Reality requires numbers to back up your "facts" Tood. Maybe the truckers can come up with some from their magical thinking fact generator.

Meanwhile, here's some numbers for you.

In the new Marquette University Law School Poll, disapproval of the governor’s performance had moved up to 51 percent. Indeed, his approval rating has now declined to 47 percent, the lowest point so far this year. And one of the prospective Democratic challengers, Tom Barrett, has now moved ahead of Walker in head-to-head matchups run by the Marquette pollsters.


Which fake Democrat are you voting for tomorrow Todd?

It doesn't have a lot of numbers Todd but you'll get the idea.

Apparently exotic Kenyan anti-colonial Marxists don't hate America after all

by Jed Lewison Follow

The Associated Press reports:

The CIA thwarted an ambitious plot by al-Qaida's affiliate in Yemen to destroy a U.S.-bound airliner using a bomb with a sophisticated new design around the one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden, The Associated Press has learned.

The plot involved an upgrade of the underwear bomb that failed to detonate aboard a jetliner over Detroit on Christmas 2009. This new bomb was also designed to be used in a passenger's underwear, but this time al-Qaida developed a more refined detonation system, U.S. officials said.

Add to this the fact that nobody from outside America has managed to attack us inside America during the Obama administration, that Osama bin Laden has been brought to justice, that over the weekend a key player in the U.S.S. Cole bombing was taken out, and that al Qaeda in general has been decimated, and suddenly it doesn't seem like Barack Obama hates America nearly as much as Republicans would like everyone else to believe.

In fact, given that he's ended the war in Iraq and set a timeline to withdraw from Afghanistan—albeit, too long of a timeline—maybe it's time we start electing more badasses like him to office. (Come 2016, I'm thinking maybe someone along the lines of a Chicago-born hippie feminist who went to an all-female college ... and happens to be our current secretary of state.)

Bottom line is that it turns out you don't need to look like Mitt Romney in order to be a damn good president. So, whaddya say, haters?


Whaddya say Todd?

Is this the script you work from Todd? Have you painted out your windows yet? I bet Chumlee has.

If you agree with any of the below you should have a nice talk with someone on this list.

I met some tea partiers today, and they seemed mentally unbalanced

I know people object to the loose using of words like "mentally ill," but I don't know how else to describe it. This was not "wow, I disagree with their positions," this was absolute, off-the-wall, divorced from reality, frightening paranoia, on scale withe "the cia is listening to me through the walls."

To start with, I didn't hunt down tea partiers. I just ended up in a room with a dozen or so people who launched into this type of stuff. I asked, are they part of the tea party? And they cheered before announcing that, yes, they were all tea partiers, had participated in protests, and had even traveled to Washington (from Texas) to be part of a big rally up there.

They asked me if I was one of "those people" who opposed the tea party. And I said, in hopes of hearing an answer, that, no, I neither supported or opposed because I didn't know enough about what they believed. Could you explain it to me?....

And then everything went off the rails.

To start with, I am not an arguer, I am a discusser. If someone is easy to recognize as unreasonable, I let them burn themselves out by raving. Sometimes I will ask a question, if only to see how far they will go, but I will not contradict when it is pointless.

So, as I listened, here is what the tea partiers said to me. This is in relative order. None of them disagreed with anything another said, and there was widespread agreement on most of it.

Here goes....

1. Obamacare: It is a plot by Obama to take over the American healthcare system. He (literally, he) would dictate which doctors everyone was allowed to see. If there were doctors that didn't do what Washington told them, then Obama wouldn't send them patients.
A. Washington would decide all treatments that everyone was allowed to have.
B. The only treatment that was guaranteed to be paid for are abortions.

We will return to Obamacare later, the same as the conversation

2. Obama has already tripled taxes on the middle class, and is giving the money to "those people."
A. He is a communist/socialist/fascist who is stealing all of the money from people who work and giving it to "those people" to reward them for not working.

We will return to this, the same as the conversation

3. He is not really the president.
A. Birther blah blah.
B. He intentionally didn't say the right words when he was being sworn in so that when it is found he undermined the Constitution he couldnt be sent to jail for perjury. (If you remember, the incorrect words were said by Chief Justice Roberts, but they swore him in again later just to make sure there were no problems.)
C. He has been placed in government by "our enemies" so that he can subvert America.

4. He hates America (no further explanation given, just lots of nodding heads.)

5. He violates the Constitution every day.
A. There is not a single law he has passed where he has cited which part of the Constitution allows it to be passed. (This time I spoke and said, "didn't Congress pass the laws?" There was all sorts of snickering, and someone actually said, "You must read the New York Times. We live in a dictatorship.")

At that point, since I was not arguing, they went back and got even more off the charts.

6. Back to Obamacare:
A. The REAL reason for control over all the doctors is because if there is a second term, he has ordered millions of tracking devices to be constructed, which the doctors are already under orders that they have to implant so that Obama can know where everyone is at all times.
B. When I asked how they knew that, one of the guys there said he got it from his "source in the White House." This guy was a retiree who used to work in a sporting goods store.

7. Obama has taken over both Facebook and Apple, and has already begun to use them so that all American could be followed.
A. Apple is using the Iphones to track all Americans and the information is relayed every day back to the White House, and there are full reports ready every morning to review where everyone is.
B. The information gathered by Facebook is used so that people can be followed by armies of -- i didn't understand armies of who -- are surreptitiously able to follow everyone.

8. The reason for all of this is that Obama is planning to launch a war against the United States, probably a race war, bot definitely some sort of civil war.

9. The tracking devices would then be used to locate everyone who has been opposing him, so that they would then be rounded up "just like the Jews."

10. One of the men said that he had already painted over the windows of his house and camoflauged it with bushes, vines, etc, so that when they came to take him away, they wouldn't know where he was in the house and he could use his guns to fight back.

11. One of the women said that she wouldn't feel safe unless she was able to live underground, and hide, "like Saddam Hussein did."

Then we went down a quick list: Obama has never released his taxes, he eats dog at the White House and served it at a State Dinner, he is not really married to Michelle but they are pretending because they don't want people to know that the daughters were born out of wedlock, and he only killed Bin laden for political purposes.

Every now and then, I looked around convinced that these people were kidding. They weren't. They really and truly believe this. This is the tea party. No wonder the GOP can't control them.

A scary, scary day.

*UPDATE*
In response to some of the comments, let me say this..

1. Re: USe of mentally ill: The level of paranoia, the statements that portrayed the world as some giant conspiracy, the "devices are listening in on us" stuff, this is not just normal "gee that's weird behavior." There is something psychologically wrong here. If you met someone and she said that the CIA is listening to her through the walls, you would think that she had a psychiatric problem. That is exactly what I experienced. What would you call it?
I agree, these are not words that should be tossed around easily. But this is not easy -- these people are symptomatic of something. If not mental illness, then a neurological disorder. This kind of paranoia is not in the realm of normal human functioning.
Also, I will point out -- someone in comments says he has a mental illness, is treated, and that what i am describing is mental illness.

2. I ended up in this room because I went to visit my mother at a retirement community and she had a doctors appointment at the campus, so after i took her there i went to have lunch. there were a bunch of people there, mostly in their 60s, but several who were in their 50s. Sat with them for lunch. and that's what happened.

Here's some more material for your rants Todd. You, and the truckers, can thank me later.

• Obama’s re-election will result in the nationalization of all small businesses starting January 1, 2013.

• This will coincide with the start of firearm confiscation

• Obamacare already provides free health care to anyone who is too lazy to work or whose employer is too cheap to provide coverage

• Obama has contracted for all the votes in the November general election to be counted only by computers.

• The computers doing the counting will be located outside the US so as to be out of the jurisdiction of any lawmaker or official who might wish to challenge the outcome.

• The arrangements have been made with a company in Spain.

• There will be no paper trail.

• The results of the count are not subject to change or challenge.

• Both parties in the House and the Senate are in on the scam

Does this mean Chumlee will be free ballin' coast to coast?

BREAKING: TSA Bans Underwear on All Domestic Flights

Following today's reports of a Yemen-based underwear bombing plot thwarted by CIA operatives, TSA officials have acted swiftly and rationally to ensure the safety of all American airline passengers.

Beginning tomorrow (May 8) at 7 a.m. EST, passengers will no longer be permitted to wear undergarments of any kind on all domestic flights originating from within the contiguous United States.

The new guidelines, hastily but carefully written by Security Operations officials, were posted this afternoon on TSA's widely-read blog, Keeping You Safe – One Invasive Restriction at a Time. The guidelines, intended for TSA employees and made available as a reference for civilian passengers, noted the following:

All forms of underwear are now forbidden on domestic flights originating from within the contiguous United States. This ban includes:

- Both boxers and briefs
- G-strings & thongs (as well as the low-riding jeans meant to expose them)
- All Bras for women under the age of 40
- Diapers, both infant and adult
- Stadium Pals

TSA employees will check passengers for forbidden garments at all security checkpoints stationed outside of the requisite domestic arrival gates.

Any passenger found to be in breach of the new restrictions will be required to step out of line, disrobe and comply immediately before the nervous, hurried masses (so as to ensure maximal embarrassment as a deterrent for future breaches).

When asked why such restrictions would not apply to flights departing from either Alaska or Hawai'i, TSA Administrator John Pistole explained:

We determined that it would be unreasonable to expect Alaskans to part with their thermals, and our understanding – and this comes from those security officials who execute strip searches – is that most Hawaiians typically wear board shorts.

Passengers at airports throughout the country seemed conflicted about the new guidelines. Mary Olinsky of San Francisco, who was selling shirts outside SFO International that read Poop is Patriotic, has this to say when asked about the restrictions: "Look, if my baby has to [censored] her pants in order to keep terrorists from killing us, so be it."

But Dave Norburg of Miami, waiting for a delayed flight in LaGuardia, paced angrily after reading the guidelines and growled, "If we let the terrorists take away our boxers, then we're letting them win."

Christopher McLaughlin, TSA's Assistant Administrator for Security Operations, explained that passengers would not just get used to the new restrictions, but would come to appreciate them:

Sure, it may seem like a hassle. But when people realize how grave this underwear threat is, and how important it is for us to come together as a collective and take the necessary precautions to keep everyone safe, it'll become accepted.

McLaughlin advised that, due to additional wait times, people should start arriving for flights three to four hours before their departure time. "At least until everyone gets used to this and stops wearing underwear," he added.

Yes but I hear the virtually un-detectable suppository version is in the final stages of development as you speak... Hey wait a minute Hopey, didn't you say you lived on an island?!? Well then enjoy your flight....

Been free ballin' since 1987. I'm surprised Diane didn't tell you that.

Whatever happened to our little stormtrooper in The War On Women? He might be interested in this:

Melinda Gates' New Crusade: Investing Billions in Women's Health
May 7, 2012 1:00 AM EDT
She plans to use the Gates Foundation's billions to revolutionize contraception worldwide. The Catholic right is pushing back. Is she ready for the political firestorm ahead?

In the 12 years since Melinda Gates and her husband, Bill, created the Gates Foundation, the world’s largest philanthropic organization, she has done a lot of traveling. A reserved woman who has long been wary of the public glare attached to the Gates name, she comes alive, her associates say, when she’s visiting the foundation’s projects in remote corners of the world. “You get her out in the field with a group of women, sitting on a mat or under a tree or in a hut, she is totally in her element, totally comfortable,” says Gary Darmstadt, director of family health at the foundation’s global health program.

Visiting vaccine programs in sub-Saharan Africa, Gates would often ask women at remote clinics what else they needed. Very often, she says, they would speak urgently about birth control. “Women sitting on a bench, 20 of them, immediately they’ll start speaking out and saying, ‘I wish I had that injection I used to get,’” says Gates. “‘I came to this clinic three months ago, and I got my injection. I came last week, and I couldn’t get it, and I’m here again.’”

They were talking about Depo-Provera, which is popular in many poor countries because women need to take it only four times a year, and because they can hide it, if necessary, from unsupportive husbands. As Gates discovered, injectable contraceptives, like many other forms of birth control, are frequently out of stock in clinics in the developing world, a result of both funding shortages and supply-chain problems.

Women would tell her that they’d left their farms and walked for hours, sometimes with children in tow, often without the knowledge of their husbands, in their fruitless search for the shot. “I was just stunned by how vociferous women were about what they wanted,” she says.

Because of those women, Gates made a decision that’s likely to change lives all over the world. As she revealed in an exclusive interview with Newsweek, she has decided to make family planning her signature issue and primary public health a priority. “My goal is to get this back on the global agenda,” she says. She is sitting in an office in the Gates Foundation’s 900,000-square-foot headquarters in downtown Seattle, a pair of airy boomerang-shaped buildings flooded with natural light. It was here at headquarters late last year that she announced her new emphasis on contraception at an all-staff meeting, to thrilled applause.

Now the foundation, which is worth almost $34 billion, is putting her agenda into practice. In July it’s teaming up with the British government to cosponsor a summit of world leaders in London, to start raising the $4 billion the foundation says it will cost to get 120 million more women access to contraceptives by 2020. And in a move that could be hugely significant for American women, it is pouring money into the long-neglected field of contraceptive research, seeking entirely new methods of birth control. Ultimately Gates hopes to galvanize a global movement. “When I started to realize that that needed to get done in family planning, I finally said, OK, I’m the person that’s going to do that,” she says.

Despite Gates’s passion, stepping forward wasn’t an easy decision. For one thing, the former Microsoft manager has always shunned the spotlight. The first time she agreed to a magazine profile was in 2008, 14 years after her marriage, when she spoke to Fortune about the foundation’s work. “I was reluctant to speak out on behalf of any foundation issues early on, because I had little kids, and I wanted some privacy in my family life,” she says.

Perhaps more importantly, there’s her Catholic faith, which has always informed her work. “From the very beginning, we said that as a foundation we will not support abortion, because we don’t believe in funding it,” she says. She’s long disagreed with the church’s position on contraception, and the Gates Foundation did some family-planning funding early in its history. Still, she went through a lot of soul-searching before she was ready to champion the issue publicly. “I had to wrestle with which pieces of religion do I use and believe in my life, what would I counsel my daughters to do,” she says. Defying church teachings was difficult, she adds, but also came to seem morally necessary. Otherwise, she says, “we’re not serving the other piece of the Catholic mission, which is social justice.”

Gates believes that by focusing on the lives of women and children, and by making it clear that the agenda is neither coercive population control nor abortion, the controversy over international family-planning programs can be defused. Right now, she points out, 100,000 women annually die in childbirth after unintended pregnancies. Six hundred thousand babies born to women who didn’t want to be pregnant die in the first month of life. “She is somebody who really sees this as a public-health necessity,” says Melanne Verveer, the United States ambassador at large for global women’s issues. “I think she believes, and I hope she is right, that people of different political persuasions can come together on this issue.” full article

CIA Tries To Blow Up Airline...

..."catches" its own spy in a plot it created — and claims credit for saving us from a terrorist attack!

A grateful Hopey rejoices!

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57430472/would-be-underwear-bomber-a-double-agent/

We sure lost our asses on this one Todd.

U.S. bailout of AIG may net an estimated $15.1-billion profit
The Government Accountability Office forecast followed the Treasury Department's decision this week to further reduce its ownership stake in the insurance giant, to 61% from 70%.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government could end up pocketing a $15.1-billion profit from the bailout of insurance giant American International Group Inc., according to a new estimate by the Government Accountability Office.

The report came as the Treasury Department this week continued to wind down its stake in AIG, which the government rescued from collapse in late 2008 with a multi-step infusion of $125 billion in taxpayer money to stabilize the company.

The Treasury Department said this week that it agreed to sell $5.75 billion worth of shares to reduce the government's ownership stake to 61% from 70%. The sale, which could be final as early as this week, includes about $750 million from underwriters that exercised their option to buy additional shares.

The latest sale would reduce the Treasury Department's investment in AIG to about $31 billion, with the Federal Reserve holding an additional $9 billion in complicated loans secured by some of the company's assets.

Treasury Department officials have said they hoped to recover all the bailout money given to AIG, a prospect few expected three years ago. And on Monday, the GAO reported that AIG's improved financial health has brightened the outlook on one of the most unpopular bailouts from the financial crisis.

"When all the assistance is considered, the amount the federal government ultimately takes in could exceed the total support extended to AIG by more than $15.1 billion," the government watchdog agency said.

The estimate depends on the timing of the Treasury Department's future sales of AIG stock and the share price. The GAO said the profit projection did not factor in the government's cost to subsidize AIG the last few years; that cost was not calculated.