Whoopi & Joy Behar Walk Off The View Set During O'Reilly Rant

GOOD FOR THEM!!! Joy Behar is correct in saying Bill O'Reilly is a pinhead! I'm so glad the women walked off the set. O'Reilly was being an a**hole.

Obama Speech to Students Draws Out Conservative Crazies

What's all this fuss about President Obama addressing school children as they begin a new year? You'd think he was planning to kill puppies. Maybe conservatives are as confused as Emily Litella, in her Weekend Update editorial response about schoolchildren:

"I'm here tonight to speak out against busting schoolchildren. Busting schoolchildren is a terrible, terrible thing. I hear this is going on all over the country. Mean policemen arrest little children and put them in jail in the wrong neighborhood, so they can't even play with their little friends. Imagine, busting schoolchildren! The food in jail isn't good, and even though they get bread, I don't believe they can get toast..."

The president announces he will deliver a back to school address and conservatives go crazy!

"As far as I am concerned, this is not civics education - it gives the appearance of creating a cult of personality," said Oklahoma state Sen. Steve Russell. "This is something you'd expect to see in North Korea or in Saddam Hussein's Iraq."

I particularly liked this comment:

PTA council president Cara Mendelsohn said Obama is "cutting out the parent" by speaking to kids during school hours.

"Why can't a parent be watching this with their kid in the evening?" Mendelsohn said. "Because that's what makes a powerful statement, when a parent is sitting there saying, 'This is what I dream for you. This is what I want you to achieve.'"

I would be willing to bet these same parents have no problem sending their children to school to pray with strangers. Yes, school prayer certainly builds stronger families then having mom and dad pray with their children before sending them off to school in the morning.

So what is Obama planning to do?

Obama plans to speak directly to students Tuesday about the need to work hard and stay in school. His address will be shown live on the White House Web site and on C-SPAN at noon EDT, a time when classrooms across the country will be able to tune in.

Schools don't have to show it. But districts across the country have been inundated with phone calls from parents and are struggling to address the controversy that broke out after Education Secretary Arne Duncan sent a letter to principals urging schools to watch.

Districts in states including Texas, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Virginia, Wisconsin have decided not to show the speech to students. Others are still thinking it over or are letting parents have their kids opt out.

Some conservatives, driven by radio pundits and bloggers, are urging schools and parents to boycott the address. They say Obama is using the opportunity to promote a political agenda and is overstepping the boundaries of federal involvement in schools.

Well heck ... I certainly think getting parenting advise from radio talk show pundits is the way to go! Geezz...

This might sum it up for everyone:

In Florida, GOP chairman Jim Greer released a statement that he was "absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama's socialist ideology."

Yeah, urging kids to stay in school and get from it all that they can is a pretty socialist idea alright. So what would our friend Emily say?

Robert Novak, Conservative Columnist, Dies at 78

Conservative columnist Robert Novak will likely be remembered for publicly identifying CIA operative Valerie Plame.

His July 14, 2003, column was printed days after Plame's husband, former U.S. ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, publicly claimed the Bush White House had knowingly distorted intelligence that Iraq tried to obtain uranium from Africa.

The column triggered a lengthy federal investigation into the Plame leak and resulted in the 2007 conviction of a top vice presidential aide, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, for perjury and obstruction of justice. Bush later commuted Libby's prison term.

Novak was accused by prominent journalists of being a pawn in a government retribution campaign against Wilson.

Novak died today at his home in Washington of a brain tumor first diagnosed in July 2008.

Manufactured Contempt ...

or, how I duped conservatives for fame and fortune!


Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham have made demonizing liberals a cottage industry. Their rants are so transparent it's surprising the neocons still hang on their every word. Oh, wait ... we are talking about neocons ... ha!

Limbaugh was an early critic of the first President Bush, until Poppy invited him to sleep over in the Lincoln Bedroom. From that moment on they were BFF's!

Coulter and Ingraham woke up one morning to the realization they had no talent other than deceiving people. They quickly found their base in the 23 percent of the population that stuck with GWB to the bitter end. And now the neocon-wanna-be Tammy Bruce is trying to break into the big league.

Bruce, during a guest host stint on The Laura Ingraham Show, recently referred to the Obama's as "trash." Her exact quote: "We've got trash in the White House." She's certainly getting a lot of mileage out of it!

BRUCE: But here's Michelle Obama explaining to some kids what it was like for her growing up because she sounded like a white person, whatever that means.

OBAMA [audio clip]: I did do my best, getting good grades was always important to me, and it wasn't because my parents were -

BRUCE: It's all about her.

OBAMA [audio clip]: -- hounding me or that they had the expectation, it was just something that I wanted for myself. I wanted an A. And I didn't care whether it was cool, ‘cause I remember there were kids around my neighborhood who would say, "Ooh, you talk funny, you talk like a white girl." I heard that growing up my whole life, and I was like I don't even know what that means, but you know what? I'm still getting my A.

BRUCE: What? What? What -- what is that? And then she devolves into that weird fake accent, like Hillary did when talking to black people. What? What is that? That's, that -- you know what that is.

DAVID AFTER DENTIST [audio clip]: Is this going to be forever?

BRUCE: Yeah, that - remember nitrous oxide kid, on You Tube. No it's not going to be forever, nitrous oxide kid. It's not. Can you -- can you believe that?

OBAMA [audio clip]: So do I need to introduce myself?

BRUCE: What a shame. That must've just ruined her damn day. "I wanted the A for myself, and I wanted to do it, and ooh, they said you sounded like a white person, I don't know what that means, but uhh." Huh?

Man, oh, man. That's who he's married to, what does that tell you? This is what we've got -- you know what we've got? We've got trash in the White House. Trash is a, is a thing that is color blind, it can cross all eco -- ecosocionomic kind of categories, you can work on Wall Street or work at the Wal-Mart. Trash are people who use other people to get things, who patronize others, who consider you bitter and clingy.

Hummmm ... let's dissect the section I emphasised above.

"Trash are people who use other people to get things" -- like the way you and your ilk use demonizing liberals to earn a living? Or, "[Trash are people] who patronize others" ... patronize: to behave in an offensively condescending manner toward someone -- kind of like what you are doing to Michelle Obama?

There was a time when Tammy and I were friends. We've actually had dinner together. But I doubt that Tammy would have dinner with me today!

When I knew Tammy she was a chapter leader and eventual national board member in NOW. And then came the OJ trial. Who knows why this sent Tammy over the edge, but it was definitely a turning point for her. She began making statements that were rife with racism -- which could be why she is on the attack now against the Obama's.

She parted ways with NOW, and began a steep dive into the dark side.

I was critical of the way NOW leaders dealt with the Nicole Brown tragedy, and said so to them directly. But what I don't understand is if you think a person (or in this case an organization) is not acting in the best interest of women, or in a "feminist" manner, why would you think an appropriate response be to throw your support behind groups (or people) that demonize women?

Folks like Tammy Bruce, Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh have an agenda -- demonizing for dollars.

I think if they thought they could make big bucks trashing conservatives they'd do it in a heartbeat. The challenge to this is that getting liberals to do anything as a group is like herding cats! We don't all buy the same book or listen to the same radio program. It's hard to make money off us.

Rachel Maddow seems to be holding the attention of liberals these days. Keith Olbermann had us for awhile -- until his sexist side kicked in and he lost his feminist audience. Tammy does have one thing in common with Maddow -- they're both lesbians.

So Tammy, come back from the dark side! There's still time for you to redeem yourself and make your mentor proud. Do it for Toni.

Republican Party Stuck on Stupid

One has to wonder just how long the Republican party plans to stay stuck on stupid? Clearly their policies of the last eight years didn't work. For that matter, the principles they have espoused since the Reagan years have proven not to work -- so why do they insist on continuing with the same mantra of tax cuts and deregulation?

They rail about "big government" and "deficit spending" yet over the past 30 years it's been the Republican party who has grown the federal government and left us with record-setting national debts!

If conservative Republicans are as fiscally responsible as they claim to be, then why did the national debt nearly triple under Ronald Reagan, and more than triple under George W. Bush? And talk about big government, Bush added a whole new department!

Republicans just wrapped up their Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, DC, and the Washington Post reports:

Same old hotel on the park, same ballrooms, same long lines down the corridor to hear the big-name speakers, but otherwise the landscape look radically different for this year's Conservative Political Action Conference, which wrapped up yesterday afternoon at the Omni Shoreham. The conservatives are in the dark woods now. The deep brambles.

"I'm still seeing who will lead us out of this wilderness," said Sarah Smith, 27, of Alexandria.

The country's conservative, Republican-dominated strongholds have shrunk to the Deep South, the Plains and talk radio. Mitch McConnell (Ky.), the Senate Republican leader, warned that the GOP cannot be satisfied with being a regional party. "We must make a comeback," he thundered in the Regency Ballroom .

This is the first time since the aftermath of Watergate that conservatives have known what it is like to be so completely out of power, out-funded, out-organized and arguably irrelevant to national governance. Even the free market has seemingly betrayed them, what with the Wall Street shenanigans, banking dysfunctions and auto industry incompetence. [...]

The grim election results have exposed the fractures in the movement, threatening to shred the coalition of social conservatives, fiscal conservatives and national security conservatives. More broadly, the Republican Party faces a quandary of whether to retrench to core conservative values or try to reach out to a broader constituency.

There are some basic questions to be answered, such as: Has the right become too conservative or not conservative enough? Is it enough to be a party of "no," or do Republicans need new to reinvent themselves and provide new ideas of their own?

"It's the end of the road for self-denial," said conservative pundit Tucker Carlson. He endorsed the "cleansing" effects of catastrophic failure.

Carlson had a bit of a dust-up with the audience when he spoke Thursday. He argued that conservatives need to put more effort into digging up facts and rely less on opinion and punditry. He noted that the New York Times, a favorite target of conservative wrath, at least cares about spelling people's names right.

"NOOOOOOO," arose a moan from some in the crowd.

"I'm merely saying that at the core of their news-gathering operation is gathering news."

"NOOOOO . . ."

It's clear from their response that Republicans have never let a little thing like "facts" get in the way of moving their agenda.

The evil in men's souls

Right before the Blog Against Theocracy kicked off I received an email message from Equality Florida. I subscribe to a lot of email listservs, it's one of the ways I keep up with all the things I need to for my day job. This particular message, however, broke my heart.

As anyone who reads this blog knows, it's no secret that I'm a lesbian. I've been out since the late-70's, so one might presume that someone who has been around the block as long as I have would be used to about everything by now ... but there is one thing I just can't get used to, and that is the violence that's so pervasive against lesbians and gay men, or anyone perceived to be lesbian or gay.

I will get to the Equality Florida message in just a moment, but first let me say that I've been reading gay newspapers since 1977. You can pick one up in any gay club or bar, and what I noticed early on were the number of news reports of violence -- usually directed at gay men.

Matthew Shepard's brutal death brought this reality into mainstream American homes, but the reality has been in our homes for far too long. We read about it every week in the gay press. And most lesbian and gay people know at least one person who has been assaulted either physically or verbally.

One of the latest victims is Ryan Keith Skipper, of Florida. Ryan, a 25-year-old resident of Polk County, was "viciously murdered and his body left on the side of the road in what the Sheriff's office is classifying as an anti-gay hate crime."

Ryan was brutally stabbed at least 20 times and his car and a laptop computer were stolen. According to witnesses, two suspects drove Ryan's bloody car around and bragged to their friends about savagely killing him.

Joseph Eli Bearden, 21, and William David Brown Jr., 20, were indicted ... and face charges of first-degree murder and robbery with a deadly weapon.

Ryan's murder was not an isolated incident, but rather the latest in an epidemic of anti-gay hate violence in Florida and around the nation. Anti-gay hate crimes are at their highest level ever in Florida, and second only to racist attacks in overall numbers.

According to the Florida Attorney General's office, hate crimes targeting LGBT Floridians have increased 33% in the most violent categories during the two most recently reported years. The silence of Florida's leadership in the face of this brutal murder cannot go unchallenged.

There are vigils planned for April 14th, so if you live in Florida check the Equality Florida web site to find the one near you.

For all the bloggers who took part in BAT this past weekend, know that the issues are all connected. When Religious Right leaders demonize lesbians and gays to fundraise, and when Republicans trot out a Federal Marriage Amendment every election season to rally their "base" we need to remind them their actions have consequences. Their actions give "permission" to unbalanced monsters like Bearden and Brown to engage in violence.

I can hear conservatives whining right now, claiming that Hate Crimes bills are attempts to criminalize thoughts. That's a bold faced lie. Americans have a right to think whatever they like, but your "rights" end at the beginning of my nose. When Joseph Bearden and William David Brown thrust a knife into the body of Ryan Keith Skipper, their propensity to hate became a crime. And their actions were not random, but deliberate. They deliberately killed Ryan simply because he was gay.

The law says people are innocent until proven guilty, so let Bearden and Brown have their day in court. But when they are found guilty, as the evidence suggests, the punishment I would like to see handed down to these two young men is that they spend the rest of their natural lives behind bars. That for the next 50 or 60 years they get to think about what they did, and the lives they changed forever when they took Ryan from his friends and family. When they took away his future.

BUSTED! Tom DeLay clearly didn't write or READ his book