Showing posts with label florida. Show all posts
Showing posts with label florida. Show all posts

Thursday, November 15, 2018

The Blue Wave Was Real


Yes indeed, there was a Blue Wave during election 2018 and some of the races are still ongoing. There were some disappoints to be sure: Ted Cruz beat out Dem rock star Beto O'Rourke for senate in Texas; insidious Marsha Blackburn summoned both Trump and Pence to Chattanooga, Tennessee, for a huge last minute rally to help her blast Democratic moderate Phil Bredesen; and somehow racist Steve King hung on in western Iowa while the rest of the state turned solid blue. Due in part to election day chaos, Dems Andrew Gillum and Stacey Abrams are barely hanging onto governor races in Florida and Georgia respectively while recounts and lawsuits are ongoing.

But in spite of those blips, there WAS a Blue Wave. The House of Representatives will now be have Dem Leadership on every committee and they are ready to investigate Trump and all his cronies in depth. TThe Blue Wave was great for women and minorities, sending a diverse group of House newbies to Washington to speak for the people starting in January. Dems have turned nearly every New England state blue from their state legislatures up, with only Republican Senator Collins hanging on in Maine. Some blue states are almost solid blue now, such as California, which ousted many Republicans at every level. And there were wild cards - a seat pickup in Oklahoma, and a vote in Idaho to expand Medicaid.



















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Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Orlando Shooting Deadliest in History

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Again, we face unspeakable evil in Orlando - two senseless shootings just miles from each other in a city known as a playground for the world. And our useless elected officials want to pray and have "moments of silence" with no action.

The Lord helps those who help themselves. We need action now. #NotOneMore

From New York Times
As officials offered new details about the worst mass shooting in American history, which left 49 people dead and 53 wounded, Chief John Mina of the Orlando Police Department said that the gunman, Omar Mateen, 29, told police negotiators — falsely, they later discovered — that he had explosives and accomplices at Pulse nightclub.
Mr. Mateen eventually made comments persuading them that “there would be an imminent loss of life,” Chief Mina said, prompting the chief to end a three-hour standoff and order the assault that killed Mr. Mateen and freed dozens of people trapped in the club.
...Investigators were hunting for any indication that Mr. Mateen might have had help in planning or carrying out the slaughter, and they continued combing through the battered, blood-spattered wreckage of Pulse for clues.
“So far, we see no indication that this was part of a plot directed from outside the United States,” Mr. Comey said.

From CNN
Orlando, Florida (CNN)Florida authorities answered one of the major questions in the shooting death of Christina Grimmie, the 22-year-old singer who made her name on NBC's "The Voice."
The man who killed her was Kevin James Loibl, 27, of St. Petersburg, Florida, according to Orlando police.
. . . Grimmie was signing autographs late Friday after a show at The Plaza Live theater when a man approached and opened fire, police spokeswoman Wanda Miglio said.
She was rushed to a hospital, where she died.




















































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Thursday, March 3, 2016

Chris Christie as Trump's Toady

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Governor Christie of New Jersey, who withdrew from the Presidential primary race weeks ago, appeared last week to give a surprise endorsement to Trump in front of a large Texas crowd. When it was over, a reporter with a microphone caught Trump telling Christie to "Get on the plane over there and go home," and Christie immediately obeyed. The episode was so dismissive and rude that everyone thought they would never be seen together again.





But late on Super Tuesday, after Trump had won multiple states, he held a press conference at his Mar-A-Lago Estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and Christie again appeared onstage to introduce "Mr. Trump," as he calls him now. Then he gave over the podium to his new lord and master, standing behing him with the strangest look on his face. To many viewers the flat tone in his voice and frightened demeanor reminded them of a hostage being forced to read a message to save their life or family. And he seemed suddenly overwhelmed with remorse or embarrassment as his face went through a strange metamorphosis. And it was obvious that like all uneven partnerships, whether Hitler and Mussolini, Voldemort and Wormtail, or Saruman and Wormtongue, Trump kinda likes pushing his toady around and making him squirm. It was bizarre and a little scary!

Of course it became a meme right away, and the hashtag #FreeChristie trended for many hours.























































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Monday, June 15, 2015

Jeb Bush is all for Public Shaming by Scarlet Letter

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Oh, Jeb. You were supposed to be the "smart" one. Not anymore.

In 1995, Jeb Bush wrote:

"One of the reasons more young women are giving birth out of wedlock and more young men are walking away from their paternal obligations is that there is no longer a stigma attached to this behavior, no reason to feel shame. Many of these young women and young men look around and see their friends engaged in the same irresponsible conduct. Their parents and neighbors have become ineffective at attaching some sense of ridicule to this behavior. There was a time when neighbors and communities would frown on out-of-wedlock births and when public condemnation was enough of a stimulus for one to be careful."

In 2001 as governor of Florida, Jeb Bush passed the "Scarlet Letter" law, as explained by Media Matters for America

...a 2001 Florida law he allowed to pass as governor ... required single mothers to list their sexual histories in a newspaper before allowing children to be adopted.
...Florida's Scarlet Letter law was an "opportunity to test his theory on public shaming," when he "declined to veto a very controversial bill," -- that Marco Rubio and five members of Congress also voted for -- "that required single mothers who did not know the identity of the father to publish their sexual histories in a newspaper before they could legally put their babies up for adoption."
NPR reported that part of Bush's rationale for the law was to decrease uncertainty about adoptions by "provid[ing] greater finality once the adoption is approved, and to avoid circumstances where future challenges to the adoption disrupt the life of the child."
But a 2004 Notre Dame Law Review article explained that the personal information required by the law to be listed in newspapers was extensive



And he hasn't changed much. This week he didn't even call for "out of wedlock" shaming - only for "single mother" shaming. Why not bring back the word "bastard" for illegitimate children too? Because GOP members and Christians never have any of those. Oh wait. This is starting to sound like Rush Limbaugh "slut-shaming" Sandra Fluke, and remember how that turned out for the GOP in the 2012 election? Good lucky, buddy.

Nathaniel Hawthorne is turning over in his grave.

From MSNBC
Asked by msnbc whether his views regarding the application of shame had changed, Bush suggested his book’s warning had proved prophetic and stressed the importance of encouraging young people to get married before having children.
“My views have evolved over time, but my views about the importance of dads being involved in the lives of children hasn’t changed at all,” he said. “In fact, since 1995 … this book was a book about cultural indicators [and] the country has moved in the wrong direction. We have a 40-plus percent out-of-wedlock birth rate.”
Bush has talked on the trail about research showing improved economic fortunes for children who are raised with two parents and on Thursday reiterated the importance of family structure.
“It’s a huge challenge for single moms to raise children in the world that we’re in today and it hurts the prospects, it limits the possibilities of young people being able to live lives of purpose and meaning,” he said.

Yeah, those single mothers - just ruining our country day by day. Well, what about "single father" shaming? And what if a parent and child are abandoned by the other parent for whatever reason - are they still to be publicly blamed and shamed? Why are the courts mostly full of single mothers trying to get some child support from these so-called fathers, instead of the other-way-around? Why shame the mothers?

And lest we forget our American Literature, the Reverend Dimmesdale could have married Rachel in The Scarlet Letter, but he was a craven coward afraid of losing his position in the village, or being stoned to death, or whatever. In effect, he was a complete Pharisee hypocrite like most of the GOP today.

This is just outright pandering to ultra-conservatives who ignore the high divorce rate in the red GOP states. Does Jeb in his wildest imagination believe he can force even GOP couples stay married? Just think of all the GOP politicians on their second, third, or fourth wife. Why not shame them first, since they were probably married in a Christian church with pomp and ceremony and prayers? Jeb and his cronies seem to misunderstand that even in the 1800s, people like writer Nathaniel Hawthorne were pointing out the idiocy and unfairness of public shaming. Yes it was "historical" but it isn't around today for a reason. It didn't work then, and it certainly won't work now.













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Friday, February 27, 2015

The Further Fictional Adventures of Bill O'Reilly

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Previous Related Posts:
Falklands Drama: Cornered Narcissist Bill O'Reilly Lashes Out

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As the media casts a spotlight on his fake journalistic endeavors, Bill O'Reilly is becoming more and more unhinged. Last week he threatened to send David Corn of Mother Jones to a "Kill Zone," and this week he made threats against a writer for the New York Times.

He's a classic loud-mouth bully who can dish it out but can't take it, thin-skinned and violent. And why is he so defensive? Because he has been caught lying over and over again and there's no way out.

From New York Times
Mr. O’Reilly’s efforts to refute the claims by Mother Jones and some former CBS News colleagues occurred both on the air and off on Monday. During a phone conversation, he told a reporter for The New York Times that there would be repercussions if he felt any of the reporter’s coverage was inappropriate. “I am coming after you with everything I have,” Mr. O’Reilly said. “You can take it as a threat.”






"(O'Reilly is) the biggest Kahuna in all of cable news - a man who at any other news network would be in a fight for his professional life right now, but so far for him apparently no consequences."
~ Rachel Maddow






Statement from Fox News:

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But reporters are not backing down. If anything, they are digging deeper into O'Reilly's mountain of lies.

The Guardian is investigating O'Reilly's coverage of the Los Angeles Riots in the 1990s when he worked for Inside Edition.

From Talking Points Memo
Six former co-workers disputed O'Reilly's tale of being bombarded with concrete and bricks by rioters while covering the 1992 unrest in Los Angeles, according to the Guardian.

“They were throwing bricks and stones at us,” O’Reilly told an online interviewer in 2006, according to the Guardian.
“Concrete was raining down on us. The cops saved our butts that time," O'Reilly added.
O'Reilly repeated the story to conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt this month.
“We were attacked, we were attacked by protesters, where bricks were thrown at us,” he told Hewitt, the Guardian reported.

“It didn’t happen,” one colleague from "Inside Edition" told the paper. “If it did, how come none of the rest of us remember it?”

. . .

Hunter Walker of Business Insider points out that O'Reilly's "heroic" version of himself in Buenos Aires saving a cameraman in a combat zone during the Falklands War was included in a novel written by O'Reilly called "Those Who Trespass." When Art Imitates Ego! However, it is mostly fiction:

From Business Insider
In O'Reilly's novel the protest was broken up by soldiers, or as the author put it, "combat-ready shock troops dressed in full battle gear and armed with machine guns." At this point, Michaels, one of the characters described as O'Reilly's fictional "alter ego" realized he "had to get away" with his cameraman and soundman. As Michaels and his crew escaped, the soldiers let loose on the crowd.
"Without warning, they began firing directly into the crowd," O'Reilly wrote, adding, "Hundreds of people immediately fell onto the cement."
O'Reilly wrote that Michaels "saw one man take a bullet squarely in the right eye" and he "was killed instantly." He described "ten thousand tightly packed demonstrators ... desperately trying to get away from the gunfire any way they could."
These scenes written by O'Reilly contradict contemporaneous reports of the real-life protest, which do not describe widespread gunfire or any deaths.

In another book, O'Reilly claimed that he saw some war action in Northern Ireland and El Salvador in addition to Buenos Aires, but under scrutiny he is backing off.

From Washington Post
In his 2013 book, “Keep It Pithy,” the Fox News host recounted,“I’ve seen soldiers gun down unarmed civilians in Latin America, Irish terrorists kill and maim their fellow citizens in Belfast with bombs.”

On another occasion, he said, “I’ve covered four wars,” and ticked off El Salvador’s civil war in the 1980s, the 1982 Falklands conflict, Northern Ireland and an unspecified conflict in Israel. “I’ve seen the best and the worst.”
. . . O’Reilly traveled to Northern Ireland in 1984 to research a book about the Troubles, according to Fox News. The book was never finished, and it’s not clear whether he covered the conflict for any news organization. At the time, he was working for a Boston TV station, WCVB, but his then-boss, Philip S. Balboni, said that O’Reilly covered only local news and did commentary for the station.
O’Reilly didn’t mention seeing any terrorist bombings in Northern Ireland during a radio interview with syndicated host Hugh Hewitt last week. Instead, he told a milder story: “We went on a raid in Divis Flats with the police. And it was a pretty intense situation. There was stuff being thrown, arrests being made, all of that.”
“Were you in fear of physical harm?” Hewitt asked.
No, O’Reilly replied.

O'Reilly also tried to use photographic evidence to "prove" that he saw nuns being shot in El Salvador. He doesn't seem to understand the difference between "seeing" a picture of something and "seeing" something in person, yet he always uses first person when he talks.

From Talking Points Memo
“While in El Salvador, reporters were shown horrendous images of violence that were never broadcast, including depictions of nuns who were murdered," he told Mediaite.

During a Dec. 14, 2012 episode of "The O'Reilly Factor," O'Reilly talked about the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. He compared it to something he said he'd seen earlier in his career.

"I was in El Salvador and I saw nuns get shot in the back of the head," O'Reilly said, according to Media Matters.

He explained to Mediaite on Wednesday that he brought up El Salvador while discussing the Sandy Hook shooting to talk about "evil."

"I used the murdered nuns as an example of that evil," O'Reilly told the website. "That’s what I am referring to when I say ‘I saw nuns get shot in the back of the head.’ No one could possibly take that segment as reporting on El Salvador.”

Media Matters also pointed to a Sept. 27, 2005 episode of O'Reilly's radio show in which he said, "I've seen guys gun down nuns in El Salvador."


Media Matters also found a good example of O'Reilly claiming that he covered a dramatic story in person when actually he was several states away at a TV station.

George de Mohrenschildt was a Russian emigre who befriended Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald and testified before the Warren Commission investigating the Kennedy assassination. On March 29, 1977, the same day he was contacted by the House Select Committee on Assassinations, he committed suicide at his daughter's home in Florida. At the time, O'Reilly was a reporter for Dallas' WFAA-TV who regularly reported on stories related to the Kennedy assassination.
O'Reilly has bizarrely inserted himself into de Mohrenschildt's story, claiming in books and on Fox News that he was outside the house seeking to interview de Mohrenschiltd at the time of his death.

. . . In his 2012 best-selling non-fiction book Killing Kennedy, O'Reilly writes on page 300 that as a "reporter knocked on the door of de Mohrenschildt's daughter's home, he heard the shotgun blast that marked the suicide of the Russian ... that reporter's name is Bill O'Reilly."

. . . "Bill O'Reilly's a phony, there's no other way to put it," said Tracy Rowlett, a former WFAA reporter and anchor who worked at the station with O'Reilly. "He was not up on the porch when he heard the gunshots, he was in Dallas. He wasn't traveling at that time."
Byron Harris, a reporter at WFAA for the past 40 years, agreed that O'Reilly had not traveled to Florida for the story and accused him of stealing his reporting on de Mohrenschildt's suicide from a newspaper.
According to Harris, O'Reilly "was in Dallas. He stole that article out of the newspaper. I guarantee Channel 8 didn't send him to Florida to do that story because it was a newspaper story, it was broken by the Dallas Morning News."











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Thursday, December 18, 2014

Obama Liberates Cuba and Senator Rubio's Head Explodes Like a Water Balloon

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Previous Related Posts:
Stay Thirsty, My Friend: Senator Rubio and Water-Bottle-Gate
Tea Party Tantrum When Obama Shakes Hands with a Castro
CPAC 2013 Day One: Rat Heads in a Coke Bottle
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Yesterday, President Obama announced that the U.S. will be normalizing relations with Cuba after years of isolating that country with an embargo. Since politicians are never supposed to change anything or do anything worthwhile to change the world, this was met with immediate criticism from the GOP. And even though His Holiness, Pope Francis, helped in negotiations with Cuba from a humanitarian point of view, Senator Marco Rubio, R-Florida, immediately criticized the plan because his knee jerked towards the White House; then he had a long, cool drink of water while rightwing heads exploded all over the country. This is really the moment that Rubio has been waiting for - a rush to the bully pulpit on the way to his own presidential bid. But GOP and Rubio may be on the wrong side of history again, as they are on the immigration issue.



From the White House Fact Sheet on Cuba:
FACT SHEET: Charting a New Course on Cuba

Today, the United States is taking historic steps to chart a new course in our relations with Cuba and to further engage and empower the Cuban people. We are separated by 90 miles of water, but brought together through the relationships between the two million Cubans and Americans of Cuban descent that live in the United States, and the 11 million Cubans who share similar hopes for a more positive future for Cuba.

It is clear that decades of U.S. isolation of Cuba have failed to accomplish our enduring objective of promoting the emergence of a democratic, prosperous, and stable Cuba. At times, longstanding U.S. policy towards Cuba has isolated the United States from regional and international partners, constrained our ability to influence outcomes throughout the Western Hemisphere, and impaired the use of the full range of tools available to the United States to promote positive change in Cuba. Though this policy has been rooted in the best of intentions, it has had little effect – today, as in 1961, Cuba is governed by the Castros and the Communist party.

We cannot keep doing the same thing and expect a different result. It does not serve America’s interests, or the Cuban people, to try to push Cuba toward collapse. We know from hard-learned experience that it is better to encourage and support reform than to impose policies that will render a country a failed state. With our actions today, we are calling on Cuba to unleash the potential of 11 million Cubans by ending unnecessary restrictions on their political, social, and economic activities. In that spirit, we should not allow U.S. sanctions to add to the burden of Cuban citizens we seek to help.

Today, we are renewing our leadership in the Americas. We are choosing to cut loose the anchor of the past, because it is entirely necessary to reach a better future – for our national interests, for the American people, and for the Cuban people.





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Senator Rubio criticizes Evil Tyrant Obama, via Tampa Bay Times
"This president is the single worst negotiator we have had in the White House in my lifetime," Rubio said, contending Obama "has basically given the Cuban government everything it asked for and received no assurances of any advances of democracy and freedom."
Rubio deemed it a victory for the "oppressive Cuban government" and "another concession to a tyranny" by the Obama administration. The president, he said, let the Cuban people down. He used words like "absurd" and "disgraceful and "outrageous." He vowed to do whatever possible to block the moves.
"This Congress is not going to lift the embargo," said Rubio, who will chair the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere when Congress reconvenes in January.



Rubio also blamed Pope Francis for his role in negotiations, which proves once again that no good deed goes unpunished:
Via Politicus USA
“My understanding is that the influence that His Holiness had was on the release of Mr. [Alan] Gross, which I’ve not criticized. As I said, I’m happy that he’s with the Cuban people [sic]. I would also ask His Holiness to take up the cause of freedom and democracy, which is critical for a free people — for a people to truly be free. I think the people of Cuba deserve the same chances to have democracy as the people of Argentina have had, where he comes from; as the people of Italy have, where he now lives. Obviously the Vatican’s its own state, but very nearby. My point is I hope that people with that sort of prestige on the world stage will take up the cause of freedom and democracy. The Cuban people are the only people in this hemisphere that have not been able to elect a leader in more than 55 or 60 years. That’s outrageous.”















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Saturday, October 18, 2014

Florida Gov Rick Scott Beclowned by #Fantrum

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Florida tried to have a debate of the real issues between Governor Rick Scott and his opponent Charlie Crist, but it was thwarted by a fan. No, not a human fan of either politician, but a mechanical fan under Charlie Crist's podium. The Scott campaign didn't want the fan to be there, so the Governor refused to come onstage for many minutes, leaving Crist to just smile at the audience while the question panel seemed in a quandary about what to do next. Finally Scott stumbled onto the stage with some lame excuse, but it was too late. The Twitterverse had coined #Fangate and #Fantrum, and the rest is part of Florida election history.

Basically, Governor Scott beclowned himself with a fan.



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From NPR
Viewers who tuned in Wednesday night to watch Florida Republican Gov. Rick Scott and former Gov. Crist (once a Republican, now a Democrat) instead saw an empty stage, with moderators explaining about "an extremely peculiar situation." Within seconds Crist strode out and spent the next several minutes lamenting Scott's absence, and how it was ridiculous to argue over the fan at the base of Crist's podium when Florida faced so many important issues, before Scott finally joined him and the debate began.

But what TV viewers didn't know was that Scott's campaign was so agitated about the fan that it was demanding the event be canceled and that the TV station providing the live feed not proceed with the broadcast.

"Why? Who knows? Your guess is as good as mine," Wendy Walker, head of one of the debate's co-sponsors, Leadership Florida, told NPR Friday. "They had a bee in their bonnets about the fan.... I said, guys, do you want the story to be the fan?"



From the Miami Herald
“It was a missed opportunity. It was very odd,” said Fort Lauderdale lawyer Ed Pozzuoli, a Scott ally and former Broward County GOP chairman who echoed numerous Republicans. “Gov. Scott has a record that he needs to extol at every opportunity, and the only thing being discussed now is the fan.”
. . . Scott didn’t show until 7:07. He told CNN’s Wolf BlitzerThursday that he was told not to go on stage by “organizers.”
Rather than staging a brief boycott, Pozzuoli said, Scott should have used humor to defuse the controversy: “He would have gotten a lot more mileage out of it,” he said.
Instead, the flap became a social media punch line and the talk of morning cable TV shows. On MSNBC’s Morning Joe, viewers saw the video and an incredulous Mike Barnicle asked: “What’s wrong with these people? The governor of Florida demanding no fan?”



Scott tries to Gov-splain, but Fails:















. . . Why should Crist get to cool himself with a fan, but Scott isn't allowed to control his
temperature by laying on a chilled rock?
~ Stephen Colbert on Comedy Central









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Monday, August 12, 2013

GOP Rebranding ~ Racist Rogues and Rodeo Clowns


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A rodeo clown at the Missouri State Fair put on a mask of President Barack Obama, and an announcer asked an enthusiastic crowd whether they wanted to see “Obama trampled by a bull,” according to a witness and video posted online.
Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, said through a spokesman that the antics were “disrespectful and offensive,” and Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, a Republican, said on Twitter: “We are better than this.”
~ NBC News

. . . voice is heard over the loudspeaker working up the crowd and saying, "We're going to stomp Obama now."
"As soon as this bull comes out, Obama, don't you move," the second voice said. "He's going to getcha, getcha getcha, getcha."
"Hey, I know I'm a clown," the second voice said. "He's just running around acting like one. Doesn't know he is one." ...
~ CNN News

I am amazed that in 2013, such hatred, intolerance and disrespect towards the President of the United States could take place at the Missouri State Fair. Our fair is supposed to showcase the best of Missouri, instead, it showed an ugly face of intolerance and ignorance to the world.
~ Congressman William Lacy Clay (D) Missouri

Poking fun at our president is a time-honored tradition in this country, but the incident Saturday night at the Missouri State Fair rodeo went well beyond the line. The concept of an angry bull attempting to trample a black man for the amusement of a crowd is neither entertaining nor funny and is not the type of behavior that our taxpayer-subsidized State Fair should promote.
“House Democrats will be asking House Speaker Tim Jones to immediately appoint an interim committee to investigate this incident and to consider whether continued taxpayer funding is appropriate for an event that allows such racist actions to occur.
~ Missouri House Minority Leader Jake Hummel (D) and Assistant House Minority Leader Gail McCann Beatty (D)

And it was just last week on this program where I . . . talked about Obama going on a comedy show to tell us something very serious about foreign policy, and I said this is diminishing the office of the presidency, the way Obama’s handling this, just totally diminishing it. He is reducing the office to the lowest common denominator, and I would suggest to you that whatever the truth of this thing is in Missouri, the clown putting on the Obama mask, is representative of the fact that there is a declining overall respect for the office of the presidency.
When the president of the United States more often than not connects with the American people on late-night comedy shows, what else can happen, other than the diminishing of the office.
~ Rush Limbaugh

From the Missouri Rodeo Cowboy Association
The Missouri Rodeo Cowboy Association would like to extend a sincere apology for the inappropriate act during the Bull Riding at the Saturday performance of the MRCA Rodeo. The MRCA Board of Directors and over 600 members do not condone nor approve of this sort of activity. The MRCA Board of Directors is dealing with the situation firmly and quickly as this type of behavior will not be tolerated. The Sport of Rodeo is not meant to be a political platform. We are taking measures by training and educating our contract acts to prevent anything like this from ever happening again. All Members of the Missouri Rodeo Cowboy Association are very proud of our Country and our President. Once again our apologies to the Missouri State Fair and the fans who were in attendance and we hope to see you at another rodeo soon.

The president of the rodeo cowboy association — who doubled as rodeo announcer at the event Saturday — said on Monday he was not aware that a “rogue rodeo clown” planned to stage the performance.
“The rodeo clown did an act that was not in the script, it was not approved by the board of directors of MCRA and it was not appropriate,” rodeo association president Mark Ficken told NBC affiliate KSHB in Kansas City, Mo. “We extend our apologies to the Missouri State Fair. Rodeo is not a political platform and will not be again. We are taking disciplinary action.”
~ USNews @nbc



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Donald Trump Keeping Birtherism Alive:

From This Week On ABC

Jonathan Karl, ABC News to Donald Trump: You said a lot of things over the years that people say make you not serious. One of the big things is on the birth certificates.

Trump: Why does that make me not serious? I think that resonated with a lot of people.

Karl: But you don't still question he (Obama) was born in the United States, do you?

Trump: I have no idea.
Karl: Even at this point?

Trump: Was there a birth certificate? You tell me. You know some people say that was not his birth certificate. Nobody knows. You don't know either. You're a smart guy, Jonathan, and you don't know either. Nobody knows.

Karl: I'm pretty convinced.

Trump: Ah! You said pretty.



Karl: Totally, without question, convinced.

Trump: You said you're pretty convinced, okay? Let's see what happens over time, but it's not my issue, Jonathan. My issue right now is much different. Wait a minute -- my issue is economic. Our country is being ripped apart by China and many other countries. That's my issue.

Karl: But on this issue, people thought you were out of line --

Trump: You said you're pretty sure. You can't be pretty sure, that's not acceptable. You have to be 100% sure.

Karl: I'm 100% sure.

Trump: I don't think you are.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 

More Birthers Lurking Out There . . .






. . . if [the birth certificate] is truly illegal, he (Obama) shouldn't be there and we can get rid of everything and I said I agree with that.
But is that the best way to spend our time?
~ Florida Rep. Ted Yoho, via Huff Post

Yoho recalled a conversation with House Speaker John Boehner.
"And then I had a little fun with Boehner," Yoho said. "I told him about the sun tanning tax. He goes ‘I didn't know that was in there.'
I said, ‘Yeah, it's a 10 percent tax.' He goes ‘Well, it's probably not meant as that big of a deal.' I said ‘It's a racist tax.' "
At that point, the crowd at the joint meeting of the Gainesville, Gilchrist County and North Central Florida tea party groups erupted in cheering, laughter and clapping.
Yoho then continued. "He (Boehner) started laughing and he goes, ‘You know what? It is,' " Yoho said.
"And I have an Indian doctor in our office the other day. Very dark-skinned. And two non-dark-skinned people. And I said this to him. And they started laughing. And I said 'Have you ever been to a tanning booth?' And he goes ‘No, no need.'
So therefore it's a racist tax and I thought I might even go to a tanning booth twice so I can come out and say I've been disenfranchised. I got taxed because of the color of my skin. I mean as crazy as that sounds, that's what the left does. By God, if it works for them, it'll work for us."
~ Ted Yoho via Gainesville.com

I think unfortunately the horse is already out of the barn on this, on the whole birth certificate issue. The original Congress when his eligibility came up should have looked into this and they didn’t. I’m not sure how we fix it.
You tie into a question I get a lot, if everybody's so unhappy with what the President’s done, why don’t you impeach him. I’ll give you a real frank answer about that, if we were to impeach the President tomorrow, you could probably get the votes in the House of Representatives to do it. But it would go to the Senate and he wouldn’t be convicted.
~ Texas Rep Blake Farenthold at a Town Hall Meeting, via TPM

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Obama the Racial Divider

“This week I heard the president talk about phony scandals. There’s nothing phonier than the words that have come out of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. about reuniting this country, bringing us together as a people. No, he’s not a uniter; he’s a divider. He divides us on race, he divides us on income. He picks winners and losers.
. . . Listen, I’ll tell you what: It’s self-evident. I don’t know if people who aren’t reading or not watching, maybe, don’t have the same opinion, but I think it’s pretty obvious where we’re going with some of this stuff.
. . . People tell me all the time, ‘the trouble with you people is, you just don’t understand.’ Let me tell you something: I understand. I get it. I’ve watched how much erosion we’ve had. I’ve watched how much our freedom and liberty is under attack. No, I understand it.
~ Pennsylvania Rep Mike Kelly, via Roll Call

From Arizona Central
Hundreds of protesters wielded signs, chanted slogans and argued with each other Tuesday outside Desert Vista High School in Phoenix, while President Barack Obama spoke about housing and the economy inside.
. . . Obama foes at one point sang, "Bye Bye Black Sheep," a derogatory reference to the president's skin color, while protesters like Deanne Bartram raised a sign saying, "Impeach the Half-White Muslim!"
. . . “Obama is ruining American values. He is ruining the Constitution. He needs to go back to where he came from because obviously, he is a liar,” she said. “I am not racist. I am part Indian. Obama’s half Black, half White.”
“He’s 47 percent Negro,” shouted Ron Enderle, a 77-year-old Chandler resident who said that he and his son served as Marines and his grandson is currently serving in the Marines.
Enderle criticized the president mishandling security at the U.S. Benghazi Embassy.
“My grandson is third generation Marine, and it bothers me to have this man as our commander in chief. I’m ashamed,” Enderle said.Judy Burris said that she blames Obama for racism in America reaching heights not seen since the 1960s Civil-Rights Era.
“We have gone back so many years,” she said. “He’s divided all the races. I hate him for that.”
She said that she brought her 12-year-old grandson Christian Cabrera to the protests because she thought it would be educational.
“He’s Mexican,” she said of her grandson.
Cabrera said he wanted to accompany his grandma “so I could protest about impeaching Obama.”





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Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Zimmerman Juror B37 Loses Book Deal

photo b37.jpg

Yahoo News
Saying that she underestimated the depth of emotion created by the case she served on — as evidenced by last night's disturbances in Los Angeles — one of the jurors who acquitted George Zimmerman has canceled a previously announced book project about the trial. Early on Monday, it was revealed that the juror, known only as Juror B37, had secured a literary agent and would be shopping a book proposal about her experience on the sequestered jury and the issues the case raised about the legal system. (The juror's husband is also an attorney.)

From Buzzfeed
Late Monday night, Sharlene Martin of Martin Literary Management LLC told BuzzFeed that Juror B37 will no longer pursue a book deal.

The juror’s statement, via Martin:

“I realize it was necessary for our jury to be sequestered in order to protest our verdict from unfair outside influence, but that isolation shielded me from the depth of pain that exists among the general public over every aspect of this case. The potential book was always intended to be a respectful observation of the trial from my and my husband’s perspectives solely and it was to be an observation that our ‘system’ of justice can get so complicated that it creates a conflict with our ‘spirit’ of justice.
Now that I am returned to my family and to society in general, I have realized that the best direction for me to go is away from writing any sort of book and return instead to my life as it was before I was called to sit on this jury.”

The juror’s announcement came after Martin — who has also represented Amanda Knox’s ex Raffaele Sollecito — decided to drop her following hours of outrage on social media.
“After careful consideration regarding the proposed book project with Zimmerman Juror B37, I have decided to rescind my offer of representation in the exploration of a book based upon this case,” Martin said in an email at the time.

From CNN
The woman, who was identified just as Juror B37, spoke exclusively to CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" on Monday night. She is the first juror to speak publicly about the case.

She said she believes Zimmerman's "heart was in the right place" the night he shot Martin, but that he didn't use "good judgment" in confronting the Florida teen.

"I think George Zimmerman is a man whose heart was in the right place, but just got displaced by the vandalism in the neighborhoods, and wanting to catch these people so badly that he went above and beyond what he really should have done," she said.
. . . An initial vote was divided. Three of the jurors first voted Zimmerman was guilty, while three voted he was not guilty, she said. Juror B37 was among those who believed he was not guilty from the start.
"There was a couple of them in there that wanted to find him guilty of something and after hours and hours and hours of deliberating over the law, and reading it over and over and over again, we decided there's just no way, other place to go," she said.





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