A black minister, in Georgia of all places, has called out Christians for their hypocrisy concerning "teh gays."

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

Pastor E. Dewey Smith of the House of Hope, Greater Travelers Rest church in Decatur gave an impassioned sermon, posted to YouTube on Thursday, in which he slammed church leaders for judging gay people but “you change wives like we change underwear.” 

“‘These folks are an abomination, they are nasty,’ tell you what you do then. Go find every song that’s been written by a gay person for the last 100 years and don’t sing it in church,” he said, as the church congregation cheered him on. “Let’s see how many songs you can minister on that Sunday.” 

He went on to criticize the habit of picking and choosing which parts of the Bible to adhere to, based on what is socially advantageous or convenient, but ignore it when it gets in the way of business. 

“We demonize and dehumanize the same people that we use and we don’t say nothing about the gay choir director because he’s good for business” Smith said. “As long as the choir sound good, I ain’t saying nothing about his sexuality. We have done what the slave master did to us. Dehumanize us, degrade us, demonize us, but then use them for our advantage.”

 I can honestly say that there are VERY few times in which I will shout "Amen."

But in this case "A-fricking-men!!!"

Now see if the Christian church hopes to survive in this country, THESE are the types of sermons we need to start hearing a whole lot more.

Even as they publicly disparage the Affordable Care Act, and repeatedly vote to repeal it, many Republicans are secretly sending letters soliciting funds from it to meet their state's healthcare needs.

Courtesy of The Nation: 

Now letters produced by a Freedom of Information Act request reveal that many of these same anti-Obamacare Republicans have solicited grants from the very program they claim to despise. This is evidence not merely of shameless hypocrisy but of the fact that the ACA bestows tangible benefits that even Congress’s most extreme right-wing ideologues are hard-pressed to deny to their constituents. 

As I reported here last September, Congressman Paul Ryan, who as Mitt Romney’s running mate in 2012 called for its repeal, sent a letter requesting ACA money for health clinics in his district two years earlier. The Nation has obtained documents revealing that at least twenty other Obamacare-bashing GOP lawmakers have similarly pleaded for ACA funds on behalf of constituents. Among them are Kristi Noem, a Republican lawmaker from South Dakota likely to run for the Senate next year, as well as Ohio Senator Rob Portman, who has been touted as a potential GOP presidential candidate in 2016. 

In one of two letters sent by Portman to the Department of Health and Human Services, the senator requested ACA funds to help a federal health center in Cleveland, where the money could help “an additional 8,966 uninsured individuals” to receive
”essential services,” in his words. In Noem’s case, the congresswoman requested ACA funds to construct a community health center in Rapid City to provide primary services to the uninsured. Both Noem and Portman won office in 2010 campaigning vigorously against the law and have since worked to repeal it. 

Though notably less transparent, the behavior of these GOP lawmakers parallels that of GOP governors like Arizona’s Jan Brewer, who blast the president’s health reform package while embracing the millions in Medicaid funds that it provides. 

The letter writers include GOP rank-and-file Congress members, leaders and committee chairs, all of whom have supported the repeal effort. David Valadao, for example, a freshman representative who campaigned last year on his opposition to Obamacare, requested funds in a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius two years ago for a program to improve “the general health” of the Fresno County area, which he then served as a California assemblyman. Congressman Jeff Denham, a two-term GOP lawmaker who won his seat with support from Tea Party activists, penned a letter recommending the same application for Fresno County. The county Department of Public Health won the grant. Valadao’s and Denham’s offices declined to comment. 

The Affordable Care Act authorizes an array of grants to local hospitals, community health clinics and doctor training programs, as well as public health initiatives to improve health and access to care. The billions of dollars in grants are awarded on a competitive basis, and lawmakers on the state and federal levels have sent letters endorsing applicants. 

Texas Senator John Cornyn, the Republican whip, wrote to the Centers for Disease Control to recommend a grant for Houston and Harris County. Congressman Michael McCaul, a Republican and the chair of the Homeland Security Committee, wrote a letter praising the same grant request, calling the effort a “crucial initiative to achieve a healthier Houston/Harris County.” Senators Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, Mark Kirk of Illinois and Thad Cochran of Mississippi also recommended grant request approval for public health or health clinic funding. 

There are many more examples of this kind of hypocrisy available to view at the link, including the letters themselves, who sent them, and what they are asking for.

Of course their is also rationalization for this seeming hypocrisy:Some GOP lawmakers have balked at the charges of hypocrisy. “Sen. Chambliss voted against the Affordable Care Act, just as he did the stimulus package. But the bill passed, and if the money is available, we want Georgians to be able to compete fairly with folks from other states for it,” wrote Lauren Claffey, the senator’s press secretary, in an e-mail. 

Hey if you're going to provide funds to help provide affordable health care, which I am totally against, I don't see why MY constituents can't get access to it as well!

You know the thing that really burns my ass is that IF the Republicans were to welcome this program with open arms rather than use it as a political football, we would see an almost magical reboot of our health are system. And with bi-partisan support to work out the kinks and to tweak it where it needs tweaking, it could have benefited EVERY politician, both Democrat and Republican, who helped iron out the wrinkles.

But since the GOP decided the minute that President Obama was sworn in to oppose EVERYTHING he tried to do we all have to suffer for their short sightedness and obstructionism.

Virginia's GOP run State Board of Elections refuses to ask Attorney General to investigate dumping of registration forms.

Courtesy of WTVR.com:  

The State Board Of Elections says it will not ask Virginia’s Attorney General to investigate the case of a Republican Party contract worker, accused of throwing voter registration forms in the trash. 

State Senator Donald McEachin, who is chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus, asked the attorney general to investigate following the arrest of after Colin Small. 

Small was a contractor hired by the Republican Party of Virginia to conduct voter registration drives. 

He was charged after investigators say as many as nine applications he collected were found in a trash bin behind a Harrisonburg store. 

The attorney general says he only looks into election issues after a request from the State Board of Elections. 

“There’s no way to tell by party when people fill out these forms, what party they’re affiliated with, so I don’t think there’s any political motivation,” Virginia Registrar Brandi Lilly said Friday. 

Somebody working as an operative for the Republican party disposes of registration forms, and the Board of Elections does not think "there's any political motivation?" WTF?

Do they really think he was just arbitrarily throwing away registration forms that might have contained those from people registering as Republicans? Seriously?

Okay THIS is proof positive that all of that garbage about passing Voter ID laws was NOTHING more than a partisan attempt to keep Obama supporters from coming to the polls. (As if we needed further proof of that.)

If they had REALLY been interested in fighting voter fraud they would be all over this. Especially since there is proof that this goes much further than just Virginia.

Hypocritical bastards!

Republicans attempt to play the race card. Okay that is just pathetic!

I think that about sums it up, don't you.

(H/T to The Obama Diary.)

Job growth numbers better than expected. But are they good enough?

Courtesy of ABC News:

Payrolls expanded by 117,000 jobs in July as unemployment fell to 9.1 percent, a bit of good news in what has been a dismal series of economic reports this summer.

US stocks had been in a tailspin leading up this morning's Labor Department report. They closed down 9 of the last 10 trading days, capped by a 500-point loss on the Dow Jones Industrial Average yesterday. The Dow has fallen 1,300 points since July 21, erasing all its gains for the year.

The report "should lessen fears that the recovery is truly faltering," Jim O'Sullivan, chief economist at MF Global, told the Associated Press.

At the 9:30 a.m. ET opening of the markets, the Dow headed straight up, surging 170 points in the first two minutes of trading. Markets in Europe, which have been rattled by rising government debt in Italy and Spain, also rose after the jobs report.

Economists were expecting 85,000 jobs to be added in July and unemployment to stay steady at 9.2 percent. In June, private employers added just 18,000 jobs.

But in July, businesses added 154,000 jobs across many industries, the Labor Department said. Governments cut 37,000 jobs last month, though 23,000 of those losses were almost entirely because of the shutdown of Minnesota's state government.

We keep hearing over and over that NO President has ever successfully run for reelection with job numbers this low, which seems to be encouraging the Republicans to do everything in their power to keep Americans out of work simply for the sake of political expediency.

If they are successful they will have demonstrated how ignorant and uninformed the America voters are, and will once again have sacrificed the good of the country in service to their corporate masters.

I think that it behooves all of us to keep presenting charts like this one...

to our friends, and families. And reminding people that THIS is the result of giving corporations indefensible tax breaks, and allowing businesses to do what they want without Government oversights in place.

Yes the job growth is slow, but under this Democratic President at least it IS growing.  What do the Republicans really offer us except more of the same policies that got us into the ditch that Obama is trying to drive us out of, with virtually NO help from the other party?

There are real people suffering here, and the idea that some politicians would play fast and loose with their lives solely in the interest of gaining or retaining power, really pisses me off!

Bill Maher dissects Marcus and Michele Bachmann's (The indoor Palins) hypocrisy.

"Marcus hates government employees because sailors are so rough."

I loved that line.

Jon Stewart pokes fun at the hypocrisy of the Fox News channel becoming defensive over the Oslo terrorist being labeled a "Christian."

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I LOVED this segment last night, and thought that Stewart did an amazing job of mocking the Fox News talking heads. So of course I felt I needed to share it with you.

I actually almost forgot about it because there was so much going on today. 

However perhaps saving it for last is not so bad as it is a great way to end our day, don't you think?

Oh, and there is SO much more coming tomorrow. Stay tuned!

One of the most important segments that Rachel Maddow has ever produced. Just when you thought the Republican party could NOT be anymore slimy.

This is a little long, a little over sixteen minutes, but believe me it is very important to watch the entire thing.

And yes Sarah Palin is hip deep in this steaming pile of bovine excrement.

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What if Bristol Palin and the Candies Foundation practiced truth in advertising?

From Care2Care (talking about the Candies Foundation):

On their site, they claimed that in a recent "independent survey" of 1,000 teens, "twice as many teens (57% vs. 27%) said Bristol's PSA 'got my attention,' three times as many (41% vs. 11%) said it was 'powerful,' and more than twice as many (38% vs. 16%) said it was 'memorable.' Thus they are justified in spending all of their money on celebrity spokespeople rather than organizations that are actually giving teens the resources and education to prevent pregnancy.

The fact that teens found the PSAs memorable does not mean that they gained any useful knowledge from them or altered their behavior accordingly. A TV show illustrating the "devastating consequences" of teen pregnancy might be as "memorable" as Palin's PSA, but there's no reason for the Candie's Foundation to start handing out checks to the producers of The Secret Life of the American Teenager or Glee.

And frankly, if Bristol Palin is truly dedicated to "preventing even one girl from getting pregnant," she will personally redistribute her enormous paycheck from the Candie's Foundation. It's one thing for her to get paid for her speaking engagements - but it's absurd for the Candie's Foundation to spend seven times on their celebrity speakers than on actual teen pregnancy initiatives.

After all, Bristol Palin may be able to speak to the experience of teen motherhood, but as the daughter of a powerful political figure, she is certainly not typical, something that she admitted in a Candie's PSA last year. The money could be well spent on the other 750,000 American teenagers who get pregnant every year, many of whom rely on these clinics and health centers for counseling and prenatal care. It seems as though Candie's - and maybe Palin herself - are more interested in their public image than actually preventing teen pregnancy.

It looks like the author of this post has Bristol Palin, her mom, and the Candies Foundation figured out pretty well.

(H/T to The Nomadic View.)

Is it wrong that this story makes me smile?

From The Columbus Dispatch:

The battle that has heretofore played out in the parking lot of George's strip club - the Foxhole, a run-down, garage-like building at a Coshocton County crossroads called Newcastle - has shifted 7 miles east to Church Street.

Every weekend for the last four years, Dunfee and members of his ministry have stood watch over George's joint, taking up residence in the right of way with signs, video cameras and bullhorns in hand. They videotape customers' license plates and post them online, and they try to save the souls of anyone who comes and goes.

Now, the dancers have turned the tables, so to speak. Fed up with the tactics of Dunfee and his flock, they say they have finally accepted his constant invitation to come to church.

It's just that they've come wearing see-through shorts and toting Super Soakers.

They bring lawn chairs and - yesterday, anyway - grilled hamburgers, Monster energy drinks and corn on the cob.

They sat in front of the church and waved at passing cars but largely ignored the congregation behind them.

Likewise, the churchgoers largely ignored the dancers. Except for Stan Braxton. He stopped and held hands with Lola, a 42-year-old dancer who made $200 on her Saturday night shift, and prayed for her salvation.

Lola, who wouldn't give her last name, said she was grateful for Braxton's prayers and his time.
The women don't come here, after all, without their own version of religion. They bring signs with Scriptures written in neon colors:

Matthew 7:15: Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing

Revelations 22:11: He that is unjust, let him be unjust still

You know considering how much churches and strip clubs have in common, it is kind of surprising that they cannot find a way to co-exist.

After all they both have audiences of men looking expectantly up at the stage while shifting uncomfortably in their seats, they both survive on tips stuffed into their cash receptacles, and they both tease their clients with the promise of a reward that they will never receive during their lifetime.

Evangelical hypocrisy perfectly summed up with two videos.

Here is "family values" Republican Rep. Souder giving an interview about the importance of teaching teenagers to be abstinent.  The problem?  The woman who is "interviewing" him is the same woman with whom he was engaged in an extramarital affair.



"Baby as soon as we are finished telling kids that sex should only be practiced between a man and his wife, I am going to take two Viagra and make embarrassingly clumsy extramarital love to you.  Now remember if my wife calls we were simply condemning comprehensive sex education all day."

Now look I really do not care if a married guy wants to bump uglies with somebody other than his wife.  That is between him, his wife, and their divorce attorneys.  But this guy is a huge Evangelical, sex is a sin, abstinence only, douchebag.  He did this to himself.  I am simply enjoying the sweet aroma of justice.

Here you can watch Souder blaming the current state of politics for forcing him to resign.  He does make a pretty good case about politicians dragging their families up to be humiliated when it is really their husbands/fathers who have done something wrong.



Gee I wonder if Bristol will bring Sarah to her press conference apologizing for lying about being abstinent while giving speeches about it on her speaking circuit when SHE gets outed?  Who am I kidding?  The Palins NEVER admit that they have done anything wrong!

Sarah Palin's extravagant rock star demands cause further infighting among Teabaggers.

Palin’s contract, according to Shreeve, who had a look at it, called for her to be paid $100,000 for the event. It also included $18,000 for private jet travel for her and her entourage. Shreeve told me Palin's contract — standard among political stars who make the speaking-circuit rounds — specified what type of private jet she requested for the trip to Nashville. “It was like, she had to have this or that size plane,” Shreeve recalls. “It was like when a rock star comes to town, the contract was that detailed.”  (To read the rest of this article click here to visit New York Magazine.com)

Sarah Palin has NEVER been in this to help the people.  Sarah Palin is now, and has always been, about Sarah Palin.  The minute she stood before those cheering crowds during the 2008 campaign Palin became an addict. There is little doubt that in her mind Sarah believes herself to be the Right Wing version of Elvis. And she will demand that she be treated like the star she now believes herself to be.

It should not escape anybody's notice that when Palin targeted the 20 Democrats she claimed to want to defeat in the upcoming elections she did NOT suggest the money go to their opponents individual campaigns.  She demanded that the money go to SarahPAC. Remember that in the last financial disclosures it was proven that SarahPAC spent more money to purchase Palin's own book to give away to donors than they spent to actually help candidates.  Everything she does is to gain further prominence and get paid. Period.

Paul Krugman steps back to compare the strategies used by both sides in the health care debate.

Just a portion of this fascinating opinion piece from the New York Times:

And let’s be clear: the campaign of fear hasn’t been carried out by a radical fringe, unconnected to the Republican establishment. On the contrary, that establishment has been involved and approving all the way. Politicians like Sarah Palin — who was, let us remember, the G.O.P.’s vice-presidential candidate — eagerly spread the death panel lie, and supposedly reasonable, moderate politicians like Senator Chuck Grassley refused to say that it was untrue. On the eve of the big vote, Republican members of Congress warned that “freedom dies a little bit today” and accused Democrats of “totalitarian tactics,” which I believe means the process known as “voting.”

Krugman really does no more than state the obvious, but he does so in a way that is quite enlightening and demonstrates just how badly Republicans may have damaged their brand in the long run in order to battle a program that is going to gain universal acceptance in just a matter of months.

Let's take a moment to welcome two new websites to our Alaska blogroll.

The first one is a blog called Terminal Hypocrisy, and it's first two posts are focused on our favorite granny grifter Sarah Palin.  It will be interesting to see if they branch off to others areas of Alaska political corruption or stay focused on Caribou Barbie.

And the second is a take no prisoners, tongue in cheek, humor infused website called Alaska WTF (Gotta love that name!) that goes after ALL political hypocrites and liars with a vengeance.

Check out the name of the guy writing the posts. 

Welcome to the front lines my friends.

Carie Prejean's "most embarrassing mistake" just got SEVEN times more embarrassing!

Now a RadarOnline.com investigation has uncovered that there are SEVEN more “biggest mistakes” of her life – all of them solo performances, just like the one sex tape that the religious beauty queen has admitted to. And there are 30 photos of Carrie, most topless, some showing everything, and most taken by Carrie using her reflection in a mirror.

No Carrie, not five! Eight sex tapes! You and your little Christian va-jay-jay have made eight solo-sex tapes altogether. So now the BIGGEST mistake of your life, has seven other mistakes to hang out with.

So now I have to ask, I KNOW you don't believe in "opposite" marriage, but do you even believe in opposite sex? I mean it seems that when you are having sex, you are always alone. Not that I am judging, but you do realize that traditional sex requires TWO people don't you?

Look I don't care one little bit if somebody has a sex tape or not, and I would never have said one word about it if little Carrie was not such an incredible hypocrite!

She has recently claimed she was only seventeen years old when she made the tape, and therefore underage, but now we have learned that she was nineteen or twenty. She has also said that she only made ONE tape and now it turns out there are at least eight. What next? What else are we going to learn that is fake about Carrie Prejean? Well besides those two gifts from the California pageant officials of course.

No wonder Sarah Palin is your role model, because little missy, you lie JUST like her.

The so-called "Values Voters" demonstrated those values by ridiculing President Obama's health care plan and harrassing the press.

Poking fun at President Obama's health care plan, Tony Perkins opened the Values Voters Summit in Washington on Friday quipping that he fears the effort will produce a system with the empathy of the Internal Revenue Service and the efficiency of the Federal Emergency Management Administration. (B the way if you want to learn more about Tony Perkins, and the rest of these wingnuts I urge you to buy Max Blumenthal's "Republican Gomorrah". It will REALLY open your eyes.)

The religious-social right has never been about fire and brimstone but about moral behavior by government and citizens. Legalized abortion and same-sex marriages rank at the top of the movement's must-stop agenda.

The next speaker was former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who proceeded to rock the house with humor.

Dismissing the health care "reform" approach of Mr. Obama and the Democratic Congress, Mr. Huckabee compared the "real" health problem to "an NFL game on Sunday 22 people down on the field desperately in need of rest and 70,000 in the stands desperately in need of exercise."

"There is America's health care problem right there," he said.

Mr. Huckabee, who ran second to Arizona Sen. John McCain in the Republican presidential nomination contest last year, has been an increasingly important figure in the religious-social right movement that bemoans what former Education Secretary William J. Bennett has called the "coarsening of American culture."

Now a Fox News talk-show host, Mr. Huckabee let fly with such zingers aimed at Mr. Obama as "The audacity of hope has become the audacity of hypocrisy," and America is being trivialized and demeaned into "land czars, clunker cars and Hollywood stars." (To read the Washington Times entire article just click the title of this post.)

And when they weren't trivializing the lack of medical coverage for millions of Americans they were attempting to bully the press who they must have feared would accurately depict just what they were up to at this summit

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Poking fun at the President for trying to help poor people? Making false statements about health care reform? Christian wingnuttery? Blaming the press? How could Sarah Palin possibly have missed this? This summit seems tailor made for somebody like her.

In Palin's absence disgraced Miss California Carrie Prejean tried to fill the void.



If I may Miss Prejean. I know Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin is an ex-Governor of mine. You miss are NO Sarah Palin!

Rachel Maddow calls Sarah Palin out on her hypocrisy filled Washington Post op-ed. A must see!

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So it appears that Sarah Palin was FOR "cap and trade" before she was AGAINST "cap and trade"? Damn why does that sound sooooo familiar?

You know that Katie Couric interview is going to haunt Sarah Palin FOREVER.

Shannyn Moore has the "Top Ten Reasons Sarah Palin's "Outrage" is a Misplaced and a Little Late..."

Here is a sample:

8 ) From two different Tonight Shows: “Governor Palin announced over the weekend that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is five months pregnant. Oh, boy, you thought John Edwards was in trouble before, now he’s really done it!” AND…“All the Republicans are heaping praise on Governor Palin. Fred Thompson said, as an actor, he could see them making a movie about Sarah Palin and her family. Didn’t they already make that movie? I think it was called ‘Knocked Up!’”–Jay Leno

A well done list of the amazing hypocrisy and opportunism practiced by Sarah Palin and the GOP. Just click the title to visit Shannyn's website.

Update: Palin and her supporters are STILL milking this thing for all it is worth.

With a new scandal cropping up every day, Richard Roberts takes a "temporary" leave of absence from robbing the University coffers.

Richard Roberts, the president of Oral Roberts University, has requested permission for a leave of absence amid allegations that he used school resources to fund his lavish lifestyle and support his political allies, according to the Associated Press.

"I don't know how long this leave of absence will last, but I fully trust the members of the Board of Regents," Roberts said in a statement released by the university. "I pray and believe that in God's timing, and when the Board feels that it is appropriate, I will be back at my post as president."

Well as the Ted Haggerty debacle proves, scandal ridden preachers who take a brief sabbatical from their jobs step right back into their roles with out incident.

Hee hee hee. Oh he is so out of there!

Republicans support our military unless they dare to disagree with their talking points about Iraq. And then they trun on them like rabid dogs.

From the securely closeted Lindsay Graham:

"I'm astounded, really," South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham on CNN's "Late Edition" with Wolf Blitzer on Sunday.

Graham, who recently returned from Baghdad, said he and GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain had visited Sanchez several times in 2003 and 2004.

"Every time we talked to Gen. Sanchez, we got pushback -- we have enough troops; Guard and reserves aren't being strained," Graham said.

From the war lover John McCain:

"I wish that he had given us the benefit of that knowledge at the time," McCain told CBS's "Face the Nation." He said Sanchez should have spoken out at the time -- or resigned -- but "unfortunately, that doesn't happen very often."

From the man who desperately wanted to embarass Larry Craig into resigning:

Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, told ABC's "This Week" that Sanchez is simply wrong. "My definition of winning is a stable country and an ally in the war on terror," he said. "I think we're making significant progress toward that end."

What a bunch of hypocrites! We all know what happens to military careers if anyone speaks out against the Bush policies in Iraq. Hell even McCain lets that one slip.

One of the reasons few speak out, he said, is evidenced by what happened to former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki, McCain said. Shinseki was sidelined after telling Congress that hundreds of thousands of troops would be needed to occupy Iraq.

Yeah that could happen, or something much worse.