Ted Nugent’s scheduled show at a native American casino in Worley, Idaho, was recently canceled when the venue received numerous complaints about the crotch-rocker’s long history of hateful racism and right wing extremism, and tonight he’s lashing out at critics who are calling for his show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin to be canceled as well — calling them “unclean vermin” who don’t “qualify as people.”

Which is probably not going to convince anyone that he’s not a hateful cretin.

Ted Nugent, who performs Saturday at the Leach Amphitheater in Oshkosh, has a few words for critics calling for Waterfest organizers to cancel his show.

“I take it as a badge of honor that such unclean vermin are upset by me and my positive energy,” Nugent said in a recent interview with Gannett Wisconsin Media. “Put your heart and soul into everything you do and nobody can stop you. Sometimes you give the world the best you got and you get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you got anyway.”

The outspoken rocker took some time to respond to a few questions via email while on the SHUTUP & JAM! tour. He said he’s always had critics.

“By all indicators, I don’t think they actually qualify as people, but there has always been a lunatic fringe of hateful, rotten, dishonest people that hate happy, successful people,” Nugent said.

I didn’t think it was possible, but the latest horribly botched execution in Arizona is even worse than the one in Oklahoma in May.

FLORENCE, Ariz. (AP) — Arizona officials say a murderer who was sentenced to death has died nearly two hours after his execution started.

Wood’s lawyers had filed an emergency appeal in federal court during the execution demanding that it be stopped. The appeal said Wood was “gasping and snorting for more than an hour.”

Attorney General Tom Horne’s office says Joseph Rudolph Wood was pronounced dead at 3:49 p.m., one hour and 57 minutes after the execution started.

Pure and simple barbarism, sanctioned by the government.

Here’s the expected justification from right wing governor Jan Brewer: Arizona Execution of Joseph Wood Took Nearly Two Hours - NBC News.com

Gov. Jan Brewer said she was “concerned” about the execution length and ordered a review but insisted Wood did not suffer “in stark comparison to the gruesome, vicious suffering that he inflicted on his two victims.”

Because we all know there’s nothing more patriotic than accusing the President of the United States of secretly plotting to aid a foreign terrorist group, ladies and gentlemen, I give you super-patriot Ted Cruz (seen above speaking in front of the extreme right wing Oathkeepers militia): Did President Obama Just Launch an Economic Boycott of Israel? | Ted Cruz | U.S. Senator for Texas

Taken in the context of Secretary Kerry’s comments, yesterday’s action by the FAA raises some serious questions:

• Was this decision a political decision driven by the White House?
• If the FAA's decision was based on airline safety, why was Israel singled out, when flights are still permitted into Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen?
• What was the FAA's 'safety' analysis that led to prohibiting flights to Israel, while still permitting flights to Ukraine--where a commercial airline flight was just shot down with a BUK missile?
• What specific communications occurred between the FAA and the White House? And the State Department? Why were any such communications necessary, if this was purely about airline safety?
• Was this a safety issue, or was it using a federal regulatory agency to punish Israel to try to force them to comply with Secretary Kerry's demand that Israel stop their military effort to take out Hamas's rocket capacity?

When Secretary Kerry arrived in Cairo this week his first act was to announce $47 million in additional aid to Gaza, which is in effect $47 million for Hamas. In short order, this travel ban was announced by the FAA. Aiding Hamas while simultaneously isolating Israel does two things. One, it helps our enemy. Two, it hurts our ally.

Until these serious questions are answered, the facts suggest that President Obama has just used a federal regulatory agency to launch an economic boycott on Israel, in order to try to force our ally to comply with his foreign-policy demands.

Insane in so many ways it’s difficult to count, but let’s just start with the idea that President Obama instructed the Federal Aviation Administration to issue this travel ban, and the entire agency is helping him keep it secret.

In 2008, in an ill-advised fit of uncharacteristic empathy, George W. Bush signed a law that prevented children who enter the US from countries that do not border the US from being immediately deported. Today, the Republican Party is proposing a “plan” to deal with the current influx of migrant children.

“I’d like to act. We’ve got a humanitarian crisis on the border that has to be dealt with,” House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) told reporters Wednesday.

So, to address this humanitarian crisis in the most humane Republican way possible, the centerpiece of the plan is … changing that Bush-era law to allow deporting all these burdensome children back to the dangerous, corrupt, and often violent countries from which they fled. Were you expecting something else?

They also want to send in the National Guard, because there’s no problem the National Guard can’t fix, if you’re a Republican.

In a brief interview with The Washington Post, Granger said that her proposals would tweak current immigration laws. The goal is to “change the law - not to repeal the law, not to completely change the law but change a portion that will let us send the children back in a very speedy way,” she said.

“We’ve been to Guatemala and Honduras and twice to the border to see what is really happening. The consensus, absolutely, is that we send the children back as quick as we can. We also want to make sure the countries receiving them have the capacity,” she added.

“The president’s supplemental [spending request] asks for a lot of money, but it’s money to spend here to keep the kids, and we disagree with that,” Granger said. “The Border Patrol is doing a great job, but there just aren’t enough of them. National Guard, I think, is absolute.”

Of course, the head of the National Guard under George W. Bush has said that sending in the Guard isn’t the answer, but what does he know?

I don’t think the Guardian’s editors fully appreciated the bizarre disconnect between these two pieces on today’s front page.

“Rebels destroying all links to MH17 atrocity” … as … “Edward Snowden makes a new life in Moscow.” pic.twitter.com/pguDbcPQKA

— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) July 23, 2014

A wave of WTFs went through Twitter this afternoon when the Associated Press tweeted this:

BREAKING: US officials: Intel suggests Malaysia plane shot down by separatists, no link to Russia found.

— The Associated Press (@AP) July 22, 2014

Because of course, the BUK surface-to-air missile was supplied by Russia, the people who used it had to have been trained by Russia, and Russia’s links to the separatists are very well known and thoroughly documented.

A few minutes later the actual AP story was posted, and lo and behold… the headline didn’t tell the full story. In fact, it almost seems designed to mislead: US: No Link to Russian Gov’t in Plane Downing.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senior U.S. intelligence officials said Tuesday that Russia was responsible for “creating the conditions” that led to the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, but they offered no evidence of direct Russian government involvement.

[…]

The plane was likely shot down by an SA-11 surface-to-air missile fired by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, the intelligence officials said, citing intercepts, satellite photos and social media postings by separatists, some of which have been authenticated by U.S. experts.

But the officials said they did not know who fired the missile or whether any Russian operatives were present at the missile launch. They were not certain that the missile crew was trained in Russia, although they described a stepped-up campaign in recent weeks by Russia to arm and train the rebels, which they say has continued even after the downing of the commercial jetliner.

In terms of who fired the missile, “we don’t know a name, we don’t know a rank and we’re not even 100 percent sure of a nationality,” one official said, adding at another point, “There is not going to be a Perry Mason moment here.”

So what this really looks like is that some intelligence people were asked to give details about MH17, and carefully parsed their words to be as equivocal as possible. Basically, there’s no real news here at all — except the headline. And the headline is contradicted by the story.

But guess who jumped all over that headline within minutes?

BREAKING: US intelligence: No link to Russia in Malaysia plane downing http://t.co/iZ5yKSJBiC

— RT America (@RT_America) July 22, 2014

Clearly, this is going to be a propaganda bonanza for the Kremlin.

The Associated Press has now changed the headline, presumably responding to criticisms like ours: US: Russia ‘Created the Conditions’ for Shoot-Down.

Russia Today, the Goebbelsian Putinist propaganda channel well-known for its rank dishonesty, has published “10 questions” to Ukraine based on the recent Russian Ministry of Defense press conference.

Questions 8 and 9:

8. Where did the launcher - from the video circulated by Western media and showing a Buk system being moved allegedly from Ukraine to Russia - come from? As the video was made on the territory controlled by Kiev, where was the launcher being transported?
“I’d like to say that the information we have presented here is based on objective and reliable data from various technical systems - unlike the groundless accusations made against Russia,” said Kartopolov.

9. Where is it right now? Why are some of the missiles missing on the launcher? When was the last time a missile was launched from it?

These questions do indeed correspond to the claims made by the MoD officials during the press conference:

[Chief of Staff of the Main Operations Directorate - deputy chief of The General Staff Andrew Kartapolov:] To conclude it I would like to mention that all the concrete information is based on the objective and reliable dates of the different Russian equipment in contrast to the accusations of the US against us made without any evidence.The good example of such fact is that some mass media showed transportation of the Buk-M1 missile system from Ukrainian to Russian territory.We can clearly see that its frame-up.

These pictures were made in the city of Krasnoarmeisk that is confirmed by a banner situated close to the road. This banner has an address of the car shop situated at the Dnepropetrovskaya, 34.

Since May 11 the Krasnoarmeysk city is under control of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

That is why we have some questions.

What kind of launching system is it? Where is it transported? Where is it now? Why is it unloaded completely? What was the last time it launched missiles?

To end my speech I would like to emphasize that the Russian Federation did not deliver to the militants any Buk-M1 missiles systems and other equipment.

There are 2 problems with this claim.

1. It’s not true.

2. It comes from an anonymous viral internet text, most probably distributed by the Kremlin trolls and bots.

Continue reading…

Apparently the latest thing over Jim Hoft’s The Gateway Pundit blog is to pinpoint and attack any NGO that receives federal grants to care for undocumented immigrant children.

A week ago. Hoft’s “guest blogger” Kristinn Taylor torpedoed a shelter proposed by BCFS, a charitable organization based in San Antonio. Taylor declared, falsely, that BCFS had received a $50 million federal grant to turn a rundown hotel into a “luxury resort” for immigrant children.

BCFS has since abandoned the project in Weslaco, Texas.

Now, Hoft’s latest target is Southwest Key Programs of Austin, which like BCFS, has received federal grants for shelters and programs benefiting children coming over the border with Mexico.

While Hoft himself offered little comment, he posted in its entirety a story by KEYE-TV of San Antonio to let visitors to his site rant about it.

Southwest Key Programs has received nearly $485 million in federal grants (taggs.hhs.gov) since 2004, but to read the comments, you’d swear these people think it’s all a plot by the Democrats and President Barack Obama to win elections.

Idiots don’t seem to realize children can’t vote.

Some sample comments, to give you the flavor.

They are PROFITING from child trafficking! AT OUR EXPENSE!!!

No words, yes, me, as all here know, I have more than my share of comments but

I am at a complete loss for words. Well, one word keeps coming to mind, IMPEACH.

But, I do have to say, Obama knew about this years ago but he didn’t know About Our Veterans and their mistreatment at the VA?

Obama picks and chooses what is important to them, selfishly and maliciously.

“Charities” getting fat off the American taxpayer. This is run by a husband and wife. They spend over $1 million a year lobbying. Sanchez made $278,000 in 2012 ‘caring for the children’. I’m sure he makes much more now with all that extra money Obama is throwing at him.

Arizona 11 electoral votes, Texas 32 electoral votes and Georgia 16 electoral votes. The blueprint for the Democrats to try and flip three solid Republican states. The Democrats are importing lice infested dead beats to these states to flip them by 2016, or by 2020 at the latest.

My dad told me before he died that his fight was overseas during WWII, and my fight would be here at home.

They rant and rave about the government awarding grants to agencies to deal with the immigrant children, but the only alternative they offer is to deport the kids. Who feeds and shelters the children in the meantime?

{crickets}

Comedy Central Video

This episode of the Colbert Report is actually the comedy version of last week at LGF — Stephen Colbert covers several of the stories that appeared here, including Jim Hoft’s evil, destructive lies about a $50 million resort hotel for immigrant children.

Today Glenn Greenwald and Pierre Omidyar’s media organization First Look is announcing a new grant program they’re hyping as: Promoting and Protecting Free Speech and Free Expression.

And if you’ve been paying attention to the way they do things at First Look, it probably won’t surprise you to learn the first beneficiary of their grant program will be — Glenn Greenwald. Or to be more precise, Greenwald’s partner David Miranda, who is suing the British government to recover the stolen NSA documents he tried to sneak through British customs for Glenn Greenwald.

The amazing gall of these people, promoting this as a purely altruistic endeavor when they’re actually awarding this “grant” to themselves.

Glenn Greenwald’s partner David Miranda

Press freedom is enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as well as in international charters and conventions. A free press contributes to an informed citizenry and protects against corruption and government malfeasance. As Thomas Jefferson declared, “when the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.” Yet the cost of protecting these rights often imposes too heavy a burden on journalists and their employers. FLM’s Press Freedom Litigation Fund is designed to strengthen the ability of journalists to pursue legal fights where a substantial public interest is at stake. Grants under the program can be used to fund challenges to government policies or actions that restrict press freedoms or denials of freedom of information act requests; motions to quash subpoenas seeking source information or journalistic material; defamation cases where the underlying report concerns a matter of public interest; access cases to closed proceedings or sealed documents; and amicus efforts in support of press freedom. There must be a substantial public benefit to any litigation receiving a grant.

Our first grant will be to support the appeal in the case of Miranda v. Secretary of State for the Home Department, in the UK Court of Appeal.