Looks Like Donald Trump Has Some Records to Release

Just how did he dodge serving his country in Vietnam? By his own standards, The Donald’s past looks fishy:

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It is time to Shut Down the GOP – Past time, Actually

Here is some Modern Banana Republicanism in Action: A constitutional Ban against Affirmative Action Programs in State Government. Why? Simple. According to Oklahoma Republican, Sally Kern, Blacks don’t work as hard as white people.

Rep. Sally Kern, R-Oklahoma City, said minorities earn less than white people because they don’t work as hard and have less initiative.

“We have a high percentage of blacks in prison, and that’s tragic, but are they in prison just because they are black or because they don’t want to study as hard in school? I’ve taught school, and I saw a lot of people of color who didn’t study hard because they said the government would take care of them.”

Kern said women earn less than men because “they tend to spend more time at home with their families.”

This woman is not your random right blogger or wingnut commenter on a blog. She is an elected official in State government.

Do it now. Shut down the GOP.

Ryan’s Morally Bankrupt Vision

In Paul Ryan’s vision for America, taxes would be cut for the well off. This is a necessity in Ryan's view.

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Bumper sticker of the Day:

Liberalism is forever in search of a philosophy that can fit on a bumper sticker. It's always failing, because a philosophy of leaving the free market to work except in cases of market failure, and then attempting to determine which intervention best passes the cost-benefit test is never going to be simple.

Lamestream Media Figure Jonathan Chait

That really doesn’t fit on a bumper sticker. However Paul Ryan’s Budget Plan - “Ending Medicare as we Know it” ain’t bad.

Or how about this version of the GOP plan: What Would Jesus Cut? Taxes for rich folks and Medicare for everyone else. Probably still too long though for a bumper sticker.

President Obama Sends Federal Aid to Alabama

A White House Press Release:

Michelle and I extend our deepest condolences to the families of those who lost their lives because of the tornadoes that have swept through Alabama and the southeastern United States. Our hearts go out to all those who have been affected by this devastation, and we commend the heroic efforts of those who have been working tirelessly to respond to this disaster. I just spoke to Governor Bentley and told him that I have ordered the Federal Government to move quickly in our response and informed him that I approved his request for emergency Federal assistance, including search and rescue assets. While we may not know the extent of the damage for days, we will continue to monitor these severe storms across the country and stand ready to continue to help the people of Alabama and all citizens affected by these storms.

Last I heard, over 200 people lost their lives in last night’s storms.

More Conspiracy Theory from Today’s GOP

As if the Obama Birth Certificate Conspiracy was not enough to please some of the zanier characters making up the modern GOP, Sarah Palin has another one to feed the teabagging Base:

"Media: admit it, Trump forced the issue. Now, don't let the WH distract you w/the birth crt from what Bernanke says today. Stay focused, eh?" Reality T.V. Star Sarah Palin

Don’t fall for it media!

Obama planned to the Birth Certificate Conspiracy from the start in order to distract Real Americans, and at the right time when the people were the most distracted and implement an Obamunist Dictatorship.

Keep your eyes on the ball. Lamestream Media! It is a TRICK!

Comrade Frum is in Denial

It is time to shut the GOP down, now.

Quote of the Day

Even for the small band that sustained the phony controversy until now, the birth certificate so-called issue ends today.

Any last lingering doubts that maybe, perhaps, a pregnant Stanley Anne Dunham in the summer of 1961 boarded a propeller plane from Honolulu to Los Angeles, then from Los Angeles to New York City, then from New York City to Gander, then from Gander to London, then from London to Nairobi – and then repeated the trip backward a few weeks later – all so that her baby could acquire Kenyan nationality – those doubts are definitively squelched, as they should have been three years ago.

Now the more haunting question: How did this poisonous and not very subtly racist allegation get such a grip on our conservative movement and our Republican party?

RINO David Frum in desperate denial

Interesting question. Probably has something to do with the fact that in today’s information age there are fewer effective gate keepers. The grownups can’t control the propaganda and thus can no longer control the mob…...that they created. I think this is a case of reaping what one sows.

But Comrade Frum is not clued in on an obvious point. He is no longer a part of the conservative movement and no longer a member in good standing with the GOP. He has been purged. It is no long his conservative movement and his republican party. The inmates now own it. And as such, it is the duty of Comrade Frum and others of good faith to send the GOP into liquidation.

I Hate to Say I told You So……...but

Here is Newly Minted Liberal Bruce Bartlett** chiding his colleagues on Wall Street for investing in Right Wing Populism:

As the almost inevitable debt default is perhaps only weeks away, Wall Street types are finally becoming nervous. They should have known that supporting a bunch of not-too-bright, ignorant Tea Party members to Congress was not going to work out well. I tried to warn them. Following is an article I published last year warning people just how crazy these people are and some references to the debt limit/default issue. BB

Debt Default: It Can Happen Here

The Fiscal Times, June 11, 2010

The recent financial crisis in Greece has led to a lot of discussion about whether the United States might one day have a public debt so large that default becomes a real possibility. While the sort of problem Greece is experiencing is impossible here, we have another problem that, to my knowledge, no other nation on Earth has: a legal limit on government debt that Congress must raise periodically. This peculiarity of our fiscal system could indeed lead to a default on the debt, with repercussions that advocates of default — yes, they exist — have absolutely no clue about......

Unfortunately, Comrade Bartlett’s former colleagues in the GOP have spent a generation teaching its constituent groups that Cutting Taxes actually Raises Tax Revenue and that Government spending is always evil. Now that we have “a bunch of not-too-bright, ignorant Tea Party members [in] Congress," is it not surprising that the unwashed rabble will try to do in practice what they have been taught in theory? Not at all. Banksters you are on notice.

**Bruce Bartlett, though now a liberal, is still on double secret probation and has not been taught the secret passwords or handshakes, but it is clear that Comrade Bartlett is no longer a Conservative in Good Standing. However he does have the elitism thing down. “Ignorant Tea Party Members” - good job there, Bruce.

Dispatches from the wingnut-O-sphere

Quote of the Day:

A year ago, the conventional wisdom about Barack Obama was: a nice guy, but a weak president. That has been evolving, I think. The emerging conventional wisdom is: an awful president, and not that nice a guy, either. Not a great position from which to run for re-election next year.

~ Blogger John Hindraker @ Powerline Blog

Of course, Mr. Hindraker has not always been a fan of conventional wisdom. Once upon a time he broke with the conventional wisdom of the day about President George W Bush to instead declare him to be a Genius and the people to be wanting.

Opinions, everyone has one. But, man, I still can’t believe he called George Bush a genius……..and meant it. That is hardcore.

Remaking America in the Image of Mississippi is out………. for now.

News has hit the street that former Washington lobbyist and current Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour has announced that he won’t run for president.

Also out are my proposed Barbour campaign slogans: “It is time to Remake America in the Image of Mississippi” and Barbour’s "Mississippi Plan for America."

Oh well. But all is not lost. There is still a possibility that Judge Roy Moore will hitch up his Ten Commandments Monument on a trailer and take to the campaign trail. One can dream.

Confederate Memorial Day Trivia - Mississippi Edition

What group of people wishes the South would have won the Civil War?

According to a recent PPP poll, a plurality of Mississippi Republicans - that is who. I guess it is not surprising that Mississippi Republicans by a margin of 38% to 21% wish the war had ended the other way. The party of Lincoln ain’t the party of Lincoln anymore.

The real galling part of the poll was its finding that the almost a majority of those polled it know enough on the subject to answer the question one way or the other. But again, I believe Mississippi routinely ranks 50th in education for a reason.

Fmr Bush Speech Writer Michael Gerson is a Mean S.O.B.

Look what he writes about the Utopian Right Wing Ideology practiced by Paul Ryan and others:

Rand’s novels are vehicles for a system of thought known as Objectivism. Rand developed this philosophy at the length of Tolstoy, with the intellectual pretensions of Hegel, but it can be summarized on a napkin. Reason is everything. Religion is a fraud. Selfishness is a virtue. Altruism is a crime against human excellence. Self-sacrifice is weakness. Weakness is contemptible. “The Objectivist ethics, in essence,” said Rand, “hold that man exists for his own sake, that the pursuit of his own happiness is his highest moral purpose, that he must not sacrifice himself to others, nor sacrifice others to himself.”

If Objectivism seems familiar, it is because most people know it under another name: adolescence. Many of us experienced a few unfortunate years of invincible self-involvement, testing moral boundaries and prone to stormy egotism and hero worship. Usually one grows out of it, eventually discovering that the quality of our lives is tied to the benefit of others. Rand’s achievement was to turn a phase into a philosophy, as attractive as an outbreak of acne.

Mean. What did the Tea Party ever do to Gerson? Kick his dog? Oh well, if the shoe fits…

Tennessee Creationism Law Author turns his attention to …..

………The “Don’t Say Gay Act of 2011.”

This would be State Representative Bill Dunn. Don't say Gay it, man.

While this zany character wants to increase academic freedom by allowing and promoting Creationism in science class, he wants to limit discussion of other topics in schools. Under the Dunn led measure, it would be illegal to discuss, mention, provide written material on sexuality other than heterosexuality. I guess that’s why they call it, the “Don’t Say Gay Act.”

I wonder what this guy is going to do for an encore? He’s already down with creationism. Now he’s got the anti-gay street cred. What’s next? Perhaps a bill that punishes public university professors if they say, or God forbid teach, anything about “Global Warming” or “Climate Change.”

UPDATE: Dunn's Monkey Bill already addresses academic freedom for teaching Global Warming Denial Mythology in the class room. There is no word on punishing Tricksy Scientists in the bill, though. Still room for Dunn to shoot for the moon, here.

Happy Confederate Memorial Day America!

It’s going on today in Alabama (of course), Mississippi and Georgia. The lost cause dies slowly – really slowly in some parts of the world.

Of course folks in Alabama get to double their fun in 5 weeks when they get to celebrate Jefferson Davis Day, too. Awesome!

Public Enemy Number 1 wants to be President....someday

"Do I think that I have a vision for our country that would be one the American people would support? Yes. Do I think I have the ability to lead and be an executive and to get good people that you could trust, but then also really drill down on the things that matter? Yes. Am I gifted with a lot of rhetorical flair? Not really."

Tennessee Senator Bob Corker on a possible 2016 White House bid

I don’t want to rain on “Bailout Bob’s” parade, but

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Gingrich is in it to win it – ain’t ready for “Voucherized Medicare”

Word on the wing-net has Newt Gingrich moving away Representative Paul Ryan plan to end Medicare as we know it.

Via one the Zany Characters at the NRO:

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One-Third of Republicans Believe President Obama was born in the USA

A new poll shows that only one-third of GOP voters surveyed have a grasp on reality. Almost 50% said the President was born outside the USA with the remaining GOP voters too stupid to have an opinion.

How does something like this happen? The gatekeepers of the GOP have allowed their party to become dominated by conspiracy theory. They have failed their voters by keeping them stupid.

It is time to shut down the GOP.

Dispatches from the Rebellion

From Jefferson Davis’s farewell speech to the Senate, January 21, 1861- Jeff Davis tells us why Mississippi has chosen to secede from the Union. Hint: It was slavery, folks.

But don’t take my word, let Jeff tell you himself:

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Comrade Frum Brings the Heat

No Wonder this guy got kicked out of the GOP and its Wingnut Welfare Society.

Here is Comrade Frum addressing why Donald Trump polls high among Wingers: He’s ratcheting up extremism to meet market Demand. The GOP base wants anti-establishment craziness and will gravitate toward the candidate that brings it. Currently that is Trump, but it could be Bachmann, etc., tomorrow. Personally, I think the Lamestream Media is unfairly ignoring Roy Moore.

Here’s the thing Republican leaders and pundits need to understand. (I said it yesterday, but let’s say it again today.) America has not had a mass conversion to ideological libertarianism. Instead, Americans who feel robbed and duped by the series of financial and economic disappointments and disasters from the dot-com bubble*** onward are boiling with rage against their financial and political leadership. Conservative Americans express that rage in terms learned from talk radio and Fox News. But the fact that these conservative voters express their rage by talking about “debt” and “taxes” does not mean that they want what K Street wants: a Ryan budget that cuts spending on people like them to finance tax cuts for people much richer than them. They are just using familiar words to express a new and unfamiliar emotion of betrayal and resentment. The GOP establishment has successfully directed those emotions against the Obama administration. But there’s no guarantee that the emotions will remain fixed in that direction – because after all, the establishment GOP is offering little or nothing to allay the discontents producing the anger. Conservatives like liberals have suffered unemployment, the loss of savings, the decline in housing values. Conservatives like liberals find themselves suddenly poorer for reasons they do not understand. Conservatives like liberals fear and dread that Medicare and Social Security will soon be cut to rescue the country’s finances. If the GOP wants to finish Trump, GOP candidates had better learn to speak to those anxieties – to offer a remedy more effectual than the snake-oil now being peddled by Tim Pawlenty.

Comrade David Frum

*** I’d add Reaganomics to that list. The attitude that running high deficits is always preferable to taxes on rich folks has its current origins here.

Comrade Frum hits the point. The GOP does not address real world concerns. This is another area where the GOP has failed to serve its clientele. It has fed them mythology for a generation….. and enough of them believe in it to matter. Now the base wants the mythology - free market fundamentalism - implemented. But here is the kicker, they want the free market fundamentalism, but at the same time want the benefits of a modern welfare state.

It is time to shut down the GOP. Just shut it down.

Here is your definition of Free Market Fundamentalism:

(1) An ideology which holds that the Free-Market is all knowing, self correcting and virtuous. (2) The unshakable belief that unfettered markets maximize individual freedom, that they are the only means to economic growth and that society should adhere to specific ideas of societal progress as settled by the Free Unfettered Market. (3) The belief that markets tend towards a natural equilibrium, and that the best interests in a given society are achieved only by allowing its participants to pursue their own financial self-interest with no or little restraint or regulatory oversight. (4) To free market fundamentalists, rounding off the rougher edges of the effects of the free market through government regulation is an abomination. The prospect of Regulating of the Free Hand of the market is as arrogant as trying to control the invisible hand of God.

Free Market Fundamentalism is firmly embedded within the Modern Conservative Movement. It forms one pillar of the trinity of this Ideology along with Bullets and Bibles.

Quote of the Day:

"Yesterday on 'The Today Show', Gary Busey said that Donald Trump would make a great president. Experts say Trump needs to get the endorsements of Randy Quaid and Charlie Sheen, and he is set to go."

~ Conan O'Brien

Keep the Government out of Medicare!

They Mean it, too.

A new Poll shows Tea Party opposition to Medicare Cuts at 70%

Of course this is what Ryancare, the new GOP plan to end medicare as we know it and swap the beloved program for a voucher system and tax cuts for folks earning over $125K, does.

Armstrong Williams Botches Reconstruction 101

A person is not racist because he is against affirmative action. I am in favor of a colorblind society. That means excluding race as a factor in school admissions, hiring and every other aspect of American society. America got into trouble with Jim Crow laws that perpetuated racism after emancipation. Am I a racist because I am against affirmative action?

Armstrong Williams, Talking Head

It was the racism and insufficient federal enforcement of civil rights before Jim Crow that was the problem. That is where you trace it.

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A Theory about Conspiracy Theories

It is time to shut down the GOP. Really, it is.

Conspiracy theories take root when people feel they do not understand and cannot control the power centers of their society. Whether or not these conspiracy theories are true, they are not a joke--even if they sound like it. They're a symptom.

We've of late had some vigorous discussion on Ricochet about the hallmarks of a conspiracy theory. Unsurprisingly, it's hard to come up with a consensus definition. There is certainly a tradition of conspiracy-thought in America, too, but these ideas tend to be crowded out, fairly quickly, because we can look pretty closely at what our government is doing and we can usually understand it quite well.

Guest Writer at Powerline Blog writer about politics in Turkey

The guest writers at Powerline Blog are less zany than the regulars. Since that one guy who wrote the mean things about Native Americans resigned from the blog, they’ve broadened their horizons somewhat. One of the guest writers even disagreed with Hinderaker on Global Warming. It ain’t a hoax perpetrated by Tricksy Scientists, he wrote knowingly parting ways with official blog policy. Now another of them is writing about conspiracy theory at that blog.

I agree. About the Conspiracy Theory line above, that is. However the author could have easily used it to describe the regulars at Powerline Blog instead of politics in Turkey.

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It is Time to Shut Down the GOP, ctnd…

Just shut it down.

Compromise can be difficult if not impossible if one side believes, deeply, in a theological sense, that cutting taxes always increases tax revenue.

It's also a reminder of why meaningful, substantive debate seems so impossible right now -- there's no foundation of reality, shared by the left and right, to build upon. It's like being stuck on in an algebra class, and half the students are convinced arithmetic is a scam cooked up by communists. There's just not much to talk about after that.

Steve Benen

The same could be said about Climate Change and Evolution. If wingers find out what is taught in Anthropology classes at the Universities, I reckon they won’t be happy about that either.

Schism Alert!

RedState Blog Honcho, Erick Erickson is sticking it to House Speaker John Boehner:

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Just who is being Punished by Success?

Super rich see federal taxes drop

Still scrambling to file your taxes? You'll probably take little consolation in hearing that the super rich pay a lot less taxes than they did a couple of decades ago. And nearly half of U.S. households pay no income taxes at all.

The Internal Revenue Service tracks the tax returns with the 400 highest adjusted gross incomes each year. The average income on those returns in 2007, the latest year for IRS data, was nearly $345 million. Their average federal income tax rate was 17 percent, down from 26 percent in 1992.

Over the same period, the average federal income tax rate for all taxpayers declined to 9.3 percent from 9.9 percent.

The top income tax rate is 35 percent, so how can people who make so much pay so little in taxes?

[…]

In all, the tax code is filled with a total of $1.1 trillion in credits, deductions and exemptions, an average of about $8,000 per taxpayer, according to an analysis by the National Taxpayer Advocate, an independent watchdog within the IRS.

More than half of the nation's tax revenue came from the top 10 percent of earners in 2007. More than 44 percent came from the top 5 percent. Still, the wealthy have access to much more lucrative tax breaks than people with lower incomes.

Obama wants the wealthy to pay so "the amount of taxes you pay isn't determined by what kind of accountant you can afford."

Taxes would drop even lower for rich folks if RyanCare is implemented. Ryancare ends Medicare as we know it in order to pay for more tax cuts to those who have the most.

Rallying Calls Not Heard During the Civil War

"Pa, Pa, the Centralizers are coming! Quick, call out the Militia and rally the Decentralists!"

Though this could be a rallying cry for those updating “Lost Cause” ideology to fit in the 21^st Century.

In this ideology, yes, slavery was one of the causes for secession - but only one of the factors involved. Other factors such as the great struggle between the Centralists and Decentralists, gets overlooked if not purposefully ignored.

Today's lost causers seek to correct this error. This is a difficult tightrope to walk, given that race, slavery and the right to extend the institution of Slavery into new territories were the proximate causes of secession.

Santorum plagiarizes Gay Union Guy

Uh-oh.

Rick (in)Santorum in New Hampshire:

Santorum by and large stayed on message but was tripped up a bit when a student asked him if he knew that the choice of his slogan, "Fighting to make America America again," was borrowed from the "pro-union poem by the gay poet Langston Hughes."

"No I had nothing to do with that," Santorum said. "I didn't know that. And the folks who worked on that slogan for me didn't inform me that it came from that, if it in fact came from that."

The student, whose name was not immediately available, was referring to the poem "Let America Be America Again." When asked a short time later what the campaign slogan meant to him, Santorum said, "well, I'm not too sure that's my campaign slogan, I think it's on a web site."

It was also printed on the campaign literature handed out before the speech.

For some reason I have complete confidence that the homophobic Santorum didn’t know anything about this Poem. Though this factoid was in the news in 2004 when John Kerry briefly played around with the “Let America be America Again” line, I'm not blaming Rick.

While I do not suspect culpability on Santorum’s part, I do on the part of one Willard Milton Romney. This is exactly the type of sneaky thing we’ve come to expect from Romney. Until Romney can demonstrate his innocence (fat chance here), I will assume that the staffers who worked on the Santorum Slogan can be traced back to Willard - in some way. Bastard.

Santorum must stand up to Romney. Anything short of this is just appeasing him. No GOP primary voter will have an ounce of respect for Santorum if they feel that he’s an appeaser.

21st Century Lost Cause Ideology Debunked

It looks like The American Conservative Magazine has a Neo-confederate, an actual 21st Century Lost Causer, on the payroll. And according to the internets, a Mr. Jack Hunter has taken the time to ridicule a Rachael Maddow segment discussing the 150th anniversary of the civil war and push 21st Century Lost Cause Ideology at the same time. This ideology is an attempt to redirect the narrative of the civil war from slavery to other reasons.

We should debunk this 21st Century Lost Cause Ideology - a struggle between “Decentralists” against Centralists. I am not making this up. Its 110% grade A pure winguttery right form the internets.

One of the myths lost causers push to move the civil war narrative away from slavery is that the Southern States seceded from the Union because of “States Rights.” Today, adherents of the 21st Century Lost Cause, have sneakily updated this myth to mean a struggle over the concept of “centralization vs. decentralization”. The “Decentralist” struggle against the “Centralists” takes the place of the old “States Rights” narrative which held that the 7 Lower South (cotton producing) states first seceded from the Union due to the encroaching Federal Power. The Civil War, or rebellion, occurred as a result of a conceptual battle over the role of government; sure slavery was likely involved but these abstractions were also a central cause. But this is not an accurate portrayal of the motivations behind secession.

Slavery was the cause of Secession. It is not a coincidence that the seven states producing the most cotton, sugar, tobacco, rice for international commerce seceded first. The men in the secession conventions who debated and voted to secede from the Union were not caught up in a “centralization vs. decentralization” debate. They were taking action to protect slavery where it existed and to reserve the right to extend it into new lands. If anything, secession advocates were offended by the lack of Federal power to protect slavery.

And it shows from the periodicals of the time.

Take this passage from a Richmond Newspaper, published in December 1860 just prior to South Carolina’s Declaration of Secession:

A constitutional Monarchy.

--A correspondent of the Columbus (Ga.) Times advocates that the proposed Southern Confederacy shall be organized as a "Constitutional Monarchy." Republicanism, he thinks, has been tried and found wanting, and the only safety of the South is in a "strong government." A correspondent of the Enquirer, published at the same place, thinks that if the South wants a King, it should "get a descendant of George the Third." Mr. Bartow, a secession leader in Georgia, advocates a "strong, consolidated government," and the abolition of all State governments in the Southern Confederacy. --"Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind."

A “Strong Government,” “the abolition of State Governments,” a constitutional monarchy under descendant of King George III are all proposed for the future governance of the Confederacy.

Want of a “strong government” or of a strong federal role to protect the Peculiar Institution of Slavery was not uncommon in many parts of the Southern States. The fear of slave revolts was one reason. Extension of the institution of slavery outside the Southern States and into the territories and beyond was another reason. The want of a FEDERAL slave code that would be enforced by the FEDERAL government was another. The common denominator was always Slavery. Without the want to extend slavery, do you think the folks from Georgia would be pining to be ruled by a king?

If one were to look at the South Carolina declaration of secession, you would see that one of the reasons used to justify secession was outrage over the lack of enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act in the Northern States. The declaration lists the states that representatives from South Carolina thought flaunted FEDERAL power. These Northern States were not doing enough to enforce the law States Rights grounds and the South Carolinians were Outraged by the lack of Federal Enforcement of the Laws. Again we are talking Slavery here. Without slavery would there be any Issues with enforcement of a "Fugitive Slave Act?"

Another example of the lameness of the Loss Cause Myth can be found by read the various Compromise measures debated in the lead up to secession. These compromise measures typically proposed increasing FEDERAL power in order to protect property interests in Slavery to calm the fears of secession advocates.

The war started because slavery folks. That’s just the way it was. But you don’t have to take my word. Just ask Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens what the Confederacy was about. He’ll tell you:

Those ideas [from the Declaration of Independence], however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the idea of a Government built upon it, when the 'storm came and the wind blew, it fell.'

Our new Government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man. That Slavery, -- subordination to the superior race, is his natural and moral condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.

Ask Stephen H. Hale, Alabama Secession Commissioner sent to Kentucky to convince people to join seceding states. Does he talk of the great Decentralization v. Centralization struggle? He talks about White Supremacy instead.

And when you go back and read the periodicals of the times, you usually find that slavery, the extension of slavery and the economics of slavery were the motivations of the proponents of secession. Maybe there is also something in the literature about the arcane “centralization vs. decentralization” struggle, but I haven’t seen it. Probably because that theme would conflict with the rationale I provided above.

Those were the reasons they gave. And this 21st Century Lost Cause non-sense needs to be nipped in the bud and sent to a course of ultimate extinction.

Boehner Doom Warning in Effect

Will the Tea Party turn on House Speaker John Boehner?

To me it would only be fitting. After all it has been John Boehner who has led the effort to deceive these brave and patriotic tea drinking Americans into believing the Center-Right Health Insurance Reform was a “Government Takeover Over of Healthcare.” He’s lied to these folks and it is only fitting that he bear the brunt of their anger once they understand that he’s played them as rubes.

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Just Telling it how it is

On the Presidents outline to address the budget deficit:

But hey — sometimes the truth hurts. And all Obama did was speak the simple truth. In the past decade, Republicans slashed taxes, started two wars, approved a big unfunded entitlement, and presided over an economic collapse that cratered tax revenues and required massive government spending to counteract. That's pretty much 100% of our existing deficit problem right there. All we're doing now is trying to clean up the mess the GOP has left us.

Kevin Drum

When President Bush assumed office in 2001, his predecessor handed him a Full House and a mountain of chips. When President Obama took office in 2009, his predecessor handed him a pair of two’s and a mountain of IOUs.More specifically President Bush entered Office with over a Trillion Dollar(conservative estimate) projected Surplus and left office with several Trillions of Dollars in projected deficits. There were structural deficits as far as the eye could see when President Bush left town. This is what happened. This is fact.

In the spring of 2009 when the folks making up the Tea Party Protest Movement (i.e, the GOP base)started raising a ruckus, their main complaints boiled down to fact that President Obama had not immediately cleaned up the mess his predecessor left behind and that emergency measures were needed to keep the economy from completely collapsing. Two months into office with the country running on President Bush’s last budget, the brave and patriotic Tea Partiers were enraged at President Obama for the state of the nation’s finances.

But it was the Bush years that created this generational challenge we face today to put the country's house back in order. Let’s recap.

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Quote of the Day:

"I think Donald Trump is going to run for president. .... Nothing says 'future leader of the free world' like a guy who can't stop a fight between Meat Loaf and Gary Busey."

~ Conan O'Brien

At Least He Didn’t Do Infomercials – Will the GOP nominee be a Loon or Establishment Pick

At least I don’t think Rick Santorum did infomercials to turn a buck since being turned from office. While he did win some sort of a presidential preference poll in one of the darker red parts of the map recently, he has had some odd jobs as of late. Dave Weigel recollects:

Three years ago, I remember meeting Rick Santorum in a booth at the Values Voter Conference, helping advertise a V-Chip-esque product. He looked as miserable as any ex-politician I've ever seen. A young conservative sidled up as we were talking, and informed Santorum of the new website she was putting together.

"It's called Catholic-dom."

"Catholic-dom?" he said, looking simultaneously bored and confused.

"Like Christendom, but Catholic," she said.

One of the far right candidates has a shot at the nomination. Before Bachmann entered the race, my bet would be that Santorum had a shot at winning the nomination. I’m not sure now. Sarah Palin was always a joke, but she’s fun to have around. Her reality show was hilarious - at the least the episode and a half that I watched were.

There is a theory under one of the schools of thought in Political Science, that holds that party preferences tend to moderate with time out of office. Generally it holds that the longer your party has been shut out, the more moderate that party voters tend to be in selecting a candidate. There is group think and what not going on, I believe. The converse is also believed to be true – the party will tend to nominate a more ideological candidate if it has only been out of office a short the period of time – like now. If this pattern holds, a winger has a shot in a GOP primary. I think this is especially the case now, with the GOP winning the last election. Its voters are likely susceptible to believe their own propaganda rather than to realize that president’s party usually does badly in midterms and that economic conditions, jobs, etc are the drivers in elections.

I am not an expert on the topic, but I read books instead of burning them. This is just a theory advanced by a pointy headed college professor from an elitist coastal university. The Political Scientists use statistics and charts and other fancy pants learning devices to come up with this stuff. Now I know that all good right wingers should be suspicious of anything that is “just a theory” like global warming, evolution and gravity, but I generally reckon that the Egg Heads know a little more than me, having spent their careers in that type book learning.

Right now the GOP field is crowded with Loons, retreads, no-names and other unimpressive folks. So who knows what will happen. My guess is that Romney will somehow weasel his way to victory. That is what he does best – weasel. The GOP establishment has to back somebody and Willard Romney or the no-name guy – the former Governor of Saskatchewan or Minnesota or wherever he’s from - seem to be as likely a choice as anyone. They could back Haley Barbour, but I just don’t see Haley’s Campaign slogan to “Remake America in the Image of Mississippi” catching fire. Sorry Mississippi. Coming in 50^th on all the Good Lists and 1^st on all the Bad Lists has its price.

Who knows?

UPDATE: Excommunicated Republican David Frum provides the evidence that the bases is unwilling to compromise on ideology. The GOP primary voter believes:

"(1) American freedom stands in imminent danger of disappearing into totalitarian night; and (2) that the vast majority of the great and good American people are yearning for a mighty rollback of big government, even at considerable personal sacrifice."

And that the past has not happened. Previous defeats and the polls were due straying from principle. Stay the course.

Dispatches from the wingnut-O-sphere: Comrade Moe is Shrill

Reacting to the President’s outline to close the budget gap, RedState Blog Apparatchik Moe Lane emotes:

Apparently, being forced to abandon his happy-shiny 2011 budget has made the President… well, Obama was already “petulant,” and “more petulant” doesn’t have the same ring to it. “Childish” or “adolescent” are both overused. “Labile” sounds dirty. Let’s go with “imbalanced;” it has a certain ring to it. […]

My recommendation, going forward? Democrats: cut the President out of the loop. His presence in this discussion insults both parties at this point. Send him off to a permanent round of golf games and trips to various parts of the country: Obama hates his job anyway, so letting him know that from now on all he has to do is sign papers on cue will probably relieve him somewhat. In the meantime… well, God help us, there’s always Joe Biden* for domestic policy. I am disgusted that we are now in a situation where going with Joe Biden looks good as a strategy in comparison, but this is where we are now…

I usually don’t comment on Comrade Moe’s work due to the rule on nutpicking, but this was really kinda sweet coming from Dear Moe. My advice to Moe? There are a lots folks out there who are not willing to support any compromise that ends Medicare. It is that simple. The President was not delivering any earth shattering breaking news yesterday, he was only reiterating a commonly held view of, I believe, the majority of Americans.

Poor Moe.

My RedState Blog Rule on Nutpicking in a Nutshell, if you, will is this:

Nutpicking, i.e., using a specific loopy post written by an obvious loon (i.e., the “Nut”) to discredit all so-called conservative activists across the board. You see the Nut is not your typical nut – he actually a more nutty variety of nut and is thus not typical of mainstream Wingnuts. When you use the Nut as a basis of proof for your argument you do the opposite of proving your point.

Mockery is OK, but with that said, I generally ignore most posts on RedState due to the extra-nutty variety of nutters known to inhabit that Blog. Erick Erickson, nuttiness aside, he is always acceptable to mock because he is the head honcho of that motley crew. Sure he threatens jihad (or Teahad as the case may be) now and again in the name of vile and debauched teabaggery, is known to threaten census workers with shot guns and calls supreme court justices goat fvcking child molesters on a occasion. But hey you got to mock someone at RedState and he is the most deserving candidate. Besides mockery is OK and plus he gets on TV via the Wingnut Welfare Circuit.

One Good Thing about the President's Speech

Wingnuttery of the Week

President Obama’s speech today was reminiscent of Stalin’s Order Number 227 to the Russian generals at the Battle of Stalingrad: “Not One Step Backward.”

Essentially, the president declared that he still wants to raise taxes, that he is opposed to any substantive changes to entitlements — oh, and he wants to raise taxes. He did suggest that if somehow he hasn’t been able to cut spending by 2014 (anyone taking bets?), he would appoint a commission to recommend spending cuts and (surprise) tax increases. A commission: Now there’s an original idea.

Michael Tanner – NRO GUY commenting on President Obama deficit reduction speech

I did not know that Stalin liked commissions. However I think they may have been call "soviets" or some such term back in olden times. Learn something new everyday.

But I think that the NRO guy is right and this is a debate to have.

What's the best way to address the current budget shortfalls. There are a couple of approaches on the table such as the Ryan Roadmap (one of the two options below) and one kinda like the President talked about.

Which approach would you prefer?

Option 1	vs	Option 2
Hoover Administration sized Government		Clinton Administration sized Government
Tax Increases for poor folks and the Middle class		Keep the current tax cuts for poor folks and most of the middle class
More Tax Cuts for the Wealthy		Tax Increases for the Wealthy
Costly Privatized Medicare and Deep Medicaid Cuts		Keep Medicare and Medicaid, use measures like those in the ACA to increase efficiency
32 Million Cut from access to Health Insurance		Maintain access to affordable health insurance so folks aren't prevented from buying it
Substantial Cuts to the Social Safety Net		Keep Unemployment Insurance, Pell grants, food stamps, etc.,
Minimal Deficit Reduction		Meaningful Deficit Reduction

Add in only small defense cuts under option 1 and a return to Clinton Era Defense spending in Option 2 and this seems like a pretty easy question to answer in my opinion. I wonder which side the majority of folks will come down on.

Conan O’Brien is a Bully, He is Mean and an Elitist, too…….., probably

A cheap shot against Poor Mitt Romney:

This is Uncalled For, but funny.

Tea Bag Outfit issues WARNING

Just Telling it Like it is, Man.

One of the nation's largest Tea Party groups is warning congressional Republicans to watch their right flank ahead of a final vote this week on the long-term budget deal that averted a government shutdown.

Mark Meckler, co-founder of Tea Party Patriots, says dissatisfaction with the budget deal has local activists already seeking out primary challengers to sitting House GOP members who are supporting the deal.

"I'm literally getting emails by the hour from people talking about primary challenges," Meckler told The Ballot Box

[…]

If a "yes" vote on the budget compromise has activists across the country irked, Meckler suggested a "yes" vote on raising the debt ceiling could be enough to officially bring out the primary challenges. Many House Republicans are already talking tough on the impending debt-ceiling vote, but some at the grassroots level have expressed disappointment that House leaders have all but conceded that the limit must be raised.

"I think it all will become clearer after the debt-ceiling debate," Meckler said. "Either the folks in there now will do the right thing, or we'll give up and start looking for the next round of people to elect."

These Brave and Patriotic folks say they mean business. After the debt ceiling is raised, I guess a whole mess of ‘em will need to start getting ready for the 2012 primaries. It could be a freak show.

The Honorable Lindsey Graham of the Charleston Grahams is Mad

Check that. Everyone knows he’s a little mad, but I meant to say that he’s angry. Really Angry:

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was down right incensed over the decision not to include a mere $50,000 for an Army Corps of Engineers study on deepening the Port of Charleston in his home state and vowed to “tie the Senate in knots” by holding up Obama administration nominations.

Graham started a string of angry tweets about the omission early Monday. By the end of the day, he had held a press conference on the issue in Charleston, S.C., and was blaming the Obama administration for failing to include the funding in its budget proposal released in February, arguing that 260,000 jobs are tied to the port.

“Obama Admin made a bad mistake not putting money for CHS port in their budget proposal,” he wrote.

“No nominations go forward in Senate until we address CHS port,” he tweeted, noting that the provision was not an earmark and applied to a dozen ports across the U.S.

Get that man an Earmark pronto!

[h/t] Goes to the Right Wing Blog known as Powerline Blog for passing on the new nickname for Senator Graham. There may be Grahamnesty fatigue in the wing-net – thus the awesome new handle. Thanks Wingers!

The Ryan Plan is not about Deficit Reduction

Jon Chait via the Beast

When Ryan warns of the specter of collapse, he is not merely referring to the alarming gap between government outlays and receipts, as his admirers in the media assume. (Every policy change of the last decade that increased the deficit—the Bush tax cuts, the Medicare prescription-drug benefit, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq—Ryan voted for.) He is also invoking Rand’s almost theological certainty that when a government punishes the strong to reward the weak, it must invariably collapse. That is the crisis his Path to Prosperity seeks to avert.

This is what the Ryan Budget Plan is about: Radically Reordering Society. To borrow from Sarah Palin, Ryan believes that America is so imperfect that he wants to radically remake her institutions in order to perfect her people.

In a sense, one can say that Ryan is not all that concerned about debt anyway. He voted for every policy change of the last decade that increased the deficit—the Bush tax cuts, the Medicare prescription-drug benefit, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Ryan is simply a Utopian inhabiting a fantasy world based on the fears and observations of a Russian immigrant and her experiences after the Communist revolution in Russia. But Ayn Rand’s fears and fictional tales have as much use in 2011 as do Karl Marx’s observations of English factory work during the 1840s. They may be interesting, helpful in understanding the past – but provide no basis for ordering society around.

However, unlike Marxists debating whether current economic conditions are conducive for the revolution of the proletariat to commence and ultimately deciding to that conditions are not yet ripe - more time is always be required for the proletariat to reach class consciousness in such debates, Ryan is unwilling to wait to start his revolution – his wingnutopian revolution. He wants his Utopia to begin today. He even has a roadmap for it – end Medicare as we know it, safety net cuts which pay for tax cuts for the most wealthy Americans.

Ryan casts these cuts as an incentive for the poor to get off their lazy butts. He insists that we “ensure that America’s safety net does not become a hammock that lulls able-bodied citizens into lives of complacency and dependency.” It’s worth translating what Ryan means here. Welfare reform was premised on the tough but persuasive argument that providing long-term cash payments to people who don’t work encourages long-term dependency. Ryan is saying that the poor should not only be denied cash income but also food and health care.

The class tinge of Ryan’s Path to Prosperity is striking. The poorest Americans would suffer immediate, explicit budget cuts. Middle-class Americans would face distant, uncertain reductions in benefits. And the richest Americans would enjoy an immediate windfall. Santelli, in his original rant, demanded that we “reward people [who can] carry the water instead of drink the water.” Ryan won’t say so, but that’s exactly what he’s doing.

It's not about the deficit folks.

Watch out for the Bubble

Quote of the Day

"I really believe ObamaCare is the most important issue in this election," Santorum said during an interview on "Fox and Friends" Tuesday morning. "It is the turning point for our country. We better have a candidate who is out there and very, very strong in opposition to government-run healthcare and focuses on healthcare that centers on you, not on the government."

Rick (in)Santorum sticking it to Mitt Romney on the 5 year anniversary of “RomneyCare.”

With the most Zany Wingers, America is always at a “Turning Point.” Newt Gingrich recently claimed that the next election was so important that it compared in consequence to the election of 1860 which brought Abraham Lincoln to the White House. Presumably, this next election can save America if the right folks get elected. If not, Gingrich warns, America could turn into a Secular Atheistic Radical Islamic Nation. It is always the same thing with these people – can’t see outside of the bubble. That’s what the right wing counter culture does – it’ll get you. Look at Santorum.

Nationalized Romneycare is a prefect example. It is truly frightening to wingers, today, not because center right health insurance reform is a threat to FREEDOM, but because a Democratic President accomplished this reform. When Willard Milton Romney implemented RomneyCare, many wingers praised it at the time. And why not, Romneycare was originally cooked up in right wing think tanks in the early 1990s. But today it is scary, because the news inside the bubble demands it to be so.

If the financial collapse that hit in the fall of 2008 had held off a couple of months until just after election day in November, and John McCain had managed to squeak by and win the Presidential election, wingers would be signing a different tune today. One can imagine Health and Human Services Secretary Romney implementing nationalized RomneyCare as part of President McCain’s health reform. Wingers like Santorum, my guess is, would be cheering this reform and not castigating it as government run healthcare.

But that’s what the bubble does to them. It’ll get you and make you believe that doom is just around the corner. Poor fella’. It must be a tough way to live your life - living inside an information bubble. If only President Obama had put more stimulus money in education, maybe a new government run education program could have helped folks like Santorum escape the bubble. I guess we'll never know what could have been.