Are you as pissed off as I am about the fact that Marcus and Michele Bachmann charge YOUR government to provide Reparative therapy for gay men? Well now you can do something about it.

"Here's Shelly!"

From Credo Action:

It's bad enough that Bachmann and Associates, after denying for years they practiced ex-gay therapy, clearly encourages patients to pray the gay away. Our taxpayer dollars shouldn't be funding it. 

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees Medicaid, and the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS), which distributes the funds within the state, should immediately pull public funds from Bachmann's clinic. 

Going to the Bachmann family for counseling is like attending a peace rally hosted by Dick Cheney. 

Their views are extreme, hateful and crazy. Michele Bachmann has called homosexuality "a part of Satan," and "a real issue of sexual dysfunction" while her husband Marcus has called gays "barbarians." 

And even as Michele Bachmann's family was collecting over $160,000 in Medicaid and other public funds, she was leading Tea Party calls for drastic cuts to the social safety net - especially to Medicaid which she has said swell the "welfare rolls" - and even voted to shut down the government rather than continue funding Planned Parenthood and the Health Care Reform Act.3Tell Secretary Sebelius and DHS Commissioner Lucinda Jesson: Stop funding Bachmann's anti-gay clinic.

If you click the link provided at the top it will immediately take you to the Credo Action website where you can add your name to a petition demanding the following:

"Public money shouldn't fund a discriminatory, hateful religious agenda and medically-unsound ex-gay therapy. In light of recent investigations, please take action to immediately stop funding Bachmann and Associates."

I did it yesterday and, I have to say, it kind of gave me a good feeling.

Alaska militia member, Coleman Barney, denied bail. Whew!

Courtesy of Alaska Dispatch:

One of the things that fumbled Barney's chances for bail was something for which he isn't even charged, dating back to events that took place late one night last November outside a Fairbanks television studio. Cox had a scheduled appearance at the building and felt he needed security, with Barney in charge. The detail involved about a half dozen, armed militia members patrolling the block, blocking access and turning citizens away. Some of the guards, including Barney, who also had with him an anti-personnel riot control device – a burst of rubber bullets that could be deployed via a grenade launcher, stood watch along the perimeter in the shadows. The judge found the operation, which Barney spoke about on the stand, troubling.

"The defandant's activities in regard to a 'security detail' for co-defendant Francis Schaeffer Cox indicated a very substantial danger to the safety of other persons and the community and, in particular, a willingness to use assaultive behavior illegally to prevent the lawful arrest of another," Judge Bryan wrote.

Well THAT is certainly good news. I know that there were some people who were pretty worried about Barney getting out.


By the way it certainly did not help to have Coleman Barney take the stand in his own defense.

Barney admitted that -- like many Americans involved in the tea party movement -- he's worried about the direction of the country. But Barney said he advocated change through nonviolence. He said he believed that change could be achieved through education, through holding law enforcement accountable to the Alaska and U.S. constitutions, and through the legislative process.

"Everything I have been pushing for has been of peaceful means," he said.

He helped set up the Second Amendment Task Force, aimed at protecting gun rights, and the Liberty Bell Network, designed to provide citizens a witness network to unlawful search and seizure. And the efforts, he said, have already paid off, citing a new state law (A.S. 44.99.500) that legalizes silencers and other weapons.

If such items are made in Alaska, they are none of the federal government's business, Barney said.
When it came to alleged murder plots and anti-government loyalties, the Feds, Barney would have the court believe, simply got it wrong.

But on cross examination, prosecutor Steven Skrocki was able to get Barney to admit that he was, in fact, a command major in Cox's Alaska Peacemakers Militia. And Barney also said that, if necessary, he was also prepared to kill, though he said only as last resort. 

Just to bring you up to speed the individuals that Coleman was admitting he was prepared to kill were Federal agents which the incredibly paranoid Schaeffer Cox had convinced himself, and his friends, were out to kill him.


I think this should serve as a wake up call for those who are still laboring under the assumption that the Teabaggers are not potentially dangerous, or not associated with any violent extremists.

By the way I have been hearing some rather interesting tidbits of information from my sources that there are far more connections between Sarah Palin, Joe Miller, and Schaeffer Cox than have previously been brought to light.  I am attempting to make headway on that story right now, and will keep you all updated once I get something really good.

Judge rules to protect Alaskan polar bears, choosing science over the objections of Sarah Palin.

From Think Progress:

In 2008, the U.S. government placed the polar bear on the threatened species list because of the rapid decline in Arctic sea ice, becoming “the first to be designated as threatened because of global warming.”

But in 2008, media mega-star Sarah Palin was still the governor of Alaska. Fearing that protecting the polar bear would “cripple oil and gas development” off Alaska’s coasts, Palin — a well-worn climate science denier — sued the government to remove the species from the list. Palin pointed to the high population of polar bears in 2008 and dismissed climate models that predict continued loss of sea ice as “unreliable,” “uncertain,” and “unproven.”

But U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan backed the government scientists’ finding this week “that global warming is threatening the survival of the polar bear.” In a 116-page opinion, Sullivan dismissed Palin and hunting groups’ arguments as “nothing more than competing views about policy and science” and ruled on the side of science:

"Notwithstanding a handful of references to uncertainty that appear in record documents, Joint Plaintiffs have failed to persuade this Court that FWS [U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service] implemented the ESA [Endangered Species Act] “haphazardly.” Accordingly, the Court concludes that FWS did not act arbitrarily in relying on and drawing reasonable conclusions from the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] reports and climate models in making its listing determination for the polar bear."

Hard to believe that almost two years to the day that the batshit crazy loon quit her job, we are still cleaning up after the mess she left behind. Gee, I wonder how much THIS frivolous lawsuit cost my state?

I am very glad that at least judges can understand basic science, even if politicians subsidized by the oil companies cannot.

(By the way, this case is actually rather historic here at IM, as it is over Palin's response to the Federal governments decision to put the polar bears on the Endangered Species List that angered me enough to write my first post criticising her.  And I have not looked back since.)

Attorney for Alaskan man indicted on charges of plotting to kill State Troopers and local judges gets bail reduced from two million dollars to $100,000. WTF?

Courtesy of the Fairbanks News Miner:

Attorney Tim Dooley said he planned to file documents on Wednesday asking for a federal bail review for North Pole resident Coleman Barney, who is being held without bond. If the move is successful, the 36-year-old electrician hopes he can gather enough money to get out of jail, Dooley said.

Barney convinced state Superior Court Judge David C. Stewart on Friday to drop his bail on state murder and kidnapping conspiracy charges from $2 million to $100,000.

Dooley said relatives and supporters have scraped together enough money to pay the bond.

Dozens of relatives, friends and church members sent letters to the court requesting a lower bail for Barney. His wife, Rachel, is scheduled Friday to give birth to the couple’s fifth child.

Barney remains imprisoned, however, because he also is charged with federal weapons violations.

“If it was just the state charges — which are more serious than the federal charges, I should add — he’d be out,” Dooley said.

Barney is one of five local defendants with ties to the Alaska Peacemakers Militia who are accused of concocting an elaborate plot they dubbed “241.” That effort, which was reportedly discussed during hundreds of hours of secret FBI recordings, involved a conspiracy to kill two Alaska State Troopers or state judges anytime a militia member was arrested or killed by authorities.

Prosecutors say the plot was concocted to protect Schaeffer Cox, the militia leader who was a fugitive last February for failing to appear at trial in February on misdemeanor weapons charges.

Coleman and Rachel Barney also are charged with harboring Cox as he hid from authorities.

I'm sorry but reducing this guy's bail to one-twentieth of what it was originally set is completely insane.

The guy was plotting to kill state judges and law enforcement officials, and these people want him out on the streets? The whole reason that it was set so high was to ensure he would NOT be getting out, so asking for it be reduced defeats the entire premise of setting such a high amount in the first place.

What, do they think this guy became LESS dangerous while sitting in his jail cell fuming over his incarceration and plotting his revenge?

And WHO would donate to the fund to get him out?  Did they not see what this guy was charged with?

According to the complaint, "The plan would then have the tactical teams going to the target's houses, cutting the power, shooting the inhabitants as they come out to check on their power; then the team would kick the target's residence's doors in, kill everybody inside and set the house on fire. Then the team would lay in hiding and take out the initial responding officer before moving on to the next target."

What else does he have to do to demonstrate that he is mentally unstable and a danger to his community, dress in colonial garb while carrying an automatic weapon?

Oh yeah, that's right.

What in the hell is wrong with these people?

Dairygate floats back onto the horizon.

Courtesy of Mat-Su Frontiersman:

The Alaska State Commission for Human Rights has ruled that discrimination and wrongful termination complaints filed against Matanuska Creamery by two former employees have merit.
Former creamery office administrator Kay Schaugaard and former pasteurizer Amy Moore, who are both Mormon, allege company co-owner and Chief Financial Officer Karen Olson made disparaging remarks about Mormons and not wanting “any more (expletive) Mormons” working for the company. They also claim co-owner Kyle Beus did not take their discrimination complaints seriously before they were fired more than two years ago.

Schaugaard, who hasn’t bought creamery milk since she was ordered to leave the premises Dec. 5, 2008, said Monday she strongly suspects her termination is directly related to her allegations that company executives misspent federal funds.

Schaugaard said Monday the Federal Bureau of Investigation is conducting an investigation into the alleged funds misuse. When contacted earlier this year, the FBI would neither confirm nor deny such an investigation exists, as is its policy.

“Some of the financial transactions that I was in the process of researching were extremely suspicious,” Schaugaard said Monday. “I couldn’t track where the grant money had been deposited. Kyle Beus and Karen Olson would not give me the data I needed or the answers I needed to make sense of their finances.”

After a 22-month investigation, the Alaska State Commission for Human Rights ruled last week that Schaugaard and Moore have a legitimate case against the company for religious and sexual discrimination.

I have to say that one of the most frustrating parts of watching the slow disintegration of Sarah Palin's reputation, and the end of her political aspirations, is the federal piece.  The Feds simply do NOT move very quickly, and even if there are some slips which alert you to an investigation, NOBODY will tell you anything about it.

However I will say that, if my sources are correct, THIS is not the only Federal investigation which might bite half term celebrity Governor Sarah Palin, and her administration, in the ass.

But don't worry Palin-bots.  All your Queen has to do is add a scene to her propaganda film "The Undefeated" of her running into a burning barn and rescuing still smoldering cows, while her hair and makeup remain completely untouched, to convince the public that she is innocent of any wrongdoing in this case.

BTW if you want the very BEST roundup of the pertinent details about Dairygate, just head right on over to Palingates and let Regina bring you up to speed.