Jesus' General: Wingnut heads explode over Arab beauty queen

First Draft: Democrat about to be pilloried for doing sh*t only Dick Cheney gets to do

Raw Story: What spill? Rig owner approves $1 billion dividend to shareholders

Mondoweiss: Noam Chomsky denied entry by Israel

Liberal Values: Texas Board of Education continues using curriculum standards to rewrite US history

Whiskey Fire: Conservatism as an intellectual movement

From NOW on PBS--Power Struggle. More available here.

This is what I hate having to explain to my relatives and friends abroad in Europe about politics in the US. We know that global warming is a fact. We know that our actions, if they didn't cause global warming, definitely exacerbate it. We know that we must reduce our dependency on oil, for both ecological and political/strategic reasons. And yet, what we are able to do is hampered so predictably by the Republican party:

Here we go again. James Inhofe, the most prominent climate change denier in the United States Senate, has concocted a new and innovative strategy to thwart the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act. To wit, he and his Republican colleagues on the Environment and Public Works Committee have worked up a plan to simply not show up for next week’s markup:

But Boxer cannot hold the markup unless at least two Republicans show up, and EPW ranking member James Inhofe (R-Okla.) signaled that he has unanimous support among the panel’s minority members to boycott the session until they get more data on the legislation from U.S. EPA and the Congressional Budget Office.

Inhofe said he will wait for Boxer to file an official notice of the markup — expected today — before responding with his own declaration of the GOP’s markup strategy.

“As soon as we find out what her announcement is and what she wants to do, we’ll have our response,” Inhofe told E&E last night. “We’ll have our unanimous expression ready.”

Sadly, this is a continuation of the GOP’s longstanding strategy of delaying clean energy legislation:

• As Chairman Markey shepherded his American Clean Energy and Security Act through the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Republicans employed multiple parliamentary tricks to — as Politico put it — “nitpick the bill into legislative oblivion.” Brian Beutler called these nefarious stall tactics, and noted that Democrats responded by hiring a speed reader.
• Last year during the debate over the Climate Security Act, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell demanded that the entire 491 page bill be read on the floor of the United States Senate. A strategy memo was leaked at the time detailing the Republican strategy for delaying the bill as much as humanly possible.

While this Republican obstructionism is not necessarily surprising, it is especially egregious this time. Here are a few things about this episode that struck me:

1. Despite the fact that Senator Inhofe has been working to orchestrate this obstruction for a week now, Republicans are pretending the effort is being led by the two moderate Republicans on the committee. Politico handled the stenography.

The Politco, acting as a mouthpiece for the Republican Party? Say it isn't so!

Can you imagine how much further we'd get in this country if we didn't have so many idiots in office?

If that isn't a perfect microcosm of the muddied thinking of a neo-conservative, I don't know what is. It's the conservatives that suffer from bad p.r., that's all. It has nothing to do with the fact that their policies have been proven to either not work or just be monumentally bad for most of the country...they're so secure that their belief system is right that the only problem is they just don't have a good branding. Call it "chocolate" and immediately 65-70% of the people would want to be them.

PBS host of Think Tank Ben Wattenberg makes the very serious misjudgment of appearing on The Daily Show to push his book, Fighting Words, with his vague talking points that just don't hold up to Jon Stewart's logic, and the only thing he can say to Stewart is "be serious now." Dude, you're on Comedy Central and it's clear who the only clown on that stage was.

Yesterday kicked off David Horowitz's much-anticipated "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week" college tour which, according to his website, was to stop at 200 university and college campuses -- including such prestigious schools and Yale and Princeton. So what happens when these schools are contacted and asked about their participation in this ridiculous event? Turns out they have no idea what Horowitz is talking about. Turns out even Jerry Falwell Liberty University doesn't want anything to do with it.

Josh Marshall has more:

Bogus Intel Used in Fight with Islamofascism

Hmmm. I've never been an advocate of kicking a buffoon when he's down. But it seems our friend David Horowitz may be padding his list of colleges and universities participating in Islamofascism Awareness Week (aka "the biggest conservative campus protest ever"). According to ThinkProgress, Horowitz has already been caught adding names of schools that aren't participating in his mumbojumbo in any way. Indeed, they even got caught listing Liberty University, the school Jerry Falwell founded. But now Liberty has demanded their name be removed.

Do we have any C&L readers from these schools who can confirm or deny?

From the Vault: In case you need another example of how much of a clown David Horowitz is -- you don't -- check out his stirring defense of Coulter's attack on 9/11 widows from Larry King last year.

The Agonist: The Iraq Study Group says the U.S. should leave one of these days...

BobGeiger.com: In what has become a routine event, the cultish bloggers for Bush have been proven wrong again...

The Brad Blog: An audit of Sarasota county's touch-screen voting machines has found several discrepancies, most prominently in Florida's disputed 13th Congressional District race

Hoffmania! "San Francisco Values"

The Intersection: Scalia, clown of Climate Science and self-confessed IDIOT

HOLY CRAP: Yet another Christianist pedophile (though not yet in rehab)...Alabama license plates...Catholic neocons went to Rome to try to sell the war to the Vatican...

As usual-Bill dismisses the merits of the actual story so he can attack websites that criticize him. Last night on "The Factor" was a case in point. Juan " Letterman is a clown killer" Williams, performed at his most ineffectual best.

Download | play -WMP Download | play -QT

Juan: I couldn't agree more. That's exactly what's going on. My only point to you is it's happening on both sides, that when you hear-

Bill: The left is much worse.

Williams: Well, I -- look --

Bill: We've done an analysis of the websites.--It's organized terror. That's what's going on. And you say it happens on the right. Not nearly to the extent that it's happening on the left.

Let's see Bill's analysis. Don't hold your breath. I wish I had a few of those millions that O'Reilly says is funding us.

THE DAILY DELAY: A site entirely devoted to the most corrupt politician in Washington.

King of Zembla: In the November Atlantic, Richard Clarke, counterterrorism chief under Clinton and (briefly) under Bush, raises the distressing possibility that Michael Chertoff is not the only one who has learned a thing or two from his mistakes. Terrorists have televisions as well.

Petrelis Files: Fox News Reporter Plays Lesbian Matchmaker for Condi Rice?

Brave New Coffee Pot: Where is Pat Tillman's Journal?

firedoglake says Libby is the perfect villain. Nobody is going to have sympathy for some smirking, Ivy League, summer-in-the-Hamptons silver spoon clown named Scooter.
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firedoglake says Libby is the perfect villain. Nobody is going to have sympathy for some smirking, Ivy League, summer-in-the-Hamptons silver spoon clown named Scooter.

This is a disturbed man. Didn't Jesus think more of the poor and the less fortunate of us? Pat's praying for Operation Supreme Court Freedom.” and oh so badly wants more judges off the current court. Pat is the type of Circus Clown that Jesus would kick to the curb. When "God's Own Circus" talk about the constitution, they really mean the Ten Commandments.

Watch this video: Broadband Dialup

Members of a church say God is punishing American soldiers for defending a country that harbors gays, and they brought their anti-gay message to the funerals Saturday of two Tennessee soldiers killed in Iraq.... The Rev. Fred Phelps, founder of Westboro Baptist in Kansas, contends that American soldiers are being killed in Iraq as vengeance from God for protecting a country that harbors gays...read on"

This Circus Clown is definitely in the "Hall of Fame." Will the media cover this or protect Phelps because he aligns himself with religion?

via Eschaton has a poll posted: CNN just flashed up poll results regarding Roe. 65% want a justice who would uphold Roe. 47% of Republicans want a justice who would uphold Roe (verus 46% who want one who would overturn it).

Also check out his Muppet Show. I need to get those puppets to join God's Clown Circus.