Last Call

Dime Brain Darrell Issa strikes again, this time the GOP congressman with the hard-on for his one man crusade against the Obama administration has compromised the identities of Libyans working for the State Department in his zeal to name names over Benghazi.

Issa posted 166 pages of sensitive but unclassified State Department communications related to Libya on the committee's website afternoon as part of his effort to investigate security failures and expose contradictions in the administration's statements regarding the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi that resulted in the death of Amb. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.

"The American people deserve nothing less than a full explanation from this administration about these events, including why the repeated warnings about a worsening security situation appear to have been ignored by this administration. Americans also deserve a complete explanation about your administration's decision to accelerate a normalized presence in Libya at what now appears to be at the cost of endangering American lives," Issa and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) wrote today in a letter to President Barack Obama.

But Issa didn't bother to redact the names of Libyan civilians and local leaders mentioned in the cables, and just as with the WikiLeaks dump of State Department cables last year, the administration says that Issa has done damage to U.S. efforts to work with those Libyans and exposed them to physical danger from the very groups that had an interest in attacking the U.S. consulate.

"Much like WikiLeaks, when you dump a bunch of documents into the ether, there are a lot of unintended consequences," an administration official told The Cable Friday afternoon. "This does damage to the individuals because they are named, danger to security cooperation because these are militias and groups that we work with and that is now well known, and danger to the investigation, because these people could help us down the road."

But Darrell doesn't care, because all he's interested in is creating a scandal.  For years now he's been hounding Attorney General Eric Holder over the Fast and Furious program, and Holder was exonerated last month.  Now he's changed targets to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  I'm sure it will be just as effective, considering evidence is now mounting that the CIA analysis of the initial attack was exactly what the Obama administration said it was.  If anyone was wrong here, it was, surprise, the CIA.

No word from the right on Issa outing more sensitive information.  Again.  Imagine that.

Another One For The Fire(d)

Add Clownhall.com's Hugh Hewitt to the list of jokers ignoring the polls stabilizing around an Obama lead and writing President Obama's political epitaph.

Every motorist who gases up between now and election day (especially those in California) should recall last Monday's debate and the direct question to the president about gas prices which he refused to answer.

Every American who knows a recent or soon-to-be college graduate should keep in mind Jeremy's question which the president refused to answer.

The answer they should remember is the president's to the comedian about Benghazi and how the massacre there wasn't "optimal."

There is a 1980 landslide forming, and while the MSM is doing its best to pretend it isn't there and that the race is still close.

It isn't, and it won't be. The electoral cake is baked.

I don't have the heart to inform Hugh that delusions don't win elections.  Votes do.  Needless to say, that's what we need you to do, folks.  Hewitt is only right if we stay home and let his fantasy become our nightmare.

Anyone Suprised By This?

BooMan reminds us it's silly season, and silly season is getting awfully dangerous.

Well at least it wasn't bullets this time, not that I would find a great deal of comfort in that if I worked or volunteered at the Conifer, Colorado Obama office.

Vandals struck an Obama campaign office in Conifer overnight, spray-painting swastikas onto the side of the building. [...] 

A photo on 9News's website, which first reported the vandalism, shows at least one window with swastikas painted on it. [...]

This is the second high-profile incident at an Obama campaign office in a week. Last Friday, police believe somebody fired a shot at an Obama campaign field office in Denver. Denver police spokesman John White said officers recovered a bullet from inside the campaign office, but he said he did not have any update on the investigation.

Yeah, at least nobody got hurt or killed when this Obama campaign office was vandalized.  That's a relief, right?  It seems a bunch of people have a real problem with our black President.  Wonder why.

Also, if this had been a Romney office, this of course would be the latest in "the coming race war" and "intimidation" by Obama's "army of thungs".  After all, we black folk started it being all black when the slave ships showed up in Africa, right?

Religious Speed Racer

Some folks will go to great lengths to contest a speeding ticket, but this is the first time we've heard someone claim a speeding ticket was a violation of religious freedom.

Yet that's exactly what Jeffrey L. Manke of Oshkosh, Wisc, did. Manke was was ticketed for driving 71 mph in a 55 mph zone in October 2011. He argued that Wisconsin's speeding statutes were unconstitutional as they violated his religious freedom because they prohibit a person from speeding. Manke claimed in court that his understanding of the Bible indicates he's a man, not a person.

The state court of appeals didn't buy his argument and cut through Manke's semantics.

"Manke does not explain how or why being a 'person' for purposes of the speeding statute is a burden upon his religious beliefs," the court wrote.

"We accept Manke’s argument that he is a man. We also accept that, as a man, he is a 'person' under WIS. STAT. § 346.57(4)(h)."

Manke is this week's honorary jackass.  I'm glad to see his bitch slap back to reality delivered with humor and a firm denial.

MO Unemployment 6.9%

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Missouri's unemployment rate continues to dip, and the decline is even greater here in the Ozarks.

The Missouri Department of Economic Development reports the state jobless rate during September fell to 6.9%.  That's the lowest since 2008, which was one year into the recession. 

In the Springfield area, layoffs continue.  However, the number of new jobs is finally starting to surpass that.

Greene County is now at 6.1% unemployment, which is half the number it reached within the last couple of years.  Christian County is faring even better at 5.7%.

It's turning around.  Not for lack of Obama's best efforts, but because of them.  The Midwest is sluggish in general and always has been.  The engine stalled, failed, and is now chugging back to life.  When Obama took office, our economy was crashing.  We were falling so fast that it took years to climb out of that hole, but it's working.

Remember who fixed it, and remember who fought relief measures and fair pay.

Another Milepost On The Road To Oblivion

Ahh yes, my northern Kentucky home continues to do me proud with examples of FREE SPEECH AND LIBERTY like this.

A whites only group has adopted a stretch of the AA Highway in northern Kentucky through the state’s anti-litter program. 

National Socialist Movement member Geoffrey Rash of Alexandria told The Kentucky Enquirer that the organization is not a hate group, even though it uses a swastika as a symbol. Rash says the symbol shows they are socialists, not Nazis.

“We feel that a national socialist structure, it worked in Germany, things just got a little crazy and they entered a world war,” Rash said.

The group adopted a two mile stretch of highway between Cold Spring and Wilder. Kentucky Transportation Cabinet spokesman Chuck Wolfe said the state does not have a restrictive policy on the program because the point is to encourage people to pick up litter.

Transportation Cabinet district spokeswoman Nancy Wood said people have been calling about the sign designating the National Socialists as responsible for the cleanup since Oct. 1.

Zee Germans were misunderstood, you see.  Those wacky guys.  Anyway, DON’T TREAD ON ME and stuff.  Le sigh.

Wilder is a few miles down 275 from me, I sometimes go out there for the movie theater (it’s nice) and the Mellow Mushroom pizza place (which is awesome).

If I’m reading this right, that stretch of AA Highway they are talking about is just off the 275 exit and starts right there at the Mellow Mushroom, too.  If “having a white supremacist group adopt the highway next to the one place around here that you can get a decent gluten-free pizza” isn’t northern Kentucky in a microcosm, I don’t know what is.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• A new study finds young boys are hitting puberty ahead of schedule just as young women are, due to obesity, environmental factors, and genetics.
• The EU "regrets" Israel's latest plan to expand settlements in east Jerusalem as the town of Gilo will grow by 800 housing units.
• US diplomats are backing a UN effort for a cease fire in Syria, with the support of Turkey and Iran.
• Researchers in Minnesota say a new drug made from an ancient Chinese plant is effective in destroying tumors in mice, and may be tested on humans soon.
• Airport security officials in the TSA have quietly been switching out X-ray body scanners for safer machines in the country's largest ariports over radiation concerns.

Last Call

About this time of silly season, we get the election predictions to be filed away in Future Stupidity.  First out of the gate this week is The Hill's A.B. Stoddard, penning President Obama's epitaph.

President Obama is losing. So says the latest Gallup poll, and so do those swelling numbers in key states like Wisconsin, Florida, Virginia and Ohio.

Democrats say wait, he won the second debate. They are holding their breath, hoping polls next week will show that this week's debate brought the herky-jerk of the campaign back full swing, with Obama back to his September lead in the swing states and poised to win. But with two weeks to go, a sudden surge in voter support for a president as unpopular as this one, in an economy this weak, is simply hard to believe. Conservatives like Karl Rove note that this late in October, no candidate with support higher than 50 percent (see Mitt Romney: Gallup) has ever gone on to lose.

Perhaps Obama lost the presidency weeks ago, on Oct. 3, when he sleepwalked and scribbled through the first debate and helped make Romney a new candidate overnight. It was Obama's night to finish Romney off; behind in the polls, even Romney likely woke up that morning thinking it was over. But Obama underestimated the task, the challenger and the electorate — all in 90 minutes. So a win this week was critical but perhaps not decisive. There is no obvious reason for Obama's performance to reverse the course of the campaign and blunt Romney now. And though there is one final debate next week, a back-and-forth on national security and foreign policy isn't likely to make the sale for anyone who still cannot make up his or her mind.

Doomed!  No reason Obama should be able to win!  Pack it up!  It's over!  Gallup, libtard morons!

Into the file you go then.  We'll see where we are on November 7.

In California, Road Forks You!

Jim Grant of Carlsbad, California?  I salute you, because you are awesome.

"I actually laughed out loud in my truck and just knew I had to get some shots of this urban art before some city employee takes it down or it is vandalized," he said. He shot some photos Tuesday afternoon, posted them on CNN iReport and left a Post-it note on the sculpture in hopes of finding the artist.

The literal fork in the road was short-lived. A city crew pulled it out of the concrete Wednesday morning, saying in a statement that "although the fork in the road remains, the literal fork was removed this morning. We appreciate the creativity, but it's not legal or safe to put objects like this on public streets or medians."

CNN affiliate KFMB filmed the fork being taken away. 

It's too bad, because the guy behind the fork just rocks.

Before the fork was ripped out, Grant's Post-it note made its way to the artist, who explained he was a retired teacher who wanted to remain anonymous for fear of getting fined or sued by the city.

The 62-year-old retired math and physics teacher said he has wanted to make a fork for that island ever since he saw "The Muppet Movie" in 1979, in which Kermit tells Fozzie Bear, on their way to Hollywood, to bear left if he comes to a fork in the road. A moment later, a giant upside-down fork appears in the road.

That was more than 30 years ago, but he never had the time to work on the project until he retired in June. He spent the summer on it, laminating pieces of wood together until they resembled the kitchen utensil. He bought a can of chrome paint and sprayed the fork until the can was empty. His brother, a middle-school wood shop teacher in El Cajon, helped him smooth out the edges.

"I'm not an artist. I have no talent, but I'm not afraid to try, and I'm quite surprised that the fork came out as good as it did," he said.

With his 32-year-old son's help, they mounted it in the street on Tuesday morning.

Put the fork back, Carlsbad!

Beyond Thunder DOMA, Part 2

Another major federal appeals court decision has struck down the Defense of Marriage Act as unconstitutional, but this time the venue was far more conservative as was the jurist handing down the decision.

In this case, the Second Circuit determined it was unconstitutional for the federal government to require 83-year-old Edith Windsor to pay over $300,000 in estate taxes after the death of her spouse Thea Spyer. Windsor and Spyer lived in New York, but married in Toronto, Canada, in 2007, after a 40-year partnership. When Spyer died in 2009, New York had not yet legalized same sex marriage, and thus the federal government required Windsor to pay taxes on Spyer’s estate — a burden that wouldn’t have befallen an opposite-sex couple, whether married in or out of state.

In February 2011, the Justice Department halted its defense of DOMA, upsetting House Republicans who have spent over $1 million defending it in the Obama administration’s stead.

“Notwithstanding the withdrawal of its advocacy, the United States continues to enforce Section 3 of DOMA, which is indeed why Windsor does not have her money,” the opinion reads. “The constitutionality of the statute will have a considerable impact on many operations of the United States.”

Judge Dennis Jacobs, who authored the opinion, is the circuit’s chief judge and was appointed to the court in 1992 by President George H.W. Bush.

The raw economic truth of same-sex marriage discrimination at the federal level is, what I believe, the most powerful legal argument as to why the Defense of Marriage Act has to go.  It's discrimination written into the United States code, period.

We'll see how it shakes out.  But this is by far the best conservative argument against DOMA, and I think it will be enough to get it struck down sometime next year.

Here's hoping.

Attention PayPal Merchants: Limited Time To Opt Out Of New TOS Change

To be clear, the quoted statements are from a full article on LifeHacker.  I also hate PayPal, after being taken for nearly a thousand dollars in stupidity after their customer service told me my problem had been taken care of.  I will never use their service again, and the author's question says all you need to know: how do they have all the power of a bank with little to no regulation?

But I digress.  PayPal has made changes to their terms of service that restrict legal options in case their merchants feel mistreated.  You have until December 1 to send in a letter refusing to take this change and it will  be honored.  Otherwise, you and all new merchants will be bound by the new terms.

The article also has a helpful link at the bottom with a template to make sure that your letter is acceptable.

I think PayPal sucks, and I'm not alone. Making matters worse, the Consumerist found that PayPal has decided to limit your ability to take legal action against them if they cause you any trouble. Fortunately, there's a way out.

Beloved Musician Dies While On Security Gig

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Musician B.B. Cunningham Jr., a member of Jerry Lee Lewis' band, was killed in a Memphis shootout early Sunday, police said.

Police said Cunningham was working as a security guard at an apartment complex on Memphis' southeast side, when he heard a gunshot at the neighboring Cherry Crest apartments and went to investigate about 2 a.m., according to The Commercial Appeal (http://bit.ly/RJ1NUs).

Police didn't provide details, but they said when officers arrived, both the 70-year-old Cunningham and a 16-year-old boy were found dead from gunshot wounds.

The teenager has not been identified. Calls to police by The Associated Press were not returned.

When contacted at his home in Washington, D.C., Bill Cunningham confirmed his brother was killed.

Byny Garcia, who lives in a unit across the courtyard from where the shooting took place, said Cunningham was well-liked.

"He'd take care of the old people and the Spanish kids," Garcia said. "He was a good person. We don't feel good at this moment."

I'm sad that a 70-year-old musician of his caliber was working a high-risk job in a city with a fairly high crime rate.  He appears to have been a good fellow, and it's unfortunate that he died this way, and couldn't enjoy a retirement.  While I was not privy to his books, I assume a man of his age and accomplishment would have found a better activity if he wanted to volunteer.

Tagg, You're Still It

Ta-Nehisi Coates on Tagg Romney wanting to "take a swing" at President Obama after his dad's debate loss Tuesday night:

Yes because a good whippin' would teach that Obama boy to mind his place. 

It's worth trying to imagine any black man associated with a credible black candidate for the presidency, joking about beating down the incumbent president of the United States. Racism isn't just in what you do and don't say, but in the terrain you walk. It is baked in the cake -- a fact which is hard to understand when you are the party of white people.

 

If you're looking for the working definition of racism versus assumption of privilege, Tagg Romney is an excellent example.  Racism is the grim realization that any minority male Obama surrogate joking they would "take a swing" at Mitt Romney would almost certainly lose their job within days, with conservatives demanding the first African-American president be made to answer for his tacit fomenting of race war during the election.  Reaction, if the races were switched, would be completely different.

 

Assumption of privilege is the even more grim realization that Tagg Romney will completely get away with saying what he said, as would any white male surrogate of Romney.  That difference in reaction is always a one-way street.

I've Got Your ACORN Right Here

We're at that time of the election season where we seem to run across inevitable voter registration fraud, and once again it's being committed by the usual suspects, this time leading to an actual arrest of the alleged fraudsters...

You know.  Republicans.

A Pennsylvania man employed by a company working for the Republican Party of Virginia was arrested by investigators from the Rockingham County Sheriff’s office on Thursday and charged with destroying voter registration forms.

Colin Small, a 31-year-old resident of Phoenixville, Pa., worked for Pinpoint, a company hired to register voters on behalf of the Republican Party of Virginia. Prosecutors charged him with four counts of destruction of voter registration applications, eight counts of failing to disclose voter registration applications and one count of obstruction of justice.

Rockingham County Sheriff Bryan Hutcheson’s office said there was no indication that the activity was widespread in their jurisdiction and said the conduct “appears to be limited in nature.” His office said there is a possibility that additional charges may be filed.

Keep in mind if this was a Democratic party related organization with an arrest for registration fraud, we would have investigations, allegations of wrongdoing by party officials, calls for mass resignations, and calls for impeachment of the President.

But he was a white Republican.  So it's an "isolated incident" by "one bad individual" that cannot possibly be an indication of widespread voter registration fraud.  Got it?

StupidiNews!

• President Obama and Mitt Romney traded barbs at last night's Al Smith charity dinner in New York.
• Add former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to the growing list of world dignitaries who believe the war on drugs has failed.
• GOP Rep. Lois Capps of California's 23rd district is facing new allegations of failing to disclose over half a million in state pension income in her reelection battle.
• Wall Street looks back on the 25th anniversary of Black Monday, the day the Dow lost 23 percent in one day.
• DC Comics has successfully defended their copyright on Superman, as a court has ruled that the family of creator Joel Shuster can't reclaim the rights to the Man of Steel.