World News Korner

Courtesy of TPM:

A Democratic congressman from Nevada said in a letter this week that his constituents have reported the armed militia supporting rancher Cliven Bundy have set up checkpoints to verify the residency of anybody passing through.

Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV), who represents the area, sent the letter Sunday to Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie, asking him to investigate.

"I am writing to bring your attention to the ongoing situation in northeastern Clark County which has caused many of my constituents to fear for their safety," Horsford wrote. Residents in the area "have expressed concern over the continual presence of multiple out-of-state, armed militia groups that have remained in the community" since Bundy's dispute with the Bureau of Land Management came to a boil.

The militia, as reported by Horsford's constituents, "have set up checkpoints where residents are required to prove they live in the area before being allowed to pass," the letter said.

So can somebody please explain to me how these so-called "patriotic Americans" can circumvent the law and set themselves up as some third world military faction, treating citizens of this country as if they have no rights?

Not only that but some of these thugs have gone so far as to threaten one of our Senators:

Horsford's concerns come at the same time the U.S. Capitol Police confirmed they are looking into threatening statements made against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

A police spokesman declined to give further details Monday, citing an ongoing investigation, but Reid has been an outspoken critic of Bundy.

THIS is the country that the NRA foresees. A nation where the power is held by those who are heavily armed, and willing to kill. Not by officers of the law.

Where legality is determined by the last man standing, and those seeking justice are pinned down by a hail of bullets.

Update: Here is more info on the checkpoints.

There is no way that this ends well.

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Click image to play video

Palin: "If I were in charge..."

Stewart: "All I can say there is thank God that is a hypothetical."

Palin: "They would know that waterboarding is how we baptize terrorists."

Stewart: "Where is that speech even appropriate? At an Al Qaeda recruitment how-to video workshop? At the yearly gathering of the Dummolos?"

Stewart goes on to mock Palin for several more minutes, which he concluded in this segment, during which Stewart also went after Wayne LaPierre, Rick Santorum, and the NRA in general for promoting gun violence as a remedy for all kinds of perceived ills, including government overreach, Obamacare, public education, Benghazi, Fast and Furious, etc.. etc., etc..

Ultimately Stewart's point was that as crazy as Palin's remarks seemed, at the NRA convention she was speaking to a crazed choir who agreed with, and parroted her every opinion.

And that is by far the most troubling thing about all of this. Not that Sarah Palin says crazy things, but that there are so many others who find what she says perfectly reasonable.



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Courtesy of the New York Times:

Belinda Padilla does not pick up unknown calls anymore, not since someone posted her cellphone number on an online forum for gun enthusiasts. A few fuming-mad voice mail messages and heavy breathers were all it took.

Then someone snapped pictures of the address where she has a P.O. box and put those online, too. In a crude, cartoonish scrawl, this person drew an arrow to the blurred image of a woman passing through the photo frame. “Belinda?” the person wrote. “Is that you?”

Her offense? Trying to market and sell a new .22-caliber handgun that uses a radio frequency-enabled stopwatch to identify the authorized user so no one else can fire it. Ms. Padilla and the manufacturer she works for, Armatix, intended to make the weapon the first “smart gun” for sale in the United States.

But shortly after Armatix went public with its plans to start selling in Southern California, Ms. Padilla, a fast-talking, hard-charging Beverly Hills businesswoman who leads the company’s fledgling American division, encountered the same uproar that has stopped gun control advocates, Congress, President Obama and lawmakers across the country as they seek to pass tougher laws and promote new technologies they contend will lead to fewer firearms deaths.

“Right now, unfortunately, these organizations that are scaring everybody have the power,” Ms. Padilla said. “All we’re doing is providing extra levels of safety to your individual right to bear arms. And if you don’t want our gun, don’t buy it. It’s not for everyone.”

Of course that was no good enough for the gun nuts, nor the NRA who said this:

The National Rifle Association, in an article published on the blog of its political arm, wrote that “smart guns,” a term it mocks as a misnomer, have the potential “to mesh with the anti-gunner’s agenda, opening the door to a ban on all guns that do not possess the government-required technology.”

Yes, of course science is always the enemy for those who traffic in people's ignorance.

Now if right about now you are suffering from some vague form of deja vu, don't worry you are not crazy.

Something about this technology has surfaced before on this blog, when Sarah Palin completely misunderstood it and took to Facebook to condemn "identifying bracelets." And then challenged Attorney General Eric Holder thusly:

Eric, you can replace my identifying bracelets with your government marker when you pry them off my cold, dead wrists.

And, Eric, "You don't want to go there, buddy."

- Sarah Palin

And that just about sums of the intellectual argument against this new technology, which even a child would recognize as potentially saving millions of American lives.

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Courtesy of Salon:

Religion relies on social consent to perpetuate itself. It’s a bad idea, and can’t stand up on its own. But it can, and does, perpetuate itself through social consent. It perpetuates itself through dogma saying that asking questions about religion is sinful, and that trusting religion without evidence is virtuous. It perpetuates itself through dogma saying that joy and meaning and morality can only be found in religion, and that leaving religion will automatically result in a desperate, amoral, pointless life. It perpetuates itself through religious communities and support systems that make believing in religion — or pretending to believe in religion — a necessity to function and indeed survive. It perpetuates itself through parents and other authority figures teaching it to children, whose brains are hard-wired to believe what they’re told.

Religion relies on social consent to perpetuate itself. But the simple act of coming out as an atheist denies it this consent. Even if atheists never debate believers or try to persuade them out of their beliefs; even if all we ever do is say out loud, “Actually, I’m an atheist,” we’re still denying our consent. And that throws a monkey wrench into religion’s engine.

There’s a reason that rates of atheism have been going up as use of the Internet goes up. (According to the MIT Technology Review, the dramatic drop in religious affiliation in the U.S. since 1990 is closely mirrored by the increase in Internet use — and while correlation certainly doesn’t prove causation, this analysis factors out pretty much every other possible causation.) The Internet has created a massive worldwide forum for atheists to argue about religion, to give evidence against religion, to ask for evidence and arguments supporting religion and point out how ridiculously weak they are. But the Internet has also created a massive, worldwide forum for atheists to simply, you know, exist.

What’s more, this denial of consent has a snowball effect. As more atheists come out of the closet, more people will question religion and eventually leave it. And as they leave religion and come out about their atheism, another wave of people will question and abandon religion … and so on, and so on, and so on.

It’s easy to ignore one person saying that the emperor has no clothes. It’s a lot harder to ignore 10 people saying it — and it’s harder still to ignore a hundred, or a thousand.

So if you want to ignore the emperor’s nakedness, it’s not enough to just ignore it. You have to get other people to shut up about it. If you want religion to keep perpetuating itself, you have to get people to go along with it. You have to get people to fake it.

You have to get people to lie.

Very true indeed. In fact I have seen this same thing happen right here on this blog.

Usually it arrives in a form similar to this:

"Gyphen I really enjoy your reporting on Sarah Palin (That bitch!) but I really wish you would stop attacking religion. I am sure that you realize that many of your visitors are religious, and it just makes us very uncomfortable. If you don't stop we will be forced to stop coming here every day."

If you think about this it is really quite arrogant of them. Especially since I started the Immoral Minority to talk about politics, current affairs, and, yes, religion.

It would be tantamount to going to somebody's house and saying, "I loved the casserole, and your house is quite lovely, but please stop talking about your children, or I will never come here again."

However as this article so eloquently explains, it is not that it bothers certain people that I talk about it here so much, as it is that they are afraid others are listening.

And of course, they are.

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If image does not enlarge click here.

If you want to see a Christian's head explode go ahead and tell them that religions evolved one from another.



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Courtesy of The Week:

After this weekend, it's probably safe to say that Sarah Palin is done. Like Jesse Ventura or Ross Perot, she may show up every once in a while to hurl red meat or use stunt cameos to remind us a little of her awkward charms. But recent events seem to confirm that she is an Obama-era novelty politician — and not much else.

First she gave a speech to the NRA in which she joked that waterboarding is how we baptize terrorists, offending people who otherwise make up her base. Next, Robert Costa reported on the ever-smaller crowds that have been greeting Palin in Iowa:

"When Palin took the stage at the Hy-Vee Conference Center under a banner that read "Heels On, Gloves Off" on Sunday at an event for Senate candidate Joni Ernst, the ballroom was half-full, with a couple hundred attendees scattered in clumps." [Washington Post]

If the politically engaged seem bored with Obama, they have all but forgotten Sarah Barracuda, the manqué of anti-Obama populism.

Well of course this was what I was saying just this morning. I guess I just did not expect the MSM to agree with me quite so soon.

But are we right?

Well according to The Week, yes:

We may have finally reached a tipping point: Conservatives, it seems, are finally safe to criticize Sarah Palin (without fear of being written out of the movement, that is).

As is the case with tipping points, accretion tends to go mostly unnoticed until the dam finally breaks. And it seems to have broken a bit this week, with two coinciding stories. First, there was the Washington Post story by Robert Costa (formerly of the conservative National Review), which labeled Palin "a diminished figure in the Republican Party." That story included a quote from popular conservative blogger and talk radio host Erick Erickson, who conceded, "She has some pull with the base, but it has fallen a little bit."

That hardly makes her sound like a powerhouse. This is not to suggest conservatives are uniformly turning against Palin, but it is to suggest that she can no longer count on conservative opinion leaders being cowed into silent support of her antics, for fear of angering their (and her) base.

And as if to make that point, here is what a religious writer had to say about her recent brouhaha:

Like many from a similar Christian tradition, Palin sees herself as a warrior for God, engaged in spiritual warfare to save America from evil and to keep America Christian. But in joking that torture was like a baptism, Palin revealed her view of evangelization as an act of force, not love, and her view of salvation as something one imposes on irredeemable enemies, who further prove their lesser worth by protesting and resisting it. Get it? It just shows how the Muslims can't even see how something "so cool" is actually good for them.

No wonder many conservative Christians are aghast. But even setting aside the underlying meaning of Palin's torture "joke," her speech, once again, exposes a rift between traditional or orthodox (and politically active) Christian conservatives and the charismatic and Pentecostal movement of which Palin is a part. (I hesitate to say that Palin "represents" it because she more represents a Palin brand, although by virtue of her public profile she does in a way represent it.) In Palin's mind, she's engaged in spiritual warfare with spiritual enemies. She believes herself to be acting out God's will. She believes her prayer warriors will protect her. She believes in the spiritual gifts of revelation and prophecy, which for many charismatic and Pentecostal believers are real phenomena, but are easily manipulated by religious charlatans, and when translated to the political stage are dangerously inflammatory.

Palin has taken this religious tradition in which she grew up, and manipulated it to maximum effect in political settings. When she used "Allah" in place of "God" to denote her disdain for what she perceives as the savagery of Muslims (a theme repeated in her waterboarding remarks), or when she had hands laid on her to cast out witchcraft, or when she on numerous occasions declared herself to be acting out God's will or plan for her or for the country, Palin is manipulating a religious tradition to draw attention to herself.

For her fellow conservatives, this time she might have gone too far.

There have been a number of times in the past few years where I was all but certain that Palin's career had finally wheezed out its final breath, only to see her pop up again with a new show, or new book, or new support from some other fringe group.

However this time there is definitely something different in the wind.

All I know is that I am getting out my Wizard of Oz soundtrack, just in case the time has finally come to play the song that all of us know will be echoing across the Matanuska Valley on the day that the Wasilla Wendigo finally bites the dust.

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Courtesy of Mother Jones:

For years, advocates of stricter gun laws have rallied at the barricades of the National Rifle Association's annual meeting. But this year, as the gun lobby convenes in Indianapolis, there's a new posse in town. They're mothers, they're survivors of gun violence, and some of them are both. And they're dead set on disarming the NRA of its outsize political power.

They operate as Everytown for Gun Safety, a new organization combining the grassroots group Moms Demand Action, launched after the Sandy Hook massacre, and Michael Bloomberg's Mayors Against Illegal Guns. At a press conference in a packed downtown hotel conference room on Friday, the group unveiled a forceful new report and political ad.

The NRA may have money, and political power at their disposal, but as every son knows all too well, nothing stands long against the power of mom.

I look forward to watching how the NRA tries to respond to this.

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Courtesy of Levi's Facebook page.

Recently there have been questions as to why we should care about the Tripp Johnston custody situation. I understand that most of those come from trolls, and we all understand THEIR agenda, but in case there are any others who legitimately wonder why I waste time an energy on this cause let me explain.

First off as a father who had to fight in court to retain custody of his daughter, I care.

And as a child who was once abandoned by my own father, I care.

But as somebody who is tired of seeing people's lives destroyed by that vicious Wasilla bitch, I care even more.

One thing you cannot help but to discover when you interview people about Sarah Palin, is just how many lives she damaged during her rise to power, and her struggle to retain it.

This is something that all of us, Geoffrey Dunn, Joe McGinniss, reporters from various magazines, and I all learned while doing research on her over the years.

And these were not the exception to the rule either. Terrible things befell people who stood up to the Palins, spoke out against the Palins, or simply were perceived as problematic by the Palins.

Terrible things.

Talk show hosts, comedians, politicians, librarians, shopkeepers, former partners, high school acquaintances, sex partners, or just fellow Wasilla residents, have all felt the sting of Palin retribution.

There were stories that Joe McGinniss left out of his book every bit as damaging as the ones he put in, and in some cases more.

In most cases there is nothing that can be done for these people, and they are too terrified to seek compensation or justice themselves.

But in the case of Levi, what was done may have been the most egregious act of revenge ever perpetrated by the Palin family.

They were surely instrumental in getting Sherry locked up, scrubbed Mercede's computer clean of family photos in an attempt to hide something she may not even have realized she had, caused a rift between family members, somehow used his own lawyer and manager to destroy his reputation, and kept him away from his son for the vast majority of the young boy's life.

Most of this is almost impossible to prove. But not that last bit.

THAT is as well documented as anything I have ever seen. We have hours of television footage to prove that case, and the Johnston's have much, much more than that.

Do not forget that Levi was literally the first person close to the family to speak out publicly, and call Sarah out on her bullshit. And instead of the accolades and support he should have received for that courage, instead his lawyer stole his money, and his manager destroyed his credibility.

All this man wants is his child back in his life permanently.

I think he deserves much more than that, but if I can, in some way, help him to get Tripp, then that is the very least I can do.

So yes, we will continue to talk about it, and I will continue to provide whatever support I, and IM, can provide.

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Courtesy of Politico:

Rep. Michael Grimm is in federal custody as the New York Republican awaits his indictment on federal criminal charges, according to sources close to the case.

Loretta Lynch, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, will unveil a grand jury indictment against Grimm this morning. The allegations - Grimm will face well over a dozen charges - include mail and wire fraud, filing false tax returns and health care payments, hiring undocumented workers and obstruction of justice, according to sources close to the case.

You all might remember Grimm as the congressman who threatened to throw a reporter off a balcony and break him in half.

Of course Grimm is claiming that the charges against him are false and that he is not guilty:

Rep. Michael Grimm has vowed to stay in office after he pleaded not guilty Monday to a 20-count federal indictment that includes charges of mail, wire and tax fraud.

The Staten Island Republican was arraigned in Brooklyn and released on $400,000 bond.

“I will get right back to work as I always have — with honor and distinction, I will serve,” Grimm told reporters in Brooklyn on Monday. “And then, on top of all that, I have an election to win.”

But then what would you expect somebody like this to say when they are finally forced to face the music?

The guy is clearly a real piece of shit, and now it looks like he is about to get flushed.

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You know it is one thing to read Palin's comments as reported by a journalist, or as written on Facebook with or without a ghostwriter, but hearing her say this kind of crap in her own voice really underlines just what a nasty bitch she is.

The other day somebody pointed out that it seemed that she was becoming more hateful with every appearance, and I would agree that it certainly seems that way.

As if she is so angry that she has been marginalized, and that fewer people are reacting to what she says, that she is simply saying more and more horrible things in the desperate hope that somebody will be forced to respond to them in print.

Well they are responding to her alright. In fact a group Christians has even started a petition to make sure that people know she does not speak for them:

For Christians, torture is not a joke or a political punchline, but a ghastly reminder of the suffering of Jesus upon the cross. By equating it with Holy Baptism -- the act by which we are united with Christ in his death and resurrection -- Sarah Palin is blasphemously twisting our faith into a weapon of hatred and violence. No media outlet should cover her remarks without reporting on how sincere Christians of all theological and political persuasions are appalled.

However she DOES still have supporters, as the American Conservative found out recently after they called her out over her remarks.

I will restate what I have said before, and that was that the point of maintaining focus on Palin and blogging about her speeches, Fox News interviews, and reality show gigs was to continue to publicize her craziness, until everybody could see for themselves what I, and others, had been accused of making up about her.

I promised back in 2009, that I would stay on her ass until we finally saw her career in its death throes.

Well, now we are seeing just that.

Pretty entertaining isn't it?

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Letter sent to kindergarten parents

Courtesy of the Washington Post:

An annual year-end kindergarten show has been canceled at a New York school because the kids have to keep working so they will be “college and career” ready. Really.

That’s what it says in a letter (see above) sent to parents by Ellen Best-Laimit, the interim principal of Harley Avenue Primary School in Elwood, N.Y., and four kindergarten teachers. The play was to be staged over two days, May 14 and 15, according to the school’s calendar.

One mother who received the letter, Ninette Gonzalez Solis, wrote on Facebook that parents learned recently the play was being canceled and started calling the principal, leading the school officials to send out the new missive. Solis wrote that she was very upset about the cancellation.

Gee no kidding, I would hope that ALL of the parents who received this letter are upset.

Here is a portion of the letter for those having trouble reading it:

"The reason for eliminating the kindergarten show is simple. We are responsible for preparing children for college and career with valuable lifelong skills and know that we can best do that by having them become strong readers, writer, coworkers, and problem solvers. Please do not fault us for making professional decisions that we know will never be able to please everyone. But know that we are making these decisions with the interests of all children in mind."

That is such BS.

Look I worked in a kindergarten room.

These children are struggling to learn to sit still during lessons, take turns during free time, and to zip up their coats and tie their own shoes.

The skills we focused on was teaching them to cut out shapes in order to improve their small motor skills, identify and read letters to improve their memorization skills, and to respect other children's property and feelings to improve their social skills.

One of the first tasks we struggle with is teaching children to stand in line. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a bunch of five year olds to stand in line, without touching each other, wandering around aimlessly, or facing the wrong direction, for the first time?

A lot more challenging than one might imagine.

And what really helps with the teaching process is recognizing that this age group is barely out of the toddler stage, and they need to have lots of time to move, to play, and to distract themselves from the boring classroom work.

This school clearly does not understand what it takes to prepare children of this age for college or a career. One thing I can tell them for sure is that burning children out on school before they even reach the first grade is certainly NOT the way to put them on the path toward success.

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Yeah, you know what? I think it might be a little too late for this.

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"I meant what I said, and I say what I meant, I am just an idiot 100%."

Courtesy of the Lunatic from Lake Lucille's Facebook page:

Actions to stop terrorists who’d utterly annihilate America and delight in massacring our innocent children? Darn right I’d do whatever it takes to foil their murderous jihadist plots – including waterboarding. Whatever one thinks of my one-liner at the NRA rally about treating evil terrorists the way they deserve to be treated to prevent the death of innocent people, it’s utterly absurd for MSNBC to suggest that I could put our beloved troops in harm’s way, but we’ve come to expect the absurd from that failing network. If you want to talk about what really harms our troops, let’s talk about politicians who gut our military’s budgets, or a president whose skewed budgetary priorities slash military benefits, or an administration that puts our vets on endless waiting lists for care that comes too late to help those who’ve paid the price for our freedom, or those who break bread with those who think it makes no difference how our military heroes died in Benghazi or anywhere else trying to protect America. Those actions are a heck of a lot more harmful than declaring an appropriate message our enemies should receive. If some overly sensitive wusses took offense, remember the First Amendment doesn’t give you a right not to be offended. Perhaps hypocritical folks who only want Freedom of Speech to apply to those who agree with their liberal agenda might want to consider that the evil terrorists who were the brunt of my one-liner would be the first to strip away ALL our rights if given the chance. That’s why we do whatever we can to prevent them from killing innocent people. And for that, we should NEVER apologize. Good Lord, critics... buck up or stay in the truck. And if you love freedom, thank our troops! Thank our vets! And thank those who have the brains to support them and the guts to defend what they have earned!

- Sarah Palin

Well it looks like SOMEBODY'S ghostwriter stepped out for a quick smoke and left the Wasilla Wendigo pounding on her keyboard. "Overly sensitive wusses?" Really?

Of course as everybody outside of the Bush administration will now admit, torture did not keep Americans safe, nor did it help to find Osama Bin Laden.

In fact as this Daily Beast article explains, it actually hurt the U.S.:

We will never know how much information the U.S. lost because it failed to use time-tested, effective, and humane methods of interrogation. We will never know how many years earlier bin Laden could have been captured and how many lives spared if, instead of whisking them off to a prison outside the law, the U.S. had instead charged Mohammed and al Libi in federal courts and treated them properly and in accordance with due process. We do know that bin Laden’s death does not end the threat terrorists pose to the U.S. and other nations. But we also know that the best way to guard against future attack is by rejecting the use of torture outright and staying faithful to the rule of law and basic tenets of decency. This is true not only because it is the right thing to do, but because it works.

All Palin has demonstrated with her truly horrific remarks is that she knows NOTHING about fighting terrorism, and nothing about how much American lost when it allowed fear to frighten it into forget who we are, and what we once stood for.

And now she has helped to remind people what a colossal mistake it would have been to let her anywhere NEAR the White House, and the office of the President.

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Courtesy of the New York Times:

At long last, the Koch brothers and their conservative allies in state government have found a new tax they can support. Naturally it’s a tax on something the country needs: solar energy panels.

For the last few months, the Kochs and other big polluters have been spending heavily to fight incentives for renewable energy, which have been adopted by most states. They particularly dislike state laws that allow homeowners with solar panels to sell power they don’t need back to electric utilities. So they’ve been pushing legislatures to impose a surtax on this increasingly popular practice, hoping to make installing solar panels on houses less attractive.

Oklahoma lawmakers recently approved such a surcharge at the behest of the American Legislative Exchange Council, the conservative group that often dictates bills to Republican statehouses and receives financing from the utility industry and fossil-fuel producers, including the Kochs. As The Los Angeles Times reported recently, the Kochs and ALEC have made similar efforts in other states, though they were beaten back by solar advocates in Kansas and the surtax was reduced to $5 a month in Arizona.

But the Big Carbon advocates aren’t giving up. The same group is trying to repeal or freeze Ohio’s requirement that 12.5 percent of the state’s electric power come from renewable sources like solar and wind by 2025. Twenty-nine states have established similar standards that call for 10 percent or more in renewable power. These states can now anticipate well-financed campaigns to eliminate these targets or scale them back.

The reasons that they are giving for wanting this ridiculous tax is that the ability of the solar panel users to sell back unused energy to the utilities "would hurt older people on fixed incomes by raising electric rates."

But of course that's just bullshit. And even if it WERE true there is no way the Koch brothers give a shit about anything that does not provide a profit for them.

No these assholes simply know that once renewable energy catches on in this country that their businesses are going to take a serious hit, and that scares the crap right out of them.

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Courtesy of the Washington Post:

A Washington Post analysis found that some of the top national tea party groups engaged in this year’s midterm elections have put just a tiny fraction of their money directly into boosting the candidates they’ve endorsed.

The practice is not unusual in the freewheeling world of big-money political groups, but it runs counter to the ethos of the tea party movement, which sprouted five years ago amid anger on the right over wasteful government spending. And it contrasts with the urgent appeals tea party groups have made to their base of small donors, many of whom repeatedly contribute after being promised that their money will help elect conservative politicians.

Out of the $37.5 million spent so far by the PACs of six major tea party organizations, less than $7 million has been devoted to directly helping candidates, according to the analysis, which was based on campaign finance data provided by the Sunlight Foundation.

The dearth of election spending has left many favored tea party candidates exposed before a series of pivotal GOP primaries next month in North Carolina, Nebraska, Idaho and Kentucky.

So then the question becomes, if they are not spending the money on the candidates, then just were ARE they spending the money?

Roughly half of the money — nearly $18 million — has gone to pay for fundraising and direct mail, largely provided by Washington-area firms. Meanwhile, tea party leaders and their family members have been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in consulting fees, while their groups have doled out large sums for airfare, a retirement plan and even interior decorating.

What, no postage?

Of course we have reported fairly extensively on SarahPAC spending, but isn't it interesting to find that essentially Palin's PAC is following the same pattern as all of the others?

And of course this kind of money laundering will continue right up until the paint chip eaters who send money to these criminals wise up.

So essentially it will never end.

Well, until they all die off of course,

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Courtesy of the American Conservative:

Palin and all those who cheered her sacrilegious jibe ought to be ashamed of themselves. For us Christians, baptism is the entry into new life. Palin invoked it to celebrate torture. Even if you don’t believe that waterboarding is torture, surely you agree that it should not be compared to baptism, and that such a comparison should be laughed at. What does it say about the character of a person that they could make that joking comparison, and that so many people would cheer for it. Nothing good — and nothing that does honor to the cause of Jesus Christ.

If I thought that kind of hateful declaration and abuse of the Christian religion was what conservatism stood for, I wouldn’t be able to call myself a conservative. Some conservatives do stand for that. They’re wrong, and they should be called out on it — not because some liberal somewhere is going to be offended, but first and foremost because we Christians who identify as conservatives are appalled by it.

Courtesy of The Federalist:

I’ve long defended Palin against the offensive treatment she’s received at the hands of a blatantly biased media, a media that collectively lost its mind the moment she entered the national stage. But that hardly means she must be defended at all times.

Those were conservatives, who once thought Palin was someone to be admired.

Here was how Andrew Sullivan, not a fan of Palin's but still a conservative, and still a very religious man covered it:

A Christian who can equate the sacrament of baptism with a barbaric form of torture is not a Christian, whatever self-righteous blather she emits. And a former vice-presidential candidate who talks of “baptizing” Muslim terror suspects through waterboarding is handing al Qaeda a propaganda coup on a platter. She disgusts me. And what disgusts me even more is the rank cowardice of so many sane Republicans who for far too long have failed to take her on.

Ouch! That's going to leave a mark.

Here is how Washington Monthly responded:

I have a theory that Sarah Palin has the intent to humiliate John McCain as often as possible. Maybe it’s because McCain wouldn’t let her give her own concession speech. Maybe it’s some of the things McCain’s advisers have said about her. Or, maybe, it’s just a joke the gods are playing on McCain for being so stupid in his choice of running mate.

The best part is that McCain won’t allow himself to react to this because he can’t admit the magnitude of his mistake.

Of course there are still a number of conservative news outlets who are resisting the urge to call Palin out over her remarks, and are undoubtedly waiting for all of this attention to blow over.

But to what end?

After all it is only a matter of time before she says something equally horrifying, that will embarrass her supporters, thrill her detractors, and shame those who once believed she could actually be a politician worth supporting.

I sometimes get attacked for "lying about Sarah," but the most devastating thing I ever did was simply to post videos, and transcribe her speeches, so that everybody could hear for themselves the level of insanity that issued from her frothing maw.

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Courtesy of WSBTV:

Parents at a Forysth County park abruptly stopped a children's baseball game after growing suspicions of the behavior of a man carrying a gun in a waist holster Tuesday night.

"He's just walking around [saying] 'See my gun? Look, I got a gun and there's nothing you can do about it.' He knew he was frightening people. He knew exactly what he was doing," said parent Karen Rabb.

Rabb told Channel 2’s Tom Regan the parents grew so alarmed that they brought the game to a halt when the man declined a request that he leave a parking lot overlooking the baseball field.

“He scared people to the point where we stopped the game, took the kids out of the dugout and behind the dugout, and kind of hunkered down,” Rabb said.

Park users flooded 911 with 22 calls about the man. Forysth County deputies questioned the man, and found that he had a permit for the handgun. Authorities said since the man made no verbal threats or gestures, they could neither arrest him nor ask him to leave the park.

Another parent questioned what point the man was trying to prove.

"Why would anyone be walking around a public park, with a lot of children and parents and people here playing baseball, and he's walking around with a gun? I don't think the parents would have been nervous had he just had the gun in his holster and was just watching the game," said parent Paris Horton.

Why would anybody be walking around a crowded baseball field and frightening people by openly carrying a gun?

Because he can. And if the NRA gets their way, there will be a whole lot more of this kid of incident too.

Welcome to the America, where gun rights take precedent over a child's right to feel safe while playing baseball.

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Apparently this was unveiled during the same rally where Palin suggested that waterboarding was just the way we baptize terrorists.

Here is more from the You Tube page:

At the NRA's annual convention on Saturday, Wayne LaPierre unveiled a new ad the group is planning to air on TV and boy, is it a doozy. The ad is very evocative of a movie trailer for some inspirational drama, complete with b-roll of average Americans and sweeping, dramatic music to convey a simple message: it's us against the world now. Who's with the good guys?

The people featured in the ad declare things like "You are surrounded by a world where mad men are famous and good ones forgotten" and "'The good guys are a lie,' they laugh. Everyone's corrupted." It stakes out a clear position that there are "good guys" in the world fighting against the "hypocrites, chameleons, bullies, and yes-men."

After showing the ad, LaPierre declares, "Ours is a national movement. Right now it's sweeping the country in homes, in churches, in coffee houses, in PTA meetings."

Yes it is the good guys versus the bad guys.

And clearly the good guys would be the ones brandishing firearms and advocating an armed response to the policies of the federal government.

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I am just NOT a fan of camping anymore.

Every summer somebody guilts me into taking them camping, and every time I spend the entire trip wishing I was back home in my warm bed.

Summer is here again, so I know what's coming.

Now don't get me wrong, when I was younger I went camping all of the damn time.

I even spent the night on a mountain top with no tent or sleeping bag for protection.

Hell I once slept in a damn tree!

But come on, do you have any idea how much my mortgage payment is? Why would I spend all of that money and then to sleep under a swarm of mosquitoes, only to wake up with my clothes soaking wet from a surprise rainfall.

And then I have to spend the next several days trying to work the kink out of my lower back, while answering the hundreds of e-mails that arrived while I was gone.

I live only a few minutes away from great hiking trails, plenty of fishing streams, and more nature than many people see in a lifetime. And all of it is only a handful of minutes away from my very own bathroom and internet.

Now if I can only convince everybody else.

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Courtesy of Palin's Facebook page

Courtesy of The DesMoines Register:

Sarah Palin gave GOP U.S. Senate candidate Joni Ernst rave reviews during a rally today in Iowa.

"I haven't been this excited about a candidate in quite a while," Palin said. (Probably going to come as news to all the other candidates that she feigned excitement for while standing next to them on stage.)

The country needs politicians who can be counted upon to "buck the establishment" and "do what the people, in this case of Iowa, will be sending her to do for us," (Which apparently is to sabotage the government so it no longer functions.) Palin, a former vice presidential candidate, said during a ShePAC's "Heels On, Gloves Off!" rally in West Des Moines.

"So just so happy that, heck yeah we found a candidate that we know we can have faith in," Palin said. "We can trust her. She has proven herself over and over again. She is the right one."

She told the Iowa audience of about 250 on a Sunday afternoon soaked in thunderstorms that she was impressed with Ernst's "Squeal" ad. Ernst got national buzz for the campaign ad, in which she declares that she "grew up castrating hogs on an Iowa farm" and will "cut through the pork" in Washington.

"It's like, 'Whoa nobody's going to push her around. She's not going to be co-opted," Palin said. (Too late for that, the Koch brothers already own her ass.)

Palin said it was up to the audience to spread word of Ernst's resume. "You will report accurately about this wonderful candidate," she said as the crowd clapped and cheered. "I won't even ad lib what I was going to say about the press because I don't want them to take it out on Joni. OK, I'll try to be nice about what I really think about the lame stream media and how they cover conservative women in politics."

Yeah right, like anything this idiot says anymore is an "ad lib." She is tightly scripted and controlled by those who are paying her way these days.

And apparently those individuals want this lunatic in D.C..

Enrst campaign bus. It says, "Honk if you want to make DC squeal."

Ernst only has a narrow lead right now (25 to 23 percent), with forty percent still undecided, so this could certainly be another Palin flop.

The last thing this country needs is any more of these Palin backed obstructionists making it to Washington.

By the way it looks like she is still shopping for her clothes at the first Wal-Mart she sees at whichever venue she arrives at.

@SarahPalinUSA supporting @JoniForIowa "The status quo has got to go!" #TeamJoni pic.twitter.com/05usHZiat5
— Kim Reem (@KimReem) April 27, 2014

Update: Apparently not much of a crowd.

Maybe it's the rain, but the ballroom for Palin is far from full pic.twitter.com/zd2AcBmT04
— Robert Costa (@costareports) April 27, 2014

Oh how the not quite so mighty have fallen.

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Courtesy of the ACLU:

The Alaska Supreme Court ruled today that the state unconstitutionally discriminates against same-sex couples by denying them equal access to a property tax exemption for senior citizens and disabled veterans.

The rules were challenged by the ACLU of Alaska, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Davis Wright Tremaine LLP on behalf of three couples who were denied full access to a $150,000 property tax exemption that Alaska makes available to opposite-sex married couples. Because same-sex couples cannot legally marry in Alaska, the state treated them as roommates rather than as families and let them get the exemption for only half of the value of their homes. Roger Leishman, partner at Davis Wright Tremaine, successfully argued the case at trial and on appeal before the Alaska Supreme Court.

"Families in Alaska deserve better than a second-class system of laws for same-sex couples who are just as committed to each other as heterosexual couples," said Joshua Decker, executive director of the ACLU of Alaska. "Our senior citizens and veterans should not have to pay more taxes just because they happen to be gay or lesbian."

I think that Alaska is primed and ready to move forward with marriage equality up here.

Hell we are already getting ready to vote on legalizing marijuana, so we might as well move the state forward in this regard as well.

Besides I want this to happen before that pernicious prick Jerry Prevo dies.

Using his sermons to vilify the LGBT community, and his political influence to help shape policies which oppress them, this man has been the driving force behind homophobia in this state for decades.

I just want the opportunity to see his face when the people of Alaska reject his hate mongering and openly embrace their gay brothers and sisters.

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Courtesy of the Washington Times:

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin fired up a crowd of thousands inside Lucas Oil Stadium Saturday night to kick off the National Rifle Association’s “Stand and Fight Rally,” saying Americans’ constitutional rights as envisioned by the founding fathers are under attack and policies like gun-free zones constitute “stupid on steroids.”

“They knew that if the Second Amendment goes, the rest of the constitution is not far behind,” she said of the country’s founders. (This is patently untrue, as the emphasis on gun ownership by everyday citizens was NEVER the goal of the Founders. THEY were talking about militias.)

In her approximately 12-minute address, Mrs. Palin also derided what she argued is akin to a ‘blame the messenger’ attitude on gun violence many Americans take today.

“Gun stores are an accomplice to crime,” she said, “and that fork made me fat.”

She also derided those who she said place an emphasis on political correctness in handling the country’s adversaries “instead of putting the fear of God in our enemies.”

She said later in her address that if “I were in charge” — a line that drew applause from the crowd — “they would know that waterboarding is how we baptize terrorists.”

Jesus what a crazed bitch! Actually waterboarding is how we turn perfectly innocent people into lifelong enemies of America.

At one point in the speech Palin said: "If you control oil, you control an economy. If you control money, you control commerce. But if you control arms, you control the people."

Essentially repeating the NRA lie that this administration wants to take away people's guns in order to oppress them, and remove their ability to fend off the police or military when they come to enforce unconstitutional laws.

At another point in her speech she said, "Gals you know that nowadays ammo's expensive. Don't waste a bullet on a warning shot."

Because you know it always better to shoot first and ask questions later.

Palin was beyond crazy in this speech and if you only listen to a few minutes of that you will see that for yourself. However she was standing in front of a crowd that ate up every word.

The country dodged a bullet in 2008, but if this woman, and the NRA, continue to have any impact on our politics there are bound to be far more flying around in the not too distant future.

Update: Raw Story is on this as well:

“Do you know why those clownish little Kumbaya-humming fairytale-inhaling liberals want to be tough all of a sudden and control your guns?” she said. “It’s ‘cuz guys like [Sen.] Al Franken (D-MN) and [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid (D-NV), they’re not satisfied with just taking your money and your job, your truck and your property and your rights, your healthcare – they didn’t want to just stop at that.”

Referring to Attorney General Eric Holder’s suggestion that technology advances, like a bracelet that interacts with a weapon, might help stem the flood of shootings, Palin referenced the many bracelets she wears that commemorate fallen soldiers and various other American causes.

“You can have these bracelets when you pry them past my cold, dead hands,” she said, echoing a popular NRA bumper sticker from the 70′s.

Damn that is one nasty bitch!

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Courtesy of the National Journal:

Speaking at the University of Connecticut on Wednesday night, Hillary Clinton made a restrained but nonetheless damning attack against Edward Snowden.

"People were desperate to avoid another attack, and I saw enough intelligence as a senator from New York, and then certainly as secretary [of State], that this is a constant—there are people right this minute trying to figure out how to do harm to Americans and to other innocent people," Clinton said. "So it was a debate that needs to happen, so that we make sure that we're not infringing on Americans' privacy, which is a valued, cherished personal belief that we have. But we also had to figure out how to get the right amount of security."

As for Snowden's role in exposing the NSA programs, Clinton insinuated that she found his motives suspicious.

"When he emerged and when he absconded with all that material, I was puzzled because we have all these protections for whistle-blowers. If he were concerned and wanted to be part of the American debate, he could have been," she said. "But it struck me as—I just have to be honest with you—as sort of odd that he would flee to China, because Hong Kong is controlled by China, and that he would then go to Russia—two countries with which we have very difficult cyberrelationships, to put it mildly."

Clinton stressed the strangeness of Snowden's decision to flee to countries that have perpetrated cyberattacks against the U.S. She noted that when State Department officials would travel to Russia or China on diplomatic business, they would leave their cell phones aboard the plane with their batteries taken out. "It's not like the only government in the world doing anything is the United States," she said.

"I think turning over a lot of that material—intentionally or unintentionally—drained, gave all kinds of information, not only to big countries, but to networks and terrorist groups and the like. So I have a hard time thinking that somebody who is a champion of privacy and liberty has taken refuge in Russia, under Putin's authority."

With sarcasm creeping into her voice, Clinton implied that Snowden acted all too friendly toward Vladimir Putin, whose country has been harboring Snowden since last August.

"And then he calls in to a Putin talk show and says, 'President Putin, do you spy on people?' And President Putin says, 'Well, from one intelligence professional to another, of course not.' 'Oh, thank you so much!' I mean really. I don't know, I have a hard time following it."

I'm going to leave Hillary's statements here for you to discuss, without adding any of my own opinion.

Besides by now I think most of you know where I am on the Edward Snowden situation.

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Courtesy of CBS News:

President Obama took some serious heat last year when insurers started dropping millions of Americans from health plans that were no longer Obamacare-compliant, seemingly breaking his promise, "If you have insurance that you like, then you will be able to keep that insurance."

A new study, however, backs up the administration's claims that the cancellations were part of the normal churn of the individual health market.

After analyzing patterns in the nongroup health coverage market from 2008 to 2011, Harvard professor Benjamin Sommers found that the market was characterized by high turnover before the Affordable Care Act was implemented. Additionally, Summers found that most people who left the nongroup market acquired other insurance within, suggesting that the cancellations attributed to Obamacare are unlikely to have a significant impact on overall coverage rates.

And another GOP talking point bites the dust.

Just have to keep spreading this information around before November.

If enough people are educated about the truth concerning the Affordable Care Act it will be that muhc harder for the Republicans to beat up the Democrats with it during the campaigns.

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I love this quote because I remember as a child wondering what it felt like to be an adult, and having no idea why adults seemed so sad, and tired, and depressed all of the time.

I am still waiting to understand.

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Bill Maher: "Somebody has to tell me, how do they do it? How do Republicans win elections?"

Maher goes on to point out that polls show that the majority of Americans are for the things that Republicans are adamantly against. So how do they win?

Maher: "I'll tell you how. They employ a complex, multifaceted technique, political scientists call 'cheating.'"

Yep, that's it alright.

Maher also says that sometimes liberals make it easy for Republicans to win by being bossy, or arrogant.

However he ends the segment with this:

"Remember, for every liberal with a cause who makes you go ‘Oh, shoot me,’ there’s a conservative with a gun who will.

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Courtesy of Esquire:

At the Bundy camp last week, pundits and politicians descended on Bunkerville, Nevada, to throw in their American flag hats with the BLM protestors. A FOX news van had been parked by the side of the road for days. Up on the ridge, militia snipers kept a trained watch as Bundy held court, and disciples from far and wide came to share their personal theories as to why the government was enforcing a court order.

But on Thursday, we witnessed a mainstream exodus from Bundy’s flank. Sean Hannity, Bundy’s biggest booster, called his racist remarks “beyond despicable,” but maintained that they should not taint the supporters who “for the right reasons saw this case as government overreach.”

Exactly how difficult was it, though, to determine pretty early on that Bundy and his followers were using the threat of force to back up some terrifyingly misguided beliefs?

During the few hours I visited last week, this was what was said.

Some of the things the Esquire reporter saw almost defies description, but here is a taste.

Openly discussed racism:

It’s dizzying and hot at the camp, and a very friendly man named Roy, wearing an Obama t-shirt with a joker smile painted on, hands me a cold bottle. He's from nearby Mesquite and has been a close friend and supporter of Bundy's these last few years. When I tell him I’m from New Mexico, the former cop says he has a very good buddy who used to work as a sheriff in my area.

“He got in a bit of trouble,” he chuckles. “He pulled over a carload of illegals one night, didn’t have room to haul ‘em all, so he put a chain around their neck and put a padlock through it, went to the next one, then he chained ‘em to a tree!”

He buckles with laughter as the story heats up. “Then he left ‘em and went to town to get his pickup to haul ‘em all back in. So, you might imagine, that didn’t play well — ha! You’re a young’un, but everything wasn’t against the law, way back when.”

Cliven Bundy religious prophet:

The crowd, fresh off their victory at the Battle of Bunkerville, gives Bundy a standing ovation. But he doesn’t seem pleased. He reproaches the crowd for failing to follow the word of God – to the letter – which he says is being delivered through him. They failed, for example, to follow his instructions to tear down the toll booths at Lake Mead and disarm the Park Service.

"The message I gave to you all was a revelation that I received. And yet not one of you can seem to even quote it.”

Cliven continues, sermon-like: "The records of our bible — how long have they been kept? Thousands of years. They’ve been turned over generation after generation, buried, and all kinds of things happen to ‘em. And yet, here, something I felt was inspired [by God] and yet we haven’t even carried it forth for even a couple of days. Shame on us.” Smattering of clapping.

He goes on to explain that, although they managed to deter the BLM, they failed to do it "within one hour," as the revelation had prophesied. So when an hour passes, he decides to get in his bulldozer and march on the BLM himself. The dozer gets stuck in the mud and he receives another revelation.

“It come to my mind real plain — the good Lord said, ‘Bundy, it’s not your job, it’s THEIR job.’ So we come back over here and heard that they had brought some cattle back. So I want you to understand,” addressing the crowd, "This is not my job, it’s YOUR job.

Wingnuts of all shapes and sizes:

Clearly the longer that any sensible person spends around Bundy and his group of radicals, the more clear it becomes that his ranch has become a kind of gathering place for all of the Alex Jones conspiracy theorists (Yesterday they went after Glenn Beck), angry racists, and trigger happy sovereign citizens types that were within walking, driving, or hitchhiking range.

If the BLM were smart they would simply sit back and let this powder keg smolder a little longer, because I think it is only a matter of time before these lunatics get bored and start looking around the ranch for someone to take their inner range out on.

Things could get mighty interesting in old Bunkerville before too long.

In the meantime, at least the citizens of Nevada know where all he crazy people are hanging out.

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Courtesy of Alabama.com:

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin offered plenty of red-meat attacks on President Barack Obama during an appearance at the Baldwin County Republican Party’s annual fundraising dinner Friday, but she did not spare her own party.

Palin, who rocketed to political stardom after presidential candidate John McCain tapped her as his running mate in 2008, expressed nearly as much exasperation with the GOP establishment as she did with Democrats.

She referenced her own upbringing in an Alaskan hunting family in declaring that she would fight politicians that conservatives deride as “Republicans in Name Only” during intra-party squabbles.

“I’m not afraid at all to go on a little RINO hunt,” she said.

You ever meet somebody who is constantly complaining about how crappy their life is, but when you hear them talking about it right away you recognize that everything bad that happens to them is a self inflicted wound?

That's what the Republican party has become.

They are the girl that hooks up with a guy, forgets to use birth control, and then complains that she got knocked up and the guy up and disappeared.

Or the guy that gets pulled over while driving home after drinking shots all night, because he "doesn't live very far from here."

Or the national political party that thinks they can rile up the most fringe part of their base in order to win elections, without that fringe suddenly turning on them and trying to replace them with lunatics just like them. Oh wait, that's EXACTLY like the Republican party.

And these local idiots continue to be unaware that they are dealing with the devil who is working toward their destruction.

Case in point:

Turning serious, Palin questioned the commitment of some Republicans to repealing the Affordable Care Act, Obama’s signature legislative achievement.

“They’re giving a lot of lip service to it, but it’s not happening,” she said.

The reason, Palin suggested, is that some Republicans have concluded they are better off raising campaign contributions off of the issue and leaving the law alone. She said too few Republicans in Congress supported efforts by Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Mike Lee, R-Utah, to shut down the federal government in order to force the defunding of the health reform law.

“They left some of our guys out there alone,” she said. “Worse than that, they joined the lapdog media” in condemning Lee and Cruz.

Palin urged Republicans to “send reinforcements” to help tea party Republicans in Congress. She paraphrased a famous Obama quote in crediting the tea party for engineering the Republican takeover of the House in 2010.

“Republican establishment, you didn’t build that – the tea party did that,” she said.

One has to wonder if ever, in their wildest dreams, the McCain campaign could have realized that their ignorant little VP choice from the wilds of Wasilla, would someday help to found a movement that would elect subversive representatives, who would attack the party from within, while working to usher in the demise of its national relevancy?

You know, somehow I doubt it.

You know in the book Victor Von Frankenstein chased his monster all the way to the frozen north in an attempt to destroy it. In the end the pursuit took his life instead.

Perhaps the Republican party will be more successful.

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Courtesy of Raw Story:

Yesterday, the Louisiana Senate Education Committee upheld a controversial law that allows science teachers to bring “supplemental science education materials” into the classroom.

The Committee voted 3-1 to uphold the Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA) — which critics contend allows teachers to introduce creationist literature into science classrooms — on the grounds that no proof that teachers were importing religious-oriented material into the public school could be found.

Critics of the law, including Dr. Jim Dugan, claimed at the hearing that LSEA is a ruse designed to allow for the teaching of creationism and intelligent design in public schools under the aegis of “critical thinking.”

“I think it’s obvious to any thoughtful person that the poorly written and deceptively named ‘Louisiana Science Education Act’ is a crude attempt to provide legal cover for the teaching of creationism and intelligent design in public schools,” he said.

“The bill exclusive targets — and I’m quoting from the bill here — ‘evolution,’ ‘the origins of life,’ ‘global warming,’ and ‘human cloning.’ These are not topics,” he continued, “thought to be problematic by scientists, or science educators, but [are] wedge issues frequently used by Christian fundamentalists to attempt theocratic control over public school curriculum.”

As I said yesterday education in this country is under attack, and the ONLY way to stop it is to start electing Democrats and clean out the anti-science, anti-education, Republican scumbags who are trying to destroy public education in this country.

With Bobby Jindal in charge of the state the children of Louisiana simply do not stand a chance.

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