This is just getting to be crazy.

Like many others, I have spent the last few days really contemplating what will happen in the elections this November. As much as I want to be optimistic, I just can’t bring myself to it. Democrats are looking at a very dark mid-term and, as Peter Daou puts it, these are “dark days for the left”.

But what happened? What caused the rapid fall from glory for President Obama over the past two years? When he was sworn in as the 44^th President of the United States, Barack Obama enjoyed one of the highest approval ratings in history. Now he is treading water to keep from hitting bottom. I believe there are three main factors that play into this; healthcare, economy and war. I want to take a minute and look at what happened with each of these issues and how it turned the base sour on the President. There's More»»

From Cincinnati’s channel 5:

A woman accused of using a dietary supplement to drug the children in her care has been found guilty of child endangering.

During the trial Wednesday, parents who took their babies to the Covenant Church Day Care in Springfield Township last year took the stand to say they noticed something wasn't right.

"On the days that he was in day care, he was exhausted. We would pick him up and put him in the car and he would instantly fall asleep,” Dr. Devin Graham said.

"At the time he was trying to sit up, things like that and he would appear to get dizzy every once in awhile and kind of topple over,” Derek Tanner said.

But until December 2009, they had no idea that the lead infant teacher at the school, Donna Scott, had been putting melatonin into their babies' food in order to get them to sleep.

Scott is the second Covenant Church Day Care employee to be convicted of drugging children.

And the drug of choice?

The charges against Scott came to light after a co-worker turned her in.

"She saw Donna Scott take a melatonin pill and crush it up using a puzzle piece then wipe the powder with her hand into a baby bottle,” Casey said.

Good for the co-worker turning her in, but considering there are now 2 convictions, it makes the crime look a little more widespread. A civil lawsuit is also pending against the church.

Craziness in Maryland:

A gunman with an explosive device strapped to himself has entered the Discovery Communications building in Silver Spring, Md., and may have taken at least one person hostage, police said.

Montgomery County police said there may also be other explosives in the building, but they said they could not confirm reports that one or more shots had been fired.

Law enforcement authorities identified the man as James J. Lee. They told NBC News that he had a long history of protesting at the building. NBC said the man may have posted environmental and population-control demands online.

The suspect has a laundry list of demands posted on his website. Things from stopping global warming to ending illegal immigration and “anchor babies”.

While this guy appears to be an all around lunatic, that isn’t stopping the wingnuts from labeling him. Here’s Gateway Pundit:

GUNMAN, BOMBER, LEFTIST ACTIVIST- HOLDS HOSTAGES AT DISCOVERY BUILDING (Photo)

Yeah except the guy also holds some extreme rightwing views as well. But nothing takes the cake like ultra-radical Ace of Spades commenting on Lee being Asian:

I am speechless with this statement of absolute idiocy. I guess we should start calling Hitler an American, since America is a white country and Hitler was white.

(UPDATE - fixed the broken end of my post. My computer is getting silly and ready for a reboot)

Sad, but not shocking:

A group of teenagers in western New York has been accused of harassing members of a mosque by yelling obscenities and insults during evening prayers for Ramadan, sideswiping a worshiper with a vehicle and firing a shotgun outside, the authorities said Tuesday.

The teenagers were cornered by members of the mosque, who held them for the police. They were charged with disrupting a religious service, a misdemeanor.

The obscenities episode occurred Monday and the shooting last Friday, both outside the World Sufi Foundation mosque in Carlton, N.Y., the authorities said. They said a 17-year-old fired the shotgun; no one was hit.

This is a smaller part of the bigger problem of opposing Park51 in that the hatred won’t be confined to that single location. It has been spreading like wildfire and won’t stop in the forseeable future.

What also amazes me is how Republicans are quick to define these incidents as some “group of outside troublemakers”. Are they that blind to our recent history to even realize that’s the same thing that happened on 9/11? For people that sure hate the terrorists, they are doing their best to try and mimic them.

A Tea Party favorite for the U.S. Senate in Ohio has just been indicted by a grand jury for unlawful conduct with a minor:

A New Lebanon man, running for a U.S. Senate seat in Ohio, has been indicted by a Montgomery County grand jury on sex charges.

Eric Deaton was indicted on one count of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. He is accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a 15-year-old girl between March 2006 and March 2007.

Perry Township police said Deaton met the victim at a church where Deaton served as an elder.

Deaton, who is due in court September 14, faces up to 5 years in prison and a $10,000 fine if convicted.  This isn’t stopping Deaton though. He’s staying in the race and insisting that this is some big political setup:

“I think this is politically motivated,” said Deaton, blaming the indictment on his decision to run for political office.

“The powers that be don’t like that,” said Deaton, who said he intends to stay in the race.

Deaton has been pretty much an unknown in Ohio politics, well that is until now. He has only received a handful of endorsements, but one of those endorsements really sticks out:

Vote Family Values

Perhaps it’s just a day of major irony, but looking at the front page for Vote Family Values, I couldn’t help but notice one of their top news stories:

“Christian Teens and Hands-On Politics”? It sure sounds like Deaton took that way to literally.

I didn’t see this one coming:

The world's most high-profile climate change sceptic is to declare that global warming is "undoubtedly one of the chief concerns facing the world today" and "a challenge humanity must confront", in an apparent U-turn that will give a huge boost to the embattled environmental lobby.

Bjørn Lomborg, the self-styled "sceptical environmentalist" once compared to Adolf Hitler by the UN's climate chief, is famous for attacking climate scientists, campaigners, the media and others for exaggerating the rate of global warming and its effects on humans, and the costly waste of policies to stop the problem.

But in a new book to be published next month, Lomborg will call for tens of billions of dollars a year to be invested in tackling climate change. "Investing $100bn annually would mean that we could essentially resolve the climate change problem by the end of this century," the book concludes.

Of course the lunatics on the right will insist that Barack Obama and his army of mind control minions implanted some sort of nanotechnology developed by Government Motors to control Lomborg’s mind.

This one should get people talking:

HATCH: Let's be honest about it, in the First Amendment, religious freedom, religious expression, that really express matters to the Constitution. So, if the Muslims own that property, that private property, and they want to build a mosque there, they should have the right to do so. The only question is are they being insensitive to those who suffered the loss of loved ones? We know there are Muslims killed on 9/11 too and we know it's a great religion.... But as far as their right to build that mosque, they have that right.

I just think what's made this country great is we have religious freedom. That's not the only thing, but it's one of the most important things in the Constitution....

There's a question of whether it's too close to the 9/11 area, but it's a few blocks away, it isn't right there.... And there's a huge, I think, lack of support throughout the country for Islam to build that mosque there, but that should not make a difference if they decide to do it. I'd be the first to stand up for their rights.

And Hatch is right.

Adam Serwer, who is filling in for Greg Sargent this week, sums it up great:

This statement is all the more remarkable because it isn't grudging -- there are no hedges about the "wisdom" of where the project is being built, as though the group should have expected a nation-wide smear campaign designed to paint the developers as Islamic extremists for wanting to expand an existing prayer space into a community center.

But why would one of the stalwarts of the Republican Party break with them? Perhaps part of the answer lies in Hatch’s Mormon faith. Unlike Harry Reid, maybe Hatch actually thought “hey what would happen if some Mormon committed an act of terrorism”. Simple. This same kind of furor would boil over to the Mormon church as a whole. Remember – Mormons aren’t that well though of with the Christians.

All our actions have consequences and that is something all the opponents of Park51 need to remember. Timothy McVeigh was raised a Roman Catholic, but after Oklahoma City, we didn’t oppose Catholic churches from being built.

If we really want to be a nation that cherishes our freedoms, then we must let these freedoms apply without prejudice. If not then we are no better than those who attacked us on 9/11.

UPDATE:

Here is Hatch's interview via Think Progress:

Hatch does mention the opposition the Mormon church has faced over the years as a reason. I guess Harry Reid and Glenn Beck aren't as supportive of their own church as one might think. Anyone heard from Mitt Romney?

Now there are reports of shots being fired at the Murfreesboro Islamic Center in Tennessee (via The Political Carnival):

Rutherford County Sheriff’s deputies are investigating a complaint about shots being fired this afternoon near the construction site of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro on Veals Road off Bradyville Pike.

The report came just hours after a fire of suspicious nature damaged construction equipment at the site.

A group of congregation members was at the site looking at the damage done to construction equipment by the fire overnight when they heard nine shots fired from two directions.

The incident occurred around 3:15 p.m. The congregation members reported hearing six shots coming from one direction, and about three minutes later they heard three more shots from another direction, said Saleh Sbenaty, a congregation member and MTSU professor.

(snip)

One piece of construction equipment was damaged over the weekend when it was burned, and three other pieces of equipment were doused with some sort of accelerant, Sbenaty said.

The sheriff’s office, FBI and Bureau of ATF are investigating the fire.

This is just hours after arson destroyed construction equipment at the site, an incident that is now classified as a hate-crime.

Also worth noting is the deafening silence from the right on this story. Not even Matt Drudge has mentioned a word about the arson. They must be awaiting their marching orders from Heir Beck and Palin as to how they should proceed with spinning the hate.

Please ignore this post. It's just so I can get the new auto-Digg feature verified and I have to include this little code in so they can prove I own this blog.

71993212ccc343b9a982b60e7610a423

Once it starts populating, I will put a link up to the IntoxiNation Digg page.

Given all the hate-baiting that has taken place over the Park 51 site in New York, it was only a matter of time until we started seeing stories like this:

ATF and FBI agents are investigating a Saturday morning fire that damaged four pieces of equipment and could halt construction at the site of the planned Islamic center and mosque just outside Murfreesboro.

Eric Kehn, spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said his agency has not deemed the burning of an excavation hauler as arson. He did confirm that three other pieces of equipment were damaged, but he would not comment on the extent of the damage.

"Any type of activity like this we take very seriously and we look into," Kehn said. "When things like this happen, we really need the help of the public."

We really need some leadership at this time. I think the leadership is more than even President Obama can give alone. Instead he should get George Bush to appear with him in a joint statement calling for this hatred to stop. If not then stories like this will only become more common.

Caroline Baum from Bloomberg has some very interesting advice for Democrats this fall:

Congressional Democrats like to blame former President George W. Bush for just about everything: the lousy economy, high unemployment, trillion-dollar deficits, two wars - and probably the bedbug epidemic in New York City.

With the 2010 midterm elections 10 weeks away, Democrats are debating whether "blame Bush" is still a winning strategy almost two years into the reign of President Barack Obama.

In general, it's not. If the Democrats were smart, they would refocus their campaign and point a finger at Bush for the one thing they can rightly blame him for: the "biggest tax increase in history."

(emphasis added)

Baum gives good reasoning to this and reminds the country of something the Republicans don’t want them to remember:

In order to enact a tax cut of that size with the Senate evenly divided, Congress used the reconciliation process, which requires a simple majority, not a 60-vote filibuster-proof majority.

If proposed legislation increases the federal deficit beyond the 10-year budget window, it is subject to a 60-vote point of order as provided by the Byrd Rule, named after the late West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd. The rule was designed to prevent lawmakers from adding extraneous amendments to reconciliation bills. Everyone knew, or should have known, that this was a temporary tax cut (wink, wink) designed to put pressure on future Congresses.

And the tax cuts will do just that – raise the deficit beyond the 10-year budget window. Even Republicans like Eric Cantor admit that one. That is “pay to play” rules that the Republicans tout, but want to ignore when it comes to their agenda.

But there is something else here that requires a wee-little bit of history, like all the way back to this past winter.

Remember when talk was of passing health care reform using reconciliation? The Republicans quickly took to the microphones and flat out told lies ranging from “we never used reconciliation before” to “reconciliation was never used for anything that cost this much”. Both were flat out wrong and can be proven in one piece of legislation, The Bush Tax Cuts, which not only raised the deficit far more than health care ever would (remember – health care reform actually reduces the deficit), but it was passed using reconciliation.

I really hope Democrats seize on this and push it as a major campaign line this fall. People are against The Bush Tax Cuts by a huge majority and making that the issue of 2010 will do nothing but help Democrats out this fall. And remember, the Democrats plan will let 98% of this country see bigger tax cuts than they got under Bush. Just the top 2% will pay more. If those people were able to make their fortunes from this great country, then wasn’t Joe Biden right in saying that it is “patriotic” to pay your taxes? To a sane person the answer is yes, but to the right they just want to take, take, take and not give a single thing back. That mentality will destroy this country in the long run.

If the Republicans win back the House then they plan on letting us relive the bad part of the 90’s:

If President Barack Obama needed any more incentive to go all out for Democrats this fall, here it is: Republicans are planning a wave of committee investigations targeting the White House and Democratic allies if they win back the majority.

Everything from the microscopic – the New Black Panther party – to the massive –- think bailouts – is on the GOP to-do list, according to a half-dozen Republican aides interviewed by POLITICO.

The Republicans aren’t concerned about getting our country back on track, or trying to get their economic agenda through. Their only goal is to demonize the President and sidetrack Congress with a bunch of useless investigations.

I know I am stuck on repeat with this phrase, but it is further proof that Republicans care nothing about the future of our country and only want to play political games. They are the epitome of what is broken in Washington.

I've been realy busy this week getting the final remaining bugs worked out of the Crooks and Liars update, but I still have all these thoughts running around in my head. Here's one that has been sticking with me.

Shouldn't we start protesting the building of any new Catholic churches, especially ones built close to schools? Think of the terrorism that the Catholic church put young children through with the sex abuse scandal. It seems like it would only be appropriate given today's news surrouding ground zero.

Now I also know that many will say "but that was only some rogue priests acting on their own". While that is very true, it also applies to 9/11. These were some rogue terrorists acting alone.

So who is with me? Let's start protesting these churches.

A new report out by the CBO finds that the stimulus most likely saved this country:

President Obama's much-maligned economic stimulus package added as many as 3.3 million jobs to the economy during the second quarter of this year, and may have prevented the nation from lapsing back into recession, according to a report released Tuesday by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.

In its latest quarterly assessment of the act, the CBO said the stimulus lowered the unemployment rate by between 0.7 and 1.8 percentage points during the quarter ending in June and increased the number of people employed by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million. The higher figure would come close to making good on Obama's pledge that the act would save or create as many as 3.5 million jobs by the end of this year.

The CBO said the act also increased the nation's gross domestic product by between 1.7 percent and 4.5 percent in the second quarter, indicating that the stimulus may have been the primary source of growth in the U.S. economy. The Commerce Department estimates that GDP grew 2.4 percent in the second quarter, a figure many economists expect to be revised lower in a report due out Friday.

Since the stimulus passed, Republican leaders, like John Boehner, have jumped in front of the cameras at any chance to say it was a failure. These numbers sure don’t look like a failure to me. As matter of fact, they would probably be much higher if we could have had a bigger stimulus passed. Sadly Republican obstructionism wouldn’t allow that.