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Keep this under your hat

The Dukes of Hazzard star who could destroy Newt Gingrich … again

“The actor at the centre of Newt’s mid-90s tax scandal watches the former speaker’s resurrection with amazement and disgust.”

Read the article at: The Guardian

By Ed Pilkington

Why is the GOP in an uproar?  It seems their sacred primaries are leaning toward a candidate who is not only amoral, unethical, and just plain nuts, but is also corrupt beyond any measure.

As Newt Gingrich fights to save his political life, locked in a potentially decisive battle in the final days of the Florida primary with his bitter rival Mitt Romney, one man is following the struggle with peculiarly intense and personal interest.

Ben Jones is best known by millions of Americans as the actor who played “Crazy” Cooter Davenport, the truck driving mechanic in the hit 1980s TV series, The Dukes of Hazzard. But in politics, Jones is credited with having helped destroy Newt Gingrich’s Congressional career by leveling accusations of financial improprieties at him, which ultimately led to his resignation from the speakership.

Jones has watched the improbable resurrection of Gingrich as a presidential contender almost two decades later with a mixture of bemusement and disgust. “It’s astonishing to me that this has come back around. It testifies to the fact that Mr Gingrich cannot be destroyed by conventional weapons – he is the abominable Newt Man.”

Jones sounded the alarm about Gingrich’s dodgy practices in September 1994 at a time when he was locked in his own bitter electoral battle with the speaker over a Congressional seat in Georgia. Jones, who by then had served two terms in Congress as a Democratic member having turned to politics after Dukes of Hazzard went off the air, presented the House ethics committee with 450 pages of documents that proved to be incendiary. Continue reading ‘Keep this under your hat’ »



Jesus Would Weep

Blessed be the bellicose?

By Tony Norman

Read the article at: Pittsburgh Post-Gazzette

Last week, video footage of four U.S. Marines urinating on the bodies of three dead Taliban fighters went viral. With the exception of a handful of morally dead ideologues on the right, the reaction to the video was one of revulsion at home and fury abroad.

As Americans, we were reminded that just because we choose not to pay attention to the war in Afghanistan, we share moral complicity for wars fought in our name. The callousness of the four Marines wasn’t unprecedented. Relative to the toll on civilian lives in three countries because of American drone attacks, public urination on enemy corpses pales in comparison as a war crime.

In a widely read essay in The Washington Post, war correspondent Sebastian Junger astutely pointed out that a “19-year-old Marine has a very hard time reconciling the fact that it’s OK to waterboard a live Taliban fighter but not OK to urinate on a dead one.” Continue reading ‘Jesus Would Weep’ »



Top 1% Tax Cut Bigger Than 99% Income

Why is there an occupy movement?

The Young Turks used National Priority’s numbers to explain.

Next question….

Flatus The Elder



Tea Party politicians must be replaced

If you put your country ahead of your god then you can be called a heathen.  But if you put your god ahead of your country then you may be guilty of treason.  Pick one, god or country….you can’t make one more important than the other.  If your god is the almighty dollar or a special interest group like Grover Norquist’s American’s for Tax Reform, then you are unfit to serve in the government.  A pledge to uphold the constitution is diametrically opposed to any pledge of fidelity to any other special interest group, religious or secular.

There is an election coming in 2012.  Treasonous elected politicians must be replaced with people who will serve the constitution first and foremost.

Like Shariah, tax vow undermines law

By Raymond White

Read the article at the Tennessean,

Each member of Congress takes an oath that includes the following: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic… that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion.”

Among the rights and duties in the Constitution are the following: “To lay and collect taxes … to pay the debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States …”

Suppose a Muslim who had taken an oath to obey Shariah law under which he could not make war on a Muslim nation was elected to Congress. Could he or she take the congressional oath of office “without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion?” I think not, because if the time came when a Muslim nation attacked us, that member of Congress could not vote to declare war and defend the United States. If enough such were elected, we would have to surrender to the attackers.

Currently, many people have been elected to Congress who have signed the Americans for Tax Reform pledge, stating they will “oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rate for individuals and/or businesses.” Continue reading ‘Tea Party politicians must be replaced’ »



christianist Pat Robertson created from the ass bone of a jaw

Christians know that God has a sense of humor.  Pat Robertson not so much.  There is a difference between being a fool for Christ and just being fool.

Saturday Night Live’s Tim Tebow Satire Raises Ire Of Pro-Christianity Voices

Read the article at: The Post Game
Written by: Ben Maller

“Even in defeat, Tim Tebow continues to be a polarizing figure. A popular skit on the latest edition of Saturday Night Live which focused on the Denver Broncos quarterback’s obsession with religion has drawn a heated response from America’s leading televangelist.

Pat Robertson claimed the SNL skit was “anti-Christrian bigotry that’s just disgusting.” Robertson, 81, told viewers on the Christian Broadcasting Network’s 700 Club that had the skit been about another religion, things would have been much different.

“If this had been a Muslim country and they had done that, and had Muhammad doing that stuff, you would have found bombs being thrown off, and bodies on the street,” Robertson said, according to Mediaite. “We need more religious faith in our society, we’re losing our moral compass in our nation.” Continue reading ‘christianist Pat Robertson created from the ass bone of a jaw’ »



Nothing New Under the Sun

Ok, so here we are right back at the beginning.  1787 the Constitution Convention is being held in Philly and a group of lawyers, landowners and merchants get together to decide how to “form a more perfect union”.  Notice they didn’t say perfect.  At least three significant choices had to be made.  Of course there were more than three issues at hand, but the basic essence of American democracy can usually be boiled down to these three.
1) Are the people capable of governing themselves, or is it necessary to have an upper class to “rule” the masses?
2) Is America’s existence to be economically global or protectionist?
3) How can American democracy create an atmosphere where freedom and equality can coexist? Continue reading ‘Nothing New Under the Sun’ »



The Rebirth of Social Darwinism

More from Robert Reich

Read the article at:RobertReich.org

“What kind of society, exactly, do modern Republicans want? I’ve been listening to Republican candidates in an effort to discern an overall philosophy, a broadly-shared vision, an ideal picture of America.

They say they want a smaller government but that can’t be it. Most seek a larger national defense and more muscular homeland security. Almost all want to widen the government’s powers of search and surveillance inside the United States – eradicating possible terrorists, expunging undocumented immigrants, “securing” the nation’s borders. They want stiffer criminal sentences, including broader application of the death penalty. Many also want government to intrude on the most intimate aspects of private life. Continue reading ‘The Rebirth of Social Darwinism’ »



Robert Reich Video for MoveOn.org

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Flatus The Elder



Let the lies begin

Ok its one of those facts of life; babies cry, dogs bark, bears crap in the woods and politicians lie.  2012 promises to be a competition of which Republican can come up with the biggest lies and how many right wing crazies will believe them.

Mitt Romney and Rick Perry accused of blatant untruths about Barack Obama

Read the article at the Guardian:

By

“Romney’s campaign ad is airing on TV stations in New Hampshire, which holds its primary in January. It shows the president saying: “If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.”

The ad appears to have the president admitting he is vulnerable on the economy. But Obama’s words were from his 2008 campaign, and he was quoting a statement by a strategist for his Republican opponent, John McCain, who was the one on the back foot over the economy.

Perry’s ad shows a short soundbite of Obama saying: “We’ve been a little bit lazy I think over the last couple of decades.”

The ad switches to Perry saying: “Can you believe that? That’s what our president thinks is wrong with America – that Americans are lazy. That’s pathetic.”

But a viewing of Obama’s full statement shows that he was saying the US government had been lazy in attracting foreign investment. Continue reading ‘Let the lies begin’ »



Gingrich: Laws preventing child labor are ‘truly stupid’

Here’s a thought, in affluent school districts rich kids could have a poor kid tag along behind to carry their bags and such.  That way poor kids would have the benefit of truly learning their place in society.

Read the article at CNN:

By Kevin Liptak

Newt Gingrich

(CNN) – Newt Gingrich proposed a plan Friday that would allow poor children to clean their schools for money, saying such a setup would both allow students to earn income and endow them with a strong work ethic.

Speaking at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, the former House Speaker said his system would be an improvement on current child labor laws, which he called “truly stupid.”

“It is tragic what we do in the poorest neighborhoods, entrapping children in child laws which are truly stupid,” Gingrich said. “Saying to people you shouldn’t go to work before you’re 14, 16. You’re totally poor, you’re in a school that’s failing with a teacher that’s failing.” Continue reading ‘Gingrich: Laws preventing child labor are ‘truly stupid’’ »