Tracking Teh Crazie - Jerome Corsi. Again.

The wingnut birther conspiracy continues.

From Jerome Corsi at WND (of course):

NEW YORK – John Brennan, the Obama counter-terrorism adviser nominated this week to head the CIA, played a controversial role in what many suspect was an effort to sanitize Obama’s passport records.

On March 21, 2008, amid Obama’s first presidential campaign, two unnamed contract employees for the State Department were fired and a third was disciplined for breaching the passport file of Democratic presidential candidate and then-Sen. Barack Obama.

Breaking the story, the Washington Times on March 20, 2008, noted that all three had used their authorized computer network access to look up and read Obama’s records within the State Department consular affairs section that “possesses and stores passport information.”

And the connection to Brennan?  Take a look:

The New York Times noted the two offending State Department contract employees who were fired had worked for Stanley Inc., a company based in Arlington, Va., while the reprimanded worker continued to be employed by the Analysis Corporation of McLean, Va.

The newspaper gave no background on either corporation, other than to note that Stanley Inc. did “computer work for the government.”

At that time, Stanley Inc. was a 3,500-person technology firm that had just won a $570-million contract to provide computer-related passport services to the State Department.

Analysis Corporation was headed by Brennan, a former CIA agent who was then serving as an adviser on intelligence and foreign policy to Sen. Obama’s presidential campaign.

And since Brennan's "connected" to the intrusion it didn't take much for Corsi to paste in a conspiracy:

Investigative reporter Kenneth Timmerman said a well-placed but unnamed source told him that the real point of the passport breach incidents was to cauterize the Obama file, removing from it any information that could prove damaging to his eligibility to be president.

Information like Obama's birthplace, of course.  Two things you should know about the source of Corsi's scoop above - it's Newsmax and it's from January of 2009 about events that took place almost a year earlier.  Was there any sort of investigation in to this?  Is any of it even possible?  Corsi, gives us a clue:

In July 2008, the State Department’s Office of Inspector General issued a 104-page investigative report on the passport breach incidents, stamped “Sensitive But Unclassified.” The report was so heavily redacted, it was virtually useless to the public. Scores of passages were blacked out entirely, including one sequence of 29 consecutive pages that were each obliterated by a solid black box that made it impossible even to determine paragraph structures.

You can read the "virtually useless" report here. From the Executive Summary we learn:

In March 2008, media reports surfaced that the passport files maintained by the Department of State (Department) of three U.S. Senators, who were also presidential candidates, had been improperly accessed by Department employees and contract staff. On March 21, 2008, following the first reported breach and at the direction of the Acting Inspector General, the Office of Inspector General (OIG), Office of Audits, initiated this limited review of Bureau of Consular Affairs (CA) controls over access to passport records in the Department’s Passport Information Electronic Records System (PIERS). Specifically, this review focused on determining whether the Department (1) adequately protects passport records and data contained in PIERS from unauthorized access and (2) responds effectively when incidents of unauthorized access occur.

So the unauthorized access was through the PIERS system. Now we're getting somewhere.  But can anyone actually do what Corsi says these low level data entry employees did?

Not really.  From page ten of the OIG report:

According to CA [Consular Affairs] officials, almost all PIERS users have “read only” access.

There's a foot note to that sentence which reads:

A small number of CA Directorate Staff can edit PIERS records as required by their positions.

So as it's only those State Department employees on the "CA Directorate Staff" who can edit (which, presumably would include "sanitize" or "cauterize") passport records and as the "connection" between Brennan and the snooping wasn't a State Department employee, Jerome Corsi's thesis (that Brennan "sanitized" Obama's passport records to cover up the "fact" that he was born in Kenya) is virtually useless.

But let's assume it's true.  It would be illegal, right?  But if that's the case then why would this happen?

Still, the New York Times report indicated then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had spent Friday morning calling all three presidential candidates and that she had told Obama that she was sorry for the violation.

“I told him that I myself would be very disturbed if I learned that somebody had looked into my passport file,” Rice said.

If Corsi is right, then Rice must've been in on it - if only to cover it up. Jerome Corsi - he's got teh crazie.

Tracking Teh Crazie - 22nd Amendment

I've seen this pop up in a few places and so I am assuming you have, too.

Here's teh crazie from la maison de crazie, WND:

Before President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to his third and fourth terms in office, U.S. presidents had honored the limit established by George Washington that a president should serve no more than two.

And after, the 22nd Amendment formally restricted service in the Oval Office to two terms.

But now, U.S. Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., and a supporter of President Obama, has introduced House Joint Resolution 15 to repeal the 22nd Amendment and thus abolish presidential term limits.

The title of the piece, incidentally, is:

Democrat plan lets Obama run for 3rd term

So we all know it's a "Democrat" plot to "let" Obama rule for another 4 years - can't trust them lib'ruls, can you?  Can't trust 'em not to change the Constitution to suit their radical socialist agenda, can you?

Except this is not the first time Serrano has introduced this.  Nor is he the only one.  Indeed, there's a whole mess of details that WND left out.  Let's start with their very next paragraph:

Serrano has attempted this before, in 2003, 2009 and 2011 with little luck. H.J.R. 15 would require a two-thirds majority vote in favor in both the House and Senate and a majority of support from state legislatures.

Actually, according to snopes.com:

Rep. Serrano has introduced the very same proposal to Congress every two years since 1997 (a total of nine times), regardless of which party was currently occupying the White House...[Emphasis added.]

That's two resolutions for Clinton the philanderer, four for Bush the torturer, and now three for Obama, the guy who's letting Bush get away with the torture.

But I digress.

Here's the text of Serrano's resolution:

JOINT RESOLUTION
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the twenty-second article of amendment, thereby removing the limitation on the number of terms an individual may serve as President.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years after the date of its submission for ratification:

‘Article--
   ‘The twenty-second article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.’. [Italics and Bolding in original.]

Did you know the current leaders in the Senate (McConnell and Reid) co-sponsored a very similar bill in 1995?  Word for word similar.

Did you know who said this?

...in thinking about it more and more, I have come to the conclusion that the 22nd Amendment was a mistake.

This person was also quoted as wondering whether the 22nd Amendment interferes with "the democratic rights of the people" Adding:

They can elect a Senator for 40 years or a Congressman—something of this kind—for as long as they want to. Why don't they have the right to vote for whoever they want to vote for?

Do you know who said that? That would be the 40th President of these United States, Ronald Wilson Reagan. And do you know when he said that?  You'd think, considering the frame teh crazie wants you to use, that it was when the Gipper was a Democrat.

You could think that, but you'd be wrong.

He said both those things in 1986 - during his second administration.  The first in an interview with Barbara Walters and the second during an interview with the Washington Post.

So yea, Serrano's resolution is a Democrat Plan to let Obama rule some more.

Tracking Teh Crazie.

Tracking Teh Crazie - Franklin Graham Style

It's always important to know what your ideological adversaries are up to (it's that whole Sun-Tsu/Art of War thing - see Chapter 3, verse 18).

Today, we take a look at the Reverend Franklin Graham. I started (as I often do when I'm trackin' teh crazie) at World Net Daily.  This morning, I found this:

He was banned from a Pentagon prayer service because of Muslim complaints about his beliefs, and he later charged that Barack Obama has “shaken his fist” at God by endorsing same-sex “marriage,” so no one would expect mild platitudes from the strong-willed Franklin Graham.

But to liken America’s current situation to the status of the Old Testament tribe of Judah under Manasseh, the “wickedest king to rule?”

That the message that can be taken from a recent public letter posted on the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association website.

The WND writer, Bob Unruh, sums up Franklin's message with this:

There, Franklin Graham warns that the nation’s financial cliff is nothing to worry about compared to the spiritual cliff he sees.

And Graham uses 2 Kings 22-23 to warn us about the deep doo-doo we're in - but the solution offered by Scripture can't possibly be comforting.  This is how Graham begins his letter:

My hope and prayer is that the Lord will once again move in our land. It can happen, and we are trusting that a fire of revival will ignite as tens of thousands of homes are opened up this year to share the Gospel through My Hope with Billy Graham.

Oooo...scary forewarning here but no details.  After bemoaning the usual causes (for conservatives) of our once great nation's moral decline ("blatant immorality, senseless violence, media-friendly gay and lesbian behavior" as well as "same-sex couples lining up at courthouses in several states to receive their marriage licenses") Franklin writes:

No question our country’s foundations are being destroyed, but I am reminded of an era in the Old Testament where the Lord moved in a dramatic way to bring godly change to a spiritually dark and depraved nation like Judah, whose moral foundations had been seriously eroded.

Manasseh was the wickedest king to rule over Judah. Throughout his 55 years of evil reign, the land had been defiled with innocent blood. He led Judah into witchcraft, sorcery, and the worship of false gods and idols, including the fertility goddess Asherah. He even sacrificed his own son in the fires of idolatry.

Not many years later, God worked in an extraordinary and unexpected way to bring national revival.

Josiah, Manasseh’s grandson, became king at age 8. Ten years after becoming king, Josiah asked his high priest, Hilkiah, to collect funds to repair the temple that was in disrepair. As they worked, they uncovered the book of the law (the first five books of the Bible). Apparently it had been lost and neglected for a number of years. When Josiah heard the books read aloud by a scribe, he tore his clothes and said, “Great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us” (2 Kings 22:13).

It's a lot to take in, but it exposes what "morality" and "religious liberty" means to teh crazies - this bunch at least.  Let's start with Manasseh.  What did he do?  While 2 Kings 21 mentions "so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from end to end" and a sacrifice of his own son, much more time is spent with Manasseh's religious transgressions:

3 He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he also erected altars to Baal and made an Asherah pole, as Ahab king of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshiped them. 4 He built altars in the temple of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem I will put my Name.” 5 In the two courts of the temple of the Lord, he built altars to all the starry hosts. 6 He sacrificed his own son in the fire, practiced divination, sought omens, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger.

7 He took the carved Asherah pole he had made and put it in the temple, of which the Lord had said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my Name forever. 8 I will not again make the feet of the Israelites wander from the land I gave their ancestors, if only they will be careful to do everything I commanded them and will keep the whole Law that my servant Moses gave them.” 9 But the people did not listen. Manasseh led them astray, so that they did more evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites.

The Lord's initial solution to Manasseh's transgressions?  2 Kings 12-15:

12 Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. 13 I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line used against Samaria and the plumb line used against the house of Ahab. I will wipe out Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. 14 I will forsake the remnant of my inheritance and give them into the hands of enemies. They will be looted and plundered by all their enemies; 15 they have done evil in my eyes and have aroused my anger from the day their ancestors came out of Egypt until this day.”

That's a lot of innocent blood, too. But that's not for me to point out, I guess.  Let's get back to Graham.  He writes:

When the Word of God was then read aloud to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, it pierced their souls and the stage was set for national repentance. Idols were smashed, spiritists and mediums forcibly removed, and the worship of the one true God reinstated. Once again, righteousness ruled.

Not exactly a complete reckoning of the events of 2 Kings 23, doncha know.  Please keep in mind that last sentence as you read this:

4 The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the priests next in rank and the doorkeepers to remove from the temple of the Lord all the articles made for Baal and Asherah and all the starry hosts. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron Valley and took the ashes to Bethel. 5 He did away with the idolatrous priests appointed by the kings of Judah to burn incense on the high places of the towns of Judah and on those around Jerusalem—those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and moon, to the constellations and to all the starry hosts. 6 He took the Asherah pole from the temple of the Lord to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem and burned it there. He ground it to powder and scattered the dust over the graves of the common people.

There was a general purging of any other religious practice in the area (and no mention of any of these events occurring because of Manasseh's sacrifice of his own son or the blood-filled Jerusalem - no, these events occurred due to the religious practices Josiah opposed).  At the end of these tales of destruction we have this:

19 Just as he had done at Bethel, Josiah removed all the shrines at the high places that the kings of Israel had built in the towns of Samaria and that had aroused the Lord’s anger. 20 Josiah slaughtered all the priests of those high places on the altars and burned human bones on them. Then he went back to Jerusalem.

To Franklin Graham, this is a story of how "righteousness ruled."  The solution to our nation's peril?  If this story is any indication, for Franklin Graham it's the imposition of his faith over everyone else and the destruction of any religion he opposes.

Trackin teh crazie.

Tracking Teh Crazie

I took a look at crazie central this morning to see if there's any reaction to the Sandy Hook shooting.

And guess what?  Teh crazies are crazie.

The article itself isn't too too weird - teh crazie's in the comments.

First there's the by now expected Gun Owners of America response:

I only wish a few of the teachers had a few .40 caliber Berettas and knew how to use them...they could have saved the lives of 20 babies and six adults in that school today.

But it doesn't take long for it to go complete batshit:

Barrack won the election - Fast and Furious blew up in his face ! This stinks of a White House - Valerie Jarret planned gun control operation !

And then the proper source of the blame is identified:

You, have to ask yourself since he was elected, why so many gun crimes. Are people hopeless...or has this country under libs melted down to no morale base.

And of course:

What is the penalty for abandoning God..a debased immoral, and violent society. We have systematically removed God from our culture. ~Psalm 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and the nations that forgot God."~

Yea, that's it.  That's what caused the deaths of all those elementary school kids.

Peeking in on Teh Crazie.

Teh Crazie Continues - Birther Style

Where else? But at World Net Daily:

The White House release of a copy of Barack Obama's long-form Hawaian birth certificate continues to raise more questions – since the name of the president's attending physician differs from previous published reports.

The name on the purported birth certificate lists Dr. David Sinclair as the obstetrician who delivered Obama in 1961.

But reports by the Buffalo News and supposedly confirmed by the hoaxbusting website Snopes.com indicate the name of Obama's birth physician was Dr. Rodney T. West.

Well that proves it!

That proves both the long form and the short form birth certificates are FORGERIES! And that Barry Hussein Obama is a MUSLIM! And AN ATHEIST!

Conveniently, both doctors have passed away. How much you wanna bet they were "disappeared" because they were:

• Whitewater investors
• Rose Law firm clients
• Friends of Vince Foster
• Business Associates of Tony Rezko
• Having affairs with Hillary Clinton

The crimes of the Democrat Party are well known. Thank Gawd almighty for Glenn Beck!

Sorry Ruth Ann, But You're Wrong. Again.

From Ruth Ann Dailey's column this week:

It's been perfectly clear for about three years now that questions about Mr. Obama's nationality have no traction. Whether he is a native-born American or has a valid birth certificate or (most recently, thanks to Mr. Trump) was born at a particular hospital -- reasonable people have long since felt the matter settled.

The only ones being hurt by the regular roiling of these waters are those who oppose Mr. Obama on a higher plane -- namely, the majority of Republicans and independents who do not dwell on the lunatic fringe.

While it's true that reasonable people have long felt the matter settled, what about, you know, Republicans?

In a recent poll by Public Policy Polling of 416 Republican primary voters in Iowa, when asked "Do you think Barack Obama was born in the United States?" 48% said no. 26% were unsure. That's 74% who have not settled the matter, Ruth Ann.

But maybe that's just one state. What does it look like nationwide?

In another recent poll by PPP, 400 Republican primary voters were asked, "Do you think Barack Obama was born in the United States? 51% said no and 21% were not sure. That's 72% who haven't settled the matter either, Ruth Ann.

Maybe it's the Polling company. So let's look around a little.

Last August in a CNN/Opinion Research poll, when asked, "Do you think Barack Obama was definitely born in the United States, probably born in the United States, probably born in another country, or definitely born in another country? 44% of the Republicans got it wrong. 27% said he was "probably born in another country" while 14% said he was "definitely born in another country" and 3% had no opinion.

That's 44% of polled Republicans who haven't settled the matter, Ruth Ann. Or at least they hadn't settled it in August of 2010.

Does this mean that Ruth Ann Dailey thinks that nearly half of the GOP isn't reasonable?

UPDATE - Straightened out the grammar of that last sentence.

Ladies And Gentlemen...

CBS News reports some sane words from a prominent Republican:

Former Senator Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) was asked on MSNBC last night what he thinks of the Republican presidential field. After calling New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie - who says he is not running - "quite awesome," Simpson lambasted his party's social conservatives for their positions on abortion and homosexuality.

Simpson, a fiscal conservative and pro-choice Republican who co-chaired last year's bipartisan commission to address the federal deficit and debt, complained that there are "homophobes" in the Republican Party. He went on to say that likely GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum has "said some cruel things, cruel, cruel things about homosexuals."

"We won a governorship there in New Jersey, one in Virginia, by not talking about social issues," Simpson said. "Who the hell is for abortion? I don't know anybody running around with a sign that says, 'Have an abortion, they're wonderful.' They're hideous. But they're a deeply intimate and personal decision, and I don't think men legislators should even vote on the issue."

On the flip side:

Rick Santorum's appearance on Fox News's "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren" on Wednesday night is expected to shed light on his next steps toward a potential White House bid, possibly including the formation of an exploratory committee.

The former Pennsylvania senator has already said he plans to participate in the first presidential debate of the campaign season, one that requires participants to have formed a presidential committee first. The May 5 debate, sponsored by the South Carolina Republican Party and Fox News, will be held in Greenville, S.C.

While I don't expect Rick to get any traction in the next election cycle (with Michelle Bachman and/or Sarah Palin in the race there'd be little room for Rick's frothy brand of teh crazie) I could be wrong. Perhaps running an anti-gay, anti-woman, anti-any religion but Rick's platform might garner him some votes. Who knows? Crazier things have been known to happen. I mean a struggling single mother smuggled her new born baby from Kenya to Hawaii 50 years ago in order to fake his citizenship in order to make him President of the United States in order to destroy the country with his radical socialist Muslim agenda!

Whew - sorry. Caught a little of teh crazie myself just then. I'm better now, thanks.

But honestly, when it's a surprise to hear a prominent Republican point out the cruel homophobia in God's Own Party, one has to wonder how deep the intolerance, in fact, is.

Teh Tea Party Crazie - Herman Cain Edition

Stumbled across this at the Huffingtonpost. It's about Herman Cain and his tea party try at the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. Here's a taste:

His candidacy is not taken seriously by party regulars, but Tea Party organizers in the crowd said Cain has been working hard to gain their support here in Iowa since the summer of 2009.

And his speech had lots of red meat for a Tea Party audience.

“We’ve got some altering and abolishing to do,” Cain said, referencing the Declaration of Independence. “The Founders got it right. It is within the power of the United States of America to alter stuff that we don’t like. We don’t like this radical socialism that’s being shoved down our throats.”

Talking to reporters afterwards, Cain also said he thinks the imposition of Islamic Sharia law is a legitimate threat in America and that he would not appoint any Muslims to any positions in his Cabinet if he were elected. [emphasis added.]

I guess he's never read the constitution. Article VI, Paragraph 3:

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States. [emphasis added]

But where would someone like Herman Cain get his informaiton?

Take a look:


He said:

I read a lot of the papers that are published by The Heritage Foundation. I happen to think–and I’m not on their board, they don’t pay me–they happen to be one of the greatest of sources of accurate analysis, policy and information we have in this country.

Too bad simple Constructional Law doesn't seem to be included - or if it is, it's not enough to overcome some obvious religious bigotry.

As able a public speaker as he is, to Cain it's all about the threat of Sharia Law:

“I get upset when the Muslims in this country, some of them, try to force their sharia law onto the rest of us,” Cain said.

As opposed to those Christians who are trying to force their biblical law onto the rest of us. That's OK, I guess.

Not surprising he's a tea party favorite.

Of Course Right-Wing Rhetoric Doesn't Trigger Violence!

Except when it does.

From the NYTimes:

Frances Fox Piven, a City University of New York professor, has been a primary character in Mr. Beck’s warnings about a progressive take-down of America. Ms. Piven, Mr. Beck says, is responsible for a plan to “intentionally collapse our economic system.”

Her name has become a kind of shorthand for “enemy” on Mr. Beck’s Fox News Channel program, which is watched by more than 2 million people, and on one of his Web sites, The Blaze. This week, Mr. Beck suggested on television that she was an enemy of the Constitution.

Never mind that Ms. Piven’s radical plan to help poor people was published 45 years ago, when Mr. Beck was a toddler. Anonymous visitors to his Web site have called for her death, and some, she said, have contacted her directly via e-mail.

The Nation has more:

On the afternoon of January 6, Frances Fox Piven, a distinguished professor, legendary activist, writer and longtime contributor to this magazine, received an e-mail from an unknown correspondent. There was no text, just a subject line that read: DIE YOU CUNT. It was not the first piece of hateful e-mail Piven had gotten, nor would it be the last. One writer told her to "go back to Canada you dumb bitch"; another ended with this wish: "may cancer find you soon."

Piven was unnerved but not surprised. These are not pretty e-mails, but they appear positively decorous compared with what has been written about her by commentators on Glenn Beck's website, The Blaze, where she's been the target of a relentless campaign to demonize her—and worse. There, under cover of anonymous handles, scores of people have called for Piven's murder, even volunteering to do the job with their own hands. "Somebody tell Frances I have 5000 roundas [sic] ready and I'll give My life to take Our freedom back," wrote superwrench4. "ONE SHOT...ONE KILL!" proclaimed Jst1425. "The only redistribution I am interested in is that of a precious metal.... LEAD," declared Patriot1952. Posts like these are interwoven with ripples of misogyny, outbursts of bizarre anti-Semitism and crude insults about Piven's looks (she's actually a noted beauty) and age (she's 78).

All inspired by Glenn Beck. And before we brush off these threats as no big deal, let's all read some more from The Nation:

It's perhaps not surprising, then, that the pseudo-populist right finds her so threatening. The highly personalized and concerted campaign against Piven, already unsettling, takes on added gravity in the context of the recent shootings of Representative Gabrielle Giffords, federal judge John Roll and eighteen other people in Arizona. But while commentators debate whether the killer in that case—the mentally disturbed Jared Loughner—was inspired by the ravings of right-wing demagogues, the forgotten story of Byron Williams provides a straightforward example of the way hateful rhetoric fuels violence.

In July, Williams, a convicted bank robber, put on a suit of body armor and got in a car with a 9-mm handgun, a shotgun and a .308 caliber rifle equipped with armor-piercing bullets and set off for San Francisco. His destination was the Tides Foundation, which had been mentioned at that point in at least twenty-nine episodes of the Glenn Beck show, sometimes along with Piven. His goal, as he later told police, was to kill "people of importance at the Tides Foundation and the ACLU" in order to "start a revolution." Williams's mother said that he had been watching TV news and was upset at "the way Congress was railroading through all these left-wing-agenda items." Or, as Williams himself put it, "I would have never started watching Fox News if it wasn't for the fact that Beck was on there. And it was the things that he did, it was the things he exposed that blew my mind." California Highway Patrol officers pulled Williams over for driving erratically and, after a firefight, subdued and arrested him before he could blow anyone else's mind away.

For what it's worth, Beck has denounced violence. Take a look:

I denounce violence, regardless of ideological motivation.
I denounce anyone, from the Left, the Right or middle, who believes physical violence is the answer to whatever they feel is wrong with our country.
I denounce those who wish to tear down our system and rebuild it in their own image, whatever that image may be.
I denounce those from the Left, the Right or middle, who call for riots and violence as an opportunity to bring down and reconstruct our system.
I denounce violent threats and calls for the destruction of our system – regardless of their underlying ideology – whether they come from the Hutaree Militia or Frances Fox Piven.

Now that's interesting, isn't it? A group of domestic terrorists looking to trigger the apocalypse by killing some police officers somehow equals one 78 year old professor from CUNY.

lenn Beck's got teh crazie. But we already knew that.

More Anti-Gay Crazie

Via People For The American Way:

Back in August, Ken Hutcherston wrote a column for WorldNetDaily in which he argued that the behavior of gays ought to be regulated by the government for health reasons.

Here's the WND article.By the way, WND describes Hutcherson this way:

Dr. Kenneth L. Hutcherson is the senior pastor of Antioch Bible Church in Kirkland, Wash. He is also a former NFL linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys and Seattle Seahawks.

WWJD?

Bash teh gays. Obviously.

Anyway the good pastor wrote at WND:

The illusion that the homosexual lifestyle is a normal way of living has been successfully propagated by promoting a "victim" image for homosexual persons and by the pseudo-science alleging a "gay" gene. Evidence does show that homosexual persons are indeed victims – but overwhelmingly of their own behavior, not that of others. Why do cities, states and our federal government help these victims by celebrating with them in gay-pride events, and why do schools celebrate an entire day during the National Day Of Silence? For those who are so health conscience, if you are truly interested in removing those things that are dangerous to society, you need to examine the question of why the deadly homosexual lifestyle is protected.

And then:

Legislators around the country are considering banning sugar and fatty foods in schools, removing salt and butter from restaurants and want to control what temperature you can have in your own homes, because they fear the potential of health problems. Perhaps they should consider banning the promotion of a lifestyle that the Centers For Disease Control has determined actually causes HIV/AIDS. On the Day of Silence, an entire school day is set aside to ensure every young, impressionable student is exposed to homosexuality. Does this really make sense to you?

And that's what, according to People for the American Way, lead to David Barton and Rick Green of Wallbuilders calling for government regulation of gay sex.

Is it any surprise that this would be a source of the nation's homophobia? Pseudo-science cloaked in religious bigotry.

Meanwhile Dan Savage wrote this week:

In the last two weeks, we've learned of five more teenagers who were being bullied and took their own lives: Cody Barker, age 17, of Shiocton, Wisconsin; Asher Brown, age 13, of Houston, Texas; Seth Walsh, age 13, of Tehachapi, California; Tyler Clementi, age 18, the Rutgers University student who jumped off the George Washington Bridge; and Raymond Chase, age 19, a student in Providence, Rhode Island. Their deaths come after the suicides of Justin Aaberg, age 15, of Anoka, Minnesota, and Billy Lucas, age 15, of Greensburg, Indiana.

Hundreds of LGBT people all over the world have uploaded videos to the It Gets Better Project's YouTube channel in an effort to bring hope to kids who are being bullied because they are gay or perceived to be gay. People are sharing their stories and letting these kids know that it gets better. By the time you read this, the videos at the IGBP will have been viewed, collectively, more than a million times. Go to www.itgetsbetterproject.com to see the videos or to upload one of your own.

Yea, let's regulate gay behavior. Let's see more gay teens hang themselves.

Teh Crazie - anti-gay religious nut style.

More On Christine O'Donnell

A clearer picture of Christine O'Donnell, that darling of the Tea Party, has been emerging since she defeated Mike Castle for the GOP nomination for Senate from the great state of Delaware.

She's a creationist.

New York Magazine had a piece out yesterday on her enlightened cosmological views. Have a taste:

This was during one of our country's periodic debates over teaching creationism in schools. In a discussion moderated by anchor Miles O'Brien, O'Donnell squared off against Michael McKinney, a University of Tennessee professor of evolutionary biology. Not only was O'Donnell in favor of teaching creationism alongside evolution, but she wasn't even sure evolution was real.

First there's this:

Well, as the senator from Tennessee mentioned, evolution is a theory and it's exactly that. There is not enough evidence, consistent evidence to make it as fact, and I say that because for theory to become a fact, it needs to consistently have the same results after it goes through a series of tests. The tests that they put — that they use to support evolution do not have consistent results. Now too many people are blindly accepting evolution as fact. But when you get down to the hard evidence, it's merely a theory.

Then there's this:

Well, creationism, in essence, is believing that the world began as the Bible in Genesis says, that God created the Earth in six days, six 24-hour periods. And there is just as much, if not more, evidence supporting that.

She's against masturbation.

From Talkingpointsmemo:

O'Donnell, it seems, is opposed to masturbation, and considers looking at pornography akin to adultery. And back in the 90s, though [on the video] the hair was different and Joan Osborne's 90's mainstay "One Of Us" played in the background, O'Donnell maintained a similar stance: "The Bible says that lust in your heart is committing adultery. You can't masturbate without lust!"

She's got a problem with homosexuality.

From the dailybeast:

Toward the end of the Clinton administration, she protested the appointment of James Hormel to be ambassador to Luxembourg, a posting the religious right opposed because Hormel was gay. “The SALT was concerned about Hormel’s ties to the pedophile-rights movement,” her website said, though there was not a shred of evidence behind the slur. In 1997, in a clip recently unearthed by Talking Points Memo, she appeared on C-SPAN, where, looking fresh, lovely, and innocent, she objected to AIDS sufferers being called “victims” because the disease is the product of their own actions. In an appearance on Fox in 2000, she exclaimed over the horrors of New York’s gay pride parade: “They’re getting away with nudity! They’re getting away with lasciviousness! They’re getting away with perversion!”

On 'tother hand, one ex-aide of hers calls her a "complete fraud" and Bush's brain is on record saying she's said some "nutty things" and that she's unelectable.

Teh crazie. Tea-Party Palin style.

More Crazie (And This One's A BIGGIE)

From Talkingpointsmemo:

To many conservatives, almost everything is a secret liberal plot: from fluoride in the water to medicare reimbursements for end-of-life planning with your doctor to efforts to teach evolution in schools. But Conservapedia founder and Eagle Forum University instructor Andy Schlafly -- Phyllis Schlafly's son -- has found one more liberal plot: the theory of relativity.

And TPM concludes:

Why does Andy Schlafly hate the theory of relativity? We're pretty sure it's because he's decided it doesn't square with the Bible.

One reason they're sure? Schafly gives this reason (among others):

9. The action-at-a-distance by Jesus, described in John 4:46-54.

Huh - The Bible is being used to undermine a fundamental scientific theory.

I mean, when has that ever happened before?

Joshua 10:13:

So the sun stood still,
and the moon stopped,
till the nation avenged itself on [a] its enemies,
as it is written in the Book of Jashar.
The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day.

If taken literally, it proves the Sun moves around the Earth and so therefore the Sun cannot be at the center of the Universe - the Earth (obviously) is. The Earth, the Bible teaches, is immobile.

And yet, it moves.

Just when you thought teh crazie on the right couldn't get any crazier, it does.

Teh Crazie Get Crazier (With A Local Connection)

I just found this at mediamatters.org.

Here's the setup. This is from June 23:


And a transcript:

This president has a problem with flies landing on him. Then we had the bees that were swarming the White House. And then, I don't know if you saw this -- do we have the rodents? Here's the president giving a speech and the little rat running -- watch this. OK. I don't know if he's Doctor Doolittle or what exactly. Do you remember this from the live interview? I've never seen that before. Hello. Yes. OK. Now flies landing on his mouth as he's speaking yesterday. I'm not sure what to make of it. Might be that there's a lot of BS and flies are -- but the president's ability to attract rodents and insects is kind of creepy.

To be fair (and we are nothing if we are not fair), Beck has claimed he was joking about the bees and flies and rats and Obama. This is from Mediaite:

Glenn Beck was talking about bees – specifically, asking the audience at Saturday night’s “Bold & Fresh” tour if they would be surprised to see Pres. Barack Obama one day walk out of the White House, covered head to toe in bees, hovering around him, then shake them off, and see them form the presidential seal behind him.

It was a good laugh line – and the crowd erupted. But it served as the conclusion to a lengthier Beck ‘theory’ about why flies, rats and other insects and rodents appear to be ‘attracted’ to Pres. Obama. Is it because, as his co-star Bill O’Reilly suggested, he is the Antichrist? Well I’m not necessarily saying that, said Beck, smiling. Later in the show, O’Reilly brought it back up and Beck finally relented. “Oh come on,” he said. “I’m completely joking!”

Saturday Night would be July 31st. By the way, Krakauer isn't buying that Beck was joking:

But as I sat in the audience, I couldn’t help but wonder if anyone in the 1,000+ crowd had bought into the complete jokes Beck mixed into his very real, and often convincing, conservative stumping.

And then:

Beck talked about his time at CNN again – “Anderson Cooper was nice to me” he noted. He also recounted his first meeting with Larry King. “So, you’re the Mormon,” he recalled King saying. And then there was the talk about bees and rats and “communist revolutionaries” in the White House. It certainly didn’t sound like Beck was joking about that last one.

Maybe he was and maybe he wasn't. But how many crazies in the crowd believed him anyway?

Or crazies elsewhere?

Like our local Rose Tennant of the Quinn and Rose show:


And as Mediamatters described Rose's crazie:

On their June 25 radio program, Pittsburgh hosts Rose Tennent and Jim Quinn read a listener's email that speculated Obama may be "evil," or an "enemy of the USA," citing evidence from Beck's June 23 Fox News show. Tennent then asked: "Isn't there something ... weird about that? Like all the insects and the rodents come out for this man, or something. Like they're attracted to him. You know like those devil movies ... Like they're attracted to the devil or something." Quinn then referred to a scene in The Passion of the Christ in which, he said, an "androgynous devil figure was walking through the Garden of Gethsemane and the worm was coming out of his nose."

And even if Quinn and Rose are as "completely joking" about this as crazie Glenn Beck is, I gotta wonder how many of teh crazies in their audience believe them anyway?

Teh Crazie, Quinn and Rose style.

More Wingnut Crazie

First a follow-up/expansion on Nevada's Sharron (the extra "r" is for "extra republican") Angle shoring up her pro-life cred.

First there was this:

Manders: Is there any reason at all for an abortion?

Angle: Not in my book.

Manders: So, in other words, rape and incest would not be something?

Angle: You know, I'm a Christian and I believe that God has a plan and a purpose for each one of our lives and that he can intercede in all kinds of situations and we need to have a little faith in many things.

And now there's this. In an interview from late June with radio conservative Alan Stock she was asked this question:

What do you say then to a young girl, I am going to place it as he said it, when a young girl is raped by her father, let’s say, and she is pregnant. How do you explain this to her in terms of wanting her to go through the process of having the baby?

To which she answered:

I think that two wrongs don’t make a right. And I have been in the situation of counseling young girls, not 13 but 15, who have had very at risk, difficult pregnancies. And my counsel was to look for some alternatives, which they did. And they found that they had made what was really a lemon situation into lemonade. Well one girl in particular moved in with the adoptive parents of her child, and they both were adopted. Both of them grew up, one graduated from high school, the other had parents that loved her and she also graduated from high school. And I’ll tell you the little girl who was born from that very poor situation came to me when she was 13 and said ‘I know what you did thank you for saving my life.’ So it is meaningful to me to err on the side of life. [emphasis added.]

Interesting when you ponder the details. Note in her answer the pregnancy of the 15 year old girl is "at risk, difficult" but not the product of an incestuous rape. So right off the bat, she's changing the subject.

But in any event, this tea-party darling of the GOP has advice for 15 yr old girls who are pregnant because they've been raped by their fathers: When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.
Nice. Compassionate. Conservative.

Then there's the "tan tax." From the Washington Post:

Mention the new "tan tax" in a major news outlet and cries of discrimination and reverse racism often follow.

The complaint surfaced on reader comment boards to blogs and news Web sites back in December, when it became clear that the levy -- a 10 percent surcharge on the use of ultraviolet tanning beds -- was likely to be included in the new health-care overhaul bill. Since then, it's been repeated by conservative commentators such as Rush Limbaugh and Doc Thompson, a fill-in host for Glenn Beck who intoned in March, "I now know the pain of racism."

When an article about the fallout from the tax -- which took effect last week -- appeared on the Washington Post's Web site Wednesday, dozens of commenters questioned the tax's legality.

The case can seem deceptively simple: Since patrons of tanning salons are almost exclusively white, the tax will be almost entirely paid by white people and, therefore, violates their constitutional right to equal protection under the law.

Yea, 'cause if there's one place where white people have fallen behind in Amurika, it's in equal protection under the law. We just cain't catch a break!

Teh crazie. It's back and better than ever.

More Tales From Teh Tea Party Crazie

This time it's Rand Paul.

Via the Huffingtonpost, we find this from a blog called Barefoot and Progressive:


From Huffingtonpost:

Is Kentucky Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul a creationist?

Last week, Paul spoke at a conference for the Christian Home Educators of Kentucky at a Louisville church where he dodged a question about the age of the earth and expressed skepticism about faith-based programs.

The first question during the Q&A was from a man who asked a two-part question, including how old Paul believed the world was.

"I forgot to say I was only taking easy questions," Paul joked, adding: "I'm going to pass on the age of the Earth. I'm just going to have to pass."

Barefoot and Progressive tracks down the Christian Home Educators of Kentucky and finds that one of the group's objectives is to:

Protect children from mental physical, emotional, and sexual abuse by secular humanists in a socialist society or governmental system.

Though they never actually get around (as far as I could see) to describing exactly all that means.

Back to Huffington:

Andrew Willis of Elizabethtown, who teaches his four children at home, said he hoped Paul's answer would jive with his own belief that the earth is about 6,000 years old.

"I'm not at all surprised that he didn't want to answer that question," Willis said shortly after posing it. "I know that is hugely controversial."

How is it controversial? Either you accept the science of radiometric dating or you don't. If you don't then the burden is on you to explain how the data points to an Earth 4 billion years old but the truth is something else.

Fun fact about Rand Paul. He was named after Ayn Rand. Rand Paul is pro-life.

Ayn Rand was not. From the Ayn Rand lexicon:

An embryo has no rights. Rights do not pertain to a potential, only to an actual being. A child cannot acquire any rights until it is born. The living take precedence over the not-yet-living (or the unborn).

Abortion is a moral right—which should be left to the sole discretion of the woman involved; morally, nothing other than her wish in the matter is to be considered. Who can conceivably have the right to dictate to her what disposition she is to make of the functions of her own body?

Now that's a surprise, isn't it?

More On Tea Party Crazie

I saw this in the news today:

Since winning the Republican nomination in the Nevada Senate race Sharron Angle has drawn attention and controversy for a host of conservative policy prescriptions that seem well outside the political mainstream. Now, a Democratic source has passed along a radio interview she did back in January 2010 that could end up topping the list.

In an segment that has gone unnoticed since it first aired, the Tea Party-backed candidate told the Bill Manders show -- a favorable platform for Republican candidates -- that she opposed abortion even in cases of rape and incest. A pregnancy under those circumstances, she said, was "God's plan."

TPM has a transcript:

Manders: Is there any reason at all for an abortion?

Angle: Not in my book.

Manders: So, in other words, rape and incest would not be something?

Angle: You know, I'm a Christian and I believe that God has a plan and a purpose for each one of our lives and that he can intercede in all kinds of situations and we need to have a little faith in many things.

Let's imagine a pair of human beings; John and Joan. John's a pig and so he rapes Joan. One of Joan's eggs just happens to be in the right place and John's sperm are numerous and active and easily find it. You know what happens next. Joan becomes pregnant. But she's 14 and John is her step-father.

According to Sharron Angle, it's God's Plan for Joan to give birth.

But if her pregnancy is part of The Plan, then isn't The Rape? The Incest? The Child Abuse?

Or is He just interceding in John and Joan's bareback dance to make the best of a bad situation? But if He can do that, why didn't He do something about The Rape?

I know I am just an agnostic but can someone explain this to me?

It's Teh Crazie, tea party style.

The Global Socialist Climate Change Hoax Conspiracy Coninues

See (again) how high the conspiracy has gone.

From the most recent "State of the Climate" page at NOAA:

The combined global land and ocean average surface temperature for April 2010 was the warmest on record at 14.5°C (58.1°F), which is 0.76°C (1.37°F) above the 20th century average of 13.7°C (56.7°F). This was also the 34th consecutive April with global land and ocean temperatures above the 20th century average.

And since we all know that global warming is a hoax, all the "official" pronouncements from "official" (and though none dare say it, taxpayer supported) guv'ment bureaucrats must be a damn lie.

The conspiracy is sooooo complicated, my friends. Look at what the socialists in charge have been able to accomplish. They've falsified the a huge amount of "data" to support their "theory." The "data" supposedly comes from across the globe in a myriad of different sources (surface readings, water readings, satellite readings, ice core readings, tree ring readings, and so on) and it's all been soooo ingeniously fabricated to all point to the conclusion the socialists want you to believe:

The earth is warming up and we're teh cause of it.

But since we all know that's totally and completely false (if only because of Climate-gate and that stupid "hockey stick" thing) we can only conclude and be awed by how widespread the conspiracy really is.

Be afraid, my friends. Be very afraid. First the "establish" the "fact" that global warming is real, next thing you know they'll be telling us teh gays aren't scary and that we descended from apes.

Teh Crazie - Alabama Style

From Talkingpointsmemo:

In Alabama, a state PAC recently went on the air with an ad attacking one of the Republican gubernatorial candidates for supporting the teaching of evolution in schools and for saying that parts of the Bible aren't true.

The candidate, Bradley Byrne, responded with a lengthy press release vehemently defending his belief in creationism and the infallible truth of the Bible.

The PAC, True Republican PAC, runs a website called "The Real Bradley Byrne" and it's a hoot. Here's the ad that criticizes him for saying, among other things, that "The Bible is only partially true" and that "Evolution...best describes the origins of life." Take a look:


And of course, to Bradley Burn, these aren't just "lies", they're "despicable lies." His campaign issued a press release explaining his positions on faith and the Bible. These are meant to reassure Alabama Republicans that he's an OK guy.

• I believe the Bible is the Word of God and that every single word of it is true. From the earliest parts of this campaign, a paraphrased and incomplete parsing of my words have been knowingly used to insinuate that I believe something different than that. My faith is at the center of my life and my belief in Jesus Christ as my personal savior and Lord guides my every action.
  
• As a Christian and as a public servant, I have never wavered in my belief that this world and everything in it is a masterpiece created by the hands of God. As a member of the Alabama Board of Education, the record clearly shows that I fought to ensure the teaching of creationism in our school text books. Those who attack me have distorted, twisted and misrepresented my comments and are spewing utter lies to the people of this state.

Who said teh crazie was confined to Sarah Palin?

Ohmigod!

Ok, so I woke up this morning with a teensy tiny headache (no big deal, I'm human I get headaches). So I went into the bathroom to get some aspirin and what do you think I found?

An IRS agent barring the door, informing me that my request for an aspirin was being denied.

He added that since to the guv'ment take over of "our" health care system last night, my life was no longer my own, my healthcare decisions were no longer my own and since I had the temerity to think I could make my own diagnosis without waiting to hear back from a guv'ment sanctioned health care professional (he said the wait was only 4-6 weeks for something as simple as a headache), I was required to attend a guv'ment reeducation camp in Montana for a week. At my own expense, of course.

When I inquired how the IRS agent got into my house, I was told "But I'm from the guv'ment and I'm here to help."

Peeking outside, I saw a fleet of silent unmarked helicopters in the air. On patrol for political undesirables, no doubt.

Ok, NOW I'm Sold! SIGN. ME. UP.

For the kids in the audience, Victoria Jackson was once famous. She was on SNL from 1986 to 1992.

But that's completely beside the point. I just found out how completely and utterly wrong I am about every political position I've had for the last, oh, 30 years or so.

Thank you, Victoria Jackson. I now see the truth. The scales have fallen from my eyes (Acts 9:18).

More truth from Victoria (Ms Jackson if you're nasty):

Social Security and Medicare are broke. Baby boomers, like me, are getting old and will soon be asking for it. Socialized medicine makes people die. You stand in a long, long line with a breast lump, clogged artery, or sharp pencil stuck in your eye, and someone like the DMV person, who can’t speak English, has chewing gum, an attitiude, really long fake nails that curl up at the end, and is talking on a cell phone, enjoying their power trip moment, is finally face to face with you. They mumble something incoherent about paperwork. You die. One less person in line for Social Security and Medicare!

Obama legally kills babies and now he can legally kill Grandmas!

Hitler did this. He killed the weak, the sick, the old, and babies and races/religions he didn’t like. Hitler also controlled the media. (Where’s the public debate between scientists on “Climate Change/Global Warming?”) Hitler had the VW bug invented as the state car. What will O’s nationalized car be? So… kill off the weak. That’s the plan. Tax the workers to death. Erase the middle class. Sounds like the evil governments we studied in high school long ago. The evil governments were : kings, oligarchies, facist, socialist, and communist. Now it’s called the Obama Administration. Sounds like candy or a rock band.

Thank GOD for Victoria Jackson. I shudder to think of where my life would have gone had I not stumbled over her youtube clip.