Opps, We Killed The Wrong Guy

Last year, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) admitted that he “never struggled . . . at all” with whether someone his state executed might have been innocent. Yet a new book written by Columbia Law Professor James Liebman shows that Carlos DeLuna, executed by Texas in 1989, was innocent. According to Liebman, DeLuna was wrongfully convicted and executed for the murder of Wanda Lopez following a botched investigation. DeLuna and the man believed to have committed the murder, Carlos Hernandez, looked so much alike that they were mistaken for each other in photographs by family members. However, DeLuna, who was clean-shaven and wearing a white shirt, did not fit the description of the eyewitness who said that the murderer was wearing flannel and had a mustache. Police arrested DeLuna anyway and failed to do a formal lineup. Police also failed to formally examine the crime scene, ignoring foot and fingerprints, not taking blood samples, and allowing the scene to be cleaned by gas station employees.

Not only did DeLuna maintain his innocence throughout the investigation and his subsequent incarceration, he told investigators that he knew Hernandez had committed the crime. DeLuna was ignored, and during his trial prosecutors ridiculed his claim:

They told the jury that police had looked for a “Carlos Hernandez” after his name had been passed to them by DeLuna’s lawyers, without success. They had concluded that Hernandez was a fabrication, a “phantom” who simply did not exist. The chief prosecutor said in summing up that Hernandez was a “figment of DeLuna’s imagination”

By the end of a single day the investigator had uncovered evidence that had eluded scores of Texan police officers, prosecutors, defense lawyers and judges over the six years between DeLuna’s arrest and execution. Carlos Hernandez did indeed exist.

Hernandez had a criminal background that included several violent assaults. He eventually died in prison after attacking his girlfriend with a knife.

DeLuna is not the only man to be wrongfully convicted and executed by the state of Texas. There is persuasive evidence that Cameron Todd Willingham, convicted in the death of his three daughters and executed in 2004, was innocent and DNA tests have undermined the evidence used to convict and execute Claude Jones. Texas continues to lead the nation in executions, accounting for over one-third of US executions since 1976, despite the fact that there were 41 DNA exonerations there from 2002-2011.

Moreover, DeLuna’s case highlights the difficulties inherent in the permanence of the death penalty — despite conservative efforts to dismiss these difficulties. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said in 2005 that there was not “a single case—not one—in which it is clear that a person was executed for a crime he did not commit.” It’s now hard to doubt that’s not true.

Once again, a compelling argument against the death penalty. Texas murders over a dozen inmates each year and many of them had incompetent lawyers or overzealous prosecutors. Additionally, the death penalty costs around $137 million a year whereas keeping the same prisoners in prison for life would cost around $11.5 million.(California statistics).

Most importantly, the death penalty is not an effective deterrent. If it was states with capital punishment would have lower crime rates than those without. The facts are reversed, 10 of the 12 states without capital punishment have homicide rates below the national average according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Lastly it is morally wrong to compound one crime with another!



NFTOS
Editor-In-Chief
Roger West

Voter Fraud James O'Keefe Style

James O'Keefe is still at it, repeating the shenanigans that got him a grand jury investigation in New Hampshire, this time in North Carolina. In New Hampshire, the little asshole caused terrible grief for a recent widow. In North Carolina, he's besmirching a citizen
James O'Keefe is still at it, repeating the shenanigans that got him a grand jury investigation in New Hampshire, this time in North Carolina. In New Hampshire, the little asshole caused terrible grief for a recent widow. In North Carolina, he's besmirching a citizen.





In his latest video he highlights a supposed non-citizen who has voted in recent elections, Zbigniew Gorzkowski. In fact, that's the only non-citizen O'Keefe purports to have proved voted fraudulently in his North Carolina stunt. But Think Progress did the research, proving once again O'Keefe is a liar.

In fact, if O’Keefe had done a simple Nexis search for “Zbigniew Gorzkowski”, he would have found a single article from the News & Observer in 2008 noting that Gorzkowski and his wife are naturalized citizens:

Customers flock through the red door of Zbigniew “Ziggy” and wife Halina Gorzkowski’s European grocery and flower shop to buy one of the 12 varieties they sell. The pierogis and 400 eastern European food items and flowers are also punching the naturalized citizen couple’s ticket for their version of the American Dream.

ThinkProgress spoke with Gorzkowski this morning. He verified that this information was indeed correct and he had been an American citizen since the late 1980s. Therefore, his votes in the 2008 and 2010 elections were not only perfectly legal, but encouraged as a civic duty.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

What a "journalist" James O'Keefe is. He has, however, once again proven that the only real voter fraud that irregularly occurs in the country is when he's doing it. Once a douche bag, always a douche bag.



NFTOS
Staff Writer
Steve "Damn Nazi Liberal" Chevapravatdumrong

Police Say It’s Ok To Kick A Pregnant Woman In The Stomach

A police officer in Georgia is under criminal investigation for allegedly kicking a woman who was nearly nine-months pregnant in the stomach before charging her with obstruction of justice.

In an incident report filed on Dec. 12, 2011, Dekalb County Police Officer Jerad Wheeler wrote that he gave "three verbal commands to 'Get back'" to Raven Dozier. The woman was in her third trimester at the time and visibly distraught over witnessing Wheeler taser her brother, Darius Usher, in response to a domestic disturbance.

Wheeler wrote that Dozier began "moving aggressively," prompting the officer to "kick her in the stomach to push her back," just as he was "taught to do in the Academy," according to the report.

Approximately six months later -- following an overlooked internal affairs complaint and a premature birth by C-section -- Dozier is suing the county as the district attorney investigates Wheeler's actions.

"This officer is just another loose cannon," Dozier's attorney, Mark Bullman, told The Huffington Post. "And I don't know how a 180-pound pregnant woman comes at you aggressively."

Bullman says that Wheeler, at the advice of his supervisor, arrested Dozier because he would "need to be justified" for kicking a pregnant woman if "something were to happen to the baby."

Police charged Dozier with obstruction and disorderly conduct, a "higher charge than the guy they tased," Bullman said.

"At the time of the altercation it was very dark and Ms. Dozier had a larger shirt on," Wheeler wrote in his report. "I could not tell by the sight of her at the time that she was pregnant."

Wheeler placed Dozier in the back seat of his vehicle and brought her to the police station. Authorities gave her a choice.

"They asked me did I want to go to jail or to the hospital," Dozier later wrote in a complaint filed with the Dakalb County Police. "I said I wanted to go to the hospital."

Doctors could already see contusions and spotting, according to Bullman. The attorney says that the infant became ill within the womb as a result of defecation from the impact.

Following the hospital visit, police returned Dozier to the station "where she was refused by intake," according to the police report. Authorities gave Dozier a court date and released her.

Records show that Dozier filed a complaint with the DeKalb police department's internal affairs unit, but authorities never investigated the incident. Instead, four supervisors and an internal affairs detective approved the actions, stating that the use of force met policy,
 WSBTV reported.

The Dekalb District Attorney's Office has since dropped the charges against Dozier, who is now suing a county where her attorney says police officers are "off the chain."

On Thursday, three other Dekalb county cops were charged with beating teenage suspects, some of whom were in handcuffs at the time,
the
Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Wheeler is also the focus of two other questionable incidents in which he is accused of killing an innocent family's leashed dog and forcing a 53-year-old woman's face onto a police vehicle.

Two weeks after being kicked in the stomach, Dozier prematurely delivered her child by C-section. Her son, Levi, is doing well.
Read the incident report filed from the scene:


"What kind of a human being kicks a pregnant woman? I mean, forget whether or not it is a police officer that is supposedly protecting people," Dozier's attorney Mark Bullman said. Dozier filed a complaint with the DeKalb police department's internal affairs unit, but it was never investigated. Instead, four supervisors and an internal affairs detective signed off that Wheeler's use of force met policy. ... Fleischer filed an open records request and found two more use-of-force complaints against Wheeler within the last nine months. In all three cases, the victims were not the focus of the original police incident.

We are sure she had it coming to her, as it will become clear once people dig into her Facebook page and uncover pictures of her in a hoodie. (Sarcastic)

NFTOS
STAFF

Teapublicans, Social Security And Ronald Reagan

"Ponzi scheme!", "bankrupt", "liberal conspiracy". These are terms you often hear from the teapublication party and radical conservatives when describing the Social Security program. The issue with those terms is that they're all false. Whether it's your conservative uncle around the dinner table, conservative mouth pieces like Rush Limbaugh or the Tea Party members of congress, these flat-out lies are being told across the country.

Social Security is important in people's lives, especially retirees who rely on these benefits. Social Security is not part of the budget and doesn't contribute one nickel to the national debt. Social Security is part of a payroll tax, which is 100% solvent until the year 2038, and can pay out over 80% of the benefits until 2085. Social Security, from its creation under one of our countries greatest presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt, has been one of the most successful programs the government has ever provided its people.

While Social Security is solvent for the short-term, there are long-term issues with the program that stem from situations that occurred over thirty years ago. In the 1980s, Republican President Ronald Reagan cut tax rates drastically. In 1980 the top tax rate was 70%, which was cut to 50% by 1984 and finally down to 28% by the time Reagan left office in 1988. Supply side economics, or "Reaganomics", was the economic system that Reagan used and was the idea that giving wealthy Americans more money would create jobs which would then "trickle down" to other Americans.

The supply side theory didn't exactly work as planned and Reagan needed a way to make up for the loss in revenue. Reagan ended up tripling the debt while congress raised the debt limit 18 times during his presidency without hesitation. With the lack of revenue coming into the government, Reagan needed a way to keep his fiscal house in order. In addition to raising the debt limit, Reagan also raised taxes multiple times and he did it on the middle class by attacking Social Security.

In 1987, Ronald Reagan appointed veteran business man Alan Greenspan to become Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Before he stepped into his new job, Greenspan already had a big impact on American economics. Under the advice of Greenspan, Reagan took money from the Social Security trust fund to help pay down the debt. The payroll tax was raised in 1983, and the government spent the surplus of Social Security each year to help pay down the giant debt that Reagan created by giving the wealthiest Americans more money each year with the promise of "job creation" for the middle class.

When teapublicans scream about "big government spending" today, they fail to mention that their party was a major reason behind our debt getting out of control. When it comes to Social Security, we need to eliminate the "cap" that is on the program. The cap currently is at $106,800. Anyone who makes more than $106,800 doesn't get taxed for Social Security on their additional income. A person making a million dollars is only paying into the Social Security system 10% of their income, compared to someone making $50,000 a year who is taxed for Social Security on 100% of their income. Shared sacrifice? Not so much.

The "golden child" of the teapublican party, Ronald Reagan, was the man who started the problems for Social Security and the teapublicans have been scaring the American people, especially the elderly, ever since. Social Security is solvent, but we wouldn't even be having the discussion about its future if it wasn't for Ronald Reagan.

 

NFTOS
STAFF

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY

 My mom is no longer here, so I was thinking, what did mom teach me?

Below is a list of the things she has told me since I was a kid. I've never forgotten her words, and the values she instilled in me that helped in becoming the person I am today.

Sure, like most kids, I just kinda nodded my head and went, "Uh, huh...uh, huh," but over the years, I've found that these lessons she was trying to teach me had sunk in a lot more than I had thought. I'm always grateful for her parenting skills, which there weren't so many handbooks written on the subject then like there are today.

"Class isn't about champagne or what car you drive. Being a classy person is how you treat others."

"Other people's love are like ships that come and go, but love for yourself will always be the harbor that brings them in."

"Always work hard, but work smart, too."

"Don't compare yourself to others, and don't ever let anyone define who you are."

"Always be prepared for the worst so you can live your life for the best."

"Sometimes saying nothing is better than saying something just for 'something's sake'."

"Always do what you think is right. It's you who has to look at himself in the mirror everyday."

"It's the things we don't do that we end up regretting most."

"Be happy. Nobody's gonna do it for you."

Thanks, mom!



NFTOS
Editor-In-Chief
Roger West

Trayvon Martin Symbol Becomes Gun Range Targets

In yet another disgusting turn of events in the Trayvon Martin case, and just when you think humans can't be more callous:

A person selling gun range targets modeled after slain Florida teen Trayvon Martin says that their “main motivation was to make money off the controversy.”

WKMG’s Mike DeForest reported on Friday that the unidentified seller told him that the targets “sold out in 2 days.”

“The response is overwhelming,” the seller said.

While the item appears to have been removed from GunBroker.com, a cached version of the page was still available at the time of publication.

Photos of the item, which was titled “10 Pack Trayvon Martin Targets,” showed crosshairs over a hoodie similar to the one Trayvon Martin was wearing when he was shot by neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman in February. The figure has a bag of Skittle in his pocket and is holding what appears to be a can of iced tea, similar to what Martin had purchased before being gunned down. The pack of 10 targets was being sold for $8.




NFTOS
STAFF

DIMWITTED DAMSEL

DIMWITTED DAMSEL DANA LOESCH

When the douche bag named Dana Loesch feels left out of the limelight, she often reverts to the fringe of the radical tea bagger society. This wannabe Ann Coultergeist - with a dash of Queen Snowbilly Sarah Palin, has a disgusting pattern of mean and hate well embedded within her. The very gal whom often complains of death threats herself, backs an asshat whom threatens the life of a Democratic Senator. Make no bones about it; Dana Loesch is the epitome of Aleistar Crowley, only this dimwitted damsel is in the female form. This college dropout, once Democrat, has more off the chart rhetoric than Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and Rush Limbaugh combined.

Ever since Jared Loughner went all John Hinckley Jr. and brazenly fired shots at Arizona Democratic Congresswoman Gabby Gifford, putting her in a coma and killing six innocent bystanders, publically remarking that you want to kill a member of Congress, no matter how inadvertently hilarious the analogy, is really, really not cool.

Reference of course to Scott Boston, the deranged tea bagger who called for the killing of Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill at a TPE event at which McCaskill’s Republican challenger, Sarah Steelman (R), was in attendance.

Not surprisingly, Brietbart spawn and morphed pretend journalist, Dana Loesch of CNN, whose only credentials appear to be having an active Twitter account, defended Boston’s remarks. After all, it’s the Christian God-given constitutional right of every freedumb-fighting patriot to freely threaten the life of a sitting politician with whom you disagree with, and ”don’t tread on me” if you think different. But what this Aleistar Crowley apprentice neglected to mention in her diatribe of Scott Boston was that she co-founded a conservative activist group with questionable objectives with him.

During Loesch’s cacophonous incoherent defense of Boston in one of her articles for Big Government, Loesch reported that the FBI questioned Boston about his remarks at his home in St. Louis. But conspicuously absent from her perambulate entry was that Loesch and Boston helped to found the Gateway Grassroots Initiative, which is dedicated to, “advancing conservatism at the national, state, and local levels,” according to Media Matters. Also, it seems that Boston co-authored a post promoting the Gateway Grassroots Initiative at Breitbart.com. One peripheral glance at the group and its so-called, “advancement of conservative principles” - what you see is yet another radical group of angry white men who take their cues from William J Simmons [kkk founder] and Moammar Gadhafi warlords.

Sending Dana Loesch packing is the right thing to do. CNN’s ROI [return on investment] from Loesch has to be nil to none. While her enthusiastic spirit to rule the world “pinky and the brain” style was entertaining 10 years ago, Ms. Loesch is a worn out old sea hag whom needs to be retired to the pastures.

NFTOS
Editor-In-Chief
Roger West

And Just When You Think You’ve Heard It All

Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson

Allowing women to vote ‘One Of The Greatest Mistakes That America Made’

The Raw Story uncovered a sermon that Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson gave in March in which he spends 10 minutes lecturing his audience about how women have destroyed America. Lee is a radical pastor who says that allowing women to vote was “one of the greatest mistakes that America made.”

“Look at every place where a women is in control,” said Peterson. “You see nothing but confusion. There’s no good in it at all, none.”

Peterson’s sermon began with comments about Sandra Fluke, doubling down on Rush Limbaugh’s slut remarks. But halfway through his speech, he kicked the hate into another gear:

PETERSON: “I think that one of the greatest mistakes that America made was to allow women the opportunity to vote. We should have never turned that over to women.”

“It was a big mistake…these women are voting in the wrong people. They’re voting in people who are evil, who agree with them…Men in the good old days understood the nature of the women, they were not afraid to deal with them.”

“Wherever women are taking over, evil reigns.”

Amazingly, just last week, Sean Hannity, who sits on the board of Peterson’s group BOND: Brotherhood Organization for a New Destiny, invited him to sit on his Great American Panel once again to discuss the president’s comments on the one-year anniversary of the death of Osama bin Laden.

But the conversation never quite made it that far. Fellow panelist Kirsten Powers, a Fox News columnist and political analyst, abandoned the segment to hit back against Peterson and his anti-women views, over the objections of Hannity who wanted to spend his time attacking President Obama.

For two minutes, Powers and Peterson exchanged barbs while Hannity and the third panelist, Indiana state Treasurer Richard Mourdock (R), sat quietly on the sidelines. Powers told Hannity that she had no idea Peterson would be a guest on the show alongside her, and invited him to repudiate Peterson’s remarks (he declined).

Peterson has made appearances on Fox News for years, fielding frequent invites from Hannity in particular despite Peterson’s history of hateful comments. And it’s not like Hannity had no warning. Peterson has previously said he “thank[s]God for slavery, because had it not, the blacks that are here would have been stuck in Africa.” He also called the victims of Hurricane Katrina “welfare-pampered,” “lazy,” and “immoral.”

And while Powers was rightfully outraged at Fox News’ decision to offer Lee a national platform, Hannity was unapologetic, quickly shutting down the spat and pivoting to his usual agenda of attacking the president.



NFTOS
Editor-In-Chief
Roger West

GEORGE W. BUSH THE SECOND?



The Dummest POTUS of Our Time

It is not unusual for people to emulate their heroes and attempt to equal or exceed their achievements that are successful. There are problems, though, when a politician strives to imitate a previous politician’s tactics and accomplishments especially if the politician’s agenda turned out to be disastrous. Willard Romney has demonstrated time and again that he intends to equal the accomplishments of George W. Bush in every area and particularly in giving incredibly large tax cuts to the wealthy at the expense of the economic health of the nation. However, as catastrophic to the economy and nation’s deficit as giving trillions away to the rich is, Americans should be mortified at Romney’s intent to repeat Bush’s war-mongering that will cost taxpayer dollars, military hardware, and countless lives.

This column has reported for months that Romney is anxious to start a war with Iran and that he persists demeaning the President’s Middle East policies and particularly that President Obama has abandoned Israel. Romney’s close ties to Benjamin Netanyahu are common knowledge, and his delusional belief that his Mormonism qualifies him as a latter-day Jew in latter-day American Israel, although not common knowledge, are driving him to believe Iran must be attacked to preserve Israel and by Romney’s twisted beliefs, America. However, his cult beliefs aside, he is emulating Bush’s “crusade” against Islam and based on his choice of foreign policy advisors, he informs his intention to initiate a “substantial war” with Iran if he wins the presidency. Although Romney avoided ever mentioning Bush throughout the Republican primary, he intends to return to Bush’s America as a unilateral interventionist state despite Americans’ weariness of over ten years of war.

Romney is a foreign policy dolt, and to make up for his lack of experience he assembled a foreign policy team that includes Bush neoconservative advisors that are war-hawks, to the right of Bush, and closely aligned with Israel’s right-wing war-mongers. Romney’s rhetoric during the primary insinuates he will use cowboy diplomacy as a first option, reset President Obama’s foreign policy by refusing to negotiate, return to Reagan-era antagonism towards Russia, and begin an economy-killing military buildup at home. The Washington Monthly called Romney’s proposed foreign policy vision the “more enemies, fewer friends doctrine” that portends a rapid return to the Islamic nation-destroying Bush doctrine President Obama inherited and corrected with diplomacy and measured use of force. A foreign policy expert at the Cato Institute, Christopher Preble, said a Romney presidency is “likely to be in the mold of George W. Bush when it comes to foreign policy if he were to be elected.”

What Americans should be most alarmed at is Romney’s foreign policy advisors that include eight neoconservatives from the Project for a new American Century (PNAC) who signed a letter urging both the Clinton and Bush administrations to attack Iraq, and John Bolton, the man who “never met a war he didn’t like” who told Israel before the Iraq invasion that Syria, Iran, and North Korea would be the next American targets. Bolton has pushed Israel to drag America into another costly war on Islam, and campaigns for Romney as a proponent of war with Iran. When he endorsed Romney, Bolton said “Mitt Romney will restore our military, repair relations with our closest allies and ensure that no adversary—including Iran—ever questions American resolve,” and Romney responded with “John’s wisdom, clarity and courage are qualities that should typify our foreign policy.” Bolton’s wisdom and courage are non-existent, but he does exhibit the clarity of a warmonger who will never be in harm’s way except when facing questions on why he and his cohorts pushed for a war with Iraq when there was no evidence to remotely suggest Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, a nuclear program, or assisted Al Qaeda in the terror attacks of 9/11. Another Romney advisor and a founder of PNAC, Eliot Cohen, labeled the war on terror “World War IV” and contended after 9/11 that Iraq was an “obvious candidate, having not only helped Al Qaeda, but…developed weapons of mass destruction,” and in 2009 urged President Obama to “actively seek the overthrow of Iran’s government.”

Willard Romney has spent a major portion of his campaign reiterating a PNAC white paper’s contention he first revealed in a speech at the Citadel that President Obama believes “there is nothing unique about the United States” and “issued apologies for America” and other hawkish and prohibitively costly proposals such as increasing the number of Navy warships, placing a defensive missile shield over Europe, stationing two aircraft carriers off the coast of Iran, and increasing the size of the military by 100,000 troops. A senior fellow at the New America Foundation said that Romney’s Citadel speech was “was one of the most inchoate, disorganized, cliché-filled foreign policy speeches that any serious candidate has ever given” demonstrating Romney is following his neocon war council’s recommendations that are Bush’s cowboy diplomacy to the extreme.

Of the 40 members of Romney’s foreign policy team, 70% were instrumental in pushing America into the Iraq war and Cato Institute expert Preble said “I can’t name a single Romney foreign policy adviser who believes the Iraq War was a mistake” despite the mountain of evidence it was a calculated disaster; over two-thirds of Americans believe that invading Iraq was a mistake. Like most of Romney’s foreign policy positions, he chooses to align himself with neoconservative warmongers and Americans who believe so strongly in their distorted vision of American exceptionalism that they share his belief that the United States has divine right to impose its will, death and destruction, and pro-Israel stance on every country in the world including Russia, but particularly Islamic nations. In fact, in an opinion piece in the Washington Post in March, Romney wrote regarding war with Iran that, “Either the ayatollahs will get the message, or they will learn some very painful lessons about the meaning of American resolve.” So, if Willard wants a war with Iran and will increase the size of the military by 100,000 troops, he can prove his resolve by sending his 5 sons as the front line of an invasion force and if he is ill-prepared to do that, he is just another chicken hawk and a coward draft dodger like one of his warmonger heroes Dick Cheney.

America cannot return to George W. Bush’s cowboy diplomacy of bomb first and never negotiate any more than Romney’s version of Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy. Another war and increasing the military budget will decimate the economy to prove that America is exceptional if one believes Romney and his warmonger foreign policy team. He plans to spend at least 4% of GDP on defense that is a 38% increase over President Obama’s budget, and according to Merrill Goozner of the Fiscal Times, “Romney’s proposal to embark on a second straight decade of escalating military spending would be the first time in American history that war preparation and defense spending had increased as a share of overall economic activity for such an extended period,” wrote Merrill Goozner in the Fiscal Times. “When coupled with the 20 percent cut in taxes he promises, it would require shrinking domestic spending to levels not seen since the Great Depression—before programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid began. Such cuts, would likely throw the U.S. economy back into deep recession.” Even Grover Norquist and the Cato Institute urged Congress to make serious Pentagon cuts and it led to a manic pushback from the Heritage Foundation and American Enterprise Institute who echo Romney’s belief that drastically increasing defense spending is necessary to keep American exceptional.

It is exceptional lunacy to return to Bush-era warmongering as much as exceeding his tax cuts for the wealthy that together portend a devastating blow to the economy and fragile recovery President Obama has lead with spending on Americans instead of another war. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a candidate emulating a previous politician’s agenda and policies, but Romney’s choice of George W. Bush is remarkable; no, stunning that he would choose the worst president in America’s history who presided over two unnecessary and unfunded wars, unfunded tax cuts for the wealthy, and destroyed America’s reputation around the world. However, that is the path Willard envisions for America and not only is he a chicken hawk coward; he will be the undoing of the economy and any goodwill President Obama has fostered from America’s friends and enemies alike. If Romney were not a coward, he would campaign as Bush incarnate and promise voters to exceed Bush’s malfeasance and record of unprovoked war and economic destruction that he promises to repeat if he wins the White House.




NFTOS
Staff Writer
Steve "Damn Nazi Liberal" Chevapravatdumrong

Voter Fraud You Say

Since 1997 the GOP could only come up with 311 cases of voter fraud. There are a total of 593 million registered voters in America, which leaves us .000056% voter fraud for the country. You have to be kidding? Obviously it’s more about punishing the minorities than anything else, anything to win the election this November.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

NFTOS
STAFF

GOP BIRTHER GROUND ZERO

North Carolina teapublicans go birther: Certificate is a ‘Poorly Reproduced Forgery’

North Carolina is apparently ground zero of the latest resurgence of the birther movement, as a number of Republican candidates in the state are expressing doubts about President Obama’s birthplace.

It has been has previously noted that Richard Hudson, running for a congressional seat in the state’s 8th district, said Obama is “hiding something on his citizenship,” while the Charlotte Observer rescinded its endorsement of Jim Pendergraph, running in the 9th district, after he expressed his own doubts about Obama’s birth certificate.

Now, the Observer reports that Dr. John Whitley, one of Hudson’s opponents in tomorrow’s GOP primary, has also gone birther. He declared Obama’s birth certificate a “poorly reproduced forgery” after comparing it to the Hawaiian birth certificate of one of his campaign workers. “There is a tremendous amount of smoke here,” Whitley said. “In fact, it’s called a smoke screen.”

Meanwhile, Ilario Pantano, running the 7th district, also has “real questions” about Obama’s birthplace. “The way I see this is whether he was born on the moon or Nicaragua or Honolulu, the bottom line is he has to be defeated in November,” Pantano said.



NFTOS
STAFF

Teapublicans, Vagina's, Mormon's, Oh My

The reality of rule under a Mormon Tea Bagger.










NFTOS
Steve "Damn Nazi Liberal" Chevapravatdumrong

A True Look At Tea Baggers

Keith Olbermann Feb 2010










NFTOS
STAFF

Radical Lunatic Fringe

Longtime white supremacist and border vigilante JT Ready saw himself as part of a war that few others would fight. He amassed weapons. He donned a uniform. He formed his own brigade of volunteers to walk alongside him as he hunted what he described as “narco terrorists” flowing across the Arizona-Mexico border.

On Wednesday, reports out of Arizona said Ready died, not at the hands of drug runners, but with his own gun during a mad rampage inside a suburban home just east of Phoenix. Along the way, the reports said, he took the lives of four other people, including a toddler.

The Arizona Republic reported the victims were Ready’s girlfriend, her daughter, the daughter’s boyfriend and the daughter’s 18-month-old baby. Ready still somehow managed to use the event to blame immigrants even after his death. A posting on his Facebook page appeared hours after the massacre took place.

Ready was propelled onto the national spotlight back in 2010 due to his long-standing friendship with Arizona state senator Russell Pearce. After the passage of Pearce’s immigration bill SB1070, all eyes pivoted on Arizona and the legislature. Rachael Maddow’s now-famous expose of the racist roots of SB1070 showed pictures of Pearce and Ready arm-in-arm smiling for the cameras juxtaposed with photos of Ready lined up and smiling with a bunch of Nazis. It was that very same expose that helped motivate me to speak out against the anti-immigrant legislation that Pearce has tirelessly defended and against the national anti-immigrant groups such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and pro-prison lobbies including the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) that stood to benefit enormously from the detention of immigrants.

Civil rights activists in Arizona had been writing about, videoing and exposing the connections between Pearce and Ready for years of course, but it took a spot on MSNBC before the rest of the country caught on to just how blatantly racist SB1070 was. Later Russell Pearce was recalled from the senate and nobody (except Pearce) is denying that his associations with extremists and his single-minded focus on immigration were factors in his defeat.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Pearce has some explaining to do. The association between Ready and the radical GOP is no surprise to NFTOS - its Pearce that now needs to be monitored.

NFTOS
STAFF

Effeminate You’re Children

NC Pastor who told congregants to punch their effeminate children claims; it’s what Jesus would have said. That’s right readers, from the pulpit, beat the gay out of your children.





WTF? Hey Jesus, take the wheel while I pummel this kid for being gay.


Update: Pastor Harris issued a kind of backhanded retraction today in which he says, in part:

“I should not have said what I said about 'cracking,' 'punching,' and particular bias toward outward attraction of girls. Nor should I have used the words 'special dispensation.' I did not say children should be squashed. I have never suggested children or those in the LGBT lifestyle should be beaten, punched, abused (physically or psychologically) in any form of fashion.”

No, you didn't suggest it, you just said it outright, dude. He also said, "I apologize to anyone I have unintentionally offended." But, just so you know, he does not "apologize for the manner in which the Word of God articulates sexual immorality, including homosexuality and effeminacy, as a behavior that is an abomination to God." You can read the entire statement here.



NFTOS
STAFF

Proof Is In The Pudding

BREAKING:

Many have been wondering just how smart/stupid George Zimmerman is. NFTOS has been leaning towards “stupid” but it’s been officially confirmed: the man is an idiot. He has to convince a jury that he didn’t follow Trayvon Martin because of his color and that he only had the best interest of the community at heart not that he was a trigger happy racist douchebag (“douchebag” is a very technical term in legalese).

That’s all done with now. In a move that can only be called “suicide by social media,” Zimmerman has neglected to delete his MySpace account and left a clear view into the personality of this “upstanding citizen.”

At the time of print his site was still up. By the way, if you doubt the profile is real, the Miami Herald reports that Zimmerman’s lawyer has confirmed it is.




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STAFF

BROCK TO FLIPFLOPNEY

‘I Assumed’ He Meant It When He Said He Wouldn’t Get Bin Laden


Mitt Romney and his allies have been attacking President Obama for his campaign’s recent video ad, highlighting both his decision to order the raid that killed Osama bin Laden and Romney’s statement in 2007 that he would not have taken similar action given the chance. Romney now says he would have done the same as Obama. “Of course [I would have]. Even Jimmy Carter would have given that order,” Romney said today.

A reporter asked Obama about the criticism and Romney’s newest statement today during a White House press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda. While Obama said it’s “entirely appropriate” to “remember what we as a country accomplished” in getting bin Laden, the President advised that people look at what Romney said in 2007 and ask him why he now says something different:

OBAMA: As far as my personal role and what other folks would do, I just recommend that everybody take a look at people’s previous statements in terms of whether they thought it was appropriate to go into Pakistan and take out bin Laden. I assumed that people meant what they said when they said it, that’s been at least my practice. I said that we’d go after bin Laden if we had a clear shot at him and I did. If there are others who have said one thing and now suggested they’d do something else, then I’d go ahead and let them explain it.

Then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates — a Republican and a holdover from the Bush administration — said last year Obama’s decision to get bin Laden was a “gutsy call,” adding, “This is one of the most courageous calls — decisions — that I think I’ve ever seen a president make.”



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STAFF

Be careful What You "Like" On Facebook

It could cost you your job.

Daniel Ray Carter and Robert McCoy were deputies in the Hampton, Virginia sheriff’s office. Were, that is, until they made the mistake of “liking” their boss’ opponent’s Facebook page during a contested sheriff election. They were both fired shortly after their boss won reelection.

As government employees, Carter and McCoy are protected by the First Amendment. Nevertheless, a federal judge in Virginia denied their claim that they were unconstitutionally fired for expressing their political view on the unusual theory that “liking” a Facebook page does not constitute a form of expression protected by the First Amendment:

It is the Court’s conclusion that merely “liking” a Facebook page is insufficient to merit constitutional protection. In cases where courts have found that constitutional speech protections extended to Facebook posts, actual statements existed within the record. . . . These illustrative cases differ markedly from the case at hand in one crucial way: Both [precedents] involved actual statements. No such statements exist in this case. Simply liking a Facebook page is insufficient. It is not the kind of substantive statement that has previously warranted constitutional protection. The Court will not attempt to infer the actual content of Carter’s posts from one click of a button on Adams’ Facebook page. For the Court to assume that the Plaintiffs made some specific statement without evidence of such statements is improper. Facebook posts can be considered matters of public concern; however, the Court does not believe Plaintiffs Carter and McCoy have alleged sufficient speech to garner First Amendment protection.

As Eugene Volokh points out, this is not correct. The First Amendment does not simply shield “actual statements,” it shields a long list of expressive activity, including “saluting a flag (and refusing to do so), wearing an armband to protest a war, displaying a red flag, and even ‘marching, walking or parading’ in uniforms displaying the swastika.” If passively wearing a black armband speaks clearly enough to convey a First Amendment protected message, than surely clicking a button that indicates approval of a political candidate or his message speaks just as clearly.

Indeed, it’s difficult to find any meaningful distinction between Carter and McCoy’s actions here and any number of activities protected by the First Amendment beyond the fact that they used a new method of communication to convey their message. But this cannot be a constitutionally relevant distinction. The First Amendment didn’t stop functioning with the invention of the telephone, the instant message, the text message or the email. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t apply to social media.

Additionally, there is always something perverse about court decisions which prevent career employees from speaking out about how their boss is doing their job. Few people are better suited to judge the current sheriff than his deputies, and they should not be discouraged from sharing their views with the public.

First amendment or not Virginia is a right to work State, and if you have read this blog before, right to work equals you have no rights.



NFTOS
Staff Writer
Steve "Damn Nazi Liberal" Chevapravatdumrong

Stephen King Says To Government

Raise My Fucking Taxes Already!

AUTHOR STEPHEN KING

Novelist Stephen King has joined billionaire investor Warren Buffett as a member of the uber-rich who is attempting to have taxes raised on America’s richest citizens.

In a more “colorful” approach than that offered by the Berkshire Hathaway CEO the horror book writer this week proclaimed “Tax Me, for Fuck’s Sake.”

King then goes on to write for the Daily Beast:

“The majority would rather douse their dicks with lighter fluid, strike a match, and dance around singing ‘Disco Inferno’ than pay one more cent in taxes to Uncle Sugar.”

King goes on to note that while he and his wife give out more than $4 million per year to charity, many of the countries uber-rich pay out their taxes and then sit on their “dough.” King writes:

“And hey, why don’t we get real about this? Most rich folks paying 28 percent taxes do not give out another 28 percent of their income to charity. Most rich folks like to keep their dough. They don’t strip their bank accounts and investment portfolios, they keep them and then pass them on to their children, their children’s children. And what they do give away is—like the monies my wife and I donate—totally at their own discretion. That’s the rich-guy philosophy in a nutshell: Don’t tell us how to use our money; we’ll tell you.”

As Stephen King so rightly points out, America’s richest men and women wouldn’t have their riches if it wasn’t for America, they should therefore be protecting their investment by remembering which country’s citizens needs their help and made them rich in the first place.

King goes on to dispel the “job creators” myth, pointing out that investments are largely made in overseas company’s because of “anti-American” job practices set forth by the US government.

Check out the full King post at the Daily Beast and you might just find his scariest true-to-life piece of literature yet.



NFTOS
STAFF

Tea Bagger Commandments

REPUBLICAN JESUS

Thou shalt not employ, support, or protect those who have come to your nation seeking a better life legally, for they are illegal, and therefore enemies of Christianity and America.

Thou shalt maintain and Army, and arsenal capable of destroying the entire earth, and frequently test capabilities on communist, Muslims and other non-Christians.

Thou shalt maintain many personal weapons, in order to quickly kill communist, Muslims, and criminals who manage to infiltrate our streets.

Thou shalt not support a government which uses taxes to provide free medicine to the sick, and food to the poor. For republican Jesus does not bless those that do not assist themselves.

Thou shalt grow your Army and arsenal. while shrinking the government which controls it for larger government is more vulnerable to infiltration by communist and Muslims, and power should be consolidated in the hands of the few.

Thou shalt exalt those with little education, for he represents the plight of the common Christian, without the burden or disease of knowledge of diversity of experience, and of questioning faith.

Thou shalt speak only and do business only with those who speak English, for its has replaced Hebrew as the tongue of God.

Thou shalt oppress homosexuals and others that would destroy the 1950's image of the American Christian family, but a man can take as many wives as he so chooses, but not all at the same time. He must marry, divorce, and move on to remain in Gods favor.

Thou shalt hate those among you who would destroy these commandments, to include liberals, socialist, communist, gays, Muslims, minorities - but do not research or learn the definitions of these words, because you may then become tempted.

Only by voting republican, shall you be allowed in Gods kingdom.


NFTOS
Staff Writer
Steve "Damn Nazi Liberal" Chevapravatdumrong

IS THERE A WAR ON WOMEN

Or are you just ignorant?

The big fight in Congress recently has been over a proposed student loan bill that passed in the House today despite a veto from the White House and almost certain defeat in the Senate. The Republican backed bill manages to make sure that interest rates on federal student loans don’t double in coming months. They did this by going into the new health care law, finding some women’s health funds that were sass-talking too much, and slapping them in the face. Metaphorically speaking that is. Unsurprisingly, Democrats have seized on that, arguing that Republicans would rather cut money for women than raise, say, raise payroll taxes for corporations and those with high incomes (which a competing Democratic bill in the Senate is proposing). These Democrats found a sympathetic ear in Martin Bashir who agreed with this thinking on MSNBC yesterday.

Bashir was joined by Democratic Congressional Reps. Donna Edwards of Maryland and John Yarmuth of Kentucky and he lofted up lay ups for them to attack Speaker John Boehner’s claims that it was “silly” to make this about a fight on women. They jumped right at it with Edwards accusing Republicans of making American women decide whether to go to school of have health care.

Everyone was in such agreement that Bashir couldn’t fathom why the Republicans would engage in such “perilous politics” or how anyone couldn’t see it as such.

“Why then do they all deny that there is a war on women when they would rather deny women access to important health care provisions but keep subsidies for their friends in the oil industry? I mean, if there isn’t a war on women, most of us must be ignorant then because it seems that way.”

NFTOS
STAFF

Zimmerman’s Website Garner’s 200K

George Zimmerman's attorney said his client's bail might have been set higher if a judge had known about $200,000 raised by a website and that only came to light this week.

Mark O'Mara said on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 that he only learned about the money Wednesday and will inform a judge at a hearing Friday.

 Zimmerman, was released from jail this week after paying 10 percent of $150,000 bail.

 The lawyer for Martin's parents, Benjamin Crump, said Friday he has asked the prosecutor in the case to request that the judge revoke Zimmerman's bail for not disclosing at the original bond hearing last week how much money he had.

 "This is a bombshell that was dropped," Crump told The Associated Press. He said the parents, Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton, were "offended" that Zimmerman failed to inform the court of the money the website raised.

 O'Mara told CNN late Thursday the money was raised by a website that Zimmerman set up for his legal defense.

 Friday's hearing was initially scheduled to deal with several media organizations, including The Associated Press, asking the judge to unseal documents from Zimmerman's court file.

 The website used to raise the money has since been shut down, but O'Mara said he'll likely start a new defense fund for Zimmerman.

 The website was created almost two weeks ago by Zimmerman's family to thank his supporters and to receive donations from anyone who wanted to help with his legal defense.

 The 44-day delay in Zimmerman's arrest spurred protests nationwide and inspired a national debate about racial profiling, equal justice under the law and Florida's self-defense law. Martin was black; Zimmerman's father is white and his mother is from Peru.

Zimmerman has gone into hiding since his release on bail. Under terms of his bond, he has to wear a GPS ankle bracelet that authorities can use to track his location round the clock.

 With Zimmerman’s history of failure to remember things, or better yet, his late disclosure of much information is certainly enough to revoke this man’s bond.


NFTOS
STAFF

Lessons Learned

BYE BYE GARY. LESSONS LEARNED. STOP BEING A TEA BAGGER

A sergeant will be discharged for criticizing President Barack Obama on Facebook in a case that called into question the Pentagon's policies about social media and its limits on the speech of active duty military personnel, the Marine Corps said Wednesday.

Sgt. Gary Stein will get an other-than-honorable discharge and lose most of his benefits for violating the policies, the Corps said.

The San Diego-area Marine who has served nine years in the Corps said he was disappointed by the decision. He argued that he was exercising his constitutional rights to free speech.

"I love the Marine Corps, I love my job. I wish it wouldn't have gone this way. I'm having a hard time seeing how 15 words on Facebook could have ruined my nine-year career," he told The Associated Press.

Gary Kreep, an attorney for Stein, said he would pursue administrative appeals within the Marine Corps but anticipates the effort will fail. He said he planned to file an amended complaint in federal court.

"As long as he wants to pursue this, we will be supporting him," said Kreep, who is executive director of the United States Justice Foundation, an advocacy group.

The Marines acted after saying Stein stated March 1 on a Facebook page used by Marine meteorologists, "Screw Obama and I will not follow all orders from him." Stein later clarified that statement, saying he would not follow unlawful orders.

Brig. Gen. Daniel Yoo, the commanding general of the Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, said in a brief statement Wednesday that evidence supported an administrative board's recommendation to discharge Stein.

Tom Umberg, a former Army colonel and military prosecutor, said Stein persisted even after being warned.

"The Marine Corps gave him the opportunity to think about his actions, yet Sgt. Stein continued to undermine the chain of command," said Umberg, who was not involved in Stein's case. "I think his purpose was to leave the Marine Corps in a dramatic fashion in order to begin a career in talk radio or what have you."

Umberg believes the decision to discharge Stein will have limited impact because the vast majority of Marines would never consider such postings.

"I think 99 percent of the soldiers and Marines currently on duty understand the duties of supporting the chain of command and understand their rights of free speech are limited," he said. "To that 1 percent who don't know their rights to free speech are limited once they take the oath, this is a loud and clear message."

During a hearing, a military prosecutor submitted screen grabs of Stein's postings on one Facebook page he created called Armed Forces Tea Party, which the prosecutor said included the image of Obama on a "Jackass" movie poster. Stein also superimposed Obama's image on a poster for "The Incredibles" movie that he changed to "The Horribles," military prosecutor Capt. John Torresala said.

At the hearing this month at Camp Pendleton, Torresala argued that Stein's behavior repeatedly violated Pentagon policy and he should be dismissed after ignoring warnings from his superiors about his postings.

The military has had a policy since the Civil War limiting the free speech of service members, including criticism of the commander in chief.

Pentagon directives say military personnel in uniform cannot sponsor a political club; participate in any TV or radio program or group discussion that advocates for or against a political party, candidate or cause; or speak at any event promoting a political movement.

Commissioned officers also may not use contemptuous words against senior officials.

Show boating for his fellow tea baggers on Facebook cost him his career! Good riddance asshat, and don't let the door hit you where the good Lord split you!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

NFTOS
Editor-In-Chief
Roger West

Hospital Trolling?

Hospital Debt Trollers

Imagine going into an emergency room or maternity ward and being greeted by a debt collector telling you that you won't receive treatment until you agree upon terms to pay an outstanding bill.

Its real, the next time you’re at the hospital, be on notice: The person taking down your information and admitting you for treatment might not be a hospital employee but a staffer from a debt-collection agency.

Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson filed suit against a debt-collection agency called Accretive Health in January after an employee left a laptop containing personal information about for 23,500 patients in a rental car last July. Swanson’s lawsuit alleges that Accretive Health’s access to patient records violates federal privacy laws.

The case brings attention to the little-known practice of hospital companies embedding debt collectors in their facilities, the New York Times reports.

Americans are being subject to increasingly harsh tactics by debt collectors seeking to recoup money for their clients by using tactics including threats, insults and lies, recent research shows. Lisa Lindsay, an Illinois woman recovering from breast cancer, endured an arrest and a brief stay in jail over an unpaid $280 hospital bill that wasn’t even hers.

Hospitals are under increasing financial pressure as health care costs escalate and payment rates from Medicare, Medicaid and private health insurance companies become smaller. And largely because of a decades-old federal law requiring hospitals to provide emergency medical care to anyone, regardless of their ability to pay, hospitals take on tens of billions of dollars in bad debt each year. In 2010, hospitals were stuck with $39.3 billion in unpaid bills, which amounted to 5.6 percent of their total expenses, according to the American Hospital Association.

Cash-hungry hospitals aren’t the only obstacle to patients’ getting the health care they need. Health insurance premiums continue to rise even as benefits get more meager, joblessness and the sluggish economy are causing many Americans to go without medical care or become uninsured, and the size of hospital bills themselves can be impossible to predict.

Anxiety about dollars and cents has driven hospitals into the arms of aggressive debt collectors, according to the Times:

As a growing number of hospitals struggle under a glut of unpaid bills, they are turning to companies like Accretive. To win promised savings, all hospitals have to do is turn over the management of their front-line staffing — ranging from patient registration to scheduling and billing — and their back-office collection activities. Accretive says it has such arrangements with some of the country’s largest hospital systems to help reduce their costs.

Accretive Health works with dozens of U.S. hospitals, including Fairview Health Services and North Memorial Health Care in Minnesota, according to the Times and a press release from Swanson’s office. Debt collectors are instructed to ask patients for credit cards or checks when they arrive at an emergency room seeking treatment, the Times reports.

Hospitals across the U.S. are trying new methods of avoiding unpaid bills. HCA, the largest for-profit hospital chain, and other companies have started demanding upfront payments as high as $350 from people in emergency rooms, Kaiser Health News reported in February. In 2011, about 80,000 people walked out of HCA emergency rooms before getting any medical care because of the company’s $150 fee, according to Kaiser Health News.




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STAFF

Transvaginal Bob Despises TSA Pat Downs, But Still OK With Invasive Ultrasound

The One And Only "Transvaginal Bob" McDonnell

Transvaginal Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) signed a mandatory ultrasound bill into law last month, which will require all women who have an abortion in the state to have an ultrasound first, after backing off his earlier support for a more far-reaching version of the bill that would have required a more invasive ultrasound.

Despite his opposition to “invasive” TSA pat-downs, McDonnell still agreed with requiring women to undergo an additional medical procedure because they “have a right to know” all available medical information before making a decision.

But his focus on a woman’s right to know ignores that the bill adds an unfunded, unnecessary burden for women seeking an abortion. In an interview with Bloomberg’s All Hunt, McDonnell stood by his “right to know” line without addressing if the law was a mandate:





The additional requirement throws up another barrier for women who want to have an abortion in Virginia. This invasive law, along with burdensome and expensive state regulations on abortion clinics, are Republican lawmakers’ attempts to limit women’s access to abortion procedures by making it difficult or forcing clinics to close.

Twenty of Virginia’s 23 abortion clinics affected by the new regulations that have gone into place reported that they already meet or will comply with the standards, such as larger hallways, bigger parking lots, and certain health and cooling controls. But complying with the standards was expensive, costing the clinics between $150,000 to $3 million apiece. “These are difficult economic times,” Laura Meyers, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Metropolitan Washington, told the Washington Examiner. “To put more onerous regulations on health care providers that are not necessary seems very counterproductive.”



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