Wow, the hits just keep on coming. This week it's the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where a sergeant is accused of videotaping and peeping on female cadets.

New York Times:

The Army is contacting about a dozen women to alert them that their privacy may have been violated by the suspect, identified as Sgt. First Class Michael McClendon, and to offer support or counseling, officials said.

The allegations at West Point, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious military academy, come in the midst of growing outrage in Congress at the Pentagon, and from President Obama over reports of sexual harassment and assault in the armed services. They also come as the Army has begun integrating women into combat positions, bringing added demands for fair and equal treatment of those in uniform.

The revelations are especially startling at West Point, which has had problems with sexual assault but also has many progressive faculty members and prides itself on having an environment of discipline and respect. Women have been enrolled at the two-century-old institution, on a commanding bank of the Hudson River in upstate New York, for nearly 40 years.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who is to deliver the commencement address at West Point on Saturday, was briefed on the case Wednesday morning. Pentagon officials described him as “concerned and disturbed” by the allegations.

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Alex Jones is nuts. It's nuts that he gets any traction on his crazy show, and nuttier still that he gets support from any member of the Republican party. But he does, and he feeds all the paranoia and insanity on the far right on a daily basis.

Rachel Maddow walked through some of his usual conspiracy theories -- 9-11 truther, Oklahoma City bombing denier, and more -- to arrive at the latest one. Yes, folks, the tornado that devastated most of Moore, Oklahoma was no accident. It was actually a conspiracy on the part of the Obama administration. After all, what good is a conspiracy if you can't hang it on Obama, right?

Jones, in his own wacky words:

... and tornadoes are way down, they lie on the way up to get carbon taxes, but I don't know if this was a weather weapon or not, but they can with the right weather conditions, they can create and steer groups of tornadoes. People 50 miles out of storm systems see aircraft in and around the clouds spraying and doing things, if you saw that, you better bet your bottom dollar they did this. But who knows if they did, that's the thing.

Of course it's always the "who knows" part that launches the conspiracy. I guarantee you someone in Oklahoma now "knows" they saw "aircraft in and around the clouds spraying and doing things." What things? That's not necessary for the conspiracy. As long as there were aircraft, and they were "doing things", Jones has launched the conspiracy for everyone to gnaw on.

These are the "weather weapons." Rachel notes that they must exist right alongside the stockpiled bullets the government is hoarding in order to deny good God-fearing Amurikans their guns. Because Obama.

Raw Story:

Jones is being increasingly treated as a serious voice within the Republican Party, and lawmakers in statehouses across the country and in Congress are beginning to parrot his views, however bizarre they might sound. Even Fox News hosts and Republican freshman Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has appeared on the Alex Jones Show, much like his father, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), continues to do.

I like Rachel's response the best.

Who knows? Who knows if the US. Government uses a secret made-up weather weapon that only exists in the mind of -- yeah, that's the thing, right? Here's the other thing. Alex Jones should be disqualified from participating in Republican party politics. His crackpot theories shouldn't prompt hearings in Congress and inspire actual legislation in Congress, shouldn't do a money bomb on his show running for Congress. Do not fundraise on the theater of the absurd by showing yourself to be one with this guy, really. He says the tornado was a conspiracy, the tornado. Can we agree it is over now, Republicans, going on his show, really, can we agree, please?

Republicans are going to line up to go on his show, Rachel. His audience is the only base they have left.

Note: Dave Neiwert reminded me that this theory has been around for many, many years. It ties in with the Militia of Montana people.

I wanted to let you know that the claims of government manipulating the weather to obtain political results actually dates back to the 1990s militia movement. It was one of John Trochmann’s favorite theories, and Militia of Montana sold a number of publications advancing it.

Even though Donald Rumsfeld opposed “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the former Defense Secretary won’t say whether he supports gay marriage, although it seems safe to conclude that he does not. In an interview this week with Larry King, Rumsfeld tap-danced around the question of whether same-sex partners should be allowed to marry and suggested he feared it could lead to polygamy. "You know, I'm, I guess, of a generation that I don't—I wonder—I listened to some of the Supreme Court justices and one of them said, ‘Well what’s next after that? Is it two people, three people?’” he told King. Rumsfeld also said that he doesn’t equate the fight for gay rights today with the civil-rights movement of the 1960s.

I don't know why anyone wants to have Rumsfeld on the tee-vee to talk about anything. He's the guy who -- when speaking about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq -- said: "We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat."

So, which Supreme Court justice do you think Rummy was quoting?

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Senator Ted Cruz continues to endear himself to his fellow Republicans, saying he doesn't trust either party on the budget. His remarks were particulary pointed towards John McCain as well.

Text via Raw Story:

“Madame President,” Cruz said to Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), who was presiding over the Senate session, “the senior senator from Arizona urged this body to trust the Republicans. Let me be clear, I don’t trust the Republicans.”

“And I don’t trust the Democrats,” he continued after a beat. “And I think a whole lot of Americans likewise don’t trust the Republicans and the Democrats because it is leadership in both parties that has gotten us into this mess.”

Considering that Cruz is expected to run in 2016 for his party's nomination one wonders how he'll get any support, beyond the right wing fringe. He certainly won't win any popularity contests among his peers, but that's not really the point with someone like Cruz.

The Obama administration acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that four American citizens have been killed in drone strikes since 2009 in Pakistan and Yemen. The disclosure, in a letter from Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, comes on the eve of a major national security speech by President Barack Obama.

Al-Awlaki, a radical Muslim cleric, was killed in a drone strike in September 2011 in Yemen. Holder said three other Americans were killed by drones in counterterrorism operations since 2009 but were not targeted.

The three are Samir Khan, who was killed in the same drone strike as al-Awlaki; al-Awlaki's 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman, who also was killed in Yemen two weeks later; and Jude Kennan Mohammed, who was killed in a drone strike in Pakistan.

WaPo:

Holder said that only Anwar al-Awlaki was “specifically targeted.” Khan was known to have been killed by the strike that targeted Awlaki, while the 16-year-old was killed in what senior administration officials described as a “mistake,” when he was in the company of another targeted individual shortly after his father’s death.

Mohammad was indicted in 2009 by a federal grand jury in North Carolina, where he had lived near Raleigh. The indictment said he was believed to have left the United States for Pakistan in 2008 to “engage in violent jihad.”
...

Reached in North Carolina Wednesday, Mohammad’s mother, Elena Mohammad, said she had been aware for some time that her son had been killed in a drone strike, but was told by people in Pakistan, not by U.S. authorities. Her ex-husband is Pakistani.

Mohammad said she had no details on when or where her son was killed. She also said she had no interest in discussing her son’s past.

“I dealt with that and I don’t have to deal with it anymore because it’s already over with,” she said in the phone interview. “So whatever transpired I don’t want it back in my life anymore. It’s gone. There are no questions. I don’t have to hear any authorities; the FBI has finished coming to my house. It’s over. That’s it.”

During Obama's scheduled counterterrorism policy speech on Thursday, he will discuss his belief that it's in the best interests of the nation to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

It is not clear whether or not the President will discuss the transfer of detainees, or the repatriation of those cleared for release during Thursday's speech.

Holder said in his letter, that Obama “has made clear his commitment to providing Congress and the American people with as much information as possible about our sensitive counterterrorism operations.”

You can read Holder's letter here.

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Conservative radio host Glenn Beck on Wednesday compared the U.S. government to "rapists" over recent so-called scandals, from the Internal Revenue Service's practice of scrutinizing conservative groups to last year's terrorist attacks in Benghazi.

In a bizarre rant on his radio show, Beck said that he didn't know why Congress was bothering with an investigation into the scandals because the federal government had been building a massive spying database in Utah.

"What is being built in Utah is the largest storage facility ever known to mankind," he explained. "They are storing all of the information. They have already admitted during the Boston bombings that they collect all emails and file it. Why are you asking the White House for the emails? Who is this security system for? Is it to protect the American people?"

"What the hell are we doing? What's wrong with us, America?" he continued. "You paid for it. You own it. You're the boss or are they? Why ask for it? Just go into the system that we paid for and you built for for our -- quote -- protection. You want to find it? Why are you waiting? The more you wait, the more time they have to delete. Go in and get it. You have it."

"Or is that security system you built for our protection not really for our protection?"

Beck added: "The American people have just been raped. Why are you asking rapists to hurry up with the swab test?"

(h/t: Right Wing Watch)

The Hunting of the Snark: Whatever the facts…

Vox Verax: Republicans natter about "I" word.

First Draft: A masterpiece of the false equivalence genre.

The Impolitic: Ted Cruz don't trust nobody but himself.

Balloon Juice: Wishing for bigger middle fingers.

Guest post by Batocchio. E-mail tips to mbru AT crooksandliars DOT com.

Re-arranging the deck chairs (and sunbathers) for the book "The Art of Clean Up." The perfect Father's Day gift your kids can give your OCD ex-husband. Just sayin'.

The Art of Clean Up: Life Made Neat and Tidy
	Author: Ursus Wehrli

Open thread below...

Motown Anthology
	Artist: Chuck Jackson

Here's a singer. Got a favorite vocal performance?

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ABC's Jonathan Karl and his part in helping to feed the scandal-mongering over Benghazi wasn't the only recent Republican drummed up outrage Stephen Colbert decided to take on during this Monday's show. After his "Mazda-Scandal Booth" on Benghazi, Colbert took his next turn in the booth on the IRS, grasping "wildly at any accusation that floats past."

And as Arturo Garcia from Raw Story reported, here's what he found: Colbert concludes tea partiers are ‘a bunch of pussies’ after consulting his lawyer:

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