Separation of Brain and State

From El Paso Times:

HOUSTON — Spotlights shined on a stage that seemed set for a massive rock concert.

Three 18-by-24-foot projection screens allowed an estimated 30,000 people to watch and pray, sometimes on their knees, as Texas Gov. Rick Perry and other speakers took the stage and called on God to lead “a nation in crisis.”

Attendees at The Response, a Christian prayer event and brainchild of Perry, at times appeared as if they were at a rock performance: raising their arms in the air, weeping and singing along to lyrics that included “God end abortion.”

And, like a rock star, Perry, 61, beamed as he twice walked on stage to adoring fans or, in this case, the conservative Christians he eagerly hopes to woo as he weighs his national political aspirations.

Original painting (Dinner at Emmaus by Caravaggio)
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The Party of Stinkin’

From Joan Walsh at Salon:

Credit where it’s due: Just days after insisting there are no racists in the Tea Party movement, Tea Party Federation leader David Webb told CBS’s “Face the Nation” today that Mark Williams and his Tea Party Express had been expelled from the group. Last seen trying to start a sponsors’ boycott of MSNBC’s “Hardball” because of Chris Matthews’s tough reporting on the Tea Party, Webb was apparently appalled by Williams’s blatantly racist Letter to President Lincoln from “Colored People” signed by “Precious Ben Jealous,” asking Lincoln to repeal emancipation because “coloreds” had it better under slavery, not having to look for a job and such. Webb called the letter “offensive.”

Original DVD cover
(Yes, that is Mark Williams’s real computer.)

You Can’t Spell Crazy Without AZ!

From TALKING POINTS MEMO:

Dean Martin, Arizona state treasurer and Republican candidate for governor, is pushing a plan that would create “tent cities” to house illegal immigrants convicted of other crimes, modeled after notorious anti-immigration Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s set-up in his own Maricopa County.

In an interview with TPM, Martin described how the state could use the tent cities to provide “inexpensive temporary housing” that would save them enough money to deploy more troops down to the border.

According to a statement by Martin, he and Arpaio met earlier this week, and Arpaio endorsed Martin’s “Zero Tolerance” plan because it “offers real solutions.” Martin told TPM that Arpaio also said he would take on any illegal immigrants arrested in his own Maricopa County for other crimes.

In the plan (.pdf), Martin describes how the state of Arizona could save millions by temporarily housing “criminal aliens” in either private prisons or in “tent cities.”

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The New Kids in Town

As of noon today, Chimpy and Deadeye Dick are no longer in charge. We made it, kids. Eight long years, but it looks like we’ve finally been….

Original DVD cover.