GOPer Resigns After Gun Event Featured Silhouettes Of Debbie Wasserman-Schultz

Ed Napolitano (right), who headed Florida’s Southeast Broward Republican Club, resigned after a gun event featuring targets resembling Muslim stereotypes and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.  Robert Lowry, a real estate mogul who is planning to run against Schultz, was at the event, and shot at the target with the initials “DWS” next to the head.

Napolitano sent Schultz a letter of apology, but also said he was pushed to resign.  Lowry hasn’t apologized, and Broward Republican Chairman Chip LaMarca says he doesn’t expect him to.

LaMarca termed shooting at the target with the congresswoman’s initials stupid, immature, and …

Harry Reid Pleasantly Surprises: Includes Public Option In Senate Bill

Angering Republicans who are ironically calling Reid a “partisan bully,” and standing up to both the White House and Olympia Snowe, the Senate Majority Leader included the public option in the senate bill.  What can make this work is the opt-out compromise, which will put the onus on red state Republicans to decide they don’t want this coverage, as Josh Marshall explains:

First is the issue of scale. The whole logic of the public option is that you have a big enough pool of people that you have the efficiencies and bargaining power that can hold down prices. This …

On Monday’s Radio Show…

• Christopher Hitchens and Pastor Douglas Wilson, who are featured in the new documentary Collision, sit down with Alan to debate the value of religion.

• Alan asks New Mexico hotel owner Larry Whitten how he can justify ordering Hispanic employees to Anglicize their names.

• Has the public option – which was once thought to be nearly dead – been successfully revived? Alan weighs in on today’s developments.…

Hotel Owner Tells Hispanic Workers To Change Names

Larry Whitten doesn’t workers speaking Spanish in his presence, because they might be talking about him. And he wants them to Anglicize their names. After taking over a hotel in Taos, New Mexico, Whitten says he’s doing what he’s always done.

After he arrived, Whitten met with the employees. He says he immediately noticed that they were hostile to his management style and worried they might start talking about him in Spanish.

“Because of that, I asked the people in my presence to speak only English because I do not understand Spanish,” Whitten says. “I’ve been working 24 …

14 Americans Killed In Afghanistan Helicopter Crashes

Two helicopters collided in midair, and in an separate incident, a chopper went down after a firefight with insurgents.  Eleven troops and three civilians died. It’s one of the heaviest one-day losses for American forces.

The surge in troop deaths comes less than two weeks before a runoff presidential election, which is expected to be a lightning rod for insurgent violence. It also comes as the Obama administration is weighing the reported request of its top commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, for a substantial troop increase.

The loss of life and aircraft pointed up the extent to …

Iran Hints At Accepting UN Deal

Iran says it can endorse a UN deal that would have it sending what could be nuclear fuel to Russia for enrichment and then to France to be converted to fuel plates.  This is the result of talks between Iran and six world powers in Geneva on October 1.

UN inspectors have been examining what had been a secret facility (pictured) to make sure that fuel was being made for electricity and not for nuclear arms. Will we be able to say diplomacy works?…

Anti-Abortionists Using E-Bay To Raise Funds For Tiller Killer

Abortion foes are auctioning items on eBay to raise money to help Scott Roeder, the man accused of killing abortion provider George Tiller. Among the items for auction are an Army of God manual, a cookbook, and a bullhorn used at anti-abortion protests.

“This is unique,” said Regina Dinwiddie (pictured), a Kansas City anti-abortion activist who will sign the bullhorn. “Nobody’s ever done this before. The goal is that everybody makes money for Scott Roeder’s defense.”

David Leach is the abortion opponent organizing the auction.

Leach said he was continuing to collect items.

His own donation: An Army …

Orrin Hatch And John McCain Wouldn’t Use Cheney’s Rhetoric

Orrin Hatch objects to calling the president “dithering”, as does John McCain. (via Think Progress)

…

Schumer: Democrats Close To Having 60 Votes For Public Option

New York Senator Chuck Schumer, on Meet the Press, says there will likely be a public option in the Senate health reform bill, but there will be a provision for states to opt out.  Schumer says they’re close to the 60 votes Democrats have said they need to move the bill forward.…

San Jose Police Beat Unarmed Vietnamese Student

A cell phone video showing police officers hitting an unarmed Vietnamese student with batons and a Taser gun has sparked a criminal investigation.  The video, posted by the San Jose Mercury News, shows police hitting San Jose State math major Phuong Ho ten times, including a shot to the head, and one hit after he was already in handcuffs.

“It takes me back to the day I saw the Rodney King video on TV,” said Roger Clark, a police expert and a retired lieutenant with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department.

The last baton strike ought to bring …

US Not The Only Country With Racist RWNJ’s: Meet Nick Griffin

Nick Griffin is chairman of the British National Party and a member of the European Parliament who was given a suspended sentence after being convicted in 1998 for distributing material likely to incite racial hatred.  Griffin has softened his rhetoric of years past, and just appeared on a BBC program where he downplayed previous statements denying the Holocaust.

One in five in Britain would consider backing this party according to a poll conducted after a Griffin media appearance on the BBC, even though Griffin complained the show was like “a lynch mob.”

More than half of those surveyed agreed …