A Few of My Favorite Zings

To the tune of My Favorite Things (music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein):

Health care and midterms and all kinds of fighting,
Rallies and scandals, it was so exciting,
Tea party darlings were at it again,
All this shit happened in 2010.

Nothing but heartache for millions of Haitians,
While dumb old Pat Robertson hurled accusations,
John Roberts’ activist band of Supremes,
Were simply the court of a lobbyist’s dreams.

Murfreesboro Becomes Mursboro

From THINK PROGRESS:

For months, conservatives have led a hateful campaign against the expansion of a local Islamic center in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. This campaign has been endorsed by high-ranking Republicans such as the state’s Lt. Governor, Ron Ramsey, who last month, speaking to a group of Republicans in opposition to the mosque, wondered aloud whether Islam was a religion or a “cult” and fearmongered about the mosque trying to bring “Sharia law” to America. Earlier this year, Lou Ann Zelenik, a GOP congressional candidate in Tennessee, campaigned against the Murfreesboro mosque, arguing that it posed a threat to that state’s “moral and political foundation.”

Now, the local press reports that the police are investigating a case of arson that occurred at the construction site of the mosque Friday night:

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Holier-Than-Thou Land

From TALKING POINTS MEMO:

As president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Dr. Richard Land is an influential opponent of the Cordoba House project in New York. But when he’s not speaking on behalf of one of the most powerful religious bodies in the country, Land has a second — some would say ironic — ecumenical role: member of the federally created United States Commission on International Religious Freedom [appointed by George W. Bush].

In his role as a commissioner, Land’s job is to press for a U.S. foreign policy that advances religious freedoms around the world. Reached by phone today, Land maintained that there is no contradiction between his service on the Commission and his efforts to see the Cordoba House Islamic cultural center project moved farther north in Manhattan.

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Silly Season

From TALKING POINTS MEMO:

In a three-way Tennessee Republican gubernatorial primary to be held this Thursday, two right-wing candidates have been splitting what Monty Python would call the “silly vote,” leaving Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam as the de facto “sensible candidate,” and thus making him the frontrunner.

A recent Mason-Dixon poll gave Haslam the lead with 36%, followed by Rep. Zach Wamp at 25% and Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey with 20%. To be sure, Haslam has tacked right somewhat. For example, he used to be a member of New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s (I) Mayors Against Illegal Guns coalition. But in early 2009 he left the group and joined the National Rifle Association.

But with that said, there’s nothing that Haslam has done or said that compares to the other two.

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OMG!! They Have More Cowbell!

From NBC New York:

Daisy Khan said every good tweet deserves a retort. And when Sarah Palin called the proposed mosque near Ground Zero “an unnecessary provocation,” Khan started typing.

“She tweeted us, that meant we had to respond with a countertweet,” said Khan, one of the founders of the Cordoba Institute, the group planning to build an Islamic Cultural Center on Park Place, two blocks from the World Trade Center site.

Khan wrote back: “Let thou not tweet about bleeding hearts let’s meet refudiate thine mosque charge; Muslim YMCA long live USA a ground for all faiths.“

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I wouldn’t give you a nickel for any word she coins

From sify news:

After coining a new word-“refudiate”- Sarah Palin has now compared herself to Shakespeare, for her rather controversial contribution to English language.

The former Republican Vice Presidential candidate made up a new word and first used it last week on Fox News’s Hannity show when she called on President Obama and his wife Michelle to “refudiate” the NAACP’s suggestion that the Tea Party movement was racist.

But, it did not end there, for Palin used it again in a tweet addressing the Ground Zero mosque controversy.

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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.”

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