Link of the Day: Liberals Like Christ

For all those struggling with politics and religion. Here is a website that should help make you feel better about being pushed around by Christian Conservatives.

LINK: Liberals Like Christ

http://liberalslikechrist.org/index.htm

Enjoy!
-Mr. Joseph

Classic Clip: Televangelists on 9/11

Here is the actual video clip that Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson said on the 700 Club broadcast...

Via Youtube...

LINK: Falwell and Robertson on The 700 Club after 9/11

Crooks and Liars also has the video...

A classic clip...

-Mr. Joseph

Matthews gets a little too close to DeLay

This is a clip of Hardball's Chris Matthews talking to Tom DeLay about Democrats and others subjects...

Where is the independent media?
LINK: Matthews courts DeLay

-Mr. Joseph

SNL Funhouse: "Conspiracy Theory Rock" '98

Stuff like this is always classic...

LINK: Conspiracy Theory Rock

Robert Smiegel is really funny -- this weekend on SNL they are doing a "Best of..." for him.

-Mr. Joseph

GOP Perverts

This was from RecoveringLiberal.com...

Last week’s arrest of the fourth highest person in the vaunted Department of Homeland Security, Brian Doyle, brought back memories of other notable folks on the right who preached the Good Book but were really, really bad boys. You remember them, guys like Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggert who never flinched at taking their flocks’ money but somehow managed to use at least part of it for some sweet young stuff.

That got me thinking about other Republican holier than thou folks who might be in the same boat. I asked a friend to do a bit of research on that subject, and here is the list that he put together...

...Republican County Constable Larry Dale Floyd was arrested on suspicion of soliciting sex with an 8-year old girl. Floyd has repeatedly won elections for Denton County, Texas, constable.

...
Republican judge Mark Pazuhanich of Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania pled no contest to fondling a 10-year old girl and was sentenced to 10 years probation.

...
Republican Party leader Bobby Stumbo of Floyd County, Kentucky was arrested for having sex with a 5-year old boy.

...
Republican teacher and former city councilman John Collins of Asbury Park, New Jersey pled guilty to sexually molesting 13 and 14 year old girls.

...
Republican campaign worker Mark Seidensticker of Nashua, New Hampshire is a convicted child molester.

...
Republican Mayor Philip Giordano of Waterbury, Connecticut is serving a 37-year sentence in federal prison for sexually abusing 8 and 10-year old girls.

...
Republican Mayor John Gosek of Oswego, New York was arrested on charges of soliciting sex from two 15-year old girls.

...
Republican County Commissioner David Swartz of Richland County, Ohio pled guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 11 and was sentenced to 8 years in prison.

...
Republican Speaker of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives Edison Misla Aldarondo was sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping his daughter between the ages of 9 and 17.

...
Republican Committeeman John R. Curtain of Monroe County, Pennsylvania was charged with molesting a teenage boy and unlawful sexual contact with a minor.

...
Republican anti-abortion activist Howard Scott Heldreth of Kannapolis, N.C., is a convicted child rapist in Florida.

...
Republican zoning supervisor, Boy Scout leader and Lutheran church president Dennis L. Rader of Witchita, Kansas pled guilty to performing a sexual act on an 11-year old girl he murdered.

...
Republican anti-abortion activist Nicholas Morency of Camden, New Jersey pled guilty to possessing child pornography on his computer and offering a bounty to anybody who murders an abortion doctor.

...
Republican campaign consultant Tom Shortridge of Soputhbay, California was sentenced to three years probation for taking nude photographs of a 15-year old girl.

...
Republican racist pedophile and United States Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina had sex with a 15-year old black girl which produced a child.

...
Republican pastor Mike Hintz of Des Moines, Iowa, who George W. Bush commended during the 2004 presidential campaign, surrendered to police after admitting to a sexual affair with a female juvenile.

...
Republican legislator Peter Dibble of New London, Connecticut pled no contest to having an inappropriate relationship with a 13-year-old girl.

...
Republican advertising consultant Carey Lee Cramer of Arizona was charged with molesting his 9-year old step daughter after including her in an anti-Gore television commercial.

...
Republican activist Lawrence E. King, Jr. and Republican lobbyist Craig J. Spence both of Washington, D.C. organized child sex parties at the White House during the 1980s.

...
Republican Congressman Donald “Buz” Lukens of Columbus, Ohio was found guilty of having sex with a female minor and sentenced to one month in jail.

...
Republican fundraiser Richard A. Delgaudio of Burke, Virginia was found guilty of child porn charges and paying two teenage girls to pose for sexual photos.

...
Republican activist Mark A. Grethen of Colorado Springs. Colorado was convicted on six counts of sex crimes involving children.

...
Republican activist Randal David Ankeney of El Paso County, Arizona pled guilty to attempted sexual assault on a child.

...
Republican Congressman Dan Crane of Illinois had sex with a female minor working as a congressional page.

...
Republican activist and Christian Coalition and South Carolina Republican leader Beverly Russell admitted to an incestuous relationship with his step daughter.

...
Republican Judge Ronald C. Kline of Orange County, California was placed under house arrest for child molestation and possession of child pornography.

...
Republican congressman and anti-gay activist Robert Bauman of Maryland was charged with having sex with a 16-year-old boy he picked up at a gay bar.

...
Republican Committee Chairman and attorney Jeffrey Patti of Sparta, New Jersey was arrested for distributing a video clip of a 5-year-old girl being raped.

...
Republican activist Marty Glickman of Florida (a.k.a. “Republican Marty”), was taken into custody by Florida police on four counts of unlawful sexual activity with an underage girl and one count of delivering the drug LSD. It was Glickman, interestingly enough, that claimed Bill Clinton came from a low rent state and had torn down all of the standards for the highest office in the land.

...
Republican legislative aide Howard L. Brooks of Quartz Hill, California was charged with molesting a 12-year old boy and possession of child pornography.

...
Republican Senate candidate John Hathaway who had relocated to Maine from Huntsville, Alabama after having been accused of having sex with his 12-year old baby sitter and withdrew his candidacy after the allegations were reported in the media.

...
Republican preacher Stephen White of West Chester, Pennsylvania, who demanded a return to traditional values, was sentenced to jail after offering $20 to a 14-year-old boy for permission to perform oral sex on him.

...
Republican talk show host Jon Matthews of Houston, Texas pled guilty to exposing his genitals to an 11 year old girl.

...
Republican anti-gay activist Earl “Butch” Kimmerling of Anderson, Indiana was sentenced to 40 years in prison for molesting an 8-year old girl after he attempted to stop a gay couple from adopting her.

...
Republican Party leader Paul Ingram of Thurston County, Washington pled guilty to six counts of raping his daughters and served 14 years in federal prison.

...
Republican election board official Kevin Coan of St. Louis, Missouri was sentenced to two years probation for soliciting sex over the internet from a 14-year old girl.

...
Republican politician Andrew Buhr, also of St. Louis, was charged with two counts of first degree sodomy with a 13-year old boy.

...
Republican politician Keith Westmoreland of Kingsport, Tennessee was arrested on seven felony counts of lewd and lascivious exhibition to girls under the age of 16 (i.e. exposing himself to children).

...
Republican anti-abortion activist John Allen Burt of Pensacola, Florida was found guilty of molesting a 15-year old girl.

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Republican County Councilman Keola Childs of Hawaii County, Hawaii pled guilty to molesting a male child.

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Republican activist John Butler of Cass County, Illinois was charged with criminal sexual assault on a teenage girl.

...
Republican candidate Richard Gardner of Clark County, Nevada admitted to molesting his two daughters.

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Republican Councilman and former Marine Jack W. Gardner of Lancaster, Pennsylvania was convicted of molesting a 13-year old girl.

...
Republican County Commissioner Merrill Robert Barter of Boothbay, Maine pled guilty to unlawful sexual contact and assault on a teenage boy.

...
Republican City Councilman Fred C. Smeltzer, Jr. of Wrightsville Borough, Delaware pled no contest to raping a 15 year-old girl and served 6-months in prison.

...
Republican activist Parker J. Bena pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography on his home computer and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and fined $18,000.

...
Republican parole board officer and former Colorado state representative, Larry Jack Schwarz, was fired after child pornography was found in his possession.

...
Republican strategist and Citadel Military College graduate Robin Vanderwall of Virginia was convicted in Virginia on five counts of soliciting sex from boys and girls over the internet.

...
Republican city councilman Mark Harris of West Bend, Wisconsin, who has been described as a “good military man” and “church goer,” was convicted of repeatedly having sex with an 11-year-old girl and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

...
Republican businessman Jon Grunseth withdrew his candidacy for Minnesota governor after allegations surfaced that he went swimming in the nude with four underage girls, including his daughter.

...
Republican director of the “Young Republican Federation” Nicholas Elizondo of Bakersfield, California molested his 6-year old daughter and was sentenced to six years in prison.

...
Republican president of the New York City Housing Development Corp, Russell Harding, pled guilty to possessing child pornography on his computer.

...
Republican benefactor of conservative Christian groups, Richard A. Dasen, Sr. of Kalispell, Montana, was found guilty of raping a 15-year old girl. Dasen, 62, who is married with grown children and several grandchildren, has allegedly told police that over the past decade he paid more than $1 million to have sex with a large number of young women.

...
Republican Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorized the rape of children in Iraqi prisons in order to humiliate their parents into providing information about the anti-American insurgency.

...

These are all matters of public record, not hearsay. They have been reported in both the local press where the incidents occurred and in various national media. The perverts in question have come from all over the country. Their major similarity is that they are Republican Conservative Christian activists who have made their mark by preaching family values while performing unspeakable acts of perversion, many with minors.

So much for family values from the religious right. Now, I am not saying that there aren’t a few pervs who call themselves Democrats, but, somehow, these holier than thou arsh luchs (you can look it up, it’s Yiddish for a**holes) are true and certain hypocrites along with being perverts.

When a political party presents itself as the party of the righteous, whether it is The Republican Party or the Shiite Party in Iraq, or for that matter some members of the various Chasidic sects, you can be absolutely certain that there is something being hidden under all of that religious pomp. Consider the child molestation scandals that have rocked The Roman Catholic Church over the past few years, and you will realize that this problem covers a broad range of people.

However, when you consider the number of Republican members of the religious right/anti choice crowd that have been arrested and sentenced for these perverse acts with children, you come to realize that in their place, at least, religion and conservative politics are truly the hiding places of perverts and scoundrels, perhaps in larger numbers than anywhere else in our country.
Or as Gomer Pyle might have put it, “Surprise, Surprise!”

LINK: BREAKING NEWS: EVIDENCE NOW EMERGING THAT THE CONSERVATIVE WING OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS ON THE FAST TRACK AS A HAVEN FOR SEXUAL PERVERTS AND OTHER SCOUNDRELS?

I have nothing to say.

-Mr. Joseph

UPDATE (2/12/08):
Now we can add Ted Haggard, Mark Foley, Larry Craig, and David Vitter to the list...

UPDATE (4/10/08):
For more GOP crime (including a whole lot of sex crime), check this out...
LINK: REPUBLICAN OFFENDERS

Harry Taylor vs. the President

What a statement this guy made. I salute Harry Taylor.

From Think Progress...

This morning in Charlotte, a Bush PR event on the war on terror went off-script when a man named Harry Taylor took the microphone. Watch the video:

Read below for the full exchange:

Q You never stop talking about freedom, and I appreciate that. But while I listen to you talk about freedom, I see you assert your right to tap my telephone, to arrest me and hold me without charges, to try to preclude me from breathing clean air and drinking clean water and eating safe food. If I were a woman, you’d like to restrict my opportunity to make a choice and decision about whether I can abort a pregnancy on my own behalf. You are –

THE PRESIDENT: I’m not your favorite guy. Go ahead. (Laughter and applause.) Go on, what’s your question?

Q Okay, I don’t have a question. What I wanted to say to you is that I — in my lifetime, I have never felt more ashamed of, nor more frightened by my leadership in Washington, including the presidency, by the Senate, and –

AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Booo!

THE PRESIDENT: No, wait a sec — let him speak.

Q And I would hope — I feel like despite your rhetoric, that compassion and common sense have been left far behind during your administration, and I would hope from time to time that you have the humility and the grace to be ashamed of yourself inside yourself. And I also want to say I really appreciate the courtesy of allowing me to speak what I’m saying to you right now. That is part of what this country is about.

THE PRESIDENT: It is, yes. (Applause.)

Q And I know that this doesn’t come welcome to most of the people in this room, but I do appreciate that.

THE PRESIDENT: Appreciate –

Q I don’t have a question, but I just wanted to make that comment to you.

THE PRESIDENT: I appreciate it, thank you. Let me –

Q Can I ask a question?

THE PRESIDENT: I’m going to start off with what you first said, if you don’t mind, you said that I tap your phones — I think that’s what you said. You tapped your phone — I tapped your phones. Yes. No, that’s right. Yes, no, let me finish.

I’d like to describe that decision I made about protecting this country. You can come to whatever conclusion you want. The conclusion is I’m not going to apologize for what I did on the terrorist surveillance program, and I’ll tell you why. We were accused in Washington, D.C. of not connecting the dots, that we didn’t do everything we could to protect you or others from the attack. And so I called in the people responsible for helping to protect the American people and the homeland. I said, is there anything more we could do.

And there — out of this national — NSA came the recommendation that it would make sense for us to listen to a call outside the country, inside the country from al Qaeda or suspected al Qaeda in order to have real-time information from which to possibly prevent an attack. I thought that made sense, so long as it was constitutional. Now, you may not agree with the constitutional assessment given to me by lawyers — and we’ve got plenty of them in Washington — but they made this assessment that it was constitutional for me to make that decision.

I then, sir, took that decision to members of the United States Congress from both political parties and briefed them on the decision that was made in order to protect the American people. And so members of both parties, both chambers, were fully aware of a program intended to know whether or not al Qaeda was calling in or calling out of the country. It seems like — to make sense, if we’re at war, we ought to be using tools necessary within the Constitution, on a very limited basis, a program that’s reviewed constantly to protect us.

Now, you and I have a different — of agreement on what is needed to be protected. But you said, would I apologize for that? The answer — answer is, absolutely not. (Applause.)

The rest of the event transcript is here.

LINK: VIDEO: Bush Event Goes Off Script

RELATED READING...

Again, you can watch the video here...

Stunning. It is good to see people stand up to this administration.

-Mr. Joseph

Bill Nye: Booed for presenting science

This story is ridiculous. Who would have ever thought that this guy would offend people?

Audience members who expected to see Bill Nye “The Science Guy” conduct experiments and wow their children received quite a surprise Wednesday when Nye spoke at McLennan Community College.

Nye instead addressed such topics as Mars exploration, global warming and energy consumption, particularly oil and gas. He even ruffled a few religious feathers along the way.

The scientist with a background in stand-up and sketch comedy kept spectators interested, entertained and at ease with his funny, sometimes hilarious, delivery.
Speaking as part of MCC’s Distinguished Lecturer Series, Nye spoke to two audiences, one at 1:30 p.m. and the second at 7 p.m., of about 600 each. He said the first audience, though littered with young children listening to some rather adult scientific topics, “was very supportive.”

The second group also was rapt from the beginning, greeting the scientist with a raucous standing ovation upon his introduction.

“You haven’t heard the presentation yet!” Nye told them.

Opening with a discussion of Mars and his hopes for further discovery on the neighboring planet, Nye encouraged the audience to take interest in discovery and “change the world,” a mantra he repeated throughout.

Nye indicated that the presence of water in Mars’ atmosphere — evidenced by the planet’s ability to form frost — leads him to believe that there is a strong possibility that the planet once supported life.

The Emmy-winning scientist angered a few audience members when he criticized literal interpretation of the biblical verse Genesis 1:16, which reads: “God made two great lights — the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.”

He pointed out that the sun, the “greater light,” is but one of countless stars and that the “lesser light” is the moon, which really is not a light at all, rather a reflector of light.

A number of audience members left the room at that point, visibly angered by what some perceived as irreverence.

“We believe in a God!” exclaimed one woman as she left the room with three young children.

Nye also was critical of what he said was governmental agencies’ lack of action, even lack of understanding, in protecting the Earth from global warming and wasted resources.

Nye’s educational science show won 28 Emmy awards during its television run from 1992-98.

It seemed most in attendance were pleased to hear Nye speak, and some were even awed by the presence of a childhood icon.

“How cool is that, to be face to face with the man, Bill Nye?” said Jared McClure, who worked sound and video for the event. “And he’s funny, too.”

LINK: 'The Science Guy' is entertaining and provocative at MCC lecture

I mean, that's outrageous. He didn't offend anybody! He merely stated a FACT! Not an opinion, a damn FACT.

-Mr. Joseph

Olberman's Worst Person is...

... not Bill O'Reilly, but Neil Boortz...
...for saying that Rep. Cynthia McKinney looks like a "ghetto slut".

Here's the story from Media Matters...

Summary: Commemorating the third anniversary of his MSNBC show, Keith Olbermann devoted a segment to his long-standing rivalry with Fox News host Bill O'Reilly; Olbermann aired a compilation of clips mocking O'Reilly. He also declared radio host Neal Boortz that evening's "Worst Person in the World" for saying that Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) "looks like a ghetto slut."

LINK: Olbermann marked third anniversary by devoting segment to "O'Rivalry"; declared Boortz "Worst Person" for saying McKinney "looks like a ghetto slut"

Olbermann's segment on O'Reilly is quite funny.
-Mr. Joseph

"The Hammer" is nailed

Tom DeLay has resigned.

Here's the story from TIME Magazine...

Rep. Tom DeLay, whose iron hold on the House Republicans melted as a lobbying corruption scandal engulfed the Capitol, told TIME that he will not seek reelection and will leave Congress within months. Taking defiant swipes at "the left" and the press, he said he feels "liberated" and vowed to pursue an aggressive speaking and organizing campaign aimed at promoting foster care, Republican candidates and a closer connection between religion and government.

"I'm going to announce tomorrow that I'm not running for reelection and that I'm going to leave Congress," DeLay, who turns 59 on Saturday, said during a 90-minute interview on Monday. "I'm very much at peace with it." He notified President Bush in the afternoon. DeLay and his wife, Christine, said they had been prepared to fight, but that he decided last Wednesday, after months of prayer and contemplation, to spare his suburban Houston district the mudfest to come. "This had become a referendum on me," he said. "So it's better for me to step aside and let it be a referendum on ideas, Republican values and what's important for this district."

More...

LINK: Tom DeLay Tells Why He's Quitting

Peace.
-Mr. Joseph

Russ Feingold on FOX News

Feingold is all over the news and I love it. Here's an article from Crooks and Liars...

Russ stepped into the belly of the beast Sunday and joined Chris Wallace to discuss his censure proposal.

"The Republican strategy on Feingold's censure effort is to keep calling it absurd without engaging it on the merits. But, on the merits, Feingold's case is much stronger. As former Reagan-era Deputy Attorney General Bruce Fein has put it, Bush's actions are "more dangerous than Clinton's lying under oath, because it [Bush's claim of nearly unlimited executive authority] jeopardizes our democratic dispensation and civil liberties for the ages." If Republicans want to keep suggesting that censure (let alone impeachment) is a singularly extreme act to be taken only when our constitutional system is in peril, then they need to apologize for what happened in 1999. I'm not holding my breath.

So there's a value for Democrats in having Russ Feingold inject censure into the political debate. (In fact, a Newsweek poll found that 42 percent of Americans support the idea--more than backed the president's Social Security plan.) With censure as the extreme position, a full, tough investigation of the surveillance program now looks sober and reasonable, whereas, not long ago, that too might have seemed beyond the pale.

The challenge for Democrats, as The Washington Post's E. J. Dionne has pointed out, is to let some people push the bounds of acceptable opinion while others use the specter of radicalism to make modest, incremental progress. The press fetishizes party unity, but, in a way, what the Democrats need is creative disunity: different kinds of politicians who pursue different tactics but agree on a broader goal. Washington Democrats may not like Russ Feingold very much these days, but they--and the country--need him all the same."

LINK: Feingold on FOX News

That's it...

-Mr. Joseph

GOP "Censure or Else" Ad

This is most recent attack on Russ Feingold and the Democrats...

Video: GOP Attack on Feingold

-Mr. Joseph