Day: September 22, 2014

There’s Still Time for Republican Crazies to Emerge Before Midterms

Buck Banks

I have to give the Republicans credit for one thing in this election cycle. They’ve been able to keep their crazies quiet. But the big question is: Will some GOP crazy talk seep out between now November 4? In the words of Sarah Palin, I’d have to say, ‘You betcha.’

— Dean Obeidallah, writing for the Daily Beast.

N.C. Congressional Candidate Suggests War with Mexico to Cure Illegal Immigration

Buck Banks

I will tell you if you have foreigners who are sneaking in with drug cartels to me that is a national threat. And if we got to go laser or blitz somebody with a couple of fighter jets for a little while to make our point, I don’t have a problem with that either. So yeah, whatever we need to do.

— North Carolina congressional candidate Mark Walker (R), suggesting war with Mexico might be a way to stop immigrants coming across the border, TPM reports.

An Aerial View of the Climate Change Rally in Manhattan

Jon Ponder

As many as 400,000 people attended this rally yesterday, but it is largely being ignored by both legit cable channels — maybe the rally’s organizers should have beaten their spouses or chopped off someone’s head. So far today, MSNBC has run just one, short end-of-the-hour segment, and it’s unclear whether CNN has done a broadcast report on it at all.

The video was posted by Democracy Now:

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Blackwater Ex-CEO’s Multimillion Security Contract in Iraq Ended in Disaster – Now He Blames Obama for ISIS ‘Mess’

Jon Ponder

Prince
  Prince
In 2003, Erik Prince used his wealthy parents’ connections in right-wing politics to land over $1 billion in security contracts for Blackwater, his private security company. During the Bush administration’s war in Iraq, Blackwater was one of dozens of contractors deployed into the war zone at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars — a deployment with disastrous consequences, especially in Blackwater’s case.

In the spring of 2004, U.S. Marines had to be sent into Fallujah twice after local fighters released video they’d taken while they killed Blackwater contractors and mutilated their bodies. The result was some of the bloodiest fighting of the occupation. On Dec. 24, 2006, an allegedly drunk Blackwater contractor shot and killed a bodyguard for Iraq’s vice president. Nine months later a squad of Blackwater mercenaries rolling through Baghdad opened fire at a crowded intersection killing 17 civilians. That incident was the beginning of the end for Blackwater. Its security contract in Iraq was cancelled after Bush left office.

Over the weekend, in a session at Maverick PAC, a right-wing political group with ties to the Bush family, Prince seemed to suggest that if only the Obama administration hadn’t cut off flow of millions in taxpayer dollars to Blackwater, his mercenaries could have stopped the rise of ISIS:

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