The False Pope – Saint Hildegard

Students holding report cards We have had numerous articles here in recent days about Jason Richwine, his racist Republican sponsored research on Latino low IQ (and about blacks too) for which he received a doctorate from Harvard, and the ideas he continues to spew.   Schoolwork has real-life consequences. In this case, one was the resignation of Florida's RNC Latino Outreach Director, Pablo Pantoja. Pantoja, who was born in Puerto Rico, is no longer a Republican. He stated in his email: A researcher included as part of a past dissertation his theory that “the totality of the evidence suggests a genetic component to group differences in IQ.” The researcher reinforces these views by saying “No one knows whether Hispanics will ever reach IQ parity with whites, but the prediction that new Hispanic immigrants will have low-IQ children and grandchildren is difficult to argue against.” Although the organization distanced themselves from those assertions, other immigration-related research is still padded with the same racist and eugenics-based innuendo. Some Republican leaders have blandly (if at all) denied and distanced themselves from this but it doesn’t take away from the culture within the ranks of intolerance. The pseudo-apologies appear to be a quick fix to deep-rooted issues in the Republican Party in hopes that it will soon pass and be forgotten. I'm not surprised. Each year since 1914 the NAACP has issued a Civil Rights Legislative Report Card on "bread and butter" civil rights issues relating to the voting records of members of Congress. So as a teacher, a blogger, and a voter, I've decided to issue my own report card, and grades for the faux efforts of the Republican Party to pay lip-service to its stated intentions of conducting outreach to Latino voters. See more on how below the fold.

On Sunday, during an appearance on Meet The Press, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) — the GOP leader in the senate — distanced himself from Republican efforts to portray the Obama administration’s response to the attacks on a U.S. diplomatic issue in Benghazi, Libya as a Watergate-level scandal that should result in impeachment. McConnell’s comments come just days after the White House released 100 pages of emails undermining GOP claims that administration officials doctored the public talking points U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice used to discuss the incident on the Sunday morning talk shows. “You’re talking about others who may have said various things about this, let me tell you what I think about it. It’s clear there was inadequate security out there and it’s very clear that it was inconvenient within six weeks of the election, for the administration to in effect announce, that it was a terrorist attack,” McConnell said. “I think that’s worth examining, it is going to be examined.” But asked repeatedly if Republicans should tone down their attacks against the administration, McConnell demurred, saying only that Obama should allow for an investigation. He also couldn’t identify specific evidence of an administration cover-up: DAVID GREGORY (HOST): But you have specific evidence that they made up a tale, or was it based on information they had at the time? MCCONNELL: Well, the talking points clearly were not accurate. I think getting to the bottom of this is an important investigation. Watch it: E-mails between the White House, CIA, State Department, Justice Department, and the FBI show that Rice’s remarks reflect the early view of the intelligence community and were produced with few changes from the White House. On Thursday, CBS’ Major Garrett reported that Republican sources misquoted or significantly embellished the emails officials used to draft Rice’s remarks in order to implicate the administration in a conspiracy to mislead the public about Benghazi. Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) have both argued that Obama could be impeached for his handling of the attacks in Benghazi.     

White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer said Sunday the question of whether any laws were broken in the IRS scandal is "irrelevant" to the fact that the agency's actions were wrong and unjustifiable. "I can't speak to the law here. The law is irrelevant," Pfefiffer said on ABC News's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos." "The activity was outrageous and inexcusable, and it was stopped and it needs to be fixed to ensure it never happens again." Read full article >>    

If there's a frog in the bucket, someone is having waffles on Sunday. So, so true. Read full article >>    

Bidding on history: Son to auction memorabilia of 3-time Indianapolis 500 Greenfield Daily ReporterINDIANAPOLIS — A collection of memorabilia from three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Wilbur Shaw is set to be auctioned by the late racer's son. Bill Shaw is parting with his father's racing trophies, a checkered flag ring and about 100 other mementoes Racing Auction To Take Place May 24thWBIW.comall 2 news articles »