GUNS IN AIRPORTS COURTESY OF THE NRA

On Friday, a gunman “pulled a Smith & Wesson .223-caliber assault rifle from his duffel bag” and opened fire on an airport. Officials have arrested the alleged shooter, 23-year-old Paul Ciancia, who killed a TSA agent and wounded six others at a security checkpoint. The incident is the second airport shooting in six months.

The National Rifle Association has not yet said a word on the tragedy (the day before, the NRA tweeted a story about the so-called “exploitation” of Sandy Hook). But in the past, the NRA has vigorously campaigned to make it easier to bring firearms into airports and criticized TSA agents for their aggressive efforts to ensure guns don’t make it onto a plane. Federal law prevents all travelers from transporting firearms beyond checkpoints (they must be unloaded, checked, and declared in luggage), but the NRA has been a force in weakening state law to permit guns before the security checkpoint.

Advance laws that allow guns in airport terminals.
Over the last decade, the NRA has repeatedly lobbied against airport firearm restrictions. According to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, states including Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin either expressly allow firearms in specific sections or only prohibit firearms in airports beyond checkpoints.

And in California in 2012, the NRA formally opposed Assembly Bill 2182, which would have required a person be arrested if they brought a firearm into the airport and ban them from entering in the future. The bill never moved from committee. More recently, bills introduced in Virginia, Georgia, and Ohio would allow people to carry their weapons inside.

Intimidate TSA agents for aggressively screening for guns.
When the TSA subjected a girl carrying a firearm-shaped purse to extra questioning, the NRA responded that this extra precaution constituted harassment. “We shouldn’t be surprised that security personnel who see nothing wrong with humiliating 85-year-old women at our nation’s airports might see a teenage girl sporting a purse with a firearm motif as a potential danger,” NRA President David Keene said said at the time. “But it should upset us as much as it did her and her parents.” The extra scrutiny may be needed: TSA agents have confiscated 30 percent more guns from passengers, many of them loaded, in 2013 compared to last year. Most travelers say they “forgot” they had the firearm, which has made sociologists think the trend is a result of people being permitted to carry their guns virtually anywhere.

Endorse candidates who oppose limiting guns at airports.
The NRA’s “A-rated” allies are trying to make it even easier to access guns in airports. Virginia Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli and Virginia Attorney General candidate Mark Obenshain voted against a 2004 bill banning guns in airport terminals (it passed anyway). The NRA has spent more than $500,000 to make Cuccinelli Virginia’s next governor.

The NRA will likely argue that this shooting is more proof guns restrictions should be weakened, not strengthened in public areas, since a bystander could intervene in a shooting. All the best research points to this being even more dangerous.

Why do conservatives worry so much about people who get get food stamps and not worry about guns being in the wrong hands?

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

ELMER FUDD GOES HUNTING

ELMER J. FUDD GOES HUNTING

Bill Maher offered some free advice to the Republican party on Friday night to appeal to young people. Firstly, stop going on hunting trips to prove you’re a man of the people. And two, come out for legalizing weed so you can be a true dude of the people.

The genesis of the bit was Ted Cruz going out and hunting this week, which Maher thought was unnecessary because “you've already proved your total dominion over creatures with brains the size of walnuts. After all, you’re the leader of the tea party!”

Maher said young people don’t care about hunting, that “if they want to kill something, there’s an Xbox right downstairs.” The average voter is not an elderly, gun-toting middle American, it’s a “young Latino lesbian who smoked a boatload of dope.”

But Maher may have only been suggesting the GOP embrace this issue because of his frustration with Democrats who have been far too quiet on this issue. He said if the Democrats want to win young people in 2016, they’ll have to say “welcome back to stoner Hillary!”

NFTOS 

STAFF WRITER

JUST REMEMBER, ITS NOT A LIE IF YOU BELIEVE IT

PAGE ONE:

Since insurers have begun informing beneficiaries that their health care plans do not meet the new federal requirements of Obamacare, and will be either cancelled or significantly altered, the media has profiled countless middle class Americans who claim that the new health care law will force them to pay more for coverage.

Deborah Cavallaro, for instance, a real estate agent from Los Angeles, was enrolled in an individual plan that cost her just $293 per month. Under Obamacare, Cavallaro says she’ll have to pay over $400 for coverage she doesn’t need or want. But a higher premium doesn't tell the whole story: while Cavallaro may spend more each month, she’ll be buying more comprehensive insurance with fewer out-of-pocket costs, better benefits that will cover more and cost her less if she actually falls ill, and much more robust consumer protections.

So before you buy into the sticker shock hysteria, here are four questions you should ask:

What does the old plan actually cover? Most of the policies in the existing individual health care market — which are currently issuing notices — offer low premiums, but also come with skimpy benefits and high out-of-pocket costs. These plans often have low limits for outpatient treatment, hospitalization or don’t offer any benefits for procedures like colonoscopy, chemotherapy or mental health treatment. Insurers market these policies to young and healthy people who don’t use their coverage — and never know the true extent of their benefits. (The market is also fairly mobile, with just 17 percent of individual subscribers purchasing the same plan for two years or longer.)

Under the Affordable Care Act, insurers cover 10 essential categories of benefits, offering far more comprehensive coverage than what’s available in most individual insurance plans.

Did this person go to the exchanges? Insurers informing policy holders that their health care costs will go up, often direct beneficiaries to their other brand products without telling them about competitive options and prices available through the exchanges. Cavallaro, for instance, got a quote from a broker, but did not explore the available options on her own.

Prices are lowest in areas with the most insurer competition. An analysis from the McKinsey Center for U.S. Health System Reform found that “new entrants into the market make up 26 percent of all insurers,” and “tend to price their plans lower than the median premiums in their market.” The average premium in the exchanges is 16 percent lower than previously projected.

Yes, the premium is low, but what are the co-pays and deductibles? This coverage often forces individuals who do use care to meet high deductibles — the amount you pay out-of-pocket before your insurance kicks in — pay high co-pays and co-insurance or limit the number of doctor visits that are allowed. Cavallaro, for instance, must meet a deductible of $5,000 a year and has an out-of-pocket cap of $8,500 a year. The plan covers just two doctors’ visits and each include a $40 co-pay.

As the LA Times’ Michael Hiltzik points out in California, Cavallaro could sign-up for a Silver level plan with a $2,000 deductible, maximum out-of-pocket cost of $6,350, pay $45 for a primary care visit and $65 for a specialty visit — “but all visits would be covered, not just two.”

The health law sets exchange enrollees’ maximum annual out-of-pocket costs at $6,350, and silver plans have deductibles ranging from $1,500 to $5,000.

Does this person qualify for subsidies? Americans between 100 and 400 percent of the federal poverty line ($46,000 for an individual, or about $78,000 for a family of three) qualify for tax credits under the law. Six of the 7 million individuals who are expected to sign up for insurance through the exchange will receive an average tax credit of $5,290 per year.

Cavallaro “qualifies her for a hefty federal premium subsidy,” Hiltzik reports and can purchase a silver plan for $333, $40 more than she’s paying now. A cheaper bronze plan would be in the $200s.

PAGE TWO - FACT:

Let's take a look at the Northern territory; in British Columbia (Canada) a single person pays $66.50 a month for comprehensive health care, with no co-pays, no deductibles, no lifetime caps, and no payments for a doctor's visit. The only things not covered are dental and prescriptions, which many employers and individuals cover with supplemental insurance.

If you want to really learn about single-payer health insurance, got to PNHP. This site has a plethora of facts on the topic - an organization of over 18,000 physicians who support the concept. There is a reason readers why America ranks so low [37th] in the world with regards to healthcare.

According to the World Health organization, the U.S. health system spends a higher portion of its gross domestic product than any other country but ranks 37 out of 191 countries according to its performance, the report finds. The United Kingdom, which spends just six percent of GDP on health services, ranks 18th . Several small countries – San Marino, Andorra, Malta and Singapore are rated close behind second- placed Italy.

Five factors that went into WHO's calculation:

Health level, as defined by a measure of life expectancy, which shows how healthy a country's population is. This factor gets a 25 percent weight. 

Responsiveness, which includes factors such as speed of health services, privacy protections, choice of doctors and quality of amenities. This factor gets a 12.5 percent weight. 

Financial fairness, which measures how progressive or regressive the financing of a country's health care system is — that is, whether or not the financial burdens are borne by those who are economically better off. This factor receives a 25 percent weight. 

Health distribution, which measures how equally a nation's health care resources are allocated among the population. This factor receives a 25 percent weight. 

Responsiveness distribution, which measures how equally a nation's health care responsiveness (which we defined above) is spread through society. This factor gets a 12.5 percent weight.

John Boehner said that the health care law signed by President Barack Obama -- and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court -- imperiled the nation’s health care system saying:

"Gov. Romney understands that Obamacare will bankrupt our country and ruin the best health care delivery system in the world," Boehner said, during the July 1, 2012, edition of CBS’ Face the Nation.

While some US techniques may be far better advanced from a scientific perspective, the actual Healthcare system prior to Obamacare, fell way short of what "lesser" nations provide. For any tin foil hat society member to suggest and claim that the United States had "the best health care delivery system in the world" prior to the ACA - is too glib to accurately characterize - and in reality, its much more a nuanced delusional fallacy from the "know-nothings"!

Portions of blog from thinkprogress.

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

CHASING WINDMILLS

LINDSEY GRAHAM, BENGHAZI YOU SAY?

On Monday we wrote about Lindsey Graham wanting to hold presidential nominees hostage - until he vetted the Benghazi issue just one more time. And now the rest of the story:

Sen. Lindsey Graham on Wednesday made clear that President Obama’s nominees to become the Chair of the Federal Reserve and Secretary of Homeland Security would be his latest hostages in his ongoing quest to unearth the “truth” about Benghazi.

Since the attack last year that ended in the death of four American citizens in Benghazi, Libya, Graham has been a stalwart crusader on the hunt to expose the supposed White House cover-up that he knows exists. On Monday, he indicated that a new push would be coming, warning on Fox News, “I’m going to block every appointment in the United States Senate until the survivors are being made available to the Congress.”

Graham followed through on Wednesday, announcing at a news conference that he would be placing a hold on Janet Yellen’s nomination to become the new Federal Reserve Chair and Jeh Johnson’s to replace Janet Napolitano at DHS. “That is the only leverage we have,” he told the assembled reporters. Yellen’s nomination is also being threatened by Sen. Rand Paul over different demands.

“Before you can close the books on Benghazi, I think Congress needs to look over the administration’s shoulder,” Graham told CNN on Thursday, “it’s called oversight.” Graham insisted that he’s “not asking for too much” in holding up the nominations. “Is it really too much for me to want to talk to the people who were in Benghazi independent of the administration?” he asked rhetorically, refusing to answer critiques asking if his Tea Party challengers had anything to do with the singular focus on the issue.

The facts are: As Media Matters points out, the crux of Graham’s demands have already been met. Two “key witnesses in last year’s terrorist attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, were summoned to Capitol Hill this month and grilled for hours in separate legal depositions,” the Los Angeles Times reported just days ago. The Department of Justice, however, has urged House Oversight Committee Chair Darrell Issa to keep the interviews under wraps to prevent them from corrupting ongoing prosecution efforts.

This is not a new modus operandi for Graham, as he has opted to use these same tactic in the past, and like most hostage taking scenarios, the results have not always come out in Dear Lindsey's favor. When he got his wish to have the names revealed of who deleted references to al Qaeda from then-U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice’s talking points in the days after the attack, the released emails showed clearly that the CIA itself was the one who did so, not the White House, thus debunking the right-wing myth that the changes were political. Likewise, when Graham demanded that then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Panetta took the opportunity to chide the SASC’s Republicans for treating the military like a 911 service and debunk many of the rumors about available military assistance at the time of the attack.

Remember when readers, remember when 13 Benghazi's occurred on George W. Bush's watch without a peep from Lindsey Graham or the GOP? For the record, here are Bush's 13 Benghazi's:

January 22, 2002. Calcutta, India. Gunmen associated with Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami attack the U.S. Consulate. Five people are killed.

June 14, 2002. Karachi, Pakistan. Suicide bomber connected with al Qaeda attacks the U.S. Consulate, killing 12 and injuring 51.

October 12, 2002. Denpasar, Indonesia. U.S. diplomatic offices bombed as part of a string of "Bali Bombings." No fatalities.

February 28, 2003. Islamabad, Pakistan. Several gunmen fire upon the U.S. Embassy. Two people are killed.

May 12, 2003. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Armed al Qaeda terrorists storm the diplomatic compound, killing 36 people including nine Americans. The assailants committed suicide by detonating a truck bomb.

July 30, 2004. Tashkent, Uzbekistan. A suicide bomber from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan attacks the U.S. Embassy, killing two people.

December 6, 2004. Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Al Qaeda terrorists storm the U.S. Consulate and occupy the perimeter wall. Nine people are killed.

March 2, 2006. Karachi, Pakistan again. Suicide bomber attacks the U.S. Consulate killing four people, including U.S. diplomat David Foy who was directly targeted by the attackers. (I wonder if Lindsey Graham or Fox News would even recognize the name "David Foy." This is the third Karachi terrorist attack in four years on what's considered American soil.)

September 12, 2006. Damascus, Syria. Four armed gunmen shouting "Allahu akbar" storm the U.S. Embassy using grenades, automatic weapons, a car bomb and a truck bomb. Four people are killed, 13 are wounded.

January 12, 2007. Athens, Greece. Members of a Greek terrorist group called the Revolutionary Struggle fire a rocket-propelled grenade at the U.S. Embassy. No fatalities.

March 18, 2008. Sana'a, Yemen. Members of the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic Jihad of Yemen fire a mortar at the U.S. Embassy. The shot misses the embassy, but hits nearby school killing two.

July 9, 2008. Istanbul, Turkey. Four armed terrorists attack the U.S. Consulate. Six people are killed.

September 17, 2008. Sana'a, Yemen. Terrorists dressed as military officials attack the U.S. Embassy with an arsenal of weapons including RPGs and detonate two car bombs. Sixteen people are killed, including an American student and her husband (they had been married for three weeks when the attack occurred). This is the second attack on this embassy in seven months.

Even if Lindsey and his band of banshees never arrive at their goal, they have in their possession a cudgel formed of horseshit - a means of flogging the dead horse yet again.

Very seldom do these teahadists discuss the truth or history- not to mention dubiously sourced chunks of "truth" proffered by radio and cable news conspiracy theorists who, if nothing else, are masters at telling angry tea baggers precisely what they want to hear: that this Muslim Koran thumping president is the main source of failure for the Benghazi incident. And so they'll keep repeating "Benghazi-Gate, Benghazi-Gate, Benghazi-Gate!" without any regard for history or reality. All to well we have come to know nothing else from the American Taliban - which is to forget all history prior to 2009. When in doubt, at all costs, invoke "Bushensia"!

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

VIRGINIA [MIDDLE PENINSULA] TIN FOIL HAT SOCIETY......."UNITED NATIONS MIND CONTROL PLOTS"

PAGE ONE

Make no bones about it readers, the tea party lunatics are no more rampant and ignorant than in my own back yard. [Virginia Middle Peninsula]

Climate deniers should be insulted, mocked, and humiliated often. When future history books are written, when lives and property are truly in danger- these people will be first in the long list of history to blame for the lack of preparation regarding climate change.

The tin foil hat society tends to be at odds with the reality-based community when it comes to climate science. This topic comes up from frequently here in rural, Eastern shore Virginia, and it’s always disconcerting. There’s a political dispute underway about an issue with unrivaled consequences – the climate crisis has the capacity to change conditions on the planet to the detriment of humanity. One side of this political argument is relying on evidence and science to draw attention to a potentially catastrophic problem in the hopes of coming up with a solution.

The other side of the argument includes a variety of prominent voices who've come to believe that the entirety of climate science is a hoax perpetrated by secret communists who hate free enterprise. Other conservatives don’t go quite this far, but nevertheless say the problem, if it exists, can’t or shouldn't be addressed.

The Globe doesn't have time to wait for the benighted ignorant to catch up - for those who are wrong, and for those who embrace dangerous pseudo-science. With so much on the line and at stake, waiting for the willful ignorance of the tin foil hate society seems deeply irresponsible.

MADDOW ON SCIENCE DENIERS




PAGE TWO
Bad time to be a Virginia Tea Bagger




PAGE THREE

Maddow Breaking Down The Virginia 2013 Election



Virginia Democrats, get out and vote, lets make this a slam dunk and get a Democrat clean sweep for this elections cycle. This is the time as we sit center stage - to tell the National Tin Foil Hat Society, not on our watch!

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

DOES IT MATTER WHO'S DRIVING THE CAR?

ALL MEN PANEL DECIDING WOMEN'S RIGHT'S

A federal judge has sided with reproductive rights advocates to declare one of Texas’ new abortion restrictions unconstitutional, ensuring that one of the provisions in a sweeping new anti-choice law will not take effect this week.

U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel heard the case last week and had promised to issue a ruling before the bill, HB 2, was scheduled to take go into place on Tuesday. Texas’ GOP-led legislature enacted HB 2 over the summer, after the dramatic debate over the proposed restrictions was elevated to the national stage. All eyes were on Texas after state Sen. Wendy Davis  filibustered the bill for 11 hours straight during a special legislative session in June. Less than 24 hours after Davis successfully blocked the bill, however, Gov. Rick Perry called yet another special session to force the legislation through.

In September, more than a dozen women’s health providers sued the state to block several of HB 2′s provisions from taking effect. Their challenge specifically concerned the provisions requiring abortion clinics to obtain admitting privileges at local hospitals — a medically unnecessary requirement that ultimately forces clinics to close when they’re unable to comply — and requiring doctors to use an outdated protocol to administer the abortion pill. They pointed out that the combination of those two restrictions would have “catastrophic” effects on abortion access in the state.

In his opinion, Yeakel noted that the “admitting-privileges provision is without a rational basis and places a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion of a nonviable fetus.” Similar logic has led several federal judges to block identical provisions in other states. Yeakel did not completely strike down the provision related to medication-induced abortions, determining that women whose lives are at risk should be able to follow the off-label procedure for taking the abortion pill.

Federal District Court Judge - Texas Abortion Law is Unconstitutional

The ruling also does not affect several of the other provisions in Texas’ omnibus law, such as the requirement that abortion clinics need to meet the same standards as ambulatory surgical centers — which won’t take effect until 2014 — or the ban that outlaws abortion procedures after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Women’s health advocates have estimated that taken together, the harsh new regulations could force the vast majority of the state’s clinics to close, leaving more than 22,000 Texas women without any safe options for terminating a pregnancy. They warn that the law will force more low-income women to cross the border into Mexico to obtain illegal and unsafe abortion-inducing drugs. Striking the admitting privileges provision will help somewhat improve this situation, but abortion rights activists have already vowed to keep fighting the rest of HB 2.

I am a firm believer in striking down all the anti-abortion rhetoric and laws, if it's not your abortion, it's none of your business, and it should never ever be regulated by a group of old pasty white men. In the retro world of the archaic GOP, women still take a back seat when it comes to controlling their own bodies. Without any safety precautions its a dangerous ride indeed. Does it matter who's at the wheel driving the car? You can bet your sweet ass is does.

Life decisions, if there not your own - mind your own fracking business - for the bible thumping Christian; Judge not lest ye be judged - and let him, who is without sin cast the first stone [Matt. 7:1 Do not judge, or you too will be judged."] If it is truly wrong to abort - then let the all powerful OZ will take care of it!

YES WE ARE BACK TO BENGHAZI....... AGAIN

LINDSEY "BENGHAZI" GRAHAM

Are you looking for a fun drinking game to play? If so, turn on Fox News and take a drink of your favorite alcohol beverage every time you hear Benghazi mentioned. More than likely you will be drunk in less than fifteen minutes.

Amid the sense of gridlock that has become the norm in the U.S. Senate, Sen. Lindsey Graham is now threatening to block every single nomination from the Obama administration until he gets what he wants on Benghazi — again.

On Sunday evening, CBS’ 60 Minutes aired a new report on the attack in Benghazi, Libya that took place last year, examining the nature of the attack, which analysts are now calling pre-planned. This differs greatly from the early days and weeks after the attack, when members of the administration were still attempting to find out what went wrong and what led to the deaths of four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.

In that light, and still on the hunt for a White House cover-up, Graham was on Fox News on Monday, advocating for yet another look into the tragedy, echoing the demands of the most conspiracy-minded members of the House of Representatives:

GRAHAM: So I am calling for a joint select committee. But for God’s sake, let the House have a select committee where you get three or four committees together to look at this situation as one unit rather than stove piping. And where are the survivors? 14 months later, Steve, the survivors, the people who survived the attack in Benghazi, have not been made available to the U.S. congress for oversight purposes. I’m going to block every appointment in the United States Senate until the survivors are being made available to the Congress. I’m tired of hearing from people on TV and reading about stuff in books.

“We need to get to the bottom of this and to my house colleagues, Darrell Issa has done great job,” Graham continued in his Fox interview, referring to the many House Oversight Committee hearings that Rep. Darrell Issa has held related to the attack. Issa himself, however, has admitted that he did not learn much in his last major round of public hearings.

In demanding that a special committee be convened in the House to take over the Benghazi investigation, Graham is aligning himself with many of the more conservative members of the House Republican caucus and against Speaker of the House John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Rep. Frank Wolff has been rallying conservatives to press Boehner for a special committee for months now, aligning himself with outside groups who have attempted — and failed — to show that public opinion is on their side. Despite their past failures, Graham’s decision to join their ranks will surely help him fend off the Tea Party challenger he’s facing ahead of the 2014 midterm elections.

This is not the first time at all that Graham has threatened to take hostages in the Senate to get his way, nor even the first time his demands have related to Benghazi. Graham issued a warning about no nominations proceeding unless the Port of Charleston received the $50,000 needed to be deepened back in 2011. In Dec. 2012, Graham threatened to allow the U.S. to go over the so-called “fiscal cliff” unless the Social Security age was raised.

On Benghazi itself, Graham has had his exact demands change along with his targets. CIA Director John Brennan was threatened not to be confirmed unless Graham was able to learn precisely who changed the infamous “talking points” that now-National Security Adviser Susan Rice delivered the week after the attack. He also swore to not allow a vote on Chuck Hagel’s nomination as Secretary of Defense unless his predecessor Leon Panetta testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Both of those demands were met, showing that the CIA itself was the one who deleted references to Al Qaeda from Rice’s talking points and allowing Panetta to chide the SASC’s Republicans for treating the military like a 911 service.

Graham’s threat comes just as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid prepares a new wave of Obama administration nominees to be brought before the Senate. Even before the threat to hold all of these nominees was issued, Senate Democrats have been mulling the so-called “nuclear option” of allowing for votes to proceed with a majority 51 votes, ending the threat of the filibuster on certain types of votes.

Ironically enough, Graham recently chastised his colleagues for blocking an up or down vote on the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, calling it the “wrong” thing to do.

NFTOS

STAFF WRITER

LIVING WAGE YOU SAY?

McDonald's Not MY Kinda Place




Bill Maher ended his show Friday night going after GOP opposition to the minimum wage, calling them out for opposing something that would make people less dependent on government handouts. He targeted McDonald's in particular, saying “until Ronald McDonald starts paying his employees a living wage, he has to wipe that fucking smile off his face.”

On the charge minimum wages cut into profits, Maher mockingly explained, “Paying workers is one of those unfortunate expenses of running a business, like taxes or making a product.”

He asked, “When did the American dream become a pathway to indentured servitude?” and made the argument that the GOP can have a “smaller government with less handouts” or a low minimum wage, but they can’t have both.

And Maher doesn't even eat fast food anyway. He said, “If I want to talk into the face of some red-nosed clown, I’ll debate John Bohener.”


BILL MAHER 

McDonalds is my kind of place! Hamburgers in your face! French fries up your nose! Pickles between your toes! And don't forget those luscious shakes! Made from polluted lakes! McDonald's is my kind of plaaaace!

NFTOS
Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

NORTH CAROLINA GOP, RACISTS MUCH? "IF THE HAT FITS, WEAR IT"!

NORTH CAROLINA GOP RACISTS DON YELTON

PAGE ONE:

Apparently ex-GOP county chair Don Yelton never took a course in crisis management; nor does he think he’s in the midst of a GOP cataclysmic crisis after deriding “lazy blacks” on The Daily Show Wednesday evening and subsequently resigning from his post. While continuing to defend himself from accusations of racism, Yelton has dug in even deeper, using the “n-word” repeatedly to make his point.

In an interview with The Wrap, Yelton once again stood by his controversial remarks, pointing the finger at reverse-racism.

“When a n—– can use the word n—– and it not be considered racist, that’s the utmost racism in the world, and it’s hypocrisy,” he told The Wrap.

MADDOWS DISCUSSES NORTH CAROLINA RACISTS

JON STEWART AND THE GOP RACISTS




According to Yelton, not only is the Republican Party “gutless” for forcing him out of his position, but they missed a perfect opportunity to use his comments as proof they are tolerant of many views.

“They can turn it into a positive if they want to,” he told The Wrap. “The party does not try to control the speech of individuals. That’s the point they could have made. You have to let people have an opinion.”

Instead, he lamented how the party chose to accept “this comedy show” as “the truth” and “come down with an iron fist.” 

“There’s no political party that’s going to tell me what to say as long as I have breath in my body,” he concluded.

Yelton, meanwhile, feels no remorse since resigning, naturally, and claims that the comments of his that aired were actually tame compared to some of the others he made during the sit-down that were edited out.

Reports the Mountain Xpress:

Despite the controversy, Yelton tells Xpress: “The comments that were made, that I said, I stand behind them. I believe them.” 

The short interview clips were edited together from a much longer two-hour sit-down, says Yelton. But he says he was pleased overall with the parts that were included. In fact, he notes that some of the comments he made that weren't included might’ve even been more controversial. “To tell you the truth, there were a lot of things I said that they could’ve made sound worse than what they put up.”

Well there you go!

Lets be clear readers, the republican party did not distance themselves from this guy until after he/they got caught. Does anyone in their right mind believe that Yelton, a "party leader" became a racist just in time for an interview with The Daily Show? Yelton was in a party leadership position because the people who put him there had no problems with his bigotry - that is until he made the critical error of telling the truth about his party in public.

PAGE TWO:

Alan Grayson, with his email to the masses, which compared the Tea Party to the KKK, while upsetting to the racists, it is a fair analogy of the tin foil hat society, as Grayson said. "if the hat fits wear it".

Megan Kelly and Allen West [no relationship to this blogger] Defending the Racists



Grayson's full statement below.

Regarding the image that the campaign circulated, the Tea Party has engaged in relentless racist attacks against our African-American President. For example, when the President visited my home of Orlando, Tea Party protesters shouted “Kenyan Go Home.” Other examples include Tea Party chants of “Bye Bye, Blackbird,” and Tea Party posters saying “Obama’s Plan: White Slavery,” “Imam Obama Wants to Ban Pork” and “The Zoo Has An African Lion, and the White House Has a Lyin’ African,” as well as this repulsive one, depicting the President of the United States as an African witch doctor with bananas in his hair:

Tea Party members also have persisted in falsely characterizing the President as Kenyan and Moslem, despite all evidence, in order to disparage him. Members of the Tea Party have circulated countless altered pictures depicting President Obama and the First Lady as monkeys. Tea Party members also called my fellow Member of Congress, civil rights hero John Lewis, a “n***ger,” and Rep. Barney Frank a “faggot.” More generally, the leader of the Texas Tea Party displayed a poster saying “Congress=Slave Owner, Taxpayer=Niggar [sic].” Tea Party Members of Congress have referred to Hispanics as “wetbacks,” and having “cantaloupe-sized calves” from picking fruit. Tea Party candidates, including my opponent in the last election, have endorsed forcing Hispanics to speak English. One could go on and on, because there is overwhelming evidence that the Tea Party is the home of bigotry and discrimination in America today, just as the KKK was for an earlier generation. If the hood fits, wear it.

Grayson's comparison is not novel. Professors Matt Barretto and Christopher Parker, in their book "Tea Party, Change They Can't Believe In," published by Princeton University Press, make a similar case. "The authors argue that this isn't the first time a segment of American society has perceived the American way of life as under siege," the book's blurb reads. "In fact, movements of this kind often appear when some individuals believe that 'American' values are under threat by rapid social changes. Drawing connections between the Tea Party and right-wing reactionary movements of the past, including the Know-Nothing Party, the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920's, and the John Birch Society, Parker and Barreto develop a framework that transcends the Tea Party to shed light on its current and future consequences.

Regarding Allen West - when one of the most foul-mouthed ex-congressman is upset by someone else's "inflammatory" remarks - its truly a moment saturated in irony.

I keep harping back to the quote, "if that hat fits, wear it"!

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

GOP MONKEY COURT

GOP MONKEY COURT 

“I will not yield to this monkey court or whatever it is,” Pallone said in response to Republican interruptions. “Why are we going down this path?” he asked. “Because you are trying to scare people so they don’t apply and so therefore the legislation gets delayed or the Affordable Care Act gets defunded or it’s repealed. That’s all it is, hoping people won’t apply.”

MONKEY COURT




Rather than focusing on the real problems plaguing HealthCare.gov, House Republicans sought to portray the website as an insecure portal that will endanger the privacy of American’s medical information during a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing focusing on the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. The accusations led one Democratic lawmaker to label the hearing “a monkey court.”

In heated exchanges, Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Joe Barton (R-TX) pressed the contractors responsible for writing the code behind HealthCare.gov about why some of their employees had access to “the database servers storing the enrolling information,” and questioned source code informing users that they “have no reasonable expectation of privacy regarding any communication or data transiting stored on this information system.”

“How in the world can this be HIPAA compliant when HIPAA is designed to protect the patient’s privacy and this explicitly says in order to continue you have to accept this condition that you have no privacy — no reasonable expectation of privacy?” Barton asked Cheryl Campbell, senior vice president of CGI, one of the firms that wrote the website. He was referring to The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, the law that guarantees “federal protections for individually identifiable health information held by covered entities and their business associates and gives patients an array of rights with respect to that information.”

Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) pushed back against the implications, arguing that “HIPAA only applies when there’s health information is being provided,” not the biographical enrollment information that’s being entered by programmers. “HIPAA doesn’t apply. There is no health information in the process. You’re asked about your address, your date of birth. you are not asked health information,” he said.

As Washington & Lee Law Professor Timothy S. Jost explained in an email, “HIPAA only applies to health care providers, clearinghouses (and this is a narrowly defined term) health plans, and their business associates.” “Even so, access is available to data without consent for health care operations, which this would be.” Deven McGraw, of the Health Privacy Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology, agreed, adding, “It does not violate HIPAA – it’s not even covered by HIPAA.”

Jost adds that “even if the rule applies to the information and to the exchange, sharing information with a contractor would be a routine operation, and HIPAA allows disclosure of information without consent for operations. Surely a health plan that contracted with a company to build its software would not be violating HIPAA as long as the computer company also observed HIPAA protections. The exchange is subject to the Privacy Act, but the

It should be noted that all of the contractors at the hearing indicated that they had received HIPAA training and were HIPAA compliant.

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

REMEMBER WHEN......

BUSH'S BITTER PILL WAS TOUGH TO SWALLOW

........Millions of Americans tried to enroll in health care benefits during the first days of a new government health care program. They were to rely on indispensable government website that had been touted and “pitched as a high-tech way” to sort through available coverage options. They’re encountering countless glitches and technical errors: the website freezes, displays incorrect plan information and sends insurers erroneous reports.

Administration officials — clearly caught off guard by the surge of technical difficulties — respond to “tens of thousands of complaints” from angry beneficiaries and promise to “fix every problem as quickly possible.”

Doesn't this sounds like the familiar story of the last few days of the Obama administration’s roll-out of the exchanges? But, actually, the above quotes, and the scenarios, are taken from the Bush administration’s efforts to implement the Medicare prescription drug benefit in 2005 and 2006.

Not only was Bush’s roll-out “anything but smooth,” but administration officials had “some trouble getting the [online] tool up and running” and had to delay its debut for weeks. What’s more, computer glitches caused low-income beneficiaries to go without needed medications and sent pharmacies the wrong drug information. Before it was all resolved, Dr. Mark McClellan, Bush’s head of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), appeared at hearings before the House Committee On Energy And Commerce, laying out the flaws in the law’s implementation and detailing how the administration would address them.

As the House Energy and Commerce Committee holds its first hearing on the implementation of the Affordable Care Act this morning, it’s worth noting that some of the very same Teahadists who are lashing out against Obamacare - arguing that the botched roll-out is proof that the government cannot implement effectively and should repeal the law entirely - gave the Bush administration a free get out trouble pass and urged Americans not to pre-judge such a complicated process. At least four of these Teahadists are still on the committee had argued that early implementation hurdles should not taint the entirety of reform:

REP. JOE BARTON (R-TX): “This is a huge undertaking and there are going to be glitches. My goal is the same as yours: Get rid of the glitches. The committee will work closely with yourself and Dr. Mark McClellan at CMS to get problems noticed and solved.” [Barton Statement via Archive.org, 2/15/2006] 

REP. TIM MURPHY (R-PA): “Any time something is new, there is going to be some glitches. All of us, when our children were new, well, we knew as parents we didn’t exactly know everything we were doing and we had a foul-up or two, but we persevered and our children turned out well. No matter what one does in life, when it is something new in learning the ropes of it, it is going to take a little adjustment.” [Murphy Floor Speech via Congressional Record, 4/6/2006] 

REP. MICHAEL BURGESS (R-TX): “We can’t undo the past, but certainly they can make the argument that we are having this hearing a month late and perhaps we are, but the reality is the prescription drug benefit is 40 years late and seniors who signed up for Medicare those first days back in 1965 when they were 65 years of age are now 106 years of age waiting for that prescription drug benefit, so I hope it doesn't take us that long to get this right and I don’t believe that it will. And I do believe that fundamentally it is a good plan.” [“Medicare Part D: Implementation of the New Drug Benefit,” 3/1/2006] 

REP. PHIL GINGREY (R-GA): “I delivered 5,200 babies, but this may be the best delivery that I have ever been a part of, Mr. Speaker, and that is delivering, as I say, on a promise made by former Congresses and other Presidents over the 45-year history of the Medicare program, which was introduced in 1965 with no prescription drug benefit. And what we have done here is add part D, the ‘D’ for ‘drug’ or, if you want, the ‘delivery’ that we have finally provided to our American seniors.” [Gingrey Floor Speech via Congressional Record, 4/6/06]

Ultimately, the Bush administration fixed the law’s technical glitches, but more than half of the beneficiaries who ended up signing up for insurance didn’t do so until after the first of the year. Significantly, they signed up for coverage despite the Bush administration’s well-publicized initial glitches in extending coverage to low-income beneficiaries. Whereas only 21 percent of seniors had a favorable impression of the law and 66 percent didn't know what was in it in April of 2005, by November of 2006, “half of the seniors polled said the program was working well or that just minor changes were needed.”


Often is the case - that RWNJ's fail to recognize that American history existed prior to 2009.

The party who; wanted to stop the ACA in its tracks, lie about it, derail it, and defund it, are now frothing at the mouth and outraged at the ACA computer issues . Please make up my mind teabaggers, are you for it or against it?

I am reminded of the old adage in politics that says, "it is easier to throw a hand grenade than catch one". The ever so sad corollary says, "you can raise more money by throwing mud than fixing problems".

Right wing shill heads will implode, how dare anybody bash the "Welfare for Big Pharma Act," and compare it to the ACA? Its always acceptable if a "conservative" fucks up, but it's either a felony or a firing if someone else did.

It never ceases to amaze this blogger, the hypocrisy of the Right Wing Nut Job.

RELATED:

Despite bungling Bush's Medicare drug rollout, GOP still attacks Obamacare 'navigators'

How Democrats Saved Bush's Medicare Drug Program

Drug Addled

Bush Defends Medicare Drug Plan

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

GOP SCRAPS THE BOTTOM OF THE BARRELL SEEKING OBAMACARE WEBSITE ADVICE

HOUSE GOP SEEKING ADVICE FROM JOHN MCAFEE - YES THAT JOHN MCAFEE

Is this fact or fiction? Is this a Saturday Night Live Skit?

Absolutely not! Seeing that Aaron Hernandez and George Zimmerman were both unavailable, according to emails obtained by CNBC, House Committee on Energy and Commerce reportedly wanted to speak with John McAfee, the technology pioneer who last year fled a murder investigation in Belize, as part of their investigation into the flawed Obamacare website. That's right, GOP logic, why not use a crack-head LSD dropping murder suspect to oversee the national healthcare website system woes.

You just can't make this up!

The Hill reports:

Sean Hayes, who serves as counsel for the committee, apparently reached out to Francois Garcia, an attorney for McAfee last week. 

“Given the failures of Healthcare.gov, and Mr. McAfee’s expertise, I was hoping he might be able to discuss his views with staff on the hill,” Hayes wrote, according to the CNBC emails. “It would be an informal discussion: we would take notes but these would not be for attribution, it would mainly guide our oversight and review of the program.” 

Hayes said the panel would ask McAfee about potential vulnerabilities in the website that could lead to the compromise of personal information or identity theft.
The committee aide later wrote McAfee to say that an in-person meeting was too logistically difficult, although he left open the possibility of a phone consultation.
Soliciting McAfee to testify could raise eyebrows after the tech pioneer — who made millions off his eponymous anti-virus software

McAfee was wanted by Belize police as a person of interest in the slaying of fellow American Gregory Viant Faull. 52 year-old Faull was on the Caribbean island where both men lived. McAfee went on the run. After a bizarre turn of events, he fled his Belize compound, crossing into Guatemala illegally and then sought refuge in the United States.

When I saw Rachel Maddow starting her show last night, I was wondering why McAffee was the 'keynote" speaker if you will for the show, how does this paranoid schizophrenic tie into current news. Well, as masterful as she is, Maddow tells the story on how low the GOP will go, right wing fringe meets paranoid schizophrenic.

Video courtesy of MSNBC

McAfee told CNBC that he did not think it was at all odd that lawmakers would ask him for help with the website.

"I promise you this cannot be fixed without at least scrapping the front-end processing, which is more than half of the systems," he insisted. "Seriously, if it were me and I were running this and I had been asleep in a hospital for two years and woke up to this mess, I would say OK, throw it out and start over. But start over in the right way."

MCAFFE TELLS ALL [Caution Language]




Quoting Fox News, reported at the time when McAfee was wanted by police:

John McAfee, the estranged founder of the antivirus firm that bears his name, is wanted by the Belize police in connection with a murder, FoxNews.com has confirmed. 

McAfee, whose very name is synonymous with security, is a prime suspect in the murder of American expatriate Gregory Faull, a well-liked builder from Florida who was shot Saturday night at his home in San Pedro Town on the island of Ambergris Caye, according to a series of exposes on tech blog Gizmodo. Vienne Robinson, assistant superintendent of the San Pedro police department in Belize, told FoxNews.com that police are actively searching for McAfee. 

McAfee’s life has turned in recent years from cyber security to drugs, guns, prostitution and violence, explained Jeff Wise, a freelance reporter who broke the story for Gizmodo.

“He will tell you he moved to Belize for the good life, for the country, to rescue the Belizean people from poverty,” Wise told FoxNews.com. In reality, McAfee became embroiled in bath salts and the quest for the ultimate high, he said. 

Wise visited McAfee in the Western Caribbean nation twice, once in 2010 and again this past April. 

“It really scared the hell out of me,” Wise said. He wasn’t alone. A woman who went to visit McAfee to co-develop an herbal medicine ended up running from the country in terror, “fleeing for her life,” Wise said. 

Although a one-time drug user, the computer expert had cleaned up his act. …
“McAfee had been a hard-core drug addict in his 30s and 40s. He had a heart attack right around the time he sold his company for $100 million,” Wise told FoxNews.com. He moved to Belize and apparently pursued several lines of business, from creating a new form of herbal medicine to helping save the country from poverty. 

He also became deeply involved with bath salts, Wise said, a dangerous drug notorious for its psychotic effects. 

“Around the time his herbal drug plan collapsed, he started to get really heavily into this kind of synthetic, hallucinogenic hyper-aphrodisiac,” Wise told FoxNews.com. “Everyone was scared of McAfee. He was walking around the beach carrying a gun.”

Why post Fox's McAfee story you ask, because I want my readers to see how Fox puts the lipstick on this pig.

Is this the "family values that the GOP is always speaking of? Maybe the GOP could see if they could resurrect Jeffery Dahmer from the dead to oversee the USDA. Hey, Sarah Palin, any comments about House Republicans "palling around" with murder suspects?

Ethics, who the hell needs ethics?

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

"NEVER TRUST A LIBERAL OVER THREE", HANNITY'S DEN OF DISHONESTY

ANN COULTER BOASTING OF GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN SUCCESS

In hindsight, hate hag Ann Coulter believes the government shutdown turned out very well and that the tin foil hat society played it beautifully, telling Sean Hannity she’s “proud” of teahadists like Ted Cruz who took a stand on Obamacare. They both agreed that “everything run by the government will get more expensive and worse over time,” though Coulter slightly disagreed with Hannity about tactics going forward.

Coulter blasted the health care law, suggesting it was some diabolical plan - “designed to fail so they can move it to a single-payer system,” and said that now it’s very clear how effective the shutdown was. The hate hag said that the, “The shutdown was so magnificent, run beautifully, I’m so proud of these Republicans.”

Hannity admitted he was bothered by Republicans like John McCain who sold out the rest of their party instead of holding the ranks. Coultergeist even lamented how some of “our media” was too busy going after Cruz, and argued the liberal media wouldn't be this critical if a House Democratic majority attempted what the Republicans did.

COULTERGEIST ON HANNITY




Its amazing how many bullshit mountain hate hags there are, from Coulter to Malkin, from Loesch to Palin - the one trait that these women all exhibit is the lack of integrity to tell the truth.

Keep in mind readers, Ann Coulter once paid for a tutor to teach her creationism - you know, the theory that says evolution is wrong and that the earth is only thousands of years old. Let me say this again: Coulter paid for someone to educate her about a subject that 99% of scientists disagree with. Herein lies the problem, facts and science colliding with the deniers of facts and science.

FACT: Single Payer: Is more efficient, cost less , has less waste, has less fraud and less middle men taking profit and more quality care being delivered. Of course the tin foil hat society doesn't like centralized government, which is why Obamacare's expansion of state medicaid services is a good alternative. Single payer healthcare is ideal - that is if the focus is truly about keeping people healthy, and not about the almighty dollar.

Let's face it readers, if you're a liberal, you want Ann Coulter at the helm of the mother ship, because with scholars like her, we know the GOP is in good hands - a recipe for disaster she is - for her brand.

Coulter's version of "beautiful", is like winning for Charlie Sheen; in the aftermath of the GOP 24 billion dollar domestic terrorist plot, where eight in ten Americans say that they disapproved of the shutdown - would only Coulter suggest that this was a successful strategic plan.

Coulter again nails the synopsis of the event - that the government shutdown went perfectly - yes, if you ignore the fact or realization that none of the GOP's key terror demands were met when the shutdown ended, and that the tin foil hat societies poll numbers tanked severely as a result, and that millions of Americans needlessly suffered due to lost income and lack of essential government services during the stunt, and that the national economy took a hit. Yes, other than that, the Teahadists schematic to shutdown the country was indeed a thing of beauty.

Dishonest and delusional hate hags like Coulter, often find a safe haven in Hannity's den of dishonesty.

By the way, who did Hannity have on after Coulter? Why, it's Dick Cheney of course, the heartless hubris pimp who is now touring and pushing his latest book on his self professed and alleged heart. Quite the stable of lying bloodsuckers in Sean's bullpen these days.

Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, and Dick Cheney,  you are all today's worst persons in the world.

NFTOS

Editor-In Chief

Roger West

CRUZ IS READY FOR ROUND TWO

On Sunday, This Week’s Jonathan Karl asked Sen. Ted Cruz (RWNJ) a direct question about upcoming budget negotiations, saying, “Will you rule out pushing to the brink of another shutdown by saying you would block funding for the government unless Obamacare is defunded? Will you do that again?”

Cruz didn't reject the idea that he would cause another shutdown, saying, “I would do anything and I will continue to do anything I can to stop the train wreck that is Obamacare. What I will do is continue standing the American people, because it isn't working, it’s costing people jobs, and it’s taking away their health care.”

Cruz and Sen. Mike Lee (RWNJ) were originally responsible for getting 14 of their colleagues to sign on to demanding the defunding of Obamacare in return for keeping the government open and, later, raising the debt ceiling. While some conservatives are still with Cruz in continuing to push for fights over defunding the law, other Republicans are calling for the party to move on. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) called it “a losing strategy.”

While the shutdown cost the economy $24 billion and brinkmanship over the debt ceiling could still lead to another downgrade of U.S. credit, Republicans have little to show for it.

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STAFF WRITER

Randolph And Mortimer Duke On Steroids

RANDOLPH AD MORTIMER DUKE OF STEROIDS [KOCH WHORES]

Conservative advocates funded by the billionaire industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch have launched a massive campaign pressuring states to deny health care coverage to lower income Americans through the Medicaid expansion contained in the Affordable Care Act.

The effort, orchestrated by the group Americans for Prosperity, is targeting lawmakers in Virginia tasked with deciding whether the state should accept federal dollars to provide insurance to individuals and families below 133 percent of the federal poverty line ($31,321 in income for a family of four). Volunteers with the organization are distributing flyers through door-to-door canvassing, attending committee hearings, and according to one lawmakers who has become a target of the campaign, intimidating constituents.

As many as 400,000 Virginians could qualify for coverage if the state expands the Medicaid program, but AFP is warning Virginians that the system “will cost Virginia taxpayers billions,” require “future tax hikes and budget cuts to vital services like schools, police and fire departments,” undermine the “doctor-patient relationship,” increase wait times and even endanger lives. “Medicaid patients are almost twice as likely to die during surgery than individuals with private insurance,” the group writes on its website.

Under the Affordable Care Act, the federal government will pick up 100 percent of the cost of growing the program from 2014 to 2016 and states would contribute 10 percent thereafter. Analysis from the Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis in Richmond finds that “net savings from Medicaid expansion would average about $135 million per year in the upcoming budget cycle” since expanding Medicaid “would allow the state to use federal funds instead of state dollars for these programs that already provide care to the uninsured in Virginia.”

Seventy-six percent of Virginia doctors treat new Medicaid patients, and the “share of doctors accepting new Medicaid patients is nearly the same as the share who are accepting new patients with private insurance or Medicare,” the Institute reports. While Medicaid beneficiaries tend to be less healthy than the general uninsured population, people who do enroll in the program “are 25 percent more likely to report that their health is ‘good’ or ‘excellent.’”

The GOP’s refusal to fully implement the Affordable Care Act will leave more than half of the nation’s uninsured working poor, approximately 8 million people, without access to health insurance. The 26 GOP-controlled states not participating in the law’s Medicaid expansion are home to a disproportionate share of low-income Americans who aren't poor enough to qualify for the existing Medicaid program and make too much to be eligible for subsidies in the ACA’s insurance marketplaces.

Americans for Prosperity has spent millions “in states around the country, including Arkansas, Florida, Ohio, Louisiana, Michigan and Pennsylvania, to run the kind of aggressive campaign that it is now waging here in Virginia, where much will depend on the governor’s race,” the New York Times notes. Democrat Terry McAuliffe favors expansion, while his Republican opponent, Ken Cuccinelli, does not. The Virginia panel weighing in on the matter will decide the question after the Nov. 5 election.

Randolph and Mortimer Duke had nothing on the Koch brothers.

There is a genetic fault within them that has erased any possibility for compassion or even just thinking about other people. They are totally focused on their self-interests.

What else can be the reason for their behavior, why else do they spend millions just to inflict strife on other people? Clearly this has little affect the Koch whores directly, but there seems to be a sadistic bent to them. There are two other brothers in Koch tree as well, and there have been internecine fighting between them -- they all seem to carry the same traits, greedy diabolical asshats.

The Koch brothers care about a lot of things. But the welfare of the poor isn't among them. Using their money to alter the political landscape is foremost on the list. To the extent that they are remembered if at all, these Koch whores will go down as two of the sadists troglodytes that America has ever produced... all those hundreds of millions of dollars spent for no other purpose other than to hurt people and make their lives more difficult... what a sad, pathetic, tragic waste of both money and human flesh.

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

SILVER BULLET SOLUTION FOR BATTLING HOMOSEXUALITY

Rick Scarborough Vision America Gospel of Hate

Christian conservative activist Rick Scarborough seems to have finally found the silver-bullet solution for battling homosexuality in America: Sue the gay away! During an interview with fellow traveler Peter LaBarbera, Scarborough suggested the possibility of suing homosexuality in the same way lawyers took up a case against large tobacco companies.

“The whole issue of a class action lawsuit, you and I have talked about this a little bit,” the Tea Party Unity committee member reminded his colleague. “Obviously, statistically now even the Centers for Disease Control verifies that homosexuality much more likely leads to AIDS than smoking leads to cancer. And yet the entire nation has rejected smoking, billions of dollars are put into a trust fund to help cancer victims and the tobacco industry was held accountable for that.”

LaBarbera, the president of Americans for Truth, agreed. “I think that’s great. I would love to see it.” He added that perhaps if anti-gay groups can win such a lawsuit against homosexuality, the money could be put into PSAs depicting the alleged pitfalls of homosexual behavior.

“We always wanted to see one of the kid in high school who was counseled by the official school counselor to just be gay, then he comes down with HIV,” LaBarbera asserted. “But we never really got the client for that.”

LaBarbera also lamented the lack of stories about “ex-gays” on Fox News. “We need to work on our conservative, alternate media and say, ‘look, don’t do the pro-gay thing, why don’t you rather step out and support these ex-gays?’ We should encourage Fox News to tell their stories,” he said. “Fox is now telling the stories of black conservatives because the other media is not doing that, we should all get on Fox and say, ‘come on, tell these stories, these wonderful stories of happy men and women who have left the homosexual lifestyle.’”

Let's also sue abstinence-only education, since sex without protection is far more likely to lead to the spread of STDs than sex with protection.

Do they realize that homosexuality is not a corporation? I'm assuming not, since they seem dumber than a box of rocks. Maybe we can begin a class action lawsuit against tea party assholes!

Congratulations Rick Scarborough, you are today's asshat of the day!

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

FREEDOMWORKS

TEA PARTY ONE STEAMING PILE

FreedomWorks, the Tin Foil Hat Society group that pushed Congressional Republicans to shut down the government and to risk a default on the national debt in order to push a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, railed against Wednesday’s bipartisan deal to reopen the federal government and protect the full faith and credit of the United States. But a review of their campaign spending since 2009 finds that more of their political activity benefited Senators and Representatives who voted for the agreement than those who voted against it.

Of the more than $2.8 million in PAC contributions and independent expenditures made to support current members of Congress by FreedomWorks and its FreedomWorks for America superpac, over $1.5 million aided Republicans who voted for the deal the group so vehemently opposed, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. Less than $1.3 million went to support candidates who backed the FreedomWorks position.

FreedomWorks joined with the Club for Growth, Phyllis Schlafly and her Eagle Forum, Heritage Action for America, Citizens United, and an array of other Tin Foil Hat and far-right groups to oppose the deal agreed to by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). In a joint letter, they called the “Washington deal” an unmistakable “vote to move forward with Obamacare.” In a separate statement, FreedomWorks CEO Matt Kibbe warned that his group would count a vote for this “sellout bargain” against legislators on its annual legislative score card.

Kibbe added:

Republican leadership has completely lost its way. Not only is this proposal a full surrender- it’s a complete surrender with presents for the Democrats. Apparently Mitch McConnell’s idea of a ‘compromise’ is to increase the debt limit, fully fund a broken health care law, and promise talks of increasing spending down the road. 

The group spent more than $1.2 million to elect Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake. Flake voted for the compromise — and for the cloture motion to end debate on it — explaining that because it kept the sequester spending cuts in place, the deal was “a win for fiscal conservatives.” In a 2012 campaign ad, FreedomWorks for America called Flake “fiscally responsible.”

Just over $163,000 went to back Colorado Rep. Mike Coffman, who also voted yes. Coffman argued the deal “says we’re done fighting and we’re ready to begin an honest discussion about solutions for reducing the debt.”

Other FreedomWorks-backed Republicans voting with the bipartisan super-majorities included Sens. Richard Burr (NC) and Deb Fischer (NE), as well as Reps. Kevin Cramer (ND), Steve Daines (MT), Cory Garnder (CO), David McKinley (WV) Robert Pittenger (NC), Reid Ribble (WI), Steve Stivers (OH), Scott Tipton (CO), and Todd Young (IN).

Kibbe told CNN on Wednesday that tea baggers who voted for the deal would “absolutely” pay a “political price” for their votes — primary challenges in their next elections.

If we are going to end the conservative's brinkmanship of governing by crisis then we must not only eliminate GOP majorities, but we must also reduce their margins of control as to temper their tempers.

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West