Salon: Hamna Zubair: Jon Stewart Defends Duck Dynasty Star's Right to Free Speech

Source:Salon Magazine- welcome to Redneckistan. Or the Texas portion of Redneckistan.

“Last night Jon Stewart couldn’t resist bringing up the racist and homophobic comments “Duck Dynasty’s” star Phil Robertson made in a recent interview – but he didn’t take Robertson down in typical Daily Show style. Robertson was removed from “Duck Dynasty” soon after his comments became public, a move Stewart clearly took issue with.

 Stewart, who admitted he thought “Duck Dynasty” was “a show where ducks reenact the show ‘Dynasty,'” defended Robertson’s right to free speech:

“I think what the guy said is ignorant,” said Stewart, “but I also have an inclination to support a world where saying ignorant sh*t on television doesn’t get you kicked off that medium.”

Stewart went on to talk about how Fox News was also, unsurprisingly, defending Robertson’s right to free speech – except that this defense was cloaked in hypocrisy, given the channel’s campaign to draw attention to a perceived “War on Christmas.”

He said: “Their [Fox News] belief in free speech doesn’t extend to the holidays, when the word ‘Christmas’ is mandatory.”

From Salon Magazine

You can also see this post at The Daily Journal, on WordPress.

You can also see this post at The Daily Journal, on Blogger.  

You can also see this post at FreeState MD, on WordPress.

Salon Magazine: Troy Williams: When Mormons Were Socialists

Source:The Daily Journal
Hopefully this is not a news flash for anyone, but I’m not an expert on religion. I'm also not ten-feet tall, if anyone is wondering that as well. I'm especially not an expert Mormonism, which is probably one reason why I’m Agnostic. A devout Agnostic, if there’s such a thing, but what little I do know about Mormonism, is extremely little, as small as Danny DeVito. Which is probably only enough to fill up a bottle cap. That  there is a communitarian aspect to Mormonism. That they live together in compounds, that sort of thing.

To suggest that Mormons are Socialists and they believe all people should live this way, have multiple spouses, at least for men, that sort of thing, is a big stretch. The only socialist religion out there, if you want to call it a religion, would be Atheism, or really militant or fundamentalist Atheism that you see on the far-left. The belief that there is no God and today's so-called Progressives tend to be Atheist. The closest thing we have to a socialist religion in America would be what is supposed to pass as progressivism today. Which is another way of saying democratic socialism. 

Today's socialism really,  is a very collectivist, communitarian, share and share alike philosophy. "That we are only as strong as our weakest link. That we need a strong, large centralized, bloated, I mean big government to mandate, I mean insure economic equality in America. That we don’t have rich, middle or poor people. That we are all the same and equal". That's what progressivism looks like from today's so-called Progressives is. And if this was a religion,  it would be a socialist religion. 

And as much as today's, well Socialists in America, may complain or hate religion, they have as much faith and belief in the state, especially the federal state to take care of and look after and manage the people's well-being, as the Religious-Right believes Jesus will do those things for the people. The Religious-Left in America (and yes, there is such a thing) to call Mormonism a socialist religion or to link Mitt Romney to socialism at any point, is a stretch and pretty humorous. 

Sort of like calling people who have salad with their steaks, a vegetarian. A blind person wouldn't believe that because they could smell the beef. "Where's the beef, right in front of my nose".  But people are welcome to say and believe anything they want, in a liberal democracy, including Socialists who wished we weren’t a liberal democracy. And if anything Socialists have more freedom to express themselves in our liberal democracy, than in a social democracy. Because of our liberal First Amendment.

Salon Magazine: Alex Pareene: Rick Santorum - 'Liberal Penn State Punished Me For Being Conservative'

Source:Free State MD

If Rick Santorum is a Conservative, then Ron Paul is a Socialist and Ron Reagan was a Communist. Oh by the way I’m Santa Clause, right now its 100 degrees in Boston. And its snowing in Houston and before you take any of that seriously, keep in mind right now its March. And you want to know why Rick Santorum is not a Conservative, I’ll tell you anyway.

Conservatism in a political sense, forget about religion right now, but in a political sense conservatism is about conserving individual liberty. Not subtracting individual liberty or conserving a way of life from the 1950s and never modernizing. And its about limited government, especially the Federal Government, spending no more than you take in and always try to spend less than that. And devolving power back to the states and to the people. And a foreign policy that’s very limited and based around only protecting national security interests.

Not about “I and people who ally with me, no best how free adult Americans should live their lives. And if you don’t take our friendly advice on how you should live your own life, even though we have no idea who you are, we’ll get our friendly advice passed through law. And then if you don’t comply on how we believe you should live your individual lives, we’ll arrest you for your own good for living an immoral life. Even if your lifestyle is not hurting anyone else with how you are living”.

On all counts of what conservatism actually is from a political sense, fiscally and socially especially Rick Santorum doesn’t qualify as a Conservative. Not on social issues, fiscal policy or foreign policy. He has a record as a borrow and spender, porker, empowering the Federal Government. In his sixteen years in Congress, on social issues, he has a record of wanting to outlaw things that are currently legal. Limiting our social liberty and has even added to that in his presidential campaign, coming out in favor of a constitutional amendment to empower the Federal Government to define marriage.

Nothing Conservative about that and what happened to States Rights? The distinguished Senator is also in favor of outlawing pornography, gambling and birth control. On Foreign Policy voting for preventive war, hard to see either Barry Goldwater or Ron Reagan voting for the 2nd War in Iraq. So in a political sense Rick Santorum doesn’t qualify as a Conservative and never has. He meets the qualifications of a religious or neoconservative. But those are different from conservatism and on the Far-Right, where Senator Santorum is in American politics.

Rick Santorum or perhaps Ricky or Slick Rick, at least when it comes to trying to convince people who know better of his conservative credentials or the serious lack of them, is a big government Republican. A right-wing statist, the ultimate big brother or big government, or better yet Uncle Sam, no real Conservative’s favorite uncle, knows best how free people should live their own lives. I mean if he’s a Conservative the Queen of England eats Burger King whoppers for breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday. And when Burger King is unavailable, she gets her meals from McDonald’s. And it never rains in Seattle and a lot of nonsense that is simply not believable.

Salon Magazine: Steve Kornacki: The GOP's Emerging Bob Dole Problem

Source:Free State MD

Back in 1995-96 when I was really getting into the political junky scene and when I basically didn’t know squat about politics, hopefully I know more about politics now, but you can judge for yourself, I was following things like, the brand new Republican Congress. The first one since 1953, people like Newt Gingrich, who I knew as House Minority Whip (In english, the 2nd Ranking Minority Leader) I saw this guy who looked like one of the Founding Fathers. (or Founding Liberals) Seriously, all Newt needs is a Whig and maybe bring back the Whig Party and he would fit in perfectly with the Founding Fathers. (Founding Liberals)

And people would be saying when they see the former Speaker, turned nutty presidential candidate, "look its Thomas Jefferson!" And they would tell him, "damn you look great for someone who’s, I don’t know 270 years old" at the time. I’m not Tom Jefferson’s biographer, (there’s a news flash) and people have been burned by fire. (there’s the other news flash) I also new Bob Dole the new Senate Leader, but I knew him a little bit as Senate Minority Leader with the deficit reduction debate of 1993, the healthcare reform debate of 1993-94. I was following politics a little bit in high school, but not quite the political junky yet. 

Sports was my first love growing up and paid most of my attention to that. I never saw Leader Dole as too old or not capable of the job. Or unintelligent, he was clearly a distinguished gentlemen in Congress. That term was invented for people like him, one of the most effective legislatures we’ve ever produced. But I did see him as out of touch in 1996 America that was basically happy as a country and at peace. And unless you're drowning in your own scandals, If you're the President, that benefits you.

Bob Dole probably made a mistake running for President in 1996. He wasn't too old, but he was pass his time as far as where the country was. Who was President and the situation of the country and the fact that he was leading the opposition at a time when the country liked who was in charge. But that he should’ve won in 1988 and I agree with him there. The Bush attack machine took him down in South Carolina. Just like the Romney attack machine took down Newt Gingrich in Florida this year. 

And had George H.W. Bush teams not done those things, chances are Bob Dole is the 1988 Republican nominee for president. And Mitt Romney is no longer the frontrunner this year. Mitt may be in third place right now, only ahead of a Libertarian. Leader Dole in 1996 was trying to convince the country of something they weren’t. Which was happy, unemployment 5%, high economic growth, falling budget deficit, the country was at peace. 

In 2012 what Mitt Romney is trying to do is convince the country of something that Barack Obama isn’t. Soft on defense, socialistic, dictator, anti-American, wants to make the country like Europe etc. I’m not going to layout all of the false charges, because hopefully you have better things to do with your time and I would like to keep you awake for the whole post,  but you get the idea. 

But to tell you this is exactly why the Far-Left doesn’t like President Obama, Occupy Wall Street, the so-called Progressive Caucus, MSNBC talk and company, the real socialist McGovernites in America, because Barack  Obama isn’t any of these things that the Far-Left in America wants him to be. While at the same time, Mitt has been unable to convince the country why he should be President and stand up for himself. And answer the charges that are thrown at him. What he does instead is try to change the subject, with his attack machine. And he’s paying a heavy price for it.