Saturday, July 27, 2013

The resurrection of Jake 'The Snake' Roberts

07/27/13

There is a strong lesson here that we can easily apply to the inner strength and courage we need to fight the battle of our lifetime. The battle to not only save, but also restore our country's founding values and it's moral principles.  I hope you enjoy this off topic, but a very inspirational and motivational story. 

The resurrection of Jake 'The Snake' Roberts

by Jay Busbee


Hanging in Jake 'The Snake' Roberts' room is a series of drawings portraying him as a hero. (Yahoo! Sports)
SMYRNA, Ga. – In the tiny second-floor bedroom, there's a pile of Jake "The Snake" Roberts action figures on a table, plastic muscles ripped and bulging, snarls on tiny faces. Above them, on the wall, are signed comic-book-style cartoons of Jake The Snake fighting atop the Empire State Building and deep in the heart of the jungle. All around the room are photographs of Jake The Snake wrestling in some of the world's largest arenas against fellow iconic wrestlers.

It'd be a hell of a tribute to the man, were it not for Jake the Snake himself writhing in the bed in the center of the room.

It's a summer morning outside Atlanta. Jake Roberts, unshaven, his long hair matted, is lying in the bed, devastated, alone. He'd been clean and sober for eight months, drying out and cleaning out and trying to resurrect his life and his career. But he's just fallen.

Two airline bottles of vodka. That's all it was; that's all it took. Two tiny bottles, boom boom, downed in a parking lot. He drank to blot out the image of an old friend who'd fallen on hard times, the same way he used to drink to blot out the thought of his own fallen image.

And now that he's stumbled back into one bad habit, every seductive, self-loathing instinct in his body is telling him to get back in touch with another: when life gets hard, pack your [stuff] and run.

But on this morning, he doesn't run. He stays. He's got a control over his body and his mind now that he didn't have even eight months ago. He's hating himself for falling – "It was like hitting me in the head with a ball-peen hammer," he says – but he's getting back up to face what he's done. He's got friends now, people pulling harder for him to win now than they ever did back in the ring.

And in a twist so perfect it almost seems like it's scripted, the guy now tasked with helping Roberts save himself is the same guy Roberts once hoisted to wrestling stardom: Diamond Dallas Page.

This is Page's house, and with Page's guidance, Roberts might just be on the way to a peace that's eluded him for six decades.

This, then, is a story of fame and fortune, addiction and recovery, snakes and yoga. It's what happens when lives go off-script, for better and for worse.

                                                                                   ____________________

Had he entered the wrestling game any earlier, Diamond Dallas Page might be somewhere working a forklift and punching a time clock today. Page was running a nightclub in Florida in the 1980s, dabbling with wrestling management on the side, when he first met Roberts. At that point, Roberts was well into his career as The Snake, and Page, then in his 30s, mentioned that he was considering getting into the ring himself.

"I wanted to do it, but I assumed I was too old," Page says. "I started managing at 31, but didn't even get into the ring until I was 35."

"Thank God for his day job," Roberts says, shaking his head at the state of Page's early wrestling game.


Diamond Dallas Page flashes his "diamond cutter"
sign he made famous in the ring. (Courtesy of DDP)
But Page piqued Roberts' interest with stories of doubters, of people who thought Page was too old to make a go of it as a wrestler. "They told me I never could do it, either," Roberts said. "I said to him, 'I'll train you my own damn self.' "

At one point, Roberts moved in with Page, and that lasted a few months. "I left because he had three cats and I, uh, lost a snake in his house. I ran."

But the friendship survived that, as well as the repair of the walls that had been torn down to find the snake. Page consulted Roberts on the elements of wrestling psychology, the mind games and performance flourishes that take you from no-name cannon fodder to headlining star.

"He didn't just tell me, 'Here's what you do,' " Page recalls. "He'd suggest. He'd give me bait to fish with, and then a little more bait."

Page remembers proudly bringing tapes of his matches to Roberts, eager to show him new moves. Sometimes, Roberts would approve. Sometimes, it wouldn't go quite so well.

"That's never been done before!" Page would say, proud of a new move.

"You've never seen a dog walk into the ring and take a [crap] before, but you don't want to see that, do you?" Roberts would snarl.

That kind of teaching, plus the occasional chair to the back of the head, gets you to improve in a hurry. And with his attitude, his before-Jay-Z diamond hand sign, his Sammy Hagar-after-a-workout looks, and his Diamond Cutter finishing move, Page rocketed to the heights of the wrestling world. Here's his clip reel from his glory days:




"It's sports, but it's also entertainment," Page says. "It's predetermined. So how do you get over when they – the bookers, the writers – don't see you as a top guy? You've got to go out there and do [stuff] that makes people give a [damn]. Even if you're losing. Then they see you, and they get with you."

Page was in on some of the most notable fights of the era, including celebrity matches. He teamed with Karl Malone against Hogan and Dennis Rodman, and later teamed with – yes, this is true – Jay Leno against Hogan and Eric Bischoff. He played along with the storylines, doing the occasional heel turn to keep the crowds on their toes. And the positive attitude that had served him well on the way up kept him on top in his 40s, an age when most wrestling stars have creaked off to comfortable chairs.

But even as his star was ascending, Page could see his onetime mentor sliding. The whole world could.

                                                                        _______________________                                                                                                  

"When you're ashamed of yourself and you hate where you come from, you learn to lie pretty quick," Roberts says. "You learn to put on a mask. Getting into wrestling, I was given an opportunity to be something other than what I was. In a way, this crash would have happened a lot sooner. Wrestling allowed me the privilege to delay it."

Roberts, now 58, hid his demons behind a mask of aggression and psychological warfare. The son of a wrestler – his real name is Aurelian Smith Jr. – Roberts began climbing into the ring while in his teens, running the Southern circuit of Mid-South Wrestling, Georgia Championship Wrestling and other local leagues. A snake became a staple of his act – not the same snake; snakes didn't tend to have lengthy careers working with Roberts – whether used as a weapon or a noose.

Buoyed by both his snake gimmick and his sinister demeanor, Roberts worked his way upward through the ranks to join up with the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) in the mid-80s, the exact moment when wrestling's popularity first crested. Roberts fought against and alongside the era's icons, including Andre the Giant, Jerry "The King" Lawler, Hulk Hogan and, later, Stone Cold Steve Austin. Check, for instance, this classic moment where he goaded Macho Man Randy Savage into fighting, and then set a snake loose on him:




He played the game, even when the game took him in some ridiculous directions. Check, for instance, this staged bit with The Ultimate Warrior, which boasts a storyline and script straight out of some middle school boy's notebook margin scrawlings:





"I'm not Jake the Snake," he says. "But I hid behind it. If I carry a 12-foot snake in this room, you're checking that sumbitch out. You don't get to know me."

Troubled history, addictive personality, inability to resolve conflicts without either running or wrapping a snake around someone's throat … Roberts' story was always headed toward a sadly familiar end.

As his popularity waned and his alcoholism and drug use increased, Roberts found himself stumbling back down the same ladders he'd climbed 30 years before. He'd gone from sold-out football arenas to half-full municipal halls, and he had no idea what to do next. He weighed over 300 pounds, his gut hanging over his tights. He slurred his way through his performances. He would get winded just from climbing the stairs. And he was breaking promise after promise, friendship after friendship.

"For most addicts, me included, the biggest issue is shame," Roberts says. "Shame is a monster. When you get to the point that you're taking mirrors out of your house because you don't want to look at yourself, you're in trouble."

And that's when his old pal DDP stepped in.


                                                                    ____________________

It's a shame that the city of Smyrna has such an ugly, dissonant name, because the locale itself, just outside Atlanta's beltway, is in the midst of a full-on gentrification. Coffee shops and high-end malls are squeezing out the few remaining pawn shops and hand-painted day-care centers. The train that runs near DDP's home is on the verge of becoming a hipster novelty.

Page's home itself, tucked away on a quiet cul-de-sac, is so new it doesn't even show up on satellite maps of the address. Amid the single-story ranch homes on its street, it stands out like a leather-bound novel on a garage tool shelf.

You're not quite sure what to expect inside – groupies from the '80s sleeping it off on a dirty couch, perhaps? – but what you find is the archetypal 21st-century version of a small business: office in the front room, ready-to-ship product covering most flat surfaces, a cadre of young enthusiastic interns and assistants on laptops and cell phones.

In the center of it all is Page, his voice raw, his body leaner and rangier than in his WCW glory days. He's taking phone calls, he's autographing promo pictures, he's checking the itinerary for an impending four-week summer trip. This is Diamond Dallas Page's new venture: DDP Yoga. Yes, yoga.

"It was a blessing and a curse to start wrestling so much older than everyone else, at 35," Page says. "I knew how to avoid getting hooked on things like painkillers. But I also knew I needed to do whatever I could to hold back the hands of time."



Diamond Dallas Page and Jake Roberts
practice yoga in Page's home.
He tried everything from chiropractics to juicers, and somewhere along the way, his now-ex-wife suggested that he give yoga a go. "Yoga?" Page remembers replying. "[Screw] that." But yoga's hold on Page was subtle and persistent, and by 2005, he was co-authoring a book, "Yoga for Regular Guys." He started getting press as, yes, "Yoga's Bad Boy," and by 2011 had refined his knowledge and approach into a series of workout packages titled, appropriately enough, DDP Yoga.

In April 2012, Page hit Internet gold. A disabled Gulf War veteran used DDP Yoga to literally get back on his feet, and the resulting video, "Never Ever Give Up," has racked up almost 9.5 million YouTube hits. Chris Jericho, Page's friend, used the program to rehab himself into shape for a recent Royal Rumble, giving DDP Yoga street cred. And so began the second phase of DDP's professional career.

He's got the PR machine humming full force for DDP Yoga now; although the DDPYoga.com website has a three-easy-payments hard-sell component to it, plenty of old-school news outlets are taking notice. "It ain't your mama's yoga" may not be the kind of selling point, or attitude, that traditionalists appreciate, but then DDP isn't looking to target people who already know their vinyasa from their ashtanga.

"My workout is about strength, fitness, and flexibility," he says. "It all proceeds from this" – he makes his famous Diamond hand sign – "the tension when you press your hands together. You start there, you work outward, you will see your life change."

Page is an inspiring figure, a buffed-out self-help guru with a fill-the-room voice and demeanor of a man used to appealing to fans in the upper decks. Once the first DDP Yoga videos went viral and the morning news programs came calling, he realized he'd taken the first solid steps into a legitimate post-wrestling career.

And that's when Jake the Snake re-entered the picture.


                                                                     ____________

"Feel that. Put your finger right there."

When Jake The Snake Roberts gives you a command, you tend to obey, bizarre as that command may be. Right now, he's pointing at the meaty part of his palm below his thumb. There's a hard ridge there, like someone's jabbed a length of pencil beneath the skin. On a hand that's already a mess – gnarled fingers pointing in queasy directions, knuckles pushed back far from where knuckles ought to be – that little ridge is the most wrong element.

"That," Roberts says, with a mixture of weariness and pride, "is my tendon."

Roberts sits back in a thick leather chair that's not his. "Before I came here," he says, "I could only move my fingers this far." He holds out both hands, the fingers curled into claws from decades of abuse both given and received. "Now?" he says, and the showman inside Roberts steps to the fore as he extends his fingers out much further.

"Now I can do this," he says, his eyes lasering in on yours to be sure you don't miss one iota of his point. "And it's all due to that man right there."

He motions to a painting – yes, a painting – of Diamond Dallas Page, sporting bright blue trunks, hoisting a championship belt in exultation.

"That man's going to change so many millions of people's lives," Roberts says, and you wonder, for the thousandth time in your life, just where the line in wrestling lies between the performance and the truth.

Roberts has a small bedroom on the second floor of Page's house. He's been here since October, since he bottomed out once and for all and Page decided to close the circle by offering his former mentor a hand. Page has dubbed his home "The Accountability Crib," and he's helping both Roberts and fellow former wrestler Scott Hall un-knot their lives.

"This is not a rehab place," Page stresses. "I'm just trying to help out my buddies. WWE has a rehab that's as good as anything in the NBA or the NFL, but Jake's been in and out of it a bunch of times."

Page is coordinating with WWE's rehab team, keeping a close eye on Roberts as he takes the steps toward what Page and his crew have termed a "resurrection":





Roberts' bedroom is small – 12x12 – the size of a kid's. And like a kid's, it's decorated with wrestling paraphernalia on every wall. Cartoons featuring Jake the Snake rescuing damsels in distress, action figures of Roberts still in their boxes, various knickknacks – it's all here.

The centerpiece of the room is a whiteboard on which Roberts has sketched out his own personal rehab plan, a schedule for AA meetings, and the goals he's set for himself. Page has a simple mantra for Roberts: "Ninety meetings, 90 days, 12 steps."

Roberts shuffles through the Accountability Crib, his direction purposeful but his moves slow. He's wearing loose-fitting warmup pants, Crocs and a black Jake the Snake T-shirt with RESURRECTION in neon green letters beneath a photo of a younger version of himself. He sits down in Page's chair, and it's a jarring image: the guy who once wrapped snakes around people's necks is unburdening himself as if in a confessional.

"The soul knows what it needs to do to heal itself. The challenge is to silence the mind," Roberts says, reading an inspirational quote off his phone. "It's so true. I worked my ass off in wrestling. Fought through a bad beginning in life. But I started medicating, and the more medicating I did, the more medicating I needed to block out what I'd done."

Most of the time, Roberts works out his demons one by one, with workouts and diet. (Hearing Jake The Snake Roberts extol the virtues of black-bean brownies is every bit as strange as you'd think.) Every so often, though, one of those demons gets loose.

For years, Roberts' life had a script every bit as predetermined and predictable as a wrestling storyline: fall off the wagon, get into trouble, run away. It served him well for decades. And in June, he had another opportunity to do that, only he slipped, downing those two mini-bottles of vodka.

"I'm not like somebody who can go out and have a couple drinks," he says. "My way of thinking changes. My way of expressing myself changes. Everything changes. Once it was down in me, I was like, 'What have I done now?' That's when the pain started for me. When you're as hungry as I am for this – being totally clean – that was like shooting me. It was like hitting me in the head with a ball peen hammer. I hated myself. Did not want to get out of bed."

"I just want things to be positive, and moving forward," Page says. "Progress, not perfection. Sometimes you fall, and somebody has to reach down and pull you back up."

Page filmed his discussion with Roberts about the incident for his YouTube channel, and the video shows just how far these guys have come from their wrestling days, and how high the hill is that Roberts still has to climb (Warning: video contains explicit language):




Today, sitting in Page's office, Roberts spends a long time unraveling the incident, his reaction, his feelings, his self-loathing and his intention to never ever fall again. It's not until late in the conversation that the old Jake The Snake rears his head. "I've got the lead role in a new movie called 'Heavy Water,' " he says, grinning, "and I'm singing now, too" – specifically "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" at a recent Braves game. "I'm going to win an Oscar and a Grammy in the same year. Believe it."

Dinner's on the stove in the kitchen, and Roberts is about done laying bare his soul. "I don't regret my mistakes," he says. "Got to accept those. I'm not ashamed of my life any more. Thank God for forgiveness. I've got a lot of people I've got to come back to, but today, I'm not not hiding from it. I'm not thinking about running."

He gives a world of credit to Page. "He's got a great heart, no doubt," Roberts says. "He loves to share. I just love the guy, that's all I can say." And he's become a DDP Yoga evangelist.

"You want to share it because of how different you feel," Roberts says. "You want to tell everybody. I'll go to the Publix food store and I'll see somebody who's overweight or having trouble walking. I'll go up to them, and they'll say, 'Holy [crap], you're Jake the Snake!' And I'll say, 'Yeah, but here's what I want to talk to you about … ' "

"It's not about, 'Hey, look at my abs,' " Page says. "It's about, 'Hey, look at my life.' "

DDP Yoga might end up saving some bodies. And DDP himself might end up saving a life or two. Seems a good deal either way.



source: Yahoo Sports


(UPDATED: RNC Responds to PJ Media) EXCLUSIVE: RNC Operatives Join Holder’s Campaign Against Texas, Several Other States

07/27/13

Sources say RNC donations are being used to re-impose federal mandates struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.


UPDATE:

RNC Communications Director Sean Spicer is denying the claims made within this article, both via phone and by submitting comments below as “SeanS”.

Additionally, Tom Hofeller, mentioned in this article, claims via email that this article is “unequivocally false.”

PJ Media not only has 100% confidence in the accuracy of the article’s contents, we offered Spicer, via email, three additional questions for the RNC to answer regarding their denial:

1. Does RNC oppose a renewed Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, or is the story accurate that RNC consultants are working on a fix?

2. Does RNC oppose an amended Section 4?

3. Was RNC’s staff involved in the 2006 reauthorization of Section 5 — advocating amendment and higher burdens on states?

We stated that we would wait for their responses and would publish them in this article.

————————————-

Attorney General Eric Holder announced Thursday that the Justice Department will seek to recapture Texas and return it to federal oversight for approval of all election law changes such as photo voter identification. Holder’s move comes after the Supreme Court in June freed Texas and other states from the requirement that all state election laws be approved in Washington, D.C. Holder’s move prompted outrage from Texas Senators Ted Cruz, John Cornyn and Governor Rick Perry.

The three should also be angry with the Republican National Committee. PJ Tatler has learned that staff at the RNC have been spending RNC donations plotting to do exactly what Eric Holder is seeking to do – return Texas and other states to federal oversight.

According to RNC sources frustrated with the race-based effort, paid RNC consultant Tom Hofeller (thofeller@rnchq.org) is spending RNC donations to develop race-based criteria to grab Texas and other states and place them back into federal receivership. The sources tell Tatler that nearly all of the members of the actual committee have been kept in the dark about this effort, and no mention is ever made in RNC fundraising efforts — for good reason, because GOP donors would be furious.

Hofeller, a long-time RNC consultant on redistricting, has devised ways to force several states back into federal receivership by amending the Voting Rights Act to grab states and force them to obtain Washington, D.C. approval. He is hopeful that Congressional Republicans will use his RNC-generated ideas to accomplish this goal.

So far, the Republicans in Congress have shown more sense than the Republicans paid by the RNC, and are cool to the idea of returning states to federal receivership.

According to congressional sources, Hofeller has also been misrepresenting the importance of the law struck down by the Supreme Court. Hofeller has told Hill sources the federal election oversight law is essential to elect Republicans, something most Republicans on the Hill no longer believe is true. Hofeller has spread this message while being paid by the RNC.

RNC fundraising is down this year. If the rank and file learn that donations are being used to place states back under Eric Holder’s boot, to attack voter ID, and pay race-obsessed consultants like Hofeller, expect RNC fundraising to suffer further. Why should donors pay the RNC to help Eric Holder attack Texas?

The bigger question: why is the RNC paying anyone like Tom Hofeller one red cent to do something that the overwhelming majority of Republicans oppose?

Source: PJ Tatler

BINGO!!! ‘White Hispanic’ NFL Player Shoots Black Man Dead…MSM Silent, Of Course

07/27/13

No riots. No Black Panthers. No Al Sharpton.
No MSM. No Obama…
(Rockwell) I speak of course of former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, who has been arrested for murder. The media immediately “convicted” the Peruvian-American George Zimmerman, but have been strangely silent about this case, other than bemoaning the effects on the poor, aging, tight endless New England Patriots. Although both men have about the same skin complexion, and are both “white Hispanics,” my guess is that Zimmerman, unlike Hernandez, sounds white and is therefore a better fit with the multicultural Marxist narrative about “white oppression.”

source: sad hill news

Phony Scandals and Phony War

07/27/13

RECENTLY OBAMA CHOSE TO USE THE WORD "PHONY" WHEN DESCRIBING THE SCANDALS SWIRLING AROUND HIS ADMINISTRATION. THIS WAS NOT ACCIDENTAL AS THE SAME TERM WAS USED BY JAY CARNEY ON THE SAME DAY AS OBAMA ATTEMPTED TO DIVERT ATTENTION AWAY FROM THE "PHONY" SCANDALS SURROUNDING HIM.
I RECALL HEARING THAT TERM "PHONY" BEING TOSSED AROUND BEFORE. DURING THE EARLY DAYS OF WWII IN 1939 FOLLOWING THE DECLARATIONS OF WAR BY ENGLAND AND FRANCE ON GERMANY AND BEFORE THE GERMAN ATTACKS ON FRANCE IN 1940 THE PHASE "PHONY WAR" WAS OFTEN HEARD. IT CAME FROM THOSE WHO THOUGHT ALL THE TALK ABOUT WAR WAS JUST PHONY AND BASICALLY A BIG LIE THAT WOULD BLOW AWAY IN A GOOD WIND. BUT THEN SOON, FAR TOO SOON THE PHONY WAR BECAME A REAL ONE AND WWII WAS IN FULL BLOOM. OFTEN THOSE WHO SEE A COMING EVENT THAT WILL THREATEN THEIR VERY EXISTENCE WILL DENY THE FACTS AND TRY TO DIVERT ATTENTION AWAY FROM THE ONRUSHING EVENTS. I BELIEVE THIS TO BE THE CASE WITH BARACK OBAMA AND HIS USE OF THE TERM "PHONY SCANDALS". HE THINKS BY JUST CALLING THEM THAT THEY WILL GO AWAY AND PEOPLE WILL FORGET. OBAMA'S WAR IS NOT BEHIND HIM, BUT IN FRONT AND THE "PHONY SCANDALS" ARE LIKE THOSE ONRUSHING EVENTS THAT TURNED THE "PHONY WAR" INTO WWII. THERE IS NOTHING PHONY ABOUT THE ABOVE IMAGE!!!

source

PassWord Please and Condom Color

07/27/13

THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION IS NOW ASKING SOCIAL MEDIA TO TURN OVER THE PASSWORDS OF ALL USERS. OH WELL THERE GOES ANOTHER RIGHT WE THOUGHT WE HAD. WONDER IF NEXT, THEY WANT TO KNOW THE COLOR OF MY CONDOMS? WHERE DOES ALL THIS CRAP STOP?



Source: Obama Cartoons


Andrew Dice Clay enters the 'No Spin Zone'

07/27/13



Hat tip: Im41.com

Dan Joseph - Students Sign Petition to Legalize 4th Trimester Abortion

07/27/13

Once again, MRCTV's Dan Joseph went to a college campus and asked students to sign a petition. This time the goal was to get people to show their support for legalizing 4th trimester abortion.

For those of you who failed biology, babies are born at the END of the 3rd trimester.

For those of you who didn't, Watch This ....




Hat tip: Will Profit @ Capitalist Preservation

Friday, July 26, 2013

Why Democratic Women Stick By Their Creeps

07/26/13

From the Thursday edition of the Morning Jolt:

It is not necessarily the most important question before us, but it is one that persistent and widespread this week: Just what is Huma Abedin thinking?

The delightful Kemberlee Kaye asked why so many Democratic women are willing to overlook, accept, or forgive creepy and awful behavior from their elected officials:

Read More

Gay Filipino in US spared from deportation

07/26/13

photo source: Opposing Views
LOS ANGELES— Dennis Vitug was set to be deported to the Philippines until he told the courts that he may no longer return to his homeland because he is persecuted there for being gay.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Vitug, who was ordered to return to the Philippines because of drug convictions, was spared from deportation by the San Francisco-based US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals when he said that while in the Philippines, he was beaten, harassed, and denied work for being gay.

Vitug moved to the United States in 1999 and had overstayed his tourist visa. While living and working in Los Angeles, he was also studying fashion design. He is reportedly HIV-positive and had bouts with drug addiction.

The Los Angeles Philippine Consulate General's Office is trying to determine if any of the California consulates are monitoring the case.

source

Texas Officials, Activists to Holder on Voter ID: If It’s War You Want, It’s War You’ve Got

07/26/13

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is responding quickly and forcefully to Obama Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to rope Texas back into the Voting Rights Act. The US Supreme Court just struck part of that law down.

The facts are on Abbott’s side. Texas specifically modeled its voter ID law on Indiana’s. That law has already been taken all the way to the US Supreme Court and was upheld. The Texas law enjoys widespread support across all ethnicities in the state. Only the Texas Democrat Party and its allies oppose it.

Read More

Nancy Pelosi blasts 'reprehensible' Weiner who 'doesn't even realize what he does is disrespectful of women'

07/26/13

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi delivered a rhetorical body-slam Thursday morning to New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner and San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, calling their lewd conduct 'reprehensible.'

But she stopped short of calling for either of her fellow Democrats to withdraw from their high-stakes and high-profile political lives.

Read More

Obama administration declares new voter rights strategy

07/26/13

(Reuters) - The Obama administration embarked on a new strategy on Thursday to challenge voting laws it says discriminate by race, an effort to counter a Supreme Court ruling last month that freed states from the strictest federal oversight.

Read More

Marco Rubio Slammed By CBC

07/26/13

Judge Brian Davis Courtesy Photo
Senator Accused of Obstruction in Florida Judicial Appointments

The confirmations of two African-American judicial candidates in Florida are being held up by U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and Congressional Black Caucus leaders are demanding action for what they call negligence and obstruction on the part of the senator.

Read More

Big Majorities Oppose Obamacare, Say CBS, Fox, NBC/WSJ Polls

07/26/13

(CNSNews.com) – Poll results released this week by CBS News, Fox News, and NBC News/Wall Street Journal show that strong majorities of Americans disapprove of Obamacare, would repeal it if given the chance, and think the law itself is a “total bad idea.”

Read More

Wisconsin Grocery Store Forced to Cut Hours Due to Obamacare

07/26/13

Trigs grocery store in Wisconsin is forced to cut hours due to Obamacare, local affiliates report:

WATCH THE VIDEO

Entitlement Update: Caribbean nations seeking compensation for slavery

07/26/13

Ralph Gonsalves addresses
Communist United Nations
MIAMI (AP) — Leaders of more than a dozen Caribbean countries are launching a united effort to seek compensation from three European nations for what they say is the lingering legacy of the Atlantic slave trade.

Read More

Ted Cruz: Eric Holder refusing to follow the law

07/26/13

Sen. Ted Cruz said Thursday that Attorney General Eric Holder is continuing a "longstanding pattern of refusing to follow the law" with his decision to disregard the U.S. Supreme Court and force Texas to seek federal approval for changes to voting laws.

Read More

Wave Goodbye to State's Rights. Say Hello to Statism

07/26/13

Judge orders Ohio to recognize out-of-state gay ‘marriage’ despite state’s marriage amendment

CINCINNATI, July 23, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A U.S. district judge has ordered a clerk in the state of Ohio to recognize a same-sex “marriage” conducted in another state, because the state's constitutional amendment defining marriages does “likely violate the U.S. Constitution.”

Read More

Kansas voting laws could face Justice Department scrutiny

07/26/13

Kansas laws could be targeted as the U.S. attorney general on Thursday announced a new federal offensive against state restrictions on voting rights.

Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday that he is shifting resources in the Justice Department to pursue more legal action against state-by-state voting restrictions. He said his efforts will begin with Texas and expand to other states where voting issues have surfaced.

Joan Wagnon, chairwoman of the Kansas Democratic Party, applauded Holder’s speech and said she’s considering contacting the Justice Department over the issue of more than 12,000 Kansas voters whose registration is “in suspense” because of state requirements that all new registrants provide proof of U.S. citizenship.

Read More

TheDirty.com founder: Weiner planned secret sex bunker

07/26/13

The man who broke the most recent Anthony Weiner sexting scandal said that the embattled New York politician presented his marriage to young women as a sham and even planned to purchase a “secret bunker” in Chicago that could house real-life trysts.

Read More

Illegal Alien to be charged with first-degree murder in connection with rape, death of 93-year-old

07/26/13

A teenager will now face first-degree murder charges in connection with the rape and death of a 93-year-old South Omaha woman.

...Omaha police say they found Martinez-Perez naked and on top of Sollowin. He had beaten her, sexually assaulted her and broken several bones in her face – and blood covered the room, authorities allege....


FULL STORY





A Few Questions for Those Upset by the Zimmerman Verdict

Six Reasons Why CNN Is Now... The Most Disgraced Name In News

07/26/13

Based on history, most media watchers would probably expect NBC News to win the award for the most shameful coverage of George Zimmerman, the 29 year-old Florida man recently acquitted for the tragic shooting of teenager Trayvon Martin. But an objective look at the coverage from major print, online, and broadcast outlets, makes clear that by a fairly safe margin, CNN is most deserving of this win.

Before we get to the nominating process, here is some crucial context and background:

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George Zimmerman moves to restart libel lawsuit against NBC over edited 911 tape

07/26/13

Days after George Zimmerman’s July 13 acquittal in the killing of Trayvon Martin, Zimmerman’s lawyer in civil court, James Beasley, has confirmed that he will move to resume his client's libel suit against NBC.

“We are going to get the libel case restarted,” Beasley wrote in a July 15 email to iMediaEthics.

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Yet More Common Logic from Putin than Obama!

07/26/13

Gay Rights Not Violated in Russia – Putin

NAANTALI, Finland, June 25 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated on Tuesday that the rights of sexual minorities in Russia were not being violated in any way.

When asked about a recently passed bill that would impose fines of up to 1 million rubles ($30,000) for promoting homosexuality toward minors, Putin said that sexual minorities “are full-fledged members of our society and are not being discriminated against in any way.”

“It’s not about imposing some sort of sanctions on homosexuality. … It’s about protecting children from such information,” Putin said.

“Certain countries ... think that there is no need to protect [children] from this. … But we are going to provide such protection the way that State Duma [parliamentary] lawmakers have decided. We ask you not to interfere in our governance,” he said.

Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, passed the bill on June 13. To become law, it needs to be approved by the upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, and signed by Putin.


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The Occupy Movement Is Launching A Money Cooperative

07/26/13

In an ironic twist, the Occupy Wall Street movement, which, two years ago, galvanized resentment against Wall Street and gave birth to the phrase “the 99%,” has given birth to something new: a financial institution.



Read: Or, as they call it — the Occupy Money Cooperative.

Hollywood's Brightest: Bette Midler Thinks GOP Tried to Prevent U.S. from Winning WWII

07/26/13

Most liberal celebrities who blast the Republican party stick to modern issues like taxation, birth control and foreign affairs.

Not Bette Midler...

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Real Hope & Change: Lindsey Graham ally: Graham will face ‘competitive’ Tea Party challenge

07/26/13

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., will face a “spirited” and “competitive” primary challenge, according to ally and former South Carolina GOP chairman Katon Dawson, who nonetheless predicted that the South Carolina lawmaker would win reelection in 2014.

“We look forward to a very successful season, but certainly it’ll be competitive,” Dawson told the Washington Examiner in a phone message replying to questions about the 2014 race.

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Common Sense & Wisdom: San Antonio pastors oppose city's proposed anti-discrimination law

07/26/13

SAN ANTONIO – The momentum is growing to protect gays, lesbians, transgendered and veterans in the city’s anti-discrimination laws. But some local pastors say those changes may end up violating the rights of the religious.

A religious view: either you have one or you don’t, it is still a religious view. And if I don’t attain to their view, then I’m out of the picture completely. It’s a stifling of free speech,” said Pastor Steve Branson of Village Parkway Baptist Church.

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St. Louis police chief wants drones to monitor city

07/26/13

...The police chief does not like to use the word ‘drone’, so in his request to the FAA, he asked for permission to use an ‘unmanned surveillance vehicle’, he told KTVI. Dotson believes the surveillance vehicles would help police capture fleeing criminals and ultimately reduce crime in St. Louis...

Full Story 

Pentagon to deploy huge blimps over Washington, DC for 360-degree surveillance

07/26/13

A pair of high-tech Army blimps is coming to the greater Washington, DC area, and soon they will be able to provide the military with surveillance powers that spans hundreds of millions of acres from North Carolina to Niagara Falls, Canada.

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Malaysia: Call to 'prosecute actors in drag'

07/26/13

Male actors should be prosecuted for dressing up as women on TV, a Malaysian senator apparently told parliament.

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NOT SATIRE: Stunning Russian/U.S. Leadership Role Reversal

07/26/13

Christianity Made Russia Great World Power – Putin

MOSCOW, July 25 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday praised the role of Orthodox Christianity in the country’s history and congratulated the heads of the world’s Orthodox churches on the 1025th anniversary of the Christianization of Kievan Rus, a medieval state comprising parts of modern-day Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.

“The adoption of Christianity became a turning point in the fate of our fatherland, made it an inseparable part of the Christian civilization and helped it turn into one of the largest world powers,” Putin said in a message addressed to participants of a commemorative celebration on Red Square, the Kremlin reported.


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Egyptian Army Gives Brotherhood a 48 Hour Ultimatum

07/26/13

Muslim Brotherhood supporters protest in front
of the High Court in Cairo AFP photo
The Egyptian army on Thursday gave the Muslim Brotherhood until Saturday afternoon to sign up for political reconciliation, according to a military-linked website.

“We will not initiate any move, but will definitely react harshly against any calls for violence or black terrorism from Brotherhood leaders or their supporters. We pledge to protect peaceful protesters regardless of their affiliation,” the statement said, according to Al Arabiya.


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Malaysia court quashes Hindu kids' conversion to Islam

07/26/13

A Malaysian Muslim boy reads from the Koran inside a mosque in Kuala Lumpur on July 31, 2011. A Malaysian court on Thursday ruled against the 2009 conversion of three Hindu children to Islam without their mother's knowledge, a verdict welcomed by non-Muslim groups. (AFP/File)


KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – A Malaysian court on Thursday ruled against the 2009 conversion of three Hindu children to Islam without their mother's knowledge, a verdict welcomed by non-Muslim groups.

A high court in the northern city of Ipoh declared the conversion of Indira Gandhi's children, now aged five, 15 and 16, by their father to be unconstitutional, said Indira's lawyer K. Shanmuga.


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The Other Castro: Prosecutors to offer life without parole plus 1,000 years in Cleveland kidnappings plea deal, sources say

07/26/13

Ohio prosecutors Thursday were close to reaching a plea deal with Ariel Castro, the Cleveland man accused of kidnapping three women and holding them captive for a decade. That deal, which he is expected to accept, is life without parole with an additional 1,000 years, NBC News has learned.

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Clarke schools opt out of new all-free school lunch program

07/26/13

Clarke County public schools will take a pass on a new free-lunch-for-all federal program, at least for now.

Under the “Healthy, Hunger-free Kids” act of 2010, school districts with high levels of students who qualify for free or reduced lunchroom prices can opt to offer free lunches to all students this year.

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U.N. to Celebrate ‘World Toilet Day’

07/26/13


The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution to mark "World Toilet Day." The day will be celebrated November 19.

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Socialism Update: Pope scolds rich, demands social justice in visit to Brazil slum

07/26/13

(Reuters) - Pope Francis on Thursday issued the first social manifesto of his young pontificate, telling slum dwellers in Brazil that the world's rich must do much more to wipe out vast inequalities between the haves and the have-nots.

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The start of the end — Mainstream press says “Politicians go cold on global warming”

07/26/2013

The Zeitgiest is shifting. The unthinkable is now thought, and in public.

Soon will come the time when everyone saysI always knew it was wrong”.
Tim Montgomerie notes the great backdown of Kevin Rudd on the carbon tax and lays out the global carnage in the climate meme:


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Wind turbines ARE a human health hazard: the smoking gun

07/26/13

Yeah, they're, like, really green and safe and good for you…..
How much more dirt needs to come out before the wind industry gets the thorough investigation it has long deserved?

The reason I ask is that it has now become clear that the industry has known for at least 25 years about the potentially damaging impact on human health of the impulsive infrasound (inaudible intermittent noise) produced by wind turbines. Yet instead of dealing with the problem it has, on the most generous interpretation, swept the issue under the carpet – or worse, been involved in a concerted cover-up operation.

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David Cameron: 'I want to export gay marriage around the world'

07/26/13

The Prime Minister spoke of his pride at legalising same sex marriage, just a year after explicitly giving a personal guarantee to do it by 2015 to a reception for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans-sexual community at 10 Downing Street.

Mr Cameron told guests at the same reception one year on that Britain was now “the best place to be gay, lesbian or transgender anywhere in Europe”.

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Thursday, July 25, 2013

Union Allegations Of Teamster Forgeries Being Investigated By Obama’s ‘Other’ Labor Board

07/25/13


With all of the attention focused on the National Labor Relations Board these days, many people may not realize that there is another labor board that governs labor relations exclusively in the airlines and railroad industries. That labor board is the National Mediation Board (or NMB) and serves to enforce the 1926 Railway Labor Act.

Right now, the NMB has its hands full with an ugly fight between unions that has just gotten uglier amid allegations of one of the unions forging signatures as three unions fight for which union(s) gets to claim $15 million per year union dues.

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Participation Trophies fail to Squash Entitlements of Racism's Victim Mentality

07/25/13



Former American Idol Contestants Seek $25 Million Each in Racial Lawsuit Against Show

Ten black former American Idol contestants from various seasons have filed a lawsuit against the show, claiming that they were eliminated from the competition due to a racist ratings scheme, TMZ.com reports.

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Name That Party: Former state Rep. Constance Howard pleads guilty to mail fraud

07/25/13

Preying on the needy....

Former State Rep. Constance A. Howard,
D-Chicago 
SPRINGFIELD — Former state Rep. Constance Howard pleaded guilty Wednesday to diverting as much as $28,000 for her personal and political use from a scholarship fund she created to benefit needy students.

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Illegal Alien Brutally Rapes, Beats and Murders 93-Year Old Nebraska Woman

07/25/13

MONSTER: Would-be “Dreamer” 19-year old Sergio Perez raped
and brutally beat his 93-year old victim, who later died
.
It is a crime that should – immediately - STOP any talk of “immigration reform” or “KIDS Act” or “DREAM Act” in the Congress.

It is a despicable crime that should – once and for all – show all Americans the devastating human cost of our broken immigration enforcement system – and that this cost extends far from our border states into the very heartland of America.

A 19-year old illegal alien beat and raped a 93-year old woman in her South Omaha, Nebraska home this past Sunday. The details of the attack are simply horrific…


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Black mob leaves waiter with broken jaw

07/25/13

The black mob in Baltimore did not get the message.

Or maybe the video was misleading.

Maybe the white person in the video being chased and beaten Saturday night by a black mob in Baltimore said something, did something, to antagonize his attackers.

Maybe he followed them. Maybe he profiled them. He’s not talking at the moment. He’s just out of surgery for a broken jaw. But this victim was no neighborhood watchman. He was just a waiter going home after working the evening shift at a local wine bar.

Maybe the woman they attacked soon before provoked the black mob in the same manner.

The Fox affiliate carried the story and the video:  Read More

Sandra Fluke blames Anthony #Weiner sexting scandal on . . .

07/25/13

. . . you guessed it, “conservative, evangelical, Tea Party Republicans.”

Speaking to an Emily’s List fundraiser, Fluke said that “GOP efforts to limit the availability of birth control” were “directly responsible for Weiner’s behavior.”

“What men, and women want, above all is SAFE sex. It’s our constitutional right. So now the GOP is limiting our access to both birth control AND abortion on demand. So a poor person like me, I can’t afford to have sex, unless it’s unprotected, and if a poor person accidentally gets pregnant, it’s now almost impossible to get an abortion.”

“That’s why so many men and women are resorting to sexting. It’s safe sex. The ultimate safe sex.”

“And now we’re hypocritically blaming this poor guy Weiner for basically trying to do the right thing. It makes no sense whatsoever. It just goes to show how Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, and the rest of the Tea Party are messing up this country. Weiner’s a good guy, he’s my hero. I hope he wins, he’ll makes a great mayor, and I’m going up to NYC this weekend to campaign for him.”

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Now Locking Your Car Doors Is Racist

07/25/13

There are very few African-American men who haven’t had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. That happens to me, at least before I was a senator.” ~ Potus 44

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Buckeye Firearms Association DoS Attack for Zimmerman Post

07/25/13



BFA is under attack from an unknown outside entity. The website is down and communications systems are non-functional. They’ve issued this press release:

Here’s what we know so far . . .

If you’ve tried to visit our website today, you know it’s not there any more. At some time this morning, it came under attack from an outside source.

FACTS:

Our IT guy says it’s a “denial of service” or DoS attack. This is not the ordinary “hack” attack that we’ve experienced many times in the past. A DoS attack involves using significant resources to bombard a server to temporarily or permanently disrupt service.

This attack took out our websites, both Buckeye Firearms Association and Buckeye Firearms Foundation.

Our email communication services also went down. Leaders are located all over the state of Ohio, so we’ve had to set up a temporary alternate email list to stay in touch as we work through this issue.

This attack was so overwhelming, it took down the entire company that hosts our website. Thousands of IP addresses have been caught up in the digital bloodshed.

Shortly after all the company servers went down, their power went down. And our IT guy says his cell phone service vanished.

We don’t yet know where this attack came from, but we find it hard to believe that it is a coincidence that it’s happening at the very moment a story went national about raising funds to enable George Zimmerman to purchase a new firearm after Eric Holder and the DOJ decided to prevent him from getting his personal property back. We’ve received threats, hate male, and angry late night phone calls. We’re sending you this message to let you know what’s going on just in case they take out more of our resources and we are unable to communicate with you.

REST ASSURED: We are working on getting our website back up. And the work goes on to push pro-gun legislation, meet with law makers, and defend the Second Amendment. We may communicate online, but our strength has always been in our vast grassroots and our personal relationships with your representatives in government. The check to Zimmerman is being sent to him as you read this. We collected $25,000 from our recent gun raffle. Our events and teacher training classes are moving forward. We CANNOT be stopped by technological temper tantrums like this.

We’re posting updates on our Facebook page as we know more. You can visit it here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Buckeye-Firearms-Association/343253480089     DeanMarketing & Communications Director

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Poll: Republicans like George Zimmerman more than President Obama. Independents not far behind

07/25/13

Fox News just released a nationwide poll in generall in keeping with many others, finding voters are unhappy with the economy and want Obamacare repealed.

But what's truly eye-opening are the comparisons of partisan opinions of President Barack Obama and George Zimmerman, who was acquitted July 13 of second-degree murder and manslaughter charges for shooting unarmed Miami Gardens 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on Feb. 26, 2012.

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NPR: Marketing 'Obamacare' Shaping Up As Big Challenge

07/25/13

CHICAGO (AP) — It will make you stronger. It will give you peace of mind and make you feel like a winner. Health insurance is what the whole country has been talking about, so don't be left out.

Sound like a sales pitch? Get ready for a lot more. As President Barack Obama's health care law moves from theory to reality in the coming months, its success may hinge on whether the best minds in advertising can reach one of the hardest-to-find parts of the population: people without health coverage.

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"All Knowing" Michelle Obama to La Raza: Hispanic kids more obese – less active

07/25/13

Speaking to the National Council of La Raza Tuesday afternoon, First Lady Michelle Obama shared her deep love of Chicago soul food with the Hispanic activists, but warned Hispanic parents that they could be putting their kids in danger by feeding them too much.

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Shower Time Boys! Feds: Transgender teen may use boys' locker room

07/25/13

The U.S. Justice and Education departments said Wednesday that a transgender California student who is anatomically female but lives life as a male must be able to use school bathrooms, locker rooms and other facilities designed for boys.

The first-of-its-kind decision from the agencies tasks the Arcadia school district outside Los Angeles to change district policies and practices to accommodate the rising ninth-grade student. Teachers and staff must be trained in how to prevent gender discrimination, and federal agencies will be keeping tabs on the district through at least 2016.

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Even Communist China Knows Tax Cuts Create Jobs: China to suspend VAT for small businesses

07/25/13

BEIJING, July 24 (Xinhua) -- China will suspend the value-added tax (VAT) and turnover tax for small businesses with monthly sales of less than 20,000 yuan (3,226 U.S. dollars) starting from Aug. 1.

The announcement was made in a statement released Wednesday after an executive meeting of the State Council presided over by Premier Li Keqiang.

The move will benefit more than six million small companies and boost the employment and income for tens of millions of people, the statement said.

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Sen. Ted Cruz: Gay ‘marriage’ could lead to Christian beliefs being punished as ‘hate speech’

07/25/13

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 24, 2013 (LifeSiteNews) – In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) said he believes the legalization of same-sex “marriage” may lead to those who express religious objections to homosexuality being prosecuted for hate speech.

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