Report exposes fact that Tea Party groups are really a astro-turf organizations that were originally funded by tobacco companies. In other words they serve as camouflage for big business interests and have NOTHING to do with individual freedoms.

Courtesy of  an exhaustive research paper published earlier this year:

Background 

The Tea Party, which gained prominence in the USA in 2009, advocates limited government and low taxes. Tea Party organisations, particularly Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks, oppose smoke-free laws and tobacco taxes. 

Methods 

We used the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library, the Wayback Machine, Google, LexisNexis, the Center for Media and Democracy and the Center for Responsive Politics (opensecrets.org) to examine the tobacco companies’ connections to the Tea Party. Results Starting in the 1980s, tobacco companies worked to create the appearance of broad opposition to tobacco control policies by attempting to create a grassroots smokers’ rights movement. Simultaneously, they funded and worked through third-party groups, such as Citizens for a Sound Economy, the predecessor of AFP and FreedomWorks, to accomplish their economic and political agenda. There has been continuity of some key players, strategies and messages from these groups to Tea Party organisations. As of 2012, the Tea Party was beginning to spread internationally. 

Conclusions 

Rather than being a purely grassroots movement that spontaneously developed in 2009, the Tea Party has developed over time, in part through decades of work by the tobacco industry and other corporate interests. It is important for tobacco control advocates in the USA and internationally, to anticipate and counter Tea Party opposition to tobacco control policies and ensure that policymakers, the media and the public understand the longstanding connection between the tobacco industry, the Tea Party and its associated organisations. 

In other words the Koch brothers, and other bug businesses, used the model already put into place by big tobacco companies when they were trying to manufacture fake grassroots resistance against laws restricting smoking in public places or the introduction of cigarette taxes that they knew would impact their ability to make money.

All they had to do was give it a shiny new name, access the same easily manipulated group of dipshits, and the next thing you know they had a new political "grassroots" movement willing to jump through whatever hoops you held up for them, sop long as they kept inspiring their anger with words like "freedom," "traditional values," and "communism."

And THIS is the group now keeping the Republicans on a short leash and fro all intents and purposes holding out country hostage

President interrupted three times during speech on drones.

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

Courtesy of MSNBC:  

President Barack Obama was repeatedly interrupted by a heckler whose taunts slowed the delivery of a major national security speech in the Washington, D.C. area. 

The unidentified heckler began shouting at the president toward the tail end of his highly-anticipated address, when he touched upon U.S. policy toward detainees suspected of terrorist acts.  

Obama was forced to pause three separate times and talk over the protester, interrupting the flow of the closing section of the speech at National Defense University. 

“I'm about to address it ma'am, but you've got to let me speak,” Obama scolded the woman. “Why don't you sit down and let me tell you exactly what I'd do." 

The antiwar group Code Pink, which often interrupts high-profile political events with vocal protests against U.S. foreign policy and national security strategy, said its founder Medea Benjamin was the person responsible for the interruption. 

Though the president appeared somewhat irritated by the interruption, he said he was willing to cut the woman “some slack, because it’s worth being passionate about.” 

He added after another interruption: “The voice of that woman is worth paying attention to. Obviously I do not agree with much of what she said. And obviously she wasn’t listening to me and much of what I said. But these are tough issues, and the suggestion that we can gloss over them is wrong.”

I think he handled that pretty well. And he is right, this is something many of us feel very passionately about and he, and his administration, need to recognize that.

Here is the transcript of the entire speech in case, like me, you missed it earlier.

Apparently Congressman Darrell Issa works for Rush Limbaugh.

"What am I supposed to do here Rush?"

Courtesy of Politico:  

Rush Limbaugh on Wednesday charged that House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa went soft on IRS official Lois Lerner. 

“Issa basically let her get away with it,” the conservative talk show host said, according to a transcript. “She’s gone. He looked clueless, like didn’t know what was going on, didn’t know how to deal with this.” 

Limbaugh’s comments came after the House Oversight Committee held hearings concerning reports that the IRS had targeted conservative groups with extra scrutiny. Lerner, the director of the IRS division in question, tapped her Fifth Amendment rights to not incriminate herself at the hearing, declining to answer further questions after asserting that she had done nothing wrong in an opening statement. Later on Wednesday, Issa said Lerner will be called before the committee again, telling POLITICO that the Fifth Amendment doesn’t hold after she gave a statement. 

“When I asked her her questions from the very beginning, I did so so she could assert her rights prior to any statement,” Issa (R-Calif.) said. “She chose not to do so — so she waived.”

NO, she DIDN'T waive anything! As Lawrence O'Donnell had pointed out on his show last night her initial statements do not negate her ability to plead the fifth.

And what is more the Congress, which is bulging at the seams with politicians who have law degrees, undoubtedly KNOW THAT!

So WHY is Issa threatening to bring Lerner back?

Because the average conservative is too stupid to understand the law, and they get their information from this asshole:

After IRS official Lois Lerner pleaded the Fifth Amendment during Wednesday afternoon’s House committee hearings on the agency’s intentional targeting of conservative groups, Rush Limbaugh took to bashing the woman as someone “filled with rage” who he can easily envision as a sadomasochist. 

“I can see her with whips and chains. This is not a happy woman. This is a woman that is running around filled with rage. And they all are, folks. They’re angry all the time. They’re never satisfied. And no matter what they get, it’s never enough, they always want more. They exist in a permanent state of being enraged.”

I am assuming that this "they" who Limbaugh keeps referring to are either liberals or women, or perhaps a combination of the two. Either way it indicates an incredible amount of prejudice and lack of intelligence. And yet THIS is the go to guy when Republicans politicians need advice on what to do.

So Issa, terrified of upsetting millions of paint chip eaters, is going to call  Lois Lerner back in front of the committee.

Gee I wonder how she will respond?

Can you say "Waste of government time and resources?" I knew that you could.

Forbes Magazine lists the 100 most powerful women. No quitters allowed.

Courtesy of Forbes: 

Our annual snapshot of the 100 women with the most impact are top politicians and CEOs, activist billionaires and celebrities who matter. In roughly equal measure you’ll find next gen entrepreneurs and media mavens, technologists and leaders in philanthropy — all ranked by dollars, media momentum and impact. 

We’ve selected women that go beyond the traditional taxonomy of the power elite (political and economic might). These change-agents are actually shifting our very idea of clout and authority and, in the process, transforming the world in fresh and exhilarating ways.

On this list are politicians, entrepreneurs, business women, entertainers, and activists. Easily a list of the most impressive women on the planet.

Here are the first five:

  German Chancellor, Angela Merkel

President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff.

Melinda Gates,  Co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Michelle Obama, well she needs no introduction.

Hillary Clinton, and neither does she.

The entire list can be found here.

Many prominent Democrats and Obama administration members are on this list such as Janet Napolitano, Nancy Pelosi, and Kathleen Sebelius, While the number of prominent conservatives is not so well represented. (Though Greta Van Sustern DOES show up as number 97.)

And as you may have gleaned from my title there is NO mention of a certain disgraced former politician and Fox News contributor, even though she once held a fairly prominent spot on that very same list.

Nice to see that the most powerful and influential women on this planet are far more visionary, and progressive than some of those listed in times past.

Is is also nice to see that Hillary and Michelle are listed in the top five, since I think that indicates good things for America moving forward.

Hardball: Lois Lerner pleaded the 5th during the House IRS probe because she had no other choice.

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

Marcus Owens, who held Lerner's job from 1990 to 2001. reports that since she had been accused of lying by members of Congress and there is talk of a criminal investigation that she had no choice but to refuse to answer the questions before Congress.

This was the best explanation that I saw yesterday for her choice.

Personally I just liked it because is damn near made the Republicans on the committee's heads explode.

Evidence discovered which just might prove the existence of multiple universes. "All that I know, is that I know nothing."

Courtesy of the Mail Online: 

Laura Mersini-Houghton, theoretical physicist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Richard Holman, professor at Carnegie Mellon University, predicted that anomalies in radiation existed and were caused by the pull from other universes in 2005. 

Now that she has studied the Planck data, Dr Mersini-Houghton believes her hypothesis has been proven. 

Her findings imply there could be an infinite number of universes outside of our own. 

She said: 'These anomalies were caused by other universes pulling on our universe as it formed during the Big Bang. 

'They are the first hard evidence for the existence of other universes that we have seen.' 

Although some scientists remain sceptical about the theory of other universes, these findings may be a step towards changing views on physics. 

The European Space Agency, which runs the £515million Planck telescope, said: 'Because precision of Planck’s map is so high, it made it possible to reveal some peculiar unexplained features that may well require new physics to be understood.' 

Cambridge professor of theoretical physics Malcolm Perry told the Sunday Times that the findings could be real evidence of the existence of other universes. 

While George Efstathiou, professor of astrophysics at the university, told the newspaper: 'Such ideas may sound wacky now, just like the Big Bang theory did three generations ago. But then we got evidence and now it has changed the whole way we think about the universe.' 

Multiple universes. Just imagine how amazing it would be to learn that we are all just a vibration away from entire universes lurking just outside our ability to perceive, and waiting to destroy our concept of reality and our place in the cosmos.

I cannot help but wonder if after such a discovery were to be universally accepted it would signal the final death throes of religion, or if the need to cling to a faith would force a chameleon like metamorphosis that would allow religion to survive and adapt to the new information?

It would seem impossible for the Abrahamic religions to evolve past the outrageously egotistical idea that the planet, the stars, and the sun itself had been created by a God for the human creatures crawling across this tiny orb to encompass the idea of multiple universes. But then again I walked away at seven years of age, so what do I know?

For myself all I can say is that I hope that we learn more about this as soon as possible, because I would hate leave this life with so little understanding of the reality in which I once existed.

Openly atheist lawmaker asked to deliver the opening prayer for the Arizona House of Representatives. Does something awesome instead.

Courtesy of the Phoenix Times:

 An atheist state lawmaker tasked with delivering the opening prayer for this afternoon's session of the House of Representatives asked that people not bow their heads. 

Democratic Representative Juan Mendez, of Tempe, instead spoke about his "secular humanist tradition" and even quoted author Carl Sagan. 

"Most prayers in this room begin with a request to bow your heads," Mendez said. "I would like to ask that you not bow your heads. I would like to ask that you take a moment to look around the room at all of the men and women here, in this moment, sharing together this extraordinary experience of being alive and of dedicating ourselves to working toward improving the lives of the people in our state." 

As you can imagine -- especially now, with Arizona's legislature being controlled by religion-heavy Republicans -- this is probably the first time that an invocation at the legislature took that direction. 

"This is a room in which there are many challenging debates, many moments of tension, of ideological division, of frustration," Mendez said. "But this is also a room where, as my secular humanist tradition stresses, by the very fact of being human, we have much more in common than we have differences. We share the same spectrum of potential for care, for compassion, for fear, for joy, for love. Mendez continued, "Carl Sagan once wrote, 'For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love.'"

You know ANYONE who quotes Carl Sagan in lieu of a prayer is my kind of guy.

We started the day with that courageous young lady schooling Wolf Blitzer about assuming a person's religious faith, and now we have this guy!  I have to say I have rarely been more proud to be an Atheist. 

Clearly we are becoming far more comfortable with ourselves in this country, and with more and more young people eschewing the trappings of religion, I think our time is finally here.

Hell you know you have arrived when even the Pope is willing to accept that you are good people.

Personally I see a day when we follow the lead of the gay community and start openly identifying ourselves as nonreligious and demonstrating to the close minded that we are just as ethical, and moral as anybody who identities themselves as religious. In fact, to be honest, we are even more so since we are not bullied into morality through threats of eternal damnation but rather choose our morality through careful examination of the world around us and decide to be good people with our eyes and our minds wide open.

Anthony Weiner apparently has not heard enough jokes about his wiener. Now officially running for mayor of New York City.

Courtesy of NBC Politics: 

“I made some big mistakes and I know I let a lot of people down. But I've also learned some tough lessons,” the Democrat said in a video posted on his website late on Tuesday. 

"I'm running for mayor because I've been fighting for the middle class and those struggling to make it my entire life," he added. “I hope I get a second chance to work for you." 

The video, which features his son and wife Huma Abedin, an aide to former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, focused on his middle-class roots in Brooklyn. 

With this bold attempt at a comeback ahead of the primary in September, Weiner is hoping to erase the image of a tweeted crotch shot that precipitated his resignation.

Yeah that's NOT going to happen. In fact I think we can all count on seeing pictures of his Johnson showing up all over the place for the next several months. 

For that reason alone I wish he wouldn't do this.

And his poor wife! This cannot be what SHE really wants, can it?

Especially considering the fact that when Hillary runs in 2016 she will most likely be associated with her campaign in some way. The last thing she needs is to be weighed down with her husband's baggage on the campaign trial.

Look I was as big fan as anybody of Anthony Weiner, but this just feels like train wreck just waiting to happen. If I'm wrong I will perform a mea culpa right here on this blog, but I just don't think I'm wrong here.

In the wake of the IRS "scandal" the Tea party is reborn. Just don't try to show their faces.

Courtesy of Slate:  

At noon today, at the urging of the local Washington, D.C. Tea Party, nearly 100 activists gathered on the Pennsylvania Avenue side of the IRS building. Down the road to their left was Capitol Hill; up the road to their right was the White House. The media-to-protester ratio clocked in at a robust one-to-five—the industry standard. 

The paranoia quotient was unusually high. People who had shown up outside the IRS, bureaucrats occasionally glancing down at them, were shy about revealing their identifies. A half-dozen activists, happy enough to talk, would only give me their first names. Another man walked the perimeter wearing a paper bag with holes cut out for visibility: His “mask of intimidation and fear.” And another activist, a man wearing a T-shirt with the visage of the late Andrew Breitbart, briefly argued with a cameraman—“film my shirt, not my face”—before wrapping his head in a green scarf. 

That didn’t matter, because the Tea Party was back. The IRS scandal that broke on May 10 has cultivated new, justified paranoia about the federal government. It’s been showing up in the polls. The new Washington Post/ABC News poll found that 40 percent of voters “support the Tea Party movement,” up from 32 percent last year. Independents supported the Tea Party by an 8-point margin; they used to oppose those guys, 44–34.

Well you know what THIS means don't you?

It means that for a short while the Teabaggers will get some renewed interest from the press, their will be more talk of running Sarah Palin for President in 2016. and we will get another chance to laugh at idiots dressed like this:

Well so much for the Republicans changing their minds about attacking Obama and actually trying to get any work done before the midterms.

No hope of that now. Assuming of course that there ever WAS any.

In Paris far Right Wing writer commits suicide in protest of passage of marriage equality in France. That'll teach'em!

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

A far-right writer and activist shot himself dead in front of the altar of Paris’s famed Notre Dame Cathedral on Tuesday, shortly after calling for “spectacular” action to protect France’s identity. 

Police and his publisher confirmed the man’s identity as Dominique Venner, 78, a long-time essayist and activist linked with France’s far-right and nationalist groups. 

Police said Venner shot himself with a pistol shortly after 1400 GMT and that the cathedral was then calmly evacuated. 

In a final essay on his website Tuesday, he railed against France’s adoption of a law legalising gay marriage and adoption, urging activists to take measures to protect “French and European identities”. 

In a possible reference to his suicide, Venner wrote: “There will certainly need to be new, spectacular, symbolic gestures to shake off the sleepiness… and re-awaken the memories of our origins.”

Well you certainly cannot say he did not demonstrate the power of his convictions. 

Part of me wants to feel badly for a guy who simply could not accept progress, but the other part makes me want to send this article to all of the conservative assholes on the internet and over at Fox News with a note that says "Are you going to let a French guy out Right Wing you?"

I know that's bad right?

Sarah Palin may have come to realize that the Palin curse is real and aims it at reporter who undermined Republican's attacks on White House concerning Benghazi.

There's something different, certainly refreshing, about Jake Tapper. I call it integrity and professionalism.... fb.me/Kjg5B3MR
— Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) May 21, 2013

That of course links to the Arizona snowbird's Facebook page which says this:

There's something different, certainly refreshing, about Jake Tapper. I call it integrity and professionalism. What would you call his conscientious approach to news coverage?

The Facebook post links to a news story that gushes about Tapper and seems to laud him for the fact that he was one of the first "Lamestream media" types to cover the Kermit Gosnell story. (Others covered that story as well, including MSNBC and many network news programs.)

"I'm sorry. Who's a fan of mine now?"

However the fact that Tapper talked about Gossner does not seem like it would be enough to attract Palin's attention, though who can really figure out what rattles around in that empty head of hers?

However what she CANNOT help but know is that it was Jake Tapper who undercut the Right Wing's argument that there was a conspiracy about Benghazi by revealing that the Republicans had purposefully misquoted e-mails in order to mislead the public.

So the question before is "Does Palin really get all moist at the idea of Jake Tapper's masculine no nonsense reporting style?" or "Is she faking her adoration because she hopes to unleash the unholy demonic affects of her unstoppable Palin-curse on him for daring to tell the truth about the Benghazi e-mails?"

All I know is that if I were Jake Tapper I would quickly do something to make Sarah Palin tweet how much she hates me and wishes I would die a slow agonizing death.  THAT, as far as I know, is the only thing which might possibly immunize him against the curse.

Photo courtesy of Breitbart, where the original article is posted.

 In other Wasilla Wendigo news Palin apparently had RAM type out some attack against President Obama:

“For the president to deny any knowledge of what was brewing [with the IRS] and to claim to know nothing about the Benghazi cover-up or anything about anything White House-related lately, he’s either a liar or a hugely incompetent CEO. You decide,” Palin wrote in an op-ed published Tuesday night on the conservative website Breitbart. 

“These Obama administration scandals are a sad and stark reminder that only limited government can ensure liberty. At our core, we Americans just want to be left alone to live freely, peacefully, and productively. Last year the Obama campaign told us that government is something we all ‘belong’ to. I guess they’re right because when the government is powerful enough to target, intimidate, and harass us, we do “belong” to them. The real question is: Will we stand for this?” Palin wrote. 

She added: “These atrocious government actions are bigger, uglier, and much more dangerous than ‘a few rogue employees.’ It’s time for all Americans to stand together and join in the growing outraged chorus that looks at our out-of-control government and says, ‘Enough is enough!’” 

Since these are not really Palin's words, but instead a Right Wing op-ed typed by a ghostwriter, and then stamped with her hoof, I will not bother to pick it apart.

After all it is nothing we have not seen before.

Finally, somebody interviews one of MY people after the Oklahoma tragedy!

Courtesy of Mediaite:

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer demonstrated why you should never assume someone believes in God while interviewing a survivor of the Oklahoma tornado Tuesday afternoon. Blitzer spoke to a young woman named Rebecca, who escaped with her 19-month-old son just moments before the tornado destroyed their home. 

While their narrow escape from harm may have seemed miraculous, Rebecca evidently didn’t see it that way. At the end of the interview, Blitzer told her, “You’re blessed. Brian, your husband is blessed. Anders is blessed… I guess you got to thank the lord, right?” When the woman shrugged off the question, he repeated it, asking, “Do you thank the lord for that split-second decision?” 

“I–I’m actually an atheist,” she responded. After the awkward laughter that followed, she added, “We are here and you know, I don’t blame anybody for thanking the lord.” 

“Of course not,” Blitzer replied. 

Of course I also do not blame anybody for thanking God, regardless of which God it is, for their survival. What these people went through must have frightened them to their very core.

However I cannot help but feel a powerful sense of pride when I see somebody strong enough to go through something like that without the need to seek solace in mythological beings.

And the fact she said it on national television? So awesome!

Black helicopter expert, Alex Jones. claims that government might have a "weather weapon" and just might have used it to destroy Oklahoma. Sounds legit.

Courtesy of  Media Matters:

Conspiracy theorist radio host Alex Jones explained to his audience today how the government could have been behind the devastating May 20 tornado in Oklahoma. 

On the May 21 edition of The Alex Jones Show, a caller asked Jones whether he was planning to cover how government technology may be behind a recent spate of sinkholes. After laying out how insurance companies use weather modification to avoid having to pay ski resorts for lack of snow, Jones said that "of course there's weather weapon stuff going on -- we had floods in Texas like fifteen years ago, killed thirty-something people in one night. Turned out it was the Air Force." 

 Following a long tangent, Jones returned to the caller's subject. While he explained that "natural tornadoes" do exist and that he's not sure if a government "weather weapon" was involved in the Oklahoma disaster, Jones warned nonetheless that the government "can create and steer groups of tornadoes." 

According to Jones, this possibility hinges on whether people spotted helicopters and small aircraft "in and around the clouds, spraying and doing things." He added, "if you saw that, you better bet your bottom dollar they did this, but who knows if they did. You know, that's the thing, we don't know."

Wait! When did Obama get a tornado gun?

And if he has one why hasn't he used it against the Congress?

I would totally do that!

Now remember folks there is a ton of video of this guy having conversations with Rand Paul that are just about this crazy.

Oooh, I can hardly WAIT until Rand throws his hat in the ring to run for President. That is going to be SUCH fun!