The Ledes

Sunday, October 6, 2024

New York Times: “Two boys have been arrested and charged in a street attack on David A. Paterson, a former governor of New York, and his stepson, the police said. One boy, who is 12, was charged with second-degree gang assault, and the other, a 13-year-old, was charged with third-degree gang assault, the police said on Saturday night. Both boys, accompanied by their parents, turned themselves in to the police, according to Sean Darcy, a spokesman for Mr. Paterson. A third person, also a minor, went to the police but was not charged in the Friday night attack in Manhattan, according to an internal police report.... Two other people, both adults, were involved in the attack, according to the police. They fled on foot and have not been caught, the police said. The former governor was not believed to have been targeted in the assault....”

Weather Channel: “Tropical Storm Milton, which formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, is expected to become a hurricane late Sunday or early Monday. The storm is expected to pose a major hurricane threat to Florida by midweek, just over a week after Helene pushed through the region. The National Hurricane Center says that 'there is an increasing risk of life-threatening storm surge and wind impacts for portions of the west coast of the Florida Peninsula beginning late Tuesday or Wednesday.'”

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Public Service Announcement

Washington Post: "Americans can again order free rapid coronavirus tests by mail, the Biden administration announced Thursday. People can request four free at-home tests per household through covidtests.gov. They will begin shipping Monday. The move comes ahead of an expected winter wave of coronavirus cases. The September revival of the free testing program is in line with the Biden administration’s strategy to respond to the coronavirus as part of a broader public health campaign to protect Americans from respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that surge every fall and winter. But free tests were not mailed during the summer wave, which wastewater surveillance data shows is now receding."

Washington Post: “Comedy news outlet the Onion — reinvigorated by new ownership over this year — is bringing back its once-popular video parodies of cable news. But this time, there’s someone with real news anchor experience in the chair. When the first episodes appear online Monday, former WAMU and MSNBC host Joshua Johnson will be the face of the resurrected 'Onion News Network.' Playing an ONN anchor character named Dwight Richmond, Johnson says he’s bringing a real anchor’s sense of clarity — and self-importance — to the job. 'If ONN is anything, it’s a news organization that is so unaware of its own ridiculousness that it has the confidence of a serial killer,' says Johnson, 44.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'll be darned if I can figured out how to watch ONN. If anybody knows, do tell. Thanks.

Washington Post: “First came the surprising discovery that Earth’s atmosphere is leaking. But for roughly 60 years, the reason remained a mystery. Since the late 1960s, satellites over the poles detected an extremely fast flow of particles escaping into space — at speeds of 20 kilometers per second. Scientists suspected that gravity and the magnetic field alone could not fully explain the stream. There had to be another source creating this leaky faucet. It turns out the mysterious force is a previously undiscovered global electric field, a recent study found. The field is only about the strength of a watch battery — but it’s enough to thrust lighter ions from our atmosphere into space. It’s also generated unlike other electric fields on Earth. This newly discovered aspect of our planet provides clues about the evolution of our atmosphere, perhaps explaining why Earth is habitable. The electric field is 'an agent of chaos,' said Glyn Collinson, a NASA rocket scientist and lead author of the study. 'It undoes gravity.... Without it, Earth would be very different.'”

The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

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Friday
May032013

The Commentariat -- May 4, 2013

The President's Weekly Address:

     ... The transcript is here. ...

... Randal Archibold & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama, speaking to an enthusiastic crowd of young people [in Mexico City], on Friday declared a new era in relations with Mexico that will focus on strengthening the countries' economic ties and that will play down the battle against drug gangs that has dominated the discourse for several years":

... Kathleen Hennessey & Tracy Wilkinson of the Los Angeles Times: "President Obama on Friday painted a sunny picture of a modern Mexico emerging from its past troubles, an attempt at rebranding that serves the political aims of both governments but clashes with the realities of a country beset by violence and poverty."

Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "The American economy continues to add jobs in proportion to population growth. Nothing less, nothing more. The share of American adults with jobs has barely changed since 2010, hovering between 58.2 percent and 58.7 percent. This employment-to-population ratio stood at 58.6 percent in April. That is about four percentage points lower than the employment rate before the recession, a difference of roughly 10 million jobs. In other words, the United States economy is not getting any closer to recreating the jobs lost during the recession." ...

... David Leonhardt of the New York Times: "Over the last 12 years, the United States has gone from having the highest share of employed 25- to 34-year-olds among large, wealthy economies to having among the lowest." ...

... Catherine Rampell of the New York Times: "The unemployment rate for college graduates in April was a mere 3.9 percent, compared with 7.5 percent for the work force as a whole.... Among all segments of workers sorted by educational attainment, college graduates are the only group that has more people employed today than when the recession started.... ... There is ample evidence that employers are hiring college-educated workers for jobs that do not actually require college-level skills -- positions like receptionists, file clerks, waitresses, car rental agents and so on." ...

... Floyd Norris of the New York Times: "The economic recovery from the recession that officially ended in 2009 has been extremely disappointing for American consumers. But for business, it has been the best recovery in decades."

"It's the GOP's World; We Just Live in It." Kevin Drum points out, in case nobody noticed, that Congressional Democrats & President Obama are playing into Republicans' hands. ...

... Jonathan Bernstein, in the Washington Post: "The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service has released an important new report that details Barack Obama's record on nominating judges during his first term. It's no surprise: Republican obstruction against his selections was unprecedented.... Ordinary people who just want to get their legal matters taken care of promptly have suffered because of all the vacancies on federal courts. It's really a disgrace."

Lyin' Ryan, Ctd. Rebecca Leber of Think Progress: "David Novak, who works for the Environmental Protection Agency in Wisconsin, confronted [Paul] Ryan over the impact the sequester is having.... Ryan's response to Novak reinvented his long standing position on budget cuts. Not only did Ryan disavow any responsibility for helping create the sequester, he also omitted how his budget plan similarly shrinks the EPA" for which Novak works. Novak, BTW, was satisfied with Ryan's response. Lies work. ...

... Or maybe Ryan just has a really, really bad memory. Steve Benen chimes in with a list of things Ryan accidentally forgot:

Ryan doesn't remember the spending cuts in the Budget Control Act.

Ryan doesn't remember that he used to refer to his own plan to end Medicare as "vouchers."

Ryan doesn't remember taking credit for the sequestration policy he later condemned.

Ryan doesn't remember learning about Democratic alternatives to the sequester.

Ryan doesn't remember what happened with the 2011 "super committee."

Ryan doesn't remember Bill Clinton's tax increases.

Ryan doesn't remember the times he condemned social-insurance programs as "taker" programs.

Ryan doesn't remember all of the times he appealed to the Obama administration for stimulus funds for his congressional district.

Ryan doesn't remember his marathon times.

Ryan doesn't remember how much he was inspired by Ayn Rand.

Ryan doesn't remember his own speeches.

Jon Favreau in the Daily Beast on the limited powers of the presidency.

Joe Nocera: "For all the protestations by gun owners that most are responsible with their weapons, I have been struck by how many killings take place because people do careless, stupid things. In the gun report that my assistant, Jennifer Mascia, and I compile on my blog, I see daily examples of children accidentally shooting other children with a gun found in the house.... When a passenger dies in a car accident that is the result of negligence, there are usually serious legal consequences for the driver. If we really want to reduce gun violence, there must be consequences for negligent gun owners, too." ...

... Bravery v. Braggadocio. Jim Vertuno & Juan Lozano of the AP report on the first day of the NRA convention. Pretty sickening stuff. One bright note: "Erica Lafferty, whose mother, Sandy Hook principal Dawn Hochsprung, was killed by the gunman, was outside the building and said she hoped to talk to as many NRA members as she could. 'I am not against people owning guns. I am asking for safe and responsible gun ownership and gun laws. I don't understand where the problem is with background checks,' Lafferty said." That young woman has more courage in her little finger than the whole bunch of convention-goers cheering Sarah Palin, et al. (The photo accompanying the AP story in the Houston Chronicle is of a guy standing next to a tee-shirt emblazoned with a picture of a pistol beneath the statement "I Don't Dial 911."

The NRA was started ... by some Yankee generals who didn't like the way my southern boys had the ability to shoot in what we call the 'War of Northern Aggression.' Now, y'all might call it the Civil War, but we call it the War of Northern Aggression down south.... The very reason that they started the National Rifle Association, was to teach and train the civilian in the use of the standard military firearm. And I am one who still feels very strongly that that is one of our most greatest charges that we can have today, is to train the civilian in the use of the standard military firearm, so that when they have to fight for their country they're ready to do it. Also, when they're ready to fight tyranny, they're ready to do it. -- Incoming NRA President Jim Porter, in a 2012 speech

... Vertuno has more on Porter: "As shown by his 'culture war' comment Friday and others in his past, Porter's style is likely to be one that fans the flames of an emotionally combustible debate."

Alex Seitz-Wald of Salon: "Libertarian activist and radio host Adam Kokesh is hoping to get 1,000 people to march on Washington on July 4 -- armed with loaded rifles. The plan, launched with a Facebook group today, is to gather on the Virginia side of the Potomac, where gun laws are lax, and then march across the bridge with loaded rifles slung over their shoulders into the District, where openly carrying weapons is generally prohibited. 'This will be a non-violent event,' the Facebook group warns, 'unless the government chooses to make it violent.' ... [Friday] he tweeted this: 'When the government comes to take your guns, you can shoot government agents, or submit to slavery.'" Thanks to Akhilleus for the link & commentary on same. ...

... Ed Kilgore follows up in a big way on my comment re: Louie Gohmert's dangerous rabble-rousing rhetoric: "... please join me in calling on conservatives to cut this crap out and separate themselves from those who believe in vindicating the 'original constitution' or defending their property rights or exalting their God or protecting the unborn via armed revolution. If William F. Buckley could 'excommunicate' Robert Welch and the John Birch Society from the conservative movement back in the 1960s, today's leaders on the Right can certainly do the same to those who not only share many of that Society's views, but are willing to talk about implementing them by killing cops and soldiers."

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department has acknowledged flaws in forensic testimony by the FBI that helped convict a man in the 1992 slayings of two Mississippi State University students, and federal officials have now offered to retest the DNA in the case. The extraordinary admission and offer come just days before the man is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Tuesday and present a quandary for Mississippi officials about whether to stop the execution of Willie Jerome Manning, 44."

FINALLY, in its annual spring cleaning feature, the Washington Post asks reporters what should be tossed out. Thomas Hicks, a former Post reporter, suggests Texas.

Congressional Races

Michael Levenson of the Boston Globe: "Gabriel E. Gomez, the Republican nominee for US Senate in Massachusetts, is nearly tied with his Democratic opponent, US Representative Edward J. Markey, according to a poll released Friday. Gomez, who scored an upset victory over two rivals in the Republican primary on Tuesday, has the support of 40 percent of likely voters in the June 25 general election,compared to 44 percent for Markey, according to the survey by Public Policy Polling.... Sixteen percent of respondents said they were undecided. The four percentage point spread is surprisingly thin in such a heavily Democratic state and suggests Markey, a 36-year veteran of the US House, is far from a lock in the general election."

Alexander Burns of Politico: Michael McFadden, "a wealthy Minneapolis finance executive, appears poised to enter the race against first-term Democratic Sen. Al Franken." Sez McFadden: "Minnesotans would rather have a crass materialist represent them than a clown who gives a shit about people." CW: okay, maybe he didn't say that, but no doubt that's what he thinks.

Local News

Nullification. Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "In late April, the Kansas legislature passed and Gov. Sam Brownback (R) signed a law that blocks enforcement of any federal gun laws on guns produced and used within the state of Kansas. Under the law, 'any act, law, treaty, order, rule or regulation of the government of the United States which violates the second amendment to the constitution of the United States is null, void and unenforceable in the state of Kansas.' Attorney General Eric Holder has written to Brownback that the law is unconstitutional and that the government 'will take all appropriate action including litigation if necessary, to prevent the State of Kansas from interfering with the activities of federal officials enforcing federal law.'" Other states are pulling similar stunts.

Lizette Alvarez of the New York Times: "Six months after Florida became the butt of late-night jokes for a chaotic voting process that bedeviled the 2012 presidential election, the State Legislature passed a bill on Friday to remedy many of those problems." The Miami Herald report, by Mark Caputo & Michael Van Sickler, is here. Seems Marco Rubio (who used to speaker of the Florida house) had a hand in writing the law.

Seanna Adcox of the AP: South Carolina "State senators inserted a clause in the 2013-14 budget plan that would bar Gov. Nikki Haley's office and the Governor's Mansion from buying junk food with public money, whether for employee treats or entertaining. The move was a response to state efforts to fight obesity by limiting what people can buy with money from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance, known more commonly as food stamps." Adam Beam of The State has a longer piece here. ...

... Ben Smith of BuzzFeed: "South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Dick Harpootlian, a trial lawyer, longtime Democratic leader, and legendary figure in local politics, reportedly told a South Carolina Democratic Party dinner that the Democratic challenger would send "Nikki Haley back to wherever the hell she came from.' Haley was born in South Carolina. Her parents are from India." CW: You might be a racist if -- you're a white Southerner, no matter your political affiliation.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the 26-year-old man who the authorities say is one of two brothers who carried out the Boston Marathon bombing, died of gunshot wounds and blunt trauma, according to his death certificate."

AP: " A wildfire tearing through a coastal region in Southern California nearly tripled in size as high temperatures fueled the flames, but a fire official said early Saturday that a favorable shift in the weather will likely help crews make progress against the flames. The fire 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles mushroomed to 43 square miles Friday...."

Reuters: "Israel has carried out an air strike targeting a shipment of missiles in Syria bound for Hezbollah guerrillas in neighboring Lebanon, an Israeli official said on Saturday." ...

     ... Update. The Washington Post has more here. ...

     ... Update 2. AP: "Israeli missiles struck a research center near the Syrian capital Damascus, setting off explosions and causing casualties, Syria's state news agency reported early Sunday, citing initial reports. If confirmed, it would be the second Israeli strike on targets in Syria in three days, signaling a sharp escalation of Israel's involvement in Syria's bloody civil war."

Reuters: "Five U.S. soldiers were killed by a bomb in southern Afghanistan, a spokesman for the U.S. Armed Forces said on Saturday. The Taliban launched their annual spring offensive on Sunday, saying it would take aim at foreign military bases and diplomatic areas."

Bags of Cash Are on the Truck. AP: "Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Saturday that the CIA's station chief in Kabul has assured him that regular funding the U.S. intelligence agency gives his government will not be cut off."

AP: "The death toll in the factory-building collapse in Bangladesh rose to more than 530 on Saturday, a day after the country's finance minister downplayed the impact of the disaster on the garment industry, saying he didn't think it was 'really serious.'"

Comments Off

Reader Comments (7)

The recent law passed in the outlaw, America hating state of Brownbackistan, allowing members of Governor Sam's Hole in the Wall Gang to give the finger to the federal government seems custom made to whip up fantasy fury where there is none.

This sort of treasonous action is all of a piece with the march being planned on Washington, DC by far right-wing radio screamer Adam Kokesh (sounds like "Koresh") who is inveigling his listeners/drones/ideological slaves to show up at the White House armed to the teeth with loaded weapons, just to show that Kenyan Nee-gro that the whities ain't a-goin to take no Nigra tellin' them they cain't shoot anyone they please, goddammit.

The idea is to show "the guv'mint" that they ain't a-goin' to take it no moah.

Koresh, I mean, Kokesh, doesn't exactly say what he's against, aside from the government not allowing them to parade around with loaded weapons and murder anyone who doesn't agree with them (sounds like a pretty basic right-wing demand), but they're a-goin to make a good show of it and show that mooslim lovin' black bastard that they can shoot his ass and any other liberal motherfkers whenever they damn please. Cause that's the conservative way!

Does this sound overly rancorous and a tad fantastical?

Sorry if you think that, but wingnuts have been parading around with loaded weapons for years now at public events. Their goal is to instill fear. Fear that they can and will murder anyone who doesn't go along with them.

Connect the dots, guys. A poll last week clearly states that 44% of Republicans--and we're talking ALL Republicans, not just those living in the underground bunker they dug in their backyard, polishing the knives, cleaning the guns, and hollering about passages in the Bible, are ready for armed insurrection during which those who don't go along with their warped visions can and will be shot to death.

So an armed march on the capitol, one aim of which is to provoke public safety officials into confronting them thereby giving them the chance to denounce official Washington as haters of freedom and allowing them to enjoin a much more serious revolution in which Americans who don't go along with Teabaggy sentiments can be shot and killed, is the goal here.

What don't people get about this?

These fucks have no clue about what it is to be a true American or what the Constitution actually says. They don't care. Their goal is to fuck you up. Or kill you.

This is not a joke. There are people out there who really believe it is necessary and just to kill every one of us.

May 3, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

I meant to include this message sent by Kokesh to his Twittery/jittery followers, just in case anyone thought I was indulging in unnecessarily vituperative hyperbole:

To wit:

"When the government comes to take your guns, you can shoot government agents, or submit to slavery".

Not long ago, people who said crazy shit like this would be ignored as ripe imbeciles, or put under FBI surveillance as dangerous cranks.

Now they're hailed as heroes by the dominant right-wing media.

Even though Kokesh says he means to turn his army back if repulsed by federal or local authorities, for flouting the law, does anyone really believe that there is little to no chance of violence? He employs obvious code words for the kind of para-military violence he claims to eschew. For instance, if you were describing how a group of like minded citizens would meet, would you use the word "muster" to describe their gethering? Meriam-Webster defines "muster" as:

a : an act of assembling; specifically : formal military inspection

Doesn't sound all that pacific to me.

But then I'm not a warlike, loaded weapon-toting, fear-mongering, irrational, government-hating douchewad either.

Teabaggers and NRA scumbags revolt against America

May 3, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

About the NRA (Nasty Reptile Asshats)--I think I posted this awhile ago, but it bears repeating--especially since the NRA Prezident, David Keene, has resigned and turned over the mantle to another sociopathic Reptile!
***********************
In "The New Yorker" Jill Lepore (April 23, 2012 issue) reported on how Keene’s son served jail time for attempted murder with a firearm.

...." In 2002, Keene’s son David Michael Keene was driving on the George Washington Memorial Parkway when, in a road-rage incident, he fired a handgun at another motorist. He was sentenced to ten years in prison for “using, brandishing, and discharging a firearm in a crime of violence.” I asked Keene if this private tragedy had left him uncertain about what the N.R.A. had wrought. He said no: “You break the law, you pay the price.”

I asked Keene if any public atrocity had given him pause. He explained that it is the N.R.A.’s policy never to comment on a shooting.

I asked him how he would answer critics who charge that no single organization has done more to weaken Americans’ faith in government, or in one another, than the N.R.A.

“We live in a society now that’s Balkanized,” Keene said. “But that has nothing to do with guns."
*******************
NOTHING TO DO WITH GUNS! Let's ask Gabrielle Gifford about that--or the many barely surviving victims of gun violence. I am absolutely flummoxed that in Amurica 2013 some can continue to rationalize this malevolence! I cannot imagine I would not be devastated and chastened were my son to be arrested for attempted murder with a firearm! YIKES. Except that....yes, I know so many are crazzzy! And terminally greedy.

May 3, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterKate Madison

I'm not sure what to think about these increasingly crazy gun nuts. Or they actually growing in number or is it just that new communication technologies like social media and the internet are given them more exposure to rant and rave? I also ask myself, connecting the conversation about racism recently had, is this primarily a consequence of having a two term African American in the White House, or is this disgorging of treason an inevitable event? Apparently multiple factors enter into the equation, i.e. changing demographics towards a less-white society, prolonged unemployment, the rise of right wing media, increasing financial burdens on the remaining middle class and the hopelessness of the poor, the neo-conservative shift of national politics, less federal services/funding that these fucking turds depend on while railing against... but how to explain this phenomenon coming to head right now?

I appears that gun psychosis has always been imbedded in the fabric of our society to some extent, but nearly half of Repubs claiming the need for armed revolution seems like we've reached a new stage of crazy.

Reality disconnect is astounding among this minority of Americans. Shrill cries of government treason and shooting government agents/police if they dare to enforce state and federal laws. These brainwashed sheeple seem to believe we actually do live in A Brave New 'Merica. Those police enforcing laws aren't just mere fellow citizens doing their job to pay the bills and feed their family like them freedom lovers. When they clock out and go home, they aren't the man/woman standing next to you in the supermarket check out line, they aren't the random person that held the door for you as a small proof decency still exists in society. NOOOOOO. Those police are manufactured government agents built in government test tubes on our tax payers dollars built for violence and treason directed against the real Tri-Corn Patriots.

And so it was in 'Merica July 4, 2013

May 4, 2013 | Unregistered Commentersafari

I hope that these yahoos who want to march on Washington with loaded weapons are prepared to die for their cause whatever that is. The police aren't going to look at this as some kind of game, which it is not. It's armed insurrection. George Washington didn't up up with such nonsense and suppressed the Whiskey Rebellion. Fortunately, the 500 rebels realized they had no chance against 13,000 militia, so they went home before a shot was fired. Whether these modern day MORONS would show such judgement is an open question.

May 4, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterBarbarossa

Given the exhaustive polling by everyone and then some, it is clear that the heavily armed contingent who fancies itself as the only hero of FREEEEEEDOM, is a minority. The media is ever in pursuit of the outrageous in all its forms. As the public requires more and more extremes to keep the "oh no he didn't" going, the focus of reporting must narrow. The outrageous morphs into the normal and the bar must be lowered yet again ( we are now into heavy machinery digging). You might think that the upside would be to expose the money that supports the fallacy of the "2nd Amendment Rights" BS and is acted out by the rabid minority. Of course, the 2nd Amendment, in my view, has nothing to do with unlimited, unregulated gun ownership. In reality, the 2nd Amendment Rights argument is mostly used to sell as many guns as possible. Unfortunately, both money and public ignorance is unlimited. I'm beginning to think the 1st Amendment, as practiced by the news media, has been almost as perverted as the 2nd Amendment has been by the NRA.

The favorite line at our house, which is certainly applicable to the insurrection which intends to stomp across the river to Washington DC, "Fire up the drone!!!!!!"

May 4, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterDiane

Re: don't forget the numbers... 70,000 people seems like a whole lot a gun lovers but more folks go to a USC vs UCLA football game at the Rose Bowl. On one Saturday.
On another front; we got a heavy marine layer damping down the fires in SoCal; so Ak, put on an old Foghat album and hope for containment.

May 4, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterJJG
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