nytimes.com

PHOENIX — The Secret Service said Thursday that it was looking into a photograph posted on the Internet that showed a group of young Arizona men posing in the desert with guns while holding up what appeared to be a bullet-riddled image of President Obama’s face.

The photograph showed seven casually dressed young men, four of whom clutched weapons and one of whom held up a T-shirt covered with small holes and gashes and bearing a likeness of Mr. Obama above the word ‘HOPE.’ The weapons held aloft appeared to be a revolver, a bolt-action rifle and two assault rifles.

‘We’re aware of it, and we’re conducting the appropriate follow-up steps,’ said Ed Donovan, a Secret Service spokesman in Washington.

The photo, along with the remark ‘Another trip to the ranch,’ was posted on Jan. 20 on the Facebook page of Sgt. Pat Shearer, a police officer in Peoria, Ariz., a Phoenix suburb. The image was removed from Sergeant Shearer’s page on Thursday afternoon shortly after inquiries about it to the Peoria Police Department. Sergeant Shearer, a decorated officer who was honored in 2007 for helping to save a driver trapped in a burning vehicle, did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
[…]

tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com

For $100, guests of the King Street Patriots can dine at Maggiano’s for a four-course meal and a signed copy of Vadum’s Subversion Inc.: How Obama’s ACORN Red Shirts are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers. They’ll learn all about how a group with ‘such an innocent sounding name and endearing logo’ is really ‘a criminal organization with the goal of the destruction of America and the installation of a totalitarian government.’

From the invite:

Would you like to know the more than 360 groups ACORN controls? Learn their entire history and how their corrupt tactics have allowed them to worm their way into every corner of our government, right up to and including the Community Organizer In Chief.

We invite you to educate yourself on ACORN’s history and their endgame agenda.

His mindblowing expose SUBVERSION, INC. should be required reading for all American who love freedom and virtue.

These are the same King Street “Patriots” who last year were caught threatening members of voter registration efforts.

Voter Registration Group Targeted By TX Tea Party Group Received Threats (VIDEO)

To top that off, on Election Day, they went full out on voter intimidation in polling places with high percentages of minority voters.

King Street “Patriots”: Voter Intimidation Continues At Polling Stations Around Houston

cnn.com

(CNN) — Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour came out in support Friday of an amendment to the state constitution that would define life as beginning at the moment of conception, saying that he cast his absentee ballot for the measure despite struggling with its implications.

“I have some concerns about it,” he said in a statement issued Friday, a day casting his ballot. “But I think all and all, I believe life begins at conception so I think the right thing to do was to vote for it.”

Initiative 26 would define personhood as “every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the functional equivalent thereof.”

If voters approve, it would mean a fertilized egg has full legal rights as a person.

Also, there is no exception clause for cases of rape, incest or risk to women’s health in this measure.

physorg.com

A recent study reports that the geographical range of some agricultural crops — such as corn and beans — may be greatly reduced if temperatures continue to rise. While some farmers may be able to readjust what they grow, others may have to give up, producing a disaster.

Food prices have been rising, and climate change is likely to have a larger effect on food production in the future. These issues might be expected in southern Asia and Africa, but if temperatures keep rising, even places now reasonably secure such as China and Latin America could face a food crisis within two generations.

The study was published by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security, a non-governmental research organization
[…]
According to press reports, the effects are already showing in Mexico. A combination of heavy rains and high temperatures has stunted the mango crop for the second year in a row in the area around the Mexican state of Chiapas. The fruit being produced is inedible and the size of the crop has fallen 60 percent. Most of Mexico’s mango crop is eaten by consumers in the U.S.

Well, that didn’t take long.

On the heels of the Indiana Supreme Court saying that warrantless searches of homes is OK, we’ve got a sheriff already stating that he’s going to take advantage of the ruling.

techdirt.com

According to Newton County Sheriff, Don Hartman Sr., random house to house searches are now possible and could be helpful following the Barnes v. STATE of INDIANA Supreme Court ruling issued on May 12th, 2011. When asked three separate times due to the astounding callousness as it relates to trampling the inherent natural rights of Americans, he emphatically indicated that he would use random house to house checks, adding he felt people will welcome random searches if it means capturing a criminal.

Update: The Sheriff in question has has posted on the department web page denying that he actually said this. Note, however he references the same random “house-to-house” searches, and uses the caveat that he’d only do so after asking the people to have their houses searched.

Texas is at it yet again in the race to stupidity.

Bad Science and Persecution Complexes

Disingenuous efforts by creationists to portray themselves as persecuted in mainstream academia for their anti-evolution beliefs are getting a boost from a Texas lawmaker. State Rep. Bill Zedler, R-Arlington, has filed legislation in the Texas House of Representatives that would make a mockery of the terms “higher education” and “research.” From his House Bill 2454:

“PROHIBITION OF DISCRIMINATION BASED ON RESEARCH RELATED TO INTELLIGENT DESIGN. An institution of higher education may not discriminate against or penalize in any manner, especially with regard to employment or academic support, a faculty member or student based on the faculty member’s or student’s conduct of research relating to the theory of intelligent design or other alternate theories of the origination and development of organisms.”

Essentially, this bill would require state colleges and universities to not only protect, but to fund Intelligent Design research in science-based curriculum.

The New York Times has provided a tool with most of the various budget-cutting proposals, showing their impact on the projected 2015 and 2030 deficits.

nytimes.com

Budget Puzzle: You Fix the Budget

Today, you’re in charge of the nation’s finances. Some of your options have more short-term savings and some have more long-term savings. When you have closed the budget gaps for both 2015 and 2030, you are done. Make your own plan, then share it online.

Glenn Beck goes all-in with the conspiracy-laden crazy on today’s radio show in response to negative publicity he’s gotten from his George Soros “expose” (all have links to today’s radio show)

Beck: ADL condemnation is a “Soros-started” “smear campaign,” claims he has a “record of being a friend to the Jews”

Beck says he dismissed Fox News execs’ concerns over ADL condemnation, says the ADL “will destroy themselves”

Beck says it’s “irrelevant” that Soros is Jewish, then says the “Jews in Israel don’t consider him Jewish” Beck sidekick Pat Gray adds: “He’s probably anti-Jewish”

After ADL’s condemnation, Beck directs his staff to “see if there’s any George Soros money that has gone to ADL”

While suggesting he will be set up, Beck assures his listeners “I’m not into child pornography”