What's more, the Republican controlled Congress in 2000 passed the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which pretty much precludes the government from preventing any religious organization from building and operating any religious institution anywhere they damn well please. The Republicans have no one but themselves to blame for that. They created this law because they claimed "freedom of religion is under assault." And so it is.

Is it any wonder that Congress is the institution Americans trust the least, with only 11 percent of the population thinking Congress is trustworthy? That's about on par with Bernie Madoff and a bit lower than BP, Monsanto, and Don Corleone. Okay, I made that last sentence up, but you get the idea. Something stinks in this country and its name is Congress.

Frankly I'm stunned and ashamed that a religious group building a house of worship cultural center is even a newsworthy item, let alone a target of scrutiny on a national level. That some are condemning it, calling it an attack on America, and equating it to the genocide of 6 million Jews is disgusting and unconscionable. It's hate-mongering, intolerance, and prejudice at its worst and it seems to be done solely in the name of political gain. Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan are turning over in their graves.

Perhaps America needs a reminder of the Constitution, and in particular, the first Amendment, which states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Clearly some, like potential Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and House Minority leader, John Boehner, want to ignore the constitution and put a stop to the mosquecultural center. To ignore and even deny the Constitution is as unAmerican as one can get and Boehner, Gingrich and their extremist comrades should, at the very least, be tarred and feathered and forced to take a remedial course on American History and the Constitution before being run out of Washington forever.

Please, please, please, Republicans, stop making me ashamed of my party and ashamed to be an American. You're better than this, at least you used to be.

Update: I've corrected the references to "mosque" above. It is, in fact, not a mosque but simply a cultural/community center that will be built in an building that formerly housed a Burlington Coat factory. It's also not AT Ground Zero, but several blocks away. Clearly those who keep calling it a mosque don't know what they are talking about and are just trying to spread fear and hatred for their own personal gain. Trust them not.

After seeing Texas Congressman Gohmert's nonsensical ranting and Texas state representative Debbie Riddle's angry tirade on AC360, and seeing both of them completely evade any question asked and offer no evidence whatsoever except for some alleged conversations with a supposed retired FBI agent neither would name on or off camera, I am truly frightened. I'm not at all worried about terror babies, I'm frightened of the people Texas elects to represent them. Quite obviously the biggest threat to America is our own government.

Mind you, the FBI itself has no evidence and has had no reports of any such terror baby activity, so one wonders where these alleged former FBI agents are getting their information. My guess is they're just making shit up.

I'm also amazed at how Anderson Cooper manages to maintain his composure and a straight face while listening to these ridiculous nonsense.

Conservatives are rewriting the Bible to remove the liberal slant. Apparently the Word of God is too liberal.

Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity, upon which much of modern physics is based, is considered to be a liberal plot by certain sectors of the Conservative movement. I guess the nuclear power plants and weapons that depend on portions of the theory (i.e. E=mc2) are liberal plots, too, and clearly Conservatives must the be against those, right?

Denver's bicycle sharing program turns out, according to Tea Party candidate, Dan Maes, to be a covert plot to turn Denver into a United Nations State. I'm not even sure what that means, but sharing anything, especially bicycles, can't be a good thing. Isn't one of the ten commandments something like, "Thou shalt not share bicycles?" If not, I'm sure they'll add that one to the Conservapedia bible.

Soccer, a beloved sport the world over turns out to be a liberal plot to destroy America. Clearly we need to tear up all the soccer fields in the USA and pull our kids out of soccer programs. Maybe we can drill for oil where the soccer fields used to be.

The sorry state of the American educational system is clearly not the fault of the teach-to-the-test policies created by the nonsensical No Child Left Behind program but is in fact, a liberal plot against American Education!

Let's not forget this old gem that tells us that Daylight Savings Time is a plot by the liberal Congress to show us that global warming is real.

I could go on, but I need to renew my NRA membership, send a big check to the RNC, and burn my old, shockingly liberal bible.

It's sad to see that there are people in the world banding together to promote hate and racism and extinguish alternative viewpoints. The main guiding principle of the United States is Freedom of Speech. Healthy debate, exchange of ideas, and compromise are what this country was founded on. If this turns out to be true, these people should be tried for sedition for trying to stifle free speech. While we're at it, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbuagh, and Sean Hannity should also be tried for sedition because that's literally what they're doing with all their anti-Obama, anti-compromise, anti-discussion, anti-debate rhetoric. I have no doubt at all that 60 years ago anyone saying what they say would have been tried for sedition or would at least have had to appear before Congress to explain themselves.

Update: And apparently meat-based diets made us smarter.

I've found myself becoming increasingly disturbed over the past several years by the behavior of the Republican party. They once had great leaders like Ronald Reagan, John Sununu, and Mel Thompson, now they've got the bad joke that is Sarah Palin.

Republicans today are hypocrites condemning Democrats for passing fully funded health care reform while conveniently forgetting their own massive and unfunded expansion of Medicare. They're anti-anything suggested by a Democrat and are unwilling to compromise in any meaningful way.

What's worse, the Democrats, even with their majority, don't have the balls to fight the good fight to make the big, meaningful changes they needed to while they have the power-play. Obama was elected with a mandate that will largely go unfulfilled unless the Democrats grow a pair.

Ah, but I'll let Bruce Bartlett tell you about it. He was senior policy analyst in the Reagan White House and deputy assistant secretary for economic policy at the Treasury Department during the first Bush administration. In other words, he was in tight with the real Republicans when they were doing things like bringing the Cold War to an abrupt end.

I don't at all agree with him that a VAT tax is inevitable or even desirable, but most everything else he says is spot-on.

In short, the Republicans have turned into a party of asshats and the Democrats are too afraid of taking on big business to do anything at all. As a result, we, the People, are getting screwed. The Middle Class is well on its way to extinction.

If they don't get their acts together soon, they may find themselves facing the fate of King Louis XVI and Czar Nicholas II.

Given that I grew up in New Hampshire, the Granite State, where I climbed over stone walls, crawled under, over, and around glacial erratics, and hiked some of the rockiest trails in the world, I'm lucky to be alive. If only I'd known how dangerous all those rocks were, I'd have stayed home. In front of the TV. Where it's safe. And probably vented my excess energy, assuming I had any after living such a sedentary existence, by playing violent video games. In the womb-like safety of my living room.

There's a small breath of common sense in this Forbes article by Lenore Skenazy that points out the ridiculous lengths we've gone in the name of safety and the depths of paranoia we've sunk to.

Ah, but clearly Skenazy is one crazy woman. After all, her blog is called Free Range Kids and she--get this--lets her kids walk to school. By themselves! Without an armed escort!

Clearly someone should lock her up for child abuse! Right after they pin a medal on her for being brave enough to let her kids be kids. They'll get hurt. They'll learn. They'll be better citizens, better parents, and better workers, as a result.

Heck, I'm so concerned about the danger of rocks that I think I'll go home and burn all of my Rolling Stones CDs tonight. Toxic fumes be damned, those things are an accident waiting to happen!