Kirsten Powers Blasts ‘Disturbing’ Bill Maher NYT Profile: He ‘Says The Most Vile Things’

Mediaite.com:

Perennial offender Bill Maher was the topic of conversation on today’s Fox News Watch today, this time for rejecting American exceptionalism. The conversation took a turn when the point was made that, despite his behavior, Maher received a positive profile in the New York Times this week, one Kirsten Powers described as “disturbing” and describing “a person who does not exist.”


“HBO gives him that show, freedom of speech allows him to say all that, but why give him the platform?” host Jon Scott asked, to which Jim Pinkerton responded, “money,” adding that there was “an audience for it” in Los Angeles, which “does say something about where you can make a living in this country.” Scott responded with the point that replacing America with Iran and the Latter-Day Saints Church with Islam would post a much bigger problem for the media, in his opinion, and the panel agreed. Richard Grenell noted that “he’s making these statements in Los Angeles, he’s not making these statements in Cairo” and called his rejection of American exceptionalism “ludicrous.”


The conversation then turned to the fact that Maher had bought a stake in the New York Mets and received what Scott described as a “glowing” piece in the New York Times. Powers was even less charitable, calling it “delusional” and describing “a person that does not exist,” a libertarian for whom atheism was not of the utmost importance. “He’s an Obama supporter– I thought maybe the meant ‘libertine,’” she joked, concluded that given that “he says the most vile things… the idea that he would get a glowing profile is disturbing.”

RELATED: Bill Maher finds six black men to deem Matt Drudge racist [VIDEO]

Unbelieving Preachers Get Help To "Come Out" As Open Atheists

CNN.com:

Jerry DeWitt entered the ministry when he was 17, launching a 25-year career as a Pentecostal preacher. He traveled all around his home state of Louisiana, preaching and ministering wherever he could.

All these years later, DeWitt, 42, is still on the road, and now takes his message all over the United States. But the nature of that message, along with his audience, has changed dramatically.

DeWitt is now an avowed atheist, and his audiences are made up of religious “nones,” the growing number of Americans who are atheist, agnostic, humanist or just plain disinterested in identifying with a religion. Today, DeWitt preaches a gospel of disbelief.

During his speeches, he talks about the process of leaving his preacher job. “If you don’t believe, then you will be like me – you’ll suddenly find yourself where you only have two choices,” DeWitt told a group in Johnson County, Kansas, earlier this year.

“You can either be honest that you don’t believe ... or you can pretend that you do,” he said. “Which is what so many people are doing and that is called faith.”

The transition from preacher to outspoken atheist has not been easy, and DeWitt is trying to smooth the way for other former believers. He is executive director of Recovering from Religion, an organization founded in 2009. Its slogan: “Thousands of organizations will help you get INTO religion, but we’re the only one helping you OUT.”

But a relatively new effort goes a step further than his own group by focusing on helping clergy in particular. In March 2011, a coalition that includes national groups such as American Atheists, the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the Richard Dawkins Foundation helped launch the Clergy Project, which is aimed at giving doubting and atheist preachers a community in which they can talk about their disbelief.

The program's ultimate goal: to help unbelieving preachers to “come out” in real life.

The Clergy Project’s key component is a private online community of active and former pastors discussing their conversions to lives of active disbelief. It lets congregational leaders come out anonymously, using an alias.

“It is important to focus on any group of people who are in a lot of pain,” said Linda LaScola, a co-founder of the Clergy Project. “That is why the Clergy Project exists, and it wouldn’t be growing if there wasn’t a need for it.”

When it launched last year, 52 clergy signed up for the online community, according to LaScola. A little more than a year later, 270 members are contributing to the message boards and connecting anonymously with one another.

RELATED: Pew survey: Doubt of God growing quickly among millennials

PolitiFact Nails Chris Matthews For Misrepresenting Florida Voter Registration Law

Mediaite.com:

PolitiFact took MSNBC host Chris Matthews to task for a claim he made on his program last week where he criticized a 2011 Florida law that imposes a 48-hour deadline on new voter registration groups. “The 48-hour rule basically makes it impossible to meet the deadline if you’re working right to the end of the week,” said Matthews. PolitiFact rated this claim as “false”

In a June 4 interview with the Florida Republican party Chairman Lenny Curry, Matthews accused Curry and his party of instituting voter registration laws that intentionally restrict voter’s abilities to register. 

On his program, Matthews read from a Florida judge’s ruling on the law: “if the goal is to discourage voter registration drives, and thus also to make it harder for new voters to register, this may work,” Matthews read.

“Lenny Curry, you’re the chair of the Republican Party down there. Was the intention to suppress the vote down there, as Judith says, or it had some other purpose,” Matthews asked. “Why would you set a requirement you got to get your petitions in, in 48 hours? Why did you set such a requirement and a law?”

Curry responded in the negative and said that, in his view, such a deadline was reasonable. Matthews disagreed:

“Well, wait a minute. I’m going to call you there because everybody watching can figure this one out. If I’m working in front of a Safeway somewhere and I’m collecting registrations — I’m registering people who aren’t registered — and it’s Friday afternoon at 5:00 p.m., I can’t even technically turn those in until Monday. That means it’s already elapsed, the 48 hours.

“So, under the law, nothing I get done late Friday afternoon is of any value and probably some of the stuff early Saturday morning. The 48-hour rule basically makes it impossible to meet the deadline if you’re working right to the end of the week, right, Lenny?”

“You don’t have to be a lawyer to own a calendar or know what a weekend is,” Matthews continued. “A weekend is 48 hours.”

Matthews ended the interview by suggesting that he would take Curry to minority neighborhoods in the city of Philadelphia to participate in securing voter identification. “I could take you to some interesting neighborhoods, buddy,” said Matthews. 

PolitiFact took issue with Matthews claim that voter registration organizations would be unable to process new voters if they turned their petitions in on a Friday:

There’s no doubt the deadlines were deterring groups from going out to register voters. After the law’s passage, the League of Women Voters said they wouldn’t conduct their usual voter registration drives because the new requirements were too difficult to meet.

But Matthews said that Florida’s 2011 voting law made it impossible for third-party groups to register voters on Friday afternoon, because a 48-hour deadline to turn in those applications would expire before the elections office opens Monday morning.

That’s not correct. The law factored in weekends and holidays and gave voter registration groups until the next business day. We rate Matthews’ claim False.

 RELATED: Media Matters: The Message is More Important Than the Facts

Powerful New Ad Slams President Obama Over Lethal Fast and Furious Operation

Townhall.com:

American Future Fund is out with a new ad hitting President Obama directly for his refusal to take responsibility and to hold Attorney General Eric Holder accountable for his role in the lethal Operation Fast and Furious. The ad comes just one day after former U.S. Attorney, Texas Supreme Court Justice and current U.S. Senator John Cornyn called for Holder's resignation and just one week before the House Oversight Committee will vote to hold Holder in Contempt of Congress for his ongoing stonewalling of the investigation. Also, last week Holder admitted before the House Judiciary Committee that he had been in contact with the White House, including David Axelrod, about how to craft messaging in response to Congress and the press about Fast and Furious, proving Obama's re-election campaign is concerned about the political consequences of this scandal.

RELATED: Republicans open door to negotiating with Holder over contempt push

Country Singer Carrie Underwood Cites Her "Christian Faith" in Gay Marriage Endorsement

TheBlaze.com:

Singer Carrie Underwood is making headlines after coming out in support of same-sex marriage. The country and pop singer, who was raised a Baptist, announced her support for gay nuptials during an interview with Britain’s The Independent. Underwood told the publication that she believes everyone deserves to love whomever he or she chooses, citing her faith as the basis for her reasoning.

“As a married person myself, I don’t know what it’s like to be told I can’t marry somebody I love, and want to marry,” the singer told the outlet. “I can’t imagine how that must feel. I definitely think we should all have the right to love, and love publicly, the people that we want to love.”

Underwood also told the publication that she and her husband, pro-hocker player Mike Fisher, attend a “gay-friendly” non-denominational church. The songstress went on to say that God wants Christians to love others.

“It’s not about setting rules, or [saying], ‘Everyone has to be like me.’ No. We’re all different. That’s what makes us special. We have to love each other and get on with each other. It’s not up to me to judge anybody,” she added.

Already, Underwood has received the praise of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), a gay rights group. In a release addressing the singer’s comments, the organization applauded her, writing, “GLAAD commends Carrie Underwood for supporting marriage equality and rooting it in her faith.”

Of course, calling yourself a "Christian" doesn't mean you actually are one--the biggest hint here being that Ms. Underwood goes to a "gay-friendly", and "nondenominational church" (indeed, a lot of those are spouting about across America, twisting God's words for their own personal and immoral agenda). Then too, using Christianity to justify support for unGodly behavior, when in no shape or form does the Bible support homosexuality (our bodies alone, as shaped by God, tell us that) is complete and utter BS and shows what little understanding Underwood has for the Biblical word.

On O’Reilly, Glenn Beck Slams Obama’s Appeal To Black Voters: Why Should They Have His Back?

Mediaite.com:

Glenn Beck paid a visit to his former Fox News colleague Bill O’Reilly on Tuesday to discuss all things Barack Obama. Specifically, the recent radio ad aimed at black voters, in which the background singers sing, “We’ve got your back.” Beck asked, should he be the one who has our backs?


Obama’s the guy who is supposed to be watching over our liberty and our lives, Beck said — and “he’s not doing either.” He asked, “Why do we have his back?” Or, for that matter, any politician’s back. O’Reilly remarked that they like him, so they do.


“A real leader doesn’t snare you in and say, ‘Depend on me, depend on me,’” Beck said. Well, O’Reilly noted, “that’s the difference between you and me and Barack Obama.” Just say it, Beck urged, just say “the m-word.” Egging him on, he pressed, “He’s a Marxist, say it.”


O’Reilly disagreed, offering his own perspective of the president: “I think he’s a dedicated, liberal man, who wants the government to call the shots … I don’t think he wants to seize your mansion.” Au contraire, Beck said Obama would be “thrilled” to put salary caps on them both — another point O’Reilly didn’t go along with.


The Fox host wouldn’t go that far, but conceded that perhaps Obama is a statist, but more accurately, he would deem him to be “the most liberal president ever to hold office.”


Beck further critiqued Obama’s campaign method, noting “he’ll say the keywords to each particular group,” telling voters what they want to hear in order to get elected. What we need, he said (à la Horton the elephant), is politicians who say what they mean and mean what they say.

RELATED: Still waiting for our first black president

53-Year-Old Lounge Singer Madonna Flashes Nipple At Concert

Metro.co.uk:

Thirty years ago, if Madonna had flashed her nipple on stage in Turkey it would have caused pandemonium.

This week, she was lucky to get a raised eyebrow and a muffled yawn.

Madge was a pioneer when it came to deploying shock and awe using her own body.

During her iconic Blond Ambition World Tour she got in trouble with the Pope for simulating masturbation and who can forget the arty book of sexy snaps she did with photographer Steven Meisel?

But since she’s spawned a world full of risque pop divas like Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Christina Aguilera, whose daily uniforms for walking down the road and going food shopping seem to be bras and knickers, it all seems a little unoriginal.

Yes, Madge we know you like showing off your body – which at 53-years-old is undeniably looking good – but just like her refusal to date a man even 10 years within her age range and her attempts to convince everyone she hasn’t had plastic surgery (yeah, right), her nip flash just shows how painfully desperate the singer is to stay stuck in the past.

It has all the shock factor of your favourite elderly aunt trying to bump and grind on the dancefloor at a wedding.

For an artist as innovative and cutting-edge as Madonna once was, surely she can come up with something more interesting?

In 1985, Penthouse and Playboy once published some nude photos of Madonna that were taken when she was a struggling performer in need of cash.

At the Live Aid charity, the star refused to take her jacket off because ‘[the media] might hold it against me ten years from now’.

Now that was truly shocking. Maybe Madge could keep that in mind for next time?

Sad, desperate, sick and barely selling any records, this old hag, who made a name for herself dissing and mocking religion, is still considered an icon to the anti-God Left. And now, clearly desperate to remain a household name, she's "beefing" with Lady Gaga and pulling the same "look at me!" stunts she pulled when she was in her 20's. What a sorry excuse of a human being.

Obama Suing Florida - and Vice Versa - Over Voter Registration

Townhall.com:

The state of Florida recently engaged in a campaign to fight voter fraud, combing through their voter rolls to weed out illegitimately-registered voters. While they've been accused of invalidating legal voters' registrations, the effort has been having some modicum of success. 

[I]n the last few days, the Division of Elections released a list of the names of 86 voters it says have been removed by local supervisors because they were non-citizens between April 11 and June 8. About half of them are listed as having voted. 

That, backers of the purge effort say, proves the need for the move, because it shows that some non-citizens have indeed registered and cast votes. 

Florida Governor Rick Scott has been promoting his state's law as a necessary measure, especially absent the federal government's responsibility to combat voter fraud. But now, the Obama Administration is alleging that Florida is violating the Voting Rights Act and the National Voter Registration Act. 

In an interview with Fox News on Monday, Scott also defended the initiative. He denied that the purge could unfairly target Latino residents, and he said he's just trying to fairly enforce the law. 

"We need to have fair elections in our state. I want to make sure that when we have elections ... not one person's vote gets diluted by somebody that doesn't have the right to vote," Scott told Fox News. "We're doing the right thing. ... We have people that are voting illegally in our races -- that's not right." 

As we had with Arizona and SB 1070, a red state is taking the responsibility on itself to enforce laws that the federal government is allegedly not enforcing - and the Obama Administration has responded in kind with another lawsuit. 

RELATED:  Hispanic leaders worry over slow voter registration

Video: The Life of Emily

HotAir.com:

Last month, the Obama campaign tried to sell women — especially younger, single women — a life of government dependency in its unwittingly Orwellian “Life of Julia.”  Even women inclined to support Barack Obama objected to the characterization of women as wards of the state.  Polling results two weeks later showed that Obama lost significant ground among the demographics he had hoped to improve, and ever since, the Obama campaign has apparently relegated the eyeless, mouthless “Julia” to the Island of Misfit Campaign Mascots.

That doesn’t mean that critics have forgotten “Julia,” though.  A new video from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity features  Emily O’Neill, who accurately deconstructs the message from Team Obama within the first minute, with devastating impact.  Emily then proposes an alternate reality, called “The Life of Emily,” which relies on hard work, good economic choices, and rejects the need for a Hubby State for young American women — such as herself:

Dan Mitchell hails this a good instruction on the difference between empowerment and dependency:

But we also need a serious discussion of why dependency is a bad thing, which is why I’m glad the Center for Freedom and Prosperity has produced this new “Economics 101″ video.

It’s narrated by Emily O’Neill, who contrasts the moocher mentality of Julia with how she wants her life to develop. To give away the message, she wants the kind of fulfillment that only exists when you earn things.

Emily’s view could be considered Randian libertarianism, conventional conservatism, or both. That’s because there’s a common moral belief in both philosophies that government-imposed coercion and redistribution erode the social capital of a people.

Women have a choice, as Emily demonstrates, at least for the moment.  They can aspire to become Julia the Moocher or Emily the Empowered.  Which message do you think will sell better over the next five months, and which offers the kind of paternalistic attitude that represents the antithesis of the women’s movement?

RELATED: Julia: A paean to subservience in the Hubby State?

Politiks As Usual: In The News 6/11/12

In Small-Town USA, Business As Usual For Mexican Cartels

Should Women’s High School Soccer Be Banned To Reduce Knee Injuries?

Sarah Palin Talks About Whether She'd Serve in a Romney Administration

The Immorality Of Liberals

Does Nancy Pelosi always Have To Be A Jerk?

HuffPo, The View Blame Sexism, Politics for Vatican Denunciation of Nun’s Book

Adbusters Admits OWS Flopped; Now Promoting 'Flash Encampments'

John McCain: Obama Ultimately Responsible for Security Leaks

Why Did Rand Paul Forsake His Dad Ron Paul For Mitt Romney?

Judge Unimpressed With Bradley Manning’s Latest List Of Complaints

Candy Crowley Grills David Axelrod On Obama’s ‘Private Sector Is Doing Fine’ Remark

Soros Mega-Foundation's New U.S. Chief Has Ties To Obama Administration, Corzine

State Department Purges Religious Freedom Section from Its Human Rights Reports

Voter Rights Are Not Free

NBC's Nancy Snyderman: It's 'Pro-Science' to Abort Children With Genetic Defects

Wow, white liberals seriously have no moral compass:

On Friday's NBC Today, chief medical editor Nancy Snyderman explained to viewers that it's just good science to abort an unborn child that may have a genetic disorder, explaining that testing for such conditions, "gives parents a chance to decide whether they're going to continue that pregnancy or not. This is the science of today." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]


Snyderman then predicted: "I think the future will be such that you'll find out that your child may have a genetic hit. You can fix that genetic problem, and improve your chance, a child's chance..." When co-host Savannah Guthrie raised ethical questions about aborting children under such circumstances, Snyderman matter-of-factly replied: "Well, I'm pro-science, so I believe that this is a great way to prevent diseases."


Earlier in the discussion, advertising executive Donny Deutsch raised the possibility of parents using the genetic information to abort children based on superficial preferences: "Look, I'm a pro-choice guy, but at the end of the day what's stopping people, "Oh, my son is going to be blonde, I want..."


Snyderman largely dismissed such concerns: "I get the genetic engineering issue. But the reality is we've already jumped out of that with amniocentesis. So, the science is there. The problem is that science goes faster than we have these societal questions. And that's exactly why we should have these societal questions now."


While Snyderman sounded briefly open-minded on the issue, she soon made her "pro-science" declaration and later completely rejected any legal argument against selective abortions.


Attorney Star Jones raised the possibility: "...at what point will the courts step in and say, 'No, this is too late in the gestation process'?" Snyderman asserted: "They won't. They won't. They won't." Jones responded: "Well, we'll see what's happening in the next presidential election." Snyderman insisted: "Not if you can save a life and prevent a disease. You can't make a case for that."


Later on the show, Snyderman suggested Saudi Arabia had a better record on providing equal pay for working women than the United States.

RELATED: Another Video Shows Sex Selective Abortion in Arizona

Mitt Romney Slams Obama As Being "Out Of Touch"

Of course, this is a fine line to walk for the Romney camp when you consider how mega-rich their guy is, but still, some things just need to be spoken out loud:

Mitt Romney hit back at President Obama's comments Friday morning that the private sector was "doing fine," with the GOP nominee saying it was evidence that the president does not understand the economy or the financial struggles facing Americans.


"Is he really that out of touch? I think he's defining what it means to be detached and out of touch with the American people," Romney told supporters gathered in a park in Council Bluffs, Iowa. "Has there ever been an American president who is so far from reality?"


Earlier in the day at a White House news conference, Obama urged Congress to pass jobs legislation that his administration argued would create 1 million jobs for teachers, police officers, construction workers and others. As he made the pitch for public sector jobs, he cited economic gains elsewhere in the economy.


"The truth of the matter is," Obama said, "we've created 4.3 million jobs over the last 27 months, over 800,000 just this year alone. The private sector is doing fine."


Romney countered by reeling off a litany of statistics about the nation's economic plight -- 23 million Americans unemployed, underemployed or dropped out of the labor force; the economy growing at a meager 1.9% in the first quarter; the median income dropping by 10% over the last four years; and record home foreclosures.


"For the president of the United States to stand up and say that the private sector is doing fine is going to go down in history as an extraordinary miscalculation and misunderstanding by a president who is out of touch and we're going to take back this country and get America working again," Romney said.  

RELATED: Obama tries to hit Romney on teachers, cops. Mitt pounces.

GOP Leaders Skeptical About U.S. Attorneys' Freedom in Leaks Probe

First, Bradley Manning, then Wikileaks and now this latest scandal involving leaks--all under one leftwing administration. Mere coincidence? I think not:

Attorney General Eric Holder's announcement that two U.S. attorneys have been assigned to lead a criminal investigation into possible, unauthorized leaks of classified information is being met with skepticism by GOP lawmakers questioning whether the attorneys will be able to act independently of the Obama administration.

"I have no doubt that these U.S. attorneys are excellent prosecutors," GOP Sen. Saxby Chambliss, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said. "However, they would still be operating under the Obama administration's Department of Justice. The better solution is to appoint an outside counsel to impartially investigate what will likely lead to a White House inquiry."

Holder said late Friday he had assigned the investigation to Ronald C. Machen Jr., a U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, and Rod J. Rosenstein, a U.S. attorney for Maryland.

"These two highly-respected and experienced prosecutors will be directing separate investigations currently being conducted by the FBI," Holder said. "I have every confidence in their abilities to doggedly follow the facts and the evidence in the pursuit of justice wherever it leads."

The announcement follows a bipartisan call from Capitol Hill for an investigation and a special prosecutor to look into suspect national security leaks -- which congressional lawmakers say is needed because the disclosures have put Americans world-wide at risk and perhaps came from the administration.

Holder said Machen and Rosenstein are "fully authorized" to prosecute criminal violations and talk with U.S. intelligence officials and that their investigations can reach into Congress and the administration.
Still, congressional Republicans expressed uncertainty.

"The Attorney General is so politicized in his office," Texas GOP Rep. Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, told Fox News on Saturday. "I just hope these U.S. attorneys will be totally independent and go where the trail leads them."

The CIA and the Justice Department's national security division said before Holder's announcement that they will not participate in investigations.

RELATED: Obama: Claims of deliberate leaks 'offensive'