Louie!!!Gohmert Warns The Pentagon Is Going To Annex Taxas to the United States

++Even Rick Perry, who allowed a 2001 military exercise ,says Texans should be worried about being annexed to the United States.

++Remember the actual history not the Alamo, not the myth. The Mexican military reports that each so-called "defender" left on their own and we're killed one by one trying to escape.

++The Pentagon actually had to address this issue at a press conference to pacify Texans who got their governor to order the National ((Read--National) Guard to spy on the American military to ensure there is no military takeover of Texas.

++Dear reader, while they don't think so, Texas is one of fifty states of the United States. It has already been taken over by the United States Government. But I'll give it back.

++But Louie protested these exercises to President Obama--who just happens to be black and the other guy who ordered the 2001 exercises was white.

Wag The Wingnut

++ Ed Kilgore at Washington Monthly re-discovers three-time presidential candidate and President Obama's 2004 opponent, Alan Keyes,lurking at World Nut Daily.

++It seems Alan wants to run again but he fears that President Obama will trigger a nuclear war and declare martial law so he can remain in office. 

++Kilgore "Wag The Wingnut" explores Alan's pseudo candidacy.

++Kilgore must divide the GOP candidates with Josh Marshall. Both are must reads as GOP candidates launch their bids for the nomination.

++Josh Marshall has been on the Rand Paul beat the last two days sharing all the conspiracies Paul has supported over the years and the strange cast of characters who is affiliated with.

++Of course, today was the video of Rand Paul cutting an interview with the Guardian short.

++Josh says that Bobby Jindal claims that the "Radical Left and corporate America" are teaming up to defeat discriminating against gay bills.

++Ted Cruz says that the "Rainbow Jihadists" are after Christians. 

++The Washington Post says that Hillary Clinton's Sunday announcement was to undercut Marco Rubio's  announcement.

++Mark Halperin and others say this will put in contrast generations and should work to Rubio's benefit. Wanna bet? Rubio is nowhere.

++As Rick Perry told the NRA, 2016 will be the "show me" election where the resume matters.

++Ed Kilgore also points out that Rick Santorum ,ole "frothy mix" looks like he will run again and he's in Iowa campaigning among the evangelical Christians. 

Tehran Tom Is Circulating The Letter

++Rick Perry has signed on and Carly Fiorina intends to.
++Ole "Frothy Mix" Santorum is signing on as an act against the "Obama-Clinton-Kerry" foreign policy.

++Bobby Jindal says that Tehran Tom earns our respect, not our ridicule. He also says that any deal with Iran will change with the next President.

++Mike Malloy went off on the right pushing their neo-fascist agenda as far as it can go and there will be a reaction. 

++I can't wait for the GOP's platform on the Middle East. They have already confused themselves.

++By the way where is the authorization of military force.

GOP Presidential Politics

++The McClatchy-Marist poll released today shows the following as GOP presidential contenders:
Romney--19%
Bush    -- 14%
Christie--  9%
Huckabee-9%
Carson--  8%

++If Romney doesn't run:
Bush --16%
Huckabee--12%
Christie --10
Carson -- 8

++Jeb Bush looks ready to launch as he is releasing over 230,000 e-mails from his time as Governor of Florida. 
++Frothy Mix, Rick Santorum is running.
++Rick Perry wants to give a final farewell speech before he runs again.

The Dog Days of Summer

++A new report finds that the Keystone XL pipeline emits 4x the carbon emissions than the State Department claims. The GOP is trying to become the "yes" party for 2014. So naturally,they have proclaimed that one of the first things they will do if they take control of the Senate is to pass the Keystone XL Pipeline. 

++Rachel Maddow raised an indelicate question about our Iraq activities. The 60 day period for Congress to vote on authorizing these actions has expired. So our airstrikes and escalation of American forces to 1,000 has no authorization.

++Yes, Hillary Clinton is a hawk but her dispute with President Obama of arming the Syrian "moderates" is based on a fantasy as Fareed Sakaria writes in today's Washington Post.

++The Imperial Post laments that President Obama doesn't have a clear strategy for crushing ISIS. Eli Lake claims that one of the problems is that the CIA and NSA have no clear understanding of how large ISIS really is and who really is in the leadership. Best bit on ISIS is that it is really led by a Jewish character actor. Read a thought piece on antiwar.com that speculated that President Obama didn't act sooner because he allowed ISIS to basically destabilize the region so that he could engineer a regime change in Iraq because Maliki had gotten too close to Iran.

++The last of the "W" characters in Iraq, Maliki finally did resign because Ayatollah Sistani sent a letter with his notarized signature to parliament that he had to go. General Sulieman of the Qods forces fighting both in Iraq and Syria for Iran called Maliki a "moron". 

++Bibi and Barack are on the outs because the White House claims that President Obama did not authorize the transfer of weapons during the Gaza fighting and that he refuses to send Israel Hellfire Missiles.

++Louie Gohmert said that "undocumented Democrats" were entering the country and spreading Ebola.

++Rick Perry in his new quest for the presidency claims he is sending the National Guard to the Mexican border for national security not politics. The Border Patrol claim that the Guard makes things worse.

++The President is expected to take a break from his Martha Vineyard's vacation to appear in Washington to announce far-ranging moves on immigration.

Happy Juneteenth

++ Scott Walker is in the middle of a vast criminal network that involves leading right-wing donors and Karl Rove. 

++Chris Christie is moments away from being handed his hat by prosecutors in New Jersey.

++Mitt "Willard" Romney at 29% is now the overwhelming favorite for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016.

++Rick Perry has been invited to Gay Pride Day in San Francisco after saying he might move to California. 

++Kay Hagen has a five point lead in the polls in the North Carolina Senate race.

++Kevin McCarthy is the new GOP Majority Leader in the House. Steven Scalise, the head of the ultra conservative Republican Study Group and a favorite of the oil industry, was made Whip.

++The Presbyterians voted to move closer to accepting same-sex marriage.

++Rude Pundit has been on a tear the last few days on Cheney and McCain and Graham. Read him.

++The return of the Iraq war hawks has inspired great work by Jason Linkins, Rachel Maddow,Dan Waldman,E.J. Dionne, Charles Pierce , Rude Pundit,Ed Shultz and Pap, America's lawyer.

++Sandy Koufax's protege Clayton Kershaw pitched a 14-strikeout no-hitter that missed a perfect game by one fielding error. Baseball experts--aren't we all--are trying to rate whether the Dodger Pitcher threw the best no-hitter in history. They check out pitch count, walks (0), strikeouts. They think he did it.

++I watched President Obama's speech on Iraq today with a heavy heart. I'll comment on American moves later.

The Afternoon Coffee Break

++AIPAC has 76 Senators signed to back whatever they want on Iran.

++Duncan Hunter,Jr. says that the United States must be prepared to drop nuclear weapons on Iran as part of its military option.

++The California GOP is defending their bogus healthcare website as getting the word out on how terrible Obamacare is.

++Obamacare in the last two days has enrolled more than twice the number it did in November. 

++Governor Rick Perry is negotiating with the federal government expansion of Medicaid in Texas. Texas has the most uninsured of any state.

++Texas is forcing navigators for healthcare to undergo background checks as a way to slow down the implementation of the law.

++Consumer Reports pronounces the website "excellent" and urges Americans to go shopping for healthcare. 

++John Boehner blames President Obama and the Senate for the worst Congress in history. Boehner's crew only tried to repeal Obamacare 48 times, a very productive use of time.

++President Obama came out today rock and rolling on economic opportunities and zinged the Republicans on unemployment benefits, the SNAP program and any ideas about jobs. The Twitter feed for the whole speech had zinger after zinger.

++In their outreach to minorities,the RNC asked,"What did President Obama ever do for African-Americans?"

++Eyes were on Boehner hiring John McCain's staff aide on immigration. Harry Reid crowed that Boehner will cave on immigration reform, which is backed by labor,the evangelical churches,the Chamber of Commerce and all minority groups.

++Charles Pierce was right yesterday when he wrote in the Esquire political blog that the campaign against Obamacare would be eternal. Today, the GOP is back to criticizing Obamacare for Medicare cuts. They used this in the 2012 election but failed to convince anyone. The RNC is offended by the way Obamacare appeals to the young through its ads. And of course, Obama just took over 1/16th of the national economy.

++Peggy Noonan says the Obama White House is disorganized. This comes on the whole competence complaint against Obama.

++Former White House spokesman Gibbs argues someone has to be fired for the lousy healthcare rollout.

++Fans of Obama's electoral campaigns might notice the same techniques being applied in Obamacare. Political activists, labor unions, nurses and navigators are targeting inner cities for the quickest way to roll up the numbers for health insurance.

++The Democrats seem to be off the floor and back on their feet by challenging GOP Governors on the issue of Medicaid expansion.

++The Washington Post today teems with stories about how toxic Republican politics has become and the serial lies told about Obamacare.

They're Going to Take Me Away, Ho, Ho to the Funnyfarm

**29% of voters in Louisiana believe President Obama is responsible for the slow response to Katrina. 28% believe it was George W. Bush's fault.

**Terrible Terry McAuliffe has a six point lead over truly horrible Cooch in Virginia Governor's race.

**Rick Perry has asked the federal government for $100 million of Obamacare money to provide for the disabled and elderly. 

**It will Ted Cruz eight months to process his renunciation of his Canadian citizenship. No one knows whether he has to renounce a Cuban citizenship as well.

**Pvt. Manning was sentenced to 35 years today. His lawyer has asked for twenty five and the prosecutors asked for 75. Manning will be eligible for parole in eight years. I'm surprised that his defense never invoked his exposure of war crimes as a defense.

**Obama's ratings fell this month because of the NSA issue among the younger voters. August has been his worth month every year. But the Republicans are below the floor and congress sports a 10% approval rating. Observers say they may experience a dead cat bounce in the mid-terms but are falling apart as a party.

**Governor Le Page of Maine claims he did not say Obama hated white people despite Republican fundraisers saying he did. Le Page,Florida's Scott,Ohio's Kasich now face serious re-election difficulties next time around.

**Bill Kristol insists Sarah Palin could get her mojo back if she ran for Senate in Alaska. Teabagger Millers claims this time he will run against the Surveillance state. Begich looks solid in his re-election run.

**Bobby Jindal has the worst ratings of any GOP governor. Now it looks like Mary Landrieu is off to a good re-election campaign. She is ahead of her GOP counterpart by 10 points.

**Over 50% of young people in GOP families have signed on to health insurance under their family's policies as approved by Obamacare. Only 26% of Democratis kids have. So much for the tea bagger campaign for young people not to have health insurance. 

**Ted Cruz thinks shutting down the government to defund Obamacare may not be a good idea after all. Instead, he wants to do it with the debt ceiling.

**Bryan Ferry of the American Family group urges civil disobedience over congressional types not holding Townhall meetings.

**Glenn Greenwald is still pounding out the words of the Guardian case and his husband being detained at Heathrow.

**The FBI claims that have busted up Anonymous but concentrating on a splinter group within the hackers movement.

**Howard Dean told audiences in Iowa he favors Hillary Clinton at this point of time.

**The Right claims that President Obama doesn't have any white dogs and that his new one is really named Sunni.

**As we should have expected, women are crossing state borders for abortions as restrictions have been implemented in Red States.

**The GOP in North Carolina may be rigging the vote but there is good news from Winston-Salem. The GOP candidate had to pull out for calling city workers the "N" word. So the winner of the Democratic primary becomes mayor.

**The GOP co-chairman for the Iowa district of Steven King,the Cantaloupe Man, has resigned from the Republican party because it was gone too far right for his taste. Watch this space for more defections ,especially after the House comes back in session.

**Here are some things to think about--Mohammed Morsi is in prison,Mubarack is free. The Obama administration asked a federal court in San Francisco to give amnesty to Bush, Cheney,Rumsfeld and Condi Rice for war crimes in Iraq, while jailing PVT Manning for exposing those crimes.

Deeper into the Summer Doldrums

++Spent four glorious days in upstate New York where thanks to Nelson Rockefeller,Hugh Carey,Mario Cuomo, and Andrew there exists a modern infrastructure. Who knew there was an Irish Catskills? The Mike Quinn Irish Cultural Center? Remember Mike Quill, the old corrupt union leader. All I could think about was when can I move to the North again.

++So how is the Republican rebranding going? Rand Paul is up to his eyeballs in a controversy that his spokesman and co-author of his book is The Southern Avenger, a man who toasts John Wilkes Booth on his birthday, thinks Lincoln is a monster, and that writes that the South should have won the war. Mike Huckabee traipsed down to Texas to speak for the anti-abortion bill, calling abortion slavery. Rick "Frothy Mix" Santorum followed the day after but he admitted he was confused. Louie Gohmart moved to strike all the Democrats' complaints about the House Farm Bill lacking foodstamps from the record. Rick Lowry and Bill Kristol wrote in the National Review that the House must kill the immigration bill. Mitch McConnell was raising funds off his remark that if Harry Reid eliminated the filibuster he would have "He Killed the Senate on his tombstone". Marco Rubio will not say the term "Obamacare". The House will repeal Obamacare again next week--38 or 39th time if you are counting. The North Carolina legislature voted an anti-abortion law as part of its motorcycle safety law. The net effect it would close 15 out of 16 abortion clinics in the state. Ted Nugent wants to run for President in 2016. Rick Perry already is with his visit to Israel next month. The Alaskan chairman of the state GOP says he has never met Sarah Palin or heard anything from her about her desire to run for Senate. Reince Preibus says he is totally down on the Cooch campaign for government, despite stories that the governor and the Cooch are corrupt as hell.There is still no House budget after 100 days.

++Now if you are banking on winning with a greater percentage of the white vote, why would you go out of your way to insult 51% of the white vote--the women? And if you are banking on winning back lower-middle class white voters, why are you cutting off all food stamps for the first time in 50 years when the bulk of those using them are no longer minorities?And why would you schedule a vote in the House to privatize Medicare, especially when your core constituency is the elderly?

++Pundits point to demographics as the problem with the GOP. But why would you go out of your way to starve your base and kill them off? A new report released by the Department of Health shows "death by zip code". If you are a male living in Marin County, California, you leave to 85, 81 in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia and 67 in Franklin County , West Virginia. If you live in a blue state, you will live at least ten years longer than the male in a Red State. And if your base of support is in the Red States, your base dies off 10-15 years earlier and minorities overwhelm them earlier.  Red States have lower levels of education, lower levels of health, lower levels of income and higher percentage of children out of wedlock.  This goes for whites as well as minorities. So why then do you campaign against healthcare, women's reproductive rights,and economic progress? 

++While the Simpson-Bowles Catfood Commission recommended curtailing Social Security and Medicare and gutting the social welfare net because of the deficit, the United States just posted its largest budget surplus in its history. Will someone apologize to Paul Krugman who saw this all along?

++Quinnipiac has a poll that dispels the myth that President Obama is just not a good politician and can't get anything done. 51% believe gridlock is caused by GOP obstructionism, and only 35% believe it is because Obama can't persuade Congress to come together. 

++On Immigration, no matter how you cut it, the majority of Americans and a large plurality of Republicans believe there should be a road to citizenship or at least immigrants should have the right to stay here. Only 28% of the overall sample and Republicans believe immigrants should leave the country.  Watch this space because immigration is eventually going to get done--probably late in the year.

++ENDA, the bill to end discrimination against gays in the workplace, passed out of committee 15 to 7, with two Republicans. It is close to a majority in the Senate.

++The rash of anti-Obamacare ads are not really aimed at the healthcare bill per se but the expansion of Medicaid in Republican states. The scare tactics in the ad with the young mother are just that--none of the claims are true but the deeper goal is aimed at depriving the very poor of healthcare. 

++Democrats are giddy over the Looney-Tune quality of the Republican positions now. But dreams of taking the House are far-fetched because the gerrymandered districts show Republicans in districts with only about 15% total minorities. So there exists no incentive for the House Republicans to do anything--at all about anything.

++Louie Gohmart has introduced at the behest of Focus on Your Family, Not Mine, a bill sponsoring proselytizing by evangelical Christians in the military. He claims Obama is biased against Christians.

++The Republican Attorney-General of Pennsylvania will not defend the state's anti-gay marriage law. 

++The fight over filibuster reform is getting dire because the GOP does not want to fill spaces on legally constituted bodies like the National Labor Relations Board. The net effect when 3 conservative judges ruled Obama's recess appointments unconstitutional is that no labor law in the country can be enforced. This is also true for the EPA,and the Consumer Protection Agency, two other bodies the GOP hate. So the issue becomes can one political party in the minority actually gut the government because they don't like the legally created bodies? In the case of the 2nd Circuit Court, Senator Grassley accuses Obama of wanting to "stack"the court when all he is doing is filling the vacancies. Unless Mitch McConnell gives on this issue, watch for a showdown soon. It is basic politics that the winning Presidential candidate gets to nominate the persons of his or her choice as long as they are qualified.

++In mulling over current GOP strategy, I don't see how the GOP deals with Hillary Clinton, except to dredge up old Clinton scandals that no one remembers and in fact if they do, consider her a victim. She is a woman, who was the First Lady of a Slave State--Arkansas. So how does that work if you are depending on the white South?

Back to the Summer Doldrums

++How bitter will the next few years be? Maybe it is just the humidity but already the nuts are beginning to surface again.

++The House is developing a menu to present President Obama in order for them to raise the debt limit. President Obama said this time he was not negotiating it. Observers expect it to reach climax by December recess. One of the options is to "privatize social security", which would only increase the debt but never mind. 

++The House says they will have a conference July 10th on their immigration bill. Whether it includes a "path to citizenship" is anyone's guess.

++If you believe CNN, Republicans are demanding something be done about student loans. Last I looked it was Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, who was spearheading the charge to cut interest rates on them.

++Sam Adams Lager had a 4th of July ad that quotes the Declaration of Independence but omitted the word "God".  A Fox news commentator said that was "letting the terrorists win."

++The Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity are running ads in Georgia warning the state about the dangers of solar energy and that their rates will skyrocket if state power plants use solar.

++The same Americans for Prosperity have cut ads aimed a younger women warning them about Obamacare.

++Republicans are attacking Obamacare again because the employer mandate has been delayed a year. Now they are arguing this is illegal while others are proclaiming this is Doom and Gloom for the health insurance industry like they did when it was passed the first time.

++Rick Perry is using his anti-abortion stunt in Texas as a launchpad for his 2016 run for the Presidency.

++Scott Walker, who also has higher aspirations, quietly signed his ultrasound anti-abortion bill into law. The ACLU and Planned Parenthood are suing.

++In Michigan, New Jersey and Alabama, same sex couples are suing for the right to marry.

++Mississippi is attempting again to pass a strict anti-abortion law after the success of Ohio, Wisconsin and Texas.

++House Republicans sort of admit that there is no there in the IRS "scandal case". What's worse there smoking gun was the director of the IRS visited the Whit House over 150 times to see President Obama. Forbes rained on their parade in an article that no he never went there.

++House Republicans think they have found the person who can expose the Benghazi scandal. The only problem is that the man is a retired Marine and wants nothing to do with them.

++The Russians think it would be best for Edward Snowden to go to Venezuela for asylum. No one seems to be making the point that Booz-Hamilton, his employer is owned by the Caryle Group, which is now owned by foreigners.

++The Obama scandals all seem to have Republicans as major players. The Scandal to me is the NSA and the Fisa Court. So the head of the NSA is a Republican and the head of the FISA Court is none other than John Roberts. As the New York Times piece indicated this morning, Roberts appoints all 11 judges and they have vastly expanded national security law,which is of course totally secret. The NSA has rejected all FOIA requests by American citizens and the DOJ has just urged the FISA court to keep their decisions secret, contrary to some in the Senate.

++A Mexican sheriff was killed over the weekend with a gun from the Fast and Furious program. This should give Darryl Issa something to play with now that his scandals keep shrinking.

++Liz Cheney wants to be Senator from Wyoming. The only problem is that Republican Mike Enzi doesn't want to retire. Allan Simpson says this will get ugly.

++Only a year ago Mohammed Morsi won the first election in Egypt's modern history. A year later the largest demonstrations in modern history led to his removal by the military. The Saudis applauded Morsi's removal as a sign that authoritarianism would return to the Middle East. The Wall Street Journal urged that Egypt should have a leader like Pinochet. Great. Now The Moslem Brotherhood is waging counter-protests. El Baradei was going to be the Prime Minister, now he's not and he cancelled his appearance on the Sunday talk shows. It looks like the military can't run things any better than Morsi.

++John Kerry was on a yacht during the Egyptian crisis or not. A video shows he was, giving the right new fuel for a Benghazi-type scandal.

++Syria's Assad applauded Morsi's overthrow. The Free Syria Army are waging a war against the Islamists as if that struggle was over and now they are gearing up to take power.

++While Republicans are figuring out ways to suppress the vote in 2014, Hispanics are registering at high rates in reaction to Republican opposition to immigration reform.

++A Fayetteville ,North Carolina man had a July 4th float in a parade celebrating White History Month. I didn't know whether the negative reaction was because of his racism or that his float had a confederate flag. 

++Ted Nugent wants to run for President in 2016. I think he would be older than Hillary Clinton.

++Environmentalists warn that the new border security provisions in the immigration law will jeopardize several animal species because they migrate back and forth between the United States and Mexico.

++Oh, by the way, Mariano Rivera made the all-star team in this, his last season.

++The right is circulating a video about a new Civil War where Texas would be the first to secede. The theme is that the confederacy is born again. Strange that your ideal is the confederacy. In Iain Bank's last novel "The Quarry", one of his characters makes the sage comment that libertarianism is the new Marxism for political ideology. I think we are seeing that fused in the United States where after the minorities are suppressed,the whites will have a libertarian paradise. 

++With Mohammed Morsi gone, does that make North Carolina's law against Sharia moot?

++What would be our unemployment rate if we had the 1 million government employees back?

Female Trouble--To John Waters

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Day After

++Before Andrew Sullivan got smashed yesterday at Stonewall,he penned a moving, patriotic piece about what the day meant to him. People, even in the gay community, always said he was crazy to advocate same sex marriage as he has done over the years way before anyone thought this was a mainstream idea and they also said America was too bigoted to elect a black President. His piece is entitled "I Believe" because he saw. Congratulations for a struggle well-waged,Andrew.

++Court observers have since read Kennedy's majority opinion ruling DOMA unconstitutional and realized that it established the seeds of the argument when the Court will have to rule same-sex marriage the law of the land. The time frame is estimated at 4 to 5 years. Judge Scalia in his raving dissent thinks it will be sooner.

++Little mentioned is that the California Prop 8 case now rests with Judge Walker's original and wonderfully argued decision. Jesuit-trained Jerry Brown has ordered all county officials in California to ready the marriage licenses when the time is ready, which will be about 24 days from now.

++Rep. Steve Chabot asked the CBO to score the reversal of DOMA, expecting it would cost money. The CBO estimates it will save $450 million a year on the federal budget. Fox News Business claimed it will make social security costs soar.

++Rand Paul demonstrating his presidential qualifications said that the court decisions will lead to humans marrying non-humans. Senator Cornyn thinks that people will marry "turtles". 

++Mike Huckabee said that Jesus wept. Dan Savage said "I wept too".

++I thought NOM, the National Organization for Marriage had a delightfully bizarre statement. The slammed the Court's rogue decision and they said that millions of Americans will ignore it. Sure, because millions are heterosexual and it doesn't affect them.

++The Mormon Church, the Catholic Bishops, and the  Fundamentalists all worried about what the decision will mean to "religious freedom". "Will the Bible be banned as hate speech?" said one fundamentalist. Meanwhile, the National Cathedral rang its bells when the court decisions were announced and the Episcopal, Unitarian, Presbyterian also rang their bells here in the Beltway.

++Chuck Hagel immediately announced that gay couples in the military would have all the rights and benefits of others. President Obama said he expected federal benefits would be extended across state lines into those jurisdictions where same sex marriages are now allowed. Gay activists say that this is easiest for the IRS and federal income taxes but that with Social Security and survival benefits this will take a little juggling. 

++E.J. Dionne wants to remind us in today's Washington Post that whatever joys the Roberts Court provided with the gay decisions it is still ruthlessly trying to turn us back to the Gilded Age in terms of economic matters. His column is worth a read.

++Thom Hartman gave an excellent analysis that the United States is heading to a two society country analogous to the pre-civil war period. He points out the disparity between states with same sex marriage, health care innovations, labor rights and those who he calls the Reagan Red States who will move rapidly with the neutering of the Voters Rights Act to put up barriers to minority participation in government. 

++Republicans have been very tepid about correcting Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act. Nancy Pelosi wants to introduce a bill the John Lewis Voting Rights Bill to restore protections for minority voters. Eric Cantor voiced support for a Voting Rights Act, citing his trip to Selma with John Lewis. John Sensenbrenner, a Republican House member, said that prejudice and racism are still roadblocks to voting and wants the act  revamped. John Boehner says the House doesn't have time--(especially before 2014) and Lindsey Graham says that South Carolina has progressed so far that there is no need for a Voting Rights Act.

++Meanwhile in Texas, Rick Perry has called a "special session" of the Texas Senate on July 1 for the sole purpose of passing the draconian anti-abortion bill since the GOP was caught out trying to fudge the vote after Wendy Davis' filibuster.

++Chris Christie signaled he would run by denouncing the same sex decisions of the Supreme Court.  I am also betting on Rick Perry making another run on the Christianist Nationalist Platform.

++Meanwhile we may be heading to immigration reform in the Senate today as that body keeps passing the 60 vote margins on everything from the border surge to cloture votes. The game here in D.C. is whether the House would ever pass such a thing. John Boehner has been warned by the Republican Caucus that his job is endangered if he allows a bill to be brought to the floor without a majority of Republicans supporting it. Will he break the Hastert rule again, which would enable the House to pass the Senate bill? Stay tuned.

++Can the Republican Party overcome its epistemic closure? There are some voices in op-eds urging them to deal with immigration reform and not to engage in cultural warfare because the tide has changed on these issues. I am not hopeful because there is a counter-push to double down on efforts to increase their white support, which the gutting of the Voters Rights Act gives them ample motivation. But remember they aren't running against Barack Obama anymore--although they did run against FDR until 1960. 

Cain Victimized

Some campaign advice to anyone running for office: Don't have your lawyer open up a press conference and hover nearby waiting to cover for your missteps. And don't have your lawyer express confidence in you.

Here was a man running his mouth so fast he thought he could get away with it and escape the oncoming policemen. Rick Perry surfaced just at the right moment to suggest this was Herman Cain's "turn in the barrel", referring to the old practice of glory-hole blow jobs.

Herman Cain got off alot of doozies. He claimed that he didn't recognize Sharon Bialek's name at all and denied that anything ever took place. (" He didn't have sex with that woman."

What he did suggest was that the Democratic Machine and not Rick Perry brought forth the accuser, who was a "troubled woman". He claimed that his campaign was being attacked by a conspiracy but there was no evidence of any wrong doing on his part. (Except for some cancelled checks from the settlements.) No one can quite figure out why the Democratic machine would care about Herman Cain.

He was a righteous and aggreived victim of this plot. The media basically treated this all as theater and threw softball questions at him. Asked whether he might remember more details later, he answered," I do not know the science of how the mind works."

It seems his problems won't go away. Karen Kraushaar, one of the two women who settled the sexual harassment claims against Herman Cain,finally broke her silence by calling the New York Times. She was upset that her name had leaked into some press reports and said she decided to speak out now that her identity was publicaly known. She had previously allowed her lawyer to challenge Mr. Cain's denial that he had done anything wrong.

Her statement to the New York Times came less than an hour before Mr. Cain was supposed to have his news conference. While she talked about how one feels when sexually harassed, she did not know yet how much of the story she wanted to tell.

But she was warming to "the idea of a joint press conference where all of the women would be together with our attornetys and all of this evidence would be considered together." "These allegations can be considered together as a body of evidence."

Mitt Romney said he found all these allegations "deeply disturbing."

The Day After--Afternoon Coffee at the Last Manatee

We at the Last Manatee want to warn readers that Teabaggers in Florida want to exterminate the Manatee because it is not protected by the Constitution or are they mentioned in the Bible. You really can't make that up.

The "Cooch" here in Virginia just suffered a mortal blow when the Federal Appeals Court threw out his challenge to the Affordable Healthcare Act , vacating the decision by Judge Hudson that ruled against it. They also threw out Liberty University's suit also. I'm sure some Dominionist could explain why Christian fundamentalists are against healthcare. But, too bad!

So the pundits are trickling in with their comments. The Beltway says that Romney won. I agree if debates were really debates and not theater for different voters. The war whoops from the audience last night came on all attacks on Obama's character and on Rick Perry doubling down on his record of executions in Texas. I like how the Guardian (U.K) was appalled at the bloodthirsty nature of the crowd. On Perry executing an innocent man, a Perry supporter said that was the reason he was voting for him,"It takes real balls to kill an innocent man."

Other observers note the similarity of W debating McCain and how W looked clumsy, ignorant and unaware and we all know how that turned out. Perry just hired W's pollster for his campaign. Perry did not hurt himself with his supporters. Erickson and others expressed dismay but are right that it was his first time out, while for Romney it was his umpteenth debate over two cycles.

Militant Republicans get defensive when the media criticize the ignorance of their candidates and how they speak. This turns into fund-raising fodder and they only defend that person even more, as witnessed by "I am not a Witch" Christine O'Donnell. At the presidential level this rough and inarticulate stuff is a mark of the Alpha Male's machismo. So in Perry's case, it will benefit him during the primaries. One casualty of the night was Michelle Bachmann because the Christian Right, which has been split between the two, has to switch to Perry's maleness and Bachmann will have to be submissive.

I'm ambivalent about Ed Schultz' view that Perry's Ponzi Scheme remarks actually helped him for the primaries and among the young. Karl Rove today is going crazy over Perry's social security remark and Romney's camp sent out an e-mail that "Perry has lost the election." But Comrade Karl is deeply concerned about Florida and that the average Republican primary voter is senile and drools and will be turned off by Perry's remarks and tried to link the Party to it.
First, the spin will be to blame the constant airing of Perry's views as another liberal plot against conservatives and by the hundredth time primary voters hear this they will believe it. However, in a general election, people judge his remarks as evidence of his extreme views, not so much the substance of what he said.

It's interesting to see Rick Perry's debating style, which is in-your face. The Obama campaign had one camera that just recorded Perry throughout the evening, when he was answering and when he was not. Perry is apt to go after Obama once the bell rings for the purpose of rattling him. McCain's camp always felt that McCain made a mistake not taking it to Obama from early on and getting him to either get angry or react. It will be interesting to see whether Perry's style holds up. I'm sure the Obama campaign is now studying all the body language. Perry likes to crowd personal space--like when he moved in on Ron Paul and later Mitt Romney.

Peggy Noonan came up with the most unsual criteria on whether Perry would be judged a success. " If you can imagine listening to him for four years without throwing up in your mouth." Then he's a winner. That's putting the bar rather low.

I think Perry will not wear well. Throughout the night, he showed how nasty he can be and looked menacing. Generally, voters don't vote nasty for President but times may have changed.

Mitt is--well, weird. Last night was probably the best night Romney has had on the campaign trail over two campaigns. His economic plan didn't make sense but none of them ever do. His defense of social security was to show his moderation and compassion.

But there was something that stuck out at me and has always bothered me about Romney--his condescension. He was condescending about Perry and he is always condescending to Barack Obama. During the last campaign, all the other Republicans literally hated Romney personally. It was a visceral thing. It is the characteristic that was the downfall of both Al Gore and John Kerry--this sense of privilege and superiority. If you don't think it exists, remember Romney is expanding his La Jolla beachfront property as his West Coast White House, his version of Reagan's ranch.

I don't know whether Romney's condescension comes from inheriting great wealth and making more or from his Mormonism. Romney is further up the church ladder than the Huntsman family and I wonder if this hasn't worn off. At his level, you are taught you can become a God and your wife a Goddess. If you have been conditioned to this all your life, it's bound to show. Mormons have a self-understanding of themselves as a persecuted minority and history bears them out. But there were mundane reasons for this. The primary gripe by Christians in the 19th century was the Mormons' overt sense of superiority over their neighbors and their fraudulent business practices. Also polygamy was considered rather exotic.

Romney's new tact about Obama saying he's a nice guy but totally inadequate for the job plays well to the Republicans but if you step back, you have to ask what are Romney's qualifications for saying this. Even though his father did try to get the Mormon church to abandon its racism, if you grew up being taught the "Book of Abraham" was a divinely-inspired text which shows that blacks are the people of Ham, it's bound to creep into your attitude toward African-Americans and particularly someone with an African name. His remarks are too condescending by half.

(Historical note, The papyri which Joseph Smith claimed he translated with divine help were later examined by the University of Chicago and found to be ordinary Egyptian funeral papyrii. There was no mention of Abraham or the people of Ham anywhere. This created a scandal in the Mormon hierarchy and they have tried to distance themselves from the book, which is pretty tough since their "prophet" claimed it was divinely inspired.)

Almost all national polls show Romney being the most competitive of Republicans with Obama. By Republican tradition, he should be the nominee, second time out, former Governor, wealthy man. but there are deep suspicions about his character and from conservatives there is disdain for his apparent lack of a strong belief system--or at least a belief system that he could share with other Americans. That's why I think the antipathy to him among conservatives and evangelicals will hurt him in the primaries.

The other winner last night was Jon Huntsman, a self-described Jack Mormon. Utah-born and raised, his grandfather ran a saloon and his mother was a devout Mormon so his religiousity has more of a regional, Western taste to it. John Weaver, his campaign chairman, is trying to find air in the field and focusing on New Hampshire. Weaver is banking on people's disdain for Romney and alarm by the crazy right to provide Huntsman with the opportunity. Because of Huntsman's almost non-existent showings in polls, they had to lobby CNN for his addition to next week's debate. The kiss of death to Huntsman has been his relationship with Obama as his ambassador to China and also his rationality. He scored when he spoke about not signing any pledges on any subject.

The next debate will be on CNN and is cosponsored by the Tea Party Express.

There is one issue that has been hanging over President Obama from the beginning of his presidency--which is the manner and nature of his leadership. I voted for him because of his nature and calm demeanor. I thought the usual Alpha Male bluster and posturing had been ruinous to our country and that a new generation could embrace another style of leadership. But the critiques from the Left and the Right keep demonstrating to me that Americans crave the authoritarian father figure--the decisive leader who will also serve as the paternal figure.

Ultimately, deep down this also gets back to Obama's race because we have been conditioned to accept White Alpha Male behavior as the ideal in the United States. Whites are totally obtuse to this. I like cool and intellectual but a majority of Democrats and Repubicans do not.

But this time the Alpha Male brings to the table a radical Right agenda that has not seen the light of day since the Depression era. We should read up on our Wilhelm Reich, who studied this phenomenon.

Drips and Drabs

Arizona's immigration king Charles Pearce is back at it again. This time he wants to repeal the 14th amendment by depriving children born of immigrants on U.S. soil for their citizenship. If you follow where the idea comes from, it's part and parcel of the Christian Nationalist and White Supremacist movements' dogma. There are real Americans like me and then anyone legalized by the 14th Amendment--freed blacks and women and immigrants are second-class citizens. That is the core of their argument against Obama's elgibility for office. Now Arizona wants to purge the state of their Hispanic and native American heritage.



Rand Paul had a few hectic days after his primary win. He joins Louis Farrakhan and Prince Bandar as the only people who have failed to show on Face The Nation after booking an appearance. Rand Paul's response about repealing the Civil Rights Act for public accomodations not only produced considerable backlash from the media and Democrats but also led to the unsightly emergence of old conservative thoughts on the Civil Rights Act itself, including the very ugly writings of Bill Buckley,Jr. in the 1950s, writings which he later publically regretted. The more research into Rand Paul and his positions the worse it got. He appeared before the extreme right Constitution Party conference and the neo-Nazi Stormfront website endorsed him. A raw libertarian candidate dramatizes the deep weaknesses in libertarianism as an actual governing philosophy.



America's Sheriff Joe Arpaio doesn't look like he'll be riding the anti-immigration tide in Arizona much longer. Papers delivered to the court showed that the sheriff has a slight problem of manipulating $50 million of public funds in Maricopa County and the County Board would like to know more.



Linda McMahon showed that the Republicans are recruiting high caliber candidates. The World Wrestling Federation head beat Ann Coulter's favorite Rob Simmons for the Republican nomination for the Conneticut Senate seat. I hate to say it but Ann Coulter was right.



In Nevada, "Chicken Lady" Sue Lowden won a victory of sorts. Voters will not be able to cast their ballots wearing chicken outfits. I guess this constitutes compaigning.



Sarah Palin endorsed the daughter of a Punjab Sikh for the governorship of South Carolina. Nikki Haley was also supported by Jenny Sanford, the former wife of the Love Gov. But this morning things went the way they always do with South Carolina's Republicans--Nikki Haley had an "inappropriate physical relationship" with a fellow party member.



Charles Djou became the first Republican congressman from Hawaii in twenty years in a special election to replace Neil Abercrombie, who's running for governor. The Democrats split nearly 60% of the vote. Djou runs again in November. Lots of luck.



Charlie Crist still leads in the Florida Senate race with 30% over teabagger Marco Rubio's 27%.



Secessionist Rick Perry leads Democrat White by nine in the latest polls. However, as expected, White has insurmontable leads in the Hispanic community as a result of the Arizona law and the Republican support of it. The fly in the oinment may come as the Libertarians are to select their candidate, who may or may not endorse Perry. By and large, the poll is good news for White this far out from November.



Oklahoma over-rode the vetoes against their antediluvian abortion laws, again reinstating the ultrasound requirement of all pregnant women.



The Book you waited a Century For: This November the University of California will finally publish the Memoirs of Mark Twain. Sam Clemens spent the last decade of his life writing his memoirs but in his will demanded they not be published until 100 years after his death. To be published as a trilogy, they consist of 1/2 million words on his opinions about God, religion, missionaries, Theodore Roosevelt, and the Spanish-American War. He devotes over 400 pages in an addendum to his affair with his secretary Isabel Van Kleek Lyon, with whom he took up after the death of his wife Olivia in 1904. He writes that she bought him a electrical vibrating sex toy. And that's the nice part. He then says she hypnotized him and tried to take financial advantage of him. As a celebrity writer,it's fitting that he makes a comeback now.