"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the
animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel
nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest
lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."
Samuel Adams, (1722-1803)

Friday, June 27, 2014

A candidate running to represent Michigan’s 95th House district in
the state legislature wants you to know that once you look past his
bizarre sexual fetish and multiple felony convictions, he is a
rock-ribbed conservative Republican, whose “stool of conservatism” is
held up by “faith, family and freedom.” Michigan Live reported Friday
that Saginaw’s Jordan D. Haskins dismisses the arrests and prison time
as the results of youthful indiscretion and said that he is ready to
“move on from that and do what I can” to serve his state as a Republican
state Representative. “I have dreams,” Haskins said to Michigan Live, “and I want to make a difference.”

Haskins, 24, has served prison time in two states and is currently on
parole, but there are no rules preventing him from running for the
state House. On four occasions between April of 2010 and January of 2011, Haskins
broke into vehicles on public and private property, disconnected the
ignition wires, then started the engine. As the wires snapped and spit
sparks, Haskins would masturbate to climax in a sexualized ritual he
calls “cranking.”Haskins has lived in Michigan and North Carolina and has lengthy
criminal records in both states, dating back to the age of 15. Early
offenses had mostly to do with breaking into cars and going on joyrides.
“I was just a lonely, angry kid at the time,” he said. “If anything, I could be put on ‘World’s Dumbest Criminals.’”Michigan Live said,
“North Carolina’s Department of Public Safety reports a lengthy list of
sentences to prison, county jail and probation for offenses Haskins
committed in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. The offenses include breaking
and entering, larceny and trespassing.”It was once he returned to Michigan, however, that Haskins started
seeking sexual gratification from breaking into vehicles. He repeatedly
broke into the lot where Saginaw Mosquito Control stored its sprayer
trucks and other equipment.Police reports obtained by Michigan Live say that “Jordan would
remove the spark plug wires and sit in the car and masturbate while the
motor was sparking and making noises.”On another occasion, he broke into a lot where sheriff’s cruisers
were parked. He confessed to joyriding around the lot and masturbating
in a police cruiser and a truck. Then in January of 2011, he jumped a
fence and broke into car repair business Scientific Brake and, police
said, later admitted to joyriding in a truck, then “listening to the
engine idle and masturbating.”It is a fetish Haskins said he learned about online. For some
“cranking” or “pedal-pumping” fetishists, participants derive sexual
satisfaction from watching a man or woman who they desire struggle to start a stalled car,
cranking the engine and pumping the gas pedal against the floor. In
other cases, as with Haskins, the fetish revolves around starting the
car oneself and masturbating.Jalopnik reported that U.K. newspaper the Independent carried an article about the fetish, describing it as a growing trend.Haskins said to the Saginaw News, “I was in a messed-up
state of mind mentally and emotionally when I did what I did. That’s the
only way I can even explain it.”“I really had no friends at the time,” he said. “I didn’t really know
what I wanted to do. I was one of those young people who grew up
without a father in the house, grew up with his grandmother and his mom.
I just didn’t really know what I wanted to do, what my purpose was,
where I wanted to go.”He hopes now that voters will see him as the man he is, rather than
the troubled teen he was. Haskins said that he has found “my niche, my
passion” in conservative politics.“That isn’t even me anymore. I’m not sure what really changed or what
happened. I don’t know what it is about when you get into your 20s.
Your chemistry changes. You get wiser and smarter a little bit. That’s
what happened to me,” he said.Haskins is running in a heavily Democratic district, but he believes that his values will help him connect to voters. “I want to be the Republican, the conservative candidate that says,
you know, conservatism is for you. Because conservatism, real
conservatism, true red-blooded American conservatism is about grit, hard
work, loyalty and traditional values. Your family values,” he said. “The three values that make up my stool of conservatism are faith,
family and freedom,” Haskins said. “And I believe that many of the
citizens of Saginaw share those same values.”The primary to choose his Democratic challenger will take place in August.

Thursday, June 26, 2014

An Oklahoma home was damaged last weekend by a howitzer artillery shell fired from a gun range three miles away.The artillery shell – which is 14.5 inches long and 3.5 inches across
– crashed through an exterior wall, hit the ceiling, and damaged
another wall while homeowner Gene Kelley and his wife were in another
room, reported KOAM-TV.“It’s unbelievable,” Kelley said. “Unless you were here to see it or
see the pictures I’ve got, you would not believe how huge this thing
is.”

No
one was hurt, but Kelley said the damage could have been worse if the
shell had not hit a tree limb and then the ground before striking his
Wyandotte house.The shell was fired from a 105mm howitzer at the Oklahoma Full Auto
Shoot and Trade Show, but the gun range owner insists the historic
weapon was safely fired by professionals in a downward projection.“It was not on a level plane, but on a downward trend, pointed
downhill in the bottom of a valley,” said Mike Friend, Owner of Fast
Machine Gun Shoot. “For that thing to rise and go far northwest of the
range, it’s just unheard of.”Both Friend and Kelley described the incident as a “freak accident.”“As far as the safety end of everything, we drill every one of our
shooters before it ever begins,” Friend said. “We have 30-45 minute
drill.”The gun range owner has agreed to pay for any damages from the
accidental artillery shooting, but Kelley questions whether such weapons
should be legal to use.“The people that bring these type of weapons need to think about
whether it is really safe and an appropriate area to take a weapon of
that magnitude and shoot it,” Kelley said.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

A Wisconsin insurance executive and Republican donor was charged with
voting illegally more than a dozen times in four elections.The Journal-Sentinelreported
that 50-year-old Robert Monroe was caught as a result of an
investigation into a possible illegal voting by his son in Waukesha
County. But after his son denied requesting an absentee ballot from his
father’s address in Shorewood, suspicion turned to Monroe. A complaint claimed that Monroe voted five times in Gov. Scott
Walker’s (R) recalled election. He also was accused of voting illegally
in a 2011 Wisconsin Supreme Court election, a 2012 primary, and the 2012
presidential election.

Although the complaint did not state who Monroe voted for, WISN determined that he had donated money to Republican state Sen. Alberta Darling.Prosecutors used Monroe’s cell phone records to prove that he
traveled all the way to Indiana to cast a second vote in the 2012
presidential election. Prosecutors also tested some of the ballots for
genetic material, and only found DNA belonging to Monroe. In May of 2012, prosecutors said that Monroe begged his ex-wife, sons and brother to register to vote in a text message. “You must go to city hall and register to vote,” the message said. “Every vote will be needed!… Please please please.”According to the complaint, Monroe worked as an executive in the
health care industry. His LinkedIn page indicated that he was an
insurance executive, who said he loved “the thrill of the hunt, leading
teams and developing new business.”For his part, Monroe insisted to investigators that he did not
remember voting in the elections because he takes drugs for Attention
Deficit and Obsessive Compulsive disorders. Monroe faces 13 felony election fraud charges in all, including
voting more than once, voting as a disqualified person, registering in
more than one place, and providing false information to election
officials. He could spend up to 18 months in prison, and pay a $10,000
fine for each charge.His next court date was set for July 17..........................

Thursday, June 19, 2014

WASHINGTON—Denying widespread claims that the franchise is being
offensive or disrespectful, the Washington Redskins’ kike owner
announced Monday that he remains steadfast in his refusal to change the
team’s derogatory name. “The Redskins represent 81 years of great
history and tradition, and it’s a source of pride for our fans,” said
the hook-nosed kike, stressing that the team’s insulting moniker is
“absolutely not a racial slur by any means.” “‘Washington Redskins’ is
much more than just a name. It stands for strength, courage, and
respect—the very values that are so intrinsic to Native American
culture.” The shifty-eyed hebe went on to assure fans that he will do
“everything in his power” to preserve the team’s proud heritage.

Thursday, June 12, 2014

It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.American politics took a Game of Thrones-worthy plot twist on Tuesday
as House Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost his primary by a 12-point
margin to Dave Brat, an underfunded right-wing challenger.

Some people blame Cantor’s attempt to play a double game on
immigration reform, leading Brat to attack him as soft on “amnesty,” or
general Tea Party hostility to anyone who could be called
“establishment” (and for all his attempt to court the right, Cantor is
very, very establishment).Here are the two most convincing arguments I’ve heard to explain Cantor’s loss: Conservative activist-pundit Erick Erickson says that, in addition to antagonizing conservative activists, Cantor was trying too hard to be a national figure at the expense of his district:

Cantor’s constituent services moved more toward focusing
on running the Republican House majority than his congressional
district. K Street, the den of Washington lobbyists, became his chief
constituency ... Cantor lost his race because he was running for Speaker
of the House of Representatives while his constituents wanted a
congressman.

I’m less interested in examining why Cantor lost than I am in Bernstein’s explanation of how
his loss goes a long way to showing what his legacy will be. As much as
anyone else in Congress, Cantor is responsible for the loud, showy,
total-war nature of Republican opposition — summoning up the forces that
defeated him last night. From day one — literally, the night of President Obama’s first inauguration
— Cantor was leading the charge to not just oppose Obama, but to
delegitimize him — denying him the conciliatory, bipartisan policy style
he campaigned on, and turning even policy successes into the kind of
grueling partisan battles that voters dislike. It was a deeply cynical
maneuver, but a successful one. Cantor helped unite the Republican
caucus around this scorched-earth strategy, and played a major role in the 2010 campaign that leveraged the grim results of that strategy into a new majority.In 2011, Cantor became Majority Leader thanks in part to the winning
challengers he recruited and funded. In the midst of a still-sputtering
economy, he introduced a three-word mantra that would define his
now-abruptly-ended time as Majority Leader: “Cut and Grow.” “Cut and Grow” was always a sick joke. It’s basic Republican ideology
dressed up as a solution to the Great Recession — rather like having a
warehouse full of chemicals you can’t sell, and deciding to pitch them
to sick people as medicine. The “Cut and Grow” strategy worked like an anvil works as a life
preserver. It dragged down an economy that desperately needed rescue. Cantor complained loudly that the Senate was blocking the House’s job bills, but had the chutzpah to make this claim about “jobs bills” like a resolution expressing disapproval of net neutrality. He has consistently opposed extending unemployment benefits for the thousands of long-term unemployed. He even introduced the novel strategy of demanding spending cuts to offset emergency disaster relief. The 2011 debt-ceiling standoff
is the height of Cantorism, a perfect illustration of big angry talk
and economically counterproductive results. Republicans began to
describe the routine increase in the debt ceiling as a favor to Obama,
for which they needed concessions in order to “give” it to him. The debt
ceiling is an accounting formality that has catastrophic results if
left undone, but in one of the great acts of political spin in the past
few years, Cantor called it a “leverage moment” to make President Obama capitulate to the Republican ideological agenda. The result was a miserable summer of collapsing consumer confidence and slowed job growth. Cantor wouldn’t even stay at the table for the negotiations he forced to happen with his debt-ceiling extortion. After months of efforts to end the (completely optional) crisis,
Congress passed and the President signed the Budget Control Act, which
created the pointless “supercommittee” process and eventually led to
sequestration, a blunt-instrument package of cuts, including cuts to programs like Head Start and Meals on Wheels.
Sequestration was terrible policy - It was yet another drag on an
economy - and, even after his strategy made it happen, Cantor still complained about the sequester and blamed Obama for it. If you want to know Eric Cantor’s legacy, it’s not just about the
forces that he encouraged and that backfired on him last night. It’s a
political style and an ideology that actively set back the economy, time
after time. His cynical advocacy of “Cut and Grow” has had real
negative consequences. He tried to ride the tiger into battle, and the tiger ate him. His
loss is richly deserved and poetically just, but it comes too late.Eric Cantor will be fine — he’ll get a lobbying job,
board-of-director seats, “visiting fellow” offers at think tanks, Wall
Street Journal op-eds, and of course a full Congressional pension. If
only the thousands of people whose unemployment came from his policy
choices could be so lucky.Seth D. Michaels is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C. He's on Twitter as @sethdmichaels.This post has been updated.

A libertarian gun activist — who was convicted on weapons charges
after he carried a loaded shotgun in downtown Washington, D.C. — this
week defended two people who recently went on a shooting rampage in Las
Vegas, killing two police officers and another person. On his Wednesday Internet show, Adam Kokesh blasted the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for noting that Jerad and Amanda Miller had been inspired by his gun activism.“You’re not going to get away with it this time USA Today
and SPLC,” Kokesh insisted, arguing that the shooters had acted because
“authority has become a homicidal institution against freedom.”Kokesh asserted that the slaying of the two officers was not “murder” because police are likely to kill people.“Let’s say someone is going around stabbing people, like just
stabbing people,” he opined. “It’s not murder to kill someone in that
situation. And has been pointed out about the Vegas shooting, when you
have police officers that are going around and doing violent things all
day long, and then they take a break for lunch, well, it doesn’t mean
all of the sudden they’re innocent or they’re being peaceful because
they’re taking a break from all of their other anti-freedom,
rights-violating violence.”“Think of how many lives might have been saved by this incident. How
many people would these cops have killed had they not been killed?” he
asked. “We can only hope that some of the officers in America are
listening — if you care about your own safety — to understand that you
are hurting people, and you can only push them so far before they hit a
breaking point.”Kokesh argued that blaming Jerad and Amanda Miller was “kind of like
blaming the victim,” adding that they could have been thinking about the
time his home was raided after he posted the video of himself loading a shotgun in downtown D.C. After a 15 minute rant about the SPLC, Kokesh concluded that the
civil rights group may have confused his time as a “violent psychopath”
working for the U.S. Marines with his current anti-government beliefs. “And they want to say that I’m the guy that has some responsibility
for this, that they need to associate me with the Millers. And there is
an association, there is. Yeah. There is certainly something to be
learned from this connection,” Kokesh said. “Violence begets violence.
Turning to the institution of government to deal with these problems, an
institution that is based on violence is guaranteed to make the problem
worse.”In the end, Kokesh called the killing “not necessarily unjustified violence,” even if it was “crazy and stupid.”.......................................

Monday, June 09, 2014

Neighbors of the couple who ambushed two police officers
Sunday in Las Vegas told local newspapers the pair had bragged about
spending time at Cliven Bundy’s ranch during the standoff with the
federal government earlier this year.

The two suspects, whose names have not yet been released, fatally
shot two police officers who were having lunch at a CiCi’s Pizza
restaurant before killing a third person at a nearby Wal-Mart. The
female suspect then shot the male suspect and then herself in an
apparent suicide pact.Neighbors in an apartment complex where the two suspects lived said
they “had a reputation for spouting racist, anti-government views” and
boasted about their gun collection, according to the Las Vegas Sun.
The newspaper reported that residents of the apartment complex who
spoke about the suspects also brought up the couple’s relationship with
Bundy Ranch, where the two bragged about being present for the standoff between militia members and the Bureau of Land Management.One neighbor who lived next door to the couple told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the male suspect had said he was kicked off Bundy Ranch at some point during the militia's protest against the BLM.Carol Bundy, the Nevada rancher's wife, told the newspaper she had no
reason to suspect that militia members at the ranch harbored violent
intentions.“I have not seen or heard anything from the militia and others who
have came to our ranch that would, in any way, make me think they had an
intent to kill or harm anyone,” Bundy told the Review-Journal.Another resident of the apartment complex, Brandon Moore, told the
Las Vegas Sun that the couple had also spoken about their plans to
commit a mass shooting. "They were handing out white-power propaganda and were talking about doing the next Columbine," he said.

Friday, June 06, 2014

If you ever happen to come across a Republican on television these days, chances are that you will hear the name Ronald Reagan.
Recent Republican debates are the perfect example of the love fest that
the current Republican party has for Reagan as each candidate name
drops the former president at every turn. If you only listened to
conservatives you would think that Jesus Christ was the only person
above Reagan on the totem pole of conservative love. They talk about his love of low taxes, less government and conservative family values.The problem is that when you step out of the conservative dream and
come back to reality, you find that not only was Ronald Reagan a bad
president, but he was one of the worst presidents we've seen in modern
times. Reagan's policies have destroyed the United States for three
decades, and here are 10 reasons why Ronald Reagan was the worst
president of our lifetime.

Ronald Reagan is loved by conservatives and was loved by big business
throughout his presidency and there's a reason for it. When Reagan came
into office in January of 1981, the top tax rate was 70%, but when he left office in 1989
the top tax rate was down to only 28%. As Reagan gave the breaks to all
his rich friends, there was a lack of revenue coming into the federal
government. In order to bring money back into the government, Reagan was
forced to raise taxes eleven times
throughout his time in office. One example was when he signed into law
the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982. Reagan raised
taxes seven of the eight years he was in office and the tax increases
were felt hardest by the lower and middle class.

2. Tripling the National Debt -

As Reagan cut taxes for the wealthy, the government was left with
less money to spend. When Reagan came into office the national debt was
$900 billion, by the time he left the national debt had tripled to $2.8 trillion.

3. Iran/Contra - (I break this down in more detail in the article linked here)

In 1986, a group of Americans were being held hostage by a terrorist
group with ties to Iran. In an attempt to free the hostages, Ronald
Reagan secretly sold arms and money to Iran. Much of the money that was
received from the trade went to fund the Nicaragua Contra rebels who
were in a war with the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. When the
scandal broke in the Untied States it became the biggest story in the
country, Reagan tried to down play what happened, but never fully
recovered.

4. Reagan funded Terrorists -

The attacks on 9/11 by al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden brought new
attention to international terrorism. All of a sudden, Americans coast
to coast wore their American flag pins, ate their freedom fries and
couldn't wait to go to war with anyone who looked like a Muslim. What
Americans didn't realize was that the same group that attacked the
United States on 9/11 was funded by Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. Prepping
for a possible war with the Soviet Union, Ronald Reagan spent billions of dollars funding the Islamist mujahidin Freedom Fighters
in Afghanistan. With billions of American dollars, weapons and training
coming their way, the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden took everything they
were given and gave it back to the United States over a decade later in
the worst possible way imaginable.

5. Unemployment issues -

When Ronald Reagan came into office 1981, unemployment was at 7.5%.
After Reagan cut taxes for the wealthy, he began raising taxes on the
middle and lower class. Corporations started to ship more jobs out of
the United States while hiring cheap foreign labor in order to make a
bigger profit. While corporations made billions, Americans across the
country lost their jobs. As 1982 came to a close,
unemployment was nearly 11%. Unemployment began to drop as the years
went on, but the jobs that were created were low paying and barely
helped people make ends meet. The middle and lower class had their wages
nearly frozen as the top earners saw dramatic increases in salary.

6. Ignoring AIDS-

By the time the 1980s came around, AIDS had become one of the most
frightening things to happen to the country in recent memory. No one
understood what AIDS and HIV really was and when people don't understand
something, they become scared of it. The fear of the unknown was
sweeping across the country and Americans needed a leader to speak out
about this horrible virus, that leader never came. Instead of grabbing
the bull by the horns and taking charge, Reagan kept quiet. Reagan couldn't say the words AIDS or HIV until seven years into his presidency, a leader not so much.

7. Reagan gave amnesty to 3 million Undocumented Immigrants -

In today's GOP,
the idea of any immigrant staying in the United States whether they are
legal or illegal isn't something that conservatives embrace. What might
shock them is that in 1982 Ronald Reagan gave nearly 3 million undocumented workers amnesty.
The biggest reason for undocumented workers coming to the United States
is because corporations hire them at a cheaper rate than they would an
American citizen. All the laws that would have cracked down on companies
who hire undocumented workers were, of course, removed from the bill.

8. His attack on Unions and the Middle Class -

The Republican war on unions and the middle class
has been heating up in states like Wisconsin and Ohio, but it has been
going on for a long time. Unions are formed to give a united voice to
the workers in an attempt to create fairness between the corporations
and their employees. On August 3rd, 1981, PATCO
(Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization) went on strike in
an effort to get better pay and safer working conditions. Two days
later, taking the side of business, Ronald Reagan fired 11,345 workers
for not returning to work.

With Ronald Reagan cutting taxes so drastically, the U.S government
was beginning to starve. Reagan added to the government and didn't make
enough spending cuts to offset the tax cuts, so the money needed to come
from somewhere. Ronald Reagan knew that his polices would create
economic bubbles, unemployment would drop and some jobs would be
created, but in time the bubble would burst leaving the economy in
ruins. In order to counteract his own economic policies, Ronald Reagan
needed to find somewhere else to get revenue.Listening to Alan Greenspan and other advisors, Ronald Reagan raided the Social Security Trust Fund and replaced it with glorified IOU's. Ronald Reagan raised the Social Security tax rate
which did add to the revenue, but because there is a cap on Social
Security, currently no income over $113,700 is taxed for Social
Security, the wealthy didn't feel the tax increase and the pain was
pushed to the middle and lower classes.

10. Endless worship and never-ending praise -

Ronald Reagan left office in January of 1989 and nearly 25 years
later he is held up high by the modern Republican party. As nearly three
decades have gone by since Ronald Reagan was in the White House,
reality and history has faded with time. Conservative figures like
anti-tax Grover Norquist created the "Ronald Reagan Legacy Project"
with a goal of memorializing Reagan in all 50 states. As stated in this
article, Ronald Reagan did a lot to hurt the United States, not just
while he was in office, but in the years that have followed. What's
scary about today's current Republican party is that while Reagan was
one of the worst presidents this country has had to endure over the last
100 years, he would be considered too moderate to be nominated by
today's conservative standards.

Authorities shot and killed a sovereign citizen Friday morning outside a Georgia courthouse after he brought weapons and explosives in an attempt to take over the building.Investigators said Dennis Marx arrived at the Forsyth County
Administration Building with an assault rifle, bulletproof vest, smoke
grenades, and a gas mask.Marx also brought water and other supplies, ammunition, zip-tie
restraints, and buckets of homemade explosives to the courthouse, said
Sheriff Duane Piper.“He came here with the purpose of occupying the courthouse,” Piper said.He deployed stop sticks at the courthouse entrance to prevent other
vehicles from driving closer and opened fire from his vehicle.Marx was met outside the courthouse by a deputy – who distracted and
then fatally shot him through the windshield of the man’s SUV.The deputy, a 30-year veteran, was shot in the knee during the confrontation but was expected to recover.“It would be a guess to think how many lives he saved had he not
engaged him right there,” Piper said. “Mr. Marx’s intention was to get
inside that front door and to take hostages.”Investigators said the 48-year-old Marx was a “sovereign citizen” who was well known to local authorities.He has been due in court Friday to plead out on marijuana distribution and firearms possession charges.His attorney, Ann Shafer, told reporters she had withdrawn from his
case Thursday because he was unsatisfied with her negotiating abilities.The attorney said she asked Marx – who she described as a firearms
dealer – to undergo a psychological evaluation, but he refused.Shafer said Marx had made “veiled threats” against her during their time together.The sheriff described Marx’s home, where he apparently had not lived
for 10 days, as a “bomb,” saying the house had been booby-trapped with
homemade explosives..................