Year: 2014

Categories
Politics

More #GunSense – While Showing Off His Gun, Man Shoots Himself, Then his Friend

A New York man accidentally shot himself and a friend Saturday when he showed off his gun inside a busy restaurant, Rochester TV station WHAM reported.

The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said John Cassata, 70, accidentally fired the handgun when he took it out to show friends.

Ellen Smith, who said she was sitting a few tables away from Cassata when the gun went off, told WHAM she ran over to help him. Cassata went into shock after the bullet went through his hand and leg, Smith said, ultimately hitting his friend’s foot.

“I don’t know what people are thinking when they carry a pistol into a family restaurant,” Smith told WHAM. “There was a family right next to him with a small baby, maybe two months old and a toddler.”

No charges have been filed, according to the sheriff’s office.

Categories
democrats Politics

Democrats to Bring Unemployment Bill to Senate – Republicans Still Oposing Benefits

Back in session after holiday break, the Senate will hold a procedural vote Monday evening on whether to reinstate unemployment benefits to more than 1 million Americans, as a compromise deal struggles for the votes it needs for passage.

The extension to unemployment benefits was a casualty of December budget negotiations, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., vowed to resume debate in the New Year, and President Barack Obama has since called on lawmakers to greenlight the “vital economic lifeline.”

Along with calls for raising the minimum wage — which polls show most Americans support — extending unemployment benefits could become a key part of Democratic talking points in advance of the midterm elections set for November.

The payments stopped on Dec. 28 and Democrats, led by Obama, are pushing hard to revive them. The issue is perceived to be vital to many of the party’s core voters, who could be crucial in low-turnout, midterm elections.

And Democrats have left little doubt that they will use any Republican opposition to unemployment benefits as a political cudgel.

As pressure mounts, some are seeking a bipartisan compromise.

According to the Washington Post, Sen. Dean Heller R-Nev., and Sen. Jack Reed D-R.I., are behind the bill senators will consider Monday evening, which provides $6.5 billion to extend unemployment insurance to 1.3 million Americans for another 3 months.

Categories
Politics

Man Who Slapped Baby on Plane Will Be Sentenced on Monday

Remember the dude who slapped a baby on a plane, telling the mother of the child to “shut that nigger baby up?” He is scheduled to receive his sentence on Monday.

Joe Rickey Hundley pleaded guilty in October after reaching a plea agreement with federal prosecutors. His sentencing is set for Monday morning. Prosecutors say Hundley used a racial slur to refer to the 19-month-old boy and then hit him under the right eye as the flight from Minneapolis began its descent to the Atlanta airport last February.

The misdemeanor simple assault charge carries a possible prison sentence of up to a year and a fine of up to $100,000. Prosecutors have recommended six months in prison, but Hundley reserved his right to argue for a lower sentence.

Categories
Politics

O.J Simpson Has Brain Cancer – Requesting Clemency from President Obama

The disgraced and  former  football hero who’s serving a 33-year sentence for assault, robbery and kidnapping in a Nevada prison has reportedly asked President Obama to set him free so he can treat his life-threatening brain cancer outside prison.

Yep, you read that correctly. According to a number of news outlets including the Huffington Post, the Telegraph and the National Enquirer, Simpson is taking desperate measures to secure clemency after undergoing tests on a brain tumor.

The Enquirer quotes “a source close to” Simpson who said, “He put off the doctors for weeks after he first started experiencing the symptoms because he was afraid of what they would find.”

According to the Washington Times, Simpson’s health has been deteriorating for years.

“He’s gained weight since his imprisonment, and also suffers from blurred vision, stuttering and failing hearing,” the paper reported.

Of course everyone knows that back in the 90s – Simpson, now 66 – was found not guilty of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.

Categories
Politics

Liz Cheney To Drop Out of Wyoming Senate Race

WASHINGTON — Liz Cheney intends to withdraw from the Wyoming Republican Senate primary, according to two sources familiar with her plans, bringing an abrupt end to her unsteady challenge to the incumbent, Michael B. Enzi.

Ms. Cheney, 47, the former vice president’s elder daughter, is expected to drop out of the race this week, citing family reasons. She did not respond to emails and phone calls late Sunday.

Since declaring her candidacy in July against Mr. Enzi, a well-liked, three-term Senate veteran, Ms. Cheney not only never found traction but also wound up causing deep rifts among longtime friends and even within her own family.

Her task was always going to be difficult. Unlike some of the other sitting Republican senators who have been challenged in primaries in recent years, Mr. Enzi has a solidly conservative voting record and did not present the sort of vulnerabilities Ms. Cheney could exploit. But Ms. Cheney never was able to focus much on her opponent, spending much of her five-month candidacy fending off distractions to her campaign.

Categories
Mike Huckabee Politics

Huckabee Links Nazi Death Camps and Chinese Abortions to “Brain Dead” Girl in California

Fox News host Mike Huckabee on Saturday warned that a California girl who was declared brain dead after tonsil surgery last month could lead to situations like Nazi death camps and forced abortions in China if the hospital took her off life support.

The former Arkansas governor and ordained pastor began his Fox News show by admitting that he did not have the medical experience necessary to understand 13-year-old Jahi McMath’s condition but he encouraged her family to fight against any attempts to remove her from life support even though doctors said she technically “died several weeks ago.”

“Every life has value and worth,” Huckabee told his viewers on Saturday. “There is no such person who is disposable, one whose life has been deemed by others to be less than others and therefore expendable, I can’t share that.”

He continued: “The road that starts that way in deciding that some lives have less value and are unworthy of protection, that leads to a culture that tolerates the undeserved killing of over 55 million unborn children in this country. It leads to China’s birth policy that limits the number of children for a family and enforces forced abortion if they deviate from the state-determined ideal.”

“It’s also that culture that allowed the Nazis to to hideously justify the savage slaughter of millions of Jews, disabled people, old people and those with mental illness,” Huckabee said. “Let’s hope and pray that the courts continue to do what every court should do, respect parents over government, family over hospitals and, above all, protect Jahi from them all.”

Categories
News

Man reunited with family after AP photo published

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nicholas Simmons disappeared from his parents’ house in a small upstate New York town on New Year’s Day, leaving behind his wallet, cellphone and everything else.

Four days later, an Associated Press photographer, looking for a way to illustrate unusually cold weather, snapped his picture as he warmed himself on a steam grate a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol.

Paul and Michelle Simmons saw the AP photograph in USA Today Sunday morning after it was brought to their attention through a Facebook page set up to help find their 20-year-old son, according to police and family friends.

While questions remain unanswered about why the young man left and how he ended up in Washington, his mother expressed her relief on Facebook that her son had been located.

“It could have been months before we had a lead on his whereabouts. My baby looks so lost and I will be spending the rest of my life making him well,” she wrote.

The photo, taken Saturday by AP photographer Jacquelyn Martin, showed Simmons with his unshaven face pressed against a grate outside the Federal Trade Commission. He wore a ski jacket and a hood over his head. A thick gray blanket covered his lower body.

Martin was assigned to the White House that weekend, but with President Barack Obama still on vacation in Hawaii, she spent the day looking for shots that would illustrate the cold weather. That is how she found Nick Simmons, in an area where homeless people often gather when it is frigid outside. She found a cluster of men huddled around the grate, introduced herself and started taking pictures.

Then she noticed one person in particular, huddled under a blanket.

“It struck me how young he was,” Martin said. “I again introduced myself and shook his hand. He said his name was Nick.”

Martin finished shooting, sent the pictures to the wire and called it a day. The next day, she received a message via Twitter from USA Today.

The newspaper had run the photo of Nick and was contacting Martin to tell her that Nick’s family had recognized him and was trying to locate him. Michelle Simmons was certain that the young man in the photograph was her son, missing for four days.

Police picked Simmons up Sunday afternoon and took him to a hospital, said police Capt. Patrick Phelan. Simmons’ father, Paul, and older brother Paul Jr. arrived in Washington Sunday night and were reunited with Simmons at the hospital, said longtime family friends Peter and Cindy Gugino.

Martin, the AP photographer, said the episode serves as a reminder to journalists that every person they encounter has a story to tell.

“It’s really gratifying to see that a photograph can make a tangible difference in someone’s life. That’s a really amazing thing to have happened,” she said. “I’m happy and touched that the photograph could help reunite this family.”

Police said authorities notified local media and tried to investigate the case, but there were no leads until the publication of the photo.

“It was pure dumb luck how all this happened,” said Sgt. David Mancuso, the lead investigator. “It’s truly a miracle.”

 

h/t – wtop

 

Categories
exercise Health workout

The Gladiator Workout Manuscript

Categories
ObamaCare Politics

Report: 27,000 Will Die This Year Because Republican States are Blocking Obamacare

The 25 GOP-led states that are refusing to expand Medicaid as part of the Affordable Care Act are not just turning down an estimated $42.6 billion in 2014 alone, they’re also missing a chance to save 27,000 lives — according to a new study from the pro-expansion group Health Care for America Now (HCAN).

HCAN’s projection is based on a Harvard School of Public Health study published in 2012 in the New England Journal of Medicine that compared states that had expanded Medicaid to childless adults to those who hadn’t:

The mortality rate in expansion states was 6.1 percent lower than in the neighboring expansion states. For every 500,000 adults gaining Medicaid benefits, 2,840 deaths would be prevented each year, the researchers found. Put another way, for every 176 people added to the Medicaid rolls, one life would be saved.

An estimated five million residents of states that haven’t expanded the program will find themselves in a “coverage gap,” where they will neither qualify for Medicaid nor be able to afford a policy in the insurance exchanges. Applying that 1-in-176 formula to five million uninsured, HCAN comes up with the 27,000 lives that may be lost.

The report also estimates how many jobs would be created by the expansion, which is entirely funded by the federal government for three years, tapering down to 90 percent by the end of the decade. In Texas, where 1 in 4 residents are uninsured, not only could nearly 6,000 lives be saved by expansion, but 300,000 jobs could be created by adding $67.9 billion a year in economic activity.

Instead of accepting new economic growth, states are putting their most vulnerable hospitals at risk of closing.

Categories
Domestic Policies Healthcare Immigration Immigration Reform News Politics Teaparty

The Final Push

Far be it from me to argue with one of the greatest historical minds of the 20th century, but we essentially have an executive that serves a six year term, even if we get two extra bonus lame duck years for our efforts. So it has been with most other presidents, and so it probably shall be with Barack Obama. This is his sixth year; if it doesn’t happen this year, chances are that none of his high priority agenda items will become law in 2015 or 2016.

That’s why 2014 represents the final push for immigration, tax reform, a higher minimum wage, climate policy and every other item on the left-wing wish list. But this is not necessarily a bad thing. History has taught us that the first push rarely results in success when it comes to big change. Look how long it took to get healthcare reform. Sometimes the push is necessary if for no other reason than to get an idea in the public’s mind and to prepare them, or to follow their lead, when it comes to legislation.

Like marriage equality, which coalesced into a major civil rights issue in a short amount of time, the push for rights for all people goes as far back as Stonewall in 1969 and the Supreme Court’s ruling for and then reversal on, anti-sodomy laws in 1986 and 2003. Progressives have been highlighting income inequality and the rising gap between wealthy and not for decades. Now that cry is becoming a major force in calling for a higher, livable minimum wage that just could pass this year. After all, most people, even Republicans, support it.

The same will most likely be true of climate legislation, immigration, privacy and energy. More and more younger people realize that their world is changing and that the United States either has to catch up to other countries who are already addressing the problems or fall behind to our economic and social detriment. The far right is beginning to lose its grip on the Republican Party, and while I don’t see a more moderate wing surging anytime soon, I do see a less strident GOP in our future. That’s good news.

This year will see one or two major pieces of legislation, with the rest of Obama’s agenda left to the next Democratic president and a more willing population. I think we are moving in the right direction, but like anything done well, this will take time.

For more please go to:
www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and Twitter @rigrundfest  

Categories
Politics Texas Wendy Davis

Wendy Davis to GOP: “Get Out of the Vagina Business…” – PIC

If I lived in Texas, that statement alone would be all I need to vote for Davis in the upcoming elections.

Presently in the Texas Senate, Davis gained national recognition when on June 25, 2013, she began an 11 hour filibuster to block Senate Bill 5, a bill written by Republicans to create new abortion regulations in Texas.

Davis is now running for Governor of Texas.

Categories
Politics

McCain and Lindsay Blame Obama for Shiite-Sunni Fighting in Iraq

John McCain and Lindsay Graham need to get a room already. They’re once again criticizing the Obama administration for violence erupting in Iraq between the Iraqi government and its opposition.

In a joint statement denouncing the violence that erupted last week, when Iraq’s Shiite-led government sent military forces into Sunni-dominated Anbar province to end anti-government protests, McCain and Lindsay cast blame squarely on the back of the Obama administration.

The ensuing violence that sparked continued the long fighting tradition of Shiite against Sunni, but these Republican congressmen say it’s Obama’s fault.

“While many Iraqis are responsible for this strategic disaster, the administration cannot escape its share of the blame. When President Obama withdrew all U.S. forces from Iraq in 2011, over the objections of our military leaders and commanders on the ground, many of us predicted that the vacuum would be filled by America’s enemies and would emerge as a threat to U.S. national security interests. Sadly, that reality is now clearer than ever.

“The Administration must recognize the failure of its policies in the Middle East and change course. America has lost time, options, influence, and credibility over the past five years, and we cannot afford to remain disengaged any longer.”

In a briefing on Friday,  the State Department addressed the Iraqi violence and denounced any suggestion that the administration was at fsult.

“Let’s be clear who’s responsible for the violence. It’s the terrorists who were behind it,” said State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf. “That’s why we are partnering with the Iraqi government very closely to fight this shared threat. At the end of the day, we can certainly help them fight it, but we also want to help them build their own capability to do so themselves.”

Besides a private room, what do McCain and Lindsay want?

They of course voted for the Bush led invasion of Iraq in the first place, an invasion based on a lie. And they were both against Obama’s effort to end the conflict a decade later.

But what would make these two happy, would be a continued American military presence in Iraq indefinitely, irregardless of the financial costs or the American lives that would be lost.

Well guys, that’s not going to happen. The decade long war is over. American troops are home with their families and we are not spending another trillion dollars to continue the unnecessary war you both approved.

Go get a room and work out your issues in private. Leave the administration, the American military and the American tax payers out of your fantasies.

Exit mobile version