Newt Gingrich on Child Labor Laws: “Stupid”

I wouldn’t have believed it had it not been for the fact that the former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, a current leader in the polls for the Republican presidential nomination, was caught on video saying that the child labor laws, capstones of the progressive movement in the early 20^th century, were, in his words, “stupid.”

Yes, we have video.

Can you believe it? Tea Party-influenced Republicans are willing to roll back the things that progressives brought to American culture, that is in this case the sanctity of childhood. There seems to be no limit to the regressivism of Tea Party politics.

What’s next? Importing slaves? Bringing back indentured servitude? How about invading the Holy Land to restore Christianity to Jerusalem?

Oh, wait, I think they favor that, too.

Republicans Have Themselves a 3-Way

The news cannot possibly be better. Likely Republican primary voters have a new darling. The new “Not_Mitt”? Newt Gingrich.

Newt Gingrich is surging in the polls, taking up the slack that Rick Perry’s eternal gaffes and Herman Cain’s poor treatment of the best of us has produced.

That’s what Politico says anyway. From Politico:

“A new Public Policy Polling survey out Monday has him in first place, hitting 28 percent. He’s a close second behind Mitt Romney in both Monday’s CNN/ORC International poll, which showed him at 22 percent, and the McClatchy-Marist poll out Friday, which showed him at 19 percent”

That’s right. The new front runner, or second-front runner depending on which poll you are willing to believe, has former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich back up at the top.

Perry? Stick a fork in him, he’s done.

So let me get this straight. Republican primary voters will choose between an African-American businessman with no real prior experience in government other than trying to figure out how to pay it as little as possible in taxes, and a Teabagger to boot that is so intertwined with the Koch brothers that you don’t know where one ends and the other begins, and Newt a former congressman who resigned from congress in disgrace rather than take ownership over the fact that he was responsible for the 1998 election disaster for his party – while simultaneously cheating on his dying wife in an affair with his present wife.

An affair that he carried out while conducting impeachment procedings against Bill Clinton, who was accused of essentially the same thing.

Oh… and Mitt. Mitt Romney, a man who will not receive 20% of Republican votes because he is a Mormon.

Republican “Values Voters” are finally going to reap what they have sown. They will have to decide between two womanizers and a Mormon.

A friend shared a 1994 quote from Barry Goldwater recently and I think it is totally apropos to repost it here. It is so clear that his prediction has come to fruition.

“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.”

Amen.

Tea Party Downgrade

I have been relatively unimpressed with the Tea Party movement in terms of the actual brain power that it generates. The first time I attended a TEA Party rally to check out the phenomenon I was astounded at the near lack of factual accuracy the speakers could conjure up, and amazed at what can only be characterized as political naiveté.

One speaker, one of the leaders, really, actually spoke emotionally about the dire news that there was going to be an election later that year where several amendments to the Texas Constitution were going to be voted on. “They are trying to amend OUR constitution,” the speaker emoted.

Something that happens like clockwork during any odd year.

So combined with their utter lack of knowledge about how government works and their inability to discern truth from bat guano crazy fiction, the remarks this morning by political consultant David Axelrod and former governor Howard Dean seem to be spot on correct. The S&P’s downgrading of American longterm debt from AAA to AA+ is entirely inspired by the TEA Party Movement, and the radical right.

Said Axelrod:

“‘For months, the president was saying, let's get together, let's compromise,’ Axelrod continued. ‘We thought we had such an arrangement with the Speaker of the House... then he went back to his caucus; he had to yield to the most strident voices in his party. They played brinksmanship with the full faith and credit of the United States. This was the result in that. The fact of the matter is that this is essentially a Tea Party downgrade,’ he declared. ‘That clearly is on the backs of those who were willing to see the country default.’”

Said Dean:

“‘This is a tea party problem,’ Dean said Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation." ‘They are totally unreasonable and doctrinaire and not founded in reality. I think they've been smoking some of that tea, not just drinking it.’”

“‘This is ridiculous what's going on here,’ he said.”

And then some. When the children are in charge of Nursery School this is what we have to go through.

Time for the adults to get the hickory switches out.

Yes We Have No Brains

OK, I have a small confession to make. I have been blogging on the fly with a laptop and some tenuous WiFi connections for the past month because I have been on the road visiting family in California.

I only just got back home yesterday.

But guess what greeted me just as I approached the Fort Bend County line as I barreled down the last few miles of my 5600 + mile sojurn?

This billboard.

It is apparently a singleton occurrence in Sealy, Texas along I-10 facing eastbound traffic.

Yes, it was like getting a cold splash of water in the face, back to Texas Triple K KKKrazy.

Back to reality.

Yes, in Texas we have no brains.

And yes, I did send my $50 check to Obama For America yesterday on the occasion of the man’s 50^th birthday.

Obama's Great Birthday Conspiracy EXPOSED

All the saints in Heaven, Jesus, Buddha, Krishna and Muhammad preserve us, Louie Gohmert, R - East Wacko Texas, has come up with another conspiracy theory. It all revolves around the August 2^nd deadline for Congress to raise the debt ceiling or let this country, whose full faith and credit has never in its history been questioned, fall into default on its loans. Gohmert now thinks that the date is a fake one, but not  an arbitrary one. In fact, he claims that August 2^nd has been planned all along, just not as the default date.

Gohmert points to the fact that August 4^th is Barack Obama’s own birthday. And on August 3^rd he is throwing himself a birthday party with celebrities in attendance.

Gohmert added 2 and 2 and came up with his latest of a whole stream of wacky conspiracies: Obama is using the debt crisis, one that has been produced and directed by his own party courtesy of his wacky Teabagger followers, to raise campaign funds.

No, I’m serious.

From Gawker:

“‘[W]e find out the president has a big birthday bash scheduled for August the 3rd, celebrities flying in from all over,’ Gohmert told Newsmax TV yesterday. ‘And lo and behold, August 2nd is the deadline for getting something done so he can have this massive, the biggest fundraising dinner in history for a birthday celebration.’ That's right: This whole ‘idiot Republicans are taking the world economy to the brink of financial ruin’ ferrago is just a way for Obama to raise money... from celebrities. ‘Isn't that amazing?’ Gohmert wonders. ‘The timing of this?’”

This would actually be funny if it weren’t for the fact that Gohmert is dead serious, just as he was dead serious about the so-called “Anchor Babies” or the notion that the direct election of Senators was an anti-democratic liberal conspiracy.

But then come to think of it, what better way to show the nation through the entertainers and celebrities that they revere, how Republicans ruined, or more likely, nearly ruined the nation’s economy through their wacky economic notions.

Louie Gohmert is like a gift from Heaven. He is like Manna. Louie Gohmert personifies how crazy the Republican Party has become, because next to some of these people, Louie Gohmert is as sane and sober as a judge.

Destroying the Economy in Order to Save It

I like this Nick Anderson rendition of what the Teabaggers propose to do to my country. It harkens back to the Vietnam War when an American Major made the observation that it was necessary to destroy a Vietnamese village in order to save it.

Rick Perry: Worse for Our Nation

Well there’s a surprise.

Today Travis County Democratic Party announced that at the very same time that Governor Rick Perry, along with the American Family Association, are holding a prayer vigil and fasting at Houston’s Reliant Stadium on August 6^th, they will hold a counter rally on the steps of Texas’ state capitol building.

From the Austin American-Statesman:The latter alluding to the fact that Rick Perry is considering a run for the presidency, a move that is sure to excite the Tea Party base – those who aren’t gaga-eyed over Michele Bachmann anyway.

“Party officials say the noon rally on Aug. 6 will be called ‘Rick Perry: Bad for Texas, Worse for Our Nation.’”

Perry has been nipping at the heels of President Obama for the past few months, culminating in his (or his ghost writer’s) book, “Fed Up.” Get it? Fed. Federal Government. Ha. Ha. Ha.

So this event, The Response, is Perry’s attempt to grab himself some national spotlight. Allying himself with the Creator of the Universe, like so many Republicans before him, is practically Step 1 in the GOP playbook. And now we see a counter rally. Not one that opposes God, it seems, but one that opposes Rick Perry’s self-promotion as a conduit to Jesus and His Father.

Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey; they shed blood and kill people to make unjust gain.  Her prophets whitewash these deeds for them by false visions and lying divinations. They say, 'This is what the Sovereign Lord says'_when the Lord has not spoken.

- Ezekiel 22: 27-28

It’s Not Revisionism If You are Ignorant

Now, some will call Michelle Bachmann’s unfortunate commentary to a group of Iowa conservatives awhile ago historical revisionism. That according to her claim, slavery was a bane on the national existence from the get go, and that the Founding Fathers worked tirelessly to rid this country of the horrible scourge called slavery.

And they eventually did, she says.

Forgetting, of course, about the central issue that brought about the Civil War and the deaths of 620,000 Union and Confederate soldiers and the wounding of almost 400,000 more. John Quincy Adams, as as he was, did not oversee the dismantling of slavery in America. That fell to Abraham Lincoln and the hundreds of thousands who died in the Civil War.

The only reason I bring this up is that this is the very person who will deliver the Teabagger version of the State of the Union Address Rebuttal this evening.

As I said in the beginning, some would call this historical revisionism. But this goes beyond all boundaries of that very legitimate pursuit in historical analysis.

It isn’t revisionism when the revisionist is an ignoramus.

President Perry?

It would be a bigger joke if I had any respect for the collective memories of Americans.

Surely, you would think that after suffering through eight years, two wars, a loss of personal freedoms unseen in our history, and the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression, Americans would think twice about electing yet another Texas governor. Another glib governor with a fairly well-developed sense of humor yet rather dim between the ears.

Not in a century you might say.

Still then, what is it with the reports that just a day after an inaugural celebration took place in Austin – at a cost of millions (that might have been better spent doing something about the $27 billion budget deficit) – now we are finding that Rick is sending out brainwaves of extra-territorial concern

At his inaugural today he had some words to say about things not Texas, even though a $27 billion budget deficit is something that he should clearly be focused on, some say to the tune of 10000% of his time.

From Time:

“‘You might say historians will look back on this as the Texas century. Americans once looked to the East Coast for opportunity and inspiration, then to the West Coast. Today they are looking to the Gulf Coast — they are looking to Texas.’ Perry also commented on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the turmoil in Mexico, acknowledging the presence of a Mexican border delegation honoring his inauguration.”

And later on:

“Perry watchers point out what they feel is a significant bit of scheduling: the governor will not be at the Super Bowl in Dallas Feb. 6 but will be in California honoring the 100th anniversary of President Ronald Reagan's birth.”

Ronald Reagan wasn’t born in California.

Sigh.

Teabaggers love Perry for his secessionist ways. And maybe in earlier times I would hope for and even invite Rick Perry to run against Barack Obama in 2012. Because that plus the job performance of the previous Texas governor, that should assure President Obama another 4 years.

All bets are off, though. Between corporate funding of elections and the collective American penchant for amnesia, I can only hope that Perry won’t make it out of the starting blocks because of his disastrous economic policies that may just drive the state that he leads over a cliff.

Otherwise we might just have a genuine pistol-packin,’ coyote shootin,’ friend-of-the-corporation, yahoo in the White House – again.

The Coming Schism of the Republican Party

As sure as Spring is a promise Mother Nature keeps with us every Winter, the Tea Party is all set to fractionate the Republican Party. Teabaggers are arguably about 20 to 22 percent of the voting electorate. They sent some pretty interesting characters to Washington, DC and Austin this past November.

In Austin we saw as they violated all sorts of political decorum when they openly opposed Joe Straus’ bid to become Speaker of the Texas House one more time – because he was not conservative enough for them – and he is a Jew.

Not particularly in that order.

And in the Republican Caucus yesterday, they could not muster the votes necessary to oust Straus. And ironically, Democrats again this year made the deal since only 70 Republicans sided with Straus in the caucus meeting, giving the Democrats the nod to provide the additional 6 votes necessary to elect the Speaker.

Joe Straus is Speaker again, and again it is because of Democratic support.

So you’d think they would learn, wouldn’t you. You’d think they would see that doing a deal is how you get things done, not yelling and stomping your feet.

But no. They won’t learn the lesson. After Straus was sworn in the Teabaggers held a rally outside the capitol building promising no let up. No compromise.

Newly elected African-American Teabagger State Rep Claver Kamau-Imani (R-Houston) got the small crowd going with his rant

From the Austin American-Statesman:

“Kamau-Imani referred to progressivism, liberalism and socialism as “all those evil isms” and said it’s unacceptable for lawmakers to compromise. He led the crowd in chanting “No compromise!” and “No surrender!” and said that public servants must have a willingness to die for their cause.”

Leading me to wonder whether Kamau-Imani wants to volunteer for that last bit. Or whether he, as I have, wants to volunteer for the one-way mission to Mars.

But that’s what I like in my Teabagger allies, no compromise, no surrender. If they can extract 20 to 22 percent of votes from the Republicans, so that they make no compromises at all, the more power to them.

That’s what I like about my Teabagger allies. They seem willing to stand on principle at any cost whatsoever.

In the morning after last year’s disastrous November election I told anyone who would listen to me that we need a miracle right about now in order to save us from a steamroller Republican agenda in the next 140 days.

A miracle.

And my prayers were answered by The Almighty. When I asked Him for a miracle, He provided one. For this year’s miracle from the Creator of the Universe, I give you the Tea Party.

Weekend With Bernie

Bernie Sanders is making a very long speech. He started today at 10:30 EST and was still going strong 6 hours later.

Here is how it begins:

Barack Obama is just dead wrong here. He caved when caving was not what the American people want. Republicans want a tax break for their super-rich supporters, a tax break to be paid for by our children and grandchildren.

Bernie Sanders is my kind of US Senator.

Teabaggers, where are you now when the thing you were tearing at your clothes about last year is happening with wild abandon?

Crickets.

Tea Party Federalism: A New Meld of Whacky Ideas

Only property owners should be able to vote.

If that sounds like something out of the 18^th century you would not be wrong in thinking so. This is actually a point of view that was once quite prominent in American politics and policy making.

John Adams, our 2^nd President, thought it was a grand idea:

“John Adams, signer of the Declaration of Independence and later president, wrote in 1776 that no good could come from enfranchising more Americans:”

“Depend upon it, Sir, it is dangerous to open so fruitful a source of controversy and altercation as would be opened by attempting to alter the qualifications of voters; there will be no end to it. New claims will arise; women will demand the vote; lads from 12 to 21 will think their rights not enough attended to; and every man who has not a farthing, will demand an equal voice with any other, in all acts of state. It tends to confound and destroy all distinctions, and prostrate all ranks to one common level.”

But now we are hearing from the Teabaggers that this is pretty much what they think also:

“Judson Phillips, President of the Tea Party Nation recently stated he believes that only property-owning individuals should have voting rights.”

“Phillips made the case that the original intent of the founding fathers was to only grant voting rights to property owners. His reason: “If you’re a property owner, you actually have a vested stake in the community.”

Now here’s the rub and the irony. Adams, who Phillips apparently agrees with, was a Federalist. When he was President he sat as the leader of the Federalist Party. The Federalist Party, it might be recalled, was the party of a strong central government.

Federalism was anathema to those of purported to support “states rights,” a well-known plank of the Tea Party platform.

And if that doesn’t underline the wackiness of the Tea Party movement, nothing does. Teabaggers simply have no knowledge of politics, government or policy. The only thing that they seem to take seriously is anything that any Founding Father said or thought.

Anything. Even if it runs counter to the central core of their philosophy.

But then that may yet be another definition of insanity.

Or at best, blind ignorance.

Teabaggers Oppose Food Safety Modernization Act

This was flying right under my radar until a friend alerted me to some viral email that is being circulated around the country. I don’t usually get to hear about these extremists.

Here is an excerpt from the email:

“THE FDA's Food Safety Modernization Act! Will be voted on soon! This bill is perhaps the most dangerous far reaching bill in our history! If S 510 becomes law it would preclude the right to grow, own, trade, transport, share, feed and eat every food made by nature! Your right to grow and consume your own food...GONE! Home gardens, patio gardens, ability to store or own seeds, food supplements, farming as we know it....GONE! The Dept of Homeland Security, DOD, WTO, UN, WHO, FAO will have complete control over your food! And if caught growing your own food.....felony! Yep! Lock you up!”

Yep. Lock you up.

Nuttier than squirrel poop.

Here is what is true.

Apparently the Senate is poised to pass S 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act. This act will increase federal authority over food that is grown and raised, transported and then sold in markets and restaurants around the country. It will regulate food that is imported from other countries.

It will ensure, in short, that food is safe to eat.

This bill was a natural reaction to the increase in occurrences of food poisoning by Salmonella bacteria and other things that can make you sick. Here in Texas a local peanut butter processing plant spread Salmonella in its product, and people I know got sick from it. It was later found that the State of Texas not only had never inspected the plant, it was never licensed by state health authorities.

So when the state falls on its keester and fails to protect Texans from unsanitary food preparation practices, someone has to step up.

The trouble is this has rung the collective bells of Teabaggers and other Libertarians who oppose government regulation in general, and government regulation of the food supply in particular.

It stimulates their paranoia glands.

Now here is the curiosity. The Food Safety Modernization Act is fully supported by agri-business. They welcome the regulation. And as it turns out for a reason. Not only will it regulate agri-business, but apparently small-scale farms as well. And this is what has the Teabaggers so enraged. So enraged that they spread their own set of facts out on the internet.

Now, I am told, because I looked it up, that S 510 has been amended by the so-called Tester-Hagen Amendment that exempts “small potatoes” farmers from the regulatory aspects of the bill. Farmers that make less then 500 large per year selling their crops to grocers and restaurants would be exempt. The amendment is, for now, included in the bill.

But here’s the thing: agri-business is somewhat enraged over the Tester-Hagen Amendment specifically because the “small potatoes” farmer that they have been trying to push out of business since McCormick invented his reaper is protected, and exempted by this amendment.

And now we know why agri-business was so anxious for this new regulation to be heaped on them.

So that’s why I say that the amendment is part of the bill “for now.” Let’s see what side of the fence the Senate really is sitting on. The side of the fence of people who are sick and tired of getting sick by an unregulated industry, or the side of the fence of people who want to see the family farm become a thing for history books.

I am characteristically pessimistic.

Texas Elections Director: Electioneering For Greg Abbott Isn’t Electioneering

In a stunning abandonment of all logic and reason, the Texas Director of Elections, Ann McGeehan, has determined that wearing in a polling location a button or a T-shirt bearing the words “Don’t tread on me” along with a coiled snake doesn’t constitute electioneering.

Writes the director in what can be described as the most poorly worded policy decision that I have ever read:

“It is the opinion of this office that people simply wearing a t-shirt or button with the wording “Don’t Tread on Me” displaying the coiled rattlesnake and nothing else are not electioneering for (nor does such action relate to) a candidate, measure or party and such action does not relate to the conduct of the election.”

Stunning in that this symbol has become the unofficial seal of the TEA party movement.

Illogical in that this symbol is the adopted symbol of a real Texas Republican politician engaged in a real campaign against a real Democrat. In other words, if wearing the symbol that represents the campaign of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is not electioneering, then anything goes from here on in.

Unreasonable in that Greg Abbott actually uses the Gadsden Flag on his campaign material. He even has a “Don’t Tread On Me” campaign on his website. You can see it here and read about the fact that “If you contribute just $10 to General Abbott's campaign, you can get your own "Don't Tread on Me" embroidered hat or t-shirt!”

He even poses for a photograph with his campaign symbol.

It now appears to me that merely bringing the federal Department of Justice here and federalizing the entire election process in the state of Texas would not be enough to stop the gross crimes and misdemeanors of ultraconservatives and other assorted fanatics. Texas is simply too far gone for any of that.

No, there is only one thing we can do in order to bring Texas forward into the 21st century, completely skipping the 20th.

Bring back Reconstruction.

What I’ll “Be” This Halloween

What are you going to "be" on Halloween?

That was what we used to ask each other back in the day. Back when I went out Trick-or-Treating with my friends.

And so I asked a friend yesterday what her young son was going to “be” this Halloween and she replied “he wants to be a scary man.”

A scary man.

That leaves it pretty much open, then, how exactly you pull off the “scary man” look. But I thought about it some and concluded that that very probably entailed every costume I ever devised during my tenure as a Trick-or-Treater.

Except for the time I was a space man, that is.

So this year, I think I’ll follow my friend’s son’s lead and go out as the scariest man I can think of, and hopefully I’ll frighten the bejesus out of everyone who sees me and swear that they will never want to look or act like me in their lifetimes.

I’ll go as a Teabagger.

King Street Patriots: The Brown Shirts Are Back

There is a Teabagger group based in The Woodlands that calls itself the King Street Patriots. The King Street Patriots have taken a page out of the New Black Panthers’ playbook and have assumed the role of voter intimidators that has not seen the light of day since pre-WWII Germany when Hitler’s Brown Shirts harassed voters at the polls and practically guaranteed a win for the future Fuhrer.

By the way, Godwin’s Law is not in force here. The Brown Shirts considered themselves patriots, too.

Voter intimidation in predominantly minority areas of Houston, as reported in the Houston Chronicle, brings home the fact that uber-conservative Teabaggers are going all out in this election cycle to ensure that what the conservative media outlets are touting, a GOP romp, will self-manifest.

From the Chronicle:

“Harris County Democratic Chairman Gerry Birnberg said his office had received reports Monday that poll watchers were "hovering" over voters, "getting in their face," and talking to election workers.”

“‘This is the fourth general election I've been involved with,’ Birnberg said, ‘and we have never had this kind of problem in the past.’”

The “poll watchers” are allegedly trained by the King Street Patriots.

“Birnberg placed the blame on some 300 poll watchers trained by a group of tea party activists who call themselves the King Street Patriots.”

“Poll watchers must be affiliated with either a party or a candidate, although the King Street Patriots group, through a project called True the Vote, is recruiting poll watchers on its website for Election Day, Nov. 2.”

Hiram Sasser, who is an attorney that represents the King Street Patriots, defends the group as new and inexperienced, as if to say so maybe mistakes were made, heck we’re all human and humans make mistakes.

No, actually, this is what he really said:

“Obviously, they trained them properly to follow the rules. What's different this time is that there probably are more poll watchers now than there have ever been before. … So, it might be a new process for some folks.”

And I might believe that if it weren’t for the fact that the Texas Tribune, some time ago, posted a YouTube Video of a King Street meeting where they informed the group of the tactics of the New Black Panther Party, as well as not so subliminal warning that the group had been established in Houston. The gasps of horror are audible on the video’s soundtrack.

Busted.

The King Street Patriots know exactly what they are doing, and the video is the proof in the pudding.

All they lack are the brown shirts, the swastikas and a leader with a really tacky moustache.



Corralling Those Mexican Communists

I have a very modest beer stein collection. Just a few. One is solid brass and is made of an old German WWI artillery shell casing. It has 1915 stamped on the base. Others are souvenir steins that I picked up on my only trip to the Old Country.

But a fourth is perhaps the one I cherish the most.

Here it is in all its glory.

See the piece of concrete mounted on the cap? That’s a piece of the Berlin Wall.

A wall that was constructed by the former German Democratic Republic in 1961. A wall whose purpose was to keep those living in the former Soviet Sector of Occupied Germany, later to be known as the DDR or the Deutsche Demokratische Republik, from crossing into West Berlin.

From escaping the enslavement of the Soviet, and therefore the East German style of despotic communism to the freedom and democracy of the West.

A wall that fell suddenly and unexpectedly on November 9th, 1989 as the Cold War thawed and the Soviet Union fell into disarray and irrelevance.

This wall symbolized the ultimate in despotism. The blood of hundreds if not thousands of fleeing Germans was spilt there.

It was, in short, a nightmare that is thankfully now just an asterisk in historical texts.

Until yesterday.

Yesterday, Teabagger Alaska Senator Wannabe Joe Miller dredged it all back up when he cited this despised edifice as something to be admired. Something that we should be doing at our borders.

From CBS News:

“East Germany was very, very able to reduce the flow. Now, obviously, other things were involved. We have the capacity to, as a great nation, secure the border. If East Germany could, we could.”

Joe Miller is one sick, sick puppy.

And not just a little ignorant of the facts.

Point of fact, the reason that the DDR built that wall was not to keep West Berliners from crossing into East Berlin and taking all those jobs, but to keep East Berliners from leaving.

Just about the only thing that Miller is correct about is the fact that the Berlin Wall was very effective in curbing the flow of fleeing citizens.

And the reason it was so effective didn’t have to do with the wall, the wire or the pit traps, it had to do with the watch towers constructed at intervals.

Watch towers equipped with machine guns.

But this apparently is what Joe Miller - and who knows who else - has in mind for the future Utopia that they envision for my country.

If that’s the case, then here is what I have to say to all the Teabaggers who “want their country back:”

Only if you take it from my cold dead hands.

Is Fort Bend County Judge Office in Play?

I’ve been wondering for some time why I am seeing so many campaign signs to re-elect Fort Bend County Judge Bob Hebert. It’s one of the loudest signs I have ever seen. So much color that they must cost a pretty penny to make.

The common wisdom is that Fort Bend County is a safe Republican county. Only 4 county-wide offices are occupied by Democrats. So I thought that maybe it was due to that recent Chronicle article that gave a loud voice to U of H demographer Richard Murray’s opinion that Fort Bend County is about to tip from Republican- to Democratic-majority voters.

But now, seeing the article in the Chronicle’s Fort Bend blog, UltimateFortBend, I see that there is a new wrinkle in the County Judge race.

A write-in candidate.

A bat-guano crazy Teabagger “Constitutional Republican” write-in candidate.

Her name is, or actually was, Chris Meeks. That is her maiden name. Her married name is so unusual that running as a write-in candidate with a name like Christine Zubizarreta, as whe claims on her campaign website, would be a disadvantage “because a 'write in' needs an easy, short name.”

Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, my favorite write-in candidate from 2006, would have been surprised to hear that since the county elections office credited her with the votes of those who simply wrote in “SSG.” And she also got credited with the vote of the person who wrote in “Dracula c**t” (rhymes with bunt).

But I think this is simply par for the course, here. This candidate for county judge is a slice – or two – short of a loaf.

I even think I saw her once at a Republican love fest. I think it was her. She had some really interesting ideas about the world economy. The kind of ideas you hear from callers who call into all night radio talk shows.

What is interesting is that in the Chron article she is reported to have said that “she's been asked to drop out of the race for fear she may split Republican votes.”

Oh yeah.

What could be finer than to have the Teabagger Republicans, now referred to herein as Regressive Republicans split the Republican vote? With so many Democratic straight ticket voters out there, a loss of even 2% of the vote could spell a victory for Democratic challenger Rodrigo Carreon. And Chris Meeks, or Christine Zubizarreta, has refused to drop out, saying that she “will drop out if Judge Hebert puts in writing that he'll no longer collect property taxes.”

Yep, you heard it. Meeks is running on a single issue: eliminating property taxes. It even says that on her campaign signs (most of which are illegally posted on the public right-of -ways).

A red meat issue like that is bound to attract the “something-for-nothing” Teabagger crowd.

I shiver in anticipation.

Why Christine O’Donnell Won in Delaware

Ever wonder where those 1500 votes came from that brought Teabagger candidate Christine O’Donnell the Republican nomination to fill Joe Biden’s Delaware senate seat? I must tell you that I have. Up until this year, O’Donnell has had no problem getting the nomination, but with a challenger like Mike Castle, an old Republican war horse and a 30-year veteran to boot, it seemed just about academic, especially since all the polls had Castle winning the seat in November against the Democratic nominee, Chris Coons.

Even Karl Rove was nonplussed at O’Donnell’s success.

Well wonder no more. Bill Maher has the answer. Christine O’Donnell has Wicca in her background.

Now it is well known that Wiccans worship the primeval Earth Mother Herself: Gaea. Before we had Baal, before we had YHWH, before we had Jesus, we had Gaea, the Mother of us all.

And Gaea made sure that Christine O’Donnell pulled the rug out from under Mike “Sure Shot” Castle to become the Republican nominee.

All hail Gaea.

Michelle Bachmann is on the Ropes

Teabagger caucus leader Congresscreep Michelle Bachmann is in deep, deep trouble. The news finally got through to her when Howard Dean’s Democracy for America announced that it had collected $22,000 in donations to the campaign of Democratic opponent Minnesota State Senator Tarryl Clark.

In twenty-four hours.

In the middle of the slow recovery from the Recession of 2008-09.

When the unemployment rate hit 9.6%, Tarryl Clark’s campaign got a cash infusion from an internet-based fundraiser.

People are sick and tired of seeing the crazed face of Michelle Bachmann. Sick of hearing her crazed rants.

Sick to death of Michelle Bachmann.

Minnesotans, I hear, are becoming very disenchanted with their congressperson. Someone who is all about getting her face on the national scene. Someone who sees herself as another Sarah Palin.

So Bachmann is using the DFA to get more money out of her Teabagger base, not realizing that getting money from Teabaggers, people who are notorious for not wanting to give their money to anyone, is very much like trying to get blood out of a turnip.

From her latest fundraiser letter:

“His [Howard Dean’s] far-left liberal organization, "Democracy for America" raised $22,000 in 24 hours to defeat me and have bragged about it to media outlets. They're using this as an example of how much liberals like Dean want to see me defeated. Let's show them we're not going anywhere. I need your immediate support to fight back against this liberal surge of money in my race.”

I never thought I’d ever say this, but poor Michelle Bachmann. A woman so deluded as to ask a bunch of overweight, deluded, old white people (aka her base) for more money.

Shouldn’t she, at this point, be turning her face upward to Jesus? Jesus, to her mind, would never allow Tarryl Clark to usurp her from her congressional seat. So maybe she should just go “all in” as we say in Texas Hold-Em, and stop the whining. And for heaven’s sake, stop asking Teabaggers for more money.

That’s just embarrassing.