October 28, 2015

Sometimes, this can sum up voting and our choices in candidates

?t=59s

October 27, 2015

LOL - GOP dysfunction it fault of Word Salad Sarah

Former White House chief of staff: ‘Nonsense-spewing’ Sarah Palin to blame for ‘carnival-like’ GOP

ccording to a former White House chief of staff, the GOP’s current dysfunctional state — that finds them unable to agree on a new Speaker of the House and watching outsiders Donald Trump and Ben Carson become their top 2016 presidential contenders — can be laid at the feet of Sarah Palin.

Writing for the Washington Post, former Obama administration chief of staff William M. Daley, said Republicans are reaping what they sowed when they fell under the spell of the former Alaskan governor during her vice presidential run in 2008.

Calling the current GOP primary “carnival-like,” Daley said the party had a chance to right itself after Palin’s “blatant lack of competence and preparedness” became apparent and contributed to the collapse of the McCain campaign.

“What’s critical is that substantive, serious Republican leaders either wouldn’t or couldn’t declare, before or after the election: ‘This is not what our party stands for. We can and must do better,’” Daley wrote.

“Once McCain put Palin on the ticket, Republican ‘grown-ups,’ who presumably knew better, had to bite their tongues. But after the election, when they were free to speak their minds, they either remained quiet or abetted the dumbing-down of the party,” he continued. “They stood by as Donald Trump and others noisily pushed claims that Obama was born in Kenya. And they gladly rode the Tea Party tiger to sweeping victories in 2010 and 2014.”

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/10/former-white-house-chief-of-staff-nonsense-spewing-sarah-palin-to-blame-for-carnival-like-gop/

October 27, 2015

Political manure

This candidate claims his sign will make your lawn look better. I am guessing that a whole lot of fertilizer will do that.

October 27, 2015

Charles Koch is Frustrated with the Presidential race

A Frustrated Koch Brother Decides It's Time to 'Spout Off'

This is from the Wall Street Journal via MSN. (WSJ, requires subscription)

Part way in:
He plans to wait until year-end to determine how much he will spend on 2016 elections, including the White House contest. “How much I give to the political side will depend on to what extent the candidates out there are going to make a difference on the things I care about,” he said.

Mr. Koch and his brother David haven’t endorsed a presidential candidate, and unlike other wealthy donors, Mr. Koch said they aren’t necessarily shopping for a candidate to support. He bristles at news reports that suggested they have a favored contender. Instead, their alliance is focused on groups that advance free-market, small-government ideals, he said. Some are more educational than political.

But many of these organizations have a political aim. Americans for Prosperity, for example, which started with money from the Kochs, has built an army of grass roots volunteers to push issues and candidates at the local, state and federal level. Republican candidates and officeholders regularly turn out to these events because the groups can attract big crowds of voters and activists.

Asked whether he thinks the rise, and media coverage, of Donald Trump in the GOP field has distracted from serious policy discussions, he said, “Well, yeah. I mean, critical for a free society is tolerance,” an apparent reference to Mr. Trump’s comments about immigrants and women that some have called insensitive.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/a-frustrated-koch-brother-decides-its-time-to-spout-off/ar-BBmsW4x?li=AAa0dzB&ocid=iehp


The rest of the story is just Chuck trying to clear the Koch name bullshit.

October 26, 2015

The Concealed-Carry Fantasy

The more that sensational gun violence afflicts the nation, the more that the myth of the vigilant citizen packing a legally permitted concealed weapon, fully prepared to stop the next mass shooter in his tracks, is promoted.

This foolhardy notion of quick-draw resistance, however, is dramatically contradicted by a research project showing that, since 2007, at least 763 people have been killed in 579 shootings that did not involve self-defense. Tellingly, the vast majority of these concealed-carry, licensed shooters killed themselves or others rather than taking down a perpetrator.

The death toll includes 29 mass killings of three or more people by concealed carry shooters who took 139 lives; 17 police officers shot to death, and — in the ultimate contradiction of concealed carry as a personal safety factor — 223 suicides. Compared with the 579 non-self-defense, concealed-carry shootings, there were only 21 cases in which self-defense was determined to be a factor.

The tally by the Violence Policy Center, a gun safety group, is necessarily incomplete because the gun lobby has been so successful in persuading gullible state and national legislators that concealed carry is essential to public safety, thus blocking the extensive data collection that should be mandatory for an obvious and severe public health problem. For that reason, the center has been forced to rely largely on news accounts and limited data in 38 states and the District of Columbia.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/26/opinion/the-concealed-carry-fantasy.html?emc=edit_th_20151026&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=45299538&_r=0

October 25, 2015

OMG - Christie on Farce the Nation the lies

He just pours lie on lie. The biggest blowhard in the country. This idiot lives in an alternate universe.


Damn auto spell

October 23, 2015

I VOTED today

Not sure why the had a city council or school board election, vote for two and there were only 2 names on the ballot for city council and 3 on school board.

Yes obviously 1
No on 2
Yes on 3

October 21, 2015

Guess what? - Biden is not running!

Why run when you can take the limo!

October 21, 2015

The Myth of Welfare’s Corrupting Influence on the Poor

Does welfare corrupt the poor?

Few ideas are so deeply ingrained in the American popular imagination as the belief that government aid for poor people will just encourage bad behavior.

The proposition is particularly cherished on the conservative end of the spectrum, articulated with verve by Charles Murray of the American Enterprise Institute, who blamed welfare for everything from higher youth unemployment to increases in “illegitimacy.” His views are shared, to a greater or lesser degree, by Republican politicians like the unsuccessful presidential candidate Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

<snip>

A World Bank report from 2014 examined cash assistance programs in Africa, Asia and Latin America and found, contrary to popular stereotype, the money was not typically squandered on things like alcohol and tobacco.



http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/21/business/the-myth-of-welfares-corrupting-influence-on-the-poor.html?_r=0

October 20, 2015

Isn't this like putting the cart before the horse? GOP lawmaker floats impeachment for Clinton

A Republican lawmaker is floating impeachment for Hillary Clinton, should the Democratic presidential candidate lock up her party's nomination and go on to win the White House.

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) said in a phone interview with The Hill late Monday that he believes Clinton improperly handled classified information on her private email server used during her time as secretary of State.

Brooks said that Clinton "would be subject to impeachment," adding, "subject to impeachment means that should the House and Senate so choose, she could be impeached based on offenses, high crimes and misdemeanors, that she has in all probability already committed."
Brooks pointed to a section in the federal code that prohibits the "unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material," though suggested other areas could also apply to Clinton.

"I don't know, off hand, whether her commission of these offenses is a legal barrier to running for president. But if Congress should so choose, it would be a legal basis for her removal from office," Brooks said later in the interview.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/257392-gop-lawmaker-floats-impeachment-for-clinton

Are the Republicans that afraid of Hillary Clinton? Or is their hate for a Black President conveyed to their hate for a Woman President?