.This is pathetic.
August 17, 2010
Dear Republican Colleague:
We are writing to you today as loyal Americans who are active members of the Republican Party. We also happen to be proud of our Arab American and Muslim American contributions to the Republican Party.
We are deeply concerned by the rhetoric of some leading members of our party surrounding the construction of the Muslim Community Center in downtown Manhattan. These comments are not only constitutionally unsound, they are also alienating millions of Arab American and Muslim American voters who believe, as we do, in the principles of our party – individual liberty, traditional values, and the rule of law.
[...] it perplexes us as to why some vocal members of our party have chosen to oppose the construction of a cultural and religious center on private grounds.
[...]
Perplexed? Are they kidding us? There is nothing perplexing about Republican's crazed opposition to the NY Islamic center. But for those unfortunate conservative Arab and Muslim Americans who just can't see through the sham, here's the lowdown.
The Republican party is…
a) overrun with bigots and racists…
b) taking full advantage of the xenophobic tendencies of the masses for purposes of political gain…
and
c) milking 9/11 sentiment for purposes of political gain.
That's it. There's no reason for anyone to pretend they're confused or surprised. Republicans have shown themselves to be shallow, small-minded slime willing to do or say whatever it takes to win at the polls.
As for any conservative who is non-white, non-Christian or non-heterosexual, my deepest and sincerest condolences.
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"If I had to pick my favorite song from the 
When you gave up writing creative and informative headlines I was concerned more than upset, but this is just pathetic. Hilarious, but utterly pathetic, CNN.
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This is too dumb for words.
Mathew Staver, dean of the Liberty University Law School and chairman of the social conservative group Liberty Counsel, says a ruling that struck down California's gay marriage ban could criminalize Christianity.
"It's an astounding statement by a judge, and if that finding were to be upheld, it would criminalize Christian beliefs, because the Bible and Christian beliefs historically have clearly indicated that homosexuality is sex outside of marriage – and is contrary to God's design."
"For this judge to say that Christian beliefs or religious beliefs contrary to homosexuality are actually harmful – what that essentially says is, that if that's the case, then you've got to change your religious beliefs, and if you don't, you're going to be penalized as result. That is a very dangerous aspect of this court decision."
Oh shutup, you bigoted jackass. That has to be one of the more inane remarks anyone has yet made over the Prop 8 ruling. It's typical of the nonsense coming out of Liberty University – an institution devoted to propagating hate and ignorance.
The odious legacy of Jerry Falwell lives on.
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Remember the broadband.gov site that some of you visited to test your Internet speed? Well, the results are in. The average advertised broadband speed is 6.7 mbps. The average real speed is about 4 mbps, which is a McEstimated 6% or 600% of the advertised speed, depending on how many martinis you had last night.
Even though the FCC can't regulate ISPs because any regulation will destroy the magic free market fairy dust, cute kittens and shiny ponies that power our Internet revolution, they've proposed a labeling standard that would show how well an ISP lives up to its broadband claims.
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Eugene Robinson offers up some blunt talk:
Lies, distortions, jingoism, xenophobia—another day, another campaign issue that Republicans can use to bash President Obama and the Democrats. First it was illegal immigration. Now it's the so-called Ground Zero mosque, which is not at all what its opponents claim.First, it's not at Ground Zero. The site in question is two blocks north of the former World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan; an existing mosque is just a few hundred feet more distant from the site of the collapsed towers. Second, while the planned building would indeed house a place of worship, it is designed to be more of a community center along the lines of a YMCA. Plans include a fitness center, swimming pool, basketball court, bookstore, performing arts center and food court. Kebabs do not threaten our way of life.
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Giant turtles succumbed to voracious humans, but climate change did in the Mammoths Woolly mammoths died out because of dwindling grasslands - rather than being hunted to extinction by humans, according to a new study. After the coldest phase of the last ice age 21,000 years ago, the research revealed, there was a dramatic decline in pasture on which the mammoths fed. The woolly mammoth was once commonplace across many parts of Europe. It retreated to northern Siberia about 14,000 years ago, where it finally died out approximately 4,000 years ago. The reasons for its extinction are unclear and have been a matter of heated scientific debate. Some scientists have argued that it was principally the result of climate change while others say that it was driven by pressures of a growing human population, or even a cataclysmic meteor strike. Now, according to Professor Brian Huntley of Durham University, that debate has been settled."
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I blame Ted Nugent
Poor battered Michigan desperately needs more new jobs, but I didn't know "Pigsticker" was going to be a growth category:
... Call them wild hogs, feral swine, razorbacks or Russian boar, they've become a serious nuisance across Michigan. The hogs are thought to be escapees from game ranches, where hunters pay $300 to $2,000 to shoot them. Prolific parents, they produce as many as 18 offspring a year. As many as 5,000 are in the wild in Michigan.
The state is fighting back, considering declaring them an invasive species as at least six other states have done. The director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment could add wild hogs to the list of invasives as early as September, as the state's wildlife division recommends, making it illegal to possess them. The hogs meet the definition, since they're not native and destructive.
[...]
The hogs compete with deer and birds for acorns and berries, eat deer fawns and the eggs of game birds such as grouse and quail, and uproot vegetation. They threaten people: In 2008, a wild hog was shot after it chased a young girl in Washtenaw County. They also carry pseudorabies, a disease that can sicken their domestic pig cousins and endangers the state's $500-million pork industry.
The aggressive nature of the hogs makes them popular hunting animals at some private game ranches. On a dozen YouTube videos and in photos, hunters pose at Bear Mountain Lodge near Negaunee with boars they've shot. "This is the real deal, just like Siberia," one hunter says on a 2009 video. "You've got to give this a shot if you're a real man."
Paying someone to run a pre-chosen specimen up where you can blast it from your ergonomic chair isn't "hunting", it's "LARPing with live ammunition." It's slightly more aerobic than shooting your companion in the face little caged birds, but if that's how you measure manliness, you are doing it wrong. Conservationists call feral pigs "kudzu with tusks". The boars are basically 300 hairy, stinking pounds of unmitigated anger and appetites, but unlike Rush Limbaugh, they're fast, tough, and prolific.
And, yeah, I know the self-proclaimed 'Motor City Madman' decamped for wingnuttier climes many years ago, but he's still a pig lazy, selfish poacher.
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"In my opinion, the Serpent was the hero in the###
I'm of course thrilled that Rachel Maddow will be the recipient of the Walter Cronkite Award...but why is her sexual orientation relevant to the amazing, smart, articulate, and most importantly, FACT-BASED reporting and commentary she does for us night after night?
The openly lesbian host of MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show" will receive the 2010 Walter Cronkite Faith & Freedom Award from the Interfaith Alliance in honor of her work covering religion and politics, The Huffington Post reported Tuesday, Aug. 17.
The award "recognizes individuals who courageously promote democratic values, defend religious freedom, and reinvigorate informed civic participation," according to an announcement from the Alliance. Cronkite served as Honorary Chairman of the organization until his death last year.
Maddow will receive the award at a gala dinner held in New York in October.
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Iowa Rep. Steven King
Ah, summer. The corn is as high as an elephant's eye, and so is the BS coming from Iowa's Steven King orifice reaches up to the sky:
KING: I've just started to think about what we need to do and I have made this argument for a long time now that I am in the business of seeking to embarrass the administration into enforcing the law, particularly with regard to immigration.
BYSTANDING CONSTITUENT: He won't do that. He's a Marxist! He's a Muslim Marxist.
KING: He's at least a Marxist. And he surely understands the Muslim culture.
CONSTITUENT: He surely does. That's where he grew up with, that's his culture.
KING: He doesn't have an American experience. He does not have an American experience.
CONSTITUENT: He didn't grow up in America.
KING: Mmhmm.
Well, if by Marxist you mean bailing out capitalists and screwing the masses, then, yeah, no d'uh. What is an American Experience, anyway? You mean that touchy-feely hippie show on Public Broadcasting Socialism?
At any rate, on this slow news day, we here at MPS salute you, Representative Steven "Crazy Eyes" King for keeping us informed and appalled about the various political/economic philosophies of President Carebear. We look forward to your interpretive dance of Leviticus, a pas de deux with colleague and fellow nutter, Bachmann-the-Nut, which we are sure must be coming next.
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Best election summary yet.
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Chinless Mitch in his own words
"I wish we had been able to obstruct more." (NYTimes)
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If Dick Cheney's heart still had a beat, it would have skipped a couple at this news "Not all of the CIA torture tapes were destroyed as the CIA has claimed, according to a new Associated Press report. In fact, the agency is in possession of two videotapes and one audio tape that it discovered under a desk back in 2007. ... Several current and former U.S. officials speaking on the condition of anonymity told the AP that the tapes depict Binalshibh's interrogation sessions at the hand of the CIA at a Moroccan-run facility the agency used near Rabat in 2002. ... The AP reported that the tapes could complicate efforts to prosecute Binalshibh, described as a "key facilitator" in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The recordings, said the AP, could "provide an unparalleled look at how foreign governments aided the U.S. in holding and questioning suspected terrorists.""
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19 out of the 22 states that are suing the federal government over the constitutionality of Obamacare will receive $1 million each to improve their rate review capabilities.
Effing hypocrites. And if Obama had a pair, he wouldn't give it to them.
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Bolton calls for Israel to strike Iran in the next 8 days.
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