To The Moon, Newt

I have been off the grid this past week. Tomorrow with the results of the Florida primary I will resume.

We've had a powerful State of the Union Address by President Obama and a weak response by former George W. budget Director Mitch Daniels. President Obama channelled the optimism of Reagan, while Daniels captured the pessimism and gloom of modern conservatives. Did Obama go as far as I would have liked?- No but it was a powerful hour-long speech that basically laid down the language of the 2012 campaign.

He had the good fortune of following the GOP debate and the release of Mitt Romney's taxes, which showed him paying a 13.9% tax rate and stashing millions all over the place abroad, not just the Cayman Islands. Ann Romney complained that now people knew how much they were worth. For the curious, Romney's net worth is the last eight President of the United States combined times 2. While Romney has outspent Newt 50 to 1 in Florida, among conservative voters his wealth remains a problem.

I didn't blog on the last GOP debate. Mitt, now coached by Michelle Bachmann's debate teacher, went on the offensive against Newt. This apparently swung the momentum in Mitt's direction. But he still came off as a nasty, rich guy. Both men lied like hell about their stances on immigration to the Cuban crowd. Mitt brought a laugh from me when he said he couldn't be against immigrants because his mother came from Wales and his father was born in Mexico. Univision tried to get Mitt to admit he would be the first Mexican-American President. Even Mitt said that no one would believe it.

Both Mitt and Newt agreed they would get rid of bilingual ballots, thus depriving millions of Hispanic voters a clear choice. During the last days of bombastic attacks by both sides, Romney has jumped to a ten point lead, but Obama has jumped to a larger lead against both men. This morning Gingrich said that his pollsters were telling him that he was within five.

Since I have no skin in this game, it's interesting to hear that Newt vows to fight on until the Convention. The entire Republican establishment, punditry, and conservatives lambasted him this week in a coordinated attack orchestrated by the Romney campaign. It will be interesting to see whether the GOP base in Florida obeys their orders to toe the line. Meanwhile, John McCain is begging for the end of the GOP debates because all they do is magnify the candidates' negatives. Chris Wallace said all the debates have been stupid and that the audiences were just waiting for a car crash.

Since virtually every major Republican has endorsed or winked in Romney's direction, it is interesting to see that Herman Cain of 9-9-9 fame and Sarah Palin basically endorsed Newt. Newt is screaming that the conservative movement will not roll over dead for Romney. (Or maybe they will?)

Frank Rich, in this issue of New York Magazine, and posted on line at www.huffingtonpost.com today, has a must read about Romney entitled,"Who in God's name is Mitt Romney?", which dissects the enigma that is the GOP candidate. Rich calls him the "white shadow" because even though he has been around forever, no one really knows that he thinks about anything and that his Mormonism is the strongest key to understanding his worldview. His fellow Bain Capital people talk about how good a manager he was and how competent he is but they all remain baffled that they never knew what he believed about anything. Even those who worked with him when he was Governor said he never knew his aides' names and often physically kept them away from any area he would be.

Even with his Mormonism, he never calls his religion by name. In the speech he gave in the 2008 campaign about his faith in Texas, he only mentioned Mormonism by name once. As Rich notes,it is very unlikely that Romney would have worked on the Olympics if they had not been in Salt Lake City. Also interesting in the article is that Romney has held various positions in his secret, not just Bishop.

Rich praises the Boston Globe investigative reporters new book,The Real Romney, for its balance and praise of Mitt, but Rich notes that the book is languishing on the Amazon list as evidence that Republicans are just not that into Mitt.

Salon.com writes about Romney's Mormonism in a piece on the White Horse Prophecy, which was the prophecy of a Mormon coming to the rescue of the nation. This was the prophecy Glenn Beck relished talking about.

While Romney is enjoying the war against Newt, it is interesting that his support among Republicans nationwide has now dropped to below his normal 25-26%. The Florida campaign seems to be working, but among the rest of the Republicans, he still has not sealed the deal.

Mitch Daniels Out, Cain In and Newt Melts Down

Mitch Daniels sent out an e-mail last night to supporters alerting them to his decision not to run for President. He basically said that he made the decision for family reasons. It's sad that all the Republicans who bow out seem to gain stature in my eyes than those who stay in. I thought Mitch Daniels statement was nicely phrased and fairly modest. He did not claim like Donald Trump that he would have won or like Mike Huckabee that his support was national, not regional. The business wing of the Republican party supported Daniels and he would have access to the Bush money-making machine if he had decided to run. It's a tribute to Daniels that he didn't buy into the Beltway hype and the GOP punditry claiming he was the One.

But Herman Cain announced before an enthusiastic crowd of 10,000 in Atlanta that once he is elected he can say ,"Free at Last, Free at Last" and that Martin's dream would have been fulfilled. The 65-year old pizza salesman is a tea party favorite and the winner of the South Carolina debate. The twitter feeds when he announced were really amazing. He has the type of following one usually associates with Ron Paul.

Newt continues his metldown. On Face the Nation this morning he still tried to weasle out of his criticism of Paul Ryan and at first denied he had talked about him on Meet the Press the previous week until they played the clip. Then he was asked about the Tiffany Charge Account. Here, Newt revealed how out of touch with reality he is. He first explained that he has no debt, no second home ,only a rental in Wisconsin with a mortgage and he has been a successful small businessman--contrary to the "Obama model". So if he and Callista buy stuff at Tiffany's they are private citizens and can do what they want. Then he tried to explain how his Tiffany's account didn't charge interest--that's a way to win the average voters' heart. So you are left hanging about a huge jewelry bill, which finally Newt snapped that you'll have to ask Tiffany's about that.

For someone who has contemplated running for President for decades, Newt certainly is not a prime time player. He has been all over the map on almost every issue and it's not been a full month. He doesn't even remind me of when he was a guerrilla leader and a bomb-thrower. He resembles a suicide bomber more than anything.

Tomorrow we see how Tim Pawlenty can excite the crowds. Already he has taken friendly fire, his predecessor Arne Carlson, a Republican, charged that Pawlenty created a state deficit that as a percentage of the budget was worse than California. John McCain seriously considered Pawlenty for his vice-presidential candidate because he admired his working-class background and how he worked his way up to be a lawyer and then entering politics. There are serious problems with Pawlenty but none greater than he is boring and lackluster.

Old Frothy Mix Santorum decided to get into the torture debate after John McCain revealed what Leon Panetta told him about the killing of bin Laden. Santorum actually said that McCain didn't understand how torture worked, that you break someone down and they tell you everything. McCain, someone who has been tortured frequently over a period of years, did in fact talk about how the tortured will say absolutely anything to stop the pain. Santorum's attack was met with disbelief by the McCain family and a funny response from the Senator's staff who said,Who?" Mark Salter, McCain's alter-ego,posted on his Facebook that Santorum was the dumbest person he ever met in the years he served in the Senate. A couple of days ago Santorum apologized for his comment--sort of.

Mitt Romney was hailed for having a telethon in Las Vegas where his rich backers used their rolodexes to raise more than $10 million in a day. Somehow that doesn't seem that great. Ron Paul's money bombs usually net $1 million after one of his appearances and no one has to make a call.

The new New York Magazine has a long piece on how Glenn Beck was fired from Fox. But the main point of the piece is how Roger Ailes aspires to being the arbiter of who will be the GOP presidential nominee and his endless war against the Obama Administration. Ailes comes across as a shrewd political operator with all the freaky ideas we associate with super-rich people. You could imagine he and the Koch Brothers talking about eugenics. He actually believed that Obama was going to create a private police force.

The piece details how Ailes tried to get Sarah Palin to lay low after Gaby Giffords was shot in Tucson only to have her cut her "blood libel" video. Ailes has been trying to get Sarah to make a decision about running for President for months so he can re-program Fox.

But the Republican he loves is New Jersey Governor Chris Chrissie ,whom he hosted at his Hudson River house along with Rush Limbaugh. Despite Ailes' pleading, the governor refused to commit to run for President this year. A group of Iowa Republicans will be travelling out to New Jersey to make another pitch soon.

But so far the GOP race is looking like a Romney-Pawlenty contest. This is driving republicans to despair.

The most attractive candidate is Jon Huntsman but the comments on right-wing blogs have been universally scathing. Also, he did not do himself any favors by virtually changing all his positions in a week to make himself more acceptable to the Right.

President Obama at AIPAC

Before the adults take the stage, let's hear from Karl Rove, who criticized President Obama for using the "language of the Left" in characterizing Israel as "occupying the West Bank" and using the language of "those who hate Israel."

Steve Benen at Washington Monthly countered with this quote from Ariel Sharon, who said in 2003,"You can not like the word, but what is happening is an occupation--to hold 3.5 million Palestinians under occupation."

Newt Gingrich called President Obama's comments on Thursday "disasterous", saying that God never wanted Israel divided.

Former New York Mayor Ed Koch said he might have to support a pro-Israel Republican if there is one who doesn't adopt austerity economics.

The head of the Zionist Organizations of America demanded that AIPAC rescind the invitation to the President to speak today.

Andrea Mitchell is picking up on the distaste Americans felt about Bibi Netanyahu "lecturing the President like a schoolboy."

People should be reminded that it's not a great idea to be scheduled to speak after President Obama. Bibi Netanyahu will have to wait until tomorrow. I wouldn't like to bet that he will be better received than President Obama was today at AIPAC.

President Obama gave a strong, eloquent defense of his position on Israel and the urgent need to advance the peace process. It was one of his most coherent, lengthy addresses in a while since he only had to focus on a single issue. Despite all the critics and the manufactured tension, the AIPAC audience frequently interrupted the speech with strong applause. The President did not back away from his statements concerning the 1967 borders but elaborated on its meaning and how this was the template for negotiations since the Clinton Administration.

President Obama built the speech by first outlining the strategic importance of Israel to the United States and then to our moral commitment to the state of Israel and the common values that bind both nations. This was giving the audience the red meat.

President Obama reiterated America's commitment to Israel's security and our commitment to the survival of Israel as a strong,secure homeland of the Jewish people. And here he inserted specific steps the Administration has done, which his critics have conveniently or deliberately ignored. He has increased the cooperation between the two militaries--the U.S. and Isreal--and provided Israel with our most advance technologies. He increased the foreign military financing to record levels. And he mentioned how the United States and Israel developed the Iron Dome anti-rocket system that has already thwarted missile attacks on Israel. You might remember this from the whole Star Wars flap when neo-cons claimed Obama had abandoned missile defense systems both for Israel and Europe. Which of course he didn't. He pledged that the United States would always help Israel maintain its qualitative edge in military technology.

He outlined how the Administration has created the strongest sanctions against Iran and how he was absolutely committed to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. (It should be noted that Israel has an estimateed 250 nuclear devices and Iran zero at this point.) And he talked about efforts to stem Iran's support for Hezbollah and other terrorist groups.

He committed the United States to oppose any attempts at the United Nations to de-legitimize the state of Israel. He said that the United States would stand up against efforts to single out Israel at the United Nations.

He recognized that Israel has a problem with negotiating with an entity that includes a "terrorist" group and said that the United States will insist Hamas accept the basic responsibility of peace --recognize Israel's right to exist, reject violence, adhere to existing agreements and release Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

But the status quo is unsustainable. He cited three basic facts, which indicate that peace must be obtained soon.

First, the number of Palestinians living west of the Jordan is growing rapidly and fundamentally reshaping the demographic realities of Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Second, Technology will make it harder for Israel to defend itself in the absence of genuine peace.

Third, which I found most compelling, a new generation of Arabs are reshaping the region so that a just and lasting peace can no longer be forged with one or two Arab leaders alone. This generation of Arabs must see peace obtained so that it can be maintained in the future.

He pointed out that the Palestinians are pursuing United Nations recognition because of the world's impatience to see peace achieved. He did note that the Administration would hold the Palestinians accountable for their rhetoric.

He brought up the whole issue of the 1967 borders and said that they would have to include land-swaps and the borders would have to be negotiated between Israel and the Palestinians.

"We can not wait another decade, or another two decades, or three decades, to achieve peace. The world is moving too fast. The extraordinary challenges facing Israel would only grow. Delay will only undermine Israel's security and the peace that the Israeli people deserve."

Good luck, Bibi, in trying to top that.

The speech would hardly qualify in the words of Mitt Romney as throwing "Israel under the bus." In fact, I could not think of a stronger defense of Israel than the President gave and still be responsible to the issue of Israel's real security. I would like to hear from the Israeli Prime Minister, on how specifically he is enhancing the security of his own country since everything his government does seems to undermine it.

Be interesting to see how the Wild Things react to the speech and how his words can be misconstrued. The whole speech is worth accessing on line.

America The Exceptional--Kochistan

Steve Benen at Washington Monthy justed noted that Mitt Romney, who has refused to be on the stage with other Republican contenders so far, has agreed to kiss the Koch Brothers' ring at the Presidential Summit on Spending and Job Creation, which is funded by the crime family. Steve notes that the Romney family has received Koch funding before. Mitt should remember what happened to the first Mormon who wanted to run for President in 1848. The sect's founder Joseph Smith ended up shot in an Illinois jell cell. He may be lured to New Hampshire by Koch assassins. Joining the Mitt will be Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum and Michelle Bachmann.

Remember I wrote it first that Glenn Beck was the stalking horse of the Mormon candidacy of Mitt Romney. Beck has recently attacked Mike Huckabee as a "progressive" Republican or "someone like John McCain" who increases the size of government and has increased taxes while Governor of Arkansas. This odd spat got played out with Huckabee blasting back but the tenor of it was so odd as to reveal Beck's other agenda.

Meanwhile Newt and his lovely Bride Calixto or Calista will appear in their new film "American Exceptionalism", which will be a call to arms to reassert America's special nature--being owned by the Koch Brothers. Newt keeps cancelling appearances at candidate fora because he can't quite wrap up his business empire. He still has too many trinkets to sell.

Tim Pawlenty is really on a roll. After declaring that Planned Parenthood practices euthanasia because they operate in areas serving the poor, He burst on the scene at the NRA to declare that President Obama doesn't understand America and that we are an exceptional country. Wayne LaPierre told his fanatically member that the presidential election will be determined by states with Big Guns and hunting and that Obama will lose. (Of course, Obama never did confiscate the guns as conservatives promised.)

This will be the theme for the foreign policy section of the Republicans in 2012. Charles Krauthammer put teeth in this today with op-ed in the Washington Post by blasting President Obama's lead from behind strategy. He argues that Obama lacks a doctrine--Gee, we have already benefited from so many doctrines--has bowed to the inevitable emergence of China as the world leader and acts quietly because Obama believes the world hates us. As Charles pounds his chest, the world has always hated us and the Chinese are just a regional power. Watch this become a major thread in the arguments leading up to 2012.

Karl Rove is hurt saying that President Obama is waging a dirty campaign for re-election. I guess unlike Karl's genteel Swift Boater effort against John Kerry. No one yet has mentioned that , despite Rove's contention then that the Swift Boaters were not linked to the Bush campaign, that all those who bankrolled the effort were the first donors to underwrite Rove's mysterious Crossroads (Crosshairs) America. Rove said that it was Obama's fault that birtherism took over the Republican party, that the President had played rope-a-dope and made the GOP seem wacky. Of course, Rove says this was all to distract everyone from the serious problems the country has. Which is the perfect inverse of what President Obama said that his release of his birth certificate can allow us to get back to those issues. It looks like Rove is making a comeback. Here I agree with the Donald that Rove should retire.

Conservative Human Events is reporting what I have been noting that Mike Huckabee, the frontrunner for 2012, is sending signals he will not run. He has been avoiding all the candidate fora and telling former supporters to find other candidates. But I'm not sure that he will be allowed to cop out because if Romney is wounded by Romneycare, then if Huckabee doesn't run, Charles Koch will force David to come out and say he's been Born-Again. The Billionaire Club must secured the allegiance of the Religious Right if their plan for the final conquest of America is to succeed.

Inside the Beltway strategists are now talking up a Romney-Petraeus ticket. The one spoilsport to this seems to be Marc Thiessen who says that Petraeus is soft on torture--i.e. he prohibits torture. The problem with this scenario is that no one else in America believes the Iraq was worthwhile. It's not like Ike defeating Hitler. But I was at a Republican event last week and they really still believe in the Iraq war. It was stunning. They glowed when they talked about it. So Petraeus is their hero. What happens when they find out he's a self-described Rockefeller Republican?

We have only about two weeks to go until the world ends so we should expect alot of our religious friends to be "raptured", which would do wonders for our political system.

Strange Easter Messages from the Religious Right

Easter is the most joyous holiday of the Christian faith. Usually, Easter sermons are about the story of resurrection, redemption and hope. Christmas had a rockier start because the Jerusalem Church never taught that Jesus was born of a virgin. That church was led by Jesus brother James, who said that someone misinterpreted Isaiah. And maybe he would know. But Easter is the first holiday of Christianity celebrated very shortly after the crufixtion and resurrection story.

But if you want to know why young people are running away from Christianity, you don't have to look farther than the Religious Right in this country, perhaps the most harmful factor to any religious faith in our society. Far outstripping any secular temptations.

It amazes me that none of these people ever consider biblical injunctions against "bearing false witness."

Here's Franklin Graham, son of Billy, who appears on television to say he was unsure whether President Obama is an American. No wonder his father kept him out of the meeting with the President.

Then we have Mike Huckabee . a former Baptist minister, attacked Planned Parenthood, calling it Planned Barrenhood and coming out against contraception. Forget abortion, let's do away with contraception now. For investigative reporters, it is curious that all of Huckabee's sermons vanished in a church fire as well as thousands of files on hard drives when he was governor.

Pat Robertson said that progressives want straight women to "abortion their babies" to "put lesbians on a level playing field."

Rod Parsley simply came out to say that Planned Parenthood is leading an "onslaught of evil". It is the "carefully calculated conspiracy of fallen angels called demon spirits."

When the Alan Grumacher Institute found that 98% of Catholic women use contraception, the Catholic Church attacked Alan Grumacher, someone who has been dead for 75 years.

Then we have Newt Gingrich speaking at John Hagee's Cornerstone Chuch. First, Newt is a newly minted Catholic and here he is talking to a violently anti-Catholic preacher, so anti-Catholic that John McCain had to denounce the man's endorsement of his candidacy. Newt repeated his famous claim..." by the time my grandchildren are my age they will be in a secular atheist country, politically dominated by radical Islamists." You have to catch how authoritatively he says this on www.rightwatch.com

Newt should be aware that thousands of years of analysis of Jesus' sayings have come down to the conclusion he was absolutely against divorce and he really meant it when he said a rich person couldn't get into heaven.

Pseudo-Christian, pseudo-historian David Barton said on Easter week that Obama--not President Obama--has " a worldview that is devoid of God". I guess when he reads Reinhold Neihbur he omits all references to God. Obama is a secularist, according to Barton, who wants to get rid of "In God We Trust" as the national slogan. Since Eisenhower bowed to fundamentalist pressure in the first place in 1952, maybe it is time to get rid of it. Ungrateful bums.

James Dobson says that God prevailed "over the "forces of hell" to save the National Day of Prayer. He is referring to the unanimous Seventh Circuit Court having upheld its constitutionality. He then went on to bemoan Franklin Graham not being allowed to preside over the Pentagon's Day of Prayer. It was because Franklin Graham rather gratuitously attacked Islam, while our armed forces are fighting in these countries.

Boy, what a joyful faith! Where do I sign up? Oh, the Easter Bunny came to the United States from the German immigrants in Pennsylvania. A Bunny laying eggs was a throwback to a German fertility cult. Yes, it has a pagan origin.

Musings on 2012 and other things

A Tsunami, a Chernobyl event, the Saudis invading everyone, two wars, Gaddafhi killing his people, and what do the Republicans in the House called an emergency meeting on? Jobs--we haven't seen one bill yet offered by the Republicans which would create a single job. Pick a think tank or the Fed, the Republican budget will cost either a low of 200,000 jobs or a high of about 800,000. The urgent matter of the day where all Republicans had to meet in an emergency was--funding for NPR and PBS. You have to be kidding me. You have to figure out how to kill Elmo when nuclear reactors are melting and Japan is devastated. And people are to trust you with what--again?

All Washington is abuzz about the budget deal and that the real problem will emerge at the end of April. Quite frankly, I think I could stand to see the government shut down so that people would wake up to the insanity of the Republicans. I would be sorry for the furloughed government employees and all the seniors who didn't receive social security checks but until visible pain is seen then people will not wise up to this travesty.

But I digress. The Washington Post reports that Sarah Palin's approval ratings among Republicans have plunged beneath those for Romney, Gingrich and Huckabee. This is part of the media campaign against Palin. Pundits are coming out of the wordwork to claim she's not electable. Most of this is coming from the Republican side, which uses these polls to make their point. But 58% approval among Republicans and the other guys haven't been seen as much? C'mon. The fear is that she has strong support among the tea party people who terrify the establishment. They were good for midterms but now they are seen as extreme and divisive. Even old Swizzle Stick Boehner doesn't know how to handle the teabaggers, who urgently want a government shut down.

Judd Gregg of New Hampshire kicked the Republican assault off with his analysis that Palin would not win any primaries but would always win seconds and thirds and then the Convention would become a nightmare because her delegates would be the most motivated and demanding of the party leaders. Then you had the juicy leak that Roger Ailes advised Palin not to release the "blood libel' video after the shooting of Gaby Giffords. Then Ailes let on that he had to make a decision soon on cutting Huckabee and Palin from Fox if they decided to run for President.

Then the fun began with George Will, Charles Krauthammer, David Frum and Peter Wehner all saying that she was not competent but was more like the Republicans Al Sharpton. Then the Daily Beast let the cat out of the bag about how Palin got the Vice Presidential nomination--McCain wanted a woman put on the list, simply to attract Hillary voters. Then Meghan McCain put her two cents in about Palin. Talk about a pile on and she didn't do or say anything to provoke this, which is unique for her.

The only one who has come to Palin's defense is Rush Limbaugh, who went after all the would-be intellectuals, saying they weren't real conservatives and that people made fun of Reagan before he ran for President. The Free Republic crowd also mentioned that Charles Krauthammer once worked for Fritx Mondale--don't know--and he's not the one who should tell people about conservatism.

The rich quote was from Peter Wehner, who mentioned Pat Moynihan as saying "The GOP had become the party of ideas" and "we are proud of that." But the conservative so-called intellectuals haven't looked at themselves in the mirror lately. The last time the GOP had a new idea it was Billy Kristol's "Big Government Conservatism" at the beginning of the George W. Bush administration. That turned out splendid. The country is still paying dearly for that whopper. If you consult the various conservative think-tanks, there is literally nothing new. And that's obvious from the antics of the House Republicans.

But these pundits often have a disproportionate influence on the early part of a campaign so it's important to watch them.

Sarah Palin recently has been quoted as taking potshots at the old, white male establishment with particular focus on Newton Leroy Gingrich. I hate to say this but I thought her remarks were spot on and happen to agree with Rush on the criticism of Palin. What conservatives will not recognize is that the two most important conservatives now in their intellectual bankruptcy are Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. Mark Levin also chimed in to support Palin But he is a minor figure.

Palin does represent every value of the base of today's Republican value without any contradiction. Horrifying but true. If she runs, she will drive the elderly white men crazy. And yes, don't quote this back at me in months,there is plenty of sexism from the boys in the back aimed at Palin.

And speaking of which, enter Newt Gingrich. His media staff are having a shakedown period as they chided critics about their statement about how many people get Newt's tweets. This is truly the argument of the absurd and it shows their caliber. How does newt compare to Lindsey Lohan?

Meanwhile,Newt has been embracing the evangelicals big time,appearing on all the Christian Right television and radio stations. Unlike John McCain, he has embraced Rev. Hagee, who was dumped last campaign because of his violently anti-Catholic beliefs. Hagee was vital for George W's GOTV campaign in Ohio. It also turns out that Newt provided significant funding to the evangelicals in their successful campaign to defeat the Iowa Supreme Court judges who ruled for same-sex marriage. He is touching all the bases in the social conservative world.

Polling of Republicans and teabaggers show that Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman have big trouble with their Mormonism, especially among the teabag set. Romney also has to face the 67% opposition to " someone who advocates health insurance mandates". Only 21 percent said they could vote for someone like that. Huntsman was perceived as a "socialist" when he wasn't a "communist".

Meanwhile Frothy Mix Santorum has been running gung-ho on the Christian Right platform. His latest opinion was that JFK was radical in his insistence of a separation of church and state. You'll recall JFK was trying to assure the American voter that it was safe to vote for a Catholic. At the time, the attitude was 'register Catholics, not guns." Newt also now shares the view that there is really no seperation of church and states. So the Theocrat vote is up for grabs.

Tim Pawlenty has been hustling around Iowa and other early primary states to raise his profile among Republican voters. I never realized until recently that he too is an evangelical Christian and a fiscal conservative.

But the Love Revolution is creeping up on all of them. It looks like Ron Paul will run again for President. His money machine has started up again and last month he put $1 million in the bank and last year he brought in $24 million, making him one of the top money earners in the party. He seems to have his campaign elbows out. He took a nice preemptory dig at Donald Trump by mentioning that Trump may have violated campiagn laws because his plane is registered in Bermuda. Ouch! When Paul starts into his campaign mode, he begins to get biting.

The big mystery now is about the primary schedule itself because so many states have budget problems and may either cancel or postpone. We're less than a year away. This is really going to be awful.

Isn't It Grand, Isn't It Fine

If you want a good overview of the politics going on in the states right now, Rachel Maddow is in a groove. Last night's show highlighted the bizarre legislation in Michigan. Governor Snyder, who had vowed not to be a partisan,has raised taxes on the middle class and seniors, while cutting corporate taxes. His budget proposal would impoverish local and city governments. Not to worry, the Governor would be allowed to declare a "fiscal crisis" and appoint an overseer or corporation to run the beleaguered municipality. It's the most recent version of creating "Company Towns". The corporation or overseer then could remove from office any democratically elected officials. Sounds a little unconstitutional but that was in the old days.

To vent, I listen to Mike Malloy Truthseeker on progressive radio stations. The other night he raised an issue about Wisconsin that totally escaped me. Since his broadcast, leftwing blogs have picked it up. Scott Walker, the governor, talks to Jesus Christ every day in the morning and Walker says that Jesus tells him what to do--literally. Jesus Christ told him when he was a younger man to get a job at IBM even though he didn't want to. The same applies to his abandoning his last campaign for governor--Jesus told him to quit. The son of a Baptist minister Scott Walker revealed these sensitive moments to the Christian Businessmen's Group. He is only doing on the budget bill what Jesus wants. Interesting, however, that all the Christian denominations have come out against his budger repair bill. How does this square with what Jesus has been telling him?

This Saturday Wisconsin farmers will be riding their tractors and combines into Madison to protest the Budget Repair Bill. It's not union solidarity we're seeing here--well,some of it is. The farmers are pissed that the bill repeals a state-run insurance scheme that was created by progressive Republicans--remember them--during the insurance frauds of the early twentieth century. The plan pays for itself and has no budgetary consequences. Older farmers depend on this program. The other bone the farmers have is that their wives supplement the family income and keep the small farms going by being teachers or nurses. The budget repair bill would lead to greater unemployment.

The Republicans don't seem to think the Wisconsin recall laws are legal. Interesting. Efforts to mount recall campaigns are picking up steam and there are enough signatures to recall at least one Republican. Eight are targeted by this campaign.

Reversing Wisconsin's entire history, Republican legislators passed a law that regulates who can come in and out of the Capitol building and it warrants metal detactors and the usual security apparatus. To outsiders this would seem normal but it is a source of pride to people in the state that Wisconsin keeps its capitol open to everyone 24/7.

It turns out that the report of some $7 million in damages to the Capitol was bogus and put out by the Right to defame the demonstrators. Anyway the Painters' Union offered to repair any damage done for free.

Americans for Prosperity, the Koch-funded astroturf organization run by Abramoff's old lobbying buddy, held a bus tour of the state. Joe the Plumber, who is not named Joe nor is he a Plumber, asked the people of Wisconsin whether they sided with socialist America or the real America. The bus tour topped out at 600 in Madison, not a great showing for teabag nation.

Felon Rick Scott,Governor of Florida, managed to win a bipartisan court case that challenged his refusal to accept federal funds for the high-speed rail project from Tampa to Orlando, a project that has been on the drawing boards for a decade. Scott also managed to alienate the entire state with his budget address. As Rachel Maddow has pointed out twice so far, he's cutting $1.75 billion from public education and slashing property and corporate taxes by $1.68 billion, which will mean squat to the deficit. Demonstrators at the capitol are now far outdrawing the past teabag crowds by several thousand.

The first Iowa Republican events have started. Five would-be Presidential contenders spoke before a Faith Forum. New favorite Buddy Roemer, former Democratic senator and Governor from Louisiana, spoke about faith and didn't address his previous three marriages. But Newt was there railing against all the secular socialists in the Obama Administration. In a quiet moment, Newt talked to a Christian radio station and admitted that he did let his wallace flop out, as Captain Beefhart would say. Newt admitted he was working so hard to save the nation that he slipped and committed adultery. I'm sure Callista was pleased to hear she was an accident in his life. Unlike Scott Walker,Newt speaks with God and graciously God forgave him his adultery and rewarded him with a wonderful marriage. So if God forgave him, then there's no problem. As Newt said, if his past mattered, he would be irrelevant now but since the future is at stake then all bets are off.

Andrew Sullivan in his Daily Dish opined two days ago that the Republican Party no longer exists. He gave a detailed taxonomy of the fragments of the Republicans and the conservative movement and I agree with him. Proof of this is the sad spectacle of Dick Lugar now coming around to accepting the House budget proposal even though he had openly opposed them. Lugar is frightened of a teabag primary. Also only 33% of Maine Republicans now believe that Olympia Snowe should be renominated--this about a woman who won with over 70% of the vote last time. There really is no there there.

Dana Milbank said that John Boehner is using Richard Nixon's Mad Bomber strategy on the budget, using the insanity of the House proposals to muscle greater concessions from the Senate and the White House. I prefer the incompetence argument and that he has no control over the House Republicans. Hapless Harry Reid is miffed that he thought he had a budget deal with the Republicans only to see Mitch McConnell walk away. The Democrats today are trying to force a vote on the House budget proposal to get sitting Republicans to go on record for cuts to the most basic of programs.

Rep. Peter King is holding his I Hate Islam hearings on the House side. The irony of this is that when Ronald Reagan was going to speak at the Nassau Coliseum in new York the Secret Service put King on a watch list because of his fervent support of the IRA, who were then at their bombing best. King is trying to demonstrate that the Muslim community is not cooperating with law enforcement authorities. Unfortunately for him, Duke has done a study and the FBI confirms that over half the terrorists suspects are picked up on tips from the Muslim community. However, this doesn't deter anyone. One witness tried to implicate Rep. Ellison, the only Muslim in the House, and the Democratic Party in aiding terrorism.

The off shoot of this Islamophobia is the resurgent attacks on Sikhs, who have nothing to do with Islam. After 9-11, Sikhs here in Virginia and in Texas were killed as a reaction to the bombings. Now this has started up again in southern California. At Divinity School, one of the fun things was to see Sikhs unravel their turbans and after cleaning,hang them down five flight of stairs.

With the war continuing in Libya, Newt Gingrich appeared on Fox News as "a friend" to announce that if he were President he would have created a No-Fly Zone last night. This is the type of rhetoric which got us into boatloads of trouble the last administration. As Secretary of Defense Gates pointed out, creating a No-Fly Zone entails preliminary bombing and disabling Libya's air force--which in former days was considered an act of war.

While President Obama continues calls for Muammar Qaddafhi to step down,Michael Scheuer, whose Bin Laden book I liked, reverted to his old obnoxious self and called Obama a "racist". He said that Obama was like "Kipling and Woodrow Wilson" in calling for democratic cghange in Libya. Scheuer said that Qaddafhi represented "zero" threat to the stability of the region. But only days before in a Washington Post op-ed he said that the unrest in the Arab world benefited Al Qaeda.

I don't know why organizations such as Planned Parenthood and NPR fall for the stunts of conservopunk Jim O'Keefe. NPR's chairperson resigned today after a video surfaced that their major fund-raising believed that the teabaggers were racist and maybe NPR was better off without federal funding.

President Obama's decision on Gitmo was terrible, even though understandable. Under the last Defense Bill, Democrats and Republicans prohibited Gitmo detainees from being tried in civil courts or if innocent being transferred to another country. Obama's decision to reinstate the flawed military commission process is being challenged by House Republicans, who want to eliminate the review process being proposed. What this all this means is that the United States has abandoned its own history and now accepts holding people indefinitely without trial. At issue are 45 cases, which could not be tried because we tortured the detainees and their testimony would not be admissable in a court of law.

But have good cheer, Canadian professors are teaching Omar Kadr at Gitmo so he won't go home hating our guts. They have developed a home schooling program for the child soldier who has been languishing there all these many years.

Meanwhile Bradley Manning still sleeps naked. Having been in solitary for the last seven months and only charged--some 59 of them--last week, Manning has been subjected to sleep deprivation and having to stand at attention naked at the morning roll calls. I bet money on the fact that he did not leak the diplomatic posts to Wikileaks. He did leak the footage of our armed forces killing civilians and reporters with gunships as well as the Iraq and Afghanistan files. Basically, his treatment is to send us and everyone in the military a lesson. But it might have been nice if the military had followed some rudimentary legal guidelines.

Oh by the way, Michelle Bachmann will decided whether she's going to run for President in June. Sarah Palin is going on a Faith tour and is scheduled to miss the first real Republican debate at the Reagan Center. The Donald really does have people in Iowa scouting out the feasibility of a Presidential run. While the faith gang was in Iowa, Ron Paul was running from town to town. This suggests that the Love Revolution might be back.

Client Number 9--Eliot Spitzer--is rumored to be exploring a run for the Mayor of New York.

Day 4 of the Love Revolution

Rachel Maddow finally crossed the line--she questioned the competence of Gentleman John Boehner. Unfortunately, Rachel ran a list of all the miscues by the House since Boehner became Speaker. They only reinforced her conclusion. But Ezra Klein gamely tried to defend Boehner's manhood by saying he was having problems with his party.

But one little factoid Ms. Maddow raised should frighten people. The Republicans do not have a budget for this year--even the crazy one proposed two weeks ago. They have 400 amendments filed on the proposed budget and, according to Rachel Maddow, only 4 have passed. Given the work habits of ole' Swizzle Stick Boehner the odds are slim to none that a Republican budget will pass the House by March 4th, when the continuing resolution expires. Hence, the shutdown of the government is not a Republican threat as a grand strategy to extract more cuts from the Obama Administration, It is an almost certainty, a result of incomptence. A government shutdown because you didn't work hard enough to even pass a budget, however horrible, is going to make the public reaction against Gingrich's shutdown look tame.

Everyone and their grandmother is criticizing President Obama because he neglected to put into his budget entitlement reform. Remember his budget is for 2012, not this year. But he was wise to let the GOP define the issue because they have overplayed their hand repeatedly. Obama knows that the House Republican proposals will be so outlandish that they will provoke a backlash and President Obama enters to save the day.

Someone did an analysis this morning of the effect on social security of the current Republican budget proposals. Hundreds of thousands of people will not received their disability payments and other Social Security services because the GOP wants to cut the administrative budget of SSA by 20%. This is incomptence married to ideology. The House GOP is clueless.

One moment of great chutzpah by the GOP was their blast at Obama for proposing cuts for the pro-democracy programs. They cited the events in Egypt and the Middle East as evidence of the need for continued funding of these programs. Yet their proposed budget cuts all these programs out anyway. So where did they think these programs would come from?

Washington is eagerly awaiting Newt Gingrich announcement in two weeks whether he intends to run for the Republican presidential nomination. Check out the time-frame. It would occur when the GOP fumbles with the budget and closes down the Government. Great timing for Newton Leroy. Vin Weber, now associated with TPaw or Governor Polenta,says that Newt has alot of baggage and will need to explain the finances of his little Newt conglomerate. Seeing him at CPAC, I can't see Gingrich physically able to campaign much at a retail level. He has the white man bloat and looks like he suffers from the gout. In 2012, Gingrich will be 67. Do we want another tired old white man?

Meanwhile, Sarah Palin got great news. 51% of Republican primary voters are birthers. 40% of the entire party are evangelical or fundamentalist Christians. Among these people she has an 83% approval rating. But even with a new chief of staff people are wondering why she's not making the necessary booking arrangements for Iowa. Generally meeting places for the Iowa Caucus are rented about now.

Mike Huckabee, Huckabee of Judea, says he would make abortion the central campaign issue in a presidential campaign. But word from his Iowa people suggest Huckabee hasn't hinted to them that he is running. One sign he may not is that he has just taken a $1.2 million mortgage out on a new home in Florida. People have suggested he is just earning a living at Fox News for the first time in his life and may not run this year.

Early polling shows Mitt Romney walking away with New Hampshire ad eeking out primary victories in the West. Interestingly, the Mormon issue still remains. Americans are more likely to vote for a black, a woman or a Jewish candidate than a Mormon for President. Running for President since 2005,Romney has become a familiar face by now but even 20% of the GOP are hesitant to vote for a Mormon.

Could someone tell people to knock it off about Planned Parenthood? I never thought of my sister as Emma Goldman for her work with Planned Parenthood. But now the right is ginning up a campaign like they did against ACORN. Planned Parenthood spends about 3-6% of their budget on abortion services, another 30% on contraception, and the rest of women's health issues in general. In many places,Planned Parenthood is the only available resource for women. This is especially true here in Virginia in rural places. But now Christianist congressman Steve King calls it a " criminal enterprise" and now Glenn Beck has embraced it as part of the on-going progressive plot against the United States. This is because of a James O'Keefe type Breibart fake journalist sting, which Planned Parenthood reported to the FBI.

The Dailkos and other progressive organizations are trying to recuit America's Sweetheart Elizabeth Warren to run for the Senate in Massachusetts against Scott Brown. I thought Rachel Maddow was already doing that. I want to see Elizabeth warren slugging it out with the GOP on the Consumer Protection Agency.

Oh, and it was the George W. State Department and MTV behind the Egyptian Revolution. So saith Glenn Beck.

Does anyone get the impression that the Right simply wants to create chaos, uncertainty and disorder so that the American people will be conditioned to accept order and discipline. That nothing they do has anything to solving a single problem but exacerbating them.

It is year 5 and Clarence Thomas is still silent.

Thursday Blues

Congratulations everybody, the next tranche of health insurance reforms have hit today. There was one point that I had missed the other day, which is of personal importance. Insurance companies will have to pay for all your emergency procedures even though you don't come through your primary physician. Strange wording. But this occured to me when I returned from Africa and went to Johns Hopkins for eye problems. After examing me, they concluded I had a torn and detached retina and whisked me away for a six hour operation. Later the surgeon told me that if they hadn't done it then, I would be totally blind in one eye. Let's say that's not elective surgery. But my insurance company protested about paying any of the bill because my primary physician had not been notified--like I carry his phone number on me. The insurance issue is still not resolved. But with the new health reform, this would not be a problem. Emergency surgery--no problem.

While I'm for Medicare for everyone to take out the chronic anxiety over the financial issues over health care--it's bad enough you have to concentrate on getting well, the reforms that take effect today basically mean I don't have to go bankrupt for anything serious. Even a routine heart attack would bankrupt me at this rate. Apparently, all the speakers at the Values Summits--allegedly Christians-- disagree with me. Mike Huckabee, a former Baptist minister, doesn't believe people with pre-existing conditions should be insured. Sharron Angle doesn't believe there should be assistance to people with autism. I'm sure they would also all agree that Chris Hitchens should not get treatment for his cancer because of his atheism and chronic smoking and drinking. It's wonderful to see such loving people believe in a punitive life and a coercive state. But they all agree on the dangers posed by witches. And that's what you will get if the GOP comes back. But at least it will be paternalistic authoritarianism as witnessed the tone of the Pledge to America.

Another poll came out from Zogby--caveat emptor--that shows Democrats with a 1% generic lead in the congressional races, which tracks with the continued upward trend. Obama also has an approval rating of 49%. Other polls show weird discrepancies between the results with Likely Voters and those with Registered Voters. Bennett beats Buck in Colorado with registered voters, loses with likely voters; Sestak ties Toomey with registered and loses with likely voters; Feingold wins with registered voters , but loses big with likely voters; Reid wins with registered and loses by a point with likely voters. This demonstrates the alleged enthusiasm gap , which means the Democrats have to accelerate the GOTV efforts. Luckily in Delaware, Chris Coons, called by Glenn Beck a "Marxist" , is whipping Cathleen O'Donnell in both likely and registered. But the registered margin is a whopping 25%.

The great roll-out for the Pledge to America didn't really hit it. John Boehner wanted to assure everyone that Republicans are the same and that privatizing Social Security is not off the table. Please recall when W campaigned around the country on privatizing of social security. It was a mega flop. Pat Toomey in Pennslyvania has highlighted this as his major policy initiative. And he even admitted it would add significantly to the deficit. After recent events, who in their right mind would actually support this? I'm glad we are all going to be compis mentis when we are older and can finagle the ins and outs of the stock market like most people were able to do in prime health during 2008. And since they're going to raise retirement age to 70, it's going to be great for stock traders dealing with millions of people who have dementia. But it's all in the name of family.

Over 70% of Americans believe this country is in decline. It is if we don't make some fundamental changes. But I heard an unusual diagnosis of our fate from Niall Fergusson, the British neocon who spoke at Aspen warning that America might lose its empire. He repeated his talk in Australia. He said that the United States was in threat of losing its empire and global status because of our national debt. He said that the debt issue will force America to spend less on national security--remember we spend more than planet earth combined so I think we have alot of wiggle room--and lack the courage to rein in Social Security and Medicare costs. In other words, if we take care of Americans first, then we won't be the surrogate British empire Niall and the Bush neocons wanted. It should be noted that it was only during the George W. reign that any American policy-maker ever referred to the United States as an empire. The Left has used this terminology for years but American officials only did with W. In fact, Bush officials bragged to the British that the invasion of Iraq was "our imperial moment." Niall also said that all empires collapse when they withdraw from Mesopotamia. Good, here's hoping.

Newt Gingrich has taken up the anti-colonial issue by citing Dinesh D'Souza's recent thesis that Barack Obama is acting out his father's "Kenyan anti-colonial" mentality. D'Sousa's new book will be coming to my bookshelf soon and I already can anticipate the argument. But, before pre-judging Dinesh, I should like to mention that Glenn Beck's beloved Founding Fathers were notoriously anti-colonial and even modern Presidents such as Ike and JFK were anti-colonial. Does anyone remember the US sided with Egypt over the Suez Canal? All the stink that caused in Britain. But both Newt and Dinesh are imperialists--Christian imperialists. In other words, anti-American.

An American vet has been arrested in Chicago for plotting to kill Barack Obama and provoking a war between Christians and Muslims to hasten the apocalypse. This is the second plot in a week that has been disrupted. No wonder people believe America is in decline with this nonsense. Another man was arrested in Texas for attacking police officers because he was a member of the Texas Republican Movement, which advocates secession.

Not to worry, this stuff is getting mainstreamed. The Teabagger, Republican nominee for Senator in Alaska is pro-militia and considered a friend of that white nationalist movement. I guess that's one step ahead of his friend Todd Palin, who is a member of the Alaska Independence Movement. Both men should be happy about the GOP's embrace of the obscure 10th amendment.

Certain strange things have been appearing on my radar, which raises some interesting questions about some of the GOP candidates. The Washington Post found out that Pat Toomey's stint as a business partner in China was related to his relationship with Enron board holder Mr. Chen. On another front, you have the strange occurrence of Mark Kirk, GOP senate candidate in Illinois, bragging about telling the Chinese not to believe the Obama Administration of our country's assets. You have Dubai-based Newscorp, the owner of Fox News, being a business partner with North Korea and China, developing computer games. And you have private e-mails I get from conservatives praising China as a model and Vietnam.

In the old days of the Cold War, conservatives believed the turning moment was Whittacker Chambers outing Alger Hiss. But times have changed and , with the exception of the State Department couple who spied for Cuba, the most recent espionage problems have come from an asssortment of conservatives, members of Opus Dei, pro-Israeli Americans and the strange pro-lifer who was behind the anthrax mailings. Don't be surprised over the next few years if you see the conservative movement have a major espionage problem of its own on a scale of the Cold War exposes in the 1950s. Not a sermon, just a thought.

If Iran is an existential threat to Israel, why is Goldman Sachs-Israel opening an office in Tehran? I hate to disappoint everyone but I believe that the Iranian nuclear program has been disabled by "outside actions" and may be permanently out of action. I am probably the only one on planet Earth that believes this. But there were technological advances made by the United States over the last few years, which indicate things of this nature can be done. I submit they were.

Barack Obama spoke to the United Nations yesterday on a new development policy, which makes too much sense to repeat in a post that documents madness.

And, oh yes, documents were released today that demonstrate the Bush Administration intended to invade Iraq prior to 9-11 and Bush officials within 24 hours of 9-11 advocated an attack on Iraq--even though we learned yesterday that an Iraqi ambassador informed the administration that while Saddam was delighted, he had nothing to do with it.

Liz Cheney and Torture Advocate Marc Thiessen slams the quote of President Obama in Bob Woodward's new book that "America withstood a terrorist attack and was stronger for it." Liz went all Cheney on this quote and Marc Thiessen asks, "Do you feel more secure now?" Yes, Marc, I do.

What A Difference A Day Makes

Ipsos/ Reuters put out a poll yesterday afternoon that shows Democrats with a 5-pt lead in the generic congressional poll and voter enthusiasm for the GOP at 8.8 out of 10 and Democrats at 7.6 out of 10. So it's tied. To stay even Democrats always need at least a 5pt lead and the so-called enthusiasm gap looks fairly traditional. Remember Democrats have a larger voter pool to draw from. It's beginning to look like the Democratic base is coming home to roost.

What I've noticed in the polling is that almost all races are tightening up from the Senate to the House. David Plouffe on his book tour commented that the teabaggers' importance was to motivate the Republican base, but they alienate independents. So his conclusion was higher Republican turnout as a result but , as he has argued on video briefs to OFA members,this election will be determined by very small margins of victory. That's why the Democrats are now in full Get Out The Vote mode in all their calling.

The Chamber of Commerce's Tom Donoghue is about the launch his $75 million blitz for the GOP but has admitted that he's examined every House race and believes at the end of the day Democrats will keep both the Senate and the House. Some say he was trying to lower expectations about the GOP tide but others claim that really his belief.

While Christine O' Donnell continues to amuse,one has to be concerned about Sharron Angle and Harry Reid being locked in a tie. Rachel Maddow last night revealed the rather mind-blowing fact that Angle recently attended the John Birch Society's convention in Utah, where she bragged about being with "mainstream Americans" there. Marco Rubio has gone further strange in Florida, where right now he looks like he may win. He claims he knows what it's like to lose a country--Cuba--and will fight Obama to save our own. Obama's Gulag is getting oppressive.

I think Russ Feingold is toast in Wisconsin. I believe the poll showing a close West Virginia Senate race is an outlier. And I applaud Meg Whitman having a fund-raiser with the Koch family as sponsors. I guess she's having a cash flow problem. Also the founder of EBay came out and said he could not support her and if he still lived in California, he wouldn't vote for her. Meanwhile cheapskate Brown continues to lead her in another two polls. I sense a trend.

Jerome Corsi, who really is the father of the birthers with his scurrilous book on Obama, wants Obama to denounce Lucifer. This raises the awkward issue of whether Mitt Romney and Glenn Beck should do the same since both believe Jesus is the brother of Lucifer. At least Christine O'Donnell gets off the hook for her witchcraft by claiming she's "born-again"--that wonderful Get Out of Jail free card for all sinners.

I had only read Eugene Robinson's column on Leroy Gingrich's fear-mongering on Sharia law. I had not read that Newt actually recommended Congress outlaw Sharia Law. What's great is how oblivious conservatives are to the Constitution. The First Amendment would do the trick in this case. Oh wait... Fat Tony Scalia told law students in a speech in San Francisco that the founders really didn't mean it about the separation of church and state and that the Constitution really doesn't allow for treating genders equally. Poor Steven Beyer has another book out on the Constitution attacking the originalists like Scalia for getting the most important things about our system wrong.

I owe Senator Webb an apology. He did not vote with the Republicans to filibuster the Defense Appropriations Bill. He does oppose the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. But he had other fish to fry--namely the bill bringing Tricare, the military's healthcare system in line with the Health Reform bill, and the allocation of more funds and facilities for the Wounded Warriors program, which is dealing with severe injuries and PTSD. Also, the Dream Act, which allows younger illegal immigrants to go to college or join the service to rectify their legal status, was included in the bill.

In poll after poll, a vast majority of Americans--from both parties--believe that openly gay people should be able to serve in our military. And, contrary to Senator McCain's statements yesterday, the military has been de-commissioning those people who never mentioned they were gay by reading private e-mails and even taking testimony from local American law enforcement officials. Over 14,000 gay personnel have been ousted since the beginning of this law. One problem is generational. The elderly Republican senators are nostalgia for an America that no longer exists and forgets that the young men and women in the military already are familiar with gays, having grown up with them. It is estimated that over 50,000 American military personnel are gay or lesbian, serving in fairly sensitive positions up the chain of command.

American support for gays in the military dwarfs popular support for same-sex marriage and other gays rights issues. (Although we have to note majority support for same sex marriage has now been recorded in two recent polls.) The judge's full opinion on the unconstitutionality of DADT is worth reading and is as devastating as Vaughn Walker's opinion on same-sex marriage. Obama's error came from his reasonableness by allowing the military to conduct a survey of the armed forces to determine whether gays affect military readiness. The publically released surveys were already biased in terms of their questions. Harry Truman actually did the same concerning blacks in the military, but decided to throw that all out with an Executive Order. Buried in our history is also surveys of the military concerning Jews serving during WWII and questions of their loyalty.

The current limbo state of gays in the military isn't healthy for anyone and is simply hypocritical. When the armed forces had trouble recruiting people around 2004, there were "medical waivers" for gays and other allowances so as to retain force strength. With DADT pronounced unconstitutional, the Obama Administration should refrain from appealing the decision. The executive branch usually is duty bound to argue for existing law even though they may not believe them. But in this case, since the train is moving in this direction anyway, the administration should take a by. Also, there should be a moratorium on further hearings on dismissing gays or lesbians from the military. And, once the December report is in, President Obama should simply announce that he is signing an executive order eliminating DADT. The policy started as an executive order under Clinton, even though it was later ratified by Congress. Given the polarization in the Senate (The House has already repealed it), there is no sense to get its repeal hung up by the looney tune Right. After all he is the commander-in-chief, not Old Walnuts McCain.

Now if you are a practitioner of civil disobedience, there is another option. All the 50,000+ gays and lesbians in the armed forces could proclaim their gender preference openly and demand the military take actions against them. This would cause a bureaucratic collapse and also make the USG liable for enormous civil damages because of the unconstitionality of the law. In fact, the gays and lesbians swore to uphold the Constitution so this would be in line of fulfilling their duty. Then, see how the old geezers react. The gays and lesbians would have public opinion on their side as well as the Law.

Adios!

Am fleeing to Canada for the week. I can't understand what is going on anymore here.

The Tea Party 9-12 rally flopped here yesterday. Attendees blamed Glenn Beck and his turn toward religion. Meanwhile, today Glenn Beck, having restored our honor, claims that violence is on the way--violence from the Left. With a shortage of ammo caused by the rightwingers, how is the Left going to arm themselves?

Senator Kyl claimed that Obama has declared class warfare. Where do I sign up? It's 98 to 2, I like the odds.

Catherine O'Donnell has taken a lead over Mike Castle in Delaware. Her fans have mounted death threats against the volunteer chairman of the Republican Party for their backing of Castle.

If you can follow the Tan Man statement on taxes, followed by Cantor this morning and Mitch McConnell this afternoon you're a better person than I. They were for the tax breaks before they were against them or vice versa. By the time I return, someone somewhere will have sorted this out.

Meanwhile Newt warns that President Obama is not only practicing Kenyan anti-colonial politics (as against monarchist fascism) but is also insane. Born a MacPherson, Newt is one of those Scots warn you against--prone to violence and irrationality. The clan name drove fear in the hearts of other Scots. Maybe, he will join the other 16 Republicans who appear to be aiming for the 2012 Presidential elections.

Sporadic polling coming in on congressional races indicate the Democrats are not doing as poorly as previously thought.

Maybe the GOP have come up with a new strategy to depress the vote turnout for the Democrats. Act like you're batshit and people won't want to associate with people who vote.

President Obama is going to announce a $80 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia. This guy can make money out of anything.

William Gibson's Zero History is the return of the master of cyberpunk to nearly his best. He still writes as tight as a drum.

Here's hoping Elizabeth Warren will be appointed while I'm gone. I'm going to unplug and read some Gary Snyder and watch the Atlantic crash against rocks. Hopefully, I will have enough discipline not to surf the net.

Sunday in the Park with George

Congressional Quarterly has posted their House and Senate ratings as of now. On the House side, Democrats are now at 219 and the Republicans are at 180 with 36 toss-ups. This falls back into my view that Republicans must sweep the 40 targeted Democrats--a really high goal.

The Senate--CQ has Democrats now at 48 and Republicans at 40 with 12 seats at toss-up. Yesterday I saw a CQ projection that Republicans would take the Senate with 50-49. But this would mean taking 10 out of 12 toss-ups.

The teabaggers are going for the gold in New Hampshire and Delaware. In New Hampshire,the Manchester Union-Leader has endorsed the teabagger.

The phony doctor's association which counts Rand Paul as a member has issued a statement that Barack Obama won the 2008 election by mass hypnosis. Jack Conway should raise this in the Kentucky Senate race.

The Tan Man said today that he would be open to Obama's tax plan for the middle class, and the possibility of foregoing the tax cuts for the wealthy. It's no coincidence that a raft of polls came out this week showing that close to a majority want those tax cuts to lapse, and another 15% want all tax cuts to lapse. This accounts for the Republican hesitation.

The progressive think tank NDN broke down the Tan Man's Economic Plan for House Republicans and concluded Boehner's plan would increase the national debt by $3.781 trillion. His dandy idea of going back to 2008 level spending on non-defense discretionary spending would only save $36 billion next year and nothing the following two years because Obama already declared a freeze on discretionary spending.

No one burned any copies of L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics yesterday. There were Qurans burned by individuals at the 9/11 commemorations in New York and one lone wolf tore up pages from the Quran in front of the White House. I was thinking of burning Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy because Al Qaeda took its name from it right after it was published in Arabic and became a best-seller among young Muslims. If Dune had been published then, it would have become the name of Bin Laden's group and been more appropriate.

Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin's celebration of 9/11 with their boozefest was preceded by prayers from the "Christian" fringe pastors, one of whom said that Obama was too much of a coward to declare America a "Christian" nation. Maybe it really is because it's historically not true.

Islamophobia seems to be breaking out around the country and fueled by even the moderate Right. 9 years after the fact, this seems strange but remember the Republican leadership at the time of 9/11 was heavily tied to the Saudis and had to put a lid on any reaction. The Right always believed we are in a holy war against Islam and now they can become full-throated about it.

But one interesting fact remains-- the last Gallup poll shows that only 1% of Americans believe terrorism is the number 1 issue facing the country, compared to 46% right after 9/11. And now all these people exist in the burning remains of the neoconservative movement and among 2012 presidential aspirants who need the radical Christian Right to survive the primaries.

Speaking of which, Newt Gingrich speaking at a Values Summit meeting ,along with other presidential wannabes, flashed onto Dinesh D'Souza's strange comment in the National Review that Obama had the "Kenyan anti-colonial mentality". Newt said that was the most brilliant thing he had heard in six months. I distinctly remember that Kenya was a most reliable African ally in the Cold War and actually supported us out of principles, not bribes.

Dinesh's remarks reflect the rhetoric against Obama coming from London during the Presidential campaign. Ancient conservatives, who resented losing the colony, claimed that Obama's father was a terrorist. They linked him to the Mau-Maus. This got some traction in the states but then wiser heads prevailed knowing that Jomo Kenyatta, the head of the Mau-Maus, had been a long-time friend of the United States. So Newt is just recycling fourth-hand nonsense. Newt even said that Obama had learned Saul Alinsky's trick of disguising one's true self to deceive people into supporting your radicalism. That must account for Obama's sly endorsement of small businesses and corporate tax breaks.

If you actually want to read about Saul Alinsky, Nicholas Von Hoffman has a new memoir out recalling his lifelong friendship with Saul Alinsky and recording what Alinsky actually said about his work. Saul Alinsky's son must thank Glenn Beck everyday when Beck highlighted Rules for Radicals as the Bible of Barack Obama. All the teabaggers have to learn and use these principles so that old tired book is getting a second life and probably will sell more this time around.

Republican candidates are openly campaigning on closing down the Government if they win the House. That would have the sole benefit of them not passing anything. But think about that for a minute. The United States is in two wars, in the midst of a borderline Depression, and your political platform is to close down the Government. This is not a random statement but is emerging as a real idea among House candidates.

Forget about the external world but the immediate effects would be Social Security and Medicare payments would not be made, Veterans' benefits would cease, Unemployment iinsurance payments would stop. The last time this happened under the Clinton Administration there was a firestorm of reaction against the Republicans and their leader, Newton Leroy Gingrich.

Chris Van Hollen issued a statement on behalf of House Democrats on this subject, warning all voters what this would mean in practical details.

Elizabeth Warren has drawn over 250,000 supporters on petitions demanding Obama appoint her. Amen!

Governor Moonbeam has emerged with a new ad with Peter Coyote providing the narration. Meg Whitman had gambled that her spending $120 million by Labor Day would create a 10-15 point lead, which Brown could not erase by election day. Brown for his part didn't spend any money but now has started his campaign around California, challenging Whitman to appear with him at 15 townhall meetings. So far she's refused. The Race is basically tied so it's going to cost Whitman about another 75 million of her personal wealth.

Speaking of wealth, the Koch brothers are fighting back against the Jane Mayer expose in the New Yorker with their minions writing op-eds and letters to the editors. Even Howard Hughes maintaned his anonymity better than these guys. Should teabaggers really be named Koch suckers?

The war the Koch Brothers are waging against Barack Obama is reminiscent of their Dad going against Ike "the Kike". Dad helped create the John Birch Society, which encouraged the smears of General Marshall by Joe McCarthy. So it's interesting to recall that Ike passed the Federal Highways Act to create the interstate highway system. In today's dollars it would cost $179 billion. Barack Obama's infrastructure rehabilitation plan costs a paltry $50 billion. But to pay for it might require eliminating some of the oil industry's tax loopholes. Poetic justice for the Koch Brothers, the owners of the world's largest private oil company.

Instead of 9-11, I am heading to Halifax, Nova Scotia this week to visit the memorial to the 10,000 American prisoners of war that died at the hands of the British in the 1812 War. Lest we forget the Brits sent 300,000 white folk to America as slaves before the Revolutionary War. Interestingly, black slavery followed, only when the British companies realized it was more cost effective and profitable to use blacks, rather than whites. While this blog has had to defend Thomas Jefferson from the lies told about him by the Texas Schoolboard and David Barton, I have to admit Thomas Jefferson tried to paper over this aspect of our history and minimize the number of white folks who had actually been slaves or former criminals.

Afternoon Doldrums at the Last Manatee

National Debt and Deficit. Two separate things. Ezra Klein writes this week that if you allow the Bush tax cuts to lapse you pick up $4 trillion. With Barney Frank and Ron Paul proposal to cut military spending $1 trillion. With the McColm end the cap for Social Security, you runs surpluses through the next century. The CBO reports that with PayGo rules, Healthreform and other measures adopted the national debt is very managable through 2057 and even beyond. With the Cat Food Commission as the Debt Commission is affectionately called, there should be other solutions. So, no problem. The Chinese will not suddenly dump U.S. treasuries as the Republicans have claimed.

BP Oil spill. The $70 million liability cap is moot. BP has already paid out $130 million in claims. BP will go bankrupt to avoid responsibility. This is a line I've heard from conservatives and some oil people in Texas. Not true, what they put into the escrow fund is roughly the eqwuiavlent to about one quarter of their profits. What if that doesn't cover it? They have already told the Obama Administration they are prepared to even put more money into the Escrow Fund if the need arises. Keith Olbermann reported that you had to file your claims 60 days after the disaster or else you don't qualified. The Special Master for the Government says that doesn't apply and the law would have to acknowledge that the end of the disaster hasn't happened. In any case, since he's handling the claims now, he says he will ignore it. Are there problems in adjudicating claims. You bet. Some of the fisherman have cash businesses but the Special Master says he still wants records or witnesses to document one's claims. Do the funds include the whole Gulf? Yes. Anyway, it's estimated that on individual claims there will be about 3 years in whcih claims can be made. Claims from states and the federal government come from the Escrow Fund. If you wanted a slush fund as conservaties claim, you would not want the Special Master, who handled the 9-11 claims, as the boss of it.

Dick Lugar, Nixon's favorite Mayor and one of the last sane Republicans, blasted Mitt Romney's op-ed in the Washington Post against the New Start Treaty. He claims that Romney not only misconstrued articles of the treaty but even--surprise--made things up. The treaty is already supported by George Schultz, Jim Baker and Henry Kissinger on the Republican side, but Senate Republicans are still trying to kill it. This is part of the Make Barack Obama Jimmy Carter strategy.

Peter Beinart in the Daily Beast reminded Democrats that Barack Obama has already achieved more than Carter and Clinton combined and that, despite the right-wing noise machine, the country is moving with Obama's programs more to the Left.

American corporations now have more than $2 trillion in the bank ready to invest. The number has doubled in over a year. So why aren't they investing in jobs. One issue has to do with the change in the nature of American corporations. Like Thomas Alva Edison's General Electric, they have diversified into insurance and finance and do not produce things like they used to. Another factor is that they have become more efficient and less labor intensive thereby not needing the amount of workers they once did. But, from a political point of view, they complain that Wall Street reform has created an uncertainty for them and their concern about the deficit is that their taxes will increase, although they haven't to date. And as I've pointed out frequently only about 26% of American corporations pay any taxes whsoever.

American Exceptionalism--AEI now claims that another element of our nation's exceptional nature is the free-market system. In other words, we are like a Hong Kong created by God.

Tom Tancredo not only see John Boehner's America being destroyed by Barack Obama. He says that the America created by our Founding Fathers is at risk. Barack Obama is a greater than to America than Al Qaeda.

Bill Engels, the leading internet Christian missionary, has blasted Glenn Beck for claiming he's a Christian. He wants you to know that Mormonism is a cult, which says that Elohim, their God, had sex with Mary, who gave birth to Jesus, who is a brother to Lucifer. He didn't mention that Jesus is supposed to return to St. Louis. But he's just tired of Beck and those of his faioth who support him.

In Australia, the Agape Ministries is being sued by two of its parishioners for about $1.4 million because their end time predictions didn't come true. I think this is reasonable. I think American fundamentalists should keep this in mind if they don't experience Rapture in 2012.

The Log Cabin Republicans, with their new board member Grover Norquist,is suing the Obama Administration to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell. So I guess they have no Log Cabin types in Montana where the Republican party adopted the platform to make homosexual acts illegal.

The Gay made headway in the Federal Court ruling making parts of the DOMA act unconstitutional. Judge Truro said that it violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution.

Either tonight or next week expect Judge Vaughn Walker to rule on the Prop 8 case. I expect after that ruling heads will explode and the theopoliticians will rant and rave.

President Obama made Harry Reid seem interesting in his campaign stop in Las Vegas. He did go after Susan Angle and her bizarre beliefs about social security, Medicare and education. But he did't mention Angle on the issue of abortion. Asked by a radio host about abortion in the case of a father raping a daughter, she replied that young women often can "take a lemon situation and make lemonade." To which, one leftwing blogger posted Richard Nixon saying "Sometimes abortion is necessary, especially when the situation is black and white". If reid as interesting is strange, Richard Nixon being upheld as a "progressive President" is even stranger.

The West Virginia Attorney-General has ruled that there can be a special election for Senator to replace Harry Byrd. In the meantime, the Governor will appoint a substitute.

I have to stop watching Rachel Maddow on Afghanistan. I find she is having the reverse effect one me. I keep thinking aganst my better judgment that the Obama strategy is doable.

The great Bibi insists that he wants to start direct negotiations with the Palestinians now and that he is capable of making serious concessions. While he was here in town, making nice with President Obama, in Israel the settler organizations have vowed to topple his government if he made any concessions to the Palestinians on the settlement issue. Israeli extreme rightists have been trying to get a law blocking any such initiatives by the executive.

Hillary Clinton seemed to morph her inner John McCain while in Georgia. I expected her to say we are all "South Ossetians" now. If McCain were President, we would be at war with Russia over the disputed areas of Georgia.

It looks like the Grifter in Chief, the Lady Ga-Ga of Alaska, managed to muscle her son-in-law Levi into zipping his lips in return for custody rights to Bristol's child. Levi apologized to the Palins in People Magazine. His sister has gone on the offensive expressing her disappointment in her brother. I guess no Tell-All book from Levi as promised.

Newt Gingrich said part of American exceptionalism is that we are the arsenal of democracy. What was called the "Arsenal of Nazi Germany"? This answer will be explained in a further post. The answer to this trivia question is Detroit, Michigan.

Night Thoughts from the Last Manatee

The totalitarian right discovered the constitution when Barack Obama was elected. That's not a bad thing. However, I have been barraged by e-mails about one constitutional violation after another by our President. And we have seen what a curious constitution is being invoked. A new Arizona law will ban children of illegal immigrants born in this country from being citizens. This happens to violate Amendment 14. The Hard Right claims they are constitutionalists and want to revoke Article 17 of the constitution, which quaintly allows citizens to elect their Senators. The teabaggers embrace the very exotic tenther movement, which elevates states' rights to a paramount place in our Constitution. Glenn Beck daily proclaims that the Left--whoever that is--has hoodwinked all of us into believing that the Founders really did believe in the separation of Church and State. The Republican nominee for the Senate in Nevada claims we should no longer negotiate treaties, although that is explicit in the preamble of our Constitution. And then we have the rather bizarre group of Supreme Court Justices who believe in something called originalism, which enabled them to rule that both domestic and foreign companies have rights as individuals and can donate unlimited funds to political campaigns.



I have a basic viewpoint on all this. I believe these people seriously have given up on the idea of America. I think their efforts to deconstruct the Constitution indicate they have grown cynical about the whole idea of self-government itself. That is why I said that this theme, which appears daily in right-wing talk radio, is ominous. Newt Gingrich in his latest book attacking President Obama writes that we are at an existential moment, the equivalent of the time of our civil war when we questioned who we are as Americans. I believe this is rubbish but I do believe conservatives sincerely have been thrown for a loop and don't know why they participate in our democracy. It is clear that today's Republicans refuse to participate or even compromise unless they have total power.



The natural response to the right's recent embrace of the Constitution is to ask where they were when the Fourth Amendment disappeared for three years during George W.Bush and Dick Cheney and his minions advocated a unitary theory of the executive, which conservative constitutional scholar Bruce Fein argued was a form of despotism. And then we could discuss the issues of torture and American traditions.



Since this revisionism about our history and our constitution is gaining momentum and entering the mainstream of political debate, it's best to be prepared and armed. For this I recommend Seth Lipsky's The Citizen's Constitution: An Annotated Guide (Basic Books, 2009). This book provides the historical background to the various articles and amendments of the Constitution and contemporary discussions about recent cases and arguments. For the upcoming Supreme Court case on health care reform, we'll need to become specialists in the commerce clause.



A blogger at the Daily Kos posted an entry "Gingrich, Obama and American Exceptionalism". It is well-worth a read. The blogger in my mind rightfully criticizes Gingrich's definition of American Exceptionalism as exclusively a property of the Hard Right, while Newt neglects to furnish the more apt definition that we are a people who all originated somewhere else and are united in a commitment to democracy, pluralism and tolerance with a commitment to the common good. In this short essay he outlines Barack Obama's notions of American Exceptionalism based on these concepts. The one problem I have is that he tries to secure his definition as the exclusive property of progressives, not just all of us. He made the mistake that Newt did.



John Keane is back. This British, former Labor thinker popularized the notion of the civil society as it formed the basis of the democratic revolutions in Central Europe. I credit him with influencing American policymakers to incorporate the civil society in all our programs to promote democracy overseas. Intimately involved in both Poland and Czechoslovakia, Keane later wrote the definitive biography of Vaclav Havel. By that time, he had soared on Havel because he practiced normal democratic politics instead of an overarching brand of the civil society. He has a lengthy tome The Life and Death of Democracy, which makes an urgent defense and plea for democracy as it looks a bit tattered these days.



Reinhold Niebuhr is back in terms of a realism in foreign policy. But, not so much to the chagrin of William Pfaff of the International Herald Tribune. Pfaff laments the triumphalism of American foreign policy in general and warns that our global interventionism will ultimately fail. Despite Obama's embrace of multilateralism, Pfaff believes President Obama has embraced some of the worst tendencies of the past and his policies will fail. His latest book on this subject is The Irony of Manifest Destiny: the Tragedy of America's Foreign Policy (Walker, 2010). He traces the idea of Manifest Destiny and America's interpretation of its exceptionalism through our history and seems to elide with Gary Wills' National Security State, a critique of American policy after Truman.



I can't think of worst news than Afghanistan having over $1 trillion in mineral deposits such as Lithium. Think of Karzai as the Ibn Saud of Lithium, the master of cellphones. I have heard the pundits here already discuss the wonderful opportunity this provides the country. But, having lived through this with many new oil states and the mineral riches of the Congo, I can say, yes I know you can create laws that willl create transparency in awarding the mining contracts and ,yes. you can create a transparent way the nation could use the revenues for development. But it will never happen. The Mines and Minerals Ministry in Afghanistan is considered even more corrupt than the rest of the country and a few families will monopolize the industry. Whole populations will be displaced; and local warfare will be the rule like in mineral-rich Congo. And, unfortunately, the fact of minerals will enable those who want us to stay indefinitely in Washington to have greater infuence in the debate. And, the bottom line is that the Chinese will get the minerals anyway like they have the copper in Afghanistan and the oil in Iraq.




Daniel Byman and Christine Fair in the July/August The Atlantic have an excellent article on the ineptitude of Islamic terrorisms and the Taliban entitled "The Case for Calling Them Nitwits". Reviewing recent failed bomb plots, the authors also deal with the whole issue that these guys are not so religious. The laptops seized by U.S. authorities from the would-be jihadists are filled with porn. For a while, Pentagon analysts believed they encrypted messages in the porn but after extensive exams decided that these guys were just porn addicts. Apparently, we have tertabytes of this stuff from the laptops. Our Predator drones have captured exciting images of two Taliban engaged in intimate relations with a donkey and a fighter gratifying himself with a cow. The authors believe we must root out Al Qaeda's havens in Pakistan and then fighting terrorism becomes easy once we realize the rest of them are inept. Apparently, Al Qaeda is so cunning either. The CIA did an elaborate internet sting on Al Qaeda using Facebook and the organization actually posted their operational manuals and plans and personnel. It's a good thing Bin Laden just released another message to the United States. I was getting woried for a moment. His team isn't looking good.

The American Dream Is A Restless Night

Tip to anonymous blogger for the quote.

News from the alternative universe:

Newt Gingrich tells Politico Barack Obama only has a 20% chance of being re-elected. The House Republicans will pick up 40 seats and perhaps between 65 to 70, enough to take the House and make John Boehner Speaker. If the Republicans beat Barbara Boxer in California they will take the Senate. The former Speaker said that Obama does not understand change and argues that he--the Newt--will run for President if he can present a vision of complete change. He argues that the United States needs a complete wave of change from the school boards, city councils, county government and state legislatures. America needs to elect people who can get things done.

Dr. Glenn Beck will start exposing how Barack Obama is trying to take over "your church" through his faith-based initiatives. Beck will argue that the White House is compelling churches to embrace climate change and to make their physical churches energy efficient in line with progressive socialism.

Charlie Cook is wrong. Cao is not the only vulnerable Republican. Today, Indiana's Mark Souder announced he was resigning because of an affair with his female staffer.

Rolling Stone has an excellent article on Karl Rove's latest scheme of creating a parallel Republican Party of Fatcats because the wealthy donors don't trust Michael Steele but love Karl.

Steve Poizner, the right-winger challenging Meg Whitman, has another great ad attacking Meg. The ad titled "Adults Only" highlights Meg's creation of a separate Ebay for porn, which did become the internet's biggest porn site. Linking it to his previous Goldman Sachs ad, he concludes "Meg Whitman; Bad Judgment. Wrong Values." Dick Cheney came out of his crypt to endorse Meg.

Tom Campbell is cutting back his ad buys in his race against Carly Fiorina, while she's increasing her television spots. Observers can't figure out whether Campbell is overconfident or simply broke or both.

Rick "Secessionist" Perry in Texas is mired in a scandal of his own. Apparently, with his state budget with a huge whole in it, he's renting out a temporary governor mansion at over $300K a year and hosting political parties for his re-election using campiagn donations. With the Texas economic mess--remember he doesn't accept stimulus funds--this is getting traction.

The Arizona Governor continues her quest for excellence, firing teachers with pronounced accents. A little background, Arizona recruited teachers from South America for bilingual education in public schools. Now that the governor banned bilingual education, these teachers became vulnerable and now are expendable.

The Texas textbook scandal continues. The Guardian (U.K.) interviewed schoolboard member Cynthia Dunbar, an evangelical Christian lawyer, who is a major force behind the push to re-write history. Dunbar is a proponent of home and Christian private schooling and likens sending children to public schools like "throwing them in to the enemy's flames". Because of the sheer numbers of Texas textbook purchases, the changes will eventually reach most of the states in the union.

In her interview, she said, " In Texas we have certain statutory obligations to promote partiotism and to promote the free enterprise system. There seems to have been a move away from a patriotic ideology. There seems to be a denial that this was a nation founded under God. We had to go back and make some corrections."

On "In God We Trust", Lincoln's Secretary of Treasury inserted it as a sop to clergymen during the Civil War. "One Nation Under God" was inserted in the Pledge of Allegiance in the 1950s to show we were different from godless Communism. The Pledge of Allegiance came about originally as an instrument to assimilate immigrants and lack any reference to God. The National Prayer day was begrudgingly accepted by Eisenhower as a way to buy off the evangelicals in the 1950s.

So what are some of the changes Ms. Dunbar suggests:
The slave trade wasn't " some evil buying and selling of human beings, it was simply Atlantic triangular trade".
The Civil Rights Movement created "unrealistic expectations of equal outcomes" for minorities in America. And Martin Luther King, Jr. Pretty much a Black Panther.
Thomas Jefferson? Who has been eliminated from the American history book. "He was an insignificant ,God-hating heathen who made sure that the church and state remained separate."
The right to bear arms is essential to democracy and kids really need to learn this in school.
Joe McCarthy was right to go after Godless commies in Hollywood and Washington. He will be vindicated.
We have military technology to thank for America's successes in science.
Moses was a greater influence on the US Constitution than Thomas Jefferson.
America can only flourish economically through 'minimal government intrusion and taxation."

Advising Dunbar is Glenn Beck's and Newt Gingrich's friend David Barton, the founder of the revisionist group WallBuilders, whose stated goal is "to exert a direct and positive influence in government, education, and the family by (1) educating the nation concerning the Godly foundation of our country; (2) providing information to federal, state, and local officials as they develop public policies which reflect Biblical values; and (3) encouraging Christians to be involved in the civic arena."

Paul Krugman in a May 16 op-ed in the New York Times commented on how the defeat of Bob Bennett in Utah and the news of the Maine Republican Party underscored the extremism in the Republican party and that the media is finally paying attention. Krugman cited a paper by economists Markus Bruckner and Hans Peter Gruner on how economic crisis brings out right-wing extremism and nationalist political parties in both Europe and America. Krugman warns that we should not expect the Republican Party to escape the clutches of extremism anytime soon.

I have neglected returning to Mark Lilla's excellent piece in the New York Review of Books on the tea party phenomenon. Michael Kinsley has another one in this week's Atlantic. Just like Al Pacino in Godfather III, he just keeps getting pulled back--Bob Altemeyer has returned to his favorite subject,The Authoritarians, with very detailed analysis of both the history and psychology of the Tea Party Movement. Google it. It is well-worth reading.

I was wrong. I wanted to refrain talking about the Baked Alaskan because she is basically harmful to my mental health. When I saw she was negotiating a deal for a Reality show of her family, I thought this was a sign she was not going to run in 2012. Many moons ago I posted why I believe she is the incarnation of where the Republican Party is now. I also have written how while theocratic politics is in direct intellectual contradiction to libertarianism, it is being fused today in the tea party movement. Just look at James Dobson's embrace of Rand Paul in Kentucky. And then I have taken note of Sister Sarah's nomadic moves across our national landscape. Her recent appearance in Illinois, invoking Ronald Reagan,her fervent embrace of Jan Brewer in Arizona and her ditzy presentation to the NRA tell me she really is running in 2012.

The website Mudflats, my favorite Alaska news site, has been paying microscopic attention to the half-governor's every move. Yesterday they interviewed the author of the upcoming book The Lies of Sarah Palin, who reports that the internal memos he has shows she is preparing a race against Mitt Romney and is totally obsessed with Barack Obama and the loss of the 2008 election. And, of course, she feels that if she were allowed to continue to attack Obama as a terrorist-loving socialist McCain would have won. Her incessant twittering comments on everything the Obama Administration does or does not do (more often the case) indicates a compulsive nature, which will inform us that God told her to run.

The announcement of her second book is simply to say she like Obama has written two books. I thought it was the conservative syndrome of churning out books so that one can boost of the title "New York Times Best Seller"--a weird validation for people who hate liberals. But it's simply to show President Smarty-Pants that 'real Americans" can write books too.

To take a reasoned approach to this does not capture the fundamentally non-rational worldview of Sister Palin and her fundamentalist followers. All the usual political mechanics of campaign organization, staff, polling and fund-raising are tertiary to people who are divinely inspired. Right now she is the leader of the Tea Party Movement and she has the support of the Washington neocons, who advise her. Having a chief aide who is a scientologist and a minister who calls her Queen Esther are not encouragements to retire to a life making money. By the time she announces, she will have earned at least $25 million.

As I wrote before, the Republican primary schedule favors her over any other candidate. She would begin in evangelical country in Iowa and follow with a triumph in neo-confederate South Carolina. Romney might hold on to New Hampshire, but he will be behind until the middle of the race. I believe she really can win the nomination.

And I also believe she would choose a vice-president who would share her obsession with Barack Obama and restoring America's place as God's chosen country. Here Mike Huckabee is too weak because he likes Michelle Obama. Others are lackluster like Pawlenty, who has embraced creationism and just submitted a budget that would destroy Minnesota's rather progressive policies. She needs a Southerner since this is the regional heart of the Republican Party.

Enter the man whose next book is how to stop Obama's "secular-socialist machine"--Newt Gingrich. Newt can not raise the money to be a plausible presidential candidate and he is deeply disliked by older conservatives for everything from his treatment of women to his chaotic leadership style in the House. But he shares Palin's ambition, her cunning and her capacity of deceipt. Gingrich is presently touring the country with our Christian revisionist Dave Barton so he and Sister Sarah are perfect together. Newt would privately think he could be Palin's ideological svengali and his ambitions have never ebbed. I also believe that the choice of vice-presidential nominee would have nothing to do with reality-based politics, but totally on theological and ideological values.

I agree with Paul Krugman, there is no reason to believe that the Republican Party can escape the clutches of extremism-- certainly not by 2011 when people have to declare this candidacies for the presidential nomination.

Be forewarned, I predicted on radio the Palin choice by John McCain before little Billy Kristol or anyone in D.C. knew about her. So, defying all rational calculation, real-world politics and sense of commonsense, I predict it will be a Sarah Palin-Newt Gingrich ticket in 2012.

I am also absolutely certain that if, God forbid, she won that America would instantly cease to be a major power or force in the world. It would simply be folly for any other country to relate their policies to ours, especially in economic affairs.

And if I'm wrong, do I get to be an op-ed columnist at the Washington Post like torture man Marc Thiessen?