Half-baked Republican Presidential Fruitcakes (and fellow confections)

joseph brand

Nodin wrote: »

Wow, your perception truly sees us all as we really are. That clear sightedness must be a result of not pulling your plum.

So glad I swallowed my tea before I read that.

joseph brand

robindch wrote: »

Do you have much first-hand experience of the issue?

If he doesn't, I'm sure he'll keep an eye out.

MilanPan!c

joseph brand wrote: »

If he doesn't, I'm sure he'll keep an eye out.

Brian Shanahan

joseph brand wrote: »

Stop reading the Daily Mail. A paper which likes to scaremonger it's aged readers with stories of violent video games turning our children into serial killers. "Won't someone think of the children." It also runs articles on how the brown and black people are sneaking in and stealing everyone's jobs. Oh yeah, they have full page spreads on the 'evidence' of miracles, and the depressing misery that is an atheist's life. The apparent wrongness of atheism usually warrants a chuckle, a finger point and a "Ha Ha" from my parents. "Dickie Dawkins and all those non-believing scientists are all idiots." I despair.


My parents read it religiously and have 'challenged' me on these topics. I use the word challenged lightly, since there's no real difficulty in pointing out the stupidity of Daily Mail articles. T'is a silly paper.

You forgot the line they have about the "sexualisation of children" when what they're doing is actually giving out about what the online version of the Faily Heil does.

legspin

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/24/powerful-gop-lobbyist-drafts-bill-to-ban-gay-athletes-from-playing-in-the-nfl/

What a cnut.

robindch

'Anti-gay' Republican candidate outed as having worked as a DRAG QUEEN under the name 'Miss Mona Sinclair'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2620276/Anti-gay-Republican-candidate-outed-having-worked-drag-queen-performer-known-Miss-Mona-Sinclair.html

Daily Mail wrote:

Steve Wiles, 34, is a conservative North Carolina state Senate candidate
He has been an outspoken supporter of the state's same-sex marriage ban
It's been revealed he worked as a female impersonator and drag show emcee at the now-defunct Club Odyssey from 2002 to 2010
He said he quit because of his strong Christian beliefs
He initially denied his affiliation with the club
Wiles now works as a real estate agent

*WARNING - ARTICLE COMES FROM THE DAILY MAIL*

Delirium

probably a stupid question, but what's the contradiction in being a drag queen and opposing a same-sex ban?

robindch

Would UKIP count as the UK's Tea Party? Perhaps.

Anyhow, here's UKIP's leader, Nigel Farage, being toasted by James O'Brien:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pyYoL9ngtE

BuilderPlumber

robindch wrote: »

Would UKIP count as the UK's Tea Party? Perhaps.

Anyhow, here's UKIP's leader, Nigel Farage, being toasted by James O'Brien:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pyYoL9ngtE

UKIP are some kind of in betweener party. They are not fascists like the BNP or either are they a typical mainstream party. Nidge Farage seems to be at least better than Nick Griffin but that does not say much!

MrPudding

robindch wrote: »

Would UKIP count as the UK's Tea Party? Perhaps.

Anyhow, here's UKIP's leader, Nigel Farage, being toasted by James O'Brien:

Never heard that James O'Brien chap before. I like his style.

MrP

Brian Shanahan

So we all know Ms. Coulter is this world's version of Nuggan (comparison is just to keep the thread religious, Nuggan was never that bad), so she abominates things she thinks are un-American (despite being as anti-American as they come, like most Republicans she hates the freedoms that are supposedly at the core of the US), and now she's found a new abomination:

The forane game! And here is her original anti-soccer rant if anyone has more stomach than me.

PopePalpatine

Ann Coulter is like proof that you can survive with battery acid in your blood vessels.

lazygal

She can't even believe what she writes at this stage.

Nodin

lazygal wrote: »

She can't even believe what she writes at this stage.

I first saw her site and thought she was an onion-esque farce. It's very hard to take seriously.

robindch

Bill Cassidy, the Republican sponsor of abstinence-only sex-ed in Louisiana finds out the -- cough -- hard way that it doesn't work:

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/07/03/louisianas-bill-cassidy-says-teen-daughter-pregnant-report-says/

CNN wrote:

(CNN) - The unmarried 17-year-old daughter of conservative Republican congressman and Louisiana Senate candidate Bill Cassidy is pregnant, according to a published report on Thursday. "Earlier this year, Laura and I learned we will become grandparents this summer," Cassidy, a physician, said in a statement to NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune.

"Our children have been the greatest blessing of our lives and we welcome our grandchild as a joyous addition to our family," he continued. "Our daughter now faces a more challenging future than her peers. She has our unconditional love and support." The announcement comes as Cassidy is considered the leading GOP contender challenging Democratic incumbent Sen. Mary Landrieu.

It's a closely watched race, as Republicans consider Landrieu one of the most vulnerable Democrats running for re-election in a midterm race where control of the Senate hangs in the balance. Cassidy's daughter is a rising senior at a high school in Baton Rouge. The campaign did not provide any additional information to the Times-Picayune, and did not immediately return calls from CNN.

The statement was similar to the one released by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in 2008 about her then-17-year-old daughter, Bristol. The announcement came shortly after Palin was picked to be Sen. John McCain's running mate on the GOP presidential ticket, and just before she was set to deliver her big speech at the Republican National Convention.

robindch

Louie Gohmert, a Republican lawmaker from Texas, has suggested that Texas should “use whatever means” -- like "troops", "ships of war" or "taxes" -- to “stop the invasion” of people, including kids under the age of ten, coming from Mexico:

http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2014/07/11/3459331/gohmert-unaccompanied-children-dday/

Bannasidhe

robindch wrote: »

Louie Gohmert, a Republican lawmaker from Texas, has suggested that Texas should “use whatever means” -- like "troops", "ships of war" or "taxes" -- to “stop the invasion” of people, including kids under the age of ten, coming from Mexico:

http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2014/07/11/3459331/gohmert-unaccompanied-children-dday/

Pity the Native Americans didn't think of that.

BuilderPlumber

robindch wrote: »

Louie Gohmert, a Republican lawmaker from Texas, has suggested that Texas should “use whatever means” -- like "troops", "ships of war" or "taxes" -- to “stop the invasion” of people, including kids under the age of ten, coming from Mexico:

http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2014/07/11/3459331/gohmert-unaccompanied-children-dday/

Try as they may to hide it, but there is a very racist element in the Republican party. Be that anti-Hispanics in Texas, anti-blacks in Alabama or anti-Arab in general, they have shown us their attitude many a time.

Their war emphasis also has its roots in this. They don't differentiate between Arab or Persian, Islam or fascist 'Islamist', Sunni or Shia, innocent or terrorist. ALL Middle Easterns are to them the same and expendable. Their attitude was 'Iraq is a great rob for its oil, pity that it is inhabited by Iraqis'. Ditto for anywhere else: just take out Iraq and put another country in!

BuilderPlumber

robindch wrote: »

Bill Cassidy, the Republican sponsor of abstinence-only sex-ed in Louisiana finds out the -- cough -- hard way that it doesn't work:

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/07/03/louisianas-bill-cassidy-says-teen-daughter-pregnant-report-says/

It is good to see all these frauds being caught out. What strikes me most about the Republicans is that they represent the most capitalistic, atheistic, corporate, non-conservative, reckless risk-taking values yet feel they also have to look religious and conservative in public.

But it is not the first or last time we have seen such hypocricy. The Khmer Rouge banned money for their people forcing them into starvation slave labour but meanwhile he billions salted away themselves. The Taliban outlawed alcohol yet were vodka and whiskey guzzling alcoholics themselves. And Hitler was far from being ethnically pure yet headed a regime based on such values.

robindch

BuilderPlumber wrote: »

What strikes me most about the Republicans is that they represent the most capitalistic, atheistic, corporate, non-conservative, reckless risk-taking values yet feel they also have to look religious and conservative in public.

I don't know of much research into this exact question, but finger in the air, it certainly does pay for people to preach trust, but violate it when it suits them in the expectation that everybody else is playing by the rules.

robindch

A republican senator from Kentucky finds a new reason that anthropogenic global warming is false.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/07/09/3458131/smith-mars-climate-change/

Think Progress wrote:

A prominent Kentucky state Senator on Thursday gave a glimpse of detail on why he doesn’t accept that global warming exists and is caused by humans, and his argument is a bit out of this world. At a hearing to discuss how the state could deal with the Environmental Protection Agency’s new proposed greenhouse gas regulations for coal plants, Majority Whip Brandon Smith (R-Hazard) argued that carbon emissions from coal plants can’t be causing climate change because Mars is also experiencing a global temperature rise — and there are no coal plants emitting carbon on Mars.

“I think that in academia, we all agree that the temperature on Mars is exactly as it is here. Nobody will dispute that,” Smith said. “Yet there are no coal mines on Mars, there’s no factories on Mars that I’m aware of. So I think what we’re looking at is something much greater than what we’re going to do.” At first glance, it seems as though Smith was saying that the temperature on Mars is exactly the same as it is on Earth, an argument that is both incorrect and makes no sense, as many other news outlets have already pointed out. Smith clarified his comments on Twitter on Thursday, however, saying he meant not to imply that temperatures were the same, but that climate shifts on Earth and Mars have been the same. His implication, really, is that climate change is a solar system-wide phenomena, and can’t be caused by humans on Earth.

Smith’s argument that Mars is warming is likely based on observations of ice melt on Mars’ South Polar Cap. But there is absolutely no scientific evidence that one sole instance of melting is the result of a planet-wide trend. In fact, as Skeptical Science points out, there is virtually no historical data about the climate of Mars prior to the 1970s, except for drawings — meaning it is scientifically not possible to tell if current observations reveal long-term trends.

The irony here is that Smith claims that one instance of ice melt on Mars is a sure sign that climate shifts are occurring there, but at the same is not persuaded by the incredible mass of long-term data climate scientists have proving human-caused climate change here on earth. To quote Skeptical Science, “Here on earth we have direct measurements from all over the globe, widespread glacial retreat, reduction of sea ice, and satellite measurements of the lower troposphere up to the stratosphere. To compare this mountain of data to a few photographs of a single region on another planet strains credulity.”

Smith’s office did not immediately return ThinkProgress’ request for comment. Though his argument against the reality of climate change may be unusual, Smith’s opposition to fighting it isn’t exactly a surprise. In 2010, he sponsored a resolution calling on Congress to block the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from regulating heat-trapping gases. That action came the same week that the EPA laid out its timetable for imposing climate regulations if Congress didn’t pass its own greenhouse gas-reducing legislation.

Sulla Felix

Well, it'd be kind of awesome if they were... One way ticket please! Call dibs on leading the Bogdanovist revolution :pac:

Delirium

Florida Lawmaker Drafts Bill To Require Every Student To Watch Documentary Explaining Why Liberals Hate America

onservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza may be getting an influx of new viewers of his documentary film ‘America’ after a Republican state senator from Florida said he plans on introducing a bill to make the movie mandatory in public schools.

Republican Alan Hays, inspired after seeing the movie in theaters, said he now plans on introducing a one-page bill in November which would require all 1,700 Florida high schools and middle schools to show the movie to their students, unless their parents choose to opt them out. The documentary film is a conservative-spin on American history focusing on elevating the “essential goodness of America” while discrediting criticisms about American’s checkered history with civil rights and social justice. It’s not completely inconceivable for the bill to pass the Republican-controlled Florida legislature and be signed into law by Republican Gov. Rick Scott.

“I saw the movie and walked out of the theater and said, ‘Wow, our students need to see this.’ And it’s my plan to show it to my colleagues in the legislature, too, before they’re asked to vote on the bill,” Hays said.

Turtwig

“I saw the movie and walked out of the theater"

Could easily use to this imply he left screening prematurely

Brian Shanahan

SW wrote: »

Florida Lawmaker Drafts Bill To Require Every Student To Watch Documentary Explaining Why Liberals Hate America

Considering he's from a state which spent five years violently trying to break up the US, and whose denizens regularly show sympathy for the organisation which tried to further that cause, how ironic that he is now trying to decry others for (he believes) doing the same.

But then again the deep south is what would have happened to East Anglia if the bicycle weren't invented.

robindch

Rick Perry - remember him? - has waded into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with a carefully-thought out position:

http://washingtonexaminer.com/rick-perry-obama-not-showing-enough-support-for-israel/article/2551613

Washington Examiner wrote:

Texas Gov. Rick Perry slammed the Obama administration Sunday for creating doubts about the U.S. commitment to Israel, as the Middle East ally remains locked in a bloody conflict with Hamas.

“The idea ... that there’s any air between us and Israel is beyond me,” Perry said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I don’t understand why this administration would criticize Israel for trying to protect their citizens and their country from a group who have clearly stated that they will not be satisfied until Israel is wiped off the face of the earth.”

Perry jumped on criticisms made by Israeli officials against Secretary of State John Kerry for his attempts to negotiate a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The Associated Press also reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Obama administration officials “not to ever second-guess me again” in the wake of another ceasefire collapsing.

President Obama has expressed growing concerns about the number of Palestinian civilians killed in the Gaza standoff but has insisted that Israel has the right to defend itself. For his part, Perry said Obama was sending mixed signals to Israel.

“I think there have been messages sent, both publicly and privately, that have not been strong in their support of Israel,” Perry told CNN. “If you look back at the rhetoric and what they’ve done, I don’t think they have been as strong with Israel as they should be."

robindch

Rick Perry runs into a spot of bother:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-28816996

BBC wrote:

The governor of the US state of Texas, Rick Perry, has been charged by a grand jury with abusing his powers of office.

A special prosecutor said there was evidence the Republican had broken the law by using a funding veto in a bid to force a local prosecutor to resign. The potential presidential hopeful was investigated for cutting funds to a state anti-corruption unit run by District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg.

He becomes the state of Texas's first indicted governor in nearly a century. Governor Perry, who has been in office since the year 2000, says he has violated no laws. The 63-year-old faces two counts of abuse of power and coercion related to his decision to veto $7.5 million (£4.5 million) in funding for the Public Integrity Unit run by the office of the Travis County district attorney last year.

Governor Perry "with intent to harm another, to-wit, Rosemary Lehmberg and the Public Integrity Unit of the Travis County District Attorney's Office, intentionally or knowingly misused government property," the indictment read. Ms Lehmberg, a Democrat, had earlier pleaded guilty to drink driving charges, but had rejected Governor Perry's calls to resign.

"The veto in question was made in accordance with the veto authority afforded to every governor under the Texas Constitution," the governor's general counsel said after the announcement was made. "We will continue to aggressively defend the governor's lawful and constitutional action, and believe we will ultimately prevail," Mary Anne Wiley added.

The special prosecutor, Michael McCrum, called up numerous witnesses to argue his case that the governor had broken the law. Announcing his veto in 2013, Governor Perry said of the Public Integrity Unit: "I cannot in good conscience support continued state funding for an office with statewide jurisdiction at a time when the person charged with ultimate responsibility of that unit has lost the public's confidence."

The Texans for Public Justice, which filed a complaint in the case, said "the grand jury decided Perry's bullying crossed the line into law breaking". Abuse of office can carry punishments of between five to 99 years in prison, while coercion of a public servant carries sentences ranging from two to 10 years. Governor Perry is the longest-serving governor in the state's history.

His recent movements between key Republican battleground states is seen by analysts as laying the groundwork for a possible presidential run in 2016. Mr Perry announced that he would retire from the Texas governor's office instead of seeking a fourth term in July 2013.

robindch

Former presidential wannabe Mike Huckabee says that the government should fire atheists working for the government:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2014/09/huckabee-wants-to-fire-atheists-working-for-the-government/

Hotblack Desiato

Loon.

BuilderPlumber

robindch wrote: »

Former presidential wannabe Mike Huckabee says that the government should fire atheists working for the government:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2014/09/huckabee-wants-to-fire-atheists-working-for-the-government/

Huckabee and the like are so typical of the double standards we seen. Call them ISIS-lite or whatever, but these guys' intolerance for others is the same bar all the killings. Yet, the likes of Huckabee if president would wage a war against 'Islamic terrorists' or whatever and would state 'freedom of religious belief and inclusion of religious and other minorities' as an aim for the future of say Iraq or wherever. Meanwhile, at home, he would surround himself with an entourage of only intolerant, conservative, evangelical Christians!