Author: Ezra Grant

I'm just tired of the lies and nonsense coming from the GOP, so this is my little contribution to combat the nonsense!

Categories
Politics

ACORN – Why Republicans Still Voting to Defund Nonexistent Organization

ACORN doesn’t exist,  but House Republicans are consumed with the idea of defending it to the point where they have held numerous, pointless votes (12 and counting) to do just that.

For a party that claims to be all about fiscal responsibility and reducing the debt, why are we paying them to be seat warmers, for holding meaningless votes  to defund nonexistent organizations or repealing laws that will not pass the Senate or see the president’s desk?

The Huffingtonpost asked this very question.

ACORN, or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, does not exist. And it did not exist at any time when the House GOP has held a vote on ACORN’s access to government monies — the group disbanded in the spring of 2010.

Just why, exactly, the House GOP keeps voting to ban funding for an organization that was extinguished more than three years ago remains something of a mystery, and the subject of Democratic ridicule.

“Word is the majority will also prohibit foreign aid to the Ottoman Empire this year,” a Democratic congressional aide snarked to HuffPost. (Like ACORN, the Ottoman Empire does not exist.) “Thirteen votes to defund a program that no longer exists. Forty votes to repeal a health care law that is transforming millions of lives,” said Drew Hammill, a spokesman for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), comparing the anti-ACORN legislation to the House GOP’s routine votes to repeal Obamacare. “If their agenda is to do nothing on a timeline of never, they’re setting record pace.”

A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) declined to comment on the ACORN legislation and directed questions to Jennifer Hing, spokeswoman for the GOP majority on the House Appropriations Committee. Hing has repeatedly told HuffPost that the defunding of ACORN is a “standard provision” that goes into most appropriations bills.

Unlike most anti-poverty groups, ACORN was actually staffed by low-income people. The organization was never popular among conservative political groups. Republican politicians and right-wing activists had targeted the organization for decades, accusing ACORN of broad voter fraud conspiracies without ever turning up anything other than a few isolated, usually accidental, violations.

All of that changed in the fall of 2009, when conservative provocateur James O’Keefe released selectively edited videos that appeared to show ACORN employees offering advice on tax avoidance related to prostitution and child smuggling. Independent investigations by the California attorney general, the Massachusetts attorney general and the Brooklyn, N.Y., district attorney would later clear ACORN of criminal wrongdoing, and an investigation by the Government Accountability Office would clear the group of charges that it mishandled federal funds.

Before these investigations were completed, however, Congress cut off federal funding for ACORN using broad language that applied to any organization that had been charged with breaking federal or state election laws, lobbying disclosure laws or campaign finance laws or with filing fraudulent paperwork with any federal or state agency. The funding ban also extended to any employees, contractors or others affiliated with any group so charged.

The funding ban passed in the fall of 2009, and in early 2010, an empty-coffered ACORN disbanded. The House GOP has continued to bar the group from receiving federal cash ever since

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Featured

Hamburgers Grown in a Laboratory

Are you ready for this new “meat?”

A hamburger that looks like one you’d get at any fast-food restaurant comes with a price tag of $330,000 — and it isn’t even made out of natural meat. When volunteers taste it on Monday, in front of rows of VIPs and TV cameras, they’ll be eating the first publicly available burger that comes from a laboratory instead of a dead animal.

To produce the patty, researchers will mix lab-grown beef muscle cells with salt, egg powder and bread crumbs. Beet juice and saffron will be added to give a more natural color to the bloodless burger. It’ll be fried up in a pan, and seasoned with a dash of salt and pepper. With any luck, the burger should taste pretty much like your typical ground beef.

So why bother, when you can buy a burger made with real meat for no more than a couple of bucks?

The high-profile tasting in London is part of a years-long campaign to grow artificial meat without having to raise and kill billions of livestock animals — and as a result, head off a looming food crisis. Even the researchers behind the campaign acknowledge it could take a decade or more to turn lab-grown meat into a commercially viable alternative. But they see the effort as an environmental imperative.

Categories
Politics Sarah Palin

Palin, Hannity and Rush Sweeping The Bottom of the Barrel

Maybe Americans are finally waking up to the antics of these Three Stooges.

Palin’s supporters are not coughing up the bucks to her PAC. The queen of Mooseburger, Alaska, has lost her charm, seeming not a bad seed so much as an ignorant and inarticulate one.

Hannity has embarrassed himself by practically drooling over Palin, perhaps because he enjoyed the sound of gray matter bouncing around in her cranium, where there is so much room. But perhaps the most remarkable proof of the pretentious lightweight that he is was the way he went down before Robert Gibbs in their famous 2008 encounter, falling “like sheep” as the Native Americans said about Custer’s troops in the Great Sioux War.

But it is Limbaugh (whose name is always mispronounced as “Lim-bog” by competitor the Rev. Al Sharpton) who may be sinking most swiftly into a bog of disfavor after his bad-boy act helped Mitt Romney and the GOP lose the votes of Republican women to Obama. They were repulsed by his attacks on a 32-year-old woman studying at Georgetown named Sandra Flute, who got on a panel to talk about women’s health issues. Her appearance was not appropriate, said the man willing to imitate a bog filled with mud.

Far from boldly but with plenty of venom, Rush got rolling and called Fluke a slut and a prostitute who wanted to be paid for having sex, since she wanted insurance to cover her birth control. In what analysts call projection, Rush proclaimed that if taxpayers should pay for that then she in turn should put her erotic life on YouTube, to that he and pals could see what they were underwriting.

This cannot and should not be forgotten.

Americans too often appropriate New Testament forgiveness in order to avoid hard facts or repulsive or opportunistic performance personalities.

I always oppose Limbaugh and his ilk because they are ready and willing to say whatever will work to exploit fear and insecurity for profit. If we dismiss their belligerence as “fun,” we help them dismiss those who do not find them “funny” as too uptight.

Bigots always tend to present themselves as good boys just trying to get past the boring with some humor. They want to keep themselves interested, and they do things that are pretty desperate to escape being bored.

Stupidity is not the problem at all. The novelist Milan Kundera points out that it was once thought that stupidity could be easily cured with knowledge; that was wrong. The addiction to influential power based in untruths modernizes itself with everything else. Propaganda has become a popular melodrama, especially when driven by self-pity.

People love to feel victimized, threatened and on the verge of being destroyed.

Limbaugh, Palin and Hannity will slowly go down and away, though they will return in a smaller venue because the public always loves bad movies

Categories
Featured Politics

Gay Couple Forced to Sit At the Back of the Bus

Apparently, they broke the law in New Mexico – sitting in the front seat of a bus and holding hands while gay.

Ron McCoy and his partner, Chris Bowers, flew into Albuquerque on June 28 for the city’s PrideFest and a Southwest road trip, according to local news station KRQE. After leaving the airport, they hopped on a Standard Parking shuttle bus and sat in the front of the vehicle holding hands.

“I saw him look at us… and he looked so angry,” McCoy told KRQE. “He just blurted out at me, he goes, “Okay, if you’re going to do that, you’re going to the back of the bus.”

Shocked, the two moved, but they had some questions for the driver once they arrived at their stop. When McCoy approached the driver and said he thought they were told to move because they were holding hands, the driver responded, “See, now you’re telling on yourself.”

Last month, weekly publication the Alibi spoke with the shuttle driver, Mychael Jones, about why he made the gay couple to move to the back of the bus. He said he didn’t want “women and children” to see the couple’s “inappropriate behavior.” When asked to identify the “inappropriate behavior,” he would not comment any further.

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Citizens United Politics

Bill Maher Urges Liberal Elites to Take Advantage of Citizens United

Citizens United is one of the Supreme Court’s most bogus decision, abd there’s been a few. Led by a conservative majority,  the court followed Mitt Romney’s definition of “people” and proudly proclaimed that Corporations too, are “people.”

And with that proclamation, the floodgates were opened for these newly discovered “people” to donate unimaginable, untraceable amounts of money to any political campaign of their choice. It happened just in time for the 2012 Presidential campaign.

Breaking News: Corporations generally donate to Republican candidates, so the Citizens United decision came just in time to guarantee record donations to Mitt Romney, thus, guaranteeing him and the Republicans the White House.  However,  the real “people” spoke with their votes, and Romney and his Corporate backers were sent packing.

Enter Bill Maher,  a liberal commentator who used the Citizens United decision and donated $1 million to president Obama’s reelection. That donation must have felt good because on Friday’s show, Maher took the opportunity to tell other liberal elites to do the same.

Steven Spielberg, you should be taking over Wyoming right now. For a mere $150 million, you could kick out Dick Cheney and his evil daughter, make it a liberal utopia and put E.T. on the state flag.

Tyler Perry, you could buy Montana and make yourself both senators and Madea the governor. And how great will it be on the day when people can get gay married in Oprahoma?”

And to Jay Z, Maher advised him that owning a state could give him the ultimate bragging rights.

If there’s anyone out there who’s done it all and is looking for some new thing to brag about, ‘Own a state, it’s my fate, it’s great’ — I’m just saying, the rhymes practically write themselves,” Maher said, before eyeing the rapper and entrepeneur and continuing. “‘Daft Punk got lucky, I just bought Kentucky.’”

Watch the clip below.

Categories
Music nicki minaj

DJ Khaleb Proposes To Nicki Minaj – Nicki Minaj Files Restraining Order

Was it a stunt? The internationally known DJ Khaleb used the far reaching powers of MTV to make an offer to Nicki Minaj he hoped she wouldn’t refuse – a proposal! Khaleb explains in the video posted below that he used this venue to make his proposal because he wanted her fans to know and family, along with his fans and family to know about his love for Nicki.

After brandishing a massive ring, the video ends with asking Nicki for her response. Well she’s responded, with a restraining order against Khaleb!

Categories
Politics

President’s Weekly Address – Securing A Better Middle Class

President Obama lays out his plan for the middle class and tells the American people that securing a better middle class builds on the progress we’ve made so far, fighting our way back from the worst economic recession of our lifetimes.

Over the past four and a half years, we’ve fought our way back from the worst recession of our lifetimes and begun to lay a foundation for stronger, more durable economic growth.  Today, our businesses have created 7.3 million new jobs over the last 41 months.  We now sell more products made in America to the rest of the world than ever before.  Health care costs are growing at the slowest rate in 50 years, and our deficits are falling at the fastest rate in 60 years.

But as any middle-class family will tell you, we’re not where we need to be yet.  Even before the crisis hit, we were living through a decade where a few at the top were doing better and better, while most families were working harder and harder just to get by.

Categories
Technology

Woman Pays $1200 for Two Apples… The Fruit

An Australian woman paid $1,200 for two new Apple iPhones over website Gumtree, but opened the box to find just fruit inside.

The 21-year-old had posted an ad asking if anyone had a smartphone for sale.

She was soon contacted by another woman who said she had “two Apples” up for grabs.

The pair met at a McDonald’s restaurant where the woman handed over her cash for what she thought were two new iPhone boxes.

Failing to check the product before leaving, it was only after arriving home that she realized the cartons only contained apples.

Cops in her Queensland town of Upper Mt Gravatt, near Brisbane, said it served as a warning for people to be “wary” when buying items online.

“Don’t stay away because most people are doing the right thing, but be smart about what you buy,” Senior Constable Jess Hopkin told the Herald Sun.

“If something seems too good to be true, it probably is. It’s really just common sense.”

Categories
Politics

Fox News Provided The Talking Point Mark Kessler Used to Attack Sec. John Kerry

I never thought I’ll say this. But I’ve found someone who makes the Rush Limbaugh and Alex Jones of the world, seem like child’s play. Pennsylvania Police Chief Mark Kessler is gathering up a YouTube following, with his frequent profanity laced videos against Liberals, or to use his word, Libtards. In one of his latest video, the police chief targets Secretary of State John Kerry and The United Nations.

Mark Kessler’s rant came directly from this Fox News headline: Kerry says US will sign UN treaty on arms regulation despite lawmaker opposition. So at least we know where Mark is getting his info.

In the video, the police chief is seen looking at a piece of paper as he read the Fox headline, “Kerry says US will sign UN treaty on arms regulations despite lawmaker opposition.” Mark then sighs, shakes his head and continues, calling Kerry a “piece of sh*t traitor.”

After some other choice words for the Secretary of State and the United Nations, Kessler looks at the camera and screamed, “come and take it motherfu*kers” as he picks up an automatic weapon and fires a few rounds into the mountainside.

He later received a 30 days suspension from his duties as police chief, but promised to return and continue his work after his suspension is over. “I make no apologies,” Mark wrote on his website after receiving his punishment, “and I have no regrets. [I’ll be back] 30 days from tonight.”

Fox News, once again provides the ammunition for the gradual dismantling of any sanity this society once had.

Warning: The video below is unedited.

Categories
Politics

Jobless Claims Fall to Six Year Low

Imagine where the economy would be today if Republicans weren’t actually trying to tank the economy every chance the get.

Initial jobless claims dropped to their lowest level since January 2008, according to the Department of Labor.

The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell by 19,000 to 326,000 the week ended July 27. It’s the latest sign that the job market is finding its footing.

The less volatile four-week moving average fell by 4,500 to 341,250. The July figures are typically volatile as the government adjusts for seasonal layoffs in the auto industry.

Still, the trend in recent months has been positive. Applications, which are a proxy for layoffs, have fallen more than 12% this year. That’s coincided with average gains of 202,000 jobs a month since January.

The payroll company ADP said Wednesday that companies created 200,000 jobs in July, the most for that survey since December. That’s a hopeful sign ahead of Friday’s Labor Department report on July employment.

Categories
Featured Racism racist

They’re Throwing Bananas at Italy’s First Black Minister

An act so vile and reprehensible, you’d think someone from today’s Republican party did it.

Italy’s first black minister who was dubbed an orangutan by a fellow politician has suffered another racist attack — after a spectator threw bananas at her during a rally.

Cecile Kyenge, who was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, was pelted with the fruit as she was making a speech at an assembly in Cervia on Friday.

The Integration minister, charged with making it easier for immigrants to gain Italian citizenship, shrugged off the incident.

“It is sad and a waste of food, considering the economic crisis,” she later wrote on Twitter.

“The courage and optimism to change things has to come above all from the bottom up to reach the institutions,” she added.

It is not known who threw the fruit but police are now stepping up security when she appears in public, reports CNN.

Categories
Politics Racism racist

Philadelphia Eagles’ Riley Cooper a Racist?

(AP) – Saying he was “ashamed and disgusted” with himself, Eagles wide receiver Riley Cooper apologized repeatedly for making a racial slur at a Kenny Chesney concert that was caught on video and led to him getting fined.

The video of Cooper using the N-word surfaced Wednesday on the Internet. Cooper issued a statement of apology then met with reporters outside the team’s practice facility.

“This is the lowest of lows,” Cooper said. “This is not the type of person I want to be portrayed as. This isn’t the type of person I am. I’m extremely sorry.”

Cooper said he was drinking when he directed the slur at an African-American security guard at the concert in June.

“That’s no excuse for what I said. I don’t use that term,” he said. “I was raised better than that. I have a great mom and dad and they’re disgusted with my actions.”

Cooper said he was fined a significant amount of money by the Eagles.

“We are shocked and appalled by Riley Cooper’s words,” Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie said. “This sort of behavior or attitude from anyone has no role in a civil society. He has accepted responsibility for his words and his actions. He has been fined for this incident.”

The league released the following statement: “The NFL stands for diversity and inclusion. Comments like this are wrong, offensive, and unacceptable.”

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