Climate Warming Is Just GOD Farting

Bill Maher ended his show tonight by going after Republican “zombie lies” on the environment and basically calling them “prostitutes” for denying climate change just to satisfy donors.

He ripped into candidates like Rick Perry, Jeb Bush, and Ted Cruz for raising serious questions about established science on climate change, before saying the whole thing was “never about facts to begin with.”

Maher said the donors are “making their money killing the planet” and as long as people like the Kochs.

VIDEO COURTESY OF HBO

Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

CHRISTIE EYES DESTRUCTION OF SOCIAL SECURITY AFTER DEMOLISHING STATES RETIREMENT SYSTEM

Gov. Chris Christie proposed cutting Social Security benefits in a speech in New Hampshire on Tuesday, proposing a similar approach to national retirement systems as the one currently failing in his home state.

The likely 2016 White House candidate proposed trimming future payments to anyone earning over $80,000 a year, with anyone earning $200,000 or more per year getting nothing out of the system they paid into. Christie stressed that no one currently receiving benefits would face the cuts, but ignored proposals that would improve the program’s solvency without requiring any reduction in benefits.

Christie has a track record in New Jersey of making big promises to retirees and then walking away from them. And this newest, national promise isn’t even a particularly effective one. Opponents of benefit cuts denounced the governor’s approach as the first stage in a gradual assault on an immensely popular program.

“Christie has various proposals for our earned benefits, including raising the retirement age for Social Security and Medicare, making seniors pay more for their Medicare, and reducing the cost of living adjustment Americans receive each year. Each and every one of these is spelled the same way: C-U-T,” said Social Security Works executive director Alex Lawson. “Americans have earned their benefits, and I am confident that Governor Christie’s plan to take them away will be soundly rejected by the American people regardless of political affiliation.”

Groups like Lawson’s argue that means testing proposals like Christie’s are a bad idea both because the math doesn’t work – the savings from means testing are too small to close long-term funding holes program-wide, and increased administrative costs would wipe out much of the too-meager savings from the change – and because it “contradicts the essential nature and spirit of the program” as an earned benefit accessible to all working people.

The extreme popularity with voters that has traditionally prevented cuts to Social Security owes in large part to the basic fairness of a system that pays out what workers put in. Cutting the wealthy out of that bargain as Christie proposes would shrink the voting coalition that protects Social Security from politicians whose Wall Street backers would benefit if aging Americans had to depend on the investment houses instead of the government for their retirement security.

“It’s all part of a coordinated attack on Americans’ retirement security,” Lawson said, drawing connections between Christie’s proposals and the quieter work to derail pension systems that billionaire John Arnold funds around the country. “They’ve already destroyed private pensions. If they can get rid of public pensions as well, there will be nothing for people to do but put their money in Wall Street,” he said.

Christie’s handling of the public retirement system in New Jersey makes it hard to buy the straight-talking image he presented in Tuesday’s benefit-cuts speech. The governor agreed to make $3.8 billion in payments to the state pension funds as part of a compromise in which workers agreed to make higher contributions to the fund themselves. Barely a year later, Christie reneged on his end of the deal and declined to fork over $2.4 billion of the promised total. He claimed it was “the only decision we’re left with,” but his tax subsidies and decision to let hedge fund managers invest state retirement funding cost a combined $3.3 billion. In February, a state judge found that he is still obligated to fulfill his payments promise. But that same month, Christie proposed further cuts to the pension system.

The governor’s Social Security speech is similarly disingenuous about the choices America has for closing Social Security’s oft-exaggerated long-term funding gap. Current law caps payroll tax collections so that only the first $117,000 or so that a person earns each year is subject to the collections that fund Social Security. The cap means that the highest-paid Americans only pay Social Security taxes for about two days each year. Eliminating the payroll tax cap and making the best-paid American pay on all of their income in the same way that most workers do would raise almost all of the money required to make Social Security fully solvent for the next 75 years, up from about 20 years now.

Congress is headed for a showdown over Social Security spending in the coming years whether or not Christie becomes president. But the political landscape for those fights is changing rapidly. In recent years Democrats were so afraid to oppose spending cuts that they entertained GOP ideas about cutting Social Security and even proposed some of their own. Now, thanks to the leadership of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), large numbers of Democrats in both chambers are calling for expanding the program instead of cutting it.

On the first day of the current Congress, GOP leaders used a covert rules measure to ensure a manufactured funding crisis within the Social Security Disability Insurance program that is separate from Social Security retirement benefits.

The move will force a showdown over the disability program sometime next year, something Christie enthusiastically endorsed in Tuesday’s speech. “I believe we should use this moment to reform the system and incentivize getting back to work,” he said.

NFTOS

Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

NEVER TURN YOUR BACK ON REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENT

Here’s what happened in Indiana when the media went away:


According to Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, who spoke to reporters on Tuesday, the “difficult time” for the state is over. He was referring to the national backlash after he signed into law a piece of expansive legislation known as the “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” (RFRA), which was intended to allow for discrimination against LGBT people. Despite his optimism, it’s clear the state is still in damage control mode — and still has damage to control.

Despite the “fix” passed to ensure the RFRA cannot be used to discriminate, Hoosiers still do not enjoy statewide LGBT protections. In other words, outside of the few municipalities with local protections, anti-LGBT discrimination is still legal throughout most of the state. This week, lawmakers made several attempts to begin the process of creating those protections, but Republican leadership quashed them, claiming there wasn’t enough time to tackle such a policy change.

One amendment to an unrelated House bill was defeated 66-24 because it wasn’t closely related enough to the original bill. Another proposal in the Senate simply would have created of a special committee to study the issue, but Republicans shot it down on a 40-10 party line vote, claiming it could have been better worded. With the legislative session winding down, there likely will not be another opportunity for nondiscrimination protections to come up. In other words, despite weeks of claiming that they don’t support discrimination, Indiana’s Republican leadership just rejected all attempts to protect against it.

Pence suggested Tuesday that Hoosiers have “a great story to tell,” adding, “I really do believe that we are through the storm, that now’s the time to heal.” That’s probably why the state has hired a public relations firm to try to convince the world that the state is a welcoming place. After amending the RFRA to appease businesses threatening the state, it is now investing $2 million of taxpayer money to try to reform Indiana’s image. With discrimination still legal in most parts of the state, the firm has its work cut out for it.

[h/t thinkprogress]

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STAFF WRITER

NRA BECOMING VERY PARANOID

NASHVILLE, TN — Islamic extremists have seized control of cities across the United States and have enacted sharia law, according to a speaker at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting who spoke about current and emerging threats to American gun owners.

Author Steve Tarani said during a presentation in Nashville on Sunday that he has witnessed the alleged “no-go zones” — areas where police cannot enter — while shadowing a friend who serves on the Detroit Metro SWAT Police on a drive in Dearborn, MI. He described pulling up to one of the alleged Muslim-controlled areas:

The street signs suddenly went from English to Arabic. There wasn’t a single English word on any shop or any street sign. And in fact, these little yellow signs were posted all along the edges. Jeremy said to me, ‘this is it. We don’t go past this line.’ And I said to Jeremy, ‘what do you mean? You guys are Detroit Metro. You’re the SWAT team. You can go anywhere you want. What if you get a call over there?’ He said ‘this is it, it’s hazardous for our team if we go past this line.’

I have seen it with my own eyes, witnessed it in the backseat of a car and it is for real. No-go zones exist in the United States.

Dearborn, Michigan is not the only place that these settlements exist. They are spread out over the country in various cities. There’s an estimate of over 5,000 known terrorist cells in the United States. However our most persistent and significant threat, right now, to us here today this morning, is the homegrown violent extremists.

There is no factual basis to allegations that parts of the U.S. have turned into no-go zones that Muslim extremists had supposedly conquered — a myth that was spread by Fox News reports earlier this year.

Tarani’s comments were part of an hour-long seminar in which he discussed what he claims are the threats Americans face on a daily basis. The frequency and intensity of “mass murders, beheadings and suicide bombings” are increasing, he said. After detailing the events of a number of mass shootings and terrorist plots by an “endless supply” of militant groups around the world, Tarani told the audience they should be prepared to respond to all kinds of threats.

Tarani also warned that the country’s “porous borders” are letting extremists and terrorists into the United States. “It’s possible that at least 20 percent of what comes over that border — that’s a big number, guys — is Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Ethiopian al shabaab, known gang members and supports of the cartel,” he said, warning people to arm themselves to respond to threats before law enforcement can.

The myth of no-go zones was also spread earlier this year by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), who said in an interview that there are Muslim areas in Europe that are dominated by extremist Muslims where the police refuse to enter. Fox News previously made several mentions of no-go zones, prompting British Prime Minister David Cameron to publicly refute the claim and even call one pundit “a complete idiot.” Fox later issued several apologies and admitted that no-go zones do not actually exist.

An enclave of Muslim people do live in Dearborn, MI — more than 30 percent of the population is Muslim — but despite the rumors, the city is not governed by Sharia law. Residents of Dearborn are not exempt from state or local law, regardless of the religion to which they identify. According to the Daily Beast, the myth of no-go zones in the city is “a phenomenon that baffles Dearborn Mayor Jack O’Reilly.”

“The people who perpetuate it use it for their own gain,” O’Reilly told the website. “There are certain sites and individuals who like to perpetuate fear of Muslims — the people who like to suggest Muslims shouldn’t remain in the U.S.”

cross posted from thinkprogress

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STAFF WRITER

“FUCK YOUR BREATH”

Video released by an Oklahoma sheriff’s department on Friday shows an unarmed black man named Eric Harris fleeing police as they exit their cars to chase him. After officers catch up to Harris and bring him to the ground, an officer calls out the word “Taser” twice, before firing a single shot at Harris. The shot, which was fired by Reserve Deputy Robert Bates, was fatal. Harris was pronounced dead an hour later.




The shooting appears to be a tragic accident. Bates did say “Taser” before shooting Harris, and immediately after pulling the trigger, Bates drops the gun and says “Oh! I shot him. I’m sorry.” At a press conference on Friday, a Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson claimed that Bates was a “true victim” of something called “slips and capture” — a police term for when someone does one thing while believing they are doing something else in a high stress situation. They say that Bates believed he was holding his Taser and not his firearm when he fired the round that killed Harris.

Whatever Bates’s intentions, however, the other officers on the scene respond to Harris’s cries for help by forcefully pinning him to the ground and telling him to shut up in the video released by the sheriff’s department. As Harris lies face down on the ground bleeding and crying out “oh shit man, he shot me, he shot me! Oh, he shot me!” one officer puts his knee on Harris’s head in an apparent effort to subdue him. An officer tells Harris to “shut the fuck up” shortly thereafter.

When Harris tells one of the officers “I’m losing my breath,” the officer responds, “fuck your breath.”

At the press conference on Friday, Tulsa County Sheriff’s Capt. Billy McKelvey claimed that the officers who surrounded Harris immediately after Bates fired his gun were not aware that Harris had been shot. McKelvey also claimed that they radioed for paramedics as soon as they released that Harris was wounded.

An unusual twist in this story is that Bates, the reserve deputy who shot Harris, is not a full-time officer. He is a 73-year-old insurance executive and a wealthy donor to the sheriff’s department. The department includes 130 reserve deputies who are volunteers who donate their time to law enforcement. Bates is classified as “advanced reserve,” the highest level of reserve deputy, a position that permits him to “do anything a full-time deputy can do.”

Bates did serve as a full-time police officer for one year — in 1964 and 1965 — and he had to complete 800 hours of training to be classified as advanced reserve. Once they have completed this training, however, an advanced reserve deputy must only serve for 40 hours every six months in order to maintain their certification.

At the Friday press conference, Tulsa Police Sgt. Jim Clark said the Tulsa County Sheriffs Office’s investigation concluded that Bates did not commit a crime and no policy violations occurred.

NFTOS
STAFF WRITER

PROFESSOR OF KILLOLOGY SAYS PREPARE FOR IMMIMENT DISASTER

WING NUT GUN HUGGER LT.COL. DAVE GROSSMAN

NASHVILLE, TN — “Sandy Hook is just the beginning. We’re raising a generation of mass killers.”

Lt. Col. Dave Grossman repeated those lines to a crowd of hundreds at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting in Nashville on Saturday, telling the gun owners to fear for themselves and their families and that the only solution is to arm all of our citizens.

“Can we take the lessons learned in Columbine and Jonesboro and Virginia Tech? Can we take the lessons learned on 9/11 and in Sandy Hook Elementary School? Or do we have to wait until our kids die?” Grossman asked the audience during a seminar called “Sheepdogs! The Bulletproof Mind for the Armed Citizen.”

After detailing each mass shooting to occur at a school over the past few decades, tallying up the deaths with red marker in front of the audience, Grossman told the NRA members that “you’re going to see daycare massacres and school bus massacres.”

The two-hour long seminar focused on how having armed police officers in schools is just the first step to protecting the country from the inevitable mass violence. Grossman did not touch on the mental health issues that underlie school shootings. The “worst and the most” mass murders have occurred in Europe where there are stricter gun control laws, Grossman told the audience.

“Any politician who tells you we can solve this problem with gun laws is an idiot,” he said. “The politicians drag a red herring across the path — it’s all about the evil guns and if we make the evil guns go away, the bad men will go away.”

Instead, Grossman said we have to put tens of thousands of armed cops, or “good guys with guns” in our schools and encourage all citizens to arm themselves to prepare for imminent disaster.

“Folks, we have raised a vicious, vicious generation of children,” he said. “They have given us crimes on children like nothing in human history. Sandy Hook is just the beginning. Our founding fathers knew there would be days like this… And they created the Second Amendment for just a time like this. And in the midst of all that, the politicians want to disarm our citizens. That is flat out treason.”

Grossman is a retired Army sergeant and paratrooper who taught psychology at West Point. He says he has founded a new academic field which he calls “killology,” the study of killing in war and the “violent crime that is raging the world,” according to his biography.

While Grossman may claim the Second Amendment can help protect people from violent criminals, research shows that being armed does little to prevent shootings. A 2012 Mother Jones analysis of 61 mass murders over the last 30 years found that “in not a single case was the killing stopped by a civilian using a gun.” As one leading expert explained, “given that civilian shooters are less likely to hit their targets than police in these circumstances,” arming civilians could often lead to more chaos and deaths.

Ten thousand kids are injured or killed by guns each year, according to a recent study. And despite Grossman’s claims, the United State’s rate of mortality from firearms is about the times higher than the rates in other wealthy nations.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) estimates that firearms are one of the top three causes of death among children, killing twice as many kids as cancer does. In the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting, many national gun control groups and others including the AAP stepped up their efforts to lobby for gun violence prevention, including expanded background checks and safe storage to ensure that guns aren’t falling into the wrong hands.

But members of the NRA used the Sandy Hook massacre to push for arming more civilians. “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre famously said at a press conference.

“Why is the idea of a gun good when it’s used to protect the president of our country or our police, but bad when it’s used to protect our children in our schools?,” LaPierre said after Sandy Hook. “They’re our kids. They’re our responsibility. And it’s not just our duty to protect them, it’s our right to protect them.”
 

Congratulations numbnuts, I mean Lt.Col, you are today's psychotic asshat of the day. What a freak of nature!





NFTOS
Blogger-In-Chief
Roger West

GAY WEDDING CAKES IS THE WORST PROBLEM YOU GOT?

Bill Maher ended his show tonight by putting America’s religious freedom debate in some context: at least U.S. fundamentalists have been reined in, but Muslim nations need to do the same. (This came at the end of a show where Maher and Fareed Zakaria argued about Maher’s critiques of Islam.)

Maher found it hilarious that the culture wars have progressed to the point where conservatives are fighting for the right not to serve wedding cakes to gay people. After all, he said, the Bible dictates “being gay is an abomination and we must destroy it by denying it pastry.”

But as nutty as America’s fundamentalists are, Maher said that Islam has “crazy scripture” too, and moderates need to “hijack it,” take the “crazy parts” out, and hope for a more peaceful time when, just like the U.S., their biggest fights are over gay cake.

VIDEO COURTESY OF HBO

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Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

PRIOR TO WALTER SCOTT BEING MURDERED, NORTH CHARLESTON PD WAS AGAISNT BODY CAMS

In a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Mayor Keith Summey of North Charleston said, “Today I made an executive decision and have notified my council, we have already ordered this morning an additional 150 body cameras so that every officer that’s on the street in uniform will have a body camera. Now, I want you to know that it takes a while once the cameras come in. we have to train them on operation of the camera but we also have to establish a policy.”

The announcement came one day after video surfaced of Patrolman Michael Slager shooting Walter Scott, an unarmed black man who was running away. But South Carolina officers vocalized opposition to body camera legislation.

Bills regarding the use of body cameras have been introduced by multiple state lawmakers in the past few months. One authored by Gerald Malloy (D-Hartsville) and Marlon Kimpson (D-Charleston) last December would require all officers in South Carolina to wear body cameras. Rep. Wendell Gilliard (D-Charleston) filed a similar bill, in addition to one that would mandate a 60-day study of the costs of statewide body cam implementation. Gilliard’s bills are still in the committee hearing process. Malloy and Kimpson’s was heard by a Senate panel early last month.

But police officers throughout the state have spoken out about the cost of implementing body cameras in every department, and the logistics of having to record every encounter.

“I think what we’re going to have to wait for is some court decisions to come down to really tell us when and where to use these things,” said Dan Reynolds, president of the South Carolina Police Chiefs Association. “We developed a policy prior to implementing the system, but there are still some issues that relate to privacy and other things, whether people need to give their permission.”

“Every police officer, which would include me, sheriffs, and anybody that is a sworn law enforcement officer would have to wear a camera all day and record every encounter they have,” Police Chief Greg Mullen of Charleston explained to South Carolina Radio Network. “I’d have to record this interview that we’re having right now, which is really not the intent of what these particular devices are seeking.”

Attorney Michael Nunn, who provides legal counsel for Florence County Sheriff’s Department, lamented the $300,000 it would take to equip 234 officers.

North Charleston, where Scott was killed, is one city that has adopted a body camera policy. Local law enforcement committed to purchasing 115 cameras for $275,000, a scheme that hasn’t launched yet.

Raw video recorded by an anonymous source was ultimately responsible for exposing that Slager shot Scott in the back. Scott, who was pulled over for a broken tail light, was actually running away from the officer, who then fired eight shots. Even more damning, Slager appears to drop an object next to Scott’s body. He’s since been charged with murder.

But as many activists have pointed out in the past, police body cameras do not guarantee justice, as evidenced by the Eric Garner incident. Officers in possession of video footage control the narrative, leaving room for abuse. Without an oversight committee that monitors and responds to police misconduct, video can be useless. Many believe the fight over body cameras also detracts from conversations about specific practices, like rampant racial profiling.

[h/t thinkprogress]

NFTOS
STAFF WRITER

TEXAS WANTS TO STOP BYSTANDERS FROM FILMING POLICE

Why is this bad idea? Ask Walter Scott who was recently shot in the back by law enforcement in South Carolina. Oh wait, we can’t, he’s dead. If not for this video, we’d have another Mike Brown tragedy on our hands.

Texas Bill Would Make Recording Police Illegal

If the police are indeed not doing anything wrong, then they don't have anything to fear. I guess in the police’s mind, personal responsibility only applies to the ones they are protecting and serving the shit out of.

NFTOS

Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

WHAT TRANSPIRED BEFORE THE VIDEO EMERGED

City Patrolman Michael Thomas Slager is seen here in this undated photo provided by the North Charleston Police Department. (Photo: AP/North Charleston Police Department)

On Tuesday, South Carolina police officer Michael Thomas Slager was charged with first-degree murder for the shooting death of Walter Scott. Charges against South Carolina police officers for shooting someone are extremely rare. But what was particularly remarkable in this case was, for at least two days, Slager was apparently unaware that video of the entire incident existed.

This provides a unique opportunity to observe how one police officer sought to avoid accountability for his actions.

Between the time when he shot and killed Scott early Saturday morning and when charges were filed, Slager — using the both the police department and his attorney — was able to provide his “version” of the events. He appeared well on his way to avoiding charges and pinning the blame on Scott.

Then a video, shot by an anonymous bystander, revealed exactly what happened.

Actual raw footage of the shooting:



On Saturday the police released a statement alleging that Scott had attempted to gain control of a Taser from Slager and that he was shot in a struggle over the weapon. The Post And Courier reported the initial story:

Police in a matter of hours declared the occurrence at the corner of Remount and Craig roads a traffic stop gone wrong, alleging the dead man fought with an officer over his Taser before deadly force was employed.

A statement released by North Charleston police spokesman Spencer Pryor said a man ran on foot from the traffic stop and an officer deployed his department-issued Taser in an attempt to stop him. 

That did not work, police said, and an altercation ensued as the men struggled over the device. Police allege that during the struggle the man gained control of the Taser and attempted to use it against the officer.

The officer then resorted to his service weapon and shot him, police alleged.

The story clearly came from Slager but he was able to use the authoritative voice of the police department to bolster his narrative. Meanwhile, Scott could only be defended by friends who did not witness the incident. “Walter was a nice, good, honest person… He was a grown man working hard to take care of his family,” said Samuel Scott, the victim’s cousin.

By Sunday, the police department had clammed up and refused to release any additional information about the events. (It’s unclear when the department became aware of the existence of the video.)

On Monday, Slager sought to reinforce his narrative, this time releasing a statement through his attorney. From The Post And Courier:

Slager thinks he properly followed all procedures and policies before resorting to deadly force, lawyer David Aylor said in a statement.

“When confronted, Officer Slager reached for his Taser — as trained by the department — and then a struggle ensued,” Aylor said. “The driver tried to overpower Officer Slager in an effort to take his Taser.” 

Seconds later, the report added, he radioed that the suspect wrested control of the device. Even with the Taser’s prongs deployed, the device can still be used as a stun gun to temporarily incapacitate someone. 

Slager “felt threatened and reached for his department-issued firearm and fired his weapon,” his attorney added.

If the video had not surfaced, that’s where the story might have ended. In nearly all cases where an officer fires a weapon, that is the end of the story. A study by The State found “police in South Carolina have fired their weapons at 209 suspects in the past five years” but none were convicted. “We ruled all the shootings were justified – and we looked at dozens and dozens of them,” one former prosecutor told The State.

In this case, the video revealed a very different scenario. Scott, who was unarmed and fleeing, was shot in the back by Slager from a distance of at least 15 feet. After Scott was fatally shot, the video appears to capture Slager planting an object next to Scott.

How many "justified" police shootings would have been ruled on differently if videos were available to corroborate or contradict the police officer's account. Based on what we've seen when videos are available, we'd have to assume that a lot of so-called justified shootings have been shown to be out and out murder by those sworn to uphold the law. It's way past time for a change in law enforcement.

NFTOS

Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

RECOLLECTIONS PIZZA

The Daily Show's Jordan Klepper decided he needed to get in on that anti-gay gravy train after watching the Indiana pizzeria make over $800,000 in donations rewarding their bigotry. After watching Memories Pizza rake in the dough this week from their GoFundMe drive started by Glenn Beck and Dana Loesch, The Daily Show correspondent explained to Stewart what his plans were to start a successful fundraising drive of his own.


VIDEO COURTESY OF COMEDY CENTRAL

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook,Daily Show Video Archive

Perhaps the “fundy bigots” should move to Saudi Arabia, as they seem to agree on the really important things of life.

NFTOS
Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

WHO KNEW JEB BUSH WAS HISPANIC?

THE TWO BUFFOONS

Jeb Bush identified himself as Hispanic on a 2009 voter-registration form in Florida, according to a copy of the document obtained by The New York Times.

Needless to say, neither Bush nor his parents are Hispanic, though his wife, Columba, was born in Mexico. "It is unclear where the paperwork error was made," a spokesperson for Bush said Monday. Jeb later took to Twitter: "My mistake! Don’t think I’ve fooled anyone!"

Mr. Bush, a former Florida governor and likely presidential candidate, was born in Texas and hails from one of America’s most prominent political dynasties. But on at least one occasion, it appears he got carried away with his appeal to Spanish-speaking voters and claimed he actually was Hispanic. 

In a 2009 voter-registration application, obtained from the Miami-Dade County Elections Department, Mr. Bush marked Hispanic in the field labeled “race/ethnicity.”A Bush spokeswoman could offer no explanation for the characterization. 

Carolina Lopez, deputy supervisor of elections for Miami-Dade, said voters must submit hard copies of applications with a signature before receiving a voter information card confirming their address and polling location. According to the Florida Division of Elections, the application requires an original signature because the voter is swearing or affirming an oath. Florida law requires that the signature, driver’s license number and social security number be redacted before being publicly released.

While Mr. Bush’s claiming to be Hispanic may have been a careless mistake, confusion over heritage is no laughing matter during a campaign season.

Obviously it’s most apparent that both Bush brothers suffer from learning disabilities. Is this a calculated move or a simple mistake of checking the wrong box? With the Bush brothers, who knows?

NFTOS

Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

HAPPY EASTER

REMINDER:Jesus was homeless. He also had an unwed mother and an unemployed father. Happy Easter.

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STAFF

VIRGINIA'S MCAULIFFE INKS BAN THE BOX

MCAULIFFE SIGN XO FOR CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECK

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe signed an executive order Friday to remove all questions regarding criminal history from applications for state government jobs. Agencies can still conduct a criminal background check on a job candidate, but only after finding him or her otherwise qualified for the position.

Speaking at a local Goodwill store in Richmond, Virginia, McAuliffe tied his action to the upcoming Easter holiday and its focus on turning over a new leaf.

“We should not seal the fate of every man and woman with a criminal record based on a hasty verdict,” he said. “If they are eager to make a clean start and build new lives in their communities, they deserve a fair chance at employment.”

Though the Department Of Labor doesn’t track the unemployment rate among those returning from jail or prison, studies have found that it’s about 60 to 75 percent for individuals a year after their incarceration. Difficulty securing a job is a major reason so many returned citizens commit another crime and return to prison.


Before signing the order, McAuliffe also expressed concern that consequences of “checking the box” on a job application and disclosing a past criminal conviction has a disproportionate impact on the state’s workers of color.

“We all know that this box has an unequal impact on our minority families,” he said. “One study found that 34 percent of white job applicants without a record received a callback, while only 17 percent of those with a criminal record did. Among African Americans, 14 percent without a criminal record received a callback while only 5 percent of those with a record heard back from a potential employer.”

The order encourages, but doesn't require, Virginia’s private employers to ‘ban the box’ as well — and praises those like Target, WalMart and Home Depot that have already done so.

Virginia’s move follows similar laws passed in Georgia, Nebraska and a handful of others states as well as the District of Columbia to combat hiring discrimination against workers with criminal records.

The National Employment Law Project estimates 70 million American adults have arrests or convictions in their past that can make it difficult for them to obtain employment.

NFTOS
STAFF WRITER

KANSAS SAYS EVERYONE CAN CONCEAL THEIR GUNS

KANSAS GOVERNOR SIGNING GUN LAW 

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback signed a bill into law on Thursday that allows Kansas residents over the age of 21 to carry concealed weapons without any permit or training requirements, “as long as that individual is not prohibited from possessing a firearm under either federal or state law.”

“Responsible gun ownership – for protection and sport – is a right inherent in our Constitution. It is a right that Kansans hold dear and have repeatedly and overwhelmingly reaffirmed a commitment to protecting,” said in a statement on Facebook posted alongside a photo of him signing the bill.

Every town for Gun Safety expressed their disapproval on Facebook as well. “This bill will let people carry hidden, loaded guns in public with no training whatsoever, and with no permit required,” the statement read. “It’s irresponsible legislation that puts all Kansans in danger.”

The legislation passed with overwhelming support in the statehouse. One state legislator, Rep. Travis Couture-Lovelady, described gun safety training to the Kansas City Star as a “personal responsibility” and “not something the government can mandate.” He pointed out that since the state adopted permits for concealed carry weapons in 2006, “We haven’t had any of the Wild West shootouts.”

The state will still issue concealed permits in the state, but they aren’t required. Residents do still need a Kansas to carry weapons in other states or jurisdictions where they are required. At least five other states and most of Montana also do not require permits to carry concealed weapons, but all 50 states have passed laws allowing citizens to carry firearms in public.

Many pro-gun groups such as the Crime Prevention Research Center have argued that since the rise of concealed carry laws in the states, there has been a decline in violent crime. This ignores the fact that violent crime is on a general downward trend across the country, regardless of whether the states have concealed carry laws or not.

The research on whether conceal carry laws are effective has been mixed and little studied, in part because until recently there has been a ban on federal funding for this type of research. However, a study by the National Research Council found “no link” between right-to-carry concealed weapons laws and violent crime rates in the raw data. However, many point to international data as a guide. In Japan, for example, where almost all forms of gun ownership is illegal, there are single-digit shooting deaths in the country each year.

Another study released by Stanford last year took a new look at this research and did find some ties to allowing weapons without a permit and some types of violence. It was difficult to tie right-to-carry laws to violent crime, but researchers did find an estimated 8 percent increase in aggravated assault cases — and this may actually be an underestimate. Researchers described finding the effect of such laws a “vexing task.”

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“BE THANKFUL STATE DOESN’T EXECUTE GAYS”

Appearing yesterday on CNN, Senator “Tehran” Tom Cotton urged critics of Indiana’s “religious freedom” law to get “perspective,” suggesting the treatment of LGBT people in Indiana compared favorably to countries where gay people are executed.

“I think it’s important we have a sense of perspective,” Cotton said. “In Iran they hang you for the crime of being gay."

Cotton is wrong in suggesting that Indiana’s law was the same as the federal law signed by President Clinton in 1993. Indiana’s law has significant differences that made discrimination LGBT people — and general confusion — more likely. This was acknowledged by Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, who refused to sign a bill nearly identical to the one passed in Indiana until it was brought into line with the federal model.

Indiana’s law and the original Arkansas bill has drawn criticism from a diverse range of individuals and corporations including NASCAR, Walmart and the Republican mayor of Indianapolis, among many others.

While Cotton is correct that LGBT people in America are not routinely executed, violence against LGBT Americans remains a significant problem.

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Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

WHY IS IT GETTING HARDER FOR THE POOR TO GET MEDICARE YOU ASK?

According to a lawsuit filed in 2009, Idaho illegally underpaid home health care providers that enable Medicaid patients to live at home rather than being confined to a hospital or nursing facility. These providers, however, will not even be able to pursue their lawsuit, thanks to a 5-4 decision handed down by the Supreme Court on Tuesday. The decision largely broke down on familiar partisan lines, although conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy crossed over to vote with three members of the Court’s liberal bloc and Clinton-appointee Justice Stephen Breyer joined most of Justice Antonin Scalia’s opinion announcing the Court’s judgment.

Scalia’s opinion in Armstrong v. Exceptional Child Center rests on a distinction that even many lawyers are likely to find confusing. Just because something is illegal, Scalia explains on behalf of the Court, does not mean that individuals or businesses that are hurt by the illegal action can enforce the law in court.

The federal Medicaid law requires states to set payment rates for services “to assure that payments are consistent with efficiency, economy, and quality of care and are sufficient to enlist enough providers so that care and services are available under the plan at least to the extent that such care and services are available to the general population in the geographic area.” Thus, because health providers may choose not to accept Medicaid patients if they are not paid enough for doing so, state Medicaid programs must pay providers sufficiently high rates to ensure that the program’s beneficiaries have the same access to medical care as non-Medicaid patients.

Armstrong was originally filed in 2009, when Idaho hadn’t raised its Medicaid reimbursement rates since 2006. The plaintiffs claimed that these low rates did not keep up with the cost of caring for Medicaid patients, and thus violated Medicaid law.

The crux of Scalia’s opinion, however, is that this provision of the Medicaid law cannot be enforced through lawsuits. “The sole remedy Congress provided for a State’s failure to comply with Medicaid’s requirements” according to Scalia, “is the withholding of Medicaid funds by the Secretary of Health and Human Services.”

Though this holding does permit the federal government to pressure Idaho to raise its rates by threatening to cut off Medicaid funds to that state, it also places federal health officials in a bind. Under Scalia’s decision, the sole consequence for a state that fails to meet its obligations to Medicaid patients is to lose funding that it would otherwise use to provide medical care to Medicaid patients. Federal officials, for good reason, should be reluctant to invoke a power that could make conditions even worse for poor people in Idaho.

[h/t thinkprogress]

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STAFF WRITTER

HOW IT’S SUPPOSED TO GO

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Crossposted from thinkprogress

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STAFF WRITER

Berkeley Ambassador Punches Homeless Man

James Cocklereese, a homeless resident of Berkeley, California, has been sentenced to two years of probation. But what led to that sentence was the apparent unprovoked beating he received from a man who works as an ambassador for the homeless with the Downtown Berkeley Association (DBA).

The incident was caught on camera, in which DBA staffers Jefferey Bailey and Carmen Francois approached Cocklereese and another homeless man, Nathan Swor, to ask them to leave an area they had been camped out in. After Cocklereese can be seen and heard yelling curses at the staffers, Bailey punches him in the head and then continues punching him at least ten times after he’s on the ground.






At the end of the video, as the two homeless men are packing up their belongings to leave, Bailey can be seen pinning Swor into a corner and heard saying, “I swear I will knock you out.”

Bailey initially filed a report to his superiors about the incident, claiming. The police report says that Swor brandished a pole with a blade attached to it, and that Cocklereese “raised his fist, and charged the victim,” neither of which can be seen on the video.

But after the Youtube video surfaced, the DBA said it had fired him and suspended Francois. So far neither has been charged.

Cocklereese and Swor, on the other hand, have been charged with seven misdemeanor counts. They both entered no contest pleas on Monday and will be sentenced to two years of probation. They will also have to pay into a restitution fund and will be subject to law enforcement searchers. After Cocklreese admitted to a probation violation, he will have to work for 30 days in a sheriff department program.

DBA CEO John Caner has called the assault “shocking” and said, “We’re taking steps to do whatever we can to make sure it doesn't happen again.” He blames the incident on a problematic individual but said the association will expand a training program for its ambassadors.

But advocates for the homeless say the assault is part of a larger problem with the DBA. As many as 15 people took to the streets on Friday to protest what happened. David Teague, and advocate known as Ninja Kitty, said at the demonstration, “It doesn't stem [from] this individual ambassador… When it comes to an ambassador’s word against [a] homeless [person’s], the ambassador’s word is gold.” Bob Offer-Westort of Streets Are for Everyone agreed, telling ABC 7, “If there’s a conflict and the ambassador reports, ‘this person assaulted me,’ then the cop is likely to believe the ambassador and arrest the person for assault.”

The homeless face many challenges, one of them being run-ins with city officials and police, particularly given the growing adoption of ordinances that effectively criminalize homeless people’s lives. Many of these are put into place at the behest of local businesses.

The homeless are also at an extremely elevated risk of violence, although it often comes from passing strangers, rather than those purportedly there to help them. There were at least 109 violent attacks against the homeless from non-homeless assailants in 2013, 18 of which were fatal, a 24 percent increase over the year before. Over the last 15 years, 375 homeless people were murdered.

A big part of the problem, of course, is that the homeless sleeping outside — more than 135,000 people on any given night at last count — are left exposed. Ninja Kitty has been on a housing waiting list for two years and said, “They expect us to magically disappear while we wait and they attack and assault us while we have nowhere to go.” Criminalization is effectively a way to try to sweep the problem of homelessness aside while often increasing the risk of run-ins with police, which is not just another challenge for the homeless but eats up local government resources.

Some cities have instead moved toward housing their homeless populations. That approach saves a significant amount of money by reducing police interactions as well as emergency room visits. Salt Lake City, Phoenix, and New Orleans have all been able to completely house portions of their homeless populations.

[h/t thinkprogress]

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STAFF WRITER

PROTECTING AND SERVING THE SHIT OUT OF FLOYD DENT

MICHIGAN POLICE PROTECTING AND SERVING THE SHIT OUT OF FLOYD DENT 

On January 28, Floyd Dent was arrested in Inkster, Michigan and charged with resisting arrest, assault and possession of cocaine. The charges seemed unusual considering Dent had worked at Ford for 37 years and had no criminal history.

A video of Dent’s arrest, released today, reveals a far more disturbing picture. It shows Dent being dragged from his car, placed in a chokehold and struck 16 times in the head. Dent was also Tasered three times.

In all, 10 cops arrived at the scene. They were all white, according to Dent’s attorney.

Police say they pulled Dent over while they were “watching an area known to have drug activity” and saw that Dent “didn't make a complete stop at a stop sign.” After a judge saw the video, the charges of resisting arrest and assault were immediately thrown out. Dent still faces drug possession charges.



According to the police, when Dent exited the car he said, “I’ll kill you.” There is no audio recording of the incident. The officer who had Dent in a chokehold says that Dent bit him, but he did not seek medical attention or photograph his alleged injury.

Dent says the bag of crack cocaine the officers claim they found was planted and, according to his attorney, there is unreleased video which shows the officers planting the drugs. The officer who repeatedly punched Dent was “was charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for planting evidence and falsifying reports” in 2003. He was ultimately found not guilty.

“I’m lucky to be living. I think they was trying to kill me, especially when they had choked me. I mean, I was on my last breath. I kept telling the officer, ‘Please, I can’t breathe,’” Dent said in a media availability today.

This incident is just one of hundreds, where a cowardly pack of sadistic hyenas that should be charged for at a minimum, excessive force.

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Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

MAHER RIPS LIBERALS FOR FAKE OUTRAGE

Bill Maher made politically correct liberals the subject of his show-ending new rule tonight, as he’s done before, mocking how worked up everyone got about comments from Dolce and Gabbana about “synthetic” babies. Maher said he’s getting tired of the liberal outrage machine and asked, “What is the point of attacking people who are 95 percent on your side?”

Maher said just like conservatives, liberals have crazies of their own they need to rein in. He brought up the controversy over the Economist cover on Latinos and how Media Matters covered it. The liberal media watchdog called it “a tired trope often used to confine the Hispanic community to oversimplified representation in the media.”

Maher reacted by telling Media Matters to “shut the fuck up.”

He remarked, “How deeply stupid has the far-left become,” and said liberals just need to stop freaking out about every single little thing that doesn’t 100 percent conform to their worldview

VIDEO COURTESY OF HBO

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Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

Ted Cruz: A Time for Truth & Fire

VIDEO COURTESY OF MARK FIORE

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STAFF WRITER

“I DARE YOU TO WALK IN MY SHOES”

This week, Ohio State Rep. Teresa Fedor stood up during a legislative debate about a proposed abortion ban and revealed publicly for the first time that she had been sexually assaulted, became pregnant, and had an abortion.

“You don’t respect my reason, my rape, my abortion, and I guarantee you there are other women who should stand up with me and be courageous enough to speak that voice,” Fedor told her fellow lawmakers, who are attempting to outlaw abortion procedures after just six weeks of pregnancy. “What you’re doing is so fundamentally inhuman, unconstitutional, and I’ve sat here too long.

“I dare any one of you to judge me,” she added. “I dare you to walk in my shoes.”

Fedor’s disclosure is just the latest personal admission from a female lawmaker who has determined she cannot remain silent about her own experience while her colleagues debate issues of reproductive rights on the floor.

Earlier this month, Arizona State Rep. Victoria Steele made a similar speech during a legislative debate over a measure that would make it harder for women to get insurance coverage for abortion services. Steele revealed that she had been the victim of sexual assault as a young girl, and later learned that the man who molested her had harmed multiple other victims.

The lawmaker had not planned to disclose her molestation, but she ended up feeling compelled to share her personal story after she was asked to explain why abortion should be considered a medical service. “This is health care. Having the ability to get an abortion,” she said to the committee. “And that’s why I see this as necessary.”

Meanwhile, during Michigan’s last session, State Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer spoke up in a debate over a measure to restrict insurance coverage for abortion — including for women who become pregnant from rape. Before the final vote, Whitmer tearfully disclosed her own history with sexual assault for the first time, telling her fellow lawmakers that she had been raped two decades ago.

“As I was considering what to say in opposition to the rape insurance proposal in front of the Senate today, I made the decision to speak about my own story publicly for the first time ever,” Whitmer said. “I felt it was important for my Republican colleagues to see the face of the women they’re hurting with their actions today.

Texas voters have also become well acquainted with former gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis’ personal history, which she cited during her infamous filibuster against a package of harsh abortion restrictions in the summer of 2013. During that filibuster, she talked about her experience with terminating an ectopic pregnancy, recounted relying on Planned Parenthood clinics when she was uninsured, and explained that there was a point in her life when she wouldn’t have been able to afford to drive hundreds of miles to the nearest abortion clinic. Later, in her memoir, Davis detailed the reasons why she had a second abortion.

The list goes on. Nevada Assemblywomen Lucy Flores talked about her decision to have an abortion at the age of 16 during her testimony in favor of a comprehensive sex ed measure. U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier disclosed her own abortion on the House floor while arguing against a GOP-sponsored proposal to defund Planned Parenthood. Pennsylvania State Rep. Louise Williams Bishop discussed being raped at the age of 12 to explain her support for a bill to strengthen protections for victims of child abuse.

There are two sides to this emerging trend. On one hand, it speaks to the fact that increasing the number of women serving in government can end up influencing lawmaking. There wouldn't be nearly as many personal stories about issues that disproportionately affect women, like sexual assault and abortion, if legislatures consisted of solely men. Changing the conversation in this way is a reminder that creating more diversity in the halls of power can make a real difference.

On the other hand, even as reproductive advocates celebrate the fact that an increasing number of women are feeling comfortable enough to disclose their stigmatized health care experiences, there are lingering concerns. Is this too high of an emotional cost to demand from women in the public sphere? Do we feel too entitled to women’s personal stories, when we should be able to understand the impact of proposed abortion restrictions without that invasion of privacy?

“I personally resent that women have to tell their deepest, darkest traumas in public, their most private moments in public, in order to get people to understand that these bills, these attempts to take away women’s rights, how devastating they are,” Rep. Victoria Steele, the Arizona lawmaker who disclosed her sexual assault earlier this month, told this month. “We should not have to bare that part of our lives in such a public way to be able to access legal medical care.”

Still, although Steele said “it was hard as hell to do what I did in that hearing,” she concluded that she didn't regret it.

Cross Posted from thinkrpogress

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STAFF WRITER

TED CRUZ COMPARES HIMSELF TO GALILEO

TED COMPARES HIMSELF TO GALILEO

A few days after accusing “global warming alarmists” like California Governor Jerry Brown of ridiculing and insulting “anyone who actually looks at the real data” around climate change, Darwin award winner Ted Cruz upped his rhetoric against those who care about the issue.

Speaking to the Texas Tribune on Tuesday, Cruz said that contemporary “global warming alarmists are the equivalent of the flat-Earthers.”

“You know it used to be it is accepted scientific wisdom the Earth is flat, and this heretic named Galileo was branded a denier,” he said.

In Cruz’s opinion, when it comes to climate change, his denier position places him alongside 17th Century scientist Galileo Galilei, who was also considered to be denying the mainstream knowledge of his day. According to Cruz’s logic, he is taking the minority view that human-caused climate change is not happening, just as Galileo took the minority view that the scientific method should be trusted over the Catholic Church.

Galileo, who helped perpetuate the notion that the Earth rotates around the sun, was eventually excommunicated from the Church for his views. In the centuries since he has come to be known as the “father of modern physics” and “the father of modern science.”

Cruz mentioned in the interview that his parents were mathematicians; however he himself studied public policy before going to law school.

Cruz also said he had read a 1970s Newsweek article that morning about “global cooling.” He explained how all the people who believed in global cooling suddenly switched over to global warming when the evidence on cooling didn’t line up.

The solutions to both warming and cooling, Cruz said, involved “government control of the energy sector and every aspect of our lives.”

Either Cruz is suddenly interested in minor 1970s scientific theories or he is scrambling to find ways to push back against the overwhelming evidence that human-caused climate change is happening.

Cruz is not the first to compare Galileo to those who speak out against the accepted science of climate change. In 2011, former presidential candidate and Texas governor Rick Perry dropped Galileo’s name as justification for his anti-climate position.

As the website Skeptical Science points out, “the comparison is exactly backwards.”

“Modern scientists follow the evidence-based scientific method that Galileo pioneered,” the website reads. “Skeptics who oppose scientific findings that threaten their world view are far closer to Galileo’s belief-based critics in the Catholic Church.”

President Obama seems to have gotten the analogy correct when he said in 2013 that “we don’t have time for a meeting of the flat-Earth society” when it comes to doing something about climate change.

“The planet is warming. Human activity is contributing to it,” Obama said at the time. “We know that the costs of these events can be measured in lost lives and lost livelihoods.”

Fact: No one in Galileo's time thought the world was flat. If you're being stupid Ted, at least use a factual comparison. While being factual, Galileo was convicted by the Inquisition, and he was sentenced to lifelong house arrest. He was not excommunicated, which during the time was considered a far more severe sentence.

Ted Cruz, proving yet again, that just when you think his level of stupidity has hit its acme - he proves us wrong yet again.

Ted, you are today’s moronic idiot of the day, congrats numbnutz!

[H/t thinkprogress]

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Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West