Good

This is how you handle these asses:

Local 25 was contacted by some concerned citizens of Medford asking for help to keep members of the Westboro Baptist Church from protesting the funeral of Krystle Campbell, scheduled for tomorrow morning at 10 AM in Medford.

Local 25 President Sean O’Brien asked all off-duty Teamsters to participate:

Teamsters Local 25 will be out in full force tomorrow morning at St. Joseph’s Church in Medford to form a human shield and block the Westboro Baptist Church from protesting the funeral of Krystle Campbell. The Campbell family and friends have already endured immeasurable amounts of heartache and tragedy this week, and deserve a peaceful funeral with time to grieve privately. 

Westboro Baptist Church should understand that we will go to great lengths to make sure they don't protest any funerals of the victims of the past week’s tragedies, and that those we lost receive a proper burial.

Teamsters Local 25 represents 11,000 hardworking men and women from the Boston area.

Another thing wrong

I was clearly under the impression on Friday night that the older brother involved in the Boston bombing had died from gunfire.

Maybe not.

One of his officers put his cruiser into gear and jumped out of it, letting it roll at the suspects to draw fire, he said. The suspects peppered the car with bullets.

After several minutes, the elder brother, Tamerlan, walked toward the officers, firing his gun until he appeared to run out of bullets, Deveau said. Officers tackled him and were trying to get handcuffs on him, when the stolen SUV came roaring at them, the younger brother at the wheel. The officers scattered and the SUV plowed over Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was dragged briefly under the car, he said.

Dzhokar Tsarnaev abandoned the SUV almost immediately on a nearby street and fled on foot, triggering an all-day manhunt.

There are a lot of possible explanations for such an action IF that is actually what happened: from error, to panic, to anger, to a determination to shut him up.

Let the speculation begin.

Another day, another wholesale slaughter

America, the armed:

Gunfire erupted at an apartment complex in a city south of Seattle and five people were shot to death, including a suspect who was shot by arriving officers, police said early Monday.

Officers responding to an emergency call at 9:30 p.m. Sunday at the apartments in Federal Way found two injured men on the ground in a parking lot.

A Party comprised of real, rational leaders

Good to know that the "fever" broke with the election -- leaving a virus resistant to medical treatment.

...columnist Chris Nogy encouraged his fellow Republicans to utilize their 2nd Amendment rights to make sure that lawmakers — particularly Republicans who vote with Democrats — are held accountable...

The 2nd amendment means nothing unless those in power believe you would have no problem simply walking up and shooting them if they got too far out of line and stopped responding as representatives.

Not the party of evolution. Of course, we may soon learn that the other Party isn't always better when it comes to things like the Keystone Pipeline. The last day for the public to write (hopefully not) in futility their comments is today. So go here -- keystonecomments@state.gov -- if you wish to file your resistance.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

This guy may make Michele Bachmann and Steven King look almost sentient

Maine's minority vote Governor Paul LePage may be the dumbest asshole in America.

Maine Governor Paul LePage accused the University of Maine of turning on an electric motor when the wind wasn’t blowing their turbine to fool people into thinking that “wind power works.”

Keeping it in perspective

America...who needs it to to stand for anything anyway?

Greg Ball, a state senator in New York, suggested Friday that authorities should "torture" the captured Boston bombing suspect,  Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is a naturalized American citizen and remains in serious condition at an area hospital.

We'll see how accurate this is

And even so, it may have been more in post-even concealment than a conspiracy.

Neighbors say three have been arrested in New Bedford in connection with the Boston Bombing suspect.

Police apprehended suspects from the Hidden Brook Apartments on Carriage Drive in New Bedford. Neighbors say they think that the girlfriend of 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev may have lived in the complex and they have seen him in the area as recently as yesterday.

Dzhokhar is a student at the nearby University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Earlier on Friday his brother, also a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing, was killed in a gun fight with police.

To some of you

Enjoy your bong today.

So...

They're foreign (but Chechnyan, not Saudi or nearby) but White but also Muslim.

So every conspiracy theory sort of wins -- half a point to all of you...still, fuck you.

Meanwhile, everyone else loses.

Why look at all the JOOOOOOBBBBBBBSSSSS

Jeebus.

...once up and running, the operation of the [Keystone] pipeline would only support 35 permanent and 15 temporary jobs, mostly for inspections, maintenance and repairs.

Watertown, Mass -- not a place to be at the moment

As many of you a police hunt for the suspects is currently going on right now in this section of the Boston area -- here's a pic of a nearby house to where a shoot-out occurred late last evening.

Behold the power of the neutered regulatory state

Oh the oppression of regulations industries are forced to endure in their determination to make a buck.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration most recently inspected the Texas fertilizer plant that exploded Wednesday night in 1985.

Thanks to a prolonged and sustain policy of not providing the funding necessary to hire inspectors or do inspections the United States is now officially Bhopalesque.'

 [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Rupert's Scumbags

I know it shocks nobody.

But the New York Post could not be comprised of worse human beings engaging in scumbag behavior.

But that costs a negligible amount of money! We've got countries to occupy!

Naturally:

It’s impossible to know at this point whether unsafe workplace conditions were a direct cause of this disaster, but we do know that it was cited for failing to obtain or qualify for a permit in 2006 after a complaint of a strong ammonia smell, a smell that was reported to be “very bad last night.” The plant hasn’t been inspected in the past five years, and in fact only six Texas fertilizer plants were inspected in that time. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is chronically understaffed, which means that a given plant like West Fertilizer can only expect to get a state inspection once every 67 years on average.

"No Government" run amok

How on earth does a governmental body like a zoning commission allow THIS kind of situation other than "we put money first!"?

That's a nursing home, two schools, and two medical facilities within a half mile (most a quarter-mile) of a potential giant bomb.

Un-fucking-believable.

Another day, another failure

And with the assistance of the following "Democrats" a bill to make even the most modest non-controlling kind of improvements to gun control fall short:

Mark Pryor of Arkansas; Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota; Mark Begich of Alaska; and Max Baucus of Montana.

Thanks for nothin'. It also means we lose again to a Party that is made up of geniuses like this:

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) warned Wednesday that "radical Islamists" are being "trained to act like Hispanic[s]" and cross the U.S.-Mexico border.

So, you hate both the them! And lying assholes like this:

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who has been raising fears that expanding background checks would bring about a national gun registry, conceded Wednesday that the legislation doesn’t actually do that.

Heckuva job on reform Harry...who could have anticipated? Other than everyone but you?

Annnnnnnnnd...of course:

A man protesting new gun control measures being considered by the Senate was arrested Tuesday on the Capitol grounds when police discovered he was carrying a loaded handgun, CNN has learned.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

I expect Rush Limbaugh to be arrested for the Boston bombing

There.

Just as accurate as CNN.

Perhaps, arguably more-so.

No so Happy Trails (not Appalachian ones either)

Oh dear, this doesn't sound too good.

 Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford must appear in court two days after running for a vacant congressional seat to answer a complaint that he trespassed at his ex-wife's home, according to court documents acquired by The Associated Press on Tuesday. 

The complaint says Jenny Sanford confronted Sanford leaving her Sullivans Island home on Feb. 3 by a rear door, using his cell phone for a flashlight...

The complaint filed by Jenny Sanford's lawyer, Deena Smith McRackan, said that Mark Sanford has "entered into a pattern of entering onto plaintiff's property. Plaintiff has informed defendant on a number of occasions that this behavior is in violation of the court's order and has demanded that it not occur again."...

 "I am doing my best not to get in the way of his race," Jenny Sanford told the AP. "I want him to sink or swim on his own. For the sake of my children I'm trying my best not to get in the way, but he makes things difficult for me when he does things like trespassing."

I'm sure his Argentinian fiance/wife/girlfriend isn't too happy about this either.

That "austere" magic continues

Meanwhile, the self-imposed blight of Ol' Blighty, the Tories Austerity continues to wield its magic.

UK unemployment rose by 70,000 to 2.56 million between December and February, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said.

It meant the unemployment rate for the quarter was 7.9%.

"But my funeral, shall not be privatized!"

The Tinhorn Lady who privatized everything she could while Prime Minister is making sure as many tax dollars as possible is spent on her funeral.

Seems consistent.

Thatcher is being given a ceremonial funeral – not officially a state funeral, which requires a vote in Parliament. Still, the proceedings will feature the same level of pomp and honor afforded Princess Diana in 1997 and the Queen Mother Elizabeth in 2002.

Just take your soiled slacks and retire already

Ron Fournier of the National Journal manages to be more pathetic than Alex Jones over the Boston bombing.

Yeah, it killed like 1/1500th of the people 9/11 did and I have a sneaky suspicion it will not lead to two or even one crippling wars that will kill six-figures of human beings and cost trillions.

But other than that, so much worse Ron -- you are so right.  Good job, good effort.

But then, ol' Ron has the true soul of a modern newsperson.

Karl Rove exhanged e-mails about Pat Tillman with Associated Press reporter Ron Fournier, under the subject line "H-E-R-O." In response to Mr. Fournier's e-mail, Mr. Rove asked, "How does our country continue to produce men and women like this," to which Mr. Fournier replied, "The Lord creates men and women like this all over the world. But only the great and free countries allow them to flourish. Keep up the fight."

There's always another ass to kiss inappropriately whether the pants are wet or not, isn't there Ron?

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Sorry about the light blogging again

I've been busy in the morning doing something strange and unique the last month and a half.

Exercising.

Oh, and spending too much time with my hummel-figures at Pinterest.*






*That's a thing on there right?

The sane side

There's no greater despair that I feel right now about politics ("chained-ennui"?) than the fact that about nine-tenths of the country wants at least background checks and the small side represented by THIS is still winning.

An 11-year-old boy brought an AR-15 and a white flag with the words "Come and Take It" to a rally at the New Hampshire State House Saturday, the Union Leader reported. 

Organized by the Granite State Patriots Liberty PAC, the "Honor Your Oath" rally charged that lawmakers who voted to repeal the state's "Stand Your Ground" law last month violated their oaths of office and should be impeached, according to the Union Leader. The rally organizers said the event was not "gun rally."

Somebody may need to explain the birds and the bees to someone

Yeah, men and women will never be married again...you bet.

Former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said on Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor" this week that he thinks same-sex marriage discourages marriage between a man and a woman.
"Would we be discouraging heterosexual marriage by allowing gay marriage?" Bill O'Reilly asked Santorum.

"Yeah, I believe we would," Santorum replied.