Two reasons why Hillary Clinton will never be President

For one, Hillary Clinton seems to want to be able to control the press or at least, her press.

The story via CNN:

Gorham, New Hampshire (CNN)Hillary Clinton’s campaign used a rope to keep journalists away from the candidate on Saturday while she walked in this small town’s July Fourth parade.

The ensuing photos of journalists, including a CNN reporter, being somewhat dragged by a thin white rope as Clinton walked down Main Street caught fire online.

Initially, Clinton’s campaign was not using a rope to corral the press, allowing journalists to get close to her and ask her questions.

But campaign aides said they brought the rope out because they feared the press scrum of around a dozen reporters and photojournalists would obstruct the view of New Hampshire voters attending the parade.

The rope was held by two of Clinton’s advance staffers, who at times walked ahead of reporters, seemingly pulling them along the parade route.

“You guys, we are going to do 10 yards and a little more organized,” said one of the advance staffers after breaking out the rope.

In explaining why they were using the rope, the staffer said, “so maybe a voter could see her, that kind of thing.”

Clinton’s Secret Service detail also urged journalists to abide by the mobile rope line.

“You are not going fast enough,” one agent said when the rope tightened around a reporter’s waist.

When Hillary Clinton is not trying to control the press covering her; she is outright lying about her record. Case in point:

Via Politico:

HANOVER, N.H. — Hillary Clinton arrived in this liberal New England enclave with a message for anyone thinking about voting for Sen. Bernie Sanders of next-door Vermont: “I take a backseat to no one when you look at my record in standing up and fighting for progressive values.”

Sanders, according to the latest New Hampshire polls, is trailing Clinton by just eight points. And at the first stop of her two-day swing through the early-voting state, Clinton highlighted contrasts with her main Democratic rival without mentioning him by name.

“We have to take on the gun lobby one more time,” said Clinton, speaking without notes or a teleprompter in front of a crowd of about 850 Dartmouth students and native Granite Staters. “The majority of gun owners support universal background checks, and we have to work very hard to muster the public opinion to convince Congress that’s what they should vote for.”

She said it was the “height of irresponsibility not to talk about it.” Sanders, who represents a pro-gun constituency, has voted against the Brady Bill, which required federal background checks for gun purchasers, as well as other major bills supported by gun-control advocates.

She also signaled that she would have no problem defending President Barack Obama’s domestic agenda.

Well, there is only one problem with that little statement, it, like most everything that comes out of Hillary Clinton’s mouth, is a bald-faced lie. Ron Chusid at Liberal Values Blog explains and I am going to quote the thing, links and all. Hopefully, he does not mind:

Hillary Clinton said, “I take a backseat to no one when you look at my record in standing up and fighting for progressive values.” Quite a lie, but not surprising coming from a candidate who the majority of voters agree is dishonest in recent polls.

Clinton believes she needs to make such false claims now that Bernie Sanders is posing a serious threat in Iowa and New Hampshire, but she will hardly convince Sanders supporters that she has ever been progressive. The former Goldwater Girl has maintained conservative values throughout her career, except that Barry Goldwater was more socially liberal than Clinton.

In February Truth-Outhad a post on Five Reasons No Progressive Should Support Hillary Clinton, which is worth reading–and there are several more reasons besides what is in that article.

Besides the economic differences which have dominated the campaign so far, it was Sanders who, reviewing the same intelligence as Hillary Clinton, voted against the Iraq war. Hillary Clinton not only voted for the war, she went to the right of other Democrats who voted to authorize force in falsely claiming there was a connection between Saddam and al Qaeda. She showed she did not learn from her mistake when she continued to advocate for increased military intervention as Secretary of State.

In an era when the nation is becoming more liberal on social issues, Hillary Clinton’s long-standing conservatism on social/cultural issues also make her too conservative to be the Democratic nominee. This was seen when she was in the Senate when she was a member of The Fellowship, being influenced on social issues by religious conservatives such as Rick Santorum and Sam Brownback. Clinton’s affiliation with the religious right was seen in her support for the Workplace Religious Freedom Act , a bill introduced by Rick Santorum andopposed by the American Civil Liberties Union for promoting discrimination and reducing access to health care, along with her promotion of restrictions on video games and herintroduction of a bill making flag burning a felony. Her social conservatism is also seen in her weak record on abortion rights, such as supporting parental notification laws andstigmatizing women who have abortions with the manner in which she calls for abortion to be “safe, legal and rare.” Clinton was speaking out against same-sex as recently as 2013.

Clinton has disappointed environmentalists in supporting fracking and off-shore drilling. Her views on the Keystone XL Pipeline is just one of many controversial issues where Clinton has refused to give her opinion. The vast amounts of money she has received from backers of the pipeline lead many environmentalists to doubt that Clinton can be counted on to oppose the pipeline, or take any positions contrary to the wishes of the petroleum industry.

Bernie Sanders voted against the Patriot Act while Clinton supported it. Sanders has spoken out against the illegal NSA surveillance while Clinton has remained quite, and has an overallpoor record on civil liberties. Clinton’s failures to archive her email as required when she was Secretary of State and disclose donations to the Clinton Foundation as she had agreed to are just the latest examples of her long-standing hostility towards government transparency.

Saying she is a progressive is not going to win over progressives after she has spent her career opposing liberal values.

Not to mention that Hillary’s hubby sold out the American worker, when he signed the NAFTA Bill in the 1990’s. Speaking of unions, the AFL-CIO just sold its members up the river too:

Richard Trumka has a message for state and local AFL-CIO leaders tempted to endorse Bernie Sanders: Don’t.

In a memo this week to state, central and area divisions of the labor federation, and obtained by POLITICO, the AFL-CIO chief reminded the groups that its bylaws don’t permit them to “endorse a presidential candidate” or “introduce, consider, debate, or pass resolutions or statements that indicate a preference for one candidate over another.” Even “‘personal’ statements” of candidate preference are verboten, Trumka said.

The memo comes amid signs of a growing split between national union leaders — mindful of the fact that Clinton remains the undisputed favorite for the nomination — and local officials and rank and file, who are increasingly drawn to the Democratic Party’s growing progressive wing, for whom Sanders is the latest standard-bearer.

The South Carolina and Vermont AFL-CIOs have passed resolutions supporting Sanders, and some local AFL-CIO leaders in Iowa want to introduce a resolution at their August convention backing the independent senator from Vermont. More than a thousand labor supporters, including several local AFL-CIO-affiliated leaders, have signed on to “Labor for Bernie,” a group calling on national union leaders to give Sanders a shot at an endorsement.

So much for standing for the American worker eh? Oh, there’s more:

The AFL-CIO’s constituent unions — as distinct from divisions of the federation itself — remain free to make endorsements however they wish. But they can’t make those endorsements acting through local and regional divisions of the AFL-CIO, as Trumka reminded everyone in the memo.

His message wasn’t anything new for the federation’s state leaders: They know that endorsement decisions belong to the national leadership. Still, it was unusual for Trumka to call them out in a memo. “I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one before like this,” said Jeff Johnson, the president of the AFL-CIO’s Washington state labor council.

Johnson agreed that it was important for the AFL-CIO to speak with a single voice. But “there’s a lot of anxiety out there in the labor movement,” he said, “and we’re desperately searching for a candidate that actually speaks to working-class values. The Elizabeth Warren/Bernie Sanders camp is very, very attractive to many of our members and to many of us as leaders, because they’re talking about the things that need to happen in this country.”

Similarly, Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Steven Tolman said he agreed that Trumka had to lay down the law. More tellingly, though, he added: “Bernie Sanders has spent his life actually fighting for working people. He’s made no secret of it, and he’s used it as his mantra. And that I respect very much.” When asked about Clinton’s candidacy, Tolman was less effusive: “Who? Who? Please. I mean with all respect, huh?”

Other state-level union leaders affiliated with the AFL-CIO didn’t bother to give Trumka and his memo lip service. “I was disappointed by it,” said UPTE-CWA Local 9119 organizing coordinator Lisa Kermish, of Berkeley, California. “I think that local unions and national unions, while it’s important to work together for strength, I think that this is in some ways truncating dialogue. And I find that very unfortunate.”

The memo surfaced a day before top staffers for Clinton and Sanders participated in a meet-and-greet with AFL-CIO political directors Thursday morning in Washington. A person who attended the meeting said those present included Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook, Clinton labor liaison Nikki Budzinski, Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver and top Sanders strategist Tad Devine.

If I were the President of the UAW right about now; I would be calling an emergency meeting and holding a vote to leave the AFL-CIO ASAP. No wonder the teamsters left them after the 2004 election. The AFL-CIO does not give a tinker’s damn about the American worker. They simply care about power and money; and believe you me, they get plenty of it. This is proof of that.

This my friends, is one of the many, many examples why I stopped voting for Democrats. Social issues were a secondary reason. My primary reason is of stuff like this; how the progressive left is chock full of liars and corruption. There was a time in America, when the organized labor movement was something of integrity that stood for those who they represented. Sadly, those days ended long ago. Now, before any says it; are there liars and corruption in the Republican Party? Yes, there is. I never said there was not. But, this sort of blatant control of press and supporters; is like nothing I ever saw before.

Neoconservative Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert busted for lying to the FBI

One down, many, many more to go… Neocons that is. Hopefully they get the rest of them.

The video: (Via the AP, which has all sort of updates to this story.)

(video removed, it was an autoplay video and there was no code to change to prevent the autoplay for starting, so I removed it)

The story:

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has indicted former House Speaker Dennis Hastert on reporting evasion charges and lying to the FBI as part of an effort to conceal paying off the victim of “prior bad acts.”In an indictment handed down in the District Court of Northern Illinois, the Department of Justice and IRS charged Hastert, 73, with illegally transferring funds in an effort to avoid detection by the IRS, a scheme known as “structuring.”In the indictment, Hastert is accused of agreeing to pay one individual $3.5 million.Although the indictment does not specify the “bad acts,” sources said they could be from before Hastert, who is now a lobbyist in Washington, entered politics in 1980. The indictment does, however, claim that Hastert agreed to make the payments “[d]uring … 2010 meetings and subsequent discussions.” In at least one of those meetings, according to the indictment, Hastert and the individual “discussed past misconduct by [Hastert against the individual] that had occurred years earlier.”According to the indictment, the FBI began, in 2013, investigating cash withdrawals allegedly made by Hastert “as possible structuring of currency transactions to evade the reporting requirements.”When the FBI interviewed Hastert on Dec. 8, 2014, he was asked whether the purpose of the withdrawals was related to his lack of trust in the banking system, which he confirmed. According to the indictment, Hastert said, “Yeah … I kept the cash. That’s what I’m doing.” The indictment counters that Hastert “then well knew, this statement was false,” because he had agreed to provide the individual with $3.5 million “to compensate for and conceal his prior misconduct against” the person.

Source: Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert Indicted On Federal Charges – BuzzFeed News

Could not have happened to a better guy. This was one of Bush 43’s cronies in the House. He basically allowed the Republicans to spend like drunken sailors under Bush’s term. That was until the Democrats tossed him and the neocons out. Furthermore, this turkey basically was responsible for giving Bush a blank check for Iraq; and it is believed that he was larging responsible for pressuring the House into approving Bush authorization for war.

For this, he deserves what he gets. May he spend the rest of his miserable life in prison.

Update: This has become a major story. here are all the blogs writing about it, via Memeorandum: The Moderate Voice, U.S. News, The Huffington Post, Scared Monkeys,Mashable, The Federalist, Politico, DownWithTyranny!, Associated Press, Towleroad News #gay, Outside the Beltway, The Week, Mediaite, White House Dossier, Hot Air,Rush Limbaugh, Raw Story, Talking Points Memo, The Intercept, PoliticusUSA,CANNONFIRE, CNN, The National Memo, Shakesville, NBC News, Daily Kos, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Washington Post, Balloon Juice, Box Turtle Bulletin, Taylor Marsh, NPR,Clayton Cramer, BuzzFeed and Chicago Tribune, Mediaite, Boing Boing, The Daily Banter, The Bob and Chez Show,The Atlantic, Washington Post and Patterico’s Pontifications, NOLA River, Mother Jones, CNN, Daily Kos, Bloomberg View and NPR, Bloomberg Business, Politico, Wheaton College Home, The Hill,Washington Monthly, Los Angeles Times, Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, The Week, Box Turtle Bulletin, OpenSecrets.org, Scared Monkeys, Daily Mail, The National Memo, PoliticusUSA, CANNONFIRE, Liberaland, Daily Kos,Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit and Outside the Beltway, ABC News, The Last Refuge, U.S. News, Firedoglake, Washington Monthly and Politico, The Huffington Post, TVNewser and Associated Press, Washington Post, The Huffington Post, NBC News, Talking Points Memo, msnbc.com and RT, Washington Post, New York Times and Booman Tribune, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos and Reuters, Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, ThinkProgress andChicago

What happened to CEO Don Gillispie?

I received an e-mail from someone linking to the story below. It sounds like an interesting one. Please, go check out: Divine America: When Using Your Powers for Good, Expect Government Delays

Mini-Movie: The frame job against Bashar al-Assad

This comes via Conservative-Headlines.com, and I know some people might not like it that I linked to these guys. Well, you know what? Tough! This video is a eye-opener; and I really do not even like Alex Jones for some very good reasons.

https://youtu.be/pqj4WzgnxDc

Just like Al-Qaeda, ISIS was created by the United States. Our biggest threat as Americans, is not terrorism; it is our own Government.

Customs and Immigration Officer shoots suspect in Detroit; Suspect had a hammer

Of course, you know, the left is going to play this one for all it is worth. Considering what’s happening elsewhere.

Detroit — The 20-year-old armed robbery suspect who was fatally shot by a federal agent on Monday was “armed with a hammer,” Detroit’s police chief said Tuesday.The shooting, on the city’s west side, angered residents who had to be placated by the city’s police chief.The Detroit Fugitive Apprehension Team, a task force that included officers from the Detroit Police Department, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Marshals, were serving an armed robbery warrant in the 9500 block of Evergreen at the time of the shooting around 1:13 p.m., Detroit Police Chief James Craig said.The officers were allowed into the home to conduct their search, Craig said.The incident comes at a time of heightened tension between police and black communities in some U.S. cities, spurring a national debate about race and police tactics.In the Detroit incident, the suspect was black, as was the federal agent who shot him.

Source: Federal officer shoots, kills Detroit man one east side

The man was armed with a hammer, he tried to attack a federal officer, and he got shot. Just another day in the big city. But, as you know, because he is black, as was the agent that shot him; because of the stuff happening everywhere now, the left and their media lap-dogs are going to exploit this, in hopes that there is another riot in Detroit.

Because that, is what marxists do. Marxists exploit stuff like this to disrupt the system. You watch and see, summer is coming and Detroit has a white mayor. You watch, another uprising is coming and the marxists will be in the middle of it.

Others –YMMV: ThinkProgress, Fusion, Detroit Free Press, Raw Story, ABC News and CBS Detroit

World Wickedness Watch: Judge orders California to pay for inmate’s sex change

This is sickening, but, not really a shock.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A federal judge on Thursday ordered California’s corrections department to provide a transgender inmate with sex change surgery, the first time such an operation has been ordered in the state.

U.S. District Court Judge Jon Tigar in San Francisco ruled that denying sex reassignment surgery to 51-year-old Michelle-Lael Norsworthy violates her constitutional rights. Her birth name is Jeffrey Bryan Norsworthy.

The ruling marks just the second time nationwide that a judge has issued an injunction directing a state prison system to provide the surgery, said Ilona Turner, legal director at the Transgender Law Center in Oakland, which helped represent Norsworthy.

The previous order in a Massachusetts case was overturned last year and is being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

via Judge orders California to pay for inmate’s sex change | Fox News.

The reason I say that this is not really much of a shock, is because we are truly living in the last days. First, a Christian Pizza maker is persecuted for her beliefs. Then, this here. The Bible speaks of all of it:

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
(2 Thessalonians 2:3-12 King James Bible)

You see, this sort of evil has a bit of history with the God the Father:

And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. (Genesis 6:1-8 King James Bible)

The next time God destroys the Earth, there won’t be any Noah. Before he does, this will happen:

But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 King James Bible)

Once that happens, the fulfillment of Bible prophecy will begin:

And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. (Revelation 19:11-21 King James Bible)

…and this here, will be the ultimate destiny of people referenced in the quoted story above; and Satan who has deceived him and his kind:

And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:1-15 King James Bible)

Even so, Come, Lord Jesus.

I have a bad feeling about Iraq, that we are going back there, again…..

This is sad and I have a bad feeling as to what is coming…:

The Story:

Iraq’s government is investigating reports that the ancient archaeological site of Khorsabad in northern Iraq is the latest to be attacked by the Islamic State militant group.

Adel Shirshab, the country’s tourism and antiquities minister, told The Associated Press there are concerns the militants will remove artifacts and damage the site, located 15 kilometers (9 miles) northeast of Mosul. Saeed Mamuzini, a Kurdish official from Mosul, told the AP that the militants had already begun demolishing the Khorsabad site on Sunday, citing multiple witnesses.

On Friday, the group razed 3,000-year old Nimrod and on Saturday, they bulldozed 2,000-year old Hatra — both UNESCO world heritage sites. The move was described by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon as a “war crime.”

via Associated Press.

I hate to say it; but, I have sinking feeling that the United States is going to have to end up going back into Iraq again. This time to destroy ISIS in Iraq and maybe even Libya too; and possibly the entire Arab peninsula. I hope like heck that I am wrong about it; but I have a bad feeling. We, of course, will not be doing it alone. But, we and the coalition allies will be going into the middle east again.

Of course, this will be used as a recruitment tool for the likes of ISIS and Al-Qaeda. Not to mention all of the rest of the things that go with war. It is a sad thing; but, at this point, I do believe that it is inevitable. I just hope that this Presidential administration manages things this time better than the last one did. The last one was a disaster. I have my doubts about that too. Because the track record is just not that good. Normally, I would just pray for peace; but in this case, with this ISIS group — that is just not possible. If anything at all, I pray that the Nations that ISIS are in and are conducting terrorist actions, would rise up and attack these terrorists, so that the United States would not have to do it. However, if I know things like I do; they will not do it and will rely on the United States to bring its military in to deal with the problem.

There are people who will want to blame Bush for this mess. I think that would be foolish, at this point. Because President Bush had a plan in place, that would have insured Iraq’s safety for many years to come. However, President Obama came in and changed the plan and pulled out the troops before the plan could even be implemented. Because he was under pressure from the anti-war faction of his party.

Now, because of that idiotic move; we now have ISIS and it is a bigger problem than Al-Qaeda ever was and are much crazier. So, it is back to the war game. Hopefully, the Republic will survive.

(Cross-posted to Beforeitsnews.com)

Conservative talk radio host Michael Medved is battling throat cancer

The Video via CBN.COM:

Via Michael Medved’s site:

Michael and Diane Medved on January 11th, 2015

All those who listen regularly to my radio show know how much I value the privilege of speaking to this eager, enlightened audience every weekday, year-round. I have been unapologetically fanatical about broadcasting whenever, however I can; in eighteen years of national syndication, I’ve never missed more than four days in a row of regularly scheduled broadcasts.

I always knew that it would take something serious to keep me away from the microphone I cherish for an extended period of time. As it turns out, Iam facing something serious. It’s called cancer.

To be more precise, I was diagnosed in the middle of December with stage three throat cancer. I began medical treatment immediately at one of the finest cancer centers in the country and my prognosis for full recovery is very good; in the great majority of cases, this is a highly curable form of cancer. In fact, given my fierce desire to keep doing the show I managed to broadcast every day while completing more than half of my daily radiation and weekly chemotherapy treatments. I would go to the hospital first thing in the morning then make my way down to our Seattle studios to do the live show. The doctors warned me that this would become increasingly difficult.

My best to Mr. Medved during his time of recovery. Cancer is a tough cookie; but they have made great strides in treating cancer, since my grandfather died from lung cancer in 1979. Back in those days, cancer was basically a death sentence. Thankfully, that has changed in a big way.

Man takes responsibility for crashed drone at the White House

Despite some wishful thinking by some on the right. Looks like this might have been an accident.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A small drone flying low to the ground crashed onto the White House grounds before dawn Monday, triggering a major emergency response and raising fresh questions about security at the presidential mansion. A man later came forward to say he was responsible and didn’t mean to fly it over the complex.

The man contacted the Secret Service at midmorning after reports of the crash spread in the media. Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary said the man had been interviewed by Secret Service agents and was cooperating with the investigation.

“Initial indications are that this incident occurred as a result of recreational use of the device,” Leary said. He added that investigators were interviewing others to corroborate the man’s story, as well as examining evidence from the scene.

A U.S. official said the man is a Washington resident and that investigators don’t currently have any reason to doubt his story. The official wasn’t authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke only on condition of anonymity.

Although President Barack Obama was not at home, the security breach prompted a lockdown of the entire complex until officials could examine the drone. The White House later said it did not pose a threat.

via Associated Press.

Looks like this was a huge nothing burger and despite the dreams of the neocon right, who want to see Obama and the White House destroyed in a terrorist attack; this was simply a drone, who got away with its owner. Nothing more, nothing less.

Update: NYT reports that it was a Government Employee. Hmmmm.

The best words that John Mccain has ever spoken

These are the words of Senator John McCain from the Senate floor. Via his website:

“Mr. President, I rise in support of the release – the long-delayed release – of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s summarized, unclassified review of the so-called ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ that were employed by the previous administration to extract information from captured terrorists. It is a thorough and thoughtful study of practices that I believe not only failed their purpose – to secure actionable intelligence to prevent further attacks on the U.S. and our allies – but actually damaged our security interests, as well as our reputation as a force for good in the world.

“I believe the American people have a right – indeed, a responsibility – to know what was done in their name; how these practices did or did not serve our interests; and how they comported with our most important values.

“I commend Chairman Feinstein and her staff for their diligence in seeking a truthful accounting of policies I hope we will never resort to again. I thank them for persevering against persistent opposition from many members of the intelligence community, from officials in two administrations, and from some of our colleagues.

“The truth is sometimes a hard pill to swallow. It sometimes causes us difficulties at home and abroad. It is sometimes used by our enemies in attempts to hurt us. But the American people are entitled to it, nonetheless.

“They must know when the values that define our nation are intentionally disregarded by our security policies, even those policies that are conducted in secret. They must be able to make informed judgments about whether those policies and the personnel who supported them were justified in compromising our values; whether they served a greater good; or whether, as I believe, they stained our national honor, did much harm and little practical good.

“What were the policies? What was their purpose? Did they achieve it? Did they make us safer? Less safe? Or did they make no difference? What did they gain us? What did they cost us? The American people need the answers to these questions. Yes, some things must be kept from public disclosure to protect clandestine operations, sources and methods, but not the answers to these questions.

“By providing them, the Committee has empowered the American people to come to their own decisions about whether we should have employed such practices in the past and whether we should consider permitting them in the future. This report strengthens self-government and, ultimately, I believe, America’s security and stature in the world. I thank the Committee for that valuable public service.

“I have long believed some of these practices amounted to torture, as a reasonable person would define it, especially, but not only the practice of waterboarding, which is a mock execution and an exquisite form of torture. Its use was shameful and unnecessary; and, contrary to assertions made by some of its defenders and as the Committee’s report makes clear, it produced little useful intelligence to help us track down the perpetrators of 9/11 or prevent new attacks and atrocities.

“I know from personal experience that the abuse of prisoners will produce more bad than good intelligence. I know that victims of torture will offer intentionally misleading information if they think their captors will believe it. I know they will say whatever they think their torturers want them to say if they believe it will stop their suffering. Most of all, I know the use of torture compromises that which most distinguishes us from our enemies, our belief that all people, even captured enemies, possess basic human rights, which are protected by international conventions the U.S. not only joined, but for the most part authored.

“I know, too, that bad things happen in war. I know in war good people can feel obliged for good reasons to do things they would normally object to and recoil from.

“I understand the reasons that governed the decision to resort to these interrogation methods, and I know that those who approved them and those who used them were dedicated to securing justice for the victims of terrorist attacks and to protecting Americans from further harm. I know their responsibilities were grave and urgent, and the strain of their duty was onerous.

“I respect their dedication and appreciate their dilemma. But I dispute wholeheartedly that it was right for them to use these methods, which this report makes clear were neither in the best interests of justice nor our security nor the ideals we have sacrificed so much blood and treasure to defend.

“The knowledge of torture’s dubious efficacy and my moral objections to the abuse of prisoners motivated my sponsorship of the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, which prohibits ‘cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment’ of captured combatants, whether they wear a nation’s uniform or not, and which passed the Senate by a vote of 90-9.

“Subsequently, I successfully offered amendments to the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which, among other things, prevented the attempt to weaken Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, and broadened definitions in the War Crimes Act to make the future use of waterboarding and other ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ punishable as war crimes.

“There was considerable misinformation disseminated then about what was and wasn’t achieved using these methods in an effort to discourage support for the legislation. There was a good amount of misinformation used in 2011 to credit the use of these methods with the death of Osama bin Laden. And there is, I fear, misinformation being used today to prevent the release of this report, disputing its findings and warning about the security consequences of their public disclosure.

“Will the report’s release cause outrage that leads to violence in some parts of the Muslim world? Yes, I suppose that’s possible, perhaps likely. Sadly, violence needs little incentive in some quarters of the world today. But that doesn’t mean we will be telling the world something it will be shocked to learn. The entire world already knows that we water-boarded prisoners. It knows we subjected prisoners to various other types of degrading treatment. It knows we used black sites, secret prisons. Those practices haven’t been a secret for a decade.

“Terrorists might use the report’s re-identification of the practices as an excuse to attack Americans, but they hardly need an excuse for that. That has been their life’s calling for a while now.

“What might come as a surprise, not just to our enemies, but to many Americans, is how little these practices did to aid our efforts to bring 9/11 culprits to justice and to find and prevent terrorist attacks today and tomorrow. That could be a real surprise, since it contradicts the many assurances provided by intelligence officials on the record and in private that enhanced interrogation techniques were indispensable in the war against terrorism. And I suspect the objection of those same officials to the release of this report is really focused on that disclosure – torture’s ineffectiveness – because we gave up much in the expectation that torture would make us safer. Too much.

“Obviously, we need intelligence to defeat our enemies, but we need reliable intelligence. Torture produces more misleading information than actionable intelligence. And what the advocates of harsh and cruel interrogation methods have never established is that we couldn’t have gathered as good or more reliable intelligence from using humane methods.

“The most important lead we got in the search for bin Laden came from using conventional interrogation methods. I think it is an insult to the many intelligence officers who have acquired good intelligence without hurting or degrading prisoners to assert we can’t win this war without such methods. Yes, we can and we will.

“But in the end, torture’s failure to serve its intended purpose isn’t the main reason to oppose its use. I have often said, and will always maintain, that this question isn’t about our enemies; it’s about us. It’s about who we were, who we are and who we aspire to be. It’s about how we represent ourselves to the world.

“We have made our way in this often dangerous and cruel world, not by just strictly pursuing our geopolitical interests, but by exemplifying our political values, and influencing other nations to embrace them. When we fight to defend our security we fight also for an idea, not for a tribe or a twisted interpretation of an ancient religion or for a king, but for an idea that all men are endowed by the Creator with inalienable rights. How much safer the world would be if all nations believed the same. How much more dangerous it can become when we forget it ourselves even momentarily.

“Our enemies act without conscience. We must not. This executive summary of the Committee’s report makes clear that acting without conscience isn’t necessary, it isn’t even helpful, in winning this strange and long war we’re fighting. We should be grateful to have that truth affirmed.

“Now, let us reassert the contrary proposition: that is it essential to our success in this war that we ask those who fight it for us to remember at all times that they are defending a sacred ideal of how nations should be governed and conduct their relations with others – even our enemies.

“Those of us who give them this duty are obliged by history, by our nation’s highest ideals and the many terrible sacrifices made to protect them, by our respect for human dignity to make clear we need not risk our national honor to prevail in this or any war. We need only remember in the worst of times, through the chaos and terror of war, when facing cruelty, suffering and loss, that we are always Americans, and different, stronger, and better than those who would destroy us.

“Thank you.”

God Bless Him for standing up for what is right.

(via Memeoradum)