Well it was once his position on the subject….

…..In 2008 Presidential Candidate Barack Obama was hammered for his position on striking Bin Laden without Pakistan's permission.  One of the folks who criticized Obama's decision not to ask for a permission slip from Pakistan before toasting Bin Laden was Willard Milton Romney.  Now that the internets are reminding everyone that Willard was once against killing Bin Laden before he was in favor of it, some people are mad:

"This is one of the reasons President Obama has become one of the most divisive presidents in American history. He took something that was a unifying event for all Americans -- an event that Gov. Romney congratulated him and the military and the intelligence analysts in our government for completing the mission in terms of killing Osama bin Laden -- and he's managed to turn it into a divisive partisan political attack."

Ed Gillespie - Current Romney Fan and former Bush Admin Stalwart

Of course it is also a true statement as well…..Romney was against before he was for it.  That Willard flip-flopped on toasting Bin Laden should surprise nobody. That is what he does.

The LOOMING Mormon Card

It'll be played at point in the campaign by someone.  If Gingrich felt comfortable playing the Kenyan-Anti-Colonialist-with Mau Tribesman overtones card while the rest of the GOP felt perfectly comfortable with Birtherism, someone one the other side will feel that pointing out that Mormon history is kinda strange.

The Arch Libra-servative explains:

But he can't, because even talking about it will send chills up Christianists' spines. And yet questions will emerge: why were his in-laws barred from his Temple wedding service? Why was his dad born Mexico? Could it be he was there because that's where many of the older hard-core polygamists sought refuge after being hounded by the US government?

It is true!  Mormons were picked on by the Federals and the state Governments too. And mobs! There was a tremendous amount of Mormon harassment in the mid to late 1800s. It was not uncommon for Mormon communities to locate on State Lines and build their houses on skids so that they could be dragged across the state line depending upon which state government was after them.  So this is all part of the American record. And like Slavery and the Civil War, there is a common denominator between Mormon harassment and a certain practice.

Romney's grandparents were monogamous, but polygamy is a big feature of the family tree before that: one of Romney's great-grandfathers had five wives, and one of his great-great grandfathers - the "Apostle Paul of Mormonism" - had twelve wives (he was murdered by the former husband of one of them), thirty children, and 266 grandchildren.

Folks fled to Mexico in the late 1880s to establish refuges for polygamy after resisting government authority. This happened.  I don't know if Romney will be able to talk about it. It is his history. It's American history. But it is not certain who Romney's base side with on the Mormon Question:

The Latter-day Saints broke all the rules of Protestant-dominated 19th-century America. They considered the church’s founder, Joseph Smith, a prophet, and his Book of Mormon a work as sacred as the Bible. Mormon men professed a religious duty to take multiple wives. 

The “Mormon question” was also deeply political. Polygamy in the Utah territory created a constitutional crisis eerily similar to those raised by attempts to bring slavery into Kansas. 

Just as anti-slavery Americans saw that institution as the basis of a corrupt, expansionist “slave power,” so did anti-polygamists see plural marriage as enslavement of women and the foundation of a theocracy that could spread from Utah. 

In 1856, the Republican Party platform urged Congress “to prohibit in the territories those twin relics of barbarism — Polygamy, and Slavery.” In 1857, President James Buchanan, a Democrat, sent troops to skirmish with Mormon militia in Utah. In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act, the first of several such laws. 

Slaveholders invoked property rights; Mormon polygamists claimed religious freedom. They took their case to the Supreme Court, which ruled against them in 1879 — holding that the Constitution did not protect polygamy any more than it protected human sacrifice. 

Next came mass arrests of Mormons, denial of their rights to vote and sit on juries, threatened confiscation, and, in the end, Mormon abandonment of plural marriage — which only a minority actually practiced. 

This long-ago struggle, in which Mormons and non-Mormons shed blood, is complicated even in hindsight. Anti-Mormonism was not a pure case of intolerance; polygamy did threaten women’s equality. Yet the Supreme Court’s assertion of a “Christian” basis to constitutional law and federal punishment of all Mormons for the actions of a minority are hard to justify by modern standards.

I suspect that the GOP Base will side with the Federal Government in this instance of Religious liberty versus government authority. That is why the Mormon Card is so tricky for Willard Milton Romney.  If anyone can weasel around this issue, it's him - because that is how he rolls. Weasel Style.

Well they came up with the Name Teabagger First. The Internets have proven this as Fact.

John Dingell Learns About Tea Bagging

John Dingell is the longest currently-serving member of Congress (and the third longest-serving ever). The acerbic 85-year-old Michigan Democrat had long been contemptuous of Tea Partiers. He found them unruly and difficult to get along with. Dingell tended to refer to them as “tea baggers,” a phrase that has an alternate sexual meaning. This normally wouldn’t have been a problem in the hall of Congress, but when Dingell was booked to appear on The Daily Show with John Stewart, his staff felt the need to finally warn and educate him. When his chief of staff shared the other meaning of “tea bagger” with Dingell, the Congressman went through three different stages of reaction. At first, he said “hah,” then said “that’s disgusting,” and finally the octogenarian congressman reached the plain of acceptance and said, “It’s funny and I’m going to keep using it.”

Yeah it is funny.  Teabaggers.  Yes definitely funny.

A while ago I was listening to a lecture via the web from a Coastal Elitist University Professor. It was part of a series from an upper division class on political science around 2009-2010, I think. During the lecture, the Eggheaded Professor referred to the members of the so-called Tea Party as "Teabaggers." This was followed by great laughter from the students in class prompting the Egghead to ask the class what had did he say that was funny. This happened a couple of more times through out the semester.  The Professor would be talking about group dynamics or some other bullshit term that over educated know-it-alls throw around to show that they are better than the rest of us, and would use the term "teabagger" to refer to the unwashed Tea Party protesters.  Students laughed and the Profession babbled a while in confusion wondering why people were laughing. Since the course was upper division, and the subject matter dry, the references to Teabaggers was probably the highlight of the semester for the students. 

However toward the end of the semester, the Professor, having learned at some point what Teabagging was and what Teabaggers did (preferably in private - not that there is anything wrong with it), apologized for his earlier use of the word to the class and expressed outrage over the fact that his local Democratic Congressman used the term in his presence at a townhall meeting.  "Why lower the discourse. Why use a term like that just to offend people, some of whom may be his constituents," the Egghead asked the class. 

Well we have the answer now. It is funny; that's why. Teabaggers are funny.

Paul Ryan Discovers that He is a Social Darwinist and Doesn't Like it one bit!

Shamelessly stolen from the Internets: 

In 2005, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) heaped praise on Ayn Rand, a 20th-century libertarian novelist best known for her philosophy that centered on the idea that selfishness is “virtue”. The New Republic wrote: 

“The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand,” Ryan said at a D.C. gathering four years ago honoring the author of “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead.” 

Ryan also noted in a 2003 interview with the Weekly Standard, “I give out ‘Atlas Shrugged’ as Christmas presents, and I make all my interns read it. Well… I try to make my interns read it.”
But today, Ryan is singing a far different tune.

From an interview with National Review’s Bob Costa this week: 

“I reject her philosophy,” Ryan says firmly. “It’s an atheist philosophy. It reduces human interactions down to mere contracts and it is antithetical to my worldview. If somebody is going to try to paste a person’s view on epistemology to me, then give me Thomas Aquinas,” who believed that man needs divine help in the pursuit of knowledge. “Don’t give me Ayn Rand,” he says. 

Looks like this Social Darwinism thing has gotten under Ryan's skin. I bet he did not know of his former mentor's, Rand's, Darwinist roots. But that where Rand's thinking originates - going back to prominent Social Darwinists like Spencer and Sumner and the awesome free wheeling 1880s! 

I'd say that until Ryan repents and rejects Ayn Rand's philosophy and ideology  it is fair to label him as a Social Darwinist. It is not only fair, but it is the right thing to do.

After all a Commie who rejects Stalin or Lenin or some other dead commie is still a Commie….. until he rejects Communism. It is that simple.  Ryan's gonna be a Darwinist until he rejects Social Darwinism in practice.  However he really seems committed to redistributing resources from the poor to the rich. So odd are slim for now.

Does Romney Have Balls?

Yes, according to the Lamestream Media. Its the Etch a Sketch Guy:

Fehrnstrom, 50, is both the wise man and the hothead. He wears the uniform of the modern political consultant—iPad tucked in the crook of his arm, open-collared shirt, rectangular-framed glasses—but his fleshy face and thick New England accent betray a rougher core. And far from reining in Romney, he performs the opposite service for his client: Fehrnstrom toughens him up. "Eric gives Mitt a capability that Mitt doesn't have," says Ben Coes, Romney's campaign manager in 2002. "It's a streetwise savvy; it's an on-the-ground Boston-smarts mentality; it's a back-alley-politics, survival-of-the-fittest point of view. Mitt is not a knife fighter. Eric is a knife fighter." The best political operatives are the ones who provide their clients with a tangible quality the candidate himself lacks. If Karl Rove was Bush's brain, then Fehrnstrom is Romney's balls. 

Hey isn't that "Survival-of-the-Fittest" mumbo jumbo just another way to refer to "Social Darwinism?" I think it is!  I guess that means that Fehrnstrom, like Paul Ryan, must be a Social Darwinist. 

And if Romney's top advisor is a Darwinist, Romney may be just a step or two away from evolving into a Darwinist himself. Hell, let's just give him the benefit of the doubt and flat out call Romney a Darwinist.

Beware Winger on Winger Violence Ahead - Crucifixion Alert !!!

After being shut out of power since reconstruction, the newly unreconstructed Tennessee State GOP has just about taken over just about all governance of the state.  Next term, the eggheads are positing that the GOP will control as many as 3 out of 4 seats in the assembly. That being said, the GOP is in charge of the state. That means it has to either govern the state or dissolve the state government in hopes that a Galtian Utopia will follow.  

So far the State GOP is down with laws introducing creationism and global warming denial into the classroom.  I don't really have a problem with this if it is done as part of the social studies curriculum through a comparative religion class. You could just limit inquiry to this religion believes X, this one is down with Y, this other one is really funky and they like Z and the Global Warming deniers have a different belief set altogether.  That's be fine with me.

However if you are a science teacher and are not fluent in right wing mythology what do you do? Intelligent design, I think, is pretty easy. You just show the Star Wars movies and tell the students that "The Force" could be something that is shaping evolution. Mission to Mars is another good one. In that movie, Space Aliens are responsible for guiding evolution. Either way, and I think kids might enjoy the time off.

But what do you do about Global Warming Denial?  This one is harder and that is why the State GOP is empowering bureaucrats to create wingnut mythology for dummies style guides for science teachers so they can respond to global warming denial from students.  I mean if a Science teacher only understands Science, s/he is going to be at a loss to when explaining the mythology behind global warming denial (btw this is exactly why global warming denial belongs in a different class and not in science).

Another area that State GOPsters are struggling with is guns and this is where the crucifixion comes into play.  With the GOP in total control of the state government, the Gun Rights Protest Movement should get everything on their wish list? You'd think so, but there are some things that are even too crazy for GOPsters to do and this year that is a guns at the workplace law. Legislation introduced to allow guns to be stored in a person's car while that person is at work was blocked..…. by republicans. And some people are mad about this infringement upon gun liberty:

In an email sent to Tennessee Firearms Association members, TFA executive director and political pariah John Harris turns his ire on House Republican Caucus Chairwoman Debra Maggart, calling for her political crucifixion. Maggart, he writes, "has been identified by TFA and we understand other grassroots organizations as the symbolic figure of a Republican legislative leadership that has trampled on the 2nd Amendment rights of citizens."

His e-mail continues [bold text - mine]:

Rep. Debra Maggart's political career needs to end much as the Romans crucified criminals - not just to end her tenure but as a glaring example to other Republicans that you cannot take the grassroots groups or the rights of citizens for granted and then put your hand out to Big Business for their support all the while expecting to be re-elected. Symbolicly, it is time to display a used crucifix at the entrance to the General Assembly as a warning. Rep. Debra Maggart's race is not a race limited now to the 45 District from which she claims power. Her race is a statewide race for constitutional conservatives to stand up from all 99 districts and proclaim we will not be taken for granted and we will not have our rights as citizens sold for a measure of silver.

Sweet Jesus look at the Wingnuttery flowing from this miserable sonuvabitch! It is gold, especially the reference to Judas's pieces Silver.  These are the types of cats that the GOP has been working up for years to obtain power. Now they own these bastards and the bastards think they own them.  Who could have predicted that a gun rights protest group leader would go full metal wingnut on an ally when he didn't get his way?  This is truly astounding.

It is going to be like herding cats for a while at the legislature.  At this rate how long will it be before the Texas-Virginia vaginal probe law comes up for a vote?  Next term maybe.

This certainly was predictable: Obama Admin Most Corrupt Ever!!!

Well he doesn't exactly remind anyone of Warren Harding, but Winger Congressman Darrell Issa is calling the Obama Administration the most corrupt in history: 

"We are busy in Washington with a corrupt government, with a government that I said perhaps because of the money, the amount of TARP and stimulus funds, was going to be the most corrupt government history and it is proving to be just exactly that. This money going though the hands of political leaders is corrupting the process, whether it is Solyndra, GSA, or a number of other scandals."

Of course Issa has beaten the rap (so far) on the Arson and Car Thievery Charges that continue to hound him.  So it may be that he knows more about corruption than most.

But we always knew this charge would be coming from the House Chair for government oversight.  This is a position, I believe, that Issa also held during the Bush Administration, except during the Bush Administration, again I believe, the committee went into mothball.  This is because nothing happened during the Bush Administration. Nothing.  So there was no need to do any oversight. Issa, I believe, still collected his salary despite not having anything to do during this period. This was because nothing happened during the Bush Administration. This is good work if you can get it.  You get paid, but there is nothing to do. Issa seems to have a habit of falling into really sweet deals.  Lucky Guy I guess, at least until now.

I mean how many times have you heard of someone just coincidentally, so it is told, raising his property insurance coverage several 100 thousand dollars just before a big fire? Who buys a fire proof safe just before the big fire?  Usually it is the other way around.

"Oh, shit! My warehouse just burned to the ground. I knew I should have bought more insurance. F*ck! Having a fire proof safe would've been good too.  Why do bad things always happen to me?  if I only would have called my insurance agent last week and increased my insurance and stopped by Home Depot and bought a fire proof safe like I have been meaning to do. It was on my list of things to do and I just did not get around to it. Son of a bitch!"

Not Issa. That did not happen to him. The opposite happened to Issa. He has been a lucky guy…...until now.  

Now, and after having absolutely nothing to do during the Bush Administration, he is the Chair of the Government Oversight Committee during the most corrupt administration ever. It is more corrupt than even the Harding Administration.  If you watch Boardwalk Empire you know that Harding was a shady bastard. 

But then again, Harding dropped dead in office.  His underlings only had two years to loot.  The Super Mean Obama Administration may have twice or even four times as long in office than Harding.  This should make for trying times for Issa.  He should be a busy bee from here on out. 

Poor fella'.

Primary day, today!

The GOP presidential primary resumes today in several states. And Newt Gringrich is not a witch, it'll take some real magic for him to pull off a victory tonight in Delaware.


Here's to hoping that Christine O'Donnell black magic will work again tonite for Newt!

UPDATE: The internets tell me that Willard whipped Newt like a rented Mule in Delaware.  The fate of western civilization is officially at risk.

Bush 2012….GW Bush 2012!

Bring Back Bush.

Rubio on Bush: He was totally Awesome 

And so I think that George W. Bush, in my opinion, did a fantastic job as president over eight years, facing a set of circumstances during those eight years that are different from the circumstances that a President Romney would face.

Um….I think the Bush years were a disaster.  We are still cleaning up from the Mess.  If Romney becomes President, he'll need to keep cleaning up this mess. So yes, Romney will face different circumstance than Bush.  And Whoever follows Romney will also face different circumstances and will need to keep cleaning up the mess that occurred during the tragic reign of error of George W Bush.

On the other hand, the gift shop at the new Bush Institute for World Whatever in Dallas may be totally awesome.  I hear Alberto Gonzales may get a job there.

Hard Times Hit State GOP

In Bachmann Land:

The cash-strapped Republican Party of Minnesota has been served eviction papers at its St. Paul headquarters. State Republican Party Chairman Pat Shortridge notified GOP activists late last week that the party had not paid rent since last August. He said negotiations with the building owner did not prevent the landlord from taking the matter to court. “We’re not going to be evicted,” Shortridge said. He added that they are “continuing to negotiate on the back payments as well as on a lease that better fits both our space needs and our budget.” The possible eviction is the latest blow for a state Republican Party that has been swamped with debt and financial problems for more than a year. Along with being more than $1 million in debt, state Republicans are being investigated by the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board for inaccurate campaign reporting. 

I know just what these guys need.  An imaginary FEMA camp stimulus project in their neck of the woods. It would be a good for fund raising tool to separate the unwashed masses from their money.

But to make it work, these guys would need to go all in with the crazy. Fortunately, Bachmann lives up there. Powerline Blog is also honcho'd from Minnesota.  This may be the level of fire power needed to gin up a non-troversy and scare the bejesus out of the wingers - just enough to pay off the state GOP's debt.

It could work. 

Hatch Avoids Vicious Teabagging….

…..for the moment.

Orin Hatch will face a primary challenge thanks to last week's Utah's GOP nomination convention.  The convention, which ended in the mean-spirited teabagging of Utah Senator Bob Bennett in 2010, didn't do in Hatch this time around. However he was unable to secure 60% of the vote and must face a tea party challenger in the primary rather than going straight on to the general election. 

He'll face a challenge from Teahadist Liljequist and an Outfit called Teabagging Works:

FreedomWorks, the tea party Super Pac chaired by former Texas congressman Dick Armey, was quick to laud – and take some credit for – Liljenquist’s showing in Utah Saturday. 

“Dan Liljenquist is a rock solid conservative who will uphold the Constitution and stand by Senator Mike Lee in Washington to get America’s spending problem under control,” said FreedomWorks of America national political director Russ Walker. “Senator Hatch had 36 years to get his act together, but continues to put power over policy. Utahns are ready for a change.” 

The organization, which put $700,000 into defeating Hatch, lays out the tea party complaint against the longtime incumbent this way: 

“In his 36 years in the Senate, Orrin Hatch has lost his way from constitutionally conservative principles, voting for the precursors to ObamaCare, voting to support TARP, to establish the Department of Education, the auto bailouts, and the Fannie and Freddie bailouts. Hatch also advocated for the appointments of liberal Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, and to confirm Ben Bernanke as Fed Chairman, Eric Holder as Attorney General, and Timothy Geithner as Secretary of the treasury.” 

“It hasn’t been easy,” Hatch acknowledges. “We’ve got outside groups coming in here that are just vicious and awful. They don’t tell the truth. That’s been really hard for me to take. Anti-Hatch activists … they don’t care what the facts are or anything else.” He didn’t mention FreedomWorks by name, but there was no doubt who Hatch was talking about.

Don't you just hate it when outside agitators come to your red state and try to shake up the status quo? Maybe or maybe not, but that is how many right wingers felt in the 1960s, anyway. 

But word on the Net has the LDS church mobilizing folks, presumably on Hatch's behalf. That should be enough to see Hatch avoid a dose of tea party-style justice that these teahadists seem to enjoy handing out.  

Banned Powerline Blogger Back in the Game

Powerline Blogger Mirengoff is back on the internets after a self imposed 15 month exile for writing this about the Tucson Shootings Memorial Service.

The reason? He didn't like the opening prayer:

As for the "ugly," I'm afraid I must cite the opening "prayer" by Native American Carlos Gonzales. It was apparently was some sort of Yaqui Indian tribal thing, with lots of references to "the creator" but no mention of God. Several of the victims were, as I understand it, quite religious in that quaint Christian kind of way (none, to my knowledge, was a Yaqui). They (and their families) likely would have appreciated a prayer more closely aligned with their religious beliefs.

But it wasn't just Gonzales's prayer that was "ugly" under the circumstances. Before he ever got to the prayer, Gonzales provided us with a mini-auto biography and made several references to Mexico, the country from which (he informed us) his family came to Arizonain the mid 19th century. I'm not sure why Gonzales felt that Mexico needed to intrude into this service, but I have an idea.

In any event, the invocation could have used more God, less Mexico.

The real problem with this type of riff? Surely you can find more virulent rhetoric in the wingnut-O-sphere. Mirengoff's law firms makes cash off representing Native American Tribes. Money talks.

Jokes that Write Themselves

"Ann Romney is defending her husband for strapping the family dog to the roof of their station wagon when on a family trip saying the dog loved it. Unfortunately, the dog could not be reached for comment because he ran away to stay with Michael Vick."

- The ever mean Conan O'Brien

What Projection Looks like:

“The president came here yesterday and railed against arguments no one is making—and criticized policies no one is proposing. It’s one of his favorite strategies—setting up straw men to distract from his record.”

Willard Romney

So proclaims the father of Nationalized RomneyCare who is currently an opponent of Nationalized RomneyCare.

But it is all just worthless Paper Money

The Grift Keeps on going:

The Paul campaign announced Friday that they had raised $2.6 million in March alone and some $10.4 million in the first quarter of 2012.

.... The campaign's nearly $1.8 million in cash on hand — and lack of debt — explain why Paul is continuing to spend on advertising buys in Texas and Rhode Island. The congressman is hoping to net a significant number of delegates from his home-state primary later this month.

Suckers.

On the Occupational Hazards of Running the National Review

Another National Review writer has been linked to a white nationalist organization.

When it rains it pours:

Documents obtained from Guidestar reveal that John O'Sullivan -- former editor and current staff writer and "editor-at-large" for National Review -- is listed on the board of directors for the white nationalist organization Lexington Research Institute Limited (aka The VDare Foundation) most commonly known as VDare.

Form 990s obtained from Guidestar reveal he was on their board from 2009 to 2010 with the overview report indicating him on the board of VDare from the 2006 to 2010 (Fiscal year ending on December 31, 2010).

Last week I wrote that the honchos at NR needed a written procedure to help identify folks with, shall we say, questionable views and associations.

Has the writer ever admitted to being a racist? If yes move to step X

Does the writer associate with Hate groups? If yes, move to step X unless particular hate group is an anti-immigration outfit. These are evaluated on a case by case basis. If the hate group is anti-gay, this is usually ok.

Does the writer link to content at hate group websites? If yes, beware.

Has the writer ever written a racial diatribe that is so bad that it offends other NRO writers? If yes move to step X. You may want to consider mitigating factors. When was it? Has he apologized? Etc.

Does the writer hang with Nazis or other white supremacist organizations? Hint: the Klan is definitely a no-no. If yes move immediately to step X.

Step X. Fire the Son of a Bitch immediately. Issue brief blog post indicating that you are shocked by such conduct and do not condone it. It is imperative that ties are severed immediately. We get enough accusations of racism as it is. It is better to be thought by the general public as just a bunch of assholes rather than as racists.

The white supremacy thing just seems to keep tripping them up. If this is indeed the third one in two weeks and the story holds up, it would seem time for a full throated purge at the National Review.

World Military Powers Fooled By Global Warming Hoax

The Lamestream Media Reports:

YOKOSUKA, Japan — To the world’s military leaders, the debate over climate change is long over. They are preparing for a new kind of Cold War in the Arctic, anticipating that rising temperatures there will open up a treasure trove of resources, long-dreamed-of sea lanes and a slew of potential conflicts.

By Arctic standards, the region is already buzzing with military activity, and experts believe that will increase significantly in the years ahead.

Last month, Norway wrapped up one of the largest Arctic maneuvers ever — Exercise Cold Response — with 16,300 troops from 14 countries training on the ice for everything from high intensity warfare to terror threats. Attesting to the harsh conditions, five Norwegian troops were killed when their C-130 Hercules aircraft crashed near the summit of Kebnekaise, Sweden’s highest mountain.

The U.S., Canada and Denmark held major exercises two months ago, and in an unprecedented move, the military chiefs of the eight main Arctic powers — Canada, the U.S., Russia, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland — gathered at a Canadian military base last week to specifically discuss regional security issues.

None of this means a shooting war is likely at the North Pole any time soon. But as the number of workers and ships increases in the High North to exploit oil and gas reserves, so will the need for policing, border patrols and — if push comes to shove — military muscle to enforce rival claims.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that 13 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil and 30 percent of its untapped natural gas is in the Arctic. Shipping lanes could be regularly open across the Arctic by 2030 as rising temperatures continue to melt the sea ice, according to a National Research Council analysis commissioned by the U.S. Navy last year.

Either these "military leaders" do not read enough right wing blogs so as to know the truth about the Global Warming Hoax, or they are using the - quote - Threat - unquote- of global warming to justify more military spending.

Who knows?

I should know, I have some experience, if you will, with unmitigated disasters

Dick Cheney weighs in on one of his areas of expertise - disastrous Presidential terms:

I can’t think of a time when I felt it was more important for us to defeat an incumbent president today with respect to Barack Obama. I think he has been an unmitigated disaster to the country. I think to be in a position where he gets four more years in the White House to continue the policies he has, both with respect to the economy, and tax policy, and defense and some other areas would be a huge, huge disappointment.

According to Cheney, re-electing President Obama would be even a bigger disaster than the re-election of George Bush. That is saying something. For the good of the Country, let's hope he is wrong because the alternative to re-electing Obama would be to elect Willard Milton Romney, which would be even worse for the Republic.

Our Best-est Military Ally thinks whaaat….?

Some Folks in Britain are still bearing a hurtful grudge after all these years. Some of 'em are still upset at George:

American revolutionary leader George Washington has been voted the greatest enemy commander to face Britain, lauded for his spirit of endurance against the odds and the enormous impact of his victory.

In a contest organised by the National Army Museum, Washington triumphed over Irish independence hero Michael Collins, France’s Napoleon Bonaparte, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey.

Making the case for Washington, historian Stephen Brumwell said the American War of Independence (1775-83) was “the worst defeat for the British Empire ever.”

“His personal leadership was crucial,” he said.

Schoolchildren are taught that King George III was a real asshole when in fact he probably wasn't a much bigger asshole than any other king. Perhaps the same is true in Britain with George Washington.

Eggheads: "Studies Show that today's GOP is the most Radical in 100 years

Leading Right Leaning Political Scientist call 'em out.

The short version would be since the late 1970s starting with the 1976 election in the House the Republican caucus has steadily moved to the right ever since. It's been a little more uneven in the Senate. The Senate caucuses have also moved to the right. Republicans are now furtherest to the right that they've been in 100 years.

…

"It is true that the Republicans have moved further to the right than the Democrats have moved to the left. That's absolutely true.

"On the other hand, there doesn't seem to be much impetus on the part of the leadership of either political party to really do something serious about our budget crisis. I doubt very seriously we'll see much improvement.

"People forget how utterly irresponsible our political leadership has been for the last 30 years. ... The current political class of the U.S. just isn't in the same league as Truman and Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson. You just don't have that kind of leadership now, just when we need it.

-Keith Poole, Egghead at University of Georgia

I don't buy the Truman-Eisenhower nostalgia, but the rest of it about today's wingers is spot on.

The 100 year comparison is also about right, too. 100 years ago, social darwinism was mainstream. Today, it is making a come back thanks to the radical nature of the GOP. The Darwinists had a saying back in the day that "Poverty was the best Policy." That slogan seems to dovetail quite nicely with today's GOP approach toward the lesser amongst us.

Full Metal Wingnut or Moderate in 2016?

Some know-it-alls are suggesting that Santorum is set up nicely for 2016 as the True Believer that conservatives will pick as the GOTP nominee.

Is that correct however?

This seems plausible, but it isn’t right. Some Republicans will believe that Romney’s lack of credibility or zeal or purity was the reason for the defeat, but they will in all likelihood find themselves stymied once again in 2016. Remember how desperate most Republicans were to recapture the White House in 1999-2000. Now imagine how much greater the desire to have a Republican President will be if Obama is in office for another four years. That will cancel out the instinct to turn to a more conservative nominee. After eight years of the Obama administration, there will be more Republicans interested in simply winning the election than there are today.

They will likely be ready to tolerate a nominee as compromised as Romney, or they might be willing to accept a nominee even less conservative than the current iteration of Romney pretends to be. After Dole’s loss in 1996, one might have expected that the next nominee would run to Dole’s right, but the opposite happened: Bush started off his campaign attacking his party from the left, and then McCain helped him to shore up his support with conservatives by running to Bush’s left. Assuming a Romney loss, the 2016 election will present us with something similar to that.

Larison Am Con

This is what the studies tell us about the historical pattern showing moderation being strengthened as a result of time out office. The longer you are out of office, the more likely you'll settle for the safe pick as the nominee.

If this pattern will repeat in 2016 with a so-called moderate is another question. As to Santo, methinks he will be heading to a gig on Foxnews soon. If the GOTP decides to go full metal wingnut in 2016, there is no reason to believe that the GOTP will choose a Third-Tier Winger like Santo. Why not get one off the top shelf instead?

Why not get a full throated true believer without a google problem that actually inspires the base? In 2016, if your best feature is being the anti-Romney, I think your toast.

Disgruntled Ex-Employee Whines about Foxnews

Life is not fair.

Some folks get paid 1 Million Bucks to spout wingnuttery on camera on Foxnews. The rest of us get nothing. Nothing. Others get paid the big bucks by the Foxnews one day and then picked on the next day. This would be people like Newt Gingrich who is now claiming that FOXNEWS IS BIASED!!!!

No? Yes!

“I think FOX has been for Romney all the way through,” Gingrich said during the private meeting -- to which RealClearPolitics was granted access -- at Wesley College. “In our experience, Callista and I both believe CNN is less biased than FOX this year. We are more likely to get neutral coverage out of CNN than we are of FOX, and we’re more likely to get distortion out of FOX. That’s just a fact.”

.... Gingrich did not pull his punches in accusing Rupert Murdoch -- the chairman and CEO of News Corp., FOX News’ parent company -- of pushing for Romney behind the scenes.

“I assume it’s because Murdoch at some point [who] said, ‘I want Romney,’ and so ‘fair and balanced’ became ‘Romney,’ ” Gingrich said. “And there’s no question that Fox had a lot to do with stopping my campaign because such a high percentage of our base watches FOX.”

Foxnews is the communication arm of the GOTP as far as the TV is concerned. When the party fat cats want to put out a message to the unwashed masses, they use the Foxnews. It is clear that the fat cats do not like Newt Gingrich and believe that nominating him would be a disaster. I would like it if Newt were nominated, but they do not care about me. Example: Foxnews does not pay me to spout bullshit on the airwaves. That Foxnews would communicate this message about Willard and Newt is not surprising. In other news, water is still wet.

Poor Newt.

Dispatches from the wingnut-O-sphere - Is Global Warming like Slavery?

Is ending (or limiting) Anthropogenic Global Warming a moral issue just like ending slavery was a moral issue? Have not heard this comparison. I suppose one could make that argument.

While I have not heard the comparison between Slavery and Global Warming, I have read about the similarities between health insurance and slavery. Powerline Blog is a good place to read about the similarities between chattel slavery and health insurance. As a matter of fact, by reading Powerline Blog one could get the impression that the authors of the blog would like its readers to believe that if Abraham Lincoln were alive today, he'd be leading a secessionist movement in the southern states over health insurance. Wingers. What can you do?

One thing you can do is to piss them off by stating the Anthropogenic Global Warming is a Moral Issue.

From the wingnet:

Hansen’s unscientific yammering about global warming has ruined the reputation of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies and gravely damaged the image of NASA. Most recently, he has compared global warming to slavery:

Dealing with climate change is a moral issue on a par with ending slavery, the world’s most celebrated climate scientist, James Hansen, of Nasa, believes.

Dr Hansen, who heads Nasa’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies, will be making the slavery comparison in his acceptance speech for the Edinburgh Medal next Tuesday, when he will also be calling for a global tax on all carbon emissions. Nothing less will do, he will argue, so urgent is the challenge which climate change presents for future generations.

One thing about slavery, as opposed to anthropogenic global warming, is that it actually exists, to a significant degree. In fact, by some estimates there is more slavery in the world today than in the 19th century. So if Hansen actually cared about slavery as a moral evil as opposed to a rhetorical device, he could devote what remains of his career to combating it, instead of stirring up hysteria in an effort to destroy the world’s economy.

Powerline Blogger Hinderaker

Yes Global Warming is a Hoax. The funny thing about this position is that one of Powerline Blog's contributors does not think it is a hoax. This unwillingness to believe that Global Warming is a hoax makes this Powerline Blogger a fool, I suppose. But it does not make him too much of a fool to be banned from Powerline Blog. There is no requirement that Powerline Blogger not be fools. So he fits in quite well.

Another thing about Global Warming is that deniers HATE Dr. James Hansen. They hate him with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns. This may be more than they hate Al Gore, but this is unconfirmed. I am not sure where I am going with this other than it is really funny to see Powerline Blog fume at comparisons of Global Warming and Slavery, when the same blog has compared health insurance to slavery.

Wingers. What can you do.

Tough Week at the NRO

Second one this week fired.

For NRO Editor Rich "Starbursts" Lowry, firing white supremacists and the sort is an occupational hazard:

Regarding Robert Weissberg:

Unbeknowst to us, occasional Phi Beta Cons contributor Robert Weissberg (whose book was published a few years ago by Transaction) participated in an American Renaissance conference where he delivered a noxious talk about the future of white nationalism. He will no longer be posting here. Thanks to those who brought it to our attention

If I was a bigwig at the National Review, I'd empathize with Rich. It has to be a tough job to corral all the craziness going on over there and navigate around each bright and shiny object that wingers periodically fixate upon. For some, the crazy may be a belief that starbursts emanate from Sarah Palin when she is speaking. For others, it is the outrage of the day over some grievance either real or imagined. For others, it may be white supremacy. Who knows, it is all in a good day's work over there.

With that said, as a bigwig at the NR, I'd see to it that the Human Resources department prepare a users manual on how to spot and fire a racist on staff. The manual may contain a checklist to help the editor out with questions like this:

Has the writer ever admitted to being a racist? If yes move to step X

Does the writer associate with Hate groups? If yes, move to step X unless particular hate group is an anti-immigration outfit. These are evaluated on a case by case basis. If the hate group is anti-gay, this is usually ok.

Does the writer link to content at hate group websites? If yes, beware.

Has the writer ever written a racial diatribe that is so bad that it offends other NRO writers? If yes move to step X. You may want to consider mitigating factors. When was it? Has he apologized? Etc.

Does the writer hang with Nazis or other white supremacist organizations? Hint: the Klan is definitely a no-no. If yes move immediately to step X.

Step X. Fire the Son of a Bitch immediately. Issue brief blog post indicating that you are shocked by such conduct and do not condone it. It is imperative that ties are severed immediately. We get enough accusations of racism as it is. It is better to be thought by the general public as just a bunch of assholes rather than as racists.

It is just a thought. If you are the bigwig, you don't want to set your employees up to fail. It is inevitable that some racists may sneak in unnoticed. When this happens, you need to give your employees the tools they need to succeed. A written procedure with these steps (and more) could come in handy.

Nearly Half of House Republicans are Social Darwinists

This number feels about right to me, so I'm sticking with it. It also feels like a good number to Congressman Allen West:

The conservative tea party icon also got in shots at Democrats and President Obama, who spoke Tuesday at Florida Atlantic University. West said Obama was "scared" to have a discussion with him. He later said "he's heard" up to 80 U.S. House Democrats are Communist Party members, but wouldn't name names.

He won't name names, but does he have a list? That’s what I want to know.

Joe McCarthy had a list, once. It was a famous list. It was supposed to contain the names of hundreds government officials who were members of the communist party. It was not a very good list, though. It had no names on it. When you think about it, it is not that hard to make up a list of communists, if you don’t have to supply any actual names.

But then again, you wouldn’t have a list – you’d have a piece of paper. So maybe it is hard to make up list of known commies without providing the names of the known commies. This is all very confusing to me. Perhaps Congressman West can clarify his statement.

The Gingrich Campaign is Bankrupt

Everyone already knew this, but it is out of money too:

Five Republicans have filed the necessary papers and $500 fee to qualify for the June 26 Utah presidential primary election, but with Rick Santorum dropping out of the race Tuesday, only four will be on the ballot.

Or possibly three.

Utah Elections Director Mark Thomas said a designated agent for the Gingrich campaign brought the filing papers and a check for $500 in March, but the state was notified by the bank that the check had bounced. He said the office has tried to contact the Gingrich campaign through the telephone number and email provided on the application, but has not received a response.

Recently, the state sent a certified letter to the campaign, stating that if the fee isn’t paid by April 20, Gingrich will be disqualified and will not be on the ballot.

I know that debtors prisons are a bad idea. But on the other hand…….

Who is this Person named George Bush?

President Bush weighs in on Darwinian Economics:

Former President George W. Bush made an appearance in New York City on Tuesday for some old-school talk about taxes. His message was a familiar one from his years in office: Raising taxes on the wealthy discourages job growth.

“If you raise taxes on the so-called rich, you’re really raising taxes on the job creators,” Mr. Bush said. “And if the goal is private-sector growth, you’ve got to recognize that the best way to create that growth is to leave capital in the treasuries of the job creators.”

Most jobs come from small businesses that pay their taxes through their owners’ individual returns, Mr. Bush added.

The event–a conference sponsored by his think tank, the Bush Institute–coincides with a push this week by President Barack Obama and fellow Democrats for passage of what they call the Buffett Rule, a proposed minimum federal tax rate of 30% on people earning more than $1 million a year. That proposal is named for billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who says the current rules allow him to pay a lower tax rate than his secretary.

Mr. Bush was largely responsible for the tax cuts that allow some people in Mr. Buffett’s class to pay less than 30%, in particular the current 15% rates on capital gains and dividends. Capital gains previously were taxed at 20% and dividends were taxed at the top ordinary-income rate, currently 35%.

Collectively the current tax levels are known as the “Bush tax cuts.” But Mr. Bush suggested he’d be willing to give up having his own name attached to them if that would help stave off a tax increase.

“I wish they weren’t called the ‘Bush tax cuts,’ ” he said at one point. “If they were called some other body’s tax cuts, they’re probably less likely to be raised.”

Notice the makers and takers line in bold above? Bush stole that line from old-timey Darwinists. This is OK. People are always kicking around ideas from the past and seeing how they can be used today. The Old School Social Darwinists would have been down with using this line like Bush used it. Darwinist and GOP thinking really starts to merge here.

I'll post more on the Darwinian view on taxes later and how it fits with the GOTP today and where it does not fit to a lesser extent.

But seriously who is this person Named George Bush? Has anyone heard of him before?

Late Nite Comedians are MEAN

"Mitt Romney was a guest on 'The Tonight Show' over there on NBC. I mean, it's interesting, you know, you have an empty suit trying to please everyone, and then Romney comes out."

-David Letterman

That's a two-fer. You get to bash your rival and make fun of Willard at the same time!

Operation Batshit a Kick-Ass Success

Santorum Finally Surrenders

Rick Santorum announced Tuesday that he is suspending his presidential campaign, all but bringing to a close the 2012 GOP presidential contest and effectively handing the nomination to Mitt Romney.

“We made a decision over the weekend that, while this presidential race for us is over — for me — and we will suspend our campaign effective today, we are not done fighting,” Santorum said at a campaign event in Gettysburg, Pa., the site of the historic and pivotal Civil War battle.

The former Pennsylvania senator had been Romney’s top opponent, but he suffered a trio of defeats last week in Wisconsin, Maryland and the District of Columbia, and over the weekend his daughter, Bella, was hospitalized for the second time this campaign due to complications from a rare genetic disorder.

In announcing his decision, Santorum said Bella’s condition caused him to reconsider his campaign but that she “is a fighter and doing extraordinarily well.”

He did not endorse or urge the delegates that he has won to support another candidate.

It was fun while it lasted. Operation Batshit was Romney's primary strategy that relied on the more crazy the better. If the numerous crazy candidates in the field divided up the crazy vote, Willard could weasel by with just enough margin to pull it off. Sure enough, heavy doses of Cain, Bachmann, Perry, Paul, Gingrich and Santo made it happen.

I suppose that Gingrich and his Grandiose Intellect could fight on. Something tells me that his 10% approval rating might get in the way, though.

Like 9-9-9, but it actually might work!

Who knows really like everything else, the devil is in the details, but Excommunicated Conservative Bruce Barlett has concocted a devious plan to simplify the tax code:

One idea is to do what Gen. Douglas MacArthur did during World War II — bypass enemy strongholds, leaving them isolated and relatively harmless. Prof. Michael Graetz of Columbia Law School has proposed what I believe is a MacArthur-like solution to tax reform. He would abolish the income tax for the vast bulk of Americans and replace the revenue with a 12.5 percent value-added tax. People would pay their taxes when they buy things and wouldn’t need to worry about keeping records or filing tax returns at all.

The brilliance of the Graetz plan is that no tax expenditures need to be repealed. He would simply give every family a tax exemption of $100,000, which would eliminate the income tax for 90 percent of those now filing returns.

But can't you just imagine what will happen in the future when some winger earns a hard won promotion and goes from $99,000 to $109,000 year or more? I predict lots of bitching.

Winger: Great now I have to pay taxes. Get a raise and pay taxes. Unfair. Next thing you know, I'll get a bonus or get stock options and I'll have to pay taxes on those too. And I bet it will happen, too. They'll give me a bonus just to screw me over. My life sucks.

Yep.

Axioms of Social Darwinism and Contemporary GOTP philosophy, Cntd

All Bow Down to Your Galtian Overlords. This passage from yesteryear could have come right out of an Any Rand novel:

“the achievements of the human race have been accomplished by the elite of the race. There is no ground at all in history for the notion that the masses of mankind have provided the wisdom and done the work…. Hence the dogma that all men are created equal is the most flagrant falsehood and the most immoral doctrine which men have ever believed”

W G Sumner -The North American Review - June 1884 No. 331

You can tell why Paul Ryan's intellectual hero, Ayn Rand, was so into the Social Dawinism, it is because she lifted a lot of their ideas and used them in her books.

With that said, there is not anything wrong with being a Darwinist. The Mainline Darwinists were motivated by a desire to protect liberty and society from excesses. Today's republicans are also probably motivated by a desire not to do harm. Probably.

It is also not wrong to note that Many (not all) of the ideas advanced through Social Darwinism has been adopted by one of Today's Major political parties.

Dispatches from the wingnut-O-sphere - The Dreams of Bill Ayers

An Unrepentant Wingnut on an Unrepentant Terrorist. Via Powerline Blogger Scott:

Does Obama ever express a thought using words in a new form? It seems that political cliches are the essential medium of his expression. His speeches are like New York Times editorials. They ought to be accompanied by a warning: Reading them can kill brain cells.

Is this really the somewhat interesting guy who wrote Dreams From My Father I doubt it. I don’t say Bill Ayers necessarily wrote the book, but it couldn’t have been Obama. He has yet to formulate a political thought in an original way.

Conservatives had Obama’s number last time, but a lot of voters chose to ignore the evidence and hope he was who he pretended to be. As Samuel Johnson said of remarriage, it was the triumph of hope over experience.

This time around, pretty much everyone has Obama’s number. He isn’t even trying to conceal it or present it as something other than what it is. That’s progress, isn’t it?

This is what the derangement syndrome looks like. And it is a fair statement on the "Republican Brain" or a more virulent subset thereof - the brain of an unrepentant wingnut. In this world view, only the wingnuts know the truth. Everyone else is clueless.

Take Global Warming for example. It is a hoax perpetrated by a small number of super-genius level uber scientists. This Uber-scientists have then brainwashed the lesser scientists who then unknowingly brainwash the rest of the public about non-existent global warming. There is just one weakness in the uber-scientists' plan - the wingnuts have figured it out! Only the wingnuts know the truth. The rest of us - not so much.

Take President Obama. He is not smart. He uses a teleprompter. Ivy league education, editor of Harvard Law Review are all affirmative action. Someone ghost wrote his book. He criticized the Supreme Court. This means that he does not even understand judicial review and Marbury vs Madision. He is also mean and a thug who practices Chicago-style politics. Yes only the wingnuts have figured this out. The rest of America has been fooled.

An on and on.