All-purpose news and politics thread: Two Steps Beyond!

[TheInvisibleMan]

<---is black, possibly thug

I do fit the description

[Double 0]

#ifidieinpolicecustody hashtag is trending on twitter. In support of Sandra Bland. If you are unfamiliar with the story: She was allegedly pulled over for "failing to use her turn signal during a lane change." She allegedly resisted arrested and assaulted the officer. She was thrown in jail. Monday morning, she was found dead. Cops say she hung herself. Family/friends don't buy that story. More info about her story here.


Here's an example.



Another




This is the reality for many Americans. The fear that no matter your gender, class, or sexuality, if you are black (hell, other minorities fit in too, namely Native Americans), a run in with the law can end with your death. With or without resistance.

Other Americans would rather find holes in their fears rather than help fix the problems that built them.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

#ifidieinpolicecustody hashtag is trending on twitter. In support of Sandra Bland. If you are unfamiliar with the story: She was allegedly pulled over for "failing to use her turn signal during a lane change." She allegedly resisted arrested and assaulted the officer. She was thrown in jail. Monday morning, she was found dead. Cops say she hung herself. Family/friends don't buy that story. More info about her story here.


Here's an example.



Another




This is the reality for many Americans. The fear that no matter your gender, class, or sexuality, if you are black (hell, other minorities fit in too, namely Native Americans), a run in with the law can end with your death. With or without resistance.

Other Americans would rather find holes in their fears rather than help fix the problems that built them.

I read that story in my local paper this morning. Suspicious as all hell. I hope Sandra Bland's family fights long and hard to uncover the truth, because that sort of tragedy can happen to ANYONE!

[bert]

Since the guy who killed 4 military member's name is Mohammad I'm sure we'll see the "is he a terrorist?" conversations we don't see when someone's name is Dylan.

you haven't been paying attention. . someone has already mentioned that here (and that ISIS claimed responsibility).


for something refreshing, the local news here in Austin is "declining to provide any information on the shooter to avoid giving them any publicity"

[jeanvaljean]

She should keep Joe! He's fun at parties!

I'm hoping she'll pick me.

[Tendrin]

.Imagine how much fun they're going to have with real scandals! And gullible people in the middle who don't pay much attention to this stuff (and they do exist, see the Swift Boat stuff as I said before and "I was for it before I was against it" lack of context) are going to see it with fresh eyes in the coming year.

Which real scandals do you mean?

Also, I think her tenure as SoS and it's travel schedule showed a great deal of personal toughness.

[worstblogever]

you haven't been paying attention. . someone has already mentioned that here (and that ISIS claimed responsibility).

Grain of salt, the previous posts coming from that direction were also about "Planned Parenthood dismembering babies for cash".

Suckers can be born every minute, but some are more frequently reincarnated than others. Especially in the conservative media sphere.

[CSTowle]

Which real scandals do you mean?

Also, I think her tenure as SoS and it's travel schedule showed a great deal of personal toughness.

She was an excellent traveller? K. Did like her as SoS while they went in to get Bin Laden in Pakistan after calling Obama naive for saying he'd do so in the primaries.

As to her scandals, Whitewater/cattle speculations/pardons for families of donors to her campaign/Clinton Foundation partners getting help from the State Department under her watch for starters. Any one of which could be enough to distract voters from the real issues and lead to a Republican beating her in the general. And that's before you bring in Bill's treatment of women and the pure BS scandals like Benghazi/Vince Foster/Travelgate/etc. Again (as shown with the Swift Boaters), you don't have to even have a real scandal to capture the imagination of casual voters for just long enough to swing the election.

All they have to do is throw it all against the wall and see what sticks. Maybe none of it does, or maybe there's so damned much of it that people plug their ears and ignore it because it's too hard to wade through it all, and if that happens maybe she's OK. Then you just have to worry about her ability to energize the electorate beyond being the first woman (as in, people being excited to vote for her). And where she's going to stand on the issues when the chips are down (or at any given moment). Best case scenario, we end up with another Clinton Presidency that makes Obama's look like the socialist one Fox News made it out to be.

[Malvolio]

It all starts with high school bullies who enroll in the Police Academy so they can become government sanctioned bullies. However, when they join the Police Force, they find out that there are some people who can get them in trouble if they bully those people. But they also quickly come to believe that those people who can get them in trouble are usually white. So when they choose their victims to bully, they're more likely to choose Black people or other non-whites.

[Handsome men don't lose fights]

It isn't so much that Clinton deserves to win, so much as no one can field an opponent that can beat her atm. She's the most famous politician in the entire country after Obama, everyone loves her daughter, and her husband was more popular as President than Kennedy and Reagan. The Right has no superstars, (excepting perhaps the Donald) and whoever they put in front of her is going to get taken to the woodshed for a whippin'. I say this as someone who personally doesn't think Clinton would make a good president if her track record as a Senator is anything to go by (Good job voting on that Iraq invasion), but there's nothing to be done for it.

She is going to be President.

[worstblogever]

It's our latest reminder of what a crock the statement "Nuh uh. Both parties are just as bad," actually is...

It’s Your Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day!
One year ago on this date, we looked at former candidate for U.S. Senate from Nevada, Sharron Angle, who still really, really hates immigrants. As she has not made a run for office since 2010, and has only appeared to endorse fellow xenophobes, we'll give this date to another member of her party.(Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 370-12, since this was established in July 2014.)


Mike Huckabee

When CSGOPOTD started in July 2014, one of the first people that popped into mind was Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas Governor and 2008 presidential candidate who had found a home on Fox News where he had spent a couple years spouting out Fundamentalist rhetoric, demonizing the left, and showing astounding levels of hypocrisy. Alas, for some time, he was "out of bounds" based on the criteria that were established back in the "Both Sides are Just as Bad" argument that we sought to debunk... the terms were set that the politicians involved had to have run for office, held office, or helped write a party platform within the past 5 years. Having been out of any race since 2008, Huckabee was off limits.

And then he announced he was running for president here in 2016, and all bets were off.

Where to begin... wow. Well, Mike Huckabee is an ordained Baptist minister, and depending on what day you catch him, he either comes off as a lovable, jovial old grandpa figure, or a fire-and-brimstone preacher who's convinced the actions of anyone in the United States that aren't to the farthest of the far rights are a sign of the End Times. It's really amazing that someone has that kind of range, to come off as affable and reasonable while appearing as a guest on a show hosted by John Stewart or a dedicated liberal atheist like Bill Maher, and was known to reject the support from a hate group like the Council of Conservative Citizens, but the next minute, he'll embrace a hate group like the Family Research Council and go on a rant against gays, single mothers, taking God out of schools, or the bane of Western civilization... *GASP*... female pop stars.

As an actual leader in Arkansas from 1996-2007, Gov. Huckabee was willing to raise taxes in the state by $500 million and invest in education, health care, and infrastructure within his state, (something that infuriates the Grover Norquist anti-tax crowd in the GOP) and showed competency during times like Hurricane Katrina (which did affect Arkansas, just not as bad as it did Louisiana or Mississippi). The key with Huckabee has been, much like you would want our country... to keep a distinct separation of church and state. Because when you look at the statements he makes denouncing... well, a myriad of things, it's his social agenda that's the scary thing. The Washington Post recently compiled a list of 81 things that Huckabee has spewed venom towards. And that's not even the half of it.

[worstblogever]

Some of the Huckster's finer moments:

• Back in 1973, while attending a Baptist college, Mike Huckabee wrote a column in a Baptist newspaper about the dangers of teenagers dancing. Yes, DANCING. Apparently we have someone running for president who shares opinions with the preacher from Footloose. In other articles for the "Rapture Express" in 1973, Huckabee complains about women's short skirts, women who refuse to wear bras, gays, and drinking.
• In a 1992 interview while he was campaigning for a Senate seat, Huckabee suggested the idea of quarantining AIDS patients.
• In August 1996, Gov. Huckabee went to the hilt trying to refuse to have his state's Medicaid budget that would in any way pay for the abortion on a 15-year old girl who was raped by her father, jeopardizing Arkansas' entire funding for the program over a few hundred dollars.
• In 1997, Gov. Huckabee asked that the words "Act of God" were to be taken out of a disaster relief bill, because he objected to the idea that a tragedy would be inflicted by the Almighty. (Check your Old Testament, governor.)
• In a 1998 book, Kids Who Kill, Huckabee refers to pop music as "A knuckle-dragging sub-pidgin of grunts and snarls." In the same book, he blames mass shootings on abortion, as well as violence on television as a root cause.
• Ironically, in 1998, Mike Huckabee's son David apparently was charged with animal cruelty after finding a stray dog and hanging it from a tree, slitting its throat, and throwing stones at it. It's unclear
• Huckabee is quoted saying inflammatory things about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to the New York Times while campaigning for president against Mitt Romney on December 12th, 2007, asking if Mormons think that Jesus and the Devil are brothers.
• On December 20th, 2007, Huckabee hears about teen actress Jamie Lynn Spears becoming pregnant out of wedlock and says it is a "tragedy". Less than a year later, in September 2008, he would criticize the media for reporting on and commenting on Bristol Palin, the daughter of Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, calling it "shameful". He would change his mind about commenting on pregnant single mothers again in 2011, when he took time on his radio show to insult Natalie Portman for choosing to have a child without first getting married.
• In February 2008, Huckabee endorsed a "Personhood" Amendment in Colorado.
• In South Carolina in 2008, while campaigning for president, Mike Huckabee defended the Confederate flag.
• In March of 2009, Huckabee is at a fundraiser and compares abortion to slavery.
• On November 24th, 2009, Huckabee comments on President Obama's trip to Japan, where he bowed to the Japanese emperor as a sign of respect was "offensive" to him in an interview with Katie Couric.
• On November 30th, 2010, Huckabee called for the execution of whoever was responsible for the Wikileaks documents.
• In his 2011 book, "A Simple Government", Huckabee argues against the effectiveness of gay parents, even referring to their children as "little guinea pigs":
  

  "The children...really cannot, get critical early-life lessons in how a heterosexual family functions successfully."

  In the book, he also complains about the lifting of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", fearing the consequences of the recruitment of gay soldiers.
• In February 2011 at a fundraiser in Tennessee, Huckabee again equates abortion with slavery.
• On March 1st, 2011, Huckabee discusses Barack Obama's "different worldview" because of his time growing up in Kenya. (Barack Obama did not grow up in Kenya, and only visited there once in the late 1980s.)
• On March 25th, 2011, Huckabee praises "historian" David Barton, saying that he wished "Every American should be forced at gunpoint to learn history" from him.
• On a May 2011 episode of his Fox News show, Mike Huckabee plays bass guitar as he performs "Cat Scratch Fever" with aged rocker and conservative lunatic Ted Nugent. For all Huckabee's criticisms of pop stars for corrpting America's youth, this is perplexing, because the song is about having sex with a woman and catching venereal disease. Also, in terms of character, Nugent has not only spouted off racist or homophobic diatribes ad nauseum, but spent most of his most famous days doing hard drugs, and having sex with underage women while bragging in interviews how he dodged the draft during Vietnam in the most scatological of ways. But hey... WATCH OUT FOR POP STARS!
• In December 2011, Huckabee is in Michigan stumping for U.S. Senate candidate Gary Glenn, who wanted to criminalize homosexuality.
• On August 24th, 2012, Huckabee defends the comments about "Legitimate Rape" by Missouri Congressman Todd Akin. Later, in July 2014, he would claim the media was "attacking Akin for being a Christian".
• On December 14th, 2012, Huckabee blames the Sandy Hook school shooting on God being taken out of school classrooms on the day of the shooting.
• On April 3rd, 2013, Huckabee compares gun control efforts to a potential rise of a Nazi-styled dictatorship.
• On June 11th, 2013, Huckabee rants against the indiginity of having to see same sex couples in commericals. That should come as little surprise, though, as he had complained about gay couples on television for 15 years, going back to his book "Kids Who Kill".
• Back in August 2013, Miley Cyrus pushed the envelope in a live performance with Robin Thicke at the 2013 MTV VMAs. Little did she know that Mike Huckabee would be watching, and judging:
  

  "She contorted her barely-clad, barely legal-age body in a disgustingly pornographic performance that showed just about everything she had —- except talent —- and focused national attention on a new term, 'twerking,' which describes a vulgar movement better saved for a stripper pole than prime-time television."

[worstblogever]

• On January 24th, 2014, at the RNC Winter Meeting, Huckabee goes off on Democrats for supporting contraceptive coverage for women, claiming that they only do so as an insult and think that women "cannot control their libido".
  

  "The Democrats want to insult the women of America by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control, because they cannot control their libido."

• On August 6th, 2014, Huckabee goes on Iowa talk show host Steve Deace's program and gripes that President Obama is "acting like God", and that "There’s no doubt that he has done plenty of things worthy of impeachment."
• In October 2014, Huckabee joined the GOP chorus who were fearmongering about Ebola and trying to use to not only call for a travel ban, but a crackdown on illegal immigration to prevent the spread of the disease (that wasn't coming from Mexico).
• On October 7th, 2014, Huckabee appears on the American Family Association's program, "Today's Issues" and threatens to leave the Republican Party if they do not continue to fight against same sex marriage.
• November 25th, 2014, Huckabee compares abortion and same sex marriage to the Nazi Holocaust.
• On December 3rd, 2014, Huckabee criticizes St. Louis Rams players who in support of murder victim Michael Brown, show the "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" gesture, claiming it was "incredibly dangerous" to do so.
• In his 2015 book, "God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy", Huckabee refers to Beyonce Knowles as "mental poison", and criticizes President Obama for letting his daughters for letting them listen to her music. He also wonders why Jay-Z acts towards his wife as if he is her pimp:
  

  Jay Z is a very shrewd businessman, but I wonder: Does it occur to him that he is arguably crossing the line from husband to pimp by exploiting his wife as a sex object?"

  In the same book, Huckabee insults the TSA for their security measures, saying, "Bend over and take it like a prisoner!"
• On January 19th, 2015, on MLK Day, Huckabee is on a South Carolina radio program and complains how "President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder make everything about race" and thus have worsened race relations.
• On January 29th, 2015, Huckabee falsely claims President Obama is giving Muslims "special rights" while "stomping all over Christians".
• In February 2015, Huckabee addresses the 2015 National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Nashville and makes some insensitive comments about transgendered people:
  

  "Now I wish that someone told me that when I was in high school that I could have felt like a woman when it came time to take showers in PE. I’m pretty sure that I would have found my feminine side and said, ‘Coach, I think I'd rather shower with the girls today.’ You’re laughing because it sounds so ridiculous doesn’t it?"

• On February 19th, 2015, Huckabee defended civilian access to AR-15 assault weapons, saying that "a pencil is an assault weapon if you poke it in someone's eye."
• On March 23rd, 2015, Huckabee laments that contraceptives might be covered by the Affordable Care Act, comparing it to the "tyranny" that caused the American Revolution.
• On April 3rd, 2015, Huckabee claims that "the left won't rest until there are no more churches".
• On April 17th, 2015, Huckabee, on an Iowa radio talk show tells the youth of America to not volunteer to serve in the armed forces until "after President Obama leaves office" because of Obama's "open hostility toward the Christian faith".
• On April 23rd, 2015, Huckabee does a conference call to promote the Family Research Council's "Stand for Marriage" event, and defends gay conversion therapy (considered an abuse of human rights in some countries), and warns that gay rights will "outlaw Christianity".
  The same day, he compares the "threat" of gay marriage to that of the terrorist group, ISIS.
• On May 22nd, 2015, Huckabee defends long-time ally Josh Duggar, in light of revelations that he had molested several girls, including his sisters, over several years, justifying it as "Good people make mistakes and do regrettable and even disgusting things." The Duggar family was long known to be affiliated with Bill Gothard's "Quiverfull" movement of Baptists, as was Mike Huckabee, as far back as 2007. Gothard, of course, is under investigation for covering up child abuse cases, as well.65222df220eb_story.html
• On June 19th, 2015, after the shooting in Charleston, SC at the AME Baptist Church, Huckabee starts in on the idea that better gun laws would prevent such a tragedy, instead blaming members of the congregation for not allowing concealed carry of firearms.
• On June 22nd, 2015, Huckabee asked Christians to use civil disobedience to protest an upcoming decision by the Supreme Court on same sex marriage, comparing it to the Dred Scott ruling.
• On June 25th, 2015, Huckabee declares the SCOTUS has "ignored the Constitution" after their ruling in the King vs. Burwell case that upholds the Affordable Care Act.
• The very next day, Huckabee rails against the Supreme Court's landmark decision on same-sex marriage, saying:
  

  "The Supreme Court has spoken with a very divided voice on something only the Supreme Being can do-redefine marriage. I will not acquiesce to an imperial court any more than our Founders acquiesced to an imperial British monarch. We must resist and reject judicial tyranny, not retreat.”

• On June 29th, 2015, Huckabee says that marriage equality is "a violation of the First Amendment", presumably on the grounds that it violates HIS freedom of religion.
• The next day, Huckabee sends out an e-mail to followers claiming that marriage equality is a "hate crime" against Christians.
• On July 9th, 2015, Huckabee says the United States is "worse than Sodom and Gomorrah" due to the SCOTUS' ruling on same-sex marriage.

Suffice to say, there's a long book out on Mike Huckabee, and I don't know if after eight years away from campaigning, if he really stands a chance of winning in 2016 even if he manages to rise above the rest of the mob of folks in the GOP presidential primary field. If he does and faces off against Hilary Clinton, I don't see him doing more than cornering the "old white male Christian" vote. Every other demographic, I'd bet the farm that he'll lose in even more prolific ways than the GOP have the past two presidential elections.

[Copper]

• On December 14th, 2012, Huckabee blames the Sandy Hook school shooting on God being taken out of school classrooms on the day of the shooting.

I live in Connecticut, and words can't describe the depth of contempt I have for this ******* after he said this.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Does Huckabee ride shotgun in the GOP clown car, or does he sit on the roof screaming verses from a bible?