Party of God

Last week GOP Rep Todd Akin said ".. at the heart of Liberalism really is a hatred for God and a belief that government should replace God." His communication director Steve Taylor subsequently went on to tell the Post-Dispatch that Akin was commenting on a difference between the two ideas: while conservatives believe rights come from God, liberals think they come from the government. Taylor said Akin was not referring to any individual’s beliefs, only the “defining principles of two political ideologies.”

Putting aside the serious mental illness this guy exhibits by trying to speak for God, we have a separation between church and state. Anybody who believes our legal rights come from God should be disqualified from holding public office.

Or Worse

Chris Wallace to Michele Backmann on Fox News Sunday: Finally, let's talk about Michele Bachmann because -- and you say -- it's interesting. You say that the people saw in the debate and saw you as a serious person. I don't have to tell you that you have -- the rap on you here in Washington is that you have a history of questionable statements, some would say gaffes, ranging from -- talking about anti-America members of Congress -- on this show -- a couple of months ago, when you suggested that NATO airstrikes had killed up to 30,000 civilians.

Are you a flake?

That's actually a charitable question. He should have asked her if she's a McCarthyite demagogue and a pathological liar.

Showcased

Ken Barns: I was one of those rare species: a black Republican, the guy willing to spit into the wind of conventional thought, who was often showcased on camera at party events to prove inclusiveness. But as a proud black man, I can no longer be a member of the Republican Party.

He goes on to explain that he's leaving because the GOP has become a bunch of racists. But he's full of crap. The GOP has been a haven for racists and bigots since 1964.

Hating The Gay Out

CNN's Don Lemon Asks Santorum If He Has Gay Friends

A better question for people who are so aggressively anti-gay is whether they're actually gay themselves. It's our observation they usually are. The rest of us just don't care enough about it.

Reverse Robin Hoods

Michelle Bachmann (R-Koch Industries): “In my perfect world we’d take the 35% corporate tax rate down to nine so that we’re the most competitive in the industrialized world. Zero out capital gains. Zero out the alternative minimum tax. Zero out the death tax.” A system in which 47% of Americans don’t pay any tax is ruinous for a democracy, she says, “because there is no tie to the government benefits that people demand. I think everyone should have to pay something.”

The party of the CEO also wants to get rid of the minimum wage, get rid of child labor laws, and get rid of environmental laws.

In our perfect world disgusting human beings that want to rob from the poor to give to the rich and destroy the planet to serve their super rich constituents wouldn't be anywhere near government.

BTW, the Republicans told us cutting taxes would lead to job creation so we cut taxes for most of the biggest corporations down to zero. And boy howdy did it create jobs... in China. Here it destroyed the tax base, exported our production capacity, destroyed the middle class, and exploded the national debt. That they continue to advocate for tax policy that's only good for the CEO and middle class in China and India should give every American pause.

Perverted Sense of Perverts

Republicans Calling For Anthony Weiner Resignation Backed David Vitter.

Just so we have this straight, Weiner texted women he never met, while Vitter arranged for the commission of a crime from the senate floor by setting up dates with hookers - where he reportedly got himself off by wearing diapers and... ok we won't go there... And the same Republicans that want Weiner to resign, not only didn't call for Vitter to do the same, but they gave him a standing overation. Got it.

Democrats Respect Democracy

Headline: Wisconsin Dems won't run fake candidates in GOP primaries...

...like the Republicans are doing in the Democratic primaries. This is because Democrats are not generally anti-democratic scumbags like pretty much all Republicans seem to be.

Pro Cancer

Large manufacturers and chemical producers have lobbied ferociously to stop the National Institutes of Health from classifying formaldehyde as a carcinogen. A wide body of research has linked the chemical to cancer, but industrial polluters have stymied regulators from action. Yesterday, the NIH finally handed down a report officially classifying formaldehyde as a carcinogen. An investigation by ProPublica found that Sens. David Vitter (R-LA) and James Inhofe (R-OK) had used their power to add years of delay to the report. The piece linked Vitter to lobbying from Koch Industrie’s Georgia Pacific company, which has plywood plants in Louisiana.

Republicans don't give a damn but to give your kids cancer. It's as simple as that. They may not shoot you in the head with their own hand, but if you get sick and die, you're dead just the same. It follows then that voting for them is rather like engaging yourself, your family and your friends in a game of Russian roulette.

His Employers Are Wealthy

During a recent town hall meeting, tea party favorite Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), elected during last year’s Republican wave in the U.S. House of Representatives, told a group of constituents that he wasn’t really wealthy. “I ain’t wealthy,” he said, according to video of the event. “… I live just like the rest of you folks.” His mandatory financial disclosures reveal Gosar’s net worth is over $2 million. He also earns a yearly salary of approximately $174,000 as a member of Congress.

Compared to the people he's supposed to be representing, every day working Americans, he's wealthy. But compared the people he's actually representing, billionaires who run multi-national corporations, he's not. Perhaps that's why he's confused.

The Vote Suppressors

Raw Story: Larry Butler told SC Progressive Network that South Carolina’s new voter photo ID law will prevent him from voting. The state won’t issue him a driver’s license because he can’t produce the necessary documentation. Butler does not have a birth certificate because he was not born in a hospital and the elementary school he attended burnt down many years ago so the required records are not available.

Since individual vote fraud is simply not a problem in this country, it's clear the Republican party is just using these voter ID laws to suppress the poor and minority vote. And they're perpetrating this crime against democracy all over the country. Since they're deliberately trying to disenfranchise our poor and minority citizens it, if prison is not an option, it would be justice enough if our citizens voted them out so they can't pass their racist, anti-democratic laws.

Austerity Bitches

In the past 33 months, 446,000 Americans have been laid off from their state and local government jobs. In the third quarter that begins July 1, as many government entities begin their new fiscal year, the forecast says another 110,000 will lose their jobs.

The ongoing Republican effort to sabotage the economy is working.

Got Irony?

Think Progress: Some obstinate conservatives have decried raising the debt ceiling, saying they will vote against any hike. Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) is one of these conservatives. Appearing on conservative radio host Martha Zoller’s show today, Broun not only pledged to vote against raising the debt ceiling, but he also shrugged off the potential loss of a quarter million jobs as a result of doing so. Claiming that these employees would largely be public sector workers, he told Zoller that they should get a real job, anyway:

BROUN: We have created this huge debt. […] We’ve got to stop the outrageous spending that’s going on. We hear the CBO says well if we don’t raise the debt limit, it’s going to put so many people out of work, I don’t remember then number, I think it’s 250,000 or something, are gonna be put out of work. Well those are gonna be government employees that are put out of work. There are a lot of government employees that need to go find a real job!

You first asshole. By the way, 9 trillion out of 12 trillion dollars we've accrued in debt is due to the last three Republican presidents. On top of that, most of Obama's contribution is due to the spending we had to do to reverse the complete economic meltdown GOP public policy left with at the end the the Bush/Cheney administration. And at the end of the Clinton administration we were paying down the debt. If Republicans really wanted less debt they would resign immediately and let better Americans lead this country.

As Long As It Only Kills Other People

TRENTON, N.J. -- Gov. Chris Christie left the door open for a new nuclear plant as he discussed his vision for New Jersey's energy future on Tuesday. Christie says a nuclear plant should be considered "an option"

Would he and his family volunteer to live next to it? Would he volunteer himself and his family for suicide missions to deal with it when it goes bad (as is now being required in Japan)? Would he be ok with storing the waste in his neighborhood? If the answer to all these questions isn't "yes," somebody needs to ask him why he would expect other people, other families, and other areas to sacrifice for what he considers "an option."

Exceptionally Important

WASHINGTON -- A group of economists made the case on Tuesday for raising the federal and state minimum wages across the country as a way to boost the stagnant economy and improve the standard of living among low-wage earners. Backed by what they described as 15 years' worth of research, a panel at progressive think tank the Center for American Progress (CAP) argued that higher minimum wages flush more money into the economy without cutting into job growth -- the latter a long-held contention of busines interests and many conservatives. Michael Reich, an economics professor and director of the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at the University of California, Berkeley, said his research has shown that businesses don't suffer from having to dish out slightly higher wages to their lowest-paid employees. In fact, he argued there are benefits to employers.

This is not only what the evidence shows, but it's also logically obvious. Since Reaganomics has resulted in the export of our production capacity, our economy is 2/3 consumer spending. Rich people don't spend more with nominal increases in their take home pay. But poor people have no choice but to spend the extra money, they generally spend it on what the businesses sell, and there's lot more poor people in this country than there are rich. So with an increase in the minimum wage, pretty much everybody comes out money ahead.

This is one reason why Clinton's strategy of raising taxes on the rich but cutting them for the poor and middle class turned out so well. It's also the same principal behind why unionized wages work so well for the economy. And it's why raising up the working poor and expanding the middle class is the only way to save our ship. If the poor and the middle class can't spend, the economy can't grow.

Jesus Was a Democrat

Raw Story: A young Catholic man chased Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) with a Bible last week after the congressman left the Faith and Freedom Coalition Conference.

“Why did you choose to model your budget off the extreme ideology of Ayn Rand rather than values of basic economic justice in the Bible?” James Salt of Faithful America asked Ryan, the author of the Republican budget, before offering him a Bible to read.

Ryan ignored Salt’s questions and briskly walked away.

What a fantastic frame. Ryan ran from this guy because he knows damn well Republicans don't give a rip about anybody but rich people. They legislate for the rich and the rich bankroll their grip on power. What's the bible say... it's harder for a rich man to get into heaven then for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle?

To Evil To Be Stupid

Think Progress: After passing a new bill that would make it much more difficult for the North Carolina Association of Educators to collect dues from its members, North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis (R) said at the state’s GOP convention that teachers who oppose the new legislation — which could dramatically harm teachers’ collective bargaining organizations — don’t care about kids and only care about their jobs and pensions:

Tillis drew applause also when he said the legislature planned next week to adopt both a bill requiring voters to produce a photo identification, and a bill that would bar the state from collecting dues for the N.C. Association of Educators, the group that lobbies for teachers and other groups. “They don’t care about kids. They don’t care about classrooms,” Tillis said. “They only care about their jobs and their pensions.”

Putting aside their continuing efforts to destroy the middle class, this latest bit of GOP teacher bashing is ridiculous. People don't become teachers to make a lot of money or have an easy job. Of course it just another volley in their long war on public education, which all makes more sense when you realize they need their flock to be relatively stupid to buy their idiotic logic and ignore the horrific results of their public policy.

Where The Radicals Are

AP: Poll finds majority of Egyptians oppose theocracy...

Anybody want to bet that's not true of the Republican base?

Dog Whistling Dixie

GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum today: "Ladies and gentlemen, America was a great country before 1965."

We don't doubt most of the GOP base agrees with him. But for those who are not fans of segregation and are thinking of voting GOP, perhaps it would be worthwhile to consider the company you keep.

Garbage In, Garbage Out

Neal Boortz Friday on Fox News: “If people vote for Barack Obama next year, it’s like strapping on an economic suicide vest and giving the detonator to your ex-wife...”

Interesting analogy since his Republican party is largely responsible for Islamic terrorisim.

As for the economic part, GOP public policy destroyed the prosperity Democratic public policy gave us in the Clinton era and left us in complete economic meltdown. That's not our judgement, it's history's verdict. Obama's just bringing back what's been proven to work in the past, while the GOP is trying to sabotabe the recovery so they can get back into power and bring back the exact same polices that caused the meltdown in the first place.

Authorities

Headline: GOP Pol: same sex marriage is just like pedophilia

They would know.