Video taken by IDF naval boat shows the passengers of the Mavi Marmara, one of the ships in the ‘Free Gaza’ Flotilla, violently attacking IDF soldiers who were trying to board the ship after having sent repeated requests for the boat to change course.
Large groups of passengers surrounded soldiers and beat them with metal poles and chairs, and threw one soldier over the side of the ship. Some passengers grabbed pistols from the IDF soldiers and opened fire. As a result of the attacks, seven IDF soldiers were injured, and nine of the passengers were killed.
The ‘Free Gaza’ Flotilla had publicly insisted on their non-violent intentions, however their violent attack on the IDF soldiers was clearly premeditated. They had knives, metal rods, firebombs and other items ready to use.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Former President Bill Clinton returned to his home state Friday to help a beleaguered ally and delivered a broadside against some of the most powerful interests in the Democratic Party.
Using unusually vivid language to describe the threat against Sen. Blanche Lincoln, Clinton urged the voters who nurtured his career to resist outside forces bent on making an example out of the two-term Democratic incumbent.
He pounded the podium with Lincoln at his side, warning that national liberal and labor groups wanted to make her a “poster child” in the June 8 Senate run-off to send a message about what happens to Democrats who don’t toe the party line.
Reagan adviser reportedly offered CA senator a job with the administration “if he decided not to seek re-election.” A November 25, 1981, Associated Press article (from the Nexis database) reported that President Reagan’s political adviser Ed Rollins planned to offer former California Sen. S.I. Hayakawa a job in the administration in exchange for not seeking re-election.
It’s time we had a full investigation into the Reagan administration and their acts of corruption. How long will we be kept in the dark? Our children have been indoctrinated into believing that Reagan (St. Ronnie) was a good president, yet he was on the same level as George W. Bush as far as corruption and incompetence. It’s just that our mainstream media has covered up these stories about Republicans yet every day they “report” fabricated stories about Democrats.
[GRAND JUNCTION — A national group that thinks global warming is “junk science” and that teaching it is unnecessarily scaring schoolchildren brought its first petition effort for “balanced education” to Mesa County Schools on Tuesday night.
Rose Pugliese, an unsuccessful candidate for a District 51 school board seat in the last election, presented a petition with 700 signatures to the board asking that science teachers stop giving lessons on global warming.
“It (global warming) is not a proven scientific theory. There is not evidence to support it,” Pugliese told the board, generating applause from about 40 Tea Party and other conservative group members who filled the room for the first school board petition battle over this issue in the country.
The climate-change deniers scoffed and shook their heads when a scientist and a college professor spoke up to say that global warming is a well-supported scientific fact.
“This is not just some liberal theory,” said Richard Alward, an ecologist with a Ph.D.
Pugliese and three other people who spoke against global-warming education said that if the subject is going to be taught, the “other side” should be presented so that students aren’t subjected to a frightening untruth.
How about we teach children the other side of Jesus theory so students aren’t subjected to a “frightening untruth.” A lot of children believe that Jesus was born of a virgin mother and that he rose from the dead. Talk about a nut-job theory with no proof! Children need to know that truth. That it’s a lie created about 2,000 years ago.
President Barack Obama battled with Senate Republicans in a tense closed-door meeting Tuesday, facing tough criticism from his GOP adversaries — including John McCain — on issues ranging from health care to border security.
“The more he talked, the more he got upset,” Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) said. “He needs to take a valium before he comes in and talks to Republicans and just calm down, and don’t take anything so seriously. If you disagree with someone, it doesn’t mean you’re attacking their motives — and he takes it that way and tends then to lecture and then gets upset.”
The White House said that Obama made a plea for bipartisanship on some of the country’s most pressing issues — and he urged Republicans to stand up to their base and compromise with the Democratic Party.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Staff members at an agency that oversees offshore drilling accepted tickets to sports events, lunches and other gifts from oil and gas companies and used government computers to view pornography, according to an Interior Department report alleging a culture of cronyism between regulators and the industry.
The report began as a routine investigation, the acting inspector general, Mary Kendall, said in a cover letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, whose department includes the agency.
“Unfortunately, given the events of April 20 of this year, this report had become anything but routine, and I feel compelled to release it now,” she wrote.
Her biggest concern is the ease with which minerals agency employees move between industry and government, Kendall said. While no specifics were included in the report, “we discovered that the individuals involved in the fraternizing and gift exchange – both government and industry – have often known one another since childhood,” Kendall said.
Their relationships took precedence over their jobs, Kendall said.The report follows a 2008 report by then-Inspector General Earl Devaney that decried a “culture of ethical failure” and conflicts of interest at the minerals agency.
The report covers activities between 2000 and 2008. Salazar said he has asked Kendall to expand her investigation to look into agency actions since he took office in January 2009.
The report said that employees from the Lake Charles, La., MMS office had repeatedly accepted gifts, including hunting and fishing trips from the Island Operating Company, an oil and gas company working on oil platforms regulated by the Interior Department.
Taking such gifts “appears to have been a generally accepted practice,” the report said.
Two employees at the Lake Charles office admitted using illegal drugs, and many inspectors had e-mails that contained inappropriate humor and pornography on their government computers, the report said.
One MMS inspector conducted four inspections of Island Operating platforms while negotiating and later accepting employment with the company, the report said.
Right-wingers are trying to blame the oil spill on Obama, claiming “it’s his Katrina.” This is not Obama’s Katrina. This is Bush’s Katrina: The Sequel.
MINNEAPOLIS – (The Borowitz Report) – In a sign of his increasing prominence in the so-called Tea Party movement, a new poll shows Kentucky senatorial candidate Rand Paul topping former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin among voters who describe themselves as morons.
In the poll, conducted by the University of Minnesota’s Opinion Research Institute, 42% preferred Paul, 36% preferred Palin, and the remaining 22% were unsure what the word “prefer” meant.
According to Davis Logsdon, who supervised the poll for the University of Minnesota, Paul’s surging popularity among morons is bad news for Palin, who previously had a lock on that important constituency.
“I never thought I’d say that, but if Palin is going to stay competitive with Paul, she’s going to have to start dumbing down her message.”
Today, the Texas State Board of Educations adapted new social studies and history guidelines. We got a copy of the textbook outline and are sharing it with our readers.
Social Studies and History
1. Reagan — the early years.
Students will study Reagan’s childhood and how he became the best actor in history.
2. Reagan — Governor of California
Students will learn how Reagan suppressed the anti-American war protesters by bringing in the National Guard to occupy the University of California.
3. Reagan — President of the United States
Students will learn how the greatest president of all time created the biggest economic boom in the history of the world by cutting taxes. They will also learn how liberals tripled the federal deficit. They will learn how Reagan single-handedly brought down communism and the Soviet Union.
4. Reagan Anointed Sainthood
Although, not formally given sainthood by the church, real Americans (Republicans) have anointed Ronald Reagan sainthood and commonly refer to him as St. Ronnie.
5. Jimmy Carter: Worst American President or worst President in the history of the world?
Food for thought. Students will learn critical thinking by evaluating President Jimmy Carter.
6. Old Testament
Students will learn how the earth was formed 6,000 years ago.
7. New Testament and the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution
Students will learn how Jesus would have owned an assault rifle if they were invented back then.
8. The Democrat Great Recession: How Freddie Mac and Fannie May destroyed our economy.
Students will learn how Barney Frank and other liberals created a deep recession and how Republicans worked to restore our economy.
10. Other great Americans
Other great Americans will be studied such as Newt Gingrich, Joe McCarthy, Arthur Laffer, Adam Smith, George W. Bush, Sarah Palin, and Joe the Plumber.
This illustrates the difference between right-wingers and left-wingers:
Kentucky’s Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul criticized President Barack Obama’s handling of the Gulf oil spill Friday as putting “his boot heel on the throat of BP” and “really un-American.”
“What I don’t like from the president’s administration is this sort of, ‘I’ll put my boot heel on the throat of BP,”‘ Rand said in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “I think that sounds really un-American in his criticism of business.”
On the oil spill, Paul, a libertarian and tea party darling, said he had heard nothing from BP indicating it wouldn’t pay for the spill that threatens devastating environmental damage along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
“And I think it’s part of this sort of blame-game society in the sense that it’s always got to be somebody’s fault instead of the fact that maybe sometimes accidents happen,” Paul said.
Most of the mainstream media claims the election yesterday is the result of voters’ anger at Washington.
Voters sent a clear message on Tuesday: They don’t like the way Washington works. But they sent a mixed message on what would make it work better, which adds up to a virtual guarantee that it might be a long time before Washington actually does work better. Source
Let’s do our own analysis.
Joe Sestak, a progressive Democrat beat former Republican Arlen Specter. This one’s easy. People didn’t want someone who became a Democrat just because he thought it would improve his chances of getting re-elected. While Specter is for the most part a good man, he’s part of the problem. Democrats decided they wanted a progressive to move our country forward.
Rand Paul took the teabagger/nut-job approach to beat Trey Grayson. Paul wants to ban abortion in pretty much all cases, wants to repeal civil rights legislation, wants to cut taxes, cut spending, eliminate several federal departments including the Dept. of Education… your typical right-winger. Grayson is far too moderate for the Republican party. He’s an Episcopalian: one of the more liberal branches of Christianity. He fought budget cuts and wanted to increase spending. And said something negative about Sarah Palin. He didn’t have a chance!
Democrat Mark Critz beat typical right-wing-nut-job Republican Tim Burns in a special election to fill John Murtha’s seat. Critz is a tech guy pushing for new energy sources to help Pennsylvania and has done a lot to help veterans.
In West Virginia, Mike Oliverio beat incumbent Alan Mollohan. Oliverio is a conservative Democrat who wants to ban abortion and supports a Constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Mollohan has a long history of corruption.
And so, it’s a little too simplistic to just say people wanted the incumbents ousted. That’s just the way it worked out.
Senate Republicans are running out the clock on Wall Street reform, reaping dividends from the long-term strategy of delaying Senate action on issues big and small since President Obama took office. From the routine nominations that have been filibustered to the months of useless bipartisan negotiations over health care, the GOP has been explicit: its goal has been to eat up floor time and stall any agenda it opposed.
Now that strategy is paying off. With a long line of progressive amendments that appear to have majority support waiting for a vote, Republicans are objecting to holding a vote. Under intense time pressure, Democratic leadership is working to wrap up the debate and a cloture vote could come as early as Wednesday afternoon.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) has an amendment to allow states to cap credit-card interest rates stalled. He called out the GOP tactic on the Senate floor.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) urged outright opposition to the bill on Wednesday. “Now, everyone recognizes the need to rein in Wall Street to prevent another crisis. But the bill the Majority wants to end debate on today does not do that. Instead, it uses this crisis as yet another opportunity to expand the cost and size and reach of government. It punishes Main Street for the sins of Wall Street. Worst of all, it ignores the root of the crisis by doing nothing to reform the GSEs,” he said, referring to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
A Democratic aide said that Whitehouse may indeed get a vote on his amendment Wednesday, but many others could be left behind. Other amendments in line would address abuses by payday lenders, cap ATM fees at 50 cents, reinstate a form of Glass-Steagall, ban the trading of naked credit default swaps, and prevent the deregulation of the insurance industry. In order to be considered after cloture, the amendments would need to be ruled germane.
The repeal of Glass-Steagall was a major contributer to the banking crisis and it needs to be reinstated. Republicans are only looking out for the interest of big business. They could give a rat’s ass about the middle class.
Watch this video of Senator Sheldon Whitehouse calling the Republicans on their reform blocking tactics…
I would strongly support legislation restricting federal courts from hearing cases like Roe v. Wade. Such legislation would only require a majority vote, making it more likely to pass than a pro-life constitutional amendment.
I would support legislation, a Sanctity of Life Amendment, establishing the principle that life begins at conception. This legislation would define life at conception in law, as a scientific statement.
As your Senator, there are many ways I can help end abortion. I will fight for each and every one of them.
Not only does he favor a ban on abortion, he favors a ban on courts from hearing cases about abortion. People have a right to dissent, which usually entails going to court. That’s how our system works.
Our country was founded on dissent. Apparently Paul wants to outlaw dissent when it comes to issues of his choosing. And that’s un-American.
On Tuesday, the toll of American dead in Afghanistan passed 1,000, after a suicide bomb in Kabul killed at least five United States service members. Having taken nearly seven years to reach the first 500 dead, the war killed the second 500 in fewer than two. A resurgent Taliban active in almost every province, a weak central government incapable of protecting its people and a larger number of American troops in harm’s way all contributed to the accelerating pace of death.
The Taliban offered to hand over bin Laden immediately after the U.S. began bombing Afghanistan, but Bush would have none of that. Nope, the AWOL-in-chief had his excuse for war and he wasn’t going to blow it.
JALALABAD, Afghanistan –– A senior Taliban leader said Sunday that the Islamic militia would be willing to hand over Osama bin Laden to a third country if the United States halts the bombing of Afghanistan and provides evidence against him.
President Bush quickly rejected the offer.
“The president has been very clear, there will be no negotiations,” White House spokeswoman Anne Womack said. Washington has repeatedly rejected any negotiations or conditions on its demands that the Taliban surrender bin Laden and his al-Qaida terror network.
Leading up to the 9/11 terrorist attack, there were many warnings and predictions of an impending attack, but the Bush administration refused to act. Even after it was shown that bin Laden was responsible for the U.S.S. Cole attack, Bush did nothing. Well, he did lob a few bombs at Iraq, but other than that, he did nothing.
George W. Bush is responsible for the deaths of over 1,000 troops in Afghanistan and over 4,000 in Iraq, yet there has never been a complete investigation into how he got us into these messes. And that is a crime.
DRUDGE RETORT 