Keith's Special Comment On "Ground Zero Mosque" Goes Viral

Congrats, KO! Duking it out for top viral video honors with Eminem is quite a feat.

Sarah The Constitutional Scholar And Her New BFF

Let’s face it: Sister Sarah is the gift that keeps on giving. The woman is such a complete moron that she jumps into the “Dr.” Laura “N” word fray without giving it much thought or reflection (not that she can) or realizing the utter imbecility of her tweets. The woman who has redefined “idiot” to beyond metaphysical cluelessness even lacks the basic understanding to limit her low I.Q. on display to more than 140 characters. Which is, after all, the point of her tweeting: Keep what you say within 140 characters and you won’t sound like an idiot -- FAIL!

Here’s her latest pair of REALLY STOOPID TWEETS:

By “Laura:don't retreat...reload!” Sister Sarah seems to be urging Laura to double down (“reload”) on the “N” word. Nice.

Then the idiot totally misrepresents the First Amendment: Dr. Laura’s First Amendment rights never “ceased 2exist thx 2activists trying 2silence” her because (a) she resigned voluntarily, and (b) the First Amendment also protects the right of Dr. Laura’s critics to criticize her or threaten a boycott of her advertisers. Oh Sarah, we’re missing the part in the Constitution that forbids advertiser boycotts?

And Sarah, even if the faux doctor had been fired by her employer, here’s a Newsflash, YOU IDIOT: The First Amendment does not protect employees from restrictions on speech by private companies and organizations. Therefore, “Dr.” Laura’s employer is perfectly within its rights to terminate her employment if it finds she violated its standards and practices for permitted speech. In most private organizations in this country, anyone who repeats the word “nigger” in the workplace even one time let alone eleven, is practically begging for a pink slip.

The First Amendment, missy, protects us from government censorship and infringement on our free-speech rights! Furthermore, use of the word “shackles” in this context isn’t only insensitive and offensive, but downright racist. Even an individual as stupid as Sarah Palin should have barely, just barely sufficient gray matter to know better.

Sister Sarah is like a hapless house pet collector going, “Here Dr. Laura kitty, kitty-kitty-kitty” as she reaches into a nest of vipers. I wonder how much America’s village idiot is looking forward to “unshackled” offerings like this one from the viciously opinionated faux “doctor.” C’mon, “Dr.” Laura, why don’t you tell us what you really think of Sarah Palin!

“I am extremely disappointed in the choice of Sarah Palin as the Vice Presidential candidate of the Republican Party. I will still vote for Senator McCain, because I am very concerned about having a fundamental leftist, especially one who is a marvelous orator, as President…

I'm stunned - couldn’t the Republican Party find one competent female with adult children to run for Vice President with McCain? I realize his advisors probably didn’t want a “mature” woman, as the Democrats keep harping on his age. But really, what kind of role model is a woman whose fifth child was recently born with a serious issue, Down Syndrome, and then goes back to the job of Governor within days of the birth?

I am haunted by the family pictures of the Palins during political photo-ops, showing the eldest daughter, now pregnant with her own child, cuddling the family’s newborn.”

Cat fight, anyone?

P.S. -- For you Palin fans and teabaggers out there: Can you spell hypocrisy? Do you really think being as stupid and hypocritical as Sister Sarah is a high virtue? Sarah, here’s your big, dumb mouth coming back to BITE-YA:

“I would ask the president to show decency in this process by eliminating one member of [his] inner circle, Mr. Rahm Emanuel,” Palin wrote in February. “The Obama Administration’s Chief of Staff scolded [liberal critics] calling them, ‘F---ing retarded,’ according to several participants, as reported in the Wall Street Journal. Just as we’d be appalled if any public figure of Rahm’s stature ever used the “N-word” or other such inappropriate language, Rahm’s slur on all God’s children with cognitive and developmental disabilities -- and the people who love them -- is unacceptable, and it’s heartbreaking.”

From where we’re sitting, missy, this one looks like a TWO-FER re: your new BFF, “Dr.” Laura.

Ted Olson, Former Solicitor General Under George W. Bush, Weighs In on Mosque Controversy

It is truly tragic that the view of a rational and prominent conservative such as Ted Olson, whose wife died in the plane that crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11, should not prevail with the leadership of the Republican Party and indeed among most self-described conservatives. It is evident that the Republicans have no responsible leadership; they have capitulated to the Islamophobic incitements of Limbaugh’s hate radio and Palin’s racist and moronic tweets.

Few critics of the Islamic cultural center project in lower Manhattan have suffered more than the 9/11 families and Mr. Olson, with whom they share that special bond. After having to endure the indecent politicized bloviations of Newt Gingrich, comparing Muslim Americans to Nazis and center organizers to “triumphalist radical Islamists,” it is still surprising to hear the dissonant voice of decency from this honorable conservative:

Blago Sends Patrick Fitzgerald a Music Card:

Lone juror 'refused to find Blagojevich guilty'

A single juror prevented former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich being convicted of selling Barack Obama's Senate seat, the jury foreman has said.

The juror, a female retiree, believed there wasn't sufficient evidence - "a smoking gun" - to warrant a conviction for corruption, James Matsumoto said.

"She saw it as, no crime was being committed. It was just talk - political talk," Mr Matsumoto told reporters.

The Chicago federal jury convicted Blagojevich of lying to FBI agents.

That charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in jail.

The jury was unable to reach unanimous verdicts on 23 other corruption charges. On several charges, the same juror held out.

Notes From the Fringe: Oh, Those Wingnut Reptilian Brains!

When asked on ‘The View’ to comment on the recent controversy involving a USDA official who was falsely accused of racism by wingnut provocateur Andrew Breitbart, President Obama said “There’s still kind of a reptilian side of our brain -- that part of our brain that if somebody looks different, sounds different” … reacts like, well, a wingnut. Obviously, the more developed the reptilian brain, the more like a wingnut the creature will react.

POP Quiz: Who among these Fox GOP network hosts and fellow travelers in hate radio and wingnut blogosphere have the most developed reptilian brain?

Obs.: The creature on the left is more ferret-like in the way it curls its upper lips; the creature on the right is definitely a highly-developed reptilian brain, which is also a sign of low intelligence; the two in the middle suffer from Messianic delusions, more than one is clinically insane, and one barks on his TV program like a dog.

In other reptilian brain news, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, the wingnut radio host who dispenses "social conservative" advice, announced she is ending her show, claming persecution by “angry, hateful groups” who were offended by a racist rant in which she said “nigger” eleven times on her radio show. “Dr.” Laura claims she was making a “philosophical point” and berated the caller who took offense.

This is a spurious claim. Whatever “philosophical point” Dr. Laura was trying to make could have been edited in the faux doctor’s mind. (She is not a Board-certified psychologist or psychiatrist nor does she hold a degree in philosophy.) To initiate an intelligent dialogue, “Dr.” Laura could have simply asked the question: “African American comedians on HBO say the “N” word multiple times. Is there a double standard?” Instead, she launched into a tirade compulsively shouting the “N” word multiple times while heaping scorn, resentment, and racism on the caller:



It’s quite different for African Americans to take ownership of arguably the most despicable word in the English language, one that was used to dehumanize and define them, and in so doing, defang and strip it of its heinous context. Sticks and stones. Those of us who know of the history -- the centuries of slavery, racism, lynchings, and state-sanctioned discrimination –- understand the non-discriminatory context. It is not a double standard.

“Dr.” Laura wasn’t just being “politically incorrect” by shouting the ‘N’ word eleven times, saying indignantly, “don’t N-double-ACP me,” then berating the caller that if she’s so “hypersensitive” she shouldn’t “marry outside [her] race.” Give them enough rope and they’ll hang themselves. Most wingnuts, including “Dr.” Laura, are immune from standards of decency and nondiscrimination that govern our lives out in the normal world.

Only in RightWingVille could a radio talk show host voluntarily step down then whine that “my First Amendment rights have been usurped by angry, hateful groups that don’t want to debate, they want to eliminate.” Wingnuts are first-class whiners and have a finely-tuned persecution complex when they’re caught being offensive, unethical, hypocritical, and racist. If only Glenn Beck, whose program Fox subsidizes after a mass advertiser flight, and the reptilian (‘Pigman’ is an insult to bovines) Rush Limbaugh followed her example, ending their daily hate regurgitations with a parting persecution whine … and were replaced by responsible radio hosts, the world would be a better place. Guaranteed.

For someone who isn’t qualified to dispense on-air advice, “Dr.” Laura made a wise choice in stepping down. Here’s a bit of gratuitous, but wise, advice for “Dr.” Laura: Seek immediate professional help from a Board-certified psychiatrist to work on your race-related issues.

Blago Verdict Is In: Hung Jury on 23 of 24 Counts

Rod “Elvis” Blagojevich skates. Of the 24 counts, Rod Blagojevich was convicted on only one count: Lying to the FBI about his knowledge of individual campaign contributions and contributors. Ironically, he was convicted of lying about something that isn’t a crime. The disgraced former Illinois governor got off on all the major counts, including racketeering and trying to sell President Obama’s Senate seat to the highest bidder.

[Caption correction: Delete "Jury" and insert in its place "Juror"]

So it’s perjury, carrying a maximum of 5 years jail time and a $250,000 fine. But the judge declared a mistrial on the other deadlocked 23 counts. The prosecution vows to retry the case, but at what point is it a case of diminishing returns. Big loss for Patrick Fitzgerald. It seems the Blago strategy of working the local radio talk show circuit and playing the hapless bumbler on Celebrity Apprentice had an impact. Blago’s father-son legal team, judged to be outclassed and lacking in “style” to try a case in federal court, came out looking like geniuses. Evidently, Blago’s depiction as “not the sharpest knife in the drawer” resonated with the jury.

At this writing, Elvis is still in the building.

Hysteria Grips Nation Over the Building of an Islamic Center Near Ground Zero

A few salient facts seem to vanish amid the rampant demagoguery of Republican politicians and runaway xenophobia of the usual suspects on the right, but also among those who ought to know better, including Democrats and members of the non-Fox media. The issue: Whether a private Islamic group has the right to build an Islamic community center (not a mosque, although 2 of 13 floors are set aside as a prayer area) several blocks from Ground Zero in lower Manhattan.

• The Islamic community center (it is not a mosque nor is it on Ground Zero) is to be built on private property, an abandoned building that once housed the Burlington Coat Factory;

• Its religious neighbors within walking distance include at least two churches and one tiny walk-in mosque (closer to Ground Zero) that predate (one church by centuries) the 9/11 attacks;

• The building shares space with such commercial establishments that include tattoo parlors, greasy spoons, thrift shops, and perhaps a house or two of ill-repute … It is hardly hallowed ground, but rather a fairly typical New York City neighborhood. And given all the empty storefronts, it is an area that could use development and economic activity, as Mayor Mike Bloomberg and other City leaders who support the center recognize;

• The responsible leaders –- those who aren’t running for the hills in the face of a tough reelection –- President Obama and New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg in particular, have weighed in favoring development the Islamic community center on the proposed site.

The Republican politicians who jumped in to oppose the center on cynical political grounds have been despicable. After the President, and others, eloquently defended the constitutional right of the community center to be built, Republicans realized they could not invoke the Constitution in opposition. (The First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of religion, is a heavy lift; it’s the 14th Amendment they want to repeal.) So they quickly recalibrated the message to one of “sensitivity.”

John Boehner said building a mosque (it’s a community center) near Ground Zero shows “a gross lack of sensitivity to the 9/11 families and to the people who were lost.” Frankly, this demagogue couldn’t recognize “sensitivity” unless it whacked him in the balls with a nine iron. Texas Republican John Cornyn said the President’s remarks were “out of touch.” The Republican game plan is to milk this controversy as one of their typical hot button campaign issues in the Fall.

The President addressed the issue eloquently, with all due respect for the families of the victims: “Now, we must all recognize and respect the sensitivities surrounding the development of Lower Manhattan. The 9/11 attacks were a deeply traumatic event for our country. And the pain and the experience of suffering by those who lost loved ones is just unimaginable. So I understand the emotions that this issue engenders. And Ground Zero is, indeed, hallowed ground.”

But, the President continued, “As a citizen, and as President, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. And that includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America. And our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country and that they will not be treated differently by their government is essential to who we are. The writ of the Founders must endure.”

President Obama reminded us that we are fighting Al Quaeda and not the 1.4 billion Muslims in the world, or the millions of American Muslims. In followup remarks one day later, the President said he would not comment on the “wisdom” of building the community center, but only on its constitutionality, which dates back to our founding. This gave Republicans an opening to attack him. From the President’s perspective, however, it’s not wise for him to further stoke right wing hysteria, manufactured or not, regardless of short-lived political consequences. Not now. There is still time to allow Republicans to overplay their hand. Some responsible Republican leaders such as Governor Charlie Crist of Florida, who will likely win the Senate seat as an independent and caucus with Democrats, said Republicans are overreacting.

Whether or not Ground Zero is “hallowed ground,” as the President said, is a matter for reasonable disagreement. I do not believe, in its present dimensions, that it is, principally because a new, titanic building is being constructed on the site. A comparison was made to Auschwitz, where 1.1 million Jews were exterminated in the Nazi gas chambers. When an Order of Carmelite nuns set up a convent in Auschwitz, Pope John Paul II ordered them to leave. Unlike Ground Zero, though, where construction to erect a new commercial financial center proceeds apace, Auschwitz stands as it did at the height of the Nazi genocide –- a stark reminder to the world of the unimaginable horror that occurred in that now-empty and desolate place.

The same can be said for Gettysburg Battlefield, that was consecrated as hallowed ground by President Lincoln and remains largely unchanged by the passage of time. Efforts to turn the area into condominium and commercial development have met with fierce opposition. Once the new Ground Zero financial center is completed and occupied on the site of the fallen towers, how much of this new, massive construction will be “hallowed ground?”

A memorial to the 9/11 victims is certainly planned. It will be hallowed ground, just as the Arizona Memorial site is at Pearl Harbor. But how much of Pearl, where more than two thousand Americans died, remains hallowed ground today? These are difficult questions, but they are not without importance. Would Auschwitz remain hallowed ground if it was razed and flattened tomorrow to make way for a mall where the camp had once stood? Once a decision is made to build over sites imbued with such meaning, do the physical parameters of the hallowed ground change? One could argue that they did not change in Auschwitz and Gettysburg, but did at Pearl Harbor, and will at Ground Zero with completion and occupancy of the new financial center.

Significantly, the area surrounding Ground Zero, as was shown, cannot be considered hallowed ground, much less be of special religious significance to one faith or the other, as the Wailing Wall is to Jews or the Stations of the Cross is to Christians in Jerusalem.

Ground Zero and its surrounding neighborhoods are not religious holy sites.

Although 68% to 32% of Americans oppose development of the incorrectly named “Ground Zero mosque”— many respondents have never been to New York City and probably regard it with suspicion or distaste bordering on all-out contempt. Those most affected by its proximity, New York City residents, favor the community center by a sizable 56%. Not surprisingly, the polling data show a great deal more ambivalence and nuance in the attitudes of the American people.

What has been lost in this ugly debate is that Muslim Americans were among those who died in the towers on 9/11 alongside Christians and Jews and every other victim. What about them? What makes them any different than the other victims?

Among the most vocal opponents of the community center using the issue for political gain, stoking hatred and xenophobia, none has been more despicable than Newt Gingrich. He compared the building of the Islamic community center to putting a Nazi sign next the Holocaust Museum. It’s probably the single most offensive thing this pompous windbag who would be president has ever uttered. Not only has he offended millions of Muslim Americans who have no connection whatsoever to terrorism, but he painted the entire Islamic faith with the broad brush of Nazism. And this, even as 17 million Pakistani Muslims face a humanitarian catastrophe in flood-ravaged lands, requiring immediate relief.

Inciting hatred and bigotry against those who cannot defend themselves is what demagogues and bullies do. The media outside Fox “News” has been irresponsible as well. This is how one arrogant, self-absorbed CNN anchor reacted. Despite certain news accounts that chose to quote one organization of 9/11 families who are opposed to the community center over others, for maximum conflict, in truth the families are not monolithic. They are divided in their sentiments. I was particularly struck by what Charles Wolf said in this excerpted news story of 9/11 families’ reactions:

Charles Wolf of New York City lost his wife, Katherine, in the attacks. “She was a wonderful girl,” said Wolf, 56.

He said he supports the Muslim community center “100 percent.”

“I'm not going to brand any group for the actions of a few of the fringe,” Wolf said. “The fact that the extremists who did this to us have now moved us in this direction through our fear and hatred, to be exactly like them ... it will come back to haunt us.”

He accused certain politicians, like former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, of using the controversy over the community center to “foster a public backlash against Muslims.” Giuliani called the project “a desecration” on the conservative Jeff Katz radio show this week.

Wolf thinks that sentiment is wrong, and said Americans can't support the rights of certain groups over others.

“This country was founded on the principles of religious freedom for all,” he said. “Are we going to start denying that to people? If we start doing that we start dismantling the values this country was founded upon.”

In the final analysis, religious freedom is not subject to “sensitivity” or bigotry. It is a right conferred to us by the Constitution. Whether or not an Islamic community center (and mosque) should be developed near Ground Zero is a local not a national, or presidential, or congressional decision. The decent, American thing to do is reject the hate of Newt Gingrich and stand with Charles Wolf and the memory of his wife, who died on 9/11.

The message here is that we will always remember and honor the victims of 9/11. But life and living must, and should, go on.

Monday School With Mike Malloy: Eviscerating The Tea Party

Nothing like starting the week off with a few Mike rants. Here Mike takes aim at the Tea Party.

Robert Gibbs’ Strange Outburst at the “Professional Left”

It’s much ado about nothing in the grand scheme of things. Mostly, it’s one of those stories that resonate inside the beltway, like a giant particle accelerator whipping overheated matter and energy around the nation’s capital before dissipating of its own accord. As beltway particle accelerator stories go, this one fell short of the breathless POLITICO feverish critical mass and Armaggeddon standard.

Still, while generally a yawner, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs’s General McChrystal moment last week had its teachable nuggets. For the Left, “professional” or not, there was mostly bemusement at gaining such an elevated station in Gibby’s eyes. Michael Moore said it was the first time he’d heard the Left referred to as “professional” so he wasn’t sure he’d take offense. Gibby said he watched too much cable (‘because he had to’?), hence that nasty MSNBC trio (who else is there?) must be responsible. Although I’m not quite sure where Gibby heard President Obama compared to George W. Bush. For once, Gibbs left the wingnuts speechless when he said we ought to be “drug tested” and would only be satisfied if “Dennis Kucinich was president.”

Gibbs cried into his beer that we in the Left weren’t being good little foot soldiers like the Fox-Republican-wingnut axis when the Unitary Executive-Patriot Act torturers were in power. As if to justify the White House selling out to corporate interests, Gibbs was dismayed that we might look favorably on Canadian-style (Medicare) universal healthcare. Why is the happiness index of Canadians and every other country that provides universal healthcare to its people higher than the U.S.’s? And they live on average three-to-five years longer than us, too. Only in this country would aspiring to the pursuit of happiness, the American Dream, stolen from us by modern, healthy, affluent, HAPPY 21st Century states be considered a sign of drug-induced madness. We get the fife-and-drum crowd with the powdered whigs (sp. intentional) -- but Robert Gibbs?

Ultimately, Gibbs’s frustration is one of perception. He thinks that the non-professional coalition of netroots, young people, students, and community activists differs in its attitudes from the so-called “professional Left.” Well, he’s wrong and he needs to step outside and test the winds. Just because we like the President personally and write nice things to him on his birthday doesn’t mean we agree with the White House when they continue to push half-measures and incremental change, while caving to those who wish only to see the President fail.

There was calculation in Gibbs’s outburst. It wasn’t entirely spontaneous. The next day he did not apologize or walk back his remarks. But he’s miscalculated the level of discontent out in the netroots that were key to the President’s election. And Robert, FYI, Firedoglake is the libertarian “Left” and Jane Hamscher’s patron, MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan, is a libertarian conservative with an agenda that is closer to the Pauls (Ron and Rand) and Republican Ayn Rand follower Paul Ryan’s slash-and-burn voodoo economics than to the President’s.

So you might have your labels mixed up if you believe a wingnut site’s hilarious labeling of Ratigan as a liberal. Ratigan has so much wingnuttery bottled up inside just waiting to burst out that he lashes out at the White House in barely coherent rants while the Mike Pences of this world suck up to him as an expert on economics. The absolute pits is Ratigan appropriating a Truman quote to spread his libertarian bullshit. When Truman said, “I don’t give ‘em hell; I just tell the truth and they think it’s hell” ... he was attacking a Republican Congress not unlike the GOP bastards who populate it today.

If that’s Robert’s complaint, then I’m totally with you, pal. Labels don’t matter much, it’s true, unless you totally get them wrong.

TEA PARTY Update: Randie On the Hot Seat Over Kidnapping Charge, AQUA BUDDHA Worship

Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul, darling of the TEA PARTY, had more embarassing questions to answer about his alleged college prank involving the kidnapping of a female swim team colleague, making her bow down at a creek to worship the AQUA BUDDHA while high on pot -- they were, she refused to take bong hits at their apartment.



Following is a recreation of the AQUA BUDDHA worship mantra as Randie and his NoZe brother tried to take their kidnapped female subject to a higher level of consciousness:

'What Me, Worry? Let's Play Another 18.'

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Tan Man Who Would Be Speaker:

Adventures in TEA PARTY Campaigns: Rand Paul’s Sane and Lucid College Daze

He’s a wild and crazy guy now:

He wouldn’t have voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because he thinks business owners should discriminate against patrons on the basis of race. Tell that to a black family driving through the heart of Dixie who can’t find a restroom to relieve their bladders, (Ayn) Rand. Following the West Virginia and Kentucky mine tragedies, Paul would oppose regulating the mines. He also said mountaintop removal isn’t too bad: “Most people would say the land is of enhanced value.”

More rapid-fire looniness from Rand Paul, the wingnut: He claims smoking in restaurants is a “God-given liberty;” shunned MTP to go on a 9/11-conspiracy show, Russia Today; he came out in favor of repealing the 14th Amendment; said President Obama was “un-American” for criticizing BP; and so on.

Back in college, though, Rand Paul almost straddled the line of normalcy. In this endearing article by GQ, we learn that while a student at Baylor (he dropped out) Randy (as he was known then) belonged to a “secret society” called the NoZe Brotherhood. According to a Baylor president, NoZe brothers practiced “lewd, crude, and grossly sacrilegious” activities. The Brotherhood was suspended from campus and anyone discovered to be a NoZe brother was automatically expelled. One of Paul’s former brothers said they liked tweaking the school’s religiosity and “aspired to blasphemy.” (Now there’s something Sister Sarah and Sharron Commandment can get behind.) Cool!

But then Randy got into some extra weird stuff like, oh … alleged kidnapping:

“The strangest episode of Paul's time at Baylor occurred one afternoon in 1983 (although memories about all of these events are understandably a bit hazy, so the date might be slightly off), when he and a NoZe brother paid a visit to a female student who was one of Paul's teammates on the Baylor swim team. According to this woman, who requested anonymity because of her current job as a clinical psychologist, “He and Randy came to my house, they knocked on my door, and then they blindfolded me, tied me up, and put me in their car. They took me to their apartment and tried to force me to take bong hits. They'd been smoking pot.” After the woman refused to smoke with them, Paul and his friend put her back in their car and drove to the countryside outside of Waco, where they stopped near a creek. “They told me their god was 'Aqua Buddha' and that I needed to bow down and worship him,” the woman recalls. “They blindfolded me and made me bow down to 'Aqua Buddha' in the creek. I had to say, 'I worship you Aqua Buddha, I worship you.' At Baylor, there were people actively going around trying to save you and we had to go to chapel, so worshiping idols was a big no-no.”

Nearly 30 years later, the woman is still trying to make sense of that afternoon. “They never hurt me, they never did anything wrong, but the whole thing was kind of sadistic. They were messing with my mind. It was some kind of joke.” She hadn't actually realized that Paul wound up leaving Baylor early. “I just know I never saw Randy after that—for understandable reasons, I think.”

When I asked [Paul’s campaign manager Jesse] Benton late last week if Paul remembered any of these episodes from his Baylor days, he replied in an email: ‘During his time at Baylor, Dr. Paul competed on the swim team and was an active member of Young Conservatives of Texas.’”

Interestingly, the Paul campaign never denied the episode until the next day. Were they trying to get all their ducks in a row with frantic calls to NoZe brothers -- the old “her word against ours” defense? “Randy” was still vague about his alleged excellent kidnapping/bong adventure: “Well, I'm not really going to try to go back 27 years and remember everything I did in college…. I don’t think that really politicians should be asked to answer anonymous accusers from 27 years ago,” Paul said. “But I will categorically deny that I ever kidnapped anyone or forced anybody to use drugs.”

Here is exclusive video of Rand Paul and NoZe sidekick listening to their favorite Rush tune, “The Spirit of Radio”... getting in the spirit. No? But the link came from Breitbart.



Rush, a great progressive Canadian rock trio, is furious and demanded that the Paul campaign stop playing its songs.

TEA PARTY Continues To Create Havoc ... YAY!

In Colorado, Ken Buck formed the third leg of the terrible three -- Rand Paul in Kentucky and Sharron Angle in Nevada, the first two -- as the Tea Party Axis of Evil angles to terrorize the nation and wreack havoc with the political establishment. In a sense, one can say that the Tea Party is getting some wins as a counterinsurgent, counter-revolutionary movement in sliming the millions of voters for change who turned out to elect our first African American president, simply by occupying a vaccuum (90% of life is showing up, as they say). With the administration failing to deliver the change people voted for, the forces of reaction, well funded by corporate money, stepped into the breach like modern-day brown shirts brandishing copies of the Constitution eight years too late, as Gibby bitched about the “professional Left” (“I’m not sure I should take offense at that,” quipped Michael Moore) and the punditocracy elites bemoaned the Left’s impatience with incremental steps (Jon Alter) that look like a sellout to Republicans and corporate interests from where we stand.

And Gibby, it’s not that the President is like George W. Bush. It’s that he’s too much like Adlai Stevenson, the wonkish professorial liberal who twice carried the Democratic banner in the 50s against Dwight Eisenhower -- and lost. The Kennedys mocked him for not being tough enough. In the last century, there were only two Democratic agents of change -- real change: FDR and RFK. President Obama is like neither, although Jonathan Alter may disagree. It’s inconceivable to progressives that Bobby Kennedy would have caved to Republicans and corporate interests as often as President Obama has. Bobby would never have given up on the public option -- ever. And he would have called the Republicans on the carpet for obstructionism and the teabaggers for racism without hesitation or prevarication. Progressives are pulling for President Obama, waiting for more of that Trumanesque fire on the stump, railing (rightly) against a “do-nothing Congress.” We’ve given up on anything approaching FDR or RFK proportions -- which is a shame.

Meanwhile, “numbers guy” Chuck Todd was making silly predictions (if Obama’s candidate loses -- he didn’t ... then, “ekes out a win” -- he didn’t ... in what planet is 54-45% a squeaker? Only in the jaded world of the A-holes at POLITICO) to gin up MSNBC’s ratings with mischief-making. The low-down on the “authoritative” Chuck Todd is whatever he predicts, take the opposite view and you’ll be closer to reality. Todd was last seen mangling an interview with a Republican supply-sider in which he bought the “historical” fantasy that deficits do not grow under Republicans as a result of tax cuts for HIS tax bracket, and that such tax cuts would produce significant jobs and economic activity. Mr. Todd needs serious schooling in economics from Nobel laureate Paul Krugman and Robert Reich. It’s not hard; all he has to do is read Krugman’s analysis of the economic disaster that began with Reagan’s tax cuts for the rich and subsequent exploding deficits. Then, he might mention that Bill Clinton, a Democratic president, raised taxes on the rich, created 22 million jobs, and left GWB a surplus.

Speaking of 2012, Todd joked with a Democratic analyst, I take it you'll have “no horse in this race” (of course not, since the President is surely running for re-election). But it does point to an obnoxious pattern in Todd’s mischief-making M.O., which is to hope for maximum political disruption, and almost wistfully, for a Republican tsunami, because it’s good for his business and bottom line. And for his tax bracket, too. But, in fairness, he’s not any different from the vast majority of the useless punditocracy (with a few notable examples).

If anyone wants to know who’s in it for the right reasons, check out journolist. End of rant.

AWWW … “One Day, Son, You’ll Be the Lion King”

This is too CUTE to pass up: Lion and his baby cub survey same terrain that inspired Disney’s “The Lion King.”

“Standing tall this proud lion leads his cub over their home terrain. His mane streaming back in the breeze, the father looks over his tiny cub as they stand on a barren rock in Tanzania. The little cub -- just old enough to walk -- took his first steps following his father on the Serengeti plains.”

Adventures in TEA PARTY Campaigns: Sharron Angle's COMMANDMENT Unto the Rest of Us

Thou shalt not worship a false God, the god of government, so said Sharron Angle: “And these programs that you mentioned -- that Obama has going with Reid and Pelosi pushing them forward -- are all entitlement programs built to make government our God. And that’s really what’s happening in this country is a violation of the First Commandment. We have become a country entrenched in idolatry, and that idolatry is the dependency upon our government. We’re supposed to depend upon God for our protection and our provision and for our daily bread, not for our government.”

According to “Tea Party” orthodoxy, government is our enemy, tyrannical, with those evil entitlement programs –- Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid -- the teabaggeers rely on. The “Tea Party” doctrine says, do away with government, even if it means large classroom sizes, laying off teachers, firefighters, and police, unpaving our roads, turning off our lights, allowing the interstate highway system to go to rot, defunding the Department of Education, the EPA (who needs safe drinking water and unpolluted air and streams –- let the corporations decide what are necessary safety regulations (for their bottom line) –- what’s a few worker deaths and higher cancer rates to thin out the herd of liberals, not to speak of the uninsured, in the bigger scheme of things…?), and last but not least, garbage disposal.

For Sharron Angle this would mean shutting her up, which is an infringement on her “god-given” First Amendment right to make a fool of herself. After all, in the teabaggers’ revisionist, Texas textbook history, Jefferson never said there was “a wall of separation” between church and state.

One could mention most of the other Commandments, too:

Thou shalt not kill, except in the prosecution of unnecessary wars in which the innocent dead are “collateral damage;”

Thou shalt not commit adultery, except that Sharron’s prospective caucus colleagues John Ensign and David (diaper boy) Vitter in the “family values” party didn’t get the memo from on high;

Thou shalt not steal, and teabaggers opposing stricter regulation of lobbyists and corporate contributions really moves the ball forward on this Commandment;

Thou shalt not bear false witness … hmm, where to begin, teabaggers collecting Social Security -- ON MY DIME -– calling the president a socialist, or Sharron Angle LYING about her extremism;

Covet thy neighbor’s house, or Senate seat -– why is Angle running to be part of a tyrannical government? – Is it her Christ complex and missionary zeal to cast out of the Temple all those who “sold and bought” in it … psst Sharron, best to start with your own party and vote straight line Democratic;

... wife (covered), nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass (hmm … covered (?)).

Sharron Angle and her extreme religious fundamentalism is the reason the Founding Fathers fought so hard to separate religion and state. As Thomas Jefferson wrote in his Autobiography, in reference to the Virginia Act for Religious Freedom:

“Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed by inserting ‘Jesus Christ,’ so that it would read ‘A departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;’ the insertion was rejected by the great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedan, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination.”

Beck's Latest Racist Rant Scrubbed by Fox

I have a question for Glenn Beck fans. I’d really like to know how you can justify his latest racist rant:



Planet of The Apes? How can you justify this and continue patronizing this paranoid lunatic, this untrammeled racist? I honestly don’t get it. Beck may call the AFL-CIO and unions “special interests” because they represent millions of workers, contribute to political campaigns, and lobby Congress. But unions are much more than that. They represent and protect working people from abusive employers, negotiate contracts, monitor safe working conditions, and fight tooth-and-nail to keep jobs in America.

Some special interest. Setting aside the despicable racism, this is an ironic (and predictably stupid) line of attack from Beck, given that President Obama’s camp had named unions “special interests” during the 2008 primary campaign -- a real no-no for a Democrat. Had Beck done his homework, he could have properly criticized the President for hypocrisy without the incendiary language, and worse, plunging headlong into the racism gutter.

Even Fox News recognized the racist nature of Beck’s statement and scrubbed the language from its website; it’s amusing how they haven’t caught on to YouTube. This is the second time in so many weeks YouTube’s burned Fox News. Fox’s posture is not to acknowledge the truth of Beck’s racism. Rather, Fox wants to limit the number of eyes that can actually read it, by scrubbing the original language and substituting it with something innocuous and false (because it’s not what Beck said).

Goebbels and the Nazis were pretty good at such deception, but this can’t be mentioned in polite society because it’s supposed to be over the top, even if it’s a spot-on target critique. So much for political correctness on the LEFT giving the RIGHT cover to be outrageous racists and Nazi re-enactors. Progressives should stop behaving like ninnies and call a spade a spade. The right wing is populated with fascists imbued with the rhetoric of fascism, and proto-Nazi eruptions in symbiotic “Tea Party” fringe supporters. Just pick up a book and read about the weak Weimar Republic and the rise of the Nazi Party. The historical comparisons between our current political climate and Weimar Germany are trenchant.

The truth is, Glenn Beck lacks the character and intelligence to make cogent critiques that will actually advance our political conversation. So, to those who continue to watch Glenn Beck’s racist, paranoid rants uncritically (because an ounce of skepticism and a sense of fairness would keep you away): Shame on you.

Great Scott! NOT ...

Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts is a lightweight and a jerk. The former COSMO playmate played a role that no doubt comes naturally, that of escort, to “uphold a long-standing tradition by introducing Elena Kagan of Massachusetts to the [Judiciary] Committee.” The moussed-hair Senator –- a style favored by that other ladies man, John Ensign -- made full use of his face-time on national TV. Scottie rambled that it was an “honor” to introduce a nominee with such an “impressive legal resume.” He was “very proud that our nation’s first female Solicitor General has such deep roots in Massachusetts,” adding “If confirmed, Ms. Kagan would be the third woman on the Supreme Court and only the fourth in the history of the court.”

Quite an endorsement. Except when it came time to confirm Elena Kagan, Scott Brown voted NO. (Kagan’s confirmation was never imperiled and moved quickly through the Senate, as these things go, so Brown’s vote other than a courtesy to Ms. Kagan was meaningless. After all, it was Ms. Kagan who gave him the opportunity to get his face out there.)

Brown’s lame reason: Elena Kagan lacks courtroom experience. As Rachel Maddow likes to say, “bullpuckey!” (Ed: shit, for the uninitiated.) Here’s Media Matters:

“Media figures have advanced the myth that judicial experience is a pre-requisite for a Supreme Court justice. In fact, two of the last four previous chief justices -- William Rehnquist and Earl Warren -- had no judicial experience when first nominated to the Court by Republican presidents. Neither did other famous justices, including Felix Frankfurter, Louis Brandeis, and John Marshall, known as the "Great Chief Justice.”

Scott Brown came to the Senate unprepared, with little grasp of the issues, a total 360 compared to his predecessor. He gets his cues from corporate lobbyists and contributors as to what stands to take. Brown underwhelmed observers with lazy work habits, inarticulate comments and a shallow, narcissistic public posture. In short, the guy’s an idiot, a happenstance who landed through Democratic incompetence and complacency on the vacated seat of the late, lamented Lion of the Senate, Ted Kennedy. Hopefully if not Ed Markey then Ted Kennedy Jr. will take back the seat for the Democrats from this arriviste.

But that’s the least of it. To top things off, the guy has some kind of problem with women. First, he did a truly snarky, underhanded thing to Rachel Maddow, using her name in a fundraising pitch by fueling the outlandish rumor the Massachusetts Democratic Party had approached her to challenge him for the Senate. Then, after saying “I’m sure she’s a nice person” (Kagan is “pleasant”) Brown proceeded to trash his fictitious opponent, calling her a “rubberstamp” of Democratic Party bosses in Massachusetts with a “a nightly platform to push her far-left agenda.” Raising the specter of Maddow, Brown made his pitch for citizens to join “in rallies and petitions that challenge President Obama and Nancy Pelosi’s healthcare legislation, supporting campaigns against the tax-and-spenders or by donating time and money” TO ME. Rachel tried in vain to get him to stop sliming her.

That’s three prominent women –- Maddow, Pelosi, and Kagan -– Scott Brown has trashed gratuitously since sauntering about the Senate halls with his bow legs like a modern-day Stan Laurel, yucking it up about his SNL skit, in which he was portrayed (realistically) as a mysoginistic dud/stud.

SCOTT BROWN = FAIL!

LIE TO ME, GO AHEAD REPUBLICANS, LIE TO ME

The Republicans are shameless, despicable, and un-American. They just keep throwing outrageous numbers around about the economic impact on the top 2% of American earners of letting the Bush tax cuts for them expire, hoping some of it will stick. Mitch McConnell said it’s 50% of small businesses. Paul Ryan, the “objectivist” Ayn Rand cult worshipper who keeps stacks of Atlas Shrugged in his office for staffers (required reading) and select visitors, claims it’s 75%. Lies, all LIES.

Only 2.5% of people declaring small business income (24% of all filers) would pay higher tax rates if the Bush tax cuts expire. TWO-POINT-FIVE PERCENT. Capisce?

It’s amazing to watch old white people standing around Mitch McConnell, millionaires many times over, as he LIES on their behalf. John Kyl, an utterly detestable human being and a political expediency racist right along with John McCain, has that arrogant, lopsided grin of the plutocrat’s agent putting one over on the electorate who don’t march in lockstep and refuse to bow before the ruling oligarchs. Lamar Alexander has a stupid smirk on his face of one who’s playing an 800-plus billion deficit-exploding practical joke on the American people -– and cannot hide that he knows it. And Lisa Murkowski has that perpetually haunted, deer-in-the-headlights look, like she’s one step ahead of the law and about to be cuffed and Mirandized at any moment for violating her sacred constitutional trust to the American people.

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And worse, they are incredibly irresponsible and selfish, as if intent on destroying this country for succeeding generations by, in their words, “starving the beast” of big government, no matter how much destruction of people’s lives it causes along the way. These Republicans care more about transnational corporations than they do about 20 million unemployed Americans. By borrowing money from the Chinese to line their pockets and seed their Swiss bank accounts with more and more millionaire tax cuts, they have effectively ceded our national sovereignty to the Chinese. There is a word for such people: traitors.

What’s the Matter With the TEA PARTY?

For starters, tossing overboard good public servants like Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC) and Senator Bob Bennett of Utah. Their sin? Not being conservative (to use an inadequate Tea parlor term) enough, and refusing to lie and pander to the extremist elements to the right of the Republican Party (which is as fringe as fringe can be). Inglis happens to be a fairly normal, mainstream, honest conservative. The type of lawmaker who could disagree with his adversaries without being disagreeable, who knows how to build bridges across the aisle, and gets things done for his constituents.

So what do they do? They toss him. At least those extremists who often hold sway in Republican primaries, because Mr. Inglis would most likely win easy reelection in the general. And why did they toss him? Well, he called on Joe Wilson to apologize for yelling “You lie!” then told people to stop watching Glenn Beck: “They say, 'Bob, what don't you get? Barack Obama is a socialist, communist Marxist who wants to destroy the American economy so he can take over as dictator. Health care is part of that. And he wants to open up the Mexican border and turn [the US] into a Muslim nation.’”

What would you do in Mr. Inglis’s place, listening to such ignorant tirades? I’d tell these Teabagger jackasses to stop watching Beck, too, read some history suggested by reputable sources such as the Smithsonian or any number of universities … then if they have health insurance, or are recipients of hugely popular socialist government programs Medicare and Social Security, to consult a psychiatrist. (But I’m not running for anything.) Mr. Inglis clammed up. But he also refused to describe the President as a socialist. “It's a dangerous strategy to build conservatism on information and policies that are not credible...This guy is no socialist.”

He REFUSED TO LIE because he is a man of integrity. Are there Republicans of integrity? Not so many in office. Or, like Bob Inglis and Bob Bennett, they’re being excised from government by the extremist elements that control their party. Most Republicans pander shamelessly to the extremists. Those who take up the Tea Party banner and run with it are being defeated. Most voters, even Republicans, aren’t stupid. They’re slow on the uptake, many are fooled by the propaganda, but many take the time to scratch below the surface platitudes. And the more they look, the less they like. They may be for smaller government conceptually, and for tackling deficits, but they’re not for privatizing Social Security, defunding Medicare, or abolishing the EPA and the Department of Education, among many issues. And most Americans are decent people who abhor racism.

The extremism on the right that has defined the Tea Party movement is not where the American people are. Recent election results demonstrate this, as the Tea Party candidates have been shellacked by the voters –- Republican voters. It’s too bad they weren’t around or didn’t turn out to give Bob Inglis a vote of confidence. Democrats and progressives may not agree on a single issue with Mr. Inglis. But no one can ever question his honesty and integrity.
Each time ideology –- a sick and ignorant one at that –- trumps honesty and integrity in politics, we are diminished, no matter what side of the fence we happen to be on. This is why turnout and voting are so important. The lunatics may rule the asylum, but they can only take over town hall if we stay home and let them.

Adventures in TEA PARTY Campaigns: The Great International BICYCLE CONSPIRACY!

Jeez … Ain’t nothing sacred! Now the Teabaggers have dragged America’s cyclists, minding their own business, pedaling along the nation’s bike trails, into a SINISTER UN SOCIALIST CONSPIRACY. KO Explains:

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