madness of the GOP is the central issue of our time

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Republican Says He'd Bring Back Slavery If His Cons uents Asked Him To


“Anyone who knows me knows that I could never vote for something like that...There is absolutely no room in my life for any bigotry.”

http://www.alternet.org/nevada-repub...tter916696&t=5

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The G.O.P. Tax

The research firm Macroeconomic Advisers has a new report out about the effects of bad fiscal policy since 2010 - that is, since the G.O.P. takeover of the House of Representatives.

The way it's written, however, might confuse some people. They say that the combined effects of uncertainty in the bond market and cuts in discretionary spending have subtracted 1 percent from gross domestic product growth.

That's not 1 percent off G.D.P. - it's the annualized rate of growth, so we're talking about almost 3 percent of G.D.P. at this point; ulatively, the losses come to around $700 billion of wasted economic potential.

This is in the same ballpark as my own estimates. And they also estimate that the current unemployment rate is 1.4 points higher than it would have been without those policies (a number consistent with almost 3 percent lower G.D.P.);

so, we'd have unemployment below 6 percent if not for these lawmakers. Great work all around, guys.

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/19...t-those-people

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GOP Senator Threatens To Hold Fed Chair, DHS Secretary Noms Over Benghazi




Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Wednesday made clear that President Obama’s nominees to become the Chair of the Federal Reserve and Secretary of Homeland Security would be his latest hostages in his ongoing quest to unearth the “truth” about Benghazi.


Since the attack last year that ended in the death of four American citizens in Benghazi, Libya, Graham has been a stalwart crusader on the hunt to expose the supposed White House cover-up that he knows exists. On Monday, he indicated that a new push would be coming, warning on Fox News, “I’m going to block every appointment in the United States Senate until the survivors are being made available to the Congress.”

Graham followed through on Wednesday, announcing at a news conference that he would be placing a hold on Janet Yellen’s nomination to become the new Federal Reserve Chair and Jeh Johnson’s to replace Janet Napolitano at DHS. “That is the only leverage we have,” he told the assembled reporters. Yellen’s nomination is also being threatened by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) over different demands.

http://thinkprogress.org/security/20...ellen-johnson/

ing Repugs and their voters, all assholes

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

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 [3].

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 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, [4] 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 Chicago 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. [5]

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 cons uents 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 [6], that came to light this week.

He said he’d bring back slavery if that was what his cons uents 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 [7].

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.

http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-an...age=1#bookmark

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GOP Candidate Argues His Opponent Would Have Supported Slavery

A Tea Party-backed Senate candidate in Louisiana recently argued that, were his opponent Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) alive in the 18th century, she would have sided with pro-slavery forces.

Rob Maness, a retired Air Force officer running against Landrieu in Louisiana’s 2014 U.S. Senate election, attracted national attention in the last week, after a powerful outside spending group, the Senate Conservatives Fund, endorsed his candidacy.

Before all the national attention, in August, Maness spoke at the annual RedState Gathering. He attacked Landrieu for her observation during the immigration bill markup that “The only way you get something is to become obnoxious.”

Maness extrapolated from Landrieu’s statement that she would believe anyone who holds an unpopular belief is “obnoxious,” then inferred that Landrieu would have sided against anti-slavery advocates had she been alive around the country’s founding. “Senator Landrieu might have called Mrs. Adams ‘obnoxious,’ especially since she was opposed to slavery and favored women’s rights when both were very unpopular ideas,” Maness told the crowd.

MANESS: We’ve got a dog named Lady Abigal named after the outspoken first lady Abigail Adams. Senator Landrieu might have called Mrs. Adams “obnoxious,” especially since she was opposed to slavery and favored women’s rights when both were very unpopular ideas.

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/20...aness-slavery/

What? Since when is slavery an UNPOPULAR IDEA in Louisiana?

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Who Is Chief Right Wing Whacko this Week? It Might Surprise You

1. Christian historian: Abortions caused Typhoon Haiyan.

This might come as news to the grieving survivors of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines: the cause of the powerful storm was abortion. Not necessarily their abortions, but just the fact that anyone has abortions, especially legally, even though abortion is illegal in the Philippines. God is very, very pissed about that, and that’s why he sent a typhoon that killed all those Filippinos on its way to Vietnam. He’s vindictive like that. That is why he is causing all these very destructive and scary storms.

What is not causing any of this climatological havoc is global warming—not that it even exists. Burning fossil fuels is something God actually wants us to do more of. So goes the theory of Christian denialist, oops, we mean “historian” David Barton. The blanket explanation for all this “climate stuff that we can’t explain,” he said this week in a conversation with televangelist Kenneth Copeland, as well as murder and pedophilia, is legalized abortion. America voted for politicians who support abortion rights, and in doing so “opened the door to the curse.”

Here is the historical background. In the good old days, when America was first starting out, Barton explained that if there was really bad weather, leaders would “call for a national day of repentance, humiliation, fasting and prayer … and today we’re saying, ‘Oh no, it’s global warming.’”

That’s how we lost God’s protection. We chose to lose it. What did we expect?

2. Radio host Damon Bruce: Sports are set to the dial of men.

Sports are for men, and Richie Incognito is a man, acting manly in a man’s world. And if you don’t like it, ladies, you can lump it. That is the short version of a nine-minute tirade against women in sports this week by KNBR sports radio host Damon Bruce.

Bruce is mad at women because women are to blame for the suspension of Miami Dolphins guard Richie Incognito after his alleged (and apparently legendary) harassment, bullying and threats against teammate Jonathan Martin drove Martin from the team.

Here’s how the tirade starts:

“A lot of sports has lost its way and I’m gonna tell you, part of the reason is because we’ve got women giving us directions. For some of you, this is going to come across as very misogynistic. I don’t care, because I’m very right. I'm willing to share my sandbox, as long as you remember you're in my box. I didn’t slip into your box....”

Allowing women to “slip into the box” of professional sports has pretty much ruined sports, Bruce thinks. It has feminized men and made it hard for men to bond the way they like to bond—by being assholes. That’s what Jonathan Martin didn’t understand. Incognito was trying to bond with him when he called him racial slurs and threatened to rape his sister.

Here’s Bruce’s sage advice to women sports journalists who can’t hack it: “If sports get too gruesome for you, go write a restaurant column. Go write a housekeeping column.”

Sweet of him to be concerned.

3. Rand Paul overtakes Ted Cruz as chief Republican wacko bird.

This is a tightly contested race—neck and neck. Lately, Texas Tea Partier Cruz has been relatively subdued since his widely ridiculed Obamacare filibuster which lead to the widely reviled government shutdown.

So, Kentucky libertarian Paul was good enough to step into the breach to fulfill the role of what Senator John McCain coined as “chief of the wacko birds.” Paul has distinguished himself in the last week or so with his passionate defense, or is it ignorance, of plagiarism, challenging Rachel Maddow to a duel for repeatedly pointing out that he lifts passages from Wikipedia wholesale for speeches, articles, books, whatever. She’s impugning his honor by doing so, “spreading hate” on him. Besides libertarians don’t attribute stuff; that’s for big government suckers.

A plagiarism scandal, or multiple plagiarism scandals, need not be devastating. Hey, mistakes happen. Admit them and move on, we say. But no, Paul started talking “duel” during an interview with ABC’s “This Week.”

“If, you know, if dueling were legal in Kentucky, if they keep it up, you know, it would be a duel challenge. But I can’t do that, because I can’t hold office in Kentucky then.”

Note to Paul: Toto, you’re not in 19th-century Kentucky anymore.

4. Antonin Scalia brings up the devil in case about prayer.

It’s almost as if there’s a little red guy with horns and a tail sitting on the shoulder of the Supreme Court’s most verbose right-winger, making him say really off-the-wall things. Justice Antonin Scalia just keeps seeing the devil and his worshippers everywhere, bringing them up during oral arguments in a case about the cons utionality of legislative prayer. This, just weeks after a somewhat embarrassing interview in New Yorkmagazine in which he gleefully affirmed his belief in the Antichrist. And what’s wrong with that?

During this week’s case, fellow conservative jurist Samuel Alito was asking questions about whether any kind of prayer would be permissible before a legislative session, one that would not offend Christians, Jews, Muslims, or Hindus.

"What about devil worshippers?" Scalia interjected. Laugher ensued. He’s such a card.

His larger point was that not letting people pray before legislative meetings deprives them of their religious freedom, and that it is impossible to design a prayer that satisfies all faiths—not to mention lack thereof.

"What is the equivalent of prayer for someone who is not religious?" Scalia asked. "There are many people who do not believe in God. ... If you had an atheist [town] board, you would not have any prayer. I guarantee you."

After all, who do you think makes people atheists? Guy with the horns, we’re talking to you.

5. Louie Gohmert: Shutdown was necessary to save people from Obamacare.

Two quick refreshers: 1) Obamacare is the “worst law known to man,” worse than slavery, Nuremberg laws, Indian removal act—you get the idea; and 2) Tea Partiers received a drubbing in this week’s election, but seem not to realize it.

Texas Tea Partier Louie Gohmert was out stumping this week, bizarrely bragging that the devastating shutdown was necessary because people would “suffer and potentially die” because of the Affordable Care Act. Yup, nothing kills people faster than health insurance. It is deadly stuff.

He made the statement at a nursing home in East Texas, where he hoped to scare the bejeezus out of seniors so they won’t sign up for the dreaded healthcare coverage. “Anybody that thinks the Affordable Care Act helps seniors doesn’t really understand what’s unaffordable to seniors,” Gohmert helpfully and misleadingly explained. “It makes most of the Medicare Advantage plans go up, but you’ve got to remember, Obamacare actually cut $716 billion from Medicare and seniors rely on Medicare.”

That, of course, is either a lie or make-believe, or both, but since when has that stopped the opponents of Obamacare?

6. Rep. Steve King knows personally—don’t ask him how—that Saddam Hussein purchased uranium from Niger.

Who can forget the fiction that fueled the invasion of Iraq in 2002? Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, was building the bomb, and was ready to use all of it against us or Israel. He got his uranium from Niger, high-level intelligence said. President George Bush even said so in a speech.

Cut to a couple months after “Shock and Awe” and not even Donald Rumsfeld, Cheney or President Bush was standing by that statement. They were misled by some bum intelligence. Sorry. Our bad.

But crazy Iowa Rep. Steve King still believes it because, as he said on Jan Mickelson’s radio show this week: “I have had hands-on evidence that what George Bush said in that State of the Union address was the truth.”

What Bush said was: “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quan ies of uranium from Africa.”

When the claim unraveled, the Bush administration had to eat crow and admit the so-called intelligence was “bogus,” do ents “forged.” Spokesman Ari Fleischer admitted the statement should never have found its way into the president’s speech. But nobody took the war back.

But King has “hands-on” knowledge. He just does.

7. Illinois Rep.: Marriage equality has nothing to do with rights; it’s about the Bible.

As the Illinois legislature began to debate whether to join the growing number of enlightened states that have legalized same-sex marriage, State Rep. Dwight Kay (R-Glen Carbon) pointed out that everyone has it bass-ackwards. Our nation was built on “the scriptures, then came the Cons ution. Is that not right?”

It was, of course, a rhetorical question. “I think it is,” Kay continued. A brief course in American history could clear this up for the confused legislator, but never mind.

Kay is at a loss to understand why everyone keeps talking about human rights, and civil rights, and equal rights all the time when they talk about marriage equality. What do human rights have to do with a nation built on scripture? Who you gonna believe, that Cons ution with its Bill of Rights written by men, or the word of God?

8. Larry Pratt: Trayvon Martin’s broken family is what killed him.

It’s never too late to pile more pain onto the grieving parents and loved ones of slain teenager Trayvon Martin. His killer is free, Trayvon has been blamed for his own death, and now, taking it one step further, Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America has suggested that Martin's dysfunctional family is responsible for the boy’s death.

That’s what he said in an interview with NewsMax’s Steve Malzberg this week: Trayvon Martin was killed because he had a “broken family.”

Who else can you blame? Triggerman, neighborhood-watch volunteer George Zimmerman was just lawfully “standing his ground” when he shot unarmed Martin. “Stand Your Ground” laws can’t be to blame because, as Sen. Ted Cruz explained to Martin's mother Sybrina Fulton in a Senate hearing on the controversial law, she’s just “mourning the loss of her son.” Stand-your-ground laws in fact “protect those in African-American communities,” he said.

Facts be damned, gun nuts and Tea Partiers agree. According to Right-Wing Watch, a recent “Tampa Bay Times analysis of stand-your-ground cases in Florida found substantial racial disparities in the application of the law, including that ‘people who killed a black person walked free 73 percent of the time, while those who killed a white person went free 59 percent of the time. A national studyfound a similar disparity.”

But, it’s Trayvon Martin's family’s fault he’s dead. Probably his mother’s.

9. White, anti-LGBT Texan wins office by pretending to be black.

Dave Wilson, a Houston electrician, has become pretty adept at creating literature for the causes he believes in. While not rewiring people’s homes, he long pursued his sideline of mailing phobic fliers to thousands of Houston voters attacking the city’s lesbian mayor Annise Parker. His argument is pretty simple. Open sexuality is bad. It leads to extinction. (Closeted sexuality, not so much.)

Recently, Wilson expanded his literary efforts into fiction, when he got himself elected to the Houston Community College Board of Trustees by out-and-out pretending to be someone else. He pretended to be a black man, defeating longtime in bent Bruce Austin, who actually is black, in an overwhelmingly African-American district.

According to Right-Wing Watch, “Wilson’s campaign fliers were filled with black faces that he admits to simply pulling off of websites, along with captions such as ‘Please vote for our friend and neighbor Dave Wilson.’ Another flier announces that he was ‘Endorsed by Ron Wilson,’ which is the name of an African-American former state representative. Only by reading the fine print will voters discover that the ‘Ron Wilson’ who actually endorsed Dave is his cousin. The cousin lives in Iowa.”

Wilson is fine with this whole deception thing. After all, lying is what politicians do, he points out.

10. Nutjob former classmate of Obama reminisces about his cocaine-snorting, gay-hustling high school days.

Scott Lively's "Defend The Family" website got a real scoop this week with an interview that nutjob preacher James David Manning conducted with Mia Marie Pope, who says—and why would we not believe her?—that she knew President Obama back in high school in Hawaii in the 1970s, when he was a foreigner (this is a birther website, after all) and a gay druggie.

"He very much was within sort of the gay community," Pope claimed. "And we knew Barry as just common knowledge that girls were never anything that he ever was interested in ... He would get with these older white gay men, and this is how we just pretty much had the impression that that's how he was procuring his cocaine. In other words, he was having sex with these older white guys and that's how he was getting this cocaine to be able to freebase."

http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-an...age=1#bookmark

[boutons_deux]

10 Deranged Dispatches From the Right-Wing Wackosphere This Week

It’s been a busy week for all manner of charlatans, religious and otherwise.

1. One-woman parade of idiocy, Sarah Palin: The Pope is too liberal; social programs are similar to slavery.

Sarah Palin was on book tour this week, telegenically spewing some of the stupidest nonsense we’ve heard since she announced she could see Russia from her house. We’d like to ignore her, but the fact is she’s hugely popular among a certain segment of the population, and her book about the “war on Christmas,” Good Tidings and Great Joy, is destined for best-sellerdom. Just don’t wish her “Happy holidays!” That is waging war, my friend.

As Christian as she is, though, during an interview with CNN, Palin complained about Pope Francis. She’s taken aback by his liberal at udes, she says. Taken aback by his unwillingness to go after the LGBT community and atheists, we suppose, and his sympathy for the lonely elderly, and unemployed youth. As Bill Maher said, Palin's really going to be shook up when she finds out what Jesus said. Be sure to have tranquilizers available when she encounters the Sermon on the Mount.

Palin hopped right on that highly offensive bandwagon of equating the social safety net with slavery. “Our free stuff today is being paid for today by taking money from our children and borrowing money from China,” she said. “When that note comes due — and this isn’t racist so try it anyway, this isn’t racist — but it’s going to be like slavery when that note is due, right? We are going to be beholden to a foreign master.”

Insisting that you are not being racist when you’re comparing slavery to something far more benign is always a really convincing way to make people believe that you are in no way racist.

Maher: If Palin thinks the Pope is too liberal, ‘wait until she sees what Jesus has been saying’

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/1...s-been-saying/


2. Pat Buchanan: The Pope is bordering on moral relativism. The horror!

Pat Buchanan is another conservative who is very upset that the Pope is not willing to use the Catholic Church to bully people anymore. Specifically, he misses license to bully atheists, women who use birth control and have abortions, and gay people. In his refusal to berate or convert atheists, and tell LGBT people that they are going to , Pope Francis is bordering on— cue music of dread — moral relativism.

Two of the statements that upset Buchanan the most: Pope Francis describing the attempt to convert people to Christianity as “solemn nonsense,” and saying that Christians should spend less time lecturing people than listening to them to “discover new needs.”

Why, that das ly Pope Francis even acknowledged that people can be good no matter what their religious belief, or lack thereof. And he committed the cardinal sin (sorry, pun intended) of stressing helping the poor, rather than focusing on distractions like the gay lifestyle. As Buchanan wrote at Townhall [3] on Friday, Pope Francis is leading “the Catholic Church to a stance of non-belligerence, if not neutrality, in the culture war for the soul of the West.”

A non-belligerent church?! What the ?

3. Pat Robertson: Ask your gay son if he has been molested.

Ever the dispenser of sound parenting advice, 700 Club host, evangelical bigot par excellence Pat Robertson advised a caller to be “understanding” when talking to her gay son. By being “understanding,” he meant asking her son if the reason he is gay is because he was molested. Because that is always how people become gay.

“Is there a biological thing going on or has he been influenced — has a coach molested him?” Robertson asked the viewer who called in.

Either way, of course, the mother must immediately enroll her son in one of those gay conversion therapies; yes, the abusive form of pseudo-counseling that even ultra-conservative New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was forced to acknowledge should be illegal.

4. Sandy Rios: Gay-waiter-refused-tip story just a clever ruse to help ENDA.

No doubt you’ll remember the story two weeks ago of the Kansas City waiter who, in lieu of a tip, received a note from his oh-so-considerate Christian customers saying that, despite his superb service, they couldn’t let him share in their riches because they, and god, disapproved of his lifestyle. That story went viral, and even Bill Maher picked up on it, suggesting that if you want to be selfish and cheap, just do it. Don’t claim it’s for the worker’s own good.

Unfortunately, the behavior has spread, with another family refusing a tip this week to a server they assumed was a lesbian. They were even less nice about it, treating her rudely from the start, racking up a sizable bill and gleefully stiffing the hardworker, who happens to be an ex-Marine, out of her gratuity.

But wait, back up, this just in: Sandy Rios of the American Family Association says the first story was a ruse — a hoax staged by the tricky LGBT community to drum up sympathy for ENDA (Employment Non-Discrimination Act) to pass in the Senate.

“I smell a rat in this story,” Rios said. “I don’t believe a Christian couple wrote this note, I think it was a ruse because it was the week ENDA was being voted on.”

If only progressives were as willing to engage in dirty tricks and outright deception as ultra-conservatives. If only… hatred was something that was merely stagecraft.

5. Rafael Cruz: Atheism leads to sexual abuse of children.

Ted’s dad. At it again. Downloading his unique combo of spurious lies, bile and nonsense.

This week, speaking at a gathering of a group we must look into joining, OK2A [5], described on its website as “Oklahoma Premiere Second Amendment advocacy group,” Rafael Cruz said, straight up, that atheism leads to sexual abuse of children.

Here is the logic he laid out to the assembled gun-toting crazies: “If there is nothing, if there is no God, then we are ruled by our instincts.”?

Atheism leads to moral anarchy, he said. “Do we know any politicians that have done that?” he asked the crowd.

“Hitler!” answered Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America [6], who, coincidentally, was in the audience.

“Oh, we don’t have to go that far, Larry,” Cruz chummily replied. “Just go to Washington. Just go to the White House.” From there, it’s a short hop to sexual immorality, perversion and sexual abuse, Cruz concluded.
Follow?

6. “Historian” David Barton: True Christian soldiers wouldn't have PTSD.

Atheism is apparently a problem in the military, too. Because if soldiers were true Christians, they would not feel bad about killing enemies and sometimes non-combatants. They would not come home traumatized and have all these psychological problems.

Christian “historian” David Barton, the one who blamed Typhoon Haiyan on women having legal abortions, celebrated Veteran’s Day by criticizing veterans who feel at all guilty for what they do on the battlefield.

If they read their Bible, he and televangelist Kenneth Copeland agreed on Believer’s Voice of Victory, they’d read in Numbers 32 that soldiers “shall return and be guiltless before the Lord” and that means that they wouldn’t have PTSD.

“You don’t take drugs to get rid of it, it doesn’t take psychology; that promise right there will get rid of it,” Copeland said.

When you go to war God’s way, Barton chimed in, “not only are you guiltless for having done that, you’re esteemed.”

So, get it together veterans!

7. Rand Paul: Obamafascists are coming for your donuts.

This is truly terrifying. Right-wing libertarian wackadoodle Rand Paul took to the microphone this week to warn Americans that the federal government is targeting donuts. That’s what he said: “They’re coming after your donuts!”

Way to scare people. First, Madam Dictator Mic e Obama tries to get kids to eat more vegetables and exercise; now, the FDA is banning trans fats. Give me obesity or give me death! Or both, as the case may be.

You know who libertarian Paul is not so libertarian about? Gubb’mint employees.

"I say we should line every one of them up. I want to see how skinny or how fat the FDA agents are that are making the rules on this," he said in his rousing donut hysteria-invoking speech.

Donuts, as Esquire’s Charles Pierce pointed out, don’t need trans fats to be delicious. The two largest donut purveyors, Krispy Kreme and Dunkin’ Donuts are making pretty tasty round pastries without them.

Credit where due, though: There’s no indication, yet, that Paul’s recent call to arms was plagiarized.

8. Rush Limbaugh makes deranged comments on Obamacare.

There have been a lot of deranged comments on Obamacare this week, including from the New York Times when it idiotically compared the bumpy rollout of healthcare.gov to Bush’s handling of Hurricane Katrina. Hmmm, website = hurricane. Thousands dead = millions potentially getting health insurance. Yep, that analogy works.

Actually, all kidding aside, it’s monstrous.

While arguably Rush Limbaugh is less influential than the Times, and perhaps a tad more right-wing, he was not to be outdone in the crazy Obamacare hysteria that ran rampant this week. Rush, of course, does not like women, or s as he calls them, who use birth control. And Obamacare making it easier for them to do so is one of the healthcare act’s greatest evils in his view. Because he cares so much about millennials and their virtue, Rush took it upon himself to warn them on Wednesday’s show not to fall into this trap. What Obamacare is really advocating is not safer sex, he says—it’s pros ution.

"If you like being promiscuous, you can keep on being promiscuous," Limbaugh, friend of the young, said. "If you like being a pros ute, then have at it!"

And summing up for emphasis:

"If you like your risky, promiscuous lifestyle, you can keep it. That's what Obama is promising."

Wait, that sounds kind of good, Rush. Thanks!

9. Phyllis Schlafly: Calling all border agents—be on the lookout for polygamist Muslims.

In a world that made any sense, conservative mouther-offer Phyllis Schlafly would have long ago faded into irrelevance. Frankly, we had assumed she was dead by now, but she’s alive and kicking, and still getting airtime to broadcast her ignorance.

While the Eagle Forum founder has long been preoccupied with fighting feminism, she also wants to make sure that those really sexist Muslims with multiple wives are not being let into our country. Yes, immigration, the changing complexion of America, and what that means for the welfare rolls is very much on Schlafly's increasingly enfeebled mind these days.

She expressed these concerns on a radio show called “Crosstalk” the other day, saying:

“I would like to know if our immigration authorities are letting in people who believe in polygamy. Polygamy is against our law. We’ve brought in thousands of Muslims — I want to know if they made them sign a pledge to assure they’re not bringing in a bunch of wives who will now go on our welfare. Nobody can answer that question; I can’t get any answers to that question.”

Luckily, a caller to the show had an answer. He asserted without an iota of doubt that the Obama administration was bringing in 40 to 50 million Muslims and that they will destroy our cons ution and implement Sharia law.

On the bright side, Phyllis: feminism and Sharia law do not go well together. Time to make friends with the enemy of your enemy?

10. Louisiana official: Close the libraries so those Mexicans can’t learn English; build a jail instead.

Most immigration hardliners also believe that anyone who comes to this country damn well ought to learn English. No bilingual education, no chance of Americans ever rubbing elbows with people who don’t speak Amurrican.

But Lindel Toups, who sits on the Lafourche Parish City Council, is upset that Mexicans are trying to learn English, and he’d like to divert funding from libraries to a new jail because of that fact. Toups played down the importance of libraries [9] in recent comments to the Tri-Parish TimesandBusiness News, by pointing out that the Spanish-language Biblioteca Hispana section helps Spanish-speakers learn English.

“They’re teaching Mexicans to speak English,” Toups said “Let that son of a go back to Mexico.”

Libraries are apparently a great source of evil. “There’s just so many things they’re doing that I don’t agree with… Them junkies and hippies and food stamps [recipients] and all, they use the library to look at drugs and food stamps [on the Internet]. I see them do it.”

The citizens of Lafourche Parish are voting this week on whether to keep $800,000 in the library system or put it toward the $25 million needed for a new jail. That way, they might be able to avoid an increase in taxes.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

http://www.alternet.org/print/tea-party-and-right/10-deranged-dispatches-right-wing-wackosphere-week

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This Week In Crazy: The United Nations Invades New Hampshire, And The Rest Of The Worst Of The Right

Welcome to “This Week In Crazy,” The National Memo’s weekly update on the wildest attacks, conspiracy theories, and other loony behavior from the increasingly unhinged right wing. Starting with number five:

5. Larry Pratt

Gun Owners of America executive director Larry Pratt — who was last seen on this list warning that Obamacare is actually a gun-grabbing scheme that will force doctors to “submit medical information to the big computers in the sky” — claims the number five spot this week for reviving the smear campaign against the gun lobby’s least-favorite victim of gun violence: Trayvon Martin.

During an interview with NewsMax’s Steve Malzberg, Pratt claimed — falsely — that Stand Your Ground laws disproportionately benefit the black community, before sharing his own theory on why Trayvon Martin lost his life.

“Probably what killed [Martin] was the broken family that he was forced to deal with,” Pratt explained. “That’s often an indicator that a young man is going to have trouble, of either race, of any race.”

Divorced parents, a vigilante neighborhood watch coordinator with a 9mm semi-automatic pistol…really, what’s the difference?

3. Alex Jones & Larry Klayman

Larry Klayman has had a tough time gathering support for his planned coup against the federal government — his dress rehearsal during the government shutdown didn’t go very well — but on Tuesday, he finally found an enthusiastic audience: conspiracy king Alex Jones.

Unsurprisingly, Jones is fully onboard with overthrowing the “Obama gang,” whom he describes as “offshore crony capitalist kleptocrats” who are using a “communist model” to take over the country.

“We have to rise up,” Klayman insisted. “We will succeed in the end but we need to show force.”

Video of their exchange, which is full of as many conspiracy theories as one could possibly fit into 90 seconds, is below:

1. Jack Kimball

Jack Kimball, a Tea Party leader and the former chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party, “wins” the week for a conspiracy theory that helps to explain why the Republican Governors Association reportedly thought $100,000 was a fair price to get rid of him.

In an email that was “intercepted” by the conservative NH Journal on Tuesday, Kimball warned that the United Nations may be invading the Granite State:

Hi Folks,

Just a quick heads up. This morning my Daughter and Son-in-Law were on Route 95 headed North to Maine where they observed 40 – 50 unmarked white trucks and humvee type vehicles headed South toward NH. There were also some cammo painted military type unmarked vehicles. All of these trucks were being driven by Military personnel. Some of them were clearly carrying fuel or water. Others were carrying other types of supplies. There were also some white buses interdisbursed in the group. A bit later they encountered an additional ten 18 wheeler’s that were being driven by military personnel but were, once again, unmarked. That’s roughly 60 vehicles. Don’t know what they were doing or where they were going but the white vehicles sound more like UN trucks. Be alert.

Jack

Sounds crazy, right? Thankfully, in a follow-up interview with Patch, Kimball explained that he didn’t mean to imply that the UN planned to put New Hampshire’s “Live Free or Die” motto to the test. “No, of course not,” he said. “Nothing like that.”

So why did he send the alarming email?

“We’re all concerned about what’s going on with Obama,” Kimball explained. “We’ve all been talking about what’s happening. We’ve got Chinese troops arriving in Hawaii… and Kansas. There’s a lot of things going on that are very su ious. There are a lot of people that are very vigilant.”

If nothing else, Kimball at least has clarified why Ron Paul seems to like him so much.

http://www.nationalmemo.com/this-wee...-of-the-right/

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Texas GOP Lawmaker Charged With Felony In Airport Gun Incident

A Texas Republican lawmaker was charged with a felony after he allegedly tried to take a gun through security earlier this month at an airport in Austin, according to multiple reports.

Authorities said Texas state Rep. Drew Darby (R) tried to take a .38 caliber Ruger pistol with six rounds of ammunition through security at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, according to the Austin American-Statesman newspaper.

When the gun was spotted by security, Darby reportedly told an an officer it was his, that he had a concealed pistol license and had forgotten it was in his bag.

The paper reported he was booked at the Travis County Jail on Nov. 14. He was released a few hours later on a $5,000 bond.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewir...rport-security

if he were black or Muslim, he'd be sitting jail and heading to trial ...

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right wing BIMBO/AIRHEAD ERUPTION!

YMCA swim class for Muslim girls proves Sharia law is ‘changing everything’



http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/0...ng-everything/

Now the red states will be inflamed to ban Sharia law in their pools.

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50 DUMBEST THINGS RIGHT-WINGERS SAID IN 2013

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/lists/50-dumbest-things-right-wingers-said-in-2013-20131204

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Repug + Catholic = very nasty politician or judge.

Rick Santorum compares himself to Nelson Mandela fighting against the ‘apartheid’ of Obamacare

On last night’s O’Reilly Factor, Rick Santorum compared Obamacare to apartheid, then called Obamacare “cool” because it will help Republicans win in 2014.

“Nelson Mandela just died,” O’Reilly said. “I don’t know if you’re aware. Ninety-five years old. Nelson Mandela — I spent some time in South Africa, he was a communist, this man. He was a communist. But he was a great man anyway. The sacrifices he made for his people were just stunning. But he was a communist. A great man, but a communist.”

“I would never attack Nelson Mandela,” O’Reilly continued. “I told Bishop Tutu, who’s like that too, but I told him ‘I respect you.’ Why can’t you guys in the Republican Party bring that to the forum?”

“Well, Nelson Mandela stood up against a great injustice,” Santorum replied. “And he was willing to pay a huge price for that. And it’s for that reason he — he — he is mourned today, because of that struggle he performed. But what he was advocated for was not necessarily the right answer, but he was fighting against some great injustice.”

“I would make the argument,” Santorum continued, “that we have a great injustice going on too, in this country, with an ever-increasing size of government that is taking over and controlling people’s lives, and Obamacare is front-and-center in that.”

“And I agree with [O'Reilly's] talking points earlier, that the center focus of the 2014 election must be Obamacare and all of its aspects,” he concluded.

“And the cool thing about Obamacare is that it’s not only bad for the economy, not only bad for people’s health, it’s also bad for freedom of conscience — it’s also bad for a whole variety of issues that will energize all across America.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/06/rick-santorum-compares-himself-to-nelson-mandela-fighting-against-the-apartheid-of-obamacare/

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a particularly great week for right-wing/Christian madness

10 Ways Right Wingers Went Cuckoo This Week -- 'Duck Dynasty' Meltdown Edition

1. Conservative Hootenanny Over Firing of Duck Dynasty Star

In every cloud there is a silver lining. Phil Robertson may have lost his reality show over his vile comments about gays and blacks unrepentantly spewed to GQ magazine, but look at all the marvelous new friends he made, many who seem ready to anoint him to sainthood. If Mother Teresa had only known that all she had to do was imply that sexuality leads to bestiality and promiscuity (in that order) and black people thoroughly enjoyed their subjugation in the Jim Crow south, she would not have had to spend so much time taking care of all those poor, sick people.

Okay, okay, we’re exaggerating. No one actually compared the duck patriarch to Mother Teresa. That’s crazy talk. Who would do that?

Newt Gingrich just compared him to Pope Francis.

Conservative radio host Mike Slater said he is like Martin Luther King, Jr.

Monica Crowley, Megyn Kelly, Bobby Jindal and Sarah Palin all called him some combination of a First Amendment martyr and an example of a good Christian.

Illinios GOP Congressional candidate Ian Bayne called him “the Rosa Parks of our generation,” and the

American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer called him an American hero then warned, darkly that Robertson's suspension is “the Mark of the Beast.”

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

2. Chris Christie’s true colors truly revealed. Astonishing pettiness. Total willingness to abuse power.

Can there be any lingering doubt that Republican darling, Chris Christie, must not be allowed anywhere near presidency? If you have ever sat in traffic trying to cross the George Washington Bridge, (or anywhere, for that matter) assuming all the while, that it cannot be helped. That’s the way it is. There are a lot of cars—too many. Accidents happen. Work must be done. Security must be maintained. These are assumptions that can no longer be made in Chris Christie’s New Jersey.

Chris Christie revealed himself as a man perfectly willing to settle a petty political score (the Mayor of Fort Lee, the New Jersey town just over the bridge from New York, did not endorse Christie for re-election, and Christie’s henchman closed lanes to the bridge on the flimsy pretext of a traffic study to punish him) and to with the tens of thousands of people, just trying to get somewhere.

Do not let this out-of-control, bullying man anywhere near the reigns of the IRS, the NSA, the list goes on. Do not.

3. Rick Santorum delivers unhinged, illogical rant about nationalized healthcare.

We may need to run this excerpt from a Rick Santorum speech in its somewhat cleaned up entirety, because we’re still trying to make sense of it. But it seems very ominous. It is about that death-deliverer, government-subsidized healthcare. Even the Iron Lady herself, Margaret Thatcher, was too frightened to take it on. And she was so tough. That’s how scary it is! Then there is this leap of logic that has us scratching our now totally terrified heads. Because if you get sick, and you don’t have healthcare, you die. (Question: So, why isn’t that an argument for providing healthcare to more people?) And, as if dying weren’t bad enough, you also don’t get to vote if you die. So the whole system is rigged, because only living people can vote. And only living people can get healthcare. See?

Here’s Uncle Ricky to explain:

If we have a system where the government is going to be the principal provider of health care for the country, we’re done. Because then, you are dependent on the government for your life and your health…When Thatcher ran for prime minister she said — remember this, this is the Iron Lady — she said, ‘The British national health care system is safe in my hands.’ She wasn’t going to take on health care, because she knew once you have people getting free health care from the government, you can’t take it away from them. And the reason is because most people don’t get sick, and so free health care is just that, free health care, until you get sick. Then, if you get sick and you don’t get health care, you die and you don’t vote. It’s actually a pretty clever system. Take care of the people who can vote and people who can’t vote, get rid of them as quickly as possible by not giving them care so they can’t vote against you. That’s how it works.

We’re sure this thought-chain makes perfect sense in Rick Santorum’s head. But only in Rick Santorum’s head, where it must be very lonely indeed.

Want to see tape and the slightly perplexed crowd at the Young Americans for Freedom event at Reagan Ranch? Click here. [3]

4. Rep. Jack Kingston: Poor kids should be forced to clean floors for their lunch.

And they say Republicans don’t care about poor children. Georgia Rep. Jack Kingston, who is running to replace Senator Saxby Chambliss does. He’s really worried that children living below the poverty line are getting the wrong ideas about how the world works, and about how work works. He’s worried they’re learning that there might be such a thing as a free lunch. His suggestion: Make them pay. Oh, they don’t have money? Oh, you say that’s what poverty is actually all about? Here’s another idea he suggested:
Kingston: “… maybe sweep the color of the cafeteria—yes . . . that would be an administrative problem . . .”

Us: Right, but that’s absolutely the only problem with it, the administrative thing.

Kingston: “And it would probably lose you (the government) money.”

Us: Yeupp, that’s the only other problem with it. It does not, for instance, stigmatize kids whose parents are poor or going through hard times, or expose them to cruel teasing or bullying, or segregate them from their more well-off peers.

Perhaps, Mr. Kingston has spent some time with Mr. Newt Gingrinch (sic) who also thought there was some untapped potential in developing a janitorial labor force of poor children, and said so, to great reception on the presidential campaign trail.

And here’s the thing, Kingston is considered the reasonable one running to replace Chambliss. Yikes.

5. GOP lawmaker: Income inequality is real and it could be a good thing.

It has often been said that the first step towards solving a problem is acknowledging that it exists. That progression went astray, however this week when Minnesota lawmaker David Hann, the State Minority Leader, acknowledged that income inequality was indeed quite real—but, not a problem. No, not just not harmful, good. Because, if rich people don’t get to stay rich, they won’t pay taxes and that will be bad for the government.

News bulletin for Mr. Hann: Rich people already don’t pay their share of taxes.

There’s ample evidence of this, for example, from Huffington Post:

University of Minnesota Associate Professor Jay Coggins actually did have a chart showing who paid state and local taxes. It showed that, in reality, the top 1 percent of earners paid the lowest tax rate.

And, if anyone still needs yet more evidence that drastic income inequality does not serve the common good, the Associated Press provided it when it surveyed more than three dozen economists about income inequality; a majority [4] of them said the gap is hurting the economy.

Basically because, many many people cannot afford to spend much money at all. Duh.

There is, as it turns out, no such thing as a no-brainer.

6. Meet the new tea-partying, public-school hating, Jesse Helms worshipping, secession-backing, wacko-bird candidate for North Carolina Senate.

Greg Bannon is a doctor, an ostensibly educated man. Sometimes education has been shown to help counter the problem of ignorance.

Not in this case. Where shall we start? Greg Bannon opposes public education, period. He supports nullification, which is when a state can choose to ignore federal laws. He moved to North Carolina because he worships the late segregationist/secessionist/obstructionist Senator Jesse Helms and wants to be more like him. Somewhat terrifyingly, Greg Bannon is an obstetrician/gynecologist who refuses to give his patients information about contraception or abortion. Shouldn’t one lose their stirrups for that?

Bannon may be ready to hang up his speculum (phew!) because he’s running for Democratic Senator Kay Hagan's seat next year. (uh-oh! Doesn’t North Carolina have those awful voter suppression laws?)

Rand Paul , Erick Erickson and Ann Coulter all like him. And, should he (gasp!) win, he’ll fit right in with the cuckoo-bird caucus in the Senate including Paul, Ted Cruz and Mike Lee.

7. Tea party leader: Blacks should stop ing and moaning about slavery.

A New Mexico tea partier by the name of Glynis Racine has made the determination that it is time for black people to get over the whole slavery thing. Enough already. The Lincoln Country Tea Party patriot made this helpful suggestion somewhat obliquely while celebrating—in her own extremely festive way—the 148th anniversary of the end of slavery.

“White Irish slaves were treated worse than any other race in the US,” she tweeted. “When is the last time you heard an Irishman ing & moaning about how the word owes them a living.”

Honestly, we can’t actually recall an occurrence where we heard either an Irish person or a black person “ ing & moaning” about that.

Quite a lot of flack ensued twitterspherically, some perfectly valid points about the obvious racism of her statement, and failure to grasp the totality of black suffering during and, of course, well after slavery. Some tweeters insulted Irish people, instead. The courageous tea partier removed her tweet, we’re sure having learned a very valuable lesson.
h/t: RawStory [5]

8. N.C. GOP-er: Obamacare is like Hitler .. . . again? Yawn.

Another dispatch from the great state of North Carolina, where, unfortunately, right wing loonies are ascendant. By now, we’ve heard that Obamacare is a catastrophic law of epic proportions, tantamount to the Nuremberg laws, Indian Removal Act, Fugitive Slave Act, ummm, what else, pogroms, genocides, hurricanes, typhoons, nuclear bombs, tsunamis—and it may have turned Santa black.

Well, my friends, it’s not that bad. It’s much, much worse. According to North Carolina state Sen. Bob Rucho [6], Barack Obama is worse than Hitler, Stalin and Osama bin Laden and quite likely Voldemort.

This week, Rucho tweeted:

Justice Robert's pen & Obamacare has done more damage to the USA then the swords of the Nazis, Soviets & terrorists combined.

People complained. They thought the tweet unreasonable. Perhaps, a tad hyperbolic. But Rucho stood firm, tweeting back:

Those that tweeted, put your thinking caps back on:"The PEN is mightier than the SWORD."Edward Bulwar-Lytton,1839. But surely you knew that.

Later, when Rucho also spoke with Mark Binker of WRAL.com [7] he softened his stance a bit, saying that he was just trying to highlight the economic consequences of Obamacare vs. the murderous tyranny of Nazis, Stalinism and radical Islam. He said: “I was concerned about the fact that there are 6 million people who have lost their healthcare due to Obama.” This is a completely fabricated number when it comes to Obamacare. Hmmm, though, rings a bell. Where might he have gotten the figure 6 million from?

It turns out that Rucho is a frustrated op-ed writer. He’d like to explain his points more fully, but no one will print his op-eds. Wonder why.

9. Creationist: Evolution is a silly story for silly people.

Once upon a time this week a man named Dr. John Morris—what kind of a doctor, we do not know—of the Ins ute for Creation Research (words that hardly go together) said some laughable ridiculous things on the radio. Here’s a sample: “No truly helpful discovery has come from evolution” since evolution proponents, unlike Creationists, “rely on silly evolutionary stories to make us believe it.”

These silly people he pointed out should really not be “gullible enough to think that a frog changed into a prince.”

There it is, evolution in a nuts . He's certainly read his Darwin.

Silly, silly scientists. What they will come up with next? That gravity holds us on the earth?

See more here. [8]

10. Crazy Libertarian radio host: You get MLK, Jr. We get Santa.

Paleolithic radio ranter Neal Bortz made such a reasonable point this week about that whole Megyn Kelly, White Santa debate. Why didn’t we think of it? Mr. Bortz pointed out that Martin Luther King, Jr. is always portrayed as black, you know, like in photographs and do entary footage. What a scam!

And that, my friend, proves Santa is white. “Deal with it,” Mr. Bortz helpfully said.

http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/10-ways-right-wingers-went-cuckoo-week-duck-dynasty-meltdown-edition?akid=11306.187590.ys5nXi&rd=1&src=newslett er939697&t=2

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TX's very own Steve Stockman!

Exclusive: Inside Steve Stockman's Disgusting, Condemned Campaign Office (PHOTOS)

Those looking for dirt on Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) need look no further. TPM has obtained photographs taken by the local officials who recently shut down Stockman's campaign office in Webster, Texas. And the images are dirty. And dusty. And grimy.

The story, to recap, was reported last month by The Houston Chronicle. According to the Chronicle, officials in Webster, Texas in November ordered the emergency closure of Stockman's campaign headquarters, citing multiple safety violations. The newspaper reported that various campaign staffers and volunteers were working and sleeping in the office, located in a former a former motorcycle shop considered unsafe for habitation.

Stockman, who since the office closure has announced a Republican primary challenge to Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), spoke about the arrangement in an August 2012 profile in Human Events.

"Well, you'll hear a lot of 'Stockman was lucky' and similar stuff -- just don't believe it," Stockman told the conservative outlet. "I could not have done it without all the hard-working, grass-roots volunteers. Believe me, we had them -- young conservatives who came into an old motorcycle shop, worked the precincts and made phone calls, slept on the floor, and ate MREs [Army rations] for their three meals. There's nothing like volunteers who believe in a candidate and a cause."

In response to a public records request from TPM, the city of Webster released photographs taken during an inspection of the property on Nov. 4. The images show a makeshift kitchen, a crumbling bathroom, a closet doubling as storage space for campaign signs, and beat up furniture. The refrigerator in the kitchen is decorated with bumper stickers, one of which appears to be Stockman's infamous "If babies had guns they wouldn't be aborted" sticker:

























http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckrak...ampaign-office

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Republicans agreeing evolution is ‘lies from the pit of ’ up 10 points


A recent poll about how the United States views evolution may leave some believing that Republicans are definitely not evolving.

According to a Pew Research Center’s Religion and Public Life Project telephone survey released on Monday, the number of Republicans who believe in evolution has dropped by 11 points in just four years.

The survey found that 54 percent of Republicans thought that humans evolved over time in 2009. But by 2013, that number had dropped to just 43 percent.

During the same time period, Democrats who believed in evolution increased from 64 percent to 67 percent.

Overall, 33 percent of American rejected the idea that humans evolved over time. Pew noted that the number of Americans embracing evolution had remained steady over time, but that there was an increasing divide between Democrats and Republicans.

“The gap is coming from the Republicans, where fewer are now saying that humans have evolved over time,” Pew senior researcher Cary Funk pointed out.

White evangelical Protestants were the top religious group denying evolution, with 64 percent agreeing that “humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time,” Pew said. That's some holy , right there!

Last year, Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) — who sits on the House of Representatives science committee — called evolution and other scientific theories “lies from the pit of .”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/3...e+Raw+Story%29

The Party, and Religion, of Stupid.

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8 Jaw-dropping Inanities Far Right Wingers Said This Holiday Week

1. Joseph Epstein in Wall Street Journal: The problem with America is the collapse of white rule.

2. Paul Ryan lectures his hero, the Pope, on capitalism.

3. Geraldo Rivera: Alec Baldwin’s comments not phobic because everyone used to be phobic.

4. Alabama lawmaker calls "Duck Dynasty" star a hero.
Here, in all its glory, is that proposed legislation:

Whereas, renown[ed] entrepreneur, Louisiana outdoorsman, and reality television star Phil Robertson has positively impacted countless lives through the powerful testimony of his steadfast faith in Jesus Christ and how it has transformed his life; and

Whereas Phil Robertson, along with his family ... have served as ambassadors of the love and grace of the Heavenly Father ...

Whereas recently, Phil has received backlash for expressing his personal views on sexuality that were based on scripture in the Bible in an interview with GQ Magazine; ultimately, the Arts and Entertainment Network (A&E) punished him for his beliefs and suspended him indefinitely from the reality television show, Duck Dynasty ...
Whereas a portion of the politically correct populous [sic], which strongly encourages tolerance and open-mindedness, is now contradicting themselves with extreme intolerance and close-mindedness towards Phil and his personal beliefs, which stem from his rock-solid Christian faith ... Phil should not be penalized in any way for practicing freedom of speech, but should be celebrated as a hero for courageously revealing his self-truth and Christian ideals in a world that can be unkind towards those with a conservative mind-set ...

now therefore, Be it resolved by the Legislature of Alabama, both houses thereof concurring, that this chamber of persons stand united in support of Phil Robertson and his family, and in opposition to the A&E Network's deplorable action of suspending Phil indefinitely from Duck Dynasty for relaying his Christian beliefs.”

5. Brilliant and incisive, Bristol Palin ranks haters. LGBT community is the worst!

6. Sarah Palin defends "Duck Dynasty" star without actually reading what he said.

7. John Hagee spreads Christmas cheer by suggesting that people who don’t like hearing "Merry Christmas" get on a plane and leave the country.

8. Mat Staver: If gay marriage is legal then everyone will do it and society will cease to exist
http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-an...d-holiday-week

[boutons_deux]

Jim Garrow Reveals Obama's Secret Plan To Use Aliens And Canadians To Plot Against America -

Jim Garrow today appeared on Erik Rush’s radio show to promote the Operation American Spring rally, where he predicted that President Obama will try to distract Americans from his supposed scandals…by claiming that he is now in touch with alien life.

This must be Obama’s Plan B, as Garrow previously claimed that Obama almost launched a devastating nuclear attack on the US with the goal of killing 90% of Americans in order to help George Soros make money.

“What we’re going to see soon is an unveiling of the concept that we have in fact been contacted by and have been in communication with people from other civilizations beyond earth and that will be part of the great deception that is forthcoming soon from Mr. Obama,” Garrow told Rush.

Another guest, Nancy Smith of the Tea Party news show “Politichicks,” said she is not shocked by Obama’s latest scheme: “Personally I’ve already heard some other sources saying the very same thing that you’re saying.”

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/conten...gainst-america

[boutons_deux]

Fox News' 5 Worst Moments of 2013


5. Bill O’Reilly says Asians aren’t liberals because they’re “industrious and hard-working.”

4. Megyn Kelly insists Santa Claus is white.

3. Ben Carson compares LBGTQ people to NAMBLA, bestiality supporters.

2. Geraldo Rivera says jurors would have shot Trayvon Martin sooner than Zimmerman did.

1. Lauren Green interviews Reza Aslan, can’t figure out why a Muslim would write a book about Jesus.

http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-an...t-moments-2013

[boutons_deux]

Conservative group calls to lynch Obama and make it a ‘national holiday’



http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/0...e+Raw+Story%29

[boutons_deux]

Maine senate candidate’s domestic violence conviction proves he has ‘guts

A conservative Portland, Maine Senate candidate claims that experience he acquired while spending a decade fighting domestic abuse charges informs his “pro-family” agenda.

He fought the Class D assault conviction all the way to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, which ruled that “sufficient evidence does exist in the record to support his conviction.”

“The fact that I have been jailed repeatedly for not agreeing to admit to something I didn’t do should speak to the fact of how much guts and integrity I have,”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/0...e+Raw+Story%29

[boutons_deux]

Reverend Franklin Graham has blasted some Christians for not defending Phil more aggressively.

”If we Christians banded together and took a stand, perhaps we wouldn’t be losing so much ground in what the media is calling the ‘cultural war,’” he wrote. “However, it is not a cultural war—it is a religious war against Christians and the biblical truths we stand for. Some churches have fallen into the trap of being politically correct, under the disguise of tolerance.”

But don’t worry, Franklin.

There’s no tolerance going on at the Man Up God’s Way Facebook page, where this image has been “liked” over 150,000 times.




http://www.nationalmemo.com/conserva...ing-a-bit-far/

Who wouldn't like to screw 15 year old girls FOR CHRIST!

[boutons_deux]

Up Next On Fox: A Guy Who Thinks President Obama Should Be Assassinated…

The publication of a story in The New York Times debunking many of the right wing’s claims about the attack that left four Americans dead in Benghazi has inspired Fox News to go into overdrive to keep the story alive.

And on Fox Business, host Lou Dobbs was so eager to attack the Times for allegedly defending Hillary Clinton that he brought on Michael Scheuer, a former CIA operative who had only days before seemed to be calling for the deaths of both President Obama and British prime minister David Cameron.

Daily Beast columnist David Frum pointed to Scheuer’s Decemeber 23 blog post in which he urged supporters of Obama and Cameron to read the words of a 17th century British republican who wrote, “…every man might kill a tyrant; and no names are recorded in history with more honor, than of those who did it.”

http://www.nationalmemo.com/up-next-...-assassinated/

[boutons_deux]

From an email from Alan Grayson:

"A few weeks ago, the Republicans unveiled their 2014 agenda, and it was . . . nothing.

I kid you not. Here is how it was reported in Politico:

"Last Thursday, a group of House Republicans filed into Majority Leader Eric Cantor's Capitol office suite and received a blank piece of paper labeled 'Agenda 2014.' . . . A Republican aide . . . said . . . 'The problem is we don't know where we are headed . . . .'"

Many people saw the absence of an agenda as a problem. I think that it understates the problem. My concern is that the Republicans don't know where to go, not that they don't know how to get there.

To give you an idea of where they seem to think we should go, here are some actual bills that were actually introduced by actual Republicans last year:

• a bill to allow the states to nullify any federal law (didn't we settle that in 1865?);
• a bill to require every high school student to read Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged (mandatory libertarian indoctrination -- oh, the irony . . . .);
• a bill to prohibit lap dancing and jello wrestling (which contained fascinating definitions of the terms "nudity" and "sexual device");
• a bill establishing a state religion (not Islam, that's for sure); and
• a bill authorizing restaurants, hotels, hair salons and other businesses to deny service to gay customers.

If you're trying to do stuff like that, then doing nothing is a massive improvement."

oxymoron: Repug governance when Repugs hate/destroy government (for the 99%).

[boutons_deux]

Kentucky Republican offers to ‘fill this committee room’ with people killed by pot

Legalization of medical marijuana will inevitably lead to the legalization of recreational marijuana use, said Benvenuti.

“I do not believe in the recreational use of marijuana,” he said, “and I could likewise fill this committee room with first responders, law enforcement officers and parents of dead children based on the effects of marijuana.”

As a protest rose from the assembled crowd that marijuana is not a lethal substance, Benvenuti continued, “In driving intoxicated, in child abuse, we’ve already heard today from folks who talk about intoxicants and its role in child fatality and child abuse.”

“So we need no more recreational drugs in Kentucky,” he said.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/1...e+Raw+Story%29

KY's got meth and hillbilly heroin, don't need no mary jane.

[boutons_deux]

Fox contributor ‘confirms’ Islamists in White House: ‘I haven’t got their names exactly’



A Fox News contributor who questions the president’s birth certificate and believes Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction were removed just prior to the U.S. invasion claims there are Islamic extremists working in the Obama administration.

World Net Daily trumped up comments that retired Air Force Gen. Tom McInerney made Thursday during an appearance on WMAL-AM to discuss a new book written by former Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

“McInerney, who served as both assistant vice chief of staff and commander in chief of U.S. Air Forces Europe, has surprised interviewers on a radio program by confirming the presence of the Muslim Brotherhood inside the U.S. government,” the WND report claims.


The online report cites a book written by Aaron Klein, a WND senior reporter, and Brenda J. Elliott, an anti-Obama blogger, to provide background for the retired general’s claims.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/1...e+Raw+Story%29