Showing posts with label behavior. Show all posts
Showing posts with label behavior. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Lena Dunham Is "Disgusted" by Woody Allen"s Behavior, Won"t Condemn His Work

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Lena Dunham Is "Disgusted" by Woody Allen"s Behavior, Won"t Condemn His Work

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Lies, Nonsense and Totally Off-the-Wall Behavior -- 10 Doozies from the Nutty Right Wing This Week



Atheists can"t serve the hungry and the devil has been very, very busy.








Some really crazy things came out of the mouths of the frothing right wing this week – 


1. Suzanne Somers is still an idiot, and the WSJ prints her error-ridden Obamacare hitjob anyway.


While Thighmaster spokeswoman Suzanne Somers has matured since her hit TV show days, her plumpers and politics have pretty much ossified. Her enlightened take on the Affordable Care Act appeared in the Wall Street Journal this week, concluding that it’s “a greater Ponzi scheme than that pulled off by Bernie Madoff.” She wrote 535 hysterical words, in which Lenin came up in addition to Madoff, on the topic of this dreaded “socialized medicine.” By the next day, the Journal had published nearly a fifth as many words in corrections.


But it did not correct the “Ponzi scheme” assertion, which was based on flimsy anecdotes about relatives who had bad experiences with Canadian doctors, and how Somers is hearing on the news that everyone’s premium is doubling and tripling. (Any guesses as to which so-called news channel she watches?)


This piece of rocket science appeared in WSJ’s “The Experts” section, which bills itself as “an exclusive group of industry, academic and cultural thought leaders who weigh in on the latest debates.”


This will definitely be our go-to section for expert analysis henceforth.


2. John Stossel: Women, aka hypochondriacs, should pay more for health insurance.


Fox libertarian spokes-moustache John Stossel became rather mentally unbalanced about the fairness of the Affordable Care Act this week. It’s not fair, he whined, that under the law, men have to pay as much for health insurance as women because “Women go to the doctor much more often than men! Maybe they’re smarter or maybe they’re hypochondriacs. They live longer. Who knows?”


The point is, they’re women, dammit.


Another thing that has Stossel and a number of Republicans really irked is that men have to help pay for pregnancy and maternity coverage, when men can’t even get pregnant. It’s so unfair!


Look, everyone knows that women get pregnant all by themselves, and it’s their fault they got themselves into this fix, and they damn well better get themselves out of it. Hypochondriacs!


3. Concerned Women for America: Very worried that young people might get health insurance.


While women are making bank with this whole Obamacare Ponzi scheme, you know who is getting screwed? Young people, that’s who. Concerned Women for America is very very concerned about that; concerned that young people may actually choose to join a program that will help them afford health insurance.


Concerned Women don’t just get concerned about any old thing. They’re not losing any sleep about silly things like tens of thousands of children going hungry because of the massive food stamp cuts that just took effect. They only get concerned about important things, like how close Miley Cyrus’ butt got to Robin Thicke’s crotch at the VMA Awards.  


In an interview this week with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Concerned spokeswoman Alison Howard sent out the alarm bells to “young subsidizers” who might sign up for a “government-run program that’s a complete fail.”


“Complete fail!” she said. So hip with that phrasing!


Then she told those same hip young people, who listen to CBN all the time, to “pray for our nation’s leaders, that they have wisdom and clarity to fix this very broken problem and help us completely heal as a country,” according to Right-Wing Watch.


This praying stuff will be good practice for when you get sick or hurt, and don’t have health insurance.


4. 27 GOP senators vote to disapprove of themselves.


At first glance, maybe this headline actually makes sense. About time these clowns disapproved of themselves for their heartless policies and shameless tactics. But, no, no. No such attack of conscience has hit the Republicans in Congress. What took place this week in the Senate may have set a new low on the moron scale—and these days, that is really saying something. All 27 Republican senators who voted recently to raise the debt ceiling, pay the nation’s bills, and reopen the government (and arguably do their jobs), voted this week in favor of a symbolic “resolution to disapprove” of that vote. All of them.


Apart from making no sense (but when has that stood in the way of Republican politics?) the vote was completely pointless, unless the point was to further illustrate their idiocy.


Actually, the point was as simple as it was hypocritical. (Remember when John Kerry was given hell after saying he was for something before he was against it? At least some time passed in between.)  The point was simply to brazenly give these Republicans political cover, so that Tea Partiers and other right-wing crazies won’t try to unseat them.


5. Marsha Blackburn: Americans must be free to drink from red Solo cups.


Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn made some marvelously on-point comments during the congressional “yell at Kathleen Sebelius” hearing on the bumpy Obamacare roll-out this week.


“Some people like to drive a Ford, not a Ferrari … And some people like to drink out of a red Solo cup, not a crystal stem. You’re taking away their choice,” said Rep. Blackburn.


Blackburn has taken the lead as a defender of Americans’ rights to choose many important things this week, not just red Solo cups. From cheap shoes, clothing and plasticware to insurance plans that don’t cover much of anything, or kick you off when you get sick. Cause we’re Amurricans, damn it. And we’re free.


Yes, she’s a staunch defender of freedom and the rights of all Americans to choose. Except, of course, women"s right to choose whether to have a baby or get contraception. That’s the government’s job.


6. S.C. soup kitchen to atheists: No serving soup for you!


Everyone knows that religious belief and serving food to the poor are inextricably intertwined. Which is why it makes total sense that a group of avowed atheists, Upstate Atheists, were banned from helping out at the Spartanburg Soup Kitchen in South Carolina last week. Since they were not allowed in, they set up across the street to distribute food and other necessities like toothpaste and socks to the area’s poor. And they did this while not believing in god. What an abomination!


Upstate Atheists" slogan is “Charity Beyond Belief,” but the Spartanburg Soup Kitchen wasn’t buying it, calling the atheists" mission “counter to the mission of the soup kitchen.” The executive director then added, “They can have the devil there with them, but they better not come across the street.”


We did not know that the devil had branched out into the charity business. Clearly, a rebranding scheme.


7. Minn. Republican party posts, then deletes, unbelievably racist message.


The Chisago County, Minn. Republican party got caught with a deeply offensive Facebook post comparing abortion to slavery this week.


“Pro Choice. Against Slavery? Don"t buy one,” said the caption to a picture depicting a slave auction. MSNBC and radio Host Ed Schultz posted a screengrab of the photo on his Facebook page.


Unsurprisingly, outrage ensued, leading the party to delete the post and deny any responsibility for it. They said their page was made by a “large number of administrators,” who, we guess, aren’t vetted very well.


But they are very, very sorry, and sought to remind everyone that the Republican Party derives from the anti-slavery movement.


Today’s Republican Party always reminds us of abolitionists and Lincoln.


8. Nevada Rep.: "Would bring back slavery if constituents wanted it."


Nevada Assemblyman Jim Wheeler did not get the Republican anti-slavery memo, as evidenced by comments Wheeler made to the Storey County Republican Party in August, according to the Associated Press, that came to light this week.


He said he’d bring back slavery if that was what his constituents wanted. There was a Youtube video of it that now appears to have been taken down. Perhaps someone thinks these comments make him look bad. Even racist. Which, of course, he is not. Why would you think that?


Because he did add that he would find it distasteful to bring back slavery, saying “I"d have to hold my nose … they"d probably have to hold a gun to my head, but yeah.”


That’s how dedicated this man is to public service. He’d be willing to override his own lack of bigotry to represent bigots.


9. Religious broadcasters: It’s simple. Miley Cyrus sold her soul to the devil.


Remember Miley Cyrus’ tongue at the VMA? Remind you of anyone? Someone with a forked tongue perhaps?


It’s a well-known fact that the devil has completely taken over the entertainment industry—Rick Santorum definitely thinks so—so it should not come as a surprise that there was a coded message in Cyrus’ infamous performance. She was announcing she’d sold her soul to the devil, said a pair of religious right broadcasters.


Broadcaster Rick Wiles and anti-rock music pastor Joe Schimmel confirmed this revelation on Wiles’ TruNews radio program this week.


“The American entertainment industry loves perverting the souls of innocent children, [and] they thrive on their wicked methods of defiling children and converting them into little citizens of Babylon. It is the work of the synagogue of Satan. Their latest poster child to recruit little Babylonians is Miley Cyrus,” Wiles said.


Wait, “synagogue”?


He also said he has seen an actual photo of Cyrus licking the ribs of a caped skeleton figure with red eyes and horns, according to Raw Story. An actual photo!


Schimmel agreed, as any reasonable person would. Cyrus, he said, has been “baptized into the Illuminati.” Her dance moves, he added, are demonstrations of “how to have sex with some satanic figure.”


Let us pray for the safe return of Miley Cyrus’ soul.


10. David Conn: Obama similar to Jim Jones.


It was a banner week on Wiles’ TruNews radio program. He also interviewed a very enlightening Jim Jones/Jonestown cult “expert.”


David Conn, the “expert,” is seeing the emergence of another Jim Jones-like figure in our midst—President Obama, who embodies “the re-emergence of the Jones Cult mentality on a grand national level.”


Let’s unpack that for a sec.


“First off, Jones captured the media and Obama captured the media,” Conn explained. Also they both had strange childhoods, and were yearning for father figures. Leaving the plane of reality altogether, Conn added, “Obama"s only father figure was a terribly nasty old man, a pornographer and a child molester and a cocaine user who was an avowed communist.”


Wiles knew just who he was talking about: Frank Marshall Davis. He’s the one who got Obama into cocaine.


Also, both of them, Jones and Obama, had a background of community organizing. Of course, Obama’s cult is Islam, so that’s a slight difference. But otherwise, it’s a no-brainer.


Here, have some more Kool-Aid.


 

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Lies, Nonsense and Totally Off-the-Wall Behavior -- 10 Doozies from the Nutty Right Wing This Week

Lies, Nonsense and Totally Off-the-Wall Behavior -- 10 Doozies from the Nutty Right Wing This Week



Atheists can"t serve the hungry and the devil has been very, very busy.








Some really crazy things came out of the mouths of the frothing right wing this week – 


1. Suzanne Somers is still an idiot, and the WSJ prints her error-ridden Obamacare hitjob anyway.


While Thighmaster spokeswoman Suzanne Somers has matured since her hit TV show days, her plumpers and politics have pretty much ossified. Her enlightened take on the Affordable Care Act appeared in the Wall Street Journal this week, concluding that it’s “a greater Ponzi scheme than that pulled off by Bernie Madoff.” She wrote 535 hysterical words, in which Lenin came up in addition to Madoff, on the topic of this dreaded “socialized medicine.” By the next day, the Journal had published nearly a fifth as many words in corrections.


But it did not correct the “Ponzi scheme” assertion, which was based on flimsy anecdotes about relatives who had bad experiences with Canadian doctors, and how Somers is hearing on the news that everyone’s premium is doubling and tripling. (Any guesses as to which so-called news channel she watches?)


This piece of rocket science appeared in WSJ’s “The Experts” section, which bills itself as “an exclusive group of industry, academic and cultural thought leaders who weigh in on the latest debates.”


This will definitely be our go-to section for expert analysis henceforth.


2. John Stossel: Women, aka hypochondriacs, should pay more for health insurance.


Fox libertarian spokes-moustache John Stossel became rather mentally unbalanced about the fairness of the Affordable Care Act this week. It’s not fair, he whined, that under the law, men have to pay as much for health insurance as women because “Women go to the doctor much more often than men! Maybe they’re smarter or maybe they’re hypochondriacs. They live longer. Who knows?”


The point is, they’re women, dammit.


Another thing that has Stossel and a number of Republicans really irked is that men have to help pay for pregnancy and maternity coverage, when men can’t even get pregnant. It’s so unfair!


Look, everyone knows that women get pregnant all by themselves, and it’s their fault they got themselves into this fix, and they damn well better get themselves out of it. Hypochondriacs!


3. Concerned Women for America: Very worried that young people might get health insurance.


While women are making bank with this whole Obamacare Ponzi scheme, you know who is getting screwed? Young people, that’s who. Concerned Women for America is very very concerned about that; concerned that young people may actually choose to join a program that will help them afford health insurance.


Concerned Women don’t just get concerned about any old thing. They’re not losing any sleep about silly things like tens of thousands of children going hungry because of the massive food stamp cuts that just took effect. They only get concerned about important things, like how close Miley Cyrus’ butt got to Robin Thicke’s crotch at the VMA Awards.  


In an interview this week with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Concerned spokeswoman Alison Howard sent out the alarm bells to “young subsidizers” who might sign up for a “government-run program that’s a complete fail.”


“Complete fail!” she said. So hip with that phrasing!


Then she told those same hip young people, who listen to CBN all the time, to “pray for our nation’s leaders, that they have wisdom and clarity to fix this very broken problem and help us completely heal as a country,” according to Right-Wing Watch.


This praying stuff will be good practice for when you get sick or hurt, and don’t have health insurance.


4. 27 GOP senators vote to disapprove of themselves.


At first glance, maybe this headline actually makes sense. About time these clowns disapproved of themselves for their heartless policies and shameless tactics. But, no, no. No such attack of conscience has hit the Republicans in Congress. What took place this week in the Senate may have set a new low on the moron scale—and these days, that is really saying something. All 27 Republican senators who voted recently to raise the debt ceiling, pay the nation’s bills, and reopen the government (and arguably do their jobs), voted this week in favor of a symbolic “resolution to disapprove” of that vote. All of them.


Apart from making no sense (but when has that stood in the way of Republican politics?) the vote was completely pointless, unless the point was to further illustrate their idiocy.


Actually, the point was as simple as it was hypocritical. (Remember when John Kerry was given hell after saying he was for something before he was against it? At least some time passed in between.)  The point was simply to brazenly give these Republicans political cover, so that Tea Partiers and other right-wing crazies won’t try to unseat them.


5. Marsha Blackburn: Americans must be free to drink from red Solo cups.


Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn made some marvelously on-point comments during the congressional “yell at Kathleen Sebelius” hearing on the bumpy Obamacare roll-out this week.


“Some people like to drive a Ford, not a Ferrari … And some people like to drink out of a red Solo cup, not a crystal stem. You’re taking away their choice,” said Rep. Blackburn.


Blackburn has taken the lead as a defender of Americans’ rights to choose many important things this week, not just red Solo cups. From cheap shoes, clothing and plasticware to insurance plans that don’t cover much of anything, or kick you off when you get sick. Cause we’re Amurricans, damn it. And we’re free.


Yes, she’s a staunch defender of freedom and the rights of all Americans to choose. Except, of course, women"s right to choose whether to have a baby or get contraception. That’s the government’s job.


6. S.C. soup kitchen to atheists: No serving soup for you!


Everyone knows that religious belief and serving food to the poor are inextricably intertwined. Which is why it makes total sense that a group of avowed atheists, Upstate Atheists, were banned from helping out at the Spartanburg Soup Kitchen in South Carolina last week. Since they were not allowed in, they set up across the street to distribute food and other necessities like toothpaste and socks to the area’s poor. And they did this while not believing in god. What an abomination!


Upstate Atheists" slogan is “Charity Beyond Belief,” but the Spartanburg Soup Kitchen wasn’t buying it, calling the atheists" mission “counter to the mission of the soup kitchen.” The executive director then added, “They can have the devil there with them, but they better not come across the street.”


We did not know that the devil had branched out into the charity business. Clearly, a rebranding scheme.


7. Minn. Republican party posts, then deletes, unbelievably racist message.


The Chisago County, Minn. Republican party got caught with a deeply offensive Facebook post comparing abortion to slavery this week.


“Pro Choice. Against Slavery? Don"t buy one,” said the caption to a picture depicting a slave auction. MSNBC and radio Host Ed Schultz posted a screengrab of the photo on his Facebook page.


Unsurprisingly, outrage ensued, leading the party to delete the post and deny any responsibility for it. They said their page was made by a “large number of administrators,” who, we guess, aren’t vetted very well.


But they are very, very sorry, and sought to remind everyone that the Republican Party derives from the anti-slavery movement.


Today’s Republican Party always reminds us of abolitionists and Lincoln.


8. Nevada Rep.: "Would bring back slavery if constituents wanted it."


Nevada Assemblyman Jim Wheeler did not get the Republican anti-slavery memo, as evidenced by comments Wheeler made to the Storey County Republican Party in August, according to the Associated Press, that came to light this week.


He said he’d bring back slavery if that was what his constituents wanted. There was a Youtube video of it that now appears to have been taken down. Perhaps someone thinks these comments make him look bad. Even racist. Which, of course, he is not. Why would you think that?


Because he did add that he would find it distasteful to bring back slavery, saying “I"d have to hold my nose … they"d probably have to hold a gun to my head, but yeah.”


That’s how dedicated this man is to public service. He’d be willing to override his own lack of bigotry to represent bigots.


9. Religious broadcasters: It’s simple. Miley Cyrus sold her soul to the devil.


Remember Miley Cyrus’ tongue at the VMA? Remind you of anyone? Someone with a forked tongue perhaps?


It’s a well-known fact that the devil has completely taken over the entertainment industry—Rick Santorum definitely thinks so—so it should not come as a surprise that there was a coded message in Cyrus’ infamous performance. She was announcing she’d sold her soul to the devil, said a pair of religious right broadcasters.


Broadcaster Rick Wiles and anti-rock music pastor Joe Schimmel confirmed this revelation on Wiles’ TruNews radio program this week.


“The American entertainment industry loves perverting the souls of innocent children, [and] they thrive on their wicked methods of defiling children and converting them into little citizens of Babylon. It is the work of the synagogue of Satan. Their latest poster child to recruit little Babylonians is Miley Cyrus,” Wiles said.


Wait, “synagogue”?


He also said he has seen an actual photo of Cyrus licking the ribs of a caped skeleton figure with red eyes and horns, according to Raw Story. An actual photo!


Schimmel agreed, as any reasonable person would. Cyrus, he said, has been “baptized into the Illuminati.” Her dance moves, he added, are demonstrations of “how to have sex with some satanic figure.”


Let us pray for the safe return of Miley Cyrus’ soul.


10. David Conn: Obama similar to Jim Jones.


It was a banner week on Wiles’ TruNews radio program. He also interviewed a very enlightening Jim Jones/Jonestown cult “expert.”


David Conn, the “expert,” is seeing the emergence of another Jim Jones-like figure in our midst—President Obama, who embodies “the re-emergence of the Jones Cult mentality on a grand national level.”


Let’s unpack that for a sec.


“First off, Jones captured the media and Obama captured the media,” Conn explained. Also they both had strange childhoods, and were yearning for father figures. Leaving the plane of reality altogether, Conn added, “Obama"s only father figure was a terribly nasty old man, a pornographer and a child molester and a cocaine user who was an avowed communist.”


Wiles knew just who he was talking about: Frank Marshall Davis. He’s the one who got Obama into cocaine.


Also, both of them, Jones and Obama, had a background of community organizing. Of course, Obama’s cult is Islam, so that’s a slight difference. But otherwise, it’s a no-brainer.


Here, have some more Kool-Aid.


 

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Lies, Nonsense and Totally Off-the-Wall Behavior -- 10 Doozies from the Nutty Right Wing This Week

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Police, schools tap social media to track behavior


Helen A.S. Popkin
NBC News
October 6, 2013


A teenager who claimed “sarcasm” after talking on Facebook about shooting up a kindergarten spent months in jail this year for making a “terroristic threat.” Over the summer, Instagram photos of guns and money led to New York City’s largest gun bust ever. A mom’s Facebook photo of her baby with a bong led to her 2010 arrest.


While criminals — or those guilty of ill-placed sarcasm — aren’t wising up about social media oversharing, tools for monitoring Americans online are increasingly accessible and affordable to authorities, no NSA-level clearance required. Those in charge are monitoring more and more and social networks are happy to comply, especially where extra revenue is involved.


If you share something publicly on social media, “you should expect the world to read it,” said Andy Sellars, a staff attorney at the Digital Media Law Project. “And you should expect that world to include law enforcement.”


Read more


This article was posted: Sunday, October 6, 2013 at 10:14 am


Tags: big brother, domestic news, domestic spying










Infowars



Police, schools tap social media to track behavior

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Investigators review erratic behavior of DC gunman







In this photo provided by the U.S. Navy, an FBI evidence response team vehicle is parked outside Building 197 at the Navy Yard in Washington as evidence is collected Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. A gunman killed 12 people at the base on Monday, Sept. 16, 2013. (AP Photo/U.S. Navy, Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Pedro A. Rodriguez)





In this photo provided by the U.S. Navy, an FBI evidence response team vehicle is parked outside Building 197 at the Navy Yard in Washington as evidence is collected Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. A gunman killed 12 people at the base on Monday, Sept. 16, 2013. (AP Photo/U.S. Navy, Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Pedro A. Rodriguez)





Bishops Gerald Seabrooks, right, and Willie Billips speak to reporters after Cathleen Alexis, mother of Washington Navy Yard gunman Aaron Alexis, made a statement at her home in New York’s Brooklyn borough on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. Cathleen Alexis said that she does not know why her son did what he did and she will never be able to ask him. Aaron Alexis opened fire Monday, killing 12 people, before he was killed in a shootout with police. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)





Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey speak at a news conference at The Pentagon, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. Hagel is ordering the Pentagon to review the physical security of all U.S. defense facilities worldwide and the security clearances that allow access to them. Hagel ordered the reviews in response to Monday’s shooting rampage at the Washington Navy Yard, where a dozen people were killed. The shooter, Aaron Alexis, also was killed. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)





Police park next to the home of Cathleen Alexis, mother of Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis, in Brooklyn, N.Y. Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. The mother of the man who killed 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard made a statement that said she is “so, so very sorry that this has happened.” (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)





Bishop Gerald Seabrooks shows a statement made by Cathleen Alexis, mother of Washington Navy Yard gunman Aaron Alexis, in New York’s Brooklyn borough on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. Cathleen Alexis said that she does not know why her son did what he did and she will never be able to ask him. Aaron Alexis opened fire Monday, killing 12 people, before he was killed in a shootout with police. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)













Buy AP Photo Reprints







(AP) — Investigators have been focusing on the erratic behavior of a former Navy reservist who law enforcement officials say was grappling with paranoia and had reported hearing voices and being followed before he gunned down 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard this week.


The Department of Veterans Affairs said Wednesday that 34-year-old Aaron Alexis visited two hospitals in the weeks before the Monday morning rampage but denied that he was depressed or having thoughts of harming himself or others.


Alexis, who died in a police shootout after the rampage, complained of insomnia during an Aug. 23 emergency room visit to the VA Medical Center in Providence, R.I. He was given sleep medication and advised to follow up with a doctor. He made a similar visit five days later to the VA hospital in Washington, when he again complained of not being able to sleep because of his work schedule. His medication was refilled.


Alexis appeared “alert and oriented” during the visits and denied feeling depressed or anxious or wanting to do harm, the VA said in a statement presented to lawmakers Wednesday.


Two weeks before his ER visit, for instance, he complained to police in Rhode Island that people were talking to him through the walls and ceilings of his hotel room and sending microwave vibrations into his body to deprive him of sleep. Navy officials said the Newport police reported the incident to officers at the base security office, but nothing more was done about it because he did not appear to be a threat to himself or anyone else at the time.


Despite the apparent concerns over his mental health and past run-ins with the law, Alexis maintained his security clearance as he arrived in Washington in late August for a job as an information technology employee at a defense-related computer company.


Alexis had been a full-time Navy reservist from 2007 to early 2011, and a Navy spokesman said his security clearance, at the “secret level,” was good for 10 years from when he got it.


On Monday morning, he used a valid badge to gain access to the sprawling Navy Yard and Building 197, bringing with him a sawed-off shotgun on which the cryptic messages of “better off this way” and “my ELF weapon” were scrawled, according to a law enforcement document reviewed by The Associated Press. The meaning of those words wasn’t immediately clear.


The motive of the shooting also remains unclear, though investigators have focused on Alexis’s mental health and alarming behavior displayed in the weeks before the massacre.


Alexis had enrolled in VA health care in February 2011, and received monthly disability payments of $ 395 for orthopedic problems and ringing in his ears, according to the VA. He never sought an appointment from a mental health specialist and either canceled or failed to show up for primary care appointments he had scheduled at VA hospitals, the department said.


Meanwhile, Alexis’s mother said Wednesday she does not know why her son opened fire on office workers and police. Cathleen Alexis read a brief statement inside her New York home, her voice shaking. She did not take questions from a reporter.


“Aaron is now in a place where he can no longer do harm to anyone, and for that I am glad,” Cathleen Alexis said. “To the families of the victims, I am so so very sorry that this has happened. My heart is broken.”


Alexis had with him during the massacre a handgun he picked up inside the building and a legally obtained Remington 870 Express shotgun.


The shotgun was brought into the building disassembled and pieced together by Alexis once inside, according to a law enforcement official and a senior defense official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.


That firearm would not be covered under a proposed weapons ban supported by the White House. The ban was introduced in the Senate earlier this year and would prohibit 157 specific firearms designed for military and law enforcement use, and it would exempt more than 2,200 others.


The rampage and shootout spanned more than 30 minutes. One District of Columbia police officer was shot and wounded in the legs but survived. The U.S. Capitol Police, which protects members of Congress and Congressional buildings, announced Wednesday that it has ordered an investigation into the force’s response. The fact review team is expected to look into reports that one of the force’s tactical response teams arrived within minutes of the shootings and was told by a Capitol Police supervisor to stand down. The Navy Yard is less than three miles from the Capitol complex.


Senate Sergeant at Arms Terrance Gainer said in an email that if the reports are accurate, “It would be an unbearable failure. The Police Board will conduct a review of all facts related to our response.”


The shooting also raised questions about the adequacy of background checks for government contractors who have access to sensitive information. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has also ordered two sweeping reviews of military security and employee screening programs, acknowledging Wednesday that “a lot of red flags” may have been missed in the background of the Washington Navy Yard shooter.


“Obviously, there were a lot of red flags,” Hagel told reporters at a Pentagon briefing. “Why they didn’t get picked, why they didn’t get incorporated into the clearance process, what he was doing — those are all legitimate questions that we’re going to be dealing with.”


Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, meanwhile, announced Wednesday night that he wants three rapid reviews completed by Oct. 1, including whether a contracting company should inform the Navy if it decides to review a worker’s security clearance.


That order raises questions about whether the company that employed Alexis, the Florida-based IT consulting firm The Experts, had decided to review his clearance. A security clearance often is critical for contractors working in defense jobs.


The Navy Yard, located in southeast Washington, reopened and returned to mostly normal operations Thursday, although Building 197 and the gym, which is being used as a staging area for the FBI, remained closed. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama are expected to attend a memorial service for the shooting victims Sunday.


___


Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Lolita C. Baldor, Laurie Kellman, Alicia A. Caldwell and Eileen Sullivan in Washington contributed to this report.


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Investigators review erratic behavior of DC gunman

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

San Diego Mayor Accused of Inappropriate Behavior by 11th Woman

The number of women to publicly accuse San Diego Mayor Bob Filner of inappropriate behavior increased to 11 on Tuesday when a vocational nurse said she had been propositioned by Filner while seeking his help on behalf of a disabled U.S. war veteran.

The nurse, Michelle Tyler, told reporters that the mayor began stroking her arm and asking her out on a date while she was alone with him in his City Hall office in June – suggesting that his willingness to assist her depended on it.


The 70-year-old Democrat and former U.S. congressman has so far resisted mounting pressure to resign since his former press secretary filed a sexual harassment suit against the mayor and the city last month. He has instead entered intensive therapy.


Ten more women, including a retired U.S. Navy admiral and a college dean, have come forward in recent weeks to accuse Filner of groping them, making lewd comments or other unwanted sexual advances.


Filner has acknowledged a history of disrespectful, intimidating conduct toward women. On Sunday, he entered a clinic to undergo two weeks of behavioral counseling while taking a break from the daily routines of his office.


There was no immediate response from Filner’s office to the latest allegations leveled against him.


Tyler said she visited Filner on June 11, accompanied by former Marine Katherine Ragazzino, who suffered a traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder from her service in Iraq.


They had gone to Filner’s office asking him to intervene to help resolve administrative problems Ragazzino was having with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, for whom Tyler has worked.


According to Tyler’s lawyer, Gloria Allred, Filner asked Raggazino to step out of his office, then turned to Tyler and told her, “You are really magnificent.”


“He started rubbing her arm and told her, ‘I will help your veteran,’ and then he said, ‘I want you to go out to dinner with me and spend time with me,’” Allred said of the encounter.


“I was not there looking for a date,” Tyler told reporters. “I was only there looking for assistance for Katherine, an injured U.S. Marine in my care. I believe that a person in power should not take advantage of their position to gain a sexual advantage for themselves.”


She added, “I felt that his rubbing my arm … and making me feel that help for Katherine was contingent on going out with him was extremely inappropriate and unacceptable.”


Allred, who also represents Filner’s former press secretary, Irene McCormack Jackson, said neither Tyler nor Raggazino was suing the mayor, but that she had filed a letter of complaint on Tyler’s behalf with the city attorney.


The San Diego County Democratic Central Committee and numerous elected officials of both parties have called on the mayor to step down, and he is now the subject of a recall campaign to unseat him.


Filner, through his lawyer, had earlier asked the city to pay for his defense because he never received workplace behavior training. The city has filed its own lawsuit, seeking to recover any damages it might be ordered to pay as a result of Jackson’s sexual harassment claim, along with court costs and attorneys fees.


© 2013 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.




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San Diego Mayor Accused of Inappropriate Behavior by 11th Woman