July 1, 2016

Will those for a war against ISIS sit it out again like Iraq and Afghanistan?

I just thought I'd ask since the right leaning among us feel that ISIS needs to be nipped in the bud ASAP (using an aggressive military campaign no doubt) and have gone as far as to insinuate that by ignoring them will cost the Democrats the election in November. How can blame these people for thinking that? With all those past military successes of the previous administration - there's no way we could this war...

So tell us you bloodthirsty hawks? You all going to sit out this war too?

June 30, 2016

Titter... Nancy Grace out at CNN

After 12 years of true-crime bullshit and an official twitter account so demented as to be indistinguishable from parody, Nancy Grace is out at CNN.

A network spokesperson tells The Hollywood Reporter that a new series — one that will "utilize the expertise of the current team" — will replace Nancy Grace in the ‪8 p.m. slot following the airing of the final episode ‪on Oct. 13. The decision was a difficult one, according to Grace, who in an emotional interview with THR admits to being "really mixed" about taking a step she's been "thinking a lot about" for the past three years.
Grace's reputation is for shouting down guests and making dubious accusations, at least two of which preceded her targets' apparent suicides. Her professional background was as a supposedly brilliant prosecutor, and her crime-fighting origin story was a fiance's murder, but it never quite added up. The New York Times:

Ms. Grace came by her victimhood honestly when her fiancé, Keith Griffin, was killed when she was just 19. In her book “Objection,” Ms. Grace suggested that a stranger with a criminal record shot Mr. Griffin outside a convenience store, was arrested and denied any involvement. By her recollection, she had to sit through three days of agonizing deliberation and then the prosecutor asked her if the defendant should be given the death penalty. She said no, she had no stomach for it.

The New York Observer fact-checked her written account and discovered that Mr. Griffin was killed by a former co-worker with no criminal record who confessed to the crime immediately. At trial, he was convicted within hours and the prosecution did in fact ask for the death penalty, but was denied. Ms. Grace explained the variance by telling The Observer, “I have tried not to think about it.”


more: http://boingboing.net/2016/06/30/cnn-ditches-nancy-grace.html

June 23, 2016

Social Security Still Isn’t Broke, New Report Confirms

Another conservative talking point goes down in flames...

Obama administration officials used the release of a report on the program’s finances to amplify calls to expand benefits.

Although the findings of the annual report on Social Security’s finances are not surprising, the Obama administration and progressive groups are already seizing on it to support their claims that Social Security’s shortfall is infinitely manageable. In fact, they argue, the distinctly non-apocalyptic assessment from Social Security’s nonpartisan actuaries shows that the country can easily afford to both restore the program’s solvency and expand benefits.

<snip>

Social Security is under some financial strain from the retirement of the large “baby boomer” generation. Starting in 2034, Social Security will only be able to pay 79 percent of promised benefits, unless Congress acts to increase the program’s revenues or reduce spending. (Congress has never failed to address the program’s funding gaps in the past.)

That shortfall will likely be a cause for concern in the coming years, but it is hardly the crisis that many prominent Republicans have made it out to be.

For example, former GOP presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said in March that “Social Security will go bankrupt and it will bankrupt the country with it.”

<snip>

In reality, Social Security’s costs are currently equal to 5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product — or the total value of goods and services produced — and is expected to peak at about 6 percent of GDP.

Colvin drew attention to those figures at Wednesday’s press conference.

“That one-percentage-point increase to sustain Social Security is surely manageable,” Colvin said.

Colvin also noted that the cost bump for the baby boomers’ retirement is significantly less as a share of the economy than the increase in public spending it took to provide the baby boomers with public education in their childhoods.

more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/social-security-isnt-broke_us_576ad196e4b0c0252e780295?section=

June 18, 2016

I was able to buy an AR-15 in five minutes

Two days after the worst mass shooting in American history, and my local gun shop in Virginia showed no hesitation in selling me an AR-15.

In fact, they really wanted me to buy it. And I was only there for five minutes.

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As I was watching CNN Tuesday morning, I thought it was crazy how the first thing society jumps to after such a tragic event was gun rights. I began to think of how much my hometown loves the Second Amendment, and I wondered exactly how hard it would be for me to walk up and buy a gun. Well, I didn’t have anything better to do, so I got in my car and did exactly that.

I walked into the store and told them I was interested in something for home protection and target practice. The woman behind the counter smiled and asked, “Rifle or shotgun?”

more: https://thetab.com/us/2016/06/14/i-was-able-to-buy-an-ar-15-in-five-minutes-19833

June 16, 2016

Oh dear. CIA has not found any link between Orlando killer and Isis, says agency chief

So sorry to rain on the Islamophobe parade. Maybe it'll wash away all the egg they accused the left of having stuck all over their faces...

John Brennan told the Senate intelligence committee Thursday that CIA has no evidence of a connection between Omar Mateen and the Islamic State.

The Central Intelligence Agency chief has not been “able to uncover any link” between Orlando killer Omar Mateen and the Islamic State, despite Mateen’s stated allegiance to the jihadist group during Sunday’s LGBT nightclub massacre.


Reinforcing four days of internal government assessments across multiple agencies and a Federal Bureau of Investigation inquiry, the CIA director, John Brennan, contrasted “lone wolf” killers in Orlando and San Bernardino last December with recent terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels, which he told the Senate intelligence committee were “directed” by Isis leadership in Syria and Iraq.

Brennan described a spread-bet strategy by Isis as it loses territory in Iraq and Syria. The group’s “terrorist capacity or global reach” remain undiminished by US-led advances on Isis-held cities like Manbij and Fallujah, the latest developments in a war nearing its third year, and Brennan said the US should expect Isis to launch accelerating terrorist attacks worldwide, a reversion to its pre-2014 status quo.

“As the pressure mounts on Isil, we judge that it will intensify its global terror campaign to maintain its dominance of the global terrorism agenda,” Brennan said, using the administration’s preferred acronym for Isis.

But Brennan indicated that the shape of those attacks will vary. Isis is consolidating and “interconnecting” its foreign branches, he said, particularly its “most dangerous” branch in Libya, and also placing operatives in western countries, chiefly in Europe. It will also “inspire attacks by sympathizers with no ties to the group”, which Brennan said taxes security agencies’ ability to notice ahead of an attack.

More: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/16/cia-orlando-shooter-omar-mateen-isis-pulse-nightclub-attack?CMP=share_btn_fb

June 15, 2016

How many here bike commute?

I just thought I'd ask because I recently started bike commuting because the drive - no matter the route or mode of transportation involved - is an hour. Which is maddening because the distance is only a paltry 8 + miles - yet it takes for ever!!! If I'm going to have to spend that time commuting, I may as well get some exercise in the process.

So, who else bike commutes besides myself?

Thanks in advance.

June 15, 2016

Anti-Gay Pastor arrested on 70 counts of Child Pornography.

Shocking... and to think that some will try claim his behavior isn't about religion...



The 40-year-old pastor regularly preached that marriage is between a man and a woman and that all homosexual activity is a sin.

He was arrested after police received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which claimed that a social media account in Sherwood was storing pages and pages of child pornography.

The account allegedly belonged to Reynolds.

In March, Reynolds informed elders at Cornerstone Bible Fellowship that he was under investigation for child porn possession.

When they asked if he had engaged in viewing the material, Reynolds told them he had “not knowingly done so.”

Meanwhile, Reynolds is maintaining his innocence.


more: https://unitedhumanists.com/2016/06/10/anti-gay-pastor-arrested-on-70-counts-of-child-pornography/

June 14, 2016

A Tennessee State Representative Is Giving Away Two AR-15’s As A Fundraiser Door Prize

Just two days after the Orlando nightclub shooting, a Tennessee state representative is planning to give out not one, but two AR-15 rifles as a fundraising door prize at the first Holt’s Hog Fest & Turkey Shoot.

snip

Holt plans to give away the same gun used in Sunday’s shooting stating, “we should not focus on the gun itself. We should focus on the depravity of the heart of the person who’s pulling the trigger.”

Despite outrage, anger and political outcry following Sunday’s events, there appear to be no signs that Holt will change his plans. In fact, he told WSMV-Nashville that media attention, much like the very interview he gave them, are the reasons the AR-15 is on our radar to begin with. He posted to Twitter that his choice to give away two guns instead of just one is “in light of media/liberal attacks on a previously scheduled fundraiser giveaway,” and not in light of the shooting in Orlando.

more: http://uproxx.com/news/tennessee-representative-ar-15-gun-giveaway/

He sounds like every gun fellator on this site.

June 14, 2016

The Right is better at fighting terrorism and crime. True or False.

Some say that Trump will get more support due to the event in Orlando because right wingers/conservatives/republicans are supposedly better at keeping people safe than those weak limp-wristed Democrats.

Personally, I say BULL-FUCKING-SHIT!!!!!!!

So, you tell me.

June 13, 2016

Should US Muslims have to wear a crescent moon badge as to easily identify them?

Obviously, there are one too many bad apples. Why should the rest of us put up with being under siege by these barbarians?

So? Should US muslims have a crescent moon sewn into their lapels?

How soon should we round them up and put them into camps?

You want to feel safe don't you?