When Roger West first launched the progressive political blog "News From The Other Side" in May 2010, he could hardly have predicted the impact that his venture would have on the media and political debate. As the New Media emerged as a counterbalance to established media sources, Roger wrote his copious blogs about national politics, the tea party movement, mid-term elections, and the failings of the radical right to the vanguard of the New Media movement. Roger West's efforts as a leading blogger have tremendous reach. NFTOS has led the effort to bring accountability to mainstream media sources such as FOX NEWS, Breitbart's "Big Journalism.
Roger's breadth of experience, engaging style, and cultivation of loyal readership - over 92 million visitors - give him unique insight into the past, present, and future of the New Media and political rhetoric that exists in our society today.
What we are against:
Radical Right Wing Agendas
Incompetent Establishment
Donald J. Trump
Corporate Malfeasence
We are for:
Global and Econmoic Security
Social and Economic Justice
Media Accountability
THE RESISTANCE
THE AMERICAN TALIBAN FAILS TO READ ITS OWN AUTOPSY
The Republican National Committee had what seemed like easy advice for the rest of the GOP after the 2012 election: Stop inflaming racism and expand the voter base beyond male, white America. After a disastrous few months since the RNC autopsy report, they tried again Thursday, with an event celebrating the “rising stars” of the Guns Over People.
But Teahadist leaders worry its already too late, as Politico reported on Friday, “influential GOPers told us the party is actually in a worse place than it was Nov. 7, the day after the disastrous election.” The American Taliban has repeatedly gotten in their own way of appealing to Hispanic, black, Asian, and gay Americans. Here are just a few examples:
1. Voted to deport DREAMers: With DREAMers standing in the room and booing, 221 House Republicans voted to defund the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which would effectively resume deportations. Meanwhile, comprehensive immigration reform has come to a grinding halt in the House, which has split on whether to include a path to citizenship.
2. Suppressed minority votes: Immediately after the Supreme Court struck down part of the Voting Rights Act, Texas moved to enact a voter ID law and North Carolina rolled out a series of voter suppression bills. Texas has now joined a case to permanently undo Voting Rights Act protections. It doesn’t help matters that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia called the Voting Rights Act a perpetuation of “racial entitlement.”
3. Dismissive and racist language: Republicans haven’t figured out a way to keep Rep. Steve King (R-IA) quiet, since the congressman refuses to apologize for calling immigrants drug mules. But it’s not just Steve King. In private King insists his colleagues agree with him, while Rep. Don Young (R-AK) used the word “wetbacks” to describe Hispanics. Meanwhile, Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) has made a case against multiculturalism, saying, “there’s only one race here, it’s the American race.”
4. Boycotting Spanish-language TV: Due to its invented controversy involving networks broadcasting Hillary Clinton documentaries, the RNC said it will boycott Spanish-language networks Telemundo and CNN Espanol for 2016 debates, too.
5. Insensitivity on Trayvon Martin: Texas Governor Rick Perry reacted to George Zimmerman’s not guilty verdict for the death of a black teen by insisting the justice system is “color blind.” Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) told African-Americans to “get over it.” King blamed Obama for Zimmerman even having to stand trial for Martin’s death. And Florida Governor Rick Scott has refused to even open debate on the state’s controversial Stand Your Ground law.
6. Tea Party condescendingly talks race: Even as he attempted to broaden the Republican party’s appeal to black voters, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) condescendingly discussed the history of civil rights and discrimination during his April speech at Howard University. Paul, who once admitted he opposes the Civil Rights Act of 1964, recently explained he doesn’t “think there is any particular evidence” of black voters being prevented from voting.
7. Relied on racist author’s Heritage study to fight immigration reform That former Heritage author Jason Richwine earned his Ph.D for a racist dissertation linking race and IQ has not stopped Republicans from heralding Heritage’s discredited findings on immigration.
8. Pursued rabidly anti-LGBT agenda: Gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli has stood by his position of viewing LGBT people as “soulless” and “self-destructive.” The RNC also unanimously passed anti-LGBT resolutions without any debate in April. Neither shows Republicans are serious about showing LGBT Americans “we care about them too,” like the RNC stated.
9. Ignored uninsured voters: Latinos have among the lowest rates of health coverage in the U.S., and also back Obamacare 2 to 1. The GOP has ignored this issue, and haven’t offered any alternatives for the uninsured, even as many of them threaten to shut down the government to block Obamacare.
10. Still arguing for self-deportation: Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, invited by Republicans to testify on immigration, is still arguing for self-deportation. Even RNC chairman Reince Priebus slammed this approach as“horrific.”
TEAHADIST LEADER REINCE PRIEBUS "SUMMER SESSION" BAN OF CNN AND NBC
You're WTF moment of the week.: Republicans Bar CNN, NBC From 2016 GOP Primary Debates
That awkward moment when the world sees you as complete dumbass.
The American Taliban/Teahadists/Talibangelicals/Guns Over People are meeting this week to discuss their hate for everything non-pasty white. One of the topics of discussion CNN is doing a documentary on Hillary Clinton and NBC is doing a mini-series on her as well...... until yesterday it was all talk, but Friday they cranked up stupid, today they voted to not allow CNN nor NBC to host any GOP debates.
HEADLINES READ: "The Republican National Committee has approved a resolution to block two television networks from hosting GOP presidential primary debates."
Friday's vote affirms RNC chairman Reince Priebus's (ryns PREE'-bus) threat against CNN and NBC unless the networks drop plans to air programs about possible Democratic presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton. The vote at the committee's summer meeting in Boston was unanimous.
Priebus said that the networks have, quote, "an obvious bias."
Even before the Clinton dispute, Republican leaders favored plans to have fewer presidential debates with more friendly moderators. They believe their 2012 presidential candidates spent too much time beating up each other in last year's months-long primary season, which contributed to Mitt Romney's loss.
Who loses in this instance!? Certainly this is a win-win for the entire country! Less people to see them, the less votes they get, means no white house for them.
They know they can't stop the Hillary machine, so I'll take my ball and run! At least when Michael Steele ran the RNC they made some simile of sense, now the idiots take stupid to its highest level!
I sit back dumbfounded at the statements made, actions conducted by these knuckle dragging Neanderthals! Things that send the blathering blighted NECONS into a frenzy are too numerous to mention in this blog. How's that old saying go? Oh yeah, "don't go away mad, just go away"!
The GOP brand is about dead, whether they see it or not. Pretty soon they will be the black during the civil war and the black in the 1960's, like the unwanted Mexican today, like the LBGT just a few short years ago, like the female today who wants control and say over her own person........Hated, shunned, mocked, alienate, segregated, and hopefully disenfranchised from the Union that is these Untied States!
The only difference between the dinosaurs watching the meteor head towards them and the GOP....... is that the dinosaurs knew they were going to be extinct!
Great move asshats, ban yourselves from all TV, that makes the most sense to me!
Well over half of the states in the country are directly funding “crisis pregnancy centers” (CPCs), right-wing groups that pose as nonpartisan health clinics while advocating for an anti-abortion agenda. According to NARAL Pro-Choice America, 34 states currently have policies that funnel money toward CPCs:
Aside from designating family planning funds for CPCs, states can endorse them in a few other ways that sometimes slip under the radar. Some states have unnecessary restrictions on abortion that require women to undergo a mandatory counseling session or ultrasound procedure before being allowed to terminate a pregnancy, and choose to direct women to CPCs to fulfill those requirements. Or states can sell specialty license plates with pro-life messages, the proceeds of which directly fund CPCs.
For example, a recent NARAL investigation found that Virginia’s Department of Health currently refers low-income women to a list of 18 CPCs where they can receive a free ultrasound before getting an abortion. But when women visit those centers, they encounter misinformation about the abortion procedure — typically, false information about abortion’s link to breast cancer and depression. The staff at Virginia’s CPCs was also documented employing emotional manipulation, like writing “Hi, Dad” on the image of an ultrasound before handing it back to a patient. In extreme cases, CPC employees have even refused to turn over the ultrasound results to women who needed to bring them to an abortion clinic.
CPCs advertise themselves as viable alternatives to other women’s health clinics, even though they don’t tend to employ medical professionals and don’t offer the full range of reproductive health services. Multiple outside investigations have caught CPCs’ lies on tape. Women who visit the right-wing “clinics” are frequently told that emergency contraception is the same thing as an abortion, birth control contains carcinogens, condoms aren't effective at preventing STDs, abortion is extremely dangerous, and women always regret ending a pregnancy.
Those type of emotionally manipulative tactics designed to convince women not to have an abortion typically increase their negative emotions about the experience, but don’t ultimately lead them to change their mind or regret their decision. Ninety percent of women have made up their minds about having an abortion before visiting a doctor or a clinic.
Forcing women to have babies, even in the event of rape, then refusing health care to poor women, increasing the chance of high risk pregnancies/birth defects, refusing health care to children, refusing to feed them, refusing to educate them -- there is something very, very wrong with this so-called pro-life concept that the Teahadists are ramming through state legislatures!.
When Rosa Nell Eaton was 21 years old and living in segregated North Carolina, she became one of the first African Americans in her county registered to vote, after successfully completing a literacy test that required her to recite the preamble to the Constitution. But now, at 92 years old, she faces new obstacles under the voter suppression law signed by Gov. Pat McCrory (Teahadist) Monday. For one thing, she may not qualify for the voter ID card required under the new law, because the name on her birth certificate is different from the name on her driver’s license and voter registration card. Reconciling this difference will be a costly and time-consuming administrative endeavor. For another, she has participated in early voting since it was instituted in the state. Now, it’s been cut back a week.
She is one of several individuals who, along with civil rights groups, are already suing the state for what may be the most restrictive voting law in the nation. Other restrictive new provisions in the law include the elimination of same-day registration and early registration for high schoolers in advance of their 18th birthday, and prohibiting certain kinds of voter registration drives that tend to register low-income and minority voters.
ROSANELL EATON
Eaton participated in Moral Monday protests in North Carolina before the law passed, expressing opposition with fellow North Carolinians to a raft of new state conservative policies that would hurt the poor, women, minorities, and the environment. During one Moral Monday event, her daughter Armenta told reporters on her behalf, “She thought things were smooth sailing. She’s seen the good, bad, and the ugly. Now she’s seeing the ugly again. She fought for civil rights, she was a civil rights worker, and now she sees that it’s going backward.”
Voter Fraud Under Bush four one hundred thousandths of a percent [.00004]
Tuesday morning, she was back out again protesting the passage of the bill, this time delivering an impassioned address to an energized crowd. “Here I am at 92 years old doing the same battling,” she told the crowd. “I have registered over 4,000 citizens in the state, and at it again, alongside Republicans’ efforts to eliminate and cut early voting. … We need more, not less, public access to the ballot.” She concluded, “At the age of 92, I am fed up and fired up.”
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, you are today's asshat of the day!
John Oliver opened The Daily Show Tuesday night with a deep dive into the recent ruling by a federal judge deeming the NYPD’s “stop-and-frisk” tactic unconstitutional. Oliver began by giving some background on the controversial program. “For years, opinion has been divided on stop-and-frisk,” he said, “with black and Latino residents of the city saying it’s an invasion of their liberty and white residents saying ‘Oh, I think I heard a thing about that on NPR. Is that still happening?’”
He went on to mock the Judge Shira Scheindlin’s use of the term “indirect racial profiling.” Oliver said, “It’s like a cop saying, ‘should we frisk people outside the Apollo or outside the Jimmy Buffett concert? Tell you what, let’s flip a coin and then head up to Harlem.’”
Rather than only rely on the judicial ruling however, Oliver helped sum up the differences between white and black people with an old-school stand-up routine, complete with a fake brick wall in the background. “White people reach into their pockets like this,” he demonstrated. “But black people reach into their pockets… in exactly the same way.”
And on Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s assertion that the judge’s ruling was “unfair,” Oliver said, “Let me get this straight. You think this program is being unfairly stopped and scrutinized even though it’s done nothing wrong? I think I know millions of blacks and Latinos in this city who know exactly how you feel.”
He decided to only address people in the audience to offer up a helpful analogy. “You know how we feel at the airport when the TSA is patting us down unnecessarily, delaying us by looking for weapons which we obviously don’t have and we just want to get to our gate?” Oliver asked. “Well, imagine your whole neighborhood is Terminal B at LaGuardia.”
For more, Oliver turned to Jessica Williams, who took on the role of a reverse Bill O’Reilly by reporting live from “one of New York's most crime-ridden neighborhoods”: Wall Street. She demanded that police start stopping anyone who may be suspected of being a white-collar criminal: “walking around in tailored suits, slicked back hair, always need sunscreen, if you know what I’m saying.”
“I know this is uncomfortable,” Williams said, “but if you don’t want to be associated with white-collar crime, maybe you shouldn’t dress that way!” She continued, “I hate to say it because I don’t live in their neighborhoods or experience the problems specific to their lives, but it is a hard fact that white-collar crime is disproportionately committed by people who fit a certain profile.”
Williams finished out her report with a warning to a certain type of New Yorker. “So if you’re, say, a white Upper East Side billionaire with ties to the financial community like Michael Bloomberg,” she said, “you've just got to accept getting roughed up by the police every once in a while.”
Once again, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow eviscerates Virginia Governor, Bob "Transvaginal" McDonnell. This time on a two week 22 stop whirl wind tour of the state.
Transvaginal Bob's efforts to shore up his flagging image by going on a state wide PR junket is a charade at best.
I have always thought fraud, corruption, and the cover-up - that these things always follow or coincide with Republican values! Besides transvaginal ultrasound rapists, Virginia GOPers can now add pillagers as well to the resume.
........and then a Missouri crowd cheers for a rodeo clown in an Obama mask to be trampled by a bull.
Officials from the Missouri State Fair are busy putting out fires after the organizers of the fair’s bull riding exhibit brought a clown in an Obama mask into the ring and goaded the bull into chasing him around the enclosure.
Videos of the racially-charged incident began circulating across local news organizations shortly after it took place on Saturday evening, and public consternation was quickly followed by condemnations from Republican Party officials and lawmakers across the state.
“The announcer wanted to know if anyone would like to see Obama run down by a bull,” the posting said. “The crowd went wild. He asked it again and again, louder each time, whipping the audience into a lather.”
Another clown then apparently joined the performance.
“One of the clowns ran up and started bobbling the lips on the mask and the people went crazy,” the posting said. “Finally a bull came close enough to him that he had to move so he jumped up and ran away to the delight of the onlookers hooting and hollering from the stands.”
The annual state fair is held in Sedalia, a small, deep-red town less than 100 miles outside of Kansas City. Republican Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder quickly responded to the incident via Twitter, writing “I condemn the actions disrespectful to POTUS the other night. We are better than this.” Democrats from U.S Senator Claire McCaskill to Governor Jay Nixon also expressed disappointment and outrage after the incident.
A similar incident occurred at another rodeo last year, where a rodeo clown in California was fired after telling a racist joke about Michelle Obama posing nude for National Geographic.
Officials from the state fair issued a public statement via its Facebook page on Sunday evening, calling the performance “inappropriate and disrespectful.”
Let's face it readers , if your going to a state fair for class, especially Missouri - good luck with that!
Filling in for Ed Schultz on the radio this week, liberal attorney and talk radio host Mike Papantonio tore into conservative female commentators like Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin for what he views as their “creepy,” “malicious” rhetoric on immigration.
“If you spend much time in the weblog world, you probably have noticed,” Papantonio explained to his guest, “that the hate hags have become more creepier than usual. I mean, they’re already creepy but now they’ve moved the dial on creepy.”
He singled out Malkin for her “putrid hate language against immigrants, suggesting that they need to be punished, that militia border patrols should keep immigrant vermin, as she puts it, out of her country.” All this, he said, despite the fact that “less than 40 years ago, her parents Apolo and Rafaela Maglalang were citizens of Philippines, they became immigrants, they got their green cards and they made a better life for themselves in that little bundle of hate known as Michelle.”
HATE HAGS
Papantonio’s attack on the pundits was part of a longer conversation on how he believes the Cumulus dispute with Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh signals a decline in conservative “hate talk” radio.
“It’s simple,” he asserted, “Even the lunatic cable TV and right-wing crazy radio networks, they only have so much time that they can devote to female hate freaks or any kind of hate freaks, like Malkin or her gutter-mouthed sister Ann Coulter. There’s a limited amount of real freakish hate time available.”
He concluded: “That’s the case with all the hate talkers, whether you’re talking about Rush, whether you’re talking about Hannity, whether you’re talking about [Michael] Savage, all of ‘em.”
Now, many will email me on this subject, calling me a hypocrite on the war on women. I would tend to agree.......that is if these two where actually women. Minus a vagina, these two are the farthest from being human let alone women.
I have blogged many times on these two vile "wolves in sheep's clothing". There is a huge difference in being a "strong willed women" and hate hags like Coulter and Malkin!
If you visit the Talibangelical sites this am, they are up in arms, that these two - the darlings of the American Taliban are being ridiculed for what they really are.
There are a host of other female "patriots" as well that fit this title, Dana Loesch comes to mind, but Loesch is more like a "tales from the crypt" keeper than a hate hag - although she can be as disgusting as two aforementioned hate hags.
If this offends you, watch the thousands of clips I have seen - regarding these hate hags, listen to the endless number of audio taps on all three of these cretins. If after this - these "women", these "Teahadists" do not repulse you - then welcome to the club, that being the hate hag club.
If you applaud the actions of any "women" like Malkin, Coulter, and Loesch, congratulations, you just may be a GOPer.
Open carry groups are holding “Starbucks Appreciation Day” rallies across the country on Friday, including in Newtown, Connecticut, where a gunman killed 26 people eight months ago.
Starbucks currently allows customers to carry their guns in states with open carry. Gun advocates have taken this move as encouragement to stage “appreciation days,” like the one on Friday.
Across the country, many of the participants have posted “Appreciation Day” photos to Facebook where they hold their coffee and guns, and even occasionally children:
Newtown Action Alliance has condemned the move as “reprehensible,” while Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense has demanded Starbucks end its policy of permitting guns. Moms Demand Action will also hold a rally at the Newtown Starbucks this evening in favor of gun violence prevention.
Even after a Florida woman accidentally shot her friend in the leg this May while standing in line at a Starbucks, the company has stood by its policy permitting guns.
What a lovely idea for the gun huggers society. Now the hyper-ubiquitous gravitational centers for caffeine-saturated banality have become the base camps for the phallically challenged (but BMI enhanced) crazies.
What is this pasty-white redneck fascination with toting weapons for display? Could it be that those are the ones who are the most emotionally needy and crave the attention -- and are most likely to believe that an open gun display adds to their manliness.
Most ordinary responsible American men either; don't feel the need to walk around with a gun, or, they choose to carry a gun but don't feel the need to make a grotesque spectacle of it.
An new undercover investigation into Virginia’s right-wing “crisis pregnancy centers” (CPCs) exposes the blatant misinformation about women’s health, as well as the shame-based messages surrounding sexuality, that their employees typically impart to patients. NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia — which has been working for years to expose the dozens of CPCs in the state — caught the lies on tape and released their findings on Wednesday.
NARAL recorded a counseling session between a young woman and a CPC employee. The woman received false information about the risks of hormonal birth control, misleading explanations about how contraception works, and judgmental messages about her decision to be sexually active before getting married. During the conversation, the CPC counselor repeatedly suggested that her organization was more trustworthy than the staff at abortion clinics, since abortion providers are ultimately trying to convince their patients to spend money at the clinic. “I’m not lying to you, sweetie — why would I lie to you? I’m not asking you to give me anything here,” she said. “We’re a pregnancy health and education center.”
For several minutes, a CPC employee told horror stories about the dangers of being on birth control, saying she typically tries to talk women out of using it. She likened birth control to “tremendous dosages of steroids,” and belittled her patient for opting to flood her body with artificial hormones. “You really want that stuff inside of you? You have a brain, think and choose here,” she said. “Any of that stuff is just not good for you.”
According to the CPC counselor, birth control is dangerous because taking it for four years before becoming pregnant can increase women’s chance of getting breast cancer by 48 percent. She repeatedly referred to the “carcinogens” in contraception. She also cautioned her client to “read the fine print,” warning that even if she would never choose to have an abortion, she could accidentally end up aborting a fetus while using hormonal contraception. “If you’re on the pill, on the patch, on the shot, and get pregnant… Unintentionally, you will abort that baby because the uterus cannot sustain that pregnancy because the lining has been so altered by those steroids, the artificial hormones,” she claimed.
The CPC employee falsely asserted that condoms and birth control pills are about equally effective at preventing pregnancy, and claimed that using condoms doesn’t actually prevent the transmission of sexually transmitted infections. “They’re naturally porous — there’s always a chance of them breaking, a chance of spillage,” she said. “The only safe sex is no sex.”
The conversation also quickly took a religious bent. “If you’re not married, why are you having sex?” the CPC counselor asked her client. “That’s why you feel like you have to put these hormones in your body — the more you have sex, the more chance you have of getting pregnant.” Later, she added, “Confined to a marriage, of course, sex is expected — you believe in God, that’s the whole plan of God.”
This is hardly the first report of its kind. Another recent undercover investigation at a crisis pregnancy center in Ohio recorded similar misinformation and conservative religious bias during an appointment with a counselor. And previous research from NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia has discovered that at least 40 of the state’s 58 CPCs are telling their clients medically inaccurate information about birth control and abortion.
Still, the organization’s newest report is more confirmation that CPCs, which typically attempt to position themselves as unbiased medical resources, are actually operating within the anti-choice community. “This shocking audio exposes Virginia CPCs for what they are: anti-choice field offices designed to mislead, shame, and lie to women during one of the most vulnerable times of their lives,” Tarina Keene, the executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia, said in a statement. “Regardless of your stance on abortion, we can all agree that anyone seeking health care services and advice should receive comprehensive, non-judgmental, and factually accurate information.”
There is significant evidence that disseminating misinformation about birth control does a disservice to public health. Abstinence-only health classes, which impart similar factually-inaccurate information about sexual health resources, have contributed to a generation of young Americans who don’t believe using birth control makes any difference, and are therefore more inclined to skip it. A full 60 percent of young adults believe that contraception is less effective than it actually is.
Nevertheless, Virginia’s right-wing CPCs actually receive significant endorsement from state officials. Under the state’s forced ultrasound law, women are required to have a sonogram before they can proceed with an abortion — and all 18 of the health clinics that the health department suggests women can visit to fulfill that requirement are crisis pregnancy centers. And Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) — who’s currently running for governor — has been extremely vocal about his support for CPCs. He spearheaded an effort to get the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles to begin offering “Choose Life” license plates, the proceeds of which directly fund CPCs.
I find that lying is second nature to the little servants of darkness pretending to be religious conservatives. As a Virginian, I am not surprised, but very much appalled. Virginia where governor ultrasound presides, where sodomy is a crime against nature and where women's reproductive health is seriously endangered.
THERE SHALL BE NO SEX IN THE STATE OF VIRGINIA THE COMMONWEALTH'S 11TH COMMANDMENT
Well, the "War on Women" worked so well for the "Teahadists", as did the "War on Voter Suppression," why not a "War on Sex?"
Walk into any eleventh grade classroom in Virginia. If Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R-VA) has his way, close to forty percent of the students will be felony sex offenders.
Dahlia Lithwick breaks down the implications of Cuccinelli’s plan in a must-read piece over at Slate. In short, Cuccinelli’s petition asking the Supreme Court to reinstate much of Virginia’s so-called “crimes against nature” law — which criminalizes oral and anal sex — is unlikely to impact adults who have sex with adults because the Court’s previous decision in Lawrence v. Texas held that the Constitution protects non-commercial sexual activity among adults. The tea partying attorney general’s petition, however, largely relies on a line in Lawrence suggesting that underage sexual activity can still be criminalized.
As Lithwick notes, “44 percent of males and 42 percent of females between the ages of 15 and 17 have engaged in oral sex in the United States.” While it’s undoubtedly true that a minority of these teenagers are engaged in oral sex with someone much older, the overwhelming majority of them are partnering with each other. And since Cuccinelli’s proposed rule would make no exception for teens who have oral sex with other teens, every single high school student who does so would become a felon and a sex offender.
Once again - the goal is zero sex. It's not Christian like, and therefore it is not legal. As we all know, laws in the US are based on the Republican Bible or Republican Jesus- the one where Jesus loves guns and profit, and even prophesies the Coming Of Saint Ronald.
With the grafting scandal of Virginia's Governor Transvaginal Bob - If we find out that the Governor received sodomy as a gift, would Ken Cuccinelli then ask him to step down, arrest him, jail him, and file him with the State Police registrar as a sexual predator and deviant?
Do you suffer from NIMBY? One Ohio community does.
A lily-white Ohio suburb is doing everything it can, including risking millions in federal highway funding, to keep mostly minority bus-riders from a nearby city from entering their community.
The showdown began in 2010 when the Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority proposed adding three new bus stops in Beavercreek, a largely white suburb 15 minutes east of Dayton. These new stops would give Dayton bus-riders access to Beavercreek’s major shopping mall and nearby businesses, as well as a medical clinic and Wright State University.
Facing the prospect of buses coming in from Dayton, the Beavercreek City Council began enacting as many hurdles as they could to stop the new bus stops. Among the dozen roadblocks included mandating that bus shelters included heated and air conditioning as well as high-tech surveillance cameras, features that would be hugely expensive and are not common at other stops. Unsurprisingly, these demands couldn't be met and the council rejected the expansion. “We turned downed an application because they didn't meet our (design) criteria,” Beavercreek City Councilman Scott Hadley explained to Eye On Ohio.
Many in the area argue that their opposition boils down to a simple reason: race. According to the 2010 census, 9 in 10 Beavercreek residents are white, but 73 percent of those who ride the Dayton RTA buses are minorities. “I can’t see anything else but it being a racial thing,” Sam Gresham, state chair of Common Cause Ohio, a public interest advocacy group said. “They don’t want African Americans going on a consistent basis to Beavercreek.”
A civil rights group in the area, Leaders for Equality in Action in Dayton (LEAD), soon filed a discrimination lawsuit against Beavercreek under the Federal Highway Act. In June, the Federal Highway Administration ruled that Beavercreek’s actions were indeed discriminatory and ordered them to work with the Dayton Regional Transit Authority to get the bus stops approved without delay.
Beavercreek, though, isn’t particularly keen to do that. The city council voted most recently on Friday to put off consideration of the matter until later this month. They are weighing whether to appeal the federal ruling, or perhaps whether to just defy it altogether. Appealing the ruling could cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, according to a Washington D.C. lawyer the council hired. However, non-compliance with the ruling could cost Beavercreektens of millions of dollars in federal highway funds.
The city council has until September 11, 2013 to begin complying with the Federal Highway Administration order. They will meet again on August 12 to decide how to proceed.
Gresham, for one, is flabbergasted that the council would even consider risking millions of dollars in federal highway funds. “Their worldview and logic are two entirely separate things,” he said.
How do you keep from not being pissed off when you write about a story like this -occurring in America in the year 2013? I wonder if Don Lemon, Iylana Vansant , Michael Steele, Ron Christi, Clarence Tomas, Allen West, Juan Williams - to name a few - think that this is ok in America today? Think that this is not racism in its purest form.
Racism can be coded in many ways, it can be covered up as voter fraud, it can be a self-defense claim to a hooded African American teen toting Skittles and a Arizona iced tea. Birthers come to mind as coded racists, those opposing the Ground Zero Mosque qualify as coded racists and Arizona's anti-immigration law is coded racism.
Nobody likes to be called a racist, especially when they are one. Well, almost nobody, but nobody who wishes to be taken seriously by the general public.
The NIMBY problem arises when the aversion to racism causes us to become willfully blind to racist practices around us. When confronted, racists are more likely to explain their ignorance away, rather than simply admit that they might not be so perfect at being ..... “non-racists”.
I’m a particular fan of the way that Stewart Lee characterized it: “…if political correctness has achieved one thing, it’s to make the Conservative party cloak its inherent racism behind more creative language.” Of course we can substitute “Conservative party” with “general public” in most cases. We live in a racist society, and nobody is immune from the subtle voice of cultural indoctrination whispering in our ears.
Given this lack of immunity, the only tools we have to combat the effects of racism are self-awareness and intellectual courage. However, it seems that we prefer instead to use a lexicon that allows coded racists to continue their racist behavior - you know, without them seeming racist. This is referred to as ‘coded racism’, those with racist ideologies that are carefully designed not to appear racist.
This blogger has said often, it is only by having the courage and integrity to confront our own ideas and motivations that we can identify and eliminate this kind of verbal cloaking. Being able to identify racism and being unafraid to call it out for what it is - is the first step to ameliorating the problem. Failure to do so will only serve to keep us looking the other way, to the detriment of racial minority groups in perpetuity.
John Oliver continued to lament having to talk about the 2016 election, which is over three years away, but the media is already on the case, wildly speculating on who will run, when, and starting in which states. Oliver mocked the potential “clown car” of candidates, gave viewers a brief 2012 flashback, and proceeded to tear apart the “Sharknado of voter suppression” Republicans are engaging in after the Supreme Court struck down a provision of the Voting Rights Act.
CLOWN CAR OF CANDIDATES
Oliver mocked Ted Cruz‘s reassurances that the fact he was born in Canada will not be a problem for GOP voters *cough*birthers*cough*, and practically begged Donald Trump to get in the race. Oliver reassured voters that the “clown car” is never full and more outlandish candidates like, let’s say, Herman Cain, could jump into the race.
Oliver then turned to the voting laws being put into effect in Republican states, from Florida, “where your grandparents and your rights go to die,” to North Carolina, where voting laws are evidently so severe, all voting booths are now “on buoys that are only accessible by yacht.”
Oliver slammed each of the justifications provided for North Carolina’s strict voting laws, and after recapping exactly how ridiculous they are, he could only conclude, “Your move, South Carolina.”
Politicians arguing about religion is routine. But politicians arguing that one major party is "anti-God" because it disagrees with him is well outside the norms of the United States.
In other words, in Virginia, E.W. Jackson may have finally gone too far.
From the power Oz this week is a look at some of the religious rhetoric coming from Virginia Republicans, which strayed awfully far from the American norm.
Last Thursday, E.W. Jackson, the Virginia GOP's right-wing-nut candidate for lieutenant governor, doubled down on his previous theological condemnations of those he disagrees with politically.
Jackson has said in the past that he thinks believing in God and voting Democratic are fundamentally incompatible, so WLEE host Jack Gravely asked if he still believes it. Gravely explained that he's a Christian and tends to vote Democratic, just like his parents and family. Jackson didn't back down.
"You are saying for us, we're all wrong, leave that party. And all I'm saying to you is, if you said it before, you still have to believe it, why did you say it?" Gravely asked. "Oh, oh, oh I do believe it," Jackson responded. He continued: "I said it because I believe that the Democrat Party has become an anti-God party."
As a rule, major-party candidates for statewide office simply don't talk this way in the United States. American politicians have argued about religious issues since before we were even a country, but those hoping to represent a diverse constituency of millions of people generally don't argue -- out loud and in public -- that one party is "anti-God" and one party is pro-God.
Jackson, in other words, whose rhetorical excesses have made him a caricature of what a ridiculous candidate looks like, is pushing the envelope beyond traditional American norms. He's also lying -- while most secular voters gravitate towards Democrats, there's literally nothing about the Democratic Party or its platform that's hostile towards religion or the supernatural, and most Democratic voters nationwide consider themselves religious.
Indeed, Jackson went so far that Pat Mullins, chairman of the Virginia Republican Party, distanced himself from the candidate's extremism. "I do not agree with that statement," he told Salon in a statement. "My parents were Democrats, and I've got a lot of Democratic friends in Christian churches all around Virginia."
To provide some context, it's not at all common for a state GOP chair to criticize a statewide GOP candidate's rhetoric three months before Election Day. Jackson has apparently gone so far, he's too extreme for far-right Republicans.
To even have to utter such a statement for the record is testament to the untoward extremism of our Tea Partying friends and foes!
Some of my best friends are - are the most offensive defense of what usually turns out to be one's indefensibly display of ignorance when it comes to Christianity- at the least, or worst, latent or otherwise, dearly held prejudices are the norm for The American Taliban!
So, in my state of Virginia, there's a set of party affiliated candidates who are so prejudiced against the other major party brand they'd cast them out or pillory them for crimes against the spirit?
A whole lot of bullshit resides in the minds of Virginia Talibangelicals these days, and its not healthy for our nation, nor the Christian faith!
From last nights New Rules segment, Bill Maher had some suggestions for "super-rich" liberals about what to do to combat the likes of the "Koch brother from another mother" who has turned North Carolina into wing-nut land, Art Pope.
Bill Maher did more last night than what most journalists have not done other than maybe Rachel Maddow, by exposing Art Pope, the Koch brothers wannabe, and how he's basically bought the government of North Carolina to reshape it into his personal right-wing wet dream.
Quoting Maher:
And finally, New Rule: It's time for America to get off the sidelines and support a proud people in a region where religious freedom, women's rights, and democracy itself hang in the balance. I'm talking, of course, about North Carolina. Now every year here at Real Time, we do our Stupidest State contest, and the competition is always fierce, especially from perennials like Texas, Florida, and Kansas. But North Carolina right now is going apeshit in a way no state ever has. Take every crazy angry idea your drunk right-wing uncle mumbles at Thanksgiving, turn it into a law, and that's North Carolina today.
BILL MAHER NEW RULES
Brace yourself, North Carolina. Allowing Art Pope to manipulate your state means there will be draconian cuts to services in your state, the poor will become poorer, and billionaires will add more billions to their coffers - your state will be on the nations hit list as the one of most disgusting states when it comes to civil rights, women's rights, and the poor.
Congratulations Art Pope, you are today's asshat of the day.
In a follow-up to our blog regarding asshat police chief Mark Kessler, and his rage against the "libtards" - via several YouTube videos- now comes the rest of the story:
The Pennsylvania police chief who made a profanity-laced videos while firing machine guns and ranting about liberals has been suspended without pay for 30 days.
After a 55-minute executive session, the Gilberton Borough Council voted 5-1 on Wednesdayto suspend Chief Mark Kessler for using “borough property for non-borough purposes without prior borough permission” by using machine guns and other weapons in his YouTube videos. Kessler had donated the weapons to the borough earlier in the year.
In online videos posted in July, Kessler had used profanity to berate “libtards” and suggested an armed rebellion against the government.
The Pennsylvania police chief who made a profanity-laced videos while firing machine guns and ranting about liberals has been suspended without pay for 30 days.
After a 55-minute executive session, the Gilberton Borough Council voted 5-1 on Wednesday to suspend Chief Mark Kessler for using “borough property for non-borough purposes without prior borough permission” by using machine guns and other weapons in his YouTube videos. Kessler had donated the weapons to the borough earlier in the year.
In online videos posted in July, Kessler had used profanity to berate “libtards” and suggested an armed rebellion against the government.
According to WFMZ, Michael Morrill, executive director of the liberal group Keystone Progress, delivered a petition with 20,000 signatures to the council on Wednesday demanding that Kessler be fired.
WPMT reported that gun-right activists — many of them armed — showed up to support Kessler.
“Why do you hate freedom?” Hecklers yelled at Morrill. “Liberal lies!”
“I make no apologies and I have no regrets,” Kessler told reporters after the meeting, adding that he accepted the decision and looked forward to returned to work “30 days from tonight.”
Watch this video from WFMZ, broadcast July 31, 2013.
But following the meeting the suspended police chief posted a message to his website accusing council members of taking part in a conspiracy to fire him.
“COUNCILMAN ERIC BOXER (D), COUNCIL PRESIDENT DANIEL MALLOY (D), MAYOR, MARY LOU HANNON (R) are going to have me terminated during this unjust thirty day suspension!” he wrote. “Councilman ERIC BOXER (DEMOCRAT) leading the charge for termination by orders from MAYOR MARY LOU HANNON ( REPUBLICAN ) ALONG WITH COUNCIL PRESIDENT DANIEL MALLOY ( DEMOCRAT ) ARE conspiring behind closed doors for full termination, they needed to suspend first to allow themselves time to look for or make up any reason or lie.”
The State Police were expected to serve the borough residents until Kessler returned to duty.
Having signed the petition myself to oust this douche bag, 30 days is not long enough! Let's make sure this hillbilly town in Pennsylvania, and this right wing nut job, grasp the concept that we will not tolerate this crap, not in this state, not in this country! These actions are not tolerable in anyone, but especially someone who is supposed to stand to protect and serve all!
Will McAvoy [Jeff Daniels], the TV anchor in HBO's series Newsroom, took to slamming the American Taliban in episode 3 last Sunday. The series, as far as cable or regular TV goes, is by far written better than anything else, there is no comparison - as it takes real life portrayals - and is then incorporated into the show.
Typical, masterful Aaron Sorkin, is in this scene posted below.
VIDEO COURTESY OF HBO
Script from the scene in its entirety.
Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann thinks our troops are the best: "They are the best. This is the easiest thing to get behind. It doesn't get any better to help our troops when they are literally on the lines fighting for our freedom."
Presidential candidate Herman Cain will not apologize for having the biggest, baddest, greatest military on the planet: "And I don't apologize for having the biggest, baddest, greatest military on the planet."
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney would like the rest of us to support the troops even more than we already do: "I think it's time for American citizens and politicians to show a surge of support and for us to reach out to our neighbors who are serving in the military."
And presidential candidate Rick Santorum marvels as we all do at the selfless act of volunteering to serve in a time of war: "We have a culture right now that doesn't say serve. It doesn't say don't think about yourself. It says, 'Me, me, me.' It's a very self-absorbed, me-centered, excessive popular culture. And yet we have brave men and women who are willing to step forward because they know what's at stake. They're willing to sacrifice their lives for this great country."
Stephen Hill is a decorated captain in the US Army, where he's been a reservist for 20 years. He is this very night serving in combat in Iraq, as he was last night when he asked this question via YouTube at the GOP debate in Orlando, Florida:
"In 2010, when I was deployed to Iraq, I had to lie about who I was because I'm a gay soldier and I didn't want to lose my job. My question is, under one of your presidencies, do you intend to circumvent the progress that's been made for gay and lesbian soldiers in the military?"
(Boos from audience)
That was a big room full of Republican primary voters booing an American combat soldier who, as he was speaking, was in combat. The audience members who were booing were in Orlando. Soon they'll surely be in hell, though not soon enough.
Not everyone was booing. There were people in the audience who heard Captain Hill say that when he was deployed to Iraq, he was worried that if his sexuality was discovered, they might not let him go-- As opposed to most of us who, if told we were being deployed to Iraq, would go Corporal Klinger faster than you can pull on a yellow taffeta picnic dress.
I'm sure there were even some people in the building who stood up for Captain Hill, people who had the simple strength of character to turn to the fraction of a human in the seat next to them and say, "How many different kinds of disgusting do you have to be to boo a man who volunteered to fight and die for you?"
I'm sure those people were there. I'm sure there were many of them. But unfortunately, none of them were on the stage. Not one of these would-be commanders in chief took a moment to stand with a line officer. They let him stand alone.
Soldiers never do that. Leaders never do that. Witless bullies and hapless punks do it all the time.
The only president on the stage last night was Stephen Hill. Godspeed, Captain Hill, and come home soon. A grateful nation is waiting to say thank you.
That's News Night for September 23rd. Terry Smith is up next with The Capitol Report. I'm Will McAvoy. Good night.
It goes without saying that we’re all ignorant of all manner of things – the proper way to perform heart surgery, the top five poets in Urdu and Farsi, the agreed-upon hierarchy of distilleries in Scotland, a plethora of subjects. One’s person’s expertise is another’s ignorance.
Stupidity, though, is a different thing from mere ignorance. Stupidity is the condition of preferring ignorance over knowledge, which is what the American Taliban pulls on a daily basis.
Truly toxic stupidity, it seems to me, is not only when ignorance is preferred to knowledge, it’s when the very idea of knowledge itself is actively resented.
And that’s where Sorkin will always piss off those right of center. Sorkin, in his own way, actively resents any knowledge about stupidity and how it actually works in the world. And rightly so, as a consequence, huge sections of the American Taliban –actively resent him pointing out just how truly stupid they really are.
The above clip points to a callous, vile, destructive conservative party. This is the GOP that we have come to know and love. Conservatives despise HBO, Bill Maher, Aaron Sorkin greatly. Take Karen B comments to NFTOS:
another platform to portray over the top liberal views and exposing Sorkin as the hack he is........and always will be. Because the actors spout their lines off harshly and 'seriously', we are supposed to take this drivel as an important landmark in HBO and TV history...Sorkin, get over yourself!
This scene is equivalent to the American Taliban scene from last year. I love these hard hitting truthful scenes - for they allow another nail to be hit squarely on the head of the rusty nasty nail - that is the GOP!
Groundswell Group Stoked Scandals with Help From GOP
When David Corn broke the Groundswell story last week, the general reaction among the politerati was a shrug and a giggle. Even influential NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen called it "no big deal."
"WHO ME"
But audio of a May Groundswell meeting obtained by C&L from a source who wishes to remain anonymous reveals Groundswellers met with top Congressional leaders to lobby for a select committee endowed with subpoena power to investigate the White House. Lobbying may be too mild a term, since they really are plotting with those same leaders to invent very real scandals with very real investigations in order to sink the country into a mire of inaction and sabotage the remaining years of President Obama's term.
C&L AUDIO
Catherine Engelbrecht "facilitated" the May 8th Groundswell meeting. Engelbrecht is the president and founder of True the Vote, a Texas group dedicated to challenging voting rights among the poor, students, and minorities. In addition to their regular work attacking sections 4 and 5 of the Voting Rights Act via lawsuits, Engelbrecht was the media go-to person for the media on the phony IRS scandal. That story broke on May 9th, after the Benghazi hearings had more or less fizzled out the previous day.
There was wave after wave of headlines about these so-called scandals. Some people wrote about what an awful week the White House had. It wasn't coincidence. It was orchestrated and planned by this group of people, who had the will and the power to secure the participation of people like Darrell Issa, John Boehner and more.
True the Vote led the charge to sue the IRS and serve the highest-profile plaintiff among the "aggrieved" groups. Yet this audio recording shows their president "facilitating" a clearly partisan, right-wing activist group meeting of people who claim to be fighting a "30-front war." No big deal? When is the last time anyone you know could ring up the Speaker of the House and the Chairman of the House Oversight Committee and take a face-to-face meeting in the wee hours of the evening with approval from the wife of a sitting Supreme Court justice?
In the first 20 minutes of the meeting, a lot of ground was covered. The audio of the final hour or so is available, but the quality is not clear enough at this time to publish it. However, they helpfully provided handouts at the meeting relating to their voter suppression efforts discussed later on. Here are some highlights from the audio and then parts that came later.
Benghazi "Scandal"
At 3:45, Jerry Boykin advises the group of the meetings he and Frank Gaffney had with Speaker John Boehner and Rep. Darrell Issa concerning Benghazi on the evening of May 7th about how the Benghazi investigation is progressing. This was the night before the last Congressional Oversight Committee hearing was held on Benghazi, where the so-called whistleblowers were to testify.
In the late-night meeting with Gaffney and Boykin, Boehner advised both that they needed to allow the regular order of committee meetings to play out before he would push for a select committee. Issa told him the same thing. Boykin and Gaffney reported this to the group, along with a promise that there "would be answers." Both reiterated that they and former Rep. Allen West were very concerned about the lack of a military response and assured the group that "what we'll find today is that Hillary Clinton made some egregious decisions and the president was basically absent from his post and did not make the decisions that as the Commander-in-Chief he should have been making...because he was focused on some other things."
They further assured the group that they weren't backing away from their demands, but instead they "kind of have a pledge from...Issa and the Speaker."
Future Debt Ceiling Battles
Just past the Benghazi discussion, the group received a report about upcoming debt ceiling negotiations, where they are advised that a survey has gone out to conservative lawmakers to see "what they're looking for in exchange for their votes raising the debt ceiling."
Of course, you'd never know from the press they get that there was any intention of raising the debt ceiling at all. Now we all can see that they will in fact do it reluctantly, as Shonda Weery reports when she advises that it's "not a vote they'll want to give without getting back something in return." Let the horse-trading begin.
Voting Rights
During the meeting, True the Vote made a presentation (document below) about their plan to attack groups who are actively working to protect voting rights around the country, particularly after the Supreme Court gutted most of the protections. Code-named "Hydra", True the Vote argues that the left is undermining voting rights, and must be stopped, by hook or by crook.
Let's review that timeline.
On May 8, 2013, True the Vote is a facilitator and presenter at a meeting where Ginni Thomas and others are key players. TTV presents their plan to attack "the left" for daring to register voters. They're committed to stopping them from challenging any and all efforts to disenfranchise voters. Or as they describe it, securing the vote. Others might call it democracy corrupted.
On May 9, 2013 the IRS "scandal" breaks after Lois Lerner plants a question in a conference Q&A about IRS "targeting."
On May 21, 2013, True the Vote, represented by ActRight Legal Foundation, sues the IRS for not granting their tax-exempt status and targeting them for their beliefs. ActRight Legal Foundation uses Cleta Mitchell as one of their consulting attorneys. Mitchell is a well-known and very high profile litigator on behalf of conservative causes. There are very few conservative nonprofits that don't have Mitchell's fingerprints all over them.
True the Vote goes all over conservative media with their tale of woe. Their message: The IRS was used as a tool by the liberal president to target conservatives and suppress their free speech rights. Until True the Vote was a victim of the terrible IRS, they were under Congressional investigation for voter suppression, by the way.
In fact, the IRS had ample reason to believe they were a partisan, political group who was not simply acting on behalf of voters everywhere. But that did not stop Engelbrecht from pushing forward with her anti-voter initiatives while simultaneously leading the charge against the IRS.
But wait, there's more. True the Vote wrote a letter in opposition to the nomination of Thomas Perez for Secretary of Labor, complaining that "Mr. Perez, through political appointment and action, has made clear his intent to ignore key functions in federal election law – namely Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA)."
In TTV's document entitled "Hydra with Footnotes", the battle lines are drawn with very partisan rulers. After making their case that the "Organized Left is preparing a massive campaign to promote 'Universal Registration' and threatening to block citizen observers from the polls," TTV vows to target those groups however they can and defeat the terrible lefty Hydra by "attack[ing] the source of its strengths", which they view as the usual right-wing targets: unions, the NAACP, Common Cause, Project Vote, Demos, Center for American Progress, The Nation Foundation, and more.
While this flurry of organizing and activism is happening, TTV is front and center in the press with loud, strident claims that the IRS "targeted" them.
Another active member of Groundswell, J. Christian Adams, contributes content to the True the Vote site on issues such as whether any fix to the Voting Rights Act is possible after it was gutted by the Supreme Court in June. Adams serves as counsel to the Election Law Center, yet another right-wing effort to suppress the vote.
The efforts of this group should not be marginalized, given that what they are saying is repeated in the halls of the House and the Senate on a daily basis. It isn't just right-wing crazy people being crazy. These are activists with contacts in high places who are using those contacts to strip people of their rights, to invent scandals to undermine the President at every turn, and to marginalize Hillary Clinton if she should choose to run in 2016. Those are just a few of their goals. They have power and they're not afraid to use it.
Group members are the water-carriers and action arm of the billionaires' tea party. Listen to the full 20 minutes of that audio, or read the transcript here to see just how destructive they intend to be.
This is the first of a two-part series. Tomorrow, I'll look more closely at Ginni Thomas' involvement to see whether Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas engaged in unethical conduct or colluded with his wife and her associates.
True The Vote's Hydra document presented at the meeting:
This story is very revealing about the lengths that the American Taliban will go to - to undermine the president. Make no mistake his is planning for a coup, it is directly organizing activities, not to win an election, but to destabilize a sitting government - and it is being led by Christian deconstructionists, radical teabaggers, and the talibangelicals.
How many different kinds of disgusting do you have to be to conduct this kind of business?
This is war. And you don't win war by challenging the way your enemy fights in court. You win it by fighting the same way. Instead of watching the poll watchers, progressive groups need to be poll watchers and challenge the voting rights of suspect individuals. Like, oh, old white men. What's needed is several weeks' worth of right-wing outrage ginned up by television footage of dark-skinned people challenging the right to vote of traditionally Republican voters -- especially in heavily Republican precincts. Imagine the gloriousness of it all: New Black Panther Party poll watchers demanding old white Teabaggers provide proof of their right to vote -- and all in accordance with the very laws. True The Vote is so desperate to implement.
