Month: September 2011

Is God Smiting Texas?

Jon Ponder
map-texas-drought

When disasters strike in the United States, Republican evangelicals are quick to blame liberals and their wanton ways for bringing God’s wrath onto the land.

In 2001, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell blamed the ACLU, feminists and gays, among others, for the 9/11 attacks. In 2005, Pastor John Hagee of Texas, John McCain’s Catholic-hating buddy from the 2008 campaign, asserted that God smote New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina because it was the site of Southern Decadence, an annual gay event in the French Quarter.

And yet — as we have noted here (and here, here and here) — evangelicals are always silent when disasters hit them in their own backyards.

Rachel Maddow picked up on this theme on her MSBNC show last night, reporting that Cindy Jacobs — a self-proclaimed prophet and theocrat who pals around with Republican presidential frontrunner Rick Perry — has proclaimed that because Perry hosted a prayer meeting, which he called “the Response,” in Houston on Aug. 6, God has healed the state of Texas:

[…]

The Line: GOP Debate in Orlando

Jon Ponder

  • The room full of tea baggers at last night’s debate in Florida did not cheer at references to executing people or letting the uninsured die, but they could not pass up an opportunity to hate on the gays. The crowd booed during a video question from an active-duty U.S. serviceman who said he was gay. “I guess we only respect the troops Republicans approve of,” wrote Digby. “Good to know.”
  • The soldier’s question was put first to Rick Santorum, the infamous homophobe. His response was typically bizarre: “I would say, any type of sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military.” (Tell it to the Marines, Rick.) David Weigel wrote, “The truly odious moment on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell — possibly the first ever booing of an active duty soldier at a Republican debate — will be remembered beyond [Santorum’s] predictable attacks on the patriotism of anyone who doesn’t favor constant aggressive warfare.”
  • “As with all the Republican debates,” wrote Jonathan Chait, at his new digs at New York magazine, “this one devolved into a contest to see whether Rick Perry or Mitt Romney could most persuasively paint the other one as reasonable.”

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To Defeat Obama, GOP Will Sacrifice America

Buck Banks

I’m not shocked by much any more, but I am shocked by this: the leaders of one of the great parties in Congress calling on the Federal Reserve to tighten money in the throes of the most prolonged downturn since the Great Depression. … To what end? I know what the detractors will say: to the end of defeating President Obama and replacing him with a Republican president. And if you’ve convinced yourself that Obama is the Second Coming of Malcolm X, Trotsky, and the all-conquering Caliph Omar all in one, then perhaps capsizing the US economy and plunging your fellow-citizens deeper into misery will seem a price worth paying to rid the country of him.

— David Frum, writing on his blog, FrumForum.

10 Quotes from Google Testimony

Buck Banks

10 Quotes from Google’s Testimony Before the Senate Judiciary Committee Yesterday

“We regret what happened and it was a mistake.” — Eric Schmidt on the illegal pharmacy search results

“I recently Googled myself on Google.” — Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.

“We have to represent the web how it is and not how we wish it to be.” — Eric Schmidt on pirated content in search results

“I love Google.” — Al Franken, D-Minn.

“If you don’t know, who does?” — Al Franken questioning Schmidt about Google’s knowledge of its own favoritism in its search algorithm

“And ultimately, we bought a company called Zagat to do something similar.” — Eric Schmidt on Yelp

“Some of my fears have been confirmed by our conversation.” — Mike Lee, R-Utah

“I would estimate that two-thirds of Android phones come with Google services pre-loaded.” — Eric Schmidt on Android phones that ship with Google apps

“You run the racetrack, own the racetrack, you didn’t have horses for a while but now you do and your horses seem to be winning.” — Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., comparing Google to a horse race

“Google might be doping the horses.” — Al Franken, extending the metaphor

Santorum Haunted by His ‘Google Problem’

Buck Banks

I suspect if something was up there like that about Joe Biden, they’d get rid of it. If you’re a responsible business, you don’t let things like that happen in your business that have an impact on the country. To have a business allow that type of filth to be purveyed through their website or through their system is something that they say they can’t handle but I suspect that’s not true.

— Rick Santorum, to Poltico, saying he contacted Google about his “Google problem” but says the search company isn’t interested in fixing it.