FBI report on the killing of Ibragim Todashev to be released soon

I doubt if the release of the report will please many of us. Several sources are reporting that the release of the FBI's investigation into the death of Ibragim Todashev is imminent. Bostonherald.com reports;

FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said the agency’s internal review is complete, and that it will be made public once the Department of Justice’s civil-rights division and a local Orlando, Fla., prosecutor finish their separate investigations.
“Once everyone is wrapped up, we’ll all release the reports at the same time,” Bresson said.

Todashev was shot to death while in FBI custody on May 21 of last year but the demands put on the FBI by the Benghazi and IRS investigations seems to have pushed it to point of paralysis.

Chris Matthews: Obama Is The Perfect Man

I gave up monitoring NBC/MSNBC a long time ago but every now and then they will outdo themselves and we have to remind ourselves just how real and how intense and how sincere the deification happens to be.

THE CASE FOR PERFECTION INCARNATE

Off Topic: Kevin Crowe

I LOVED THIS DOCUMENTARY

THE OVERNIGHT SENSATION AFTER 30 YEARS OF STRUGGLE

Fair Play For Monetary Destructionists

Begs the question, if debt does not matter, why does the government collect revenue?

SO WE COULD JUST HAVE A LONG MALAISE LIKE JAPAN?

Is Senator Flake Barack Obama's new bbf?

Is Senator Jeff Flake Barack Obama's new bbf? The super RINO from Arizona took to twitter Wednesday to question the timing and form of former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates' new book Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War. As of today, he is the only GOP senator who will not support a new bipartisan Iran sanctions measure currently under consideration in the House that is opposed by the Obama Administration. The bill has the support of 16 Democratic senators so it is a slam dunk without the Flake but it's good to see where his heart is.

Democratic congressman promises to review 9/11 truther claims

It's nice to see our elected representatives continue to keep an open mind on idiotic conspiracy theories. It is not that big of deal, really, but is a Republican back bencher had promised to look into President Obama's opaque background and his largely undocumented college career at Columbia he would be branded as a crazy by the national press.

CALLER: Hi there I really agree with the Congressman, oh yes. I have a question though I know you’re not a building expert, but you are a U.S. representative who sits on the Homeland Security Committee. So you are responsible to the American people to respond seriously to the opinions of over two thousand building experts.  We are talking national security here. There is very strong evidence for proving that 9/11 building seven was brought down by a controlled demolition people are waking up to it. Would you be willing to personally review that evidence?
HOST: Mary is part of a group out there that is skeptical of the investigation that was done of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
BRIAN HIGGINS: The 9/11 commission?
HOST:  Yes the 9/11 commission skeptical of their investigation.
BRIAN HIGGINS: I have a responsibility to review all relevant information relative to that situation most certainly. Any information that is compelling that change the dynamic of the debate relative to cause and effect, I would certainly review.

Kentucky Democrats try to buy independent candidate out of the race

The above video isn't especially informative but it is illustrative of the intellectual depth of the Kentucky Democratic Party. Until the very recent past Democrats controlled Kentucky since the end of the Civil War which has given the party ample time to inbreed. Kentucky politics is about family values; the Carroll family, the Yates family, the Young family, the Brown family and a host of lesser known political families. They're not exactly the Hapsburgs but they have done alright. Naturally the Democratic candidate for Senate, Alison Lundergan Grimes is the daughter of a former Kentucky Democratic Party state chair, Jerry Lundergan.
Ed Marksberry, an Owensboro housing contractor, was something of a loyal serf to the Kentucky Democratic gentry. He ran for congress in 2010 with its blessing taking 32% of the vote against Congressman Brett Guthrie which wasn't as good as Obama did two years later when he carried 37% of the vote in the same district. Last year Marksberry became convinced that Alison Lundergan Grimes would not run and entered the senate race as an independent.It's not everyday that a candidate comes forward with a story that his opposition has offered to buy him out of the election. In a lengthy 15 page missive Marksberry reveals that the Grimes campaign agreed to hire his campaign manager and take care of his website bills if he would withdraw from the race. Oh you say "What were they thinking?" They were thinking of meeting the terms that Marksberry himself had proposed.

We met and I was told that Alison’s campaign would like to ask me to consider stepping out of the race.
They said that Jerry ( Lundergan ) really liked me and that Jerry takes care of his friends. And if Alison wins, there could be a favored owed to me. Whatever that means, I don’t know, but I took it that if I ever needed some help in the future, I could call in my political equity with him.
I explained that I really liked Alison and that my campaign was no threat to her and it would be healthy for the Party to have my Liberal Progressive voice in the debate.
This person’s response was that they wouldn’t be reaching out if they didn’t think I was a concern for their campaign.
I had a lot of respect for Jerry, but just like all Democrats, we don’t agree on everything, but if we did, we would just be Republicans.
I wanted nothing more than McConnell to be defeated and I talked about some ideas I had to rebuild the precinct chairs and re-energize the base that the party needed.
I talked about the conversation that Jonathan Hurst and I had about maybe a spot in their campaign for me. But there was a little problem I had with just stepping out and I really didn’t care to be the one of a thousand standing in line after the possibility of Alison defeating McConnell, waiting for a favor. Especially, since most of these people standing in line were probably rich and looking out for their sons or daughters some type of position.
Besides, I had skin in this game; I had debts and a loyal campaign manager who had been with me since day one.
My manager worked hard and so did others on our campaign. They were expecting a job through the primary and possibly the general election. I couldn’t just leave them in the cold.

So

I proposed the following, if they would agree to find a spot on their campaign for my manager and payoff my web designer debt, I would happily abide in their request.

I still would have to talk to my manager about the idea, but I looked at it as a win-win situation.
One other thing I wanted them to be aware of was that I would not be able to immediately withdraw from the race because I wanted the opportunity to sue the KDP and if I was no longer a candidate, there would be no legal “Standing” grounds to sue them. But I would immediately stop active fundraising, because it would be wrong asking for money, knowing I was about to get out of the race.
I got a call later saying that it was deal and to send in my campaign managers resume.

The irony of all this is that Marksberry regards himself as a reform candidate. He is a political outsider who showed deference to the Lundergan family until it looked as if Alison would not run then entered the race.

My first interest in running came from the fact that no “prominent candidate” would step up to take on McConnell, it is coming up on a year since I made public my intentions. I was hoping that Crit Luallen or the governor would take on Mitch, but, we can’t blame them for it.

So I put together a plan of running to attack Mitch on the main problem of the political process and that’s the money it takes to run a campaign. Since Mitch owns Citizens United, it should be easy to communicate this to the working class people of Ky, coming from a regular “Joe” as myself, if I had just a little support from my former Democratic Party, my thoughts were it might push a prominent candidate to step forward.., like Ashley Judd (who probably wouldn’t win, but hell, she would have definitely gave a voice to the Liberal Progressives,) Matthew Barzun or Alison Grimes.
Now remember, at this time, nobody thought Mitch was as vulnerable as the media says he is today, but I was game and ready to help out anyway I could.
Then came the attacks against Ashley from my own party and man, it opened my eyes up to the fact that the two factions were still alive in Ky, that would be the Lundergan vs Beshear faction.
I did my best to expose the nonsense.

The Lundergans verses the Beshears! No quite as bad as the Hatfields and McCoys but Democratic politics is a family feud. Of course political dynasties didn't become dynasties by being stupid and they could readily see the futility of trying to win with someone such as Marksberry who ran worse than Obama who lost the state by 16 points so he would not be the candidate. Exactly how he planned to blame McConnell for the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision isn't clear and he is probably the only person in Kentucky much upset by it. His fixation on the case however endears him to the Daily Koz.

I do not regard McConnell as being vulnerable. Kentucky, like West Virginia is trending redder by the day caused by Obama's war on coal. If however the race is close Marksberry could allow McConnell to win with less than 50% of the vote. The Grimes campaign obviously regards Marksberry as a threat and getting caught trying to buy him out is not the image of new politics it would like to project. If nothing else these Kentucky elections are always interesting.

Sen. Flake's extraordinarily bad timing and form

Re Gates book. Extraordinarily bad timing, and form, if you ask me.
— Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) January 8, 2014

Did you ask the junior senator from Arizona about the timing of the release of Robert Gates's book, Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War? When is a good time to tell the country its president sent men to die in a war he didn't believe in? Like any memoir, Duty reflects the author's point of view not the sterile verbiage one reads in White House and Pentagon press releases. If Gates is to be faulted it is for not telling us sooner. What should we expect from someone everybody calls flake?

The Non-Existent Trickle Down Theory

In a brief one page article, Thomas Sowell demolishes the existence of any so-called "Trickle Down" theory. We have all heard charlatans and mountebanks rail against the theory but guess what? It never existed.


http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2014/01/07/the-trickledown-lie-n1772687/page/full

Police State 2013

A nice, concise summary of the new Amerika

http://www.policestateusa.com/2014/police-state-review-2013/

Perhaps The Most Absurd Gun Grab Story Of Them All

I could fill up several blogs with 2nd Amendment martyrs. Some people already have that covered. This one is so absurd, I had to link it. A man received a rifle from, get this, his local PD (he was a firearms instructor.) He put it in his closet, the laws were modified and he was arrested for owning an illegal firearm.

http://didtheyvote.com/index.php/constitution-and-governance/gun-control/122-just-because-i-m-paranoid-addressing-obstacles-to-gun-control

The Long Arm Of The Law Reaches Inward

Warning: Another cavity search story.

http://www.policestateusa.com/2013/milwaukee-cavity-search-spree/

DNC Worried About Impeachment?

http://dailycaller.com/2013/12/28/dnc-sends-email-defending-obama-from-impeachment-possibility/

Tony Robbins Explains The Deficit

Police shoot and kill mentally ill son in parents home

By all means solve your domestic issues without calling the police. A Boiling Springs Lake, North Carolina couple called police to help them control their 18 year old son who had mental issues. Officers tased the boy twice. As two officers held the boy down a third office remarked, "We don't have time for this." and promptly shot the youth to death as his parents looked on. The local prosecutor has called for an outside investigation and said the FBI is involved. While they are at it maybe the FBI can clear up the suspicious shooting of Ibragim Todashev who was shot to death while in their custody.
More.

Bye, Bye, Love - RIP Phil Everly

The Everly Brothers while never considered by anyone to be cutting edge were at the confluence of two remarkable movements in country music. While the brothers were generally considered to be pop singers their father was one of the most innovative guitarist in the business. Ike Everly and fellow coal miner Mose Rager developed the world famous Muhlenberg County, finger picking style that was popularized by first Merle Travis, then Chet Atkins, and then by the underrated Jerry Reed whom Atkins referred to as the best guitarist ever. Travis who, parenthetically, knew a little bit about coal mining, as did everyone else in Muhlenberg Country wrote Sixteen Tons that was recorded and taken to the top of the charts by Tennessee Ernie Ford.
Tiny Muhlenberg County with a population of about 31,000 that has remained the same since the early 1900's is the birth place of Don Everly, James Best (Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane of the Dukes of Hazzard), guitarist Kennedy Jones, actor Warren Oates, and Merle Travis. It is the location of John Prine's famous Paradise written about a town that had the misfortune to be built over a rich vein of coal and was eventually demolished and mined. It probably has more guitar pickers per square mile than any location in the country. Merle Travis credits Ike Everly with his home made guitar in the video below.

Eventually Ike Everly quit coal mining and managed to transition into a musical career. He had a radio shows at both KMA and KFNF in Shenandoah, Iowa. The brothers learned to perform as guests on his show. With Chet Atkins as a personal friend of their father the Everly Brothers found doors opened for them in Nashville but their success was earned and they had the extreme good fortune to become affiliated with the greatest country music song writing team in history, Felice and Boudleaux Bryant who constituted a movement all by themselves with such later hits as Rocky Top and You're the Reason God Made Oklahoma. Up until they met the Everly Brothers the Bryants had enjoyed modest success but their association with the Everly Brothers launched a career that would sell over 300 million songs world wide. Their first offering to the Everly Brothers, Bye Bye, Love had been rejected by 30 acts but the Brothers took it to number 2 on the pop chart.

Boudleaux Bryant (wearing glasses) with The Everly Brothers

 "Wake Up, Little Susie" and "All I Have to Do Is Dream" both charted at No. 1 in all three categories, pop, country, and R&B. Bird Dog went to the top of the pop chart but only managed to get to number 2 on the other charts. A very fortuitous partnership!

Big Money Political Players

This is good, non-partisan reporting on the Super-PACS who will influence the 2014 elections.
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01/wallets-to-watch-in-2014-races-101746.html

Income Equality (Marxism) Hurts The Poor

 If Al Gore really believes in fighting for income inequality, why doesn't he refuse to make more than the guy who spends 8 hours a day saying, "Welcome to Wal-Mart?"

On top of all that, liberals get so angry whenpeople point out that more than 80% of poor Americans have cell phones, televisions and refrigerators while "most Americans living below the official poverty line also own a motor vehicle and have more living space than the average European." Yet, they don't take into account the fact that almost half of the world's population still lives on less than $2.50 a day. In other words, if you are poor, you can live better and have more opportunity to advance in America than you will anywhere else. That's why immigrants all across the world still want to come to this country.

http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2014/01/04/5-ways-the-liberal-obsession-with-income-inequality-hurts-the-poor-n1771728/page/full