The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep your EV battery running in frigid temperatures. The link at the end of this graf is supposed to be a "gift link" (from me, Marie Burns, the giftor!), meaning that non-subscribers can read the article. Hope it works: https://wapo.st/3u8Z705
Thursday
Mar262015
The Commentariat -- March 27, 2015
Internal links removed.
Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "Senator , the tough tactician who has led Senate Democrats since 2005, will not seek re-election next year, bringing an end to a three-decade congressional career that culminated with his push of President Obama’s ambitious agenda against fierce Republican resistance. Mr. Reid, 75, who suffered serious eye and facial injuries in a Jan. 1 exercise accident at his Las Vegas home, said he had been contemplating retiring from the Senate for months. He said his decision was not attributable either to the accident or to his demotion to minority leader after Democrats lost the majority in November’s midterm elections."
Ian Traynor & Louise Osbourne of the Guardian piece together what little is known about Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot whom authorities believe deliberately crashed a Germanwings passenger plane into the Alps, killing all on board. ...
... Update. Dan Bilefsky & Nicola Clark of the New York Times: "Documents show that Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot who is believed to have deliberately crashed a Germanwings jet into the French Alps on Tuesday, had a medical condition that he hid from his employer, prosecutors in Düsseldorf, Germany, said on Friday. The documents, which were found in his home, included a torn-up doctor’s note allowing him time off from work because of an illness. The German investigators said they had not found a suicide note or 'any indication of a political or religious' nature among the documents secured in Mr. Lubitz’s apartment." ...
By apparently locking the captain out of the cockpit before a German jet crashed Tuesday, the co-pilot appears to have taken advantage of one of the major safety protocols instituted after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that turned cockpits into fortresses. And the crash is already raising questions about possible gaps in how airlines review the mental health of their pilots.... The Federal Aviation Administration mandates that a flight attendant must sit in the cockpit when either pilot steps into the passenger area; European regulations do not have a similar two-person rule." ...
... David Edwards of the Raw Story: “'What a terrible tragedy,' the TV preacher [Pat Robertson said]. 'Was that co-pilot a Muslim? Was he suicidal? What was it about him?' Robertson later allowed for the possibility that Lubitz could have been 'just psychotic.'” ...
... CW: Whatever his faith & politics, if the suppositions are true, Lubitz was certainly a terrorist. As Lufthansa CEO Carsen Spohr said yesterday, “When someone takes another 149 to their deaths, suicide is not the right word.” ...
... Update. I see Gene Robinson agrees with me on this. But don't expect the Fox "Newsies" to start calling this mass murder an "act of terrorism," unless we find out Lubitz was a Muslim or had an A-rab girl- or boyfriend.
Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "Saudi Arabia told the Obama administration and Persian Gulf allies early this week that it was preparing a military operation in neighboring Yemen, and relied heavily on U.S. surveillance images and targeting information to carry it out, according to senior American and Persian Gulf officials." ...
... of the Los Angeles Times: "Secret files held by Yemeni security forces that contain details of American intelligence operations in the country have been looted by Iran-backed militia leaders, exposing names of confidential informants and plans for U.S.-backed counter-terrorism strikes, U.S. officials say. U.S. intelligence officials believe additional files were handed directly to Iranian advisors by Yemeni officials who have sided with the Houthi militias that seized control of Sana, the capital, in September...." CW: Another reminder that Tom Cotton's penpals are not our friends. So why don't be just bomb, bomb, bomb Iran? After all, John Bolton thinks it's a good idea. (See his NYT op-ed, linked below.)
Peter Sullivan & Cristina Marcos of the Hill: "The House on Thursday overwhelmingly voted to repeal automatic payment cuts to doctors under Medicare, endorsing a rare bipartisan deal that Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) negotiated with Democrats. The bill ... passed by a vote of 392-37.... The fate of the legislation in the Senate remains unclear...."
A Budget Amendment for the History Books. "Senate Democrat Trolls Tom Cotton So Hard." Zach Carter of the Huffington Post: "Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) delivered a pitch-perfect trolling lesson to the Senate on Wednesday, filing an amendment calling to defund 'the purchase of stationary [sic] or electronic devices for the purpose of members of Congress or congressional staff communicating with foreign governments and undermining the role of the President as Head of State in international nuclear negotiations on behalf of the United States.' In other words, Stabenow wants to defund Tom Cotton letters."
We are confident that Saddam Hussein has hidden weapons of mass destruction and production facilities in Iraq.... I expect that the American role actually will be fairly minimal. I think we’ll have an important security role. -- John Bolton, then-Undersecretary of State for Arms Control & International Security, in 2002 ...
... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. The New York Times editors (not to be outdone by the Washington Post's editor Fred Hiatt) have chosen to run an op-ed by far-right flamethrower John Bolton (Dubya's recess appointment as ambassador to the U.N.) titled, "To Stop Iran's Bombs, Bomb Iran." CW: I didn't read it. Maybe Bolton makes a brilliant argument. ...
... Apparently Not. Sally Kohn of the Daily Beast: "There’s an old joke, or sort of joke, about how bombing for peace is like f*cking for virginity. In that analogy, John Bolton is trying to f*ck us all over." The basis for his argument? -- Just trust him.
Richard L. Revesz, former dean of New York University's School of Law, in a New York Times op-ed, takes constitutional scholar Larry Tribe to task for his "far-fetched arguments" on behalf of the coal industry, for his Fox-"News"-worthy hyperbole, & for lending his stature to rules (or lack of them) that kill.
Chris Johnson of the Washington Blade: "A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Obama administration from implementing a new rule to ensure married same-sex couples have access to the Family & Medical Leave Act even if they live in non-marriage equality states. In a 24-page decision, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, an appointee of George W. Bush, issued the preliminary injunction based on the threat of irreparable harm to Texas, which filed the lawsuit against the regulation." CW: Yes, I can see where an entire state suffers "irreparable harm" because the federal government is trying to stop the state from imposing irreparable harm to the fraction of couples on which the state is already imposing irreparable harm. Mean, discriminatory & nonsensical all make sense in Right Wing World.
Paul Krugman: "... recent job growth ... has big political implications — implications so disturbing to many on the right that they are in frantic denial, claiming that the recovery is somehow bogus. Why can’t they handle the good news? The answer actually comes on three levels: Obama Derangement Syndrome, or O.D.S.; Reaganolatry; and the confidence con."
Presidential Race
Louie Gohmert Special Edition
Cristina Marcos & Lucy Feikert of the Hill: "Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) ... first told The Hill that he might run for president in 2016.... Later Thursday, an aide told the Texas Tribune that Gohmert was not entirely serious." ...
... Margaret Hartmann of New York: "Even Louie Gohmert knows his presidential bid is a joke.... A Gohmert aide ... cit[ed] baldness as the main reason he'll never be elected president." CW: I myself was Ready for Louie till I noticed he was bald.
Manu Raju of Politico: "The 2016 Republican nomination contest spilled onto the Senate floor Thursday, turning a marathon budget debate into a battle over which candidate is prepared to lead the country at a time of war. Four GOP senators are trying to gain the upper hand on the commander-in-chief test — Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham — and their competition was on vivid display as the Senate took up a Rubio plan to pump tens of billions of dollars more into the Pentagon budget." ...
... Alex Rogers & Zeke Miller of Time: "Just weeks before announcing his 2016 presidential bid, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul ... introduced a budget amendment late Wednesday calling for a nearly $190 billion infusion to the defense budget over the next two years — a roughly 16 percent increase.... The move completes a stunning reversal for Paul, who in May 2011, after just five months in office, released his own budget that would have ... slash[ed] the Pentagon, a sacred cow for many Republicans."
Scott Walker Isn't Sure What His Position on Immigration Reform Is. Jason Stein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "... a Wall Street Journal story Thursday [said] that said [Gov. Scott] Walker had for the second time in a matter of weeks shifted his position on immigration by backing a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants at a private event in New Hampshire earlier this month.... Republican Party of New Hampshire chairwoman Jennifer Horn, [who attended the dinner,] ... said Walker's remarks at the event ... had been misconstrued to mean that he was for granting full citizenship to the millions of immigrants who are in the country illegally." Horn claimed that Walker said he was "for granting [undocumented workers] a lesser legal status if certain criteria [were] met. Those conditions included tightening security at the border and, in the case of the undocumented immigrants themselves, paying back taxes and not having a criminal record.... In an appearance on 'Fox News Sunday,' Walker told host Chris Wallace that he 'flat out' had changed his views on the issue, which in the past had allowed for a path to citizenship.... Kirsten Kukoski, a spokeswoman for Our American Revival, Walker's presidential campaign in waiting, said the group 'strongly disputes' the Wall Street Journal story." The WSJ story, which is firewalled, is here. ...
... Kerry Eleveld of Daily Kos: "Those are the political realities for the GOP — saying one thing to one audience and the exact opposite to another. But no one is proving quite so good at the flip-flop as Scott Walker...." ...
... Luke Brinker of Salon: "The great irony in Walker’s latest immigration U-turn is that it was likely intended to ease establishment-type Republicans’ doubts about his less-than-stellar candidacy, which has been tainted by unforced errors and unschooled answers on foreign policy, tensions with religious conservatives, and an inflammatory comparison of union protesters with ISIS." ...
... Scott Walker Goes to the Picture Shows. Joan Walsh of Salon: Foreign-policy expert Scott Walker (he's really been working on this!) explains the Middle East conflicts to movie buffs: "I remember the movie in the 80s…, you know, with Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy, it’s like Iran and Israel are trading places in the sequel. In the eyes of this president, our ally is supposed to be Israel. Our adversary has been historically Iran. And yet this administration completely does it the other way around. We need to call radical Islamic terrorism for what it is, and a commander-in-chief who’s willing to act." ...
... digby: "Honestly I cannot figure out why so many smart people think Walker is a formidable political talent. He's a typical GOP shallow, banal doofus without any of the macho swagger of Bush or the charisma of Reagan. You've got to have something and I cannot for the life of me see what it is he's supposed to have."
Brent Budowsky of the Hill: "... In two interviews on Tuesday [Ted Cruz] outdid [Scott] Walker with performances that were not merely two-faced but four-faced!" The first two faces concern his hated for ObamaCare that's so bad he told CNN's Dana Bash he would sign up for it. "For the third face of Cruz, he attacked Hillary Clinton ... for using private emails for government business, vowing he would never stand for such vile activity in a Cruz presidency! But for the fourth face of Cruz, in a must-see interview..., he told The Texas Tribune that he used private emails himself for Senate business, including vital matters of national interest. Will the House Benghazi Committee of Clinton inquisitions subpoena Cruz emails involving Armed Services Committee matters?" CW: Obviously, Budowsky doesn't understand Right Wing World rules, one of the first of which is, "It's okay when I do it."
Beyond the Beltway
Twentieth State Embraces Bigot Rights. Tony Cook of the Indianapolis Star: "The nation's latest legislative battle over religious freedom and gay rights came to a close Thursday when Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed a controversial 'religious freedom' bill into law. His action followed two days of intense pressure from opponents — including technology company executives and convention organizers — who fear the measure could allow discrimination, particularly against gays and lesbians. Pence and leaders of the Republican-controlled General Assembly called those concerns a 'misunderstanding.'"
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Reader Comments (22)
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World:
The co-pilot did his job. He wanted to become famous and he succeeded now that his photo is on the front page of every newspaper.
John Bolton is devoid of memory.
The idea that the rules that apply to Hillary or any other human also apply to Cruz is absurd. Ted is so perfect, he has no rules.
There are no truths, just Walkers.
And since you are free to follow whatever religious story you can concoct in Indiana, I presume that ISIS will move in soon. After all, in Indiana, religious based beheading are now perfectly legal.
Harry Reid is hanging up his hat and bidding us adieu. He is going to retire which given his long term in Congress and his latest eye problems it is time to say goodbye. Who will be the lucky ducky that takes over as leader? Names? Anyone?
Misconstrue you think we do, Mike Pence, you punk! It's called discrimination all rolled up in a soft blanket of freedom of religion crap. There is no "mis" in your construct, Mike, you'd just like us to think so.
" The Federal Aviation Administration mandates that a flight attendant must sit in the cockpit when either pilot steps into the passenger area; European regulations do not have a similar two-person rule."
I betcha they will now!
Wait....Gohmert is bald?
I never noticed. It's so hard to get past that yapping mouth, constantly open, spewing waste products from that cesspool of a brain.
It just shows the complete lack of seriousness for these people. "I wanna be president" "No, me" "Oh, I was just kidding" "No wait, I could be president but I'm bald" "Hey, over here, look at me! I can be president too!" "As soon as I finish this diabetes snake oil spot, you can vote for me!" "God told me to be president" "I beat up on teachers and I can beat up on terrorists! Vote for me." "Forget what I said about defunding the Pentagon. They need billions more! Vote for me."
Really?
And the idiocy just keeps on keepin' on.
Republicans are so culturally retarded, both high culture, low culture, historical culture, scientific culture, you name it. Inept, ill informed, cretinous, pick your own descriptor.
So the other day we had to inform Ted Cruz that his Galileo comparison was so inapt as to be virtually unintelligible, except insofar as it offered insights into his woeful misunderstanding of history and effective analogizing.
Today, we have Little Scottie Walker comparing Iran and Israel to the movie "Trading Places". Okay. So let's analogize.
The schtick in the movie involves Dan Akroyd, a successful white banker, being forced to trade places with a down and out black con man of sorts played by Eddie Murphy. The trade is forced by a couple of 1% capitalists who are fucking with people for their own amusement.
Murphy and Akroyd, once they discover they're being played by the capitalists, join forces and screw the billionaires, bankrupting them, and causing one of them to collapse on the floor of the NY stock exchange with a heart attack. They take the capitalists' money, after destroying them, and live happily ever after on a tropical island, which they have purchased.
So what is Walker implying with his analogy? That the US (the capitalists) is fucking with Israel and Iran who will now join forces to destroy us? Is that we he sees? Because that's the only comparison that makes sense. Akroyd and Murphy become great allies and friends. Does he see Likud making nice with the mullahs at our expense?
A child would not make so inapt and ridiculous a comparison. But Walker must have been up for nights thinking of this. Or maybe he was just winging it. Either way it demonstrates a shocking lack of both general knowledge and a mastery of basic thought processes. Remember the analogy section of the SAT's we all took in high school? It was supposed to demonstrate one's basic cognitive processing skills and facility with language. No wonder Walker never finished college. He was too busy trying to figure out "apples are to oranges as oil is to water."
So what Walker is really suggesting with his terrible analogy is:
Israel and Iran are to capitalists in Trading Places as the Allies were to the Axis powers during WWII, or something equally deranged.
Another idiot who thinks he should be given the nuclear codes.
P.S. to see exactly how idiotic this analogy is, watch this short clip from Trading Places. Eddie Murphy still has the best shit eating grin. And, oh yeah, I almost forgot. Al Franken and his partner Tom Davis had a small role in this movie too. Pretty funny scene.
Re: Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act
A gay commenter on another site said that he did not have a problem with such laws IF the person, group or business exercising that right made it perfectly clear in all of their signage, advertising, website, etc. specifically which individuals and/or groups were prohibited on religious grounds.
This commenter said that if he was making a restaurant reservation, the restaurant should tell him at that time whom they excluded. If they did not do so and he and his partner showed up and were refused service, that business should be prosecuted for false advertising. Same applies to hotels and other businesses.
We are all familiar with the No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service signs. Well, just add: No Blacks, No Gays, No Lesbians, No Transgenders, No Jews, No Left-Handed Hunch Backs Who Raise Angora Rabbits. (Its the rabbits.) Iwouldn't want to be any place that let me know up front that they didn't want me.
But, I'll bet that such a provision is not apart of the law in any of the 20 states that have such laws. These.......... want the opportunity to humiliate the unsuspecting who cross their thresholds.
Five years ago a Christian man walked into Johns Hopkins two weeks before Christmas and said he wanted to donate a kidney to someone who badly needed one to live. I was that someone. If it weren't for him and his wife's example as well as one other, I could say without qualification that I never met a religious person worth pissing on if she/he caught fire. But I can't say that and each of you probably has at least one similar experience.
Re; Scotty was watching movies when he should have been in his high school history class; "Our adversary has been historically Iran." Mr. Wanker, sir, way back in time, pre-history, but after man and dinosaurs roamed God's green earth together, say 1976, Iran was a recipient of billions of dollars of US military hardware. The shah of Iran was our BFF. Tehran was the "Paris of the Middle East". The revolution changed all that. PS. The Kock brothers make the villain siblings in "Trading Places" seem like really nice guys.
Re: the Mike Pence Indiana Pro-Bigot Law
Funny isn't it, how freedom, in Republican hands, is a zero sum game? More freedom for wingers means less for everyone else. Freedom to strut around waving guns in people's faces means less freedom from fear of those idiots for everyone else. Freedom to enforce voting restrictions and freedom of corporations and billionaires to throw untraceable, anonymous, unlimited money into elections means less democracy for everyone else. Freedom to legally discriminate means....well, you get the idea.
Basically, the idea is that freedom is only for Confederates. No one else need apply.
Fundies who constantly throw Jesus in our faces should think about their routine question, which is, of course, purely rhetorical: what would Jesus do? From my understanding of the gospels, he tended to be a supporter of the downtrodden, the outcasts, those not aligned with the in-crowd. Prostitutes, criminals, outlaws, the sick, the homeless, those shunned by "polite" society, tended to show up in his teachings as people who were just as deserving of respect and care as anyone else. In fact, if I recall correctly, he taught that these were the people most deserving of concern, not the rich, the powerful, the connected.
I don't recall any gospel story where Jesus teaches that it's fine and dandy to reject anyone because they don't fit in with your group.
These people are hypocrites on so many levels. Makes me wish there really would be a fiery reckoning for these bigoted douchebags.
Digby has a good piece on Senator Cruz' propfessed conversion to country music.
http://www.salon.com/2015/03/25/ted_cruzs_country_music_drivel_whats_really_behind_his_musical_conversion/
The final lines show how Digby can cut through the fog and get to the heart of a matter:
"That pandering comment is so awkward and calculated it makes him sound like an automaton. In fact, it’s very hard to believe that Ted Cruz has any interest in music at all. The image that comes to mind when you see him isn’t some guy rocking out to the Stones or singing along to “The Angry American.” It’s Richard Nixon walking on the beach in his black socks and wing tips."
Patrick,
Would those be black knee socks held up by garters while sporting around in his speedo?
Unwashed: No, that famous photo had a contemplative Nixon walking on the beach in his dark suit, white shirt, tie, black socks and wingtips. It is iconic Nixon, showing his inability to be anything but what he was.
He may have been wearing garters; doubt there was a speedo under that suit.
Patrick,
I had a similar reaction to reading that Cruz was upset with Rock music and had given up on it, presumably because there weren't enough "Kill the Mooslims" rock anthems being written. A while back I did a little review of Confederates and their musical likes and dislikes. It's pretty pathetic, and like Digby, I seriously doubt Cruz has a musical bone in his body. Music is too great a gift to exist alongside so much hatred and arrogance.
Plus, Ted Cruz confessing that he gave up on Rock and Roll is like David Koch revealing that he was once a longtime subscriber to the International Socialist Review.
Oh, and Unwashed, I really, really didn't need that image of Nixon. Oh god! Must clear visual cortex now...
Check this out before it gets quashed:
GOP stooge and talking points machine Cathy McMorris Rodgers (you remember her brain dead "response" to the SOTU in which she used a manufactured horror story about the ACA, ie, a complete lie?) is at it again.
Like most GOPers she isn't interested in made up bullshit designed to support a preconceived conclusion, she wants facts, dammit, and truth and reality.
*snicker*
Rodgers makes a heartfelt plea on her Facebook page for her constituents to please, please, pretty please, send her horror stories about their experience with the ACA, and ONLY horror stories.
Instead, she's being inundated with positive responses, wonderful stories of hope and relief, responses from people so grateful to have insurance, to be able to help loved ones with pre-existing conditions, and so incensed that she and her cronies are working hard to deprive them of their right to healthcare.
I'm sure these comments will all be wiped clean very shortly so check them out. They're coming in fast and furious. I have yet to see a single "horror story", at least not the kind demanded by Rodgers.
Such assholes, these people. Let's hold no truck with truth. We only want to hear what we want to hear, just what fits in with our plan to fuck the average American.
Give me your horror stories! NOW, dammit! The Facebook page.
McMorris's lies about her own background. She ain't who, or what, she claims to be. Surprised? Don't be. She's a Republican.
Anti-woman demagoguery from Rodgers, the GOP's token female talking point machine. This is a wild read from one very, very pissed off woman.
Re: only two kinds of music, country and western; Best thing about
C and W? Play it backwards and you get out of debt, your horse comes back and the dog "din't" die. Funny enough, real country and western did sing about social injustice. When it went spanglie and money driven it lost its soul. I like American music, I don't think much about today's C and W or R and R. Mozart's piano concerto number 10 in E flat for two pianos is stirring my soul these days. Oh, and 'All along the Watchtower' as recorded by Jimi Hendrex
@Akhilleus: I saw the McMorris Rodgers story at Daily Kos and have to agree with you that the comments she received on her Facebook page, many of which were listed in the story, were just great. Many apparently heartfelt descriptions of what the Act meant to the writer, their family or society. Some very pointed barbs at the Republi-Cons lack of any plan. So if the Facebook page "disappears" there is still this article:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/26/1373574/-GOP-Congresswoman-Deluged-in-ACA-Success-Stories-Responds-Repeal-Obamacare
Sorry, I thought the reference was of Cruz emulating Nixon, sans suit. Still a sight that can't be unseen.
Christ, Cruz in garters and a Speedo might even be worse, because you have that face of insanity to go along with it. The Tricky One always looked shady and cunning but he never looked creepy-demented, like Cruz.
Victoria,
Thanks for the alternative site for the McMorris "horror stories". I guess I was wrong thinking that she would shut down the comments and delete any posting that declared the ACA more than just satisfactory but revelatory and life changing.
What's going on is what you see on so many sites these days. McMorris has gotten (or has been bailed out by) wingnut trolls who are attacking anyone who dares to say they're happy with the ACA. They're being called stupid and ignorant and sadly mistaken. And those are the nice comments.
This is the way Confederates do it. If you are defeated by facts, call in the troops who will scream that facts are wrong, that those who have anything positive to say about something wingnuts consider off limits will be attacked as fools or haters of America.
Confederate ideology has so much to answer for.
AK, In deference to the degraded reasoning skills instilled in students by today's curriculum, the Analogies portion (along with the Antonyms portion) of the Verbal section of the SAT was dropped in 2005. Next year, to mark the utter abandonment of the educational system's teaching of vocabulary, the Sentence Completion section of said test will also become history.
I work with students who have straight-A averages in high school and to whom Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto, Alexander Hamilton, and John C. Calhoun have no meaning. The ground has thus been prepared for politicians and demagogues whose inconsistencies and blunders will seldom be apparent because their listeners have such a limited frame of reference.
Jack,
I couldn't be more disheartened by that news. It's a pristine example of the way public education has been deformed by those for whom that process has always been suspect. The Decider's No Child Left Educated plan is still in place across the country and children are no educated as much as instructed to be able to spit out rote answers.
The success of how right-wing ideology has warped education can be seen in this amazing article about the trials of a biology professor at the University of Kentucky, who is regularly attacked by students brainwashed by fundamentalist Christian ignorance, for attempting to teach them evolutionary biology.
When I was in high school, I read about the Scopes Monkey Trial and I thought, well, thank goodness we're beyond that crazy bullshit now. That was back in the 70's! But today, decades later, we're back to 1920's Tennessee, and John Scopes is still on trial for daring to teach evolution. Republicans are directly to blame for this atrocity. They are directly to blame for instilling and insisting on pig ignorance.
The author of this amazing article, James Krupa points out that "We live in a nation where public acceptance of evolution is the second lowest of 34 developed countries, just ahead of Turkey...Where I live, many believe evolution to be synonymous with atheism, and there are those who strongly feel I am teaching heresy to thousands of students. A local pastor, wrote...that, not only was I teaching evolution and ignoring creationism, I was teaching it as a non-Christian, alternative religion."
This is some really hair raising stuff. Normally I would be upset that students aren't being taught how to think or how historical fact can and should be used to refine their thinking, but the Christian Ignorance Movement is far worse. And these are the people being pushed and pulled by witless, irresponsible assholes like Ted Cruz and Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, big deals in Kentucky who refuse to acknowledge the dangerous ideology they support and the damage it is doing to American students.
These people are truly traitors, not just to America, but to humanity and nature.
Unbelievably, Scott Walker is now claiming that attaining the rank of Eagle Scout has prepared him to be Commander-in-chief:
http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/govt-and-politics/election-matters/scott-walker-suggests-being-an-eagle-scout-has-prepared-him/article_a8f0957e-5f09-504b-961d-c67c2927eb23.html
Between this and his redefining national security as "safety", he sounds like an eager pre-teen who wants to help us across the street.
Every time I think he's going to be a formidable candidate, he shows his doofusness. Unfortunately, Republicans may not care.
Nadd2: No worry. In spite of what you my be lead to believe, Republicans are not stupid. But they are crafty, and likely they are playing Walker to get their own base awake and paying attention. When the moment's ripe, they'll dump him and anoint their usual android.