News article:

Photograph by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images.

 For three days last week, Rush Limbaugh ridiculed Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown University law student who had argued that health insurers should be required to cover contraception. Then, on Saturday, under pressure from his advertisers, Limbaugh apologized. The apology addressed Limbaugh’s personal language about Fluke, whom he had called a “slut” (and from whom he had jokingly demanded “videos of all this sex posted online so we can see what we are getting for our money”). But it didn’t recant or rebut any of the ideas Limbaugh put forward during his rants against Fluke. And those ideas are worth examining, because, whether you love or hate Limbaugh, his impromptu monologues are a useful indicator of what many conservative Americans think. Let’s look at the questions he raised.

 William Saletan Will Saletan writes about politics, science, technology, and other stuff for Slate. He’s the author of Bearing Right.

 1. What’s the problem with contraceptive insurance: socialism or promiscuity? In his apology, Limbaugh said his objection was to socialism, not sex:

 It is absolutely absurd that during these very serious political times, we are discussing personal sexual recreational activities before members of Congress. I personally do not agree that American citizens should pay for these social activities. … If this is accepted as the norm, what will follow? Will we be debating if taxpayers should pay for new sneakers for all students that are interested in running to keep fit? In my monologue, I posited that it is not our business whatsoever to know what is going on in anyone's bedroom.

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 But that doesn’t square with what Limbaugh said during his Flukefest. “I will buy all of the women at Georgetown University as much aspirin to put between their knees as they want,” he joked Thursday. Later that day, Limbaugh repeated: “I'd buy all these women aspirins, put 'em between their knees, like Andrea Mitchell does.” On Friday, he reminded his listeners: “I offered to pay for aspirins.”

 Limbaugh was jesting, but the undercurrent seemed real. Does he object to paying for pills, or just for pills that facilitate sex?

 2. How much sex is too much? Fluke said birth control could cost a student more than $3,000 during law school. From this, Limbaugh somehow inferred that “she and her coed classmates are having sex nearly three times a day for three years straight, apparently.” In truth, Limbaugh has no idea how often Fluke has sex. But I can tell you exactly how many times Limbaugh used the phrase “so much sex” during his three days of attacking Fluke. The number is 23, and it rises above 30 if you include related phrases such as "sex-crazed coeds,” “sex-addict frequency,” “having sex so often,” “having sex so damn much,” “repeated, never-ending, as-often-as-she-wants-it sex,” and “sex anytime, as many times and as often as they want, with as many partners as they want.” If frequency reflects obsession, Limbaugh is obsessed with sexual frequency. Which raises the question: How much sex, in his view, is too much?

 3. Is contraception a sex enabler? Limbaugh accused Fluke of asking the public “to pay for the things that make it possible for her to have sex.” He called this “thousands of dollars in taxpayer dollars to satisfy the sexual habits of female law students,” and he rejected the idea of subsidizing such “personal sexual desires and habits.” Referring to a woman who sought contraception, Limbaugh scoffed, “Here's a woman exercising no self-control. “

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 4. What consequences should a woman face for having sex? Twice on Thursday, Limbaugh criticized the idea of a “woman [who] wants unlimited, no-responsibility, no-consequences sex.” On Friday, he faulted people who want “sex without consequence” and “behavior that people want to engage in with no consequences.” What exactly did he mean? Does he think pregnancy is the proper consequence of sex? Does he think it’s wrong to block that consequence? Rick Santorum thinks so. Does Limbaugh agree?

 5. Is pregnancy prevention a legitimate medical need? Twice, Limbaugh mocked the notion that women need birth control to avoid a “killer disease.” His tone was jocular, but he was essentially repeating an argument made by Catholic bishops: that pregnancy isn’t a disease, and therefore, contraception isn’t health care and shouldn’t be covered by universal health insurance. “This is a matter of personal choice. It's an elective activity,” Limbaugh protested. “They want to create a welfare entitlement program where we provide birth control pills, because pregnancy's an illness.” He also compared contraception to Botox, joking that “Botox-filled” House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi had probably told Fluke: "Have you heard what Botox costs? I can relate!" Does Limbaugh think contraception is as frivolous as Botox? If not, how seriously does he regard it?

 6. What responsibility should men bear? “Where are the guys here? Do they not have a role?” Limbaugh asked. “There are men involved, and that would mean there's some responsibility on the part of the men. Do they not have condoms? … What about these deadbeat boyfriends? … Where's their responsibility?”

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 These excellent questions were lost in the outrage over Limbaugh’s “slut” remark. Let’s give him credit for raising them, and let’s press him for answers. If he doesn’t want the government paying for birth control, what steps would he take to enforce male responsibility? A DNA database would make babies traceable to their fathers. Would Limbaugh support that? If not, how would he hold deadbeat boyfriends accountable?

 You raised good questions, Rush. You’re on the air three hours a day. Let’s hear your answers.

 William Saletan's latest short takes on the news, via Twitter: ||||| Rush Limbaugh isn’t the only conservative who bashed Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown University law student who advocated in favor of requiring insurance companies to cover contraception. Actress Patricia Heaton, of Everybody Loves Raymond and The Middle fame, attacked Fluke via Twitter.

 And now Heaton’s Twitter account has been deleted. Smells like a PR clean-up to us. Perhaps her bosses at ABC were worried that, as with Limbaugh, the nasty remarks would cause advertisers to flee. Maybe Heaton herself was wary of the backlash. Some of her many tweets about Fluke:

 G -Gal: you’ve given yer folks great gift for Mother’s/Father’s Day! Got up in front of whole world & said I’m having tons of sex- pay 4 it! If every Tweaton sent Georgetown Gal one condom, her parents wouldn’t have to cancel basic cable, & she would never reproduce – sound good? Hey G-Town Gal: Plz let us also pay for your Starbucks, movie theater tickets, and your favorite hot wings combo deal at KFC! Anything else?

 More of Heaton’s deleted tweets can be found on Crooks & Liars, Angry Black Girl, and Fanity. ||||| Patricia Heaton is a Coward

 Patricia Heaton, star of ABC’s The Middle, high-tailed it off of Twitter recently, presumably because she could not defend the nasty and misogynistic insults that she lobbed at Sandra Fluke. She also encouraged her “Tweatons” to lob at Ms. Fluke.

 Unfortunately for her, in connection with one of my posts on Oink-Gate, I took a screenshot of her Twitter stream. Here it is:

 Sorry, Patricia. You can run away from your words, but you cannot hide from them. The Internet is forever. ||||| Actress Patricia Heaton is perhaps known for her roles in the sitcoms "Everybody Loves Raymond" and "The Middle". She's also an outspoken conservative (not that rare a breed in Hollywood, no matter what Fox News says) who isn't afraid to dip her toe into her frequently factually incorrect political advocacy. For example, she was happy to film a commercial in response to Michael J. Fox's support for a Missouri stem cell research bill by warning against the evils of human cloning and human egg harvesting for profit.

 And she's at it again, this time echoing Rush Limbaugh in castigating Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown law student who was prevented from testifying in front of Issa's panel discussing the Obama administration's mandate that contraceptive care be offered to all employees free of charge. Heaton tweeted on Wednesday to her 65,000 followers that if each of her "Tweatons" (a portmanteau that cannot be scorned enough) would just send the "Georgetown Gal" a condom, then "her parents wouldn't have to cancel basic cable and she wouldn't reproduce".

 The American conservative: Keepin' it Klassy, as always.

 Predictably, this set off a firestorm on Twitter, one for which Heaton may not have been prepared. I mean, really, how dare people take offense to her attacking a college student she doesn't know for daring to express concern about her reproductive rights?

 Hey Tweatons: progressives are extremely sensitive and delicate. They are also humorless. Treat them gently & don't try to joke w/them.

 Yeah, it's our humorless nature that's the problem. It's not that Heaton is armed with no facts, is passing judgments against others and bullying a college student for no other reason than her own ignorant views. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Patricia Heaton apparently agrees with Rush Limbaugh when it comes to Georgetown student and birth control advocate Sandra Fluke. The Everybody Loves Raymond actress tweeted a series of attacks aimed at Fluke last week, then deleted her Twitter account, Mediabistro reports. Some of the highlights, as preserved for posterity by Crooks & Liars, Angry Black Lady, and Fanity: "If every Tweaton sent Georgetown Gal one condom, her parents wouldn’t have to cancel basic cable, & she would never reproduce – sound good?" "G-Gal: you’ve given yer folks great gift for Mother’s/Father’s Day! Got up in front of whole world & said I’m having tons of sex- pay 4 it!" Hey G-Gal! Change major to Health Sciences, then look at pix of people w/syphilis, gonorrhrea [sic], herpes, and chlamydia! Instant birth control! "Hey G-Town: stop buying toothpaste, soap, and shampoo! You'll save money, and no one will want to sleep with you!" "Hey G-Town Gal: Plz let us also pay for your Starbucks, movie theater tickets, and your favorite hot wings combo deal at KFC! Anything else?" Want more on the topic? Click to read six questions for Limbaugh on sex and contraception.


Article:

At a debate in Milwaukee, Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton diverged slightly on how they would reform health care and immigration, while largely agreeing on the need for change in policing. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

 Forty-eight hours after Bernie Sanders crushed Hillary Clinton in the New Hampshire primary, the two Democratic candidates faced off in the sixth debate of the presidential primary season. I picked some of the best and the worst of the night that was. And make sure to check out our annotated transcript of the debate too!

 Winners

 * Hillary Clinton: Beginning to end, this was Clinton's best debate of the election. In the first half hour, Clinton poked a series of holes in Sanders's health-care proposal and broadly cast the Vermont senator as someone who talks a big game but simply can't hope to achieve his goals. She was calm and cool throughout -- even when fighting on Sanders's home turf on wage inequality. Clinton also effectively cast Sanders as insufficiently loyal to President Obama, a point that will resound with black voters among whom Obama remains extremely popular.

 Clinton was helped by the dearth of questions about uncomfortable topics for her (paid speeches, State Department investigations); when pressed on her super PAC being financed heavily by a few individuals, Clinton was uncomfortable and gave one of her worst answers of the night. But, those moments were few and far between. If she -- and her campaign -- were knocked back after her massive loss in New Hampshire, it didn't show. She was in total control all night.

 * Barack Obama: It's sort of hard to believe that the Hillary Clinton currently embracing Barack Obama on every issue actually ran -- and ran hard -- against him back in 2007 and 2008. At every turn, Clinton found ways to praise Obama's bravery, his forethought and his judgment. And even Sanders, put on defense by Clinton's rabid pro-Obamaism, did what he could to tie himself to the outgoing president -- going as far as to note that Obama campaigned for him in Vermont.

 Whether they agreed or disagreed, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders had to work hard to differentiate themselves at Thursday's debate. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

 * My bedtime: Look, this has been a very long week. So, thank you PBS, for not only ending the debate on time but actually ending it seven minutes early. You have no idea what this means to me.

 * GIFs: Sanders's reaction shots during a debate are what these little beauties were created for.

 Exhibit A

 Exhibit B

 'Nuff said.

 Losers

 * Bernie Sanders: If the challenge for Sanders was to show that he could be a candidate for people other than those who already love him, he didn't make much progress toward that goal Thursday night. Sanders did come across as more well-versed on foreign policy than in debates past -- a low bar -- but he struggled to score clean hits on Clinton during the first hour of the debate, which focused exclusively on domestic policy, which should have been his strong suit. Sanders, at times during that first hour, sounded like a broken record -- citing millionaires and billionaires and Wall Street to explain almost anything he was asked.

 "Senator Sanders, what's your favorite ice cream flavor?"

 "Wall Street billionaires." — Nick Confessore (@nickconfessore) February 12, 2016

 Then there was Sanders's insistence that he would be better on race relations than Obama, a slip that the Clinton campaign certainly will make sure African American voters hear about (and then hear about some more) in the coming days and weeks.

 * Opening statements: Why. Do. These. Still. Exist. No debate should have opening or closing statements. The last thing voters need to hear is another recitation of the candidates' stump speeches. Let's make America great again and get rid of opening statements.

 * Henry Kissinger: Who the heck would have predicted that Kissinger would (a) come up in the debate or (b) come under such withering attack from Sanders. Both happened! ||||| In what was easily her strongest debate performance in recent memory – and arguably her strongest since the campaign began – Hillary Clinton was calm, cool and collected at Thursday night’s debate.

 Clinton could’ve been understandably on edge, as she was fresh off a resounding loss in New Hampshire on Tuesday and an effective tie in Iowa the week before. But it was Sanders who was oddly on the defensive despite what has been momentum in his favor, starting out the night more combative than Clinton and wasting his time on petty one-liners. (When Clinton talked about building political capital when she’s in the White House, for instance, Sanders began a rebuttal with “Secretary Clinton, you’re not in the White House yet.”)

 Perhaps it was understandable that Sanders appeared to be on defensive as the major topics of the night – race, foreign policy and relations with Obama – are all considered areas of relative weakness for the income inequality-focused Sanders, though the the depth of his policy knowledge and ability to articulate it before audiences, particularly on race issues, has improved markedly since the campaign began.

 Still, as winning over minority voters will be one of the principal areas of focus for both candidates going into southern primaries like the one in South Carolina and polls show that Sanders is struggling to eat into Clinton’s lead in the coming contests, expectations were high for Sanders this debate.

 And while both candidates performed well initially in talking about systemic racism and reforming the criminal justice system, it was Sanders who stumbled when a moderator asked if race relations would be better handled under him than the current president. It was a foreseeable trap – asking a white man whether he’d do a better job on race issues than the first black president – but Sanders didn’t seem to see what he was walking into.

 “Absolutely,” he said in response to the moderator’s question before slipping into his classic stump speech. “Because what we will do is instead of giving tax breaks to billionaires, we are going to create millions of jobs for low-income kids so they’re not hanging out on street corners. We’re going to make sure those kids stay in school are able to get a college education.”

 It was as tone-deaf a line as any all night and, worse yet, it may have reminded Clinton of another line of attack she’d prepared in advance. In an MSNBC interview earlier on Thursday, Sanders had criticized President Obama’s failure to connect with Congress, saying in an interview with MSNBC, “There’s a huge gap right now between Congress and the American people. ... What presidential leadership is about [is] closing that gap.”

 From a political analyst’s perspective, it’s a completely valid criticism – but when you’re running in a Democratic primary with an extremely popular Democratic president, it is, well, a weird move.

 And Clinton didn’t let him – or the audience – forget about that or other critiques of the president, pivoting near the end of evening to Sander’s frequent criticism of Obama. “I want to follow up on something having to do with leadership” she said, “because, you know, today Senator Sanders said that President Obama failed the presidential leadership test. And this is not the first time.”

 Then, without changing her even tone in the slightest, Clinton launched her most vicious attack on Sanders of the debate, running down a list of the times Sanders had called the president “weak” and “a disappointment”. She ended with, “I don’t think [Obama] gets the credit he deserves.”

 The argument over Obama’s legacy is one that Clinton’s campaign has been wanting to have with Sanders for some time, and Sanders set her up for an easy hit. Viewers at home watching the candidates on a split screen could see Sanders huffing and puffing as Clinton spoke, laughing angrily to himself and scribbling notes as she spoke. He clearly hadn’t been expecting that line of attack, though he might well have anticipated it. When he finally did get time to respond, he told the woman whom he’d earlier all but accused of accepting campaign donations in direct exchange for political favors that repeating his own words “was a low blow”, indignantly and with no cool whatsoever.

 It was a bad look for Bernie – whom the cameras often caught wagging a finger at the moderators while Clinton spoke – and it left him struggling to articulate the reasons for the distance between himself and a popular president, a distance he’d previously tried to wave away before when an interview Obama gave to Politico seemed to suggest that the sitting president favors Clinton over Bernie.

 Throughout the debate, on practically every topic, Clinton’s cool demeanor played well. Even on the one topic that should have gotten under her skin – why more New Hampshire women, particularly young women, didn’t vote for her – she resisted the temptation to be or even sound critical.

 “I have spent my entire adult life making sure that women are empowered to make their own choices even if that choice is not to vote for me” she said, adding that she hoped that they’d vote their consciences in the primary and learn more about her before the general election.

 After Clinton surrogates like Madeleine Albright and Gloria Steinem made the mistake of being insufficiently deferential to younger women last week – possibly costing her at least a few votes – Clinton didn’t have a lot of room to err in her answer, and she didn’t.

 It was, instead, her opponent who made the mistake – repeatedly this debate – of being too quick to anger and allowing his feelings to affect his answers. Clinton, who can hardly express an emotion in public without her ability to lead being called into question, didn’t have that luxury, and she didn’t try to indulge in it.

 For once, that was an advantage. ||||| The seventh Democratic debate of the 2016 season took place against the backdrop of a landslide Bernie Sanders victory in the New Hampshire primary and an electrifying sixth debate that took place just before voters went to the polls. Compared with the previous showdown, it was a much lower-key affair, with more moderator involvement and less boring down on particular points of disagreement.

 Both candidates, ultimately, delivered on their key themes, played up their key strengths, and likely pleased their key supporters.

 And they fought not just over who would win the nomination but also to a considerable degree over how we should understand both the future and the past of the Democratic Party. So here are three players who ended up in a stronger position than they were in before the debate, as well as three who wound up weaker.

 Winner: Hillary Clinton

 She didn't score any knockout blows or hit any home runs Thursday night, but the reality is that she didn't need to.

 Playing small ball and successfully turning the debate into a series of tedious, hard-to-follow exchanges is good enough for the candidate who currently enjoys a large lead in national polls. Recall that outside of the hothouse of internet commentary, most Democrats currently have a favorable view of both candidates, and a large swath of Democrats still don't know who Sanders is.

 Nothing happened Thursday night that would make a person who previously liked Clinton stop liking her, and if this was your first exposure to That Guy Who Is Running Against Hillary Clinton you wouldn't have been blown away.

 Sanders is coming off a very good 10-day run that must be leaving the candidate and his senior staff feeling both exhilarated and exhausted. The result was a dangerously complacent debate performance.

 Despite his stellar fundraising and New Hampshire performance, Sanders is still a major underdog who has a limited amount of time to change the dynamic before delegates start getting assigned very quickly. Sanders did nothing to assuage related doubts about his electability and his grasp of foreign policy matters, and didn't add anything new to his well-known critique of Clinton.

 Winner: Black Lives Matter

 Twenty, 10, or even two years ago it would be almost impossible to imagine national politicians dedicating as much time and attention to the problem of police violence as we heard onstage Thursday night.

 The politics of looking anti-police or soft on crime were just too perilous. Things are different now.

 Sanders promised to "end overpolicing in African-American neighborhoods" and proclaimed himself "sick and tired of seeing videos on television of unarmed people — often African Americans — shot by police officers."

 Meanwhile, Clinton spoke of the "dark side" of law enforcement and repeatedly referred to "systemic racism."

 The context is that stumping for black votes is a necessity for any Democrat trying to win primaries in South Carolina and other Southern states. And the Black Lives Matter activist community has successfully pushed the issue to the absolute top of the agenda in terms of black politics.

 That's a remarkable achievement. The underlying issue in which the consequences of heavy-handed policing fall disproportionately on black communities is decades (if not centuries) old, but the entire issue was completely invisible in the 2004 and 2008 primary cycles. It was very much not invisible last night.

 Winner: Barack Obama

 Clinton ran against Obama in a bitter campaign in 2008, and many of Sanders's most fervent supporters think he's a weak-kneed neoliberal sellout tool of Wall Street. But no hostile sentiments were evident from either candidate on Thursday night.

 On the contrary, Clinton made a vigorous defense of the Obama legacy — and suggestions that Sanders is less than fully committed to it — the centerpiece of her argument. Early on she defined herself as an advocate of "President Obama's principal accomplishment, the Affordable Care Act," and slammed Sanders for jeopardizing it.

 The essential strategy, seen several times during the debate — but most crucially during an exchange over Wall Street — was to use Obama as a human shield.

 Did Sanders want to say that Obama was corrupt because he received campaign contributions from the financial sector? When Sanders says we need a political revolution, does that mean he thinks Obama was a failure?

 Sanders largely refused to take the bait, declining to criticize Obama even when that forced him to blunt his criticisms of Clinton. That even the left opposition within the Democratic Party doesn't want to voice clear criticisms of the president makes Obama a clear winner.

 Loser: Republicans

 His fans don't like to admit it, but every single Republican in Washington is dying to run against Bernie Sanders.

 The problem isn't really the specifics of socialism or this or that. It's the basic reality that Sanders has clearly positioned himself to the left of Obama and voters want a candidate who is to the right of Obama.

 That doesn't mean Sanders is hopeless. Voters still think Republicans are too conservative, and any Democrat has a chance of winning by arguing that the country needs a check on congressional Republicans, but it gives Sanders a baseline weakness as a candidate relatively to Clinton. Clinton's strong performance is bad news for those hoping to face off against him in November.

 Loser: Wall Street

 A handful of Democrat-friendly Wall Street types and Wall Street–friendly Democratic operatives types have recently expressed to me a fuzzy yearning for Clinton to push back against Sanders's line that "the business model of Wall Street is fraud." Selfishly, they would like pushback because they find this argument offensive, and while they are confident Sanders's bank-busting legislation won't be enacted, they don't like to see their personal reputations dragged through the mud.

 More high-mindedly, they make the case that Clinton can't defend her Wall Street fundraising unless she can establish the argument that investment banks and hedge funds are legitimate players in the American economy, just like farms, ice cream companies, quaint B&Bs, and whatever else it is they do in Vermont.

 It didn't happen. On finance, Clinton defended herself from Sanders's attacks by just further punching the banking industry. She argued that Sanders's proposals don't target a wide enough range of institutions and that Sanders himself has voted at least once for financial deregulation. Hundreds of D-leaning donors, bundlers, and lobbyists are left feeling lonely tonight.

 Loser: Henry Kissinger

 For the first time in the Democratic campaign, Bernie Sanders had a foreign policy exchange where he looked loose, comfortable, and confident. The issue, somewhat surprisingly, was former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, whom Clinton had name-dropped and cited as a friend and a source of advice on several occasions.

 "I happen to believe that Henry Kissinger was one of the most destructive secretaries of state in the modern history of this country," Sanders said. "I'm proud to say that Henry Kissinger is not my friend."

 Clinton seemed a little surprised to be facing this line of argument, and rather than defend Kissinger on the merits of the various charges leveled against him, simply deflected with the notion that he is knowledgeable about China. A whole new generation of young Sanders-loving liberals are likely to find themselves checking out books like Gary Bass's The Blood Telegram to find out about Kissinger's involvement in Pakistan's brutal military campaign against Bangladesh. |||||
What is a summary?

– After Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders faced off in the first Democratic debate since Sanders' big win in New Hampshire, critics agreed there was one big loser: Henry Kissinger, who came under merciless attack from Bernie Sanders. "I'm proud to say that Henry Kissinger is not my friend," Sanders told Clinton. Here's what people had to say about the candidates' performances: "This was Clinton's best debate of the election," decides Chris Cilliza at the Washington Post. She was "in total control all night" and scored plenty of points against Sanders, he writes, while Sanders stumbled despite an improved command of foreign policy—and will probably regret claiming that he will be better on race relations than President Obama. Clinton didn't score any home runs but she still won, according to Matthew Yglesias at Vox. Nothing happened that would cause Clinton supporters to think twice, he writes, while voters getting a first look at Sanders would not have been impressed: The candidate turned in a "dangerously complacent debate performance" and failed to assuage "doubts about his electability" or add anything new to his critique of Clinton. Scot Lehigh at the Boston Globe also calls the debate for Clinton. She came out on top by "presenting herself as a deeply knowledgeable candidate whose progressive stands are tempered by real-world practicality," he writes. This was the case in her attacks on Sanders' plan for a single-payer health care system, where Clinton stressed that the "focus should be on expanding coverage and care to those who still lack it, rather than starting from scratch and overhauling the entirety of the system." Both candidates "performed well initially in talking about systemic racism and reforming the criminal justice system," but the "calm, cool, and collected" Clinton prevailed, writes Lucia Graves at the Guardian. Sanders, she writes, "was oddly on the defensive despite what has been momentum in his favor, starting out the night more combative than Clinton and wasting his time on petty one-liners." Click for some of the debate's best lines.


Article:
Add a location to your Tweets

 When you tweet with a location, Twitter stores that location. You can switch location on/off before each Tweet and always have the option to delete your location history. Learn more ||||| More than a week after he inserted himself into the 2016 presidential election by releasing information about an investigation into Anthony Weiner’s laptop that might implicate Hillary Clinton, FBI Director James Comey sent out another missive on Sunday clearing the Democratic nominee.

 In a letter to Congressional leaders, Comey said the FBI found nothing in their investigation that “changed our conclusions that we expressed in July with respect to Secretary Clinton,” meaning no recommendation of criminal charges.

 The FBI director has been under fire for sharing details about an ongoing investigation, against Department of Justice policy with regard to the timing before an election.

 News of Comey’s latest letter set Twitter on fire, with Comey getting it from all sides for either “bowing” to Clinton pressure or for getting involved in the first place and disrupting the election.

 A sampling below:

 James Comey backs down, Clinton intimidation shook him. The FBI will never be taken seriously again. pic.twitter.com/MljbuRFmxm — Mike Cernovich 🇺🇸 (@Cernovich) November 6, 2016

 After dropping a partisan bomb on the election, James Comey issues an "oh never mind" letter. pic.twitter.com/xeFDYiUaqT — Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) November 6, 2016

 If there is nothing to hide Comey then release all the emails. Let the American people decide. #FBI — Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) November 6, 2016

 My prayer Hillary is elected and makes James Comey's life a living hell for the next seven years @FBI — Robert Ernst (@RobEjr) November 6, 2016

 James Comey now appears to be the guy who saw an unlit match on the floor and then screamed “FIRE!” in a crowded theater. — Matt Viser (@mviser) November 6, 2016

 It's not Comey's fault that ignorant voters take mere presence of an investigation to mean something criminal definitely happened. — KStreetHipster (@KStreetHipster) November 6, 2016

 JESUS CHRIST!!!! Now Comey announces FBI has not changed its assessment based on new emails. He threw the election in2 chaos FOR NOTHING!!! — Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) November 6, 2016

 At the 11th hour, FBI has officially cleared Clinton in latest email probe! Why Comey stirred this unfounded controversy we may never know. https://t.co/KVz6j8ywKi — Misha Collins (@mishacollins) November 6, 2016

 I don't care what your politics are, Comey has royally screwed the pooch handling this investigation. https://t.co/o66T0dFSrE — Harlan Hill (@Harlan) November 6, 2016

 Now that Comey clears Clinton (again), he can get fired without claims of retaliation. — Markos Moulitsas (@markos) November 6, 2016

 New Comey letter doesn't undo all damage of his last one which stopped Clinton momentum & may help Trump avoid landslide defeat he deserves. — Max Boot (@MaxBoot) November 6, 2016

 So I'm guessing when Trump next speaks, the FBI / Comey / System are back to being rigged, yah? — (((DuneMyThang™))) (@Kris_Sacrebleu) November 6, 2016

 Looks like James Comey thinks Hillary Clinton will win and he doesn't want to get fired. Sad. #RiggedSystem — Deplorable VP (@MikePenceVP) November 6, 2016

 FBI Director Comey has ONCE again caved 2 the DoJ! The Dems will now put him back on his shiny pedestal

 If we want LAW & Order vote #Trump🇺🇸 — Deplorable Me🇺🇸⚡🏈 (@chrgdup1973) November 6, 2016 ||||| Immediately after breaking news hit that FBI director James Comey wasn’t changing any conclusions when it came to Hillary Clinton‘s use of a private email server, essentially stating that nothing will come from the previous letter he sent last month, Twitter went absolutely berserk.

 Considering the partisan nature of the story, and it coming just two days before the presidential election, it all depended on who was sending the tweet on what kind of reaction you’d see.

 We had the acknowledgement of how Democrats and Republican would immediately shift allegiances and their views of Comey.

 Now Ds who were savaging Comey a few days ago will praise him & GOPers who were behind him will turn on him again. https://t.co/WGsT8fp1rf — David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) November 6, 2016

 *the sound of everyone switching sides on comey again* — Gideon Resnick (@GideonResnick) November 6, 2016

 The anticipation of how Donald Trump and his campaign would react.

 Rudy Giuliani probably just threw his glass of Metamucil against a wall — john r stanton (@dcbigjohn) November 6, 2016

 CNN’s Jim Acosta reminded us all how much Trump praised Comey after the first letter.

 Trump last Monday: "It took guts for Director Comey to make the move he made… What he did, he brought back his reputation." — Jim Acosta (@Acosta) November 6, 2016

 And there was a little humor regarding last night’s Reno rally.

 James Comey saw a sign and yelled "Gun!" — Matt Browner Hamlin (@mattkbh) November 6, 2016

 Then we got journalists weighing in.

 Ive said, given chaos Comey created, he better be able to indict Clinton. Now he says "never mind." I dont curse on this feed, but fuck 'im. — Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) November 6, 2016

 BREAKING: “What an ass!!!!” -my father, on Comey’s 2nd letter — Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) November 6, 2016

 Hey, guys! Remember these things called "weekends"? #MakeTheNewsSlowAgain — Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) November 6, 2016

 Kellyanne Conway's positronic motherboard scrambling to compile spin for Trump's "worse than Watergate" blurtings about Comey/emails. — Bob Cesca (@bobcesca_go) November 6, 2016

 FBI really handled this one well — Sam Stein (@samsteinhp) November 6, 2016

 Okay Trump and Clinton, back to your default positions on Comey… — Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) November 6, 2016

 Thought neighbor stole my wrench. So I wrote a letter to all the neighbors letting them know i was investigating. But nm, he totes didn’t. — Ben Howe (@BenHowe) November 6, 2016

 And just in case you wanted to know how Trump surrogate Newt Gingrich felt.

 Comey must be under enormous political pressure to cave like this and announce something he cant possibly know. — Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) November 6, 2016

 UPDATE – 4:24 p.m. ET: NBC’s Alex Seitz-Wald noted Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway‘s first televised reaction to the news:

 .@KellyannePolls on MSNBC on Comey: "He's mishandled this investigation from the very beginning." — Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) November 6, 2016

 She previously gave her thoughts on the development with this tweet:

 Then why did you, your colleagues, and your candidate attack Comey and his credibility? https://t.co/GjPeV8pWsr — Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) November 6, 2016

 UPDATE – 4:36 p.m. ET: House Speaker Paul Ryan and the Republican National Committee have also responded to the news:

 NEW: @SpeakerRyan issues statement in response to FBI letter on Clinton email review: https://t.co/cVXPro91CB pic.twitter.com/xAA1g0aGDl — ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) November 6, 2016

 RNC reaction to news FBI is not changing its conclusions after reviewing newly-discovered Clinton emails: pic.twitter.com/W2OjssAPkg — Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) November 6, 2016

 UPDATE – 4:46 p.m. ET: Former congressman and current Trump advocate Joe Walsh had this to say:

 Comey never should've opened his mouth in July. He never should've opened his mouth Oct 28th. Now 2 days b4 Election Day he cleans it up. — Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) November 6, 2016

 UPDATE – 4:46 p.m. ET: Wayne Allyn Root, who spoke at one of Trump’s recent rallies, offered some thoughts:

 Crooked Hillary, what did you offer to Crooked Comey? American public no longer trusts FBI. What a legacy for Crooked Comey. — Wayne Allyn Root (@WayneRoot) November 6, 2016

 Fox News host and frequent Trump booster Sean Hannity also got in on this:

 If law enforcement or congress ever ask for e mails regarding an investigation, the FBI now says it's OK to delete them with "Bleach Bit" — Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) November 6, 2016

 As for #NeverTrumper Bill Kristol:

 Am I the only person in America (or at least on Twitter) who thinks each of Comey's three decisions (or announcements) is defensible? — Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) November 6, 2016

 UPDATE – 5:20 p.m. ET: Drudge Report creator Matt Drudge made a rare Twitter appearance to give his personal take:

 Comey's head-fake fake just made the hornets nest even crazier! 48 hours of madness upcoming!! — MATT DRUDGE (@DRUDGE) November 6, 2016

 UPDATE – 6:40 p.m. ET: CNN’s Chris Cuomo also weighed in:

 Kind of just as big a surprise as last arguably inappropriate disclosure https://t.co/XxZAGWjVxX — Christopher C. Cuomo (@ChrisCuomo) November 6, 2016

 [image via screengrab]

 –

 Follow Justin Baragona on Twitter: @justinbaragona

 Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com ||||| Editor’s note: This post has been republished from 10/28/16.

 — —

 Responding to the news Friday that the FBI was rekindling its investigation into Clinton’s emails, Rush Limbaugh speculated that the bureau was simply trying to redirect voters’ attention away from Wikileaks’ ongoing release of emails hacked from Clinton campaign manager John Podesta.

 FBI Director James Comey “is going to make everybody think for the next three or four days that there’s really something to be forthcoming here,” Limbaugh said.

 Limbaugh said that the revelations in the Wikileaks material were “starting to hurt” the Clintons and that the renewed interest in an FBI investigation into her private email server would be a fruitless distraction.

 The radio host likened Comey to the “Lone Ranger,” riding to the Clinton campaign’s rescue. He added that Comey was “still carrying water for Clinton and is trying to get everybody to stop paying attentions to the Wikileaks dump.”

 Limbaugh qualified that this was the “cynical” interpretation of recent events.

 Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com ||||| Comey must be under enormous political pressure to cave like this and announce something he cant possibly know. ||||| (CNN) FBI Director James Comey told lawmakers Sunday the agency hasn't changed its opinion that Hillary Clinton should not face criminal charges after a review of new emails.

 "Based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July," Comey wrote in the new letter to congressional committee chairmen.

 Comey dropped a bombshell on the presidential race last month when he sent a letter to Congress saying the FBI had discovered emails in a separate investigation that could be connected to the now-closed probe of whether Clinton mishandled classified information. The move infuriated Democrats and emboldened Republican nominee Donald Trump.

 It's impossible to know before results are tallied what impact Comey's actions -- first raising a vaguely worded red flag 11 days out, and then lowering it two days from the election -- will have on the contest. But the news could help Clinton put to rest a controversy that has dogged her in the 2016 race's closing days, helping Trump narrow a polling gap nationally and in key battleground states.

 Trump assailed the FBI's handling of the matter, though he did not directly address Comey's announcement at a rally in Sterling Heights, Michigan.

 "You can't review 650,000 new emails in eight days. You can't do it, folks," Trump said, adding, "Hillary Clinton is guilty. She knows it, the FBI knows it, the people know it, and now it's up to the American people to deliver justice at the ballot box on November 8."

 JUST WATCHED Cooper to Conway: Fine to speculate without facts? Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Cooper to Conway: Fine to speculate without facts? 02:17

 Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, blasted Comey's handling of the review.

 "Today's letter makes Director Comey's actions nine days ago even more troubling," Feinstein said in a statement. "There's no doubt that it created a false impression about the nature of the agency's inquiry."

 She added: "The Justice Department needs to take a look at its procedures to prevent similar actions that could influence future elections."

 JUST WATCHED Franken: Comey should answer Congress' questions Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Franken: Comey should answer Congress' questions 02:40

 'As fast as we could'

 Comey's letter was the culmination of a fast-paced review of the newly discovered email, law enforcement sources said Sunday.

 "We went through this as fast as we could," a senior law enforcement official told CNN, with another law enforcement official saying investigators worked "around the clock" to review the large volume of emails.

 The FBI found the new emails as part of its separate investigation into a sexting incident by Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

 The thousands of new emails were mostly personal and duplicates of what had already been seen, law enforcement officials said in explaining how the conclusion was reached so quickly. The laptop which was found was about a decade old with lots of personal content on it not relevant to the investigation, according to one source.

 The probe is considered over with regard to Clinton. Though with not all the deleted emails recovered and not all the devices in FBI's possession, it is always possible something else could turn up that would require more review.

 There were some classified emails found, but law enforcement officials stressed the issue is not the classified information so much as proving intent. The sources would not specify if the the classified messages were new or duplicates of ones already reviewed, nor would would officials say how many there were and what levels at which they were classified.

 "Keep in mind we are focused on intent," the official said. "We know there are classified materials, but that doesn't change the conclusion reached back in July."

 As for others who were part of the probe, including Abedin, the FBI is still working on some remaining aspects of the review, including determining how the emails ended up on the laptop in the first place. Abedin's attorneys have said she doesn't know why these emails were there because this wasn't a computer she used.

 JUST WATCHED Who is Huma Abedin? Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Who is Huma Abedin? 03:25

 The expectation remains that investigators will have to talk to Abedin again.

 It isn't uncommon to come across new evidence after concluding a probe -- which is what happened here in October. Normally, investigators take a look to see if anything changes in their conclusions and it's not a controversial issue. This case isn't a normal case, given the election and the stakes.

 DOJ informed of decision

 Comey sent the letter as soon as possible, the senior law enforcement official said. He was "very careful" about how the letter was crafted given the sensitivities.

 Attorney General Loretta Lynch was informed ahead of time that the FBI director was sending the updated letter to Congress informing them of that there would be no change in the FBI stance on Hillary Clinton, a Justice official told CNN on Sunday.

 Lynch and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates disagreed with Comey's earlier decision to notify Congress. The attorney general backed Comey's move Sunday.

 "Everyone is on the same page," the source said.

 Since there is no change to the original findings, the Justice Department has no need to weigh in further, the official said.

 "The Department of Justice and the FBI dedicated all necessary resources to conduct this review expeditiously," the Justice Department said in a brief statement released Sunday afternoon.

 Campaigns weigh in

 Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said her campaign is validated in its belief that nothing would change.

 We were always confident nothing would cause the July decision to be revisited. Now Director Comey has confirmed ithttps://t.co/BMQQx9eRzw — Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) November 6, 2016

 "We were always confident nothing would cause the July decision to be revisited. Now Director Comey has confirmed it," he tweeted.

 The Trump campaign quickly slammed Comey.

 "We thought that Director Comey and the FBI were wrong when they made their initial recommendation in July, and we think that they're wrong now," Trump spokesman Jason Miller told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on "The Situation Room."

 GOP vice presidential nominee Mike Pence sought to keep the pressure on Clinton.

 "Mishandling classified information is a crime," he said at a rally in an airport hanger in Hickory, North Carolina. "Hillary Clinton said that she never sent or received any classified information and the director of the FBI told the Congress classified information was sent."

 In Michigan, Trump called Clinton "the most corrupt person ever to seek the office of the presidency of the United States."

 But the Republican nominee, who has expressed hope in the last week that the FBI's review of new emails might yield an indictment, emphasized to his supporters Sunday that Clinton is "protected" by powerful forces.

 "Well, you have to understand it's a rigged system and she's protected," Trump said in Minnesota, though he offered no evidence to back up his theory.

 'It opened a wound'

 A senior Democrat close to Clinton's campaign told CNN that "it's impossible to fully undo the damage of the last nine days."

 Internal campaign polling, the source said, found that some independents and Republican women fled Clinton after the original Comey announcement, robbing her of a constituency that she'd hoped would turn her contest with Trump into a blowout.

 "It opened a wound that cannot be quickly healed," the Democrat said.

 However, the Democrat called it a relief that the "matter is resolved" and said Clinton's campaign plans to "make everyone know about" Comey's Sunday letter.

 Comey's last-minute announcement gives Clinton an opportunity for an I-told-you-so moment.

 "We have seen Director Comey's latest letter to the Hill," said Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton's communications director, speaking with reporters after the news broke. "We are glad to see that he has found, as we were confident that he would, that he had confirmed the conclusions he reached in July and we are glad that this matter is resolved."

 Trump and his allies have seized on that announcement, using it to claim Clinton was likely to face criminal charges.

 "If she were to win, it would create an unprecedented constitutional crisis," Trump claimed Saturday night in Reno, Nevada. "In that situation we could very well have a sitting president under felony indictment and ultimately a criminal trial. It would grind government to a halt."

 Political benefit

 The political benefit for Trump has been that Republicans who'd been skeptical of their party's nominee have largely followed vice presidential nominee Mike Pence's calls to "come home" to the party -- finding Trump less objectionable than Clinton.

 It's not just Trump's campaign that seized on Comey's actions. Down-ballot Republicans -- particularly Senate candidates who had been forced to answer for Trump's statements for months -- used the moment to change the topic, shifting to the more comfortable ground of attacking Clinton.

 The last-minute Sunday move from Comey could also provide new fuel for Trump's claims of a "rigged" system -- allowing him to cast the FBI director's intervention in the presidential election in a new light.

 Comey and the FBI went from Trump's scapegoat to the Republican nominee's hero, with Trump claiming Comey had redeemed himself just in time.

 Newt Gingrich, a top Trump ally, tweeted "Comey must be under enormous political pressure to cave like this."

 Comey must be under enormous political pressure to cave like this and announce something he cant possibly know. — Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) November 6, 2016

 Dems, GOP react

 House Speaker Paul Ryan dismissed the significance of Comey's latest letter.

 "Regardless of this decision, the undisputed finding of the FBI's investigation is that Secretary Clinton put our nation's secrets at risk and in doing so compromised our national security," Ryan said in a statement. "Fortunately, the American people have the opportunity to ensure Secretary Clinton never gets her hands on classified information again."

 Capitol Hill Democrats praised Comey's decision to release more information.

 "While the original letter should never have been sent so close to an election, the expeditious review of these emails should put to rest -- once and for all -- the irresponsible speculation indulged in by the Trump campaign and others," Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said. "Voters can now make their decision based on the merits, and that decision should be simple: it is the choice between a woman superbly qualified to be commander in chief, and a man patently unfit for office."

 Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus issued a statement saying, "None of this changes the fact that the FBI continues to investigate the Clinton Foundation for corruption involving her tenure as secretary of state. Hillary Clinton should never be president." ||||| Please share and comment. Right after the news that FBI director James Comey was reopening the case into Hillary Clinton's email server, Rush Limbaugh speculated that it was all a distraction to take away focus from the Wikileaks and that Comey would clear Hillary Clinton. After today's revelation that theory seemed to have proven true Mediate.com reported: Responding to the news Friday that the FBI was rekindling its investigation into Clinton’s emails, Rush Limbaugh speculated that the bureau was simply trying to redirect voters’ attention away from Wikileaks’ ongoing release of emails hacked from Clinton campaign manager John Podesta. FBI Director James Comey “is going to make everybody think for the next three or four days that there’s really something to be forthcoming here,” Limbaugh said. Limbaugh said that the revelations in the Wikileaks material were “starting to hurt” the Clintons and that the renewed interest in an FBI investigation into her private email server would be a fruitless distraction. The radio host likened Comey to the “Lone Ranger,” riding to the Clinton campaign’s rescue. He added that Comey was “still carrying water for Clinton and is trying to get everybody to stop paying attentions to the Wikileaks dump.” Read more @ (Link: www.mediaite.com) After today's revelation it would appear that Rush may have been correct. Please Share and Comment |||||Summary:

– Just as quickly as the bombshell was dropped, it disappeared: FBI Director James Comey said in a letter Sunday to the top Republicans on the House Oversight Committee that after reviewing newly discovered Hillary Clinton emails, the bureau still believes there's no reason for Clinton to be criminally charged. "Based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July," the letter reads, per CNN. Clinton spokesperson Brian Fallon tweeted in response: "We were always confident nothing would cause the July decision to be revisited. Now Director Comey has confirmed it." Twitter went nuts after the news broke; Mediaite and the Raw Story have a sampling of the reaction, much of it backlash against Comey and the FBI. Newt Gingrich tweeted, "Comey must be under enormous political pressure to cave like this and announce something he cant possibly know." Mediaite notes that when news of the review of the new emails was first announced, Rush Limbaugh had speculated the announcement was just a stunt to distract everyone from the WikiLeaks release of John Podesta's emails. "[Comey] is going to make everybody think for the next three or four days that there’s really something to be forthcoming here," Limbaugh said, only for nothing to ultimately come of it. At least one blog says Sunday's letter proves Limbaugh correct.


– Bill Cosby was labeled a "violent sexual predator" by the judge who sentenced him to three to 10 years in prison on Tuesday, but his publicist had a different description: one of the "greatest civil rights leaders" in history and one of the "greatest educators of men and boys." Outside the courtroom in Norristown, Pa., publicist Andrew Wyatt claimed the 81-year-old Cosby had faced the "most racist and sexist trial" in American history, the New York Times reports. Wyatt claimed that three psychologists who testified against Cosby in the sexual assault trial were trying to "make money off of accusing black men of being sexual predators." He also read a statement from Camille Cosby, the disgraced entertainer's wife, alleging that an audio recording played in the trial had been doctored. Wyatt, who previously called Cosby's trial a "public lynching," accused Judge Steven O'Neill of being part of a "sex war" and linked the sentencing to the treatment of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Vox reports that the strangest moment came when Wyatt likened his client to Jesus. "They persecuted Jesus, and look what happened," he said. "Not saying Mr. Cosby is Jesus, but we know what this country has done to black men for centuries." Cosby, who left the Montgomery County Courthouse in handcuffs, spent his first night behind bars at SCI Phoenix, a state prison that opened two months ago in suburban Philadelphia, reports WPVI. (Cosby's mug shot was released Tuesday afternoon.)

Expand this summary.

After Bill Cosby was sentenced to prison on Tuesday, his defense team made fiery accusations of racism and sexism in statements outside the courthouse, framing their client’s downfall as an unjust product of the #MeToo era.

 Speaking under an umbrella in pouring rain, Mr. Cosby’s publicist, Andrew Wyatt, said his client’s defeat was part of the “sex war” happening in Washington, comparing it to accusations of sexual misconduct against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh that are roiling the capital.

 Mr. Wyatt said that Mr. Cosby, once a beloved actor and comedian, had endured the “most racist and sexist trial” in the country’s history.

 On Tuesday, Mr. Cosby, 81, was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman, Andrea Constand, at his home outside Philadelphia in 2004. Judge Steven T. O’Neill also ruled that Mr. Cosby qualified as a “sexually violent predator” under state law. ||||| Shortly after Bill Cosby was sentenced to three to 10 years in state prison for sexual assault and taken away in handcuffs, his spokesperson Andrew Wyatt told reporters that Cosby — along with embattled Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh — was the victim of a “sex war.”

 “What is going on in Washington today with Judge Kavanaugh is part of that sex war that Judge [Steven] O’Neill and his wife are a part of,” Wyatt said, referring to the judge who oversaw Cosby’s trial.

 Wyatt also called Cosby’s trial that resulted in a conviction “the most racist and sexist trial in the history of the United States,” saying that Cosby was “one of the greatest civil rights leaders” and a “great educator of men and boys.” He also criticized the psychologists who testified against Cosby, and claimed that audio footage of Cosby played in the courtroom was falsified.

 In a particularly bizarre moment, Wyatt referenced the persecution of Jesus while talking about Cosby. “They persecuted Jesus and look what happened,” he said, according to CNN. “Not saying Mr. Cosby’s Jesus, but we know what this country has done to black men for centuries.”

 Bill Cosby's publicist, Andrew Wyatt, claims both Cosby and Brett Kavanaugh are victims of "a sex war" that is "going on in Washington today." pic.twitter.com/jRHOjzUZD7 — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 25, 2018

 Wyatt has repeatedly argued that racism played a role in Cosby’s conviction in not-so-subtle terms, calling the April trial a “public lynching.” Other members of Cosby’s team have invoked Emmett Till, a black boy murdered after a white woman falsely accused him of whistling at her.

 But it was the first time that Cosby’s team has made a connection to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh’s nomination has been embroiled in controversy after two women accused him of sexual assault and misconduct in incidents dating back to the 1980s. Christine Blasey Ford came forward earlier this month to accuse him of attempted rape during a high school party in the ’80s. She is set to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.

 On Sunday, a second accuser, Deborah Ramirez, stepped forward with her own story of sexual misconduct on Sunday, saying that Kavanaugh had exposed himself to her at a college party. Both accusers have called for the FBI to investigate their claims before a vote on Kavanaugh takes place, but contrary to Wyatt’s claims, there’s a strong chance Kavanaugh could be confirmed anyway. ||||| EMBED More News Videos Bill Cosby heads to Montgomery County Correctional Facility in Eagleville. Watch the report from Chad Pradelli on Action News at 4 p.m. on September 25, 2018.

 EMBED More News Videos First look at replacement for aging Graterford prison. Vernon Odom reports during Action News at 6pm on June 1, 2018.

 This image provided by the Montgomery County Correctional Facility shows Bill Cosby on Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, after he was sentenced to three-to 10-years for sexual assault.

 EMBED More News Videos Montgomery County D.A. Kevin Steele holds news conference after Cosby verdict

 EMBED More News Videos Cosby spends first night in prison: Vernon Odom reports on Action News at 4:30 p.m., September 26, 2018

 Bill Cosby spent his first night behind bars at SCI Phoenix, a new 3,830-bed state prison in suburban Philadelphia.The Department of Corrections says he will serve his three-to-10-year sentence at SCI Phoenix in Skippack Township for sexually assaulting a woman at his Cheltenham Township home in 2004.Officials say he is being processed in accordance with policy and will meet with staff from the medical, psychology and the records departments.They say Cosby is being housed in a single cell in a unit adjacent to the infirmary. He will be allowed phone calls and visitation in accordance with policy, as well as opportunity to exercise during the classification process."We are taking all of the necessary precautions to ensure Mr. Cosby's safety and general welfare in our institution," Corrections Secretary John Wetzel said in a statement. "The long term goal is for him to be placed in the general population to receive the programming required during his incarceration."Cosby spent a few hours at the county jail Tuesday before heading to SCI Phoenix which opened two months ago. His inmate number with the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections is NN7687.Prosecutors said correction officials would assess Cosby's needs and safety issues to determine where it would be best for the 81-year-old Cosby, who is legally blind, to complete his sentence.District Attorney Kevin Steele had said Cosby could wind up at SCI Laurel Highlands, a prison for lower-risk inmates on the other side of the state, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) southeast of Pittsburgh.SCI Laurel Highlands is the state Correction Department's provider to inmates with special needs, including those requiring long-term care, though it also houses a general prison population, according to its website. It has separate housing units for its geriatric inmates and also has programs for sex offenders, the website says. Cosby was declared a "sexually violent predator' just before his sentencing, requiring him to receive monthly counseling the rest of his life. The prison at Laurel Highlands opened in 1996, at the site of a former state hospital. At last count it held nearly 1,600 inmates.However, it was confirmed on Wednesday morning, Cosby would serve his sentence at SCI Phoenix.------ |||||


– A day after the US flew two bombers over the Korean peninsula in a training exercise with South Korea and Japan, North Korea's foreign minister made incendiary comments promising "a hail of fire" against the US, USA Today reports. "With his bellicose and insane statement at the United Nations, Trump, you can say, has lit the wick of a war against us,” Reuters quotes Ri Yong Ho as telling Russian state media. “We need to settle the final score, only with a hail of fire, not words.” In the speech mentioned by Ri, President Trump vowed to "totally destroy North Korea" if necessary, the Independent reports. Ri also called the North Korean nuclear program a "sword of justice" that ensures the safety of North Korea and the rest of the region. He said the nuclear program is not up for debate or negotiation with the US. “We have almost reached the last point on the journey toward our final goal—to achieve a real balance of power with the United States,” he said. Ri said North Korea has “inexhaustible power that won’t leave aggressor state America unpunished."

Expand this summary.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has “lit the wick of war” with North Korea and his country will be made to pay with “a hail of fire”, a Russian news agency quoted North Korea’s foreign minister as saying on Wednesday.

 Tensions between North Korea and the United States have risen in recent weeks over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and missile programs.

 North Korea has test-fired several missiles and conducted what it said was a test explosion of a hydrogen bomb as it advances toward its goal of developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland.

 Speaking to Russia’s state-run TASS news agency, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said his country’s nuclear program guaranteed peace and safety in the region and would not be a matter of discussion.

 “With his bellicose and insane statement at the United Nations, Trump, you can say, has lit the wick of a war against us,” TASS quoted Ri as saying. “We need to settle the final score, only with a hail of fire, not words.”

 Ri has previously called Trump “President Evil” and his comments are likely to fuel an escalating war of words between the U.S. President and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

 “We have almost reached the last point on the journey toward our final goal - to achieve a real balance of power with the United States,” he said.

 “Our principal position is that we will never agree to any talks in which our nuclear weapons will be the subject of negotiations.” ||||| CLOSE President Trump’s comment during his United Nations speech has apparently lit the wick of war against North Korea. Josh King has the story (@abridgetoland) Buzz60

 This Oct. 7, 2017 photo distributed by the North Korean government shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaking during a meeting of the central committee of the Workers' Party of Korea in Pyongyang. (Photo: AP)

 North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said Wednesday that President Trump lit "the fuse of war" after the U.S. president's speech at the United Nations last month, Russian state news agency Tass reports.

 "By his belligerent and insane statement at the United Nations Trump, so to say, lighted the fuse of war against us," Ri said. During Trump's speech, he threatened to "totally destroy" North Korea and denounced North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

 “We will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea,” Trump said. “If the righteous many don’t confront the wicked few, then evil will triumph,” he added, before repeating a nickname he gave Kim on Twitter. “Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself.”

 Tass said North Korea’s foreign minister has described the country's nuclear weapons and ballistic program as a “sword of justice” and represent a deterrent to protect the North from the United States.

 Ri said North Korea's forces have “inexhaustible power that won’t leave aggressor state America unpunished,” according to Tass. “Now it is the United States’ turn to pay, and all of our military servicemen and our entire people insistently demand that final scores be settled with the Americans only with a hail of fire, and not with words," Ri added.

 The remarks come a day after the U.S. military flew two strategic bombers over the Korean Peninsula.

 Two B-1B Lancers took off from Andersen Air Force Base on the U.S. Pacific island territory of Guam on Tuesday to conduct a training mission with military allies Japan and South Korea near the Sea of Japan, according to the U.S. military.

 The mission was a display of alliance between the three nations and their resolve to enhance security in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. The presence of the bomber crafts is part of a U.S. Pacific Command mission to ensure a quick and efficient response to various types of threats in the area, the U.S, military stated.

 Trump and Kim have traded heated rhetoric for weeks as tensions remain high amid North Korea's insistence it won't back down over its nuclear weapons program. In recent months, North Korea has conducted its sixth nuclear test and fired two missiles over Japan.

 Contributing: Jane Onyanga-Omara

 More: U.S. military flies bombers over Korean Peninsula

 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2ycYJMR ||||| North Korea's foreign minister has accused President Donald Trump of having "lit the wick of a war" between his country and the US, saying that America would be made to pay with a "hail of fire".

 Tensions between the US and North Korea have intensified in recent months as the Trump administration has struggled to rein in Kim Jong-un's expanding nuclear and ballistic weapons programme alongside international allies. The words of Ri Yong Ho are the latest episode of increasingly hostile barbs being traded between Mr Trump and the regime in Pyongyang.

 Russia's TASS news agency quoted Mr Ri as saying: "With his bellicose and insane statement at the United Nations, Trump, you can say, has lit the wick of a war against us."

 "We need to settle the final score, only with a hail of fire, not words," he reportedly added.

 During an address to the United Nations General Assembly in September, Mr Trump declared that the US would "totally destroy North Korea" if forced to defend itself or its allies. The President added that while the US has "great strength and patience," its options for dealing with the isolated nation could soon run out.

 Mr Trump also mocked North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, referring to him as "Rocket Man".

 The speech came about a week after the UN Security Council had voted to ratchet up sanctions on North Korea following its sixth and largest nuclear test, with numerous other rocket tests having been conducted this year.

 Shape Created with Sketch. Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Show all 24 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... 1/24 Coloured in the US flag wrong The President coloured in the US wrongly during a visit to a children's hospital in Columbus, Ohio. He added a blue stripe where in tradition, and statute, there have been only white and red stripes AFP/Getty 2/24 Railing against the Mueller investigation The President has repeatedly claimed that the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, is a "rigged witch hunt" Reuters 3/24 Contradicting a US intelligence report on Russian meddling in the presence of Vladimir Putin In the press conference that followed his landmark meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mr. Trump stated that he saw no reason why Russia would have meddled in the 2016 US election. This contradicted a 2017 report by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence that found evidence of Russian interference in favour of Mr. Trump Getty 4/24 Contradicting his contradiction of a US intelligence report on Russian meddling Following furious backlash in the US, the President claimed that he meant to say that he saw no reason why it wouldn't have been Russia who meddled in the 2016 US election. As to why he would have intended to use such bizarre phrasing, he did not comment Reuters 5/24 Firing a Secretary of State over Twitter The President announced on Twitter that he was appointing Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State, much to the surprise of then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson 6/24 Quoting a catchphrase from a reality TV show when discussing police brutality While addressing the issue of black athletes not standing for the national anthem in protest of police brutality, the President made reference to his catchphrase from reality TV show "The Apprentice": you're fired! Reuters 7/24 Calling African nations "S***hole Countries" Ever one for diplomacy, the President reportedly referred to African nations as "s***hole countries". Asked to confirm this when meeting with Nigeria's President Buhari, Mr. Trump stated that there are "some countries that are in very bad shape." Reuters 8/24 Defending Russian President Vladimir Putin Donald Trump appeared to equate US foreign actions to those of Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying, “There are a lot of killers. You think our country’s so innocent?” Reuters 9/24 Asked for people to 'pray' for Arnold Schwarzenegger At the National Prayer Breakfast, Donald Trump couldn’t help but to ask for prayers for the ratings on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s show to be good. Schwarzenegger took over as host of “The Apprentice” — which buoyed Mr Trump’s celebrity status years ago Getty 10/24 Hanging up on Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull Early in his presidency, Donald Trump reportedly hung up the phone on Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull after the foreign leader angered him over refugee plans. Mr Trump later said that it was the “worst call” he had had so far Getty 11/24 The 'Muslim ban' Perhaps one of his most controversial policies while acting as president, Donald Trump’s travel ban targeting predominantly Muslim countries has bought him a lot of criticism. The bans were immediately protested, and judges initially blocked their implementation. The Supreme Court later sided with the administration’s argument that the ban was developed out of concern for US security Getty 12/24 Praising crowd size while touring Hurricane Harvey damage After Hurricane Harvey ravaged southeastern Texas, Donald Trump paid the area a visit. While his response to the disaster in Houston was generally applauded, the President picked up some flack when he gave a speech outside Houston (he reportedly did not visit disaster zones), and praised the size of the crowds there AP 13/24 Calling North Korean leader Kim Jong-un 'Little Rocket Man' During his first-ever speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Donald Trump tried out a new nickname for North Korea leader Kim Jong-un: Rocket Man. He later tweaked it to be “little Rocket Man” as the two feuded, and threatened each other with nuclear war. During that speech, he also threatened to totally annihilate North Korea 14/24 Attacking Sadiq Khan following London Bridge terror attack After the attack on the London Bridge, Donald Trump lashed out at London Mayor Sadiq Khan, criticizing Mr Khan for saying there was “no reason to be alarmed” after the attack. Mr Trump was taking the comments out of context, as Mr Khan was simply saying that the police had everything under control Getty 15/24 Claimed presenter Mika Brezinkski was 'bleeding from the face' Never one not to mock his enemies, Donald Trump mocked MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski, saying that she and co-host Joe Scarborough had approached him before his inauguration asking to “join” him. He noted that she was “bleeding badly from a face-lift” at the time, and that he said no MSNBC 16/24 Claiming the blame for Charlottesville was on 'both sides' Trump refused to condemn far-right extremists involved in violence at 'the march for the right' protests in Charlottesville, even after the murder of counter protester Heather Heyer AP 17/24 Retweeted cartoon of CNN being hit by a 'Trump train' Donald Trump retweeted a cartoon showing a Trump-branded train running over a person whose body and head were replaced by a CNN avatar. He later deleted the retweet 18/24 Tweeting about 'slamming' CNN Donald Trump caught some flack when he tweeted a video showing him wrestling down an individual whose head had been replaced by a CNN avatar. Mr Trump has singled CNN out in particular with his chants of “fake news” 19/24 Firing head of the FBI, James Comey Donald Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey landed him with a federal investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election that has caused many a headache for the White House. The White House initially said that the decision was made after consultation from the Justice Department. Then Mr Trump himself said that he had decided to fire him in part because he wanted the Russia investigation Mr Comey was conducting to stop Getty 20/24 Not realising being president would be 'hard' Just three months into his presidency, Donald Trump admitted that being president is harder than he thought it would be. Though Mr Trump insisted on the 2016 campaign trail that doing the job would be easy for him, he admitted in an interview that living in the White House is harder than running a business empire Reuters 21/24 Accusing Obama of wiretapping him Donald Trump accused former President Barack Obama of wire tapping him on twitter. The Justice Department later clarified: Mr Obama had not, in fact, done so Reuters 22/24 Claiming there had been 3 million 'illegal votes' Donald Trump was never very happy about losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 2.8 million ballots. So, he and White House voter-fraud commissioner Kris Kobach have claimed that anywhere between three and five million people voted illegally during the 2016 election. Conveniently, he says that all of those illegal votes went to Ms Clinton. (There is no evidence to support that level of widespread voter fraud.) 23/24 Leaving Jews out of the Holocaust memorial statement Just days after taking office, Donald Trump’s White House issued a statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, but didn’t mention “jews” or even the word “jewish” in the written statement Getty 24/24 Anger over Inauguration crowd size Donald Trump’s inauguration crowd was visibly, and noticeably, smaller than that of his predecessor, Barack Obama. But, he really wanted to have had the largest crowd on record. So, he praised it as the biggest crowd ever. Relatedly, Mr Trump also claimed that it stopped raining in Washington at the moment he was inaugurated. It didn’t, the day was very dreary Reuters 1/24 Coloured in the US flag wrong The President coloured in the US wrongly during a visit to a children's hospital in Columbus, Ohio. He added a blue stripe where in tradition, and statute, there have been only white and red stripes AFP/Getty 2/24 Railing against the Mueller investigation The President has repeatedly claimed that the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, is a "rigged witch hunt" Reuters 3/24 Contradicting a US intelligence report on Russian meddling in the presence of Vladimir Putin In the press conference that followed his landmark meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mr. Trump stated that he saw no reason why Russia would have meddled in the 2016 US election. This contradicted a 2017 report by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence that found evidence of Russian interference in favour of Mr. Trump Getty 4/24 Contradicting his contradiction of a US intelligence report on Russian meddling Following furious backlash in the US, the President claimed that he meant to say that he saw no reason why it wouldn't have been Russia who meddled in the 2016 US election. As to why he would have intended to use such bizarre phrasing, he did not comment Reuters 5/24 Firing a Secretary of State over Twitter The President announced on Twitter that he was appointing Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State, much to the surprise of then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson 6/24 Quoting a catchphrase from a reality TV show when discussing police brutality While addressing the issue of black athletes not standing for the national anthem in protest of police brutality, the President made reference to his catchphrase from reality TV show "The Apprentice": you're fired! Reuters 7/24 Calling African nations "S***hole Countries" Ever one for diplomacy, the President reportedly referred to African nations as "s***hole countries". Asked to confirm this when meeting with Nigeria's President Buhari, Mr. Trump stated that there are "some countries that are in very bad shape." Reuters 8/24 Defending Russian President Vladimir Putin Donald Trump appeared to equate US foreign actions to those of Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying, “There are a lot of killers. You think our country’s so innocent?” Reuters 9/24 Asked for people to 'pray' for Arnold Schwarzenegger At the National Prayer Breakfast, Donald Trump couldn’t help but to ask for prayers for the ratings on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s show to be good. Schwarzenegger took over as host of “The Apprentice” — which buoyed Mr Trump’s celebrity status years ago Getty 10/24 Hanging up on Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull Early in his presidency, Donald Trump reportedly hung up the phone on Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull after the foreign leader angered him over refugee plans. Mr Trump later said that it was the “worst call” he had had so far Getty 11/24 The 'Muslim ban' Perhaps one of his most controversial policies while acting as president, Donald Trump’s travel ban targeting predominantly Muslim countries has bought him a lot of criticism. The bans were immediately protested, and judges initially blocked their implementation. The Supreme Court later sided with the administration’s argument that the ban was developed out of concern for US security Getty 12/24 Praising crowd size while touring Hurricane Harvey damage After Hurricane Harvey ravaged southeastern Texas, Donald Trump paid the area a visit. While his response to the disaster in Houston was generally applauded, the President picked up some flack when he gave a speech outside Houston (he reportedly did not visit disaster zones), and praised the size of the crowds there AP 13/24 Calling North Korean leader Kim Jong-un 'Little Rocket Man' During his first-ever speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Donald Trump tried out a new nickname for North Korea leader Kim Jong-un: Rocket Man. He later tweaked it to be “little Rocket Man” as the two feuded, and threatened each other with nuclear war. During that speech, he also threatened to totally annihilate North Korea 14/24 Attacking Sadiq Khan following London Bridge terror attack After the attack on the London Bridge, Donald Trump lashed out at London Mayor Sadiq Khan, criticizing Mr Khan for saying there was “no reason to be alarmed” after the attack. Mr Trump was taking the comments out of context, as Mr Khan was simply saying that the police had everything under control Getty 15/24 Claimed presenter Mika Brezinkski was 'bleeding from the face' Never one not to mock his enemies, Donald Trump mocked MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski, saying that she and co-host Joe Scarborough had approached him before his inauguration asking to “join” him. He noted that she was “bleeding badly from a face-lift” at the time, and that he said no MSNBC 16/24 Claiming the blame for Charlottesville was on 'both sides' Trump refused to condemn far-right extremists involved in violence at 'the march for the right' protests in Charlottesville, even after the murder of counter protester Heather Heyer AP 17/24 Retweeted cartoon of CNN being hit by a 'Trump train' Donald Trump retweeted a cartoon showing a Trump-branded train running over a person whose body and head were replaced by a CNN avatar. He later deleted the retweet 18/24 Tweeting about 'slamming' CNN Donald Trump caught some flack when he tweeted a video showing him wrestling down an individual whose head had been replaced by a CNN avatar. Mr Trump has singled CNN out in particular with his chants of “fake news” 19/24 Firing head of the FBI, James Comey Donald Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey landed him with a federal investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election that has caused many a headache for the White House. The White House initially said that the decision was made after consultation from the Justice Department. Then Mr Trump himself said that he had decided to fire him in part because he wanted the Russia investigation Mr Comey was conducting to stop Getty 20/24 Not realising being president would be 'hard' Just three months into his presidency, Donald Trump admitted that being president is harder than he thought it would be. Though Mr Trump insisted on the 2016 campaign trail that doing the job would be easy for him, he admitted in an interview that living in the White House is harder than running a business empire Reuters 21/24 Accusing Obama of wiretapping him Donald Trump accused former President Barack Obama of wire tapping him on twitter. The Justice Department later clarified: Mr Obama had not, in fact, done so Reuters 22/24 Claiming there had been 3 million 'illegal votes' Donald Trump was never very happy about losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 2.8 million ballots. So, he and White House voter-fraud commissioner Kris Kobach have claimed that anywhere between three and five million people voted illegally during the 2016 election. Conveniently, he says that all of those illegal votes went to Ms Clinton. (There is no evidence to support that level of widespread voter fraud.) 23/24 Leaving Jews out of the Holocaust memorial statement Just days after taking office, Donald Trump’s White House issued a statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, but didn’t mention “jews” or even the word “jewish” in the written statement Getty 24/24 Anger over Inauguration crowd size Donald Trump’s inauguration crowd was visibly, and noticeably, smaller than that of his predecessor, Barack Obama. But, he really wanted to have had the largest crowd on record. So, he praised it as the biggest crowd ever. Relatedly, Mr Trump also claimed that it stopped raining in Washington at the moment he was inaugurated. It didn’t, the day was very dreary Reuters

 A spokesman for the North Korean Foreign Ministry said last month that the more sanctions the US and its allies impose, the faster the nation will work to develop its nuclear weapons programme, according to North Korea’s official KCNA news agency.

 Mr Ri has previously called Mr Trump “President Evil” and his latest comments are unlikely to be received well by the White House.

 “We have almost reached the last point on the journey towards our final goal - to achieve a real balance of power with the United States,” Mr Ri said.

 “Our principal position is that we will never agree to any talks in which our nuclear weapons will be the subject of negotiations,” he added.

 Many members of Congress have criticised Mr Trump's "belligerent" rhetoric toward North Korea. On Sunday, Republican Senator Bob Corker even suggested that Mr Trump's comments about other nations could put the US "on the path to World War III."

 Asked on Tuesday if the Senator was correct in his assessment, Mr Trump responded: "We were on the wrong path before."

 "All you have to do is take a look," Mr Trump added. "If you look over the last 25 years, through numerous administrations, we were on a path to a very big problem – a problem like this world has never seen. We’re on the right path right now, believe me."

 While Mr Trump has taken an aggressive tone in his comments about North Korea, other officials have been more measured.

 Defence Secretary James Mattis has said the administration is still aiming for a peaceful resolution of the conflict, but has told the US Army "to be ready" should military action be ordered by the President. |||||


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 ISIS has released a new propaganda video featuring two deaf-mute militants delivering a sign language propaganda message. In the video, one of the deaf-mute fighters uses sign language to call Muslims in Europe to join the Islamic State, and threatens to slaughter ISIS’ enemies.

 The message has Arabic and English subtitles, and begins by saying: “We, the deaf and mute, direct our message to the Islamic world.”

 The second fighter describes their work as traffic policeman working for ISIS, and the video shows both of them actively directing traffic in Mosul.

 “I am a deaf mute who works in the traffic police in the Islamic state with my brother Abu Abdhur-Rahman,” says the second fighter. “When I complete my duties, my brother Abu Abdhur-Rahman takes my place.”

 The video is entitled “From Who Excused [sic] To Those Not Excused”, suggesting that for Muslims in the west, deafness or disability is no excuse for not waging jihad. The pair end the video by wiring and launching two rockets, which they claim are aimed at nearby Peshmerga fighters. |||||
What is a summary?

– ISIS really wants to make sure it covers all its bases: A recruitment video released yesterday stars two deaf and mute fighters using sign language. "We, the deaf and mute, direct our message to the Islamic world," the video begins, per Vocativ. The video, titled "From Who Excused (sic) To Those Not Excused," "represents an attempt by the group to recruit other physically or otherwise impaired individuals, as well as demonstrates the multifaceted responsibilities of those in its ranks," a researcher tells NBC News. Those "multifaceted responsibilities" apparently include directing traffic, as that is what the fighters are doing (while heavily armed) in the video.


Summarize this article:

Hidekichi Miyazaki (in red), 105, imitates the pose of Usain Bolt after running with other competitors over eighty years of age during a 100-metre-dash in the Kyoto Masters Autumn Competiton in Kyoto, western Japan, on September 23. (Photo: Toru Yamanaka, AFP/Getty Images)

 Use it or lose it! A 105-year-old Japanese man broke his record for the oldest competitive sprinter on Wednesday at a competition in Kyoto, Japan.

 Hidekichi Miyazaki finished a 100-meter sprint in just 42.22 seconds at the Kyoto Masters Athletics Autumn Competition, according to Guinness World Records.

 Born on September 22, 1910, the race marvel recently celebrated his 105th birthday, but shows no signs of slowing down.

 "Today my target was 35 seconds," Hidekichi said after the race, according to Guinness. "I shed tears of disappointment because I was not in good condition. I am not satisfied with today's time. But I am satisfied that I could cross the finish line."

 Hidekichi is nicknamed the "Golden Bolt," after Usain Bolt, who is considered the world's fastest man, AFP reported. He told AFP his dream is to someday race the legendary Jamaican sprinter.

 Despite his age, he may be up to the challenge.

 "The doctors gave me a medical examination a couple of days ago and I'm fit as a fiddle," he told AFP.

 Watch: 105-year-old break his own record

 Follow @MaryBowerman on Twitter.

 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1Fi5xdk ||||| AFP / Toru Yamanaka

 Hidekichi Miyazaki celebrates after clocking 42.22 seconds to set a 100 metres world record in the over-105 age category in Kyoto, western Japan

 A fleet-footed Japanese centenarian raced into the Guinness World Records reference book on Wednesday and declared himself a "medical marvel" as he continues to stalk sprint king Usain Bolt.

 Hidekichi Miyazaki, dubbed "Golden Bolt" after the fastest man on the planet, clocked 42.22 seconds in Kyoto to set a 100 metres world record in the over-105 age category -- one for which no mark previously existed -- a day after reaching the milestone age.

 "I'm not happy with the time," the pint-sized Miyazaki told AFP in an interview after recovering his wind. "I started shedding tears during the race because I was going so slowly. Perhaps I'm getting old!"

 Indeed, so leisurely was his pace that Bolt could have run his world record of 9.58 four times, or practically completed a 400 metres race -- a fact not lost on Miyazaki.

 "I'm still a beginner, you know," he said, grinning from ear to ear. "I'll have to train harder. Training was going splendidly, so I had set myself a target of 35 seconds. I can still go faster."

 "I will say this: I'm proud of my health," added Miyazaki, the poster boy for Japan's turbo-charged geriatrics in a country with one of the world's highest life expectancies.

 "The doctors gave me a medical examination a couple of days ago and I'm fit as a fiddle.

 "My brain might not be the sharpest but physically I'm tip-top. I've never had any health problems. The doctors are amazed by me. I can definitely keep on running for another two or three years."

 Dressed in his trademark red, tight shorts hiked alarmingly high, Miyazaki got off to a wobbly start before finding a gentle rhythm and trotting across the finish line to loud cheers, greeted by his great-grandchildren carrying bouquets.

 Cheekily, he celebrated by striking Bolt's famous "lightning" pose before being presented with a certificate from Guinness officials.

 - Dream race -

 Asked about Bolt's latest heroics at last month's athletics world championships in Beijing, Miyazaki screwed up his nose and said with a chuckle: "He hasn't raced me yet!"

 The twinkle-toed Miyazaki, who holds the 100 metres world record for centenarians at 29.83 seconds, insisted there was still time for a dream race against the giant Jamaican.

 "I would still love to compete against him," said Miyazaki, who loses valuable seconds because he cannot hear the starter's gun go off.

 "Two or three years ago Bolt came to Japan and said he wanted to meet me. There was a call about it but I was out and he left without meeting me. I felt deeply sorry."

 Miyazaki, who was born in 1910 -- the year Japan annexed Korea and when the Titanic was still being built -- only took up running in his early 90s and prepares for races by taking a sneaky catnap.

 He stands just 1.53 metres (five feet) tall and weighs in at 42 kilograms (92 pounds).

 He trains religiously by popping a kilogram weight into a rucksack and going for daily walks around his local park in Kyoto, where he now lives.

 "It's all about willpower," Miyazaki said of his need for speed. "You have to keep going."

 Japanese television crews jostled as Miyazaki, a native of tea-growing Shizuoka prefecture, arrived for his record tilt sporting dapper white slacks and a Panama hat.

 Job done on the track, the Japanese iron man proved he was a dab hand at the shot put, tossing a best effort of 3.25 metres before calling it a day.

 "I can't think about retiring," said Miyazaki, whose next competition is next month's Japanese Masters Championships. "I have to continue for a few more years, to show my gratitude to my fans." ||||| Hidekichi Miyazaki has today once again broken his own record for Oldest competitive sprinter after running in the 100m at the Kyoto Masters Athletics Autumn Competition in Kyoto, Japan.

 Miyazaki was born on 22 September 1910 and has just celebrated his 105th birthday.

 The impressive centenarian finished the race in just 42.22 seconds, greeted by his proud great-grandchildren.

 Speaking afterwards, perfectionist Miyazaki said: "Today my target was 35 seconds ... I shed tears of disappointment because I was not in good condition. I am not satisfied with today's time. But I am satisfied that I could cross finish line."

 Nevertheless, Mr Miyazaki is often referred to as the “Golden Bolt” because he boldly imitates Usain Bolt’s renowned lightening pose.

 He longs for the opportunity to challenge the legendary Jamaican sprinter (who holds the fastest 100 m record at 9.58 secs), and when asked about Bolt's recent successes at the Athletics World Championships, Miyazaki jokes: "He hasn't raced me yet!"

 Guinness World Records adjudicator Kaoru Ishikawa waited on the sidelines ready to present the runner with his third official certificate and a copy of Guinness World Records 2016

 Mr Miyazaki's record is all the more incredible as he picked up the sport in his 90s, explaining that he started running as he needed a new hobby to do on his own as many of his friends that he had played the board game Go with had sadly passed away.

 The Golden Bolt had previously set the record on two occasions, the first time in 2013 at the age of 103, after finishing 100m in 34.10 seconds.

 video

 He then went on to compete in the Asia Masters Athletics Championships in Kitakani, Japan last year at 104 years old, finishing in 34.61 seconds.

 But age is no limit for the inspirational sprinter, who asserts he will continue and improve: "I will try my best again at coming Masters athleticsin Gifu next time." |||||

– A Japanese man, who calls himself a "medical marvel," set his third world record for being the oldest competitive sprinter yesterday—one day after turning 105, AFP reports. Hidekichi Miyazaki ran the 100-meter dash at the Kyoto Masters Athletics Autumn competition in 42.22 seconds, but he was shooting for 35, according to USA Today. "I started shedding tears during the race because I was going so slowly," he tells AFP. "Perhaps I'm getting old." Guinness World Records reports Miyazaki's feat is even more impressive because he only started running in his 90s after most of his board-game buddies passed away. In addition to being the world's oldest competitive sprinter, Miyazaki holds the world record for fastest 100-meter dash for runners over 100 with a time of 29.83 seconds, AFP reports. That's about 20 seconds more than it takes Jamaica's Usain Bolt, one of Miyazaki's idols. Miyazaki, who boasts the nickname "Golden Bolt," hopes to one day compete against the famous sprinter. And it might happen. He tells AFP he thinks he has two or three more years of running in him. "I'm fit as a fiddle," he says. "The doctors are amazed by me."