Scary New GOP Poll: "He may be the Antichrist."

By GottaLaff

Nicholas Kamm, AFP/ Getty Images

Get a load of this. And it is a load:

To anyone who thinks the end of the health-care vote means a return to civility, wake up.

Obama Derangement Syndrome—pathological hatred of the president posing as patriotism—has infected the Republican Party. Here's new data to prove it:

• 67 percent of Republicans (and 40 percent of Americans overall) believe that Obama is a socialist.
• 57 percent of Republicans (32 percent overall) believe that Obama is a Muslim
• 45 percent of Republicans (25 percent overall) agree with the Birthers in their belief that Obama was "not born in the United States and so is not eligible to be president"
• 38 percent of Republicans (20 percent overall) say that Obama is "doing many of the things that Hitler did"
• Scariest of all, 24 percent of Republicans (14 percent overall) say that Obama "may be the Antichrist."

And 100% of rational, thinking, reasonable people think these people need to get an education, get acquainted with reality, and get some therapy. And for godsake, stop making inappropriate, offensive Hitler references.

This poll is the latest and most detailed evidence of the extent to which Wingnuts are hijacking our politics. It should be a wakeup call to all Americans and a collective reminder, as we move past health-care reform, that we need to stand up to extremism.

John Avlon's new book Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America is available now by Beast Books both on the Web and in paperback. He is also the author of Independent Nation: How Centrists Can Change American Politics. Previously, he served as chief speechwriter for New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and was a columnist and associate editor for The New York Sun.

This is downright scary and very sad. It has to end, and we need to do much more to counter it.

Please go read the whole thing here.

H/t to my pal at the Daily Beast, John McCartney

Army of God wants YOU

By GottaLaff

Hey kids! Look! A vicious vigilante organization called Repent Amarillo (click on images to enlarge):


How unholy can you get?

They're invested in the usual: porn, strip clubs, guns, and yes, indoctrinating our children:

It's saturated with military imagery: men in uniform, humvees, helicopters, helmets; they compare themselves to special forces; they call themselves the Army of God, and sport Bible quotes glorifying warfare. [...]

They are a "rabid group of religious nuts" who object to the usual targets of fundie hatred — gays — but also harrass people who visit sex shops, engage in consensual heterosexual activity outside the bounds of traditional marriage, and…well, here's a list of their targets. [...]

Keep this in mind. This is the future the Pat Robertsons, the James Dobsons, the Sarah Palins want for us — a kind of Saudi Arabia that differs only in the name we give our prophet.

See above images to see who they specifically target.

Isn't religious zealotry the bees knees?

Earlier today, I posted about the rise in hate groups, including video that goes into some detail. People who feel they have to go to extremes like this must have had disturbing, sad, and most likely violent upbringing. What makes them the way they are? Why are they so afraid?

Much more info about this stellar group of not-Christians here.

H/t: Joeyess

Religious leaflet: Blame the rape victim

By GottaLaff

Bristol Herald Courier-Andre Teague

Keshia Cantor, left, talks to her mom, Pam Yates, about a religious pamphlet that was given to her by a Hi-Lo Burger customer that takes issue with women’s clothing.

A 19-year-old girl was handed a pamphlet through a drive-thru window at the fast food restaurant where she works. She was dressed pretty much as you see in the photo above. “Women & Girls” was written across the top of the pamphlet.

Here's what was inside:

“You may have been given this leaflet because of the way you are dressed,” it begins. “Have you thought about standing before the true and living God to be judged?”

It continues with one essential theme: The sins of men are, in part, the fault of women, specifically women in tight-fitting clothing. [...]

“Scripture tells us that when a man looks on a woman to lust for her he has already committed adultery in his heart. If you are dressed in a way that tempts a men to do this secret (or not so secret) sin, you are a participant in the sin,” the leaflet states. “By the way, some rape victims would not have been raped if they had dressed properly. So can we really say they were innocent victims?”

The hand-out is signed “anonymous.”

So all those elderly women and toddlers who have been raped asked for it?

Sandra G. Rasnake, the sexual assault program director at Bristol’s Crisis Center:

Victim blaming is the most prominent reason rapes are so rarely reported and even more rarely taken to trial. [...] It’s become a societal defense mechanism for dealing with issues of sexual assault. [...]

“Blaming victims is the way we who have not been victimized feel safer,” Rasnake said. “If it’s their fault then I’m safer because I wouldn’t do that. If someone steals your purse, can you imagine someone asking why you had a purse? If you are sexually assaulted, it is not because you come with breasts.”

Nothing like perpetuating the worst kind of message, huh? Lives are destroyed because of a selfish desire to feel more secure and blameless. Or to justify some religious belief. Hey, she asked for it! Slut! Okay, time to get back into my safe little cocoon... reality be damned... until I'm the rape victim.

“It’s insulting to men,” she said. “The men that I know and associate with are not so lust-driven that they cannot control their urges. By this person’s argument, everyone working at Hooters deserves to be raped.”

That last part reminds me of the controversy over Don't Ask Don't Tell. I've said this in the past, but it bears repeating: The implication is that gay men and women have so little control over their sexual urges that they have to be treated differently from straight men and women. Discrimination is justified.

So what about all those military rapes by straight men that have been reported?

To paint any group with a broad brush is absurd.

To blame women for being brutalized, both mentally and physically, is equally absurd.

To spread sick, destructive lies by way of religious literature is, well, a sin.


H/t: Mark Karlin at BuzzFlash

"Please God, destroy filthy america, fully and finally! "

By GottaLaff

As ahuntre said to me in a tweet, "words from the lunatic fringe":

GodSmack: america’s Tsunami


THANK GOD FOR WAILING SIRENS IN DOOMED aMERICA!

Tsunami is coming!

GodSmack!

Prepare for LOTS of that! After you have much, you will wish for death, then after more sorrow and grievous sights, you WILL see death, then hell. Woe unto you!

And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. Revelation 9:5-6

Re 18:8 Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.

Praise the Lord for his righteous judgments!

Please God, destroy filthy america, fully and finally!

Now that's what I call loving your fellow man.

President Obama is insulted on a regular basis, called terrible names, accused of being a traitor, and worse, ad nauseam, yet loons like this aren't called out... unless it's by the occasional blogger.

So where are all those Tea Party protesters demanding patriotism now?



H/t: ahuntre, Gr8RDH

Video- Hannity & Huckabee Trash Obama Over Atheists Meeting With White House

The explanation of this clip on YouTube is "Is the Obama administration distancing itself from religion? Mike Huckabee responds." What a pile of poop.

Tea Partier Charged With Stockpiling Weapons: Palin on "righteous Mission from God"

By GottaLaff

Kate Glass/Gloucester Daily Times A stockpile of weapons and ammunition was found at the Bridge Street home of Gregory Girard on Tuesday night.
/ Staff Photographer

Need more proof of how HateSpew McSmileyFace inspires her followers? Why, here's some now:

The Massachusetts man charged this week with stockpiling weapons after saying he feared an imminent "Armageddon" appears to have been active in the Tea Party movement, and saw Sarah Palin, who he said is on a "righteous 'Mission from God,'" as the only figure capable of averting the destruction of society.

As we reported yesterday, Gregory Girard, a Manchester technology consultant, was found with a stash of military grade weapons, explosive devices including tear gas and pepper ball canisters, camouflage clothing, knives, handcuffs, bulletproof vests and helmets, and night vision goggles, say police. They believe Girard, who pleaded not guilty at his arraignment, was "preparing for domestic and political turmoil," and feared martial law would soon be imposed.

Girard's wife said her husband had recently told her: "Don't talk to people, shoot them instead," and "it's fine to shoot people in the head because traitors deserve it."

Oh, this guy's a real peach. Here's something he posted. Please note the "inner city youths" button:

I have studied the "National Security Force," which is Obama's name for the secret police force he is creating. I have read the new law that gives them the right to operate as an extension of the DoD, carrying firearms, and executing search warrants, executing arrest warrants, and the like. Needless to say, it's a secret police force of some kind, and it appears likely to be created from inner city youths.

So much for that folksy keepy America-y safey thing, eh Sarah? And about that swell suggestion of yours to let the Tea Tantrumers go leaderless... mob rule is so much more preferable. At least Girard had enough lethal weapons for nearly everyone.

Oh, but sharing them would be veering smack dab into socialism. Never mind.

There's a whole lot more here, at TPM.

H/t: HarborGuy, RightWingTurds

VIDEO- Boston Legal's Alan Shore: "Enough of this Freedom of Religion Crap"

By GottaLaff

This was tweeted to me in response to my previous post, Christians claim Matthew Shepard hate crimes law "criminalizes the Bible":



You can't "license persecution":

Alan Shore (James Spader) of Boston Legal argues to cut down on freedom of religion.

H/t: Nanotyrnns

Christians claim Matthew Shepard hate crimes law "criminalizes the Bible"

By GottaLaff

:sdrawkcab denmad os era elpoep esehT

A Christian group in Michigan has filed a lawsuit alleging that a package of hate crimes laws named after murder victim Matthew Shepard is an affront to their religious freedom.

Conversely, Shepard's murder was an affront to his, you know, life.

Filed by the Thomas More Law Center -- which bills itself as the religious answer to the American Civil Liberties Union -- the complaint claims that protecting gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people "is an effort to eradicate religious beliefs opposing the homosexual agenda from the marketplace of ideas by demonizing, vilifying, and criminalizing such beliefs as a matter of federal law and policy."

Thomas More chief counsel Richard Thompson:

"Of the 1.38 million violent crimes reported in the U.S. by the FBI in 2008, only 243 were considered as motivated by the victim’s sexual orientation," he wrote on the group's Web site. "The sole purpose of this law is to criminalize the Bible and use the threat of federal prosecutions and long jail sentences to silence Christians from expressing their Biblically-based religious belief that homosexual conduct is a sin."

So... silencing a life because of sexual orientation is okay. Laws making that illegal aren't. .sdrawkcaB

However, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act clearly stipulates that it does not apply to constitutionally protected speech.

See, what the actual act stipulates doesn't matter. Legalities don't matter. Justice doesn't matter. Bigotry, hatred, homophobia, and "belief" trumps law, decency, and ethics.

It's the naciremA yaw.

Military supply firm to remove Bible verses from rifles

I'm really surprised they didn't put up more of a fight. Gotta's original post about this here.

WASHINGTON – A Wixom company will stop putting biblical references on weapon scopes and other products made for the U.S. military and is sending the Pentagon kits to remove the references from weaponry already in the hands of American troops.

Trijicon Inc. announced the change in policy today after it was learned through media reports that the company has for decades placed Christian references on rifle sights used by the military. The company defended the practice in a statement Wednesday saying it included the biblical references as “part of our faith and our belief in service to our country.”

Today, however, after the Army and the Marine Corps said they would review the practice – which came as a surprise to both – the company opted to change its practice, it said, “in response to concerns raised by the Department of Defense.”

Trijicon said it would remove the references from future U.S. military products as well as those already manufactured but not yet shipped and would send 100 modification kits to forces in the field to remove the references already on optical sights in use.

David Shuster's Twitter fight with anti-gay church that picketed Obama kids’ school

By GottaLaff

Earlier today I posted about David Shuster's disgust at a group of picketers from Westboro Baptist Church outside of the Obama girls' school. Tomorrow they plan on protesting again.

David Shuster said all the right things, so I guess the truth hurt these revolting bunch of vulgar maniacs' widdle feelings:

But Shuster's Tweet set off an argument between the MSNBC reporter and Phelps-Roper.

"Don't forget our Tuesday Sidwell picket," Phelps-Roper Tweeted at Shuster, in reference to the group's plans to picket the school again. "Put away your idols and obey God!"

"Go ahead," Shuster Tweeted back at Phelps-Roper. "Show the entire world the vile, crude, and disgusting protest you put on this [morning] at the Obama kids' school."

Thank you, David. They are targeting children with their hate. Un. Ac. Ceptable.

As Terkel notes, this isn't the first time that an activist group has used the Obama girls' school as a setting for political exposition. In September, the group Operation Rescue held a protest outside Sidwell Friends where they reportedly displayed pictures of fetuses.

"Showing pictures of fetuses to young children will surely convince Malia and Sasha to be anti-choice, and warm hearts everywhere," liberal Fox News commentator Alan Colmes quipped at the time.

Two of my favorite Twitter pals nailed it, David Shuster for directly calling out this despicable group of zealots, and Alan for his snarky truth-telling.

This so-called "church" is shameless. Maybe someone should start picketing them.

H/t: Novenator

Former right-wing leader warns of religious right violence: ‘Anyone can be killed’

By GottaLaff

My very talented buddy Larisa Alexandrovna has written an extraordinary piece for Raw Story. She interviewed Frank Schaeffer (you can view a bonus video of a Schaeffer interview with Rachel Maddow here), who is afraid for President Obama's life, among other things.

I've posted about this very topic a few times, but Larisa's interview is so thorough and informative that it is a must-read among must-reads.

Excerpts:

"Since President Obama took office I've felt like the lonely -- maybe crazy -- proverbial canary in the coal mine," Schaeffer said. "As a former right wing leader, who many years ago came to my senses and began to try to undo the harm the movement of religious extremism I helped build has done, I've been telling the media that we're facing a dangerous time in our history. A fringe element of the far right Republican Party seems it believes it has a license to incite threatening behavior in the name of God."

"The bestselling status of the Left Behind novels proves that, not unlike Islamist terrorists who behead their enemies, many evangelical/fundamentalist readers relish the prospect of God doing lots of messy killing for them as they watch in comfort from on high," he added. "They want revenge on all people not like them -- forever." [...]

And if you want to know what the greatest threat to our president is, look no further than where evangelical "Christianity" intersects with Glenn Beck's fans. The FBI should seize his fan letter email. I'll bet they'd find some very interesting folks out there, people in militias, far right hate groups, and all the rest.

Go here for the rest. It's an excellent, but very disturbing, piece.

New Charles Darwin film is 'too controversial' for religious American audiences

We must look like the stupidest Taliban run third world country to everyone else...

A new British film about Charles Darwin has failed to land a distribution deal in the States because his theories on human evolution are too controversial for religious American audiences, according to the film's producer.

Creation follows the British naturalist's 'struggle between faith and reason' as he wrote his 1859 book, On The Origin Of The Species.

The film, directed by Jon Amielm was chosen to open the Toronto Film Festival and has now been sold to almost every territory in the world.

But US distributors have turned down the film that could cause uproar in a country that, on the whole, dismisses scientific theories of the way we evolved.

Christian film review website Movieguide.org described Darwin as 'a racist, a bigot and a 1800s naturalist whose legacy is mass murder.'

The site also stated that his 'half-baked theory' influenced Adolf Hitler and led to 'atrocities, crimes against humanity, cloning and generic engineering.'

Jeremy Thomas, the Oscar-winning producer of Creation, said he was astonished that such attitudes exist 150 years after On The Origin of Species was published.

'That's what we're up against. In 2009. It's amazing,' he said.

Some Texas schools will teach bible in school, won't let Obama speech air

Seriously, I just want to cry over the stupidity. Here's the DDN coverage of the "controversy" over the President's speech.

A new state law requires that Texas public schools incorporate Bible literacy into the curriculum, but it provides no specific guidelines, funding for materials or teacher training. So high schools are left scrambling to figure out what to teach and how to teach it.

A handful of North Texas districts are offering an elective class, but most are choosing instead to embed Old and New Testament teachings into current classes.

Such broad parameters leave one of the most controversial topics in public schools virtually unregulated, say religious scholars and confused educators. They warn that the nebulous law may have thwarted its purpose — to examine the Bible’s influence in history and literature.

Secret Fundy "C Street Family" Might Not Report Child Rapist Member to Police? Looks that way

By GottaLaff

Your Daily Dose of BuzzFlash via my favorite BuzzFlasher (!) ever, Mark Karlin:

[T]he son of Doug Coe, the "spiritual leader" of the Family and his heir apparent, would consider a Family member raping a child a test of the member's choseness and to be resolved inside of the fellowship, without reporting it to the law authorities, it appears.

This is how dangerous they are. They apparently believe even child rape is something that God wants them to keep secret amongst themselves! [...]

The Family on C Street includes Dr. Tom "Execute Abortionists" Coburn who grilled Sonya Sotomayor during her Judiciary Committee hearings -- and who counseled Ensign on his ongoing adulterous affair with a staffer who is the wife of another staffer.

These are dangerous men to the Republic. They think that they are members of some modern Skull and Bones of Sparta, selected by God to inflict a deranged "Christian" government upon the democracy of America -- and for whom immorality and breaking the law are only acts in which God is testing them -- and for which they hold no public responsiblity in their hearts and minds.

Keeping secret one of the members who might admit to child rape!

God help us all -- but not their God, who is merely a monstrous, self-serving excuse in their own minds for evading the laws, ethics, and responsibilities of living a civilized and legal life.

Much, much more here. Go read, then ask your doctor to prescribe a blood-pressure-lowering pill.

Texas conservatives seek to shift focus of state social studies lessons, Thurgood Marshall "not a strong enough example" of a historical figure

Man, Texas sure does let the loonies have too much power.

AUSTIN – Civil rights leaders César Chávez and Thurgood Marshall – whose names appear on schools, libraries, streets and parks across the U.S. – are given too much attention in Texas social studies classes, conservatives advising the state on curriculum standards say.

"To have César Chávez listed next to Ben Franklin" – as in the current standards – "is ludicrous," wrote evangelical minister Peter Marshall, one of six experts advising the state as it develops new curriculum standards for social studies classes and textbooks. David Barton, president of Aledo-based WallBuilders, said in his review that Chávez, a Hispanic labor leader, "lacks the stature, impact and overall contributions of so many others."

Marshall also questioned whether Thurgood Marshall, who argued the landmark case that resulted in school desegregation and was the first black U.S. Supreme Court justice, should be presented to Texas students as an important historical figure. He wrote that the late justice is "not a strong enough example" of such a figure.

I especially like this parsing of the verbiage-

Barton, a former vice chairman of the Texas Republican Party, said that because the U.S. is a republic rather than a democracy, the proper adjective for identifying U.S. values and processes should be "republican" rather than "democratic." That means social studies books should discuss "republican" values in the U.S., his report said.

Really, is this a King of Hearts situation? Someone's got to be doing a Punk'd or something.

Commenter: "Tiller was a baby killer who got what he deserved."

By GottaLaff

Earlier, I posted one of My Tweet Spots. Allow me to bump it up as re-post, because it is sadly very appropriate here:


Now read this despicable, sicko comment from an earlier post, by Norris Hall: (emphasis mine)

Tiller was a baby killer who got what he deserved.
Baby killers must be put out of action
You can't just wait years for the law to change.
The fact that the Clinic where Tiller practice is going to be closed forever accomplished, with one bullet, what years of protests have been unable to achieve.
Tillers death should be a warning to all abortionists that they await the same fate if they do not stop their barbaric practices.
Who would hesitate to put a bullet in Hitler's head or Osama Bin Ladins? Who would hesitate kill someone who was threatening the lives of their children?
When you have the chance to put a killer out of his misery and no one else will do it, is it not your moral obligation to do the job.

Tiller is gone and his clinic is closed. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!

It's very odd how so many deranged types and trolls comment days after we post something, but so be it. I'd go on, but I have to leave for work, so...

Care to respond to Norris?

VIDEO: "My Tweet Spot": Dr. George Tiller edition

By GottaLaff



Did you know that I do radio segments every Friday? Look at me going all podcasty and stuff!

"My Tweet Spot" is a recap of the week in politics via Tweets from Twitter. Today's episode consists of Tweets about the assassination of Dr. George Tiller.

I do three per show (or here ) every Friday. Podcasts here.

Hope you like it!

VIDEO: Gingrich, Huckabee Get Pro-Christian Martyrdom Movement Leader's Blessing

By GottaLaff



Yikes:

On Friday, June 5, 2009, at an event featuring aspiring politicians Mike Huckabee and Newt Gingrich that was broadcast over the global media networks of GodTV, a rising leader in the rapidly reconfiguring Christian right who has publicly called for acts of Christian martyrdom prayed over and blessed Huckabee and Gingrich: TheCall founder Lou Engle.

The June 5, 2009, Rock Church event has received some media notice but coverage, which has noted Newt Gingrich declared Americans are "surrounded by paganism", and that he and Mike Huckabee made stump speeches calling for Christian conservatives to become more involved in electoral politics, has almost wholly missed the significance.

You know what America needs less of? Religious zealots and politicians who align themselves with religious zealots.

Please go read the entire piece here.

Cartoon of the Day

Click to enlarge, via.

VIDEO-- Rachel Maddow interviews Frank Schaeffer: Hate speech leads to violence

By GottaLaff

See, Bile O'Lielly? Some people actually have regrets:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy