GOP Haters Blast Obama

 Posted by at 10:18 am  Politics, Religion
Aug 262012
 

The first amendment guarantees the freedom of religion, but forbids the establishment of any stare religion.  The only way for government to reasonably do this is to avoid preferential treatment for one religion over another.  Therefore is is perfectly appropriate for the President to participate in the festivals and holidays of several religions, bit not just one.   However, Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians seem to think freedom of religion means freedom for only THEIR religion.

26iftarWhen the Family Research Council wasn’t rallying support this week for Todd Akin or pushing to keep the ban on abortions in the case of rape or incest in the GOP platform, it found time to denigrate an entire religion. FRC sends out weekly Prayer Team alerts [pseudo-Christians delinked], asking “for your prayers relating to various public policy issues.”

This week’s alert [pseudo-Christians delinked] called Islam – the religion of 2.6 million Americans and 1.6 billion people around the world – a “fanatical religion.” The alert [pseudo-Christians delinked] also attacked a recent White House event with the American Muslim community – an Iftar dinner to mark the end of the Ramadan fast.

 

At the dinner, President Obama highlighted the role of Muslim-Americans in government and showcased Thomas Jefferson’s Koran. Here’s FRC’s interpretation [pseudo-Christians delinked]:

In his remarks, the President suggested that Thomas Jefferson may have hosted the first White House Iftar Dinner and he showcased the Koran from Jefferson's library (Fact: Thomas Jefferson long advocated using military force to deal with hostile Muslims in the Mediterranean and ordered the Marines to Tripoli among his first acts as President and had a Koran primarily to study the fanatical religion of his adversaries).

FRC characterized [pseudo-Christians delinked] Obama’s remarks at the event as “amazing,” and not in a good way. What was so amazing, you ask? For one thing, Obama “praised Muslims in positions throughout his administration,” including Huma Abedin. The group also accused Obama of giving preference to Islam at the expense of Christians and Christianity…

 

Inserted from <Right Wing Watch>

Photo credit: Whitehouse.gov

Rather than spread hatred, intolerance and lies, a far more Christian response is to honor the faith of others, whose faith is different from our own, as long as those believers are willing to coexist with others.  I find that Obama’s willingness to honor American Muslims does not detract from Obama’s Christianity.  It demonstrates it.

Share
Aug 252012
 

Yesterday my COPD was severe, and I got very little sleep last night, so I have only two articles today.  I may be late posting and/or distributing links, because I have a fantasy football draft this morning.  I’m current with replies.  Tomorrow appears routine.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:50 (average 4:35).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: Is Ayn Rand Really The Person Republicans Want To Imitate?

 

On the surface it seems shocking that a party so fixated on religion would so favor an atheist, but it isn’t really.  Rand’s atheism does not conflict with Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christianity. They have bastardized authentic Christianity just as severely as Republican Corporate Plutocracy has bastardized authentic capitalism. They have replaced the altruism of Christ with the greed and legalism of the Pharisees and Sadducees, and traded in Jesus’ love for hate.

From NY Times: Emerging economic powers China and India are heavily investing in educating the world’s future workers while we squabble about punishing teachers and coddling children.

This week, the Center for American Progress and the Center for the Next Generation released a report entitled “The Race That Really Matters: Comparing U.S., Chinese and Indian Investments in the Next Generation Workforce.” The findings were breathtaking.

I could not do an article on this piece without taking the whole thing, which raises © issues. Click through, please.

From TPM: As he often does, Donald Trump tweeted about his ongoing conspiracy theories regarding President Obama’s birth certificate on Friday. In an awkward case of bad timing, however, it came right as Mitt Romney joked about the issue, prompting criticism from the Obama camapign [sic] over Romneys’ refusal to condemn birther supporters. 

What TPM suggests was bad timing, I suggest was planned timing.

Cartoon:

25Cartoon

Share
Aug 112012
 

I remember that Pat Robertson once ‘prophesied’ that God would smite Orlando with a hurricane, because Disney World ended hiring discrimination against LGBT people.  The next hurricane to make landfall damaged Robertson’s HQ in Virginia beach.  You have to hand it to God.  She has a wonderful sense of humor.  It taught Robertson nothing.  This is how Robertson’s Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians, who have absolutely nothing in common with authentic Christians, see our right to freedom of speech.  We should shut up.

11Robertson

Yesterday on the 700 Club, Pat Robertson said that activists who don’t want Chick-fil-A on their college campus due to the company’s anti-gay advocacy should keep quiet: “I defy these homosexuals to bring forth a baby from that part of the anatomy which they concentrate on, when that happens I will change everything I’m saying; until that happens, I wish those demonstrators would shut their mouth.” Robertson warned that legal abortion and homosexuality are violations of God’s law and are “the reasons why land will vomit out its inhabitants.”… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Right Wing Watch>

Picture Credit: CBS

Here’s the video:

I defy Pat Robertson to bring forth a baby from that part of the anatomy where he stores his head. Where? He can see his tonsils from the bottom.

Share
Jul 242012
 

I have long said that the religious beliefs and practices of Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians have far more in common with the Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus’ day than they do with the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.  That is why I find it so frustrating that authentic Christians are often painted with the came brush as these hypocrites.  Frank Brunt pointed out this contrast extremely well.

24BachmannWhat I find most fascinating about Michele Bachmann — and there are many, many more where she came from — is that she presents herself as a godly woman, humbly devoted to her Christian faith. I’d like to meet that god, and I’d like to understand that Christianity.

Does it call for smearing people on the basis of flimsy conspiracy theories? That’s what Bachmann just did to Huma Abedin, an aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, by essentially suggesting she might be a mole for the Muslim Brotherhood.

Does it endorse scaring young women away from immunizations that could spare them serious illness? Bachmann did that during her memorable presidential campaign, when she blithely drew an unsubstantiated link between a vaccine for the human papillomavirus and mental retardation.

Does it encourage gratuitously divisive condemnations of Barack Obama as “anti-American,” one of many incendiary phrases in her attacks against him in 2008? And does it compel a war against homosexuality waged with the language and illogic she uses?

She has said that gay men and lesbians are dysfunctional products of abuse and agents of “sexual anarchy,” and when the singer and songwriter Melissa Etheridge was battling breast cancer years ago, Bachmann helpfully chimed in: “This may be an opportunity for her now to be open to some spiritual things, now that she is suffering with that physical disease. She is a lesbian.”

Bachmann’s concept of Christian love brims with hate, and she has a deep satchel of stones to throw. From what kind of messiah did she learn that?… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <NY Times>

To answer his question, she learned if from Republican Supply-side Jesus.  He is not the real Jesus.  He was invented by Republican Theocons to justify their perverted gospel of greed, hate, and control.

The real Jesus focused on helping those in need and accepting people as is, as do authentic Christians today.

The only difference between Bachmann and most of the Republican leadership is a matter of degree, a small matter at that.

Share
Jul 242012
 

I have three articles, including this one today, but I don’t know whether there will be time to distribute the links or catch up on replies before leaving for the prison.  Tomorrow, I expect to be pooped.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:29 (average 4:28).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: Why Romney Posing In Colorado Doesn’t Help Firefighters One Damned Bit

24firefighters-romney

Willard said that if we want more free stuff from the government, we should vote for the other guy. That free stuff (that he would cut out) includes firefighters and their gear.

From CBS: Despite calls to address the gun control issue, neither President Obama nor Mitt Romney brought the issue up as they returned to the campaign trail Monday.

Like I said yesterday, neither party will take this on now, but my calendar is noted to start pushing in December.  The further away the next election, the more vulnerable the NRA will be.

From Fresno Bee: A Fresno faith group on Friday urged people to move their money out of five large banks, blaming the corporations for bad home loans, foreclosures and the nation’s struggling economy.

Members of Faith In Community — an interdenominational organizing group — joined with Peace Fresno and Occupy Fresno to call for a divestment of accounts with Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs.

Isn’t it nice to see authentic faith to contrast with Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christianity?

Cartoon:

24Cartoon

Share
Jul 142012
 

The Family Research Council (FRC) has a long and inglorious history of hatred directed at and attempts to violate the rights of Muslims, Gays, Women and anyone else who refuses to goose-step to their Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian dogma.  Now they have chosen yet another notorious hatemonger to a high executive post.

14BoykinThe Family Research Council (FRC), an anti-gay hate group that claims LGBT rights advocates want to “recognize pedophiles as the ‘prophets’ of a new sexual order,” announced on Friday the appointment of retired Lt. Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin as its new executive vice president.

The press release accurately describes Boykin as a veteran who spent 36 years in the Army, serving in the elite Delta Force and, later, as deputy undersecretary of defense and intelligence in Donald Rumsfeld’s Pentagon.

What it does not mention, however, is Boykin’s troubled history of making  damaging, controversial statements; his work as a radical anti-Muslim propagandist; or his close involvement with the New Apostolic Reformation, a theocratic evangelical movement that believes demons control LGBT people, Catholics, Muslims and freemasons.

Boykin, who in 2011 said Muslims do not have First Amendment rights because Islam “is not just a religion, it is a totalitarian way of life,” became the subject of international criticism in 2003 when it came out that he had given a series of speeches at religious events, wearing full military dress, in which he said the United States was fighting “Satan” in the Middle East and insisted his God was stronger than that of his enemies… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <SPLC>

Here’s Boykin in action.

I could have chosen a video in which Boykin and Glenn Beck found themselves in complete agreement about everything they discussed, but I had mercy on you.

I’m not at all surprised that FRC chose Boykin.  However, I am appalled that such an individual climbed such a high rank in our in our military.

In a Republican Regime, Boykin and people like him would make decisions over your lives.

Share
Jul 102012
 

I’ll manage to cobble together this and another article before leaving to physical rehab today.  I won’t have time to distribute the links until tomorrow.  Yesterday was not quite as hot, and in the middle of the night, my apartment finally dropped back into the 70°s for the first time in three days.  Today will also be a bit milder, before it shoots up again tomorrow.  If I have not caught up on replies, when I post this, I will by tomorrow, which appears routine, but will be hot.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:39 (average 4:22).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: SHUT UP AND DO MY NAILS, 99%: What Mitt Romney’s Wealthy Supporters Really Think Of Us

10nails-golly

What a surprise! Rmoney’s big backers are just like him!

From Raw Story: A Washington, D.C. judge has ordered an anti-LGBT preacher to pay MSNBC host Rachel Maddow’s attorney’s fees after he filed a $50 million lawsuit for allegedly defaming him.

Over the weekend, the blog Bradlee Dean Info first reported that Dean and his You Can Run International ministry had 30 days to pay $24,625.23.

Dean had sued Maddow last year after she aired a segment from his radio show where he said that Muslims were “more moral than even the American Christians” because they were “calling for the execution for homosexuals.”

The radio host claimed that Maddow’s report was an attempt to undermine the presidential ambition’s of his personal friend, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN).

LOL!!  Love it! Maybe his buddy, Batshit B, will pay for her pet Republican hatemonger.

From kockblocked.com: For your viewing pleasure!

Is that wonderful or what?

Cartoon:

10Cartoon

Share
Jul 092012
 

Yesterday was just miserable here, and I got very little sleep.  It will be about 5° cooler today, but the walls here are still radiating heat from yesterday.  I’m pushing to get the blog up, before the heat of the day hits, because tomorrow I have physical therapy and  may post only an Open Thread.  I’m current with replies, but was brief.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:46 (average 5:04).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: What The People Crying For A Repeal Of Obamacare Are Failing To Grasp

9hcr

Republicans consider that wonderful. Bankruptcies leave the carrion of wrecked families that feeds the 1%,

From San Francisco Chronicle: Protesters unfurled a “Koch Kills” banner and shouted “shame on you” as wealthy donors to presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney rounded a corner in Range Rovers, Denalis and other luxury vehicles on their way to a fundraiser at the Southampton, New York beach house of David Koch, an energy billionaire.

Details about yesterday’s $50,000 per-person dinner were spare. Brothers David and Charles Koch closely guard their privacy and prefer to spend their political dollars through non- profit groups that don’t disclose their donors.

Evil is afoot from the richest Koch Suckers in the world!  Kudos to the protestors!

From Think Progress: Current Republican State [CO] Senator Kevin Grantham took on Wilders’s message that the West “should forbid the construction of new mosques.” Asked about the proposed ban, Grantham told the Statesman he was for considering it:

You know, we’d have to hear more on that, because, as he said, mosques are not churches like we would think of churches. They think of mosques more as a foothold into a society, as a foothold into a community, more in the cultural and in the nationalistic sense. Our churches — we don’t feel that way, they’re places of worship, and mosques are simply not that, and we need to take that into account when approving construction of those.

The notion that Mosques are not “places of worship” is an absurd extension of Wilders’s bigotry.

If Islam is not a religion, neither is Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christianity.

Cartoon:

9Cartoon

Share