Tag Archives: Ted Cruz

April Showers Bring Headaches ► Unpacking The Writer

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Delray Beach Drum Circle – April 15, 2016

Here we go again! As long-time readers know, my Unpacking The Writer series is where I peel back the curtain to reveal the inner-workings of the mind of a one-man newsroom operation. 

The Wizard of Oz analogy is always appropriate since I once wrote under the nom de plume of Aunty Em and christened my haters The Flying Monkey Squad. But enough about those crazy MoFos.

I usually begin these Unpacking The Writer on the 15th of the month and spend a few days slapping down the points I want to make for the month. Then I use part of another day to kick it into shape, finally publishing the sucker under this rubric when it feels right. It hasn’t felt right because I’ve barely had time to work on this.

I started putting this together in my head at Wednesday’s Delray Beach Drum Circle. I’m still going to drum circles whenever possible. Over the last year I’ve developed some Drum Pals, and we either meet up or share rides to the event. I am generally the designated driver; not because anyone is drinking alcohol, but because I just love to drive. I am fascinated by my interest in Drum Circles. Why is this so important to me? I’ve never been a joiner, but find myself abandoning my inner curmudgeon to get together with other people so I can bang wooden sticks together.

People rocking out to the Delray Beach Drum Circle

I know there’s a story of several thousand words in Drum Circles, but it’s yet to find me and I have not found it, either. Like I used to tell my children when they couldn’t fall asleep, “You can’t go looking for the Sandman. He has to come find you.” Same with stories I really want to write.

Campaign Carl helping me cement our great friendship. We’re now like THIS!

The last week has been somewhat hectic. I went to the Marco Rubio campaign kick-off and managed to get 2 separate and totally different stories out of it. Three Stooges In The GOP Clown Car is my take for the Not Now Silly Newsroom, while Outside The Curcus Tent At The Marco Rubio Campaign Kick-Off was an EXCLUSIVE for PoliticusUSA.

However, the best part of last Monday was exchanging information with my new best friend, Campaign Carl Cameron, Chief Political Correspondent for the Fox “News” Channel. We had a few laughs over the fact that his bosses hate me, but he had to do a live pop for Cavuto (or was it The Five?) before we got around to discussing anything important, like “Is Hannity as crazy as he seems?” or “Does Loofah Lad Big Foot everyone in the Fox corridors, the way he does guests on his show?” However, there’s always the next time. Call me, Carl. You have my business card.

Politically, NNS started this past moth with Cruzing Back To The ’50s ► Presidential Politics Post, which tipped my hand as to how I plan to follow the GOP field of candidates. I’m not going to take any of them seriously until the field has been narrowed to the top 3 or 4, and then I’m going to start making fun of them.

This month also included A Passover/Easter Pastoral Letter, the latest in that series. While I have a great need to be exploring these issues, I’m not so sure Pastor Kenny shares my need. What has me puzzled is why Pastor Kenny doesn’t sense my need and minister to me. No matter, because I am still making discoveries on my own, mining an area I call “The Trunk Lost In Transit.”

The month ended with another campaign event (and my first real headache of the season, but I’ll get to that eventually). Compared to someone running for POTUS, the Miami District 2 campaign is small ball. However, aside from the fact that the District 2 Commissioner is considered the most powerful in Miami, local politics is really where the rubber meets the road. Think globally. Act locally.

Lorry Woods in conversation with a voter in West Grove

Restauranteur Lorry Woods has been on what she calls a listening tour of her potential constituents in Miami’s District 2. Because she held a Meet & Greet in the part of the district 2 that interests me the most, I drove down to West Grove and posted my day as Coconut Grove Is Not Out Of The Woods Yet. It was nice to run into so many people I knew at the BBQ and meet several new people.

That’s where the headache comes in. I was fine when I left Coconut Grove, but partway home I started to get one of my debilitating migraines. By the time I got home, I could barely see straight and had to crawl into bed to try and nap.

I go through this every Spring. It’s a symptom left over from when I had a vestibular disorder almost 2 decades ago. While the constant dizziness and vomiting eventually dissapated, 3 symptoms never went away: 1). When I am in a room with an awful din of background noise, I can’t hear the person right next to me; 2). I have occasional attacks of tinnitus. These are not as difficult to handle as some people experience because it only ever lasts from a few seconds to a minute, tops, and then it fades away to nothing. Although, it’s incredibly painful; like high-pitched feedback. Instructively I cover my ear it hurts so much; 3). And, massive headaches when the air pressure is changing rapidly from RAIN to FAIR. That tends to describe Spring and, to a lesser extent, Fall.

Sure enough, as I was driving home, the clouds rolled in and I could see lightening in the distance. When I finally got home and upacked the car, I checked the barometer in the kitchen. The needle had swung all the way over to LIE DOWN NOW!

The biggest news this month is that I have FINALLY reformatted the hard drive in my PC tower, after threatening to do it for so long. It kept the Not Now Silly Newsroom off the air for 2 weeks, but it was worth it. I’m now running WinDoze 8.1 and everything is a whole lot faster than it was previously. At the same time, to help facilitate the downtime without a RC tower, I bought a laptop, which is also running WinDoze 8.1.

The laptop and renovated tower will, hopefully — because that’s the plan — make the Not Now Silly Newsroom more productive. With so many stories in the hopper, I should be busy for quite some time. F’rinstance, there’s a whole new Trojan Horse Parking Lot story I want to write, not to mention a more recent story on a brand new way the City of Miami is trying to keep public information from the taxpayers. However, there’s still some more research and a few interviews I want to conduct before that sucker’s ready.

Meanwhile, I recently had a whole new idea to explore that has nothing to do with writing, politics, or Drum Circles. However, I can’t tip my hand yet. Maybe by the next Unpacking The Writer, I’ll have all the disparate threads on that tied up and can make an announcement on this new venture.

Until then, we take you back to our original Not Now Sill programming, already in progress.

Three Stooges In The GOP Clown Car

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The Freedom Tower in Miami
All pics copyright Headly Westerfield, 2016

Senator Marco Rubio made it official: He’s running for POTUS! Rubio is the third Senator in the GOP clown car, after Rand “Ayn” Paul called “Shotgun!” knowing full well the vehicle was already under Ted Cruz control.

Rubio made his public announcement at the Freedom Tower (not to be confused with NYC’s Freedom Tower), which has great significance in Miami’s Cuban community. It’s known as the “Ellis Island of the south” because it was used to process the tens of thousands of Cubanos who fled Castro’s regime.

However, as much as this “son of a bartender, son of a maid” played the grassroots populist at his Miami launch, Rubio may have tipped his hand towards his true constituency: the Fat Cats, who bankroll candidates hoping for some of that quid pro quo down the line. Before announcing to the general public, Bloomberg tells us:

In a private breakfast Monday morning with about 100 donors at the Miami Marriott Biscayne Bay, he played up the yesterday-versus-today contrast.

That theme serves another, more immediate purpose: It allows him to
tacitly build a case against his mentor, former Florida Governor Jeb
Bush, without mentioning him by name. Bush’s father and brother spent 12
years in the White House, and he is expected to announce his own bid in
the coming weeks. Bush, 62, has been criss-crossing the country since
December, trying to build an early war chest of $100 million or more.

That Rubio has challenged his former-mentor, Jeb “Forget About My Brother and Father” Bush, has created a schism in parts of Florida’s Latino community, which has always been fond of the former Florida governor. However, Rubio’s biggest problem might be in ‘Merka’s wider Latin community. People remember how he first backed a path to normalization for undocumented immigrants and, when that didn’t play well in the polls, reversed course. Now it appears he’s in favour of creating a 2nd class of citizenship for the undocumented, which would last 10 years.

See an entire gallery of Not Now Silly images
from the Marco Rubio Campaign Kick-Off.

In Marco Rubio enters fray despite sliding clout among Latinos, the Boston Herald notes:

Poll numbers suggest Rubio’s recent retreat from his previous support of comprehensive immigration reform is hurting him among Latinos. A member of the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” that drafted a comprehensive immigration reform package in 2013 that passed the Senate but stalled in the House, Rubio later backed away from his support of the measure, embracing a more conservative stance that focused on border security.

A recent poll by political opinion firm Latino Decisions stated that policy shift hurt Rubio with likely Latino voters nationwide, only 31 percent of whom have a favorable view of the senator compared to 36 percent who have an unfavorable view.

In key Latino-influence states, the numbers are more dire: In his home state of Florida, his unfavorable rating stands at 42 percent compared to a 39 percent favorability rating. In California, only 25 percent of Latinos rated him favorably, compared to 39 percent who gave him poor marks.

As if to underscore that opposition, 50-60 vocal “Dreamers” came out to protest Rubio’s announcement.
They quickly became the focus of the media because there was very little
else going on in the 85 degree heat.

Rubio, the youngest candidate in the race, is trying to sell himself as a game-changer; a new candidate for the new century. However, the century will be celebrating its Sweet Sixteen by the time of the next national election. As my PoliticusUSA colleague Jason Easley writes in Marco Rubio Faceplants Into 2016 By Not Seeming To Know That The 21st Century Already Started: 

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) told ABC News that he is
thinks he can be the candidate to lead America into the 21st Century.
The problem is that the 21st Century began 15 years ago.

During an interview with ABC News,
Rubio said, “I think this country’s at a generational moment where it
needs to decide not what party it wants in charge but what kind of
country are we going to want to be moving forward. I think the 21st
century can be the American century, and I believe that I can lead this
country in that direction. I can help lead it there from the Senate. I
can lead it there as president.”

TIME Magazine tells us how Rubio intends to thread the needle of what is predicted to be a crowded GOP field:

[…] Rubio’s path to the party’s nomination relies on running a lean, upbeat campaign that blooms late, advisers say. At this stage, being a lot of voters’ second choice can be a first-rate strategy. The campaign hopes the base never warms to Bush, its romance with Walker proves fleeting and the social-conservative vote is divvied up between the various candidates vying for it. Then Rubio’s lean campaign operation will expand rapidly, and he can capitalize on his personal magnetism through the platform provided by the presidential debates. Rubio aides point to the roller-coaster GOP primary in 2012 as evidence that strategy can work.


Videos in this playlist copyright Headly Westerfield, 2016 – Feel free to repost with credit

Now that Rubio has thrown his hat into the Clown Car, the Oppo Knives will come out for him, both from the Democratic side and those in his own party. Maybe we’ll finally get to the bottom of Rubio’s credit card SNAFU when he was in the Florida legislature. Fox “News” reported (almost exactly 5 years ago) that opponent Charlie Crist accused him of some jiggery-pokery on the GOP dime. From GOP Credit Scandal Threatens to Halt Rubio’s Momentum in Primary:

Rubio, a former state House speaker, had a party card for nearly four years and admits using it for some personal expense, but he says he personally paid American Express for non-party charges.

The controversy comes at an inopportune time for Rubio who has a substantial lead against Crist in the polls and on Thursday picked up his latest high-profile endorsement, from former Vice President Dick Cheney.

On Wednesday, Rubio sent a $2,417 check to the state party as reimbursement for six flights that he said were inadvertently double-billed to the party and to state taxpayers, The Miami Herald reported.

That pesky problem went away after Rubio reimbursed the party for some personal expenses that, had he not been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, might very well have sailed through Florida’s GOP Petty Cash Accountancy. No doubt this will come up again in the next 18 months.

No matter what happens, we’re going to be in for a bumpy ride. With as many as 6 more potential GOP candidates against Hillary Clinton, these folks are going to have to move to the Right to appeal to the rabid primary voters. When the party finally anoints a standard bearer, they will have to, in the words of that famous song:

It’s just a jump to the left
And then a step to the right
Put your hands on your hips
You bring your knees in tight
But it’s the pelvic thrust that really drives you insane,
Let’s do the Time Warp again!
Let’s do the Time Warp again!

To get your election toes’a’tapping:

Cruzing Back to the ’50s ► Presidential Politics Post

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Now that narcissistic Senator Ted Cruz, (R) God’s Country, has thrown his halo into the presidential ring, the knives on all sides have come out.

There’s a lot of hate for Cuban-Canadian Cruz on the Left. It’s hard not to overlook how this crazy MoFo shut down the government when he didn’t get his way to abolish Obamacare. Of course, he was standing on the Constitution because that’s exactly how the Founding Fathers would have wanted it. The Founders weren’t into compromise either and started an entire revolution so as to not bend their knee to the King. Same thing here, ‘cept no shots were fired.

Before he shut down the government, this crackpot stamped his foot through an actually 21-hour filibuster as a political stunt and to beat Rand Paul’s earlier 15 hour filibuster. [For a short period standing on your feet and looking foolish for hours on end was all the rage.]

It’s not just the Left that has it out for Cruz. Representative Peter King, someone in his own party, had a few choice things to say to CNN about Cruz:

“To me, he’s a guy with a big mouth and no results,” the New York Republican told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in an interview on “The Situation Room.”

“We have very, very complex issues facing the country today, and he goes out of his way to oversimplify,” King said of Cruz. “Ted Cruz may be an intelligent person, but he doesn’t carry out an intelligent debate. He oversimplifies, he exaggerates … he doesn’t provide leadership and he has no real experience.”

Whether you’re on the Right, or the Left, there’s no denying that the shutdown left a bad taste in everybody’s mouth when all the costs were added up. According to The Full Cost of the Government Shutdown:

Financial ratings agency Standard & Poor’s reported this week the 16-day U.S. government shutdown costs delivered a massive $24 billion hit to the U.S. economy.



Standard & Poor’s said the shutdown equaled some $1.5 billion a
day and “shaved at least 0.6% off annualized fourth quarter 2013 GDP
growth.” Moody’s Analytics reported similar numbers, saying the
shutdown cost $1.4375 billion per day, for a $23 billion wallop to U.S.
gross domestic product.



“The bottom line is the government shutdown has hurt the U.S.
economy,” Standard & Poor’s said in a statement. “In September, we
expected 3% annualized growth in the fourth quarter because we thought
politicians would have learned from 2011 and taken steps to avoid
things like a government shutdown and the possibility of a sovereign
default. Since our forecast didn’t hold, we now have to lower our
fourth-quarter growth estimate to closer to 2%.”

While taxpayers shudder, comedians from the Maine to Hawaii rejoice. They know their paycheques won’t be ending any time soon. Fresh out of the gate was Jon Stewart, whose paycheque, ironically, will be ending soon.

The truth of the matter is Ted Cruz is a so scared of what
people think of him, he renounced his Canadian citizenship. This means that once he’s charged with a crime, which “some people say” is just a matter of time, he has cut off his escape route. He’ll have to apply for asylum in Cuba instead.

Despite his vehement and never-ending objections against Obamacare — and renouncing his commitment to Queen Elizabeth — he has never
reimbursed the Canadian Health Care System for his birth.

[FULL DISCLOSURE: NNS Head Writer Headly Westerfield has sworn an oath to
Queen Elizabeth, including her heirs and assigns, that he would not vote in the
elections of another country. But that doesn’t mean he can’t make fun of
them.]

But, it’s not the country of his birth that disqualifies Cruz from the nation’s highest office. My PoliticusUSA colleague Becky Sarwate asks the musical question, Ted Cruz In Unelectable, So Why Is He Running For President? And, she answers with:

In a piece entitled Ted Cruz Hopes Early Campaign Entry Will Focus Voters’ Attention, writers Jonathan Martin and Maggie Haberman of The New York Times
quote longtime Republican strategist Dave Carney as saying, “It’s the
shiny object principle. He wants to be first, get in the conversation,
not show any doubt or hesitation.” If there are two things at which Cruz
excels, it is the use of shiny objects to distract constituents from
real issues and a refusal to second guess himself. Thus the announcement
bore a fitting similarity to the man making it.

After capturing the
zeitgeist and the ire of lawmakers from both parties during October
2013’s partial government shutdown, GOP rainmakers no less authoritative
than longtime Arizona Senator John McCain labeled Cruz’s pointless
stoking of the House, “a fool’s errand.” New York Republican Congressman Peter King
minced a few less words in observing, “My sound bite is to say he’s a
fraud…I start with that, and then I go on. It takes me two or three
minutes to explain it.”

The Ted Cruz Coloring Book is not satire, it just feels that way.

Yesterday, while this Dominionist was giving his announcement speech at Liberty University, a school with its own sordid history of Racism and Homophobia, some of those potential Cruz cultists were clearly not with the program. How Rand Paul Supporters Provided Awkward Backdrop for Ted Cruz’s 2016 Announcement is worth a laugh, too:

Several students wearing “Stand With Rand” shirts made their way into seats directly behind Cruz on stage this morning. The students’ shirts were blurry yet visible in many of the shots during Cruz’s speech.


 The “Stand With Rand” campaign was launched by Sen. Rand Paul’s team during his filibuster of U.S. drone policy in the spring of 2013. Paul’s filibuster lasted 13 hours and was the longest in recent memory. That is, until Cruz stood on the Senate floor for more than 21 hours to discuss defunding Obamacare in September of the same year.

You can see there’s already bad blood between Cruz and Paul supporters. Pass the popcorn! However, What college students are saying behind Ted Cruz’s back, is even funnier:

Making such a major announcement on a college campus might seem like a
risky move for a conservative like Cruz, but Liberty University is no
ordinary college. Founded by Rev. Jerry Falwell in the early 1970s, the
school was recently listed as one of the top ten most conservative colleges in
the country. The odds of Cruz’s announcement speech being interrupted
by liberal protesters were about as low at Liberty as they would have
been at CPAC, the annual conservative conference. Cruz’s choice of venue
also allowed him to send social conservatives a message while visibly
appealing to young people.


Nevertheless,
college kids are still college kids, and mandatory Monday morning
assemblies are still mandatory Monday morning assemblies. Yes, that’s
right: Attendance at Cruz’s speech was mandatory for all Liberty
students.


As you might expect, anonymous local messaging app Yik Yak soon filled up with comments from Liberty students mercilessly mocking Cruz.

The truth of the matter is that Ted Cruz is the first one in the Clown Car. He’s not a serious candidate and the Not Now Silly Newsroom refuses to take him seriously. He’s a sideshow to the main event, which will culminate in the next president elected in 2016. While the results are far too important for circus sideshows, let’s all agree to find our laughs where we can get them. Ted Cruz is a joke from top to bottom.

This is the first Presidential Politics Post as the Not Now Silly Newsroom cranks up its 2016 election coverage.

Headlines Du Jour ► Monday, February 17, 2014

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As we celebrate the birth of Jerry Lewis-muse Kathleen Freeman, let’s take a closer look at a few Headlines Du Jour from yesteryear:

• 1753 – In Sweden February 17 is followed by March 1 as the country moves from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar.
• 1801 – An electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr is resolved when Jefferson is elected President of the United States and Burr Vice President by the United States House of Representatives.
• 1819 – The United States House of Representatives passes the Missouri Compromise for the first time.
• 1933 – The Blaine Act ends Prohibition in the United States.
• 1959 – Project Vanguard: Vanguard 2 – The first weather satellite is launched to measure cloud-cover distribution.
• 1965 – Project Ranger: The Ranger 8 probe launches on its mission to photograph the Mare Tranquillitatis region of the Moon in preparation for the manned Apollo missions. Mare Tranquillitatis or the “Sea of Tranquility” would become the site chosen for the Apollo 11 lunar landing.
• 1996 – In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, world champion Garry Kasparov beats the Deep Blue supercomputer in a chess match.

Now that that’s over with, let’s take a gander at today’s Headlines Du Jour:

BOYCOTT THE SOCHI OLYMPICS!!!

Russians “brutally” arrest former Italian member of parliament at Sochi Olympics

TODAY IN HEALTH CARE:

Hospital charges shown to vary widely
Some bill more ‘because they can’

FREE THE WEED!!!

New details emerge on Colorado
marijuana operators raided by feds

Deep pockets and personal stories underpin Florida’s medical marijuana push

HACKING DU JOUR:

Kickstarter Hacked, Credit Card Data Safe

PHONE HACKING IN THE NEWS AGAIN:

Murdoch’s ex-British paper boss Brooks to start phone-hacking defense

LOOFAH LAD IN THE NEWS AGAIN:

Would Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly be a good president in 2016 or not?

FOX “NEWS” IN THE NEWS AGAIN:

Why would a Michigan medical clinic block Fox News?

WHEN THE MITT HITS THE FAN:

THE “O” IN GOP STANDS FOR OH! STOP!! MY!!! SIDES!!!!

Election Thief Karl Rove Says Chris Christie Is What We Want In a President

PASS THE POPCORN!!!

Reviled by Republicans,
Ted Cruz is ‘So Hated,
He’s Going to Need
a Food Taster’

REAL ESTATE CORNER:

Al Capone’s gangster mansion on the market in Miami Beach

CONSTITUTION CORNER:

Top Ten Reasons Why You Should Not Talk to the Police


CRACK MAYOR CORNER:

Rob Ford’s Toronto: where the buck doesn’t stop

If Ukrainians can protest their leader in weather even colder than Toronto’s, why are Torontonians content to let Rob Ford be mayor?

STAR TREK UNIVERSE:

Michael Dorn Confirms He’s Working on a ‘Star Trek: Captain Worf’ TV Series

CBS developing new CSI
and EMS related Star Trek
television shows

TODAY IN RELIGION:

Pastor dies after snake he was handling bit him

DYLAN IN DECLINE:

Bob Dylan and the Ethics of Market Fascism

VIDEO DU JOUR:


Headlines Du Jour is a leisure-time activity of Not Now Silly, home of the
Steam-Powered Word-0-Matic, and your rest stop on the Information
Highway. Use our valuable bandwidth to post your news comments in
today’s open thread.

Headlines Du Jour ► Sunday, February 16, 2014

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Hello Headliners! Today would have been Sonny Bono‘s 79th birthday, had he not died — as a Congressman — in a tragic skiing accident in 1998. Among Headlines Du Jour from yesteryear are:

• 1852 – Studebaker Brothers wagon company, precursor of the automobile manufacturer, is established.
• 1874 – Silver Dollar becomes legal US tender.
• 1923 – Howard Carter unseals the burial chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamun.
• 1959 – Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba after dictator Fulgencio Batista was overthrown on January 1.
• 1978 – The first computer bulletin board system is created (CBBS in Chicago, Illinois).
• 1987 – The trial of John Demjanjuk, accused of being a Nazi guard dubbed “Ivan the Terrible” in Treblinka extermination camp, starts in Jerusalem.

Without further delay, let’s get right to today’s Headlines Du Jour:

LGBT NEWS:

Kansas Senate Comes To It’s Senses And Nixes Extreme Anti-Gay Legislation

Idaho’s top court grants
adoptive rights to spouse
in gay marriage

FREE THE WEED!!!

Wisconsin Gov. Thinks Alcohol Safer Than Pot

Tokers React to High-Priced Legal
Marijuana Sales in Colorado

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING:

5 Things You May Not Know
About Drone Use On U.S. Soil

HISTORY IS COMPLICATED.
EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY EVEN MORE SO.

New fossil bed found by
scientists hailed as ‘motherlode’
Marble Canyon in B.C.’s Kootenay National
Park yielding dozens of discoveries

THE “O” IN GOP STANDS FOR OMG!!!

Poll: Republicans like George Zimmerman more than President Obama. Independents not far behind

Ted Cruz Violates The First Amendment With Anti-Gay Marriage Senate Bill

JOKE DU JOUR:

Sarah Palin Would Win Presidential Election ‘Hands Down’ if No Media Bias, According to Husband (Video)

ANOTHER DISPATCH FROM DETROIT, ‘MERKA’S FIRST THROWAWAY CITY:

A DISPATCH FROM WINDSOR ABOUT DETROIT, ‘MERKA’S FIRST THROWAWAY CITY:

Henderson: What happened to our once mighty neighbour?

RELIGION CORNER:

Virginia Marriage Equality Decision Exposes Religious Right’s Hatred of America

BULLY CORNER:

NFL Report Proves Without
A Doubt That Richie Incognito
Is A Terrible Person

◄ Speaking of terrible people, here’s my cyber-bully ►
The Mark Koldys-Johnny Dollar Cyber-Bully Comments of the Day

THIS IS WHY WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS:

One in four Americans
unaware that Earth circles Sun

FOX “NEWS” IN THE NEWS AGAIN:

A Whole Hour with Fox “News”

LOOFAH LAD IN THE NEWS AGAIN:

VIDEO DU JOUR:


Headlines Du Jour is a leisure-time activity of Not Now Silly, home of the
Steam-Powered Word-0-Matic, and your rest stop on the Information
Highway. Use our valuable bandwidth to post your news comments in
today’s open thread.

Headlines Du Jour ► Tuesday, November 26, 2013

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The Not Now Silly News Team has been working all night
long to compile the very best of today’s Headlines Du Jour. So, grab a cop of coffee and
settle down to the best damn headlines found anywhere.

TEABAGGED ENOUGH ALREADY?

Christian Tea Party Terrorist Claims 2nd Amendment
Authority To Shoot President Obama!

STAND YOUR GROUND:

‘Stand your ground’ moves to Ohio Senate

Police find 12-gauge, rifle, and more than 100
rounds at George Zimmerman’s girlfriend’s home

Why George Zimmerman Was Arrested
Immediately When He Abused A White Woman

The Curious Case Of George Zimmerman’s Public Defender

FREE THE WEED:

Pot smokers warned: think twice
before crossing U.S. border
Canadians heading south to sample
legal marijuana should not expect
a warm welcome at the border


ANOTHER DISPATCH FROM DETROIT, ‘MERKA’S FIRST THROWAWAY CITY:

Task force to compile database
in Detroit blight fight

Thieves target massive water
tower at Packard Plant in Detroit

Torched: Jefferson Ave’s Historic Somerset Apartments

Video: The Diego Rivera Murals As You’ve Never Seen Them

FOX NEWS IN THE NEWS:

Ed Schultz Blasts Fox’s ‘Steve Douchey,’ Cavuto
for Claiming Iran Deal Distraction from Obamacare

Sarah Palin Snubs Bill O’Reilly?!

Fox Host: Obamacare is worse than Katrina
or the Iraq War because it touches more lives


I AIN’T AFRAID OF NO GHOSTS:

‘Ghost-hunters’ allegedly burn down historic Louisiana plantation

The Ghost In The Machine

HAITIAN HATE IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC:

Dominicans expel 244 Haitians over border killings


IN LGBT NEWS:

The Very Gay History of the Almost Lost
Tradition of the Sunday Tea Dance


CRACKED MAYOR CORNER:

Blair must explain why police didn’t arrest Rob Ford
Why did police sit back and watch the mayor for months while he repeatedly met with an alleged dealer and apparently took curious packages from him?

 
Drunken Mayor Goes Bonkers After Being Arrested by
His Own Police Force

CRACKED CORNER:

Atheist drops golfer’s sponsorship over fears
Ted Cruz, Glenn Beck could taint business

The Day I Shook Hands With Glenn Beck


LAWSUIT DU JOUR:

Yuliana Avalos, Miami Bikini Model, Sues
Match.com For $1.5 Billion Over Stolen Photos

PERFECT FOR THE NUCLEAR FAMILY:

This House Has A Massive Door Going To The Basement.
When You See What’s Down There, You’ll Get It.


ENTERTAINMENT CORNER:

Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary episode breaks the Timelord’s
number one rule and re-writes history – and reminds us
why Matt Smith and David Tennant were so irritating

 

VIDEO DU JOUR

Brian Wilson, Frank Zappa & Graham Nash Go Inside Pop
Fascinating 1967 film lifts the lid on “the strange and compelling scene called ‘pop music’”.


Headlines Du Jour is a leisure-time activity of National Trufax, a wholly owned and operated subsidiary of Not Now Silly.,
home of the Steam-Powered Word-0-Matic. Updated through the day. Use
our valuable bandwidth to post your news comments in today’s open
thread.

Headlines Du Jour ► Monday, November 25, 2013

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Good morning, sleepyheads. While you were sleeping the Not Now Silly interns traveled the width and breadth of the interwebs in order to bring back today’s Headlines Du Jour. So, pour yourself a cup’o’joe and read what’s new in your world.

TODAY’S TOP HEADLINE DU JOUR:

Conrad Murray: I Held Michael Jackson’s Penis Every Night

TODAY’S EXCITING EPISODES OF COPS GONE WILD:


Texas cop arrested for handcuffing and
raping 19-year-old at traffic stop

Police Called, Man arrested, cuffed after
using Legal 2.00 Dollar bills at Best Buy

POLITICS? AGAIN?

GOP Stoops Even Lower: Senator Accuses
Obama of Using Iran Deal to Distract from ACA

10 Questions Every Liberal Should Ask Every Republican


MORE DISPATCHES FROM DETROIT, ‘MERKA’S FIRST THROWAWAY CITY:

See Why More Than 2.6 Million Viewers
Watched This Dance-Off At The Palace

► I remember passing this place. Pops had a store just up Livernois at Outer Drive ◄
Detroit dry cleaners retains link to JFK tragedy
Detroit business previously owned by the brother of Oswald’s killer bears scars of time, crime

FOX NEWS IN THE NEWS:

Megyn Kelly’s ‘Pledge Of Allegiance’ Controversy Fizzles!

CRACK CORNER:

Rob Ford: The inside story of the police investigation
Probing the mayor has been a delicate task for Toronto police. The Star gets a
peek at how they’ve handled the changing phases of an extraordinary probe.

SNL skit show makes light of Rob Ford

The multifarious ballads of Rob Ford

Part of Sarah Palin’s “Reload” campaign, released before Gabby Giffords was shot.

CRACKED CORNER:

Palin: Filibuster reform a conspiracy to stop talk of big government at Thanksgiving dinner

Palin: God ‘blessed’ with me a platform on Fox News to defend myself

Sarah Palin Doubles Down On Comparing Federal Debt To Human Slavery

CRACKPOT CORNER:

The Audacity of Dope:
Ted Cruz Claims Democrats Poisoned The Atmosphere of the Senate

RELIGION CORNER:

Imagine the right’s religion

SCIENCE CORNER:

Unprecedented neutrino discovery is a “Nobel Prize in the making”

VIDEO DU JOUR:


Headlines Du Jour is a leisure-time activity of National Trufax, a wholly owned and operated subsidiary of Not Now Silly.,
home of the Steam-Powered Word-0-Matic. Updated through the day. Use
our valuable bandwidth to post your news comments in today’s open
thread.

Headlines Du Jour ► Sunday, November 17, 2013

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Sunday is not a day of rest for the army of Not Now Silly interns. They are not allowed rest. Just like every other day of the week, they are provisioned and sent out to comb the vast reaches of cyberspace, with instructions not to return unless they bring back Headlines Du Jour. Here’s today’s haul.

TODAY IN GOD:

► A little too little, a little too late ◄
Charles Darwin to receive apology from
the Church of England for rejecting evolution
The
Church of England is to apologise to Charles Darwin
for its initial
rejection of his theories, nearly 150 years
after he published his most
famous work.

TODAY IN LGBT NEWS:

► Let’s not forget two things: 1). The Daily Caller is Tucker Carlson’s sewer; 2). When pronouncing his first name, the “F” is not silent, as in “Fucker.” Adding an adjective, like “stupid” is optional. ◄

Daily Caller: “Foolish” And “Stupid” Are
Totally Acceptable Definitions For “Gay”

TODAY’S FAUX REICH WING OUTRAGE:

Oprah: Old Racists ‘Just Have To Die’ To Further Racial Progress

BOOK CORNER:

‘Elizabeth And Hazel’: The Legacy Of Little Rock

Not as illustrated

TODAY IN WTF? NEWS:

Foster child found handcuffed to
porch with dead chicken around neck

I DIG ARCHEOLOGY:

Once An Ancient Village, Soon
An Entertainment Complex?

The Forgotten Giant Arrows
that Guide you Across America

CRACK CORNER:

SNL Lampoons Mayor Rob Ford and
60 Minutes During Cold Open

 

CRACKED CORNER:

Ted Cruz is Attending David Barton’s Conference for State Legislators

Bill Maher: Sarah Palin would prefer the Pope who quit while in office

HILARITY ENSUES:

Chase’s Twitter Gambit Devolves into All-Time PR Fiasco


VIDEO DU JOUR:

► In 1974 Arthur C. Clarke predicts what Not Now Silly does on the innertubes 40 years later ◄

Headlines Du Jour
is a leisure-time activity of National Trufax, a wholly owned and operated subsidiary of Not Now Silly., home of the Steam-Powered Word-0-Matic. Updated through the day.
Use our valuable bandwidth to post your news comments in today’s open
thread.

Headlines Du Jour ► Wednesday, November 6, 2013

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Mayor McCheese blames the Hamburglar for asking wrong questions

Welcome to today’s exciting edition of Headlines Du Jour, where only the freshest headlines are picked at the exact moment of ripeness for your news reading pleasure.

TORONTO’S MAYOR MC CHEESE ADMITS TO SMOKING CRACK:

Rob Ford : ‘Yes, I have smoked crack cocaine.’
Rob Ford said he smoked crack about a
year ago. “I don’t even remember.
Probably in one of my drunken stupors.”

 

Full transcript of Mayor Rob Ford admitting he smoked crack cocaine

Doug Ford calls on Toronto police chief to step down
Says Chief Blair believes he’s ‘judge, jury and executioner’ in case involving Mayor Rob Ford

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford ‘could easily get re-elected’
The mayor’s base of support hasn’t eroded much, say experts

COCONUT GROVE’S SOILGATE AFFECTS POOR AND RICH:

Du Pont Mansion in Coconut Grove Is Buried in Poison

BUT, THERE ARE PLENTY OF PLANETS WE HAVEN’T POLLUTED YET:

8.8 billion habitable Earth-size planets exist in Milky Way alone

ON THE ELECTION TRAIL:

Alabama GOP Special Election Candidate Told
Gays To ‘Go Back To California Or Vermont’

IN LGBT NEWS:

‘You Would Have To Kill Me’: Hawaii Police Union
President Speaks Against Gay Marriage Laws

IN HEALTH INSURANCE NEWS:

The Real Story Behind the Phony
Canceled Health Insurance Scandal
Insurance companies ripped off Americans for years
with lousy health plans. Obamacare was designed to fix that.

FROM THE FOUR FOOD GROUPS:

Family evacuated as deadly spiders hatch from Sainbury’s bananas
Terrified family flee London home after finding dozens of world’s most venomous
spiders hatching and crawling all over banana bought in supermarket chain

FROM DETROIT, ‘MERKA’S FIRST THROWAWAY CITY:

John Carlisle: Utopia-seeking squatters struggle
to create oasis in rough Detroit neighborhood

CRAZY POLITICIANS’ CORNER:

Ted Cruz’s Father is a Dangerous Religious Fanatic

Fresh Plagiarism Charges Raised Against Rand Paul

He Did It Again: Rand Paul Caught Plagiarizing
Word for Word in Washington Times Op-Ed

Gun-loving rock star Ted Nugent on possible
run for president: ‘Sure, why not?’

15 Things You Need To Know About David Barton,
The Man Who Could Be Texas’s Next Senator

 

TODAY’S EXCITING EDITION OF COPS GONE WILD:

4 On Your Side looks into traffic stop
gone horribly wrong for Lordsburg man

VIDEO DU JOUR:

Colbert Trolls Fox News By Offering
@RealHumanPraise On Twitter, And It’s Brilliant 

 

 

Headlines Du Jour is a semi-regular feature at Not Now Silly. Updated through the day. Use our valuable bandwidth to post your news comments in today’s open thread.