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Featured News Water

Brain Eating Bug Found in Louisiana Water Supply

NBC News is reporting that a rare and deadly brain-destroying amoeba was found in a parish water supply in Louisiana, officials said early Thursday, although there were no reported illnesses. The Naegleria fowleri bug was found in the water system serving 12,577 people in the towns of Reserve, Garyville and Mt. Airy, St. John the Baptist Parish representative Paige Falgoust said in a statement.

The water, which is now being treated with chlorine, is safe to drink but the infection can pose a risk if it enters the nasal passage. “Families can take simple steps to protect themselves from exposure to this amoeba, the most important being to avoid allowing water to go up your nose while bathing or swimming in a pool,” said Louisiana State Health Officer Jimmy Guidry.

The bug thrives in warm, untreated fresh water as well as hot springs and hot water heaters, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It has also been found in untreated swimming pools. Infections with Naegleria fowleri are rare, but they are almost always deadly. Some 132 people are known to have been infected in the more than 50 years from 1962 to 2014, but only three survived, the CDC reports.

Categories
Politics Republican war on women

A Republican Poll Found Republicans are “Intolerant” To Women

They really needed a poll to figure this out? Anyone following the news lately can see all the special accommodations Republicans are making to ensure that women be subjected to men, in the kitchen, barefoot and unrelentingly pregnant… all the time.

But, a Republican poll was conducted and this is what it found.

A detailed report commissioned by two major Republican groups — including one backed by Karl Rove — paints a dismal picture for Republicans, concluding female voters view the party as “intolerant,” “lacking in compassion” and “stuck in the past.”

Women are “barely receptive” to Republicans’ policies, and the party does “especially poorly” with women in the Northeast and Midwest, according to an internal Crossroads GPS and American Action Network report obtained by POLITICO. It was presented to a small number of senior aides this month on Capitol Hill, according to multiple sources involved.

The report — “Republicans and Women Voters: Huge Challenges, Real Opportunities” — was the product of eight focus groups across the country and a poll of 800 registered female voters this summer. The large-scale project was a major undertaking for the GOP groups.

“The gender gap is hardly a new phenomenon, but nevertheless it’s important for conservatives to identify what policies best engage women, and our project found multiple opportunities,” said Dan Conston, a spokesman for the American Action Network. “It’s no surprise that conservatives have more work to do with women.”

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Politics

BULLETS AND BURGERS: WELCOME TO THE USA

Photo: Mamma Candy

As seen on America The Not So Beautiful

August 28, 2014

By Mike Caccioppoli

What kind of country are we living in? No, seriously, I want to know. A nine year old girl just accidentally killed her shooting range instructor! I remember when kids had piano teachers instead of Uzi teachers. I think I’m going to start my own GoFundMe page where I ask for donations so I can move to Canada. I’m tired of living in a country where too many people love guns more than children. I’m living in a country where twenty little kids can be blown to bits and nothing, I mean nothing is done about it. Nothing to destroy the organization that time and time again allows this shit to happen. So we have shooting after shooting (mass and just ‘minor’) and for a week or two we talk about it and then we move on to the next story. Which of course this being the USA no doubt has something to do with guns, police brutality, or a place we want to bomb. I’m fucking tired of it.

I’m tired of hearing stories about nine year old girls at shooting ranges putting a bullet in their instructors head. It happened at a place in Arizona named Bullets and Burgers. I shit you not. I have to say that even a true cynic like myself who hates most American tradition and culture, was still shocked by that name. I wasn’t shocked that it happened in Arizona, no that did not shock me. I can only imagine what those in civilized nations think about that kind of name or concept. Hey, bring your kiddies to Bullets and Burgers where they can grab a cheeseburger, fries with your choice of sides…a pistol, a rifle, or an Uzi. This is real folks, not satire. I’m sure the founding fathers were imagining a place called Bullets and Burgers when they wrote the Second Amendment.

It’s real American life. ‘Murica baby! In places where gun violence is rare (ie every other civilized nation) when something like this happens (even though something like THIS never does) the entire country is paralyzed from it. Here in the USA we just shrug and go back to texting about our latest meal or blow job.  I’m tired of it. I’m tired of seeing young lives taken or in the case of the girl, traumatized for life. This little girl killed someone. She will have to live with that forever. Her innocence is gone and who is to blame? So many people.

The NRA is to blame. They tweeted right after the incident about “7 ways children can have fun at the shooting range.” Actually it was “NRA Women” that tweeted it. Now I understand the reason so many men love big guns. It makes up for what they are lacking in the manhood department. Why women? Someone needs to explain this to me. Please. Yes this was an actual tweet right after this girl killed her instructor. The guy who runs the range is also to blame. He was on “All in with Chris Hayes” on MSNBC and as I was watching I was looking for a hint of humanity in this man, trying my hardest to understand why he allows kids to shoot guns at his range.

The humanity wasn’t there. Sure he said something about the guy that was killed being a close friend or like a brother or something but that was about it. The rest of the interview was about how much money he makes from letting kids eat burgers and shoot Uzi’s. It a big business in Nevada and Arizona, part of the gaming industry. As always it’s about money. Money and guns going together like a bullet in the brain. It just seems to fit together well in the USA.

When Hayes, who looked totally shocked and almost paralyzed by what this man was saying, asked him what changes might be made, the guy actually said this, “maybe we will have to do what they do at Disney Land, you know, when you can’t go on a ride if you aren’t ‘this tall’ (he used his hand to show height). Yeah that’s it! That’s the change that might be made. I mean shooting a high powered weapon is just like going on the “gravitron”. Ain’t this America for you and me baby!

Hayes had the look on his face that you have right now as you read this. If you hadn’t seen the interview. If an 18 year old has sex with a 16 year old we go ape shit in the country, we want the 18 year old to do life in prison. But it’s OK for a nine year old to shoot a gun. It’s not OK for a 17 year old to vote but it’s OK for a nine year old to shoot a gun. It’s not OK for a 20 year old to have a beer but it’s OK for a nine year old to shoot a fucking gun!!

This is the story in the news now, but I bet most of you don’t remember or probably haven’t heard of this one from 2011. I mean that was 457 news cycles ago. An eight year old boy killed himself when almost the exact same thing happened as his father was showing him how to shoot. A bullet in his own brain. But we didn’t talk about that story, or we did and just moved on as usual.

Which brings up the people who are the most responsible. The parents. This is child abuse or at least it would be in most other countries. You see, these people (mostly men but not always) want their kids to ‘grow up tough’ and be able to ‘defend themselves’. The father doesn’t want his son to be a ‘pussy.’ The ones with girls always wanted a boy so they have to transfer their psychological bullshit over to their poor kids. This is what it means to grow up in America these days. Some of these same people will deride their kids if they want those piano lessons or voice lessons or ballet lessons.

We have become a sick nation. Cancer ridden. We are obsessed with guns and money and violence and killing. It stinks from the head down. From a government that creates (literally and figuratively) boogeymen that need to be bombed to the cops who see an immediate threat when a black kid is walking down the street to the parents who instill this sick idea into their kids heads that if you don’t shoot a gun you aren’t ‘tough’ or a ‘real American’. The range owner that Hayes’ interviewed said “some of these nine year olds are pretty big.” It sounded as disgusting as those guys who say “Hey, she might have been 12 but she looked 18 buddy!” We detest the latter but we excuse the former.  He also said the little girl “wanted to shoot a gun.” Nah, we know the truth. Her parents made her want to shoot the gun, it wastheir idea. No nine year old girl wakes up one day and says ‘I’d really love to shoot an Uzi today daddy!’ They caused the death of that instructor and the grief and guilt this little girl will feel for the rest of her life.

The NRA loves this shit. They eat it up. More kids growing up to love guns, to buy guns, to pass that along to their kids and so on and so forth. The politicians do nothing because the gun lobby contributes big money to their campaigns. The few who might want to stand up to Wayne LaPierre, know they will probably lose the next election when the NRA and supporters give millions to a pro gun challenger.

Yes this is the USA.

Bullets and burgers and guns and money and power and deaths.

Who wants to help me with that GoFundMe campaign?

Mike.Caccioppoli@yahoo.com

@CaccioppoliMike

Visit America The Not So Beautiful

Categories
Iraq isil ISIS Syria Syria

Mother’s Emotional Plea to ISIS for Her Son’s Release – Video

After seeing the brutal killing of American journalist James Foley last week, Shirley Sotloff, mother of another captured American journalist Steven Sotloff, issued a video plea to the leader of the terrorist group asking for her son’s release.

“”Steven is a journalist who traveled to the Middle East to cover the suffering of Muslims at the hands of tyrants. Steven is a loyal and generous son, brother and grandson,” Shirley Sotloff says, adding that her son “is an honorable man and has always tried to help the weak.”

“I ask you to please release my child,” she says, “I plead with you to grant me this.”

Video

Categories
Featured

Video Shows 9-Year-Old Girl Shooting Uzi That Accidentally Kills Her Instructor

The video below was released by the Mohave County Sheriff department, and it shows the little girl and her instructor, Charles Vacca, seconds before he was accidentally shot in the head and killed.

In the video, which does not show the instructor being shot, Vacca shows the young girl how to properly stand while shooting. He steadies her arms while she fires successfully in single-shot mode and congratulates her.

Vacca then adjusts the gun and says “Alright, full auto.” The gun recoils and drifts to the left towards the instructor as a spray of bullets is released. The video then cuts off.

Video

Categories
Politics

Joe Scarborough Criticizes Decision to Put an Uzi In The Hands of a Nine Year Old

“A man is dead and a little girl’s life is ruined. I say this as a father of an eleven year old girl. Who would put an uzi in the hands of a nine-year-old girl? What is wrong with these people? What is wrong with this culture? What right is advanced by doing that?”

That was Joe Scarborough of MSNBC, lamenting the recent news from a shooting range in Arizona,  where a shooting instructor was shot in the head and killed while trying to teach a nine year old to fire an Uzi.

“I find it hard to believe that our Founding Fathers put together a Second Amendment to give eight-year-old children the right to fire semi-automatic weapons,” Scarborough continued. “And if you think that’s what the Constitution of the United States says, you should really go back and read the Second Amendment, and then read cases, and then read what Scalia wrote in 2008 about what the Second Amendment is and what the Second Amendment is not and what the Second Amendment protects and what the Second Amendment does not protect. There is no reading of what Scalia said in 2008, 2009 that would suggest this has anything to do with the Constitution.”

Video

Categories
Technology

If You Cannot See My Posts, You’re Probably A Time Warner Customer

Or you are probably a right-winger who closes your eyes in disgust, cussing me out every time a new post is published. That said, over 11 million Time Warner customers had issues connecting to the internet today.

The firm said the problem affected customers in all 29 of the states in which it offered broadband connections.

The problem started in the early hours of Wednesday morning, which will have limited its effect.

Many of the company’s 11.4 million internet subscribers are now back online but others are continuing to report issues.

“Unfortunately, I do not have an estimate time of repair,” the service’s Twitter account responded to one user who asked when his home connection would be restored.

A spokesman for the company told the BBC: “At 4.30 ET this morning during our routine network maintenance, an issue with our internet backbone created disruption with our internet and on demand services. As of 0600 ET services were largely restored as updates continue to bring all customers back online.”

He added that the exact cause was still under investigation.

Categories
Mike Brown Shooting

Jon Stewart Slams Fox News for Their Dumb “Reporting” on Mike Brown Shooting

The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart was back to form last night when he took on the crazies at Fox News for their stupidity and their comical reporting on the tragic events in Ferguson MO over the last few weeks, when an unarmed teenager was massacred by police.

Now there were many areas where Fox’s stupidity prevailed, but Stewart zeroed in on Bill O’Reilly’s decision to break his vacation to comment on Mike Brown’s shooting, and Stewart also focused on Sean Hannity – the stupidity is abundant with this guy folks – and Hannity’s idiotic statement saying, that if he found himself in the same situation as Mike Brown, he would just raised his shirt to show the cop that he didn’t have a gun.

“You really do have no f*cking idea, do you?” Jon said. “If only Michael Brown, instead of holding his hands over his head, had reached down to his waist and lifted up his shirt to show the gun he did not actually have, well, this whole tragedy could have been avoided.”

Stewart then went on to explain the difference between Blacks and Whites in this country, and how they are treated. To illustrate, he shared that a white “The Daily Show” producer clad in “homeless elf attire” once went out in New York City to tape an interview, accompanied by a black correspondent for the show dressed in a well-tailored suit. The black correspondent was the one stopped when entering the building.

“Race is there, and it is a constant,” Stewart said. “You’re tired of hearing about it? Imagine how f*cking exhausting it is living it.”

Video

Video

Categories
Mike Brown Mike Brown Shooting

Why It’s Extremely Hard to Convict a Killer Cop?

In the wake of all the police brutality activities finally coming to light, Dean Obeidallah of the Daily Beast tried to answer this question and did a little research in his quest to answer – why do killer cops walk free?

Seems a Supreme Court decision has something to do with it.

I would predict that few have issues with the police shooting dangerous criminals who are truly threatening them or the public at large.  Regardless if we are white or a minority, we want the police to protect us. In fact, we pay them to do just that.

But the problem arises when we see the police kill a person in circumstances that shock our conscience. In these instances, our sense of right and wrong demands that the police officer be held criminally responsible for his actions.

However, this happens very infrequently. Why? In large part, this is due to a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court decision that held a police officer can legally use deadly force if the officer has an “objectively reasonable fear” that someone will be killed or suffer serious bodily injury. This ruling, by design, insulates police officers from criminal liability because of the unique, life-threatening challenges of being in law enforcement.

Categories
Politics shooting

Shooting Instructor Shot Dead While Giving Class on How to Shoot

We hear it all the time, “guns don’t kill people!” And you will certainly hear it again. It is the common excuse you hear when stuff like this happens. These gun lovers would defend the gun, no matter what the circumstances are.

With that said, here we go again. Another unfortunate story about an instructor at a gun range who, while demonstrating how to shoot a Uzi, got shot in the head by said Uzi and died.

Apparently, according to their claim that “guns don’t kill people,” the Uzi was not involved. SMH!

An Arizona gun range instructor was accidentally shot dead by a 9-year-old girl he was showing how to fire an automatic Uzi, police said.

The little girl’s parents were using cell phones to film the tutorial when tragedy struck around 10 a.m. Monday, Sam Scarmardo, the manager at the Arizona Last Stop gun range, told the Daily News.

Charles Vacca, 39, was shot in the head when the Uzi recoiled in the girl’s hands, sending “the weapon over her head,” the Mohave County Sheriff’s Officer said. The Lake Havasu City resident died at a Las Vegas hospital around 9 p.m. Monday.

Categories
Politics

Bernie Sanders on Burger King – Their Move Would be “Completely Unpatriotic”

Bernie Sanders is calling it like it is, pointing out that any move by Burger King to Canada to avoid taxes, would be completely unpatriotic.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, has been an outspoken critic on tax loopholes, like tax inversion, a loophole that Burger King may benefit from if it merges with Canadian doughnut chain Tim Hortons and moves its base to Canada.

The deal would mean a lower rate for the American fast food chain.

“Not only is this tax inversion an outrage, we are losing now about $100 billion in federal revenue every year,” Sanders said in an interview with CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper.”

If Burger King moves north, it would be a completely unpatriotic move, says the Vermont senator.

“Many of these corporations have absolutely no loyalty to the people of the United States or to our government. If they can make an extra buck by moving to the United Kingdom, their headquarters for the United Kingdom paying less in taxes that is what they will do,” said Sanders.

Categories
Mike Brown Shooting Racism

New Mike Brown Audio – At Least 10 to 11 Shots Fired at The Teenager – Audio

CNN has released a new audio recording done by a man in Ferguson depicting the moment Mike Brown was gunned down on August 9th.

On the recording, the man – who requested anonymity – is heard on a video chat telling someone “you are pretty…” as the gunshots rang out in the background. In the video, there were at least 10 to 11 shots fired. The man’s lawyer later said that he had no idea what was happening right outside his home as he chat on the video.

The FBI has questioned a man who says he recorded audio of gunfire at the time Brown was shot by Ferguson police on August 9, the man’s attorney told CNN.

In the recording, a quick series of shots can be heard, followed by a pause and then another quick succession of shots.

Forensic audio expert Paul Ginsberg analyzed the recording and said he detected at least 10 gunshots — a cluster of six, followed by four.

“I was very concerned about that pause … because it’s not just the number of gunshots, it’s how they’re fired,” the man’s attorney, Lopa Blumenthal, told CNN’s Don Lemon. “And that has a huge relevance on how this case might finally end up.”

The man, who asked that his identity not be revealed, lives near the site of the shooting and was close enough to have heard the gunshots, his attorney said.

He was speaking to a friend on a video chat service and happened to be recording the conversation at the same time Brown was shot, Blumenthal said.

Audio

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