A Feel Good Story For The catholics???

by John Amato:
Crooks and Liars
 
Bill Donohue seemed very proud of the fact that most child molesting priests weren't actually pedophiles in his words, but only guilty of abusing children who had achieved puberty. Doesn't that make you feel better about the Catholic Church scandals? Facts are facts. And he was very concerned that the Pope had been libeled because he said there was no proof in the case in Wisconsin that the Pope knew anything. Here's a good story about the case.
 
You be the judge. Either Cardinal Bertrone is covering up for the Pope or Ratzinger just couldn't be bothered knowing the what was going on around him. That seems to be the story the Vatican is sticking with. Everywhere the Pope served he really didn't like to be bothered by the small stuff.

As archbishop, Benedict expended more energy pursuing theological dissidents than sexual predators. Already in the early 1980s, one could catch a glimpse of a future pope preoccupied with combating any movement away from church tradition. Vatican experts say there is little evidence that Benedict spent much time investigating more than 200 cases of “problem priests” in the diocese, with issues including alcohol abuse, adultery and, now under the microscope, pedophilia.

Earlier in the show Donohue proclaimed that everybody could learn something good from the Catholic Church now that they are all cleaned up. Hey, they look like all those handsome priests from the Legion of Christ now. Nice and young with their hair parted just right. Larry King's panel was dumbfounded by Donohue's statements as any normal person would be.

Roberts: Bill is good but you cannot link homosexuality to a pedophilia crisis in the Catholic Church.
Bill Donohue: It’s not a pedophilia… most of the victims were post pubescent…
Roberts: You know…
Donohue: You’ve got to get your facts straight. I’m sorry. If I’m the only one that’s going to deal with facts tonight so be it. The vast majority of the victims are post pubescent. That’s not pedophilia buddy. That’s homosexuality.
Roberts: Bill, I don’t think as a person of faith that you really know what you’re talking about when it comes to a victim and a survivor. (crosstalk)
Donohue: It’s not of my opinion. Take a look at the social science data. I never said that most homosexuals are that way.
Roberts: No you just said that cut down homosexuals… (crosstalk).
Donohue: Yes! Practicing homosexuals.
--
O’Conner: Sorry Larry, at what age does somebody become, you know, post pubescent in America as a matter of ages?
King: What is the age?
Thomas: Ah… I don’t know. Let’s ask Bill. He seems to be the authority on post pubescency.
Donohue: 12, 13 years of age. Look, all I’m saying (crosstalk).
King: We’re out of time. We’ve just touched the surface. Now we’ve got Anderson Cooper coming on.

Heather: Good grief. Larry King really has been a worse wasteland than usual these last couple of nights. Tonight's show ended with Larry King allowing Bill Donohue to get away with saying this to a man who was molested by a priest as a teenager.

King: You want to get in? Sinead, go ahead quickly.
O’Conner: Can I just ask very quickly if that gentleman, sir I don’t know your name… just, I’m not quite sure what post pubescent means. You mind explaining that to me?
Donohue: Explain what?
O’Conner: What does post pubescent mean?
Thomas: Post pubescent…
O’Conner: What does post pubescent…
Donohue: Post pubescent means beyond puberty, okay? In other words you’re an adolescent and that’s what homosexuals do and most of them the molesters have been homosexuals in the Catholic Church (crosstalk).
Thomas: So the boys deserved it because they were post pubescent?
Donohue: Now if you want to take that conclusion, I think that’s scurrilous. I never said that. Why would you say that about homosexuals?
O’Conner: Sorry Larry, at what age does somebody become, you know, post pubescent in America as a matter of ages?
King: What is the age?
Thomas: Ah… I don’t know. Let’s ask Bill. He seems to be the authority on post pubescency.
Donohue: 12, 13 years of age. Look, all I’m saying (crosstalk).
King: We’re out of time. We’ve just touched the surface. Now we’ve got Anderson Cooper coming on.

Unbelievable. Bill Donohue is so desperate to bash gays and defend the Catholic Church that's he's willing to pretend that people who are attracted to 13 year old boys aren't really child predators. They're just gay.
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teahadist Redneck Douche-Nozzle Defends Michigan Militia

What an ass clown.

Check out the overalls and the condition of his trailer.

Then you have that dumb inbred cunt Sarah Palin telling teabaggers to pull over anyone with an Obama bumper sticker.

These people are out of their fucking minds.
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The REAL Threat To America

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THIS IS WHAT ARMED INSURGENTS LOOK LIKE
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The Lunatic Is On The March

The FBI arrested at least seven people throughout the Midwest this weekend, including one in Chicago's western suburbs, in what several reports are calling an apparent crackdown on a militia-like group of religious fanatics.

The suburban Chicago arrest happened in Clarendon Hills, where a person wanted by the FBI in Detroit was taken into custody Sunday morning.

The FBI raided a home in the 1900 block of Calumet Avenue in Whiting, Ind. Saturday evening looking for the same person, but it was not until early Sunday that the arrest was made, according to the FBI.
FBI agents shut down the street for several hours while executing their warrant, according to an employee of nearby Gusto's Pizza, who requested anonymity.

"They wouldn't even let us leave, wouldn't let us get no orders in or out," he said.
An FBI agent said the home's resident -- a caucasian man who lived there with his brother -- was suspected of making bombs, according to the employee. He said he saw FBI agents took several boxes out of the home, and take away at least two dogs.

The dogs "had been trained to do bodily harm," said the employee.
FBI officials would say only that the arrest warrant is sealed, and more information is not currently available.
However, the AP is reporting that raids were also made in two Michigan counties near the Ohio border this weekend, and two people were also arrested in northwest Ohio.

WXYZ-TV reported that one of the raids centered on a Michigan property where suspected members of a militia live. The station also reported that other militia groups are saying the raids are all connected -- but the FBI has not confirmed that.

The Detroit News is reporting that the FBI raids are targeting a Christian militia group called the Hutaree. Members of the group describe themselves as "Christian soldiers who are preparing for the arrival and battle with the anti-Christ," the paper reported.

There seems to be some confusion about who the FBI is seeking out. Mike Lackomar, who's involved with a group named Michigan Militia, told the paper neither his organization nor The Southeast Michigan Volunteer Militia were involved in any way.

Lackomar called the Hutaree "a religious cult," which is not involved with the Michigan militia community, the Detroit News reported.

According Lackomar, members of the Hutaree group allegedly made violent threats toward Islamic groups, which may have prompted the raids.

Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local-beat/Reports-FBI-Arrest-in-Suburbs-Connected-to-Michigan-Cult-Hutaree-militia-89361672.html#ixzz0jX5la0jG

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Oh The Hypocrisy!

The Washington Post today has a profile of Mike Vanderboegh, the 57-year-old former militiaman from Alabama who last week posted a call for people to throw bricks through the windows at Democratic offices around the country to protest their votes for Health Care Reform…

A radical libertarian, champion of getting big government off the people’s backs, his day job? Vanderboegh lives on government disability checks down outside of Birmingham, Alabama.

A few weeks ago, NPR did a fawning profile of Keli Carender, aka “Liberty Belle,” one of the founders of the tea party movement. Steve M. over at No More Mister Nice Blog digged into “Liberty Belle’s” background, and came up with some interesting tidbits:

Carender is an actress and improv comic — here she is in the cast of her sixth show for Seattle’s Wing-It Productions. And, gosh, what’s this? Why, it’s a list of arts grants issued by Washington State in 2009 — including $3,750 to Wing-It Productions! In order to fund that, Washington State had to take from some people in order to give to the other people!
But Carender’s never asked about that — or about the National Science Foundation-funded research project she worked on in 2000.

So, two anecdotes, which doesn’t amount to data. For that, try Bloomberg’s new poll (HT: TPM):

More than 90 percent of Tea Party backers interviewed in a new Bloomberg National Poll say the U.S. is verging more toward socialism than capitalism, the federal government is trying to control too many aspects of private life and more decisions should be made at the state level.
At the same time, 70 percent of those who sympathize with the Tea Party, which organized protests this week against President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul, want a federal government that fosters job creation.

They also look to the government to rein in Wall Street, with almost half saying the government should do something about executive bonuses. Supporters are also conflicted over whether private-enterprise elements should be introduced into government programs like Social Security and Medicare.

As an aside, watch for that euphemism for privatization, “private-enterprise entitlements” — it’s a new one to me.

Anyway, this all goes to illustrate a point I’ve made many times before: A central rule of the American political economy is that people are attracted to the idea of “limited government” in the abstract — and certainly don’t want the government intruding in their homes — but they really, really like living in a society with good, fully-funded services. They like what government does in the specific, even if they have an inherent suspicion of the idea of “big government” (the phrase itself was coined to counter liberal attacks on “big business”). That’s the reason the Right can’t argue honestly for its preferred policies. They can win votes by shouting about “government tyranny,” but when they try to mess with a program like Social Security, or cut the budgets that put cops on the beat, firemen into shiny red trucks or offer health-care to children or the elderly, they get clobbered.

They understand this very well, which helps explain their completely unhinged freak-out over a decidedly centrist approach to HCR.

Waiting To Inhale

The Open University of the Left will be screening the 74 minute documentary Waiting to Inhale on Saturday, March 27, 2010 at 2:30 PM.  This will happen at the Lincoln Park Library Auditorium Room located at Fullerton & Racine  Chicago IL 60601

Waiting to Inhale examines the heated debate over marijuana and its use as medicine in the United States. Twelve states have passed legislation to protect patients who use medical marijuana. Yet opponents claim the medical argument is just a smokescreen for a different agenda-- to legalize marijuana for recreation and profit. What claims are being made, and what are the stakes?

Waiting to Inhale takes viewers inside the lives of patients who have been forever changed by illness—and parents who lost their children to addiction. Is marijuana really a gateway drug? What evidence is there to support the claim that marijuana can alleviate some of the devastating symptoms of AIDS, cancer and multiple sclerosis? Waiting to Inhale sheds new light on this controversy and presents shocking new evidence that marijuana could hold a big stake in the future of medicine.

How Low Class Can bush Get?

It's a classy move on the part of the former president. While greeting Haiti citizens as part of the Clinton Bush Initiative for Haiti relief, watch carefully as GWB shakes hands with a Haitian and then wipes his hand off on Bill Clinton's shoulder.

I guess that's better than turning around for a squirt of hand sanitizer by a waiting assistant.

Maybe.

Sort of.

Not Feeling Well? You Can Be Marijuana Deficient

Scientists have begun speculating that the root cause of disease conditions such as migraines and irritable bowel syndrome may be endocannabinoid deficiency. 

 

 

For several years I have postulated that marijuana is not, in the strict sense of the word, an intoxicant.

As I wrote in the book Marijuana Is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink? (Chelsea Green, 2009), the word ‘intoxicant’ is derived from the Latin noun toxicum (poison). It’s an appropriate term for alcohol, as ethanol (the psychoactive ingredient in booze) in moderate to high doses is toxic (read: poisonous) to healthy cells and organs.

Of course, booze is hardly the only commonly ingested intoxicant. Take the over-the-counter painkiller acetaminophen (Tylenol). According to the Merck online medical library, acetaminophen poisoning and overdose is “common,” and can result in gastroenteritis (inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract) “within hours” and hepatotoxicity (liver damage) “within one to three days after ingestion.” In fact, less than one year ago the U.S. Food and Drug Administration called for tougher standards and warnings governing the drug’s use because “recent studies indicate that unintentional and intentional overdoses leading to severe hepatotoxicity continue to occur.”

By contrast, the therapeutically active components in marijuana — the cannabinoids — appear to be remarkably non-toxic to healthy cells and organs. This notable lack of toxicity is arguably because cannabinoids mimic compounds our bodies naturally produce — so-called endocannabinoids — that are pivotal for maintaining proper health and homeostasis.

In fact, in recent years scientists have discovered that the production of endocannabinoids (and their interaction with the cannabinoid receptors located throughout the body) play a key role in the regulation of proper appetite, anxiety control, blood pressure, bone mass, reproduction, and motor coordination, among other biological functions.

Just how important is this system in maintaining our health?

Here’s a clue: In studies of mice genetically bred to lack a proper endocannabinoid system the most common result is premature death.

Armed with these findings, a handful of scientists have speculated that the root cause of certain disease conditions — including migraine, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, and other functional conditions alleviated by clinical cannabis — may be an underlying endocannabinoid deficiency.
Now, much to my pleasant surprise, Fox News Health columnist Chris Kilham has weighed in on this important theory.

Are You Cannabis Deficient?

If the idea of having a marijuana deficiency sounds laughable to you, a growing body of science points at exactly such a possibility.

… [Endocannabinoids] also play a role in proper appetite, feelings of pleasure and well-being, and memory. Interestingly, cannabis also affects these same functions. Cannabis has been used successfully to treat migraine, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome and glaucoma. So here is the seventy-four thousand dollar question. Does cannabis simply relieve these diseases to varying degrees, or is cannabis actually a medical replacement in cases of deficient [endocannabinoids]?

… The idea of clinical cannabinoid deficiency opens the door to cannabis consumption as an effective medical approach to relief of various types of pain, restoration of appetite in cases in which appetite is compromised, improved visual health in cases of glaucoma, and improved sense of well being among patients suffering from a broad variety of mood disorders. As state and local laws mutate and change in favor of greater tolerance, perhaps cannabis will find it’s proper place in the home medicine chest.

Perhaps. Or maybe at the very least society will cease classifying cannabis as a ‘toxic’ substance when its more appropriate role would appear to more like that of a supplement.

republicunt Bullshit About HCR

The Monday after Congress passed historic health care legislation was a dark day for the right wing. Wouldn’t you be upset if you were doomed to live in a communist dystopia? Is there even a point in living once Nancy Pelosi kills every baby in America and your grandmother?

And by "upset," we mean certifiably insane. Here are the 10 most awesomely overwrought right-wing freakouts spurred by the passage of a bill that promises to extend coverage to tens of millions of the uninsured and curb some of the most inhumane abuses of the insurance industry.

1. Last week, Rush Limbaugh swore he would move to Costa Rica if health reform passed. Instead, he heroically decided to stay behind and fight for freedom, by telling his listeners they're in a death match with Hitler. “America is hanging by a thread. So we have to see what we can do with a thread. At the end of the day, our freedom has been assaulted. This is the kind of change that people did not think they were going to get when they voted for Barack Obama. Freedom must win the day."

Limbaugh goes on to slam Rep. Bart Stupak, whose decision to vote yes on the bill after squeezing an anti-abortion executive order from Obama helped Dems clinch the needed votes. "Stupak is no different than Neville Chamberlain, who came back with that little letter from Hitler: 'Oh, yeah, Hitler says no war between his country and ours.'"

Limbaugh followed up his outrageously offensive (but by this point run-of-the-mill) comparison of Obama to Hitler by mourning our democracy. It no longer exists, Limbaugh concluded, identifying the cause of its demise: our democratically elected Congress and president, of course. "They won because they held Congress and the presidency, and therein lies the lesson: We need to defeat these bastards. We need to wipe them out. We need to chase them out of town."

History is sure to smile on his selfless stand.

2. Glenn Beck, who warns that we're on the cusp of a socialist/fascist takeover on a daily basis, had to reach to do justice to the drama of the occasion. He didn't disappoint, wielding his vast historical knowledge to (unfavorably) compare the vote to the Gettysburg Address, Iwo Jima and the moon landing, Civil Rights and the heroism of the 9/11 first responders, before landing on a more appropriate set of analogies: the attack on Pearl Harbor; the St. Valentines massacre ("when the mob stepped in and cleaned things up!"); Chamberlain's meeting with Hitler; AND THE HINDENBURG!!!! "You see, being historic isn’t always a good thing," he somberly concluded.

3. Shock Jock Neal Boortz took to Twitter to make an even more wildly offensive comparison. “Nancy Pelosi will be grinning and laughing this afternoon. Today will do more damage than 9/11.” Think the people who sometimes pose as responsible lawmakers will denounce Boortz’ (and Beck's) outrageous exploitation of 9/11? No, because they're too busy doing stuff like this.

4. Anti-abortion terrorist Randall Terry is using his pull with the Pope to get Nancy Pelosi excommunicated, because helping pass a bill that will extend health care to more than 30 million uninsured Americans does not obviate her role in unleashing a vast fetus Armageddon. Terry and some other crazy people held a one-minute protest on the outskirts of St. Peter's Square outside the Vatican, bearing signs asking for Pelosi to be denied communion and excommunicated.

5. Operation Rescue’s Troy Newman channeled Glenn Beck and Boortz, comparing the bill to the moon landing, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Gulf War (he thinks it's not like those things), and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, the Clarence Thomas hearings, Pearl Harbor, and, of course 9/11 (he thinks it is like those things).

Then he says that passing a health care bill in a democratically elected Congress is tantamount to Soviet invasion, and calls for revolution: "March 21 did indeed change life as we knew it ... I won't forget the events of this day and while they heralded a change for the worst, I vow to be part of the revolution to unravel this mess."

6. Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association also offered a solution: shooting people.

... The last remedy left -- other than bloodshed -- is the 10th Amendment, which reserves to the states any power not delegated to the federal government. The central government is exercising a power that it does not have, and can only exercise by usurping that power from the states. State governments can legitimately and constitutionally decide not to cooperate with the central government on the legal ground that Congress has transgressed the boundaries marked out in our founding document. The central government is trespassing on the sovereign territory of the states, and the states have every right to throw them off their property.
Trespassers can be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Squatters can be evicted. If they won't leave, they can be tossed. And in the worst case scenario, if they won't surrender peacefully, they can be shot....

It's not as if in our divided, overheated political environment – where large segments of the population are armed and believe the government hates freedom -- calls to violence could go wrong.

7. FoxNation.com somehow resisted the temptation to dress Obama up like Dr. Giggles, and instead opted for this slightly classier hyperbole:


(click for larger version)

 

8. Matt Drudge splashed this headline across his site: “A day that will live in infirmary!" -- going for a combo of offensively uncalled-for historical analogy and really awkward pun.

 

9. As legislators prepared to vote, Sean Hannity wondered if that hour was when America turned on the path "completely towards" socialism. (Actually, you'll know for sure when Van Jones and Cass Sunstein knock on your door in the middle of the night and drag you to a gulag.)

 

10. John McCain, though, sketched out the scariest scenario of all: a lack of GOP cooperation going forward. "There will be no cooperation for the rest of the year," he threatened. "They have poisoned the well in what they've done and how they've done it." Oh shit, what if the GOP starts a campaign of mindless obstructionism, stalling Congress and making it next to impossible to pass legislation?

End republican Hate

The hateful acts that occurred at the tea party rally in Washington this weekend were not isolated incidents -- they are part of a growing pattern of violent rhetoric, racially charged imagery, and paranoid conspiracy theories emerging from the Republican party's grassroots supporters.





Republicans officials have contributed to this atmosphere with fear-mongering and coded racism, and they have actively courted this element of their party. It's time that Republican leadership is forced to address what it's helped to create.

Please join us in confronting Republican leaders and demanding that they take responsibility for tamping down the bigotry and hate among their supporters, and that they disavow the fear-mongering that leads to it. And please ask your friends and family to do the same -- unless we take a strong stand against this kind of hate, it will continue. We need as many people as possible -- of every race -- demanding that it stop.
Our members are calling on Michael Steele, John Boehner, and Mitch McConnell to do two things:

1. Unequivocally condemn bigotry and hate among your supporters, and make clear that those who embrace it have no place in your party and that you reject their support.
2. Make clear that you will not tolerate fear-mongering and coded appeals to racism from officials in the Republican party, at any level.

Here's the message we sent to our members today:

Dear ColorOfChange.org member,

It's time to hold the Republican Party accountable.

You've probably heard about Tea Party members shouting "Nigger!" at Black Congressmen during a protest in Washington, D.C. last weekend. One of the protesters spat on Congressman Emmanuel Cleaver, while another called openly gay Representative Barney Frank a "faggot" as the laughing crowd imitated his lisp.1
But Saturday was just the most recent example of the intolerance and hate coming from right-wing extremists this past year. At times it's been instigated by Republican leaders. When not, it's usually condoned and seen as part of a strategy to score politically. Either way, it's completely unacceptable and has to stop.
It's time to confront Republican leadership and force them to take responsibility for the atmosphere they've helped create. Join us in drawing a line in the sand, and ask your friends and family to do the same:
http://colorofchange.org/hate/

We're calling on RNC Chair Michael Steele, House Minority Leader John Boehner, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to publicly do two simple things:

1. Unequivocally condemn bigotry and hate among their supporters, and make clear that those who embrace it have no place in their party.
2. Make clear that they will not tolerate fear-mongering and coded appeals to racism from officials in the Republican party, at any level.

Republican leaders publicly denounced Saturday's ugly scene, but they failed to acknowledge that this is only the latest incident in a pattern of violent rhetoric, racially charged imagery, and paranoid conspiracy theories at Tea Party rallies.2 Many Tea Partiers aren't simply about dissent -- they use fear and hatred to assault the very legitimacy of our elected leaders. It's the worst America has to offer.

Despite this, Republican leaders court the Tea Party movement while methodically supporting, exacerbating and exploiting their fear and anger for cynical political ends.3 This is nothing less than a betrayal of American values, and it's up to us to force the Republicans to stop aiding and abetting this enterprise:
http://colorofchange.org/hate/

The Tea Party movement has been marked by racially inflammatory and violent outbursts since its inception a year ago. GOP leaders are trying to pass off this weekend's assaults on Congressmen Lewis, Cleaver, Clyburn and Frank as isolated incidents. But when so-called "isolated incidents" crop up again and again, a pattern starts to emerge. The examples are numerous.

At rallies held to protest tax day last year, Tea Partiers carried signs that announced "Obama's Plan: White Slavery," "The American Taxpayers are the Jews for Obama's Oven," and "Guns Tomorrow!"4 The Republican National Committee had endorsed the rallies, and RNC Chairman Michael Steele encouraged Tea Partiers to send a "virtual tea bag" to President Obama and Democratic Congressional leadership.5 After reports of the fear-mongering signs surfaced, Steele did nothing to distance his party from the lunatic fringe. He has even gone so far as to say that if he didn't have his current position, he'd be "out there with the tea partiers."6 Some Republican governors even planned a "Tea Party 2.0" for the following month in an effort to build on the rallies' momentum.

The Tea Party's venomous rhetoric picked up steam over the summer, when angry mobs flooded town hall meetings legislators had organized as sites for rational, civil debate on health care reform. After one meeting in Atlanta, a swastika was painted on the office of Congressman David Scott (D-GA), who had also received a flier addressed to "nigga David Scott." 8 Some protesters showed up at town hall meetings carrying guns, including at least one man who was armed at an event where the President was speaking 9. Again, Republicans responded to these tactics with silence, doing nothing to denounce them.

Similarly, there was no public outcry from Republican leadership when Mark Williams, a leader of the Tea Party movement, was exposed for having described the President as "an Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug and a racist in chief" on his blog.10 Instead, members of the GOP continued to show up to and endorse Tea Party rallies. And as recently as Sunday -- the day that the historic health care bill passed the House -- Republican members of the House riled up the same Tea Party crowd that had earlier harassed their fellow members with hate and bigotry.

Our country deserves better than this. No matter what party one supports, we should all take strong action to support civil, honest, and respectful public debate. Can you take a moment to call on Michael Steele, John Boehner, and Mitch McConnell to denounce the racist rhetoric and fear-mongering that have been ongoing, significant characteristics of the Tea Party movement, and tell those who embrace these divisive and un-American beiefs that they have no place in their party, as members or leaders? And when you do, please ask your family and friends to do the same:
http://colorofchange.org/hate/

Thanks and Peace,
-- James, Gabriel, William, Dani, Milton and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team

   March 23rd, 2010
1. "Tea Party Protests: 'Ni**er,' 'Fa**ot' Shouted At Members Of Congress," Huffington Post, 3-20-2010

http://huff.to/atRmru
2. "10 Most Offensive Tea Party Signs And Extensive Photo Coverage From Tax Day Protests," Huffington Post, 4-16-09
http://huff.to/9Sgf3S
3. "Memo Reveals GOP Plan to Exploit Fear of Obama," AOL News, 3-4-2010

http://huff.to/c4ZOH4
4. See Reference 2
5. "Tax Day Tea Parties Officially Endorsed By Republican Party," Huffington Post, 5-15-2009

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/14/tax-day-tea-parties-offic_n_186788.html
6. "Steele: I'd join the tea parties," Politico, 1-15-10
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31177.html
7. "GOP govs plan Tea Party sequel," Politico, 5-12-2009

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22436.html
8. "Rep. David Scott's (D-Ga) office spray-painted with Swastika," Daily Kos, 8-11-2009

http://bit.ly/8YInIb
9. "Armed and Dangerous?" Talking Points Memo, 8-11-2009

http://bit.ly/LV1wb
10. "Tea party leader calls Obama a welfare thug," The Loop, 9-15-09

http://theloop21.com/news/teaparty-leaders-calls-obama-welfare-thug

So Now That HCR Has Passed - When Does rush Leave?

Back on March 8, Rush Limbaugh promised that if health care reform passed he would "leav[e] the country" in five years if "all that stuff" Limbaugh's been lying about starts happening.

So, now that the bill has passed, when does the El Rushbo "leav[e] the country"countdown clock officially begin?

President Obama and Dems FINALLY Kick Some republicunt Ass!

Reconciliation Package/"Fixes" passes 220-211. Goes back to Senate. Senators need to keep agreement to accept fixes. No public option.

House Passes Historic Health Care Reform Bill

House sends health care bill to Obama's desk
President to sign reforms into law; "fixes" still require Senate action

BREAKING
msnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated less than 1 minute ago
WASHINGTON - After well over a year of negotiations, setbacks, and political wrangling, the House has approved President Barack Obama’s top domestic policy initiative, sending a bill to massively overhaul the nation’s health insurance system to his desk to be signed and enacted into law.

The climactic chapter in a century-long quest for near universal coverage concludes with the House's approval of a bill to extend coverage to 32 million Americans who lack it, ban insurers from denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions and cut deficits by an estimated $138 billion over a decade.

Republicans voted unanimously against the bill, which they say constitutes a government takeover of the health care system, financed by a trillion dollars in higher taxes and Medicare cuts combined.

UPDATED AT MSNBC:

WASHINGTON - Summoned to success by President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled Congress approved historic legislation Sunday night extending health care to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and cracking down on insurance company abuses, a climactic chapter in the century-long quest for near universal coverage.

Widely viewed as dead two months ago, the Senate-passed bill cleared the House on a 219-212 vote. Republicans were unanimous in opposition, joined by 34 dissident Democrats. Obama watched the vote in the White House's Roosevelt Room with Vice President Joe Biden and about 40 staff aides. When the long sought 216th vote came in — the magic number needed for passage — the room burst into applause and hugs. An exultant president exchanged a high-five with his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel.

A second, smaller measure — making changes in the first — also passed later in the evening. It will go to the Senate, where Democratic leaders said they had the votes to pass it. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the legislation awaiting the president's approval would extend coverage to 32 million Americans who lack it, ban insurers from denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions and cut deficits by an estimated $138 billion over a decade. If realized, the expansion of coverage would include 95 percent of all eligible individuals under age 65.

For the first time, most Americans would be required to purchase insurance, and face penalties if they refused. Much of the money in the bill would be devoted to subsidies to help families at incomes of up to $88,000 a year pay their premiums.

AP:

updated 3 minutes ago
AP Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Summoned to success by President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled Congress approved historic legislation Sunday night extending health care to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and cracking down on insurance company abuses, a climactic chapter in the century-long quest for near universal coverage.

Widely viewed as dead two months ago, the Senate-passed bill cleared the House on a 219-212 vote, with Republicans unanimous in opposition.

Congressional officials said they expected Obama to sign the bill as early as Tuesday.

A second measure — making changes in the first — was lined up for passage later in the evening. It would then go to the Senate, where Democratic leaders said they had the votes to pass it.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35961584/ns/politics-health...

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"Many are now speculating that the Republican MTR this evening will be a motion that offers the anti-abortion amendment from Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), the onetime leader of the key bloc of holdout votes. The Stupak amendment received support from 64 Democrats when the House first voted on it in November."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/03/what-time-i...

Republicans tried to embarrass anti-abortion Democrats with reintroduction of Stupak Amendment. Motion to Recommit (MTR) failed, vote moved to the "fixes."

Stupak argued against Republican's motion strategy - said motion is not a "pro-life" motion, but a motion against health care reform. STUPAK: "For the unborn child, his mother will now be able to have pre-natal care... Vote NO on this motion to recommit."

Motion to recommit failed.

MSNBC reporting GOP House member yelled "baby-killer" at Stupak while Stupak was speaking.

I AM A FIghting Liberal - I AM Fed Up American

ORIGINAL SOURCE

You know, I've studied history, I've read about America and you know something, if it weren't for liberals, we'd be living in a dark, evil country, far worse than anything Bush could conjure up. A world where children were told to piss on the side of the road because they weren't fit to pee in a white outhouse, where women had to get back alley abortions and where rape was a joke, unless the alleged criminal was black, whereupon he was hung from a tree and castrated.

What has conservatism given America? A stable social order? A peaceful homelife? Respect for law and order? No. Hell, no. It hasn't given us anything we didn't have and it wants to take away our freedoms.

The Founding Fathers, as flawed as they were, slaveowners and pornographers, smugglers and terrorists, understood one thing, a man's path to God needed no help from the state. Is the religion of these conservatives so fragile that they need the state to prop it up, to tell us how to pray and think? Is that what they stand for? Is that their America?

Conservatism plays on fear and thrives on lies and dishonesty. I grew up with honest, decent conservatives and those people have been replaced by the party of greed. It is one thing to want less government interference and smaller, fiscally responsible government. It is another thing entirely to be a corporate whore, selling out to the highest bidder because the CEO fattens your campaign chest. They are building an America which cannot be sustained. One based on the benefit of the few at the cost of the many. The indifferent boss who hires too few people and works them to death or until they break down sick. Cheap labor capitalism has replaced common sense. "Globalism" which is really guise for exploitation, replaced fair trade, which is nothing like fair for the trapped semi-slaves of the maquliadoras. In the Texas border towns, hundreds of these women have been used as sex slaves and then apparently killed, the FBI powerless to do anything as the criminals sit in Mexico untouched by law.

For the better part of a decade, the conservatives made liberal a dirty word. Well, it isn't. It represents the best and most noble nature of what America stands for: equitable government services, old age pensions, health care, education, fair trials and humane imprisonment. It is the heart and soul of what made American different and better than other countries. Not only an escape from oppression, but the opportunity to thrive in land free of tradition and the repression that can bring. We offered a democracy which didn't enshrine the rich and made them feel they had an obligation to their workers.

Bush and the people around him disdain that. They think, by accident of birth and circumstance, they were meant to rule the world and those who did not agree would suffer.

Liberal does not and has not meant weak until the conservatives said it did. Was Martin Luther King weak? Bobby Kennedy? Gene McCarthy? It was the liberals who remade this country and ended legal segregation and legal sexism. Not the conservatives, who wanted to hold on to the old ways.

It's time to regain the sprit of FDR and Truman and the people around them. People who believed in the public good over private gain. It is time to stop apologizing for being a liberal and be proud to fight for your beliefs. No more shying away or being defined by other people. Liberals believe in a strong defense and punishment for crime. But not preemption and pointless jail sentences. We believe no American should be turned away from a hospital because they are too poor or lack a proper legal defense. We believe that people should make enough from one job to live on, to spend time on raising their family. We believe that individuals and not the state should dictate who gets married and why. The best way to defend marriage is to expand, not restrict it.

It was the liberals who opposed the Nazis while the conservatives were plotting to get their brown shirts or fund Hitler. It was the liberals who warned about Spain and fought there, who joined the RAF to fight the Germans, who brought democracy to Germany and Japan. Let us not forget it was the conservatives who opposed defending America until the Germans sank our ships. They would have done nothing as Britain came under Nazi control. It was they who supported Joe McCarthy and his baseless, drink fueled claims.

Without liberals, there would be no modern America, just a Nazi satellite state. Liberals weak on defense? Liberals created America's defense. The conservatives only need vets at election time.

It is time to stop looking for an accommodation with the right. They want none for us. They want to win, at any price. So, you have a choice: be a fighting liberal or sit quietly. I know what I am, what are you?

Of course, if Mr. Brooks wants to find some actual villains who actually smashed America-- real, live monsters enough to populate a 1,000 columns -- let him go read Barbara Ehrenreich or Richard Sennett on the subject of the relentless, shattering pressure that his beloved unfettered Capitalism’s remorseless race to the bottom has brought to bear on the American Middle Class.

Let him them leaf through David Brock and Frank Schaeffer to find a whole menagerie of his fellow Movement Conservative travelers who have risen to prosperity and power by pissing on the rubble of the American Dream left in the wake of Capitalism’s economic bulldozers. All while daring to call their treachery and fear-mongering Godly and Patriotic.

Of course, Bobo fucking well knows the truth; he just cant bear the way he looks when it stares back out at him from the mirror in all its wretched, horrifying glory.

So instead -- week after week, year after year -- David Fucking Brooks spends his tenure at one of the most powerful positions in American journalism making little Centrist finger paintings of imaginary hippies which somehow always end up miraculously absolving people like David Fucking Brooks.

Teabagers Are Such Pussies

Damn straight. While Jim DeMint is lauding the disgusting, bigoted teabaggers getting their hate on:

Republican Senator Jim DeMint tweeted that he was "grateful for the thousands of patriots who are storming the Capitol today protesting government healthcare and defending freedom." The tweet came at around the same time the racist and homophobic comments above were reported.

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH17) went on the House floor and soundly denounced the teabaggers and their full bigoted, homophobic, hate-filled display on Saturday.

Now I think it's time for all those congresspeople feeding into this frenzy to step in and denounce hate. Bachmann? Tancredo? Demint? Boehner? Pence? Foxx? King? Come forward now, and denounce the scary result of your fear-mongering.

Throw Your Bible In The Trash

Seriously, the Bible has caused more horror and trauma on this planet than any other text in history. The Koran, obviously, comes in a close second - although it's right up there neck and neck as concerns body count, some 250 million allegedly murdered in the name of Christianity, while some 270 million are claimed to have been killed in the name of Islam. As concerns looking at the Bible as some sort of "moral guide" from the very finger of God, it's time to toss the whole shebang into the circular file, the trash heap, the dustbin of history.


The Bible is little more than one culture's propaganda.  It is not the "Word of God" - that's the propaganda.

The Bible is a collection of mummified myths, fabulous fairytales and hideous horror stories, with a bit of history mixed in to give it legitimacy.  Even this biblical "history" is so slanted that, on the few instances where it has been confirmed by external sources, these sources take the opposite perspective of the Israelite claims.

To illustrate the true value of the Bible, many years ago I was teasing an Israeli acquaintance, Uri, about the lack of culture in ancient Israel.

"But Uri," I said, "The ancient Jews had no real art, no grand architecture, no armies, navies - nada!"

"Aha!" answered he, "But we got the Book!"

The fact is that other than serving as a valuable cultural artifact on its face, the Bible is virtually useless in today's modern society as concerns numerous subjects, including technology, science, medicine and, yes, philosophy and spirituality. Modern society is far ahead of the Stone Age technology and mentality found in the Bible. Trying to live by such an outdated and specious text is only making humanity deranged.

As the great freethinker Robert Ingersoll said:

If a man would follow, today, the teachings of the Old Testament he would be a criminal. If he would strictly follow the teachings of the New, he would be insane.

The bottom line is that we need no such old scriptures to lead our lives righteously.  We can use our innate decency, morality, intelligence and humanity.  We can produce new "scriptures" that are not culturally bigoted, displaying their writers as "chosen people" above all others, or sexist, ranting on and on about a male god and his son, while women are continually denigrated purely because of their gender.

As an example of how useless such "moral" writings can be, Bangladeshi natives thought so little of their "holy scriptures" that when a cow ate the banana leaves they were written on, nobody paid much attention.

Sources & Further Reading

Victims of the Christian Faith
270 Million Killed in the Name of Islam
33 Million Killed by God in the Bible
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The Tme Is NOW!

republicunts - I Mean "teabaggers" Show True Colors - NOT Red. White and Blue

Does This Sound Familiar???

From Democratic Underground

That's what my partner and I will be faced with shortly. As soon as all of this starts, I'll be able to let you all know firsthand what the experience is like for a truly poor family--except that since nobody wants to "push" for GLBT equality right now, we'll be a family living under the rules for a single person with no dependents.

My partner and I have a soon-to-be-ten year old son. She's 43, I'm 30, and we're both full-time college students. I go to school and then stay home in the evenings with our son (because childcare would cost about as much as I'd make at the jobs available around here anyway.) Rhythm goes to school during the day, then works evenings as a cook in a local pub for $8.00 an hour. It was the best job she could find that is walkable, because we don't have a car and the bus service in the evenings around here is not adequate for anything better. It's part-time; on a good week, she might get 25 hours.

We live as a married couple with a child--a family--but the government considers us to be two single people, one of whom has a dependent, while the other (legally) does not. Our son and I receive Medicaid (for now) because the government considers my school attendance to be a "good enough" excuse for not having a job right now, although as soon as my son is considered old enough to be home by himself in the evenings, that will change. Rhythm has no health insurance at all. She hasn't seen a doctor in years, even though her eyesight is diminishing and she has an acute family history of diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis. I live in terror that the diabetes and the eyesight problems are related, but we have no way to know for sure right now, and no way to DO anything about it even if we DID know.

Rhythm is not eligible for Medicaid because she's physically capable of working and does not have any *legal* dependents. We know this, because we've already tried applying for it (and my thanks to Midlodemocrat for doing her best to help us, even though it didn't work out.) She was denied. I've heard that the new rules raise the income qualification level, which is great, but thanks to the 1996 PRWORA Act (welfare reform), each state gets to decide its OWN qualification rules. The federal government's guidelines are not universally adhered to, nor do they need to be thanks to that act. On a side note, if Obama REALLY wants to make a difference for the poor, overturning PRWORA would be the most effective, humane thing that he could ever, ever do.

Anyway--here's what West Virginia has decided about who they consider "qualified" for Medicaid:
Determining Eligibility for Medicaid

Except in the case of pregnant women and children up to age 19 years, eligibility for Medicaid is based on categorical relatedness, income and assets.

Categorical relatedness means that an applicant must be a member of a family with a child who is deprived of support due to the absence, incapacity or unemployment of a parent(s). If the applicant has no children under age 18, the individual must be age 65 or over, blind or disabled.

The second factor considered is an applicant's income and assets. Income is any money a family or individual receives such as wages, pensions, retirement benefits or support payments. Assets include money in the bank, property other than the homestead, and the cash or loan value of certain life insurance.

When applying for Medicaid, you will be asked about your income and assets you own. DHHR staff will inform you of any documentation needed at the time of your application.

The eligibility of pregnant women and children up to age 19 for Medicaid is determined solely on income. There is no asset test. Pregnant women must provide a medical statement confirming pregnancy.

http://www.wvdhhr.org/bms/oMedPolicyCor/bms_hcpc_Guide_...

Since the law doesn't recognize Rhythm as part of a family with a child (even though she IS), and since she isn't blind, disabled, or over 65...she's not eligible, no matter HOW low her income is. So Medicaid is not a possibility. When the time comes that Rhythm is forced to buy health insurance through the exchange, she will receive a subsidy in an amount meant for a single, able-bodied adult with no children--in other words, $1,384 for an entire year. (I got that number here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph... . I assure you, she is not eligible for any kind of "family" rate.)

Her income is about $800 a month. Hers is the ONLY income we have, for reasons I explained above. We get a little extra in financial aid to help out, but not very much--it's enough to pay most of the rent every month. We have a boarder in our third bedroom who pays the rest of the rent for this place. Rhythm's income pays all utilities, a third of the groceries (my Food Stamps take care of the other 2/3's) and all of the household item expenses (like toilet paper and soap--not stuff we can just stop buying.) That's it. We have no savings, no expendable income, and no "extra" money ANYWHERE. If you want to see a family that is LITERALLY living from one paycheck to another with nothing else to spare, well, welcome to my world.

So how are we going to afford an extra $219 a month for her health insurance? The short answer is that we CAN'T, so she'll have to apply for the hardship exemption--and if we're lucky, she'll get it. Which will leave her with no health care at all. Just the same as now. If the other "proud liberals" in this country could be bothered to put forth HALF of the money, time, and internet "activism" toward GLBT equality as they do toward forcing this bill through, maybe it would be different. Maybe the higher subsidy for someone who's taking care of a legally-recognized FAMILY would be enough to offset our actual costs, and she could have healthcare--even if only a crappy policy that covers little and has a huge deductible. Half a loaf is better than none at all, right?

Well not for us, because Rhythm's getting nothing whether the bill passes or not. All we can expect is the addition of some more red tape, made necessary because she'll have to prove that she's too poor to afford insurance. And IF the government decides that Rhythm appears to be capable of affording her premium "on paper" (where our family doesn't exist and therefore doesn't matter), she'll get rejected for the hardship exemption and end up forking over money to the IRS. I think she'll be approved for it, but you'll have to forgive me if I'm more than a little bitter about the fact that the BEST my beloved partner can hope for is that she WON'T get smacked by the IRS.

And other members of my family are screwed too, just in different ways. We're all poor, and this is going to hurt every single one of us with the exception of my dying Mom, who was approved for disability Medicaid today (thank god) although there's some red tape that might hurt us there, too. I really wish people would stop pretending like this bill is meant to help the poor. It isn't. It's meant to help certain select elements of the middle class, and a few poor people who meet strict guidelines and live in compassionate states with lenient Medicaid qualification rules MIGHT benefit too. Just as many (if not more) poor people stand a fair chance of getting nothing at all at best, or royally screwed at worst. GLBT and certain hetero couples (unmarried, cohabitating, with kids that are only the "legal dependents" of ONE partner) are getting the worst deal of all.

So I guess we'll just keep using the emergency room as the only healthcare available to us, and hope like hell that maybe SOMEDAY everyone else who's supposedly on "our" side will find it politically expedient to actually fight (which means RISKING something) for the equality and social justice that this nation SORELY lacks. I won't be holding my breath, but I suppose it's theoretically possible--IF we can elect some leaders who care more about doing the right thing NOW than about getting re-elected later. And that is probably the biggest and most unlikely IF of all.

Proof That republicans Have Lost Their Fucking Minds

(from ThinkProgress)

Even though the turnout was less than expected, as Rachel Maddow put it, what they lacked in bodies, they made up for in exclamation points. One of those politicos responsible for a quite a bit of the punctuation of the day was Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-TX). Gohmert, who you'll remember has previously insisted that private health insurance would be taken away from Americans with the passing of this bill and promised to cancel the stimulus bill if the Republicans retook the majority in 2010, had to ratchet up the crazy in order to keep up with Michelle Bachmann. And boy, did he go over the cliff into Crazy Town:

Gohmert elicited cheers from the crowd when he made a graphic and disturbing claim about the bill:

GOHMERT: I brought the bill that’s being talking about. Now I don’t want to offend anybody, I’m sure that there are people here who think abortion is okay, and I don’t want to make you sick, but I brought an abortion to show you today. [...]
There’s a whole lot of demons going on. There’s a lot of demons around here apparently.

Going along with my theory that everything Republicans accuse Democrats of generally is a projection of their own guilt, I think it's safe to assume that Gohmert is actually admitting to his own demonic possession.

It's the only explanation that I can think of for his bombastic, lying, disgusting rhetoric.

A Great Big Fuck You To The republicans

Source: Washington Post

After laying the groundwork for a decisive vote this week on the Senate's health-care bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested Monday that she might attempt to pass the measure without having members vote on it.

Instead, Pelosi (D-Calif.) would rely on a procedural sleight of hand: The House would vote on a more popular package of fixes to the Senate bill; under the House rule for that vote, passage would signify that lawmakers "deem" the health-care bill to be passed.

The tactic -- known as a "self-executing rule" or a "deem and pass" -- has been commonly used, although never to pass legislation as momentous as the $875 billion health-care bill. It is one of three options that Pelosi said she is considering for a late-week House vote, but she added that she prefers it because it would politically protect lawmakers who are reluctant to publicly support the measure.

"It's more insider and process-oriented than most people want to know," the speaker said in a roundtable discussion with bloggers Monday. "But I like it," she said, "because people don't have to vote on the Senate bill."

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

I think that it is fantastic that the Democrats are FINALLY giving the republicans a taste of what America had to endure under the bush regime. 

Despite the crying coming from the republican sorority sisters, this IS for the "greater good" of America.

Which is why republicans oppose it so vehemently. 

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Healh Care WILL Pass

The debate is over. The time for action is NOW.

And when the public sees it was DEMOCRATS who finally had the GUTS to break the century-old logjam on healthcare reform and that the sky has not fallen because of it, and the system actually gets better, they know damn well Dems will be CREDITED and REWARDED.

Dems WILL also pass more jobs bills, a banking bill, and an energy bill. The economy will most likely be doing somewhat better by fall.

And what does the republicunt sorority offer?

FEAR.

THAT is why they are trying to kill everything. It is their ONLY hope for major gains in the fall. Well, I think the asshats are in for a little surprise. Americans want ACTION, and Dems are working to deliver it. The republicunts are going to be seen as THE PARTY OF NO and NOTHING.

That's all folks.

Where Is Kelly Copeland Now?

Remember?

Does anyone remember November 2008?

Remember how we felt the jubilation an inmate must feel upon release from prison?

More importantly, does anyone remember why we felt that way?

After enduring the worst 8 years of our lives under the murderous, traitorous and morally bankrupt leadership of republican tyranny, we elected what we hoped would be our savior. With promises of hope and change America ushered out an eight year cancer that has left deep and permanent wounds in the tied body of our nation.

Remember?



Are we asking too much too soon of our young leader?

How long will it take for him to accomplish the tasks he was elected to do?

How long will it take him to say FUCK YOU to the obstructionist repblicunt pieces of shit that got us into this trouble in the first place?

I STILL think Obama is doing a pretty decent job as President considering what he inherited and what choice did we have anyway in November of 2008?

But I sure as hell wish he would remember he IS the President after all and stop playing footsie with the enemies that want to see him fail.

And REMEMBER what America expected of him.

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How Is THIS Guys god Different Than Bin Laden's god?

At a time when some people confuse losing an election with living under tyranny, it’s perhaps no surprise that a day set aside for marking past presidents’ birth has become, for some, a day for praying for the current president’s death.

Praying for President Obama’s death has become a sick cottage industry for some evangelicals on the lunatic fringe. Bumper stickers, T-shirts, and teddy bears are sold with the wholesome-sounding slogan “Pray for Obama” but tagged with the more troublesome “Psalm 109:8”—which reads “May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership” followed by “May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.”

“If you have an evil leader above you, you pray that Satan will stand by his side and you ask God to make his children fatherless.” 

In Wingnut circles, it’s known as the “Imprecatory Prayer.” Offered not just from select pulpits, but increasingly expressed through tweets and forwarded via email, this decidedly un-Christian Christian subculture has found its most enthusiastic advocates in a few Obama Derangement Syndrome-afflicted preachers—notably Orange County’s Wiley Drake and Arizona’s Steven L. Anderson.

Pastor Wiley Drake kicked off this Presidents’ Day Weekend with an email blast to his supporters saying “Imprecatory Prayer is now our DUTY” and announcing a daily teleconference call to advance the cause. Drake has been an enthusiastic advocate of imprecatory prayer since he announced that God answered his call with the murder of Kansas abortion clinic doctor George Tiller in church last May. “George Tiller was far greater in his atrocities than Adolf Hitler,” Drake said at the time, “so I am happy. I am glad that he is dead.” This emboldened him to add “the usurper that is in the White House … B. Hussein Obama” to the list said in his church on Sundays.

Sadly, Drake is not a complete fringe figure. He served as a second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention in ‘06 and ‘07. In ‘08, he received 47,000 votes as the vice-presidential nominee of the American Independent Party, alongside conservative activist Alan Keyes, Obama’s GOP opponent when he was elected to the Senate in 2004. I drove out to visit him in December for a profile in my book Wingnuts. I wanted to get a better sense of what someone is like who would pray for the president’s death.

Drake’s First Southern Baptist Church stands less than a mile from Knott’s Berry Farm amusement park in Orange County. It’s a beige cinderblock building constructed in the 1950s. In its front yard, a broken wooden set of Ten Commandments juts out of a rock while a sign reading “ETERNITY” hangs over a flickering Coke machine. Out back, a genial gray-haired man greeted me, looking every inch the Western grandfather of five. He was wearing a red shirt with black suspenders and a senior citizen-friendly big-buttoned cellphone hung on a string around his neck. Wiley ushered me back into the empty church, past a sign saying “God Bless America,” and we sat in the front pew.

“I’m known as a birther, you know. I don’t believe Obama was born in this country. He’s an illegal alien and so forth,” Wiley told me, matter-of-factly. “And so I began to pray what the Bible teaches us to pray and that is imprecatory prayer. An imprecatory prayer is very strong. Imprecatory prayer in Psalms 109, for example, says if you have an evil leader above you, you pray that Satan will stand by his side and you ask God to make his children fatherless and his wife a widow and that his time in office be short… Other Psalms say when they speak evil, God will break out their teeth and when they run to do destruction God will break their legs.”

To those offended by the idea of praying for death, Wiley shrugs. “I’m praying the word of God. I didn’t write it. Don’t get mad at me.”

What a fucking douche-nozzle.
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Mounting Proof That republicans Hate America

I just read this in an article about Michael Connell's suspicious death
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

"Ohio’s secretary of state in 2004 was a fiercely partisan Christian named Ken Blackwell. Blackwell had hired a company called GDC Limited to run the IT systems, which had subcontracted the job to Michael Connell’s company, GovTech. Connell had in turn sub-contracted SMARTech, an IT firm based in Chattanooga, to act, it was claimed, as a backup server.

“By looking at the URLs on the Web site, we discovered that there were three points on election night when SMARTech’s computers took over from the secretary of state,” says Arnebeck. “It is during that period that we believe votes were manipulated.”

In computer jargon it is known as a man-in-the-middle attack.

“At the time I didn’t know who SMARTech were,” says IT expert Stephen Spoonamore, opening a file on his computer showing the Internet architecture map of the 2004 Ohio election. He points to a red box in the bottom right-hand corner showing SMARTech’s server.

“Then I found out: They host Rove’s e-mails. They host the RNC’s Web site. They host George Bush’s Web site.” His voice rises in disbelief.

“I go, ‘Holy shit, this is a man-in-the-middle attack! These guys have programmed the state’s computers to talk to a company with ties 
to the Republican Party.’ It’s brilliant.”

With his wiry hair and designer glasses, Spoonamore looks like a character in a Tim Burton movie. A lifelong Republican, he is also one of the world’s acknowledged experts on cybersecurity, with a résumé that includes work for the U.S. armed forces and the FBI. In his spare time he has devoted thousands of hours to investigating cyberfraud in American elections. “I know I sound crazy when I talk about this stuff. No one wants to believe it.

They say, ‘No one would steal an election.’

Then I go, ‘Yeah, they would.

And that’s exactly what they did.’ ”...

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republicans Embarrass Themselves Yet AGAIN

National GOP leaders are doing damage control today after a Politico scoop lifted the curtain on the party's plan to tap voters' "fear" in the coming campaign season. The PR problem started when an absent-minded attendee at the Republican National Committee (RNC) confab on February 18 in Boca Grande, Florida, left a 72-page document from its 2010 strategizing session in a hotel room. 

From The Are You Fucking Kidding Me Department

"Oh, sure. Look, it doesn't make a lot of sense for us to have millions and millions of people who have no health insurance and yet who can go to the emergency room and get entirely free care for which they have no responsibility, particularly if they are people who have sufficient means to pay their own way."

This pearl of enlightenment comes from former GOP Presidential candidate Mitt "The Nit Wit" Romney.

Proving ONCE AGAIN how out of touch with reality republicans TRULY are.

Job Hunting and Credit Checks

Sixty percent of employers recently surveyed by the Society for Human Resources Management said they run credit checks on job applicants, compared with 42 percent in a somewhat similar survey in 2006.This is yet ANOTHER ridiculous practice that slave owners - oopsey I mean employers -  initiated under republicunt rule that America suffered during the first decade of the 21st century.

Employers use the excuse that these checks give them valuable information about an applicant's honesty and sense of responsibility. 

Interesting logic there but it IS bullshit logic of the highest magnitude. 

Wisconsin state Rep. Kim Hixson drafted a bill in his state shortly after hearing from Terry Becker, an auto mechanic who struggled to find work.

Becker said it all started with medical bills that piled up when his now 10-year-old son began having seizures as a toddler. In the first year alone, Becker ran up $25,000 in medical debt.

Over 4 1/2 months, he was turned down for at least eight positions for which he had authorized the employer to conduct a credit check, Becker said. He said one potential employer told him, "If your credit is bad, then you'll steal from me."

What a crock of shit.


I'll get into the problems associated with this insanity in a moment but first I would like to reveal the REAL reason employers are doing this. There are many actually.



They OBVIOUSLY have no confidence in judging people they meet. They lack the common sense that even the lowest life forms possess. This is evidenced when they have job fairs or meet and greets that produce hundreds of applicants, the hours of sifting through thousands of resumes and weeks spent interviewing prospective employees to fill one or two positions within heir company.


So they came up with the idea of complicating this further by subjecting applicants to "background screenings"  but the problem here was cost. A REAL background check is quite expensive and these idiot business owners didn't want to spend this kind of money - ESPECIALLY for the shear volume of applicants lining up for their $10 an hour (if you're lucky) position offered.

I remember assclown bush at a townhall style meeting where he was introduced to a single mother with two children that had THREE JOBS. The idiot son of an asshole thought this was a good thing, smirked and called it uniquely American. How "uniquely American" it was for a mother to have someone else raise her children because she spends all of her waking hours trying to keep a roof over her head and food on the table.


But a credit check is MUCH cheaper to run on someone.


So the bottom line reasoning is that the are too cheap.


Now let's look at the problems this creates.


First, in NO WAY does a persons credit report reflect their ability to accomplish a task or duty in any job.In fact, the credit reports DO NOT eve reflect an accurate picture of a persons credit history. The are inaccurate. They contain mistakes. THEY ARE WRONG.

In my opinion they are completely worthless.


Secondly, and I'm shocked that no one else is mentioning this, that the constant inquiries produced in a job search damages a persons credit even more.


Let's set the record straight ere folks. IF, as a business owner or hiring manager or director of personnel or what ever else you choose to call your self because of your low self esteem and need to feel important, you don't ave the ability to hire someone by simply talking with them and using your instincts you DO NOT deserve to be in the position you covet. 


You are a complete and udder fucking moron.

Under federal law, prospective employers must get written permission from applicants to run a credit check on them. But consumer advocates say most job applicants do not feel they are in a position to say no.  



It is the American job seeker that allows this by putting up with this abusive treatment. It is the WORKER  after all that is extending credit to your employer by giving them your blood, sweat and tears each week in return for expected payment and in hopes that their check clears.


Perhaps it is US that should run credit checks on THEM.