Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett made moves to appease birthers in his state this week, petitioning the state of Hawaii to confirm the existence of President Barack Obama's long-form birth certificate, which the White House released last year.

In a radio interview with KFYI's Mike Broomhead, Bennett said he would consider keeping the president off the ballot if the state failed to answer his request. Bennett, who is preparing for a gubernatorial run in 2014, also denied being a birther himself, and said that his action was not a move to gain favor with fringe elements in Arizona. He claimed it was a standard response to pressure from over 1,200 Arizonans who had emailed him with concerns about the president's eligibility and the authenticity of his birth certificate.

Yesterday, there was a bit of hoopla over a 1991 bio of President Barack Obama, in which a literary agent incorrectly wrote he was born in Kenya — fuel to the birther fire, without a doubt. Now, Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett is taking things a little further: threatening to keep Obama’s name off the state’s ballot in November if he doesn’t get confirmation from Hawaii that Obama’s birth certificate is valid. Bennett said he’s responding to constituents’ request, and isn’t a birther himself.

That’s roughly the time it took for conservatives to jump all over Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and his leadership team after the GOP’s game plan for dealing with President Barack Obama’s health care law leaked to the media

Their gripe? Republicans would try to replicate popular parts of Obama’s health care law if the Supreme Court overturns the law this summer.

Rather than sending out news releases or rushing to cable TV for a rant, conservatives blasted House Republican leadership on a private Google email group called The Repeal Coalition. The group is chock- full of think tank types, some Republican leadership staffers, health care policy staffers and conservative activists, according to sources in the group.

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Thursday said that he disapproves of a Republican super PAC's plan to link President Barack Obama to Rev. Jeremiah Wright's inflammatory comments, a tactic that had been used by some in 2008, but rejected by then-presidential candidate John McCain.

"I want to make it very clear: I repudiate that effort," Romney told reporters in Florida, repeating a claim that he made in an earlier interview. "I think it's the wrong course for a PAC or a campaign."

But Romney also alleged that the Obama campaign was leading the charge with negative attacks.

"Having a campaign focused on character assassination is one thing I find offensive among many others," he said.

WASHINGTON -- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday slammed House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) for sparking another potential showdown over tying an increase in the debt ceiling to trillions in spending cuts. "They did it before. Here we go again," Pelosi told reporters during her weekly briefing. "To toss this into the mix right now, saying we have to have cuts that exceed ... the extent that we lift the debt ceiling is really immature. Irresponsible. Let's get serious," she said. Boehner made waves earlier this week when he said he will "insist" that matching spending cuts be linked to raising the debt limit when it hits its cap late this year or early next year. When Republicans made the same demand last year, the U.S. nearly defaulted on its debt for the first time in history and the country's sterling Standard & Poor's credit rating got downgraded. Thousands of federal workers were also kept on edge for months as they waited to see whether they would be paid in the event of a default. Congress ultimately raised the debt ceiling, at the last minute, and reduced the deficit by $2.1 trillion.

President Barack Obama's campaign on Thursday took aim at a recent attack ad released by Karl Rove-backed group Crossroads GPS, calling its claims "B.S."

In a 3-minute-long web video, Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter provides "the facts" to debunk the ad's jabs at what it says are Obama's failed campaign promises.

"Karl Rove's group Crossroads is spending $25 million from secret donors to tear down the president in a new ad," Cutter says. "Time to tear this thing apart."

WASHINGTON — Democrats controlling the Senate rejected for the second year in a row Wednesday a budget plan passed by House Republicans.

The 58-41 vote against the GOP budget came after a daylong debate in which Democrats blasted Republicans for refusing to consider tax increases as part of a solution to trillion-dollar deficits, and Republicans in turn attacked Democrats for not offering a budget at all.

Republicans launched the debate, which was aimed less at successfully passing a bill than highlighting the failure of Senate Democrats to deal with a budget deficit expected to top $1 trillion for the fourth consecutive year.

The tea party movement is kicking into gear again, buoyed by the success of Richard Mourdock in defeating longtime Sen. Richard Lugar in Indiana's GOP primary. They're intent on proving that the movement is not dead, as so many commentators have declared. To that end, the Tea Party Patriots (TPP), which claims to be one of the movement's largest national umbrella groups, is recruiting volunteers for phone banks and promising a massive outpouring of support for embattled Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. The tea party has already been active in the recall fight, but is preparing to go all out in the last few weeks before the election.

And that could be problematic. As a nonprofit group, TPP is banned from devoting the bulk of its resources to campaign activities—those resources are supposed to be devoted to promoting social welfare, not political candidates, according to tax regulations. Yet TPP has been openly publicizing the fact that it's supporting Walker in the election, and if it goes in for a big campaign in support of him, it may risk violating its tax-exempt status.*

The IRS recently announced its intention to crack down on nonprofit groups operating as thinly veiled political campaigns, and many of its recent targets have been tea party groups. 

Just in case you had been suffering delusions that the Republicans have improved on basic arithmetic or responsible governance, House Speaker John Boehner and presidential aspirant Mitt Romney on Tuesday made sure to disabuse you of that notion. As both men pandered to the base on deficit reduction while foreswearing tax increases, they reinforced the central Republican narrative of our age: Somebody else can pay for the mess we made. Somebody -- as in those losers who can't afford memberships at our golf club.

Boehner delivered that message in a warning that he would again engage in brinksmanship later this year when Congress and the White House return to negotiations over lifting the debt ceiling and extending the tax cuts George W. Bush bestowed on wealthy Americans. You will surely recall how the last such negotiations went down: Boehner and his fellow Republicans held to threats not to go along without draconian spending cuts -- a line they maintained so rigidly that they convinced much of the planet that we Americans had lost our minds along with our calculators, leading to Uncle Sam's credit rating getting dinged.

Reporters covering Mitt Romney's campaign sent out a volley of tweets on Wednesday, complaining that they had been prevented from asking the presumptive Republican nominee questions at an event in Florida.

Trouble between the campaign and the press apparently started at the beginning of the day. Sara Murray, a Wall Street Journal reporter, tweeted that journalists had been told they would not be asking any questions of Romney. "Isn't that our decision?" a reporter asked.

Yesterday, Mitt Romney addressed the the national debt with a collection of buzzwords and half- truths, that should give economists, American voters, or just anyone grounded in reality serious pause.  His speech hit all the high notes on the Republican’s overplayed economic scale:

• Tax cuts
• Cuts to Medicare and Social Security
• Increased military spending
• Tax cuts (A catch-phrase so overwhelming popular on the right, we listed it twice)

The House Tea Party Caucus, chaired by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), says it seeks to represent the views of the people who have “had enough of the reckless spending and vast government overreach coming from Washington.” 

One uses a Taser stun gun.

Thomas cries out for help and, toward the end of the beating, starts calling for his father: "Dad! Help me. Help me. Help me, dad."

His voice gets softer and trails off. By the end of the video, he is lying in a pool of blood as the officers wonder out loud what to do next.

One can be heard saying: "We ran out of options so I got to the end of my Taser and I ... smashed his face to hell."

Thomas died five days after the incident. The FBI is investigating civil rights violations in the case, as well.

Republican freshmen who swept into Congress on the 2010 tea party wave may not be “tea party” enough.

The Club for Growth is out with a new report that finds many of the freshmen aren’t living up to their anti-spending promises.

The group says that big votes by some of the first-termers, like the one to raise the debt ceiling, run counter to their campaign pledges to curb Washington’s spending habits.

For its analysis, the Journal used a list of 77 Bain investments inked from 1984 through 1998 that were included in a document that a unit of Deutsche Bank AG... circulated in 2000, while soliciting participants in a fund to invest with Bain. The document—which cites Bain as a source—appears to be the most authoritative available for Bain's activities, and says that the deals accounted for about 90% of the money Bain invested during that period. The Journal obtained updated information from a similar 2004 prospectus...Seventeen of the 77 private-equity targets filed bankruptcy petitions, usually Chapter 11 reorganization, or closed their doors by the end of the eighth year after Bain's investment...Of these, at least five clearly were still controlled and run by Bain at the time. In three other cases, Bain was a minority investor in a deal run by another buyout firm. In some of the remaining cases, Bain still held a small stake or had just sold out when the bankruptcy filing or shutdown occurred, while in other cases the trouble struck several years after Bain's exit.

Lots of people agree that our government is currently bogged down in a morass of dysfunction that's so disastrous that it's basically criminal. And I do not use that word lightly.

People who hold other people hostage are criminals, and the elected criminals came very close to murdering the entire global economy when they took the debt ceiling hostage. And if you recall, the deal that was crafted to avoid that mess involved the creation of a Super Committee that was tasked with creating a package of spending cuts and revenue adds to bring budgetary discipline to Congress. They needed a supermajority to agree on a plan. And they failed.

Republican Mississippi state Rep. Bubba Carpenter recently gave a callous assessment of a state anti-abortion law that critics have cautioned could close down the state's only abortion clinic.

Abortion rights advocates have protested the measure, claiming that the shuttering of the facility -- brought on by potentially overwhelming certification requirements for practicing physicians -- could force women to turn to dangerous alternatives. This prospect didn't seem to concern Carpenter.

Franciscan University of Steubenville, a Catholic institution in Ohio, has decided to drop its entire student health insurance plan as of the fall semester 2012 because of the new federal rule requiring contraception coverage under most employee and student health policies. While a number of religious colleges http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/22/catholic-colleges-file-lawsuit-feds_n_1293814.html">have filed lawsuits over the birth control requirement, Franciscan is the first to get rid of its student health plan.

"The appearance of a Republican party almost entirely composed of ideological conservatives is a new and historically unprecedented development. It is only in the last decade or so that 'movement conservatism' finally succeeded in silencing, co-opting, repelling, or expelling nearly every competing strain of Republicanism from the party."

One day after President Barack Obama's reelection campaign launched videos and a website attacking Mitt Romney's record at private equity firm Bain Capital, a pro-Obama super PAC is launching a $4 million ad campaign and a website attacking Romney on the same issue.

Priorities USA Action released a 30-second ad Tuesday morning on the closure of the Kansas City plant of GST Steel, which Bain Capital acquired in 1993. The ad features steelworker Pat Wells, who lost his job at the plant.

WASHINGTON -- New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R), whose named has been floated as a possible Republican vice presidential pick, slammed Mitt Romney on Monday for his immigration strategy.

Martinez took aim at Romney's support for a policy of "self-deportation," whereby conditions in the U.S. would be made so uncomfortable for undocumented immigrants that they would voluntarily leave the country.

"Self-deport? What the heck does that mean?" Martinez said in a Monday interview with Newsweek. "I have no doubt Hispanics have been alienated during this campaign. But now there's an opportunity for Gov. Romney to have a sincere conversation about what we can do and why."

You may wonder how the Tea Party and Religious Right have gained and currently wield so much power. First you need to look at how they have gained this power. Just by saying "No" to anything that is not part of their agenda they were able to assure the Republican Party had no power except what they were willing to give them. The Tea Party usurped the Republican Party and replaced our two party system with a Parliamentary system of government.  It is clear why the Tea Party wishes to ignore the President and wants Congress to have all the power. The goal is and has always been to create a Parliamentary Government environment. The real goal of the Tea Party was to create a voting block within the Congress and Senate that must be dealt with in order to advance their agenda by forming a coalition. This is why the Republican Party has had to shift so far right to accommodate this coalition. If you take a look at the government in the UK, the supreme legislative power is vested in the Queen-in-Parliament; although in practice in modern times, real power is vested in the House of Commons. The house of commons in the UK (equal to our Congress) wields the most power even over the House of Lords (equal to our senate).

Now let's look at how they are maintaining and wielding this power. The easiest way to explain this that I can come up with is the "Monkey Experiment".

Experiment:

Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water. After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result - all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm! Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth.

Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked. Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana.

Why not? Because as far as they know that's the way it's always been done.

Look at Senator Richard Luger and Senator Oympia Snowe and how they were treated by the Tea Party. Can you not see how the Tea Party is attacking the other monkeys?

Are you going to let them get away with getting rid of our Democracy and just handing over the power to them or are you going to put a fight?

T1Truth

In his impassioned speech to the congregation, Jackson slammed the legalization of same-sex marriage as “an assault," before noting, “The Enemy wants [marriage equality] to be a legacy, or a seed that is planted in this generation that corrupts, perverts and pollutes...generations to come."

Pastor Charles O'Neal of the Beaverton Grace Bible Church claims reviews on a blog started by former church member Julie Anne Smith amount to defamation. Smith, who says "the story of spiritual abuse needs to be told," described O'Neal and his church outside Portland as "creepy" and "cult-like." She described him calling for church elders to search closets of female congregants for clothes that are too revealing, among other lessons from the pulpit.

The fastest growth in the last two decades has occurred among white women in their 20s who have some college education but no four-year degree, according to Child Trends, a Washington research group that analyzed government data.

The bipartisan efforts of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) on a range of issues have attracted grumblings from the right.

Cantor recently has played a leading role in moving legislation on jobs, banning congressional insider trading, and reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank.

As Washington’s tea party class endeavors to rekindle the movement’s magic, this month’s Texas Republican Senate primary stands as a crucial test of its strength and influence.

The effort might backfire in Nebraska, where GOP Sens. Jim DeMint (S.C.) and Rand Paul (Ky.) and conservative organizations including the Club for Growth and FreedomWorks have been stumping for state Treasurer Don Stenberg in Tuesday’s three-way GOP Senate primary. Stenberg could finish dead last, his standing with voters diminished by the barrage of negative television ads that the supportive, Washington-based tea-party-affiliated groups and Members have run against his opponents. 

CICERO, N.Y. —Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle (R-N.Y.) is exasperated as she concludes her opening remarks and reaches for a piece of paper on the podium.

“I don’t know who was handing out this literature,” she says, “but I think we’ve got to talk about this a little bit.”

Elizabeth Warren called on JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon to resign from his post on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's board, citing the need for "responsibility and accountability" in the financial industry.

Dimon, who disclosed a $2 billion loss by the banking giant last week, should "send a signal to the American people that Wall Street bankers get it and to show that they understand the need for responsibility and accountability," Warren said in a statement following Dimon's Sunday appearance on "Meet the Press."

For the record, Fitzgerald said he doesn't buy Compas' Pollyanna image. He knows some people are painting the race as a David-vs.-Goliath contest. But Fitzgerald said he thinks her husband is one of the main forces behind her campaign, as well as unions and protest groups.

"I don't for one minute believe she is the organizing force behind this whole thing," he said.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Florida Gov. Rick Scott's chief of staff has abruptly resigned amid news stories examining his job performance and handling of contracts.

Steve MacNamara wrote in a resignation letter Saturday that he would step down July 1. He wrote that "recent media attention I have been receiving has begun to interfere with the day-to-day operations of this office."

The Associated Press recently reported that while working for the state Senate, MacNamara helped steer a $360,000 no-bid consulting contract to a friend who now leads a task force rooting out state government waste.

PHOENIX, May 13 (UPI) -- Diehard Ron Paul  supporters were having none of the Mitt  Romney campaigns calls for party unity at the Arizona Republican Convention  this weekend.

WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney’s recent declaration that Russia is America’s top geopolitical adversary drew raised eyebrows and worse from many Democrats, some Republicans and the Russians themselves, all of whom suggested that Mr. Romney was misguidedly stuck in a cold war mind-set.       

Newt Gingrich will campaign for Mitt Romney at next week's Georgia state GOP convention, CNN reports.

After dragging out the final days of his 2012 bid, Gingrich finally suspended his presidential campaign May 2. Though it was reported he would embrace Romney's candidacy as he suspended his campaign, Gingrich delayed making an outright endorsement.

A reputation is a ubiquitous, unprompted and a fairly efficient contrivance of social control in society, and there is little a group or person can do
to change society’s perception of them unless they alter their behavior drastically over a period of time. 

Tea party favorite Rep. Allen West (R-FL) is denying that LGBT people face employment discrimination in the U.S.

On Thursday, Think Progress’ Scott Keyes asked West if he would be willing to support a law that bans hiring or firing of people based on their sexual orientation.

“That don’t happen out here in the United States of America,”

You don’t think people get fired because they’re gay?

“Well, I don’t see that as being a big issue with small businesses,” West replied. 

West may be right that the issue isn’t the top concern for business owners, but it is a real problem for the up to 43 percent of gay men and lesbians who have reported workplace discrimination or harassment.

 

Indiana U.S. Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, the Tea Party candidate who proclaimed that “bipartisanship ought to consist of Democrats coming to the Republican point of view” shortly after defeating longtime incumbent Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), does not think he should be elected to the U.S. Senate. 

We all know that Tea Party supporters love the Nazis. In fact, they are so obsessed with the Nazis that they compare President Obama to them on a daily basis. Recently, a Tea Party leader told a crowd at a rally in Pittsburgh that President Obama is an evil Nazi who needs to be stood up to.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned legislators Thursday against adding unnecessary “pet projects” to the defense budget. The warning came one day after the House Armed Services Committee passed an amendment authorizing $100 million to conduct an environmental survey for missile defense shield silos that the Pentagon did not request.

First: Marriage exists primarily to cement the father to the family. This fact is politically incorrect but undeniable. The breakdown of marriage produces widespread fatherlessness, not motherlessness. As Margaret Mead pointed out long ago—yes, leftist Margaret Mead was correct about this—motherhood is a biological certainty whereas fatherhood is socially constructed. The father is the weakest link in the family bond, and without the institution of marriage he is easily discarded.

The consequences of failing to link men to their offspring are apparent the world over. From our inner cities and Native American reservations to the north of England, the banlieues of Paris, and much of Africa, fatherlessness—not poverty or race—is the leading predictor of virtually every social pathology among the young. Without fathers, adolescents run wild, and society descends into chaos.

The Republican Party has alway been a party with a lot of bravado masking the fears that underline much of our society. This party has always been afraid to negotiate on the world stage preferring to force our nations will upon others, they have always been afraid to accept social change as they feared their power and way of life may be jeopardized, and they have always feared the future through science as it may be at odds with their religious beliefs. With that said, most Republicans of the past would at some point accept that change was inevitable and aqueous to reality. Nixon created the EPA, Reagan did negotiate strategic missile reductions and actually considered proposing all nuclear missle be eliminated, George Wallace in his later life even acknowledged he was wrong on civil rights and worked to rid his party of intolerance.

With the emergence of the Tea Party, the Religious Right of the party has formed an unholy marriage with them to try to consolidate a coalition to take over the Republican Party and so far are succeeding. The real question to be asked is why. The answer is simple, if you look at the root of their agenda, that answer is fear and cowardice.

There is a good reason why the religious right wish to deny science and promote GOD. This is because they are cowards. It is not being religious to hide behind GOD. Instead it is the fear of moving our society forward to where they may become irrlevant. Recent statements by many on the religious right to the effect they believe that the church should have the right to intervene in the state and that education is elitist is like hiding under the sheets. By denying science and using GOD as an excuse they can blame everything on GOD's will without ever having to accept responsibility. They do not want to be responsible for anyone other than themselves and are are afraid to take responsibility for the future let alone facing the future.

The whole premise of the Republican Party went from conservative to reactionary. Republicans need to face up, accept it, the world will not stand still or go backwards and like it or not, becoming innovative and moving forward is the only way to succeed. Republicans, especially the Tea Party wish to rewrite history to fit their needs. They are now denying the old testament, fighting against science, protecting the corporations and their own pockets to assure they can still wield power and influence because their belief systems in the world today can not stand up against reality.

The Republican Party has declared war on courage. The courage of those in our society to fight for the rights of all, believe in religious freedom, wish us to innovate and move forward, understand that we are a global community, and believe that change can be a good thing are all under assault from the Republican Party. My question is are there no longer any Republicans with an ounce of courage to tell the American People what is truly happening. Is there not one Republican willing to denounce the positions that the far right are forcing their party to take. Is there not one Republican who has not sold their soul to the far right? No matter how extreme the statements being made by the far right, not one Republican will come out and just say what we all know that those statements are just plain wrong and do not reflect what we are as a nation. Could just one Republican show a little courage? Guess not because they are all cowards.

When you have T. Boone Pickens calling the Koch Brothers evil, Warren Buffet, Bill Gates and others warning us of the inequalities that the Republicans are pushing, do you not think it is time to sit up and listen? When womens rights are being assaulted in just about every state, do you not think a battle is being waged? When voting ID laws akin to Jim Crow laws are being pressed, do you not think that white males are trying to hold on to power? When Newt Gingrich and others in the Republican Party are saying that the Supreme Court needs to be pistol whipped if they do not like their decisions, do you not think the far right is not trying to take control of our government? When the far right cannot tolerate gays even in the Romney campaign staff, call our President a Muslim, call our democratic colleagues communists, do you not think they are at war with us? When the far right is having our text books re-written eliminating anything that does not match their religious views and adding in Christian beliefs instead of science, do you not believe that this is not the same as burning books like in Nazi Germany to hide the truth? When the GOP is pushing gun rights and the right to carry guns even in our schools, do you not think they are arming themselves for a revolution? When the right declares that corporations are people and are giving tax cuts to the rich while trying to have you pay more, do you not think they are not trying to disarm you in this war? When the right is saying that the states should be deciding our fate, do you not see they are trying to get rid of the Federal Governments ability to control their reactionary agenda? When Republicans like Olympia Snow and others that are being pushed out of the Republican Party because they are considered to moderate, do you not think a purge of any voices of reason within the Republican Party are being systematically eliminated?

Does not all of the above indicate that the GOP is just plain cowards when it comes to facing the future? The Republican Party has declared war on anyone with the courage to stand up for what is right. So to the Republican Party I only have this to say: "Let's Get It On." It is time for you to find a hole to crawl into because America, our America, is ready to burry you in this fight and assure until you can find that one ounce of courage to do the right thing, that you are irrelevant.

T1Truth

Madison - A filmmaker released a video Thursday that shows Gov. Scott Walker saying he would use "divide and conquer" as a strategy against unions.

Walker made the comments to Beloit billionaire Diane Hendricks, who has since given $510,000 to the governor's campaign - making her Walker's single-largest donor and the largest known donor to a candidate in state history.

The filmmaker has done work on Democratic campaigns and gave $100 in 2010 to Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, Walker's challenger in the June 5 recall election.

In the video shot on Jan. 18, 2011 - shortly before Walker's controversial budget-repair bill was introduced and spawned mass protests - Hendricks asked the governor whether he could make Wisconsin a "completely red state, and work on these unions, and become a right-to-work" state. The Republican donor was referring to right-to-work laws, which prohibit private-sector unions from compelling workers to pay union dues if the workers choose not to belong to the union.

Broun argued that the provision unfairly targeted several states and had become "antiquated."

"As Americans, we pride ourselves in our electoral system. But the integrity of our elections is called into question when this outdated law bars states from ensuring that those who come to the polls to vote are eligible to do so," he said.

Broun's remarks were rebuked by a number of other representatives. Even those, like Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), who thought the amendment could be worth discussing, said a late-night appropriations debate was not the appropriate time to do so.

Lewis, who marched with Martin Luther King Jr., took to the floor to denounce Broun's amendment.

Cheney replied:

Well, I think that freedom means freedom for everyone. As many of you know, one of my daughters is gay and it is something that, uh, we have lived with for a long time, in our family. I think people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish. Any kind of arrangement they wish. The question of whether or not there ought to be a federal statute that governs this, I don't support. I do believe that historically the way marriage has been regulated is at the state level. It has always been a state issue, and I think that's the way it ought to be handled today, that is on a state-by-state basis. Different states will make different decisions. But I don't have any problem with that. I think people ought to get a shot at that.

Mitt Romney said Thursday that same-sex couples should be allowed to adopt children, but they should not be married because children should be raised by a mother and a father.

Even before he announced his support for same-sex
marriage, President Obama was badly trailing Republican Mitt Romney
among evangelical Christians, the group most committed to traditional forms of
marriage, according to a new poll about the attitudes of religious voters.

 

Romney led Obama by 68% to 19% among evangelicals
in the poll released Thursday by the Public Religion Research Institute
and the Religion News Service. The nationwide poll was conducted over four days
ending Sunday, well before Obama's remarks about same-sex marriage. (And no
questions were asked on that topic.)

 

The good news for the Obama campaign is that
Romney doesn't have as much support yet among evangelicals as Republican John
McCain did in the 2008 election, when exit
polls showed that he had captured 73% of the evangelical vote. George W.
Bush did even better in 2004, when he claimed 79% of evangelicals.

The problem with allowing your party to be taken over by its fringe elements is that the crazies come crawling out of the woodwork and then you own them. Such was the case of JT Ready, border vigilante and White Supremacist, that just last week committed mass murder and then killed himself. Ready was closely identified with the Arizona Republican Party, which has furiously denied any connections. The GOP in Idaho is currently suffering from a similar image problem as another White Supremacist is running for Sheriff in Bonner County and he’s doing it as a Republican.

This debate demonstrated clearly that many of these people who head and run groups like the Family Research Council are making up things as they go, and basing their beliefs on the Bible and GOD when it is convenient but dismissing both GOD and the Bible when it is inconvenient.

When they think the Bible condones and is in agreement with their views they accept it and use the Bible, and say it is the basis for the positions that they and their organizations support and advocate.

But when the Bible disagrees with the positions that they and their organizations support and advocate like say on polygamy they disregard it just as quickly and then use the traditions and history of mans law.

The phoniness of the argument by Ralph Perkins of the Family Research Council against same sex marriage was brilliantly pointed out and rebutted by Congressman Barney Frank.

During the next part of Chris Matthews Show he had Ted Olsen the brilliant Lawyer on discussing same sex marriage as a constitutional issue and he said believes that at the federal level same sex marriage will one day be allowed in the very same way that interracial marriages were made legal.

Republican Senate candidate Sarah Steelman defended today a Tea Party activist’s call to “kill the Claire Bear” — a reference to Sen. Claire McCaskill (R-MO), whom Steelman is running against. 

State treasurer Richard Mourdock (R) rehashed a favorite GOP talking point — that 47 percent of Americans don’t pay income taxes — at the town hall in Columbus City, Indiana, comparing those 47 percent to the Confederate states that seceded from the Union in an attempt to protect and expand slavery. Referencing Lincoln’s speech, Mourdock said that as long as nearly half of Americans don’t pay taxes, “we are a house divided” that is presumably on the point to another fight, this time between the rich and the poor:

MOURDOCK: What he meant by that was that slavery was either going to be totally eliminated from the United States or it was no longer just going to be restricted to the Southern states, it was going to go everywhere. I am here to suggest to you that we are in a house divided. You know this past April, when our federal taxes were paid, 47 percent — 47 percent — of all American households paid no income tax. In fact, half of that 47 percent almost, actually got tax money back from the government that they never paid -– because a few years ago we revised the welfare program to make it part of the tax code. When 47 percent are paying no income taxes — they do pay Social Security — but they are not paying income taxes, and 53 percent are carrying the load, we are a house divided.

Watch it

For anyone has read any of my previous articles you will know that I fully support the Democratic Party at this point in our history. After yesterdays statement by the President I still support the Democratic Party 100% in this election year although the statement from the President makes absolutely no difference in my opinion. I know that many will take this statement that they finally have a President of the United States affirming that what they believe is extremely important. I also know that many will take this  statement to mean that the President is a heathen and looking to destroy every fabric of the universe. To this, I say what.

The fact of the matter is the President gave a personal opinion. There are approximately 300,000,000 people in the US and approximately 140,000,000 registered voters, each of who have an opinion also. There is not one of these opinions any more important than anyone else. We all form opinions based upon our experiences, education, and beliefs. Not one of these are any more important to the individual than their own.

The Presidents statement does not change a law, it does not change the status of one single individual in the nation, and it is not bringing about the end of the universe. The President has many opinions that have not become law, created new legislation, or became policies that have been enacted. All the President indicated was that we the people should have the right to form our own opinion and manage our state laws accordingly. So forgive me if I do not even find this news worthy.

Now if the President uses his office to legislate new laws, backs specific proposals, or signs an executive order to enforce this point of view I will sit up and take notice. Until then, my opinion is that this is just another citizen telling us what he thinks.

With all of that said, last week we published an article indicating that we at war with the far right of the Republican Party and we stick by that article 100%. There is no doubt that with this statement the religious right will use it for their war propoganda and the war will escalate. Below is the link to the article we posted last week regarding this war and we suggest that if you did not read it before that you take this opportunity to do so, if you did read it, we suggest that you read it once again and keep it mind over the next several months as we move toward the election because that is what is news worthy.

This is War - My Liberal Friends are Pissing Me Off

T1Truth

Fidelity Investments, the gigantic Wall Street mutual fund company, says it will cost a retired couple $20,000 more to buy their medicines if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the Affordable Care Act.

Driven by extremist partisan politics, the Republicans have been working hard to impoverish seniors with crushing medical costs. Will the Court go along? Will the Justices take away the Medicare prescription drug discounts, free preventive care and other savings that allow seniors to take all the medicines they need to stay healthy while making ends meet? There are 48 million Americans counting on Medicare. Will the Republicans and Chief Justice John Roberts pull the rug out from under them?

It's not just seniors who will be hurt. Millions of Americans with private insurance are already benefiting from the consumer protections in Obamacare, and many more will take effect in 2014. But the Republicans don't care. That should probably be the name of their health care plan -- "Don't Care" -- because they've been obsessed with repealing Obamacare without ever offering a serious proposal for a replacement health program. They're treating this like a political game, without bothering to consider the people affected.

Reuters) - President Barack Obama threatened on Wednesday to veto a Republican bill that would partially replace looming automatic budget cuts and protect military spending at the expense of food stamps and other social programs. 

The White House said in a statement that the cuts proposed by Republicans would "cost jobs and hurt middle-class and vulnerable Americans - especially seniors, veterans and children."

 

"The bill's unbalanced provisions fail the test of fairness and shared responsibility," the White House added.

 

The veto threat escalates one of several new budget battles that have broken out this spring in Washington.

The automatic cuts, about $1.2 trillion over 10 years, were set in motion by last summer's debt-limit deal, after a congressional panel failed to specify further deficit-reduction measures. Unless Congress takes action to stop them, the across-the-board cuts are scheduled to hit in January.

In a year that has Democrats playing defense in the Senate, Tuesday night's Republican Senate primary in Indiana has given Democrats an opening they weren't expecting.

Democrats say Indiana Treasurer Richard Mourdock's victory over longtime incumbent Sen. Richard Lugar puts the seat in play -- much in the way Democrats prevailed over Tea Party candidates in 2010, such as Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell. The GOP counters that Mourdock isn't some untested fringe candidate, but a solid conservative with strong ties to the state. On top of that, they argue Democrats simply don't have a chance in a red state when this year's election will primarily be about President Obama.

Had Lugar, a the six-term senator, won the primary, it's widely agreed that he almost surely would have won the general election. But with a conservative like Mourdock on the ballot, Democrats think Rep. Joe Donnelly of Indiana's 2nd district has a shot -- he's a moderate who opposes abortion rights and supports gun rights and who managed to survive the Tea Party's attacks in his 2010 House race. And Democrats are ready for a fight.

As I watch this debate begin to unfold, on one hand you have heterosexual members of the so called faith based community who have hid behind their faith in every war in our long history.

This community is particularly exemplified in my mind by Mitt Romney who through a combination of educational and religious deferments avoided service in a war where many young men both gay and straight lost their lives or were horribly wounded during the course of their service in the jungles of Vietnam.

In that war 58,000 of our best and bravest lost their lives, and thousands more came back crippled and missing limbs. Mitt Romney and others like him who avoided taking the chance of being forced into combat or even serving in the military.

But many of these same men are busy today talking about what they believe concerning what their religion says about what civil rights, that gay or lesbian servicemen and women are entitled to according to their so called Holy Books.

Both the Bible and the Book of Mormon are filled with stories of men fighting and killing lots of Africans in the Bible, and black people called Lamanites in the Book of Mormon.  Yet it seems odd to me that in both of their so called holy books the chosen people are allowed to kill, not only men, but women, children and even babies in their mothers wombs when called to do so by their GOD. 

And all of that killing was done in the name of their so called GOD, a being in fact that none of them have ever seen and whom they basically just choose to believe actually exist.

And yet all of the people of faith accept that they may have to kill at the behest of their GOD. And most would do so without hesitation if they thought that their GOD wanted them to.

But when it comes to risking their own precious bodies to defend this country which they all claim to love, most of them choose not to serve, and they are more than a little willing to allow other men and today even women that might be heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual or lesbian to do what they themselves were or are unwilling to take the risk of doing.

Homosexual, Bisexuals, Lesbians and even Transgendered people are all citizens of the United States and they pay taxes and contribute to the wealth and vitality of the nation as much as any other group of people. Especially when they serve our nation as doctors, nurses, teachers, police, firemen soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines and they are doing it for all of our benefit.

The faith based community on the other hand do what they do not for the United States but primarily for themselves and for the glory and honor of their GOD.

If you ask me and many others, whether we think that the LGBT are entitled to every right any Christian American has?

Yes I do!

And until I hear the faith community especially the so called Christians tell the gay, lesbian, bi sexual, and transgendered people that  because of their sexual preferences that they are exempt from all property taxes, income taxes and military service my view won't change.

And also that the Christians and Mormons and other faith based communities members will pay all the nations bills and stop avoiding and evading military service and voluntarily enlist for every war and risk their lives to defend the country I won't quit.

It is my honest opinion that the LGBT people should have every and I mean every single civil right and all of the privileges including marriage that this nation affords it's other tax paying citizens and uniform wearing citizen soldiers.

Maybe as a member of some faith based community you don't.

But as a veteran of the Armed Forces of the United States and citizen of this nation I do.

There was a time in the history of this country that interracial marriage was considered a sin according to the words written in both the Bible and and the Book of Mormon.

Nothing has changed in those books, it is the world that changed and that is leaving the words in those books behind, and in 2012 church weddings and marriages between blacks and whites take place everyday all across the country.

This afternoon in an interview with Robin Roberts of ABC News, President Obama came out in support of same-sex marriage.

“I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married,” the president said.

But then he was interrupted by the Kraken rising from the deep and swallowing Alaska.

We were warned, after all, that this would happen.

The president went on to say that his change of heart had been brewing for some time, from talking to servicemen and women to dinner table discussions with his daughters Malia and Sasha to Vice President Biden’s recent remarks on “Meet the Press.”

But I could not really hear him over the sound of frogs falling from the sky and all the rivers turning to blood. Darkness covered the earth. Joe Biden was set upon by sea-serpents.

Even Ken Jennings was affected. “MY DAUGHTER IS GAY MARRYING ALL HER KEN DOLLS THEY LOOK AMAZING BUT WHERE WILL THIS END,” he tweeted.

A group of 10 white supremacists allegedly trained for a “race war” near Disney World in Orlando before being arrested by authorities this week, according to published reports.

The arrests came after a confidential informant told authorities that the American Front, a skinhead group, was planning “to kill Jews, immigrants and other minorities,” according to an arrest warrant obtained by The Associated Press.

The group’s training facilities were just 11 miles from Disney World, the document added.

The man who deposed the Republican foreign policy conscience of the Senate is a 60-year-old homebody and former geologist who loves riding motorcycles, running marathons and thumbing through history books in bed. He is best known in political circles for trying — unsuccessfully — to block the auto bailout that saved thousands of jobs in Indiana, the state he seeks to represent in Congress.

Should he prevail in November, Richard Earl Mourdock, who defeated Senator Richard G. Lugar in Indiana’s Republican primary on Tuesday, might also replace Speaker John A. Boehner as the man most likely to cry during a floor speech.

And why ‘that hopey changey stuff’ is the only true antidote to Tea Party cynicism.

Obama is a deeply familiar figure among tea partiers and conservative Christians. He has the energy and charisma of a pastor—but the context is all wrong. He's black....

How much influence has the Tea Party really had in American politics?

The movement scored real successes in the 2010 election, when the GOP won control of the House and narrowed the Democrats’ majority in the Senate. That success bolstered the GOP’s budget-cutting fervor and set up the debt-ceiling showdown last summer. And wins by Tea Party candidates at the state level have helped create the wave of abortion restrictions recently passed by state legislatures.

On the other hand, there have been major disappointments during the past year. Sarah Palin didn’t run for the GOP presidential nomination, and one Tea Party favorite after another ascended in the primary race, then crashed, until Republicans settled for perhaps the least conservative candidate in the race: Mitt Romney.

And electoral successes haven’t guaranteed passage of hardcore conservative legislation, as the Tea Party-approved governor of Florida, Rick Scott, has learned. Scott began his term by nixing federal funds for high-speed rail in the state, and his approval rating dropped to the low 30s. Since then he’s been forced to move slightly toward the center, proposing more funding for education and backing off his campaign promises to pass Arizona-style legislation that targets immigrants.

But the Tea Party’s influence can’t be measured by its legislative and electoral victories alone. Its main “achievement” over the past three years has been to help the Republicans advance their goal of creating total cynicism about our institutions. The religious conservatives who form the core of the movement have theological reasons for decrying government as hopelessly broken. That makes them a perfect match with the modern GOP, whose leaders decry the corruption and overweening power of government as a strategy for gaining power within the corrupt, overweening government.

The classic example is Newt Gingrich. It’s hard to remember now, after his flameout as a presidential candidate, but Gingrich was the most powerful Republican in the nation in the 1990s, and he rose to that position by coordinating a relentless attack on precisely the institutions that he sought to govern.

As Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein wrote recently in the Washington Post, “From the day he entered Congress in 1979, Gingrich had a strategy to create a Republican majority in the House: convincing voters that the institution was so corrupt that anyone would be better than the incumbents, especially those in the Democratic majority.” Ultimately, Gingrich’s strategy “activated an extreme and virulently anti-Washington base … and helped drive moderate Republicans out of Congress.”

What makes this so damaging and dangerous is that cynicism breeds only cynicism, and hopelessness is a self-fulfilling prophecy. So it’s interesting to consider that, at the heart of the biblical narrative that so many of the Tea Party faithful claim to believe, there’s more than sin and corruption. There is also the possibility of redemption and a basis for hope. There is a Messiah.

Liberals often say that the Right’s hatred of Obama is about his race. Conservatives say it’s about his socialist agenda. But there’s something more going on, and it’s captured in the way that the Right has often mocked Obama as “the chosen one,” the Messiah. Dig a little under the surface of that derision and you’ll discover a world of confusion and ambivalence.

Obama is a deeply familiar figure among tea partiers and conservative Christians. He has the energy and charisma of a pastor, and he’s the sort of authority figure many on the far-Right are conditioned to respect. But the context is all wrong. The messenger is a black man. The hope he offers is grounded in the possibility that human institutions can be expressions of the common good.

In truth, they want to respond to this kind of hope-affirming message, because balancing despair with hope is fundamental to their theology. And the redemptive promise doesn’t even have to be otherworldly. Ronald Reagan became a demigod among conservatives by holding out a bright future for the nation while separating America from its actual institutions. He spoke to conservatives’ need to actually believe in something. And he made it possible for them to believe in America’s future while despising its government.

Obviously, no Republican since Reagan has rivaled his rhetorical gifts or his deftness at fusing electoral politics with a quasi-religious vision. George W. Bush seemed to understand the power of Reagan’s rhetoric but didn’t have the skill to pull it off. John McCain had no feel for it at all.

So the source of the Right’s hatred of Obama isn’t just that he’s a black man and a liberal. It’s also that he’s so much better than any Republican at articulating “that hopey changey stuff,” as Sarah Palin once derided it. The mockery of Obama as the Messiah reveals far more about the Tea Party than it does about the president. They long for a Reagan-style message of hope and possibility. What they get is…Mitt Romney.

And who wouldn’t despair at that prospect?

Of course, there’s far less talk of hope and change this election cycle than four years ago, especially since the Obama campaign has formally changed its slogan to “forward.” And yes: It’s hard not to feel disappointed, perhaps even cynical, thinking about the gap between Obama’s rhetoric and his actual record these past three years.

But the Tea Party has only its cynicism, which leaves the field of positive solutions wide open for Democrats and progressives to occupy. It’s important to critique and shine light on the endemic corruption of our institutions, but Obama was onto something important–in fact, radical–with the “hopey changey stuff.”

Going beyond critique and offering an alternative vision–a measure of hope–isn’t just a rebuttal to the Tea Party’s cynicism and a good way to get under that movement’s skin. Ultimately, it’s the only path to reform.

Sam Steelman, the son and deputy campaign manager of Missouri GOP Senate hopeful Sarah Steelman, applauded a Tea Party activist's recent call to "kill the Claire Bear," referring to Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.).

Jesse Lee Peterson, the controversial conservative preacher and regular guest of Sean Hannity, said in a recent video it was a mistake to allow women the right to vote.

In a video uploaded in March but publicized this Monday by Raw Story, Peterson, who runs an organization calling for Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny (BOND), said that allowing women to vote puts the United States "on a pathway to destruction."

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman has a theory about the super-rich: They just want to be loved.

"If you're really, really rich, an additional dollar, an additional hundred million dollars doesn't matter too much for you. But feeling that you are being respected -- it matters a lot," the Princeton professor and New York Times columnist, said in an interview with Reuters on Monday.

In July 2010, Pastor Phelps resigned from his position at Trinity Baptist Church in Concord, New Hampshire, over allegations that he helped cover up repeated instances of sexual abuse committed by an older male parishioner against his step-daughter. The parishioner is currently serving a 15-30 year prison sentence on statutory rape charges.

The girl was impregnated, and then-Pastor Phelps compelled her to publicly apologize in front of the church congregation for the "sin" of her pregnancy. Phelps was accused of providing board for her in a guest room over his garage until the baby could be put up for adoption, according to reporting by ABC.

The Republican Party seems to already be sensing that they will be miserably defeated on Election Day this November. So as a back-up plan, a Republican newsletter in Virginia is openly calling for violently overthrowing the duly elected government of the United States should Democrats still be in charge.

The newsletter, known as “The Constitutional Conservatives” was published in March by the Greene County, Virginia Republican Committee and it included a column titled “Whitehouse Watchdog” written by editor Ponch McPhee. In the column, Mcphee trashed President Obama and said that if the American people fail to elect a Republican government, conservatives should arm themselves and take back the government by force.

“We have before us a challenge to remove an ideologue unlike anything world history has ever witnessed or recognized. An individual who has come to power within a Nation which yields it’s strength over the entire world. An elected leader who shuns biblical praise, handicaps economic ability, disrespects the honor of earned military might. In the coming days and weeks ~ we the people must come to grasp as a common force, our very soul’s, that our future as a sovereign nation is indeed at risk. If every single individual that you know, would contact 25 other individuals ~ we can make a difference that will be heard across the Commonwealth and in Washington. The ultimate task for the people is to remain vigilant and aware ~ that the government, their government is out of control, and this moment, this opportunity, must not be forsaken, must not escape us, for we shall not have any coarse but armed revolution should we fail with the power of the vote in November ~ This Republic cannot survive for 4 more years underneath this political socialist ideologue.”

Pavillion residents didn't hear about the finding before the public announcement, said John Fenton, chairman of Pavillion Area Concerned Citizens.

Fenton said he was unhappy that regulators hadn't kept local residents fully apprised of the latest developments concerning their water supply. Yet he held EPA in higher regard than the state officials he said ignored Pavillion for years, prompting residents to request the EPA investigation.

"Those of us living out here, we don't trust the state," he said.

WASHINGTON — The battle over President Obama's plan to keep interest rates low on federal student loans escalated Tuesday as Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic proposal to tax higher-income individuals to pay for it.

Chaos via fake Democrats and delays in printing ballots; it’s another election in Wisconsin thrown into disarray by Republican tactics. Go, Democracy. Today’s race involved seven recall primary races, including the gubernatorial primaries.

The Republican proposal calls for the East Coast site, which would be the third in the country, to be operational by the beginning of 2016.

Democrats contend the total cost would be $4 billion. Republicans counter that the price tag would be half of that amount.

“This is a political move,” said Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.), who intends to introduce an amendment Wednesday to strip the provision from the defense authorization bill. “Every time the election comes around, the Republicans run out a national security agenda.”

It is unclear where the Obama administration stands on the matter. A White House spokesman declined to comment.

Romney can chip away at Obama’s formidable Hispanic following by focusing on jobs. He can remind voters that instead of drilling down on programs to boost employment early in his term, the president ensnared himself – and the country—in the messy and divisive fight over health care, wasting precious time and gumming up the recovery.

The Senate's longest-serving Republican became the latest casualty of the struggle between the GOP's conservatives and moderates as a tea party-backed challenger beat Indiana Sen. Dick Lugar in Tuesday's primary.
Lugar conceded the race about an hour after the polls closed Tuesday evening, telling supporters that he congratulated State Treasurer Richard Mourdock on "a hard-fought race."
Mourdock will face Democrat Joe Donnelly in November in a contest the nonpartisan Cook Political Report calls safely Republican.
"I want to see a Republican in the White House. I want to see my friend Mitch McConnell have a Republican majority in the Senate," Lugar said. "I hope that Richard Mourdock prevails in November so he can contribute to that Republican majority."
Lugar was first elected in 1976 and had sought a seventh term. But with more than 85,000 votes counted statewide, Mourdock was leading Lugar 64%-36%, state election returns show.
Meanwhile, CNN also projects former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the party's presumptive nominee, will win the Indiana's Republican presidential primary. All but one of Romney's rivals, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, have dropped out of the race.
The 80-year-old Lugar is the former chairman and current ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and is widely regarded as a leading voice on international affairs, particularly on nuclear proliferation. But he drew the ire of the tea party and other conservatives who criticized him as a lukewarm conservative, for voting for the 2008 bank bailout and for supporting President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominees.

Mitt Romney says that he opposed the government bailout of Detroit because the private market would have provided loans so GM and Chrysler could go through managed bankruptcy, but it turns out the firm Romney once led, Bain Capital, turned down the chance to do so. The government's auto task force asked Bain Capitol if it would like to invest in GM's European operations, The New York Times' Jeremy W. Peters reports, but Bain said no thanks. Detroit executives and Obama administration officials say that Romney is wrong: government money was necessary because at the worst of the financial crisis, private companies would not have lent the $80 billion the automakers needed. Based on The Times report, we now know that the government's argument was true in the case of at least one company: the one Romney helped found and shape.

This isn't the first reported connection between Romney's former businesses and the Detroit bailout. In Jaunary, CNBC reported a Bain & Company employee advised the auto task force on closing some dealerships in November 2009. (The company initially denied the report, before admitting it was true.) That is an uncomfortable fact for Romney,

 News has declared Richard Mourdock as the projected winner in the Indiana Senate primary. Mourdock defeated six-term Republican foreign policy elder statesman Sen. Richard Lugar.

Mourdock is backed by conservatives ranging from the National Rifle Association to local Tea Party activists to the Washington-based fiscal conservative group the Club for Growth.

I read an article recently, which compared the origins of the Occupy Wall Street movement to the origins of the Tea Party movement. As someone who has paid attention to both movements,  I believe nothing could be further from the truth. Below are just 15 differences between the Occupy Wall Street protests, and the Tea Party movement.

“Texas has repeatedly ignored or violated directives and orders of this Court that were designed to expedite discovery, and Texas has failed to produce in a timely manner key documents that Defendants need to prepare their defense,” the three judge panel wrote in an order yesterday.

“Most troubling is Texas’ conduct with respect to producing its key state databases, which are central to Defendants’ claim that S.B. 14 has a disparate and retrogressive impact on racial and/or language minority groups,” the panel wrote.

He was really awkward,” Otterbein University student Carissa Reed said of her experience sitting on stage with the former Massachusetts governor two weeks ago. “You could tell he was out of his element. … I was just, like, 'Should I clap?’ None of us knew what to do.”

Reed was witness to what may have been Romney’s most awkward speech of the year, with the least crowd response. During much of the 40-minute Otterbein address, students from various universities, who were on stage with the candidate, openly yawned, looked at their watches, sent texts or e-mails and in at least one case, appeared to fall asleep.

Jihad is a term meaning: "A religious war with those who are unbelievers of your faith to advance the agenda of your religion. Last week we published and article outlining our case that the Right Wing of the Republican Party had declared war on the rest of the nation. (This is War - My Liberal Friends Are Pissing Me Off) If you read that article or not, we thought we would provide some statements from the far right to back up our assertion that the far right has declared an all out war or Jihad on the rest of America.

The quotes below are just a small sampling of thousands of quotes available from the right wing. I would dare anyone to read these and other quotes and come to any other conclusion than the far right has declared all out war for this coming election year.

Gary North of the Institute for Christian Economics

"The long-term goal of Christians in politics should be to gain exclusive control over the franchise. Those who refuse to submit publicly to the eternal sanctions of God by submitting to His Church's public marks of the covenant--baptism and holy communion--must be denied citizenship, just as they were in ancient Israel."

"This is God's world, not Satan's. Christians are the lawful heirs, not non-Christians."

"So let us be blunt about it: We must use the doctrine of religious liberty to gain independence for Christian schools until we train up a
generation of people who know that there is no religious neutrality, no neutral law, no neutral education, and no neutral civil government. Then they will be get busy in constructing a Bible-based social, political and religious order which finally denies the religious liberty of the enemies of God."

Gary Potter of Catholics for Christian Political Action

"When the Christian majority takes over this country, there will be no atanic churches, no more free distribution of pornography, no
more talk of rights for homosexuals. After the Christian majority takes control pluralism will be seen as immoral and evil and the state will not permit anybody the right to practice evil."

Pat Robertson (Founder of The Christian Coalition)

”Just like what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, so liberal America is now doing to the evangelical Christians. It's no different. It is the same
thing. It is happening all over again. It is the Democratic Congress, the liberal-based media and the homosexuals who want to destroy the Christians.

Wholesale abuse and discrimination and the worst bigotry directed toward any group in America today. More terrible than anything suffered by any minority in history."

"The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians."

"There is no such thing as separation of church and state in the Constitution. It is a lie of the Left and we are not going to take it anymore."

Rick Santorum

It all comes from, I would argue, this right to privacy that doesn't exist in my opinion in the United States Constitution, this right that was created, it was created in Griswold — Griswold was the contraceptive case — and abortion and now we're just extending it out."

Anne Coulter (Conservative Author)

"We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war."

"My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building"

Robert T. Lee (Society for the Practical Establishment of the Ten Commandments)

"There should be absolutely no 'Separation of Church and State' in America."

AMERICA'S CONSTITUTION PRODUCES HOMOSEXUALITY!"

David Barton of Wallbuilders

"There should be absolutely no 'Separation of Church and State' in America."

Gary Bauer (President of American Values)

"We are engaged in a social, political, and cultural war. There's a lot of talk in America about pluralism. But the bottom line is somebody's values will prevail. And the winner gets the right to teach our children what to believe."

Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin

“George Bush was not elected by a majority of the voters in the United States, he was appointed by God.”

Rev. Jerry Falwell

"We're fighting against humanism, we're fighting against liberalism...we are fighting against all the systems of Satan that are destroying our nation today...our battle is with Satan himself."

Dr. D. James Kennedy (Founder of The Center for Reclaiming America)

"Democracy originated in the mind of a rational being who has the deepest hatred for God."

"The Christian community has a golden opportunity to train an army of dedicated teachers who can invade the public school classrooms and use them to influence the nation for Christ."

"The best way to insure the earth is never over populated is for sensible and righteous governments to clear all forms of atheism and heresy."

"Raising your children under Americanism or any other principles other than true Christianity is child abuse."

Joseph McCarthy

"Today we are engaged in a final, all-out battle between Communistic Atheism and Christianity."

Henry Morris of the Institute
for Creation Research”

“The only Bible-honoring conclusion is, of course, that Genesis
1-11 is the actual historical truth, regardless of any scientific or
chronologic problems thereby entailed."

Kay O'Connor (State Senator, R-Kansas)

"I'm an old-fashioned woman. Men should take care of women, and if men were taking care of women today, we wouldn't have to vote."y O'Connor (State Senator, R-Kansas)

Star Parker of the Coalition on Urban Renewal & Education

"Anybody that believes in separation of church and state needs to leave right now."

Now do you believe this is War?

T1Truth

Like I said, I'm still not sure what Romney really thought at the time. Who ever will be? But this much I do know: The political difficulty of the auto bailout wasn't getting tough with Detroit. It was putting up taxpayer dollars, without which a normal bankruptcy restructuring would likely have been impossible. If Romney wants to disown that part of the package, then he has to disown the whole thing.

Romney can tell Republican voters what they want to hear or he can take credit for the bailout's economic benefits. He can't do both -- although, as we're seeing, he's trying.

This gay marriage issue has totally gotten out of control, either men and women that engage in homosexual and bisexual sex have constitutionally guaranteed rights as American citizens or they don't.

The only people that I know of other than LGBT people that have ever been treated as if they are no longer human were the Native American Indian Tribes, and the African Slaves and their black descendants here in America.

Whether it is called "Gay Marriage" or "Civil Unions" it really doesn't matter because any two adults,  any grown people over the age of consent have the right to marry each other in "Matrimony" whether it is considered "Holy" or not.

The personal religious beliefs of any one single sect, club, cult, group, or organization can not be arbitrarily enforced upon every American citizen.

In the United States of America we do not have a official state sponsored and supported religion for a purpose and for a good reason.

And I for one have gotten thoroughly disgusted with those that seek to make Right Wing Evangelical Christianity the un sponsored but Un Official National Religion of the United States.

The Republican Party has been attempting to use peoples religious beliefs to win elections in our country for the last 32 years, and it has brought about what I consider to be a unholy alliance between conservative politics and religious dogma and theology.

As I look around today I notice that Islam is the fasted growing religion in America, it is growing faster and gaining more adherents and practitioners, a awful lot faster than either Christianity or Mormonism, and I honestly know that most freedom loving Americans especially American women are not looking forward to the day when the Islamic faith seeks to gain through our political process the right too force their way of life and religious beliefs upon the rest of the country and to make our constitution subordinate to Sharia Law as the Christians are obviously doing with their Bible.

I don't pray every day to any GOD and if one day the Muslims become the largest voting bloc in America I do not look forward to being made to pray to their GOD or any other GOD 5 times a day. Nor do I want to give up my right to cook or buy barbecued spare ribs. I also do not want my wife and daughters to be forced to hide hide their face and cover their entire body either.

The Christian religion has problems, the Islamic religion has problems, and Mormonism and every other religion has issues and problems.

Let those people that believe in any GOD believe in that GOD , and let them live how they want to, let them serve their GOD any way they want to, but do not let how they think, and what they feel be more important to how any other person that believes or doesn't believe in their GOD or any other GOD choose to live their lives.

Dear Editor:

As far as Mitt piece in yesterday’s Detroit News it was truly reckless, detached from reality, and dishonest. I also think it’s very bad politics, especially in Michigan.

It was Bush that stepped in with the “Bailout” of GM & Chrysler in the fall of ’08, not Obama. So that is just dishonest and W just said it at NADA; “he would do it again.” That circumstance trumped philosophy and he prevented a depression and 20% unemployment.

Secondly, Mitt’s assertion that private financing “DIP” was available in fall of ’08 into ’09 is fantasy. Everyone knows we were in the midst of the greatest financial meltdown since the 1930’s.

Finally, Obama’s Auto Taskforce did do a good job killing all the sacred cows. There was dramatic pain for all.

What more can I say, it is very disappointing.

Mike Jackson

Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, a Fox News contributor, tea party activist and personal friend of Sean Hannity’s said in a sermon recently published to YouTube that America’s greatest mistake was allowing women the right to vote, adding that back in “the good old days, men knew that women are crazy and they knew how to deal with them.”

In the video, published to YouTube in March, Peterson explains that he believes women simply can’t handle “anything,” and that in his experience, “You walk up to them with a issue, they freak out right away. They go nuts. They get mad. They get upset, just like that. They have no patience because it’s not in their nature. They don’t have love. They don’t have love.”

 

Nobody at the campaign wanted to lose Grenell. In fact, he was repeatedly urged to stay. The campaign only wanted a discreet interval for the fuss to blow over.

The trouble was that Grenell got the job in the first place because he is a fighter. When the campaign wouldn't fight for him, he decided he wouldn't fight for it. He resigned. The hiring of Grenell interested only political insiders. His departure detonated one of Romney's worst news weeks.

Mitt Romney has actually been running for President for almost 7 years, which in fact is twice as long as President Obama has actually been President.

He has personally spent nearly at least $45,000,000 of his own money in 2008 during his first run and perhaps as much as $200,000,000 in total between his first and this his second attempt to get elected as President of the United States.

This is information readily available anywhere on the web:

"Midway through his term, Romney decided that he wanted to stage a full-time run for president,^[164] and on December 14, 2005, announced that he would not seek re-election for a second term as governor.^[165][166] As chair of the Republican Governors Association, Romney traveled around the country, meeting prominent Republicans and building a national political network;^[164] he spent part or all of more than 200 days out of state during 2006, preparing for his run.^[167] Romney's frequent out-of-state travel contributed towards his approval rating declining in public polls towards the end of his term.^[168] The weak condition of the Republican state party was one of several factors that led to Democrat Deval Patrick's lopsided win over Republican Kerry Healey in the 2006 Massachusetts gubernatorial election.^[168]

Romney filed to register a presidential campaign committee with the Federal Election Commission on his penultimate day in office as governor.^[169] Romney's term ended January 4, 2007.?

Wikipedia

http://www.biography.com/people/mitt-romney-241055

Anyone that has been following closely the Republican Pimary can tell you that Mitt Romney changes his mind as routinely as the weather, especially on matters of great significance and importance to the nation beginning with the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Illegal Immigration, the way the economy is doing, DADT, Employment Discrimination against LGTB people, even the need to track down and kill Osama Bin Laden.

In my mind one of these men President Obama is very consistent in his actions and policies and on the other hand man the other man Mitt Romney is not.

The last thing America needs is a President that is indecisive, that lacks real character, doesn't possess the strength of his own convictions and one that obviously can't make up his mind about what he believes in, stands for or will defend.

Rep. Bobby Schilling (R-IL) was one of those Representatives elected during the Tea Party wave of 2010. But a profile in this weekend’s New York Times shows that faltering Tea Party support poses a big challenge to his re-election.

North Carolina is apparently ground zero of the latest resurgence of the birther movement, as a number of Republican candidates in the state are expressing doubts about President Obama’s birthplace.

Fully one-fourth of the House GOP spending cuts come from programs directly benefiting the poor, such as Medicaid, food stamps, the Social Services Block Grant, and a child tax credit claimed by working immigrants. Federal workers would have to contribute an additional 5 percent of their salaries toward their pensions, while people whose incomes rise after receiving coverage subsidies under the new health care law would lose some or all of their benefits.

The budget-cutting drive is designed to head off a looming 10 percent, $55-billion budget cut set to strike the Pentagon on Jan. 1 because of the failure of last year's deficit "supercommittee" to strike a deal. The Obama administration and lawmakers in both parties warn the reductions would harm readiness and weapons procurement, and reduce troop levels.

WASHINGTON -- Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, the political ad-buying organization cofounded by Republican strategist Karl Rove in 2010, has officially submitted its first tax forms with the Internal Revenue Service, and as expected, the group is formally requesting that the IRS treat it as a nonprofit operating under section 501(c)(4) of the tax code.

As a political observer and participant over the last thirty years I have come to the conclusion that there are four types of Republicans. This view has been developed over the years from countless observations and years of studying the psychology of people. (From those in public life, family, and those that have worked for me.) I am sure many will disagree with this assessment and challenge those that do to give us a better explanation. Why is it important to understand these four groups? Because as you view this political campaign, read articles, listen to interviews, and see how this campaign plays out, we think that you will see all points of view from Republican Party will fall into one of these categories. Understanding your opponents motivations will also help expose their weaknesses.

1) Rich Republicans: I think this is the most understandable group. This group has already either inherited a fortune or made a fortune and wish to protect it. An economist I once knew told me many years ago that once you have money it is hard to loose it under our system. His argument was that the tax laws including potential deductions were set up to protect money that has already been earned or inherited to the point that even if you tried to give it away or lost money that you could in many cases just deduct it. He indicated the system was so biased that once wealth was achieved you had to work hard or just be plain stupid to loose it. This group has greed at their core and believe that the more they make the better off the country is because they have shown by making their fortune that they are the most fit in our society to have it. This group supports those that support them and use their power and influence to perpetuate and increase power and influence.

2) Duped Republicans: This group are those that have been sold a bill of goods from the rich Republicans and believe it. This group believes that they need to be self-sufficient. Not that it is a bad trait in anyone, however they do not understand that the game is rigged against them. This is the group that has a frontier spirit. Again, this is not a bad trait but they have been lead to believe there is still a frontier when in fact they are locked into a compound surrounded by the fences the rich have erected. They do not realize they are on fenced in range and will never get a pass out of that pasture. The rich Republicans have duped them by telling them if they just work hard they too can become rich when in fact they may just as well play the lotto. The rich Republicans tell them that democrats are socialists and trying to take away their rights when in fact if they could understand the big picture they would realize it is just the rich preying on their desires to be like their grandparents, and those opportunities do not exist anymore. This is the group that hold up signs at Tea Party rally saying: "Keep the Government Out of My Medicare". This group is just oblivious to the truth and cannot understand they are being preyed upon.

3) Intolerant Republicans: This is the group of Republicans that believe their religion allows them to tell everyone else how to live. They believe that God selected them to dictate to the rest of the nation how they should believe, how they should live, what is acceptable, what the truth they need to accept is, can ignore science to fit their beliefs, and believe that God will guide them through every decision so they can never be wrong. This group also includes the racists, fearful, and those that believe in manifest destiny. This part of this group have no tolerance for anyone they feel do not meet their litmus test for being an American. They fear a future that will leave them behind where they will not be allowed to keep their views without being persecuted, so they would rather persecute others. This part of the group would do anything to keep their way of life as having to accept anything new terrifies them. They are so afraid of losing the rights that they think they have they are willing to be abused by the rich rather than give up their ability to live in denial.

4) The Want To Be Republicans: The want to be Republicans are those that really think they are going somewhere and will one day have their piece of the pie. This group normally starts out with great aspirations and believe their hard work will be rewarded and that they will have a vacation home, live in an upscale community, and have all the toys they ever dreamed of. Most of these are younger members of the party, work hard to get their candidates elected, work hard to excel in their place of work, use their purchasing power to the maximum, rack up more debt than they can handle while trying to emulate their hero's in the party, and later in life actually figure out the system was rigged against them to begin with. Once they have a tremendous amount of debt, find that paying for their kids college and other expenses of life are becoming unmanageable, they finally switch allegiance to the Democratic Party.

We could break each of these four groups into several other smaller groups although we believe these four are sufficient. Groups one and three will always be Republican. Groups two and three are the ones that most independents that would vote Republican will fall into. These are the groups that need to be targeted in the upcoming election in order to make sure as few independents as possible will vote Republican.

Read more about the war that the Republican Party has declared for this election here:

http://ttruth3829683.newsvine.com/_news/2012/05/03/11510204-this-is-war-my-liberal-friends-are-pissing-me-off

R = Reactionary (opposed to progressive social or political change)

E = Evangelical (enthusiastic or zealous in support of a particular cause and very eager to make other people share its beliefs or ideals)

P = Pious (characterized by a hypocritical concern with virtue or religious devotion; sanctimonious.)

U = Unyielding (not giving in to persuasion, pressure, or force)

B = Brazen (expressing boldness and a complete lack of shame)

L = Listless (lacking energy, interest or the willingness to make an effort)

I= Ideologists (a person advocating a particular ideology)

C = Chauvinistic (militant devotion to and glorification of one's country; fanatical patriotism)

A = Angry (feeling or showing anger or strong resentment)

N= Narcissists (a person who is overly self-involved, and often vain and selfish)

T1Truth

WASHINGTON: "For the past decade, there has been a conservative crusade to:
a) deny Bill Clinton's policies any credit for the historic prosperity the nation enjoyed during his presidency, or
b) deny that those good old Clinton days were really that good at all.

First, when Clinton won the White House, the federal budget deficit was at a historic high of $290 billion, 10 million Americans were out of work and the nation's economic growth rate under the outgoing Republican administration was the lowest in more than half a century. Clinton introduced his controversial economic plan that raised the income taxes of the richest 1.4 percent of Americans. We immediately heard from the Gloom and Doom congressional Republicans, every one of whom voted against the Clinton plan. Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, announced, "This tax bill is a one-way ticket to a recession." House Republican Whip Newt Gingrich predicted, "This is the Democrat machine's recession, and each one of them will be held personally accountable."
What followed is unarguable: creation of more than 22 million new jobs; the nation's lowest unemployment rate in 30 years; the lowest unemployment rate among women in 40 years; and the lowest Hispanic and African-American unemployment rate in history. The nation went from the largest budget deficits in history to the largest budget surpluses in history, while the average family's income went up more than $5,000.
Faced with a recession that never appeared, Republicans went from assigning blame to denying the improving economic situation.

Executive Summary – There are now 10 states in the USA that are insolvent and expected to file for bankruptcy in the fairly immediate future (2010).

Which 10 States – California, Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin. These 10 states account for over one third of the USA population and this is significant. Think of it is more then 33% of the USA going bankrupt.

Other States on the Endangered Species List - Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, New York and Hawaii. These states are in bad shape and can easily get pushed over into bankruptcy.

Which States are Financially Solvent – Only two. Montana and North Dakota, which actually has a $1.3 billion dollar surplus.

Why They Are So Bad Off Financially – High Foreclosure rates, high unemployment, budget deficits, political and legal blocks to having a balanced budget, poor money management.

What could put so much fear into the republican party that it allowed the Religious Right and the Tea Party to take over the party? It all comes down to the fear of change. Once the Democratic Party won the last presidential election with a Black Candidate running on a message of "Change" the fear from the right wing of the party was so intense they only had two choices. "Fight or Flight"

This fear has made rewriting history acceptable, out right lies to become common place, ignoring the needs of the American people to block the presidents agenda justifiable, trying to exclude our citizens from voting by denying their right to vote and imperative, trying to dissolve long ago won rights of women acceptable, ignoring science in the class room and trying to replace it with religious teachings a priority, and renewing hatred and bigotry essential.

The Republican party has sold their soul (so to say) to the extreme elements of their party that now uses their new found blackmail capabilities as tool to implement a litmus test within their party. The money that these groups have poured into this party and their ability to hold the nation hostage to advance their agenda took the party by surprise, but like any cancerous growth without a cure it will just continue to grow.

This portion of the party decided upon election day 2008 that they were ready to fight, as choosing flight would mean they would have to give up some of their prejudices, greed, and long standing special interests that they were not ready to do. It is now all out war. Democrats must understand this war and acknowledge that the Republican Party is in a life and death fight for holding onto these old beliefs. The far right of the Republican Party so fear the future where they will be acknowledged as the dinosaurs that they are, they have no choice but to fight.

The fight or flight response is the most basic of mankind's instincts and this election shows it in glaring clarity. The Republican Party is trying to re-establish what they feel they have lost and move our nation backwards to a time where they felt comfortable. To them it is trying to reclaim their perception of the Norman Rockwell America. Well Norman is dead and their party will soon follow if they stay this course. America will move forward with or without them as it has always done.

The president, as much as possible, has tried to warn you about what is in the wind. He tells you we must move forward, that this is a turning point in American history, and that our ability to remain a nation of hope are at stake. Are you really listening to what he is saying and do you believe him? He knows this is a war for our nation to continue to lead the world, he knows this a war to be a compassionate people, he knows this is war for fairness and equality, he knows this is war for us not to be owned by special interests and religious fanatics.

This is a war of two stark potential futures for our country and we hope that everyone realizes that and will make the decision to give our nation the chance to move forward as has always been when we were at our best.

To understand more about this war we invite you to read this article if you have not already done so:

http://ttruth3829683.newsvine.com/_news/2012/05/03/11510204-this-is-war-my-liberal-friends-are-pissing-me-off

T1Truth

The Republican Party cheered and celebrated the Mission Accomplished announcement and met the announcement of the Death of Osama Bin Laden with ridicule and scorn.

Whether the criticism of Republicans are on matters of war or growth in our domestic economy.

The Republicans are always trying to redefine the way things are analyzed and reported and they are constantly moving the goal post for this President.

According to the Republican Party back when President Bush was the President a ordinary single was considered a home run, and under these same Republicans a home run is considered a foul ball under President Obama.

I am just happy that most of America can see through the phoniness of the Republican Party when it comes to analyzing the results of President Obama.

Vice President Joe Biden said Sunday morning that American national security wouldn’t be as strong if
Republican Mitt Romney were president, based on his recent assertion that Russia is the country’s “No.
1 geopolitical foe.”

“If that’s his prism through which he views our national security interests, I would say it would not be as strong,” Biden told David Gregory on “Meet the
Press.”

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R) said Sunday that the tea party movement would probably not be as influential in 2012 as it was in 2010.

Although he believes the tea party will still be important in a number of elections, he conceded to CNN’s Candy Crowley that they “don’t have the the passion they had in 2010.”

A little over a week ago, Paul Ryan had to disavow his heroine, Ayn Rand, after his church—the Catholic Church—came down on him for espousing her philosophy. The truth is that Ayn Rand is the darling of the Republican Party and Ryan’s budget is based upon principles she has championed.

The Republicans are always busy trying to come up with real stupid "Crazy Eddie Solutions" to solve the problems in the America economy.

They never seem to understand that "Tax Cuts" especially for the wealthy and the rich, simply makes it harder for our government to pay the governments bills or rebuild the nations infratructure.

I have never seen any American Company or Corporations pay for or build a interstate highway or pay our soldiers salaries or pay for the weapons, bullets,uniforms, tanks, planes, battleships, drones or planes,or jets. or especially support and pay for the cost of our wars.

As a nation we need to quit listening to the pie in the sky rhetoric of the Republicans and choose once and for all whether we are going to be a great nation or a land of has beens.

The Republican Governors at the state level are undermining job growth by laying off our teacher, firemen,and police which make us poorer and less safe. And those public sector layoffs are the singles greatest factor that is holding down the nations jobs creation numbers.

Ask yourselves one question and that is since 2008 how many teachers, firemen and police officers have been laid off across America by Republican Governors the actual number will scare you, especially when you realize that in most cases like the State of Wisconsin that the layoffs were made in mainly line with stated Republican Party political objectives such as to financially weaken the power of employee unions.

Here is a recent excerpt from a recent article from The Nation on this very subject:

"Pennsylvania isn’t alone. Republicans seized control of both branches of the legislature in 11 states after the 2010 elections. It’s in these very states that public sector layoffs are disproportionately concentrated, leading to one of the biggest rounds of job losses for the public workforce since record keeping began. Governors and state legislators promised to focus on creating jobs and balancing budgets during campaign season—even newly elected Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett still claims that creating jobs is one of his “top priorities.” Instead, these newly Republican states are targeting public workers, causing a significant drop in employment in the public sector that has threatened the entire economy."

The entire article can be found at http://www.thenation.com/article/167050/red-states-see-massive-public-sector-job-losses

I believe that the Republicans have been doing this in a concerted effort to undermine this President and lower his chance of re election. You can look at the economies of two different states Illinois that raised taxes and Wisconsin that cut taxes and see what those policy differences have done for each state and what is going on with each states economy.

Personally I suspect that if the United States were to collapse financially, that just like vultures, the rich would leave this country that they all say that they love and go to Switzerland or some other country.

Then patiently wait for the chaos to end in America and then come back and prey upon the carcass of the remains of our once great and proud nation.

Batten down the hatches, the neocons are coming...again. Mitt Romney already has his national security team lined up. No big surprises in it -- it reads like a re-air of the Bush Administration, and Sean Hannity is in his element.

Here are the people Sean Hannity calls "the best, brightest military minds, heroes" that he has ever had the opportunity to meet. Evidently he doesn't get out much. Sean's list includes Oliver North (convicted felon), Gen. Thomas McInerney (birther), KT McFarland (Reagan PR hack), Rep. Jason Chaffetz, Republican tea party water carrier, and more.

Hannity's purpose in convening this tribunal was to try the president for the crime of "spiking the football." Well, that and also to foment some sympathies for a war with Iran, and also pimp some participants' books, and also to further justify torture. It truly was a shameless display from a shameless partisan who feels not even a pang of compunction at stirring up support for more senseless death and destruction in the world.

Six anti-tank grenades designed to be fired from a launcher were discovered on Wednesday at the scene of a horrific Arizona mass murder-suicide, which authorities said was carried out by well known white supremacist JT Ready.

Ready was a longtime neo-Nazi and border vigilante who authorities said walked into a house in a suburb east of Phoenix on Wednesday and killed four people, including his girlfriend and a 15-month-old baby, before turning the gun on himself.

Just wondering: Is there any blogger out there more brazenly dishonest than Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit?I know we have plenty of Malkins and Instahacks and nutbar Pammies to go around on the wingnutosphere. But it's hard to think of any blogger who more openly and remorselessly attempts to tell his readers that up is down, black is white, and that no, he doesn't have his head up his ass while speaking through his belly button.