When Phil Robertson Speaks, People Should Listen to Ta-Nehisi Coates

Seems Commander Phil  Robertson hasn't heard of this blog; now he's offering marriage advice that encourages statutory rape.

...these boys are waiting until they get to be about 20 years old before they marry 'em. Look, you wait ‘til they get to be twenty years-old and the only picking that’s going to take place is your pocket. You got to marry these girls when they’re about fifteen or sixteen and they’ll pick your ducks. 

I don't think Phil's heard of Ta-Nehisi Coates either.

In many parts of America, this is an argument for statutory rape. More specifically, it is an argument for men seeking to elide the power of grown women, by seeking their sexual partners among teenage girls. This is style of svengalism is generally seen as repugnant to our morality. Phil Robertson believes that society should  withhold of civil rights from consenting gay men, while allowing men like him to push the age of consent to its breaking point. The contradiction here is as predictable as it is ridiculous. The loudest of doomsayers, so often, carry the weightiest of sin. 

They also spew the most bullshit to deny the horror of history. So much bullshit that even the roots of the blues are denied, and raping children is considered a preferred path to marriage.

Why It's Getting Easier For Democrats to Retake the House

You lose a whole lot of voters when you move that far right.

Nate Cohn makes me wish we had a new Intrade; prediction markets are a great way to help people get a handle on who's bullshitting and who's not. Not that I think Nate's bullshitting. He makes very good points, and he cares about the facts. He makes such a good argument, in fact, that if we had a prediction market with real money, he'd be convincing enough to the "smart" money to keep the prices down on shares of Democrats to win control of the US House in 2014.

If there’s anything I could get people to understand about the next election, it’s this: Even a 2006 or 2010-esque tsunami might not give Democrats control of the House.

Democrats don't need a tsunami to take control of the US House.

When the Great Gerrymander of 2010 gave the GOP a wave of US House districts that John Boehner surfed into the speakers office, they had a lot of help beyond simple Gerrymandering. The natural tendency of midterms to go against the President's party, a lot of anger whipped up by the Tea Party, and a whole lot of money.

But Gerrymandering has hidden costs.

Sam Wang's analysis of recent PPP polls.

It is a common fallacy to believe that seats gained by partisan gerrymandering are safe seats. In fact, the converse is the case. Gerrymandering achieves a net gain of seats by packing the opposition party into as few districts as possible. 

[...]

Representatives who benefited from the great partisan gerrymander of 2010 were given enough of an advantage to get into office narrowly. In a district designed to give Republicans a narrow advantage, Republican loyalists are likely to be spread thinly, with the balance of the needed votes being drawn from independents. Some of these independents might be more prone to anger about the current situation. These polls suggest that Republicans in those states might be particularly ripe targets for pressure.

Apparently Cohn has complained about the accuracy of PPP generic Dem polls (which Sam Wang is using in his latest calculations) vs the eventual reality. I haven't seen those numbers, and would gladly take a look. But there are enough things happening right now to make me a buyer for Dems to win the House at about $2.00/share (meaning I'd win $8 on the bet).

• Gerrymandering's hidden weakness of needing independents to elect Republicans in narrowly won districts.
• Angry independents. Do I even have to find the polls on that? You know how to find them, it's not pretty.
• Thanks at least in part to the Great Gerrymandering, the GOP has moved way to the right.
• The tendency of these far right wingnuts to keep talking (which proves that John Roger's crazification factor is one of the greatest jokes of all time) will mean even more angry independents.
• The worse the GOP looks in the polls, the better candidates Democrats will recruit.
• The worse the GOP looks in the polls, the better Democrats do at fundraising.

For those of you who aren't following the links, this is from the last one:

Not only have the Democratic campaign committees that back House and Senate candidates outraised their GOP counterparts, but unrestricted super PACs that support Democrats have pulled in close to three times what GOP super PACs have so far.

Three times as much as the GOP in super PAC money? Maybe I'd be a buyer up to $2.50 a share, even higher if the wingnuts keep talking.

Listen to Me!

Noted medicinal marijuana convert Sanjay Gupta gets at the heart of wingnuttery in an interview with Dick Cheney, whose Manichean Paranoia keeps him from seeing the degrees of difference between doing your job, and doing it well.

Sanjay Gupta: Did you worry about your physical health impacting your judgment and your cognition?
Dick Cheney: No.
Sanjay Gupta: Not at all?
Dick Cheney: No.
Sanjay Gupta: Were you the best you could be?
Dick Cheney: You know, I was as good as I could be, you know, given the fact I was 60-some years old at that point and a heart patient.

So, yeah, I had limitations, but I'm still 10 times the neocon warmonger all the other possible VP nominees were.

Sanjay Gupta: This idea that you have this respected heart surgeon from Texas [Denton Cooley] who didn't see you, didn't examine you, and then writes something saying that you have normal cardiac function. That just wasn't true, Mr. Vice President.
Dick Cheney: Go ask Denton Cooley about that.

So, "Go fuck yourself. You can call me a liar, Denton Cooley might call me a liar. But you won't get me to call myself one."

Sanjay Gupta: But sir, you saw it.
Dick Cheney: Listen to me, I think the bottom line is: was I up to the task of being vice president? And there’s no question. I think based upon the fact that I did it for eight years that they were right.

"Listen to me..."

As Professor Harry Frankfurt tells us in On Bullshit, a bullshitter changes the rules governing their end of the conversation so claims about truth or falsity are irrelevant. It doesn't matter that Dick lied about the severity of his heart condition before becoming Vice President of the United States, what matters is his circular logic that he did the job, so he must've been fine.

The most important part here, for the purposes of Keep Talking, Wingnuts, is the "Listen to me." This is Dick threatening you. He is saying, listen to me, or I'll shock and awe you into the stone age. This is the right wing infatuation with violence personified and deferred to.

This is a now powerless Dick Cheney saying, because he can't send Navy Seals or a drone to kill you, "I'll be damned if I'm going to sit here while you try to say that the disaster that was the Bush administration is my fault because I ignored the connection between heart disease and memory loss, depression, impaired cognition, and impaired decision making abilities."

That list of the side effects of Cheney's heart condition perfectly describe the 8 disastrous years he uses as evidence that he was fit to do the job. Couldn't have said it better myself. Keep talking, Dick.

Please Proceed, Governor

Seriously. Keep talking.

For what it's worth, Gallup sucked in the Presidential...

Wherein a Wingnut Starts to Figure Out How Mad People Are But Still Can't Understand Why

This is what passes for humor in wingnut world.

I'd have never had the chance to make $250 (2021 dollars) for the Climate Science Defense Fund if I hadn't read about how often Pat Michaels is wrong. What a mark! 

Dr. Roy Spencer's post about my global warming bet with Patrick Michaels stirred up the usual BS (the real fun is always in the comments) from the fake skeptics brigade of often wrong wingnuts. Here's my reply to one of the inevitable, "you're so rude" comments wherein some other wingnut decides that the subject at hand isn't as important as pointing out how much he doesn't care for my attitude.

"Scott, I’ll take that Bet, Micheal Mann admits to charging $10,000 per speaking event. Roy what is your fee?" 

So, as "proof" that the average denier makes more than the average scientist, you want to use Mann and Spencer's fees per speech? Wow. You are a Republican. Even I'm better at math and statistics than that. 

"We are shaped by our understanding of situations and ideology." 

Right. I understand that Republicans lied us into a $6 trillion dollar war that maimed, killed, and displaced millions. I understand that Republican trickle-down, supply-side, freshwater economics led to the Little Bush Depression, the largest recession since the great depression. I understand that Republicans just voted to take food out of the mouths of hungry children. They keep voting to deny health insurance to 20 million.
And I understand that Republicans really suck at science. From evolution to geology to climate, they really want to, for the most part, suggest that humans aren't God, and therefore cannot affect the climate, or can't evolve, or whatever.  

Some of you may be atheists and just bad a science. But for the most part, you're a backwards, hateful, gay bashing, discriminatory, warmongering bunch of liars who BS about anything and everything. 

"perhaps you are the one that is at fault in your ideological beliefs." 

Yeah, you're going to have to rephrase that, because you lost me. My reasoning is as I stated above. You guys are so wrong so often that the only explanation for why anyone would still listen to you is if they're brainwashed. By religion, by an abusive parent, by a crazy uncle... I don't know, and I don't care. All I know is we REALLY need to stop listening to you guys. 

"you attempt to belittle someone else’s beliefs and show a bigoted bias that really stifles true conversation." 

Now you're catching on. This argument's been going on for decades. You guys don't listen. You don't care. You're so full of it, and yourselves, that when you see someone come back and act the same way, if maybe a little more forcefully, it's shocking to you. It's like, you giggle about Rush Limbaugh, but when someone from my side of the aisle even employs just a few of his style points, you get all pissy. Well, boo-hoo. 

But here's the thing. I don't want conversation. I'm sick of listening to you guys make the same old arguments over and over again. I want you people to put up or shut up. Of course, you probably won't do either, but, hey, a guy can dream... 

"But having you belittle the position rather than address the actual reasons for my dissent from the conclusion is counter productive and to be honest persecution closer to religious fervor than thoughtful discourse." 

I am addressing the reasons for your dissent. I just did. I have before. And I'm sick of doing it. It's not like we're disagreeing about is what color we should pick for our walls. This is what the Pentagon--an institution I assume you respect--said is one of the biggest threats to the future of America out there. I'm not a calm person. But I'm certainly not religious. I get pissed when people like you vote for people like GW Bush or Mitt Romney, because I'm deeply aware of what's at stake. I've seen your track records. I've watched your neocon oilmen wreak havoc on the world. And I'm sick of it.  

Now, do you want to bet on your silly pseudo-scientific BS, or not? 

Why don't you pray to your God about it. Maybe he'll have an answer.

You can all go see if he replies. I really hope so, because while I'm sick of hearing the same old shit, my ultimate philosophy is Keep Talking, Wingnuts.

New Mexico State Senator Bullshits about the History of Gay Marriage

Proof you don't have to know history
to get elected. Source: The Advocate

Via TPM, I see New Mexico State Sen. William Sharer is bullshitting about the history of gay marriage.

He says, for instance that Alexander the Great ordered his men to stop whoring around and marry women in the places they conquered.

Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) married a Bactrian woman – modern day Afghanistan.  Alexander may have engaged in homosexual activity, but he married a woman. 

He directed his officers to stop “whoring” around and find a local woman to marry.

Bill's not much of a sharer, or he'd provide a link for his source on this. Alexander wanted his men to marry local women in order to better control the conquered people.  And I can find no reference that Alexander, who famously had a gay lover himself, ordered his men to stop "whoring" around. I'd bet Senator Sharer just made that up.

The Greeks, along with many other ancient people, had forms of gay marriage. The Bible, which I'd bet the Senator thinks is a history book, also had some interesting forms of marriage that didn't include what he'd call a "family." But who knows? Maybe his definition of family includes multiple wives, including forcing raped women to marry their rapists, war widows to marry their conquerors, and other fun stuff that often gets left out by Christians when they speak of Biblical marriage.

The Senator did manage to get something right:

Marriage was a well established system long before any Bible totin’ Christian ever walked on this continent.

But wait! The wingnut keeps talking!

Nowhere in Native American tradition has marriage been anything but the joining of men and women. – Although some tribes did allow some leaders to have multiple wives.

From the PBS film Two Spirits.

Native Americans indeed had a system of marriage well before any white people got here. Unfortunately for this bigot, that system included Two-Spirit people. They were gay. They married people of the same sex. They held special status in their societies.

These facts are easy to find for someone who cares about such things.

This bigoted wingnut goes on to mention a whole slew of completely unrelated things, including the 10th amendment (they never mention the 9th) to justify his bullshit.

Marriage is important because it is the foundation of the family...

Got that old folks, infertile folks, folks who don't want babies? No marriage for you, says the marriage Nazi.

Sex between a man and a woman produces babies – society needs babies – babies need both moms and dads.

Just forget all the evidence that gay couples raise children who are often better adjusted than those raised by straight couples, and there is no evidence that mixed sex couples raise children any better. And just forget the fact that soon women won't even need men to get pregnant.

Not that facts matter to this guy.

Representative Steve King Proves that Immigrants Have Won the Debate

Rep Steve King using visual aids to show illegal
immigrant calf size. Credit.

I am seriously considering raising money to send Iowa Representative Steve King on a speaking tour of the Southwest and Florida. I figure if I can raise $50,000 from pro-immigration Democrats, or even a few sane Republicans, if such things exists, I could entice him into an all-expenses-paid tour of the major swing states with large, rapidly growing, and young Latino populations.

I would also set up a voting registration booth at every event, and encourage the people who just heard representative King speak to register to vote, especially in mid-term elections when we progressives seem to be too busy or lazy to get off our asses and vote.

My only rule for Representative King would be that he absolutely must keep saying shit like this:

There are kids that were brought into this country by their parents unknowing that they were breaking the law. And [immigration reform supporters] will say to me and others that we have to do something about the 11 million, and some of them were valedictorians. [...] It's true in some cases, but they aren't all valedictorians, they weren't all brought in by their parents. For every one that's a valedictorian, there's another 100 out there that they weigh 130 pounds and they've got calves the size of cantaloupes because they're hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.

Jed Lewison wonders about the cantaloupe image, but I figure it's because he's afraid some large-legged immigrant would kick him in the balls, given the chance.

Since this is Steve King who keeps talking, we know that 99% of what he says is pure crap, and the other 1% he gets right is just dumb luck. For example, it seems like the math just doesn't add up. If 100 out of every 101 undocumented immigrants had a big load of weed on his or her back, we'd see that most drug arrests at the border were of immigrants with dope on their back. The truth, of course, is something Steve King can't be bothered with: 80% of all drug arrests at the border involve a US citizen.

The center looked at an extensive set of records -- 81,261 drug seizures between 2005 and 2011 -- but the numbers don't tell the whole story. In about half of those cases, Border Patrol agents didn't catch anyone and the drugs were abandoned, according to the report, so we don't know the identity of those smugglers. But arrests were made in more than 40,000 drug seizures over that time period, and a U.S. citizen was involved 80 percent of the time.

But the best part about this is that even though he's drawn rebukes from damn near everyone, including Speaker Boehner, he's sticking up for himself. In order to stick up for himself, of course, he has to keep talking, and now he has demonstrated why I love it when wingnuts keep talking (link to Taegan Goddard, because I refuse to link to Breitbart's Ghost):

You know when people attack you--in this business, when you're in this business, you know that when people attack you, and they call you names, they're diverting from the topic matter. You know they've lost the debate when they do that. We've talked about it for years. Tom Tancredo and I joked about it that that's the pattern. When people start calling you names, that's what confirms you've won the debate.

Catch that? Yep, I tweeted at him to ask him if, since he's calling over 99% of undocumented immigrants drug mules, that means they've won the debate? No answer yet.

In Texas, a Free Lady-Parts Cleaning Out with Every Rape Kit!

Professional forced birther Jodie Laubenberg.

Professional politician and Texas state Representative Jodie Laubenberg, R-Parker (she has no other professional experience that we can find), reminded rape victims in Texas yesterday that they don't need an exception from the draconian new forced-birth law the wingnuts are set to pass down there in the former Republic. This is because in Texas every rape victim gets a free womb cleaning as part of their rape kit. This is so much more progressive than Sarah Palin's plan to force rape victims in Alaska to pay for their rape kit. You Texas ladies who probably asked to be raped anyway should feel honored that a woman who has no idea what you're going through has the compassion to provide a free cleaning with your rape kit!

The bill’s sponsor stopped answering questions about her bill after the first two hours after she got into trouble denying Democratic amendments. When Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, called for an exemption for women who were victims of rape and incest, Rep. Jody [sic] Laubenberg, R-Parker, explained why she felt it was unnecessary. 

“In the emergency room they have what’s called rape kits where a woman can get cleaned out,” she said, comparing the procedure to an abortion. “The woman had five months to make that decision, at this point we are looking at a baby that is very far along in its development.” 

The remark about rape kits, which is not accurate, sparked widespread ridicule on social media sites. Laubenberg, who has difficulty debating bills, then simply rejected all proposed changes to her bill without speaking until the end of the debate.

The GOP Guide to Rape

Forget all the other facts about women who've been raped being in denial about being pregnant as a result of the rape. Forget about the women who don't report the rape for many reasons, who might decide they don't want to have the rapist's baby. Forget all the psychological trauma that a rape victim must deal with after being the victim of a violent crime. None of that matters to Jodie Laudenberg, because she's got God on her side, and she's here to tell you lazy rape victims who didn't get your free uterus cleaning with your rape kit that you ain't gunna be gettin no abortion in her state.

This is, of course, because Jodie Laubenberg is a Bullshitter (further evidenced by the fact that she is the Texas State Chair of ALEC). She doesn't care about facts. She only wants to convey a certain impression to the voters who sent her to represent them in the mob of wingnuts they call a government down there. And that impression is that she is tough on women who, like workers, like poor people, like hungry children, like innocent people in prison or death row, all need to buck up, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, and do what she says is best for the other people of Texas. If that means strapping you down and forcing you to give birth to your rapist's baby, so be it. If it means a few innocent people have to die on Texas's death row, ah, well, such is the price of justice in the Lone Star state.

Jodie wants to seem tough, in the name of God, to save the babies that she's not going to give a shit about once they're born. After all, if you rape victims don't give birth, they'll be a lot less kids in Texas for her to force to go hungry. Without the contribution of forced birth rape babies to the state, they'll be less people to deny health care to, to take all the minimum wage jobs they have trouble filling down there, and won't someone think of the prisons who need a steady supply of residents to keep all those law abiding, non-abortion having citizens working at keeping you abortion seeking sluts and other assorted Dirty Fucking Hippies in prison. And since executing people is the state pastime in TX, Jodie Laubenberg (contact information here) is just doing God's will to make sure there will be a large supply of unwanted children who will grow up and commit crimes, providing a steady stream of work for the forced birth industry, as well as the Texas legal system and execution machinery.

Bobby Jindal Can't Argue With the Actual Left, So He Makes Shit Up

Governor Bobby "Derpity Derp" Jindal

When you back a wild animal into a corner, it will sometimes snarl and flail pitifully. Fear overcomes it, and decision making gets compromised by the fight or flight instinct. Some animals, much better at running than fighting, wind up fighting in silly and stupid ways.

Such has been the case of late with the Republican Party. It's not the brightest animal to begin with, and it doesn't fight well (they tend to lie and cheat while committing a whole host of logical fallacies). Arguing with straw men is one of their favorites, but hey, at least it keeps them from talking stupidly about rape babies.

Now that Keep Talking, Wingnuts! has finished with High School Baseball, with the last of our liberal commie horde about to graduate high school, we figured it's time to jump back into the fight by going for one of the "leaders" of the cornered, slobbering, confused, tired, and dying animals that comprise the modern GOP: Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.

Because the left wants: The government to explode; to pay everyone; to hire everyone; they believe that money grows on trees; the earth is flat; the industrial age, factory-style government is a cool new thing; debts don’t have to be repaid; people of faith are ignorant and uneducated; unborn babies don’t matter; pornography is fine; traditional marriage is discriminatory; 32 oz. sodas are evil; red meat should be rationed; rich people are evil unless they are from Hollywood or are liberal Democrats; the Israelis are unreasonable; trans-fat must be stopped; kids trapped in failing schools should be patient; wild weather is a new thing; moral standards are passé; government run health care is high quality; the IRS should violate our constitutional rights; reporters should be spied on; Benghazi was handled well; the Second Amendment is outdated; and the First one has some problems too.

The source of America's long-term debt.

That's quite a gish-galloping straw man for an old Progressive to handle, especially coming from the Governor who wants the GOP to stop being the stupid party, but let me give it a go... I love efficient government that stays out of wars, wants to prevent Wall Street from crashing the world economy again, and wants to stop big government handouts to corporations like Big Oil, Big Pharma, and the military/security/government complex. This grass-fed red meat lover (who understands that the earth is round and warming, because I believe scientists), can't stand factory farms or factory government, and realizes that our debts should and could easily be repaid if we weren't getting bilked by the medical industrial complex that charges us twice as much per person for health care as the rest of the civilized world pays. I also realize that borrowing cheap right now to invest in infrastructure would more than pay for itself, put people to work, make us more competitive and productive, and raise revenues and reduce debt through growth--something Republicans used to understand before they got infected with Obama Derangement Syndrome.

This old leftie knows many intelligent people of faith who believe in global warming, evolution, and vote for Democrats. I know that a glob of cells in a womb is not a baby (and, no Rep. Michael Burgess, the fetus is not masturbating, but please keep talking). I know that forcing women to give birth to rape babies is violent, immoral, and would be the epitome of big, intrusive government. I support straight and gay marriage and don't think either is discriminatory. I think it's interesting that apparently Jindal thinks pornography is not fine, but then thinks it's the left that has a problem with the first amendment (way to stop being stupid, Governor). I think banning large sodas is stupid, we should just tax them so taxpayers aren't left with soda companies cost shifting the negative externalities onto the rest of us (same goes for carbon). I think there are rich people everywhere who greedily look out for themselves at great cost to the rest of us, and there are rich people everywhere who are kind and generous who would have no trouble paying a slightly higher tax rate.

Weather is getting wilder.

I think the right wing of Israeli politics is unreasonable, and I hope the left there does better in the future. I do think trans-fats are bad, again, because I believe what the scientists tell me about it. I think kids in failing schools should be helped, mostly by paying teachers more (like cops, firefighters, nurses, soldiers, et al, I don't like the fact that we call them heroes, but pay them like chumps--you get what you pay for). I think wild weather has always been around, but again, I believe the scientists who are telling me that global warming is like steroids to the weather, making it even more wild more often than it would have been if we didn't allow oil and coal companies to cost shift the negative externalities of carbon onto the rest of us.

I think moral standards are extremely important. That's why I was physically assaulted multiple times by members of Jindal's Morality Party for opposing the Iraq war. It's why I wish we'd have put some bankers in jail for their fraud that fed the housing bubble. It's why I think the death penalty should be abolished, military spending should be cut, and quality health care should be a right, delivered efficiently and less expensively, via Medicare-for-all (there is not profit in health, only in treating sickness).

The Founder of the Unitary Executive Branch

I think the IRS should look into groups that want to be tax exempt. All of them. And any group that is mostly taking sides in the political world should have to pay taxes, and making them pay taxes is not unconstitutional. I think when reporters leak national security security secrets, the government has a right to, and should, investigate them. I also think the executive branch needs a huge power check, something Republicans didn't give a damn about when GW Bush was expanding the executive, and Dick "Deficits Don't Matter" Cheney was calling it "unitary."

Benghazi was a tragedy, just like the many attacks on our embassies during the Bush administration (and others), and that the only thing about Benghazi that wasn't handled well was the Republican response to it (or, more accurately, lies about it--but please continue, Governor).

I think the second amendment is fine, provided you read and follow the whole thing, especially the "well regulated militia" part.

But the best part of Jindal's little bed-wetting tirade is this:

Their philosophy does not work and it got our nation into the mess it’s in.

Trickle-up Economics. Big verison.

This little fucker has some mighty big balls, I'll give him that. The philosophy that got us into this mess is the same one that has been robbing the working man of his productivity gains ever since Ronnie Reagan and The Trickle Down-o-nauts had their number one hit back in 1981: "We'll be stealing your productivity now."

This philosophy of deregulation, putting foxes in charge of hen houses, spending trillions more than we need on the Pentagon, lying us into a $6 trillion war that maimed and killed millions, rigging markets to redistribute wealth and income upward, not raising the minimum wage, subsidizing big oil, big pharma, big coal, big agriculture, causing huge deficits through tax cuts to the rich that don't create jobs, not investing in infrastructure, relying on Reagan's EMTALA law that requires ERs to treat those who can't pay for health care (ironically, the most expensive socialized medicine possible) and generally screwing the working people of this country for 3 decades is what got us into the mess we're in. It's Bobby Jindal's I-got-mine-fuck-you philosophy that's gotten us into this mess, and the only reason we're not getting out of it faster is because this moderate president hasn't been progressive enough, or willing enough to, as Jindal suggests Republicans should do, "...go kick the other guys around."

Kicking wingnuts around is my favorite hobby. So, Governor Jindal, I'm sure your staff can find me. Come on up and we'll sit out in the garden and drink a beer (my treat, even though I'm worth a fraction of what you are) while I kick your sorry ass all up and down the political spectrum, especially when I get to the part that I can have better "conservative" outcomes through my Progressive philosophy than your heroes who lied us into war, stagnated middle class wages, and crashed the world economy could ever have.

When You Start Talking About Armed Rebellion You Need to Explain Who You're Going to Kill

Ignatius Piazza, via Playboy
 

An old friend, who worries that the armed and dangerous wingnuts are getting restless, forwarded this email with no comment. I can only take that to mean that he wanted me to post it here.

Former chiropractor Dr. Ignatius "Naish" Piazza, whose love for guns runs so deep one wonders if he's ever had sex with one, is perhaps most famous for his ongoing attempt to build a "Sun City for gun owners," called the Village of Front Site, named after his firearms training institute currently operating on the site near Pahrump, NV (shoot a submachine gun, then play some slots!).

Ignatius, who has apparently dabbled enough in Scientology to get "clear," has nonetheless sued at least two people who connected him to the cult. While he claims to be a Catholic, he admits to having attended Scientology "services" and that he has ""attended business management courses using the business management tools of L. Ron Hubbard."

I'm sure the new Pope would be fine with business courses run by a cult, as long as those courses teach you that being associated with a cult might be bad for business.

"Village" of Front Site, NV, via Handvapen Guiden

In the email my friend forwarded, Dr. Piazza noted that yesterday was the 238th anniversary of the American Revolution, and it seems he's itching for a new one. You can guess who the British are in this scenario.

Over the last 283 years, as the government we created “For the People and By the People” has grown into a massive, self-serving, liberty-stealing machine. I wonder what the government will do to trigger the NEXT shot heard round the world. 

Think it can't happen again? 

It will happen again.

Odd that I can't find any record of Dr. Ignatius being angry when GW Bush and Dick Cheney ignored warnings about 9-11 (which Dr. Ignatius did get upset about) and then used that tragedy to lie us into a $6 trillion war while torturing, assassinating, renditioning, indefinitely detaining, warrantlessly spying, and all the other "liberty stealing" things the Bush Junta got away with. Seems Dr. Piazza was just fine with those things, because apparently the only part of the constitution he cares about is the well regulated militias.

Ignatius, his arms wide, via another of his sites.

No, this wingnut is pissed about NY State's law that tries to keep guns out of the hands of people with psychological problems that professionals think might lead them to harm themselves or others (judging by Mr. Piazza's history of tightrope walking on the edge of reality, I can understand his worry). He embeds a Fox News video of the story of one man in NY about whom the government might have made a mistake.

One case of government in NY overreaching in their attempt to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill constitutes a federal government that "has grown into a massive, self-serving, liberty-stealing machine"? Really?

Apparently, this one case has such far reaching implications for Piazza that he's willing to start a war over it.

When 10% of the American population (31 million armed and trained Americans) collectively think that they have had enough and are willing to unite to remind our government officials that THEY SERVE US, not the other way around, we will once again enjoy the freedom our forefathers bled and died to win for us.

Unless you're black, of course, because the "forefathers" (except for John Jay) didn't give a damn about your freedom. In fact, his threat to the 90% of us who think keeping guns out of the hands of psychos is a good idea seems reminiscent of another armed rebellion against the duly elected Federal Government, where his armed compound amidst Pahrump's sand and tumbleweed is the new Fort Sumter.


White population of the US south in 1860: 5,447,220. Total US population 1860: 31,443,321.

White southerners were 17.32% of the US population, and they managed to start a Civil War. If these fuckers think they can do it with 10%, I say bring it. Watch how fast we kick your traitorous asses this time.

What Happens When Wingnuts Keep Talking

This 23 percenter is on the House Intelligence Committee!

Just wanted to quickly note that the more the wingnuts talk, the more people hear them, and the more people hear them, the less people think they're "in touch." In fact, it's gotten so bad that I'm worried people might stop listening to them, which is why I started this blog.

The really great thing about this self-reinforcing cycle of wingnut demise is that it has distilled the crazy down to the number that keeps popping up: 23%:

Q: Do you think the Republican Party is in touch with the concerns of most people in the United States today, or is it out of touch?

In touch: 23%   Out of touch: 70%

George W Bush's final approval rating when he left office was 22%. 23% of Americans are functionally illiterate. A 1999 Gallup poll reported that 23% of Americans heard a voice or seen a vision in response to prayer. In 2009, 23% of Americans thought Barack Obama was born outside the US. And, perhaps most miraculously, 23% of Americans (40% of white southerners) would side with the confederacy if the Civil War broke out today.

Given how often it shows up, it seems fair to say that 23% of Americans are batshit crazy. and yet they seem to control a much larger percentage of the leaders in our "democracy." Since I don't see much chance of changing the gerrymandered congressional districts, or the hypo-democratic US Senate, I guess we're just going to have to keep the wingnuts talking in order to convince a few more of the crazies to give up on the GOP.

George W Bush Is Worried about His Hamstrings

Reuters Image via The Telegraph

There is no wingnut on the face of the earth that we want to keep talking more than GW Bush, who's George W. Bush Presidential Center, Steve Benen notes, opens on May 1st, 10 years to the day after the "Mission Accomplished" moment. May the first is also May Day, which has pagan roots, but in this context is best remembered as International Workers Day, this year in honor of the millions of workers who lost their jobs in the Little Bush Depression. Irony abounds.

In 1958, Eisenhower, worried about the communist influence of May Day, decided to make May 1st "Law Day, U.S.A." It's the day we contemplate the importance of law in our society. You know, laws like anti-fraud statutes that the Bush administration ignored while letting Wall Street stamp crap paper AAA so they could sell it to their unsuspecting customers (your retirement fund) while they shorted it. Like laws against torture, war crimes, lying to congress, and other fun conventions that Ike thought were important.

"Laws are silent in times of war."--Cicero

All those pesky laws were "just a spring clean for the May queen" George Bush, who, to be fair, was simply following the if-the-President-does-it-it's-not-illegal Nixonian logic that's been screwing us for decades. In Bush's case, it led to justifications for hypothetical child testicle crushing. Talk about compassionate conservatism.

Reuters image via the WSJ

But we're here to let Bush do the talking, which he did in length to the Dallas Morning News.

"People ask me, ‘What about the economy?'" Bush said. "My answer is, 'Why don’t you go hire an economist? Or hire five economists and get 15 different opinions?'"

W with the defensive misdirect!

Bush's monthly job creation average in non-recession months was 68,000. When Obama's monthly total dropped to 80 some-odd thousand, the right wing went nuts.

That was the commie Ezra Klein being nice to the former President. Let's see what the nice folks at the conservative Wall Street Journal had to say about the George W Bush Memorial Crater Economy:

The current President Bush, once taking account how long he’s been in office, shows the worst track record for job creation since the government began keeping records.

Seems liberals and conservatives agree. We could ask 13 more economists about the Bush economy, which ended in the biggest recession since the Great Depression (bigger than the previous four recessions combined) and we'd get the same answer. Bush's final GDP, in 4Q2008, was negative 9%. We were shedding jobs at about 800,000 per month when Obama took over. No economist worth his weight in bullshit would try to make that disaster look good.

"My only point," Bush said, "is that when there’s an objective analysis of our fiscal record, people will say, 'Well, that’s different than I thought.'"

AP image via Maddow Blog

I hope that's not his only point, but even wingnut economists tend to frown on negative 9% GDP.

The great thing about the quote "Or hire five economists and get 15 different opinions?" is that it tells us that GW Bush is either bullshtiting, or he thinks economists all give three answers to every question. If that's the kind of economists he was listening to (Glenn Hubbard, et al) then that certainly explains the Little Bush Depression.

The quote is classic Bush, blaming the fact that Bushonomics didn't work on his economists, who apparently could never give him a good marketing strategy for explaining their systematic looting of trillions of dollars.

Wearing a light blue, open-collar shirt, Bush, 66, said repeatedly that he’s "comfortable" with both life and legacy. Among his most pressing concerns was whether his hamstrings were ready for a mountain bike ride later that day.

Bush "repeatedly" saying that he's comfortable is a tell that he's not comfortable, but he wants us to think he is. He wants us to think that his contemplative self portrait from the shower isn't guilty self reflection. He wants us to think that painting his feet in the bathtub isn't some kind of sign that he feels guilty for all the Iraq war veterans who lost their feet. His eagerness to assure us of his comfort is oddly reminiscent of how the God of the Bible seems really concerned that we might not believe in him.

I like to think that any human who lied his country into a $6 trillion dollar war that maimed and killed millions would have more pressing concerns than hamstrings. Either GW is bullshtiting us, or he really does worry about the persistent violence in Iraq. Maybe he does feel guilty about the millions of people whose lives were ruined by the war.

Or maybe he's just a sociopath.

"Much of my presidency was defined by things that you didn't necessarily want to have happen," he said.

I think I actually missed the guy.

He didn't necessarily want 9-11 to happen, but he didn't do much to stop it. In fact, he didn't listen to the people who were trying to warn him it would happen, having famously said to the CIA operative who gave him the daily briefing, on Aug 6, that Bin Laden was determined to strike inside the US: "You've covered your ass, now." He didn't necessarily want 9-11 to happen, but since the PNAC was saying we'd need a "new Pearl Harbor" to get involved in the middle east the way the neo-cons really wanted to, well, it was convenient.

GW Bush being greeted as a liberator, image via The Telegraph

And he didn't necessarily want a housing bubble that would ruin the world economy, but it's not like he did anything to stop it. He didn't necessarily want to ignore Afghanistan for most of a decade, or let Bin Laden get away from Tora Bora, or waste trillions rebuilding Iraq and making his war contractor friends rich, but, you know, he's comfortable with it.

He likewise reiterated his support for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, saying that he’s "confident the decisions were made the right way."

That's Bushian code for "we did exactly what we wanted to do and you guys can all suck it if you don''t like it."

"I’m comfortable with what I did," he said. "I’m comfortable with who I am."

I'm comfortable with letting him talk. After all, there's no better advertisement for voting for Democrats than this war mongering, veteran ignoring, economy destroying, upward redistributing hamstrung wingnut who, thank goodness, will probably keep talking until the day he dies, which, with any luck, will be a long time from now.

That's right, you just heard me wish GW Bush a long life. After all, if he died young, he wouldn't get to worry about his hamstrings, which must be torture.

Hate Group President Tony Perkins Wants Republicans to Stop Giving to the GOP and Give to Him Because He Really Hates The Gays

Hate Group Leader Tony Perkins, photo from CNN.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, whose past ties to white supremacists he still claims he knew nothing about, is not so evasively ashamed of his very public position that gay people are subhuman. In fact, he's so pissed the GOP isn't openly hating on the people who decided the 2012 Presidential election that he wants his fellow gay hating wingnuts to stop giving money to the GOP, and give it to him instead, so he can do their money justice by hating on people enough to get rated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

From The Hill:

Tony Perkins, in an email sent to his supporters, criticized the Republican National Committee over a report released last month that suggested the party should reconsider its messaging on same-sex marriage to appeal to younger voters.

"Until the RNC and the other national Republican organizations grow a backbone and start defending core principles, don’t send them a dime of your hard-earned money," Perkins said in the email, a copy of which was obtained by CNN.

"If you want to invest in the political process, and I encourage you to do so, give directly to candidates who reflect your values and organizations you trust — like FRC Action."

I'm tempted to send Perkins money just to encourage him to keep talking. Even the suggestion by Reince Priebus that maybe the GOP should keep on hating, but just not be so vocal and mean about it, is enough to set Perkins off into an intraparty equivalent of firing on Fort Sumter.

The uneasy alliance between Wall Street Whores and the Racist Christian Right, which has powered the GOP for decades, has never been more strained. The Wall Streeters have managed to rip off neo-confederate working class voters for decades without any populist retribution (they even managed to corporatize the supposedly populist tea party). But when the GOP, in its zeal to keep winning elections, realizes gay voters actually won the election for Obama, and that maybe they're going to have to be a little more accepting (eg, telling gay people they don't hate them, just their filthy lifestyles), that's a gay version of the Edmund Pettus Bridge too far.

Luckily, Tony's little hissy fit goes well beyond money. Yes, when Tony fires on Fort Sumter, he uses all his barrels, and he enlists his friends to fire too!

Thirteen social conservatives, representing various influential groups, wrote Priebus ahead of the RNC's quarterly meeting this week in Los Angeles to sternly rebuke the conclusions of a post-election report that advised Republican elected officials to adopt a softer tone toward social issues. 

"We respectfully warn GOP Leadership that an abandonment of its principles will necessarily result in the abandonment of our constituents to their support," concludes the letter, which was obtained by and independently verified by NBC News in advance of the meeting this week.

Tony Perkins appears before the Council of Conservative Citizens
Photo via Box Turtle Bulletin.

The election conscious members of the GOP still want to support their core principles of hating on people, they just want to be quiet and nicer about it. This, of course, isn't good enough for Tony. Unless you're out in front of the hate group with Tony, equating gay people with pedophiles, you're not supporting the GOP principles.

Since the GOP cannot afford to lose their hate group base, they're stuck with the very real possibility of a Huckabee or Santorum surge in the 2016 primaries [KTW will be betting on Huck if we get a new incarnation of Intrade in time] that will chase the Wall Street Whores out of the party* possibly for good, because even the most powerful Wall Streeters might not be able to control the kind of hate that these people could bring to the White House. And if there's one thing Wall Street hates, it's lack of control.


* Don't worry, money grubbers, there are plenty of Democrats willing to work The Street with you, which is why KTW supports the Daily Kos Motto "More and Better Democrats."

Rand Paul Bullshits Howard University Audience that Understands the History of US Civil Rights Much Better than He Does

Rand Paul Bullshitting at Howard U.
Image via Opposing Views.

Yesterday, the Great Steve Benen had the obligatory take down of Rand Paul, who gets my vote as Best New GOP Bullshitter.

The Republican senator told his Howard audience, "I've never wavered in my support for civil rights or the Civil Rights Act." He added, "I've never been against the Civil Rights Act, ever."

Steve says it's a lie, and he has the video to prove it. But to be more accurate, Paul doesn't care what's true or not. He's merely trying to convey a certain impression to whomever he's speaking at the time. In this case, at a traditionally black University, Paul doesn't want his audience to think that he ever thought that the Civil Rights Act should not have been passed. So, he just bullshits about it--says whatever he thinks makes him look best in that situation. Steve has the actual facts:

As a candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2010, Paul told the Louisville Courier-Journal he opposed the Civil Rights Act's ban on discrimination on the basis of race in "places of public accommodation" such as privately owned businesses that are open to the public. He said the same thing on NPR. 

When Paul appeared on "The Rachel Maddow Show," Rachel asked, as part of a discussion of the Civil Rights Act, "Do you think that a private business has the right to say we don't serve black people?" Paul replied, "Yes." 

It was consistent with his approach to federal civil rights law dating back to at least 2002. 

Now, in fairness, I should note that Paul, as a candidate in 2010, eventually reversed course and said the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was necessary and he would have voted for it. 

But notice again what he said at Howard: he's "never wavered" in his support for the Civil Rights Act and he's "never been against the Civil Rights Act, ever."

Rand Paul on the Rachel Maddow Show

Since what he said up until 2010 was anti-Civil Rights Act, I think he's bullshitting when he says he would have voted for it. But who knows? Maybe he really did change his mind. That's one of the biggest problems with being a bullshitter. No one can ever be sure what you really think.

Today Steve gets into the meat of Paul diving into one of my favorite wingnut latrine holes: that the Democrats are the racists. Like most Republicans who bring this up, Paul wants to stop history in 1964, when LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act that Paul opposed until it was inconvenient to do so. As anyone who wants to read about it knows, LBJ famously said that the Democrats would lose the south for a long time because of that. He was right. The racists in the Democratic party, known as the Dixiecrats, switched parties to vote for the slingers of a new style of Bullshit--The Southern Strategy.

Here's Steve summing it up nicely, because I've done it here before, and I'm sick of doing it:

The Democratic Party, in the first half of the 20th century, was home to two broad, competing constituencies -- southern whites with abhorrent views on race, and white progressives and African Americans in the north, who sought to advance the cause of civil rights. The party struggled with this conflict for years, before ultimately siding with an inclusive, liberal agenda. 

As the party shifted, the Democratic mainstream embraced its new role. Republicans, meanwhile, also changed. In the wake of Democratic President Lyndon Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act, the Republican Party welcomed the white supremacists who no longer felt comfortable in the Democratic Party. Indeed, in 1964, Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater boasted of his opposition to the Civil Rights Act, and made it part of his platform. 

It was right around this time when figures like Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond made the transition -- leaving the progressive, diverse, tolerant Democratic Party for the GOP. 

In the years that followed, Democrats embraced their role as the party of inclusion and civil rights. Republicans, meanwhile, became the party of the "Southern Strategy," opposition to affirmative action, campaigns based on race-baiting, vote-caging, discriminatory voter-ID laws, and politicians like Helms and Thurmond. (A Republican congressman from Texas named Ron Paul also criticized Abraham Lincoln for waging the Civil War, while also opposing the Civil Rights Act.)

Ronald Reagan campaigning in Philadelphia MS.
Image credit.

Who knows if Rand Paul knows all this or not? Maybe he was stoned during his 20th Century American History Class. Maybe he didn't have to study history to become a self-accredited opthamologist. Maybe someone from Kentucky can get elected to the US Senate without knowing the history of the Civil Rights movement. But one sure as hell can't bullshit a Howard University audience on the subject, and the fact that he would even try tells me that he really doesn't give a damn about the truth, or black people, or anything else, really, except saying whatever he needs to say in order to become President.

And with that fact in mind, I'm really happy that this bullshitting wingnut apparently doesn't know how to shut up.

Rick Wiles Warns Obama about a Potential Infestation of Biblical (not just Ayn Randian) Parasites

Rick Wiles, Grifter

Right Wing Watch catches all the wingnut chatter that matters, like End Times Radio Grifter Rick Wiles' prolonged chat with Marvin Rosenthal of Zion’s Voice Ministry, who thinks President Obama is an unqualified, demon infested, Nimrod-like madman soon to be infested with parasites like King Herod.

First things first. Rosenthal has a problem with the qualifications of the Harvard educated constitutional lawyer, first black President of the Harvard Law review, Illinois State and US Senator who worked his way up to becoming the first black President of the US.

Wiles: Do you think that the current president, Mr. Barack Obama, is a pro-Islamic president? 

Rosenthal: Unfortunately I do. I guess I would take it farther than that. I am convinced from his childhood, where he was born, the family he was raised in, the mentors that he has had all the way on from childhood to the present have been preparing him for this day. If you want to talk about a man who was totally unqualified to become President of the United States, it is our present president. He had no credentials. It’s almost like having a guy perform heart surgery who never fixed a Band-Aid to a finger. He had no qualifications to be president and then to be re-elected.

I can't find a single case of Mr. Rosenthal suggesting that Sarah Palin had qualification problems, so I guess he figures her Witch Doctor could take care of any problems that arose from her inexperience. Rosenthal gets a bonus for sneaking in the little known probability that anyone born in Hawaii is automatically pro-Islam and unqualified to be President. But maybe he means Kenya.

Next, Mr. Rosenthal thinks the One World Government is possibly right around the corner (who knows, you'd better send him money so he can fight against it anyway!)...

I will tell you without fear of being found wrong, he is clearly under spiritual influence, not in the demise of this country but to diminish this country because he is pushing toward a one world government and a one world religion, which is exactly what Nimrod was doing back in the early chapters of Genesis. To establish a one world government and a one world religion he has to bring America down or we would never cooperate in a one world government, that is what his agenda really is and he’s moving it rapidly.

Nimrod! It's not every day you get to hear the name of that great grandson of an arc builder! Note the careful wording with "not in the demise of this country." Right. Obama is going to force a one world government and single religion (Satanism? Islam? Mormonism?) on us all, but that will only diminish us, not lead to our demise... Of course, Rosenthal can tell us this "without fear of being found wrong" because he can simply define "demise" as something as simple as, well, Obama probably thought about a One World Government once, and having a President who even thought such a thing for a split second demises our country. A little. Kinda.

Marvin Rosenthal, nut job

Way to go out on a limb with your prediction, there, Marvin. Guess I won't see you betting against me at the next incarnation of the Intrade prediction markets.

Wiles: I think he’s demon-possessed. 

Rosenthal: I would not find fault with that. I said he’s being influenced, under the control of—so if you say demon-possession I’m not saying I disagree.

Rosenthal's not saying he agrees Obama is possessed by demons, but he's not saying he disagrees. Maybe he thinks it's just Obama's clothes that are possessed.

Of course, this Nimrod keeps talking, but Rick Wiles manages to get his two cents in (it is his show, after all):

Wiles: He’s very frightening to me. I see him potentially as potentially the next in line after the long line of madmen from Stalin to Hitler, Mao Zedong; I think that is in him, that capacity to become a madman. He’s being restrained, I don’t know if he’ll ever be totally cut loose to do what is in his heart but I really believe he has the potential to be a madman who could bring great havoc in the world if he is allowed to carry out everything that he wants to do.

No, Godwin's Law has not been invoked, technically, because Obama is only double "potentially" (talk about hedging your bets!) a Hitler, Stalin, or Mao. Obama's inner madman is being restrained, which allows Wiles a convenient "out" to explain, 4 years from now, why Obama didn't become the totally horrible thing that he had the potential potential to be. I'm sure if you asked Mr. Wiles (who thinks God guided the hand of the make up artists on the History Channel's The Bible to reveal that Obama is really Satan) who was restraining History's Greatest Potential Monster, he'd tell you it's the Tea Party House of Representatives who God put there as a check on that pesky Satan.

The Wiles-Rosenthal bull session finally gets around to a full proof of Godwin's Law, which starts, as Godwin Law breakers almost always do, by making it clear that they are not saying Obama is Hitler, but...

Rosenthal: While I’m not saying, I want to make sure I’m clear, that he’s another Hitler, one of the things I would say is Adolf Hitler had the capacity to speak to multitudes of people and almost mesmerize them. I am seeing the same ability with our present president, he speaks to large portions of America and sometimes quite frankly I think when God was giving our brains some of them will say they thought it was trains and said I don’t want any because he mesmerizes great multitudes of America.

It’s almost to me, because he’s not that profound, he is not in my opinion that great a communicator although many people think it is, I think there is some kind of spiritual capability that is involved when he speaks to the multitudes and they listen spellbound. What amazes me is men from Harvard and Yale and Princeton, some of the leaders in the secular news media who are brilliant men and I know they are liberal and leftists but he goes way beyond that and they’re enamored by this guy, it’s almost like there are blindfolds over they eyes as to where he’s leading us, far beyond what most of them would like. 

Wiles: And they openly deify him. 

Rosenthal: Yes they do. It’s amazing and I think it is Satanic. 

Wiles: I do too. Mr. Obama never rebukes them for it. I’ve tried to warn him, Mr. Obama, letting your people deify you is going to get you in a lot of trouble. The last person that did that in the Bible got filled up with worms when he would not stop the people from deifying him. I think the guy is headed for a bad infestation of parasites.

Satan, image via The Political Cat

I'm not sure what the equivalent of Godwin's law is for the inevitable comparison to Satan (Church Lady's Law?), but these two manage to get there as fast as AM radio waves can bounce off the ionosphere. I could find no such terrible haste to label Dick "Deficits Don't Matter" Cheney, who's responsible for the $6 trillion Iraq war that killed and maimed millions, Satanic. But, you know, I'm such a nit picker.

The really interesting thing here is that this argument could be used to justify another nimrod dumbass President who's speaking abilities are a little less Reaganesque, and a lot more GW Bushian. So far, though, I can find no evidence that they support Palin for President. Maybe if they keep talking they'll convince Mike Huckabee to take on the Devil and his Golden Fiddle.

All Men Are Created Equal, Endowed by Their Creator--Stop Right There! I Gotta Know Right Now.

Ken Cuccinelli, Roanoke Free Press

TPMDC has the story of a Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli speech in 2009 where he was all up in that Natural Law.

“We are a natural law country and we have the greatest foundation in the history of the world. And the one sentence you all know, ‘we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator’ — and I’m gonna stop right there. That sentence, Dr. Martin Luther King called that our national creed. I think that is a great title for that sentence. It is the foundation in my view, it’s the vision statement for America. And the foundation of that foundation is endowed by their Creator. And if we disconnect from that, we don’t have a rational basis to defend the foundation that we’ve got.”

Cuccinelli is a smart guy. He got a  J.D. George Mason Law, and an M.A. in International Commerce and Policy from George Mason. I'm pretty sure he's had a few American History courses, and he probably did well. So when he talks about "all men created equal" and puts MLK in there, he knows damn well he's overlooking the fact that when those old, white, Deist slave owners* wrote that constitution, Martin Luther King would not  have been considered "equal."

So, right off the bat, he knows that our definition of natural law changes. Being a Virginia Republican, Cuccinelli is trapped hunting for votes from some pretty serious neo-confederates. But Virginia's a pretty purple state. So if he wants to be Governor, he's got to throw some double BS out there, where he makes himself not seem like a racist because he mentions MLK, but he hits that dog whistle for the good old boys, that whole "those other people aren't equal" thing. Just replace black people with gay people.

Gotta be hatin' on somebody.

Remember, Lee Atwater, one of the best southern strategists, noted that you had to speak in code. You had to get all abstract, because just coming right out and saying "nigger" like you could back in the day would backfire on you.

So, to get all abstract with this "natural law" thing, he conflates the Declaration of Independence with the Constitution. The Constitution has no mention of God. The constitutional concept of natural law comes mainly from the ninth amendment which suggests we naturally have more rights than any constitution could ever list. No doubt he was awake at George Mason. He would have learned this basic fact.

The anti-federalists, ironically, were the ones who wanted the Bill of Rights, as a way to limit federal power. And the very first amendment that those old, white, Deist slave owners wrote says that Ken Cuccinelli needs to rethink this whole idea of forcing what you think is "natural law" on the rest of us.

* To be fair, Michele Bachmann (still waiting for a really good quote, Congresswoman) was right, John Jay, a founding father, did fight tirelessly against slavery, so they weren't all slave owners.