"On the 13th season of Dancing with the Stars, the indoctrination is in full swing. This fall, ABC's picked its first transsexual to compete. Chaz Bono, the famous child of Sonny and Cher, may have been born a woman, but she'll be dancing as a man. And while the gay community approves, fans certainly don't. ABC's been blasted by thousands of viewers for turning a popular show into an hour-long political statement. The message boards are full of angry parents who think ABC's gone too far. One mom wrote, 'I am not about to risk the potential for on screen dialogue about sex changes and gender confusion while my 7 and 9-year old are watching. We are NOT tolerant [if tolerance means allowing] any influences to come unfiltered into our home.' I guess if 'Dancing' wants to advertise for the radical Left, they'll find out how out of step they are!" - Tony Perkins, hate group head, KKK backer, and supporter of white supremacists.
Republican presidential candidate Rick W. Perry declined an invitation to participate in a South Carolina presidential forum hosted by Senator Jim DeMint yesterday so that he could return home to "deal with" the history-making wildfires ravaging Texas.
The problem for Texas is Rick Perry has a very funny way of dealing with wildfires — he cut funding for volunteer fire departments by 75 percent.
Under Gov. Rick Perry (R) this year, Texas slashed state funding for the volunteer fire departments that protect most of the state from wildfires like the ones that have recently destroyed more than 700 homes.
Volunteer departments that were already facing financial strain were slated to have their funding cut from $30 million to $7 million, according to KVUE.
The majority of Texas is protected by volunteer fire departments. There are 879 volunteer fire departments in Texas and only 114 paid fire departments. Another 187 departments are a combination of volunteer and paid.
A 75 percent cut to funding for the only fire-fighting force protecting the overwhelming majority of your state! Brilliant! Way to save money!
Because a large portion of Texas has been left without protection, shouldn't The Market™ give rise to a wave of new, privately-owned fire departments generating profits?
No? My mistake.
Are wildfires God's punishment for Rick Perry cutting the budget for volunteer fire departments in Texas from $30 million to $7 million? Ask Michele Bachmann. Maybe she has a humorous answer.
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After months of blatant obstruction and a refusal to confirm Elizabeth Warren as the head of the new consumer protection agency, Warren withdrew her nomination to explore the idea of running for senate.
As her replacement, President Obama nominated Richard Cordray, the former Attorney General of Ohio. And as the Republicans are now clearly stating, they won't confirm him either unless their demands for cash-money, a fully-fueled jet waiting for them at the airport, and the resurrection of 8-track tapes are met.
"Opposition to or support of Mr. Cordray's nomination will become relevant as soon as the President agrees to make the structural changes we've requested," said Jonathan Graffeo, the spokesman for Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.). "Until then, Sen. Shelby and his colleagues stand firmly behind the statement they expressed in their May letter: No accountability, no confirmation."
The "structural changes" they were demanding during the battle over Elizabeth Warren at the same changes they are demanding now — they want the consumer protection agency rendered toothless and ineffectual.
Only after the agency is neutered will they be willing to confirm anyone for the office, because the Republicans are okay with Big Government and Big Bureaucracy as long as it has no actual power or the ability to do its job.
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Report: Obama Administration Dropping Troop Levels In Iraq To 3,000
Update: Asked whether the report was accurate, White House press secretary Jay Carney responded at his press briefing Tuesday afternoon with a flat "no."
"We want a normal, productive, healthy relationship with Iraq," he said. "If the Iraqi government makes a request of us, we will certainly consider it."
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The story of a Rochester area man who killed his 10 year-old and 3 year-old daughters over the weekend didn't even make the national news, because some nut in Nevada and another psycho in West Virginia killed five people each. The Nevada incident involved an AK-47.
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Brad Friedman and Mother Jones have a meaty series of linked articles taking us "Inside the Koch Brothers' Secret Seminar":
Because progressives are punctilious about fairness (not that there's anything wrong with that), Kevin Drum points out that "[I]t's quite possible that Koch intended something like, 'Saddam Hussein called the Gulf War the mother of all wars, and for us, this is the mother of all wars we've got in the next 18 months.'"
Besides, when you read the whole thing, there's plenty hard-data details to get righteously outraged over, apart from Koch's habit of speaking from the murky depths of his Robber Baron id.
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So, ten years after 9/11, have we come to our senses and stopped spending a trillion on defense and "national security" and surveillance? No. Will we gtfo of Afghanistan and Iraq? No. Will we stop using the Patriot Act for hings like the drug war? Of course not. But we do have this:
Air travelers will eventually be able to keep their shoes on to pass through security, but the restrictions on carrying liquids on board are likely to remain in place for some time, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told a POLITICO Playbook breakfast Tuesday."We are moving towards an intelligence and risk-based approach to how we screen," Napolitano told Mike Allen during a morning forum at the Newseum. "I think one of the first things you will see over time is the ability to keep your shoes on. One of the last things you will [see] is the reduction or limitation on liquids."
The Onion staff wept.
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How Social Security is a ponzi scheme
It's not. From Mother Jones:
(Last) Saturday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry told a group of voters that Social Security is a "Ponzi scheme" and a "monstrous lie" to younger Americans. It's not the first time the GOP presidential candidate has made such claims. The Texas governor also described Social Security as a Ponzi scheme in his 2010 book, "Fed Up!," and has argued the program is unconstitutional and could be handed over to the states.When politicians make clearly false claims, reporters have an obligation to explain to readers why those claims are false-or at least quote someone who can. I would suggest political scientist Jonathan Bernstein:
Very simple: anyone who says that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme either misunderstands Social Security, misunderstands Ponzi schemes, is deliberately lying, or some combination of those...After all, a Ponzi scheme is a deliberate fraud. Saying that Social Security is financed like a Ponzi scheme is factually wrong, but saying that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme or is like a Ponzi scheme is basically a false accusation of fraud against the US government and the politicians who have supported Social Security over the years.
Andrew Sullivan's readers also have a number of good reasons why Social Security is not a Ponzi scheme. The Social Security Administration also has a good web page explaining why Social Security is not a Ponzi scheme. But I find that charts often make understanding things easier, so here's a Venn diagram I made that explains some of the differences and similarities between Social Security and a Ponzi scheme:
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Nearly 100 current lobbyists are former employees of members of the debt supercommittee, and many now represent defense contractors, healthcare conglomerates, Wall Street banks, and other industries with the most at stake in the committee's negotiations. Three Democratic and three Republican members also have former lobbyists on their congressional staffs.
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Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) "on Tuesday signed into law a stricter, four-year lifetime limit on cash welfare benefits, prompting advocates for the poor to warn that tens of thousands of residents will find themselves without cash assistance on Oct. 1." An advocate from the Michigan League for Human Services expects 41,000 people to lose their benefits next month, including 29,700 children.
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A new poll about Americans' hatred of Muslims, just in time for 9/11
Get out your miniature American flags and get ready for all those chain e-mails from Grandma because it's almost that time of year again! It has now been ten years since 9/11, which means America has had ten years to grieve, reflect, and cultivate limitless hatred for a religion we can't even begin to understand. This is the general conclusion of a poll conducted by the Brookings Institution that dared to ask, "Just how ignorant are we?" And because we are the BEST COUNTRY EVER CREATED BY GOD we have of course won the championship Gold Medal of Ignorance. Patriot victory laps around the neighborhood mosque! READ MORE »
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10 Years After 9/11 Attacks, The Greatest Cover-Up In U.S. History Remains Intact
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Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry delighted a conservative audience in South Carolina Monday with his simple stance on gun control legislation.
"Honestly, the next question is so easy that I don't even want to ask it," event host Rep. Tim Scott (R-SC) told Perry. "Are you for gun control?"
"I am actually for gun control," Perry deadpanned. "Use both hands."
The Texas governor followed his joke by flashing a toothy grin and giving the audience a thumbs up.
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