Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut, Sometimes You Don’t

Tags

Election 2012, gay rights, global warming, meteorology, Muslims, What's Up? politics

New Hampshirites go to the polls today to determine which flav of the week they are hungry for. Ask them next week, and they might well change their mind. For folks who are in love with “things as they are/were/always have been” GOP voters these days sure seem uncertain of little else but what state they reside in.

We are tempted to spend some time in the kitchen making snacks so we can sit noshing as the returns come forth. Will it be another nail-biter like Iowa? Will Santorum’s Google problem catch up with the staid Catholic prude? Will Newt sit in the middle of the street in diapers and bawl his head off? Or will Mittens try rap as a means to communicate with the masses?

I guess my biggest question is whether or not Newt gets it. Has it dawned on Pillsbury DB that he is dead in the water? Is he simply engaged in a Shermanesque slash and burn campaign to destroy the man he thinks took him down? He is doing the Democrats work for them, and of course that is great. Can the Establishment GOP rein him in other than by assassination at this point? lets

My second question is whether Jon Huntsman is just getting his name out there in anticipation of 2016, or is he angling for the Establishment to turn his way now that Romney is starting to flounder a bit?

What is clear is that there is now an answer to why Romney avoided interviews and other unscripted situations up until he was forced to it by Newt’s surge. He is a bit undisciplined. Not a bit. A lot. He comes off in debates as childish and as some teacher’s pet sorta brat when he doesn’t get his way. He also let’s go with stupid crap like: “I’m running for President, for God’s sake!”, “I like to fire people,” “I’m proud I forced him to take a mortgage out on his house to beat me,” and other assorted gems that prove that rich people like me live by way different rules than you.

Me thinks that Santorum’s moment in the sun was just that, a moment. Odds are that second place is gonna be a fight between Dr. Paul and Huntsman. His homophobic theocratic crap will play much better in South Carolina. Too bad DeMint don’t like him. He could do well there, but probably won’t. Newt is pinning his hopes there as is Ricky P. You remember Ricky P don’t ha?

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I must say, I do try to understand those folks who hold opinions that I find utterly mad. I do. I try to figure out what set of basics one starts with, from which one can build a house of cards that lead to whatever cockamamie conclusion that I am scratching my head about. There is an interesting article over at Religious Dispatches about how and why the likes of Santorum and others come to their weird explanations as to why marriage equality is so dangerous to life on Mars.   Well thought out and well written.

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Just a question. How are the climate nay-sayers explaining this winter? I haven’t heard a peep out of them. Usually about this time of year one hears the stupid “yeah, it’s 15 below and we have three feet of snow in Virginia–so much for global warming!” Strangely they aren’t explaining this nation wide warmth and lack of snow. Hmmmm.

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The Right, including the GOP panderers are always hot to trot when it comes to sabre rattling against “Islamic Jihadists”. And of course it sets a tone that is anything but helpful. There is a really nice article by Anouar Majid at Informed Comment  about the Arab Spring, and the opportunities to forge a better relationship between Americans and Muslims. Do read.

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You may have missed this. Here in Iowa, they broke into regular programming to give the news. Todd Palin has endorsed Newt Gingrich. Along with Christine O’Donnell opting for Mittens, I can’t wait for who Ronald McDonald is gonna choose. I mean, millions four people want to know.

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This just in. The Blaze has gained access to the pictures, and they are up in arms. I mean, the inhumanity of it all. Exclusive here, you can see the photos of the extravaganza  that taxpayers were forced to pay. The Obama’s had a Halloween party in 2009, replete with costumes and the usual riffraff from Hollywood, including JOHNNY DEPP dressed as the Mad Hatter. Register your anger now.

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What’s on the Stove? Well, we got the taste for a Reuben sandwich so I got some corned beef, some sauerkraut, some high-grade Emanthaler swiss cheese, so rye bread,  and of course some homemade thousand island dressing (which will be posted today). Weep on my dears.

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• Palin: Todd Endorses Newt Gringrich (sarahpalinblog.typepad.com)
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• New Hampshire reveals a deeper Republican divide (newstatesman.com)
• No honor among thieves. Wing-nuts defend Romney when it comes to job destruction. (preaprez.wordpress.com)

Making My Bed and Lying In It

Tags

baseball, Congress, Election 2012, Entertainment, GOP, intellectualism, Karl Rove, Muslims, protests, Sports, St. Louis, wealth inequality

You know, there have always been small groups that picketed this or that thing. The Greenpeace folks, the PETA people. They remained small.

But then along came Arabs, mostly Muslims. And the world changed.

In Yemen, in Egypt, in Syria and in Libya, people took to the streets. And no matter what happened, they kept coming back. And they keep coming back.

Until finally America woke as well. And citizens, young and old, from all walks of life, took to the streets.

Elections were head in Russia. And they took to the streets to protest what they perceived to be a “fix.”

And they are meeting on global warming, and they have taken to the streets to plead for governments to stop the madness of doing nothing.

And it pretty much started with Muslims who risked life and limb and shamed the rest of the world into seizing their moment, and not “taking it any more.”

I wonder if the Oxford Dictionary will include “mike check” in the next edition?

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The Beckian Lunatic Fringe (BLF) hates Occupy Wall Street. Which is ironic since they hate bank bailouts. But they love corporate giants and the rich. They do the bidding of the rich in the hopes that they too can be so one day. That ain’t gonna happen. Why don’t they get that?

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When Herm was in the game, his screw-ups, which were numerous to say the least, went largely ignored by his followers. One could argue that Perry has made fewer, and not nearly as egregious. Yet, Herm was forgiven, and Perry was unceremoniously dumped. Why? Perry was immediately seen as someone who could not debate Obama. The crazy Right mouths that Obama is stupid, but they really know he isn’t, and they knew he would mop the floor with Perry.

So Perry was not electable. Herm on the other hand, in their dementia, was Black and in their bigoted heads, it meant he would bleed off the African-American vote as Herm enticed all the field hands off the Democratic plantation. They saw Herm as electable, and more important controllable as several GOP pundits were eager to reassure the racist Right.

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That baseball player Pujols who played for the World Series champs, the Cardinals? He turned down a $22 million/year for 10 year contract with St. Louis to move to the Angels for about $25 million/year for 10 years.

Did that three million really make such a difference that you would abandon your team of many years?

More importantly, some have done a check on the cost of living between the two places, and it turns out Pujols will actually lose money by that analysis.

Why do we stand for paying people such sums for failing most of the time?

I believe it’s one of the top 12 questions Jesus will be asking when he returns.

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Newt styles himself as an “intellectual” of sorts. Not the elite type as I’m sure he would re-assure the trailer voters he sucks up to. But some other kind, like the self-less ones who study just for the purpose of righting the record on our Founding Fathers real beliefs, our true foundations, and so forth.

Truthfully, we are woefully under-represented when it comes to intellectuals. A fine post by Gary Gutting, Professor of Philosophy at Notre Dame. He has a great idea. It of course has no chance of being used.

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It looks like there will only be two candidates at the Trump debate: Santorum and Newt.

I don’t know how to react to that. It might be utterly boring, or more fun than watching Karl Rove getting a root canal. I just don’t know yet.

I wonder if Newt wishes he hadn’t? I bet he does.

Does Ricky have the nerve to attack?

The Donald can’t be pleased.

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Did you known that the SIX heirs to the Walton (Wal-Mart) fortune, net worths are equal to that of 30%  (thirty percent) of the rest of Americans?

But they find it impossible to treat their employees with even a semblance of fairness in benefits and advancement.

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Speaking of Karl Rove. His Crossroads Super Pac which is doing the most vicious ads around these days, has offered itself up on the irony bed. After first attacking Elizabeth Warren (running for Senator from MA), for being in “bed” with the Occupy Wall Street crowd, he now comes out with an ad attacking her for being in “bed” with. . .*drum roll* WALL STREET!

Got to love Karl. He treats the rabble GOP electorate for the unthinking, unknowledgeable folks they are. Trouble is, those are not nearly enough zombies to elect someone for dog-catcher in Hoboken.

Even Michael Steele wonders whether the GOP has a clue what Americans think about anything these days. He mopes they are getting way of tune with reality.

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Looks like the Congressional GOP buffoons will try the usual end around play. Since they hold that majority in the House with no filibuster rule, they intend to pass a pay-roll tax bill with all sorts of awful amendments and then go home for the holidays, figuring that that leaves the ball in Harry Reid’s court.

Do they not see that we get the game?  Yet?

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Another week has slipped on by. Is that ironic?

Related articles

• Karl Rove-Funded Ad Says Elizabeth Warren Is In Bed With Wall Street (huffingtonpost.com)
• Karl Rove’s Orwellian new ad attacks Elizabeth Warren for being close to Wall Street (dailykos.com)

What Must It Be Like. . . .

Tags

editorial, gay rights, immigration, Latino rights, Muslims, racism

I’m a 61-year-old white woman. When I applied for law school, law schools were actively soliciting female applicants, so I had a leg up. I benefited from women before me who had to fight tooth and nail to even attend a law school, let alone practice law. And most could never hope to gain a partnership in a major firm.

As a female high-school graduate, certain “professions” were closed to me. At that time, women were not allowed to “work the streets” as cops. Women couldn’t fly fighter planes in the Air Force, women’s roles in the military were severely limited. Women didn’t fly commercial airplanes with the major carriers.

Women are still underpaid vis-a-vis their male counterparts.

We still deal with our Phyllis Schafly’s who would advise us that God prefers us to stick pretty close to either the kitchen or the bedroom. A whole host of male ministers would tell us that we are to be subservient to our “head” –meaning our husbands.

So I know a little bit about being a second-class person. But only a little. I can’t say that I have been denied much of anything I really wanted. I had whiteness to thank for that.

As a white person, I had the American Dream pretty much intact for the asking. It’s a birthright we receive just by being. Pretty nifty when you think of it. It’s like being 30 yards ahead in a 100 yard dash when the gun goes off. It’s like being born in America. It’s just a big head start.

I am a Christian, which generally speaking, whatever all the hoopla one hears about “being discriminated against”, is a safety net of sorts. Nobody calls me names except those who risk being called more names: non-believers. In a country that is overwhelmingly Christian, it’s the “right” faith.

So, my life and my world is defined by all this entitlement. I take it as normal. I take it as the way things are. It is the natural environment through which I move, not thinking about it any more than thinking about the air that I breathe that makes my life possible.

Yet, a host of folks in this country are not so privileged. They are gay, black, brown, Muslim. Oddly, Asian has not yet become suspect–at least as to Asian Americans. But given the economic up-turn going on in Asia, it seems likely to in the future.

If you are at all like me, (and most of you are smart, thinking folks), then you are reading a lot on the Internet. You are watching the news, reading papers and magazines, and listening to the radio. And tons of the stuff every day, involves all these “others” among us.

Bryan Fischer and those of his ilk, remind us daily how awful it is to be gay. To choose to be gay, as they claim. They engender fear in some of us about the safety of our children. They warn of God’s wrath. They assure us that civilization itself is on the precipice of destruction should we ever allow “marriage” between other than A man and A woman.

Race has taken on a new twist in this “post-Obama” era. Race had become the quiet, but still insidious disease of our country. The election of Obama and the need for racists to find a way to attack him without “looking racist” became paramount.

So we discovered to our shock that he was a “socialist” “communist” “fascist” “dictator” “Muslim” “member of the Muslim Brotherhood” “activator of the New World Order, “anti-Christ” and “Kenyan citizen”.

We learned that if you find three sycophant house negroes to champion your position of Obama hatred, gay hatred, Muslim and immigration hatred, you could be absolved of that charge, and in fact call liberals racist and the other 99% of all black people racists. Not a bad trade-off.

Stoked by  the right-wing media machine which captures its audience by a mixture of fear and pointing the finger at all NOT WHITE, NOT CHRISTIAN elements in the country, Muslims were the next target. Because a few deluded idealogues financed by a few more rich deluded ideologues chose to cause great hurt and destruction upon US soil, all Muslims are now suspect. Best they just go away. And it is most of all best that they all be looked upon with great suspicion.

Don’t have a job? Taking a pay cut? Losing your benefits? Or just stuck in a dead-end job with no real hope of moving up that ladder to the “good life?” Why that same Foxy media and its traveling fellowship will explain to you that it’s because of this country being flooded with “illegals” who are “taking your jobs.”

I remember a time when we had a lot of sympathy for Mexicans in this country. We knew that many of them were migrant workers. And we knew they were underpaid and often poorly used by their employers. We worked to better their lives.

No more.

They take our jobs, use our emergency wards, don’t pay taxes, get free schooling for their kids, and have the nasty habit of dropping “anchor babies” to attach themselves to this country and it’s wealth.

No matter than nearly all of this is untrue. It fits the needs of both the offerers: (the right-wing power and media) and the offerees: (those who are hurtin’ and wanna blame somebody).

And while we are at it, let’s blame all the smarty-pants folks who got educated and tell us we are wrong. We aren’t, they are just “elitists”.

This is America today. And I stop and think sometimes. What must it be like to be gay? Or Black? Or Brown? or Muslim? What is it like to be talked about as if you are something bad? Something dangerous? SomeTHING as opposed to someONE?

What must it be like to be fearful that those eyes that look upon you at Wal-Mart and look so mean might be ready and willing to do more than give you that dirty look? What must it be like to endure those barely under the breath remarks? What must it be like to be asked to step out of line and be singled out for a “more thorough” search? What must it be like to have to “prove” one’s right to be on the highway?

I try to imagine. I cannot. But it hurts to think that others suffer because they ARE.

The closest I can come is this. Have you ever been accused of something that you did not do, but could not prove other than by your word? Remember the frustration and anger you felt, at being unfairly accused. Is it anything like this?

What must it be like?

 

Go On, Read About it!

Tags

Books, debt crisis, Donald Trump, education, GOP, Herman Cain, Humor, Michele Bachmann, Mike Huckabee, Muslims, Obama, reading, Standard & Poors, teabaggers

Or don’t. As it turns out you really can’t teach a love of reading. It seems something that you either do or don’t. And it has little to do with opportunity either. Over time, the number of “readers” hasn’t changed a great deal. And readers lament the same problem (so much to read, so little time) over the centuries. A great little read over at The Chronicle, called “We can’t teach students to love reading.” Go see where you fall.

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All roads seem to lead to the financial crisis these days. With Standard & Poors lowering the rating of the US, everybody is wondering what ensue.

Whatever you position (and plenty of folks don’t credit S&P with much savvy), their report was pretty clear in laying the blame. Although they spoke about the gridlock in Washington in general, their greatest finger-pointing went to the GOP’s delinquency-prone child–the TeaNutz®. While the National Journal report didn’t explicitly say Republicans, there was little doubt that they felt that the political brinksmanship of holding the country hostage and failure to consider revenue increases as “possible” were largely to blame. This link has a link to the full S&P report as well as some other good links.

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Meanwhile Michele (I make it up as I go along) Bachmann was at it again. She just days ago, was a no vote on the debt ceiling bill. She of course went much further, claiming that the threats of the credit agencies to downgrade the US’s  rating were nonsense and of no consequence. Now that that has happened, she spins on the proverbial GOP plug nickel and screams that Obama is responsible, and he must return to Washington “immediately” and address the American people with a plan to pay down our debt by “trillions”, and this too immediately. Oh if wishes could come true, Ms. Idiothead will be the candidate and as Governor Rendell suggested, the “no slaughter” rule would be invoked at the Obama-Bachmann debate ten minutes in.

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Speakin’ of the Palin replacement, there is a great article at the New Yorker Magazine written by Ryan Lizza called Leap of Faith. Lizza traveled with Bachmann for some time as she moved between Iowa and New Hampshire and has done a good job of peeling off the whitewash that masks a lot of uncomfortable truths. Bachmann’s background is just chock full of extremists whom she has embraced and taken as her personal gurus. Her dominionist beliefs cause her to take extremist views on subjects such as gay, abortion, and even slavery. She’s going to have a very difficult time distancing herself from all this now. And it’s full of more of her twisting and contorting facts and outright lying to present herself as something she very much is not. Do read it.

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Drew Weston has written an important opinion piece in the NYTimes. It blasts Obama pretty badly frankly. I tend to feel like a pinball when it comes to the President. I am constantly disappointed and hopeful, careening between those two points. He’s more conservative in reality that I want, and less a master of the message that I expected. Weston points out how he failed miserably in this debt ceiling crisis, and frankly, I can’t disagree. “What Happened to Obama?”

Weston calls it ” his deep-seated aversion to conflict and his profound failure to understand bully dynamics — in which conciliation is always the wrong course of action, because bullies perceive it as weakness and just punch harder the next time. . . .” It’s hard to not agree.

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Don’t forget your late night humor from Political Irony. Always a lovely way to relax and enjoy some political truths tongue-in-cheek. And if you humor runs religious, here’s a mighty cute little story that we found from our new friend, LOLgod.

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When will it get through the American psyche that the debt is only a symptom of the problem and not the problem itself as the ignorant TeaNutz® erroneously believe? Robert Reich once again tries in very plain English to straighten out the issues. Reich always is clear. We are heading toward another recession. Will we act in time? Bets are definitely divided.

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Oh and did ya hear this one? Mikey (I like money more than my country) Huckabee has called for the appointment of Donald Trump as a new Secretary of the Treasury. I guess this should come as no surprise. If you’ve seen Huck’s shameless lying and misleading innuendo commercial about “Obamacare” then you know this dude is simply another huckster ala Newt “how long will you support me” Gingrich. Just another grifter. Huck has pretty much given up any pretense of being a “Christian” leader. Any idea Mikey how many times the Trumpster has declared bankruptcy?  . . .I thought not.

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Herman Cain is getting more lessons on how to be a good house Negro. The teaNutz® have made it clear that Cain will be back to being “part of the problem” along with all other darker than lily-white citizens, if he keeps going around apologizing to Muslims for his racist remarks about them. After posting his apology on Facebook, he got some really unfriendly responses from his “peeps”: (H/T to The Grio for the link)

“it’s all or nothing with the muslim religion…no means no…please stand firm Mr Cain please or run on the democrat ticket”

“what in heaven’s name are you doing? Don’t you know you can’t trust ONE WORD that comes from their mouth? they’re lying to get on your good side, Mr. Cain! :/”

So, listen up Mr. Cain. Ain’t it nice being owned, Sir?

 

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• U.S. Downgrade Ripples (thedailybeast.com)

The Group of People I Like Keeps Dwindling

Tags

budget, environment, Glenn Beck, media wackos, Muslims, Qur'an, racism

One of the things that has long troubled me in the silly war by the extremist right to paint Obama as a Muslim, is why the response isn’t simply: so what if he is? Why is it something that must be defended against? Have we gone so far around the bend into naked hatred that it would not be okay to have a Muslim president?

The fact that Barack Obama is assuredly a Christian, is beside the point. We need only go as far as Herman Cain to find someone willing to blatantly state that no Muslim would find their way into “his” administration.

A furor erupted in New Jersey when the governor there appointed a Muslim to the Court of Appeals. Thankfully, the governor says he would do it again!

But we are, it seems, making it almost alright to bash Muslims. The extremist right is simply awful in its hate-spewing, using all sorts of words and phrases meant to inflame and leaving no doubt that they conceive of Muslims in general as a thing to be eradicated from the body politic. As we have previously noted Bryan Fischer suggests they have no “1st Amendment rights” since our Founding Fathers, inexplicably never meant to include anyone but Christians, and perhaps “good” Jews.

Many extremists point to the Qur’an as being a hate-filled book. Frankly, from things I’ve read, by people who have reason to know, it is no more so than the Bible, which admittedly portrays a pretty violent and bloodthirsty God in parts of the Hebrew Scriptures.

But did you know that the person named most often in the Qur’an is Moses? And the second most named person is Jesus? And the third is the Virgin Mary? I sure didn’t. Read an account of this and other things from the Qur’an at The Reaction, in a guest post by Hamid M. Khan, adjunct professor of Islamic Law at the University of Colorado Law School.

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A couple of shorts. This just in. Beck is “transitioning off” his TV show. Meaning he has been told to take a hike. The usual “new projects are in the works” was released.

Democrats proposed that if the Rethugs were intent on the government shutdown, that the moral thing to do was to stop paying themselves in Congress and President. The GOP said whoa, that was going too far!

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With Paul Ryan’s “new budget” which basically guts Medicare and Medicaid, we now see that the GOP strategy is to support in every way the rich getting richer and placing all the economic suffering on the poor, women and old people. Coupled with their growing attacks on Muslims, and Latinos, well, we can see that it is the party of the great shrinking white well-to-do. Good luck with that.

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If you want to find out what your state excels in, environmentally that is, well take a look at the map below. [h/t Joe.My.God]

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What’s on the stove? Fish Tacos (recipe anyone?)

Whatever He said. . . .I Say the Opposite

Tags

1st Amendment, Bryan Fischer, creationism, David Barton, economy, God, GOP, Individual Rights, Iowa, Libya, Muslims, Newt Gingrich, revisionist history, taxes, teabaggers, theology, unions, US Constitution, Wisconsin

This is the GOP mantra, and has been since the day after the 2008 election. Whatever the President says or does or doesn’t do, they immediately say the opposite. It’s the last part that keeps getting them in trouble.

Latest case in point:

Newty (the garden slug) Gingrich just can’t make up his mind on what to do about Libya. When we were doing nothing, he was for the US to step in. When we did, he was against it.

He said we could take care of the whole problem with air-power. Until we used air-power then he said it was a typical politician’s error to think that air power solves all problems.

In the end, Newt admits that his answers to these questions are simply “responses to what the President does.”

Ya see Newt, when the president doesn’t do something, and you say he should, it’s really bad form to then say he shouldn’t have. And then before he has done something, don’t tell him how he should do it, because when he does it, and does it that way, you end up saying he should know better not to do it that way.

Is this an Alzheimer’s moment Newt? Or are you just the hateful vindictive, wannabe that we really think you are?

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Help! Infection alert!

Decontamination areas are being set up all over Iowa in anticipation of the likely bacterial infection set to enter the state.

Tomorrow gadzillions (make that a few dozen) really creepy and crazy people are set to have a day-long conference in Des Moines about who should be the GOP candidate. All manner of sleaze is attending, including M. Bachmann (crazy eyes), H. Barbour (racism is behind me), H. Cain (uncle Tom’s cousin), N. Gingrich (garden slug), R. Santorum (wontcha love me again?), J. Bolton (the stash is my cash), and well others.

All rational humans are urged to get a shower and take the recommended dosage of Tylenol to forestall bouts of insanity. Symptoms include itchy skin, double vision and the uncanny feeling that you’ve been hijacked by aliens. See a veterinarian immediately if you have any of the above.

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I just love ‘strict constructionists. You know who I mean, those folks that want our country returned to its Founding Father principles, the C O N S T I T U T I O N. Now what they actually mean by this is something you might not quite get, if you ain’t one of them.

Cases in point:

Bryan Fischer, AFA leader and all around hater of everything not white and fundamentalist, claims that the 1st Amendment right to freedom of religion, does not include any rights for Muslims, since the FF could not have had them in mind. Why we don’t know, but he says that we give them rights as a “courtesy” only.

David Barton, pseudo-historian and all around wacko nutjob who shleps for the GOP and it’s business elites, has explained that the Declaration of Independence is “nothing more than a list of sermons” which might surprise Thomas Jefferson. Further the Constitution was written directly out of the Bible, and that all leads up to the fact that Jesus was and IS against the minimum wage and well anything that corporate America doesn’t find conducive to racking up profits.

Sadly, people actually get in their cars, travel to auditoriums, sit their skinny butts in chairs, and listen to this drivel, rather than say, pop popcorn and watch Monty Python’s Holy Grail. I kid you not.

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Texas has been in the business of late in revising the history of the US of A, to reflect whatever it wants to be the truth. This is not news. Bill Zedler, Texas Rethuglian legislator, introduces a bill to make it “illegal to discriminate against creationists.” Yes, and next he plans to introduce one that makes it illegal to discriminate against stupid people. In both cases that would be him.  [h/t to Crooks and Liars]

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Discover Magazine has an interesting article, entitled “Does the Universe Need God?” This is an excerpt from a larger article, and there is a link to that. This is a thoughtful reasoned argument, not the usual atheistic meanness that we’ve come to see from to many. I don’t agree with the argument, but I find it cogent and worth considering.

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Ever heard of William Cronon? I hadn’t. No reason I should. He’s a university professor at Wisconsin, and well-respected by his peers in his area of expertise, that being history. He recently did an op-ed piece in the NYTimes on the recent union issues in Wisconsin, and was critical of the Governor and Republicans who would try to take away long-standing collective bargaining rights of Wisconsin citizens.

Well, that pissed off the GOP, and it, the state GOP that is, has launched a legal action to get to his e-mails to uncover whether they can prove that he’s been active in protests. This all aimed to of course intimidate and discredit him. This is what I guess the GOP calls democracy. We call it Joe McCarthyism. How low can you limbo Wisconsin GOP? [h/t to Daily Dish]

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I know you all read Moe at Whatever Works, and I’m stealing this “entire” post, but she posts usually several a day, so please don’t miss her stuff. She does a great job of keeping us all aware of all the nefarious goings on, everywhere. But this is precious and so true:

“Other than telling us how to live, think, marry, pray, vote, invest, educate our children and, now, die, Republicans have done a fine job of getting government out of our personal lives.”
                                                         – Editorial Page, Portland Oregonian 

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It’s leftovers today!

Related Articles

• American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer: Deny First Amendment Rights to Muslims (littlegreenfootballs.com)
• “Obama derangement syndrome, Newt Gingrich edition” and related posts (mnpublius.com)
• Wisconsin university critic of Walker gets a Velderman. (preaprez.wordpress.com)
• My World’s Collide (talkingpointsmemo.com)
• Scott Walker’s Office Seeks Access to Critical Professor’s Email (blogs.forbes.com)

And Where is Democracy?

Tags

hate mongering, Individual Rights, Libya, Muslims, NPR, Peter King, racism, religious bigotry, sting operations, teabaggers, unions, Wisconsin

Democracy has left Wisconsin.

In the dead of night, nefarious Rethugs did the deed, manipulating a rule to effect their goal, the end of unions in Wisconsin.

Claiming that a quorum was not necessary for a non-budgetary item, Rethug leaders stripped the cancellation of collective bargaining from the general budget bill, and then voted on it as a single item.

There can be no further claim by Walker and his henchfolk that this was a necessary measure to stave off economic crisis. This is simple union busting, and they now admit that through their clandestine actions.

We now know what tyranny by a minority is all about. Lying to the public in order to obtain election power, and then turning on the real agenda, this is what we are witnessing in Wisconsin today.

The lesson is clear. When your message appeals only to a strident and fanatic minority, then develop ways of destroying the other party, so that you remain the only party left. This is what Rethugs and their cohort of multinational corporate masters are trying to do in America. It is nothing less than the total destruction of the Democratic Party. Once accomplished, they will grind all but the top 1% under their heels. Slavery will return to America.

Are you awake yet America?

We here at AfeatherAdrift stand in solidarity with the workers of Wisconsin and those throughout the US who protect the rights of all workers by their courage to be UNION.

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If that doesn’t do us in, then racial and religious wars are likely to. In their fanaticism, the ultra crazy right-wing pursues policies of racial and ethnic division within the US, all policies that encourage the solidarity of those groups they despise, around the world.

Peter King opened his hate mongering hearings today in the face of even opposition within his own party, albeit, from those still rational enough to think. King’s witch hunt will be used around the world to rally anti-American sentiments by radical Muslims. But King prefers to live in his own dream world where he can define what is dangerous and what is not.

It should be noted that King himself supported the IRA rather openly in years past, times when they were defined by this country as a terrorist group. King of course, is wise enough, by his own estimation to not be bound by the rules he now attempts to impose upon others.

King, the new McCarthy of our time, will continue to hurl innuendo and invective upon a Muslim community that has done nothing whatever to bring this upon themselves, other than in King’s fuzzy thinking, not prove to his satisfaction that they are doing enough to stop radical Muslims in the US.

We stand, here at AFeatherAdrift, in solidarity with our Muslim brothers and sisters as they weather this unfair and vicious attack by the bigot Peter King and those who follow him.

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UPDATE: We now understand that the Wisconsin union-killer “bill” also gives the power to fire anyone who is suspected of being absent from work with the purpose to support a “strike”. In other words, if workers across Wisconsin walk out in protest against the Legislature’s probable illegal act, they will be fired. Did I say something about tyranny? Walker is a demagogue.

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NPR got caught in the latest “video sting” done by right-wing wacko James O’Keefe. What did they catch? A NRP having lunch with some “fake” Muslims, and remarking that the GOP Teabuggers were racists, fundamentalists, and “scary.” All true you say? So say I, but apparently it frightened higher-ups in NPR and caused the typical resignations. I’m not sure what is wrong with speaking the truth. It’s not as if those “offended” by the remarks listen in anyway. They despise the NPR as the “libtard lamestream media.” Who cares? I’m puzzled by NPR’s lay down on this one.

What twists my knickers on this is, that O’Keefe’s lying tactics are of course applauded by the righteous-wingnuts all the why they are just as appalled at the trickster who punked Gov. Walker in Wisconsin pretending to be David Koch. O’Keefe is lauded as a warrior, while the other engenders Republican bills to make such tricking “illegal.” Ain’t having no brain grand?

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We look upon events in Libya with sorrow as the forces of freedom seem to be losing to the superior fire power of the madman Qaddafi. I have no clue what is the right solution here, in terms of the international community, but the slaughter of so many is deeply sad. We continue to pray that the rebels will prevail. Qaddafi seems unconcerned about the opinions of the world.

Related Articles

• NPR caves to O’Keefe — and we all lose (salon.com)
• What happens in Wisconsin matters world-wide (liberalconspiracy.org)
• SPECIAL REPORT: Is America the Sick Man of the Globe? (inquisitionnews.wordpress.com)