When Guns Become Godly: The Winning GOP Candidates, The Christian Right and the NRA.

https://publicfrenemy.wordpress.com/tag/jesus/

Two or three centuries from now it will be recognized that all the competent killers are Christians; then the pagan world will go to school to the Christian - not to acquire his religion, but his guns. 


- Young Satan, from Mark Twain's The Mysterious Stranger


From Joe.My.God:

The St. Gabriel Possenti Society has named GOP Sen. Mike Johanns (NE) as its "gun saint" of self-defense for his work to thwart gun control laws. In other news, there is a Patron Saint of Handgunners. Or will be, rather, if the Vatican approves the request of the Society.

A quick rundown of the GOP and Libertarian candidates running for President shows that all of the frontrunners except Romney have opposed gun control laws. On the other side, Obama supports the Second Amendment with a caveat about individual ownership:

“I think it’s important for us to recognize that we’ve got a tradition of handgun ownership and gun ownership generally...  We also have a violence on the streets that is the result of illegal handgun usage. And so I think there is nothing wrong with a community saying we are going to take those illegal handguns off the streets. 

OK, we all knew it existed, that strong link  between the NRA and the Christian Right, but has it gotten stronger? Let's put it this way: it's as strong as it ever was.

The Christian Right - NRA Link

Perhaps the most powerful visage of a strong link between the Christian Right and the NRA is that of Pastor ("Rome Is The Whore of Babylon") John Hagee. He is the headliner for Citizens United For Israel and is the most prominent Christian Zionist around. He came to prominence during the 2008 election as one of John McCain's questionable religious mentors (Rod Parsley being the other one of note). His insistence that Israel must the be spark of Armageddon has caused him to be both vilified and glorified - especially in NRA circles. 


So it may not be a surprise that the ties of the Christian Right and the NRA have gotten stronger since 2008. 


Michele Bachmman addressed the NRA's 2011 annual meeting with: 


“In 18 months, we’ll face one of the most important elections of our time. In 2012, we have the opportunity to repeal the current president and elect a Constitutional conservative who will protect our Second Amendment rights.”

Rick Perry drew cheers from a speech at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University when he was introduced by the chancellor:  “Today’s speaker also has an A+ rating, but it’s from the National Rifle Association.”


Newt Gingrich gave a speech to the NRA equating American exceptionalism, the Second Amendment and the "Creator's" God-given rights (see below at 3:57 mark). 


Recently, Rick Santorum used a 1994 of Mitt Romney's to underscore a certain amount of distance between Romney and the NRA. The quote "I don't stand in line with the NRA" was taken out of context during a different between Romney and Ted Kennedy concerning gun control laws, but was not a blanket denegration of the NRA.


The Problem With Mitt and Obama


Perhaps more than his Mormonism, Mitt Romney's support for gun control (ala the Brady Bill) has caused concern among the Christian Right: it seems that he flip-flops on his association with the NRA more than any other issue. For while he is an actual member of the NRA, he is strongly against private use of assault weapons and has worked with local gun groups in Massachusetts to restrict gun ownership. 


And the Christian Right/NRA crowd won't stand for even a tepid involvement in gun control:

While delivering one of the liveliest and best-received speeches at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said the president's low-key approach to gun rights during his first term was "a "conspiracy to ensure re-election by lulling gun owners to sleep."

Will gun control become a major issue in the election? Probably not, but the Christian Right would like it to be: along with DOMA, the repeal of DADT, contraception and health care reform, gun control is a major "social conservative" issue. And if Romney wins the nomination, his support of the Brady Bill just may be another mark against him. 

On March 6th, Will The Rest Of The GOP Candidates Be Raptured?

The end of the world will not come if a Christian Right advocate does not win the race for President.
But tell that to the Christian Right.

With the religiosity that has covered the GOP presidential primary race, it's a wonder that the candidates have not formed a denomination of their own: the "I'm Christian, Dammit!" denomination. The pandering, the moralizing, the attacks on Obama's Christianity have given America a panoply of righteousness that has never been seen since Pat Robertson's bid for political legitimacy. Some people think it came to its peak with Santorum's "vomit" statement about JFK's speech concerning separation of church and state.

However, some people do not. Nor do they want it to peak. They certainly don't want it to die.

Rapturists believe that certain people will be bodily taken to heaven before the end of the world. So it stands to reason that if they think that the end of the world will come with the re-election of Obama or a non-quite-so-overtly-Christian politician, people will be raptured. Yes, I know that's a stretch in reasoning, but look who we're dealing with here:

And as the time line goes the book of Revelations says there will be 3 1/2 years of false peace before the end of the world. obama promised peace in the world. So if Obama is the anti- christ then the time-line would be june 2012. But it is all in God's hands now. - Yahoo Answers 2008
With all that is taking place in the Middle East, the stage is being set for that great day when we see Jesus in the clouds, and I believe it will be in my lifetime. Hallelujah! Are you ready to meet him in the air? If your sins are forgiven, you'll be among those who will be raptured. With all the horrors on this earth, He can't come too soon.
- Exposing Liberal Lies, June 11, 2011

Continuing The Fight For Domination
Perry, Bachmann, Gingrich and Santorum were the Christian Right's biggest pitch yet for political domination, yet even Herman Cain and Ron Paul got into the act.* And although Perry, Bachmann, and Cain are out of the running, their exit statements show no signs of letting up on righteousness (ala the evils of "socialism" and "Obamacare"):

Perry:

“I’m not slipping off in to the sunset. I’m not riding off into the West. We’ve got plenty of work to do right here in the state of Texas,” said Perry at a hotel ballroom just north of Austin, ”and I’ve got plenty of fight left in this 61-year-old body.”

Bachmann:

“Last night the people of Iowa spoke with a very clear voice and so I have decided to stand aside,” Bachmann told a crowd of supporters in West Des Moines. But, she added, “I will continue fighting to defeat the president’s agenda of socialism.”

And from the looks of it, neither Santorum nor Gingrich will not go silently into that good night. Santorum's endless moralizing will continue to be an echo which will never fully be silenced. And while Romney is still expected to take all-important Michigan (Motown Showdown), a Romney win will not quell the voice of the zealot: gays, feminists and people on food stamps are evil and only a "Jesus Candidate" can save America.

And if Santorum should win...the moralizing will ramp up to a fever pitch, effectively ending any rational debate on many issues.

When Will It End? The Moralizing, That is.

It is a fete accompli that the Christian Right has tasted blood in the political arena with Bachmann, Gingrich, Perry and Santorum. It's voice has been heard loud and clear through the issues of same-sex marriage, contraception and treatment of the poor and disenfranchised. Throughout the last twenty years, the "death" of the Christian Right has been posited without any regard for its ferocity. What we are seeing now is an animal that has political teeth to match that ferocity: it has hold of politicians and their campaigns. It has hold over caucuses. It has hold over billion$ in donations. But it's power may be its downfall: too much moralizing, too much money spent, too much animosity towards Obama and liberalism may become too much for America.

We hope. Because if the Christian Right and its minions get a true hold on America...

it may be the end of the world as we know it.

*Warren Throckmorton, who first uncovered that Paul was boasting about an endorsement from a pastor who advocates for the death penalty for gays and lesbians, notes that Heath [Mike Heath, Iowa State Director of Paul's presidential campaign] was also the Board Chairman of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality, one of the most fringe and virulently anti-gay groups in the country. - Right Wing Watch

Gilligan Wasn't THAT Stupid: How The GOP's Castaways Have Never Looked Sillier

Santorum missed the boat. 


It was bound to happen: someone portraying today's GOP politicos as the cast of Gilligan's Island. They have, after all, been considered clowns, even by Dukes of Hazzard fans. And the parallels are so rich! Come on, you know you can't stop laughing!


The above photo-shopped portrait has hit the ether with a scream and people all over the net are doubling over, reaching for Kleenex, and gasping for breath. It almost makes you sorry for the REAL cast - they never got laughs THIS big!


One of the best ones is Palin as Maryann. Maryann was corn-fed and clueless... and she had "perky pills" for breakfast. If the characters had longer lives, Maryann's daughter would have wound up on Dancing With The Stars. 


Ron Paul as Lovey Howell isn't bad either. Paul may consider himself an outsider, but he's demured to people like Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich more than some people realize. And of all the characters, Lovey's was the most useless: Paul's stances have never swayed the other candidates and since everyone knows he won't win the GOP nomination, there's a fruitlessness about his campaign. He's making a statement, but so what?


Newt as the Skipper demonstrates the burly politics that win over people who bludgeon cats.


Romney's Thurston Howell is apropos because most of Howell's money came with him on the boat. Romney can never shake the image of a rich man who's never really known poverty.

Michele Bachmann's Ginger exudes a contrived beauty. (probably with help from her make-up man, Marcus Bachmann). She floated through her campaign as if in a Hollywood cloud, too enamored of herself to think that anyone would touch her negatively - or her husband. 


Huntsman is intelligent - and pretty to look at, but his character - the professor - was the weakest of all and barely got any laughs. He was too smart for his own good.


The best, of course, is Perry as Gilligan, the blundering goof who didn't know that when the Texas GOP applauded his execution rate, the rest of the world was appalled. "N*ggerhead" and his debate gaffs shot him to the top of  laugh meters. His campaign video "Strong" and his Brokeback Mountain jacket blunder have now become the stuff of  comedy legend. His campaign manager, Joe Allbaugh, let him roll without a laugh track: Perry didn't need one.


You're still laughing, aren't you? Come on! You ARE!


Against The Assault Of Laughter, Nothing Can Stand 


Yes, Mark Twain said it best: laughter can certainly be a wonderful weapon when it comes to any war against politicians and their hypocrisy, for who wants to be on the side of fools? And it's the best medicine for a country that's ill with Koch Brother shenanigans, shady banking maneuvers, 1% mentality, and Citizens United possibilities. 


Of course, since most comedy is actually built upon tragedy, the field of Christian-Right pandering politicians has its dark side. Perhaps that's why Santorum isn't in the picture: laughter could be swept away in an instant WTF? Ginrich's moral mea culpas are funny, Paul's past views are ridiculously inconsistent, Romney's strident attempts to appear common are whimsical, but Santorum's overt moralizing is truly scary. His latest statement to a woman about her son's healthcare* is horrific and strains comedy writers across the country to see anything funny in it. 


But we must keep laughing at the Right's list of leaders, if only to knock them down for their hilarious hubris. 
We must keep laughing because the only thing more nightmare-inducing than the crew and antics of the SS GOP:


RERUNS.


*Santorum recently told a mother to stop whining about her son's million-dollar prescription medicine bill.

Driving The Clown Car: A (Serious) Look At GOP Campaign Managers With Nonetheless HILARIOUS UDATES!es

BREAKING: Herman Cain's defection didn't quell the laugh riot.

When the clown car opens and spills its laugh-laden contents, the last one out is usually the driver, and with the GOP circus in full swing, it's time to stop and think about who the hell is actually running the show. Of course, so many aides and managers bailed out in the last 6 months, that the resulting confusion only adds to the hilarity: these guys are willing to throw their candidates under the clown car by continuing with the blunders. What do they have to gain, you may ask? Possibly a future position as ringmaster for another circus: the next GOP campaign pandering to Tea Partyers and the Christian Right.

Then again, all the buffoonery may be the fault of the candidates, hurling themselves through their campaigns without giving a second thought to what their managers think giving rise to the question: why did they hire these guys at all? As nannies, perhaps? And who, exactly, is running the show? 

Experience, dealings with the Christian Right, odd endorsements procured, campaign issues tackled and the latest events: all might shed some light on these politicos and the clown campaigns they manage.

Joe Allbaugh (Rick Perry)

Joe Allbaugh's wikipedia biography stops mysteriously at 2008, not mentioning any connection to Perry. Perhaps it was removed out of embarrassment, because Allbaugh's political and lobbying career shows a marked intelligence peppered with ruthlessness. He was, after all, George Bush's campaign manager for the 2000 election and head of FEMA until the ill-fated "Brownie" took over. And before that, presided over then-Governor Bush's "Fomalde-gate" scandal (involving the funeral industry).It also shows no significant connection with the Christian Right. So, does Allbaugh have any say in Perry's campaign, or is he just window dressing?

It's odd to think that Allbaugh had anything to do with "The Response" (Perry's call-to-prayer for the state of Texas), his ineptitude during the debates, or his fatal campaign ad, "Strong." But remember that Perry is of the same mold as George Bush - and Bush seldom listened to advisers. Then again, Joe Allbaugh may be jettisoning Perry out of the clown car while secretly feathering his own nest: his firm, Allbaugh Company, has operated with, Halliburton, Ecosphere Systems and  Dilligence, Iraq (a security/mercenary company).

Rick Perry doesn't seem to know (or care) what his campaign manager is all about. Figures.

Endorsements: 

Dean Cain, actor, of Lois and Clark (Superman) fame. Couldn't Allbaugh get Chuck Norris? 

Steve Forbes - of course, a "corporate personhood" donor.

The Latest: Rick Perry's taxpayer-paid security detail costs continue to skyrocket. Perry insists that his campaign travels are beneficial to the state of Texas. Right.

Mike Krull (Newt Gingrich)

Trying to look for Newt Gingrich's campaign manager under Google is like looking for a needle in a haystack: most of the coverage of his campaign management has been how his staff deserted him en masse. But a look in an article on his wife Calista reveals that it's HER friend, Mike Krull who has filled the crucial gap. 

Calista Gingrich may, in fact, be the REAL manager of Newt's campaign. Her "column" on his website titled "Calista's Canvass" reveals just how much more involved she is with the campaign. Is it she or Krull who were instrumental in getting endorsements from the American Family Association and homophobic hate monger, pastor Jim Garlow?

But looking at Krull: at first glance, he seems to suffer from the GOP malady of inept vetting. Not vetting your own candidate properly, that is. A campaign manager MUST know absolutely EVERYTHING about the candidate's past. Period. In effect, he must know the candidate better than the candidate knows himself: he has to ward off any criticism and have an answer for any peccadillo or indiscretion. 

Endorsements:

Columbia Tea Party

Tea Party Nation

Des Moines Tea Party

These endorsements may be indicative of Calista's influence, not Krull's.

The Latest: Newt Gingrich has lied about his first divorce: his website says that first wife Jackie Gingrich, requested the divorce, but CNN has uncovered documents stating not only that Gingrich instigated the procedures, but that he was negligent in child support and owed three months in support of Jackie and their two daughters, teenagers at the time. Mike Krull's/Gingrich's campaign's insistence that the opposite was true only makes Krull look inept in the face of legitimacy: Gingrich's mea culpas become more disingenuous as time goes by, weakening his support by the Christian Right.   

The Latest II: When it was discovered that Gingrich did not make the ballot on the Virginia primaries, his response was to compare the event toe Pearl Harbor (?!?): 

“Newt and I agreed that the analogy is December 1941: We have experienced an unexpected setback, but we will regroup and refocus.” 

Did they agree on what to do if the analogy was ridiculed? For Krull's sake, we hope not.

John Tate (Ron Paul)

As with Newt Gingrich's campaign manager, googling for John Tate presents a problem: most of the articles are on the demise of Kent Snyder, his former campaign manager who died uninsured and whose estate owed $400,000 in medical bills as a consequence. The (now) infamous interview with Wolf Blitzer pointed out how many people of Paul's ranks would just "let them die" if people elected not to have health insurance. Although Snyder's case was a bit different (he was denied health care because of a pre-existing condition), it put Paul in  an embarrassing position after he had stated that "our neighbors, our friends, our churches would do it." Paul's lobbing of compassion over to the churches, however, is quite misplaced: they can't handle the volume of people with needs, nor do many of them accept people with needs in a totally compassionate (non-qualifying) way.

So how is his new campaign manager, John Tate, looking at Health Care Reform? Tate's history as a Paul supporter and president of Campaign for Liberty (a libertarian - no government group) can unearth Tate's stance on health care (see video below). Total free enterprise in terms of health care basically reiterates the former physician's stance that the only good uninsured American is a dead uninsured American. 

Endorsements:

John Stossel

Chuck Norris (yes, instead of endorsing Rick Perry - maybe it was the Brokeback Mountain jacket that turned off Norris)

Andrew Sullivan. Not. Sullivan withdrew his support after further investigation into Paul's foreign policies.

Latest: In a FOX News update concerning the racially charge newsletters under Paul's name back in the 80's, total denial is the name of the game.

"These things are really nasty, and he didn't know about it? Wasn't aware of it?" Gingrich said at a stop in South Carolina.


Paul has since denied writing, and in some cases even reading, some of the newsletters that bore his name. But the issue could continue to haunt him as he rides a wave of support in Iowa at just the right time.

Again, this looks like a case of not knowing the candidate's history inside-out.

Keith Nahigian (Michele Bachmann)

It's probably fitting that Keith Nahigian was responsible for Dan Quayle's infamous "potatoe" gaffe: Bachmann is so prone to gaffes that spin comes from the chin. In any case, Nahigian has had over twenty years to learn from the mistake in thinking that politicians are intelligent. 

Then again, Nahigian's own gaffes (or rather, unfortunate quotes) have not given Bachmann's campaign additional dignity:

Michele Bachmann’s campaign manager lashed out at a CBS executive after he was accidentally cc’d on a network email detailing a plan to marginalize the Minnesota Congresswoman at Saturday night's Republican debate.
"John Dickerson should be fired," the Rep.’s political handler Keith Nahigian told reporters after the debate, CNN and Fox reported. "He is a piece of sh---. He is a fraud and should be fired."

The overspill from the Santorum scandal (Vander Plaats asked Bachmann to 'merge" with Santorum) did nothing to deter Nahigian from taking strategies for Iowa from Santorum's campaign:

Earlier in the week, Bachmann’s team announced that they were taking a page from Santorum’s playbook and would make campaign stops in all 99 counties in Iowa before the caucus on Jan. 3. Bachmann will start this campaign swing in Northwest Iowa on Friday and continue throughout the weekend.

Great. Taking it's cue from a tanking campaign so it can pander to the Christian Right is very, very smart thinking. 

Endorsements:

Phyllis Schafley. Even though she didn't send her gay son to Marcus Bachmann's pray-away-the-gay clinic.

Wayne Newton. He didn't go to Bachmann's clinic either. 

Latest:



Nahigian himself sounds as vague and clueless as Bachmann. Witness his response (below) to a question on Isreal (referring to Ron Paul's remark that he wished Israel was not a state)

Mike Biundo (Rick Santorum, 

New Hampshire and Beyond)

The former aide to Pat Buchanan's primary effort in Iowa back in 1996 should know better about reining in a candidate, but Mike Biundo has worked on Santorum's campaigns so long that he can't seem to see the forest from the trees. 

Biundo on key New Hampshire endorsement going to Newt Gingrich. 

“Rick is running a traditional New Hampshire style, door-to-door, town-hall-to-town-hall grassroots campaign,” said Biundo, a New Hampshire native. “We are looking forward to a positive result on January 10th here in New Hampshire.”

Door-to-door at this point, when Santorum is only maintaining the 5% slot is, at best, a weak excuse for a weak campaign. True, Santorum never had the entertainment appeal of Rick Perry, whose calls to Christianism have sparked debate and parody, but Santorum's moralizing overshadows all aspects of his persona. His demonization of Islam, the possibilities of Sharia law and implications that Muslims are terrorists, have become rallying cries to a few right-wing bloggers.

Endorsements:

Bob Vander Plaats. Cost: $1 million. Scandal: Priceless

Brad Thor. The thriller author's book, The Last Patriot, pandered to extreme fears of takeover by Islamic terrorists.

Latest: Biundo has tried to play down the Vander Plaats "pay for play" scandal by saying that Santorum was never really approached byVander Plaats. Santorum says differently, contradicting Biundo.  

Matt Rhoades (Mitt Romney)

Matt Rhoades has been with Mitt Romney since 2008, after being director of "opposition research" for George Bush's campaign in 2004.

His colleagues would later tell National Journal that his opposition research work helped discredit Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) on national security issues in particular, or as The Hotline put it in 2006, "Campaign officials credit him with doing more than just about any other staffer to define John Kerry as weak, wimpy, French and flip-floppy -- an unacceptable Commander in Chief."

So it seems that Rhoades is dealing with the very same type of character he "exposed" which, if he can turn overturn the perception of Romney as "flip-floppy" he is an extremely good manager indeed. He also has an extremely good relationship with Matt Drudge (The Drudge Report). But how has he dealt with the Mormon issue?

He hasn't. Probably because he's allowing the Christian Right to hang itself on the issue. "Mormonism is a cult" is a meme that has worn itself thin and Rhoades, being the opposition analyst that he is, knows that this kind of push-back can actually work in Romney's favor. Be he weak or flip-floppy, Romney needs an underdog persona. Rhoades is already concentrating on the "kill Romney" attack strategy that the Obama Administration flatly denies. Rhoades knows the validity of hanging on to a persecution campaign.

Endorsements:

JP Morgan Chase
Former First Lady Barbara Bush. Pearls notwithstanding.


Latest:


The recent tele-town hall Florida apparance by Romney didn't seem to quell fears of elitism and flip-flopping. Rhoades can't seem to get Romney into that "everyman" mode he so desperately wants - and needs.

Either the clowns are running the circus or the campaign managers are - it's tough to decide: from ruthless right wingers like Allbaugh, to clueless politicos such as Nahigian, campaign managers look to be throwing their candidates under the clown car for purposes only they know. Perhaps, instead of the driving the cars, they decided early on that it would be best if they just sat back and enjoy the ride and its ensuing slapstick chaos along with the "suckers born every minute."


Who will be laughing after the primaries?

Mary, Joseph & Jesus BEAT Rick Perry In The Iowas Polls!!

And they'll be big in all of the corn-fed states.

Transcending Christmas, Pt. 2: Who Owns Christmas - Rick Perry, Tony Perkins or... FOX News?

Christmas trees have become big news

 this season if only because the 

"war on Christmas is heating up.

And FOX News is leading the charge.

Because, only FOX News can determine who should celebrate Christmas. That's right. FOX News OWNS Christmas. Or at least it thinks it does. For example: the controversy about Rhode Island's Capitol "Holiday Tree" was kept alive recently by FOX attack reporter, Jesse Waters. Waters accosted Gov. Lincoln Chafee, asking him why the tree was called a "Holiday Tree" instead of a Christmas tree. Chafee was not quite as ruffled as Waters wanted him to be when he sited the state's religious dissident founder by saying:

“We’re trying to uphold the values of Roger Williams and make sure that the purity of theology is kept free from the pollution of government.”

Needless to say, Waters didn't get it and kept hounding the governor, asking "What holiday are you celebrating?" 

FOX also owns Christmas with egregious books like The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday Is Worse Than You Thought by John Gibson. (Gibson is the host of FOX's "The Big Story.")

Simply put, by featuring the "war" on Christmas so frequently and consistently, FOX wants to show us who REALLY owns Christmas.

SOLE PROPRIETOR?

Of course, plenty of other entities claim ownership of Christmas, not the least of which is the Family Research Council of the (now ubiquitous) conservative political convention, the Values Voters Summit. As we all know, the grand high exalted mystic ruler of the FRC, Tony Perkins, wastes no time in his views on who owns Christmas. It not only belongs to people who tell you where it should be celebrated, but to people who bloviate on where it shouldn't be celebrated:

Imagine celebrating the holidays at a graveyard--or the sight of a mass execution. That's what the Harris County Democratic Party's doing by holding their Christmas party at an abortion clinic. And not just any clinic, but Planned Parenthood's Houston mega-center. When reporters broke the news, the city's liberal mayor, Annise Parker, tried to defend the idea by saying, "It's not about the building; it's about people's lives." She's absolutely right. This is about lives--specifically, the millions taken in abortion clinics like this one! Even moderates like Andrew Breitbart said, "One doesn't have to be a dedicated pro-life activist to find the idea of this event kind of sick." After all, Christmas is a celebration of birth-not death. We rejoice in the baby who came so that we might have life-and life more abundantly.*

Last year, we wrote an article on Tony Perkins' "Christmas Card" to donors/followers of the FRC (Stranger Than Fiction: Tony Perkins' Christmas Card") in which he politicizes Christmas, albeit over-texted with Scripture. No doubt about it: TonyPerkins and the FRC have a serious stake in Christmas.


Rick Perry Is Not "Strong", But He Owns Christmas Too


Rick Perry's ad "Strong" earned him a record-breaking 665,000 "dislikes" on YouTube not only because he  slammed gays in the military and the absence of prayer in public schools, but he stated that kids "can't celebrate Christmas" in schools.** The ad instantly gave way to a dozen parodies (see the most stinging one below - "I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm an a**hole"). The bombastic attack on the Obama administration chose to hang on to Christmas as demonstration of ownership. 

So it seems that any "war" on Christmas, any inclusive attempts with "Holiday Trees" and "Happy Holidays", any celebration of Christmas in the "wrong" places declares the owners of Christmas to be the ones who insist on...control. We've noted that Christmas has, in effect, transcended itself, morphing into a universal Christmas Spirit. By controlling Christmas, these same people also attempt to control the Christmas Spirit. 


Perhaps the one person who realizes this manipulation is John Stewart of The Daily Show as the video below demonstrates. Stewart, of course, pokes fun at the whole ridiculousness of the "war", but in his comedy lies the truth: people may think they own Christmas, but the ownership of the Christmas Spirit? 


I don't think so. 

* Some rather sticky points against Perkins' rhetoric: some people actually do celebrate part of their Christmas placing wreaths or "blankets" of evergreens on loved ones graves. Secondly, Andrew Breibart is not and never has been a "moderate."

** CBS News:"Based on checking the schoolhouse scene in Iowa and Texas and consulting an array of national experts, it's clear that school officials are not permitted to organize prayers or focus on a single religion in connection with Christmas, but kids may pray and also celebrate the holiday on their own," the site's article reads.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Can We Stop Laughing Now? GOP Hypocrisy Campaign Hits New High With Herman Cain and His Campaign Manager Mark Block

The stupidity goes on ...and on...and on... and on...

"No individual, whether a private citizen, a candidate for public office or a public official, should be questioned about his or her private sexual life." - Herman Cain campaign spokeperson (who was presumably sober when he made the statement)

Thumbing your nose at the American public is extremely stupid if you're running for office, and the GOP presidential candidate lineup has been doing just that. 

The primary debates - if you can call them that - have brought out idiocies and ineptitudes to such a degree that the entire GOP looks to be populated with clowns. And not very good clowns either. Oh, they've made us laugh, but along with the laughter, they provoke resentment at being so oblivious to public sensibilities and intelligence. For example, did Rick Perry never think that someone would uncover his "n*ggerhead camp"?* Did Michele Bachmann never put two and two together when it came to one nellie husband running an unlicensed pray-away-the-gay clinic? True, these two candidates are fairly stupid to begin with, but to have their campaigns dole out the stupidity as if it were candy is an insult to Americans.


Then there's Herman Cain, who looks to be the dumbest of the dumb: a corporate Uncle Tom who has frequent lapses of memory and doesn't seem to know anything about countries east, west, north or south of Sandy Springs, Georgia. He's a would-be politician who relies on America's trust: a man who can turn around giant corporations can certainly help the country out of its economic woes, can't he?


The problem with the above idea: America is not a corporation to be trimmed and re-packaged: it's very diverse and has more goals than just making a profit.** It's team of workers has to multi-focus or whole segments of its population will suffer.


So now that fragile trust in Herman Cain has been overshadowed by his pride, his arrogance and ... his stupidity: as he saw opponents like Perry and Bachmann falter by not covering their lives up sufficiently, he should have taken stock of his own life and covered up the accusations of harassment or dealt with them head on. But now that Ginger White has come forth with allegations of a long term affair, dealing with it all has been rendered moot: it's all over but the spin from a campaign that was built on sheer hubris.


And the spin will continue to include inane comments like the one above. Bill Clinton, stop laughing now or you'll hurt yourself!


Mark Block, The Funniest Man In America


Herman Cain's campaign manager is Mark Block, a man whose ineptitude in managing Cain's campaign is matched only by his arrogance: he is the one person responsible for the awful "Libya interview" that Cain painfully plowed through, admitting lack of focus. He did not insist on a strategy session with the Milwaukee Sentinel outlining what topics could and could not be covered (which is normal in professional promotion and publicity), but instead threw Cain under the bus and, from all accounts, thought that the interview went well! He also went on to Sean Hannity's FOX news show claiming that the second harassment accuser, Karen Kraushaar, was in cahoots with POLITICO (not true).


For arguably the best laugh anyone can have over the disastrous Cain campaign, I've presented its most hilarious video below. It's talking points:


"Tomorrow, he's one day closer to the White House"- or an outhouse
"We will put "United" back in the United States of America" - united for what - pizza?
"We've run a campaign like no one's ever seen." - thank God for that!
"But then, America's never seen a candidate like Herman Cain."- let's hope not!


Block then finishes by blowing a puff of cigarette smoke into America's face. Has SNL done a sketch on this insipid wreck yet?


So can we stop laughing now? Have we been insulted with ineptitude and mindlessness enough to get back to Mitt Romney's flip-flopping or Newt Gingrich's sudden compassion for illegal immigrants? For the sake of the country's health, can we refrain from the pathological laughter brought on by the likes of Cain and Block? 


Because this campaign is no longer a fun-filled pizza...


...it's toast.

* So prevalent is the American philosophy that politicians always have something to hide - especially sexually, porn king Larry Flynt is willing to pay $1 million to the person who proves that Rick Perry has had an extramarital affair - gay or straight. We're waiting.


**Or at least it's supposed to have more goals.

Dumb and Dumber...and Dumbest: FOX News Creates America's Only Journalistic Black Hole

WE ALWAYS KNEW...

"Rather, the results show us that there is something about watching Fox News that leads people to do worse on these questions than those who don’t watch any news at all."

A scathing report by Fairleigh Dickinson University - a PublicMind Poll - discloses the fact that not only have FOX viewers been LESS informed about national and international events than other news viewers, but  they have also have been MADE less informed than others who do not even follow the news via broadcast "journalism." It seems that in its driving force to keep people misinformed - "fairly unbalanced" - FOX has actually made its viewers dumber.

A BENEFICIAL BLACK HOLE

Of course, for most of the politicians who frequent FOX, this may not be a bad thing: "analysts" like Mike Huckabee feel safer in their niches than they would be at, say MSNBC: at FOX, they're never really questioned nor are their "analyses" really scrutinized. 

FOX's jumble of misinformation and no information has actually been beneficial to some people: while the general public suffers from current affairs blindness, pundits, politicians and religious leaders of the Right have benefited. Overly supportive attitudes and softball interviews have been the boon to the likes of Tony Perkins (Family Research Council), Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, and Ann Coulter. 

To be fair, it would be unwise for these same people to court, say, Anderson Cooper or Lawrence O'Donnell. Honest analysis with hardball questions are too tough for them unless, like Ann Coulter, one has an overabundance of self-esteem and thinks that there is no such thing as bad publicity. FOX always avoids the most detrimental subjects or frames them in the manner of an attack from the other side ("why do you think you were so viciously attacked about ____by____?"). 

Jon Stewart Was Right

So, let me tell you what's going on. So, two Sundays ago, I do an interview on Chris Wallace’s show, and along with some really salient, dynamic points that I made, I mentioned Fox News viewers were the most consistently misinformed viewers in every poll. PolitiFact took issue with that, and said I really shouldn't have said every poll. Just most. So, I accepted it, I then I brought up a 21 lie salute of PolitiFact Fox fact-checking. So I assume that Chris Wallace now begins the work of apologizing for Fox's many false and misleading statements. They’ll probably do a few per show and carry us into the 2014 midterms with a clear conscience.

UPDATE:

As is usual with FOX, there has been no response as to the FD report. 

The Rodeo Clown Comes (Ideologically) Home To Texas: Glenn Beck Will Live Deep In The Heart Of Right Wingnuts

Maybe He'll Help Spur On The Secession, 
Then Unite Texas To Israel!

For the past several years, the state of Texas has been booming with radical Right Wing ideologies and uber-Christian Right authority over previously secular things (e.g. school boards changing textbooks to reflect a more Christian nation). And with an event like governor Rick Perry's The Response, Texas has inflated itself beyond recognition. To some people, in fact, Texas now looks like a clown car ready to burst.


BLAM! Glenn Beck has just announced that he will moving his family and base of operations to ... Texas! The nation's self-described rodeo clown will join the ranks of Rick Perry and some very serious Wingnuts!

As it turns out, anyone who speculated that Beck might be headed somewhere in America's heartland—closer to the core tea party-ing audience that consumes his sometimes controversial ramblings with an apostolic zeal—was indeed correct. Beck confirmed on his daily radio program Monday that he, his family and part of his media empire are moving to Texas. He will open studios there for Mercury Radio Arts, the Manhattan-based production company behind both the radio show and his forthcoming Internet TV venture.

But wait, that's not all folks! As an added bonus, Beck has jokingly said to Governor Rick Perry that he might run for governor of the Lone Star State! That is, unless Perry decides to have Beck as his running mate on the Republican ticket!

OK, folks, let's be serious for a minute (it's hard, but we have to) and envision what Glenn Beck's move will mean to Texas and the rest of the country.


Glenn Beck will be neighbors with:

• His protege,  pseudo-historian David Barton.  who has been vice-chairman of the Texas Republican Party and an evangelical advisor to the Republican National Committee. 
• Fort Worth-based televangelist Ken Copeland. Copeland is also noted for his involvement in Oral Roberts University (his daughter, Terri, married the former Board Chairman of ORU, George Pearsons)
• Pastor John Hagee of San Antonio. Remember Hagee as the "Whore of Babylon" pastor who put a sizable dent into John McCain's campaign.
• Chuck Norris, of Walker, Texas Ranger fame and thoroughly Right Wing spokesperson for the NRA. Norris has always bolstered Beck's conspiracy theories and then there was this wonderful exchange: 

 GLENN: Americans will, they just, they won't stand for it. There will be parts of the country that will rise up. And they said, where's that going to come from? And I said Texas, it's going to come from Texas. Do you agree with that, Chuck, or not? NORRIS: Oh, yeah. You know, Texas is a republic, you know. We could actually --GLENN: It was a country before it was a state. NORRIS: Yeah, we could break off from the union if we wanted to. GLENN: You do, you call me. NORRIS: Oh, yeah.

• Tea Party groups and affiliates. There are literally hundreds of Tea Party groups in Texas. 
• James Robison, televangelist. Robison has brought together Christian Right leaders and politicians to secure the Presidency for a social conservative.

Although Beck will connect with Texas' top movers and shakers of Right Wing Religion and politics, perhaps it is the prevailing Texas state of mind that Beck will truly be comfortable with: anti-East Coast, gun-totin', Creationist, Southern Baptist, Libertarian isolationist.


UPDATE:


What's up with Beck and Israel? Why? Is he trying to establish himself on an international scale? As what? Whatever the reason Glenn Beck has in visiting Israel, the pundit's recent address to the Knesset was pure schlock theater: the  "where you go, I will go" Ruth-to-Naomi" quote has been overused, but Beck made it totally pointless. It's in the latest video below. You expect him to cry at one point, but he didn't (no Vics VapoRub in Tel Aviv?). 


Jerusalem Post: 

Beck discussed his view on Israel's portrayal in the media in a speech peppered with jokes, in a room packed with MKs from six parties, media figures and onlookers.
The television and radio host was introduced by committee chairman MK Danny Danon (Likud) who said he is "glad to host a friend of the State of Israel."
"We see that your love for Israel comes from your heart; you support Israel unconditionally," Danon said. "We wish we had more people like you."

He ostensibly came to Israel to announce his future rally for Israel, but his approach was too Beckian to limit his visit to mere promotion of an event. It was to promote Glenn Beck, of course, but why? It's puzzling and Beck likes it that way. 


If it wasn't, he wouldn't need a chalk board to explain it. 

Texas Hates (Heathen) America And (Deceived) Oprah: Rick Perry's Prayer Fest And What It Means To The Rest of The Country

Everyone's talking about Texas Gov. Rick Perry's prayer rally, The Response. Is it a Texas state-sponsored revival meeting? Spiritual warfare? A gay-bashing contest?


Perhaps it's just what it seems at the outset: a Holy-Roller-Only event intent on telling people that Texas is a Christian state intent on purging itself of "evil" (i.e. everyone else).


Of course, the rally is open to people of all faiths, but....

...[Don] Wildmon, AFA's* president, stressed the Christian nature of the event and said people of other religions were "free to have their own events." He insisted his group did not hate anyone, but he said that people who do not embrace Christianity were headed for eternal damnation.

"It's not just Jews or Muslims," Wildmon said. "It's anybody that rejects the free gift of salvation through Christ. The Bible teaches there's heaven and hell. Those who believe go to heaven. Those who don't go to hell."

It would seem at first that a call to prayer by the governor of a state would not draw very many religious for an obvious slap-in-the-face to the 1st Amendment, but the Christian Right is still a desperate lot, no matter how many politicians it owns: the likes of Lou Engle, Cindy Jacobs, Bryan Fischer and David Barton are planning to attend with all the fanfare they can muster. And at the outset, every comedian can envision what the prayer fest would look like: more a convention of wingnuts than a prayer rally. OK, let's try a hand at it:

• Cindy Jacobs might give a lecture on "The Shapes of Different States - Which Ones Are Demonic and Which Are Angelic."**
• David Barton could conduct a seminar discussing "Sam Houston As A Founding Father"
• Bryan Fischer would talk about "How To Build a Wall To Keep Out Gay Immigrant Stormtroopers."
• Lou Engle might  speak on the subject: "From Gulliver To Gullible: Invading Small Third World Countries With THE WORD While Keeping Them Out Of The Twenty-First Century."***

Sadly, this rally is very serious in its intent to promote Seven Mountains Dominionism to the point of making it a (unofficial) religious tenet for the State of Texas.


Just look at some of the other sponsors/people in attendance:

• "Apostle" Doug Stringer , The Response's "ministry and Mobilization Coordinator who has flatly stated, like the late Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, that 9/11 was caused by the acceptance of homosexuality in this country.
• Former Senator Sam Brownback, now governor of Kansas, whose close connections with former C Street roommate, Lou Engle and staunch opposition to any gay rights has garnered a profile that one could consider far right.
• Televangelist James Robison, the man from whom Mike Huckabee took his ques before he was Governor and who recently spearheaded a meeting to strategize how to prevent Obama from being re-elected.
• Native American "apostle" James "Jay" Swallow, founder of the Two Rivers Native American Training Center - basically a Christian Military Training Camp - and has conducted seminars such as "Demonic Spirits" and "Spiritual Warfare." The particular irony of his attendance cannot be overlooked: the AFA's Bryan Fischer has said that Native Americans had long ago "disqualified themselves from the land." 
• International House Of Prayer (IHOP), a Pentecostal organization with strong ties to Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann, Mike Huckabee and Lou Engle. It has been instrumental in structuring The Response much like Engle's rallies for The Call.
• Pastor Jim Garlow, the chief architect of California's Proposition 8
• Pastor John  Hagee,  the man who came to prominence during McCain's 2008 campaign by calling Rome the "Whore of Babylon". Hagee's bizarre anti-semitic views (he is a founder of CUFI - Citizens United For Israel) lead one to doubt that any Jewish people will be in attendance.  
• Che Ahn, pastor of Harvest Rock Church in Paszdena, CA. At one time a supporter of the controversial group People Of Destiny International, Ahn is also a stalwart of Lou Engle.
• Pastor Stephen Broden, an advocate of the overthrow of the government by violent means, if necessary.
• Peter Wagner - leader of Seven Mountains Dominionism  and chief "Apostle" (International Council of Apostles) Wagner and his associates are extremely anti-Roman Catholic and anti-Mormon. He, like Cindy Jacobs, advocates the burning of statues of saints, Buddhas, and any other non-Protestant Christian relics or figures. (reminds one of destruction of the Buddhas of the Bamiyan by the Taliban)
• Mike Bickle, who preaches that Oprah is the precursor to the anti-Christ (see clip below) and that the "Harlot Babylon" movement will involve acts of compassion and kindness.

The main source of concern about The Response is that it is sponsored by the American Family Association (see footnote) and its chief talking head, Bryan Fischer. Mr. Fischer has become so virulent in his tirades about gays, Native Americans, Muslims and African Americans, that appearing on his daily radio show has become a litmus test for extreme Right politicians.


The Sum Of Exclusions


Considering what The Response will pray for and who will be praying, is it reasonable to suppose that Perry's revival will turn off almost as many people as it will turn on? Looking at the Texas demographics in wikipedia, seems to indicate that Perry is willfully alienating half of his state: Catholics comprise 28%, Jews comprise 2%, Mormon 2%, Islam 1%  No Religion 11% Jehovah's Witnesses 1%. Throw in the hefty gay populations of Dallas, Austin and Houston, along with churches and denominations that welcome LGBT Christians you have a figure hovering at the 49% mark. 


Unfortunately for Perry, the list of people scolding him for sponsoring the event is pouring in as fast as the Right Wing notables themselves: Jewish, Islamic, Catholic, LGBT groups are coming out loud and strong against the governor.

Critics also accused Perry of using a religious event to boost a possible presidential bid.

"I want to be clear that my criticism of the governor doesn't stem from my lack of appreciation for religion, rather it comes from my deep respect for religion and from not wanting religion to be prostituted for political purposes," said C. Welton Gaddy, a Baptist minister and president of the Washington, D.C.-based Interfaith Alliance. "I think the people of Texas elected him to be the governor of the state, not the pastor of the state."

Houston Mayor Annise Parker (a lesbian) takes a more reasonable and practical bent:
I'm glad to have anybody's dollars coming to the city of Houston. They can come back on a monthly basis if they'd like as long as they spend money.

Now there's an elected official who looks out after her own. ALL of her own.

Pray For Our Beloved Country

When intolerance and bigotry brazenly get together in order to show who they are targeting in the "Name of God", the rest of the country should know the whys and wherefores of such an event as The Response: like any other disease, it can spread. Rick Perry's marriage of church and state may seem foolhardy for Perry, but it is an emboldened move by Dominionists who need a stronghold like Texas from which to strike at local and state governments. 


Extremists such as Cindy Jacobs and Peter Wagner could be discounted if it were not for the fact that they are joined by so many other extremists willing to make America a "Christian Only" country on the road to theocracy. And The Response needs to be scrutinized closely not only for the people in attendance, but for the people excluded from attendance. 


So while Rick Perry and his gang of Dominionists pray for America, maybe the rest of America should be doing the same. 

* American Family Association has shown the country why it has been named a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center in keeping on Bryan Fischer who excoriates gays, African-Americans, Native Americans, Muslims, illegal immigrants, non-Christian immigrants and all other non-Christians in general.

**  And why Florida "spiritually stimulates" her
*** ... and in the fourteenth where they belong