Here’s another one of those "compassionate" Christians we all know and love. Listen to Fox News host John Gibson mock the death of Heath Ledger and call him a "weirdo" on his radio show Tuesday (the day of Ledger’s death):

Now I’m not saying that Mr. Gibson isn’t entitled to his opinion. He is. I’m just pointing out how utterly classless his comments were, but what can we expect from a man who once said he’d rather watch a torture scene in the movie Syriana than the "gay agenda" movie Brokeback Mountain.

ThinkProgress has more here.

And if you haven’t heard, our good friend Rev. Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church plan to protest Ledger’s funeral.  I wonder how their "Heath Ledger is burning in hell" signs will go over with all of Ledger’s fans, don’t you?
 
Update: Buckaroo’s computer won’t show the audio controls above, yet if he goes to the Think Progress web site, he sees them there.  He’s using Internet Explorer on Windows XP, so I think it’s a Internet Explorer thing as I can see the audio controls just fine in both Safari and Firefox on my Mac.

Here’s a little "to do" item for those of you still enamored by Ron Paul:

• Google Ron Paul White Supremacist

536,000 results?  Hmmm… strange.  I’m sure there is no need to be alarmed. 

We can completely trust a the moral objectivity of a man who refuses to return campaign contributions from an outspoken white supremacist, right?

And we shouldn’t have any concern that he made the following statements in the Ron Paul Political Report:

"…our country is being destroyed by a group of actual and potential terrorists — and they can be identified by the color of their skin."

 "Opinion polls consistently show that only about 5% of blacks have sensible political opinions, i.e. support the free market, individual liberty, and the end of welfare and affirmative action…. Given the inefficiencies of what D.C. laughingly calls the "criminal justice system," I think we can safely assume that 95% of the black males in that city are semi-criminal or entirely criminal."

"We are constantly told that it is evil to be afraid of black men, but it is hardly irrational. Black men commit murders, rapes, robberies, muggings, and burglaries all out of proportion to their numbers."

After all, Ron Paul wants a complete and immediate withdrawal from Iraq, and that’s all that matters. We shouldn’t worry about his position on all those other issues, right?

(Thanks to The Mike Malloy Show for the Google suggestion.)

Well, Mike Huckabee isn’t backing away from his 1992 comments about homosexuality being a "sinful lifestyle" and that AIDS patients should be isolated.  I thought this would have been spun and buried already, but it seems that the story has some legs.  It’s clear now that Huckabee is going after the religious right, and I think his comments about AIDS in particular will cost him the support of moderate Republicans.

Therefore I’m withdrawing my earlier prediction that Huckabee would become our next president.  In fact, a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released Tuesday shows he would lose to all three leading Democratic candidates by double digits in hypothetical contests.  So while I’m not sure that he will become the Republican candidate, I’m kind of hoping he will be because it appears he’s beatable.

The poll also confirms what I said the other day: John Edwards is our best bet to win against a Republican.
 

On the Democratic side, Edwards performs best against each of the leading Republicans. In addition to beating Huckabee by 25 percent and McCain by 8 percent, the North Carolina Democrat beats Romney by 22 percentage points (59 percent to 37 percent).

 
What really surprised me is how well John McCain did in polling.

The poll also shows that Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona would do best against leading Democrats. He beats Clinton by 2 percentage points (50 percent to 48 percent), ties Obama (48 percent to 48 percent) and loses to Edwards by a smaller margin (8 points) than the other Republican candidates do.

 
I thought he had more or less fizzled out, but now I’m left wondering if there might be some sort of McCain resurgence during the primaries.  All I know is that if I was a McCain supporter (which I’m not), I would want to know who he plans to choose as his running mate before voting for him in the primaries.  I’m not an ageist, but in a position as important as our President, I think you have to consider that McCain would be the oldest President ever elected.

Before every one starts leaving me comments about how you can’t trust polls, I want to stress that I know and agree with that sentiment.  You can see trends in polls however, and this is at least the fourth poll I’ve seen showing Edwards doing best against Republicans.  We have to take that into account.

I’ve always liked John Edwards; it’s just that in this election there are a couple of candidates I thought I liked better (Kucinich, Biden).  I think though that I’m ready to throw my support behind Edwards exclusively.  Sure, in a perfect world we could vote for whatever candidate we wanted with no ramifications, but I’m afraid that supporting a different candidate will allow Hillary to slip in, and I don’t think she can win.

As Democrats, I think it’s time that we get real about this.  If we really want to take back the White House, then we need to start getting smart. 

And I think that starts with John Edwards.

The Christmas season is full of so many rich traditions, one of which is gathering around the piano for a carol or two.  Here’s that holiday classic "God Hates The World" as performed by members of the Westboro Baptist Church:
 

For those of you not familiar with the Westboro Baptist Church and its leader Fred Phelps, this is not a joke.  They are known for picketing the funerals of gay men and American soldiers.  They are completely serious in their message and run some nice web sites spreading their special version of God’s love and tolerance.

I received the following e-mail from my friend Rick and am posting here because it’s important that everyone, regardless of their own sexual orientation, who believes in non-discrimination of gays and lesbians take action on this ASAP:

Hi,

Right now, the U.S. Senate is preparing for a vote that could have major consequences for gays and lesbians across America. If they approve President Bush’s nomination of Judge Leslie Southwick to the Federal bench, they’ll give tremendous power to a man who once helped remove a woman’s 8-year-old biological child from her custody in part because the mother was a lesbian.

I hope you’ll join me in speaking out at: http://www.hrcactioncenter.org/campaign/southwick/

Southwick even signed an unnecessary additional brief in the case saying that losing her child was the possible consequence of the mother’s sexual "choice." Excuse me? This kind of misinformed bigotry has no place in our nation’s highest courts. Southwick’s appointment would be for life.

Click here to write your senators: http://www.hrcactioncenter.org/campaign/southwick/

Sending the e-mail couldn’t be easier. Just fill in your name and contact info, and the HRC site does the rest.

Please don’t push this aside and expect other people to fight this battle for you.  Don’t use those tired old excuses like "I don’t want to give out my contact information."  If you’re willing to trade non-discrimination for the perceived inconvenience of your Congressman having your contact information, then you don’t deserve those freedoms in the first place.