Monday, August 26, 2013

Claims of Sealed Obama Records Proven False

Posted by: Samuel Warde

No United States President in history has had as many false and malicious rumors spread about him.  As part of an ongoing public service commitment by this website, we present our series of articles debunking right-wing myths.
Myth: Obama’s thesis paper is sealed
Reality: Obama did not actually write the kind of ‘thesis’ that some universities require for graduation, and accordingly there are none on file.  Obama did write a ‘thesis’ about nuclear disarmament for an honors course his senior year, but reporter have already been told that Obama did not keep a copy and  as reported by Snopes back in 2008, Columbia had not retained a copy either.  NBC News contacted Professor Michael Baron, his former professor back in 2008 but he advised he thought it had been tossed out during a move he made back in 2000.
Myth: Obama’s College records are sealed from Occidental College, Columbia and Harvard
Reality:  Pursuant to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, it would be illegal under federal law for Occidental, Columbia or Harvard to release the records of any student to reporters or member of the general public without specific written permission from said student.  Obama has not released those records, but neither has any other presidential candidate in history.  
Myth: Obama’s Selective Service Registration is sealed
Reality: This myth is actually pretty moot since there has not been a draft in the United States since 1972, the year Obama turned 11.  Nevertheless, Obama’s Selective Service registration is public.  His registration number is 61-1125539-1 and was registered by Obama on September 4, 1980 as confirmed by the Selective Service Administration and has been posted publicly.
Myth: Obama’s Medical Records are sealed
Reality: Obama released summary medical information during the 2008 campaign, and since taking office has followed the same practice of other presidents releasing the results of his first medical exam on February 28, 2010 and his second exam October 31, 2011.
Myth: Obama’s State Senate Records are sealed
Reality: Obama’s voting record as an Illinois State Senator is a matter of public record and during the 2008 campaign reporters extensively reviewed them.  The website for the Illinois General Assembly has transcripts of all Senate debates in which Obama took part posted as well.
Myth: Obama’s Law Practice Record are sealed
Reality: Obama routinely disclosed a full list clients for the firm of Davis, Miner, Barnhill and Gallard where he worked while serving in the state senate although he did not release the list of specific clients he worked for personally.  However, while campaigning in 2008 he did confirm several specific clients when asked to include the liberal organization Acorn, who he represented in 1995.
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For more info on Obama myths see Myths about Obama Debunked and 8 Right Wing Obama Myths Debunked _________________________________

Monday, August 19, 2013

Texas begins replacing paved roads with gravel due to lack of funding

RAW STORY

The oil and gas boom in Texas has produced an unintended effect: The state plans to covert some roads to gravel to save money.
The oversized vehicles and overweight loads used by energy companies has had a devastating impact on many roads, but the state has not appropriated enough money to fix them.
The Texas Department of Transportation began converting more than 80 miles of paved roads to gravel on Monday, according to the Texas Tribune. The speed limit on the new gravel roads will be reduced to 30 mph.
Texas lawmakers approved $225 million for the repair of roadways and bridges within the state highway system this year. Texas lawmakers also approved a ballot measure that would provide $1.2 billion a year for state transportation projects. If approved by voters in 2014, the measure would divert money from the state’s rainy day fund to the state highway fund.
But the Texas Department of Transportation said $400 million was needed to repair immediate damage caused by energy sector traffic across the state. The department said it needed an additional $1 billion per year to keep the roadways in good condition. It won’t get that funding until next year.
“Since paving roads is too expensive and there is not enough funding to repave them all, our only other option to make them safer is to turn them into gravel roads,” spokesman David Glessner told the Texas Tribune.

Texas is fracked: More than 30 towns will soon be out of water

RAW STORY

Natural gas is claimed to promise cleaner, more efficient combustion than its petroleum-based competition, but getting natural gas out of the ground through hydraulic fracturing (fracking) can be far more environmentally menacing than getting oil. Now, as many as 30 Texas towns could be learning that the hard way, as the towns’ water supplies have been diverted for fracking. Before you feel too bad for them, read the story, below, originally published on Gas2.

Texas is Fracked: More than 30 Towns Will be Out of Water due to Fracking

More than 30 towns in West Texas will soon be out of water as a direct result of diverting their underground water supplies for use in hydraulic fracking. Largely unregulated fracking, it should be said. Largely unregulated fracking that is definitely putting arsenic into the ground it happens to be drying out. Before you start acting horrified, though, consider: this is exactly what Texas’ mental-midget teabillies voted for.

Despite the vast consensus of climate scientists, the highly publicized destructive effects of fracking on water supplies, fracking’s seismic impact, and the evidence of their own senses, the mentally deficient residents of Texas keep electing politicians who believe climate change is a myth, and who think the best course of action to address Texas’ crippling drought is several days of organized prayer. Really....................

Saturday, August 17, 2013

GOP Congressman Gets Fact Checked By His Own Constituents On Obamacare: ‘Stop Lying!’

THINK PROGRESS

Things got heated for Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL) during a town hall question-and-answer session in Winter Haven, Florida on Thursday. His constituents called him out over his multiple votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act, as well as misleading claims that the law’s consumer protections are being dismantled by the Obama administration.
Webster was responding to several constituents’ questions about the consequences that repealing Obamacare — which House Republicans, including Webster, have voted to do on 40 separate occasions — would have for the people in his district. Attendees asked Webster if he had any plans to replace consumer protections included in Obamacare, such as guaranteed insurance coverage for Americans with pre-existing medical conditions and free preventative health screenings for seniors:
QUESTIONER: What happens to us when Obamacare is repealed? What happens to people with pre-existing conditions that can’t get health care? What happens to those of us who finally have access to health insurance for the first time in nine or ten years? What happens to us? And you want to make this local, I’ll make this local. I’m a constituent, right now I can’t get health care. I’m waiting for this [insurance marketplace] to open and I’d like to know why we keep repealing [Obamacare]?
The congressman defended his repeal votes by saying the law would drive up Americans’ health care costs by requiring insurers to cover people with pre-existing conditions. He then claimed that President Barack Obama himself thinks his signature law is unworkable. As evidence, Webster implied that the law’s protections — such as its cap on consumers’ annual out-of-pocket medical costs — were being dismantled by the Obama administration. That prompted an outcry from the audience, as people booed and countered Webster’s claims.
An event official interrupted at that point, asking the audience to be respectful and give Webster a chance to speak. One audience member replied by saying, “Well, tell him to stop lying!”
Watch it, courtesy of advocacy group Health Care for America Now (HCAN) and its local Florida partner Organize Now

Tennessee Republican tells girl her father has to be deported as tea party crowd cheers

RAW STORY

A Tennessee tea party Republican state legislator told a frightened little girl at a town hall meeting on Thursday in Murfreesboro, TN that laws are laws and that her undocumented father is going to have to be deported. According to ProgressivePopulist.org, 11-year-old Josie Molina told state Rep. Scott Desjarlais (R) that she has papers but her father does not.
During a question and answer session at the meeting, Molina stepped up to the microphone and, with a quavering voice, asked, “Mr. DesJarlais, I have papers, but I have a dad who’s undocumented. What can I do to have him stay with me?”
Rather than make any attempt to assuage the girl’s fears, Desjarlais said, “Thank you for being here and thank you for coming forward and speaking,” but “the answer still kind of remains the same, that we have laws and we need to follow those laws and that’s where we’re at.”
The tea party crowd whooped and applauded wildly as the little girl took her seat, head down. Progressive Populist reported that Josie Molina’s father is currently in the process of being deported and that the girl is seeing a child psychologist in order to cope with the stress and anxiety.
Desjarlais is a former physician and anti-choice crusader who was fined $500 by the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners after it came to light that he had engaged in multiple extramarital affairs with female patients. When one woman became pregnant, the staunch anti-abortion conservative pressured her into terminating the pregnancy. Another patient charged that Desjarlais prescribed narcotic painkillers to her for recreational use and frequently smoked marijuana with her.
“I know God has forgiven me” for the transgressions, Desjarlais told a conservative radio host in an interview in December of 2012.
Watch video of the exchange, embedded below via the National Day Laborer Organizing Network

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Sex News 08-15-2013

More sex please, we're British
Britain has become increasingly open-minded about sex in the past generation but less tolerant of infidelity. 


10 Crazy ways to have an orgasm
Some of the more bizarre ways women have claimed to climax include nipplegasms, to yawning  


What men really think about in bed...
18% of married men would like to sleep with a female colleague, and 50% of engaged men would like to have sex with a female friend 


Porn is not meant to be a guidebook
Adult star and sex educator, Nina Hartley, has told how porn should not be viewed as guidebook or a replacement for a comprehensive sexual education.  


Is it shocking not to have a sex life?
Sophie Fontanel's sex life fascinates France. The reason? For 12 years it was non-existent. As her bestselling book is published in Britain she reveals why society finds celibacy so scandalous


The top 8 political sex scandals
When a scandal breaks, several questions invariably arise: Should this scandal matter? Should the media focus on it? Should voters be concerned about it?  


Politician wants to outlaw oral sex
U.S. Republican Ken Cuccinelli seeks to reinstate unconstitutional 'Crimes Against Nature' law, which could makes felons out of even consenting married couples

Monday, August 12, 2013

Conservatives Launch New Website To Take Down Institutional Left, No Really For Serious This Time You Guys!

Well this will be fun! Noodle-brained jackanape Ben Shapiro is teaming up with crankypants David Horowitz to launch something called TruthRevolt.org, described as “the conservative counterpunch to Media Matters.” To which yr Wonkette can only say: THANK YOU! We are going to have so much fun wading through what is sure to be yet one more fever swamp of conservative lunacy and bullshit that we are not ashamed to say we peed in our sweatpants when we read about this. (Also we really need to get out more.)
Media Matters has long been the Moby Dick to whichever conservative fancies himself as Ahab at any given moment, which has led to all sorts of awesome slurs directed against it: Soros-funded! Obama-linked! (MMFA was founded in 2004, well over two years before Obama announced he would seek the presidency – or so the Manchurian Kenyan’s handlers would have us believe!) It’s no surprise that the conservative leviathan would vomit up two of its more annoyingly loud and sneering acolytes to lead the latest whaling voyage.
Shapiro’s announcement could not be more hilarious in its hyperbolic, unhinged ranting: READ MORE »

Friday, August 02, 2013

Totally Sane Congressman: Obama Is Hiding Benghazi Witnesses Away, Probably In FEMA Camps, Why Not

We here at this little mommyblog sometimes take issue with the wingnut wing of the Republican Party, what with their scandal-non-scandals, hyping of misinformation, and the occasional outright lie because of deep-seated racism surface-level racism being awful human beings. But every now and then along comes a sad, pathetic Congresscritter who has truly gone over the edge of sanity and begun frothing at the mouth and ranting incoherently to the point that we feel pity rather than anger. The Hill depicts one of these sad shells of a human being:
Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) is accusing the Obama administration of a massive cover-up in the deadly Benghazi terrorist attack, saying it was “dispersing” witnesses around the country and changing their names in an effort to hide the truth about what happened.
This makes us want to get him a glass of warm milk, encourage him to take his meds, and just go to bed. There there, Trey, there there. No, it’s ok – we sprinkled magic fairy Reagan dust, so there are no librul monsters under your bed, rest easy and dream of “Dr.” Beck.  READ MORE »

Thursday, August 01, 2013

SEX NEWS 08-01-2013

We need to stop the focus on orgasms
To mark National Orgasm Day, Dr Brooke Magnanti implores people to stop obsessively focusing on orgasms and realise that sex without them is still sex. 


Sex and the City screwed up my sex life
As a teen watching the show, I got the impression that all women magically knew what they wanted in bed  


Partridge Family star reveals threesomes
The Partridge Family mother, Shirley Jones, has revealed tales of threesomes, and aborted foursomes 


Please stop masturbating
Puberty is rough, rougher still when you ignore your mother's warnings to stop wiping jizz on her nice bathroom towels.  


Take your sex toys to work day
Things changed quite dramatically a few weeks back, when an unexpected conversation lead to my sex toys taking an unexpected trip to my workplace


Feminist Porn as a label
When it comes to feminist porn. There's such a diversity of ideas, creative expression, lived experiences and definitions that trying to pin anything down is naturally difficult  


Best Essay: Sex After 50
My story is that, in my late 50s, I started having the best sex of my life!



Porn Sex vs Real Sex: The Differences Explained With Food 
 

Metallica - Welcome Home (Sanitarium) (Live - Halifax, Canada)