Gun Nuts Afraid to Enter Halloween Park Unarmed

"There is nothing armed-Americans enjoy more than showing off their guns in public.  Open carry rules!...

... So when the owner of a popular Delaware haunted house was quite adamant that nobody--including off-duty cops--pack heat while visiting his attraction, gun nuts reacted as if the amusement park operator dug up Zombie Reagan and dressed him up in a Mao jacket and let people throw poop at him as part of the Halloween hi-jinks..

...Despite the fact that Frightland has for years donated a portion of all tickets sold and 100 percent of the parking fees to the Leukemia Research Foundation of Delaware, gun nuts were outraged...and went on Frightland's Facebook page and ranted about boycotting the park--cancer contributions be damned."

eye'm thynkin':  You never know when you might need to shoot a zombie, or an innocent kid who is just in the park to have a good time.  My gun is more important than your kid's leukemia!  That's what America is all about!  Good grief. 

Read more at Raw Story

Florida Sun-Sentinel Calls for Rubio to Resign

Photo credit: Rick Bowmer (AP)

"... Rubio has missed more votes than any other senator this year.  His seat is regularly empty for floor votes, committee meetings and intelligence briefings. He says he's MIA from his J-O-B because he finds it frustrating and wants to be president, instead...

Sorry, senator, but Floridians sent you to Washington to do a job.  We've got serious problems with clogged highways, eroding beaches, flat Social Security checks and people who want to shut down the government.

If you hate your job, senator, follow the honorable lead of House Speaker John Boehner and resign it.

Let us elect someone who wants to be there and earn an honest dollar for an honest day's work...

...Two other candidates--Sens. Rand Paul and Bernie Sanders--have missed only 10 Senate votes during their campaigns for the White House.  You, on the other hand, have missed 59... 

...And it is unconscionable that when it comes to intelligence matters, including briefings on the Iran nuclear deal, you said, 'we have a staffer that's assigned to intelligence who gets constant briefings.

And you want us to take you seriously as a presidential candidate?... 

...Your job is to represent Floridians in the Senate.

Either do your job, Sen. Rubio, or resign it."

eye'm thynkin':  Ouch.

Read more at Daily Kos and Sun-Sentinel

Ben Carson-isms, Just In Time for Halloween

what eye thynk:  In case you are thinking Ben Carson is a step up from Donald Trump, consider these "Ben Carson-isms."

1 - "Women who get abortions are like slaveholders.

2 - Obamacare is the worst thing since slavery.

3 - 'Hitler' could happen in the U.S. today.

4 - Jews could have prevented the Holocaust if they had guns.

5 - College campuses should be monitored for liberal political speech.

6 - Muslims should be disqualified from the presidency.

7 - There's a war on 'what's inside of women.'

8 - Being gay is a choice because prison turns people gay.

9 - There is no such thing as a war crime.

10 - Obama is depressing the economy to keep people on welfare.

11 - Obama signed immigration reform to bring in government-dependent voters.

12 - Congress should be able to remove judges for voting for marriage equality.

13 - Anarchy could cancel the 2016 election."

And if those aren't enough:

1 -"Evolution and the Big Bang theory are the work of the devil.
2 - Asked why victims of mass shootings don't just attack the gunman.
3 - Thinks that atheism is a religion.

4 - Says it's unconstitutional for courts to rule on the constitutionality of laws.

5 - Referred to President Obama as a psychopath because he looks great "like most psychopaths."

This is what happens when politicians try to out do each other for an evening news sound byte and nobody asks questions. Anything can be stated as true because someone, somewhere, will believe it--the more ridiculous the better.  Nothing is sacred.    

Read more at Think Progress and News Corpse

Marco Rubio: Voting in the Senate is Highly Overrated

Marco Rubio in Salt Lake City, Utah on October 19, 2015
(working hard for the people of Florida)

"Someone needs to tell Marco Rubio that when you're in a hole, quit digging...

...When pressed during a CNN interview about why he thinks federal workers should be fired for not doing their jobs while he has missed the most votes in the Senate, Sen. Marco Rubio put his foot in his mouth and said that voting in the Senate is not important for a Senator...

...Caught in his hypocrisy, Rubio tried to dig his way out... 'Voting is not the most important part of the job.  The most important thing that a Senator does is constituent services.'"

eye'm thynkin':  The people in Florida are undoubtedly grateful for all the good services Mr. Rubio is providing for them in New Hampshire and Iowa and Utah and...

Read more at Crooks and Liars

Stop Me If You've Heard This Before

(Any underlines are mine.)

"House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) announced Friday the (creation of) the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Select Investigative Panel focused on 'big abortion providers'--namely Planned Parenthood...

...From the Speaker's Friday news release:

"Recent videos exposing the abortion-for-baby parts business have shocked the nation, and demanded action.  At my request, three House committees have been investigating the abortion business, but we still don't have the full truth..."  

eye'm thynkin':  Haven't we heard this before? 

I expect that sometime in 2017, Cecile Richards will sit in the seat recently occupied by Hillary Clinton and will, once again, make Republicans look petty, ill-informed, and foolish.  But not before American taxpayers spend millions of dollars so that GOP candidates can continue to feed their conservative voter base the "facts" they want to hear.

Read more at Talking Points Memo

Scott Walker Signs Law That Protects Dirty Politicians

"Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker on Friday signed a bill into law that prohibits prosecutors from using the state's secret investigation law to probe political crimes--a measure used to convict four of his aides and investigate his campaign...

...Under the legislation Walker signed, prosecutors can no longer use the law to investigate cases of bribery or political misconduct...

...The Republican-led state Senate and Assembly approved the measure along party lines during the last several days."

eye'm thynkin':  Because who needs to waste time prosecuting dirty politicians, right?  Really, when was the last time a politician was convicted, or even charged, with any unlawful shenanigans?   Oh, yeah...hmmmm.

Well, at least Mr. Walker saved his own butt in the future.  Too bad about those aides of his though.

Read more at Yahoo News

Christie Thinks WWIII Will Put Him in White House

"Languishing at the bottom in polls of the Republican presidential field, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey ramped up his tough talk on foreign policy (last week), calling President Obama a 'weakling' and saying that the United States should threaten to shoot down Russian planes conducting airstrikes in Syria.

'My first phone call would be to Vladimir, and I'd say, "Listen, we're enforcing this no-fly zone... And I mean we're enforcing it against anyone, including you.  So don't try me.  Don't try me.  Because I'll do it."'

eye'm thynkin':  Christie is still running?  Really?  Well, then... Yeeehaaaww!  World War III here I come!  That ought to get those poll numbers surging!

Read more at The New York Times

Paul Ryan Demands Paid Family Time--For Himself

"Paul Ryan, Opponent of Paid Family Leave, Demands Congress Respect His Need for Family Time.

Last night, Paul Ryan announced that he'd run for Speaker of the House if his Republican colleagues met a list of demands.  Among them: insisting that time Ryan spends with his family not be sacrificed.

Ryan, whose wife and three young children reside in Janesville, Wisconsin, flies home for a visit every weekend.  That's nice.  If only he believed that other Americans deserved the same...

...Ryan's GOP caucus blocked President Obama's attempt to mandate paid parental leave in both the public and private sectors here in the US.  We're one of only three countries in the world that doesn't guarantee new parents paid time off from work to care for their offspring.

And we certainly don't have any enshrined rules that guarantee fathers time away from work to spend with their 10-, 12-, and 13-year-old children.  Perhaps if Paul Ryan hadn't spent much of his political career fighting laws that promote realistic work-life balance for parents of all socioeconomic levels, asking for family time would make him look more like a hero and less like a hypocrite."

eye'm thynkin':  Couldn't have said it better myself.  Just more Republican IGM-YOYO (I've Got Mine-You're On Your Own.)

Read more at The Slot.Jezebel.com

RNC Calls Dems Request That GOP Pay for Benghazi Committee "Pathetic"

(Any underlines are mine.)

"In a letter to Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, Senate Democrats this week demanded that the Republican party cover the costs of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, Roll Call reported on Wednesday morning.

'Over the past several weeks, several House Republicans have made clear what many observers have suspected all along:  that the Select Committee has conducted a political inquisition aimed at former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  Due to the political nature of the committee, we believe it is inappropriate that a reported 4.7 million taxpayer dollars were used to finance its operations and that the RNC subsequently orchestrated numerous fundraising opportunities in its wake,' Democrats wrote in the letter obtained by Roll Call.

The letter sent by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and three members of his leadership team highlights House Majority Leader Keven McCarthy's recent comments about the political goals of the Benghazi committee.  The Democrats also mentioned a fundraising effort from the National Republican Congressional Committee launched in May 2014 that asked donors to help Republicans 'go after Obama & Hillary Clinton,' referencing the committee.

'Harry Reid's pathetic attempt to inject politics into the final, definitive account of the...terrorist attack in Benghazi that killed four Americans dishonors their memory and has no basis in reality,' RNC National Press Secretary Allison Moore said in a statement."

eye'm thynkin':  Note to Ms. Moore and the RNC--When your own members admit the Committee is nothing by a front for a political attack machine, whining about the other party injecting politics into the issue is laughable.  And, really, I think the American people got the "definitive account" of Benghazi seven Republican investigations ago.

Read more at Talking Points Memo

Trey Gowdy Says He Found Classified Info in Clinton Email--CIA Says Not So.

"Trey Gowdy, the chair of the Select Committee on Benghazi, leveled a very serious charge against Hillary Clinton in an October 7 letter.  Gowdy asserted that Hillary Clinton disclosed the name of a CIA source in an email sent from her private server...

...The Washington Examiner covered the story with this headline: 'Clinton burns CIA Libya contact.'

This does not appear to be true.

A letter from Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the committee, reveals that the CIA reviewed the email in question and found that the information in question was not classified.

'Contrary to your claims, the CIA yesterday informed both the Republican and Democratic staffs of the Select Committee that they do not consider the information you highlighted in your letter to be classified...'"

eye'm thynkin':  Poor Trey Gowdy.  How's a fella gonna smear a political rival when the CIA won't cooperate?

Give it up, Republicans.  You are not fooling anyone, except maybe a couple of pinheads who still think the earth is flat and dinosaurs were milked by humans to make cheese. 

Read more at Thing Progress

Priest Defends Pedophiles, Blames Child Victims

"A Catholic priest in the Vatican's backyard has been suspended from his parish after he proclaimed on live TV that pedophilia is the fault of the victim.

Don Gino Flaim of the San Giuseppe Parish in the northern Italian town of Trento, gave a jaw dropping interview on Italy's La7 channel, in which he claimed that he 'understands pedophilia' and then proceeded to defend pedophile priests as good men pursued by unloved children who wear down their resistance.

"Unfortunately there are children who seek affection because they don't receive it at home,' said Don Gino Flaim. 'and I understand that some priests can give in.'

According to the IBTimes, Father Flaim followed up his supposition that he 'understands pedophilia' by attacking gay people, as if those subjects have something in common.  Father Flaim said that while he knows why pedophilia happens, he's 'not sure about homosexuality' at all.

"Pedophilia is a sin...but homosexuality is a disease.'

Father Flaim's interview has been roundly criticized throughout Europe."

eye'm thynkin':  Well, I should hope so! This is beyond disgusting.  This man should not be a member of clergy...in any church. 

Read more at The New Civil Rights Movement

Freedom of Religion Includes the Right to Convenient Parking?

"As Washington, DC officials consider adding a bike lane, the United House of Prayer is firmly opposing it in the name of freedom."

The church's claim is that a bike lane would reduce the availability of street parking near the church.

"One church has given a charged response to some proposals, saying that a bike lane near its property would infringe upon 'its constitutionally protected rights of religious freedom and equal protection of the laws.'...

...The parking loss would place an unconstitutionally undue burden on people who want to pray, the church argues..."

eye'm thynkin':  Beyond the church's obvious selfish mind-set that an entire city of bike riders should be inconvenienced six days a week in order to protect church parking on Sunday, lurks the question:  Since when does freedom of religion include the right to handy parking?   

Read more at Daily Kos

Another GOP Candidate Short on Funds: Jeb!

photo via Getty

"Jeb Bush's campaign slashed hundreds of thousands of dollars in salaries over the last three months as the struggling candidate's fundraising machine slowed to a more middling pace, new campaign-finance reports indicate...

...'The campaign has knocked on doors, made calls, sent mail and advertised so much that it has made more than one million voter contacts,' (Danny) Diaz (Jeb's campaign manager) said...

...And to rivals and the few neutral Republicans observing the race, all of the data about voter contacts indicates Bush's weak position.

'We've reached one million people and we're in fifth place nationally?' said one Bush supporter who didn't want to be identified. 'I trust the campaign.  I just don't know about the voters.  It's like the more Jeb is out there, the less well he does.'"

eye'm thynkin':  That's because every time Jeb opens his mouth he seems to discover another group of American voters to offend.  In the end, he is still a Bush--pretty to look at, but scratch beneath the thin mahogany veneer and you've got cheap pasteboard.

Read more at Politico

NFL Owner Fighting LGBT Inclusion in Houston Nondiscrimination Bill

NFL owner Bob McNair

As if rational Americans needed another reason to dislike the state of Texas.

"Houston Texans owner Bob McNair has donated $10,000 to Campaign for Houston, an organization that opposes the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO), a nondiscrimination law that's up for a vote on November 3rd.

While the ordinance provides wide-ranging nondiscrimination protections for Houston residents and visitors, including in cases of race, sexuality, gender, disability, nationality, and religion, the Campaign for Houston has centered in on LGBT protections...

...The NFL's interest in Houston's nondiscrimination ordinance goes beyond McNair... The city is set to host the Super Bowl in 2017...

...Houston is one of the only major cities in the United States without a nondiscrimination ordinance in place.  If the law is not passed next month, it could send a signal to organizations like the NFL that Houston isn't a safe place to hold big events.

McNair addressed his donation in a statement released by Texans communications director Kevin Cooper: ...

..."I strongly believe that everyone who lives or works in or visits Houston should be treated with the utmost dignity and respect.  Because of the way the HERO ordinance is written, it has begun to separate rather than unite our community.  This problem can be solved by defeating the current bill in November, thoughtfully rewriting it and resubmitting it to the voters."

eye'm thynkin':  Translation:  Remove all LGBT protections from the law and everything will be sunshine and roses in Houston. 

Read more at Think Progress

Jeb: My Brother Had His Recession, Now I Want One Too!

"In New Hampshire on Wednesday, speaking to Sean Hannity in front of two plastic pumpkins and a Jeb! 2016 placard, the former Florida governor was asked how he would make the argument to voters that the Democrats' plans to expand the safety net would bankrupt the country.

'We have the benefit now of all this philosophy of offering free things to people not working.' Bush said.  'I think the better message is, let's disrupt Washington.  Let's create a little bit of a recession in Washington, D.C., so that we can have economic prosperity outside of Washington.'...

...Asked why in the hell a candidate for president of the United States would wish such a thing on an American city, (Bush spokesman Tim) Miller didn't respond--not even to suggest it was a joke."

eye'm thynkin':  1. There we go with that Romney-esque "free stuff" thing again.  2.  What in the hell is Jeb talking about?  3.  Some gaffs just can't be explained away.

Read more at: The Daily Beast

Phony Fox Intelligence Expert Under FBI Indictment

(Any underlines are mine.)

"Wayne Simmons has been a frequent guest on Fox News for many years, providing what they said was expert analysis of intelligence and military issues...He is now under indictment for 'major fraud against the United States, wire fraud, and making false statements to the government.'

What's frightening about the revelation that Fox News was relying on an impostor to provide analysis of national security is that the phony analysis he provided may have been exactly what Fox News intended. That's because Simmons was identified as a participant in the Pentagon Military Analyst Program--an initiative developed during the Bush administration to dispatch retired officers, and other alleged experts, to the media in order to push their agendas in Iraq and elsewhere.  The program was revealed in a Pulitzer prize-winning article by David Barstow for the New York Times.  Bartstow wrote that...

'To the public, these men are members of a familiar fraternity, presented tens of thousands of times on television and radio as "military analysts" whose long service has equipped them to give authoritative and unfettered judgments about the most pressing issues of the post-Sept. 11 world.'

'Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the (Bush) administration's wartime performance.'

eye'm thynkin':  Shame on Fox "news," stuck in a time-warp where they still believe they are doing good work for Dick Cheney.  

But also shame on the FBI for not throwing this hack in the slammer years ago. Sure, he was initially protected by  W's  Cheney's administration; but that ended nearly seven years ago.

If McDonald's can check a resume by Friday, surely it shouldn't take our federal government nearly seven years to find out someone is lying about being a former CIA operative.

Read more at News Corpse

Missouri Republican Wants Planned Parenthood to Build a Memorial

Missouri State Representative
 Rick Brattin (R)

"Missouri Republican state Rep. Rick Brattin this week called for legislation that would force Planned Parenthood to build a memorial to aborted fetuses...

...Before Democrats walked out of the meeting in protest, state Rep. Stacey Newman (D) accused Republicans of leading 'a witch hunt hearing..."...

...The Republican lawmaker came under fire last year after sponsoring a bill that would have required pregnant women to get the permission of fathers before getting an abortion."

eye'm thynkin': And will Mr. Brattin also be calling for the NRA to build a memorial to all those Americans who have died because of the organization's unyielding stance against common sense gun control?  Maybe he could require congressional Republicans to kick back some of the NRA money they pocket every election cycle to help pay for it. 

Read more at Raw Story

Gun Shop Owner Found Liable for Illegal Gun Sale

Former Milwaukee police officers Graham Kunisch (lef) and Bryan Norberg
who were injured by a gun purchased illegally from Badger Guns

"A jury late Tuesday awarded more than $5 million in damages to two police officers who were severely wounded with a pistol that a (Milwaukee) gun shop sold to a straw buyer in 2009...

...The jury found that the store had been seriously negligent in selling the gun when there were signs that the ostensible purchaser was fronting for an 18-year-old who accompanied him to the store...

...The case arose in May 2009 when Jacob Collins, 21, bought a Taurus semiautomatic pistol at Badger Guns on behalf of Mr. Burton, who was too young to legally purchase a gun.  Mr. Burton helped select the weapon..

...Weeks later, Mr. Burton used the gun to shoot the two Milwaukee police officers.  He is serving 80 years for attempted murder, and Mr. Collins served two years for the illegal purchase...

...Badger Guns' federal firearms license was revoked in 2011 because of repeated violations.  But the 2009 sale to Mr. Collins was not one of those violations, and Judge DiMotto did not allow the jury to hear about the revocation."

-----

"A videotape shows Burton helping Collins choose the handgun.  In addition, the lawsuit says Collins checked 'no' on a federal firearms transaction form that asked whether he was the actual buyer of the weapon, but changed it to 'yes' after gun store employee told him to change his answer."

eye'm thynkin':  Just one drop in the giant barrel of illegal gun sales in this country; but I'll take it.

Read more at The New York Times  
and Cleveland.com

Update: Home Depot "Good Guy" Parking Lot Shooter Charged

Last Thursday I wrote about two "good guys" with guns who tried to play hero and failed.  One of the stories was about a woman who thought it would be a good idea to pull her perfectly legal firearm out of her purse and fire it at suspected shoplifters in a crowded public parking lot.

Update:
"A 46-year-old Clarkston (Michigan) woman accused of firing gunshots at two men who were driving away from a Home Depot after stealing merchandise has been charged with reckless use, handling or discharge of a firearm.

Tatiana Duva-Rodriguez is accused of firing the shots Oct. 6 at Home Depot, 4150 Joslyn Road in Auburn Hills.  Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper said charges were filed Tuesday morning."

eye'm thynkin':  Maybe the next chowderhead with a gun  will think before donning his Batman cape.

Read more at Oakland Press

The Inmates Are In Charge, and We Are All Hostages

(Any underlines are mine.)

"Even as the Republican Party descends into chaos, revealing itself as incapable of selecting a leader, let alone governing, the rest of the country still has to deal with the consequences of a dysfunctional, largely incompetent group of fanatics in control of an entire branch of the U.S. government.  The House of Representatives is...tasked by the Constitution with maintaining the country's financial stability."...

...The House of Representatives is now wholly in the control of persons who, for ideological reasons, will not perform that critical function...

...As we have been dragged through one debt ceiling and government shutdown crisis after another, it has been painfully obvious what is causing the impasse:  A sizable bloc of House Republicans wants to use the threat of damage to the country as leverage to extract unilateral concessions from Democrats, no matter what harm is done in the process...

...In a normal negotiation between opposing sides, the 'negotiators' adopt the respective positions of their constituents.  That is not the relationship between the controlling caucus of the Republican House and its leaders... Speaker John Boehner acknowledged the critical necessity of raising the debit ceiling but took the position that drastic concessions in programs such as Medicare and Social Security and slashing budget cuts in other programs would be necessary in order to bring the rest of his caucus along...

...The problem is that in gaining office in the first place the so-called 'Tea Party' committed themselves to ideology so extreme that any accommodation is now seen as a fatal weakness...  Boehner himself acknowledged that the typical Tea Party House member survives solely by 'whipping people into a frenzy' by promising things they 'know are never going to happen.'...

...The corporate interests who manipulated voters' racial and social fears to put these abysmal people into office have lost control of their creation... The American people have a right to know that what the Republicans are demanding is not 'negotiation'...caused by some 'failure to cooperate' between parties."

eye'm thynkin':  Demonstrating a willingness to destroy the country that pays you to care for it, should deny you the right to call yourself a patriot. 

This is not a problem that will be solved easily.  Tea Party Republicans, financed by corporate dollars, have goaded the less educated, easily-led among their party's constituency into believing that the U.S. government is the enemy, an enemy that is one conspiracy theory away from 1. taking away their guns 2. imprisoning all the Christians 3. imposing Shariah law 4. forcing heterosexuals into gay marriages... 

I expect that future generations will view the Tea Party with the same fascination we now feel for the Salem witch trials.

Read more at Daily Kos