WASHINGTON – (CT&P) – President Obama destroyed the country again today by rejecting the Keystone Pipeline, a project that has been compared to some of the great engineering projects ever undertaken by human beings.

The President cited concerns regarding the climate as the reason he decided to kill the project and destroy what was left of the United States.

“America’s now a global leader when it comes to taking serious action to fight climate change,” Obama told reporters, standing in the Roosevelt Room beside Vice President Biden and Secretary of State John F. Kerry. “And frankly, approving this project would have undercut that global leadership. And that’s the biggest risk we face, not acting.”

He said now was the time to act to “protect the one planet we’ve got while we still can.”

While environmentalists and anyone possessed of any intelligence at all applauded the President’s decision, GOP politicians and presidential candidates criticized the move.

“The Keystone Pipeline would have made us energy independent for more than a week, and would have provided at least three dozen permanent jobs for Americans who are suffering because of the flood of illegal Central American children stealing their income and spreading disease across our country,” said the borderline insane Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR).

“This is another victory for the international conspiracy of climate change scientists who are bent on worldwide Marxist revolution,” said Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), who’s been fighting Alzheimer’s disease for over five years now.

GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump told Fox News that he wasn’t worried about the decision, because the first day of his term he plans on building the “biggest, best, most beautiful pipeline ever made by man” to transport the dirtiest, filthiest, most environmentally destructive oil known to man down from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Perhaps the most bizarre response to the President’s decision came from Dr. Ben Carson, currently in a dead heat with Trump for the Republican nomination.

Dr. Carson told CNN that he felt confident that although Obama, whom he referred to as the “Antichrist,” had rejected the pipeline and thus insured a second Great Depression, God would provide oil to America if he was elected.

“When I’m elected president I plan on building a series of giant pyramids across the country that can store oil that can be used in case of emergencies such as the Rapture or End Times,” whispered the unbalanced former neurosurgeon. “God takes care of those who take care of themselves.”

Obama’s rejection of the pipeline marks the fifth time this year he has destroyed the country. Experts state that in all he has destroyed the country at least 32 times since taking office.

WASHINGTON – (CT&P) – Dr. Ben Carson picked up an important endorsement yesterday from the International Brotherhood of Village Idiots and Miscreants Union after his prediction that Hillary Clinton would be behind bars for her role in the Benghazi fiasco.

“We thought it was high time we supported one of our own in the 2016 presidential race,” said Dullard Gumby, president of the union. “We share many of Dr. Carson’s values and he exhibits many of the traits that make us idiots unique; he makes weird predictions that never come true, he mumbles incoherently when asked questions about complex problems, and he makes stuff up out of thin air.”

The endorsement is one of several Dr. Carson has picked up in recent weeks.

After Carson proclaimed that “the End Times were nigh,” during a speech at the Value Voters Summit last month, he received the official endorsement of the Insecure Religious Kooks Association.

Only last week Carson picked up the support of the High School Dropouts and River Widener’s Club for his inability to tell the difference between Iran and Iraq.

Perhaps the most perplexing of the endorsements came from the Taliban this summer.

Because of his insistence that America should become some kind of fascist theocracy along the lines of the current government in Iran, and his constant reminders to voters that God supports his candidacy, he became attractive to other groups that claimed divine inspiration.

“It’s not that important to us which religion he’s a member of” said Taliban field commander Mullah Muhammad Hasan Rehmani Skyhook, “just as long as he forces people to follow rules written by Iron Age cretins who didn’t know enough to wash their hands after defecating.”

Although the new endorsements will no doubt help Dr. Carson secure a win in Iowa, where dim-witted Republican voters share his weird outlook on world events, it is unclear whether they will help him win the GOP nomination.

“I have confidence in our voters,” said Reince Priebus, current chairman of the RNC. “There’s no way this dunce gets the nomination. Can you imagine Carson debating Clinton or Sanders? It would be a bloodbath.”

WASHINGTON – (CT&P) – Republican presidential contender Dr. Ben Carson has put his public campaign events on hold for two weeks to go on book tour for his new tome “A More Perfect Union” and to attend meetings and seminars with lunatics and simpletons around the country in order to come up with some more batshit crazy ideas to hawk to his uneducated supporters.

An aide to Dr. Carson told Fox News that Carson felt that he needed to take advantage of his rising poll numbers to rake in some cash off sales of his fantasy novel to gullible right-wing Christians who actually believe he has a grasp of history and how government works.

“Dr. Carson has also expressed a desire to move away from the same old crazy ass ideas he’s been spouting and come up with some fresh conspiracy theories and wacked-out revisionist history,” said the aide.

The Republican presidential candidate and brain damaged former neurosurgeon is scheduled to hold lucrative book signings next week in Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa, where he expects dolts, dullards, and twits to stream in from trailer parks and survivalist compounds to meet him and buy copies of his book.

The aide said that the week after next will be spent visiting some of the premier panic monkeys, hucksters, religious zealots, and conspiracy theorists around the country in order to glean new ideas that he can use on the campaign trail to convince his followers that America should be some sort of theocracy ruled by a Christian version of sharia law.

“Dr. Carson plans on attending a seminar on Iron Age dinosaur-aided construction techniques at Ken Ham’s Creation Museum in Kentucky on the 26th,” said the aide. “He plans on spending the rest of the day with Mr. Ham to bone up on Ken’s ideas regarding just how Noah loaded the dinosaurs on the Ark and what they ate during the voyage.

“After spending the night at Ham’s Lucky Trinity Hotel and Casino in Petersburg, Dr. Carson will spend the rest of the week meeting with famous wackos and imbeciles like Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, and Louie Gohmert, to name a few. Ben is particularly excited to be meeting with Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association to learn how homosexuality is ushering in the End Times, and David Daleiden, who promised to show him some uncut footage of Planned Parenthood chopping up infants and sewing them back together to create armies of infant atheists and Muslims.”

Carson’s whirlwind tour will end with a weekend spent with panic monkey, historical revisionist, and conspiracy theorist extraordinaire Glenn Beck on his End Times ranch and bunker complex located at an undisclosed location in the desert.

“Dr. Carson wants to leave no stone unturned in his quest to get the most fucked up and batshit crazy advice and ideas he can use to shore up his base and attract new lunatics to his cause,” said the aide. “I think by the time he gets back on the campaign trail he’ll be so full of shit you’ll barely recognize him.”

WASHINGTON – (CT&P) – CNN is reporting that Republicans have convinced former NBA player and current vegetable Lamar Odom’s legal guardian to allow him to join a crowded field of candidates for Speaker of the House.

Odom, the former basketball star and ex-husband of Khloé Kardashian, is currently comatose at a Las Vegas hospital today, two days after being found unconscious at a Nevada brothel where he had been “partying” since Saturday.

The owner of the Love Ranch, a legal house of prostitution, told NBC News that the 35-year-old athlete had been using a sex stimulant, but it was unclear if that played a role in the medical emergency.

“He was taking herbal Viagra and he was taking a lot of it,” said Dennis Hof, claiming that no illegal drugs were found other than possibly the mysterious white residue that covered every flat surface of the room and the eight grams of crack cocaine found in Odom’s bloodstream.

Former teammates of Odom — who won NBA championships with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2009 and 2010 — were pulling for him to recover.

However, House Freedom Caucus Chairman Jim Jordan (Neanderthal-OH) told CNN that he hopes Odom remains in his current condition so he can lead the GOP to victory by encouraging gridlock, government shutdowns, and credit defaults.

“Lamar is just what we need,” said Jordan.

“Everyone has seen how Ben Carson has risen in the polls. There’s just something about a brain-damaged black man who appeals to uneducated white voters. I think Mr. Odom will be very popular with our base of evangelical kooks and conspiracy theorists.

“We need someone who will stand up to the forces within our party who want to cooperate with the Democrat minions of Satan for the sole purpose of getting things done. We believe that Mr. Odom will help us deny food and health care to the poor while at the same time keeping women where they belong, in the kitchen or at church. Who cares if we shut down the government or default on our debt? The important thing here is for us to get our way, no matter what damage it does to the country.”

Conservative pundits on talk radio and Fox News applauded the move, with most in agreement that a Carson Administration combined with Odom as Speaker would usher in a new era of American politics reminiscent of the “good old days” before the Enlightenment ruined everything.

Relatives and friends of Odom told Fox News that they thought that Odom would be proud to serve as speaker and if he was able to think or speak he would praise Jordan and the Freedom Caucus’ decision to include him in the race. They also noted that Odom’s inability to move would no doubt help him overcome his problems with drug abuse and irrational behavior.

WASHINGTON – (CT&P) – An aide to Republican presidential candidate and unhinged lunatic Dr. Ben Carson revealed his general election strategy should he do the unthinkable and win the GOP nomination. The aide spoke with Fox News desk tumor Sean Hannity on his radio show yesterday on condition of anonymity.

Hannity, a strong supporter of insane people who stumble into the public eye, asked the aide what kind of campaign Carson would run in the unlikely event he made it to the general election, where he would be going up against a Democrat candidate who has full use of her or his frontal lobes.

“Well Sean, we see that as a real problem,” said the mystery aide. “It’s one thing to garner support from an unhinged base who thinks America should be some kind of theocracy, but it’s another thing altogether to try to win over people who can actually reason.

“Our current strategy calls for Dr. Carson, if he wins the nomination, to remain mute for the entire general election. We just can’t take the chance that Ben will repeat his performance of last week while we try to convince normal people that he would make a sane president. I mean, did you hear some of the bullshit that came out of his mouth in the last few days? Jesus!”

“But what about the presidential debates he would have to participate in?” asked a distraught Hannity.

“We think it would be best if Dr. Carson simply responds ‘no comment’ to any questions he’s asked on the campaign trail or during any of the debates. You just never know when he’s going to start talking about Hitler, bullet-riddled bodies, or make up some cock and bull story about Popeye’s.

“What if he starts talking about Satanic conspiracies involving fossils or dinosaurs on the Ark or any of that other crap he believes while he’s on national television debating Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders? It would be a disaster. He does fine when surrounded by other kooks, but he’s simply too unbalanced to be allowed to participate in a debate with a person who has an IQ over 75. No, we’re convinced his best bet is to mumble ‘no comment’ and then emit that weird laugh like he knows something everyone else doesn’t.”

The aide went on to tell Hannity that there was a long way to go before the general election, and Dr. Carson had his work cut out for him solidifying his base of paranoid conspiracy theorists, bigots, fundamentalist cretins, and other Tea Bagger dim wits making up the unhinged right-wing of the GOP.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do before the general,” said the aide, “so Dr. Carson will be able to enjoy himself by spouting all the nonsense he wants for quite some time before he’s force-fed a nice big cup of shut the fuck up.”

WASHINGTON -(CT&P) – Representative Kevin McCarthy on Thursday abruptly took himself out of the race to succeed John A. Boehner as House speaker, apparently undone by the same forces that drove Mr. Boehner to resign.

Mr. McCarthy used a translator to make himself understood as he announced his decision after a closed-door meeting with House Republicans in which he told them he was bowing out.

“I have decided that waffle iron football cannot be in the best interests of keeping Iran dress code maximum,” said McCarthy, which according to the translator meant that he was taking himself out of the race for speaker.

“Over last weekly it has become clearing to me and others that our conferences has been is deeply divisive and needs to unite behind one or more leaders. I have always positioned this conferences ahead of me, myself and I. Therefore I am withdrawing far away from my candidatecy for speaker of the House.

“I look forward to working with and alongside against my friendly colleagues to help move an important and carefully planned plan of our conference’s agenda and our countries forward to new heights that it used to attain and might again get there sometime soon if we all exist in cooperation and put our minds to it.”

“I regret that I have only one automobile to give to our country as it struggles with universal Benghazi Benghazi Benghazi,” concluded a confused looking McCarthy as he gazed dully at reporters.

The translator interpreted the statement as meaning that McCarthy was sorry that he fucked up but still believed that Hillary Clinton was the Antichrist and hopefully another House member would be able to prevent her planned takeover of America.

 As shocked members left the meeting and press conference there was a sense of total disarray, with no clear path forward and no set date for a new vote.

Representative Peter King, Republican of New York, told a reporter for The New York Times that “Now we’re really screwed. We look like a bunch of clowns, which is basically what we are. I’d like to strangle that fucking dumb ass!”

John Boehner was seen chuckling as he left the building, whisky sour in hand.

WASHINGTON – (CT&P) – At a prayer breakfast held early this morning in a metro area Waffle House, Republican presidential candidate and unhinged religious wacko Dr. Ben Carson outlined what a Carson Administration’s foreign policy would look like.

“I would get together with European leaders at the next G-20 summit and rush Vladimir Putin,” said Carson.

“And after that, I’d encourage world leaders to surround President Xi Jinping of China and pummel him into submission. The only alternative is just to stand there as he picks us off one by one.”

Republican Freedom Caucus members and other kooks who attended the breakfast were impressed by Carson’s ideas and praised his intellectual approach to problem solving.

Freedom Caucus Chairman Jim Jordan (Moron-OH) told Fox News after the early morning meeting that Carson offered a “fresh approach” to geopolitics.

“Carson is our country’s best hope for a bright future,” said Jordan. “His foreign policy ideas are fresh and exciting. We in the Freedom Caucus are sick and tired of cooperating with other countries. We should just insist on a course of action that we feel is right, and then worry about the consequences to our country later, sorta like what we do in congress.”

Carson is scheduled to attend a meeting of religious and political leaders of the Christian Right later today, where he is expected to unveil his domestic policy initiatives. They are said to include a massive federal sprinkler program that would protect the United States from the destruction of earth by fire during the End Times, which Carson believes is just around the corner.

WASHINGTON – (CT&P) – In an emergency meeting held early this morning house Republicans voted unanimously to nominate suspended FIFA President Sepp Blatter for speaker.

Republican leaders hope that the nomination can calm the chaos precipitated by Kevin McCarthy’s withdrawal from the race.

McCarthy was seen by the Republican lunatic fringe Tea Bagger contingent as being too cooperative with rational politicians, whom they consider to be minions of Satan.

“Mr. Blatter has all the qualities we’re looking for in a leader,” said Freedom Caucus Chairman Jim Jordan.

“He’s greedy, mean-spirited, misogynistic, and is devoid of empathy for the less fortunate. We think he’ll do a fine job shutting down the government and completely fucking up the American economy. The main thing here is that we get our way. To hell with the rest of the country.”

Although Mr. Blatter is not a U.S. citizen and is currently the target of a criminal investigation, Jordan said that these were minor problems and may even be considered advantages in the upcoming vote.

“We need an outsider who has no experience in American politics or governance, and a person who is willing to go to any extreme, constitutional or not, to get things done,” said Jordan. “That’s what we Republicans are looking for in a president, and we think we should have a speaker to match.”

An aide to Mr. Blatter told Reuters that he was flattered by the nomination and as soon as he receives the agreed upon sum in unmarked bills he will be on a flight to D.C.

WASHINGTON – (CT&P) -With only hours to spare on the last day of the fiscal year, Congress averted a government shutdown on Wednesday by approving a temporary spending measure to keep federal agencies operating through Dec. 11.

In the House, the legislation was approved only because of strong support by Democrats — a sign of how angry rank-and-file Republicans remain over their powerlessness to force policy changes on the Obama administration.

The House vote was 257 to 151, with 186 Democrats and 91 Republicans in favor. All of the “no” votes were by Republicans.

In one last display of their fury, House Republicans on Wednesday adopted another resolution to cut off government financing to Planned Parenthood. The resolution was to be sent to the Senate, where Democrats were certain to block it.

The House Freedom Caucus, a band of about 40 right-wing religious kooks who favor a Christian version of sharia law, was outraged that their attempt to deny food and medical care to the poor was again stopped by more reasonable politicians.

Freedom Caucus Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) told Fox News anchor Sean Hannity on his radio show today that although this attempt to wreck the food stamp program and deny poor women access to cancer screenings and low-cost contraception was blocked, another attempt will be made in December, just in time for Christmas.

“We follow the teachings of Jesus Christ,” said Jordan, “and Jesus hates poor people who don’t have the drive to get out there and get a job.

“He also hates immigrants, the hungry, and people who aren’t white. Our government should reflect the teachings of Jesus, and Jesus supports an America with a strong military and no social safety nets.

“Our slogan is ‘God, Guns, and Guts.’ Leave all that empathy, reason and critical thought crap to the blasphemers!”

Senator and fantasy presidential candidate Ted Cruz of Texas, who was also on the show, told Hannity that he would do his best to completely wreck the U.S. Congress and fuck up as many government programs as he could before the birthday of his Lord and Savior.

“The dream of denying food and medical treatment to the poor must never die,” said Cruz. “You have to ask yourself ‘what would Jesus do?’ and I think it’s obvious to anyone who reads the New Testament that Jesus would tell poor women to go fuck themselves. Praise the Lord!”

WASHINGTON – (CT&P) – At a hastily called press conference this evening, CEO and Executive Vice President of the NRA Wayne LaPierre blamed today’s mass shooting in Oregon on dangerous ‘gun free zones’ around schools, churches, and government buildings.

The shooting, in which at least 13 were killed and at least 20 more wounded, occurred at Umpqua Community College, which has about 3,000 students, in a rural community about three hours south of Portland. The first calls came in at 10:38 a.m., local officials said, and the college was put on lockdown as a number of law enforcement agencies responded.

The gunman died after an exchange of gunfire with the police.

The NRA was quick to respond to the tragedy, releasing a statement even as the last bullets were being fired by the perpetrator and law enforcement. The statement emphasized that if only we could do away with liberal politicians and communist school administrators that push for gun free zones around schools and other public buildings these types of senseless tragedies could be avoided.

At LaPierre’s presser later in the day LaPierre stressed that the only way to stop mass shootings in America was for every citizen to be armed from childhood to death with automatic weapons and large capacity magazines.

“We have to stop this senseless violence,” said an emotional LaPierre. “The NRA has always been against these dangerous gun free zones. Whenever any group of people is walking around unarmed it’s just asking for trouble. In the next session of Congress, we intend to push for a bill providing free or discounted weapons to all Americans. And it’s not just guns we need. We’ve partnered with our friends in the manufacturing sector to push for the legal ownership of RPG’s, flamethrowers, and crew-served automatic weapons.

“We also believe that everyone in the U.S. should own a shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile in case one of these nuts decides to attack a school in a private aircraft. It just makes good sense.”

President Obama, who earlier in the day expressed his sadness after hearing of the shooting, responded to LaPierre by saying: “Wayne LaPierre is a giant prick.”

BRUSSELS – (CT&P) – The European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, met in emergency session in Brussels this morning to discuss possible sanctions against the United States if it looks like a Republican might win the White House in 2016.

President Jean-Claude Juncker explained to journalists after the meeting that member nations were alarmed by what they saw on CNN.

“We all saw clips of the first debate on Fox News, and after a brief meeting we decided that is was just more of that organization’s propaganda,” said Juncker. “But after last night, it seems that the GOP is seriously proposing that one of these clowns should be president of the United States.

“I was on the phone all morning long with panicked leaders from all over Europe, and I think I can speak for the entire continent when I say that we don’t want any of these fucked-up individuals to have the authority to launch nuclear weapons.

“Half of them are religious kooks and the other half don’t have the sense God gave a goat,” said Juncker, as he wiped sweat from his brow.

“We’d like to make it clear that this is not an indictment of the American people in general. We all have faith that the last thing Americans want is to put another hick in charge that will throw another land mass into chaos like Bush and that demon from hell Cheney did the Middle East. But we have to err on the side of caution and be ready to impose strict sanctions in the unlikely event that America loses its collective mind and tries to elect one of these idiots.”

President Juncker did not specify what form the sanctions might take, saying that the specifics were yet to be determined. However, he did say that European leaders would be “pulling out all the stops” to prevent the world from being subjected to another moron in the White House.