Goodbye to one of the most audaciously corrupt governors this country has ever seen. I may almost miss his antics.

What is the deal with Republicans these days? I don’t know if it’s the massive electoral losses or the fear of irrelevancy that seems to have taken hold but the massive whine-fest about the stimulus bill is just ridiculous. Newsflash- you guys lost. Get over it and move along.

Earlier this week, party members were outraged that the $825 billion stimulus package contained funding for birth control services for low-income women. Admittedly, Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s justification for such funding was rather weak. I wish she had focused more on the numbers which are actually quite positive- enacting such a policy would save $200 million over five years and $700 million over 10. Plus, aren’t Republicans supposed to be into this sort of thing since better contraception access=less abortions?  The reaction from the right wingers has been hilarious. Personal favorites include Chris Matthews referring to the measure as reminiscent of the one-child policy in China and former drug addict Rush Limbaugh advocating putting up Pelosi’s pictures in motel rooms in order to deter sex. Dude, have you looked in a mirror lately?

Predictably, President Obama and the Democrats caved on the family planning measure, removing it from the package. It didn’t end there, though. Republicans then became upset that the stimulus contained funding for HIV and chlamydia testing. The horror! Seriously, what century are we living in? According to Republicans, any talk of sex, pregnancies and STDs is embarrassing and to be avoided at all costs. Apparently, we have a bunch of giggly fifth-graders for political leaders.

None of this mattered really because despite Democratic concessions and personal appeals by Obama, not a single House Republican voted for the stimulus package yesterday. While I would expect nothing less from a party that lacks any credibility on economic issues whatsoever, I hope this definitively ends all the talk of  bipartisanship on the part of Democrats.

I still remember the outrage when neoconservative commentator and professional wingnut Bill Kristol received a prime time columnist gig at the New York Times in early 2008. That Kristol was a rabid conservative, while contributing to the uproar, wasn’t so much the issue as his less-than-kind-words for his future employer, including calls for its “prosecution.” Well, that and the fact that he’s been wrong about everything.  Case in point- Kristol was the genius responsible for “discovering” Gov. Sarah Palin and pushing Sen. John McCain to pick her for the VP slot.

Keeping with this storied tradition, Kristol ended his stint at the NYT yesterday with a meandering column about Obama’s conservative credentials (funny, I remember a different label for him during the election) and how awesome Ronald Reagan was. Rule of thumb for Republicans- if you have to incessantly repeat something- tax cuts are good! We won in Iraq! Ronald Reagan ended the Cold War! George Bush kept us safer!- it probably isn’t true.

The reason for Kristol’s ouster is not surprising- in just a year, the NYT was forced to issue four corrections, including one for his very first column. Still, it’s not all gloomy. Kristol has reportedly been picked up for a monthly columnist gig at the Washington Post. What liberal media, right?

Here’s the thing that always gets me about intellectual lightweights like Kristol- they wouldn’t be any where if it wasn’t for famous fathers. He isn’t alone of course- Fred Kagan, John Podhoretz and Doug Feith come to mind. This dangerous brand of nepotism is particularly ironic considering that while the GOP seems to care a great deal about merit and fairness, many Republican commentators have been able to advance solely due to family connections. Indeed, for a group that seems to loathe affirmative action, they sure seem to be benefit from it.

Today, as his trial began in the Illinois State Senate, Governor Rod Blagojavich hit the airwaves.  The governor seems to have decided that his most effective strategy at this point is to appeal to the public rather than attend his Senate trial, in which he could be removed from office and even barred from ever holding an public office again in the State of Illinois.

He appeared on the View, for example:

Actually, talking to Barbara Walters via satellite probably provided the best effect possible: the interview looks so phony. Almost as phony, in fact, as Blagojavich himself. And almost as phony as the ‘poor people’ he earlier trotted out at a press conference, claiming his innocence as an extension of the ‘fact’ that his administration had allegedly helped them.

Shirking his own trial in favor of appearing before the nation, all but begging for the public not to send him to prison after his sure-thing removal from office, seems to be a tacit admission of his guilt.

We can’t bite the bait.  Blagojavich should answer the allegations against him with candid responses rather than appealing to the American people’s love of the View.  All of the people he has (mis)represented deserve no less.

During Obama’s inaugural speech, he had the audacity to mention America’s religious freedom, and for that he is being begrudged by some religious people.

Obama described America as a “nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and nonbelievers.”

Considering the fact that Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and athiests–and satanists and wiccans and buddhists and scientologists–all live in America and comprise our nation and have their rights protected in the First Amendment, I don’t see where he’s wrong.

However, he is wrong, because he is “trying to redefine American culture, which is distinctively Christian,” says Bishop E.W. Jackson of the Exodus Faith Ministries in Chesapeake, Va.

Funny, because I thought America’s culture was distinctively one of liberty and freedom, and I thought some of the first Americans came here to escape religious persecution.

Jackson appeared on a radio show and took calls from many who were offended by atheists for not believing in a God. Jackson elaborated, “Obviously, Jewish heritage is very much a part of Christianity; the Jewish Bible is part of our Bible. But Hindu, Muslim, and nonbelievers? I don’t think so. We are not a Muslim nation or a nonbelieving nation.”

Right, we aren’t a Muslim nation or a nonbelieving nation or a Christian nation. We shouldn’t let religion get involved in politics and define our nation.

On the other side, there are many gay rights fanatics mad that Obama had the Rev. Rick Warren give prayers simply because they disagree with Mr. Warren about whether gay people should have “marriages” or “civil unions” regardless of the fact that they already have the same legal rights.

Reprinted from my personal blog:

The Washington Post published a front page article today titled:

Does a Glass Ceiling Persist in Politics?

Kennedy’s Withdrawal Illustrates a Double Standard, Some Say

Did a glass ceiling in effect keep Caroline Kennedy from being appointed?

I’ll save you the trouble and show you a picture of who was appointed:

This illustrates a double standard between how qualified women are treated and how unqualified women are treated.

Kristen Gillibrand won election to the House of Representatives in 2006 and served as a Special Counsel in the Clinton Administration. Kennedy was the daughter of a president.

After being accused of trying to sell a Senate seat, blackmail the Chicago Sun Times, blackmail a children’s hospital, and profit from doling out construction contracts, you might want to stay away from the press for a while and try not to get in any more trouble.

Not Rod Blagojevich. Instead, he has been calling press conferences where he reads poetry and claims he’s being victimized. He says the Illinois State Senate in pursuing impeachment charges against one of the most corrupt governors in modern times is “thwart[ing] the will of the people.”

After all of his laughable press conferences, he might have realized that the public doesn’t like him, so maybe he should stop digging his whole deeper. But no, this is the man who thought he might be able to select himself for Obama’s vacant Senate seat then remake his image and run for president in 2016.

Instead of cowering in a corner of his office, he is considering pursuing a media campaign that would reportedly include a spot on The View.

Here’s some common sense, Blago: When people hate you this much, they don’t care what you say. We know you’re lying and we’re gonna put your quotes in any context we want. You’re only hurting yourself by appearing in the media so often.

UPDATE: Blago didn’t take my advice. He told FOX News that the charges against him were a “complete surprise”… just like Pearl Harbor.

Let us remember December 9 as National Blagojevich Remembrance Day.

The State of Texas, credited with being one of the nation’s biggest buyers of textbooks, is considering revising its science curriculum.

In the past, the board of education has lacked a sufficiently conservative membership to pass the changes, which would force science teachers to use materials that emphasize what conservatives say are potential faults with evolutionary biology.

But the changes the board proposes to make would do more to harm the minds of young children than to promote a healthy skepticism.  The chairman of the board, for example, is a dentist who has stated he believes the world is merely a few thousand years old, not 4.5 billion years old as scientists project.

Rather than insinuating that some of the best minds in the world are completely erroneous for their belief in evolution, it just might – perhaps – be virtuous to teach students the facts about evolution so they will have a solid grounding in science and will be able to dispute unrealistic claims analyzing real facts and current, academic debate.

But the plan is problematic regardless of what you think of the substance of the proposed changes.  If passed, educators worry that they would be able to get their hands on text books that would satisfy legal requirements for classroom use.  Textbook suppliers aren’t likely to make changes for a single state.

And even if they are willing to do so, textbooks are costly.  Purchasing new books in order to teach an unrealistic, religiously-motivated view of science will be costly.

Both the quality of Texas education and its economic accessibilty will suffer if Texas introduces such draconian measures into its curriculum.

This week, I wrote about the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade and rearticulating reproductive justice in terms of obligations, not rights. Such a reworking is possible only by pro-choice people because anti-choicers haven’t really done much to make me think otherwise. Consider this ad by CatholicVote, a project of the Fidelis Center for Law and Policy-

I’m not sure what I find more offensive- using Obama’s story to advance a view he clearly doesn’t espouse or the dig at single mothers. Maybe this is why I’m not an anti-choicer but I’m far more concerned that some women are forced to have abortions for financial reasons. Ideally, women (whether single or not) should be able to have children at a time they determine, unburdened by monetary constraints. Additionally, even if they don’t choose to terminate a pregnancy, they should be able to find support from both their immediate community and government.

Pro-choicers are not out to demonize women and attack those we differ from. But, that’s the difference between the two sides.

h/t- feministing

Even for the most cynical among us, yesterday’s celebration cannot help but fill you with optimism and joy. While it is true that President Obama (god, it feels wonderful to type that) will undoubtedly disappoint us with some of his policies, things will get markedly better. Of course, Republicans like Rush Limbaugh can only feed on the negative but I digress…

In the past few hours, the reviews from inauguration day have slowly been pouring in- the speech was ok, Aretha Franklin’s hat was ridiculous, the Obama kids are adorable but obviously, the most important news has got to be Michelle Obama’s outfits. While it is disconcerting to note the amount of attention heaped on the First Lady’s appearance, she definitely lived up to the hype. Both the gold shift dress and matching coat as well as the one-shoulder white gown were stunning.

But, my favorite part of today’s inauguration was earlier in the day, during the benediction by beloved Rev. Joseph Lowery.

We ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to give back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white will embrace what is right.

A civil rights icon rapping at the inauguration of the country’s first black president? Doesn’t get any better than this.