In the midst of the whole Bergdahl mess another pair of lost sheep have come to the fore.
In 2012 Caitlin Coleman, who was pregnant and her husband Joshua Boyle decided that it was a constructive idea to go hiking around Kabul where a war was going on. This alone, if it is true, would make them so stupid that there is no reason why we would want them back. We already have more than enough dumb people in the US and Canada.
But there is a fascinating sidebar to this supposed act of gross stupidity. It seems that this is Boyle’s second marriage, his first being to Zaynab Khadr sister of convicted terrorist Omar Khadr of Canada’s first family of terrorism, This, of course, brings up all kinds of scenarios, possibly indicating that Boyle isn’t as stupid as he looks or acts. Was he acting for his first wife’s family when he led his pregnant bride into the wilds around Kabul or was he actually in the employ of the CIA or some other clandestine organization? Or was he just dumb as a post? More on this as it develops.
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Chuck Hegal went before congress lately and showed why Obama picked him as Secretary of Defense. He informed the useless congressmen who have abdicated their jobs that the swiftness with which the government moved to free Bowe Bergdhal was necessary and added in no uncertain terms that he was being held in Germany for medical reasons.
He made it very clear that the President’s decision was made without informing congress because most of the world understands that to do so might have put Bergdhal’s life in danger. Anyone who has been observing congress’ dereliction of duty the last five years knows this to be true and understands the President’s leaving them in the dust.
Whatever is finally discovered about Bergdhal, the fact remains that he was an American soldier in a combat zone and it is our responsibility to get him back. That’s the bottom line and no amount of right wing bullshit can change that.
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All the President’s men was republished recently and CBS did its take on it in an interview with Woodward and Bernstein, which reminded this writer about a couple of very important things. First, that the Republican Party has become a model of crooked dealings and pandering to power, at least since the time of Nixon and second, that our current media has abandoned all pretense of actually covering a story. There is no more careful investigation, no more attention to the importance of the value of truth and facts, no more worry about whether what we are reporting is right or wrong. The only consideration today is how much soap the story will sell and how fast they can get it into headlines.
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The White House announced recently that the President is proposing a 782,000 square mile marine sanctuary in the central Pacific. It would be anchored by the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument established by George Bush. The expansion adjacent to seven unpopulated islands and atolls is controlled by the U.S. All commercial and sport fishing activities would be suspended in the area. The action is aimed at the rejuvenation of the ocean, and its object is that by creating this area, it will give said rejuvenation a place to start.
Of course the Republicans in congress have already jumped in; led by Doc Hastings (R-Wash), objecting to the President’s “Imperial” move. IT should all be done through congress Hastings babbles. Sure, Doc, and when could we expect Congress to do anything? This is an important project. It would be nice to have the approbation of congress but when is congress ever in session? When does congress ever accomplish anything? If we wait for congress, all the fish in the sea will be dead.
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When even your supporters tell you, that you are a lying asshole it’s time to shut up and go back into your hole. Megan Kelly, a Fox news reporter went after Dick Cheney, recently, reminding him that it was Bush and himself that were responsible for the war in Iraq, that he had predicted the quick defeat of Iraq, a war that cost us trillions of dollars, over 4500 American dead and many more thousands of American maimed and wounded. Cheney double talked his way through the interview, never answering a question truthfully, just lying and obfuscating on every point.
He went on to say that people in the Middle East don’t trust us anymore. Really Dick? Where would you ever get an idea like that? You think maybe it was because the Bush/Cheney administration lied to everyone in the world, repeatedly.
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I hardly ever agree with Paul Ryan on anything but when he says to the head of the IRS that he just doesn’t believe him I tend to agree. If the IRS wants millions of American taxpayers to keep their records for seven years then the least they can do is keep theirs for seven weeks. I really don’t think that the IRS scandal is a scandal, but I believe, as often happens, the bureaucracy was busy covering its ass, which makes the disappearance of the missing files, no accident.
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The latest corporate trick being used to avoid US taxes is to merge with a foreign company in a low tax country and become a citizen of that country. That’s fine but any company that does that should no longer be eligible for any subsidies here nor should they be able to donate money to any political entity. Citizens United may have made corporations people but it made American corporations American people and now that those corporations are foreign people they have no right to influence American elections.
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There was another senile decision that came down from the supreme court this week and it involved public sector workers; in this case, home care workers, that benefit from union negotiations having to pay an agency fee to the union for negotiating on their behalf. The court said that they didn’t have to pay. This is a huge blow, directly at unions because anyone with even minimum intelligence can see this small group expanding down the road to include all public sector unions and eventually all unions in general including private sector unions.
What the right to work group that led this suit has been trying to do for over fifty years is to destroy unions. Now no one says unions are perfect but we wouldn’t need them at all if we didn’t have bad, greedy, management. Unions didn’t just pop up because someone needed something to do in their spare time. They are the result of management abuses and unfair labor practices that go all the way back to the way Caesar treated his chariot driver. Being a shit to the people who work for you seems a very natural part of the human condition.
It amazes me that these mostly black women who do this home care work aren’t able to see that the union has more than doubled their pay over the last few years and that helping the union continue with its work is to their benefit. Unfortunately there is no underestimating stupid and so these women are busy cutting their own throats.
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Every time I hear someone say that Obama has stonewalled the Republican party and has refused to cooperate with them I know I am dealing with an imbecile. Why do I say that? Immediately after Obama was elected, the first major comment out of the GOP was Mitch McConnell telling the world that his only mission in the upcoming years was to insure that Obama was not elected again. His main job, as he saw it, wasn’t to help the country. It was to stop an incoming president from getting re-elected four years in the future. This clown wasn’t interested in immigration reform, job loss, healthcare, failing education or the fact that he and his party had torpedoed the nation into the worst depression since 1929, Oh, no, this disgrace to the human race was only interested in Obama not getting a second term.
Obama got a second term, mainly because of the stupidity of losers like Mitch McConnell. Then John Boehner stood up and said that he and his party would not compromise on anything. A really functional governmental stance. And now the sleaze that represents the GOP wants us to believe that the lack of government function is because Obama won’t cooperate? Don’t any of these fools ever listen to their own drivel? Are they brain dead or do they think we are?
Steve Kornacki asked a really good question on his show the other day; Are we doomed to dysfunction because of our system of government that allows a separation of powers and leaves us with three arms that won’t shake hands with each other on anything?
It was a great question, unfortunately he had the wrong people on his panel, at least one of them. A vapid blonde, bimbo named Kellyanne Conway, ran all the recorded GOP answers to what is wrong with Obama, never addressed the question and spent all the show gazing unblinkingly at the cameras, smiling and never looking at anyone who addressed her or whom she was addressing. It was the typical vapid persona usually attributed to Laura Ingraham , Sara Palin or Michele Bachman., I know that the GOP want’s all its ladies to be in movies but do they have to give them speaking roles?
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Mo Brooks of Alabama continues to prove he is among the least intelligent people in the country. His diatribe about the war on whites the other day puts him right up there with the aforementioned Palin, Bachman and of course Rick Perry. Even Laura Ingrahan has called this idiot on his uncontrolled mouth. You don’t get any deeper condemnation than that.
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