Majority of Republicans Now Certifiably Insane

If this poll in Newsweek (reported in HuffPo) is true, then by a 52-33 margin, Republicans ACTUALLY BELIEVE that President Obama wants to impose "Islamic Law" ON THE ENTIRE FREAKING WORLD.

This is the result of the non-stop hate propaganda vomiting out of Fox "News", right-wing hate radio, and right-wing hate sites on the Internet. The radicals and extremists on the Right have been assaulting President Obama with an unprecedented barrage of vicious lies, smears, and slanders. The Republican national leadership and the right-wing media figures who lie on their behalf are largely sociopaths who don't give a damn about the truth, and they sure as hell don't give a damn about the vast majority of the American people.

THEY JUST WANT POWER, AND THEY WILL DO ANYTHING TO GET IT--ANYTHING.

And these are the people who will take over Congress if we Democrats, Independents, and sane Republicans don't get off our asses and

A. Register people as Democrats.

B. Contribute to Democratic candidates (see the Act Blue link at the top of my blog roll).

C. Campaign for Democrats.

D. Vote Democratic.

Are you ready to fight back? I know I am.

Leonard Pitts Tells the Truth About Who REALLY Started the Civil Rights Movement

And it sure as HELL wasn't people like Glenn Beck, who claims that "we" (right-wingers) founded the push for racial equality in America, and that Martin Luther King was a Republican in the 1950s (before lunatics like Beck grabbed control of the party). Pitts is having none of it:

But even by those standards, Glenn Beck's effrontery is monumental. Even by those standards, he goes too far. Beck was part of the ``we'' who founded the civil rights movement!? No. Here's who ``we'' is.

``We'' is Emmett Till, tied to a cotton gin fan in the murky waters of the Tallahatchie River.

``We'' is Rosa Parks telling the bus driver no.

``We'' is Diane Nash on a sleepless night waiting for missing Freedom Riders to check in.

``We'' is Charles Sherrod, husband of Shirley, gingerly testing desegregation compliance in an Albany, Ga., bus station.

``We'' is a sharecropper making his X on a form held by a white college student from the North.

``We'' is celebrities like Harry Belafonte, Marlon Brando and Pernell Roberts of Bonanza, lending their names, their wealth and their labor to the cause of freedom.

``We'' is Medgar Evers, Michael Schwerner, Jimmie Lee Jackson, James Reeb, Viola Liuzzo, Cynthia Wesley, Andrew Goodman, Denise McNair, James Chaney, Addie Mae Collins and Carole Robertson, shot, beaten and blown to death for that cause.

``We'' is Lyndon Johnson, building a legislative coalition of moderate Republicans and Democrats to defeat intransigent Southern Democratic conservatives and enshrine that cause into law.

And ``we'' is Martin Luther King, giving voice and moral clarity to the cause -- and paying for it with his life.

The we to which Glenn Beck belongs is the we that said no, the we that cried ``socialism!'' ``communism!'' ``tyranny!'' whenever black people and their allies cried freedom.

The fatuous and dishonorable attempt to posit conservatives as the prime engine of civil rights depends for success on the ignorance of the American people. Sadly, as anyone who has ever watched a Jay Walking segment on The Tonight Show can attest, the American people have ignorance in plenitude.

This, then, is to serve notice as Beck and his tea party faithful gather in Lincoln's shadow to claim the mantle of King: Some of us are not ignorant. Some of us remember. Some of us know very well who ``we'' is.

And, who ``we'' is not.

Read all of Pitts' BRILLIANT column here.

Oh, and one more thing. This is a picture from Birmingham, Alabama, taken in 1963 during a civil rights demonstration.

The man on whom the dogs are being let loose is a founder of the civil rights movement.

The white cops are the kind of people who would be followers of Glenn Beck today.

Any questions?

Glenn Beck Would Have Hated Martin Luther King

Steve Benen is my hero of the day for saying what needs to be said:

As anti-government zealots assemble in the nation's capital for a rally intended to glorify a deranged, self-described rodeo clown, it's worth emphasizing a simple truth: Glenn Beck would have really hated Martin Luther King, Jr.

Beck recently told his minions, "Damn it, we will reclaim the civil rights [movement]. We will take that movement because we were the people who did it in the first place!"

It's hard to overstate how blisteringly stupid this is.

King's "I Have A Dream" speech was 47 years ago tomorrow, and over the years since its delivery, King has taken his place in the pantheon of legendary American heroes. His iconic status was hard-earned, and well deserved. But to argue that the civil rights movement that King helped lead was a product of right-wing activists who hate government and domestic social programs, is to stray so far from reality that it's hard to even capture it with words.

Americans wisely revere the King legacy now, but a half-century ago, Beck's conservative predecessors loathed the civil rights leader. The right-wing snake-oil salesmen whose shtick Beck is borrowing now used words like "communist" and "radical" to dismiss King and his movement.

I saw King's speech on television when I was 11. During the sixties, I also saw on television church bombings, beatings, Klan rallies, and generally vicious CONSERVATIVE assaults on blacks who were demanding their constitutional rights. Beck's attempt to co-opt the civil rights movement is an outrage, pure and simple.

Glenn Beck is a national disgrace, a con man, a self-promoting huckster, a lying sack of sh*t, and a general waste of skin.

However, I don't wish to be critical.

Fox "News" Explained

Yes, the Venn Diagram of the Fox "News" view of President Obama, courtesy of the folks at Cracked. (Click to Enlarge.)

Yes, in the psychotic world of Fox "News", also known as the New (Soviet-Era) Pravda, President Obama is no less than a Satanic figure who embodies everything that the demented, elderly, white, right-wing clowns who watch it hate and fear. These clowns don't, however, always have the exact words or images by which to express their hatreds, so Fox does them a service by associating Obama with every threatening symbol they can imagine.

Think I'm exaggerating? Just try watching Beck or Hannity for five minutes and see if I am.

And then realize just how dangerous Fox "News" is to the well-being of our country.

Republican Candidate for Governor of Florida: Scum of the Earth Rick Scott

Man, I've never seen as many hideously bad Republican candidates as I have this year. And they don't come any worse than Rick Scott, who made a pile of money by treating the health care industry as if it were McDonald's or WalMart--and patient care be damned. Think Progress has the goods on this bastard right here: Here's how Scott made his huge fortune:

Indeed, through an aggressive strategy of rapid acquisitions and consolidation, Scott turned Columbia/HCA into one of the largest health care companies in the world. Forbes magazine noted Scott ruthlessly bought “hospitals by the bucketful and promised to squeeze blood from each one.” HCA/Columbia executives saw health care as any other commodity. “This industry’s not any different than an airline industry or a ball bearing industry,” said David T. Vandewater, Columbia’s chief operating officer. “You run at 40 percent of capacity or at 60 percent of capacity you’re not getting the maximum value out of your assets.”

Under Scott’s leadership, Columbia/HCA pled guilty to an massive array of fraud charges — which resulted in a fraud settlement of $1.7 billion dollars, the largest in U.S history. Columbia/HCA systematically defrauded taxpayers, charging Medicare $15,000 for Tiffany pitchers and other luxury goods, “exaggerating the seriousness of the illnesses they were treating,” and engineering a program where doctors were granted partnerships in hospitals as a kickback for referring patients. In 1997, “disaster struck in the form of an FBI raid.” In July of that year, “federal agents swarmed Columbia/HCA hospitals and offices in five states. Within weeks, three executives were indicted on charges of Medicare fraud, and the board had ousted Scott.” Scott left in disgrace, but not before walking away with “a $9.88 million severance package, along with 10 million shares of stock worth up to $300 million at the time.”

During Scott’s tenure at Columbia/HCA, his cost cutting methods threatened patient care and safety:

– Susan Marks, a technician at one of Scott’s hospitals, was forced to monitor 72 heart monitors by herself. Marks explained, “I have to. I’ve been told you either do it, or there’s the door.” [ABC News, 9/26/97]

– Scott downsized nursing staffs, created conditions where “babies were attended as infrequently as every three hours. Once, the only nurse caring for seven ill infants was so busy she failed to hear an alarm when a baby stopped breathing. A parent dashed to the baby and stimulated breathing, the state report said.” [New York Times, 5/11/97]

– Hospital workers in Florida complained, “gloves come in only one size, and rip easily.” In addition, California employees protested “filthy conditions,” and being “stretched to the limit” as Scott’s company slashed “the ratio of nurses to patients.” [Money Driven Medicine, pg. 119]

And this is who the Tea Party fanatics who run the Republican Party think should be governor of Florida. Scott is simply a CRIMINAL who got away with it, a moral degenerate who made his money by neglecting the well-being of sick and suffering people. What can be done about this?

CONTRIBUTE TO DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA ALEX SINK. You can contribute to the Sink Campaign right here.

Let's Join Together, and Sink Rick Scott Forever!

Yes, One of the Financers of the "Ground Zero Mosque" is a FOX "NEWS" OWNER!!

Jon Stewart (Bless Him!) has the goods:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Parent Company Trap
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Jon Stewart, the Voice of Reason and Sanity--Again

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Mosque-Erade
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Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Gingrich Compares American Muslims to Nazis

Is there a more sickening, repulsive excuse for a human being than Newt Gingrich? Now, he is comparing the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque" (which is, in actually a community center two full city blocks away that does not overlook Ground Zero in any way, shape or form) to the Nazis putting up a sign next to the Holocaust Museum in Washington. You got that everybody? The people putting in the Muslim community center in lower Manhattan are just like the Nazis. Steve Benen puts it well:

Gingrich insisted, without proof, that the cultural center's leaders are "radical Islamists" who intend to demonstrate that "they can build a mosque next to a place where 3,000 Americans were killed by Islamists." (The former Burlington Coat Factory store is not, in reality, "next to" Ground Zero.)...

We're well into the realm of farce at this point, and Gingrich seems to be playing a little game with the media establishment -- let's see just how ridiculous he can be on national television, but still be treated as a "serious" person, and still be invited back.

That's the real scandal here. This miserable, lying, two-bit hack Gingrich has been one of the most frequent guests on network news talk shows over the past year, despite having held no public office since 1998. His smears, his garbage, and his sickening falsehoods are given a respectful hearing. Now, he is trolling the lowest gutters of religious and racial hatred, playing up to the group of sick, hate-filled individuals that make up the Republican Party's "base". It is a national disgrace that an evil, corrupt man like Gingrich has the national platform he has.

The entire uproar over the "Ground Zero Mosque" is yet another example of the perverse ability of the Radical Right to drum up an issue by screeching about it on FOX "News" and right-wing hate radio. The Muslims of Lower Manhattan have EVERY RIGHT to have their community center. The people attacking them for exercising their religious liberty are spitting on this nation's history, laws, and traditions--and Gingrich, Palin, and the rest of the anti-American Right are in front of the mob, whipping it into a greater and greater frenzy.

ADDENDUM: From Balloon Juice: (Click to Enlarge--It's Worth It)

Michele Bachmann, a Brazen Liar--The Evidence

Politifact, which keeps tabs on the utterances of public figures, has an astonishing page on Michele Bachmann. Ten of her public statements are assessed: every single one of them is a blatant, unambiguous LIE. Geez, this psycho lies as much as Sean Hannity does, and that says something. Among her most despicable lies:

"The New England Journal of Medicine released a survey the week that President Obama signed Obamacare stating that over 30 percent of American physicians would leave the profession if the government took over health care."

LIE.

Page 92 of the House health care bill "says specifically that people can't purchase private health insurance after a date certain."

LIE.

Ezekiel Emanuel, one of President Obama's key health care advisers, "says medical care should be reserved for the nondisabled. So watch out if you're disabled."

LIE.

ACORN "could get up to $8.5 billion more tax dollars despite being under investigation for voter registration fraud in a dozen states."

LIE.

"Secretary Geithner has left the option on the table" of abandoning the dollar for a multinational currency.

LIE.

And remember folks--if you don't vote DEMOCRATIC this year, this lying psychopath who has called Democrats "anti-American" and has accused President Obama of wanting to set up concentration camps to imprison conservatives will gain power.

NOW are you going to vote in November?

The Republicans, the Party of the Confederacy

This post by Dennis G. in Balloon Juice deserves to be widely read. It is a powerful and devastating takedown of the attempts by the American conservatives to rewrite American history and portray the Confederate movement as "honorable" and "noble". And Dennis makes these points loudly and clearly:

There are many myths about the Confederacy, but one of the biggest is that it was a political movement built around honor. It wasn’t. It was a movement built around protecting a system of stolen labor and the ‘rights’ of a selective few to grossly profit from that system. Selling ideas of honor, states rights and outright racism was how a small group of 19th century Southern Oligarchs built an army to fight for injustice. Ever since their defeat these Confederates and their idealogical descendants have worked hard to spin their treasonous racist enterprise into an honorable ‘lost cause’ and in recent decades they have completely captured the Republican Party and the modern conservative movement.

In the beginning of the last century the Confederates were early adapters of new technologies to spread their myth. It was D.W. Griffiths’ “The Birth of a Nation” that spread the myth of Confederate honor across America and presented millions of white immigrants a narrative of white supremacy and shiftless, lazy, untrustworthy and threatening blacks. It was a narrative that generations of immigrants embraced as they and their children became Americans and it was a narrative that spread the reach of the Confederate Party and its ideology of hate to all 50 states.

Read the whole thing, and keep it in mind when you hear Republican governors proclaiming "Confederate Heritage Months" or keeping Confederate flags as sacred relics (as does Mississippi's Haley Barbour), or when right-wingers rewrite American history curricula to present the Confederacy as a virtuous "Lost Cause", or when a Republican congressman from Georgia refers to the Civil War as "the War of Yankee Aggression". Roll it over in your mind: the so-called "patriots" of the Republican Party are the biggest fans of the worst group of traitors and murderers in American history, Jefferson Davis and his friends. They remember the greatest act of mass treason in American history with fondness. They are sentimental about the war that killed more Americans than all other wars in which the U.S. has been involved combined. They rhapsodize about a war that was fought for two reasons, and two reasons ONLY:

1. to perpetuate human slavery

2. to tear the United States of America apart.

The Confederate cancer used to live in the body of the Democratic Party, but beginning in 1948, the Democrats began cutting it out of themselves in a difficult but necessary procedure. But now the Confederate cancer has found a new and enthusiastic host: the radical, deeply anti-American right wing that dominates the modern Republican Party and which comprises its "base" of voters. Remember, folks, that it is the CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICANS WHO ARE YAMMERING ABOUT SECESSION. Remember that CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN GLENN BECK IS TALKING ABOUT A NEW CIVIL WAR. Remember that when the malcious adolescents that make up the conservative "leadership" in this country lose an election, they start threatening violence and revolution.

And if you, my beloved Democrats and Democratic leaning independents, don't bother to vote this November, the Confederate Party will win control of the Congress. So yes, it really does matter. You can vote to keep a flawed, often inept but basically correct Democratic Party in power.

Or you can let Jeff Davis and company drag this country down the drain.

It's up to you.

Right Wing Idiot Declares War on Theory of Relativity

No, really.

Actually.

Read about it here.

And then cringe about the possibility of these wretched people coming to power in November, if we don't get out the Democratic vote.

YES! Prop 8 Ruled Unconstutional!

In a victory for fundamental human rights, a California judge has struck down the ugly measure known as Proposition 8, which specifically discriminates against an entire class of our citizens. (A good analysis of this is here.) Prop 8 forbids gay marriage, an act antithetical to the personal freedom on which our nation is based.

Again: civil rights are NOT subject to the whim or wish of other people, and we don't permit people (ordinarily) to vote on other people's rights for a reason. Let's hope this decision stands up on appeal.

A great day for America.

41% of Republicans Are Birther Idiots

CNN has the goods here. From their latest national poll:

"Not surprisingly, there are big partisan differences, although a majority of Republicans thinks Obama was definitely or probably born here," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "Eighty-five percent of Democrats say that Obama was definitely or probably born in the U.S., compared to 68 percent of independents and 57 percent of Republicans. Twenty-seven percent of Republicans say he was probably not born here, and another 14 percent of Republicans say he was definitely not born in the U.S."

These right-wing clowns continue to insult my state (Hawaii) by saying that our REPUBLICAN governor and her administration are lying about Obama's birth 49 years ago today in Honolulu. (BTW, Happy Birthday, Mr. President!) The hatred and stupidity of these birther idiots knows no bounds. They wouldn't believe Obama was a citizen if they had witnessed his birth personally. That they form more than two-fifths of self-identified Republicans is yet another sign of the moral and intellectual rot that pervades the conservative "base" of the Neo-Confederate Party, AKA the Republicans.

Oh, and naturally, the draft-dodging drug addict (you may know him as Rush Limbaugh) continues to push Birther lies relentlessly.

It's Time

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