JEB BUSH STRUGGLES WITH GOP MENTALITY…THE DOUBLE STANDARD

During the latest stop in his media tour to defend his brother’s actions as president, Jeb Bush asked on CNN Sunday if anyone actually blames his brother for the attacks on 9/11, saying if they do, “they’re totally marginalized in our society.”

CNN’s Jake Tapper pushed back, asking Bush about the Republican Party’s double standard.

“Obviously Al-Qaeda was responsible for the terrorist attack of 9/11,” Tapper said. “But how do you respond to critics who ask if your brother and his administration bear no responsibility at all, how do you then make the jump that President Obama and Secretary Clinton are responsible for what happened at Benghazi?”

The younger Bush bumbled and stumbled with his answer.

“Well I, it’s the question on Benghazi which is hopefully will now finally get the truth to it, is: was that, was the place secure?” he said, clearly flustered. “They had a responsibility, Department of State, to have proper security.”

Bush pointed out that “it’s what you do after that matters” when it comes to leadership, yet he could not explain why the Republican Party continues to attack Clinton for the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya that left a U.S. ambassador dead.





The controversy began on Friday when Donald Trump asserted that the older Bush brother was president at the time of the 9/11 attacks. “When you talk about George Bush, I mean, say what you want, the World Trade Center came down during his time,” Trump said. “He was president, O.K.?”

Jeb Bush then contested the seemingly indisputable comment, calling Trump’s comments “pathetic” and insisting “my brother kept us safe.” The New York Times reported that “[b]laming 9/11 on Mr. Bush is taboo for Republicans and has largely been off-limits for Democrats.” Yet Republicans will force Clinton to testify before a public hearing of the U.S. House Select Committee on Benghazi this week.

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Roger West

TREY GOWDY, FULL OF MORE SHIT THAN A CHRISTMAS TURKEY

Trey Gowdy, the chair of the Select Committee on Benghazi, has at times aligned some very serious charge against Hillary Clinton in an October 7 letter. Gowdy asserted that Hillary Clinton disclosed the name of CIA source in an email sent from her private server. Gowdy wrote that the information was “some of the most protected information in our intelligence community, the release of which could jeopardize not only national security but human lives.”

The Washington Examiner covered the story with this headline: “Clinton burns CIA Libya contact.”

This does not appear to be true.

A letter from Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the committee, reveals that the CIA reviewed the email in question and found that the information in question was not classified.

Cummings said that Gowdy’s accusation was “irresponsible” and suggested he owes “an immediate apology” to Hillary Clinton.

In response, Gowdy acknowledged the CIA’s view but said that “the name of the alleged source was redacted from the material cleared for public release by someone in the Executive Branch.” Cummings explained that the name was redacted “not for classification reasons, but to protect the individual’s privacy and avoid bringing additional undue attention to this person.”

The dustup comes on the heels of a number of embarrassing revelations from the Benghazi committee. Republican Major Leader Kevin McCarthy bragged that the committee had successfully driven down Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers. Another Republican Congressman, Mark Hanna, said the committee was “designed to go after” Clinton.

Clinton is scheduled to testify in front of the committee this week.

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Roger West

"The Armor of Light"

A Christian documentary scheduled for release later this month, a pastor confronts the moral quagmire of a heavily pro-gun culture that is simultaneously pro-life.

The point is driven home by former GOP Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who illuminates a rather strange version of a faith that many have characterized as pacifist and charitable — a version that has nevertheless come to dominate right wing Christianity in the United States.

The documentary, “The Armor of Light,” asks whether it’s possible to be both pro-gun and pro-life, according to the website Addicting Info. The film follows Rob Schenck, “an Evangelical minister trying to find the courage to preach about the growing toll of gun violence in America.”

In one scene, Sarah Palin tells a cheering National Rifle Association crowd not to waste ammunition on a warning shot.

In the clip, Palin warns about efforts to “strip away our Second Amendment rights.”

“When pastors, preachers, bible teachers, ignore these questions, it creates a vacuum,” Schenck says in a voice over. “And other voices fill that vacuum.”

At this point Palin goes into a disturbing tirade about shooting first and asking questions later.

“Speaking of which, Joe Biden, remember this, telling women before an assault just to fire a warning shot,” Palin tells the crowd. “Just aim up in the air, that was his directive…Gals, you know that nowadays, ammo is expensive. Don’t waste a bullet on a warning shot.”

Schenck says he wonders about the “ethical dimensions of having a constant, defensive posture.”

The video then cuts to Wayne La Pierre fear mongering about how many threats there are in the world, including “terrorists, home invaders, drug cartels, car jackers, knock-out gamers, rapers, haters, campus killers, airport killers, shopping mall killers.”

The clip ends with Schenck pointing out, “And the gun is almost an invitation to give in to the temptation of fear. And fear should not be a controlling element in the life of a Christian.”

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"LAND OF THE SPREE" - "WOMEN REPELLANT"

On HBO's Real Time last night Bill Maher people should stop trying to blame video games or a lack of religion for mass shooting attacks, and instead focus on how lacking many of the culprits are when it comes to a love-life.

“This is a pattern no one is talking about: mass killers are almost always male, and almost always women-repellent,” Maher argued. “And what must make it even worse for them is America. Because if you live in America, it just looks like everyone is getting laid all the time.”

VIDEO COURTESY OF HBO




Maher noted that Chris Harper Mercer, Timothy McVeigh, and Adam Lanza — among others — were either virgins, constantly single, or both. And they also tended to complain about those facts in explaining their actions.

“They may have been on Prozac because they were feeling blue,” Maher said. “But you know what else was feeling blue? Their balls.”

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Roger West

IS THIS CONSERVATIVE NUMB-NUTS FOR REAL?

The United States criminal justice system could be improved if we sell poor people convicted of crimes into slavery, according to Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee.

The former Arkansas governor weighed in on our nation’s current criminal justice system during an appearance yesterday on Mickelson in the Morning, a leading Iowa radio program.

Host Jan Mickelson began by bemoaning that the “criminal justice system has been taken over by progressives.” In order to fight back, he argued, conservatives should look to the biblical Book of Exodus. “It says, if a person steals, they have to pay it back two-fold, four-fold,” Mickelson explained. “If they don’t have anything, we’re supposed to take them down and sell them.”

Mickelson went on to argue why jails, which he claimed are a “pagan invention,” are inferior to slavery: “We indenture them and they have to spend their time not sitting on their stump in a jail cell, they’re supposed to be working off the debt.”

“Wouldn’t that be a better choice?” the host asked.

“Well, it really would be,” Huckabee replied without missing a beat. “Sometimes the best way to deal with a nonviolent criminal behavior is what you just suggested.”

Huckabee, who was a Baptist pastor before entering politics, is no doubt familiar with the Exodus 22:3 passage to which Mickelson referred: “Anyone who steals must certainly make restitution, but if they have nothing, they must be sold to pay for their theft.”

But U.S. law, unlike biblical penal prescriptions, forbids selling human beings like chattel. The United States also bans debtors’ prisons and the Supreme Court has ruled that it is unconstitutional to imprison people who are too destitute to pay court fines. (Contra these bans, many localities are being sued for still running debtors’ prisons.)

This isn’t the first time Mickelson has endorsed reinstating slavery in the United States. In August, Mickelson argued that undocumented immigrants should “become property of the state,” who should “extort or exploit or indenture their labor.” After a caller pointed out that what he was describing is slavery, Mickelson responded, “Well, what’s wrong with slavery?”

But Huckabee’s comments, which come 150 years after the 13th Amendment’s adoption, appear to be the first time in modern history that a credible presidential candidate has joined the fringe call to reinstate slavery.

[cross posted from thinkprogress]

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RICHARD HANNA CONFIRMS BENGHAZI WITCH-HUNT

A second House Republican has now conceded that the overarching purpose of the House Select Committee on Benghazi has been to attack former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

In September, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy argued that one of House Republicans’ successes has been using the Benghazi Committee to drive down Clinton’s poll numbers. Though McCarthy tried to walk back his controversial comments, Rep. Richard Hanna argued on Wednesday that the Majority Leader had it right to begin with.

“Sometimes the biggest sin you can commit in D.C. is to tell the truth,” Hanna said in an interview on Keeler in the Morning, a radio show in upstate New York. The third-term congressman paused for a moment, perhaps recognizing the importance of what he was about to say, before going on to agree with McCarthy’s original statement.

“This may not be politically correct, but I think that there was a big part of this investigation that was designed to go after people and an individual, Hillary Clinton,” Hanna said.

He explained further why he believes the Benghazi Committee’s purpose has been in part to attack Clinton. “After what Kevin McCarthy said, it’s difficult to accept at least a part of it was not,” Hanna said. “I think that’s the way Washington works. But you’d like to expect more from a committee that’s spent millions of dollars and tons of time.”


Listen to it (relevant section starts at 9:45):



For years, House Republicans had claimed the Benghazi probe was about investigating the events surrounding the 2012 attack in Libya that left four Americans dead, including U.S.

Ambassador Chris Stevens, rather than undermining Clinton’s potential presidential bid.

But after McCarthy’s Kinsley gaffe, which was among the factors that doomed his seemingly-inevitable rise to the House Speakership, and now Hanna’s admission, there is growing doubt even among GOPers about the Benghazi Committee’s true purpose.

McCarthy and Hanna aren’t the only Republicans to publicly declare that the Benghazi Committee has been on a partisan quest. Over the weekend, Maj. Bradley Podliska, a Republican investigator formerly working on the Committee, revealed that he had lost his job for refusing to solely focus his investigation on Clinton. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), who heads the Committee, denies the charge.

Clinton is set to testify before the Committee, which has now continued longer than the Watergate probe, on October 22nd.

[cross-posted from thinkprogress]

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HUCKABEE BEING HUCKABEEE

While all eyes were on Donald Trump’s Twitter feed after he promised to live-tweet the Democratic debate, GOP candidate Mike Huckabee managed to win the night for the most outrageous tweet with an incredibly racist tweet aimed at Bernie Sanders.

After tweeting, “Racism exists because we have a sin problem in American, not a skin problem,” Huckabee followed up with … a racist joke:

Huckabee’s comment is based on a common slur against Asians, inferring that they would like to eat you pet dog.

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COWBOYS FANS GOAD GUNMAN TO SHOOT – AND HE DOES

A man who shot another man in the head after a Dallas Cowboys football game was reportedly egged on by the crowd of people watching the fight.

The New York Daily News reported that the shooting took place at AT&T stadium in Arlington about an hour after the New England Patriots beat the Dallas Cowboys 30-6.

Witnesses reported that the two men got into an argument, which escalated to a fistfight. Then, as the gunman held his weapon to the head of the victim, the crowd urged him to shoot, which he did.

Paramedics and police were called to the scene and the unnamed victim, a male in his early 40s, was taken to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries.

The shooter was apprehended by police after he tripped over a low retaining wall and injured his leg while trying to flee the scene.

“I didn’t think he was going to pull the trigger,” said witness Leslie Williams to the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram.

Lt. Chris Cook of the Arlington Police told the Star-Telegram that the two men were tailgaters who had been at the stadium since the afternoon. Their relationship to each other is unknown. The investigation into the shooting, Cook said, is ongoing.

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“OBJECTIVELY REASONABLE”

A Cleveland cop was justified in fatally shooting Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy carrying a toy gun, according to a pair of reports released on Saturday.

The reports, which were commissioned by the prosecutor’s office investigating Rice’s death, were prepared by two experts from outside the state: Kimberly Crawford, a retired FBI agent, and S. Lamar Sims, a Colorado-based prosecutor. The reports will be turned over to a grand jury, which will ultimately decide whether to indict the cops involved in Rice’s death.

An attorney for Rice’s family called the reports a “charade” and blasted the prosecutor’s office for “releasing supposed “expert reports” in an effort to absolve the officers involved in Tamir’s death of responsibility.”

In a statement provided on Facebook, Subodh Chandra, Rice’s family attorney, wrote: “These hired guns—all pro-police—dodge the simple fact that the officers rushed Tamir and shot him immediately without assessing the situation in the least. Reasonable jurors could find that conduct unreasonable. But they will never get the chance because the prosecutor is working diligently to ensure that there is no indictment and no accountability.”

Nevertheless, both of the reports released on Saturday concluded that Rice presented a threat to police officer Timothy Loehmann, who opened fire on the 12-year-old boy just seconds after pulling up next to him outside a recreation center in November 2014.

“There can be no doubt that Rice’s death was tragic and, indeed, when one considers his age, heartbreaking,” wrote S. Lamar Sims, the Colorado prosecutor. “However, for all the reasons discussed herein, I conclude that Officer Loehmann’s belief that Rice posed a threat of serious physical harm or death was objectively reasonable as was his response to that perceived threat.”

Rice was gunned down while he was playing with a toy gun, which had its orange safety tip removed, in a park near his house. A man who saw Rice playing in the park called 911 and reported that a man appeared to be pointing and waving around a gun. Although the caller remarked that the gun may have been fake and that the person holding it was “probably a juvenile,” his observations were not passed along to the two the police officers who were later dispatched to the scene.

Crawford, the retired FBI agent, concluded Loehmann’s deadly use of force did not violate Rice’s constitutional rights. “It is my conclusion that Officer Loehmann’s use of deadly force falls within the realm of reasonableness under the dictates of the Fourth Amendment,” she wrote, noting that Loehmann had to make a “split-second” decision after encountering Rice.

“When he exited the police car, the officer was likely focused on Rice’s hands as they moved to his waist and lifted his jacket, and not on Rice’s age. Even if Officer Loehmann was aware of Rice’s age, it would not have made his use of force unreasonable. A 12-year-old with a gun, unquestionably old enough to pull a trigger, poses a threat equal to that of a full-grown adult in a similar situation.”

Grand jury proceedings are not public, and the decision by the prosecutor’s office to release the reports before the grand jury review is unusual.

In a statement released to the New York Times, Rice’s family attorney Jonathan S. Abady expressed concern over the influence of prosecutors and the possibility that “there will be no criminal prosecution.”

“Prosecutors exercise substantial influence over the grand jury process and whether an indictment will issue or not,” Abady said. “The video footage and other evidence readily available from the outset made clear that this was a completely unreasonable use of deadly force against Tamir.”

The two outside reports come despite a local Cleveland municipal Judge’s findings after reviewing all of the available evidence that there is probable cause for charges of murder, involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide, and negligent homicide duty against Loehmann.

In December, records released revealed that Loehmann, a rookie cop, admitted on his job application for the Cleveland Police Department that his primary source of income prior to his hiring was “under-the-table jobs.”

Moreover, a troubling letter in Loehmann’s file from the Independence, Ohio Police Department where the officer previously worked, concluded that Loehmann did not possess the maturity necessary to perform well as an officer and recommended that he be “released from the employment of the City of Independence. I do not believe Ptl. Loehmann shows the maturity needed to work in our employment…I do not believe time, nor training, will be able to change or correct these deficiencies.”

[cross-posted from thinkprogress]

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GUNS, WE'RE HERE TO STAY

Saturday Night Live last night punked America’s for its love affair with guns in a warm and fuzzy ad that the NRA might have produced — but without the self-awareness of how crazy it is

In the ad we see various moments in people’s lives — first love, the birth of a child, inter-generational connections — made better by the introduction of a gun.

VIDEO COURTESY OF NBC

A woman in labor refuses to go into emergency room without carrying her rifle, an intimate dinner is topped off with the gift of a gun instead of a engagement ring, a woman enjoys the exhilaration of running in the park by randomly shooting a handgun into the air.

The ad concludes with the a voice-over reminding us: “Wherever life takes you. Guns. We’re here to stay.”

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Roger West

"YES WE CAM,......AN ALMOST LIFE, AND NEVER EVER TURN YOUR BACK ON A PRIEST"

Railing against what he called an obsession with cell phones in general on Friday, Real Time host Bill Maher was particularly irked that young fans of Pope Francis marked his visit by taking pictures and “selfies.”

“Someone should’ve told those kids, you’re never gonna get another chance to actually meet this man,” Maher argued. “And also, for God’s sake kids, never turn your back on a priest.”

Maher also displayed a photo of fans lining the streets holding up their phones to take pictures of the pontiff as he passed through.

“They’ve got maybe 10 seconds to actually see their hero,” he said of the crowd. “And they’re choosing to give that up to view him through a phone. Gosh, if there only existed some sort of profession whose job it was to take great photos of big events so that you could enjoy the moment. We could call them photo-graphers.”

He also slammed people caught taking “selfies” during what should be big moments, like trying to avoid being gored by a bull or during their own wedding ceremony.

“There’s a photographer standing right behind you,” he said to the couple. “Can’t you put your phone away and be fully present for this? You’re getting married. It might be the last time you look into each others’ eyes and smile.”

However, Maher said, his disgust with the “selfie” phenomenon was not because of his age.

“I understand it. It’s not hard to understand,” he insisted. “It’s just fucking stupid.”

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Roger West

BEN CARSON CAN’T SAY WHETHER OBAMA IS A REAL BLACK PRESIDENT OR NOT

Neurosurgeon and Republican wing-nut presidential candidate Ben Carson told CNN on Thursday that he supports News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch, who controversially tweeted earlier this week, comparing the authenticity of Carson and President Barack Obama’s black identities.

Murdoch later claimed he was referring to a New York Magazine article detailing the various ways President Obama has fallen short in helping communities of color, and followed up on the tweet saying, “Apologies! No offense meant. Personally find both men charming.”

In a Thursday interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, who said he found the comment “pretty shocking” and “ugly,” Carson defended the Australian mogul:





Carson began by assuring viewers that Murdoch is “not a racist by any stretch of the imagination,” and said those outraged at the suggestion that President Obama is not a “real black president” are making “much ado about nothing.”

“Everybody’s entitled to their opinion,” he said. “I believe what he was making reference to was the fact that here was a man who was a black president that the black community was very excited about who came in and whose policies have not really elevated the black community. He has not been beneficial. There’s more unemployment, more poverty, and I believe that’s what he was really referring to.”

Though the percent of Americans living in poverty has ticked up by about 1 percent, it has gone down every year since 2010. The president’s 2009 stimulus created millions of jobs and kept 6 million people out of poverty. During Obama’s first six years in office, the U.S. has added nearly five times more jobs than it did during the entire eight years under President George W. Bush. The unemployment rate is currently lower than when President Obama took office in 2009.

However, as the New York Magazine article emphasizes, millions of Americans continue to struggle financially — especially people of color.

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Roger West

How Many “Good Guys With A Gun” Does It Take To Stop A Shoplifter

The only thing that stops a shoplifter is a vigilante bystander with a gun. Or, at least, that’s what an unidentified woman apparently decided shortly before she opened fire on an SUV carrying a man who was fleeing the nearby Home Depot.

The incident occurred Tuesday afternoon at a Home Depot parking lot in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Store security chased the alleged shoplifter as he jumped into an SUV that was waiting to help him flee. According to the Detroit Free Press, that’s when a 48 year-old woman drew a gun and began firing shots at the vehicle.

The woman, who has a license to carry a concealed firearm, is reportedly “cooperating with police.”

If this “Good Gal” with a gun were an actual cop, she almost certainly would have violated the Constitution. Under the Supreme Court’s decision in Tennessee v. Garner, law enforcement may not use deadly force “unless it is necessary to prevent the escape and the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others.”

Based on publicly available information, there’s no indication that the fleeing man, who allegedly stole power tools and welding equipment, presented a sufficient threat to the public to justify the use of deadly force.

The vigilante shooter may face criminal charges. Among other things, Michigan law provides that anyone who “because of carelessness, recklessness or negligence . . . shall cause or allow any firearm under his control to be discharged so as to destroy or injure the property of another” may be sentenced to up to 90 days in jail. Depending on the woman’s intent at the time of the crime, she could potentially face much more serious charges — including attempted murder.

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Roger West

HILLARY DEBUNKS BENGHAZI IN ONE LONE AD

If the GOP planned on making Beghazi one of the centerpieces of their eventual nominee’s campaign, they might want to shred those attack ad storyboards and think again after Hillary Clinton struck first with a devastating ad featuring House Speaker front runner Kevin McCarthy shooting his mouth off.

In a brilliant preemptive strike, Clinton released the ad, called “Admit,” excerpting comments by McCarthy owning up to the latest GOP-led Benghazi investigative committee was designed to harm her presidential chances.

Using a clip recorded last week on Sean Hannity’s show on Fox News, McCarthy is seen explaining that Hillary looked unbeatable Republicans and the GOP had to do something about it.

“Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right?” McCarthy explains. “But we put together a Benghazi special committee. What are her numbers today?”

Clinton Ad

It should be noted that the most recent in a long line of Benghazi committees has been “investigating” Clinton for sixteen months — at a cost of over $4.5 million dollars.

Hopefully the Republican National Committee can expect a bill from the U.S. Government for services rendered.

McCarthy should probably stop thinking about moving into John Boehner’s warm spot.

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Roger West

BEN CARSON PROVES HE IS NOT PRESIDENTIAL MATERIAL

Wing Nut presidential candidate Ben Carson said on Tuesday that President Barack Obama should skip visiting Oregon after the recent mass shooting and then “go to the next one” instead.

After the White House announced this week that the president would “visit privately with families of victims,” conservative journalist David Jaques said that Obama was not welcome in his state because it would be “a campaign stop for agenda to take away American citizen’s right to own firearms.”

“Imagine a politician politicizing something,” Carson quipped to the hosts of Fox & Friends on Tuesday. “When do we have people that actually want to solve our problems rather than just politicize everything?”

“But, Dr. Carson, would you go?” host Brian Kilmeade wondered. “If the people of the community say don’t go, would you still go if you were president on Friday?” 

“Probably not,” Carson replied. “I mean, I would probably have so many things on my agenda that I would go to the next one.”

The GOP hopeful also explained that he would be willing to “listen” to ideas about how to stop mass shootings, but he insisted that no gun control proposal would solve the problem.

“Anything that they’ve proposed doesn’t stop anything,” he said. “Guns don’t kill people, and the Second Amendment is extremely important. And Daniel Webster said that America would never suffer tyranny because people are armed.”

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MOTHER OF OREGON SHOOTER FEARED PRESIDENT WAS COMING FOR HER GUNS AND THEN STOCKPILED THEM

The mother of the Roseburg, Oregon shooter stockpiled firearms because she feared stricter gun laws. Laurel Harper, the mother of the shooter, shared an apartment with her son. She was aware that he had mental problems, but chose to stockpile guns in her home because she feared the Obama administration was going to pass laws making it more difficult to get guns. She would seek the least restrictive gun ranges to take her son so the two of them could shoot as they desired. She had purchased several guns just weeks before her son killed nine innocent people.

For more on this story, click New York Daily News EXCLUSIVE: Mom of Oregon mass killer stockpiled firearms out of fear of stricter gun laws, took son to shooting range.

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"STUFF HAPPENS". THE MOST HORRIBLE ANSWER ANY HUMAN CAN GIVE LET ALONE A U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE

In the wake of another campus shooting that is prompting calls for stricter gun control, Republican presidential candidates have gone to great lengths to avoid offering any policy solutions and risking the National Rifle Association’s wrath. But none have been quite as explicit as Jeb Bush, whose response to the mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon was: “Stuff happens.”

“Look, stuff happens and the impulse is always to do something and it’s not necessarily the right thing to do,” Bush said Friday.

When asked later to clarify his comments, he used a specific example to illustrate how laws are not always the right way to address a tragedy.

“A child drowns in a pool and the impulse is to pass a law that puts fencing around pools,” Bush explained. “Well, it may not change it…the cumulative effect of this is in some cases, you don’t solve the problem by passing the law, and you’re imposing on large numbers of people, burdens that make it harder for our economy to grow, make it harder for people to protect liberty.”

But, as some have pointed out, Bush actually did just that. After a child in Florida fell into a pool and nearly drowned, then-Gov. Bush signed a law in 2000 to require pool owners to choose a way to prevent unsupervised children from going into the water. The law specifically required that pool owners install either fencing directly around the pool, safety covers, door alarms or self-latching doors — or face jail time or a fine.

Bush also drastically expanded gun rights during his tenure as governor, signing the infamous Stand Your Ground law that police used to explain why they didn’t initially charge George Zimmerman for the murder of teenager Trayvon Martin. A study showed that gun violence rates rose in Florida in the wake of the Stand Your Ground law even as violent crime rates dropped. Guns now account for 75 percent of all murders in the state, up from 56 percent in 2000.

Nor is gun control like pool regulation, which may or may not have an impact on pool deaths. States with fewer gun restrictions have higher rates of gun deaths. Johns Hopkins researchers have linked the loosening of certain permit requirements to significant increases in states’ murder rates. In fact, even Jeb Bush himself recently admitted that passing background checks and a 72-hour waiting period in his state reduced gun violence.

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Roger West

CONSERVATIVE "SUPPLY SIDE JESUS"

CONSERVATIVE "SUPPLY SIDE JESUS"

Bill Maher slams and shames GOP Catholics and schools them on what Jesus really said.

Just as there are two Americas, Bill Maher argued Real Time last night that there are now two versions of Jesus on the political landscape.

While liberals were still worshiping the traditional version of Jesus, he said, Republicans had created “supply-side Jesus,” who he described as “a small businessman from Galilei whose main gripe is big government who wants to make Nazareth great again.”

“He’d love to help the less fortunate — but he’s got investors to think about,” Maher explained.

VIDEO COURTESY OF HBO 

In that regard, he said, Republicans are more likely to worship someone like “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli, who infamously tried to raise the price of Daraprim, a drug used by both AIDS and cancer patients, to $750 a pill before finally reversing course amid massive public criticism.

But tactics like Shkreli’s, the host argued, are commonplace in the pharmaceutical industry, where cancer medication cost $10,000 a month.

“This cartel owns the US government every bit as much as Mexican drug lords own theirs,” Maher observed.

With that in mind, Maher said, Donald Trump is the perfect candidate for today’s Republican Party.

He says — he does — that his two favorite books are the Bible and The Art Of The Deal,” Maher pointed out. “Trump says one is about a perfect God who teaches humanity the right way to live. And the other is the Bible.
”

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Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

VIRGINIA GOP TEABAGGERS ADMIT TO RIGGING DISTRICTS TO ELECT ITS OWN ILK

Virginia is one of the most gerrymandered states in the country. During the last presidential election, President Obama won the state by three points, but Republicans still picked up 8 of the state’s 11 congressional districts under the GOP-friendly maps drawn by the state legislature.

In a court filing offered by the Republican members of Virginia’s congressional delegation, the lawmakers who benefit most from these gerrymandered maps admitted that the GOP intentionally rigged the state’s congressional districts in order to produce a lopsided delegation. The state legislature’s “overarching priorities” in drawing the maps, according to the court filing, was “incumbency protection and preservation of cores to maintain the 8-3 partisan division established in the 2010 election.”

2010 was a very good year for Republicans, enabling the GOP to capture unusually large portions of state congressional delegations. 2012, by contrast, was a strong year for Democrats which saw the reelection of President Obama. And yet, by these Republican lawmakers’ own admission, the maps drawn between the 2010 and 2012 elections were draw for the explicit purpose of ensuring that the GOP’s unusually strong performance in 2010 would be replicated year after year — even in years when the electorate was more favorable to Democrats. The GOP’s goal, in other words, was to render congressional elections little more than political theater, an annual ritual that would produce the same 8-3 delegation every single time.

The lawmakers’ admission that Virginia’s maps were drawn to lock in a delegation that’s unusually favorable to the GOP came as part of ongoing litigation over the legality of the state’s maps. As a general rule, the Supreme Court does not permit lawsuits challenging partisan gerrymandering(that’s despite the fact that a majority of the Court has, at times, indicated its belief that partisan gerrymanders can violate the Constitution). Under current precedents, however, congressional maps can be struck down because they engage in an impermissible racial gerrymander. And, indeed, a federal court did strike down Virginia’s current maps because of a racially impermissible district.

Various interest groups are now fighting over how the court should redraw the Virginia’s maps in order to cure the problem with this district. The brief filed on behalf of the state’s Republican members of Congress argues that the court is obligated to draw this map in order to preserve the state’s partisan gerrymander — essentially requiring the court to maintain the same 8-3 partisan split that Republican lawmakers sought to lock in when they drew the original map. Quoting past Supreme Court decisions, the Republicans argue that “when ‘faced with the necessity of drawing district lines by judicial order,'” a court must “be guided by the legislative policies underlying” the original maps “‘to the extent those policies do not lead to violations of the Constitution or the Voting Rights Act.”

There is, indeed, some precedent supporting the idea that courts should not second-guess the decisions of state mapmakers, unless those decisions violate the Constitution or federal law. But the Republicans’ proposal confounds two distinct legal concepts and assumes, wrongly, that partisan gerrymanders are constitutional.

In the 2004 case Vieth v. Jubelirer the Supreme Court held 5-4 that a particular partisan gerrymandering suit could not proceed. Notably, however, the Court did not declare that gerrymander constitutional. Rather, it rested its opinion on the notion that courts are not often competent to determine when a partisan gerrymander has occurred or to devise a way to fix it. As Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for a plurality of four justices, “no judicially discernible and manageable standards for adjudicating political gerrymandering claims have emerged.”

The key fifth vote was supplied by Justice Anthony Kennedy, who also warned that “we have no basis on which to define clear, manageable, and politically neutral standards for measuring the particular burden a given partisan classification imposes on representational rights.” Thus, he concluded that many partisan gerrymanders would have to be tolerated — even if they violate the Constitution — because he did not believe that courts currently have the tools they need to identify and cure such gerrymanders.

Significantly, however, Kennedy also left open the possibility that a standard could emerge in a future case that would allow partisan gerrymanders to be challenged in court. He also strongly suggested that these gerrymanders violate the Constitution. “First Amendment concerns arise where a State enacts a law that has the purpose and effect of subjecting a group of voters or their party to disfavored treatment by reason of their views,” Kennedy wrote. “In the context of partisan gerrymandering, that means that First Amendment concerns arise where an apportionment has the purpose and effect of burdening a group of voters’ representational rights.”

Scalia and Kennedy’s concern that it is difficult for judges to develop a principled rule that allows them to sort unconstitutional gerrymanders from some other kind is not frivolous. Does a map become unconstitutional if Republicans make up 40 percent of a state’s voters but 45 percent of its members of Congress? What if Republicans receive 60 percent of the state’s congressional seats? What if they receive none of them? At least in marginal cases, it is not at all easy for judges to tell an intentionally gerrymandered state from a mere mathematical anomaly.

But Virginia is not a marginal case. Among other things, in most partisan gerrymandering cases, the state’s Republican delegation to the House of Representatives typically does not show up in court with a brief openly admitting that the state’s maps were drawn with the explicit purpose of rigging congressional elections in order to ensure an 8-3 delegation. This is not, in other words, a case where there are “no judicially discernible and manageable standards” that will enable a court to determine whether a particular set of districts constitutes a partisan gerrymander. The court need only listen to what the Republican lawmakers who benefit most from this gerrymander have conceded to the court.

The Republican lawmakers’ admission, in other words, should enable the courts to broaden the scope of this litigation. It is an admission that each of the state’s districts was drawn with an anti-democratic and, if Justice Kennedy is to be believed, unconstitutional purpose, and should justify tossing out the entire map. This is, admittedly, an unlikely outcome given the current makeup of the Supreme Court, but it is the correct outcome under the Constitution.

[cross posted from thinkprogress]

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IF ONLY THE REST OF US LOVED TRUMP LIKE TRUMP LOVES TRUMP

Extreme GOP Right Wing nut and presidential candidate Donald Trump responded to a question about whether he was homophobic on Wednesday by talking about conservative groups.

“I think that I’m a very nice person,” Trump told CNN host Don Lemon. “I love people, and I have to tell you, when you look at those polls, it’s across the board. You know who loves me? The Tea Party. The evangelicals. I’m leading with evangelicals — I love them, they love me. I’m Presbyterian, I’m Protestant, and they like me. You know why? Because they think I’m gonna do a great job for the country.”

“Some people may perceive you as racist,” Lemon later asked. “Answer me that.” 

“I just did a speech for the African-American Chamber of Commerce of South Carolina,” Trump responded. “They just wrote me the most beautiful letter I’ve gotten in a long time saying how unfairly I got treated by the press.” 

Trump said he spoke at the event as a favor to “a couple of friends who just happen to be African-American,” but then complained that Lemon’s network made him “look bad” by showing empty seats at the event. 

“I was surrounded by a tremendous amount of people,” the candidate said, adding that “the press is very, very unfair.” 

He also insisted he did nothing wrong by not questioning the unidentified Islamophobic supporter who accused President Barack Obama of being a Muslim earlier this month while complaining about “a problem in our country called Muslims.”

“I don’t feel I have to defend President Obama,” Trump said. 

“But some would say you’re not defending the president — you’re defending the truth,” Lemon countered. 

“You’re not saying I defended. I didn’t respond,” Trump said. “It’s the first time in my life I’ve caused controversy by not responding.”

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BADGER AND BULLY

In a badgering and bullying performance that would have made House of Un-American activities interrogator Roy Cohn proud, a Republican congressman from Ohio interrupted the head of Planned Parenthood 19 times in five short minutes in a hearing on Tuesday.

Appearing at the GOP-led witchhunt — coordinated between virulent anti-abortion extremists and hard right conservatives — Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards repeatedly came under attack from the Republican-dominated committee.





Richards was invited to appear to answer questions about the highly-edited Planned Parenthood videos created by the anti-choice activists to force lawmakers to shut off funding to the healthcare providers that mainly serves low income women.

When Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan had his opportunity to perform for the cameras, he wasted no time going after Richards and bullying her over a statement she made immediately following the release of the first edited video.

Referring to Richards’ statement where she said, “This is unacceptable, and I personally apologize for the staff member’s [ Dr. Deborah Nucatola] tone and statements,” Jordan demanded to know which statements she was apologizing for.

“Ms. Richards, if the videos were selectively edited, heavily edited, if this was entrapment, if this was all untrue, why’d you apologize?” Jordan began.

Five seconds into Richards’ explanation, Jordan made the first of 19 interruptions he would make over the next five minutes, continually raising his voice and talking over the healthcare executive.

“That she, in my judgment, had a clinical discussion …” Richards said, before being interrupted by Jordan.

“Which statements were you apologizing for?” Jordan asked. 

“It was really the situation she was in,” Richards said. 

“That raises an important question — so is what you said in your video untrue? You weren’t really apologizing for the statements made? You can’t say, ‘I’m apologizing for statements in one video,’ and then not tell us what those statements were,” Jordan said.

Richards repeatedly explained that she meant that Nucatola’s comments were “inappropriate in a clinical setting,” with congressman badgering her in an ugly way, demanding she recall comments made by Nucatola that were not true — a claim Richards has never made.

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She Has An “Almost Psychopathic Denial of Reality’

Yale professor Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld laid into GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina on Monday, questioning her fitness to run the country based on her pattern of fabricating facts.

At question is Fiorina’s claim during her break-out primary debate performance this month that undercover videos from the Center for Medical Progress depicted a fully-formed fetus being picked apart by Planned Parenthood workers while its heart was beating and legs were kicking.

The clip does not exist, yet Fiorina has refused to acknowledge this.

Sonnenfeld attacked her for fabricating this and for her claims that she led Hewlett Packard through difficult times which she blamed for the company’s poor performance during her tenure.

VIDEO COURTESY OF MSNBC

“I feel like the proverbial mosquito in the nudist colony, I hardly know where to strike first,” Sonnenfeld said about claims by Fiorina that she was a good CEO of Hewlett Packard. “There’s so much wrong with this, but the thing that comes through clearest is this — if we weren’t on TV I’d say almost psychopathic denial of reality. As you saw even the creators of that hoax Planned Parenthood critique, even they say this is not the footage that she says it is.”
 

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FIORINA A HUGE PROPONENT OF ‘NEVER LET FACTS GET IN THE WAY OF GOOD STORY”

One day after being ambushed by condom-throwing Planned Parenthood supporters, Republican presidential hopeful and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina defended the recent remarks she made about Planned Parenthood on Meet The Press. At the last Republican presidential debate, Fiorina described a video from an anti-abortion group, Center for Medical Progress, that showed “a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking, while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.”

The video Fiorina refers to is of a former tissue procurement technician describing an experience where she was working in the pathology lab and saw a fetus with its heart still beating. The woman interviewed said the brain was going to be procured from the fetus. However, the footage used alongside her commentary was stock footage of a fetus with its legs moving, not actual footage of what she witnessed, leading critics to point out that Fiorina mischaracterized the footage that was being shown. The supervisor the woman mentions in the tape also did not say the fetus was kept alive to harvest its brain.

Todd said to Fiorina, “Well, the footage you describe at best is a reenactment … The people that made the videos admit it’s stock footage. Yet, you went right along and said, ‘It’s Planned Parenthood.'”

Fiorina answered:

Chuck, Chuck, Chuck, Chuck, Chuck. Do you think this is not happening? Does Hillary Clinton think this is not happening? So sad that you missed the opportunity to ask Mrs. Clinton why she said, ‘Late-term abortions were only performed for medical purposes.’ That is patently false. This is happening in America today. And taxpayers are paying for it. That is a fact. It is a reality. And no one can run away from it.

There is evidence that people are more supportive of later abortions once they understand the reality of why women are getting them. The majority of South Carolina voters polled by Planned Parenthood Health Systems did not support 20-week abortion bans once they were better informed about why patients seek abortions at this stage, which are rare, such as discovering fetal anomalies.

When Todd pressed her further, Fiorina tried to change the subject by saying the Washington Post’s assertion that she misrepresented her secretarial work wasn’t credible. Todd then asked whether Fiorina thinks any of the work Planned Parenthood uses is “for good.” She said evaded the question, which was likely about Planned Parenthood’s non-abortion care, such as cancer screenings:

I’m sure it is. I’m sure it is. But you know what I find amazing? The hypocrisy of Democrats who stand up and oppose every time taxpayer funding for, say, pregnancy centers, that are also very much focused on women’s health, but no, Democrats don’t want taxpayer funding for pregnancy centers. I just visited one in South Carolina. They are all privately funded. This is hypocrisy on Democrats’ part. This is about a political slush fund. It is about the character of our nation. And yes, we should stand up and fight on this issue.

Fiorina may be referring to crisis pregnancy centers, which advocate that pregnant women do not get abortions, and are often not licensed, may provide misinformation, use scare tactics, and don’t provide the range of medical services that Planned Parenthood and various women’s health clinics do.

In the past, Fiorina has avoided questions about overturning Roe v. Wade. In 2010, she said, “Many, many voters are going to conclude while that [abortion] is a very important issue, it is frankly a decided issue. The law is clear in the state of California, where there is a constitutional guarantee to the right to an abortion. So why are we talking about a theoretical issue?”

Recently, however, she changed her position and said the decision should be overturned. Fiorina’s stance on abortion has been highly scrutinized after the debate, and has gained attention from pro-choice activists and the media, which is looking into her associations with abortion groups and previous remarks she’s made on the issue. BuzzFeed recently reported that a charity Fiorina chairs, Good360, “donated $18,022 in goods” to the Abortion Access Network of Arizona.

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ILLEGAL GUN HUGGER SHOOTS HIS PACKAGE AND THEN BLAMES BLACK MAN

A South Dakota man is currently in custody after telling police officers he was shot in the penis by a “black guy” when he actually shot himself while attempting to purchase a gun illegally, reports the Argus Leader.

Convicted felon Donald Anthony Watson, 43, was admitted to a local emergency room late at night on Sept. 6 for a gunshot wound to his penis, and told local law enforcement that he had been shot during a botched robbery.

According to the arrest report, Watson said he was shot by “a black guy (who) tried to rob” him while he was taking out the trash at his apartment.

Investigators who went to Watson’s apartment said there was no evidence of a shooting outside, but neighbors told them they heard screaming coming from his apartment earlier in the evening.

After obtaining a search warrant, officer entered his home and found blood, bullet fragments, and an empty gun case.

Pressed by police, Watson admitted that he made the story up and was looking at a handgun he was thinking about buying and placed it in his pocket where it went off, with the bullet hitting his genitals.

Watson — who refused to tell police where the gun disappeared to — has been charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of a firearm by a drug offender, and two counts of false reports to law enforcement.

What gun problem? Congrats Donald Anthony Watson, you are this weeks dumbass of the week!

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WHEN GOP INSTANT HEROES TURN INTO DIPSHITS

Last nights episode of HBO's Real Time - New Rules segment- slammed Republican role models gone awry.

“Republicans have to stop being surprised when their instant heroes turn out to be embarrassments,” Maher said. “They’re so anxious to buddy-up to the forgotten good people that when a Kim Davis or a ‘Joe the Plumber’ or a Cliven Bundy come along, they rush to say ‘Now here’s a real American’ when they should be saying ‘What’s up with this asshole?'”

Maher then specifically turned his attention to Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, the woman who has refused to comply with federal law and issue same-sex marriage licenses.

“Kim Davis turned out to be everything conservatives hate,” said Maher. “She gave birth to two children out of wedlock and she’s been married four times. According to her, the answer to ‘What would Jesus do?’ is ‘everybody.'”

Maher then recounted Cliven Bundy’s racist statements and George Zimmerman’s ongoing encounters with law enforcement, before setting his sights on Josh Duggar.

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Roger West

FIORINA USED TAX INCENTIVES INTENDED FOR RESEARCH AND EMPLOYEE HIRING TO BUY BACK STOCKS…….

Fiorina skirts law again:

Prior to being fired herself, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina used tax incentives from the federal government, intended to increase research and development and employee hiring, to buy back stock before firing thousands of HP workers.

According to The Daily Beast, Fiorina — whose troubled tenure at HP has come under more scrutiny as she moves up in the polls for the GOP presidential nomination — was not the only high-ranking executive to take advantage of a corporate “tax holiday” and work it to her own advantage.

In 2004 Congress passed the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 — after high pressure lobbying from Hewlett-Packard among others — that included an incentive for companies to repatriate profits stashed overseas with the understanding the money would be invested in job-creating research and development.

Instead, under Fiorina’s stewardship, HP took $4 billion of the $4.3 billion in tax breaks and funneled the money into a stock buyback program that enriched shareholders including herself. The move was done despite the fact that the act specifically prohibited the stock manipulation.

Instead of hiring more workers, HP laid off 14,500 workers due to plummeting share prices following Fiorina’s disastrous decision to purchase Compaq that caused profits to plummet.

The following year, Fiorina was fired by the HP after an acrimonious fight, but still managed to depart with a $21 million severance package.

This is not the only time Fiorina has been accused of skirting the law.

During her tenure, HP was accused of selling products into Iran despite an embargo. HP explained that the sales were made by a foreign subsidiary which was not bound by the U.S. government sanctions. Fiorina claimed no knowledge of the $120 million sale.

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TRUMP ATTACKS PHARMA BRO

COLUMBIA, SC — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has no idea what he would do to combat rising drug prices, but he does know how to launch a vicious personal attack.

In a press conference in Columbia, South Carolina on Wednesday, Trump sharply criticized the former hedge fund manager who has become known as the “Pharma bro,” saying the man is a “disgrace” and a “spoiled brat.”

“This young guy raised the price to a level that’s absolutely ridiculous and he looks like a spoiled brat doing it,” said Trump. “You want to know the truth? He looks like a spoiled brat. And he’s a hedge fund guy — as you know, the only one who I’m raising taxes for. They’re going to be paying up. But I thought it was a disgusting thing what he did.”

The CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, Martin Shkreli, has attracted attention since he hiked by 5,000 percent the price of Daraprim, a drug used to treat severe infections in AIDS patients and infants. He has since backed down as a result of the outrage, saying there were “mistakes made” and that he would lower the cost.

While an extreme example, the Pharma bro’s action highlights the bigger issue of rising pharmaceutical drug prices in the United States — an issue other presidential candidates have recently addressed. Trump, however, was unable to propose a solution.

“It’s terrible,” he said when what he would do to combat rising drug prices. “But particularly there’s something about that one — the way he raised it and to that extent. And then he sat back smug, like he was hot stuff. That guy is nothing. He is zero. He is nothing.”

When pressed on what he would do to address the issue, he again avoided the question. “Probably at some point the public is going to get him to reduce it somewhat,” he said. “But I think what he did was a disgrace. I’m sure you feel the same way.”

The Darapim price hike is not uncommon — Judith Aberg, a spokesperson for the HIV Medicine Association, told USA Today that every week she learns about another drug that has increased in price because of a change in marketing or the distributor. Recent studies have found that more Americans are cutting back in other areas because they’re having a hard time paying for their prescriptions.

Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have both recently released plans to take on the rapidly increasing prices of pharmaceutical drugs. Clinton tweeted about the pharma bro on Monday and then announced on Tuesday her plan to cap out-of-pocket drug costs and decrease the monopoly marketing period for biologics, among other measures. Sanders linked to the recent news about Daraprim on his campaign website alongside a link to his plan to lower drug costs. And earlier this month, Sanders introduced a bill that would allow patients to import cheaper drugs from Canada.

Trump has been criticized for his inability to answer questions on actual issues. He has released a small number of policy papers including a recent one on guns which is indistinguishable from the National Rifle Association’s agenda. In a town hall with Sen. Tim Scott Wednesday night, he promised the audience that he’ll soon be releasing a tax plan that is “very long on policy.”

He also is not known for his fair business practices — he has run a scam university without a license and, despite his disdain for undocumented immigrants, hired many of them to build his newest hotel. He has also made millions of dollars by extolling a marketing company that has faced regulatory investigations in three countries for running a pyramid scheme and for deceptive trade practices.

[cross-posted from thinkprogress]

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TRUMP AND HIS FOLLOWERS PROVE THAT TROGLODYTES STILL ROAM THE EARTH

For several months, Donald Trump has campaigned for president by largely ignoring traditional notions of decency. Thursday night, however, Trump and his ignorant followers attained a new low.

At a Trump campaign rally in Rochester, New Hampshire a man in a “Trump” shirt took the microphone and said, “We have a problem in this country. It’s called Muslims.”

“We know our current President is one,” he added. “You know he’s not even an American.” 

“We need this question,” Trump replied, smiling.

Then things turned even darker, as the man discussed his beliefs that Muslims were in training camps plotting to kill.

“That’s my question. When can we get rid of ‘em?” the man said.

Trump was unfazed at the casual suggestion of cultural genocide. “We are going to be looking at a lot of different things. A lot of people saying that,” Trump said.





Notably, Trump did not correct or object to the man’s false characterization of Obama as a Muslim.

Trump also did not dispute the man’s contention that Obama was not an American. Trump has been one of the most prominent “birthers,” insisting that Obama’s birth certificate from Hawaii was faked.

In 2008, a woman at a John McCain event insisted that Obama was “an Arab.” “No ma’am,” McCain replied. “He’s a decent, family man, citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues.”

Trump currently leads the GOP field by 10 points.

The man directing the question to Trump, congrats asshat, you are today’s most stupid person of the week. Enjoy numbnutz!

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Roger West

HUCKABEE OFFERS UP EXPLAINATION WHY KIM DAVIS CAN DISCRIMINATE

Extreme right wing nut job Mike Huckabee has been the most vocal supporter of Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk jailed for refusing to issue same-sex marriages licenses. He has said he would go to jail on her behalf and has used her situation to argue for strengthening “religious liberty.” But during Wednesday night’s GOP debate, he proved he doesn’t actually understand the meaning of religious freedom.

In response to a question about Davis during the debate, Huckabee argued that she should be allowed to exercise her religious beliefs and discriminate against same-sex couples because the United States has allowed others, including prisoners, to exercise their own religious beliefs.

“We made accommodation to the Fort Hood shooter to let him grow a beard,” Huckabee said. “We made accommodations to the detainees at Gitmo — I’ve been to Gitmo and I’ve seen the accommodations that we have to the Muslim detainees who killed Americans. You’re telling me that you cannot make an accommodation for an elected Democrat county clerk from Rowan County, Kentucky?”

He continued, alleging the only difference is the “criminalization of her faith.”





The First Amendment guarantees Americans the freedom to practice their religions, but does not guarantee someone the right to discriminate and deny other people their rights because of his or her religion.

Davis was released from jail last week and returned to work — she has said she will not interfere with her deputies as they issue same-sex marriage licences.

Huckabee made a similar false comparison in an op-ed he published in Fox News in which he argued that Davis should be allowed out on bail because “many of the America’s most evil and notorious serial killers, murderers, rapists, mafia bosses and presidential assassins were actually let out on bail.” He went on to list Al Capone, Ted Bundy, and Jack Kevorkian, among others, without acknowledging that none of them were held in contempt of court like Davis.

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Roger West

MAHER CONFRONTS MSNBC WITH ITS INCESSANT NON-STOP COVERAGE OF DONALD TRUMP LOVING DONALD TRUMP

Bill Maher made an appearance last night on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, and when the topic of Trump being given so much coverage came up, Maher let them have it: On MSNBC, Bill Maher Calls Out MSNBC’s Coverage of Trump’s ‘Rambling Brainfarts’:




Maher also blasted Matthews for their continual scandal mongering over Hillary Clinton's emails and said she can't win for losing when it comes to yielding to the demands of the Republicans, and the media for that matter.

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Roger West

FERGUSON REPORT IN

On Monday, the 16-member Ferguson Commission created by Governor Jay Nixon released its report about how race and economic inequality exacerbate problems within St. Louis’ criminal justice system — and how to go about fixing it. Citing previous findings from the Department of Justice reports about racist policing, the use of excessive force, and the broken court system in Ferguson and St. Louis County, the Ferguson Commission outlined 189 specific policy solutions for lawmakers to consider in the near future.

But the commission’s report goes far beyond the policing and court issues that first inspired the investigation, painting a much broader vision to improve not only the criminal justice system but schools, public health, and poverty.

Counting police reform among its signature priorities, the commission details crucial steps to ensure “justice for all” in Missouri. It calls on police departments to direct their officers to use minimal force when protecting public and officer safety. It also suggests that the Attorney General take on use of force cases as a special prosecutor, and that a database of excessive force cases be created for public consumption.

With regard to the region’s high incarceration rate, the commission calls on courts to prohibit incarceration for minor offenses and make nonviolent offenses civil, as opposed to criminal, violations. It recommends the establishment of justice centers, where people who cannot pay off their violations can participate in community service projects instead. Moreover, the commission concludes that judges and prosecutors should not be involved in court proceedings when there is a conflict of interest.

While the report outlines policies in direct response to DOJ findings, it also delves deeper into the systemic disparities in education, public health, and economic opportunities that create problems for black and brown communities and increase the likelihood of interacting with law enforcement.

A key tenet of the policy outline, for example, is investment in a holistic childhood development model that includes comprehensive education reform. All schools, it says, should have in-house health centers that provides mental and reproductive health resources, as well as trauma services. State and local officials should also be at the forefront of ending childhood hunger, by connecting kids in need of free and reduced meals with food providers during school breaks and making Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) enrollment easier for families.

For adults, economic opportunity is imperative. The commission points to the need for a higher minimum wage, and recommends the creation of financial empowerment centers that offer “community development banking, multi-generational financial education, and convenient financial services with reasonable interest rates.” Collaboration between educational institutions and potential employers can also improve job-readiness and access, in addition to specialized job training programs.

Although the new policy guide addresses Missouri, specifically, it follows a similar set of national policy proposals released by Black Lives Matter (BLM) in August, shortly after Hillary Clinton implored BLM activists to develop a concrete policy proposals.

“There has to be some positive vision and plan that you can move people toward,” she replied, after she was confronted by BLM representatives about police brutality and mass incarceration. Explaining that former civil rights movements had action plans, she told them that making specific policy asks is the way to make change. “The people behind that consciousness-raising and advocacy, they had a plan ready to go.”

Weeks later, proponents of law enforcement reform and racial justice launched Campaign Zero, a comprehensive guide for federal, state, and local officials to follow.

While less focused on economic and health factors that contribute to discriminatory — and deadly — policing that the Ferguson Commission put forward, the campaign narrows in on national law enforcement issues that the Ferguson team overlooked, such as broken-windows policing and police union contracts that make accountability near-impossible to achieve. For instance, Campaign Zero offers specific changes to policing tactics, such as stopping people who look like they are acting nervous or people who match a generic description of a suspect, which disproportionately entrap people of color in the criminal justice system. It also calls on the removal of officer contract provisions that prevent civilians from questioning officers and leaves the power to discipline officers to police chiefs.

In addition to the Ferguson Commission report and Campaign Zero, presidential hopefuls Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley released their own criminal justice solutions in the last two months, including the enactment of ban-the-box laws, scrapping for-profit prisons, and the establishment of a national use of force standard.

[Crossp-posted from thinkprogress]

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LAWYER SAYS KIM DAVIS IS LIKE ABE LINCOLN

Matt Staver — a lawyer from theocratic law firm The Liberty Counsel — said on Sunday that his client, Kentucky County Clerk Kim Davis, is like President Abraham Lincoln because of her stand against marriage equality for all Americans.

Staver made the remarks in an appearance on C-SPAN after which a caller said that Davis should do her job or step down.

“Well, she is doing her job quite well,” Staver said. “By the end of this year, she will have saved the taxpayers in Rowan County $1.5 million in her first year as the elected official since 2014, so that’s quite substantial, to be able to do that.”

“Secondly,” he went on, “if we told Abraham Lincoln, ‘Abraham Lincoln, you should just go along with the Dred Scott decision. After all, it is what the racist Chief Justice Taney wrote and it’s the law of the land.’ And yet, Lincoln advocated something different than that and unfortunately because of that Dred Scott decision we had to fight a Civil War. It was a terrible time in our history.”

In the U.S. Supreme Court case Dred Scott v. Sanford, the court ruled that blacks could not be U.S. citizens, whether slaves or free. As such, they could not sue U.S. citizens in federal court in order to obtain their freedom.

The case is held by many to be an embarrassing error by the highest court in the land, with some historians calling it “unquestionably, our court’s worst decision ever.”

Staver and other Davis supporters assert that the Supreme Court’s decision legalizing same-sex marriage on a national level in June is similarly misguided.



Dred Scott was overturned by the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the ratification of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which says that any person born in the U.S. or its territories is automatically an American citizen.

“Talking about someone like Kim Davis,” Staver said Sunday, “she is just simply saying she wants to do her job, she does it well. Just give her a reasonable accommodation.”

Staver has made previous statements comparing Davis to Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and Jews living in Nazi Germany during the Holocaust.

“This is the Rosa Parks on the bus. If they tell you to go to the back of the bus because your skin color doesn’t match what they want, don’t go to the back of the bus. This is the time for peaceful resistance, and this is the time to stand with people who are engaged in peaceful resistance,” said Staver in an interview on Christian radio.

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Roger West

DRESSING LIKE THE SCARECROW GARNERS MAHER'S ATTENTION

VIDEO COURTESY OF HBO

Bill Maher Friday night took a shot at the husband of Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis for showing up for her nationally televised release from jail wearing overalls and a battered straw hat with a green visor.

After mocking a Florida man for being arrested for masturbating in a Burger King, and pointing out to Native American tribes that rain dances don’t work (“Rain dances don’t fucking work, people. My front lawn is now made of dirt.“) Maher turned — once again — to Kim Davis, the anti-gay county clerk who chose to go to jail rather then allow her office to give out marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Specifically, Maher drew attention to the widely ridiculed picture of Davis and her husband Joe posing with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

“New rule: Someone has to tell Kim Davis’ husband who showed up for her big release event looking like this,” Maher said , pausing for viewers to take the photo in,” That when people already think you’re brainless, it doesn't help to dress up like the scarecrow.”

A DISGUSTING TREND IS EMERGING

The New York City Police Department on Friday released a security camera video showing ex-tennis star James Blake being tackled, thrown to the ground and handcuffed by an undercover officer in a now infamous case of mistaken identity.

The incident occurred as Blake, formerly the world’s fourth-ranked player, was calmly standing by the entrance of a midtown Manhattan hotel, waiting for a car to take him to the U.S. Open.

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