Deflect, delay, deny

Run away!!

Rep. Heath Shuler (D-NC) refuses to say whether he lives in the C Street house "because of privacy issues."

Late Update: Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) is getting antsy about his C Street connection, too, when asked about it on a conference call with reporters

Obama becoming president has tipped the wingnuts into madness

And out into plain view for all to see:

The shrieking Birthers are sure, just sure that Obama CAN'T be the rightful president. He cheated on his exams! He faked his Illinois driver's license! He was born less than 35 years ago in a foreign land! Like Hawaii! I mean, who knows what foreign island types lurked about in those days planning to lie about the birth of a black child just to get him into the White House 47 (I mean 35) years later?/!!

Excellent overview of the Birthers' conniptions:

Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on August 4, 1961. Here is is birth certificate. Hawaii was and is an American state. When Barack Obama was elected, he was 47 years old and had lived in the US since 1971. According to the Constitution, the president must be a natural-born citizen 35 years old or order who has lived in the US for 14 years. Barack Obama is eligible to be the president. It's that simple. Unless you're in America's fastest-growing group of nuts with modems, the Birthers! Then it is much more complicated, and stupid.

Wonkette notes that the government is going to be overthrown by the righteous indignation of the wingnuts:

The person who runs FreeRepublic.com is cold gonna overthrow the U.S. government — that means you, blackenstein — and ho ho, no more taxes on the millionaires! Hooray! Anyway, folks, things are getting Seriously Weird with the wingnuts, birthers, paultards and other middle-aged white suckers who bought into that whole Reagan thing 30 years ago and, whoops, are still poor and doomed.

And then, in 2008, Americans mysteriously voted in droves for a common African Soviet from, er, Hawaii, who has been president now for what, six months? And this NON-PRESIDENT is, uhm, trying to get some health coverage for these poor dumb AM-radio listeners, so …. OVERTHROW THE GUBMINT.

And then we have the breathtaking insights of 'The Family' with its roots deep into the workings of elected officials of Congress:

Jeff Sharlet continues his brilliant reporting on the bizarre christo-fascist cult called "the Family" which counts among its members some of the most powerful people holding elected office in the United States. How bizarre and extreme is the Family?

Attempting to explain what it means to be chosen for leadership like King David was -- or Mark Sanford, according to his own estimate -- [Doug Coe, son and heir-apparent to Family leader David Coe] asked a young man who'd put himself, body and soul, under the Family's authority, "Let's say I hear you raped three little girls. What would I think of you?" The man guessed that Coe would probably think that he was a monster. "No," answered Coe, "I wouldn't." Why? Because, as a member of the Family, he's among what Family leaders refer to as the "new chosen." If you're chosen, the normal rules don't apply.

And Randall Terry decides that domestic terrorism is the best way to show his love of America:

Randall Terry took time out of his twelve-city, "Defeat Sotomayor" tour yesterday to grace the National Press Club's podium. His message? Expect more domestic terrorism in response to health care reform.

Christy Hardin Smith has more:

Randall Terry is at it again. Because apparently the half-skull poster of Sonia Sotomayor and exhortations to his unstable flock about the Angel of Death weren't nearly enough to get him the fundraising haul attention he needed.

In any polite society, his brand of dangerous stoking of the fires of hell would get him shunned by decent people.

In fact, it's well past time that GOP lawmakers were asked -- clearly and without any ambiguity -- what they think of Terry's fire and brimstone violence stoking on behalf of their policy agenda.

Because they cannot have it both ways any more that Terry can.

Using Terry's dangerous rhetoric to push the Republican policy agenda makes them just as responsible for the ends of those means as Terry is.

Not to be outdone, the book burners demand libraries be cleansed of evil:

(CNN) -- A fight over books depicting sex and homosexuality has riled up a small Wisconsin city, cost some library board members their positions and prompted a call for a public book burning.

The battle has stirred much of West Bend, a city of roughly 30,000 people about 35 miles north of Milwaukee. Residents have sparred for months on blogs, airwaves and at meetings, including one where a man told the city's library director he should be tarred and feathered.

The row even spread to this year's Fourth of July parade, which included a float featuring a washing machine and a sign that read "keep our library clean."

"If you told me we would be going through a book challenge of this nature, I'd think, 'Never in a million years,' " said Michael Tyree, director of the West Bend Community Memorial Library.

The strife began in February when West Bend couple Jim and Ginny Maziarka objected to some of the content in the city library's young-adult section. They later petitioned the library board to move any sexually explicit books -- the definition of which would be debated -- from the young-adult section to the adult section and to label them as sexually explicit.

Ginny Maziarka, 49, said the books in the section of the library aimed at children aged 12 to 18 included homosexual and heterosexual content she thought was inappropriate for youths.

She and her husband also asked the library to obtain books about homosexuality that affirmed heterosexuality, such as titles written by "ex-gays," Maziarka said.

"All the books in the young-adult zone that deal with homosexuality are gay-affirming. That's not balance," she said.

So... instead of trying to work with our first black president, the rightwingers will ignore any kind of proof that Obama is who he says he is, they plan massive book burnings, the tar and feathering of librarians, domestic terrorism, homophobia, and destruction of the government.

This will show everybody just how much they love America and its freedoms.

Next?

Witch trials and hangings!

I'd say there were issues

That need to be addressed:

HEBRON, Ind. – A woman who wasn't invited to her sister's wedding reception showed up anyway and attacked the bride, pulling out clumps of her hair, police said. Annmarie Bricker, 23, of Valparaiso, was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of battery.

Jeremy Glotzbach told police he was hosting a reception for newlyweds Nicholas Landry and Lori Kappes at his home on Jan. 23 when Bricker, Kappes' sister, attacked Kappes on the front porch.

Bricker pulled out clumps of Kappes' hair, struck her head and took the bride to the ground during a struggle, according to the Porter County Sheriff's Department.

Bricker told police she went to the house because she "just wanted to talk" to her sister and parents about family problems. She said she never touched her sister, but five witnesses contradicted her, authorities said. Kappes did not need medical treatment.

Bricker later resigned from her job as a Porter County 911 dispatcher, officials said.

Weddings are supposed to be stressful times, but really....

Senator Brownback, we have questions to ask you

Senator, could you please explain your connection to 'The Family'? And why do you admire Hitler?

The Nitpicker at Unclaimed Territory:
"The group is known primarily as "the Family." It was the focus of an excellent (if frightening) expose by Jeff Sharlet in the March 2003 Atlantic Monthly. An excerpt from the piece shows just how far outside the mainstream the group is. The group's leader, Doug Coe, explaining how the Family works to Kansas congressman Todd Tiahrt. Coe says it's based on

"A covenant...Like the Mafia,” Doug clarified. “Look at the strength of their bonds.” He made a fist and held it before Tiahrt's face. Tiahrt nodded, squinting. “See, for them it's honor,” Doug said. “For us, it's Jesus.”

Coe listed other men who had changed the world through the strength of the covenants they had forged with their “brothers”: “Look at Hitler,” he said. “Lenin, Ho Chi Minh, Bin Laden.” The Family, of course, possessed a weapon those leaders lacked: the “total Jesus” of a brotherhood in Christ.

Brownback, who wanted to get to the bottom of Judge Neff's partygoing habits, is a particularly powerful leader in this group and lived with other members of the group in a Washington, D.C., mansion at the unheard of D.C.-era rent of $600 a month, according to a separate Sharlet article. No one seems to have asked him about this great deal, however, or whether he believes that Jesus--or most Americans--would get behind a Christian schutzstaffel or al Qaeda in a religious "great leap forward.""

Nitpicker linked to this expose which gives the overview.