Fox News: "Surely it is a rich blend of manure from a wide variety of farm animals."

Best tweet of the year above, as retweeted by Keith Olbermann. Read this to peruse a compilation of Fox's fuckery for the entire year. If you really want to punish yourself, read the best of Glen Becky's list of lies, obfuscations and just fucking weird ass shit here.


I can't wait to see what will be released as fact by all those fuckwads in the new year. 


Spring training is only 7 weeks away. Thank fucking gawd.  

Not only is he delusional, he lies like a friggin rug.

Watch the leader of GOProud on The Ed Show yesterday tell Cenk that not only does the GOP represent his interests, they (the party of homophobes) are all united.It would be funny if it wasn't so fucking pathetic.

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Rightwing homophobes boycotting CPAC.

CPAC is the biggest convention of rightwing nutters each year. GOProud will be on hand again this year, which of course pisses off the most extreme of the nutters groups. From TPMuckraker:

As the right-wing World Net Daily reports:

"We've been very involved in CPAC for over a decade and have managed a couple of popular sessions. However, we will no longer be involved with CPAC because of the organization's financial mismanagement and movement away from conservative principles," said Tom McClusky, senior vice president for FRC Action.

"CWA [Concerned Women for America] has decided not to participate in part because of GOProud," CWA President Penny Nance told WND. [Ed. note: Penny Nance's title is chief executive officer of CWA. Another individual, Wendy Wright, holds the title of president.]

A few other social conservative organizations -- including the National Organization for Marriage, which was at last year's conference -- have also withdrawn from the event.

Big tent? I don't think so, its more like a pup tent. The homophobic crowd just can't stomach those 'gay' groups that align themselves with the republican party. Way to go haters!

ICE loses 4th Amendment civil rights case.

Bet this ruling will piss off a lot of folks.You know, the ones who believe no one should have rights under our constitution, except those with money and power. From the National Law Journal link:

Three years of work by students in Yale Law School's Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic paid off in a big way last week, when a federal judge ruled that officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement may be sued for civil rights violations. 

The ruling, issued by Judge Stefan Underhill of the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, said that ICE officials aren't immune from such suits, and that the court has jurisdiction over this type of immigration case. 

"We believe this is the most sweeping decision by a district court on this issue," said Muneer Ahmad, the director of the clinic. "It means that ICE, as a law enforcement agency, is subject to the same measures of constitutional accountability as other agencies."

*snip*

The case stems from an ICE raid on the predominantly Hispanic Fair Haven section of New Haven, Conn., in June 2007. Thirty-two people were arrested during the three-day raid, most of them bystanders and not the people with criminal backgrounds for whom ICE agents were looking, Ahmad said. 

The clinic began representing some of those arrested in their immigration cases in 2007, and in 2009 filed Diaz-Bernal v. Myers, the civil rights case. The plaintiffs argue that top-level ICE officials instituted policies and programs that violated the Fourth Amendment rights of the 11 plaintiffs. For example, they alleged, ICE officers entered numerous homes without search warrants or consent during the raid. The government responded with a motion to dismiss the majority of the case. 

Although Underhill dismissed some minor claims, he found that the most important ones have enough merit to go forward, Ahmad said.

Read the complaint here. Three and a half years to get this case to a decision. The government will always drag it heels when those in charge know they fucked up.Chalk up a win, however fleeting, to the brown people and those legal minds that saw through the governmental fuckery and kept doggedly pursuing this issue on their behalf.

Happy Festivus Day!

To celebrate, listen to this great blues Xmas song by the one, the only...Joe Bonamassa

Another compromise? Adios due process..

When the congress critters passed the military spending bill Wednesday, they had to know that it included the following provision: None of the Gitmo detainee's can be tried in US Courts. From Jurist:

The US Senate and the House of Representatives on Wednesday gave final approval to a defense spending bill that includes a provision preventing Guantanamo Bay  detainees from being transferred to the US for trial. The legislation would block Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the other accused 9/11 conspirators from being tried in a US civilian court. The bill was approved by the House last week, prompting US Attorney General Eric Holder to send a letter (pdf) to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell urging them not to include the provision in the spending bill. If signed into law, the ban will remain in place until September 30, the end of the current fiscal year. Also this week, reports have indicated that the Obama administration is considering implementing a periodic review process for detainees being held indefinitely at Guantanamo.

In the first civilian trial of an ex-Guantanamo detainee, a federal jury convicted Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani last month on only one of 285 counts of conspiracy, murder and attempted murder for his involvement in the 1998 bombings of US embassies  in Tanzania and Kenya. While the Obama administration viewed the conviction and 20-year minimum sentence as a victory, opponents have cited the acquittals as evidence that civilian courts are inadequate venues for trying terror suspects. Several scholars have nevertheless maintained that federal courts are capable of serving justice. Upon taking office, President Barack Obama pledged to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay by January 2010, but he has been met with strong congressional opposition to transferring detainees to US soil.

 Even Eric Holder knows that provision is bullshit on a stick. Prisoners deserve due process, instead of that fucking kangaroo court known as the military tribunals. Another good read on Gitmo is this piece at ProPublica which questions a federal court ruling and how one judge's opinion was whitewashed so as to weaken the judge's argument. From ProPublica:

Legal scholars and classification experts said the drafting of a second opinion was a deception. All previous opinions in Guantánamo habeas cases have noted when material has been blacked out or removed to protect security.

Stephen Gillers, who teaches legal ethics at New York University School of Law, said Kennedy may well have had a legitimate concern about "national security issues."

"But that concern then inspired him to participate in the creation of a parallel universe that fools everyone except a small circle of judges. We don't allow the justice system to create false impressions," Gillers said.

ProPublica obtained the original version of Kennedy's opinion when it appeared briefly in the court record and conducted a line-by-line comparison with what was published five weeks later. That comparison, highlighting information that was removed, can be found here.

The Obama administration ain't a whole lot different that Bush's when it comes to Gitmo detainees and blaming everything on National Security or those damn terrorists.

10 worst predictions of 2010

Since the weather still sucks here and my attention span is very limited due to the pain meds I currently take..I give you this writeup from ForeignPolicy.com. Below I will highlight the ones I found amusing and/or made me sad. Click the link above for the whole ball of wax :

"More people are going to be put to work this summer." -Vice President Joe Biden, White House briefing, June 17, 2010

"Sharron Angle beating Harry Reid, followed by an uncomfortable and possibly bitter concession speech from Harry Reid. ... Charlie Crist, an independent beating Marco Rubio, throwing a wrench in the Tea Party and extreme right winners of the night. ... I am one of the few of the mind-set that Christine O'Donnell could actually pull this thing off. ...  In the tight and hugely expensive California race, I predict a win for the former CEO of eBay."-Meghan McCain, The Daily Beast, Nov. 2, 2010

We've got a government in a box, ready to roll in."-Gen. Stanley McChrystal, to Dexter Filkins of the New York Times, Feb. 12, 2010

"Once that uranium, once those fuel rods are very close to the reactor, certainly once they're in the reactor, attacking it means a release of radiation, no question about it. ... So if Israel is going to do anything against Bushehr it has to move in the next eight days."-John Bolton, Fox Business Channel, Aug. 17, 2010

There is a high probability that the collapse of the United States will occur by 2010."-Russian Foreign Ministry Diplomatic Academy Dean Igor Panarin, speech at the academy, March 3, 2009

 "The detention facilities at Guantánamo for individuals covered by this order shall be closed as soon as practicable, and no later than 1 year from the date of this order. If any individuals covered by this order remain in detention at Guantánamo at the time of closure of those detention facilities, they shall be returned to their home country, released, transferred to a third country, or transferred to another United States detention facility in a manner consistent with law and the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States."-President Barack Obama, Executive Order, Jan. 22, 2009 

John Bolton is King of the Douchenozzles and it warms the cockles of my little black heart when that fuckwad gets anything wrong....which is quite often. Obama's Gitmo transgression really chaps my brown ass. Megan McCain is simply a pathetic publicity whore who really isn't a republican OR a political pundit, so why in the blue hell she calls herself one or has a job writing about politics...I have no friggin clue.

Apple drops Wikileaks app. Google keeps theirs

Apple apparently doesn't want to feel the wrath of the US government...but Google doesn't give a shit. From Reuters:

Apple Inc has joined a growing number of U.S. companies that have severed ties with WikiLeaks, removing an application from its online store that gave users access to the controversial website's content.

But Google Inc, which operates the second-largest online mobile applications store, has kept more than half a dozen apps available on its Android Marketplace that make it easier to access the confidential U.S. government documents WikiLeaks had released on its site.

The two distinct approaches highlight how it is far tougher for developers to get on the iPhone's platform than Android's. Some of the Android programs provide direct access to the WikiLeaks cables, and one of them even alerts users whenever a new leaked document from the WikiLeaks repository is made public.

Kind of makes me go..hmmmmm..wtf Steve Jobs? Is Jobs a republican? Hearty lick of applause for Google on this issue.

Assange talks to Cenk

The Wikileaks founder is on the Dylan Ratigan show. I will put up the video or the transcript when it becomes available. Its available.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

On the home front, Kern County has been deluged, like most of Cali, with unrelenting rain for the last week. Ahnold has declared a state of emergency for our county and five others. Our house is well above the river, so the storm effect on my humble abode is minimal. The outdoor cats haven't been washed away yet, but the poor things, most of whom are feral, are just trying to find a dry place to hang out. Climate change anyone? We have gotten twice the amount of rain that we usually get in a whole year.

If I seem to be rambling, it's due to the fact that I am on massive pain meds. Ye olde back is a hot mess and being doped up to my eyeballs 24/7 means my concentration level is in the shitter....and I sleep a lot.

Obama is running his piehole on the boob tube now, so I gotta try to pay attention.

Hedge fund vultures circling Madoff victims.

They know it could take years to sort out the 20 billion dollar ponzi scheme that Bernie Madoff ran for decades, so they prey upon the victims, offering them 25-35 cents on the dollar now for their claims against the Madoff estate.These types of hedge funds are known as vulture funds.

Buying up bankruptcy claims isn't new, but going after Madoff's victims like a boat-load of ambulance-chasing lawyers shows how scruples and morals are not something these assholes have much of. From the NYT link:

David M. Barse, president and chief executive of Third Avenue Management, an active investor in distressed bankruptcy claims, said in recent months his analysts had advanced the idea of buying Madoff claims.

When the investment idea was discussed in October, claims were trading at about 25 cents on the dollar, and an analysis showed potential recoveries in the range of 40 to 80 cents.

But after discussing the idea with his senior management, Mr. Barse said he had decided that even though the trade sounded promising, Third Avenue would not participate.

“The fraud is just so despicable that we felt that, from a moral perspective, it just didn’t make sense for us,” Mr. Barse said. “There are plenty of other ways to make money in this business.”(emphasis mine)

Mr. Barse evidently has a conscience. A tip of the hat to him. People have committed suicide after losing everything in Madoff's ponzi scheme. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel for those hoping to recoup some of their original investment. From NYT Dealbook section:

A scandal flush with superlatives added yet another on Friday with a $7.2 billion legal settlement, the largest single forfeiture in American judicial history, to benefit the victims of Bernard L. Madoff’s global fraud.

The total amount available for compensating Madoff victims is now just under $10 billion, far more than expected when Mr. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme — the largest ever — fell apart after his confession and arrest two years ago this month.

Fifty cents on the dollar might sound low but it's better than losing it all. The Madoff trustee has stated he hopes to start handing out the recouped funds to investors, that drew out less than their original investment, within the first three months of next year.

Todays number: 63

That is the number of yes votes in the Senate this morning to advance the vote to repeal of DADT this morning.

The DREAM act failed to advance, so it's a good news bad news sort of Saturday. For the record, these Rethugs voted yes on DADT cloture:Sens. Brown, Collins, Kirk, Murkowski, Snowe, Voinovich.

UPDATE- DADT is finally dead. 65 senators rented a set of balls and voted for equality. A Thank you to them for finally recognizing there is no difference between a gay/lesbian soldier and straight ones.

Bullied to Death- Seth Walsh's last words.

Seth was just a little boy in 8th grade, who wanted to live his life out in the open. Tehachapi is a beautiful place, up in the mountains east of Bakersfield.

But it was a brutal place to be a young gay boy. Yes, a boy...he wasn't an adult. Children can be incredibly mean, so when the family of Seth Walsh begged and pleaded for years to his school to protect Seth from the constant physical harm and the verbal hate-filled taunts, their plea's fell on deaf ears.

So Seth hung himself. In his own yard, one day last September. Listen to his mother read the suicide note Seth left. Read this article about how the school, their teachers and administrative staff did nothing to protect this sweet boy who only wanted to live his life free of fear.



Children learn to hate, to bully others. Stop the hate, please. Just. Fucking. Stop. It.

4th Amendment rights extended to emails.

Here is another case that will go to SCOTUS. From Jurist:

The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled [opinion, PDF] Tuesday that e-mail is entitled to Fourth Amendment protection. The 98-page opinion overturned the prison sentence of Steven Warshak, the founder of Berkeley Premium Nutraceuticals Inc, who was convicted on 93 counts of conspiracy, money laundering and fraud in 2008. The court held that government reliance on the Stored Communications Act did not warrant overturning Warshak's conviction, but that the government violated Warshak's Fourth Amendment rights when it ordered his Internet service provider (ISP) to turn over his e-mails. In finding this violation, the court acknowledged that Warshak enjoyed "a reasonable expectation of privacy" in his e-mails by comparing e-mail to more traditional forms of communication, such as telephone conversations, found to be protected in United States v. Katz. The court stated:

Given the fundamental similarities between email and traditional forms of communication, it would defy common sense to afford emails lesser Fourth Amendment protection. Email is the technological scion of tangible mail, and it plays an indispensable part in the Information Age. Over the last decade, email has become 'so pervasive that some persons may consider [it] to be [an] essential means or necessary instrument[] for self-expression, even self-identification.' It follows that email requires strong protection under the Fourth Amendment; otherwise, the Fourth Amendment would prove an ineffective guardian of private communication, an essential purpose it has long been recognized to serve.

The case was ultimately remanded for a recalculation of Warshak's prison sentence, but his conviction and $45 million fine were affirmed.

The application of the Fourth Amendment to new technologies has created a number of issues that have recently come before the courts. In late November, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit declined a request by the US Department of Justice to rehear a case in which that court found that the government could not use GPS to track suspects without a warrant. In September, a three-judge panel for the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that at times the government might need a warrant to obtain cell phone data to track a person's location. In June, the US Supreme Court unanimously held that, even if there is a reasonable expectation of privacy in work-issued electronic devices, that an employer's search of private text messages does not violate the Fourth Amendment so long as the search is not excessive and is pursuant to a legitimate work-related purpose. Last year, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that police must obtain a warrant before searching data stored in a cell phone.

And we all know how the rightwing assholes at the Supreme Court are going to rule on this one.

Holy F*ckamoly - TeaParty movement started here???

Here is Bakersfield, CA. I knew I was living in the reddest part of Cali...but the whole friggin movement found life here? From The NewYorker writeup, sent to me by my blogger bud RJ:

John Boehner’s introduction to the political force that would make him the Speaker of the House of Representatives came on a cool April afternoon in 2009, on the streets of Bakersfield, California. Boehner, the Republican House leader, had come to town for a fund-raiser for his colleague Kevin McCarthy, who represents the area. The event was scheduled for tax day, April 15th—the date targeted for a series of nationwide protest rallies organized by a loosely joined populist movement that called itself the Tea Party. One rally was to take place in Bakersfield, and Boehner and McCarthy decided to make an appearance. “They were expecting a couple of hundred people,” Boehner recalls. “A couple of thousand showed up.”

The two congressmen witnessed a scene of the sort that played in an endless loop across the country for the next eighteen months: people in funny hats waving Gadsden flags and wearing T-shirts saying “No taxation with crappy representation,” venting about bailouts, taxes, entrenched political élites, and an expanding and seemingly pampered public sector. (Noticing an open window in a nearby government office building, some in the Bakersfield crowd shouted, “Shut that window! You’re wasting my air-conditioning!”) Although Bakersfield is in one of the most conservative districts in California, the Tea Party speakers assigned fault to Republicans as well as to Democrats. The event’s organizers had been advised that Boehner and McCarthy would be there but did not invite them to speak.

For Boehner, the Bakersfield rally was a revelation. “I could see that there was this rebellion starting to grow,” he says now. “And I didn’t want our members taking a shellacking as a result.”

Bakersfield, and Kern County in general, is loaded with uneducated, bigoted rightwing nutters. An example: the percentage of high school students that go on to college is a pathetic 19% here, our dropout rate is 26%. If that doesn't tell you something about the area, nothing will.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, during his reign as Governor, came here at least once a month to speak to the big corporate farmers and the oil barons. California's horrible employer-favoring Workers Compensation laws, which were changed by Ahnold, were hatched here by Ahnold and fuckers that own Grimmway Farms.

So, blame it on Bakersfield folks...John Crocodile-tears Boehner loves Bako and it's unwashed masses that consistently vote against their own self-interests and probably always will.

If Kristianstad, Sweden can do it, why can't the US?

Kristianstad is a small city of 80,000 Swedes. Their use of fossil fuels to heat a very cold city is...zero. From the NYT link;

But Kristianstad has already crossed a crucial threshold: the city and surrounding county, with a population of 80,000, essentially use no oil, natural gas or coal to heat homes and businesses, even during the long frigid winters. It is a complete reversal from 20 years ago, when all of their heat came from fossil fuels.

But this area in southern Sweden, best known as the home of Absolut vodka, has not generally substituted solar panels or wind turbines for the traditional fuels it has forsaken. Instead, as befits a region that is an epicenter of farming and food processing, it generates energy from a motley assortment of ingredients like potato peels, manure, used cooking oil, stale cookies and pig intestines.

A hulking 10-year-old plant on the outskirts of Kristianstad uses a biological process to transform the detritus into biogas, a form of methane. That gas is burned to create heat and electricity, or is refined as a fuel for cars.

Once the city fathers got into the habit of harnessing power locally, they saw fuel everywhere: Kristianstad also burns gas emanating from an old landfill and sewage ponds, as well as wood waste from flooring factories and tree prunings.

Unlike the US, Europe heavily taxes the consumption of fossil fuels.  The area in question is primarily an agricultural region. This tells me that where I live, the San Joaquin Valley, could do the same damn thing. This method is far from perfect, as the use of biogas, a renewable form of energy, does generate emissions..albeit far less than coal and oil.

The start up costs aren't cheap either, but the end result is less carbon emissions and costs to use the biogas are half of what oil and coal costs are. Again from the NYT writeup:

The start-up costs, covered by the city and through Swedish government grants, have been considerable: the centralized biomass heating system cost $144 million, including constructing a new incineration plant, laying networks of pipes, replacing furnaces and installing generators.

But officials say the payback has already been significant: Kristianstad now spends about $3.2 million each year to heat its municipal buildings rather than the $7 million it would spend if it still relied on oil and electricity. It fuels its municipal cars, buses and trucks with biogas fuel, avoiding the need to purchase nearly half a million gallons of diesel or gas each year.

Isn't this the kinda stuff Obama has talked about? Renewable energy is the future and the future is now in Kristianstad, Sweden. Wisconsin officials have toured the biogas projects in Sweden, and the yahoo's here in Cali that give us our electricity, PG&E have filed with the state to build plants that will use the ag waste generated in this state:

Like Kristianstad, California and Wisconsin produce a bounty of waste from food processing and dairy farms but an inadequate supply of fossil fuel to meet their needs. Another plus is that biogas plants can devour vast quantities of manure that would otherwise pollute the air and could affect water supplies.   

It gives me hope...but being a pessimistic bitch..I know someone or something will fuck it up..I just know it. We also suck a shitload of oil out of the ground here in my county..and you know those fuckers aren't looking forward to less sales of their...cough..product. Which means they will probably fight this change tooth and nail.

Grading the Obama administration: Regulatory issues

OMBWatch is a great tool for groups and individuals interested in tracking how our government applies the laws passed by congress to protect the public, with regards to transparency and accountability. This new, three part report (pdf) entitled The Obama Approach to Public Protection: Enforcement, delves into how the Obama Administration creates and administers rules and regulations that protect the public with regard to health, safety and environmental issues and standards. From OMBWatch's introduction to part one of their report:

This is the first of three OMB Watch reports evaluating the Obama administration’s record on regulatory issues. This report covers health, safety, and environmental rulemaking at federal agencies during the Obama administration from January 2009 through August 2010. The second report will cover many of the same issues and areas as this report but will focus on regulatory enforcement. The third report will focus on the regulatory process, including issues of transparency, participation, regulatory analysis, and scientific integrity, and will more deeply examine the role of the White House, specifically the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in shaping the administration’s record.

Part one is roughly 34 pages long. From part one, a short assessment of their findings:

Based on the research presented here, several trends emerge. First, in stark contrast to the George W. Bush administration, the Obama administration has taken its role of protecting the public seriously and has been far more active in pursuing its rulemaking responsibilities. Obama’s philosophy regarding the role of government is very different from the Bush philosophy. This contrast emerged early in Obama’s tenure as agencies spent considerable time and energy addressing many of the “midnight regulations” the Bush administration enacted or finalized, most of which rolled back essential environmental, public health, and workplace safety standards. While not wholly successful, the Obama administration deserves credit for looking both forward and backward.

Second, the new administration has begun to restore agency resources, recommit leadership to agency missions, and address the toll of neglect from previous administrations. Rebuilding the regulatory agencies, their staffs, and their programs will, however, take years and consistent resources.

Third, in comparison to expectations, the Obama administration has fallen short. The administration has not changed the dysfunctional regulatory process that agencies must navigate. The rulemaking process is full of procedural hurdles that hinder how quickly and, sometimes, how effectively agencies can respond to public needs. The process is tilted heavily in favor of special interests that have the resources and access to impact the substance of rules; the public’s voice is often drowned out.

 I will give Obama and his minions this: The Obama administration has made a valiant effort to undo much of the fuckery foisted upon us by Chimpy's administration, including all the Midnight reg's issued in the waning days of that friggin nightmare of an administration that were designed to weaken enforcement and protection of the public.It's a long, tedious process and ProPublica keeps track of all of them here.

The watchdog group, OMBWatch, was created in 1983. The group has championed many issues, including the batshit crazy rightwingers ongoing attempts to defund and close down many of our federal governments regulatory agencies. In 2008 they created FedSpending.org, a searchable database of federal contracts, grants, and loans dating back to FY 2000.

OMBWatch does all this work as a non-profit agency. Any donations to their work are tax deductible.

Hundreds counter protest Westboro Baptist

The five or six haters from Westboro Baptist were counter-protested by hundreds of people today before Elizabeth Edwards funeral. From a local report:

A counter protest aimed at members of the Kansas based Westboro Baptist Church drew hundreds to downtown Raleigh Saturday.

Organizers said they sought to drown out the anti-gay group which sent members to Raleigh to protest at the Elizabeth Edwards funeral - saying she advocated for homosexual rights during her life.

By 11:30 Saturday morning, Westboro members were yelling at the counter protest group calling itself the Line of Love, but it was hard to tell what they were saying. The Edwards supporters responded with cheers and applause.

In other news, the same assholes from Westboro showed up in my son's neck of the woods yesterday. McAlester, OK a very small, rural, almost tiny town, has been a target for Westboro after their last military funeral protest there found their van with two slashed tires.Keep in mind that OK keeps electing the rightwing nutter/neocon Tom Coburn to Congress, so to me, the fact that they stood up to the hate-filled assholes from Westboro speaks volumes. From the NewsOK link:

Under the guard of about three dozen law enforcement officers, eight members of the Westboro Baptist Church picketed three locations in town for two hours Friday and left the city with their tires intact.

Stung by their last visit to McAlester, the church members and their van were provided a police escort to each protest site and then promptly out of town.

While the church members protested, police stood guard over their van to prevent a repeat of their last visit, when two of the tires on their vehicle were slashed.

Assistant Police Chief Darrell Miller said officers were ordered to protect the van because “We want these people out of here as soon as possible.”

The heavy police presence was expected to cost the city of McAlester nearly $1,500 in overtime pay, Miller said.

Seven evening shift officers had to be called in early to provide protection, and 10 SWAT team officers also were used, he said.

Assisting McAlester police were troopers with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, Pittsburg County sheriff’s deputies and a few officers from nearby Krebs.

When the church members last visited McAlester to picket at a soldier’s funeral on Nov. 13, they were met by nearly 1,000 counter-protesters.

It makes me really fucking angry that small cities like McAlester are forced to spend thousands to actually protect the fuckwads from Westboro. That is one of the reasons why I believe hate speech should not be protected by the 1st Amendment.

What happened to the compassionate conservatives?

Repubs are douchnozzles

With the launch of the TeaBaggers after the 08 election of Obama, that compassion, however scarce, has left the building. Terrance Heath over at OurFuture.org, has a writeup entitled Compassionless Conservatism. In his writeup he quotes Molly Ivins from one of her 2003 columns, saying it's just as timely today as it was 7 years ago when it comes to the R's currently in the House and Senate, and I agree with him.From Mr. Heath's writeup:

The difference between the "compassionate conservatism" of the Bush era and the compassionless conservatism ascendant in the GOP today is that there can be no claim of cluelessness or obtuseness. There is daily evidence that the people's lives are being horribly affected by the GOP's policies and political tactics — such as blocking the extension of unemployment benefits amid record unemployment and long-term unemployment. The rhetoric around this stomach-turning obstruction is a mixture of fickleness around "fiscal responsibility" and outright derision and hatred from the very people bearing the brunt of the economic crisis: the long-term unemployed who, after 99 weeks, face the exhaustion of their unemployment benefits. Today's conservatives can't claim not to know how their policies impact Americans' lives. Rather than not knowing, today's "uncompassionate conservatism" stems from not caring how their policies and political tactics impact people.

Lost in the debate of the president's proposed "deal" with Republicans to "temporarily" extend the Bush tax cuts in exchange for a 13-month extension of the emergency extension of unemployment insurance benefits is one devastating reality. The proposed deal holds nothing for the 99ers, those Americans who have exhausted or are close to exhausting their unemployment benefits. In the proposed deal as it currently stands, the 99ers get nothing.

Any moderates that inhabited the republican party are now silenced by the extremists, or worse, were voted out of office this past November. For the R's to steadfastly refuse to extend unemployment benefits to the 99ers during this recession/depression is unconscionable and down right fucking criminal in my eyes.

It's also going to be harder on our economy since the current 99er's (2 million citizens) are hanging by their fingernails, unable to spend money on the necessary things needed to stay alive: housing, food, clothing, etc.

Add to that number, the estimated four million more that will be in the same boat come 2011 and it makes the financial toll to our economy and our citizens even more heinous. Fucking assholes are really pushing the envelope not to mention they will be creating another 6 million poor folks.

F*ckwads from Westboro Baptist to picket Elizabeth Edwards Funeral.

Just got the heads up on this fuckery from Greg Mitchell's twitterfeed:

Westboro Baptist Church, a group with a history of staging protests at funerals and issuing anti-gay statements, is planning to picket the Saturday funeral of Elizabeth Edwards.

The group said it will picket outside Edenton Street United Methodist Church in Raleigh from 12:15 until 1 p.m. when the funeral is scheduled to begin.

These publicity whores are really on my last nerve. Crazy? No...limelight seeking bags of sheep shit? Oh Hell Yes. It has to be all about the publicity, I am finally convinced...it's not about gays. They travel nationally to picket funerals, so it's as obvious as the homophobic, publicity-mongering nose on Freddy Phelps ugly, hateful face.Hopefully Phelps God will show him no mercy when he finally meets his maker...which btw, can not come to soon for me.

Why aren't these guys in jail??

Because it's Bank of America, that's why. Sure, BofA ratted out it's own employees, but it appears said employees are not being charged with any crimes. From BLT:

Bank of America has agreed to pay $137.3 million to resolve allegations of bid rigging in the municipal bond industry, U.S. Justice Department officials said today.

The bank today entered a global agreement with 20 states and four federal agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission. DOJ officials said Bank of America employees conspired to rig bids in connection to the marketing and sale of tax-exempt municipal bond derivative contracts. SEC documents are here.


Under the Justice Department’s leniency program, the bank will not be prosecuted for the conduct as long as there is continued cooperation, Varney said.

Wait, the DOJ has a leniency program for corporate criminals? Bank of America screwed people in 20 states and all they get is a lousy fine? Holy Fuckamoly...the bullshit never stops when it comes to corporate, financial criminals....except for this case that is actually being heard by SCOTUS. From the Jurist link:

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in Janus Capital Group v. First Derivative Traders, a securities fraud case. The question before the court is whether a service provider can be held primarily liable in a private securities fraud suit for aiding and participating in another company's misstatements. Section 10(b) of the Securities and Exchange Act prohibits any manipulation or deception in connection with the purchase or sale of securities, but it is unclear whether the liability associated with the act extends to service providers that aided in the selling of securities where misinformation was involved. The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit overturned the district court decision and allowed a class action against the petitioner to proceed, holding that a service provider may be liable for securities fraud. There is currently a circuit split on this issue. 

Fraud is Fraud right? Stealing is Stealing, and a Derivative is a Derivative. Now, the only difference I can see is that BofA is too big to charge, whilst Janus is going after a derivative trader, which of course is a lot smaller fish in the big financial pond, all by their lonesome..without any help from the DOJ.

$137 million sounds like a big number, but when you consider BofA makes BILLIONS each quarter...it really ain't shit.

Govt makes 12 Billion off Citigroup bailout.

Since that part of the financial sector is booming, I am glad the Govt is cashing out. From Bloomberg:

The Treasury said it disposed of 2.4 billion shares at $4.35 each, compared with yesterday’s closing price of $4.45 on the New York Stock Exchange. The sale raises the profit for taxpayers on the rescue to about $12 billion, including the share gain, dividends and proceeds from other securities.

The sale helps Citigroup exit the 2008 bailout, which was provided to keep the New York-based bank from collapsing as its stock sank below $5 and some depositors started withdrawing their money. Citigroup also had to get $301 billion of government guarantees on its riskiest assets, making the bailout the biggest among U.S. banks.

*snip*

The Treasury said its average price for selling 7.7 billion Citigroup shares was $4.14. The government acquired the shares at a conversion price of $3.25. The share increase produced a gain of about $6.85 billion.

The U.S. has been winding down bank-bailout and emergency- lending programs while trying to recoup the money it provided to bolster private companies including General Motors Co. and American International Group Inc.

The Treasury received $13.6 billion from last month’s initial public stock offering by Detroit-based General Motors, and still holds about 33 percent of the automaker. The government said in September it plans to convert $49.1 billion of AIG preferred shares into common stock that would eventually be sold in the open market. 

This still doesn't make it right, bailing out the big banks. There are still small banks failing every month because they didn't get a bailout. I had no problem w/bailing out the automakers....because those fuckers actually 'make' something.

Mainstreet is still in the shitter however. The Govt should take the bailout profits and pour them back into stimulus...like saving the 99ers, just for fucking starters.

But they won't.

Current 99r's won't be covered under Obama/GOP agreement.

Filched from http://editorialcartoonists.com/

From Campaign for Amerika's Future: Nothing for the 99ers (And Not Much For Anyone Else).

The deal is done - regarding tax cuts and unemployment benefits extensions — and while we all have a stake in it, most of us won't get anything of long-term value out of it. Least of all the 99ers — the people who have received benefits for 99 weeks, or more.  I've read at least one bit of analysis that the 99ers are basically hung out to dry because there is no extension beyond 99 weeks.

Just to outline this framework: under the deal, the Bush tax cuts for all rate levels would be extended for two years. The estate tax, in a monstrous deal, will be lowered from 2009 levels, with a $5 million dollar exemption and a 35% rate, for two years as well. And, the deal adds what is now an annual patch to the alternative minimum class so it doesn't hit people in the middle class. In exchange, extended unemployment benefits between 26 and 99 weeks will be continued for 13 months, to the end of December 2011 (costing around $65 billion). ...

Given the rate of job creation, it looks like a significant number of Americans will be in the same boat as the 6 million current 99ers. 

So who exactly did Obama stand 'up for' with this ridiculous cave-in to the Corporate bootlickers known as the GOP? 

As I watched the presser, the one time Obama got really animated (read as pissed off) was when he went after the left.

Did Obama just commit political-suicide with this pact he made with the devil..aka..the GOP? Voters are known for having short memories, but if the unemployment rate is still above 9% come 2012, I see no way for Obama to make this go-away.

Bernie Sanders is standing firm in opposing this pact. Buddha Bless that man. I hope other Congress Critters have a set of balls like Bernie. Bernie is on Dylan Ratigans show now and says he will do whatever it takes to keep this agreement from going up for a vote. 

Oh, and fuck Mitch OConnell and his gloating. The GOP just became domestic terrorists to me.

Todays number 900 Billion.

That will be the cost of the proposed plan the Rethugs and Obama agreed on. How will the assholes in Congress pay for this? Glad you asked..From the NYT link:

The package would cost about $900 billion over the next two years, to be financed entirely by adding to the national debt, at a time when both parties are professing a desire to begin addressing long-term fiscal imbalances. (emphasis mine)

How do the Rethugs explain this horsehit to their voters when they campaigned on reducing the Federal Debt? There is no way, in my pov, to explain this massive addition to our federal debt by the rightwing nutters who have been screaming about burdening their kids and grandkids with the Federal Debt.

The cost of the unemployment extension is the smallest least expensive part of the entire plan...$56 Billion for 13 friggin months, which the Rethugs demanded that it had to be paid for prior to this...cough..agreement...but as long as their millionaires and billionaires get their savings...its just dandy now with the rightwing nutters in Congress.

Obama also gave them other jewels for the top two percent, again from the NYT article:

But Mr. Obama made substantial concessions to Republicans. In addition to dropping his opposition to any extension of the current income tax rates on income above $250,000 for couples and $200,000 for individuals, he agreed to a deal on the federal estate tax that infuriated many Democrats. The deal would ultimately set an exemption of $5 million per person and a maximum rate of 35 percent — a higher exemption and far lower rate than many Democrats wanted.

Isn't this called giving away the fucking store? This shit just blows my mind. I see no upside to this for Obama, other than the folks who's unemployment was scheduled to end this month. Yes, they need the money and it's something all progressives and Democrats in general wanted....but the toll this will take on our deficit, while putting more money (at taxpayers expense) into the pockets of the rich...well, voters like me think this is total crap.

It's gonna be interesting to see how in the blue hell this shit deal will help Obama or any Dems that vote for it come the next election cycle. Right now however, the leader of PDA, Progressive Dems of America has said the following about this agreement:

“Obama may have just ensured that he’ll face a significant challenge to his renomination in 2012 from inside the Democratic Party,” said Norman Solomon, a leader of Progressive Democrats of America. “By giving away the store on such a momentous tax issue, he has now done huge damage to a large portion of the progressive base that helped to make him president.”

Mr. Solomon added, “If he thinks that won’t have major effects on his re-election chances, he’s been swallowed up by a delusional bubble.

Good Luck Barack, your ass is gonna need it..and so will every Democrat in office that votes for this fuckery.

ThinkProgress has an analysis up which states Obama's part of the deal helps more Americans than the Rethugs part of the deal..no shit sherlock, why would we expect anything else from the right?. .

Assange arrested, appearing before magistrate in UK.

Live coverage over at the Guardian site. What they have posted to their site so far:

2.35pm: Assange sought consular assistance from the Australian high commission, according to Channel 4 News.

Sky claims that members of the commission are inside the court with Assange.

2.33pm: WikiLeaks has put out another appeal for funding. "KEEP US STRONG - DONATE", it tweeted.

With what?

The Press Association news agency has more on Visa's decision to cut off payments:

    The card payment operator said an inquiry is under way into how the organisation operates.

    The whistle-blowing website has suffered repeated denial of service attacks, moved server, lost its PayPal service and had a key Swiss bank account closed.

    WikiLeaks relies on online donations from a worldwide network of supporters to fund its work.

    A spokesman said: "Visa Europe has taken action to suspend Visa payment acceptance on WikiLeaks' website pending further investigation into the nature of its business and whether it contravenes Visa operating rules."

2.28pm: Assange said he would fight extradition to Sweden, according to the Associated Press news agency.

2.10pm: The socialite Jemima Khan has appeared in the court with Julian Assange, according to Sky News.

2.08pm: US defence secretary Robert Gates has welcomed the arrest of Assange. Speaking to reporters on a visit to US troops in Afghanistan, Gates smirked on hearing the news.

"I hadn't heard that, but that sounds like good news to me," he said.

2.07pm: More financial problems for WikiLeaks: Visa says it has suspended all payments to WikiLeaks "pending further investigation".

Earlier MasterCard said: "MasterCard is taking action to ensure that WikiLeaks can no longer accept MasterCard-branded products."

2.03pm: Hamid Karzai has been teasing the Americans and David Cameron about WikiLeaks, according to my colleague Polly Curtis, who accompanied Cameron to Kabul.

    Making light of what has clearly been a tricky diplomatic period after the WikiLeaks revelations, Karzai said: "You should wait for the British WikiLeaks."

    Cameron responded: "We were always nice about you," to which Karzai answered: "Most of the time."

1.58pm: Assange is due to appear in court in the next few minutes, according to a tweet from Channel 4 News.

 Pretty shitty deal for all funding sources to be cut-off for Wikileaks. But, it doesn't surprise me.

Marisol Valles Garcia has bigger balls than any man I know!

Oso has a fantastic read up at MadMikes. It makes me proud to be a female and a Hispanic one to boot. And I always say..we hispanic women have bigger balls than our male counterparts, we just carry them inside. ;p Just a taste of it below, because I want you to go read it.

In a nation full of brave people, one stands above the rest.

Marisol Valles Garcia is a busy young woman, married with a baby boy and attending college at the University of Guadalajara campus in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. Oh, one more thing. The 20 year old criminology student recently became Chief of Police in Praxedis G. Guerrero, a municipality thirty miles from Ciudad Juarez. The position had been vacant for over a year following the torture and beheading of the previous Chief.

May Buddha bless this wonderful woman and keep her safe...although the odds of her being safe are pretty slim in that part of Mexico...but she knew that going in. I bow to her greatness for taking the job. Would you mutha fucka? 

If perchance, you are looking for my Sunday Sports Post..its over at my sports blog that I decided to bring back to life again. Politics is great, but I need a break from it occasionally or I will go postal on some redneck here in the San Joaquin valley....and we can't have that as I am too old for prison.

Obama's NAFTA-style Korea deal...what's in it for us?

Obama just finished speechifying on my boobtube, defending his 'trade deal' known as KORUS with South Korea. He is claiming it will save thousands of American jobs and boost our exports by $11 Billion.

Any time someone calls a trade deal a 'win-win' for both countries, my bullshit meter goes off big time.

Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) doesn't feel warm and fuzzy about it either. His statement is up over at FDL today about this cough...great deal for Amerika. From his statement:

“I continue to believe it is a dangerous mistake to pursue the same kind of trade deals that ballooned our deficit and led to massive job loss. We simply cannot keep barking up this tree as American companies fold and American workers face prolonged unemployment. Until we address China’s manipulation and make decisions to reduce our trade deficit, I see no reason to pursue more NAFTA-style free trade agreements.

Anyone that has paid attention since Clinton signed off on the original NAFTA deal has a reason to doubt Obama's 'numbers' on how great this deal is for the U.S. Dave Dayden gives us his take:

So, South Korea would have to wait a bit to flood the US market with cars, but there’s no word on whether they would have to allow in more than a trickle of US-made cars into their market (the numbers from last year: 6,000 US vehicles to South Korea, 500,000 South Korean-made vehicles to the US). And what about beef producers, who also balked at blocked Korean markets?

Keep in mind that this pact has to be approved by the Congress Critters. During the presser Obama just held, he had lots of smiling faces behind him. The UAW also gave their blessing to this trade pact, which is interesting if Jane Hamsher's piece over at HuffPo (its's a must read) is correct:

UAW Gets 800 Jobs for Endorsing Obama's NAFTA-Style Korea Trade Deal, Which Will Cost 159,000 US Jobs.

*snip*

UAW President Bob King decided to endorse trade pact despite strong opposition from his staff.

The UAW then joined with Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan, Vikram Pandit of Citigroup, Tom Donahue of the US Chamber of Commerce and John Engler of the National Association of Manufacturer in congratulating Obama on reaching the deal with South Korea.

Earlier in the day, the White House invited interested parties to a briefing where they announced the NAFTA-style trade pact. They embargoed the story until 7pm, however, so that it could be released in the dark of night.

*snip*

What does the UAW get for selling out American workers? A total of 55,000 additional cars, or about 800 jobs.

The Economic Policy Institute estimates that the Korea Free Trade deal (KORUS) will cost 159,000 American jobs over the next five years.

Sounds like more Corporate fuckery to me, with the help of President Obama...how 'bout you? If the Chamber of Commerce supports this...then my ass is against it...and yes, they are happy as hell about this deal.

Public Citizen's Lori Wallach released a statement on KORUS today:

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and GOP congressional leaders must be gleeful that they are getting the Obama administration to take ownership of another Bush NAFTA-style trade deal that would simultaneously favor their job offshoring agenda and put Obama’s re-election in peril.

Why the administration would consider moving another NAFTA-style trade deal is inexplicable, especially given that export growth under past U.S. free trade agreements was less than half of that to the rest of U.S. trade partners. Bush-era International Trade Commission studies show the Korea deal will increase America’s trade deficit, and Americans across diverse demographics are united in opposition to more-of-the-same trade policy.

Choosing to advance Bush’s NAFTA-style Korea free trade agreement rather than the new trade policy President Obama promised during his campaign will mean more American job loss and puts the White House at odds with the majority of Americans who, polling shows, oppose more-of-the-same job-offshoring agreements.

Merely tweaking the “cars and cows” market access provisions of Bush’s NAFTA-style Korea trade pact but leaving in place the offshoring-promoting foreign investor protections is a slap in the face to the majority of Americans who, according to repeated polls, oppose the same old trade policy that has cost millions of American jobs.

Sounds like more of the same old boss (Bush) bullshit to me..

About those Social Security insolvency lies- Read this first.

 This op-ed was distributed by McClatchy Tribune Information Services on December 1, 2010 and published by the Sacramento Bee (CA) and other newspapers. I am reprinting Mark Weisbrot's OpEd with permission from cepr.net because I believe it to be timely and on-the-mark: Don’t Touch Social Security: Drive for Cuts Based on Deception.

According to a recent CNN poll, 60 percent of Americans under 60 and 70 percent of those under 50 believed that Social Security will not be able to pay them a benefit when they retire.

In reality, the likelihood that any living American’s Social Security benefits will not be paid to them when they retire is about the same as the probability that there will be no U.S. government at that time. Is anybody banking on that?

Of course if you are going to take something away from people, the first step is to convince them that it wasn’t really there in the first place.

What makes the whole deception even more fascinating is that everyone is using the same assumptions about the future and the same numbers.

The common source for everyone writing and talking about Social Security is the annual Social Security Trustees Report. This shows that the program can pay all promised benefits for the next 27 years, without any changes at all. If nothing is done over the next 27 years, only about 75 percent of scheduled benefits would be payable in 2037; but that would still be more than what retirees receive today, after adjusting for inflation.

So, according to the assumptions and facts that everyone who writes or talks about Social Security is using, there is no basis for the belief that the majority of Americans under 60 hold. Since this deception is not about Afghanistan or some country on the other side of the world, but about a program that nearly a quarter of American adults receive a check from each month, it is all the more amazing. The enemies of Social Security have pulled off one of the greatest public relations scams in U.S. history.

What makes this subterfuge unique is that it is all based on verbal and accounting trickery. For example, it is common to combine Social Security and Medicare spending and say that their costs will become unsustainable. The trick here is that it is Medicare, not Social Security that leads to the explosion in public spending. And perhaps more importantly: it is not the aging population or Medicare itself that is the problem, but the United States’ private sector health care costs. If these were in line with any other high-income country such as Germany or Canada, our long-term budget deficit would turn into a surplus.

Not that Social Security has contributed anything to the budget deficit – the program is still running a surplus. The granny-bashers try to weasel their away around this too by pretending that the Social Security Trust Fund, currently at more than $2.5 trillion, doesn’t exist. But the Treasury obligations held by the Trust Fund are as real as the U.S. government bonds held by any private mutual or pension fund, or the ten-dollar bill in your wallet.

Of course all this deception would not be possible if the media did its job and reported the basic facts. As when someone says President Obama is a Muslim, they note that he is a Christian. Of course some people will still believe whatever, but we wouldn’t have a majority lost in the fog on this issue.

This huge scam is the most obvious reason to reject any benefit cuts to Social Security, which includes raising the retirement age. This is a very regressive cut that hurts lower-income workers the most, since many have jobs that are too physically demanding to work longer; and since their life expectancy has not increased along with that of higher-income employees.

We need at least a decade just to inform the public of the basic facts, before we can decide how to make the relatively small adjustments that Social Security may need to maintain long-term solvency.

Do not buy into the negative and outright bs about Social Security's insolvency. Mr. Weisbrot knows what he is talking about. 

Ron Paul supports Assange and Wikileaks - Be still my heart!

I shouldn't be surprised as Paul voted with the Dim's to extend the tax cuts for the lower and middle class.. From Politico:

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) is taking a stand as one of Julian Assange’s few defenders in Washington, arguing the Wikileaks founder should get the same protections as the media.

Read his entire logical, to me anyway, thoughts here. And he said it on Faux Business Channel of all places.

Deficit panel plan defeated...and this is a surprise?

I just want to know who the 7 assholes were that voted for it. The title of the damn plan was enough to make me gag: Moment of Truth. From The Hill:

In an 11-7 vote, President Obama's fiscal commission on Friday failed to adopt a sweeping plan for reining in the federal budget deficit.

The panel had been working since February on a plan that would cut nearly $4 trillion in deficit spending over the next nine years and reduce the federal debt to 40 percent of gross domestic product by 2035.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) had agreed to bring the deficit recommendations up for a floor vote in Congress, but only if the proposal had the support of 14 members. The commission came up three votes short.

Voting in favor of the plan were the commission’s co-chairmen Sen. Alan Simpson, former Republican senator from Wyoming, and Erskine Bowles, who served as chief of staff to President Clinton.

Among the Senate members of the panel, Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) voted “yes,” while Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) voted “no.”

From the House, Reps. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), David Camp (R-Mich.), Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) all voted against the plan. Rep. John Spratt (D-S.C.), the chairman of the House Budget Committee who lost his reelection bid in November, was the only House vote in favor.

Of the non-congressional members, David Cote, the CEO of Honeywell International, Ann Fudge, the former CEO of Young & Rubicam Brands and Alice Rivlin, the former director of the Office of Management & Budget, voted “yes.” Former Service Employees International Union president Andy Stern voted “no.”

Ah yes, the thugs that voted for the heavily flawed plan were either Blue Dogs like Conrad, Corporation heads and of course the hardcore/neocon R's on the panel. Hopefully this ends that worthless panel of backwards thinkers who were willing to fuck American's at every turn without even looking hard and long at the bloated Defense Budget...or gawd forbid...raising taxes! I like this explanation of what went wrong:

Why? Because three decades of neoliberal market ideology have persuaded Republicans and Democrats alike that government is our enemy and that the public purposes it pursues are illegitimate; and that, Q.E.D, collecting taxes to pay for such purposes is a form of theft. Americans don't just oppose high taxes (high taxes were when the rich paid 85 percent or more back in the Eisenhower era), they oppose taxation per se. In principle. Which principle? The principle that government is illegitimate, politicians are outlaws so taxes are (literally) highway robbery.

We thus frame the "hard choices" as choices between which expenditures to cut rather than between which taxes to raise. But the really hard choice is surely about whether or not we want to pay for the society we want to live in.

If you want a lifestyle that includes taking care of Veterans, the elderly, educate the masses and care for the disabled, it's going to cost money. If you want a country where the infrastructure isn't falling down around us, it costs money. And if you want to fund two friggin endless wars...yes, it costs money.


DeficitPanelReport_120110

Federal Judge dismisses one of many healthcare reform lawsuits.

Once again...It's all about the anti-choice fuckery. From Jurist:

A judge for the US District Court for the Western District of Virginia [official website] on Tuesday dismissed [opinion, PDF] a lawsuit challenging a provision of the health care reform law [HR 3590 text; JURIST news archive] requiring all individuals to maintain health insurance. The lawsuit, filed by Liberty University, alleged that Congress had exceeded its constitutional powers by mandating that employers provide health insurance or face financial penalties, requiring individuals to purchase health insurance, and that the law violates the university's religious beliefs because the penalties could be used to fund abortions [JURIST news archive]. Judge Norman Moon, citing a similar ruling [JURIST report] in a Michigan federal court, found that the mandate provisions were constitutional under the Commerce Clause [Cornell LII backgrounder]. Concerning the second issue, Moon ruled that the plaintiffs had not raised a plausible claim that the law is a burden to religious practices.

[Plaintiffs] fail to allege how any payments required under the Act, whether fines, fees, taxes, or the cost of the policy, would be used to fund abortion. Indeed, the Act contains strict safeguards at multiple levels to prevent federal funds from being used to pay for abortion services beyond those in cases of rape or incest, or where the life of the woman would be endangered. Furthermore, at least one plan that does not cover non-excepted abortion services will be offered for enrollment through each of the state health benefit exchanges, as required by the Act. Moreover, the Act specifically allows plans in the exchanges to decline to cover all abortion services whatsoever, including excepted abortion services.

Liberty University will appeal the decision immediately to the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit [official website].

The health care reform law is the subject of numerous legal challenges across the country. In October, a federal judge in Florida denied a motion to dismiss [JURIST report] a lawsuit alleging violations of Article I and the Tenth Amendment of the US Constitution [text], committed by levying a tax without regard to census data, property or profession, and for invading the sovereignty of the states. In August, a federal judge allowed a similar lawsuit filed in Virginia to proceed on narrow grounds [opinion, PDF; JURIST report], addressing only subject matter jurisdiction [Cornell LII backgrounder] and the legal sufficiency of the complaint. 

Liberty University is that....cough..college founded by the rightwing extremist/bible thumper and anti-choice asshole Jerry Falwell. The law school section, which opened in August of 2004, didn't receive full ABA (American Bar Assoc) accreditation until August 5th 2010. They also teach creationism...I know, what a surprise there.

Kamala Harris finally announces her victory!

She won Cali's AG job by less than one percent of the vote and just today announced victory only after the final vote was counted. She is the first woman, first African-American and first Indian to be elected Attorney General of my once great state of birth...Cali-for-nay-aaaa!

She will hopefully have more balls and more of a protectionist viewpoint than her predecessor, Jerry Governor Moonbeam Brown. She believes in protecting our right to medicinal cannabis, protecting our environment, reducing the recidivism rate and whilst I am on the subject of our prison system, she wants to fix the horrific system that is so fucked up here, the Feds have stepped in.

Good luck woman, yo ass is sure gonna need it. This is one fucked up state.