Steve and I would like to invite all of our zonebot friends to a experience a fresh idea - Your Spin Zone.

ASZ has been online in various iterations for nearly 6 years. We’ve written thousands of blogposts, and hundreds of thousands of words during that time period. One issue with ASZ is that there hasn’t been a way to get you - our friends and community - more involved.

So, about a month ago, I started working on a new approach. Let’s call it “progressive social networking”. A lot of research was conducted to find the best platform for the site, and I started developing yourspinzone.ning.com. There’s a lot of functionality on the beta of Your Spin Zone that finally enables the ASZ community to get fully involved - write a blog post, start a special interest group, upload photos and videos, point community members toward important media stories, add an event in your local community, play games, and much more.

The vision is that Your Spin Zone becomes a networking site for a progressive, sustainable lifestyle. After all, there’s more to living than just politics.

We’d be thrilled if you’d take a moment and check out the beta, join up, and start contributing!

Over the past couple of years, my outrage meter has spiked up to 10 on many occasions. Today, though, it broke. Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-Mn) sponsored a teabagger rally in Washington today. Almost the entire GOP house and senate leadership was in attendance, and spoke at the rally. Not one of them denounced this banner:

Here’s a closeup:

(If you can’t quite make out the sign, it reads: “National Socialist Healthcare, Dachau Germany - 1945)

I don’t often ask anyone to make a phone call. Today I am. Get on the phone and ask Bohener, Cantor, and Bachmann’s office why they didn’t denounce this type of display? They can’t pretend they didn’t see it - it was front and center near the stage and podium. (I should also note that I am not Jewish, but House Minority Whip Eric Cantor is — which is why the outrage meter broke.)

Maybe, just maybe, this shit is finally going to backfire on them.

Michele Bachmann:

Washington Office
107 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-2331
Fax: (202) 225-6475

John Boehner:

Washington, D.C. Office
1011 Longworth H.O.B.
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-6205
Fax: (202) 225-0704 Toll-free number

Eric Cantor:

329 Cannon Building
Washington, DC 20515
P: 202.225-2815
F: 202.225-0011

MSG is staging a debate between Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Yes, it is called “The Hottest Ticket in Political History.” February 28, 2010. Be there!

I’m thinking this must be rigged or something. Going in Dubya has to be a huge underdog, no? After all, only one of these guys advocated torture, invaded a country on false information that his Vice President can’t recall, advocated civil rights violations, etc. Bill doesn’t even take a back seat to Dubya’s strength, folksiness. If this is a true debate, it will be over before it starts. Yup, gotta be rigged. I’m betting Karl Rove will come brandishing a folding chair or something.

The only question today after the Republican Party successfully engineered the loss of the New York 23rd House seat for the first time in 100 years is how much destruction in the GOP will follow. Surely the blame for this debacle for the GOP needs to be laid at the feet of the crazies on the extreme right, the Palins and Limbaughs, as the New York Daily News notes. It must also be laid at the feet of Glenn Beck, to whom the extremist right wing candidate Doug Hoffman owes fealty. Shall we throw in the extremist Club for Growth, the organization calling for fiscal responsibility that nonetheless wasted over $1MM in supporting Hoffman’s candidacy? Sure, why not.

The expected happened before the polls even closed with the Hoffman camp blaming ACORN for the defeat, despite zero evidence. They even claimed the sabotage of a campaign worker’s car, and had no comment when later it was found by Plattsburgh police that the worker had run over a bottle and blown his own tires. Whiney excuses are located near the soul of the Republican Party, right near the hate gene. And let’s not quibble that Doug Hoffman was a member of the Conservative Party. The Assistant Chair of the GOP, Michael Steele, was not ambiguous in celebrating and backing Doug Hoffman’s candidacy.

As Chris Kelly of Real Time with Bill Maher notes, this was a stunning loss for the teabaggers, for the 9/12ers, for Limbaugh and Giuliani and Fred Thompson and a whole raft of right wing crazies.

Doug Hoffman lost his election last night. He was supported by a plurality of talk radio entertainers, and a majority of former half-term governors of Alaska, but it wasn’t enough. An obscure quirk of constitutional law says you also need votes from voters. This is the same cruel hurdle that tripped up three of his other biggest supporters, Gary Bauer, Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani, all of whom ran for President of the United States, but failed the “getting votes” test, because everyone hates their guts.

With their help, and a million dollars from the Club for Growth, Doug Hoffman lost a part of New York State that had voted Republican since the best way to get from Albany to Buffalo was by canal.

Not bad for a first try.

Doug Hoffman didn’t just have money to burn and the staunch support of Facebooking frost bunnies, Fox News and the Ghosts of Vanity Campaigns Past. He also had coots on the ground; an army of volunteers from the tea bag movement, the 9/11 Project and the fanatic anti-choice fringe. The problem was, they could shout at the polling places as loud as they wanted, and they did, but they didn’t live there, so they weren’t allowed to vote.

There’s probably a lesson to that. Something about politics being local.

And beyond that, about the people who do live there resenting being told what to do.

Rush Limbaugh predicted that Hoffman would win. In fact, Hoffman’s victory was such a foregone conclusion yesterday that Rush had already moved on to mocking Democrats spinning their loss.

Oh, I will mourn the vote in Maine today, that good Americans have had their right to marry taken away. That will change for the good over time, though. I won’t mourn a bit for the governors in Virginia and New Jersey. Virginia reliably goes to the party other than that holding the White House and has for years. Big deal. And John Corzine was in real trouble in a state that’s in real trouble. Chris Christie will be a one-term Governor, though don’t be surprised if he tries to run for President in 2012, or is chosen as a GOP Veep nominee. The guy’s ego is as massive as his build.

The real question mourning here should be among sane Republicans. There was an insurrection in the NY 23rd, and because of that insurrection from the extremists on the GOP right, they lost. I don’t think for a minute that the Limbaughs and the Palins and the teabaggers will consider that they are done, though. Wait until Iowa in 2012 and watch the support for a GOP whackjob. Watch the moderates continue to flee what has become a party of extremists. It’ll be fun for those of us who are progressive, these next few years, but for my friends who are sane Republicans, this one is going to hurt for a long, long time.

Glenn Stanton is a Research Fellow at Focus on the Family, that loving place once run by Dr. James “Daddy” Dobson (Dobson retired as their radio voice just yesterday), and was brought in by the Philadelphia Inquirer today, the first of November, to debate the gay marriage issue. (Gay marriage was supported in the Inquirer by David Boies, who argued using constitutional principles.) Stanton’s argument rests on the stance that children are owed an upbringing by their “natural” parents, one man and one woman. Stanton not only comes out against gay marriage and adoption, but in favor of children being raised by their birth parents. In making such a statement, here on the first day of National Adoption Awareness Month, Glenn Stanton offends heterosexual, homosexual and single adoptive parents, he offends all the children who love their adoptive parents, and he offends me.

I am particularly offended by the following line Mr. Stanton uses as “proof” that “natural” parents are the only kind worthy of parenting. The line can be found in Stanton’s diatribe against gay marriage in the Philadelphia Inquirer (that Stanton wanders from his subject to talk about adoption is the shame of the Inquirer, who know no editorial duidelines when it comes to right wing frothers, if also the lack of discipline of Stanton as a thinker):

I often tell my 15-year-old daughter as I drop her at school that she looks lovely today. She beams. Would these words have the same power if spoken by a mother’s lesbian partner? Any daughter knows the power of a father’s affirmation and the pain of its absence.

No, this is neither evidence about parenting nor about gay and lesbian parents. This is simply an example of Glenn Stanton crowing about his own fatherhood, using his 15 year old daughter to say a little something about his manhood. But this is also a narrow-minded statement from Stanton, one where he can’t imagine a child and how that child bonds with an adoptive parent, regardless of the gender. I’ve seen daughters preen for fathers who happen to be gay, I’ve seen daughters swim laps, straining to the utmost, for mothers who are lesbian. And if you saw my Jack this weekend, struggling to learn to walk, beaming when he got it and looking to me, his adoptive father, for emotional support when he struggled, there’s simply not a chance you could conclude anything about “natural” parents. No, I don’t have to dredge up the latest tragedy of a child destroyed by his or her birth parents to prove Glenn Stanton utterly wrong, nor does anyone. One just needs experience to know that adoptive parents, whether gay, lesbian or heterosexual, are fine parents kids to whom children fervently and lovingly cling.

Glenn Stanton closes his column by noting that no adoptive parent has the constitutional right to deny a child his or her “natural parent.” This is a paltry attempt to argue constitutional issues in a diatribe devoted to emotion, and not just in comparison to a real constitutional scholar such as David Boies. But Stanton’s attempt at constitutional discussion is on a topic that has no place in our constitution and is actually a straw man argument. Nobody is trying to deny any child his or her birth parent. No, there is no conspiracy going on here, Glenn Stanton. Adoption in this country only happens in cases where birth parents work towards an adoption plan that solves their needs and the needs of the child. What a stupid straw man this is. Stanton earlier had used the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child to underpin this stupid argument, though his gloss of the UN Declaration hides the fact that his is a warped interpretation. Oh yes, the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child does say that it is optimum that birth parents raise children, but the bottom line in those rights is about food, shelter, and loving caretakers. Stanton does what the UN does not, throwing out the good of adoption while presenting the ideal of birth parenting as the only acceptable option.

Perhaps what is most ludicrous about Glenn Stanton’s article is that he is a representative of Focus on the Family, extremist right wing organization that it is, and his diatribe against all things adoption is against one of the principles Focus uses as a plank in the abortion wars. They claim, at least, to favor adoption as a way to reduce the incidence of abortion. Search for the word “Adoption” on the Focus on Family webs site and you get hundred of hits. Without going into the notion of how this simply won’t work, it’s important to note that Focus on the Family strongly supports that which Glenn Stanton rails against, adoption. In his argument, adoptive children are disabled because they don’t have “natural parents,” after all.

As my final word on this subject, it is one more instance where the Philadelphia Inquirer fails its readers. Instead of putting up a scholar who argues against gay marriage on constitutional grounds, it chose instead to publish a man who argues from the particular, sprinkles in straw men and stupid rhetorical questions, and actually disparages the tens of thousands of adoptive parents in this country. Glenn Stanton proves himself to be just another garden variety right wing whackjob.

The right wing crackpots are at it again. This time they are blaming The Golden Girls for creating a generation of homosexual men out of unsuspecting boys. No, I’m not making this up. Bea Arthur, Betty White, Estelle Geddes and Rue McClanahan were agents of the Homosexual Agenda before gay marriage was even a tinkerbell in Ru Paul’s eye. This according to a simply marvelous article on Christwire.org entitled “The Golden Girls: How One TV Show Turned A Generation Of American Boys Into Homosexuals.” I’m thinking Stephenson Billings, a fine name for a gay porn star, needs to get a life. Here’s a sample from the article:

It was only to be expected that our lonely boys exposed to these conflicted times would succumb to the nagging Golden Girls agenda. These were slender, unathletic children who were left out of the fun militarism of the Reagan years. Skyrocketing divorce rates ruined their faith in traditional relationships. Rock groups like Duran Duran and Styx encouraged big hair and overactive libidos. The show lit a match which enflamed their intense physical urges. With the utmost cruelty and immorality, The Golden Girls seized upon this opportunity to cross the hormonal wires of America’s lost generation.

The results were disastrous. Our horny, lonely boys sought out intimate comforts with likeminded Golden Girls addicts who didn’t mind each other’s theatrical voices and touch-feely hand gestures. Together, these clusters of awkward teens and twentysomethings bonded over their favorite episodes and characters, mimicking the voices and gowns of their tv friends. When the rush of cheesecake and gabfests wore thin, these hairless boys needed a harder thrill. They were so desperate for the next big trend they turned to same-sex sexual experimentation. What woman would have them now, anyway? This led to the worse excesses of early homosexual visibility– the most enormous of drag queens, the dirtiest of leather daddies, the most enticing of twinkie boys, androgyny, overeating, public sex and the birth of “camp.”

OK, Jonathan Turley rightly points to a bit of discussion as to whether Christwire.org is satire. If so, they catch oodles of right wing commenters who just eat this stuff up. And who am I to say Golden Girls isn’t the cause of so much homosexuality? Whether satire or earnest, or some combination thereof by Stephenson Billings, erstwhile antique soda bottle collector, this is a funny article.

FoxNews is seen as the most ideological of all the news networks. This is from the Pew Research Center for People and the Press. But there is some news here. There are actually some people who think FoxNews swings liberal. It’s about the same number of people who give favorable ratings to Sarah Palin. Go figure.

Hat tip to Taegan Goddard.

Rep. Dave Reichart, (R-WAAAAH) has already launched an investigation into AARP, or so he says in an interview with TPM. Reichart announced the attacks on AARP with Mike Pence (R-IN), the Chair of the House Republican Caucus, as seen here in an article from Talking Points Memo. And the GOP itself is targeting the group on the official GOP web site. This looks to be the next stage in the GOP war against healthcare reform. I’m amazed, and so appalled that I have joined AARP this morning.

The last target of the GOP was ACORN, and some aspiring right wing nutcases set up a sting against the organization involving prostitutes. It is unclear what undercover sting will be prepetrated against AARP, but such an action is all but certain with screeching right wing voices like Michelle Malkin on the case. Perhaps there will be a Maalox scandal, or some sort of Viagra angle? Personally, I’m thinking old people in porn will be the ticket to some low level Republicans dreams of making it with Rush Limbaugh and the right wing screechers. Hey, maybe Chuck Grassley will stop whining about how Obama is going to kill grandma when he takes up the attack on the largest organization in the country representing older people. It could happen, but it could also be that Chuck Grassley is comfortable with his cognitive dissonance.

Why would the GOP attack AARP, when they’ve already alienated so many blocs of voters, such as young people, women, African Americans, Latinos, etc.? Perhaps it is AARP’s support of bipartisan solutions that has the GOP all in an uproar. Cooperation just isn’t attractive to the GOP, as they’ve shown for at least the last 20 years.

Stay tuned. This could be good.

This post is crossposted to the new social network and progressive blogging site Your Spin Zone, a place where you can write your own opinions about your progressive vision of the world. Please come join us.

Let’s say that you’re a woman, and you’re a die hard fan of the home team. And let’s further stipulate that you’re not a season ticket holder, and you don’t have hundreds of dollars to buy a pair of tickets for yourself and your spouse, even for the cheap seats at the local stadium. What to do, what to do? How about placing an advertisement on Craig’s List, and hope that a sympathetic person who has a couple of spare tickets will help you out?

So, you’re writing the ad. After all, you’re the assistant director of communications at a local medical facility, and like any good ad copy writer, you know one thing for sure: “sexy” sells, and gets attention (particularly on Craig’s List). You settle on the following, and hit the submit button:

DESPERATE BLONDE NEEDS WS TIX!
Diehard Phillies fan - gorgeous tall buxom blonde - in desperate need of two World Series Tickets. Price negotiable. I’m the creative type! Maybe we can help each other!

Flirtatious? Perhaps. Solicitation? Hardly. But that’s what a vice cop in Bensalem, Pa. apparently thought when he read Susan Finkelstein’s advertisement in the ticket section of Philadelphia Craig’s List. The cop responded to the ad, and set up a meeting with Finkelstein at a local bar. And busted her for prostitution.

Allegedly, Finkelstein crossed some type of arbitrary line, and offered (or implied) that she’d be willing to perform sex acts on the cop and his brother in exchange for two tickets. She was cuffed, booked, and her mug shot is now popping up all over the web.

Several thoughts come to mind, the easiest (and path of least resistance in writing about this story) being that women have been trading sex for favors since, well, about the time that Eve offered Adam an apple. Another thought is that perhaps she was naive in assuming that she could post an ad on Craig’s List, and that an altruistic guy would respond, show up at a bar, chat her up for a bit, and hand over two tickets to a World Series game just because she’s a sexy goddess.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer story, the vice cop was assigned to a unit that trolls internet forums for “crime”, and the officer “pursued the Craigslist ad to protect minors”. It would seem to be fairly obvious that Finkelstein wasn’t pursuing a 16 year old boy, if indeed she was willing to trade access to her body for access to a super box. With all of the true crime happening in Philly, it’s hard to believe that police would set up a sting operation on Ms. Finkelstein on the assumption that she might be looking to do a Mrs. Robinson on an underage male. But they did.

In any case, let’s hope that police decide to drop the charges. There’s little to be gained in prosecuting case, and most certainly Ms. Finkelstein is not a prostitute. The notoriety she’s gained from the publicity around her actions almost automatically guarantees that she’ll lose her job, and (perhaps most importantly to her) that someone who supports her will come up with two tickets to the game.

Play ball, and let’s be careful out there!

The latest NBC/WSJ poll is in, and in a three way race for popularity between Sarah Palin, the Republican Party and Nancy Pelosi, Sarah Palin wins by a nose over Pelosi. Of course, and it should be noted that Palin was running against a very weak field. Still, this might mean good things for the divine Ms. Sarah in 2012. She’s going to take advantage by becoming the featured speaker at the Iowa Family Council’s annual fundraising dinner, according to The Iowa Republican. Let’s hope for Palin’s sake that she shows for the event.

That’s the problem with Palin at the moment, as delineated by conservative John Fund in the Wall Street Journal in late August:

If so, one of her first priorities will have to be repairing the reputation she is developing as a no-show. Last week, organizers for an Alaska initiative that would require that parents be notified before any child got an abortion reported that Ms. Palin had agreed to appear at their kickoff event but now wouldn’t show. Ms. Palin’s staff insists she wasn’t invited, and that she was out of the state.

Normally, such incidents can be put down to a “she-said, they said” kind of dispute. But the Alaska no-show marked the fourth time in recent months that an anticipated Palin speech had fallen through because her staff insisted she had never confirmed it.

Iowa is a place where the wingnut conservativesw are strong, so Sarah getting her foot in the door there is important. Hey, we can only hope this leads to her getting the Presidential nomination in 2012. She’ll be easy for Obama to beat, after all. Despite him being an active target for hate and trying to put across a controversial healthcare plan, Obama’s favorable numbers are double those of the Quitta from Wasilla.

Hat tip goes to Taegan Goddard.