WHY DID SEC. KERRY LIE?

When he was in the Senate, John Kerry was on the Foreign Relations Committee so I think it's safe to assume he knows the truth so what was the point of this lie?

The truth about criminal jurisdiction over US troops in Afghanistan
by Chris Jenks
October 19, 2013 6:00AM ET
ALJAZEERA AMERICA

Here is what Kerry said:

"We have great respect for Afghan sovereignty. And we will respect it, completely … But where we have forces in any part of the world … in Japan, in Korea, in Europe … wherever our forces are found, they operate under the same standard. We are not singling out Afghanistan for any separate standard. We are defending exactly what the constitutional laws of the United States require."

Returning to the U.S., Kerry repeated his misstatement, claiming that there is "the question of who maintains jurisdiction over those Americans who would be (in Afghanistan after 2014). Needless to say, we are adamant it has to be the United States of America. That’s the way it is everywhere else in the world." This led The Washington Post to award Kerry "three Pinocchios," for statements containing "significant factual errors and/or obvious contradictions."

The secretary may, in fact, have doomed the very security agreement he was in Afghanistan to save. His comments are also strategically counterproductive on a larger scale: They perpetuate the myth that the U.S. does not "allow" the courts of another country to prosecute U.S. service members for their criminal actions in that country.

The criminal jurisdiction sections of security agreements between the U.S. and other countries vary. But for a foreign country in which a large number of American service members are stationed, such as Japan, South Korea and Germany, that country has primary jurisdiction over U.S. service members in the vast majority of cases.

CONSERVATIVE ETHICS, RAND PAUL VERSION

(h/t  Hunter)

One reason I don't think the two clowns below are anomalies is because the GOP media machine routinely lies but even prominent GOP politicians support lying, even a media darling like Rand Paul:

The Truthiness of Rand Paul
The junior senator from Kentucky could transform the GOP—if the facts don't get in his way.
By Jill Lawrence
October 17, 2013
NATIONAL JOURNAL

LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Rand Paul was talking with University of Louisville medical students when one of them tossed him a softball. "The majority of med students here today have a comprehensive exam tomorrow. I'm just wondering if you have any last-minute advice."

"Actually, I do," said the ophthalmologist-turned-senator, who stays sharp (and keeps his license) by doing pro bono eye surgeries during congressional breaks. "I never, ever cheated. I don't condone cheating. But I would sometimes spread misinformation. This is a great tactic. Misinformation can be very important."

He went on to describe studying for a pathology test with friends in the library. "We spread the rumor that we knew what was on the test and it was definitely going to be all about the liver," he said. "We tried to trick all of our competing students into over-studying for the liver" and not studying much else.

"So, that's my advice," he concluded. "Misinformation works."

I DON'T THINK THESE 2 CLOWNS ARE ANOMALIES

The Baggers attract a lot of odd people and here are just two of them:

Oregon Tea Party founder hasn't paid his mortgage in three years
Jen Hayden
Fri Oct 18, 2013 at 01:04 PM PDT
DKos

[John] Kuzmanich, 45, is a University of Iowa grad who built a family trucking business and worked as a mortgage broker. He burst onto the political scene in 2009, founding the Oregon Tea Party and launching a bid for the 1st Congressional District seat then held by U.S. Rep. David Wu (D-Ore.).

Idaho tea party candidate wants government out of health care, has 10 kids on Medicaid

by Laura Clawson
Fri Oct 18, 2013 at 10:44 AM PDT
DKos
This is how Greg Collett, a two-time Republican candidate for Idaho's state House, defends himself against charges of hypocrisy for the fact that, while "I don’t think that the government should be involved in health care or health insurance," his 10 kids are on Medicaid:

UPDATE: Added bonus, a link between Baggers and a meth dealer.

EVEN THE BBC WONDERS WHAT THE GOP CAN DO TO FIX ITSELF

It asked 3 Republican strategists and 2 suggestions were pretty good:

1) Forget about Reagan
2) Find someone like Angela Merkel, the anti-Palin conservative woman

THE WACKO BIRDS WON'T ACCEPT REALITY

ThinkProgress notes that many of them refuse to face the facts about their miserable failure to eliminate Obamacare.  Jim DeMint (Heritage Foundation) has an op-ed in the WSJ in which he vows to continue the same losing battle and on the radio today, both Hannity and Levin came to the conclusion that the Baggers won this fight!  Charlie Cook, a pretty good political analyst, writes that the GOP need to undertake an intervention on the Baggers:

“Hysterical delusional affirmation” and “delusional synergy” aren’t terms normally associated with the political process, but after the spectacle of the past few weeks, they seem pretty apt. While many Republicans—those who are clear-eyed about today’s political realities—are exempt, these terms apply to enough of them that it may be time for the GOP’s Non-delusional Caucus to stage an intervention. Otherwise the party may be headed for some voter-administered therapy.

MELVILLE & THE BAGGERS

(h/t Being Liberal)

Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed. -

Poor Man's Pudding and Rich Man's Crumbs (1854)

I am now really annoyed about all the lies the Baggers and their media tell us about the poor. It's as if there really was no such thing as poverty in America, as if everyone had access to the very best doctors or lawyers or teachers and, yes, even air conditioning.

THIS IS GOOD NEWS FOR AMERICA

Molly Ball sums up the Baggers dissatisfaction with the GOP:

On his radio show recently, Glenn Beck urged his listeners to “defund the GOP.” Sarah Palin has threatened to leave the Republican Party; Rush Limbaugh calls it “irrelevant.” The Senate Conservatives Fund has targeted mainly incumbent Republican senators for defeat. Erick Erickson, one of the right’s most prominent commentators, wonders if what's coming is “a real third party movement that will fully divide the Republican Party.” 


Steve Deace, an Iowa-based talk-radio host, said his audience has never been angrier. “They’re tired of electing a bunch of Republicans who care more about what the media thinks about them than what the people who elected them think,” he told me. “Why do I care whether John Boehner or Nancy Pelosi is the speaker of the House? Why do I care whether Harry Reid or ‘Ditch’ McConnell is the Senate majority leader? What changes? Nothing changes.” 
 

To Deace, “political-party disintegration” is on the horizon. And he’s not alone: Sean Hannity, on his radio show on Monday, said he’d previously opposed a third party, but “I’m not so sure anymore. It may be time for a new conservative party in America. I’m sick of these guys.”

MARK LEVIN IS A LIAR

Today he claimed that the low approval numbers for Congress and the GOP were because of (sane) people like McCain, not Cruz or Lee or the Tea Party.  It's hard to believe his listeners are so isolated that they won't know he's lying.

HERE'S ANOTHER CRAZY PERSON

This one holds the highest executive office in the great state of Texas!

Lt. Gov. Dewhurst Says President Obama Should Be Impeached
Bud Gillett, CBS 11 News | CBSDFW.COM
October 15, 2013 5:20 PM

And then Dewhurst criticized alleged inaction. “I am very concerned about Benghazi, in which all of the national news reporting indicated that live video was streaming into the White House situation room. Which means there was a(n) overhead platform, probably a drone in the area. At least that’s what it tells me. And for not mobilizing some response to protect the ambassador and those three Americans is just outrageous to me. Just outrageous.”

THE BAGGERS LOST, BIG TIME

I hope that their illusion that they represent most Americans begins to fade in light of the extremely bad polling although Tailgunner Ted told Mark "Foamer" Levin that a majority of Americans support the effort to defund the ACA:

“We saw the House of Representatives stand up to defy Washington conventional wisdom and stand with the American people against Obamacare,” Cruz said on the Mark Levin radio show.

UPDATE: This poor woman lost it:

House Worker Yells During Vote, Escorted Away
WASHINGTON October 17, 2013 (AP)
A woman described by lawmakers and aides as a long-time House stenographer has been removed from the chamber during a vote after she began shouting.

The woman was yelling from the rostrum Wednesday just below where the House presiding officer sits. The microphone she was yelling into was off.

Lawmakers said she was yelling about the House being divided and the devil. Texas Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro said she had a crazed look on her face.

As she was led into an elevator by security, she was heard to shout, "This is not one nation under God. It never was."

She also screamed, "Praise be to God, Lord Jesus Christ."

The outburst occurred while the House was voting on legislation ending the government shutdown and extending the federal debt limit.

SOME PEOPLE HAVE A BIG SAD

Limbaugh, Hannity & Levin are upset that the Baggers lost and upset with the GOP for being unwilling to blow up the world's economy.  Tea Party Nation  sent out an email with the subject line " A bitter day of surrender" and I hope that most Baggers feel that way. The Wall Street Journal has a good summary of this fuckup:

So out of political pique, House Republicans opposed two ways to make ObamaCare less destructive. Senate Republicans should try to retain it in their compromise.

This is the quality of thinking—or lack thereof—that has afflicted many GOP conservatives from the beginning of this budget showdown. They picked a goal they couldn't achieve in trying to defund ObamaCare from one House of Congress, and then they picked a means they couldn't sustain politically by pursuing a long government shutdown and threatening to blow through the debt limit.

BAD NEWS FOR BAGGERS, GREAT NEWS FOR AMERICA & THE WORLD

The Senate has reached a fair-to-middling compromise that ends the shutdown and avoids default.  I suppose this is not a surprise given all the people, including Pat Robertson and Alan Dershowitz, who spoke out against the Baggers. Dershowitz went so far as to accuse Sen. Ted Cruz of a Bagger mortal sin: "I think you can make a very strong argument that what Ted Cruz is doing is deeply unconstitutional."

STARK RAVING MAD

The big Jeebus meeting (Values Voters Summit) included this astounding claim from one of the speakers:

Janet Porter [née Folger] also warned that the End Times are upon us, for which she naturally blamed gay people. She repeated her claim that gay marriage was responsible for Noah’s flood and announced a new project with Liberty University’s Judith Reisman to sue schools that “corrupt minors” with LGBT-inclusive curricula.

WASTING MONEY BY PREACHING TO THE CHOIR

The conservatives really know how to waste money on PR efforts (from NTS MediaOnline) -

Texas Governor Rick Perry — recently heard on radio around the country pitching the value of moving your business to the Lone Star State — appeared on Salem Radio Network’s Mike Gallagher Show yesterday (10/14) to announce the launch of a new anti-Washington ad campaign designed to highlight the gridlock in Congress, but also charging the President with “playing politics” with the nation’s economy. Perry told Gallagher that his Americans For Economic Freedom group plans upcoming ad buys on conservative Talk radio shows, mentioning Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin by name

I'M PRETTY SURE REP. DARRELL ISSA (R) IS A BAGGER FAVORITE...

(h/t Greg Sargent)

so I was not expecting this:

Issa: 'I'll vote for a clean CR'
By Rebecca Shabad - 10/15/13 06:30 PM ET
THE HILL

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said Tuesday he would vote for a “clean CR” to end the government shutdown.

“I’ll vote for a clean CR," Issa told CNN’s “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.

“Republicans in the House have always been for a clean CR increase if it meant we began the serious negotiations on the kinds of reforms that need to happen…entitlements as a shortcut for it. That's what the deal is about right now.”

HOUSE BAGGERS ARE TOO WEIRD FOR THE WSJ EDITORIAL EDITOR

The editorial board is notoriously conservative so it's really news that the head of the board, Paul Gigot, called out "Bagger Economics" -

Paul Gigot, the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page editor, told WSJ Live host and editorial board member Mary Kissel that the Heritage Foundation is misguided in their opposition to the repeal of the medical device tax within the Affordable Care Act. He identified a strain of “economic nonsense” creeping into the consciousness of the right as they become “disoriented” by the failure of the effort to defund or delay the Affordable Care Act.

“There’s a lot of economic nonsense that is creeping into the right as they get to be so disoriented as part of this debate,” Gigot observed. 

These are a couple of funnier comments at Mediaite:

The Wall Street Journal is a Soros Marxist front like Media Matters.
Well what do you expect from a left wing rag like the WSJ?

I GUESS THIS WILL BE PASSED OFF AS A "SKEWED POLL"

Talk about circling the drain!

Disapproval of GOP Peaks in Blame for the Budget Crisis
By Gary Langer
Oct 14, 2013 3:00pm
ABC News

A new high of 74 percent of Americans disapprove of the way the Republicans in Congress are handling Washington’s budget crisis, up significantly in the past two weeks and far exceeding disapproval of both President Obama and congressional Democrats on the issue.

THE WINGNUTS ARE GETTING REALLY CRAZY

Yesterday, I heard Ben Ferguson claim that the EBT outage was done on purpose by the government and today Fats Limbaugh said there was a "near potential riot," whatever that means.  And it gets worse...Selwyn Duke claims that Pres. Obama is firing generals and admirals to create "a martial-law ready military."

There's also a lot of crazy talk about the ACA, including this gem that claims the computer glitches in the ACA are intentional.

RIGHT NOW I'M LISTENING TO FATS LIMBAUGH

And he's claiming that the mainstream media hasn't covered the terrible snow storm in South Dakota.  Normally I wouldn't bother to post over this but on the front page of Yahoo News, I came across this:

South Dakota ranchers reeling from cattle losses

Western South Dakota ranchers are reeling from the loss of tens of thousands of cattle in last weekend's blizzard, and many will dispose of carcasses in pits set to open Monday. Rancher Heath Ferguson ...

Associated Press

• South Dakota

AH, THANK GOD FOR THE CONFEDERATE FLAG

Thanx to the clown who brought it to the Bagger demonstrations in DC this weekend, most Americans will think of the protestors as extremists.  Here's the latest from Mediaite:

Video: Protesters in Confrontation with Black Man Right in Front of Confederate Flag
by Tommy Christopher | 8:25 am, October 14th, 2013
MEDIAITE

Not only did Confederate Flag Guy stand comfortably with his fellow mostly-white protesters, he even had a birds-eye view when protesters did get into a confrontation… with one of the few black people in attendance who wasn’t a cop being screamed at and heckled for looking like “something out of Kenya.”

Conservatives desperate to distance themselves from the racist imagery on display at Sunday’s protest will suggest that Confederate Flag Guy is some wacky aberration, or maybe even a plant, but the real issue isn’t so much the one guy with the traitor’s flag, but the thousands around him who did not bat an eye. He wasn’t just at the White House, either, and in none of the many photos and videos is anyone backing away from the guy, let alone confronting him:

PARTS OF THE RIGHT-WING MEDIA ARE NOT GRUNTLED

The NRO has an amusing write-up of the grossly incompetent and weird "truckers for the Constitution" mess and Ross Douthat compares the House Baggers to Col. Kurtz in Conrad's Heart of Darkness.

THE WINGNUT VETS MARCH ON DC HAS TURNED INTO ANOTHER FAIL

First, some clown shows up with the Confederate Flag -

Second, another, more professional clown spews the krazy:

Rallier tells Obama to 'put the Quran down'
Posted by
CNN's Ashley Killough and Shannon Travis and Brian Rokus
October 13th, 2013
02:00 PM ET

One speaker went as far as saying the president was a Muslim and separately urged the crowd of hundreds to initiate a peaceful uprising.

"I call upon all of you to wage a second American nonviolent revolution, to use civil disobedience, and to demand that this president leave town, to get up, to put the Quran down, to get up off his knees, and to figuratively come out with his hands up," said Larry Klayman of Freedom Watch, a conservative political advocacy group

THIS HAPPENED WHEN ST. RONALD REAGAN WAS PRESIDENT

Like others, I'm surprised FOX News published this story because it makes the conservatives' version of FDR look terrible:

US intelligence assets in Mexico reportedly tied to murdered DEA agent

By William La Jeunesse, Lee Ross
Published October 10, 2013
FoxNews.com

"Our intelligence agencies were working under the cover of DFS. And as I said it before, unfortunately, DFS agents at that time were also in charge of protecting the drug lords and their monies," said Berrellez.

"After the murder of Camarena, (Mexico's) investigation pointed that the DFS had been complicit along with American intelligence in the kidnap and torture of Kiki. That's when they decided to disband the DFS."

Berrellez says two informants from the Mexican state police, who witnessed Camarena's torture, independently and positively identified a photo of one man, a Cuban, who worked as a CIA operative who helped run guns and drugs for the Contras.

Tosh Plumlee claims he was hired to fly covert missions on behalf of U.S. intelligence. He says he flew C-130s in and out of Quintero's ranch and airports throughout Central America in the 1980s.

"The United States government played both ends against the middle. We were running guns. We were running drugs. We were using the drug money to finance the gun running operation," says Plumlee, who now works in Colorado.

Hitz said the "CIA had an operational interest" in the Contras. And while aware the rebels were trading "arms-for-drugs" the CIA "did nothing to stop it."

IT'S HARD TO ARGUE WITH THIS

The Chinese make a some good point about America's dysfunctional government:

Debt Ceiling: China Calls for World to Be 'De-Americanised'
Chinese government mouthpiece says 'Pax Americana' has failed on all fronts

By Jijo Jacob
October 13, 2013 9:17 AM BST
IBT

China's official news agency has called for the creation of a "de-Americanised world", saying the destinies of people should not be left in the hands of a hypocritical nation with a dysfunctional government.

"As US politicians of both political parties are still shuffling back and forth between the White House and the Capitol Hill without striking a viable deal to bring normality to the body politic they brag about, it is perhaps a good time for the befuddled world to start considering building a de-Americanised world," the editorial said.

It asks why the self-declared protector of the world is sowing mayhem in the financial markets by failing to resolve political differences over key economic policy.

"... the cyclical stagnation in Washington for a viable bipartisan solution over a federal budget and an approval for raising debt ceiling has again left many nations' tremendous dollar assets in jeopardy and the international community highly agonised," the agency said.