It's The Hypocrisy, stupid.

At the very core of my outrage over this whole birth control/catholic bishop thing is the audacity a local priest had to demand first amendment rights for the church when agents of the catholic church are actively seeking to legislate against others' first amendment rights. Freedom of religion also means freedom from religion. Jesus did not legislate free will. I've found no where in the Gospel where he demanded that that the local governments of the towns he visited re-write their laws according to his word. So, bishops of the United States, if you are demanding your first amendment right, how can you, in good faith, seek to deny others theirs?

Part two: if you are a religious organization that takes federal money, you must obey federal law. You have the choice to take that money. No one is forcing you.

It's the hypocrisy, stupid.

This is EXACTLY what is wrong with politics today

I saw this picture going around Facebook and I just couldn't let it go. I totally understand that there are different points of view on politics and government, and I stand by the fact that open, INFORMED, debate is vital to the continuing prosperity of our country. But this? This is poison. And it is offensive on so many levels. Every citizen of the United States of America should be offended by this. Here are my thoughts, in no particular order:

1) I'm not racist and I voted for Obama. Does that mean I'm off the hook for voting for "someone else?" 

2) Am I not a Concerned Citizen of America if my vote for Obama had nothing to do with race? 

3) Is this funny if I flip it around? If you voted for McCain in 2008 to prove you're a racist, please vote for someone else (not sure if this would be Romney/Gingrich or Obama) to prove you're an idiot.  See that's not funny. That's offensive. 

When we start throwing around words like racist and idiot, we demean the whole system. This is a cop out for people who don't want to look at facts and have a rational debate. This is a ploy. Let's talk about issues and policy and get off the playground. 

WHAT FREE MARKET?!?

Again, I am at a loss on where to start. What I hear the GOP candidates saying is : get government out of the way and let the free market heal the economy. And then: Don't you dare cut federal subsidies to oil/farmers/whatever-industry-is-in-my-state! What I heard in Nov 2010: Let's cut spending, and get people back to work! What I saw in the next 8 months: an unprecedented attack on abortion services that will end up costing the states millions and no job creation bills!

Why is it Obama's fault that the unemployment rate is so high? He extended those tax cuts that Republicans said would create jobs. He signed the stimulus that all those republicans hated until they got the big checks and cut ribbons at stimulus funded facilities.

How is it ok to defund Head Start, but not insist that GE and Exxon pay some, ANY, taxes. Sure our corporate tax rate is high, but how many actually pay that? And did those CEO's that "deserve" their absurd pay use any government infrastructure while building their business? Were they completely ethical and exploitation-free in their employment practices?

I'd really like to hear from the conservative point of view here. Total respect for other points of view.

republican input part 2

Also need help understanding how one can both advocate for the free market and for subsidies.

Republican input needed

I need help understanding a few things:
1) if tax cuts create jobs, where are the jobs being created by all those big companies that are paying no taxes or getting a tax refund?

2) what does reducing the deficit have to do with job creation? I haven't yet seen anyone make this correlation in actual facts.