Everyone, please be quiet. Sit down and have a seat. Another Republican “Patriot” has something to say.
Ladies and gentlemen, your American “patriot” today is Bob Johnson of Savannah Georgia, who incidentally is running for Congress in the Republican primary.
Bob dislikes the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) so much, that he would rather see another terrorist attack in the United States than dealing with the airport security system.
“The TSA is doing something really profound. They’re indoctrinating generations of Americans to walk through a line and be prodded and probed by uniformed personnel, agents of the government, like sheep.
“Now this is going to sound outrageous: I’d rather see another terrorist attack — truly I would — than to give up my liberty as an American citizen. Give me liberty or give me death. Isn’t that what Patrick Henry said at the founding of our Republican — or, republic.
“People are saying, ‘Now everyone wants security before anything else. I want a perfectly safe flight.’ You’re not going to have it. We’re going to have jack-boot uniformed people in our backyards.”
The Rialto school district planned to revise an eighth-grade assignment that raised red flags by asking students to consider arguments about whether the Holocaust — the systematic killing by the Nazis of some 6 million Jews and millions of others — was not an “actual event” but instead a “propaganda tool that was used for political and monetary gain.”
In a statement released Monday, a spokeswoman for the Rialto Unified School District said an academic team was meeting to revise the assignment.
Interim Superintendent Mohammad Z. Islam was set to talk with administrators to “assure that any references to the holocaust ‘not occurring’ will be stricken on any current or future Argumentative Research assignments,” a statement from district spokeswoman Syeda Jafri read.
“The holocaust should be taught in classrooms with sensitivity and profound consideration to the victims who endured the atrocities committed,” Jafri said.
The English/Language Arts assignment, first reported Sunday by the San Bernardino Sun and provided to KTLA by the newspaper, asked students to write an argumentative essay about the Holocaust describing “whether or not you believe this was an actual event in history, or merely a political scheme created to influence public emotion and gain wealth.”
The 18-page assignment instructions included three sources that students were told to use, including one that stated gassings in concentration camps were a “hoax” and that no evidence has shown Jews died in gas chambers.
So Rand Paul has sent out mailings to his supporters telling them some rather impossible to believe claims about Obamacare. Of course his supporters drink it all as truth. They happily believe everything these Republicans say. But PolitiFact has checked and this lie got their Pants on Fire ratings.
According to PolitiFact, someone sent them the mailing from Rand Paul claiming that “for every Kentuckian that has enrolled in Obamacare, 40 have been dropped from their coverage.” An insane ratio, I know. And I’m not the only one who found this claim rediculous. It also caught the attention of PolitiFact. They checked into Paul’s claim and found this:
Tracking cancellations isn’t so easy, because cancellations are issued by private health insurance companies, and regulations differ in each state. TheAssociated Press assembled a comprehensive, 50-state look at Obamacare-related cancellations and concluded that, in Kentucky, 130,000 people received cancellation notices. Meanwhile, the Kentucky Department of Insurance has put the number at 168,000.
So a reasonable number for cancellations in Kentucky is probably between 130,000 and 168,000.
How many Kentuckians have signed up for Obamacare?
The answer depends on your definition of “Obamacare.”
The broader measure includes both signups for private insurance at the state-run Kynect insurance marketplace, as well as signups for Medicaid, the longstanding government-run health insurance program for the poor that Kentuckychose to expand under Obamacare.
In late April 2014, the stateannounced that 82,795 Kentuckians had purchased private plans on Kynect and 330,615 others had qualified for Medicaid coverage, for a total of 413,410. Data from the federalDepartment of Health and Human Services that counts a few more weeks of signups had slightly higher numbers.
Comparing the two numbers
Using just these numbers, Paul is either wrong or very wrong.
The smaller number — private-insurance number of signups (82,795) — is exceeded by the number of cancellations (up to 168,000), but at most, the discrepancy is only twice as big, not 40 times as big.
But it’s not clear that this is the right number to use. Paul’s newsletter didn’t only refer to private plans, and the Medicaid expansion was just as much a part of Obamacare as the marketplaces for private health insurance plans.
So if you include both types of signups (413,410), then the combined Medicaid and private-insurance signups in Kentucky actually exceeded the number of cancellations by more than double. So Paul’s claim is not just off-base, it’s actually going in the opposite direction.
In fact, the 40-times-higher claim is ridiculously off-base.
“Keep your stinking paws off my kid, you damned dirty ape.”
Those words by Republican Jim Coughlan, the Dutchess County controller and a candidate for state Senate, was directed at Melissa Harris-Perry in response to remarks she made about child-rearing that upset many conservatives.
Coughlan said he had no idea that Harris-Perry is black and denied the comment had racist undertones, saying he simply repeating a “well-known quote from the Planet of the Apes.
Even republican party insiders aren’t that thrilled with Coughlan and would probably just as soon wash their hands of him.
Some Republicans said they fear his Twitter history could keep them from regaining a Senate seat they long held until two years ago.
“Jim Coughlan is toxic,” said one.
“The Democrats are dying to run against him in November because they know he’s the best chance they have of keeping this seat in Democratic hands.”
Benghazi! Benghazi! Benghazi! It the cry of the right-wing media led by Fox News and parroted by Congressional Republicans like John Boehner and Darrell Issa!
But who was screaming Iraq! Iraq! Iraq! Oh, you don’t remember Iraq? That’s the war Bush and Cheney led the United States into, based solely on a lie, a made up story, falsehoods, intentionally telling inaccurate information with the intent to deceive, you know, liar liar pants on fire!
Yes, that war.
So back to my question. Who exactly from the right-wing media was screaming from the hilltops that we need to bring out troops home, as they dropped one by one in the fields of Iraq? Was Fox, or anyone in the conservative media, or anyone in th Republican congress denouncing the lies that started a war that ended up killing hundreds of thousands of people?
No. Their voices of dissent were nowhere to be heard. As a matter of fact, they were the ones making excuses for why we were there in the first place. They were the ones defending the lies and the falsehoods and the made up stories, simply because… a Republican was in the White House.
These people are not “patriots!” When the troops – the true patriots – were dying by the thousands in a war started based on intentionally misleading information, these Republicans and their Fox News Republican media machine were the ones pushing for more patriots to die! For American troops to remain and continue the fight, simply because their ideology matched the people running the government.
Four people died in Benghazi. Yes, that too was a tragedy. But according to a phrase by President Obama, there is no there there, and continuing to beat this dead horse when you were silent when thousands more gave their lives because of your lies, is a tad bit hypocritical, don’t you think Fox News? Or maybe the question should be, do you think?
But I digress.
John Stewart made this video on the Fox and Republican hypocrites and their Benghazi fascination. “I commend you for finally getting in touch with your inner outrage, because if I remember correctly from the previous decade, it was an emotion you did not seem comfortable addressing or expressing,” he said.
I thought Jesus was inclusive and wanted everyone to come to him. After all, he did say to “preach the Gospel to every creature.” And exactly how would anyone become a Christian if they weren’t included and preached to at some point in their life?
No one was born a Christian, which means that being inclusive is the lifeline of the Christian faith.
Alabama State Judge Roy Moore has not figuref this inclusive message yet and is still thinking that the survival of Christianity is to preach only to the base. And he is taking his religious segregation view and applying it to the constitution, more specifically, the First Amendment.
It is Roy Moore’s belief that the First Amendment of the United States Constitution only protect Christians.
Earlier this year Roy Moore, the Chief Justice of Alabama’s Supreme Court, spoke at a luncheon in Mississippi for a Pro Life group and shared his thoughts on the First Amendment and who it protects.
“Everybody, to include the U.S. Supreme Court, has been deceived as to one little word in the First Amendment called ‘religion.’ They can’t define it.” Moore said. “They can’t define it the way Mason, Madison and even the United State Supreme Court defined it, ‘the duties we owe to the creator and the manner of discharging it.’ They don’t want to do that, because that acknowledges a creator God. Buddha didn’t create us. Mohammed didn’t create us. It’s the God of the Holy Scriptures.
“They didn’t bring a Koran over on the pilgrim ship, Mayflower. Let’s get real. Let’s go back and learn our history.”
Retired. U.S. Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson is not very fund of his party these days, and their insistence that there is something more to discover in yet another Benghazi investigation, is not winning them the colonel’s friendship award either.
The Colonel, who miraculously still considers himself a Republican, thinks a different investigation should be done – one focused on war criminals George Bush and Dick Cheney.
Speaking about the Republicans and their never ending Benghazi investigations, Wilkerson said;
“It’s very difficult to handle a crisis, and you take the talking points points from whomever you can get them who’s on the scene. In this case, as I understand it, the CIA provided most of the talking points.”
“You can’t ever get it right right up front, so, I don’t find that to be a great problem.”
After asserting that he remains a member of the Republican Party, Wilkerson said that he does find it concerning that the GOP focuses on Benghazi over more pressing issues.
“I find it an enormous problem that they go after something like this, Benghazi – tragedy that it was – and they don’t go after something that is a colossal tragedy like the war crimes of Richard Bruce Cheney,” he insisted.
“The fact that I was a member of that administration will haunt me to the grave,” he concluded.
Wilkerson is the former Chief of Staff for Colin Powell.
The Secretary of State John Kerry would not be available and will not be complying with the subpoena issued by Republicans. The Republicans are demanding that Kerry make himself available on the May 21st, but according to State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf, that is not going to happen.
Harf said that Kerry “has been made aware” of the subpoena, but still plans to be out of the country and in Mexico on the 21st. She said the State Department was “surprised” that Darrell Issa skipped over offering an invitation and went straight to issuing a subpoena. She very strongly intimated the subpoena was issued for partisan political purposes and suggested Republicans are hypocrites for decrying subpoenas when they were issued against Condoleezza Rice.
Columbus Short’s career on the hit television show ‘Scandal’ is well known. Unfortunately, so is his fall from grace as the troubles from his personal life bled into his acting career. It was recently revealed that he was fired from the show.
Last month, days after Columbus Short’s wife publicly alleged he threatened to kill her and then himself with a knife, the actor on the hit ABC series released a statement saying he was leaving Scandal.
“At this time I must confirm my exit from a show I’ve called home for 3 years, with what is the most talented ensemble on television today,” said Short in an official statement released by his publicist.
This weekend during an interview with Chris Witherspoon for MSNBC’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner special, Scandal star Tony Goldwyn – who plays President Fitzgerald Grant on the show – weighed in on Short’s departure from the show.
“None of us ever know what our future is,” Goldwyn said. “We’re really sad to see Harrison go but Columbus is an incredibly gifted guy with a huge talent and he’s gonna have a huge career in whatever he does. I’ll miss him because he’s amazing.”
A Missouri judge ordered the state on Monday to set free a man who was convicted of robbery in 2000 but never sent to prison until a clerical mistake was discovered last year.
Cornealious ‘Mike’ Anderson was 23 when he was sentenced to 13 years in prison for his role in the robbery of a fast-food restaurant’s assistant manager. He told The Associated Press last month that he waited, and even asked about going to prison, but the order never came.
In the years since his conviction, Anderson started his own construction-related businesses, married and had children. He also coached youth football and volunteered at his church in Webster Groves, Missouri.
A free man: A judge ordered Cornealious Anderson (left) out of jail today. He was arrested last year when it was discovered he was never sent to prison for a robbery conviction in a clerical mistake. Pictured above with wife LaQonna and daughter Nevaeh, 3, after his release today
Family man: When summons never came to report for jail, Anderson went on to live a life dedicated to his family. Pictured above leaving court Monday morning
Reunion: Anderson embraces his grandmother Mary Porter after being released from custody on Monday
+10
Nightmare over: Anderson, his grandmother (left), wife LaQonna (right) and daughter Nevaeh walk down the stairs and out of court today
Judge Terry Lynn Brown lauded Anderson’s ‘exemplary’ behavior during his 13 years of freedom before the arrest. “You’ve been a good father. You’ve been a good husband. You’ve been a good taxpaying citizen of the state of Missouri.
‘That leads me to believe that you are a good man and a changed man.’
As the judge announced his decision, about 10 of Anderson’s relatives broke out in sobs and cried. Anderson stared straight ahead but dabbed tears from his eyes. Afterward, he hugged his toddler daughter tight. The hearing lasted about 10 minutes.
The judge said rather than Anderson being granted parole, he would get credit for the 4,794 days between when he was convicted and when he was arrested last year.
+10
Mistake: If he served his full sentence, Anderson would have been released last July. That’s when authorities realized the clerical error and brought him to prison
Anderson’s plight drew international headlines last month. An online petition on change.org includes more than 35,000 signatures urging the state to set him free. Even Attorney General Chris Koster seemed inclined to find a solution to resolve what he called a ‘difficult situation.’
Anderson, 37, had never been convicted of a serious crime before the robbery. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison for the holdup, then told to wait for orders that would specify when and where he was to report to prison.
But the orders never came. Anderson suspected that his case had been overlooked and asked his former attorney what to do.
‘Day by day, month by month, year by year, time passed, and they never picked me up,’ he said in the interview with AP.
Changed man: In his 13 years of freedom, Anderson got married, had children, started a construction business, coached his son’s youth football team and volunteered at his church
So Anderson went about his life, never trying to conceal his whereabouts or identity.
He married, divorced, married again. He raised three children of his own and a stepchild, owned and operated three construction businesses. He coached his son’s youth football team in Webster Groves, and he ran the video operation at his church.
In July, Anderson’s sentence was supposed to end. It was then that someone at the Missouri Department of Corrections realized he had never been put behind bars.
Eight U.S. marshals arrived one morning at his home in a middle-class neighborhood and took him away. He was in prison by noon that day, and has remained behind bars ever since.
The Missouri judge decided to free Anderson based on his life after his convicted. Pictured on the right his his wife LaQonna
Koster said last month that his goal was to suggest a way for the court to balance the seriousness of Anderson’s crime with the clerical error made by the justice system and Anderson’s conduct since the robbery.
‘All three factors deserve recognition in resolving this difficult situation,’ Koster said.
Anderson’s attorneys filed an appeal in February calling his imprisonment unfair and unjust. They had also asked Gov. Jay Nixon to commute the sentence or grant clemency.
Justice: Anderson walks out of court victorious today with wife LaQonna and daughter Neveah
Breaking news: Pat Robertson spoke the truth! Now, this doesn’t happen often but when it does I’m going to bring it to you.
In his recent 700 Club program, Robertson laments on the plight of the Republican party and acknowledges that radical right may be causing more harm than good.
NOTE: Pat Robertson is inarguably part of the radical right.
With a backdrop like what happen in Oklahoma last Tuesday with the botched execution, media outlets far and wide are making their feelings and opinions known about the death penalty. But I’m choosing to highlight the thoughts and ideas of a comedian.
Why? Because the ideas expressed I think, best represent where this country should go in regards to the death penalty.
The comedian is John Oliver. The show is Last Week Tonight.
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