Meet the Nazi who just won the Illinois Republican primary.

BREAKING: American Nazi wins Republican primary in Illinois' Third Congressional District.

No, really. A real American right wing, white supremacist, white nationalist NAZI. #IL03 #IllinoisPrimary pic.twitter.com/qgdYn4JhlV

— Bryan Dawson (@BryanDawsonUSA) March 21, 2018

Finally a Republican who is being honest about what that party represents.

Just in case you think this could not possibly be happening, oh yes it is.

Illinois gun show bans the selling of AR-15's.

Courtesy of WaPo:

It looked like many other small weekend shows across America: folding tables covered with handguns, rifles, parts, ammunition and war mementos, including helmets, patches, pistols and even vintage Nazi memorabilia. 

But no AR-15s. 

Organizers halted an advertised raffle that would have awarded an AR-15 to the winner, and vendors were told they would not be allowed to sell the weapon at the monthly show. 

Frank Cesare — of the Pioneer Valley Sportsman’s Association, which has hosted the show for more than 40 years — said the decision followed complaints the group received after the Parkland shooting and as gun-control advocates planned to protest. 

“We did the ban to try to calm the situation down and show them we are willing to work with them,” he said, referring to the protesters. 

Cesare said that the ban on AR-15s also would remain in place for April’s show and that the club is “waiting to see” what the mood is like before deciding on shows later in the year. But the move has forced the club into the gun culture war that has gained new energy across the United States since Parkland.

It may be a small gesture, and perhaps only a temporary one, but it is still more than we have seen in response to past mass shootings in this country.

And I have to say that if the Parkland students have their way this will certainly NOT be temporary, and it will only be the beginning. 

My confidence in their abilities grows by the day.

In Illinois the Republicans will have an actual holocaust denier running for a state congressional seat.

Arthur Jones in the front here wearing his MAGA hat in support of Donald Trump.

Courtesy of the Chicago Sun Times:  

Arthur Jones — an outspoken Holocaust denier, activist anti-Semite and white supremacist — is poised to become the Republican nominee for an Illinois congressional seat representing parts of Chicago and nearby suburbs. 

“Well first of all, I’m running for Congress not the chancellor of Germany. All right. To me the Holocaust is what I said it is: It’s an international extortion racket,” Jones told the Chicago Sun-Times. 

Indeed, Jones’ website for his latest congressional run includes a section titled “The ‘Holocaust Racket’” where he calls the genocide carried out by the German Nazi regime and collaborators in other nations “the biggest blackest lie in history.”

Jones is running unopposed in the primary, which means he will certainly be the nominee. 

But let's face it, even if he did have an opponent he could still emerge victorious.

After all this IS the age of Donald Trump, where white supremacists no longer have to hide in the shadows.

Illinois will no longer allow the "gay panic" defense, when an attacker claims the victim's orientation provoked them, to be used in court. Wait, that's a thing?

Courtesy of Yahoo News:  

Illinois has made history by banning the “gay panic defense,” which allows a violent offender to blame his or her crimes on a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity. But it’s still applicable in 48 states. 

On Monday, three years after California banned the defense, the bill signed by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner went into effect, spurring hope among activists that similar measures will be taken nationwide. 

Here’s how the defense is used: A person commits a violent act toward a gay or transgender person, then claims the victim’s sexual or gender identity provoked them to either self-defend, commit a crime of passion, or enter a state of temporary insanity. 

The defense has never been written into law, but according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, since the 1960s gay panic and transgender panic defenses have been used in approximately 25 states in the hopes of having defendants receive reduced sentences.

What a stupid fucking excuse for hurting or killing somebody. 

"They're sexuality forced me to beat them unconscious." Seriously?

To me this seems along the same lines as claiming that you raped a woman because she turned you on.

I have to say that if seeing somebody who seems gay to you makes you feel angry or violent towards them, you probably ought to have a long hard talk with yourself about your own sexuality.

Homeland Security informs officials in 21 states that Russians attempted to hack their election systems in 2016.

Courtesy of USA Today: 

Russians attempted to hack elections systems in Wisconsin and 20 other states in the run-up to last year's presidential election, Wisconsin officials said Friday. 

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security notified states of the attempted breaches on Friday, said Michael Haas, director of the Wisconsin Elections Commission. The attempt in Wisconsin was unsuccessful, he said. 

According to the Associated Press, Alabama, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Virginia and Washington were also among the 21 states targeted. 

Wisconsin's voter registration system was targeted, as were election systems in other states that have a presence on the internet, Haas said. Haas said he did not know which states other than Wisconsin were part of the attempt by what Homeland Security officials told him were “Russian government cyber actors."

I am not at all convinced that these were only "attempts."

I think there had to be some successful hacks, and I would not to at all surprised to learn that there were a number of them.

I also think that ultimately we will learn that there more than 21 states targeted.

As I have said before, we are still at the beginning of all this and it is certain that there is so much, much more we are going to learn. 

More evidence that the Russian hack was more invasive than previously reported.

Courtesy of Bloomberg: 

Russia’s cyberattack on the U.S. electoral system before Donald Trump’s election was far more widespread than has been publicly revealed, including incursions into voter databases and software systems in almost twice as many states as previously reported. 

In Illinois, investigators found evidence that cyber intruders tried to delete or alter voter data. The hackers accessed software designed to be used by poll workers on Election Day, and in at least one state accessed a campaign finance database. Details of the wave of attacks, in the summer and fall of 2016, were provided by three people with direct knowledge of the U.S. investigation into the matter. In all, the Russian hackers hit systems in a total of 39 states, one of them said.

The new details, buttressed by a classified National Security Agency document recently disclosed by the Intercept, show the scope of alleged hacking that federal investigators are scrutinizing as they look into whether Trump campaign officials may have colluded in the efforts. But they also paint a worrisome picture for future elections: The newest portrayal of potentially deep vulnerabilities in the U.S.’s patchwork of voting technologies comes less than a week after former FBI Director James Comey warned Congress that Moscow isn’t done meddling. 

“They’re coming after America,” Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee investigating Russian interference in the election. “They will be back.”

Thirty nine states is significantly more than we were told about before.

Which makes me concerned that there is still more to be uncovered about these hacks and how deeply they actually reached into out election system.

Check how deeply they were able to penetrate in to Illinois' voting systems:

Illinois, which was among the states that gave the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security almost full access to investigate its systems, provides a window into the hackers’ successes and failures. 

In early July 2016, a contractor who works two or three days a week at the state board of elections detected unauthorized data leaving the network, according to Ken Menzel, general counsel for the Illinois board of elections. The hackers had gained access to the state’s voter database, which contained information such as names, dates of birth, genders, driver’s licenses and partial Social Security numbers on 15 million people, half of whom were active voters. As many as 90,000 records were ultimately compromised. 

But even if the entire database had been deleted, it might not have affected the election, according to Menzel. Counties upload records to the state, not the other way around, and no data moves from the database back to the counties, which run the elections. 

The hackers had no way of knowing that when they attacked the state database, Menzel said. The state does, however, process online voter registration applications that are sent to the counties for approval, Menzel said. When voters are added to the county rolls, that information is then sent back to the state and added to the central database. This process, which is common across states, does present an opportunity for attackers to manipulate records at their inception.

This could have allowed the hackers to change the voter registration to be affiliated with another party, or changed their home address so that they were shown to no longer living in their voting district. 

It only takes a few manipulations to invalidate a person's vote, or frustrate them into giving up the attempt. 

The only thing I can take away from such a huge and determined operation is that Putin REALLY did not want Hillary Clinton to win the election, or else he REALLY wanted Trump to emerge victorious, or perhaps a combination of the two.

This is simply not like any other attempts that we have heard of in the past.

Illinois to name Barack Obama's birthday as an honorary holiday.

Courtesy of WGN 9: 

The Legislature in Barack Obama’s home state has decided to honor the 44th president’s birthday. 

A plan to mark Obama’s August 4 birthday as an honorary holiday gained approval 87-0 in the Illinois House Friday. The state Senate endorsed the measure in March. It now moves to the Republican governor’s desk. 

The proposal would officially recognize Obama’s efforts to protect the rights of Americans and build “bridges across communities.”

There is of course the slim chance that the Republican governor will refuse to sign the bill, but considering Obama's popularity in Illinois I think that would be political suicide.

Gee I wonder if New York will name a state holiday after Donald Trump after he is forced out of office?

What's that you say?

Why no, I do not think it is likely that Hell will freeze over anytime soon.

That's right kids it's primary day again! And this one could be for all the marbles. Update!

Image courtesy of Esquire.

Today there are five states up for grabs, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, Illinois, and Missouri.

As of this post polls are closed in both Ohio and North Carolina.

Ohio is a winner take all state with 143 delegates up for grabs for the Democrats, and North Carolina splitting its 107 delegates between Sanders and Clinton.

In half an hour the polls close in Florida, Illinois, and Missouri.

Florida is also a winner take all state, and the biggest prize of the night, with 214 delegates available for the winning Democrat, and 156 from  Illinois and 71 from Missouri to be split between the two.

If Hillary takes both Florida and Ohio, like she did in 2008, she will gobble up 357 delegates, and, assuming she wins or does well in the remaining states, stands to increase her lead over Bernie by quite a significant margin.

On the Republican side polls show Kasich either slightly ahead or tied with Donald Trump for that state's 66 delegates, but Trump is far ahead in every other contest.

If both Kasich and Rubio fail to win in their states it is a good bet that one, if not both, will drop out, leaving Ted Cruz to continue battling the Donald for the nomination.

So the GOP nominee is going to be wither Trump or Cruz huh?

Good job Republican party, good job.

I will keep updating this post as the results come in.

Stay tuned.

Update: Trump and Hillary are projected to win Florida tonight according to MSNBC. That is a huge win for Clinton, and essentially the end of the trial for Rubio.

Update 2: Hillary is also now projected to win North Carolina. That's two for two so far.

Update 3: As predicted Marco Rubio just suspended his campaign.

Update 4: Hillary has now won Ohio, another winner take all state. This makes Sanders path to the nomination all but an impossibility at this point.

Update 5: Okay so John Kasich just won his home state of Ohio, and he is the only one who will likely beat Donald Trump tonight. But considering how few delegates he has earned so far does that really matter at this point?

Update 6: Trump wins Illinois. Still too close to call for the Democrats, though Hillary has a comfortable lead.

 Update 7: Hillary wins Illinois.

Update 8: Now Hillary has won Missouri so that is five for five tonight.

I think it is clearly time for Bernie to pack up his campaign and make way for the our Democratic nominee to finish the primary process and prepare to do battle against Donald Trump.

Trump may be the most aggressively vicious presidential candidate that we have ever seen, and Hillary is going to need everybody's support to get through the rest of 2016.

Update 9: The story of this night.

They’ll tell the story of tonight 🎶 pic.twitter.com/HP9X0yRb1L

— Jenna Lowenstein (@just_jenna) March 16, 2016

National Republican Senatorial Committee tweets accusation that Democratic Senate candidate who lost both legs in Iraq, does not "stand up for veterans."

Courtesy of Politico:  

The National Republican Senatorial Committee tweeted Tuesday that Illinois Senate Democratic candidate Tammy Duckworth, who lost both her legs while serving in the Iraq War, "has a sad record of not standing up for our veterans." 

Her campaign shot back immediately, calling the tweet "tasteless and dishonest, just like everything else to do with Mark Kirk’s flailing campaign." 

"Tammy has made fighting for veterans her life’s work, and will continue to so in the Senate,” said Matt McGrath, the campaign's spokesman. 

The NRSC deleted the tweet within minutes of posting it. The committee acknowledged that the tweet was a mistake, according to an NRSC aide, but renewed its attack on Duckworth. 

Tammy Duckworth just sitting there and refusing to stand up for veterans.

 You know I used to miss those old Keystone Kops episodes on TV, but now that I have the Republican party to fill the void I really don't think about them anymore.

Well it's a good thing that Bristol Palin does not live in Illinois.

Courtesy of Bipartisan Report: 

Republican representatives John D Cavaletto and Keith Wheeler sponsored the bill that would amend the state’s Vital Records Act. Here is the bill’s draconian thrust: 

‘…provides that if the unmarried mother cannot or refuses to name the child’s father, either a father must be conclusively established by DNA evidence or, within 30 days after birth, another family member who will financially provide for the child must be named, in court, on the birth certificate.’ 

‘Provides that absent DNA evidence or a family member’s name, a birth certificate will not be issued and the mother will be ineligible for financial aid from the State for support of the child.’

This the kind of thing that might actually keep Bristol from throwing her panties at every Tom, Joey, and Dakota.

However on the serious side this is an extremely punitive bill that would place a victim of rape, or incest, in a terrible situation.

 And there is NO reason to punish a child for a situation that is clearly no fault of their own.

Just another bill written by men to punish women, and their children, while letting the man get off scott free, if he makes his escape quickly enough that is.

Sarah Palin cancels book signing in Naperville, Illinois. Gee, I can't imagine why. Update!

Courtesy of the Chicago Tribune:

Former U.S. vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has scrapped her plans to appear in Naperville next week. 

Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville, which would have been the official bookseller for the event at the Chicago Marriott Naperville Hotel, announced early Wednesday afternoon that Palin, formerly governor of Alaska, called off her Dec. 1 engagement. 

The appearance was to have been in support of Palin's most recently released book, "Sweet Freedom: A Devotional." 

The announcement said the event was called off "due to circumstances out of the control of Anderson's Bookshops," but provided no additional details.

Oh I think we all know the "additional details."

The details are that the crowds are so small they could all arrive on the same city bus, and that the book is falling so hard it threatens to break the sound barrier.

After all nothing screams "failure" like a book signing with nobody there to get a book signed.

I imagine that this will not be the last cancellation, and would not be surprised if she quit the book tour altogether. 

By the way here is the top review for her book over at Amazon:

So the other day I was going to bail my oldest son, Trek, out of the county lockup (Vandalism. Kids, right?). I had my eldest daughter in the car with me and she looks over and yells, "Mama, my water broke!" I started to yell back that I wouldn't have to haul her to the hospital if she'd roped that guy into marrying her before he found out the kid wasn't his like I told her to. But then I took a deep breath and remembered what I'd read in Sarah Palin's book "Sweet Freedom" about being patient on those days when your facade as a Christian family just goes right down the crapper. Sometimes it can be hard to live vibrantly. 

So instead of cussing out my daughter, I drove her to the hospital. There, as I waited for the birth of my second - or is it my third? - illegitimate grandchild, I went on Facebook and shared a few anti-Obama memes before flipping over to Sarah Palin's page to thank her for this book, and for being somebody I could relate to. I even dipped into my Marlboro money to send her a few bucks since I got three emails from her this week begging me to donate so she can save America. 

I hope she continues to write books. They are perfect. Maybe it's because I never got past the seventh grade and read slow. Or maybe it's because she makes me proud to be a bigot. Either way, when I'm reading her books it feels like she understands, and I think it's because she's just like me. Sarah knows thinking is hard, and her books requires no thinking at all. For a conservative reader, that's Sweet Freedom.

And the review has a five star rating too!

Gotta love it.

Update: Well there goes another one.

Anybody want to take bets on how long that will last?

Remember that "hero" cop that was supposedly shot and killed in the line of duty in Illinois? Well as it turns out he was not a hero, and he took his own life.

Lt. "GI Joe" Gliniewicz

So I am sure that many of you remember this story of the cop who was found shot to death with his own weapon after radioing into his precinct that he was supposedly getting ready to confront three "suspects," two white, one black.


There were some questions even at the beginning of the investigation that some things simply did not add up.

And as it turns out that was an understatement.

Courtesy of the Daily Beast:  

Investigators never found the men suspected of killing Lt. “GI Joe” Gliniewicz. Not for lack of effort, not for lack of evidence, and not for enough tips. 

The men didn’t exist. 

The three vaguely described suspects, “two male white, one male black,” were apparently a product of Gliniewicz’s imagination, ginned up to make himself go out like a hero. 

Fox Lake police on Wednesday said Gliniewicz’s death was a “carefully staged suicide.” Gliniewicz had been stealing and laundering thousands of dollars from the police department’s youth auxiliary program for personal purchases, the department said. The purchases included gym memberships, porn websites, and mortgage payments. 

Perhaps Gliniewicz believed his alleged theft was in danger of being uncovered. If he was caught, his life as he knew it—gung ho cop, patriotic Army veteran, spectacular father, loving husband—would be over.

Now while it is important to note that this one guy faking his own murder does not mean that there are not police officers out there who are in actual danger of being killed in the line of duty, it is interesting to note that many in the conservative media used the death of Lt. Gliniewicz to illustrate what has being called the "war on cops" that they were blaming on President Obama and the protest group "Black Live Matter."

Even though statistics prove that this narrative is false, it is still being promoted all across the internet.

So what does this one faked death tell us?

Well nothing really, except that one should always wait for the evidence before jumping on the "Blame Obama" bandwagon.

But honestly, is there any chance of THAT ever happening?

Chicago investigating mysterious robo-calls that caused 2,000 election judges not to show up on election resulting in seven hour long lines at the polls. Want to guess which political party was responsible?

Courtesy of Think Progress: 

Chicago election judges received misleading and factually incorrect robocalls before the midterm, causing close to 2,000 of them to not show up on Election Day. As a criminal investigation gets underway, the Chicago Sun-Times has tied the calls to two Republican activists while the Republican Party has denied involvement and distanced itself from the party members who it claims acted alone. (Yeah, sure they did.)

An unknown number of election judges received one or more automated phone calls that informed them about an additional required training session or told them they needed to vote a certain way in order to keep their position. As a result, polling places across the city were understaffed and lines reached seven hours in some precincts. A smaller number of voters were turned away from certain locations. 

The city was forced to dispatch standby election judges when some polling places had just one or no election judges present at 6 a.m. when polls were scheduled to open. At the time, the Chicago Board of Elections said it didn’t know who made the calls or why they were sent out. The Cook County State’s Attorney has launched a criminal investigation and Mayor Rahm Emanuel called for hearings on the robocalls.

Of course this is on top of gerrymandering that has made some Republican strongholds bullet proof, and the influx of enough corporate money to drown a medium size city under a tidal wave of dollar bills.

You know I did not play too many team sports growing up as I don't work or play well with others. However I did compete in individual sports like powerlifting, wrestling, and martial arts.

And I cannot think of one of my coaches or instructors who would EVER have encouraged me to cheat in order to win. Even if winning were the most important thing in the world to them.

I was raised to try my hardest, refuse to give up, and to accept defeat graciously if I could find no path to victory.

Losing sucks balls. But winning, when you know you do not deserve to win, well that would shame me to my very core.

And what type of people do we have running our local and federal governments, if they have no problem showing up for a job that they know they do not deserve? How can we expect them to be ethical and honest, if they got where they are by being the exact opposite?

Because if you have to cheat, lie, and bully in order to get into a position of power, than that is the very last place you should be. 

Woman who claimed that autism and dementia were God's punishment for gay marriage, just won her Republican primary in Illinois.

Courtesy of The Friendly Atheist:  

Susanne Atanus, the 55-year-old Republican who told a local newspaper that God put autism and dementia on Earth as punishment for marriage equality and abortion, just won her primary for a seat in the House of representatives. She will face off against incumbent Democrat Rep. Jan Schakowsky this November: 

Voters in the Republican primary will have two very different candidates to choose from in the 9th Congressional District, as David Earl Williams III and Susanne Atanus vie for the right to face Rep. Jan Schakowsky in the fall… “I am a conservative Republican and I believe in God first,” Atanus said. She said she believes God controls the weather and has put tornadoes and diseases such as autism and dementia on earth as punishment for gay rights and legalized abortions.

Apparently Illinois party leaders  tried to get Atanus to drop out, but nope, she was on a mission. And apparently that mission is to hand the Illinois 9th District House seat back to Jan Schakowsky.

For once the Democratic agenda matches well with the agenda of the Republican fringe.

This morning I listened to Reince Priebus on MSNBC telling Chuck Todd that the party cannot be held for every strange thing uttered by a Republican.

But what he fails to understand is that these comments are not outliers among the Republicans, THIS is how a great number of them see the world.

These elections are now increasingly defined as between the rational and the irrational.

For the sake of America's future let's hope that the majority of the country sits on the side of the rational.

Bishop plans to exorcise Illinois to rid it of gay marriage. Yeah, that should work.

Courtesy of the CNN Belief blog:

The devil made them do it? 

According to a Catholic bishop in Springfield, Illinois, Satan was behind his state's recent legalization of same-sex marriage. 

So, next Wednesday, at about the same time Gov. Pat Quinn signs the gay marriage bill into law, Bishop Thomas Paprocki will hold an exorcism ceremony "in reparation for the sin of same-sex marriage." 

Paprocki, who's something of an expert on exorcism, says he's just following the Pope's marching orders. 

When Pope Francis, then Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, was an archbishop in Argentina, he called that country's legalization of same-sex marriage "a 'move' of the father of lies who wishes to confuse and deceive the children of God." 

In a statement released on Thursday, Paprocki said: "The pope's reference to the 'father of lies' comes from the Gospel of John, where Jesus refers to the devil as 'a liar and the father of lies.' So Pope Francis is saying that same-sex 'marriage' comes from the devil and should be condemned as such."

In my mind I have a picture of this idiot throwing holy water on the ground and screaming the rites of exorcism while a mocking crowd forms, and men with white coats step out of a van with straight jackets at the ready.

Oh, now they won't do that will they? Because you know religion is not classified as a mental illness.

At least not yet.

By the way, speaking of the Pope, it may be time to stop giving him a pass and believing that he is really all that different from those who proceeded him. This is what he said on Thursday: 

“The spirit of curiosity distances us from the spirit of wisdom because all that interests us is the details, the news, the little stories of the day.” 

Such a spirit, he warned, brings about dispersion and distances people from God. The Vatican leader further noted that Jesus himself warned against a worldly spirit of curiosity, as it causes confusion and impels people to want to feel that God is “here or there.”

So to paraphrase a little, what is being said is that being inquisitive and asking questions damages our relationship with God. And of course that message has been enforced since the beginning starting with the story of the Garden of Eden.

So the very thing which makes us humans, and that is behind ALL of the great discoveries which have allowed us to conquer the skies, improve our health and longevity, and explore both inner and outer space, are against the will of God?

I think that is pretty much all I need to know about religion, and its impact on our future.

Illinois Republican (Jim Sacia) finally states, for the record, that 2nd Amendment supporters equate guns with their penises.

Courtesy of Raw Story:

“Here is the problem in Illinois,” he said on the House floor. “I love you folks in Chicago. You’re the ones that have the problem, you have a runaway gun problem. Don’t blame the rest of us. This isn’t about Democrats, it’s not about Republicans. It’s because Chicago wants a warm fuzzy. ‘Let’s pass a bill that will eliminate assault rifles.’ Last year there were more people killed with hammers than with assault rifles.” 

“Here’s an analogy folks, I ask you to think of this. You folks in Chicago want me to get castrated because you’re families are having too many kids. It spells out exactly what is happening here. You want us to get rid of guns.”

What have I been saying?

Essentially the reason that men fight so damn hard to hang onto their guns is because they have become the substitute for their manhood.

They are afraid that if you take away their guns you make them vulnerable and impotent, and that frightens them to death.

Look let me say this, I live in Alaska where there are actual wild animals no more than a quarter of a mile from me at any given time and I completely understand the desire to have a weapon to even up the odds. (I don't carry one, but then I am Alaskan born and raised.) But if you own a gun, or a bunch of guns, because you feel frightened of your government, or because it makes you feel like man, then you have a serious problem and, in my opinion, should absolutely NOT have access to weapons of any kind.

In other words if your manhood is something metal that you put into a holster, then simply put there is NOTHING manly about you.

Sending your children to Christian school to teach them morality? You might want to think twice.

Courtesy of Raw Story:

Authorities in Schaumburg, Illinois have charged a teacher at a Christian school for repeatedly masturbating in class over a period of 10 years. Schaumburg Christian School fired math teacher Paul A. LaDuke, 75, on Friday after a student reported that she saw him masturbating, according to NBC Chicago. 

After conducting an internal investigation, school officials contacted Schaumburg police Monday. On Tuesday, LaDuke was charged with sexual exploitation of a child. Several students reportedly told police that they were present in the classroom when LaDuke unzipped and lower his pants and then masturbated. 

“Through the course of our investigation, our detectives have come to believe that this has happened several times per year for 10 years or more, possibly,” Schaumburg police Sgt. John Nebel told the CBS affiliate in Chicago.

I am always on the lookout for hypocrisy, so of course this story really caught my eye.  The idea that parents sent their children to a Christian schooling order to protect them from what they see as the immorality of a secular school system, only to learn that one of the teachers has been pleasuring himself in front of students for possibly ten years, is the height of irony.

I am completely shocked that this type of behavior could have occurred for ten years without ANYBODY yanking this guy out of the classroom and getting him as far away from the children as possible.

I don't yet know all of the particulars, and I don't want to paint ALL religious school with the same broad brush, but I cannot imagine THIS type of behaivor taking place in a public school without officials being notified immediately!

Illinos Congressman, and deadbeat dad, Joe Walsh comes unhinged with his constituents.

Not only does this asshole throw a tantrum like a petulant child, he is completely wrong!

Walsh is essentially pissed of that the people in this room, his own constituents, have a better handle on what caused the banking crisis than he does.

If this guy represented my district in Congress  I would be red faced with embarrassment.  But on the other hand I would be extremely proud of how my fellow Illinois residents handled a clearly out of control megalomaniac.

It is actually too bad this video does not capture the first part of the conversation, which I saw someplace else earlier, where the lady who suggests that Walsh get a cup of decaf, totally schools him on what really caused the problems we are facing today. I think that is what essentially inspired his irrational tirade.

Tired of political ads? Who isn't? But some are actually pretty fun to watch. Here is an example.

This "Glee" themed ad comes from Illinois Governor Pat Quinn who is in a neck and neck battle with local Teabagger Bill Brady for re-election.



You have to admit that was very imaginitive, and pretty entertaining to watch as well.

Illinois Republicans scatter like cockroaches for fear of being seen with Sarah Palin.

"Dammit don't you know I matter?  Now come to my fundraiser so that the people can see how important I am!"

From the Daily Herald:

While former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin hopes to rake in big cash for the Illinois Republican Party during her visit this month, top GOP candidates are not lining up to join her in the spotlight.

Republicans heading the state party's ticket, U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk for Senate and state Sen. Bill Brady for governor, don't plan to be at the fundraiser on May 12 in Rosemont.

The GOP's top suburban congressional hopefuls, Randy Hultgren of Winfield Township and Bob Dold of Kenilworth, aren't showing up either. Nor will suburban area GOP state senators like John Millner of Carol Stream and Dan Duffy of Lake Barrington.

So for all of Palin's star power as a former vice presidential candidate whose autobiography recently dominated the best-seller charts, many Republicans running for office in Illinois are not jumping up to meet her.

"They don't want to take the risk, but I'm sure they will take the money," surmises Paul Green, a veteran political professor with Roosevelt University.

A photo with Palin could prove damaging to some Republicans running in suburban districts that have been trending more and more Democratic in recent elections, Green says.

I wonder which is more damaging to a Republican candidate? 

A picture with the man the Teabaggers love to hate, President Barack Obama? (See Charlie Crist)  Or a picture with "Trashilla from Wasilla"?

Somebody should try and experiment.  They should put all of the Republicans in a big room with only two exits.  At one exit they could place President Obama, and at the other Sarah Palin.

Who wants to bet that the majority of them would either just stay in the room and starve to death or leap out of a window to escape?