Tag Archives: Racism

Mark Sanford imagines President Obama throwing spears

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Mark Sanford took a break from his favorite pastime of wandering the Appalachian Trail to appear on Fox “news” and call Obama a spear chucker thrower:

“Obama’s going to come out in this case much more forcefully, and he’s going to throw a lot of spears,” Sanford opined. “And I think it’s very, very important that in this case that, you know, Romney stay focused on his vision for the country and stay focused on the things that, I think, matter most to people in this country, which is, where is the economy going, where are we with jobs, and what’s happening next on the debt and the deficit issue?”

At this point, I’m only surprised that everyone on Fox News isn’t wearing this shirt.

Racism in the Republican Party? That’s mind blowing!

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Buzzfeed’s Andrew Kaczynski posted a photo entitled: Man At Romney Rally Wears Mindblowingly Offensive Shirt: “The Getty Images photo was taken at a Romney/Ryan campaign event in Lancaster, Ohio on Friday. A Romney spokesperson commented that the shirt was “reprehensible and has no place in this election.””


(Getty)

Are their “minds blown” because the guy wore an offensive shirt or because he wore a shirt that loudly proclaims the racism that they’ve all participated in but agreed to not be so blatant about? It’s okay for Mitt to joke that “no one’s ever asked to see my birth certificate” (and to use Donald Trump and his flagrant birtherism for campaign cash), to run ads claiming President Obama is cutting welfare requirements to “shore up his base,” and to speak to a room full of wealthy people, like him, about how 47 percent of Americans won’t take personal responsibility for their own lives and that’s why they’ll vote for Obama.

That’s all supposedly quieter, just some harmless dog-whistling. But according to Team Romney, this shirt is “reprehensible and has no place in this election.” Uh huh — it has no place in this election NOW, four weeks from Election Day, when they’re trying to appeal to potential voters outside their circle of extremists.

But guess whose minds aren’t “blown” by this shirt? Everyone who’s been paying attention to the Republican Tea Party since 2008.

Mitt Romney suggests to Jewish donors that Israeli culture is superior to Palestinian culture

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The Gafftastic World Tour continues with yet another racist dog-whistling moment for Mitt Romney.  Instead of whistling at his usual target — President Obama — this time Mittens thought he’d compare the Israeli and Palestinian cultures and decide which one was better:

Huffington Post: “Mitt Romney told Jewish donors Monday that their culture is part of what has allowed them to be more economically successful than the Palestinians, outraging Palestinian leaders who called his comments racist and out of touch. “As you come here and you see the GDP per capita, for instance, in Israel which is about $21,000 dollars, and compare that with the GDP per capita just across the areas managed by the Palestinian Authority, which is more like $10,000 per capita, you notice such a dramatically stark difference in economic vitality,” the Republican presidential candidate told about 40 wealthy donors who breakfasted around a U-shaped table at the luxurious King David Hotel.

“The reaction of Palestinian leaders to Romney’s comments was swift and pointed. “It is a racist statement and this man doesn’t realize that the Palestinian economy cannot reach its potential because there is an Israeli occupation,” said Saeb Erekat, a senior aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. “It seems to me this man (Romney) lacks information, knowledge, vision and understanding of this region and its people,” Erekat added. ‘He also lacks knowledge about the Israelis themselves. I have not heard any Israeli official speak about cultural superiority.’”

This is like telling the U.K. that you have a special shared Anglo-Saxon heritage, except it might be worse. Hey everyone in America who’s not a millionaire like Romney: his “culture” is better than yours, obviously.

I honestly think Romney is socially retarded.

Kid Rock to perform at the RNC. Are they aware of Kid Rock’s music?

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Via: shortformblog: Kid Rock to perform at Republican National Convention

An observation from mohandasgandhi:

“Remember when there was a giant uproar about Common visiting the White House to read poetry? Fox News and the Republicans absolutely lost it and racist stereotyping ran amok. Rap music is really scary though, right? Kid Rock, however, can play at the Republican National Convention and no one bats an eyelash. Why? Maybe it has something to do with skin color. Is Kid Rock going to play Early Mornin’ Stoned Pimp, Fuck Off, Fuck That, Fuck You Blind, or Cadillac Pussy?” 

Related: Fox’s Eric Bolling: Obama Is Hosting “Hoodlum[s]” In “The Hizzouse”

Not racist though

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via: early-onset-of-night

Related: Bill Maher: the problem with racism is Matt Drudge

On a related note, this was overheard at a Tea Party rally this weekend: Ozark Tea Party board member Inge Marler considers this joke an “ice breaker:”

A black kid asks his mom, ‘Mama, what’s a democracy?’
‘Well, son, that be when white folks work every day so us po’ folks can get all our benefits.’
‘But mama, don’t the white folk get mad about that?’
‘They sho do, son. They sho do. And that’s called racism.’

After her joke was reported, Marler told the Baxter Bulletin she’d stop using it. Audio of the speech can be heard here.

Just for the record: More white people are on welfare than black people.

Bill Maher: the problem with racism is Matt Drudge

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…

Raw Story: Matt Drudge is, of course, the internet-famous, race-obsessed recluse who has been called “America’s assignment editor” by Politico and the CNN’s Howard Kurtz. For a time in the late 90′s and early part of this century, Drudge’s blog, The Drudge Report was the place to get breaking news ahead of the news networks and newspapers.

Drudge’s relevance has declined steeply in recent years and Maher gave us a quick demonstration as to why. A quick tour of some recent cover photos from Drudge’s website revealed “Mike Tyson, looking like he’s going to eat your head,” said Maher, “Oh, yes, Louis Farrakhan, because he’s so relevant now. Oh and Marion Barry, he’s in the news every day also.” It was a depressing parade of glowering, angry-looking African American men, who Drudge appears to feel are the greatest threat facing our society.

The point Maher made is that ultimately, this is the only way a lot of conservatives are capable of seeing the president, and it’s at the root of the blatant disrespect some of them have shown him since he took office. From South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson (R), who shouted “You lie!” at Obama during his first State of the Union address to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) pointing her finger in his face on an airport tarmac to yesterday’s incident wherein a staff member from Tucker Carlson’s blog “The Daily Caller” heckled the president during a Rose Garden signing ceremony, conservatives apparently only respect authority when it’s being wielded by white people.

Morning Bunker Report: Sunday 5.20.2012

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WHAT THE REPUBLICAN PARTY STANDS FOR TODAY—————————–—

The GOP House passed a defense budget Friday that exceeds the deal cut by Congress and President Barack Obama last summer, and that would have to be paid for with cash taken from poverty programs, health care and the federal workforce. The National Defense Authorization Act permits $642 billion in defense spending next year. The White House has threatened to veto the bill, which passed 299 to 120, citing more than 30 changes to the budget the administration was seeking. But the measure also adds $8 billion more than called for in the Budget Control Act that Congress agreed to last summer in exchange for raising the nation’s debt limit. – HuffPo

  • $60 million to private military contractors in Afghanistan – money well spent, obviously. — Wired

Are Republicans deliberating trying to hurt the economy for political gain? Some top Democrats say yes, pointing to GOP stances on the debt limit and other issues that they claim are causing unnecessary economic anxiety and retarding growth. [...] “The last thing the country needs is a rerun of last summer’s debacle that nearly brought down our economy,” Schumer said in a statement. In an interview, Schumer added: “I hope that the speaker is not doing this because he doesn’t want to see the economy improve, because what he said will certainly rattle the markets.” Regardless of whether Schumer’s suspicions are right, there’s evidence that unceasing partisan gridlock and the prospect of big tax increases and spending cuts in January are causing some companies to postpone expansions. Even small economic slowdowns are bad news for Obama, who is seeking re-election amid high unemployment. – AP

Back in February, Paul Krugman argued that Mitt Romney is “running a campaign of almost pathological dishonesty.” Was this an intemperate analysis? Perhaps. Three months later, does it seem fair? Put it this way: take a look at the 18th installment of my weekly series, chronicling Mitt’s mendacity. – Steve Benen


image: conceivable

The severe racism of white, far-right Christians – Phyllis Schlafly founded a group called the Eagle Forum and this is what it had to say about the growing minority population here: It is not a good thing. The immigrants do not share American values, so it is a good bet that they will not be voting Republican when they start voting in large numbers.[...] Instead, the USA is being transformed by immigrants who do not share those values, and who have high rates of illiteracy, illegitimacy, and gang crime, and they will vote Democrat when the Democrats promise them more food stamps. That explains why the far-right — especially old-schoolers like Pat Buchanan and Schlafly — are so kerfuffled. First, America is becoming more brown and therefore “ghettoized” (their term) and, two, the brown people vote Democratic. They simply don’t believe that America can remain civilized and ordered if brown people take over, so they will use whatever means at their disposal to oppress the minority and immigrant population. This is racism illustrated. – Bob Cesca

Geraldo Rivera: Trayvon Martin was ‘dressed in thugwear’  – “I think what is far more significant is what Trayvon Martin looked liked that night Bill,” Rivera said. “Aside from the fact that he was dressed in that thugwear, look at the size of him. He’s not a little kid, he’s 6’2, he’s a strapping youngster. You can see that if this man, this young man was a stranger to George Zimmerman. He looks just like the people who have been burglarizing and victimizing that neighborhood for the last six months. He was exactly the person that George Zimmerman, the property owner, feared. He looked just like the others.” – Raw Story

WHAT THE PRESIDENT / DEMOCRATS STAND FOR ————————————

The leaders of the G8 conference, assembled this weekend at Camp David, Maryland, took a break to watch the riveting overtime shootout of the Chelsea vs. Bayern Munich Champions League soccer final today. Check out the range of expressions in this photo — especially those of Cameron and Obama (upper left) versus France’s new President, Francois Hollande at the lower right. — TPM

(Photo credit: Pete Souza | White House)

Watch Live from the NATO Summit in Chicago – This week, leaders from the 28 member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will gather in Chicago for a summit aimed at discussing international security and the war in Afghanistan. This will be the 25th time NATO has held a summit and the first time the United States has hosted the event since 1999. It will also be the largest such event in the organization’s history. Throughout the day on Sunday and Monday, the U.S. State Department will broadcasts events with President Obama and foreign leaders. Click here to watch.

World Leaders at U.S. Meeting Urge Growth, Not Austerity  – CAMP DAVID, Md. — Leaders of the world’s richest countries banded together on Saturday to press Germany to back more pro-growth policies to halt the deepening debt crisis in Europe, as President Obama for the first time gained widespread support for his argument that Europe, and the United States by extension, cannot afford Chancellor Angela Merkel’s one-size-fits-all approach emphasizing austerity. Pointedly recognizing “that the right measures are not the same for each of us,” the leaders of the Group of 8 nations, at a meeting hosted by Mr. Obama at Camp David, committed to “take all necessary steps” to strengthen their economies. They said they wanted to keep Greece in the euro zone and vowed to work to promote growth in Europe, though they did not detail how they would do so. “Our imperative,” the leaders said in their statement, “is to promote growth and jobs.” – NY Times

  • Statement by G8 Leaders on the Global Economy – (STATE DEPARTMENT): Our imperative is to promote growth and jobs. The global economic recovery shows signs of promise, but significant headwinds persist. Against this background, we commit to take all necessary steps to strengthen and reinvigorate our economies and combat financial stresses, recognizing that the right measures are not the same for each of us…

Hawaii wants Arizona to know it is sick of their nonsense: The attorney general’s office in Hawaii is telling Arizona’s secretary of state that if he wants confirmation of President Obama’s birth records, he’ll have to prove he legitimately needs it.  Special Assistant Joshua Wisch said late Friday that Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett hasn’t done that despite numerous email and phone exchanges between their offices.  […] Hawaii officials have confirmed multiple times that Obama was born there. – John Cole

Facts on Romney’s Steel Mill Video – corporate welfare, corporate welfare, corporate welfare:  FACT: “Steel Dynamics received $92,000 in government cash for every job created” and “Romney’s Bain Capital provided less than 5% of the initial investment for SDI – government subsidies were valued at 10%”

…

Jobs records: comparing Bush and Obama — So compare private-sector job creation from January 2001 to January 2009 — the Bush era — with job creation from January 2009 to April 2012. Or maybe you think presidents shouldn’t be held accountable for their first year, and want to start either comparison from the first January after inauguration. Here are the results: (via: Paul Krugmn)

Political correctness is deadly: right-wing extremism is our biggest domestic terror threat

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Think Progress’s Ken Sofer and Molly Bernstein report on the REAL threats to the safety and security of American citizens today:

Though the terrorist attack on Oklahoma City happened nearly two decades ago, (17 years ago on April 19) right-wing extremist terrorism remains a significant domestic threat to American security. The Department of Homeland Security released a report in 2009 stating that the economic and political climate bears important similarities to the conditions of the early 1990s when right-wing extremism experienced a dramatic resurgence. These conditions, including the public debate around hot-button issues such as immigration, gun control, and abortion, along with the election of the first African-American president, present “unique drivers for right-wing radicalization and recruitment,” the report said.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano eventually ordered the report withdrawn because of significant political backlash from mainstream conservatives. But the report, which was originally commissioned by the Bush administration, also found that “lone wolves and small terrorist cells embracing violent rightwing extremist ideology are the most dangerous domestic terrorism threat in the United States.”

A look at terrorist incidents since the Oklahoma City bombing, including both successful and disrupted ideologically-motivated attacks, backs up the conclusions of the DHS report:

Fifty-six percent of domestic terrorist attacks and plots in the U.S. since 1995 have been perpetrated by right-wing extremists, as compared to 30 percent by ecoterrorists and 12 percent by Islamic extremists. Right-wing extremism has been responsible for the greatest number of terrorist incidents in the U.S. in 13 of the 17 years since the Oklahoma City bombing.

After DHS withdrew the report, the department cut the number of analysts studying non-Islamic domestic terrorism. Daryl Johnson, the primary author of the report and a self-described Republican, soon left his post at DHS and said in July, 2011 that DHS has “just one person” dealing with domestic terrorism. The Department has largely been silent on domestic terrorist threats ever since.

Although current statistics show that right-wing extremism is on the rise through groups like the Sovereign Citizen and Patriot movements, domestic counterterrorism continues to receive few resources and little public attention. Though Islamic extremism remains a significant domestic security threat, current statistics and incidents such as Oklahoma City show that it is far from the only threat. In order to protect American citizens, we need to match our resources to the reality of our threats, not just the politically expedient narratives we have formed.

As long as the media and average people pretend that ‘both sides do it’ and decide that it’s okay for self-described ‘patriots’ to rabidly hate President Obama, Democrats, and the federal government — and as long as everyone continues to look the other way when right-wing attitudes manifest themselves publicly, in the form of open racism and / or violent rhetoric, we’ll be under threat as a society and a functioning country.

Ask yourself if the fictional right-wing, Fox “News” created, tea party celebrated ‘creeping Sharia law’ is more of a threat to our country than the very real and ongoing use of the Republican Party’s Southern Strategy. Recall Sarah Palin’s creative ‘sniper rifle symbols’ on Democratic U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords and the aftermath. Think of Breitbart-protégé James O’Keefe and his ‘pimp costume’ and ACORN and the fictional Democratic voter fraud issue (as we’ve learned, Mitt Romney, the presumed GOP presidential candidate, actually committed voter fraud).

Or look at the most recent example of our politically correct, both sides do it, national discourse:

The ‘outrage’ for the right was something said by a CNN commentator about a candidate’s wife and was, in fact, entirely true. The ‘outrage’ for the left, which should be an outrage for the entire country, was a thinly-veiled threat against the life of our sitting president, for purposes of demonstrating the speaker’s Southern Strategy bona fides in front of an NRA crowd. With our history of political assassinations and attempted assassinations, should we ever take such rhetoric lightly?

While you think about which outrage received the most national attention and why, you might also ask yourself how your silence on such matters not only contributes to the escalation of ignorance in our national discourse, but encourages some Beck- or Palin-inspired Manchurian candidate to prove his ‘Super Patriotism’ in the form of action. Sort of like this guy, who has been happily expressing his right-wing ideals in court all last week:

[Anders Behring Breivik] identified as his enemy the “cultural Marxists” who he said had destroyed Norway by using it as “a dumping ground for the surplus births of the third world”. Claiming Norwegians would be a minority in their own capital “within five years”, he blamed liberal politicians for bringing about Norway’s demise with “feminism, quotas … transforming the church, schools”.

The 69 people, many of them teenagers, who died on the island of Utøya when he opened fire on the youth camp of the ruling Labour party were “not innocent”, he claimed.

“They were not innocent, non-political children; these were young people who worked to actively uphold multicultural values. Many people had leading positions in the leading Labour party youth wing,” he said, going on to compare the Labour party’s youth wing (AUF) with the Hitler Youth.

Saturday morning’s 6 subjectively interesting things

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1) The President / Democrats

  • WHITE HOUSE: COLLEGES MUST COVER BIRTH CONTROL FOR STUDENTS - The Health and Human Services Department said student health plans will be treated like employees’ plans, meaning they will have to comply with new requirements under healthcare reform — including the requirement to provide contraception without charging a copay. The contraception mandate has sparked intense criticism from some religious groups and Republican lawmakers. They say it violates employers’ religious freedoms by forcing them to provide a service they find immoral. Religious universities will treat their student plans the same as their employees’ plans, administration officials said Friday. That means they will not have to directly offer contraception in their plans, but students and workers will be able to get birth control from their insurance companies without a copay.
  • A REAL CONSERVATIVE’S TAKE ON OBAMA - The British Tories have not gone insane like the GOP. And it’s an open secret that Cameron would be extremely confortable with an Obama re-election. But I was struck by the prime minister’s remarks the other night and since they’re now being attacked from thefar right, it’s worth reprinting them: ”There are three things about Barack that really stand out for me: strength, moral authority, and wisdom…” [...] Just because Americans need amnesia to forget what this country did to its own moral authority under Bush and Cheney does not mean that America’s allies have. They saw the damage it did to all of us defending civilization against barbarism, only to discover that some of that barbarism was emanating from the White House itself.
  • OBAMA’S JUDICIAL CONFIRMATION RATE IS AT LEAST 30 JUDGES BEHIND BUSH’S - In the wake of this week’s deal where Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) agreed to stop obstructing 14 of President Obama’s judicial nominees and allow them to be confirmed by early May, Al Kamen runs the numbers on how President Obama’s confirmation rate compares to the rate of confirmations under Presidents Bush and Clinton… [...] If the Senate does, in fact, approve them all, Obama’s number of confirmed judges will stand at 172. To put that in perspective, by the end of May in their respective first terms, George W. Bush had 175 judges approved, and Bill Clinton had 183.

2) Your 2012 GOP primary

  • A CLOSER LOOK AT THE ‘ENTHUSIASM GAP’ - Republicans are less enthusiastic about having Mitt Romney or Rick Santorum as their potential presidential nominee than they were four years ago about Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., according to a Gallup survey released on Thursday. For conservatives, the lackluster numbers are a worrying sign that the party’s already bitter primary fight has sapped voter enthusiasm and left the GOP weakened for the fall battle with President Obama. Gallup reported that just 35 percent of Republicans surveyed said they would vote enthusiastically for front-runner Romney if he becomes the party’s standard-bearer. Similarly, 34 percent said they would enthusiastically support Santorum, his main challenger for the nomination and the preferred choice of the most-conservative Republicans. That represents a precipitous drop in excitement from 2008, the poll found. In a survey released in early February of that year, 47 percent of Republicans were enthusiastic about the prospect of backing McCain, a 12-point difference from Romney’s numbers today.
  • Limbaugh’s chemically enhanced dittoheads will NEVER go for this: SANTORUM PROMISES BROAD WAR ON PORN - The Daily Caller flags a little-discussed position paper on Rick Santorum’s campaign website—his pledge to aggressively prosecute those who produce and distribute pornography. Santorum avers that “America is suffering a pandemic of harm from pornography.” He pledges to use the resources of the Department of Justice to fight that “pandemic,” by bringing obscenity prosecutions against pornographers. [The photo was snapped by a passenger on an Atlantis all-gay cruise in Puerto Rico. - via: Buzzfeed / JMG]
  • ROMNEY SAYS FOX NEWS IS “PRETTY FAIR AND BALANCED” AND NOT “SHILLING FOR ANYONE” - Mitt Romney on Thursday dismissed former senator Rick Santorum’s charge that Fox News Channel is “shilling” for the former Massachusetts governor’s campaign.“I don’t think you’re shilling for anyone, to tell you the truth,” Romney said on the “Kilmeade and Friends” radio show. “Each one of the people I meet has their own opinions. My guess is different ones of the commentators have different people they think have a better shot but you don’t hear that from the network or from the individual commentators. So look, you are free to express your own views but I think it’s as you say, pretty fair and balanced.”
  • ROMNEY’S FOX NEWS BLITZ - Mitt Romney has been up and down on the trail — and that’s also true of his ubiquity on Fox News. Recently, he’s been a near-constant presence. Romney’s tour of the Fox News empire this week is the most time Romney’s done on a Fox News set in a week since Jan. 1. In the week alone, Romney has appeared on Fox News six times, and he’s scheduled to appear on Fox News Sunday this weekend. The tone of the interviews has ranged from a bit uncomfortable to downright chummy. [...] America Live host Megyn Kelly on Wednesday asked why Romney is making so many wealth-related gaffes, citing his references to football and NASCAR team owners. Romney still hasn’t found a solid answer to this critique, though there’s been a general “he’s rich, get over it” push from his surrogates lately. But Romney’s answer to Kelly showed a continued inability to explain his wealth in a way that would endear him to the middle-class voters he is courting. “Guess what? I’ve made a lot of money,” Romney said. “I’ve been very successful. I’m not going to apologize for that.”
  • “GOD’S WILL?” SARAH PALIN’S SECRET PLOT TO CAPTURE THE WHITE HOUSE IN 2012 - Pay close attention: Palin’s rhetoric between now and Tampa will continue to be critical of both Romney and Obama; it will continue to push for a contested primary; and it will continue to signal Palin’s willingness to accept the nomination of a brokered convention. Palin knows that Romney will never pack her star power with the base — and that neither Rick Santorum nor Newt Gingrich will either. In the aftermath of Santorum’s sweep of Alabama and Mississippi on Tuesday, a brokered GOP convention is a very real possibility. The Republican Party has become a fractured mosaic of fringe constituencies — from Tea Partiers to evangelical anti-abortion activists, from libertarians who support Ron Paul to white supremacists who despise the fact that there is a black man in the White House. It is an unruly lot. The days of a GOP elite framing the presidential selection process are over. Charisma trumps experience; celebrity trumps substance; and, perhaps most disturbingly, anger trumps reason. Mama grizzlies, especially those who have been wounded, don’t go down easy. [Remember what Ann Coulter said a few days ago about this...]

3) The drug-addicted, morally-challenged ‘shock blob’ known as Rush Limbaugh

  • WESTBORO RELEASES ‘YOU MIGHT BE A SLUT’ AD FOR LIMBAUGH’S SHOW - A church in Topeka, Kansas famous for its “God Hates Fags” protests is hoping to take their message to millions of dittoheads across the U.S. The Westboro Baptist Church on Friday released two advertisements that they hope to air on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show, which is experiencing an exodus of advertisers after he called a Georgetown University law student a “slut” because she spoke in favor of religious institutions providing contraception coverage. The first spot was a parody of comedian Jeff Foxworthy’s “You might be a redneck” routine. “If you wear a dress that is strapless with a brassiere that isn’t, you might be a slut,” an announcer says. “If you are an anchor bimbo for Fox News and your name is Kelly or Julie, you might be a slut.” [...] Premiere Networks has already said it would reject the ads as soon as it receives them on Friday. “If they turn these things down, how are they really any different than the people who are turning their nose up at Rush Limbaugh?” Drain asked. “We are making a moral statement with our advertising just like he was making a moral statement with his airtime.”
  • (AUDIO) RUSH SUGGESTS GOP IS NOT ANTI-WOMAN BECAUSE REPUBLICANS “TAKE WOMEN TO DINNER. THEY BUY WOMEN DIAMONDS.” - [The following commentary on this via: Wonkette]: Honestly, who can even be mad at this dumb fuck any more? It is like being mad at an incredibly stupid, fat, drug-addicted, offensive head of lettuce. Why even bother? Fine, Rush, give us some whore diamonds, for our whoring, whore whore whore. Yeah, we get it kiddo, we’re whores. No, no, you got us, we’re super offended, we promise! No really, really, we are! Run along now sweetie, there’s some cookies on the counter. Remember, Jesus loves you, and good job.

4) Republican War on Women

  • Living in a red state is hazardous to your health if you’re a woman: WHAT’S WRONG WITH ARIZONA? - To recap: Arizona senate committees have approved bills to allow doctors to withhold information from pregnant women if they suspect it will lead to an abortion, to allow employers to demand proof that your contraception is for non-reproductive purposes, and now a bill to cut state funding from family planning services entirely. [...] If HB2800 is signed into law, Arizona will also lose Medicaid matching funds for family planning services in the same manner as Texas. And maybe that’s the idea. What other conclusion is there?
  • KANSAS, TOO: COUNTY TURNS DOWN FUNDING FOR BIRTH CONTROL - After yesterday’s post about county commissioners in New Hanover County, North Carolina, voting to reject state money for family planning, Amber Pickman wrote to tell us about a similar move in Miami County, Kansas. The Miami County Commission voted 3-2 last week to exclude about $9,000 in funding aimed at covering contraceptives from the county’s state grant applications. The Louisburg Herald covered the fallout: The decision didn’t sit well with Kelly Fritz, who volunteers at the health department and spoke with Miami County commissioners last August when they first considered eliminating the distribution of contraceptives from the family planning program. During that August meeting, Fritz said Miami County’s program serves 151 women, 116 of whom do not have insurance. She also said that statistics show that 85 percent of women who are regularly sexually active will become pregnant within one year without family planning services, and she estimated that 98 of the 116 women without insurance would become pregnant if the services were no longer provided…“It’s like we’re going backwards,” Fritz said. “I can’t believe the rights we had are being taken away from our children’s generation.”
  • OUT OF FAVOR IN WASHINGTON, BLUNT-STYLE BILLS CATCH FIRE IN THE STATES - Over the last few weeks, Republicans have quietly backed away from the controversial Blunt Amendment and other legislative efforts to allow employers to deny contraception coverage to women. “I think Republicans know that it hasn’t served them well,” Sen. Chuck Schumer told TPM at the time. Apparently, state-level Republicans didn’t get the memo. Several state legislatures were inspired rather than dissuaded by the contraception debate in Washington, and are considering their own versions of the Blunt Amendment — keeping alive an issue national Republicans thought they were putting to bed. Arizona, New Hampshire, Idaho and Georgia have taken up bills to expand exemptions for contraception coverage. Ohio, Missouri, New Hampshire, Idaho and Wyoming lawmakers are moving symbolic resolutions condemning the administration’s contraception coverage rule. Lawmakers working on the state bills, like their counterparts in Congress, insist that the measures are about protecting religious liberty, not women’s access to health care. But a new poll from Bloomberg shows that a majority of voters don’t see it that way…

5) The Republican War on everyone / everything else in the world

  • ANTI-OBAMA RACISM IS REAL - A photograph of a bumper sticker that features racist, anti-Obama language has gone viral on Facebook and other social networks. The sticker reads “Don’t Re-Nig In 2012,” in large white type, above smaller text that reads: “Stop repeat offenders. Don’t re-elect Obama!” The offensive design appears to have originated at a site called Stumpy’s Stickers, where it can be purchased. The site sells variations on the same idea, including another “Don’t Re-Nig” design featuring a caricature of a black man’s face with a missing tooth, a picture of a chimp that reads “Obama 2012,” and another with a drawing of several Ku Klux Klan members that reads “The Original Boys In The Hood.”
  • OBAMA CAMPAIGN COMES OUT AGAINST NORTH CAROLINA’S MARRIAGE AMENDMENT - Today, President Obama’s re-election campaign came out in opposition to Amendment One, which would ban all same-sex marriage, civil unions, and domestic partnerships in North Carolina. According to Cameron French, Obama’s North Carolina spokesman: FRENCH: While the president does not weigh in on every single ballot measure in every state, the record is clear that the President has long opposed divisive and discriminatory efforts to deny rights and benefits to same sex couples. That’s what the North Carolina ballot initiative would do – it would single out and discriminate against committed gay and lesbian couples – and that’s why the President does not support it.
  • DONALD TRUMP: WINDMILLS ARE ‘DISGUSTING’ - President Barack Obama characterized clean energy cynics in the GOP presidential field as would-be members of the Flat Earth Society. Birther and Romney-endorser Donald Trump cast himself with the Flat Earth candidates yesterday, with his latest tirade against clean energy. Trump told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto: Wind is destroying the environment in many, many places. People are going crazy over the horrible, noisy, disgusting windmills. And they are horrible and a horrible intrusion, ruining communities, and solar is weak and has not been effective and is very, very expensive.

6) Misc

  • SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE THAT GEOMAGNETIC STORMS ARE MAKING YOU SICK - Geomagnetic storms aren’t just beautiful to look at — these disturbances in the Earth’s magnetic field could also be messing with your mind and body. There’s a ton of evidence suggesting that geomagnetic storms can cause everything from depression to cardiac problems — and may even be influencing the stock market. A new paper suggests there’s a lot more evidence for this connection than anybody realizes. The paper, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, argues that there’s a large, disparate, and controversial body of scientific literature that links geomagnetic storms to a number of animal behaviors, including cardiovascular, psychiatric and behavioral changes in humans. And author Dr. James Close has the enormous literature review to back up his claims… [via: the-star-stuff]

Jon Stewart on comparing Limbaugh and Maher: tells Fox to Shut the F*%k Up (gifs / video)

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images: drunkonstevphen

images: cognitivedissonance

This is exactly what I said yesterday. Hazzah!

Watch:

Heh. “Shock Blob” Rush Limbaugh.

The GOP’s birther problem

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“Republicans who have chosen to associate with the birthers have done their party and their country a disservice. And as Sheriff Arpaio settles comfortably into that political mental ward, the same must be said of those Republicans who choose to associate themselves with him more broadly. Those who cannot distinguish between the birthers’ flim-flam and the critical questions that face our nation in 2012 will not win and do not deserve to.”

— National Review

Serenity now!

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I’ve been going through my RSS feed reader for the past 45 minutes and here’s what I have:

  1. Is the Tea Party still racist? Affirmative.
  2. Is Fox News still ‘informing’ it’s viewers? Definitely. In fact, O’Reilly and John Stossel have no qualms about interpreting actual dates and history into personal opinion or belief.
  3. Has Tim Pawlenty lost his mind? CLEARLY. But is this what the average GOP Teaparty voter thinks is ‘the solution’? Of course — they get their news from Fox (see #2).
  4. Is the Tea Party planning to indoctrinate children on the ideals of Republican Jesus (i.e. Selfish Christianity)? Yep.
  5. Can Michele Bachmann react sanely to people who are NOT in the Tea Party? Not at all. Two middle-aged lesbians wanting to talk caused Crazy Eyes to scream, bolt for her car in tears, and file a police report because she was ‘terrorized’ and ‘terrified.’
  6. Guess what Rush is selling his ditto sheeple-heads now.
  7. Would it surprise you to know that Ron Paul, the loudest advocate for returning the dollar back to the gold standard, has hundreds of thousands of dollars tied up in several gold mining companies?
  8. GOP Cuts To Food Aid For Seniors And Food Banks Equals One Day Of Bush Tax Cuts For Millionaires. One day.
  9. Here is the only way to watch a GOP debate — as interpreted through Jon Stewart:

It’s not racist to say Obama is president because he’s black (and magical) to Rep. Joe Walsh

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If you have to explain your remarks aren’t racist then, yeah, they’re racist:

“They were in love with [Obama] because he pushed that magical button: a black man who was articulate, liberal, the whole white guilt, all of that.” ~ Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL)

Rep. Walsh’s comments remind me of that day Rush Limbaugh played this song on his show for fun: