Teabagging,Climate Change Deniers, and the Gulf

Taking up Grover Norquist's attack on Obama using the term "teabagging" to refer to the 2% of the American people, who march around with teabags on their head, Melissa Clouthier decided on Liberty Pundits website to reinforce this message by claiming Obama was actually being pornographic and suggested that fellow conservatives might not be aware of the practice called teabagging. So, she dutifully reproduced anatomically correct pictures of heterosexual teabagging, which looked like they came from a sex manual. They were great and should give young conservatives something to do at home.

Noemie Emergy, writing for the Washington Examiner in her capacity as a conservative manners observer, attacked Obama's Michigan speech where he urged more civility in our public discourse. She listed her complaints about Obama, including not criticizing Nancy Pelosi for "deliberately leading the Black Caucus" through the teabaggers on Tax Day. She also repeated the conservative lie that no one uttered the "N" at civil rights hero John Lewis, despite the testimony of eyewitnesses.

Sarah Palin has learned the lesson of the Gulf oil disaster, "Don't trust foreign oil companies."

The House Republicans are calling only one witness to testify among the many scientists on climate change--Lord Christopher Monckton, who once called Obama a "monster" and affirmed he was "born in Kenya." He is the chief policy adviser of the Public Policy Institute. As a non-scientist, he should out those eggheads in their places. He is also known for his article in the American Spectator during the height of the AIDs crisis "The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS" in which he advocated permanent quarantee for those infected. Sometimes, I post mentions of the beneficial effects Bill Buckley had on the conservative movement but least we forget Bill Buckley advocated tatooing gays for a way to detect possible transmitters of AIDS.

Michael Bloomberg had a simple proposal--close the loophole that allows people on the terrorist-watch list to buy guns. Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey introduced the bill in the Senate this afternoon but he was rebuffed by Susan Collins and Lindsey Graham. Graham afirming his commitment to national security , however, demurred on this ,saying it was an unnecessary violations of these persons' civil rights.

But that didn't deter Senator Lieberman from finding a co-sponsor for his bill to strip Americans of their citizenship if they are "affiliated with terrorist groups". None other than Scott brown is the patsy for this one.

The tea baggers, I guess, feel they are on a roll, despite the defeat yesterday of their candidates in the Republican primaries. They have come out against the 17th Amendment, which calls for the popular election of Senators. Instead, they want to return to the appointment of Senators by the states, which would reaffirm their belief in states' rights. Since 44% of all Congress are millionaires, maybe this is a great solution--Back to the Future. Can you imagine what kind of Senate we would have then. If this one isn't bad enough.

The Gulf Oil spill is being re-worked as Obama's Katrina. The Brownie figure, according to Drudge, is Secretary of the Interior Salazar, who has been targeted by oil companies since the beginning. Salazar was allegedly white water rafting down the Grand Canyon as the first leaks were reported. Curiously, conservatives didn't mention only days before Salazar inaugerated the world's biggest wind farm in Massachusetts, which will furnish much of the Northeast with its electricity upon its completion. Salazar cancelled the oil leases in the national parks provoking the anger of the oil companies as well as last minute deals made with Vice President Cheney. When the police start shooting blacks again on bridges going out of New Orleans, doctors start playing triage on patients and masses of refugees head for other states, then we can start talking Katrina.

The United States joined other nuclear powers in pledging today it would not engage in the testing of nuclear arms. Previously the United States had signed the test ban treaty but the Bush Administration had opted out because it felt it limited its policy options. This is a Big F Deal, in the words of Joe Biden.

President Obama ,who celebrates Cinco de Mayo, announced plans to begin the work this year on immigration reform in response to his commitment to Latino congresspeople.

Apparently Pennsylvania is not on the same page. Republican legislators introduced their own version of the Arizona immigration law. Asked about the criteria for stopping someone, the co-sponsor of the bill said, "it would be the subjective judgment of the police."

The Financial reform bill chugs away. There are about 166 different amendments and Harry Reid wants to wrap it up next week. The Republicans have already introduced their own plan for a consumer protection agency, which would gut the idea. Watch for the same on the regulation of derivatives.

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council responded to his cofounder Rev. Rekers consorting with a gay prostitute. He claims to have "searched the historical record of his group" and did find such a name linked to it in its first year. But he claims not to know Rev. Rekers and says no one from the group has heard from him in a decade. Perkins then went on to condemn evangelical pastors who engage in such behavior.