I've made it to the initial round for favorite progressive blogger in the Air America Cruise Contest. I have to stay in the Top 5 before the second voting round begins, so your vote is appreciated! First voting round:
The Christian Civic League of Maine's Mike Hein calls Pam's House Blend: "a leading source of radical homosexual propaganda, anti-Christian bigotry, and radical transgender advocacy."
He is "praying that Pam Spaulding will "turn away from her wicked and sinful promotion of homosexual behavior."
(CCLM's web site, 10/15/07)
Ex-gay "Christian" activist James Hartline on Pam:
"I have been mocked over and over again by ungodly and unprincipled anti-christian lesbians."
(from "Six Years In Sodom: From The Journal Of James Hartline," 9/4/2006, written from the "homosexual stronghold" of Hillcrest in San Diego).
"Pam is a 'twisted lesbian sister' and an 'embittered lesbian' of the 'self-imposed gutteral experiences of the gay ghetto.'" -- 9/5/2008
Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth Against Homosexuality heartily endorses the Blend, calling Pam:
A "vicious anti-Christian lesbian activist." (Concerned Women for America's radio show [9:15], 1/25/07)
"A nutty lesbian blogger." (MassResistance radio show [16:25], 2/3/07)
Pam's House Blend always seems to find these sick f*cks. The area of the country she is in? The home state of her wife? I know, they are everywhere. Pam just does such a great job of bringing them out into the light.
--Impeach Bush
who monitors yours Bevis ?? Just thought I would drop you a line,so the rest of your life is not wasted.
This is why the NC GOP is dying the death of 1000 cuts. They are way out there in wingnut land and the laughingstock of NC politics. That it is now led by Tom "I am not gay" Fetzer only adds to the fun. (Under the Dome):
The N.C. Republican Party is bringing in Doug Hoffman, the defeated conservative New York congressional candidate who helped spark a national debate about the party's future, to speak at a political fund raiser in Raleigh later this month.
State GOP Chairman Tom Fetzer said that Hoffman would be a good fit for Tar Heel Republicans, Rob Christensen reports.
"His candidacy in New York inspired conservatives across the country, and he will reach out to North Carolina conservatives to help us reclaim our government," Fetzer said in a statement.
Hoffman is the guy who was drop kicked after Dede Scozzafava was smeared as too moderate for the GOP by such leaders as Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck. I honestly don't think inviting Hoffman can help the NC GOP move any more to the right than it already is. They are hanging from the fringe.
On Huff Post, Thomas B. Edsall spends a good bit of time breaking down just how demographically stuck in the mud the Republican Party is. Having turned off Latinos its beyond-hostile stance on immigration, it has missed a growth opportunity because of its bigoted base of blue collar, religious conservative voters (primarily in the South), a demographic that is their only growth area.
With Republican party leaders so constrained by ideological blinders that none of their positions is likely to produce gains among non-white minorities, especially Hispanics, the GOP is finding it has no real alternative but to revert to a "white voter" strategy.
To some extent, it's working. The party's opposition to President Obama's agenda -- particularly his cap-and-trade energy proposal and health care reform plan -- is resonating strongly with disaffected white Democratic voters. Republican grievances about Obama, combined with race-baiting commentary from the far-right ideologues who have become some of the most dominant voices of the modern GOP, have led to a precipitous drop in the president's approval ratings among whites.
Polling data shows that members of this group who took a chance on Obama (most never really supporters of Barack Obama in the first place), are "coming home" to the party of last resort. The GOP and its unappointed leadership -- Rush, Hannity, O'Reilly, Coulter -- don't believe in broadening the party, and the alienated sheeple have clung onto the race-baiting and sheer lunacy (the Birthers) that leaves the party looking even more extreme and desperate. Take a look at the photos in this post -- taken by BlueNC's Jerimee Richer last week of the teabagger crowd protesting the President's town hall on health care in Raleigh . This is the Base the GOP has to expand.
The appeal of the anti-Obama agenda has proven to be particularly strong among whites of low and moderate incomes. The Pew Center, tracking evaluations of Obama's job performance, found in a July 30 report that there "has been essentially no shift in opinion among affluent whites [but] among whites with annual family incomes of less than $75,000, Obama's approval ratings have declined substantially (from 57% in June to 47% today). Assessments of Obama's performance remain high among African Americans (85%)."
...Republican pollster Bill McInturff notes that his party must make substantial gains among Hispanic voters or be relegated to minority status. But that just isn't likely.
With a solid majority of Republican senators opposed to the appointment of Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina nominee to the Supreme Court, and a solid phalanx of adamant Republican opposition to any immigration reform which provides a path to permanent residency of illegal immigrants, the GOP has no real chance of increasing its share of the Hispanic vote.
Oh, the fun we have had on the Intertubes with Sarah- and to think, all of these in less than a year. Why, that's almost as many days as she has actually BEEN in Alaska during the course of her governorship!
And to think, also we've been giving poor Mark Sanford sh*t for his "frequent flyer miles"- wink wink!
Anyhoo, let's have a gander of some of Sarah's most photogenic moments. Or should we say, "turkey", also?
Ewww, let's move along to something more tasefully done than live unedited interviews with failed Republican Vice Presidential candidates. My apologies to those with weak stomachs!
UPDATE: MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell makes it sound like Palin is stepping down for family reasons and is sick of politics... has told backers she wants OUT.
UPDATE 2 (by Pam): She figures Mark Sanford self-immolated, Charlie Crist (ha) is going for the Senate, Mitt's Mormonism won't pass the fundie test, and Bobby Jindal looks like a featherweight. I guess that leaves Huckabee. What a field that is for 2012. From the NYT:
Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska announced Friday that she would step down by the end of the month and not seek a second term as governor, fueling speculation that she is seriously weighing whether to seek the Republican nomination for president in 2012.
Ms. Palin, who was Senator John McCain's vice presidential running mate last year and solidified the support of the party's conservative base, explained her decision at a news conference at her home in Wasilla, Alaska, accompanied by her husband, Todd, and other family members.
"We know we can effect positive change outside of government," she said in making the announcement.
There had been wide speculation that she would seek to be the Republican Party's presidential candidate in 2012. Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, who is also considered to be a leading Republican candidate for president in 2012, announced last month that he would not seek re-election.
That stealthy Michael Steele. Despite adding a grain of pepper to the GOP salt shaker to show how hip the Republican party is to the whole diversity thing, apparently the GOP chair is more like The Invisible Man in the latest Gallup poll, as in he's nowhere to be found.
Asked to name the "main person who speaks for the Republican Party today," Republicans across the country are most likely to name three men: Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, and Dick Cheney. Democrats are most likely to say Limbaugh speaks for the GOP, followed by Cheney. Both Republicans and Democrats overwhelmingly say Barack Obama is the main person who speaks for the Democratic Party, although Republicans are significantly more likely than Democrats to mention Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
It's almost enough to make you feel sorry for Republicans. Trounced in November's election, faced a popular president, and a voting public that seems to have rejected their conservative politics, now they're stuck with Rush Limbaugh as the de facto head of their party.
You'd think unquestionably heterosexual patriot Patrick McHenry (R-NC) would focus on serving the people of the 10th district now that his party is out of power. Ooops. Sorry folks, he's riding the Rush wave of GOP economic strategy that relies on bringing down the Dems. Why does Patrick McHenry hate America?
"We will lose on legislation. But we will win the message war every day, and every week, until November 2010. Our goal is to bring down approval numbers for [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and for House Democrats. That will take repetition. This is a marathon, not a sprint."
And his spokesperson says the Congressman stands behind that quote.
That lady is at it again...if ya can call her a lady, that is. M. Bachmann has opened her trap again, and guess what? She once again comes off as a raving lunatic.
An appearance on local MN right wing talk radio elicited this diatribe:
BACHMANN: If you want to look at economic history over the last 100 years. I call it punctuated equilibrium. If you look at FDR, LBJ, and Barack Obama, this is really the final leap to socialism. … But we all know that we could turn this around and we can turn this around fairly quickly. We’re still a free country.
And as the Democrats are about to institutionalize cartels — that’s what they’re very good at — they’re trying to consolidate power, so we need to do everything we can to thwart them at every turn to make sure that they aren’t able to, for all time, secure a power base that for all time can never be defeated.
And from our friends at TPM and the pen of Eric Kleefeld:
Said Bachmann: "But what I think we're seeing is an implementation of all of the radical ideas that Bill Ayers and Ward Churchill -- the radical ideas that we've seen on some college campuses, they're now being implemented in our government, and they're taking a nefarious route when it looks at the economic recovery."
Ward Churchill, you might recall, is the radical former college professor who wrote an essay saying the victims of 9/11 had it coming. And Michele Bachmann, a member of Congress, thinks the President of the United States subscribes to Churchill's ideas and is working to enact them into law.
Please Michele...if only you and Rush "Oxy" Limbaugh can keep talking...
When RNC Michael Steele made a few feeble statements that suggested the party would reach out to gays and pro-choice voters, he was jerked back into line by the fundies, who were outraged.
House minority whip Eric Cantor must not have received the memo because he really stepped on it when he appeared on This Week.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But Governor Huntsman says that you're not going to be reaching out to broaden the base of the party, reaching out to young people who've left the Republican Party in droves, unless you do have that positive agenda on the environment, unless you move to the middle on issues like gay rights. Are you prepared to do that in the House?
CANTOR: There is no question the Republican Party has to return to be one of inclusion, not exclusion. And we are a party with many ideas. And we have in that a commitment to make sure that we have positive alternatives, if we don't agree with this administration or the House Democrats, and to continue to put those ideas forward.
And, again, the problems facing this country and the problems facing the working moms in the suburban office parks, the problems facing small-business people across this country are not just Republican or Democrat problems. They are so big, they are so challenging we all need to join together, not only in Washington, but around the country, to put the ideas forward and let's come up with solutions that actually produce results for a change, instead of making matters worse, which Washington is famous for.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So the Rush Limbaugh approach of hoping the president fails is not the Eric Cantor, House Republican approach?
CANTOR: George, absolutely not. And I don't -- I don't think anyone wants anything to fail right now. We have such challenges.
Expect the wrath of Rush shortly. The Freepers are already chewing on his carcass.
These folks can't decide what message they want to send.
Just thought I'd share the weekly address from the White House and the GOP "response" to see how they measure up and clash with messaging. We report, you decide...
President Barack Obama Urges Prompt Passage of American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan
WEEKLY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT
TO THE NATION
January 31, 2009
This morning I'd like to talk about some good news and some bad news as we confront our economic crisis.
The bad news is well known to Americans across our country as we continue to struggle through unprecedented economic turmoil. Yesterday we learned that our economy shrank by nearly 4 percent from October through December. That decline was the largest in over a quarter century, and it underscores the seriousness of the economic crisis that my administration found when we took office.
Already the slowdown has cost us tens of thousands of jobs in January alone. And the picture is likely to get worse before it gets better.
Make no mistake, these are not just numbers. Behind every statistic there's a story. Many Americans have seen their lives turned upside down. Families have been forced to make painful choices. Parents are struggling to pay the bills. Patients can't afford care. Students can't keep pace with tuition. And workers don't know whether their retirement will be dignified and secure.
The good news is that we are moving forward with a sense of urgency equal to the challenge. This week the House passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, which will save or create more than 3 million jobs over the next few years. It puts a tax cut into the pockets of working families, and places a down payment on America's future by investing in energy independence and education, affordable health care, and American infrastructure.
Now this recovery plan moves to the Senate. I will continue working with both parties so that the strongest possible bill gets to my desk. With the stakes so high we simply cannot afford the same old gridlock and partisan posturing in Washington. It's time to move in a new direction.
The President continues below the fold, with the GOP response from McConnell following.
When asked by Chris Wallace what "conservative solutions" the GOP would bring to their current minority-party status, Pence said social issues like "the sanctity of marriage" will remain the backbone of the Republican platform. "You build those conservative solutions, Chris, on the same time-honored principles of limited government, a belief in free markets, in the sanctity of life, the sanctity of marriage," Pence said.
Per Pence, since all 3 referendums against SSM on state ballots were approved this year, he is sure that the best foot forward is to undermine an Obama-Biden administration & their mandate to ensure the government is for all of us (not just one that pleases the religious right) and will do so by focusing on a spiteful wedge issue. I, for one, may actually enjoy watching the religious reich stalking the GOP the death as I hope we'll come out of the haze of religious mass hysteria with something more citizen friendly than our two party system.
Slash the tires of people at a rally: http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/10/obama_supporters_tires_slashed.php
I hope the perpetrators were some of those atheist supply-side republicans, or atheist hawk military republicans, because I would hate to think that someone who claims to follow Jesus would do such a thing.
Republican congressional candidate Jeff Taylor recently announced that he's quitting the GOP in order to dedicate his campaign efforts to passing Proposition 8.
By LARRY PARSONS Herald Staff Writer Article Last Updated: 09/26/2008 10:59:34 AM PDT
Republican congressional candidate Jeff Taylor said Thursday he is quitting the Republican Party because it has turned away from the family and small-government values he admires.
[...]
Taylor said he is still running for Congress, but that he would dedicate his campaign efforts now to passing Proposition 8, the ballot measure that would amend the state constitution to make it impossible for same-sex couples to marry.
"Proposition 8 has always been my main core issue," said Taylor, who also challenged [U.S. Rep. Sam] Farr [D-Carmel] in 2006 with a last-minute, write-in campaign.
Of course, nobody has a chance in hell of defeating 14-year incumbent congressman Sam Farr. Obviously, Taylor is using his candidacy as a way to generate publicity for his fundamental religious views.
Check out this video that Taylor posted on YouTube last week. He's a typical Christianist, running for public office because he's tired of God being "put in a box."
WARNING! This video will make you cringe. Taylor has obviously convinced a friend or family member to do a fake interview. I don't expect anyone to watch the whole thing. Seriously. It is that bad.
Georgia Republican Rep. Lynn Westmoreland used the racially-tinged term "uppity" to describe Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama Thursday.
Westmoreland was discussing vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's speech with reporters outside the House chamber and was asked to compare her with Michelle Obama.
"Just from what little I've seen of her and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they're a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they're uppity," Westmoreland said. Asked to clarify that he used the word "uppity," Westmoreland said, "Uppity, yeah.
You may recall that Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) expressed his inner bigot regarding Obama's middle name - Hussein - back in March, warning that an Obama presidency would mean "[T]he radical Islamists, the al Qaeda, the radical Islamists and their supporters, will be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on Sept. 11 because they will declare victory in this War on Terror."
Westmoreland, btw, was humiliated by Stephen Colbert when he was asked what the Ten Commandments were. He flunked. It's below the fold.
Today, the Log Cabin Republicans endorsed John McCain for president. They did this in spite of the fact that the GOP platform is as anti-gay as it has ever been. The party has officially declared that gay and lesbian people are “incompatible” with military service. They have called for a constitutional amendment to outlaw marriage equality.
But, never fear. The Log Cabin Republicans have found 12 Republicans who are against California’s Proposition 8, which would ban marriage equality in the state. They’ve created a Web site to showcase these folks (including Arnold Schwarzenegger and "comedian" Dennis Miller): http://www.republicansagainst8.com/
Of course, you won’t see any of these folks stand up and denounce Prop. 8 or the proposed constitutional amendment at the Republican National Convention this week.
Is this actual concern for the Gulf Coast, or a gift to McCain, letting him be the star of the convention without pictures, videos, etc., that can be used to link him to Bush?
If Gustav does actually hit the gulf and do damage -- and I'm hoping that it does not -- then pictures of any Republicans celebrating could be damaging enough, but pics of the GOP leaders fiddling while the coast floods would be a PR nightmare or dream, depending on how you view such things.
To paraphrase someone circa Katrina, it's my own opinion that George Bush still doesn't care about black people, or poor white people, or whole swaths of the Gulf Coast population, but his handlers want jobs in the next administration. (Yes, I am that cynical.)
Ya gotta love it...she's gone even crazier, if that is possible.
Now Shrub-hugging Michele is saying that Dems will never pass the tax credit for solar and wind power, the same bill that the repugs have been blocking! She rattles off on how irresponsible the Dems are to Laura Ingraham on her radio show.
Declaring that the Congressional Democrats are "so strange," Bachmann then claimed that they wouldn't "pass the tax credit for solar and wind," despite being "the big solar/wind people":
BACHMANN: Oh, without a doubt, without a doubt. What we want to do is accomplish the people's mission, which is open up every source of energy there is. They're so strange Laura, they won't even pass the tax credit for solar and wind right now. I mean, they claim to be the big solar/wind people, they won't even pass that.
Oh yeah...that and she voted against it before:
In fact, when the House passed the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008 in May, Bachmann voted against it, along with the majority of House Republicans. The bill was then filibustered by Senate Republicans in June.
Peter Hong, a longtime Republican operative in Minnesota, was arrested Wednesday afternoon on a charge of soliciting prostitution in St. Paul.
Police spokesman Peter Panos said that the arrest came during the first day of a two-day sting operation during which "johns" and prostitutes responded to ads placed on the Internet and in print. Thirty-five people were arrested Wednesday and Thursday, Panos said today.
...Hong, reached by phone Thursday, said: "I don't have any comment."
Hong has been in and out of the Republican side of Minnesota politics since the mid-1990s, when he surfaced as a genial bulldog campaign press secretary for former Sen. Rod Grams, R-Minn. He served as a spokesman for Gov. Tim Pawlenty's campaign in 2002 and for the Bush-Cheney campaign in Minnesota in 2004. Most recently, Hong was a point person for presidential candidate Mike Huckabee.
Mike Rogers at Blogactive has obtained some campy, certainly not very pious photographs of conservative Republican mouthpiece, Congressman Patrick McHenry (NC-10). In these photos, McHenry is camping it up with a fellow conservative -- a gal with the Gaston County Republican Women's organization, who also hobnobs with Liddy Dole. Mike:
So, what do hard right wing congressmen do when they are hanging out with right wing conservative friends like Jackie and the woman she lives with? In photographs obtained by BlogActive, Pat McHenry is not acting very conservative. Oh wait, based on the past few years... he IS acting like a conservative! Here ya go...
This is why the NC GOP is dying the death of 1000 cuts. They are way out there in wingnut land and the laughingstock of NC politics. That it is now led by Tom "
On 
Take a look at the photos in this post -- taken by 
That stealthy Michael Steele. Despite adding a grain of pepper to the GOP salt shaker to show how hip the Republican party is to the whole diversity thing, apparently the GOP chair is more like The Invisible Man 
Image of the Presidential 
Gee, it seems like we haven't seen a 
