Showing posts with label Arturo Garcia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arturo Garcia. Show all posts

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) suggested in an interview on Tuesday that it was his female colleagues’ responsibility to monitor reports of sexual assault in the U.S. military.


“I talk to all the different senators, especially to our female senators, who are really on top of this and watching it very close and following it,” Manchin said in a CBS News interview. “It is very concerning and I can tell you, we’re all in concert with this, as far as changing the dynamics of what’s going on in the military.”


The interview came in the wake of news that an Air Force officer, Lt. Col. Jeff Krusinski, was arrested for allegedly groping a woman’s breast and buttocks in Arlington, Texas. Krusinski’s job involves preventing sexual assault within Air Force ranks.


A Pentagon report to be released on Tuesday will show a rise in the number of reported assaults in 2012 to more than 26,000. The report said more than 70 sexual assaults are committed against military members every day.


“It’s not tolerated in any segment of our society,” Manchin said. “And it surely, no way, should be tolerated in the military.”


Watch Manchin’s interview, aired Tuesday, below.


[h/t Sara Libby]






via The Raw Story http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/07/west-virginia-senator-women-senators-are-on-top-of-military-sexual-assault-reports/
09:13

Boston police announced via Twitter Wednesday morning that they have arrested three more people in connection with the April 15 bombing attack at the Boston Marathon.


Police arrested 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsnarnaev on April 19 in Watertown, Massachusetts, following a weeklong manhunt for Tsnarnaev and his 26-year-old brother Tamerlan. The elder Tsnarnaev died during a shoot-out with authorities on April 18.


Dzhokhar Tsnarnaev was moved from a local hospital to a prison medical facility on April 26.


This story will be updated.


Update, 11:29 a.m. EST: Citing police sources, the Boston Globe reported that the three people were college students arrested by federal authorities. Yahoo News also reported that a police spokesperson referred questions on the case to the Federal Bureau of Investigations, which did not comment.


Update, 11:43 a.m.: Police said in a statement that there is no threat to the public. Also, NBC News reported that the three are suspected of taking items out of the dorm room belonging to Dzokhar Tsarnaev.


Image via Agence France-Presse






via The Raw Story http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/01/breaking-boston-police-arrest-more-suspects-in-marathon-bombing-case/
08:50

At the conclusion of his press conference Tuesday, President Barack Obama reiterated his support for gay NBA player Jason Collins, who came out Monday in a story for Sports Illustrated.


“I had a chance to talk to him yesterday,” Obama said, confirming Collins’ own account of a phone call between the two. “He seems like a terrific young man and I told him I couldn’t be prouder of him.”


Collins’ announcement made him the first athlete in one of the country’s most profitable sports leagues to come out while still competing. The president referenced the impending free agent center’s active status, saying Collins demonstrated that he was proud of his identity while still being “7 foot tall and [being able to] bang with” — basketball slang for jostling for position near the basket against other post players — a player like Shaquille O’Neal.


O’Neal, who retired in 2011, expressed his support for Collins on Twitter, writing that he was proud of him “for showing all of us what leadership looks like.”


“For a lot of young people out there who are gay or lesbian who are struggling with these issues to see a role model like that who’s not afraid, I think that’s a great thing,” Obama said. “And I think America should be proud that this is just one more step in this ongoing recognition that we treat everybody fairly.”


Collins told ABC News host George Stephanopoulos that Obama called him shortly after he made the announcement.


“It’s incredible. You just try to live an honest, genuine life and next thing you know you have the president calling you,” Collins said in the interview, which aired Tuesday on Good Morning America, adding that Obama “was incredibly supportive and he was proud of me. And said that this not only affected my life, but others going forward.”


Watch Obama’s comments regarding Collins, in video posted by Think Progress on Tuesday, below.







via The Raw Story http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/30/obama-on-jason-collins-i-think-america-should-be-proud/
09:51

A 19-year-old Minnesota man was put on 10 years of probation for an incident in which he “penis slapped” his high school teammates and exposed himself to 11- and 12-year-old boys.


The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported on Tuesday that Seth Kellen is also likely to be sentenced to 30 days in jail after admitting to fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct stemming from a March 2012 incident in which he “digitally penetrated” a teammate on the Browerville High School basketball team. He was also accused of pulling his pants down in an elevator in front of teammates and an 11-year-old and a 12-year-old student managers, then hitting his teammates in the back with his penis.


Kellen and another former Browerville High athlete, Connor S. Burns, were accused in July 2012 of attacking at least six fellow students. Burns struck a 5-year probation deal similar to Kellen’s that November.


Todd County District Attorney Chuck Rasmussen said the charges will be dropped if Kellen complies with his probation and attends anger management courses, as well as counseling regarding sexual boundaries.


[Image via Shutterstock]


[h/t Deadspin]






via The Raw Story http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/24/former-high-school-jock-takes-probation-on-charges-of-penis-slapping-teammates/
09:20

Clothing retailer Ralph Lauren will pay $1.6 million to avoid prosecution on civil and criminal accusations that the company bribed Argentinian customs officials to gain access into the country.


Reuters reported on Monday that the company agreed to pay a $882,000 penalty to the Department of Justice and forfeit more than $730,000 in illegal payments and interest to the Securities and Exchange Commission after an investigation revealed that Ralph Lauren’s Argentinian subsidiary paid local officials to illegally clear Ralph Lauren merchandise or bypass customs inspections between 2004 and 2009.


“During these five years, RLC did not have an anti-corruption program and did not provide any anti-corruption training or oversight with respect to its subsidiary in Argentina,” the department said in a release. The company was allowed to pay the fine after cooperating with investigators.


“We investigated, reported, cooperated with authorities, conducted a worldwide assessment and implemented a series of remedial measures,” Ralph Lauren attorney Tom Hanusik told Bloomberg News. “The unprecedented use of non-prosecution agreements by both agencies reflects that.”


[Image by Site Marca via Flickr Creative Commons]






via The Raw Story http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/22/ralph-lauren-pays-1-6-million-for-bribing-argentinian-officials/
08:20

Authorities in Maine raised the bail amount for a local “hermit” arrested in connection with 1,000 burglaries following a marriage proposal and an offer to pay for his release from jail.


The Kennebec Journal reported on Monday that a woman offered to marry 47-year-old Christopher T. Knight, while an unidentified man offered to pay the initial $5,000 bail for Knight, who was identified as the “North Pond Hermit” living in the woods near Rome, Maine for 27 years.


“The first concern is he might be a flight risk,” District Attorney Maeghan Maloney said. “The second concern is the group of people who are interested in posting bail for Mr. Knight who are not from our state and not members of his family. I will remain concerned for Mr. Knight until he has an attorney helping him to navigate what is a new world to him.”


Knight was arrested on April 4 after being caught stealing food from a local camp site for disabled children and adults. After Knight refused the offer to pay for his release, his bail was increased to $250,000 and prosecutors added charges of theft and burglary to his initial burglary charge.


Knight allegedly told police he had committed more than 1,000 burglaries in order to subsist in his self-made encampment.


“Everything he owned except for his eyeglasses was stolen,” a Maine State Police spokesperson told Reuters.


WMTW-TV reported on April 10 that Knight’s camp had a tarp to shield him from the elements. Despite the harsh winter climates in the area, however, he refused to light a fire for warmth, instead relying on multiple sleeping bags to keep warm, as well as purposefully gaining weight during the fall.


“He just decided to take off into the woods,” State Trooper Diane Perkins-Vance said. “He’s telling us there’s no reason for it, just something he decided to do.”


Watch a report on the offers coming in on Knight’s behalf, posted on April 15, 2013 by the Journal, below.






via The Raw Story http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/15/bail-raised-for-maine-hermit-following-marriage-proposal/
08:35

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher wanted to act as a mentor for then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R), conservative pundit Ann Coulter swore in a radio interview on Monday.


According to The Daily Mail, Coulter told host and fellow Fox News contributor Geraldo Rivera that Thatcher broached the subject when Palin “burst on the scene,” which suggests the period following Palin’s being selected to run alongside Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) in the 2008 presidential election.


“One thing that I know, because I know people who know her, is when Sarah Palin first burst on the scene, she wanted to have a meeting with Palin,” Coulter said. “Because she saw raw political talent, but wanted to teach Sarah Palin to do what she did. I just know it from friends of hers,” adding that Thatcher wanted to teach Palin “to speak proper English.”


Think Progress reported in 2010 that McCain’s aides discovered shortly after Palin’s addition to the GOP ticket that she “had no idea” who Thatcher was.


Years later, Coulter said, Palin said during a visit to Great Britain that she wanted to meet the former prime minister, but that Thatcher “put out the word that she would not be available.” In June 2010, Palin called Thatcher one of her “political heroines” on her Facebook page, though Think Progress suggested that post was actually written by Rebecca Mansour, who had been hired as a ghostwriter for Palin’s Facebook account.


That same year, The Telegraph reported that Thatcher had agreed to meet with Palin during a promotional tour, a meeting that never occurred, spawning conflicting accounts as to the cause.


Some reports citing anonymous “allies” said Thatcher felt a meeting with Palin would be “belittling.” But her aide Niles Gardiner, who now heads the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at The Heritage Foundation, denied Palin was snubbed in a June 2011 column for The Telegraph, citing the “Iron Lady’s” declining health.


“She has always warmly welcomed like-minded figures in the United States, and has in the past met with numerous US presidential candidates and political dignitaries when they have visited London,” Gardiner said of Thatcher. “But at the age of 85 she is now able to receive very few visitors at all.”


Gardiner’s remarks echo statements made by Thatcher’s daughter, Carol, in a memoir published in 2008.


According to The Telegraph, Carol Thatcher wrote of her mother, “The woman who had dominated discussions for so long could no longer lead debates or keep up with the thread of a drinks-party conversation. On bad days, she could hardly remember the beginning of a sentence by the time she got to the end.”


After Thatcher’s death was announced Monday, Palin posted a tribute note on her Facebook page, saying, “While the Iron Lady is sadly gone, her iron will, her unfailing trust in what is right and just, and her lessons to all of us will live on forever. She was a trailblazer like no other. We lost an icon, but her legacy, as solid as iron, will live on in perpetuity.”


Listen to the interview between Colter and Rivera, posted by The Mail on Monday, below.






via The Raw Story http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/09/coulter-thatcher-wanted-to-teach-sarah-palin-proper-english/
07:51

Medical officials in New York City said they discovered two fragments that could be human remains while beginning a new round of sifting through the debris caused by the Sept.11 attack on the World Trade Center.


The New York Times reported on Tuesday that the fragments were discovered on Monday near the World Financial Center.


According to the Associated Press, another 60 truckloads of debris is scheduled to be examined in Staten Island as part of a 10-week operation, the city’s first attempt to identify remains since 2010. This time, officials said, they will have access to wreckage from parts of the World Trade Center that had been unreachable to salvage teams.


WNBC-TV reported that the operation will involve 590 cubic yards of debris taken from West Street, Liberty Street and the financial center since the end of the previous one in 2010.


Of the 2,750 people who died in the attack, 1,634 have been identified. Anoher 9,000 human remains that are too degraded to be matched to victims through DNA identification are stored in an undisclosed location for eventual transfer to an underground chamber inside the the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.


[Image via Agence France-Presse]






via The Raw Story http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/03/officials-find-possible-human-remains-at-world-trade-center-site/
07:36

The whites-only college group that disrupted a conservative political conference earlier in March has announced plans to conduct “patrols” at Towson University in Baltimore.


Think Progress reported on Monday that the “White Student Union” intends to escort students making their way through campus at night. The club’s president, Matthew Heimbach — or “Commander Heimbach,” as he is called on the club’s blog — told the school newspaper, The Torchlight, that members will not be armed.


“We just want to make campus a better place,” Heimbach said. “If we see a white person commit a crime against a person who is not white, we’re going to assist the person who was attacked every time.”


However, according to a a Feb. 28 post on the WSU blog, “group funds will be used to purchase legal and nonlethal means of self defense for all members” and female members have been required to take self-defense courses. The club also accused local media of covering up a “Black crime wave” on campus.


“The virtue of white Christian womanhood is under attack at Towson University by degenerate criminals seeking to rob our women of their God given innocence,” the group said in the post. “Through armed thuggery the money of law abiding Towson students that is earned by the sweat of their brow is stolen and their lives threatened for simply walking down the street.”


The club, named by the Southern Poverty Law Center as one of 17 hate groups in the state of Maryland, also surfaced at a March 16 panel at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) when one of the organizers, Scott Terry, interrupted a panel dealing with “Frederick Douglass Republicans” and racism to tell the black moderator that “Blacks should be happy that the slave master gave them shelter, clothing, and food.”


Later, when Think Progress asked him if he would “accept a society where African-Americans were permanently subservient to whites,” Terry said, “I’d be fine with that.” Heimbach did not dispute that remark to the Towerlight, but said it was taken out of context.


“The main discussion was based on the fact that we as Republicans could be Booker T. Washington Republicans,” he said. “What that means is we can have different cultural values, but there’s no reason we need this multicultural society. As Republicans we can be united in traditional values, it doesn’t mean we need to force this political mindset on anyone.”


Night time “patrols” are also a strategy employed by members of the Greek Neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, an organization Heimbach has cited as a role model.


[h/t RT.com]






via The Raw Story http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/26/white-student-union-announces-nighttime-patrols-at-baltimore-college/
07:20

NBC News was criticized Monday morning for airing and promoting a right-wing documentarian’s interview with convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky.


On Monday, the family of Sandusky’s supervisor, deceased Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno, said in a release that the airing of excerpts from documentarian John Ziegler’s interview with Sandusky on The Today Show, were “a sad and unfortunate statement.”


“Sandusky had the opportunity to speak, under oath, during his trial and he chose not to do so,” the family said. “Releasing a recording at this time, nearly a year after he was found guilty on 45 counts, is transparently self-serving and yet another insult to the victims and anyone who cares about the truth in this tragic story.”


In his own interview with Today Show host Matt Lauer, Ziegler accused the media of slamming him in order to avoid hearing what he said is the truth Paterno.


“This has been a rush to judgement from the very beginning,” said Ziegler, who interviewed Sandusky as part of a project he claimed will amount to Paterno’s “public day in court” regarding allegations he was part of a school cover-up of Sandusky’s crimes. “I know that I’m gonna get attacked from everybody because no one wants the truth here.”


Think Progress reported on Sunday that Ziegler has also been advising Steubenville High School football coach Reno Saccoccia. Two of Saccoccia’s players, Ma’lik Richmond and Trent Mays, were convicted on March 17 of raping a 16-year-old girl in August 2012. Testimony during the trial indicated that Saccoccia was aware of the crime.


“I am at least as certain that Reno Saccoccia was not culpable in the crimes of his players as I am in Joe Paterno’s lack of blame for those of his former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky,” Ziegler wrote on his website on March 19.


However, Ziegler was reluctant to tell Lauer whether he thought Sandusky’s conviction was justified.


“After over a year of examining this case, after your conversations with Jerry Sandusky in person or by phone, do you believe he was wrongly convicted?” Lauer asked.


“Jerry Sandusky already had his day in court,” Ziegler began.


“But do you believe he was wrongly convicted?” Lauer pressed.


“I’ve written extensively about this at our website,” Ziegler said. “But I wanted to say that my focus here has been on Joe Paterno.”


“I understand, but it helps me with perspective hearing the interview,” Lauer interjected.


“Jerry Sandusky had his day in court,” Ziegler said again. “Joe Paterno never did. I’m trying to get Joe Paterno, effectively, his day in court.”


Lauer pressed on, asking, “But do you believe Jerry Sandusky is a pedophile and he’s guilty of the things he was accused of?”


“I’ve no doubt that Jerry Sandusky was guilty of many of the things, if not all the things, he was accused of,” Ziegler conceded. “But I do believe that there were due process problems with the trial.”


Ziegler also excitedly told Lauer that he had obtained a statement by one of Sandusky’s victims saying that the victim denied any wrongdoing on the part of the coach.


“Let’s remember something: Victim number two never testified in the case against Jerry Sandusky,” Lauer rebutted. “So his credibility never directly impacted the trial. The jurors never heard from victim number two.”


“That’s what’s quite remarkable about this,” Ziegler said, before returning to his point that his documentary focused on Paterno’s alleged culpability.


Later in the interview, Lauer read from the Paterno family’s statement, telling Ziegler that they felt that it was important to emphasize they had no part in the release of Ziegler’s interview with Sandusky, and that “any attempt to use this recording as a defense of Joe Paterno is misguided and inappropriate.”


“Well that statement I found to be sad,” Ziegler said. “Heartbreaking for me, considering I put a year of my life into this with no compensation, no thought of compensation. [I] only wanted to do one thing, which was to find out what the truth of this matter was, which was Joe Paterno’s dying wish.”


As Think Progress reported, Ziegler’s past projects accuse the media of “targeting” former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and blame former president Bill Clinton for the Sept. 11th attacks on New York and Washington D.C.


Watch Ziegler’s interview with Lauer, aired Monday on NBC, below.


Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy






via The Raw Story http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/25/right-wing-director-defends-interview-with-child-molester-for-pro-paterno-documentary/
07:20

Police in Kalamazoo, Michigan got a surprise late Tuesday night when a deer he was told was dead popped out of a man’s trunk during a traffic stop.


WOOD-TV reported on Wednesday that Officer David Miller was talking to the car’s owner after finding him parked behind a local hotel. The unidentified man allegedly told Miller, “I hit a deer, I figured you would want to see it,” as he opened the trunk.


At that point the deer backed out of the trunk and stumbled to the ground as Miller, another officer and the driver looked on in surprise. The man, thinking he had killed the deer, allegedly planned to take it home and serve it to his family.


Lt. Stacey Geik said Miller “merely wanted to check on the tagging of the deer to make sure it was appropriately tagged with a kill permit or accident permit” before the deer escaped, running off into the woods.


Watch the deer escape being somebody’s dinner in this footage from police’s dashboard camera posted by WOOD on Wednesday below.


‘Dead’ deer jumps out of trunk






via The Raw Story http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/20/dead-deer-jumps-out-of-trunk-while-cops-inspected-vehicle/
07:21

Fox News host Bill O’Reilly denied on Tuesday that he was playing up the speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives’ sexual orientation to link him to sex offenders, while still saying he looked like “a complete fool” during an ambush interview organized by his program.


O’Reilly said the reason he has mentioned that state Rep. Mark Ferrandino (D) is gay is because “Americans don’t know who he is and that description is used in almost every article ever written about him,” pushing back on criticism from Denver Post opinion editor Glenn Hubbard in a March 10 column.


“O’Reilly’s fear-mongering should offend all Coloradans,” Hubbard said in his column. “He was saying “gay,” but what he wanted his listeners to hear was ‘pervert-pedophile.’ Disagree? Then you try explaining what Ferrandino’s sexual orientation and stance on civil unions has to do with Jessica’s Law.”


The law, which has passed in 44 states, is named after 9-year-old Jessica Lumford, who was sexually assaulted and buried alive by a sex offender who had completed his jail sentence for a previous assault. It would have imposed a 25-year mandatory sentence on repeat sex offenders.


After accusing the Post of working “pretty much working together” with state Democrats, O’Reilly told Fox contributor Bernard Goldberg he has mentioned Ferrandino’s orientation in order to provide context on what he called his strong advocacy for gay marriage and the legalization of marijuana.


“You have to basically get behind the motivation of the man, and his motivation is very narrow,” O’Reilly said. “He’s got only a couple of things he wants to do in there that he feels passionate about, but the kids, apparently, he doesn’t feel passionately about because he sabotaged it.”


But according to KDVR-TV, Ferrandino never endorsed Amendment 64, which legalized marijuana after being passed by voters in November 2012. Ferrandino did introduce a House bill legalizing civil unions between same sex couples, but same sex marriage is not allowed in Colorado under the state constitution. The bill was approved by the state House on March 12 in a 39-26 vote.


O’Reilly has blamed Farrandino for the failure of a state version of Jessica’s Law to pass a February 2013 vote in the State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee.


“What shocks me is for the two years Republicans had the majority, they didn’t introduce this bill,” Farrandino said after the proposal, House Bill 1149, was voted down. “This is all about politics and not good policy.”


According to the Post, the bill was opposed by both the state public defenders office and District Atttorneys’ council as well as the Colorado Coalition against Sexual Assault.


“Jessica’s Law is a 25-year sentence,” said Laurie Rose Kepros, director of Sexual Offense Defense for the public defenders office. “We have life sentences for all of the crimes covered under the bill.”


Farrandino can be seen making that point in the interview footage O’Reilly aired on March 4, but his remarks were apparently cut short.


Watch video of O’Reilly’s interview with Goldbert posted by Equality Matters on Tuesday below.






via The Raw Story http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/13/oreilly-denies-exploiting-colorado-house-speakers-sexual-orientation/
06:50

A protest march in Brooklyn, New York, on Monday night turned into a confrontation between police and demonstrators amid reports of bottles being thrown at officers out of anger over the shooting death of a 16-year-old boy at the hands of New York Police detectives.


According to Global Grind, police said about 70 people took part in the march to the 67th Precinct station demanding police accountability for the death of Kimani Gray on March 9.


Video posted on YouTube early Tuesday morning showed demonstrators throwing metal barricades onto the street as police arrived on the scene. One woman, who said she knew Gray, said all protesters wanted was justice.


“Stop killing our babies. They are our babies,” she said into a megaphone. “Stop killing our kids. Stop coming to our neighborhood and killing us off. We’re paying you guys to protect the children, not to kill the children. We are sick and we are tired of this. It’s our tax money, not yours. We pay you to protect us. Enough is enough. We need justice now.”


The video also showed protesters chanting, “NYPD, KKK, how many kids did you kill today?”


Police said the detectives shot and killed Gray on Saturday after he waved a gun at them, but witnesses have disputed that account.


New York City Council member Jumaane Williams said on Twitter late Monday night that the demonstration had turned “into a riot.”


“The youth in this community have no outlets for their anger, no community center,” he wrote.


The New York Daily News reported on Tuesday that employees at a local business barricaded themselves inside after being rushed by protesters, and needed firefighters to cut the gates to allow them to leave. A customer at a nearby drug store was also allegedly attacked with a glass bottle by a protester with a glass bottle.


A Facebook page has been posted promoting another demonstration on Tuesday night.


Watch video of the protest, posted on YouTube by Javier Soriano on Tuesday, below.



[h/t Rania Khalek]






via The Raw Story http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/12/protesters-on-16-year-old-boys-death-nypd-kkk-how-many-kids-did-you-kill-today/
06:36

Stephen Colbert refused to take President Barack Obama’s impending first trip to Israel at face value.


“So now Obama thinks he can wipe out his shameful record of never visiting Israel by visiting Israel,” Colbert scoffed on Tuesday. “It is a shonda. Do not fall for it, my chosen bretheren. My ‘Hebros.’ He doesn’t get you.”


Obama, Colbert said, could never relate to a divided state becoming increasingly subject to the whims of a small, hard-right minority. As proof, he cited the U.S. “decreasing” aid packages to Israel from $2.3 billion a year to $3.1 billion.


“I know it looks like it’s going up,” Colbert assured his audience. “But remember, in Hebrew, you read the chart from right to left.”


The president’s appointment of former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) — heavily criticized for saying “the Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people” in 2006 — as the new U.S. defense secretary didn’t help matters, Colbert explained.


“Clearly, this man does not understand that when it comes to Israel, there are certain things you can’t say,” he said of Hagel. “For instance, implying that there are certain things you can’t say. Which there aren’t. You can say anything you want about Israel, which I would, if there was anything to say, but there isn’t, so there’s nothing to be said. And how dare Hagel say it.”


Colbert also wasn’t impressed by reports Obama would be awarded the Israeli Presidential Medal of Distinction during his visit. The honor will make Obama the first U.S. president to receive the honor during his term, for “a unique and significant contribution to strengthening the State of Israel and the security of its citizens.”


“It’s not that great, once you eat the chocolate,” Colbert said dismissively.


And while Israeli President Shimon Peres is likely to be all smiles in giving Obama the country’s highest honor, Colbert also pointed out that the country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was a vocal supporter of Obama’s Republican challenger in the last election, Mitt Romney.


“That might make Obama’s trip a little achh-ward,” Colbert said.


Watch Colbert’s take on Obama’s impending trip to Israel, aired Tuesday on Comedy Central, below.







via The Raw Story http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/06/colbert-asks-hebros-not-to-be-swayed-by-obamas-israel-trip/
05:50

While most people saw President Barack Obama’s “Jedi mind meld” gaffe as an easy joke, Stephen Colbert argued on Monday that it was an opportunity for conservatives to relate to one of Obama’s core demographics: nerds.


“After all, Republicans and nerds have so much in common,” he explained. “They both live in fantasy worlds, and have no idea how to relate to women. And, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) bears a striking resemblance to Admiral Ackbar.”


Of course, Colbert still took the opportunity to make a joke about Obama’s mixing up terms from the Star Wars and Star Trek universes.


“Who makes that mistake?” he asked the audience. “Those two are as different as Good Kirk and Evil Kirk from ‘Mirror, Mirror,’ season two, episode four.”


Obama’s mistake, Colbert said, was a sign of stress caused by the standoff that led to the 2 percent sequester cuts he had to sign into effect on March 1. And just like a diet, Colbert argued, the best way for government to trim the fat was to take a cheese grater and shave off 2 percent everywhere.


“If we don’t cut expensive things like Head Start, children’s nutrition programs, teachers and student loans, what sort of future are we leaving for our children?” he pleaded.


Colbert said forced government cuts had already proven they could work in other parts of the world.


“Just look at Europe — if you can see it through the tear gas,” he said. “I mean, many of those countries still exist.”


Watch Colbert tee off on Obama’s “sci-fi flub,” aired Monday on Comedy Central, below.







via The Raw Story http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/05/colbert-like-nerds-republicans-have-no-idea-how-to-relate-to-women/
06:09

Denver police arrested a 42-year-old man for allegedly threatening a state lawmaker, her daughter and a colleague in a series of voice mails and emails.


The Denver Post reported on Monday that Franklin Glenn Sain was arrested on Feb. 22 on suspicion of harassing state Rep. Rhonda Fields (D) and unlawfully attempting to influence a public official.


Sain admitted to using racial and sexual slurs against Fields in a series of emails dated between Feb. 13 and Feb. 15. is also believed to have sent an unsigned letter to her office threatening “Death to both” her and her daughter, as well as the message, “I keep my 30 Round Magazines There Will Be Blood! I’m Coming For You!”


One of Sain’s emails, sent on Feb. 15, said of Fields and fellow state Rep. Beth McCann (D), “Hopefully somebody Gifords [sic] both of your asses with a gun,” an apparent reference to former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), who was shot in the head in a public attack. Giffords survived, but the mass shooting resulted in the deaths of six people.


Fields told police the messages were so disturbing she skipped a Thursday town hall meeting out of fear for both her safety and the safety of others.


“I am grateful for the prompt work of the Colorado State Patrol in bringing this suspect to justice, and I also thank the Denver Police Department, which was instrumental in the investigation,” she said in a statement issued on Monday. “I will not be deterred by threats.”


Sain told police he was “just voicing some frustrations” over Fields’ support for tighter gun regulations in the state.


According to KMGH-TV, he denied being a racist in follow-up phone calls with authorities, despite his use of slurs against both Fields and President Barack Obama.


“I guarantee there is not enough law enforcement, or military to stop an all out overthrow of this government if you or that (racial slur) President tries to take our guns,” he said in one email. “Guarantee, we will make world war I and II look like child’s play, many will die…be prepared.”


KCNC-TV reported on Monday that the state legislature adopted four gun-control measures earlier this month, including two measures sponsored by Fields. One requires universal background checks on all firearms purchases in the state, and the other limits ammunition magazines to 8 rounds for handguns and 15 rounds for larger firearms. The measures will go before the state Senate in early March.


“It is fascinating that Representative Fields is just trying to do the best she can for the people of Colorado, and to keep Colorado children safe by limiting gun violence, and it’s met with more violence,” state Senate President John Morse told KCNC. “It is just appalling.”


Watch KCNC’s report on Sain’s arrest and his alleged threats against Sain, aired Monday, below.






via The Raw Story http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/02/26/arrested-colorado-man-threatened-lawmaker-hopefully-somebody-gifords-both-of-your-asses-with-a-gun/
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