The site for ranting and reporting by John Masters
I guess you might think I’m doing a parody, but you’d be wrong. So help me, the Republican Congressional Leadership is spinning so hard right now, I think they have made themselves dizzy. In one of the most bizarre “spins” of this whole Foley episode, House Speaker Denny Hastert has managed to blame it all on “terrorists.”
Read moreKatherine Harris, as quoted in the Florida Baptist Witness: Separation of church and state is “a lie we have been told,” Harris said in the interview, published Thursday, saying separating religion and politics is “wrong because God is the one who chooses our rulers.” “If you’re not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin,” Harris said.
Read moreUnfortunately, that’s a statement that will piss of a few people. It’s made by Randall Balmer, is a professor of American religious history at Barnard College. In an essay from his book, Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America: An Evangelical’s Lament, Balmer talks about how, “The leaders of the religious right have led their sheep astray from the gospel of Jesus Christ to the false gospel of neoconservative ideology and into the maw of the Republican Party.”
Read moreRepublicans are packaging as “reform” a plan that would gut FISA, leaving the president free to spy on Americans without obtaining a warrant. A NY Times editorial expresses appropriate outrage at this cynical ploy to shield the president’s lawless behavior:
Read moreFor some time, the conservative “position” on health care has been a stalwart commitment to the status quo, resisting any proposals for sweeping reform. Two new studies comparing global health data — one by American Progress distinguished senior fellow Tom Daschle, another by the Commonwealth Fund — spell out what this position entails: conservatives apparently are content with a health care system that ranks #37 in the world (behind both developed and developing countries).
Read moreThis guy fits right in with the current crop of Republicans. During his 1990 nomination as an appeals court judge, Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito promised to recuse himself, to avoid potential conflicts of interest, in cases “involving Vanguard, in which he owned mutual fund shares; Smith Barney, his brokerage firm; First Federal Savings & Loan of Rochester, N.Y., which held his home mortgage; and his sister’s law firm.”
Read moreWith great fanfare, and recalling the “Gingrich Revolution” of the 1990s, House conservatives yesterday proposed a broad set of spending cuts they said would help offset the costs of the Katrina reconstruction effort. Their plan reduces the budget by $500 billion over 10 years, and does so in large part by dismantling programs that invest in middle- and working-class Americans.
Read moreWithout a doubt, Tom Delay is most likely one of the most corrupt politicians to ever walk the halls of the Capital. I?d been wondering why the Republicans had been going out of their way to protect him, but now the light is dawning.
Read more