January 15, 2014

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart: Insane, Creepy, and AMAZING Dedication to Fox's The Five

...............the FIVE......



Get ready for perhaps the weirdest segment ever performed on The Daily Show. Correspondent Samantha Bee put on a crazy one-woman show to prove to the world that Fox News' The Five is not just another cable news panel show; it's a story of love, romance, and betrayal to rival "the works of a Shakespeare, or a Nicholas Sparks."

Jon Stewart kicked off the segment by touting the political diversity on The Five, from "Wall Street conservative to 50 year old frat boy conservative to George W Bush conservative to conservative to Fox liberal." He then handed the reigns over to Bee, and that's when things got REAL.

She revealed that the story of The Five is the story of a romance between "winsome blonde ingenue" Dana Perino and resident "bad boy" Greg Gutfeld. And despite the meddling of fellow suitor Eric Bolling and "our story's villain" Bob Beckel, the love between Perino and Gutfeld will not be denied.

January 15, 2014

Colorado Health Officials Seek $7 Million Grant For MEDICAL MARIJUANA RESEARCH

Concerned over the lack of evidence-based cannabinoid research, Colorado’s state health officials are aggressively seeking over $7 million in research grants, in hopes of furthering their scientific understanding of marijuana’s actual medicinal value. Concerned over the flood of medical marijuana refugees crossing the border on a daily basis, Colorado’s medical community is more than a little perplexed over the lack of peer-reviewed marijuana research, and are hoping to change that.


Thanks to the federal government (or not) and their campaign of “reefer madness,” most cannabinoid-based research has been largely prohibited by outdated federal laws, which have banned researchers from purchasing, growing, or otherwise obtaining cannabis-based products. Thanks to the changing times, Colorado’s concerned health officials find themselves in the unique position to facilitate groundbreaking research that could separate fact from fiction – providing responsible research to help quantify the many beneficial health claims of marijuana’s cannabinoids.


According to the Denver Post;




The fat stack of potential research cash was cultivated from state registration fees linked to Colorado’s medical marijuana program, and according to state health officials, this new fund of MMJ cash could help establish the scientific foundation for medical marijuana. Dr. Wolk explained, “the most significant thing we can do is spend the money to further the research.” Concerned over the threat of losing federal funding for education, Cheri Gerou, of the Joint Budget Committee (JBC), claims Colorado’s politicians are pumped over the idea of conducting life-saving research; but not at the expense of the state’s education fund. “So that’s the conversation; we deftly want to look at it,” Gerou said.


Provided the JBC balks and does not green light the massive $7.1 million research grant, Dr. Wolk believes the chronic fund would likely be split into several $500,000 increments, focusing on research that benefits those that suffer from seizures and post-traumatic stress disorder.



http://www.marijuana.com/news/colorado-health-officials-seek-7-million-grant-for-medical-marijuana-research

January 15, 2014

NSA Uses SECRET RADIO WAVES to Monitor Computers That AREN'T Online

Since at least 2008, the NSA has used a secret channel of radio waves transmitted from covertly installed computer hardware to monitor about 100,000 computers around the world, allowing the spy agency access to the computers even if they aren't connected to the internet. The hacked computers, in addition to being regularly monitored, could also be used to launch a cyberattack, according to a New York Times article based on NSA documents provided by Edward Snowden.



The program, codenamed Quantum, most frequently targets the Chinese Army, who the U.S. has condemned for using similar hacking techniques in the past. Quantum has also been used against the Russian military, Mexican police groups and drug cartels, and the governments of US allies like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and India. There's no evidence it's been used against targets in the United States. "What's new here is the scale and the sophistication of the intelligence agency's ability to get into computers and networks to which no one has ever had access before," said James Andrew Lewis, the cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told the New York Times.



From the New York Times:








cont'

http://gawker.com/nsa-uses-secret-radio-waves-to-monitor-computers-that-1501764943

January 15, 2014

Rachel Maddow: Chris Christie LIED About HIS STAFF'S KNOWLEDGE Of Bridge Closures

A growing paper trail continues to implicate New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) with regards to the September 2013 lane closures on the George Washington Bridge, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said on Tuesday. “The governor has absolutely and blatantly not told the truth about what was going on in his office,” Maddow said. Maddow said that Christie’s argument that his administration was unaware of the four-day closures, which were ordered by his deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, was undermined by an email Kelly received on Sept. 11 from state director of departmental relations Christine Genovese Renna. Renna mentions in the email that “Evan” — possibly meaning Christie aide Evan J. Ridley, who records show makes $52,000 a year — had been contacted by Mark Sokolich, mayor of Fort Lee, complaining about the traffic nightmare happening in his town as a result.



Sokolich also mentioned at the time that there was sentiment among his constituents that it was politically-motivated. (Sokolich later said he believed Christie when the governor told him that was not the case.) “That means that during the shutdown, three people who work in the governor’s office are emailing about the ongoing bridge lane shutdown and the disaster that it’s causing and the allegation that it is politically motivated,” Maddow said. “There’s no discussion whatsoever about there being some traffic study, which the governor says was the prevailing belief about what was happening with that bridge.” Maddow also pointed out that Renna snidely refers to Sokolich as “the fine Mayor” [sic] in the email, and does not appear to need to explain to Kelly who he is.



“The governor’s top staff were discussing the shutdown — the effect of it, the allegations of political retribution, and the mayor of Fort Lee in provocative terms while the shutdown was still happening,” Maddow explained. “Despite Governor Christie’s denials, it seems like something was going on between the governor’s office and that specific mayor, that specific man. And lots of people who work for Governor Christie and who work in the governor’s office and the governor’s inner circle were in discussions about that shutdown while it was happening.”



Besides those three, Maddow continued, Christie’s incoming chief of staff, Regina Egea, was contacted by state Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye regarding the possibly illegal shutdown; his campaign manager, Bill Stepien, was quoted as calling Sokolich “an idiot” in another email; his spokesperson, Michael Druniak, was alerted by David Wildstein and Bill Baroni — both Christie appointees — when the press began asking questions about the shutdowns; and despite Christie’s claim that he “could count on one hand” the number of coversations he has had with Wildstein, pictures have surfaced showing the two of them together on Sept. 11.




cont'


http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/14/rachel-maddow-chris-christie-lied-about-his-staffs-knowledge-of-bridge-closures/

January 14, 2014

Christie Caught With CAPO During Debacle

Did I hear someone say "CAPO?".........






Gov. Chris Christie was with the official who arranged the closure of local lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge on Sept. 11, 2013 — the third day of the closures, and well after they had triggered outrage from local officials beset by heavy traffic. It isn’t known what, if anything, Mr. Christie discussed with David Wildstein that day, when the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey official was among the delegation of Mr. Christie’s representatives who welcomed him to the site of the World Trade Center for the commemoration of the 12th anniversary of the terrorist attacks there. Mr. Christie’s office didn’t respond to questions about what he and Mr. Wildstein discussed. Mr. Wildstein did not respond to a request for comment.



Also present with Mr. Christie that day were Bill Baroni, the authority’s deputy executive director, who was helping Mr. Wildstein manage the fallout from the closures among local officials, subpoenaed documents show. Also there was David Samson, the Port Authority chairman and close Christie ally, who has said he didn’t learn of the lane closures and traffic in Fort Lee, N.J., until an email from a New York port official ordered the lane closures reversed. Messrs. Samson and Baroni didn’t respond to requests for comment. Mr. Christie addressed Mr. Wildstein in a news conference last week, saying he had not encountered him “in a long time.” “I have had no contact with David Wildstein in a long time, a long time, well before the election,” which was held Nov. 5, Mr. Christie said last week. “You know, I could probably count on one hand the number of conversations I’ve had with David since he worked at the Port Authority. I did not interact with David.”



When exactly Mr. Christie learned of the traffic problems is an unsettled question likely to figure in investigations of the matter. Mr. Christie said in December that he learned only after the Journal published an internal email from the Port Authority’s top New York official reversing the closures. That email and the accompanying news article appeared Oct. 1. But Mr. Christie said last week he had learned of the matter earlier, from unspecified news reports about the traffic the closures had caused in Fort Lee. Meanwhile, subpoenaed documents show that several of Mr. Christie’s closest aides knew the closures had caused heavy traffic and allegations of political retribution during the week when they were going on. Mr. Christie has said he believed the entire incident was the result of a traffic study, until documents released on the matter indicated it was engineered as possible political retribution against Fort Lee’s mayor.



When the bridge scandal widened last week, Mr. Christie announced the firing of Bridget Kelly, his deputy chief of staff who wrote to Mr. Wildstein on August 13, telling him “time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.” Mr. Wildstein replied “Got it,” and set in motion a series of secret conversations with staff at the port authority to close off two of three local access lanes to the bridge from Fort Lee, with strict instructions not to tell Fort Lee police and officials, or executives on the New York side of the Port Authority, which is jointly controlled by New Jersey and New York. Who, if anyone, authorized Bridget Kelly to send her message and how Mr. Wildstein knew what she meant are central questions in the parallel legislative and criminal probes now investigating the matter.




cont'

http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2014/01/14/christie-official-who-arranged-bridge-closures-together-during-fiasco/

January 14, 2014

Chris Christie’s GOD COMPLEX Makes Him More DESERVING OF PRISON Than the Presidency

LOL!....Skate like a MoFu Chris......






Retribution is regarded as a form of punishment inflicted in the spirit of vengeance, and although some scholars consider retribution different from revenge, they are both for perceived wrong treatment. For a person in a position of power with inflated feelings of amour-propre, privilege, or infallibility, wrong treatment can be perceived as something as minor as failing to show proper obeisance or submission that is typical of people with a god complex. A person with a god complex regards themselves as superior, and their opinions unquestionable, to the extent they disregard rules and demand special consideration or privileges. There is nothing as particularly dangerous as a politician with a god complex.



The scandal surrounding New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and revelations a case of political retribution drove the lane closures on the George Washington Bridge (GWB) would be damning enough if he was connected to just one instance of political retribution, but there is a mountain of evidence that retribution, bullying, and a sense of infallibility informs that Christie suffers from a god complex. Over the coming weeks, and likely months, investigations, subpoenas, and federal inquiries will reveal whether the GWB lane closures were a case of political retribution, an attempt to thwart a billion-dollar redevelopment project, or a warning to Democrats in New Jersey’s legislature not to cross dictator Chris Christie. The real issue is not just whether Christie had a hand in closing lanes on the GWB, but his character, or lack thereof, that drives his sense of entitlement, bullying, and willingness to use any means to impose his will; including pilfering federal funding for disaster relief to maintain his hold on power.



Bloated-ego Christie has “sent messages” (retribution) to people failing to acknowledge his deity beginning with former Governor Richard Codey. Cody said Christie denied him state trooper protection, fired Codey’s cousin from his position at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and removed a former Codey aide from the New Jersey Office of Consumer Affairs because Codey publicly disagreed with him. After a Republican State Senator, Sean Kean, told a reporter Christie erred in not calling for a state of emergency sooner during a 2010 blizzard, Christie banned Kean from attending the next Christie news conference held in Kean’s home district. One of Christie’s aides told a New Jersey newspaper that Kean “got what he deserved.” Alan Rosenthal, a Rutgers Professor, saw his state funding slashed after he supported a re-districting map favorable to Democrats, and a Republican State Senator, Christopher Bateman, saw confirmation of a judicial candidate he recommended suddenly stall after he voted against Christie’s reorganization of the state’s public medical education system.



After 36-year-old Iraq war veteran, Democrat Steven Fulop, won his election as mayor of Jersey City in May 2013, Christie made congenial promises to help him in any way he could. Christie’s office set up a full day of meetings and scheduled appointments with heads of six different agencies, including transportation, economic development, the state treasurer and the commissioner of community affairs as well as with the director of Hurricane Sandy recovery. A Christie aide wrote, “We’re looking forward to working closely with you and your administration. Some of the conversations may be simple and introductory, while others may focus on actual pending projects and issues.” However, after Fulop sent word he could not endorse Christie’s re-election, Christie’s office called off all meetings, refused to return Fulop’s calls, and declined to help with Hurricane Sandy recovery, transportation and other issues. Christie’s sense of entitlement, and quest for power, also drove him to misuse about $2 million in Superstorm Sandy federal relief funds for an ad campaign that put him in the spotlight during his re-election campaign. Christie is being audited by the Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for “misappropriating funds allocated by Congress from the Sandy aid package and taking advantage of this waiver for political purposes.” The inspector’s focus is on a federally-financed $25 million Jersey Shore marketing campaign that included a television commercial featuring Christie and his family which cost $2 million more than a competing bid without them. New Jersey Congressman Frank Pallone Jr. requested the investigation in an August 8, 2013 letter; “It is inappropriate for taxpayer-funded dollars that are critical to our state’s recovery from this natural disaster to fund commercials that could potentially benefit a political campaign.”




cont'


http://www.politicususa.com/2014/01/14/chris-christies-god-complex-deserving-prison-presidency.html

January 13, 2014

Mika SMACKDOWN: Stick To Christie Bridge Scandal, No Obama/IRS-Benghazi 'Distractions'

Mika smacks GOP reTHUG tool Mark Halperin in the kisser........

January 13, 2014

High School Baseball Coach Says Christie, Wildstein DID IN FACT Travel In The SAME CIRCLES

During his epic press conference last week, Gov. Chris Christie's (R) repeated insistence that he barely knows Port Authority official David Wildstein stood out. The New Jersey governor made it a point to say that, contrary to media reports and despite the fact that they attended the same high school, he and Wildstein were "not friends."





But The New Republic's Alec MacGillis revealed Friday that Christie and Wildstein weren't exactly worlds apart. MacGillis caught up with Tony Hope, the former baseball coach at Livingston High School, who recalled that Christie was the team's catcher while Wildstein served as "our baseball statistician."


Almost immediately following Christie's nearly two-hour presser, Wildstein took the Fifth and refused to answer questions at a state Assembly committee hearing on the George Washington Bridge scandal. Wildstein corresponded about lane closures on the bridge with fired Christie aide Bridget Anne Kelly in documents obtained by TPM.



http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/chris-christie-david-wildstein-high-school-friends-baseball

January 13, 2014

The TROUBLE With Chris Christie

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has been Wall Street’s anointed son for the presidency. He is backed by the most ruthless and corrupt figures in New Jersey politics, including the New Jersey multimillionaire and hard-line Democratic boss George Norcross III. Among his other supporters are many hedge fund managers and corporate executives and some of the nation’s most retrograde billionaires, including the Koch brothers. The brewing scandal over the closing of traffic lanes on the George Washington Bridge apparently in retaliation for the Fort Lee mayor’s refusal to support the governor’s 2013 re-election is a window into how federal agencies and the security and surveillance apparatus would be routinely employed in a Christie presidency to punish anyone who challenged this tiny cabal’s grip on power.



Christie is the caricature of a Third World despot. He has a vicious temper, a propensity to bully and belittle those weaker than himself, an insatiable thirst for revenge against real or perceived enemies, and little respect for the law and, as recent events have made clear, for the truth. He is gripped by a bottomless hedonism that includes a demand for private jets, huge entourages, exclusive hotels and lavish meals. Wall Street and the security and surveillance apparatus want a real son of a bitch in power, someone with the moral compass of Al Capone, in order to ruthlessly silence and crush those of us who are working to overthrow the corporate state. They have had enough of what they perceive to be Barack Obama’s softness. Christie fits the profile and he is drooling for the opportunity. Activists, Democratic and Republican rivals for power, liberals, reformers and environmentalists will, if Christie becomes president, see the vast forces of the security state surge into overdrive to stymie and reverse reform, gut our tepid financial and environmental regulations, further enrich the corporate elite who are pillaging the country, and savagely shut down all dissent. The corporate state’s repression, now on the brink of totalitarianism, would with the help of Christie, his corporate backers and his tea party loyalists become a full-blown corporate fascism.



Wall Street was unable to mask Mitt Romney’s cloying sense of entitlement and elitism, along with his Mr. Rogers blandness. But Wall Street sees in the profane, union-busting New Jersey governor the perfect Trojan horse for unfettered corporate power. Christie, eyeing a bid for the presidency in the 2016 election, has been promised massive financial backing by the Koch brothers; hedge fund titans such as Stanley Druckenmiller, Kenneth C. Griffin, Daniel S. Loeb, Paul E. Singer, Paul Tudor Jones II and David Tepper; financiers such as Charles Schwab and Stephen A. Schwarzman; real estate magnate Mort Zuckerman; former New York Stock Exchange Chairman Richard Grasso; former AIG head Maurice “Hank” Greenberg; former Morgan Stanley CEO John J. Mack; former GE Chairman Jack Welch; and Home Depot founder Kenneth Langone. David Koch has called Christie “a true political hero” and said he is “inspired by this man.” Rupert Murdoch, whose ethics seem to align with Christie’s, is similarly besotted with the governor.



Christie is pitched to the public, as was George W. Bush, as a regular guy, someone who speaks bluntly and candidly, someone you would want to have a beer with. But this is public relations crap. He is and has long been a hatchet man for corporate firms and big banks. He began his career as a corporate lobbyist in Trenton, N.J., working for clients such as the Securities Industry Association. He has done their bidding ever since. His wife, Mary Pat Christie, is a bond trader who has worked at JPMorgan Chase, Fleet Securities and Cantor Fitzgerald and is currently a managing director at Angelo Gordon, an investment firm in New York. If Christie implodes politically, Wall Street will no doubt find another candidate to be its lackey. The system of corporate power, not the individual at the helm, is fundamentally the problem for democracy. But this does not mean we should not fear the excesses that surely would occur under a Christie presidency. Christie and those who want him to occupy the Oval Office have little regard for the impediments of law and do not know the meaning of the word “restraint.”




cont'


http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/01/13

January 12, 2014

Investigator: CHRISTIE COULD BE IMPEACHED

Impeach the Gopranos.........




Two days after New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) claimed he had no knowledge of a political scheme conducted by his aides to cause traffic jams, the lawmaker heading a probe into those actions unraveled a new thread. New Jersey Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D) told NBC News Saturday that if Christie was at all aware of his aides' actions, impeachment could emerge as a potential issue.





"It's hard to really accept the governor's statement that he knew nothing until the other morning," Wisnieswki added.


During his Thursday press conference, Christie apologized profusely for the conduct of his team members, saying he was "sad" and "heartbroken" by the acts he deemed as betrayal. "It is heartbreaking to me that I wasn't told the truth," Christie said. "I'm a very loyal guy, and I expect loyalty in return. And lying to me is not an exhibition of loyalty."



Additionally, the Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger reported Saturday that Wisniewski said additional subpoenas are likely to go out Monday or Tuesday. That move would arrive ahead of a special session reauthorizing the state transportation committee's subpoena power.



cont'


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/11/chris-christie-scandal_n_4582353.html