"Gimme, gimme, gimme"? Seriously, Rand Paul. Use your grown-up words.

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Corporate mainstream media specializes in royal weiners instead of actual news.

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Fox News: "fair and balanced"? The Reza Aslan interview proved again, their motto should be "fake and biased."

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Guest spot on The Tim Corrimal Show

I had a great time yesterday discussing current events with the panel of The Tim Corrimal Show. Topics included the crazy reactions to President Obama's remarks about race relations, the continuing Anthony Weiner meltdown, and Rep. Steve King's terrible comments about immigration. Always a fun discussion on Tim's show!

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Remember that time "Pepper-Spray Cop" got hurt in the line of duty? Me neither.

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Dear Christian Conservatives ... please check the New Testament. Jesus was a liberal.

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The propagandists at Fox News would be funny except that so many people take them seriously.

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Hey, mark your calendars ... I just posted something nice about a Republican!

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Extremist Pennsylvania police chief posts unhinged rant against liberals

The Gilberton town council will meet next week to discuss Kessler's videos. As American citizens, we have the right to let them know how we feel about their town using taxpayer money to fund a position filled by an extremist such as Kessler. Please don't sink to Kessler's level and keep your calls civil and focused on the issue. Here's some recent background information (despite the article's misleading title, the calls already received were not actually "threatening").

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President Obama has a law degree, but perhaps he should get some training in infant and toddler education to deal with Congressional Republicans.

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The 38 fake repeals of Obamacare don't count.

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John Boehner quotes Lincoln out of context to fit his agenda ... classy!

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"Bleeding-heart liberal" is a compliment.

Remember that the term "bleeding heart" comes from the suffering of Jesus and the sorrow of Mary. As John Fugelsang says, Jesus never called the poor lazy, never fought for tax cuts for the wealthiest Nazarenes, and never asked a leper for a copay. Obama isn't a brown-skinned, anti-war socialist who gives away free healthcare. That's Jesus. 

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Right-wingers accused the president of race-baiting. Did they listen to his actual speech or the one playing inside their own heads?

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Some Republicans call 5,000 military families freeloaders.

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Newt Gingrich ... failing upward since for the past 50 years.

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Senate Republicans finally shamed into protecting American consumers

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Republican is to Democrat as scream is to sigh.

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Republican policies are economic vandalism

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RIP Trayvon Martin

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Republican policy: college education is a luxury product only available to those who can afford it.

I wasn't born to wealth and couldn't have gone to college without student loans--and my parents certainly couldn't afford to lend me money to start a business. The same was true when my own kids went to college. Favoring corporations and the wealthy while blocking access to higher education for everyday Americans isn't an accident--it's Republican Party policy.

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Like presidential scandals? Who remembers inmate #84888-054, Bush's nominee for Secretary of Homeland Security?

Considering all the fake Obama scandals being pushed by Republicans and their helpers in the right-wing and corporate media, imagine what would happen if Obama had shown such poor judgement to nominate someone like Bernie Kerik. Fox News would create an entire spin-off network just for 24-hour coverage of Darrell Issa's pitchforks-and-torches mob marches to the White House.

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Michelle Bachmann used to be Gretchen Carlson's babysitter. For real. Just imagine those conversations.

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Let’s Light Candles, not Torches, for Obama

The Huffington Post recently ran a photograph of the merged faces of Presidents Obama and Bush with the caption “George W. Obama.” That’s pretty strong stuff for a supposedly liberal publication. Considering the recent news reports about government surveillance, is it fair to say that Obama has become as bad as Bush?

Reasonable people can debate whether surveillance helps keep us safe or is a needless intrusion, but anybody who thinks Obama invented surveillance has a very short memory. Bush’s surveillance was widely reported in 2006 and dates back even further. And anyone who claims Obama is as bad as Bush or the Republican Party is ignoring many basic facts.

The Obama administration’s surveillance is primarily “data mining” to discover possible crime or terrorism. Michael Hayden, Bush’s director of the National Security Agency, has noted that Obama is “more transparent” about surveillance than Bush was. 

Also, despite media distortions, there is no evidence that the Obama administration has engaged in far more invasive wiretapping. Bush definitely wiretapped, and did so with, at best, questionable legal authority.

In other aspects of foreign policy and national security, Obama has proven to be far more effective and in line with liberal American values than Bush was.

Obama didn’t allow the worst terrorist attack in American history--Bush did. Obama didn’t start two “Bush Doctrine” pre-emptive wars for bad reasons--Bush did. Obama didn’t mismanage those wars--Bush did. Obama ended one war and is winding down the other. Obama got Osama bin Laden--Bush couldn’t. Obama saved lives and helped oust a dictator in Libya while avoiding the full-scale war that Bush probably would have started. Obama didn’t start wars with Iran or North Korea, among other places. Bush (or McCain or Romney) probably would have.

Bush and Congressional Republicans created the Patriot Act in 2001 and spearheaded its renewal in 2006 and 2011. Obama didn’t dream it up and mainly signed the renewal in 2011 because Republicans (along with too many go-along Democrats) would have overridden a veto for the sake of looking tough on terrorism.

Obama immediately banned torture and ordered the closing of the Guantanamo prison (which is being blocked by Congress). Bush, by contrast, approved torture and founded Guantanamo, sending hundreds of detainees there. Obama hasn’t sent anyone new to Guantanamo and has been extraditing prisoners there back to their home countries.

Obama has increased the use of drone strikes begun by Bush, and those strikes are definitely not perfect. But Obama is moving the program from the CIA to the Defense Department for better oversight. Most important, targeted and limited drone strikes are far less destructive and costly than Bush’s full-out wars.

Obama didn’t cut taxes during wartime, which Bush did. Bush had terrible “Neocon” foreign policy advisors (Paul Wolfowitz and Dick Cheney) while Obama seeks sensible counsel (Hillary Clinton and John Kerry). Bush persecuted military members under Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell. Obama oversaw the DADT repeal.

My fellow liberals may call me an “Obamabot,” but that’s OK. Along with being factually wrong, equating Bush and Obama is bad politics for liberals. This view feeds the false-equivalency argument that all politicians are bad, causing many Americans, especially independents and liberals, to disengage from politics and stop voting. 

When turnout is low, Republicans almost always do better. Too many independents and liberals skipped the 2010 “Tea Party” elections, and the 2014 midterms could have the same sad outcome. Criticizing Obama from the left hurts all Democrats at the ballot box. Nothing improves with Republicans controlling Congress--or, worse yet, with a Republican president in 2016.

Of course, we liberals want Obama to move leftward. But “George W. Obama” attacks are ineffective and counterproductive. We’re still learning the basics about the surveillance program. As more facts emerge, the differences between Obama and Bush will become clearer, just as emerging facts about the fake IRS scandal show that Obama is nobody’s Nixon. Moving forward, we’re better off tempering our criticism, focusing on facts over exaggerations, and voicing our objections in reasoned tones rather than snarled attacks.

Elected leaders don’t pay much attention to mobs carrying pitchforks and torches, but they welcome friends with candles to light the way.

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Originally published in the Daily Hampshire Gazette.

After 30 years, you'd think Republican voters would realize that's not wealth trickling down.

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Homophobes are an endangered species ... literally.

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Hey Kansas, how's your new guns-in-schools law working for you?

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It's time to stop Republican electile dysfunction.

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Ever wonder why there's no Fox News for Dummies book?

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That awkward moment when you realize that you're the Westboro Baptist Church with less colorful signs

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Happy birthday U.S.A.!

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If men could get pregnant, abortion would be available in locker room vending machines.

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Want to leave the country because of gay marriage? Okay, here's your ride.

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Anyone who claims to follow Jesus but is obsessed with abortion and denying gay rights is living a lie.

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