Political Mumbles

Republicans say this is a "smoking gun" of a White House cover-up on Benghazi. But is it? Here are ten things you should know:

1. First things first: this memo should have been released earlier, and conservatives are fully justified in asking why it took a FOIA request to finally shake it loose.
2. That said, as an adviser for "strategic communication"—what the rest of us call spin—Ben Rhodes' job is explicitly political, providing guidance on how to put the administration's foreign policy actions in the best light.
3. Nine hours before Rhodes sent his email, the CIA had provided its assessment of what caused the attacks in Benghazi: "We believe based on currently available information that the attacks in Benghazi were spontaneously inspired by the protests at the US Embassy in Cairo and evolved into a direct assault against the US consulate and subsequently its annex."
4. The Cairo protests, in turn, were inspired by the YouTube video "Innocence of Muslims," which is why Rhodes mentioned the video in his memo.
5. As it happens, it turned out that there were no protests earlier in the day in Benghazi—but at the time, that was what the CIA believed.
6. However, multiple sources—including McClatchy, Al Jazeera, the New York Times, and then deputy CIA director Michael Morell—have confirmed that anger toward the YouTube video did play a role in motivating the initial attacks.
7. Multiple sources also confirm that that the Benghazi attacks were opportunistic—organized hastily to take advantage of the Cairo protests, not planned days or weeks ahead of time.
8. Susan Rice, in all her Sunday show appearances, was properly cautious about the role of the video, the nature of the attacks, and the fact that everything she said was tentative and based on "the best information we have to date."
9. Like any administration, the Obama White House wanted to put the best face on its Middle East policy, and there's no question that their public statements were designed to do just that.
10. Nevertheless, the Republican theory that Obama was afraid to blame Benghazi on terrorism has never really made any sense; there's simply never been any evidence of anything more than a fairly routine amount of spin in the aftermath of the attacks.

So: A "smoking gun"? "Cold, hard evidence” of an Obama cover-up? Just like Watergate? Hardly. Even George Will doesn't believe that. The video really did play a role in the Cairo protests and then the Benghazi attacks, and there was never anything wrong with saying so. It's inexplicable that Republicans think this memo proves anything more damning than that.

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2014/05/benghazi-explained-ben-rhodes-foia

New Hampshire has had a quirky history- Take a look at the history of the Union Leader newspaper.
Survivalists started to take an interest in New Hampshire's small, quiet villages, many years ago.

What is disturbing, is the outsiders that take advantage of the State's rural ways of dealing with political issues.

March 29, 2013

William Baer- Right Wing Extremist Radio

Who is this man, who decided to move to Concord NH ?

Legislators are beginning to push for answers to questions that have been circling around Internet blogs and radio shows for months — about why the Department of Homeland Security is reportedly planning to purchase 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition over the next few years.

And Republican Rep. Leonard Lance, from New Jersey's 7th district, is among them.

Lance was captured on camera during a March 15 tea party meeting in Hanover, answering a question by Harding resident William Baer about the large ammo purchases. Baer cited a Forbes article about the purchases published earlier this month.

the article is written by Ralph Benko - Where does Ralph Benko get support for his views ?

Mr. STEVEN ROSENTHAL (Former Political Director, AFL-CIO): You can dress it up any way you want, but it really is a bold attempt to try to eliminate unions, which have consistently mounted very aggressive efforts to elect politicians, who tend to largely be Democrats.

LIASSON: Public sector unions are among the Democrats' biggest donors, and they provide the biggest single pool of campaign volunteers. So it's no surprise the Republican National Committee has tried to frame the debate as taxpayers versus the public unions. The RNC is airing this ad on Wisconsin television.

(Soundbite of political advertisement)

Unidentified Man: State budgets have run dry and the federal debt is skyrocketing, but Obama and the Union bosses are standing in the way of economic reform, intimidating taxpayers, leading...

LIASSON: A group of conservative think tanks has been working the public union issue for a long time, drafting legislation and preparing the intellectual arguments against collective bargaining. The underlying fiscal problem is urgent: $3 trillion of unfunded state government pension liabilities. But for Ralph Benko of the conservative American Principles Project, the solution isn't just to cut wages and benefits. The unions have already agreed to that.

Mr. RALPH BENKO (American Principles Project): We need to get down to the root of the problem: collective bargaining. You're talking about government money being paid out as salaries, which then gets picked up by the union, which then gets put into the political process directly. And then that's taxpayer money being used to lobby officials for special interests. And to me, that's a closed loop.

LIASSON: Benko insists this is not a partisan argument, but its application has a partisan result.

Mr. ROBERT REICH (Former Labor Secretary): The Republican strategy clearly is to disempower the Democrats.

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/03/134222006/Democrats-Smarting-From-GOP-Attempts-To-Weaken-Unions

Apr 13, 2012

Assemblyman Anthony Bucco, R-Morris, isn’t convinced that President Barack Obama is a U.S. citizen and thinks it’s important “to make sure people are who they say they are.”

Last week’s program was coordinated by attorney William Baer of Harding Township and Dan Haggerty of Randolph. They both also co-host the “Baer-Haggerty Offensive,” a radio show on the Patriot’s Watch program on WNJC 1360AM radio.

“We were thrilled with the attendance,” Baer said. “The turnout was great.”

Baer said questions over Obama’s citizenship first were raised in the spring of 2008, after similar inquiries were made about Sen. John McCain because the former GOP presidential candidate was born in Panama.

“It was a valid question and it was resolved that if you’re born to two U.S. citizens, then you’re a citizen,” Baer said.

He said the same should hold for Obama but that Obama’s father was not a U.S. citizen.

Legal experts have determined that Obama meets the criteria in the Constitution because he was born on American soil. But Baer disputes the conclusion.

“Irrespective of where he (Obama) was born, he is not a citizen,” Baer said.

He said the authors of the constitution wanted any president to have both parents as U.S. citizens “so the president would have undivided loyalty to the U.S.”

“I would say the correct definition is to be born on U.S. soil to U.S. parents,” Baer said.

Baer also said many political officials have questions about Obama’s citizenship but won’t air their concerns because they “feel it’s a third rail and they’re afraid to get near it.”

Haggerty also said the birther issue “hasn’t gotten the treatment it should get. It’s a frightening issue to any American, Democrat or Republican.”

And Baer said the issue is of critical importance to the future of the nation.

”If we don’t get the truth out, it will fester and we’ll keep moving to the end of a constitutional republic,’ Baer said.

http://newjerseyhills.com/mt_olive_...1c4-83dc-11e1-b656-001a4bcf887a.html?mode=jqm

Doug Lambert- Right Wing Extremist Radio

Right wing bloggers and talk show hosts Doug Lambert and Skip Murphy run a blog called Granite Grok. They also have a weekly radio talk show called "Meet the New Press". Here is what Lambert did after his show.

After his radio show "Meet the New Press" ended today, GraniteGrok.com co-founder Doug Lambert looked into a live web-streaming camera, mockingly wished state Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley a Happy Birthday and then called Buckley a "faggot" before basically wishing him dead.

nhpoliticalreport continues, describing Lambert's antics in detail:

He then dances in a way meant to mock a gay male and says:"Yeah you Faggot. [Pause.] That's right I said it, and I meant it.

Racism-

i've been posting at his blog since this event occurred. the man has NEVER ONCE come on and addressed any of us personally. the coward has let his partner Skip come on and try to 'explain' Lambert's actions, more than once basically telling us we're too sensitive and unfeeling and hate-filled. Lambert is a coward and a racist and a homophobe. when i googled his past blog contents i found that he had called for Wanda Sykes (last year) to "...choke on a chicken bone or a watermelon rind, whichever works." his history of hate speech is documented. and hopefully, over. yes, let him search for his God's wisdom now. yeah, right. he's just going to pray he doesn't get caught next time. "All the world's a camera" which is code for "My webcast has been invaded by THOSE people now. I better just say these things in small groups of like-minded bigots."

http://www.towleroad.com/2009/11/fired-nh-radio-host-doug-lambert-takes-leave-from-blog.html

Why Extremist Right Wingers, William Baer and Doug Lambert are making
a spectacle of themselves, over a book being read in a NH High School-

We are a mere 241 days from the 2014 elections, and the hard right super PAC’s are already spreading lies throughout New Hampshire.

Recently the conservative super PAC YG Network sent an unsolicited mailer to the constituents of NH First Congressional district, currently represented by Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter.

The YG Network describes themselves on their website as:

“A non-profit 501(c)(4) dedicated to supporting conservative center-right policies and the efforts of policymakers who fight for those policies. By seeking solutions that create jobs, encourage innovation, instill fiscal discipline, establish a patient-centered health care system and pursue energy security, we can foster the optimal environment for America’s businesses and entrepreneurs to succeed and flourish.”

The mailer is an attack on Congresswoman Shea-Porter’s stance on the Affordable Care Act and Medicare specifically.

You can see the full flyer here.

They make the claim that Rep Shea-Porter and President Obama are trying to cut $716 billion dollars from the Medicare Advantage program. The irony in this right-wing attack is that the $716 billion dollars in savings to the Medicare Advantage program is a key part of the Ryan Plan, the budget proposal that everyone on the right is pushing.

YG Network also claims that;

* Millions of seniors may be dropped from Medicare Advantage.
* Higher premiums for care.
* Higher prices for prescription drugs.
* Cuts in coverage of dental and vision plans.

These claims by the YG Network are completely FALSE! Time and time again multiple ‘fact checkers’ have busted these false accusations.

“Neither Obama nor his health care law literally “cut” a dollar from the Medicare program’s budget.
Rather, the health care law instituted a number of changes to reduce the growth of Medicare costs. At the time the law was passed, those reductions amounted to $500 billion over the next 10 years. Time’s passage has only boosted that number.” (Politifact, 9-6-12)

“In reality, the $716 billion is not a “cut” in benefits but rather the savings in costs that the Congressional Budget Office projects over the next decade from wholly reasonable provisions in the reform law.” (New York Times 8-18-12)

The facts are undeniable; Granite Staters saved on average $800 a year in prescription drug charges thanks to the Medicare changes as part of the Affordable Care Act.

The truth is that seniors in New Hampshire, and throughout the country, are benefiting from the changes to the Medicare Advantage program. These changes are strengthening Medicare, while saving taxpayer dollars. Congresswoman Shea-Porter was right to support these changes that add additional funds to the Medicare Trust fund, therefor boosting it’s solvency to 2026.

Unfortunately we are still 241 days away from the 2014 elections, which means that this is only the beginning when it comes to unsolicited lies from the right-wing super PACs.

http://nhlabornews.com/2014/03/righ...laims-about-medicare-advantage-to-nh-seniors/

gsgs comment- Meanwhile, the Extreme Right Wing is shouting "splitters!," into a mirror.

John C. Calhoun

"Stripped of all its covering, the naked question is, whether ours is a federal or consolidated government; a constitutional or absolute one..."
—John C. Calhoun

John C. Calhoun's long political career was predominantly devoted to three issues: war against Britain, defending slavery, and vigorously supporting state's rights. After breaking with President Andrew Jackson over the issue of nullificationThe theory that an individual state can void a federal law if it believes it to be unconstitutional., Calhoun resigned the vice presidency to accept a seat in the U. S. Senate representing his home state of South Carolina. In reaction to the Tariff of 1828A divisive tariff that was supported by the north and opposed to by the south. (termed the "tariff of abominations" by many Southerners), Calhoun pushed South Carolina to the verge of secession in 1833, claiming that the state had the right to nullify any federal law they deemed unconstitutional. A compromise tariff bill authored by Henry Clay A harsh political rival of Andrew Jackson and member of the Whig Party, finally settled the conflict peacefully without Jackson or Calhoun losing political influence.

While serving in the Senate, Calhoun devoted much of his energy to protecting the institution of slavery. With his paternalistic perspective, Calhoun painted slavery as a "positive good" - going well beyond the "necessary evil" argument that was traditionally held by most southern politicians. Whereas the Nullification Crisis centered on a tariff, what really terrified the South was, arguably, the possibility that the federal government would one day outlaw slavery. Until his death in 1850, Calhoun hoped to expand slavery into the western territories and continued to fight against abolitionists. The abolitionist movement was dedicated to outlawing slavery in the United States., real and imagined, on all fronts.

http://www.pbs.org/kcet/andrewjackson/people/calhoun.html

"Long-distance psychoanalysis is almost always worthless, so I will leave that to the savants of the Beltway press corps. I only will point out that, in his career as a Supreme Court justice, Clarence Thomas, an African American from rural Georgia, presents us with a staggering political and historical contradiction. He is the last, and the truest, descendant of John C. Calhoun."

-Charles P. Pierce

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/justice-clarence-thomas-050714?click=feed

Q: Some journalists and scholars think that the tea party is losing influence. Do you agree?

Moyers: They aren’t going away. Anyone who thinks they are hasn’t been to Texas or North Carolina lately. These zealots have dragged the delusional in from the margin and installed it as the motor driving their party.

http://billmoyers.com/2014/05/08/an-interview-with-bill-moyers/

After I was witness to the destruction of the Twin Towers, on September 11, 2001

What followed-

An atmosphere of fear, in Boston. There were few jets flying over my city. But, every jet was a threat.
(I would emerge from the subway, and wonder which Boston landmark would be destroyed.
My best friend would not come into the city. She did not have to say why.)
2014, Logan has opened new runways. Millionaires on private jets, commuter jets, international jets.

No matter where you go, the sky is filled with jets. Noisy, obnoxious, arrogant jets. Buzzing helicopters.

What was America like, before 9/11 ?

http://www.publicintegrity.org/ Look for The 935 lies of George W. Bush

http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment...-of-George-W-Bush-Yes-you-already-3296633.php

No one is worried about the new World Trade Center-

Six months before 16-year-old Jose Casquejo easily snuck past the 1 WTC's lax security to make his historic climb to the spire, a group of three skydivers jumped from the building in the dead of night.

One of their lawyers said they were only charged because of the 16-year-old boy's break-in to the top of 1 World Trade Center, and that the Port Authority and NYPD are embarrassed: "They are accused of sneaking into the World Trade Center, going through quite possibly the same hole in the fence that this kid climbed through last week that they never fixed, going to the top and parachuting off."

September 30, 2013

Police sources said there was no 911 call about the parachuters, and that there were no complaints about noise.

There also were no witnesses, one source said.

Goldman Sachs building security notified the NYPD after seeing the landing on surveillance footage, Kelly said.

http://nypost.com/2013/09/30/mystery-parachuters-land-near-goldman-sachs/

"Apparently the NYPD Intelligence Division and the Port Authority Police Department had been investigating the incident for the past five and a half months."

http://gothamist.com/2014/03/25/video_watch_wtc_base_jumpers_dive_o.php#photo-1

The men were able to evade capture on the night of their stunt, despite being spotted stuffing their parachutes away by a Goldman Sachs security guard when they were safely back on the ground. Police took until January to identify them, when they were able to obtain search warrants for their camera equipment, and found footage of the incredible jump.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/25/5545104/base-jumpers-parachute-from-top-of-1-world-trade-center

Are you a veteran of American military services ? Thank you, for your service.
We do not like your dog. Get the fuck off of our airplane, and go fuck yourself.


MIAMI (CBSMiami) –
A retired US combat veteran said he was discriminated against and humiliated at Miami International Airport.

Last week, the dog Crowell’s come to rely on became the reason American Airline staffers wouldn’t let him board a flight at Miami International Airport. He’d flown to South Florida for a Wounded Warriors event in Key West, and on the way down from Jacksonville, Bella was allowed to fly with him no problem.

Before he could get on his flight back home from MIA, an American Airlines worker told him Bella wasn’t allowed in the bulkhead row Crowell was ticketed for.

“The flight attendant told me she said the policy states no pets in bulk-heading, and I said, ‘again, Bella’s not a pet. She’s a service dog. According to the law, she meets the requirements of a service dog,” said Crowell.

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 guarantees that service animals can travel with their owners, but Crowell says workers asked the group to get off the plane.

They have no idea that part of my spine was replaced from roadside bombs, said Crowell. “They don’t have an idea that my shoulder was destroyed in Iraq. So now, I rely on her for a lot of things, and oftentimes I physically lean on her to help me through the day.”

http://miami.cbslocal.com/2014/05/0...e-refused-to-allow-service-dog-on-mia-flight/

Blind man and his dog, gets support from all passengers, after getting harassed by stewardess-

11/16/2013

As you may have heard, Albert Rizzi, of Bellport, New York, and his seeing eye dog Doxology were kicked off a US Airways flight from Philadelphia to Long Island on November 13 when Rizzi was unable to, "shove his service dog under the seat," according to a Facebook post from fellow passenger Frank Olhorst, who was also ejected from the plane for objecting to the treatment of Rizzi. Olhorst's Facebook post, which predictably scooped the local news story by an hour, stated the following:

"so, here is the story - I was on usair flight 4384 from philly to islip - we had a disabled passenger on the plane with a service dog - we spend an hour on the tarmac waiting to take off - flight attendant tells guy he must shove his dog under the seat for take-off - he can't do it, flight attendant freaks out - we go back to gate they remove blind guy and dog from flight - all passengers are up in arms about this happening - so they basically throw us all off the plane -

Ask veteran Jim Stanek, what happened to him and his service dog, at American Airlines.

During the 1970s, my friends and I said- Tell Mrs. Grundy to take a flying leap!
That was "Old School Mrs. Grundy."
Would the "New School" Mrs. Grundy vote for The National Women's Museum ?

Look up “spinster” in the dictionary and you’ll probably see a picture of Miss Grundy, the longtime homeroom teacher of Archie Andrews and the rest of the Riverdale gang. Everything about her screams “sweet 60 and never been kissed,” from her steel bun to her quasi-Victorian dress down to her sensible shoes. Of course, Miss Grundy was born old, and if anything she improved with age. Compared to her 1940s avatar (a wrinkled crone who worked in a pickle factory before turning to education for a career), her modern incarnation is quite soft and chic.

So it’s particularly poignant that just when she found love—with longtime crush Mr. Weatherbee—Miss Grundy also found out that she was seriously ill, and now we learn that she will shuffle off this mortal coil in issue #6 of Life with Archie magazine. Of course, the magazine is set in a different universe than the monthly comics: It follows the grown-up Archie and the rest of the Riverdale gang after they graduate from college, get married, and launch careers in an Archie-esque version of the real world. Miss Grundy will continue to torment the students of Riverdale High in the regular Archie series.

While it’s big news at the moment, Miss Grundy’s fate was actually foreshadowed in the first issue of Life with Archie, when she tells Mr. Weatherbee that she is gravely ill, and he responds by proposing. Unless the sixth issue is a huge break with the rest of the series, this is a very Riverdale version of cancer. We haven’t seen Miss Grundy recover from surgery or spend hours in the infusion room getting chemo; she just works in her garden and looks a bit more haggard than usual.


May 08, 2014 09:02 EST

Yesterday, the passage of H.R. 863, which created a "Commission to Study the Potential Creation of a National Women’s History Museum," passed the House 383-33

15 representatives not voting. Only two of the eighteen Republican women in the House voted against the bill- Rep. Michele Bachmann and Rep. Vicky Hartzler.

H.R.863 Commission to Study the Potential Creation of a National Women’s History Museum Act of 2013

The bill, H.R. 863, calls for the establishment of a Congressional Commission to prepare a report containing recommendations for establishing and maintaining a National Women’s History Museum in Washington, D.C. Specifically, it would address the governance, organizational structure, fundraising, operations and location of the Museum. The 8-member bipartisan commission would have 18 months to produce the report and submit it to Congress for approval.

“The purpose of the legislation is to establish a commission to study the potential creation of a National Women’s History Museum in the Washington, DC area. The commission is charged with submitting a report to the President and Congress, within 18 months of its first meeting, containing recommendations with respect to the establishment of a museum. The eight-member commission, equally appointed by bipartisan and bicameral congressional leadership, is prohibited from using federal funds and is solely responsible for payment of its expenses. The commission terminates 30 days after submitting its final report.” The bill explains and further states, “According to the U.S. Census Bureau, women comprise more than half of our nation’s population. Since our nation’s founding, women have made substantial contributions to the economic, financial, political, and cultural fabric of our society. Yet at the present time, there is no single museum in the nation’s capital dedicated to telling the comprehensive story of women’s history and preserving the legacies of women’s contributions to our nation.”

The Commission is directed to consider whether the museum should be part of the Smithsonian Institution.

The bill authorizes the commission to employ staff and federal agency heads to provide technical assistance, other than detailed employees, to the commission and stipulates that commission members are not considered federal employees and will not compensated beyond per diem allowance for travel expenses. The commission is authorized to use, solicit, and accept gifts to aid its work.

The bill provides that the commission is not subject to the Federal Advisory Commission Act.

Sponsor: Rep Maloney, Carolyn B. [NY-12]

Thank you, Right Wing Watch

D- Day, was 70 years ago.

"The Overlord Embroidery, the centrepiece of the D-Day Museum, was commissioned by Lord Dulverton of Batsford as a tribute to the sacrifice and heroism of those who took part. Inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry, it traces in stunning visual form the progress of Overlord, from its origins in the dark days of 1940 to victory in Normandy in 1944."

http://www.ddaymuseum.co.uk/overlord-embroidery

The death of 93-year-old Pearlie Golden aka Ms. Sully, at the hands of Hearne police officer Stephen Stem, age 28

Who called the police ?

Andrew Washington, one of Golden's other neighbors, who said he heard several consecutive shots fired Tuesday evening, agreed with Demeritt. "If you have no type of understanding of how to relate to the black community, you don't need to be a police officer in Hearne," Washington said.

He described Golden as a grandmother figure and said he met her 25 years ago when he moved into his wife's family home. Washington's 61-year-old wife, Clem, said she knew Golden her whole life.

Washington said that, based on his knowledge of the incident, a young man who helped Golden around the house called police when the woman became upset with him for not handing over her car keys. He did not know if or when Golden displayed a gun, but was aware that she had one.

http://www.theeagle.com/news/local/...cle_4f5e732e-88d7-5527-89e7-d29b1fdc4508.html

Pennsylvania Governor Hires Birther Tea Party Operative As New Tax Liaison

Ana Puig of Bucks County, a leader in the tea party movement since its earliest days in 2009, has a new job: legislative liaison for the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue.

Intellectual whiplash! The tea party, of course, is defined by its skepticism of big government, and particularly by its dislike of taxes. Puig not only went to work for state government, she represents the people who collect the taxes to keep the beast purring along.

Puig was not interested in meditating on irony Monday, nor did she talk about changing the system from within. “I’d rather not do any stories,” Puig said. “I’m taking a different route, for my family.”

In addition, she said, “after four years, I’m tired of media attention.”

She was hired Aug. 12 at an annual salary of $68,245, according to the state Office of Administration.

Puig, co-chair of the Kitchen Table Patriots, earned national renown as a tea party leader, including a prominent role in the book Boiling Mad: Inside Tea Party America , by New York Times reporter Kate Zernike. Puig, a naturalized citizen from Brazil who grew up in a conservative military family, was a fiery speaker, noted for fervently asserting that the U.S. was on the road to socialism.

She worked as state director for Freedom Works, a Washington-based group that has nurtured the tea party movement, and was a member of Gov. Corbett's education transition team when he took office in 2011. Puig also lobbied heavily in the legislature for a school tuition-voucher bill.

“For me, it has switched from just being, ‘I want to save the country in my spare time’ to ‘I’m going to do this for life.’ It’s a commitment,” Puig told the Inquirer in an August 2011 interview.

Students not allowed free speech because Gov. Tom Corbett (R-PA) does not want to hear it

(Who screams about Rights to Free Speech, the most often ? Who hates it when intelligent people make remarks, that are based in truth ?)

Dirty tactics used against high school students-

If you knuckle under to pressure to be a good Tea party supporter, you will be rewarded.
You will be allowed a break from classes, if you attend and let Gov. Tom Corbett have a good publicity session.

If you dare to protest against the damage that the Tea Party has done to your school, and your future, there will be blackmail-

If you chose to protest, you will be uninvited from Corbett’s remarks, you will not have permission to be absent from class, you will face consequences for cutting class, including suspension.

Choose to be a puppet, or choose to lose-

Lose your seat as a school representative
Lose your chance to play the final game on the softball team
Lose your opportunity to give the graduation speech

Bait and Switch used against a student- False promises

Carr, a student in the LGBT community who also wanted to ask Corbett about his derogatory comments comparing gay marriage to incest, even attempted a Plan B that was also thwarted. She said after she agreed not to protest, she obtained permission to attend the press conference. She was selected as one of the students who would stand behind Corbett during his remarks, and hoped in exchange she would be able to ask Corbett a question, in what she called a “once in a lifetime chance.”

But five minutes before the event was set to start, she said she was pulled from that group because she was wearing jeans with holes in them. And another group of students who tried to take the signs and bring them to the protest were stopped midway to the event and told to return to their classes.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/05/12/3436117/high-schoolers-post/

Years ago, they boasted about The Silent Majority- Now they seek to make the Majority silent.

Officials with the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office say an illegal [ATV] ride, organized by an elected official, would be yet another gesture of disrespect leveled at American Indians’ cultural heritage, which is embedded in the landscape and has been long pillaged by the descendants of San Juan County’s Anglo pioneers.

The tribe claims an ancestral affiliation with the prehistoric Puebloans, who built cliff dwellings and kivas and buried their dead in Recapture Canyon between A.D. 750 and 1150.

"We believe the [Bureau of Land Management] should be providing more law enforcement to protect and preserve the cultural and natural resources for which it is the nation’s caretaker, and not providing more motorized access to areas containing cultural and natural resources that it has demonstrated that it is unable to protect," Leigh J. Kuwanwisiwma, the tribe’s preservation director, wrote in a May 1 letter to the BLM.

But the office’s Terry Morgart concurred that a show of force could provoke a confrontation with anti-federal activists who may join the locals’ protest.

"But if BLM keeps acquiescing, it will make it worse, too, because [ATV enthusiasts] will keep upping the ante," Morgart says. "What’s to keep them from going out there anytime they want?"

Recapture Canyon enjoys no permanent protection, but the BLM closed it to motorized use in 2007, citing damage to numerous archaeological sites from illegal trail construction.

The county’s right-of-way application, which would put the Recapture trail in local hands, has dragged on for eight years. The delay has prompted San Juan County Commissioner Phil L-Y-M-A-N (hey! forbidden word at Lit ?) and other Blanding residents to stage Saturday’s ride as a way to assert local jurisdiction over public lands that their families have used for generations.

*****’s fellow commissioners declined to officially sanction the protest because the ride would break the law. His predecessor, Lynn Stevens, who supports motorized use in the canyon, denounced Saturday’s ride as "unwise and irresponsible" and asserted it would only delay the county’s application for a right of way along the route.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/57919721-78/blm-canyon-recapture-ride.html.csp?page=1

Look, before you destroy ?

May 31, 2013

ST. GEORGE — The Utah Department of Transportation discovered ancient ruins this month as they paved their way through the Southern Parkway, a 33-mile project that will soon be an eastern belt route for Washington County.

The ruins have been named one of the oldest sites investigated in Southern Utah, where more than 15 other archaeological sites have been found near Washington Dam Road. Scientists are currently stating, upon significant research, that the area was inhabited for up to 10,000 years.

The Utah native Shivwits tribe was invited to the sites to search the ruins and members are working closely with archaeologists to properly preserve them.
utah artifacts

Obsidian Lake Mojave and Bajada projectile points recovered from construction site, St. George, Utah,
May 2013 | Photo courtesy of UDOT

So far, among the list of items uncovered are Anasazi pit houses, arrowheads, pottery calibrated to have been dated as far back as 400 B.C. and dinosaur fossils.

What the paleontologists are characterizing as 200 million-year-old fossils include teeth from nine species – three of which could be newly identified species – were also found during construction and have been archived for more research.

“We are an organization that learns,” Dana Meier, project manager for UDOT, said.

UDOT will continue to carefully navigate this project as they strive to protect the species in the construction area and within the ruins.

Artifacts discovered-

“At one of the sites investigated, five ancient dwellings were exposed,” Kevin Kitchen, UDOT Region Four Communications Manager said. “They were believed to have been occupied more than a thousand years ago by a culture of farmers who exploited the fertile banks of the Virgin River flood plain. Known as Ancestral Puebloans or ‘Virgin Anasazi’ they relied heavily on native cultivars for their subsistence: mainly corn, beans, squash, as well as a variety of native plants and small game.”

“Four of the five pit-houses contained attributes indicative of the Basket Maker III and early Pueblo I periods approximately 400 – 800 A.D,” Kitchen said. “They contained items such as potsherds decorated with bands of small black dots and triangles, arrowheads and stone flakes of chert and quartzite as well as burnt structural remains and other organic materials. Hearths in these former structures were constructed with smooth fired clay over a circular arrangement of cobblestones. The floors and walls were lined with clay and/or flagstone.”

The fifth pit-house was larger than the other four and contained dart points rather than arrowheads. Obsidian materials were found rather than quartzite and chert, and the hearth was composed of basalt boulders rather than sandstone cobblestones lined with clay. Due to these factors, this pit-house appears to be from the Basketmaker II period dating approximately 300 B.C. to 400 A.D. Very little is known of this period in the region.

A “Lake Mojave” type stemmed spear point from a different site is indicative of the Paleoindian occupation. Researchers used “optically stimulated luminescence” testing to date the sediments where this was deposited. A “Bajada” type point was also recovered at this site suggesting a slightly later period. Several projectile points characteristic of the Archaic period have also been found in the area.

Paleontological finds include dinosaur tracks of the early Jurassic Kayenta period along with a complete fish fossil and several plant fossils that are rare from that formation. Fossilized dinosaur teeth were also recovered representing nine different types, including three not previously described.

The project has gained regional attention among archaeologists because it has contributed to the Basketmaker II period for this particular area and provides more possibilities and questions for researchers of this specific period.

What archaeologists say

“The materials recovered from the Southern Parkway investigation provided evidence of indigenous occupation of the region,” Eric Hansen, UDOT NEPA Specialist said, “semi-continuously from the early Holocene, perhaps as early as 10,000 years ago, through the Archaic, Formative (Puebloan 400 B.C. to A.D. 1300) and protohistoric periods (Post-Formative to Paiute) before European contact. Numic populations are theorized to have expanded into the area more than a thousand years ago, but may have arrived much earlier.”

Utah’s prehistory

Utah’s prehistory, according to the Utah State Historic Preservation Society, has led to some interesting finds over the years. The oldest findings that have been excavated point to people that thrived in Utah more than 10,000 years ago, right after the ice age ended.

The Paleoindians lived here along with camels, sloths, mammoths, giant bison and other extinct animals. Their cave remains surround the Great Salt Lake. As the climate warmed 8,000 years ago lifestyles shifted and archaeologists call the culture of this era the Archaic people. They were hunter-gatherers and basket makers who hunted with spears and other weapons they made. Their rock art is what has been discovered of them.

Then, 2,000 years ago, things shifted once again when farming beans, corn and squash was discovered, from which evolved two broad cultures: Anasazi and the Fremont people. Archaeologists have discovered pit houses, moccasins and remnants of pottery, and know that by A.D. 750 both Fremont and Anasazi had created new weaponry: bows and arrows. Thereafter, 800 years ago, the Anasazi left Southern Utah and the Fremonts disappeared. There is a lot of speculation surrounding this.

The next people to pop up were Numic-speaking people that evolved into four groups: Northern Shoshone, Goshute, Southern Paiute and Utes. By A.D. 1500 Navajos also moved in. The most recent group of people to move in were the euro-Americans, explorers, trappers, traders and settlers.

State coordination with archaeologists, cultural interests

Private archaeologists working under the direction of the state arrived in the field in 2011 to investigate and mitigate any potentially significant cultural sites, Kitchen said. Prior to any excavation, UDOT archaeologists work with Native American tribes and the State Historic Preservation Office to determine the best course of action. (Tribal involvement on the Southern Parkway began over a decade ago.)

The discovery and scientific dismantling of sites typically starts with a surface survey of the area, he said, the digging of trenches and then branching out with hand tools from there. Special survey equipment records various points of reference so items can be catalogued in context and the site data can be reproduced electronically for future reference and coordinated with artifacts in the laboratory.

Kitchen said that paleontological finds were investigated by an expert who has researched other areas in Washington County where dinosaur tracks have been found and has worked for the local museum.

Economic impacts, rerouting, fiscal and time impacts

The Southern Parkway has been realigned seven times through the environmental and design processes due to many factors, archaeology among the reasons. However, due to a proactive environmental approach, archaeological work has not posed any significant construction delay with potentially associated costs on the Southern Parkway. Kitchen said the contract specifications are also set up in a manner to keep construction active elsewhere on the project if UDOT does encounter something unexpected.

Ed. Note: Andrew Milner, paleontologist on the project, said that dinosaurs and people did not live together.

http://www.stgeorgeutah.com/news/ar...earths-ancient-ruins-what-archaeologists-say/

May 12, 2014

Boston politicals dropped the Hatfield VS McCoy act, and zipped a law through. No one liked the fact that Boston had no law- against perverts taking upskirt pics of unwilling victims.

Utah is much more efficient, at passing laws-

Did they name a law, for John Swallow ? His actions led them to pass a law-

Wild Times with Republicans and Utah-

Mar 12 2014

At the stroke of midnight Tuesday morning, 352 new laws take effect in Utah.

The Utah House on Wednesday released the final report of its investigation into former Attorney General John Swallow, laid out in more than 200 pages with 3,700 exhibits, the result of a four-month, $4 million investigation, which contributed to Swallow’s resignation.

Investigators have since found additional documents, including more than 1,700 emails recovered from Swallow’s crashed home computer, that Dunnigan said reinforce and corroborate the earlier findings.

Dunnigan said he hopes the investigation and report restores the public confidence in the office.

"The attorney general’s office is the highest law-enforcement office in the state and people have to feel like everyone is treated fairly and equally and that no nods or special favors are given," Dunnigan said. "We know you can’t stop everybody, and we can’t, but we do want to set a good paradigm and path forward that we want better in Utah."

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/57666541-90/report-swallow-investigation-office.html.csp

Johnson faces an 86-count federal indictment alleging his I Works company defrauded customers out of nearly $300 million. Johnson has said Swallow helped with an arrangement in 2010 — before the businessman had been criminally charged — intended to help him avoid a federal investigation of I Works.

Swallow also met with one of Johnson’s friends, Jason Peterson, in New York City just before his November 2012 election and two months before the Swallow scandal broke. Peterson told the FBI that Swallow, then a chief deputy attorney general, had warned him that he could help Johnson with his legal troubles only if he was attorney general.

Swallow also told Peterson that he was a friend of Brent Ward, the assistant U.S. attorney who was prosecuting Johnson’s criminal case.

News Bite-

A frank email exchange showed John Swallow’s campaign staff likening Republican state delegates to animals and disparagingly refers to a transgender delegate as “that thing.”

The email — part of an affidavit supporting a request for a search warrant in the criminal investigation of Swallow, his predecessor, Mark Shurtleff, and others — bears the subject line “Feedings” and notes the campaign was buying meals for about 80 delegates a day in the weeks leading up to the Utah Republican Convention.

It is common for candidates to buy meals for delegates who have tremendous clout in picking the party’s nominees.

“Feedings? Is this like delegates are deer and John is a salt lick kind of thing?” campaign staffer Greg Powers wrote.

“I was thinking more goats and a tin can,” replied campaign staffer Seth Crossley. “Not sure if that analogy actually happens outside of cartoons, though.”

Another staffer, Renae Cowley, said she was “still waiting for a picture of the tranny!” She was referring to a transgender delegate who identifies as a woman.

Crossley said he “offered [to take] a picture of that thing” but she declined. Cowley said she “just said not an ‘up the skirt’ shot.”

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/57343544-78/swallow-attorney-campaign-powers.html.csp?page=2

March 12 2014

House report: John Swallow hung 'for sale' sign on door of attorney general's office

Did U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm inspire people to pass a law, after he was indicted on federal mail, wire and tax fraud charges ?

The committee concluded that Swallow "intentionally endeavored to obstruct inquiry into his conduct," based on his lack of cooperation, including what the report termed the "troubling combination of missing and fabricated documents."

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/...eases-massive-John-Swallow-report.html?pg=all

In Rolling Stone, Mark Binelli said that Pope Francis’s charm masks “authoritarian steel”.

Public relations tours have convinced some people that Pope Francis is a fun- loving rebel.

March 12, 2014

"So much for all the cozy hugs and soothing cold calls and fun selfies and humble gestures and talk of mercy, love, inclusion, equality and justice. Pope Francis appears guilty of condoning that most base Vatican sport: bullying nuns."

"On Monday, we learned that German cardinal Gerhard Müller, the Vatican orthodoxy watchdog, upbraided the officers of the largest group of American nuns, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which has been investigated and reprimanded by Rome. "

"He objected to their plan to honour Sr Elizabeth Johnson, a Fordham theology professor, who has written that women are uncomfortable with “the dominant images of God as father, lord and king” and would prefer “non-authoritarian” female language for God."

“This latest slapdown raises a big question about Pope Francis’s character,” said Kenneth Briggs, the author of Double Crossed: Uncovering the Catholic Church’s Betrayal of American Nuns. “Is he content projecting a Mr Nice Guy image while giving the green light to the Vatican big boys to pursue a hard line?

Missionary position ?

While praising women for their “sensitivity,” “intuition” and mothering skills, he [Pope Francis] said flatly that women’s ordination to the priesthood “is not a question open to discussion”.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/worl...end-of-pope-francis-s-mixed-messages-1.179125

You could always tell when a merger was going on- Attractive, stylish, happy, busy younglings,
became the starving, haunted, walking dead. In a very short period of time.

It is disconcerting, that some dropped dead from exhaustion. I am surprised that someone did not intervene.

I was guessing they were young enough to recover. I was guessing that they moved on, and survived.

Someone made a killing, and some died to make that happen ? Murder is a crime. Ghouls.

(Ask, again. What do you do, to get that money ?)

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox...street_culture_caused_one_person_to_lose.html

Spring Full Moon 2014

The police have their hands full, dealing with strange, violent, and deadly behaviors.

May 13, 2014

Police say there is a possibly armed suspect inside the Channel 2 news station in Towson after a vehicle crashed into the building.

The crash occurred at 11:45 a.m., Baltimore County police say. Officials are warning people to stay away from the area, where roads around 6400 York Road are closed for police activity.

Reporters and other staff from the ABC news station detailed the situation on Twitter. Reporter Brian Kuebler said everybody at WMAR was safe and accounted for.

"A guy has slammed his truck 7 times into our building and is in our building..we've been evacuated..," meteorologist Mike Masco tweeted.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/ma.../bs-md-co-wmar-crash-20140513,0,5373752.story

He had a bone to pick with the ABC television corporation ?

trouble in New Hampshire-

Officer Stephen Arkell, 48, was shot and killed Monday when he entered the home at 46 Mill Pond Road in response to a call about a domestic dispute.

Attorney General Joseph Foster said at a news conference Monday evening that the shooter is believed to be Michael Nolan, 47. He said other officers were driven out of the home by gunfire.

Nolan is believed to have set the duplex on fire, and about 5:50 p.m., a massive explosion rocked the neighborhood and tore part of the roof off the building. The house was quickly engulfed in flames and destroyed.

Walter Nolan, 85, made it out of the house, alive. Michael Nolan, 47, is believed to have died in the fire.

http://www.wmur.com/news/news-confe...-officer-stephen-arkell-set-for-1-pm/25951016

In other news, a re-enactment of a Black Mass freaks the Christians out- The Christians react-

A reenactment of satanic rituals known as a “black mass” that had been scheduled for Monday evening on the Harvard campus was abruptly canceled amid a chorus of condemnation from Catholic groups and university officials and students.

However, a scaled-down version of the event, without the original sponsorship of the Harvard Extension Cultural Studies Club, was apparently held late Monday by members of the New York-based Satanic Temple off campus, at the Hong Kong lounge in Harvard Square.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston held a eucharistic procession that began at a Massachusetts Institute of Technology chapel in Cambridge Monday evening, followed by a holy hour at St. Paul Church in Harvard Square.

Jon Swedberg, 64, of Taunton and a marcher in the procession, said he was strongly opposed to the black mass and that he wanted to “pray to the Blessed Father on behalf of what’s happening.”

“I find [the black mass] offensive as a Catholic,” he said. “I find it goes directly against the faith of my church, the faith of the church of my choice.”

Hundreds of marchers proceeded from MIT to St. Paul Church for the holy hour, clutching rosary beads, crosses, and pictures of Jesus.

More than 1,500 people packed the church for the holy hour, including Drew Faust, Harvard president.

“Tonight, my friends, we gather in this moment of prayer, as a parish, a university community, to celebrate the greatest gift that God has ever extended to us, His son Jesus Christ,” said the Rev. Michael E. Drea, who led the holy hour prayers.

He said people of faith “all recognize the message of the Satanic black mass, they recognize it for what it is: an act of hatred . . . for the Catholic church.”

Dani Mellen, 25, of Jamaica Plain, sat across the street from the church and said that she had wanted to attend the black mass. She said that she is not a satanist, but was curious to see how the black mass worked.

“I understand it was supposed to be a reenactment of what a satanic mass would have been,” she said. “I’m not totally sure, because I’ve never attended one, but I was excited to because I have a thirst for knowledge.”

Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley and Faust had been at odds over the university’s initial decision to allow the reenactment on campus.

O’Malley said the event was disturbing. The satanic ritual is believed by critics to mock the Roman Catholic religion.

“Why people would want to do something that is so offensive to so many people in the community, whether they’re Catholic or not, it’s very repugnant,” O’Malley said in an interview with the Globe.

In a statement released earlier Monday, Faust said the performance would be allowed on campus.

She called the student group’s sponsorship of the black mass “abhorrent,” but said she must protect the group’s right to free speech.

“Vigorous and open discussion and debate are essential to the pursuit of knowledge, and we must uphold these values even in the face of controversy,” Faust said.

Nearly 60,000 students, alumni, and faculty members signed a petition against holding the services on campus, according to a statement released by Harvard Rhodes scholar Aurora Griffin.

“I am ashamed that my university is allowing such a hateful event to happen under the auspices of ‘education,’ ” said Griffin, a former president of the Harvard Catholic Student Association.

The Harvard Extension club has continuously urged critics to widen their understanding of satanic worship. In an interview via e-mail Friday, an unidentified spokesperson said the event was meant to be educational, not offensive.

The spokesperson asserted that many satanists are animal rights activists, vegetarians, and artists with a strong sense of community.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/20...mass-campus/tUjYx2817C65LAHousRIeP/story.html

(It makes me curious as to what the history of the Black Mass, is. Who would know better,
than a priest of the Christian faith, as how to conduct a Christian Mass, backwards ?)

The article used demographic, historical, and investigative evidence to explain what may have happened in this overwhelmingly Democratic area, focusing on one particular precinct, the 3rd division of the 28th Ward:

* About 94 percent of the 633 people who live in that division are black. Seven white residents were counted in the 2010 census.

* In the entire 28th Ward, Romney received only 34 votes to Obama's 5,920.

* Although voter registration lists, which often contain outdated information, show 12 Republicans live in the ward's 3rd division, The Inquirer was unable to find any of them by calling or visiting their homes.

* Four of the registered Republicans no longer lived there; four others didn't answer their doors. City Board of Elections registration data say a registered Republican used to live at 25th and York Streets, but none of the neighbors across the street Friday knew him.

* The ward's 15th division, which also cast no votes for Romney, also cast no votes for McCain in 2008. Thirteen other Philadelphia precincts also cast no votes for the Republican in both 2008 and 2012.

* Nationally, 93 percent of African-Americans voted for Obama, according to exit polls, so it's not surprising that the president did even better than that in some areas.

Finally, the article commented that "in 2008, McCain got zero votes in 57 Philadelphia voting divisions." Thus, it is not surprising that Romney saw a similar result.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/11/14/ignoring-history-foxs-hannity-claims-voter-frau/191370

What did snopes say ? Snopes said false!

http://www.snopes.com/politics/ballot/2012fraud.asp

Idaho GOP Governors Primary Debate (May 14, 2014)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQlPcwiruaY

blurb-

Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter, Sen. Russ Fulcher, Harley Brown and Walt Bayes
make their case on why they should have the support of voters on
May 20, 2014.

Four candidates vying for the Idaho Republican gubernatorial nomination faced off Wednesday evening, tackling the economy, state control of federal lands and the Affordable Care Act.

Now, what ?-

Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter issued a statement on his official website:

"I appreciate the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stepping in to ensure Idaho will not have to endure the same kind of chaos and confusion that Utah faced after a similar lower-court decision. Today’s ruling stays the federal magistrate’s order and maintains the status of marriage as defined by the Idaho Constitution–between one man and one woman. Meanwhile, I am proceeding with an aggressive challenge in the appellate court. I’m hopeful for a better outcome, but in any event I am committed to defending our Constitution and the will of Idaho voters.”

http://www.boiseweekly.com/CityDesk...ues-temporary-stay-in-idaho-gay-marriage-case

* Harley Brown, who has been running for various Idaho offices since the 1990s, wants to be your governor. Real bad.


If you didn't watch it last night, or haven't seen it online by now, you're missing out on the birth of what will undoubtedly be the next great Idaho meme.

Broadcast by Idaho Public Television on May 14, Idaho Republican gubernatorial candidates Harley Brown, Walt Bayes, Sen. Russ Fulcher (Meridian) and incumbent C.L. "Butch" Otter faced off in their only debate ahead of the GOP primary Tuesday, May 20.

The gathering was... well... unique.

Watch it here. Or cut to the highlight reel, but you'll miss some real gems (like the observation that same-sex couples love each other more than Harley Brown loves his motorcycle).

Priceless.

UPDATE: YouTube user Nick McMullin, who spliced together "The Great Idaho Debate Supercut," took down his video this afternoon.

http://www.boiseweekly.com/Cobweb/archives/2014/05/15/idaho-gubernatorial-debate-wins-the-internet

"We were only storing the movies!"

"....while trying to hide behind numerous aliases (including a labyrinth of interlocking websites, offshore entities, alter-ego businesses and sham corporations), copied plaintiff's movies onto its computers, and illegally sold thousands of copies to users who paid a 'membership fee' to a website..."



http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2014/05/japanese_adult_porn.php

"This is an ugly word, Scam. If you wanna be in business, this is what you gotta do."
-The Freshman

gsgs's joke/sarcastic headline-

Waaaaah! I sold out, and traded my honor, trustworthiness, and reputation for money.

Honest and respectable scientists have rejected me, because I joined GWPF as an advisor.
I was paid, and now I am leaving GWPF, with a full wallet and a bankrupt reputation.
(Global Warming Policy Foundation)

I will cry crocodile tears, all the way to the bank! Poor me, I am being bullied!
- Mr. Lennart Bengtsson

What is GWPF, Precious ?

Michael Hintze, a leading Conservative party donor who runs the £5bn hedge fund CQS, has emerged as a financial backer of the climate sceptic thinktank founded by former chancellor, Lord Nigel Lawson.

The Global Warming Policy Foundation, launched by Lawson in 2009, regularly casts doubt on the science and cost of tackling climate change in the media and has called on climate scientists to show greater transparency, but has refused to reveal details of its donors. Leading Nasa climate scientist James Hansen calls it "one link in a devious manipulation of public opinion [regarding climate change]."

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/mar/27/tory-donor-climate-sceptic-thinktank

Murdoch-owned media hypes lone metereologist's climate junk science

16 May 2014

The "unbearable" scientific isolation that Prof Bengtsson experienced as a consequence of joining the GWPF, and submitting scientifically questionable material to a leading journal, should not come as a surprise. That the climate science community roundly rejects the GWPF's denialist rantings, and found Bengtsson's work in this regard unfit to publish, is evidence for the overwhelming consensus on climate change - not against it.

As an illustrative example of just how isolated Prof Bengtsson and his ilk are, consider the fact reported earlier this year by Scientific American that out of more than 2,000 peer-reviewed climate science publications put out over the last year from November 2012 to December 2013, the number of scientists who denied the role of human-caused CO2 emissions in current climate change "is exactly one."

http://www.theguardian.com/environm...rdoch-media-hypes-lone-climate-denial-big-oil

People that have no moral compass, and no conscience, bully respectable scientists-

Mar 1, 2010

The e-mails come thick and fast every time NASA scientist Gavin Schmidt appears in the press.

Rude and crass e-mails. E-mails calling him a fraud, a cheat, a scumbag and much worse.

To Schmidt and other researchers purging their inboxes daily of such correspondence, the barrage is simply part of the job of being a climate scientist. But others see the messages as threats and intimidation—cyber-bullying meant to shut down debate and cow scientists into limiting their participation in the public discourse.

"I get a lot of hate mail," said Schmidt, a climate modeler at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies who also runs RealClimate.org, a website devoted to debunking myths and errors about climate change. "I get a lot of praise mail, but pretty much every time I have a quote in a mainstream publication I'll get a string of emails from various people accusing me of various misdemeanors and fantasizing about my life in prison."

Kevin Trenberth, head of the Climate Analysis Section of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, has a 19-page document of "extremely foul, nasty, abusive" e-mails he's received just since November.

Australian author and academic Clive Hamilton noted that many of the country's most distinguished climate scientists are increasingly the target of e-mail attacks aimed at driving them from the public debate.

"The purpose of this new form of cyber-bullying seems clear; it is to upset and intimidate the targets, making them reluctant to participate further in the climate change debate," Hamilton wrote in a column published last week by Sydney's ABC News. "While the internet is often held up as the instrument of free speech, it is often used for the opposite purpose, to drive people out of the public debate."

The bullying has long been part of life for many climate scientists. Retired NCAR climate scientist Tom Wigley said he's been fighting it for the last 20 years or more. Most of the e-mails appear to be the work of frustrated individuals, ranting into the ether, scientists say. But some appear to be the work of coordinated campaigns, and many, scientists say, appear to be taking their cue from influential anti-climate change advocates like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and ClimateDepot.com.

Scientists say the bullying, if anything, emboldens them. But it does have a cost.

Organized, "McCarthyite" tactics aimed at specific scientists by various groups can be stressful, Schmidt said. "Frivolous" Freedom of Information Act requests can tie up considerable quantities of researchers' time.

But worst of all, he said, are "intimidating letters" from congressional members threatening dire consequences to scientists working on climate change.

"That is chilling the work of science in the agencies," Schmidt said. "It's certainly very off-putting for scientists who want to talk about their stuff in public but fear the political consequences."

"Nobody wants to create an enemy on the Hill."

For the most part, the rants have remained just that - rants. Threats of physical harm remain rare and are usually discounted, scientists say. "These people don't really know you," Schmidt added. "They're not really talking about you. You're just a symbol that has an e-mail address."

The pace picked up late last year, when several years' worth of stolen correspondence among climate scientists were published on the Web. The onslaught intensified as errors in the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change's most recent report surfaced in January and policy makers and reporters began to question what has become the gold standard of climate science.

What's clear is the e-mails show anger and hostility. There's no effort to ask questions or seek what Trenberth called "the truth." Scientists aren't the only target; journalists covering the issue also routinely find their inbox stuffed with epithets.

"They do not tend to be reasonable," said Rudy Baum, editor-in-chief of Chemical and Engineering News, who has been covering science for the magazine for 30 years. "They do not seem to be interested in dialogue. They are shrill, they are unfriendly, and they are bullying."

Why so much venom and vitriol?

The answer is simple, said Marc Morano, executive editor at ClimateDepot.com, who has spent years trying to expose global warming hype: The public is bitterly angry at the "con job" perpetrated by climate scientists.

"You have every aspect of our lives subject to regulatory control - down to the light bulbs we can put in - based on climate science," Morano said. The researchers "never wanted to debate and they kept trying to demand the debate was over."

"Whenever you have someone ginning up a crisis and wanting to take power, you're going to have anger," he added. "When you've been conned at a used car dealer, you don't go back cheerily and politely to talk to them."



That neither the stolen correspondence nor the minor IPCC errors undermine the underlying science of climate change hasn't checked the onslaught.

Trenberth says that is the most dispiriting aspect of the e-mails: Facts don't carry more weight in the public debate. The nature of public discourse - be it climate change or health care - has changed; information that does not fit one's worldview is now discounted or rejected.

Increasingly," wrote Pulitzer-prize winning columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr. in the Miami Herald recently, "we are a people estranged from critical thinking, divorced from logic, alienated from even objective truth."

Added Trenberth: "In science there's a whole lot of facts and basic information on the nature of climate change, but it's not being treated that way. It's being treated as opinion."

The attacks are not limited to climate research, either. Researchers working on Atrazine, a widely used herbicide, bisphenol-a, a common plastic additive, and other environmental pollutants have received similarly intimidating e-mails and even threats.

Determining whether any given e-mail is part of an organized campaign is difficult, said Richard Littlemore, editor of DeSmog Blog and author of Climate Cover-up, an investigation of industry's effort to undermine climate science.

But it's not happenstance, he said. The bullying doesn't start serendipitously or from scratch.

It starts with a paid campaigner - Morano; the International Climate Science Coalition's Tom Harris; JunkScience.com publisher and Fox News commentator Steve Milloy - and filters out from there, Littlemore said.

"They're the PR guys and they're in the game and taking money for what they do," he said. "They also wind up recruiting other folks.... In many ways they're just dupes and sincerely believe they're standing up for democracy."

"They're people whose world view is being disrupted by climate scientists," Littlemore added. "Sometimes they end up being the most effective and vitriolic."

Morano, for his part, is unapologetic in his efforts to knock climate science down a notch.

He doesn't wish anyone harm. But he sees opportunity. "I seriously believe we should kick them while they're down," he said. "They deserve to be publicly flogged."

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-cyber-bullying/

The VA VS Veterans who need medical care

PHILLIP CARTER: There are also reports coming out of Austin and San Antonio.

You have to remember the VA is a massive health care system, 151 hospitals, 800-plus clinics. And so if these conditions existed at the Phoenix Center, which I should say is also home to the second largest veterans community in the country, they may exist in other large facilities or small facilities too.

It is, as Speaker Boehner said, most likely a systemic issue.

JEFFREY BROWN: Well, Brian Skoloff, you said that there in Phoenix, the VA people at the hospital have denied these allegations. Tell us a little bit more about the reaction so far.

BRIAN SKOLOFF: Yes, I mean, a good point was raised there. These allegations are very, very serious.

And they — Dr. Foote, the former VA employee who came out with them first, claims exactly what your guest just said, that the reason the administrators were having these wait times fabricated was so that they could pad their pockets with bonus checks.

Director Sharon Helman, who is the director at the VA health care system here in Phoenix, prior to her being placed on administrative leave last week, told me that she flat-out denies this. She makes roughly $169,000, $170,000 a year. Her bonus last year was about $9,300.

She scoffs at the notion that she would sit back and watch veterans die to make an extra $9,000 in bonus money. Again, though, these are all allegations, but if proven true, they are very serious allegations. But the chief of staff and the hospital administrator vehemently deny that any secret waiting list was created, that they ever told staff to create the secret waiting list, and that staff is really just confused with a changeover from paperwork, actual paperwork, to an electronic waiting list.

But, again, you know, at this point, it is a he said/she said until investigators get to the truth.

JEFFREY BROWN: Well, Phil Carter, at the national level, though, there is a lot of pressure now on General Shinseki.

PHILLIP CARTER: There’s an awful lot of pressure, and a lot of folks are analogizing this now to the Walter Reed scandal from six years ago, where there were reports of terrible living conditions at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, which is not a VA facility, and those led to the downfall of the Army’s medical leadership as a result.

But folks are trying to figure out here in Washington, where do you fix responsibility within the chain of command? Is it at the secretarial level? Is it below that at the regional level, the hospital level, or down below? And I think that there’s a consensus building, at least — and Speaker Boehner’s comments illustrate that — to wait for the investigation before we fix accountability for these issues.

JEFFREY BROWN: Now, Secretary Shinseki announced this face-to-face audit, right, yesterday at all the facilities across the country. Do we know what that will entail? Do we know how long it will take?

PHILLIP CARTER: No, we don’t know the details of that.

We do know that it was announced earlier in April, and that that was part of the effort to understand how much of an issue this is throughout the VA’s massive health care system — Secretary Shinseki trying to get ahead of the story as much as possible, while also fighting the perception that he is not doing enough.

JEFFREY BROWN: Brian Skoloff, do you have any more on how that is going to work there in Phoenix?

BRIAN SKOLOFF: Well, it could be weeks down here trying to get to the truth of things. But a good point was raised there.

It is no secret that the VA is overwhelmed with veterans seeking care, either from previous wars, more recent wars. There are a lot of veterans seeking care. And they are really swarming these hospitals. Look, the VA has already acknowledged that 23 patients in recent years have died due to delayed care. So there is no — there is no secret that there is an issue with delayed care.

The allegations made here in Phoenix, though, are very serious that there was a cover-up in order for these administrators to make money and get bonus checks. So I guess we will wait and see. But, again, as your guest noted, there’s no secret that the VA has some issues it needs to deal with.

JEFFREY BROWN: All right, Brian Skoloff, Phil Carter, thank you both very much.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/scrutiny-past-va-clinic-delay-allegations-strike-chord/

The FFC has a revolving door-

Like so many problems in American government, the policy shift may relate to the pernicious corruption of the revolving door. The FCC is stocked with staffers who have recently worked for Internet Service Providers (ISP) that stand to benefit tremendously from the defeat of net neutrality.

"....the FCC is one of many agencies that have fallen victim to regulatory capture. Beyond campaign contributions and other more visible aspects of the influence trade in Washington, moneyed special interest groups control the regulatory process by placing their representatives into public office, while dangling lucrative salaries to those in office who are considering retirement. The incentives, with pay often rising to seven and eight figure salaries on K Street, are enough to give large corporations effective control over the rule-making process."

The revolving door, however, provides a clear and semi-legal way for businesses to directly give unlimited cash and gifts to officials who act in their favor. One of the most famous examples of this dynamic is the case of Meredith Attwell Baker, an FCC Commissioner who left her job right after voting in favor of the Comcast merger with NBC. Her next career move? She became a high-level lobbyist for Comcast, the company she had just blessed. Earlier this week, she announced her next gig, as president of CTIA, the primary wireless industry trade group. She’ll have her work cut out for her in lobbying her former colleagues. CTIA has already warned the FCC from taking up any new net neutrality regulations.

http://www.vice.com/read/former-com...ge-the-fcc-and-are-about-to-kill-the-internet

Bill Moyers-

Barack Obama told us there would be no compromise on Net neutrality. We heard him say it back in 2007, when he first was running for president.

“We have to ensure [a] free and full exchange of information and that starts with an open Internet,” he said in a speech at Google headquarters, the presidium of cyberspace. “I will take a backseat to no one in my commitment to network neutrality, because once providers start to privilege some applications or websites over others, then the smaller voices get squeezed out and we all lose. The Internet is perhaps the most open network in history and we have to keep it that way.”

He said it many more times. And defenders of Net neutrality believed him, that he would preserve Internet access for all, without selling out to providers like Verizon and Comcast who want to charge higher fees for speedier access – hustling more cash from those who can afford to buy a place at the front of the line. On this issue so important to democracy, they believed he would keep his word, would see to it that when private interests set upon the Internet like sharks to blood in the water, its fate would be in the hands of honest brokers who would listen politely to the pleas of the greedy, and then show them the door.

Unfortunately, it turned out to be Washington’s infamous revolving door. Last May, President Obama named Tom Wheeler to be FCC chairman. He had other choices, men or women whose loyalty was to the public, not to rich and powerful corporations. But Tom Wheeler had been one of Obama’s top bundlers of campaign cash – both in 2008 and again in 2012, when he raised at least half a million dollars for the president’s re-election. Like his proposed new rules for the Web, that put him at the front of the line.

What’s more, Wheeler had been the top gun for both the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA) and the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA), lobbyists for the cable and wireless industries. However we might try to imagine that he could quickly abandon old habits of service to his employers, that’s not how Washington works. Business and government are now so intertwined that public officials and corporate retainers are interchangeable parts of what Chief Justice John Roberts might call “the gratitude machine.”

Remember the FCC chairman under George W. Bush? Michael Powell was no champion of Net neutrality then, and now he works for its evisceration as CEO of the NCTA, the cable industry’s trade association, the same job Chairman Wheeler held three decades ago. Round and round they go, and where they stop – actually they never stop. They just flash their EZ Pass as they keep shuttling through that revolving door.

Consider: Daniel Alvarez was a long-time member of a law firm that has advised Comcast. He once wrote to the FCC on behalf of that giant, arguing against Net neutrality rules. He’s been hired by Tom Wheeler.

Former Ambassador Phillip Verveer also worked for Comcast and the wireless and cable trade associations, both of which have opposed Net neutrality. He’s now Tom Wheeler’s senior counselor.

Attorney Brendan Carr worked for Verizon and the telecom industry’s trade association, which lobbied against Net neutrality. Now Brendan Carr is an adviser to FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai, who once described open Internet rules as a “solution in search of a problem” and used to be a top lawyer for Verizon.

To be fair, Tom Wheeler has brought media reformers into the FCC, too, and has been telling us all that we don’t understand – that we’re the victims of “misinformation” about the new rules – that he is still for Net neutrality. Possibly. But the public’s no chump, and as you can see from just those few examples from the reporting of intrepid young journalist Lee Fang, those new rules are not the product of an immaculate conception. They were hatched in a place where industry midwives huddle around the cradle, waiting to privatize — sorry, baptize — the new arrival, and claim him for their own. Everyone else — nonprofit groups, startups, the smaller, independent content creators and everyday users – move to the rear. The Net will be neutral no more.

http://billmoyers.com/2014/05/02/don’t-let-net-neutrality-become-another-broken-promise/

Bill Moyers discusses net neutrality, FCC revolving door

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh5Hy9mw8-E

Bbc Blurred Lines The New Battle Of The Sexes 2014 Part 1 of 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjU0p0iqLVs

"a grab bag, of loathing of women." VS "A culture that is coarse and vicious to everyone."

Where is the anger coming from in (modern) young men ?

"Misogyny has found a new lease on life."( 2014)

Stirling University- Hockey team on public bus-Sexually aggressive (hostile) language
Song lyric- Women came in to a shop and asked for an (chocolate confection treat)
Orgasm. Who the fuck cares what she wants!
(Rape song ?)

Girl asked-
"Why is that funny ? That sounds scary!"

Bbc Blurred Lines The New Battle Of The Sexes 2014 Part 2 of 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da6QBP7i__A

Rape is funny ?

Brendon Burns- everything is funny, or nothing is funny ? [he is experimenting, in the manner of Lenny Bruce]

Lad's mad humor- ha ha (Cruel, ugly, nasty, hostile and sexist)

Crossing a boundary- Sexual harassment at work. (humorless cunt/bitch)

Punishing women for being successful- Cut their budgets, refuse to allow new hires

Sexists find validation when people laugh at sexist jokes, even if the women are laughing because of irony.

Social media responds to the women who took part in the program-
Vile, sexually derogatory pictures and degrading comments are aimed at the women.
(see how The Extreme Right Wing of American politics degrades women that they are in opposition to.)

Name calling, degrading, sexually explicit and rape threats, death threats-

A man believes that bullying and threats over the internet, is something that he can get away with-

"The police will do nothing, it's only Twitter."

Two people have pleaded guilty to sending "menacing" tweets to feminist campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez.

Isabella Sorley, 23, of Newcastle, and John Nimmo, 25, of South Shields, admitted at Westminster Magistrates' Court sending the messages over a public communications network.

They will be sentenced on 24 January.

Ms Criado-Perez, of Rutland, received abuse after her campaign for a woman to appear on a bank note resulted in Jane Austen being selected for the £10 note.

The 29-year-old said the case was a "small drop in the ocean" compared to the abuse she and other women received online.
'I will find you'

The court heard that one tweet from Sorley started with an expletive and continued: "Die you worthless piece of crap." She was also told to "go kill yourself".

Caroline Criado-Perez says her case is just the "tip of the iceberg"

She also sent the message to Ms Criado-Perez: "I've only just got out of prison and would happily do more time to see you berried!!"

In a separate set of abusive messages Nimmo told Ms Criado-Perez to "shut up" and made references to rape followed by "I will find you (smiley face)".

Alison Morgan, prosecuting, said Ms Criado-Perez had received abusive messages "of one type or another" from 86 Twitter accounts including those accounts attributed to both Nimmo and Sorley.

"Caroline Criado-Perez has suffered life-changing psychological effects from the abuse which she received on Twitter," she told the court.

"In particular, the menacing nature of the tweets sent by both defendants caused her significant fear that they would find her and carry out their threats."

Ms Criado-Perez later told BBC Radio 4's PM programme: "I'm really relieved that they pleaded guilty and it meant that we don't have to drag this out any further and have a whole trial about it.

"This is a small drop in the ocean, not just in terms of the amount of abuse that I was sent, where way more people than just two were involved, but also women in general, the amount of abuse that they get online and how few people see any form of justice."

Asked how she felt about one of her attackers being a woman, she said: "I think it is really sad but on the other hand I don't see why we should think that women who are brought up in a society steeped in misogyny should be any less affected by it and any less likely to hate women."

'Sad individual'

Ms Morgan told the court that in an interview with police Sorley admitted sending some of the tweets suggesting that she had been "off my face on drink" at the time.

Paul Kennedy, representing Nimmo, described him as a "somewhat sad individual" with "some level of learning difficulties" who had suffered bullying at school.

Mr Kennedy said: "He is a social recluse, that is exactly what he is really, he rarely leaves the house but to empty the bins.

"He sits in the house 24/7, he has nothing to do, he claims benefits."

Sorley and Nimmo admitted sending by means of a public electronic communications network messages which were menacing in character, contrary to Section 127(1) (A) of the Communications Act 2003.

Sorley was remanded in custody and Nimmo was bailed, both until 24 January.

District Judge Howard Riddle warned Sorley, whose previous convictions included being drunk and disorderly on 21 occasions, that it was "almost inevitable" she would receive a jail sentence.

The judge told Nimmo, described in court as of "previous good character", that "all options" to sentencing remained open.
'Deliberately worded'

Ms Criado-Perez's campaign began after the Bank of England announced in April last year that social reformer Elizabeth Fry would be dropped from new £5 notes in favour of Winston Churchill, leaving no female presence on bank notes.

Sorley and Nimmo sent the tweets in July after the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, said Jane Austen would replace Charles Darwin on the £10 note.

The court heard Nimmo had also targeted Stella Creasy, Labour MP for Walthamstow, with the message "The things I cud do to u (smiley face)" and called her "Dumb blond..." followed by an offensive word.

Nimmo was arrested on 30 July at home after the BBC's Newsnight programme handed over material outlining findings that identified him as one of the people abusing the women online.

It was established he sent 20 tweets to one of the women and four tweets to the other, using six separate Twitter accounts.

Sorley was arrested on 22 October at home after officers identified her as responsible for setting up three anonymous Twitter accounts and sending six tweets to one of the women, all sent on 30 July.

Scotland Yard said the evidence demonstrated Nimmo "acted to cover his identity, anonymously sending messages that were deliberately designed to cause fear and apprehension".

It added that Sorley's actions were "deliberate, planned and deliberately worded to create fear and a credible menace".

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-25641941

The Crown Prosecution Service had said earlier that the prosecution of a separate suspect who allegedly sent offensive messages to Ms Creasy over the same issue was not in the public interest.

Police said a 32-year-old man arrested in Bristol and a 27-year-old man arrested in York remained on bail as part of their investigation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F69576xN7qE

Young men on the interwebs are being exposed to extreme violence against women, and porn

Young men learn about sex from porn, and they form preconceptions about the opposite sex.

"A young women's (actual, real ) sexual desires are punished."

"Young men do not understand what sexual consent is. They feel free to grope young women without consent."

Rape jokes at secondary school- Stuebenville rape is an example of why sexual consent needs to be taught.

The rape was a cause for hilarity online. The rapists blame the victim. Send the rape victim death threats.

Sexual assault, and sexism are subjects for humor- The young women is a sexual object.

They dragged her around like a doll. They used her sexually, as if she were not a living, feeling, human being.

Sexual assault is -trivialized

Women's Liberation hoped for equality, at work, at home, and as sexual beings-

2014 Mary Beard campaign

The Everyday Sexism Project

https://twitter.com/EverydaySexism

Before social networks came along, specifically Twitter, there was no easy place for women to catalogue these fairly regular and annoying sexist occurrences en masse. Even just being able to share your frustrations at a sexist jibe or exclusion in the workplace because of your gender - at the time it happens with a large group of people– is incredibly liberating – for both women, and I imagine men too. Social media has made it possible to do it at large scale.

However, until April 2012, there was still no focal point or specific digital platform upon which women could share these daily experiences.

“Defined Lines” answers "Blurred Lines" (Rape Song!)

Every bigot shut up
Every bigot shut up
Hey hey hey
Hey hey hey
hey hey hey

Boy you’d better quit all your sexist ways,
So hear our manifesto of the modern age.

It’s time to undermine
The masculine confines
‘Cause we don’t wanna grind
Gri-ii-iind.You think that you’re so slick,
Let me emasculate ya!
Because your precious dick
Can’t beat my vibrator.
We’re feelin’ the frustration
From all the exploitation
Prepare for your castration
So we can fuck this man’s world

With all its bullshit.
Girls don’t deserve it
And that’s why we quit.
We ain’t good girls.
We are scholastic,
Smart and sarcastic,
Not fucking plastic.
Listen mankind!
If you wanna get nasty,
Just don’t harass me.
You can’t just grab me,
That’s a sex crime!
Yeah we don’t want it.
It’s chauvinistic.
You’re such a bigot!

What you see on tv
Doesn’t speak equality,
It’s straight up misogyny.
Don’t want you to come on my face!
You think you’re hunky
Hey hey hey
You wanna hug me?
Hey hey hey
Don’t you mean fuck me?

One thing I ask of you,
Don’t assume that we all just wanna screw.
Gotta respect me for me to be your boo.
We don’t want no scrubs, no we don’t approve.
Need a universal role reversal,
In real life not a dress rehearsal.
Gotta resist all the gender roles,
Time to put misogyny on parole.
Put exploitation on probation,
Time for you to witness our liberation.
There’s more to life than penetration
And sexual discrimination.
So tonight
We ignite
Our civil rights.
Resist chauvinism,
Win the fight,
‘Cause you’re livin large just like a montage
Of you and your friends actin’ out Entourage.
But we ain’t whores to do your household chores,
To make you a sandwich when we’re on all fours.
From history to herstory,
Know you got some opinions that we don’t agree.
Need to call my sister Joan of A-R-C,
Bake a feminist cake, Antoinette Marie.
Yeah, guys, we got spies,
Know all you wanna do is fertilise
But avert your eyes from my thighs.
Never tell a bitch she gotta drop a size.
You wanna box gap?
Show me your six-pack.
You wanna landing strip?
You’d better get ripped.
I apologise if you think my lines are crass
Tell me how it feels, to get verbally harassed?

So we can fuck this man’s world
With all its bullshit.
Girls don’t deserve it
And that’s why we quit.
We ain’t good girls.
We are scholastic,
Smart and sarcastic,
Not fucking plastic.
Listen mankind!
If you wanna get nasty,
Just don’t harass me.
You can’t just grab me,
That’s a sex crime!
Yeah we don’t want it.
It’s chauvinistic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC1XtnLRLPM

"Maybe it's precisely because he did not go to university that he never quite learned the rigor of intellectual argument and he thinks that he can pass off insults as wit."

"It may well be the reason why he feels the need to sneer at intelligent, educated women...."
- Mary Beard

Nope.

I still have not found a satisfying answer, as to why someone would refuse to use their own gifts, and capacity for being able to use reasoning, gaining useful knowledge, and logic. (In exchange for anything, other than avoiding a violent, horrible death ?)

Sometimes, I could just hug the stuffing out of Stephen Colbert-

"Oh yeah, you're going to get it, Washington powers that be!'
"If Mitch McConnell catches that guy, in say, a mirror, it's on!"