The President says NO to Hostage Taking.

As John Boehner and his Tea Party friends in Congress continue to act like petulant children, it made us think of this very relevant scene from the West Wing. WATCH:

http://democracyforamerica.com/blog/764-watch-this-president-had-the-guts-to-say-no-to-republican-hostage-taking

Who lies more Republicans or Democrats?

Interesting Study and the Republicans tell more lies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJon7iFzt9o&feature=player_embedded

5 Industries that are ROBBING US blind

The 5 industries are: Walmart (retail), Financial Industry,  Private Prisons, Telecommunications,  Drug Industry.

http://www.alternet.org/economy/5-industries-are-mercilessly-robbing-american-people?akid=10987.294211.CRUqo0&rd=1&src=newsletter903015&t=5

5 Herbs that will keep you healthy (and use fewer medicines)

Lemon Balm and Ginger are two of them.  I had never heard of Lemon balm before.

http://www.alternet.org/food/5-herbs-you-cant-do-without?page=0%2C1&akid=10987.294211.CRUqo0&rd=1&src=newsletter903015&t=13

Republican Rand Paul: A Reporter has to teach him about how Congress and legislation works.

CBS host Bob Schieffer on Sunday was forced to explain to Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) that his plan to keep the government from shutting down in the next 48 hours would not work because he had a simplistic view about the way Congress functioned.
With a government shutdown looming, Schieffer pointed out that President Barack Obama would never sign a continuing resolution that defunded or delayed his heath care reform law as Republicans were insisting.
"Is there a third way, is there some way to prevent the government from having to shut down and putting 800,000 federal workers on furlough?" the CBS host wondered. "These are people, many of whom work by the hour, they need the money. This is really going to hurt them."


http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/cbs-host-embarrasses-rand-paul-over-simplist

A good guy with a gun gets shot by two good guys with guns.

A man shoots a burgler.  He is out back and the police show up.  The Good guy does not drop his gun when asked by the Police and he gets shot. Oh Boy.  We need another good guy with a gun (or maybe the NRA) to figure this one out.

http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2013/09/so-called-good-guy-with-gun-meets-other.html

Government Shutdown Coming!

The House of Representatives Republicans are impossible to discuss ideas with and I see no means of the Senate or President Obama allowing a 1 year pause of the Affordable Care Act.  I with President Obama and the Senate.  AFA is the law, he got re-elected on the Affordable Care Act and the Supreme Court said yes to it.  AFA is the law - we need to implement it now!

http://www.adn.com/2013/09/28/3099268/house-maintains-stand-against.html#emlnl=Morning_Newsletter

Krugman schools Bill Kristol on pausing the AFA for a year.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman on Sunday told Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol that his argument over why President Barack Obama's health care reform law should be delayed was based on "policy ignorance."

"It happens, in fact, to be a very good law," Krugman insisted. "You see, one of the things, I think, that's going on here is just a failure on the part of the Republican caucus to actually understand anything about this thing... In fact, almost all of the substantive news about Obamacare over the last couple months has been good. The premiums are coming in well below expectations, health care costs are moderating. Probably there will be some technical glitches with computer systems, but those are not fundamental."

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/krugman-schools-bill-kristol-basing-shutdown

Republicans tell people: POSTPONE GETTING CANCER FOR A YEAR!

Borowitz:  In closing, he (Republican Boehner) reassured the American people that in the event of a government shutdown, members of Congress’ health benefits would remain intact: “We want to be in tip-top shape to continue to do the excellent job we’re doing for you.”

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2013/09/boehner-advises-americans-to-delay-getting-cancer-for-a-year.html?utm_source=tny&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=borowitz&mbid=nl_Borowitz%20%28175%29

Republican Govt Shutdown: A Timeline of events leading up to the shutdown.

There is no negotiating with the Ted Cruz type crazies.  The Right Wing Republicans are focused on shutting down the Government and nothing less.  The Republicans can't even negotiate with them.  It is a shame when 40 people take over the process which should involve 400+ people in the House of Representatives.  It is a sad day but I will say, President Obama has not choice but to veto the Bill sent to the US Senate yesterday.  I also think the Senate will vote no on it.  There are so many poison pills in the House Bill that no one in their right mind can vote yes on it.  Only a Right Wing Crazy would vote yes on the House Bill.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/09/20/2649481/timeline/

Kids raised in same-sex parent homes are as healthy and/or healthier than kids from male/female homes big study finds.

The largest study to date of children raised by same-sex couples finds overall they are healthier and fare at least as well if not better than their peers, raised by opposite-sex couples.

“Children of same-sex parents are doing as well or better than the rest of the population on a number of key health indicators,” The Age reports:


http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/breaking-largest-study-of-children-raised-by-same-sex-parents-shows-theyre-healthier-than-their-peers/politics/2013/06/05/68146#.UkhT18yAbOc

Scary: White Supremacists take over a very small N. Dakota town.

I have lived in small town America which was targeted by Hate Groups. It is a scary place to live and raise a family.  The regular folk need as much outside support as possible.

Lieth, North Dakota, is under siege from a white supremacist who is attempting to turn the town into an all-white community. Today, Craig Cobb and his dream of Cobbville, are On Our Radar.

http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/on-our-radar-craig-cobb-evil-comes-to-lieth-north-dakota/news/2013/09/29/75547#.UkhQuMyAbOe

TX Rep Castro tells Sen Cruz that Cruz DOES NOT speak for him and other Texans

The following comment was one of the many comments to Ted Cruz:
Listen Teddy, no one speaks for me, especially not your lunatic ass. I have a voice and I’m not afraid to use it. In fact, let me use it now to tell Mr. Cruz in no uncertain terms that I am shocked, appalled and ashamed that he was elected by the people of Texas. His sociopathic tendencies were well hidden during his campaign, but serial killers can’t hide what they are forever. In case you were wondering…yes, Ted Cruz is a budding serial killer. According to the FBI he fits the profile:

Serial Murder: The unlawful killing of two or more victims by the same offender(s), in separate events.

Obamacare is the law. Without it, people will die. His mission to defund Obamacare is an attempt to kill people. It doesn’t get any simpler than that. I am one of the millions of Texans currently without health insurance of any kind and I’m a diabetic. Mr. Cruz is trying to kill me and millions like me by not allowing us access to affordable healthcare so that we can live.


http://freakoutnation.com/2013/09/28/slam-dunk-texas-congressman-blows-ted-cruz-out-of-the-water/

FOX Upset: President Obama calls out their lies about the Affordable Care Act

FOX says, "Show us the lies.  We don't lie"  Here are some of the many lies on FOX.  I also find it interesting that FOX has not been saying what the cost of Obamacare for each state will be, that is critical information.

http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2013/09/president-obama-calls-out-fox-news-for.html

Kids killed by gun shot - often accidental shootings

They die in the households of police officers and drug dealers, in broken homes and close-knit families, on rural farms and in city apartments. Some adults whose guns were used had tried to store them safely; others were grossly negligent. Still others pulled the trigger themselves, accidentally fracturing their own families while cleaning a pistol or hunting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/29/us/children-and-guns-the-hidden-toll.html

Yellowstone Park: 3 Year old girl shoots herself. Guns now allowed in National Parks - Thanks NRA

About the day that a little girl died at Yellowstone.  Would a 'good guy with a gun' helped?  No.  Thanks NRA for allowing this baby to die by gun at Yellowstone - NOT.

http://exotichikes.com/shooting-death-in-yellowstone-from-grant-campground/

Obamacare: From Vanity Fair: A great article about the lies of the Republicans. The Truth exposed

O.K. No death panels. No government takeover of health care. No change in who your doctor can be unless the insurance company decides to change things. No change in anything for people who already have health insurance. Medicare is strengthened. The growth of health-care spending is a good, not bad, thing that will have no impact on the currently insured.

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/eichenwald/2013/09/republicans-know-obamacare-will-work

Bill Maher: Monologue

Topic:  Ted Cruz

http://rackjite.com/bill-maher-monologue-ted-cruz-twerk-sept-27-2013/

New Rule: Bill Maher - Ted Cruz, California and Exceptionalism - very good

For those who are unaware, American Exceptionalism means that Jesus Christ likes Americans most.

California is indeed our cultural and political leader, usually about a decade ahead of most of the the rest of the country.  California is a civilized place, free from both the Tea Party Ugly, the confederacy and the NRA [Nuts Racists Aholes.]

http://rackjite.com/new-rules-bill-maher-california-exceptionalism-sept-27-2013/

Chris Hayes explains Obamacare to Fox and Friends. (They need a lot of splainin too)

Fox and Friends have been paid to misinform and misstate what Obamacare is, does, costs and how it impacts people.  Fox and Friends needs a lot of explaining to understand the truth of what is Obamacare.

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/scarce/chris-hayes-explains-obamacare-fox-friends-

Melting Ice: The Global Impact

A freighter is now hauling coal through the Northwest Passage to be the first ship to make the passage. Ironic that it is coal actually.  This short video does a good job of explaining the significance of ice to our planet and how the melting of ice truly does impact Climate Change in a significant way.

http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/first-cargo-ship-use-northwest-passag

Republican Ted Cruz: Good or BAD? A comparison

Good or BAD for:  The Poor, The wealthy, Middle class, TED CRUZ, Republican Party, a Presidential run in 2016

http://jackjodell53.wordpress.com/2013/09/24/amazing-similarities-of-two-political-blowhards/

Drive from Anchorage to Fairbanks Alaska

A 7 minute video showing the drive from Anchorage to Fairbanks.

http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2013/09/just-for-fun-little-video-of-driving.html

Obamacare: The truth is finally coming out.

The Republicans and Koch Types spent 500 Million dollars making up lies about Obamacare and set a very negative tone. THE TRUTH IS NOW COMING OUT and taking the wind out of the Anti-AFA group.  As people learn about what Obamacare is, they like it and want to try it.

http://www.alternet.org/media/anti-obamacare-propaganda-ignores-federal-subsidies?page=0%2C1&akid=10985.294211.ZELO5j&rd=1&src=newsletter902537&t=13

Klugman: Rich are waging class warfare.

  In a post at his blog, New York Times columnist and award-winning economist Paul Krugman argues that while it may appear the rich want to destroy all forms of government, that isn’t the case. What they really want to do, Krugman writes, is destroy all forms of government that don’t benefit themselves. 

http://www.alternet.org/krugman-rich-are-waging-pure-class-warfare

Climate Change Report: 15 things to know about the report..

During a  briefing on the report Friday morning organized by The Climate Group, three of the lead authors offered blunt summaries of their work:

“Warming is unequivocal.” — Dennis Hartmann, one of the report’s  coordinating lead authors, focusing on observations

“From all of these lines of evidence, we conclude that humans are the dominant cause of changes in the climate system.” — Nathaniel Bindoff, a coordinating lead author, focusing on attribution of climate change
“The oceans are still taking up heat,” even though warming has recently hit a speed bump at the surface — Jochem Marotzke a coordinating author, focusing on evaluating climate models

 http://www.alternet.org/environment/15-things-you-should-know-about-major-new-report-climate-science?akid=10985.294211.ZELO5j&rd=1&src=newsletter902537&t=9

Michele Bachmann is an idiot! Interview with Wolf Blitzer

Wolf asked excellent questions but Michele Bachmann gave STUPID answers.  Michele is a waste of time.

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/wolf-blitzer-spars-rep-michele-bachmann-ov

Climate Change: Children bear the brunt of the problems created by Climate Change

Children will bear the brunt of the impact of climate change because of their increased risk of health problems, malnutrition and migration, according to a new study published on Monday. And food prices are likely to soar as a result of warming, undoing the progress made in combating world hunger....

Children born last year will come of age in 2030, by which time the effects of climate change in the form of an increase in droughts, floods and storms are likely to be more in evidence. In the 10 most vulnerable countries, including Bangladesh, India and the Philippines, there are 620 million children under 18.

Unicef estimates that 25 million more children will suffer malnourishment because of climate change, with a further 100 million suffering food insecurity, where they and their families are on the verge of running out. Children among the 150-200 million people estimated to have to flee their homes because of climate change will suffer more than adults because of their relative lack of resources and higher vulnerability to disease. In heatwaves, likely to grow more intense and frequent under climate change, babies and small children are more likely to die or suffer heatstroke because they find it difficult to regulate their body heat.

This is the legacy we are leaving to the future inhabitants of our home: the earth.


http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/18216-climate-deniers-threaten-the-lives-of-our-children

CLIMATE CHANGE WAS OCCURING AND It Was Caused by Human Actions.

The world's leading climate scientists said in a United Nations report that there was no longer room for doubt that climate change was occuring, and the dominant cause has been human actions in pouring greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
The IPCC declared today in the “Summary for Policymakers” of its Fifth Assessment Report on climate science, from hundreds of the world’s top scientists, there is a 95 to 100 percent chance global warming is caused by humans. “Human influence has been detected in warming of the atmosphere and the ocean, in changes in the global water cycle, in reductions in snow and ice, in global mean sea level rise, and in changes in some climate extremes,” the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change wrote in the report that also called on governments to “step up” their responses.


http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/09/27/17-ways-the-gop-debt-ceiling-bill-will-destroy-america/

Tea Party favorability in polls dropping, down, down, down.

As Washington braces for another budget showdown, this time with the threat of defunding the new healthcare law in the mix, the key political force pushing for conservative policies sees diminished popular support. Fewer Americans now describe themselves as supporters of the Tea Party movement than did at the height of the movement in 2010, or even at the start of 2012. Today’s 22% support nearly matches the record low found two years ago.

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/42565_Gallup_Poll-_Tea_Party_Support_Dwindles_to_Near-Record_Low#rss

Wickersham speaks: Teabaggers and Terrorism. Excellent

A strong minority of the Republicans in the U.S. House, calling themselves the “Tea Party Caucus,” have seized the U.S. economy as a hostage and are threatening to maim and kill their hostage if the rest of Congress and the President don’t agree to their demands.
If WC engaged in that conduct he’d be surrounded by a SWAT team in flak jackets, a fleet of black Chevy Suburbans and clouds of tear gas faster than you can say “American Patriot Act” and be bundled off to jail.
But these are elected terrorists, you say, which makes it okay.
No.
As Gail Collins points out in a recent New York Times column, this is crazy. Even Senator John McCain (R, AZ), the man who picked Alaska’s Shame as his running mate, thinks this is insane.
We are tolerating hostage taking. We seem to be accepting it as the new normal. It’s insane.


http://wickershamsconscience.wordpress.com/2013/09/27/teabagger-terrorists-and-other-disasters/

GOP: HOLDING AMERICA HOSTAGE!

In return for a one-year suspension of the debt ceiling, House Republicans are demanding a yearlong delay of Obamacare, adoption of House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s tax-reform plan, construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, more offshore oil drilling, more drilling on federally protected lands, looser regulations around ash coal, a suspension of the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulation of carbon emissions, more power over the regulatory process in general, reform of the federal employee retirement program, changes to the Dodd-Frank Act, more power over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s budget, repeal of the Social Services block grant, expanded means-testing for Medicare benefits, repeal of the public health trust fund and more.
Yes, that’s right: “and more.”


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/09/27/1241762/-Abbreviated-pundit-roundup-Holding-America-s-economy-hostage?detail=facebook#

Religion: A very good discussion by an athiest and a believer

If you're religious, think about the last time you had a talk with an atheist about religion. If you're an atheist, think about the last time you talked religion with someone who was devout.
Now think how you would have liked that to go.


https://www.upworthy.com/a-debate-between-an-atheist-and-a-christian-has-quite-a-surprising-result?c=la2

TeaPartier Ted Cruz is a phony and a narcissist

Cruz is an establishment guy, but he knows where the money and the power is, so when the Tea Party train came along, Cruz jumped onboard and posed as an outsider challenging the system. He knew the only way he was going to become a senator was to tack violently to the right, so he mastered the Tea Party lingo and rode the train all the way to D.C., where his fakery has reached epic proporations.

Right now, Cruz is focused on shutting down the government. He also has an eye on the White House for a possible future run for the presidency. But can the Republican Party survive this dude's rocket ride to power?

http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/ted-cruz-phony?akid=10978.294211.U2Xj9P&rd=1&src=newsletter901960&t=11

Quit FEEDING THE POOR: The Teaparty and Republican message. (A war against poor whites and minorities ramps up)

In the Tea Party GOP’s dream of Herrenvolk America all white people are equal, but some white people are more equal than others.

The Republican Party has voted to kill the “useless eaters” by cutting food assistance programs. But data on food stamp use from the USDA suggests that such a policy will cause great pain to Republican voters. How do we reconcile this contradiction?

Ultimately, populist conservatives and the Tea Party base are so drunk on white identity politics they are unable to realize that the plutocrats and the 1 percent have just as much disdain for them, regardless of their common racial identity and skin color, as they do for the black and brown poor. 

http://www.alternet.org/sick-ayn-randian-war-against-everyone-who-isnt-rich?page=0%2C2&akid=10978.294211.U2Xj9P&rd=1&src=newsletter901960&t=9

STEALING RETIREMENT MONEY BY HEDGE FUND RICH GUYS! Teachers, Firefighters and Police Retirement funds being stolen

MATT TAIBBI: Sure, there is a huge corruption case that just broke open [on September 26].  What I would say about that, is what did Willie Sutton say about why he robbed banks? That’s where the money is. Look, pension funds are sort of the last great big unguarded piles of money in this country and there are going to be all sorts of operators who trying to get their hands on that money. During the crisis era, it was Wall Street banks who were essentially looting these funds by selling them toxic, fraudulent mortgage backed securities. In Detroit, it was the workers themselves who were taking the money. They’re giving themselves what they called 13th checks, taking advances of their own money. But across the country the more typical narrative is not some worker who is making $19,000 who is really making out in this kind of corruption. It is the hedge fund who is making $50 and $60 million in fees managing state funds. That is the much more typical narrative.

http://www.alternet.org/corporate-accountability-and-workplace/taibbi-his-latest-expose-how-wall-street-hedge-funds-are?akid=10978.294211.U2Xj9P&rd=1&src=newsletter901960&t=7

Republicans: SINK THE ECONOMY!

The Republican theology is that Obamacare is extremely unpopular: a recent poll found that 43 percent of Americans favored the law and 54 percent opposed it. But all such polls find that 16 percent or so believe the law doesn’t go far enough. In other words, about 59 percent of Americans support the law or something even more far-reaching. You won’t find that in any Republican talking points.

There are about 40 people in a 435-member House of Representatives who are so angry they are ready to blow up the economy. They are part of a reactionary political movement funded by corporate interests and plutocrats like the Koch brothers to oppose government.

Because of this radical faction, the government appears headed for a shutdown Oct. 1, and possibly a first-ever default on the federal debt. Former Reagan Treasury Secretary James Baker III has said, “A failure to pay what is already due will cause certain and serious harm to our credit, financial markets, and our citizens.”

He could have added that it might also result in the dollar being displaced as a reserve currency, inevitably causing interest rates to go up. Baker noted that Reagan raised the debt limit 17 times during his eight years in office.

The reality is that no administration can spend a dime unless it is appropriated by Congress. In other words, the entire debt was agreed to by the House. Having spent the money, they now refuse to allow the government to borrow enough money to pay the bills. Meanwhile, the House just passed another spending bill at the same time they are undermining the country’s credit rating.

http://voxverax.blogspot.com/2013/09/gop-actions-on-aca-hurt-economy.html

Cult, more than a party: The Republicans are like a cult

What conservatives write in the National Review and the opinion pages of theWall Street Journal are not what the conservative elite actually think. Those articles are for the conservatives in the pews. They are the official conservative line for dissemination to the little conservatives who are by and large not well served by the movement they support. There is a pathway for this misinformation: Wall Street Journal opinion page to Rush Limbaugh to the dittoheads. As awful as those dittoheads are, they aren't going to be so easily led if Rush was telling them, "We need to let the poor die so the rich can be free to not pay a penny more in taxes." And part of the problem is that we liberals don't call out the conservative movement for what it is. We need to stop pretending they actually function as a normal political movement. It is all about the people believing the Truth brought to them by the elites. It is all faith-based down low, but at the top, the elites have very sensible reasons for their beliefs.

http://the-reaction.blogspot.com/2013/09/republicans-are-cult-more-than-party.html

Chris Matthews discusses, Ted Cruz, Palin and the future of the Republican Party.

The Republican party is a circus.  Get out the popcorn.
This conversation gets very contentious and there is a lot of people talking over each other, but I thought it was a very good indication of the problems that Republicans, in this case represented by GOP strategist John Brabender, are having reconciling the numerous moving parts within their party.

It is becoming clearer then ever that the Republican party is under a very aggressive attack by political insurgents and there may be NO WAY for them to survive intact.

http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2013/09/chris-matthews-discusses-ted-cruz-sarah.html

NO GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN say 80% of people polled.

Americans are united across party lines in thinking that threatening a government shutdown as a negotiating ploy is unacceptable. In a new CBS News/New York Times poll, 80 percent of people said no, it's not okay to do that.
Americans are putting the majority of blame for shutdown threats right where it belongs, on Republicans.


http://occupyamerica.crooksandliars.com/diane-sweet/poll-80-say-government-shutdown-threat#sthash.oJUM42Rm.dpbs

Jon Stewart on Ted Cruz: Very Good

Last night, Jon Stewart mocked the shit out of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) for his all-night non-filibuster, and how he read from Dr. Seuss's "Green Eggs and Ham" and seemed to miss the entire point of the story.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/09/26/1241474/-MUST-SEE-Jon-Stewart-s-epic-takedown-of-Ted-Cruz-s-non-filibuster?detail=facebook

Republican Ted Cruz: What other Republicans are saying about him and his ideas.

The Republican extremists (Ted Cruz) are their own worst enemies.

http://www.forwardprogressives.com/15-snarky-republican-responses-to-tea-party-teds-government-shutdown-plan/

Obamacare: Even better than expected: The out of pocket costs are down, down, down for many

For families with children, the savings could be thousands a year. A family of four with an income of $50,000 would find the lowest-cost silver plan averaging $774 a month, the  HHS analysis said. But they would receive a $492 monthly credit, which is 64 percent off that price, and end up paying $282 a month. That’s a $5,904 annual subsidy.

http://www.alternet.org/personal-health/obamacare-costs-lower-tax-subsidies-higher-expected?akid=10976.294211.LcQoXp&rd=1&src=newsletter901448&t=5

Colorado Floods: Toxic Water now the problem.

Although industry officials noted the contamination risk, they claimed all was well. Colorado Oil and Gas Association president Tisha Schuller told Colorado’s NBC 9 News that, “There were no fracking sites affected by the flood.” The media, however, has published pictures of floating and overturned storage tanks, drill site wreckage, and sagging pipelines, while the Denver Post and Reuters confirm ten oil spills underway—including 13,500 gallons into the St. Vrain River and 5,250 gallons into the South Platte River. (See flooded oil and gas facility photos here.)
The real damage can’t be assessed until floodwaters recede. By then, the harm may be done, with contaminants flowing into local waterways, soils and communities.


http://www.alternet.org/environment/colorado-floods-leave-toxic-legacy?akid=10976.294211.LcQoXp&rd=1&src=newsletter901448&t=23

401(k)s: How the Rich stole our retirement money: A BAD IDEA for the middle class.

It was a bad idea from the get-go but new research shows that America’s 401(k) revolution has left us even worse off than we thought. Here’s a look at how we got into this mess and where it will take us if we don’t wise up.
The Dumbest Retirement Policy in the World


http://billmoyers.com/2013/09/25/how-401ks-rewarded-the-rich-and-turned-the-rest-of-us-into-big-losers/

Jon Stewart: Republicans attempt to scare the crap out of people about Obamacare

The Daily Show's Jon Stewart, like many of us, would rather see the United States move to a single-payer health care plan, as he briefly expressed during this segment. But that didn't stop him from going after Republicans and in particular Sen. Ted Cruz, for their attempts to scare everyone to death about "Obamacare."
Jon Stewart skewers Ted Cruz’s crusade: ‘Obamacare is your Springtime for Hitler’:


http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/stewart-slams-republicans-attempts-scare-e

16 myths about the Affordable Care Act

PolitiFact has been fact-checking claims about the federal health care law since lawmakers started drafting the legislation in 2009. Long controversial, the law has been no stranger to attacks by detractors. Here are 16 of the biggest falsehoods PolitiFact has rated.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2013/sep/24/top-16-myths-about-health-care-law/

US Guns Deaths seem like we are in a Civil War. 360,000 Deaths since 9/11

But what if we no longer thought of this as just a problem for America and, instead, viewed it as an international humanitarian crisis – a quasi civil war, if you like, that calls for outside intervention? As citizens of the world, perhaps we should demand an end to the unimaginable suffering of victims and their families – the maiming and killing of children – just as America does in every new civil conflict around the globe.

The annual toll from firearms in the US is running at  32,000 deaths and climbing, even though the general crime rate is on a downward path (it is 40% lower than in 1980). If this perennial slaughter doesn't qualify for intercession by the UN and all relevant NGOs, it is hard to know what does.

Everywhere you look in America, people are trying to make life safer. On roads, for example, there has been a huge effort in the past 50 years to enforce speed limits, crack down on drink/drug driving and build safety features into highways, as well as vehicles. The result is a steadily improving record; by 2015,  forecasters predict that for first time road deaths will be fewer than those caused by firearms (32,036 to 32,929).

Plainly, there's no equivalent effort in the area of privately owned firearms. 

http://admin.alternet.org/civil-liberties/us-death-toll-firearms-suggests-america-country-gripped-civil-war?akid=10971.294211.UcJD8w&rd=1&src=newsletter900814&t=7

Republicans in a panic over Obamacare starting and people liking having insurance.

The Affordable Care Act is scaring the crap out of the Republicans because it is working!  Millions of college students have health insurance on their parents plans.  Pre-existing conditions must be able to get insurance and the prices are 20% lower than anticipated.  The Republicans are scared - very cared, that Obamacare will work as stated.

http://admin.alternet.org/personal-health/republicans-panic-over-obamacare?akid=10971.294211.UcJD8w&rd=1&src=newsletter900814&t=5

Blue Texas: Just a matter of time

If you are hoping that the Republican Party is going to have a tough time in the 2016 presidential election, Occupy Democrats has great news for you: progressive CHANGE is coming to the Lone Star State.
Due to their quickly evolving demographics, Texas is becoming increasingly younger, “browner”, and more liberal with each passing day.


http://www.occupydemocrats.com/republicans-nightmare-scenario-becoming-reality-red-texas-is-going-blue/

Sarah Palin as Ted Cruz cheerleader: A match made in (a mental institution)????

Best line from the discussion in my opinion came from Krystal Ball:

"She and Ted Cruz are a match made in heaven. Because they are both motivated by their own selfish interest in publicity and in fame. Neither one of them is any more conservative than the people who are denouncing them, but they both are more selfish and less interested in governance. All they want is for all the media attention to go to them."

http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2013/09/al-sharpton-rejoices-in-fact-that-sarah.html

Juanita Jean: A pig gets drunk and fights a cow, THEN GUNS? Yep.

Click the link, read the story and then read the comments from Mericans.  Some good stuff there.  How does a drunk pig fighting a cow turn into a yelling match about ,,,,

http://www.juanitajean.com/2013/09/24/if-your-day-is-starting-a-little-sluggish/

Supply Side Economics FAILED! Here is the data. It was just a bad idea.

The biggest political theory of the last 30 years is supply side economics. It was the basis of the policies of all Republican presidents from Ronald Reagan onward. The idea is that if the rich are given more money, they will use it to invest in business and thus create jobs. According to the theory, if you give money to the poor, they will just spend it. The rich, on the other hand, will help businesses to grow and this will help the poor.

The idea is nonsense as anyone who has ever run an actual business should be able to explain. Businesses expand when they see a lot of demand for their products.

http://franklycurious.com/index.php?itemid=6366

Medal of Honor Winner talks about the silent wounds of those who fought.

Imagine using the biggest speech of your life to talk about your deepest inner struggles. That's exactly what the soldier here does as he's given the Medal of Honor.

http://www.upworthy.com/what-we-ignore-as-part-of-war-one-soldier-puts-front-and-center-in-his-medal-of-honor-address?c=cp2

Climate Deniers are putting out crap before an upcoming Climate Change Report from real scientists

What is really being exposed is the power of a few vested interests to create a controversy out of whole cloth for purposes of deliberately muddling what is expected this week to be a brutally stark assessment of the nature and progress of global warming on our planet.

Conservative groups at the forefront of global warming skepticism are doubling down on trying to discredit the next big report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In recent weeks, they've been cranking out a stream of op-eds, blogs and reports to sow doubt in the public's mind before the report is published, with no end in sight.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/09/23/1240668/-Global-Warming-Deniers-Drop-Their-Bombshell-And-It-s-A-Dud?detail=facebook

Rachel Maddow takes us Through 50 years of Mass Shootings. A Devastating Trend.

Rachel Maddow Takes Us Through 50 Years Of Mass Shootings. The Trend She Uncovers Is Devastating.

http://www.upworthy.com/rachel-maddow-takes-us-through-50-years-of-mass-shootings-the-trend-she-uncovers-is-devastating?c=la3

$6000.00: Your Gift to Corporate America each year. Don't talk - just pay up.

The average American family pays $6,000 a year in subsidies to big business.
That's over and above our payments to the big companies for energy and food and housing and health care and all our tech devices. It's $6,000 that no family would have to pay if we truly lived in a competitive but well-regulated free-market economy.
The $6,000 figure is an average,


http://www.alternet.org/economy/average-american-family-pays-6000-year-subsidies-big-business?akid=10963.294211.DhRkzL&rd=1&src=newsletter899822&t=11

Conservikaze - This is Brilliant

If the debt ceiling is not increased when the bill comes due, the federal government will default on its debts.
House Republicans, held hostage by a handful of Tea Party extremists in thrall to a small minority of libertarian fanatics, have loudly declared that they are perfectly willing to destroy the good faith and credit of the United States of America in utter defiance of the Constitution they claim to revere so very much, solely in order to defund the ACA.
Knowing that they can not win, they are fully willing to commit suicide on a grand scale.
If only they had put one fortieth the effort, one fortieth the passion and the zeal, into actual healthcare reform, into immigration reform, into election reform, into finding solutions to gun violence, into job creation, into creating an actual budget that actually decreased government spending and the national debt in a reasonable and sustainable and logical manner.
But they can not.
Instead they have chosen the illusion of winning.
Like those battle maddened Imperial Japanese commanders, they are no longer capable of reason.
House Republicans are no longer “the loyal opposition,” they exist only to seek revenge for the shame of their party’s loss to Barack Obama.


http://www.stonekettle.com/2013/09/conservikaze.html

Weird out there: Juanita Jean

Remember how the folks on food stamps cost our country trillions by selling bets on bad mortgages to suckers?
No, that wasn’t them?
Okay, remember how poor folks got us into a war we didn’t pay for and ran up the debt?
No?
Okay, okay, remember how hungry children paid themselves $175,000 a year plus perks and health care on the taxpayers’ dime?


http://www.juanitajean.com/2013/09/22/its-weird-out-there/

Cartoon which pissed off Gun Nuts and NRA!

I like it myself.  It is true and accurate which upsets the gun nuts.

http://thebigslice.org/rep-cohen-tweets-bill-day-cartoon-enraging-gun-nuts-nra-video/

Man with Gun walks around school! A 2nd amendment IDIOT!

So sad!

This Tuesday in Hillsboro Oregon, police received at least a dozen calls about a man carrying a rifle near schools — apparently as an exercise of his Second Amendment rights.

It all started just after the lunch hour when the man, who refused to identify himself to police, was seen near Ladd Acres Elementary School and R.A. Brown Middle School. According to police, the man was not committing any crime and was not threatening anyone as he walked along the sidewalk. However, officers did say that it was probably poor timing to be carrying a hunting rifle near schools — exactly one day after a gunman shot and killed 12 people at the Washington D.C. Navy Yard.

After the incident, the district safety director sent out a note to school principals instructing them that if the man appears near their school again, they should “go into immediate lock-out” and “secure all doors exterior doors, bring all students in from outside areas, notify staff and continue instruction.”

http://deadstate.org/video-man-armed-with-rifle-walks-around-schools-in-exercise-of-his-second-amendment-rights/

Government Shutdown by Republicans: It may well happen Thanks to Cruz, Boehner, Rubio

Congressional Republicans have gone directly from conservatism to fanaticism without any intervening period of sanity.
First, John Boehner, bowing to Republican extremists, ushers a bill through the House that continues to fund the government after September 30 but doesn’t fund the Affordable Care Act. Anyone with half a brain knows Senate Democrats and the President won’t accept this — which means, if House Republicans stick to their guns, a government shut-down.
A shutdown would be crippling. Soldiers would get IOUs instead of paychecks.


http://www.nationofchange.org/why-upcoming-shutdowns-and-defaults-are-symptoms-deeper-republican-malady-1379855687

Corporations Get Billions in Welfare: Why Cut 40 Million in food stamps from the Poorest?

It’s perverse to weaken our nation’s first line of defense against hunger and poverty by $4 billion per year while giving hundreds of billions to big corporations that don’t need them. Here are a few examples of what your hard-earned tax dollars are spent on:

• $7 billion per year subsidizing the oil industry.
  
• $600 billion—15 times the value of proposed food stamp cuts—over a decade by allowing corporations to stash cash overseas.
  
• $1 trillion over a decade be allowing special tax exemptions and loopholes for multinational corporations and wealthy households.
  
• $137 billion over a decade by not negotiating prescription drug prices.
  
• Over $20 billion per year on farm subsidies.
  

http://www.nationofchange.org/10-farm-subsidy-recipients-who-voted-cut-food-stamps-1379857259

Jesus was for healing the poor, sick and downtrodden.

I no longer attend a church. I have a hard time reconciling what many churches say with what Jesus said.
This week a friend sent me a photo of the sign in front of the Valley Baptist Tabernacle, in Palmer.
“VOTE!! AND REMEMBER, TRUE CHRISTIANS DON’T VOTE LIBERAL.”

I guess all the free health care Jesus was handing out was lost on these folks. The one guy who remembered his lunch to go see Jesus speak shared it, through a miracle, with 5,000. There’s no verse that says, “Oh, and all you hungry will remember to pack a lunch next time, won’t you.” Clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, visiting those in prison, taking care of God’s creation, I mean HAVE THESE PEOPLE EVEN READ THE BOOK?
Jesus was a liberal. A radical. An insurgent against the established and corrupt church. He asked for those killing him to be forgiven but he raged with a whip against the miserable money changers and rip-off artists running the church. Did you get that part? Sometimes I think the most audacious atheists are those running churches. They can’t possibly believe in a higher power who sees the content of their hearts or they wouldn’t behave the way they do.


http://shannynmoore.wordpress.com/2013/09/22/these-christian-churches-wouldnt-vote-for-jesus-christ/

Reason, Science and Common Sense or we don't have a future.

This is just a well done statement of beliefs which are I think are long past overdue.

http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2013/09/its-time-for-reason-and-science.html

Republican Approval Ratings Drop Again

President Obama's ratings rose but the Republicans dropped.  Will they ever learn?  The fake scandals the Republicans are making are backfiring.

http://aattp.org/fake-republican-scandals-backfire-obamas-approval-jumps-gops-hits-record-low/

2nd Amendment originally written to protect Slavery!

The 2nd Amendment was not written to give everyone access to an assault weapon.  The 2nd amendment was written to allow citizens to pick up black folks and make them slaves.  Interesting stuff.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/01/16/founding-fathers-words-reveal-2nd-amendment-was-to-preserve-slavery/

RIP: The Middle Class: 1946 - 2013

The 1 percent hollowed out the middle class and our industrial base. And Washington just let it happen.

The lesson of the last 40 years is that we can’t depend on the free market to sustain a middle class. It’s not going to happen without government intervention. Even when American industry dominated the world, one reason workers prospered was that the economy operated on New Deal underpinnings, which included legal protections for labor unions, government regulation of industry and high marginal income tax rates.

http://www.alternet.org/rip-middle-class-1946-2013?akid=10961.294211.M3PKoA&rd=1&src=newsletter899398&t=15

Republican 3 year plan to shut down the Government: A timeline

In November of 2010, GOP leaders informally polled the incoming freshman and were surprised to discover that “all but four of them said they would vote against raising the ceiling, under any circumstances.” This response was the result of what the Washington Post described as a “natural outgrowth of a years-long effort” by GOP recruiters to build a new majority with uncompromising anti-tax, anti-spending candidates and it effectively hamstrung Republican leaders from accepting any kind of budgetary compromise from the Obama administration. As a result, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) walked away from so-called grand bargains with the White House at least twice and have since adopted the same kind of uncompromising rhetoric that’s known to animate political campaigns, not actual governance.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/09/20/2649481/timeline/

The dirtiest Power Plants: Where are they located? Coal Plants are the worst.

A new report from two think tanks — the Frontier Group and the Environment America Research & Policy Center — takes a look at this small group of heavy polluters. The researchers found that the 50 dirtiest power plants in the U.S. are responsible for 30 percent of the energy industry’s CO2 emissions, and a full two percent of all emissions worldwide — these 50 plants were responsible for more climate change than all but six countries in the world.

http://billmoyers.com/2013/09/18/are-the-dirtiest-polluters-near-you/

Guns and Mental Health Treatment

The most recent gun massacre at the naval shipyard found that nothing could have been done from keeping this gun enthusiast from a gun. Nothing at all.  And there is little if any hope of fixing this. Even background checks do not involve those who have not been convicted or crazy people who have not been  committed. And besides even if there were background checks anyone can buy anything at most any gun show in America. Or from cousin Bubba or Leon.  No, we need to break the back of the gun culture in some way. We need a War on Guns which kill twice as many Americans each year than all the drugs combined.

The sad truth in all of these massacres is that the perpetrators are little different than our population of gun enthusiasts pushing and celebrating our violent gun culture. Angry, paranoid and stupid. Shame on them.

Those who really really want a gun are the very ones who really really should not be able to get a gun

http://rackjite.com/doors-guns/

THE ONION: Week in review

The onion apologizes for nothing.

http://rackjite.com/onion-week-review-fed-bullying-scooting/

Why has hate become the national past time>? Bill Maher

Hate on Twitter, in email, forums and in website comments. Now there is something I have 30 years of experience with. Most all the really bad stuff I have got over the years has not been from the Religious Right as one would expect. No, the death threats, my address, phone harassment, the stalking, the drivebys, the address of my children’s school, $500 for my head on a bag and so on, all from Libertarians and Gun Enthusiasts. Or as they are better known – unattractive single white males who live in their Mother’s basement.

http://rackjite.com/new-rules-bill-maher-twitter-hate-sept-20-2013/

Bill Maher - Monologue

Some good jabs on events this past week.

http://rackjite.com/bill-maher-monologue-pope-good-gop-bad-sept-20-2013/

Mendenhall Glacier: Ancient Trees found as Glacier retreats

glacial retreat does offer an interesting opportunity to investigate well-preserved remnants of an ancient world. The team plans to return to the Mendenhall Glacier to dig through sediment in search of pine needles associated with the trees, along with other vegetation. They also plan to measure the growth bands of the trees to determine how old the trees were when they died.
"These are relict stories, and piecing them together with radiocarbon dating and stratigraphic work would help piece together the chapters of the story," Connor said.


http://news.yahoo.com/ancient-forest-thaws-melting-glacial-tomb-163722478.html

Unalaska Police Blotter (An Alaskan Village)

Liquor Law Violation – Officer advised two men they were too intoxicated to remain on any licensed premise this night. The men left the area after first proffering an array of taunts and insults.

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2013/09/18/3081979/unalaska-police-blotter.html#storylink=cpy

http://www.adn.com/2013/09/18/3081979/unalaska-police-blotter.html

Republican Government Shut down: Karl Rove tells Teaparty Politicians - Shutting down the Govment is dumb.

One really depressed Karl Rove

In the Wall Street Journal, a comically frustrated Karl Rove tries some serious asskicking logic:

[A] GPS poll tested the key arguments put forward by advocates of defunding and Mr. Obama's response. Independents went with Mr. Obama's counterpunch 57% to 35%. Voters in Senate battleground states sided with him 59% to 33%. In lean-Republican congressional districts and in swing congressional districts, Mr. Obama won by 56% to 39% and 58% to 33%, respectively.

http://pmcarpenter.blogs.com/p_m_carpenters_commentary/2013/09/one-really-depressed-karl-rove.html

Plastic turned into oil - great idea

I was sent this link by a Conservative.  It mentions Climate Change Concerns as well as rising CO2 concerns which this person has said was not a problem.  I am hoping that Conservatives are waking up but I doubt it.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/qGGabrorRS8?rel=0

ROAD RAGE: Two dead. Both had gun permits. Shot each other.

Which one was the good guy with the gun?  That is a question for the NRA.

http://aattp.org/two-proud-gun-nuts-second-amendment-death-road-rage-incident/

Young People have it worse off economically than previous generations. Sadness and concern are the result.

People have quickly taken to the blogosphere to critique the piece for improperly comparing our generation to our parents’ generation. After all, the piece fails to mention that our parents had less unemployment, more access to union jobs, a lower uninsured rate for health insurance, cheaper tuition, and cheaper and more accessible home mortgages.  They also had a higher average income with a high school diploma alone and made about the same as we make today, despite the dramatic rise in costs and our productivity. Basically, life is pretty bad, and empirically worse for millennials than their parents.

Thanks to the NRA:  All can have a semi-auto gun or two or three and if you feel afraid you can shoot and kill someone and have a good chance of being found innocent.  The NRA is looking out for you. (Scarcasm)


http://www.alternet.org/culture/young-peoples-unhappiness-comes-our-broken-economic-system-and-they-shouldnt-shut-about-it

Jittery Markets because of Shutting Down The Government Threats. Republicans create economic uncertainty

This is simply well done.

http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-republicans-are-once-again-holding.html

Sexual Relations in Michigan! State in court to Regulate who you may have sex with. Republican Governor, of course.

Seriously, The State is in court saying they can and should regulate sexual relations.
A ruling that upholds the state’s right to “regulate sexual relationships” could also (hypothetically) open the doors for any number of laws banning sexual activity, both inside and outside of marriage. Other states have attempted to outlaw anal sex and oral sex. What about sex outside of marriage? What about Adultery?
Maybe they’ll outlaw everything except the missionary position.
Or regulate the number of times a couple can have sex in a week or a month.
Maybe they’ll start requiring temporary sex permits — for legal and state approved sexual activities only, of course.

This is what a Tea Party controlled government looks like. A government that is preoccupied with regulating sexual relationships, while ignoring poverty, joblessness, crumbling schools, failing infrastructure. A government so big it can afford to watch your every activity in the bedroom but far too small to pass a single law to help it’s struggling people get out of bankruptcy.


http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/09/18/michigan-claims-right-regulate-sexual-relationships/

Creepy: Republicans make video telling folks not to sign up for the Affordable Care Act

Honestly:  It is the Republicans proposing and passing vaginal probes and laws which DO NOT ALLOW DOCTORS ORDERS TO BE DONE!

Ironically, it is the Republican Party that has been most aggressive in their pursuit of intrusive medical practices. Several GOP governors and legislatures have enacted or proposed laws that prevent women from receiving the reproductive health care that their doctors prescribe. These bills call for invasive vaginal probes that are unpleasant and medically unnecessary. It is precisely the sort of perverse intrusion on a patient’s rights that the “Uncle Sam” video implies, but does not substantiate. Consequently, a better illustration of the horrors of medical interference would feature a Republican villain in the lead role.

http://www.newscorpse.com/ncWP/?p=10580

Why are American Health Care Costs so high? Here is the answer.

John discusses the complicated reasons why the United States spends so much more on health care than any other country in the world, and along the way reveals some surprising information, including that Americans spend more of their tax dollars on public health care than people in Canada, the UK, or Australia. Who's at fault? Insurance companies? Drug companies? Malpractice lawyers? Hospitals? Or is it more complicated than a simple blame game? (Hint: It's that one.)

This guy makes a lot of very good points.

Anybody ready for universal health care now?

http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2013/09/why-are-american-health-care-costs-so.html

Religion: A MONEY MAKER! How to get the Government to fund your Christian Religious fixation.

Have you ever thought about starting a new religion or perhaps a hometown franchise of an old one? Perhaps you’re just looking for a career ladder in a religious enterprise that already exists. No? Maybe you should.
Religion is big business. There are lots of options ( over 30,000 variants of Christianity alone), and if the scale is right  it can pay really, really well.


http://www.alternet.org/belief/holy-freeloading-10-ways-religious-groups-suck-public-purse?page=0%2C2&akid=10951.294211.iD5J0h&rd=1&src=newsletter898439&t=3

JellyFish are taking over the ocean

jellyfish blooms are a lot more than a nuisance to beachgoers not inclined to swim in waves teeming with gelatinous blobs and tentacles that can sting and poison. What’s going on now, as Tim Flannery writes in reviewing Gershwin’s book in the New York Review of Books, is nothing less than the jellification (a term used even by scientists) of the ocean with far-reaching consequences and in no small part due to human activity.
Fossils of this gelatinous marine animal are the oldest ever found. The notable upsurge in their numbers is a very recent development and downright alarming for several reasons.

Figuring out how to stem the global jellification of the ocean should be our concern first and foremost. Gershwin urges us to take action, push for policies and legislation to protect our oceans and keep them hospitable for all the creatures of the sea and not just millions of jellyfish.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/12-terrifying-facts-about-jellyfish-and-why-theyre-taking-over.html#ixzz2fLSKg1fT

http://www.care2.com/causes/12-terrifying-facts-about-jellyfish-and-why-theyre-taking-over.html

Benghazi Testimony which will never be seen on FOX

Florida Representative Alan Grayson used his opportunity at today's House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Benghazi to dismantle many of the myths spread by the conservative media.
Here are just some of the myths his line of questioning debunked:
Conservative media figures have claimed Ambassador Chris Stevens only went to Benghazi under orders from then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Jeff Kuhner of the Washington Times went so far as to say Clinton "sent him on a suicide mission. Mrs. Clinton has American blood on her hands."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYL3UBvKUxc&feature=player_embedded

Middle Class Family makes less than it did in 1989. WEALTHY ARE MAKING TONS OF MONEY THOUGH!

For my money, the most depressing fact about the economy is not the fact that household incomes were basically flat in 2012 (the real median household income was down to $51,017 from $51,100 in 2011, a statistically insignificant change). It wasn't even the fact that 15 percent of the U.S. population was living in poverty, according to the official, flawed definition of the term.
Nah, the most depressing result comes when you look at the longer view of household incomes in the United States. This chart shows real median household income over the past 25 years; that is, the money earned, in inflation-adjusted dollars, by the family at the exact middle of the income distribution.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/09/17/the-typical-american-family-makes-less-than-it-did-in-1989/

Republican Suicide Caucus insists on de-funding Obamacare and will shut down the Government.

Pulitzer Prize-winning conservative columnist and regular Fox News panelist Charles Krauthammer warned over the weekend that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) was leading Republicans on a “suicide” mission to defund President Barack Obama’s health reform law with an attempted government shutdown. 

http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2013/09/fox-news-pundit-calls-republicans.html

Antibiotics in farm animals OVERUSED AND GETTING us Sick! CDC reports:

The CDC report lays out a couple of specific pathogens whose spread among people is driven by farm practices. Drug-resistant campylobacter causes 310,000 infections per year, resulting in 28 deaths, the report states. The agency's recommendations for reducing those numbers is blunt:

• Avoiding inappropriate antibiotic use in food animals.
• Tracking antibiotic use in different types of food animals.
• Stopping spread of Campylobacter among animals on farms.
• Improving food production and processing to reduce contamination.
• Educating consumers and food workers about safe food handling
practices.

Then there's drug-resistant salmonella, which infects 100,000 people each year and kills 38, CDC reports. The agency lists a similar set of regulations—including  "Avoiding inappropriate antibiotic use in food animals"—for reversing the rising trend of resistance in salmonella.


http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2013/09/cdc-meat-industry-yes-you-contribute-antibiotic-resistance

KOCH AND FRIENDS declare war on the Middle Class to make MORE MONEY.

The Billionaires got 90% of all profits made the last 10 years yet they want more.

Marc Short, the group’s president (who was previously chief of staff for former Texas Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, and also for then-Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana), told Politico the group was primarily a bunch of wealthy self-made businesspeople who were not seeking publicity but felt their propersity was under attack in America.
“Short said his members are ‘concerned that the nation that they had grown up in and that their businesses have flourished in will not be there for their children and grandchildren’ and are ‘committed to trying to restore what they view are free markets in a free society in America,’” Politico reported. “Many, he said, are ‘Horatio Alger-type stories,’ and most of them not household names, who got rich after starting small businesses, from service to manufacturing to information technology.”


http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/secret-quarter-billion-dollar-koch-brothers-political-operation-revealed?paging=off

Military; How common is criminal behavior from our Vets?

The WA DC shooter was a veteran.
The PTSD epidemic is just one of many problems faced by the US military as it deals with the fallout from over a decade of war and occupation. Another dimension of its difficulties is that during the "war on terror", the US military relaxed its entry criteria in order to cope with a mid-decade recruitment crisis. As a direct consequence, over 100,000 Americans with criminal convictions – including serious felony offenses from rape and murder, to assault – benefitted from the "moral waiver" program, which allowed the military to look the other way when recruiting soldiers with shady pasts.
The Pentagon tried to keep this major influx of former criminals into the ranks secret from the American public, but the  information was prised out by the Palm Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2007. The US military also retained thousands of soldiers despite complaints of PTSD and other psychological complaints, often sending them back into the warzone. Thousands of those are now back in the US, trying to put fractured lives back together.


http://www.alternet.org/personal-health/dc-navy-yard-massacre-how-war-terror-came-home?akid=10947.294211.XXZ1rU&rd=1&src=newsletter897922&t=19

GUNFAIL: Guns shot and people were killed last week

The child victims of GunFAIL this week were ages 2, 3, 5, 9, 10 and 11, and included the three-year-old girl killed when she found her father's gun during a camping trip in Yellowstone National Park. Guns were prohibited in National Parks until around the time that Ella Tucker of Pocatello, ID, was born. But Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) changed all that (in an amendment to a credit card finance regulation bill), and now Ella's gone.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/09/16/1237186/-GunFAIL-XXXV?detail=facebook

Old City Bus made into a house - interesting

In the search for a second life, old public buses, trucks and the like have been converted into anything from gardens, greenhouses and to even community art centers (well, actually a trailer). In a similar spirit, two women from Even Yehuda, Israel recently converted a decommissioned bus into a elegantly minimalist home, hoping to propose an affordable alternative in a country where housing access is a hot-button issue.

http://www.treehugger.com/interior-design/tali-shaul-and-hagit-morevski-convert-public-bus-into-house.html

GAS PIPE RUPTURE in Colorado.

This video shows the following statement is not true.


According to a representative from the Colorado Oil and Gas Association speaking to channel 9 news, every well in each flooded county was being monitored several times a day and that there have been no "significant" leaks and they have so many crews on hand they're actually helping with other rescue efforts because they're not needed for spills from wells.
The representative also said multiple times that if you spot a oil or gas leak, that what she needs is not just photos, but locations for where the photos are so they can go try and deal with any problems found.


http://occupyamerica.crooksandliars.com/diane-sweet/no-significant-oil-or-gas-leaks-colora#sthash.e0NSwyUM.dpbs

Ocean Acidiification is happening and it is a BIG problem for sealife.

Acidification wasn’t supposed to start doing its damage until much later this century.

Instead, changing sea chemistry already has killed billions of oysters along the Washington coast and at a hatchery that draws water from Hood Canal. It’s helping destroy mussels on some Northwest shores. It is a suspect in the softening of clam shells and in the death of baby scallops. It is dissolving a tiny plankton species eaten by many ocean creatures, from auklets and puffins to fish and whales — and that had not been expected for another 25 years.

And this is just the beginning.

http://zandarvts.blogspot.ca/2013/09/inexorable-as-tides.html

Athiest Destroys Fox - Christian Nation? Really? Freedom of Religion and Speech is what our forefathers talked of.

The assertion that the United States of America is a “Christian nation” and was “founded upon Christian principles” is one of the favorite lies from the Religious Right. Despite the overwhelming evidence that the Founders, no matter their religious beliefs or lack thereof, were secularists. If they, indeed, wanted to make this a “Christian nation” they had a funny way of not doing it!  But that doesn’t stop the liars for Jesus at Fox News and other organizations from repeating the falsehoods.
For the record, the original Pledge of Allegiance did not have the words “under God” in it, nor did our money feature “In God We Trust.” The Constitution is entirely secular, forbidding state-sponsored religion, as well as any religious test for anyone wishing to serve their country


http://aattp.org/atheist-destroys-fox-news-liars/

Diane Ravitch: Profits in Education is creating many more problems than it is solving.

The reformers define the purpose of education as preparation for global competitiveness, higher education, or the workforce. They view students as “human capital” or “assets.” One seldom sees any reference in their literature or public declarations to the importance of developing full persons to assume the responsibilities of citizenship.

Very well said!

http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2013/09/diane-ravitch-brilliantly-breaks-down.html

Man takes 5000 mile canoe ride from Washington to Achorage, AK

Minnesota adventurer Bob "Beav" Vollhaber arrived at Westchester Lagoon on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2013, after almost six month journey paddling his canoe about 5,000 miles from Washington state to Anchorage "the long way," through the Inside Passage, with a portage over the Chilkoot Trail with heavy snow and snowshoes, down the Yukon River, along the Bering Sea coast, up the Kvichak River to Lake Iliamna, a portage over the Alaska Peninsula to the Cook Inlet. Vollhaber said he was "looking forward to a cheeseburger with fries ketchup and mustard and all the ice cream I can eat."

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2013/09/15/3077485/canoeist-bob-beav-vollhaber.html#emlnl=Morning_Newsletter#storylink=cpy

http://www.adn.com/2013/09/15/3077485/canoeist-bob-beav-vollhaber.html#emlnl=Morning_Newsletter

Back to Alaska

I have been in Oregon and Washington State for 9 days.  I have to go back to work.

SHOOTING: 4 DEAD, 12 Shot: NRA - more guns needed

It was a Navy facility and the shooter has not yet been caught.    Where is the good guy with a gun when you need him? I do not feel safer with our current loose gun laws.

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/national-international/Confirmed-Shooter-at-Navy-Yard-One-Person-Shot-223897891.html

US Billionaire Bailout Society - The rest of us can pay for their excesses and mistakes

We see in vivid detail what the new American order looks like. The top 1 percent live in another economic universe of high finance that sucks the wealth from the rest of us. In their world, banks (owned by and for the top 1%) are able to grow larger and larger so there is no chance they will be allowed to fail, even after these same banks took down the economy. (In 1965 they had assets equal to 17% percent of the U.S. economy. Today it's more than 65% percent.)

http://www.alternet.org/economy/weve-got-billionaire-bailout-society-and-99-may-never-recover-it-our-lifetimes?akid=10936.294211.7dRbKI&rd=1&src=newsletter896912&t=5

Republicans USING EXTORTION AND BLACKMAIL on Obamacare.

Appearing on Meet the Press this Sunday morning, veteran journalist Bob Woodward charged that a group of House Republicans are using “extortion and blackmail methods” with their threats of a government shutdown unless Obamacare is defunded.

“This is really serious,” Woodward said. “Back in 2011 when the [debt ceiling] crisis visited them, the Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner was running around saying, ‘If we don’t fix this, we could trigger a depression worse than the 1930s.’ When I talked to Obama about this, he said it was the most intense three weeks of his presidency.”

“The Republicans are out here — a group of them in the House — essentially using extortion and blackmail methods to say, ‘If we don’t defund Obamacare, we’re not going to do the routine things of government,” he added.

http://deadstate.org/bob-woodward-republicans-using-extortion-and-blackmail-in-obamacare-fight/

GUN CONTROL IS DEAD! Time to bury it and give everyone an assault weapon

By recalling two people who voted in new gun laws, the NRA won.  I hope this auther is incorrect but he may well be right.  Those who advocate restricting numbers of bullets allowed and free and easy access to Assault Weapons simply are afraid to take on the NRA.

Bring on the Assault Weapons - Unless something drastic changes (worse than Sandy Hook) then we will continue to rolled over with Any Kind Of Assault Weapon for Anyone, even the blind and criminals which the NRA just passed.

http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2013/09/last-call-for-gun-control.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ZVTS+%28Zandar+Versus+The+Stupid%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

Obamacare: Republican Governor Rick Scott WILL NOT allow people to sign folks up for the Affordable Care Act! Shameful.

People need affordable health insurance.  I just had a relative who has not had insurance that he is getting Health Insurance for $95.00 per month as of Oct 1.  He and the whole family is elated.  Finally, when he gets sick, he can have someone to go to.

IT IS SIMPLY SHAMEFUL THAT WHOLE STATES (Missouri and Florida) are being denied the opportunity to even find out about what the program has to offer them.  People need health insurance, it is available and anyone who denies people the right to find out and sign up for it should be fired.

I would rather money go to his than spending a Trillion on bombing Iran or Syria.  (This is going to end up costing less because emergency operations will happen less.  Those emergency operations are quite expensive.)

http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2013/09/florida-governor-rick-scott-attempts-to.html

MONSANTO IMMUNE FROM PROSECUTION for damage by GMO products

The Monsanto Protection Act that protects the biotech juggernaut from any legal action, even when it comes to federal courts, has been resurrected once again. In fact, this time even more corrupt politicians are trying to go ahead and extend the act in order to help shield Monsanto from the courts.

The absolute last thing we need is a disease machine biotechnology company like Monsanto to have more authority than even the federal government.

Republicans seem intent on making sure that Monsanto CANNOT BE PROSECUTED for any damage which their GMO products cause.  The Republicans are sneaking bills into must pass bills which will make Monsanto immune from courts and any litigation from you and I.    They do not even want Monsanto to have to label GMO products.  If they are so proud of their products, they should label them and let you and I decide if we want to eat them.  A Washington State farmer just had his wheat rejected for export because there was some GMO grain in the samples taken.  The farmer did not plant GMO so it drifted onto his crop.

http://www.nationofchange.org/monsanto-protection-act-20-politicians-bring-back-biotech-immunity-1379169942

LARGEST GUN STUDY SAYS: More Guns = More Gun Deaths

The theory, backed up by a wealth of data, is that the more guns there are any in any one place, the higher the percentage of people who commit suicide with guns as opposed to other mechanisms will be.

http://www.nationofchange.org/largest-gun-study-ever-more-guns-more-murder-1379169648

Monologue: Bill Maher

Putin, Monsanto, Bombing, New Jersey, NY Mayoral Race

http://rackjite.com/bill-maher-monologue-syria-putin-jersey-shore-sept-13-2013/

NEW RULES: Maher: US looks like George Zimmerman these days

It is so very good to hear Bill Maher again.

http://rackjite.com/new-rules-bill-maher-bombing-muslims-sept-13-2013/

59 Top Accomplishments of President Obama

He got Bin Laden and Gaddafi too  - the list of accomplishments is actually quite long.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/march_april_2012/features/obamas_top_50_accomplishments035755.php?page=all

GOP Plan: US loses whichever course they take

I am expecting a government shut down.  The GOP just have one blockage of governance technique after another.  I think the only result is a shut down of the US government.  I also think our country deserves it for having elected the Tea Party Crowd.

http://crooksandliars.com/richard-rj-eskow/old-extreme-gop-vs-new-extreme-go

Maher: We need a debate on why we allways debate bombing a new country

North Korea, Iran, Syria, Egypt, Iran - Why are we always (Republicans in particular) ready to go into another country to bomb it when a Democrat or Black Man is President?  We need to debate the need to bomb new countries.

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/maher-we-need-debate-why-were-always-debat

COULD GOD BE PISSED AT COLORADO? Colorado recalled two legislators that voted to limit magazines to 20 or less - they got recalled. IS GOD PISSED AT COLORADO? The recall and then the storm

Juanita Jean made me think there may be a connection.  Can we start talking Climate Change yet?

http://juanitajean.com/2013/09/13/it-could-happen/

Keith Olbermann on the NFL Brain Injury Settlement for players

In the wake of the NFL settlement, a number of pundits have come out to defend the NFL and its $9 billion annual business. Some deny that there’s a problem. Others have attacked the messenger, or the former players themselves.
Writing at Townhall, Timothy Birdnow claimed that destroying the NFL is “the left’s end-game.” After scoffing that there’s “no solid evidence that the game is dangerous,” Birdnow blamed the “liberal sports media” for wanting to over-regulate the game – and for ruining childhood in the process.


http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/conservative-nfl-concussion-deniers-b

ASSAULT WEAPON: 800 Rounds per minute fired - legal because of a loophole

The NRA crazies now has a fully automatic Assault Weapon available for $6000.00 starting this fall.  I definitely DO NOT feel safer knowing that George Zimmerman or any other crazy can get this gun.

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/legal-loophole-allows-new-belt-fed-ar-15-spr

Nurses explain Obamacare in 90 seconds

A quick and easy explanation

http://occupyamerica.crooksandliars.com/diane-sweet/nurses-explain-obamacare-90-seconds#sthash.M1RFC3WZ.RgV6ZlyJ.dpbs

Male Birth Control: Easy, Cheap, Effective and available

The male birth control shot is cheap, effective, and administered in a relatively painless 15 minute outpatient procedure and has been in existence for 25 years. It is currently going into small sample human trials and should be available in the United States in the next 3-5 years. It lasts for ten years and is easily reversible. The story of why it wasn’t available here sooner and how exactly it works medically are important to our health and our continued fight for reproductive rights and equality. Let’s get started.

http://feminspire.com/male-birth-control-easy-effective-available-and-totally-unheard-of/

Deadly FLASH FLOODS IN COLORADO: Climate Change is real

Another damaging and frightening extreme weather event we can chalk up to global warming, this time in Colorado:

Three days of unusually heavy rains along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains turned many Colorado creeks into fast-rising rivers on Thursday, making many roads impassable and causing at least three deaths.
Walloping Boulder County, the storm dropped 6 inches of rain Wednesday night—some of it at a rate of an inch an hour, according to the National Weather Service. That was in addition to 2 inches that had fallen previously. Another 2 to 3 inches of rain was expected, along with more flooding conditions, through Sunday, the weather service said.

http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/deadly-flash-floods-colorado-kill-lea

Climate Change and Junk Science is being fought state by state.

The attempt is to make religious theory taught as science but it is being fought by some Democratic Governors.  Thank you to those who fight against the Junk Science which is really religion.  Veto it please.  The USA used to be the science leader, lets keep it that way.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/09/12/2610301/kentucky-science-standards-climate/

The GOP may well shut down the Government. Deadlines are approaching. Delays shut it down.

GOP leaders eager to avoid blame for a possible government shutdown next month appear confounded by conservatives' passion for using fast-approaching deadlines to derail the implementation of President Barack Obama's health care law.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, conceded Thursday his plan was all but dead for quickly passing a temporary spending bill that also defunds Obamacare, make the Senate vote on each idea separately and then send only the portion for keeping the government open to the White House for the president's signature.

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2013/09/12/3071938/gop-leaders-confounded-on-stopgap.html#emlnl=Afternoon_Newsletter#storylink=cpy

http://www.adn.com/2013/09/12/3071938/gop-leaders-confounded-on-stopgap.html#emlnl=Afternoon_Newsletter

Koch Brothers Exposed: Movie about the greed and taking of money from us regular folks.

The Koch Brothers are the poster boys of greed and destruction of the middle class.  Expose on the Koch Brothers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3__6udC4a3M&feature=player_embedded

Koch Brothers: They are out to buy government policies and politicians - nothing less.

A Billionaire just buys what and who he wants which ultimately cuts his taxes.

The list of groups that benefited from Freedom Partners’ funding is a roster of conservative organizations large and small: $115 [million] to the Center to Protect Patient Rights, $32.3 million to Americans for Prosperity, $15.7 million to the 60 Plus Association, $13.6 million to the American Future Fund, $8.2 million to the Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee, $3.5 million to the National Rifle Association, $3.1 million to the LIBRE Initiative, $2 million to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. And that’s just the start.

http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/why-are-we-just-finding-out-about-koch-bank

9/11 - Falling into History, a great essay about the 9/11 attacks

He’s one of those average men you pass without noticing. A little tubby, wearing beige Dockers and a pink polo shirt. Not much to look at, were it not for the fact that this particular guy is flying. No, flying is the wrong word — he’s falling, falling through the blue sky, a lifetime of memories clutched in his outstretched hands and nothing we know about below.
He’s falling into history.


http://mockpaperscissors.com/2013/09/11/falling-into-history/

THE BUSH LEGACY: A toxic gift that keeps on poisoning

Many reasons have been offered for the near-paralysis among the U.S. and its allies in fashioning a response to the thuggery of the Assad regime in Syria. Does anyone really believe that relieving the strongman of a few canisters of nerve gas will make a difference? But the perhaps least discussed reason is by far the biggest: The Bush Legacy, a toxic gift that keeps on poisoning.

Read more at http://themoderatevoice.com/186499/the-crisis-in-syria-the-bush-legacy-a-toxic-gift-that-keeps-on-poisoning/#PSU7kxDLoIzJHcEP.99 

http://themoderatevoice.com/186499/the-crisis-in-syria-the-bush-legacy-a-toxic-gift-that-keeps-on-poisoning/