Happy 4th of July!

I am not typically somebody who gets all caught up in over the top patriotism on days like this.

But this year is different from times past.

This year I really feel that my country is under siege and that it is the duty of every citizen to stand up against the tyranny which is spreading like a cancer throughout the land.

We are under attack.

Perhaps not physically, though I fear that will come, but intellectually, emotionally, and, dare I say, spiritually.

I don't mean the kind of spirituality that they talk about in church, I mean the kind of spirituality that makes you feel connected to the land on which you live, and the people who live there with you.

These last eight years I have felt a kind of kinship with my fellow countrymen that I had not felt for many years, if ever. A feeling that we were all moving forward together. Perhaps not all at the same pace, but moving all the same.

I do not feel that any longer.

And the loss of the feeling has left an emptiness that I never knew I had before.

So today we may celebrate the freedom that our forefathers fought for lo so many years ago, while also remembering that the fight for freedom is never truly over. And that fact has never seemed more real than it does today.

Let's all take a moment to celebrate that seminal event which took place eight years ago today. Sarah Palin becoming the Quitter-in-Chief.

Part Two Such a great day, I remember it like it was yesterday.

But in fact it was eight long years ago.

Our next goal after forcing Palin out of office was to keep her from ever running for president.

We succeeded at that as well.

And we kept the focus on her until finally she simply sank out of sight into the fog of "nobody gives a shit anymore."

Now if only we can manage to do the same to Donald Trump.

Fox News blatantly exhibits their bias against the non-religious.

So the clip above is from Fox and Friends, which is the Fox network's attempt at a Today Show like format if everybody on the set huffed paint during the commercials.

Now for quite some time Fox and Friends have been stamping their feet and holding their breath in support of laws that would allow religious people to discriminate against people who refuse to think exactly like they do.

However in Madison, Wisconsin they flipped the script and decided that perhaps the rights of Atheists deserved to be protected as well.

"What?" said Fox News.

Well hell Fox and Friends aren't going to sit still for that (Well they're still sitting down but you get what I mean.)

Here is my favorite quote from this segment, "You know there's a lot of reasons why Christians or Jews might not want to hire an Atheist. In fact it's in the New Testament. It says things such as 'avoid them,' 'disassociate with them,' in Romans, Thessalonians, Corinthians."

This Jay Christian Adams guy goes on to suggest that you would want a person of faith for certain jobs such as for an airline hiring a pilot, because apparently believing in hell makes it so much less likely they will fly a planeload of innocent passengers into the side of a mountain. (Spoiler alert: It doesn't.)

I love how these people are all for freedom so long as it benefits people who think like them, but the second that the freedoms extends to those outside their tribe, well that is simply intolerable.

I'm a little younger, but I feel exactly the same way.

Source

For those who can handle it here is Palin's entire speech from Steve King's Iowa Freedom Summit. As expected no announcement of any 2016 campaign.

I am not about to transcribe this entire thing, but I will point out a few moosenuggets.

At one point she did reference this famous non-run.

And suggested that the reporters went out of their way to point out that it was a sign she was running for President.

Palin also attacked the "liberals" for their attacks on the patriotic Chris Kyle,

And at the 6:08 mark she attempts to explain away this sign.

Though she claimed that she only held the poster, and never copped to signing it with her own message, she also did not back away from it's message:

"What the poster said was what the rest of us were thinking."

At the 8:35 mark Palin also addresses the Trig standing on his dog picture:

"The usual suspects just went loco."

Palin also described the dog as big and strapping, and Trig as tiny.

(A picture is worth a thousand words.)

Of course Palin also attacks Hillary, fawns over Reagan, pimps her family mythology, and bitches about President Obama for almost 40 minutes.

(No mention of the drunken brawl however.)

And of course, despite her recent teasing, Palin also did not announce that she was throwing her wig into the arena for 2016.

Which of course WE already knew was never going to happen.

P.S. If you want to spare yourself any of the caterwauling  Ana Marie Cox has a partial transcript.

And here is what a few in attendance had to say.

I don't say this lightly. This is the strangest speech I've ever seen Sarah Palin deliver.
— Scott Conroy (@RealClearScott) January 24, 2015

Sarah Palin is now the rodeo clown sent out to get the crowd riled and make the real cowboys look better in comparison.
— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) January 24, 2015

I've heard hundreds of Palin speeches and this is easily in the Top 5 laziest and most frenetically incoherent.
— Jeb Lund (@Mobute) January 24, 2015

Oh yeah she really helped her brand with THIS appearance.

Sarah Palin's super patriotic passive aggressive 4th of July shout out.

Wearing her "With every step I am disrespecting our flag" shoes.

Courtesy of the red, White, ans Blue moron's Facebook page:

Happy Fourth of July, America! Never forget what Thomas Jefferson called “the Spirit of 1776” – a sentiment rooted in the abiding belief that all men are created equal and desire freedom. Reagan invoked that same spirit in his famous speech “A Time for Choosing” when he urged us not to “abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.” 

(Translation:  Happy freedom day you small town living patriots, and fuck all of you elite intellectuals who keep fact checking me and pointing out my ignorance for all to see.)

Today and every day, let’s remember the “Spirit of 1776” and celebrate Independence, not government!  

(Translation: "Let's totally celebrate the spirit that formed this great country, but not the government the Founding Fathers came up with to run it.")


May that love of liberty burn in our hearts and renew our commitment to restore and preserve all that is good and strong and true about America. 

 (Translation: And what is good and strong and true in America is that there are certain people who deserve to have rights, and certain others who simply do not. You know who you are!)


 - Sarah Palin (Translation: RAM.)


Palin's ghostwriter also includes a quote from Ron Paul which kind of makes me think she is seriously considering the idea of the Tea Party breaking off and forming its own political party.

Which would, in my estimation, be just about the greatest thing to happen to this country since Paul Revere rode through the streets ringing those bells and warning the British that they weren't going to be taking away our arms.

Okay I know that might confuse a few of you who did NOT sleep through tenth grade history, so here let Stephen Colbert explain exactly how that took place.

By the way I just returned from attending the 4th of July parade downtown where I got the chance to see my Senator. Mark Begich, walking down the street while being greeted by friendly waves from bystanders, and numerous floats promoting diversity and Alaska's commitment to human rights.

It made me very proud of my state, and very proud of my country.

Perhaps the best advocates for better gun control laws, are 2nd Amendment zealots themselves.

Courtesy of Bloomberg View:  

Employees of a Jack in the Box restaurant in Fort Worth, Texas, got a glimpse last week of an America where the more extreme element of the gun-rights movement has its way. Their reaction? They hid in the freezer. Parents in a public park in Georgia, confronted by another display of gun rights, called 911. 

Both the employees and the parkgoers were reacting to the presence of armed men in their midst. Police, however, could do nothing to ease their anxiety: These hair-trigger scenarios are precisely what such open-carry states have written into law. Indeed, in the 44 states with open carry of handguns, 31 of which don't even require a license or permit, almost anyone can walk down the street carrying a loaded gun. In all but 11 states, those running for cover can safely assume that many a neighborhood gunslinger lacks training in firearm safety and may have even purchased his weapon without a rudimentary background check. (Let's just skip the whole discussion about drugs and alcohol and guns. Too messy.) 

As hunting has declined, and the crime rate in the U.S. has plummeted over the past two decades, the gun-rights movement has increasingly rallied around guns for their own sake rather than as a tool to achieve an end, such as sport or safety. 

As public policy, open carry is pretty much indefensible. Listen to National Rifle Association leader Wayne LaPierre, speaking after the slaughter in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012: "The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun." Yet how do we tell one from the other? Should good guys don a red star to distinguish themselves in a crowd? What about sorta good guys with long insecurities and short tempers? Should they wear yellow for "caution"? Only when they're feeling angry? Please do advise, Wayne. 

Social norms long discouraged open carry even where it was legal. The gun-rights movement wants to change that. As it happens, there may be no better advocates for sensible gun regulation than the jittery men who treat guns as toys to be paraded in public. A witness in Georgia claimed the armed man in the parking lot had announced: "See my gun? Look, I got a gun and there's nothing you can do about it." His social etiquette may have been lacking, but the guy had Georgia law down cold. 

The more such acts of intimidation take place, the more they will make manifest the divide between responsible gun owners and zealots. Dangerous laws have nothing to do with the Second Amendment, which has always enabled regulation of guns and still does. They have everything to do with cultivating a culture of fear that benefits both the NRA and the gun industry. A parent at the Georgia park, Karen Rabb, explained the distinction. "I own a gun. I have no problems with the Second Amendment," she told Atlanta's WSB-TV. "But they do not belong in a parking lot where we have children everywhere. If you want to make a statement, go to the Capitol."

You know I have been considering the fact that the open carry lunatics are essentially clumsily arguing for better gun control laws myself. In fact there have been a few incidents, like that one in Michigan concerning the drunken open carry advocate, when I though surely these are gun control plants.

My main concern is that this ridiculous strutting around like heavily armed peacocks will not provided enough ammunition (If you will pardon the word) for gun control advocates until somebody actually gets shot by one of the Rambo Underoos wearing morons.

Tonight there are not one, but two chances to watch Sarah Palin's show about American freedom porn.

Courtesy of the Un-Ladylike Liberty's Facebook page:

Tune in tonight for two episodes of “Amazing America” on Sportsman Channel. At 8:00pm, Benny Spies meets pirate hunter Barry Clifford who found millions and millions in pirate booty, in only 16 feet of water! Mark visits the most amazing taxidermy you’ve ever seen! Then at 8:30pm, Benny gets the 007 experience in some amazing armored vehicles at the Texas Armoring Corporation. And some like it hot, but not Jerry – watch as he takes on the challenges at the Brayton Fire Academy. The unique people you'll meet tonight will inspire you with their energy and innovation. Thank God we have the freedom in America – like nowhere else on earth – to pursue our dreams!

Here I speak Palinese so let me translate this for you:

"Ya'll tune in tonight while we try to use up two episodes at a time before they cancel us.  On this evening's program we will visit my new hero, a man who just found money laying around the seabed and did not have to work for a dime of it. Mark visits my wig maker. Benny gets to see more technology he can't understand, and Jerry learns that fire is hot. And you might just see me standing in front of a green screen acting like I am doing something adventurous, but we all know I'm not."

"Just remember these things can only happen in America cause we gots freedom, and nobody else on the planet does."

And now we know what would have happened if Jackass had got Hee Haw drunk on moonshine, knocked it up, and produced a spin off series.

I do understand what love is.

I could not have said it better myself.

(Source.)

Now Sarah Palin's mad at ESPN because (Buy my book!) they did not accept a hospital advertisement (Buy my book dammit!) that mentioned God and Jesus (Seriously I have truckloads of these stupid things!) and if anybody thinks she has an ulterior motive they are probably just an angry atheist.

Photo of Sarah Palin's old house before she moved to Arizona.

Courtesy of Phony Festivity Fanatic's Facebook page:

ESPN, you've come a long way, baby... from your known wholesome, bold Americana "persona" to now being afraid to support freedom and not being bold enough to allow acknowledgement of the "Reason for the Season." So disappointing. Well, I hope you guys catch and enjoy the Christmas spirit anyway! 

Palin then links to an article over at Breitbart where, as we know, journalistic ethics goes to die, discussing the terrible transgression by ESPN:   

The commercial mentions that thousands of people in the community send "messages of hope to sick and injured children who may not be able to come home for the holidays." 

"At... Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center, we celebrate the birth of Jesus and the season of giving, bringing hope to the many children, parents, and families that we serve," an announcer says in the ad before mentioning that the hospital's patients are "filled with hope" because they receive daily messages from the "treasure chest" beneath its "tree of hope." 

The ad concludes by asking viewers to "help us reveal God's healing presence this Christmas. Send your message of hope at Glennon.org." 

ESPN reportedly found "we celebrate the birth of Jesus" and "help us reveal God's healing presence this Christmas" to be "problematic." 

So once again a business decision made in recognition of the fact that there is a growing number of their viewers who are NOT Christians and who may find such a commercial objectionable, or even insulting to their belief system or lack thereof, has been twisted as an "attack on Christmas and Christianity."

By the way how is it that Palin does not recognize that "freedom" also entails the freedom to pick and choose the advertisements you want broadcast on your network without some anorexic bitch trying to lay a guilt trip on you about it?

But I guess when you have unsellable merchandise you really only care about your own freedom to drum up business by attacking everybody in your line of sight. 

You know, just like Jesus would do.

I want to fly like an eagle. To the sea. Fly like an eagle. Let my spirit carry me.

This should brighten up your day.

And isn't it MUCH more uplifting than the last eagle flying video that I posted?

New study says that the reason Southern Republicans overwhelming voted against Obama is simple. They are still upset that somebody let all of their slaves go free.

Courtesy of Think Progress: 

One survey of working class white voters found Obama only 4-8 points behind Romney in the majority of the country, while he polled 40 points behind Romney among Southern white working class voters. And a new study by political scientists Avidit Acharya, Matthew Blackwell and Maya Sen suggests that there may be a simple explanation for this divide — slavery. 

The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution banned slavery nearly 150 years ago, yet this study suggests that the legacy of slavery continues to drive voters in areas that once housed large numbers of slaves to vote Republican: 

"Drawing on a sample of more than 39,000 southern whites, we show that whites who currently live in counties that had high concentrations of slaves in 1860 are on average more conservative and express colder feelings towards African Americans than whites who live elsewhere in the South. That is, the larger the number of slaves in his or her county of residence in 1860, the greater the probability that a white Southerner today will identify as a Republican, express opposition to race-coded policies such as affirmative action, and express greater racial resentment towards African Americans. We show that these differences are robust to a variety of factors, including geography and mid-19th century economic conditions and political attitudes. We also show that our results strengthen when we instrument for the prevalence of slavery using local measures of the agricultural suitability to grow cotton. In fact, our findings indicate that in the counterfactual world where the South had no slaves in 1860, the political views of white Southerners today would be indistinguishable from those of similarly situated white Northerners."

The authors offer several potential explanations for how a human rights atrocity banned more than a century ago can continue to drive political attitudes today. Among them, the authors suggest that “the sudden enfranchisement of blacks was politically threatening to whites, who for centuries had enjoyed exclusive political power. In addition, the sudden emancipation of blacks substantially undermined whites’ economic power by suddenly increasing blacks’ wages and threatening the plantation economy.” These two factors, according to the author of the study, “led Southern white elites to promote localized anti-black sentiment by encouraging violence towards blacks, propagating racist norms and cultural beliefs, and, to the extent legally possible, pushing for the institutionalization of racist policies (such as Jim Crow laws). In turn, these racially hostile attitudes have persisted as each successive generation has, to some degree, inherited the attitudes and beliefs of the previous generation.”

Yeah I guess when your DNA tells you that the ni**ers are supposed to be out in the field picking your cotton, is is nigh impossible to vote for one to sit in the White House.  I beleive they refer to that type of black man as "uppity."

You know this study seems to link quite well with my post from yesterday that links the homophobic and religious nature of the conservatives to a form of tribalism.

I think that this just shows that we are still a few generations or more from completely eradicating racism in this country.  However I have hope as I have seen young children at play, and I can tell you that left to their own devices they would rarely discriminate against another based on skin, eye, or hair color, unless prompted to by trusted adults.

Female journalists in Iran. The result of religious fundamentalism.

Before you start to feel superior, you need to understand that if the Christian Fundamentalists in THIS country had their way our women would be treated in a manner very similar.

Freedom and progress do not come from the pages of a religious text, it comes from the repudiation of those religious texts.

With a mop of fake hair on her head, and a shirt stuffed with cantaloupes. Palin accuses the President of using grieving parents for "backdrops in his perpetual campaign-style press events."

Click One of the three fake boobs to hear the speech.

Courtesy of CNN Politics: 

Palin, wearing a shirt that read "Women hunt," was one of several speakers at the NRA gathering who targeted the Obama administration and some lawmakers for wanting tighter firearm restrictions after the Newtown elementary school massacre. 

Palin argued the president was practicing the "politics of emotion" by "flying in grieving parents on Air Force One, making them backdrops in his perpetual campaign-style press events." 

Par for the course, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee faulted the media for being a "reliable, poodle-skirted cheerleader for a president who writes the book on exploiting tragedy." 

Politics of emotion, she argued, won't make the country safer. "It's the opposite of leadership. It's the manipulation of the people by the politicians for their own political ends. It's not just self-serving. It's destructive and it must stop." 

Charging the president with being disingenuous in the wake of the shooting was a running theme throughout the day at the NRA. Palin added Obama was ignoring another tragedy. 

"We could use a bit more emotion by the way of what goes on every single day on the streets of cities like Chicago and New York," Palin said. 

Speaking of New York, Palin took the opportunity to take a swipe at Bloomberg, a mayor she has vehemently opposes for what she describes as his nanny state politics. In her last big speech at a major conservative gathering in March, Palin made headlines for sipping a "Big Gulp" on stage, a knock against New York's ban against certain large sugary drinks. 

"Now I see that the mayor of New York now wants to ban public displays of legal tobacco products," she said, referring to his recent push to keep tobacco products out of sight at stores in order to de-glamorize the product. 

"I tell ya," she said, as she pulling out a pack of chewing tobacco. "Don't make me do it." 

With the crowd roaring, she put the pack back in her pocket. 

"It's funny because Todd's been looking for this all morning."

As predicted Palin's fake boobs appear even bigger for this speech than they were for her last speech.

This speech contained pretty much every Palinesque sound bite one would expect. From attacks on the President, attacks on the media, and attacks on liberals, to a shout out to Margaret Thatcher, and sentences peppered with "freedom," "constitution," "mother of a combat vet," and "America."

She also claimed that Trig's nickname is Trigger, and that her nephew's middle name is "Remington," as proof of her gun toting bona-fides. (Too bad she still can't load a gun without her daddy, or hit a caribou drugged and tied up right in front of her, but hey why quibble?)

At one point Palin claimed that Hollywood and the media are helping "freedom destroy itself." Which I assume means that by exercising their 1st Amendment rights the liberal media is impacting the NRA members ability to exercise THEIR 2nd Amendment rights to masturbate with their gun barrels.

However perhaps the most ridiculous thing that Palin did to get some attention, was to use a can of Skoal in the place of her Big Gulp cup in another slam against Mayor Bloomberg.

 Yes, SO ladylike.

It looks like CISPA is dead. For now.

Courtesy of US News:  

CISPA is all but dead, again. 

The controversial cybersecurity bill known as the Cyber Information Sharing and Protection Act, which passed the House of Representatives last week, will almost certainly be shelved by the Senate, according to a representative of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. 

The bill would have allowed the federal government to share classified "cyber threat" information with companies, but it also provided provisions that would have allowed companies to share information about specific users with the government. Privacy advocates also worried that the National Security Administration would have gotten involved. 

"We're not taking [CISPA] up," the committee representative says. "Staff and senators are divvying up the issues and the key provisions everyone agrees would need to be handled if we're going to strengthen cybersecurity. They'll be drafting separate bills." 

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.V., chairman of the committee, said the passage of CISPA was "important," but said the bill's "privacy protections are insufficient."

I somehow do not believe that this attempt to control free speech on the internet will go away anytime soon, but I think as long as we remain vigilant and  are willing to express our displeasure en masse, we might be able to block attempts to pass anything at all, or ensure that whatever is passed will NOT take away our rights to communicate freely or strip us of our privacy rights.

This frustrating lack of content brought to you by our friends in Congress.

Courtesy of Anonyops:

 Greetings United States gov, 

We are the Internet. Again, you are trying to pass this ridiculous CISPA law in order to control and censor the people. This will not stand. You already control the medias, the economy, the criminal underworld, your national plots and our energy. YOU WILL NOT GET OUR INTERNET! 

The U.S. law that would turn Google, Facebook, and Twitter into legally untouchable government spies just passed the House. 

This bill affects everyone — not just U.S. citizens. Anyone with a Facebook account could now have their data shipped directly to the U.S. government. That’s why Internet users overwhelmingly oppose this bill. Over 1.5 million people signed petitions against it. But Congress didn’t listen. This law broadened the state terror and repression of the people. By allowing corporations to track our every action on the internet the state and corporations will be merged and that we have seen before: it is called fascism. 

We are going dark on MONDAY April 22nd at 6 AM GMT for 24 hours to protest your illogical and terrorizing bill against the Internet itself. Even with the whole Internet crying out to stop this BILL, the US House of Representatives failed to do so blinded by lobbyist’s money and cum in your eyes. So we will take action ourselves and open your eyes. Every popular/mainstream websites will be black until you, Mr. DronObama promise us to use your VETO power to stop this bill at Senate. Take this as a protest or a warning, as you wish. One thing is for certain, neither you or anyone else in this world can control the Internet, so don’t even try. Stop wasting taxpayers’ money into doing these kind of shenanigans. 

We are Anonymous. 

We are Legion. 

We do not Forgive. 

We do not Forget. 

Expect us. 

Uh oh!

Homophobia on the half shell. Boy Scouts may allow gay scouts, but NO gay scout masters.

Courtesy of Reuters:  

The Boy Scouts of America on Friday proposed lifting a ban on gay scouts but maintaining a prohibition on gay adults from leading troops, a compromise that attempts to end a fight that has split the century-old American institution into bitter factions. 

Reaction from scouting supporters ranged from outrage to limited approval. The biggest organization in scouts, the Mormon Church, said it was studying the proposal, leaving uncertain the outcome of a May vote by scout leaders that will set policy. Gay rights groups said continuing to bar gay adults was unacceptable, but they welcomed the change for youths. 

"The general feeling is that this is a bad move," which could precipitate a major crisis, A.J. Smith, president of the Association of Baptists for Scouting, wrote in a website post, attempting to summarize Baptists' views. "This is about a concerted effort to bring down a cultural icon. We must brace ourselves for the long haul on this one." 

The scouts' decision is a focal point of a heated gay rights debate in the United States, where polls show public opinion is fast moving toward greater acceptance and a core of social conservatives stridently oppose such change.

Now you may be surprised to learn that I think this is a positive step. 

It is NOT good enough by a long shot, but at least it is progress.

But here's the thing. The Boy Scouts depend on former scouts wanting to return as adults to become scout masters.

By accepting the children, but not the adults, they are sending the message that "Sure we might let you camp out and tie knots with us as young people, but once you are adults kindly fuck off."

That is a very hurtful message to send to a child.

However, and this point should be made, if the Boy Scouts suddenly find themselves infused with a large number of openly gay Boy Scouts, how much longer will it really take before the Scouts discover that they are not the frightening perverts that the Mormons and Fundamentalists have painted them to be?

In other words there is no such thing as going "a little gay."

If you have not seen it, you need to. Stephen Colbert's brilliant show open last night.

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,Video Archive

Damn! Gay couples are coming out publicly all over the place.

You know I think that when Freedom and Justice embrace "teh gay" that is pretty much all she wrote.