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.

Virginia’s Republican nominee for Lieutenant Governor E. W. Jackson says his ugly hate speech is just fine because he’s a Christian, and he’s not sorry at all.

And what’s more, if you object to the disgusting things he says, you’re persecuting him and all Christians.

A picture of the right wing in America — ranting, hate-spewing religious fanatics with persecution complexes.

“I say the things that I say because I’m a Christian, not because I hate anybody, but because I have religious values that matter to me,” Jackson told reporters at a campaign stop in Fredericksburg. “Attacking me because I hold to those principles is attacking every church-going person, every family that’s living a traditional family life, everybody who believes that we all deserve the right to live. So I don’t have anything to rephrase or apologize for. I would just say people should not paint me as one-dimensional.”

Jackson, a virtual unknown who has never held public office, has grabbed headlines in recent days as Democrats immediately seized on his past comments on abortion, race and homosexuality. He suggested that Planned Parenthood has done more to hurt blacks than the Ku Klux Klan and called gays and lesbians “perverted” and “very sick people.”

Also see:
How Far-Right Activists Like E.W. Jackson Took Over the Virginia GOP

Here is how Breitbart.com is reporting the story of how the FBI has identified five possible suspects in the attack on the Benghazi diplomatic mission last year: REPORT: OBAMA WON’T LET MILITARY CAPTURE BENGHAZI SUSPECTS!

An AP report via Fox Nation via claims that although the FBI has identified five men believed to have been behind the September 11 Benghazi attacks, those men remain free because President Barack Obama will not allow the military to seize them.

According to the report, the FBI says it has evidence sufficient to support seizing the men as “suspected terrorists.” Yet because such an action would have to be carried out by the military, Obama appears unwilling to authorize it.

Therefore, for the time being, the men are free while the FBI seeks enough additional evidence to clear a higher legal hurdle—which means “gathering enough proof to try them in a U.S. civilian court.”

According to the AP, that is what “the Obama administration prefers.”

Above is the Breitbart story in its entirety.

All 127 words of it.

Below are portions of the much longer, much more detailed story Breitbart cited:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. has identified five men who might be responsible for the attack on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, last year, and has enough evidence to justify seizing them by military force as suspected terrorists, officials say. But there isn’t enough proof to try them in a U.S. civilian court as the Obama administration prefers.

The men remain at large while the FBI gathers evidence. But the investigation has been slowed by the reduced U.S. intelligence presence in the region since the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks, and by the limited ability to assist by Libya’s post-revolutionary law enforcement and intelligence agencies, which are still in their infancy since the overthrow of dictator Col. Moammar Gadhafi.

The decision not to seize the men militarily underscores the White House aim to move away from hunting terrorists as enemy combatants and holding them at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The preference is toward a process in which most are apprehended and tried by the countries where they are living or arrested by the U.S. with the host country’s cooperation and tried in the U.S. criminal justice system. Using military force to detain the men might also harm fledgling relations with Libya and other post-Arab-Spring governments with whom the U.S. is trying to build partnerships to hunt al-Qaida as the organization expands throughout the region.

The story goes on in great detail on a variety of subjects related to these possible suspects, different options available to the US regarding apprehending them, using drone strikes, or military force, as well as the politics surrounding the Obama Administration’s handling of the attacks. But do note the difference in the AP story, and the way Breitbart.com has spun it.

Breitbart’s readers have responded to its 127-word version much as you’d expect:

mem411 • 11 hours ago

High treason - aiding and abetting the enemy, Mr. President??
=====
bafhuggingnanarepublic leepermax • 8 hours ago

Next thing you know Nadal Hassan will be promoted to General, and the you tube film maker will get shanked in prison,or spend the rest of his life locked up for breaking no laws. The parole violation was a trumped up charge backed by Bozo and Holder.

This is what I’ve been calling Obozo Just-Us. Where is the Just-us that Bozo the clown promised on Sept 12th 2012? Remember, Benghazi was a long, long, time ago. This is what happens when Holder will do anything to promote the wacked out radical Bozo agenda, and they both think that all disdain for Holder and Bozo is based on race. It’s just scary that Bozo will deport a family for home schooling their kids, but give all the latitude in the world to the Tysnaerv Brothers. Because of the Muslim Brotherhood and Jarretts grip on Bozo.
=====
TANGO40 • 9 hours ago

yep!
… and the crime of treason should only be punishable by death!
=====
kevsanders mem411 • 9 hours ago

He refuses to grant political asylum to Dr Shakil Afridi, the man that told us where Osama was.
.
Obama was pretty upset at having to order Seals to kill his political ally.
=====
Mohammad Felafal kevsanders • 9 hours ago

Its ok, he got even with the seals by leaking info about what helicopter they would be on in afghanistan so that his “brothers” that he stands with could take out a bunch of them a month after.
=====
maizy Soka Sema • 8 hours ago

Yikes, that’s entirely possible. What does it take to get this traitor out of office. Lame Cherry’s aneurism? It seems like that is our only hope.
=====
snowleopard (cat folk gallery) kevsanders • 8 hours ago

I have to agree, and we have Obama arming the terrorists of Syria and the Muslim Brotherhood. Who knows how many others are being armed via that group?
=====
chekme2 snowleopard (cat folk gallery) • 6 hours ago

I have said this time and time again. After he is done with America, he will be the king of the islamic nations.
=====
CharlieM kevsanders • 5 hours ago

The Liar-in-Chief did not order the mission to get Bin Laden. The Military, CIA and others had waited for months for Obozo to ok the mission. They finally took the bull by the horns and acted on their own. Obozo was not notified until the mission was underway and too late to call them back.
=====
pos4thst mem411 • 7 hours ago

Hussein’s a muslim. He’s just protecting his own.
=====
Ronald B. Stetton mem411 • 6 hours ago

They are his Brothers…
Like all Muslims, Obama worships Muhammad and his Satan-Allah and talks up Islam as he k!lls the “wrong” ones…
Remember, “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.” - Barack Hussssein Obama
=====
Balance3 • 11 hours ago

OBAMA NEEDS TO BE IMPEACHED NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
=====
neyney Balance3 • 8 hours ago

he needs to be something which would get me banned but you all get my drift.

There was one commenter who knows what the real truth is:

Bandito • 10 hours ago

That’s a false headline. Wonder if anybody is going to read the original
AP story or only the truncated Fox version. For those too lazy, this is the
reason why there have been no arrests.

“The men remain at large while the FBI gathers evidence. But the
investigation has been slowed by the reduced U.S. intelligence presence
in the region since the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks, and by the limited
ability to assist by Libya’s post-revolutionary law enforcement and
intelligence agencies, which are still in their infancy since the
overthrow of dictator Col. Moammar Gadhafi.

FBI investigators are hoping for more evidence, such as other video of
the attack that might show the suspects in the act of setting the fires
that ultimately killed the ambassador and his communications specialist,
or firing the mortars hours later at the CIA base where the surviving
diplomats took shelter — or a Libyan witness willing to testify against
the suspects in a U.S. courtroom.”

As of now, he has 12 downdings.

All the Breitbrats want is Obama’s head…literally.

(Reuters) - The tornado that struck the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore on Monday was a rare EF5, the highest rating the National Weather Service assigns in classifying the strength of tornadoes.

An EF5 tornado can pack winds exceeding 200 miles per hour and damage is devastating, the service said.

Damage assessment teams also determined that the huge tornado cut a path of approximately 17 miles by 1.3 miles wide.

Via: Oklahoma Tornado Upgraded to EF5, Highest Strength Rating | Reuters

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) made an impassioned plea yesterday for Republicans to stop denying the science of climate change — so, like clockwork, the right wing blogs and media are attacking him in fake-outraged unison today.

The Daily Caller’s Jeff Poor (last seen at LGF when he was busily counting the number of times Rachel Maddow used the word “vagina”) is the source for the latest right wing frenzy: Democratic Sen. Whitehouse Blames Republicans for Tornado.

And of course, the headline is distorted; Whitehouse did not “blame Republicans for the tornado.” Here are the quotes from Poor’s absurdly biased article — and I agree with every single word Sen. Whitehouse said. He’s right.

“So, you may have a question for me,” Whitehouse said. “Why do you care? Why do you, Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, care if we Republicans run off the climate cliff like a bunch of proverbial lemmings and disgrace ourselves? I’ll tell you why. We’re stuck in this together. We are stuck in this together. When cyclones tear up Oklahoma and hurricanes swamp Alabama and wildfires scorch Texas, you come to us, the rest of the country, for billions of dollars to recover. And the damage that your polluters and deniers are doing doesn’t just hit Oklahoma and Alabama and Texas. It hits Rhode Island with floods and storms. It hits Oregon with acidified seas, it hits Montana with dying forests. So, like it or not, we’re in this together.”

Whitehouse went on to condemn the current Republican position on global warming, citing economic, environmental and diplomatic damages.

“You drag America with you to your fate,” he continued. “So, I want this future: I want a Republican Party that has returned to its senses and is strong and a worthy adversary in a strong America that has done right by its people and the world. That’s what I want. I don’t want this future. I don’t want a Republican Party disgraced, that let its extremists run off the cliff, and an America suffering from grave economic and environmental and diplomatic damage because we failed, because we didn’t wake up and do our duty to our people, and because we didn’t lead the world. I do not want that future. But that’s where we’re headed. So I will keep reaching out and calling out, ever hopeful that you will wake up before it is too late.”

No wonder the wingnut parrot squad is so worked up. That’s gotta sting.