Openly atheist lawmaker asked to deliver the opening prayer for the Arizona House of Representatives. Does something awesome instead.

Courtesy of the Phoenix Times:

 An atheist state lawmaker tasked with delivering the opening prayer for this afternoon's session of the House of Representatives asked that people not bow their heads. 

Democratic Representative Juan Mendez, of Tempe, instead spoke about his "secular humanist tradition" and even quoted author Carl Sagan. 

"Most prayers in this room begin with a request to bow your heads," Mendez said. "I would like to ask that you not bow your heads. I would like to ask that you take a moment to look around the room at all of the men and women here, in this moment, sharing together this extraordinary experience of being alive and of dedicating ourselves to working toward improving the lives of the people in our state." 

As you can imagine -- especially now, with Arizona's legislature being controlled by religion-heavy Republicans -- this is probably the first time that an invocation at the legislature took that direction. 

"This is a room in which there are many challenging debates, many moments of tension, of ideological division, of frustration," Mendez said. "But this is also a room where, as my secular humanist tradition stresses, by the very fact of being human, we have much more in common than we have differences. We share the same spectrum of potential for care, for compassion, for fear, for joy, for love. Mendez continued, "Carl Sagan once wrote, 'For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love.'"

You know ANYONE who quotes Carl Sagan in lieu of a prayer is my kind of guy.

We started the day with that courageous young lady schooling Wolf Blitzer about assuming a person's religious faith, and now we have this guy!  I have to say I have rarely been more proud to be an Atheist. 

Clearly we are becoming far more comfortable with ourselves in this country, and with more and more young people eschewing the trappings of religion, I think our time is finally here.

Hell you know you have arrived when even the Pope is willing to accept that you are good people.

Personally I see a day when we follow the lead of the gay community and start openly identifying ourselves as nonreligious and demonstrating to the close minded that we are just as ethical, and moral as anybody who identities themselves as religious. In fact, to be honest, we are even more so since we are not bullied into morality through threats of eternal damnation but rather choose our morality through careful examination of the world around us and decide to be good people with our eyes and our minds wide open.

Anthony Weiner apparently has not heard enough jokes about his wiener. Now officially running for mayor of New York City.

Courtesy of NBC Politics: 

“I made some big mistakes and I know I let a lot of people down. But I've also learned some tough lessons,” the Democrat said in a video posted on his website late on Tuesday. 

"I'm running for mayor because I've been fighting for the middle class and those struggling to make it my entire life," he added. “I hope I get a second chance to work for you." 

The video, which features his son and wife Huma Abedin, an aide to former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, focused on his middle-class roots in Brooklyn. 

With this bold attempt at a comeback ahead of the primary in September, Weiner is hoping to erase the image of a tweeted crotch shot that precipitated his resignation.

Yeah that's NOT going to happen. In fact I think we can all count on seeing pictures of his Johnson showing up all over the place for the next several months. 

For that reason alone I wish he wouldn't do this.

And his poor wife! This cannot be what SHE really wants, can it?

Especially considering the fact that when Hillary runs in 2016 she will most likely be associated with her campaign in some way. The last thing she needs is to be weighed down with her husband's baggage on the campaign trial.

Look I was as big fan as anybody of Anthony Weiner, but this just feels like train wreck just waiting to happen. If I'm wrong I will perform a mea culpa right here on this blog, but I just don't think I'm wrong here.

In the wake of the IRS "scandal" the Tea party is reborn. Just don't try to show their faces.

Courtesy of Slate:  

At noon today, at the urging of the local Washington, D.C. Tea Party, nearly 100 activists gathered on the Pennsylvania Avenue side of the IRS building. Down the road to their left was Capitol Hill; up the road to their right was the White House. The media-to-protester ratio clocked in at a robust one-to-five—the industry standard. 

The paranoia quotient was unusually high. People who had shown up outside the IRS, bureaucrats occasionally glancing down at them, were shy about revealing their identifies. A half-dozen activists, happy enough to talk, would only give me their first names. Another man walked the perimeter wearing a paper bag with holes cut out for visibility: His “mask of intimidation and fear.” And another activist, a man wearing a T-shirt with the visage of the late Andrew Breitbart, briefly argued with a cameraman—“film my shirt, not my face”—before wrapping his head in a green scarf. 

That didn’t matter, because the Tea Party was back. The IRS scandal that broke on May 10 has cultivated new, justified paranoia about the federal government. It’s been showing up in the polls. The new Washington Post/ABC News poll found that 40 percent of voters “support the Tea Party movement,” up from 32 percent last year. Independents supported the Tea Party by an 8-point margin; they used to oppose those guys, 44–34.

Well you know what THIS means don't you?

It means that for a short while the Teabaggers will get some renewed interest from the press, their will be more talk of running Sarah Palin for President in 2016. and we will get another chance to laugh at idiots dressed like this:

Well so much for the Republicans changing their minds about attacking Obama and actually trying to get any work done before the midterms.

No hope of that now. Assuming of course that there ever WAS any.

In Paris far Right Wing writer commits suicide in protest of passage of marriage equality in France. That'll teach'em!

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

A far-right writer and activist shot himself dead in front of the altar of Paris’s famed Notre Dame Cathedral on Tuesday, shortly after calling for “spectacular” action to protect France’s identity. 

Police and his publisher confirmed the man’s identity as Dominique Venner, 78, a long-time essayist and activist linked with France’s far-right and nationalist groups. 

Police said Venner shot himself with a pistol shortly after 1400 GMT and that the cathedral was then calmly evacuated. 

In a final essay on his website Tuesday, he railed against France’s adoption of a law legalising gay marriage and adoption, urging activists to take measures to protect “French and European identities”. 

In a possible reference to his suicide, Venner wrote: “There will certainly need to be new, spectacular, symbolic gestures to shake off the sleepiness… and re-awaken the memories of our origins.”

Well you certainly cannot say he did not demonstrate the power of his convictions. 

Part of me wants to feel badly for a guy who simply could not accept progress, but the other part makes me want to send this article to all of the conservative assholes on the internet and over at Fox News with a note that says "Are you going to let a French guy out Right Wing you?"

I know that's bad right?

Sarah Palin may have come to realize that the Palin curse is real and aims it at reporter who undermined Republican's attacks on White House concerning Benghazi.

There's something different, certainly refreshing, about Jake Tapper. I call it integrity and professionalism.... fb.me/Kjg5B3MR
— Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) May 21, 2013

That of course links to the Arizona snowbird's Facebook page which says this:

There's something different, certainly refreshing, about Jake Tapper. I call it integrity and professionalism. What would you call his conscientious approach to news coverage?

The Facebook post links to a news story that gushes about Tapper and seems to laud him for the fact that he was one of the first "Lamestream media" types to cover the Kermit Gosnell story. (Others covered that story as well, including MSNBC and many network news programs.)

"I'm sorry. Who's a fan of mine now?"

However the fact that Tapper talked about Gossner does not seem like it would be enough to attract Palin's attention, though who can really figure out what rattles around in that empty head of hers?

However what she CANNOT help but know is that it was Jake Tapper who undercut the Right Wing's argument that there was a conspiracy about Benghazi by revealing that the Republicans had purposefully misquoted e-mails in order to mislead the public.

So the question before is "Does Palin really get all moist at the idea of Jake Tapper's masculine no nonsense reporting style?" or "Is she faking her adoration because she hopes to unleash the unholy demonic affects of her unstoppable Palin-curse on him for daring to tell the truth about the Benghazi e-mails?"

All I know is that if I were Jake Tapper I would quickly do something to make Sarah Palin tweet how much she hates me and wishes I would die a slow agonizing death.  THAT, as far as I know, is the only thing which might possibly immunize him against the curse.

Photo courtesy of Breitbart, where the original article is posted.

 In other Wasilla Wendigo news Palin apparently had RAM type out some attack against President Obama:

“For the president to deny any knowledge of what was brewing [with the IRS] and to claim to know nothing about the Benghazi cover-up or anything about anything White House-related lately, he’s either a liar or a hugely incompetent CEO. You decide,” Palin wrote in an op-ed published Tuesday night on the conservative website Breitbart. 

“These Obama administration scandals are a sad and stark reminder that only limited government can ensure liberty. At our core, we Americans just want to be left alone to live freely, peacefully, and productively. Last year the Obama campaign told us that government is something we all ‘belong’ to. I guess they’re right because when the government is powerful enough to target, intimidate, and harass us, we do “belong” to them. The real question is: Will we stand for this?” Palin wrote. 

She added: “These atrocious government actions are bigger, uglier, and much more dangerous than ‘a few rogue employees.’ It’s time for all Americans to stand together and join in the growing outraged chorus that looks at our out-of-control government and says, ‘Enough is enough!’” 

Since these are not really Palin's words, but instead a Right Wing op-ed typed by a ghostwriter, and then stamped with her hoof, I will not bother to pick it apart.

After all it is nothing we have not seen before.

Finally, somebody interviews one of MY people after the Oklahoma tragedy!

Courtesy of Mediaite:

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer demonstrated why you should never assume someone believes in God while interviewing a survivor of the Oklahoma tornado Tuesday afternoon. Blitzer spoke to a young woman named Rebecca, who escaped with her 19-month-old son just moments before the tornado destroyed their home. 

While their narrow escape from harm may have seemed miraculous, Rebecca evidently didn’t see it that way. At the end of the interview, Blitzer told her, “You’re blessed. Brian, your husband is blessed. Anders is blessed… I guess you got to thank the lord, right?” When the woman shrugged off the question, he repeated it, asking, “Do you thank the lord for that split-second decision?” 

“I–I’m actually an atheist,” she responded. After the awkward laughter that followed, she added, “We are here and you know, I don’t blame anybody for thanking the lord.” 

“Of course not,” Blitzer replied. 

Of course I also do not blame anybody for thanking God, regardless of which God it is, for their survival. What these people went through must have frightened them to their very core.

However I cannot help but feel a powerful sense of pride when I see somebody strong enough to go through something like that without the need to seek solace in mythological beings.

And the fact she said it on national television? So awesome!

Black helicopter expert, Alex Jones. claims that government might have a "weather weapon" and just might have used it to destroy Oklahoma. Sounds legit.

Courtesy of  Media Matters:

Conspiracy theorist radio host Alex Jones explained to his audience today how the government could have been behind the devastating May 20 tornado in Oklahoma. 

On the May 21 edition of The Alex Jones Show, a caller asked Jones whether he was planning to cover how government technology may be behind a recent spate of sinkholes. After laying out how insurance companies use weather modification to avoid having to pay ski resorts for lack of snow, Jones said that "of course there's weather weapon stuff going on -- we had floods in Texas like fifteen years ago, killed thirty-something people in one night. Turned out it was the Air Force." 

 Following a long tangent, Jones returned to the caller's subject. While he explained that "natural tornadoes" do exist and that he's not sure if a government "weather weapon" was involved in the Oklahoma disaster, Jones warned nonetheless that the government "can create and steer groups of tornadoes." 

According to Jones, this possibility hinges on whether people spotted helicopters and small aircraft "in and around the clouds, spraying and doing things." He added, "if you saw that, you better bet your bottom dollar they did this, but who knows if they did. You know, that's the thing, we don't know."

Wait! When did Obama get a tornado gun?

And if he has one why hasn't he used it against the Congress?

I would totally do that!

Now remember folks there is a ton of video of this guy having conversations with Rand Paul that are just about this crazy.

Oooh, I can hardly WAIT until Rand throws his hat in the ring to run for President. That is going to be SUCH fun!

CBS News interviews sweet little old lady after Oklahoma tornado destroys her home, and then everything gets awesome.

Watch until the 1:39 mark. I promise you will not be disappointed.

Michele Bachmann inspires steamy "romance novel." Wait, what?

Courtesy of Atlantic Wire:  

Michele Bachmann was the muse for a new romance novel called Fires of Siberia, to be published June 1, about a fiery presidential candidate who tries to bone up on her foreign policy credentials only to get stuck in the wilderness with a sexy stranger. "Inspired by the life of Tea Party leader and Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, Fires of Siberia is an old-fashioned bodice ripper romance that brings the heat for the 2013 summer beach reading season," touts publisher Badlands Unlimited. 

Badlands Unlimited is not your traditional romance novel publisher. It's run by New York artist Paul Chan, and offers an eclectic mix of titles, from a collection of Saddam Hussein's early speeches to a set of 1964 interviews with Marcel Duchamp, which includes audio files on iTunes. Badlands Unlimited's website says it publishes ebooks "Because you can’t publish a .GIF on paper," plus "reading an e-book on e-readers like the iPad or Kindle means you only have to use one hand to read, freeing your other hand to do whatever you please." Or, in the fancier words of the Los Angeles Review of Books, "As a publishing outfit, they are blurring the distinctions between art press, curatorial experiment and publishing industry gambit, while putting out a series of works that are strange enough individually, but seem even stranger when grouped together under the same moniker."

"He touched the void inside her, pollinating her pink flower like a master bee." By now you may have picked up on the fact that this publisher is approaching this with their tongue firmly planted in their cheek.

Here is a description of the protagonist: 

Presidential candidate Danielle Powers, full of firebrand pluck and red state sex appeal, has the country in a tizzy. But on an international tour to beef up her foreign policy experience, disaster ensues—her plane explodes over Siberia. Miraculously, Danielle survives, along with one other passenger—a mysterious stranger named Steadman Bass. Trapped in a wilderness of snow and ice, the two begin a journey that pushes Danielle to the brink. There she must confront her deepest self and choose between civilization and a wild, primitive ecstasy. 

"Red state sex appeal?" Does such a thing even exist?

 Of course the idea of anybody reading a novel about Michele Bachmann which inspired anything other than revulsion is hard to imagine.

Here is a preview of the kinds of purple prose one might encounter within its pages:

"...If you could tell me just one thing about yourself, something that has nothing to do with politics, what would it be? What makes you Danielle Powers(The name gi?" 

Danielle looked pensively at the reporter as they approached the airport. For once she felt appreciative of the question. Everyone was always nettling, trying to make her slip on the banana peels of her own responses. Who cares if it was John Wayne or John Wayne Gacy. It was nice to be asked about who she was rather than what they wanted her to be. 

"Slip on the banana peels of her own responses." You know, this just might be fun to read after all.

Republican's favorability polls are at their lowest point ever. When asked for comment John Boehner said, "Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi!"

"They hate us, they really, really hate us!"

Courtesy of Business Insider:  

The number of Americans who view the Republican Party unfavorably has hit a record high, according to a new poll released by CNN on Monday, despite scandals that have plagued the White House over the past few weeks. 

The poll found that 59 percent of respondents view the GOP unfavorably, a record that has only shown up one other time in the poll's results since tracking began in 1992. 

The Republican Party's net favorability ratings are down 8 points in the past two months. The amount of respondents viewing the GOP favorably fell from 38 percent to 35 percent, while the number of people who view the party unfavorably climbed five points, up from 54 percent in March. 

Benghazi-gate, IRS-gate, Umbrella-gate, oh yeah this approach is working out PERFECTLY for the GOP.

In fact so ridiculous has this situation become that even GOP aides are mocking House Republicans about their fixation on Benghazi behind their backs:

Roll Call reports that Republican aides are saying staffers are getting bogged down chasing bogus accusations. 

“We have got to get past that and figure out what are we going to do going forward,” a GOP aide told Roll Call. “Some of the accusations, I mean you wouldn’t believe some of this stuff. It’s just — I mean, you’ve got to be on Mars to come up with some of this stuff.” Another aide expressed frustration at accusations that military assets weren’t properly deployed during the night of the attacks and that a team from Tripoli could have been flown in to fight off the attackers: 

“There are some real issues there and then there is just some crazy stuff,” the senior House GOP aide said. “The crazy stuff is, you know, the airman in Ramstein [Air Base, Germany,] that knew that the Predator [drone] was armed. There are no armed Predators in the region there. The [status of forces agreement] does not allow us to fly them armed, and everybody knows it.” [...] 

GOP aides described another criticism aired at a recent House Oversight Committee hearing that there were four security officers at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli who were ordered to remain in the capital for several hours after the first reports of an attack, rather than being scrambled to assist the consulate in Benghazi. 

“The stand-down order was for four guys,” the GOP aide said. “When you step back and say how were the people killed at the annex, they were killed by an indirect fire mortar round. Four more M-4s [rifles] inside the annex doesn’t change that outcome. In fact, they might have just created more casualties. We have got to get down to what really happened on the DoD side and for us the DoD side was not properly postured, why?”

Gee when even your aides know you are chasing your tail, it is well past time to get a grip.

In other news the President's poll numbers are actually up and he appears to be virtually unscathed by everything the Republicans keep throwing his way. 

You know, and this is just me thinking out loud, perhaps it is time for the Republicans in the Senate and the House to STOP constantly trying to undermine this President, and instead start doing the job that their constituents sent them to Washington to do.

Do you want to feel a little intellectually superior this morning? Just listen to this.

This is SNL alum and certifiable crazy lady, Victoria Jackson discussing the fact that President Obama is a secret Atheist/Muslim as well as an "evil presence" with Republican Party candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, E.W. Jackson. (No relation.)

Man I wonder how Virginia can even show their face in public after the string of lunatics that they have nominated or elected to office in recent years.

And here I thought Alaska was bad! (Okay well it IS bad! But now that we have Virginia to compare ourselves to we can start to regain a little of our self esteem.)

They used their own bodies to protect the children.

Courtesy of the Telegraph:

The centre of the destruction was Moore, a suburb of 55,000 to the south of the city. 

There, the Plaza Towers primary school was directly hit by the tornado, and 24 children are feared to have died inside. At least seven bodies have been pulled from the rubble of the school and authorities have confirmed that more casualties are expected. 

One witness at Plaza Towers told KOCO television: "We pulled a teacher out and she was on top of three kids. The kids were fine but the teacher was in a bad way and we wheeled her into an ambulance. As far as I know most of the kids got out. 

"There were kids running around screaming. The school is just gone, you can't tell what was the front and what was the back. People were screaming for their children." Another rescuer said: "They've been pulling out third graders. It is absolute chaos down here. It's horrific." 

One teacher described lying on top of six children in a bathroom to protect them. 

The children pulled from the rubble were passed down a human chain to a triage centre in the car park of the school, which taught 500 pupils. 

Many of the children had been taken to a local church to shelter before the storm hit. Around 75 were believed to have been kept at the school by teachers as they sought to ride out the tornado.

 A second school in the storm's path, Briarwood Elementary, was also flattened.

A teacher hugs one of the students from Briarwood Elementary School.

I can barely imagine how terrifying it must have been for these children, and the teachers left behind to protect them. But story after story is emerging of these educators literally shielding the bodies of their students with their own.

I think the next person I hear say a derogatory remark about a teacher I will punch in the mouth.

The devastation that you can see in the pictures is bad enough but take a look at the video one family captured as they emerged from where they took shelter from the storm.

When they entered that space they were surrounded by the walls of a house, and when they emerge there is nothing but sky above them.

I don't necessarily think that this is the right time to get political, but I cannot let this go without mentioning that both of Oklahoma's Senators voted against providing relief to New Jersey after Sandy.

Somehow I imagine they will have changed their tune about government spending. Don't you?

Update: More unbelievable video.

By the way for those wondering how come these people did not have time to get all of the children to safety you should know that there was ONLY a sixteen minute warning, and that the schools are some of the best constructed buildings in the area. Literally the ONLY way to have been completely safe was to go underground, and from what I am hearing the bedrock under this town makes that very difficult.

Republican nominee for Attorney General in Virginia would force women to report their miscarriages to the police.

Courtesy of Think Progress:  

If a woman in Virginia has a miscarriage without a doctor present, they must report it within 24 hours to the police or risk going to jail for a full year. At least, that’s what would have happened if a bill introduced by Virginia state Sen. Mark Obenshain (R) had become law. 

And yet, the Virginia Republican Party wants to make Obenshain into the state’s top prosecutor. This weekend, Virginia Republicans selected Obenshain as their nominee to replace tea party stalwart Ken Cuccinelli (R) as the state’s attorney general. 

Under Obenshain’s bill, which was introduced in 2009:

When a fetal death occurs without medical attendance upon the mother at or after the delivery or abortion, the mother or someone acting on her behalf shall, within 24 hours, report the fetal death, location of the remains, and identity of the mother to the local or state police or sheriff’s department of the city or county where the fetal death occurred. No one shall remove, destroy, or otherwise dispose of any remains without the express authorization of law-enforcement officials or the medical examiner. Any person violating the provisions of this subsection shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. 

Under Virginia law, a Class 1 misdemeanor carries a maximum sentence of “confinement in jail for not more than twelve months and a fine of not more than $2,500,” so Obenshain’s bill could lead to a woman who decides to take a day to grieve the loss of a pregnancy she’d hoped to carry to term spending a year of her life in jail for that decision.

Isn't Virginia also the home of Governor Transvaginal Ultrasound?

What the hell Virginia?

This whole idea of rights of a fetus superseding the rights of all others is completely out of control!

51 legislative candidates in Tennessee failed to report a total of $145,875 in contribution. Damn!

 Times Free Press: 

Courtesy of

 Fifty-one legislative candidates last year failed to report a total of $145,875 in contributions from political action committees and corporations, according to a state watchdog agency's check of campaign finance filings. 

Among them were two top House leaders. One, Republican Caucus Chairman Glen Casada, sponsored a bill this year that critics charged would weaken current law by exempting corporations from having to report contributions. 

Another was one of the fiercest opponents of Casada's bill, Democratic Caucus Chairman Mike Turner. The bill failed on the House floor by two votes. 

The Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance cross-indexes contribution reports from corporations and PACs with those of candidates to check for mistakes. Last year, they found 181 reported contributions not listed on candidates' reports.


Here are discrepancies found between reported PAC and corporation giving and reports filed by legislative candidates and Gov. Bill Haslam. State Registry of Election Finance officials say such differences are almost always simple omissions or other mistakes: 

REP. TURNER, MIKE — $19,875 
CANDIDATE NORTH, PHILLIP L. — $13,900 
REP. MITCHELL, BO — $11,250 
CANDIDATE COBB, TY — $8,000 
FORMER REP. MAGGART, DEBRA - $6,800 
SEN. KETRON, BILL — $6,100 
REP. TIDWELL, JOHN - $6,000 
FORMER REP. PRUITT, MARY— $5,250 
REP. STEWART, MIKE — $5,000 
REP. ARMSTRONG, JOE — $3.900 
CANDIDATE CLAYBAKER, BEN — $3,000 
REP. DOSS, BARRY — $2,900 
REP. MATHENY, JUDD — $2,850 
REP. HARDAWAY, G. A. — $2,800 
REP. ANTONIO, PARKINSON — $2,750 
REP. ROGERS, COURTNEY L. — $2,750 
REP. LYNN, SUSAN — $2,700 
REP. CARR, JOE — $2,650 
CANDIDATE TIPTON, ANITA — $2,500 
SEN. HARPER, THELMA — $2,500 
REP. LOLLAR, RON — $2,500 
REP. SPARKS, MIKE — $2,350 
FORMER REP. RICHARDSON, JEANNE — $2,300 
SEN. GREEN, MARK — $2,250 
REP. DEBERRY, JOHN - $2,200 
REP. CASADA, GLEN — $2,000 
REP. HOLT, ANDREW — $1,750 
REP. BROWN, TOMMIE — $1,250 
REP. CALFEE, KENT — $1,250 
REP. GREEN, MARK E. — $2,250 
REP. SANDERSON, BILL — $1,200 
REP. FORD, DALE — $1,000 
REP. FARMER, ANDREW — $1,000 
GOV. HASLAM, BILL — $1,000 
REP. JONES, SHERRY — $1,000 
SEN. STEVENS, JOHN — $1,000 
REP. TOWNS JR., JOE — $1,000
 REP. CAMPER, KAREN — $750 
SEN. NICELEY, FRANK — $700 
FORMER SEN. BARNES, TIM — $500 
REP. FAVORS, JOANNE — $500 
CANDIDATE MORGAN, PHIL — $500 
REP. PITTS, JOE — $500 
REP. RAGAN, JOHN — $1,000 
REP. RICH, BARRETT — $500 
CANDIDATE TURNER, STEVEN — $500 
SEN. CROWE, RUSTY — $500 
REP. MATLOCK, JIMMY — $400 
CANDIDATE YOUNG, KENNY — $250 
REP. POWERS, DENNIS — $250 
REP. SHIPLEY, TONY — $250 
REP. WOMICK, RICK — $250 

As you can see it was BOTH Republicans and Democrats in Tennessee who failed to report all of their political contributions accurately. Some of them may have been innocent over sites, but others are substantial amounts of money that make it hard to simply say "Oops!" and sweep it under the rug.

So I think perhaps it is understandable as to WHY the IRS is so interested in checking out those that are asking for 501 tax exemptions and how meticulous watchdog groups need to be in keeping track of who is getting the money, and who is hiding how much money they have received.

And don't forget this is jsust in Tennesssee!