Rand Paul Goes to Ferguson, Gitmo Closure Rumor Sparks Freak-Out, U.S. Troops to Built Hospital to Fight Ebola: P.M. Links

• 

  Gage Skidmore

  Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) met with civil rights leaders in Ferguson, Missouri today. He's the first presidential hopeful to do so.

• Talk about bipartisanism. A Wall Street Journal report cited an unnamed official claiming President Barack Obama wants to shut down Guantanamo Bay, so Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kansas) swore he'd "shut down the Senate" if the president tried. Don't worry, there's no way we're closing the prison, the White House responded. 
• The Defense Department is allowed to shift $750 million in war funds to fighting Ebola, since Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) of the Senate Armed Services Committee caved on his objections to the plan. U.S. troops in Liberia are learning how to build hospitals, because that makes more sense than hiring people who already know how to build hospitals. The U.N. says the number of Ebola cases is doubling roughly every three or four weeks, and the death toll is over 4,000 according to the World Health Organization.
• The U.N. is predicting a massacre if ISIS takes the Syrian city of Kobani. France says airstrikes aren't enough to stop ISIS's drive toward the Turkish border, so it's proposing a buffer zone. The U.S. "is not considering that option," and isn't getting much cooperation from Turkey, which doesn't want use its own military against the Islamic State, but has now agreed to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels to fight the terrorist group.
• The Army will not release its investigation into Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's disappearance and capture while in Afghanistan.
• Suddenly South Dakota's Senate race is up in the air and could decide the majority party.
• No charges will be filed in connection to the Alaskan brawl that involved the Palin family. The police report has been released, and Sarah Palin's daughter claims she was called a "slut" and a "bitch" during the fight last month. Funny, I don't hear any complaints about slut-shaming or the war on women.
• Forget what? Google has removed 170,000 website links from search results, the company noted in a transparency report today.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) met with civil rights leaders in Ferguson, Missouri today.

He's behind the curve. Ebola is the new shiny object. Meet with that.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

Am I the only one disappointed and even not impressed with Turkey waiting around to see if America leads in the latest ISIS incursion in Kobani? It seems everyone stands around yapping waiting for the Americans to decide their next move.

And with this bunch in the current administration this may not be the wisest thing I reckon.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

You can't lead from behind when people keep shoving you to the front.

[tarran]

Once again, the heads ISIS are sawing off, the people they are crucifying, the men they are machine gunning, the women they are raping all belong to ethnic groups whose interests and desires are inimical to those of the Turkish government.

This is like being disappointed that the Iranians won't strike a blow against the Sunni enemies of Israel.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yes, there's been a hardening in Turkish politics in recent years. I suppose them being a rational fighting force aligned with the West is too much to ask. Even more strange, if accurate, given they want in the EU. But the Greeks always warned against this. Maybe the fight against ISIS may reveal Turkey's intentions.

[tarran]

The Turks wanted into the EU since I was a kid.

And the Europeans' ever evolving excuses as why they should be kept out have essentially gutted the westward looking Turks. Basically many Turks have decided that if they are going to be treated like shit by the West, the West has nothing to offer them. The rise of the AK party is the product of that.

If you want to see what true islamo-fascism looks like, just watch Turkey; a French-model fascist country is being taken over by guys who want to inject religion into the public sphere. And like true fascists, they really are reactionaries who don't know what the fuck they are doing.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

So it's the West's fault Turkey goes bad?

I get that part and have heard it but strikes me as an excuse.

They're responsible for their own actions. Not the West.

[tarran]

So it's the West's fault Turkey goes bad?

If your definition of 'bad' is that the Turks stop supplying Turkish conscripts to serve under western officers or stop allowing Turkish territory to be used for their military operations, then yes, the Europeans are reaping what they sowed.

Personally, I don't give a shit. I wish the land of my birth wasn't fascist, that it was neutral, that it embraced free markets, and that it didn't have conscription. To me, Turkey has never been anything 'good' that could have gone 'bad'.

I am grateful, though, that the government grade school I attended in Ankara taught me a shitload of math.

[Pro Libertate]

I think the EU made a mistake, as Turkey being a member would've locked it into the Western world, and I bet it would've helped to some extent with the internal issues much of Europe is having with Muslim minorities.

[Gabriel Dunn]

So it's the West's fault Turkey goes bad?

No, that's trichinosis.

[Gluesponge]

I was going to say inadequate refrigeration, but you it the nail on the head. 🙂

[Cytotoxic]

Uh but Turkey is developing warm relations with Iraqi Kurdistan. They pipe their oil.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

True.

A people they were dead set against having a state I believe?

[Cytotoxic]

Turkey wants a friendly stable entity on its border as a buffer against ISIS and other turmoil I guess. It's also a source of oil cash.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Except Kobani is on their borders so why aren't they taking up the challenge?

[VG Zaytsev]

Why does anyone think that Turkey opposes ISIS at all?

They;re killing Syrians (good for Turkey)
and Kurds (great for Turkey)
and unconditionally released a group of Turks that fell into their hands.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Army will not release its investigation into Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's disappearance and capture while in Afghanistan.

Which means, of course, there's nothing embarrassing in it.

[Brandon]

You assume this administration has the capacity for embarrassment.

[Overt]

It's an attrition thing. They already have their media troops engaged elsewhere- ISIS downplaying, Ebola denying, etc. This is a holding action until after november.

[Fist of Etiquette]

U.S. troops in Liberia are learning how to build hospitals, because that makes more sense than hiring people who already know how to build hospitals.

Our military is seen as a ready workforce.

[Tonio]

What, you mean like KBR or Halliburton?

[Swiss Servator, Grundgesetz!]

KBR is a part of Halliburton

OMG!!! UNITARY BOOOOOSH KKKORPORATE KONTRACTEUR!!!

[Los Doyers]

Shovel ready, with ebola resistant murican flags.

[rts]

Emerging and Developing Economies Much More Optimistic than Rich Countries about the Future

Some interesting stuff there, like how "emerging" and "developing" countries view low taxes as the way to go to reduce income inequality, instead of high taxes favoured in wealthier countries. "Emerging" and "developing" countries also prefer free markets over their "advanced" cousins.

[Brandon]

Emerging economies haven't had time to get cronies established yet.

[Carl ?s the level]

If anything, cronyism is usually worse in such economies.

[Gozer the Gozerian]

They haven't had time to get ideology of dependency (cronyism) established yet?

[BardMetal]

Whats the course of civilizations? They go from slavery to freedom from freedom to propsperty, from prosperty to decadence, and from decadence back to slavery.

[Cytotoxic]

Impossible. I was told by area nativists that foreign poor people are all collectivists who want MOAR GOVERNMENT always and forever.

[gaijin]

They cannot afford the unaffordable government that rich countries can afford...yet.

[BardMetal]

Maybe they just realise there is a difference between an Indian heart doctor, a Columbian street sweeper, and a Syrian jihadist.

[Cytotoxic]

No. To the nativists there is only THE BROWN HORDE. These are the people who are actually worried about ISIS agents crossing the Rio Grande.

[VG Zaytsev]

No they're all free market paradises like Venezuela.

[Brandon]

(Turkey) has now agreed to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels to fight the terrorist group.

This seems familiar...

[Tonio]

U.S. Troops to Built Hospital

Build.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...but has now agreed to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels to fight the terrorist group.

Moderate, you say?

[Rich]

Well, moderately good-looking.

[Los Doyers]

6 if drunk, a 3 if......well you were drunk.

[Cytotoxic]

Moderate enough that Israel has started arming them a little bit.

[gaijin]

they are moderate because they agreed only to kill with guns and rockets...not by beheading or crucifixion.

[Cytotoxic]

That sounds pretty good actually. These Syrian rebels are okay with Druze so they can't be that bad.

[Derpetologist]

The moderates believe the US is merely an OK Satan.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

Not Great, just OK?

[rts]

Kind of neat (and near my home town)...

Second World War balloon bomb found in the Monashee Mountains

The RCMP were notified Thursday that Tolko Industries staff had found an unexploded Japanese balloon bomb imbedded in the ground off Thunder Mountain Forest Road east of Lumby.

[Brandon]

You made most of those words up.

[rts]

Well, I am Canadian, after all...

[Aloysious]

"Our officers attended and photographed the suspected bomb," sad Gord Molendyk, RCMP spokesperson.

It is a suspect. Shoot it.

[RussianPrimeMinister]

A suspect with a BOMB, no less.

It's lucky to still be alive.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Don't worry, there's no way we're closing the prison, the White House responded.

OMG THEY'RE SHUTTING DOWN GITMO!

[Tonio]

Not until after the election, surely.

[Rich]

The Army will not release its investigation into Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's disappearance and capture while in Afghanistan.

Anyway, Reason will not let me click that link.

[The Other Kevin]

Don't worry, there's no way we're closing the prison, the White House responded.

Someone call Gwyneth Paltrow and let her know she got her wish.

[Rich]

"I can say that this is something important to the president, important to the administration, and something we are constantly working with Democrats and Republicans in Congress over," [White House spokesman Eric Schultz] said.

And *I* can say "Nanner-nanner-nanner!"

[tarran]

The police reports from the Palin fight are hard to parse. It seems that drunk people decided to smack other drunk people they didn't like around a bit, until less drunk people pulled them apart.

[The DerpRider]

Based on the reality shows I've seen filmed in Alaska, this sounds like a normal Tuesday night.

[Los Doyers]

State troopers to the rescue!

[Entropy Void]

The police report has been released, and Sarah Palin's daughter claims she was called a "slut" and a "bitch" during the fight last month. Funny, I don't hear any complaints about slut-shaming or the war on women.

That's 'cos Republicans don't have "real" vagina-vaginas.

[Coeus]

Proggie feminist realizes that she needs a man and/or a gun.

I realized the following things as we waited for the police and gave them our report:

1. In lieu of my own actual weapon, I felt lucky to have a dude around, a Boy Scout, a chase-after-the-guy sort of dude. The world's best weapon against a dude if you don't have a weapon yourself is another dude, right? Irrational or not, that's what it felt like. Just glad I had a dude. (Thanks, dude.)

[The DerpRider]

Why do they have to couch what they actually want with such dumb terms?

[LessIsMore]

Those "dumb terms" are the social signals, duh. It's to let the other dumb readers know that the dumb author is "on the level", so they are free to identify with their dumb post.

Notice the implicit sexism of "a dude". Apparently it doesn't matter who the "dude" is (cue Big Lebowski quotes), since we're all interchangeable - as long as it's "a dude". We're useful things to have around, like other inanimate objects such as guns.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I am shocked that the author of such work as "How to Choose Your Backup Husband" would write such a thing!

[Idle Hands]

Do you think:
A)her husband actually reads what she writes, but is so beta you can plug him into your tv an watch movies.
B)she is 100% full of shit and writes for the clicks.
C)she is the invention of someone who lives with a thousand cats and blogs on jezebel.

[MJGreen]

Also seems to equate a home invader with a "Boy Scout, chase-after-the-guy" sort of person. They're both, ultimately, dudes.

[Heroic Mulatto]

The world's best weapon against a dude if you don't have a weapon yourself is another dude, right?

BZZZ! IT IS OUR DUTY TO DIE FOR THE QUEEN BEE! BZZZZ!

[Swiss Servator, Grundgesetz!]

+1 http://www.theonion.com/articles/ask-a-bee,12241/

[Coeus]

According to Marcotte, it's the least a guy can do. It's not even heroic.

[Rich]

How good will I be at dialing 911 in a panic, or half asleep, or under duress? Will I drop the phone, fumbling like an idiot, will I lose it, break it, step on it, destroy it? How well will I dial 911?

Answer: LIKE A MOTHERFUCKER.

EXCUSE ME?

[BiMonSciFiCon]

It makes sense if you go to the Jezebel writing retreat.

[Cytotoxic]

She's going to break it, fumble it, drop it, lose it, step on it, AND destroy-all of those things LIKE A MOTHERFUCKER.

[RussianPrimeMinister]

People who fuck their own mothers tend to be clumsy, after all.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

It's a family tradition.

[Tonio]

The lack of self-awareness is appalling.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

Victim blamer. We need to train men not to break into houses.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Nice. Why should anyone have to lock their doors or sleep with a window closed?

Clearly we need to make a lot of noise about how the world should be and...uh... and then things will become that way with enough awareness. You'll see!

[The DerpRider]

Second mistrial in toddler shooting. SWAT cop kills baby in night raid and jury can't even agree on a misdemeanor charge of negligence.

[RussianPrimeMinister]

Pretty simple, I think.

We go to the homes of the SWAT members and shoot THEIR children.

Stop that shit once and for all, Egypt style.

[The Late P Brooks]

A Wall Street Journal report cited an unnamed official claiming President Barack Obama wants to shut down Guantanamo Bay

I'm sure the White House plumbers are hot on the trail of the "unnamed critic" responsible for that leak.

[The Late P Brooks]

Irrational or not, that's what it felt like. Just glad I had a dude. (Thanks, dude.)

Birth of a Neocon.

[The DerpRider]

A Labyrinth sequal?

[The DerpRider]

sequel. yeesh. time for beer.

[Rich]

Beer, or bear? 😉

[flye]

They already made one, Pan's Labyrinth.

Oddly enough kids didn't really take to it.

[RussianPrimeMinister]

It was the face smashing that put them off, I'm sure.

[flye]

If kids don't like an allegorical fantasy about the doomed resistance to fascism, then there's something wrong with THEM.

[OldMexican]

Re: The DerpRider,

A Labyrinth sequal?

Will it also have a mildly disturbing fascination by a grown man/goblin for a young and virginal teenager?

[flye]

Hey now, I liked The Professional.

[The DerpRider]

And speaking of beer, I will be hitting up some Dark Penance for the second time. It's another great one from Founder's.

[Gozer the Gozerian]

Weihenstephaner tonight, like pretty much every night.

But which variety? That's the intriguing part!

[flye]

I am but three short hours away from several glasses of Reality Czech.

[The DerpRider]

Oregon governor's wife admits to sham marriage. The Gov did not know about it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzbhbetwYFU

[Coeus]

Sexy celebrities with ulgy significant others.

So what's the deal? Does Salman Rushdie have like a foot long cock or something?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I'm thinking it's more his account balance.

[Coeus]

ScarJo, Olivia Wilde and Padma Lakshmi are already millionaires.

[Brandon]

That doesn't always seem to matter. Going either way.

[Carl ?s the level]

Whoever wrote the commentary on this is pathetic.

[Coeus]

Yeah, it's pretty bad. One or two got a slight chuckle though.

[Idle Hands]

That was fun.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I don't know half those people and the other half that's supposed to be sexy ain't all that to me.

And the author is a douchebag for attacking Owen for being a faithful gentleman. Fucktwad.

[Idle Hands]

Agreed, besides his wife is probably like an 8/10 in Britain.

[MJGreen]

Why does Sarah-Jane look like that?

Sheesh. Fuck you.

[lap83]

Yeah the author really came across as a douche in that article.

[lap83]

Clive Owen, by contrast, seems like a caring person as well as attractive. It's nice to know that not everyone is a fickle whore in Hollywood.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

What about Gwyneth Paltrow?

[a better weapon]

I don't fucking believe it! The "Shnozeberries taste like shnozeberries" stoner icon from Super Troopers is with Christina Hendricks.

This world is a cruel place.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Speaking of which:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....34874.html

[lap83]

Somehow knowing that Clive Owen is with a relatively plain woman makes me like him even more.

[ant1sthenes]

I know what you mean.

[Coeus]

Brutal footage of a suspect begging a cop to call of a dog.

Sometimes I wish Dunphy was back. I miss his "waah" posting every time a cop dog eats someone's dick. Bet he'd cry if a dog ate his dick.

[Brandon]

What dick?

[Idle Hands]

That was like getting a brutal nut punch twice. First I gave page clicks to the raw story and then I saw that awful footage.

[Coeus]

I'm suprised it made the cut. The dude's white. I thought that meant he deserved to have his dick eaten by a dog. They certainly believe it means you deserve to be beaten up by a black teenager.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) met with civil rights leaders in Ferguson, Missouri today. He's the first presidential hopeful to do so.

So who will be the first political commentator to spin this into racially problematic Paul's "Nixon to China" moment?

[Tonio]

You.

[Coeus]

About time we got a rational ruling on this shit.

udge McKenna dismissed the charges against Cleveland, writing, "This Court finds that no individual clothed and positioned in such a manner in a public area in broad daylight in the presence of countless other individuals could have a reasonable expectation of privacy."

Explaining the reasoning behind her decision, McKenna wrote, "The images captured were not 'incidental glimpses' and in fact were images that were exposed to the public without requiring any extraordinary lengths whatsoever, to view."

It just takes a woman judge. The lite sentencing of women disappears with female judges as well.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I would need to see the photos to make up my mind.

[RussianPrimeMinister]

Yes. Sure. That's why you need to see the photos.

[Gabriel Dunn]

What a stupid ruling. You cannot have civilization as we know it with upskirt photos being legal.

There is no way you can logically argue that the freedom of speech was intended to protect the taking of upskirt photos without consent.

[Coeus]

There was no upskirt. They were sitting on the steps of the memorial, crotches fully in view to anyone walking by.

Freedom of speech has been construed to mean that you can photograph things done in full public view. Pretty much the only people who disagree are bad cops and feminists.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Jesus. How many handles do you have?

[New Normal]

Breitbart resident asshole/nutjob James Delingpole uncovers the truth of those 4 dead Palestinian kids thanks to random guy with a blog nobody has heard of.

http://www.breitbart.com/Breit.....d-by-Hamas

I think that's the same guy Frum had to apologize for believing.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Jeez. It says "Claim:" in the headline....

[New Normal]

It's the 5th leading story on the site. Read the comments and tell me those people merely take it as a 'claim', as if calling it that somehow negates all journalistic responsibility.

[tarran]

So despite the fact that James Delingpole clearly writes that the claims are improbably and sound like a wacky conspiracy theory, the fact that people with poor reading comprehension (or an axe to grind) choose to claim that Delingpole is making an unqualified assertion that he has "uncovered the truth of those 4 dead Palestinian kids" is Delingpole's fault.

Okaaaaay.

[New Normal]

He finds them so conspiratorial that he called the blogger the Sherlock Holmes of the internet.

[tarran]

Wow! Either you are arguing in bad faith, or you read English at a 2nd grade level.

Because his entire quote is....

He is the Sherlock Holmes of the internet and if he is right on this, then his findings are dynamite

Look.. I get it... you hate the guy. There are plenty of people I hate too. I just don't stoop to the level of making up shit about them. I suggest you try the same, it will keep you from discovering that one day that everyone who has reasonable installed no longer can see your posts.

[widget]

The U.N. is predicting a massacre if ISIS takes the Syrian city of Kobani. France says airstrikes aren't enough to stop ISIS's drive toward the Turkish border

I didn't know about Rwanda until I read an Elmore Leaonard novel on the topic a few years later. The savagery is still going on, it just leaked over to the Congo.

[RussianPrimeMinister]

Nothing a few billion dollars worth of bombs can't fix, amirite?

[widget]

We took a few Vietnamese with us when Gerald Ford bugged out. They live in Garden Grove and Fresno, CA. Some of the kids join gangs and the adults work for LADWP (like there's a difference), but they're otherwise unannoying. I don't like Vietnamese food. Thai and Korean for me.

[Pro Libertate]

I like Vietnamese food and Thai. I also like Malaysian, though I've only had that once since going over there in the 90s (in a Malaysian restaurant in DC).

[flye]

No Vietnamese food? Get the pho out.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

There's plenty here if you like it. There's a street in Little Saigon that has 5 different pho places on 1 block. All 4 stars and above.

[flye]

I have a dozen places within walking distance of my work, although I can't eat pho the way Vietnamese people do -- they get a bowl of soup the size of a washtub. It's incredible.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I had it for the 1st time about 3 years ago. I was really mad for not knowing about it sooner.

I had maybe a quart of really salty broth. Man that really got the blood pumping.

[OldMexican]

The U.N. is predicting a massacre if ISIS takes the Syrian city of Kobani.

If the prediction came from the same people that warned us about the end of the world by carbon poisoning by around this time, then don't blame me for being slightly skeptical.

The Defense Department is allowed to shift $750 million in war funds to fighting Ebola

They'll find out soon enough that pin-point strikes against the little buggers will not suffice, after which politicians will blame the Obama administration for not acting quickly enough to stop those crazy zealot viruses.