Three cheers for Ryan Lizza. On "Morning Joe" on Monday morning, he refuted the conventional Beltway wisdom that "both sides" are to blame for the political gridlock in Washington.

MEACHAM: What does the White House, I should say attribute the polarization to at this point and if the identified the problems can they do something to solve them?

LIZZA: I think two things that aren't that complicated, polarization, two parties moving to the left and right, but it’s not just polarization and I think where a lot of reporters have trouble describing this phenomenon accurately. Frankly, you have one party that has gone much farther to the extreme than the other. The Republican party has been pushed much farther to the right than the Democratic Party. So we don't have polarization, we have asymmetric polarization.

SCARBOROUGH: I just want to state for the record -- let the record reflect, I disagree. Go ahead. This is your time.

LIZZA: I think there’s some pretty, if you look closely at some of the political science behind that – I think you’d have a hard time making the case that the Democrats in Congress have gone as far to the left as the Republicans have gone to the right.

Scarborough lamely tried to refute Lizza’s point by suggesting that what unnamed Democrats said about George W. Bush was just as bad as what Glenn Beck is saying today about Obama. That’s nonsense, of course – there were no elected Democrats comparing George W. Bush to Hitler on the floor of the House or calling him a racist on national television.

But political rhetoric isn’t what Lizza was talking about.

As Nate Silver demonstrated with hard data, the Democratic Party is still a party primarily of moderates, and the GOP is totally dominated by conservatives. And even that doesn’t take into account how far right the scale has been titled over the past 30 years.

Back in the '50s, an era conservatives romanticize, Dwight Eisenhower presided over a 91% marginal rate on the wealthy and launched the biggest public works project in US history -- which was paid for by tax increases.

During the '80s, another favorite decade of the right-wing, Ronald Reagan raised taxes 12 times -- including one of the largest tax increases in U.S. history -- and signed a bill that provided a path to citizenship for immigrants. Both of which would be unthinkable in today’s GOP.

Today, we live in an era in which a 35% tax on the highest earners constitutes tyranny, a $787B emergency measure to stave off a second Great Depression – over a third of which was tax cuts – is characterized as a historically unprecedented spending binge -- and the GOP's answer to immigration is to forcibly deport 12M people. Not to mention the fact that Senate Republicans have used the filibuster more than any other minority in history -- and that now it's commonplace for Republican presidential candidates to argue that the most popular programs of the New Deal and the Great Society should be eliminated.

Lizza should be applauded for getting this right. This “both sides have become equally extreme” stuff is just lazy and uninformed -- and should be throughly refuted every time it comes up.

Kinsey film pushes the religious right's buttons!

Check out this debate between Kristi Hamrick from "Focus on the Family" and Rev. Debra Haffner from the "Religious institute on Sexual morality."

Video

Hamrick: Kinsey embraced the mind of the sex offender. His research was a fraud!

Haffner: Kristi knows most of that is not true. He broke a silence in America about sexuality!

from AmericaBlog

Religious right to seek legislation to punish Hollywood? Today's Washington Post reports on the radical right's attack on the new movie about Kinsey. What the Post fails to report is that the freaks have been trying to smear Kinsey for at least ten years. They hope that by undermining the father of the sexual revolution they can undermine sex itself. Kind of a large point to miss, but oh well.

In any case, check out this little admission from Robert Knight, the chief anti-gay bigot of the religious right. Sounds like they now want to get laws passed by Congress that somehow punishes Hollywood every time it makes a movie the religious right doesn't like.

I'm serious folks, it's time to strike back, hard, against these little Hitlers.

Robert Knight, director of the conservative Culture and Family Institute in Washington, said evangelical Christian and Roman Catholic groups also want to bring to bear the political clout they demonstrated in the presidential election.

"Just as Reagan was not content to contain communism but announced a rollback, pro-family organizations are not content to protest the latest outrage anymore, but will seek legislation and will punish sponsors of lewd entertainment," he said.

Knight acknowledged, however, that some opponents of the Kinsey film may be reluctant to try to punish its distributor, Fox Searchlight, owned by conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

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A couple of months ago, a newly formed militia reared its head in a familiar place -- the Panhandle of Northern Idaho. Sisyphus at 43rd State Blues had a full description:

Sporting a photoshopped image of the Statue of Liberty with the torch replaced by an assault rifle, as well as displaying the flag from the "Republic of Idaho", another newly formed Idaho militia crawls out from the wilderness to register their displeasure with the status quo yet offering no solutions other than vague grade school platitudes and a thinly veiled threat of revolution. As is their wont they invoke the civil war cry of state sovereignty. ...

The General applied to be a sniper with them, and got a positive response. Kewl!

But it's not just northern Idaho. It's occurring across a broad swath of the Northwest, mostly in rural precincts, as a Missoulian story recently explored:

“It's the old Freemen days,” Anderson said. “That's what we're seeing here again. And it's not just Lincoln County.”

Lincoln County Detective Capt. Jim Sweet agrees that “there's an uprising of anti-government groups that's definitely connected to the election of the Obama administration.”

Law enforcement agencies throughout the multi-state region, Sweet said, are “talking about the patterns. It's obviously bigger than Lincoln County.”

People are afraid of losing gun rights, he said, and they're stockpiling weapons and ammunition, and they want a sheriff who will stand up to federal agents.

Continue reading »

Ari observes that Sarah Palin refused to acknowledge the existence of right-wing domestic terrorists in her NBC interview that aired last night:

Brian Williams: Back to the notion of terrorists and terrorism, this word has come up in relation to Mr. Ayers -- hanging out with terrorist – domestic terrorists. It is said that it gives it a vaguely post uh 9-11 hint, using that word, that we don’t normally associate with domestic crimes. Are we changing the definition? Are the people who set fire to American cities during the ‘60’s terrorists, under this definition? Is an abortion clinic bomber a terrorist under the definition?

Sarah Palin: There is no question that Bill Ayers via his own admittance was um one who sought to destroy our US Capitol and our Pentagon -- that is a domestic terrorist. There’s no question there. Now others who would want to engage in harming innocent Americans or um facilities, that uh, it would be unacceptable -- I don’t know if you could use the word terrorist, but its unacceptable and it would not be condoned of course on our watch. I don’t know if what you are asking is if I regret referring to Bill Ayers as an unrepentant domestic terrorist. I don’t regret characterizing him as that.

Williams: I’m just asking what other categories you would put in there. Abortion clinic bombers? Protesters in cities where fires were started, Molotov cocktails, were thrown? People died.

Palin: I would put in that category of Bill Ayers anyone else who would seek to destroy our United States Capitol and our Pentagon and would seek to destroy innocent Americans.

Well, just in case Mrs. Palin forgot, there was a running spate of domestic terrorism in the United States in the 1990s created by the far-right "Patriot" movement, much of it revolving around abortion and hatred of the federal government.

The signature event, of course, was the bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City in 1995. But that was hardly the end of it. Indeed, by the end of 1999, we were able to document over 40 such cases -- many of which were nipped in the bud before they reached fruition. Some were not.

It seems Palin needs a refresher course. The Jed Report video above mentions two abortion-clinic shooters, Paul Hill and Michael Griffin, who were among the murderous terrorists who inspired the federal law that protects abortion providers -- a law John McCain twice voted against.

But that was hardly all. Below, a rundown of other significant domestic terrorists:

Continue reading »

For quite a while, many of us have wondered whether Republican officials in Washington have any apparent talents at all. Governing is clearly not their strong suit, but are they completely without skills?

Absolutely not. The 49-member Senate Republican minority has done something no Senate minority in American history has ever done: they’ve filibustered more bills than any Congress ever has — and they broke the record with a full year to spare.

The latest came this morning, when the Senate GOP filibustered an omnibus budget bill, the 62nd Republican filibuster since the 110th Congress began in January.

“In just one session, a minority in Congress has prevented a mind-blowing 62 pieces of legislation from going to the floor for an up or down vote,” said Campaign for America’s Future co-director Roger Hickey. “Our report shows how over and over again, the uncompromising minority has thwarted the will of majorities in Congress and of the American people, holding the Senate floor hostage to a radical right-wing agenda.” […]

Eric Lotke, Campaign for America’s Future research director and lead author of the new report, calls the obstruction a “deliberate strategy.” He observes that the congressional Republicans block legislation, then blame the Democrats for getting nothing done. “It’s like mugging the postman and then complaining that the mail isn’t delivered on time.”

Brian Young, noting the historic quality of the achievement, added, “Only a group with a near-pathological disregard for the actual health of our democracy, only a group with a single-minded focus on the cynical political strategies of their consultants, only a group with an imperious disdain for the people of the country could’ve pulled off such a feat.”

Halfway There: The executive direction of the DCCC wants me to believe that passage of continued funding for the lraq war is a great Democratic victory and I should send a contribution to encourage the Democratic majority in Congress.

Facing South: What happened to Haley Barbour's "Mississippi Miracle"?

At the 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, I heard Jesse Jackson warn America to "Stay Out The Bushes." America didn't listen and most people don't realize how far off the road and into the Bushes we have been dragged.

DaddyBlogger: Are states abducting senior citizens for profit?

The Heretik: Welcome to the world of unlimited power from the people supposedly in favor of limited government. George Orwell says hello.

HOLY CRAP: A scheduled three-day celebration of the US Air Force's 60th anniversary will sponsored in part by evangelical Christian organizations...Among religious groups, Jewish Americans most strongly oppose the Iraq war...Huckabee in trouble with the Southern Baptist Convention...Bolt of lightning strikes a 33-foot statue of Jesus...The true meaning of Mitt's Mormonism...Spotlight on Christian terrorism...Radical Right irony watch...Rules are rules...Unloving behavior routinely displayed provides a clue that Christians are a minority in the US...Another Christian Science Fair embarrasses itself...To be a good Republican, you must believe...Orrin Hatch's song for Reverend Moon. Where are the leaders of America's vaunted Christian community, who should condemning this charlatan?...In the Age of Bush, it's nearly impossible to tell the difference between satire and some people's actual beliefs but neither political leadership or our pathetic press corps have noticed ...The Interfaith Alliance's State of Belief radio show...Morality: 2012...

Bill Moyers ran a special last night on PBS that examined the separation of church and state in the context of Pat Robertson's Regent University School of Law and its mission of "bring[ing] to bear the will of our Creator, Almighty God, upon legal education and the legal profession." Moyers paints a stark picture of a law school and a religious leader that are having a profound effect on the American system of law and government. Seeing Regent's newly graduated students talk about the philosophy they intend to bring to the practice of law (and most likely to the federal government) is frightening to anyone who appreciates the traditional notion of the separation between church and state.

Download | play Download | play PBS Video

O'Reilly likes to spout off about how radical and dangerous George Soros is to this country, but look what happens when you take his "Talking Points" and replace Soros and the left with Robertson and the right:

[F]ar right Evangelist Pat Robertson is buying political influence in America in an unprecedented way. Robertson is pouring tens of millions of dollars into far right Internet sites and organizations designed to intimidate Republican politicians and advance his radical right agenda.

At the center of this cluster is the notorious Christian Coalition, which has received at least $5 million from Robertson himself and an unknown amount from organizations he funds. Doesn't take a Jerry Falwell to figure out that Robertson now has direct access to the most powerful Republicans in the nation.
And now Robertson has set his sights on the political landscape here in America. He has his character assassins lined up. He has the Christian Coalition ready to move out. And he has direct access to the highest levels of our government.

Although BillO never articulates exactly what Soros's "far-left agenda" entails, it's pretty clear what Pat Robertson's "far-right agenda" is: To move America closer to a Christian theocracy that lives under under Biblical law; not secular Constitutional law. To any rational person, Robertson and the religious right are a far greater threat to American values and system of government than Soros could ever be.

This is a topic near and dear to my heart. So much of what I've done in my professional life is to raise and cultivate brand loyalty that it's not hard to recognize the Republicans' efforts to do the same with their own particular take of right-wing thinking.

Over the last few decades, the Republicans have been able to indoctrinate such brand loyalty that people vote against their own interests and demonize those who do. While there's no question that our short term goals should be to restore the balance in government in '06 and '08, we will only face these problems again unless we think long term as well.

Alternet:

For nearly 30 years, ultraconservatives have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in young people and built an infrastructure that initiates young people into the radical right movement through campus activism, leadership training and career development. Their investments have paid off. The radical right wing now controls the executive and legislative branches of government, and it's only one seat away from complete dominance of the Supreme Court.

If progressives want to achieve the same sort of political success that the radical right has enjoyed for the past two decades, we're going to have to do more than focus on the next round of elections and pay lip service to engaging young people. We must make a serious, long-term investment in our next generation of progressive leaders. Young people provide a vital infusion of ideas, energy and passion to the progressive movement right now, and their commitment to continued activism and leadership is critical to building a progressive future. Read on...

Talk Left:

"I have not forgotten that Judge Alito was only nominated after the radical right wing of the President's party forced Harriet Miers to withdraw. The right wing insisted that Justice O'Connor be replaced with a sure vote for their extreme agenda....read on

If it becomes clear Alito would vote to reverse Roe v. Wade, Americans would not want the Senate to confirm him, by 53% to 37%....read on

This poll shows that the radical right to be...radical.