Wonder what God's position is on trophy wives?

Seems Newt Gingrich thinks God is missing in political life:

Forrmer House speaker Newt Gingrich says he "got fed up with people who argue that somehow the concept of the creator wasn't central to how the Founding Fathers understood America." So in a book being published today, he includes a 19-page "Walking Tour of God in Washington, D.C.," cataloging references to the Bible, Moses and a heavenly father on the Capitol, monuments and memorials.

"In the last 30 years, you had this politically correct delegitimizing of God in American public life, which I think is a denial of the core of American civilization," he said in a telephone interview yesterday.

Please ignore that man who divorced his wife and swapped her for a 33 year old staffer he was having an adulterous affair with. Oh, and this would be Newt's second divorce. During the first divorce, he served his wife the papers while she was in the hospital with cancer.

Why doesn't Newt care about the sanctity of marriage? Read the rest of this post...

GM to cut 8,000 jobs

Four straight years of cuts.
Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

There's been so much news today, I forgot to post open threads. Sorry about that :-) Read the rest of this post...

Armstrong Williams was sued for allegedly sexually harassing another man. Uh oh.

UPDATE: I messed up the link to the story, it's fixed now.

Even better? Williams criticized the NAACP a month ago for there being "charges of sexual harassment" against someone at the organization when that's exactly what Wiliams faced, charges of sexual harassment (and in his case, they were charges of homo-sexual harassment).

So if it's enough to impugn the NAACP isn't it enough to impugh Williams?

Perhaps Florida needs to pass a law to stop Williams from adopting children. Oh, that's right... Read the rest of this post...

"Best New Blog" contest

I'm not gonna tell you how to vote, but if you're interested in voting at all you can go to this page and see the nominees and submit a comment at the bottom of the page that includes which blog you think is the best new blog. Read the rest of this post...

BREAKING NEWS: Barney, Pooh , Blue's Clues, Dora, Jimmy Neutron, Little Mermaid, Madeline, Muppets, Rugrats & Sponge Bob all part of homo conspiracy

Oh, the gifts the religious right gives us.

As an aside, the scary part of all of this is that what the religious right is objecting to is the concept of teaching kids about tolerance and diversity. That was the same problem they had with Barney the purple dinosaur, "I love you, you love me" was a tad too extreme for the RR. To them, tolerance and diversity are codewords for something horrible and dangerous. I couldn't think of a better definition of who they are in the hearts than that very fact. Read the rest of this post...

It's Mehlman Monday!

Apparently CBS' parent company, Viacom, has hired Ken "I'm afraid to admit I'm straight" Mehlman's brother as a new lobbyist. As you'll recall, Mehlman - or Mehlwoman as he's been dubbed here - is for some odd reason mortally afraid of admitting on the record that he's a heterosexual, which has a few of us girls wondering...

I especially love the last line about Mehlman's bro's "partner." Come on Ken, even your brother admits publicly that he has a partner! ;-)


The face that launched a thousand ships Read the rest of this post...

Did Bush just "uninvite" Kid Rock to the inaugural?

UPDATE: Since the Bushies have now uninvited Kid Rock, I think it's time we called the presidential inaugural committee and complain that they uninvited him. What about freedom of speech? Is Bush simply a stooge of the religious right? Time to put the heat on the other side now I think :-) Here are the phone numbers for the inaugural committee:

202-863-2005 or 202-314-2600
---------

Ms. Julien, an AMERICAblog regular, just posted the following comment on the blog, in response to my request that folks call the President Inaugural Committee. I called the first number to confirm and someone answered and hung up before I could even speak (testy testy), and the second number no one answer. Anyone else getting this response from the Inaugural folks?:

I just called - the man who answered the phone said the performer's appearance was a "rumor that was started by some independent group" and that the "invitation [to Kid Rock] has not been extended."

Ooh, even better, I just found this quote from the NY Daily News:

Inauguration planners seemed to be backpedaling yesterday about the event following a call from the Daily News. "Kid Rock has not been confirmed," insisted Tracey Schmitt, a spokeswoman from the Presidential Inaugural Committee. "But I can tell you Hilary Duff has been confirmed, as has JoJo."

I'm sorry, but "he hasn't been confirmed" does not mean the same thing as his appearance is an unsubstantiated rumor and "he has not been invited." Now the Bushies are talking out of both sides of their mouths. What is this, the Iraq war? Read the rest of this post...

Mississippi Burning Books

And they wonder why we make fun of them. Read the rest of this post...

Help the fundies meltdown, call and protest Kid Rock

The Bush twins want Kid Rock singing at the inaugural. The religious right hates him because he says "fuck" a lot. Kid Rock supported Bush's re-election, so he gets no sympathy here. Let's help make this issue difficult for all sides. If Kid Rock stays, the fundies get pissed. If Bush has to back down and pull Kid Rock, the Bush twins gets pissed and thus daddy gets pissed. And an added bonus, if Kid Rock gets booted, it only serves him right - he deserves to experience first-hand the cultural policies he voted for.

And not to mention, where does Bush get off having everyone attack Hollywood values at the convention, then embrace those Hollywood values for his own inaugural? He shouldn't be allowed to have it both ways.

Do what the religious right hate groups are asking, and call the presidential inaugural committee and rip 'em a new one about Kid Rock.

The number to call is 202-863-2005 or 202-314-2600

Tell them Kid Rock represents everything the value voters voted against in November. Or, feel free to tell them to hang in there and keep Kid Rock. Either way, someone gets screwed - either Bush or the fundies - so it's a win win.

Read the rest of this post...

Snap, snap, SNAP!

I can think of nothing more comical than being lectured on race by the NRO's (National Review Online) Corner. What's next? Stormfront lecturing me on the Holocaust and tolerance for Jews?

- Steve Gilliard of Steve Gilliard's News Blog, discussing the National Review's "outrage" over his criticism of Armstrong Williams. Read the rest of this post...

Morning thread

Discuss. Read the rest of this post...

Southern Baptists called tsunami "a phenomenal opportunity"

Well, glad the Southern Baptists are so thrilled that over 150,000 people died a horrible death.

"This [disaster] is one of the greatest opportunities God has given us to share his love with people," said K.P. Yohannan, president of the Texas-based Gospel for Asia. In an interview, Yohannan said his 14,500 "native missionaries" in India, Sri Lanka, and the Andaman Islands are giving survivors Bibles and booklets about "how to find hope in this time through the word of God."

In Krabi, Thailand, a Southern Baptist church had been "praying for a way to make inroads" with a particular ethnic group of fisherman, according to Southern Baptist relief coordinator Pat Julian. Then came the tsunami, "a phenomenal opportunity" to provide ministry and care, Julian told the Baptist Press news service.

Don't you just love it when God answers your prayers and wipes out 150,000 people? Makes me warm and tingly all over, hallelujah!

So the plan is that the religious right groups are planning on using the tsunami to convert Asians to christianity, and they plan to use disaster aid to do the converting:

In Andhra Pradesh, India, a plan is developing to build "Christian communities" to replace destroyed seashore villages. In a dispatch that the evangelical group Focus on the Family posted on its Family.org Web site, James Rebbavarapu of India Christian Ministries said a team of U.S. engineers had agreed to help design villages of up to 400 homes each, "with a church building in the center of them."

That is fucking sick. Read the rest of this post...

Yet another reason to visit Italy

Excellent! I don't really care if someone smokes twenty packs a day, just as long as I don't have to be smell it and taste it. Smokers should have thought about being so casual with blowing smoke in the past instead of whining about over-zealous anti-smoking laws. Now if only they would bring those laws to the rest of Europe.
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Late night chat fest

Knock yourselves out. Read the rest of this post...