GOP Madness, 2012! Round 1, match 1

post from Daily Kos on 19 April 2012 04:00:04 PM. © Daily Kos

The GOP primary campaign may be history, but we're not quite ready to let it go yet. So we decided it would be fun to relive the best moments, and by the time we had compiled the list, we realized it would make for one hella fun bracket competition.

So we whittled the list of top moments down to 32 (it was hard!). That means 16 first-round contests, 8 second round, 4 in the quarterfinals, 2 semi-final matches, and then the championship round. You pick the winners each round until, 29 votes later, we have an ultime winner! We'll roll out a match every weekday until we crown a victor at the end of May.

So without further ado, here's the inaugural match:

1. GOP DEBATE AUDIENCE BOOS GAY SOLDIER

Once upon a time, Republicans worshipped at the altar of "the troops," as long as they could be used as debate props or useful foil to deflect criticism of their endless war efforts. But that was before the gays infiltrated the ranks, undermining the delicate sensibilities and hateful morality of the Right. Of course, they were always there, but it was more freedom-y to keep their mouths shut.

So it wasn't surprising to see audience members boo this brave servicemember, Stephen Hill. But it was more than the booing. For starters, none of the presidential candidates on the stage condemned this blatant show of disrespect. And just as outrageous, none of them even bothered to thank Stephen for his service to the nation, denying him the most basic respect and courtesy routinely given to our men and women in uniform. To them, he was less than American, less than human.

2. THE TREES ARE JUST THE RIGHT HEIGHT IN MICHIGAN!

Who says all Republicans hate nature and want to exploit it to extinction? If nothing else, Michigan trees would appear safe in a Romney Administration.

It's been so difficult for Mittens to connect with voters who don't own professional sports teams, yet he had to pull through in Michigan lest he surrender the entire nomination to his second-rate opponent, Rick Santorum. So how could he connect with Michiganders, when he'd seemingly done everything possible to avoid their state as an adult? He couldn't boast a mansion in the state, or joke about the jobs his father shipped out of it.

So what was left? Trees. Their supposedly perfect symmetry really appealed to his programming, and he spent his entire week in Michigan bizarrely blabbing on and on about them.

"I love this state,. The trees are the right height."

?This feels good, being back in Michigan. You know, the trees are the right height."

?I love being in Michigan. Everything seems right here. You know, I come back to Michigan; the trees are the right height."

"What a thrill it is to come back to Michigan, particularly in the winter, where the skies are cloudy all day, trees are just at the right height."

On the plus side, Romney's Michigan tree fetish wasn't hateful or dangerous or divisive. On the other hand, it's fucking weird, and stark evidence that the Romneybot just isn't wired properly.

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d-1-match-1

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Gold Diggers & Trophy Wives

post from Firedoglake on 19 April 2012 03:52:28 PM. © Firedoglake

Too many ladies and not enough Donald Trumps[...]

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Yum! ALEC loses again

post from Daily Kos on 19 April 2012 03:13:22 PM. © Daily Kos

Chalk another loss up in the American Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC) lose column. Color of Change announced today that Yum! Brands (KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut) has confirmed it has left ALEC. ColorOfChange.org Executive Director Rashad Robinson:

"Today, employees in Yum! Brands' corporate headquarters have told our members and ColorOfChange staff that the company has in fact dropped ALEC. In doing so, the operator of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell has restored our belief that it stands in favor of crafting legislation in view of the public, rather than behind closed doors.
"We sent CEO David Novak's office a letter last year expressing our concerns about ALEC's role in voter suppression, and in early February received a noncommittal response from James Fripp, the company's Senior Director of Global Diversity & Inclusion. That letter said that Yum! was not part of ALEC's Private Enterprise Board, but did not communicate that the company had severed ties completely with the conservative policy group.

That makes an even dozen companies (McDonald's, Wendy's, Mars Inc., Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Kraft Foods, Intuit, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Reed Elsevier [owner of LexisNexis], American Traffic Solutions and Arizona Public Service) who have severed ties with ALEC, in addition to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

There's no question that ALEC has been significantly damaged by the exposure of their extreme right-wing agenda. They'll likely not go away, but they also won't be able to operate in secrecy any more.

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http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/4v11ibQSZqM/-Yum-ALEC-loses-again-

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Paul Ryan 'respectfully disagrees' with Jesus

post from Daily Kos on 19 April 2012 03:08:54 PM. © Daily Kos

When Fox bobblehead Megyn Kelly asked Republican Rep. Paul Ryan to answer the Catholic bishops' very pointed criticism of his budget that makes Jesus cry, Ryan gave a shockingly blasphemous response:

?These are not all the Catholic bishops, and we respectfully disagree,? Ryan said.

I'm so old I can remember when arguing with the bishops meant you hated God and America and were guilty of leading a war on religion that would make Thomas Jefferson sad.

But that was ages ago, and now that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has officially told Republicans that their budget to give tax breaks to the rich and let the poor go hungry is "unacceptable" and "unjustified and wrong" and fails to meet "moral criteria"?which I believe is Churchspeak for "You're going to burn in hell forever, sinner, unless you repent!"?Paul "I'm using my Catholic faith" Ryan has decided that following the official dictates of the Church is optional. Who knew?

So, to sum up: You can "respectfully disagree" with the bishops when it comes to doing optional Jesus-y stuff like caring for the poor, but when it comes to vaginas, if you don't do what the bishops say, you hate America. And God.

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y-disagrees-with-nbsp-Jesus

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Today on The Stars Hollow Gazette

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 19 April 2012 03:07:31 PM. © Docudharma - Front Page

Our regular featured content-On This Day In History April 19 by TheMomCatPunting the Pundits by TheMomCatThese featured articles-The White Rose by ek hornbeckMortgage Fraud: Task Force Still An Empty Promise by TheMomCatYou are what you eat by ek[...]

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http://www.docudharma.com/diary/29661/today-on-the-stars-hollow-gazette

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Democrats See Paul Ryan Budget as a Big Political
Target

post from Firedoglake on 19 April 2012 03:06:57 PM. © Firedoglake

According to to new polling data from Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, the Paul Ryan budget could be a serious political liability for Congressional Republicans who voted for it. The polling operation is Democratically aligned, so take that into[...]

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Single Mothers in America: Demographics

post from The Zaftig Redhead on 19 April 2012 03:06:00 PM. © The Zaftig Redhead

Read more here.

The Zaftig Redhead. All Rights Reserved.

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america-demographics.html

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Scruba Dub

NRA scrubs inflammatory Nugent comments from its website, Youtube. [...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/IvCuxmz5Zm4/scruba_dub.php

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Generation Gone to Hell and Back

?This is not who we are,? Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says after seeing pictures of U.S. soldiers defiling enemy bodies in Afghanistan.

True, but isn?t it what young Americans are in danger of becoming after a dirty, murky, endless war with nothing to show for it when they come home but coarsened sensitivity to human life and cases of post-traumatic stress disorder?

As headlines savor a few horny Secret Servicemen in South America, misbehavior by American troops keeps mounting in Afghanistan with little public reaction. The President insists those responsible will be ?held accountable,? but no one in authority will go beyond the few-bad-apples explanation.

Last month, a Staff Sergeant was whisked out of the country after, apparently with no provocation, killing 16 civilians, including nine children and three women, in small villages in Kandahar. He will be tried in Kansas, not where the murders took place.

This follows pictures of U.S. Marines urinating on the bodies of dead Afghan fighters and a barn fire of Qurans by soldiers at an airbase, each incident followed by profuse American apologies that fail to quell the anger of local ?allies.?

Isn?t it past time to admit the true price of pouring American blood and treasure into an enterprise guaranteed to end badly, even as we play Russian roulette with Iran and North Korea?

If there ever was an issue that should be soberly debated in an election campaign, surely this is it.

Any odds on whether it will be?

Read The Full Article:
http://ajliebling.blogspot.com/2012/04/generation-gone-to-hell-and-back.html

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Uganda’s President Claims ‘There Is
No Discrimination, There Is No Persecution’ Of Gay People

Uganda’s President told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that homosexuality is a western import and claimed that gay people rarely face discrimination in the African nation. “I want to inform the world that those homosexuals were not killed as some people are claiming,” Yoweri Museveni said. “We never exhibit our sexual acts in public. I have — I have, for instance, never kissed my wife in public…Therefore, the problem with exhibitionism and the second problem would be trying to lure young children into homosexuality”:

AMANPOUR: As you know, the rest of the world, certainly the Western world, doesn’t agree with you on this. And there was a major public outcry, a major international outcry when this first homosexual bill went through, anti-homosexual bill, that included the death penalty….I mean, do you — is that acceptable in your country?
MUSEVENI: What does the world not agree with us about? Because I have told you, there is no discrimination. There is no persecution. Certainly there is no killing. The only thing that is controversial, not only for homosexuals, but for all forms of sexual acts, is exhibitionism. You don’t kiss in public, whether you are gay or not. [...]
AMANPOUR: David Cato, a famous homosexual activist, was beaten to death in Uganda, according to press reports.
MUSEVENI: That is (inaudible) was not killed for being a homosexual. He was killed for something else.
AMANPOUR: What were those other reasons?
MUSEVENI: Well, I did not check with the police before I came here, but he had some personal quarrels (ph) with some of his partners.

Watch it:

In 2010, a Ugandan newspaper published the names and photos of the 100 “top” gays and lesbians, resulting in attacks against at least four Ugandans. In January of 2011, David Kato — a prominent activist — was found dead.

Polls still show that 95 percent of Ugandans favor criminalizing homosexuality ? and many back the infamous ?kill gays bill.? However, equality activists believe that steady growth of public advocacy for gender issues is showing progress. A recent march organized by Sexual Minorities Uganda, for instance, had 30 participants, as opposed to just four at a similar march four years ago. Activist Frank Mugisha points out that the mere fact the nation is having a national conversation about the issue of homosexuality ? hostile though it may be ? represents a change from a time when it was so taboo people would not even talk about it.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/04/19/467738/museveni-gays-discrimination/

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