One more story originally posted at Political Pollution today: FBI Cutting Malheur Occupiers Off From the Outside World

--1--

m'eye thoughts:  Four holdouts still in the Malheur Wildlife refuge with no internet, three phones totally inoperable, and one phone that can receive calls but not call out.  Now they have no one to talk to but themselves and the FBI.

Should have happened weeks ago.

Read more at Raw Story

We have the truth...

...now let's send our kids out to die for it!

The Evangelical 11th Commandment: Go ye and die for Jesus!

Definitely not a camp I would want my children to attend.

Kansas Republican State Senator Writes Dress Code--for Women Only

Kansas State Senator
Mitch Holmes

Sen. Mitch Holmes' 11-point code of conduct does not include any restrictions on men, who he said needed no instruction on how to look professional, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported.

"Oh, for crying out loud, what century is this?" Sen. Laura Kelly, a Topeka Democrat, said...

...Holmes, a 53-year-old Republican...who is chairman of the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee, said he wrote the instruction because provocatively dressed women are a distraction.

eye'm thynkin':  A 53-year-old man can't look at a fashionably dressed woman without seeing "provocative" or being "distracted?"  Just another Republican with a problem, a somewhere-south-of-his-belt-buckle problem.

Read more at Time

Queens Veterans' Group Asked Queens Native Donald Trump for a Donation--a Year Later, He Sends Bumper Stickers

Rodney Moore (left) and Larry Robertson holding
 Trump bumper stickers they received in lieu of a donation.

"...According to the billionaire, the rally he scheduled to air on Fox's competing networks during the debate raised a whopping $6 million for veterans.  Unfortunately, this money all went to the Donald J. Trump Foundation, which has an abysmal history of helping those who have served our country, with less than 1% of donations going to that particular cause...

Last year, (before he announced his presidential bid) New York-based Veterans-in-Command, an organization that helps homeless veterans, reached out to The Donald for a donation.

While one might assume that Trump would jump at the opportunity to help out, time went by and they received no response until just before Trump's little debate day stunt, when the cash-strapped organization got some mail from the Trump campaign...

...The letter inform(ed) the organization that "Mr. Trump is very passionate about giving veterans the best life possible!"  Included was (sic) a few Trump campaign bumper stickers.  

Note: No donation, zero, nada, zip. But it gets worse:

Afterward, Veterans-in-Command began receiving emails from the Trump campaign asking them for money.  

eye'm thynkin':  There seems to be a hole in Mr. Combover's circus tent.

Read more at Addicting Info

January 31 - Two More Stories I Originally Posted at Political Pollution

--1--

m'eye thoughts: "Christian fundamentalists picked on the wrong restaurant to leave their fake $20 tips."

Everyone should have a boss like Penny Craver.

Read more at Addicting Info

--2--

I wondered what all those explosions were yesterday.  Now I know.

"...Facebook is banning all gun sales from its site as well as its photo-sharing offshoot, Instagram.  In a move that the federal government can't match because gun manufacturers and lobbyists own congress, Zuckerberg's social media giant will also ban the sale of gun parts."

Read more at If You Only News

                          

Last 4 Malheur Occupiers Think They Can Dictate Terms of Their Surrender, Support Group Plans Protest in Burns

The last holdouts in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge standoff say they now want pardons for everyone involved before they'll leave the headquarters where they're holed up behind police roadblocks.

"Before we leave, every single one of the people involved in this operation should be pardoned," occupier David Fry said in a feed posted to YouTube just before noon on Friday...

...The (four) remaining occupiers had been livestreaming the standoff on YouTube or posting periodic videos to detail their preparations to die at the refuge.  But they had filed no dispatches for more than 24 hours until Fry broke the silence.

His five-and-a-half minute video included details of the occupiers' new demands and a diatribe against Hillary Clinton...

...The Pacific Patriots Network, a group that has followed the refuge occupation, also spelled out several demands on Friday in a call for support from its members...

...The network, which plans a protest in Burns on Monday, demands the arrest of the top FBI agent in Oregon and any other law enforcement officers involved in (LaVoy Finicum's) death, the removal of all FBI agents from Harney County and the resignation of several county leaders, and Sheriff Dave Ward.

eye'm thynkin':  Dear Mr. Fry:  Your window for negotiating has passed.  While you still maintain your right to be stupid, it is not necessary to exercise it at every opportunity.

Dear PPN: You're late to the party.  Stay home.  Everyone is already aware that you thought the Bundy occupation was the coolest thing ever.  Marching through a town that disagrees with your opinion in order to prove your point is really stupid. And thinking you have the right to issue demands for the end of an occupation in which you took no part is really, really stupid. (See paragraph above.)

Read more at Oregon Live (video)

Oklahoma Republican Wants to Forbid Affirmative Counseling for Gay Teens

Oklahoma State Representative
Sally Kern

(An Oklahoma) state House Bill, proposed by Republican Sally Kern, is part of a slew of anti-gay legislation she wants to pass, which would sanction discredited gay "conversion" therapy and prevent HIV-positive people form getting married...

...LGBT kids raised in homophobic households have higher rates of depression, anxiety and suicide, and public school counselors who can connect them with the right LGBT-friendly groups and gay-affirming therapists provide a critical lifeline.

The bill states that no public school "counselor, therapist, social worker, administrator, teacher or other individual" will be allowed to refer anyone under 18 to any person or organization if the referral "pertain(s) to human sexuality."

eye'm thynkin':  Yeah, let's write a law that will guarantee gay teens continue to kill themselves.  This woman needs some counseling of her own.  How does anyone function on a daily basis with this much hate roiling around inside?

Read more at Raw Story

I should probably apologize for sharing this...

...but I'm laughing too hard right now.

January 30 - A Couple More Stories I Originally Posted at Political Pollution

--1--

"Fiorina has been openly supportive of vaccines derived from fetal stem cells at least since her California Senate run in 2010.  According to the Los Angeles Times, Fiorina clarified that, 'It is when

embryos are produced for the purposes of destruction, for the purposes of stem cell research that I have a great deal of difficulty.'"

m'eye thoughts: So Carly is anti-abortion because she thinks women all over America are getting purposefully pregnant in order to destroy their embryo so the tissue can be used in stem cell research?  Am I missing something here?

Read more at Crooks and Liars

--2--

According to new Federal Election Commission filings, the only people who donated to the Black Americans for a Better Future Super PAC last year (or at all--it was created in 2014) were super, super white.  In fact, of the $417,250 in donations the super-pac received, $400,000 was from Robert Mercer, the hedge-fund CEO also known as Ted Cruz's sugar daddy.

Basically one rich white guy, trying to present himself as something he's not to people for whom he has no respect...  Yeah, I'm sure this is going to work.

Read more at Addicting Info

I will NOT go back.

Republican War on Women - The Battle Against Planned Parenthood in Ohio

This is the thirty-ninth in a series of articles on the subjects of women, abortion rights and the Republican Party. 

Republicans continue to say they don’t have to change their core principles, they only have to change the language they use to get their message out.  One perception they want to alter is the idea that they are running a “War on Women”.  Looking at the news over the past few years, I’d say the Republican Party has a long way to go on this subject.

• Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky): “Talk about a manufactured issue.  There is no issue.” 
• RNC Chairman Reince Priebus:  “It’s a fiction.”

 The Ohio Front

what eye thynk:  Ohio Governor and Republican presidential candidate John Kasich has stated clearly that he will "fight like crazy" to defund Planned Parenthood.  The Ohio legislature is doing everything in its power to see that he has that chance.

Eye Recommend:

OHIO SENATE VOTES TO DEFUND PLANNED PARENTHOOD AFTER HEARING LIMITED PUBLIC TESTIMONY, by Jackie Borchardt

(Any underlines are mine.) 

The Ohio Senate hearing on
defunding Planned Parenthood

The Ohio Senate on Wednesday quickly passed legislation to block state funding for Planned Parenthood's health education and prevention programs.

Because who would want Ohio's citizens to learn how to remain healthy or to have access to health testing, right?

Senate Bill 214 passed the Republican-controlled Senate along part lines in a 23-10 vote and now heads to the House for consideration. 

The bill would redirect about $1.3 million annually from Planned Parenthood to federally qualified health centers, health departments, and other clinics that don't perform or promote abortions or contract with facilities that do.

This sounds great until you remember the latest state budget passed and signed by Ohio's Republican dominated leadership has already cut the budgets of other health clinics by 43%, leaving these facilities struggling to care for the patients they have let alone being able to absorb more patients.

Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio offers birth control, cancer screenings, tests for sexually transmitted diseases and well-woman exams at its 28 centers across the state.  Three centers perform abortions. 

The bill cleared the Ohio Senate Government Oversight and Reform Committee a few hours earlier after two hearings. More than 50 opponents and a handful of proponents signed up to testify during Wednesday's hearing. 

Fifty against the bill, a handful for the bill.  Should we call the bill's passage an example of how the Republican party listens to "the people?"  Or maybe by "the people" they mean only like minded members of their own party? Yes, that must be it.  Silly me, to think "people"was an all-inclusive term.

(Committee Chairman Bill) Coley disputed allegations that the bill was sent to his committee...instead of the health committee for political reasons.

No, not political at all. Pshaw!  Sending a bill designed to limit women's health services to the Health Committee?  What an outrageous, liberal idea.

"We're not talking about health issues," Coley said. "We're trying to get a better spread of that money throughout the state."

Geographically, Ohio is a small state.  There are 28 Planned Parenthood clinics from Cincinnati to Cleveland, from Columbus to Toledo. That sounds pretty spread to me.

The bill's sponsor, Senate President Keith Faber, dismissed the notion that the bill was rushed.  The Celina Republican said defunding Planned Parenthood was discussed throughout the summer after undercover videos surfaced purporting to show the organization sells aborted fetuses and fetus parts.  The videos were not filmed in Ohio, where fetal tissue donation is illegal. 

"This bill is not about women's health care," Faber said after the vote. "It's about whether we're going to fund an organization that has its senior leadership nationally...who believe it's good public policy to chop up babies in a way that makes their parts more valuable so they can buy a Lamborghini."

Unbelievable! Basing legislation on disproved "evidence" that at least eight states and the U.S. Congress agree is false in order to shove YOUR beliefs down the throats of countless Ohio women is despicable beyond belief.  Even a Texas grand jury couldn't find any wrong doing or any proof that PP was selling fetal tissue.  Instead they handed down indictments to the people who perpetrated the fraudulent videos upon the American public.  

And if limiting a woman's choice for health care "is not about women's health," then what is it about?

But, by all means, Mr. Faber, continue to sell your tall tales to your fellow Republicans who are only too happy to ignore the truth.  You go ahead and continue to say this "is not about women's health" while Ohio women die from lack of available preventative health care.

As for the GOP's claim that other health clinics--despite your budget cuts-- are ready to fill the gap left by PP...

Sen. Capri Cafaro, a Hubbard Democrat, said most of those facilities won't be able to provide reproductive health services and information to patients who currently visit Planned Parenthood centers.  Cafaro surveyed the health departments and health centers in her district and found many of them did not provide family planning or gynecological services...

...Just because it physically exists doesn't necessarily mean it would provide the services that would go away if Planned Parenthood were to not receive funding," Cafaro told her colleagues on the Senate floor.

My husband and I have access to a wonderful health care center with fantastic general practitioners; but when he needs care for his heart or I need care for my allergies, our GPs don't attempt to step in, they send him to a heart specialist and me to an allergist.  What this bill is saying is that, when it comes to women's health, any healthcare facility will do, no matter their expertise.  

In addition to blocking grants directly awarded to Planned Parenthood, the bill would prevent local health districts, schools, and other entities from partnering with Planned Parenthood for programs such as sex education.

Because who needs those programs right?  The Ohio GOP wants to eliminate abortion and at the same time prohibit sexually active teenagers from learning how to prevent an unwanted pregnancy. The stupidity is overwhelming!  

Buxi Iacobone, who first visited a Planned Parenthood clinic for a pap smear and now volunteers at her local PP facility said, "I've been watching and listening to the legislation put forth at the Statehouse, and here is what I have heard:  when bills are crafted to defund Planned Parenthood, I hear that getting my pap smear...is not important to you.  When bills are crafted to defund Planned Parenthood, I hear that the patients I serve--the Ohioans who flock to my workplace every day, and thank me with tears in their eyes for being present for them in their moment of need--are not important to you."

I'd say she has hit the proverbial nail on the right-wing head.

You can read Ms. Borchardt's entire article here.

The Republican War on Women is "fiction?"

WHAT YOU DO SPEAKS SO LOUDLY

THAT I CANNOT HEAR WHAT YOU SAY.

Stephen Colbert's 2016 ALL-YOU-CAN TRUMP Luxury Presidential Debate - Get Ready to Laugh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpKiP_gmDS8 

 I bow to Mr. Colbert's genius.

January 29 - A Few More Interesting Stories

-- 1 -- 

Michigan Officials Quietly Gave Bottled Water to State Employees Months Before Flint Residents

m'eye thoughts:  The water was good enough for the people who lived in Flint, but not good enough for the government employees who worked in Flint?  

Government workers were being given bottled water in January.  Flint residents weren't warned until September--NINE MONTHS LATER.

Nice to know you have priorities, Mr. Snyder.  

Read more at ThinkProgress

-- 2 -- 

In Ohio we spell misogyny R-E-P-U-B-L-I-C-A-N--T-O-M--P-A-T-T-O-N.

Mr. Patton thinks a mother with two small children has no place in politics: "I want to tell her, 'Hey, Sweetie..."

Read more at AddictingInfo

-- 3 -- 

The comment made by my friends at Republican Family Values cannot be improved upon -- "The man with Joe McCarthy's good looks and Richard Nixon's sweat glands, Ted Cruz wanted us to feel sorry for him, again."

"Get Off The Cross.  Someone Else Needs The Wood."

Read more at YahooPolitics (video)

FBI Releases Unedited Video Showing LaVoy Finicum Reaching for His Gun

The FBI released video that clearly shows LaVoy Finicum reached toward his waist--twice--before he was fatally shot by law enforcement officers.

Investigators released the full, 26-and-a-half (minute) video recorded from a helicopter overhead in hopes of knocking down conspiracy theories about the Arizona rancher's death.

The video, at about the 9:20 mark, shows Finicum jump out of his SUV with his hands outstretched from his sides after crashing into a snowbank.

One officer approaches from the front with a gun drawn, and Finicum reaches with his left hand toward the right side of his body.

He lifts his arms again and then turns to see a second officer come out of a wooded area behind him.  

Finicum again reaches with his right hand toward the left side of his body, and the second officer shoots him...

...Investigators say Finicum was carrying a loaded 9 mm handgun in his pocket.

eye'm thynkin':  This is ugly, really ugly; but it needed to be seen to stop conspiracists from turning LaVoy Finicum into some type of government gone mad martyr.

• Finicum's pick-up clearly was stopped a mile further down the road where law enforcement gave him and his passengers plenty of time to exit the vehicle and surrender peacefully.  
• It was Finicum's choice to take off again down the road. 
• It was Finicum's choice to try to go around a roadblock further on down the highway.  
• It was Finicum's choice to jump from his vehicle.  
• It was Finicum's choice to reach for his gun.
• When he was shot, he did not have his hands in the air.  
• He was not on his knees.  
• He was not surrendering.  

LaVoy Finicum made a bad choice and he died for it.

Read more and watch the unedited video at Raw Story

The Democratic Presidential Race in 25 Words:

Kansas Senator Wants to Make Gun Dealers a Protected Class

Kansas State Senator
Jacob LaTurner

Thanks to a repeal of a long-standing law in 2015, Kansas currently doesn't have discrimination protection on the basis of sexual orientation, but rather than rectify that blot on the state's reputation, Republicans are focusing on a group that's a bit closer to home: the hapless gun dealer.

In a new bill, astounding in its sheer audacity, Republicans want to "ban discrimination" against gun dealers and manufacturers.  In short, they wish to make the sellers of firearms a protected class like those of race, gender, and religion...

...Sen. Jacob LaTurner (R-Of Course)...said this was a way to protect gun dealers from the federal government's tyranny.

LaTurner said his bill is "intended to give these folks an avenue to push back"  and would "give the firearm industry the ability to get some protection against this incredible overreach by our president."

eye'm thynkin':  The GOP's unrelenting campaign of hate against President Obama has not only made them stupid, it has made them blind to their own ridiculousness.

Read more at Addicting Info

A Desperate Jeb Bush Shows Just How Low He'll Go to Revive His Flailing Campaign

"The Right to Rise super PAC helping Jeb Bush is airing an ad in South Carolina that features a photo of Terri Schiavo, the Pinellas County woman who died 10 years ago despite Bush's efforts to halt the removal of her feeding tube...

...Says the narrator: "He's a man of deep faith who fought time and again for the right to life."

"it is simply disgusting that Jeb Bush and his super PAC would exploit my wife's tragedy for his crude political gain. Shame on Jeb Bush," said Michael Schiavo, Terri's husband...

"Using his disgraceful intervention in our family's private trauma to advance his political career shows that he has learned nothing..."

eye'm thynkin':  This is beyond any human decency.

Read more at the Tampa Bay Times

January 28 - A Few More Stories I Found Interesting

1 - Defying His Own Son, Cliven Bundy Rallies Oregon Militants to 'Fight' to the End

m'eye thoughts: He whines about Finicum's sacrifice being wasted if they give up now.

You know, Cliven, those people probably wouldn't even have been in Oregon if you hadn't successfully defied the government last year and simply paid the money you owe.  They thought you were such a hero that they were willing to follow your sons to another state so they could be heroes too.  You might want to just shut up now before you get anyone else killed.

(And, yes, I still blame the Obama administration for wimping out at the Bundy ranch in Nevada last year.)

2 - Terrorist Jon Ritzheimer Uses Sobbing Daughters to Beg for Money Before Turning Himself In

Gee, Jon, it's just now occurring to you that your actions would affect your family?  Too bad you didn't think of them BEFORE you went on your big macho adventure.

3 - GOP Lawmakers Ignore Evidence, Keep Using Discredited Videos Against Planned Parenthood

Against all common sense, in defiance of the findings of their own investigations, the GOP War on Women continues.

4 - More Oregon Occupiers Arrested; Others Leave as Standoff Appears to Fade

The latest, including some of what was picked up from a live video feed the remaining occupiers have left open and the social media braggadocio these idiots used that will be part of the court case against them.  Bundyland is a much quieter and more somber place to be today.

Remaining Malheur Militants Tell Supporters: Join Us. If Law Officers Try to Stop You "Kill Them"

Screen shot from You Tube video released by
remaining Malheur Wildlife occupiers

As law enforcement moved in on Wednesday to contain militants who have occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge for week,s a broadcast from inside the refuge showed angry militiamen promising a "bloodbath."...

..."The media has been ordered to leave, and that means they are coming to kill us and they don't want them to see that!" the man yelled into the camera. "They're going to murder all of us and the media are cowards."...

...Continuing to shout into the camera, the militia member called for the American people to join his cause: "Right now, it is on!"...

...Get here, get some...This is history in the making."

"There are no laws in this United States now!" the man insisted.  "This is a free-for-all Armageddon..."

..."If they stop you from getting here, kill them!"

eye'm thynkin':  Speechless.    

Read more at Raw Story (video)

Megalomaniac Threatens to Take His Hamster Habitat Head and Go Home

So Trump is pouting because he feels he was mistreated by debate monitor Megyn Kelly when she asked him questions he didn't like?  Pouting is oh, so, presidential; and a sure-fire method for working with other world powers.  Our allies are undoubtedly shaking in their boots, (though that is probably from laughter).

This is so stupid and so typical of Kind Combover that I can't even bring myself to write about it.   If you feel the need to know the details, an excellent story about the back and forth between Fox and Trump can be found here.

Spoiler alert: Trump sounds like a spoiled 2-year-old when Mean Mommy won't give him his favorite blankey.

Malheur Refuge Surrounded, One Occupier Calls Arrests "a Dirty Trick"

The Oregon nature preserve being occupied by an armed anti-government group was surrounded by law-enforcement agents Wednesday, a day after one of the occupiers was killed by officers during a traffic stop and eight others, including the group's leader Ammon Bundy, were arrested...

...For weeks, law-enforcement vehicles have been noticeably absent from the roads around the refuge.  On Wednesday, however, marked law-enforcement cars were parked throughout the region.  The FBI and state police said they were setting up checkpoints and only allowing ranchers who own property in specific areas to pass.

About 13 miles from the refuge headquarters, a sign warned drivers to turn around because a roadblock is ahead.  Reporters and others who approached the vehicles blocking the road were met by FBI agents wearing camouflage body armour and helmets and carrying assault rifles.  A spike strip, designed to puncture tires, was laid across the pavement just beyond the roadblock...

The eight arrested Malheur militants

...Brand Thornton, one of Bundy's supporters, said he left the refuge Monday and was not sure what those remaining would do.

"The entire leadership is gone," he told the AP in a telephone interview. "I wouldn't blame any of them for leaving."

Thornton called the arrests "a dirty trick" by law enforcement.

eye'm thynkin': Yeah, law enforcement officers arresting law breakers, that's sneaky.

Read more at NewsTalk650

What Witnesses Say About Malheur Occupation Arrests, Finicum's Death

LaVoy Finicum (in white hate) talking to the media at the
Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on January 9, 2016

...In his video, McConnell said Ammon Bundy and Cavalier were in the vehicle he was driving to John Day for a community meeting.  He said Finicum was driving a pickup that carried Ryan Bundy, Payne, Cox and an 18-year-old woman.

He said as they traveled on U.S. 395 police vehicles pulled in behind them and stopped them.  McConnell said he was removed by police first, then Ammon Bundy, then Cavalier.

He said Finicum's pickup was stopped about 200 yards away, and one passenger already was on the ground in handcuffs.

McConnell said Payne and Cox later recounted how Payne and Finicum got into a "heated discussion" about what to do.

"LaVoy was passionate about this, about the movement," McConnell said.

McConnell said he noticed movement, and Finicum "took off" in the pickup with the remaining passengers.  He said Payne described encountering a police roadblock about a mile north on the highway and apparently tried to get around it, becoming stuck in the snow.

"When he exited the vehicle, the rear wheels were still spinning," McConnell said.  "He charged at law enforcement" and was shot.

McConnell disputed earlier accounts on social media that Finicum was shot while on his knees with his hands up.

McConnell said he and the 18-year-old, Victoria Sharp, were taken to Burns for questioning and later released.

His account couldn't be immediately confirmed, but several details matched accounts from law enforcement sources.

Ms. Sharp's account varies on some details:

...After they were stopped by police Payne was attempting to get her and (Shawna) Cox safely out of the car when police took their first shot.

"He put his hands out the window, he was trying to talk to them."...

..."Ryan (Payne) said, 'We have women in the car, let the women out,' she said...

...Sharp said that they began to realize that the police "meant business" and that Finicum, who was driving, yelled that he was going to continue driving so that he could "talk to the sheriff."

"He drove and we all got down on the floorboards and they just started firing at us.."...adding that Finicum reached the roadblock and his truck rammed into a snowbank.

With the car running, she said, Finicum "got out of the car and he had his hands in the air and he was like, 'Just shoot me then, just shoot me.'"

"And they did," she said.  "They shot him dead."

eye'm thynkin':  What a sad and stupid outcome.  Racing away from a police roadblock--what did they expect was going to happen?  Mr. Finicum showed no concern for anyone else in the vehicle he was driving.  

LaVoy Finicum expected to win; he expected to walk away a hero just like Clive Bundy did last year.  In the end, LaVoy Finicum made the vow he made on January 5  come true: "This is where I'm going to breathe my last breath, whether I'm 90, 95 or 55... I'm going to not spend my days in a cell."

He sure showed "them." 

Read more at Oregon Live

January 27 - A Few More Stories Want to Share

1 - Watch Protester Throw Tomatoes at Trump After He Calls Bernie Sanders a Communist (video)

m'eye thoughts: I never did see the tomatoes, but I'm still smiling.  Let's hear it for Iowa!

2 -  Oregon Occupation: What Happened, What Happens Next

The basic facts.

3 - Full Text of FBI Statement

re: Malheur Wildlife Refuge arrests last night. 

January 26 - A Night Time Extra Story

1 - Leader of Oregon Occupation Ammon Bundy, Eight Others Arrested

m'eye thoughts:  The beginning of the end?  

Fact-Checking the GOP: Ted Cruz State Chairman Not the Combat Hero He Claims to Be?

Ted Cruz'
Washington State Campaign Chairman
 Rep. Graham Hunt

The Statements and the Facts:

(Taken from a post on Raw Story)

A Republican lawmaker who is serving as chairman of Sen. Ted Cruz's campaign in Washington state is either unwilling or unable to verify that he is a decorated combat veteran.

State Rep. Graham Hunt (R-Orting), who was elected in 2014...listed three medals on his official and campaign biographies that a military personnel center has no record of him receiving, reported The Seattle Times.

A military spokeswoman pointed out to the newspaper that the personnel center's records are sometimes incomplete--but Hunt has been quietly deleting some details about his service record from online biographies since reporters have begun to press him for more information,

Hunt, who traveled out of state earlier this month to meet with armed militants who are occupying an Oregon wildlife refuge, says he was "wounded in combat" but has offered only vague details about what happened.

The lawmaker said he was knocked down by explosions but can't remember where, and he also claims he cannot remember which units he deployed with to Afghanistan and Iraq.

Hunt deleted a Facebook post in 2015 that showed a dramatic photo of a U.S. soldier consoling another that, according to a caption, showed the lawmaker after a 2005 mortar attack...

..."I think combat camera captured the moment pretty well", the post said. "I surely have not forgotten that moment."

The image, however, was an Associated Press photo from 2003 that showed two Ohio soldiers...

The lawmaker deleted references last month to the Air Force Commendation Medal, the Iraq Campaign Medal and the Afghanistan Campaign Medal after the newspaper questioned him about the awards--which military officials say do not appear on his service record.

He also stopped describing himself in online biographies as a "combat veteran" of Iraq and Afghanistan...

"Honestly, I don't even care to list any honors or awards I have received, because, frankly I don't think they are important to the public in the first place," Hunt said, after removing details from his bio...

...Military records show Hunt earned an Air Force Achievement Medal for his service in 2002 and 2003 at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, where he worked as a security guard..."in extreme heat and austere conditions."...

...Hunt insists he was sent to Afghanistan...and Iraq...but cannot recall any details or supply the names of anyone he served with there...

...Military records show...there's no record he served in Iraq or Afghanistan.

...The lawmaker said paperwork about his combat service, wounds and medals might be lost or misplaced at a relative's house.

m'eye Verdict:

He says he has medals and combat wounds from Afghanistan and Iraq though the military has no record of his deployment to either country, he can't remember what unit he was in or the actual names of the medals he received, can't remember the names of anyone he served with there.   Hmmmm.   A moment he surely has "not forgotten" is preserved in a photo that turns out to be of two other guys taken two years earlier, and somehow he left all his records at a relative's house where they were lost.  Now he is erasing his claims of military glory from his bio.  

Sounds legit to me.  Okay, maybe not.  In fact, 'maybe not' to the degree that Mr. Hunt earns 4 out of 5 Gops.  I'm holding one back in case his relatives miraculously find all those misplaced records he accidentally left at their house.  The little butt end tacked onto the end is my personal statement about Mr. Hunt's humbleness when he said he didn't "even care to list any honors or awards I have received" right after he erased the list honors and awards he claimed to have received and with which he had been papering his biographies and Facebook page--until someone asked about them.

January 26 - A Few More Interesting Stories

1 - Tennessee Lawmakers Endorse Bid to Declare All Marriage Illegal in Order to Spite Equality

m'eye thoughts: Oh, give it up already!

2 - Grand Jury Indicts Anti-Abortion Activists Behind Planned Parenthood Videos

YES! And in TEXAS no less!

"Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson announced Monday that Center for Medical Progress founder David Daleiden was indicted on a felony charge of tampering with a government record and a misdemeanor count related to purchasing human organs...  Anderson said the grand jury cleared Planned Parenthood of any wrongdoing."

Quote for Monday, January 25

As if there isn't enough for any sane person to dislike about Donald Trump, he has now gone the extra mile and, just when we could begin to hope she would fade away, put Sarah Palin back in the national spotlight.  Of course, on the good side, we'll be seeing more of Tina Fey.

That being said, can anyone argue with this?

monday quote:

"Palin's bonkers speech at Trump rally was like a bag of Scrabble tiles came to life."

(Trevor Noah, comedian and host of The Daily Show, 1984 - ) 

Trump, Founder & Nat'l Chairman of Narcissism Without Borders

To hear Donald Trump tell it, he has never been wrong, never made a mistake, never needed to apologize, and never had to ask God to forgive him for anything.

(So God is cool with your fooling around with your second wife while still married to your first wife if you have a billion dollars and keep a home for squirrels on your head? I have got to get a copy of that Presbyterian Bible he says he loves so much.  Imagine what other Christian establishment no-nos are really A-ok if I can meet the right requirements!)  

...Those who show up at Trump's rallies seem to love the fact that he will not admit to having any faults or frailties...

...Trump was on the CBS Sunday news show "Face the Nation," and he was asked by host John Dickerson: "You said yesterday you could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and wouldn't lose voters. You're that confident, huh?"

Most people would take the chance to back down a bit, dial it down a notch or two and use some humility to lighten such a remark, but not Trump, because, hey, he is never ever wrong, as he conveyed once more with his reply:

"Well, I have a very great group of people, John... I have people that are so loyal, and it's been so reported, and even in your poll.  But in a lot of polls, they do that, the loyalty factor.  And my factor is up--when you add it all up, it's pretty much close to 90 percent.  These are people that just won't leave.  They will not leave.  I love my people.  And it's a great thing.  I mean, it's a great thing, far greater loyalty than any other candidate by double, triple, quadruple.  And I love my people."

eye'm thynkin':  Note, his people are not just "great," but "very great."  They are also amazingly stupid, so amazingly stupid they believe bragging about the possibility of shooting someone is an attribute.  But that's okay because Donald loves them! (Except for that guy who told Mr. Combover he was boring. Apparently anything short of total adoration is unacceptable and must be purged in order for the love to continue to flow.)  

I don't know about you, but I'd prefer a president who isn't quite so needy.  Really, bragging about shooting someone as evidence of loyalty just seems a bit over the top to me; and the Donald, just like his followers, is simply too stupid to recognize that. 

Read more at Bipartisan Report (video)

January 25 - Two More Stories I Found

1 - Bundyland Security Chief Ryan Payne: It's Legal to Kill a Cop who's 'Unlawfully Trying to Arrest You'

m'eye thoughts: He also claims to believe that slavery never really existed in the United States and that African Americans in the antebellum South 'didn't view themselves as slaves."   A fine example of a Bundy "patriot."

2 - Rick Snyder Hires Out-of-State Public Relations Firm with Secret Money

"The Governor was advised today to immediately bring in outside health experts to assist the people of Flint.  Instead, he brought in a new public relations team to assist himself."