Phil Gramm's Porn Stash

July 15, 2008

Phil Gramm's recent disparaging of "a nation of whiners" complaining about a "mental recession" did more than offend the sensibilities of economically struggling Americans. His gaffe also served as a reminder that McCain had appointed one of the most reactionary, venal, and destructive political figures in recent times as his top econ man. By Sunday, the damage to the McCain campaign had grown so severe it announced that Gramm's role had been significantly reduced.

Phil Gramm attempted to invest $15,000 in "Truck Stop Women." His money ultimately helped produce a film portraying Richard Nixon wandering nude around the White House.

Gramm was an accident waiting to happen. Indeed, his gaffe represents little more than a scrap in the massive heap of wreckage he has left in his wake. Gramm's own presidential campaign in 1996 was among his most high-profile casualties. In order to win a whopping total of 8 delegates, the charisma-challenged Gramm had to spend $20 million, or about $2.5 million per delegate. This experience curiously translated into a job as one of McCain's key political advisors.

Hillary Votes No on FISA, Obama Votes Yes

July 9, 2008

Hillary Clinton just voted "no" on cloture and final passage of the FISA bill expanding the government's domestic spying powers and guaranteeing retroactive legal immunity for the telecom companies that assisted the spying program.

Barack Obama voted "yes."

The New York Times calls the passage of the bill "one of Mr. Bush's most hard-won legislative victories in a Democratic-led Congress where he has had little success of late. And it represented a stinging defeat for opponents on the left who had urged Democratic leaders to stand firm against the White House after a months-long impasse."

Hagee: The Antichrist Is Gay, "Partially Jewish"

June 2, 2008

On March 16, 2003, on the eve of the United States' invasion of Iraq, Pastor John Hagee took to the pulpit to warn of the coming Antichrist. In his sermon, "The Final Dictator," Hagee described the Antichrist as a seductive figure with "fierce features." He will be "a blasphemer and a homosexual," the pastor announced. Then, Hagee boomed, "There's a phrase in Scripture used solely to identify the Jewish people. It suggests that this man [the Antichrist] is at least going to be partially Jewish, as was Adolph Hitler, as was Karl Marx."

This "fierce" gay Jew, according to Hagee, would "slaughter one-third of the Earth's population" and "make Adolph Hitler look like a choirboy."

Hear Pastor Hagee's latest Judeophobic, anti-gay rant in this video, created by Bruce Wilson of Talk2Action.org

Joe Lieberman To Headline Pastor Hagee's Upcoming Summit

May 27, 2008

Senator Joseph Lieberman is scheduled to headline Pastor John Hagee's 2008 Christians United For Israel Washington-Israel Summit this July 22. In accepting Hagee's invitation, Lieberman became the most senior elected representative confirmed to appear at the annual gala. Last year, when Lieberman spoke at Hagee's summit, he compared the Texas televangelist to the biblical prophet Moses, dubbing him "an Ish Elochim," or "a man of God." Unless he rescinds his pledge to appear at this year's summit, Lieberman can be expected to deliver another soul-stirring tribute.

Hagee's vitriolic condemnation of Catholicism, his jeremiad declaring Hurricane Katrina divine punishment for New Orleans' hosting of a "homosexual rally," and his generally disturbing apocalyptic theology became national news last February when John McCain accepted his endorsement in a widely publicized ceremony.

While initially resisting pressure to reject Hagee's endorsement, McCain finally ended his relationship with Hagee when a sermon by the preacher describing the Holocaust as the will of God registered on the mainstream media's radar (Hear the now-infamous sermon here).

Does Lieberman Still See Hagee As Moses Incarnate?

May 23, 2008

During a press conference at the 2007 Christians United for Israel Washington-Israel Summit, I asked CUFI Executive Director Pastor John Hagee about passages in his book "Jerusalem Countdown" in which he appeared to blame Jews for their own persecution. Hagee was visibly piqued by my question, insisting that his statements were directly inspired by the Book of Deuteronomy. When I attempted to ask Hagee a follow-up question, a public relations agent, Kara Silverman, a former intern for AIPAC, cut me off.

Moments later, a team of off-duty DC police officers hired by CUFI surrounded my co-producer and I and demanded that we immediately leave the conference, threatening us with arrest if refused to comply. You can view my exchange with Hagee and the ensuing fracas at 7:45 of my video report on CUFI's summit, "Rapture Ready:"

Witnessing Republican Disaster in Mississippi

May 16, 2008

Last weekend, I traveled to Mississippi's first congressional district, a bastion of Republican power that has been home to William Faulkner, Elvis Presley, and the scene of massive riots on the night James Meredith attempted to integrate the University of Mississippi. With the district in the midst of a hotly contested special election campaign, I probed the impact of a million-dollar Republican strategy to attack the insurgent Democratic candidate, Travis Childers, by linking him to Barack Obama and Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

(See one of the GOP ads here).

See my Al Jazeera English report on Mississippi's special election

Frank Rich's American Daydream

May 12, 2008

This Sunday, Frank Rich reported some of the most exciting news that has appeared on the pages of the New York Times in a very long time. According to Rich, Americans are on the verge of transcending the racial and cultural rifts that divided them for centuries. There simply aren't "enough racists of any class in America, let alone in swing states, to determine the results come fall," the former theater critic insisted. This statement is so inherently true that Rich did not even need to bolster it with actual statistical evidence.

Rich went on to announce that the rancorous street fights of the 1960's over militarism and civil rights have been neatly transmuted into "quieter social activism and grand-scale social networking." "The millennials' bottom-up digital superstructure," he wrote, has enabled economically marginalized ghetto dwellers and indignant campus radicals to air their grievances with the simple click of a button. So sit back in your Aeron chair, relax and blithely tend to your Facebook page.

Mike Huckabee's White Supremacist Links

January 18, 2008

As South Carolina's Republican primary election draws nearer, Mike Huckabee has ratcheted up his appeals to the racial nationalism of white evangelicals. "You don't like people from outside the state coming in and telling you what to do with your flag," the former Arkansas governor told a Myrtle Beach crowd on January 17, referring to the Confederate flag. "If somebody came to Arkansas and told us what to do with our flag, we'd tell them what to do with the pole. That's what we'd do."

Making coded appeals to white racism is nothing new for Huckabee. Indeed, well before he was a nationally known political star, Huckabee nurtured a relationship with America's largest white supremacist group, the Council of Conservative Citizens. The extent of Huckabee's interaction with the racist group is unclear, but this much is known: he accepted an invitation to speak at the group's annual conference in 1993 and ultimately delivered a videotaped address that was "extremely well received by the audience."

Descended from the White Citizens Councils that battled integration in the Jim Crow South, including at Arkansas' Little Rock High School, the Council (or CofCC) has been designated a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Radical Cleric: The "Ad" Huckabee Doesn't Want You To See

January 7, 2008

On his way to winning Iowa, Mike Huckabee overtly traded on his evangelical culture war credentials. Besides marketing himself as a "Christian leader" and appearing beside a crucifix-shaped object while urging viewers to "celebrate the birth of Christ," Huckabee rallied Christian right audiences away from the media's klieg lights against the "holocaust of liberalized abortion." He has called for quarantining homosexuals, compared homosexuality to necrophilia, and cozied up to rapture ready fanatics from Tim LaHaye to Pastor John Hagee to huckster televangelist Kenneth Copeland, whose corrupt fundraising practices have earned him a subpoena from Republican Senator Charles Grassley.

Huckabee, an ordained minister, is not simply a Christian leader. He is a radical cleric.

Right-Wing Trolls Mock Clinton Hostage Situation

November 30, 2007

As the hostage situation at Hillary headquarters in New Hampshire unfolds, right-wing message boards like Free Republic are lighting up with sarcastic, conspiratorial, and even celebratory commentary.

Many Freepers joked that the hostage taker, a man claiming to have a bomb, was really a Clinton "plant." A few examples of conservative "humor:"

To: raccoonradio

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