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Want to be lieutenant governor? Apply online

Illinois is soon going to be so messed up of a state that above headline is not even funny anymore.

Illinois Democrats accepting applications to be Gov. Quinn’s running mate
Embarrassed by the debacle that led to their lieutenant governor nominee dropping from the ticket, Illinois Democrats on Friday began an online open casting call for applicants interested in serving as Gov. Pat Quinn’s running mate in November.Read more at feeds.chicagotribune.com
 

The Secret Political Reach Of ‘The Family’

Amplifyd from www.wbur.org

You may recognize these names from recent headlines: Sen. John Ensign, Rep. Bart Stupak and Rep. Joe Pitts. Stupak and Pitts have become familiar names through the media’s health care overhaul coverage; their abortion funding amendment introduced an 11th-hour twist as the House of Representatives approached a vote on a landmark health care bill.

Ensign was the focus of media attention over his affair with a campaign staffer. Just last night, a Nevada man disclosed that he found out about his wife’s affair with the state’s junior senator — his best friend — via a text message.

The common factor among these political players is their involvement with the Family, a secretive fellowship of powerful Christian politicians that centers on a Washington, D.C., townhouse. Investigative journalist Jeff Sharlet has written extensively about the influential group in his book The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power.

Read more at www.wbur.org
 

The Ungrateful Sarah Palin

Amplifyd from www.nytimes.com
the most sustained and vehement barbs in this book are directed not at Democrats or liberals or the press, but at the McCain campaign. The very campaign that plucked her out of Alaska, anointed her the Republican vice-presidential nominee and made her one of the most talked about women on the planet — someone who could command a reported $5 million for writing this book.Read more at www.nytimes.com
 

Republicans Face Backlash, Top Democrats Warns

Leave that to FOX for making such media headlines!

Amplifyd from www.foxnews.com

Democrats Face Electoral Backlash After Health Care Vote, Top Republican Warns

Read more at www.foxnews.com
 

The World according to Americans

Ever wonder why evangelicals look to the GOP as God’s Ordained Party?

VA gubernatorial candidate explains

McDonnell’s thesis provides one of the clearest expressions I’ve found of the conservative evangelical mindset — especially its view of the appropriate God-ordained roles of church, government and family in society, and its reliance on the Republican Party “to restore the proper balance of church, family and state authority.”

Here are a few excerpts from pages 11-17, wherein McDonnell explains The Nature of Authority of the Family:

“Each institution in society has been instituted by God for specific, limited purposes . . . Family arises out of this divinely created covenant of marriage between and man and a woman, the terms of which can neither be originally set nor subsequently altered by the parties or the state. … the family as a God-ordained government has an area of sovereignty within which it is free to carry out the duties it owes to God, society and other family members under this covenantRead more at newsweek.washingtonpost.com
 

Brilliant Idea by WH: Tweet Your Senator

Brilliant idea.

And they say Twitter was blocked in WH.

Amplifyd from www.barackobama.com
Tweet Your Senator
We’re calling and writing letters — and now there’s a new way to contact your representatives.


Enter your zip code in the box below to “tweet” one of your senators to tell them to support real health insurance reform this year.


Please use all the hashtags provided so we can track your tweets on the map to the right.

Read more at www.barackobama.com
 

Glenn Greenwald: We wouldn’t want to inflame anti-American sentiment

Amplifyd from www.salon.com
But what is ultimately even more amazing is the claim that suppressing these photographs is necessary to prevent an inflammation of anti-American sentiment in the Muslim world generally and Afghanistan specifically.  That claim is coming from the same people who are doing this:
Up to 100 civilians, including women and children, are reported to have been killed in Afghanistan
The Obama administration has told a federal judge that military detainees in Afghanistan have no legal right
American soldiers opened fire and killed a 12-year old boy
The Obama administration is weighing plans to detain some terror suspects on U.S. soil
In a federal court hearing in San Francisco this morning, a representative of the Justice Department said it would continue the Bush policy
The Israel Air Force used a new bunker-buster missile that it received recently from the United States
We’re currently occupying two Muslim countries.  We’re killing civilians regularlyRead more at www.salon.com
 

And now, the very same people who are doing all of that are claiming that they must suppress evidence of our government’s abuse of detainees because to allow the evidence to be seen would “inflame anti-American sentiment.” It’s not hard to believe that releasing the photos would do so to some extent — people generally consider it a bad thing to torture and brutally abuse helpless detainees — but compared to everything else we’re doing, the notion that releasing or concealing these photos would make an appreciable difference in terms of how we’re perceived in the Muslim world is laughable on its face.

Arundhati Roy in Pakistan: “I’m here to understand what you mean by Taliban”

Amplifyd from www.dawn.com
A Taliban boy asked me why women can’t be like plastic bags and banned. The point is that the plastic bag was made in a factory but so was the boy. He was made in a factory that is producing this kind of mind(set). (The question is) who owns that factory, who funds it? Unless we deal with that factory, dealing with the boy doesn’t help us. 
Celebrated Indian author and social activist Arundhati Roy addresses a gathering at the Karachi Press Club on FridayRead more at www.dawn.com
 

Arundhati Roy, you are awsome!

David Frum: Why Rush is Wrong

Hope David Frum does not end up apologizing as well.

Amplifyd from www.newsweek.com

Every day, Rush Limbaugh reassures millions of core Republican voters that no change is needed: if people don't appreciate what we are saying, then say it louder. Isn't that what happened in 1994? Certainly this is a good approach for Rush himself. He claims 20 million listeners per week, and that suffices to make him a very wealthy man. And if another 100 million people cannot stand him, what does he care? What can they do to him other than … not listen? It's not as if they can vote against him.

But they can vote against Republican candidates for Congress. They can vote against Republican nominees for president. And if we allow ourselves to be overidentified with somebody who earns his fortune by giving offense, they will vote against us. Two months into 2009, President Obama and the Democratic Congress have already enacted into law the most ambitious liberal program since the mid-1960s. More, much more is to come. Through this burst of activism, the Republican Party has been flat on its back.

Read more at www.newsweek.com