Month: February 2015

Obama Offends ‘Christians’ by Comparing Crusades to Islamist Atrocities

Buck Banks

Lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.

— President Barack Obama, at Thursday’s National Prayer Breakfast, which was attended by the Dalai Lama. Christianists were quick to retaliate: “Rush Limbaugh devoted a segment of his show to what he said were the president’s insults to the “whole gamut of Christians” and Twitter’s right wing piled on. Guests on Megyn Kelly’s Fox News show spent 15 minutes airing objections to the president’s comments,” the New York Times reports.

Jindal’s Fiscal Policies Aren’t Working for Louisiana

Buck Banks

$1 billion

Louisiana’s current budget deficit. Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) “has a plan: Do for the country what he’s done for Louisiana. Cut taxes and cut the government workforce and the economy will bloom, he promises. It’s a message he’s peddling as he lays the groundwork for a presidential run,” Politico reports. “But here’s what Jindal doesn’t say: Louisiana’s budget is hemorrhaging red ink, and it’s getting worse. He inherited a $900 million surplus when he became governor seven years ago, and his administration’s own budget documents now show the state is facing deficits of more than $1 billion for as far as the eye can see.”

How Big of an Ass Is Chris Christie?

Buck Banks

It’s clear to anyone with eyes and ears by now that he is an almost pathologically ambitious figure, who has no qualms about persecuting his enemies, pettily seeking payback when necessary, and using public office to pursue political vendettas. What you really see in the Bridgegate mess is his desire to get Democratic party officials to endorse him to burnish his bipartisan credentials for a national race. If they didn’t, they had something to fear in New Jersey. He’s a big guy, in other words, with a tendency to punch down and suck up.”

— Andrew Sullivan, writing in the Dish about New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Nearly 40 Percent of Iowa Republicans View Islam as Inherently Violent

Buck Banks

39%

Of Republicans likely to participate in Iowa’s presidential caucuses say they are inclined to view Islam as an inherently violent religion that inspires brutality by its followers. A new Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register Iowa Poll finds. “Twice as many Democrats — along with a majority of Republicans — say they view the world’s second largest religion as inherently peaceful.”