A progressive political blog that highlights the infringement of religion upon today’s government.

Tony Zirkle who recently gave a speech at a birthday celebration for Adolph Hitler, has issued a statement on his official campaign website. As expected its not an apology. Instead I would classify it as a deranged rant about the great tyrant king porn dragon that inspires Jews into pornography and prostitution. You seriously can’t make this stuff up.

“Unfortunately, those Web sites are just a small fraction of evidence you can find on a Google search of combinations of “Jews” “pornography” “sex slavery” “Israel” and “prostitution.” Let’s save our Jewish brothers and sisters from this tyrant king porn dragon before we get to another world-wide pogrom.”

I normally don’t write during the weekends but seriously how many times will I get to write the phrase Tyrant King Porn Dragon in my lifetime? Thanks to Eschaton for the link.

Today John McCain stopped in the 9th ward of New Orleans in an effort to pander up a few votes and take a few shots at his rival John McCain. Analysts have long been wondering why John McCain had not used this tactic earlier considering John McCain’s horrible record on support for the aftermath of Katrina. Late or not John McCain was in rare form today landing several potentially campaign ending blows on his rival.

McCain Attacks McCain on Actions Day of Levee Breaking

Let Them Eat Cake!

In New Orleans today John McCain stated that had he been president he would have been on a plane and headed immediately to the nearest Air Force base. This is clearly an attack on John McCain who chose to celebrate his birthday with the President on the day the levee’s broke instead of coming to the aid of those effected by hurricane Katrina. Of Course John McCain was only a Senator so having a photo op with best buddy George Bush probably seemed more important at the time.

McCain Attacks McCain on Handling of Disaster

Throughout the day John McCain repeated his pledge that “Never again will a disaster of this nature be handled in the disgraceful way it was handled”. Many believe that this statement is attacking his opponent John McCain’s refusal to vote for many bills providing relief for the people of New Orleans. Below is a list of bills that John McCain voted against provided by The Democratic Party.

• McCain Voted Against Emergency Funding Bill, Including $28 Billion for Hurricane Relief
• McCain Voted Against Five Months of Medicaid For Hurricane Katrina Victims For Up To Five Months
• McCain Voted Twice Against Establishing A Commission To Study The Response To Hurricane Katrina
• McCain Opposed Granting Financial Relief To Those Affected By Hurricane Katrina

McCain Attacks McCain Supporter John Hagee

A while back John McCain sought out and was proud to accept the endorsement of Pastor John Hagee. Hagee has gained notoriety for saying, among other things, that Hurricane Katrina was a punishment from God sent down to smite New Orleans because of the gays. A viewpoint that John McCain obviously shares, otherwise the endorsement of such a bigoted and hateful man would never have been accepted let alone sought out.

Today, standing in front of the people of New Orleans, John McCain attacked and denounced the hateful words of John Hagee.

It’s nonsense, it’s nonsense, it’s nonsense, it’s nonsense, it’s nonsense. I dont have anything additional to say. It’s nonsense, it’s nonsense, it’s nonsense, I don’t have anything more to say…it’s nonsense. I reject it categorically. ~ Via Think Progress

By extension John McCain was also denouncing the hateful embrace of those words from John McCain. No response yet from John McCain or John Hagee after this attack on their faith, a topic that has so far been off limits between the two men. In the highly religious Republican party the John McCain that manages the most endorsements from hateful bigoted leaders will have a huge advantage in November.

John McCain’s wholehearted support and poorly hidden man love for George Bush makes him particularly vulnerable to these kinds of attacks. If John McCain wants to survive until the general election he needs to fight back against these attacks. Otherwise John McCain will continue to contradict everything John McCain has spend the past 25 years building. The way things are going I won’t be surprised if John McCain doesn’t succeed in completely destroying John McCain’s image as an honest politician and maverick, an image already in tatters.

It sure is nice to see that Sally Kern isn’t the only Republican getting press attention for being an intolerant ass. Recently Tony Zirkle gave a speech to a group who was celebrating the anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s birthday. While Republicans, like Trent Lott or Sean Hannity, are often associated indirectly with white supremacy, it’s still refreshing when one has the strength of character to openly express their racist and hate filled ways.

Tony is defending his actions saying that “I’ll speak before any group that invites me, I’ve spoken on an African-American radio station in Atlanta.”

Yes, apparently to Tony Zirkle talking to African-Americans is exactly the same thing as celebrating Hitler’s birthday with a bunch of racist Neo-Nazi’s. Of course he did suggest segregating blacks to their own states away from everyone else so celebrating Hitler’s birthday is probibly to be expected.

I expect someone will quickly try to dismiss Tony Zirkle as a nutjob (he is) and not representative of Republicans (he is). Of course I expected Republicans to try to disown the hateful and intolerant views of Sally Kern and they defended her so maybe I will be wrong again. I just can’t seem to let go of the notion that deep down Republicans are good people no matter how often they prove me wrong.

Hillary won Pennsylvania yesterday by 10 points, brining in over 200,000 votes. This of course just goes to verify that she is still a viable candidate no matter what all the anti-Clinton liberal blogs say. Since I have no time today I just wanted to post a question …

If Hillary is tearing apart the Democratic party to the point where only Obama can hold us together why is Hillary getting substantially more votes? Also, if the relatively mild attacks that Hillary is throwing at Obama is enough to beat him so soundly what chance does he have against the Republicans?

Anyhow, here is a good post by Kate Harding from Shakesville that does a good job of outlining some reasons why I still think Clinton is just as good (or better) than Obama.

I wanted to post a quick update on the story of Aliza Schvarts’ Abortion Art Project I wrote about yesterday just to let you all know how the story is playing out. In such a short time there has been a lot going on and a lot of blogs that I really admire have posted about this.

As predicted the story has spread quickly on both sides of the pro-choice debate. The response from the anti-choicers has been as predictable as always, but not so on the pro-choice side. Thats to be expected though from a group that sees the world in many shades of grey and not in absolutes. One advantage of this approach is you don’t look so foolish when things aren’t as they first appear. That seems to be the case here.

First the school came out with a statement saying that the art piece was performance art and wasn’t real.

Ms. Shvarts is engaged in performance art. Her art project includes visual representations, a press release and other narrative materials. She stated to three senior Yale University officials today, including two deans, that she did not impregnate herself and that she did not induce any miscarriages. The entire project is an art piece, a creative fiction designed to draw attention to the ambiguity surrounding form and function of a woman’s body.

She is an artist and has the right to express herself through performance art.

Had these acts been real, they would have violated basic ethical standards and raised serious mental and physical health concerns.
Helaine S. Klasky — Yale University, Spokesperson

Aliza Schvarts is standing by her original claim that she did in fact artificially inseminate herself while taking herbs to induce miscarriage.  Personally I would say that the most likely scenareo at this point is that it is in fact a performance art piece.  As such the contradictions and vague message makes perfect sense.

The debate and response to the performance is part of the art and while some may disagree I think it has great value.  As I clarified in a comment to my earlier post there is value in forcing people to ponder whether their support of womens rights and reproductive freedom is absolute or if its just theoretical.  Real or not her art project has accomplished that.

As we seldom get many comments (though the quality has recently improved greatly) I suggest heading over to Feministing as the discussion there is very good.  Of course I love hearing your thoughts too so please dont hesitate to post a comment.

William ~ WWJV4.com