Huckabee is a raving lunatic


Here’s his latest suggestion: that we we amend the Constitution to be more biblical.

“I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution,” Huckabee told a Michigan audience on Monday. “But I believe it’s a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living god. And that’s what we need to do — to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view.”

Whoa.

We have a candidate who openly wants to make the US a religious state, and he’s the frontrunner on the Republican side. There are a large number of people who want this demented fuckwit to run the country. And the pundits of the news media are sucking their thumbs and watching; here’s what one commentator had to say:

Geist further noted of Huckabee that if “someone without his charm,” said that, “he’d be dismissed as a crackpot, but he’s Mike Huckabee and he’s basically the front-runner.”

Popularity excuses all affronts, I guess. Did your mother ever ask you, “If your friends jumped off a cliff, would you?”

I’m feeling a bit like I’m watching a whole country merrily running towards that cliff right now.

Comments

  1. says

    even more fun is that Scarborough refuses to criticize him for this, calling it only “interesting.” Can’t piss off the fuckwits by acknowledging that they are fuckwits.

  2. dcwp says

    I’ve long advocated asking candidates which document they will swear to uphold and defend – the constitution or the bible.

    I agree wholeheartedly with Huk that they are not compatible as legal guides. Now I guess we know his answer.

    I had always hoped that the media would condemn a politician who openly advocates tearing up the constitution. Now I guess we know the answer to that too.

    Scary stuff…

  3. firemancarl says

    Oh what a fuckwit. I hope that whomever the Dems have will clean the Reps clocks. Wow, I dunno if I have ever heard any candidate say something like that.

  4. says

    But I believe it’s a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living god. And that’s what we need to do–to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view.

    Apparently, he’s never heard of that vast collection of edits and re-edits called the Bible.

  5. says

    It’s nice in a horrible sort of way to have ones worst fears confirmed. Huckabee really is a Christian equivalent of a Taliban.

    That there are so many people out there who think a Christian theocracy would be a good idea scares me. If biblical law was implemented I would be under threat of a death sentence because of who I am.

    If this fuckwad wins in November Lyne and I are out of here. Hello Malta.

  6. raven says

    Don’t laugh. Or shudder. The USA has a recent tradition of voting for the absolute worst candidate possible. Huckabee could well be the next US president.

    It would be the end of the US. I suppose in a democracy if everyone votes to destroy it, that is what happens. Every civilization that ever existed fell sooner or later, most of the time from within. At least we get to see one fall up close.

    Although I’m not the least bit sure about the we part. If Huckabee is elected, there will be a new immigration problem. Americans will be immigrating en masse to any place that will take them. Canada would be OK but it is too cold. Australia?

  7. CJO says

    “some contemporary view”?

    Just any old view, Mike? Or Enlightenment liberalism? I feel like I’m channeling raven or something, but jeez, these guys really do want to take us back into the dark ages. Any more regressive, and they’d be pagans, for Pan’s sake.

  8. Ray C. says

    “I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution. But I believe it’s a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living Allah. And that’s what we need to do — to amend the Constitution so it’s in Allah’s standards rather than try to change Allah’s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view.”

    Say that and the Huckster’s supporters will panic.

  9. Hank Fox says

    Huckabee scares the crap out of me. He’s so far from any understanding of the American ideals of fairness and inclusiveness that he might as well come from another planet.

    He seems even more demented than Bush when it comes to religion. That he’s even willing to SAY such things out in the open is a scary sign of the severe deterioration of church-state separation in the U.S.

    On the other hand …

    If the election goes to the Democrats, and especially if it’s an unbalanced victory for them, a clear repudiation of the last 8 years, good ol’ Huck may just be the “Dover” of the evangelical Republican movement.

  10. Kseniya says

    Oh, the irony: How many Christians, Huck-Boy-AR-Dee included, really follow biblical law?

    Answer: None.

  11. raven says

    I’m sure anyone who is not a Xian, Jews, Moslems, Hindus, agnostics, atheists, is going to be thrilled with Adolph Huckabee’s brilliant idea.

    On a good day, he would automatically make them second class citizens. On a bad day, we don’t even want to imagine it.

    PS Something tells me the Wiccans wouldn’t be too happy either. I believe his bible calls for the death penalty for witches.

  12. says

    Yes to what PZ said, except that it is unclear that he is the frontrunner on the Republican side. In Michigan (today) it is believed to be a race between Romney and McCain, while Huckabee is pinning his hopes on South Carolina–but then it seems unlikely that he’d win anything but a few backward states like SC.

    I don’t think he leads in national polls, either, though I could be wrong about that (I don’t follow politics closely).

    Glen D
    http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7

  13. Ichthyic says

    did anybody watch the video in the link?

    just as scary was the little discussion about “subservience” in marriage they were poking the female commenter with, and she essentially stating that subservience to the husband was the “foundation of marriage”

    holly fuck, all of these people are insane.

  14. T_U_T says

    If huckabee wins, I will buy a hut deep in the mountains and start buying ans stockpiling food and iodine pills.

  15. Ichthyic says

    Yes to what PZ said, except that it is unclear that he is the frontrunner on the Republican side.

    yeah, he was a brief frontrunner after winning Iowa. that ended in NH, but who knows. It’s still very early in this mess.

  16. Kseniya says

    I think Glen is right. The Huckster made a splash by taking Iowa (big whup) but I think by July he’ll be little more than a funny smell in the back of the refrigerator bad memory.

  17. says

    Hey, most of the time I’m feeling like we’ve covered half the verses of Leviticus anyway. Leviticus 25:44,

    As for your male and female slaves whom you may have– you may acquire male and female slaves from the pagan nations that are around you.

    Canadians might find this a bit worrisome. Mexico probably won’t notice any difference, since we treat their immigrants like slaves for the most part anyway…

  18. Sampo Rassi says

    I am honestly flabbergasted. I don’t have any coherent comment to make, except that I didn’t expect this grade of congealed lunacy, even in my wildest dreams.

  19. says

    There was a time when conservatives were opposed to messing with the Constitution too much.

    But these days, if it stops a hippie from burning a flag, two men from loving one another, or wiccans from praying on military bases, Conservatives want to amend the shit out of the Constitution.

    Assclowns.

  20. says

    Incidentally, with such a batshit-insane declaration, who will be willing to be Huck’s running mate? Fred Phelps? Rick Santorum? The crazy guy on the street corner going on about the end times?

  21. jimmiraybob says

    …to change the word of the living god.

    The trinitarian one or the unitarian one? Or, maybe one of the other ones? Frankly I’m giddy with anticipation.

  22. says

    but then it seems unlikely that he’d win anything but a few backward states like SC.

    Well, basically the entire South. Along with Iowa. Add a few states along the way in which the fuckwits control the party apparatus, and you’re looking at a nominee.

  23. jimmiraybob says

    PS He did not say amend the Constitution, he said change the Constitution. I’m thinking by signing statement or recess appointment.

  24. Kseniya says

    Carlie, no (but maybe it should be). Actually it was an interesting look into the idea that there are a fair number of Dems and GOPer who are as sick of the neocons and political polarization as I think most of us are. There may be a movement afoot to undo the worst of the Reagan revolution: that is, for traditional conservatives to take back the GOP from the religious right and the neocons.

  25. Tony Popple says

    Ravin said: “If Huckabee is elected, there will be a new immigration problem. Americans will be immigrating en masse to any place that will take them. Canada would be OK but it is too cold.”

    I have heard that Vancouver, BC is very beautiful and has a mild climate. From where I stand, it gets more attractive everyday. Is it too late to apply for Canadian citizenship?

  26. says

    Lets not forget that Huckabee actually did not finish his religious education. This is a bit like a doctor who dropped out giving you a prescription.

  27. says

    Canadians might find this a bit worrisome.

    Oh, I don’t know about that. Ever try to start a slave truck that’s been parked outside in -30°C weather without a block heater?

    Besides, after a few more ‘successes’ in Syria and Iran like the one in Iraq, and you won’t have enough troops to capture a moose, let alone any of us fat poutine-eaters.

  28. Nemo says

    I’m surprised by some of the comments at the linked article, to the effect of (and one literally saying) “he just lost the election”. Don’t kid yourselves… this is something that a large portion of Americans would want.

    And then, as always, there are a few comments saying that they hope he wins the nomination so that the Republicans will lose big in the general election. Aside from the problem that they might not, let me say this: I’ve never voted Republican, and I never expect to. But I’m an American, and the Republican Party is part of America. They aren’t going away, as much as we might wish it. Even with severe electoral defeats, they’ll hang around with probably a third or more of national offices. What they do, and what they believe, will continue to shape this country for the forseeable future. So, I want it to be the best party that it can be; i.e., to reflect the best values of its members, not the worst. To that end, I hope that McCain wins the nomination. Even though he’s even more of a hawk than Bush.

  29. says

    I have heard that Vancouver, BC is very beautiful and has a mild climate. From where I stand, it gets more attractive everyday. Is it too late to apply for Canadian citizenship?

    Plus, MacGyver was filmed there.

  30. Kseniya says

    Keep in mind that slaves can only be taken from “the pagan nations that are around you.” I’m getting tired of washing the dishes for my dad and my brothers. What’s the nearest pagan nation to the USA? Cuba?

    I hear Vancouver is lovely. I’ve been to Nova Scotia – that’s nice, too, and relatively temperate for its latitude. (No?)

  31. says

    I’m hoping, as Hank Fox suggested, that this is the last hurrah for the evangelicals as a serious political force. I’m sure Huckabee isn’t going to get the nomination. He represents the last push by the evangelical base to assert their dominance of the Republican party, and the Republican party is going to smack him/them down. The noise coming from the Republicans indicates they have finally realized their pandering to the evangelicals has come back to bite them on the ass, and they need to purge the party of the evangelical influence if they want to remain viable in general elections.

    So maybe this is the crest of the evangelical wave. I sure hope so. Any red-blooded American has to feel his blood chill when he hears something like this. I hope we are finally adjusting course and turning away from this madness. Such contempt for the traditions, institutions and values that made this country great would surely lead us to destruction.

  32. says

    I’m interested to see how the wider public will react to this. An optimistic view: This will be the turning point after which Huckabee will go down in flames.

  33. says

    Brownian wrote: “Besides, after a few more ‘successes’ in Syria and Iran like the one in Iraq, and you won’t have enough troops to capture a moose, let alone any of us fat poutine-eaters.”

    I don’t know, we could no doubt fire up the public and get a draft going by pointing to Canada’s obvious development of ‘weapons of moose destruction’. Ow, I regret writing that.

    Anyway, considering Huckabee is probably more ignorant about geography than even Bush, any invasion of Canada would no doubt begin with a beachhead on southern China.

  34. says

    PS Something tells me the Wiccans wouldn’t be too happy either. I believe his bible calls for the death penalty for witches.

    The Medicis convinced one of the Popes to change a phrase in the Bible, “Thou shalt not suffer a poisoner to live” to “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” some time during the 15th Century, in order to preserve the family business of poisoning rival families and seizing their properties.

  35. says

    I hear Vancouver is lovely

    Gorgeous! I was there for my aunts’ wedding. It was so weird to be able to breathe the air in August without any work, like “where’s the humidity?”

  36. mothra says

    Huckabee very well could be elected and he probably does command a solid 35% of the electorate. We need to clearly elucidate the dangers of a religious state- since the obvious examples, Iran, Saudi Arabia seem not to resonate with the American public.

    The following humor (needed as the idea of Huckabee is soooo depressing) was posted on the previous Huckabee ‘headline.’ Forgive me for resurrecting it here- there were typos to correct- with apologies to Lewis Carroll.

    Twas twilight in the Libertane,
    Did Guil and Ronpol entertain?
    Ole Mittney ware the kerrygloves
    and the rathe confederland.

    Beware the Huckabee my son!
    Jocularis clothe de sack.
    Beware the bulljob baird and shun
    the framenourius Baptertak.

    Wit verbol glossat serpentand
    long time educarine foe he sought
    Yet slumbered he by benjamine tree
    Possessed as though in thought.

    Phyletics not he understood,
    The Huckabee with eyes aflame,
    come waffling Arkansanin wood
    and beheeing the inane.

    Gesticulating out in view
    the verbol glossat serpentak.
    Probosc-elphant was he ahead,
    churmed Galloping the politic.

    Quo vadis M the Huckabee?
    To me, to me, my churlish boy.
    Perfid the fog beswept away,
    stood he before the Hillary.

    Matinal was the Libertine,
    Did Guil, and Ronpol to the Fred.
    Mittney wore the kerrygloves,
    (Barrok and Edwards narywed)
    And the Jan wrethe Clintontine.

  37. says

    Oh come on. Canada is not that cold everywhere.

    Last week temperatures here in Toronto were 16C. In the summer, we get the same smog as everyone in New York (actually a lot of it is *from* New York) and temperatures in the 30’s.

    Besides, our dollar is worth it at the moment. I’ll supply the peameal bacon. Brownian can bring the poutine.

  38. Kseniya says

    Plus, MacGyver was filmed there.

    And The New Pornographers are from there. (So is Kristin Kreuk, guys. Heh.)

    Vancouver. It’s All That!

  39. Helblindi says

    @Ksenyia “What’s the nearest pagan nation to the USA? Cuba?”

    What about California? :>

  40. Foggg says

    MAJeff:
    [He’d win] basically the entire South. Along with Iowa.

    Democrats outnumbered Republicans 2 to 1 in the Iowa caucuses.

  41. says

    If any of you ever make it to Edmonton, I’ve got a couple of couches and a futon for guests to crash on.

    There are some mountains a few hours away on which some intrepid individuals while away the winter months engaged in an activity called ‘skiing’, though for the life of me I can’t understand why anyone would voluntarily go outside at any point from late September through mid-April.

  42. Ichthyic says

    The noise coming from the Republicans indicates they have finally realized their pandering to the evangelicals has come back to bite them on the ass, and they need to purge the party of the evangelical influence if they want to remain viable in general elections.

    evidence, please.

    seriously, if you have some links showing the movers and shakers in the GoP have begun to abandon the religious right as a voting block tool, I’d love to see it.

    hell, didn’t McCain recently even change his own religion from episcopalian to baptist?

    would give at least some hope for the future, even though I don’t see myself voting rethuglican in the next decade at least.

  43. blaisepascal says

    To amend the Constitution requires the vote of 290 Representatives and 67 Senators, plus the approval of 37 State legislatures. Huckabee, if elected, has no formal standing to even introduce an amendment, much less vote on it. All that’s needed to keep any amendment from happening is the strength of character of 145 Representatives OR 34 Senators OR 13 State legislatures.

    I’m not too worried.

  44. says

    First thought: AAAAAAAAAH!

    Second thought: Ok, at least there’s not a chance in hell he’s gonna get elected now.

    Third thought: Bush. Twice.

    Well, fuck.

    And even if the US might not have a lot of troops left, there’s still nukes and shit. If it weren’t for that, I doubt I would particularly care if the american people decided to vote itself back into the middle ages. The intelligent ones would surely end up in Canada or over here and the rest of the world would be better off… But, as I said. US is a terribly powerful nation and the idea of someone even nuttier than Dubya at the wheel… *shudder*

  45. Ichthyic says

    Democrats outnumbered Republicans 2 to 1 in the Iowa caucuses.

    I think you might have missed that he said NOMINEE.

  46. Moses says

    she essentially stating that subservience to the husband was the “foundation of marriage”

    holly fuck, all of these people are insane.

    Posted by: Ichthyic | January 15, 2008 5:13 PM

    She’s wrong. It’s latex.

  47. MikeM says

    Here’s why I refuse to live in the South: If Huckabee is the nominee, he’ll carry the South. I could not stand to live with that many nitwits (or Demented Fwits, if you prefer).

    The good news here, though, is that he may not be the nominee. Well, actually, I’m not sure that’s good news, because I think McCain has a much better chance of beating the Democrats than Huckabee does. I don’t think McCain is anywhere near the idiot that Huckabee is.

    But I’ll still vote for Edwards, Obama or Clinton before I vote for McCain. Paul eliminated himself, so I’d never vote for him.

    Something I’ve been wondering about, though… It’s 100% clear we won’t be out of Iraq within 2 years. I think it’s a little unfair for the Democrats to have this crap piled on their laps. The Republicans got us into this, they should get us out of it. Any Democrat will be faced with ugly, uglier or ugliest options; why should they? I wonder if Obama would be re-elected in 2012.

    I’m almost thinking that the idiots who filled our houses with garbage should be forced to take the garbage out. Perhaps McCain wouldn’t be so bad, if there were 55+ Democrat Senators and about 65% Democrat Congressmembers.

  48. Sarah says

    Fantastic, this sounds like the government from the Hand Maiden’s Tale. Better apply for my Canadian citizenship right now.

  49. says

    Third thought: Bush. Twice.
    Well, fuck.

    Exactly. And when people say, “don’t you trust your fellow citizens?” I point them to that fact and say, “FUCK NO!”

  50. says

    With every day that passes, any sense of patriotism or pride in my country that I’ve had diminishes a bit more.

  51. says

    Geesh. I really need to ingest caffeine before reading your politically-oriented posts. I got all the way to “fuckwit” before realizing that this is PZ and not Phil Plait. *headdesk*

    On topic. If Huckabee (or anyone of his ilk) wins the presidency, I think I may be very glad that my history mentor is moving back to Canada after this semester, as I’d be able to beg the use of his couch while I looked for a job up there.

  52. T_U_T says

    Actually, if huckabee is elected, emigrating to Canada would be one of the most stupid ideas ( except staying in the us ), because during the nuclear winter it could be too cold to grow any food there, and where you would go then ? Back to radioactive ruins of former US of A ? ( which are most probably still infested with surviving fundie crusaders )

  53. says

    @Ksenyia “What’s the nearest pagan nation to the USA? Cuba?”

    Probably Russia from the west, Iceland from the east. Maybe Britain, if one doesn’t “believe” in Great Circle routes.

  54. says

    What’s the nearest pagan nation to the USA? Cuba?

    Considering we have socialized medicine (brought to us by a Baptist minister!), hardly anyone goes to church, and (according to my MIL in LA) your commentators refer to us as “secular Canada”, I’d say we qualify.

    And if one of our politicos spouted shit like that, his candidacy would immediately spout smoke and flame, and enter a death spiral (just look what happened to John Tory). He might still be electable in his own riding (if it was somewhere like Abbotsford BC, or some rural Alberta backwater), but nationally he would have a permanent case of leprosy.

  55. Rey Fox says

    “And that’s what we need to do — to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view.”

    Yeah. Fuck 2,000 years of progress.

    Hey Huck, your god’s standards SUCK.

  56. Eric Paulsen says

    I’m hoping you’re wrong that we are heading for that cliff PZ, because I just voted for him tonight in the Michigan Primary.

    I have been an atheist since I was 12 and a Democrat since I could vote and I think a demented theocrat like Huckabee is the greatest gift the Republicans could EVER give us. IF he wins then this country is truly in it’s decline and it will be the sign I need to leave it behind, but I trust that MOST Americans aren’t his kind of crazy. They all skate pretty close to the line but he is WAY beyond the ‘Danger, thin ice’ signs and pumping those crazy legs…

  57. jeff says

    Damn. I should have moved to new zealand four years ago when I had the chance. My finances would have doubled due to the exchange rate alone. And I’d be protected from the even bigger drop in the dollar to come, when there’s a mass exodus from this country as the brighter folks finally give up. And after president Huckabee, they will. Guaranteed.

  58. Ichthyic says

    Actually, if huckabee is elected, emigrating to Canada would be one of the most stupid ideas ( except staying in the us ), because during the nuclear winter it could be too cold to grow any food there, and where you would go then ?

    actually, that would then reverse the global warming trend, the bering strait would freeze over again, and we could use the land bridge like our ancestors did, only in reverse.

    there are actually some nice spots to hang in Vietnam these days, or you could migrate southward to some nice tropical island somewheres.

    lots of jobs in China if you want to work for the world’s largest economy instead.

  59. says

    lots of jobs in China if you want to work for the world’s largest economy instead.

    Sorry, but not willing to: 1) learn a new language; 2) move; 3) get arrested; 4) find employment in prison camp.

  60. says

    First off: moving to Canada. I did it a while ago (before Bush was handed his second election), and I have not regretted it since. Vancouver is indeed a spectacularly good place. I have since moved to Halifax, and it too is worth the move. Neither place is particularly cold. Although it is significantly farther north than New England, Halifax is much warmer, and Vancouver rarely sees any snow (although it rains pretty much all winter). Meanwhile, religion simply is not an issue here, and nobody really cares what your personal outlook on life is (unless it threatens their own); beyond that, most people are actually worried about global warming (and, moreso than in the US, its effects can actually be noticed here). Unfortunately, changing one’s legal status is neither cheap nor quick. Permanent residence, I am told, takes $2000 and three to four years; citizenship is another $3000, and cannot be applied for until several years after permanent residence has been obtained. (I have been told different things from different people, and the official story seems to vary, but this has been the most consistently given one.)

    Second, Huckabee’s viability: My father has a Ph.D. in physics from a good university, used to teach cosmology and evolution at Unitarian Sunday school, and stopped only because when we moved, we stopped going to church altogether. My mother left the church when a teenager after realising how stupid and petty her parents’ religion (Lutheran, if anyone cares) was. She has given money to Greenpeace and run recycling drives. They live in New England and listens to NPR. And yet, they both voted for Bush. Twice. They seem excited about Huckabee. I have absolutely no idea what is so wrong with them, but if Bush and Huckabee can appeal to otherwise sane people like my parents, I hesitate to rule anyone out of viability for a successful presidential candidacy. Except, of course, an atheist.

  61. says

    There’s too much pollution in our constitution
    As any good Christian can see;
    Compare with the Bible, and anyone’s liable
    To note that the two don’t agree.
    And so, if we tell ’em it’s just ink and vellum,
    Not sacred like God’s Holy Word
    The people might buy it, and let someone try it
    Although it seems wholly absurd!
    A nip and a tuck ‘d be just fine for Huckabee–
    Really, I don’t like the odds–
    He already said it; he’s ready to edit,
    And substitute Man’s law with God’s.
    This ludicrous scheming (I wish I were dreaming)
    Must surely be nearing its end;
    Voters, open your eyes, and say your goodbyes
    To the Huckster’s invisible friend!

    (wow. Sitting here writing this, I see CNN just showed a commercial for “The God Delusion”. Tagline: “Imagine no religion.”

    Timely.)

  62. Kseniya says

    Great Britain is a pagan nation?

    o_O

    Russia is full of Xians and other Abrahamics, too. Though I suppose if I crossed over at the Bering Strait, I could well meet (and, of course, enslave) a few worshippers of the raven-god Quikil before I ran into a Christian.

    I mentioned Cuba as a joke, but hey.

    How about Japan? The Japanese have always made good slaves. *cough*

  63. Jsn says

    Don’t worry people. Hucksterabee is simply a decoy, a lightning rod, so everyone can say, “gee, at least Bush isn’t THAT much of an idiot…”; like when Britney Spears makes Tom Cruise look reasonable. (can you say “false dichotomy”, boys and girls?…)
    Actually, Romney is just as as the Huckster. McCain seems to be the only reasonable choice on the GOP side but that doesn’t mean Hucksterbee wouldn’t win here in Texas.

  64. says

    An atheist answers the ‘how can it be’s?
    With evidence he feels, hears, and sees.
    And the facts do convey,
    That it’s true what they say,
    A Cuttlefish is worth a thousand Jamies.

  65. holbach says

    Jeff at # 63 For a long time I have considered moving to
    New Zealand if I were to leave our great country. A very
    beautiful country and not too religion stricken from what
    I read. Far enough away from the major world problems, and
    the first country in the world to give women the vote. That
    last item should be an inducement to those of a equality
    stance. I would love to own Stewart Island.

  66. says

    Ohhhh, oh nooo. . . shudders of fear just ran through me. Heck, they’re still running through me.

    I don’t think this man will win, but it’s frankly terrifying to me — absolutely terrifying — to think that he says this and may still win states.

    I’d probably move to Japan, or if that was infeasible, Australia.

    Maybe if he does get elected, we can move and claim asylum as refugees.

  67. says

    my approach has been to learn Dutch (which fell behind the dissertation) in order to get back to my roots, and stay…but they’ll be under water before I actually finish my dissertation and learn the language.

  68. BlueIndependent says

    The only silver lining is that Hucky is not FNC’s candidate of choice. They hate him almost as much as they do Ron Paul. But, if Huckabee manages to pull off getting the nomination, guaranteed they’ll forget all they ever said about him, and he’ll never challenge them on it because he’ll have an extra propaganda network. He’ll have TBN, Fox, all the right-wing religious radio stations nationwide, and a large subsection of churches to play with.

    This guy is bad news all around…not that another elephant would necessarily be any better. McCain would run the war smarter than anyone on that side…beyond the fact that his keeping us there would inherently be running this failed war further to that end. Any positive sense of Huckabee I got when I saw him on Maher’s show is gone. He’ll turn this place into Pakistan and enjoy it.

  69. mothra says

    Cuttlefish- excellent! McCaine- horrendous. Have posters here forgotten McCain’s pandering for votes and speaking of ‘teaching the controversy’?

  70. says

    Four words for the Huckster about Biblifying the Constitution:
    Over. My. Dead. Body.

    Wow, I dunno if I have ever heard any candidate say something like that.

    Jeff Sessions (Moron – Alabama), during the recent FISA reauthorization discussion, expressed surprise that other Senators valued the Constitution more than the safety of the nation. It’s pretty clear that much of the Republican party doesn’t value the Constitution much if at all, but I think Huck just took the fucking cake. At least he’s given me something else to blog about – I needed a new kick in the pants.

  71. AlanWCan says

    Well, I guess you can all start saying goodbye to your polycotton blends and your prawn cocktails. Say, I wonder if huckster was ever involved in any of those huge GOP seafood fundraiser dinners? Maybe we first thing you should do is make sure he gets stoned after the constitutional amendment (along with the adulterers Giuliani and Gingrich, whose next? All the closeted gays in the GOP should be worried too).

    Leviticus Chapters 11, 19: “Any creature in the water that does not have both fins and scales is detestable to you.”
    “…neither shall there come upon thee a garment of two kinds of stuff mingled together”

  72. Rav Winston says

    Well, I am already fluent in Mandarin, and used to live in Taiwan. I have a number of contacts in Northeastern China as well.

    I REALLY hope Huck doesnae win, cos I don’t really want to have to sell everything, including my house, and run.

    But if he actually becomes president– Damn.

  73. roystgnr says

    If by “frontrunner” you mean “leading the national polls”, that used to be Giuliani and is now McCain. If by “frontrunner” you mean “has the most delegates”, I believe that used to be Huckabee but is now Romney. If by “frontrunner” you mean “most likely to pick up momentum by winning more elections before the big one”, that could be Giuliani in Nevada or Florida (although his lead is narrowing in both), Huckabee in South Carolina, or Romney or McCain in Michigan. At this point, it’s safe to say Paul and Thompson aren’t going to win the nomination, but I wouldn’t bet the retirement fund on or against any other Republican candidate.

  74. says

    Hey, we have our nutcases up here in Canada, too. There is the “Christian Heritage Party” for starts. In Alberta there are a few creationist “Museums” (all very small scale) and other creationist outfits. We even have a prosperity gospel-spewing TV network, “The Miracle Channel”. Oh well, they don’t have the political clout the fuckwits down south have, but they are pretty jealous of it. Some of the Christian Right thing Canada’s God given destiny lies in doing whatever the US Republican party wants, since God would vote them. All pretty annoying.

    Anyway, we manage to get along and have had a bit of fun with the “teach the controversy” bozos who tried to get elected to the school board here in Lethbridge (a wee bit north of Montana).

  75. says

    evidence, please. – ichthyic

    Republican noise machines like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity have attacked Huckabee relentlessly. On Daily Kos it was noted that the official Republican Party website didn’t even discuss or display the Iowa caucus results in the days after the vote (http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/1/4/1121/25827/989/430237).

    Here’s an article by Rich Lowry in the National Review Online : http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NjJiZDBjZWFiNmFmY2M1NDg2ZjM1Y2YwZjdjNzliMDg=
    in which he says, “[N]ominating a Southern Baptist pastor running on his religiosity would be rather overdoing it. Social conservatism has to be part of the Republican message, but it can’t be the message in its entirety.”

    Here’s one even more to the point, an article on NRO that quotes Republican Congressman Pete Hoekstra at length concerning his fears about Huckabee: http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MzdhMjEyOWU0Yzc1NTA3Y2NiYWJjYTIzOTAwY2NhYjM=

    “‘We can’t become the Evangelical Christian party,’ says Hoekstra. ‘We’ve got a broad spectrum of religious faiths’ in the GOP; to promote one over the others would be detrimental for the party.”

    The National Review has been unrelentingly hostile to Huckabee, when they’re not assiduously avoiding mentioning his name. The same with the Wall Street Journal.

  76. Mercurious says

    Just curious. Has any of the fundy sites picked this up yet? I’m wondering what their reactions are.

  77. CanadaGoose says

    “have heard that Vancouver, BC is very beautiful and has a mild climate. From where I stand, it gets more attractive everyday.”

    NO NO It’s freezing cold with snow up to your pupik! Roaming bands of starving polar bears roam the streets! Everyone lives in igloos!

    We got out of Dodge (California) in February 2004. Will be citizens soon. Never going back! BWAAAAAAAh!!

  78. raddoc says

    Can anyone post a link to the MSNBC Video referred to?
    I would love to see it and be able to show others.

  79. says

    @MAJeff: “my approach has been to learn Dutch (which fell behind the dissertation)”

    Amen. I did my postdoctoral work in Amsterdam, and am keeping the lines of communication open, so to speak! I’ll be perfectly happy to go back to a postdoctoral position if Huckabee gets in power.

  80. J-Dog says

    It is time to re-read Heinlein’s “Revolt in 2100”. Huckabee could be Nehimiah Scudder.

  81. says

    I have been an atheist since I was 12 and a Democrat since I could vote and I think a demented theocrat like Huckabee is the greatest gift the Republicans could EVER give us. IF he wins then this country is truly in it’s decline and it will be the sign I need to leave it behind, but I trust that MOST Americans aren’t his kind of crazy. They all skate pretty close to the line but he is WAY beyond the ‘Danger, thin ice’ signs and pumping those crazy legs…

    I am praying, figuratively of course, that he wins the nomination. The turn out for Democrats has been massive this year, whereas normally they are well under the Repubs they had twice as many in Iowa. If Huck gets nominated then this speech is going to get massive air time and he is going to be destroyed in the main election. He has no chance. There are already conservative blogger who are saying they will vote for Hillary over Huckabee, bloggers who can’t stand Hillary.

  82. mdowe says

    If two terms of Bush are followed by Huckabee, you can be sure Canadians will welcome the influx of American intellectuals and rationalists (not to mention fleeing members of religious minorities, homosexuals, and the Christians that aren’t “Christian enough” …) but you will have to forgive us if we keep you in quarantine for a month or so before we let you in =(

  83. Robert Thille says

    In response to #8 specifically, I’ve been taking my paper money and crossing out “God” in the “In God We Trust” and replacing it with “Allah” and calling them Allah-Bucks. I wonder if any of the “demented fuckwits” who see them would see the issue any clearer because of that…probably not.

    The issue I struggle with most is how to reach these people, or at least prevent more of “these people” from coming into being (by reaching the/their children before they are beyond hope). Being snarky on Pharyngula probably isn’t the best way, but damn it feels good. :-)

  84. NeoGothic says

    The Mad Patriot @ #78 said:
    “Four words for the Huckster about Biblifying the Constitution:
    Over. My. Dead. Body.”

    Mad Patriot may have a point (and a really cool handle). If Huckabee wins the the Presidency we could be in for a very scary time indeed. The re-instatement of biblical law would have everyone posting here condemed to death, probably by stoning. Also, evangelical fundies consider Catholics and the more “traditional” protestant denominations to be heretics, not to mention all the religious non-christians in this country. That’s a lot of people the newly biblically-oriented Department of Justice would be after. I don’t like thinking like this because it makes me feel like one of those right-wing militia guys in a shack in the backwoods of Michigan, but if any sort of signifigant change (such as the First Ammendment not applying to non-christians) towards theocratic rule happened in the United States what would be the chances of a second American Revolution or a second Civil War happening? How many would be willing to fight for their freedom? It would certainly be the end of the US as we know it. These are dark days indeed for the Union. I fear for my country.

  85. Mercurious says

    Was looking around a bit and found this.

    “The key issue of real faith is that it never can be forced on someone. And never would I want to use the government institutions to impose mine or anybody else’s faith or to restrict,” Huckabee said.

    Shouldn’t god of struck him down by now for this massive lie?

  86. Nemo says

    McCaine- horrendous. Have posters here forgotten McCain’s pandering for votes and speaking of ‘teaching the controversy’?

    I remember when he was the only Republican with the guts to denouce the religious right. Granted, he’s since backpedalled, but it was something. He’s also the only one who’s forthrightly against Bush’s policy of torture.

    I’m not endorsing him. Like I said, there’s no way I’d vote Republican. But if I were forced to vote in the Republican primary, then I guess it would be for him.

    Oh, and and I’m all for “teaching the controversy”, as long as they do it honestly. I.e., “Here’s the theory of evolution, and here are the mountains of evidence for it. Here’s Intelligent Design, which has… the argument from personal incredulity.” And makes no testable predictions, etc. Teach them ALL about ID. Make the IDers sorry they asked for it.

  87. Ichthyic says

    Social conservatism has to be part of the Republican message, but it can’t be the message in its entirety.

    thanks, max, it’s good to know there is some fear of Huckleberry on the part of some of the GoP pundits, but until I hear the above highlighted message being changed to:

    “Social conservatism no longer has to be part of the Republican message”

    I’ll not be holding my breath that things will change much within the GoP itself.

    maybe in another generation or so?

  88. Hank Fox says

    I’m staying here. The United States is my home, and a great place, and I’m not moving just because idiots think they own it.

  89. says

    All the talk of Canada reminds my of a book, ‘The Armageddon Crazies’ by Mick Farren. In the book the US was stupid enough to vote someone like Huckabee in and he used the emergency powers that have accumulated to make himself president for life. The US is finally saved when Canada invades and liberates us.

  90. kristen in montreal says

    My first exposure to Huckabee was through the Canadian TV show “talking to Americans,” where the then-governor of Arkansas congratulated my country for preserving its “national igloo.” He seemed like a nice man (he did afterall, congratulate us), even though what he said was pretty stupid.

    Now that he’s a candidate for president, I realize how dangerous he is. Being pro-life and anti-gay is one thing, but claiming that pro-life and anti-gay policies are the will of god is a terrifying position for a politician to take. He is telling people that morality is more about obeying god than it is about effecting human happiness. He is telling Christians that they aren’t responsible for their own moral judgments, god is. That they aren’t responsible for the systematic and institutional injustice homosexuals face, god is. That they aren’t responsible for the babies born to mothers too young to care for them, god is.

    This is why I’m an atheist: I want my decisions to me mine and mine alone. I don’t use god as a reason to be good, and I don’t use god as an excuse for hurting other people.

  91. CleveDan says

    when the bible says two things that contradict each other……which one goes in the constitution?

  92. j a higginbotham says

    Are Rush and others against Huckabee because he is too religious or because he is too liberal in his social programs?

  93. cureholder says

    This is a great illustration of why I despise democracy. Apparently it is possible for even the majority of a 300-million-person group to be absolutely insane. And I don’t want them imposing their insanity on me or anyone else at “legitimized” gunpoint.

  94. bigjohn756 says

    #93, but the Democrats will take our guns away and then where will we be? I have some ammo, but, it’s no good if I haven’t got a gun. So, now who do I vote for?

  95. truth machine says

    And that’s what we need to do — to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view.

    If God is omnipotent, he can change his own fucking constitution.

  96. says

    #104: Can you name a single Democratic presidential candidate who’s running on a platform of significantly increased gun control? Kucinich, who’s generally to the left of the other candidates, only goes so far as supporting the assault weapons ban and addressing the “gun show loophole.” Neither are particularly controversial except as symbolic issues. As far as I can tell, the current Democratic platform is that existing federal controls are sufficient. Certainly, confiscation isn’t on anyone’s platform.

  97. mdowe says

    RE#98:

    The US is finally saved when Canada invades and liberates us.

    An amusing read I’m sure, but the only thing we Canadians could help you liberate is discounted electronics. If you dropped the entire might of the Canadian Armed Forces on Rhode Island, it probably wouldn’t even make mention in the local news as a ‘disturbance’.

  98. Crudely Wrott says

    A candidate named Huckabee
    Claims his Dog makes it easy to see
    A Republic that works,
    Is only for jerks.
    Quoth he, “Now, be ye all just like me!”

    Not in front of a national crowd,
    Just to a small group, he opined out loud,
    “If you want to feel cool
    And to wantonly drool
    Ignore what the godless can see.”

    By changing a system that gives each the powers
    To live well in all diverse bowers,
    He usurps our status,
    He rips a great flatus,
    And offends all the freedom that’s ours.

    Oh, tell me that I’m merely dreaming.
    And this is but vain, hollow scheming.
    But inside I fear
    That the day is now here
    To confront all such offensive preening.

    In a world where all things were just
    Huckabee’s Bible would have ere turned to dust.
    But as long as he’s able
    To foist off this fable
    I see liberty turning to rust.

    Should we simply not carelessly let
    Him impregnate this land with his get,
    We would surely be able
    To negate his fable,
    And say to each other, “Well met.”

    (Thanks to Cuttlefish for the example and the courage.)

  99. Severian says

    The vote in the nutty south scares me. So do the crackpots in my own state of Ohio. No matter who the republican nom is, though, I think I will start going to church this fall just so I can try to nail any of the several megachurches in the central Ohio states as they for all intents and purposes campaign for the republican.

  100. Crudely Wrott says

    Thought I’d like to give Huck the axe,
    I sure like his ideas on the tax.
    To bad that his baggage
    Gives truth to the adage,
    “A fool always goes to the max.”

    (Brand new adage. Just made it up for the rhyme. Feel free, use it any old time!)

  101. kdaddy says

    According to Mike Huckabee “The Second Amendment is primarily about tyranny and self-defense, not hunting. The Founding Fathers wanted us to be able to defend ourselves from our own government, if need be, and from all threats to our lives and property.”

    Hmmm…

  102. Autumn says

    I never thought I would say this, but…I hope Romney kicks Huckabee’s idiotic self righteous butt. Huckabee stands a chance in this “Christian” nation, but luckily, the same idiotic people who would vote for Huckabee would never vote for Romney because he is Mormon. I hate that it resorts to that, but it is what it is and I will take what I can get to ensure I don’t have to sit through this mess for another 4 years.

  103. Crudely Wrott says

    kdaddy, Hmmm indeed.

    This is not only a thing that scares the whey out of the left. It is also exactly what we should be telling them. Along with the right to make our own individual choices comes the chance that some fool might take such umbrage at our hubris as to try to force us to cease, or to steal our earned profits and self determination. Hmmm. Sound familiar? To me it sounds like dessicated old maids frowning at young love.

    I will resist, until I can’t insist anymore, the notion that I should not wield deadly force because someone else “might” (read “will”) use such force irresponsibly. It is not only the common punk ass thief that needs his ass shot full of rocksalt.

  104. Mena says

    mdowe (107):
    If you dropped the entire might of the Canadian Armed Forces on Rhode Island, it probably wouldn’t even make mention in the local news as a ‘disturbance’.

    Not to mention the difficulties getting the submarine force from the West Edmonton Mall into the Atlantic so they can help with the RI invasion? ;^)

  105. KevPod says

    At least the guy is telling us right up front that he intends to create a theocracy, one based on preposterous beliefs. Playing bass guitar doesn’t make that OK.

  106. ndt says

    Personally I try to find a silver lining in anything. If Huckabee wins and gets the constitution amended as he wants, I’ll find some attractive young woman and pay her father 50 shekels so she has to marry me (Deuteronomy 22:29-29). Anyone know what 50 shekels is in 2008 dollars?

  107. Eric Paulsen says

    If God is omnipotent, he can change his own fucking constitution. – Posted by: truth machine

    You remind me of a Sunday long ago when I was chopping wood because my father had promised me $40.00 if I completed a cord and my Grandmother asked me, since I was working on Sunday, what I was giving up to Jesus on the lords day? My Grandfather said with a mischievous wink of his eye “Aw hell Ruth, if Jesus wants some wood let him chop it.”

  108. ndt says

    It’s 100% clear we won’t be out of Iraq within 2 years. I think it’s a little unfair for the Democrats to have this crap piled on their laps.

    It will be their own fault if it’s piled in their laps. Congress has had three years to do something about Iraq but the Democratic leadership would rather suck up to Bush than open any investigations into the intelligence gathering or contractor corruption.

    A Democratic president could have us out of Iraq in two weeks if he was willing to stand up to the defense contractors and oil companies. I don’t see any of the Democratic candidates doing that, except possibly Edwards, and the media have already decided he’s not in the race anymore.

  109. Epikt says

    Kseniya:
    There may be a movement afoot to undo the worst of the Reagan revolution: that is, for traditional conservatives to take back the GOP from the religious right and the neocons.

    This has more than a whiff of desperation to it. The so-called “centrist” Republicans have been missing in action for the whole of the Bush presidency. If they’ve suddenly decided nonpartisanship is a good idea, it’s only because they’re faced with the credible prospect of having their asses handed to them in the next election.

    Let’s see some evidence that the “centrists” are serious. Let’s see them stand up to Bush on anything of consequence before we embrace them as long-lost brothers/sisters. Failing that, they’re simply trying to minimize the damage at the next election, and deserve to be treated with precisely the contempt they’ve historically thrown at, well, everybody who isn’t them.

  110. Jim says

    As a friend of mine said today, at least he’s honest about what he wants, even if it’s totally different from what I want. I’d rather have ten Huckabees who admit to being bonkers up front, than one who gets elected and we only find out afterwards.

  111. DrBadger says

    If Huckabee gets the nomination, he has a very good chance of getting elected (and me heading to Canada – or New Zealand). He’ll get 30% of the votes from the evangelicals and probably another 30% from people who don’t wanna vote for a woman or a black guy whose last name is kind of like Osama.

  112. Kseniya says

    Epikt, I agree. For Gingrich to step forward NOW and criticize the Republican Party (ie- the Neocons who have ruled it of late) for a “failure to govern” does smack of opportunism. Screw him, but bitter partisanship is poison to this country regardless of who’s in charge.

    Though don’t trust Gingrich as far as I can throw a beluga, if the times they are a changin’ I’m all for it. Anyway, that Gary Hart fellah was pretty interesting. He’s a bit before my time, I never knew much about him beyond a vague caricature of him as some kind of iconic granola-lefty.

  113. Kevin says

    “Congress has had three years to do something about Iraq ”

    waaa? Dems take over in January 07 and try about 6 times to set a deadline. Ok so they folded like a cheap suit when they were accused of abandoning the troops or whatever but it has not been 3 years.

    and they won’t be able to override a veto until we can get rid of some senators and enough to tell Joe Liar to take a hike.

    and it’ll take a year or at least 6 months to get the troops out. Thats’ why Clinton did ask if they were making plans. and then they crapped all over her.

    I hate this war. always did. day 1. even when people thought we were winning I was like oh crap this is only going to get worse. The only plan was to occupy the country so we could build military bases in the center of the middle east. In that respect its been a great success. oh and using up a lot of money on weapons.

    all according to plan. This admin never gave a rat’s ass about the Iraqis or the troops.

  114. says

    Huckabee: If you elect me, I’ll change the constitution to be more biblical! And I’ll put lemonade in the water fountains! And we’ll all have a weekly field trip to the waterslide! And oh yeah! There will be no more math homework!

    Thankfully, none of those elementary school president campaign promises were ever kept.

  115. noodlesoup says

    There seems to be some confusion on who the Republican frontrunner is. Just to be clear, states apportion delegates, not winner take all, and you capture the nomination by getting the majority of delegates. For Democrats, it is the majority of delegate + super-delegates (yes, Bill Clinton is a super-delegate).

    These are the current delegate counts:

    Rommey 42
    Huckabee 21
    McCain 19

    Clinton 190
    Obama 103
    Edwards 51

  116. Tim Leary's Ghost says

    “And I’ll put lemonade in the water fountains!”

    If Huck gets elected we’ll need to put LSD in the water fountains.

  117. Ichthyic says

    If Huck gets elected we’ll need to put LSD in the water fountains.

    i have to think there must already be, given that chimpy was reelected.

  118. says

    So let’s see…the bible was around long before the Constitution, and most (if not all) of the founding fathers had probably read it. One would think that if they had wanted the Constitution to be more biblical, they would have written it that way.

    But I guess Huck thinks he’s a better judge of what should be in the Constitution than our founding fathers. Such delusions of grandeur!

  119. Bacopa says

    I am an American. I will not abandon my country in a time when it needs me most. I will fight a hard as I can through normal political channels as long as these are available. If these become unavialable, I will participate in nonviolent resistance. Should nonviolent resistance options be exhausted, I will consider sabotage and other destructive acts that fall short of causing death or injury to my fellow citizens, however misguided they might be.

    Besides. I could never go to Canada. In spite of what you say about Vancouver, it’s just too damn cold. I live in Houston, where winter is just an off and on phenomenon between Thanksgiving and Valentines Day. Probably what Pacific Northwesterners say is “not all that cold” is probably akin to long stretches of weather at least as cold as it usually ever gets here. Can you grow bananas in British Columbia? You can here, though the trees get severly battered by a few light freezes each year. What about loquats and lychee, or oranges? Loquats flower in the fall and set fruit in the winter. Could Canadian bees ever get to the flowers? Would too many freezing nights in a row damage the fruits?

    No; If I left it would have to for someplace warm. Belize would be nice. New Caledonia doesn’t allow immigrants; you have to show up with a ticket out of there or they throw you in jail. Isn’t there at least someplace stable in west Africa.

  120. Michael James says

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  121. Catman says

    Huckleberry is a jerk, indeed, but I think his actual point has been missed. As a Baptist, he supports separation of Church and State, mostly. What he really wants is for Congress to submit to the states two Constitutional amendments: One restricting marriage to one man and one woman, and the other a ban on abortion. Others of his ilk have been trying for years, but fortunately even Republican Congresses have had better sense. The new and probably overwhelmingly Democratic Congress will certainly share that wisdom. Even if it didn’t, I don’t think 34 states would ratify either of them.

  122. Rick T. says

    The religiotards are always saying that this is a Christian nation so why the need to change the Constitution? Isn’t it already Christian? If it’s too secular then maybe this nation wasn’t founded as a Christian nation after all and they know they were lying all along?

    My takeoff on Crudely Wrott’s excellent work with a tip of the hat to biology.

    I laughed upon hearing of Huck’s flatus
    His butt and mouth earn equal status
    Is it oral or anal excretions?
    In this case it’s religious secretions
    From the body of Christ’s Golgi apparatus

    Is Huck the Golgi apparatus of Christ or the anus?

  123. says

    There is only one man running to SAVE our beloved Nation from tyranny and that man is, RON PAUL! I hope and PRAY that you WAKE UP!!!!!

    I think I just threw up a little in my mouth.

  124. CaptainVideo says

    You are taking much too negative a view of Huckleberry. He is actually useful because he scares the s**t out of the country club Republicans. Up to now the country club Republicans have had a good (for them) thing going with the fundamentalists. They have served as useful idiots for the country club Republicans, voting for their candidates, who then voted them big tax cuts and other programs that enriched them. With Huckleberry the jig is up for them. The fundamentalists have gotten tired of being used. The attempt by the country club Republicans to foist Guilani on them was just too much. Now they are supporting one of their own who wants to put their agenda first.

    It will actually be a good thing if Huckleberry wins some of the primaries because this will have a highly divisive effect on the Republican coalition and hopefully break it up once and for all.

  125. Steven Carr says

    Surely Americans will never vote for a man who intends to make the 10 Commandments into American law and make it a federal crime to commit adultery.

  126. Ichthyic says

    As a Baptist, he supports separation of Church and State, mostly.[??]

    no, the point wasn’t missed at all.

    in fact it appears rather, based on the rest of your post, that it was yourself that missed the point of what submitting constitution amendments means.

    if he thinks they are actually BAD ideas, as you seem to suggest, then he is doing a disservice to the office he is running for to lie about his motives, and instead should be trying to convince the religiobots (provided he isn’t one of them) to see why their fictional projections shouldn’t be the basis for laws governing this country.

    100.00 says he will not do this, and thus, it doesn’t really matter what his motivations are, the damage that would result would be the same as if he fully believed in the social fictions promoted by those proposed amendments.

    No, it’s far past time to stop playing games with the brainwashed creobots, and have public figures lay it out like it really is.

    if they won’t, and instead choose to promote these retarded ideologies, they deserve to be smacked in the polls.

  127. CalGeorge says

    Another intolerant Christian wanting to mess with the Constitution because he doesn’t like the idea of sticking his penis up another man’s asshole.

    Go fuck yourself, Huckabee.

  128. Michael James says

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  129. says

    I hope and pray that Michael James finds the piece of gum that’s causing his Caps Lock key to stick.

    However, the rational part of me notices that other than a few extra commas, the cogent structure and grammar of his post belies his hysteria.

    I call parody.

    Well DONE Micheal buty ou nneed TO put a few SPEELING mistkaes, in You’re posts if your want too creat a CONVINCING parodi ALSO you shoold yell osme INSULTS at random places- STUPID! as if your cant conbtain your RAGE any longer!!!!!

  130. says

    READ IT, and THEN tell me it is a forgery! Have the guts to READ IT!

    Maybe I spoke too soon. We may have an actual live one on our hands here.

    He’s getting too close to spilling the beans. I’d better get on the horn with my Mossad contacts right away.

    Micheal, you’re not paranoid. We really are out to get you.

  131. Ichthyic says

    Look up the Protocols of the Elders of Zion!

    is that anything like the Wedge document?

    :p

  132. says

    See, Brownian, I was sort of in the opposite order myself. I had the “this could be parody” on the first RON PAUL comment. But when he PRAISED the protocols, my parody detector went off a bit more.

  133. Ole says

    Crap. I just moved to the US from Europe. If Huckabee continues like this for much longer I’ll have to move back. What a demented country where people actually are willing to support such a disaster of a human being.

  134. says

    It’s hard to tell, isn’t it? My former roommate (and former friend previous to that) ended up becoming a Protocols-praising born again.

    I wish I could say he was a parody.

  135. Michael James says

    brwnn,m, Hy y twstd lttl cnt, y lttl jwsh fg-whr! G rd yr Tlmd, y knw, tht “hlst f bks” tht stts tht t s jst .K t rp nd mrdr “thr yr ld gntl grl”! Y knw, tht bk tht stts tht “Jss Chrst,(Ysh), s n HLL, blng n ht xcrmnt”! Lk p th Tlmd, ppl! S wth yr wn ys hw prvrtd nd SCK ths ppl rlly R! Ths r th scks wh wnt t rl vr Y! Stdy th Sncn dtn f th Tlmd nd lrn wht ths nhmn bsts hv n str fr Y nd yr FMLY!

  136. says

    Now the spelling errors come out.

    Sorry to disappoint you Mikey (Hebrew name, ain’t it?) but I’m not Jewish.

    Make no mistake though. I am out to get hate-mongering retards like you.

    Anyway, it’s time for me to hit the dusty trail.

    I’ll eviscerate you in the morning, moron, provided you haven’t been tossed in the dungeon for demonstrating the lower limits of human cognition.

  137. Michael James says

    Brwnn, Hy, bfr y tck yrslf n fr th nght, rd yr prvrtd smt-bk, th tlmd! nd dnt frgt t jck-ff t th drty vsns t brngs y! Y pl f qvrng znst flth! Y pdphlc FG!

  138. Ichthyic says

    …talk about raving lunatics!

    uh, you don’t happen to be a Huckleberry supporter too, MJ?

  139. Michael James says

    m nt frd f NYTHNG, fg-by! lk frwrd t th dy whn t s “pn-ssn” n prvrts lk y! Wht GLRS fckng dy tht wll b!

  140. says

    How stupid does one have to be to come to a site primarily populated with atheists and try to freak everyone out with comments about Jesus boiling in hell, anyway?

    I mean, I suppose that would be something, if any of us here believed in hell. Or an afterlife. Or any of the crap in any religious text.

    But we don’t.

  141. says

    I am not afraid of ANYTHING, fag-boy!

    Except for the world-wide Jewish conspiracy, otherwise you wouldn’t be ranting here, now would you, you paranoid little twat.

    Do try to keep the things you say consistent in your own head, fuckwit.

    And next time the big kids in the locker room come by to give you a swirly, try standing up for yourself. It’ll do wonders for your misdirected rage, you little shit.

    Open season, right.

    I’ve worked as a bouncer, and I know exactly how fast big-talkers like you drop.

  142. Ichthyic says

    I look forward to the day when it is “open-season” on perverts like you! What a GLORIOUS fucking day that will be!

    time to notify homeland security – there’s another psychopath on the loose.

    uh, hey, MJ, you do realize we can’t help but laugh at you, right?

    I’m laughing at you… right… now.

    are veins popping out on your forehead yet?

  143. Tim Leary's Ghost says

    “If Huck gets elected we’ll need to put LSD in the water fountains.
    i have to think there must already be,”

    After reading the crazed posts made by the racist Paultard troll, I believe you may be right! Do they still make Qualudes?

  144. Tim Leary's Ghost says

    uh,oh… wait a minute… ya know I think I actually supported this Paul kook when I was alive. But years off of drugs in the afterlife has made me see the light.
    Put my book “Start Your Own Religion” in every school. THAT should make things interesting!

  145. Uncle Sam says

    Mike Huckabee: Keep your hands where I can see them and slowly back away from my Constitution!

  146. Uncle Sam says

    Michael James: I don’t think your rhetorical approach is going to win many votes for Ron Paul here.

  147. Janine says

    Hey, Browmian, OM, I see you made a new friend. Please do not play too roughly with him and chase him away. His is the type of intelligence and insight that is so sorely lacking here.

    Oh, Mikey boy, one question to ask.(I will not even ask about all of the statements about Jews. That is the product of centuries of hate and paranoia.) Just how do you know if Brownian is a “fag-boy”? I do not recall him ever bringing it up. Hey, you know, I am a dyke. What don’t you direct some of your ineffectual venom my way. It might make me laugh to see what kind of verbal vomit you come up with.

    But it also a lot of fun watching Brownian, MAJeff and Ichthyic play monkey in the middle with you. Alone, any of them could pin you. Not that you would admit it.

    On a related topic, who has the more crazed followers, Huckabee or Paul?

  148. ndt says

    Kevin: you’re right. I stand corrected, the Dems have only had one year to do something about Iraq.

  149. Sam Centipedro says

    Interesting that the USA is (I think) the only country where its constitution document is revered as holy writ? People in other countries worry more about what happens rather than bits of paper (part of the reason behind the mental gap that’s wider than the sea — ever noticed how oh-so-weird alien characters from another galaxy in Hollywood sci-fi films have identifiably American behaviour patterns?).

  150. Aussie Lawyer says

    OK folks, for those who want to emigrate to New “Zulland”, you’d better learn the accent. (Now I’d rather you moved here, to Oz, but it’s ok, NZ is great too.)

    Repeat after me (and you can say it to the Hucksterfuck)

    I’ve told you sux to tin times I’ll not be treated like some old beg of fush and chups.

    You’ll also need some cultural knowledge, the real meaning of seeing mobs of sheep on clifftops, (ha ha Kiwi) and like us in Oz, understand the nuances of rugby union football–without 6″ of padding I might add–and guess what, in no time at all, you’ll be an honorary Aussie (Kiwi’s have automatic rights of permanent residency here and vice versa under our “Closer Economic” agreements.)

    Oh, and you’ll need to read up on “Footrot Flats” (author Murray Ball) to complete the cultural stuff.

  151. ndt says

    But to follow up on my last post, the statement “it will take six months to a year to get out of Iraq” just shows you have bought into Washington group think. All it would take for a president to get us out of Iraq is order the troops to leave. OUr agreement with the Iraq government authorizes us to be there but doesn’t require it. The UN Security Council resolution authorizing our presence doesn’t require it (and since when have we cared about violating Security Council resolutions?). Clinton, and to a lesser extent Obama, have bought into the egregious lies that American troops are necessary to preserving Iraqi security and that the US has security interests in Iraq. Once we disregard that nonsense, the only constraints on withdrawing from Iraq are how many ships and cargo planes we have to transport soldiers and vehicles out of there.

  152. Uncle Sam says

    Janine:
    It seems like the Paulbots are even more unhinged. They seem to be the intellectual heirs apparant of the John Birchers.

  153. truth machine says

    “I am not afraid of ANYTHING, fag-boy!”

    Except for the world-wide Jewish conspiracy, otherwise you wouldn’t be ranting here, now would you, you paranoid little twat.

    Pwned!

  154. Moses says

    Anyone know what 50 shekels is in 2008 dollars?

    Posted by: ndt | January 15, 2008 10:27 PM

    Assuming 14 gram shekels, about $350 in today’s silver market. If they are 8-gram shekels, about 60% of that.

  155. Moses says

    I see we had another lovely Ron Paul supporter. It’s funny how he attracts those odious twats.

    More amazing, to me, is that they think they even have a chance. Paul is getting no traction with the Republicans and is, basically, the Ralph Nader of the right. Won’t win. Can’t win. But can siphon off the vote from a candidate and monkey wrench an election.

  156. Nemo says

    Interesting that the USA is (I think) the only country where its constitution document is revered as holy writ? People in other countries worry more about what happens rather than bits of paper

    Well Sam, I see you’d fit right into the Bush administration.

    The reason the Constitution is revered in America is because America is the Constitution. Other countries are based on ethnicity, language, and shared history; America is based on ideas. We’re a nation of immigrants, our history doesn’t go back all that far, and even our language is subject to change. What binds us together, in a very real sense, is the Constitution.

  157. Moses says

    Going by today’s exchange rate, 50 shekels = US$13.48

    A bargain!

    Posted by: Stephen D. Moore | January 16, 2008 1:38 AM

    I don’t think we’d be going with the Israeli New Shequel. I think we’d have to go with the Old Testament Shekel which is, actually, a measure of weight of the silver content of a coin and derived from a measure of weight originally called a shekel and was just over 8 grams (about 3/10 of an ounce though it evolved into many standardized weights over time).

    That’d make the bride price about $330. Still a bargain. A young, decently bred steer ready for the feedlot is worth significantly more than that with 500lb-600lb animals going for $112.50/hundred weight.

  158. Peter Ashby says

    Holbach, you can’t have Stewart Island. For a start much of it is conservation land and so in public ownership. Also the electrickery supply is a bit problematic down there. In addition there is a bit of a national angst at the moment about rich foreigners buying up our coastal idylls so either hurry up or give up or put up with hostile locals.

    In addition we have this thing called the Queen’s chain, a chain’s width beside all major watercourses and above high tide mark is owned by the Crown and anyone can go there if they do not cross private land to get there. So there is no such thing as a private beach. I can walk to it along the shore or land from a boat and picnic there and there is nothing you can do about it. So your coastal idyll could have any sort of riff raff picnicking at the bottom of the garden.

    Besides the cities are nice places to live too, cosmopolitan, fairly vibrant with barristas and Asian food to burn along with pubs, theatre, live music etc. If you go to Kiwiland and don’t interact with the natives you will not be welcome, such people have had their boats/cars/houses torched. Joke about buying Stewart Island and the locals might turn frosty too we take the public ownership of our natural bits seriously. You have to to have fully one third of your landmass as parks or reserves.

  159. says

    I have to say, your Mad Mike Fuck-up-bee looks damn’ scary from this side of The Pond! Good luck keeping The Monster out of the White House. We don’t want that kind of mentality spreading over here!

  160. Tulse says

    As an aside, there sure seem to be a lot of us Canucks here. Is that because proportionally more Canadians are “godless liberals” like our host?

  161. says

    Regarding Iowa and Huckabee; the Iowa Rupublican Party used to be fairly respectable in its position on the political continuum; in its day, it gave the nation a raft of liberal and moderate Republicans in the House, Senate, and governorship — including Sen. Chuck Grassley, who is currently undertaking the new investigations into abuse of tax-exemption by televangelicals. Our other ‘senator-for-life’ of course is liberal Democrat Tom Harkin — a squinty look at these two together will parallax well the real spectrum of Iowa political leanings.

    But the GOP, since the end of Reagan’s administration, has been taken over (that’s the entirely correct phrase) by the christian evengelicals themselves, and although these activist members are small in number (compared to the common voters who identify themselves here as “Republican”) they are a driving force — and most of the true ‘Iowa-style’ Republicans stayed home caucus night, conceding the race to the rabid ‘Movement Republicans’ from the fundamentalist wing. Iowa is not the only electorally moderate-to-liberal state in which the activist base of the GOP has been co-opted, nor the only moderate state in which strong support for Huckabee might be evidenced on the Republican side.

    Be very afraid.

  162. holbach says

    Peter Ashby at #182 Yes, I am well aware of all the
    restrictions associated with Stewart Island, and expressed
    that desire before those restrictions were set in place.
    A beautiful island nevertheless, and I am glad that those
    strictures are in place to preserve that wonderful island.
    Many years ago I had a pen pal in Invercargill who would
    send me stuff on New Zealand, particularly of South Island
    and Stewart Island. She moved to Canada many years ago.
    I maintained my interest in New Zealand all these years
    and am well aware of all the points you noted. I still
    would emigrate if only my country deteriorates to the
    state of unlivability. I only hope New Zealand does not
    sink into a like state. A magical place.

  163. Just a Tim says

    Mike Huckabee is an inspired and inspiring leader. He is certainly best for America in this time of need. I am reminded of another leader of such faith, who said:

    “The mercy of the Lord slowly returns to us again. And in this hour we sink to our knees and beseech our almighty God that he may bless us, that He may give us the strength to carry on the struggle for the freedom, the future, the honor, and the peace of our people. So help us God.”

    “The Ten Commandments are a code of living to which there’s no refutation. These precepts correspond to irrefragable needs of the human soul.”

    — Adolf Hitler

  164. Peter Ashby says

    New Zealand doesn’t seem likely to go down the religion route. We turned down the chance to have an established state religion back in the 19thC for one thing. For another we have and have had various overtly religious parties who, even under MMP, have done not at all well at all. Considering you only need 5% of the national vote for a seat the bar is not high. The only member of that lobby holds a personal seat.

    We had a bit of a show in recent years from an organisation styling themselves Destiny Church (obviously easy to parody) with a self styled ‘bishop’ at its head who is busy enriching himself. He formed a party and predicted a theocracy imminently. His blackshirted followers marched through Central Wellington to much ridicule. He seems to have sunk without trace. Even within xianity we have about as much variety as you do so squaring that lot will not be easy.

    Oh yes, the old guard leader of one of the Christian parties is currently serving time for serious kiddie fiddling further demeaning the image of such people in the national consciousness.

    Those of a non heterosexual nature can also tie a legal knot in NZ. They did it very cleverly, basically reforming the whole of the civil marriage system at the same time as opening it up. This makes it much harder for a future govt to unpick it.

    My wife and i are desperate to go back, we just have to figure out how to earn a crust if we do. Our youngest is already back there at university in the arms of our extended families and is loving it to bits.

  165. says

    Movement cons like John Cole are actually glad that the Huckster, who they hate as much as we do, has shot to prominence.

    Why? Because they know that if he gets the nomination, it means the end of the Fundies’ decades-long dominance.

    If Huckabee gets the nomination, the GOP crashes and burns so badly that the Dems could run Mike Gravel and win — especially if Broderella’s Unity08 wet dream happens and Mike Bloomberg’s vanity trumps his common sense. (As Atrios mentioned the other day, the intent of “Unity08” was to ensure that no Democrat, especially not one like John Edwards, won the White House this year; unfortunately for the Unity08 people, SUSA polls show that they consistently take more votes from Republicans than Democrats. Ooooopsie!)

  166. says

    Damn, I went to bed before the “fag boy” comments started a-flying. (I’M the fagboy around here motherfucker.)

    I seriously haven’t seen Protocols-type folks on sites like this (other than Orcinus–but Niewert draws a special brand of crazies).

  167. Ric says

    I see a lot of people flinging around the word “twat” as if it is a bad thing. It is most decidely a good thing. MJ clearly is a complete idiot, but could we please call him something else? ;)

  168. owen says

    Dan Savage has gotten me using “Scrotum”: It’s ugly and can’t take a beating (where as women’s genitalia is beautiful and not only takes a pounding, but can also squeeze a kid out).
    And Huckabee is a total scrotum.

  169. Scott says

    Folks, you don’t have to worry about Huck winning the Republican nomination. McCain has too much support, and Romney has too much money.

    You have to worry about him being chosen as a running mate.

    I predict that McCain will win the Republican nomination, and he will choose Huckabee as a running mate. It’s really a perfect ticket for him. He’s popular among indpendants and “moderate” republicans (whatever that is) and Huckabee will bring him the religious nuts.

    I actually think this is the only way that McCain can beat the Democrats. He’ll paint them as liberal and soft on defense, while Huck will use his religious magic to get out the religious nut vote. They’ll win the election based on fear and high religious nut turnout. It will be a typical republican victory.

    So, like many of you, I am preparing to flee as well. But not because I’m concerned he’ll become president. Besides, I’m not as scared of him as I am of the MILLIONS AND MILLIONS of people who would vote for him.

    Is there any legitimate reason to pretend to like this country any more?

  170. True Bob says

    And Huckabee is a total scrotum.

    Hey, a scrotum still has a function. Huckabee is more like smegma.

  171. MartinM says

    Of course, when people talk about “God’s standards,” they almost invariably mean “my standards,” which coincidentally happen to be shared by the speaker’s God of choice. What Huckabee’s really saying here is “I’m better than you heathens, and when I have power, I’ll make sure you know it.”

  172. MaxCat says

    This is exactly what we deserve for allowing (via our not voicing the truth about the fanatic superstition called religion) to flourish and continue on, way past the time that it should have been relished to the junk heap. Just look to the east for your personal view of what awaits America if we continue down the religion road.

    Many have seen the truth of religion for what it is and yet it remains such a powerful force in our society, indeed in all of mans societies. Hundreds of years have passed since man has known the truth that he is a creation of the earth through evolution, and yet so many men do not have the courage or strength to stand for what we truly are.
    Man has been created from all that has been through millions and millions of years of evolution, the sum of which is far greater than any imaginary god could have envisioned.
    And then Man created his god.

  173. CalGeorge says

    “…to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards…”

    This opens up all sorts of possibilities.

    The twenty-eighth amendment:

    Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist within the United States except as a punishment for the unbelieving, who belong in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

    Oh, yeah. Get some of that into the Constitution.

  174. True Bob says

    woohoo, rawstory.com links to this thread, from their front page (down at “Blogs”).

  175. True Bob says

    woohoo, rawstory.com links to this thread, from their front page (down at “Blogs”).

  176. Tulse says

    Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist within the United States except as a punishment for the unbelieving

    No, God is cool with Christians being slaves:

    Christians who are slaves should give their masters full respect so that the name of God and his teaching will not be shamed. [1 Timothy 6]

    Oh yeah, and foreigners:

    However, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you. You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. [Leviticus 25]

    Boy, that would sure solve the illegal immigration problem!

    And of course, there are always daughters:

    When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are. If she does not please the man who bought her, he may allow her to be bought back again. [Exodus 21]

    I think a Godly Constitution would just have to do away with the Thirteenth Amendment as an abomination contrary to the Word of the Lord.

  177. JAG says

    This is soooo scary. Taking up a religion with a violent heritage including: the inquisition, crooked popes, destruction of all major civilizations in the Americas, Hitler. I’m going to move to have California cecede as a nation.

  178. WCG says

    Two points:

    First, to all those who think Huckabee doesn’t have a chance, Americans voted for Bush not because they agreed with his positions, but because they liked him. Huckabee can be a very likable candidate, and he’s a minister (i.e. a nice guy by definition for most Americans). He scares me to death. Half of the electorate really, really HATES Hillary Clinton. No, it’s not justified, but if it came down to a contest between Clinton and Huckabee, I wouldn’t bet my life on Clinton. (Obama would, of course, be a different story, since people like him, too.)

    Second, there’s no way I’m emigrating if Huckabee wins. I won’t give up that easily. They’ll have to burn me at the stake if they want to keep me from fighting for civil rights and the strict separation of church and state. And I hope they gag on the smoke!

  179. David Marjanović, OM says

    What’s up with you people? I think Huckabee is surprisingly honest. After all, the usual approach of the Religious Wrong is to claim the Constitution already makes the USA a Christian nation, and to regard the idea of amending it like the idea of amending the Bible (while, of course, having clearly read neither). See comments 125 and 172.

    The Medicis convinced one of the Popes to change a phrase in the Bible, “Thou shalt not suffer a poisoner to live” to “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” some time during the 15th Century, in order to preserve the family business of poisoning rival families and seizing their properties.

    This would have left, say, the Orthodox version untouched, so I think you’re wrong.

    lots of jobs in China if you want to work for the world’s largest economy instead.

    At present, China has 200 million more-or-less unemployed…

    my approach has been to learn Dutch (which fell behind the dissertation) in order to get back to my roots, and stay…but they’ll be under water before I actually finish my dissertation and learn the language.

    Just switch to German then. Mostly the same, only with more grammar. :-}

    #93, but the Democrats will take our guns away and then where will we be? I have some ammo, but, it’s no good if I haven’t got a gun. So, now who do I vote for?

    Buy a bulletproof vest, troll. What good is a gun if the other guy draws faster?

    Look up the Protocols of the Elders of Zion!
    is that anything like the Wedge document?

    ROTFL!!! Day saved. :-D

    If Huck gets elected we’ll need to put LSD in the water fountains.
    i have to think there must already be, given that chimpy was reelected.

    Was he? I mean, was he really? Or did Kenneth Blackwell elect him alone?

  180. David Marjanović, OM says

    What’s up with you people? I think Huckabee is surprisingly honest. After all, the usual approach of the Religious Wrong is to claim the Constitution already makes the USA a Christian nation, and to regard the idea of amending it like the idea of amending the Bible (while, of course, having clearly read neither). See comments 125 and 172.

    The Medicis convinced one of the Popes to change a phrase in the Bible, “Thou shalt not suffer a poisoner to live” to “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” some time during the 15th Century, in order to preserve the family business of poisoning rival families and seizing their properties.

    This would have left, say, the Orthodox version untouched, so I think you’re wrong.

    lots of jobs in China if you want to work for the world’s largest economy instead.

    At present, China has 200 million more-or-less unemployed…

    my approach has been to learn Dutch (which fell behind the dissertation) in order to get back to my roots, and stay…but they’ll be under water before I actually finish my dissertation and learn the language.

    Just switch to German then. Mostly the same, only with more grammar. :-}

    #93, but the Democrats will take our guns away and then where will we be? I have some ammo, but, it’s no good if I haven’t got a gun. So, now who do I vote for?

    Buy a bulletproof vest, troll. What good is a gun if the other guy draws faster?

    Look up the Protocols of the Elders of Zion!
    is that anything like the Wedge document?

    ROTFL!!! Day saved. :-D

    If Huck gets elected we’ll need to put LSD in the water fountains.
    i have to think there must already be, given that chimpy was reelected.

    Was he? I mean, was he really? Or did Kenneth Blackwell elect him alone?

  181. says

    Just switch to German then. Mostly the same, only with more grammar. :-}

    I have a year of college German (for the music degree).

    Dutch I can’t seem to get my mouth around.

  182. David Marjanović, OM says

    Is there any legitimate reason to pretend to like this country any more?

    The Morrison and the Hell Creek Fms?

  183. David Marjanović, OM says

    Is there any legitimate reason to pretend to like this country any more?

    The Morrison and the Hell Creek Fms?

  184. says

    Is there any legitimate reason to pretend to like this country any more?

    New England Clam Chowder and good southern barbecue.

  185. Kimpatsu says

    @#74: Don’t consider moving to Japan right now; this is the most overtly racist government we’ve seen in years. Wait until we can make the pendulum swing back by making all the racist bastards swing from the end of a rope.
    None of which helps with your theocratic problems, of course.

  186. Kseniya says

    irrefragable

    *blink*

    What’s the German word for “irrefragable”?

    *

    Huckabee = Scrotum (ugly, can’t take a beating, completely nuts on the inside?)

  187. Timcol says

    This is indeed scary. I’m not sure what was worse – the fact that Huckabee said it, or the nonchalent respone of Joe Scarborough and company. Nobody seemed all that bothered that Huckabee essentially intends to replace or “enhance” the Constitution with teachings from a book of questionable provenance, based on tribal warfare and primitive mythology.

    Other than voting, I’ve always been a bystander when it comes to political issues, but if Huckebee actually gets nominated, this is the one thing that could get me off my butt and start being involved.

    And where are the Democrats speaking against this and upholding the importance of state-church separation in American life? Nope, they are too busy sniping at each other…

  188. says

    Natasha Yar-Routh @#5:

    If biblical law was implemented I would be under threat of a death sentence because of who I am.

    A woman?
    An apostate?
    A cross-dresser?
    A Midianite?
    An insolent child?
    An adulterer?
    Someone who works on the weekend?

    Sorry, but you’ll have to be a bit more specific than “who I am”.

  189. Catman says

    Janine asks “On a related topic, who has the more crazed followers, Huckabee or Paul?”

    Huckleberry has more followers, but Paul’s are more crazed.

  190. David Tyler says

    It is a bit scary when we have candidates taken seriously who make Hugo Chavez look normal. Thinking is definately out of fashion for this election.

  191. Dull Blade says

    In a way, this could be good for Atheism. Either Huckabee will flame out and knock the religious right down a peg. Or he wins the nomination and the other side (thinking people) will have no choice but to oppose him based on his talibangelical beliefs. At least it brings a discussion up where it makes sense to get an athiest’s point of view.

    Of course if he wins the Whitehouse, we’re all fucked.

  192. Pierce R. Butler says

    So the US Constitution, as we now have it, is un-Biblical.

    Have Huckabee’s hyperchristian fellow-travelers tried to reconcile this with their “this is and always has been a Christian Nation(tm)!!!” world-view?

    The rest of us should be buying and wearing surplus combat helmets to protect ourselves from all those exploding heads.

  193. Nurse Ingrid says

    I must say I find it scary that so many commenters seem to be rooting for Huckabee — and even voting for him in primaries– on the grounds that it could help the Democrats.

    This is really irresponsible, because we’ve seen it backfire before. Who remembers those lefty buttons from the sixties: “Vote for Nixon — speed up the Revolution!” Yeah, that worked. I remember hearing similar comments when Reagan was running too.

    Can you really doubt that Huckabee could get elected, especially after seeing G.W. Bush win in 2004? (the 2000 “win” I don’t accept, and ’04 is questionable too, but even with the problems in Ohio and elsewhere, it shouldn’t have been close enough for that to matter. He should have been easily defeated, if the electorate is as savvy as you all are giving them credit for…)

    So please be careful with these tactics. It is a definite possibility that Huck could win.

    (and thanks to those who requested that we not use “twat” as an insult…much appreciated.)

  194. negentropyeater says

    I don’t think Huckabee is a big danger for the 2008 election. Not after 8 years of Bush. There is obviously going to be a Backlash. I am very confident that Clinton or Obama will win very comfortably over any republican candidate.

    No, the big risk is, what will happen in 2012 or 2016 ? Will the forces of religious fundamentalism, particularly Evangelicals, that have so evidently been carefully manipulated by the neo-cons since Bush the first die out, or on the contrary, get stronger during the next term ? In that case, a Huckabee (who is still young) could have much bigger chances in 2012 or 2016 than what he has now.

    Finding a definitive cure against Christian religious fundamentalism will be one of the most important tasks of the next administration. And that can only be achieved if America becomes a truly secular nation (like France for example, I hope Americans have not forgotten the historical ties that link these two nations, the real meaning of Enlightenment that so evidently inspired the founding fathers).

    It’s time this country finally comes to term with this.
    And the first symbolic step will have be to get rid of “In God we trust”.

  195. zer0 says

    Irrefragable in German is something like: “unumstößlich”

    I’d put my money on it being unbestreitbar in common usage. Especially since the spelling reform of the last decade removing the ettsett from everyday German usage.

  196. Mrs. Pilgrim says

    For the record–Most fundamentalist Christians aren’t terribly impressed with Mr. Huckabee, either.

    We figure there’s this person coming who’s going to try to fuse a world government with some religion or other. We stand to die in droves over that, if it happens. Not that we’re particularly worried about what happens AFTER we die, but seriously, who wants to be decapitated or starved to death?

    So for what it’s worth, we’re not particularly enthused about a church-based State, or a State-based church, either.

    And we’re not excited about Rick Warren having an inroad to the federal government.

  197. says

    What if we instead stop using ‘twat’ to refer to female genitalia?

    We really don’t need a million variations on anatomical terms (there are no synonyms for the ethmoid bone, yet civilisation as we know it has yet to collapse), but in a good ol’ fashioned calling down one needs all the ammo one can get her or his hands on.

  198. Agent Orange says

    “Something I’ve been wondering about, though… It’s 100% clear we won’t be out of Iraq within 2 years. I think it’s a little unfair for the Democrats to have this crap piled on their laps. The Republicans got us into this, they should get us out of it. Any Democrat will be faced with ugly, uglier or ugliest options; why should they?”

    Like Viet Nam?

  199. Kimberly Clark says

    My goodness, what a lot of hand wringing and threats to leave the country.

    Must be an election year again.

  200. Anon says

    Inadvertent fun on CNBC just now. They ran a clip of Huck talking about his first trip to bible school. He did not go for the study, he says, but because his sister told him they’d give him all the kool-aid and cookies he could eat.

    He says the only problem is, they didn’t think he could drink more than one cup of kool-aid, or eat more than two cookies. He showed them they were wrong.

    A past master at drinking the kool-aid…

  201. bluebird says

    What a brilliant version of “Jabberhucky”, and what an appropriate subject for a nonsense verse to feed on!

    Thank you Mothra! You outgrabe with the best!

    Now do one on Huckleberry Finnished!

  202. Joe Blow says

    And that’s what we need to do — to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view.

    As if he’ll be able to do this all by himself. It’s pretty easy to come up with a list of states whose legislatures would never pass such constitutional amendments. Just for starters, you’ve got New York, California, Massachusets, Minnesota, both Dakotas, Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, Vermont, Illinois, New Mexico and Michigan. Throw in the MOR states like Colorado and Arizona, plus the fact that a two-thirds majority would be needed in the Senate and the House of Representatives, and the whole thing becomes a dead letter.

    Cluckleberry is simply pandering to his most rabid followers (rather ironic given his portrayal as being “not a typical politician”), who are gullible enough to swallow the diarrhea spewing from his mouth.

  203. Ichthyic says

    More amazing, to me, is that they think they even have a chance. Paul is getting no traction with the Republicans and is, basically, the Ralph Nader of the right. Won’t win. Can’t win. But can siphon off the vote from a candidate and monkey wrench an election.

    uh, Paul would have to run as an independent to siphon votes from any of the other parties.

    best he can accomplish is to help mess up the rethuglican primary, which isn’t too hard at this point, considering that in the 4 primaries so far, 3 were won by different candidates.

  204. David says

    What was it that Ron Paul said about Huckabee and that commercial he ran??? I think it was; When fascism comes to America it will come wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.

  205. me says

    Sorry to have to inform you, but Americans have already jumped off the cliff.

    We will hit the ground probably this year. Next year, i.e., after the election, if the repubs get their way. Then, ker-SPLAT! And that will be the end of the USA as a great nation.

  206. Nemo says

    New Zealand doesn’t seem likely to go down the religion route. We turned down the chance to have an established state religion back in the 19thC for one thing.

    And the U.S.A. turned it down in the 18th, and was, as far as I know, the first country in the world to do so. So what does that prove?

  207. Anon says

    Overheard on MSNBC within the past 15 minutes: some talking head republican apologist said… (close paraphrase, anyway)… “Which is worse–a christian wanting the nation to continue to uphold the traditional values of marriage and life, or a believer in evolution, survival of the fittest, designing a health care system?”

    They went there. My head is going to explode.

    And because it was a sound-bite factory, the batshit talking head got the last word.

    I do hope somebody has this one recorded.

  208. says

    Anon,

    email the folks over at Crooks and Liars about it. They’re generally pretty good at getting/putting those sorts of things up

  209. M. Pampelmousse says

    Wow, anything that pisses off you retards so much can only be for the good! I’ll definitely be voting for Mr Huckabee if I get the chance.

  210. says

    spoken like a true Huckleberry supporter.
    can we quote you on that?

    Well, they did forget the, “You all deserve to burn in hell! Jesus saves!”

  211. Sikozu Shanu says

    Huckabee is a real nutjob. Why should we discard contemporary made-up views and replace them with made-up views from the Iron Age?

    Surely we can find some justification for our ideas, but invoking a book from the Iron Age doesn’t help.

    What amazes me is not so much that he said it, but that the media is too delicate and maybe afraid to tackle this idiocy.

  212. Ian Gould says

    Most of the peoples surrounding the ancient Jews worshiped the same God as they did – they just did it in a different fashion and attached various lesser Gods around him.

    Add in the fact that US exceptionalism is at least as important a tenet in these people’s religion as anything Jesus said and Mexicans and Canadians are fair game.

    Hell, I’m waiting for the first Republican to advocate life without parole as the penalty for illegal immigration. That way you get the benefits of cheap labor without having to let them vote or supply any social services.

    Then you just need to reinstate those elements of the old Negro codes allowing the state to hire felons out to private citizens for life for a one-off fee. (Hire because actually selling human beings is a little bit too honest.)

  213. Ichthyic says

    Big Government God-tard to the “rescue”!!!!

    he’s Bible Dude from the old Mad TV show.

  214. Ichthyic says

    Add in the fact that US exceptionalism is at least as important a tenet in these people’s religion as anything

    Manifest Destiny!

    This land is your land, now it’s my land…

    this land was made for just me.

  215. Peter Ashby says

    New Zealand doesn’t seem likely to go down the religion route. We turned down the chance to have an established state religion back in the 19thC for one thing.

    And the U.S.A. turned it down in the 18th, and was, as far as I know, the first country in the world to do so. So what does that prove?

    It was in response to a question as to how likely NZ is to go down the religion route. What it proves is a different thing from the US I think as the colonisation processes were different, and not just time shifted. These were ultra loyalist Crown colonies and there was an expectation that the Anglican church would be established just like it was Back Home. It failed partly because we had our share of dissenting Protestant denominations seeking freer air to breathe. Only we never had old style Puritans, just Calvinist Scots who had transformed it into a work ethic only who were as opposed to establishment as the Methodists or the Baptists or the Catholics.

    Perhaps because we never had a revolution to tie the rugged individualism to. The Maori Land Wars were about Queen and Country and Loyalty and were fairly brief. We cut our international teeth fighting for the Empire in South Africa and at Gallipoli with our mates the Ockers. That is a long tradition of continuing the English idea that religion is a private matter. It is considered the hight of gaucheness to talk religion down the pub. You cannot build a theocratic revolution in such a society if fewer than 1 in 6 is in church on a given Sunday to be harangued.

    Oh yes, and we had the British tradition of proper satire and irreverance that came too late for your Republic and is part of why you guys come across as po-faced and stiff when it comes to said Republic. You revere it a mite too much.

    Also perhaps you missed the bit where I specifically acknowledged that we have theocratic wingnuts too, only they are electorally utterly insignificant?

  216. truth machine says

    I must say I find it scary that so many commenters seem to be rooting for Huckabee — and even voting for him in primaries– on the grounds that it could help the Democrats.

    This is really irresponsible, because we’ve seen it backfire before. Who remembers those lefty buttons from the sixties: “Vote for Nixon — speed up the Revolution!” Yeah, that worked. I remember hearing similar comments when Reagan was running too.

    No, what’s irresponsible is this sort of dishonest, blatantly strawman argument. Voting for Huckabee in the primaries has nothing to do with speeding up the revolution; it’s not intended to make him president, but to make him the nominee, on the assumption that he is more beatable than the other Republicans, or less dangerous. I do consider Huckabee far more beatable than McCain, largely because of his saying this sort of thing, and because the Republican establishment doesn’t want him.

  217. Ian Gould says

    “And the U.S.A. turned it down in the 18th, and was, as far as I know, the first country in the world to do so. So what does that prove?”

    No actually you were beaten to it by the Swiss, the Dutch, the Chinese, the Japanese; the Mughals and a bunch of other Asian and African nations.

  218. Ian Gould says

    Like New Zealand, Australia has been mercifully free of religious fundamentalists with any sort of political clout.

    There have been repeated attempts to replicate the American religious right here and they’ve all fallen on their face – usually to public derision.

    Maybe it’s because in Australia our experience with established religion is a lot more recent and has tended to innoculate us against it.

  219. Peter Ashby says

    Ian Gould I think as a I said in #246 that it is deeper than that. Street proselytisers do badly in the UK, Aus and NZ (don’t know about Canada) because religion is a private matter. Something we owe to the Anglicans btw who used the idea to paper over cracks among their congregations, plus ca change. Religion is not a subject fit for the pub and as you say you will be derided if you try to raise it. Those societies have copied the English who, because of establishment, have compartmentalised their lives, with religion ‘over there’ in its proper time and place. That they have done it without established churches is interesting in and of itself. It will be ‘interesting’ to see if this cultural agreement is stable over time.

  220. Just a Tim says

    I’d put my money on {unumstößlich} being
    unbestreitbar in common usage. Especially
    since the spelling reform of the last decade
    removing the ettsett from everyday German
    usage.

    I don’t have the original quote in German, but it was spoken well over 50 years ago. I assume romanized German would write it “unumstoesslich.”

  221. Andrew Dodds says

    Truth Machine –

    Given that Huckerbee is, to put is mildly, stark raving mad, helping to get him nominated is not exactly a safe course of action.

    Because – let’s face it – if he does get the nomination, the republican party and media machine will get fully behind him with all the brain dead partisanship they can muster. And if Clinton or Obama turn out to have something really nasty in the closet, or just get plain swiftboated, then you’ve just help elect him..

    Not that the other candidates are particularly appealing..

  222. Steve LaBonne says

    They’re not appealing at all, but they do divide into stark raving mad (Huckleberry, Mayor 9/11) and merely godawful (the rest). I wouldn’t want to run even a very slim chance of electing either of the two outright lunatics.

  223. says

    I rarely vote for democrats (or Bushite republicans), as I am not a statist, but I have to agree that Huckabee is a fuckwit. I would have to seriously consider voting Dem to keep such a theocrat out of office. None of the Republicans look particularly good to me, but he’s easily the worst. You think we’ve got a war on science now? Huckabee is the surge!

  224. says

    I only have room for 2 refugees here in the Canadian capital when January 2009 rolls around and Huckabee enters the oval office. You better sign up quickly.

  225. says

    Street proselytisers do badly in the UK, Aus and NZ (don’t know about Canada) because religion is a private matter.

    I can really only speak for urban Ontario (I understand things are different some places out West), but that’s about right. I can count on my fingers the number of conversations about religion I’ve had with colleagues in my entire career (27 years).

  226. Ian McGarrett says

    Run to Canada? Hardly the patriotic solution: to desert your country when it needs you. (A sentiment I do not extend to the draft dodgers of the 60’s because there was a case where their country had plainly deserted them.) Perhaps a better solution would be secession. Undo the damage wrought by Lincoln.

  227. says

    A sentiment I do not extend to the draft dodgers of the 60’s because there was a case where their country had plainly deserted them.

    As a queer, lefty, atheist, my country doesn’t really want me around. I’ve never been adopted to be deserted.

  228. spurge says

    “As a queer, lefty, atheist, my country doesn’t really want me around.”

    As a citizen of our country I for one want you around MAjeff.

    We need all the help we can get to stem the fundie tide.

  229. says

    Bear in mind that this is simply a continuation of the policies of Reagan. (Not blogwhoring, NOT blogwhoring!) It’s interesting to see the fiscally conservative/libertarian side of the Republican Party twitch and gibber at the thought of supporting Huckabee.

    What exactly did you expect, gentlemen? You courted these people!

    Note on Canada: we do have a fundie in office right now, but as we have four and a half major political parties in our nation, and he’s running a minority government, religion doesn’t get talked about much by politicos themselves.

    That, plus you figure at least half of our Prime Ministers have been Roman Catholic, so religion is generally avoided as a subject.

    Just let’s not talk about language though, okay? 8)

  230. Nemo says

    No actually you were beaten to it by the Swiss, the Dutch, the Chinese, the Japanese; the Mughals and a bunch of other Asian and African nations.

    I’m puzzled by your list. In Japan, the Emperor was officially a god until after World War II. China was similar. Of Switzerland, Wikipedia tells me that although it has “no official state religion”, “A 1980 initiative calling for the complete separation of church and state was clearly rejected, with only 21.1% voting in support.”

    A tolerant state is not the same as a secular state.

  231. Ian Gould says

    “In Japan, the Emperor was officially a god until after World War II.”

    Yes but he was a God according to Taoism (Son of Heaven); Confucianism; Buddhism and Shinto.

    State Shinto was only introduced after the Meiji Restoration.

    Before that, Emperors were freely referred to as both Sons of Heaven (a Chinese title derived from Confucianism) and descendants of the Shinto Goddess Amaterasu; members of the Imperial family regularly entered Buddhist monastic orders and were declared Boddhisatavas after their death.

    In traditional China, people could and did practice all the above-mentioned religions plus Taoism and Islam. It took a certain amount of head-scratching for Chinese Muslims to explain why worshipping the Emperor was consistent with Islam but they managed it well enough that several of them reached the post of Prime Minister.

  232. truth machine says

    Given that Huckerbee is, to put is mildly, stark raving mad, helping to get him nominated is not exactly a safe course of action.

    Another strawman; I didn’t say it was a safe course of action. All I said was that the comparison between voting for Huckabee in the primaries and voting for Nixon to hasten the revolution is illegitimate, and that I consider Huckabee to be the most beatable of the candidates.

    If you’re looking for safe courses of action, you’re out of luck; you live in a world of risk, and you need to weigh risks against each other.

  233. David Marjanović, OM says

    Especially since the spelling reform of the last decade removing the ettsett from everyday German usage.

    Wrong. It has merely introduced logic: now it’s only used behind long vowels, not every time anything other than a (written) vowel follows. Maße “measures” and Masse “mass” are not pronounced the same and are still not spelled the same.

    Besides, there aren’t many people who really call it SZ. Instead, it’s called scharfes S “sharp S”.

  234. David Marjanović, OM says

    Especially since the spelling reform of the last decade removing the ettsett from everyday German usage.

    Wrong. It has merely introduced logic: now it’s only used behind long vowels, not every time anything other than a (written) vowel follows. Maße “measures” and Masse “mass” are not pronounced the same and are still not spelled the same.

    Besides, there aren’t many people who really call it SZ. Instead, it’s called scharfes S “sharp S”.

  235. says

    Well someone had to say it: Woo hoo, Huckabee lost in one of the states where he had about his best chance to win, SC.

    Meaning that he’s likely out as a serious contender, as he should be. I really can’t see how anyone thinks that boosting Huck to increase Democrats’ chances in a single election is really worth giving that yahoo such a grand podium from which to spout theocratic nonsense.

    If winning’s everything to a person, maybe so, but if elevating secular discourse above that of the theocrat’s propaganda is one’s goal, the sooner Huck goes, the better. Having any major US power in the clutch of the theocrats is inimical to liberal democracy, since the theocrats may indeed win at some point, and the party which simply expects the theocrats to lose has no real incentive or threat to cause it to improve its message and programs.

    Glen D
    http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7

  236. says

    Well someone had to say it: Woo hoo, Huckabee lost in one of the states where he had about his best chance to win, SC.

    And Willard even lost to DeadFred.

  237. haze hanson says

    I don’t care who you elect this November but don’t fuck this one up for 4-8 years with a Bush sound alike. Canada has been a friend …who lately has not been invited to the party except by Bush and who wants to play spin the bottle with that guy. Get it right this time because although we have the space in Canada for you poor babies ….we don’t have enough ,booze,drugs,health care,football,walmarts and this is hard but have to say it no britiny or paris live here. from a quiet canadian .