ALEX JONES, ANOTHER NUT FROM THE FRUIT BASKET

ALEX JONES, TODAY'S WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD

Alex Jones is no ordinary douche bag, nor is he your average member of the American Taliban  - he is the epitome of  the phenomenon known as “angry phat GOP white man”. Normally in instances like this we just let the video speak for itself, but because this waste of human flesh is so far off the reservation, it’s best we back-fill with content. 

Mr. Jones makes Glenn Beck look like an amateur when it comes to conspiracy theories. Jones likes to refer to himself as a “Paleoconservatist”  or a "aggressive constitutionalist" - in our world,  this troglodyte would be considered the lowest form of human to troll tera firma!  Jones is not one for sitting back when it comes to stupid, no this Einstein takes unlettered to a new level. Jones raises the bar with malcontent for his government. 

JONES RANT #1

Jones‘ background, like other radical nut-jobs, seem to run down the same path, never served their country, high school or college dropouts, like Sean Hannity, Jones has had problems playing well with others - while in the radio world he often intimidated fellow broadcasters. Jones has had legal ramifications for actions conducted in radio land. Like Dana Loesch, he totes bullhorns, so as to ensure that his audiences of three or four hear him. 

Conspiracy theories are a plethora with this less than honorable man, which include 9/11 and Oklahoma City bombings. The Southern Poverty Law Center Intelligence files assert that he has "exploited racial animosities" to "appeal to the fears of the antigovernment Patriot movement." Jones sees himself as a libertarian, and like most of these self-righteous Richard Craniums, they only worry about their own personal story. Jones, like John Boehner, are the heroes and viewers of their own delusional Lifetime TV movies.

JONES RANT #2

Jones makes his living as an antigovernment conspiracy theorist, whom often crosses the Rubicon of race. In 2011 – Jones did more than any other to popularize “truther” theories about government complicity in 9/11 attacks and declared that the U.S. government believes that “whites are the new Al Qaeda.”

Jones’ sources for paranoia are a plethora. Jones’ instability on CNN is nothing new for those who have heard or seen him in action.  Like, Dana Loesch, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and the dead Andy Breitbart, the fruits in the American Taliban arsenal are endless!

Jones hasn’t been lurking in the shadows, he has been out front with his lunatic fringe mentality since the “Branch Davidian” days - a vile human for many years - this pile of fecal matter we saw on TV last night just didn’t morph last night - and this ignorance and hate for the U.S. Government is the backbone of his kind - the radical American Taliban. Jones often bloviates non-stop, the traditional republican radio monopoly if you will- Jones is the kind of guy that the American Taliban uses to inoculate and divert - the focus from the true idiots - the“tin foilers”. 

If Jones is your voice of reasoning for the second amendment, watch the above videos, if after watching he is still your voice of reasoning; keep viewing until you get it! Jones is the very type of people we want to keep guns from. If you are truly a “responsible” gun owner, you might want to muzzle asshats like Jones, as his kind is detrimental to your cause.

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

DEBT CEILING MAYHEM

The 14th Amendment, Giving The GOP The Right To Sit Down And STFU!

Often the case, we hear the GOP complaining about two amendments, the first and the second - as if these where the only amendments to the United States Constitution.

Speaker of the House, John Boehner, and house teapublicans have made it clear of their intent to, once again, hold our country hostage, with future debt ceiling deals. The last time they did this, in August 2011, it resulted in the downgrade of the credit rating, and huge losses in the stock market.

Lying within this next major battle is one simple solution, the President's ability to use the 14th Amendment to declare the debt limit unconstitutional. This constitutional right is a welcome development in a debate too often characterized by fly-by night economics and outright demagoguery from the radical GOP. If the President seizes the moment, we could not only end this damaging political grandstanding, but redirect the national conversation to what really matters: fiscal policy that addresses the needs of ordinary Americans.

Bruce Bartlett, a former Reagan admin official wrote an essay on the subject, "The Debt Limit Option President Obama Can Use," which of late has started to gain significant policy traction. More recently, Treasury Secretary Geithner has made much the same point:

The budget/debt ceiling negotiations have focused on spending cuts and tax hikes which are neither necessary nor desirable at this juncture. This is not the time to invoke reduced government spending, especially when our economy is nowhere near operating close to full capacity. Progressives need to stop accepting the false logic that we "need to be responsible" and "deal with the budget deficit at some point in the future" on the spurious grounds of "affordability", solvency", or "because the bond markets won't fund us any longer." That's all malarkey!

Here's an idea; Invoke the 14th amendment and then stop talking about the budget deficit altogether. The US is not broke and cannot go bankrupt. Let go of that myth. When invoking the 14th amendment, the President could argue that the deficit reduction principles embodied in the debt ceiling limit should never be an object of government policy. He can point out that non-discretionary elements of the budget -- the automatic stabilizers like unemployment insurance -- will fall as economic growth resumes, thereby reducing the deficit. He can remind us that there is only one reason why growth slows relative to productive capacity: Some sector spends less than before while another sector does not plug the spending drain.

The American Taliban is trying to strap yet another bomb to the torso of America. The fourteenth amendment section four says:

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Furthermore:

In Freytag v. Commissioner (1991), the Supreme Court held that the president has "the power to veto encroaching laws . . . or to disregard them when they are unconstitutional." The final word still may lie with the Supreme Court, but in the interim, the president need not wait for its opinion. "As a simple matter of constitutional logic, the president can refuse to enforce a statute he believes violates the Constitution," said Professor Barry Friedman of NYU Law School in a telephone interview with me...

It is also unlikely that the action would be successfully challenged in court. Only Congress would have standing to sue, but doing so would require a joint resolution, something a Democratic-controlled Senate would almost certainly block.

You know how you control overreaching radical congressmen and women? You give them benchmarks, guidelines, and requirements. You give them very little variance for screwing up. Warren Buffett, in a recent interview with CNBC, offers one of the best quotes about the debt ceiling:

"I could end the deficit in 5 minutes," he told CNBC. "You just
pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more
than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible
for re-election.

Defuse this bomb that the American Taliban has strapped on our country Mr. President, use the very documents that the American Taliban so profoundly misunderstands, and give them a dose of their own medicine….. Go “Constitutional” on them!

A petition is making its round this am, be a true patriot and send the American Taliban a message, “not on our watch”!




NFTOS
Editor-In-Chief
Roger West

"SPECIAL PATRIOTS"

Joshua Boston, Our Special Patriot Of The Week

Yesterday's blog seems to have touched a nerve or two with the American Taliban, so in keeping with tradition, we here at NFTOS aim to please, [which is pissing of the right] more on this "special patriot", Joshua Boston.

Since it is fifteen minutes of fame that he seeks, we shall oblige him.

"Patriotism" has always been the last refuge of scoundrels, and in this case, Josh fits this bill to a "T".

Between the Patriot Act and the rise of the tea baggers, the term "patriot" shall forever carry the connotation for members of this political body, who promote intolerance, hate and oppression against anyone who is not of this radical culture, lifestyle, religion, ethnic heritage, or political ideology.

When Josh was asked if he thought there should be any change in gun laws after the recent mass shootings in America, he responded that there were already extensive gun laws in place. “The fact of the matter is predators are amongst us and we have to recognize that fact,” he said. “Our citizens have to be armed to protect themselves from these mad men.”

Spoken like a true "patriot"! The American Taliban claiming to be patriots - when they clearly do not support the government or the rule of law, is like saying Napoleon Bonaparte was a great hero - for he thought he was being a "special patriot" as well.

The American Taliban says they are misunderstood lot. Of course they support the rule of law. That is what they are about, law abiding citizens. They are defenders of the constitution. They do not support overarching by federal government. It is limited government that they seek, not the abolishment of it. Yes, true, but only when it suits them.

Only when it comes to regulating vagina's do they overreach, and disenfranchising voters, and equal pay for women, when corporations are not humans, when repealing affordable healthcare, when taking down unions and teachers, yes these are only a smattering of times when these special patriots become un-glued and radical - when they become "true patriots".

Boston's intent was to [as all gun huggers do] hide behind the second amendment. Boston is trying to appeal to a sentiment, and he espouses the same infantile binary morality that LaPierre did in his infamous "press conference." He blames Newtown on an "evil man," when that is ridiculously simplistic, as well as only a small minute part of the problem. Boston adheres to the NRA diatribe that "only good guys with guns can stop bad guys with guns." This sheer stupidity of this "special patriot" is a quality only attributed to these unlettered Americans - that this kind of thinking - that somehow this antiquated right applies to circa 2013.

Boston's misunderstanding of the Constitution also hurts the argument immenesley. Boston's letter more aligns himself with the "sovereign citizen" [like the Bill Looman's  of the world, no Bill we haven't forgot about you] movement, which really isn't doing much for his argument. His extremist opinion and extremist solutions unfortunately overshadows his intent, which means that any true patriots will unlikely fail to listen to his vituperation. He's not doing any favors to his cause: he's kind of just shot himself in the foot.

When do Boston and his kind learn - that they are not the kind of patriots that we admire? In most cases its usually the brain-dead oxygen thief's whining about the US Constitution - who have absolutely little understanding of the US Constitution. Mr. Boston is just one special American, who chooses to display his ignorance to millions via CNN. Congratulations Joshua Boston, you are today's winner of the "special patriot" of the week award. 

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

GUNS, A TALE OF TWO EPICENTERS

Joshua "We Deserve Better" Boston

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and police officials said last Thursday gun play in their city was the leading cause of criminal deaths in 2012.

Detroit Murder Numbers

Of the 386 criminal homicides the city recorded, 333 were caused by guns.

"America has a problem with guns, but the epicenter seems to be here in Detroit," said Interim Police Chief Chester Logan. “As the chief of police in the city of Detroit, I take a certain amount of blame for the spiraling gun play in the city. But one of the things you should realize, and everybody here in this room should realize, is that gun play is a national problem.”

Detroit's year-end crime statistics were detailed during a briefing Thursday at City Hall.

Overall, the city saw a 2.6 percent decrease in major crimes -- aggravated assault, burglary and rape. The city saw increases in homicides, car theft and robbery.

Bing said he is sitting down with Roy Roberts, the emergency manager of Detroit Public Schools, to have a conversation about getting involved with the city's young people.

"We've got wrap our arms as best we can around these young folks and let them know that when they get into these kinds of situation it doesn't necessitate a gun, it doesn't have to necessitate a fight," Bing said. "For all of the problems we have in Detroit, from a fiscal standpoint, if we don't make sure that our kids get the right kind of education so that they are prepared for jobs of tomorrow, we're still not going to fix the city."

"We really need to reach out to our entire community. Everybody has a role to play. It's a terrible problem that we're confronted with right now and it's going to take efforts from all of us to really solve the problem," Bing said.

When asked if he thought armed guards should be in schools, Bing said he wasn't in favor of the idea.

"I don't think more guns in the school is going to solve the problem," Bing said. "We've just lost respect for each other, loss respect for life. In some kind of way, all of us got to get involved in this for this next generation."

Tea baggers run amuck on social media [as if they found the arc of the covenant] with FBI statistics showing that hammers kill more than "rifles", yet these same gun huggers fail to look at the entire scope of weapons; and the facts are, 30 thousand citizens are killed a year by guns, and countless others are maimed or wounded severely. Often the case, gun huggers facts don't always constitute true facts.

Arming a gun hugger and or an American Taliban with partial facts is - as dangerous as arming a mass killer. "Take into account the second part of a tale of two epicenters".

In an open letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Corporal [Joshua Boston] whom served 8 years in the United States Marines has fired back at the Senator in hard hitting straight to the point diatribe on why he is entitled his right to not abide for future laws:

Senator Dianne Feinstein,

I will not register my weapons should this bill be passed, as I do not believe it is the government’s right to know what I own. Nor do I think it prudent to tell you what I own so that it may be taken from me by a group of people who enjoy armed protection yet decry me having the same a crime. You ma’am have overstepped a line that is not your domain. I am a Marine Corps Veteran of 8 years, and I will not have some woman who proclaims the evil of an inanimate object, yet carries one, tell me I may not have one.

I am not your subject. I am the man who keeps you free. I am not your servant. I am the person whom you serve. I am not your peasant. I am the flesh and blood of America.

I am the man who fought for my country. I am the man who learned. I am an American. You will not tell me that I must register my semi-automatic AR-15 because of the actions of some evil man.

I will not be disarmed to suit the fear that has been established by the media and your misinformation campaign against the American public.

We, the people, deserve better than you.
Respectfully Submitted,
Joshua Boston
Cpl, United States Marine Corps
2004-2012

Boston, now out of the service, admits he owns guns - 'a hobby if you will', he writes on one blog.

Boston Serving His Country

I would ask the CPL or any other gun hugger, do we want our communities, school, work zones registered as "combat zones"? The first comment to the veterans blog was:

I would tell Mr. Boston - our country has long since been removed from mandatory service [draft] to its military. Mr. Boston signed freely and without reservation upon his own "sound state of mind" to defend. This cause, to serve is a right and just one to do, but it does not constitute free reign to break laws.

While I appreciate his service to the country, Boston did it willingly, his "hobby as he calls" it, is not a entitlement to break future gun laws. The corporal slams the Senator saying, "we deserve better". I would say to Mr. Boston, the shoe fits to you as well.

Boston With His Hobby

If the Feinstein law passes, there is no doubt, and I am confident that one way or the other, the eight year tenured "Corporal" will one way or the other comply with the future gun laws.

I remember a marine not long ago, feeling his oats as well, tried to buck the system if you will, and tried to not obey the Presidents orders, this story, like Boston's, shall unfortunately not end in the favor of this beloved patriot.

There are over 320 million citizens in our country, and there are 320 million different interpretations of the; Bill of Rights and the US Constitution. Until we all come to the same understanding, only then will the senseless murders via guns be controlled.



NFTOS
Editor-In-Chief
Roger West

This Cuckoo Clock Always Makes the Same Noise

THE ANTICHRIST HERSELF MICHELE BACHMANN

The 112th Congress closed on Thursday afternoon without passing either the relief package for victims of Hurricane Sandy or reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, but Rep. Michele “Bat Shit Crazy” Bachmann isn’t too concerned about finishing what Republicans had left undone. Instead, at exactly 12:00 PM she introduced the very first piece of legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which states are now busily implementing.

The American Taliban has unsuccessfully voted 33 times in the last two years to eliminate health care reform, wasting 88 hours and $50 million – and never once passed a single piece of job creation legislation while in session.

A plethora of tea baggers, including 2012 presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, ran against Obamacare, yet the party suffered massive losses at every turn. The Supreme Court upheld the law, House repeal efforts went nowhere in the Democratically-controlled Senate, and President Obama has pledged to veto any effort to rescind the measure. Even John Boehner, who was compelled to admit in November that Obamacare is now the law of the land (though he later backed peddled away from his own comments and pledged to do everything in his power to clip its wings).

The American Taliban is apparently not quite ready to give up this fight. Jumping so quickly out of the gate, they could at this rate - be on track to becoming less productive than the last congress, whom is being billed as the least productive Congress in U.S. history.

Maybe “Batshit Crazy” Bachmann could present a bill that would rid herself of all her own health benefits - since she obviously does not believe that access to healthcare is important for all Americans. Show us what a true patriot you are Michele, lead by example!

Albert Einstein once said "Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results." Warren Buffett, in a recent interview with CNBC, offers one of the best solutions for sitting congressmen and women:

"I could end the deficit in 5 minutes," he told CNBC. "You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election

NFTOS
Editor-In-Chief
Roger West

.

THEY CALL ME TRANSVAGINAL BOB

Transvaginal Bob McDonnell Does It Again

Transvaginal Bob McDonnell tried to pull a slick one. This foot soldier for the American Taliban thought he could slip this one by. Maybe a better name for McDonnell would be "slick Willie", "tricky DICK", no that one is taken, lets just stick with Transvaginal Bob!

In yet another power grab to push the American Taliban's ideology down our throats, Transvaginal Bob and his choke and puke govna-ship has certified regulations that will make woman's choice a little bit harder to conduct. 


MADDOW SLAMMING TRANSVAGINAL BOB

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

From various sources - Gov. Bob McDonnell has certified health regulations that impose strict hospital construction standards on Virginia abortion clinics -- triggering the next step in a multitiered approval process that could make the revised rules permanent by this summer.

Unlike the public relations ballyhoo that accompanies many executive actions, McDonnell, an anti-abortion Republican, certified the regulations and had them posted to the Virginia Town Hall website without a public announcement on the Friday between the Christmas and New Year's holidays.

The signoff comes more than three months after the rules were adopted in September by the state Board of Health at a contentious meeting during which abortion-rights advocates claimed board members were being intimidated into changing their decision in June to grandfather existing clinics from the building requirements.

Members of abortion-rights advocacy groups reacted strongly to the governor's approval in statements released Monday.

"After two years of shocking backroom deals and bullying public health servants, Gov. Bob McDonnell is clearly proving his disregard of Virginians' opinions about women's health care," said Tarina Keene, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia.

Keene accused McDonnell and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, also an anti-abortion Republican, of using their offices to push "an ideological agenda that is out of touch with the residents of this state" -- and pushing the commonwealth toward having some of the most "extreme state abortion laws" in the country.

McDonnell spokesman J. Tucker Martin said the regulations are a product of legislation that passed the General Assembly in 2011 and went through an extensive public comment process and detailed agency review that followed the same process that all proposed changes to regulations undergo in Virginia.

"The governor believes these common-sense regulations will help ensure that this medical procedure takes place in facilities that are modern, safe and well-regulated, in order to help ensure the safety and well-being of all patients," Martin said.

McDonnell's approval initiates a 60-day public comment period. Following the comment period, the regulations are sent back through the process of review by the Board of Health -- which could vote on them as early as March -- before heading to the attorney general and executive branch agencies. The permanent regulations are expected to be adopted by the summer.

Under the two-year compliance period stipulated by the Department of Health, Virginia's 20 existing abortion clinics will have until the latter half of 2014 to comply with the new regulations, which will require most of the facilities to undergo costly infrastructure changes to hallways, doorways and parking areas. Advocates say a number of the clinics could be forced to close.

The health commissioner has the authority to grant a variance to the clinics if the commissioner believes the requirements place an undue burden on a facility and determines that noncompliance in a specific area would not jeopardize patient safety and public health.

McDonnell has yet to name a replacement for Health Commissioner Karen Remley, who resigned in October. She said the development, enforcement and interpretation of the regulations outside of her office had compromised her ability to fulfill her duties.

Cuccinelli had refused to certify a change to regulations adopted by the Board of Health in June that would have grandfathered the state's 20 clinics from having to meet the new standards.

Before the meeting in September, the Attorney General's Office advised board members that their action in June did not conform to the 2011 law passed by the General Assembly. The advisory suggested that they could lose legal protection if they insisted on the grandfather provision and were sued.

While Transvaginal Bob is only a foot soldier for the American Taliban, he is no less dangerous in his ways. NFTOS is asking all Virginians disgusted with TB's actions to give him a call at 804- 786-2211 and let him know your thoughts.




NFTOS
Editor-In-Chief
Roger West

KWANZAA; A PLOT TO DESTROY AMERICA

While outrage about the so-called war on Christmas has died down for another year, Wisconsin state Senator Glenn Grothman (R) has launched a new war on Kwanzaa, claiming it is a fake holiday invented by racist radicals who want to “divide America.”

In a press release entitled “Why Must We Still Hear About Kwanzaa,” Grothman ranted that Kwanzaa is a holiday celebrated by “left wing nuts” because “they don’t like America and seek to destroy it.” Grothman is comforted by his belief that “almost all black people ignore” Kwanzaa, but is deeply troubled by the fact that schools are teaching the holiday:

Irresponsible public school districts such as Green Bay and Madison (and who knows how many others…) try to tell a new generation that blacks have a separate holiday than Christians…But why do they do it? They don’t like America and seek to destroy it by pretending that its values as expressed in the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution, don’t apply to everyone. Mainstream Americans must be more outspoken on this issue. It’s time it’s slapped down once and for all…Be on the lookout if a K-12 or college teacher tries to tell your children or grandchildren it’s a real holiday.

Kwanzaa, which occurs from December 26 to January 1, was created in 1966 as a way for African Americans to connect to their heritage and culture. It has been widely accepted as a legitimate holiday. While Grothman believes the holiday divides America, Kwanzaa centers around the seven principles of unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith. Its founder, Ron Karenga, whom Grothman calls a “violent nut,” explained, “People may celebrate either or all of the year-end holidays” as Kwanzaa is a cultural holiday focusing on sharing a “special cultural truth” with the world. Former President George W. Bush praised the holiday as “an opportunity to focus of family, community, and history.”

You can't beat stupid, and the American Taliban is in no shortage of it!




NFTOS
Editor-In-Chief
Roger West

FROM MAVERICK TO SWAY BACK PACK HORSE

John McCain Becoming Irrelevant Before Our Eyes

We all know that the American Taliban is a delicate sensitive flower, and it's also a foregone conclusion that John McCain is bitter old white man - because he took an ass-whipping in the Presidential Election in 2008.

Minutes after President Barack Obama left a stage flanked by supporters where he implored Congressional Republicans to support a tentative deal to avoid going over the fiscal cliff, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) took to the floor of the Senate to accuse the president of “antagonizing” Republicans. He said that, based on the president’s casual press conference, he and the American people have to wonder whether Obama believes it is in his interest to go over the cliff.

In his speech to his fellow colleagues in the Senate on Monday, McCain did not express any faith that Obama’s press conference had moved the ball forward on negotiations to resolve the fiscal cliff:

“What did the President of the United States just do,” McCain asked. “Well, he kind of made fun – he made a couple of jokes. Laughed about how people are going to be here for New Years. Sent a message of confrontation to the Republicans; I believe he said, ‘if they think they’re going to do that, they’ve got another thought coming.’

“I guess I have to wonder – and the American people have to wonder – whether the president really wants this issue resolved, or is it to his short term political benefit for us to go over the cliff,” McCain added. “I can assure the president, I can assure him, that historians judge presidents on their achievements.”

 

Getting the Tea-baggers to "Yes" to anything the last 3 years has been virtually impossible. The American Taliban has been mocked for years, why is John so upset now?

The biggest bully in the Senate races to the floor and decries the President for “antagonizing” Republicans? That's rich. The GOP has spent four years antagonizing Obama and then when he doesn't bite they accuse him of being aloof and not caring. They have called him every name in the book, voted against any bill that would help the country, have not put forth any plan of their own - and now their feelings are hurt - and Obama may have lost votes?

American Taliban Priorities: To hell with the American people -- Obama hurt our feelings! I am so glad to see that the American Taliban continues to maintain a perspective regarding what factors they deem most important when making critical policy decisions.

John, a message to you and your kind: Your party is antiquated, your ideals are no longer the order of our country. The GOP was perfect and most suitable for let's say, 1776, not so much circa 2013. Take a seat old man, your sniveling and whining is best suited for someone dawning a diaper. You are to be commended for you service as a veteran, don't tarnish this with being a bitter old man. You are truly morphing from maverick to sway back pack horse before our very eyes. Sticks and stones may break my bone....................

NFTOS
Editor-In-Chief
Roger West

THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION IS ANTIQUATED?

THE ANTIQUATED US CONSTITTUTION

Say it isn't so! Tell me another doesn't agree with me? The U.S. Constitution is antiquated?

Georgetown University constitutional law professor Louis Michael Seidman has just about had it with the focus of his 40 years of academic study. As he writes in the New York Times on Monday, it is the Constitution itself which has allowed for the series of legislative follies that finally resulted in the “fiscal cliff.” Seidman says that it is time for Americans to realize what lawmakers have known since the constitution’s inception – it is okay to ignore it.

“As the nation teeters at the edge of fiscal chaos, observers are reaching the conclusion that the American system of government is broken. But almost no one blames the culprit: our insistence on obedience to the Constitution, with all its archaic, idiosyncratic and downrght evil provisions,” Seidman writes.

Our obsession with the Constitution has saddled us with a dysfunctional political system, kept us from debating the merits of divisive issues and inflamed our public discourse. Instead of arguing about what is to be done, we argue about what James Madison might have wanted done 225 years ago.

Seidman goes on to detail the number of American politicians who have used every opportunity to sideline the Constitution; from John Adams to Abraham Lincoln to Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

“In the face of this long history of disobedience, it is hard to take seriously the claim by the Constitution’s defenders that we would be reduced to a Hobbesian state of nature if we asserted our freedom from this ancient text,” Seidman adds.

He says that the freedoms enshrined in the Bill of Rights are time-tested and should be preserved, but the system of established powers. Seidman says that there is a real threat that American dysfunctional governance could rend the republic sunder, and it is far more preferable that the Constitution be junked than the Union.

Seidman concludes that, though Americans will probably not give up on Constitution any time soon, his recommendation is the best of a series of bad choices facing the nation:

If even this change is impossible, perhaps the dream of a country ruled by “We the people” is impossibly utopian. If so, we have to give up on the claim that we are a self-governing people who can settle our disagreements through mature and tolerant debate. But before abandoning our heritage of self-government, we ought to try extricating ourselves from constitutional bondage so that we can give real freedom a chance.

The American Taliban hangs on to the Constitution like it was the Bible itself, it's sad that we can't say the same about the real Bible!

Read the full op-ed in the New York Times





NFTOS
Editor-In-Chief
Roger West

Lindsey Graham, An American Taliban Foot Soldier

Lindsey Graham, Republican In Name Only, Foot Soldier For The American Taliban

"Do exactly what I say or I will destroy you." The American Taliban are an incompetent brand of humans, and are the most dangerous and destructive threat facing America today.

Although official Washington is currently fixated on the so-called “Fiscal Cliff,” the biggest threat to American prosperity is the debt ceiling, which must be raised in February to prevent economic catastrophe. If Republicans refuse to reach a deal on the so-called cliff, the Congressional Budget Office predicts that they will spark a new recession in 2013. But if Republicans block action on the debt ceiling, they will make that potential recession look quaint. Without raising the debt ceiling, the United States will be forced to embrace austerity so severe it will lead to “a bigger GDP drop than that experienced during the Great Recession of 2008.”

But in an interview on Fox News Sunday this morning, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) threatened to oppose this must-pass bill unless Social Security benefits are taken away from millions of future retirees:

I’m not going to raise the debt ceiling unless we get serious about keeping the country from becoming Greece, saving Social Security and Medicare [sic]. So here’s what i would like: meaningful entitlement reform — not to turn Social Security into private accounts, not to take a voucher approach to Medicare — but, adjust the age for Social Security, CPI changes and means testing and look beyond the ten-year window. I cannot in good conscience raise the debt ceiling without addressing the long term debt problems of this country and I will not.

This is extortion, plain and simple. It is the budgetary equivalent of threatening to break America’s legs unless Congress agrees to break the backs of millions poised on the edge of retirement. Graham’s position is that seniors should have to wait longer for their retirement benefits — even if they work in physically demanding jobs that literally tear the body apart by the time a worker reaches age 65 — and that those benefits should be reduced in the future.

And if Congress won’t agree to this deal, then Graham is prepared to thrust the nation into an economic calamity unheard of since the Great Depression.



NFTOS
STAFF WRITER
Steve "Damn Nazi Liberal" Chevapravatdumrong

THE NRA AND VIDEO GAMES

In a controversial diatribe last Friday, Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the National Rifle Association, blamed lax security, natural disasters, and, most of all, violent video games for the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT that claimed 27 lives. Despite the NRA’s public condemnation of violent entertainment, the New York Times explains, the gun industry is closely entwined with the gaming industry.

In one recent example of this relationship, the gaming company behind the Medal of Honor series launched a promotional website with links to the catalogs of two major gun manufacturers:

Links on the Medal of Honor site allowed visitors to click through on the Web sites of the game’s partners and peruse their catalogs.

“It was almost like a virtual showroom for guns,” said Ryan Smith, who contributes to the Gameological Society, an online gaming magazine. After Mr. Smith and other gaming enthusiasts criticized the site, Electronic Arts disabled the links, saying it had been unaware of them.

Gun manufacturers also grant video game companies licenses to depict real makes and models of weapons. Though these games are now taking heat from the gun lobby for encouraging violent behavior, they continue to serve as a valuable marketing tool for the industry.

The NRA’s scapegoating of virtual reality seems to be an attempt to deflect calls for more robust gun safety measures. Despite the NRA’s claims, there is no correlation between violent video games and violent behavior in real life. There is, however, ample evidence that societies with more guns have more gun violence.

NFTOS
STAFF