The White House claim that the Benghazi emails were doctored is taken apart.

Utah Sen. Mike Lee sold his home in a short sale two years ago to a friend and then rented a home nearby from the same man, a neighbor, federal contractor and campaign donor.

Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn comes out against federal disaster aid to Oklahoma unless other cuts are made in the budget.

The number of Americans who view the Republican Party unfavorably has hit a record high.

Following months of pressure, Senate Judiciary Committee, Chairman Patrick Leahy announced that he is withholding amendments to the immigration bill that would end discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender immigrant families.

NASA has given a grant to make a 3-D food replicator.

What to do with all the marijuana waste from Washington state’s legal pot growers? Feed it to pigs and give them the munchies to make them fatter.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has changed his mind. He doesn’t believe that climate change is real.

Rep. Michele Bachmann: “I believe God is going to answer our prayers and we’ll be freed from the yoke of Obamacare.”

China keeps ratcheting up the tensions with India.

In Afghanistan, Many of the 600 women jailed in the last year are victims of sexual assault and domestic abuse whose only crime was to run away from their assailants.

Guatemala’s top court has overturned a genocide conviction against former dictator Efrain Rios Montt, returning the case to a lower court.

It’s official. Anthony Weiner for mayor of New York.

Norman Tebbit (Source: James Robertson Photography (CC))

You have to hand it to British Prime Minister David Cameron. He knows how divisive same-sex marriage is, and he has seen how it bitterly divided France with widespread protests. Yet Cameron pushed full bore into the issue despite his Conservative Party not being on board.

The House of Commons has approved same-sex marriage by a 366-161 vote that required the Conservative Cameron to court Labour support for the bill to pass.

The Conservatives tried to alter the bill by proposing an amendment granting civil unions to same-sex couples. It was Labour with some of Cameron’s Conservative allies beating back a large Conservative opposition.

This would be something like Barack Obama breaking with some Democrats to get legislation passed but only with the overwhelming support of Republicans.

Cameron’s party is not happy. A former high-ranking cabinet minister and head of the Conservative Party during Margaret Thatcher’s reign, Norman Tebbit, completely blew up over the fear that people of the same sex might marry.

Here’s Lord Tebbit from the Mirror:

In a blistering, foul-mouthed rant, the former Cabinet minister said the Prime Minister had “f****d things up” by pressing ahead with same-sex marriage legislation despite growing resistance from his own party.

Things are going to get saucy when a former cabinet minister starts talking about things getting “fucked up” to the press. However, it gets more than saucy. It gets loony.

Lord Tebbit warned the Government had not thoroughly considered possible implications and the problems arising from passing new legislation in a hurry.

The 82-year-old warned that plans for gay marriage could allow families to avoid inheritance tax.

He told the Big Issue: “It would lift my worries about inheritance tax because maybe I’d be allowed to marry my son. Why not?

“Why shouldn’t a mother marry her daughter? Why shouldn’t two elderly sisters living together marry each other?”

The Conservative Party Chairman also questioned how the gay marriage bill could impact on Royal succession.

He added: “When we have a queen who is a lesbian and she marries another lady and then decides she would like to have a child and someone donates sperm and she gives birth to a child, is that child heir to the throne?

I think this almost makes the same-sex marriage debate in the U.S. sane. Here it is about protecting traditional marriage and the immorality of homosexuality. At least those who oppose same-sex marriage in the U.S. have a philosophical position.

Tebbit is warning that he might be allowed to marry his son and have a lesbian queen. No wonder Cameron broke from the nuts in his party. There’s no way to discuss the issue when lesbian queens are their greatest fear.

Stephen Fincher (Source: U.S. Congress)

The farm bills that regularly pass through Congress deal with a number of agricultural issues, including farm subsidies. They also include funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps.

With the last recession, SNAP has grown from $37 billion a year to $80 billion. Overall, 47 million Americans are in the program. Some collect just a few dollars a month; others collect hundreds. As the income rises, the benefits are cut. It is considered an essential program for the elderly and working poor and the children within those families. To be eligible for SNAP, one’s income must not be higher than 130% of the federal poverty level or about $30,000 for a family of four.

The farm bill also includes billions in subsidies to wheat, corn, cotton and other farmers. The subsidies tend to favor the large farms and are selective on the crops that qualify. While a corn farmer can collect thousands, a cauliflower farmer is out of luck.

In a recent debate on the farm bill, California Rep. Juan Vargas fought against cuts in SNAP with a reference to the Bible.

“[Jesus] says how you treat the least among us, the least of our brothers, that’s how you treat him,” Vargas, adding that Jesus specifically mentions the importance of feeding the hungry.”

That brought a response from Tennessee Rep. Stephen Fincher. Fincher, a gospel-singing cotton farmer, quoted from the Book of Thessalonians:

“The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”

That’s the problem with kids and the elderly. They won’t go out and work for their dinner. Let them starve seems the attitude of Fincher.

This Bible bantering could be dismissed as just another round of squabbling between Democrats and Republicans except that Fincher is a hard person to take serious on this subject.

Besides completely ignoring the point that the working poor make up a significant portion of those receiving SNAP, Fincher has his own needy hand in the government till.

Fincher is the managing partner of Fincher Farms in Frog Jump, Tennessee. It is a 2,500-acre farm growing cotton, corn, soybeans and wheat. Coincidentally, those are some of the main crops collecting farm subsidies. Fincher farms has received $3.2 million in subsidies. In addition, Fincher’s father and brother have taken in another $6.7 million.

Apparently, the cutting government waste platform that Fincher ran as a Tea Party candidate for Congress only applies if it means cutting meals for children who refuse to violate child-labor laws by not working.

Many in the Tea Party had doubts that Fincher was “pure” enough to run as one of their own when he sought election in 2010. At least those Tea Partiers could smell a hypocrite, and they were right.

Here was Fincher’s response when the House Agricultural Committee approved the Farm Bill.

“Late last night the House Agriculture Committee approved a bipartisan and fiscally responsible Farm Bill. As a seventh generation farmer, I know firsthand how important a good Farm Bill is in order to provide farmers across the country with the security to plan ahead and know what to expect from our farm programs. I’m proud to say this Farm Bill does just that.”

Let me get this straight. The farmers need security and the opportunity to plan ahead but the poor don’t get those same benefits because they don’t work hard enough. Fincher might be good at Bible-quoting and gospel singing, but he is lacking in some more important Christian virtues.

Russia is building a terrorist-killing Robo-cop.

Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega is accused of sexual abuse by his stepdaughter.

Croatia is training honeybees to find unexploded mines littering their country and the rest of the Balkans.

Showgirls dressed as Obama were popular at Silvio Berlusconi’s past “bunga bunga” parties.

Taxes on the rich imposed by Socialist president Francois Hollande meant more than 8,000 French households had tax bills that exceeded their income last year.

British Prime Minister David Cameron may have to turn to the opposition Labor Party for votes to pass same-sex marriage legislation after his Conservative Party divided on its support.

Now the North Koreans have seized a Chinese fishing boat.

Sarah Palin’s criticism of Barack Obama using a marine to hold an umbrella comes back to haunt her.

Michele Bachmann said the IRS is “going to be in charge of our health care.”

Oklahoma’s two senators, Tom Coburn and Jim Inhofe, regularly vote against disaster aid for other parts of the country. That will make for a difficult situation now that Oklahoma has encountered a major tornado.

Eleanor Roosevelt’s license to carry a pistol.

Benghazi is the 15^th issue that Republicans have raised as reason to impeach Barack Obama.

The Supreme Court will weigh in on legislative prayers.

Apple has been accused of being “among America’s largest tax avoiders” by a Senate committee.

Portland’s fight against flouridation.

According to this nutty poll, half of America wants Obama impeached.

On the eve of the primary election, a candidate in the race for Harrisburg mayor has admitted to defacing the campaign signs of one of his rivals.

Virginia Attorney Gen. Ken Cuccinelli asserted that the state’s freedom of information laws do not apply to the Office of the Attorney General.

Maine Sen. Angus King accused the Obama administration of rewriting the Constitution to ignore the Congressional power to declare war.

Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert believes the IRS “would have shot the Boston Tea party.”

Sheridan blasted D Magazine’s Dan Koller in this profanity laced tirade. Sheridan had previously made news in Dallas after being forcefully removed from speaking at public meetings when his time limit expired. Hopefully, his language at the meetings was better than on this audio. And, yes, the removal is from “meetings,” meaning that being physically removed once was not convincing enough. Sheridan had to do it more than one time.

On the voicemail, Sheridan expressed his pleasure that one of his opponents, Leland Burk, lost. Burk is gay, and Sheridan refers to Burk as a “sodomite.”

“You, sir, are cunt, bitch, coward, Mr. Koller. Dan Koller is a cunt, bitch, coward. And I don’t think you have one testicle, sir. You’re a sorry-ass, you’re a disgrace to our city, you’re a propagandist to the Sodomites,” Sheridan said.

As you can see, the video is not for work or around young children. It is also just part of the out-of-control vitroil coming from Sheridan.

It’s not just Koller that Sheridan is spreading his pleasure that Burk lost. Burk was one of three gay candidates seeking seats on the city council. All of them lost. Sheridan is thrilled with that, probably as much as every one of the 28 votes he received in his race.

Sheridan has now resorted to passing out anti-gay flyers at the city council meeting. A columnist with The Dallas Morning News reported on the content of the flyers.

During the meeting, Sheridan began passing out fliers. He dropped one in my office. He gave a few to people in the audience. And then he put one in the hand of former Dallas City Council member Craig Holcomb.

I’m not going to post the flier. But I’ll describe it. It was a distortion of a recent Dallas Voice front page showing the faces of three openly gay council candidates, Vernon Franko, Leland Burk and Herschel Weisfeld.

Sheridan had X’d through each of their faces and scrawled 6s on their foreheads.

“God’s voice was heard in Dallas Saturday. No openly gay LGBT City Councilmember!!” he wrote, in reference to the fact that all three lost their races. (Franko and Weisfeld ran against Adam Medrano in District 2)

Sheridan failed to write that his own bid for council came up a little short too. In fact, he managed to get 28 votes in District 13. That’s 28 votes out of 10,350 votes cast in the district. Burk lost to Jennifer Staubach Gates, but he got 3,584 votes for his effort. Or, to put it another way, Burk got 128 times the votes that Sheridan did.

It’s comforting to know that the hate Sheridan spills is as unpopular as it is in Dallas. There may not have been any gay candidates elected, but that will change in time. At least the haters, like Sheridan, are being reduced to a handful. With the kind of PR attention Sheridan provides, they will eventually marginalize themselves right out of the political system.