First Bush, then Perry, now Abbott. Why is Texas sliding further backwards?

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, the GOP hopeful in this year’s race for governor, is taking heat from Democrats for inviting controversial musician Ted Nugent to campaign with him.

“Texans deserve better than a statewide office holder and candidate running for governor who welcomes Ted Nugent and his repugnant comments,” Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa said in a statement Monday. “I can’t help but recall the old saying, tell me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you who you are.”

Democrats are seizing on comments made by Nugent last month about President Barack Obama, which some suggested at the time were racially motivated.

“I have obviously failed to galvanize and prod, if not shame enough Americans to be ever vigilant not to let a Chicago communist-raised, communist-educated, communist-nurtured subhuman mongrel like the ACORN community organizer gangster Barack Hussein Obama to weasel his way into the top office of authority in the United States of America,” Nugent, who has called for Obama to be impeached, said in January.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/02/greg-abbott-ted-nugent-texas-103597.html#ixzz2ter8eoXV

I guess Emily's List doesn't give a rat's ass about 2014.

From an email I received from Emily's List:

Ahhh, President's Day: The day we honor our Founding Father George Washington.

And sometimes Abraham Lincoln.

And really all of the 43 men who have ever held the title of President of the United States. (Yes, even Millard Fillmore, Chester A. Arthur and Rutherford B. Hayes.)

You know what's missing from that list, right? So do we.

2016 is the year we'll finally put a woman in the White House. Make a special President's Day contribution to EMILY’s List's Madam President fund now.

There's a deep bench of qualified Democratic women to run for President in 2016. EMILY's List is fully dedicated to making sure they run – and making sure they win.

We know it's not going to be easy. We know the Republicans are going to say anything and spend anything to stop us.

But we also know that the country is ready for a Madam President, and we are, too.

Celebrate President's Day the right way: Make a donation to the Madam President fund now. Let's get to work to make 2016 the year we finally shatter the glass ceiling.

Happy President's Day!

-EMILY's List

Senate Dems try to re-create 2012 electorate.

WASHINGTON — The Democrats’ plan to hold on to their narrow Senate majority goes by the name “Bannock Street project.” It runs through 10 states, includes a $60 million investment and requires more than 4,000 paid staff members. And the effort will need all of that — and perhaps more — to achieve its goal, which is nothing short of changing the character of the electorate in a midterm cycle.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is preparing its largest and most data-driven ground game yet, relying on an aggressive combination of voter registration, get-out-the-vote and persuasion efforts.

They hope to make the 2014 midterm election more closely resemble a presidential election year, when more traditional Democratic constituencies — single women, minorities and young voters — turn out to vote in higher numbers, said Guy Cecil, the committee’s executive director.

While the goal is ambitious, Mr. Cecil has some experience. “Bannock Street” is drawn from the name of the Denver field headquarters for the campaign of Senator Michael Bennet, Democrat of Colorado, for whom Mr. Cecil was the chief of staff. Mr. Bennet won in 2010 in part by generating higher than forecast turnout.


http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/07/us/politics/democrats-aim-to-make-2014-more-like-2012-and-2008.html?_r=0

Samuel Bersani - Lolita (Video)

Homeless SF man killed by train after trying to retrieve only possessions from track.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The Powell Street Muni Metro Station in San Francisco was shut down for several hours after a man was hit and killed by a train.

Police say the man was hit and killed by an outbound train at the Powell Street Station at about 2:40 p.m.

Moments after this all happened, we were able to talk with a few people who say they knew the man who was killed. They say he is homeless and stored his backpack under the Muni platform along with other people.

Multiple people have told us the man did not commit suicide, but instead was trying to get to his backpack when he was hit by the train.
Police say paramedics quickly arrived, but the man was pronounced dead at the scene.




http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=resources/traffic&id=9433696

Open Carry Advocate Arrested On Suspicion Of Gun Threat

A Wisconsin man who recently wrote a column in defense of his right to carry a pistol on his hip has been arrested on gun-related charges, according to The Wausau Daily Herald.

Dereck Simonsmeier, of Schofield, Wis., was in jail Thursday, after being arrested along with three other people following an incident the day before in which a man was allegedly threatened at gunpoint. The group got involved in a dispute between roommates in a private home. Simonsmeier and the other two men arrested were all allegedly armed, and charged with endangering safety.

Police recovered a .40-caliber Glock handgun, a 1300 Winchester 12-gauge shotgun, and a Remington 1911 handgun.

In a Feb. 10 column, Simonsmeier wrote about being asked to leave a Pick 'N Save grocery store while carrying a Remington 1911 "in plain view on my belt."

"I do not carry it to be tough or to start a fight," he wrote in the column. "I carry it because it is my right and to protect the ones I love. Yet even with the welfare of others in mind, I am scrutinized and mocked for exercising my Second Amendment right."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/simonsmeier-gun-arrest

CO state senator says it was “a good thing” that Aurora killer James had 100-round magazine.

During a Wednesday hearing over a bill to repeal one of Colorado’s recently passed gun-safety laws, Republican state senator Bernie Herpin shocked attendees — and gravely offended an Aurora theater shooting victim’s father — by saying it was “maybe a good thing” that Aurora theater shooter James Holmes had a 100-round magazine.

In 2013, the Colorado state legislature, spurred on in part by the horrific mass shooting at an Aurora movie theater the previous year, passed two gun-safety laws. One mandated universal background checks for gun purchases, while the other limited most ammunition magazines to 15 rounds.

The laws were immediately controversial and ultimately led to three Democratic state senators losing their seats, either through the threat or the reality of recall elections mounted by gun rights enthusiasts.

As a result of one of those recalls, a Republican by the name of Bernie Herpin ascended to the Colorado state Senate. Surprising no one, Herpin introduced a bill to overturn the recently passed restriction on ammunition magazines.

A nearly identical law has already been voted down in the Dem-controlled Colorado state House of Representatives and is certain to fail in the state Senate, which is also controlled by Democrats. But the state Senate held a hearing on Herpin’s bill all the same.


http://www.salon.com/2014/02/13/gop_state_senator_in_colorado_says_it_was_a_good_thing_that_aurora_killer_james_holmes_had_100_round_magazine/

NY Mom Writes Anti-Gay Tirade on 7-Year-Old's Birthday Invite

A mom in Baldwin, New York RSVP'ed to a small child's birthday party invitation with a vile anti-gay screed.

Little Sophia turns 7 in a few weeks, so her two dads decided to throw her a party and invite her friends to celebrate. One of those friends is Tommy, whose mom Beth is apparently a rabid homophobe. She returned the invitation with the following response:

"Tommy will NOT attend. I do not beleive [sic] in what you do and will not subject my innocent son to your 'lifestyle.' I am sorry Sophia has to grow up this way. If you have an issue or need to speak to me: 516-362-1357."

Sophia's dads were understandably furious, so they sent the letter off to local radio station K-98.3, who posted it on Facebook. The station adds that they contacted Beth, who "gave us permission to post her phone number and said anyone who has a problem with what she wrote can call her, too!"



http://www.bilerico.com/2014/02/ny_mom_writes_anti-gay_tirade_on_7-year-olds_birth.php#8oM2om8Wb6iDMTpa.99

Fusion energy milestone reported by California scientists

Scientists are creeping closer to their goal of creating a controlled fusion-energy reaction, by mimicking the interior of the sun inside the hardware of a laboratory. In the latest incremental advance, reported Wednesday online in the journal Nature, scientists in California used 192 lasers to compress a pellet of fuel and generate a reaction in which more energy came out of the fuel core than went into it.

There’s still a long way to go before anyone has a functioning fusion reactor, something physicists have dreamed of since Albert Einstein was alive. A fusion reactor would run on a common form of hydrogen found in seawater, would emit minimal nuclear waste and couldn’t have the kind of meltdown that can occur in a traditional nuclear-fission reactor.

“You kind of picture yourself climbing halfway up a mountain, but the top of the mountain is hidden in clouds,” Omar Hurricane, the lead author of the Nature paper, said in a teleconference with journalists. “And then someone calls you on your satellite phone and asks you, ‘How long is it going to take you to climb to the top of the mountain?’ You just don’t know.”

Hurricane and other scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, home of the multibillion-dollar National Ignition Facility, took pains to calibrate their claims of success. This was not fusion “ignition,” the NIF’s ultimate ambition. The experiment overall requires much more energy on the front end — all those laser shots —than comes out the back end.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/fusion-energy-milestone-reported-by-california-scientists/2014/02/12/f511ed18-936b-11e3-84e1-27626c5ef5fb_story.html

Sam Wheeler, Kent State Wrestler, Suspended For Anti-Gay Tweets About Michael Sam

Following the historic coming out of Division I college football player Michael Sam, the social media backlash was both predictable and horrifying. However, one college athlete is now experiencing the repercussions of what can happen when you choose to be homophobic on Twitter.

Kent State wrestler Sam Wheeler has reportedly been suspended from the university's team after taking to Twitter to voice his feelings about Sam's decision to publicly come out.

Through Wheeler's Twitter account has since been deleted, Outrage DC managed to take a screen capture of the initial statements.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/11/sam-wheeler-suspended_n_4768838.html