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In an official campaign video released Wednesday, Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry explained that shooting sniper rifles was his version of golf.

"This is my golf," the candidate said, praising the owners of a gun shop that "make the finest sniper rifles in the world."

"I'm still trying to get a hole in one," Perry's voice is heard saying over video of him firing one of the rifles.

"For me it's really relaxing and getting to come hang out with what I consider to be patriots, the men and women that work here."

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Miami Herald columnist Carl Hiaasen told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Wednesday that he would be willing to pay for drug tests for the Florida lawmakers who voted to drug test welfare recipients.

"Interestingly, the governor's pee-in-the-cup mandate doesn't apply to the one bunch that whizzes away more tax dollars than anyone else -- the legislators who pass such useless laws," Hiassen wrote in a recent column. "I say line up all 160 of 'em for a patriotic whiz-fest at the Capitol clinic. You think more than 2.5 percent might test positive? Let's find out. And I'll pay for it out of my own pocket. Seriously."

Welfare repents were "an easy target," he explained during an interview with Maddow Wednesday. "This is class warfare. This is picking on the folks who happen to be unemployed, especially the ones with children. And they are testing at such a lower rate than the general population. The most recent federal drug survey shows national drug use at about 8.9 percent -- almost nine percent. These people are living like monks compared to them."

"If you get a majority -- close to a majority [of lawmakers] saying yes, I would please like to be there along with a camera crew if you don't mind," Maddow said.

"Yeah, but the deal is all or nothing," Hiaasen remarked. "That's what they do to the applicants for the welfare fund. It's all or nothing. Everybody's got to do it. So, all 160 of these folks have to stand there with their little cup and do the deed. And if the lab sends me a bill, I'll send a check."

EDITOR'S NOTE: Can we start a whole movement to drug test ALL lawmakers? They're on the gubmint teet. I'd donate to the cause. This is a fantastic idea.

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Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann did a little pandering Wednesday during her visit to Jerry Falwell's Liberty University.

"Is there any better university in the history of the world?" she asked the crowd of students, who she called "Christian warriors."

"I think we all know it is awesome to be able to be here today... These are only the early days of what God has planned, not only for this university, but for each one of your lives as well."

Bachmann delivered her remarks on why it was it was important not to settle.

One of those reasons, she said, was "the very best man that I know, my husband Marcus Bachmann."

"And ladies and gentlemen, I challenge you. You can have it too! Don't settle in that department either! Make sure you get God's very best for you too. It's worth it."

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Former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin hinted Tuesday that she might not run in 2012 because the presidency could be "too shackling."

"For logistical reasons, though, yes, certainly, decisions have to be made," she told Fox News' Greta Van Susteren.

"I'm going to keep repeating, though, Greta, through my process of decision-making with my family and with my close friends as to whether I should throw my name in the hat for the GOP nomination or not for 2012 -- is a title worth it? Does a title shackle a person? Are they -- someone like me, who's a maverick -- you know, I do go rogue and I call it like I see it."

She added: "Somebody like me -- is a title and is a campaign too shackling? Does that prohibit me from being out there, out of a box, not allowing handlers to shape me and to force my message to be what donors or what contributors or what political pundits want it to be? Does a title take away my freedom to call it like I see it and to affect positive change that we need in this country? That's the biggest contemplation piece in my process."

The former Alaska governor also had words of praise for Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, who she called "Herb."

"Take Herb Cain," she said "Look at why he's doing so well right now. He's, I guess you could say, with all due respect, the flavor of the week because Herb Cain is the one up there who doesn't look like he's part of that permanent political class."

Palin has about a month to make up her mind before Florida's Oct. 31 filing deadline for the Republican primary.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Herb Caen - pronounced the same - was a Pulitzer-winning San Francisco newspaper columnist who died in 1997. Palin probably confused Herman Cain with Herb because she reads all newspapers with a great appreciation.

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Several members of the group Veterans for Peace were escorted out of the Old South Meeting House in Boston Monday night after they attempted a citizen's arrest of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

"I went down in front and looked Donald Rumsfeld in the eye and said, 'I'm making a citizen's arrest,'" protester Nate Goldschlag told WCVB-TV.

"He lied us into Iraq. He lied about weapons of mass destruction. He lied about Saddam Hussein being involved in 9/11."

Three of the protesters removed from the event were with Veterans for Peace and a fourth was a member of Code Pink. One protester was arrested outside the event for allegedly using a bullhorn to assault a police officer.

Most of the 300 people who had to buy a copy of Rumsfeld's book, "Known and Unknown," to attend the event appeared to be fans.

"He's one of the greatest Americans that has ever lived," one woman said.

Continue reading »

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Activists have identified the senior New York Police Department officer who allegedly pepper-sprayed young women at the "Occupy Wall Street" protests, and it's not the first time he has been accused of civil rights abuses.

The Guardian confirmed that the officer is Anthony Bologna, who was also accused of civil rights abuses and false arrest during the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City.

Photographs of the officer's badge also suggested that Bologna was the person in question.

A file released by the hacker group Anonymous pointed to a 2007 civil rights suit filed against Bologna.

Post A. Posr, the man named as a plaintiff in that suit, was arrested during the 2004 convention although he wasn't actively taking part in the protests.

"Police contend that Posr hit the man with a rolled-up newspaper," Posr lawyer Alan Levine told The Guardian. "He said he was just talking to the guy. Bologna ordered another officer, Camejo, to arrest Posr."

Posr was taken to a make-shift detention facility at Pier 57, where he was held until the protests were over.

Officer Tulio Camejo was also named in the suit.

"A bunch of us were wondering if any of the same guys were involved," Levine recalled.

Questions about Bologna appeared to go back to 2001, when the People's Law Collective claimed that arrests he made helped to incite a Mayday riot.

Chelsea Elliott, one of the pepper-sprayed activists, described her ordeal to Animal New York.

"I will march again," she said. "But I'll wear sunglasses and a fucking bandana."

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At a Monday night event in Los Angeles, President Barack Obama was interrupted by a heckler who declared he was the "antichrist."

ABC's Modern Family star Jesse Tyler Ferguson had just told the president that "[t]he end of Don't Ask, Don't Tell is the signature achievement of our time" when a bearded man in the front row began to yell.

"Christian God is the one and only true living God, the creator of Heaven and the Universe!" the man shouted.

"I love Jesus! Jesus Christ is God! Jesus Christ is the son of God!" he continued.

"I agree," the president smiled.

"You are the antichrist!" the man screamed.

The crowd of Obama supporters began to shout "four more years!" as the Secret Service finally removed the man from the room.

"First of all, I agree Jesus Christ is Lord. I believe in that," Obama told the crowd.

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Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann said Monday that it would be "foolish" to normalize trade with Cuba because Hezbollah could soon have "missile sites" there.

"Why would you normalize trade with a country that sponsors terror?" the candidate asked a crowd of supporters in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. "There is reports that have come out that Cuba has been working with another terrorist organization called Hezbollah. And Hezbollah is looking at wanting to be part of missile sites in Iran and, of course, when you are 90 miles offshore from Florida, you don't want to entertain the prospect of hosting bases or sites where Hezbollah could have training camps or perhaps have missile sites or weapons sites in Cuba. "

Bachmann was most likely basing her fear on an unsubstantiated report from the Italian publican Corriere della Sera, which was picked up by numerous conservative websites earlier this month (see here, here, here and here.)

Even if that report were true, it makes absolutely no mention of "missile sites."

Bachmann then pivoted to explain that Republicans didn't need to worry about picking the most electable nominee because the country had already decided not to re-elect President Barack Obama.

"I'm just here to tell you, Barack Obama will be a one-term president," she said. "The country has already made up it's decision. I am convinced of it. The issue is who will be our nominee? Will it be someone who understands these issues so they will go and fight for them or will we have a compromise candidate?"

"Because we have candidates that have said that when it comes to Obamacare that their plan is to issue an executive order or to issue a waiver. I'm here to tell you, I get this bill. I fought it. I am the chief author against it. I was called Barack Obama's chief critic. That's my badge of honor, to be his chief critic. Because I understand what some of the other candidates do not... We can't settle, and 2012 is it. We will have socialized medicine for ever and ever and ever in this country unless we get it out in 2012."

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The small town of Bay Minette, Alabama is telling people convicted of small crimes to choose Jesus or choose jail.

Starting this week, the city judge will implement Operation Restore Our Community (ROC), which gives misdemeanor offenders a choice between fines and jail or a year of Sunday church services.

"Operation ROC resulted from meetings with church leaders," Bay Minette Police Chief Mike Rowland told the Alabama Press-Register. "It was agreed by all the pastors that at the core of the crime problem was the erosion of family values and morals. We have children raising children and parents not instilling values in young people."

Critics charge that the program is unfair to some minority religious groups because of the 56 participating churches, none are mosques or synagogues. And Atheists have no choice but compromise their beliefs or go to jail.

Pastor Robert Gates told WRKG that the program was a win-win for everyone involved.

"You show me somebody who falls in love with Jesus, and I'll show you a person who won't be a problem to society," he said.

ACLU of Alabama director Olivia Turner called the policy "blatantly unconstitutional."

"It violates one basic tenet of the Constitution, namely that government can't force participation in religious activity," she said, adding that the ACLU is "considering options for response."

Think Progress' Ian Millhiser noted that the program would even be considered illegal under conservative Justice Antonin Scalia's view of the Constitution.

"In his dissenting opinion in Lee v. Weisman, Scalia wrote that the state may not use the 'threat of penalty' to 'coerce anyone to support or participate in religion or its exercise,'" Millhiser wrote. "Telling someone -- even someone convicted of a crime -- that they must participate in a religious service or go to jail clearly fails Justice Scalia's test."

Earlier this year, the Mississippi Supreme Court suspended Mississippi Justice Court Judge Theresa Brown Dearman for 30 days for forcing people charged with crimes to attend church as a condition of bail.

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In an interview that aired Sunday, New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly shocked CBS' Scott Pelley by telling him that the NYPD has the capability to shoot down a plane if needed.

"Are you satisfied that you've dealt with threats from aircraft, even light planes, model planes, that kind of thing?" Pelley asked.

"Well, it's something that's on our radar screen, Kelly replied. "I mean in an extreme situation, you would have some means to take down a plane."

"Do you mean to say that the NYPD has the means to take down an aircraft?" a stunned Pelley wondered.

"Yes, I prefer not to get into the details but obviously this would be in a very extreme situation," Kelly explained.

While some may find the NYPD's firepower comforting, others may question whether a department accused of wrongly pepper-spraying protesters can be trusted not to overreact.