Missouri State Senator: Repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Would Offend Muslims

Republican Missouri State Senator Gary Nodler, who is challenging GOP Congressman Roy Blunt for his seat, says overturning DADT would be “a cultural affront,” and “directly threaten the lives of soldiers today.” Or, as Tony Messenger in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch summed it up:

Nodler’s argument: The Muslim nations of Iraq and Afghanistan, where America is fighting two wars, are opposed to homosexuality. Changing “Don’t ask, don’t tell” would offend the terrorists in such a way that could put soldiers — and America — at risk of further terrorist attacks.

Nodler says it’s not about offending terrorists:…

On Thursday’s Radio Show…

• Climate Progress editor Dr. Joseph Romm joins Alan to debunk right-wing claims that snowstorms disprove global warming.

• Former Bush 43 speechwriter Marc Thiessen has called President Obama “the most dangerous man to ever occupy the Oval Office.” But now he says Obama is killing too many terrorists! Alan asks Thiessen to explain his logic.

• As Valentine’s Day approaches, are you stuck with sad reminders of past relationships? Goodwill’s Jennifer Ross has a solution. She’ll tell Alan about the “Dump Your X’s Stuff Drive.”…

Americans “Strongly” Favor “Gay Men And Lesbians” In The Military. “Homosexuals” Not So Much

A CBS/New York Times poll proves that how much support there is for gays to serve openly in the military depends upon how the question is asked.

In the poll, 59 percent say they now support allowing “homosexuals” to serve in the U.S. military, including 34 percent who say they strongly favor that. Ten percent say they somewhat oppose it and 19 percent say they strongly oppose it.

But the numbers differ when the question is changed to whether Americans support “gay men and lesbians” serving in the military. When the question is asked that way, 70 percent of Americans …

Bill Clinton Taken To Hospital For Chest Pains

Former President Bill Clinton was rushed to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York “likely for a stent procedure,” says former aide and ABC political correspondent George Stephanopoulos.

NBC cites a hospital source in saying that Clinton “called the head of cardiology two days ago, said he wasnt feeling well and wanted an appointment. He was supposed to come in yesterday, but postponed, coming in today instead. He came under his owner power.

NPR has a statement from a Clinton aide, who says two stents were inserted into one of his coronary arteries.

“President Clinton is in good spirits, and will …

Student Detained For Having Piece Of Paper In Pocket With Word “Bomb” In Arabic

Nick George, a Pamona College student, was detained and interrogated by the TSA, the FBI and Pennsylvania police because of the flash cards in his pocket when he was boarding a plane from Philadelphia to California carrying Arabic flash cards.

George, a physics major who’s studying Arabic, was pulled aside for secondary screening at the Philadelphia International Airport as he tried to go through security. When he emptied his pockets, the inspector saw his flash cards and he was arrested, handcuffed, locked in a cell for hours and aggressively questioned. Because of some flash cards.

Approximately ten of the 200 …

It’s Called “Global Warming” Not “Zip Code Warming”

As the temperature freezes up the global warming debate heats up, with skeptics mocking those who believe there is actually such a thing as global warming.

Most climate scientists respond that the ferocious storms are consistent with forecasts that a heating planet will produce more frequent and more intense weather events.

…

As an illustration of their point of view, the family of Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma, a leading climate skeptic in Congress, built a six-foot-tall igloo on Capitol Hill and put a cardboard sign on top that read “Al Gore’s New Home.”

But Dr. Joseph …

US Needs To Support Iranian Protesters. Happy Revolution Day

February 11 is Revolution Day in Iran, and the 31st anniversary of the Iranian Revolution is being marked by security forces clashing with demonstrators.

Plainclothes and uniformed security assaulted vehicles carrying Mehdi Karrubi, a reformist leader who ran for president in the disputed June presidential elections, and former President Mohammad Khatami as their opposition supporters poured onto the streets, opposition sources said.

The forces were preventing opposition leaders and their followers — the so-called Green Movement — from reaching Azadi, or Freedom, Square in central Tehran, where President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivered an anniversary address that extolled the country’s nuclear program.…

Non-Breaking: Tea Partiers Keep Beating Birther Drum

Miki Booth, who is running for Congress from Oklahoma as “an independent constitutional conservative,” told a cheering tea party crowd that Obama’s certificate of live birth as “a piece of junk” when she spoke in Nashville.  The story is on WorldNetDaily, run by Joe Farrah, who at the same event claimed that unlike Obama, the birth of Jesus is documented. Booth says the certificate of live birth only proves that a baby was born, but not necessarily in Hawaii.

“If he is going to claim he was born in Kapi’olani like my husband and my son, …

Ex-Edwards Aide Andrew Young Says Elizabeth Edwards May Sue Him

The saga continues, as former aide Andrew Young says Elizabeth Edwards is threatening to sue him for the downfall of their marriage.

Andrew Young said Wednesday that Elizabeth Edwards has threatened an “alienation of affection” lawsuit. Young said he had anticipated that the Edwards family would come after him following his book about the candidate’s affair.

An alienation of affection lawsuit allows a person to sue a third party for contributing to the breakup of a marriage. Jilted spouses typically seek money from their partner’s lover.

North Carolina is one of only about a half-dozen states that still have such …

Arkansas GOP Senate Candidate Compares Embryonic Stem Cells To Jews During The Holocaust

The constant use of Nazi imagery is tiresome. But rear its ugly head again, it did, when Curtis Coleman, who is seeking the Republican nomination to challenge Blanche Lincoln for her Arkansas Senate seat, compared what happens to embryonic stem cells used for research to what happened to Jews during the Holocaust. (h/t Think Progress)

On March 9, 2009, President Barack Obama issued an executive order, removing barriers to responsible research involving human stem cells.

Coleman, however, has different view on things.

“Embryonic stem cell research is taking the concept of taking a life and using it to conduct …

On Wednesday’s Radio Show…

• Is the Senate “snowed in” by its own rules? Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) tells Alan why he wants the rules to allow filibusters to be stopped by a simple 51-vote majority.

• Ralph Nader says the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision threatens our “nation’s constitutional premise of ‘we the people.’” Nader joins Alan to present his Case Against Corporate Speech.

• How low will they go? Alan exposes the right-wing manifesto that compares liberals to Nazis.…