Loose TN Canon

Blog closed

2013-04-19T13:38:00.002-07:00

I have lost my interest in political banter. I will not be updating this blog but will save it for archival purposes. The views expressed previously in this blog may or may not reflect my present opinions or views as knowledge evolves with experience.

“Attachment to views is the greatest impediment to the spiritual path.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh

“In true dialogue, both sides are willing to change.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh

19 Different Polls: Americans agree - higher taxes necessary

2011-07-12T19:23:00.000-07:00

From Bruce Bartlett:

Contrary to Republican dogma, polls show that the American people strongly support higher taxes to reduce the deficit and improve income inequality. ... 19 different polls since the first of the year say yes- Americans think higher taxes are necessary - especially on the rich .

McConnell, Boehner, and Cantor voted EVERY TIME to increase the debt limit under Bush while Bush doubled the national debt. Now, suddenly the top 1% of Americans' tax breaks are more important to Republicans than America's credit and economic stability.

Conservative economic policies are killing the middle class. It is class warfare and the average American is clearly losing.

Republican economic policies are based on proven fallacies like 'trickle-down', and 'higher taxes kill jobs,' 'taxes hurt the economy,' ... etc. Bush cut taxes and had the worst job creation record of any modern president. The Bush tax cuts were not supposed to last forever. Alan Greenspan, whose endorsement was perhaps the single most decisive event in their passage, made it very clear that they were a temporary solution to a temporary surplus, a surplus thanks to the Clinton administration.

Bush Tax cuts will cost America $5 Trillion - CRS.

66% of all income growth during the Bush years has been enjoyed by the top 1%. That is who the GOP is fighting for, against every poll that shows Americans feel the rich are not taxed enough.

For 6 of his 8 years as president, Reagan taxed the top 1% far MORE than Obama has proposed. But Mr. Black President is a ‘socialist’. The effective tax rate vs GDP was 18% under Reagan compared to 14.8% today. The GOP has piled on to the crazy wagon. They are invested in the failure of America. Their only objective is to bring Obama down, even if it means crippling the American economy.

Conservative economic policies are killing the heart of America – the middle class. Yes, it is class warfare and the average American is clearly losing.

66% of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.

Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.

n 1950, the ratio of the average executive’s paycheck to the average worker’s paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.

The bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.

The top 1% of U.S. households own nearly twice as much of America’s corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago.

Despite the financial crisis, the number of millionaires in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009.

83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.

61 percent of Americans “always or usually” live paycheck to paycheck, up from 43 percent in 2007.

Approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 – the highest rate in 20 years

43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement

You might be a Republican if...

2011-07-10T15:02:00.000-07:00

Republicans: an embarrassment to TN

2011-05-27T12:11:00.000-07:00

The Tennessee GOP makes the state look "barefoot and bucktoothed."

NASHVILLE CITY PAPER:

A Democratic legislative leader said Thursday Republicans made Tennessee look to the rest of the country like a “barefoot and bucktoothed” state with their social conservative agenda in the just-finished session.
“A bunch of the radical extreme stuff passed,” House Democratic Caucus Chairman Mike Turner of Old Hickory said.
“It hurts business. It’s embarrassing for me to talk to people in other parts of the country. It hurts our image down here. We had an image of everybody being barefoot and bucktoothed with cow licks on the sides of their head. [In the past], we came a long way to try to diminish some of that. We might have stepped back in the pack in the South.”
Turner named two Republican proposals: the “don’t say gay” bill by Sen. Stacey Campfield of Knoxville to ban any mention of homosexuality in schools, and the bill by Rep. Glen Casada, R-Franklin, to overturn Nashville’s anti-gay bias ordinance. Campfield’s bill passed the Senate in a watered-down form but did not advance in the House. Casada’s bill became law when Gov. Bill Haslam signed it on Monday.
“On the social issues, the John Birch Society issues, Tennessee maybe led the way in that,” Turner told reporters. “We stood out. We made the paper a whole lot more. A lot of people around the country might think Sen. Campfield is a typical legislator here in Tennessee, which is unfortunate.

The writing is on the wall: the GOP is floundering

2011-05-25T16:06:00.000-07:00

Give them enough rope and they hang themselves.

NY 26 - special election (to replace Republican Congressman Chris Lee who resigned after publicly trying to solicit women on Craigslist) goes to Democrat Kathy Hochul in a solidly Republican district that is seen as a referendum on Paul Ryan's plan to ditch Medicare.

Obama's rating has been inching higher ever since the Bin Laden killing. Now at +10, Fox News has him at +14.

The hate merchants Limbaugh and Hannity have lost a third of their audience in the past 6 months.

A number of potential GOP presidential candidates have bowed out.

Recent media has given bad new for Palin and Pawlenty.

Teabagger FL Gov. Rick Scott is now down below 30% in the polls.

Gingrich starts his campaign for president and gets smacked down.

In Wisconsin recall matchup, both Feingold [D] and Barrett [D] lead Gov. Walker [R] by 7 to 10 points.

The GOP digs themselves even deeper with the Senate GOP voting to trash Medicare.

GAME OVER GOP

Obama will get 4 more years, the Dems will take back the House. 2012!

Bible: Jesus was clearly a liberal socialist

2011-04-17T08:12:00.000-07:00

Since conservatives seem to have claimed 'ownership' of religion and 'moral values,' it is also notable that they are ignoring Biblical moral value principles - true to their consistent hypocrisy.

Why was Jesus crucified?

According to Biblical scholar John Dominic Crossan, Jesus was a philosopher who argued that true happiness could be found by charity and kindness, not by accumulation of wealth. Jesus argued that Roman commercialism had corrupted Jewish society. Jesus was a trouble maker to the Romans and made his feelings known. The only time Jesus was ever documented in the Gospls using physical force was when he expells the money changers from the temple. The small few elite Jews were getting very rich cooperating with the Romans while most were being dispossessed and taxed into oblivion. Under Roman rule, their society was becoming dominated by a wealthy arrogant elite grinding down on an increasingly desperate working class. This disparity was against the principles of Jesus, and the Bible is clear on these values:

But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. [Luke 14:13 &14.]

If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. [Matthew 19:21]

You cannot serve both God and Money. [Matthew 6:24.]

For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.
[1 Timothy 6:10,11]

Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.
(Proverbs 23:4,5)

He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor.
(Proverbs 28:8)

The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again: but the righteous sheweth mercy, and giveth.
(Psalm 37:21)

A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent.
(Proverbs 28:20)

What would Jesus think of Republicans targeting the poorest and weakest among us by cutting funding for community health centers, heating for the poor, foodstamps, and medicare while fighting tooth and nail to protect tax cuts for the most weathy?

During the election, Republicans lied through their teeth - accusing the Democrats of wanting to cut Medicare and SS. Now look at the hypocrites... planning to phase out Medicare for those under 55, cutting programs for the poor and elderly while fighting to preserve a tax cut for the wealthiest Americans.

A little history: Note the titles given to these Bush tax cuts for corps and the rich:

Cut #1: Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001

Cut #2: Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003

Cut #3: Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005

Well guess what? There was no economic growth and the worst job creation of any modern presidency. The Republican fantasy of trickle down has a proven record of failure, yet they keep sticking to it because of their puppet masters and their innate mental predispostion of not being able to adapt.

This is not to say that Obama is a socialist. We all know where that lie comes from. Like previous presidents, Obama is well connected to the JPMorgan Chase money machine. It just goes to show how hypocrisy runs deep among religious conservatives who now use "socialism" as a dirty word and rallying cry against Democrats.

So, do these GOP generated lies about America becoming consumed by socialism have any bearing in reality? Quite the contrary! America is anything but socialistic. America ranks dead last in social spending among industrialized nations.*
(*OECD members)

Obama approval rating soars

2011-01-24T21:33:00.000-08:00

With his approval at 51% in the RCP poll of polls, Obama is polling significantly higher than both Reagan and Clinton at this point in their presidencies.

Just as important, Obama's disapproval of 42.8% is lowest in a year.

We'll look for an additional bump after Obama's State of the Union Address.

Look at GW Bush's approval graph by comparison, a continuous downward slope. He only eeked out a 50% approval rating right at the time of his reelection. It is now revealed that Bush broke Federal Campaign Law, and got away with it. So much damage in his 8 years.

Conservatives desperately try to justify Glenn Beck's remark: "You're going to have to shoot them in the head"

2011-01-21T10:39:00.000-08:00

It's OK by conservatives that Glenn Beck tells people "You're going to have to shoot them in the head" ... because Beck wasn't appealing to his supporters, so that makes it OK.

This astonishing apologist rhetoric comes streaming to us with denials and supportive comments (all non-supportive comments are of course deleted) from the Patterico blog. And these bloggers consider themselves "Christians"! How's that for Christian behavior... defending this quote?

"They believe in communism. They believe and have called for a revolution. You're going to have to shoot them in the head. But warning, they may shoot you. They are dangerous because they believe Karl Marx is their George Washington. You will never change their mind. And if they feel you have lied to them — they're revolutionaries. Nancy Pelosi, those are the people you should be worried about." -- Glenn Beck, Fox News, 6/10/10

Yes, the same Glenn Beck who pulled a photo of himself with a gun from his website after the Tucson shootings.

In the title of Patterico's post: "Glenn Beck Did Not Tell His Viewers to Shoot Anyone in the Head" ... no, but it's ok that he told Democrat leaders to shoot so-called radical members of their party in the head.

WTF is wrong with these people ... defending a statement like that?

Christians. heh.

Bill Maher: Founding Fathers wouldn't have much in common with the teabaggers

2011-01-15T09:23:00.000-08:00

Hillarious!!!

Bill Maher nails it: AZ shooter's blackboard would look a lot like Glenn Beck's

2011-01-11T17:44:00.001-08:00

Enough of the false equivalencies.

Tell us Teabaggers, on what political side do we see gun fetish blogs? On what political side do we see anti-government militias? On which side do we hear most of the anti immigrant hate coming from?

Answer the question teabaggers. How are those "second amendment remedies" workin out for you?

Why did Sarah Palin remove the crosshairs then say they were just "surveyors scopes."

Why did Glenn Beck remove a website photo of a gun?

Why has Roger Ailes told his Fox News employees to "tone down the rhetoric."?

Who is responsible for the gun culture? Gov. Jan Brewer [R] signed a bill allowing loaded guns in bars and restaurants, as well as another that prohibits property owners from banning guns from parking areas, so long as the weapons are kept locked in vehicles. And in July, Arizona became the only state in the nation with a large urban population to allow U.S. citizens 21 and older to carry a concealed weapon without a permit. Lawmakers in 2010 blocked a bill that would have allowed university and community-college faculty to carry guns on school grounds, but Rep. Jack Harper [R], has proposed the bill again this year.

Noooo, the teabagger conservatives don't want to answer these questions. Ingram Entertainment employee Serr8d was too much of a coward to entertain these questions. In his remarkably twisted mind he reasoned that the shooter was a liberal because he was not a Christian:

This skull crap means the guy wasn't an EVIL WHITE CHRISTIANIST, but a Democrat; outreaching to and embracing TEH OTHER religions and beliefs, as Democrats are so fond of doing.

Aaron Worthing at Patterico joins the ranks of the cowardly.

The AZ shooter was upset that people in his district were "illiterate" (read:Mexican). Kind of reminds me of what teaparty racist candidate Tancredo said in Nashville last year that Obama was elected by: "people who could not even spell the word 'vote' or say it in English.'... Further characterizing Democrats as "the cult of multiculturalism" and endorsing the return of Jim Crow laws.

The AZ shooter also was paranoid about US currency and returning to the gold standard... a topic that Glenn Beck talks about all the time. Wonder where he heard that?

There are extremists on both sides of course, but with the Right-wing, it's a bit different. The paranoid and conspiratorial style is much more mainstream, especially with Beck and Fox. On Fox, there are shadowy links between Soros, the Tides Foundation, and other liberal causes that aim to bring America down. Obama is at once fascist and a socialist. Don't forget Palin's dark insinuations about Obama's ties with terrorists and HCR's agenda to impose of Death Panels. Of course, you have questions about Obama birth certificate sadly mainstream when Republican representatives and candidates claim it's still an issue. Candidates and elected officials calling for "second amendment remedies", carrying signs promoting insurrection "Don't Tread on Me" and saying they want their constituents "armed and dangerous." Wake up, this is not an isolated incident. (H/T: the Atlantic)

-- July 2008: A gunman named Jim David Adkisson, agitated at how "liberals" are "destroying America," walks into a Unitarian Church and opens fire, killing two churchgoers and wounding four others.

-- April 2009: A white supremacist named Richard Poplawski opens fire on three Pittsburgh police officers who come to his house on a domestic-violence call and kills all three, because he believed President Obama intended to take away the guns of white citizens like himself.

-- July 2010: An agitated right-winger and convict named Byron Williams loads up on weapons and drives to the Bay Area intent on attacking the offices of the Tides Foundation and the ACLU, but is intercepted by state patrolmen and engages them in a shootout and armed standoff in which two officers and Williams are wounded.

More here:

Exactly how many "liberals" can you find out there who walk into churches, museums and political rallies and shoot people in the head?

Enough of the BS false equivalencies, we can see where this vitriol is coming from.

UPDATE:

Another nut-job was arrested TODAY 1/12/11 by the FBI for threatening to kill Rep. Jim McDermott (D - WA). Check out the afidavit and see how ingrained the right-wing talking points are in his threats.

A SC gun retailer is now selling magazines for assault rifles engraved with Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) famous quote "you lie" that was yelled at Obama during a speech. Joe Wilson appears in the ad for these Limited Edition(!) assault rifle components.

Republicans love the Constitution so much they want to change it

2011-01-06T06:04:00.001-08:00

The first day of the Republican controlled House, they intend on reading the Constitution.

Why is it that Tea Party Republicans that have wrapped themselves in the Constitution are so bent on changing it? They want to change the 14th amendment, the 17th amendment, they want to reject the supremacy clause Article VI, Clause 2, and federal taxation Article I, Section 8, ...clause 2.... and if it were up to them, they'd have a religious (Christian) test for political office which violates Article VI, paragraph 3.

Actually, Republicans want to change the Constitution in a dozen different ways.

Now that's respect for the Constitution!

To top it all off, they had Antonin Scalia school them on the Constitution - he's the guy who thinks that the 14th Amendment - "equal protection under the law" - does NOT apply to women, despite a 1971 unanimous SCOTUS ruled that the equal protection does apply to women.

Scalia also has no problem with promoting religion in government (which is unconstitutional), and is basically one of the most dangerous people of power in America. Let's hope for a retirement soon.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

UPDATE: Denialist blogger who can't handle debate - Patterico - stikes again. I commented on Scalia yesterday. My comment was of course deleted but wha-lah .... he has a post on Scalia today. heh...

Teabagger Christine O'Donnell caught stealing campaign money

2010-12-30T19:16:00.000-08:00

Christine O'Donnell is in for a lesson. You can't make a career out of failed political campaigns and steal your contributor's campaign funds for your personal use.

O'Donnell is under criminal investigation. It seems not a matter if she stole campaign money, but how much. She could even do time if convicted. This is what passes for morality for the religious right wing teabaggers jumping to her defense.

It is shocking that anyone would have supported this candidate, who claimed American scientists had created mice with "fully functioning human brains." But, that's the level of intellect we're dealing with when it comes to the teabagger:

GAME OVER

Patterico - another denialist conservative blog deletes comments, stifles debate

2010-12-20T15:55:00.001-08:00

Patterico - a conservative blog whose master, Patrick Frey has apparently entrusted to "Aaron Worthing" to it's operation has proven once again, conservatives can't handle the truth.

Not only has "Aaron Worthing" apparently deleted my comments and banned me from commenting (possibly against the blog owners intent), he has taken links from my very comments and produced posts on them, not even allowed me the courtesy to discuss the issue that I brought to his attention. At least this time, "Worthing" gave me credit for it. So upset with my links, facts and debate, everyone I saw post a contrary opinion was suspected to be me. I guess I shook up their little world. At least they haven't libeled me yet, as did Protein Wisdom.

More insidious have been the jokers complaining that I post under different names. When I called their bluff and told them that I would post under my own name if they posted under theirs, well, you guessed it.... they cowardly ran like hell and continued to insult me personally under their cowardly monikers - mentioning my real name, place of employment, often without any meaningful debate or discussion.

One rather infantile self-proclaimed scientist/PhD was particularly insulting and challenging: "Eric Blair".

Due to significant evidence, I have determined "Eric Blair" to likely be Mark Martin - biology professor at the University of Puget Sound. His m.o., giving "test questions" and drawing conclusions based on my unwillingness to participate, was so infantile, I could hardly imagine this guy was my elder, and even a professor. I thought him to be some smart ass grad student at a religious college or something. No surprise, he has been in academia much longer than I and hasn't even been able to muster a Full Professor ranking.

This unfortunate science denier - had made repeated comments showing that like most conservatives, his mind is contaminated by politics and he can not accept the scientific consensus on global climate change. When I outed him, he ran like hell, never to have since appeared at Patterico as "Eric Blair." Not surprising that a scientist like him would go to great lengths to protect his identity, the denier he is. Yet he would always mention MY full name and university in some foolish effort to disparage me.

Apparently, he was not smart enough to keep from being tracked. .. touche' Assoc. Prof. Martin. heh....

Well, thanks "Aaron Worthing" for going on the record as another conservative who fears the truth and debate. Keep it tuned to Fox News.

Pathetic.

Happy Holidays and keep the up the denial!

Fox News viewers are the most misinformed

2010-12-17T02:24:00.000-08:00

University of Maryland study confirms what we already knew... Fox News deliberately misinforms viewers.

Toronto Star:

There were however a number of cases where greater exposure to a news source increased misinformation on a specific issue.

Researchers found that the more you watched Fox News the more misinformed you became; it didn’t matter whether you turned on the channel as a Republican or a Democrat.

“The effect was also not simply a function of partisan bias, as people who voted Democratic and watched Fox News were also more likely to have such misinformation than those who did not watch it — though by a lesser margin than those who voted Republican,” said the study.

Check out the list of lies....

World public opinion org:

Those who watched Fox News almost daily were significantly more likely than those who never watched it to believe [the following lies]:

most economists estimate the stimulus caused job losses (12 points more likely)
most economists have estimated the health care law will worsen the deficit (31 points)
the economy is getting worse (26 points)
most scientists do not agree that climate change is occurring (30 points)
the stimulus legislation did not include any tax cuts (14 points)
their own income taxes have gone up (14 points)
the auto bailout only occurred under Obama (13 points)
when TARP came up for a vote most Republicans opposed it (12 points)
that it is not clear that Obama was born in the United States (31 points)

The LIE of 'trickle-down economics' - Republicans fight for tax cuts for the rich

2010-12-05T09:57:00.000-08:00

At the expense of the American people, Republicans fight to increase the wealth of the top 1% - their puppet masters.

"Trickle down economics" is a lie and a scam. A way for the GOP to pay their puppet masters. Did trickle down economics work for Reagan?

No:

The UPI headline on 12/30, 1989 - a report on Reaganomics included -

"upper income Americans were the main direct beneficiaries of tax cuts in the early 1980s. there is no evidence in our data that those benefits have trickled down to lower-income Americans."

When Reagan came into office in 1981, he inherited a $994 million national debt. by the time he left, it had ballooned to $2.6 billion.

Reaganomics was a spectacular success for the richest Americans in the country who benefited most from the tax cuts. The top 1% had seen their wages rise by 80%. Average wages in the rest of the country remained flat and the poorest Americans saw their income shrink by more than 10%. That was Reaganomics.

The designer of Reaganomics, David Stockman, declared on NPR that “Reagan would never support extending the Bush tax cuts.” Stockman took this assertion a step further in calling out the Republican leadership for perverting the notions of fiscal conservatism and betraying what the Party used to stand for. He laid blame on the Bush administration. Stockton blames the GOP for "destroying the American economy."

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Warren Buffett said that he was taxed at 17.7% on the $46 million he made last year while his secretary, who earned $60,000, was taxed at 30%.

That is what the GOP is fighting for. I think Buffet knows a bit about money. You might care to hear what he has to say.

Trickle down economics is not trickling to American jobs, it’s trickling to China. What percentage of your clothing and manufactured good are made in America and who is earning the money for those goods? The top 1/10 of 1% – the CEOs. Delusional Republicans think the tax breaks to CEO’s and big corporations put Americans to work. No, the big corps instead oursource to improve their profit margin. They don't give a shit about putting Americans to work if they can make a few buck by moving operations to Malaysia.

UPDATE: Obama caves. The puppet masters win again. The GOP push their "Leave No CEO Behind" policy. Bernie Sanders to the rescue?

Some people just don't get it.

George Carlin can explain it to you:
(H/T - Shelly Stone)

How dumb is Fox News ... and their viewers?

2010-11-27T12:10:00.000-08:00

Fox News posts a fake story disparaging Obama as real news... from "The Onion," a satirical 'faux news' site.

Further adding to the realization that Fox News thought this was real, they scrubbed the article and comments from their site as soon as they were called on it. They published no retraction, clarification, or correction.

What a bunch of dumbasses.

RS:

The Fox News sister site re-posted a joke from the satirical website The Onion Friday about President Barack Obama sending a 75,000-word e-mail to the the entire nation. At no point does Fox Nation note that the story is a satire.

The Onion story joked that Obama had "reached the end of [his] rope" and sent out the "rambling" stream of consciousness e-mail that addressed everything from the war in Afghanistan to his live-in mother-in-law.

The story goes on to say that the fake Obama e-mail was 27 megabytes and 127 printed pages.

...many of the comments on the post treat the story as if it were actual news.

"It is really sad that in a time of crisis in this country with troops on foreign soil the economy lack of jobs and now N. Korea once again rattling their saber we have a President sitting in the White House that by what I read in the email is utterly losing it," Goofy1954 wrote. "We can not afford to have him in the White House at such a critical time."

"This should be enough to have him removed from office immediately......he is now the highest security risk to this nation," Obamababble observed.

"What you are seeing folks is the human unraveling and development of a self-delusional, irrational madman becoming unhinged. Can anyone say Hitler?" Mmttomb3 asked.

This speaks pretty clearly to the level of intelligence of Fox News and their viewers.

Republican Tea Party Positions - In their own words. GO VOTE!!

2010-10-28T08:47:00.000-07:00

1) Eliminate Federal funding for colleges and Universities – Dick Armey

2) Outsource American jobs oversees and prevent the Democrats from bringing jobs back to America by using foreign funding to attack their candidates. (GOP defeats Dem bill to prevent outsourcing)

3) Government should not prevent private businesses from discriminating on the basis of race. – Rand Paul

4) Gays and single sexually active women should not be legally allowed to teach. – Jim DeMint

5) Victims of incest rape should be forced by the federal government to bear their rapists child. – Angel, Palin, Paul, O’Donnell (official GOP platform calls for illegal abortion - no exception)

6) Evolution is a myth, intelligent design needs to be taught in schools. – Christine O’Donnell, Michele Bachmann, Palin

7) Eliminate the minimum wage. – Joe Miller, Michele Bachman

8) Raise the social security retirement age. – Rand Paul

9) Impose a $2000 Medicare deductible. – Rand Paul

10) “Second Amendment remedies” are needed against government – Sharron Angle

11) The separation of church and state is invalid – Ken Buck, Angle, O’Donnell

12) Abolish public schools and the Dept. of Education – David Harmer, Rand Paul
---------

The Tea Party supposedly touts the US Constitution, yet we have never seen a group more bent on CHANGING the the Constitution. They want to change the 14th amendment, the 17th amendment, they want to reject the supremacy clause Article VI, Clause 2, and federal taxation Article I, Section 8, clause 2.... and if it were up to them, they'd have a religious (Christian) test for political office which violates Article VI, paragraph 3.

Now that's respect for the Constitution. They raise their "Taxed Enough Already" signs in a year where the US saw the lowest taxes in 60 years. A real real bright group you have there!

---------
Republican Tea Party Positions - In their own words. GO VOTE!!

PJTV: "Teabagger Central" touts documented liar: Michele Bachmann

2010-10-03T19:07:00.000-07:00

Top teabagger website, PJTV, touts documented liar Michele Bachmann [R-MN] as an example of a "smart girl." Pulitzer Prize winning non-partisan fact checking website PolitiFact.com has called her out on eleven separate lies, giving her the distinction of an "all false/pants on fire record" - one of the most consistent lying politicians in congress.

Thanks PJTV for showing us an apt example of whom conservative teabaggers consider a "smart girl."

Check out some quotes from the "smart girl."

"There are hundreds and hundreds of scientists, many of them with Nobel Prizes, who believe in intelligent design."
- Michele Bachmann

Politifact:

Bachmann has scored five Pants on Fire ratings, plus six False ratings. After 11 encounters with the Truth-O-Meter, Bachmann continues to hold the rare distinction of an all-False/Pants on Fire record.

Bachmann is up by single digits in recent polls, ahead of her Democratic challenger Tarryl Clark.

GOP's Bogus "Pledge to America" doesn't pass 8th grade arithmetic

2010-09-24T08:39:00.000-07:00

The GOP Pledge: increase the deficit by trillions of dollars and take health-care insurance away from tens of millions of people.

The party of NO becomes the party of nonsense. It must be difficult for any thinking person to be a Republican these days.

As House GOP leader John Boehner said, "We're not going to be any different than what we've been." That's reassuring.

More.... here and here.

In essence, what they [the GOP] say is, “Deficits are a terrible thing. Let’s make them much bigger.” The document repeatedly condemns federal debt — 16 times, by my count. But the main substantive policy proposal is to make the Bush tax cuts permanent, which independent estimates say would add about $3.7 trillion to the debt over the next decade — about $700 billion more than the Obama administration’s tax proposals.

-- Paul Krugman, award winning economist

UPDATE:
GOP pledge fails the Fact Check.

Newt Gingrich becomes the new Joe McCarthy

2010-09-21T16:23:00.000-07:00

What is wrong with Newt Gingrich?

He was once thought of as "the thinker" of the Republican Party, an intellectual.

Putting Gingrich in perspective among his fellow Republicans, Bill Maher remarked on Hardball:

"Pygmies cast large shadows among midgets."

- Bill Maher on Newt Gingrich, MSNBC's Hardball 9/21/10

Does anyone with some level of intelligence actually believe Sharia law to be such a threat that he has to warn the United States Supreme Court:

"And we should make clear to Justice Breyer and Justice Kagan, who both seem confused on this topic, that no judge will remain in office who tries to use Sharia law to interpret the American Constitution."

- Newt Gingrich, Values Voters Summit, 9/18/10

Well Newt, maybe you should warn our Justices not to use Swedish Law, or Japanese Law, or Icelandic Law, as well? What would warrant such a foolish statement? Perhaps to cash in on teabagger white KKKristian Islamophobia?

What is wrong with this picture.... that a majority (52%) of Republicans now believe Obama is sympathizes with the goals of Islamic fundamentalists to impose Sharia Law? (Princeton Survey - 8/27/10). Could this perception have been applied to a Hillary Clinton? Never, it's clearly about race.

This level of Islamophobia is absurd. The teabaggers represent an ignorant and hateful bunch - truly a low mark in the devolution of American politics.

Check this out - TX Board of Education wants to ban "pro-Islamic Bias" in textbooks. Pro-Islamic bias??????? Could these assholes be any more paranoid or hateful?

Even worse, Gingrich characterized President Obama mindset as:

"so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior, can you begin to piece together [his actions]... That is the most accurate, predictive model for his behavior.”

-Newt Gingrich, National Review, 9/11/10

This is the same guy who called Justice Sotomayer a "racist." Why is this guy so paranoid and hateful?

What is wrong with Newt Gingrich's brain? Why are these teabaggers such a hateful bunch?

Teabaggers fall for the "bearded Marxist" joke

2010-09-20T09:46:00.000-07:00

Every right wing teabagger site in the wingnut universe is painting Delaware's Democratic Senate candidate Chris Coons as a "self described Bearded Marxist." This whole title is based on a joke that Coons used to entitle a college student newspaper article when he was 21. He was making fun of his college Republican friends whom he helped campaign for Ronald Reagan.

His campaign spokesman explains how Coon's study abroad in Kenya changed his political leanings:

“After witnessing crushing poverty and the consequences of the Reagan Administration’s ‘constructive engagement’ with the South African apartheid regime, he rethought his political views, returned to the America he loved and proudly registered as a Democrat.”

How does Coons' political career stand up to the Marxist title?

He's spent six years as county executive, which would have been a great place to try out Marxist theory. Sadly, he became a pretty standard cut-some-spending-increase-property-taxes hack. - David Weigel

Funny to hear someone like Glenn Beck - a college dropout, criticize Chris Coons - a Yale Law grad. But... that's the tea party in a nutshell.

Meanwhile, Coons opponent, O'Donnell (who says she'd not even lie to Hitler to protect a Jew), is the target for a criminal investigation. "She's clearly a criminal"

"Christine O'Donnell is clearly a criminal, and like any crook she should be prosecuted," CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan said in a release. "Ms. O'Donnell has spent years embezzling money from her campaign to cover her personal expenses. Republicans and Democrats don't agree on much these days, but both sides should agree on one point: thieves belong in jail not the United States Senate."

Protein Wisdom's Jeff Goldstein commits libel ... again

2010-09-16T21:29:00.000-07:00

Protein Wisdom's cowardly Jeff Goldstein, has a history of committing libel.

Last night, I was alerted by a friend who is an attorney, that Jeff Goldstein at Protein Wisdom blog has attributed comments to me that I did not make on this post - his post, and mentioned my place of employment and full name. I grabbed a few screenshots to document this. Click to enlarge.

This pathetic coward is not just happy deleting factual comments, he now has resorted to libelous defamation, and he admits it (see comment #79).

Per his method of operation, someone must have made a comment that embarrassed him or that he didn't agree with, and since I've hit the mark so many times at his echo chamber blog, and the paranoid he is, he assumed it was me. I'd love to see the comment he deleted that embarrassed him so much. Of course nothing is below Goldstein, described by a recent commenter (who apparently knows him well) as an "unemployable manbaby" - leader of his minions who are "anonymous ankle-biting cowards." He once said he was going to contact my University since he didn't like my blog comments and has "nothing to lose."

Changing people's comments is nothing new for Goldstein, but then attributing racist comments to myself -by full name, and further committing defamation against my employer, MTSU, is beyond dishonest, it's low-life slimy. Obviously, as he described himself, so low he has "nothing to lose" and continues to beg for money at his blog.

UPDATE III:

Thanks to Serr8d for pointing out this blog in not hosted by wordpress.com. For future reference for those that Goldstein may libel in the future, is appears that ProteinWisdom is redirected through Enom.com to Versaweb.com.

I.P. - 208.66.72.11

These companies have been contacted.

Bottom line about Protein Wisdom, summed up by Patterico, who was similarly libeled:

"...you can’t trust anything written at his site. Which is why I intend never to speak about it again. It is an utterly worthless site that has become nothing but the plaything of the site host, to fool the world about what you said by altering it without notice.

A site with so little integrity is not worth my time, or yours, and I’m sorry I wasted so much time writing about it in recent days. That ends, now."

UPDATE:

Why Jeff Goldstein is a criminal

Colorado revised statutes:

18-13-105. Criminal libel.
(1) A person who shall knowingly publish or disseminate, either by written instrument, sign, pictures, or the like, any statement or object tending to blacken the memory of one who is dead, or to impeach the honesty, integrity, virtue, or reputation or expose the natural defects of one who is alive, and thereby to expose him to public hatred, contempt, or ridicule, commits criminal libel.
(2) It shall be an affirmative defense that the publication was true, except libels tending to blacken the memory of the dead and libels tending to expose the natural defects of the living.
(3) Criminal libel is a class 6 felony.

From Burleson consulting:

In Colorado, state law makes criminal libel a felony carrying up to 18 months in prison and a fine up to $100,000 for the first offense. In general, web libel is posting false information about someone that defames them, commonly accusations of criminal acts, marital infidelity, dishonesty... [in Goldstein's case, impersonating William Yelverton and attributing racist comments].

According to this article, if you live on one of the 17 states that enforce criminal libel, you can file to lift the veil on anonymity for someone who defames you and have them arrested on criminal charges.

In Colorado, a man received a a paltry 23 years sentence for "spreading lies on the internet", but some states are getting tougher on libel crimes.

Internet libel is a felony!

UPDATE II:

Goldstein gives us this gem of a response:

"after being made to look foolish in substantive debate"

Question to Jeff:

If Goldstein wants debate, why does he delete comments? How can one be "made to look foolish" if their comments are repeatedly deleted, misrepresented and changed? Tell us, Jeff.

His paranoia runs deep.

President Obama's speech to school children: Republican extremists are racists - confirmed

2010-09-15T00:21:00.000-07:00

Statement by Jim Greer, former chair of the Florida Republican Party:

"In the year since I issued a prepared statement regarding President Obama speaking to the nation's schoolchildren, I have learned a great deal about the party I so deeply loved and served. Unfortunately, I found that many within the GOP have racist views and I apologize to the president for my opposition to his speech last year and my efforts to placate the extremists who dominate our party today. My children and I look forward to the president's speech."

Even when GW Bush had approval ratings below 30%, we never heard this level of disrespect for a president directed at kids as aptly noted by Ed Schultz:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Blogger Kay Brooks joins the ranks of cowardly teabagger comment deleters

2010-09-14T10:02:00.000-07:00

Kay Brooks, conservative religious creationist school teacher loves the tea party and hates Muslims - as shown in her in her latest post where she writes:

"they must must never be allowed to build a rabat [mosque] anywhere near that land-- in this land. It was evil. It still is evil. We cannot make nice with it. Understand it. Accommodate it. It must die or we will."

Using the term "they," Kay Brooks clearly identifies all Muslims as terrorists that are evil and "must die." Nice rhetoric coming from a school teacher, aye? Pretty alarming to see a science denier creationist like Brooks (a Nashville school teacher), associated with education. She calls the scientific fact of macroevolution "a religion" and supports Christianist zealot Cynthia Dunbar who was instrumental in rewriting textbooks in TX and who supports a Christian test for pubic office. (You wonder why Tennessee Public Schools have always ranked near the bottom?)

When I pointed out that there was a Mosque in the World Trade Center, linked Colin Powell's statement on the NYC Mosque issue, and a quote from the President she voted for twice - GW Bush, she deleted it.

"The enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends. It is not our many Arab friends ... The terrorists practice a fringe form of Islamic extremism that has been rejected by Muslim scholars and the vast majority of Muslim clerics; a fringe movement that perverts the peaceful teachings of Islam." - G.W. Bush 9/20/01

Like Serr8d, Ned Wiliams, Wilson County Tea Party, Protein Wisdom, and a host of other conservative teabagger blogs, Kay Brooks demonstrates one of the essential tenets of being a conservative: DENIAL. She no longer allows unmoderated comments.

I have never moderated or deleted comments of opposing views. Some people are just cowards and are ashamed of what the truth shows about them.

Tea Party candidate: masturbation is adultery

2010-09-07T20:09:00.000-07:00

If it didn't seem that the lunatic right wing Tea Party couldn't get any stranger or medieval, here's one that won't disappoint:

Delaware Republican Tea Party candidate, Christine O’Donnell, has likened masturbation to adultery:

"The Bible says that lust in your heart is committing adultery. So you can’t masturbate without lust. The reason that you don’t tell [people] that masturbation is the answer to AIDS and all these other problems that come with sex outside of marriage is because, again, it is not addressing the issue. You’re just gonna create somebody who is, I was gonna say, toying with his sexuality."
--Christine O’Donnell, on MTV program Sex in the 90s.

It is reported that O’Donnell did not actually possess the degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University that she had claimed to have earned.

What is wrong with these people? Are they repressed or just plain crazy?