John Kasich "It Will Tip Off Terrorists If They Can't Buy Guns."

++Governor Jerry Brown Says,"Lax Gun Laws in Arizona and Nevada Provide A Big Backdoor For Terrorists."

Nate Silver At FiveThirtyEight Thinks Marco Rubio Won The Debate But Not by Much

++Nate Silver recaped the debate and the grades given out by his team and also Mark Halerin, who have everyone Bs or B- s. Silver noted the most Google Searches were on Ben Carson and he thinks this may become a major indicator of who won the debate. Nate also commented that it is possible that debates really don't count. I would answer that what you heard was a fairly solid line of talking points that will be used by the eventual nominee.

++Ring of Fire radio noted that Marco Rubio sounded like he had rehearsed all his lines and when he slipped he just repeated the previous word. Farron opined that in any debate with the Democratic nominee Rubio can't go off script or he gets killed.

++On Amy Goodman's show on DemocracyNow!, she talked with Anna Barach, an Cuban-American author, who pointed out that Rubio and Cruz both have problems if asked about The Cuban Restoration Act or The Wet Landing Act, which allows Cubans coming from Cuba automatic entrance to Cuba. This is in effect an amnesty that has been supported for decades by their party. If they didn't exist,neither candidates would have been citizens. 

++Nate Silver says that we all overestimate John Kasich since he has been courting the center-left press. He says that Kasich's combativeness has lost him favorability votes in New Hampshire and that his campaign looks like Jon Huntsman in the last election cycle. 

++Nate agrees with everyone that Jeb did himself no favor last night, He is too rusty a politician.

++On Democracy Now Jamall Smith talked about Ben Carson and how he really is an accomplished person that has been admired in the black community until he started running for President. He says that the GOP has to find their next Willie Horton but can only do so once it is clear Carson can't win the nomination. 

++He went onto say that Carson was a wonky kid and has to fabricate his violent tendencies because that is expected of him in Republican circles.

++Smith also said that by indulging the GOP in this fantasy of a black man gone straight will wreck Carson's reach into the black community.

Did You Notice?

++With the Donald on SNL tonight,It has been the Donald and Ben Carson eating up the airwaves. JEB will Fix It was a bust and John Kasich got bogged down with Steven Colbert on the issue of marijuana. Carly Fiorina got chewed up on The View. 

++Chris Christie said that the only reasons Republicans lose is because of unions. 

++The flap created by Poppy Bush over George W and his advisers ate the Jeb campaign to the degree conservatives just shrug and want to avoid it. 

++The establishment figure is now Marco Rubio, whose rampant credit card charges have been rationalized by Politico. 

++ I think Ben Carson's nuttiness has now gone mainstream but I don't think his fibs about his biography hurt. His supporters expect that redemption stories ghouls be outlandish. By portraying himself as a young thug and saying he saved white students during riots after Martin Luther King was assassinated is music to his supporters' ears. 

++His weirder beliefs which are  an outgrowth of him being Seventh Day Adventist should hurt him. 

++But we enter the holiday season with the Donald still champion. Strange thought.

++I got an email from a conservative today complaining about that "community organizer" who wasn't the "superior character" like Mitt Romney. His email went on about the terrific GOP field and felt that the leftist media made them a "Clown Car". Here a neurosurgeon,a Latino football player,another who went to Ivy League Schools. The emails I got are from people my age and it is clear they have no clue about the changing nature of our society. Sort of Pathetic.

Best Post-GOP Debate Comment By Roger Stone

++Governor John Kasich tried to channel "normal" during the debate and he spoke at length about the war on drugs, which he favors--among the many other wars.

++Roger Stone was quick out of the box to say that he,Stone fired Kasich from the Reagan campaign because he sold drugs to younger staffers.

++People forget how many stoners and coke heads were in they conservative movement at that time. And just for your information, JEB was my brother-in-law's dealer at Andover.They were both on the tennis team.

In Case You Missed This

++ Rand Paul vows to filibuster the appointment of Janet Yallin,who ironically is the most qualified nominee to the FED in my lifetime and who not ironically is a woman. 

++Lindsey Graham vows to filibuster all nominees for anything until the Administration produces the survivors of the attack in Benghazi as witnesses. The State Department has refused.

++Mitch McConnell has refused to endorse the McConnell rule, which Democrats proposed naming after him. He proposed during the fiscal cliff crisis to allow the President to unilaterally lift the debt ceiling unless Congress votes no. Today, he opposed his own suggestion.

++Marco Rubio who was instrumental in crafting the comprehensive immigration reform bill that passed the Senate has come out against his own bill, urging the House not to pass it.

++Mike Enzi will not retreat from his statement he is a fishing buddy with Dick Cheney, who says he isn't.

++Charlie Cook today explains in the National Journal  why 2014 is a make or break year for the Republicans to win the Senate. Next time 22 GOP Senators will have to defend and only 10 Democrats.

++Medicaid expansion signups for Obamacare are going like gangbusters, even in states like New Mexico. 

++More people are reporting they are getting through on Healthcare.com and signing up for Obamacare. Informally, about 724,000 have enrolled and completed the process to date.

++John Kasich had a moment of conscience saying openly that "There seems to be a war against the poor" in America. He said this as he opened Ohio to Medicaid expansion.

++Bernie Sanders has toured the South and opines about a possible Presidential bid. At least, he wants a real progressive in the race.

++Foodstamps are supposed to end on November 1. The conference committee on the Farm Bill is fighting to keep more SNAP funding after the Right cut over $4 billion per year.

++The ballooning size of the Federal Government makes the government the same size as ....1967. 

++Michael Bloomberg is not plunking down coin on Virginia's Attorney General race, which is still too close to call and the Republican has as extreme politics as the Cooch. Disapproval rate of the Virginia Republican Party is at 68%.

++Both Texas and Oklahoma's Supreme Courts ruled their anti-abortion laws are unconstitutional. 

++Hill watchers believe there will be no grand bargain and that, despite Gene Sperling's comments at the American Progress confab,there will be no cuts to Social Security and Medicare. The OMB released a report this past week that showed extending Medicare two years would not save any significant money. Social Security right now will pay for Baby Boomers and General Xers.

++The Senate is set to take up ENDA in this session with bipartisan support.

Female Trouble--To John Waters

++As of last night,in 2013 alone there have been 625 bills around the country to regulate women's bodies. There have been none for men's bodies, although a women legislator in Ohio wanted to introduce a law that before a man could get viagra, he would have to have a stress test, a medical exam, and a note from his partner he was impotent. 

++Last night North Carolina remains committed to destroying all gains it has made in the last twenty years by slipping an anti-abortion law onto a bill outlawing Sharia Law. This is another one of the pro-life stunts--imposing onerous license requirements for doctors and bizarre architectural mandates on clinics. Between Virginia and North Carolina, it seems anti-abortion people want to stimulate the construction trade.

++Surrounded by all men, John Kasich of Ohio signed his budget into law, including another strict anti-abortion law. The whole purpose is to lay the groundwork for a presidential run. A rape counseling law makes it illegal for a victim to be informed about choices including abortion.

++Another Governor checking his anti-choice credentials is Rick Perry in Texas as the special session of their Senate has been convened for the sole purpose of restricting access to abortion rights.

++Trying to protect himself from the fallout of his support for immigration reform, Senator Rubio will introduce into the Senate a draconian anti-abortion bill.

++Nate "The Great" Silver says polling on abortion bills is tricky. Huge majorities of the public believe abortion should be legal for the first trimester, a significant drop-off occurs for the second trimester, and a further erosion of support for the third trimester. Only 1.5% of abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute, occur in the second trimester. But the second trimester extends beyond the current state 20-week limits. 

**The ultimate aim of these states are to make it physically impossible for women to get abortions within state limits. The dramatic shrinkage of clinics in Texas after the new law wipes out the viability of those clinics in west and central Texas. 

**Andrew Sullivan argues the Catholic Church should be tolerant of same-sex marriage since it lives in a society of divorce, which is the only thing Jesus prohibited. I would argue like George Carlin that they should support same-sex marriage because gays and lesbians have the lowest incidence of abortion in the country. Natural allies, no?

** Women's reproductive health is going to be under even greater threat as we move toward the 2014 elections. The next issue up will be the availability of contraceptives for unmarried people. The American Taliban knows no limits.

The Ides of March in Kochistan

The Koch Brothers, the Hannibel Lecters of Politics, without the class, have been busy scrubbing Wikipedia and Google about their more nefarious activities and past. The two are walking adverisements for high estate taxes and the Rico Act. The good brother, William, referred to his brothers as running a "criminal enterprise". The poor lobbyists for Koch Industries in Madison have been running around state listening to their bosses being invoked in every speech. Apparently, they have been cornering speakers who mention the Brothers asking "Why did you mention them?"

I've come to the conclusion that the Kochs really don't have any ideology. They are sociopaths who want to be able to do anything they desire. The tip-off was David Koch's throw-away comment in the Jane Mayer piece in the New Yorker that he was an "anarchist." You have to feel sorry for people who had their father and came from demon seed. Imagine if you always have to air-brush your father's fervent anti-Americanism and his admiration for Benito Mussolini. But there is no governing philosophy behind them except the desire to act as marauders.

Let's take the staggering fact that they fund all anti-climate change programs in various conservative think tanks and even footed the bill for the anti-carbon emissions referendum in California. You know they don't personally believe this. It's simply because they do not want any regulations on their oil business. The damage this has done is turn the Republican Party, which supported climate change legislation, totally around that they now are all climate change deniers.

I'm convinced that the kerfuffle over their little exclusive retreat with Clarence Thomas and Glenn Beck to plot the downfall of Barack Obama was simply a social attempt for them to pick up some class. They wanted to meet Clarence and Glenn, not vice versa. That's their idea of social climbing. Can you imagine? At least their gay brother Frederick has some style, although collecting nude photos of Yul Brynner is a bit tacky. But he does have a beautiful Modigliani.

Now the Koch-funded think tank ALEC has provided the legislative templates for all the anti-collective bargaining bills throughout the Midwest. Each of the states are implementing their agenda in their own way. I'm surprised that Gov Kasich in Ohio doesn't allow them to frack so that the Cuyhauga River can start burning to the sea again. Would they invite Randy Newman to their next Get The Black Man Party? Then he could sing Sail Way.

You would think with their minions shuffling off into the night through a tunnel that things would be quiet in Wisconsin. But no, the mistress of Poor Randy Hopper had to have her photo and bio scrubbed from the lobby shop she works for. His wife did sign the recall petition after all. His Republican constituency is furious with him because once the story went viral, it turns out he hasn't lived in his district for over a year.

The Democrats are claiming they have reached 45% of the signatures needed to recall 8 of the Republican Senators. Early polling suggests that Democrats will be able to take back the Senate by picking up at least three of these seats, even Hopper's.

Senate Majority Leader Fitzgerald should become an honorary Koch for his utter classlessness. Fitzgerald already took away the Democrats' parking places, their xerox privileges and some of their staff. Now, he has e-mailed that when the legislature is back in session the Democrats will not bbe able to have positions on committees or vote in committee. Classy,heh?

Secretary of State LaFollette, descendent from Fightin' Bob, will not print the anti-union bill until the 21st as is legal. But Governor Walker wanted it done today. Meanwhile, the unions are using the time to secure the contracts they had already negotiated.

Governor Scott Walker, who is considered a dead man walking,showed up to speak at the Lincoln-Reagan Republican dinner and was greeted by several thousand protestors. He now travels around the state with a large police escort. This is a small state. Just to give you a contrast--Maine used to have a Governor Angus King and he would drive around the state on a motorcycle without the need of any security or escorts.

You know the Governors went a bridge too far when the unions joined a rally in rural Wisconsin sponsored by the Sierra Club. The group consciously tagged it Hard Hats and Tree Huggers Together.

Bill O'Reilly of Tiller, Tiller, the Child Killer Fame,said on Fox News that liberals should apologize for the death threats against the Republicans in the state. But the problem is that these threats are coming from Republicans and independents who feel betrayed.

Milwaukee is now complaining that the infrastructure is collapsing. Remember the Governor was the county commissioner until a few months ago.

I wonder if Randy Hopper is going to seek sanctuary from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. He was after all the point man to kill the Child Victim Bill, which protected the Catholic Church from a host of cases against pedophile priests. And Randy did his job--he killed the bill.

The department of the state government that registers retirements reports that the first four days of March they recorded more teacher retirements than the same month last year. Because of the budget cuts for education in Madison, scores of younger teachers are leaving the profession because they can't afford the job. Maybe they should walk down the street to the Koch Brothers' new lobby office and get a job there. The University of Wisconsin is seeing more early retirment of professors and staff because older personnel want to save the pensions and medical benefits they currently have. This is how a very successful educational system gets destroyed.

Now back to Ohio, John Kasich delivered his state of the state address to thousands of protestors. Remember Kasich barely beat Strickland and trumpeted his commitment to transparency. Yesterday he notified the press that he did not want them to disclose his budget. What is he going to do if the Cleveland Plains Dealer does it--waterboard the reporter or detain him like Bradley Manning. This is the same guy who ruled that everything of his plan Jobs for Ohio is secret and that no businesses who received government contracts should be known. It's not coincidence that Kasich has the lowest approval rating of a new Ohio Governor in history.

Perhaps, the best that would come out of this is for President Obama to appoint Gov. Strickland as the new DNC Chair since he will need the state for re-election.

Meanwhile in Michigan, Governor Rick Snyder ran on a platform of bipartisan cooperation and invoked past Republican governors who were moderates. He turned on a dome when elected. You would think that a state which has only seen jobs creating by President Obama through the rescue of the car industry and the development of solar and battery power would want to remain friendly with the people who created the only jobs in 20 years in the state. But no,the Governor decided to cut business taxes dramatically and increase them on the middle class.

But that's really not the issue. Michigan has passed legislation that would allow the Governor to unilaterally declare a locality, town, city or school district a financial emergency and suspend the democratic rule and bid out its management to either a coporation or city manager type. The Democrats, who are in a minority, tried to suggest that whoever or whatever assumed these positions would earn less than the Governor. The motion was defeated. Now the Governor is free to auction off Michigan to private corporations. I think we should demand Koch Industries buy the whole state . Then their subsidiary Georgia-Northern could clear cut all the Michigan forests.

Where does Dixie Cups go for their reputation back? After all they existed before they would bought by the evil brothers.

The Wisconsin Death Trip

Freshly elected Governor Scott Walker, who has never held any elected office even at the schoolboard level,kicks off his administration by promising to end collective bargaining and arbitration for public service unions. He instantly threatens to call out the National Guard to deal with any unruly workers.

First problem is that Walker never even asked to sit down and discuss labor problems with the unions or their representatives but simply asserted his position. Second problem is that large numbers of the union members are conservatives and Republicans particularly in the targeted Corrections Officers' union. So rural Republican representatives are fit to be tied as their core constituency--the prison workers--are angry. Third problem, the Wisconsin's state version of the CBO said that if the state did nothing about the workers' it would still have a surplus of over $123 million this year.

Walker's actions and threats galvanized the state. The National Guard shot back at him that they weren't his private political police force. The last time the National Guard was called up in Wisconsin was in the late 1890s where they opened fired and killed striking officers.

When the Green Bay Packers turn against the Governor, you know he's in deep do-do. The Packers came out both at the management and player level to voice solidarity with the public sector workers.

Now the private sector is voicing support for the public sector workers and the UAW and Steelworkers are beginning to show up in support.

Yesterday,thousands surrounded the state capital in Madison demanding the Governors' recall. Today, barricades have been built and the police have cordoned off the capital, which is known to be open day and night for citizens. Symbolically this is considered at the local level as an insult by the Governor, violating the state's open tradition.

Last night 1,000 protestors gathered outside the Governor's private home. Demonstrations were held in every city in the state. 10,000 teachers gathered at a night time rally outside the capital building.

Wisconsin has a long history of progressive politics on both sides of the aisle. ACFSME was created there in 1923. And it was the first state to have kindergarten.The Governors' actions were denounced by conservative Republicans in the state as too radical and a "big government power grab."

The Governor now says that he will use the National Guard to perform the jobs of the public sector. This is only pissing the prison workers off even more. Most of them made the transition to prison work because local manufacturing plants closed down.The prison work pays less but it has some rudimentary benefits and a possibility of a pension. These the Governor wants to take away.

Schools are closed today because the teachers stayed off the job.

The Governors' bill may pass the Republican dominated legislature but there are sure to be ramifications. Next week John Kasich of Ohio is going to try the same thing in an attempt to outlaw collective bargaining and arbitration. He too hasn't asked to talk to any of the unions or their represenatives. Both Walker and Kasich won paper-thin victories in the fall elections but both are committed to govern by ideology and ignore those who didn't vote for them.


Remember, both Governors refused the federal money for the high speed rail projects,the act costing each of their states several thousand jobs.

Snow Blind

Washington is crippled by snow today. Ok, anytime it snows in Washington we're crippled.

It is the UN Holocaust Remembrance Day. The German government finally acknowledged the extermination of the Roma or Gypsies today. American Rabbis of all parts of Judaism took today to blast Fox News through an ad in Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal for Glenn Beck and Roger Ailes constant reference to people as Nazis and their attacks on individuals misusing the Nazi analogy. Previously, Roger Ailes had joked that only liberal or left-wing rabbis were concerned with this. Today, he got the reaction of the entire spectrum. Whether anything will come of it, I'm doubtful. But it might be worth it to take the time to contemplate the real Holocaust.

For this I recommend Saul Friedlander's two volume history--"Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1933-39" and "Nazi Germany and the Jews 1939-1945: the Years of Extermination." Even today in 2011, we are still finding out more details about the Holocaust and the worlds' reaction to it.

But apparently, the person who threatened California State Senator Leeland Lee, who had criticized Rush Limbaugh's mocking of Chinese, hasn't learned much about the Holocaust or hate language. He mailed to Mr. Lee a flyer that called the Senator a "Jobama Rectum-Sniffing Moron", "Fish Head Leland Lee", and said that "Rush Limbaugh will kick your chink ass". The flyer had a pickup truck with the American flag on the door pulling a noose. "Achtung". "Death to all Marxists--Foreign and Domestic". State police, who are still investigating threats against Jerry brown, now get a chance to look into this.

The police did arrest the man who threatened Washington Governor Gregoire by the internet. The man said the governor should be burned at the stake.

For bipartisan balance, Dallas police detonated a suspicious package mailed to John Cornyn's office.

Think of all the threats to politicians in the last two years. Do any of them pop right out as flagrantly obvious targets?

Having changed the political narrative in his direction,President Obama was out in Wisconsin yesterday hyping American innovation at a clean energy plant. The irony is that the new Republican governor has already shut down the high-speed rail plant, which now has moved to Illinois, and passed a law that will keep wind energy installations far away from any residences--like luxury vacation homes on the Lake.

Sarah Palin finally broke her tweeter silence by attacking President Obama's state of the Union address by saying that the Soviet Union collapsed because it invested so much in its space program. Do you put a laugh track over these remarks, ignore them or treat them as surrealism?

Mark Kirk says that Congress is in "shock" over the $1.5 trillion budget this year. He says he never knew that tax cuts actually led to an increase in the deficit.

John Boehner actually said something correct,"We're broke."

The CBO has released a study that shows that unemployment will remain around 9% for the next two years and that it will not return to "normal" until 2016. Which brings me to my old point that unless we structurally change our economy we will face about 8% unemployment for the foreseeable future.

Peter Orzag fears that we will do nothing about the national debt unless there is a fiscal crisis. John McCain's 2008 financial adviser said that our annual deficit is not worrisome it's that even if unemployment was 4.5% we would be facing a tremendous national debt. The four causes of the debt,in his opinion, are military spending, the entitlement programs and the interest on that debt, which will balloon once there is a recovery and interest rates rise.

While Republicans, including John Boehner, are backing off their attacks on Social Security, there is an insidious movement by people like Newt Gingrich to promote the idea that states should be able to go bankrupt. The idea behind this is to wipe out state obligations on pensions. So the government employed baby-boomers would be left with social security only.

One of the wackiest ideas circulating in the House is a constitutional amendment to balance the budget. In my lifetime, that has only been done three times-once by Eisenhower, once by LBJ and once by Clinton. Before that I think Calvin Coolidge did it. James Galbraith wrote a piece recently on why it physically can not be done given our interrelationship with the global economy. You might also want to consider that the states who want to declare bankruptcy also have balanced budget requirements.

The House cut the budget again today by eliminating public financing of campaigns, something that has been around since Richard Nixon. This is probably related to the House Ethics Committee dropping their investigations of about 12 members who suspiciously raised money from the finance industry before the last election.

Hell did freeze over in Washington yesterday. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO came out with a joint statement in defense of infrastructure spending. Now the Chamber, which owns the House Republicans, will have to see whether their Congress really was the best they could buy.

Government Watchdog groups are raising the issue of whether criminal charges should be brought against Chuckles Thomas. They claim that the Supreme Court Justice by not filing information about his wife's income for the last 20 years is in criminal violation of the law. The bad news for Clarence is that they cite case after case of federal officials being fined and given prison terms for the same offense. Is a Supreme Court justice above the law?

I'm relieved to hear that Sharron Angle has not ruled out a run for the presidency in 2012. We're already going to be treated to Randall Terry of Operation Rescue running as a Democrat against President Obama. Terry promises to run ads of dead babies to show Obama is a baby-killer. This should be as appealing as the anti-Muslim DVD and brown-colored flier on Bill Ayers that was sent around against President Obama here in Virginia in 2008.

If you liked the Big F...ing Deal t-shirt from OFA. You can now get "We Do Big Things" t-shirt.

I happen to believe David Axelrod's comments at a meeting with bloggers yesterday that the White House has held "no grand repositioning" meetings about tacking to the right. Actually Rachel Maddow captured this accurately when she said that Obama had defined a political middle which is based on principles. Now for some reason--unrelated--Don Imus claimed Rachel was "a gutless coward". Por que?

The army sent Lt. Choi a bill for $2,500 for his discharge on DADT. President Obama said that the military will not longer enforce DADT and Secretary of Defense Gates says DADT ends this year. lt. Choi says he is not paying the bill.

Ohio Governor John Kasich who campaigned on transparency and accountability declared that his JobsOhio program would not have to obey these principles.

The author of "O", the anonymous novel about Obama's 2012 president run that imitates without the sex the novbel about Bill Clinton, apparently was written by long-time McCain aide , Mark Salter. This we are told by good novelist turned political hack Mark Halperin. I suggest that the two Marks change vocations.

Political Rip Rap

43% of Americans in a CBS News Poll say that jobs should be the number 1 priority for government. With 12 straight months of private sector job growth, 9 out of 10 economists believe the recovery has become self-propelled and increasing. They've changed their predictions now to a 3.2-3.4% growth rate for each upcoming quarter. In the last year, the private sector has added 1.3 million jobs, topping the total private sector job creation record of 8 years of the George W. Bush Administration.

So while President Obama is going to speak about various aspects of getting the economy going and making a transition for a prosperous future,what is the GOP policy for the same? No program. No problem. The House GOP just issued a press release claiming credit for all job creation since the 2010 mid-terms. They said, "we created jobs." How? Don't ask. It's stunning but not unexpected.

The next great legislative feat the House GOP plans is to repeal public campaign finance--that's the little box on your income tax form to check if you want a couple of bucks to go to political campaigns. And if you don't get where this is going, yesterday the Tea Party announced a nation-wide campaign against voter fraud. As I've written the Tea Party and the Wisconsin GOP teamed up for a voter suppression effort against students and minorities in the mid-terms and can claim the defeat of Russ Feingold.

Voters have been fast to register buyers' remorse. John Kasich, the new Governor of Ohio, has a whopping 30% approval rate, only couple of weeks into his term. Kasich used the Wayback machine to produce the first all-white cabinet in Ohio since the 1960s. He also won the hearts and minds of voters by refusing the federal funding for high speed rail ,which would have linked major cities in his state and been a major connection between the Northeast and the Illinois part of the new system. The same rapid downfall happened with New Jersey's Chris Chrissie, who dreams of the White House with his own approval rating in the dumpster.

In 1994, with the Gingrich Revolution, 37% of Americans believed the GOP would bring the right kind of change. Today, only 25% say the same for the Boehner Revolution, according to NBC polls. The GOP honeymoon seems about over--CBS reports that the GOP now has a 49% disapproval rating.

While taking credit for the economic recovery in the country, the new GOP House plans to pass a budget cut bill soon, which would call for a 15% reduction in all agencies dealing with domestic services. While businesses do this to maximize their profit margin, what happens to government? Do these 15% soon count as unemployed? Will they be considered lazy counch potatoes when the unemployment runs out?

One of their class act cuts will be to Head Start, throwing some 389,000 children out of the program.

You have to love Colin Powell, he still doesn't get how wacky the GOP has become. He said that cutting funding for PBS would not cut the deficit. Of course, not. You do that because they fired Juan Williams. It's about revenge not about the deficit. Poor Colin suggested cutting the military.

The NYTIMES/CBS poll shows that 55% of Americans want cuts to the military; 21% Medicare; and 13% to Social Security.

For some reason, the House GOP wants to cut 4,000 FBI agents. Probably because they are under the Department of Justice, which is run by Eric Holder. Sorry, it's as simple as that.

Peggy Noonan is on the sauce again. She seemed to have discovered Obama was an eloquent man during the Tucson speech but now moans why when the country is in crisis does it elect people like Jimm Carter or Barack Obama.

That poll I wanted about Palin versus Obama in Texas is in. Palin beats Obama by 46-45. He ties the Governor Rick Perry and is behind the other GOP contenders by about 5 points.

Ben Stein isn't impressed with the GOP field for 2012 and suggests that Barack Obama show run as a Republican. Maybe that's what's behind Rasmussen having Obama at 52% approval rating. It probably means it really is about 70% given Rasmussen's business links to Fox News.

Mitt Romney won the first official strawpoll in New Hampshire. But then again, the dirty secret is that Mitt's operatives are known to pay voters in straw polls. It's part of the strategy for maintaining a presence.

Will Mitt Romney being a Mormon hurt him now that America has been exposed to Glenn Beck? Before we only knew Mormons from Orrin Hatch and Brent Scowcroft. If they are as crazy as Beck, can you really trust them in power? Another question is whether Glenn and his wife wear the Mormon magic underwear when they have sex? Romney said he doesn't because they itch.

Michelle Bachmann, the Queen of the Tea Party, denies that Tony Scalia is talking to the tea party members behind closed doors. Instead, she insists all of the House is invited. Meanwhile Chuckles Thomas continues to make news by neglecting to report his wife's income.

While our President will urge spending on modernizing our infrastructure, Mitch McConnell vows that Senate Republicans will block any further government spending. One of the great laughters in the last few days is that Ricky Cantor says he will compromise if President Obama wants Republican help in getting out of the mess. Notice the implication that the GOP never had anything to do with creating the mess.Rocky was gracious by acknowledging that the President really is a citizen of the United States --as opposed to Upper Volta.

After my post a couple of days ago about the reasons President Obama would win re-election in 2012, several mainstream journalists have also chimed in to reinforce that opinion. But a few warnings, we saw that people with negatives over 50% actually won in the 2010 elections. Yes, it's true that the GOP came to power in the House with only 22% of the vote, mostly white people over 55. But while redistricting will not seriously hamper Obama's re-election campaign, it should be noted that voter suppression efforts will be in high gear, especially against Hispanics, blacks, single women and students, key Obama constituencies. In the last election, Obama had a number of Democratic attorney-generals in the states who protected the vote. This time he does not.

A Confederacy of Oddballs

Teabagger and Christian Reconstructionist Sharron Angle pulled a trifecta yesterday. She ran an ad accusing Harry Reid of voting to give Viagra to sex predators. Even Mike Huckabee came to Reid's defense. She then topped this by telling people in Nevada that whole regions of American are now under Sharia law. Her example was Dearborn , Michigan where there is a large Muslim community, notably Iraqi refugees. And an interview with her pastor played the Mormon card on Harry Reid, saying he was a member of a multimillion dollar cult and owed his allegiance to Salt Lake City. Mitt Romney take note. This all led to Bill Raggio, the Republican leader of the Nevada's Senate, to endorse Harry Reid because of Sharron Angle's bizarre views on politics.

Blame it on the Black Guy. Republicans are trying to whitewash their own record on the economy by blaming the current situation on Barack Obama. The racist overtones to this debate are hard to miss. Now, Republicans are crafting an excuse if they don't sweep the elections--it's Michael Steele's fault. A majority of RNC members have openly come out and said that the DNC is better run and that Michael Steele is a disaster at a time the party can make enormous advances. This runs with the early accusations of the mortgage meltdown by conservatives on black homeowners. I'm proud and I'm White and I'm not responsible for anything. That's cool! I could get into that for myself. I'll draw up a list of scapegoats later this morning.

Should the American Chamber of Commerce register as a foreign agent? The backlash on the Chambers' gazillion dollar ad campaign against Republicans continues. The one item that actually makes the foreign agent registration appear a normal procedure is the revelation that the Chamber sends Issue alerts to their foreign members so that they can use the Chamber to lobby for or against our bill in Congress. As we've seen from the preliminary revelations, state oil companies and banks are their members and now it's been revealed that companies owned by the Chinese government are also members of their Chinese branch. If you're directly trying to affect legislation, that's lobbying, which the Chamber does, but if you're doing it for a forign country you have to be registered as such. This issue is not going to go away anytime soon.

Does anyone remember during the Cold War the spy scandal around the American Russian Trade Organization? It was used first as an NKVD front and then later by the KGB.

If you get bashed one day and your public answers don't satisfy the hunger for news, maybe it's best to lay low. But today, the Chamber has announced it will sue the Obama Administration for the regulations it is implementing through the health reform and wall street reform bills. While they are doing that, the Chamber will be hosting several state banks from the Gulf at a meeting here in Washington.

The Democrats have picked the foreign money story up and just run with it. It has morphed into Karl Rove travelling to Libya and Saudi Arabia to pick up cash for the election. Who knows whether it's true or not.

President Obama raised the larger issue of foreign money at the Bowie State rally yesterday, warning that our whole democracy was at risk and that Republicans and independents should be concerned. He told the audience that this would make it harder for representatives to fight special interests when the money put against them is infinite. "It will change the country we live in forever". He's right and that's the point of the whole exercise.

One member of the Chamber was not pleased by all this publicity--one Rupert Murdoch of the partly Saudi-owned, Dubai-based News Corps. His answer to questions was "I thought the $1 million was anonymous." Then Rupert slipped further when he said his contribution to the Republican Governors Association was because of his friendship with John Kasich, who is running for Governor in Ohio. This made Governor Strickland's day as he pounded Kasich over the head with both the Chamber and Murdoch contribution.

The Chamber attack ads ,which are accelerating, deflect their real reason for some of their attacks. For instance, former Admiral Joe Sestak, who is running against Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania, is being slammed by the Chamber for voting for TARP and the stimulus package. That's very strange since the Chamber lobbied both for the bank bailout and the stimulus package. But some of the Chambers foreign and American oil companies might not like the Sestak's cap-and-trade legislation. Otherwise, their ad blitz doesn't make any sense.

If you see Democrats voting for massive cuts in Medicare, that's Karl Rove's work. Maybe this is paid with by Libyan money. Who knows? But that's the reason the donors must be identified.

It's bad enough that special interests by Congress but with the next Congress it'll be tough to know whether foreign governments bought it.

At least some Republicans know how to turn a good dime and take a fall. Carl Palladino, who is going down to certain defeat to Andrew Cuomo in New York, has played his zaniness just right. All of his campaign finances are paid to companies he owns or to people who rent space from him. So far, he's been able to launder some $2.2 million from his campaign to his own businesses. That's the way to do it. Down home corruption, not this jetset stuff. Carl Palladino, Man of the People.

The Republican candidate for Georgia Governor is doing the same thing, but he's over-billing his campaign for the planes he rents from himself. It was too conspicuous that the local papers called him out on this.

The Chicago Tribune had enough with Rep. Mark Kirk. They endorsed the Democrat in the Senate race even though they had endorsed Mark Kirk every other time he ran for office. They complained that they didn't know who he was anymore or what he believed.

Christine McDonnell, who is a constitutional scholar because of her short course at the Claremont Institute, not college, claims that "from her deep study" the health reform bill is unconstitutional. And if Congress repeals it and Obama vetoes it,Hillary Clinton will run because she has seen many Hillary for President ads.

Well, her deep study apparently didn't impress the Detroit district judge who ruled that the individual mandates in the healthreform bill were constitutional. This was a big preliminary win for the Obama Administration.

Maybe the Cooch will back off. Our distinguished Attorney-General is suing on healthcare reform but he is too pre-occupied right now with suing the University of Virgina and attacking climate scientist Michael Mann. You have to ask yourself what is behind everyone doubing down on their positions, even when they have already been shown to be wrong. The will to ignorance seems to be growing.

"Macaca man", George Allen met with Senator Cornyn about running against Jim Webb for Virginia Senator in 2012. Talk about a snoozefest.

The teabaggers really, honestly are going to go after Olympia Snowe in Maine when she seeks re-election in 2012. I hope she has the courage if she loses to run as an independent.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, Joe Lieberman is in the low 20s in approval and would lose to the Democrat in 2012. If the Senate is very close, look for Jolting Joe to switch sides. It's unlikely for endangered Democrat Ben Nelson because his state has a deep Republican bench.

The President vetoed an innocuous sounding bill, which virtually slipped through the deadloocked Snate without debate. It was a bill that would force other states to recognized local notarization from another jurisdiction. Clever. This was casually mentioned to two Senator by notaries who were in town for a professional organization. And the Senators complied. Problem--it would have led to more mortgage foreclosures and helped the banks who are only holding pieces of mortgages that were already slices and diced and sold as derivatives. The old American way is for a lender to present the whole mortgage and declared its due. But in the case of millions of homes this is no longer possible. So the banks need to scramble around to justify foreclosures when they no longer have the paper.

No Country For Old Men--A Reprise

Alan Simpson, the Republican co-chair of the Catfood Commission, complained about attacks from conservatives that he raised taxes while in the Senate under Ronald Reagan. While he denied it, Bruce Bartlett came to the critics' rescue by pointing out that the Big Ron did raise dozens of taxes.



John McCain looked like an old stumblebum prize-fighter in his debate with Democratic challenger Rodney Glassman and the Green and Libertarian candidates in Arizona. Actually the Libertarian got in the best shots declaring the immigration problem would not be so violent if we declared an end to the war on drugs, which he called a monumental failure, and that building the "danged" fence was futile because people were now coming in by plane and by sea. McCain kept saying he had a 10 point plan but never elaborated. McCain said it was urgent to pass the Bush tax cuts urgently as well as corporate tax breaks. He said he knew how to make America great again, something he failed to reveal when he ran for President. A couple of whoppers. McCain, who has benefited from a lifetime of government-provided health services, declared he would cut $500 billion from Medicare Advantage. (I have no idea over what time frame.) When asked what he thought his legacy would be to Arizona, McCain was speechless and started mumbling, saying fighting earmarks and his influence on security issues. It was a big bomb. Rodney Glassman scored about the need for a rational immigration policy like the one McCain used to support, a larger stimulus package for the economy and better care for veterans, Glassman failed to score off McCain with any questions about the price of tax cuts for the wealthy. But McCain looked old and beaten up--which, of course, he is.



A Quinnipiac poll was released today that shows that 2/3rds of those making $250,000 or above favor paying more taxes if it helps the government.



David Stockman, Reagan's former OMB person, is getting his revenge late in life. On NPR, he said that the Republican pledge was nonsense. He pointed out that the Bush tax cuts were paid for, two wars were not paid for, the stimulus package was not paid for and that extending these tax cuts was insane. He also pointed out that the Pledge made no sense if Medicare, Social Security and Defense are off limits, then Republicans can only cut from $500 billion and they can not possibly fulfill their pledge of a balanced budget.



Garret Gruener's LA Times op-ed caught the attention of the Wall Street Journal. Gruener is an entrepreneur and a venture capitalist who founded Alta partners. So in the words of the Wall Street Journal,"he's got street cred." He made two basic points. 1. Tax rates don't make or break the success of an entrepreneur--or the jobs he creates. He says he's paying the lowest rates of his working life. "..if you want the simple, honest truth, from my perspective as an entrepreneur, the fluctuation didn't affect what I did with my money. None of my investments has ever been motivated by the rate at which I would have to pay personal income tax."



The second point Gruener raises --which is appropriate to my last few posts--an economy built only on the rich--who account for the lion's share of income and spending--is unsustainable. "What American businesspeople know, and have known since Henry Ford insisted his employees be able to afford to buy the cars they made, is that a thriving economy doesn't just need investors; it needs people who can buy the goods and services businesses create."

Gruener says that tax hikes for the rich should be invested by the government in infrastructure and research. "What will change my investment decisions is if I see an economy doing better, one in which there is demand for the goods and services my investments produce. I am far more likely to invest if I see a country laying the foundation for future growth."

Follow that up with Paul Krugman's columm today entitled "Structure of Excuses". Krugman is on fire, if someone so phlegmatic can ever be on fire. Krugman attacks directly the growing convention wisdom that we are entering a period of "structural unemployment". He quotes various Presidents of FED Banks claiming that there is work out there but workers are either in the wrong place or lack the necessary skills. Even Bill Clinton said this. Krugman sets up the circumstances where that would actually exist but none do. There are only three states, with the combined population of Brooklyn that have unemployment rates below 5%. The National Federation of Independent Business surveys small businesses about their problems and citing problems with labor quality is now at an all-time low.

Krugman asks why are such claims so popular. Part of the reason is that during period of high unemployment pundits talking about these problems as deeply rooted makes them sound profound. Also he detects that powerful forces ideologically opposed to the whole idea of government action on a sufficient scale to jump-start the economy offer these reasons so as to ensure we do nothing about the mass unemployment crippling the economy. As Krugman notes that is important that everyone know that there is no evidence whatsoever that backs these claims. "We aren't suffering from a shortage of needed skills; we're suffering from a lack of policy reasolve."

A nice bit in his column is his review of what Very Serious People said during the Great Depression. He notes that one 1935 analysis said that unemployment cannot be brought down rapidly because the work force" is unadaptable and untrained. It cannot respond to the opportunities which industries may offer." A few years later , a large defense buildup finally provided a fiscal stimulus adequate to the economy's needs and industry was eager to employ those "unadaptable and untrained "workers.

Nice column.

And, of course, part of the reason job-creating programs are not being created is the Senate filibuster. Electoral politics.com had a nice piece on the prospects of filibuster reform. The 111th Senate had over 100 filibusters. From the years 1917-1960, there were 27, about 1 per year. During the entire 19th century, which saw the abolitionist struggle, a civil war and the rise of industrial capitalism, there were only 20 filibusters. The Republicans in this Senate have managed to hold enough filibusters in one year to equal in nearly double the number all American history combined. Stunning. The Democrats should really make this a talking point and dramatize it.

Electoral politics.com has a small entry which may have enormous implications for the mid-terms. Non-partisan polls are in on 45 contested House races. The Republicans would pick up 10 of these. In the wildest scenarios, there are 100 seats ,which people say are competitive tis year. That would mean the Republicans would pick up 22 seats. Remember they need 44 to take the House, given losses in 5. Maybe the GOP has over-reached again.

For Sarah Palin, this could be bad news. Scientific studies show that Mama Grizzlies, the name she calls her tea party women, form same-sex partnerships at a fairly significant rate. The Mama Grizzlies actually search out each other and serve as joint parents for the cubs. This won't go down with the anti-same sex mariage crowd.

Ann Coulter spoke at the Homocon meeting with wealthy gay Republicans, where she did her stand-up schtick and criticized gay marriage by reminding the audience they weren't black. Judy Garland she's not but it's clear she performed her duties, providing moments of Camp for the crowd. The audience apparently were offended by her racist remarks more than anything.

California polls are showing that there really is a Latino backlash against Republicans. Democrats are polling higher than usual with the Latino community, which now composes 21% of the electorate. This is showing up in states with growing Latino populations--Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico.

Normally Republicans would be thrilled Texas will gain 4 new congressional seats with the 2010 Census. But with the rise of the Latino vote there and the GOP's efforts to alienate anyone who speaks Spanish, look to Texas to become the mother of all swing states by 2012.

Republicans are looking to turn several of Ohio's congressional seats this year. As of two weeks ago, it looked like they might pick up 5 here. But recent polls are showing that the race between Governor Strickland and John Kasich is narrowing. Kasich was running some 10 points ahead but the University of Cincinnati Ohio poll has it a four point race. And this is a very well-respected state poll.

A New Survey USA poll mirrors the recent Public Policy Poll by showing that Rand Paul is only running two points up against Jack Conway (49-47%).

I'm surprised how little support Democrats are giving Scott McAdams in Alaska. McAdams, the mayor of Sitka, is running against a true looney-toon. McAdams is worried about Murkowski's write-in campaign because "it divides the rational vote." Good choice of words. Put together, that vote tops Miller.

Mike Castle is doing a little polling for a write-in campaign in Delaware and it's showing he would have a real chance--being favored among independents over Coons. And among Republicans , he would draw roughly the same as he did in the primary.

While the GOP is funding Green candidates in Texas, Illinois, maybe Arizona and elsewhere, the Democrats are apparently doing the same with so-called Tea Party candidates. Turn about is fair play.