In a lame attempt at defending their widely mocked post blaming Republicans for the recent deadly tornadoes, ThinkProgress quotes a supposed “scientist” who says what we’ve been saying all along (albeit in a mocking fashion), everything can be blamed on the mythical “global warming.”

Top Climate Scientist On The Monster Tornadoes: ‘It Is Irresponsible Not To Mention Climate Change’ — ThinkProgress

. . . Conservatives attack any discussion of climate policy within the context of the killer tornadoes as “grotesque,” saying that to do so is blaming the victims.

Climate scientist Michael Mann explains further that “climate change is present in every single meteorological event”:

The fact remains that there is 4 percent more water vapor — and associated additional moist energy — available both to power individual storms and to produce intense rainfall from them. Climate change is present in every single meteorological event, in that these events are occurring within a baseline atmospheric environment that has shifted in favor of more intense weather events.

So if it’s present in everything, than it can also be blamed for nothing? I think? My head hurts.

As usual, she’s right. Except for the grammar thing.

(The Hill) — Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) on Friday doubled down on her opposition to raising the nation’s debt ceiling.

“Hells no. I would not vote to increase that debt ceiling,” she said during an interview on Fox News, where she is a paid contributor.

Palin, a potential GOP presidential candidate, has long been opposed to raising the nation’s $14.3 trillion debt limit.

But she indicated Friday she is willing to go further than Republican leaders in Congress and some other GOP presidential candidates, who are demanding that spending reforms be attached to a vote to raise the debt ceiling.

“It turns my stomach to hear this assumption articulated that we have to, despite the fact that we are raking in the federal government $6 billion a day,” she said. “Take that money and service our debt first and pay down some of that debt. Make sure that we are showing the international financial markets and our lenders that we’re serious about getting our debt and our deficit problems under control.”

The debate over the debt limit is expected to kick into full gear next week when Congress returns from the spring recess. GOP presidential candidates could pressure Republican leaders in Congress to hold out for major concessions from Democrats, who want a “clean” vote to raise the borrowing limit.

Palin said that raising it would show that the government is not serious about fixing its fiscal woes.

“Otherwise it just shows the American public that we aren’t serious, yet we are still going to incur more debt.”

Along with the economy, immigration, jobs and Afghanistan.

(CNBC) — The poll’s findings underscore the challenge facing Obama as he seeks public support for his proposals for tackling a growing U.S. budget deficit — an issue that could play a key role in the president’s efforts to win re-election in 2012.

The USA Today/Gallup survey of 1,013 U.S. adults looked at whether Americans expressed more confidence in the ability of Republicans or Democrats in Congress to deal with six major issues facing the country.

The federal budget was the only issue in which respondents clearly preferred one party over the other, with 48 percent favoring Republicans and 36 percent Democrats.

The poll found that Americans favored Republicans by smaller margins on four other issues: Afghanistan, the U.S. economy, immigration and jobs. Democrats held a small advantage on handling healthcare, the poll found.

Chris, do us a favor and check between your legs and tell us if you’re still a man.

“If you think about him as a guy out in the sun, with the sun in his face, looking like a cowboy with his sleeves rolled up . . . here he is out in the sun, short sleeves, he’s always been fit, looking like a million bucks, looking like a guy.”

HT: RCP

MSM death watch.

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The Boston Globe reported Friday that a businessman is preparing to offer more than $200 million to buy the struggling newspaper from its owner, The New York Times Co.

The Boston Globe said Aaron Kushner will make a formal offer within the next few weeks for the Times Co.’s New England Media Group, which includes the Boston Globe, Boston.com, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette of central Massachusetts and Telegram.com.

“When we have all of the pieces in place to not just purchase but enrich the institutions, we look forward to making a formal offer,” Kushner, a 38-year-old entrepreneur, said in a statement to the newspaper.

The Boston Globe said Kushner, the founder of an Internet company and Marian Heath Greeting Cards Inc., was discussing the venture with other business executives from Boston and elsewhere in New England.

The Times Co., whose holdings include The New York Times and International Herald Tribune in addition to The Boston Globe, sought a buyer for the Globe in 2009 but failed to receive bids attractive enough to merit a sale.

The Times Co. bought the Boston Globe for $1.1 billion in 1993 but the value of the newspaper has plummeted since then, along with the fortunes of the US newspaper industry.

Good move.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels plans to sign a bill that will restrict abortions and make Indiana the first state to cut off all government funding for Planned Parenthood.

The move is likely to beef up his credentials among social conservatives as he considers a 2012 presidential run.

Daniels said Friday that he’s supported the abortion restrictions from the outset and the provision added to defund Planned Parenthood didn’t change his mind.

The über-classiness never ends.

Via Radio Equalizer:

That is the perfect start to the conclusion of this story, that we have found out that Donald Trump is proud of himself! It’s almost as if he’s a 12-year-old that just learned how to masturbate and he’s really proud of himself!

Above is a picture from today’s festivities, more here.

CAIRO (AFP) — About 2,000 hardline Islamists protested Friday outside the Coptic Church’s headquarters in Cairo to demand the release of two women they allege are being held after converting to Islam.

The protesters, who belonged to the puritanical Salafi sect, marched on St Mark’s Cathedral from a mosque after Friday prayers to demand the release of Wafa Constantine and Camellia Shehata, the wives of two priests.

The church denies the women converted to Islam.

The Salafis have held regular protests over the case in the past year, but they have usually been smaller in number.

Their cause was eventually picked up by a Qaeda-linked group in Iraq that massacred dozens of Christians in a Baghdad church in November 2010 and vowed more attacks until the two women are freed.

Two months later, a suicide bomber killed more than 20 Copts after a New Year’s Eve mass in the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria.

The Coptic Church has reportedly convened a synod in response to the growing assertiveness of Salafis, who have increased their political presence in Egypt since a popular revolt toppled president Hosni Mubarak in February

Ignorance on steroids.

Question: “That strikes me, in the case of global warming particularly, which is a very, very high-stakes conspiracy theory, that a majority of Republicans out there share — John, what did you learn about how you break — you sort of break this kind of vicious cycle that conspiracists are under?”

Answer: “Ultimately, you have to teach people that conspiracism, which is what I call this way of thinking, is akin to any other pathological way of thinking. We’ve taught ourselves to get around racism, for the most part; taught ourselves to get around homophobia and sexism in some cases; we have to teach people that conspiracism is a way of thinking that is pathological, and you have to exercise your mental self-discipline to try to get around it.”

Via Newsbusters

We’re being shared to death.

“I want America to be great, not for itself and not for greatness, but to share this technology with the world.”

Via Townhall’s Greg Hengler (HT: Jay)

Trump responds with an F-bomb in 3 . . .2 . . . 1

(Ballot Box) — Former Rep. Guy Molinari (R-N.Y.) doesn’t want real estate mogul Donald Trump in the race for president.

The Staten Island Republican, who backed former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani in the 2008 race, told the New York Observer Trump “is not qualified” to be president.

He’s “a son of a b—h, and you can quote me on that,” Molinari told the newspaper. He also predicted Trump would ultimately pass on a presidential bid.

Rise of the raisin-burned foreheads.

CAIRO — The Islamic opposition has begun to employ Al Qaida supporters for a violent campaign in Egypt.

Western diplomats have reported expanded cooperation between the Muslim Brotherhood and the so-called Salafist movement. The Salafists, funded by Gulf Arab sheiks, practice a brand of fundamentalist Islam similar to that of Al Qaida.

“There is evidence that the Salafists and Brotherhood are working together to take over the streets [of Egypt],” a diplomat said.

The diplomats said the Brotherhood was using the Salafists for attacks on other elements of the opposition that helped oust President Hosni Mubarak in February. They said the Brotherhood was exploiting its quiet cooperation with the military regime to attack Christians and Sufi Muslims in Cairo and Alexandria. In March, at least 25 people were killed in Salafist-led clashes with Christians in the Cairo area.

“The Brotherhood wants to present an image of moderation and non-violence,” the diplomat said. “When it needs dirty work done, it calls the Salafists.”

Giving him both barrels.

Today on The Laura Ingraham Show, Harry Alford, president and CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce, blasted President Obama’s anti-business administration in an explosive interview. Alford, a 2008 Obama supporter, labeled the administration “Marxist” and “fanatical.” “They might as well put on the brown shirts and swastikas,” he said.

He also admitted he voted for Obama simply because he was black.

Well deserved.

(Rasmussen) — As members of Congress and the president haggle over ways to reduce the federal budget deficit, ratings for the bicameral legislature have fallen to the lowest level since late 2008.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely Voters shows that nine percent (9%) now say Congress is doing a good or excellent job. Fifty-six percent (56%) rate the Congressional performance as poor.

Positive grades for the legislators are down from 13% last month and are the lowest measured since December 2008. The number of voters who give Congress a poor grade is up seven points from last month and is the highest negative review since Republicans took control of the House in January.

From January 2007 through December 2010, with Democrats in control of both the House and Senate, the legislature earned good or excellent marks ranging from 9% to 26%. The high water mark was reached in May 2007. Poor marks for the Democratic tenure ranged from a low of 35% to a high of 71%. That 71% negative rating was reached just before the health care bill became law.

In the four months since Republicans took control of the House, positive ratings for Congress have ranged from nine percent (9%) to 15%, while poor marks have run from 42% to 56%. Democrats continue to control the Senate.

Only 11% of Republican voters believe Congress is doing a good or excellent job, as do 11% of Democrats. Just six percent (6%) of voters not affiliated with either major party give Congress positive marks.

Sadly, the Europeans can only dodge so many bullets before one hits its mark.

(IPT) — German police apprehended three armed al-Qaida suspects on Friday in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The detentions were because of “a concrete and imminent” threat and have fulfilled expectations of a “Mumbai-style” attack planned in Western Europe.

The three Moroccan suspects, whose age and nationality have not been released, were apprehended with a “large amount of explosives,” according to German news site www.bild.de. The site identified the trio as Abdeladim K. from Dusseldorf, Jamil S. from Essen, and Ahmed Sh. from Bochum.

The three suspects came to the attention of police through surveillance of their mobile phones and computer communications, an effort that began only on April 15th. Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, state police and foreign authorities were all involved in the investigation, according to Deutsche Welle.

Feeling safe?

(CNSNews.com) — Three people convicted of crimes as a result of a terrorism-related investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) were later naturalized as U.S. citizens by the Obama administration, according to federal auditors.

The March 2011 audit (released on April 21, 2011) by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), entitled Criminal Alien Statistics: Information on Incarcerations, Arrests and Costs, shows that three individuals were among “defendants where the investigation involved an identified link to international terrorism but they were charged with violating other statutes [not directly related to terrorism], including fraud, immigration, drugs, false statements, and general conspiracy charges,” referred by DOJ as Category II terrorism-related cases.

The three individuals in question can be found in a DOJ list of unsealed terrorism-related investigations conducted from Sept. 11, 2001 through Mar. 18, 2010. There are 403 defendants on that list of which, according to the GAO, at least 43 percent were aliens — both legal (26 percent) and illegal (17 percent) — at the time they were charged with crimes.

Keep reading…

Related: Eric Holder: Notwithstanding my tenuous grip on reality, “we have prosecuted more terrorists than in any other two-year period in this nation’s history”

Commie scum.

(The Nation) — In light of efforts to strip public employees of collective bargaining in Wisconsin and the anti-union bills introduced in at least twelve states, planned May Day protests have taken on a new, more significant meaning this year. Events will focus on the customary issues of workers’ and immigrants’ rights, but also collective bargaining, and budget and pension cuts that affect not just the working class but their families and communities, as well.

Downtown Los Angeles will be filled with protesters this Sunday in what has become an annual pro-immigration reform march. California is known for its legendary May Day protests. In 2006, a quarter of a million people poured into the streets of San Jose in what is known as the largest political demonstration in Northern California history. That year, the protest was centered on the Illegal Immigration Control Act, which would have criminalized undocumented immigrants. The protest effectively stopped the bill in is tracks, according to Mercury News.

This year, activists will be calling on President Obama to stop deportations and provide “legalization or no re-election,” says Celina Benitez of Southern California Immigration Coalition. SCIC is also protesting in solidarity of all workers’ rights to organize.

Wisconsin’s May Day march will of course be focused on union busting, but also keeping in-state tuition for immigrant students, opposing Arizona-type legislation that targets immigrants, and preventing budget cuts.

The event is sponsored by the immigrant rights organization Voces de la Frontera with support and mobilization efforts coming from a variety of unions, including: Wisconsin’s AFL-CIO, the American Federation of Teachers Local 212, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) in Wisconsin, the Painters and Allied Trades Local 781, Service Employees Local 1, and more unions.

Apparently they didn’t hear the bad news, the NOAA has said this has nothing to do with “climate change.”

(ThinkProgress) — Today, news agencies are still tallying reports of deaths from the most devastating storm system in the United States in decades:

Dozens of massive tornadoes tore a town-flattening streak across the South, killing at least 250 people in six states and forcing rescuers to carry some survivors out on makeshift stretchers of splintered debris. Two of Alabama’s major cities were among the places devastated by the deadliest twister outbreak in nearly 40 years.

“Given that global warming is unequivocal,” climate scientist Kevin Trenberth cautioned the American Meteorological Society in January of this year, “the null hypothesis should be that all weather events are affected by global warming rather than the inane statements along the lines of ‘of course we cannot attribute any particular weather event to global warming.’”

The congressional delegations of these states — Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, Virginia, and Kentucky — overwhelmingly voted to reject the science that polluting the climate is dangerous. They are deliberately ignoring the warnings from scientists.

Here we go.

BEIRUT (AP) — The banned Muslim Brotherhood urged Syrians to take to the streets on Friday as activists called for a “Day of Rage” against President Bashar Assad’s regime, which has stepped up its deadly crackdown on protesters by unleashing the army along with snipers and tanks.

The government warned against holding any demonstrations. Syrian state television said the Interior Ministry has not approved any “march, demonstration or sit-in” and that such rallies seek only to harm Syria’s security and stability.

Activists in Syria are planning nationwide protests following Muslim prayers in solidarity with more than 50 people killed in the last week alone in Daraa, a southern city at the heart of the revolt.

Since the uprising in Syria began in mid-March, inspired by revolts across the Arab world, more than 450 people have been killed nationwide, activists say.

Friday’s statement by the Muslim Brotherhood was the first time the outlawed group has openly encouraged the protests in Syria. The Brotherhood was crushed by Assad’s father, Hafez, after staging an uprising against his regime in 1982.

“You were born free so don’t let a tyrant enslave you,” said the statement, issued by the Brotherhood’s exiled leadership.

HT: Jonathon Seidl