Liz Cheney's Compulsive Lies : Pathological or Hereditary?

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There are many reasons why a person would lie, but to cover-up something is always, more often then not, the reason for the attempt. Across the vast abyss of the world wide web, you can find an endless supply of examples where Liz Cheney has just flat out lied, embellished, and repeated statements that are just flat out untrue .

Pathological liars often exaggerate issues. In this case, a person may not be lying deliberately. He/she would think and believe in their lies completely. A pathological liar would thus concoct lies in public to make people believe new stories just like Ms. Cheney did.

Ms. Cheney was quite clear when she said : "When President Bush used to do it, he'd do it without the cameras."

Now, either Ms. Cheney just made that narrative up as the words left her mouth, but made the mistake of assuming that all President's have made trips to Dover to honor our fallen soldiers.

She couldn't have confused it with another airfield or anything of that sort since George W. Bush never, and I mean NEVER went to be there for the brave men who where making their final trip home form a war they fought and died in at his command.

It's so easy for people to be frustrated with President Obama for not just shipping off 20,000 more men without stopping to make sure that we have a plan for getting in, executing the strategy, and getting the hell out. Or if that country even has a government.

You know what? If some Veteren who has been on a battle field wanted to put in his two cents in, that would be one thing, but for Dick Fucking Cheney and his Bi-Polar daughter to even open their pie holes after being caught in lie-after-lie and now just making making it up off the top of your head, it's a slap in the face.

Pathological liars often exaggerate issues. In this case, a person may not be lying deliberately. He or she would think and believe in their lies completely. A pathological liar would thus concoct lies in public to make people believe new stories very much like the way Ms. Cheney just concocted a story about President Bush not having any cameras around over at Dover when he went to pay his respects to our fallen soldiers.

It was another narrative that was now out there in the minds of Americans that she and daddy could use to make President Obama look like an opportunists.

Come on Liz! - If going with cameras after less then a year in office is bad, what is not going at all with or without cameras after nearly 8 fucking years. You said it yourself that every Commander In Cheif should do whatever they can to honor our military folks. Remember? - That's what you said Liz. Because these men have made the untimate sacrifice for thier country. Remember? - Those are your words Liz. But you see, here's the problem. Your fucking dad never went! - George Bush never went! - Neither of them went and they've had thousands, upon thousands, upon thousands of opportunities to do so. THEY DIDN'T GO! - And you have the balls to say that George Bush did when you obviously didn't have a clue if he did or not.

But now we get it! - This lie is the proverbial bell that you cannot un-ring. You said "The way that Presdient Bush did it, he did it without cameras." Your talking about a process that George Bush used to do something that he has never done before.

You were not sure if he had or hadn't ever done that, but when you're live on the radio ,you had just laid out the bad version for Barack Obama and now you needed one of those "What would George Bush have done." and when you didn't know the answer with any amount of certainty, You frickin' made it up! - What's up with that?

Ms. Cheney.

To quote Joe Wilson,

Colo. Sheriff: Medical Marijuana Enforcement Waste Of Time

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In the past six months, seven of 10 search warrants served at local marijuana growing operations were for people following the law, said Derek Woodman, undersheriff and Summit County Drug Task Force director. The caregiver in the recent failed bust, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said officers with guns approached his home the evening of Oct. 16. They “pulled us outside” for their protection, he said. But the he showed them the patients' medical files and cards, and the seven officers were gone an hour later. The plants were left unharmed and the house wasn't dismantled.

The Summit County Sheriff said this week enforcement is a waste of resources: In the last few raids they've conducted, the individuals whose properties were searched were able to produce caregiver cards showing they were lawfully allowed by state law to grow the amounts found on their premises. Colorado law does not allow law enforcement to know the identities of caregivers, so they are shooting in the dark.

[T]here's no way for them to confirm a caregiver's authenticity without serving warrants. The state doesn't track the caregivers, who are named in the patients' documents.

In addition, the Sheriff said, his deputies have felt the need to water the plants and keep them alive after seizing them, just in case the grow turns out to be lawful under state law. Civil cases have valued plants as high as $5,000 per plant.

None of this mattered to the Summit County Commissioners, who have just imposed a 120-day moratorium on new medical marijuana dispensaries in unincorporated areas. While the Frisco Town Council noted it was important to have similar rules among the various towns within the county, the Summmit County Commissioners are walking their own path. This reminds me of the kid who used to arrive at school looking like he had been dressed by two different mothers -- Same place, same time, different rules, without rhyme or reason.

Colorado voters approved medical marijuana in 2000, not by statute, but by constitutional amendment. Whether zoning laws and land use regulations can trump or pre-empt a constitutional provision to allow a county or local government to ban dispensaries altogether, when the feds have said they won't prosecute dispensaries acting in compliance with state law, may be beyond the field of expertise of many criminal defense lawyers today. But if criminal prosecutions start, I have a feeling it won't be for long.

Health Care Insurers See The Writing On The Wall.

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My health insurance climbed $47 per monthly premium back in April and just today I recieved notice that my $25 co-pay plan is no longer being offered. So I have to pay more on a monthly basis, and a higher co-pay for each doctor visit. I don't even call them "health care" companies anymore. They are medical insurance aggrigators and the fact that they rushing to rake their customers over the coals is because that know that the public option is going to do exactly what it was meant to do.

They're trying to pad their profit, not because there is a rise in the cost of doing business that is being passed onto the customer, but rather because they're just trying to get every penny that they can before the one of these bills makes it to the presidents desk. This little plan by insusers is going to backfire. The public option was already gaining support despite claims by conservatives that it would lead to a government takeover of health care.

Medicare Advantage plans -- those are private plans for people also enrolled in regular Medicare -- are going up 25 percent. With costs rising like this, it is remarkable how many supporters the insurers have in Congress. Even the best of the companies are a pain to deal with. The for-profit insurance companies are a unique feature of the U.S. health care system. No other developed country has them, and their existence is a key reason Americans spend the highest percenatge of their national income on health care -- while leaving many people uninsured.

Healthcare outcomes are better in other developed countries than in the United States, while the costs are lower. None is perfect. They all face the problem of rising costs. But all other developed countries essentially provide care for everyone. For most working people under 65, we're Germany or France or Japan, - For Native Americans, military personnel and veterans, we're Britain, or Cuba ... For those over 65, we're Canada ... For the 45 million uninsured Americans, we're Cambodia, or rural India."

People in the latter group get care if they can pay the bill out of pocket. The United States, however, is like no other country because it "maintains so many separate systems for separate classes of people, and because it relies so heavily on for-profit private insurance plans to pay the bills. Some opponents of healthcare reform complain that the focus is on extending coverage to the uninsured, which will be expensive, rather than on ways to control costs. There's some truth to that, but extending coverage is the far more critical step. Other changes to control costs can come in turn.

On average, U.S. health insurance companies pay out in claims only about 80 percent of what they collect in premiums. The rest goes for marketing, underwriting and administration, with what's left, for profit. In France, everyone has a carte vitale, a green plastic card with a small memory chip. The card carries the full health history of each person, who treated him for what and what he was charged. Every time a doctor treats someone, the details are entered on the card and the update is sent to the national non-profit insurance fund which pays the doctor's bill, generally within a week, without any additional claim being filed.

The Police Propaganda War On Marijuana Continues

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When it come to growing marijuana indoors, I couldn't tell you what would or wouldn't be considered a large indoor grow, but whenever I see or read about police raids in the news or on tee-vee, they're usually pretty elaborate taking up every room in the house.

These "indoor grows" also seem to be discovered because the where steeling power from Edison or they were using so much paid for power that Edison tipped off the cops.

But here is what chaps my hide over the issue of how the media reports on the subject of marijuana. In fact, let me correct that. My beef is with the misleading quotes by law enforcement that are either assumptive, misleading, or flat out bullshit propaganda.

In read 'this article'in a local Southern California newspaper and it always make me laugh when I read some of the most reduculous stuff. This was a story about a robbery that lead police to an illegal indoor marijauna operation.

So I read about the incident which began about 12:45 a.m. when a man was robbed of his wallet at gunpoint by two men near Amistad and Harold streets in Pico Rivera, sheriff's Sgt. Joe Van Damme said.

Okay, so that cool! - Then I read about how a "witnesses of the armed robbery provided deputies with a license plate number of the suspect vehicle and how Pico Rivera station deputies responded to the registered owner's address in the city of Whittier.

Awesome! - But Chico don't care about no stinking robbery - Come on man! - Give me the 411 on this indoor marijuana growing operation. Okay, so deputies sent in a police dog, which found the suspects and bit one of them and he was hospitalized for treatment of his injury according to LA County Sheriffs Sgt. Van Damme. OKAY! - You Go Jean Claude, but I wanna hear about the weed!

This is what I got at the very bottom of the news article: "While inside the house, deputies discovered a small marijuana growing operation of about three plants."

SAY WHAT! - 3 Plants? - That's a marijuana growing operation?"

I just don't understand the need or the desire for the law enforcemnents propaganda war on marijauna, particularly the issues surrounding medical marijuana and the dispensaries that provides it to patients.

You got Rush Limbaugh sending his maid into some shady side of town with a cigar box full of cash to make an Oxy-Cotin buy, you've got kids dropping dead at underground raves from meth O.D.s' and popping pills intended for large animals, you got meth labs popping up like dandilions, yet they seem hell bent on making marijuana out to be the worst of the worst when it comes to thier war on drugs.

House Dems Unveil 2K Pg. $894 Bil Health Bill

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and fellow House Democrats touted their own $900 billion health care reform bill on Thursday in answer to the Senate’s version and as part of President Obama’s overall push for reform, a push that is getting closer to reality with each legislative tweak and congressional roll-out.

Pelosi took to the steps of the U.S. Capitol to introduce a nearly 2,000 page, $894 billion piece of legislation designed to go far enough to please House liberals but include enough goodies for moderates to make a deal with both chambers possible.

It would create a full public option plan for the uninsured and, according to fast-tracked CBO estimates, cut the deficit by $30 billion, savings generated by taxing wealthy Americans and following the president’s directive in finding savings in Medicare waste and fraud.

This would be on top of the consistent goals expressed by the president throughout the debate, like ending coverage denials based on preexisting conditions and covering up to 96 percent percent of America’s uninsured.

Bush Propaganda Program May Stll Be Running?

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The covert Bush administration program that used retired military analysts to generate favorable wartime news coverage may not have been terminated, Raw Story has found.

In interviews, Pentagon officials in charge of the press and community relations offices — which worked in partnership on the military analyst program — equivocated on the subject of whether the program has ended.

Last May, the Pentagon’s Office of Inspector General issued a memorandum rescinding a Bush administration investigative report on the retired military analyst program because it "did not meet accepted quality standards for an Inspector General work product." The now-retracted report had exonerated officials of using propaganda and referred to the program as just "one of many outreach groups."

Yet Donald Horstman, Pentagon Inspector General deputy director, also stated in the memorandum that his office wouldn’t probe further because the "outreach program has been terminated and responsible senior officials are no longer employed by the Department."

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[Read Part I and Part II of this series.]

Newt Gingrich Falling Out Of Favor With The GOP

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I saw former Speaker Newt Gingrich making the rounds on the tee-vee political shows and having to respond to questions about the heat that he's been taking from Glenn Beck., Rush Limbaugh, etal. Still, Newt bit his tongue and even went so far as to say that both Beck and Limbaugh are both "decent people". However, he did add.

"If some people in the Republican Party want to go around the country purging everyone they disagree with, they’re going to rapidly make this a minority party for a generation and they’re going to guarantee the re-election of President Obama and they’re going to guarantee Nancy Pelosi stays as Speaker for the rest of her life."

They're all over this rift between Fox News and the White House while The Republican Party as a whole, or rather the factions it has splintered into is coming apart like a cheap sweater. They've spent the better part of a decade spoon feeding the missive of the day to people like Coulter and Limbaugh, Hannity and Oreilly, and now Beck fully content with the hateful spin that they'd apply before retransmitting it to the public.

One by one, they all took part in bringing these people into the inter sanctum of thier party and with a wink and a nod and stood ready to defend them when they took it too far. Some of them (Ahem- John McCain) literally brought them into the mix. I mean Sarah Palin didn't just show up with her fucking carry-on! - She was looking to sit and stay for a while.

You guys are like a bunch of school girls on a sleepover. You've been fucking around with the Ouija Board all God damn night, calling up the spirts and guess what? - They'rrrrrrrre Heeeeeeeeere...

You let Sarah Palin take it on the heels after the election with 1/3 of your base, if not more! - Now you got Newt Gingrich running around marginalizing Rush and Glenn. And speaking of Glenn Beck, he's gone so far over the top, the GOP now has to decide are they the party of hatefulness, denial of reality, racism and lies or are they going to come up with some ideas and principles.

Either they cut the Limbaughs, Coulters, Becks and Hannity's off at the knees and show they are reasoned adults or they embrace the horror. At this point I think they don't believe they can win without turning out these wingnuts.

GINGRICH: "I just find it fascinating that my many friends who claim to be against Washington having too much power, they claim to be in favor of the 10th Amendment giving states back their rights, they claim to favor local control and local authority, now they suddenly get local control and local authority in upstate New York, they don’t like the outcome. [...]"

"So I say to my many conservative friends who suddenly decided that whether they’re from Minnesota or Alaska or Texas, they know more than the upstate New York Republicans? I don’t think so. And I don’t think it’s a good precedent. [...]"

"And so this idea that we’re suddenly going to establish litmus tests, and all across the country, we’re going to purge the party of anybody who doesn’t agree with us 100 percent — that guarantees Obama’s reelection. That guarantees Pelosi is Speaker for life. I mean, I think that is a very destructive model for the Republican Party."

Newt seems to have forgotten that when he decided to get in bed with the rabid right wing to ’solidify’ the Republican base, this was the ultimate outcome that everyone in the Republican Party feared, that the rabid right wing would become the defacto drummer that set the beat and now he's concerned that Limpbaugh and Becky are exactly that. The seeds for this sad state of affairs was largely sown by Newt himself and his “Contract on America”. It was then that these rant-radio snake-oil salesmen first realized how gullible and foolish the right-wing base was and is.

Watch it:


Conservative bloggers are now going after Gingrich for lashing out at his critics, with the Other McCain writing, “I was disgusted just now to see Newt Gingriche's appearance on Greta Van Susteren's Fox News Show tonight. - Newt Gingrich disappointed national conservatives again tonight." Gateweay Pundit added.

"WHAT A TANGLED WEB WE WEAVE, WHEN FIRST WE PRACTICE TO DECIEVE."

To Sarah Palin: Levi Isn't Lying, Is He?

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The moment that I heard about what Levi Johnston said on CBS' Early Show Wednesday about the former Alaska Governor, I didn't doubt it for a second. Although I don't think it was said in a hateful way as much as an inappropriate way.

Nevertheless, knowing that this woman has a screw loose has never been a secret to me. Johnston explained his reasons for spilling unflattering information about the Palin family and said he was keeping some "huge" secrets.

The shocker was when he said that Sarah Palin joked about her baby's mental retardation by calling him her "retarded baby." He also said Bristol took care of the baby much more than her mother: "Sarah was never home."

Johnston also said that Todd and Sarah would fight in front of their kids. He said he was going public because the Palins betrayed him and backstabbed him: "I really don't care anymore ... Now it's my turn ... I told a little bit of stuff, and you know, I'm just not going to take it anymore."

"If she's going to go out there and say things to me, about me, I'm going to leak some things on her. I mean that's just how it is," he said. He said that there are things he won't say that would hurt Palin. "I'm not gonna go that far," he said.

In recent weeks Johnston has seized the media spotlight, after the announcement that the 19-year-old plans to pose nude in an upcoming issue of Playgirl magazine.

Watch Chico Brisbane Videos Online

The Washington Post offers more of the CBS interview:
When asked whether he resents Palin, Johnston says, "Well now I've heard all the things she's said.

You know, the Sarah Palin I knew before, it was -- it was her putting on a front, it was her being fake to me and now that everything's slowly coming out and I'm hearing more things, you know, and things she's said and done, you know, I see the real Palin," Levi responds, before stepping through the looking glass.

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Sen. Paul Wellstones Death Not An Accident?

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I ran across this video and was amazed by it's implication. I had the pleasure of meeting Sen. Wellstone in 1996 at the corner of 9th and Marquette one day as I was leaving work.

While there has always those that never believed that Sen. Wellstones plane crash was an accident, they were quickly disregarded as kooks.

However, fast-forward nearly a decade and look at the Mafioso mentality that has been uncovered and running rampant within the ranks of the Republican Party. We now know just a taste of what has taken place in the Bush - Cheney Crime Syndicate, so it is now a safe assumption that anything is possible when it comes to these crazy mother fuckers.

Now it seems that the Fox News Channel is more then happy to openly pick up the torch where Cheney left it still burning and ready to destroy everything in it's path.

INTERVIEW WITH WELLSTONE:

WELLSTONE ASSINATION THEORY:

Kerry To Cheney: STFU Over Afghanistan Already

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If Barack Obama and Joe Biden are not re-elected to a second term, I hope they will both stay in Washington so that they can continue to give thier daily critiques and criticisms to the incoming administration via the Sunday morning politicos.

Oh yes! - I can hear O'Reilly already demanding that Obama and Biden fade quietlty into the night out of respect for President Fiorina and Vice Presdient Palin

O'REILLY: April, 2013

"Former President Obama and former Vice President Biden are once again breaking historical new ground with their unwanted and un-needed critiques and criticisms of the newly elected administration.

President Fiorina and Vice President Palin are two of the most intallectual women of our times, and I cannot recall any previous administration using the Sunday morning talk shows to interject their opinion. It's outragious! - Once the new administration is sworn in, the previous administation has a

duty to shut up and get the hell out of town as quickly as possibe.
Now of course the loons in the far left liberal media are trying to portray the late Vice President Cheney's valuable input as meddling.

But they seem to have forgotten that the only reason that any American still walks the earth is because George Bush and Dick Cheney kept The Homeland safe from another terrorist attack after the Sept. 11, 2001 that was plotted and planned under former president Clinton's administration.

I think that John Kerry got it just right and I can hardley wait to see how he will respond to Kerry's ball-buster. I'm sure he'll probably have his daughter Liz fighting his battles for him. He's mearly a shell of the war criminal that we all remember.

Sean Penn Take A Shot At Fox News On Letterman

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Sean Penn talking with David Letterman about Hugo Chavez. Letterman said that his preception of Chavez that he was "whacky" and Penn responded that any leader with oil under the ground is accused of being whacky.

When Letterman asked him about Hugo Chavez nationalizing the media, Penn corrected Letterman and explained that the media outlet in question had been encouraging people to assassinate Chavez 24/7

"Which you'd be arrested here in the U.S. if you did that, so he just didn't 're-up' their license. So the thought that there no freedom of speech her when you've got the loons at Fox News broadcasting everyday."

WATCH VIDEO:

Mile High City Wants 4% Tax For Getting High

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Denver: Mile High City Wants 4% Tax For Getting High.

With so much going wrong in the country, Charlie Brown - No not that one, but Denver's District 6 City Councilman, Charlie Brown has taken up the fight against the evil, highly addictive narcotic called marijuana. Sometimes referred to as Marijane, Wacky-Tobacky, Grass, Weed, Bud, Chronic, and Cush. It's not a pretty place once you travel into the deep dark underground where the marijuana addicts commit their violent crimes and sell their own children into prostitution so they can feed their weed habit. Some say that marijuana is 10 times as addictive as heroine and methamphetimine combined. However, those same people are completely and utterly full of shit.

I have been amazed at the narrative that is being spoon fed to the media by law enforcement, anti-marijuana activists, and local politicians looking for the next "vote winning" cause. However, someone had better let Councilman Brown know that across this great land of our, majorities of Americans are in support of legalizing marijuana above and beyond medicinal use. As far as I'm concerned, I couldn't give a flying fuck in a rolling donut who smokes weed as long as they don't jump behind the wheel of a car while their high like society requires of alcohol consumption.

Is anyone really prostituting themselves to support a marijuana habit? - I can't imagine anyone pawning their VCR for a dime bag.......I'm not running to the defense of Marijuana Dispensaries and hope that they will go away someday. But hopefully that day will be when every American has the right to add marijuana to their herb garden right next to parsley, rosemary, and tyme.

Yet here in Los Angeles, running a meth lab or smuggling cocaine is becomming easy and more lucrative with city and state law enforcement so focused on marijuana. Has anyone ever noticed that no matter what the circumstances are surrounding an arrest or a raid on a medical marijuana clinic, or an illegal indoor grow, the Mexican Mafia or Cartel is always inserted into every news story strictly for propaganda purposes.

In California, some highschool boys created a marijuana garden in the hillside above the athletics field of their high school. It was discovered and abated by the police and at the time when it was unknown who was responsible for the grow, it was speculated by law enforcement on secene that the "techniques being used in the grow and the spacing of the plants" may as well have been signed "Sincerely, The Mexican Drug Cartel."

Really? - The Mexican Mafia is running illegal outdoor marijuana gardens in the middle of a 75% white, upper middle class suburban comminity? - Are you sure about that Detective Flatfoot? - Of course once the responsible parties where discovered to be 3 teenagers, 2 of which were honor students, not a single word about that was printed in any newspaper that reported the original story except for the community newsletter that is given out for free.

But wait! - Don't you want to hear the story about one of the three teenagers and how he saved a kid from drowning in a backyard swimming pool? - Or the other young man that has only missed 2 days in nearly 4 years of highschool? - That's good, right?

I think the answer to that is: Nope! - If we can't tie it to the God Damn Mexican Mafia, then fuck it! - Who in the hell want's to read about white boys who grow thier own weed, especially if they go to school everyday, maintain gpa's of 3.0 or above, and save drowning children in a single bound? ... But I digress.....

Anyway, I don't want to nail Councilman Brown to the cross over the issue because he isn't that far over the top like a few local leaders out here in my neck of the woods. It's just that when it comes to marijuana, if your out there spinning your bullshit for political purposes, I'm gonna call you to the carpet over it because here's the bottom line.

You legalize marijuana and the Mexican Drug Cartels stop comming north to use organized gangs to peddle thier marijuana. Then the police can focus on the real evils of society when it comes to illicit drugs. You know? the kind you have to manufacture that could actually make someone to resort to prostitution and violence to feed a habit.

Councilman Charlie Brown wants to establish a broad raft of regulations on the businesses. The Post editorial board is weighing in Friday on the statewide problem of a lack of regulation of medical marijuana, and in doing some research for the editorial, I chatted with the councilman about his plans.

"I don’t think we stop people from having access," Brown, just back in his office after visiting a dispensary, told me. "But we do need to have some oversight."

Brown says that the situation has gotten completely out of hand. Huge numbers of people who likely aren’t at all suffering from anything other than a desire to get high are getting permits for medical pot meant to go to people with a "debilitating medical condition."

Not that I have the slightest problem with someone wanting to get completely baked out of his mind. (Though I also make the buzz-kill assumption that personal accountability and responsibility are to prevent the smoker from acting lawlessly or becoming a drain on society.) The Post supports legalizing marijuana and regulating and taxing it like alcohol, and so do I. The drug war is a goof and you’ve heard the arguments. But using the medical-marijuana law as a back-door path to legalization is not the solution.

Councilman Brown says the "legitimate" dispensary owners he’s talked to desire reasonable regulation. They’re tired of being treated like second-class citizens catering to stoners when they’re really just trying to provide solace to the truly sick and suffering. So what’s he want to do? Brown would seek to apply the Denver sales tax on medical marijuana sales and a 4 percent tax "on edibles sold at dispensaries and consumed off-site."

(I just love the humor behind that one: A munchies tax!)

He would charge a dispensary applicant "the same as if they were applying for an adult cabaret license," or an application fee of $2,000 and a yearly license fee of $3,000 thereafter. Dispensary applicants would have to get a full FBI background check, follow state laws that liquor stores follow, including how close a dispensary could be located to a school. And applicants under Brown’s proposal would have to be more accountable to neighborhoods. "Perhaps we need a ‘needs and desires’ hearing similar to liquor," he says.

Finally, Brown is concerned about the consumer. He wants to make sure permit holders get quality weed grown right here in Colorado and not from some gun-toting Mexican drug cartel that could be treating the dope with God knows what. I’m not sure I get the "adult cabaret" business. That seems to assume that legitimate and lawful permit holders are still doing something uncouth. Wouldn’t any regulations for pharmacies be the more analogous application? Brown says he expects to have a draft of his legislation by late next week.

Georgia Republican Party Mails Fake Sensus Survey

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11 Alive, a local Georgia news station, reports today that the Georgia Republican Party is sending out a political mailer disguised to look like an official U.S. Census survey. The news station learned of the scam when a voter called the station saying she was "upset" that Georgia Republicans would send out such a mailer, given that many Georgians, especially senior citizens, will not realize that it’s a political ploy and not an actual Census survey:




"I got real upset ’cause I think a lot of people would just automatically fill it out," [Anne Wilson of Smyrna] told us in a Thursday TV interview, "It’s their civic duty; by law they have to fill out the census. Turns out I and many others across the country have received the same survey letter which is titled the "2009 Congressional District Census".


The outside of the envelope is stamped "Do Not Destroy, Official Document". The survey lists a specific congressional district and includes an individual "Census Tracking Code", with the request, "Please Respond by: November 16, 2009″. [...]


"I could see a lot of my neighbors that are older who would get something like this in the mail and fill it out," she adds, "all the information, every little section, and send in money."

Glenn Beck Hometown Out $17K Over Key To City

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Glenn Beck may never win a Nobel Peace Prize, but he was given the certemonial key to the city of his homwtown of Mt. Vernon, Washington.

Mayor Bud Norris controversially decided to award hometown boy Glenn Beck not just with the key, but also be declaring Sept. 26 " Glenn Beck Day. In response to the mayors bright idea, approximately 800 people turned out to demonstrate - and it was the largest protest anybody could remember" in the town .

The city council unanimously passed a resolution that distanced itself from the mayor’s decision. Now, the Seattle Times is reporting that the

event cost the small town $17,748.85, which is an amount that has stunned the Mt. Vernon finance director. Additionally, the event didn’t make the $10,000 that the mayor had expected to donate to a local theater:

There were 577 tickets sold that generated $14,425, before expenses. Income from ticket sales would have been higher had Glenn Beck's family, friends, community leaders not eaten up 92 comp tickets. Mayor Norris, using an tried and true Fox News tactic and said that some people say "It's pretty common I’m told." [to comp tickets]

Total ticket sales to the first annual Glenn Beck Day netted $5,746.83. Now! - You subtract $5,754.17 for the hall rental, and another $2,924 for radio ads, that leaves $2,830.

"The radio advertising was to make sure we sold tickets. I didn’t know what kind of response we would get. I didn’t want to go through all this and have 50 people show up," says Norris.

Nevertheless, Norris has no regrets:

"I don’t go to bed at night worrying about what people are saying about me on the Internet or blogs."

Well Mr. Norris! - You know what? - Charlie Fucking Manson has a hometown, but you don't see anyone pulling a groin muscle trying to organize a God Damn tickertape parade for him, now do you!

Maybe those 800 people who stormed City Hall in protest didn't get quite get their message across, but on a lighter note, there was that one citizen holding a sign saying. "He might be an idiot, net he's our idiot. - Welcome Glenn.

Hopefully Glenn will reach into those multi millions that he has and help his hometown with the bill that they racked up for his benefit.

Fox News Feelings Hurt By Obama

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Soon after White House communications director Anita Dunn called out Fox News for being the "communications arm of the Republican Party," Fox News senior vice president Michael Clemente said that "[i]t’s astounding the White House cannot distinguish between news and opinion programming."

But a subsequent Media Matters item demonstrated just how much Fox’s "news" mirrors its right-wing opinion. Now, a new Media Matters video documents the fact that Fox News "declared ‘war’ on the White House long before Dunn’s comments."

Watch it:

Michael Savage: Beck Will Be Gone In 90 Days

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Micheal Savage: Within 90 days, he [Glenn Beck] has got a bit in his mouth and he's moving on to something else.

On his radio show yesterday, Michael Savage took issue with the Obama administration’s accusations of partisanship against Fox News, calling the entire controversy a “kabuki play” generated for ratings and a bid for News Corporation (Fox News’ parent company) to expand business.

Savage also took aim at Glenn Beck, saying Beck might soon be muzzled with a “bit in his mouth” by his bosses at Fox News. Savage proceeded to call Beck a dim-witted con artist:

SAVAGE: Within 90 days, he has got a bit in his mouth and he’s moving on to something else. [...] I’m not impressed by him. I’ve seen the act before. I’m not for him or against him, he does a reasonably good job copying people who are brighter than him who have done their work before him and taking as many ideas from as many people as he can without giving anyone credit. I get that. There’s nothing new about that either. But, my prediction is he’s got a bit put in his mouth very very fast and or he’s going to be fired.

Savage isn’t the only top far-right talker to trash Beck. Last month, Mark Levin, another top 10 radio show host, called Beck “mindless,” “incoherent,” and “pathetic.”

Fox News Reports On Deadly Indoor Grown Marijuana

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To address the increase activity relating to the cultivation of marijuana, the Narcotics Bureau initiated a Marijuana Enforcement Team (MET) comprised of Sheriff's narcotic investigators and members of the United States Forest Service. Its mission is to eliminate illicit indoor and outdoor marijuana grows.

In a few recent videos posted here at ChicoBrisbane.Com, we've illustrated that in spite of the White House's comments that it was a waste of time to go after medical marijuana users. Law enforcement in the Los Angeles has seemingly stepped up it's attack on the medical marijuana dispensaries.

Usually anyone law enforcement official before the news cameras will go out of his or her way to get their negative narrative regarding medical marijuana out in the media and in the minds of Americans. You will always hear thinly vailed connections to the Mexican Drug Cartel, but in the case of this video clip below, you'll see how Fox News takes marijuana from tainted with toxic pesticides, to straight out deadly. You smoke it, you die!

The Los Angeles County area continues to be a hub of narcotic activity. The highly developed transportation routes and the close proximity to the United States/Mexican border create a unique threat by making Los Angeles County a major distribution, storage, and supply center for illicit drugs destined for cities throughout the United States and beyond.

WATCH VIDEO:

GOP Concerned About Flamboyant Rhetoric Of Media Personalities

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Some top Republicans are voicing concern that the party’s chances for reversing its electoral routs of 2006 and 2008 are being wounded by the flamboyant rhetoric and angry tone of conservative activists and media personalities, according to interviews with GOP officials and operatives. Perhaps it might behoove the GOP to follow the White Houses suggestion that they stop treating Fox News as a legitimate source for news and information.

Perhaps it might behoove the GOP to distance themselves from commentators such as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, which is a story in and of itself. Incase Mr. Hannity hasn't noticed, he's no longer as relevant as Glenn Beck. To everyone other then Hannity, that would be good news. To Hannity, it must be unimaginable.

Beck and Limbaugh are the top two commentators that are wildly popular with the conservative base but wildly controversial among other parts of the electorate, and who have proven records of making life miserable for senators and House members critical of their views or influence.

Some of the leading 2012 candidates are described by operatives as grappling with the same tension. The challenge is to tap into the richest source of energy in the party — the disgust of grass-roots conservative activists with President Barack Obama and their hunger for a full-throated attack on his agenda — without coming off to the broader public as cranky and extreme.

"The commentators are part of the coalition, not the whole coalition," Pawlenty said in a phone interview. "The party needs to be about addition, not subtraction — but not at the expense of watering down its principles."

At the same time, there are powerful incentives for Washington politicians to play to the crowd and bow to the influence of commentators like Beck, who at the moment is far more famous than any of the GOP’s congressional leaders.

In fact, as illustrated by Rep. Joe Wilson, elected Republicans are seeing the benefits — national media attention and fundraising — from embracing the trash-talking style of talk show hosts. Wilson went from being a little-known member of the House minority who had repeatedly failed to get on the A-list committees to a cause célèbre for the right wing because he shouted "You lie" at Obama during a joint session of Congress.

Fox Tell's The Truth! - Even When They Lie.

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According to every recent credible poll -- including the most recent Washington Post/ABC poll released just yesterday morning -- the public in fact strongly supports a public option with its health-care reform package.

In fact, support has risen from 52 percent to 57 percent in recent months. The most recent CBS poll pegs the support at 62 percent.

If by "Obamacare" Hannity means a public option (and he does, having used the term that way previously), then he not only is wrong on the facts -- he has reality exactly reversed.

These are, of course, "opinion" shows. But "opinions" should be based on, you know, actual facts. Because otherwise, they're just lies. Maybe on Fox, we should stop calling them "opinion shows" and start calling them "Newspeak shows."

And the excuse that Fox's bias is relegated only to these "opinion shows" and does not extend to its news reportage is, as we've noted, a grand load of hooey:

If you watch Fox's daytime "news" programs -- from Fox & Friends to Happening Now to Special Report with Bret Baier (where this report aired) -- you'll find that, while they lack the viciousness of the "opinion" programs, they nonetheless are heavily slanted with an anti-administration bias.

Reporters like Carl Cameron and James Rosen constantly bring on Republican spokespeople and reliably transmit GOP talking points as though they represent fact (when in reality they usually have an estranged relationship with the truth).

Anchors like Gretchen Carlson and Trace Gallagher regularly comment on the news they're reporting with an unmistakable right-wing slant.
Media Matters has documented this in extensive detail. They've also come up with a video that illustrates the point beautifully:

GOP Celebrating Too Early?

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According to former speaker Newt Gingrich in a recent Washington Post piece, "voters are more skeptical of Republicans then they were in '93 and '94" when the GOP reclaimed majority control of the House for the first time in four decades.

However, if you compare the Republican Party of a year ago that was left beaten, brused, and battered after an 8 year cluster-fuck formally known at the Bush Administration, then indeed they have come along way in 12 months. In spite of an ugly summer with Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and Rush Limbaugh seemingly at the wheel.

Republicans in Washington my be celebrating too early if thier cause for celebration is the politial capital spent by Barack Obama the first 9 months of the year. A new Washington Post/ABC News poll suggests the GOP still faces serious perception problems in the eyes of the American public and here's why.

Less than one in five voters (19 percent) expressed confidence in Republicans' ability to make the right decisions for America's future while a whopping 79 percent lacked that confidence.

Among independent voters, who went heavily for Obama in 2008 and congressional Democrats in 2006, the numbers for Republicans on the confidence questions were even more worse.

Just 17 percent of independents expressed confidence in Republicans' ability to make the right decision while 83 percent said they did not have that confidence.

And, perhaps most troubling for GOP hopes is the fact that just 20 percent of the Post sample identified themselves as Republicans, the lowest that number has been in Post polling since 1983.

These numbers, coming roughly one year before the 2010 midterm elections, show that any celebration on the GOP's behalf is premature as the party has yet to convince most voters that it can be a viable alternative to Democratic control in Washington today.

Overall, 57 percent approve of the way Obama is handling his job as president and 40 percent disapprove. While those numbers have moved only marginally over the past few months, here, too, are fresh signs of restiveness among the party faithful:

"Strong approval" among liberal Democrats is down 16 percentage points over the past month. On the economy, 50 percent approve of Obama's efforts, while 48 percent disapprove.

The president receives better marks from all Americans for his handling of international affairs and his performance as commander in chief (57 percent approval on each). Majorities also approve of how he is dealing the situation with Iran and his winning of the Nobel Peace Prize.

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Sen. Lamar Alexander Defends Fox News

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Sen. Lamar Alexander Defends Fox News

Sen. Lamar Alexander weighed in on the Fox News controversy today, accusing the White House of "street brawling" and likening their actions to a modern day "enemies list."

Alexander noted that he was a young aide in the Nixon White House who saw the culture of attack and paranoia infect the presidency. All I can say is, "Really?"

I've written that the attacks on Fox are misguided and likely to backfire. But it's hard to see how the White House's jostling with its political foes is anything like an enemies list.

And if you look at the crazy attacks on the president from the right--socialist, foreign agent, etc--they seem like pretty small efforts to push back.

The genial Alexander will get a lot of attention for his lengthy remarks and call for more bipartisanship. Does that ever go over poorly? But the Obama-Nixon parallel seems more than a little strained.

What do you think?

LA City 4th Revision Ordinance On Medical Marijuana Clinics

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Los Angeles: Fourth Revised Draft Ordinance Regarding Medical Marijuana Collectives Issued.

On Tuesday Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich submitted to Los Angeles City Council a 4th revision of the cities draft ordinance regulating the medical marijuana collectives in the city. This is a draconian piece of legislation that would ban the sale of medical marijuana for cash, ban the sale of medibles (medicinal edibles), ban the production of concentrates and also prohibits any on site consumption of medical marijuana.

Advocates in Los Angeles were shocked when this was presented and plans are in the works for major protests and several attorney's that I contacted yesterday and this morning have stated they intend to hash this out in the courtroom.

In Los Angeles we have a City Attorney Carmen Trutanich and a County DA Steve Cooley that are out of control as well as out of touch with the wishes of the voters of Los Angeles, city and county.

A vote on this is expected shortly, possibly within the week.

Calls in to folks at city hall for more details have not been returned at this time.

A copy of the proposed ordinance is attached.

Fox News: The Penny Saver of Cable News

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Fox News Channel Hemmer latest to advance made-up charge that Jennings knew of "statutory rape" case and "never reported it"

Fox News' Bill Hemmer continued his network's attacks on Department of Education official Kevin Jennings by claiming that Jennings knew of a "statutory rape" case involving a student but "never reported it." However, Hemmer ignored that Jennings' attorney wrote in a 2004 letter that the student was 16 years old, which Jennings' book appears to support, and that 16 is -- and was at the time -- the legal age of consent in Massachusetts.

From the October 1 edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom:



HEMMER: I'm Bill Hemmer, top of the hour now, we are talking about a case that involves statutory rape, and Jennings never reported it. According to a book he wrote, had no regrets about how he handled it then.

MARTHA MacCALLUM (co-host): And now he has changed his story a bit. And Mike Emanuel joins us live at the White House with that. How do we know so much detail about this controversy?

EMANUEL: Well, Martha, Jennings has included this story in two books. He's also spoken about it at public events at an education summit involving a gay, lesbian education group that he founded. He told the story that a 15-year-old came to him, said that he was meeting older men in a bus station restroom, and getting involved with them. And Jennings' advice to the young man, the 15-year-old student, was, "Well, I hope you knew to use a condom." The child said to him, "Well, why should I? My life is not worth living anyway." And so a lot of people suggesting that should have thrown up all sorts of red flags for this teacher.

Jennings' attorney stated in letter that student was 16, which is -- and was -- MA age of consent

Jennings' attorney: Conversation was "with a sixteen-year-old student"; "no factual basis" that Jennings was "aware of any sexual victimization of any student." In an August 3, 2004, letter, Constance M. Boland of the law firm Nixon Peabody -- which represented the organization that Jennings ran -- wrote that the "conversation" Jennings had was with "a sixteen-year-old student" and that there "is no factual basis whatsoever for" the "claim that Mr. Jennings engaged in unethical practices, or that he was aware of any sexual victimization of any student, or that he declined to report any sexual victimization at any time."

[Boland letter, 8/3/04]

Massachusetts age of consent is -- and was at the time -- 16. According to a footnote in the 1982 Massachusetts case Commonwealth v. Calvin D. Miller, chapter 265, section 23, of the General Laws of Massachusetts, as amended in 1974, at the time provided:

Whoever unlawfully has sexual intercourse or unnatural sexual intercourse, and abuses a child under sixteen years of age shall, for the first offense, be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for life or for any term of years, or, except as otherwise provided, for any term in a jail or house of correction, and for the second or subsequent offense by imprisonment in the state prison for life or for any term of years, but not less than five years. [emphasis added]

According to the legislative history available in the Lexis database, the provision was not amended after 1982 until 1998. It was amended again in 2008 and now provides:

Whoever unlawfully has sexual intercourse or unnatural sexual intercourse, and abuses a child under 16 years of age, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for life or for any term of years or, except as otherwise provided, for any term in a jail or house of correction. A prosecution commenced under this section shall neither be continued without a finding nor placed on file. [emphasis added]

Jennings' 1994 book: Student at least 16 years old in his 1994 book, One Teacher in Ten: Gay and Lesbian Educators Tell Their Stories, Jennings writes of

"Brewster, a sophomore boy who I came to know in 1987, my first year of teaching at Concord Academy, in Concord, Massachusetts." Jennings writes that "during the spring of 1988," Brewster told Jennings "a story about his involvement with an older man he had met in Boston."

Jennings writes that he "listened, sympathized, and offered advice." Later in the book, Jennings writes that on April 3, 1993, he "caught up" with Brewster at "the annual awards dinner of the Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights." Jennings writes that Brewster was then "twenty-two, taking time off from college, and living with his boyfriend.

" If Brewster was 22 in April of 1993, then Brewster would have been either 16 or 17 in the "spring of 1988," when, according to Jennings' book, Brewster told Jennings of the "older man." From his book:

NASA Scientist Arrested For Espionage

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What Did The Moon Scientist Want To Tell The Israelis? Some Clues

From: The Atlantic
by Marc Ambinder

There's nothing like a good, diverting spy scandal. The FBI today arrested an eminent space scientist, Stewart David Nozette, and charged him with espionage.

He allegedly agreed to sell information about American nuclear weapons to an operative of Israel's Mossad -- only the agent turned out to be an uncover FBI agent. Nozette was the principal investigator on the NASA team that discovered water on the moon.

But he spent years as a top scientist at the Department of Energy, where he specialized in satellite technology. According to CBS News, his work for an Israeli defense/aerospace consulting company owned by the Israeli government -- work that involved providing unspecified but presumably sensitive technical assistance -- brought him to the attention of investigators.

The affidavit alleges that Nozette secreted two computer drives out of the company and brought them to a third country. What he did with them -- and what was contained on those disks the FBI isn't saying. From the FBI release, it's hard to figure out what he might have given the Israelis when he worked for them. Left somewhat vague is what he tried to sell to the undercover agent. But his resume provides a clue.

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Obama Admin Policy Change On Medical Marijuana

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"There has been a change in policy with regards to medicinal marijuana from the Obama administration. This comes in response to the policy under George Bush to ignore state laws, again demonstrating that many Republicans are only concerned about states’ rights when it suits their policies." From The Assicoated Press

The Obama administration will not seek to arrest medical marijuana users and suppliers as long as they conform to state laws, under new policy guidelines to be sent to federal prosecutors Monday.

Two Justice Department officials described the new policy to The Associated Press, saying prosecutors will be told it is not a good use of their time to arrest people who use or provide medical marijuana in strict compliance with state laws.

The new policy is a significant departure from the Bush administration, which insisted it would continue to enforce federal anti-pot laws regardless of state codes.

Fourteen states allow some use of marijuana for medical purposes: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

Nevertheless, local and state law enforcement agiencies in the states that currently have medical marijuana statutes on the books, all seem to be stepping up attacks on clinics and dispensaries that assist patients that have been perscribed marijuana by a board certified physician.

There seems to be little debate that there is a political, as well as a financial motivation in these on going "FBI Style" raids on despensaries. Many agencies compete for statewide funds for thier contributions to the war on drugs. Somebody just needs to refax the memo to advise then that once a person has a prescription, marijuana is no longer an illegal drug, but a perscription medication.

California and Nevada in perticular have seen an increase in cases being dropped in the Superior Courts of reasons mostly related to "over ergorness" on the part of investigators, but there are a few case in California that are currently under review regarding the accuracy of imformation in an afidavit for a search warrant.

Conservatives Cheered For 2016 Olympics Amid Rio's Drug Gang Warfare.

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Conservatives cheered for 2016 Olympics amid Rio's drug gang warfare.

When conservatives cheered the defeat of the US bid to host the 2016 Olympics, one of the reasons they scorned the bid was violence in Chicago, linking the US bid to the vicious gang murder of a high school student in Chicago.

Now two weeks after winning the international competition, Rio de Janeiro has erupted into open drug gang warfare, the violence startling even for a city already known for it.

At least 14 have been killed, including two officers who died when their police helicopter was shot down.

Brazilian officials are promising to restore order, and assuring watchers that they can deliver a safe 2016 Olympics.

WATCH VIDEO:

SNL's "Rock Obama" Skit Here For The Duration.

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NBC's Saturday Night Live has been poking fun at our presidents going back to Chevy Chase's clumsey rendition of Gerald R. Ford.

They had fun with The elder President Bush and his 2nd in command Dan Quayle. They really gave it to Bill Clinton and every once in a while they'd take a shot at Vice President Albert Gore.

However, in the case of the unsophistocated George W. Bush and his diabolical sidekick, Richard B. Cheney, the material just kept coming fast and furious for all years of thier Christian Jihad.

SNL's been having fun with President Barack H. Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden going back well before the election.



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Glenn Beck Longs For Those Halcyon Days. He Just Needs Halcion

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Glenn Beck should be paying his viewers $110 an hour or whatever the going rate is for a check-up from the neck up. On September 12, 2009, Beck turned on the waterworks over those days of old, that simpler time in America where Kodak spoke about the times of your life and CocaCola commercials were always about unity and sharing. But then Glenn shocked the hell out of me when he said.



"America has never been a perfect place, but we used to be united. We used to be united on some basic things. If a politition told you right now that he could make that happen again. We could go back to those simpler times when people where together. You'd do it in a heart beat, wouldn't you? - I'd be tempted to believe them, but the truth is no politition can take you there. They can only take you farther from there. Only common sence and hard work, and only the honest truth, or better yet the hard reality." (Beck: Brief pause - sniffle - sniffle)

This is where Glenn starts reminicing about his father and going to a party with two friends who promised him that they'd leave by midnight. However, by 2:00 am they're still there, his clothes smell like pot. He hasn't had a drop of alcohol (ahem bullshit!) but these same friends have spilled beer all over him.

"You're out way passed cerfew and you don't know what to do. You're gonna get your butt kicked. We're facing the same choice now. Do you remember what our parents said to us. Just come home and tell us the truth. We'll get throught this."
Now, I'm not sure what much of Beck's walk down Memory Lane was about, but he obviously feels that he's disappointed his father as a youth and he's been lugging around some serious emotional baggage ever since.

It would not be too far off base to conclude that much of Beck's desire to travel back in time, to that simpler time, would be to correct mistakes that he's made along the way. Now, if this snivilling was coming from the guy that made my Subway Sandwich earlier today, that would be one thing. But when it's coming from someone that makes $10 million God Damn dollars and year, are you shittin' me with this! - Fuck Glenn Beck! and Fuck what he's going through!

Instead of balling over those Halcyon days way back when the sky was blue, the birds where cheerping, life was simpler, and there wasn't a Brotha Man in the White House, Beck ought to seriously consider getting himself a perscription for Halcion and taking a God Damn nap for a few minutes! - Jesus Fucking Christ! - This guy is unraveling like a cheap sweater and he's looking to his viewers for emotional support and validation for his rationalizations?

Near the end of his Novella, Beck said that we’d have to suffer the punishment of being “financially grounded.” But, he continued, “In the long run, you will look at your children...” He grimaced, as though he could not hold back any longer. He paused for a few seconds seeming to pull himself together enough to carry on. Then, with his voice dripping with heartache and pleading, "...and you will tell them, that you hated it, you hated the things that you did at the time because they were hard, but your dad was right and you're glad you did it." CLIP ENDS (Hold for Applause) (Hold For Applause) (Hold For Applause)

Liz Cheney Attacks MSNBC Top To Bottom Except For Dr. Rachel Maddow?

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Liz Cheney has started a political group to give the appearance of legitimacy to the tired old narritave that she's been reciting since her father's much anticipated term in office came to an end. She has ironically named her pet project "Keep America Safe," whose sole purpose is to rally opposition to the Obama administration's national security policies while promoting the stunning failures of the Bush administration.

The group's first project was a web ad attacking MSNBC and asserting that they're afraid to debate her on the "substance" of national security policy. You'd sware that the Cheney's have never owned a VCR or hadn't a clue what a DVR or TIVO was because they say things as if nobody will remember them saying something to the contrary a week, a month, or even a year earlier.

WATCH VIDEO:

The web ad produced by Ms. Cheney's group is devoted to making the case that Obama's reversal of Bush policies is radical and dangerous. The ad bashes Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews as "afraid" to debate her on the "substance" of national security policy. The ad airs footage of Olbermann, Matthews, and Ed Schultz mocking the announcement of her group, and concludes:

"Why don't they want to talk substance? Why are they panicked? Why don't they want to debate the issues?"

The implication being, of course, that MSNBC is running scared from Ms. Cheney. It did not go un-noticed that while Ms. Cheney's ad was calling out Olbermann, Matthews, and Schultz, it doesn't say shit about the lovely and talanted Dr. Rachel Maddow whose criticism of everything that even rhymes with 'Cheney" overshadows the mild criticism of her "fellow" MSNBC counterparts.

Rachel has invited Liz Cheney onto her show many, many times, and yet, Cheney has declined every opportunity. Gee that's funny....why doesn't Liz Cheney want to talk substance? Why doesn't she want to debate the issues with Dr. Maddow

The Alternate Reality Of The Republican Party

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The base of the Republican Party is no longer a singular entity with a similar ideology. It's nearly impossible for them to co-exist with some factions being "off-the-scale" nuttier then others. There are the Sarah Palin sycophants at the core of the base, but the core is now land-locked by The Tea Baggers, The Birthers, The 10ther's, and even more fringe segments that paint a picture of the GOP base as being motivated by a fundamentally different views than folks in the middle or on the Democratic side.

They see the country as being under a dire threat according to a focus group by the Democracy Corps (D), the consulting and polling outfit headed up by James Carville and Stan Greenberg.

"They believe Obama is ruthlessly advancing a 'secret agenda' to bankrupt the United States and dramatically expand government control to an extent nothing short of socialism," the analysis said."

While these voters are disdainful of a Republican Party they view to have failed in its mission, they overwhelmingly view a successful Obama presidency as the destruction of this country's founding principles and are committed to seeing the president fail.

The analysis argues that Obama's unpopularity among conservative Republicans is both quantitatively and qualitatively different from liberal Democratic ire against George W. Bush -- that the GOP is more heavily conservative than the Democrats are heavily liberal, and that the hatred of Obama is more intense than Dem hatred of Bush was.

So who are the protectors of this knowledge, the sources of information they trust. Obviously, Rush Limbaugh is widely admired -- but at the same time, he's seen as being overly abrasive at times. The real unblemished champion, the one they most identify with on a personal level, is Glenn Beck:

"Two aspects of the discussion on Beck among conservative Republicans were particularly noteworthy. One was a common fear among the women for his personal safety, a belief that his willingness to stand up to powerful liberal interests was putting his life, as well as the lives of those working with him, in danger. Of course, his willingness to face this danger head on only adds to his legend."

The voters in these focus groups saw Obama as being deliberately out to destroy the American economy in order to undermine personal freedoms, and that the speed of his agenda was a part of this strategy:

"I think that he is deliberately misleading people... if he is not deliberately trying to do harm to the country, which is my view, he doesn't understand anything about how the economy works."

Democracy Corps also interviewed a separate group of somewhat conservative-leaning swing voters, and these attitudes were not to be found: "One of the most telling differences between the partisan Republican groups and the independent groups was the language they used. Conservative Republicans fully embrace the 'socialism' attacks on Obama and believe it is the best, most accurate framework for describing him and his agenda.

Independents largely dismiss these attacks as the kind of overblown partisan rhetoric that obscures the facts and only serves to cheapen the political discourse. Conservatives see themselves as an oppressed minority, holding on to knowledge that isn't represented in the wider media and culture:

"Conservative Republicans passionately believe that they represent a group of people who have been targeted by a popular culture and set of liberal elites - embodied in the liberal mainstream media - that mock their values and are actively working to advance the downfall of the things that matter most to them in their lives - their faith, their families, their country, and their freedom."

And the base sees themselves as an emerging, growing movement -- manifested in the Tea Parties -- that will restore the country to its proper roots, but that is dismissed by the media:

"The tea party things, their point of view is, you are all crazy. You know, you are all nut-jobs out there holding these tea parties, but at least they were showing that something was going on where other people just totally ignored, I mean we are ignored... I didn't attend a tea party but we, the people, were non-existent according to some of the news stations."

Oakland Ca. - A Marijuana Mecca

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Downtown Oakland, Calif., has become a modern marijuana mecca.

On the corner of Broadway and 17th Street in downtown Oakland, nudged between a Chinese restaurant and a hat shop, Oaksterdam University greets passersby with a life-size cutout of Barack Obama and the sweet smell of fresh marijuana drifting from a back room. Inside, dutiful students flip through thick plastic binders of the day's lessons, which, on a recent Saturday began with "Pot Politics 101," taught by a ponytailed legal consultant who has authored a number of books on hemp.

The class breaks for lunch around noon and resumes an hour later, with classes on "budtending," horticulture, and cooking, which includes a recipe for "a beautiful pot pesto."

There are 50 students in this class, the majority of them Californians, but some have come all the way from Kansas. In between lectures, the university's founder, Richard Lee, 47, rolls in and out on his wheelchair greeting students, looking the part of a pot-school dean in Converse sneakers, aviator glasses, and a green "Oaksterdam" T shirt.

Locals refer to the nine-block area surrounding the university as Oaksterdam—a hybrid of "Oakland" and the drug-friendly "Amsterdam," where marijuana has been effectively legal since 1976. Nestled among what was once a rash of vacant storefronts, Lee has created a kind of urban pot utopia, where everything moves just a little bit more slowly than the outside world.

Among the businesses he owns are the Blue Sky Coffeeshop, a coffeehouse and pot dispensary where getting an actual cup of Joe takes 20 minutes but picking up a sack of Purple Kush wrapped neatly in a brown lunch bag takes about five.

There's Lee's Bulldog Café, a student lounge with a not-so-secret back room where the haze-induced sounds of "Dark Side of the Moon" seep through thick smoke and a glass-blowing shop where bongs are the art of choice. Around the corner is a taco stand (Lee doesn't own this one) that has benefitted mightily from the university's hungry students.

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Read Full Story Here

Rush Limbaugh's NFL Dream Killed By Hatred

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Poor Rush suddenly the victim of the type of petty vendictiveness for which he is the architect. As I listened to Rush enumerate the tactics used to bring about his ousting from the group bidding for the St. Louis Rams, it was as if he was reading from his own playbook. Rush said:



"What I am now going to be known as is the mirror. I am the man who showed the country what America is becoming. But those people who enabled this event (his ousting) for thier own racial reasons, their own ratings, thier own fundrasing, their own facetime, their own business reasons. They are going to be just as unhappy as they were before this happened. It's a collection of unhappy, angry, aggitated people and that's not going to change. But this kind of stuff, this misreporting, malreporting, lying, repeating the lies, repeating the made up quotes. The blind hatred, and belive me the hatred that exist in this is found in the sports writer community. It's found in the news business, it's found in the race hustler business. As I said yesterday and I don't know how many time on this program, I love the National Football League. I don't dislike anything about it. I'm a fan, but the hatred that I am able now to mirror for the country to see is all over the place. I tell you with absolute sencerity, I am more sad for the country then I am for myself......... I'll be right back after this."

Oh Rush, you have always been the mirror for hatred in America, for mis-reporting, mal-reporting, lying, repeating the lies, repeating the made up quotes, the blind hatred. Let me tell you with absolute sencerity Rush, that your sadness is not for the country, it's for you.

You can hear the self-pitty and disappointment in your voice. These people who enabled this event, this thwarting of your life long dream is not hatred Rush. It's called karma, it's called what comes around goes around, it's called paypack is a mother fucking bitch! - For all of your hundreds of millions of dollars, for all of your adoring fans, for all of your self-rightous pomposity, you can't fix this and it's eating you up inside. That'll learn ya.

You're not even close to being right about "those people" being just as unhappy as they were before this happened. Yes, they were unhappy before. Yes they saw a opportunity to kink you down a notch so they took it and it worked. - Are they happy now? - Of course not.....There fucking delirious! - That's what happens to self-rightous assholes like Rush. They get so caught up in thier own bullshit, that they're always looking the wrong way when karma shows up. - 'those people" didn't do anything to you that you haven't done to hundreds, maybe thousands over the years. So just deal with it fat ass, okay! - I'll just leave it at that before I go and say something rude or offensive.

Chico Brisbane