Rick Santorum suggests that the Parkland students would be better served learning CPR to save gunshot victims than advocating for more comprehensive gun laws.

Stupidity starts aroung the 4:15 mark.)

Courtesy of Media Matters:  

RICK SANTORUM (CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR): Yeah, I mean this is the bottom line. Is this a political effort? Is this a political movement? It very well may be, and that's fine. If the organizers, people who certainly supported it, the Hollywood elites and the liberal billionaires who funded this, it's all about politics. Is this really all about politics or is it all about keeping our schools safe? Because if it is about keeping our schools safe, then we have to have a much broader discussion than the discussion that's going on right now. How about kids, instead of looking to someone else to solve their problem, do something about maybe taking CPR classes or trying to deal with situations that, when there is violent shooter, that you can actually respond to that. 

BRIANNA KEILAR (ANCHOR): But how are they looking at other people to -- I would ask you, they took action. 

SANTORUM: Yeah, they took action to ask someone to pass a law. They didn't take action to say, “How do I, as an individual, deal with this problem? How am I going to do something about stopping bullying within my own community? What am I going to do to actually help respond to a shooter? What am I going to do -- those are the kinds of things where you can take it internally and say, here's how I'm going to deal with this, here's how I'm going to help the situation, instead of going and protesting and saying, oh, someone else needs to pass a law to protect me.

 [...] 

SANTORUM: I'm proud of them, but I think everyone should be responsible and deal with the problems that we have to confront in our lives. And ignoring those problems and saying they're not going to come to me, and saying some phony gun law is going to solve it, phony gun laws don't solve these problems. That's what we found out.

You know Rick Santorum has been off my radar for quite some time now, so I think I more or less forgot was an incredible sleaze ball he is.

But I am all back up to speed now, that is for damn sure.

During that incredible March For Our Lives rally on Saturday, I kept hearing the young people making the argument that this is not a Democrat vs Republican, Liberal VS Conservative, issue.

I understand why they think that way, I remember when I did as well.

But that is simply not the case anymore.

The conservatives are dug in on the gun issue, just like they are on the abortion issue, and there is simply no middle ground that remains to have an actual honest conversation about regulating access to guns.

The ONLY way that we can do anything significant about gun deaths in this country is to vote out as many Republicans as possible and replace them with Democrats who are all in for making our schools, our houses of worship, and our movie theaters safe for children and families to attend without fear of death by gun violence.

That may sound incredibly partisan of me, but simply put those are the facts as they currently exist.

Perhaps after getting thrashed on this issue for a couple of election cycles the Republicans will see that it no longer serves them to worship at the altar of the NRA, but until that time their presence in the political system needs to be greatly minimized.

According to Rafael Cruz God chose his son Ted to be President of the United States. WTF God?

Courtesy of Mother Jones:  

Here's the story, according to Rafael Cruz: My son Ted and his family spent six months in prayer seeking God's will for this decision. But the day the final green light came on, the whole family was together. It was a Sunday. 

We were all at his church, First Baptist Church in Houston, including his senior staff. After the church service, we all gathered at the pastor's office. We were on our knees for two hours seeking God's will. At the end of that time, a word came through his wife, Heidi. And the word came, just saying, "Seek God's face, not God's hand." And I'll tell you, it was as if there was a cloud of the holy spirit filling that place. Some of us were weeping, and Ted just looked up and said, "Lord, here am I, use me. I surrender to you, whatever you want." And he felt that was a green light to move forward. 

That Rafael Cruz should cast his son's presidential campaign as a divinely inspired endeavor is not surprising. For years, he has been a freelancing evangelical who has promoted an extremely fundamentalist version of Christianity and decried those, including other Christians, who do not share his religious views. He has called for fundamentalist Christians to gain control of most aspects of American society, and he has issued a series of controversial statements blasting President Barack Obama, gay rights activists, and other spiritual enemies. As Mother Jones first reported, he called Obama an "outright Marxist" who "seeks to destroy all concept of God" and urged Americans to send him "back to Kenya." He said it was "appalling" to have a gay mayor in Houston and asserted that Satan was behind the Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage.

O-k-e-y d-o-k-e-y then. 

As you all well know I don't exactly believe in God. But if I did and I thought that he chose fucking Ted Cruz to be the Commander-in-Chief, I 'm pretty sure that would destroy my faith right there.

By the apparently God also chose these folks to run for President as well:

Scott Walker

John Kasich

Ben Carson

Rick Perry

Rick Santorum

and Mike Huckabee.

Let's also not forget that according to Sarah Palin he chose her to run for the VP spot as well.

Well it looks to me as if either all of these people have several screws loose, or God just likes fucking with people.

Rick Santorum acknowledges that his campaign might be coming to an end. Which raises the question, "Did anybody else know that Santorum was still running?"

Courtesy of USA Today: 

Four years ago, Rick Santorum won the Iowa caucuses and ended up as the final challenger against Mitt Romney for the Republican presidential nomination. 

But on Sunday, with a week to go before this year's Iowa caucuses, he stands at just 1.2% in the RealClearPolitics average of recent statewide polls, the 11th among 11 candidates. In an impromptu interview with USA TODAY and The Des Moines Register after attending services at New Hope Assembly of God here Sunday, he acknowledged what he previously has refused to discuss: It may soon be time for him to think about folding his campaign. 

"You reach a point when you realize that you aren't going to accomplish what you're going to accomplish and you have to look out for the greater good," he responded a bit ruefully. "And I've always believed in the greater good. I'm a person who believes in a cause and trying to make this country better, not about Rick Santorum and my own aggrandizement. I'll go through that process, whether it's after Iowa or whether it's after Super Tuesday or whenever it's happening. We'll go through that process and determine if we have a pathway to get there, and if we believe we do, trust me, no one will fight harder, no one will work longer. And if we don't, you have to work out what's in the best interest of our country."

I am not one of those assholes who claim to speak for all Americans, but I think I can safely state that it certainly in the best interest of the country that Santorum ends his campaign.

What's more I think it is also in our best interests that he never try to run again and slips quietly into obscurity.

Oh oh, and before he goes I have a list of people he should take with him.

Guess who's at the top.

Six of the current GOP presidential hopefuls promise to support legislation allowing businesses to discriminate against gay people under the guise of "religious liberty."

Courtesy of Think Progress:  

Six of the Republican candidates vying for the presidency have signed a pledge promising to support legislation during their first 100 days in the White House that would use the guise of “religious liberty” to give individuals and businesses the right to openly discriminate against LGBT people. 

Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, Rick Santorum, and Mike Huckabee vowed to push for the passage of the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA), legislation that would prohibit the federal government from stopping discrimination by people or businesses that believe “marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman” or that “sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage.” 

The pledge is supported by three conservative groups: the American Principles Project, Heritage Action for America, and Family Research Council Action. 

“It has become clear that the First Amendment Defense Act is rapidly becoming a signature issue that unifies the GOP,” Maggie Gallagher, Senior Fellow at American Principles Project, said in the group’s statement announcing the pledge. “Three out of the four top contenders for the nomination — Carson, Cruz, and Rubio — have pledged to prioritize passing FADA in their first 100 days of office. Additionally, Bush, Graham, Paul, and now for the first time, Donald Trump, have publicly expressed support for FADA.” 

Gallagher added that a Republican win in 2016 could mean that FADA becomes reality. “Real, concrete protections for gay marriage dissenters appear to be just one election victory away,” she said.

This is for all of you who are claiming they will sit this election out if the Democratic candidate of your choice does not win the nomination. 

Time to grow the fuck up and recognize just what is at stake.

Or should I also bring up the potential Supreme Court appointments?

Insiders predict that Rick Perry will be the first Republican to drop out of the race.

But look how cute I am in my new glasses. Doesn't that count for anything?

Courtesy of Politico:

Forty percent of early-state Republicans and nearly half of early-state Democrats believe Rick Perry will be the first candidate to drop out of the presidential race. 

That’s according to this week’s POLITICO Caucus, our weekly bipartisan survey of the top strategists, activists and operatives in Iowa and New Hampshire.

“No money and cannot gain traction, even though he has the best record and a superb message,” lamented an Iowa Republican. “Best retail politician I have ever seen, yet not able to pick up interest against a strong field. Where was this guy last time around?” 

Less charitably, another Iowa Republican said, “When you’ve suspended all staff pay, the writing is on the wall. His team suggests he’ll have a memorable debate moment. Unfortunately for Rick Perry, that moment happened in 2011, oops.” 

Recently Perry stopped paying his staff due to problems with fundraising, which is never a good sign.

And once the ex-Governor of Texas drops out that might start a chain reaction which will see others with low poll numbers following suit.

Right now according to Real Clear Politics Rick Santorum, Lindsey Graham,and Bobby Jindal are all polling at around one point apiece. (In Graham's case that number is occasionally zero.)

Well personally I will be a little disappointed to see Rick Perry go. I was really looking forward to his one upping the famous "oops moment."

Oh well there are still plenty of clowns crowding the car, so I seriously doubt that the entertainment will stop any time soon.

If you did not see Rachel Maddow interviewing Rick Santorum last night you really missed out. But you're in luck, because I have it right here.

Courtesy of Salon:  

Santorum told Maddow that the Supreme Court overstepped its authority with its ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, saying that the Court “is not the superior branch of government.” He added that Congress could pass a law banning same-sex marriage. 

Maddow informed him that it couldn’t, but he insisted that “it’s clear from our founding documents, that the Congress has a right to say what’s constitutional. The president has a right to say what’s constitutional. And that’s part of the dynamic called checks and balances.” 

“You’re fundamentally wrong on civics,” Maddow replied. “If there’s a question as to the constitutionality of a law, it gets adjudicated. And the second syllable of that word means it gets decided in the judiciary — the Supreme Court decides whether or not a law is constitutional.” 

He continued to insist that Congress could pass a law, so Maddow asked him bluntly, “do you believe Congress could just pass a national ban on same-sex marriage and would it become law?” 

“Of course,” he replied. “The Congress could pass anything it wants to pass. The Supreme Court could strike it down again.” 

“You want them to pass a moot bill that would just be struck down?” she asked. 

“It wouldn’t be moot,” Santorum explained, because the composition of the Court could have changed since it made the current same-sex marriage ruling, or justices could have misgivings about having “misread the tea leaves that are going on in America right now.”

After that exchange  Santorum also admitted that he would like to see a "whole new group of justices." And that if he were President and could choose them he was confident he would get an entirely new decision on gay marriage.

Of course this is incredibly insulting to Rachel Maddow, who is an out gay woman, and she then followed up by asking Santorum if he thinks people are gay by choice.

Santorum turned himself inside out trying not to answer that question and ultimately did not give a definitive answer despite comments he has made in the past.  Instead he brought up the possibility of people choosing to abort their babies if they could be identified as gay through genetic testing.

I think Rachel did a great job, and in my fantasies she would get the opportunity to interview EVERY Republican candidate on her show.

In fact I would like to give Rick Santorum huge props for having the balls to go on her show, and I hope he uses that fact to shame his fellow presidential hopefuls into following suit.

I swear I would pay big money to see her go toe to toe with Rick Perry, Lindsey Graham, Scott Walker, and don't even tease me about the possibility of a Donald Trump.

Presidential candidates react to Supreme Court decision on Obamacare.

First up we have Hillary, who could not be more thrilled.

A great day! Add your name if you agree: Affordable health care is a basic human right → http://t.co/5xR3n1XDoc pic.twitter.com/kATncnkfGq

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 25, 2015

However her opponents on the other side of the aisle are not quite as jubilant.

(Statements courtesy of HuffPo)

Jeb Bush: 

I am disappointed by today’s Supreme Court ruling in the King v. Burwell case. But this decision is not the end of the fight against Obamacare. 

This fatally-flawed law imposes job-killing mandates, causes spending in Washington to skyrocket by $1.7 trillion, raises taxes by $1 trillion and drives up health care costs. Instead of fixing our health care system, it made the problems worse.

Aww, Jebbie's got the sads.

And he is by no means alone.

Marco Rubio:

I disagree with the Court’s ruling and believe they have once again erred in trying to correct the mistakes made by President Obama and Congress in forcing Obamacare on the American people." 

“Despite the Court’s decision, ObamaCare is still a bad law that is having a negative impact on our country and on millions of Americans. I remain committed to repealing this bad law and replacing it with my consumer-centered plan that puts patients and families back in control of their health care decisions. We need Consumer Care, not ObamaCare. 

Rand Paul: 

This decision turns both the rule of law and common sense on its head. Obamacare raises taxes, harms patients and doctors, and is the wrong fix for America's health care system. 

Rick Perry: 

The Obama Administration has ignored the text of the Affordable Care Act time and again, and today’s ruling allows them to continue to disregard the letter of the law. While I disagree with the ruling, it was never up to the Supreme Court to save us from Obamacare. We need leadership in the White House that recognizes the folly of having to pass a bill to know what’s in it. We need leadership that understands a heavy-handed, one-size-fits-all policy does nothing to help health outcomes for Americans. 

With individual premiums up more than 50 percent and nearly 5 million people losing their health plans, Americans deserve better than what we’re getting with Obamacare. It’s time we repealed Obamacare and replaced it with truly affordable, patient centered-health care reform, and I look forward to laying out my ideas on this issue.

(That's all bullshit by the way.)

There were also tweeted responses from the clown car:

#ObamaCare ruling is judicial tyranny. http://t.co/Di6WjxOc3y

— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) June 25, 2015

Deeply disappointed by #SCOTUS ruling. Fundamental increase of govt control. I'm working to ensure next Pres repeals and replaces #Obamacare

— Dr. Ben Carson (@RealBenCarson) June 25, 2015

Today's Supreme Court ruling is another reminder that if we want to get rid of #Obamacare, we must elect a conservative President #RICK2016

— Rick Santorum (@RickSantorum) June 25, 2015

And what Santorum said should be a lesson to Progressives that they must all turn out to vote in order to ensure that the next Supreme Court Justices selected are not Right Wing lunatics like Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

Speaking of Scalia here are some not to be missed portions of his dissent on this ruling. (I especially like the "jiggery-pokery" line.)

All in all with this, and Bristol's admission that she is pregnant, it has been a pretty damn good day for your friendly neighborhood blogger. 

Hillary is not just beating her GOP rivals in the polls, but she is crushing them on Facebook.

Can't touch this.

Courtesy of Vox: 

It's presidential campaign launch season, and Facebook has tracked reactions to each candidate's official announcement since Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) became the first major candidate to jump into the race in March. The figures include all interactions (likes, posts, comments, shares), positive or negative. They're less an indication of how popular someone is than of how much interest there is in them, from either side. With numbers now in for Jeb Bush's announcement, Hillary Clinton is far, far ahead. 

In the 24 hours surrounding Clinton's announcement on April 12, 4.7 million people produced 10.1 million interactions on Facebook. Cruz is a very distant second, with 2.1 million people creating 5.5 million interactions, about half of Hillary's performance. Here's a chart showing the number of interactions for each candidate, rather than the number of people interacting about each:

 Looking good for Hillary, and really who can blame people for rushing to give her their support with so many frightening individuals now vying for the Republican nomination?

I noticed that this chart was done before the Donald tossed his hair into the ring. I wonder how many tepid responses there were to his announcement on Facebook?

The Pope kneecaps climate change deniers with major environmental document.

Yoo hoo, climate cahnge deniers. Bite me!

Courtesy of the Washington Post: 

A draft of a major environmental document by Pope Francis says “the bulk of global warming” is caused by human activity — a perspective aligned with most climate scientists but still highly controversial to some Americans. 

In the draft, portions of which were translated by The Washington Post, the pope takes climate change deniers to task and calls on “humanity” to take steps — including changing manufacturing and consumption trends — to turn back the clock on global warming. He backs the science behind climate change, citing “a very considerable consensus that points out we are now facing a worrisome warming of the climate.” 

Although he states that there may be some natural reasons for global warming, he blasts those who claim it is unrelated to human activity, saying “plenty of scientific studies point out that the last decades of global warming have been mostly caused by the great concentration of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen oxide and others) especially generated by human action.”

Oh snap!

That is going to really, really piss off some of our country's Republican politicians, as well as almost all of the presidential wannabes.

Gee I can hardly wait to hear what Rick "Richard" Santorum has to say about leaving science to the scientists again.

Retired former Republican Senator Tom Coburn is quite unimpressed with most of the current occupants in the GOP presidential clown car. Update!

"Scares me to death."

Courtesy of Think Progress: 

In an interview with conservative commentator Andrew Wilkow last week, Coburn trashed nearly every GOPer running for president, calling them “not ready for primetime,” lacking “integrity,” not “capable,” and saying he wouldn’t support one of them even if he won the nomination. Wilkow acknowledged the impact of Coburn’s words, noting that “once you retire, you can speak your mind in a way that might be different than if you were still sitting in the Senate.”

Here's the rundown:

Rand Paul: “Scares me to death on international foreign policy. Know him well, very smart. Think he was totally wrong on NSA. Didn’t speak truthfully about what was actually the facts. Would not vote for him for president.” 

Marco Rubio: “Of all that are out there right now, probably my favorite.” 

Scott Walker: “Not ready for primetime, in my opinion. You look at what happened in Wisconsin in terms of him beating the recall and everything else, he didn’t do that. The Republicans around the country did it for him. They pulled him out of the fire. I just don’t think he’s quite ready for primetime, in my opinion.” 

Ben Carson: “I have a personal bone to pick with him on integrity that I witnessed. He made a commitment at the Prayer Breakfast not to attack the president. The speech was nothing but an attack on the president. The people who organized the Prayer Breakfast asked him not to do that. He said he would not, and then he went out and did it.” 

George Pataki: “Probably smart enough, but would never encounter the votes. Nor does he have the conservative fiscal credentials or other credentials he would need to have a coalition behind him, in my opinion.” 

Rick Perry: “Good guy. I don’t think he’s capable at that level.” 

Lindsey Graham: “Love him, but he’s right in the middle, so I don’t see how he builds a coalition. I think his effort is try to talk about foreign policy and that’s what he ought to stick to.” 

Carly Fiorina: “Smart lady. I helped her in her Senate campaign of which she was ultimately unsuccessful, but it’s because she could never get into good debates. Smart, savvy, experienced. Knows the issues that I’ve been talking about. Presents well. Doesn’t have a voting record. They’ll trash her bigtime because of her Hewlett-Packard experience.” 

Ted Cruz: “Not ready for primetime.” 

Mike Huckabee: “Possibility. Good guy, well-rounded. Could fit in the middle and could attract votes from both sides.” 

Rick Santorum: “Love him as a man. I think he feels called to try to do this. I don’t think it’s within his reach.” 

Chris Christie: “Don’t know. I haven’t followed him well. I saw his tollgate problems. I like the fact that he answers questions correctly, which very few candidates do. I like the fact that he’ll take a risk and give you an answer that’s not politically popular.” 

Jeb Bush: “I don’t think America will elect another Bush president. I talk to a lot of liberals all the time. They still loathe George Bush. And so you shut out 47 percent of the electorate with that nomination. So you only get to lose three or four percent. I just don’t think it’s a possibility.”

While I agree with many of Colburn's observations, the fact that the two he separates from the bunch as being potentially viable are Huckabee and Rubio, makes me wonder just how honest he is being with himself, and with the interviewer.  

The idea that Mike Huckabee could "fit in the middle" is laugh out loud funny, as he is one of the most extreme examples of a religious right candidate.

Still it is always nice to see the conservatives eating their own.

Update: Well it looks like Coburn was no fan of Fox News either: 

“There are certain shows on Fox I can’t watch,” Coburn told audience members at Tulsa Community College in Oklahoma. “Because they’re totally not fair and totally not balanced. What I want is, I want all the information in which I can make the best decision.”

Kind of starting to like this guy. 

During Iowa campaign stop Rick Santorum takes time to talk with his supporters. Both of them.

Photo courtesy of Crooks and Liars.

What if you threw a campaign and nobody came?

Well Rick Santorum is only two people away from finding that out.

Here is more courtesy of WTAE:  

Even when you're the defending champion of the Iowa caucuses, there's no guarantee you'll find big crowds at every stop. 

When Rick Santorum stopped by Sam's Soda and Sandwiches in Carroll, Iowa, on Monday afternoon, he was met with three of his own staffers, two Democratic campaign trackers, a waitress, two diners and one CNN reporter. 

Though it may not have been the reception he hoped for, the former Pennsylvania senator took it in stride, spending about an hour drinking a chocolate milkshake and chatting with the two diners.

The article goes on to remind people that Santorum won the Iowa caucus back in 2012, but clearly this is NOT 2012. 

I'm going to hell for getting a case of the giggles from this aren't I?

Yep, I thought so.

P.S. After I wrote this last night I learned that the report saying that only two people showed up to Santorum's Iowa campaign stop was false.

Four people showed up.

So you know that's better. Right?

Rick Santorum, supposedly a faithful Catholic, tells the Pope to shut up about climate change. Not going to get into Heaven that way buddy.

Courtesy of Think Progress:  

On June 16, Pope Francis is expected to release an encyclical letter on the environment, the Catholic Church’s strongest statement to date on the moral issues associated with climate change. It’s a move that has environmentalists very excited — and one GOP presidential nominee less than thrilled. 

During an interview with a Philadelphia radio station on Monday, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum — a devout Catholic — said that while he loves Pope Francis, he thinks the Pope should leave discussions about climate change to scientists. 

“The church has gotten it wrong a few times on science,” Santorum told radio host Dom Giordano. “We probably are better off leaving science to the scientists, and focusing on what we’re really good at, which is theology and morality.” 

“When we get involved with controversial and scientific theories, I think the Church is not as forceful and not as credible,” Santorum continued. “I’ve said this to the Catholic bishops many times — when they get involved in agriculture policy, or things like that, that are really outside of the scope of what the Church’s main message is, that we’re better off sticking to the things that are really the core teachings of the Church as opposed to getting involved in every other kind of issue that happens to be popular at the time.”

First off when the Catholic church "has gotten it wrong a few times on science," THAT was when they were arguing against the science that was challenging what they saw as Biblical truths.

In this case Pope Francis is saying that the science is correct, and suggesting that Catholics dismiss the fact that it might question assertions made in the Bible.

Santorum, in response, is arguing the science denying religious side, which makes HIM, not the Pope, the one getting it wrong on science.

Furthermore Pope Francis has a master's degree in chemistry, while Santorum has a bachelor of arts degree in political science. So if I had to choose whose opinion to take seriously in this debate, that's a no brainer.

So this brings up an interesting conundrum for Catholic fundamentalists. When the head of your religion starts adopting points of view that are directly opposed to your deeply ingrained prejudices, what do you do in response?

Well if you are Rick Santorum you publicly call out the infallible Pope as being wrong, and suffer the humiliation that follows.

Rick Santorum agrees with Mike Huckabee that the Supreme Court is not the boss of him.

Rick Santorum and his family, the LAST time he lost the GOP nomination.

As many of you no doubt remember recently Mike Huckabee claimed that the President did not have to do what the Supreme Court told him to do.

Well today on MTP Chuck Todd asked for Santorum's response to the idea that the President did not have to do what the Supreme Court mandated on gay marriage:

“I think it’s important to understand that the supreme court doesn’t have the final word. It has its word. Its word has validity. But it’s important for Congress and the president, frankly, to push back when the supreme court gets it wrong.”

Now of course this only seems to pertain to gay marriage, as Santorum has no  problem with the incredibly damaging Citizens United ruling or striking down the Voting Rights Act.

Nah Santorum is really only concerned about gay people getting the right to marry like everybody else.

Now while Santorum  did not go quite as far as Huckabee in calling for civil unrest, he did suggest that there was a blueprint for action if the Supreme Court dared to defy the will of the religious conservatives:

“Of course I’d fight it. Roe vs Wade was decided 30-something years ago [in fact 1973, 42 years ago] and I continue to fight it because the court got it wrong. 

“And I think if the court decides this case in error I will continue to fight, as I have on the issue of life. That’s the role of a citizenry. We’re not bound by what nine people say in perpetuity.”

So according to Santorum if SCOTUS decides to rule in favor of allowing marriage equality, which of course most of the country agrees with completely, then that just means that the conservatives will spend the next 30 or 40 years chipping away at it. Just like they have Roe vs Wade.

Motherfu.......

You know I actually think that Rick Santorum gives a "frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter" a bad name..

Okay everybody scootch over in the clown car, Rick Santorum has just donned his red nose and announced he is joining the GOP circus.

Courtesy of CNN: 

Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator who mounted an unexpectedly strong bid for the Republican nomination in 2012, is making another bid for the White House.

Just what we need in 2016, another religious zealot, who hates progress, worships Ronald Reagan, and love the sound of his own voice.

The guy's a joke, but he is certainly not the only one running for the Republican nomination.

Here let's revisit some of the ridiculous things Santorum said that LAST time he lost the nomination.

Here he is on birth control:

"One of the things I will talk about, that no president has talked about before, is I think the dangers of contraception in this country.... Many of the Christian faith have said, well, that's okay, contraception is okay. It's not okay. It's a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be." 

Demonstrating his diplomacy:

"All the people who live in the West Bank are Israelis, they're not Palestinians. There is no 'Palestinian.' This is Israeli land."

And trotting out a little racism:

"The question is — and this is what Barack Obama didn't want to answer — is that human life a person under the Constitution? And Barack Obama says no. Well if that person — human life is not a person, then — I find it almost remarkable for a black man to say, 'We're going to decide who are people and who are not people.'"

Oh yeah, he will make a fine addition to the clown car. 

Today is the Faith and Freedom Summit in Iowa. Where conservative presidential candidates gather to give a reach around to Jesus.

Courtesy of The Wall Street Journal:  

For Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum – who won Iowa’s last two caucuses on the strength of evangelical voters – doing well at the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition’s gathering this weekend is a must. 

“Santorum and Huckabee are the two who really have the most at stake,” said Sam Clovis, a Sioux City social conservative who placed second to Joni Ernst in Iowa’s 2014 GOP Senate primary. “Between Huckabee and Santorum, they need to come back and recapture some of that magic they had in ’12 and ’08.” 

Altogether, nine Republicans likely to make 2016 presidential bids are scheduled to speak at Saturday’s Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition Spring Kick-Off . The subtext for the event won’t be subtle: It is taking place at the evangelical Point of Grace megachurch in Waukee, a Des Moines suburb, and will attract the leading activists from Iowa’s social conservative community.

Well this is the can't miss event of the year for those Republican candidates who want to lock down that holier than thou vote. 

But wait, something seems amiss.

According to that announcement up above, Cruz, Fiorina, Jindal, Santorum and Walker are all definitely coming. While Bush, Carson, Christie, Graham, Huckabee, Paul, Pence, Perry, Rubio, and Trump have all been invited to show up.

But somebody's missing.

Oh that's right.

But wait, even if she is NOT running why would she skip this event?

After all it has her favorite things. Faith, freedom, free publicity, and yet she is not only not a confirmed speaker, but it appears that she was not even invited.

Could it have anything to do with the fact that the last time she showed up in Iowa, this last January for the Freedom Summit (Just freedom, no faith.), that she made such an incredibly incoherent speech that she actually received thanks from the Democrats?

Is it possible that she has finally made herself such a laughingstock that even the Iowa freedom loving faithful cannot stomach her act anymore? And is that also why she bailed out of her NRA appearance in Nashville?

Could this actually be the end?

Oops it looks like Sarah Palin will not be announcing her candidacy for President at the annual NRA leadership forum after all.

So as I posted last month Palin was among a who's who of potential GOP presidential candidates invited to speak at the NRA's leadership forum this weekend.

And then suddenly, sometime early this afternoon, she was no longer listed on the NRA's official page.

Here was the response over at Sea O'Pee:

Breaking news. Sarah Palin cancels NRA appearance. Read it on their website.

This of course caused a lot of  hand wringing and concerns that something bad had happened, as they had all but convinced themselves that this was the perfect platform for her to announce her candiacy.

As of right now there has been no reason provided, but there was this article over at the The Tennessean: 

Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has suddenly canceled her upcoming appearance at the National Rifle Association's Annual Meeting in Nashville later this week. 

But Palin canceled her visit on Wednesday, Jennifer Baker, director of public affairs for the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action, confirmed. 

Baker did not provide a reason for Palin's cancellation.

Well since we don't have any official word as to what made her suddenly drop out, let the wild speculations commence!

Potential GOP presidential candidates rush to defend Indiana's controversial "religious freedom" law.

Courtesy of CNN:  

Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Bobby Jindal, Rick Santorum and Ben Carson are rushing to defend Indiana's "religious freedom" law, standing with social conservatives on a measure that opponents have said opens the door to discrimination against gays and lesbians. 

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, meanwhile, is backing the "principle" of the measure. 

The likely Republican contenders for their party's 2016 presidential nomination supported the law the day after Indiana Gov. Mike Pence struggled to explain it in an appearance on ABC's "This Week." 

"Gov. Pence has done the right thing," Bush, the former Florida governor, told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Monday evening. 

"This is simply allowing people of faith space to be able to express their beliefs -- to be able to be people of conscience," Bush said. "I think once the facts are established, people aren't going to see this as discriminatory at all."

Actually in the last several days we have all learned quite a bit about the "facts" and they have only reinforced that this law is going to be used to discriminate against gay people.

A fact driven home during the Governor Pence interview with George Stephanopoulos where he was repeatedly given the opportunity to say that the law would NOT discriminate against gays, and flat out refused to do so.

And let's not forget that it was only in 2004 when the Republicans, including Jeb's brother, were pushing pretty hard to pass the Federal Marriage Amendment, that would have outlawed gay marriage completely.

Even still I find it almost impossible to believe that ANY conservative politician seeking national office in 2016 would allow their name to be associated with this Indiana law in any way.

But hey it's their political funeral. 

Ted Cruz and the American "civil religion." This guy is even scarier than we thought.

Courtesy of Salon:  

Cruz’s White House run is disturbing, and not just because it involves Ted Cruz. Rather, he embodies the modern conservative propensity toward a fundamentalist American civil religion and its attendant, overly simplistic myths. As the English political activist George Monbiot observed during the dawn of the second President Bush’s Iraq War, to America’s conservative subculture “the United States is no longer just a nation. It is now a religion… It is not just that the Americans are God’s chosen people; America itself is now perceived as a divine project.” American civil religion hinges on what Ted Cruz defined in his Liberty University speech as “the promise of America,” embodied in “the American exceptionalism that has made this nation a clarion voice for freedom in the world, a shining city on a hill.” The religion of America is a civil religion that casts the United States as a divine world power shaped by a series of comforting myths that, in the eyes of fervent believers like Cruz, make it the ultimate political Promised Land. 

The term “civil religion” goes back to the writings of French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau, who ruminated on the tensions that arise when church and state become separate entities. In American discourse, the term is most closely associated with sociologist Robert Bellah. In 1967, Bellah characterized civil religion as “a set of beliefs, symbols, and rituals” that was “neither sectarian nor in any specific sense Christian” but nonetheless constituted a shared experience of being American that was inspired by Christian notions of redemption and spiritual fulfillment. Civil religion casts America as a beacon of secular and sacred hope in a fallen modern world. In this context, Bellah wrote, “Europe is Egypt” and America was the Promised Land to which ”God has led his people to establish a new sort of social order that shall be a light unto all the nations.” And if this concept seems open-ended and ripe for abuse, that’s because it is. 

.......

Cruz had the myth of the Chosen Nation down pat when he claimed that America is “an indispensable nation, a unique nation in the history of the world.” As for the myth of Nature’s Nation, he evoked America as the cultivated political garden of God Himself that, “from the dawn of this country, at every stage… has enjoyed God’s providential blessing.” The myth of the Christian Nation? Cruz parroted the now standard (but historically bogus) right-wing claim that the U.S. “was founded upon” the idea that rights come from a very specific “God Almighty.” Cruz’s reference to the myth of Manifest Destiny was more veiled, but he name-dropped key historical figures such as Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (no doubt for good bipartisan measure) and, of course, Ronald Reagan to reiterate his point that God has blessed every step in America’s development. The myth of the Capitalist Nation came via his railing against standard conservative government bogeymen like “regulators,” “tax collectors” and Obamacare that despoil the purity of the Free Market. Finally, Cruz touted the myth of the Innocent Nation when he claimed that political change will only come from “lovers of liberty” who realize that “God isn’t done with America yet.” Bless their liberty-loving souls. 

Cruz’s speech was a prime example of how the right wing promotes a deeply fundamentalist American civil religion that relies on time-honored myths to characterize the United States as a nation guided by providential destiny. Cruz and other conservatives don’t see America as one nation that is a part of world history; they see it as one nation apart from world history, one that exists free of the flawed human agency and historical contingency that — contrary to Cruz’s claims — has shaped all of the human experience. 

An America as defined by a future President Cruz is an America that sees itself as blindingly perfect, naively innocent, incapable of critical reflection over both its strengths and weaknesses and utterly convinced of its capacity to shape the world in its own image. Cruz’s version of civil religion is the ultimate example of how conservatives “absolutize the righteousness of the United States.” When you believe that God has blessed America from the beginning, you ignore the times that Americans have invoked God to justify the evils of Indian removal, slavery, racism, sexism and environmental destruction. More importantly, you undervalue the times when Americans have overcome those sins to demonstrate what Abraham Lincoln called ”the better angels of our nature.” When you worship capitalism and tout the United States as the world’s only hope, you ignore the false idols that led to the Great Recession and the bloody folly of the Iraq War that’s left the Middle East in tatters. When you develop a false sense of American innocence, you view national self-reflection as a weakness.

This of course is the same kind of thinking that allowed an arrogant pseudo Texan from a famous political family take this country to war with the idea that all the poor savages needed was a little American exceptionalism in their lives to make all of their problems simply disappear.

It's also the same mindset shared by a Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal, and of course Sarah Palin.

In fact when Palin suggests that President Obama is trying to "fundamentally change America" this is what she is talking about. The idea that the President would try to convince Americans to climb off their high horse and recognize that we are part of a global community that can all work together toward progress rather than an oligarchy that is working to proselytize their message of political religiosity to the unsaved, frightens people of limited intellect such as Palin.

However the most dangerous thing imaginable for this country would be to return to leadership that sees this country as not only without flaws, but incapable of mistakes due to the fact that the Constitution, much like the Bible, was inspired by God and is therefore infallible. (Amendments Shamendments.)

Now if you will excuse me I have to go lie down in the fetal position for a few minutes.

Sarah Palin joins list of potential presidential candidates speaking at NRA meeting in Nashville next month.

Courtesy of The Tennessean:  

Add Sarah Palin to the list of Republicans set to come to Nashville next month for the National Rifle Association's Annual Meeting. 

The former vice presidential candidate has joined the NRA's growing group of confirmed speakers for its Leadership Forum, which will take place on April 10, the first day of the three-day convention at Nashville's Music City Center. 

Palin, the former governor of Alaska who remains a powerful voice among tea party conservatives, joins billionaire businessman Donald Trump as recent additions to the NRA's Nashville lineup. Palin also spoke at last year's NRA convention in Indianapolis. 

Other speakers at this year's Leadership Forum include most of the top Republicans currently weighing presidential runs: Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.

I don't think there is any doubt that Palin supporters will take one look at that list and immediately convince themselves that she is positioning herself for a run at the GOP nomination in 2016.

Of course we know she is not, but then we are using logic and those people are allergic to logic.

Gee I wonder if she will bring her shiny new Medal of Honor winner along with her to give her a little extra oomph?

By the way crazy eyes must have been checking in with us yesterday and read the comments from all of you calling her out for not posting anything on National Down Syndrome Day. So late last night she attempted to rectify that by doing the least she could do which is to post a link, with no text to accompany it.

Boy isn't she a great advocate for Down Syndrome and everything?

Of course she would do so much more if they would pay her like the NRA is doing to give that speech in Nashville. Don'tcha know?

President Obama tried to nuke Charleston, South Carolina?

Courtesy of Right Wing Watch: 

When Rick Santorum joined other GOP presidential hopefuls for a “national security” summit hosted by right-wing conspiracy theorist Frank Gaffney last weekend, it shouldn’t have been a surprise that they would encounter fringe conspiracy theorists in the audience, including one activist who asked Santorum a winding question about immigration, an imminent communist takeover and President Obama’s plot to nuke Charleston, South Carolina. 

As we reported on Monday, Santorum responded to the activist’s accusation not by rebutting her conspiracy theory but by taking offense to her claim that Santorum, a former U.S. senator, had some responsibility for the congressional GOP leadership’s response to Obama’s immigration actions. He went on to label the president a “tyrant.”

Whoa Nelly, that is a whole lot o'crazy!

Now as it turns out this whole "Obama tried to nuke Charleston" conspiracy theory was birthed into existence with the help of Alex Jones and his infamous InfoWars website: 

In September 2013, the conspiracy news site InfoWars published an "exclusive" story, citing "a high level source inside the military," about the transfer of nuclear warheads to the East Coast. The story was shared nearly 25,000 times on Facebook, aided by a video introduction by Alex Jones and by a follow-up that quoted South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham's worry that a military build-up would lead to nuclear weapons moving through the port of Charleston. "This ultimately reeks of yet another false flag being orchestrated by the United States government in order to send us into war," Jones wrote in a follow-up. 

In October 2013, the European Union Times—a "news" site that combines real stories with rumors -- cited a "Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) report circulating in the Kremlin today" to report that a nuclear weapon had been detonated off of Charleston's harbor, as proven by an Oct. 8 earthquake that happened hundreds of miles from the coast. This, according to the website, was a botched "false flag" attack, which was carried out, strangely, in the middle of the government shutdown. On Reddit, discussion swirled that the "false flag" attack led to the dismissal of US Navy Vice Admiral Tim Giardina, US Air Force Major General Michael Carey, Major General Charles M. Gurganus and Major General Gregg A. Sturdevant.

In point of fact all of those military men listed at the end lost their  jobs or were forced into retirement well before this supposed "false flag" attack and for reasons that had nothing to do with nuclear weaponry.

However this goes to illustrate the kind of lunatics that now seem to make up the base of the Republican party, and who potential candidates for President have to humor, and avoid ridiculing, before their ballots are cast.