Thursday, September 27, 2012

Huge Voter Registration Fraud Found in Fla (Yep, It's Republicans again)

This is several times larger than all of the ACORN problems combined, but do you think it's going to hit the news? Me neither. TPM Has the Story

Monday, September 24, 2012

Charlie Gibson on Congress...

In October of last year the Congressional approval rating was down to nine percent. That's the lowest in history. My question: who the hell are that nine percent? What world are they living in?
And in an aside, he also says it's over and Obama wins.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Mormon Bishop Demands Single Mother Give Baby Up For Adoption or Be Excommunicated

The Bishop "walked into her small apartment, made small talk and then commanded her to give her baby up for adoption after it was born. He was her bishop, and as she knew, Mormonism disapproved of single motherhood. Hayes said no." The single mother, Peggy Hayes, gives a credible account of her lay Bishop then telling her she would be excommunicated. The lay bishop was Mitt Romney. From Alternet

Friday, September 21, 2012

Sarah Silverman Nails Tennessee Voter ID Law

What a brilliant solution!

(warning: well deserved profanity liberally used)



Thursday, September 20, 2012

OK, Look...

Outraged Christian extremists firebombed a theater showing Martin Scorcese's "The Last Temptation of Christ", so don't go telling me it's all about the Muslims. It's not. It's about religious tolerance and standing up for free speech, even if you personally detest a particular message. Religious extremists of whatever denominations are to be shunned and ostracized and tolerance shouted from every soapbox if we are going to have a peaceable world.

Where is the consistent message of tolerance from our leaders and news media? I want to hear the message on every news show and read it on every opinion page. We must make the case that any religion so small that it cannot stand against perceived insult is weak beyond redemption and should be turned away from. Violence is not a religious tool that a sane world can tolerate.

America stands for a number of freedoms, and foremost among these is the right to express opinions in our media and our art...even bad art, such as the recent movie that seems to have offended certain  Islamic extremists. Every religion on earth can find some artistic expression that it can be offended by without looking very hard. In America we stand behind the right of others to offend you. We also stand behind your right to express through any form of free speech why others should share your opinion and emotion. What America will not do is allow a violent act in a foreign sovereignty goad us into suppressing American freedoms codified in the tenets of our Constitution and Bill of Rights. We condemn and oppose violent religious extremists of all ilks and will use the force of domestic law and international diplomacy to oppose anyone who uses violence in the attempt to suppress what we in America believe is the fundamental human right to free speech.

We believe in everyone's right to make their opinion known and we believe in everyone else's right to oppose that opinion in speech of every form, including a crappy movie.

Monday, September 17, 2012

What's Really Going On IN the Chicago Teacher Strike

In any society where wealth and income concentrate overwhelmingly at the top, the affluent will almost always come to sneer at public services and the men and women who provide them. In Chicago, those men and women have pushed back.

Today's must read!

Sunday, September 16, 2012

How Big Media Has Thrown Off the Shackles of its Constitutional Duty

Southern Beale:


Seriously, people? And since when did reporting facts become “litigating the issue”? No wonder you suck.
Yes, do keep telling me how the internet killed journalism. Please.

Friday, September 14, 2012

From Our "Obnoxious Loudness Is Not Foreign Policy Expertise" Dept

Best line of the day:

Romney had an opportunity to condemn hate speech and religious intolerance as well as the violence and murders. Instead he chose to condemn the President...R.Neal
And it was a lie to start with:
Romney keeps accusing Obama of "apologizing for American values." Putting aside for a moment the fact that Obama did no such thing and to say that he did is an outright lie, what are the "American values" Romney is referring to?

 KnoxViews.com

Monday, September 10, 2012

Today's Must Read

From Southern Beale...

During the Bush years I observed how the messages and activities coming from the Republican Party corresponded with cult thought control techniques (something I touched on in this post last year), to the point where I wondered if somehow the Unification Church’s cult techniques hadn’t been adopted by the GOP and performed on the American population as a whole. I still think there’s something to that.

The parallels are obvious, but is anybody listening?

Sunday, September 9, 2012

TN R's Sponsor Bills to Impose Religious Views

You can couch it in any terms you want but Republicans have obtained and kept Congressional power by introducing bills to impose Conservative religious views on the rest of the citizenry.

Take the ludicrous concept that "Life begins at conception", for instance. Somehow this has become a biblical concept in the right wing mind, even though there is scant evidence for it and even a passage that appears to support abortion in the old testament. But putting that aside, anyone who has looked at sperm under a microscope (or seen the science class videos, assuming they still had science in your school) will be forced to admit that sperm are very much alive and so, presumably, are the eggs each and every one of them will try with all their existence to join with in the process of birthing a new human. The point at which sperm and egg become human is a point of much debate. Only certain religious communities claim to know this for certainty, based on the fact that religion has nearly always gotten scientific matters completely wrong in the past and continues that proud heritage even as I type and you read. For those who have the certainty of their own personal religion to impose that through weight of majority rule is contrary to everything the founding fathers intended. It did, of course, take a Supreme Court ruling to point that out. This outraged a certain brand of religious bigot and empowered those who would use that outrage as a source of votes, even when they and their wives privately supported the Freedom of choice.

 The problem of imposing one set of religious dogma onto others is only touched at the surface by the abortion question. Deeper and more frightening is the growing realization that we now have a Vice Presidential nominee who would willingly participate in the outlawing of contraception. How can any sane person give two minutes of thought to world population and not come away as a fierce advocate of free contraception for all? There is not a single problem of magnitude on this entire planet that can't be linked to a population oh humans greater than the ability of the planet to sustainably support. To oppose contraception is to have a death wish, not just for you and your children, but for Planet Earth as we know it.

 So there.

 Steve

 The Tennessean has a run down on stupid grandstanding bills by TN Congress people.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

The Speech Every Democratic Candidate Should Give

The Truth is our weapon. Let's go use it! A partial transcript is here.

Plutocrats

The GOP puts forth a genuine plutocrat as their Presidential offering and a compulsive liar wannabe as their vice. A tollbooth world is what their puppet masters are shooting for. Amazingly, a conservative voice seems to be questioning the ideology and the world it will lead us to...
Our plutocracy now lives like the British in colonial India: in the place and ruling it, but not of it. If one can afford private security, public safety is of no concern; if one owns a Gulfstream jet, crumbling bridges cause less apprehension—and viable public transportation doesn’t even show up on the radar screen. With private doctors on call and a chartered plane to get to the Mayo Clinic, why worry about Medicare?
Revolt of the Rich If you prefer the cliff notes version this is an excellent read.