Attack Dog Arriving in GOP Primary?

It is one thing to say that a napkin is not a paper towel or even a car or that chairs are also not cars. Even if you call a chair a car or a paper towel, it does not make it true, dammit. A napkin is a napkin! Everybody knows this.

It is another thing to attack your rivals and last night, Rick Santorum decided to attack on George Bush Rick Perry.

"In that evolution, we have lost a lot of good-paying jobs that supported families that allowed for upward mobility.

I think that's one of the things that people are saying.

You know, look at Governor Perry, and he talks about his unemployment rate, but a lot of those jobs were dead-end jobs that that were not resulting in a growing economy in the middle.

And that's where manufacturing comes in, and we need to make things in America."

Yes this is weak but it is a start. But if Rick Santorum is truly serious about setting up a Theocracy based upon his understanding of catholic doctrine, he needs to step up his game. Otherwise it will be Perry who gets to set up the Theocracy based upon fundamentalist protestant theology. Rick surely does not want this to happen, so he better get serious. The rest of us are, of course, screwed either way.

Deep Thoughts about Christine O'Donnell, who is not a witch…..

Fame is fleeting. The hero who is toasted and cheered by the crowd today is met with apathy tomorrow. The world moves on. Christine O’Donnell, the thrice-failed Tea Party Senate candidate from Delaware, is a living, breathing, case study in what ails our civilization.

Her ability to say the most ridiculous things very earnestly while conveying certainty and conviction on television has been amply rewarded. She has discussed masturbation, mice-human hybrids of superior intelligence, not lying to the Nazi’s if they knocked on your door and asked if you were hiding Anne Frank in the attic, and most famously, talk about dates to bloody satanic alters in high school.

Despite an absence of meaningful personal and professional accomplishments, or even steady employment, she has never lacked the attention of the cameras. She seemed, even before her failed Senate bids, to always be able to book a guest appearance on some cable show.

However, even the Tea Party has realized that O’Donnell is an embarrassment.

A Frum Forum Guy

It took the teabaggers quite a while to figure this out. The problem is, however, they're bound to fall for it again when the next flake comes along spouting anti-government rhetoric and simple solutions to complex problems. Nope, I say the Tea Party picked her, elevated her and made her famous. She belongs to them now. There will be no divorce allowed.

Foxnews is Bad for You in many ways

I suspect it is bad for one's health, but it is also bad for the wallet as well.

One of the rightwing talking points of the past two years touches on the coming onslaught of inflation. Inflation is coming warns, Sarah Palin, and its going to destroy your household budget. Pretty soon you won't be able to afford Milk or Soap or Slim Jims or anything else on your grocery list, all because of President Obama. He is bad. Be afraid. And so on and so forth.

This is of course, bullshit. Inflation projections appear to be quite low for the foreseeable future. But this reality, didn't stop the Foxnews or the AM Radio or the WSJ editorial page from, as Nathan Bedford Forrest* would say "Keeping Up the Scare" about the inflationary menace. If you can score points against the other side, does it really matter that in keeping up the scare, your views/listeners/readers become misinformed? Actually it does.

This reminds us that living within right wing counter culture, with its attendant horrors such as fearing inflation or death panels when the threat of neither exist, comes with a price. Simply put, getting one's news from a Foxnews program or from another rightward source can be bad for you.

Exemplifying just what the right wing counter culture can to do a person is none other than Majority Leader Eric Cantor. According to the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Cantor, frightened of inflation and firmly living within right wing counter culture, made a $150,000 bet. In December of 2009, he bet against US treasury bonds and on future inflation by purchasing a fund that correspond to twice the inverse (opposite) of the daily performance of the Barclays Capital 20+ Year U.S. Treasury Bond Index. In other words he bet on a fund that would do quite well should the onslaught of inflation come to pass and do very poorly in the absence of such an onslaught. What are the results of Cantor's bet? Cantor's 2009 investment of $150,000 would be worth about $75,000 today due to the lack of inflation. A bad bet indeed.

There is a price to be paid for believing in the wingnuttery. Unfortunately, I do not believe Mr. Cantor will learn from the error of his ways.

* /cheapshot> This reference to a Confederate General is in no way an attempt to associate the old timey conservatism of the past with the conservatism of today's crazy crowd. It is just a mean-spirited jab on my part.

Operation Batshit is in Disarray in South Carolina

Perry Locking down GOTP Base voters:

There might not be a state that betters symbolizes the fundamental shift that's occurred in the Republican Presidential race over the last few months than South Carolina. When PPP last polled there in early June, Mitt Romney led everyone in the field by at least 15 points. But now with Rick Perry's entry Romney has lost almost half of his support. That leaves Perry with a 20 point lead- he's at 36% to 16% for Romney, 13% for Michele Bachmann, 9% for Herman Cain, 8% for Newt Gingrich, 5% for Ron Paul, 4% for Rick Santorum, and 2% for Jon Huntsman.

Karl Rove's hair must be on fire! He desperately needs to peel away some of the crazy vote that is consolidating around Perry and hope that Romney is able to weasel his way to victory with 25% of the vote or so.

Maybe even more craziness is needed in the race to dilute the number of crazy voters consolidating around Perry. Perhaps Sarah Palin is last best hope for Karl and operation batshit.

Witch HUNT!

The persecution of Christine O'Donnell continues and this time it is low down dirty Teabaggers that are sticking it to her:

Former U.S. Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell will not speak at a tea party event featuring former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in Indianola, Iowa, this weekend, an organizer told Washington Wire.

“I made a mistake,” said Ken Crow, president of Tea Party of America. “I assumed there was an open slot and there wasn’t.”

Monday night, Mr. Crow told Washington Wire that Ms. O’Donnell would appear.

Tea Party of America’s cofounder, Charlie Gruschow, said the group withdrew Ms. O’Donnell’s after receiving numerous “emails from a lot of tea party folks that were very disappointed that she would be speaking.”

“We decided not to have her speak,” Mr. Gruschow said. “We felt it was in the best interest of the movement.”

Once the Lamestream Media started this Persecution, now everyone is joining in - even the Filthy Teabaggers. Have these people no shame? Outrageous!

Cheney Rewrites History

I think George Will’s suggestion that Cheney should have apologize in his forthcoming book for his conduct in office is apropos. But about that book, I found this quote interesting:

“There have been nearly ten generations since the country’s founding, and each succeeding in overcoming great challenges. All that I have seen in my time tells me that we will as well – but it is not inevitable. We hear warning after well-founded warning that we are living beyond our means, but we have not shown the political will to change that. Therein lies a danger not only for us but for generations to come whom we are burdening in ways our forebears would never have thought to burden us.”

Dick Cheney

I wonder if the wars fought on the country's credit card, borrowing money from China to pay for a prescription drug plan for seniors and the Bush Tax cuts for rich folks had anything to do with burdening our forebears with debt. Without these spending priorities the budget would be close to being in the black. But back then it was, as Cheney quipped, “Deficits don’t matter.” That was then and today we have to clean up their mess.

But all of this is particularly rich coming from Cheney, remembering that the Bush Cheney 2000 campaign warned about the dangers of budgetary surpluses during the campaign. These guys even promised to save America from these horrors by spending every penny of the Clinton Budget surpluses if elected. That is one campaign promise George kept.

It is gonna take a generation to recover from the calamities that occurred during Dick’s time in office.

Are Red States in a state of Cultural Decline?

A compelling report is out indicating the possibility of just that possibility. A new Report Tracking Divorce Rates is out.

Which states top the list:

1. Oklahoma

2. Arkansas

3. Alaska

4. Alabama

5. Kentucky

6. Nevada

7. Mississippi

8. Georgia

9. Tennessee

10. Arizona

What do the states on the list have in common? Hint: it ain't gay marriage.

What stood out was the high correlation between poverty and divorce.

Overall, the report shows that people living in northeastern states have lower marriage and divorce rates. And while those in the southern states are more likely to get married, they also have higher divorce rates.

Our analysis suggests that the difficult economic conditions of many southern states drives the divorce rate higher because residents tend to be poorer. The states with particularly high divorce rates have below median household income as well as a high proportion of the population living below the poverty line. In the other states where divorce rates are high and poverty is not a predominant factor, such as Nevada, the reason may have to do with liberal divorce laws.

The eggheads can do their studies and report their findings that Poverty and Divorce rate go hand in hand. Fine, but why should we believe these know-it-all types. In my opinion I see this report as a sign of Cultural Decline in certain parts of America.

It is Time for Newt to be sent to live out the rest of his days on a Farm, Cntd

Some one has to say it:

For many of us who got our start in politics around the Republican Revolution of 1994, it is kind of sad to see Newt Gingrich neither victorious nor really beaten nor vanquished — then it would at least have been a momentous fight. That would have had some catharsis to it.

He’s just out of gas. He fizzled without so much as a flash in the pan. How does that happen to a guy who once was the most powerful Republican in America?

RedState Honcho and Lamestream Media figure, Erick Erickson

What happened to Newt is that as a Fraud, his shelf life was always limited. He's been done ever since fellow Republicans forced him out of office in the late1990s. You pretty much cannot lead your Party in an Impeachment Quest against a President for a blowjob when you are also carrying on an affair with a staffer near half your age.

A Napkin is a Napkin and not a Paper Towel or a Car, goddammit, everyone knows this

Rick Santorum declares and then denounces Jihad against Rick Santorum:

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said the gay community has "gone out on a jihad" against him for his stance against gay marriage.

"So the gay community said, 'He's comparing gay sex to incest and polygamy, how dare he do this,' and they have gone out on a, I would argue, jihad against Rick Santorum since then," the former senator said at a campaign stop in Spartanburg, S.C., on Friday.

Santorum (R-Pa.) has been an outspoken critic of both Lawrence v. Texas, a 2003 Supreme Court decision that struck down state sodomy laws, and state laws that allow gay marriage.

"I said, 'This is a napkin. A napkin is what a napkin is. It isn't a paper towel. It isn't a car.' You can call a napkin a car, but it doesn't make it a car. You can call a paper towel a chair, but it doesn't make it a chair. Marriage is what marriage is," Santorum said.

This is Simply Awesome Wingnuttery from Rick. But if Rick is truly upset about this Jihad, my advice to Rick is to stop discriminating against Gay Folks. I promise him that none of them are trying to deny him the right to be married.

But on the other hand, Rick is way behind in the Polls. He could use his declaration of jihad against himself to compete for GOTP base voters. You have a declared Jihad and you have gay marriage. Both are sure to scare the bejesus out of GOTP base voters. He should blend the two themes together and really pump out some crazy(ier) rhetoric. Let's face it, it is all he's got.

[h/t Rick Santorum]

George Bush Redux is doomed to failure, Cntd

via balloon-juice

He's Got the Obama Derangement Syndrome and Really Bad, Man

Powerline Blogger John Hinderaker sees this picture, and his Obama Derangement Syndrome gets the better of him yet again, (sigh):

I’m sure it’s a relief to everyone on the East Coast to know that Obama is personally directing hurricane response efforts. Never mind that he isn’t competent to organize a Little League baseball team; today’s charade obviously is a corollary of the Hurricane Katrina fiasco, in which America’s mass media committed group malpractice, somehow managing to blame the inevitable consequences of a severe weather event, magnified by incompetent local authorities in New Orleans, on the Bush administration. Obama is setting the stage to receive praise, rather than blame, no matter what actually happens between now and when Hurricane Irene blows itself out.

This is one more step in the degradation of American politics. One hundred years ago, people understood that the president had nothing to do with hurricanes. Now, the president is expected to pretend to have control over more or less everything. This has something to do with the inexorable expansion of federal power, and also something to do with the dumbing-down of the American people

Powerline Blog, John Hinderaker, Esq.

I wasn't reading the Powerline Blog during the Hurricane Katrina Debacle. But this is the event, the final straw so to speak, that convinced folks that the Emperor, George W Bush, wasn’t wearing any clothes. You see after years of telling America that she was constantly under threat of a domestic catastrophe, and that he was the only one capable of protecting her, when disaster struck in the form of Hurricane Katrina, George Bush was AWOL. He was on vacation, then he was out and about doing fund raisers and then 3 days after the storm hit, a staffer corralled him into watching a DVD compilation of news footage showing unburied bodies lying on the streets and other scenes of devastation and human misery. That's when he decided to go back on the beat.

Was Bush to blame for the disaster? While the Federal response was undoubtedly slow, the Canadians would send aid and the Mexican Army would roll across the Rio Grande to fill the vacuum, it would be unfair to lay 100 percent of the blame at his feet. Who would have thought that the Federal Government would be so impotent that it would need to rely on a foreign army to cross our borders and provide relief to suffering Red-blooded Americans? This was indeed surprising.

The media did not conduct malpractice by showing suffering on the nightly news or by reporting that actor Sean Penn was organizing relief efforts to match those organized by Canadian mounties or by reporting that columns of foreign troops were rolling northward toward the disaster zone. Americans were outraged at what they saw on TV and Bush never recovered their confidence.

But this is all in the past. The eggheads that study Political Science tell us that folks tend to judge a President by the manner in which he responds to a disaster. Is this fair? What does fairness have to do with anything. Take this example from 1916 showing, through the dark witchery of science, that voters punished Woodrow Wilson for his lackadaisical handling of the Summer of Terror.

The science tells us that voters ain't always rational:

Voters have great difficulty judging which aspects of their own and the country’s well-being are the responsibility of elected leaders and which are not. In the summer of 1916, for example, a dramatic week long series of shark attacks along New Jersey beaches left four people dead. Tourists fled, leaving some resorts with 75 percent vacancy rates in the midst of their high season. Letters poured into congressional offices demanding federal action; but what action would be effective in such circumstances? Voters probably didn’t know, but neither did they care. When President Woodrow Wilson—a former governor of New Jersey with strong local ties—ran for reelection a few months later, he was punished at the polls, losing as much as 10 percent of his expected vote in towns where shark attacks had occurred.

New Jersey voters’ reaction to shark attacks was dramatic, but hardly anomalous. Throughout the 20th century, presidential candidates from incumbent parties suffered substantial vote losses in states afflicted by droughts or wet spells. Shenkman argues that “‘throw the bums out’ may not be a sophisticated response to adversity but it is a rational one.” However, punishing the president’s party because it hasn’t rained is no more “rational” than kicking the dog after a hard day at work.

Notice the Headline in the Newspaper Asking for Federal Support to stamp out the Shark Menace? It must have something to do with the inexorable expansion of federal power. The more things change, the more they remain the same.

Anyway, according to the eggheads who study this stuff, Wilson got punished for his indifferent response to Shark attacks along the Jersey Shore in 1916 when there was little that he could have done and Bush and his approval rating were punished in 2005 for his lackluster response to Hurricane Katrina. In the real world, President Obama needed to end his vacation and check on the Hurricane response. If the President seems out of touch with events, folks will react accordingly. This is just as true as the need to appoint a competent administrator of FEMA instead of one whose expertise is in conducting Horse Shows. This is important, too. Folks reacted accordingly, when they found out about this in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

I am sure Powerline Blogger John Hinderaker knows all of this and is familiar with the political science documenting the correlation between disaster, response and voter disapproval. He is a really smart guy. I suspect, however, that his hatred of the President has turned into a full blown case of Obama Derangement Syndrome. And it is this Obama Derangement Syndrome that has clouded his judgment for all things related to the President. This is sad. I still wish that the Stimulus Bill had contained funding for a Federal Program or perhaps a new Federal Agency to stamp out Derangement Syndrome, but it did not. As it is we must try to stamp it out one post at a time.

Quote of the Day

"We said that if he ran in the 14th then we would likely endorse him. But character matters. If these are real issues, we don’t know what the answer is. He has said this isn’t true, but when it comes time to make a decision, character matters"

That was “The Count,” Chris Chocola President of the Club for Growth on Congressman and Tea Party darling Joe Walsh amid allegations that Walsh ripped off $100,000 from his wife and kid (in missing child support payments).

If The Count is backing away from Walsh, you’d have to say things don’t look all that promising. I guess it will be for the voters to decide if a man who, according to court documents, doesn’t pay his bills while he simultaneously agitates for America to default on hers should be re-elected.

To me Walsh represents everything that is wrong with Congress.

The Teabagging 112th Hit New Disapproval Record

Poll puts Congressional disapproval at 87%; approval 12%. How much lower can these miserable SOBs go?

I know the Fighting 111^th ended with low approval ratings – not this low - but still low. However they did stuff like Health Insurance Reform and Putting Cops back on the Beat to stop Wall Street from robbing Main Street again.

In contrast, all the Teabagging 112^th has done is take a symbolic vote to end Medicare and threaten to burn the country’s economy to the ground every three or four months.

The Poll also pegs the Tea party Approval Rating at 28%. Placing it firmly within the margin of error of the Crazification Factor.

Enemies, Enemies Everywhere Enemies

Gingrich Steps Up Efforts in Operation Batshit. He's bringing the Crazy:

"Our elites in the colleges, and our elites in the news media and our elites in the government said, 'We don't need manufacturing,' " Gingrich, now a presidential candidate, told about 75 residents and staffers at the Presidential Oaks retirement and assisted living facility in Concord yesterday.

Those elites allowed a system of taxes, regulations and bureaucracy that stifled manufacturing, he said.

"You can go back and find all sorts of articles that said, 'Oh it's fine for the Chinese to take over manufacturing; we'll do really smart things,' " Gingrich said.

"Well, that's baloney," he said. "If you can't manufacture anything, you can't sustain your military power. If you can't manufacture anything, you don't have any jobs for people who are regular, everyday folks," Gingrich said.

"We're not all going to end up being tenured professors at Harvard," he said.

"So you had basically a snob effect," Gingrich said

Has Gingrich uncovered another conspiracy? A conspiracy of Elites who purposely destroyed the manufacturing sector? Is Mitt Romney part of this conspiracy? He did urge the destruction of Detroit over the rescue of the American Automobile Manufacturing Industry. How about A Former Speaker Newton Leroy Gingrich. He was running congress when this went down; was he a part of the Conspiracy?

This is exactly the some of thing he needs to do to get attention. It would be better yet if he started naming names. Call out Mitt, Call out the pinheaded college professor and the treacherous Lamestream Media figure and the particular devious bureaucrat behind the Plot. Call out yourself. Just don't half way, Newt. GOTP primary voters need the crazy; they are yearning for it and if you want to gain traction, you'll have to give it to them. Could the UN be involved? It is possible. Go for it Newt.

It is all a Goddamn Conspiracy, A Fraud, A Hoax damn it

Social Security, not Medicare or Medicaid, is the crown jewel of the entitlement state. For several generations now, it has been sold to voters as a more or less sacred compact. Many Americans still believe that the federal government maintains an “account” in their name, which contains assets. Some even think that their “account” contains their own contributions, carefully set aside for their retirement by Franklin Roosevelt or his successors. If this is not the biggest fraud in the history of the human race, it is certainly in the top five. Inexorable demographic realities are casting the shadow of extinction over Social Security; ironically, though, what may set the program’s demise in motion is a cheap political trick by the Democratic Party.

Powerline Blog

Actually Social Security is just fine. There is nothing wrong with it at all.

Full benefits can be paid through 2036, at which point trust fund is exhausted…but of course, payments still coming into system…at that point, Soc Sec can pay 75% of scheduled benefits. Most people think that number is zero!!

Most people think the number is zero? I wonder who thinks this. But the fund is fine with only some minor adjustments needed to keep Social Security fully funded and rolling years on down the line.

I really don't understand this right wing infatuation with cutting off benefits for folks at very time when they are the most vulnerable - as seniors. The Powerline Blogger even concludes his post by suggesting that if Right Wingers cannot overturn social security in the public arena, perhaps they should sabotage it instead. This animosity is, dare I say, clinical.

But playing along with the game, if Social Security in America is one of the top 5 frauds in the history of The Human Race what would fill out the rest of the list?

Here is my list.

• Global Warming as a conspiracy run by tricksy scientists is one
• Evil-lution or Evolution as the tricksy scientists call it is another.
• There has to be something relating the UN, Jewish folks and/or the Pope. Wingers are always jonesing over these guys
• Civil Rights legislation, Voting Rights, etc., periodically make the list even today (See Paul, Rand; The Tea Party)
• Perhaps the Moon Landing and lastly
• Social Security

OK the moon landing was a cheap shot. Most wingers probably don't still believe that it was a hoax, I think. But seriously, I can't understand how American Seniors would be better off giving up social security and medicare. It would seem to me that the piece of mind and security that these programs provide seniors is priceless.

Right Wing Cocoon Watch – Math Sucks, The NYT sucks

New CBO numbers are out pegging 10 year debt projection at 3.5 Trillion down from earlier projections of 7 Trillion. As far as projections go, a 50% reduction is better than a 50% increase but it is still just a long term projection subject to unknown events yet to come.

How does a Powerline blogger react to this news? Like this:

News outlets, naturally, have spun the CBO report in their preferred directions. One of the least subtle is the New York Times:

It comes as Mr. Obama and Democrats, like many economists, are calling for a mix of larger long-term deficit-reduction measures with immediate additional job-creation measures.

Got that? The Democrats’ position is supported by “many economists.” We know, however, that most economists favor the Republicans’ position that the budget should be brought into balance mostly or entirely through spending cuts, which the Democrats bitterly oppose.

While the latter would add to deficits in the short term, proponents argue that they would prevent another recession and avoid the associated costs in lost revenues and safety-net spending. But Republicans oppose any stimulus measures or long-term increases in tax revenues.

The Times sets out the Democrats’ rationale for more “stimulus” as though it makes sense, but offers no explanation of why those obstructionist Republicans would oppose such measures–like the fact that the first stimulus was a complete failure, and more “stimulus” is synonymous with more debt and, many argue, fewer jobs. Note, too, that the Times misstates the Republicans’ position: “Republicans oppose any…long-term increases in tax revenues.” What Republicans oppose is increases in tax rates. Increases in tax revenues will come from economic growth, which the Obama administration and Congressional Democrats are vigorously suppressing. As Marco Rubio put it, we don’t need new taxes, we need new taxpayers.

But that sort of distortion is all in a days work for America’s worst newspaper.

A couple of things. Most folks in the know admit that the stimulus was successful at keeping the economy from collapsing. It accomplished at least half if not more of its objective and if the choice is between living in a carboard box while eating government issued soup, or a stimulus bill, I’ll take the stimulus. Categorizing the stimulus as a complete failure is just a falsehood or a rant made in ignorance.

Next, getting people off unemployment, off food stamps and on the tax rolls is a big part of the Deficit. Fellow Winger, Byron York has just admitted that much:

A lot of the higher spending has stemmed directly from the downturn. There is, for example, spending on what is called "income security" -- that is, for unemployment compensation, food stamps and related programs. In 2007, the government spent $365 billion on income security. In 2011, it's estimated to spend $622 billion. That's an increase of $257 billion.

Then there is Medicaid, the health care program for lower-income Americans. A lot of people had lower incomes due to the economic downturn, and federal expenditures on Medicaid -- its costs are shared with the states -- went from $190 billion in 2007 to an estimated $276 billion in 2011, an increase of $86 billion. Put that together with the $257 billion increase in income security spending, and you have $343 billion.

Add to that the $338 billion in decreased revenues, and you get $681 billion -- which means nearly half of the current deficit can be clearly attributed to the downturn.

Got it? Factor in the $681B in outlays from the economic downturn with the cost of War Funding along with the decreased revenue from the Bush Tax Cuts and the cost of the Medicare prescription drug benefit you are pretty close to balancing the budget. Getting folks back to work will cut the deficit and since Republicans are in favor of economic stimulus when a Republican is president (see Bush, George W.) there is no reasonable excuse to abandon it now during the worst economic downturn since the depression.

Lastly, the poll cited by the Powerline Blogger shows that the recent survey of economists found that just 12% favored the approach favored by the Tea Party and by extension the GOTP while 87% favored a mix of spending cuts and tax increases to address the deficit. The last I heard the GOTP nixed just that – a grand bargain of 5 to 1 spending cuts for increased tax revenue. But that’s not all they rejected. The President’s last offer to the Boehner and the GOTP included trading 4 Trillion Dollars in what GOTPers are calling tax rate increases coming in 2012 from the expiration of the Bush tax cuts in exchange for 800B in new tax revenue from flattening the code plus 4 trillion in spending cuts. The GOTP said no. I repeat the offer was $4 Trillion in Bush Tax Cuts plus 4 Trillion Spending Cuts or $8 Trillion in GOTP budgetary priorities for $0.8 Trillion in new revenue, and they said no. The GOTP presidential candidates just made this same vow at a debate not to accept 10 to 1 spending cuts for new taxes.

I posit that this is not rational behavior. But neither is eschewing the stimulus for the comforts of living in a cardboard box and an economic meltdown. That is not rational behavior either. Also not rational is declaring the Tea Party to be mainstream. Economists reject their position 87% to 12%.

This is what living in the right wing cocoon does to a fella'.

Breaking…..Climate Denier endorses Climate Denier for President

Captain Ed Reports from wingnut central that the Senate’s Number 1 Climate denier will endorse Rick Perry for President

Rick Perry will pick up a conservative endorsement from Capitol Hill, according to a report today from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Senator James Inhofe told a Chamber of Commerce audience at the Tulsa Press Club that he plans on making good to a promise he made Rick Perry a year ago to be the first to endorse him for President: “I called Rick Perry a year ago and told him, ‘If you’re running for president, I’ll be the first to endorse you,’” Inhofe said at a State Chamber of Commerce breakfast at the Tulsa Press Club. “I’m going to be that person on Monday.”

Shocker!

Together maybe they can expose the growing international global warming conspiracy… or not because there is no conspiracy.

Operation Batshit Failing

With Rick Perry's entry in the race, Karl Rove's ingenious plan to inject as many certifiably batshit crazy candidates as possible to dilute the "crazy vote" from consolidating on a single crazy candidate and allowing an establishment choice (i.e., Pawlenty or Romney) to win is failing. The former Mayor of Saskatoon has already bailed on the race, so that means Willard Milton Romney is it.

New Polls cast doubt on the success of Operation Batshit:

This afternoon, Gallup released its new national poll, showing support from the GOP presidential candidates among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents. Here are top four candidates:

1. Rick Perry -- 29% (up from 18% in July)

2. Mitt Romney -- 17% (down from 23%)

3. Ron Paul -- 13% (up from 10%)

4. Michele Bachmann -- 10% (down from 13%)

All of the other candidates are below 5%. Herman Cain's support has slipped badly from the early summer, as has Newt Gingrich's. Jon Huntsman remains wildly popular with the D.C. media, but he's still running a distant eighth among GOP voters nationwide, and his support is down to just 1%.

This clearly won't do.

There are a lot of moving parts in Operation Batshit. To start it off Mitt Romney needs to keep his head down and not draw any unnecessary attention. So far so good for Mitt, but his vote total falling under 20% is troubling; it can't fall any farther if he gonna have a shot at this.

Next Newt Gingrich and Hermann Cain need to step up their games to get a bigger share of the crazy vote. Both should be ashamed of their inability to grab more of the tea bagging base. Clearly something really crazy is in order from each of these poor losers. Also Santorum; there is no reason he can't be crazy enough to pull 5% of the vote.

Ron Paul is serving as a useful idiot as he usually does and Michele Bachman is holding her own. Clearly it would be better if Michele were to come up with some bizarre new plan to steal some voters away from Perry. And word on the nets has it that just such a plan is in place. She'll introduce an imaginary universal healthcare plan which is sure to confuse the hell out of most tea partying folks and may bump her up in the polls. This needs to be executed and effectively.

And the need couldn't be greater now for the 10 Commandments Judge. Karl Rove needs to throw some GPS cash his way to get Roy Moore up and running and on his way to stealing 2% of the GOTP primary vote hopefully from Perry. But assuming Karl is able to execute all the above, it still doesn't look like it'll be enough. Perry will still have the numbers. And this will pit a secession talking, states right loving, George Bush impersonator and southern governor against the first African American President on the sesquicentennial of the Civil War. Oh, and the George Bush Impersonator will be casting Health Insurance as the 21st century equivalent of African American chattel slavery. This is not good from Karl's perspective.

This leaves Karl with one choice only. He needs more craziness in the Race to salvage Operation Batshit from ruin. To make it happen this can mean nothing other than Sarah Palin. Nobody is more batty than Sarah. Karl needs Sarah to come forward to rescue Operation Batshit. The more craziness in the race the better and the more confused GOTP primary voters will be. This will be all the better for Mitt Romney to allow him to appear as the last sane man standing. But for now, Operation Batshit appears to be in trouble.

What Kind of Sick Joke is This

Jim DeMint is holding a Labor Day Celebration for these guys: The GOTP 5.

Five candidates — Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.), Rep. Ron Paul (Texas), former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) and businessman Herman Cain — are slated to attend the Sept. 5 American Principles Project Palmetto Freedom Forum. DeMint organized it along with other state Republican officials and Iowa Rep. Steve King (R).

The event's seen as a major showcase for candidates in front of a Palmetto State audience, especially DeMint, whose endorsement would be influential in the state's primary.

What are they going to talk about? Ending Workers' Comp or OSHA? How about ending the Family Medical Leave Act while they are at it.

Who knows, but the one topic you see over and over again at the American Principles Project Palmetto Freedom Forum website is the dangers of Paper Money. A Gold Standard would be better. Just check with Hugo Chavez; America should be following his lead when it comes to collecting gold these people say.

This is the state of the GOTP. Pandering to loons has gone mainstream. The question to the GOTP 5 is this: If Paper money is worthless, why not open up the wallet and donate all your worthless paper money to a needy cause.

What's next? Bimetalism?

Yep. Raise 'em up.

It is not class warfare to suggest that the richest 1 percent of people in society pay one-third of their income to the federal government, as they did under Ronald Reagan. Keep in mind that dividends were taxable as ordinary income every year of his administration, and in the Tax Reform Act of 1986 he supported taxing capital gains as ordinary income as well.

Higher effective tax rates on the rich could even be achieved without raising the top tax rate bracket to 50 percent, as it was under President Reagan. There are many tax preferences that largely benefit the well-to-do that could be scaled back to avoid raising marginal rates.

The important thing is for people to accept that we can no longer afford such low effective tax rates on those with the greatest capacity to pay at a time when total revenues as a percentage of G.D.P. are at their lowest level in 60 years and we are facing a debt crisis. The issue is not whether the rich should pay more, but how best to accomplish it.

Fmr Reagan Administration Guy and Double Secret Probationary Liberal Bruce Bartlett

My advice to Bartlett is to avoid anyplace where large quantities of Tea are stored. Lord knows what the Teabaggers will do to him, a turncoat, if they get a hold of him. One can only imagine the depravity of it all.

Flip - Flop Alert

"Mitt Romney announced earlier today that he is building a $12 million beach house in California. $12 million beach house in California. Today, Mitt Romney made that announcement. Now, I'm telling you, there is a man who can read the mood of the country."

- David Letterman

I think we all know what is coming next. Mitt will announce that he either that opposes his plan to renovate his beach front estate or and he was only trying to create jobs by stimulating the economy because he loves America.

Perhaps he will announce both, i.e., that he both opposes his plan and but he supports creating jobs and will apologize to nobody for this.

The Viciousness of the Lamestream Media continues unabated.....

......as it always does.

When will the Meanery Ever Stop?

The safe bet remains that Sarah Palin is simply engaged in a long and tiresome tease. Every few weeks comes some new sign of her supposedly imminent entry into the GOP presidential race, but nothing ever seems to happen.

[…] if you're tired of all of the media oxygen that the former half-term Alaska governor still manages to consume, then you really should be hoping that Palin actually does get into the race: It may be the best way of making her disappear for good.

Why? Because a presidential campaign would almost certainly end in defeat for Palin. And not just any kind of defeat -- epic, humiliating defeat, the sort of disaster that might once and for all convince the political and media worlds that the empress has no clothes.

STEVE KORNACKI

Of course the natural response from the Palin camp would be to complain that this sick and twisted lamestream reporter is suggesting that someone should steal all of her clothing. Have they no shame?

The Best Way to prove all of this is wrong and keep the Lamestream Media from raiding her closets is not to do as the Lamestream Media figure suggests, but to run for president as an independent.

Dispatches from the wingnut-O-sphere – Ryanmania is AWESOME ! ! !

Via the Corner and this wingnuttery is awe inspiring:

Paul Ryan Dodges a Demotion

By Christian Schneider

In Wisconsin in the 1970s, there must have been plenty of elementary-school kids who had lofty dreams for their future careers. They thought one day they would become astronauts, play for the Green Bay Packers, or maybe even become president. Yet there was clearly one skinny kid in Janesville who figured out what his dream job would be: chairman of the House Budget Committee.

Yesterday, Rep. Paul Ryan announced that he would not seek the nomination for president. In doing so, he sent the signal that he simply doesn’t want to be the commander-in-chief. Had he run, he would have gotten the GOP nomination; had he gotten the GOP nomination, he would have beaten an incumbent president whose approval rating is currently lower than that of arsenic.

In eschewing a run, Ryan not only tells us a lot about his own constitution, he exposes a little-talked-about fact regarding the presidency: It’s kind of a crummy job. By not becoming president, Ryan dodges a demotion.

The race for the title of “Most Powerful Person in the World” used to be a race for second place — it was just assumed that the American president was the global foreman. But in recent years the office has shrunk in stature. It is now a toothless post replete with big speeches and small ideas. The very reason Barack Obama was such an inspirational candidate is also the reason he is a substandard president; he reminds us that anyone can be president.

How’s that for spin: Ryan Dodges a Demotion while dragging down Obama.

Maybe it’s just me, but I don't see how the Bailout Loving Government Motors Supporting Big Spending Medicare Gutting Ryan would gain much traction amongst the Teabagging set that make up the GOP primary electorate. Ryan, after all, voted in favor of every big spending priority of the Bush Administration.

In a general election, assuming that he makes it through the Primaries without being tarred as a communist, it’s hard to see how this young wet behind the ears whippersnapper who wants to take away grandma's medicare in order to give rich folks yet another tax cut gets very far.

I just didn't see it. But it could just be me.

Wingnuttery Watch – Tea Party Mainstream?

Via Powerline Blog, again (sigh).

The nutters at Powerline Blog picked up a story from the Tricksy Lamesteam Media but failed to read the fine print.

Who’s Mainstream?

by John Hinderaker

The philosophy of the Tea Party movement can be summed up in the proposition that the federal government should stop racking up massive debt, and should do so by cutting spending. This view is routinely denounced by Democratic Party politicians and journalists as extreme; outrageous; radical. They trot out various “experts” to support this view.

In fact, however, the Tea Party’s perspective is precisely the one that is supported by most economists, as CNBC reports:

The majority of economists surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics believe that the federal deficit should be reduced only or primarily through spending cuts.

The survey out Monday found that 56 percent of the NABE members surveyed felt that way, while 37 percent said they favor equal parts spending cuts and tax increases. The remaining 7 percent believe it should be done only or mostly through tax increases.

In fact, it is the belief of the Obama administration and Congressional Democrats that it is perfectly fine to rack up $4 trillion in new debt in three years that is extreme, outrageous and radical. It is the Tea Party whose economic views are mainstream.

Tea Party Mainsteam? This can’t be true. Teabaggers live in a fantasy world after all, how could they capture the mainstream. So I decided to look up the survey and read the fine print. Looking at the raw numbers we see this question (PDF file) on the NABE survey (I’ve added the results of the survey next to the question). This is the question that Poor Hinderaker is crowing about:

D. How should Congress attempt to reduce the federal budget deficit?

12% Only with spending cuts

44% Mostly with spending cuts

37% Equally with spending cuts and tax increases

5% Mostly with tax increases

1% Only with tax increases

Now if I recall, the GOP gave into Tea Party demands and adopted option 1, Spending Cuts only as its response to the recent debt ceiling debacle. Only 12% were in favor of this approach, however. This 12% is hardly anything to crow about, but when the tricksy lamestream media combine Option 1, favored by teahadists with Option 2 Mostly Spending Cuts with some tax increases (the position of the President) the number rises to 56%.

Another way to read this survey could be to note that just 12% of economists preferred the Tea Party’s approach to deficit reduction while 87% economists preferred some combination of tax increases and spending cuts. The latter, of course, is the approach favored by the Democrats and the majority of voters.

However this is not the way the survey will be viewed in the wingnut-O-sphere. According to Hinderaker, if you take those economists supporting the Tea Party position and add them to the economists supporting the President’s approach to deficit reduction, the results prove that the Tea Party is mainstream and President Obama is an evil socialist.

This is really Beautiful. Wingnuts log on to Powerline Blog and read the news that they are mainstream now. They believe this to be true having read it at Powerline Blog which is alway right. Emboldened by their new mainstreaminess they prepare even more hardline demands while demanding the same from Speaker Boehner and the rest of the GOTP. However, this approach is doomed to failure because it is crazy. See Michele Bachmann for an example.

I am still waiting for one of them to demand a negative capital gains tax cut where every time a rich fella’ sold a yacht, the government would pay him a tax credit. That would be truly awesome.

This is another swing and a miss for the Tea Party and the Wingnuts.

SHOCKER ! ! ! ! !

The Guy who wants to take away Grandma’s Medicare in order to pay for more tax cuts for rich folks won’t run for President. Really, that was his plan and it looks like Paul Ryan won’t run for president according to the Weekly Standard.

"I sincerely appreciate the support from those eager to chart a brighter future for the next generation. While humbled by the encouragement, I have not changed my mind, and therefore I am not seeking our party's nomination for President. I remain hopeful that our party will nominate a candidate committed to a pro-growth agenda of reform that restores the promise and prosperity of our exceptional nation. I remain grateful to those I serve in Southern Wisconsin for the unique opportunity to advance this effort in Congress."

What are the Neocons at the weekly standard to do now? The Weekly Standard or American Standard as it was originally named shared its name with a brand of toilets….that is until they found out and renamed it the Weekly Standard instead. I always get a kick out of that fact.

BUSH DID IT, damn it.

Turns out just about everything can be blamed on George Bush.

Want to piss off a Republican apparatchik, just apply the following phrase to any problem; BUSH DID IT.

Let’s dust it off and apply it to Governor Rick Perry:

When Perry became governor, taxes were already low, regulations were light, and test scores were on their way up. He didn’t create the zoning rules that keep Texas real estate affordable, or the strict lending requirements that minimized the state’s housing bubble. Over all, the Texas model looks like something he inherited rather than a system he built.

Anything that looks good in Texas, ain’t because of him, he inherited it. I am inclined to chalk it up to his predecessor, George W Bush. Heckuva a job there Junior.

Trump on Radical Right Wing Social Engineering and Paul Ryan

Ryan’s Plan to End Medicare is too toxic for Donald Trump

"I think his attack on Medicare makes him absolutely non-tenable.

I don't believe that he will run, number one, and I think that when he came out with a plan, attacking Medicare and Medicaid, I think that ends his presidential hopes -- at least, for a long period of time."

Color me skeptical but I just don’t see how cutting everyone’s medicare in order to pay for tax cuts for rich folks is anything but a loser.

John Hinderaker explains why he’s a Scopes Trial Conservative

If I were a banker…….I might actually understand what happened in 2008, when the world’s financial system seemed on the brink of collapse and the Fed stepped into the breach, lending what is now understood to be $1.2 trillion to the world’s major financial institutions[…]

George Bush, President at the time, has written about the situation he found himself in, with every economic adviser telling him that the world faced another Great Depression if international banks were not supported (or bailed out) by the United States government. But, as I understand it, that was a separate and smaller matter. I believe his administration had to approve only the much smaller loans or guarantees by the Treasury Department, not the trillion dollar-plus loans from the Fed.

I draw no particular conclusion from the facts that are now coming out about the 2008 banking crisis. It is troubling, however, that we live in an era in which even the best-informed voters can hardly be expected to comprehend the financial complexities with which our government grapples, and in which quasi-governmental agencies not under the control of any elected officials dispose of the American taxpayers’ credit to the tune of more than a trillion dollars.

Via Poweline Blog in a moment of near self-awareness

What Poor Hinderaker is describing is the fact that the average voter has very little impact in determining policies that make the government work. Increasingly, expertise – years of study and experience – in a particular field is required to execute the complex levers of power in D.C. So, especially for the poor souls who rely on Foxnews for their information, he is correct in acknowledging that the ordinary fella’ has little chance at understanding how the government works.

This is true in general about modernity, whether the issue is health insurance reform or global warming. The average fella’ is going to have to rely on others with expertise to do the hard book learning and act in their stead. This presents a problem in terms of democracy. In a democracy the expectation of participation in decision making and compartmentalized decision-making are in direct conflict.

Here is an example using global warming. There is now enough evidence on Global Warming that the Supreme Court has given the EPA the go ahead to regulate Greenhouse Gas Emissions under the clean air act. Hinderaker or his fellow scopes trial conservatives didn’t get to vote on this decision. The experts, with decades of data, decided for him. However in a democracy, this is not how folks expect things to work. This lack of connection to the decision making process is frustrating and the result is folks lashing out at the elitist pin-heads making the call. This all plays out to the Tea Party set in the form of anti-intellectualism. The anger isn’t so much directed at all the egg-heads, but the fact that the ordinary fella’ ain’t participating in the decision making process.

It is tough being a winger. It is especially tough if your political party no longer functions in terms of screening disinformation out of public dialog. Case in point: the GOP (it is broken, no-longer serves the interests of its members and really should be shut down). It is also painfully more difficult if one was to watch Foxnews on a daily basis. Like I said it is tough being a winger.

Random Feats of Wingnuttery

Right now the Court is split 4-4 on what I like to think of originalist versus outcome-based decision making. Four justices (we know who they are), will vote to uphold the health care law as an appropriate exercise of federal power under the commerce clause of the Constitution. Those four justices would vote to uphold anything as an appropriate exercise of congressional power under the commerce clause (and if that won’t suffice, the all-purpose “necessary and proper” clause will do just fine). Their jurisprudence is not based on original intent or any decision before 1937. We heard President Obama speak for that view last week, when he basically said that if the Court decides the case “correctly” it will uphold the law.

Then we have four Justices (you know who they are) who will seriously question whether the commerce clause really is broad enough to encompass the health care law. I cannot predict that they will all vote to strike it down as exceeding that power. But their approach to answering the legal question will be totally different from the other faction. They will cite Madison, the Federalist Papers, Hamilton, John Marshall, and John Jay in trying to answer the question. It is quite likely that under such an analysis it will be difficult to uphold the law because there is no precedent for this type of requirement (mandating the purchase of insurance). These Justices will struggle with the case.

Via Frum Forum

This is all bullshit. There is no Originalism. The Originalist or Strict Constructionist label is a crutch used to advance a particular point of view favored by current conservative political faction. Strict Constructionism is just the excuse a conservative faction always uses to resist change. There were no bigger advocates of strict construction of the constitution than those who would later become founders of the Confederacy. Jefferson Davis was a hardcore strict constructionist. The Poor ol' Jeff Davis couldn't stop strictly constructing this and strictly constructing that. The Confederacy was built on Strict Construction of the Constitution, this and Slavery.

Next, to base a decision on Madison, the Federalist Papers, Hamilton, John Marshall, and John Jay, as our Frum Forum guy notes, with any certainty would require that particular jurist to have Doctorate level degrees in early American History, English History of the 1600s and 1700s, Political Science and Philosophy among other disciplines. Nothing I have seen convinces me that Judge Scalia or Judge Roberts has any accomplishments in these field. Neither has spent a lifetime studying in these areas nor should they be expected to. However this is what originalism requires. If you are going to be an orginalist, one would have to understand what it is like to live during the period. The judge would need to be a scholar on the moral philosophy dominant in that time as well as the history. If one does not have sufficient scholarly knowledge of the period, the judge is ultimately just guessing as to what orignalism means. The DC vs. Heller case is a perfect example of guesswork or activism. Judge Scalia simply invented a new right – an individual right to bear arms - where none had existed previously. Ultimately the basis for Heller is little different from that in Roe v Wade, and if I recall, wingers hate the way Roe was decided.

Lastly, pretending that there is something called Strict Construction of the Constitution is fucking stupid.

Here is another problem Originalists face. As America underwent dramatic society changes from 1775 to 1800, the concept of individual liberty evolved over this period. At the beginning of the revolutionary war, Army officers came from the American Gentry. By the end of the war 90% of the officer corps were just ordinary men who rose as a result of merit. The role of the ordinary white male in the governance of society had become radically changed during the war. Surely the understanding of liberty evolved during this time as well. With evolving understandings of liberty at play, does the originalist need pick one single point in time to capture the intentions of the founders, because thought in 1775 is different from that 1799? Should the Originalist try to limit himself to only public opinion in 1787 when the Constitution was written or 1788 when ratified? Opinion in 1775 or 1799 is going to be different, after all.

In effect Historicism – Originalism has a tendency to degrade into a lower form of Judicial Activism with decisions influenced by mere discretion, by values, prejudices or perhaps by what the Judge ate for breakfast in a particular morning. That is just the way it is and one shouldn't pretend otherwise.

This Originalism Theory has become fully engrained in wingnut mythology. The fact that a bow tie wearing George Will chats about Originalism and the Founding Fathers bears only slightly more credibility than Joe the Plumber discussing the debt ceiling and his understanding of 19^th Century Austrian Economics. Both are of the same cloth. They are just a part of the mythology that helps wingers justify the exercise of political power.