Former White House chief of staff Karl Rove was heckled and branded a “war criminal’ at a book signing in Beverly Hills, California, on Monday night.

Rove, who served as senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to President Bush, was at the Saban Theater to discuss his new book, “Courage and Consequences: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight,” to an audience of about 100 people who paid up to $40 to hear him.

But the audience members were unable to get their copies of the book signed after Rove was shouted down and forced to leave the stage, reported CNN affiliate KCAL-TV.

C’mon, guys! Karl Rove is not a war criminal!

Everyone knows he’s guilty of treason for disclosing state secrets. Get it straight!

Those coastal liberals and their perverted San Francisco values. Why can’t they have good, decent, God-fearing American values instead? Check out what the DNC spent nearly $2,000 on last month in (of course) Hollywood:

Records filed with the Federal Election Commission show [the Committee] picked up the hefty tab at Voyeur West Hollywood, a high-end strip club that has hosted such notables as bad girl Lindsay Lohan…

In a review last October, the Los Angeles Times said the bar’s “dark, leather-heavy interior is reminiscent of the masked orgy scene” in “Eyes Wide Shut,” the 1999 Stanley Kubrick film starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.

The club features a heavy net suspended above the lounge area where topless performers – dressed in little more than masks and bikini-bottoms – writhe above the heads of clubgoers, the paper reported.

“Even more provocative scenes,” the paper added, “are played out in an enclosed glass booth area adjacent to the club’s dance floor area.”

Oh, wait, did I say DNC? Whoops! I meant our good, clean-living, average-American-values friends in the RNC.

Today, the United States put an end to a group of religiously-motivated violent extremists who planned murderous attacks on Americans and planned to kill them with weapons of mass destruction as part of their religious war. They claimed their prophet “wanted us to be ready to defend ourselves using the sword”.

I look forward to seeing the right-wing talking heads criticizing this faith as a “religion of hate” and condemning its followers.

[We call for] elected officials of both parties to set an example of the civility we want to see in our citizenry… We also call on all Americans to respect differences of opinion, to refrain from inappropriate forms of intimidation, to reject violence and vandalism, and to scale back rhetoric that might reasonably be misinterpreted by those prone to such behavior.

Who could object to such a statement? You’d have to ask the RNC. You see, the above comes from a proposed joint statement between the DNC and RNC. Proposed, that is, by the DNC, who seem to have no problem openly stating that they reject violence and reject encouraging others into it. The RNC, however, won’t sign it.

Rush Limbaugh said that if health care reform passed, he’d move to Costa Rica. Well, help the guy out by chipping in for his ticket! And hey, if he gets cold feet, the money all goes to Planned Parenthood.

Conservative columnist David Frum has nothing but harsh words for his own party right now:

A huge part of the blame for today’s disaster attaches to conservatives and Republicans ourselves.

At the beginning of this process we made a strategic decision: unlike, say, Democrats in 2001 when President Bush proposed his first tax cut, we would make no deal with the administration. No negotiations, no compromise, nothing. We were going for all the marbles. This would be Obama’s Waterloo – just as healthcare was Clinton’s in 1994.

We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat.

There were leaders who knew better, who would have liked to deal. But they were trapped. Conservative talkers on Fox and talk radio had whipped the Republican voting base into such a frenzy that deal-making was rendered impossible. How do you negotiate with somebody who wants to murder your grandmother? Or – more exactly – with somebody whom your voters have been persuaded to believe wants to murder their grandmother?

So today’s defeat for free-market economics and Republican values is a huge win for the conservative entertainment industry. Their listeners and viewers will now be even more enraged, even more frustrated, even more disappointed in everybody except the responsibility-free talkers on television and radio. For them, it’s mission accomplished. For the cause they purport to represent, it’s Waterloo all right: ours.

The House passed the Senate health care bill, 219-212.

…lest you see what’s underneath it.

Demonstrators outside the U.S. Capitol , angry over the proposed health care bill, shouted “nigger” Saturday at U.S. Rep. John Lewis , a Georgia congressman and civil rights icon who was nearly beaten to death during an Alabama march in the 1960s.

…Lewis said he was leaving the Cannon office building across from the Capitol when protesters shouted “Kill the bill, kill the bill,” Lewis said.

“I said ‘I’m for the bill, I support the bill, I’m voting for the bill’,” Lewis said.

A colleague who was accompanying Lewis said people in the crowd responded by saying “Kill the bill, then the n-word.”

…Protestors also used a slur as they confronted Rep. Barney Frank , D- Mass. , an openly gay member of Congress . A writer for Huffington Post said the crowd called Frank a “faggot.”

A message from the White House itself, reminding you why this is important. Have you called your Congressional representative yet?

I know I link to him a lot, but dear friends, after watching this clip I can say without reservation that Jon Stewart is the greatest satirist of our era. With this must-see segment, Jon Stewart kicks Glenn Beck’s chair out from under him. Watching this is time well spent.

(The first clip was a cold open on last night’s show. The second clip came right after the opening credits.)

Jonathan Alter writes in this week’s Newsweek:

The only real question is if Democrats are in the mood to slit their own throats. The bill is complex, but the politics are simple: if health care doesn’t pass this spring, Obama’s domestic presidency is finished. The Democratic Party will be, to borrow a phrase from Nixon, a “helpless, pitiful giant.” By contrast, if the bill gets signed, Republicans are setting themselves up for a “repeal the bill” campaign that will likely backfire in November’s midterm elections. That’s eight months away, but if the bill passes I’d bet on the GOP winning only a few new seats.

This is Politics 101, a class that many Democrats apparently flunked. The House Democrats who voted for the bill at the end of 2009 have no choice but to vote for it again if they have any clue as to what’s in their political self-interest; the he-was-for-it-before-he-was-against-it ads write themselves. And the more conservative Blue Dog Democrats who voted against it need to understand that no matter how toxic health care is in their districts right now, things will be a lot worse if they have to run under the banner of a failed president. Voters won’t reward them for being fake Republicans—they’ll vote for the real ones instead.

…Ironically, this is not as hard a vote for Democrats as it looks. Sen. John Cornyn, the Texan who heads the National Republican Senatorial Committee, says the midterms should be a “referendum” on repealing the health-care bill (if the bill fails, the Republicans will run against it anyway). Because the insurance-industry reforms kick in immediately, this means Republicans would be running against protections that even those queasy about health-care reform are not going to want stripped away. Whose side will candidates want to be on? The insurers—or average people happy that they have the security of not worrying about their health if they lose their job? Even the lame message mavens of the Democratic Party can handle that one. Can’t they?

Residents of red states: Michelle Bachmann is right! The census is just a Big Brother totalitarian plot so they can round you up and send you to camps. So’s Glenn Beck; it’s just there to “increase slavery” and denigrate white people! Not to mention it’s a Big Government waste of money and postage. So register your protest and don’t send in your census form.

Residents of blue states: Congressional representation is determined by the Census. More people registered in blue states = more folks in Congress from those states. So send in your form, and make sure your neighbors do the same.

This message brought to you by the Bray New World Department of Civic Irresponsibility.

I was already under the working assumption that any Republican who rails against the gays is himself gay. Time after time, history has proven me right in this assumption. So really, yawn, shocker.

Republican state Sen. Roy Ashburn said Monday he is gay, ending days of speculation that began after his arrest last week for investigation of driving under the influence.

Ashburn, who consistently voted against gay rights measures during his 14 years in statewide office, came out in an interview with KERN radio in Bakersfield, the area he represents.

…Ashburn has voted against a number of gay rights measures, including efforts to expand anti-discrimination laws and recognize out-of-state gay marriages.

Last year, he opposed a bill to establish a day of recognition to honor slain gay rights activist Harvey Milk.

Equality California, a group that advocates for expanded gay rights and other issues, said it consistently gave Ashburn a 0 rating on its scorecard.

Note: I deliberately linked to the Faux News article to show how even they couldn’t shine this turd.

Sarah Palin’s family digs that Commie health care, alright:

My first five years of life we spent in Skagway, Alaska, right there by Whitehorse. Believe it or not — this was in the ’60s — we used to hustle on over the border for health care that we would receive in Whitehorse. I remember my brother, he burned his ankle in some little kid accident thing and my parents had to put him on a train and rush him over to Whitehorse and I think, isn’t that kind of ironic now. Zooming over the border, getting health care from Canada.

Markos Moulitsas chimes in:

Palin should reimburse Canada for the health care she stole without paying into their system.

Ever wonder what the RNC really thinks about its followers? Wonder no longer, as Politico has obtained a copy of the RNC’s fundraising plans.

The strategy was detailed in a confidential party fundraising presentation, obtained by POLITICO, which also outlines how “ego-driven” wealthy donors can be tapped with offers of access and “tchochkes.”

…The small donors who are the targets of direct marketing are described under the heading “Visceral Giving.” Their motivations are listed as “fear;” “Extreme negative feelings toward existing Administration;” and “Reactionary.”

Major donors, by contrast, are treated in a column headed “Calculated Giving.”

Their motivations include: “Peer to Peer Pressure”; “access”; and “Ego-Driven.”

With marriage equality now taking place in D.C., employers in D.C. will of course have to extend the same benefits to same-sex spouses as they do opposite-sex spouses.

The Archdiocese of Washington found this untenable. Health benefits? To the gays? What’s a Catholic employer to do?

Catholic Charities will continue to honor the health plan coverage that current employees have as of March 1, 2010. As of March 2, a new plan will be in effect that will cover new employees and requests for benefit changes by current employees. The new plan will provide the same level of coverage for employees and their dependents that you now have, with one exception: spouses not in the plan as of March 1, will not be eligible for coverage in the future.

That’s right — straight or gay, if your spouse wasn’t on the plan as of March 1, s/he can never, ever get health care coverage. See? Now they don’t have to give benefits to the gays — and it’s legal!

Yeah, that’s pretty much the embodiment of Christian charity right there.

Read on.

Rachel Maddow gives this terrific roundup of the Republicans who are expressing dismay at passing the health care bill — in direct contradiction of their own record. Whether it’s Sen. Grassley opposing his own proposal, or numerous Senators claiming that reconciliation is the end of the democratic process despite their repeated use of it in the past, the GOP hypocrisy is simply appalling, as is their apparent belief that we won’t notice their own voting records:

…that we need better consumer protection against the banks.

America’s finest news source, The Onion, brings us this editorial from House Minority Leader John Boehner:

It is my responsibility as an elected official to look out for the people back home, the voters who sent me to Washington. So, after 20 years representing Ohio’s 8th District, I know what the good citizens of Montgomery, Preble, and Butler counties really want: someone who engages in the kind of calculated political gamesmanship that increases his standing in the Republican party while simultaneously hindering our country’s legislative process at every conceivable turn.

I assure you, the last thing my voters need is some well intended, do-all-I-possibly-can-to-help-the-little-guy congressman running around Washington, working across the aisle, and fighting tooth and nail for jobs, health care, and financial reform to ensure their tax dollars never end up in the hands of banks capable of holding our entire economy hostage.

No, sir. My constituents deserve better.

They deserve a leader willing to roll up his sleeves and play the types of twisted, greedy political games that, by their very nature, tear apart the fabric of our democracy for the sake of assuring reelection.