Chuck Schumer Destroys Right Wing Talking Points

David Gregory bravely repeated right wing talking points, but Sen. Chuck Schumer put a stop to that nonsense and schooled the 'liberal' reporter.

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Japan Suspends U.S. Wheat Purchases After GMO Discovery

By News Desk | May 31, 2013

Japan, the largest international buyer of U.S. wheat, has canceled its tender to buy U.S. white wheat after the discovery of a test strain of Monsanto’s genetically modified wheat had been found on an Oregon wheat farmer’s land, Reuters reports.

Monsanto tested the Roundup-resistant wheat from 1998 to 2005, but it was never approved for consumption. The agriculture company abandoned the project due to international rejection of genetically modified (GM) cereals.

Japan and other Asian countries remain skeptical of GM foods, and Japan has approved only a select number of GM products for human consumption, including corn, but not wheat.

The GM wheat was discovered when an Oregon wheat farmer tried spraying an undesired patch with Monsanto’s herbicide, Roundup, but the weedkiller — to the farmer’s surprise — didn’t do the job.

The farmer then contacted Oregon State University researchers who determined the wheat contained genes from Monsanto’s abandoned wheat project. The crop otherwise consisted of natural wheat.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is now investigating whether the GM wheat in Oregon is an isolated issue or the genes have spread to other crops. There is no scientific evidence that suggests GM wheat is unfit for consumption.

Monsanto’s strains of genetically modified corn and soybeans now dominate those two markets.

Viewpoint’s revoltingly fake Christian of the week

Tonight we are thrilled to announce a new segment on the show: Viewpoint’s ‘revoltingly fake Christian of the week.’

Congressman Stephen Fincher, a Republican from Tennessee, just took the Bible so far out of context he had to apply for a visa.

Fincher is a fierce opponent of food aid for poor Americans. You know, like Jesus. He recently fought to cut 4.1 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. If you only watch Fox, that means ‘food stamps.’ And thanks to the fine work of Fincher and his colleagues, 2 million working American families, children and seniors have already been cut off from food assistance.

So during a recent House agricultural committee debate, he decided to show how Christian it is to turn your back on unemployed suffering Americans by quoting one of the favorite Bible passages of revoltingly fake right-wing Christians—2 Thessalonians 3:10—”anyone unwilling to work should not eat.”

But here’s the thing—ya see,Thessalonians isn’t god or Jesus talking, it’s believed to have been written by Saint Paul. And in Paul’s day, many apocalyptic Christians believed Jesus was coming back really soon and the world was going to end anyway—so why work?

These early rapture-heads were hurting the local economy and threatening the functioning society of Thessalonica—and I do hope I pronounced that right. And Paul makes a good point—the “Left Behind” books may be junk theology, but Kirk Cameron still shows up at his job.

So in that context, the quote makes sense. In Congressman Fincher’s context, it’s pretty much the opposite of everything Jesus Christ ever stood for.

Now, Congressman Fincher went on to say, quoting from the book of selfish toolery, “the role of citizens, of Christians, of humanity is to take care of each other, but not for Washington to steal from those in the country and give to others in the country.” Really, congressman? Washington steals and gives to others?

Because here’s the other thing—while Fincher was passing bills to take food out of the mouths of the poor, he was supporting a proposal to expand crop insurance by $9 billion, and I’m sure the fact that he is the second most heavily subsidized farmer in Congress and one of the largest subsidy recipients in the history of Tennessee, had nothing to do with this.

Between 1999 and 2012, Fincher, opponent of poor lazy people, put out his tin cup and collected $3.5 million in government money. This guy isn’t just a welfare queen, he’s a welfare kingdom with a moat, castle and a catapult that shoots government money over the wall into his boiling cauldron of hypocrisy.

The average Tennessee farmer gets a subsidy of $1,500. In 2012 alone, Fincher was cut a government subsidy check for $75,000, which is nearly double the median household income in all of Tennessee.

So he votes to cut food stamps and expand crop insurance subsidies by $9 billion. This guy is swimming in so much dirty pork, he could single handedly unite the Muslims and the Jews.

The biggest right-wing fake Christian argument is, “yeah Jesus said help the poor but he didn’t say the government should steal from me to do it! Benghazi!”

But here’s the thing, Jesus lived under European imperial occupation. He didn’t have democracy. We do. So if you want to follow the teachings of Christ—who constantly talked about caring for the poor—then in a democracy, Christians get a chance to vote for the candidate who will most follow the teachings of Christ and care for the least among us, as he commanded in Matthew 25—that filthy hippie. ­­

But Fincher and the GOP don’t do that. They cut services for the poor and taxes for the rich. And it’s a free country. They’re allowed.

But if you don’t want your tax dollars to help the poor, then stop saying you want a country based on Christian values. Because you don’t.

And that’s why representative Fincher is our ‘revoltingly fake Christian of the week!’

All Hell Broke Loose - Why MoMA Is Exhibiting Tetris and Pac-Man

By Bo Moore

Last November, the Museum of Modern Art said that it had acquired 14 videogames, adding working copies and the source code of games like Tetris and The Sims to its collection. The collection’s curator was not prepared for what happened next.

“All hell broke loose.”

In a TED talk released yesterday, MoMA senior curator of architecture and design Paola Antonelli discussed the decision, explaining the importance of interaction design.

“I really do believe that design is the highest form of creative expression,” Antonelli said in the talk.

“I want people to understand that design is so much more than cute chairs, that it is first and foremost everything that is around us in our life.”

Antonelli began bringing examples of interaction design to MoMA several years ago with acquisitions such as Martin Wattenberg’s “Thinking Machine,” the Sugar interface from the One Laptop Per Child initiative, and Philip Worthington’s “Shadow Monsters.”

But videogames proved more controversial. Some argued that games were not art and as such should not be in the MoMA, while others said that videogames could not be art because they are something else: code.

Antonelli said she believes that is the wrong argument: “There’s this whole problem of design being often misunderstood for art,” she says, “or the idea that designers would like to be called artists. No. Designers aspire to be really great designers.”


In the MoMA, the games collection is displayed in a minimalist fashion, modeled after Philip Johnson’s 1934 exhibition “Machine Art,” in which he displayed propeller blades and other pieces of machinery on white pedestals and white walls.

“He created this strange distance, this shock, that made people realize how gorgeous formally, and also important functionally, design pieces were.” Antonelli says. “I would like to do the same with video games.”

In choosing which games to acquire, Antonelli and the MoMA worked with videogame designers and academics on four basic criteria: Behavior, Space, Aesthetics, and Time.

The team had to decide where to draw the line on violent videogames. “It’s considered that in design and in the design collection,” Antonelli said, “what you see is what you get. So when you see a gun, it’s an instrument for killing in the design collection. If it’s in the art collection, it might be a critique of the killing instrument.”

Following those principles, the team included games such as Portal, where you shoot walls to create paths, and Street Fighter II “because martial arts are good,” but excluded games such as Grand Theft Auto III.

Other games picked for the initial batch included Pac-Man, Katamari Damacy, EVE Online and Canabalt. MoMA plans to acquire more in the coming years.

Antonelli likens the process of acquiring a videogame to her aspiration to acquire a Boeing 747 that would at the same time be a part of the MoMA collection while continuing to fly, or the recent acquisition of the @ symbol, which is both in the museum while remaining public domain.

The end goal is to acquire the game’s original source code, which can be quite difficult to pry away from secretive gamemakers. If that’s not possible at first, Antonelli at least wants to wedge her foot in the door.

“We’re going to stay with them forever,” she said. “They’re not going to get rid of us. And one day, we’ll get that code.”

Chris Hayes Delivers MSNBC's Lowest 8 PM Ratings Since 2006

By Jason Easley


MSNBC’s great experiment of putting Chris Hayes at 8 PM has turned into a total disaster as All In is delivering the network’s lowest ratings since 2006.

Chris Hayes’ second full month in prime time since taking over for Ed Schultz saw total viewership drop by 32%, and viewership among those age 25-54 decline by 13%. All In’s bad ratings caused The Rachel Maddow Show to deliver its worst ratings month since 2008.

Maddow’s ratings are down 21% in terms of total viewers, and 22% with viewers age 25-54. The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell had the smallest decline in total viewers at 18%, but suffered a 33% decline with viewers age 25-54.

Chris Hayes is going to take a lot of heat for these ratings, but it isn’t all his fault. Phil Griffin and the other “geniuses” running MSNBC tossed Ed Schultz out of weeknights because they thought they could remake the network as wonk TV, and attract more younger viewers with Chris Hayes.

They couldn’t have been more wrong.

The problem has been that Chris Hayes isn’t well suited for primetime. He was a fine weekend morning host, but his EmoProg Obama bashing style is the complete opposite of who MSNBC’s audience was.

MSNBC primetime is still the audience that Olbermann built, and the audience in general reflects the Obama coalition. The Obama coalition is the majority on the left. The problem is that Chris Hayes doesn’t speak to the majority of the left. Instead of embracing who their audience is (mainly Obama supporters), MSNBC tried to program their primetime around who they wanted their audience to be. The result has been an epic failure that has seen Fox News, CNN, and Headline News all gain viewers while MSNBC has declined.

By moving Chris Hayes into a spot that he never should have been in, MSNBC has alienated their viewers and wrecked their ratings.

The bad news for MSNBC is that they may not be able to fix this. Ed Schultz may not want to go back to primetime, at least not without a sizable raise. MSNBC has hired a lot of wonkish types over the last few years. They don’t have the kind of liberal firebrand on the bench that could immediately revive 8 PM. The network could always move Chris Hayes back to Up, and take a shot with Joy Reid or Melissa Harris-Perry but that is unlikely since the network bypassed them when they promoted Hayes. The most likely outcome would be somebody like Ezra Klein moving into primetime.

There is one man out there who could immediately step back into the 8 PM anchor chair and deliver a million viewers, but pigs will fly before Phil Griffin and Keith Olbermann ever work together again.

It is clear that MSNBC has to do something soon. (Just asking MSNBC viewers about Chris Hayes and his show provoked strong negative reactions on Twitter. Generally speaking viewers tend not to like Hayes’ politics, and they are bored by his program.)

It looks MSNBC may end up going bust, because they made a bad bet by going all in with Chris Hayes.

Tea Party leader surrenders

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Michele Bachmann's greatest hits

By Evan Puschak

The Last Word

Rep. Michele Bachmann has announced that she will not be seeking reelection in Minnesota, and The Last Word has put together a compilation of her greatest hits of her political career.

In honor of Rep. Michele Bachmann’s announcement that she will not be seeking reelection in Minnesota, we’ve compiled a few of the congresswoman’s most bat-crap crazy soundbites over the last few years. Check it out!

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Two Weeks After Calling for Obama Impeachment, Michele Bachmann Quits Due to Ethics Scandal

By LeftandLeft

This completely unqualified political shit stain is a damning indictment of the fucked up tea-bagging voters in her Minnesota district.

Here's hoping she and her equally repulsive self loathing sissy husband end up in cellblock.

By T. Steelman

With the news of Michele Bachmann’s retirement, we must acknowledge that we have lost a great one… for mining comedic gold. I can hear the moans of pain from Letterman and Leno, Fallon and Ferguson; Kimmel, Conan and Maher. There will certainly be other politicians who will provide fodder for the late night comic crowd – there always are – but our ‘Shelley’ had a certain je ne se qua, a middle-American quality that set her apart.

With her first big moment on Hardball With Chris Matthews, we knew she would be entertaining. With one statement, she flew to the top of our Most Crazy list. Just watch Chris’ expression as Michelle calls for investigating Congress…. here’s the video:

When Obama was elected, Bachmann had some things she could sink her teeth into, lying through them as she went:

“I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax because we need to fight back.” (Source)

“One. That’s the number of new drilling permits under the Obama administration.” (Source)

“This (the 2009 stimulus bill) is a pork buffet, and the American people caught on when they saw all the political payoffs in the bill, and they rejected it.” (Source)

Her hatred of the Affordable Care Act, dubbed “Obamacare” by the right, moved her to propose bills and vote to repeal it 37 times. What’s the definition of insanity? Her last desperate attempt to repeal the ACA she left in God’s hands. Looks like God likes Obamacare.

Global warming? Michele isn’t a believer:

“The big thing we are working on now is the global warming hoax. It’s all Voodoo, nonsense, hokum, a hoax.” And “Carbon dioxide, Mister Speaker, is a natural byproduct of nature. Carbon dioxide is natural.”

But the pinnacle of Bachmann’s career was undoubtedly her run for president in 2012. She geared up for that early on, spending much of 2010 and 2011 campaigning. Some of her best gaffes occurred during that period.

In New Hampshire, she spoke about how the opening shots of the Revolutionary War were fired there.

She wanted South Carolinians to join her in wishing Elvis a happy birthday… on the anniversary of his death.

According to Bachmann, not only was John Quincy Adams one of the Founding Fathers, but he, and they, fought hard to destroy slavery. Wrong again.

And her stop in Waterloo, Iowa was the occasion of her mistaking John Wayne Gacy, the serial killer, with John Wayne, the American icon. Watch this great bit of oops… here’s the video:

When allegations about her accepting subsidies for her family farm came up, as she railed against other folks getting government help, she lied:

“The farm is my father-in-law’s farm. It’s not my husband’s and my farm. It’s my father-in-law’s farm and my husband and I have never gotten a penny of money from the farm.”

Her campaign was full of gaffes and outright lies and it was a blow to all of us (okay, just us political writers) when she dropped out of the presidential race in January of 2012. Politifact had kept track of her statements and there were an unsurprising number of false and pants-on-fire ratings there for her.

But that didn’t faze Shelley. After one particularly egregious batch of falsehoods in a primary debate, she actually said that Politifact confirmed “that everything I said was true.” Only they didn’t.

And who can forget her response on behalf of the Tea Party to Obama’s State Of The Union Address in January of 2011? Here’s the video:

Her opposition to marriage equality didn’t save her state from joining the rest of us in realizing that equal means equal, no exceptions. Michele was butthurt:

“This will change our state forever. Because the immediate consequence, if gay marriage goes through, is that K-12 little children will be forced to learn that homosexuality is normal, natural and perhaps they should try it.”

And her views on the minimum wage left us facepalming:

“If we took away the minimum wage — if, conceivably, it was gone — we could virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level.”

Here at Addicting Info, we have covered many of Bachmann’s gaffes and scandals. We reported on her being investigated for various campaign ethics violations such as not paying her staff, claims of a creepy relationship with her debate coach, a stolen email list, and other ethics violations.

We followed her comments about President Obama being wrapped up in the “Islamist agenda.” Her obsession with Benghazi is legendary and didn’t escape us, though Shelley tried to escape a reporter asking her about comments she’d made about the subject.

Bachmann’s presence on the House Intelligence Committee was covered. Her latest appearance at CPAC and her hilarious ideas about curing Alzheimers were highlights in March. Heck, one of my first pieces was on Bachmann’s tenuous grasp on reality when it came to the UN and Obama.

There’s no denying that Michele Bachmann made a great target. Her craziness, her lack of a filter, her revisionist history and her complete and utter indifference to her gaffes and lies… these are what we will remember about Michele Bachmann.

As she bows out of her Congressional tenure, we wish her well. I suspect that she will be availing herself of “wingnut welfare,” winding up in a think tank, working for a huge corporation or as a “pundit” on Fox News. Whichever way she goes, I’m sure we have not heard the last batshit crazy remark from her. See ya around, Shelly!

United Nations Tells Ron Paul To Shove His Lawsuit Right Up His Ass

By Max Rivlin-Nadler  

Last we checked, Ron Paul had filed a lawsuit with the World Intellectual Property Organization (an agency of the UN, which he HATES) in an attempt to expropriate both RonPaul.com and RonPaul.org from his supporters. So how'd that all turn out for Paul? Not so well.

Both of the domain name disputes were dismissed because Paul still took his supporters to court, even though they offered to give him the sites for free (they only requested compensation for their very sizable mailing lists).

Not only did Paul lose both domain name disputes, but he was also found guilty of "reverse domain name hijacking," which is essentially being found guilty of wasting the court's time.

The court wrote:

Respondent has requested, based on the evidence presented, that the Panel make a finding of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking. In view of the unique facts of this case, in which the evidence demonstrates that Respondent offered to give the Domain Name ronpaul.org to Complainant for no charge, with no strings attached, the Panel is inclined to agree. Instead of accepting the Domain Name, Complainant brought this proceeding. A finding of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking seems to this Panel to be appropriate in the circumstances.

Lesson: Don't ask the United Nations for help after you've spent a lifetime bad-mouthing them, and also don't waste their time with your frivolous lawsuits. In addition, don't alienate your supporters by appealing to an international governmental organization (which they HATE) in an attempt to screw them.

"Reverse domain name hijacking" carries no penalty, but it just sounds painful.

Republicans have a bridge that they want to sell you

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Two Million People Worldwide Protest Against Monsanto

By Abby Miller

On May 25th, millions of people gathered in cities all over the world to “March Against Monsanto,” protesting both the genetically modified crops they create as well as their unethical business practices. The media barely noticed.

Just a few short months ago, a Facebook page popped up which made a simple plea:

I’m tired of the poisoning of our food supply. Will you help me organize a rally in your area? May 25th, 2013. Spread the word, Please!!

March Against Monsanto Facebook page. Despite the large turnout all over the world, very little of substance is being reported through the mainstream media. Las Vegas resident Andrew Garcia, who attended yesterday’s march in the heart of Sin City joined by his girlfriend and her sister, noted that he didn’t see a single reporter or news truck at the event.

There were at least 2,500 people there, and not one of them was a reporter. To actually see with my own eyes how much they are trying to cover up makes me sick.

Many media accounts that are available are based largely on one Associated Press article. The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, USA Today, and others all report on the marches with the same AP article, adding little to no actual reporting. ABC News didn’t even bother with the entire article, but just small snippets of it. One has to wonder at the reasons for not properly covering an event this widespread. Further, the article makes Monsanto sound like a saint of a company, saving the world one genetically modified crop at a time, eradicating hunger in the face of constant adversity from lunatic activists who are making a big deal out of nothing.

So what exactly is the purpose of protesting Monsanto?

Garcia says that what brought Monsanto to his attention was the 2003 documentary “The Corporation,” which tells the story of Jane Akre and Steve Wilson, reporters for a Fox news station in Tampa, Florida. In the late 1990s, Akre and Wilson began work on a story investigating Monsanto’s use of recombinant bovine human growth hormone (or rBGH), an additive that increases a cow’s milk supply. There had been controversy surrounding rBGH, and the two reporters found that despite the FDA approval, the technology was believed to be the cause of various health concerns in both cows and humans. ”The reporters were silenced by Monsanto, forced out of business and their image destroyed,” said Garcia.

On top of that, he says, the treatment of small farmers by Monsanto has left behind a vile taste, referring to the lawsuits Monsanto has filed against small farmers for theft of intellectual property; that is, their seeds. Each Monsanto seed is encoded with patented gene technology that makes it resistant to their pesticides, for which Monsanto charges a royalty. Their dominance of the market makes it practically impossible to find seeds that haven’t been affected by such a gene. If a farmer doesn’t pay the royalty, even if it was used by no intention of their own, such as in the case of pollination, Monsanto takes them to court. Often, the court costs alone put the small farmer out of business, regardless of whether or not they win their case.

As good a reason as all the above is to protest against Monsanto, many people cite the harm created by genetically modified crops as their main motivation for bringing awareness to the issue. On the March Against Monsanto website, the group gives the following reasons under the title “Why do we march?”:

• Research studies have shown that Monsanto’s genetically-modified foods can lead to serious health conditions such as the development of cancer tumors, infertility and birth defects.
• Monsanto’s GM seeds are harmful to the environment; for example, scientists have indicated they have contributed to Colony Collapse Disorder among the world’s bee population.
• For too long, Monsanto has been the benefactor of corporate subsidies and political favoritism. Organic and small farmers suffer losses while Monsanto continues to forge its monopoly over the world’s food supply, including exclusive patenting rights over seeds and genetic makeup.

On their Facebook page, March Against Monsanto estimates that two million people in fifty-five countries joined in the protest, and it is certain that many others would have joined but were, for whatever reason, unable. But, what now, after the march has passed? The protest doesn’t end, say the group organizers, just because the march has.

 Taking care to look at what you eat, demanding local food, and growing a garden are all wonderful ways of keeping the fight against Monsanto alive. And for those of you who are so technologically inclined, don’t forget about that ‘Buycott’ app.

How to not get your ass kicked by the police

Really funny video from the Chris Rock show on how to not get your ass kicked by the police.

Tax Attacks

What kind of person would name their child Reinhold Reince Priebus? dlevere.

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Remember When Rush Limbaugh Got Punked By A Liberal On His Show?

By Leslie Salzillo

This is classic. It’s a classic video, and even more, a delightful earful of classic Rush Limbaugh getting punked – by a liberal. As Limbaugh is stumped, he phooeys, fumbles, snorts and sniggers, searching for answer, or some kind of reason. I LOVE IT!

Now, when I say classic, I also mean in age. The video was uploaded to YouTube in 2011, yet ironically, much of the conversation is still relevant today. Majority Report host, Sam Seder, guides us through the fun-filled audio of ‘Limbaugh v. Liberal.’

In the video, caller Mike Stark, grills Limbaugh on Reaganomics, Social Security, Guantanamo, The Greenspan Commission, Iran… and Limbaugh is flailing. Somehow the screening process of callers must have failed the producers and Limbaugh was caught off guard and busted. These days, Rush takes no such chances. You will rarely hear a caller argue with him about anything, unless it’s a Limbaugh ‘plant’ to help him with one of his fabrications. Most of the time Limbaugh is ‘his own show’ with no one to challenge or ague his lies, and right-wing propaganda.

For me, the very best part about this audio/video is listening to Limbaugh try to bullshit his way out the entire conversation. And I enjoy watching Sam Seder do his impressions of Limbaugh as he gleefully interprets the discourse between Stark and Limbaugh.

Towards the end of the video, it’s obvious that Limbaugh/his producers have muted our lovable liberal. Limbaugh then rambles on, into a place called nowhere, as he awaits pertinent information from his producers in order to debate Stark. You can almost hear when that information is given to Rush. Meanwhile, the audience is led to believe Stark is still on the line listening to Limbaugh’s pearls of renewed wisdom – without objection.

Sit back and enjoy… here is the video:

This is one instance when I can handle listening to Limbaugh. His voice rings high on the cringe-factor scale for me much like the voices Beck, Hannity, Gingrich, and George W. Okay, let’s add Palin, Ryan, Bachmann, Paul, McConnell and Boehner… you know what I mean. For several months last year, after Rush Limbaugh’s verbal attack on Sandra Fluke where he called her a ‘slut’ and ‘prostitute,’ I had to listen to his show three hours a day, five days a week. Why would I do that? Why would anyone do that? As it turns out a good many liberal volunteers did the same. We were tracking ads/sponsors, helping to create the Limbaugh boycotts that do thrive today.

The video above is lightweight and amusing. To truly appreciate it, one would have to be aware of Limbaugh’s continuous and blatant sexism, racism, and gay-hating bigotry. The protests against his smut are massive. Consumers, activists and every-day people have joined and are contacting his sponsors to let them know they will no longer buy from companies that support Rush Limbaugh. And it’s working.

Women’s rights organizations like NOW and UniteWomen.org, as well as other large groups like AddictingInfo.org, Daily Kos, Being Liberal, and Media Matters have been fully supportive and contributed much to the movement. 95% of Cumulus Radio Network advertisers are requesting No-Rush clauses when buying airtime. Power to the people.

To become involved: 

Check Out/Sign This: Petition To Clear Channel and 40 Limbaugh Sponsors
Join: Boycott-Rush-Limbaughs-Sponsors-to-SHUT-HIM-DOWN
Visit: The StopRush Database

Meanwhile, I’m wondering what kind of rating Rotten Tomatoes would give this film. Bye, bye, Rush.

(The author, Leslie Salzillo, is an activist, political commentator, diarist and visual artist. Salzillo often writes diaries in Daily Kos, and began contributing to AddictingInfo.org in March 2013.)

The Elder Scrolls Told of Their Return

Winner of more than 200 Game of the Year awards, experience the complete Skyrim collection with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim^® Legendary Edition. The Legendary Edition includes the original critically-acclaimed game, official add-ons – Dawnguard^™, Hearthfire^™, and Dragonborn^™ – and added features like combat cameras, mounted combat, Legendary difficulty mode for hardcore players, and Legendary skills – enabling you to master every perk and level up your skills infinitely.

• Live Another Life, In Another World - Play any type of character you can imagine, and do whatever you want; the freedom of choice, storytelling, and adventure of The Elder Scrolls comes to life in one legendary experience complete with added weapons, armor, spells, and shouts from all three official add-ons.

• Dawnguard - The Vampire Lord Harkon has returned to power. By using the Elder Scrolls, he seeks to do the unthinkable - to end the sun itself. Will you join the ancient order of the Dawnguard and stop him? Or will you become a Vampire Lord? In Dawnguard, the ultimate choice will be yours.

• Hearthfire - Purchase land and build your own home from the ground up - from a simple one-room cottage to a sprawling compound complete with an armory, alchemy laboratory, and more. Use all-new tools like the drafting table and carpenter’s workbench to turn stone, clay, and sawn logs into structures and furnishings. Even transform your house into a home by adopting children.

• Dragonborn - Journey off the coast of Morrowind, to the vast island of Solstheim.Traverse the ash wastes and glacial valleys of this new land as you become more powerful with shouts that bend the will of your enemies and even tame dragons. Your fate, and the fate of Solstheim, hangs in the balance as you face off against your deadliest adversary – the first Dragonborn.

 Available 06.04.2013 on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC

 

Alex Jones Claims Tragedy In Oklahoma Caused By Tornado Created By Super Villain Obama

By Nathaniel Downes

Alex Jones and reality have not been on speaking terms for years. This time, the right-wing whackadoodle who earlier claimed the Boston marathon bombing was a false-flag operation until it was revealed that the bomber was a fan, has come out and claimed that Obama is a super villain, with the power to control the weather! And to demonstrate his power, the president decided on using it on poor, helpless Oklahoma:

Now, this is not the first time that Alex Jones and other conspiracy theorists have claimed that the government has the ability to create weather. We can all recall a similar claim made last year, that Obama created a hurricane to disrupt the Republican National Convention. Now it is that Obama, and the “evil government” are out to destroy random citizens in Oklahoma. This is a plot right out of a super villain handbook.

At least with the hurricane, it actually had a purpose, to these conspiracy theorists. This time, it is pure villany. No reason is given, no logic behind the operation, it is being done just for pure evils sake. But for Alex Jones and his audience, it is the proof of their idea that the government is evil.

Proof, who needs proof? They know it has to be the government, because who else would be so evil?

What do you mean that tornado’s happen? This one hurt people, that has to be the government, you understand! They are super villains, out to destroy “the American way of life” by doing… something? The leap of logic Alex Jones needs to make this claim is so vast, it dwarfs the imagination even contemplating it.

It is a tragedy, and it is of no surprise that Alex Jones is seeking to exploit it in order to fill his own coffers. Now he will seek to exploit this tragedy to push his latest books, podcasts, feeding the paranoia of those like Tamerlan Tsarnaev who then act out as lone wolves, carrying out terrorist attacks against the very government which Alex Jones is wishing to bring down.

---

Nathaniel Downes is the son of a former state representative of New Hampshire, now living in Seattle Washington.

Feel free to follow Nathaniel Downes on Facebook.

Oklahoma should fire its senators for voting against federal disaster relief

Cenk Uygur, political reporter Joe Williams, and Mediaite's Noah Rothman debate whether Oklahoma should receive federal disaster relief funding when the Republican senators for Oklahoma, Tom Coburn and Jim Inhofe, have historically voted against aid for other states.

Cenk says they shouldn’t be given funds but will be because Democrats are nicer. Williams says, “That’s the issue, isn’t it? Government is always your enemy until you need a friend.”

Rand Paul outraged, but not entirely sure why

By Hunter

The Republican Party needs to pour themselves a stiff drink and contemplate how it came to be that Rand Paul, unaccomplished scion of a man the old party hands tried their level best to ignore, became one of the big party names, and a leader of whatever-the-hell-passes-for-a-movement-these-days.

I know this much about what I'm talking about.

CNN:

Sen. Rand Paul claimed Sunday there was a "written policy" floating around the agency that said IRS officials were "targeting people who were opposed to the president." "And when that comes forward, we need to know who wrote the policy and who approved the policy," the Republican senator from Kentucky said on CNN's "State of the Union."

Except that he apparently pulled this particular memo from deep inside his own colon, because he doesn't actually know if the "written policy" he's talking about really even exists:

Pressed for more precise details about the memo he was referring to, Paul said he hasn't seen such a policy statement but has heard about it.

"Well, we keep hearing the reports and we have several specifically worded items saying who was being targeted. In fact, one of the bullet points says those who are critical of the president. So I don't know if that comes from a policy, but that's what's being reported in the press and reported orally," he told CNN's chief political correspondent Candy Crowley. "I haven't seen a policy statement, but I think we need to see that."

Unless Paul is privy to a Magic Memo that the rest of us haven't seen (and he says he himself hasn't seen, thus complicating things further), he seems to be misrepresenting things at best: What bullet point we do know of was to focus on nonprofit applications critical of the government, not the president—and again, the apparent goal was to filter out primarily political groups in an application process that was supposed to specifically disqualify, by law, political groups. The "scandal" part of the "scandal" would be that certain groups were targeted by name, e.g. "Tea Party", which would focus on one certain narrow part of the political spectrum.

That apparently political groups were targeted for extra scrutiny when seeking nonprofit status, however, is exactly what was supposed to happen—or what was supposed to happen if we still had any pretense that our election law wasn't caught somewhere between ineptitude and outright crookedness.

Part of the problem Republicans have in their efforts to tar the administration with various scandals is that they're such shameless fabricators they can't even hold together their own narratives. By the time they've gone through their various iterations of the old "telephone" game, nobody can quite figure out what they're going on about, much less how much of it is real and how much of it is people like Darrell Issa and Rand Paul and Peggy Noonan just making things up.

Coburn already demanding offsets for tornado relief

By Joan McCarter

The dust in Moore, Oklahoma had barely settled, the search and rescue operations still active, on Monday evening when Sen. Tom Coburn declared that his own state will only get aid if money is taken from someone else.

Sen. Tom Coburn, ghoul

 

CQ Roll Call reporter Jennifer Scholtes wrote for CQ.com Monday evening that Coburn said he would “absolutely” demand offsets for any federal aid that Congress provides.

Coburn added, Scholtes wrote, that it is too early to guess at a damage toll but that he knows for certain he will fight to make sure disaster funding that the federal government contributes is paid for.

It’s a position he has taken repeatedly during his career when Congress debates emergency funding for disaster aid.
 

At least he's consistent. He was one of 36 senators to vote against Sandy relief, and both he and his Oklahoma colleague, Jim Inhofe, supported an amendment that would have slashed the $60 billion Sandy relief to just $23 billion. Coburn said Sandy relief was "wasteful spending," and his buddy Inhofe called it a "slush fund." He's changing his tune on disaster relief, though, now that it's his state.

Sen. Inhofe to @JansingCo: his labeling of Hurricane Sandy bill as a "slush fund" is "totally different" than Okla tornado relief.
— @kasie via Twitter for iPhone

Inhofe apparently won't go along with Coburn on this one, and he's not the only one. The sheer scope of the destruction Monday appears to have shaken some sense into House Republicans. Speaker John Boehner told reporters: "We’ll work with the administration to make sure they have the resources they need." Appropriations Chair Hal Rogers added:

Approps Chair Rogers on OK disaster $: "don't think disasters of this type should be offset. We have an obilgation to help these people"
— @deirdrewalshcnn via TweetDeck

On this one, Coburn might be on his own, and might not be able to get 39 other Republicans on his side to block a disaster relief bill in the Senate. It's too early to know what the need is going to be in Oklahoma, but the price tag for tornado-ravaged Joplin, Missouri two years ago was more than $200 million.  

Washington police arrest 17 in Occupy Justice foreclosure protests. Actions continue today

 By Meteor Blades

They knew some of them would be arrested Monday and 17 of them were. They were homeowners from across the nation demonstrating outside the Department of Justice offices in Washington, D.C., against the government's years-long failure to take legal action against banks. Some of the protesters were tazed. A coalition made of Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Homes, the Home Defenders League and the Campaign for a Fair Settlement, among others, the crux of demonstrators' message was that shielding the banks that are too big to fail is cowardly and unjust:

Five years after Wall Street crashed the economy, not one banker has been prosecuted for the reckless and fraudulent practices that cost millions of Americans their jobs, threw our cities and schools into crisis, and left families and communities ravaged by a foreclosure crisis and epidemic of underwater mortgages.

Nobody from DOJ came outside to talk with the protesters. Read below the fold for more on what sparked the protests:

The government worked out a $9.2 billion deal with the banks, with $3.3 billion meant to go to some four million eligible homeowners who had been foreclosed on in 2009 and 2010. Although the original plan was to have an independent review of how much each homeowner was owed, ultimately the decision was made to let the banks themselves decide. As an inevitable consequence of this ludicrous approach, many of those seeking foreclosure relief say they were unfairly compensated. For instance, Eric Krasner of Frederick, Maryland, was foreclosed on in 2010:

Krasner figured he was owed $62,000 from the settlement, but when his check came, he received only $2,000. Many in his situation received as little as $300 in compensation. "Until Eric Holder does his job and puts bankers in jail, this is going to continue," Krasner said.

A new report from Home Defenders League, Alliance for a Just Society and New Bottom Line Wasted Wealth: How the Wall Street Crash Continues to Stall Economic Recovery and Deepen Racial Inequity in America, points out the continuing impact on individuals and the economy from the foreclosure crisis. Some highlights:

The foreclosure crisis continued to destroy wealth on a large scale in 2012: Three years after the reported end of the Great Recession, the foreclosure crisis continued to destroy wealth on a large scale in 2012, with192.6 billion in wealth lost due to foreclosures across the U.S., an average of1,679 in lost wealth per household for each of the country’s 114.7 million households.

The most devastating impacts of the ongoing foreclosure crisis were in majority communities of color and racially diverse communities: ZIP codes with majority people of color populations saw 16 foreclosures per thousand households with an average of2,200 in lost wealth per household. In sharp contrast, segregated White communities experienced only 10 foreclosures per thousand households and an average wealth loss of1,300 per household.

More than 13 million homes are still underwater and at risk of foreclosure and more lost wealth: For reporting ZIP codes, there are at least 13.2 million underwater mortgages (when a homeowner owes more than the home is worth) on the books.1 The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 13% of underwater homeowners are already “seriously delinquent” on mortgage payments — they are foreclosures-in-waiting.2 If action is not taken to prevent these mortgages from going into foreclosure, Americans stand to lose nearly221 billion in additional wealth from these mortgages alone.

A strategy of principal reduction would save money for homeowners, boost the economy, and create jobs: Principal reduction—writing down underwater mortgages to current market values—would create significant savings for underwater homeowners. It would also generate new economic activity and create jobs in local economies. Using 2012 data, a principal reduction program could produce average annual savings of7,710 per underwater homeowner nationwide, boost the U.S. economy to the tune of101.7 billion, and create 1.5 million jobs.

Unemployment and underemployment contribute to the widening racial wealth divide. Median wealth ratios measure White wealth for every dollar of wealth for people of color. In 1995, the ratio of White to Black wealth was 7-to-1. In 2004, it was 11-to-1. By the reported end of the Great Recession 2009, it had ballooned to 19-to-1. For Latinos, the White-to-Hispanic wealth ratio was 7-to-1 in 2004. Five years later, it was 15-to-1. Wealth was lost across the board from the Great Recession, but significantly more so for people of color. From 2005 to 2009, White median net worth fell 16% to113,149. But net worth fell by 66% for Latinos to 18,359, and 53% for Blacks to 12,124.

The protesters' chief goals sound like an echo: prosecute Wall Street bankers; end the foreclosure crisis by resetting mortgages to their current value (“principal reduction”); restore and rebuild wealth stolen from communities of color that have been the hardest hit.
Meanwhile, they get tazed and arrested while the bailed-out bankers have returned to collecting their gargantuan bonuses with no fear that anybody in authority is going to give them any grief.

Originally posted to Meteor Blades on Tue May 21, 2013 at 08:01 AM PDT.

Also republished by Daily Kos.