Make sure you watch #11....one of the most insightful videos I have ever seen......#8 is also excellent.....two nice ones for you....
1/ The weaselly Marco Rubio is one of Florida's US Senators, and for a brief while was the darling of the right, but lately not so much. An excellent story from Jonathan Chait in New York Magazine on how everything has turned to shit for this corrupt little bastard.....
- 2/21/2014 at 8:00 AM
- 161 Comments
How the GOP Sabotaged Marco Rubio, the Man Who Was Once Its Savior
It was a mere two days after the 2012 election, and the shock of defeat had barely worn off when the Republican Party’s answer suddenly became clear, and it was Marco Rubio. The announcement came in a column, portentously titled “The Way Forward,” by Charles Krauthammer, the operative-pundit, Fox News panelist, and columnist whom a National Review cover story had deemed the leader of the opposition to President Obama. The party’s predicament could be solved, Krauthammer announced, with “a single policy change: border fence plus amnesty.” Then, having softened on immigration and thus endeared itself to Latinos, the party need only elevate the handsome, right-wing young senator to the top of its ticket. “Imagine Marco Rubio advancing such a policy on the road to 2016,” rhapsodized Krauthammer. “It would transform the landscape.”
The Rubio Plan sounded awfully appealing to Republicans, not least of them Rubio himself, who set about constructing the fund-raising and advisory apparatus of a top-tier presidential contender. For a few months, the plan proceeded to near perfection. Then everything started falling apart, and it has kept falling apart ever since.
The Rubio Plan required the senator, heretofore a reliable conservative soldier on every issue including immigration reform, which he ran against in 2010, to reverse himself and persuade a large chunk of the party to follow along. This Rubio did with astonishing speed. Working with Senate Democrats to forge a compromise, he undertook a listening-and-persuasion tour among the party figures who had revolted against the last immigration-reform compromise, under George W. Bush. Rubio explained that his immigrant mother had left him a voice-mail, in Spanish, pleading for him to look out for immigrants. “They’re human beings just like us, and they came for the same reasons we came,” said Mrs. Rubio, via her son, in impressively polished, stump-friendly phrasing. “To work. To improve their lives. So please, don’t mess with them.”
Once-fervent restrictionists like Sean Hannity and even Rush Limbaugh showered Rubio with praise. In February of last year,Time displayed Rubio on its cover, anointing him “The Republican Savior.”
2/ Remember Michael Dunn, who killed a teenager for playing loud music in his car? And emptied his gun at three other kids, and the Florida jury acquitted him of murder two weeks ago?
Jon Stewart and Jessica Williams with a funny, but pointed three minute segment on the verdict.....
Watch 'The Daily
The news: It was only a matter of time before The Daily Show weighed in on the Michael Dunn verdict. In last night’s episode, correspondent Jessica Williams called it “the cherry on top of the shit sundae that is Black History Month,” among other things. More in the video:
3/ A "normal" Bill Maher "New Rules", meaning it's a very funny five minutes.....
Bill Maher ended his show Friday night taking on the internet and how it’s allowed us to avoid reading anything that just isn’t in our interests, explaining that “only seeing the stuff that confirms the opinions you already have isn’t news, it’s Fox News.”
He railed against “microtargeting” and sites like Facebook that are making it easier than ever for people to only consume the news they want to hear about. Back in the old days, people on the subway read the newspaper “and no one’s masturbating,” but now too many people are on their phones playing Angry Birds instead of reading the news.
Maher took on climate change specifically, and how people have been so misinformed on the issue because they listen to Fox, Glenn Beck, and Matt Drudge, or as Maher called them, “the cracker trifecta.” He bemoaned how no one will care that jellyfish are taking over the ocean “unless a jellyfish shows up on a beach and exposes its nipple.”
4/ And speaking of Fox News, here is a three minute segment featuring the appalling Steve Doocey and some right wing dingbatette......it's commentary on John Kerry's statement on climate change, but it takes them less than a minute to mention Benghazi......
Amazing stuff.....
The Most Ridiculous Fox News Segment Ever (Video)
In what has to be the most ridiculous “news” segment EVER, the idiots who pass themselves off as “reporters” and “analysts,” were complaining that the mainstream media is carrying water for the White House. I guess because they are so straight-up news and NEVER spout the Tea party line for the billionaires who direct their every move and parse their every word.
Today their outrage is directed at any and all Sunday shows that carried the message of climate change delivered by Secretary of State John Kerry – who they rushed to remind you is not a scientist, and so who is he to tell anyone that climate change is real, and anyone who doesn’t think so is backwards of progress and relying on faulty science. It took 55 seconds for the magic word – Benghazi! – to be spoken, quickly followed by Fast and Furious. Never mind that the Secretary is relying on the consensus of 97 percent of the world’s climate scientists who are 95 percent certain that climate change is directly attributed to human activity. No, they would prefer to believe the 3 percent of sell-their-souls scientists who carry water for the Koch Brothers, who, by the way, are heavily invested in fossil fuels. Then it was on to Al Gore, one of their favorite whipping boys, and how he invented global warming so he can make millions and billions of dollars by duping the American people into believing what the rest of the world has already accepted as fact and are working towards finding solutions. I’ll bet you didn’t know that climate change is actually “The Shiny Object Syndrome.” At that point my brain began to bleed.
5/ Buy your food at WalMart? Hope your health insurance is paid up......
Whole Foods maintains a list of ‘Unacceptable Ingredients” which includes everything from MSG to high fructose corn syrup. It also includes artificial colors, artificial preservatives, hydrogenated fats, etc. You can see the whole list, updated periodically, here. But did you know that about 54% of the products sold in stores like Walmart would be banned from Whole Foods due to containing dangerous ingredients? Check out the real differences below.
While Whole Foods has yet to pull all GMO ingredients from their store, they also partner with Non-GMO Verified Project to offer numerous products that do not contain genetically modified ingredients, and they plan to eliminate products which contain them by 2018. They are pervasive in our food supply so it is very difficult to eliminate them, since they currently aren’t required to be labeled as ‘GMO’ by law.
Putting aside GMOs for the moment, how many of the groceries sold at Walmart would never be stocked on Whole Foods shelves?The 78 ingredients on their blacklist end up comprising over 54% of all the foods sold in Walmart stores. What’s more, approximately 97% of the soft drinks/soda sold at Walmart contain ingredients that Whole Foods considers “unacceptable”. High fructose corn syrup and the preservative sodium benzoate are primary culprits.
6/ Ellen Degeneres seems like the genuine article, a really decent person, so this six minute clip from her show when she talks to "Gladys from Austin, Texas" is very funny.....a nice clip!
Ellen DeGeneres, born January 26, 1958, is an American stand-up comedienne, television host and actress. She hosts the syndicated talk show The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and was also a judge on American Idol for one year, having joined the show in its ninth season.
7/ Not sure if you saw or read what Ted Nugent said about the President, but over the top doesn't begin to describe it. He is touring with Greg Abbott, who is running for Governor of Texas, another idiot to replace the present idiot Rick Perry, but Nugent's disgusting remarks will probably get votes for Abbott.....the rabid right wing loves this stuff......
Good column from Charles Blow......and read the quote - second paragraph......
Accommodating Divisiveness
FEB. 21, 2014
Ted Nugent, a.k.a. the Motor City Madman, an ex-rocker who’s off his rocker, is at it again.
Last month Nugent said:
“I have obviously failed to galvanize and prod, if not shame, enough Americans to be ever vigilant not to let a Chicago communist-raised, communist-educated, communist-nurtured subhuman mongrel like the Acorn community organizer gangster Barack Hussein Obama to weasel his way into the top office of authority in the United States.”
Of that string of catchphrases, the term “subhuman mongrel” has garnered the most attention, and rightfully so.
That is the kind of wording the Nazis used to justify Jewish genocide, as Wolf Blitzer pointed out on CNN this week. In checking the statement, PolitiFact highlighted the research of David Myers, a historian at the University of California at Los Angeles, who said that the Nazis called the Jews “untermensch,”
or subhuman, and that that word and “mischling,” or mongrel, “were intoned with
daily regularity by the Nazi propaganda machine.”
8/ When you watch this video about what happens when a four year old boy is left on a bus bench in a Norwegian winter, it might help if you had a kleenex handy......
Watch this, and ponder what might happen in an American city.......
The mantra on the right is "we're the greatest country on earth", and we certainly have the largest military but for niceness and a sense of community, the Scandanavian countries are much better.....
When an 11-year-old boy sat at a bus stop without a jacket in Oslo, Norway, hidden cameras captured a series of very special moments.
The experiment was filmed by the Norwegian branch of the SOS Children's Villages International charity as part of a campaign to provide warm clothing for displaced children in Syria, according to The Nordic Page.
In the video above, the majority of bystanders offer their coats or gloves to the boy.
9/ Destined to be a classic Colbert, Stephen interviews a transgender woman.....and he met his match in this funny six minute interview.....amazing teeth!
If you're not familiar, the controversy took place earlier this month when Piers Morgan described Mock as "formally a man" during an interview on his show. The two had a heated Twitter exchange as well as a follow-up (and equally offensive) interview. To add insult to injury, their talk was followed by an all-cisgender panel that debated the validity of Mock's identity.
10/ You may have heard of a mosquito-bourne virus affecting the Lower Caribbean islands - chikungunya....well it may be coming Florida's way.....
But in recent years, officials in the Caribbean islands have been on the alert for much smaller and potentially more pernicious vagabonds—infectious diseases.
The island of Saint Martin—popular with tourists—has been hit hard by an outbreak of a mosquito-borne illness.
So when Sylvie Cassadou, an epidemiologist on the islands of Guadaloupe, St. Bartholomew, and St. Martin, received the phone call in November that residents in the French Quarter of Marigot on St. Martin were complaining of fever, rash, and joint pain, she wasn’t terribly surprised. Both the World Health Organization and the Pan-American Health Organization had warned her to be on the lookout for this cluster of symptoms, signs of a strangely named, peripatetic virus called chikungunya. Originally from southeastern Africa, the mosquito-borne virus has been slinking around the world for the past decade, leaving a trail of outbreaks in its wake.
11/ Absolutely fascinating video called "How Wolves Change Rivers" - it's about what happened when wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park, and it is a lesson on the law of unintended consequences.....
A wonderful four minutes......and after watching, consider the Monarch butterflies that are about to disappear....
When wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in the United States after being absent nearly 70 years, the most remarkable "trophic cascade" occurred. What is a trophic cascade and how exactly do wolves change rivers? George Monbiot explains in this movie remix.
http://www.filmsforaction.org/
12/ Although the UK is now recovering from the awful weather, flooding and windstorms, the Guardian made a video of George Monblot canoeing along the new path of the Thames river....farmland! Quite fascinating.....about six minutes.....
The environmentalist floats across the flood plains in Hurley, Berkshire, one of the villages worst hit by the floods that have badly affected swaths of southern England and Wales over the last few weeks. He heads to the source of the Thames to examine how rainwater and silt from ploughed fields swell the floods downriver
13/ A tongue in cheek plea for Fox News to hire the evil Pam Bondi as their new anchor.....
John Romano: Pam Bondi, Fox News a match made in conservative heaven
DELIVER TO FOX NEWS
To whom it may concern:
It is with great pleasure that I write this letter of recommendation for Pamela Jo Bondi. I am not personally acquainted with Ms. Bondi, but I am familiar with her work and I do know many of her constituents in the great state of Florida. It is, in fact, on behalf of those constituents that I write this letter. Many of them feel it would be a splendid idea for Ms. Bondi to escape the thankless job of attorney general and seek full-time employment at your fine network.
As I am sure you are aware, Ms. Bondi has already done terrific work at Fox News. She is undoubtedly telegenic and quite adept at emphasizing her assigned talking points, no matter how erroneous they may be. More than once, I've heard it said that she plays a lawyer on television even better than she does in courtrooms.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/
14/ Seven Lions with "Strangers", one of the best EDM songs for a while....this video is "a day in the life" of [I assume] Seven Lions, who is a big name DJ and it shows him doing concerts, who the audiences are and what they do [move a lot]. It doesn't say what they're on, but I am sure there are chemicals involved......
Anyway, a really good song.....and one of those concerts looks like fun though....sigh...
15/ There are still some good spots left in Florida, and of this list of four Old Florida towns we have been to two, but based on this we will be visiting the other two soon, before they disappear.....
We really recommend Anna Maria Island.....wonderful......
CASUAL COVE | A grocery store in Boca Grande Jason Myers for The Wall Street Journal
IT'S ONE OF my favorite childhood photographs: My little brother and I are squinting into bright sunshine. Behind us is a scattering of disheveled palm trees and a sandy path. The corner of a faded beach house edges into the shot.
The picture, taken in the Florida Keys some 30 years ago, conjures up a thousand sunny memories, but just two words: Old Florida.
Photos: Forgotten Florida, Found
Click to view slideshow
My nostalgia for the Sunshine State of yesteryear—before frenzied art fairs, $35 martinis and a Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park—isn't exceptional. Not according to travel marketing materials, at least. "A piece of Old Florida," claims the website of a fishing lodge near Fort Myers. "Experience Old Florida," urges the brochure of a Naples resort. References to "authentic" and "classic" settings abound. So do images of vacant beaches and puttering fishing boats.
Touting Old Florida, it turns out, is a relatively new phenomenon. "I don't remember hearing anybody promote it much before 9/11," said Tracy J. Revels, a historian and author of "Sunshine Paradise: A History of Florida Tourism." "But some people are looking for quieter things. I think the whole search for authenticity has become more important in the 21st century."
Todays video - Archie Bunker vs a charming but formidable black female doctor.......a really, really funny clip from the 70's.......
Todays golf jokes
David Feherty is a CBS and Golf Channel announcer who finds very unique, colorful and uninhibited ways of explaining or describing whatever is on his mind… Probably always on time delay these days.
Feherty Quotes:
“Fortunately, he (Rory) is 22 years old so his right wrist should be the strongest muscle in his body.”
“That ball is so far left, Lassie couldn’t find it if it was wrapped in bacon.”
“I am sorry Nick Faldo couldn’t be here this week. He is attending the birth of his next wife.”
“They don’t do comedy at the Masters. The Masters, for me, is like holding onto a really big collection of gas for a week. It’s like having my buttocks surgically clenched at Augusta General Hospital on Wednesday, and surgically unclenched on Monday on the way to Hilton Head.”
Jim Furyk’s swing – “It looks like an octopus falling out of a tree.”
“He’s (Luke Donald) a bloody walking ATM. I slid my AmEx between the cheeks of his butt and out popped $500.”
“That’s a great shot with that swing.”
“It’s OK – the bunker stopped it.”
At Augusta 2011 – “It’s just a glorious day. The only way to ruin a day like this would be to play golf on it.”
“That was a great shot – if they’d put the pin there today.”
“Everything moves except his bowels.”
“Watching Phil Mickelson play golf is like watching a drunk chasing a balloon near the edge of a cliff.”
“That green appears smaller than a Pygmies’ nipple”.
Todays neighborly joke
A man received the following text from his neighbor:I am so sorry Bob. I've been riddled with guilt and I have to confess.I have been tapping your wife, day and night when you're not around. In fact, more than you. I'm not getting any at home, but that's no excuse. I can no longer live with the guilt and I hope you will accept my sincerest apology with my promise that it won't happen again.The man, anguished and betrayed, went into his bedroom, grabbed his gun, and without a word, shot his wife and killed her.A few moments later, a second text came in:
Darn auto correct. I meant "wifi", not "wife".
Todays collection of good jokes
One day, a man came home and was greeted by his wife dressed in a very Sexy nightie.
'Tie me up,' she purred, 'and you can do anything you want.'
So he tied her up and went golfing.
*****************************************
A woman came home, screeching her car into the driveway, and ran into the house.
She slammed the door and shouted at the top of her lungs, 'Honey, pack your bags. I won the lottery!'
The husband said, 'Oh my God! What should I pack, beach stuff or mountain stuff?'
'Doesn't matter,' she said. 'Just get out.'
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Marriage is a relationship in which one person is always right, and the other is a husband.
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A Polish immigrant went to the DMV to apply for a driver's license.
First, of course, he had to take an eye sight test.
The optician showed him a card with the letters
'C Z W I X N O S T A C Z.'
'Can you read this?' the optician asked.
'Read it?' the Polish guy replied, 'I know the guy.'
< /SPAN>******************************************
Mother Superior called all the nuns together and said to them, 'I must tell you all something. We have a case of gonorrhea in the convent.'
'Thank God,' said an elderly nun at the back. 'I'm so tired of chardonay.'
;
********************************************
A wife was making a breakfast of fried eggs for her husband.
Suddenly, her husband burst into the kitchen.
'Careful,' he said, 'CAREFUL! Put in some more butter! Oh my gosh! You're cooking too many at once. TOO MANY! Turn them! TURN THEM NOW! We need more butter. Oh my gosh! WHERE are we going to get MOR E BUTTER? They're going to STICK! Careful. CAREFUL! I said be CAREFUL! You NEVER listen to me when you're cooking! Never! Turn them! H urry up! Are you CRAZY? Have you LOST your mind? Don't forget to salt them. You know you always forget to salt them. Use the! salt. USE THE SALT! THE SALT!'
The wife stared at him.
'What in the world is wrong with you? You think I don't know how to fry a couple of eggs?'
The husband calmly replied, 'I just wanted to show you what it feels like when I'm driving.'
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Fifty-one years ago, Herman James, a North Carolina mountain man, was drafted by the Army.
On his first day in basic training, the Army issued him a comb.
That afternoon the Army barber sheared off all his hair.
On his second day, the Army issued Herman a toothbrush.
That afternoon the Army dentist yanked seven of his teeth.
On the third day, the Army issued him a jock strap.
The Army has been looking for Herman for 51 years.
