Representative Todd Akin of Missouri, pandering to a crowed of tea partiers on Capitol Hill, asserts how important it is that “God” has been in the Pledge of Allegiance since 1954.  So intent was he to proclaim “God” as key to the Pledge, that he forgot what came next.  And he failed to note that the original Pledge dates back to 1892, written by Francis Bellamy, a Christian socialist, expressing the ideas of his cousin, Edward Bellamy, to promote the concept of a socialist utopian world. Also ignored is that “under God” was added to the Pledge in reaction to McCarthyism, communist witch hunts, and the cold war.

• The latest on the tragic mass shooting at Fort Hood.

• Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations discusses CAIR’s efforts to prevent an anti-Muslim backlash in response to today’s events.

• Legendary singer-songwriter Carole King joins Alan to discuss her efforts to protect the land, water, and wildlife of the Northern Rockies.

UPDATE: Levi Johston’s lawyer, Rex Butler, says the Tweets are not really Levi’s, and is asking for a retraction from the Tonight Show.

Senate Democrats approved a climate bill without Republicans present, because Republicans were boycotting. Senator Barbara Boxer (right), head of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, made the bold move.

The bill would require cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent over the next decade from 2005 levels. But Republicans warned the bill would leave consumers with higher energy bills.

“This would be the largest tax increase in the history of America,” Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., one of the seven committee Republicans, told Fox News. “I can only conclude that they don’t want the public to know how much money this thing is going to cost.”

But the argument on the other side is that it creates jobs and reduces costs in the long term.

“There are those who will suggest that moving toward clean energy will destroy our economy, when it’s the system we currently have that endangers our prosperity and prevents us from creating millions of new jobs,” Obama told his audience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Boxer said the bill provides “a clean energy future, creating millions of jobs and protecting our children from dangerous pollution.”

Freedomworks, the Dick Armey-led group, in conjunction with South Florida Tea party, has launched the unfortunately-named dontkillgrandma.com, perpetuating the myth that Obama and Democrats want to do in our elderly loved ones. Comments on the site show a series of posts by Tenthers, anti-reformers, railers against a government takeover of health care, and other misstatements about just what is being proposed.

Is this the future of the GOP?

If anything, the election of Bill Owens at the expense of the right-wing teabaggers should be a warning sign; instead, they’re going full steam ahead and gearing up to challenge a dozen House and Senate Republicans in 2010.

Conservatives and tea party activists had already set their sights on some of the GOP’s top Senate recruits — a list that includes Gov. Charlie Crist in Florida, former Rep. Rob Simmons in Connecticut and Rep. Mark Kirk in Illinois, among others.

But their success in Tuesday’s upstate New York special election, where grass-roots efforts pushed GOP nominee Dede Scozzafava to drop out of the race and helped Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman surge into the lead on the eve of Election Day, has generated more money and enthusiasm than organizers ever imagined.

Except, what actually happened is that they jettisoned a Republican candidate who voted in the 58th percentile of her party, making her more conservative than most Republicans in New York State.

Party strategists worry that well-funded, well-organized challenges from the right could force Republicans to exhaust precious resources on messy primary fights — or force moderate candidates to adopt more strident positions early on that could haunt them during the final months of the campaign.

Looking to New York-23 as a model for races to come is like looking to the Titanic as a model for how to steer a ship.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that, unless you’re traipsing around the country at so-called “values summits” promoting yourself as courageous for sticking up for the Lord.  TMZ reports that Prejean was demanding a $1 million settlement from Miss California-USA pageant officials until they confronted her with the videotape.

The video the lawyer showed Carrie is extremely graphic and has never been released publicly. We know that, because TMZ obtained the video months ago but decided not to post it because it was so racy. Let’s just say, Carrie has a promising solo career.

We’re told it took about 15 seconds for Carrie to jettison her demand and essentially walk away with nothing.

But it’s not as though Prejean walks away with nothing. After all, she already got a little something up front.

• Scott Conroy and Shushannah Walshe, authors of the new book Sarah from Alaska, reveal how Sarah Palin caused a civil war within the 2008 McCain presidential campaign.

• With both Republicans AND Democrats claiming key victories in the 2009 elections, which party really gained the most? Alan weighs in.

• dith·er·ing: Alan provides a helpful vocabulary lesson for Congressman Joe “You Lie!” Wilson.

South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson wasn’t sure what Dick Cheney meant when he accused President Obama of “dithering” on Afghanistan.  On a radio show, Wilson admitted he had to look it up to figure out what Cheney meant.

And, much like with real wars, the War Powers Act is totally disregarded.  Catholic League President Bill Donohue has made the declaration.

(h/t RightWingWatch)

For almost three decades, there has been a Christmas parade in Amelia, Ohio, a village outside Cincinnati. But this year there will be none. That’s because one person complained, village solicitor Laura Abrams. Her complaint: the word “Christmas.” In response, the village changed the name to the “Holiday Parade,” though it did not say what holiday was being celebrated. Understandably, this dishonest scheme created a furor, the result being–just to play it safe–there will be no parade.

There will be no Christmas tree this year on the Capitol lawn in Frankfort, Kentucky. The word “Christmas” was deemed offensive. Instead, there will be a “Holiday Tree.” The official line is that the “Holiday Tree” is inclusive of Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year’s, though no one has ever heard of a “Thanksgiving Tree,” “Hanukkah Tree” or “New Year’s Tree.”

That’s just a couple of examples of how the culture, and the Catholic League promises there’ll be more where that came from.

Make no mistake about it: The declared enemy of these cultural fascists is religious speech, and they will stop at nothing to censor it. Stay tuned—we’re only in early November.