Waterboarding for Jesus

Who would Jesus torture? Why don't you look up your local Bible thumper and find out.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new analysis.

More than half of people who attend services at least once a week — 54 percent — said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is “often” or “sometimes” justified. Only 42 percent of people who “seldom or never” go to services agreed, according the analysis released Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Public Ridicule Required

It's one thing to occasionally mispronounce something or to get a date wrong. You apologize and move on...hopefully making a mental note to yourself to not make the same mistake again.

Then there's Michele Bachmann, the Minnesota Train Wreck, and her latest rant on the House floor from some other universe.

"We were led to believe that we would see great change, immediate change, and all we're seeing is a prolonged effort, because just what happened in the 1930s with FDR.

"The more the government spent, the more the government regulated, the more the government put up tariff barriers -- trade barriers -- the more government intervened, the longer the recession occurred. And as a matter of fact, the recession that FDR had to deal with wasn't as bad as the recession Coolidge had to deal with in the early '20s. Yet, the prescription that Coolidge put on that, from history, is lower taxes, lower regulatory burden, and we saw the roaring '20s where we saw markets and growth in the economy like we never seen before in the history of the country.

"FDR applied just the opposite formula -- the Hoot-Smalley Act, which was a tremendous burden on tariff restrictions, and then, of course, trade barriers and the regulatory burden and tax barriers. That's what we saw happen under FDR. That took a recession and blew it into a full-scale depression. The American people suffered for almost 10 years under that kind of thinking."

The twisted idea that FDR was responsible for the Great Depression is standard right-wing nonsense,so we can just ignore it. However, Bachmann's latest specious rant is weirder than most of the stuff she usually delivers. It confirms, once again, that the Minnesota Republican is living in some kind of separate universe or at least one that is rapidly diverging from the one the rest of us are experiencing. This might explain Bachmann's belief that Jimmy Carter was president in 1976, but that is just a minor symptom.

It's hard to even know where to start with the latest screed. First, she posits that the economy under Coolidge was worse than the Great Depression. I guess the name "Great Depression" should be "Second Great Depression" if we are playing by her rules and far be it from me to argue against the idea that The New Deal created the Great Depression. I'd have to be crazy!

What really caught my attention is Bachmann's belief that FDR passed "the Hoot-Smalley Act" and that act "took a recession and blew it into a full-scale depression." First, I could have sworn that the name of the law was actually "Smoot-Hawley" but I've been wrong before. Second, I must have been absent the day they taught that it was responsible for the Great Depression because I am sure I would have remembered something that important. Lastly, the Smoot-Hawley bill was championed by Republicans and signed by President Herbert Hoover who, I am pretty sure, was Roosevelts's Republican predecessor.

Bachmann is blaming FDR for a law sponsored by Republicans, which was implemented three years before he took office.

There really ought to be an independent monitoring group that verifies what Congresscritters utter on the floor of the House and there ought to be penalties for every provable untruth uttered. Here are my suggestions for punishment but feel free to offer your own.

For the first lie the lying Congressperson should have to wear a jester's cap for the whole session...you know the pointed ones with the bell on the end.
For the second lie the lying Congressperson should have to have to wear a clown costume with red nose and full clown make-up for the balance of the session.
For greater than two lies the Congressperson should have to wear a full "chicken suit" like the one worn by the baseball team mascots for the balance of the session. This includes the head piece, of course.

Hey Michele, take your pick....Rhode Island Red or Long Island White.

Speaking of Under the Weather

A bad tummy woke me this morning...I don't think it is swine flu...but feeling a little under the weather. Regardless, I have to get some beds prepared in the garden this morning and will just have to do it. Rain is expected later in the week and I cannot let this dry spell pass and not get everything ready. Even with all the work I have put in on the soil this Georgia clay soil is murder when it is wet. When worked wet it forms little clods, which when they dry in the sun, are no different than little bricks. It takes forever for them to break down again and with a lot of them in the soil its like trying to garden in gravel. Not good. You really have to be patient and not till or dig when the ground is too wet or you suffer for months or longer.

Sprouts Now

I am a little late on this but here it is anyway. You need to be aware that alfalfa and mung bean sprouts are causing some problems here and there with both Salmonella and E.Coli. This is not new and the FDA has always advised that people with compromised immune systems, the very young and old should avoid sprouts. Even if you grow your own sprouts at home you should be aware that it is the seed that is contaminated and even if you are careful with the process you could be exposed. I occasionally use bean sprouts but am not a big fan of alfalfa sprouts but only because I don't like the texture. Anyhow, use with caution...especially if you are feeding people likely to have people in the at risk group.

FDA is updating its health advisory on the risks associated with eating all raw sprouts because of a recent E. coli O157:H7 outbreak associated with alfalfa sprouts. This advisory is also being updated to specifically include raw and lightly cooked mung bean sprouts. Since FDA issued its original health advisory on sprouts in 1999, there have been several reported foodborne illness outbreaks associated with sprouts. Persons in high risk categories (i.e., children, the elderly, and the immunocompromised) should not eat raw or lightly cooked sprouts.

Outbreaks of foodborne illness from all implicated raw sprouts have involved the pathogenic bacteria Salmonella or E. coli O157:H7 and have affected persons of all ages and both genders. Healthy persons infected with these bacteria experience diarrhea, nausea, abdominal cramping and fever for several days. Those persons who wish to reduce their risk of foodborne illness should not eat raw sprouts.

For people in high risk categories, an E. coli O157:H7 infection could lead to serious complications, including hemolytic uremic syndrome, which can result in kidney failure or death. Salmonella infection (i.e., salmonellosis) in these high risk groups can also cause serious illness. As stated in the 2002 Food Code, hospitals, day care centers, nursing homes and senior centers should not serve sprouts.

There have been four foodborne illness outbreaks associated with mung bean sprouts and two outbreaks associated with alfalfa sprouts in the U.S. between 2000 and 2002. All mung bean and one alfalfa sprout outbreak involved salmonellosis. The mung bean outbreaks have been associated with raw or lightly cooked sprouts. The most recent E. coli O157:H7 outbreak was associated with alfalfa sprouts in California.

Some segments of the sprout industry have made significant strides to enhance the safety of their products by following recommendations in the 1999 Sprouts Guidance. However, adherence to these guidelines has not been universal, and outbreaks have continued to occur in association with raw and lightly cooked sprouts.

The FDA offers the following advice to all consumers concerning sprouts:

• Cook all sprouts thoroughly before eating to significantly reduce the risk of illness.
• Sandwiches and salads purchased at restaurants and delicatessens often contain raw sprouts. Consumers who wish to reduce their risk of foodborne illness should specifically request that raw sprouts not be added to their food.
• Homegrown sprouts also present a health risk if eaten raw or lightly cooked. Many outbreaks have been attributed to contaminated seed. If pathogenic bacteria are present in or on seed, they can grow to high levels during sprouting even under clean conditions.

The FDA will continue to closely monitor the safety of sprouts and will take further actions as necessary, including the establishment of preventive controls to protect consumers. Consumers who have eaten raw or lightly cooked sprouts and are experiencing diarrhea or other symptoms of foodborne infections are advised to consult their health care providers.

Additional information is available at www.cfsan.fda.gov.

Labels are Important

Consider this a lesson on the necessity of labeling shit you put in the freezer. What I thought were pot stickers were, in fact, pirogi. Frying and then steaming said pirogi did not produce a memorable meal. Pirogi should be boiled or steamed and then fried in lots of butter and onions. Remember to label and date your frozen victuals.

I ate them but I was not happy!

Giga Storage on the Cheap

If this pans out this is pretty cool. GE has announced the technology to store 500 Gig on a disc...that's 10x over an HD BluRay disk. We are looking at somewhere around 10 cents a gig for storage. Remember back when paying a couple of hundred bucks to add a couple of meg to your PC was the rule?
They laughed at us science fiction readers and our wild ideas!

The Reason People Are Starting to Panic

Reports from news sources outside the mainstream American press such as this article from the BBC are indicating that the deaths from the swine flu outbreak in Mexico are much higher than are being reported.

Just as a reminder. Think clean. Wash your hands often and with plenty of soap and hot water. Try and reduce your exposure to the public and avoid crowds in close places like movie theaters and the like.

The WHO and other public agencies are trying to keep a nice 'face' on this but methinks it may be worse than what we are being told.

Update: here is a link to the NYTimes and an article on some the concerns about this outbreak.

Update 2: Enigma4ever at Watergate Summer is an RN and is doing a good job of covering some of the important highlights of this potentially serious outbreak. You should make her place a regular stop.

GOP Strikes Again

How's that "being the party of NO" working out for ya?

When House Appropriations Committee chairman David Obey, the Wisconsin Democrat who has long championed investment in pandemic preparation, included roughly $900 million for that purpose in this year's emergency stimulus bill, he was ridiculed by conservative operatives and congressional Republicans.

Obey and other advocates for the spending argued, correctly, that a pandemic hitting in the midst of an economic downturn could turn a recession into something far worse -- with workers ordered to remain in their homes, workplaces shuttered to avoid the spread of disease, transportation systems grinding to a halt and demand for emergency services and public health interventions skyrocketing. Indeed, they suggested, pandemic preparation was essential to any responsible plan for renewing the U.S. economy.

I think it is pretty rich that Governor Rick Perry of Texas is the first in line for his stockpile of Tamiflu. Not that I would ever think of punishing Texans for their idiot governor.

It's the Garden

I know it has been relatively quiet around here for the last few days but its the garden's fault. There are only so many days of sun and there is so much work to be done that I am in the garden from early morning til late in the day(basically until I run out of gas).

The weekend was good. All of the tomatoes (42) are in and mulched. All of the peppers are in (54) and mulched. Still have the cages for the tomatoes to do. Got all of the 12 varieties of melons, squash, and cukes in. The storage squash like butternut and acorn will go in later. The first planting of green beans, lima beans and okra are done. There will be successive plantings for fresh eating. In the next month or so I will plant all the beans that will dry on the vine for winter storage. Still to come this week are pole beans, butter peas, corn, sweet potato, and peanuts.

I hope your weekend weather was a beautiful as mine. If the weekend is any judge we are going to skip spring and go right to summer. Here it is at 2130 and it is still 73 F outside and 86 F inside and no, I refuse to turn on the air conditioner in April. Summer electric bills are bad enough without having to start paying them in the Spring.
That's my weekend. I will actually spend some time on the job boards tomorrow morning before I esapate to the garden but if the temps are like today I will work inside in the afternoons and leave the gardening for the cooler morning hours.

I think I have mentioned before that Minimonk(AKA my daughter) is a metal sculptor. I thought I might post a picture of her latest work. This is going to be donated to a fund raiser for a local nature center. It will be auctioned and I will be surprised if it doesn't bring in some real money. Like other artists, she is hesitant to claim the proper value for her work. Hopefully, the auction will convince her that her dad is not totally clueless when he says $500 is not too much to expect for a one of a kind sculpture like this. Today's economy might dull things a bit but you never know.

Friday Around

Foiled by a rain, hail storm last night. Had many plans to work in the garden this morning and get some much needed planting and bed prep done. No go. I still need to do some weeding and wet is the best time for it.
The daughter and her firefighting buddies tackled the leaning tree yesterday and successfully got it down with minimal damage to other things. They also felled two other dead pines while they were at it. Much debris to be removed and cleaned up so that will be the plan for today. The warm weather today and bright sun will dry the garden enough so that tomorrow and Sunday we will be able to get back at it. I did get a second crop of carrots planted in the one of the raised beds yesterday and cherry tomatoes planted in their big pots for the deck. Slowly but surely we will get the garden in.
Supposed to be in the mid to upper 80's today so I need to get out while it is cool and get some work done.

Good Honey Bee News

I'm a little late on this but this is very good news!

ScienceDaily (Apr. 14, 2009) — For the first time, scientists have isolated the parasite Nosema ceranae (Microsporidia) from professional apiaries suffering from honey bee colony depopulation syndrome. They then went on to treat the infection with complete success.

In a study published in the new journal from the Society for Applied Microbiology: Environmental Microbiology Reports, scientists from Spain analysed two apiaries and found evidence of honey bee colony depopulation syndrome (also known as colony collapse disorder in the USA). They found no evidence of any other cause of the disease (such as the Varroa destructor, IAPV or pesticides), other than infection with Nosema ceranae. The researchers then treated the infected surviving under-populated colonies with the antibiotic drug, flumagillin and demonstrated complete recovery of all infected colonies.

High Fructose Corn Syrup is Still Bad

Here is another nail in the rightly deserved HFCS coffin:

Some research has suggested that consumption of high-fructose corn syrup, used as a sweetener in a wide variety of foods, may increase the risk of obesity and heart disease. Now, a controlled and randomized study has found that drinks sweetened with fructose led to higher blood levels of L.D.L, or “bad” cholesterol, and triglycerides in overweight test subjects, while drinks sweetened with another sugar, glucose, did not. Both L.D.L. and triglycerides have been linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

The study was published online on Monday in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

h/t Susie

Earth Day

I try and celebrate the third rock from the sun everyday so I guess I can use Earth Day as a good reminder to try harder. We, as the biggest polluter of the earth, and in spite of all the green this and green that are still doing a woefully poor job of stewardship. If every light bulb in your house is not a fluorescent you aren't doing enough. If you take a trash can or more full of garbage to the street every week you aren't doing enough. If you are sending your vegetable trimming and scraps down the disposer or into the trash instead of vermi-composting them you aren't doing enough. If you aren't recycling all the paper, cardboard, glass and most plastic you aren't doing enough. You know the drill.
Anyhow, take this Earth Day for what it is and re-evaluate how you are stewarding your part of the only home you have. Everyone can improve, even us DFH's. Try and improve your environmental impact today even if it is somethings as simple as taking your own reusable bags to the grocery and other shopping. I keep mine in the trunk of the car so I always have them and at some markets you even get a discount for bringing your own bags.

It Gets Worse

On top of finding out we tortured captives 6 times a day and put their children in boxes full of bugs.... The Senate Armed Service Committee has released its full report on detainee abuse by the US Armed Forces. I have only just read the executive summary on Balloon Juice and it is shameful, to say the least. People like Donald Rumsfeld, Ricardo Sanchez and Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller are shown for the criminals they are, not to mention George Bush.

I went through SERE training which teaches you what to expect if you are captured by an enemy that doesn't recognize the Geneva Conventions. When I think about George Bush and others authorizing techniques specifically designed to violate the Conventions without a second thought it just makes me sick. There are a lot of controls and safety mechanisms built into the SERE protocols that don't exist in the actual theater. It's no wonder captives died in our hands. What really bothers me is that the people authorizing and executing this are militiary people who should know better. Didn't they have a problem using these techniques against captives in Afghanistan, Iraq and GTMO?

The link is here to get the full (15 mb) .PDF of the report?.

h/t Balloon Juice

Pasta e Fagioli

I haven't posted any cooking stuff lately and whilst trying to figure out dinner tonight from the available materials, one of the potential dishes is worth reminding people of. It's classic "cheap eats" and very simple and very good and good for you...especially if you use a whole wheat pasta.

You'll need:
1 8oz. can of tomato sauce
1 16oz. can of cannellini beans drained and rinsed
1 cup of water
2 cloves of garlic crushed
2 Tbsp of good olive oil.
1/2 pound small pasta like macaroni or ditalini (you want something about the same size as the beans)
crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
2 Tbsp chopped Italian parsley
grated hard Italian cheese

In a medium sauce pan cook the garlic in the oil making sure not to burn it. It should just begin to brown. Add the tomato sauce, water and beans and simmer for about 10 minutes. In the meantime cook your pasta until just tender taking care not to overcook it. Add the drained, cooked pasta to the pan with the sauce, add the a little crushed red pepper if you like( I do!). Mix it to coat the pasta and serve in bowls with a sprinkle of parsley and grated cheese. Hint: reserve about a cup of your pasta cooking water to adjust the thickness of the sauce if you need to.

It's that simple and it really is tasty, cheap and wholesome. Also, you don't have to use the cannellini beans if you'd rather use pinto, kidney, garbanzo, or lima beans...whatever. Remember also that this is a basic recipe and you can modify it depending on what you have. If you don't have tomato sauce use canned crushed tomatoes or jarred marinara or even fresh ones, they just need to cook a little longer. If you don't have any tomatoes at all then you'll just have a white sauce...the garlic, parsley and cheese will still have plenty of flavor.

I'm thinking about $3 worth of groceries will serve 4 people here. Yeah, it's Italian peasant food but if you take a look at the pantheon of great Italian recipes you'll find the peasants well represented. The above recipe uses ingredients anyone can find in the grocery but you can raise it to heaven if you make your own pasta and cook your own dried cannellini. If you have never had slow roasted Italian white beans full of garlic, fresh sage and olive oil then you have missed a great experience...especially if they were cooked over an open fire.

Enjoy! and don't forge the Italian bread to soak up the sauce and a little red wine.

Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing

There are finally some answers on the productivity of GM or "franken foods". We've have been told for years and years by Monsanto and its ilk that with genetically modified foods in our arsenal we can feed the world. The truth, it appears, is not so much. A report just released by the Union of Concerned Scientists, reflects the results of the first long term study of both intrinsic and operational yields for GM crops versus crops from traditional breeding and selection processes. Failure to Yield: Evaluating the Performance of Genetically Engineered Crops concludes that traditional genetic crosses outperform genetically modified crops by a wide margin.

So what has been done is to release into the biosphere genetically modified plants with an unknown long term impact, produced herbicide resistant weeds and who knows what other disasters and all for naught. Monsanto has made buckets of money and put thousands of farmers out of business and all for naught. Act 5, scene 5 from Macbeth seems all to appropriate.

"Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing."

If you want to read the report you can read it at the link above and there is a concise FAQ as well. It ought to be very interesting to see how Monsanto deals with this.

h/t Marion

Weekend Warrior

I over did it this weekend in a rush to get everything done before the rains came Sunday. I am actually having trouble moving today. First it was the struggle to get the chipper shredder down the hill to the garden...it's a big ole hunk of steel with a 6hp engine. It does have two wheels but it is very heavy. Looking at the garden as I was tilling through the day I decided that 6 small (4") trees, mostly choke cherries) had to go. Down they came and then had to be cut up, the limbs chipped and the logs stacked. Madam helped but a back breaking job nonetheless. Bottom line is everything is tilled but nothing planted. Planting will have to wait for a few days for everything to dry out again. Besides another little cool snap is happening right now with night time temperatures in the mid to low forties and germination wouldn't be good or even happen with nights that cool. Better to wait.

Still babysitting the dogs. We did get in walks yesterday and today and they are now tuckered out and sleeping. They are used to walking with two young people in a lot better shape than I and I was tuckered after this morning's walk. They are well behaved walkers though, no tugging and trying to race ahead but they like a quick pace.

Baking bread today using a recipe from "Baking with Julia" it is the multi-starter version which starts with a sponge made from a bit of unused dough (I made a pizza Saturday night and save a bit of dough) and proceeds through several iterations of adding more water and flour before you actually make the bread dough. This is an old fashioned way to make bread by gradually building a dough using natural fermentation and time. It's a two day recipe but I started yesterday and I just made the final dough a little while ago so we should be baking a couple of batards in a few hours. Yes, I do have proper butter to put on it and I will save a couple of ounces of the finished dough to start a new batch of bread. I've decided that I will give my daughter and her firefighter buddies each a loaf of homemade artisanal bread for helping me with my leaning tree later in the week. My daughter insists I can't pay them but I can give them a loaf of fresh bread and maybe a jar of homemade apple butter for helping me out.

Monday Insanity

Our Georgia boy Newt is making an ass out of himself again today. Why change a winning formula?

Believe it or not the "outrage" on the "never right" is that President Obama shook hands with President Chavez of Argentina.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich tore into President Barack Obama Monday for his friendly greeting of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, saying Obama is bolstering the "enemies of America."

Gingrich appeared on a number of morning talk shows comparing Obama to President Jimmy Carter for the smiling, hearty handshake he offered Chavez, one of the harshest critics of the United States, during the Summit of the Americas. [...]

Two Republican senators, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire and John Ensign of Nevada, joined in the criticism Monday, with Ensign calling Obama's greeting of Chavez "irresponsible."

President Obama prbably realized when he shook hands with old Hugo that the "tea baggers" back home would have a kitten and accuse him of selling American babies to the devil. He made a point of saying...

"It's unlikely that as a consequence of me shaking hands or having a polite conversation with Mr. Chavez that we are endangering the strategic interests of the United States," Obama told reporters. "I don't think anybody can find any evidence that that would do so. Even within this imaginative crowd, I think you would be hard-pressed to paint a scenario in which U.S. interests would be damaged as a consequence of us having a more constructive relationship with Venezuela."

That evidently wasn't enough for Gingrich, Ensign and Gregg who were still licking their wounds after the miserable results of the teabagging follies. They needed something, anything to attack the President with and this was all they could find.

The strange thing is that these "leading" Republicans didn't think through the ramifications and the real message that their attack on President Obama carries. What these so called patriots are saying, in effect, is that America is too weak and fragile to afford extending even the simplest courtesies to foriegn heads of state. On the other hand, the President is acting like the leader of the free world that he is. He is acting like America should act and doesn't hesitate to engage in proper civility toward a foriegn dignitary. Obama sctually said,

"We had this debate throughout the campaign, and the whole notion was, is that somehow if we showed courtesy or opened up dialogue with governments that had previously been hostile to us, that that somehow would be a sign of weakness -- the American people didn't buy it. And there's a good reason the American people didn't buy it -- because it doesn't make sense."

Why do you think the Republican leadership is promoting the idea of American weakness? Really, GOP find something important enough to get your shorts in a wad for...there are plenty of issues with more spit and substance. The U.S. President was photographed shaking hands with the twice-elected head of state of a large South American democracy at a forum for hemispheric leaders. That's it. The President didn't whisper nuclear secrets in his ear or kiss him on the lips. Enough already.

Drying Out

It looks like it is now dry enough to till the last half of the garden. This is good because the cover crop of clover, vetch and cereal rye is getting very tall. The red clover is just about to bloom. Today looks like the day to finish the tilling and this weekend the time to put out tomatoes and peppers and get the first planting of beans in. I need to check the soil temperature but I think it is still a little too cool for squash, cukes and all. Another week of normal spring temps should warm everything up enough.

Madam and I are dog sitting this weekend for daughter's dogs as she and hubby are taking the horses to South Carolina for a camping trip. The place they are going doesn't allow dogs. The dogs normally go but this weekend are stuck with grandpa and grandma. Both are well behaved and no trouble Stewart the rat terrier is not as friendly as the pit bull/lab mix Megan. We are all going to take a walk in a bit and then I will get to work. I am sure they will have a good time tilling and playing in the dirt as well. I will try and get a picture of them to post later.

Gorgeous day and perfect for gardening(and walking dogs). Later.

Georgia Too?

How disgusting and how embarrassing! I didn't comment on Texas Governor Rick Perry's asinine threats out of respect for my Texas friends(anf wife)...it was just downright silly and you know how Texans can get worked up. Now, according to Jay Bookman of the AJC the Georgia Senate is even worse! This is just too much on top of yesterday's threat by the GOP governor of Texas to secede as well. The Georgia Senate voted and passed a resolution by a vote of 43-1 to secede from and even disband the United States. There is no other explanation than insanity. Here is Jay...

In fact, Senate Resolution 632 did a lot more than merely threaten to end this country. It stated that under the Constitution, the only crimes the federal government could prosecute were treason, piracy and slavery.

“Therefore, all acts of Congress which assume to create, define or punish [other] crimes … are altogether void, and of no force,” the Georgia Senate declared.

In other words, in the infinite, almost unanimous wisdom of the Georgia Senate, Michael Vick is being imprisoned illegally, Bernie Madoff should serve no time for stealing $60 billion and the Unabomber must go free. In fact, the federal penitentiary in Atlanta should be emptied of its inmates.

But wait, there’s more.

The resolution goes on to endorse the theory that states have the right to abridge constitutional freedoms of religion, press and speech. According to the resolution, it is up to the states to decide “how far the licentiousness of speech and of the press may be abridged.”

The resolution even endorses “nullification,” the legal concept that states have the power to “nullify” or ignore federal laws that they believe exceed the powers granted under the Constitution. That concept has a particularly nasty legacy. It helped precipitate the Civil War, and in the 1950s and early ’60s it was cited by Southern states claiming the right to ignore Supreme Court rulings ordering the end of segregation.

Finally, the resolution states that if Congress, the president or federal courts take any action that exceeds their constitutional powers, the Constitution is rendered null and void and the United States of America is officially disbanded. As an example, the resolution specifically states that if the federal government enacts “prohibitions of type or quantity of arms or ammunition,” the country is disbanded.

In other words, if Congress votes to restore the ban on sale of assault rifles, the United States is deemed to no longer exist.

What you are seeing here are Republicans intentionally inciting violence just like they did during the campaign. They began egging their followers towards violence during the presidential campaign, and continue to increase the inflammatory language using their shills like Glenn Beck and the rest of Faux News. Today they had the gall to call for the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to no longer investigate known domestic terror threats. These people are crazy!

Serious Republicans better wake the fuck up and get this extremism under control because the GOP has a serious problem with extremists, not just in its midst, but among its leadership and its key allies in the faux media (FOX News, Limbaugh, the blogs, and the religious right). Maybe they don't realize ( and maybe they don't care) but there is ample evidence that there are some extreme followers who are listening and need very little to move them toward severe violence. Now that they're calling on the government to ignore known terrorist threats, it's only a matter of time before something serious happens and they won't be able to hide from their responsibility for it. If they really want to be the party out of power then let something happen that can clearly be associated with the continuos calls for secession and violence emanating from the GOP and they will know the gutter permanently.

While I wasn't born in Georgia I have lived here long enough to be embarrassed by this. I can truly say that when I read this I was actually speechless.