Missouri 8th Could Be a Model for Democrats Everywhere

The fact that 7-term incumbent Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson is up on television already running negative ads against her Democratic opponent defies the norm of this year's midterms.

Emerson is in an overwhelming Republican district, which just so happens to contain Rush Limbaugh's childhood home.  Can't get more right wing than that can ya?  She was reelected in 2008 with 71% of the vote.  A very Democratic year mind you.  The only time she ever struggled was her first election in 1996, where she had to run as an Independent and faced 4 other candidates, one of which was a Republican.  Even that year, the two Republican/Independent candidates combined for 60% of the vote.  Her average percentage of vote for her 7 elections is 67%.  That's amazing.  It's also a very safe Republican district.  One of the safest in the country.

So why the need to go on teevee so early and so negative?  The reasons describe a lot about this election and how Democrats could model it all over the country especially on Health Care Reform.

Her opponent, Tommy Sowers, was a Major in the United States Army and a decorated Iraq war veteran.  He's also on record saying that he would have voted for Health Care Reform.  Great candidate for Democrats if you ask me.  A supporter of the president's milestone policy, an Iraq combat vet and a proponent of dismantling DADT running head to head with an incumbent Republican in one of the most Republican districts in the country has to be great news.

The Emerson Camp understands this too and has gone full throttle with a quick introductory commercial then quickly turning to a negative ad linking Sowers to Obama and Pelosi and blasting him for his support of health care reform which the Emerson Camp calls a government takeover.



An ad like this should have every Democratic strategist in the country licking their chops.  This is exactly what you want.  Republicans running against HCR and calling it a government takeover.  This is exactly what I would want because it gives Sowers the opportunity to debate HCR and tell the people of the 8th district that Republicans are lying.  Lying in a big way about some very basic stuff.

Let's get clear on this, largely because Democrats have done a horrible job gauging common sense.

Health Care Reform in no way was a government takeover.  Not one single hospital was seized by the government.  Not one doctor or nurse immediately became a federal employee.  The same is true for access to insurance and private insurance companies too.  Government did not take over one single aspect of any of it. 

Moreover, the companies themselves of all three major sectors of the health care industry-- insurance companies (including those participating in Medicare Advantage), hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies-- solidly refutes any notion that the HCR is a "government takeover."  Their stocks continue to climb, revenues continue to increase, and for-profit entities continue their involvement in the sector. "Government takeover" might be a convenient talking point for health reform opponents, but the performance of health care stocks and industry behavior since passage of the Affordable Care Act clearly reveal that the talking point has no basis in reality.

The key parts of the current U.S. system-- employer-provided insurance, Medicare for the elderly, Medicaid for the poor-- have not went anywhere.  HCR simply allows the government to create health insurance exchanges for people who have to buy insurance on their own, so they could more easily compare plans and prices.  Not one aspect of the American health care system was taken over by government.

This is an easy debate to wage and win.  Why not do it??  Make Emerson explain how not one doctor became a federal employee.  How is that possible if government took over health care?  The VA is an entirely government-run system.  Every doctor and every janitor is a federal employee.  Why aren't the doctors at Southeast Memorial Hospital not federal employees if Obama took over health care?

Democrats get too lost in the fiasco that they're being attacked rather than hitting back.  It seems as if they spend most of their time trying to find ways not to be attacked rather than standing up for the truth when they are attacked.  Hit her back on this one.  Run a rebuttal explaining to the people that government owns not one single private hospital, that 32 million people will get greater access to health care and that the HCR will actually reduce the deficit.

This is a perfect opportunity to finally wage a factual conversation about health care reform and the direction of this country.  Surely a combat veteran is itching for a good one.  It's now or never.

If Not Crazy, Then Pathological Liars

Everything is a conspiracy: Mexico is sending police to patrol Staten Island!! If only Republicans were still in charge none of this would be happening...

Leading Economists: Stimulus Helped, But Bush Bailouts Helped More

An overlooked item in yesterday's USA Today:

Eighteen months later, the consensus among economists is that the stimulus worked in staving off a rerun of the 1930s. But the spending's impact was dwarfed by other crisis-fighting tools deployed by the Bush and Obama administrations, including costly efforts to stabilize crippled banks and the Fed's unconventional monetary policy.

"I think it was important for confidence. ... But fiscal stimulus was the least important of the three planks of the government's strategy," said Harvard University's Kenneth Rogoff, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund.

thumbs up means it's not socialism

Seemingly this would be good news for the GOP that greatly opposed Obama's stimulus legislation. That would require Republicans to accept the fact that Bush's socialization of the insurance and lending industries actually happened. That might be too much reality for Republicans to grasp, however. My guess is they will try and say that Bush's policies helped more than Obama's without actually saying what Bush's policies really were. They'll probably try to say Bush's socialized bailout program was actually a fiscally conservative Patriotic approach to rescuing the economy and Obama's was a socialist-tyrannical takeover.

Remember these are the same people that proposed a numberless budget so no delusion is too much.

Generic Ballot Highly Favors GOP

Sobering news for the nation from Gallup's latest polling on the generic ballot this November. Republicans lead by a 10-point margin.  An enthusiasm gap clearly exists.

Quickies

I don't know anyone that's against a Monday quickie!

• Anti-Muslim fervor heats up with reported shots being fired at cleanup crews trying to clear away the leftovers from a weekend arson attempt on a would-be mosque in Tennessee.  Wheeee!!  But don't worry, the right wing is not extreme at all.  They're Patriots!

• Completely insane Glenn Beckpalooza draws about 85,000 people to DC over the weekend.  This can only mean one thing:  the Republican Fantasy World number will be about 2.3 million.  On a side note, Fox News and Republicans were estimating 300,000.  Way short of that.  But Fox will never report it that way.

• Steven Benen does a heck of a job of reminding Rush Limbaugh about factual history.  Classic post by Steve.

• Alaska GOP U.S. Senate candidate says he wants to return to the basics of the Constitution because we have gotten too far away from the Founder's intent especially with Social Security, Medicare and regulation.  It was the Founder's intent that blacks would be slaves and women property.  It took federal regulation to include both those groups as official citizens of this country.  Just how basic does he want to get??

For Fox News' Republican Viewers, Ken Mehlman Coming Out Never Happened

Contrary to Fox's slogan, it's hard to decide when you don't report. Not reporting is exactly how the Republican Fox News channel gets around not telling its viewers that the man responsible for getting George Bush his second term, largely on the platform of inciting fear that Bush was led by God Almighty, was an in-the-closet homosexual.

Ken Mehlman announced two days ago that he was gay and that he could see how people would be angry with him.  The man he helped reelect to a second term in 2004 ran his campaign, at Mehlman's direction, on a Constitutional Amendment to ban gay marriage.  Of course, after the election Bush did no such thing and rarely spoke publicly about marriage or gay issues.  His open support for amending the Constitution to discriminate against gays was entirely about turning out the Republican base and nothing more.  It was a campaign ploy designed to appeal to the wacko Christian Right and to convince people that John Kerry was an evil sinner that would destroy God's institution of marriage.  It worked.  And we still see the back draft of it today.

But in the Republican Fantasy World, it never happened.  Fox News devoted not one single mention to the story.  If the story was David Axelrod was gay, Fox would use it as a breaking headline to prove Democrats are immoral, dishonest and that Obama was elected under false pretenses.  Fox, no doubt, would have used the opportunity to smear President Obama and his administration.  For George Bush, the most watched media network in the country completely ignores it.

This should be no surprise since Fox News also pretends that Bush didn't create the trillion dollar deficit we face today.  That Bush didn't triple our national debt.  That the bailouts didn't happen until a Democrat took over.  They just ignore reality long enough for it to go away.  Their entire existence is to promote the Republican cause.

Blog Updates

I've been working with Disqus quite a bit since switching over to the new template a few months ago. At first old comments were lost after the upgrade. After a few months, Disqus worked it out and now all the comments in every post have been recovered and should be fully functional. Bravo to Disqus for making this happen.

I have also fixed the links in the comment thread. They are blue and should be able to embed video and pictures. The embed is still a little quirky so if you have some trouble let us know. The font size has also been enlarged to help our older readers see better (Spinner??).  One thing we are still working on is making the comment input box a little bigger.  We would also love for Disqus to add a flipping "preview" button.  Currently you can preview by hitting the post button and then edit afterward.  An actual preview button would be terrific, however.

Finally, I must direct everyone's attention to some updates on the tabs at the top of the page.  The About, Staph and Blog Guides have all been updated or will soon be.  Contained within the About tab is our comment policy.  Nothing has really changed since the very first day of having a blog with comments other than to now have it in some official writing as to what the policy actually is.  Give it a read and note The Fold Blog will maintain correspondence anonymity at all times, unless otherwise directed.

The Election in One Post

Only once in a long while does something come around that precisely sums up an entire era in a matter of sentences.  This is one of those rare times.

Campaigning together in Louisiana, Congressman John Fleming and Senator David Vitter spoke to a Republican woman's club in their home state. Fleming eloquently summed up this year's midterms:

"We have two competing world views here and there is no way that we can reach across the aisle -- one is going to have to win," said Rep. John Fleming, R-La. [...]

"We are either going to go down the socialist road and become like Western Europe and create, I guess really a godless society, an atheist society. Or we're going to continue down the other pathway where we believe in freedom of speech, individual liberties and that we remain a Christian nation.

"So we're going to have to solve that argument before we can once again reach across and work together on things."

As Joel Connelly writes on his blog, according to the GOP we are facing a choice between a "Godless," and "atheist society" or a "Christian nation."  By all means choose the Christian nation, please.  And the way to vote for a Christian nation is, of course, to vote for God's Party and cast your ballot for a Republican.

This is the Bush 2004 strategy.  It worked.  It turned out the base.  People were terrified that if John Kerry won, God would punish this country.  Fortunately for America, Bush was reelected and we witnessed another 4 years of endless war, a Dow that lost thousands of points, an economy that created not one single job and an administration that ran up trillion dollars of debt.  I couldn't imagine what God's punishment would have looked like had Bush lost.

Sen. Vitter, God's Family Man

Seemingly the story would end there.  But it doesn't.  Many will already have caught on that Fleming was with Sen. David Vitter when he made the remarks about choosing God or a socialist-atheist society.  As we all know, Vitter is a man of God and the perfect man to represent what exactly it is that voters are choosing.  Vitter is a self-described pro-life moral crusader who has routinely campaigned on being a moral values family man.  He also pays prostitutes for sex.  

The choice couldn't be clearer.  Nor could their derangement.

One Day the Whole World Will Be Carpeted and Republicans Will Do the Cleaning

Interestingly, while filling in for Andrew Sullivan, Conor Friedersdorf realizes that Matt Yglesias doesn't necessarily want to grow government just for the sake of growing government. Instead, it's possible those who do not consider themselves Republican and/or conservative are actually not liberal hippies that stroke off daily to thoughts of Big Government. 

This is a topic I talk about frequently perhaps not necessarily on the blog.  A few weeks ago I wrote that the size of government is irrelevant.  People care more about efficiency than about size.  On a political level, those that are left of center tend to care more about policy achieving a desired result than about the size of government.  And those on the right tend to care more about how policy affects the size of government than about about a desired result from the policy.

The problem with all that is none of it is true.  People on the left really don't care about government growing or shrinking.  Whereas people on the right merely only want to talk about shrinking government.  Steve Benen says it like this.  "The liberal worldview is not about necessarily increasing the size of government or raising taxes; those mechanisms are only valuable insofar as they reach the desired end-point. For the right, it's the other way around -- the ideological goal is the desired end-point."   Except for the fact that the right has never achieved their desired goal, or even come close to shrinking government, I'd say Steve is about right.

Then we have to consider it's not even accurate to claim people on the right want to shrink government as an ideology.  If they do subscribe to such ideology, they've never once governed that way.  In fact, when given ample opportunity to govern, they did nothing but enormously grow government.  Whereas on the left, policy objectives have both shrunk government and grown government proving the left cannot possibly be labeled as Big Government.

Ken Mehlman Says He's Gay

Ken Mehlman is now a gay advocate

Former RNC chairman and Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign manager says he's gay.

Coming out back then would have been a tragic end to his political career and to Bush's reelection. I don't know what's worse.  Living your whole life as a lie or belonging to a political party that forces you to live your whole life as a lie.

Mehlman now says he wants to work for gay issues.  A rather worthless endeavor since he's no longer in a position where he had ample opportunity to advance gay rights.  Symptomatic of Republican fiscal conservatism, only once they are out of power do they begin to care about their so-called principles.

How To Really Get the Economy Moving Again, not to mention tons of people too

Duncan Black, if I'm allowed to call him that, generously states the most obvious way to get the economy chugging along again.

"10-year Treasury at 2.51. As I keep saying, at rates this low it's a crime not to borrow crazy amounts and spend it on SUPERTRAINS and fixing bridges and whatnot."

It's a fact of modernity.  If people aren't spending money the economy isn't growing. We have a large consumer-based economy designed around the buying and selling of goods and services.  Being that our largest buyer and spender is the federal government-- actually the largest buyer and spender in the world-- it only makes sense to get it buying and spending.  Conversely, the best way to make our economy dry up and shrivel is to make the world's largest buyer and spender come to halt, which is exactly what the GOP says, in the name of fiscal conservatism of course, we should do.

Fox News Owner Funnels Money to Cordoba House

While we are on the subject of radical Islamic connections to the GOP, it's worth pausing for a second to realize that right wing media, Fox News, is also partially owned by the Saudi royal family.  I first wrote about this earlier in the year.  And it seems everyone knows it except Republicans Fox News viewers.  Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is the second largest shareholder of News Corp, Fox's parent company.  The prince is also the same guy that offered NYC $10 million shortly after 9/11 to help pay for cleanup.  Then mayor Rudy Giuliani famously denied the money citing terrorist connections.

Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal

Giuliani was right.  Saudi Arabia is the largest terrorist supporting country in the world.  15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 came from Saudi Arabia.  Not from Iraq but from SAUDI ARABIA.  It's a farce of history that this isn't talked about more.  Instead we have to talk about Islamic centers being built in Manhattan and how that's a step too far for the crazy right wing.

Speaking of Islamic centers housed a few blocks from where 15 Saudi nationals helped fly airplanes into two large skyscrapers bringing them tumbling down and killing thousands of innocent people.  This Islamic center known as the Cordoba House is being funded in part by none other than Fox News' second largest shareholder, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.  Yes this is the very same prince that tried to give $10 million to NYC.  The very same prince whose kingdom is the largest world supporter of Islamic terrorism.  The very same prince that meets regularly with Rupert Murdoch.  And the very same prince that Fox News hosts just recently chastised for trying to fund the Cordoba House and having ties to terrorism.

The whole thing is really amazing when you stop and think about it.  Fox News' largest stakeholder, next to Rupert Murdoch, is helping finance the Cordoba House.  Just let that sink in.

More Praise for Make-Believe Fiscal Conservatism

Anyone that could not have predicted this needs quick medical attention.

With the glowing Revolutionary! news out yesterday that the Republican Governor of Virginia has a budget surplus heading into the next fiscal year, it was only a matter of time before Republicans started holding it up as an example of patriotic fiscal conservatism.

The WSJ, which is also owned by News Corp, which also owns Fox News, writes that the surplus proves Republican economics works and should be used as a model for every state and the feds.  Nutjob retard, minority leader John Boehner, today briefly mentioned the Virginia surplus in his patriotic economic speech highlighting it also as a model that should be implemented throughout the country and as proof taxes should not be raised.

Yet no mention from the Journal or Boner about the more than $2.5 billion in federal stimulus funds that helped Virginia close the gaps in its budget.  Without the stimulus money there was no way McDonnell and his GOP cohorts would be bragging about creating a surplus.  This is the equivalent of the owners of the New Orleans Saints bragging about winning the Super Bowl without ever mentioning the players.  There is no way they would have won without Drew Brees & Co actually playing in the game.  Just like there is no way Virginia could have a surplus without Obama's stimulus legislation.

When Confronted With Reality, Amnesia Sets In

A story within the story of the Cordoba House in Manhattan is that the Muslim priest wanting to build the YMCA House was a delegate of the Bush administration.  He has strong ties to Republicans and the right wing.  Again, it goes to show how good of a job Bush did at keeping a lid on the crazies.  If Barack Obama used this same cleric, Abdul Rauf, to clean his toilets Fox News and the right wing would be up in arms claiming this proves Obama hates America and is secretly planning to destroy it and enforce Sharia law.  But when Bush sends him out as a representative of the United States, it's all good.

Anyway, the point of this post is to show that when someone brings up the fact that Abdul Rauf worked for the Bush administration and worked side by side with Bush cabinet member Karen Hughes, they quickly come down with a case of amnesia.  They intentionally forget any of it ever happened.  This is a common mode of operation by Republicans.

For instance, when confronted with facts that President Obama's stimulus helped the Commonwealth of Virginia create a surplus, the Republican governor goes silent never mentioning the very generous federal funds.  In their world, the surplus happened because of "fiscal prudence and conservative budgeting."  Any other version of that story, especially one that might mention the $2.5 billion in stimulus injected into Virginia never happened.

Or when you point out complete lies by Republicans that Obama has not tripled the deficit and that it was George Bush who ran up the $1.4 trillion deficit, all goes quiet.  In their world 2008 never happened.  The bailouts took place after Obama took office and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan suddenly became a crisis.  Not to mention, the budget finally became a talking point.  Bring up the fact that 2008 did happen and it was a Republican that socialized this country and redistributed more than a trillion dollars of wealth to Iraq and Afghanistan and Republicans act like it's the first time they've ever heard such nonsense and shrug it off to liberal terrorist supporters.

Even more proof is today we see Karen Hughes, the former Bush cabinet member that worked hand in hand with Rauf doing the exact same thing.  She tells Greg Sargent she has no "specific recollection" of ever working with him.   It didn't happen.  But it did happen and it's well documented.

Their line of defense is always ignore reality and it will go away.

Biden Gives Rosey Picture on Iraq

Joe Biden is famous for his gaffes, but this one is super stupid.

(CNN) -- Vice President Joe Biden delivered an optimistic assessment of the political situation in Iraq on Monday, predicting the successful formation of a new unity government in Baghdad and declaring that attempts by al Qaeda to inflame sectarian tensions have "utterly failed."

Biden must have channeled his inner right wing because over 100,000 dead Iraqis and over 4,000 dead American troops doesn't equal utter failure. Also, considering al Qaeda or its representatives were not in Iraq before we invaded, their presence symbolizes just how wrong it was to invade that country.

Why do they even let this guy out in public?

It's So Easy Being a Fiscal Conservative When You Get to Pretend!

Republican Bob McDonnell, true fiscal conservative

At the beginning of the last fiscal year, Virginia found itself in familiar territory, a huge $1.8 billion deficit. Like most states, Virginia had to tighten its belt. Republican Governor Bob McDonnell ordered cuts to social services and flagged general fund spending to 2006 levels.  Unlike most states, however, Virginia was able to produce somewhat of a surplus by the end of the fiscal year totaling over $403 million.  The moral of the story, as we all know, is that conservative values were put in place leading the state to bountiful monetary policy.  Gov. McDonnell even went on Fox News to proclaim that his state was a model for the federal government because of his “fiscal prudence and conservative budgeting."  This is great news!!

Just one thing to add:  The Commonwealth of Virginia received $2.5 billion in federal stimulus money to help patch the holes and recover from the recession.

So while Mr. McDonnell went around his state saying the president's stimulus plan was a waste of money and would do nothing to help the economy, even at one point refusing to accept the funds, he took billions of them and used it to balance his budget and create a partial surplus.  You think he would at least acknowledge the role the stimulus funds played at helping his state.  Of course he didn't.  Why would he when he instead gets to pretend that his bona fide fiscal conservatism rescued his state and that the federal government is still suffering from the recession hangover because it is not being run by a Republican.  Why would he own up when it's so easy to pretend none of it ever happened?

*Update:

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell can't figure out when tax cuts became something that should have to be paid for.  In their world, you get to create surpluses with federal stimulus money and cut taxes without paying for them and get to be labeled a fiscal conservative.  It's like paying for gas with your daddy's credit card.  You have no clue the actual costs of anything.  All you know is that when you swipe it, it all gets taken care of.  How dare someone suggest to Mitch McConnell that it has to be paid for.

More Proof Bush Did a Good Job of Keeping a Lid on the Crazies

Former Bush Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez on Republican calls to amend or repeal the 14th Amendment:

I do not support such an amendment. Based on principles from my tenure as a judge, I think constitutional amendments should be reserved for extraordinary circumstances that we cannot address effectively through legislation or regulation. Because most undocumented workers come here to provide for themselves and their families, a constitutional amendment will not solve our immigration crisis. People will certainly continue to cross our borders to find a better life, irrespective of the possibilities of U.S. citizenship.

As the nation's former chief law enforcement officer and a citizen who believes in the rule of law, I cannot condone anyone coming into this country illegally. However, as a father who wants the best for my own children, I understand why these parents risk coming to America -- especially when there is little fear of prosecution. If we want to stop this practice, we should pass and enforce comprehensive immigration legislation rather than amend our Constitution.

I highly contend if we had millions of Swedes entering the country illegally, this would not be of any concern whatsoever to the GOP.  The whole notion by the GOP to change or repeal the Amendment is stooped in fear and extremist anger that has long belonged to fringe remnants of American political discourse. 

While Bush had many faults, he was able to keep those in his party with extremists views at bay.  A task that proved difficult, I'm sure, many times.  Even though the crazies were very much around during the Bush years, a statement from Bush or one of his cabinet members like the one above usually calmed the droves.  Why?  Because they trusted him.  He did, if anything, signify a right wing power structure that was very much in charge of the world.  But now that a black man named Barack Hussein Obama is in charge, and given the void Bush left in the GOP, the crazies have no one to calm them anymore.  They truly are a people living in constant fear of everything.

Deep Thought

When was the last time the White House had to issue a statement solidifying the president is a Christian? Never that I can find.

But 102 years ago, while running for president, William Howard Taft did have to issue press releases verifying his religion and ward off right wing hysteria that he was an atheist and/or not a Christian.

click here for full NYT article

We Were Wrong Once, And Young

I've written quite a bit about Iraq over the last three or so years of blogging. At one point, it was probably my number one topic. And as longtime readers will recall, I supported the invasion in 2003.

As I've also written numerous times, I was wrong to have supported the invasion.  I was a chickenhawk going around supporting war without willing to sacrifice anything.  By the summer of 2003, once I realized we had no plans for a post-Saddam Iraq or put no consideration into the probability of an insurgency, I began to change my mind and thought the war was a huge miscalculation.  I knew then that my original grandiose for war was wrong.  I don't know how else to say it other than to say I was wrong.  I was wrong about all of it.

So reading Matt Yglesias today go through 4 different reasons why he mistakenly supported war in 2003 catches me a little off guard.  There's no need to give lists of reasons why you supported invading a country just because your government says it's a good thing to do while you gleefully cheered on others doing the fighting.  I'm sure Matt has done this before, but just say you were wrong.  No one forced your hand at support.  There were plenty of people protesting the war.  Huge demonstrations were being held daily.  Whether or not some proper speaking Scotsman conned you into chest thumping war is merely an excuse to let yourself off the hook.  You were wrong.  I was wrong.  It was a huge mistake delivered with vast lies and conspiracy theories.  There's no other way to come to terms with it.  We were wrong.

I'm not trying to pick on Matt here.  I just don't see any reason to lay out various reasons for why you did what you did when you did what you did.  The reasoning doesn't change the fact that you were wrong.  And to me that's all that needs to be said.  Because, honestly, not only were we wrong we were enablers and nothing we say now will ever change that.  So don't even try.  Admit you were wrong and learn to never blindly follow something as consequential again.

All Good Things Are Because of Bush and the GOP

If it's good news, credit is owed to a Republican somewhere:

McCain, one of the foremost supporters of the war effort there, posted a late-night message on his Twitter account, which is followed by 1.7 million people:

"Last American combat troops leave Iraq. I think President George W. Bush deserves some credit for victory."

Sad.

When things were sadistically horrible in Iraq we couldn't say a word about it.  All good Patriots were to keep their mouths shut.  Only praise to our Great Leader was allowed.  Now that the war is slowly winding down and American deaths are few and far between, the Great Leader gets the credit.  There is something morally reprehensible about giving a person credit for something that was wrong and never should have happened in the first place.

Iraq had nothing to do with bin Laden.  It had nothing to do with 9/11.  It had no WMD.  It had nothing to do with the people that attacked us.  The invasion of Iraq did not have to happen.  It did because Bush ordered it.  The last 7 years of war blowing that country up and redistributing our wealth did not have to happen.  All of it happened because of George W. Bush.  Now we're supposed to give him credit for victory?

The only credit Bush deserves is credit for getting us in a royal mess.  Not for Republicans, however.  All good news in the media is because of them.

Pretty Certain These Should Be Points Made By Someone Other Than a Comedian

As I've been saying for a while now, these are points actual media figures should be making. One of the top stories of our day should not be handled better by a comedian than by CNN or NBC.  Day in and day out, a fake news program on Comedy Central does a better job of covering our modern political system than does the press.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
News Corp. Gives Money to Republicans
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

This would be a Pulitzer if it was the Associated Press.

In all honesty, I firmly believe the best way to take on Fox News for its lack of ethical standards is for the other leading networks to report just how unfair and unbalanced Fox really is.  But they won't dare touch Fox and are paying for it with ratings and dropping revenues.  Michael Jordan didn't get to be the best in the world by ignoring Bird and Magic.  He took them both head on and beat them.

On Schedule

President Obama's plan for all combat divisions to leave Iraq by August 31, 2010 is on schedule.  The last remaining combat division left Iraq yesterday leaving behind an additional 50,000 non-combat support troops. 

Amazing to say to the least is that in 2008 something like this would have been a huge story.  Today it's a blurred mention in a mix of stories about rising unemployment rates, a slowing economy and rising voter anger at incumbent Democrats.

While we are busy discussing unimportant things like Muslim centers in Manhattan, it's important to also remember that our invasion of Iraq was totally in response to the attacks of 9/11.  It was a war of choice engaged by a bunch of a madmen and celebrated by cowards.  Nothing the administration led us to believe about Iraq turned out to be true.  It was a colossal error that serves as an example of what right wing hysteria leads to.

News Corp Gives $1 Million to Republicans

If Time Warner, Turner Broadcasting or NBC had given $1 million to the DNC, it would have generated countless breaking news alerts on Fox News.  Their "opinion programming" would have donated thousands of hours talking about how this proves CNN or MSNBC is a biased news organization and that it should be forced to reveal to its viewers their connections to Democrats.  It would have been the controversy of the century no doubt.

When the owner of Fox News donates $1 million to the Republican Governor's Association, it doesn't even garner a single mention by the Fair and Balanced network.  Shocking I know.

More importantly, however, why aren't other media outlets talking about this?  Why isn't CNN or ABC reporting that the company that owns Fox News now also owns the Republican Governor's Association?  They sure would report it about y'all.

Chart of the Day

Via Republicans and the post below...

Wheeeee!!!!!

Mindset of Intentional Misinformation

Longtime reader and pal, Kent, left a usual trite comment yesterday that's worth bringing to the main page.

He writes:

"Oh yeah. The country is better off now that Obama and the dim-witted Democrats have tripled the deficit. Way to go, Barr. That's really something to crow about."

It's worth bringing to the main page because it's the same incorrect line Republicans have been saying for 19 months about the Obama administration. It gets repeated numerous times a day on Fox News and hate radio. It's used over and over again by Republicans to try and hide the fact that it was George Bush that created the deficit we have today.

Here's some basic 5th grade level understanding of our current federal budget.

The day Obama took office the budget deficit was $1.4 trillion.  As you'll recall, Obama inherited the office and that deficit from Republican George Bush.  Last month, the Congressional Budget Office estimated the budget deficit for the next fiscal year to be about $1.3 trillion.  Moreover, this fiscal year's deficit has been estimated by the White House to be roughly $1.47 trillion.  No where in any logical sense does that equal a tripling of the deficit.  In reality, it shows President Obama might actually shrink the deficit from where he inherited it.

So why the lying and how are they getting away with it?

They lie to cover up their own misguidance while in power.  They lie, too, because they can.  The media doesn't follow up on it and when they are fact checked, they simply dismiss it as a liberal attack machine.  Most importantly, the media they pay attention to, Fox News and hate radio, never mentions the fact checks and never mentions to them that they are way off base.  Unless a Republican like Kent sees it on Fox News or hears it from Rush Limbaugh that Obama has not tripled the deficit, they will never believe it otherwise.  As we all know, the Republican media establishment will never tell them that their world is made up of complete lies.  So we get left with elected Republicans lying through their teeth about serious matters like the budget.  Likewise that leads to Republicans like Kent repeating them over and over again on the internet.

When you try to lay out a very basic understanding of the budget, you are immediately not a Serious American.  The right casts aside anything that doesn't fit into their fantasy world and hope that by repeating their lies enough people will eventually quit trying to correct them and succumb to their madness.  I'm not going to do that, however.  Kent is wrong and he knows he's wrong.  But admitting it crumbles everything he has ever been led to believe about the GOP.  So it's easier for him to pretend it's not happening.

*Update:

A Republican friend writes an email to tell me how wrong I am. 

Cut the guy some slack.  He's actually right you know.

I'll do the math for you.  Bush's final budget was only $400 billion in the deficit column.  Obama's first budget was over $1.4 trillion.  That actually equals more than a tripling of the deficit.  I guess this is too basic for you to understand.  It's also funny that we didn't see huge deficits until democrats took back congress either.  I'm sure you also know that it's congress that sets the budget and spending rests with them.  Blaming everything on Bush is getting really old.  It's time democrats admit they have failed.

Aaaaahhhhh yes I've heard this one many times before.  I know exactly where Republicans get the tripling claim from.  I know exactly what it is they are doing.  And it's pure wishful thinking.  No actually it's complete dishonesty.  Total lies.

The budget is set for the beginning of a fiscal year.  By the time that year is over, things can change and the operating budget has to adjust.  At the beginning, before Bush's budget ever went into effect, it was in the red about $400 billion.  That is correct.  And then came the bailouts.  When you add in TARP, Fannie, Freddie, Bank of America, AIG, Bear Stearns, Lehman Bros., and the auto industry bailout the total deficit for the final Bush budget is $1.4 trillion.  The government's own charts reflect as much.  Just like Obama is responsible for the entire fiscal year '10 budget, so is Bush for fiscal year '09.

This is not blaming Bush.  This is stating pure fact.  Obama has not tripled the deficit.  What Republicans want to do is pretend the bailouts never happened under Bush.  They most certainly did.  They are Republican policy to the end.  By pretending 2008 never happened, Republicans get to enjoy a world that stood still and was shielded from their very own policies.  Just own it already.

**Update:

Nearly 5 hours later, still no response from my friend who has no recollection of 2008 ever occurring.  I'm sure he's waiting on Rush Limbaugh to tell him how to respond.

Blago Escapes With Single Conviction

When your entire defense takes about a day and calls no witnesses on your behalf, you would think the odds are stacked against you. Especially when you consider that you are being prosecuted by the guy who sent the last Illinois governor to prison, who took down the last governor of New York with leaks of a prostitution ring and who also convicted the former Vice President's chief of staff.  You pretty much have no chance.  Enter Rod Blagojevich.

On the flip side, if you can't convict a guy that presents no defense then you really ought to call it quits.  Patrick Fitzgerald, the once untouchable U.S. Attorney, really wasted a lot of time and money on this one.

If there is any silver lining in this whole thing, and I speak as a resident of Illinois, it rid the state of Gov. Blagojevich for good.  He'll never again be in charge and nearly all of us are thankful for that.  He was unpopular, corrupt and put the state in a terrible mess financially.  But with the lone conviction, he'll probably do no prison time and we'll all be forced to see his smiling face on teevee for quite some time. 

Another Grand Example of Small Government Republicanism

**I have to preface this by saying this is one of the more unproductive election discussions this nation has had in quite some time**
It is not the president's decision on whether or not a mosque should be built two blocks from the ruins of the World Trade Center.  It is private land built with private money.  Government has no role in any of it.

Not surprising in the least, people on the right who pride themselves in "limited government" and keeping government out of private establishments are the very people now wanting government to step in and stop the building of a place of worship.

It all goes back to the premise that started The Fold Blog in the first place: conservatives, Republicans, right wingers (whatever they call themselves) are not against big government in the least bit.  Time and time again this blog has documented instances where Republicans love big government and routinely wallow in its excesses.  Moreover, nothing could be more authoritarian or resemble big government more than government telling a group of people the 1st Amendment does not apply to them.

This is not a matter for government to decide.

Personally I think it's in horrible taste for a mosque to be built so close to the tragedies of 9/11.  It would also be a tragedy for government to step in and force it not to happen.  None of it, however, is any more tragic than invading a country that had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11 on trumped of charges of WMD and false connections to the attackers resulting in the deaths of more Americans than died on 9/11 and hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians.  So if we have to talk about tragedies and incoherent policy I'm all for it.

Ink Pen Chronicles

I like good ink pen. There I admitted it. I found one this morning that has real promise. It's a Pentel EnerGel.

I have a weird hand writing style.  I'm right-handed but I tilt the paper that I'm writing on to the right like a left-handed person would do.  I don't know where it came from but it's a bad habit I picked up in elementary school.  I also write in blue ink, nearly always.  So I have to have a good ink pen that I'm comfortable with while holding it at a weird angle.  I obsess about finding good ink pens and I might have found one that's a keeper.

Keeping a Lid On the Crazies

Many Americans, myself included, thought the Bush administration did the unthinkable by allowing the crazies out of the basement. No doubt the neocons were allowed unprecedented access to governance with the Bushies-- something Reagan warned against. And no doubt the self-labeled Christian Right (the theocons) was granted special access to those in charge.

What we didn't realize was the crazy that George Bush was able to keep a lid on.  The tea baggers, the militants, the birthers, the tenthers, the truthers and a whole array of other conspiracy theorists best known in libertarian circles.  True enough, all those are encompassed in some way or form in the tea bagger movement.  Not to suggest that all crazies are tea baggers.  It's just kind of where they all meet.  Now that Bush is gone there's no restraint on these groups.  There's no one there to calm their fears.  The power structure of the GOP collapsed after 8 years of Bush and the void is yet to be filled, except by the crazies that are popping up everywhere.

Fair enough the tea baggers have always been around.  The sentiment has always been there.  But Bush was able to calm them, to keep them at bay.  All this explains why there were no tea baggers marching in the streets when Bush enacted TARP or his 8 other tax payer funded bailouts.  Or when he grew government exponentially with No Child Left Behind, with his completely unfunded expansion of Medicare or his trillion dollar redistribution to Iraq and Afghanistan.  Or when he took the largest surplus in history and turned it into a $1.4 trillion deficit.  They were no were to be found during all that.  It's not that the tea baggers and their ilk are against any of it.  They just want a Republican in charge when it happens.  If not, there's no one to hold them in check and in their view enemies are in control and must be stopped.

Anyway, the Bush Void has left the country as a whole in a much better position.  But the GOP and its right wing collapsed, and all the little crazy conspiracy theorists we rarely saw during the Bush years are now front and center.  Bush's ability to control the crazies lurking in his party is an accomplishment that went unnoticed during his tenure even if the neocons and theocons gained great power.  Now that he's gone, this is one of those times we should give him credit for doing something that was a great service to the country.

Elected Republican: Anchor Babies Are Little Terrorists

No denying the new chic term for the fringe right wing that controls the Republican Party is terrorist. It hit their vernacular in 2001 but since the Greatest President Ever who defeated terrorism worldwide has left office, it's really become their favorite word.

Post-WWII the right used the word communist to spread fear.  But since our president now is a communist, the word doesn't have the same fear magnetism that it used to.  So they've moved on to terrorist.  That's why everything Republicans oppose, like non-white immigrants, relates in some way or form to terrorism.

Texas state Rep. Debbie Riddle (R) on CNN:

COOPER: Representative Riddle, you told my producer that pregnant women are coming here as tourists, having babies, and then going back home — quote — “with the nefarious purpose of turning them into little terrorists, who will then come back to the U.S. and do us harm.” You said it’s part of an organized terrorist element and could cost us lives. Where did you hear that?

RIDDLE: That is information that is coming to my office from former FBI officials. 

The Red Scare all over again.  Except we'll call this one the Brown Scare.  Wheee!!

I have to disclose, out of blogger ethical standards, that I am a product of illegal immigration.  My great grandparents (on my dad's side) came to America from Ireland illegally.  They stayed and gave birth to "anchor babies" just so their kids could have a better life.  They succeeded in that regard. But the Irish are white and so am I so that makes it all okay.  It's the brownies and their hippie supporters we have to watch out for.

Too Good to Pass Up

Jon Stewart feeds Republican Minority Leader John Boehner a cock sandwich.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Deductible Me
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

"The only way to get our economy going, is to get it moving?" Stewart asked. "That is either the most profound or most retarded statement I've ever heard. You know what, actually it's the most profoundly retarded statement I've ever heard."

I Found a New Sound

 Gaslight Anthem rocks. 

Had to go to Jersey to find the sound I wanted to hear.  And I like the change.

Ode to college football

Gearing up for one of my favorite times of year, college football season, long time readers will note that I despise preseason rankings. They are pointless and only help the rich schools. I also think the BCS system is terrible. It seems like every season I watch less and less football because of the rankings system. So as this year is set to begin in a couple weeks, here's to hoping we are entering the last two or three seasons of this barbaric system.

Ben Quayle Suffers From Amnesia

Ben Quayle, son of illiterate former VP Dan Quayle, is running for a U.S. house seat in Arizona.  Naturally, since his father was a member of congress so should Ben.  And just like his father, Ben doesn't seem to have a clue as to what is going on.

His latest television ad features Quayle sternly telling the camera that Barack Obama is the worst president in history and that his generation will inherit a weakened country.

Benji Boy must not recall the previous president who had the lowest approval ratings since the advent of polling.  Not only is Bush, the guy Quayle voted for twice, widely regarded as one of the worst presidents by every poll ever taken, he is one of a handful of presidents to turn over to his predecessor a country worse off than the one he inherited.

Things might not be great now but they are better than when Obama took office.

In other words, Quayle's generation already inherited a weakened country.  It was an inheritance Quayle cheered on and celebrated and now acts as if it never happened. In Quayle's defense, his entire family has never been accused of being smart.

Rand Paul Abductee Speaks Again

The woman claiming to have been kidnapped abducted by Rand Paul and a friend in college and forced to do some sort of worshipping ritual with "Aqua Budda" tells Greg Sargent that she was not kidnapped or forced to smoke weed.  She was only tied up, blindfolded-- at her will-- taken to a pot smoke filled room asked to smoke some weed where she refused.  Then was driven to a creek where she was "forced" to worship "Aqua Budda," all as part of an event she called a hazing.  Any clearer now?  Thought so.  The woman said the whole mutual hazing was so weird that she afterward broke off ties with Randy and his friend.

Professional Left Is Never Happy, But...

Yesterday I started writing something about Roberts Gibbs' remarks about what he called the "professional left" and their disagreement with the administration. Then I stopped because I agreed with both sides. Then I realized I have no clue what the "professional left" even is. I'm assuming it's academia but then again it could be people on the left with jobs, which gets fewer every month. Who knows.

The best response I've read yet, and trust me I've read plenty of overheated responses, comes from Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN).

"And why would he confuse legitimate critique with some sort of lack of loyalty. Isn't this what the far right does? Punishes people who are not ideologically aligned with President Bush?"

I'll simply add that prior to that Ellison called the "professional left" Obama's base.  I disagree with that.  They are no more Obama's base than they were Clinton's base.  Gibbs, however, is right about one thing.  They are people who are never happy.  But that's not for Gibbs to say, especially to a media source.  It's for people like me to say.  Why he would single them out is not smart.  But what he said is right.

Democrats Pass State Aid Bill

In a special session of congress this afternoon Democrats successfully passed a much needed state aid bill that will create about $26 billion in aid to help schools hire and rehire teachers, pay emergency workers and cover outstanding Medicaid payments.  The bill easily passed, 247-161.  Senate Democrats passed the bill last week, 61-39.

The entire $26 billion package is completely paid for and scored by the CBO to reduce the deficit by $1.3 billion over ten years.  Oddly enough, those who claim to be deficit hawks and fiscal conservatives opposed the bill in droves.  Why?  Mostly because the self-labeled conservatives have no history of ever reducing the deficit, paying for programs or doing anything that could remotely be considered conservative.  Because of how our modern political system is setup, and because of how the media refuses to do any leg work, the people responsible for creating a $1.4 trillion deficit, enacting numerous pieces of legislation that were never once paid for, get to continue with the label of fiscal conservatives well into the foreseeable future.

Had at any point circa 2001-2009 Republicans ever passed anything that reduced the deficit or for that matter was actually paid for, all we would be hearing still to this day is how great and Patriotic it was when Republicans showed those tax and spend liberal terrorists how to run government. 

Rand Paul's Alternative to Not Finding a Date

If I'm not mistaken, and I very well could be, Randy Paul is for legalizing marijuana. I am as well.  So the story floating around about his college years where he belonged to some pot smoking society is pointless to me  That's just one half of the story though.

What's interesting to me, however, is that the Sir Rand Campaign has not denied that he kidnapped a girl while attending Baylor and forced her to smoke weed.  This seems odd.  That's a pretty serious charge, a federal crime to be exact.  The pot smoking aside, kidnapping someone is significant.  If I was being accused of kidnapping a girl, and I did no such thing, I think I would be a little more confrontational in my denial.  Or in the very least offer a denial.

Lets Really Balance the Budget, I Dare Ya

Freedom Fighting Republicans have once again renewed their calls to amend the constitution.  Not just to strip birth right citizenship from people but to require the federal government to operate every year with a balanced budget. 

This only begs one question.  Why didn't they operate under a balanced budget when they controlled government?  Not one time did George Bush ever balance the budget.  Now that they are out of power, this has all of a sudden become a great concern to conservatives.  But when they had ample opportunity to prove they could-- and that government should-- operate under a balanced budget they did no such thing.  Instead they took a budget surplus and turned it into the largest deficit in history.  Anyone else with that kind of track record would never be taken seriously again when talking about fiscal responsibility, or much less still get to be called conservative.  Viva Bush!

9 Years of War for This?

Sanam Gul, also known as Sanam Bibi Sanubar, 35, was accused by the Taliban of becoming pregnant as a result of adultery by having "illicit affairs," and they summarily executed her with 3 shots to the head and chest after whipping her with 200 lashes.

Nothing another 100,000 troops and a trillion dollars can't fix.

When Can We Call It Their Platform?

The man who would be Speaker of the House if Republicans take back the lower chamber, says he agrees the 14th Amendment should be looked into.

Sir Paul Wants Waiting Period Before Congress Votes (2 Updates)

Most of what Sir Rand Pauls says, he just says because he likes to hear himself talk. He's the smartest man in the world, so it's understandable that he has an opinion on everything.

We've already heard his mega-ideas to remake America into its 19th century version. He won't admit the earth is older than 6,000 years.  Medicare, except the payments to doctors like himself, is illegal. Social Security, all of it, should be banned. The Civil Rights Act went way too far when it said that businesses have to allow non-whites.  TARP should be repealed, except for the taxpayer money that went to the bank where he keeps his campaign funds.  These are just some of his proposals to turn America back to 1865.

In a little less dramatic fashion, he espoused over the weekend that Congress should have a 20-day waiting period for every page length of a bill before voting.  That way it keeps them busy.  So busy that they won't be passing anymore laws.  This is a brilliant proposal.  Of course Sir Rand only means it just so long as Democrats are in charge.  Since they are out to destroy America, they should be stopped.

I hate to break it to him, but his "waiting period" would greatly hinder the GOP's ability to slash the deficit, rein in spending, shrink government and do its Revolutionary! Freedom Fighting thing.

*Update:

About an hours drive from my house is Fancy Farm, Kentucky.  And it looks like I missed some real excitement this weekend by not going for a little stroll.  Not only did Sir Rand Paul deliver his Freedom Fighting speech about how Democrats are trying to destroy our country, President Lincoln also showed up to tell us that Rand Paul is his choice for U.S. Senate and that he is pro-secession, pro state's rights, and against Big Government.



I really didn't know it was possible to be that dumb.  If craziness is that indoctrinated and cheered that much by one of America's two major political parties, then we are in some serious trouble.  It's worse than I originally thought.

**Update:

I have heard this many times and really never cared to comment on it.  Given Rand Paul's record of apostasy, it's becoming necessary to list the fact that he never received a bachelors degree before being admitted to medical school.  This is really no big deal since our modern higher education progression is a post-WWII invention; however, when you consider that his father was a congressman at the time Paul was admitted to his dad's alma mater, it becomes increasingly clear that nobility, family wealth and status explains why he doesn't like rules and laws, except for the ones that benefit him of course.

No Serious Discussion

But had we went above the $1.2 trillion tag they would have called us socialists, communists, fascists, terrorists and tyrants. And how would we've overcome that???

Romer had run simulations of the effects of stimulus packages of varying sizes: six hundred billion dollars, eight hundred billion dollars, and $1.2 trillion. The best estimate for the output gap was some two trillion dollars over 2009 and 2010. Because of the multiplier effect, filling that gap didn’t require two trillion dollars of government spending, but Romer’s analysis, deeply informed by her work on the Depression, suggested that the package should probably be more than $1.2 trillion. The memo to Obama, however, detailed only two packages: a five-hundred-and-fifty-billion-dollar stimulus and an eight-hundred-and-ninety-billion-dollar stimulus. Summers did not include Romer’s $1.2-trillion projection. The memo argued that the stimulus should not be used to fill the entire output gap; rather, it was “an insurance package against catastrophic failure.” At the meeting, according to one participant, “there was no serious discussion to going above a trillion dollars.”

J.O.B.

Slow is no longer acceptable to me or the American people. At a minimum, 150,000 jobs a month are needed to grow the economy just for an anemic pace. We had 71,000 in July. In the middle of the worst job losses since the Great Depression slow no longer cuts it. This is pathetic.

It might easily be said that unless the economy adds a minimum of 500,000 jobs in August (which is not going to happen) Democratic control of Congress will be impossible for the next session.

Get ready for calls of Revolution! and Grand Conspiracy theories to rule the day. Numerous hearings and independent councils to investigate the president will flourish; people who shoot at the president while playing games at church will rule the world. Tea baggers will have their nuts rammed in your face and there won't be anything we can do about it. Good luck, it was fun while it lasted.  Hello 1995.

*Update:

A friend writes in to tell me that I'm a defeatist.

You sound like you're giving up.  Why all the negativity?  Don't you think it's possible to hold our own and survive this?  I must say your 'everything is over we lose' attitude doesn't help the matter any.  What happened to the guy that used to put in 20 hour days to make sure Democrats won?

Yes I thought it was possible.  Anything is possible.  The economy can add 1 million jobs next month and maybe the Dems will hang on to both chambers.  I think it's all unlikely, however.  Am I giving up?  No just calling it how I see it.  I'll still be working on two local Democratic campaigns making sure we win.  I'll still be sacrificing family time and whatever spare time I might have to work for my party.  I'll still be running this site and calling it like I see it.  But only by a miraculous undertaking will losses be minimal and Dems keep both chambers.  It's possible but it won't be easy.  With each month it's getting harder and harder to defend the economic policies of this administration.  It would be foolish to spin it any other way.  Honesty is always the best route to victory.

Church Carnival Contains Shoot the President Game

Unfreakinbelievable! A so-called church in Massachusetts PA hosts a carnival that contained a game where contestants could shoot President Obama and win a prize.

Even though the figure was a black man holding a piece of paper labeled "health care bill" and wore a belt buckle with the presidential seal on it, the pastor of the church said it was not meant to be the president.  He's a liar.  And the right wing is insane.

See for yourself:

If these people are making it to heaven, I don't want to go.

*editor's note:

The post has been corrected from it's original to correct the location of the church.

Logic Failed

This is a good one. Right Wing: Only straight judges should be allowed to rule on gay rights issues. Got it??

Makes a lot of sense doesn't it? That's like saying only white judges should be allowed to rule on equal rights cases.

*Update:

Why don't right wingers just come out and say it.  Why don't they say they think only someone who is straight and against gay rights should be allowed to rule on equality measures?  In other words, only someone that believes like them should be allowed to rule.  If not, then it's not a True and Accurate reading of the American Constitution.  Just say it you cowards.

I Need a New Sound

Fear on the Ballot

I want to be clear on this. Even if Republicans take back the house and senate this Fall there is no chance in all the world they would be able to repeal or amend the 14th Amendment. No chance.

There's a reason why the Constitution has only been amended 27 times in over 230 years. It's because it's hard to do. Amendments require 2/3 of both legislatures just for proposal. Or Amendments can be proposed by 2/3 of state legislatures, just for proposal again. Once the amendment passes proposal it then has to be ratified by 3/4 of the states by popular vote. It's complicated and a long process, and it was designed specifically to be that way.

Since the ratification of the Constitution tens of thousands of amendments have been introduced yet only 17 have ever been ratified.  Seventeen because the first 10 were original amendments, you know the Bill of Rights.  So, again, there is no chance on God's green earth that Republicans will ever do anything about the 14th Amendment.

Why the big fuss then?

It's an election year and the GOP is trying its hardest to get its base to come home.  And they are trying to appeal to people's fears once again.  They don't want to have to debate their agenda.  They don't want to have to give specifics of it.  They just want to be able to stoke fear amongst the populace and get votes.  If there is anyone out there who has a real concern about the 14th Amendment and illegals giving birth to babies in our country, you are totally out of luck.  Not a chance in the world your GOP would ever be able to what they are proposing.  To put it in a better perspective.  Their inability to do anything about the 14th Amendment is just like their campaign speeches about being God-fearing fiscal conservatives.  Both are fantasy.

The Only Thing Better Than War Is Endless War

Republicans in the House of Representatives have introduced a measure that would green-light an Israeli bombing campaign against Iran. The resolution, H.R. 1553 provides explicit support for military strikes against Iran, stating that Congress supports Israel's use of "all means necessary" against Iran "including the use of military force".

And then we all fall down...

Too Crazy For Alan Keyes Even

So how extreme has the GOP become in the last two years? So extreme that even right wing nutjob poster boy Alan Keyes is calling their ideas crazy.

Now let me see, if birthright citizenship is not a birthright, then it must be a grant of the government. And if it is a grant of the government, then it could be curtailed in all the ways that fascists and totalitarians always want to

So the Republican calls to get rid of or change the wording of the 14th Amendment is too extreme even for someone that believes President Obama is the anti-Christ and born in Kenya.  Wheee!!

The Slow Settling of Reality

On the campaign trail, another Republican admits tax cuts don't pay for themselves.

The Real Fear Behind GOP Calls To Repeal the 14th Amendment

As we are seeing today with some big name, and unfortunately mainstream, Republicans giving credence to an attempt to repeal the 14th Amendment, two things quickly jump out at me that sum up the Republican phobia to anything they don't like.

First, here's the 14th Amendment in full with the first section highlighted that gives Republicans soiled britches.

Are These Really the People For a 21st Century America?

Are these really the people we want to put back in charge?

Cheney: First Amendment doesn't apply to Muslims.

Rand Paul: OSHA is illegal. Let the market fix workplace safety.

Entire GOP:  Tax cuts that created the budget deficit should be extended no matter and never be offset, and just get over George Bush already.

Rep. Paul Ryan: States don't need deficit aid.  They can deal with their own problems.  Just so you know, Ryan voted in favor to bailout millionaires i.e., banks, Bear Stearns, Fannie and Freddie, Bank of America and Lehman Bros.  But aid to keep states from laying off non millionaires i.e., teachers and social workers is a bad idea.

Mitch McConnel, Rand Paul, Lyndsey Graham: Repeal the 14th Amendment or at least the part about birthright citizenship.

And this is just the loony stuff they've said today.

Do we really want to strip the First Amendment away from people solely on the basis that we disagree with them?  Do we really want to do away with workplace safety rules and let the market adjust itself for unsafe industries?  We already had that.  It was called the 19th century.   Do we really want to allow the biggest contributor to our budget deficit to continue, the Bush tax cuts?  Can we really afford to not offer states assistance to keep from laying off school teachers especially when the biggest factor for their budget deficits is the Bush economy?

America, do we really want to strip birthright citizenship away based on the fear of terrorism?  Then consider this.  Every single hijacker on September 11th was in this country legally and none were citizens.  Don't let the GOP win on fear.  The last time we allowed them to trumpet fear at the ballot they ran up a trillion dollar deficit, nearly collapsed the world's strongest economy and gave us two endless wars that they ran away from and let others inherit and try to fix.  They are a cowardly people with cavemen ideas.

 *editor's note:

For those coming over from TPM, thank you!  Stick around awhile or Click Here to see what making them own it really means.