TEA-BAGGERS GONE WILD!
Federal lawmakers are returning home this week to begin their month-long recess and the far right is welcoming them with large, angry "town halls gone wild." Last week, a leaked Tea Party Patriots memo detailed how town hall goers should infiltrate meetings and harass members of Congress. The memo said activists should "stand up and shout out and sit right back down" so the representative is "made to feel that a majority, and if not, a significant portion of at least the audience, opposes the socialist agenda of Washington."

NOTE: In response to this post some of my friends have asked how that is any different from ACORN's organizing efforts. My response is that ACORN organizing around an issue is okay, just as it's okay if the TPP organizes. It's the subterfuge that's wrong. Why isn't that obvious to anyone? Since when have you seen an ACORN event where the folks are clandestinely participating and where they are doing the direct bidding of the Democratic Party but acting like it's the spontaneous "will of the people"?
(ALTERNET)

SEE ALSO:

Keep The Government Out of My Medicare!

The Nazis Are coming! The Nazis Are Coming!

GOP: Party of Extremists?

What Stinking Health Care Problems?

The Associated Press: Lou Dobbs challenges his own CNN network

CNN STUCK IN THE MIDDLE
The Lou Dobbs controversy surrounding the "birther" movement asks the simple question many have asked: "How does that pendejo keep his job?"
(AP, suggested by TV NEWSER)

Mobile, AL school system loses its mind : Starts With A Bang

TEACHING WHAT?
100 years ago, segregation of sex was commonplace in schools. Not only that, but girls took "girl classes" like home economics, while boys took "boy classes" like trigonometry. One would think that we're past that by now. But under the sex-segregation program at a Mobile school, teachers had been instructed to treat boys and girls differently. At a teacher training, teachers were informed that boys should be taught about "heroic behavior" and girls should learn "good character."
(SCIENCE BLOG, suggested by LEE ANN KONIK CAMP-WATERSS)

WHY THEY DO IT
Just like Captain Renault in Casa Blanca, the race-baiters are "shocked, I tell you, shocked" to find such animosity: Senators by the "wise latina" comment; the media by outlandish tales of intrigue about Obama's dark secret motives.(eg., the "birther" "issue")
Why they do it is no surprise; Money, Power and it's easier than dealing with the mess they made and left for him to clean up. The real issue is why anyone acts surprised. It's part of their playbook. Remember the Clinton death list? Hillary as a killer crypto-lesbian who faked Vince Foster's suicide? The bottom line is, like the old joke about the dog, is that they can. But do we have to watch?

SEE ALSO
(ALTERNET)

Report: Bush mulled sending troops into Buffalo | ajc.com

POSSE COMMITATUS REDUX
In what would have been a nearly unprecedented use of military power, the Bush administration considered sending U.S. troops into a US city to make civilian arrests. The Constitution and various laws restrict the military from being used to conduct domestic raids and seize property. Cheney and other Bush aides used a Justice Department memo as justification for their claimed broad authority.
(ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION)

Intelligent Design's Latest Sneaky Assault on Science | Belief | AlterNet

SNEAKY SCIENCE
The origins of the Intelligent Design movement can be found in the so-called Wedge Document, a founding manifesto and fundraising document for the Center for Science and Culture. It lays out a broadly ideological agenda, setting out a multi-decade plan for “the overthrow of materialism and its cultural legacies” and for the acceptance of “the proposition that human beings are created in the image of God.” But in presentations and public appearances CSC founder Stephen Meyer still presents himself as a scientist who is just following the evidence.
(ALTERNET)

Missouri Car Dealer Offers Free AK-47 With Purchase of New Truck | PEEK | AlterNet

WHAT, NO RACK?
Max Motors in Missouri - whose business slogan is "God, Guns, Guts, and American Pick-Up Trucks" - is offering a gift certificate for a Kalashnikov AK-47 rifle to anyone who purchases a pick-up truck.
(ALTERNET)

109433.jpg (JPEG Image, 652x434 pixels)

UNITE!
English "sex workers" held a parade around Soho thanking the community for their support in helping to keep women safe.
(DEMOTIX)

t r u t h o u t | Oysters for Health Care

PEOPLE'S RX
Although Dr. Regina Benjamin's clinic has not been able to give her a salary for years she's been willing to buy patient meds out of her own pocket. As we well know, many of the folks in the bayou are poor. So poor that sometimes she's paid with a pint of oysters or a couple of fish and she's been fine with that too. As a result she's received accolades from the health care industry and local politicos as well. This week, Numero Uno nominated her for Surgeon General.
(TRUTHOUT, suggested by MARCUS WIDENOR)

OH YES, SHE DID
Recently Pat Buchanan appeared on the Rachel Maddow show to argue that Sotomayor has made a career of discriminating against white males and that her nomination constitutes affirmative action run amok. He should have appeared on Morning Joe instead.
(ALTERNET)

Study: Most Children Strongly Opposed To Children’s Healthcare | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

NEW HEALTH CARE POLL
A new poll shows that a vital US demographic is opposed to health care reform.
(ONION)

Shouts & Murmurs: Britney’s Conversion Diary : The New Yorker

NO GRANDEE, SHE
Now, if E! was this funny I would watch it all of the time. This piece by Andy Borowitz, ostensibly about Britney Spears considering converting to Judaism, is hilarious. The singer has supposedly been spotted wearing a necklace with the Star of David symbol on during her world tour. She has even recruited a rabbi to help her study the faith.
(BOROWITZ REPORT)

Listen Up Punk! Is This the New Gay Anthem? | CarnalNation

GAY PUNK?
Kent James, also known as Nick Name is the usually shirtless, confrontational, and sexy singer who has been dubbed "the gay Henry Rollins" and "the most masculine man in gay culture." In this new video for his 2001 song, the singer is unapologetic and angry.
(CARNAL NATION)

Sotomayor Surprises Sessions - Washington Wire - WSJ

OH NO, SHE DIDN'T?
When Jeff Sessions contrasted her views with that of another judge, Sotomayor invited him to ask her as she was in the audience as part of her coterie. "My friend Judge (Miriam) Cedarbaum is here," she riposted, to Sessions’ apparent surprise. "We are good friends, and I believe that we both approach judging in the same way, which is looking at the facts of each individual case and applying the law to those facts," something to which Cedarbaum would later accede.
(WALL STREET JOURNAL, suggested by LYDIA GRANELL)

THE DONKEYS AND THE ELEPHANTS IN THE ROOM
In an earlier post I noted that the Sotomayor hearings were going as expected, that is, along party lines and that, surprisingly, Lindsey Graham had been the most "real", and the most gracious. As this article notes there is another "real" donkey in the room that only the GOPers are (legitimately) talking about:

"The hardest question in the confirmation hearings for Sonia Sotomayor is one the nominee can’t answer. Not because she doesn’t know the law or can’t offer a satisfactory explanation for a phrase in a speech. Rather, it’s because this question doesn’t really involve her, although it has everything to do with the number of votes she will get.

(Now, as far as being "real" from my perspective, the Democrats - most ably Diane Feinstein - seemed to structure their commentary about who the real "activists" are.)

THIS STORY ILLUSTRATES WHAT SHE WAS TALKING ABOUT

SO DOES THIS ONE