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What now, Teagelicals? Mitt Romney invested in a medical-waste firm that disposed of aborted fetuses Mother Jones reports this morning that while investigating government documents, such as SEC filings, they’ve discovered that not only did Romney have a direct hand with the company Stericycle, but that he did not leave Bain Capital in 1999 as both the campaign and Bain constantly assert: “Earlier this year, Mitt Romney nearly landed in a politically perilous controversy when theHuffington Post reported that in 1999 the GOP presidential candidate had been part of an investment group that invested $75 million in Stericycle, a medical-waste disposal firm that has been attacked by anti-abortion groups for disposing aborted fetuses collected from family planning clinics. Coming during the heat of the GOP primaries, as Romney tried to sell South Carolina Republicans on his pro-life bona fides, the revelation had the potential to damage the candidate’s reputation among values voters already suspicious of his shifting position on abortion. “But Bain Capital, the private equity firm Romney founded, tamped down the controversy. The company said Romney left the firm in February 1999 to run the troubled 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and likely had nothing to with the deal. The matter never became a campaign issue. But documents filed by Bain and Stericycle with the Securities and Exchange Commission—and obtained by Mother Jones—list Romney as an active participant in the investment. And this deal helped Stericycle, a company with a poor safety record, grow, while yielding tens of millions of dollars in profits for Romney and his partners. The documents—one of which was signed by Romney—also contradict the official account of Romney’s exit from Bain.” This is a BFD for values voters (you’d think, they claim!) — but they shouldn’t be surprised when pure, vulture capitalism is what they choose to support: if you can make a profit on something — outsourcing American jobs to China, offshoring your American money into foreign bank accounts to avoid taxes, or disposal of aborted fetuses, that’s the way America works. Capitalism! Profit! Romney is a savvy businessman! Job creators! If it turns out that this isn’t going to be a problem for the Christian fundamentalists, let’s not hear another word about a woman’s LEGAL freedom of choice. Read the rest…  (Photo above: found image of ‘Stericycle’ in a Google image search.) 
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What now, Teagelicals? Mitt Romney invested in a medical-waste firm that disposed of aborted fetuses

Mother Jones reports this morning that while investigating government documents, such as SEC filings, they’ve discovered that not only did Romney have a direct hand with the company Stericycle, but that he did not leave Bain Capital in 1999 as both the campaign and Bain constantly assert:

“Earlier this year, Mitt Romney nearly landed in a politically perilous controversy when theHuffington Post reported that in 1999 the GOP presidential candidate had been part of an investment group that invested $75 million in Stericycle, a medical-waste disposal firm that has been attacked by anti-abortion groups for disposing aborted fetuses collected from family planning clinics. Coming during the heat of the GOP primaries, as Romney tried to sell South Carolina Republicans on his pro-life bona fides, the revelation had the potential to damage the candidate’s reputation among values voters already suspicious of his shifting position on abortion.

“But Bain Capital, the private equity firm Romney founded, tamped down the controversy. The company said Romney left the firm in February 1999 to run the troubled 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and likely had nothing to with the deal. The matter never became a campaign issue. But documents filed by Bain and Stericycle with the Securities and Exchange Commission—and obtained by Mother Jones—list Romney as an active participant in the investment. And this deal helped Stericycle, a company with a poor safety record, grow, while yielding tens of millions of dollars in profits for Romney and his partners. The documents—one of which was signed by Romney—also contradict the official account of Romney’s exit from Bain.”

This is a BFD for values voters (you’d think, they claim!) — but they shouldn’t be surprised when pure, vulture capitalism is what they choose to support: if you can make a profit on something — outsourcing American jobs to China, offshoring your American money into foreign bank accounts to avoid taxes, or disposal of aborted fetuses, that’s the way America works. Capitalism! Profit! Romney is a savvy businessman! Job creators!

If it turns out that this isn’t going to be a problem for the Christian fundamentalists, let’s not hear another word about a woman’s LEGAL freedom of choice. Read the rest… 

(Photo above: found image of ‘Stericycle’ in a Google image search.) 

Mormonism 101: Is Mitt Romney the ‘White Horse’ in Mormon prophecy?  – That’s the one in the old Mormon prophecy attributed to Joseph Smith, which predicts that after the banks fail and when the Constitution is nearing collapse, Mormons flush with wealth — the White Horse, in the prophecy’s metaphor — will rise and lead America back to greatness. […] “You will see the Constitution of the United States almost destroyed. It will hang like a thread as fine as a silk fiber,” the prophecy has Smith saying. But “it will be preserved and saved by the efforts of the White Horse,” who will “stand by the Constitution of the United States as it was given by the inspiration of God.” There will be a Black Horse — American blacks, as the text is commonly interpreted — that sides with England and France, but eventually they’ll all submit to the White Horse as the religion fulfills its world-conquering destiny in an Armageddon-style war with the Russians—while keeping an eye on the looming threat of China. – POLITICO Romney and the White Horse Prophecy – [It] is not the LDS cosmology that is relevant to Romney’s candidacy, but whether devout 21st century Mormons like Romney believe that the American presidency is also a theological position. Since his first campaign in 2008, Romney has attempted to keep debate about his religion out of the political discourse. The issue is not whether there is a religious test for political office; the Constitution prohibits it. Instead, the question is whether, past all of the flip-flops on virtually every policy, he has an underlying religious conception of the presidency and the American government. At [an earlier] GOP presidential debate in Florida, Romney professed that the Declaration of Independence is a theological document, not specific to the rebellious 13 colonies, but establishing a covenant “between God and man.” Which would suggest that Mitt Romney views the American presidency as a theological office. — Salon “Some of the faithful worry that their comparatively young religion is less prepared for what they will face than Catholics were when John F. Kennedy was running in 1960, or Jews were when Joe Lieberman was the vice presidential nominee in 2000… Polls suggest a deep wariness about Mormonism persists among the American electorate. – Boston Globe  Maybe if it wasn’t so secretive? 
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Mormonism 101: Is Mitt Romney the ‘White Horse’ in Mormon prophecy?  – That’s the one in the old Mormon prophecy attributed to Joseph Smith, which predicts that after the banks fail and when the Constitution is nearing collapse, Mormons flush with wealth — the White Horse, in the prophecy’s metaphor — will rise and lead America back to greatness. […] “You will see the Constitution of the United States almost destroyed. It will hang like a thread as fine as a silk fiber,” the prophecy has Smith saying. But “it will be preserved and saved by the efforts of the White Horse,” who will “stand by the Constitution of the United States as it was given by the inspiration of God.” There will be a Black Horse — American blacks, as the text is commonly interpreted — that sides with England and France, but eventually they’ll all submit to the White Horse as the religion fulfills its world-conquering destiny in an Armageddon-style war with the Russians—while keeping an eye on the looming threat of China. – POLITICO

  • Romney and the White Horse Prophecy – [It] is not the LDS cosmology that is relevant to Romney’s candidacy, but whether devout 21st century Mormons like Romney believe that the American presidency is also a theological position. Since his first campaign in 2008, Romney has attempted to keep debate about his religion out of the political discourse. The issue is not whether there is a religious test for political office; the Constitution prohibits it. Instead, the question is whether, past all of the flip-flops on virtually every policy, he has an underlying religious conception of the presidency and the American government. At [an earlier] GOP presidential debate in Florida, Romney professed that the Declaration of Independence is a theological document, not specific to the rebellious 13 colonies, but establishing a covenant “between God and man.” Which would suggest that Mitt Romney views the American presidency as a theological office. — Salon
  • “Some of the faithful worry that their comparatively young religion is less prepared for what they will face than Catholics were when John F. Kennedy was running in 1960, or Jews were when Joe Lieberman was the vice presidential nominee in 2000… Polls suggest a deep wariness about Mormonism persists among the American electorate. – Boston Globe 

Maybe if it wasn’t so secretive? 

North Carolina pastor: Send LGBT people to concentration camps to die— Pastor Charles Worley of the Providence Road Baptist Church in North Carolina recently told his congregation that LGBT individuals should be rounded up and detained in camps until they’re all dead. […] “…Build a great, big, large fence — 150 or 100 mile long — put all the lesbians in there. Fly over and drop some food. Do the same thing for the queers and the homosexuals, and have that fence electrified so they can’t get out, feed em, and you know what, in a few years, they’ll die out…” — Raw Story
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North Carolina pastor: Send LGBT people to concentration camps to die— Pastor Charles Worley of the Providence Road Baptist Church in North Carolina recently told his congregation that LGBT individuals should be rounded up and detained in camps until they’re all dead. […] “…Build a great, big, large fence — 150 or 100 mile long — put all the lesbians in there. Fly over and drop some food. Do the same thing for the queers and the homosexuals, and have that fence electrified so they can’t get out, feed em, and you know what, in a few years, they’ll die out…” — Raw Story

Op-ed of the day — Let’s just say it: The Republicans are the problem

Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein wrote an op-ed that FINALLY says something constructive called: Let’s just say it: The Republicans are the problem. Here’s a snip:

We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years, and never have we seen them this dysfunctional. In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party.

The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.

When one party moves this far from the mainstream, it makes it nearly impossible for the political system to deal constructively with the country’s challenges.

[…] What happened? Of course, there were larger forces at work beyond the realignment of the South. They included the mobilization of social conservatives after the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, the anti-tax movement launched in 1978 by California’s Proposition 13, the rise of conservative talk radio after a congressional pay raise in 1989, and the emergence of Fox News and right-wing blogs. But the real move to the bedrock right starts with two names: Newt Gingrich and Grover Norquist.

[…] This attitude filters down far deeper than the party leadership. Rank-and-file GOP voters endorse the strategy that the party’s elites have adopted, eschewing compromise to solve problems and insisting on principle, even if it leads to gridlock. Democratic voters, by contrast, along with self-identified independents, are more likely to favor deal-making over deadlock.

Read all: Let’s just say it: The Republicans are the problem

Paul Waldman remarks,

Mann and Ornstein end with a plea to the media to start reporting more honestly on what’s going on in Washington in general and in Congress in particular—to dispense with the false equivalence that treats both parties as equally guilty of whatever bad behavior anyone is demonstrating, to stop treating the abuse of filibusters an anonymous holds in the Senate as if that’s just how the system works, and so on.Good advice, without question. And I’m quite sure that many if not most journalists in Washington have understood all the points Mann and Ornstein make for some time. Maybe they’ll start to feel like they have permission to say it, and let their reporting better reflect reality.

I don’t know. I’m afraid it’s overly optimistic to think that most journalists were just waiting for permission to report “reality” as it stands, or that they were caught in some net of false equivalency from which they were unable to extract themselves individually. There is no liberal media, as the rightwing suggests. There is only corporate-owned media with profit as the bottom line: annual profits for shareholders, large bonuses for the CEOs, and reporting that doesn’t potentially enrage the loudest and least-informed (or the wealthiest) members of its audience — or cause any Malkin-type boycotts of its advertisers.

The ‘both sides do it’ meme of journalism is a marketing tool and is probably a requirement, a feature not a bug. It’s the only way to soften one side’s insanity (GOP) against the other side. Without the daily exercise of creating false equivalency in the news between those who are mental and those who aren’t, straight reporting would automatically enrage and alienate about 20-25% of any given audience. Because the fact of the matter is: some people can’t handle the truth.

It seems there’s no way a media corp would give up that much potential profit for something as unmarketable as straight reality.  Look what they did with the build up to the Iraq War.

[image: mittfitts.com] … Anti-Mormon pastor endorses Romney because Obama ‘opposes’ the Bible – Fox News host Clayton Morris noted that Jeffress was quoted in October as saying, “Evangelical Christians should not vote for Mitt Romney because he’s a Mormon, therefore not a real Christian.” “Critics would argue that President Obama is a real Christian,” Morris continued. “By that metric then, why wouldn’t you support Barack Obama?” “Well, again, I never said that quote that you attributed to me,” Jeffress argued. “There was a spurious article in one magazine that just completely fabricated that quote. I’ve never said don’t vote for Mitt Romney because he’s not a Christian. But in my book that you were so kind to reference, I said, given the choice between a Christian like Barack Obama who embraces non-biblical principles like abortion and a Mormon like Mitt Romney who embraces Bible principles, there’s every reason to support Mitt Romney in this election. I’ve been consistent in that.” Jeffress added that he expected evangelicals across the nation to put Romney in the White House because Obama “opposes biblical principles.”
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[image: mittfitts.com]

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Anti-Mormon pastor endorses Romney because Obama ‘opposes’ the Bible – Fox News host Clayton Morris noted that Jeffress was quoted in October as saying, “Evangelical Christians should not vote for Mitt Romney because he’s a Mormon, therefore not a real Christian.” “Critics would argue that President Obama is a real Christian,” Morris continued. “By that metric then, why wouldn’t you support Barack Obama?” “Well, again, I never said that quote that you attributed to me,” Jeffress argued. “There was a spurious article in one magazine that just completely fabricated that quote. I’ve never said don’t vote for Mitt Romney because he’s not a Christian. But in my book that you were so kind to reference, I said, given the choice between a Christian like Barack Obama who embraces non-biblical principles like abortion and a Mormon like Mitt Romney who embraces Bible principles, there’s every reason to support Mitt Romney in this election. I’ve been consistent in that.” Jeffress added that he expected evangelicals across the nation to put Romney in the White House because Obama “opposes biblical principles.”

Last week, the Senate passed SB 3310, a bill to update the state’s abstinence-based sex education curriculum to define holding hands and kissing as “gateway sexual activities.” Just one senator voted against the legislation; 28 voted in favor. Since the bill specifically bans teachers from “demonstrating gateway sexual activity”, educators would be prohibited from even demonstrating what hand-holding is. Breaking these laws could result in a lawsuit …
Tennessee Senate Approves Bill To Warn Students That Hand-Holding Is A ‘Gateway Sexual Activity’
… How Romney Begins to Answer the Religion Question— The simple fact is that a substantial portion of the people to whom he’s been pitching himself thinks his religion is not a long step removed from Scientology and the Church Of What’s Happening Now. He can’t get around that. And, it should be noted, Romney was more than merely an adherent to the doctrines of Mormonism. He was the functional equivalent of a Cardinal Archbishop of his church in Massachusetts. And the people with the doubts about him know that and, while many of them might actually sort of, like — shh! — agree that that whole interracial marriage thing might have been a pretty good idea, they’re still not sold on him as their idea of a Christian. And Romney’s problem is entirely within his own party. It is beyond unthinkable that the president and his campaign would play this card. The president’s not built that way, and there are no votes that the Democrats can gain from an attack like that. Which means that Romney’s got to thread a needle with the people he needs the most, and he has to keep doing it for the rest of the electoral year. Which means that he’s got to waste energy on an issue that does not confront his opposition in anything like the same way. The mechanism needs constant tinkering.
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How Romney Begins to Answer the Religion Question— The simple fact is that a substantial portion of the people to whom he’s been pitching himself thinks his religion is not a long step removed from Scientology and the Church Of What’s Happening Now. He can’t get around that. And, it should be noted, Romney was more than merely an adherent to the doctrines of Mormonism. He was the functional equivalent of a Cardinal Archbishop of his church in Massachusetts. And the people with the doubts about him know that and, while many of them might actually sort of, like — shh! — agree that that whole interracial marriage thing might have been a pretty good idea, they’re still not sold on him as their idea of a Christian. And Romney’s problem is entirely within his own party. It is beyond unthinkable that the president and his campaign would play this card. The president’s not built that way, and there are no votes that the Democrats can gain from an attack like that. Which means that Romney’s got to thread a needle with the people he needs the most, and he has to keep doing it for the rest of the electoral year. Which means that he’s got to waste energy on an issue that does not confront his opposition in anything like the same way. The mechanism needs constant tinkering.

… The Conservative Crusaders of America Accurate! Take a quick look at what the conservative ‘Christian’ base actually supports with their vote, election after election, just because GOP candidates / politicians promise to get involved in other people’s personal lives and to publicly and politically vilify entire groups of people who are not white, Christian, and conservative: Report: Lawmakers Opposing Volcker Rule Receive Four Times As Much From Financial Sector As Those Supporting It Members of Congress who submitted comments advocating the weakening of the already watered-down Volcker Rule — which is meant to rein in banks’ risky trading — have received more thanfour times as much in campaign contributions from the financial sector as members who demanded stricter regulations, a report released today by Public Citizen reveals: Those seeking to weaken the rule have received $66.7 million from the financial services industry since the 2010 election cycle compared to only $1.9 million in contributions received by those asking for a more robust rule. Those seeking to weaken the rule have received an average of $388,010 from the industry, more than four times as much as the average of $96,897 received by those asking for a stronger rule. Continue… Harry Reid: Rising Gas Prices Are Giving Big Oil Billions Of Dollars During debate on a bill to eliminate $2.4 billion in big oil tax breaks, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) stated the obvious: rising gasoline prices mean billions in profit for big oil companies. “Domestic oil production has increased every year during the Obama administration. Meanwhile, the American dependence on foreign oil has decreased ever year. Yet prices at the pump have continued to rise. Here’s why. For every price the price at the pump goes up, the major oil companies, there’s five of them, make an additional $200 million a quarter,” he said, citing the Center for American Progress. “Let’s say that again: For every penny that you pay extra at the gas pump, these five oil companies make $200 million. It doesn’t take a lot of math to understand gas prices have increased 62 cents this year. Take 200 million times 62, you’ve got a huge amount of billions of dollars.” $12.4 billion, in fact. BUT THE FURINNERS! THE HOMOSEXUALS! THE LEFTISTS! Teaparty favorite Rand Paul to the rescue: Sen. Rand Paul: When Big Oil Screws Americans At The Gas Pump, ‘You Should Want To Encourage Them’ GOP senators like Rand Paul (R-KY) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) have used their time on the Senate floor today to push error-riddled arguments coming straight from their oil industry donors. Paul argued Big Oil deserves even more favors from government, because they’re doing such a good job extracting wealth from American families: Instead of punishing them, you should want to encourage them. I would think you would want to say to the oil companies, “What obstacles are there to you making more money?” And hiring more people. Instead they say, “No, we must punish them. We must tax them more to make things fair.” This whole thing about fairness is so misguided and gotten out of hand. […] Republicans have received 88 percent of donations from the oil industry’s coffers. In the Senate, Republicans have taken over$13.8 million from oil, compared to the Democrats’ $3.3 million, meaning Senate Republicans have taken four times the amount in Big Oil contributions as Democrats. Kyl is the No. 29 largest recipient in the Senate from oil and gas in career contributions with over $330,000 and Paul has received over $106,000 from oil.  America’s Conservative Crusaders are fighting to make America a third-world theocracy, while the wealthiest one percent are laughing all the way to the (Swiss) bank. And these people vote every time there’s an election, even if you don’t.
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The Conservative Crusaders of America

Accurate! Take a quick look at what the conservative ‘Christian’ base actually supports with their vote, election after election, just because GOP candidates / politicians promise to get involved in other people’s personal lives and to publicly and politically vilify entire groups of people who are not white, Christian, and conservative:

Report: Lawmakers Opposing Volcker Rule Receive Four Times As Much From Financial Sector As Those Supporting It

Members of Congress who submitted comments advocating the weakening of the already watered-down Volcker Rule — which is meant to rein in banks’ risky trading — have received more thanfour times as much in campaign contributions from the financial sector as members who demanded stricter regulations, a report released today by Public Citizen reveals:

Those seeking to weaken the rule have received $66.7 million from the financial services industry since the 2010 election cycle compared to only $1.9 million in contributions received by those asking for a more robust rule. Those seeking to weaken the rule have received an average of $388,010 from the industry, more than four times as much as the average of $96,897 received by those asking for a stronger rule.

Continue…

Harry Reid: Rising Gas Prices Are Giving Big Oil Billions Of Dollars

During debate on a bill to eliminate $2.4 billion in big oil tax breaks, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) stated the obvious: rising gasoline prices mean billions in profit for big oil companies. “Domestic oil production has increased every year during the Obama administration. Meanwhile, the American dependence on foreign oil has decreased ever year. Yet prices at the pump have continued to rise. Here’s why. For every price the price at the pump goes up, the major oil companies, there’s five of them, make an additional $200 million a quarter,” he said, citing the Center for American Progress. “Let’s say that again: For every penny that you pay extra at the gas pump, these five oil companies make $200 million. It doesn’t take a lot of math to understand gas prices have increased 62 cents this year. Take 200 million times 62, you’ve got a huge amount of billions of dollars.” $12.4 billion, in fact.

BUT THE FURINNERS! THE HOMOSEXUALS! THE LEFTISTS! Teaparty favorite Rand Paul to the rescue:

Sen. Rand Paul: When Big Oil Screws Americans At The Gas Pump, ‘You Should Want To Encourage Them’

GOP senators like Rand Paul (R-KY) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) have used their time on the Senate floor today to push error-riddled arguments coming straight from their oil industry donors.

Paul argued Big Oil deserves even more favors from government, because they’re doing such a good job extracting wealth from American families:

Instead of punishing them, you should want to encourage them. I would think you would want to say to the oil companies, “What obstacles are there to you making more money?” And hiring more people. Instead they say, “No, we must punish them. We must tax them more to make things fair.” This whole thing about fairness is so misguided and gotten out of hand.

[…] Republicans have received 88 percent of donations from the oil industry’s coffers. In the Senate, Republicans have taken over$13.8 million from oil, compared to the Democrats’ $3.3 million, meaning Senate Republicans have taken four times the amount in Big Oil contributions as Democrats. Kyl is the No. 29 largest recipient in the Senate from oil and gas in career contributions with over $330,000 and Paul has received over $106,000 from oil. 

America’s Conservative Crusaders are fighting to make America a third-world theocracy, while the wealthiest one percent are laughing all the way to the (Swiss) bank.

And these people vote every time there’s an election, even if you don’t.

… Love Bill Maher, but he’s completely wrong on Limbaugh Rush Limbaugh isn’t “incidental” to any political conversation. For the rightwing, he’s usually developed that conversation. The GOP establishment, out of sheer laziness and inattention, has allowed this fat fuck, this drug-abuser, this chemically-enhanced sex tourist, to not only set the tone but outline the entire discussion for their political party (and their legislation), for their very own wingnut cable news show, Fox “News,” for their “Christian” evangelical leaders (the neo-Republican Jesus crowd), and for the entire talk-radio clown car that trails behind every day, farting smoke and leaking oil everywhere. Limbaugh defines and then mainstreams the ugliest and most vile fantasies of that select group of men who have Cheeto dust and dried seminal fluid beneath their fingernails — and whose very loud opinions, for whatever reason, seem to matter so very much to those who run our country on the conservative side. MAYBE there would be a chance at an actual discussion on issues and solutions FOR EVERYONE if the volume on Batshitcrazyville was turned down a bit. Limbaugh is like a greasy, bloated parasite that’s been dividing and spreading across the country, worming himself into the brains of angry, resentful, terrified white men — eating intelligence and common decency — since he first claimed to have 20 million listeners in 1993. You don’t have to wonder if you’re an asshole if you’re just one in 20 million, right? Limbaugh speaks for exactly two groups of Americans: these white men in their pickup trucks (and so, to an extent, their desperately fanatical wives) and angry shut-ins. For political expediency, the Republican Party has always run with whatever Rush says — conversations, compromise, and solutions are laughed at and shouted down with Limbaugh-coded pejoratives (feminazis! Barack the Magic Negro!) and ignorant takeaway arguments (Sandra Fluke’s a slut — she wants us to pay her to have a lot of sex!). And usually, nothing ever has to be done about the issue that was being originally discussed. Every time. Well, not this time.
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Love Bill Maher, but he’s completely wrong on Limbaugh

Rush Limbaugh isn’t “incidental” to any political conversation. For the rightwing, he’s usually developed that conversation. The GOP establishment, out of sheer laziness and inattention, has allowed this fat fuck, this drug-abuser, this chemically-enhanced sex tourist, to not only set the tone but outline the entire discussion for their political party (and their legislation), for their very own wingnut cable news show, Fox “News,” for their “Christian” evangelical leaders (the neo-Republican Jesus crowd), and for the entire talk-radio clown car that trails behind every day, farting smoke and leaking oil everywhere.

Limbaugh defines and then mainstreams the ugliest and most vile fantasies of that select group of men who have Cheeto dust and dried seminal fluid beneath their fingernails — and whose very loud opinions, for whatever reason, seem to matter so very much to those who run our country on the conservative side.

MAYBE there would be a chance at an actual discussion on issues and solutions FOR EVERYONE if the volume on Batshitcrazyville was turned down a bit. Limbaugh is like a greasy, bloated parasite that’s been dividing and spreading across the country, worming himself into the brains of angry, resentful, terrified white men — eating intelligence and common decency — since he first claimed to have 20 million listeners in 1993. You don’t have to wonder if you’re an asshole if you’re just one in 20 million, right?

Limbaugh speaks for exactly two groups of Americans: these white men in their pickup trucks (and so, to an extent, their desperately fanatical wives) and angry shut-ins. For political expediency, the Republican Party has always run with whatever Rush says — conversations, compromise, and solutions are laughed at and shouted down with Limbaugh-coded pejoratives (feminazis! Barack the Magic Negro!) and ignorant takeaway arguments (Sandra Fluke’s a slut — she wants us to pay her to have a lot of sex!). And usually, nothing ever has to be done about the issue that was being originally discussed. Every time.

Well, not this time.

Texas Federal Judge responds to the idiocy of Newt Gingrich and rightwing evangelicals

I like this. So much.

Texas Federal Judge Demagogued By Gingrich Fights Back — ‘You Should Be Ashamed’

Texas federal Judge Fred Biery is a key villain in GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich’s narrative about why federal judges are out of control and must be intimidated into submission. Gingrich routinely cites a previous decision by Biery holding that the Constitution does not permit a public school district to sponsor a student-led prayer at graduation to justify eliminating courts that displease Gingrich […] In his order approving the settlement, Biery includes an unusual “personal statement” directed at the many lawmakers who, like Gingrich, have painted him as some kind of enemy of religion:

To the United States Marshal Service and local police who have provided heightened security: Thank you.

To those Christians who have venomously and vomitously cursed the Court family and threatened bodily harm and assassination: In His name, I forgive you.

To those who have prayed for my death: Your prayers will someday be answered, as inevitably trumps probability.

To those in the executive and legislative branches of government who have demagogued this case for their own political goals: You should be ashamed of yourselves.

Biery also includes a clever dig at the many Christian right groups that have attacked him:

“Any American can pray, silently or verbally, seven days a week, twenty four hours a day, in private as Jesus taught or in large public events as Mohammed instructed.”

Touché, Judge. And thank you for your service.

Via Think Progress: On July 17, Governor Mary Fallin asked all Oklahomans to set aside time to pray for rain. The drought actually worsened afterwards in the following two weeks (above). Is God mad at Mary Fallin or Oklahoma? Maybe Pat Robertson has some thoughts on why God thinks Oklahoma and Mary Fallin deserve this drought? Or maybe some of the extremist right wing preachers who worked with Rick Perry for his Prayer Rally this past week can explain it. I mean, if Japan’s earthquake WAS caused by their Emperor having sex with a demon, then what in God’s name is going on in Oklahoma and Texas? Seriously. Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin prays for rain, drought worsens: how mad is God?
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Via Think Progress:

On July 17, Governor Mary Fallin asked all Oklahomans to set aside time to pray for rain. The drought actually worsened afterwards in the following two weeks (above).

Is God mad at Mary Fallin or Oklahoma? Maybe Pat Robertson has some thoughts on why God thinks Oklahoma and Mary Fallin deserve this drought?

Or maybe some of the extremist right wing preachers who worked with Rick Perry for his Prayer Rally this past week can explain it. I mean, if Japan’s earthquake WAS caused by their Emperor having sex with a demon, then what in God’s name is going on in Oklahoma and Texas? Seriously.

Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin prays for rain, drought worsens: how mad is God?

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