Tag Archives: Catholics

Romney’s Randian perspective: the Makers and the 47 percent Takers

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David Brooks in the NYTimes: “Romney’s comment is a country-club fantasy. It’s what self-satisfied millionaires say to each other. It reinforces every negative view people have about Romney.”

“The Republican Party, and apparently Mitt Romney, too, has shifted over toward a much more hyperindividualistic and atomistic social view — from the Reaganesque language of common citizenship to the libertarian language of makers and takers. There’s no way the country will trust the Republican Party to reform the welfare state if that party doesn’t have a basic commitment to provide a safety net for those who suffer for no fault of their own.

“The final thing the comment suggests is that Romney knows nothing about ambition and motivation. The formula he sketches is this: People who are forced to make it on their own have drive. People who receive benefits have dependency.

“But, of course, no middle-class parent acts as if this is true. Middle-class parents don’t deprive their children of benefits so they can learn to struggle on their own. They shower benefits on their children to give them more opportunities — so they can play sports, go on foreign trips and develop more skills.

“People are motivated when they feel competent. They are motivated when they have more opportunities. Ambition is fired by possibility, not by deprivation, as a tour through the world’s poorest regions makes clear.”

It’s interesting that some Catholic leaders have spoken out about Paul Ryan and how his love of Ayn Rand’s economic philosophy (screw the poor) actually conflicts sharply with the ethics of Christian behavior.

I wonder if the LDS Church will ever speak out about Mitt Romney‘s embrace of the same libertarian philosophy? Or his campaign of lying daily? Especially since he represents their religion so publicly.

My guess would be no – they will never speak out against Mitt. The Corporation of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would never allow that. In fact I’m sure they’re even willing to overlook the money he made with Stericycle, as long as they received the required tithe from any profits made.

“Nuns on a Bus” want Mitt Romney to join them — even for one hour

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Think Progress reports “The group behind the Nuns On A Bus tour that highlighted the ill-effects of the House Republican budget in congressional districts across the country is now setting its sights on the party’s presidential candidate, inviting Mitt Romney to spend a day with the nuns to learn about the plight of America’s poorest citizens.”

“Romney has endorsed the House GOP budget plan authored by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). It was that plan, which includes deep cuts to food stamps and other safety net programs that benefit the middle class, that NETWORK’s Nuns On A Bus tour targeted, with [Sister Simone] Campbell and other sisters blasting it as “immoral” at the tour’s conclusion in Washington D.C. Romney has also proposed massive tax cuts for the rich that would likely come at the expense of lower- and middle-class families, which would see higher taxes or significant cuts to the programs they depend on.

“Those policies, Campbell told ThinkProgress, show that Romney “doesn’t have clue” about the struggles the poor face. “The fact is, his policies shift wealth to the upper class,” she said. “Yes, it hurts the middle class, but it devastates those at the margins of our society.” If Romney were to accept their invitation, Campbell said she would take him to places like St. Augustine’s in Cleveland, where food programs “provide a hand up” to the community’s neediest members. “He thinks they’re lazy,” Campbell said, in reference to Romney’s misleading welfare reform ad. “It is hard work to keep things together when you’re poor. He doesn’t have a clue. Let him talk to them, and maybe they’ll touch his heart. And his mind too.”

“The Romney campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but Campbell said she “lives in hope” that he will accept, even if he spends only an hour with the group. “I’ll take whatever I can get,” Campbell said. “He should accept.””

Unfortunately Mitt, more than most, does need to step outside the gates of his lavish lifestyle to understand exactly how the peasantry lives. But spending time with nuns in service to the poor is something that will never happen. There’s no upside to this kind of PR for a Republican candidate, and especially for Willard Romney — even if it’s very clear that he could benefit from some experience and education on America’s working class and income / poverty:

Flashback (July/2012): Romney completely unaware of what waiters and waitresses earn, calls them “middle class”

Sunday sermon: Mitt Romney criticized by Franciscan Friars for comments on the poor

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“Our Christian tradition teaches that we are to treat the poor with dignity and to prioritize the poor in our policies as a society. At a time when millions are struggling financially, it is degrading to talk about the ‘dependency’ of people hurting in this economy, as Gov. Romney did recently.” — The Franciscan Action Network (FAN), a Catholic faith-based advocacy and civic engagement organization, strongly criticizing Mitt Romney’s recent ads and rhetoric regarding welfare programs and welfare recipients. (via: azspot)

I would imagine, but I couldn’t say for sure, that this Christian tradition is similar between Mormons and Catholics. But the political agendas of Romney and Ryan — both of whom profess to be Mormon and Catholic, respectively — are not inspired by any of the teachings of Jesus Christ, as far as I can see.

It seems like Christianity only matters to far-right conservatives when they can use it as a weapon against a political enemy. Sometimes atheists can also be found wearing sheep’s clothing.

Conservative radio host wants nuns “pistol whipped” for disagreeing with Ryan’s budget

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Another conservative mouth-breather with a tiny penis and a Clear Channel radio program. The following was said on 6/22/12:

And how did the “distinguished” Republican from Iowa, Rep. Latham, respond? He laughed. 

Story here »
Contact WHO radio here »
Contact Rep. Latham here »

But both sides “do it”… right, media?

When Jesus said “Go Galt!” and then changed His mind: Paul Ryan’s impressive flip flop

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Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), chairman of the House budget committee, was scheduled yesterday to speak at Georgetown University, a Catholic institution. 90 faculty members and administrators sent him a letter about his budget:

“I am afraid that Chairman Ryan’s budget reflects the values of his favorite philosopher Ayn Rand rather than the gospel of Jesus Christ,” said Father Thomas Reese, a fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown, in a press release Tuesday. “Survival of the fittest may be okay for Social Darwinists but not for followers of the gospel of compassion and love.”

The complaints seemed to resonate with Ryan. On Thursday, he went on record denouncing Ayn Rand, who believed altruism is evil, brushing off his well-documented obsession with her as a teenage romance.

Continue…

Did Paul Ryan JUST NOW discover Ayn Rand was an atheist – and a hateful, selfish, hypocritical one at that? Or did he just now discover what Jesus actually taught? Apparently so. This week, Paul Ryan’s did a big ol’ flip flop on his well-known, well-documented hero worship of Rand, as Catholic organizations, educators, and leaders started calling bullshit on Ryan for claiming to be a Christian AND a huge fan of Ayn Rand.

As one example, here’s what he said in 2005:

“The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand,” Ryan said at a D.C. gathering four years ago honoring the author of “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead.”

Ryan also said

“…that virtually every national struggle our society faces can be boiled down to the Randian binary, “Almost every fight we are involved in here on Capitol Hill … is a fight that usually comes down to one conflict–individualism versus collectivism.”

But here’s what he said THIS WEEK:

I reject her philosophy,” Ryan says firmly. “It’s an atheist philosophy. It reduces human interactions down to mere contracts and it is antithetical to my worldview. If somebody is going to try to paste a person’s view on epistemology to me, then give me Thomas Aquinas,” who believed that man needs divine help in the pursuit of knowledge. “Don’t give me Ayn Rand,” he says.

Say hello to the new and improved Paul Ryan! Ayn Rand isn’t politically expedient this week, so no more conflict of interest.

Note also that many tea partiers and rightwing bloggers, who would call themselves religious people, worship at the feet of Ayn Rand and Objectivism for political purposes.  I don’t think it’s a coincidence that one of the most xenophobic, mindlessly hateful bloggers for the right has named her site after Rand’s book “Atlas Shrugged.”

So will Paul Ryan’s sudden philosophical conversion change his perspective with regard to his budget proposal? Not at all. He told a Christian tv show that his budget was practically endorsed by the Pope himself, who is down on debt:

James Salt, the executive director of Catholics United, which organized one of the protests outside the hall where Ryan was speaking, told gathered reporters that his group was there because “the dignity of the poor should be at the forefront of our minds.” Taking a dig at Ryan’s attempts to cast his budget as a boon for poor people, Salt noted, “If Paul Ryan knew what poverty was, he wouldn’t be giving this speech.” 

Meanwhile in Spain: Holy Week in Seville

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Photograph: Marcelo del Pozo/Reuters

Guardian: There’s something very unexpected about this picture of a penitent of La Candelaria brotherhood waiting in the rain during Easter week festivities in Seville, Spain.

See more images of how Easter is being marked across the world in our gallery

See also:

File:NazarenosSanEsteban.jpegThe Processions: Nazarenos preparing to start the procession. Brotherhood of San Esteban.

Saturday morning’s 6 somewhat interesting things

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1) “Things are strange… things are happening to me.” — Mitt Romney, campaigning in southern states. Look, at least the President can visit ANY state in the nation, including southern states, without appearing like he’s desperately trying to entertain strange and terrifying lifeforms from a planet outside our solar system that’s known for sudden, violent attack. And cockroaches in an agricultural building… is that where Romney thinks all the cockroaches are typically kept, stabled for the night, if you will? Or what? Señor Romney thinks agricultural buildings = cucarachas?

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2) Rush Limbaugh Scandal Proves Contagious for Talk-Radio Advertisers - Rush Limbaugh made the right-wing talk-radio industry, and he just might break it. Because now the fallout from the “slut” slurs against Sandra Fluke is extending to the entire political shock-jock genre. Premiere Networks, which distributes Limbaugh as well as a host of other right-wing talkers, sent an email out to its affiliates early Friday listing 98 large corporations that have requested their ads appear only on “programs free of content that you know are deemed to be offensive or controversial (for example, Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, Tom Leykis, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity).” This is big. According to the radio-industry website Radio-Info.com, which first posted excerpts of the Premiere memo, among the 98 companies that have decided to no longer sponsor these programs are “carmakers (Ford, GM, Toyota), insurance companies (Allstate, Geico, Prudential, State Farm), and restaurants (McDonald’s, Subway).” Together, these talk-radio advertising staples represent millions of dollars in revenue.

3) Republican primary voters older, over 90% white - The National Journal ran the numbers: So far, according to exit polls posted on CNN.com, whites have cast at least 90 percent of the votes in every Republican primary except Florida (83 percent) and Arizona (89 percent). In every other state except Michigan (92 percent) and Nevada (90 percent) whites have comprised at least 94 percent of the GOP vote this year. That includes Georgia (94), Virginia (94), Ohio (96), Oklahoma (96), Tennessee (97), South Carolina (98), Massachusetts (98), Iowa (99), New Hampshire (99), and Vermont (99). By comparison in the 2008 general election, whites cast only 74 percent of the total vote. [...] The GOP has been trying to keep their nearly-all-white base riled up with race baiting statements (see: Newt versus Juan Williams; Santorum and “blah” people; the entire birther conspiracy theory; the current attempts at generating outrage over Barack Obama once “hugging” some black guy). It may inspire their current members, sure, but there’s clearly no long-term future there. Eventually that base is going to start, well, dying.

4) Fox Doubles Down On Fluke Conspiracy Theories - On Thursday, Bill O’Reilly speculated that Sandra Fluke — the Georgetown law student who testified about the need for insurance coverage for contraception and was then subjected to unrelenting misogynistic attacks by Rush Limbaugh — was a White House plant. O’Reilly based his suggestion on the fact that Fluke is now being represented by former White House communications director Anita Dunn’s PR agency. As we’ve noted, that conspiracy theory imploded when it became clear that Dunn’s PR firm started representing Fluke pro bono on Monday and that prior to that Fluke was fielding media requests herself. Nevertheless, O’Reilly and fellow Fox News host Eric Bolling were still trying to push Fluke conspiracy theories tonight.

5) Most of Obama’s “Controversial” Birth Control Rule Was Law During Bush Years - In December 2000, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that companies that provided prescription drugs to their employees but didn’t provide birth control were in violation of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prevents discrimination on the basis of sex. That opinion, which the George W. Bush administration did nothing to alter or withdraw when it took office the next month, is still in effect today—and because it relies on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, it applies to all employers with 15 or more employees. Employers that don’t offer prescription coverage or don’t offer insurance at all are exempt, because they treat men and women equally—but under the EEOC’s interpretation of the law, you can’t offer other preventative care coverage without offering birth control coverage, too. “It was, we thought at the time, a fairly straightforward application of Title VII principles,” a top former EEOC official who was involved in the decision told Mother Jones. “All of these plans covered Viagra immediately, without thinking, and they were still declining to cover prescription contraceptives. It’s a little bit jaw-dropping to see what is going on now…There was some press at the time but we issued guidances that were far, far more controversial.” [image: sandandglass]

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6) It Is a War on Women, and It Is Not Stopping - Anyway, the ladies from Becket want us all to know that this isn’t about contraception. It’s about religious liberty, which is now threatened because secular insurance companies have to provide birth control free as part of a general health-care package even to those people who work in Catholic institutions. [...] The point of this is to show that, as heartening as the polls on these issues might be to Democrats, and especially to the Democrat in the White House, the people who seek to truncate brutally the right of women to control their bodies and, specifically, their health care, are organized, well-financed, and they simply do not stop. There is nothing on the other side of the argument that compares to the network of organizations that apparently have decided that this is their last best chance to roll those particular rights back, and that are prepared to fight that battle on every front possible. This is not encouraging. [images: sandandglass]

  • They just don’t know when to quit: House Speaker John A. Boehner signaled on Thursday that House Republicans would continue the fight. “I think it’s important for us to win this issue,” Mr. Boehner told reporters just before the Senate killed a Republican measure with a vote of 51 to 48. “The government, our government, for 220 years has respected the religious views of the American people, and for all of this time there’s been an exception for those churches and other groups to protect the religious beliefs that they believe in, and that’s being violated here.”
  • Georgia Lawmaker Compares Women to Cows and Pigs - ”Life gives us many experiences,” he explained. “I’ve had the experience of delivering calves, dead and alive — delivering pigs, dead and alive. … It breaks our hearts to see those animals not make it.” [...] House Bill 954 easily passed last week by a vote of 102-65.  Opponents have said that the so-called “fetal pain” bill would force women to carry stillborn fetuses or to have a Cesarean delivery. Doctors could also face 10 years in prison if they are involved in illegal abortions.
  • SMALL WONDER THEN that the GOP is losing women  - When the Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey asked last summer which party should control Congress, a slim 46-42 percent plurality of women said it should be the Democrats. But in a survey released Monday, compiling polling since the beginning of the year, that figure had widened considerably to a 15-point advantage for the Democrats, according to polling by the team of Democratic pollster Peter Hart and Republican Bill McInturff. Fifty-one percent favored Democratic control; only 36 percent wanted to see the Republicans in charge.

Monday morning’s 9 barely interesting things

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1) Obama At AIPAC  | Andrew Sullivan - For the worldview of Cheney and Netanyahu to prevail, Obama must be defeated. That is clearly the agenda of the current Israeli government, and what the NYT delicately but accurately calls “Israel’s backers” in the US. My worry is that once the Likudniks begin to realize Obama may not be defeated by the GOP at home, the current Israeli government would launch a war without warning to create a crisis to humiliate the president, rally end-times evangelicals to vote, send oil prices soaring, and force the US president to coopt a war he does not want and does not yet believe is necessary. If that helps the GOP nominee, so much the better. Every GOP candidate is now committed to the most extreme positions of the Likudnik Israeli right – and are to the bellicose right of most Israelis. I hope that the Israeli government is not that reckless or extreme. But ask yourself when thinking about Netanyahu: what would Cheney do? These individuals are radicals. They turned the US into a torturing nation and regarded that decision as a “no-brainer.” A “wag-the-dog” scenario in which Netanyahu creates a war to wound and weaken a US president before an election is, sadly, not unthinkable. And he will have the GOP as his critical back-up.

2) Should We Be More Scared Of Pandemics? - “Worst case for a severe pandemic would certainly be in the millions [of deaths] in the U.S. alone,” says John Barry. He has advised the last two U.S. presidents on the flu virus and wrote The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History. … When the so-called Spanish flu struck in 1918, it resulted in 500 million infections and 50 million to 100 million deaths, in a world with a population of about 1.8 billion people. That’s equivalent to around 385 million deaths—only a little less than the current population of South America—if extrapolated out to today’s population. “Because of the mildness of the 2009 pandemic, I would say most people underestimate the threat,” says Barry.

3) And Breitbart goes out not with a bang but a whimper - Apparently the big expose Breitbart promised before his death has been released at one of the Big Morons sites, and the shocking revelation is… Obama attended a play 14 years ago that was about Saul Alinksy. || And THIS is the “damning information” that caused Breitbart’s “assassination” by Obama, according to conspiracy theorists. lol.

 4) David Frum: HBO’s ‘Game Change’ Charts Sarah Palin’s Revenge - The professionals soon discover their mistake. “I don’t even like to say this, but has it occurred to you guys that she might be mentally unstable?” asks one staffer about the woman the McCain campaign proposed to put next in line to America’s nuclear codes. As they come to know Palin, the campaign professionals begin to feel an awakening of conscience: first qualms, then fears, and finally revulsion—not for the campaign, not for their careers, but for their country. They supported McCain because they saw him, in Schmidt’s words, as a statesman and national hero running against a celebrity with no major life accomplishments. In hopes of reversing adverse poll numbers, they yoked a great man to a running mate who was not merely unworthy, but dangerous. Some of the best acting in the film is in the looks of unspoken dread that flit about the faces of Sarah Paulson’s Wallace and Harrelson’s Schmidt as they react to Palin’s wilder and wilder provocations. What have they done? And if this campaign somehow wins—and Palin is put within reach of the presidency—what might they have done?

If ever there were a scenario in which Godwin’s Law was apropos, Sick Rantorum is it.5) Santorum: Contraception ‘a grievous moral wrong’ - “The Blunt amendment was broader than that. It was a conscience clause exception that existed prior to when President Obama decided that he could impose his values on people of faith, when people of faith believe that this is a grievous moral wrong. [...] I’m reflecting the views of the Church that I believe in. We used to be tolerant of those beliefs. I guess now when you have beliefs that are consistent with the church, you are somehow out of touch with the mainstream. And that to me is a pretty sad situation when you can’t have personally-held beliefs.” || I find it “pretty sad” that, as president, Santorum would like to impose his personal religious beliefs on the entire country.

motherjones:Context: Rick Santorum pledges to repeal 130,000 legally recognized same-sex marriages if elected president.6) Santorum backs nullifying existing gay marriages - There are 18,000 married gay and lesbian couples in California and at least 131,000 nationwide according to the 2010 census, conducted before New York state legalized same-sex marriage in July. Rick Santorum says he’ll try to unmarry all of them if he’s elected president. Once the U.S. Constitution is amended to prohibit same-gender marriages, “their marriage would be invalid,” the former Pennsylvania senator said Dec. 30 in an NBC News interview.

7) 99% of Republicans expect their kids to go to college, according to Pew report. - No matter what political beliefs they hold, nearly all parents—99 percent of Republicans, 96 percent of Democrats, and 93 percent of independents—expect their children to go to college, the survey found. That resounding endorsement makes clear that Santorum is all but alone in his opinion that only snobs encourage all kids to go to college. || And there you have it: 99% of Republicans are snobs.

8) Chris Wallace: Fox News covers contraception for female employees - During a discussion about women’s health issues on Sunday, Fox News host Chris Wallace revealed that the insurance provided by the conservative news network included oral contraceptives. “Before coming on today, I checked with the women here at Fox News and it turns out that Fox News health coverage does cover — there’s a co-pay — but it does cover contraception,” Wallace explained. “When it comes to contraception, you know the idea that — and we’re not talking about religious institutions. According to the Blunt amendment, any — U.S. Steel, as I said, Fox News, any company could simply decide, we are not going to offer that. An insurance company could decide, one that has no ties to any religious organization.” || There’s an FYI for Limbaugh and his zombie hoard — the “sluts” at Fox News have the health insurance benefit that Sandra Fluke was talking about. 

9) You might wonder: how are Limbaugh’s hoards in the wingnut blogosphere handling the advertising exodus from the barren land of El Rushbo? Like this:  SLUTGATE: CONTACT CARBONITE – DROP ED SCHULTZ!!!!! – A 30-year-old poses as a 23-year-old, chooses a Catholic University to attend at $65,000 per year and can not afford ALL the birth control pills she needs… so she wants the US taxpayers to pay for her rampant sexual activity. By all accounts she is banging it five times a day. She sounds more like a prostitute to me. She must have an gyno bill to choke a horse (pun intended). Slut was a softball. Obama calls her and tells Sandra Slut Fluke that her parents should be so proud of her. He’s a pimp. As for Rush calling a spade a spade, or in this case, a slut a slut, advertiser Carbonite is playing selective outrage. Contact Carbonite here and demand that they drop their ads from Ed Schultz’s program. || That’s courtesy of a woman, Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs. Who better to casually throw around such pejoratives about another woman than a true lady like Geller? 

Tuesday morning’s 9 kinda interesting things

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1) Neck And Neck In Michigan - PPP’s final Michigan poll, which was released within the past hour, finds Santorum ahead: Much has been made of Democratic efforts to turn out the vote for Santorum and we see evidence that’s actually happening. Romney leads with actual Republican voters, 43-38. But Santorum’s up 47-10 with Democratic voters, and even though they’re only 8% of the likely electorate that’s enough to put him over the top. The big question now is whether those folks will actually bother to show up and vote tomorrow.
538_Michigan

  • Arizona Primary Fails to Inspire Republican Voters - Arizona caught the country’s attention by passing controversial immigration laws, but Republican voters don’t seem too concerned with the state’s presidential primary this week. Arizona Republicans go to the polls Tuesday in what could be one of the least-watched races of the GOP election cycle. “People started with the assumption that Arizona is safe for Romney because there are a lot of Mormons here,” said Merrill, whose recent polls showed Romney’s lead shrinking to just a few points.
  • Michigan primary could reset GOP presidential race - The magnitude of the Romney vote in Michigan will be closely parsed for clues about the strength of his appeal in an industrial state that Republicans would like to make a battleground in the fall. But conservative challenger Santorum, a long shot when the campaign began, is making a powerful bid to throw the 2012 race into chaos with upsets, particularly in Romney’s native state.
  • Democrats don’t want Democrats to vote Democratic in Michigan - In other words, Democrats who vote Republican tomorrow don’t just meddle with the GOP primary, but they also meddle with Republican electoral efforts into November, if not beyond. So if you’re a Democrat in Michigan squeamish about voting for Santorum, then vote for someone else! Either way, you’re making Michigan GOP’s job that much harder in the future.
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2) Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) has conceded his all-male anti-contraception hearing was not ‘my greatest success’ - Eight days after getting roundly-chastised for holding an all-male anti-contraception, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) admitted on Friday that the episode did not go as well as he expected. “I won’t call it my greatest success to get a point across on behalf of the American people,” said the six-term congressman.

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via: tarantulataco

3) Rush Limbaugh: America’s Least Favorite News Personality – A new Harris Poll out today finds that conservative shock jock Rush Limbaugh is America’s “least favorite” news personality, with 46 percent of respondents picking him for the dubious honor. Runners-up Bill O’Reilly and Nancy Grace come in a distant second and third, at 31 percent and 23 percent, respectively. But more interestingly, Limbaugh is universally disliked. He is the only person whom Democrats, Independents, and Republicans alike chose as among their top three their least favorite people.

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4) Elderly Bachelor Tells Women How Jesus Will Allow Them To Get Pregnant - Dressed in flowing silken capes and a bejeweled silken hat, the childless old man described his religion’s required process for creating new human life forms: “The human and Christian dignity of procreation, in fact, doesn’t consist in a ‘product’, but in its link to the conjugal act, an expression of the love of the spouses of their union, not only biological but also spiritual,” the Daily Mail quoted Pope Benedict XVI as saying. Sperm or egg donation and methods such as IVF are banned for members of the Catholic church. The man, who spent his youth as an actual Nazi in the “Hitler Youth” army, is also stridently against the legal prosecution of his fellow Catholic priests who fuck little boys.

5) Rick Santorum will require we all live under Catholic sharia law one day - Rick Santorum is very confused. Santorum today: The former Pennsylvania senator told about 300 people in Lavonia: “I’m for separation of church and state. The state has no business telling the church what to do.” Santorum yesterday: I don’t believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute. The idea that the church can have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country.

6) 2012 or Never - The Republican Party is in the grips of many fever dreams. But this is not one of them. To be sure, the apocalyptic ideological analysis—that “freedom” is incompatible with Clinton-era tax rates and Massachusetts-style health care—is pure crazy. But the panicked strategic analysis, and the sense of urgency it gives rise to, is actually quite sound. The modern GOP—the party of Nixon, Reagan, and both Bushes—is staring down its own demographic extinction. Right-wing warnings of impending tyranny express, in hyperbolic form, well-grounded dread: that conservative America will soon come to be dominated, in a semi-permanent fashion, by an ascendant Democratic coalition hostile to its outlook and interests. And this impending doom has colored the party’s frantic, fearful response to the Obama presidency. The GOP has reason to be scared. Obama’s election was the vindication of a prediction made several years before by journalist John Judis and political scientist Ruy Teixeira in their 2002 book, The Emerging Democratic Majority. Despite the fact that George W. Bush then occupied the White House, Judis and Teixeira argued that demographic and political trends were converging in such a way as to form a ­natural-majority coalition for Democrats.

7) Not Good Enough, Politifact - PolitiFact has revised its piece from Feb. 14, which found U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio’s contention that “the majority of Americans are conservatives” to be “Mostly True.” It’s now “Half True.” NO! It’s not even “half true.” It’s false by every measure. Not even a plurality of Americans are “conservative” according to Gallup. From Politifac’s write-up: For 2011, Gallup found that the largest group of Americans identify as conservative, at 40 percent. Another 35 percent identify as moderate, while 21 percent identify as liberal. [...] See that? 56 percent of Americans aren’t conservative. Not a majority or a plurality. So to suggest that a “majority of Americans are conservative” is FALSE. UNTRUE. Period.

8) Over Last 10 Years, General Electric’s Effective Tax Rate Was 2.3 Percent - General Electric, one of the nation’s largest corporations, found itself at the center of the corporate tax debate last year when the New York Times discovered that it paid nothing in taxes, despite billions of dollars in profits. GE responded to the outcry by promising that its 2011 rate was “slated to return to more normal levels” because of the recovery of GE Capital, its financial arm. But according to an analysis from Citizens for Tax Justice, the company’s 2011 effective tax rate was just 11.3 percent. Even worse, over a 10-year period from 2002-2011, the company paid $1.9 billion in taxes on $81.2 billion in profits, giving it an effective tax rate of just 2.3 percent for the decade. [...] In 2009, in fact, only Iceland had a lower effective rate, and only two countries collected less in revenue as a percent of GDP.

9) “…The corporate taxes as a percentage of GDP were 1.2 percent, $180 billion. That’s just about the lowest we’ve seen. So our corporate tax rate last year, effectively, in terms of taxes paid for the United States, was around 12 percent, which is well below those existing in most of the industrialized countries around the world. So it is a myth that American corporations are paying 35 percent or anything like it. Incidentally, 1.2 percent of GDP or 12 or so percent of corporate profits actually paid, that is a rate far, far, far below what we’ve seen in the United States. … Corporate taxes are not strangling American competitiveness.” – Warren Buffett, responding to Rick Santorum’s op-ed in the WSJ, calling for the corporate tax rate to be halved from 35 percent to 17.5 percent to “[r]estore America’s competitiveness.”

Catholicism and American politics: then and now

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50 years ago:

“But because I am a Catholic and no Catholic has ever been elected President, the real issues in this campaign have been obscured — perhaps deliberately, in some quarters less responsible than this. So it is apparently necessary for me to state once again — not what kind of church I believe in for that should be important only to me, but what kind of America I believe in. I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute — where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be a Catholic) how to act and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote — where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference — and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him.” — President John F. Kennedy, in a 1960 speech, assuring Southern Baptist leaders that as the nation’s first Catholic president, he would not take orders from the Pope. 

And today:

“I don’t believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute. The idea that the church can have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country… To say people of faith have no role in the public square, you bet that makes you throw up. What kind of country do we live in that says only people of non-faith can come in the public square and make their case. That makes me throw up and it should make every American.” — Rick Santorum, today, on This Week with George Stephanopoulos. 

A Sunday prayer for 35 priests at the Archdiocese of Philadelphia: string them up…

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…or let those children who were abused and who are now adults have at them.

Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua ordered aides to shred a 1994 memo that identified 35 Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests suspected of sexually abusing children, according to a new court filing.

The order, outlined in a handwritten note locked away for years at the archdiocese’s Center City offices, was disclosed Friday by lawyers for Msgr. William J. Lynn, the former church administrator facing trial next month.

They say the shredding directive proves what Lynn has long claimed: that a church conspiracy to conceal clergy sex abuse was orchestrated at levels far above him.

“It is beyond doubt that Msgr. Lynn was completely unaware of this act of obstruction,” attorneys Jeffrey Lindy and Thomas Bergstrom wrote.

Their motion asks Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina to dismiss the conspiracy and endangerment charges against Lynn, or to bar prosecutors from introducing Bevilacqua’s videotaped testimony at trial.

The cardinal died Jan. 31.

Read it all…

And meanwhile the Catholic Church, with its current mouthpiece as Rick Santorum, want to tell all women in the country what they should and shouldn’t do with contraception and personal choices because of so called “religious freedom”? It’s truly laughable. We’ve seen what the Catholic Church’s male-leadership has done with religious freedom for decades, regarding the personal conduct of many of its priests and the resulting actions taken by Church leadership. It wasn’t “the children” they protected.

via: WWJD

Rick Santorum in 2008: “You’re a liberal something, but you’re not a Christian.”

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In a 2008 interview with the Oxford Centre for Religion and Public Life Rick Santorum said the following:


image: leftish

Ed Kilgore says,

As it happens, the Santorum appearance Waldman wrote about occurred around the same time in 2008 as the Pennsylvanian’s now famous speech at Ave Maria University when he regaled his audience with a narrative of the ongoing war for America between true Christians and Satan. He sadly concluded that mainline Protestantism, which was “gone from the world of Christianity,” had already been lost to His Infernal Majesty. Clearly, the apostasy of liberal Protestants was on his mind at that time, perhaps because of the rise to national power of Barack Obama.

As Waldman noted, this is not that unusual an attitude for self-consciously conservative Christians to have these days, but it’s unusual to hear it from a politician. Rick Santorum cannot have it both ways, though. If he feels so strongly that Christians who don’t share his particular “world view” aren’t really Christian at all, then he should be loud and proud about it, and stop pretending he’s just this mild-mannered man of faith being persecuted by people who despise the very name of Jesus Christ.

It’s easy enough for the far right to judge liberals and Obama, especially by those who call themselves “Christians” — they do it all the time.

But I’d really like to hear how all the rightwing, born-again, evangelical Protestants feel about Santorum’s conclusion that they and their religion are ‘gone from the world of Christianity‘.

We all know that this country was founded on a Judeo-Christian ethic but the Judeo-Christian ethic was a Protestant Judeo-Christian ethic, sure the Catholics had some influence, but this was a Protestant country and the Protestant ethic, mainstream, mainline Protestantism, and of course we look at the shape of mainline Protestantism in this country and it is in shambles, it is gone from the world of Christianity as I see it.

So, you see, you’re not a real Christian either. Sorry! Deal with it, I guess. Only Saint Santorum decides who’s in or out. I wonder if Jesus Himself would make Santorum’s cut?

Tuesday morning’s 9 *slightly* interesting things

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1) Theology For Dummies - The Republican party is about a half-step away from handing its presidential nomination to an out-and-out religious fanatic whose views, as expressed to allegedly evolved primates on the campaign trail, are not dissimilar to those that some people listen to on their short-wave sets in survivalist camps in upper Michigan, or those that other people hear transmitted to them from St. Michael The Archangel through the fillings in their teeth. There were a number of reasons why the people of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania decided six years ago that they no longer wanted to be represented in the U.S. Senate by fetus-fondling Torquemada. Over the past few days, we have seen only a few of them.

image: phroyd

2) This is What’s Wrong with the GOP - From PPP’s latest poll of Michigan primary voters. Santorum’s advantage over Romney seems to be a reflection of voters being more comfortable with where he is ideologically. 48% of voters think Santorum has more similar beliefs to them, compared to only 32% who pick Romney on that question. 63% of primary voters think Santorum’s views are ‘about right’ compared to only 42% who say that for Romney. 37% believe that Romney is ‘too liberal.’ [...] Rick Santorum thinks homosexual sex should be a felony and heterosexual sex should be a misdemeanor. His views are ‘about right?’

3) If you’re a woman, this should piss you off: Five sexual health services insurance will cover… for men - The fact of the matter is that health insurance covers all manner of “things in the sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be,” when it comes to men, and no one has any real complaints about insurance coverage that allows men to continue having sex for non-procreative reasons and despite medical conditions that would otherwise prevent it. Most of them are actually far more expensive than hormonal birth control or intrauterine devices, the two methods of contraception that House and Senate Republicans now want all employers to be able to prevent their insurance companies from covering in employee health insurance packages.

4) “You may not realize this, but the Catholic Church actually offers health plans that cover Viagra — a.k.a. (the) ‘boner pill.’ …I’m guessing that that doesn’t ‘rape the soul.’  That some of your employees, I guess, are getting that subsidized Viagra.  And I guess that some of them are single, unmarried men.  What do you think they’re doing with their erections?  Seriously, we’d love to know.  Send your responses to Brian Williams, care of NBC Nightly News.” – Jon Stewart, responding to, Brian Williams, a Church spokesman’s charge that forcing religious institutions to provide contraceptive care is akin to “soul rape,” on The Daily Show (via: inothernews)

5) Some men take their insurance provided chemical erections to the Dominican Republic: VIDEO: Cenk Uygur: Rush Limbaugh got caught with a bucket of Viagra, but he still thinks birth control is bad - The least necessary comment on the battle over contraception insurance coverage comes from Rush Limbaugh. Cenk says, “He’s complaining about people wanting to have sex? That’s the guy who went to the Dominican Republic with a bucket of Viagra. That guy’s talking about having sex? Here’s who needs contraception: anybody having sex with Rush Limbaugh.” || Related: The Dominican Republic is one of the biggest sex tourism destinations in the world (source). Rush Limbaugh was [flying from the Dominican Republic] with four other men–including the producers of the hit show ’24′–when he was detained over a mislabeled bottle of Viagra found in his luggage during a Customs search. (July 6, 2006 – The Smoking Gun)

6) Messy! Santorum voted for earmarks he criticized - Rick Santorum suggested on Saturday that Mitt Romney was hypocritical to bash the practice of earmarking federal legislation, while also touting his leadership of the Olympics – which benefitted from earmarks. But a review of Senate shows that earmarks which funded security at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics – headed by Romney – were supported by Santorum, then a senator from Pennsylvania. [...] “Federal dollars had to bail out the Olympics. It wasn’t his abilities,” [Santorum's spox] said, referring to Romney. “It was dollars from the taxpayers.”

7) “Yes, the government can help, but the idea that the federal government should be running schools, frankly much less that the state government should be running schools, is anachronistic.”  – Rick Santorum, calling for the abolition of public schools

8) The dog whistle birther shoutout Freudian slip of Cardinal Santorum’s aide  - ”There is a type of theological secularism when it comes to ‘global warmists’ in this country. That’s what he was referring to. He was referring to the president’s policies in terms of the radical Islamic policies the president has, specifically in terms of the energy exploration,” Stewart said. Host Andrea Mitchell reported later during her show Monday that Stewart called to say she misspoke during the interview. “She says she slipped,” said Mitchell. || Oops! (wink wink)

9) Newt Gingrich calls defeating Obama ‘a duty of national security’ - Newt Gingrich, speaking at Oral Roberts University: “We are really at risk someday in your life time of losing an American city [in a terrorist attack],” Gingrich said, adding that in that context “defeating Barack Obama becomes a duty of national security.” Yes. Yes, imagine a president who would “lose a city” due to some circumstance. Heck, imagine terrorists attacked, I don’t know, maybe New York, or the Pentagon, and maybe it came to light that the president wasn’t really paying much attention to the national security issues that preceded it. What a dereliction of duty that would be.