imagine a scenario were a refugees is admitted to the United States, is provided with federal cash payments and other assistance, obtains a drivers license and purchases a weapon and executes an attack?” He urged the lawmakers to “do whatever you can to stop the [Syrian refugee] program.”

But Dale is one of the Texas legislature’s most fervent gun-rights advocates. Two weeks ago, he tweeted his National Rifle Association membership renewal. In accepting an “A” rating from the group and the Texas State Rifle Association’s PAC in 2012, he observed: “Perhaps no right is more fundamental than the right to keep and bear arms.” And his campaign website vows his fealty to the Second Amendment, saying it “isn’t just an archaic document,” a “guarantor of all of our other freedoms.” And he and his colleagues in the state legislature have blocked mandatory background checks for all gun purchases.

This not the first time Dale has raised concerns about non-citizens in Texas. “I’m not saying all of these people are bad, but there are certainly people from countries of concern,” he said in March, explaining the need for legislation to create special drivers licenses for “foreigners.”

The NRA frequently claims that restrictions on gun purchases are unnecessary because “criminals don’t legally purchase firearms.” But in reality, a comprehensive analysis by Mayors Against Illegal Guns found that most guns used in recent mass shootings were purchased legally.

While those applying for refugee status must complete “the most stringent security process for anyone entering the United States,” those attempting to purchase guns through private sales at gun shows in Texas and many other states are not required to undergo any background checks whatsoever. Virtually none of the millions of refugees admitted into the United States since 1980 have become terrorists, but the U.S. leads the world in mass shootings — almost all of which are perpetrated by people born in America.

Only an NRA funded GOP wing nut … could he be this stupid. If guns are too easy for refugees to get, doesn't the same apply for the "responsible gun hugger?. Congratulations Tony Dale, you are today’s asshat of the day.

NFTOS

Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

IF ONLY THE REST OF US LOVED TRUMP LIKE TRUMP LOVES TRUMP

Extreme GOP Right Wing nut and presidential candidate Donald Trump responded to a question about whether he was homophobic on Wednesday by talking about conservative groups.

“I think that I’m a very nice person,” Trump told CNN host Don Lemon. “I love people, and I have to tell you, when you look at those polls, it’s across the board. You know who loves me? The Tea Party. The evangelicals. I’m leading with evangelicals — I love them, they love me. I’m Presbyterian, I’m Protestant, and they like me. You know why? Because they think I’m gonna do a great job for the country.”

“Some people may perceive you as racist,” Lemon later asked. “Answer me that.” 

“I just did a speech for the African-American Chamber of Commerce of South Carolina,” Trump responded. “They just wrote me the most beautiful letter I’ve gotten in a long time saying how unfairly I got treated by the press.” 

Trump said he spoke at the event as a favor to “a couple of friends who just happen to be African-American,” but then complained that Lemon’s network made him “look bad” by showing empty seats at the event. 

“I was surrounded by a tremendous amount of people,” the candidate said, adding that “the press is very, very unfair.” 

He also insisted he did nothing wrong by not questioning the unidentified Islamophobic supporter who accused President Barack Obama of being a Muslim earlier this month while complaining about “a problem in our country called Muslims.”

“I don’t feel I have to defend President Obama,” Trump said. 

“But some would say you’re not defending the president — you’re defending the truth,” Lemon countered. 

“You’re not saying I defended. I didn’t respond,” Trump said. “It’s the first time in my life I’ve caused controversy by not responding.”

NFTOS
STAFF WRITER

“TRUMPS DOUCHEBAGGERY”

Liberal Fox News contributor Jehmu Greene encouraged Republicans to “own up to the fact” that GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s “douchebaggery” reflected the base that had controlled the party for the past seven years.

After Sen. John McCain criticized Trump’s supporters as “crazies,” Trump fired back at a forum on Saturday by taking a shot at his war hero status.

Although Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol had praised Trump after he recently called Mexicans rapists, the magazine’s online editor told Fox News on Sunday that the candidate had gone too far by questioning McCain’s military service.

“It’s probably the beginning of the end for Donald Trump,” Daniel Halper explained, pointing out that Republicans did not like “the questioning of war heroes.”

“I hoped that it was the beginning of the end when he first dipped his toe in the waters,” Jehmu Greene responded. “Because this is just a continuation of his douchebaggery and has been accepted for so long that finally they’ve come to their senses because, I guess, he has now finally crossed the line. But he crossed many lines quite some time ago.”

At that point Halper tried to shift the conversation to activists who recently shouted down Democratic candidate Martin O’Malley after they perceived that he downplayed the “Black Lives Matter” movement by saying “white lives matter.”

Greene called that a “perfect line of distraction and deflection… when you have the person who is leading in the polls saying things about our military men and women that is so offensive and still not wanting to own up to the fact that in the Fox News poll he was at the top just last week.”

“What is going on in the Republican Party?” Greene continued. “What does it take for you all to take your party back from the crazies that have had control of it for about seven years now?”

NFTOS

Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

BALTIMORE VIOLENCE AND TEA BAGGER BLAMES ABSENT FATHERS, WACO MASS MURDER - CRICKETS

In the aftermath of protests surrounding the deaths of unarmed black men and women, outspoken members of the GOP, including Sens. John Cornyn is quick to contextualize the tragedies and criticize black people for violent behavior. But in the wake of a deadly gunfight between two biker gangs — which left nine people dead, 18 wounded in Waco, and 170 charged for criminal activity — two of Texas’ most prominent leaders have yet to respond to the violent shootout.

Days into the Baltimore protests sparked by Freddie Gray’s death, Cornyn spoke on the Senate floor about how to understand and address deeply-ingrained tension in Baltimore and Ferguson. “The whole idea of a young man dying in police custody, the confrontations with police, the looting and burning of innocent minority-owned businesses…these are all scenes we would expect perhaps in other countries…but that’s what we saw,” he said of events that transpired in both cities. “We’re doing a great disservice to ourselves and everyone else so clearly frustrated by the status quo, if we isolate Baltimore or Ferguson as just individual instances of civic unrest, and if we don’t step back and see how they fit into the broader issue of our entire criminal justice system.” He also called on families, civic organizations, faith groups, and Congress to “correct injustice” and “remedy basic instability” in similar communities nationwide.

Two days later, Cornyn went so far as to blame riots in Baltimore on absent fathers, linking to a Bloomberg article about the breakdown of traditional family structures in the black community and the raising of children out of wedlock.

Cornyn has yet to responded to the deadly shootout between the Bandidos and Cossacks — two rival biker gangs that exchanged gunfire outside of a Hooters-like restaurant last weekend. Although the two condemned violent means of expressing anger in Ferguson and Baltimore, in reference to rioting and the looting of local businesses, they have yet to acknowledge the bikers who turned their weapons on law enforcement. Both have stayed quiet about the Bandidos and Cossacks’ long-standing involvement in organized crime, and neither senator has addressed the gangs members’ white supremacist leanings, despite bringing up race in the context of Baltimore and Ferguson.

However, this not the first time conservatives, including Cruz, have been slow to denounce outlaws who’ve resorted to violence against police. When the Bureau of Land Management tried to take cattle away from Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who owed $1 million in grazing fees, Bundy and a host of right-wing supporters engaged in an armed standoff with federal rangers for several days. Without touching on Bundy’s use of force, Cruz blamed Obama for the armed standoff, arguing it was “the unfortunate and tragic culmination of the path that President Obama has set the federal government on.” Former Gov. Rick Perry also said, “I have a problem with the federal government putting citizens in the position of having to feel like they have to use force to deal with their own government. That’s the bigger issue.”

Since the massive gunfight on Sunday, much has been written about the media terminology used to describe the shootout and bikers involved, compared to descriptions of black demonstrators and victims elsewhere in the country. But the absence of commentary from vocal politicians marks another significant difference in the way race and violence are addressed at a national level.

[h/t thinkprogress]

NFTOS

Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

TEXAS LAW MAKERS LET IT BE KNOWN, DON’T FUCK WITH OUR FRACKING

“Small Government” Texas lawmakers have made it clear you don’t mess with Texas when it comes to extracting fossil fuels. Even if you’re a Texan.

On Monday, Texas governor Greg Abbott signed legislation that prohibits cities across Texas from banning hydraulic fracturing from their home turf. In what was a major agenda item for Texas lawmakers this session, towns like Denton, Texas — which passed the state’s first local fracking ban last November — will no longer be able to exercise local control over the oil and gas industry when it comes to nearby extraction.

The law will take effect immediately as it passed both chambers by more than a two-thirds margin. Communities will now only be able to impose ordinances that regulate aboveground activity related to oil and gas operations, such as things relating to traffic, noise, lights, or “reasonable setback requirements,” which dictate how far away drilling must be from buildings. The law is meant to ensure that these local surface regulations are commercially reasonable and do not “effectively” prohibit oil and gas operations.

In signing the bill, Gov. Abbot said it “does a profound job of helping to protect private property rights here in the State of Texas, ensuring those who own their own property will not have the heavy hand of local regulation deprive them of their rights.”

Many opposed to the bill found this type of rhetoric hypocritical, especially for a state with such a strong foundation in limited government oversight and local property rights.

“These bills absolutely conflict with longstanding conservative principles of local control and self-determination,” Luke Metzger, the founder and director of Environment Texas said. “Many of these legislators are speaking out of both sides of their mouths, decrying federal preemption of state sovereignty on the one hand, while pushing one-size fits all mandates from Austin overriding local ordinances.”

After Denton outlawed fracking in 2014, it was sued by the Texas General Land Office and Texas Oil and Gas Association. In another extreme reaction to the Denton fracking ban, lawmakers introduced a total of 11 bills this session to limit local oversight over fracking before settling on HB 40, which was signed into law on Monday.

“It’s a bad situation when city leaders’ hands are tied,” Denton Councilman Kevin Roden told the Wall Street Journal. “There seems to be an attitude that big state government knows better than the citizens of a city. I just think — conservative or liberal — that is something you don’t do in Texas.”

Texas is the country’s biggest oil and gas producer, and it rests on two massive shale gas deposits — the Barnett Shale in the north and the Eagle Ford Shale in the south. Other oil- and gas-rich states like New Mexico, Colorado, and Oklahoma are pursuing similar laws. In Oklahoma both chambers of the legislature have passed a bill limiting communities from imposing drilling ordinances.

Fracking is a process in which a mixture of pressurized water, sand and chemicals is sent underground to free up oil and natural gas reserves. Fracking operations are increasingly being tied to unusual earthquake swarms in states like Texas and Oklahoma. Local residents also worry about water and air pollution, as well as the heavy use of water in areas that are in short supply.

It looks as though Looks like Texas shouldn't be worried about the feds and Jade Helm 15. It's the state government that's screwing them.

[h/t thinkprogress]

NFTOS

Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

WHY THE KOCH’S WANT THE KOCH WHORE TO BE PRESIDENT

The billionaire Koch brothers indicated during an event on Monday that they will likely support the Koch whore Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker to be the Republican presidential nominee. According to two New York Times sources who attended the New York State Republican Party fundraiser, David Koch told the crowd that Walker should be the Republican nominee.

David Koch’s statement was later disputed by his spokesperson who said the brothers plan to remain neutral during the primaries. “But Mr. Koch’s remark left little doubt among attendees of where his heart is, and could effectively end one of the most closely watched contests in the ‘invisible primary,’ a period where candidates crisscross the country seeking not the support of voters but the blessing of their party’s biggest donors and fund-raisers,” the Times reported.

The Koch brothers have said they plan to spend almost $1 billion in the 2016 campaign cycle, so their support could go a long way to helping a candidate like Walker to secure the Republican nomination. An endorsement would also follow the big-spending political donors’ history of lending support to Walker, even when the Republican governor’s policies sometimes contradict their intentions.

Walker has enjoyed the Kochs’ enthusiastic support for much of his political career. Koch Industries was one of the largest contributors to Walker’s first gubernatorial campaign, giving him $43,000, his largest out-of-state contribution. And Walker’s 2014 reelection campaign was one of the top recipients of Koch Industries cash. Tim Phillips, president of Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity, has also heaped praise on Walker. “The difference Scott Walker has made with his policy achievements is as transformative as any governor anywhere in a generation,” Phillips said in an interview.

After Walker was elected governor and took office in 2011, he almost immediately set out his plan to cut pay and eliminate collective bargaining rights for public employees in Wisconsin — he claimed the cuts were necessary to close a budget gap he created by enacting tax cuts for businesses. As protests against Walker escalated, groups associated with Koch Industries including Club for Growth and Americans for Prosperity helped to bus in Tea Party protesters to support Walker and his union-busting campaign.

Club For Growth also ran an attack ad against Wisconsin unions as a way to support Walker. “In the face of a grass roots labor movement, millionaires and billionaires are doing the governor’s dirty work for him,” MSNBC’s Ed Schultz reported in 2011. “This isn’t Governor Walker all by himself.”

During the heat of the protests, Americans For Prosperity went as far as launching a website, www.standwithwalker.com, which attacked collective bargaining and urged every state to adopt Walker’s “common sense reforms.”

The Koch brothers openly supported Walker during the 2012 recall election, which Walker eventually won. The financial backing from the Kochs led to reports that David Koch’s willingness to discuss his family’s efforts to support Walker may have crossed the line into illegally coordinating with a political campaign.

“We’re helping him, as we should,” David Koch told the Palm Beach Post in early 2012. “What Scott Walker is doing with the public unions in Wisconsin is critically important. He’s an impressive guy, and he’s very courageous.”

The governor also embodied the Kochs’ profit-driven goals when he began cutting environmental regulations when he took office, to the benefit of Koch businesses which are known to emit thousands of pounds of toxic pollutants in the state. Walker also quietly worked to allow Kochs’ many Georgia Pacific paper plants to pollute Wisconsin by pouring thousands of pounds of phosphorus into the water.

Yet there is one major policy area in which Walker and the Kochs disagree. The Koch brothers have said they support an overhaul of the country’s criminal justice system and have partnered with other organizations working toward criminal justice reform. But Walker is one of a number of candidates who continue to receive Koch money, despite his tough on crime record.

During his nine years in the Wisconsin state house, Walker sponsored dozens of bills to make more activities crimes, increase mandatory minimum sentences and curb the possibility of parole for many offenders, among other actions that contradict the Kochs’ criminal justice agenda. Under Walker’s governorship, spending on prisons eclipsed the dollars allocated for higher education for the first time in state history.

Cross posted from thinkprogress

NFTOS
STAFF WRITER

HOW IT’S SUPPOSED TO GO

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and state Republican leaders have been playing damage control this week, claiming that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act is not a law that enables anti-LGBT discrimination. Meanwhile, however, the conservatives who advocated for the bill have been spurning this attempted walkback, asserting in the process that the goal was ensuring discrimination all along.

At the forefront of the conservative reaction is Micah Clark, who serves as executive director of the American Family Association of Indiana and who stood right behind Pence as he signed the bill. Speaking Monday to Tim Wildmon, head of the national American Family Association, Clark explained that conservatives should oppose any effort to clarify that the law does not legalize discrimination. “That could totally destroy this bill,” he explained.

Clark has been publicly advocating for the bill as a means for allowing anti-LGBT discrimination since December, long before the legislation was even drafted. This directly contradicts the claims made Monday by House Speaker Brian Bosma and Senate President Pro Tem David Long that the legislation never had anything to do with discrimination.

Eric Miller, Executive Director of Advance America, is another anti-LGBT activist who stood by Pence as he signed the bill. Advance America praised Pence for signing the bill last week, stating that it would allow wedding vendors to refuse to serve same-sex couples and allow Christian businesses to refuse transgender people access to restrooms. Miller was quoted as saying, “It is vitally important to protect religious freedom in Indiana. It’s the right thing to do. It was therefore important to pass Senate Bill 101 in 2015 in order to help protect churches, Christian businesses and individuals from those who want to punish them because of their Biblical beliefs!” Pence and Miller, it turns out, go way back.

On the national stage, conservatives are similarly defending the RFRA and arguing it needs no fixing. Andrew Walker, Director of Policy Studies for the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, perhaps best summed up the distortion conservatives are using to argue that it’s not discriminatory:

A wedding vendor who chooses not to service a same-sex wedding is not discriminating against a person’s being. Instead, the vendor believes that material cooperation in a particular event encroaches on his conscience… To give relief to a particular wedding vendor who feels uncomfortable servicing a gay wedding isn’t in any way comparable to state-sponsored discrimination… To require a wedding vendor to service a same-sex wedding is not eliminating discrimination against the gay couple. It’s coercing the wedding vendor.

Walker is simultaneously admitting that the law is designed to allow businesses to discriminate against LGBT people while denying that it’s actually “discrimination” that’s taking place. Radio host Bryan Fischer, formerly, took the Christian self-victimization a step further. “This law is not something that provides for discrimination against gays,” he explained. “It is something that prevents discrimination against Christians… This thing is an anti-discrimination bill because it prohibits governmental discrimination against Christians in the state of Indiana.”

The Heritage Institute’s Ryan T. Anderson used this messaging to try to take on Apple CEO Tim Cook, who wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post this week calling these so-called “religious freedom” laws dangerous. According to Anderson, “the only person in favor of discrimination in this debate is Tim Cook.” As one of his examples, Anderson claims, “It is Tim Cook who would have the government discriminate against these citizens, have the government coerce them into helping to celebrate a same-sex wedding and penalize them if they try to lead their lives in accordance with their faith.”

Using as his example Washington florist Barronelle Stutzman — who was fined last week for refusing to serve a same-sex couple — Anderson reiterates the distortion: “This debate has nothing to do with refusing to serve gays simply because they’re gay, and this law wouldn’t protect that. But should the government force a 70-year-old grandmother to violate her beliefs? Should the government coerce her into helping to celebrate a same-sex wedding?” Anderson later highlights Aaron and Melissa Klein, bakery owners who also face fines for refusing service to a same-sex couple, as somehow another example of how RFRA is not about discrimination. He echoed these talking points on MSNBC last night as well, offering the caveat that nothing guarantees a vendor will win if they defend their discrimination with RFRA.

The Family Research Council has been making the media rounds as well. In addition to defending Pence and the law on their website, both Tony Perkins and Peter Sprigg have taken to cable news this week to defend their positions. Sprigg went toe-to-toe with CNN’s Chris Cuomo Monday morning, where he acknowledged that wedding vendors trying to discriminate could use the law to defend themselves, but like Anderson, he tried to couch that in the idea that they wouldn’t necessarily win. The only thing these Christian wedding vendors object to, Sprigg suggested, “is using their expressive abilities to communicate a message that they disagree with by saying that marriage can be a union of two men or two women,” adding that it’s “forcing them to do something that violates their faith.”

On Fox News Monday night, Perkins continued to falsely conflate Indiana’s RFRA with laws by the same name in other states, adding, “Let’s be very clear what RFRA is. This is a shield to protect one’s belief from government. It is not a sword to be used against anyone else and it cannot be… This is only a defense and it is not an iron-clad defense at that.” Perkins went on to describe the notion that some people want to “force people to engage in a behavior such as weddings — photographers, florists. In a civil society, what we would say is, ‘Oh, you don’t want to service me? Fine, I’ll go next store. I’ll go down the street.'” Borrowing a rather mockable talking point from Mike Huckabee, he added, “Who would fathom the idea of someone going into a Kosher deli and demanding a ham sandwich?”

Despite conservatives all asserting that RFRA is designed to allow businesses to refuse to offer products and services to same-sex couples that they offer to others, Pence continued to defend the law as not being discriminatory in a Wall Street Journal op-ed posted Monday evening. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s The Onion that has one of the most accurate headlines this week: “Indiana Governor Insists New Law Has Nothing To Do With Thing It Explicitly Intended To Do.”

Crossposted from thinkprogress

NFTOS

STAFF WRITER

SO MUCH FOR A HARVARD LAW DEGREE

TEHRAN TOM, TODAY'S DUMBASS OF THE DAY

Sen. Tom Cotton stood by his decision Sunday to send a letter on a burgeoning nuclear deal directly to Iranian leaders. He insisted on Face the Nation that “Iran’s leaders need to hear the message loud and clear” that an Obama-brokered deal might not last past the end of his administration without congressional approval, despite a stern letter from the White House Sunday night urging senators to hold off on congressional intervention.

But when asked by Face the Nation’s Bob Schieffer what better outcome Cotton expects if a White House-led deal falls through, Cotton seemed to make a key geographic mistake, suggesting that Tehran, the capital of Iran, might be controlled by anyone other than Iranian leaders:

Schieffer: What do you want to happen here? What is your alternative here? Let’s say that the deal falls through, then what?

Cotton: Well as Prime Minister Netanyahu said, the alternative to a bad deal is a better deal. The Iranians frequently bluff to walk away from the table. if they bluff this week, call their bluff. The Congress stands ready to impose much more severe sanctions. Moreover we have to stand up to Iran’s attempts to drive for regional dominance. They already control Tehran increasingly they control Damascus and Beirut and Baghdad and now Sana’a as well. They do all that without a nuclear weapon. imagine what they would do with a nuclear weapon.

Schieffer went on to ask Cotton whether he had any regrets at all about the letter. So he didn’t clarify with Cotton what he meant by his comment that Iran has “control” of its own capital.

But several on Twitter noticed the gaffe and questioned Cotton’s Harvard credentials[See photo above].

Cotton was the lead author of the letter by 47 senators that key officials have since called unprecedented, embarrassing, and dangerous for asserting their concerns over U.S. leaders’ handling of the nuclear deal directly to the Iranian government.

Critics questioned how Cotton, a freshman senator and the youngest in the Senate, came to persuade 46 of his colleagues into such a politically risky effort. Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson has pointed out that the letter was sent quickly without even the vetting of Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, who was one of seven Senate Republicans not to sign the letter. And Sen. John McCain , who did sign the letter, said senators rushed to sign it without considering the blowback because of an impending snowstorm.

Legal experts quickly poked holes in his description of the constitutional requirements for treaties.

Cotton and several others including Sen. Mitch McConnell stood by the letter on Sunday show appearances. But at least a few letter-signers have expressed some regret over the past few days for sending their message to Iranian officials rather than another less hostile audience.

Call me paranoid, but I have a different concern: since, for instance, both Cotton and Cruz have degrees from Harvard, I have to assume that they are capable of graduating from Harvard. This is no mean feat. Why am I worried? Because they behave in ways that give lie to this fact. To be so harsh, insensitive and calculating, is beyond most humans comprehension. They are truly Machiavellian.


[H/t thinkprogess]

NFTOS
Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

AS ONLY GROVER NORQUIST CAN

CONSERVATIVE WING NUT GROVER NORQUIST

At this week’s Conservative Political Action Conference just outside DC, Grover Norquist with Americans for Tax Reform told a packed room that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are now embracing changes to the War on Drugs model that has led to an explosion in mass incarceration over the last several decades. But he warned that the two parties were backing the reforms for different reasons.

“Democrats only support [criminal justice reform] because all their relatives are in prison,” he said, to chuckles from the audience, adding that Republicans believed mandatory minimums are ineffective and un-American.

The panel’s moderator, Pat Nolan with the American Conservative Union Foundation, hit back at Norquist, noting that “because of this drug war, a whole lot of Republicans have family in prison too.”

One of those Republicans was sitting right next to Norquist. Julie Stewart with Families Against Mandatory Minimums spoke passionately about her own brother, who was arrested and sentenced in Washington State in the 1990s for growing marijuana plants — an act, she noted, that is now legal. She said she agrees that he deserved some punishment, but thought that punishment should be decided by a judge who understand his personal circumstances.

“Lawmakers like Nancy Pelosi shouldn’t be deciding the fate of people they’ve never laid eyes on,” she said.

NFTOS

Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West





Today Norquist is today's worst person in the world.

"You Betcha I Was Wrong About Sarah Palin"

Bill Maher ended his show last night talking about Sarah Palin‘s rambling Iowa speech that was the final straw for many Republicans and conservatives. But Maher had just one question for them: “What took you so long?!”

Maher mocked the revelation as an “emperor has no clues” situation and asked Republicans why they took so long, saying, “The rest of us have been watching this dog eat grass for seven years!”

However, while Maher was that many conservatives are finally admitting Palin “is a crazy person,” he said they should maybe consider what else they’ve been “wrong” about, like climate change or trickle-down economics.

Video Courtesy of HBO

NFTOS

Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

IF SHE IS “UNCONSCIOUS” IS IT RAPE?

REPUBLICAN ASSHAT BRIAN GREENE OF UTAH

According to a conservative asshat in Utah, there is a loophole in rape cases if she or he is unconscious during sex.

Seriously?!


A bill in the Utah legislature would clarify the state’s rape statute by making clear that a person who is unconscious cannot give their consent. According to local prosecutors and advocates, the ambiguity is making it difficult to pursue some rape cases and may be discouraging women from coming forward.

As the bill was considered by the Utah Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, Representative Brian Greene voiced his concerns. He wasn’t sure that having sex with an unconscious person should always count as rape. Green said the sex with an unconscious person seemed like rape to him in a “first date scenario” but questioned having a bright line rule for married couples or other individuals with a prior relationship.

BRIAN GREENE OF UTAH

Greene clarified for the committee that he was “not at all trying to justify sexual activity with an unconscious person.”

Greene was not alone in his concerns. Representative LaVar Christensen said always counting sex with an unconscious person as rape would make the definition too “broad.”

Ultimately, however, Green and Christensen overcame their misgivings. The bill passed the committee unanimously and moves to the full house.

I wonder if robbing an unconscious person in Utah is acceptable? Utah, the state where men are men, and the sheep run scared.

Brian Greene, congratulations numbnutz, you are today’s asshat of the day.

NFTOS

Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West