James Dobson Excoriates Gay Activists At Bachmann
Clinic: They ‘Harassed’ Marcus And ‘Scared His Patients To Death’

ThinkProgress filed this report from the Western Conservative Summit in Denver, CO.

For weeks, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and her husband Marcus have been dogged by accusations that their Minnesota clinics, Bachmann & Associates, engage in ex-gay therapy to ?convert? homosexuals into heterosexuals. This revelation comes on the heels of audio that emerged where Marcus Bachmann is caught explaining that gays are ?barbarians? who need to be ?educated? and ?disciplined.?

Two weeks ago, gay activists used the controversy to stage a humorous protest where a dozen people dressed up as barbarians and walked into Bachmann & Associates, asking for Marcus to come ?discipline? them. Watch the video here:

One man did not see the humor in the matter: Focus on the Family founder James Dobson.

ThinkProgress spoke with Dobson this weekend at the Western Conservative Summit in Denver and tried to get his reaction to the controversy, but Dobson interjected. Instead, he instructed that what we ought to be asking about is the ?attack on Dr. Bachmann by gay activists.? Dobson went on to say that the ?thirty homosexual activists? actually “harassed” Marcus and ?scared his patients to death?:

KEYES: Obviously we saw in the news in the last week or two, Michele Bachmann and her husband?s clinic, they?re business that they run, is being accused of practicing homosexual reparative therapy. They obviously were afraid to really answer that.

DOBSON: Your question really should deal with the attack on Dr. Bachmann by gay activists. Thirty homosexual activists put on the garb of cavemen and came into his clinic with cameras and scared his patients to death and have harassed that man, who has a right to do what he is doing because that?s what he believes. I think it?s unconscionable that people like you guys don?t report it.

Contrary to Dobson’s assertion that Bachmann’s patients were “scared to death,” the waiting room where the activists congregated was, as the video shows, empty. Bachmann was also not even present at the clinic at the time, despite Dobson’s claim of an “attack” on him.

Though it is unsurprising that Dobson has little sympathy for gays and lesbians, the extent to which he was willing to distort the truth in order to defend Marcus Bachmann shows that ex-gay therapy is a practice still very-much accepted among social conservatives. Indeed, Focus on the Family sponsored its own ex-gay therapy program — “Love Won Out” — until 2009. Michele Bachmann spoke before the group during its 2004 convention in Minnesota, claiming that it will ?present the truth about homosexuality.?

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2011/08/01/284701/james-dobson-excoriates-gay-activ
ists-at-bachmann-clinic-they-harassed-marcus-and-scared-his-patients-to-death/

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Hottest July Ever In Oklahoma, Center Of Climate
Change Denial

With fossil pollution superheating the world’s atmosphere, it was the hottest July in recorded history in the state of Oklahoma, represented by the nation’s top climate-change deniers like Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) and Gov. Mary Fallin (R-OK). The deadly heat was apolitical, however, scorching Detroit with its hottest July. Records throughout the nation were shattered: “Temperatures in Newark, NJ, set an all-time record of 108. Highs in Atlantic City, N.J., topped 105 for two straight days. In Oklahoma City, temps topped 100 for 27 of the past 30 days of July. Dallas/Fort Worth is enduring its second longest stretch of consecutive 100-plus days at 30, closing in on the record of 42 in 1980, said Chris Vaccaro of the National Weather Service.”

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/green/2011/08/01/284945/hottest-july-ever-in-oklahoma-ce
nter-of-climate-change-denial/

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ACT! For America Chart Shows How The KGB Gave
Rise To The Congressional Progressive Caucus In Two Simple Steps

This past weekend, conservatives gathered in Denver, CO for the Western Conservative Summit. The right-wing group ACT! for America, was there pushing their anti-Islam books and DVDs. One item they were selling for $10 was the following chart, mapping out the step-by-step influence of Karl Marx in the United States. As ACT! helpfully notes, the homosexual movement is a second-generation spawn of the Communist Party U.S.A., the Congressional Progressive Caucus is just two steps removed from the Soviet KGB, and ACORN, a group defunct since 2010, leads to illegal immigration. Click here to see the chart:

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/security/2011/08/01/284917/act-for-america-chart-shows-h
ow-the-kgb-gave-rise-to-the-congressional-progressive-caucus-in-two-simple-steps/

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Pelosi a yes on debt deal: House vote
expected tonight

Via the twitterz:

In other news, all we need to do is add a Satan Sprite to our order and we'll be able to make it a Satan Combo, which should save us a bit of pocket change.

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/_AFHW1L7joA/-Pelosi-a-yes-on-debt-
deal:-House-vote-expected tonight

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Right-Wing Media Excise "Democrats" Out Of Norah
O'Donnell's Statement To Gin Up "Bias"

Right-wing blogs including Andrew Breitbart's website and Fox Nation are dishonestly editing comments made by CBS chief White House correspondent Norah O'Donnell to make up evidence that she is liberally "biased." But the full transcript of O'Donnell's comments makes clear that she was asking the White House to comment on what she hears "Democrats saying," not expressing her personal views.

CBS' Norah O'Donnell: "You Have DemocratsSaying" That "We Got Nothing"

O'Donnell: "You Have Democrats Saying You Gave Them Everything They Wanted And We Got Nothing."During the White House press briefing, CBS reporter Norah O'Donnell asked press secretary Jay Carney about the budgetnegotiations and referred to "Democratssaying you gave them everything they wanted and we got nothing." From the White Housetranscript of the press briefing:

Q You talk about two weeks ago -- two weeks ago, thePresident talked a lot about shared sacrifice. He talked about ending subsidiesfor oil companies. He talked about ending tax breaks for corporate jet owners.He talked about that this was a very fair deal where he was offering three toone spending cuts, one in tax revenues. Where are the tax revenues?

MR. CARNEY: Well, Norah, I think we just addressed this,but I'll be happy to do it again. We did not get the grand bargain up front.And we all know why, okay? There were, as the Speaker himself said, $800billion on the table in revenues, part of a grand bargain. There were toughchoices made by both sides in that potential agreement that was not reached,and we did not get that done. The Speaker decided he could --

Q But you have Democrats saying you gave them everythingthey wanted and we got nothing.

MR. CARNEY: Norah, I feel like I've taken this questiontwo or three times already. And I've been very clear about how that's not thecase, and in fact, we had -- we got significant achievements -- let's step backalso. The President of the United States believes that deficit reduction isimportant. It is a false setup to suggest that somehow a dollar in deficitreduction is a loss. It is a positive thing for Democrats -

Q Yes, but you believe deficit reduction has to be donewith spending and revenues.

MR. CARNEY: Well, he does. And that's why he fullyexpects that the joint committee will include tax revenue as part of itsconsideration and its product. But as you know, throughout this process, therewere cuts identified through the Vice President-led process in domesticspending and also in the presidential-led process with the Speaker of theHouse. And you see that embodied in the first tranche of spending cuts that arepart of this deal. I mean, that is not a negative, that is a positive.

As the President made clear, progressives need tounderstand -- and we think most obviously do -- that deficit reduction isessential, done in the right way, because we need to get our fiscal house inorder, in order to ensure that we can do the things we need to do to grow theeconomy and make the key investments we need to make. [WhiteHouse.gov, 8/1/11]

Poof! Right-Wing Blogs Make "Democrats" Disappear And Fabricate Proof Of O'Donnell's "Bias"

Fox Nation: "Biased" Reporter: " 'We Got Nothing'." From the Fox Nation website:

[Fox Nation, 8/1/11]

Breitbart.tv On O'Donnell: " 'We'? Who Is 'We'?" From Andrew Breitbart's website:

[Breitbart.tv, 8/1/11]

Hoft On O'Donnell: "Obamedia In Action." Jim Hoft wrote on his blog:

The media lapdogswere visibly upset this morning with the debt deal that was announced lastnight.

CBS reporter NorahO'Donnell told White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, "You gave themeverything they wanted and we got nothing!"
By "them," of course, she means Republicans, conservatives and tea partyactivists. By "we" Miss O'Donnell means the entirety of the democrat mediacomplex and fellow communists, socialists, and Alinskyites. [Gateway Pundit, 8/1/11, emphasis in original]

Media Research Center Headline: "CBS News'Norah O'Donnell: ... 'We Got Nothing'." From the Media Research Center's MRCTV:

[MRCTV.org, 8/1/11]

DrudgeHighlighted Misleading Quote. From The Drudge Report:

[TheDrudge Report, 8/1/11]

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.mediamatters.org/~r/mediamatters/latest/~3/hzQ_III1CTA/201108010020

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Welcome to Your New Climate: July Shatters DC
Heat Records

When I first moved to the DC area, one of the things I appreciated most was that the summer evenings were absolutely perfect. No need to grab a sweatshirt or a blanket before heading out to the backyard or Westover Beer Garden - DC summer evenings have been just right.

But the summer of 2011 has been different. No backyards, no beer gardens, just an endless search for the safety of air conditioning.

First, let's talk about the record-hot days. In today's Washington Post, Capital Weather Gang's Jason Samenow details the carnage:

Relentless and punishing, July?s heat was unrivaled in 140 years of Washington, D.C., weather record-keeping. The July temperature averaged 84.5 degrees at Reagan National Airport ? Washington?s official weather station ? more than a degree above July 2010 and July 1993, which previously held the mark for hottest month.

The high temperature was at least 90 on 25 occasions, the most on record.

And what about the nights? So much for just right - July nights were just plain hot:

There were seven days in July with low temperatures of 80 or higher. During the entire period from 1871 to 1930, only three such days occurred, all in 1876.

The Washington Post deserves credit for daring to speak the truth - that heat waves like this are exactly what climate scientists have predicted as a consequence of global warming fueled by man-made carbon pollution. While global temperature data for July will take time to compile, we know June was the 7th-hottest on record and 2011 has been the 11th-hottest year on record so far.

As for me, maybe I gave up on New England weather too soon. Thanks to global warming - still accelerating unabated thanks to Congress' refusal to lead at home or abroad - those perfect nights can now be found somewhere north of here.

Photo via Flickr's Tom Faulkner Photographs

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheGreenMiles/~3/MXCGqMFEndI/welcome-to-your-new-c
limate-july.html

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Most of Newt Gingrichs Twitter followers are fake

One of Newt Gingrich's Twitter followersThe pathos is strong?so strong?in this one. Props to Gawker:

[Newt] Gingrich complained yesterday that the press is ignoring his prodigious Twitter audience: "I have six times as many Twitter followers as all the other candidates combined, but it didn't count because if it counted I'd still be a candidate; since I can't be a candidate that can't count." Which is true! Gingrich currently boasts 1,325,842 followers, whereas competitors Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann have yet to crack 100,000.

But if Newt is winning the Twitter primary, it's because of voter fraud. A former staffer tells us that his campaign hired a firm to boost his follower count, in part by creating fake accounts en masse:

Newt employs a variety of agencies whose sole purpose is to procure Twitter followers for people who are shallow/insecure/unpopular enough to pay for them. As you might guess, Newt is most decidedly one of the people to which these agencies cater.

About 80 percent of those accounts are inactive or are dummy accounts created by various "follow agencies," another 10 percent are real people who are part of a network of folks who follow others back and are paying for followers themselves (Newt's profile just happens to be a part of these networks because he uses them, although he doesn't follow back), and the remaining 10 percent may, in fact, be real, sentient people who happen to like Newt Gingrich. If you simply scroll through his list of followers you'll see that most of them have odd usernames and no profile photos, which has to do with the fact that they were mass generated. Pathetic, isn't it?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Oh man, I'm not sure I have anything to say but ... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Pathetic indeed?just like everything else about him and his campaign.

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/8HI4eEkTsrc/-Most-of-Newt-Gingrich
’s-Twitter-followers-are-fake

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White House wants Super Congress to take Bush tax
cuts off table for 2012

A veto threat from White House Press Secretary Jay Carney at today's daily briefing ... but it comes with a caveat:

If it fails either to produce something or if Congress fails to act on it, you can be sure that the President will honor his promise to veto any legislation that would extend the Bush high-income tax cuts beyond 2012, which would, of course, create nearly $1 trillion in revenue raisers when that happens.

The "it" in question is the Super Congress that will be created by the debt limit deal should it make its way out of the House and Senate. And if the Super Congress proposes tax reform that changes rates, it would obviously render the Bush tax cuts (and the threat to veto them) moot?and that's something the White House thinks would be "a good thing":

The only -- at the marginal rate level, at the income tax level, the only rates that the President has sought to return to the levels of the Clinton administration, which, by the way, was a period of the longest sustained expansion -- economic expansion in postwar American history, where 23 million jobs were created, and where rich people did very well, indeed, which is a good thing, those rates prevailed.

He thinks we should return to those rates as part of a process where everyone shares in the sacrifice necessary to get our deficits and debt under control. 

Now, we may not get there because tax reform is a goal of his as well.  And it is a goal shared by a lot of Republicans.  And if the committee can produce tax reform that raises revenues and contributes to deficit reduction but simplifies the tax code, that would also be a good thing.  But it will not result in -- and we certainly -- we certainly do not want it to result in putting added burdens on average Americans.  This President?s approach has been just the opposite.

So President Obama wants the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy to expire. But that might not happen because of tax reform. And that "would also be a good thing" as long as tax reform increases revenue and doesn't "result in putting added burdens on average Americans."

In theory, that's a fine position. Basically, it says let's do tax reform that raises as much revenue as we'd raise by expiring the Bush high-income tax cuts, but let's make sure that ordinary Americans don't pay any more than they would otherwise have paid.

The problem, of course, is that we've heard this all before. In April, President Obama proposed using tax reform to raise revenue above and beyond the amount of revenue that would be raised by expiring the Bush high-income tax cuts. Now, the goalposts have been moved once again, and the Super Congress hasn't even been passed into law.

By the time it starts getting serious, you can bet your bottom dollar that the goalposts will move again: there'll be tax reform, and the CBO might even say it yields a modest bit of revenue thanks to dynamic scoring or some other budget math, but the real goal will be to take the Bush tax cuts off the table in the 2012 election and beyond. So yeah, the Bush tax cuts are here to stay, in substance if not in name.

Because revenue doesn't have anything to do with budget deficits. And we wouldn't want to have an election fought over an actual issue of substance, would we?

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/g4gStZFNiHs/-White-House-wants-Sup
er-Congress-to-take-Bush-tax-cuts-off-table-for-2012

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White House: Republicans will 'recoil' from any
future attempts at gamesmanship

There's not much to say about this except ... really? Really??

[White House] Officials also argued that enough enticements and penalties are in place to secure an effective super committee. They said members of Congress would likely recoil at the gamesmanship involved in shelving the committee's recommendations and therefore feel compelled to place well-intentioned lawmakers on the committee.

One White House Official said Republicans would be unlikely to stack the committee with Tea Party members, "because they have the same incentives. The worse case scenario for Republicans, if you don't want tax increases, is to have it end up in a place where the committee fails. They do not want the committee to fail."

I want to know what planet this White House Official has been on where the Republicans would "recoil at gamesmanship" or be "unlikely" to stack a committee with ideologues.

I don't even have a decent response to this?it's just too silly. Once again, administration negotiators have given far-right Republicans nearly everything they demanded under the absolutely bizarre impression that next time around, they'll be more reasonable, or that next time around, the Republicans won't be able to take hostages that the Democrats find unpalatable.

It's a game of chess in which one player cannot look forward to more than one move at a time, steadfastly refusing to even contemplate what moves the other player might make in response.

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/gGQjBneQRoY/-White-House:-Republic
ans-will-recoil-from-any-future-attempts-atgamesmanship

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Whip the Super Congress: Head Count #3

They've moved the vote once again and the House is voting on the rule right now on CSPAN. If the Rule passes they will go straight to the vote on the bill.[...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/firedoglake/fdl/~3/ecJhmNpDWQg/

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