Credit: Skagit Valley Herald

SKAGIT COUNTY, Wash. - — Both north and southbound lanes of the Interstate 5 Skagit River Bridge collapsed Thursday evening, said officials with the Washington State Patrol.

The collapse happened between south of Burlington and north of Mount Vernon just after 7 p.m.

According to the State Patrol, people and vehicles are in the water.

Via: I-5 Skagit River Bridge Collapses; People, Vehicles in Water | kirotv.com

RT @kiro7seattle: I-5 bridge collapse photo tweeted to us by @dustystarling >>> twitter.com/dustystarling/…

— Michael Rusch (@weeddude) May 24, 2013

BREAKING - photo of man on his car in Skagit River after I-5 bridge collapse: twitter.com/KING5Seattle/s…

— KING 5 News(@KING5Seattle) May 24, 2013

BREAKING PHOTO: Large crowd at site of I-5 bridge collapse on Skagit River in WA; people/cars in water -@king5seattle twitter.com/NewsBreaker/st…

— NewsBreaker (@NewsBreaker) May 24, 2013

@kiro7seattle @gina_svh here is a better one taken from my sister in law who is standing on the dike. twitter.com/hazhauler/stat…

— Josh (@hazhauler) May 24, 2013

BREAKING - photo shows man standing outside his truck in the river after I-5 bridge collapse over Skagit River twitter.com/KING5Seattle/s…

— KING 5 News(@KING5Seattle) May 24, 2013

Photo via the @komonews facebook page from viewer Molly Olsen #SkagitBridge #I5bridgecollapse twitter.com/komonews/statu…

— KOMO News (@komonews) May 24, 2013

Photo from KOMO viewer Karissa Garcia of #SkagitBridge #I5BridgeCollapse twitter.com/komonews/statu…

— KOMO News (@komonews) May 24, 2013

My buddy in Mount Vernon snapped this pic of I-5 bridge collapse. #Skagitbridge twitter.com/NickKrupke/sta…

— Nick Krupke (@NickKrupke) May 24, 2013

Rescue boats are under the bridge and near the submerged truck #SkagitBridge #I5BridgeCollapse twitter.com/komonews/statu…

— KOMO News (@komonews) May 24, 2013

Rescue boats transporting people out of #SkagitBridge collapse (Rick Lund /ST) twitter.com/SeaTimesPhoto/…

— Seattle Times Photo (@SeaTimesPhoto) May 24, 2013

Reacting to the Boy Scouts’ decision to admit openly gay youths as members, RedState founder and former CNN contributor Erick Erickson lapsed into full-on swivel-eyed fanatic speaking-in-tongues mode tonight on Twitter, culminating in this glimpse into his tortured psyche:

Yes, Christ is love, but he is also wrath, vengeance, and redemption.The modern emo Christ is a fiction.Christ could throw a punch.

— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) May 24, 2013

“Wrath, Vengeance, and Redemption” — wasn’t that the title of the last Whitesnake album? Or was that Stryper?

(h/t: The Mountain That Blogs.)

More right wing reactionary craziness:

Boy Scouts of America: Born February 8, 1910. Died May 23, 2013 #RIP

— Matt Barber (@jmattbarber) May 24, 2013

BSA now stands for Boy Sodomizers of America, because that’s what will happen. Mark my words.

— Bryan Fischer (@BryanJFischer) May 24, 2013

A memorable moment in CNN’s coverage of the Oklahoma tornado disaster was Wolf Blitzer’s interview with a woman who, after Blitzer asked her several times whether she “thanked the Lord” for surviving, turned out to be an atheist. Oops, Wolf.

When the full import of this diabolical “interview” slammed into the fevered brain of Glenn Beck, bless his little stunted raving freakazoid wingnut soul, it triggered a rant about plots and the forces of darkness. SINISTER HIDDEN REASONS that only Glenn can see.

“We are not fighting against flesh and bone,” Beck said. “We are fighting the forces of spiritual darkness and it doesn’t matter what people’s intent are, but I will tell you that that was there for a reason.”

Via: Beck: CNN Interview With Atheist Tornado Survivor Was a Set-Up | Right Wing Watch

EDL leader Stephen Lennon, who goes by the name Tommy Robinson, (left) with EDL supporters outside The Queens Arms pub in Woolwich

The drunken racist British yahoos known as the English Defence League took to the streets and rioted yesterday following the attack on a soldier in London: Woolwich: Riot Police Contain EDL Supporters.

The EDL are allies of our home-grown Bigot Brigade, led by Anti-Muslim demagogues Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, and these two hateful thugs are now doing their damnedest to incite similar violence against Muslims in America. Thankfully, we don’t have fascist groups like the EDL in this country, but it’s not for lack of trying by Geller, Spencer, and their nasty friends.

English Defence League supporters have thrown missiles at police in Woolwich after a machete attack that left one man dead.

A group of between 75 and 100 men gathered at The Queen’s Arms pub on Burrage Grove, where they sang nationalistic songs.

Sky News correspondent Alistair Bunkall, who is at the scene, said: “As soon as the EDL got into the town centre … it became not only a lot harder for the police to try and contain anything, but also the aggression (increased) quite considerably.

“A few missiles have been thrown, glass bottles and the like. The police are trying to surround them and they’ve been charging them as well with batons.”

Also see:
Woolwich Attack: More Than 100 English Defence League Supporters Gather Near Scene of Killing

Right wing loon Pat Dollard, a writer for Breitbart.com, calls this a “feel-good story:”

Feel-Good Story Of The Morning: Anti-Muslim Reprisals In England bit.ly/13LvRDt#tcot #lnyhbt #tgdn #resist44 #teaparty

— Patrick Dollard (@PatDollard) May 23, 2013

This video keeps me sane. A monkey, a pig, riding (backwards)…

…and suddenly I can deal with the randomness of the universe.

Oh, and apologies for the earworm.

Juan Mendez. Photo: Facebook

Arizona history was made yesterday:

An atheist state lawmaker tasked with delivering the opening prayer for this afternoon’s session of the House of Representatives asked that people not bow their heads.

Democratic Representative Juan Mendez, of Tempe, instead spoke about his “secular humanist tradition” and even quoted author Carl Sagan.

“Most prayers in this room begin with a request to bow your heads,” Mendez said. “I would like to ask that you not bow your heads. I would like to ask that you take a moment to look around the room at all of the men and women here, in this moment, sharing together this extraordinary experience of being alive and of dedicating ourselves to working toward improving the lives of the people in our state.”

[…]

There’s a link to a video of Mendez’s statement at the link above.

Arizona Senator Steve Smith. Photo: Ross D. Franklin

Today, Sen. Steve Smith tried to undo whatever horrible consequences were going to befall Arizona for this transgression:

An atheist lawmaker’s decision to give the daily prayer at the Arizona House of Representatives triggered a do-over from a Christian lawmaker who said the previous day’s prayer didn’t pass muster.

Republican Rep. Steve Smith on Wednesday said the prayer offered by Democratic Rep. Juan Mendez of Tempe at the beginning of the previous day’s floor session wasn’t a prayer at all. So he asked other members to join him in a second daily prayer in “repentance,” and about half the 60-member body did so. Both the Arizona House and Senate begin their sessions with a prayer and a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.

“When there’s a time set aside to pray and to pledge, if you are a non-believer, don’t ask for time to pray,” said Smith, of Maricopa. “If you don’t love this nation and want to pledge to it, don’t say I want to lead this body in the pledge, and stand up there and say, ‘you know what, instead of pledging, I love England’ and (sit) down.

“That’s not a pledge, and that wasn’t a prayer, it’s that simple,” Smith said.

[…]

Which then had its own backlash:

Rep. Jamescita Peshlakai, who represents a northern Arizona district on the Navajo reservation, did take offense. She said Smith’s criticism of another member’s faith, or lack of it, was wrong.

“I want to remind the House and my colleagues and everybody here that several of us here are not Christianized. I’m a traditional Navajo, so I stand here every day and participate in prayers,” even without personally embracing them, said Peshlakai, D-Cameron. “This is the United States, this is America, and we all represent different people … and you need to respect that. Your God is no more powerful than my God. We all come from the same creator.”

Those last two excerpts come from this article. Worth a click to read the rest.

Here’s what the Arizona Senate did after Smith’s double prayer:

A little religion could soon go a long way in avoiding unpopular government mandates.

The Arizona Senate passed a trio of bills Wednesday that seek to lower property taxes for religious institutions and make it easier for some people to sue over the First Amendment, much to the chagrin of civil liberties and secular groups who claim Arizona lawmakers are violating the U.S. Constitution by favoring the faithful over non-believers.

The Republican majority passed the bills amid opposition from Democratic lawmakers and with little debate. The legislation was backed by the powerful Center for Arizona Policy, which wields significant influence over conservative lawmakers in the Legislature.

Opponents of the measures argue religious institutions shouldn’t receive special privileges not afforded to all Arizonans. They claim the bills seek to legalize discrimination and to stall the ongoing battle to extend equal rights to gay and secular communities.

[…]

I hope those bills don’t have a prayer.

The emails revealed in the government’s affidavit appear to show, however, that James Rosen’s solicitation of government secrets wasn’t nearly so narrow. The affidavit describes how Rosen assigned himself the codename “Alex,” and Mr. Kim the moniker “Leo,” and in their early contacts, explained the noble aims of their prospective relationship:

Thanks Leo. What I am interested in, as you might expect, is breaking new ahead of my competitors.

Sure, that sounds bad, as if James Rosen would jeopardize America’s contacts in a hostile foreign government just to get some eyeballs away from his competition, but surely, every reporter has this competitive urge. Although it was the first thing Rosen mentioned, there was another consideration. After outlining the kinds of secret information he hoped to get from “Leo,” Rosen summed up his intention to… report the news objectively? To serve the public?

Let’s break some new, and expose muddle-headed policy when we see it - or force the administration’s hand to go in the right direction, if possible.

Wait, what? Is that what a News reporter is supposed to do, force the administration’s hand to guide American foreign policy to the reporter’s whim? Separate and apart from the DOJ investigation, this email seems to indicate that James Rosen is not just a News reporter, but an activist intent on pushing his own agenda, with the stated goal of manipulating U.S. foreign policy.

Via: DOJ Document Reveals Fox News Reporter James Rosen Wanted to Impact U.S. Foreign Policy | Mediaite

Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, left, and Ibragim Todashev, who was fatally shot in Orlando, Fla., May 22, 2013, when he initiated a violent confrontation, law-enforcement officials said. - Cambridge Police Department/AP/Orange County Corrections Department

There’s been speculation previously that Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev might have been involved in an unsolved triple homicide in Waltham, Mass. in 2011, and this morning in Florida, FBI agents shot dead a Chechen man who allegedly confessed that he helped Tsarnaev commit the murders. CBS News has more details:

Law enforcement sources told Orr that the man, a Chechen identified as Ibragim Todashev, implicated himself and Tsarnaev to authorities in the 2011 killings in Waltham, Mass., under questioning Wednesday at Todashev’s apartment in Orlando, Fla. …

Sometime after midnight Wednesday morning in Orlando, an FBI special agent from the bureau’s Boston field office was accompanied by at least two troopers from the Massachusetts State Police and a Joint Terrorism Task Force agent to question Todashev, the sources said. The questioning primarily focused on the 2011 killings.

While the FBI’s investigation into Wednesday’s shooting is ongoing, the preliminary details are that after Todashev implicated himself and Tamerlan Tsarnaev he became angered when authorities pressed him for a full confession, the sources said. Todashev brandished a knife, prompting the officials to feel that their lives were in danger.

The FBI agent then shot Todashev and received some minor abrasions in the process, the sources said.

The Tsarnaev brothers and Todashev apparently knew the three people killed in Waltham, the sources said, describing the 2011 killings as brutal and grisly, with all three bodies nearly decapitated. The bodies had marijuana and thousands of dollars in cash sprinkled on them.

A horrible crime in London is being treated as a terror attack.

A man believed to be a soldier has been beheaded in an attack on a street near the Woolwich barracks in London, witnesses report.

Metropolitan Police Commander Simon Letchford confirmed tonight that two men were shot by armed officers.

Exclusive ITV footage shows that one man was filmed wielding a bloodied meat cleaver and saying: “We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you.”

He adds: “We must fight them as they fight us. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. I apologise that women have had to witness this today, but in our land our women have to see the same. You people will never be safe. Remove your government, they don’t care about you.”

The Government is treating the attack as a terrorist incident.