Right Wing Douchebags | Assassination | Arctic | Syria | Yemen | Bahrain | Ivory Coast
Right Wing Douchebags
BREAKING: Prosser Up by 7500+ in WI Supreme Court Race After ‘Database Error’ Discovered by Controversial Clerk in Republican Waukesha County County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus, a GOP activists, previously criticized and audited for storing election results only on a personal computer in her office
UPDATED: New numbers now put state-sponsored recount just out of reach for Kloppenburg…[imagine that!]: As word was floating around this afternoon about a possible “book keeping error” discovered during canvassing of Tuesday’s incredibly close Wisconsin Supreme Court election, an error that might give thousands of votes to Justice David Prosser in a race which he trailed by just 204 votes based on unofficial Election Night numbers, we idly wondered if the county in question might turn out to be the very controversial Kathy Nickolaus’ Waukesha County. And, whaddaya know… [7 apr 2011]
Is Barack Obama actually not in this photo of Barack Obama?: unmentioned by Cashill is the single most insidious part of this deception: While Barack Obama is nowhere to be found in the unretouched version of this photo, his knee is still in between in grandparents. What was Barack Obama’s knee doing in New York, while the rest of him was in Pakistan, and Indonesia? Dealing drugs? Why are mainstream journalists afraid to ask tough questions about the president’s detachable knee? The people have a right to know! [7 apr 2011]
Something is Rotten in the State of Wisconsin: 7,500 New GOP Votes From ‘Human Error’. Shouldn’t DOJ Step In?: What a surprise. Isn’t it funny, how these mistakes invariably fall on the Republican side of the ticket? Via Huffington Post: WASHINGTON — In a dramatic turn of events on Thursday, the Waukesha County clerk announced that the vote total announced for Tuesday’s Wisconsin Supreme Court race had been mistaken — and that the corrected numbers changed the outcome of the entire election. There were 3,456 missing votes for Democratic-backed challenger Kathleen Kloppenburg and 11,059 for incumbent GOP-backed Justice David Prosser. Kloppenburg has previously been beating Prosser by just 200 votes of the roughly 1.5 million cast statewide. The new total puts Prosser on a significant path to victory, about 7,500 votes ahead of Kloppenburg. And wouldn’t you know? Back in 2002, this very same Republican clerk played a dubious role — obtaining immunity from prosecution in exchange for her cooperation — in an investigation into illegal political activity. There’s more. In 2006, she had some difficulty with absentee ballots. In 2006 again, we have her using the exact same excuse for why she accidentally reported one candidate ahead when the other one really was. Seems she moved data into the wrong column. We’ve heard that one before, haven’t we? In 2007 she blamed touch screen voting machines for flipping a school board election result. The margin? One vote. In 2004, she had another “oopsie moment” and sent out sample ballots instructing voters to vote for her favorite candidate. Also in 2004, incorrect ballots went to voters in two different districts, so that 83 votes were cast for the wrong candidates. And it seems that close races are something common in Waukesha County.[8 apr 2011]
GOP Shock Doctrine: What Gov’t Shutdown And Other GOP Assaults on Democracy Are Really All About Like the Right’s assault on public sector workers, none of this has anything to do with the budget: The Republicans’ imminent threat to shut down the government, the right’s assault on public workers, its spending- and tax-cap proposals, the successful campaign to shut down ACORN and attempts now underway to defund Planned Parenthood and NPR and, most prominently, Paul Ryan’s plan to dismantle Medicare all have one thing in common: they’re about entrenching conservative ideological preferences in the law in ways that future legislators will have a hard time undoing. All of these efforts are ultimately about subverting democracy, which is, for the right, they’re non-negotiable. [7 apr 2011]
The sharia panic factory: One of the more striking things about the current anti-sharia craze is how often state legislators who introduce anti-sharia bills can’t answer basic questions about Islamic law or why they see it as a threat. How could all these legislators be so uninformed about their own bills? A big part of the reason is that most of them did not actually write the legislation in question. Rather, many of the anti-sharia bills being considered around the country are either based on or directly copied from model legislation created by an obscure far-right Arizona attorney and activist named David Yerushalmi. Who is Yerushalmi? His background leaves little doubt that these anti-”foreign law” bills are designed to target sharia. He has written, for example, that “The Muslim peoples, those committed to Islam as we know it today, are our enemies.” A group he founded, the Society of Americans for National Existence (SANE), has reportedly advocated for a law making it a felony “punishable by 20 years in prison to knowingly act in furtherance of, or to support the, adherence to Islam.” The Anti-Defamation League has also called out Yerushalmi for his “anti-black bigotry.” (Mother Jones also has a good profile of Yerushalmi here.)[7 apr 2011]
Stop Paying Congress Too!: “If we careen over a cliff on Friday and the American government shuts down, hard-working federal workers will stop getting paychecks, but the members of Congress responsible for the shutdown are expected to be paid as usual. If members of Congress shut down government and trigger a new financial crisis, then they shouldn’t just have their own pay docked. They should also learn the discipline of a market economy and be fired by the public that they are betraying.” [7 apr 2011]
The Cal Coolidge/Paul Ryan Budget: With his proposal, Ryan will radically cut and privatize Medicare, ending the guarantee of health care to our senior citizens; radically cut Medicaid and throw it into a block-grant program that will end any guarantee of coverage for the poor, people with disabilities, and many, many children; deliver breathtakingly large tax cuts to the wealthy while raising taxes for the middle class. As far as I can tell, more than 90 percent of his cuts impact either low-income people or senior citizens who are currently middle class but might no longer be if these Social Security and Medicare cuts go through. As to who benefits, while some things remain vague (like which middle-class taxes will have to go up to cut down the revenue losses because of lower taxes in the high-end brackets), it is likely that more than 90 percent of the benefits go to the very wealthy, who not only get to keep their Bush tax cuts but get some big and lucrative new tax cuts besides. As Citizens for Tax Justice notes, under Ryan’s proposal, the federal government would collect $2 trillion less over the next decade, yet require the bottom 90 percent to actually pay higher taxes. Ryan leaves a lot details out, but if you read in between the lines, it is clear that the reason certain details are missing is because of how awful they are. [6 apr 2011]
Assassination
Obama has taken a ‘profoundly troubling’ position on assassinations, ACLU tells Raw: In an exclusive interview with Raw Story, Jaffer, a key attorney with the rights group, even warned that the Democrat in office has taken a position on unilateral murder so extreme as to be “profoundly troubling” in its legal reach and potential for future use. [7 apr 2011]
Arctic
Russia Plans To Spend 195 Million Dollars On Antarctic Research Up To 2013: Russia plans to allocate some 6 billion rubles ($195 million) for research in Antarctica up to 2013, the head of Russia’s meteorological service said on Tuesday. The Russian government approved last week a national strategy in the Antarctic until 2020 and a scheme to build new research vessels. Alexander Frolov said investment up to 2020 would be around 30 billion rubles ($975 million). The strategy will focus on a federal program on the strengthening of Russian national interests in the region. The Russian Hydro Meteorological Service (Roshydromet) will be responsible for the work. [8 apr 2011]
Syria
Fresh protests erupt in Syria Reports of at least seven deaths reported in southern town of Daraa as demonstrations are held in several cities.: Protests have erupted in cities across Syria, despite a series of concessions by Bashar al-Assad, the president, including sacking the cabinet and firing two governors. Witnesses said security forces were using live ammunition against protesters in Daraa. A source told Al Jazeera that at least seven people were killed in the southern border town; however, the report could not be immediately verified. [8 apr 2011]
Yemen
U.S. Halted Record Aid Deal as Yemen Rose Up: The U.S. was on the verge of launching a record assistance package to Yemen when an outbreak of protests against its president led Washington to freeze the deal, officials say, marking a sharper turn in U.S. policy there than the administration has previously acknowledged. The first installment of the aid package, worth a potential $1 billion or more over several years, was set to be rolled out in February, marking the White House’s largest bid at securing President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s allegiance in its battle against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula [8 apr 2011]
Bahrain
Claims arise that Bahraini protesters took drugs to simulate nerve gas attack: It has been claimed that anti-government protesters in Bahrain allegedly stole and administered drugs from a local hospital in order to fabricate the effects of nerve gas, which they claimed were excessively used against them by police. [7 apr 2011]
Ivory Coast
UN: Scores of bodies found in Cote d’Ivoire UN reports that more than 100 bodies, some burned alive, have been found over the past 24 hours across the country: More than 100 bodies, some burned alive and others thrown down a well, have been found in
the past 24 hours by United Nations staff in Cote d’Ivoire. Rupert Colville, the UN human rights spokesperson, told a news briefing in Geneva on Friday that about 60 bodies were found in Guiglo, 15 bodies in the western town of Duekoue and about 40 in Bloloquin. The announcement comes as Allasane Ouattara, the claimant president, said in a speech late on Thursday that he would seek to restore security and basic public services in the country following fierce fighting between his forces and those of Laurent Gbagbo, the incumbent president.[8 apr 2011]
Sen. James Inhofe still supporting Gbagbo in Ivory Coast and says he has proof election results are wrong: Sen. Inhofe, the climate change denier is still claiming to have the knowledge that Gbagbo’s election was rigged and he called the French murderers for stepping in and trying to help sort the situation out.[7 apr 2011]
F.D.Brightly
Shorter Question Everything
Right Wing Douchebags | Assassination | Arctic | Syria | Yemen | Bahrain | Ivory Coast
Right Wing Douchebags
BREAKING: Prosser Up by 7500+ in WI Supreme Court Race After ‘Database Error’ Discovered by Controversial Clerk in Republican Waukesha County County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus, a GOP activists, previously criticized and audited for storing election results only on a personal computer in her office
UPDATED: New numbers now put state-sponsored recount just out of reach for Kloppenburg…[imagine that!]: As word was floating around this afternoon about a possible “book keeping error” discovered during canvassing of Tuesday’s incredibly close Wisconsin Supreme Court election, an error that might give thousands of votes to Justice David Prosser in a race which he trailed by just 204 votes based on unofficial Election Night numbers, we idly wondered if the county in question might turn out to be the very controversial Kathy Nickolaus’ Waukesha County. And, whaddaya know… [7 apr 2011]
Is Barack Obama actually not in this photo of Barack Obama?: unmentioned by Cashill is the single most insidious part of this deception: While Barack Obama is nowhere to be found in the unretouched version of this photo, his knee is still in between in grandparents. What was Barack Obama’s knee doing in New York, while the rest of him was in Pakistan, and Indonesia? Dealing drugs? Why are mainstream journalists afraid to ask tough questions about the president’s detachable knee? The people have a right to know! [7 apr 2011]
Something is Rotten in the State of Wisconsin: 7,500 New GOP Votes From ‘Human Error’. Shouldn’t DOJ Step In?: What a surprise. Isn’t it funny, how these mistakes invariably fall on the Republican side of the ticket? Via Huffington Post: WASHINGTON — In a dramatic turn of events on Thursday, the Waukesha County clerk announced that the vote total announced for Tuesday’s Wisconsin Supreme Court race had been mistaken — and that the corrected numbers changed the outcome of the entire election. There were 3,456 missing votes for Democratic-backed challenger Kathleen Kloppenburg and 11,059 for incumbent GOP-backed Justice David Prosser. Kloppenburg has previously been beating Prosser by just 200 votes of the roughly 1.5 million cast statewide. The new total puts Prosser on a significant path to victory, about 7,500 votes ahead of Kloppenburg. And wouldn’t you know? Back in 2002, this very same Republican clerk played a dubious role — obtaining immunity from prosecution in exchange for her cooperation — in an investigation into illegal political activity. There’s more. In 2006, she had some difficulty with absentee ballots. In 2006 again, we have her using the exact same excuse for why she accidentally reported one candidate ahead when the other one really was. Seems she moved data into the wrong column. We’ve heard that one before, haven’t we? In 2007 she blamed touch screen voting machines for flipping a school board election result. The margin? One vote. In 2004, she had another “oopsie moment” and sent out sample ballots instructing voters to vote for her favorite candidate. Also in 2004, incorrect ballots went to voters in two different districts, so that 83 votes were cast for the wrong candidates. And it seems that close races are something common in Waukesha County.[8 apr 2011]
GOP Shock Doctrine: What Gov’t Shutdown And Other GOP Assaults on Democracy Are Really All About Like the Right’s assault on public sector workers, none of this has anything to do with the budget: The Republicans’ imminent threat to shut down the government, the right’s assault on public workers, its spending- and tax-cap proposals, the successful campaign to shut down ACORN and attempts now underway to defund Planned Parenthood and NPR and, most prominently, Paul Ryan’s plan to dismantle Medicare all have one thing in common: they’re about entrenching conservative ideological preferences in the law in ways that future legislators will have a hard time undoing. All of these efforts are ultimately about subverting democracy, which is, for the right, they’re non-negotiable. [7 apr 2011]
The sharia panic factory: One of the more striking things about the current anti-sharia craze is how often state legislators who introduce anti-sharia bills can’t answer basic questions about Islamic law or why they see it as a threat. How could all these legislators be so uninformed about their own bills? A big part of the reason is that most of them did not actually write the legislation in question. Rather, many of the anti-sharia bills being considered around the country are either based on or directly copied from model legislation created by an obscure far-right Arizona attorney and activist named David Yerushalmi. Who is Yerushalmi? His background leaves little doubt that these anti-”foreign law” bills are designed to target sharia. He has written, for example, that “The Muslim peoples, those committed to Islam as we know it today, are our enemies.” A group he founded, the Society of Americans for National Existence (SANE), has reportedly advocated for a law making it a felony “punishable by 20 years in prison to knowingly act in furtherance of, or to support the, adherence to Islam.” The Anti-Defamation League has also called out Yerushalmi for his “anti-black bigotry.” (Mother Jones also has a good profile of Yerushalmi here.)[7 apr 2011]
Stop Paying Congress Too!: “If we careen over a cliff on Friday and the American government shuts down, hard-working federal workers will stop getting paychecks, but the members of Congress responsible for the shutdown are expected to be paid as usual. If members of Congress shut down government and trigger a new financial crisis, then they shouldn’t just have their own pay docked. They should also learn the discipline of a market economy and be fired by the public that they are betraying.” [7 apr 2011]
The Cal Coolidge/Paul Ryan Budget: With his proposal, Ryan will radically cut and privatize Medicare, ending the guarantee of health care to our senior citizens; radically cut Medicaid and throw it into a block-grant program that will end any guarantee of coverage for the poor, people with disabilities, and many, many children; deliver breathtakingly large tax cuts to the wealthy while raising taxes for the middle class. As far as I can tell, more than 90 percent of his cuts impact either low-income people or senior citizens who are currently middle class but might no longer be if these Social Security and Medicare cuts go through. As to who benefits, while some things remain vague (like which middle-class taxes will have to go up to cut down the revenue losses because of lower taxes in the high-end brackets), it is likely that more than 90 percent of the benefits go to the very wealthy, who not only get to keep their Bush tax cuts but get some big and lucrative new tax cuts besides. As Citizens for Tax Justice notes, under Ryan’s proposal, the federal government would collect $2 trillion less over the next decade, yet require the bottom 90 percent to actually pay higher taxes. Ryan leaves a lot details out, but if you read in between the lines, it is clear that the reason certain details are missing is because of how awful they are. [6 apr 2011]
Assassination
Obama has taken a ‘profoundly troubling’ position on assassinations, ACLU tells Raw: In an exclusive interview with Raw Story, Jaffer, a key attorney with the rights group, even warned that the Democrat in office has taken a position on unilateral murder so extreme as to be “profoundly troubling” in its legal reach and potential for future use. [7 apr 2011]
Arctic
Russia Plans To Spend 195 Million Dollars On Antarctic Research Up To 2013: Russia plans to allocate some 6 billion rubles ($195 million) for research in Antarctica up to 2013, the head of Russia’s meteorological service said on Tuesday. The Russian government approved last week a national strategy in the Antarctic until 2020 and a scheme to build new research vessels. Alexander Frolov said investment up to 2020 would be around 30 billion rubles ($975 million). The strategy will focus on a federal program on the strengthening of Russian national interests in the region. The Russian Hydro Meteorological Service (Roshydromet) will be responsible for the work. [8 apr 2011]
Syria
Fresh protests erupt in Syria Reports of at least seven deaths reported in southern town of Daraa as demonstrations are held in several cities.: Protests have erupted in cities across Syria, despite a series of concessions by Bashar al-Assad, the president, including sacking the cabinet and firing two governors. Witnesses said security forces were using live ammunition against protesters in Daraa. A source told Al Jazeera that at least seven people were killed in the southern border town; however, the report could not be immediately verified. [8 apr 2011]
Yemen
U.S. Halted Record Aid Deal as Yemen Rose Up: The U.S. was on the verge of launching a record assistance package to Yemen when an outbreak of protests against its president led Washington to freeze the deal, officials say, marking a sharper turn in U.S. policy there than the administration has previously acknowledged. The first installment of the aid package, worth a potential $1 billion or more over several years, was set to be rolled out in February, marking the White House’s largest bid at securing President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s allegiance in its battle against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula [8 apr 2011]
Bahrain
Claims arise that Bahraini protesters took drugs to simulate nerve gas attack: It has been claimed that anti-government protesters in Bahrain allegedly stole and administered drugs from a local hospital in order to fabricate the effects of nerve gas, which they claimed were excessively used against them by police. [7 apr 2011]
Ivory Coast
UN: Scores of bodies found in Cote d’Ivoire UN reports that more than 100 bodies, some burned alive, have been found over the past 24 hours across the country: More than 100 bodies, some burned alive and others thrown down a well, have been found in
the past 24 hours by United Nations staff in Cote d’Ivoire. Rupert Colville, the UN human rights spokesperson, told a news briefing in Geneva on Friday that about 60 bodies were found in Guiglo, 15 bodies in the western town of Duekoue and about 40 in Bloloquin. The announcement comes as Allasane Ouattara, the claimant president, said in a speech late on Thursday that he would seek to restore security and basic public services in the country following fierce fighting between his forces and those of Laurent Gbagbo, the incumbent president.[8 apr 2011]
Sen. James Inhofe still supporting Gbagbo in Ivory Coast and says he has proof election results are wrong: Sen. Inhofe, the climate change denier is still claiming to have the knowledge that Gbagbo’s election was rigged and he called the French murderers for stepping in and trying to help sort the situation out.[7 apr 2011]