Headlines - Thursday June 30

Bernie Sanders is asking us to sign a letter to President Obama. Please do so here. And pass the word.

 

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Back in Black - Glenn Beck's Nazi Tourette's

 

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Hope & Change Headline of the Day: 'Michelle Obama Denies Supporting Gay Marriage'

Oh, Michelle Obama! We love you even when we don't really think too much of that husband of yours, anymore. You're "the cool one," right? Right? No, you're just another amoral liar in Washington.

Politico has this:

First lady Michelle Obama's office on Tuesday quickly shot down the suggestion that she has ever publicly voiced support for same-sex marriage, a policy her husband opposes even as the left pressures him to take a stand.

"Mrs. Obama has never made any public statements about same-sex marriage," her communications director, Kristina Schake, said in an email to POLITICO.

[Politico]

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Fukushima Spews, Los Alamos Burns, Vermont Rages and We've Almost Lost Nebraska: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/06/29-1

 

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US Cost of War at Least $3.7 Trillion and Counting

 

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Back when rat-faced 9/11 pornographer Rudy Giuliani was just another cross-dressing sleazebag New York politician kicked out of his house for banging his mistress, the only two people who would take him in were two kindly homosexual gentlemen. And so, for months, Rudy Giuliani was the third leg of this curious tripod: a supposedly straight, serial-marrying power-mad big city mayor sharing an apartment with two nice gay men — sort of like The Odd Couple + La Cage aux Folles × Richard III. And Rudy promised his friends that if gay marriage ever became legal in the state of New York, he would happily perform the wedding ceremony. Can you guess what Rudy da Rat is doing now? Hiding. Not answering his phone. READ MORE »

 

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AP - Mooselini eats her words. And some soup.

• Word Salad for Breakfast - Alaska's part time governor and full-time grifter Sarah Palin^® was shocked to learn that she is loathed in Hollywood:

  It makes you want to reach out to some of these folks and say, What's your problem? And what was the problem? And what is the problem? What would make a celebrity, like you saw on screen, so hate someone that they'd seek their destruction, their death, the death of their children? What would make someone be so full of hate and, I guess, a sense of being threatened that they would want to see that person destroyed?

  --Mooselini^® after seeing her mockumentary, Undefecated.

  (Think Progress)

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Last week we were told that Obama's position on gay marriage was "evolving." But not actually, you know, evolved. Monday, his spokesmodel Jay Carney announced that Obama now thinks it should be up to the states.

Which is intended to look like he's not taking a position – he'll be happy to be thought a wimp on this issue – but it actually is a position: a position that marriage equality is not a right but a privilege that can be granted or not granted at the whim of state legislators.

Well fuck that.

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What an awful, awful lady:

New York's gay weddings victory lap has not extended to all parts of the Empire State, with a rural town clerk determined to not sign any same-sex marriage licenses.

Barbara MacEwen, the town clerk in upstate Volney who is responsible for signing marriage licenses in the town, said she's morally opposed to same-sex weddings and does not intend to affix her signature to any marriage documents for gay or lesbian couples.

"If there's any possible way to not do it, legally, then yes, I would not want to put my name on any of those certificates or papers," MacEwen told POLITICO. "That's their life, they can do it, but I don't feel I should be forced into something that's against my morals and my God."

MacEwen said she's written her state senator – Republican Patty Ritchie, who voted against legalizing gay weddings – to determine her legal options.

As John Cole wrote, she should quit. Simple as that. If her religion or morality is forcing her to violate the law and fail to do her job, then she should quit. Her morality is clearly more important than doing her job.

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After taking a $10 billion bailout, Goldman Sachs will outsource 1,000 jobs.

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"What is straight?  A line can be straight, or a street, but the human heart, oh, no, it's curved like a road through mountains."
~Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire, 1947

For every narrow-minded, homophobic bigot out there, this one's for you. Oh, and if you believe that homosexuality is a 'life-style choice', then make no mistake about it, you're a narrow-minded, homophobic bigot.

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How Michele Bachmann Will Win GOP Nomination

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2008 Obama wakes up to help uncool 2011 Obama lecture GOP

2011 Obama is getting his butt kicked in the polls lately, which means that it is time in this presidential election cycle to pull out "2008 Obama," the guy we all liked for yelling at rich people and Republicans. This "2008 Obama" was finally pulled out of the closet to come help reclusive socialist warlord "2011 Obama" today to hold his first press conference in months, where he went nuclear winter phase III on the GOP for failing to make a deal with Joe Biden about raising the debt ceiling. Angry Obama: "I've been here. I've been doing Afghanistan and bin Laden and the Greek crisis and — you stay here." Yeah, NO VACATION UNTIL YOU FIX THIS. Okay, also he will yell at the rich people again, for good measure. READ MORE »

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While fighting to block SEC investigation of Goldman Sachs, GOP House committee chair Issa bought Goldman Sachs bonds

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Jill: He is SO much a closet case

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Don't let the Republicans see this! It will become the rallying cry for killing Medicare and Social Security.

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Crashing the economy for fun and profit

I don't expect the republicans to be good-faith negotiators in the debt ceiling talks. Crashes can be beneficial to those in the "have" column, who have the cash to shield and insulate themselves from the vagaries of the resulting chaos. Those folks make a killing on everyone else's misery.

That is the angle Eric Cantor is working right now. He is heavily invested in a hedge fund that is shorting long-dated treasury bonds.

Now, I am no financial genius. Even if I had money, I wouldn't make it go out and get a job and "work for me." I would leave it convalescing in a nice FDIC-insured savings account. I have never believed everyone was intended to get into the stockmarket. 401Ks and the like have always just sounded like a scam to get middle-class pockets legally picked by Wall Street parasites,  because if the average person were honest with themselves, they would admit that they are flying blind when it comes to managing those numbers on the page.

But I am not so ignorant of the ways of money that I don't know good old-fashioned manipulation when I see it.

Cantor is in a position to push the United States into default, and if that were to happen, that investment would make him a very, very rich man, because the price of bonds would fall and interest rates would spike and the Minority Leader, who flounced out of talks a weekk ago would clean up.

So I have a question: HOW THE FUCK IS THIS LEGAL???  

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Revolution happens on an empty stomach North Korea has reportedly slashed daily food rations to a mere 375 calories per person, per day. And the appointed son who will replace Dear Leader when he dies/becomes incapacitated is fat. Even a million-man army will have trouble putting down a rebellion of 23 million starving people who literally have nothing to lose. Especially when the army is hungry, too, as they are now.

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WND Suing Esquire For Using Terrible Irony Weapon Against Birthers

Who are the most victimized people on the planet? If you answered "the birther lunatics," you would be correct. WorldNetDaily.com writer and birther book publisher Joseph Farah is suing Esquire for $120 million for publishing a parody post reporting that Farah finally decided the whole birther thing was probably just a hollow, exploitative attempt at monetizing the fears of stupid, racist people, and he would be recalling the Jerome Corsi book. Haha, that is ironic and totally implausible, because Joseph Farah loves money. But you know who doesn't understand irony? Birther nutjobs! So they all freaked out and in their typical brainless fashion went and took the books off the shelves.  IT'S ON THE INTERNET IT MUST BE TRUE! It was a sad day for Joseph Farah's bank account, because of irony.  READ MORE »

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Headlines - Wednesday June 29

 

In Major Gaffe, Bachmann Confuses Ass, Hole in Ground

 

More lunacy from Michele Bachmann as she believes John Quincy Adams was a Founding Father

 

 

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Republicans selling snake oil

 

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True patriotism apparently now includes cheering foreign nations to shoot your fellow citizen.

Break out the foam USA #1 fingers everyone!

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"Sarah Palin said she did not quit her bus tour. She just had to go home early for jury duty. How can you be President if you're not even smart enough to get out of jury duty?" –Jay Leno

 

"Newt Gingrich said Republicans shouldn't be afraid to go into black neighborhoods and tell them Obama failed them. To which every Republican replied 'You first.'" –Bill Maher

 

"Sarah Palin must be looking at Michele Bachmann and feeling the way the Jonas Brothers felt about Justin Bieber.
       --  Andy Borowitz, in a tweet

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This man's blood is on the hands of every gutless coward in Congress who pissed their pants in fear when President Obama tried to bring them here for trials in civilian courts. "An Afghan man who was found hanging from a bedsheet at Guantánamo last month was held by the Pentagon as an "indefinite detainee" -- an Obama administration designation originally conferred on 48 captives at the prison camps in Cuba. ... Defense Department officials have not released the list of so-called indefinite detainees. Nor have they notified the men of their status as ineligible for either trial or release among the 171 captives currently held in Guantánamo. ... But a Pentagon spokesman, Dave Oten, confirmed this week that the May 18 death of a captive known to his lawyers as Hajji Nassim and to the Defense Department as Inayatullah lowered the indefinite detainee tally. ... "It's a sad case, a very sad case," said his Miami attorney Paul Rashkind on Tuesday. A federal public defender, Rashkind had been on the Afghan's case for about a year. He said, though he had never been told of his client's status as an indefinite detainee, he might have been able to persuade the government otherwise. ... "We were hopeful that we would be able to complete a psychiatric profile of him and present that information to the government in the hopes they would release him," said Rashkind."

 

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The Republicans have done an impressive job of blocking modernization of the US infrastructure system. They are the party of "no" after all. The rest of the world is not sitting still and they are investing. Five years after giving away the highway toll roads to foreign investors, GOP hero Mitch Daniels is somehow popular among his crowd for the short term cash hit. Drivers are now being blistered with outrageous toll increases and for the next seventy years, Indiana will get nothing. Brilliant. Unfortunately there are too many stories like this from around the US.

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Cross posted from Matt Browner Hamlin's blog "Hold Fast":

Back when the austerity (I mean, fiscal responsibility) debate was starting, it was pointed out that the United Kingdom went with a 2:1 ratio of spending cuts to revenue increases. The result has been disastrous for the UK economy and painful to working people there.

When President Obama kicked off his push, he proposed a 3:1 cuts to revenue plan:

Balance Between Spending Cuts and Tax Reform: The President's framework would seek a balanced approach to bringing down our deficit, with three dollars of spending cuts and interest savings for every one dollar from tax reform that contributes to deficit reduction. This is consistent with the bipartisan Fiscal Commission's approach.

Amazingly with the GOP walking away from talks, we now find out that a devastating 5:1 ratio of spending cuts to revenue increases was not good enough for them. Ezra Klein reports:

A bit more information has trickled out over the last few days detailing the exact state of the budget negotiations when they collapsed. Both sides, as they often said, were shooting for about $2.4 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years. They'd already agreed on around $1 trillion in spending cuts and were making good progress on the rest of it. But Democrats insisted that $400 billion — so, 17 percent — of the package be tax increases. And that's when Republicans walked.

This is bat shit insane. I hope someone on the Democratic side is pointing it out…

So basically, the Republicans keep saying "no" and the White House keeps offering them more and more cuts to programs, and fewer and fewer tax increases, while the Republicans simply keep saying "no."

Heck of a negotiation. The White House is simply negotiating with itself at this point. Lowering its bid, lower and lower, while the GOP does nothing. Guaranteeing that any final deal that is reached starts at a point so low that we're screwed no matter what the details.

Now, I'm sure the White House thinks it's going to win the battle by showing the American people how earnest the President has been in these talks, while the Republicans have been intransigent.  Yeah, fat chance.  That is all a matter of spin.  And the White House folks, and Dems generally, don't spin very well.  They need to hire someone who does, and empower them to win, rather than tying their hands in a never-ending desire to be nice to people who want to destroy you. 

 

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This is cool:

This is one dog whose bark is definitely worse than his bite.

Loukanikos, a stray who lives on the streets of Athens, Greece, has become an unlikely celebrity… for his dedication to anti-government protests.

The clearly opinionated mutt has been pictured on the front line of protests, dodging tear gas and barking at riot police, for the last three years.

Quite a contrast between the United States and Greece, isn't it? Here our manly men arm themselves to the teeth and act like stormtroopers, invading your home and shooting your dog while you sleep. Half the time they've charged into the wrong damned home.

There- they just ignore the damned dog.

Think about that the next time you hear some wingnut babbling about the freedom agenda.

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A Hint of Why Bernie Sanders is Our Best Living Senator

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Because changing Wikipedia is the same thing as changing history... Michele Bachmann was on Good Morning America Tuesday morning, her first national appearance on the teevee machine since her unintentionally-hilarious campaign launch in Waterloo, Iowa on Monday. Her GMA appearance was a gaffe-riot, but her assertion that the "founding fathers" struggled to rid the country of the scourge of slavery -- some of them may have been conflicted about the "peduliar institution," but they didn't do much about it -- because John Quincy Adams, a founding son, to be sure, but not a founding father, was a staunch abolitionist later in his life, when he sat in the House of Representatives. Bachmann supporters are as devoted -- and as silly -- as Palin supporters, swooping in on the JQA Wiki page to make edits that indicate he was, too, a founding father (by the way, Benen called this in advance). Never mind that niggling fact that he was nine years old when the Declaration was signed and soon thereafter left the country with his father to sail to France to represent the new, breakaway, American nation in dealings with Great Britain's mutual enemy, France, and did not return until after the war was over and the Constitution was drafted. But facts, schmacts. She has her story, a mish-mash of misremembered Barton revisionism, but her story nonetheless, and gosh-darnit, she's stickin' to it!

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Sarah Palin Grifts Over To Iowa For More Attention, Free Food

Insecure snowbilly vampire Sarah Palin has resurfaced from her Alaska lair to resume sucking up American media air time with her One Nation Bus Tour aimless cross-country grifting. Palin visited Iowa to attend the premiere of a documentary featuring endless footage of the stiff beehive hairdos she wore as Alaska governor, and for the massive free barbecue in her honor that she did not have to pay for. Anyway, absolutely no one cares about the movie. There is only one question, which every American child hears in her sleep by now: "For Christ's sake, is Sarah Palin going to run or not?" It is the only headline about Sarah Palin from now until she gives up wanting money, which is never. Even GOP operatives are tired of having to ask this dumb question at this point, because they have begun to sense she is, oh, a bit disingenuous?

She is either disingenuous or indecisive, or, as we vote, both.

Politico reports:

"Trying to figure out Sarah Palin reminds me of the ancient practice of extispicy, divination by examining entrails for meaning," said former New Hampshire GOP chairman Fergus Cullen.

"I've become convinced that there is no grand strategy behind Palin's activity," Cullen added. "There is no rhyme. There is no reason. The only common theme to her schedule of activities, statements and appearances is her seemingly unending ability to attract media coverage."

Looking for meaning in this deranged, needy woman's thought pattern is akin to letting Todd drive ATVs over your face a few times until your brains exploded out of your head. One of those "do not try this at home" things. [Politico]

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Glenn Beck Jeered By New York Crowd For Using Socialist Park

Ex-television clown Glenn Beck just wanted to go to a government-run socialist park to watch a free movie on the lawn with other liberal New Yorkers at Bryant Park, but apparently New Yorkers somehow found out that Glenn Beck is a fearmongering fanatic who thinks the entire American Government should be destroyed, and that all poor people and sick people should die in the streets, which also shouldn't exist because of No Government. And the New Yorkers ridiculed him, because he's a hateful asshole, and now he is sad about this. Why won't everyone love this race-baiting psychopath? READ MORE »

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Tea Partiers Storm GOP Re-Election Office Demanding Head of Orrin Hatch

A shrieking horde of Tea Partiers (they do not come in any other format) stormed the National Republican Senatorial Committee offices demanding that it stop supporting GOP senators, which is its job. HOH NOH, we do not want your terrible "moderate Republicans," they cried, especially this disgusting old Orrin Hatch person. (Haha, Hatch is a "moderate" in Utah because he still believes that you should just test welfare recipients for drugs instead of murdering them and has never tried to switch Utah to the gold standard.) Tea Party Patriots are not on board with your elitist, effeminate "polite phone calls and e-mails," so they will just be storming into any office with weak doors to make demands from now on. READ MORE »

 

Headlines - Tuesday June 28

 

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If we're all in this together, tax breaks for those least in need have to be more than just on the table. They need to be part of the plan. Unfortunately we have a president who wobbles and concedes before most fights even begin. The Democrats have to stand firm on handouts for the industries that are sitting on $800 billion of cash. A blank check to those businesses is irresponsible. Bloomberg

 

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Michele Bachmann Launches 2012 Presidential Campaign By Praising 'Killer Clown' John Wayne Gacy

 

 

Ridiculous clown Michele Bachmann officially launched her 2012 presidential campaign today in Waterloo, Iowa — where she paid tribute to another clown from this small Iowa town, psychopathic homosexual serial killer John Wayne Gacy. Why does Bachmann love the freakish monster known in American nightmares as the Killer Clown? Maybe because John Wayne Gacy loved dressing up as a circus clown and being around lots of kids, just like Bachmann! Really, this is what she said, except she apparently thinks the "John Wayne" from Waterloo, Iowa, is the iconic Western movie performer. Let's roll the video from Fox News, and laugh together. READ MORE »

 

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White House memo says Afghanistan has not posed a threat for 7 or 8 years

 

Great. So WTF are we still doing there?

 

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Pat Robertson warns God will destroy America over same sex marriage
God is currently destroying the Bible Belt with tornadoes and floods. They must all be homosexuals.

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Another USA "Dummy Map" 

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We have heard depressing statistics before, but this one makes us weep. "Fast food is already a lot like pollution -- it's bad for you, but it's more convenient than the alternative, so it's really really hard to get rid of. Also it shows up frequently on the sides of highways. Now, environmental nonprofit Clean Water Action has found that, at least in the San Francisco Bay area, these two dirty birds flock together. More than half of the litter in the four cities the group studied came from convenience foods at McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Starbucks, and 7-11. ... Some of these places are at least trying to cut down on their trash quotient. Starbucks encourages people to bring their own cups, though less out of concern for the environment than out of rational self-interest (the company calculated it could save $1 million a year if people brought in reusable mugs). But others don't allow customers to avoid the takeout boxes and plastic cups -- even though Clean Water Action estimated that it would have collected 31 percent less trash if people used renewable plates and utensils. "

 

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Michele Bachmann Constantly Answering Her Own Questions Wrong

If you had to take a test where you also got to make up all the questions, would you probably still answer all of them wrong? Yes, you would, if you are lunatic Bible-humper Michele Bachmann. A Politifact.com analysis of 24 Michele Bachmann statements showed that 23 of those fell somewhere between stretching the truth and insane. Maybe the 6th dimension is actually just inside Michele Bachmann's mind? In the horror movie trailer of her thoughts, America killed everyone in Libya with a bomb strike Nagasaki-style, the entire U.S. strategic oil reserve is at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico left there by Obama alongside the Newt Gingrich campaign, and the tens of thousands of dollars her family farm received in federal handouts are fictional products of everyone else's imagination. READ MORE »

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Blagojevich guilty on 17 counts of corruption. "Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) was convicted of attempting to sell President Obama's Senate seat on Monday. ... Blagojevich was convicted of 17 of 20 counts of public corruption charges. He was found not guilty of one charge and the jury did not deliver verdicts on two counts. ... Blagojevich's charges surrounded allegations that he tried to sell the Senate seat vacated by President Obama in 2008 when Obama won the presidency. He was accused of seeking a cabinet post, money, or a high paying job in return for picking Obama's replacement, backing certain legislation, and divvying out state funds. Throughout his trial Blagojevich denied any wrongdoing."

 

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THIS is what is really driving all the "tea party" hysteria

 

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The honor and duty of Japan's older generation in the wake of the Fukushima disaster gives us a lump in the throat. "By any measure, the thousands of people toiling to cool the crippled nuclear reactors in Fukushima are engaged in jobs that the Japanese consider kitanai, kitsui and kiken, or dirty, difficult and dangerous. ... Seemingly against logic, Yasuteru Yamada, 72, is eager for the chance to take part. After seeing hundreds of younger men on television struggle to control the damage at the Daiichi power plant, Mr. Yamada struck on an idea: Recruit other older engineers and other specialists to help tame the rogue reactors. ... Not only do they have some of the skills needed, but because of their advanced age, they are at less risk of getting cancer and other diseases that develop slowly as a result of exposure to high levels of radiation. Their volunteering would spare younger Japanese from dangers that could leave them childless, or worse. ... "We have to contain this accident, and for that, someone should do the work," said Mr. Yamada, a retired plant engineer who had worked for Sumitomo Metal Industries. "It would benefit society if the older generation took the job because we will get less damage from working there.""

 

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According to the Republican Party of America circa 2008, the biggest threat to America was a couple of nice gay people who live together and share all their expenses also being able to visit each other in the hospital, thanks to "gay marriage." But now that New York State Republicans have approved Gay Marriage, the national GOP is suspiciously silent. Maybe they were all gay all along? Well yeah, but they are still supposed to be against any legislation that was fair to gays overall. Have Republicans all turned "Cuomosexual?" READ MORE »

 

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"Like water, however, trash seeks its own level. Sarah's appearance alongside her no-talent daughter at a Minnesota shopping mall is the clearest indicator yet that the 2008 Republican candidate for vice president of the United States is finally becoming not the national leader she never could have been, but part of our national landfill," - Joe McGinniss

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Bill Donahue Melts Down

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Right Wing Watch reports that World Net Daily has published an editorial calling for the arrest of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and others that supported the "unconstitutional act" of legalizing same-sex marriage. The editorial has a byline from Dr. Ted Beahr, noted vicious homophobe and Christianist film critic.

With regard to the illegal action of the New York state government, it is more important to understand clearly that the civil government has no authority in area of the free exercise of religion such as marriage. If it has no authority and tries to With exercise power not vested to it, then the state is acting illegally. We need to stand for God's law in the face of the power grab by those in civil authority who know no restraints. New York and the other increasingly socialized states have not only violated God's law, they have also violated their own Constitution and the will of the governed.

When they do that, they are just like King George. They have abdicated their moral and legal authority and are subject to indictment, trial and just punishment. Now, all those who freely exercise their inalienable right to religious faith must stop acting like useful idiots and fellow travelers by going along to get along. Instead, they must stand for their God-given rights by proclaiming loud and clear that these New York government servants have crossed the line into illegal activity that has no authority and makes them criminals.

Fuck these people.

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A Christian's Guide To Sinning

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Clean coal!

Researchers found "significantly higher" rates of birth defects in babies born near mountaintop removal mining sites than those in non-mining areas, according to a new study released last week. [...]

It found that rates for six out of seven types of birth defects — circulatory/respiratory, central nervous system, musculoskeletal, gastrointestinal, urogenital and "other" — were increased near MTR sites. The research suggests that contaminants are released into nearby environments from MTR, and that many of the contaminants are known to impair fetal development.

"Rates for any anomaly were approximately 235 per 100,000 live births in the mountaintop mining area versus 144 per 100,000 live births in the non-mining area," the study says. Although not as high as near MTR sites, it also found increased incidences of birth defects in communities near underground mines.

Certainly those areas are more impoverished, but that doesn't account for such an obvious and massive increase.

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Climate Change Controversy – "Wealth Over Reason"

Headlines - Monday June 27

The new Oakland Bay bridge is being pre-fabricated in China by workers earning $12 for a 16-hour day, working at times 7 days a week:

"I don't think the U.S. fabrication industry could put a project like this together," Brian A. Petersen, project director for the American Bridge/Fluor Enterprises joint venture, said in a telephone interview. "Most U.S. companies don't have these types of warehouses, equipment or the cash flow. The Chinese load the ships, and it's their ships that deliver to our piers."

He's absolutely right: As long as government—which, after all, builds all the bridges—can outsource major projects like this to the lowest-bidding, most exploitative employer in the entire world, we're not going to have an local industry able to build new bridges. Such is the monumental, self-serving stupidity of our Galtian/governmental confluence.

 

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Steve Benen at the Washington Monthly spells out the obvious, one more time:

Seven months after raising the specter of Republicans trying to hurt the economy on purpose, I can't help but notice the "sabotage" question appears to be picking up some steam. Just this month, some high-profile, mainstream pundits have begun exploring the issue, and just this week, two of Congress' most powerful Democrats broached the same subject.

Yesterday, Michael Tomasky went even further, arguing that Democrats should start "saying openly what has been clear for months or even years now — that as long as economic recovery would work to the political benefit of Barack Obama, the Republicans have been, are, and will be in favor of sabotaging the economy." Tomasky added this is "obvious."

The point isn't to question Republicans' bizarre priorities or values; the point is to make economic argument clear to the public. Too many bemoan a vague "lack of political will" or "absence of leadership" as the reason so little gets done. Those people are wrong.
[...]

Republicans said a payroll tax cut would help create jobs, and now they're opposed to their own idea. Republicans said the Economic Development Administration is great for the economy, and now they're opposed to that, too. Republicans have traditionally supported infrastructure investment, but the "infrastructure bank" idea appears likely to be killed by the GOP. Many Republicans endorsed the TANF Emergency Fund last year as an incredibly effective method of lowering unemployment, and the congressional GOP killed that, too.

Republicans are blocking qualified Treasury Department nominees who could also be working on economic policy. Republicans are blocking qualified Federal Reserve nominees who could also help improve the economy, while demanding that the Fed do nothing to promote economic activity. The GOP is demanding that Congress and the White House agree to immediately take money out of the economy and eliminate public-sector jobs, even when conservative economists say that's crazy. What's more, these same Republican officials have made it abundantly clear that failure to give them the cuts they want would force them to crash the economy on purpose.

And it's against this backdrop that one of the most powerful Republican officials on Capitol Hill has argued, more than once, that his "top priority" isn't job creation, but rather, "denying President Obama a second term in office."

There's a metaphor, originally I think from Alcoholics Anonymous, that badly damaged, dysfunctional people / families / organizations limp along by "ignoring the elephant in the room"... the 'elephant' being the horrible truth (addiction, co-dependency, criminal activity) which can't be treated until everyone stops pretending it doesn't exist. And in a group situation, the pretence is usually at the behest of one domineering individual who forces their victims to buy into their pathology at whatever cost to the rest of the group.

The current GOP leadership has taken its pathology to the national level, and its members (with the complicity of most of the media) are holding us all hostage to the worst elements of political authoritarianism, religious fundamentalism, and economic piracy. We need to start talking out loud about the dead elephant in the room—the GOP doesn't want to protect America, they just want to protect Republicans.

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As world diabetes rate doubles, Wal-Mart and K-Mart raise diabetes drug costs 

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Mexican invasion!

For years, many of us have been noting that the United States continues to violate international law and the sovereignty of foreign nations in some of our military assaults on terror targets. We have often asked how we would respond to countries like Mexico sending military personnel into our territory. Well, it happened this week when three military trucks loaded with Mexican soldiers crossed the border at Bridge Number Two into the U.S.

Continue reading 'Mexican Invasion! United States Objects To Mexican Troops Briefly Entering U.S.'

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Who doesn't feel safer with this brain trust at the wheel of security? They're all class, to boot.

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Guardian: Eisenhower's worst fears came true. We invent enemies to buy the bombs.

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Privatization kills.

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In other news, Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ), who walked out of budget negotiations along with Eric Cantor, went to bat for Big Oil today on Fox News Sunday, and the tires of 51 floats headed for a pride parade in Chicago were slashed last night.

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When Even a Corrupt Senator Cares About Constituents 

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Funny how budget cuts like this - the ones that cause actual, physical harm to innocent people - only happen when there's a Democrat in the White House.

Zandar ruins my whole fucking day:

The budget that did pass did make federal cuts to Planned Parenthood, and as a result, clinics are already starting to close across the country, not in just Indiana.

In Minnesota, clinics are closing. Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota announced this week that it'll be closing six Minnesota clinics because of federal cuts to Title X family planning funding that were made in this year's budget.

Announcing the closures, the organization's president and CEO, Sarah Stoesz, said the budget cuts "were driven by ideological attacks on women's health, not by a desire to fix the economy."

There will be cuts in North Carolina and Kansas, too.

The North Carolina cuts won't affect Medicaid patients but their spokesperson, Paige Johnson tells us they stand to lose all of their Title X family planning funding from the federal government and state funding for programs aimed at preventing teen pregnancy and providing access to the most effective forms of birth control for low-income women.

Kansas also defunded Planned Parenthood through the state budget -- Kansas' budget includes a measure that essentially disqualifies Planned Parenthood from receiving Title X funding. Medicaid patients aren't affected in Kansas, either. But according to Peter Brownlie, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Kansas & Mid-Missouri, those Title X funds represent about half of the revenue that runs Kansas' two Planned Parenthood clinics. The cuts are set to take effect July 1 and Mr. Brownlie says the organization is still considering a lawsuit.

Why do Republicans want poor women to have so little family care?  One theory is that if Republicans cut access to Planned parenthood services, poor people will be shamed into not having sex, and stop having children or something.  More cynical people like myself think that Republicans want the opposite to happen...to keep them poor.  Oh, and Republicans just hate women, too...especially the ones that won't submit to their dominion.

You bet your repug-reamed ass I'm fucking furious. But not at the repugs.

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Justice In America: A Tale Of Two Crimes

Consider Paul Allen, 55, a former mortgage CEO who defrauded lenders of over $3 billion. This week, prosecutors celebrated the fact they got him a 40-month prison sentence. Consider Roy Brown, 54, a hungry homeless man who robbed a bank of $100. The teller gave him more but he handed the rest back. The next day, he felt bad and surrendered to police. He got 15 years.

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Attorney Brian Kammer has called for the suspension of further lethal injections in Georgia after he said the execution of his client, Roy Blankenship, was botched with the use of an untested animal tranquilizer.
Continue reading 'Attorney Calls For Cessation Of Lethal Injection After Use of Animal Tranquilizer Allegedly Lead To Botched Execution'

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Delicious chemical McNuggets.: Eeeewwwwww.

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After the state of New York passed marriage equality on Friday night, the question begged to be asked: Who would be the first Republican presidential contender to attack the decision?

Despite his dubious history, Newt Gingrich saw fit to be the first out of the gate.

(Reuters) – Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich on Saturday said the adoption of same-sex marriage in New York showed the nation is "drifting toward a terrible muddle."

Saying he thinks marriage is between a man and a woman, he told reporters that he "would like to find ways to defend that view as legitimately and effectively as possible."

He said he thinks the nation should be defending the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage ass being between a man and a woman.

Newt Gingrich knows all about defending marriage, doesn't he?

Actually, I can think of no one better to educate the rest of us on what it looks like to be "drifting toward a terrible muddle."

Will Newt display his unrivaled patriotism and love of straight marriage by marrying a fourth woman? Only time, and his next bill from Tiffany's, will tell.

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Terrible Koch-owned Wisconsin Justice Allegedly Choked Lady Colleague

In response, Fox News' Greta Van Susteren has called for the resignation not of Prosser but Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson:

And while I have no idea who is off the wall (Justice Prosser or Justice Walsh or both), I do know one thing, CHIEF JUSTICE SHIRLEY ABRAHAMSON sure is not doing her job to lead the court and to give confidence to the people of Wisconsin. She needs to step aside and let someone else attempt to run that zoo.

Abrahamson is a previous victim on Prosser's abusive behavior. In March, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported "Justice David Prosser exploded at Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson behind closed doors, calling her a 'bitch' and threatening to 'destroy' her." While Prosser admitted he "probably overreacted," he also said his outburst was "entirely warranted." Bradley, Prosser's latest alleged victim, wrote an email to the other Justices complaining of his behavior.

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Skippy's environmental news stories Sunday.

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Israel's Government Press Office issued a letter yesterday telling foreign journalists that participating on an aid flotilla to Gaza is illegal under Israeli law. The letter sensationally claims that the flotilla "is a dangerous provocation that is being organized by western and Islamic extremist elements to aid Hamas."

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Fox News has been under increasing scrutiny this week after Daily Show host Jon Stewart appeared on Fox News Sunday last weekend where he came prepared with research to tear into the network as an "ideological organization" that "gets marching orders" to promote conservative ideology.

Today, Wallace devoted the end of his show to wagging his finger back at Stewart, laying out a lengthy defense of his employer. But within moments, Wallace demonstrated the very bias he was trying to disprove when he used the term "Obamacare" — a derisive term for the Affordable Care Act used reliably by conservative media, politicians, and activists. The rest of his argument was not much better. Wallace took particular issue with a poll Stewart cited that found that Fox has the most misinformed viewers. Wallace said the poll was junk because it labeled respondents as "misinformed" if they didn't believe scientists and acknowledge that climate change is real, or didn't trust the Congressional Budget Office that the Affordable Care Act lowers the deficit.

In other words, Wallace thinks someone who doesn't believe facts shouldn't be considered "misinformed": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxwmUjuRXSM&feature=player_embedded

The fact checking website PolitiFact called into question some of Stewart's statements, but as ThinkProgress and others have pointed out, their conclusions are wrong. Every poll that has tested factual knowledge on politically controversial issues has found Fox News viewers to be the most misinformed.

Headlines - Saturday June 25

With Afghan withdrawal, US focus turns to Pakistan

 

As the U.S. looks ahead to its phased withdrawal from Afghanistan, even more attention is being directed toward Pakistan, where Obama administration officials say al-Qaida and its allies are still plotting attacks against the West.

 

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President Barack Obama will reportedly announce tonight that he is going to reduce our current 100,000 troop level in Afghanistan by 30,000 — by November 2012. That date may seem familiar. It is the next election day.
Continue reading 'Obama To Order Troop Reduction — By November 2012′

 

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Congress is very serious about Libya

The House of Representatives voted on two bills today. One, to defund our logistical involvement in Libya. The other, to profess congressional support for our logistical involvement in Libya. Both bills were defeated.

In a confused message to President Obama, the House on Friday voted down both a bill to defund U.S. involvement in the Libya mission and a measure that would have granted the mission Congressional approval for one year.

All week, support had been building in the House for repudiating Obama's handling of the war with most concerns focused on his failure to consult Congress and gain its approval before authorizing airstrikes. But that movement fell short of sending the harshest rebuke at Congress' disposal — cutting off funds — although members registered their disapproval of the war and Obama's handling of it by failing to give it the Congressional seal of approval.

The final vote on the defunding bill was 180 in favor and 238 opposed. In the first vote, the House overwhelmingly voted down a bill that would have authorized U.S. military action in Libya for one year, 295 to 123.

?????????

Do something! No don't do something!

You can't attack the president for failing to procure congressional approval when congress is as fundamentally incoherent as this 112th congress is. Congress has had four fucking months to clearly approve or disapprove of U.S. involvement in Libya, and they just voted both ways on the same day!

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Most if not all of the Republicans are opposed to President Obama ending the Iraq War as well as the forthcoming end to the Afghanistan War. But, via Ezra Klein, the CBO says that reducing our military forces in those theaters would reduce the deficit by $1.1 trillion over the next 10 years.

"…the number of military personnel deployed for war-related purposes would decline over a five-year period to an average of 180,000 in 2011, 130,000 in 2012, 100,000 in 2013, 65,000 in 2014, and 45,000 in 2015 and thereafter. Under this scenario, total discretionary outlays over the 2012–2021 period would be $1.1 trillion less than the amount in the baseline. Debt-service costs would bring the cumulative savings relative to the baseline to about $1.4 trillion over the coming decade."

But the Republicans don't want that. And they were the ones cheerleading the whole ordeal in the first place, costing us trillions of dollars and thousands of American lives.

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"I'm surprised the health department has not come out against this because we are going to have an HIV epidemic if this passes. You don't see two male dogs sleeping in the same dog house together." New York State Senator Sam Trombley (R)

There are so many things wrong with this remark it's difficult to know where to begin. I suppose we can start by mentioning that marriages are intended to be monogamous and therefore safer — and end by noting that, while I typed this, I glanced several inches to right of my computer to see two dogs sleeping together on my floor. In other words, Sam Trombley is a homophobic ignoramus.

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OMG: Miss America Contestants on Evolution

 

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Congrats to New York - well done!

 

 

The State Senate just approved the marriage equality legislation by a vote of 33 - 29. Same-sex marriage becomes legal in New York 30 days after Governor Cuomo signs the bill into law

 

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Anson Kaye: House Republicans Stop Pesky Food Safety Regulations

 

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Gene Lyons: When the GOP doubled down on crazy

 

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House Condemns Libya Conflict For Real Reasons Iraq War Was Awful

Ruh-roh, House lawmakers have found time in their busy day avoiding debt talks to scold Obama for sending a few shiny war toys over to Libya, where NATO is still busy bombing Dictator Death for whatever reason that makes him worse than the guy killing all the Syrians. Oil, probably? Yeah, so quit doing that, you're wasting all our money, the House cried to Obama by a vote of 295-123. It's been too long (3 months), and you've spent all this money ($716 million)! And what's your problem with dictators, anyway? The Libyans didn't ask you to come over and help them install a democracy might have asked you to help them overthrow their murderous dictator and his horrible sons to establish a democracy, but whatever, they are not freedom-loving Muslims they're freedom-loving Muslims that House lawmakers don't care about.

Here is something about the Iraq war: it cost over $3 trillion. The U.S. deficit hovers just under $15 trillion, so you might say, if you liked math, that this is the equivalent of somewhere around one-fifth of the current U.S. debt!

From McClatchy:

They were thwarted by an unusual combination of anti-war Democrats, as well as most Republicans, who argued that the three-month old mission has become too murky and too costly. 70 Democrats joined 225 Republicans to vote against the measure.

Haha, "too murky and too costly." Is that possibly the most cynical thing any lawmaker could ever surmise about the Libyan conflict if that lawmaker also voted for the Iraq war? No, probably you would have to add in some glib comments about how it is not the job of the United States to fight someone's battle for democracy, or whatever. Meanwhile, almost half of the world's conflict refugees are people who have been displaced by American wars. [McClatchy]

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Party before country

Congressional Republicans on Thursday abandoned budget talks aimed at clearing the way for a federal debt limit increase, leaving the outcome in doubt as they vowed not to give in to a Democratic push for new tax revenues as part of any compromise.

Let's be clear about this: The Republicans Confederates in Congress have zero interest in doing anything to help push the economy along. They would rather sink this country than take the smallest risk that any Democrat could take any credit for it.

There is no "bipartisan deal" for the budget talks. There is only what the Confederates want, what the Confederates will permit. That is why there has been no plan whatsoever to lower the unemployment rate, because the Confederates will not let it happen.

Sooner or later, people are going to start waking up to the reality that the Republicans are sabotaging our country for their own partisan interests.

 

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A necessary prelude, especially for members of Congress who apparently don't bother to read or pay attention to, you know, our actual past: http://www.theygaveusarepublic.com/diary/8571/rep-todd-akin-r-god-is-on-whos-side

 

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Santorum: 'There's No Such Thing As Global Warming'

 

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Screw MTV: Tea party makes own show about unwed colonial mothers

 

Uh, hurray! Coming soon to an Internet-capable computer near you is the world's first Tea Party teevee series, not about Michele Bachmann's trademark "demon eyes" makeup secrets like you might think, but an ultra-bizarre historical drama about an unmarried colonial teen mom named Sarah Palin Pine and how everyone in town must hunt down the man who impregnated her and force the pair to get married. Here is the creator, wealthy Hollywood wingnut James Patrick Riley, on why he made the show: "Hollywood tends to make over the past in its own image – 18^th century women become raging feminists; statesmen become agnostics or rakes." Which, awesome, since it will be one of those nice God-fearin' and woman-beatin' shows everyone has been waiting for to remind America of why it is great. AMAZING TRAILER after the jump: READ MORE » 

 

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Line of the day, via Doghouse Riley:

"The Republican presidential field looks less like an assemblage of candidates than a collection of fatal mistakes and irreparable flaws, with occasional embodiments of one or more of the Seven Deadly Sins."—Steve Chapman, Real Clear Politics

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