• Episcopal - Good and Joyful Things - Politics, Schmolitics - Theocracy Watch

    Equality Matters: Going Undercover At NOM’s Anti-Gay Student Conference Gives A Fascinating Glimpse Behind NOM’s Moderate Facade

    When Carlos Maza, a gay activist who monitors the National Organization for Marriage, the “moderate” anti-gay marriage group (let’s face it, the ANTI-GAY HATE GROUP) went undercover to attend one of their weekend training sessions, he found himself connecting with another attendee in a surprising way. Read the whole thing, it’s like a spy novel except with Leviticus-spouting Religious Right leaders trying to “turn” a roomful of impressionable college students, instead of Communist moles posing as tweed jacketed leather-patched college professors. Yeah, it’s that complicated. Also, take note of some interesting details: Many of the college attendees were from either…

  • Hot Off The Presses - Politics, Schmolitics

    Set Dressing: Coal Miners Lose Pay, Dirtiest Ones Used As Props At Mandatory Romney Rally

    Take a look at these two pictures. One is from the Plain Dealer article on this story, one is a screencap from Raw Story’s followup. As the miners and their families arrived, they looked like this (some may have been office workers and executives): Amercian coal miners stands with Mitt! Look at how hard they work, in their dirty work clothes and sooty faces! They are obviously real working Amercians! WASHINGTON, D.C. — When GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney visited an Ohio coal mine this month to promote jobs in the coal industry, workers who appeared with him at the…

  • Blogs Wot I Read - Politics, Schmolitics

    Romney Social Media Staffer Bill Murphy Linked In To Fraudulent Profitable Tea Party Non-Profit

    This is juicy, if a little opaque to the non-Tweety, non-Bloggy, non-Facebooky clueless unlikely voter. The telling point is that he deleted his Linked In profile rather than answer tricky questions about whether his work for the organization would be part of his professional resume. Hat tip: OsborneInk Team Romney’s Social Media Director, Bill Murphy, is the former Director of the National Bloggers Club, a group under IRS investigation for soliciting donations while falsely claiming to be a non-profit organization. Although NBC filed incorporation papers in January, the organization is still absent from both the IRS and GuideStar charity databases.…

  • Hot Off The Presses - Politics, Schmolitics

    Report: Middle class lost significant financial ground over last decade | McClatchy

    In other words, from the beginning of the Bush administration, during which the erosion of middle-class income and the growth of super-rich income accelerated to a gap difficult to bridge. Obama has been hamstrung since day one, although he really should have abandoned bipartisanship when he had the chance in his first two years. Will the middle class remember who’s really to blame? America’s middle-class earners lost significant ground during the last decade as their incomes dropped for the first extended period since World War II, according to a report released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center. The decade also…

  • Hot Off The Presses - Politics, Schmolitics

    Romney Came To Elk Grove Village To Accuse Obama (And Say Nice Things About Sikhs And Non-Radical Muslims Walsh Later Defamed)

    My church, St Nicholas Episcopal, is located in Elk Grove Village. We run a food pantry 3 Wednesdays a month. I think a lot of our guests would be very surprised to find themselves part of a “culture of dependency.” I think Romney’s appearance in the village, aside from its convenience to O’Hare, is less to do with doing a gun-and-run fundraising appearance and more to do with supporting Reprehensible Joe Walsh (R-Anthrax)’s campaign to retain his seat against the very formidable Tammy Duckworth (D-Gave Her Legs For Her Country). They had a face-off for the Trib editorial board— apparently…

  • Hot Off The Presses - Politics, Schmolitics

    Illinois health care cuts to Medicaid: Uh oh

    I don’t know if this affects anyone we might know, but even if not, it’s shameful. When sweeping health care cuts take effect Sunday, the parts of Illinois that stand to be hardest hit are the places where folks already are struggling to get by.City neighborhoods like Austin and Englewood, Humboldt Park and Pilsen. Inner-ring suburbs like Cicero. Rust-belt cities like Rockford. Whole swaths of rural Illinois. They’re areas where people make less, jobs are scarce and more rely on the government for help.Medicaid cutbacks mean hundreds of thousands will see health care benefits greatly curtailed, tens of thousands will…

  • Hot Off The Presses - Politics, Schmolitics

    Fortune: ATF Never Purposefully Let Guns Walk During Fast And Furious | TPMMuckraker

    Link: Fortune: ATF Never Purposefully Let Guns Walk During Fast And Furious | TPMMuckraker Of course not Because that would be ridiculous, but easily used against them because the simple lie is more believable than the complex truth. Reality is often messy. There is no narrative structure. One day ahead of a House vote to find Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress, a six month investigation by Fortune magazine found that Arizona-based agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives never purposefully allowed guns to “walk” during Operation Fast and Furious.

  • Politics, Schmolitics

    America The Fee: Rich Conservatives Buying The Election?

    The more I read about the amount of money being spent and the disingenuous defense of Citizens United, the more I think that primaries and elections and polls won’t matter in the future, only dollars and nonsense. WASHINGTON — Casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, whose net worth makes him one of the worlds richest men, is on a check-writing spree that will soon bring his total political contributions in this election cycle to at least $71 million, according to sources familiar with his spending. That money is spread across the spectrum of GOP super PACs, which are required to disclose donors,…

  • Politics, Schmolitics

    PayPal For Paul? Time To Find An Alternative

    Holy Jeebus! Time to find an alternative to PayPal ASAP!! In the race for the Republican presidential nomination, only one candidate remains to challenge presumptive nominee Mitt Romney: Texas Rep. Ron Paul. Even Paul has said he will no longer campaign in states that have yet to hold their primaries. And Paul has always been considered a long shot to win. But that hasn’t deterred many of his hard-core supporters, including the Silicon Valley billionaire who has bankrolled the superPAC backing Paul. Peter Thiel is a venture capitalist, entrepreneur and co-founder of PayPal. He hit the jackpot again when he…

  • Blogs Wot I Read - Politics, Schmolitics

    Balloon Juice » One More Thing About Komen (It Forced Progressives To Grow A Pair)

    THIS. Thanks to my Second Life chum RevPaperboy Boozehound for bringing this to my attention. I had been feeling the same way about the huge outpouring of progressive outrage over the Komen debacle, but this crystallized it for me. DON’T believe the lies. EVERYTHING said about Obama, the economy, and the whole freakin WORLD by FOX Newa commentators and right-wing guests is a a GOD. DAMNED. LIE. Progressives, assemble. Occupy your passion for justice, fairness, and universal healthcare. This time, though, was different. It was nice to watch everyone go for blood, and sink their teeth in and get some.…