Link Dump

how civil forfeiture enriches  u.s. law enforcement

the typical black household has 6% of the wealth of white households

political liberals display greater happiness

the top u.s. cities for douchebags

melting sea ice will hit the u.s. harder than anywhere else

seaworld twitter campaign backfires terribly
capitalism destroying our planet?

it is time to say goodbye to america's fraternities?

someone at the NYPD has been editing wikipedia to make the cops look good
wind could be the main source of electricity by 2050
people on foodstamps make healthier grocery decisions than most of us

stop calling children's gun deaths 'accidental'

father of the 401(k) says he 'created a monster'

the war on drugs is a racist class war

Republicans Write Letter To U.N. Encouraging Countries To Ignore Obama

Sound Familiar?

Bravo Republicans, thanks to your tireless efforts, shame is now America’s number one export.

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Four Anti-Obamacare Republican Governors Took $352 Million In Health Care Grants

A review of records has found that Republican governors Scott Walker (WI), Bobby Jindal (LA), Rick Perry (TX), and Chris Christie (NJ) took $400 million in federal health care money for their states while opposing the Affordable Care Act.

Reuters reported:

Governors Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Chris Christie of New Jersey, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and former Texas Governor Rick Perry, all staunch opponents of President Barack Obama’s 2010 Affordable Care Act, have collectively applied for and won at least $352 million through grant programs set up by the law, federal records show.

The action is at odds with the public stance of all four potential candidates, who have blasted the law as an unprecedented expansion of government and called for its repeal.

These governors are each trying to run for president based on in part publicly opposing the Affordable Care Act, but privately they are hypocritically gobbling up millions of federal dollars to fund the law that they have sworn to destroy. The behavior of the governors illustrates that Obamacare has become a buzzword for rallying Republican voters, but the reality is that repealing the ACA would cause absolute chaos at multiple levels of government.

Walker, Perry, Jindal, and Christie all claim that they hate the healthcare law, but that hatred hasn’t stopped them from putting their hands out and taking hundreds of millions of federal dollars. The key is that the governors were not forced to take the money. They had to apply for the funds. It wasn’t a mistake that they took the loot. Walker and the others intentionally asked for it.

The last two Republican presidential primary contests have quickly devolved into who hissy fights over who is the most conservative candidate. It is going to be difficult for the Obamacare hypocrite governors to wear the crown of real conservative while they were mooching hundreds of millions of dollars in Obamacare cash.

Republicans hate Obamacare, but not as much as they love free money.

KKK Cowards

Florida chef fires back at KKK threats over his interracial marriage: ‘You’re a coward, brother’

Founding Fathers Wanted Civil Rights For All Protected From Religious Persecution

“The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience, be in any manner, nor on any pretext, infringed.” – Original draft of the 1st Amendment, 1789.
Had that text been included in the Constitution, imagine how vastly different this country would be. No RFRA laws. No Hobby Lobby decisions in the Supreme Court. No elections based on which candidate supports abortion rights or not.

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How 'Religious Freedom' Works ...

A religio-wingnut 'explains' how 'Religious Freedom' works - in their perverted mentally ill deluded minds

Hobby Lobby Ruling Opened Floodgates For Indiana Discrimination Law

Americans are witnessing the profound and dangerous impact of the High Court's Hobby Lobby decision to dismantle the 1st Amendment's religious clauses and exempt religious devotee's from adhering to the law…

Nearly all parents attempt to teach their children from a young age that every one of their decisions in life will have consequences; no matter how inconsequential they may seem at the time. It is no different for politicians and, more importantly to Americans, Supreme Court justices. In fact, Oliver Wendell Holmes once said that Supreme Court decisions “exercise a kind of hydraulic effect.” He meant that even if the decision’s authors assert that their rulings will have limited impact, the cases will invariably have a profound influence on American society sometime in the future.

Americans are witnessing the profound and dangerous impact of the High Court’s Hobby Lobby decision to dismantle the 1st Amendment’s religious clauses and exempt religious devotee’s from adhering to state and federal laws. In writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito said the ruling was ‘very narrow in scope‘ and would have a very limited impact on Americans other than empowering religious employers to force their religion on their employees. However, within two weeks the Vatican-5 expanded that ruling as a portent that the Hobby Lobby decision would soon have a very profound impact on Americans’ lives; something Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg warned was going to happen.

In writing the dissenting opinion in Hobby Lobby, Ginsburg put the so-called “limited impact” ruling nonsense into proper perspective and said that the Vatican-5 effectively ruled that religion trumps all other laws. The Jurist said that the Hobby Lobby ruling was a “decision of startling breadth, ventured into a minefield” and argued strongly that “the majority turned the Religious Freedom Restoration Act into a protean tool for all sorts of evasions;” many pundits and legal experts distilled her entire dissent into “the conservative Court opened the floodgates of religious imposition on  America.” Republicans in Indiana quickly made use of the “protean tool” to give religious bigots legal license to discriminate at will against, according to the law, “any person” they believe are sinners and violate their religious freedom. There is no mention of gays, LGBT, or same-sex couples in Indiana’s law; any person of any religion, race, or gender can be discriminated against with the full legal protection of religious freedom law.

The Hobby Lobby ruling answered the question conscience clause advocates have asked since the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act was signed in 1993; “when do religious convictions allow individuals or businesses to excuse themselves from legal obligations like adhering to equal and civil rights laws or providing medical care?” That question was answered last year in the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision and it is the driving force behind the rash of legal discrimination laws about to sweep 23 Republican states across the nation. Remember, the crux of the Vatican-5’s ruling was that the faithful are exempt from following any laws on religious grounds whether they are ensconced in the nation’s founding document or federal and state legal statutes.

That horrendous Hobby Lobby decision began opening the gate for the religiously observant to claim privileges that are unavailable to anyone else, and it started within a week of the ruling being handed down. Now the floodgates are wide open and there is no recourse except for decent Americans and businesses to wage economic warfare on bigoted Republican states with extreme prejudice. Even though Justice Alito claimed the scope of the ruling was very narrow, the Papal-5 effectively dismantled the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the 1st Amendment that puts the guilt of the flood of license to discriminate laws solely on the High  Court’s conservatives. Why? Because there are no longer any Constitutional equal rights protections that are not subordinate to a person of faith’s religious exemption to disregard the law. It may be why, a year after the Hobby Lobby ruling, the lawmaker behind the Arkansas license to discriminate measure, Republican Bob Ballinger, said that “The reality is what we’re doing here is really not that remarkable;” or illegal or unconstitutional because religion.

The Indiana law, like the recently passed Arkansas law and those proceeding through 23 other state legislatures, is likely the product of religious Republicans’ attempt to thwart same-sex marriage and rally their religious base around “the issue” god hates going into the 2016 election cycle. It is why several Republican presidential hopefuls have come out in support of the Indiana law and defended Indiana Governor Mike Pence’s signing a clearly religious law aimed at legalizing discrimination against a wide range of Americans; a law that was unlikely to pass constitutional muster prior to Hobby Lobby.

Last year when Arizona passed ‘license to discriminate’ legislation, the overriding opinion was that it would be struck down as unconstitutional if it ever became law. The Indiana law is a mirror image of the Arizona legislation that passed the legislature only to be vetoed by then-governor Jan Brewer over a budget dispute. Like the Arizona legislation, Indiana’s law explicitly exempts “a partnership, a limited liability company, a corporation, a company, a firm, a society, a joint-stock company, an unincorporated association, or any other entity” from legal ramifications associated with discriminating against “any person” they believe violates their religious freedom. It is important to remember the word gay is not a part of the Indiana law; anyone can be the target of discrimination with absolute legal protections as long as religious freedom is cited. The High Court made those kinds of laws constitutionally protected.

That protection was an overriding question before Hobby Lobby, and one opponents and supporters of Arizona’s law asked before the Supreme Court ruling. Since Arizona’s legislation, like Indiana’s and now Arkansas’, do not cite a specific group as a target of discrimination, many people asked “what about religious individuals who say that they have objections to conducting business with gay people or immigrants? Will they be excused from honoring the nation’s anti-discrimination laws?” Although that issue appeared to be unresolved prior to the Hobby Lobby ruling, it is resolved now and it is why 23 states have religious laws making their way through Republican legislatures.

In no small part the expansion effects of Hobby Lobby are due to the efforts of several evangelical and catholic cabals; particularly a so-called 'conservative' legal cabal, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. It began dedicating itself to expanding the reach of the Hobby Lobby decision immediately after the ruling was announced. Obviously, with Indiana’s law, Arkansas’ recently passed legislation, and similar laws progressing in a couple of dozen other states, the Becket Fund is seeing the fruits of its labor realized in a very big religious way. And for all the people that continue shouting the license to discriminate laws are unconstitutional, the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby ruling says otherwise; religious liberty trumps all constitutional protections.

Americans do not get to vote on Supreme Court jurors, but they do elect the religious Republicans pushing the laws legalizing discrimination as a result of the High Court’s ruling. The people of Indiana, Arkansas, and twenty-plus other Republican states knew they were voting for ‘socially-conservative’ Republicans that made no secret their intent was enacting laws to punish residents that did not fit their bible-thumping real American mold. Frankly, the people of Indiana who will suffer the economic consequences of their bigoted legislature and governor deserve what they get. Because if they had listened to their parents warning that their decisions have consequences, they would have voted differently, if they even bothered to vote.

Arkansas Rejects Religious Freedom Bill

Arkansas Rejects Religious Freedom Bill and Exposes Mike Pence’s Deception

Republicans In Turmoil After Asa Hutchinson Caves On Arkansas Religious Freedom Bill

The Republican Party is falling apart, and factions are at each other’s throats over the self-inflicted wound of pushing religious freedom bills that would legalize discrimination.

Hutchinson explained why he reversed course and decided not to sign the bill unless it is changed, “The bill that is on my desk at the present time does not mirror the federal law. It doesn’t mirror it in a couple of ways, particularly allowing the First Amendment to be asserted in the private litigation between parties or reliance on the state law in those claims. Therefore, I asked that changes be made in the legislation and I’ve asked that the leaders in the General Assembly to recall the bill so that it can be amended.”

The divide between Republicans is between the business community and social conservatives. There is also a generational divide between younger and older Republicans that is typified by the fact that Hutchinson’s own son signed a petition asking him to veto the bill, “My son Seth, signed the petition asking me, Dad, the governor, to veto this bill.”

All of the potential 2016 Republican pretender candidates with the exceptions of Scott Walker, Chris Christie, and Rand Paul have come out in support of the religious freedom bills. What is happening is the now traditional process of the Republican rank and file pulling their presidential candidates too far to the right to be electable.

In Arkansas, Gov. Hutchinson isn’t looking for a way out because he had an overnight epiphany. Hutchinson is trying to escape a brewing political firestorm that has spread outwards from Indiana and is engulfing the Republican Party.

History is repeating itself. This time the discussions aren’t centered around “legitimate rape,” but an attempt to legalize discrimination behind a thin disguise of religious freedom. The same old divides that have undone the Republican Party in previous election cycles are alive and well, but the GOP’s biggest problem is that their economic, social, and political agenda remains wildly unpopular and out of step with modern times.

Mike Pence lied

Are you surprised? He's a Republican, isn't he?

On ABC's Sunday program "This Week," Indiana Gov. Mike Pence gave a career-ending performance in which he repeatedly refused to answer whether Indiana's new "religious freedom" law, SB 101, allows discrimination against gays and lesbians (#NotReadyForPrimeTime). Pence also likened SB 101 to the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) signed into law in the '90s and those adopted by about 19 states since. Then he added:

And after last year's Hobby Lobby case, Indiana properly brought the same version that then state senator Barack Obama voted for in Illinois before our legislature. And I was proud to sign it into law last week.

Lies. All of it. Indiana's new law is substantially different than both the 90s-era RFRAs and there is no parallel to be drawn between Indiana and the Illinois bill Barack Obama voted for 17 years ago.
First, these new RFRAs aren't even close to the same as those that have been passed by other states over the last couple decades. The new ones are RFRAs on steroids. The old RFRAs were meant to keep the government from infringing on the religious beliefs of individuals. The new ones vary, but they almost all apply to private disputes. That is new and will allow people to use their religious beliefs as a defense if they are sued for discrimination by another individual.
Here's more from a real lawyer, Jenny Pizer at Lambda Legal:

SB 101 is substantially broader than the federal law. It extends religious rights to all businesses, no matter how large and completely secular they are. In addition, the federal law can only be invoked against government action. SB 101 goes much further, inviting discrimination by allowing religious beliefs to be raised as a defense in lawsuits and administrative proceedings brought by workers, tenants and customers who have suffered discrimination in a business transaction based on someone else's religious beliefs.

Pence lied

The Big Lie The Media Tells About Indiana's New 'Religious Freedom' Law

by Judd Legum

On Friday, the Washington Post published an article titled "19 states that have 'religious freedom' laws like Indiana's that no one is boycotting." The article snarks about organizations like the NCAA that have protested Indiana's law, noting "the NCAA didn't say it was concerned over how athletes and employees would be affected by Kentucky's RFRA when games were played there last week." The piece concludes "Indiana might be treated as if it's the only state with a bill like this, but it's not." The piece has been shared over 75,000 times on Facebook.
The Washington Post article largely mirrors the argument advanced by Indiana Governor Mike Pence. Appearing on ABC's This Week, Pence claimed "Then state-Sen. Barack Obama voted for [the Religious Freedom Restoration Act]. The very same language."
The same argument is parroted on Fox News and elsewhere.
It's not true.
The Indiana law differs substantially from the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, signed by President Clinton in 1993, and all other state RFRAs.
There are several important differences in the Indiana bill but the most striking is Section 9. Under that section, a "person" (which under the law includes not only an individual but also any organization, partnership, LLC, corporation, company, firm, church, religious society, or other entity) whose "exercise of religion has been substantially burdened, or is likely to be substantially burdened" can use the law as "a claim or defense… regardless of whether the state or any other governmental entity is a party to the proceeding."
Every other Religious Freedom Restoration Act applies to disputes between a person or entity and a government. Indiana's is the only law that explicitly applies to disputes between private citizens.* This means it could be used as a cudgel by corporations to justify discrimination against individuals that might otherwise be protected under law. Indiana trial lawyer Matt Anderson, discussing this difference, writes that the Indiana law is "more broadly written than its federal and state predecessors" and opens up "the path of least resistance among its species to have a court adjudicate it in a manner that could ultimately be used to discriminate…"
This is not a trivial distinction. Arizona enacted an RFRA that applied to actions involving the government in 2012. When the state legislature tried to expand it to purely private disputes in 2014, nationwide protests erupted and Jan Brewer, Arizona's Republican governor, vetoed the measure.

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Scientology And The Religio-Wingnuts: Two Peas In A Deranged Pod

Persecution complex, denial of reality, fear of the “other”, enriching a few at the expense of others…where have I heard this before?

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Michele Bachmann Is Still Bonkers ...

Minnesota's Ex Michele Bachmann (R) compared President Obama to Andreas Lubitz, the deranged German co-pilot who crashed Germanwings Flight 9525, on her Facebook page Tuesday. Bachmann posted:

With his Iran deal, Barack Obama is for the 300 million souls of the United States what Andreas Lubitz was for the 150 souls on the German Wings flight – a deranged pilot flying his entire nation into the rocks. After the fact, among the smoldering remains of American cities, the shocked survivors will ask, why did he do it?

The delusional lunatic has a long history of fear-mongering about Iran being a dire and imminent threat to the United States and to other nations. As a freshman member of Congress, Bachmann concocted wild fantasies about Iran’s sinister intentions and relayed them as true stories. In 2006, Bachmann stated:

Iran is the trouble maker, trying to tip over apple carts all over Baghdad right now because they want America to pull out. And do you know why? It’s because they’ve already decided that they’re going to partition Iraq.

And half of Iraq, the western, northern portion of Iraq, is going to be called the Iraq State of Islam, something like that. And I’m sorry, I don’t have the official name, but it’s meant to be the training ground for the terrorists. There’s already an agreement made.

They are going to get half of Iraq and that is going to be a terrorist safe haven zone where they can go ahead and bring about more terrorist attacks in the Middle East region and then to come against the United States because we are their avowed enemy.

Her bizarre scenario was completely fabricated, but that didn’t stop the moron from spreading her lies to gin up fear about the Iranian threat. In 2014, at the White House Xtmas Party, Bachmann told the President he needed to bomb Iran. She warned that if he didn’t, Iran would acquire nuclear weapons on Obama’s watch, and change the course of world history.

Fortunately, the lunatic fringe wingnut retired from her House seat and did not seek re-election in 2014. Unfortunately, she still has a large following on social media, so her delusional comments still carry sway with folks on the far right end of the American political spectrum.

Bachmann’s incessant fear-mongering about Iran is disturbing enough. Her offensive comparison between Obama and a demented airline pilot who intentionally crashed a plane and killed 149 innocent people is beyond the pale. President Obama bears no similarity to the disturbed co-pilot. Furthermore, given her own flirtations with the frayed ends of sanity, Michele Bachmann is in no position to judge which elected officials she considers deranged.

I’m Sorry, But You Actually Have to See This Horrible Thing Michele Bachmann Said

From the "Public Enemies" Department:

Look, the last thing I want to do with my life is give attention to Michele Bachmann. Her retirement from Congress was a gift bestowed upon the nation…

Michele Bachmann Is Insane

The Daily Drift

Hey, wingnuts, yeah we're talking to you ...!  

 

The Truth Be Told is read in 203 countries around the world.

 
It's way past time to weed the national garden and get the Republicans (Oops, we mean the Hate, then again, no, we had it correct in the first place) out ... !

Today is - Weed Out Hate Day
 

Don't forget to visit our sister blog Carolina Naturally

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And I Quote

Mother Accused Of Child Abuse For Buying Her Daughter A Suit

This five-year-old daughter hates dresses.
But when her mother let her wear a suit instead, she was accused of child abuse.

Read more

***

What does it take to be so sick and perverted as to equate letting a child have a choice in their clothing with child abuse?

Wingnuts Turn Harry Reid Accident Into New Conspiracy Theory

Wingnuts are trying real hard to turn to Harry Reid’s accident into something it’s not, and look pathetic in doing so.

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Thanks for Nothing

Defiant Elizabeth Warren Tells Wall Street If They Want To Fight Her, “Bring It On”

Before a packed room in a Manhattan Barnes & Noble bookstore, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren (D) refused to back off her criticism of Wall Street, after some of the big banks hinted that they could withhold campaign funds from Senate Democrats. Although Senator Warren believes the major banks are serious about that threat, she made no attempt to shy away from the fight.

Warren told the audience “you bet I believe it’s a serious threat” but then she delivered a message for the banks as well:

It is so brazen. If they think they can say in public, ‘I don’t like your tone, I don’t like the way you talk about financial regulation’ … I got news for them: bring it on.

Senator Warren then noted that all she is asking from Wall Street is that the financial institutions abide by the rules, by not cheating consumers, and that no bank should be able to leverage risk that could destroy the economy, simply because it is “too big to fail”.

She added:

If they want to fight on either one of those, I’m ready.

The Massachusetts Senator went on to reiterate her Senate priorities. She emphasized that her top goals continued to be cutting student loan interest rates, increasing funding for the National Institutes of Health, and raising the minimum wage.

Warren’s combative tone should remind the Wall Street firms that she will not be intimidated or bullied. While many politicians are willing to cave in to big dollar donors to keep the campaign coffers filled, Warren has built her political career on fighting moneyed interests and financial corruption.

Her Raison d’etre for running for the U.S. Senate was to take on Wall Street privilege and corruption. She is not the type of elected official who is going to fold under political pressure from giant banks threatening to withhold money. Her voice is an important voice for working and middle-class Americans, and luckily for the American people, that voice is accompanied by enough backbone to stand firm in the face of criticism. The Senate needs more like her.

Wingnut economic policies fail EVERY time!

Wisconsin's middle class is shrinking faster than in any other state 

Inequality is rising and the American middle class is shrinking. But nowhere is it shrinking faster than in Wisconsin:

In 2000, 54.6 percent of Wisconsin families fell into the middle class category but that has fallen to 48.9 percent in 2013, according to U.S. Census figures compiled by Pew.

All other states showed some decline but none as great as Wisconsin's 5.7 percent figure.
Wisconsin's median household income fell 14.7 percent during those years.
Obviously this decline pre-dates Scott Walker's theft of the governor's office, but it's safe to say that Walker's terrible job creation record, a poor record even according to the Chamber of Commerce, isn't helping. Neither is saying the minimum wage "doesn't serve a purpose," or attacking the unions that reduce inequality, or slashing education funding. Walker was able to get elected by playing on the fears of voters in a shrinking middle class, but his agenda was always aimed at accelerating the decline.

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Irrational?

NRA Jackass Blames Women Who Don’t Carry Guns for Being Raped

From the "Public Enemies" Department:

No. No, no, no, no, no. Nope. National Rifle Association News host Cam Edwards lashed out at a Daily Tar Heel editorial that argued guns are not the…

Jackass

Kansas Republican blows off voter

Kansas Republican blows off voter: ‘I received your email — I don’t need it, so I am sending it back to you’

A Kansas Republican issued a dismissive response to a constituent’s email voicing concerns over legislation that would prohibit Uber from operating in the state.

Bigotry is Bigotry

Editorial Note:
Indiana's Republican legislative leaders have unveiled changes to the state's new religious objections law that has faced criticism it could allow discrimination against lesbians and gays.

The amendment to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act released Thursday prohibits service providers from using the law as a legal defense for refusing to provide services, goods, facilities or accommodations. It also bars discrimination based on race, color, religion, ancestry, age, national origin, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or United States military service.

A conference committee must discuss the proposed changes to the law, and both the House and the Senate will need to approve them before they can go to Gov. Mike Pence.

Pence called for changes to clarify the law Tuesday in response to an uproar fueled by discrimination concerns.

Indianapolis Mayor Puts RFRA on Ignore, Conventions Reassess Indiana

Indy's mayor issuing an executive order protecting the very people RFRA targets for persecution and conventions think twice about Indiana…

We have seen individuals, we have seen companies and we have seen cities, and now entire states, denounce Indiana’s embrace of religious tyranny.

And not only did Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard denounce the bill, but Monday, he called upon the Indiana General Assembly to either repeal it or add the necessary protections to it.

As a trump, he signed an executive order – a Declaration of Non-Discrimination – which IGNORES the RFRA:

1. The City hereby affirms its policy that no vendor, contractor, grant recipient, or anyone receiving public funds or benefits of any kind shall discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, ancestry, age, or United States military service veteran status, and any breach of this policy shall continue to be considered a mutual breach of the relationship with the city.

2. The City hereby requests the Indiana General Assembly and the Governor to expressly add sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes in state law.

3. The City hereby requests the Indiana General Assembly and the Governor to expressly exempt the City’s ordinances, resolutions, executive or administrative orders, regulations, customs, and usages from RFRA’s application.

So you may put your “No gays” sign up, but if you do, you give up doing business with the City of Indianapolis and its Republican mayor.

All these groups, individuals and cities are now joined by unions.

The American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME), which has 1.6 million members, is pulling its 2015 Women’s Conference out of Indianapolis in response to Indiana’s codifying of religious tyranny into law. In October, 900 women planned to meet in Indianapolis. They will meet somewhere else now, and take their money with them.

In a release published on their blog yesterday, AFSCME states:

This past week, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed into law a bill that legalizes discrimination, allowing businesses to refuse service to customers simply because they are gay or lesbian. Further, since Governor Pence claims disingenuously that it is about religious freedom, his law protects any business owner who refuses to hire someone of a different religion from their own.

This un-American law sets Indiana and our nation back decades in the struggle for civil rights. It is an embarrassment and cannot be tolerated. As such, AFSCME will move our 2015 Women’s Conference in October from Indianapolis to another state. Additional details about the conference’s new location and any necessary date change will be announced as they become available.

The punches keep coming, low and hard, as Indiana Governor Mike Pence staggers from the repeated blows. The so-called Religious Freedom Restoration Act looks more and more like a mistake. Pence admits it may need some “clarification” while it’s architects smile with glee as the law does precisely what it was intended to do: permit “No Gays” signs all over Indiana.

It cannot be tolerated. And AFSCME, if Governor Pence does not, gets this:

Throughout our proud history, our union has stood up whenever injustice has occurred – be it for striking sanitation workers in Memphis in 1968, or for the victims of apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s. Governor Pence’s law, motivated by ultra-right-wing zealots, is an affront to the vast majority of those in our nation who believe that every American deserves equal treatment under the law, no matter whom they love or where they worship.

AFSCME is pulling our Women’s Conference out of Indiana this fall as a sign of our disgust and disappointment with Governor Pence’s discriminatory law. We stand with the ever-growing number of corporations and associations who are taking similar action this week, and demanding fairness for all in the state of Indiana.

Levi Strauss and The Gap yesterday joined the list of corporations denouncing the RFRA, saying in a statement,

As Indiana, Arkansas, and states around the country enact and consider legislation that perpetuates discrimination, we’re urging State Legislatures to stand up for equality by repealing and voting against these discriminatory laws.

These new laws and legislation, that allow people and businesses to deny service to people based on their sexual orientation, turn back the clock on equality and foster a culture of intolerance.

Discriminatory laws are unquestionably bad for business, but more importantly, they are fundamentally wrong. They must be stopped.

At Gap Inc. and Levi Strauss & Co., we are proud to say we are open to business for everyone.

It is difficult to imagine that the RFRA being revised or watered down. Its supporters don’t even want it “clarified” after all. But until Indiana does something to reverse the course they have taken, the hits will keep coming.

After all, no more are Levi Strauss and The Gap the only companies denouncing RFRA, AFSCME is not the only organization re-evaluating Indiana as a convention site.

There are literally dozens of others.

The question now is, have Indiana bigots done more to rock their own cause back on its heels than any liberal or progressive group could have ever imagined?

Obama White House Blasts Mike Pence For Lying About Indiana Religious Freedom Law

During his daily briefing, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest blasted and debunked Republican Gov. Mike Pence’s lies about Indiana’s religious freedom law.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest was asked if President Obama feels a need to amend the 1993 federal religious freedom law.

Earnest answered:

I know that Gov. Pence has tried to falsely suggest that the law that was signed in Indiana is the same as the law that was passed at the federal level in 1993. That is not true, and the reason that that’s not true is that the 1993 law was an effort to protect the religious liberty of religious minorities based on actions that could be taken by the federal government.

The Indiana law is much broader. It doesn’t just apply to individuals or religious minorities. It applies to, and I’m quoting here, ‘a partnership, a limited liability company, a corporation, a company, a firm, a society, a joint stock company, or an unincorporated association.’ So this obviously is a significant expansion of the law in terms of the way that it would apply.

….

At the same time, it is also worth noting that the law in Indiana doesn’t just apply to interactions with the government. It also applies to private transactions as well, which means that this is a much more open-ended piece of legislation that could reasonably be used to try to justify discriminating against somebody because of who they love.

Earnest also described Pence as being in “damage control” mode.

Pence’s two main defenses of the law were pretty much destroyed by the White House Press Secretary. Pence continues to claim that the law does not legalize discrimination and that the Indiana law is just like the federal law that was signed in 1993. Gov. Pence is trying to kill the backlash that he caused without feeding the perception that he is backing down.

The Indiana law is not the same as the 1993 federal law for all of the reasons that Earnest listed. It is also not the same as what Clinton signed because Indiana Republicans based their law on the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby ruling.

Gov. Pence and the law’s defenders have been lying about the 1993 law, and the White House has called them out on it.

The Obama White House has not been afraid to speak out against discrimination, and today’s press briefing debunked the key components of the Republican defense of legalized discrimination.

Apple CEO Tim Cook Slams Republicans’ Religious Freedom Laws

A powerful CEO of a giant corporation took the time to say what few others have; "There is something very dangerous happening in states across the country" …

This column often cites an ‘unwritten’ American statute that forbids anyone, from politicians to pundits, from speaking out against Christian extremism that serves as the impetus for all manner of Republican legislation. It does not matter whether it is transferring public school funding to private religious schools, restricting women’s right to choose their own reproductive health, or banning gays from marrying the person they love, it is a sin to cite those unconstitutional acts are borne of legislating by religion. Now, a powerful CEO of a giant corporation took the time to say what few others have; “There is something very dangerous happening in states across the country” of people using religion as a legislative weapon.

In a rare Washington Post op/ed, Apple CEO Tim Cook battered the “wave of legislation introduced in more than two dozen states allowing people to discriminate” based on religion. In the op/ed, Cook related that personally he has “great reverence for religious freedom” and that he was baptized in a Baptist church and holds faith as an important part of his life. He also stated something that may be a divine revelation to the neo-christian community in America; he learned and believes religion should never be used as an excuse to discriminate against other people or to resist laws. Cook reminded readers that there are “nearly 100 bills” specifically designed to ‘enshrine‘ discrimination in state laws across the nation that go against the principles the nation was founded on; all by rationalizing the gross injustice by “pretending to defend religion.”

After referring to the obscene Indiana law Mike Pence said has nothing to do with discrimination, Cook cited the Texas legislation that strips salaries and pensions from any clerk that dares issue a marriage license to same-sex couples even before the Supreme Court rules on same-sex marriage bans. As he said, “these are very dangerous laws that are not only contrary to the nation’s principles of equal rights for all citizens; they pose a very serious danger to the economy.” Cook said the business community has understood for decades that discrimination, no matter what form it takes, is just bad for business and called on others to oppose the new wave of very dangerous legislation that “will truly hurt jobs, growth, and economic vibrancy in parts of the country where a 21st-century economy was once welcomed with open arms.” Of course that was prior to the Vatican-5 ruling that religious freedom trumps everything; no matter the extent of the damage to the nation’s economy or how badly it violates the Constitution or civil and equal rights laws.

It may be that there are too many Americans who are blind to discrimination, or too young to remember what it looks like, but these barbaric laws like Indiana’s, and those under consideration in 23 other states, are vile on a human level; sod religious freedom. This country has made significant progress with religious freedom over the decades regardless it was winning equality for people of color, women, or the gay community. But now christian dominionists have been empowered by the Supreme Court to take America back to puritanism, and it is noteworthy that puritanism not only harshly enforced its strict religious principles, it defended slavery; the ultimate expression of discrimination.

Cook recalled what it was like growing up in the South in the 1960s and 70s and noted that discrimination then was also “shrouded in laws meant to protect us” which is exactly how Mike Pence defended Indiana’s religious law.  It is a sad commentary that these religious laws are the vehicle that will take the nation back to the days of blatant segregation and discrimination “marked by Whites Only” signs on store fronts, water fountains, and restrooms that Cook said “must remain deep in our past.” That was before Republicans in Indiana said their ‘religious’ law would allow businesses to post “No Gays Allowed” signs in the Hoosier state; something Cook said we must never return to in order to preserve America as a land of opportunity for everyone.

Republicans love touting the sacrifice of Americans’ who died fighting to protect this country’s founding principles of freedom and equality, and it is prescient that Cook used one of their favorite talking points to slam abominable license to discriminate laws disguised as defending religion. He said that since hundreds-of-thousands of American men and women fought and died to protect freedom and equality, “we owe it to them, to each other and to our future to continue to fight with our words and our actions to protect those ideals.”

Cook was spot on with his analysis of the very dangerous religious laws threatening Americans, and he was also right that the base issue is “how we treat each other as human beings;” of that there is little dispute.  However, he is wrong that “this isn’t a political issue and it isn’t a religious issue;” it is both and perhaps he knows it. It is a religious issue that Republican politicians are imposing on Americans for christian fundamentalists who have sought to gain power and dominance over every aspect of society for over thirty years. It may even be true that not all Republicans actually embrace religious extremism, but they are as petrified of opposing christian fanatics as they are the Koch brothers. If Republicans were not busy passing religious laws, there would be no legalized discrimination in Indiana today or laws stripping women’s right to control their own reproductive health.

Cook ended his article saying that “fighting discrimination takes courage and that with the lives and dignity of so many people at stake, it’s time for all of us to be courageous.” He is right, of course, but at this juncture it appears that there is little the American people can do; it is up to those who can exert devastating economic pain on religious Republican states and the evangelical voters who elected them. Particularly since the highest court in the land empowered the fanatical christians with the supremacy they have yearned for and Republicans execute faithfully. Whether one likes Tim Cook, or Apple products for that matter, the man did more than assail the discriminatory Indiana law; he openly criticized its basis in religion.

In Press Conference Train Wreck Mike Pence Crumbles Trying Defend Religious Freedom Law

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence called a press conference to tell the world that everyone has got his “religious freedom” law wrong, he once went to Selma with John Lewis, and that he is not a bigot. The more Pence talked, the worse things got for him.

Pence never said that law the was wrong. He stuck to his false claims that the law is just like the one that Bill Clinton signed in 1993 and that people are misunderstanding his religious freedom law.

Gov. Pence said that there is a perception problem, “I don’t believe for a minute that it was the intent of the Assembly to create a license to discriminate or a right to deny services to gays, lesbians, or anyone else in this state, and it certainly wasn’t my intent. But I can appreciate that that’s become the perception, not just here in Indiana, but all across this country. And we need to confront that, and confront it boldly, in a way that respects the interests of all involved.”

Pence doesn’t have a perception problem. He has a law that has legalized discrimination.

Gov.Pence later claimed that the law and the people of Indiana have been smeared, “I am calling on the General Assembly to that focuses on the issue here. That focuses on frankly the smear that has been leveled against this law and the people of Indiana. That is that somehow through our legislative process we enacted legislation that created a license to discriminate.”

Only in the Republican mind can the facts become a smear. Pence was focused on perception, which means that it is fine if Indiana passes a law that does discriminate, but it is wrong to be perceived as discriminating. Pence managed to build on his disastrous appearance on ABC’s This Week, by implicitly admitting that he still supports laws that discriminate under the guise of religious freedom. He is trying to fix the language so that it doesn’t appear that the state supports discrimination.

By adding some new language about not overtly denying services, Gov. Pence is hoping to make the problem go away. The overall issue is that his religious freedom bill will still allow discrimination.

Pence can’t defend the bill, so he attacked the media and told personal stories that were intended to assure everyone watching that he isn’t a bigot. This was a horrible press conference where Pence doubled down on the same sort of remarks that got him into trouble in the first place. The only way to fix the bill is to repeal it, but that is something that Gov. Pence will not do.

Indiana has been permanently stained in the eyes of the nation, because of one ambitious governor’s attempt to legalize discrimination. While standing at the podium and breathing like an asthmatic Darth Vader, Pence claimed that he never anticipated the public backlash over a law legalizing discrimination. For this reason alone, the Hoosier State deserves better than Mike Pence.

Republican Pretender Contenders Kowtow To Religio-wingnuts, Support Discriminatory Indiana Law

Republican pretender contenders are lining up to defend Indiana's discriminatory "religious freedom" law.…

Amid the political firestorm created by Indiana’s passage of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), Republican pretender contenders are lining up to defend the law, and Indiana’s embattled Governor Mike Pence, who signed it.

On Monday, presumed Republican front-runner Jeb Bush told wingnut hate speech show hack Hugh Hewitt:

I think Governor Pence has done the right thing.

Dismissing criticisms of the law as unfounded he continued, by saying:

I think once the facts are established, people aren’t going to see this as discriminatory at all.

A spokesperson for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker didn’t comment directly on the Indiana law, but she pointed out that Walker supports “religious freedom” as a matter of principle.

In addition to Bush and Walker, a number of other Republican pretender competitors weighed in, all expressing support for allowing discrimination if it is based on deeply held religious beliefs. Bobby Jindal, Marco Rubio, Rick Santorum, Ben Carson and Ted Cruz all spoke out in favor of the Indiana law.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz issued a statement on Monday defending Pence and the Indiana law. Cruz stated:

I want to commend Governor Mike Pence for his support of religious freedom, especially in the face of fierce opposition. There was a time, not too long ago, when defending religious liberty enjoyed strong bipartisan support. Alas, today we are facing a concerted assault on the First Amendment, on the right of every American to seek out and worship God according to the dictates of his or her conscience,” the Texas Senator said.

Governor Pence is holding the line to protect religious liberty in the Hoosier State. Indiana is giving voice to millions of outrageous wingnuts across this country who are deeply disturbed about the non-existant attacks upon our personal liberties. I’m proud to stand with Mike, and I urge Americans to do the same.

With each of the prominent Republican candidates throwing their weight behind religious-based bigotry, the GOP has shown just how out of touch with American values they have become. In the Republican pretender field, there is not one voice who will stand up and say faith-based discrimination is wrong.

The GOP field has no leaders. Instead, it is dominated by weak men who dutifully kowtow to the religious right because they are afraid to stand up to evangelical bigots for fear that it may cost them support in the Iowa Republican caucuses. Some of the Republican pretender candidates may be bigots themselves. The ones that are not are simply cowards. Either way, because the Republican pretender field has embraced the politics of faith-based discrimination, none of them are fit to govern the nation.

Mike Pence Dodges Criticism By Calling Critics 'Intolerant'

The assurance of fair, non-discriminatory business practices is, as it turns out, pretty essential in a competitive marketplace. And when you take away that assurance, you imperil your ability to compete. Just as an openly discriminatory florist opens itself up to the risk that not enough people will want to continue doing business with it to maintain that business, so too does an openly discriminatory state endanger its ability to maintain itself economically. Those are the consequences. And consequences have nothing to do with tolerance. All the states that Indiana competes with for economic benefactors will happily tolerate Indiana's law all the way to the bank. Anyone who tells you that "tolerance" is supposed to provide everyone with the means of living a consequence-free existence has badly lost the thread.

As we say around here - That Dog Won't Hunt.

Glenn Beck Says Opposition to Indiana’s RFRA Will Lead to Concentration Camps

The religio-wingnuts are reacting as expected to opposition to Indiana’s embrace of religious tyranny – with lunacy and lies ...

All the things you’ve been hearing from conservatives like Indiana Governor Mike Pence, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, and Scott Walker, that religious tyranny is somehow religious freedom?

That’s the sane stuff. Trust me. The religio-wingnuts are reacting as expected to opposition to Indiana’s embrace of religious tyranny – with lunacy and lies.

Some of the crazier stuff comes from one of the RFRA’s principle architects, Micah Clark, who on Monday said,

“The first thing you have to do is pray, because this is a spiritual war. There is no doubt about that, by the Twitter comments I get, by the email comments and threats from the opposition, some pornographic things that are out there and obscene things being said. This is a campaign of fear and lies and so this is a spiritual war that people must pray about.

It was, of course, fear and lies that created this heinous law in the first place. Fear and lies created by anti-gay activists like Clark on the Religious Right.

Crazy as the spiritual warfare shtick is, it is Glenn Beck who is taking the role of Bryan Fischer here, telling his listeners Tuesday that opposition to the so-called Religious Freedom Restoration Act will end with people being put in concentration camps.

Yes, here we go again.

“The gay activists will boycott,” he said, “will make it uncomfortable, they’ll smear them. They’ll just ratchet up the hate.”

I do believe “ratcheting up the hate” is just what we’ve seen happen with the passage of this bill, thanks to the proponents, not the opponents of this bill.

The so-called “gay activists” at this point include the Republican Mayor of Indianapolis, the cities of Seattle and San Francisco, the entire State of Connecticut, the NCAA, the Indiana Pacers, the NBA, and big corporations like Apple and Salesforce, and others.

But Beck wasn’t done. Issuing a mild rebuke to proponents of the law, he still laid the onus of concentration camps on its detractors:

We can’t legislate morality. I can’t believe I’m arguing the other side. You can’t legislate morality. This is why we have to heal our hearts. This is why we have to get to know each other. This is why we have to stand with each other. Because there’s a ton of gay people who listen to us. They know our hearts. I know their hearts. We don’t have a problem with each other.

Let’s stop forcing each other to do things. You don’t change anything. That ends up in concentration camps. You just start grinding and grinding and grinding away until you’re in separate worlds and nobody talks to each other and then, whoever has the power, round ‘em up and kill ‘em because those guys are the problem.

“That’s how it happens,” he concluded.

The thing is, gays aren’t trying to force anybody to do anything. They just wanted to be treated like everybody else. Nobody is trying to force Beck to marry a man, or to not marry a woman. The Religious Right has poisoned the waters with lie after lie about the dangers of marriage equality. When they are not inventing biological reasons, they are inventing medical reasons, or even, as Beck points out, moral justifications.

I should mention that Fischer himself claimed Monday that the RFRA does not discriminate, but rather protects christians from discrimination:

This law is not something that provides for discrimination against gays. It is something that prevents discrimination against christians … This thing is an anti-discrimination bill because it prohibits governmental discrimination against christians in the state of Indiana.

He went on to make the absurd claim that this is all about “homosexual supremacy”:

Homosexual activists want special rights for homosexuals to trump every other single right that any American possess anywhere, at any time, in any place.

You would think, from listening to this nonsense, that it was gays who wanted a law allowing them to not serve evangelicals, or a law that would deprive them of the right to marry opposite-sex partners.

From top to bottom, from start to finish, the RFRA has been about lies. It is based on lies, it is defended with lies.

If, as Phil Robertson says, “[Satan] is a liar and the Father of Lies,” and that liberals serve Satan, why is it that the Republicans – and Robertson himself – are the ones telling the lies?

Rush Limbaugh Makes Tired Old Bestiality Claim In Defending Indiana

See if you can follow this twisted piece of “logic” from a very twisted man.

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What is it about Homosexuality, Pedophilia and Bestiality that fascinates wingnuts so much?
Because inevitably they all circle back to one of those three things (if not all three) whenever they open their mouths.

Indiana Republicans Defunded Planned Parenthood And Caused An HIV Outbreak With Their Stupidity

Indiana not only has an economic crisis on their hands because Republicans passed a hateful law in the name of religion, the state also has a health crisis because those same Republicans slashed Planned Parenthood funding in the name of religion.

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