Thought Crimes? Oh Really

There is a story making the rounds you can expect to see the religious right latch onto in their desperate attempts to paint the pending Hate Crimes Legislation as something that will make “thoughts” illegal. They’re even calling it the “Thought Crimes” Bill. This is about the case of a 16-year-old teen in Crystal Lake, Illinois who was arrested for passing out a flyer?

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Miracle on DOJ Street

Steve Benen, in a post at Crooks and Liars makes an excellent point about the U.S. Attorney firings. It seems that all these high ranking Justice Department officials have been asked who created the list of the U.S. Attorneys to be fired, and none of them know. I guess given Bush’s divine dispensation, it just floated down from heaven.

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Good Old Fashioned Christian Morality

Campbell County authorities arrested a Liberty University student for having several homemade bombs in his car. The student, 19-year-old Mark D. Uhl of Amissville, Va., reportedly told authorities that he was making the bombs to stop protesters from disrupting the funeral service.

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Wingnuts in North Carolina Just Won't Give Up

The North Carolina wingnuts here will not quit. House Bill 493 is back and the Republicans in the North Carolina General Assembly are trying to bring it to a floor vote next week by using a procedural end-run to recall the anti-gay amendment from the Rules Committee.

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The Loyal Opposition?

Here are a couple of people explaining why gay people shouldn’t be able to marry. I’m not sure which is more scary, their beliefs or the fact they are loose in society. I do know one thing, I don’t want the first guy (making a huge point of being engaged), to actually marry and procreate. He does not need to be in the gene pool.

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Tampa Televangelist Slams Mitt Romney

While some evangelical Christians are defending the presidential candidacy of Mormon Mitt Romney from an attack by Al Sharpton, another prominent pastor is going further in his condemnation – saying a vote for the former Massachusetts governor is a vote for Satan.

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Your Papers Please.

The Department of Homeland Security will move forward with plans to implement the REAL ID Act despite widespread opposition from citizens and state legislatures. But DHS spokesman Russ Knocke said Tuesday that even the states which have already passed laws or resolutions against the act would eventually come around and implement the national identification standards, because the citizens who now oppose it would start demanding it.

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Civil Penalties if Authorities Merely Misinterpret Your Intentions

Sen. Kennedy’s bill, S. 735, the so-called Terrorist Hoax Improvements Act of 2007. The act would, among other things, attach civil liability to anyone whose actions were misinterpreted by authorities as being a hoax and who didn’t immediately notify those authorities about the actual nature of the incident.

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