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For all their talk about keeping government out of our lives and pursuing freedom, the Republican Party sure has a funny way of proving it. First up is this story out of Georgia:

The City Council of Nelson has approved an ordinance that requires each head of household to own a gun. The legislation passed unanimously and goes into effect in 10 days. Nelson, population about 1,300, is about 40 miles north of Atlanta.

So the government shouldn't have the right to force citizens to purchase healthcare, but they should be allowed to force citizens to purchase guns? Something seems funny there.

Then we had east to North Carolina, where this is the news of the day:

A bill filed by Republican lawmakers would allow North Carolina to declare an official religion, in violation of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Bill of Rights, and seeks to nullify any federal ruling against Christian prayer by public bodies statewide.

Republicans. They love the Constitution, until it interferes with their true ideals of tyranny. But this is nothing new. We saw the same thing happen a couple of years ago when plans were out to build a mosque in New York City. Apparently "freedom of religion" should only apply to Christians.

And finally:

Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli has filed a petition with the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond asking the full 15-judge court to reconsider a decision by a three-judge panel last month that overturned the state’s sodomy law.

No this isn't an endorsement of the "wink, wink" half-term Governor from Alaska. Instead it's an attempt to highlight that Sarah Palin is nothing more than a politician that engages in her "do as I say not as I do" form of leadership:

Sarah Palin attempted to relaunch her political career and her political action committee, SarahPAC, on Thursday with a Web video called “Loaded for Bear,” which presented the former Alaska governor as the new kingmaker for conservative populists in the GOP.

The video riffed off her speech at CPAC, in which Palin railed against “the big consultants, the big money men, and the big bad media.” But there’s an irony alert ahead: the current stated purpose of SarahPAC is to raise money ahead of the 2014 election—most of which will be spent on conservative consultants.

Palin is telling conservatives not to pay for consultants. Now that's a good idea in theory, but even Palin knows it is failed logic in our current state of democracy, so she goes out and hires consultants. And how much does she pay for these people?

But the real news comes when you look at how donors’ money was actually doled out: just $298,500 to candidates. The bulk of the rest of it, more than $4.8 million, went to—you guessed it—consultants.

Consultants have become a huge cancer on our political process, driving up the costs of running for office exponentially. The problem with Palin though is that she wants to act like the good guy in all this, but that's just an act. Instead she is still an enabler for the political consultant and those numbers are proof.

That tweet above was done by Robert Zimmerman, the brother of George Zimmerman, the alleged killer of Trayvon Martin:

Robert Zimmerman, Jr., brother of Trayvon Martin shooter George Zimmerman, continued his everything-including-the-racist-kitchen-sink PR offensive on behalf of his brother by repeatedly tweeting a photo comparison of the teenager his brother shot, and De’Marquise Elkins, the 17 year-old who has been detained in the murder of a Georgia infant. Both pictures feature the young men flipping the middle finger at the camera, with the caption “A picture speaks a thousand words…Any questions?”

Zimmerman has, thus far, tweeted the comparison to the Anthony half of Opie and Anthony, Michael Moore, the NAACP, and a Breitbart News editor, as well as the NRA. If Zimmerman’s point is that anyone who uses that gesture is a murderer, then they’re going to have to arrest the entire Garden State Parkway. If you suspect that wasn’t his point, you might be right.

Sounds to me like Robert Zimmerman is becoming the prosecutions biggest asset, creating even more proof that George Zimmerman's actions last year could have been racially motivated. Other tweets make it even more obvious, posting things like:

Teen to West: “Do you want me to shoot your baby?” #TrayvonMartin to #GeorgeZimmerman : You’re gonna die tonight Motherf**ker”

As well as:

Lib media shld ask if what these2 black teens did 2 a woman&baby is the reason ppl think blacks mightB risky

Here's the video that went viral last year.

When that video first came out the right went into a frenzy over "union thugs". Steven Crowder even went on Fox and Friends to call the guy out:

Tony, we know who you are, come forward. I am offering you an ultimatum right now. You come forward, I press charges, you will go to jail. Or — since you like to sucker punch people — I will allow you to face me in the people's octagon, in a legal, sanctioned mixed martial arts bout, where we can settle it man-to-man, one-on-one. And all of the money that's been raised to find you, I will match it if you beat me and give it to a union of your choice. It's your choice: jail or face me like a man. Send your answer on Twitter.

Well it turns out that the man who punched Crowder won't be charged after prosecutors and state police reviewed the unedited footage and decided that he was acting in self defense. Sounds like the James O'Keefe epidemic is continuing to plague the right.

Leave it to these Republicans. They preach and preach how evil gay marriage is, but as soon as one of their own children comes out to them as being gay, they quickly change positions. The latest is Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH). Here is an interview he gave CNN to discus it:

In the interview, Portman even admits that his decision was based solely on his own child:

"I've come to the conclusion that for me, personally, I think this is something that we should allow people to do, to get married, and to have the joy and stability of marriage that I've had for over 26 years. That I want all of my children to have, including our son, who is gay," said Portman

That is a rather callous statement to make. Portman admits he never believed any other gay couple should have had the "joy and stability" of marriage, until it could have been his son.

Paul Ryan has a very serious problem - he can't face reality. In his new budget, Paul Ryan depends upon the repeal of "Obamacare". Well that is part of a fairy tale, at least until 2016. In the last session of Congress alone, Republicans tried almost 40 times to do just that and it never happened. They know it won't get past a Democratically controlled Senate, let alone the President's veto pen. It's just not going to happen and Paul Ryan refuses to believe it.

And it now seems that fewer people are joining Ryan in this alternative universe. When you're an Obama-bashing winger and you lose Fox News, then you really are on the outs. Here's Ryan on Fox News yesterday and Chris Wallace just isn't buying this budget.

Wallace even tells Ryan that it's not going to happen:

"Are you saying, as part of you budget, you would repeal -- you assume the repeal of Obamacare?" Wallace pressed.

"Yes," Ryan insisted.

If you haven't heard yet, there's a good, old fashioned filibuster going on right now. The filibuster is over confirmation of John Brennan to head the CIA. It is being lead by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and other Republicans, such as Ted Cruz (R-TX) have now joined in.

The filibuster started almost 12 hours ago and is going in full force.

Now I want to take a page from the Republican playbook of the last decade. We are currently embarked in a global war on terror. At such a time we need someone to lead out main foreign intelligence agency. So why are Republicans trying to prevent that intelligence and aide terrorists?

Now do I believe that? No I don't, but it is the exact thing Republicans accused Democrats of over and over again during the Bush years.

But let's look into the reason for this filibuster. It boils down to 2 paragraphs from a response Attorney General Eric Holder gave to Rand Paul on the drone program:

“The question you have posed is therefore entirely hypothetical, unlikely to occur, and one we hope no president will ever have to confront. It is possible, I suppose, to imagine an extraordinary circumstance in which it would be necessary and appropriate under the Constitution and applicable laws of the United States for the President to authorize the military to use lethal force within the territory of the United States.”

“For example, the president could conceivably have no choice but to authorize the military to use such force if necessary to protect the homeland in the circumstances like a catastrophic attack like the ones suffered on December 7, 1941, and September 11, 2001,” Holder continued.

Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson spent an estimated $150 million last year in campaign contributions to help Mitt Romney and other Republicans around the country win elections. Now, in a new filing with the SEC, it turns out that's not all Adelson spent money on:

In its annual regulatory report, filed with the commission on Friday, the Sands reported that its audit committee and independent accountants had determined that “there were likely violations of the books and records and internal controls provisions” of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

The disclosure comes amid an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation into the company’s business activities in China.

It is the company’s first public acknowledgment of possible wrongdoing. Ron Reese, a spokesman for the Sands, declined to comment further.

This is the first admission of possible guilt by Adelson's company in an investigation that goes back years. Adelson began a big push in China over a decade ago and that caught the eye of investigators.

But in 2010 something big happened. Steven C. Jacobs was fired from his job as President of the company's operations in Macau. He then filed a wrongful termination suit, which alleges he was pressured to engage in improper leverage against foreign officials. In the same suit Jacobs also alleges that the company turned a blind eye to China's organized crime.