Somebody set fire to Bill Clinton's childhood home. Police suspect arson.

Courtesy of Washington Post:  

Authorities say a fire that caused minor damage to former president Bill Clinton’s first childhood home in Hope, Ark., may have been arson. 

Hope Police Department Chief J.R. Wilson said a motorist spotted flames early Friday at the Clinton Birthplace National Historic Site. Wilson said that when firefighters arrived a short time later, flames were shooting 8 feet into the air on one side of the structure, a two-story white frame house. 

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that the fire was quickly extinguished and only one interior room was damaged by flames. Wilson said there was graffiti found at the scene, with footage from the scene showing a large painted frown with a protruding tongue on the exterior of a door leading to the inside of the home. 

The cause of the fire is under investigation, with arson suspected in part because of a smell of accelerant at the scene. “It looks like that [the fire] was started intentionally at this time," Hope Fire Department Chief Dale Glanton told Shreveport, La., station KSLA. "So it will be investigated and handled as a potential arson fire."

I would say it's a safe bet to assume this was arson.

It is also a safe bet to assume that this will not be the last attack on the Clintons, their reputations, or their property.

The fact is that the closer we get to the nomination and the 2016 election, the more crazed the rhetoric against the Clintons will become, and more unhinged the people who listen to it and believe it.

I will also suggest that it is quite possible that the conservative rage against a President Clinton could very well match the conservative rage against President Obama. 

There is a thing called "NRA News" and they blame just about everything on the "Godless Left." Hey!

Courtesy of the Washington Post:

After the mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., the Daily News deployed all of its tabloid cover in an attack on what it called America’s “gun scourge” and the “cowards,” meaning the politicians, hiding “behind meaningless platitudes” instead of fixing the problem. “GOD ISN’T FIXING THIS” was the headline. Now the National Rifle Association has fired back, with its own screaming headline, directed at the Daily News specifically and the “Godless Left” in general. Narrated by a grim-faced Dana Loesch, and interwoven with video footage of what appears to be first responders, the NRA video leaves no stone unturned and none of its demons unscathed as it connects the dots, as the video’s introduction says, between “the global alliance of elitists, media activists, Hollywood celebrities, campus radicals and political power mongers who have openly attacked sacred American values and the people who cherish them with ruthlessness, contempt and downright hatred,” and who share “the same fanatical fervor to tear apart the foundations of America as the terrorists who threaten our very survival. Only hours after an attack of radical jihadi terror on American soil,” says Loesch, a conservative radio host, in the video, “the New York Daily News became the loudest, vilest, most condescending voice for what many people call the Godless Left. “These false prophets at this failing excuse for a newspaper claimed to enjoy special knowledge of God’s plans somehow … even as they mocked the entire concept of religion. But they weren’t alone. As a horrific act of terror unfolded in real time, the majority of Americans turned to earnest prayer for the dead, the wounded, their families and the world — while political and media elites joined forces to insult and mock and disparage them … and in so doing, laid bare the utter moral depravity of the Godless Left.” 

She manages to interconnect all of the following: Benghazi, Hillary Clinton, the media, the Boston Marathon bombing and the Fort Hood attacks, the “unconscionable scandals at the VA,” the “weaponizing of the IRS,” Obamacare, and the “demonizing” of Christmas and Christianity, not to mention “the only religion in the world that contains a segment” that “condones” terrorism. By the end, she finally gets around to guns. “As the families of the victims in San Bernardino called out to their fellow Americans for prayer, the Godless Left launched a vitriolic attack on the twin pillars of American freedom: the First and Second Amendments.”

This vile Dan Loesh woman is another Sarah Palin disciple, who has established herself as a conservative talk show host, and now a spokesperson for the NRA.

Clearly in her mind, and I imagine the NRA's, the real terrorists in this country are those trying to protect its citizens from gun violence. After all how can you trust the "godless?"

Of course it is not at all accurate to suggest that all, or even a significant portion, of the people supporting stronger gun laws are atheists or even liberals.

After all bullets do not use faith or ideology to discriminate as to whose body they rip to pieces. They simply kill.

However I guarantee that this kind of hyperbole will work to galvanize the simple minded NRA supporters and the next thing you know there will be thousands of emails and mountains of snail mail headed toward Washington DC to let lawmakers know that the only way they can restrict access to firearms in this country is to pry them out of their "cold dead hands."

Mother Jones explores the extreme measures that legal abortion providers in this country utilize to stay safe.

Dr. George Tiller, murdered by an anti-abortion extremist in 2009.

Courtesy of Mother Jones:  

"Unfortunately, facilities that provide abortion care have had to employ security measures that aren't common for other medical practices," says Vicki Saporta, president and CEO of the National Abortion Federation, which advises member clinics (including the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood) on how to beef up security. "These measures can range from bulletproof glass to special entry systems, metal detectors to security guards. And most staff at clinics go through drills and training on how to respond to different types of threats." 

Incidents as violent as the one in Colorado are rare. Significantly more common is the targeted harassment of those who work at abortion clinics, most notably abortion doctors, but also their staff. For example, when Jen Boulanger ran an abortion clinic in Allentown, Pennsylvania, she was constantly worried about being followed home. "I felt like I needed to watch my back," says Boulanger, who was eventually followed in her car by an anti-abortion extremist despite her efforts. 

According to data from the Feminist Majority Foundation, in 2014 more than half of clinics in the United States had doctors or staff members experiencing targeted intimidation and threats from anti-abortion protesters, compared with about 20 percent that reported staff members experiencing severe violence, which includes things like arson, bombings, chemical attacks, and gunfire. That means a total of 71 percent of clinics said their workers experienced either severe violence or targeted harassment. Doctors and clinic staff reported having their personal information, including information about their spouses and children, posted on the internet, having their homes picketed and staked out by extremists, and being stalked by abortion opponents. 

This level of harassment, which clinic workers fear could escalate to something more violent (and which occasionally has), has forced both clinics and individual providers to undertake personal security measures unseen in any other medical or professional field.

Some of the precautions listed in this article are the  following:

• Wearing bullet proof vests.
• Taking different routes home from work.
• Never driving your own car.
• Vary your routine often.
• And even wear disguises.

Many of these seem like the same precautions used to protect mob informants, or undercover police officers, and yet they are needed to keep individuals providing a perfectly legal procedure safe from harm, or even death.

And it is due to irresponsible rhetoric and a purposeful misrepresentation of what these clinics provide. 

GOP presidential candidate George Pataki declares war on religion. Well on one religion in particular.

We must declare war on radical Islam. @LorettaLynch I'm not edging toward violent speech, I'm declaring we kill them. Go ahead, arrest me.

— George E. Pataki (@GovernorPataki) December 4, 2015

How does one define "radical" exactly? And then, assuming one could accomplish that, how do we declare war on that religion exactly?

Apparently what got Pataki's panties in a twist was this comment from Loretta Lynch on Thursday:

Now obviously this is a country that is based on free speech, but when it edges towards violence, when we see the potential for someone to lift — lifting that mantle of anti-Muslim rhetoric or, as we saw after 9/11, violence against individuals who may not even be Muslims but may be perceived to be Muslims and they will suffer just as well, just as much. When we see that, we will take action….

Since 9/11, we’ve had over a thousand investigations into acts of anti-Muslim hatred, including rhetoric and bigoted actions, with over 45 prosecutions arising out of that…. 

I think it’s important, however, that as we again talk about the importance of free speech we make it clear that actions predicated on violent talk are not America they are not who were they are not what we do and they will be prosecuted, so I want that message to be clear also.

Now what Lynch was clearly talking about was the aggressive anti-Muslim rhetoric, and even attacks against Muslims in this country, in response to the Paris attacks and of course the more recent San Bernardino shootings.

And her contention is that it is irresponsible to inflame citizens of this country to take the law into their own hands, instead of reporting their concerns to the proper authorities.

And obviously that is the sober and responsible approach.

Clearly the fact that Pataki is now polling at right around zero, has caused him to become desperate enough to say ANYTHING to get his name recognition up out of the "Nobody fucking knows you" category.

Gee I imagine that if somebody reads that tweet and then kills himself some Muslims, that Pataki will no longer have to worry about nobody knowing who he is.

Idiot!

John Boehner goes to Israel. And then joins Ted Cruz in announcing that "the world is on fire."

So after Beohner invited Netanyahu to speak before Congress, without notifying the White House, Netanyahu returned the favor by inviting the giant Oompa Loompa to travel to Israel.

While there Bohner made the following histrionic statement: 

“I wouldn’t have believed that I would be involved in as much foreign policy as I am today,” Boehner said in his hotel near Jerusalem’s Old City. “And it certainly isn’t by choice. It’s just that the world is on fire. And I don’t think enough Americans or enough people in the administration understand how serious the problems that we’re facing in the world are.” 

Yeah you know who else cannot believe that Boehner  has injected himself into foreign policy? The American people.

And Boehner's constant undermining of the President places our country, and in fact the entire world in danger.

Yes indeed we are facing some very serious problems today, and a truckload of those problems can be traced right back to the Republican led Congress.

How interesting that Boehner now adopts the same language used by the most melodramatic attention seeker in his party, Ted Cruz, who famously used that "world on fire" line to frighten a small child.

Apparently the line between the irrational rabid Right Wing and the so-called GOP establishment is becoming less and less defined.

Martin Bashir's apology to Sarah Palin.

Whether you support Bashir, and his right to make the comment that he did, or not one at least has to recognize that his apology seems heartfelt.

Of course there are many who have said much worse, and have never offered an apology. (I'm thinking of a certain half term governor whose rhetoric has inspired rampant racism and may have been connected to at least one attempted assassination.

Bashir may have taken his frustration with the Tundra Turd a bit too far, but I think many of us have little difficulty understanding what drove him to those lengths.

Gay activist writes open letter to Bristol Palin.

Courtesy of the Huffington Post:  

Hey, Bristol, 

I'm so sorry that you felt bullied by some of the abusive comments that were left on your original post. They are indeed awful and inexcusable. 

That said, welcome to the world that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people live in every day. In fact, according to an exhaustive analysis of FBI hate crimes data by the Southern Poverty Law Center, LGBT people are at a greater risk of being targeted for a violent hate crime than literally any other minority group -- more than two times more likely than Jews to be attacked, 2.6 times more likely than African Americans, nearly 4.5 times more likely than Muslims, almost 14 times more likely than Latinos, and 41.5 times more likely than whites. In large swaths of our country, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender youth are regularly teased and beaten up for who they are (or who their peers think they are), all the while living in a culture that shames them into silence. Many of them have homophobic parents or guardians, so they can't even turn to the people who are supposed to love them unconditionally. LGBT youth are four to five times more likely to attempt suicide than their straight counterparts, because of the malicious bullying and crushing hatred that they're surrounded by every day. I should know: I attempted suicide myself at age 16. Do you know why that world of bullying, death threats, verbal and physical violence, and murder on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity exists? 

Do you know why my community, the LGBT community, faces such a grave threat of hate-motivated violence? Guess what: It's because of religion-based bigotry. I work for an organization that fights the "ex-gay" myth (propagated, incidentally, by your own church, among many others), which is the lie that it's possible to change from gay to straight, to "pray away the gay," through a mixture of prayer and so-called "reparative therapy." Anti-gay pastors and religious profiteers across the country peddle this lie to scared, self-loathing teenagers and homophobic parents who've internalized the vicious anti-gay rhetoric they hear from the pulpit every Sunday. The claim that gay people can become straight is denounced by literally every single reputable medical and mental health organization in the country, because it has no basis in research, doesn't work, and can actually be dangerous to its victims, but that doesn't stop the evil charlatans who cash the checks and make bank while holding out false hope for change, oblivious to (or utterly careless about?) the lives that they ruin in the process. And before you even dare to doubt that lives are ruined, I'd like to challenge you to walk in my shoes. We hear from people who bear permanent emotional and mental scars as a result of the "ex-gay" myth literally every day. Many who attempt suicide as a result of their guilt about their inevitable failure to "pray away the gay" bear physical scars, as well. We also hear from many parents, siblings, and relatives of those who are no longer alive to tell their own stories, people who killed themselves trying to live a lie in order to accommodate the religion-based bigotry of people just like you. 

 So while I am truly sorry to read about the abuse that's been directed your way since your anti-Obama blog post, I strongly object to your attempt to cast yourself as any kind of a victim. To the contrary, you, your mother, and the putridly anti-gay Republican Party are the ones who are victimizing LGBT people. And spare me the line about how your anti-gay views are unassailable because they're your firmly held religious beliefs. It's utterly hollow. Hate wrapped in the name of God is still hate. 

 In closing, I must submit an important correction. You wrote about the "younger generation" in the context of abortion, then continued in the same sentence about how "voters just keep defending [so-called] traditional marriage." If you meant to imply here that the "younger generation" -- our generation -- supports the continued exclusion of loving same-sex couples from full civil marriage equality, you are wrong. No, incredibly wrong. In fact, you couldn't be more wrong: Repeated polling consistently proves that our generation overwhelmingly believes that every American deserves the freedom to marry the person they love, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. You're free to hold any views you like, no matter how bigoted they are, but you are not free to misrepresent the truth. And the truth is that when it comes to marriage equality, the jury is in -- and you've lost. The anti-gay mistakes of our parents' generation (anti-LGBT marriage discrimination amendments, laws that marginalize and persecute the LGBT community in the areas of employment, housing, etc.) will be fixed by our generation, if they aren't rectified even sooner than that. Despite your own personal homophobia, ours is not a homophobic generation; your anti-gay views are already a minority view among your peers. The day will come, very soon, when the loving marriage (of six years and counting!) that my husband and I enjoy will be recognized from coast to coast, and our nation will be the better for it. My hope for you is that someday you'll be able to stop your homophobic bullying, let go of your own bigotry, and come to embrace your lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender friends, family members, and fellow citizens as equal Americans and full human beings. 

 John M. Becker

Apparently Mr. Becker also posted theis letter to Brancy's blog and Bristol's fake Facebook page as well.

I think we can rest assured that Bristol never saw it in either of those places, and if she did it is highly doubtful that she has the mental capacity or human compassion to understand the point he is trying to make.

But that's okay, because MOST of the young people of today totally DO understand the difference of being bullied and hated for your biology and being called out on the hateful homophobic rantings posted by a ghostwriter on a blog controlled by a reality show wannabe's crazy ass mother.

And in the end none of what is printed on that ridiculous blog makes one bit of difference, because progress is marching forward whether Nancy French, Sarah Palin, or even Bristol (If she is even aware of what is written on "her" blog) like it or not. And someday this hateful chicken scratch will be judged the same way that anti-feminist rantings in the seventies, or racist graffiti in the sixties,  or anti-Semitic hate speech of the forties and fifties is judged today.

If it is even remembered at all, and THAT is actually somewhat doubtful.

SuperPAC that supports Newt Gingrich is buying up ad space on Rush Limbaugh's radio program that horrified advertisers have suddenly freed up.

"By gosh Rush needs me, and thankfully I have a SuperPAC full of money to meet that need. After all, we misogynists need to stick together!"

Courtesy of the LA Times:

A new week greeted Rush Limbaugh with four more advertiser defections, for a total of 11, along with a sharp rebuke from former Republican presidential nominee John McCain. Peter Gabriel asked that his song "Sledgehammer" no longer be used on Limbaugh's radio program. 

Even after Limbaugh issued a rare apology, the furor that had erupted when the conservative radio host called an activist law student a "slut" and a "prostitute" showed no sign of abating Monday. 

But a backlash that might be a career-breaker for some commentators seemed unlikely to dent Limbaugh's considerable stature among his 15 million weekly listeners and conservative leaders. At least one advertiser stepped forward Monday to acknowledge increasing its ad spending on the Limbaugh program. 

A spokesman for Winning Our Future, a "super PAC" backing former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's presidential bid, said the group purchased more airtime. "He apologized and we're satisfied," said spokesman Rick Tyler, who said the group began advertising with the program two weeks ago.

Unbelievable. 

If this were happening on the Democratic side the radio host under attack for such disgusting remarks, would find himself the loneliest man in America.

But when it happens on the Right, everybody, including even the women, circle the wagons and play a rousing game of "blame the victim."

Though I guess I should not be surprised that a man who attacks a defenseless woman would find support from the man who treats the women in his life like cartons of milk stamped with an expiration date. "Sorry honey, your 'sell by date' has passed and I am packing up and moving on to other dairy products now. Unless of course you want to have a threesome with the cottage cheese?"

But what am I saying? The SuperPAC's are not ALLOWED to coordinate with their candidate, so clearly Gingrich has NO control over this.

Right? Yeah, right!

Update: There are now 27 companies that have pulled their advertising from Limbaugh's show.

The very definition of a Chauvinist PIG!

As many of you undoubtedly know Rush Limbaugh, a despicable excuse for a human being if there ever was one, referred to Georgetown University Law student, who recently testified before Congress, a prostitute and a slut this past Wednesday.

Now you might expect most people to come back the next day and have some regrets about directing that kind of language at a young women, but not this flatulent piece of human excrement.

Courtesy of ABC News:

On today’s show, Limbaugh turned up the heat and suggested that women who use insurance-covered birth control should post sex tapes online: “So Miss Fluke, and the rest of you Feminazis, here’s the deal. If we are going to pay for your contraceptives, and thus pay for you to have sex. We want something for it. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch,” he said.

It takes lot for me to feel shame for being a man, but this just about does that.

This is the worst kind of ugly testosterone fueled rhetoric, that usually spills out of the mouths of those pimply faced guys in high school who could not get any female to pay attention to them so they made hateful, vulgar, sexually explicit jokes about them to their buddies as a way to release their rage and minimize their insecurities.

Did you ever wonder what happened to those guys when they got older.

They turn out like this.

Well now you know.

Fox News and Sarah Palin conclude that, based on the White House Christmas card, President Obama is an Islamic Communist Christmas hater!

Courtesy of Mother Jones:

The 2011 White House Christmas card features a content looking First Pup Bo Obama sitting by a roaring fireplace, flanked by Christmas presents and festive Christmasy ribbons and pine wreaths and bulbs. If you listen hard, you can almost hear sleigh bells. 

It's all pretty non-controversial. Boring, even. Unless, of course, you're Fox News.

This is the coded hate that spewed from Sarah Palin on Fox News:

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin told Fox News & Commentary that she found the card to be a bit unusual. 

“It’s odd,” she said, wondering why the president’s Christmas card highlights his dog instead of traditions like “family, faith and freedom.” 

“Even stranger than that was his first year in office when the Christmas ornaments included Chairman Mao,” Palin said. “People had to ask that it be removed because it was offensive.” 

President Obama’s Christmas Cards have been the subject of controversy in the past. His 2009 greeting card made no reference to Christmas, drawing the ire of Republican Congressman Henry Brown. 

“I believe that sending a Christmas card without referencing a holiday and its purpose limits the Christmas celebration in favor of a more ‘politically correct’ holiday,” the South Carolina congressman told Fox News Radio in 2009. 

Former President Bush did not mention Merry Christmas in his cards, but had a history of including Bible passages on the White House Christmas Cards. 

For his final Christmas in office, the president sent a greeting card that included a verse from the Gospel of Matthew. 

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven,” the card read. 

Palin said the majority of Americans can appreciate the more traditional, “American foundational values illustrated and displayed on Christmas cards and on a Christmas tree.” 

As for the Obama card, she replied, “It’s just a different way of thinking coming out of the White House.”

"Different way of thinking" of course, as you all know, is code for an anti-Christian and anti-American "way of thinking."  Essentially a reminder that Obama is alien, and different, and not "one of us."

So much for that Christian love and acceptance that is supposed to be so prevalent during this time of the year.

So one has to wonder how Fox News and Sarah Palin would judge THIS card, from a former President?

No Christmas tree. No Bible verses. Not even any presents scattered around. Oh the humanity!

Clearly THIS President was a closeted anti-Christmas, Socialist, Communist, Fascist, America hater!

Damn you Ronald Reagan! Damn you straight to hell!

Wait, what?

Officials respond quickly as inflammatory rhetoric from Sarah Palin threatens to raise tensions between North and South Korea.

Courtesy of Korea Times:


Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin said she “looks forward to regime change” in North Korea while calling on South Korea to help the North when its regime is finally ousted. 

“Being under the thumb of a dictator, the first victims of his regime are his own people,” said Palin during a keynote address at the 12th World Knowledge Forum in Seoul, Tuesday. 

Palin, who was the vice presidential nominee of the Republican Party in 2008, made the comment in a Q&A session with Ritz Kahn of Al Jazeera English immediately after her speech. 

The theme of this year’s forum is “The New Economic Crisis: Reforming Global Leadership & Asia’s Challenge.” 

Regarding Palin’s remark, the Seoul government showed a cautious response. 

Jo Byoung-jae, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said flatly “regime change is not a policy goal or the objective of this government.” 

He said he is not criticizing Palin or her statement, but just stating as clearly as possible what the North Korea policy of Seoul is, adding, “I think it is safe to say that it is also not the policy goal of the U.S. government either.” 

Palin’s statement drew attention as it came at a particularly precarious time for South and North Korean relations amid lingering tension on the Korean Peninsula. 

I like how the Korean people are much too polite to just come out and say, "Bitch, shut the hell up!"

Leave it to Snowdrift Snooki to travel overseas and almost cause war to break out.

Why do people pay to hear her speak again?

I would instruct my Korean brothers and sisters to follow America's lead, and do what we are just now starting to do, ignore her wrinkled old ass!

Teabaggers upset that Rep. Maxine Waters told them to go to the same place that they are sendng the country to in a handbasket.

During a speech at Inglewood High School, Rep. Waters said the following:



Yeah I know, I loved it too. However the Teabaggers themselves seem to have gotten their panties in a twist over the statement and have responded by complaining to....wait for it.....President Obama!

Courtesy of, who else, Fox News:

Mark Meckler and Jenny Beth Martin, who lead the Tea Party Patriots, suggested President Obama should step in to put a check on the overheated rhetoric. 

"We've had Democrats calling American citizens 'terrorists' and 'hostage takers,' and now an elected Democratic representative says that we can 'go straight to hell.' The president and all leaders of the Democratic Party, who have called for civility in the past, are neglecting to censure their own. Is civility only required from their opponents?" they asked in a statement. "Perhaps it's time for a new-NEW era of civility. ... The president's silence on these latest violations of civility has been deafening, but not surprising." 

Really?

So let me see if I have this straight.

The Teabaggers have called this President every ugly name in the book, including a Socialist, a Muslim, a Communist, un-American, the Anti-Christ, and stated categorically that he hates this country, all while fanning the flames of racism, and he is supposed to just take it without complaint?

But when a politician who is angry at what she sees these treasonous bastards doing to her country expresses her first amendment rights, they go running to the very same President that they just spent the last three years vilifying to protect them?

Are you fucking kidding me?

Will the recent tornadoes damage the GOP's anti-government argument?

From the Kansas City Star:

A pernicious story line, recited on talk radio, in state legislatures and in some quarters of Washington, says that government can’t do anything right. Government is the problem, Ronald Reagan famously said. And a vast political and business alliance works furiously to make his declaration a self-fulfilling prophecy by underfunding vital programs and disparaging public employees.

But when disaster strikes, we expect government to work. We need it to work. Last week, it did.
Police, firefighters and medics made their way through the dark and the rain Sunday night to rescue the trapped and aid the wounded. Kansas City had 50 firefighters en route within hours. Its police department sent communications specialists, tactical teams, a search-and-rescue dog and a traffic enforcement squad.

Other cities sent first-responder teams. They worked in the rain that first day, searching the rubble for survivors and for bodies. In a cruel sign that nature hadn’t quite finished its mayhem, two police officers from Riverside were felled by a lightning strike. Officer Jeff Taylor was gravely injured.
Like the city he was helping, he will have a long road to recovery.

Throughout the week, personnel from the state of Missouri poured into Joplin. The National Guard and the Highway Patrol got there quickly. Officials with expertise in emergency management, insurance, mental health, care of senior citizens, land use and power grids followed.

The often-maligned Federal Emergency Management Agency got a team to Joplin within hours of the tornado to set up telecommunications and help with logistics and support.

This in no way diminishes the vital role of the Red Cross and other nonprofit agencies, and of businesses, in responding to the disaster. But public employees and government agencies make up the underpinning of the recovery effort.

The need for government help in Joplin will continue for years. Streets must be replaced. Schools and a hospital must be rebuilt. Families will need temporary housing.

It is easy to wax poetic about trimming government spending, and cutting costs to taxpayers, but when disaster strikes, or our elderly loved ones suffer a health crisis, aren't we ALL suddenly fans of government programs like FEMA, Medicare, and even the National Guard?

That is why the Republican rhetoric is simply blown away in the wind when  you look out the window and see this bearing down on you.



I don't know about the rest of you, but after seeing the images of the devastation left in the wake of these massive tornadoes, I am one hundred percent on support of having my taxes raised to pay for the programs that help my fellow Americans.

But hey if we are going to get serious about cutting government costs, I know a couple of wars I would gladly see come to an end.  Just a thought.

Sometimes I really miss Alan Grayson. Updated.

From Hotline on Call:

"Even before I heard earlier Palin's whining about 'misguided finger-pointing' and 'irresponsible statements from people who are apportioning blame,' I thought about this: Palin came to my district, and told her people to 'take me out.' Palin told people again and again, 'don't retreat, reload.'"

Running down threats to him, Grayson says one of his five-year old twins "received a telephone death threat intended for me" the day before last March's health care vote.

"A right-wing commentator offered anyone $100 to punch me in the nose. We received so many threats of violence from tea baggers that we started a file," Grayson writes. "And the day before Gabby was shot, I received a postcard saying 'you better get some personal protection. You could very well be getting your ass kicked soon.'"

In addition to Giffords, Grayson notes other Democrats who had threats made to them during the 2010 campaign, including Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), Russ Carnahan (D-Mo.), and losing Reps. Frank Kratovil (D-Md.), Ron Klein (D-Fla.), and Tom Perriello (D-Va.).

"As I observed on MSNBC last week, there has been a stream of violence and threats of violence by the right wing against Democrats. Gabby warned against it, and then became a terrible victim of it," says Grayson. "Palin has instigated it, and then tried to pretend that it doesn't exist. What do I think? I think that Gabby said it best: 'We can't stand for this.' We have to stand against it."

Update: Here is the entire Facebook post from Grayson.

Keith Olbermann's Special Comment for January 17th.

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

Keith does not hold back.

Teabaggers, radio shock jocks, that whiny lady from Alaska, they all get called on the carpet.

No One Listened to Gabrielle Giffords. Update!

From Frank Rich for the New York Times:

In her MSNBC interview that Wednesday, Giffords said that Palin had put the “crosshairs of a gun sight over our district,” adding that “when people do that, they’ve got to realize there’s consequences to that action.” Chuck Todd then asked Giffords if “in fairness, campaign rhetoric and war rhetoric have been interchangeable for years.” She responded that colleagues who had been in the House “20, 30 years” had never seen vitriol this bad. But Todd moved on, and so did the Beltway. What’s the big deal about a little broken glass? Few wanted to see what Giffords saw — that the vandalism and death threats were the latest consequences of a tide of ugly insurrectionism that had been rising since the final weeks of the 2008 campaign and that had threatened to turn violent from the start.

Giffords’s first brush with that reality had occurred some seven months before her office was vandalized — in the red-hot health care fever of August 2009. She had held another “Congress on Your Corner” meeting, at a Safeway in the town of Douglas. There the crowd’s rage and the dropping of a gun by one attendee prompted aides worried about her safety to summon the police. The Tucson Tea Party co-founder, Trent Humphries, told The Arizona Daily Star afterward that this was a lie, that “nobody was threatening Gabby.” After Loughner’s massacre, Humphries was still faulting her — this time for holding “an event in full view of the public with no security whatsoever.”

Others on the right spent last week loudly protesting the politicization of tragedy. What was most revealing was how often they tried to rewrite the history of previous incidents having nothing to do with Loughner. A Palin aide claimed that her target map was only invoking a “surveyor’s symbol,” not gun sights. A Tucson Tea Party leader announced that the attack on Giffords’s office (never solved by the police) was probably caused by skateboarding kids. Mike Pence, a potential G.O.P. “values” candidate for president, told the C-Span audience that those bearing firearms at Congressional town hall meetings and Obama events (including one in Arizona that August of 2009) were no different from anti-Bush demonstrators “waving placards.”

This article is well worth your time.  Frank Rich dismisses the idea that "both sides do it," and gets to the meat of the problem. Which is that the vitriol and viciousness of those on the far right has not only intimidated many on the left, it has also managed to frighten those more moderate voices on the right from challenging the hateful rhetoric and encouraging a more cordial dialogue between both sides.

This is the world that Sarah Palin has gone out of her way to help create, and that is why she deserves to have her words attached to ANY act of violence which might have taken its inspiration from the heated political environment that we find ourselves in today.

Update: Sarah Jones of Politicususa has written a very compelling piece on this subject as well.  In my opinion it is a must read.  Here is a sample to whet you appetite:

Imagine if it were Islamic anti-government radicals who had been spreading the sort of lies and propaganda the GOP has when this brutal massacre occurred. How would the nation react to their attempts to distance themselves from their own words and graphics? How would the media and the American people respond to the rage of the Right if they were dressed as fundamentalist Muslims?

Megyn Kelly of Fox News tries desperately to convince Sheriff Dupnik to walk back his criticism of the hate speech that has become synonymous with the cable news station that employs her.

Ms. Kelly does her damnedest to get the Sheriff to soften his criticisms, but he simply will not give her that satisfaction.  Nor, in my opinion, should he.

Picture of possible Jared Lee Laughner associate. Update! Now with video of Sheriff Dupnik's press conference.

Update: Picture removed becaause man has been cleared. This from Huffington Post:

Here is more on the person of interest, who according to NBC News has been ruled out: "Authorities tell NBC News they have interviewed the 'person of interest' in the Arizona shooting [and] are now satisfied he was merely at the Safeway store and not connected to the shooting or the suspect in any way."

The New York Times notes: "Investigators said that the second man was a taxi driver who drove the suspected gunman to the scene. Upon arriving there, the passenger said he did not have change and he and the taxi driver went into the supermarket for change and the two then walked out together and separated."

Update: In a news conference going on right now Sheriff Dupnik just stated that this second man may NOT have anything to do with the shooting. 

A woman apparently helped to disarm the shooter, and was wounded herself.  Gun misfired and two men tackled him. This woman is a hero, and may have saved multiple lives.

Right now the sheriff is very aggressively talking about the effects that vitriolic speech has on unbalanced people.

Called Arizona the "Tombstone of the United States of America" apparently referencing the famously lawless town of the old west.

I am REALLY starting to like this sheriff.

Update 2:  Here is a portion of today's press conference with Sheriff Dupnik, courtesy of Firedoglake.



I have no idea how this sheriff managed to be elected in a place that has Jan Brewer as it's governor and John McCain representing it in the Senate, but Arizona should be proud to have him.

Update 3: Laughner has been charged with one count for an assassination attempt of a member of Congress, two counts for killing a federal employee, and two for attempting to kill federal employees.

Sarah Palin what hast thou wrought?

As many of you undoubtedly remember, when Sarah Palin was first criticized for using the crosshair images on her "Take Back the 20" campaign, she responded by lamely attempting to compare it to the combat rhetoric used in athletic contests in her next Facebook post.

Warning: Subject to New Politically Correct Language Police Censorship
by Sarah Palin on Sunday, March 28, 2010 at 12:59pm

March Madness battles rage! My family and I join millions of Americans enjoying college basketball’s finest through March Madness. Underdogs always get my vote as we watch intense competition bring out the best in these accomplished teams.

The Final Four is an intense, contested series (kind of like a heated, competitive primary election), so best of luck to all teams, and watch for this principle lived out: the team that wins is the team that wants it more.

To the teams that desire making it this far next year: Gear up! In the battle, set your sights on next season’s targets! From the shot across the bow – the first second’s tip-off – your leaders will be in the enemy’s crosshairs, so you must execute strong defensive tactics. You won’t win only playing defense, so get on offense! The crossfire is intense, so penetrate through enemy territory by bombing through the press, and use your strong weapons – your Big Guns – to drive to the hole. Shoot with accuracy; aim high and remember it takes blood, sweat and tears to win.

Focus on the goal and fight for it. If the gate is closed, go over the fence. If the fence is too high, pole vault in. If that doesn’t work, parachute in. If the other side tries to push back, your attitude should be “go for it.” Get in their faces and argue with them. (Sound familiar?!) Every possession is a battle; you’ll only win the war if you’ve picked your battles wisely. No matter how tough it gets, never retreat, instead RELOAD!

- Sarah Palin

As you can plainly see, Palin's response to the call for her to end her violent and dangerous rhetoric was to, in her now famous words, "never retreat, instead RELOAD!"

Well yesterday Jared Lee Loughner did EXACTLY what Sarah Palin, and many other vitriolic commentators, have been suggesting for the last two years.  He did not retreat, he reloaded. Shooting eighteen innocent people, and killing six, including this beautiful little girl, Christina Taylor Green.

THE Tucson shooting's youngest victim, nine-year-old Christina Taylor Green, had just been elected to her school student council and was just getting interested in politics.

When a neighbour asked her if she wanted to tag along to a local political event outside a Safeway supermarket, she jumped at the chance.

Christina was one of six people killed when Jared Loughner opened fire at US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords's ''Congress on Your Corner'' meeting.

Christina, who was born on September 11, 2001, had featured in a book Faces of Hope: Babies born on 9/11.

I have been pretty upset since I first read about this shooting yesterday morning, but I have managed to deal with it by putting up posts, focusing on the political fallout, and identifying links to Palin and other hatemongers.

But today I watched an interview with this little girl's mother on MSNBC, and I am not handling it anymore.

It is one thing to hear about the deaths of six people and to think that is a horrible tragedy. It is quite another to see this child's face and to suddenly feel the loss of her young life as if she were my own.

I am literally typing this with tears running down my cheeks.  All I want to do is take that picture and slam it down in front of Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and yes, Sarah Palin, and say "Do you understand now, why it is wrong to continue agitating people who may take your violent rhetoric literally? Do you fucking get it NOW?"

I know that today is Sunday, and that Sarah Palin's stupid show is on, but I am not sure I can watch it.

I am so heart sick over this incident that I just don't know that I can deal with watching Palin cavort with her still living daughters as this child's mother prepares to say her final good-byes to her precious baby.

Right now I just want Sarah Palin to go away forever.

After all, hasn't she done enough?