Pathos City

Well, my overseas guests had to postpone for a few weeks because of the Icelandic volcano. Meanwhile, the Open Carry Rally and the 2nd Amendment March have come and went. The Washington Monument affair drew 500 tops. The Gravelly Point and Fort Hunt affairs had about two dozen apiece. Since they claimed these rallies were on the anniversary of the battle of Lexington and Concord, it was interesting that the speakers only talked about "Remember Waco" and "Remember Oklahoma City". I ran into a few of them at the local shopping mall during lunch. It was pretty pathetic--middle-class white guys with holsters on their side just looking to get into an argument with someone. Everybody just ignored them. Since these rallies had internet and media time months in advance, the turnout was more than pathetic. The most appropriate coverage of these events is at www.wonkette.com . Huffington Post made it sound like Washington was under seige.

Andrew Sullivan and DailyKos beat me to it. The first compelling reason that there shouldn't be legal guarantees for gay employees. I hadn't thought of this. Andrea Lafferty of the Traditional Values Coalition said that "You can be aroused by stumps.(referring to amputations.)" So that if the Veterans Administration couldn't fire people from their hospitals that were sexually aroused by amputees the families of amputees would be victims of this and that won't be fair. I guess not.

On a more saner note, Mullah Kazeem Sedighi, the leader of Friday prayers in Iran, says that promiscuous women cause earthquakes. There's some truth to this.

Teabagger and former congressman Tom Tancredo told a rally that we should send Obama back to Kenya.

The BBC poll started in 2005 on countries' influence showed for the first time that the United States' influence was more positive than negative.

A Gallup poll undercovered a significant fact: 49% of Democrats believe the country is going in the right direction; 23% of independents; and 10% of Republicans. The Democratic number is important because they say that also translates into enthusiasm for the mid-terms.

Speaking of which, CNN's generic congressional poll picks up the same theme. Regular Voters prefer Democrats at 50% and Republicans at 46%. All Americans: Democrats at 50%and Republicans at 45%. This is a reversal of last month's findings. Obama has a 57% likeability rating. This is different from job approval. I've noticed in any poll like this his number will be far above his job approval rating. This is actually good news because it means he has political capital left in how people regard him as a person.

The Pew poll says that Americans don't trust the government. But what's interesting is to see the approval ratings of government agencies. The IRS has a 47% rating; the Post Office a whopping 83% and the Defense Department, FBI, and the Center for Disease Control 67%. The CIA limps along at 52%.

61% of Americans want financial reform.

30% of Americans believe that the government is a threat to their freedom. But the breakdown of this is interesting: 50% of Independents leaning Republican; 43% of Republicans; only 21% of Independents leaning Democrat and 18% of Democrats believe this.

Goldman Sachs told the Wall Street Journal "It's War!" The Democrats are going to town on this with Harry Reid calling out Mitch McConnell on the floor of the Senate about what quid pro quos were involved in his and Senator Cornyn's meeting with the 24 hedge fund managers. Drudge is blaring whether Obama will return the 900K from Goldman Sachs and John Boehner is talking about Obama's supporters on Wall Street. The populism doesn't quite cut it as stories broke that Mitt Romney and Michael Steele were at John Paulson's house for a fund-raiser for the Republican Party only six days ago.

The UBS whistleblower currently serving time in federal prison told Democracy Now that UBS had a unit in Washington to assist politicians to squirrel money away in Swiss Bank accounts. This would really be a scandal. Meanwhile across the country in California, Ms. Ebay running for the Republican nominee for governor has the same issue--overseas private accounts to avoid paying income taxes. It will be curious to see whether anyone makes this an issue.

There have been more blogs on Rasmussen's mysterious mid-term polling. The general consensus is that his polls routinely over-sample Republicans by 8%. Nate the Great has started raising questions that he thinks Rasmussen must answer to retain his credibility. His latest poll of the Texas' governor's race shows Perry with a 48-44 lead over the Democrat White. I wrote months ago that this was a race the Democrats could pick up and would have huge implications for 2012.

Two organizations vie for best title from today's gun rallies: Transgenders for Guns;and Jews for the Preservation of Firearms. It's a toss-up.