The New Push To Close Guantanamo (Tom Ashbrook, On Point)

Once more with feeling, the President called yesterday for the closing of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay. He laid out a broad plan to do it. He laid out – again – the rationale: that Guantanamo is a costly stain on American core values and a recruiting poster for ISIS. Guantanamo, he said, is counter-productive. Donald Trump and Marco Rubio’s immediate response: keep it open. Ted Cruz’s response: expand it. Republicans in Congress: hands off. This hour On Point, Guantanamo. — Tom Ashbrook
Interview:
http://onpoint.wbur.org/2016/02/24/closing-guantanamo-cuba-obama

The National Review's Case Against Trump (Tom Ashbrook, On Point)

Are powerful conservatives jumping out the windows as Donald Trump dominates the polls on the eve of Republican primary voting? Yes. In huge letters across the cover of the conservative National Review, this message: “Against Trump.” Read on, and there’s plenty against Ted Cruz too. Top conservatives against the GOP’s frontrunners. What a wild year. This hour On Point, Rich Lowry, editor of the National Review, explains why he’s against Trump. — Tom Ashbrook
Interview:
https://onpoint.wbur.org/2016/01/26/election-2016-donald-trump-national-review

New Idaho Bill Would Let Teachers Reference the Bible in Astronomy, Biology, and Geology Class

For some people, it’s not enough that bibles are already allowed in public schools and kids can read it for pleasure if they want to...
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2016/02/17/new-idaho-bill-would-let-teachers-reference-the-bible-in-astronomy-biology-and-geology-class/

David Niose: Fighting Back the Right (AHA Conference 2015)

For decades American politics and public policy have been sliding in the direction of unreason. Thanks in large part to the growth of the religious right, the political realm has become increasingly divisive and anti-intellectual, with little rational discourse and much pandering. How can humanists and others seeking rational public policy reverse this course? David Niose, former AHA president and current legal director, addresses this question in his new book, "Fighting Back the Right: Reclaiming America from the Attack on Reason." He shows how so much of the right-wing agenda—and not just the religious right, but the corporate interests that control the system as well—relies on the suppression of reason in American society. Thus, to fight back, those seeking rational, human-centered public policy must recognize what David calls the “reason deficit” and confront it head-on.

David Niose has been serving as director of the AHA’s Appignani Humanist Legal Center since January 2014, overseeing all of the AHA’s litigation and other legal activities. He has practiced law since 1990, most of that time running his own civil litigation practice in Massachusetts. David served two terms as AHA president and served on the board of directors from 2005 to 2013. He is author of "Fighting Back the Right: Reclaiming America from the Attack on Reason" and "Nonbeliever Nation: The Rise of Secular Americans."
Interview:
https://youtu.be/1weZfxY6rRI

Republican Candidates Need To Take Responsibility For Inspiring Oregon Terrorists

Republican candidates are finally waking up to the idea that the events in Oregon – where a group of right wing terrorists have taken over a federal building – could actually be quite toxic to their campaigns.

Both Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz have urged the terrorists to stand down, saying that they do not have any Constitutional right to do whatever it is they are trying to do. I’m sure in the coming days we’ll see more Republican candidates follow suit, trying to distance themselves from the crazy that they have created. But I can promise you one thing – there will not be a single Republican candidate that comes out and apologizes for their role in this disaster. And believe me when I say that these people share part of the blame.
https://youtu.be/B7G5D_er3PY

Donald Trump and Division within the Republican Party (Diane Rehm Show)

Businessman Donald Trump continues to top the polls of likely Republican voters. In the key state of New Hampshire, Trump now leads the field by 18 points. But his recent proposal to ban all Muslims from entering the U.S. has ignited a firestorm. Critics say it’s an outrageous plan that violates the U.S. Constitution. But supporters say it’s necessary to keep America safe from Islamic terrorism. Guest host Melissa Ross and guests discuss Donald Trump’s continuing dominance in the polls, his plan to keep Muslims out, and what it all means for the 2016 presidential election and the future of the G.O.P.
Interview:
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2015-12-10/donald-trump-and-division-within-the-republican-party

History Wars Exposed: Right-Wing Influence in APUSH Curriculum Update | Political Research Associates

“At the root of current objections to this highly regarded process is a blatant disregard for the facts.”
and ...

Who, you may ask, is leading this blatant disregard for the facts?  Note especially (with my emphasis added):

The American Principles Project (APP), which has been advocating against APUSH since at least the Jefferson County protests, was founded in 2009 by Princeton University professor and Catholic neoconservative Robert P. George in order to ensure that the “dignity of the person” is reflected in local and national policies. Some of the APP’s best-known work has been produced in the fight against Common Core, but its leadership is invested in a broader slate of culture war issues. After the publication of the Manhattan Declaration in 2009, The New York Times called George “the country’s most influential conservative Christian thinker.”29 George was the primary author of the Declaration—part of an effort to unify conservative Catholics and evangelicals around a three-part agenda, which they described as “life, marriage, and religious liberty”30—but other APP figures are also proven culture warriors. APP chairman Sean Fieler also heads the Chiaroscuro Group, whose radio ads attacking a pro-choice politician once featured a talking fetus; the APP’s board president, Francis Cannon, coauthored a post-2012 report on “Building a Winning GOP Coalition”;31 and other board members include anti-marriage equality activist Maggie Gallagher and Luiz Tellez, cofounder of the anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion legal advocacy group the Witherspoon Institute (which helped fund a thoroughly debunked 2012 study by conservative sociologist Mark Regnerus suggesting negative outcomes for children of same-sex couples32). 

http://www.politicalresearch.org/2015/10/19/history-wars-exposed-right-wing-influence-in-apush-curriculum-update/#sthash.FFnZcPRr.Qzcb35Zb.dpuf

Egyptians and Twitter Mock Ben Carson for Dumb Pyramids Theory

“Does he even deserve a response?” asked Mamdouh el-Damaty, a professor of Egyptology and antiquities minister, speaking to the AP. “He doesn’t.”
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/egyptians-and-twitter-mock-ben-carson-dumb-pyramids-theory

AlterNet Comics: Brian McFadden on Ben Carson's Blunderful World

The presidential hopeful takes you on a tour of the globe.
...  Read more

Wilmore: 'Trump Is Stupid. Plain And Simple.' (VIDEO)

"The Nightly Show" host Larry Wilmore has been incredibly forthright in his dislike of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. On Wednesday n... Read more

Ben Carson Thinks The Pyramids Were Built To Store Grain

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson has an interesting theory about Egypt's pyramids. He believes they were built by Joseph, of Biblical fame, and were used to store grain.
https://youtu.be/qom5nI_-tzo

House Passes 'Filibuster-Proof' O-care Repeal That Still Might Die In The Senate

The House of Representatives passed Friday what was supposed to be their best shot at an Obamacare repeal measure to get through the Senate and onto t... Read more

The Armageddon Lobby by Rammy M. Haija

Dispensationalist Christian Zionism and the Shaping of US Policy Towards Israel-Palestine.
Abstract
This article investigates the history of contemporary Christian Zionism in the United States and the impact of this movement on US policy issues related to Israel-Palestine. Dispensationalist Christian Zionists, often described the 'Armageddon lobby', make up the largest voting bloc in the Republican Party and have become a mainstay in US politics. More recently, the Christian Zionist lobby has had a profoundly damaging impact on the Israeli-Palestinian 'peace process' as well as creating a conspiracy of silence regarding Israeli offensives in the occupied Palestinian territories. Though the 'Armageddon lobby' has been successful in its efforts as a pro-Israel lobby, its influence is in fact counterproductive to Israel because the lobby hinders the prospect of Israel living in peace because of their policy of deterring the progression of negotiations.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15422.htm

Why Evolution is True and Why Many People Still Don't Believe It (Jerry Coyne, 2012)

Jerry Coyne, a professor of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago and author of the seminal book, Why Evolution is True, is one of the world's most eloquent defenders of evolutionary science in the face of legal, religious, and cultural opposition. In this talk, Coyne explored the evidence for evolution, why Americans are so resistant to accepting the theory, and what can be done to make the country more evolution-friendly.
http://youtu.be/CW9G2YVtBYc

Lindsey Graham: We Can't Fix The VA Until We Cut Your Social Security

So Pete Peterson has funded yet another conference geared toward convincing people (in this case, college students) to... cut entitlement spending and... Read more

7 Out Of 10 Americans Want Their States To Comply With The EPA’s Climate Plan

Most Americans want their state to come up with a plan to reduce carbon from power plants.  ... Read more

Is Notorious Islamophobic Think Thank Inspiring More Far-Right Terrorist?

More worrying is the prestige that the Gatestone Institute seems to be able to flaunt along with its considerable resources.
...  Read more

Donald Trump: I Get My Military Advice From Watching Shows

I'm not sure what's more pathetic here. The fact that the Republican frontrunner for President says he gets his advice on foreign policy from watching...  Read more

Jeb Bush Keeps Forgetting -- Mr. Wrong

That outside the wingnut bubble (and outside the Beltway Media bubble that enfolds it) not everyone has agreed to go along with the fairy tale that hi...  Read more

https://youtu.be/XobqB4nJgKA

Jeb Bush Calls Common Core ‘Poisonous,’ Forgets He Actually Supports It

Playing to the base. ... Read more