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The Finalists for “America’s Most Racist” are Mike Lee and the Heritage Foundation

11 May

The Republican party is furiously trying to revamp its tarnished image as racist sycophants who have no use for minorities, who they’ve clearly deemed inferior. The way they’ve chosen to go about this daunting task is to find new and improved policies designed to disguise their racist proclivities. However, this has backfired in ways no one could have imagined, as the fringe element of the party has taken over the asylum.

The winner of the most unbelievably assuming racist, entitled bootlicker has to be Utah Senator Mike Lee. This fine LDS specimen is a tremendous fan of the teachings of Professor Cleon Skousen and advocate of absolutely ZERO gun-control truly feels that provisions must be included in immigration reform to keep treating undocumented workers essentially like slaves. Of course this is perfectly acceptable. When your idol is a zealot, like Skousen, who said the following about slaves: “one of the blessings of slavery” was that slaves’ marriages were fleeting, and suggests that being bought at auction improved slaves’ self worth. The real victims of slavery, were the white owners. The book also referred to black children as “pickaninnies.” The freshman Senator has attempted to modify the Gang of 8‘s attempt at immigration reform by excluding the following professions from requiring any form of documentation:

“cooks, waiters, butlers, housekeepers, governessess, maids, valets, baby sitters, janitors, laundresses, furnacemen, care-takers, handymen, gardeners, footmen, grooms, and chauffeurs of automobiles for family use” from prohibitions against “unlawful employment” for undocumented immigrants.”

It sure sounds like a wealthy person’s list of needed cheap labor. It’s pretty obvious who this entitled Mormon is working for in Congress. Perhaps it could also be something some of his FLDS voters require to maintain their lifestyle while staying under the radar in their polygamous compounds. Who knows? We know he’s a big proponent of anything advocated by the Heritage Foundation and against a pathway to citizenship for undocumented people.

The Heritage Foundation recently came up with their own racially offensive survey on the intelligence quotient of Hispanic immigrants. Jim DeMint, the former Confederate South Carolina Senator, claims legalizing undocumented immigrants will cost $6.3 trillion. He fails to mention this price tag is for a FIFTY YEAR PERIOD. The current leader of the Heritage Foundation has always been the enemy of anyone who happens to be poor, a minority, a homosexual or a woman. For instance, DeMint has said, ‘if someone is openly homosexual, they shouldn’t be teaching in the classroom and he holds the same position on an unmarried woman who’s sleeping with her boyfriend — she shouldn’t be in the classroom.’ He believed the Confederate Flag should fly over the capital statehouse in Charleston and naturally, his state was the last to remove it. You can still see plenty of Confederate flags waving in the air by the residents of the southern state that enjoys 47th in life expectancy and is the 3rd highest in infant mortality.

Former Senator Jim DeMint President of the Heritage Foundation

Former Senator Jim DeMint
President of the Heritage Foundation


So racist Jim retired from the Senate to make more money and have more power to shove his socially and fiscally conservative agenda down the throats of America. He and his ilk believe immigrants are just too damned expensive to the one percent’s ability to rob the coffers of Social Security, which is their ultimate goal. Their Utopian world consists of a Hooverville-esque nightmare for the American plebeian, because the Heritage Foundation is here to preserve America for the privileged white male. Immigrants, especially those Hispanics that maintain his lawn and clean his home, will never, according to his organization, get off welfare and earn an honest living. There are 69.5 million people dependent on the government for subsistence and this is simply too many for his liking.

The problem with Utah Senator Lee is he’s dripping with Mormonism, and truly thinks, like Willard Romney, he is one of “God’s chosen leaders” in these “latter days.” He is absolutely against helping anyone if it should cost him the slightest inconvenience. Hell, he even hates the handicapped. Jim DeMint and his Heritage Foundation, another “Christian” group, has overtly come out against Hispanics in such an offensive way, their only Latino supporters may be GOP hypocritical “Hispanic” Senators, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, who are both of Cuban descent. Ironically, the Cubans are the only Hispanic demographic from which the GOP enjoys support.

If these lunatics keep at it, they will lose not only every subsequent election when demographics are largely against their favor, but their existence as a legitimate political party will disappear. The GOP (a.k.a. the Misanthropic Party) has shown, with the election of Mark Sanford, they love a “good Christian” who begs for redemption but actually deserves none. In fact, pretending to be a good Christian while adhering to absolutely none of Christ’s Sermon on the Mount seems to be their modus operandi. Time will be the Republicans’ biggest enemy as America becomes darker, more diverse and thus their obsolescence is nearly assured.

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Is a Mormon Theocracy Replacing Law Enforcement in Boulder City, Nevada?

28 Apr

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Mormons believe that they are the “noble and great ones,” the spirits that god would “make his rulers” on earth. Just like with Abraham, the pronouncement that “thou was chosen before thou wast born” also applies to the pre-mortal status and eventual earthly destiny of each Mormon. This is precisely why they call themselves latter-day saints: they consider themselves an elect breed apart and above all others, holier-than-thou in every sense of the word. These are the End of Days, after all, and God’s chosen people must be in control.

This is a story of how this arrogant theology has perverted and corrupted government, more specifically Law Enforcement, in a city dominated by LDS theological doctrine. One brave man, now Former Police Chief Thomas Finn, has spoken out against this unacceptably insidious behavior and he unquestionably will be vindicated when his story is better understood. News 8 Reporter George Knapp bravely brought this matter to the public forum which inadvertently demonstrated another case of defamation by Mormons when they are hell bent on discrediting someone who is not “one of them.” Mr. Knapp intended only to bring Chief Finn’s plight to the public. Let me make this perfectly clear, Knapp’s objective was not to disparage Mormons in general. However, any time one exposes despotism in any form, it can be a risky endeavor.

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Police Chief Thomas Finn

Police Chief Thomas Finn has an impressive list of educational credentials

A Few Noteworthy Accomplishments:

•F.B.I. National Academy, 185th Session, Quantico, Virginia 1996
•Master’s Degree, Public Administration, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey 1993 •Certified Public Manager, Rutgers University New Jersey Department of Personnel 1991 •Bachelor of Science, Criminal Justice (Cum Laude), Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 1983

Not only is he extremely knowledgeable on all matters pertaining to law enforcement and criminal justice, he’s a passionate teacher who loves the history and application of law enforcement since our Colonial Days. Mr. Finn had quite a following and was a very beloved Professor at Rutgers University. His lectures were always filled with eager students who found themselves passionate about the subject Mr. Finn taught with such enthusiasm and competence. His history of service from a patrolman in 1980 all the way through his ascension to the Chief of Police in two parts of the country, were always conducted with exemplary service and performance.

Officer Finn was a distinguished chief of police who is another unfortunate casualty of this despotic cult which craves domination of the public domain. I’ve had the privilege of speaking with former Police Chief Thomas Finn about a subject with which I’ve become all too familiar: Mormon Nepotism. Prior to his dismissal on April 15th, this man has never once been fired from any job he’s ever held. Mormon City Attorney, Dave Olsen claimed Mr. Finn was a paranoid, frightened angry man inside. Funny how that sounds terribly familiar. Park Romney said, “… I am personally aware, on the basis of such experience, of the actual differences between what Mormons profess in public and practice in private when they think their agenda is being threatened.” Naturally they will praise the Chief to his face, but look out folks, Sunday LDS services actually discussed their contrived issue of having a non-chosen son of Abraham in charge of the Police Department.

In the past I’ve looked to those with experience to guide me about the workings of the LDS Church. Park Romney, Professor Mark Larsen and Kay Burningham, ESQ. have, with painstaking personal trials and irrefutable logic, elucidated the details of a grotesque fraud of cosmic proportions masquerading under a charitable façade of public spirited nobility. All of my expert reference providers were part of the cult of Mormonism at one time and have since come to the exact same conclusion: it is, without question, an insidious fraud. The aforementioned authors have systematically dismantled all fallacious tenets of the cult and effectively demonstrate how these rules of conduct (or “Doctrines and Covenants”) apply to how LDS adherents run every aspect of their personal and public lives. For example, Among other things, Joseph Smith is reported to have taught, “That man who rises up to condemn others, finding fault with the Church, saying that they are out of the way, while he himself is righteous, then know assuredly, that that man is in the high road to apostasy.” Broken down more simply, anyone not complying with the Mormon Cult is labeled by the LDS faithful as being influenced by Satan.

We all know full well Councilman Cam Walker, City Attorney Dave Olsen, Mayor Tobler and Mongols Motorcycle Gang attorney, Stephen Stubbs (all Mormons) could never have Chief Finn (a Roman Catholic) removed on the basis of “Satan’s influence” as that would never hold up in court. In collusion, they attempted to label a man who lives and breathes ethical law enforcement, who conducts his personal and professional life “by the book,” as mentally unfit for the job.

To get a better handle on who exactly is Chief Finn, i asked him a few questions pertaining to current issues in the news. When I posed the question to Mr. Finn, ‘do you think the excessive police presence while trying to locate the second Tsarnaev brother was overkill,’ he put things in a perspective that I hadn’t considered. Paraphrasing, he said, if the police had flubbed the case one bit and one more casualty occurred due to lack of thoroughness on their part, they’d never be forgiven. He also believes automatic weapons have no place in the hands of civilians, contrary to what many of his colleagues believe. He’s a no-nonsense man who speaks his mind and believes in integrity in all he does. Literally, this cadre of cohorts have taken the LDS tenet of Lying For The Lord and justified the iniquitous firing of one of the most qualified and best Police Chiefs in Clark County. When Mr. Finn filed a claim with the EEOC in Boulder City, citing Mormonism as the paramount reason for his dismissal, he was most assuredly justified.

According to the log filed with the former city manager, Vicki Mayes, Mr. Stubbs, the Mongols lawyer, was on a quest to find an officer to speak out negatively against Chief Finn. He was unable to find anyone because there were no officers who had any problem with the chief. He even asked if “he could find an officer in Reno to testify against Finn,” would that suffice? For some unjustified reason, after being on a brief medical leave, the day Mr. Finn returned to his job, he was fired. Here’s the story in a nutshell in the words of Mr. Finn:

A two-month investigation by the Attorney General’s Office, followed by a review of the investigation report and interviews of the investigators by District Attorney Steve Wolfson cleared me,and D.A. Wolfson stated exactly what I was saying all along. What is particularly troubling is that the city NEVER asked me why I issued the “email deletion” (regarding the gathering of Mongol Gang Members in 2012) order to my officers. They took Stubbs’ rantings as gospel and moved ahead with the investigation into my “felonies.” Stubbs asked for the investigation in November, it was started by the A.G. in January, I was interviewed in February and cleared in April. Then, EIGHT days (April 15th) before I was cleared of all wrongdoing, they FIRED me!!!
I was appointed to a state commission by two NV governors, served on a national highway safety committee for the International Association of Chiefs of Police for eleven years, was appointed by a NJ governor to serve as a commissioner on a labor-management relations commission, represented the Nevada Sheriffs’ and Chiefs’ Association for two years, and then Boulder City decided to terminate me after seven years of service without giving me a reason.
In the words of one of my favorite humorists, ..if they’ve got nothing concrete on him that would convince the DA of wrongdoing… they are not only holier-than-thou arrogant, but also…. STUPID as hell. To fire someone, especially a chief of police, with no probable cause is as pig-ignorant as Romney telling his donors about the 47% “scum.”
Unfortunately, Mr. Finn and his wife have other plans, and they no longer include Southern Nevada. It is highly unfortunate for all of us he had to go through these trials unnecessarily. Perhaps with greater understanding of Mormon Nepotism, we can avoid situations such as this Boulder City fiasco in the future. No one should ever be persecuted in this country for their religious beliefs and when a group of a particular religious or ethnic majority control all aspects of government in our diverse nation, it will inevitably lead to a compromising of our democratic values and justice.

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Dangerous Fundamentalism: The Taliban and the American Tealiban

22 Apr

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Irony can be defined by the incongruity which occurs when actions of a group mirror the behavior of a people whom they fear and despise most. Following the 9-11 tragedy, our united front was focused mainly on eliminating the terror breeding grounds established by Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. The Taliban imposed a form of government that was unacceptable and offensive to most Americans. Absence of democratic process, equality, Islamic law and the utter subjugation of women in their culture were the antithesis of what we deemed a free society. Their total domination of media, organized rebellion against a government they considered tyrannical and Islamic ideological purity seemed so unpalatable to the Christian crusaders of the mighty USA and the George W. Bush military machine.

Yet, as the Republican Party slides down the slippery slope towards Old Testament principles, the Conservative movement mirrors the Taliban more than they realize. The Teaparty can often be referred to as the Tealiban

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The dangerous policies and religious doctrinal mandates are far more similar than either group would willfully acknowledge. In the areas of vaccination and vital medical care, religious denial of science and the subjugation of women and the proclivity towards a culture obsessed with guns, American Fundamentalists and Taliban Extremists are hardly discernible.

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The Koran and the Old Testament treat women as sinful creatures by nature. The image of Eve as temptress in the Bible has resulted in an extremely negative impact on women throughout the Judaeo-Christian tradition. All women were believed to have inherited from their mother, the Biblical Eve, both her guilt and her guile. The Koran has many quotes such as this Al-Tirmidhi 3272 – “When Allah’s Messenger was asked which woman was best he replied, ‘The one who pleases (her husband) when he looks at her, obeys him when he gives a command, and does not go against his wishes regarding her person or property by doing anything of which he disapproves’.”

In the eyes of the Draconian religious zealots, women are simply vehicles for reproduction, and should only provide enjoyment and servitude for men. The unbelievably chauvinistic and restrictive fundamentalist laws of both the Taliban and the disregard for equal protection for American women by Judicial Magistrates are becoming hard to decipher.

The American Fundamentalists are very much against science and medical progress much like the Islamic government of Afghanistan. Recently, a Pennsylvanian couple who believe in the power of prayer over medical care lost their second child by eschewing medical attention. States like Washington and Oregon are seeing a resurgence in Pertussis due to a fundamentalist-driven hysteria against vaccines. The fallacy of autism being caused by vaccines plus the unwillingness to interfere with god’s plan are beyond dangerous and should never be acceptable in modern America.

Because women are simply unclean and sinful beings, they have far less protection than men in Taliban society. Laws regarding the healthcare and well-being of Afghan women are so restrictive, they suffer much higher mortality rates due to pregnancy and childbirth. In Afghanistan, perhaps the only thing more dangerous than being a woman is being a pregnant woman in need of medical care. A 2002 survey counted 1,600 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. The cause of death was most often hemorrhaging or obstructed delivery, both preventable if skilled health care is available.

To make matters worse, foreign aid administrators, who provide vital vaccinations are treated with suspicion and unwarranted violence by the Taliban. Ten foreign medical workers were murdered because they were believed to be spies, while simply trying to administer polio vaccines to the very poor. Americans simply choosing to ignore the proven scientific benefits of vaccines and willfully putting their children and others at risk is certainly a step in the wrong direction as well. If vaccines and science are viewed as suspicious and interfering with “god’s will,” society is well on its way to massive medieval medical malpractice.

The American leaders of megachurches and fundamentalist sects often rally against their perceived threat of a tyrannical government by encouraging more gun ownership within their congregations. “Blessed are the Peacemakers? Absolutely. Make mine a .45 Colt with a 5 1/2 inch barrel.” This comment and many like it have been commonly overheard in sermons all over the Bible Belt where guns and god go hand and hand. The Taliban often sacrifices children by using their religion to justify violence.

I’ll just say it in plain English. Most of all the world’s plight of inequality, violence and atrocities committed against humanity are attributed to RELIGION. The societies who enjoy the highest standards of living and happiness are the LEAST RELIGIOUS. As a country founded upon the principles of separation of church and state, one of the most important steps to averting misery in this country is to stop kowtowing to the demands of fundamentalist insanity and stop the madness of Biblical thought that so greatly resembles those who we are fighting against halfway across the world.

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Dr. Ben Carson Denounces The Government That Made Him a Success

8 Apr
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Gay Marriage is a slippery slope to bestiality: Dr. Ben Carson with President Bush

Dr. Ben Carson is the new poster boy for the Right Wing Conservative movement. He is the total package for a party that desperately needs a new face: an African-American neurosurgeon who is an outspoken social and fiscal conservative who denounces the entire apparatus of government. At this year’s National Prayer Breakfast, he condemned the welfare state and the growing acceptance of marriage equality likening it to bestiality and NAMBLA.

It seems he joins the ranks of so many Conservatives who are part of the Slippery Slope brand of thinking. Once you allow gay marriage, what’s next? Marrying children, animals, inanimate objects…..heaven knows what’s next!? Their ultra-fundamentalist biblical way of thinking has perverted so many into adopting this false equivalency of marriage equality leading to pedophilia or bestiality. Watch his interview with Hannity.

 

What makes this man such a paragon of Republican virtue is how he loathes the entire welfare and government assistance that afforded him his current success. Carson has said, by the time I reached ninth grade, mother….received nothing but food stamps. She couldn’t have provided for us and kept up the house without that subsidy.” “As I’ve said, we received food stamps and couldn’t have made it without them.” Carson, in his book, tells how his grades improved tremendously when a government program provided him with free eyeglasses because he could barely see. Now he derides the “welfare state” and has decided “no one is starving in America” and that government dependence kills initiative.

What’s even more bizarre about this guy is his use of the term NAMBLA. In case you’re unaware of why this is so odd, the creators of South Park even devoted an entire episode to the North American Man/Boy Love Association. It is the most ridiculous comparison of two consenting adults marrying to an insane organization devoted to pedophilia. How can a “brilliant neurosurgeon” think so illogically when it comes to social matters? I suppose the answer is rather simple. He’s a Republican.

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Murder, Extra-Marital Affairs are Marks of Prestige in the GOP

4 Apr
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Stephen Colbert vs. Joe Scarborough

Like a parody news program come to life, the Republican party has featured an array of characters that parallel the wildest reality show stars. Perhaps because the GOP contains representatives that equate the limiting of gun magazine capacities to less than 30 bullets with bestiality, some who want to establish a “State” religion, directly violating the First Amendment and there are others who want to force rape victims to give birth to their rapist’s baby. In order to maintain their stellar reputation as the party of god, they must continue to feature candidates that are as hypocritical as those they represent (yet claim to rebuke).

It isn’t surprising Republicans continue to defend each other, no matter how serious their offenses may be. Stephen Colbert brought to light Joe Scarborough’s close friendship with ex-South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford on his show (which aired April 3, 2013). Naturally, both Sanford and Scarborough are viewed by their party propitiously, even to the tune of being prominent figures in the GOP. Scarborough feels quite comfortable endorsing a man who was abhorred by a nation for his breach of fidelity to his wife and children while governor which involved taking trips to visit his mistress in Argentina on the taxpayers’ dime.

Both men are Republicans, who are held to much lower standards than their Democratic counterparts. Joe Scarborough escaped investigation in a case that would certainly grasp the attention of a nation had it not happened right before the biggest tragedy (9/11/2001) to impact our country since Pearl Harbor. Who better to endorse and befriend the disgraced former governor than a man who escaped prosecution from the inexplicable death of one of his office staffers?

The MSNBC Morning Joe host and ex-Florida Congressman, Joe Scarborough has seldom been questioned about a very suspicious death in his very own Florida office. Friday, July 20th, 2001, the body of Lori Klausutis, 28, was found slumped next to a desk on the floor of Florida Republican Congressman Scarborough’s Fort Walton Beach office where Lori had served as a constituent services coordinator since May, 1999. Her body was found around 8:00 a.m. on Friday morning by a couple arriving for an appointment. She had been dead for some time. A second employee, who would have normally arrived for work at around the same time, was away on vacation. Police cordoned off the area for investigation, later announcing that there was no reason to suspect foul play, nor were there signs of suicide…”The results of the mandated autopsy, however, were deemed “inconclusive”

The Medical Examiner in the Klausutis case was Michael Berkland. He is also the same Michael Berkland who was found to have rented a storage unit where the remains of more than 100 humans were found on August 24, 2012. Medical Examiner Dr. Andi Minyard told the Pensacola News Journal the remains appear to be from private autopsies Berkland performed at local funeral homes between 1997 and 2007. The fact the death of a 28 year old healthy marathon runner was never questioned or investigated is as remarkable as the medical examiner who found no foul play in the case. The lack of scrutiny in this case was absolutely the opposite of the close examination faced by two disgraced Democrats from New York.

Two of the more powerful and influential liberal politicians in recent years were completely decimated by behavior deemed socially unacceptable. Elliot Spitzer and Anthony Weiner were both rising stars whose prominent careers were railroaded by the exposure of extra-marital infidelities. Neither Congressman Weiner or Governor Spitzer were guilty of any crimes/expenditures which cost taxpayers any money.

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Elliot Spitzer and Anthony Weiner

Neither Weiner nor Spitzer has publicly announced any plans to return to public office at this point. It is very telling how quickly the GOP seems to forgive and forget the most egregious of offenses while Democrats are held to a different standard. Mark Sanford is now officially the Republican nominee for South Carolina’s First Congressional District, garnering the endorsement of his “good friend” Joe Scarborough. He received a generous amount of free air time and softball questions on his Morning Joe program. The topic of note today was his great proclivity towards honesty and running a fine campaign. The gushing over a man with very questionable moral fiber is not surprising coming from someone who may have gotten away with murder. There have even been rumors floating around that Scarborough is considering a Presidential run in 2016. People at NBC know that questioning anything about the Klausutis case will get you banned from the network, so nobody brings it up anymore. I suppose he is the ideal candidate, replete with scandal and plenty of corruption.

I’d like to just sit back and watch this train wreck unfold. But we all must stay diligent and support our Democratic candidates. Hopefully, Sanford will be defeated by Elizabeth Colbert Busch, the sister of Stephen Colbert, who will be facing Sanford in a special runoff election for Tim Scott’s old seat. It would be tremendous to have more blue in red South Carolina.

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Elizabeth Colbert-Busch (D) and Mark Sanford (R)

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Good Luck With Your Rebranding, Republicans

19 Mar

If you checked out some of the highlights (or lowlights as I see them) from CPAC 2013, you might catch a hint of a half-hearted admission that something has got to change in the Grand Old Party. A political party that sounds reminiscent of the antebellum plantation mentality (that still permeates much of rural America) has deduced, from election post-mortem analyses, the future looks anything but promising.  This was discussed, but honestly, there are no plans to modify thinking on a scale necessary to rebrand the party to fit the needs of the majority of voters.

The most telling evidence the GOP is not ready for prime time can be found when interviewing a few CPAC attendees about what they thought of Senator Rob Portman (R-Oh) coming out in favor of gay marriage. Because he learned two years ago his son is gay he felt understandably sympathetic to the rights of homosexuals marrying and this simply did not sit well with conservatives. Please pay close attention to the comment of the woman at the 02:15 mark of the video.

The Frederick Douglass Republicans are those who have hijacked the black leader’s name because he was a successful businessman who must have espoused all the Republican and Libertarian values of our great Capitalist society.  This largely unknown group thinks President Obama is nothing like this man because he is so anti-business, the Koch Brothers have only increased their wealth by 43% since 2010, so that Socialist in the White House is very anti-business.  Hypocrisy abounds as the group  does not emulate Mr. Douglass in most regards.  At one of the CPAC forums, an audience member asked a rather shocking question with regards to the treatment of slaves.

Stunningly, many Conservatives believe not only should homosexuals stay in the closet like they did in the 1950′s, but slaves should have been grateful for food and shelter which they received from their captors.  Unfortunately, this type of fringe thinking is no longer on the outskirts of the party.   It’s obvious the Teaparty and Fundamentalist wing of the GOP is calling the shots.  However, in a society that is evolving towards acceptance and tolerance of all and departing from Biblical Draconian law, the GOP has little hope for evolution (ironically, many deny the concept altogether).

Misogynist Libertarian Senator Rand Paul (R-KY)

Misogynist Libertarian Senator Rand Paul (R-KY)

Much ado has been made by both liberals and conservatives over Rand Paul and his espousal of the idealistic Libertarian values of freedom and liberty.   After his pointless and costly 13 hour filibuster, he was the winner of the CPAC 2013 straw poll for 2016 GOP presidential nominee.  The Kentucky Senator believes corporations should be free to dump as much toxic waste into our rivers as they wish, no taxes should be paid to help our fellow citizens in need (especially to receive healthcare) and education should not be paid for by the state.  In a nutshell, he wants the government to stay out of our affairs.

He has sponsored the Fetal Personhood Amendment to give a cluster of embryonic cells the same rights as a human being.  However, before we commend him on his “pro-life” stance, he also feels a person of color could or should be excluded from any private establishment, like a restaurant, simply because the owner should have the freedom to discriminate if he so chooses.  The free market should eliminate the need for all government regulations and if active discrimination is rampant in this country once again, so be it.  This is not a man who believes in the pursuit of happiness.  He believes in the pursuit of happiness for a select few.

Isn’t the goal of the GOP, convening with their best and brightest as they did this past weekend, to increase their membership and numbers?  Has anyone in this party considered that restricting or outlawing birth control while simultaneously cutting funding for poor and unwanted children will most likely  increase the number of Democratic voters?  Minorities are generally immigrants and one of the stars of the GOP, Donald Trump, even said (out loud) that naturalizing 11,000,000 immigrants will only add that many more “Democrat” voters.  I’m having a hard time following their logic, as logic seems to evade this party entirely.

As long as women are not in control of when they give birth, discrimination and overt racism are acceptable and religious dogma supersedes equality for humanity, the Republicans are content.  The rest of the country, however, is not of this mindset and any rebranding should include a tabula rasa for the entire GOP.  This antiquated way of thinking must change, and it looks like the odds are pretty slim the hard-liners of the party will have such an epiphany.

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Dividing the Progressive Movement by Standing With Rand Paul Insanity

8 Mar

Drones were devised for the purpose of conducting strikes and surveillance over territories deemed too perilous for our own pilots. Unpleasant as it may be to imagine, we have many enemies, through much fault of our own, who wish to harm Americans worldwide. Since their invention, the American military has utilized drone technology in countries like Yemen and Pakistan because the countries are a safe-haven for terrorist activities and they’re very remote. Manned military strikes are exceptionally treacherous. The mere existence of drones is simply for the purpose of launching these offensives in areas that are foreign, so by design, they’re not for domestic use. Perhaps on rare occasion, if a foreign combatant threatened the U.S. and there was no other way (which is quite outlandish) a president could use any means necessary to protect our citizens. However, it never was an issue which an economically hampered America should concern itself with, especially in light of all the other threats which endanger Americans, like teachers in South Dakota legally allowed to carry firearms while instructing children. This is a smokescreen, nothing more, and it is embarrassing progressives fall for such nonsense.

A Kentucky Republican launched a filibuster for what he considers a noble Libertarian cause, emphatically asserting domestic drone strikes should be illegal because they violate due process in a land founded on Constitutional principles. Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky/Teaparty) droned on for almost 13 hours over this pressing issue. Paul filibustered the Senate, in protest of ANOTHER Obama cabinet appointment for simple self-aggrandizement and shameless political posturing. He received the following letter a few hours hence from our Attorney General, Eric Holder:

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Courtesy of The Huffington Post

The incessant references to Hitler, the mentions of tyranny, liberty and freedom were numerous and based in fantasy and paranoia, as per usual with this Teaparty caucus. Paul also managed to defend awful Supreme Court decisions which were blatantly racist and abhorrent. Nevertheless, he was lauded by progressives who agreed with Senator Paul’s “brave” filibuster, including Van Jones. Much to my dismay, this man aired his pro-Paul sentiments on “CNN Newsroom,” and called the senator “a hero” for “sticking up for civil liberties.” Similar praise erupted from Senator Ron Wyden (D-Or) and Code Pink. On Friday March 8th, Arianna Huffington appeared as a panelist on Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO and said: “I want to defend Rand Paul…I think what Rand Paul did was fantastic…What he did was incredibly important. First of all, it completely scrambled that right-left way of looking at politics.” She critiqued Democrats (aside from GOP ally Wyden of course) for not taking a similar stand. Really Arianna? Domestic drone use is a pressing concern? More pressing than another fiscal cliff, environmental insanity and gun violence? Sorry, ma’am, you’re costing us time and money for contrived threats which benefit the GOP by allowing them to divide Democrats and skirt the real issues. President Obama has never once threatened ANYONE domestically with these highly technical killing machines and he has no intention of doing so.

Naturally, the Right Wing couldn’t thank Paul enough for his obstructionism. Fox’s favorite immigrant-loathing “Anchor Baby” Michelle Malkin heaps praise on Rand Paul for singlehandedly saving the Republican Party.

 

Ironically, immediately following Holder’s letter, which negated his entire thirteen hour charade, Mr. Paul fell in line and confirmed the new CIA director at once. After the dramatic episode concluded, we learned that the whole charade was staged for the purpose of showboating and fundraising. Obviously Rand is unconcerned with the threats to American citizens and real civil liberties as he feels it is more important to allow manufacturers of lethal weapons to sell their products unchecked to a nation incited to violence by none other than the racist agenda he promotes.

The Southern Poverty Law Center estimates over 1200 anti government patriot groups in existence today, where the anti-Civil Rights Act agenda of Mr. Paul along with others like Teabagger Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tx) operate in perfect symbiosis. Not only is he opposed to the 1965 law which is THE cornerstone of anti-racism legislation in America, but he opposed VAWA, denies abortion as a right and believes Biblical Law should replace the U.S. Constitution. He believes in low taxes for the rich and wouldn’t hesitate to cut funding for the poor woman he forced to birth a baby (after he defunds all women’s care facilities), because this is what Jesus would do. Maybe I forgot how Rand Paul sees Jesus: A White, Southern, GOP, and male chauvinist Jesus, not that Aramaic Semite from the Middle East who preached tolerance, humility and poverty.

Heaven forbid the first black president, or any president, chooses to use a weaponized drone on a person or group threatening the safety of the United States from within. We have an audaciously well-armed police force, FBI, ATF, CIA and four branches of the world’s largest military to defend our citizens. If at any time, a president chooses the drone option for domestic use, we are in so much trouble, I think Rand Paul’s freedom (to wear any animal on his head) is the last thing we need to worry about. Things are about to get real. I’m sure his outlandish soliloquy gave President Obama plenty of time to contemplate a domestic drone-strike option. He is far more tolerant than I would have been, as he dispensed with Senator Paul’s histrionics with a simple NO. Progressives and supporters of Democratic principles should have done the same thing. History will not be kind to the Rand Paul grandstanders of these tough times. This should be the last we hear of this nonsense, but I’m sure it will drone on ad nauseum.

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Gerrymandering and Jim Crow: The Republican Plan to Keep America White

27 Feb

As it is appearing with greater frequency, the commonly used term “gerrymandering” is an unusual practice indigenous but not exclusive to these United States. The odd practice of drawing voting districts in a random shape for a particular party’s advantage is named after Elbridge Gerry, a Massachusetts Governor and the fifth Vice President of the USA under President James Madison. He redrew his own district in the shape of a salamander,

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The original “gerrymander” in Massachusettes circa 1812

so in 1812, the idea of gerrymandering was born. This is a legal way of redistricting which is used by both political parties in our country. Unfortunately, in most Republican implementations of gerrymandering, the motives are insidiously racist. No representative historically is unwilling to abdicate power, so the Republicans have gerrymandered their districts to maintain sovereignty over a changing demographic that should technically deem them unelectable. With Machiavellian strategizing, the GOP has continued to maintain control of the House of Representatives which is certainly not of, by and for the people.

With the relevancy of Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA) on trial this week, it is vital more people understand exactly what damage the Roberts Court could inflict on our Civil Rights. The unlikely hero of the Affordable Care Act’s landmark decision, Chief Justice Roberts will play a different role in Shelby County v Holder. He will, once again, prove to be a painful reminder of the Bush Administration that appointed him.

This is a fight that’s been near and dear to Roberts’ heart since he was an attorney for the Ronald Reagan Administration. In 1982, Roberts led the fight against the VRA’s Section 2, which prohibits denial of voting rights “on account of race or color.” In the case of Shelby County, a largely white suburb of Birmingham, the number of instances between 1975 and 2007 where election laws were judged to have discriminated on the basis of race occurred 20 times. But I suppose with the election of President Obama, Roberts and his cohorts are purporting the myth that racism is no longer a problem in the areas which Section 5 was designed to protect.

But how does gerrymandering work to the advantage of Republicans and how is it relevant to this latest SCOTUS battle? In North Carolina, where the two-party House vote was 51 percent Democratic, 49 percent Republican, the average simulated delegation was seven Democrats and six Republicans. The actual outcome? Four Democrats, nine Republicans — a split that occurred in less than 1 percent of simulations. If districts were drawn fairly, this lopsided discrepancy would hardly ever occur.

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A typical gerrymandered district in North Carolina

Gerrymandering is a major form of disenfranchisement. In the seven states where Republicans redrew the districts, 16.7 million votes were cast for Republicans and 16.4 million votes were cast for Democrats. This elected 73 Republicans and 34 Democrats, not exactly proportional.

Why would Shelby County object to federal oversight? If they don’t plan on reinstating unfair registration requirements, poll taxes, literacy tests and the like, why would it matter if your electoral processes are supervised by the Federal Government? These folks have and always will be proponents of States’ Rights. States’ Rights is code for we are going to allow discriminatory disenfranchisement to proceed unchecked in our jurisdiction and we’d like you all to butt out.

The best example of racially motivated redistricting was evident in the Texas redistricting after the 2010 census. For the first time, the Republican state is populated by a majority of minority residents. However, the final tally redrew Texas to now have 25 congressional districts that lean Republican and 11 that lean Democratic. A representative government is the antithesis of Rick Perry’s racially motivated voting map.

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Areas subjected to Section 5 supervision during federal elections

Most of the areas on the map are in the south, but there are a few northern rural areas included, as historically, violations of Section 5 were common. All the evidence we need for determining the necessity of Section 5 was very evident this past election in the voter suppression attempts in Florida and Ohio that were thwarted by federal intervention. The GOP must be stopped because democracy isn’t waiting in line for several hours just to vote. This was a big problem in 2012 where voters in districts heavily favoring minority voters waited as long as nine hours just to cast their ballots.

In a shocking but not uncharacteristic display of racial callousness, extreme right wing Justice Antonin Scalia claimed the Voting Rights Act is a “perpetuation of racial entitlement,” which explains why he found a landmark law preventing race discrimination in voting to be suspicious. Simply by derogatorily using the term “entitlement,” conservatives show the disdain they have for allowing ALL citizens of any color, creed or gender to exercise simple rights which Americans have fought so hard to attain.

This plan may very well backfire on Republicans where Teaparty hard liners dominate the party’s agenda and prevent any candidate with sane and moderate views to win on a national scale. A recent example is Richard Mourdock of Indiana who was the Teaparty’s choice to replace Senator Dick Lugar. However, his insane fundamentalist opinions on rape allowed Joe Donnelly, a Democrat, to win in a Republican-dominated district. By gerrymandering themselves into an ultra-far right platform while the rest of society at large seems to be evolving towards a Progressive agenda, they will eventually redistrict themselves into obsolescence. If SCOTUS acts responsibly and rules against Shelby County, Alabama, it may help drive another nail into the GOP coffin. If the Court decides in favor of a racist, regressive Voting Rights Act violation, things will get very messy for both sides. Those who fought bravely to protect the sacred right of voting (which is not an entitlement), like Representative John Lewis, will not back down from this fight. Whether the GOP likes it or not, progress can not be stopped entirely, but they sure as hell can slow it down which seems to be their only advantage in a battle they are destined to lose.

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The GOP Will Never Stop Being the Stupid Party

20 Feb

If one simply analyzes the election of 2012, it’s quite obvious the GOP has an imaging problem; they have lost much of their support due to the changing demographics of 21st century America. I believe February, 2013 was unusually rich with incidents which signal the growing irrelevance of the Grand Old Party, truly an epic month chock full of the increasingly frequent bloopers that illustrate the true character of Republicans.

Trying to gather a manageable list of their latest blunders which purport their claim they are “trying to rebrand the party,” is quite a Herculean endeavor. John Brabender, Rick Santorum’s campaign manager believes their problem is merely in the context of perception, not actual platform. “The perception of our party is, number one, we fight for the rich more than we fight for anybody else. Number two, we fight for the big corporations. And number three, we`re obstructionists to everything.” We’ve got news for you John, this is reality.

The platform and policies the GOP favors have been deviating from the mainstream. The current reality is a dystopian nightmare where the fringe social, political and theocratic factions of the party have literally taken over the asylum. Stupid is actually a very nice way to describe the continued insanity that plagues Republicans nationwide. Bobby Jindal, Louisiana Governor (R) tried to sum it up.

One barely has to search for striking examples which make the word “stupid” seem like the understatement of the year. Psychotic, sociopathic and mendacious are far more apt characterizations of the party that is slowly becoming an embarrassment. The downward spiral began just after President Obama finished one of the most memorable State of the Union addresses and the GOP chose “rising star” Marco Rubio to give his rebuttal. The man they selected, a denier of man-made climate change science, a signer of the Norquist Pledge and a real “patriot” who voted against raising the debt ceiling , clearly represented a party uncomfortable with changing ethnic and social demographics. Most recently, on a trip to Israel, he wrongly identified Jerusalem as the capital merely to pander to extreme right-wing hard liners in both countries.

Former First Lady, Laura Bush came out in support of gay marriage in 2010. However, just this last week, she asked to have her name removed from a gay marriage ad. Once again, a prominent Republican drops the ball and abandons support of an issue which is only increasing in acceptance from the American people.

A GOP Missouri lawmaker shoots at a bill which would make it a felony to possess certain types of assault weapons. Their perversion of the second amendment continues. Watch the video below.

In Iowa (as well as The Dakotas and most Southern States), they are hell bent on criminalizing abortion in the most Draconian ways imaginable. By enacting personhood statutes, Iowa Republicans have introduced a bill that redefines murder to include knowingly “killing” a fertilized egg. This law would lead to the imprisonment of women who have abortions (currently, approximately one-third of women in the U.S. will have an abortion in their lifetime) as well as women who use certain types of birth control that prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg.

Not to be outdone by their ineptitude on women’s and social issues, the GOP has a healthy degree of xenophobia, especially against any possible affiliation with the “great Satan,” Iran. Just linking Hezbollah or Hamas with an Obama nominee would make any Teabagger salivate, so it’s no wonder the intuitive folks at Breitbart.com fell for a joke by NY Daily News reporter Dan Friedman. He used a preposterous name like “Friends of Hamas” to sarcastically link Former Nebraska GOP Senator and DoD nominee Chuck Hagel with terrorist groups. Not only did these conservative “journalists” not fact check, they spread this fabrication around the right wing blogosphere. The absurdity went unnoticed and traveled all the way up through the highest ranks, even so far as duping Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Mr. Friedman wrongly assumed everyone could see the obvious satire in his writing. Unfortunately it is a common practice to assign deductive reasoning skills to the fear-mongering, anti-education, anti-science and highly xenophobic members of the American Right.

Teabagging star Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tx), the darling of fundamentalists in the Lone Star State, went so far as to link Hagel to Iran directly simply because the nation spoke favorably about a reasonable, non-hawkish defense department leader after so many years of preemptive American wars. This man not only looks like Eugene “Joe” McCarthy, he is already on a witch hunt only two months into his dreaded six year reign of terror. This extremist lunatic will prove to be a hot mess of problems for both America and his party. Naturally, that makes him a star.

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Because McCarthyism worked so well the first time. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tx)

I focus on Cruz because he is the quintessential obstructionist who embodies every abhorrent quality which will hasten the demise of the once powerful GOP. A recent Salon piece by Steve Kornacki says it best: …conservatives’ appetite for Cruz shows that the GOP base’s animating spirit still hasn’t changed: Loud, aggressive and reflexive hostility to President Obama, the Democratic Party and any Republican who would dare contemplate compromise is still how “conservatism” is defined.

Fast forward to March 29, when the home run of all racial epithets was uttered by former GOP representative Don Young (Alaska). When asked about growing up on a Central California farm, he said, “My father had a ranch; we used to have 50-60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes, it takes two people to pick the same tomatoes now. It’s all done by machine.” True, he was not trying to be overtly offensive, it simply eluded him he even said something that is incredibly bigoted because he grew up around that sort of offensive vernacular. He issued an apology stating that there is no place for that type of racial slur in this century. What’s most telling is his time frame of when racist comments are permissible. Was 1999 a time when you could insult an entire group of people without consequence? It appears even the 1950′s is too avant-garde for Republicans and hiding their obvious disdain for minorities is a daunting task.

This legitimacy and relevancy problem only seems to worsen over time. In fact, a Pew Research Poll has concluded only 22% of Americans would label themselves Republican, most hiding behind the guise of the Independent label, for obvious reasons. I doubt the party will go the way of the Whigs, but the infighting between Teaparty hard-liners and so-called moderates violates Reagan’s “11th Commandment,” thou shalt never speak ill of a fellow Republican. I sure enjoy watching the mayhem and it may just expedite their ultimate defeat. I anticipate the 2014 midterms will exacerbate the Republican irrelevancy problems with massive defeats. These anti-government government workers have surely outworn their welcome and their incompetence is finally obvious to the majority of Americans.

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Beware the Teaparty Down Under: Abbott is a Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

17 Feb
abbott

No, not the villain from the Matrix. This is Australian Head of the Center Right Liberal Party Tony Abbott

We’ve heard this garbage before, but we’re used to hearing it from right wing crazy people here in America. But when a prominent politician and possible PM hopeful in Australia echoes Freedomworks‘ anti-Science stance on global climate change, it is cause for alarm. Tony Abbott pictured here, has gone on the record saying: ‘‘I don’t think we can say that the science is settled here’’ He went on to question whether ‘‘emissions are quite the problem that some people say they are’’, and argued, ‘‘whether carbon dioxide is quite the environmental villain that some people make it out to be is not yet proven.” This is contrary to the findings of roughly 97% of climate scientists who study the effects of man-made pollutants on our global ecosphere. Unfortunately, Australian politics is not laden with stars in the Labor party (which is akin to our Democratic Party in the U.S.) and no one candidate is poised to take the reins of government like Tony Abbott in the September 14 elections later this year.

There are code words the conservatives in the U.S. often use to indicate they are anti-science and pro-big business, with little regard for the environment and health of their people and wildlife. Mr. Abbott takes a page out of the GOP playbook and uses the catchphrase, “the climate change-science is far from settled” here:

Not only is this man, who likely will win in a divided political climate, a danger to those who will be impacted by the rising tides and weather catastrophes in store for all of us if we don’t lower emissions, but Mr. Abbott is a highly religious “family” man, reminiscent of the U.S. pro-life crowd. A poll of 100 voters across Sydney found that Labor and Green voters despise the way Abbott injects religion into his political campaign and policy. On the other hand, Liberal voters respect Abbott as a ‘conviction politician’ who is firm on his beliefs. Liberals, mind you, are like the GOP in America, except a bit more logical. You’d actually be hard pressed to find a party like the Teaparty-laden GOP in a Western Democracy. Abbott has been called “Mad Monk” and “Captain Catholic” by some who believe, as many of us do here in the USA, that religion has no place in politics.

In order to appear as equally sexist, misogynistic and bigoted as his American Teaparty counterparts, Tony Abbott has a rich history of chauvinistic bullying in his C.V. His attempt at mirroring candidates like “legitimate rape” failed Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin are evident in this quote: “When it comes from Julia (Gillard, the unmarried, current PM) , ‘No’ doesn’t mean ‘No’,” his choice of that charged term was completely intentional, and part of a nasty, subterranean agenda. He often refers to the current PM, Ms. Gillard, as unqualified on matters of family as she has no children. He appeals to the farthest right wing elements of his country and to think a man of Abbott’s transparent motives has a such great odds at winning in September is quite disturbing to many Australians.

The last thing a world in turmoil from unchecked corporate hegemony needs is another puppet leader like George W. Bush in a hemisphere that has been wrought with climate change disasters as of late. In a world where the most educated and civilized are moving away from religious dogma dictating social policy, it is anachronistic to have a man like Abbott as head of any state. Generally, Australians are only given one month’s notice of an upcoming election. Hopefully PM Gillard, with this unusual time frame, has given the Labor Party enough notice to try to best a dreadful candidate who will only depress a fairly strong world economy who has averted a recession. The Progressives of America are with you Australia. I hope we can help keep another Mitt Romney from a “Down Under” victory.

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