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'Flag-saving' wingnut violated Flag Code during nude photo shoots

A Georgia wingnut who stopped protesters from “desecrating” the American flag last week apparently doesn’t mind mistreating the flag herself.

Oopsie

Obama White House Strongly Condemns The Murder Of Ethiopian Christians By ISIL Terrorists

The White House is strongly condemning the murder of 28 Ethiopian christians by terrorists affiliated with the Islamic State.

In a statement, National Security Council Spokesperson Bernadette Meehan said:

The United States condemns in the strongest terms the brutal mass murder purportedly of Ethiopian christians by ISIL-affiliated terrorists in Libya. We express our condolences to the families of the victims and our support to the Ethiopian government and people as they grieve for their fellow citizens. That these terrorists killed these men solely because of their faith lays bare the terrorists’ vicious, senseless brutality. This atrocity once again underscores the urgent need for a political resolution to the conflict in Libya to empower a unified Libyan rejection of terrorist groups.

Even as terrorists attempt through their unconscionable acts to sow discord among religious communities, we recall that people of various faiths have coexisted as neighbors for centuries in the Middle East and Africa. With the force of this shared history behind them, people across all faiths will remain united in the face of the terrorists’ barbarity. The United States stands with them. While these dehumanizing acts of terror aim to test the world’s resolve – as groups throughout history have – none have the power to vanquish the powerful core of moral decency which binds humanity and which will ultimately prove the terrorists’ undoing.

The ISIL terrorists shot 16 Ethiopian christians and beheaded 12 others. islamic extremists targeted Ethiopia, because of their military’s attacks on Muslim dominated neighboring Somalia.

The White House is correct. The only thing that ISIL is accomplishing is uniting persons of all faiths in all countries on the agreed upon goal of the elimination of the terrorists. Humanity is united against the barbaric terrorist acts of ISIL.

Obama Is About To Sign The Biggest Health Care Bill Since Obamacare

 President Barack Obama is poised to sign into law the most far-reaching health care reform bill since Obamacare, permanently ending the "doc fix" dilemma that has haunted Congress for more than a decade.It also slashes Medicare benefits for upper-income seniors.
And in the strangest of twists, the legislation passed with overwhelmingly bipartisan support, an exceedingly rare achievement for a Congress that has all but ceased to address big, long-term problems.
The legislation passed the Senate on Tuesday night by a vote of 92-8. It was approved 392-37 by the House last month before Easter recess. Obama had endorsed the proposal as Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) were closing in on a deal.
"It's another reminder of a new Republican Congress that's back to work," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
On the urging of Boehner and McConnell, the Senate rejected six amendments to the legislation offered by both parties and approved it as written. Boehner is expected to send Obama the legislation after a House signing ceremony on Thursday.
"Through this bold, necessary legislation, we have secured critical support for low-income seniors, for poor children, and for underserved communities across the country," said Pelosi.
The legislation has three broad components.
First, it fixes a gaping hole in the Medicare program by replacing the formula to pay physicians - known as the Sustainable Growth Rate - which imposes steep annual cuts that Congress has routinely overridden for 12 years. Instead doctors will receive a 0.5 percent pay bump for each of the next five years before transitioning to a new system aimed at paying them for quality of care.
Second, it cuts billions of dollars from Medicare. It requires seniors who earn between $133,500 and $214,000 a year (and couples making twice that amount) to pay more for insurance and prescription drug coverage, and cuts spending on supplemental Medigap plans in order to discourage over-utilization of services on the taxpayer dime. It also modestly reduces long-term spending on providers of hospice care, home health services and nursing homes.
Third, it extends the Children's Health Care Program for two years, moving the new expiration date to October 1, 2017. (Democrats had pushed for a four-year extension but House Republicans rejected that idea and Senate Republicans killed an amendment to that effect.)
Physician groups, including the American Medical Association, rejoiced..
The long-term Medicare changes are an important legacy achievement for Boehner, whose restive right flank has for years thwarted his efforts to secure entitlement deals with Democrats. This time many House conservatives, fed up with perennial "doc fixes," gave him their blessing to cut the deal with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and stood by him.
In the end, most of the opponents were hardline Republican fiscal hawks who complained that the permanent "doc fix" wasn't fully paid for, including Sens. Ted Cruz (TX) and Marco Rubio (FL). It is projected by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office to add $141 billion to the deficit in the next decade.
Notably, numerous GOP fiscal hawks who have a background as physicians put aside their deficit concerns to vote for the measure, including Sen. Rand Paul (KY), Sen. John Barrasso (WY), Rep. Tom Price (GA), Rep. John Fleming (LA) and Michael Burgess (TX). The Medicare benefit cuts were a draw for some conservatives.

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For Corporate Profits Republicans Want President Obama To Skirt Congress’ Authority

The word duplicitous may be unknown or novel among Republicans, but it should not; particularly because it describes their speech and actions as a matter of course. The word means contradictory doubleness of speech or actions, often belying one’s true intentions by deceptive words, counsel, or action.  The term came up this week when Republicans in the Senate, offended that the President singled them out by name, expressed disappointment that their typical obstructionism, traitorous backstabbing, and contrary demands drew sharp and fairly blunt criticism from the President the likes they have not heard in six years. For many Americans, particularly those supportive of the President, his blunt talk was long overdue and likely why Republicans were taken aback that the President had the temerity to attack Senate Republicans; by name no less.

It was actually White House spokesman Josh Earnest who used the term ‘duplicitous’ after the President lashed out at the over five month delay in getting a Senate confirmation vote on his nominee for Attorney General Loretta Lynch. More on that later. The President did not mince words in telling Senate Republicans there was no excuse for not confirming Lynch whom he nominated back in 2014 and said “This is embarrassing, a process like this.” The only thing the President failed to say is that Republicans have been an embarrassment for the past six years, but apparently he was couching his bluntness with a little diplomacy; a less restrained President would not have held back.

The President also singled out Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for “trying to tell the world, oh, don’t have confidence in the U.S. government’s abilities to fulfill any climate change pledge that we might make.” Again, the President held back from really raking McConnell over the proverbial coals, and he failed to berate turtle-boy mercilessly for telling governors not to implement new carbon emission rules. Rules that McConnell claimed, like the climate change agreement, were illegal and that Republicans were working to put an abrupt end to them. Seriously, the President should have slammed McConnell for issuing a directive to governors to violate federal law while he was on a roll, but he was likely making another attempt at being diplomatic with McConnell; something it is time to bring to an end.

The President criticized John McCain for bitching and moaning about something in the nuclear negotiations with Iran that might prohibit expediting the war he has panted over for the past decades. But that is just typical John McCain who condemns something he has never seen if he even thinks it might prevent another war. The President could have let the old warmonger’s typical remarks go instead of giving him any exposure; most Americans acknowledge that McCain hates peace and like his running mate Palin, it is best to ignore them both.  However, with the aid of some Democrats loyal to Israeli Netanyahu, McCain helped successfully pressure the President to relent and give Congress say over the P5+1 negotiations, so the criticism targeting McCain was likely face-saving, but not duplicitous.

Now, when White House spokesman Josh Earnest used the term ‘duplicitous,’ he was referring to the never-ending wait for Senate Republicans to hold a confirmation vote for Loretta Lynch as Attorney General. Specifically, Earnest condemned Senator Chuck Grassley by noting that Grassley counseled President Obama back in October not to dare attempt to push through Ms. Lynch’s confirmation during the lame duck Senate in November and December, but now says the delay is the fault of Democrats who should have acted when they had a Senate majority. It is that kind of bovine excrement that Earnest called “duplicitous.” When he was asked if using such a terribly harsh word like ‘duplicitous’ to describe Republicans was a very smart move or would accomplish anything positive, Earnest replied, “Being nice has gotten us a 160-day delay. So maybe after they look up ‘duplicitous’ in the dictionary we’ll get a different result.”

However, the real duplicity came from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell after the President criticized him for both holding up the Lynch confirmation vote and telling foreign nations America has no intention of meeting its commitment to reduce its carbon emissions that are driving global climate change. McConnell said that “Rather than spending so much time criticizing people like Chuck Grassley and myself, he ought to be out there lining up the Democratic votes for trade promotion authority. This is a time for presidential leadership.”

Republicans loyal to multinational corporations that are moving American jobs, and tax free profits, offshore maintain that President Obama should be working on their legislative effort to give the President executive authority to negotiate trade deals without having to bother going through, or face delays, in the United States Congress. Many Democrats are rightly in opposition to such a bad deal fearing it will cost even more American jobs and lower environmental standards. President Obama says he can protect jobs and the environment, but he is only President for another year-and-a-half and if Republicans have demonstrated anything over the past six years, repealing things that do not profit corporations is their raison d’être.

What is duplicitous and very telling about how Republicans operate, and where their only loyalties and priorities lie, is that they are pushing the President to seek unilateral authority to negotiate and sign an international trade deal; something that requires congressional approval. And yet they have done everything in their power and all but forbid him from exercising his rightful executive authority where Congress has no say according to the Constitution; like on immigration enforcement and negotiating with foreign governments. In fact, on every occasion President Obama has exercised executive authority, Republicans have taken extreme measures to thwart his executive authority including threatening a lawsuit, passing approval for an international border-crossing construction project, and demanding a final say over a United Nation’s nuclear agreement with Iran. However, they are rabid to grant unconstitutional presidential authority to negotiate an international trade agreement without Congress’ “interference” because it benefits Republicans’ biggest donors.

McConnell and Republicans push and demand that the President lobby Democrats for authority to skirt Congress for a corporate-friendly trade deal is without doubt contradictory doubleness of speech and actions. It is also without a doubt something the President needs to harshly condemn with the same bluntness he has displayed recently and he needs to do it in very public forums at every opportunity; and he needs to inform Americans why Republicans want Congress out of the way. If nothing else, it will inform the American people that Republicans cannot support the Constitution when it comes to Executive authority on any level and just how far they are willing to go to enrich corporations, kill more Americans’ jobs, continue to endanger the environment, and keep corporate income tax free. However, informing Americans of any of those aspects of a bad trade deal is something one of its biggest proponents is hardly going to do because that would be duplicitous.

Bernie Sanders 'Making Sure You Have The Money'

"Making sure you have the money to run a credible campaign is very important," he said on "Fox News Sunday."

'Making Sure You Have The Money'

Obama Is Set To Troll Rick Scott By Giving Climate Change Speech In Florida

Let’s see Rick Scott try and stop the president from saying climate change.

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Martin O’Malley Comes Out Swinging Against GOP, Calls Their Economic Theories ‘Bullshit’

O’Malley came out swinging at the Republican economic policies of trickle-down theory and fewer regulations.

Read more 

Latest Poll Shows Hillary Clinton Crushing The Republican Field By Double Digits

A CNN/ORC poll released on Monday finds Hillary Clinton is still dominating the Republican field in the 2016 presidential race. Clinton leads each hypothetical GOP candidate by a margin of at least 14 percentage points. The telephone poll was conducted between April 16-19, 2015, generating responses from a representative sample of 1,018 adult Americans.

The survey found that Clinton holds a commanding lead over each potential Republican opponent.  The closest match-up is against Florida Senator Marco Rubio. In that race, Clinton leads 55-41 percent. She has a 56-39 advantage over Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. She leads both Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie by a 58-39 margin. Scott Walker, Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz and Ben Carson are in even more miserable shape, as each of them trail Hillary Clinton by over 20 percentage points.

The Republican field appears wide open, with no candidate garnering better than 20 percent support. Bush leads the GOP race with 17 percent, followed by Scott Walker at 12 percent, and Rand Paul and Marco Rubio, both at 11 percent. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton is dominating the field with 69 percent support. Her nearest Democratic challenger, Vice President Joe Biden, is favored by just 11 percent of potential Democratic primary voters.

Although Hillary Clinton has received a fair amount of negative press coverage in the past couple of months, her candidacy seems to be weathering the storm quite well. Republicans hoping that they have carved into her lopsided lead may find Monday’s poll numbers disheartening. For all their efforts, the GOP doesn’t seem to be gaining any traction in slowing down the Clinton campaign juggernaut.

The Republicans have been chomping at the bit for a chance to win back the White House. However, this new poll suggests that while American voters are ready for Hillary, the Republican candidates certainly are not. Every one of the GOP candidates is getting steamrolled by Clinton in the polls.

The general election is still almost a year and a half away, so the polls may tighten between now and then. But as of April 2015, there isn’t a single Republican candidate who polls competitively against Hillary Clinton. If that dynamic doesn’t change, Hillary Clinton will become America’s first woman president. Not only that, but she would accomplish the feat in convincing fashion, vanquishing her GOP opponent in a historic landslide.

Watch The Hilarious Spoof Which Has Hillary-Haters Hyperventilating With Rage

If American voters were wondering if wingnuts could hit a lower point than Benghazi, they just got their answer.

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Rand Paul Hits A New Low By Begging People On The Internet For Dirt On Hillary Clinton

Rand Paul has been promising a mystery Hillary Clinton scandal that he can’t deliver, so the Kentucky senator is begging his supporters on the Internet to send him their dirt on Clinton.

Politico reported:

Rand Paul is soliciting information regarding the Clinton Foundation’s acceptance of contributions from foreign governments in his latest move to cast doubt on the former secretary of state’s candidacy.

“Do you have additional information about the Clinton Foundation accepting foreign contributions?” a page on Paul’s campaign website reads. Users can then enter their first and last names, along with their ZIP code, email address and the information they have. The form shared by Paul on Sunday via Twitter did not appear to include a secure HTTPS protocol.

In his speeches, he has promised some mystery scandal that will destroy Hillary Clinton’s campaign. When pressed for details, Paul said nothing. The begging for dirt on Hillary Clinton on his campaign website suggested that he is open to any crazy unsubstantiated wingnut conspiracy theory.

It is impossible to take a presidential candidate seriously who promises a big scandal but has to ask his supporters to dig something up.

Sen. Paul is not hanging all of his hopes on a soon to be released book by a former Bush speechwriting consultant and wingnut media hack that turns the Clinton Foundation into the new Republican boogeyman that will sink her campaign.

Paul’s quest for dirt on Clinton is not only a sign of the Democratic frontrunner’s strength, but also his own desperation. For a brief time last year, it looked like Rand Paul could be a top-tier Republican presidential candidate, but Paul has been quickly pushed to the second tier behind Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, and Marco Rubio. Paul is competing with Sen. Ted Cruz and possibly Mike Huckabee to be the candidate that joins the top of the Republican field.

Just like Paul’s attempt to find dirt on Clinton, the Republican attempt to turn the Clinton Foundation into the new Whitewater won’t work. The Republican bag of tricks is quickly emptying, as candidates like Rand Paul are flailing about while trying to stop Hillary Clinton.

Rand Paul: The Nastiest Candidate Of Them All

Paul's comments about Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire are just a taste of things to come.

The Nastiest Of Them All

The Truth Be Told

'Serious' GOP Contenders About as Serious as Sarah Palin

From the "Public Enemies" Department:

'Serious' GOP Contenders About as Serious as Sarah Palin

Chris Christie Goes the Full Donald Trump

From the "Public Enemies" Department: 

Chris Christie Goes the Full Donald Trump

No, Ted Cruz, the 2nd Amendment doesn’t protect your right to rebellion

Ted Cruz is apparently running for President of National Riflestan instead of the United States.

Ted Cruz is an idiot

Wisconsin Republican Wants To Make Poor People Shop In Separate But Probably Not Equal Grocery Stores

Republicans are always looking for legal ways to discriminate.
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Wingnut Councilwoman Caught On Video Slapping 6-Year-Old Autistic Child’s Face

A wingnut Washington city councilwoman showed her devotion to “christian family values” by slapping an autistic child.

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Study quantifies how much welfare spending goes to subsidizing low wages

What could America do with an extra $153 billion dollars?

Subsidizing low wages

Walmart Closing Five Stores For 'Plumbing Problems'

And if you believe that, I have some swampland in New Jersey I'd like to sell you. 

'Plumbing Problems' - Yeah, Right