See Karoli's earlier post for details. Open thread below...

A personal friend of mine for decades, and one helluva drummer. Passed away 8/12, after a long battle with cancer. He will be remembered and missed by many.

See also Rock n' Roll Doctor, embedding disabled.

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This is the McCain Media's idea of "breaking news". John McCain is outraged... outraged I tell ya' that Harry Reid would call out Republicans for their race baiting.

Actually this looked more like some feigned outrage to me. We all know what McCain looks like when he's really mad and this ain't it.

That sucking sound you hear is Dr. Laura's career being flushed down the toilet. She might stay on the radio, but she won't really have any credibility with anyone but the racist masses.

On August 10th, Dr. Laura responded to an African-American caller who was offended that her white husband allowed racist conversation to pass without calling it out by telling said caller that her examples of racist conversation were not racist, that she was too sensitive, and then proceeded to use the "n-word" over and over again in a string.

Not content to stop there, she berated the listener until said listener hung up on her, then went off for another three minutes or so about how sensitive people are about race, and how "black speak" allows for use of the n-word with no problem.

Someone forgot her happy pills, I think. (Thanks to Media Matters for capturing the full audio.)

Here's the first segment:

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(Pres. Eisenhower in 1959 - to some, The Old Hippy)

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Listening to Eisenhower lately makes me wonder if anyone remotely like him would be in the Republican party today. I'm afraid not.

We all think of the Civil Rights movement as something of the 60's, but it was during the 1950's, during Eisenhower's watch, that the ball got rolling. School Desegregation and the formation of the Civil Rights Commission along with the 1957 and 1960 Civil Rights Bills are part of that legacy, although some would argue it wasn't nearly enough. The fact of the matter was, the 1957 Civil Rights Bill, which guaranteed voting rights, was the first law of its kind passed since Reconstruction.

Here is an address Pres. Eisenhower gave at a luncheon sponsored by The Civil Rights Commission as part of its National Conference on Civil Rights from June 9, 1959.

Pres. Eisenhower: “The only motivating, energizing force is public opinion. If that public opinion is well informed, then the United States will act wisely and strongly and fairly at home and abroad. And so, you are not solving, in my opinion or helping to solve just one problem, you are working for America. And I say to you, in my opinion, there can be no better thing to do.”

There is at least one judge in Louisiana with some sense and respect for the law. NPR reports that U.S. District Judge Ralph Tyson has placed a temporary restraining order on the requirement that any woman seeking an abortion be forced to have an ultrasound first, and view the results of that ultrasound before having an abortion.

This is good news not only for women in Louisiana, but for women in other states where similar laws have been passed. While the key will be finding a judge willing to actually evaluate the facts in light of the Constitution, this is certainly a step forward.

The right wing has spent a lot of time working to get laws passed (mostly in Southern states) that are clearly discriminatory to women, violate their rights, and are just a stalking horse for an excuse to try and overturn Roe vs. Wade.

The assault on women's reproductive rights has been relentless in 2010.

Louisiana (temporary restraining order granted):

One of the new laws would block abortion doctors from participation in a state-run medical malpractice fund. The other would require women about to undergo abortions to first have an ultrasound examination and receive a photograph of the ultrasound image.

Guttmacher Institute Study:

Legislators in eight states introduced measures to require that ultrasound services be offered to a woman seeking an abortion. Missouri was the only state in which a measure was approved, and the governor is widely expected to allow it to go into effect without his signature. Three other states currently require providers to offer ultrasound services to women (see Requirements for Ultrasound).

Measures enacted this year in Utah and West Virginia place requirements on a provider who is performing an ultrasound in preparation for an abortion. The Utah law requires the provider to offer to show and describe the image to the woman. The new law in West Virginia is similar but explicitly allows the woman to choose whether or not to view the image. These two new laws bring to 10 the number of states with such provisions.

Finally, legislatures in three states—Oklahoma, Florida and Louisiana—moved to enact or strengthen requirements mandating that women seeking an abortion first obtain an ultrasound. Oklahoma adopted the most stringent measure. It would require abortion providers to perform an ultrasound on every woman obtaining an abortion, display the image to her and provide a verbal description; the woman would be entitled to “avert her eyes” if she did not want to view the screen. The measure is identical to one passed in 2008 that was overturned by a state court on procedural grounds. The new law, written to avoid the procedural issues, was nonetheless challenged immediately upon enactment, and enforcement is currently blocked pending the outcome of the litigation.

And of course, let's not forget the assault on the Affordable Care Act:

Meanwhile, legislators in 14 states (including states that already have laws applying to all private plans) introduced measures that would limit coverage of abortion through the insurance exchanges that will be set up under health care reform by 2014. Legislation has been enacted in four states. Arizona’s new law permits coverage only in cases of threats to the woman’s life or health, while Mississippi’s permits coverage only in cases of life endangerment, rape or incest. Laws in Louisiana and Tennessee prohibit all coverage of abortion, with no exceptions. Legislation approved by the legislature in Missouri is awaiting action by the governor, and measures in Florida and Oklahoma have been vetoed.

Just one more reason to keep the wingers out of Congress and by extension, out of women's reproductive systems.

::Headdesk:: Florida state house candidate Marg Baker has some not-so-new ideas for how to handle illegal immigrants:

“I was just a little girl in Miami, and they built camps for the people that snuck into the country because they were illegal,” Baker said. “They put them in the camps and they shipped them back. We can do that. We can do E-Verify. We must stop them.”

In an interview with Salon (where she might have had an opportunity to clarify in a good way)), she elaborated:

"We can ship them out to the middle of the country and put up high walls and leave them there," said Marg Baker, the middle-aged real estate broker vying for the Republican nomination in the state's 48th district, north of Tampa.

And she gets even more specific later on:

Asked if what she had in mind was more like the Japanese internment camps of the World War II era, Baker said, "something like that. But unfortunately in the Japanese camps they detaineed American citizens. The only ones I want to detain are the ones who are illegal."

She added, "You've gotta have places for them to eat and sleep and breathe fresh air. It can be a tent city ... You don't want to make them too comfortable or they'll want to come back."

Funny, I feel that way about teabaggers. Let's round 'em all up and drop them into the middle of Kansas, in tent cities, because we don't want them too comfortable or they'll want to multiply.

The acrid odor of hate oozes from her words onto my screen. Republicans -- teabaggers in particular -- are intentionally using immigration as a way to stoke up race hate in advance of the midterms, hoping that it will distract from the real issue, which is their systematic destruction of our economy when they had power, and their hope to be able to tear down what progress has been made in the last two years.

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They're calling it the largest natural disaster on record, destroying homes, land, crops and water supplies, and yet the coverage in the U.S. media has been relatively low-key. Sadly, now it looks like things will be getting even worse:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan issued new flood warnings on Thursday that could last into the weekend as government and relief agencies strained to confront the toll from a growing humanitarian disaster.

The new warnings to several cities in Punjab and Sindh Provinces added to the desperation of many across the country facing a daily struggle for survival as Muslims around the world began to observe the holy month of Ramadan.

[...] The United States Embassy in Islamabad announced that two Marine helicopters had arrived in the country, the first of a contingent of 19 American military helicopters that has been ordered to assist the Pakistani government in relief efforts. The United States has pledged $71 million for flood relief, and American officials have called for more.

“Americans have been very focused on other, equally heart-wrenching issues, like Haiti,” Richard C. Holbrooke, the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said Wednesday at the Council on Foreign Relations. “I hope they will turn their attention as well to this extraordinary crisis that Pakistan is facing.”

The aid deliveries could help the United States improve its image here and blunt a growing anti-American sentiment. The Taliban have already urged Pakistanis to shun American aid and have used the crisis to expand their influence and outreach in the flood-affected areas of the northwest.

The United Nations has estimated that at least one-fifth of the country is flooded, but the scope of the damage seems far greater. About 14 million people have been affected by the floods, and 6 million of them are children, according to Unicef. Estimates of the dead have ranged from 1,200 to 1,600.

Racism is the new cool for the GOP. It's in their blood now.

Think Progress:

Yesterday afternoon, Mike Pompeo, the Republican congressional candidate for KS-4 and RNC committeeman, tweeted out to his supporters an article he thought would be a “good read”:

Here’s a good read about the Team Pompeo campaign: http://bit.ly/cF05mp

That link goes to a post on Newsvine by Ret. Gunnery Sgt. Bob Pinkstaff USMC, who rails against Pompeo’s Democratic opponent, state Rep. Raj Goyle (who also used to work at the Center for American Progress). In the post — which the Pompeo campaign endorsed by sending out to its supporters — Pinkstaff calls the Indian-American Goyle a “turban topper” who “could be a muslim, a hindu, a buddhist etc who knows”:

As I was listening to radio station 1330 about a week ago, the radio station did an interview with Goyle and should be on tape and available to the public. The interviewer asked him what religion or faith he belonged to and this guy mumbled and stumbled around the question, never directly answering it. Like his comrade Obama, he wouldn’t give an answer, only that he was not a Christian. This guy could be a muslim, a hindu, a buddhist etc who knows, only God, the shadow and …goyle knows! One thing’s for sure … goyle is not a Christian!

Since the 2008 election of the evil Muslim Communist USURPER, Barack Hussein Obama, political candidate “BIRTH CERTIFICATE & RELIGION” information is now a vital part of the vetting/nomination/election process for any and all American citizens seeking political office.

Just like his evil Muslim Communist USURPER Comrade, Barack Hussein Obama, This goyle character is just another “turban topper” we don’t need in congress or any political office that deals with the U.S. Constitution, Christianity and the United States of America!!!

The Goyle campaign put out a press release this morning, saying the tweet went “beyond the rules of engagement in politics. This violates the principles and core values of Kansans.”

I don't know why Mike Pompeo even apologized. What's the point? It's something he believes in. It's something that he cherishes. Just go with the tea party flow. The ugly we are witnessing is going to spread and spread. FOX and their friends on AM radio will make sure of it.

South Carolina Senate candidate Alvin Greene has been indicted on obscenity charges.

Washington Post:

Longshot U.S. Senate candidate Alvin Greene was indicted Friday on two charges, including a felony charge of showing pornography to a South Carolina college student.

A Richland County grand jury indicted Green for disseminating, procuring or promoting obscenity - a felony - as well as a misdemeanor charge of communicating obscene materials to a person without consent.

Greene, who surprised the Democratic party establishment with his primary victory, was arrested in November after authorities said he approached a student in a University of South Carolina computer lab, showed her obscene photos online, then talked about going to her dorm room.

Greene declined comment at his home. He has also refused to talk about the charge in interviews.

Jim DeMint is, I'm sure, suitably shocked. And cackling. I'm still convinced the voting machines put this idiot in the primary.

Update: And to think, he just got himself a whole new set of new advisors, too.

The most famous candidate in the country was in Columbia Thursday evening, making his way through a small crowd and shaking hands, schmoozing and introducing a member of a documentary film crew that has been following him along the most written about campaign trail in America.

The candidate is not running for president, but the U.S. Senate. His name is Alvin Greene. Maybe you’ve heard of him.

Greene was in town for a meeting of the South Carolina Democratic Party executive committee and gave a brief speech to a room of about 50 at the state party's headquarters on Hampton Street.

He asked the Democrats there -- many had recently voted down a protest to his surprise primary win June 8 over former judge and legislator Vic Rawl -- to support him in the fall election against Republican U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, Green Party nominee Tom Clements and write-in candidate Mazie Ferguson.

There was a smattering of applause. A man shouted out “I’ll vote for you.” A woman seconded it.

Greene’s speech clocked in at around 23 seconds, which is consistent with what his campaign adviser Felipe Farley had predicted weeks ago, when he noted that Greene wasn’t going to be doing any long barnburners on the stump.

Just bizarre. That is all.