I know it's wrong for us to enjoy or laugh at this. But.....

Shouldn't be watching this.

Going to stop now.

Yep, that's enough.

I wonder if they felt that in other parts of the building?

Just a few more times, then I'm definitely going to stop.

You know I'm learning that I really don't like Chris Christie.

Imagine that.

Rick Perry tweets inflammatory photo of woman that he undoubtedly blames for his indictment. Immediately regrets it.

Courtesy of Mediaite:  

Last night, the official Twitter account of Governor Rick Perry posted a photo taking a shot at the Texas Democrat at the heart of Perry’s indictment and veto scandal. Rosemary Lehmberg was arrested for DUI last year, and Perry threatened not to fund the Travis County Public Integrity Unit unless she resigned.

The tweet was taken down almost immediately and not long afterward this tweet also went out from his official account.

A tweet just went out from my account that was unauthorized. I do not condone the tweet and I have taken it down.
— Rick Perry (@GovernorPerry) September 1, 2014

Ah yes, the ever popular, "Somebody tweeted a message from me that was not from me" defense.

We know it well.

Hey maybe it's true.

I mean after all it is not like Perry is known for making stupid mistakes and then refusing to take responsibility for them or anything, right?

Would be Arizona Congressman tells local news crew that he saw "fear" on the faces of immigrant children being bused from the border. Turns out it was a bus full of YMCA kids out on a field trip.

Republican candidate Adam Kwasman making friends in Oracle, Arizona.

Courtesy of the LA Times:  

Oracle's Sycamore Canyon Academy confirmed that it had a contract to house a "small number" of the children, the Associated Press reported. Protesters gathered early and waited for buses to arrive -- inspired at least in part by a July 1 demonstration in Murrieta, Calif., that forced three buses of immigrants to turn back. 

Then Adam Kwasman, a state representative and tea party member who is seeking the Republican nomination for Arizona's 1st Congressional District, tweeted from the scene: 

"Bus coming in. This is not compassion. This is the abrogation of the rule of law." 

Kwasman, demonstrators and camera crews converged on a yellow school bus filled with children, according to video. 

Later, Kwasman told KPNX-TV Channel 12 in Phoenix, "I was able to actually see some of the children on the buses, and the fear on their faces. This is not compassion." 

Reporter Brahm Resnik responded, "You know that was a bus with YMCA kids?" 

"They were sad too," Kwasman retorted. 

Okay at this point you are probably shaking your head and saying, "No, nobody is that stupid."

But there is video oh doubtful one. 

Okay I am not going to lie to you, I am literally laughing so hard at this that I can barely see my keyboard to type anything.

So feel free to add your own snark

Today's man shoots self and wife while cleaning gun story comes to us from Indiana.

Courtesy of Raw Story:

An Indiana man accidentally shot himself and his wife Sunday evening while cleaning his gun. 

Phillip Vincze thought the weapon was clear of bullets when he pulled the trigger and shot himself through the hand, said Elkhart County sheriff’s deputies. 

The bullet then struck his wife, Jennette Collins, in both legs, deputies said. 

Vincze and his wife were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. 

The shooting, which deputies described as an accident, remains under investigation.

You know we have heard repeatedly the mantra, "guns don't kill people, people kill people."

However the more of these stories I see the more it seems that the guns are REALLY trying to take people out, and are simply biding their time until somebody handles them and gives them the opportunity to blow an innocent bystander away.

And actually since some of these shootings, and gun deaths, happen when a person is NOT actively aiming the weapon at anybody it almost seems that the gun deserves the majority of the blame.

After all when was the last time you were cleaning your car and it suddenly roared into life and ran down a neighbor?

John Boehner tweets article that he believes proves Obamacare will make premiums rise in Ohio. Proves the opposite instead.

So the other day Boehner tweeted this:

#Rateshock in Ohio: “premiums for individuals will rise an average of 41%” under #ObamaCare http://t.co/5kcpdv7CPX @plaindealer
— Speaker John Boehner (@SpeakerBoehner) August 2, 2013

The problem, as Forward Progressives was quick to point out, is that the article actually provides information that House Speaker Boehner probably does not want to get around:

Sure, in the story Boehner linked, the top paragraph of the article reads: 

Ohio insurance regulators Thursday released rates for health insurance to be sold on the new state marketplace and said premiums for individuals will rise an average of 41 percent compared with 2013 rates. 

Good news for Boehner and his fellow Republicans, right? 

That is until you read all the way down to the—third paragraph: 

But the average 2014 premium of $332.58 a month for individuals, unveiled by Ohio Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor, masks the fact that for many individuals, premiums and out-of-pocket medical expenses will go down. 

In fact, the article goes into some great detail on the many benefits of Obamacare. It claims about 80 to 90 percent of people who, according to the non-partisan CBO, use the state exchanges will qualify for federal subsidies to reduce or eliminate costs. 

The article also goes on to tell how the 41% figure was calculated, essentially saying that specific health care coverages and plans were picked to artificially create a much lower 2013 average premium expense. For example, the individuals they used for the 41% figure were taken from a much healthier pool of people than the average population. Of course, healthier people usually pay less for health care.

Now the article does allude to one group of people which might see their premiums increase—young, healthy individuals who buy their own coverage. But, that’s of course before you factor in subsidies that will offset some of the cost. Older, pre-Medicare individuals will most likely see lower premiums. 

The article also states that because of the requirements the Affordable Care Act establishes, most citizens will have access to a wider range of health care services.

And THAT my friends is why you always read to the bottom of the article before linking to it.

Sarah Palin weighs in on the Gettysb..the Gettysburg add...you know, that famous speech Lincoln gave. Update!

Don't just stand there, let's get to it. Strike a pose, there's nothing to it, Vogue!

Courtesy of the Great Emulsifier's ghostwritten Facebook page:

Today marks the beginning of the week-long ceremonies commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. There will be a full re-enactment of the battle, discussions with panels of historians, and of course a re-reading of the Gettysburg Address. (An event that I know NOTHING about but it seems presidential if I make a big deal about it.)

But as Lincoln affirmed when he dedicated that hallowed ground, nothing we say or do can “add or detract” from the great sacrifice made there. Gettysburg was a defining moment in the history of our nation; and consequently, one of the most important battles in the history of mankind. (Yes it is the battle that helped to turn the tide of the Civil War and ensure that the Southern racists and religious fundamentalists would not be able to determine the fate of this great country. Are you SURE you, Sarah Palin, want to celebrate this?)

 I’ve had the honor of visiting Gettysburg twice, most recently during the One Nation Bus Tour in 2011. (Hey yeah, remember that tour? That was the one where I was able to get my bus rented and decorated for free, and have the entire trip paid for by SarahPAC under the pretense that I was seriously considering a run for President. Ahh, good times!) I brought my family with me and we met other families—even meeting up with friends traveling from Wasilla—as we paid our respects to the monuments and patriot graves. It was important for me to bring the younger generation there in order to instill in them a sense of the duty we owe to the ordinary men who did extraordinary things to make us one nation. (Can you say family vaycay?)

On a sunny summer day there, despite the distance of a hundred and fifty years, you can somehow feel the “mystic cords of memory” binding us to that generation whose “hearts were touched with fire.” (Actually it's "mystic chords of memory" but since you never read it how could you know that? Dammit RAM you were supposed to do research!)

Just in case she has it changed and accuses me of lying.

I felt it myself when I visited that day a few years ago.I felt it when I prayed at Little Round Top in gratitude to the unflinching courage of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and his men from Maine who held the line when the fate of the battle, and hence the nation, was at stake.  I felt it when I looked out across the field where Pickett’s Charge took place and contemplated the doomed valor of those men of Old Virginia. I felt it when I stood at the High Water Mark, where Alonzo Cushing gave his life to repel the furthest advance of the Confederate cause and thus end the three-day battle. (Glorifying the Northern oppressors over the Southern rebels? Well there goes your Tea party support moron.)

Gettysburg is where we truly became one nation. It was the decisive battle of a war in which we righted the unfinished business of our founding by freeing those whose enslavement was our greatest shame. 

Yes the battle helped to free the African slaves, who in 1870 were given the right to vote, and they used that right in 2008 to turn out en masse and help to elect one Barack Hussein Obama and kick your skinny ass to the curb. How you liking the Battle of Gettysburg now?

Somehow I don't think that Palin really thought this Facebook post through.

Not only did she misquote Lincoln, but she is essentially celebrating a battle that the South is till very defensive about. They do not exactly share the positive view of its outcome with those of us in the North.

In fact it was only last month that new NRA President Jim Porter referred to it in a speech as the "War of Northern Aggression."

And perhaps Palin did not get the memo, but MOST of her support comes from those who hate having a black man in the White House, don't trust Washington D.C., and like their religion misogynist and oppressive. You know, Southerners.

I swear if there were nothing stupid to say, this woman would have NO reason to open her mouth.

Update: Well apparently SOMEBODY has paid us a visit today.

"Shh, act natural. Probably nobody else besides those assholes at IM even noticed anything. After all, OUR people aren't very bright."

Hot mic catches NSA Director telling FBI Deputy Director "Tell your boss I owe him another friggin' beer." You're NOT helping.

Courtesy of the Daily Mail:  

The director of the National Security Agency was overheard offering a round of beer to the FBI's second-in-command following Tuesday's congressional hearing on the NSA's controversial surveillance programs. 

The three-hour hearing had just wrapped up around 1 p.m. when NSA Director Keith Alexander turned to FBI Deputy Director Sean Joyce and praised him for his testimony. 

 'Thank you, Sean,' Alexander said, according to a clip of the exchange that was first reported by Ben Doernberg. 

'Tell your boss I owe him another friggin' beer,' he added. 

'Yeah?' Joyce responded. 

 'Yeah,' said Alexander. 

'Tell him to give it to me,' Joyce said. 

Joyce repeatedly praised the programs as 'essential' tools for fighting terrorism in his remarks to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. 

He also described four specific cases where the FBI used data obtained by the NSA programs to thwart terror attacks, including a bomb plot against the New York Stock Exchange and another against the city's subway system. 

Now I don't necessary think that this means the FBI was lying to protect the NSA program, but I will say that this kind of thing is going to provide unending fodder for those who have suspicions about these programs. And yes I am still one of them.

Five people shot accidentally at various gun shows during "Gun Appreciation Day." Boy that appreciation really stings!

Courtesy of TPM:

• In Indianapolis, a man shot himself when his gun went off outside a gun show. From WISH-TV: 

A person who was loading a gun outside of the Indy 1500 Gun and Knife Show at the State Fairgrounds was accidentally shot when his gun discharged Saturday afternoon. ... The man, identified as Emory L. Cozee, 54, was walking back to his car, was loading his .45 caliber semi-automatic and accidentally shot himself in the hand, [police said.] 

• In Raleigh, N.C., three people were injured when a shotgun went off at a gun show there. From the News & Observer: 

A 12-gauge shotgun discharged shortly after 1 p.m. as its owner unzipped its case on a table for a security officer to check it at a security entrance at the Dixie Gun & Knife Show, according to Joel Keith, police chief of the state Agriculture Department. Keith said birdshot pellets hit Janet Hoover, 54, of Benson, in the right torso; Linwood Hester, 50, of Durham, in the right hand; and Jake Alderman, a retired Wake County sheriff’s deputy from Wake Forest, in the left hand. Hoover and Hester were taken to WakeMed, but officials said their injuries did not appear to be life-threatening. 

• In Ohio, a dealer at a gun show accidentally fired a gun, induring one. From WJW-TV: 

Jim Conrad, event organizer, said there were about 200 people there at the time, and they heard one gun shot. Conrad said a visitor to the event had handed an exhibitor his gun to look at. It apparently was loaded, and while the exhibitor was looking at the gun, it accidentally went off, hitting another man in the arm. Meanwhile, gun rights advocates touted Gun Appreciation Day -- which was organized to oppose efforts in Washington, D.C. to pass new gun regulations after Newtown -- as a success. Dave Workman, a former NRA board member, wrote that gun rights activists in Washington state showed up in big numbers at a gun show in Puyallup and a rally in Olympia.

Would it be wrong for me to say how muhc I appreciate these unbelievably stupid people for helping those of us on the side of more gun control make our case to the American people?

Or would that be kicking a stupid person when their down....and bleeding out on the floor?

Remember, gun shows don't kill people, they just help gather all the gun nuts and deadly weapons in one place so that people are easier to pick off.

You know I'm not sure that the National Review thought this cover design through very carefully.

Well that's just awkward.

(And yes the National Review is indeed a Right Wing rag.)

Sarah Palin admits she does not pay attention to the rules, and that her endorsements are poison. Wait, what?

Click image to play video.

At the beginning of this interview from last night Palin finally seems to confirm that she does indeed read this blog as she actually states the following when asked about whether she will endorse a candidate or not:

"No you know I want to help the cause, not hurt the cause, and I recognize that if my name is attached to a person, or a cause, or a position a lot of controversy seems to ensue with that attachment."

Wow!  Now how many times have we said that exact thing on this blog?

And here I thought she was virtually unable to learn anything!

However Palin barely misses a beat before demonstrating how thick-headed she is by complaining bitterly about Newt getting booed during the debate for bringing up Mitt Romney's "record:


"We can't take a page out of Obama's playbook. What happens when you bring up anything about Obama's record?  And this has been going on for about four years now. You bring up something about his record, you're automatically shut up and cut of by being accused of being a RACIST, just by asking about his record. GOP, let's not do that. No questions should be censored, should be banned, no topic should be off the table."

Did you hear that pop? That was my head exploding.

Does this idiot really believe that fanning the flames of racism during the McCain campaign, and claiming that Obama "palled around with terrorists" was really just "talking about his record?" I mean seriously?

And now the woman who has refused repeatedly to provide a birth certificate for her fifth child, and fights tooth and nail to keep journalists from gaining access to her government e-mails, claims that "no topic should be off the table?"

Is there an antidote for an overdose of hypocrisy?

But here is the REALLY entertaining part, as Judge Pirro points out, Newt did NOT get booed for bringing up legitimate campaign questions, he got booed for breaking the rules of the debate.


"With all due respect Governor, wasn't the booing about the fact that Newt Gingrich violated the very rules of the forum? By mentioning, by name, another candidate which he was prohibited from doing, clearly, by governor Huckabee when the forum began?"

You have to watch Palin's face as she is pwned by Pirro here. (The image above is actually captured from that precise moment.) And her response?

Essentially that she is too busy to be concerned about any rules:

" I don't know because I didn't tune in at the very beginning to hear what the rules were, but here's the deal Judge, I think I am a good, kind of microcosm as a person (WTF?) reflecting what the rest of America is thinking right now as we go through this primary debate process. We are busy people. We do have businesses to run, and we have families to raise, and a lot's going on in this country. No now a particular rule like that, where a particular name wasn't supposed to be mentioned in a negative light in the, in the forum, I'm not aware of. I don't know how everything works. Again because I'm busy along with everybody else." (In other words, "Rules? We don't need no stinking rules!")

To recover Palin simply launches into an ad hominem attack on the President, which smacks of anger and frustration at being called out by Pirro.

However no matter how fast she talks, or how much venom she spews all over her Fox provided microphone, she cannot cover for the fact that she is an uninformed, hypocritical, imbecile that just got spanked on national television by the very network that has mollified and protected her these last three years.

And here I thought there was nothing good on television last night.

Uh oh! Something stinks in Teabag-ville!

From CREW:

"Christine O'Donnell is clearly a criminal, and like any crook she should be prosecuted," said Melanie Sloan, CREW Executive Director. "Ms. O'Donnell has spent years embezzling money from her campaign to cover her personal expenses. Republicans and Democrats don't agree on much these days, but both sides should agree on one point: thieves belong in jail not the United States Senate."

CREW's complaint is based, in part, on the affidavit of former campaign aide David Keegan. Mr. Keegan explained that in 2009, when Ms. O'Donnell was out of money, she paid her landlord, Brent Vasher, two months rent out of her campaign funds. On FEC forms, Ms. O'Donnell called the expenditures "expense reimbursements." Mr. Keegan also attested that Ms. O'Donnell routinely used campaign funds for meals and gas, and even a bowling outing. This is not surprising given that Ms. O'Donnell has not held a steady job or had a discernable source of income for many years.

"If you need money to pay the rent and eat, you get a job; you don't start a Senate campaign so unsuspecting donors can support you," said Sloan.

Well it sounds as if CREW is definitely not going to pull any punches just because O'Donnell has that whole cute thing going for her. Perhaps in the future Sarah Palin and her teabagging buddies might want to pick a candidate based on their integrity and abilities instead of their appearance and "wingnutiness". (By the way that is totally my word. But you can all borrow it if you want to.)

Update; You have got to go visit Think Progress and see the list they have put together on O'Donnell's positions on.....well on EVERYTHING.

WTF? The e-mail hacker posted picture of Bristol's newborn son? In September of 2008? Updated!

From Fox News:

Palin and her daughter Bristol testified during the trial, which lasted just a few days. Bristol Palin said she was distressed to find pictures of her newborn son in the public eye after her mother's e-mail was hacked.

Pictures of BRISTOL'S newborn baby? Well isn't THAT interesting?

Now the only picture of a baby that I know of from the Yahoo account is the one posted above. Is this what Bristol is referring to?

There has already been some conjecture that this baby is the ruffled ear baby, but to be honest I cannot be sure from this angle.  I will say however that it does not seem to closely resemble the Trig Palin we know and love today.  However as a male I am not an expert on babies.

What do you think ladies.

Of course the other option is that the reporter simply got the quote wrong.  Fox News getting the quote wrong?  I think in the Palin household that would be considered blasphemy.

Bush declares war on Oklahoma!

An Air National Guard jet mistakenly dropped a 22-pound non-explosive, practice bomb on an apartment complex, damaging the foundation but no one was injured, police said Friday.

The military pilot thought he had dropped the BDU-33 bomb, equipped with a dummy warhead, over a field in Kansas during a routine training mission out of Tulsa on Thursday.

Gosh I am glad that lowering the requirements to sign up for the military to "can feed self and is potty trained" has not effected the competence of the Air Force.

I bet when we see this story after the White House gets to give it a spin it will feature suspected al-Qaeda members that were all knocked unconscious by the unexploded bomb.

Captain Joseph Hazelwood is out of retirement and now steering cruise ships into submerged objects.

A riverboat-style cruise ship ran aground off the Alaska coast early Monday, forcing an evacuation of more than 200 passengers before it could move again with a Coast Guard escort.

All passengers were evacuated from the Empress of the North by 7 a.m. and returned to Juneau aboard a ferry. One person was taken to a hospital for observation, a city employee said.


Passengers said they were jolted awake when the ship hit the rocks in a remote part of a southeast Alaska archipelago in the middle of night. They were ordered to don lifejackets and gather in the ballroom, where a singer and piano player entertained them with songs including "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" as they waited for rescue.

I was just kidding. Captain Hazelwood, who struck a reef with the Exxon Valdez in 1989 causing the largest oil spill in Alaska's history, had nothing to do with the cruise ship accident above. But the headline made me giggle. I just love to giggle.

But one part of the story did surprise me. I had no idea that Alaska had an "archipelago"!

I may need to leave town more often.