Here we have Mr. Santorum suddenly realizing that teleprompters do serve one useful purpose: to help keep you from blurting out half of the N-word on camera.

My favorite part of all of this is people who swear they're neither racist nor Santorum supporters rushing in to 'splain about any number of other words that could have been, which in every single case bear no audible resemblance to what he actually said, are words he would have had no logical reason to stop saying halfway through, and/or are words that in context would make no fucking sense whatsoever. I just get this visual of them frantically flipping through the dictionary looking for something, ANYTHING to throw out there.

"Audience at tea party debate cheers leaving uninsured to die."

( WTF?! )

Glenn Beck compares Norway youth camp to Hitler Youth

Yes, the same one that got shot up. There are no words. There are seriously no words.

As you might have heard, the Wisconsin Senate has voted to eliminate collective bargaining. D:< Check out this link for live coverage of the occupation of the state capital. There are growing concerns about demonstrators being arrested.

http://theuptake.org/2011/03/09/wisconsin-senate-votes-to-eliminate-collective-bargaining/

EDIT: There is a delay on the feed it seems but it's still more than you're going to see on network television. Right now the protesters are floating ideas of a general strike and/or a recall election. They are staying in the capital tonight for fear that the building will be locked down again and they will be unable to resume protesting today if they leave.

EDIT 2: I'm going to update more when I get home (thanks for the links - keep'em coming). Also, if anyone has news of protests in other states I'd love it if you could comment and let us know. Thanks!

EDIT 3: Contact info for the 'Governor' of Wisconsin -

Office of the Governor
Email
govgeneral@wisconsin.gov

Mail
Office of Governor Scott Walker
115 East Capitol
Madison WI 53702
USA

Phone
(608) 266-1212

For those who live in Wisconsin

Unless my reading skills are complete shit this is illegal

Does anyone know of protests in other states? I've been trying to find info on upcoming protests in Michigan to no avail.

Representative Barca makes a desperate plea to the Republicans as they 'passed' the bill (Rage-inducing - I would also avoid the comments to the video)

Phoenix New Times: Joe Arpaio Makes Eating at McDonald's Risky Business for Deputies
Next time you're at McDonald's, just ask for the MCSO special.
By James King, Fri., Feb. 4 2011 @ 3:28PM

​If you work for the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, you probably won't be tempted to eat at McDonald's anytime soon -- because your boss, Joe Arpaio, claims doing so might be a risk to your health.

But not for the usual reasons.

Arpaio issued a warning today to all MCSO employees to use caution when dining under the golden arches following an incident involving one of his deputies and some employees at a Mesa McDonald's yesterday.

According to the sheriff, a uniformed MCSO deputy was at a McDonald's at 1460 West Southern Avenue when some of the employees identified him as a sheriff's deputy and started calling him -- and Arpaio -- a (probably "fucking") racist.

Turns out, that same McDonalds was the target of an employer-sanctions investigation by the Sheriff's Office on March 26, 2010, where four illegal immigrants were arrested for ID theft. Three other nearby McDonald's were also tied into that same investigation, where 13 other illegal aliens were arrested.

The deputy in yesterday's incident refused to take his food from the disgruntled employees and reported the incident to Arpaio and McDonald's corporate headquarters.

Arpaio's overreaction is as follows:

"I am not asking my employees to avoid McDonalds completely," Arpaio says. "But I
do think that anytime one of them is in uniform or driving a marked vehicle, out of an
abundance of caution, he or she should use some discretion when deciding where to eat."

We got news for ya, Joe: there are probably Hispanics who hate your guts in every kitchen in Maricopa County -- these McDonald's employees just had the balls to say it.

Wow, as a former fast food worker (Jack-in-the-Box and Wendy's), telling off the cops was the last thing we'd do. We were told by our managers to give the police free food, even though their accepting it was against regulations. Things would have to get so bad that we hated the cops worse than the criminals to do what the McDonalds employees did. Reading the article, that seems to have happened. I wouldn't like the cops much either if they had arrested a bunch of my co-workers for what I thought was no good reason.

Paladino Laces Speech With Antigay Remarks

(note: NYTimes requires a free account to read the article, so I've copypasta'd it here for those who don't want to bother)

( Full text of article )

The commentary I've seen on the article have been surprisingly non-rage-inducing -- though a few of them are pretty bad.

Seriously, brainwashing? Homosexuality is not okay? FUCK YOU, ASSHOLE.


ETA: It gets better, trust me! Paladino would totally hire gays, guys! He can't hate them, cuz he'd hire them! (if that link doesn't work, I copied the text to my JF here)

And Paladino has no regrets cuz what he believes is what he believes and it's totes not wrong! (if that link doesn't work, I copied the text to my JF here)

ETA 2: Paladino apologizes in perhaps typical political fashion: "I'm sorry you were upset by my honest hate-speech poorly-chosen words." (if that link doesn't work, I copied the text to my JF here)

ETA 3: In a twist of fail that may even exceed Paladino's, the Jewish Orthodox church he had support from has withdrawn support of Paladino because they don't approve of his apology.

Also, it's been found that anti-abortion Paladino has leased an abortion clinic to Planned Parenthood. And apparently has owned a gay bar in the past. Does this man know anything about how to play politics?

ETA 4: Paladino considers his children to be off-limits for political games, but not his opponent's children! He lambastes Cuomo for marching with his daughters in a Gay Pride Parade.

ETA 5: (hat-tip to queencallipygos for suggesting this ETA) So Paladino is quite the email-troll. Zach Nikonovich-Kahn, a former political intern in NYC, angrily confronted Paladino in an email, and in a series of subsequent emails, Paladino basically trolled him by telling him to learn to read, to stop believing whatever he reads, to stop reading crap, and to take his "meeds" (Personally? I don't think what Zach did was very wise or professional, but Paladino's responses really do have to be seen to be believed, it is amazing how immature he is about it!)

Hat/Tip to interactiveleaf</lj>, who first posted this story on my LJ friends list. It has since shown up on and ontd_political</lj>on LJ and puipui</lj>here.

Arizona Republic Video: Art fuels racial slur in Arizona

Artist hears hateful and racial slurs while painting mural at Prescott school.

Arizona Republic: Altered mural fuels racial debate in Prescott

by Dennis Wagner - Jun. 4, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

A group of artists has been asked to lighten the faces of children depicted in a giant public mural at a Prescott school.

The project's leader says he was ordered to lighten the skin tone after complaints about the children's ethnicity. But the school's principal says the request was only to fix shading and had nothing to do with political pressure.

The "Go on Green" mural, which covers two walls outside Miller Valley Elementary School, was designed to advertise a campaign for environmentally friendly transportation. It features portraits of four children, with a Hispanic boy as the dominant figure.

R.E. Wall, director of Prescott's Downtown Mural Project, said he and other artists were subjected to slurs from motorists as they worked on the painting at one of the town's most prominent intersections.

"We consistently, for two months, had people shouting racial slander from their cars," Wall said. "We had children painting with us, and here come these yells of (epithet for Blacks) and (epithet for Hispanics)."

What. The. Fuck?