I think these t-shirts will soon start selling like hotcakes.

As an American I don't think I would leave the country without one.

You can order yours here.

I think this one photograph adequately sums up my feelings about 2016.

Source

So many highs, followed by so many lows.

The year had such great promise.

It was filled with so much hope.

By the end I sort of felt like poor Ronda Rousey from last night's fight.

Source

But you know what? We are fighters as well.

So let's pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and prepare for the next battle.

Because as every fighter knows, sometimes it takes getting knocked down, to remind us what it takes to win. 

Gary Johnson believes that presidential candidates being well informed is a bad thing because knowing "a foreign leader or geographical location" means putting our military in "harm's way." Wait, what?

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

“Talking about a foreign leader I respect, I have a hard time with that one,” Johnson told MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell. “That’s just who I am. And now I’m going to have to pick out a world leader and there’s going to be something wrong with them. And now I’m going to have to defend them! Well, maybe I think too much.” 

“You are running to be commander-in-chief,” Mitchell reminded the candidate. 

“Yeah, and you know what?” Johnson trumpeted back. “The fact that somebody can dot the i’s and cross the t’s on a foreign leader or a geographic location then allows them to put our military in harm’s way!”

You ever get a headache so bad that it hurts to blink your eyes?

Yeah well this gave me one.

First off the President of the United States does not have the luxury of not knowing things about the world around him. After all he is kind of forced to make some incredibly important decisions which can often affect not just America but every other country as well.

Second, knowing about where these countries are, and who is leading them, does NOT mean that we are then somehow obligated to drop bombs on them and send our troops to die on their soil.

In fact knowing more about them, and understanding their culture and history, can often help to avoid conflict or intervention.

You know in some ways I am in total agreement with Gary Johnson when it comes to keeping our soldiers from fighting in unnecessary wars.

You bet, high fives all around on that one.

However then I also am reminded that the reason that we got into these last two unnecessary wars in the first place was because we had a President in office who was woefully ill informed about the countries that he arrogantly thought he could invade and conquer with few negative repercussions for our military.

He was wrong.

So sorry Mr. Johnson, I would rather have a President who knows a lot, and would recognize the appropriate time for military intervention, than to have a President who knows little, and could very well leave us vulnerable to attack.

I am not a hawk, but I am also not an idiot.

Sadly the same cannot be said for Gary Johnson.

The Ted Cruz campaign is circulating this video and it's...it's...well you're just going to have to watch it for yourself.

Seriously what in the hell did I just see?

Here Addicting Info has a little more information about it:

The film was created by birther filmmaker Joel Gilbert, who produced the anti-Obama propaganda film Dreams from My Real Father. In that film, Gilbert indulges in the conspiracy theory that Obama’s father was Communist Frank Marshall Davis. The video also uses fake images to smear President Obama’s mother, claiming that she posed for sexual photos. 

Gilbert also claims that Obama has had plastic surgery so that his nose no longer resembles Davis. Gilbert also alleges that the president is secretly a Muslim, despite the ample evidence that he is a practicing Christian, and claims that the 2012 presidential election was stolen. He writes columns for World Net Daily, a leading pro-birther conspiracy website affiliated with Donald Trump.

Welcome to the darkest recesses of the conservative bubble my friends.

And yes the Cruz campaign thinks this little video is the bee's knees.

I swear just when I think this election cycle cannot get any more bizarre, it just up and does.

So apparently Sarah Palin likes Pope Francis again.

Courtesy of Palin's Facebook page.

Well first off it shows remarkable restraint on her part that there is not a SarahPAC logo stamped on it.

Secondly does this mean that Palin no longer thinks that, "He's had some statements that to me sound kind of liberal, has taken me aback, has kind of surprised me?"

Though to be fair after that statement Palin did issue an almost unheard of apology.

And then of course blamed the comment on the media.

However her apology came before the Pope condemned trickle down economics, compared arrogant Christians to pagans, and said that Evolution and the Big Bang are real.

It was also before this picture was taken.

So does that mean that Sarah Palin is in agreement with the Pope on all of that?

Or does it mean that she is too afraid of the Pope's many rabid followers to criticize him on her Facebook page anymore?

And if it is that latter reason, I wonder how it feels for her to have the shoe on the other foot?

I found this on Reddit, with the caption "She's registered to vote...are you?"

I think that bottom word is "asshole" but I'm not sure if that is another insult directed at Obama, or if it is just a reminder as to where hers is located?

Might be the worst wife ever.

Courtesy of Philly.com:  

A Texas actress who tried to blame her husband after sending ricin-laced letters to officials including President Barack Obama was sentenced Wednesday to 18 years in prison. 

A federal judge gave Shannon Guess Richardson, 36, the maximum sentence under her plea deal on a federal charge of possessing and producing a biological toxin. Richardson was also ordered to pay restitution of about $367,000. She had pleaded guilty to the charge in December. 

"I never intended for anybody to be hurt," she told the court, adding later, "I'm not a bad person; I don't have it in me to hurt anyone." 

"I'm not a bad person; I don't have it in me to hurt anyone."

Really?

Let's see if that passes the smell test.  

Prosecutors say Richardson mailed the three letters from New Boston, outside Texarkana, then went to police and claimed that her husband had done it. She was arrested last June. The day before her arrest, Nathan Richardson filed for divorce; it was finalized in January. 

Prosecutors say investigators noted inconsistencies in Richardson's statements. She also acknowledged in a signed plea agreement that she ordered castor beans online and learned how to process them into a substance used to make ricin, a toxin that can cause respiratory failure if inhaled. 

She obtained an email address, a PayPal shopping account and a post office box in her husband's name without his knowledge, according to the document. 

On the morning of May 20, 2013, she said she waited for her husband to go to work and then printed the mailing labels. 

The letter to Obama read, "What's in this letter is nothing compared to what ive got in store for you mr president," according to the document. "You will have to kill me and my family before you get my guns. Anyone wants to come to my house will get shot in the face." 

She eventually admitted to trying to blame her husband and lying to authorities.

Damn!

This nasty piece of work went to all the trouble of learning how to make this deadly poison, opened up a Pay Pal account and P.O. Box in her husband's name, and then sent off letters containing ricin to the President of the freaking United States.

I know we talk about the humiliating things that Sarah Palin has subjected Todd to during their years of marriage, but at least she never tried to get him arrested for threatening to kill the President.

That is a whole new level of evil in my book.

Sarah Palin drops all pretense of being reasonable and goes full retard.

So on Palin's Facebook page today she has the following headline: 

I Want to Hear From Anyone Who Still Supports This Guy; I Want to Try to Figure You Out

Of course she is referencing President Obama and offers a link to a Right Wing blog that is attacking something on his official Facebook page.

She then offers up this graphic.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Palin some kind of politician as well?

With this explanation:  

Hey guys: If the General Patton quote offends you, take it up with the General, not me; and then ask your parents why they raised such an overly sensitive intolerant little fellow. (See? Full retard.)

I used to not feel this way, as I sought some redeeming value in everyone's opinion (Yeah, right!), but today's hijacking of the nefarious political party drives me to agree with the good General. Under its present leadership only the dishonest or frighteningly naive could claim allegiance to the Left wing of the party symbolized by the ass. If you consider yourself one of the good-old-day's Blue Dog democrats or a "Reagan democrat" of old, know those days are long gone. Your party left you. Go Independent. I'd love to hear from any of you who conclude the democrat party has morphed into a fundamentally transformed, unrecognizable monster, thus you've strengthened your spine and walked out of their room. You're better than the contributors to these days of bread and circuses. Save America, go Independent. 

- Sarah Palin

Okay is she  really trying to divide members of Democratic party, while her own Republican party rips itself in two over ideological differences?

Everything she says up at the top is far more descriptive of the Republican party as it is today than any disagreements on the other side of the aisle.

I think what we are seeing is a classic case of projection, not to mention Sarah Palin giving her inner troll free rein to say whatever her editors have kept it from saying for lo these many years.

Of course Palin has virtually nothing to lose at this point.

She will write no more books.

She will have no more contracts with Fox.

Her political career is a bloated corpse that even modern science could never revive.

And her money is running through her fingers faster than she can turn (political) tricks to earn more.

So all she has is her hatred for the man who she believes snatched from her the destiny that she had been convinced was hers for the taking.

Which then reveals the ugliness that many of us knew was there all along.

President Obama heckled over immigration during speech, handles it like pro.

Courtesy of the YouTube page:  

Immigration-rights protesters interrupted President Obama's speech Monday demanding he use executive powers to immediately halt all deportations, but he rebuked them, telling them he doesn't have that power. "You have a power to stop deportation," one man, standing directly behind Mr. Obama, shouted near the end of the president's immigration speech in San Francisco, who then began to lead chants of "Stop deportation!" 

"Actually, I don't, and that's why we are here," Mr. Obama replied. 

When security moved to escort the protester out of the room, Mr. Obama told them to hold off. 

"These guys don't need to go. let me finish. No, no, he can stay there," he said. 

He went on to say if he thought he had unilateral powers to halt deportations, he would. But he said that would actually break the law. 

"If in fact I could solve all these problems without passing the laws in Congress then I would do so. But we're also a nation of laws, that's part of our tradition," he said. 

"The easy way out is to yell and pretend I can try and do something by violating our laws. what I'm proposing is the harder path," Mr. Obama said. "It requires us lobbying and getting it done."

I was incredibly impressed with how he engaged this young man instead of simply allowing the Secret Service to strong arm him out of the building. He did not have to engage, but he did.

I am sometimes really irritated by people who seem to think that the President can solve every problem with a snap of his fingers or an Executive Order. He can't.

He needs to have a Congress and Senate that are willing to work with him, and right now the Republicans will not touch a single thing that he wants to get done.

And let me just add that I sometimes think of myself as pretty cool, but I would have had a VERY hard time keeping my cool while that jackass was yelling like that and refusing to let the President respond.

Now just imagine how President Romney would have handled that. Frightening isn't it?

Talking Points has more.

Hawaii signs bill to make it the next state to legalize same sex marriage.

Courtesy of HuffPo:  

The Hawaii Senate passed a House-amended bill legalizing same-sex marriage on Tuesday. 

Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie is expected to sign the bill into law quickly, perhaps as soon as Wednesday, which would allow Hawaii to beat out Illinois as the 15th state to legalize same-sex marriage. 

The Hawaii law allows same-sex couples to marry in the Aloha State beginning Dec. 2, just in time for destination wedding season.

I have to imagine that hotel owners and  wedding planners in Hawaii are cartwheeling all over the place.

I mean comes on! A gay wedding in Hawaii? Who would not want to attend?

I'm straight but even I want to get gay married in Hawaii.

Here was President Obama's statement on this earlier:I want to congratulate the Hawaii State Legislature on passing legislation in support of marriage equality.

With today’s vote, Hawaii joins a growing number of states that recognize that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters should be treated fairly and equally under the law. Whenever freedom and equality are affirmed, our country becomes stronger. By giving loving gay and lesbian couples the right to marry if they choose, Hawaii exemplifies the values we hold dear as a nation. I’ve always been proud to have been born in Hawaii, and today’s vote makes me even prouder. And Michelle and I extend our best wishes to all those in Hawaii whose families will now be now given the security and respect they deserve.

I have to say that this can ONLY serve to reinforce every fear that the religious conservatives had about  Barack Obama becoming President of the United States.

Which is so awesome in my opinion.

The Republican plan to sabotage Obamacare. No seriously, there is one.

Courtesy of Politico:  

The opposition was strategic from the start: Derail President Barack Obama’s biggest ambition, and derail Obama himself. Party leaders enforced discipline, withholding any support for the new law — which passed with only Democratic votes, thus undermining its acceptance. Partisan divisions also meant that Democrats could not pass legislation smoothing out some rough language in the draft bill that passed the Senate. That left the administration forced to fill far more gaps through regulation than it otherwise would have had to do, because attempts — usually routine — to re-open the bill for small changes could have led to wholesale debate in the Senate all over again. 

But the bitter fight over passage was only the beginning of the war to stop Obamacare. Most Republican governors declined to create their own state insurance exchanges — an option inserted in the bill in the Senate to appeal to the classic conservative preference for local control — forcing the federal government to take at least partial responsibility for creating marketplaces serving 36 states — far more than ever intended. 

Then congressional Republicans refused repeatedly to appropriate dedicated funds to do all that extra work, leaving the Health and Human Services Department and other agencies to cobble together HealthCare.gov by redirecting funds from existing programs. On top of that, nearly half of the states declined to expand their Medicaid programs using federal funds, as the law envisioned. 

Then, in the months leading up to the program’s debut, some states refused to do anything at all to educate the public about the law. And congressional Republicans sent so many burdensome queries to local hospitals and nonprofits gearing up to help consumers navigate the new system face-to-face that at least two such groups returned their federal grants and gave up the effort. When the White House let it be known last summer that it was in talks with the National Football League to enlist star athletes to help promote the law, the Senate’s top two Republicans sent the league an ominous letter wondering why it would “risk damaging its inclusive and apolitical brand.” The NFL backed off. 

The drama culminated on the eve of the open enrollment date of Oct. 1. Congressional Republicans shut down the government, disrupting last-minute planning and limiting the administration’s political ability to prepare the public for the likelihood of potential problems, because it was in a last-ditch fight to defend the president’s biggest legislative accomplishment. 

The Republicans have clearly known since the beginning that if the implementation of this law were successful that it would spell doom for their party. How else to explain the extremes to which they have good to stop it?

But is there even more that we don't know about?

Take a look at this from Buzzfeed:

Republicans’ new Obamacare attack line hinges on allegations that the contractor in charge of building the disastrous healthcare.gov website landed the gig through sweetheart deals from the Obama administration. 

But according to Federal Election Commission records, that company’s PAC gave more to House Republicans than House Democrats during the 2012 cycle — including a $2,000 check for the GOP’s chief scandal investigator, Oversight Committee Chair Darrell Issa. What’s more, executives of CGI Federal personally gave more than twice as much to GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney than to President Obama. The contractor has also feasted on more than $2.4 billion worth of IT work dating back to the early Bush Administration. 

So far, none of that has stopped the Republican National Congressional Committee from suggesting CGI netted hundreds of millions of dollars to create the dysfunctional website because of its ties to the White House. 

Yet FEC records indicate executives for CGI gave $5,550 to GOP Romney and just $2,000 to Obama — not quite the behavior of a company indebted to the president for its contacting jackpots. 

Also, the company’s PAC, CGI-AMS, gave $48,000 to 28 GOP members of the House including $5,000 to Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), $6,000 to Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), and $2,000 each to Issa, Appropriations Committee Chair Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.), now-Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Rep. Martha Roby (R-Ala.). Yoder, Wolf, and Cole also sit on the Appropriations Committee. Issa, Wolf and Cole also received contributions from the PAC during the 2010 cycle. 

Attempts to reach Issa, Yoder, and Wolf were unsuccessful Thursday. 

The PAC gave $32,000 to 13 Democratic House members. They also gave $29,500 to Democrats running for Senate and $19,000 to Republican Senate candidates, reflecting a savvy record of giving more to members of the parties in power in each chamber. 

The bipartisan giving makes sense given that CGI’s first federal contract for IT work started in 2001 and, as a multibillion-dollar firm, has many lobbying interests in congress. 

In fact, USASpending.gov, the federal site tracking government contracts, shows CGI has been the contractor of choice for a wide range of computer systems work throughout the Bush Administration, including hundreds of multimillion-dollar contracts for the Departments of Defense, Agriculture and Health and Human Services. 

The contract under which CGI did the Obamacare website work, in fact, began in 2007 as a contract with HHS to handle Medicare and Medicaid IT. 

When the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010 with all of its tentacles intersecting with those programs, there was almost no way CGI wasn’t going to get to expand the scope of their existing contract, contracting experts say. Federal contracting rules are strict — so as to avoid political meddling — and they favor entrenched, large companies with track records. And if the case of CGI’s shoddy work doesn’t appear to represent partisan favoritism, it does appear to underscore broader problems with the system. 

You know there was once a time that I believed in coincidences in politics.

Those days are no more. 

If you think there is a low to which the Republican would not go, then you don't know today's Republican party.

For those who aren't completely convinced they were scammed, the pregnant diabetic lady from the President's speech today has a message.

I'm ok world- just got a little lightheaded.Thanks, @BarackObama for catching me! And good thing this pregnant diabetic is pregnant :)
— Karmel Allison (@karmel_a) October 21, 2013

You know Obama's Dirty Tricks Department is REALLY thorough. Imagine making up a fake Twitter account going back years JUST to fake out the public during a Presidential speech.

And she talked about being a diabetic and everything. Amazing!

Sarah Palin's favorite punching bag, Bill Ayers, writes a book about his experiences before, during, and after the presidential election that made him a household name.

His name was first pushed into the public sphere during the George George Stephanopoulos moderated debate between Hillary and Obama in April 2008, but then it was picked up by Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin, and others to be used as a bludgeon against the future President of the United States.

Finally Professor Ayers will explain his take on what happened, why it happened, and what it all means.

Here is an excerpt, entitled "I was Sarah Palin's Roadkill" courtesy of Salon: 

“This is not a man who sees America as you see it and how I see America,” vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin cried out to the agitated crowd during a 2008 campaign rally, referring to then-Senator Barack Obama. “We see America as the greatest force for good in this world” and as a “beacon of light and hope for others who seek freedom and democracy.” This was how “real Americans” saw things, according to Palin. As for Obama, he’s “someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country!” 

There it was: the punch line that would resonate no matter what else was said or done— palling around. It had a special creepy ring to it, for sure. 

When Governor Palin—or, as our late friend Studs Terkel called her, “Joe McCarthy in drag”—uttered it that first time (and ever after) the crowd exploded: “Kill him! Kill him!” I couldn’t tell for sure whether it was me or Senator Obama who was the target of those chants— perhaps both. I’d been designated a public enemy before. I knew the territory pretty well and accepted the consequences with some equanimity, but now poor Barack Obama as well was forced to play Ibsen’s brilliant character, the embattled Dr. Thomas Stockmann, the “enemy of the people.” Stockmann was viciously taunted in the public square by a chorus of townspeople bent on delusion and self-deception: Kill the enemy of the people! 

There was no way to prepare for what was about to hit me, of course, and at the outset I could barely glimpse it on the far horizon of my imagination—the great speeding locomotive designed to derail Obama would run me and others down as just some unavoidable debris or collateral damage, the inevitable road kill. No one really knew its shape or its power yet, no one could guess at its velocity. I grasped a couple of small things right away, but my family understood a lot more, and they were in fact already gearing up.

There is quite a bit more and I think you would do well to read it. 

As somebody who weathered their own vicious attack from those forces that Sarah Palin put into motion, I feel I share a certain common experience with Bill Ayers, though of course HIS was a thousand times worse than anything I had to endure.

Still I find myself interested to learn more about the man whose name was considered so polarizing that it was brought up over and over again in attempts to derail Barack Obama's inevitable journey to the White House.

Besides let's face it, anybody who freaks Sarah Palin out this much, and scares the crap out of the Right Wing, is somebody worth paying attention to.

Sarah Palin shamelessly uses the World War 2 veterans as pawns in her attack against President Obama. Update!

Just a graphic to remind people that while Palin shamelessly uses veterans to make political hay she would like to be paid for it as well.

This from Honey Wagon Boo Boo's Facebook page:

My Call For Civil Disobedience Around The “Barrycades” (Cute. I wonder if it cost extra SarahPAC money for that one?)

It’s beyond shameful to see Barack Obama disrespect and mistreat our World War II veterans so blatantly. Obama’s political stunt to “shut down” their memorial by barricade is to elicit an angry response to generate bad publicity for people the president uses in his continual blame game. 

Don’t believe me? Look at the “barricade” at the World War I Memorial:

Source

The difference is obvious. There aren’t any World War I veterans alive today to mistreat in a shameful political stunt. He’s deployed more guards to bar our World War II heroes from their memorial than he sent to Benghazi when our consulate was under attack. (Well of course somebody needs to bring up Benghazi. The evidence for this statement by the way seems to be this tweeted picture of park employees replacing the safety barricades after the Congressional Republicans knocked them down in their rush to get a photo-op with the veterans. Those barriers are NOT there to bar visitors from visiting the site, they are there to keep them safe since there are few park employees to assist them and ensure there is no destruction done to the monuments or injuries incurred by visitors.)

The President is treating our veterans the same way he treated school kids when he cancelled their White House tours. (Does she mean like every other person affected by a government shutdown? Because that list is long and it includes cancer patients, scientists, and infants and children not being fed.) When times called for obvious government belt-tightening, he took it out on kids rather than look for anything that would affect him personally. And while our vets are barricaded from the memorial they built with their heroism, the government “slim down” won’t affect Obama’s golf game or his family’s White House chefs. (You nasty, nasty bitch.)

Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress are attempting to fund the Veterans Administration and other essential functions, but Democrats are blocking them because they want to make any slim down look as awful as possible in order to deflect from what this whole slim down thing is about, which is their Obamacare train wreck. (Time for a reminder that the budget which the Senate Democrats approved, and which John Boehner is too intimidated to bring to the House floor, INCLUDES the sequestration cuts that the Tea Party helped to win last time they pulled this shit. The ONLY thing they are fighting to cut is The Affordable Care Act, which is a law!)

Good Congressmen are fighting for average middle class Americans to get the same breaks that Obama gave Congress, his pals, union bosses, and crony corporations who financed his campaign and snookered the media into putting him in office. (Actually Obamacare itself GIVES middle class Americans the same breaks enjoyed by Congress, big corporations, and union members. It gives them access to affordable health care. The question is WHY are the Republicans trying to stop them from getting it?)

It is a sad day when We the People have to go cap in hand to the president begging him to give us the same relief he gave his friends by fiat. Thank God we have bold leaders willing to fight for those who can’t afford to pay powerful lobbyists to make Obama and Harry Reid listen. (Does she mean like Ted Cruz? Oh yeah, he's a hell of a leader. Perhaps she should read the post directly below this one.)

Want to know why this whole thing happened? Look at what Obamacare is already doing to our country with health care costs skyrocketing, workers laid off or kicked to part-time, employers shutting down projects, and debt still soaring. See the article linked below. This is what America is up against. (The article she is referring to is a VERY misleading one called "The 100 Unintended Consequences of Obamacare" written by a Right Wing outlet.)

And Obama employees who know in your hearts and souls that punishing our veterans is wrong, know that we have your backs when you say “enough is enough” and then allow our vets to gaze upon our memorials that honor America’s finest. (And those "Obama employees" also surely know that all of that, and more, can be accomplished simply by bringing the Senate approved sequestration CR to the floor of the House and voting on it.) This simple act of civil disobedience will galvanize our nation against atrocious political games, and I promise you’ll sleep well tonight.

 - Sarah Palin 

So to be clear Palin is encouraging OTHER people to risk an overnight stay in jail, and a possible violent confrontation with police, while SHE stays warm and toasty in her fuzzy slippers and terrycloth straight jacket at home?

Why not? After all Facebook posts don't leave handcuff marks on your wrists or pepper spray your eyeballs. It is easy to suggest that others, in this case elderly service men and their families, fight a fight that you would never, ever fight in person.

I always find it fascinating that every time Palin accuses the President of doing something  shameful, like using the World War 2 Veterans for a "shameful political stunt," she does it while essentially doing that very same thing herself.

In this case the President is not "using" anybody, he is simply standing up to a group of domestic terrorists who were elected by the most rabid members of the Right Wing to undermine the government and, as Rachel Maddow has pointed out, to eventually shut the whole thing down.

The President is clearly on the right side in this battle, and it will take a lot more than transparent publicity stunts and crazed Facebook posts to shake his resolve.

P.S. It should be noted that Palin DID do one good thing today. She greatly assisted New Jersey Senatorial candidate Cory Booker, by endorsing his opponent.  I am sure a thank you note is on it's way from Booker's campaign office as we speak.

Update: As some of you probably figured out, I wrote this post before the shooting happened today on Capitol Hill. And the unpaid Capitol police who responded to that emergency are the same folks that Palin was encouraging people to confront about the fact that could not visit some of the attractions in the National Mall.

I'm just saying.

Possible military action in Syria has many churches preaching about the Rapture. Well that's helpful.

Courtesy of USA Today:  

The deadly violence percolating half a world away in Syria and the warnings of a possible U.S. attack have some people not only looking ahead to what might happen in the coming days — but also looking backward into ancient, apocalyptic prophecies in the pages of the Old Testament. 

In recent weeks, some dire prophecies have turned up on websites, in book stores, as the subject of Bible studies and in sermons by some Christians and others who see a link between the old passages and modern-day events in Egypt, Libya and Syria. 

"Behold, Damascus is about to be removed from being a city, and will become a fallen ruin," reads Isaiah 17, a passage some Christians say they believe details a horrific event that leaves the city uninhabitable and leads to worldwide tribulation and the second coming of Christ. 

Damascus is the Syrian capital and one of the world's oldest cities. 

Another passage in Isaiah 19 deals with civil war in Egypt and the rise of a "fierce king." 

Talk of those prophecies has intensified as President Barack Obama considers a U.S. military strike on Syria in response to what Washington says is evidence that the Syrian leadership used chemical weapons against its own people. In turn, Syria vows to retaliate against neighboring Israel if the U.S. strikes. 

Christian bookstores such as Family Christian Ministries in West Melbourne report that book sales of prophecy-themed works by charismatic minister Perry Stone, Pastor John Hagee and novelists such as Joel Rosenberg have increased in recent weeks since tension in Syria and Egypt escalated. 

"We sold a lot of Perry Stone books, and he's really good with the end times. A lot of our customers say their churches are doing something on prophecy," said Kaylee Snodgrass, assistant manager at Family Christian Ministries.

Of course this kind of thing ALWAYS takes place when a new war breaks out in the Middle East, however I imagine that it might become even MORE prevalent this time since 13 percent of Americans already believe that the President is the anti-Christ. 

And at least one program has used a President Obama lookalike to portray Satan.

Yeah, somehow I think those Christian bookstores better stock up on that "Left Behind" series.

Missouri rodeo features clown with Obama mask. Spectator describes crowd reaction: "It was feeling like some kind of Klan rally you’d see on TV."

Courtesy of the Washington Post: 

A clown wearing a President Barack Obama mask appeared at a Missouri State Fair rodeo this weekend and the announcer asked the enthusiastic spectators if they wanted to see “Obama run down by a bull.” 

The antics led the state’s second highest-ranking official, Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, to denounce the performance in a tweet Sunday. He said it was “disrespectful” to the president. 

“We are better than this,” the Republican tweeted. 

State Fair officials said the show in Sedalia was “inappropriate” and “does not reflect the opinions or standards” of the fair. “We strive to be a family friendly event and regret that Saturday’s rodeo badly missed that mark,” they said in a statement Sunday. 

Perry Beam, who was among the spectators, said “everybody screamed” and “just went wild” as the announcer talked about having the bull run down the clown with the Obama mask. 

“It was at that point I began to feel a sense of fear. It was that level of enthusiasm,” Beam, a 48-year-old musician from Higginsville, said Sunday, referring to the reaction from the crowd that filled the fair’s grandstand. 

He said another clown ran up to the one wearing the Obama mask, pretended to tickle him and played with the lips on the mask. About 15 minutes into the performance, the masked clown had to leave after a bull got too close, Beam said. 

Beam was at the rodeo with his wife and a student they were hosting from Taiwan. He said they were having a good time until the end of the rodeo. 

“It was the usual until the very end at bull riding,” he said. “As they were bringing the bulls into the chute and prepping them ... they bring out what looks like a dummy. The announcer says ‘Here’s our Obama dummy, or our dummy of Obama. 

“They mentioned the president’s name, I don’t know, 100 times. It was sickening,” Beam said. “It was feeling like some kind of Klan rally you’d see on TV.”

This, this is who now makes up the base of the Republican party.

By the way it should be noted that if Mr. Beam had NOT placed this picture on his Facebook page and described what had taken place that those of us who were not there would have NO idea that this kind of thing was going on.

But then again perhaps we have always known that this kind f thing has been going on, but just didn't want to believe it.

Personally I disagree with what the Lt. Governor and the State Fair officials had to say. Considering the description of the crowd response it seems to me that their state is not "better than this."

Is it any wonder that blocking everything that the President tries to do all but ensures the reelection of numerous southern Republicans back at home?

Revelations about internet spying has just put the chill on President Obama's upcoming visit to Germany.

"You got some splainin to do buddy!"

Courtesy of Reuters:  

German outrage over a U.S. Internet spying program has broken out ahead of a visit by Barack Obama, with ministers demanding the president provide a full explanation when he lands in Berlin next week and one official likening the tactics to those of the East German Stasi. 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman has said she will raise the issue with Obama in talks next Wednesday, potentially casting a cloud over a visit that was designed to celebrate U.S.-German ties on the 50th anniversary John F. Kennedy's famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech. 

Government surveillance is an extremely sensitive topic in Germany, where memories of the dreaded Stasi secret police and its extensive network of informants are still fresh in the minds of many citizens. 

In a guest editorial for Spiegel Online on Tuesday, Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said reports that the United States could access and track virtually all forms of Internet communication were "deeply disconcerting" and potentially dangerous. 

"The more a society monitors, controls and observes its citizens, the less free it is," she said.

 Remember even if WE are cool with being spied on by our government, we do not exist in a vacuum and there are others who have seen how badly this can go once the government stops respecting the rights of its citizens.

Gee the next thing you know Germany will put the wall back up, this time in cyberspace and not to keep the Communists at bay but instead the Americans.

Spotted in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Don't hold back tell us what you really think.

Of course if you asked him he would tell you that he has nothing agaisnt them queers so long as they keep their sinning to themselves, and has at least one black friend who knows to stay in his place and not get all uppity.

(Source.)

Wait, why does that shirt seems so familiar?

Oh, that's right.

New advocacy group uses Ronald Reagan's own words in advertisement to support background checks for gun owners. Right Wing heads to explode in 3..2..1

Oh man! You know this is going to piss off the conservatives like nobody's business!

I love it!

Oops. it looks like SOMEBODY is starved for attention. And possible for a cheesburger from the looks of her picture.

"People are forgetting about me, I have to do something stupid to get their attention!"

Courtesy of the Lunatic from Lake Lucille's Facebook page:

Who is running our country? We've got a CIA Director sharing security info with his mistress using an unsecure gmail account. We've got the delusional Susan Rice blaming the death of an ambassador on a Youtube video. We've got Iran firing on one of our drones a week before the election. We've got the White House either ignorant of or covering up all of this. Who is minding the store? Everywhere we look we see the rank incompetence or corruption of the people who are supposedly running our country and our major institutions. Let's hope that responsible reporters at Obama's press conference today ask the right questions Americans deserve answers to. 

Here's my question for the president: As our nation's chief executive you claim to be unaware of the most important and tragic situations we're facing; so, as a former chief executive, I'd like to know how long it takes for your staff to tell you things like: "Sir, your CIA Director is under investigation"? 

- Sarah Palin

Seriously?  This idiot was not even aware that her daughter was spending the night banging her boyfriend, and then sneaking back into the house before she woke up. And then she attempted to fool people into thinking she was pregnant in the clumsiest manner possible, by stuffing a sofa cushion under her shirt.

Yet SHE feels qualified, as "a former chief executive" to ask the President to explain why the FBI did not see fit to inform him that the CIA director was under investigation?

Perhaps she should call her friends on the FBI and ask them?

Update: BY the way I am watching the President's press conference while typing this and the President is being VERY  forthright about a number of issues, however he is not taking the bait of commenting in too much detail about the Petraeus investigation which is still ongoing.

Oddly enough he does not seem to even be aware that the batshit crazy Facebook blogger has a question for him. Go figure.