Tinfoil Tuesday Open Thread

Last thread is full.
Let it all hang out.

Live-blog: Senate Hearing on #IRS Targetting

Streaming on C-Span 3

Just a quick & dirty post while klown is asleep.
Please comment on what you see/hear.

Taylor Swift’s Big Night

---

Taylor Swift set a new record last night by making her “totally surprised” face eight times at the Billboard Music Awards.

Taylor Swift Dominates Billboard Music Awards With 8 Wins

Taylor Swift’s night at the 2013 Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas was a success. She led all artists at the Sunday night ceremony with eight wins, including top artist and top Billboard 200 album, for “Red.”

During her top artist acceptance speech, Swift thanked her fans for making her music about her crazy emotions the soundtrack to their own crazy emotions. She added that her relationship with her fans was the longest and best relationship she’s ever had.

Swift found out she won the top Billboard 200 album category when fans in the mosh pit held up smartphones that spelled out the album title in big letters. She said, “I’m really happy about this” and went on to thank her fans for the “magical” award.

Swift also delivered one of the more memorable performances of the night, singing her hit “22″ in an elaborate production that began backstage and featured several dancers, a bicycle ride and plenty of red balloons.

Rihanna and Gotye each received four awards. Several artists, including Justin Bieber, picked up three.
Bieber made a bid for musical relevance while accepting the first-ever Milestone Award for musical ingenuity and innovation. During his acceptance speech, Justin took the opportunity to address all the tabloid headlines saying, “I’m 19 years old. I think I’m doing a pretty good job, and basically, from my heart, it should be about the music and the craft that I’m making it.”

Bieber added, “This is not a gimmick. I’m an artist, and I should be taken seriously, and all this bull should not be spoken of.”

---

Keep it real, Beebs. You rock the “not even old enough to be jailbait demographic”.

If you never heard of the Billboard Music Awards before, join the club. Apparently a few years back some people decided that the Grammys, People’s Choice, MTV and VH-1 awards just weren’t adequate so they invented another meaningless award so they could hold another annual awards show.

The reason for Taylor’s complete domination of the awards? They are based on sales, and “Red” was the big seller of the year.

<hr /.

This Isn’t Hollywood

Andrea Rebello

---

Hofstra hostage was killed by police gunshot

A Hofstra University student being held in a headlock at gunpoint by an intruder was accidently shot and killed by a police officer who had responded to the home invasion at an off-campus home, police said Saturday.

Junior public relations major Andrea Rebello was shot once in the head early Friday morning by an officer who opened fire after the masked intruder pointed a gun at the officer while holding the 21-year-old student, Nassau County homicide squad Lt. John Azzata said.

In a tense confrontation with the officer, gunman Dalton Smith “menaces our police officer, points his gun at the police officer,” Azzata said. The officer opened fire, killing Smith and his hostage.

Azzata said the Nassau County police officer fired eight shots at Smith, who police described as having an “extensive” criminal background. Smith was hit seven times and died. Rebello was shot once in the head.

“He kept saying, ‘I’m going to kill her,’ and then he pointed the gun at the police officer,” Azzata said.

[...]

The veteran police officer, who was not identified, has about 12 years of experience on the Nassau County police force and previously spent several years as a New York City police officer, Dale said.

The officer is currently out on sick leave. He will be the focus of an internal police investigation once the criminal investigation is completed, which is standard police procedure in any officer-involved shooting, the commissioner said.

Earlier Saturday, police announced that Smith, 30, had been wanted on a parole violation related to a first-degree robbery conviction and had an arrest history dating back nearly 15 years.

[...]

Rebello was in the two-story home with her twin sister Jessica, a third woman and a man when Smith, wearing a ski mask, walked into the house through an open front door, Azzata said. Smith demanded valuables and was told they were upstairs, Azzata said.

Smith, apparently unsatisfied with the valuables upstairs, asked if any of the four had a bank account and could withdraw money, Azzata said. The intruder then allowed the unidentified woman to leave and collect money from an ATM, telling her she had only eight minutes to come back with cash before he killed one of her friends, Azzata said.

The woman left for the bank and called 911, according to Azzata.

Minutes later, two police officers arrived at the home and found Rebello’s twin sister Jessica running out of the front door and the male guest hiding behind a couch on the first floor, Azzata said.

One of the officers entered the home and encountered Smith holding onto Rebello in a headlock, coming down the stairs, Azzata said. Smith pulled Rebello closer and started moving backward toward a rear door of the house, pointing the gun at her head before eventually threatening the officer, Azzata said.

---

I hold cops to a high standard of conduct but at the same time I have great respect for them and the difficult job they do. This isn’t Hollywood where the good guys shoot the guns out of the hands of the bad guys. Guns are dangerous tools, and in war and police work the safety conditions are somewhat less than ideal. The margin for error is small and the difference is life or death.

I had to qualify with a pistol in the army, the police academy as an armed guard. The qualifying in each case took place at a range where all the safety rules were strictly enforced. When we were shooting there was nothing downrange but targets and something to act as a backstop. We wore eye and ear protection.

Police shootings take place in the real world. Sometimes they take place without warning. Sometimes they take place after an adrenaline-pumping chase where the cops are out of breath. Gunshots indoors without ear protection are deafening. In most police shootings there is a human being that is being shot at and that person is perceived to be a threat to the officer(s). Split-second decisions have to be made under highly stressful conditions.

Not to be callous but shit happens. Humans are not perfect and occasionally make mistakes. Death by “friendly fire” is a regrettable tragedy.

My sympathies go out to the friends and family of Andrea Rebello, but I also feel sorry for the officer who accidentally shot her. He will have to live with that fact for the rest of his life.

---

Sunday Morning Open Thread

---

I got nothing right now but I’m sure there will be some news later when All The President’s Minions hit the Sunday Morning talk shows to spin their lies talking points.

I’ll see you when I wake up.

---

Saturday Afternoon Open Thread

---

My first job was at the A&W in Merced. I was the executive vice president in charge of french fries and drinks. Eventually I was promoted to Assistant Chief of the Burger Flipper Division.

What was your first job?

---

This was freaking awesome – Rep. Mike Kelly

---

There were lots of interesting moments at today’s House Ways and Means Committee hearing but when Rep. Mike Kelly was done giving the acting IRS commissioner an earful the audience clapped and cheered.

This is an open thread.

---

House Ways And Means Committee IRS Hearing Live Blog

---

The House Ways and Means Committee is holding a hearing today on the IRS targeting of conservative groups. It’s scheduled for 9am eastern time which is zero dark thirty Klown time. It’s supposed to be on C-Span 2.

If I don’t wake up in time start without me.

---

Who Are You Gonna Believe, Jay Carney Or Your Lying Eyes?

---

I didn’t think is was possible for someone to make a lying douchenozzle like Piers Morgan look good by comparison.

I was wrong:

WH in Denial: ‘You’re Concocting Scandals Here That Don’t Exist’

White House spokesperson Jay Carney became extremely defensive when questioned on the Obama administration’s record on openness and transparency given the recent IRS and Benghazi scandals Thursday on “Piers Morgan.”

Morgan asked Carney how the administration plans to restore faith in the administration among the American people that may have been damaged in the wake of the Benghazi emails and IRS revelations.

Carney replied he completely denied the premise of Morgan’s question, stating “you’re concocting scandals here that don’t exist”:

PIERS MORGAN: Final question, Jay Carney. Obviously the president made a big deal when he came into office of being not like previous administrations and was going to be much more transparent. The charge today after this week is that you have had that reputation for transparency pretty heavily dented. Do you accept that and just on a general picture, how are you going to move on now and restore perhaps faith that some Americans have lost this week in your openness and honesty?

JAY CARNEY: Well, I’m not sure, again, you’re concocting scandals here that don’t exist, especially with regard to the Benghazi affair that was contrived by Republicans and I think has fallen apart largely this week. The fact of the matter is that this administration has a record on transparency that outdoes any previous administration, and we are committed to that. The president is committed to that.

---

Lawyers have a bad reputation for honesty but you’ll rarely see one get caught in a bald-faced lie. But Jay Carney is a journalist by profession, and they have no ethical standards. Every word that comes out of that man’s mouth is a lie, including “and” and “the”.

I personally find it insulting when someone lies that egregiously to my face. Do they really think I am stupid enough to believe that bullshit?

---

---

White House Presser Live Blog

---

Obama is still trying to put out the scandal fires. He’s so desperate he’s allegedly going to answer questions from the media. He’s never faced an unfriendly media before.

Let’s see what happens.

---

---

Chris Matthews’ cheese has done slid off his cracker

---

No, seriously:

The problem is there are people in this country, maybe ten percent, I don’t know what the number, maybe twenty percent on a bad day, who want this president to have an asterisk next to his name in the history books, that he really wasn’t president. … They want to be able to say, well, he didn’t really have that batting average; he really wasn’t the first African American president; he really didn’t do health care; he really didn’t kill bin Laden. There’s an asterisk, and they have been fighting for that, the people like Donald Trump, since day one. They can’t stand the idea that he’s president, and a piece of it is racism. Not that somebody in one racial group doesn’t like somebody in another racial group, so what? It’s the sense that the white race must rule, that’s what racism is, and they can’t stand the idea that a man who’s not white is president. That is real, that sense of racial superiority and rule is in the hearts of some people in this country. Not all conservatives, not even all right-wingers, but it always comes through with this birther crap and these other references and somehow trying to erase ObamaCare, erase his record in history, and a big part of it is bought into by people like John Boehner, who’s not a bad guy, but he knows the only way he can talk to the hard right is talk their language.

---

Chris Matthews is to mental health what Lindsay Lohan is to sobriety.

---

When the going gets tough, Obama gives a speech – Live Blog

TOTUS

---

Live from the White House at 3:00 pm Klown time.

I wasn’t gonna start drinking this early but if Obama’s giving a speech then I’m getting drunk.

How much you want to bet he says he takes responsibility and won’t rest until he gets to the bottom of the IRS scandal?

The drinking game words are “accountable” and “inappropriate”.

---

Overnight Open Thread

---

I’ll probably write something when I get up tomorrow.

---

Tinfoil Tuesday Open Thread

---

This is Rocky Zombie the pistol target. He is a rectangular sheet of paper (approx. 3ft x 2 ft) that you can hang up at the pistol range to shoot at. Some people say it’s racist because it looks like Barack Obama. I disagree.

Obama isn’t green.

BTW – You know it’s gonna be a bad day when you go afk for a couple hours and when you return there are 666 tweets waiting for you.

---

---

Tuesday Open Thread

Why did I sign up for this job again?

Last thread seems full.

Jay Carney hard at work finding that unicorn.

Open thread.

Friday Music Open Thread

---

Katie Whats-her-name had a TV Mom special but she skipped my personal favorite – Joanna Kerns/Maggie Seaver from Growing Pains. (A little bird tells me that Dandy Tiger has always had a “thing” for June Cleaver.)

I am almost tempted to watch the network news tonight to see how much of today’s Benghazi revelations get reported. Almost.

It’s Beer Thirty here. What are you doing?

BTW – I’m starting to think that Tim McGraw and Faith Hill are never gonna get deevorced. I’m really getting tired of waiting for her to be available again.

---

---

Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder

---

People Magazine named Gwyneth Paltrow as the Most Beautiful Woman In The World. Now Maxim Magazine has named Miley Cyrus as #1 on their Hot 100 listing. I mean no offense to either woman when I ask WTF?

I’m not saying either one is ugly, and they are both certainly better looking than me. But “Most Beautiful” and hottest?

Whatever. This is an open thread.

---

---

Forsaken in #Benghazi

When you accept a good man’s loyalty and service …

I can’t help wondering: did Ambassador Stevens die knowing he had been forsaken by his personal friend and boss whom he’d served loyally for four years? That he’d been given up to the enemy by the government he’d served all his life?

That they would lie about who killed him and why? That they would deny that they denied him any aid?

God rest your soul, Ambassador Stevens.

God have mercy on theirs.

… you owe him more than to be abandoned to this grisly death.

The Power Of Delusion

---

From Somebody in the previous thread:

I am shocked by people unwilling to see the truth. I don’t know if we’ll ever know all the facts, but I think it’s very clear that there was an effort to cover up the truth and mislead the public. I’ve been part of campaigns for politicians and a couple of them later had a fall from grace. As close as I was to them (close friend in one case) and as vested as I was in them, not once was I blind to facts. What is it about certain politicians that causes people to lose common sense??

If I learned anything in the last five years it is that far too many people have an endless capacity for delusion. They will resist all attempts to tell them the truth.

Remember the Bible story of Moses leading the Hebrews out of Egypt? According to the story God sent multiple plagues down on Egypt, then killed the first born child in every home not marked with lamb’s blood. Then he parted the Red Sea to let the Hebrews escape before killing Pharaoh’s army. When they got to Mt. Sinai, Moses went up the hill to get the Ten Commandments and while he was gone the Hebrews started worshiping the old pagan gods again.

I used to wonder how it was possible that those people could be eyewitnesses to such great miracles and not believe in God. I don’t know about you but if I saw what they saw I would be a true believer in Yahweh.

I don’t wonder anymore.

Chris Steven’s animated corpse could have shown up and testified at today’s hearing and it wouldn’t have mattered.

---

Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. – 2 Thessalonians 1-12

---

My Big Sister Is A Thespian

---

When we were kids she never missed an opportunity to rub my face in the fact that she was older than me. Nowadays I take great pleasure in reminding her of that fact.

But recently she got bitten by the acting bug.

This is an open thread.

---