Last Call

Science.  It works, bitches.

I Didn't Need Representation Anyway

So as of now, thanks to Gov. Dinosaur Steve Beshear and Geoff Davis, I am without representation in the House.  Yellow Dog flags down the details:

From the AP:

Gov. Steve Beshear has scheduled a special election to replace former Republican U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis for Nov. 6 - the same day as the general election. 

That means big savings for taxpayers in the 4th District.

Lynn Zellen, spokeswoman for the secretary of state's office, said holding the special congressional election on a separate day could have cost as much as $500,000.

This also means that the winner of this election will not have to wait until January to be seated in the 113th Congress along with the other new Members, but will begin representing the Fourth District immediately on Nov. 7.  Bill Adkins or Thomas Massie will join the 112th Congress in the lame-duck session that may prove one of the most contentious in history.

Considering Thomas Massie is a Randian Tea Party jagoff, and this is NOBAMA Country, I'm thinking I need to redouble my efforts to get Bill Adkins elected.  Help him out if you can.

Ryan Rhymes With Lyin', Part 2

I don't know how many times I will have to say this between now and November 7, but when Paul Ryan says that current seniors won't be hurt by the Ryan budget plan, he is flat out lying to you.

Medicare is not the only entitlement Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has big plans to reform.

Its sister program, Medicaid, would lose about three-quarters of its federal funding by 2050 under proposals from the Republican vice presidential candidate, according to federal budget auditors.

Medicaid provides healthcare for the poor and the disabled. Over 10 years, Ryan's budget plan would cut the program's budget by about $810 billion.

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has been playing up the cuts that President Obama’s healthcare reform law made to Medicare, but hasn’t devoted much attention to Medicaid. One expert said there’s a good reason for that.

"It's a program that's very hard to simplify," said Matt Salo, executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors.

"It pays for 40 percent of the country's births and the majority of the nation's long-term care [for the elderly]. It's one of the most complex programs in the U.S. government — on the level of tax policy."

The Ryan budget made the same waste and fraud future spending reductions that the Obama administration proposed to Medicare Advantage, not Medicare itself.  Paul Ryan is a liar when he said today in Florida that the Obama administration "raided Medicare to pay for Obamacare."

This.  Is.  A Boldfaced.  Lie.

Cuts to Medicaid will affect a majority of current seniors, folks.  It really is that simple.  I'll say it again:  cuts to Medicaid will hurt current seniors.  Now.  Immediately.  If the Ryan budget becomes law, this is what will happen.  Seniors will see immediate cuts in Medicaid that they will have to make up out of pocket.

On top of that, future Seniors will have to pay even more because of the voucher system.  These vouchers will leave seniors well short of the money they'll need in order to pay for private insurance, because THERE WILL BE NO MEDICARE.  There will only be vouchers for private insurance.  Got it?  And on top of that, the Medicare age will be pushed back to 67.  And on top of that, since there's no Obamacare (because Obama, he does care!), you will be a private citizen trying to buy insurance at age 65.

Good luck with that.

Romney/Ryan will cut Medicaid for current Seniors, and destroy Medicare and Medicaid for future seniors.  And why?

To pay for tax breaks for the richest Americans.  $5 trillion in tax cuts for the rich.  Either the middle class has to pay for it in these massive government program cuts (and that means Romney/Ryan is lying to you) or the cuts will go unpaid and the national debt will skyrocket just on the tax cuts alone (also meaning Romney/Ryan are lying to you.)

And Paul Ryan took his mother down to Florida and used her as a prop to lie to America with.

These are the guys running against Obama, folks.  Liars.

Don't fall for it.  Get up off your ass.  Go register to vote.  Help people register to vote where you live.  Then VOTE.

Arresting Updates

Randy Travis just kicked off a trend. Celebrity arrests spiked this week for no real reason, but the fact that at least one other was completely naked at the time of arrest, we're calling coincidence or shenanigans.

I present a TMZ double feature:

Recently-axed UFC fighter Jason "Mayhem" Miller was arrested today in Orange County, TMZ has learned -- after allegedly breaking into a church, spraying a fire extinguisher all over the place, and getting buck naked.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ, the O.C. Sheriff's Office received a call early this morning from the Mission Hills Church in Mission Viejo about a possible burglary in progress.

When the deputies arrived, we're told they found the first and second floors covered in white fire extinguisher spray. Cops say the place was also trashed -- scattered CDs, books, and broken pictures.

He was lucid and completely naked when officers arrived.  He is undergoing a thorough evaluation, and there is no report on whether he was intoxicated.  Regardless of what happened that night, he was definitely going through a despair spiral, after being fired from the UFC on nasty terms.

Chad Johnson was recently arrested for allegedly headbutting his wife, but as details come in there are a lot of unanswered questions.  While TMZ confirmed he has a history of domestic violence, his wife has said things in the past that may cast doubt on the weight of her claims.  At this point, anything could have happened.  I certainly hope that if he did not do this, that he is completely cleared.  Nobody deserves an abusive husband, and nobody deserves false accusations that can ruin a career.

There has been a lot of discussion about whether he was let go too soon, because the minute the story broke he was unemployed.  Many people (yours truly included) looked at his troubled past and assumed he had admitted guilt or there was something to it we didn't know.   However, it would be good to know that if he was somehow proven innocent that he would have a job.

Children Of A Lesser Corn

Courtney Gains -- who starred as psychotic teenage killer Malachai in "Children of the Corn" -- is allegedly wreaking havoc in his real life too ... his ex-girlfriend obtained a restraining order against the guy claiming he's threatening her life. 

Kelley Marie Pospisil -- who says she dated Gains for 2 years --filed court documents begging the judge to keep the 46-year-old actor at least 100 yards away from her at all times. 

In the docs ... Kelley says Gains has been sending her threatening text messages since they broke up ... writing things like "Don't think I won't go find your ass. Just keep it up b**ch."

He may be nuts, she may be a drama queen.  All I know is, he could scare the life right out of me. For everyone's sake, I hope it's just melodrama.

(eerie music fades out)

Re-Birther Of The Uncool, Part 6

Signed, SEALed, delivered, two swift-boat style attacks on President Obama from two different groups of retired Special Operations military types, who are going after the President for the decision to get Osama bin Laden saying the President should be ashamed of himself for "damaging leaks" at the expense of the Pentagon to "benefit his campaign". 

Surprise!  One group has significant ties to the GOP and the leader of the other is a confirmed Birther assclown.

"I have to admit that I'm a Birther," said SOS founder Larry Bailey, a retired 27-year veteran of the Navy SEALs, in an interview. "If there were a jury of 12 good men and women and the evidence were placed before them, there would be absolutely no question Barack Obama was not born where he said he was and is not who he says he is."

Bailey, who is part of the leadership of SOS's effort to mobilize thousands to take to the streets to denounce Obama's treatment of the military through an SOS project called Operation Street Corner, doesn't only believe that the president is a foreigner. He also believes that he is not actually the son of Barack Obama, Sr. Bailey trumpeted the conspiracy theory that the president is actually the love child of Ann Dunham and writer Frank Marshall Davis.

"In his books, Obama said his mentor was a fellow named Frank Marshall Davis. Frank Marshall Davis was a member of Communist Party USA, he wrote for the communist party's Hawaii newsletter, he was a close friend of Obama's mother, and there's a strong case that Frank Marshall Davis rather than Barack Obama, Sr. was Barack Obama, Jr.'s father and that Barack Obama, Sr. was just an administrative father of convenience," Bailey said.

Bailey isn't shy about his dislike of Obama personally and admits freely that his extensive efforts to mobilize special operations veterans and their supporters around the country is rooted in his personal dislike of the president and his desire to see him replaced.

"Barack Obama's a born red-diaper baby. He's a socialist. His beliefs are the very antithesis of my beliefs. As far as I am concerned he is one of the most unlikeable and unprepared politicians we've ever had," Bailey said. "I don't like him because he believes that America is responsible for most of the problems in the world and he wants to cut her down to size." 

No, you don't like him because you're a racist asshole and a lunatic, Mr. Bailey.  And you greatly dishonor the men and women who have served and continue to serve this country with your prejudicial garbage.  America is better than you, sir.  It deserves better than people like you.  Period.

Have you no decency?  I guess not.  Meanwhile the other group mentioned in that story, OPSEC?  Reuters reporter Mark Hosenblatt "took a look".

Reuters reported on Tuesday that a group of former U.S. intelligence and Special Forces operatives was preparing to launch a media campaign, including TV ads, that scolds Obama for taking credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden and accuses his administration of leaking U.S. secrets for political advantage.

The group, the Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund Inc, unveiled a documentary-style video featuring interviews with former spies and U.S. military commandos on Wednesday.

 Surprise!  Turnes out they're all former Swift Boat veterans and current Tea Party nutjobs as the Agonist notes:

The president of OPSEC is identified by Hosenball as "Scott Taylor, is a former Navy SEAL who in 2010 ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for a congressional seat in Virginia." What Hosenball neglects to mention, however, is that every other person he names as a member of this OPSEC group is a Republican activist and apparatchik.

Ben Smith, the ex-SEAL named above, is nowadays better known for his activist work with the Tea Party Express and Move America Forward , the pressure group set up by California Republican public relations firm Russo Marsh & Rogers. Fred Rustmann, "a former undercover case officer for the CIA who is a spokesman for the group" is the same Fred Rustman who appeared in a co-ordinated campaign on Fox News and in the conservative press claiming to be Valerie Plame's case officer and saying that she openly acknowledged her status as a CIA agent, blowing her own cover. Larry Johnson dealt with Rustman's claims in his testimony to Congress. Finally, Hosenball mentions "Chad Kolton, a former spokesman for the office of Director of National Intelligence during the George W. Bush administration who now represents OPSEC". A moment's work with Google reveals that Kolton "led the public affairs department" at DNI during the Bush administration and now is a founding partner in the D.C.-based firm of HDMK, a PR firm founded by four Republican "communications veterans".

In other words, both groups are made up of deep GOP dirty tricks operatives, and literally some of the same jagoffs who outed Valerie Plame as a CIA Iran case officer in 2003 in retaliation against anti-war crusader Joe Wilson, and then Swift Boated John Kerry in 2004 to keep Dubya in the White House.

Now they're going after Obama.  This is the level of GOP desperation we're reached right now:  Birthers and Swift Boaters.

Honorless bastards.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• Syrian rebels are claiming that Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa has defected from the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, but the al-Assad regime isn't confirming any details.
• Online fundraising for a museum dedicated to science legend Nikola Tesla has garnered half a million dollars in just two days.
• Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has made nearly half a billion dollars in unused earmarks available to states for road and bridge projects this year.
• Apple shares are approaching $650 as the company's rumored "iPad mini" has boosted stock prices to a new intraday record and a staggering market cap value of $600 billion.
• Twitter's new guidelines could mean the beginning of the end for third party apps like Echofon and Tweetbot.