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Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Keith Olbermann - Worst Person in the World - Mayor Wiseman
How do stupids like this "Wiseman" get elected to public office? He should be shoveling manure in a barn in Tennessee, not "mayoring" a town!
Senator Franken Defends A Woman's Right To Choose
It is so nice to have a voice of reason in the United States Senate.
Andrew Sullivan on Sarah Palin
Who is Sarah Palin? Nobody knows. What is Sarah Palin? We know this much: She is a liar!
Andrew Sullivan has some important things to say about the liar from Alaska!
Andrew Sullivan has some important things to say about the liar from Alaska!
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Tim Tebow, the Florida Gators, God and Football
College football is strange. There are millions of people out there in loony-land who think college football is important; that it really matters.
It doesn't. It's a damn game. Nothing more, nothing less. It is unrelated to real life. Some countries (Sweden, for example) do not have college sports. Hmm. Might that mean less nonsense and more learning?
Yesterday the Florida Gators lost the SEC championship game to Alabama's Crimson Tide by a score of 32-13.
Some people in Florida were very sad. Tim Tebow, the Gator's quarterback was heartbroken. He actually shed tears. And that's understandable. For Tim, football is his life. It is not only extremely important to him but his relationship to football has something to do with his image of himself. Thus to lose to Alabama was devastating; a loss of face; a loss of sense of self. He must be wondering, "How could this happen?"
But more than that. Because Tim believes (as he has noted on his cheeks previously) that he can do all things through Christ because Christ gives him strength, this was not only a blow to his self-understanding but his religious understanding. Christ didn't come through. Tim's god gave the nod to Alabama.
How does one deal with that?
But maybe god is just plain sick of Tebow sporting his religion on his cheeks? The latest was John 16:33, which says, in part, "In the world you have trouble. But courage! The victory is mine; I have conquered the world." Maybe god saw that and said, "Enough already!" and gave the victory to Alabama!
Whatever, it's over for the year for Tebow and the Gators. In purely secular terms, if you're a Gator or a Gator fan, that's worth shedding a few tears.
It doesn't. It's a damn game. Nothing more, nothing less. It is unrelated to real life. Some countries (Sweden, for example) do not have college sports. Hmm. Might that mean less nonsense and more learning?
Yesterday the Florida Gators lost the SEC championship game to Alabama's Crimson Tide by a score of 32-13.
Some people in Florida were very sad. Tim Tebow, the Gator's quarterback was heartbroken. He actually shed tears. And that's understandable. For Tim, football is his life. It is not only extremely important to him but his relationship to football has something to do with his image of himself. Thus to lose to Alabama was devastating; a loss of face; a loss of sense of self. He must be wondering, "How could this happen?"
But more than that. Because Tim believes (as he has noted on his cheeks previously) that he can do all things through Christ because Christ gives him strength, this was not only a blow to his self-understanding but his religious understanding. Christ didn't come through. Tim's god gave the nod to Alabama.
How does one deal with that?
But maybe god is just plain sick of Tebow sporting his religion on his cheeks? The latest was John 16:33, which says, in part, "In the world you have trouble. But courage! The victory is mine; I have conquered the world." Maybe god saw that and said, "Enough already!" and gave the victory to Alabama!
Whatever, it's over for the year for Tebow and the Gators. In purely secular terms, if you're a Gator or a Gator fan, that's worth shedding a few tears.
The Twelve Steps of Christmas
I bought a box of Christmas cards at Target with the following on the front :
The 12 Steps of ChristmasMy personal favorite is #3. If I ever find myself looking towards a higher power, it will be Santa. Unlike other gods, Santa actually delivers. I actually find gifts under my tree every year.
- Admit you are powerless over Christmas, and that your life has become unmanageable.
- Believe that a power greater than consumer credit can restore you to sanity.
- Decide to turn your will and life over to Santa as you understand him.
- Make a searching and fearless inventory of your material desires.
- Admit to Santa, to yourself, and to another human being the exact nature of your size, color preferences, and taste in furniture.
- Allow Santa to remedy all defects of your bank account.
- Humbly ask Santa to payoff your mortgage.
- Make a list of everything you want, and be willing to read the instruction manuals.
- Cite model numbers and retail locations wherever possible, except when doing so would require an internet search.
- Continue to take personal inventory, and when you think of something else you need, add it to the list.
- Seek through prayer and meditation to improve your conscious contact with Santa as you understand him, praying only for knowledge of his gifts for you and the power to open them quickly.
- Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, carry Santa's message to friends and family every Christmas.
From the Underground Unbeliever.
Haysus got laid in Texas
While there are some fine people living in Texas, contrarily some of the weirdest things/people come from Texas, too. Think G. W. Bushie. Or the current guv'nor. Or Tom DeLay. Now God has arrived in the form of an egg from a chicken, and by god, god's doing miracles! Yes, ma'am! Real down-to-earth Texas miracles. Y'all just gotta believe!
And jest in time for Christmas!
And jest in time for Christmas!
Countdown's Worst Persons - Fox & Friends Crop Daily Show Footage
There is no question anymore that FAUX News is nothing more than a propaganda outlet for the ultra-right wingnuts in our country. Here's more confirmation if you need it!
Rachel Maddow tries to get responses on the Ugandan Kill the Gays Bill
This topic deserves much wider circulation. One area that Ms. Maddow needs to spend more time on is the collusion between the religious right (Anglican ultra-conservatives) in Uganda and its connection with the religious (Christian) right around the world. There's much more here than meets the eye!
From Crooks and Liars:
Rachel follows up on her reporting on the 'kill the gays' bill being considered in Uganda. Her show attempted to get some responses from the American legislators who have decided to inject themselves so deeply into African politics - with predictable results. Most of them either tried to wash their hands of their part in this absolutely horrid piece of proposed legislation or didn’t bother to respond at all. The scandal ridden John Ensign’s office said he was too busy screwing up the health care bill to give a response.
James Inhofe and Sam Brownback didn’t bother to respond, either. Don’t hold your breath waiting on those two knuckle-draggers, Rachel. I’m sure it will be a cold day in hell before either of them bother to tell the evil “librul” lesbian woman why they could care less if you were killed if you were unfortunate enough to live in Uganda, assuming this law gets passed.
Props to Rachel for keeping after this story. It has to be one of the most disgusting news items I’ve watched in a very long time and these C-Street wingers need to be held to account for their actions. It’s a shame the rest of the media is not giving this story the attention it deserves. They’re too busy chasing around the White House party crashers or Tiger Woods’ mistresses.
Transcript via Nexis Lexis below the fold.
GEORGE W. BUSH, THEN-U.S. PRESIDENT: Today on the continent of Africa, nearly 30 million people have the AIDS virus -- including 3 million children under the age of 15. Ladies and gentlemen, seldom has history offered a greater opportunity to do so much for so many.
Tonight, I propose the emergency plan for AIDS relief -- a work of mercy beyond all current international efforts to help the people of Africa.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MADDOW: A legitimately moving moment in President Bush`s State of the Union address back in the year 2003. When all was said and done after two terms of the Bush administration, American help fighting HIV and AIDS in Africa was one marquee issue of compassionate conservatism that Mr. Bush could brag about in trying to shape his legacy for historians and he did come back and talk about the issue at the end of his presidency to remind people about that.
The issue of AIDS in Africa indeed became one of the hallmark causes for a lot of different conservatives who wanted to keep the compassionate conservatism idea alive, conservatives like Kansas Senator Sam Brownback.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. SAM BROWNBACK (R), KANSAS: It`s amazing how grateful people are for -- if you save -- help save their lives. The approval ratings of the United States in Africa, the highest continent in the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MADDOW: But it`s not just that these conservative religious politicians have a generic continent-wide engagement on the issue of AIDS in Africa. The involvement that these politicians have had has largely been focused on one specific country, Uganda. When President Bush came into office, Uganda was one of the success stories in Africa when it came to fighting AIDS.
Their success was built around a strategy called ABC. ABC stood for "abstinence," "be faithful" and "condoms." In other words, first abstain from sex, otherwise be monogamous, otherwise use condoms. And condom billboards, condom promotion was evident all over the nation of Uganda.
This effort to combat HIV and AIDS through that comprehensive strategy worked pretty well. Infection rates in Uganda dropped from about 15 percent to 5 percent from 1991 to 2001.
But then President Bush`s big high-profile push to help fight AIDS in Africa ended up coming with a big catch. American conservatives wanted the focus to be on abstinence, not on condoms.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BROWNBACK: It`s abstinence-focused. If you want to stop the spread, the key best way to do it is abstinence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MADDOW: When Congress finally passed the big AIDS legislation that President Bush wanted, Republican Congressman Joe Pitts slipped in an amendment that said 33 percent of the funding -- 33 percent -- could only be used for abstinence programs. Fully, a third of that money earmarked only for abstinence, even as American research consistently demonstrated that abstinence programs just don`t work.
As religious conservatives were pushing abstinence on places like Uganda from Washington, internationally-minded, politically-connected America conservative evangelical began focusing on Uganda as well. Evangelicals like American Pastor Rick Warren and his Saddleback Church; evangelicals like the Family which we`ve talked about on this program with Jeff Sharlet.
The Family, of course, is the secretive religious organization that runs the C Street dormitory for lawmakers in Washington. It`s led by a man named Doug Coe.
Republican Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma credits Doug Coe for launching his own activism in Africa.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JAMES INHOFE (R), OKLAHOMA: Doug has always been kind of the unseen and very quiet. He talked me into going to Africa. I had no interest in going to Africa.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MADDOW: Religious conservatives saw Uganda specifically as a place that they could have some real influence. Uganda`s first lady became an emphatically born again Christian. Her husband, the president, is believed to have serious ties to the Family. Same goes for the ethics minister of Uganda, as well as a number of legislators there.
One of Uganda`s most prominent pastors began speaking at Rick Warren`s mega-church in California. He became so close with Rick Warren that Rick Warren`s wife reportedly called him her brother.
And while Americans were courting that Ugandan pastor here touting their own compassionate conservatism on the issue of AIDS in Africa, back in Uganda, that pastor was taking up the anti-condom cause, holding public bonfires of condoms, conducting some of the most extreme anti-gay preaching and activism anywhere in the world.
Evangelicals and conservative politicians in this country saw Uganda as a place that they could leave their mark. Senator Sam Brownback traveled there to look into the AIDS issue in 2005. Senator James Inhofe made at least 20 trips to Africa just since 1999, mostly to Uganda as well as Ethiopia.
In March of this year, a group of three American evangelicals traveled to Uganda for a conference on the evils of homosexuality. Their message was that homosexuality is a choice, that it can be cured by a relationship with Jesus, that, in short, you can pray the gay away.
There`s been a dual effort under way here: anti-gay proselytizing by American evangelicals and assurances from conservative American politicians that we can solve that nation`s AIDS problem.
The culmination of these efforts -- this massive focus on Uganda -- is a piece of legislation that`s been introduced in that country now that attempts, it says, to tackle the AIDS problem in that country and the problem of homosexuality all at once. It`s a bill that calls for the execution of any gay Ugandan who is HIV positive, who is caught having gay sex -- death by hanging specifically. And it`s not just gay Ugandans who are HIV positive who are being targeted, the sentence just for being gay is life imprisonment.
The sentence for knowing somebody who is gay and not reporting them to authorities, presumably so they can be prosecuted, is three years in prison. This bill was written by a Ugandan legislator purportedly taken in by Republican Senator James Inhofe and the Family here in America.
Having lit this fuse and created this environment in Uganda where a bill like this can exist, some American evangelicals and conservative politicians are now sort of washing their hands of the whole situation.
Pastor Rick Warren is saying, quote, "It`s not my personal calling as a pastor in America to comment or interfere in the political process of other nations."
The evangelical leaders who went there in March are now saying their intent was not at all to inspire this type of legislation.
But what about all of the conservative politicians in this country who have shown themselves to have such influence in Uganda and who have decided to concern themselves so publicly with this one specific country in Africa?
Now that there`s a bill in that country that calls for the execution of people who are gay in that country for the simple fact of being gay, those politicians maybe should say what they think about it.
Family-linked Senator Tom Coburn`s office is telling us today that the senator does not support the legislation. When we asked his office whether he would communicate that to officials in Uganda where it might matter, the senator had no comment.
Family-linked Congressman Bart Stupak`s office telling us, quote, "Any claim that I support the legislation before the Ugandan parliament is as clueless as it is false." Mr. Stupak`s office adding that he believes the State Department is looking into it.
Indeed, the State Department telling us exclusively today that they are looking into the matter saying, quote, "If adopted, a bill further criminalizing homosexuality would constitute a significant step backwards for the protection of human rights in Uganda." The State Department tells us that they are in the process of raising this issue with Ugandan authorities.
Now, the office of Congressman Joe Pitts, who slipped in that pro- abstinence language telling us today -- who slipped in that pro-abstinence language in the Bush AIDS bill, he told us today, quote, "What the Ugandan legislation proposes to do is unambiguously wrong and I hope they will not proceed with it."
These statements, of course, encouraging. Some other senators remain silent on the issue as yet. Senator John Ensign`s office, for example, told us today they could not get an answer from him on this issue because he`s been so focused on health care.
We made repeated calls to the offices of Senator James Inhofe and Senator Sam Brownback. We have yet to hear back from either of them on this issue -- despite the fact they`ve been so proudly outspoken on issues affecting Uganda and, specifically, sexuality in Uganda in the past.
Conservative politicians and evangelicals in this country have made a really big push into Africa in recent years and they`ve even been very delighted to get some political acclaim as compassionate conservatives for having done so.
When a human rights disaster like this is born in that country that they`ve taken so much pride in showing off their influence in, in a country they have been intimately involved in, it could be argued that it is incumbent upon those politicians to at least say what they think about that legislation, if not take action in that country in which they have such influence. We`ll keep you posted on what we hear from them, their future actions or lack thereof.
From Crooks and Liars:
Rachel follows up on her reporting on the 'kill the gays' bill being considered in Uganda. Her show attempted to get some responses from the American legislators who have decided to inject themselves so deeply into African politics - with predictable results. Most of them either tried to wash their hands of their part in this absolutely horrid piece of proposed legislation or didn’t bother to respond at all. The scandal ridden John Ensign’s office said he was too busy screwing up the health care bill to give a response.
James Inhofe and Sam Brownback didn’t bother to respond, either. Don’t hold your breath waiting on those two knuckle-draggers, Rachel. I’m sure it will be a cold day in hell before either of them bother to tell the evil “librul” lesbian woman why they could care less if you were killed if you were unfortunate enough to live in Uganda, assuming this law gets passed.
Props to Rachel for keeping after this story. It has to be one of the most disgusting news items I’ve watched in a very long time and these C-Street wingers need to be held to account for their actions. It’s a shame the rest of the media is not giving this story the attention it deserves. They’re too busy chasing around the White House party crashers or Tiger Woods’ mistresses.
Transcript via Nexis Lexis below the fold.
GEORGE W. BUSH, THEN-U.S. PRESIDENT: Today on the continent of Africa, nearly 30 million people have the AIDS virus -- including 3 million children under the age of 15. Ladies and gentlemen, seldom has history offered a greater opportunity to do so much for so many.
Tonight, I propose the emergency plan for AIDS relief -- a work of mercy beyond all current international efforts to help the people of Africa.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MADDOW: A legitimately moving moment in President Bush`s State of the Union address back in the year 2003. When all was said and done after two terms of the Bush administration, American help fighting HIV and AIDS in Africa was one marquee issue of compassionate conservatism that Mr. Bush could brag about in trying to shape his legacy for historians and he did come back and talk about the issue at the end of his presidency to remind people about that.
The issue of AIDS in Africa indeed became one of the hallmark causes for a lot of different conservatives who wanted to keep the compassionate conservatism idea alive, conservatives like Kansas Senator Sam Brownback.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. SAM BROWNBACK (R), KANSAS: It`s amazing how grateful people are for -- if you save -- help save their lives. The approval ratings of the United States in Africa, the highest continent in the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MADDOW: But it`s not just that these conservative religious politicians have a generic continent-wide engagement on the issue of AIDS in Africa. The involvement that these politicians have had has largely been focused on one specific country, Uganda. When President Bush came into office, Uganda was one of the success stories in Africa when it came to fighting AIDS.
Their success was built around a strategy called ABC. ABC stood for "abstinence," "be faithful" and "condoms." In other words, first abstain from sex, otherwise be monogamous, otherwise use condoms. And condom billboards, condom promotion was evident all over the nation of Uganda.
This effort to combat HIV and AIDS through that comprehensive strategy worked pretty well. Infection rates in Uganda dropped from about 15 percent to 5 percent from 1991 to 2001.
But then President Bush`s big high-profile push to help fight AIDS in Africa ended up coming with a big catch. American conservatives wanted the focus to be on abstinence, not on condoms.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BROWNBACK: It`s abstinence-focused. If you want to stop the spread, the key best way to do it is abstinence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MADDOW: When Congress finally passed the big AIDS legislation that President Bush wanted, Republican Congressman Joe Pitts slipped in an amendment that said 33 percent of the funding -- 33 percent -- could only be used for abstinence programs. Fully, a third of that money earmarked only for abstinence, even as American research consistently demonstrated that abstinence programs just don`t work.
As religious conservatives were pushing abstinence on places like Uganda from Washington, internationally-minded, politically-connected America conservative evangelical began focusing on Uganda as well. Evangelicals like American Pastor Rick Warren and his Saddleback Church; evangelicals like the Family which we`ve talked about on this program with Jeff Sharlet.
The Family, of course, is the secretive religious organization that runs the C Street dormitory for lawmakers in Washington. It`s led by a man named Doug Coe.
Republican Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma credits Doug Coe for launching his own activism in Africa.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JAMES INHOFE (R), OKLAHOMA: Doug has always been kind of the unseen and very quiet. He talked me into going to Africa. I had no interest in going to Africa.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MADDOW: Religious conservatives saw Uganda specifically as a place that they could have some real influence. Uganda`s first lady became an emphatically born again Christian. Her husband, the president, is believed to have serious ties to the Family. Same goes for the ethics minister of Uganda, as well as a number of legislators there.
One of Uganda`s most prominent pastors began speaking at Rick Warren`s mega-church in California. He became so close with Rick Warren that Rick Warren`s wife reportedly called him her brother.
And while Americans were courting that Ugandan pastor here touting their own compassionate conservatism on the issue of AIDS in Africa, back in Uganda, that pastor was taking up the anti-condom cause, holding public bonfires of condoms, conducting some of the most extreme anti-gay preaching and activism anywhere in the world.
Evangelicals and conservative politicians in this country saw Uganda as a place that they could leave their mark. Senator Sam Brownback traveled there to look into the AIDS issue in 2005. Senator James Inhofe made at least 20 trips to Africa just since 1999, mostly to Uganda as well as Ethiopia.
In March of this year, a group of three American evangelicals traveled to Uganda for a conference on the evils of homosexuality. Their message was that homosexuality is a choice, that it can be cured by a relationship with Jesus, that, in short, you can pray the gay away.
There`s been a dual effort under way here: anti-gay proselytizing by American evangelicals and assurances from conservative American politicians that we can solve that nation`s AIDS problem.
The culmination of these efforts -- this massive focus on Uganda -- is a piece of legislation that`s been introduced in that country now that attempts, it says, to tackle the AIDS problem in that country and the problem of homosexuality all at once. It`s a bill that calls for the execution of any gay Ugandan who is HIV positive, who is caught having gay sex -- death by hanging specifically. And it`s not just gay Ugandans who are HIV positive who are being targeted, the sentence just for being gay is life imprisonment.
The sentence for knowing somebody who is gay and not reporting them to authorities, presumably so they can be prosecuted, is three years in prison. This bill was written by a Ugandan legislator purportedly taken in by Republican Senator James Inhofe and the Family here in America.
Having lit this fuse and created this environment in Uganda where a bill like this can exist, some American evangelicals and conservative politicians are now sort of washing their hands of the whole situation.
Pastor Rick Warren is saying, quote, "It`s not my personal calling as a pastor in America to comment or interfere in the political process of other nations."
The evangelical leaders who went there in March are now saying their intent was not at all to inspire this type of legislation.
But what about all of the conservative politicians in this country who have shown themselves to have such influence in Uganda and who have decided to concern themselves so publicly with this one specific country in Africa?
Now that there`s a bill in that country that calls for the execution of people who are gay in that country for the simple fact of being gay, those politicians maybe should say what they think about it.
Family-linked Senator Tom Coburn`s office is telling us today that the senator does not support the legislation. When we asked his office whether he would communicate that to officials in Uganda where it might matter, the senator had no comment.
Family-linked Congressman Bart Stupak`s office telling us, quote, "Any claim that I support the legislation before the Ugandan parliament is as clueless as it is false." Mr. Stupak`s office adding that he believes the State Department is looking into it.
Indeed, the State Department telling us exclusively today that they are looking into the matter saying, quote, "If adopted, a bill further criminalizing homosexuality would constitute a significant step backwards for the protection of human rights in Uganda." The State Department tells us that they are in the process of raising this issue with Ugandan authorities.
Now, the office of Congressman Joe Pitts, who slipped in that pro- abstinence language telling us today -- who slipped in that pro-abstinence language in the Bush AIDS bill, he told us today, quote, "What the Ugandan legislation proposes to do is unambiguously wrong and I hope they will not proceed with it."
These statements, of course, encouraging. Some other senators remain silent on the issue as yet. Senator John Ensign`s office, for example, told us today they could not get an answer from him on this issue because he`s been so focused on health care.
We made repeated calls to the offices of Senator James Inhofe and Senator Sam Brownback. We have yet to hear back from either of them on this issue -- despite the fact they`ve been so proudly outspoken on issues affecting Uganda and, specifically, sexuality in Uganda in the past.
Conservative politicians and evangelicals in this country have made a really big push into Africa in recent years and they`ve even been very delighted to get some political acclaim as compassionate conservatives for having done so.
When a human rights disaster like this is born in that country that they`ve taken so much pride in showing off their influence in, in a country they have been intimately involved in, it could be argued that it is incumbent upon those politicians to at least say what they think about that legislation, if not take action in that country in which they have such influence. We`ll keep you posted on what we hear from them, their future actions or lack thereof.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Rachel Maddow - RNC seeks to further shrink membership
There is no redeeming the GOP. A more sorry bunch of miscreants has never been seen in our country. A "purity" test may, in fact, be good for the Democrats, but I'm not sure it's good for the country.
If I were a Republican, I would be distressed with the fact that the GOP has no vision, no plan, no dream for the country. This "purity" test is all negative! The Republican Party has indeed become the party of NO!
If I were a Republican, I would be distressed with the fact that the GOP has no vision, no plan, no dream for the country. This "purity" test is all negative! The Republican Party has indeed become the party of NO!
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Keith Olbermann - Worst Person in the World? Glenn Beck, again
The Right went nuts when Alan Grayson called a K Street whore a whore, which she is, but not a word when Beck calls a U.S. Senator a "hooker."
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Pedophile Priests Protected Not Only By Church But Also By Police!
And this is the benighted church that claims the moral high ground on abortion, birth control, gay marriage, etc.
From BBC via Crooks and Liars:
November 27, 2009 BBC World
DUBLIN, Ireland — Police officers, government officials and bishops of the Catholic church in Ireland have been harshly censured in a report on clerical child abuse over three decades in the Archdiocese of Dublin. Coming just a few months after an equally harsh report on the ill-treatment of children in Church-run industrial schools, the latest revelations have shocked Catholics and non-Catholics alike throughout the island.
An official commission investigated 320 allegations against a sample of 46 out of 183 priests from 1975 to 2004. It found that several cardinals and bishops protected criminal priests while taking no action to protect children.
Responding to the report, Ireland’s Justice Minister Dermot Ahern said that “the era where evil people could do so under the cover of the cloth, facilitated and shielded from the consequences by their authorities, while the lives of children were ruined with such cruelty, is over for good.” He added: “The bottom line is this: A collar will protect no criminal.”
In one of the most telling comments, the religious affairs correspondent of Irish national broadcaster RTE said on the main evening news that the report “represents the failure of civil Ireland, in the independent republic of Ireland, to stand up to the royalty of Ireland, the Catholic Church.” Deference to the clergy in this once devoutly Catholic country caused the police to conclude that the crimes of the Catholic Church were outside their remit.
From BBC via Crooks and Liars:
November 27, 2009 BBC World
DUBLIN, Ireland — Police officers, government officials and bishops of the Catholic church in Ireland have been harshly censured in a report on clerical child abuse over three decades in the Archdiocese of Dublin. Coming just a few months after an equally harsh report on the ill-treatment of children in Church-run industrial schools, the latest revelations have shocked Catholics and non-Catholics alike throughout the island.
An official commission investigated 320 allegations against a sample of 46 out of 183 priests from 1975 to 2004. It found that several cardinals and bishops protected criminal priests while taking no action to protect children.
Responding to the report, Ireland’s Justice Minister Dermot Ahern said that “the era where evil people could do so under the cover of the cloth, facilitated and shielded from the consequences by their authorities, while the lives of children were ruined with such cruelty, is over for good.” He added: “The bottom line is this: A collar will protect no criminal.”
In one of the most telling comments, the religious affairs correspondent of Irish national broadcaster RTE said on the main evening news that the report “represents the failure of civil Ireland, in the independent republic of Ireland, to stand up to the royalty of Ireland, the Catholic Church.” Deference to the clergy in this once devoutly Catholic country caused the police to conclude that the crimes of the Catholic Church were outside their remit.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Beck Asks His Audience to Imagine a Terrorist Attack For the Holiday Season
This guy becomes crazier with every passing day! I'm amazed that someone named Glenn Beck, an insane wacko who is full of more shit than the proverbial Christmas goose, is allowed to spew his venom over the air waves every single day creating waves of hatred for our president and our government.
Is this a great country, or what?
From Crooks & Liars (Heather):
Happy holidays from Glenn Beck everybody! Beck in another one of his phony populist rants asks his audience to imagine a terrorist attack on the United States where we’re as lucky as we were when the World Trade Center was hit. Just when I think this clown can't get much worse, he manages to one up himself again. I will be thankful when he finally is no longer polluting our airways.
Beck: You know everything is too big to fail, but nobody talks about the little guy. Nobody talks about the individual. Let me ask you this question. Please ponder this over the holiday season. Heaven forbid anything happens. God help us if al Qaeda would come but imagine if somebody could succeed in blowing up any of our great American icons. If they destroyed all of Washington, let’s just pretend that we would be as lucky as we were with the World Trade Center where everybody was gone or most people were gone—and they destroyed the Washington Monument and everything else—all of our enduring symbols, all the monuments we’ve always treasured—would it matter?
I don’t think so. The monuments are meaningless. The monuments are there to remind us who we are. But we have forgotten. We have become about the structure. We are the people that defeated the most powerful empire on earth as a group of rag-tag farming colonists. We were the people that explored. We mapped. We tamed the west. We crossed the mountains in wagons. We stunned the world with technical marvels and defeated the Nazis. We defeated the communists. We walked on the moon.
Nobody else has ever done that. We are Americans—rich or poor. We have always believed in the rugged individualism and self-actualization. We are not the people I think the people in Washington think we are. We are not fearful people. We are not people that give in or give up. We’re not about to give into some new whiney mentality where “Ooh, somebody help me”. That’s not who we are.
The only one that is too big to fail is you. And the only one that will, the only one that will create your failure is you. The only way the United States government, or the United States of America, or we fail as a collective is if we fail as individuals. And the only way guaranteed we as individuals will fail is to depend on the government to prop us up. That is just not who we are. And for me I am thankful for that.
Is this a great country, or what?
From Crooks & Liars (Heather):
Happy holidays from Glenn Beck everybody! Beck in another one of his phony populist rants asks his audience to imagine a terrorist attack on the United States where we’re as lucky as we were when the World Trade Center was hit. Just when I think this clown can't get much worse, he manages to one up himself again. I will be thankful when he finally is no longer polluting our airways.
Beck: You know everything is too big to fail, but nobody talks about the little guy. Nobody talks about the individual. Let me ask you this question. Please ponder this over the holiday season. Heaven forbid anything happens. God help us if al Qaeda would come but imagine if somebody could succeed in blowing up any of our great American icons. If they destroyed all of Washington, let’s just pretend that we would be as lucky as we were with the World Trade Center where everybody was gone or most people were gone—and they destroyed the Washington Monument and everything else—all of our enduring symbols, all the monuments we’ve always treasured—would it matter?
I don’t think so. The monuments are meaningless. The monuments are there to remind us who we are. But we have forgotten. We have become about the structure. We are the people that defeated the most powerful empire on earth as a group of rag-tag farming colonists. We were the people that explored. We mapped. We tamed the west. We crossed the mountains in wagons. We stunned the world with technical marvels and defeated the Nazis. We defeated the communists. We walked on the moon.
Nobody else has ever done that. We are Americans—rich or poor. We have always believed in the rugged individualism and self-actualization. We are not the people I think the people in Washington think we are. We are not fearful people. We are not people that give in or give up. We’re not about to give into some new whiney mentality where “Ooh, somebody help me”. That’s not who we are.
The only one that is too big to fail is you. And the only one that will, the only one that will create your failure is you. The only way the United States government, or the United States of America, or we fail as a collective is if we fail as individuals. And the only way guaranteed we as individuals will fail is to depend on the government to prop us up. That is just not who we are. And for me I am thankful for that.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Rachel Maddow - Centrist Republicans veer right
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The cracker is God and Kennedy isn't having any!
[Image from the Huffington Post]Things seem to have heated up recently. Kennedy told the Providence Journal that Bishop Tobin has banned him from receiving the god cracker. "The bishop instructed me not to take Communion and said that he has instructed the diocesan priests not to give me Communion," saith Kennedy.
Heh. Heh. Well, Mr. Kennedy, why don't you tell this cracker of a bishop to take his god cracker and shove it where the sun don't shine? Who needs this? And why would you remain a member or want to remain a member of the organization that still lives mainly in the 16th century?
As long as you continue in the organization and insist on your right to receive the god cracker, the bishop's got you over a barrel and can send your sorry soul right to hell. But, if you tell the bishop to go to hell, and get out of that miserable institution, which has utterly no moral credence anymore (if it ever had!), you're free!
The truth will set you free! And here's a hint: there is no god in the cracker no matter how many times a priest says the magic words!
There's more here.
Florida's Senator, George LeMieux, a pawn of Miami's Cuban Community
When Charlie Crist appointed this nogoodnik to the U.S. Senate, many of us in Florida recoiled in horror. George LeMieux is a typical Repugnican wingnut who lives for the corporations who own his soul, and is a pawn of the rabid Cuban community in Miami.
Thus, LeMieux is front and center blocking the man the Obama administration has appointed to be our new ambassador to Brazil. Why would LeMieux do this? He's supposed to sit quietly in his Senate seat, keep his big mouth shut, and step aside when Charlie leaves the governorship to run for the Senate himself.
Here's why: The man nominated to become our ambassador to Brazil is Tom Shannon. Under Georgi W. Bushy, Shannon served as assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs. But, according to the goofball Cubans in Miami, "he wasn't tough enough on the Castro regime..."
But there's more. LeMieux is still working for Crist. And Crist is up against a Cuban-American in his bid for a seat in the Senate. So, LeMieux, it is said, is "trying to burnish his Cuba credentials to help Crist ..."
The Cuban community in Miami consists of a bunch of retrograde Castro haters who still think it's 1960. If they had their way, the U.S. would have taken Castro out long ago and forced their version of democracy on the island, which generally means the rich rule and the poor get the scraps.
And the rightwingnut Florida legislators in Congress, who are in bed with the aforementioned rabid Cuban community in Miami, are backing LeMieux one hundred percent.
Remember that LeMieux knows from nothing about Latin America. But under arcane Senate rules, one senator can put a "hold" on a nomination so it can go nowhere. Before LeMieux it was the nogoodnik Jim DeMint from, naturally, South Carolina, who held up Shannon's nomination.
The Obama administration is not happy, and claims that LeMieux's recalcitrance is messing up our relationship with Brazil.
Nine former assistant secretaries of state sent a letter to LeMieux asking him to withdraw his opposition to Shannon. Bernard Aronson, one of these former assistant secretaries of state, said that LeMieux "has every right, if he doesn't think this individual is qualified, to go to the floor and make his case, but why should one freshman senator with no background in Latin America, no background in Brazil, decide the Senate can't vote on the president's nominee?"
Why? Because with Repugnicans like LeMieux, it is eternally about politics, not about what's good for the country. Everything in this world is political. LeMieux doesn't give a rat's ass about Brazil or any other country in Latin America. He's playing to his base to give his old buddy, Charlie, a leg up. Well, he probably hates Castro, too, but that's not what this is all about. If the Cuban community in Miami told LeMieux they would support Charlie if LeMieux kissed Castro's ass, he would do it.
It's the usual game. And any respect I ever had for Charlie Crist has long since disappeared. He's turned out to be a disappointing governor in many ways (the only good thing he's done that I can think of is accept the stimulus money which has helped our schools immensely) and his appointment of LeMieux smacks of cronyism and political chicanery.
(The material in this post was obtained from an article at McClatchy, published on Thursday, November 19.)
Thus, LeMieux is front and center blocking the man the Obama administration has appointed to be our new ambassador to Brazil. Why would LeMieux do this? He's supposed to sit quietly in his Senate seat, keep his big mouth shut, and step aside when Charlie leaves the governorship to run for the Senate himself.
Here's why: The man nominated to become our ambassador to Brazil is Tom Shannon. Under Georgi W. Bushy, Shannon served as assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs. But, according to the goofball Cubans in Miami, "he wasn't tough enough on the Castro regime..."
But there's more. LeMieux is still working for Crist. And Crist is up against a Cuban-American in his bid for a seat in the Senate. So, LeMieux, it is said, is "trying to burnish his Cuba credentials to help Crist ..."
The Cuban community in Miami consists of a bunch of retrograde Castro haters who still think it's 1960. If they had their way, the U.S. would have taken Castro out long ago and forced their version of democracy on the island, which generally means the rich rule and the poor get the scraps.
And the rightwingnut Florida legislators in Congress, who are in bed with the aforementioned rabid Cuban community in Miami, are backing LeMieux one hundred percent.
Remember that LeMieux knows from nothing about Latin America. But under arcane Senate rules, one senator can put a "hold" on a nomination so it can go nowhere. Before LeMieux it was the nogoodnik Jim DeMint from, naturally, South Carolina, who held up Shannon's nomination.
The Obama administration is not happy, and claims that LeMieux's recalcitrance is messing up our relationship with Brazil.
Nine former assistant secretaries of state sent a letter to LeMieux asking him to withdraw his opposition to Shannon. Bernard Aronson, one of these former assistant secretaries of state, said that LeMieux "has every right, if he doesn't think this individual is qualified, to go to the floor and make his case, but why should one freshman senator with no background in Latin America, no background in Brazil, decide the Senate can't vote on the president's nominee?"
Why? Because with Repugnicans like LeMieux, it is eternally about politics, not about what's good for the country. Everything in this world is political. LeMieux doesn't give a rat's ass about Brazil or any other country in Latin America. He's playing to his base to give his old buddy, Charlie, a leg up. Well, he probably hates Castro, too, but that's not what this is all about. If the Cuban community in Miami told LeMieux they would support Charlie if LeMieux kissed Castro's ass, he would do it.
It's the usual game. And any respect I ever had for Charlie Crist has long since disappeared. He's turned out to be a disappointing governor in many ways (the only good thing he's done that I can think of is accept the stimulus money which has helped our schools immensely) and his appointment of LeMieux smacks of cronyism and political chicanery.
(The material in this post was obtained from an article at McClatchy, published on Thursday, November 19.)
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