I Challenge Rick Santorum To A Debate.

 I want this copy and pasted and spread to the four corners of the internet.  Much like the high school sophomore from New Jersey, Amy Meyers, challenged Michele Bachmann to a debate on United States history, I am hereby issuing a similar challenge to Rick Santorum.  Here we go. 

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Dear Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum,

     My name is Shaun Robinson.  I am a college student in central Maine, studying to be a high school English teacher.  Due to your status as one of the last four candidates seeking the GOP nomination, your voice, opinions, and knowledge of American history are heard not just by fellow Americans, but by people around the world.  And as your opinions become increasingly venemous, so too does the world's opinion of us.  This is not okay.  We are not all like you, nor do we all think like you.

     Your lack of historical knowledge is fine - it's your problem.  But your penchant for spreading it as if it's truth is not.  It is ignorant.  It is appalling.  It is insulting.  And because you have made no effort to learn the truth, you have shown that you are far too close-minded to be the President of the United States of America.

     Mr. Santorum, your inability to present basic historical, scientific, and even religious facts - facts that middle school students learn - has led me to submit the following challenge, pitting my twenty-two years of life experience against your fifty-three years and your college education:

     I, Shaun Robinson, do hereby challenge presidential candidate Rick Santorum to a public debate on Modern Science, American History, and World Religion.  

     I hope to see you soon here in Maine for our debate.  

Sincerely,

     Shaun Robinson 

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As I said, please spread this all over the internet.  Contact the media if you know how, and get in touch with me via email at asanebreak@gmail.com with any questions you might have.  I really do hope that, unlike Representative Bachmann, Mr. Santorum accepts this challenge.

More From Rick Santorum.

I am so tired of writing about Rick Santorum.  But as the days pass us by, Santorum has realized that the only way that he can stay in the spotlight is to say outrageous nonsense to his base of scared, old, white people.  And, unfortunately, I'm a sucker for outrageous nonsense, no matter who the speaker is.  It's pretty much what this blog is about.  I do take issue with the fact that I only seem to be writing about Rick Santorum anymore, so much so that I've been considering changing the name to Rick Santorum Is A Mouth-Breathing Fuck, And Here Is Why.  Ugh, but then I lose brand recognition.  Oh, well.

At any rate, I'm not going to go over what he said in detail.  It's all over the internet.  Suffice it to say that the "liberal 'gotcha' media" pounced on Santorum over something he said about a famous speech by President John F. Kennedy back in 1960.  Here's a brief video outlining that:

Santorum on Church-State Separation

David Koch: Philanthropist By Day, Batman Villain By Night.

I know I said that I would be talking about the Koch Brothers, but it's much easier to talk primarily about David Koch.  His brother, Charles, is like-minded when it comes to politics, and I figured a long post about two old white guys would start to sound dreadfully bland - "white," if you will.  Then again, most of my political posts are about white guys.

At any rate, as I was reading about David Koch, I found that he reminded me of Harvey Dent.  Hell, maybe they're related.  Harvey Dent is, of course, a purely fictional character that also goes by the name of "Two-Face."  Just ask Batman.  Reading through David's biography is like reading the journal of a schizophrenic.  On one day he's saving lives, and on the next day he's blowing up cities.   It created a bit of a conundrum for me because, unlike Roger Ailes and Pat Robertson, David Koch has actually done good things.  He gives millions to charities and organizations as well as to art and education programs.  You know that show Nova on PBS?  He donated $7 million to it!

If David Koch's history of giving stopped right there, I'd label him a bona-fide philanthropist and call this post finished.  Unfortunately, it doesn't.  You get the feeling after reading through the full list of his donations that he really only gives to charity in order to save face.  That sounds awful, I know, but hear me out.

Is Submission A Form Of Respect In A Christian Marriage?

The Iowa Straw Poll Debate came and went with nothing really turning up that hasn't been heard before.  The candidates stuck to their typical reality-bending, non-factual arguments (some of which have literally been debunked publicly by experts and analysts on their respective subjects) and, as always, their fearmongering.  But the award for "best shitty answer on-the-fly" has to go to Congresswoman Bachmann.  For some back story on her answer, let's turn to this quick, two minute video.  Pay really close attention from the 30 second mark on.  

"From there, my husband said, 'Now you need to go get a post-doctorate degree in tax law'.  Tax law?  I hate taxes.  Why should I go and do something like that?  But the Lord says, 'Be submissive.'  Wives, you are to be submissive to your husband... I was going to be faithful to what God was calling me to do through my husband."

Michele Bachmann Has A Hard Time Telling Fact From Fiction.

"Case in point: This week's Newsweek cover - which seems to have captured

Minnesota Congresswoman, Michele Bachmann, at the exact moment

she sees the 'Amazing Robalto' turn his hat into a dove.  'That's amazing. When

do we start the photo shoot?'" -Jon Stewart

In light of the Republican debate in Iowa tonight, I thought I'd take a moment to examine Representative Bachmann, seen above, and some of her recent statements as rated by Politifact.  If you haven't been to Politifact, I highly recommend checking it out.  Not only does it fact check statements made by politicians, it also has a counter that shows how President Obama is doing on his campaign promises (142 promises kept, 41 compromised, 208 in the works, 72 stalled, and 43 broken - check it out for the specifics), and another showing pledges made by the G.O.P. during their ramp up to the 2010 elections (7 kept, 1 compromise, 1 broken, 5 stalled, 11 in the works, and 32 not rated).

Fun stuff aside, you can also look at individual politicians for things they said, or things said about them. Okay, well, that's fun too, especially when looking at Michele Bachmann, who has an interesting track record for not knowing what she's talking about.  This will be, by the way, a rather long post that focuses on the pure insanity of a presidential candidate.  

Of her 29 statements on Politifact, only 3 of them are either mostly true, or true.  The other 26 range from  half true to Politifact's damning "pants on fire" rating.  Let's look at some examples.

Shocking News! Palin Criticizes President Obama!

You smug little troll, you.

In a rather interesting (albeit unsurprising) turn of events, Palin took to the internet on Monday the 8th to prove once again that she is the ultimate troller.  I attempted to visit her Facebook page for more concrete information but, to be perfectly honest, my mind couldn't bear all of the ignorant, racist word-crap that it was taking in.  Within seconds, I felt as though I had just gazed upon the Ark of the Covenant's disgusting, unholy twin.  

Luckily, I was able to find the filter button that showed only Palin's posts before my face melted.  In a "note" that she titled "Conquering the Storm", Sarah Palin bragged about how she saw the downgrade in the U.S.'s credit rating coming, and that the whole Obama-Reid-Pelosi spending binge got us to this point.  She then went on to talk about how we need to get off foreign oil and create more jobs here.  With alternative energy perhaps?  Nope!  She wants to drill here in America (forgetting all about the BP gulf disaster), and like a Natural Gas executive talking point, she listed all the reasons why natural gas is good and clean and blah blah blah.

"The Undefeated"... Unfortunately.

A lot of people that support Sarah Palin like to argue that those that do not support her are sexist, ignorant liberals that believe nothing but what the media tells them.  I am, however, under the belief that it isn't sexism or ignorance that guides us anti-Palinists; rather, it's the strong smell of bullshit and the overwhelming sense of stupidity that radiates from the emptiness of her skull that cause us to keep our distance.  

The fact that she is a woman means nothing.  I could care less if she were androgynous, transgender, male, or even a hermaphrodite.  Sex aside, what remains a constant is her blinding lack of knowledge and her idiotic, misinformed statements that pander to the right.  Liberals don't like Palin not because she is a woman, but because it is sickeningly obvious that she has absolutely no fucking clue what she is talking about.  If you want examples, you don't have to look far.  Palin's now infamous story of Paul Revere was the laughing stock of the American History departments in schools country-wide for weeks. She claims that she has more experience running government than the incumbent president, yet her resume consists of a half term as governor, some city council work, and a "correspondent/pundit" for Fox News.  Oh, shit, someone hire that woman immediately.  She sounds like she could really fix the economy with all that pundit training.  

Demopocalypse - Part IV...and V... and VI...and VII.

So... I made an "oopsie" when I said that I'd be doing seven posts in a row about the Democratic party, in that I hadn't actually planned out what each day would be devoted to.  I am very happy with the three posts I have so far and will, in fact, treat you all to one more good'un before this is all said and done.  Honestly, there are too many delicious news items to feast on.  Here I am digging up dirt on Democrats I don't particularly care for, while Michele Bachmann's husband is accused of running a clinic that "turns" gay men straight, and a British tabloid run by the owner of Fox News is obliterated overnight due to a hacking scandal.

Regardless, I promised two sentences ago that I'd deliver one more for you, and I decided to deliver it in the form of a curve ball.  Heads up!

Republican Presidential Candidates And You.

So many good choices... how could we possibly just

choose one?!

Before I get into the meat of this article (or, more appropriately, the gristle and fat), I want to acknowledge something that I'm willing to bet everyone was expecting me to write about.  Representative Anthony Weiner has caught a lot of deserved flak for tweeting pictures of his... weiner... and having some very strange contact with young women.  He is a married, is a Democrat and, while he did nothing illegal to my knowledge, is still responsible for creating a media sideshow full of obvious puns that lasted far longer than it should have.

I didn't mean to ignore this whole scandal.  I wanted to write about it.  The thing is, I have a habit of watching The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, both of which covered this thing extensively.  Hell, Jon Stewart went to high school with the guy.  They said so much about the incident, I decided that I wouldn't write about it in order to avoid accidently copying a joke or two.  I wasn't trying to dodge it because Representative Weiner is a Democrat.  He deserves just as much hell as anyone else, regardless of what political party he is in.  Truth be told, I think it's more appalling that he lied about it.  "I cannot say with certainty that that is a picture of me"?  Really?  C'mon.  No one bought that.  You should know your own junk shot if you saw it, particularly at your age.  You should be able to pick yours out of a line up of 1,000 by the time you're 40 years old.  

Ugh.  Moving on.

Michele Bachmann. Tea-bagged.

Continuing my trend of showing all of you, my readers, the dumb things politicians say, I examine the top ten quotes of the Tea Party's own Mad Hatter (as if there were just one), Michele Bachmann.  Many of you know her as Minnesota's House Representative, but all of you know her as the bat-shit crazy, stick-up-her -ass conservative that is (potentially) running for....

... you guessed it: President in 2012!  So before you all start jumping for joy at the prospect of a woman other than Sarah Palin getting elected into the commander-in-chief seat, let's take a look at some Michele's little quips.  By the way ladies, can you stand someone up that isn't completely psychotic?  I would really love to have a woman in the white house, but I would prefer it to be someone that isn't out of their mind.

1.) This is her way of saying that the American culture (if one could call our mashed up society a "culture") is the best in the world without actually saying it.  A politician's work-around.  Guess what, Michele?  I can't count on my hands how many cultures in this world are more interesting, or more rich than ours because I don't have enough fingers.  If our culture is the epitome of them all, then humanity is in serious trouble.  Try leaving your limo and security once and awhile.  You'll see what I mean.