When Roger West first launched the progressive political blog "News From The Other Side" in May 2010, he could hardly have predicted the impact that his venture would have on the media and political debate. As the New Media emerged as a counterbalance to established media sources, Roger wrote his copious blogs about national politics, the tea party movement, mid-term elections, and the failings of the radical right to the vanguard of the New Media movement. Roger West's efforts as a leading blogger have tremendous reach. NFTOS has led the effort to bring accountability to mainstream media sources such as FOX NEWS, Breitbart's "Big Journalism.
Roger's breadth of experience, engaging style, and cultivation of loyal readership - over 92 million visitors - give him unique insight into the past, present, and future of the New Media and political rhetoric that exists in our society today.
What we are against:
Radical Right Wing Agendas
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THE RESISTANCE
Don't insult the American Talibans [NRA]! Them folk are Freedomfighters!
The NRA has proven itself with its fearless leaders press conference - that they should not have a seat at the table when it comes to negotiating gun laws and gun violence.
After remaining completely silent in the week following the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, the National Rifle Association (NRA) held a press conference in Washington D.C. on Friday to call for more guns in schools and blame the media for glorifying violence, while demonizing gun owners.
Below are the 11 craziest statements from NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre’s prepared remarks:
1 Gun-free schools zones “tell every insane killer in America that schools are their safest place to inflict maximum mayhem with minimum risk.”
2 “There exists in this country a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells, and sows, violence against its own people.
3 “[V]iolent crime is increasing again for the first time in 19 years! Add another hurricane, terrorist attack or some other natural or man-made disaster, and you’ve got a recipe for a national nightmare of violence and victimization.”
4 “We need to have every single school in America immediately deploy a protection program proven to work —and by that I mean armed security.”
5 “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Would you rather have your 911 call bring a good guy with a gun from a mile away … or a minute away?”
6 “And throughout it all, too many in our national media … their corporate owners … and their stockholders … act as silent enablers, if not complicit co-conspirators.”
7 “Then there’s the blood-soaked slasher films like ‘American Psycho’ and ‘Natural Born Killers’ that are aired like propaganda loops on Splatterdays and every day, and a thousand music videos that portray life as a joke and murder as a way of life.”
8 “In a race to the bottom, media conglomerates compete with one another to shock, violate and offend every standard of civilized society by bringing an ever-more-toxic mix of reckless behavior and criminal cruelty into our homes — every minute of every day of every month of every year.”
9 “Through vicious, violent video games with names like Bulletstorm, Grand Theft Auto, Mortal Kombat and Splatterhouse. And here’s one: it’s called Kindergarten Killers. It’s been online for 10 years. How come my research department could find it and all of yours either couldn’t or didn’t want anyone to know you had found it?”
10 “Isn’t fantasizing about killing people as a way to get your kicks really the filthiest form of pornography?”
11 "This is the beginning of a serious conversation. We won't be taking any questions."
There exists in this country a callous, corrupt group, a corrupting shadow industry that sells, and sows violence against its own people.
Readers, do you remember when the NRA guys said Trayvon Martin should have had his own gun? Me neither.
Here's looking at you, NRA. The NRA, this months worst organization in the world.
Surprise, angry old white man watches Faux News and commits hate crime. An Indiana man has been convicted of setting fire to a mosque in Ohio. He had told the judge prior to being found guilty that he committed the crimes because Fox News and right wing hate radio had convinced him that “most Muslims are terrorists.”
Does anyone else enjoy the irony that Faux news blames violence on video games without proof, yet there's proof here that Faux news leads people to violent behavior?
The FCC should require the cable channel to display in their scroll; A disclaimer stating:
"The people and views presented in this television program are purely fictional, any coincidence with real people or real events is completely unintentional and coincidental".
This is your mind on Fux Ewes readers, don' let your mind be caught on Fixed Noise!
Stop the Presses! I am probaly one of the biggest milk drinkers in the land, and if the beltway doesn't settle this fiscal cliff nonsense soon, I'll be paying what for milk?
House Republicans let the five-year farm bill expire at the end of September without a new law to replace the massive measure covering billions of dollars in programs, including food stamps and agriculture subsidies. The Senate passed its own bipartisan, 10-year farm bill in June, and House Democrats and farm state Republicans attempted to force the House to consider a bill to replace it. But the GOP leadership steadfastly refused to vote on it.
As a result, milk prices could jump as high as $6 to $8 per gallon after Jan. 1, when the government will revert to following antiquated 1949 regulations without a farm bill in place:
Under the current program, the government sets a minimum price to cover dairy farmers’ production costs. If the market price drops below that, the government buys dairy products from farmers to buoy prices and increase demand. Since milk prices have remained above that minimum price in recent years, dairy farmers usually do better by selling their products commercially rather than to the government.
But if 1949 rules go into effect, the government would be required to buy dairy products at around $40 per hundredweight — roughly twice the current market price — to drive up the price of milk to cover dairy producers’ cost.
“It would be bad for consumer demand in the long run,” said Chris Galen, a spokesman for the National Milk Producers Federation, which represents more than 32,000 dairy farmers.
In the short term, farmers would see a windfall by selling to the government at a higher price, but as the New York Times reports, that would lead to higher prices in stores and less milk available for manufacturing butter and cheese. “I don’t think customers and food processors are going to pay double what they are paying now for dairy products,” said Dean Norton, a dairy farmer and president of the New York Farm Bureau.
According to the National Gun Huggers ASS [NRA], guns don't kill people, Mortal Kombat kills people.! What a bunch of asshats, literally!
It's a special kind of tea bagger logic when the solution to stopping children from becoming victims of gun violence is to have them guarded by people with guns.
It's a special kind of tea bagger logic when the solution to stopping people from becoming victims of gun violence is to remove video games and movies which feature violence from circulation.
Other first world countries don't have guards at every school. They have the same movies and the same video games.
So, one would assume the NRA is saying that people who are deranged, evil, and possessed by voices and driven by demons....... are only found in America?
Kudos, Mr. LaPierre, you have proven yet again that The American Taliban is dumber than a box of rocks.
According to statistics from 2009-2010, there are approx 99,000 public schools in the nation. If you only hire one armed guard for each school, and you only pay them 30K a year in salary, that's three billion in salary costs alone. Not counting benefits and administrative costs, not counting the obvious need for more than one officer in most schools, and not taking into account that it's an unrealistic idea to begin with.
PROTESTERS AT NRA PRESS
It was hard to tell at times whether Wayne LaPierre was serious or has become a spectacular performance artist, making a dramatic statement about the absurdity of the NRA's increasingly twisted worldview.
National Gun Huggers ASSociation [NRA] and Wayne LaPierre today's worst group/person in the world!
We’re just hours away from Dec. 21, 2012, the date that the ancient Mayan Long Count calendar allegedly marked as the end of an era that would reset the date to zero and signal the end of humanity.
With the end of the world just hours away, what will I decide for the last supper?
So much to do and such little time. The boss is worried about which meetings I shall attend tomorrow, I tell him no worries the world is ending. He didn’t see the humor – but I was being quite serious.
When the world ends, do I bend over and kiss my sweet ass goodbye? Do I worry about clean underwear? Do I ask the neighbors to keep an eye on the house while I am away? Do I stop the mail from being delivered? Do I turn off the water running to the crib? Do I make my bed? What should be my first words to GOD, “thanks for creating GOPers, we needed the laughs”? What I should I wear to the pearly gates? Are shorts and a t-shirt acceptable for judgment day or is this a black tie affair?
Have a great evening readers and we will see you all tomorrow.
You can never predict what the American Taliban will say, or put too print. I have heard many outlandish and absurd things from these troglodytes, but the prattle below even baffles me. There is actually someone more stupid than Megan McArdle, now enters Charlotte Allen.
If there were fewer women and more “male aggression” in Sandy Hook Elementary School, the massacre there never would have taken place, according to a contribution to a leading conservative magazine.
National Review, whose in-house editorial suggested Newtown was the price of the Second Amendment, published a piece on Wednesday from anti-feminist Charlotte Allen suggesting the reason the shooter was able to kill so many students was because Newtown was a “feminized setting:”
There was not a single adult male on the school premises when the shooting occurred. In this school of 450 students, a sizeable number of whom were undoubtedly 11- and 12-year-old boys (it was a K–6 school), all the personnel — the teachers, the principal, the assistant principal, the school psychologist, the “reading specialist” — were female. There didn’t even seem to be a male janitor to heave his bucket at Adam Lanza’s knees. Women and small children are sitting ducks for mass-murderers. The principal, Dawn Hochsprung, seemed to have performed bravely. According to reports, she activated the school’s public-address system and also lunged at Lanza, before he shot her to death. Some of the teachers managed to save all or some of their charges by rushing them into closets or bathrooms. But in general, a feminized setting is a setting in which helpless passivity is the norm. Male aggression can be a good thing, as in protecting the weak — but it has been forced out of the culture of elementary schools and the education schools that train their personnel. Think of what Sandy Hook might have been like if a couple of male teachers who had played high-school football, or even some of the huskier 12-year-old boys, had converged on Lanza.
Where to begin on this one? First, contrary to what Allen wrote, there was a male custodian on campus. According to NBC News, he acted heroically. And presumably, he did not just “heave his bucket” at the knees of a heavily armed killer.
Second, women can’t throw buckets? Really? And as an aside to that: Does Allen really believe that a bucket is any kind of match for a semiautomatic weapon? The absurdity of this tea baggers statement is asinine, and her intelligence quota is breathtakingly mind numbing!
Third, Allen seems to forget that in numerous other mass shootings—Aurora, Colo., in July, Tucson, Ariz., last year and at Virginia Tech in 2007, to name a few—men were also present. So it’s not just women and small children who are “sitting ducks for mass murderers” as Allen says, it’s everyone.
Moreover, as The Nation’s Jessica Valenti points out, Allen’s article is completely disrespectful to the bravery the female Sandy Hook staffers exhibited to save the lives of their students.
To lesson the bravery of these women with callous disingenuous vernacular, is both repulsive and disgusting - and as unfortunate as it is, it is the American Taliban the we have come to know all to well.
Charlotte Allen, Today's worst person in the world!
The bully pulpit has spoken after several days of silence. The National Rifle Association has come out from hiding (sort of) for the first time since a gunman killed 26 people, including 20 children, in Newtown, Connecticut.
The most powerful lobbying group in America had been utterly silent for four full days about Friday’s massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Any time a mass murder occurs in our country, the gun toting enthusiast go into psycho mode, and often hide behind the second amendment, and as Ed Shultz of MSNBC said last night, "this tactic doesn't cut it anymore"!
New York cities mayor Michael Bloomberg went on Meet the Press today and told Obama he should skirt Congress and the Constitution and take executive action against firearms owners in the United States. I agree! Bloomberg continued: “It’s time for the president, I think, to stand up and lead and tell this country what we should do — not go to Congress and say, ‘What do you guys want to do?’ This should be his number one agenda. He’s president of the United States".
The Second Amendment to the US constitution is a fossil, preserving antiquated concerns that have no relevance to the modern world. The second amendment allowed for "muskets", not semi automatic assault rifles, nor pistols with large clips. We need to change this antiquated amendment ASAP!
The US Constitution develops over time, and as circumstances change, it should be reinterpreted in the light of those circumstances.
Any attempt to ban private ownership of firearms would require a constitutional amendment, and I don't see much likelihood of that, no matter how many schoolchildren die.
The question to consider is the degree to which the rights of the Second Amendment can be limited, because the Bill of Rights is not absolute. Libel law, for example, limits free speech, and I doubt that if Aztecs were still among us they could persuade the courts that human sacrifice was permissible as free exercise of religious belief.
You cannot legally take a car onto the road without demonstrating to the state that you are proficient to operate it without presenting a hazard to others. If we were in a sane Union, we would be able to discuss what reasonable limitations might be imposed on ownership of semiautomatic weapons, assault rifles, and other ordnance.
But, as we are all aware, we have not behaved much like a sane Union in recent years.
Yes Tea baggers, I am in fact, one of those liberals who would not mind if every handgun and assault weapon in the United States not in custody of the military and police were melted down into slag and dropped into the nearest shit hole. Please attend to the above before commenting in Red Dawn-inspired hysteria that Democrats are conspiring with POTUS the Antichrist to disarm you.
Call me crazy readers, but I think the right to own a gun is trumped by the right not to be shot by one.
While I want to jam home the problem of 300 million weapons that exist in our country, I need to take time to hit another set of douche bags, and these oxygen thief's are better known as the Westboro Baptist Church.
Finally, a group who despises these assclowns more than I.
The hacking collective known as Anonymous renewed their war on the Westboro Baptist Church today. After the haters from the infamous church posted their intentions to picket the funerals of the twenty children killed in the shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, Anonymous responded by re-posting the personal and professional information for members of the church on the Internet. Now the general public can contact the church members directly and tell them what they think about people who would desecrate the funerals of murdered children.
Westboro Baptist Church has been irritating Americans for years with venom filled message about their demented version of God. According to the many closely related and intermarried members of the Phelps family who make up the majority of the congregation of the so-called church, God enjoys killing children and soldiers. They constantly proclaim God hates homosexuals and plans to destroy America for not following the Westboro Baptist Church’s twisted version of Christianity. The incredible obsession with homosexuality expressed by Fred and family seems to many as a sure fire case of “thou dost protest too much.”
Anonymous has been after the Westboro Baptist Church for several months now, hacking their websites repeatedly. Recently, they accused the church of creating a fake letter from the hacking group in order to trick other hackers into attacking the website. Anonymous warned their supporters the church planned to harvest internet addresses and sue people. Suing people is apparently the primary activity of the Westboro Baptist Church when they aren’t screaming hate at funerals.
Of course, Westboro denied the charges and taunted Anonymous as incompetent hackers. They claimed their website was protected by God. Big mistake. A few days later, while a Westboro spokeswoman was boasting about how the church foiled Anonymous on a radio talk show, an Anonymous spokesman called in and hacked the church’s website in real time on the air.
Hopefully saner heads will prevail and nothing terrible will occur if the Westboro Baptist Church shows up in Newtown, Connecticut. The State Police made the extraordinary decision to assign a trooper to each of the victim’s families to prevent unwelcome idiots from tormenting them and to protect their privacy.
It is hard to imagine what kind of person would attend the funerals for these children and promote the hate filled message of the Phelps family and their followers. While we certainly do not condone illegal activity, it is hard not to root for Anonymous as they take it to these sad, pathetic excuses for human beings from the Westboro Baptist Church. If the Church’s website is offline forever, it wouldn’t be a moment too soon for me and most Americans.
Below is the note and voice message sent to the church.
Hello, Westboro Baptist Church.
Allow us to introduce ourselves. We are Anonymous.
As you may not have acknowledged our existence, we, on the other-hand, have recognized yours. We have seen your depraved methods of disseminating your message of hate throughout The United States of America. We have witnessed you defaming the memories of those who sacrificed themselves for the security of our nation, disrupting the peace of the educational environment within high schools and universities, breeding hatred within the fragile minds of your own next of kin, desecrating the name of God by protesting in the proximity of churches and synagogues, and mangling the biblical text to conform in accordance with your malevolent cause.
Your pseudo-faith is abhorrent, and your leaders, repugnant. Your impact and cause is hazardous to the lives of millions and you fail to see the wrong in promoting the deaths of innocent people. You are self-appointed servants of God who rewrite the words of His sacred scripture to adhere to your prejudice. Your hatred supersedes your faith, and you use faith to promote your hatred.
Since your one-dimensional thought protocol will conform not to any modern logic, we will not debate, argue, or attempt to reason with you. Instead, we have unanimously deemed your organization to be harmful to the population of The United States of America, and have therefore decided to execute an agenda of action which will progressively dismantle your institution of deceitful pretext and extreme bias, and cease when your zealotry runs dry. We recognize you as serious opponents, and do not expect our campaign to terminate in a short period of time. Attrition is our weapon, and we will waste no time, money, effort, and enjoyment, in tearing your resolve into pieces, as with exposing the incongruity of your distorted faith.
Anonymous possesses a plethora of information within our network about the many divisions of Christianity and numerous other religious doctrines. Many of us are versed in the biblical text, and we can identify each and every of your violations of scripture. You abuse the Holy Bible which you do not fully comprehend and know not of the thousands of authors to impose upon other people when you can simply coalesce with your loved ones and live in the manner you deem plausible. You engage in reciprocal fornication with another man and preach adultery as a sin. You, Shirley Lynn Phelps-Roper violated Deuteronomy 5:18. As a result, your son Sam is the living, breathing proof of your act of simple loneliness. Simply put, it takes not a genius to realize an arrogant woman's loose moral string, and its predilection to progressively wither and fray.
From the time you have received this message, our attack protocol has past been executed and your downfall is underway. Do not attempt to delude yourselves into thinking you can escape our reach, for we are everywhere, and all-seeing, in the same sense as God. We are a body of individuals who fight for a purpose higher than self, and seek to bring the malevolent intent of the malefactors to light.
We will not allow you to corrupt the minds of America with your seeds of hatred. We will not allow you to inspire aggression to the social factions which you deem inferior. We will render you obsolete. We will destroy you. We are coming.
Everyone is equal. We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not Forgive. We do not Forget. Expect us.
Also to note, the KKK has also planned to conduct a counter protest of the church as well when they arrive in CT. When the KKK steps in as the voice of reason, you know you are dealing with the bottom-of-the-barrel crazy!
Gun advocates need to stop hiding behind the Second Amendment after every time mass shootings like this occur, and we need to impose upon the nation’s lawmakers to recognize changes going on in our country - and to get serious about cracking down on guns.
Lets be real readers, the men responsible for drafting and writing the Constitution themselves owned slaves, and by modern standards - they would certainly be considered not very tolerant men.
Times they are a changing in these here United States, and as attitudes change, lawmakers need to recognize this. Both sides of the isle, all politicians need to stop listening to the NRA Bully Pulpit, AKA the gun lobbyist and start seriously addressing the issue of gun control.
In a perfect world, for our system (Democracy) to work we need a transparent forum where the public can be assured that issues are debated fairly and reasonably; where those who’s job it is to study, investigate and inform are free from threat or retribution; and, we need a government who is unafraid and will consider all the evidence – wherever it may lead. Unfortunately, we live in the real world where the NRA, the bullies in the American political schoolyard, have stymied dialogue, intimated policy makers (current and future) and corrupted our electoral system almost beyond recognition.
That is axiomatic and only the most strident and extreme gun zealots would argue with this characterization of the NRA’s pernicious effect on our body politic. But now, as if we needed more, we have fresh evidence of the deleterious impact the bullies have had on even just the studying of the effect of the proliferation of guns in our society.
You can buy an unlimited number of guns in Arizona. You can buy gun parts piece by piece in any part of the country and put one together without ever having a to be exposed to a waiting period or a background check.
Loopholes in laws exist everywhere, acquiring guns is know different. Gun show loop holes have to be closed, period!
I was thinking while sitting at my desk right after this event, and one failed attempt at a shoe bomb, and we all take off our shoes at the airport; 31 school shootings since Columbine, and no change in our regulations of guns! Why is this you ask, because of "The American Bully Pulpit" AKA The National Rifle Association. Until we stand up to these bullies, we shall ever never escape the chains of unregulated gun laws.
If your first reaction to this horrible act or any shooting is to think or say; "Oh shit, Obama and the socialist liberals are going to try to take our guns and second amendments away" - then your priorities as a human being suck at best, and your mentality pretty much makes you as f*&ked up as the shooter himself!
At a minimum: If food stampers have to take drug tests to get the stamps, then people whom want to buy a gun should have to take and pass a psychological evaluation!
The only good news is that the best antidote to NRA-style contemptuous behavior and manipulation of our political system is exactly what our Founders (at least some of them) envisioned: a informed, engaged citizenry. If and when we actually turn on the light, the political cockroaches, the NRA, and those whom hide behind their second amendment rights, shall scurry back into the darkness, to never ever be heard from, or feared from again.
I would close with: "Dear Gun Toting Second Amendment Holy Roller Internet People: Maybe choose another day to make pro-gun statements. Sincerely, Good Taste"
**David Gregory of Meet The Press called 31 people in congress who support guns to come on his show this am. Not one would go on his show!
MYTH #2: The Second Amendment prohibits strict gun control. While the Supreme Court ruled in D.C. v. Heller that bans on handgun ownership were unconstitutional, the ruling gives the state and federal governments a great deal of latitude to regulate that gun ownership as they choose. As the U.S. Second Court of Appeals put it in a recent ruling upholding a New York regulation, “The state’s ability to regulate firearms and, for that matter, conduct, is qualitatively different in public than in the home. Heller reinforces this view. In striking D.C.’s handgun ban, the Court stressed that banning usable handguns in the home is a ‘policy choice[]‘ that is ‘off the table,’ but that a variety of other regulatory options remain available, including categorical bans on firearm possession in certain public locations.”
MYTH #3: State-level gun controls haven’t worked. Scholars Richard Florida and Charlotta Mellander recently studied state-to-state variation in gun homicide levels. They found that “[f]irearm deaths are significantly lower in states with stricter gun control legislation.” This is backed up by research on local gun control efforts and cross-border gun violence.
MYTH #4: We only need better enforcement of the laws we have, not new laws. In fact, Congress has passed several laws that cripple the ability for current gun regulations to be enforced the way that they’re supposed to. According to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, a series of federal laws referred to as the Tiahrt amendments “limit public access to crime gun trace data, prohibit the use of gun trace data in hearings, pertaining to licensure of gun dealers and litigation against gun dealers, and restrict ATF’s authority to require gun dealers to conduct a physical inventory of their firearms.” Other federal laws “limited the ATF compliance inspections” and grant “broad protections from lawsuits against firearm manufacturers and retail sellers.”
MYTH #5: Sensible gun regulation is prohibitively unpopular. Not necessarily. As the New Republic’s Amy Sullivan reported after the series of mass shootings this summer, a majority of Americans would prefer both to enforce existing law more strictly and pass new regulations on guns when given the option to choose both rather than either/or. Specific gun regulations are also often more popular than the abstract idea.
The time for talk and debate is over, its time for the reduction on numbers of weapons American's can own. If we require food-stampers to urinate for their right to eat and feed their families, its time to require that all potential gun owners test and pass a psychological medical exam. This would be just the beginning for the "right to bear an arm" holy rollers!
Get ready second amendment enthusiasts, your rights as you know it is about to change, and rightly so! I just wish you gun toters where as gung-ho about serving your country as you are about being able to carry a weapon - and making sure you country has better healthcare, but as most sane American's know, you selfish "patriots" are all about you!
In case your folks lost your spine, your compassion, your Christianity, your mind, 20 kids under the age of 7 died because a mental patient got access to Weapons of Mass Destruction, weapons purchased legally might I add. If this is not a problem to you, and doesn't make you question your countries gun laws, then you are just as f*&cked up as Adam Lanza!
Faux News has been raging over the airwaves with reports and interviews surrounded by what they are characterizing as a unprovoked assault, and assault on one of their own "contributors" - by a bunch of “leftist union thugs”. Unfortunately for The American Taliban, a simple review of their own raw video footage clearly shows Crowder knocking a union member to the ground, who in turn leveled several punches back at Crowder. And rightly so!
Steven Crowder, the Fox News contributor and Breitbart acolyte who admits he went to Lansing, Michigan union protests looking for trouble and is now touting, with a lot of help from Fox News, a highly-edited video showing him getting punched by “union thugs,” was on Hannity again last night. But this time, there was another guest who accused Crowder of pushing the man to the ground first. Hannity denied that happened. But Crowder never did.
Unfortunately for Mr. Crowder, a look at the video broadcast on the Sean Hannity show appears to show quite clearly that he left out an important section of the footage when he put together his edit. A section of the Fox News broadcast preserved by the Web site Mediaite shows that Mr. Hannity’s producers at Fox News started the clip five seconds earlier than Mr. Crowder did. What the extra footage reveals is the man who punched Mr. Crowder being knocked to the ground seconds before and then getting up and taking a swing at the comedian.
There is one more anomaly in Mr. Crowder’s edit of the footage shot by his associates. The still frame he used for the clip’s title image on YouTube, which offers a much clearer image of the man punching him, was obviously shot by a second camera, from an entirely different angle than the rest of the footage he presented of the man hitting him. If Mr. Crowder wants to clear up the mystery of exactly what happened just before he was punched, it might make sense for him to release any footage of the incident shot from that second angle.
Crowder's footage has obviously been edited to cut out a portion where he pushes the man to the ground. Notice the choppy edit at 0:38.
CROWDER'S EDITED VERSION
We have learned much over time, and the list is long, a list of radical tea baggers whom would toss their own flesh under the bus for 15 minutes of fame, or to portray the Democrats in an bad light: Breitbart.com et al, Dana Loesch, Chris Crowder, James O'Keefe, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Glenn Beck would be a few whom have few scruples when it comes to reporting on "leftist socialist".
Crowder went on Fux Ewes the very night of his pummeling and was seen stammering about threats of arrests, bounty money to find the man whom kicked his ass, to challenge the man to a sanctioned cage match fight.......hopefully Crowder fights better inside an octagon rather than how poor he did at the Union busting rally, as his cowering girlish antics in Michigan would certainly garner him a much bigger and sever ass whipping! I would pay much to see someone legally beat the shit out of Steven Crowder!
Hey Steven Crowder, "Hey Mr. America", in the most famous words of your beloved mentor.......behave yourself, behave yourself you freak, stop raping the videos! You filthy, filthy freak, stop raping the videos.
Steven Crowder, this weeks worst person in the world!
The Michigan State Senate continued with its power grab and passed HB 5711, an omnibus anti-abortion bill that sparked widespread protests over the summer when it was first considered in the House, by a 27-10 vote on Wednesday afternoon. The legislation has been stalled since it passed Michigan’s House in June.
The measure represents one of the nation’s most far-reaching abortion restrictions. When Michigan lawmakers first took up HB 5711 over the summer, hundreds of protesters rallied against the massive 45-page, GOP-sponsored legislation. HB 5711 would impose a host of new restrictions on women seeking to terminate a pregnancy — such as requiring doctors to prove that their patients haven’t been “coerced” into having the procedure, limiting abortion access for women in rural areas, and imposing guidelines for disposing of fetal remains in the same way that the state disposes of dead bodies. The legislation also seeks to mandate unnecessarily and complicated regulations that could force the state’s abortion clinics out of business.
In addition to the recently approved anti-union legislation that Michigan lawmakers pushed through their current lame duck session, state legislators have also been busy advancing a slew of extreme anti-choice initiatives over the past week. The Michigan Senate approved measures that will prevent private insurance companies from offering coverage for abortion services and allow doctors to refuse to perform abortions based solely on their personal beliefs.
HB 5711 is now headed back to the House to be considered for final passage, since the Senate made a few minor changes to the legislation. Republicans hold the majority in the state’s House by a 59-51 margin.
Armed with tear gas canisters, pepper spray and batons, State Police officers guarded the Capitol as protesters shouted "No justice, no peace!" and "Shut it down!" Amid throngs of protestors Michigan’s House of Representatives passed the “right-to-work” law for public sector unions, 58-51. It is expected to vote on similar legislation applying to private sector unions later today. Gov. Rick Snyder (R) is also expected to sign the legislation into law today or early tomorrow.
Michigan Republicans [Michigan's version of "The American Taliban] claim the state needs the measure to stay competitive with Indiana, where lawmakers passed “right-to-work” last year. In reality, though, such laws have negative effects on workers and little effect on economic growth. Here is what you need to know about the state GOP’s campaign:
THE LEGISLATION: Both the state House and state Senate passed legislation on Thursday that prohibits private sector unions from requiring members to pay dues. The Senate followed suit and passed a different but similar measure that extends the same prohibition for public sector unions, though firefighters and police officers are exempt. The state House included a budget appropriations provision that is intended to prevent the state’s voters from being able to legally challenge the law through a ballot referendum. Due to state law, both houses are prevented from voting on legislation passed by the other for five days, so neither will be able to fully pass the legislation until Tuesday at the earliest.
THE PROCESS: Union leaders and Democrats claim that Republicans are pushing the legislation through in the lame-duck session to hide the intent of the measures from citizens, and because the legislation would face more trouble after the new House convenes in January. Michigan Republicans hold a 63-47 advantage in the state House, but Democrats narrowed the GOP majority to just eight seats in November. Six Republicans opposed the House measure; five of them won re-election in 2012 (the sixth retired). And Michigan Republicans have good reason to pursue the laws without public debate. Though the state’s voters are evenly split on whether it should become a right-to-work state, 78 percent of voters said the legislature “should focus on issues like creating jobs and improving education, and not changing state laws or rules that would impact unions or make further changes in collective bargaining.”
THE CONSEQUENCES: While Snyder and Republicans pitched “right-to-work” as a pro-worker move aimed at improving the economy, studies show such legislation can cost workers money. The Economic Policy Institute found that right-to-work laws cost all workers, union and otherwise, $1,500 a year in wages and that they make it harder for workers to obtain pensions and health coverage. “If benefits coverage in non-right-to-work states were lowered to the levels of states with these laws, 2 million fewer workers would receive health insurance and 3.8 million fewer workers would receive pensions nationwide,” David Madland and Karla Walter from the Center for American Progress wrote earlier this year. The decreases in union membership that result from right-to-work laws have a significant impact on the middle class and research “shows that there is no relationship between right-to-work laws and state unemployment rates, state per capita income, or state job growth,” EPI wrote in a recent report about Michigan. “Right-to-work” laws also decrease worker safety and can hurt small businesses.
Union leaders are, of course, aghast at Snyder and the GOP’s right-to-work push. “In a state that gave birth to the modern U.S. labor movement, it is unconscionable that Michigan legislators would seek to drive down living standards for Michigan workers and families with a law that will do nothing to improve either the state’s economic climate or the quality of life for Michigan residents,” RoseAnn DeMoro, the executive director of National Nurses United, said in a statement.
Radical Tea Baggers obviously didn't get the message last November. These remaining douche bags in office need to be sent packing when it's time for their re-election! Make your voice heard readers!
Virginia State Senator Charles “Bill” Carrico Sr. (R) has become the latest swing state-Republican to propose a scheme to rig presidential elections for future Republican candidates. Blue Virginia reports his proposedSB 723 would award the state’s electors based on which candidate gets the majority of votes in each gerrymandered Congressional district — rather than based on who gets the most votes statewide.
The Carrico bill would award one of Virginia’s 13 electoral votes to the presidential candidate who gets the most votes in each of the Commonwealth’s 11 Congressional Districts. The remaining two electors would go to the candidate who won the majority of Congressional Districts. With a Republican-controlled redistricting passed earlier this year, Virginia Democrats were heavily packed into three districts. Under these maps, Obama won Virginia by almost a 4 point margin, yet he carried just four Virginia Congressional Districts. Were Carrico’s scheme in place, Mitt Romney would have received seven of Virginia’s 11 electoral votes despite receiving just 47.28% of the vote statewide.
Carrico’s proposal is part of a troubling national trend by Republican legislators in GOP-controlled states won by President Obama in the 2008 and 2012 elections. The Pennsylvania Senate Majority Leader and Ohio Secretary of State have suggested similar schemes in those states. While constitutional, the scheme would make it far more likely that the popular choice for president would not be elected to that office. No such efforts have emerged in GOP-controlled states won by the Republican nominees.
Indeed, if this plan to rig the Electoral College had been law in several key Republican-controlled states that President Obama won last month, America would now be looking at a very different future. Had the Carrico plan been instituted for the 2012 elections in Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Virginia, and Wisconsin, it is quite likely Mitt Romney would be the president-elect despite President Obama’s 51-47 majority.
Study shows that the Americans who watch Fox News have an average IQ of 80, whereas the national average is 100. Researchers were not "shocked" by findings.
Birmingham, Alabama (PRWEB) December 04, 2012
The results of a 4 year study show that Americans who obtain their news from Fox News channel have an average IQ of 80, which represents a 20 point deficit when compared to the U.S. national average of 100. IQ, or intelligence quotient, is the international standard of assessing intelligence.
Researchers at The Intelligence Institute, a conservative non-profit group, tested 5,000 people using a series of tests that measure everything from cognitive aptitude to common sense and found that people who identified themselves as Fox News viewers and 'conservative' had, on average, significantly lower intelligent quotients. Fox Viewers represented 2,650 members of the test group.
One test involved showing subjects a series of images and measuring their vitals, namely pulse rate and blood pressure. The self-identified conservatives' vitals increased over 35% when shown complex or shocking images. The image that caused the most stress was a poorly edited picture of President Obama standing next to a "ghostly" image of a child holding a tarantula.
Test subjects who received their news from other outlets or reported they do not watch the news scored an average IQ of 104, compared to 80 for Fox News viewers.
Lead researcher, P. Nichols, explains:
"Less intelligent animals rely on instinct when confronted by something which they do not understand. This is an ancient survival reaction all animals, including humans, exhibit. It's a very simple phenomenon, really; think about a dog being afraid of a vacuum cleaner. He doesn't know what a vacuum is or if it may harm him, so he becomes agitated and barks at it. Less intelligent humans do the same thing. Concepts that are too complex for them to understand, may frighten or anger them."
He continues, "Fox News' content is presented at an elementary school level and plays directly into the fears of the less educated and less intelligent."
The researchers said that an IQ of 80 is well above the score of 70, which is where psychiatrists diagnose mental retardation. P. Nichols says an IQ of 80 will not limit anyone's ability to lead happy, fulfilling lives.
The study did not conclude if Fox News contributed to lowering IQ or if it attracts less intelligent humans.
P. Nichols concludes that he wasn't shocked by the studies' results, rather how dramatic their range:
"Several previous studies show that self-identified conservatives are less intelligent than self-identified moderates. We have never seen such a homogeneous group teetering so close to special needs levels."
Charlie Crist signed papers changing to Democrat at a Christmas reception at the White House.
Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who was elected the state's chief executive as a Teapublican and then ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate as an independent, announced on Twitter that he's switching to the Democratic Party.
The announcement Friday night fanned speculation that Crist would seek to regain his old job from TeapublicanGov. Rick Scott in 2014.
Crist sent out a tweet that said, "Proud and honored to join the Democratic Party in the home of President @Barack Obama!"
The tweet included a photo of a smiling Crist and his wife Carole as he held up a Florida voter registration application. Crist signed the papers changing his affiliation from independent to Democrat at a Christmas reception at the White House. President Barack Obama greeted the news with a fist bump.
"I've had friends for years tell me, `You know Charlie, you're a Democrat and you don't know it,'" Crist told the newspaper Friday night.
He cited the Teapublican Party's shift to the right on a range of issues, including immigration, education and the environment.
Crist was elected Florida governor in 2006 while in the GOP. As he moved to run for the U.S. Senate in 2010, he faced a tough primary challenge from the right and bolted the GOP to run as an independent. He lost a three-way Senate contest in 2010 to Teapublican Marco Rubio.
Crist, 56, spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., that nominated Obama for a second term and campaigned for his re-election.
Crist's decision to switch to a Democrat will increase speculation that he intends to challenge Scott, a former hospital chain CEO who has struggled with low favorability ratings since taking office. Crist has already criticized Scott for refusing to extend early voting despite pleas from U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and other Democrats.
But it is unlikely that Crist would get a clear path to the Democratic nomination. Former State Sen. Nan Rich, D-Weston, has already jumped into the race and former Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink could run. Sink barely lost the 2010 governor's race to Scott. Some Democrats remain wary of Crist and even outgoing Florida Democratic Party Chairman Rod Smith has joked that just because someone joins the congregation, "you don't make them the preacher."
Steve Schale, a Democratic political consultant who worked on Obama's Florida campaign, called Crist a "viable Democrat."
"He earned his stripes when he supported the president," Schale said.
But Schale predicted that if Crist runs for governor, he would likely get a challenge from Sink and other Democrats and would have to endure a hard-fought primary.
Teapublicans in recent weeks have already ramped up their criticism of Crist and have pointed out that in the past he was critical of Obama and once described himself as a Teapublican in the mold of President Ronald Reagan and Crist's predecessor as governor, Jeb Bush.
"Charlie Crist's first official act as a Democrat was to tell a lie about why he is now pretending to be one," the Florida GOP said in a statement early Saturday. "The truth is that this self-professed, Ronald Reagan Teapublicanonly abandoned his pro-life, pro-gun, conservative principles in 2010 after he realized that Republicans didn't want to send him to Washington D.C. as a senator, especially after he proved he couldn't do the job as governor."
Rick Wilson, a Florida-based Teapublican consultant, predicted that Crist would have to spend the next 14 months explaining how his switch to Democrat was something beyond just his own political ambitions.
It's that most wonderful time of year when Fox News starts drumming up the case for a "War on Christmas," and Jon Stewart isn't putting up with it anymore. Host Gretchen Carlson asked on air whether she was "nuts" to think the war was real, and on last night's Daily Show, Stewart was happy to set her straight: "Yes, you're f--king nuts." Sure, Faux News can scrounge for isolated moments of anti-Christmas spirit, but "the rest of us can't swing a dead elf without knocking over an inflatable snow globe or a giant blinking candy cane," Stewart bellows.
And Christmas, which used to last just one day, "like birthdays do," is only growing: This year, Black Friday expanded into Black Thursday, "or as we used to call it, Thanksgiving. Christmas is so big now, it's eating other holidays," Stewart proclaims. "Watch your ass, Halloween, you're next!"
Jon Stewart on Wednesday had harsh words for Senate Republicans whoblocked the ratification of a UN treaty to protect the rights of disabled people. Republicans voted against the treaty, citing concern over its impact on parents who home school their children.
“What is wrong with you people?” Stewart asked. “I guess it’s time for our new segment: ‘Please tell me this is rock bottom."
Stewart continued: “Oh, my God. It’s official. Republicans hate the United Nations more than they like helping people in wheelchairs.”
The treaty says all nations should work to ensure that disabled people enjoy the same rights and freedoms as other citizens.
The treaty was backed by Mr Dole, who was disabled in World War II, Arizona Senator John McCain, who sustained disabling injuries in the Vietnam War, Indiana Senator Richard Lugar, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, and former Attorney General Dick Thornburgh.
The treaty was signed by 155 nations and ratified by 126, including Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia.
The 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, which sought to protect equal rights for the disabled, became the basis of the UN treaty.
It was negotiated under former President George W Bush's administration and signed by President Barack Obama in 2009.
About 10% of the world's population - or 650 million people - are disabled, UN estimates suggest.
Let's be real here readers the American Taliban dislikes the UN just as much as they hate their own Government. So who loses here, once again those less fortunate.
NFTOS
Editor-In-Chief
Roger West
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Taxes on the wealthy are going up, House Speaker John Boehner conceded Wednesday in challenging President Barack Obama to sit down with him to hammer out a deal for avoiding the fiscal cliff.
Obama, however, continued to insist on Republicans first ensuring no tax hike for anyone but the top 2% of Americans as a first step toward a broader agreement on tackling the nation's chronic federal deficits and debt.
The statements reflected how negotiations on the automatic spending cuts and tax hikes set to occur on January 1 -- the fiscal cliff -- have evolved since Obama's re-election last month.
Republicans once opposed to any new revenue in their quest to shrink government now realize Obama's victory and public support for the president's campaign theme of higher taxes on the wealthy leave them with little negotiating leverage.
Less than four weeks from the fiscal cliff, GOP leaders face a choice: Agreeing to Obama's demand to hold down tax rates on most Americans while allowing higher rates on top earners, or being blamed for everyone's taxes going up in 2013.
The major unresolved question of negotiations involving the White House and congressional leaders is whether eliminating tax deductions and loopholes -- as proposed by House Republicans -- can raise enough revenue without hitting middle-class Americans too hard.
"We have got to cut spending and I believe it is appropriate to put revenues on the table," Boehner told reporters on Wednesday. "Now, the revenues that we are putting on the table are going to come from guess who? The rich."
He continued by saying "there are ways to limit deductions, close loopholes and have the same people pay more of their money to the federal government without raising tax rates, which we believe will harm our economy."
In remarks to business leaders on Wednesday, Obama said Boehner and Republicans have to take the first step.
"I think there is recognition that maybe they can accept some rate increases as long as it is combined with serious entitlement reform and additional spending cuts," the president said. "And if we can get the leadership on the Republican side to take that framework, to acknowledge that reality, then the numbers actually aren't that far apart."
He added that "we can probably solve this in about a week -- it's not that tough."
At the same time, Obama rejected tying the negotiations to the need to raise the federal debt ceiling, like the brinksmanship last year that led to an unprecedented downgrade in the U.S. credit rating.
Boehner has said a debt ceiling increase would require an equal amount of spending cuts or other deficit reduction.
"If Congress, in any way, suggests that they are going to tie negotiations to debt ceiling votes and take us to the brink of default once again as part of a budget negotiation, which by the way we have never done in our history until we did it last year, I will not play that game," Obama said. "Because we've got to break that habit before it starts."
Economists warn that the fiscal cliff's automatic tax hikes and spending cuts would invite recession.
Polls show that more Americans will blame Republicans, instead of Obama and Democrats, if there is no deal and the nation goes over the fiscal cliff.
A Washington Post/Pew Research Center survey released Tuesday put the margin at 53%-27% in citing Republicans or Obama. A CNN/ORC International poll released last week showed 45% would blame congressional Republicans compared to 34% who would hold Obama responsible.
Republican Rep. Raul Labrador of Idaho acknowledged Wednesday that his side was losing the messaging battle.
"We continue to talk about tax rate increases instead of how tax rate increases actually affect individuals," Labrador said, adding: "We're identified as a party that only cares about business. We should care about individuals."
All signs point to a continuing standoff, at least for now. No formal negotiating sessions are known to be scheduled, and congressional aides say no back-channel discussions are taking place.
The House is scheduled to adjourn for the year on December 14, but House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Wednesday the chamber would remain in session until a fiscal cliff deal gets reached.
Boehner and other Republican leaders implored through the media for Obama to talk to them about the deficit-reduction plan they offered earlier this week, which the White House rejected as unrealistic.
Asked about Congress scheduling no further business this week with GOP members going home, Boehner said: "I'll be here and I'll be available at any moment to sit down with the president to get serious about solving this problem
Rep. Kevin McCarthy added a dramatic flair, calling the next 72 hours "critical" for the negotiations.
If Obama "sits back and continue to play politics, that'll give your answer of where we're going," he said, calling the moment "an opportunity for the president to lead."
At issue are competing proposals by Obama and House Republicans that coincide in some areas but differ on the tax-rate question.
Obama demands that the House immediately pass a measure already approved by the Senate to extend tax cuts for families making less than $250,000 a year while allowing rates to return to higher Clinton-era levels for wealthier households.
Both sides agree that the 98% of Americans making less than $250,000 a year should avoid a tax hike when the tax cuts from the Bush administration expire on December 31, Obama and Democrats argue. They call for the House to guarantee that outcome by passing the Senate measure now.
Once that happens, Obama and Democratic leaders promise, they will work out compromises on other deficit reduction steps sought by Republicans, such as reforms to the Medicare and Medicaid entitlement programs as part of further spending cuts.
In an interview with Bloomberg TV aired on Tuesday, Obama said Republicans need to accept the reality that deficit reduction requires higher tax rates on the wealthy.
"The issue right now, that is relevant, is the acknowledgment that if we're going to raise revenues that are sufficient to balance with the very tough cuts that we have already made and the future reforms in entitlements that I'm prepared to make, then we are going to have to see the rates on the top 2% go up, " the president said. "We will not be able to get a deal without it."
At the same time, Obama said negotiations next year on broader tax reform could bring lower rates.
House Republicans led by Boehner made a major proposal on Monday by offering a series of steps to reduce the nation's chronic federal deficits by $2.2 trillion over 10 years.
The GOP proposal includes $800 billion from tax reform, $600 billion from Medicare reforms and other health savings and $600 billion in other spending cuts, House Republican leadership aides said. It also pledges $200 billion in savings by revising the consumer price index, a measure of inflation.
While the Republicans gave ground by calling for more revenue through tax reform, the plan only mentioned unspecified elimination of some deductions and loopholes.
At the same time, they rejected the Democratic call for higher tax rates on wealthier Americans, contending the move would inhibit economic growth by raising taxes on small business owners, many of whom declare business profits on their personal income tax returns.
The White House and Democratic leaders immediately rejected the Republican approach, saying it lacked specifics and would require middle-class taxpayers to assume a greater burden while easing rates on the rich.
Jason Furman, an assistant to Obama on economic policy, told reporters Wednesday that the president wants to ensure additional revenue from higher taxes on the wealthy now to help avoid the fiscal cliff. He described the Republican proposal for more revenue as lacking specifics.
"Tell us what it is. Show us a score," Furman said. "Tell us how it locks in revenue because you're trying to actually pass a bill this year, not engage in some long process around tax reform, which we don't have time to do by the end of this year. "
On Tuesday, leading conservatives blasted the House Republican proposal that breaks with years of GOP orthodoxy by calling for more taxes to be paid by wealthier Americans.
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-South Carolina, said the "offer of an $800 billion tax hike will destroy jobs and allow politicians in Washington to spend even more." Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, said it would be "a huge mistake to raise taxes. It will cripple the economy."
However, some top Senate Republicans -- many of them conservatives -- withheld harsh criticism of the plan even as they refused to embrace it.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell sidestepped the question when asked directly if he backed the plan.
"I commend the House Republican leadership for trying to move the process along and getting to a point where, hopefully, we can have a real discussion," McConnell said.
Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, a senior Republican on the Finance Committee, said he would support Boehner's plan to raise revenue, but only if there is a "willingness on the part of Democrats to accept spending cuts that are three-to-one or four-to-one."
The current negotiations take place amid the lame-duck session of Congress before the newly elected legislators arrive in January. Possible outcomes include an agreement now to avoid the fiscal cliff and devise a framework for further negotiations in the new Congress on a broader deficit reduction deal.
While the White House has made clear Obama will veto any measure that fails to increase tax rates on the wealthy, aides have signaled a possible willingness to negotiate the specific rate increase.
Asked repeatedly Tuesday about whether Obama insisted on a return to the 1990s rates on income over $250,000 for families or $200,000 for individuals, White House spokesman Jay Carney responded by saying the president would refuse to sign any measure extending the current lower rates.
In the interview with Bloomberg TV, Obama said lower tax rates for the wealthy could be negotiated as part of broader tax reform in 2013, but only after those rates increase now.
Obama's deficit-reduction plan would increase taxes by almost $1 trillion over 10 years, a significant portion of a $4 trillion overall deficit-reduction goal.
It also would close loopholes, limit deductions, raise the estate tax rate to 2009 levels and increases tax rates on capital gains and dividends.
The Obama plan includes $50 billion in stimulus spending for programs intended to create jobs, such as repairing roads and bridges.
Experts have said failing to reach a fiscal cliff deal and devise a framework for a broader deficit reduction package to be negotiated when the new Congress is seated in January will cause economic turmoil.
The non-partisan Tax Policy Center estimates that middle-class families would pay about $2,000 a year more in taxes without action.
For now, the debate has the business community perplexed, said Fred Smith, the chief executive officer of FedEx Corp., considered a bellwether on the economy.
Smith told CNN Tuesday that he and other top business leaders "look at the situation in Washington with complete amazement and dismay."
"The problem is the ideological pinnings on both sides of this argument are so difficult to bridge," Smith said, adding it will "be hard for them to get a deal."
