Rally to Restore Sanity

As a response to all the rightwing violence and nastiness that has defined this election cycle, and to show that not everyone in America is as extreme and angry as the 80,000 Teabaggers who attended the recent Glen Beck Fox rally, The Daily Show's Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert from Comedy Central held their own "Rally to Restore Sanity" yesterday. Official estimates from the Parks Department, and estimates from Canada's CTV, and CBS News state that 250,000 were in attendance to help "take it down a notch, America."

People who are fed up with the bigotry, racism and mob-violence mentality came from all over the country to support the non-political rally that was mostly musical and comedic in nature, with a serious plea for sanity from Jon at the rally's end.

Some of the more amusing signs (taken from the Huffington Post):

Violent Dangerous Teabaggers -- Again

They claim they're not racist, but for 2 years we've seen hundreds of their disgusting, racist signs at rallies all over the country.

They claim they're not violent, but we've seen

• rented goons assaulting and illegally detaining a reporter at a Joe Miller (Republican Teabagger Candidate) rally in Alaska
• Carl Palladino (Republican Teabagger Candidate) threatening to "take out" a NY Post reporter
• Sharron Angle (Republican Teabagger Candidate) claiming we need "Second Amendment remedies" -- bullets -- to use on duly-elected members of Congress
• Rand Paul's (Republican Teabagger Candidate) campaign workers gang up on a young woman with the "wrong" opinion, wrestle her to the ground and stomp on her shoulders and head -- video above
  
• Half-term governor Sarah Palin (Republican Teabagger Candidate) circulating maps with gun sites over Democratically controlled districts
  

Republican Party Taken Over By Fringe Extremists

Republican Teabaggers.

You have to hate the president, be middle aged, angry, white, insecure, turn your back on science, have a disdain for education, and have a deep-seated hostility toward Hispanics, women, gays and blacks to be a so-called American by this fringe rightwing group.

Look at their leaders..

• Sharron Angle, who looks to "Second Amendment remedies" (shooting) Congressmen who Teabaggers disagree with
• Ron Paul's crazy son "Rand" who is against Civil Rights Legislation
• Mr Morality, Carl Paladino, a homophobe who claims gays are "disgusting" while he raises 2 sets of kids with his wife and mistress, sends out racist emails, and threatens the life of a NY Post reporter with cameras rolling
• Christine O'Donnell, who was a witch, thinks there are mice-people running around, wonders why monkeys don't turn into humans right before our eyes, has weird sexual hangups, and believes she has secret information on China's plan to take over America
  
• Rich Iott, who likes to dress up like a NAZI
• They all want to CHANGE the First Amendment to preclude a legal Muslim cultural center from being built 2 blocks away from Ground Zero
  
• They want to CHANGE the 14 Amendment to exclude Mexican babies from being US citizens when born here like everybody else
• the whole bunch of them oppose a woman's right to an abortion even in the case of incest and rape

THESE ARE THE CRAZY PEOPLE.

They have taken over the Republican party. They may seem funny, but if they regain the majority in Congress, they will undo all the progress made since they were kicked out. That means Health Care Reforms disappear, and insurance companies will once again be able to drop anyone who gets sick or refuse to cover anyone with pre-existing conditions. It means deregulation of the financial industry which caused the economic meltdown in the first place. And it means a return to all the UNCONSTITUTIONAL antics of the previous administration, like

• illegally spying on US citizens without a warrant
• illegally waging war against a country that never attacked us
• illegally outing a CIA officer during wartime
• lowering the USA to the level of Iran with illegal torture
  

Send a link to this blog post to everyone you think might even be considering voting for a Regressive Republican on Nov 2.

Economy Slow, But Moving in Right Direction

The fact is we lost 95,000 jobs last month. But they were government jobs -- temporary census workers, cuts at the state and local level, etc. This should make rightwingers do cartwheels! Smaller government! Less money from taxpayers. Fewer on the government dole, etc.

PRIVATE FIRMS ADDED 64,000 jobs last month. That's good news also. Instead of continuing the Bush/Cheney tradition of losing 750,000 jobs a month like at the height of the recession (quarter 4 of 2008) we are now gaining back jobs in the all-important private sector.

Fox Gives Another Million to Republicans

Because it's "fair and balanced," that's why. From Politico:

News Corp., the parent company of Fox News, contributed $1 million this summer to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the business lobby that has been running an aggressive campaign in support of the Republican effort to retake Congress. It was the second $1 million contribution the company has made this election cycle to a GOP-aligned group. In late June it gave that amount to the Republican Governors Association.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42989.html

Christine O'Donnell

She has nothing to do with anything important on a national level; she's running to be Senator of Delaware. But she's been such a cartoonish figure since the national spotlight hit her, that we just can't stop looking. Kinda like passing a bad car accident. That's Christine O'Donnell, Regressive Senate candidate.

She has claimed she "dabbled in witchcraft."
She has some weird sex hangups.
She would stop everyone from masturbating, if she could.
She wonders, "if evolution is real, why don't we see monkeys turning into humans today?"
She believes we have mice-people running around.

UPDATE: New quotes from Christine as of Oct 4, 2010:
She would have become a Hare Krishna (they're vegetarian) but she loves meatballs.
She claims she had classified intelligence about China plotting to take over the US.

Not making any of this up. Now she claims to have gone to several colleges that have no record of her ever attending. "Christine who?" is becoming the usual response. That's been the case with Claremont Graduate University as well as University of Oxford and Farleigh Dickinson University.

Christine who?

Last weekend, Saturday Night Live opened the show with cast member Kristen Wiig playing the part of Christine O'Donnell. It's a riot.

Republicans Unveil their Plague on America

Calling it a "pledge to America," the Regressive Party unveiled a super-secret, 21 page magic formula to fix the economy they broke in the first place with massive, unnecessary tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and two unwinable, unpaid-for wars.

What's in this new "pledge"?

"Cut spending, slash taxes," blah blah blah. Cut what, exactly? Who knows. Their plan doesn't say. But they do say the first thing they want to do is eliminate the new Health Care Reforms that went into effect today.

As of today, 9/23/10, insurance companies

• can no longer drop children because of pre-existing conditions
• cannot cancel your coverage if you get sick
  
• must allow young adults (up to age 26) to be covered on their parents' health care plan
• cannot deny your right to no-cost preventative care. That means you won't have to pay out of pocket to go and get a flu shot, physical, or a mammogram
• must rescind lifetime limits on coverage

IF YOU VOTE FOR REPUBLICANS IN THE NOVEMBER ELECTIONS AND THEY WIN A MAJORITY IN THE HOUSE OR SENATE, THEY WILL ELIMINATE THOSE AND OTHER HEALTH CARE REFORMS.

Republicans Refuse to Fund American Troops

Lt. Dan Choi, Arab Linguist, Iraq Veteran, West Point Graduate, Infantry Officer... fired under Don't Ask Don't Tell

They hate gay people and Hispanics so much, they VETOED a bill that would have funded the troops, because an amendment to end "Don't Ask Don't Tell" and an amendment called the "DREAM Act," were part of the bill.

The DREAM Act (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act) would have provided more paths to citizenship for children of illegal immigrants by letting them earn residency and eventual citizenship after serving in the US Army or graduating from college.

And despite the vast majority* of Americans favoring the end of institutionalized discrimination against patriotic American gays and lesbians in the armed forces, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Defense Secretary Robert Gates agreeing it should end, Regressives in Congress vetoed the bill today.

__________
*In a 2008 Washington Post–ABC News poll, 75% of Americans – including 80% of Democrats, 75% of independents, and 66% of conservatives – said that openly gay people should be allowed to serve in the military.

A February 2010 Quinnipiac University national poll shows 57% of American voters favor gays serving openly, compared to 36% opposed, and 66% say the current policy of not allowing openly gay personnel to serve is discrimination.

A CBS News/New York Times national poll done at the same time shows 58% of Americans favor gays serving openly, compared to 28% opposed.

Too Much Caffeine? Or just plain crazy?

He's been a Republican in times good and he's been a Republican in times bad.

Enjoy these 6 minutes.

The REAL Culprits of the Record-Breaking Deficit

Chart based on numbers from the Congressional Budget Office.

It's not the paltry sums used for unemployment benefits or stimulus programs as the Regressives would have you believe. (Economists agree the best way to stimulate the economy is to provide continued unemployment benefits to those out of work.) People who have no jobs tend to SPEND EVERY DIME that comes in on things like food, electric, mortgage payments, etc., and put the money back into the system. But giving wealthy people special tax cuts just means they stash more away and invest more.

No, the real causes of the huge deficits are Bush's unnecessary tax cuts and the unnecessary wars. The chart shows, in light and dark brown, the real culprits of the record-breaking deficit.

Why, Oh Why?

2 Polar Bear Ads

One for an electric car from Nissan, the other for the Environmental Defense Fund.

Uh... Who Signed What?

From the Pew Research Center:

In numerous polls, the public has voiced their displeasure at the much maligned bank bailout, but most don't know which president signed the controversial act into law. Only a third of Americans (34%) correctly say the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was enacted by the Bush administration. Nearly half (47%) incorrectly believe TARP was passed under President Obama. Another 19% admit they do not know which president signed the bank bailout into law.

Repeat a Lie Often Enough...

... and the most gullible among us will believe it.

Just to show how easily the American public can be manipulated into believing ANYTHING, check out the poll.

CBS News poll

Of course, the Teabaggers have the highest number of geniuses who think the President either was born in some other country or simply don't know...