Tweet Of The Day: Would Donald Trump Beat Up The Good Samaritan? Edition

This tweet leaves little doubt that the answer is yes.

The U.S. cannot allow EBOLA infected people back. People that go to far away places to help out are great-but must suffer the consequences!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 2, 2014

One wonders when Trump will suffer the natural consequences of using his anus to speak his most profound thoughts.

Quotation Of The Day: Being An Anti-Republican Edition

With the exception of voting for Obama in 2012, these Damon Linker paragraphs sum up my current political philosophy and activity:

Today, my voting record says I'm a Democrat. I voted for Kerry in 2004 and Obama in 2008 and 2012. I nearly always support Democrats in House, Senate, and gubernatorial elections. But I don't identify closely with or feel deep loyalty to the Democratic Party, its agenda, or its electoral coalition.

You could say that I'm less a Democrat than an anti-Republican. I vote the way I do because I want the GOP to lose, lose badly, and keep losing until it comes to its collective senses, which at this point seems a very long way off indeed.

I'm Having Trouble Figuring Out Who's The Real Republican

Is it South Dakota legislator Charlie Hoffman who writes words like the following?

People compared to animals? No that is not right.
The giving of help to people who are hurting and need help is honorable and necessary. Certainly different levels of need are “Out There”. We as a country of individuals who value a penal system of forgiveness; instead of torture and beheadings and religious extermination, find many ways to help the needy.

Or Annette Bosworth who believes that humans and animals both lack reasoning ability and rely on only base instinct?

Perhaps it's Sarah Palin who conflates sacraments with water boarding. (Some may deny water boarding his torture, but forcing someone to  listen to her nasal twang likely violates the Geneva Convention.)



On the other hand, I could just be remembering Dana Carvey's "Church Lady."



I wonder who could confuse me like that?



It could be the Devil or it could be a political party that really doesn't know where its soul lies.

Does The Tea Party Want To Win On The Issues Or Does It Want To Insult Liberals?

Constant Conservative has a recent post entitled "The Common Core is about Power." I have no quarrel with the title. I agree that the Core is about established elites maintaining power. The post has a video of someone named Bill Whittle, whom I had never heard of, asserting that the Common Core will produce cookie cutter students. Again, I agree with the assertion. Whittle urges conservatives to look at the big picture and not elements of the standards that they find personally objectionable. Here again, I agree.

Whittle, however, seems more interested in tossing red meat sops to his tea party audience than he does stopping the Core. In fact he acts more like a stereotypical smarmy insurance or used car salesman than he does in making the case against the Core. Washington DC is a den of "scum and villainy." Liberals are stupid, and Whittle is so much smarter than anyone else. Throughout the video, Whittle seems more intent on skewing his political opponents than making the case against the Core.

Whittle's desire to place slime above substance and ConCon's proclamation that Whittle's video makes the case in "excellent fashion" prompts a simple question: does the tea party want to produce policy or does it want to skewer political foes?

The answer is important because there are issues including NSA abuses and the Core that could have broad support across the political spectrum. The recent NSA march in DC had both liberals and libertarians. It seems, however, that some tea party conservatives don't want to win. They just want to insult perceived political foes.

I Muse About Reasons Some Voters Might Remain Independent Instead Of Registering Republican

Bob Mercer reports that South Dakota's Republicans are beginning to look for the underlying reasons that more voters are registering as independents.

We’re told by some reliable sources that Republicans under new chairman Craig Lawrence are trying to figure out why new voters have been trending independent so heavily, especially in the Sioux Falls area. In rough numbers, since the 2006 general election, Republicans are up nearly 5,000, while Democrats are down 1,000-plus (and have seen the huge 2008 Obama-Clinton surge melt away). Meanwhile independents are up more than — and this is not a misprint — 25,000.

On a side note, the fact that Democrats are losing registrants in the only area of the state that can be remotely considered metropolitan should cause the party consternation. The party is either unconcerned, playing things extremely close to the vest, or too disorganized to openly discuss stopping the hemorrhaging. (I suppose Mercer could have conveniently failed to mention that they, like their Republican counterparts, are attempting to discern why they are losing voters, but there's little to be gained from withholding that bit of reporting.)

In college I was a proud non-fraternity GDI (God Damned Independent.) Politically, I remain displaced, so I'll offer Republican chairperson Lawrence a few observations.

First, the Republican coalition is more than a little weird. Libertarians want to legalize drugs and have minimal regulations on personal behavior. Christian conservatives who vote only on social issues are frequently at odds with the libertarian wing. The tea party folk want to shut down the government, but many of the corporate Republicans lobby for more corporate welfare. If these constituencies created Jesus from whole cloth, he would be smoking a joint, perpetually angry, and wearing a $5,000 suit.

Second, the party's RINO hunters are so loud and off-putting that I feel dirty every time I agree with them. I usually can console myself with the fact that I have far different reasons for coming to similar conclusions. I know of no one who agrees with another person 100% of the time, but RINO hunters seem to demand complete agreement. Most folks who can choose between being screamed at and registering as independent will choose being independent.

Third, having controlled Pierre for decades, some Republican leaders are smug and condescending. I know Republicans have been in charge and balanced the budget every year. I know they claim to have created a business climate that gets high ratings. I also know that the state gets back more federal tax dollars than it sends in. The good hasn't been accomplished only through in-state thrift.

In a similar vein, Mike Rounds's flying around the state and putting his entire extended family plus a few dead ancestors on the state payroll provides another reason to stay independent. (The extent of Rounds's nepotism depicted in the previous sentence constitutes hyperbole, an accepted literary device.) More recently, Jason Gant's follies provide another example the corrosive arrogance that accompanies unchallenged power.

Finally, I have seen no evidence that Republicans will favor policies that benefit a hard working plumber instead of  polices that benefit a spoiled trust fund brat whenever those two policies come into conflict.

I doubt Craig Lawrence will like this post, but if he didn't want to know why I register independent, he shouldn't have asked.

Obamacare Is Not The Biggest Problem Facing The United States

Yesterday, I drove to St. Joseph, Missouri, picked up a young'un and returned to South Dakota, so I didn't have much time to blog or read blogs. This morning, I found this post and Larry Rhoden's claim: "The battle against Obamacare is the most pressing issue our nation is facing." Repealing a law passed by Congress, signed by the President, and upheld by the Supreme Court is "the most pressing issue" in the country. Seriously?

In no particular order, here are 10 issues that are more important than repealing the PPACA.

1. The expanded practice of governing through executive orders begun by George W. Bush and continued by Barack Obama. House Republicans seemed fine with the practice during the Bush administration and Senate Democrats are fine with Obama's use of the instrument even though the practice seems more reminiscent of a monarchy than it does a republic.

2. In that vein, Congress continues to abdicate its power to declare war. The Afghanistan war is the longest in our history, but Congress never bothered to declare war. Now, the President is apparently preparing to attack Syria without any Congressional debate.

3, The surveillance state has run amok and Congressional leaders seem unwilling or unable to do anything to stop it.

4. The "too big to fail banks" that brought the country to the bring of economic ruin are still too big to fail. Further, nothing has been done to prevent those institutions from engaging in the same practices that led to the recession.

5. Economic stagnation threatens the basic American Dream, the promise that one's children will have a better life than their parents. Please spare me the ridiculous chestnut that Obamacare is causing this stagnation. It's been a decades long trend.

6. Our roads, bridges, electronic grid and other infrastructure are crumbling. Our broadband efforts to create and maintain a broadband infrastructure trail many other nations.

7.The country doesn't seem to have a coherent plan to deal with China or any other rising economic power.

8. Terrorism, nuclear proliferation, chemical WMDs are still bigger threats than a legally enacted law.

9. The country and the world still relies on Arab states for oil. The nation has no coherent plan to deal with energy. On a related note, I'm not sure that country has a secure food supply.

10. The revolving door between government and corporate America that centers control in fewer hands.

Now that I think about it, the most pressing issue facing our country might be the people who believe Rhoden's rhetoric because their screams to eliminate Obamacare have prevented serious efforts to deal with any of the more pressing issues.

Obama Blamed For Things That Happened Three Years Before He Took Office

I meant to get to this item yesterday, but forgot even though I find these poll results hysterical.

I didn't vote for President Obama in 2012. I thought his drone use and his civil liberties record was flawed even before the recent NSA revelations. I tend to hold Presidents responsible for their actions in office. Apparently, Republicans in Louisiana have high expectations for junior United State Senators from Illinois:

A significant chunk of Louisiana Republicans evidently believe that President Barack Obama is to blame for the poor response to the hurricane that ravaged their state more than three years before he took office.

The latest survey from Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling, provided exclusively to TPM, showed an eye-popping divide among Republicans in the Bayou State when it comes to accountability for the government's post-Katrina blunders.

Twenty-eight percent said they think former President George W. Bush, who was in office at the time, was more responsible for the poor federal response while 29 percent said Obama, who was still a freshman U.S. Senator when the storm battered the Gulf Coast in 2005, was more responsible. Nearly half of Louisiana Republicans — 44 percent — said they aren't sure who to blame.

Seventy-four percent of Louisiana Republicans think Obama should be blamed for something that happened three years before he was sworn in. I wonder if failure to respond to Katrina before he took office will be one of the articles of impeachment.

A Minor Musing Offering Advice To Republicans

Republicans recently announced a plan to rebrand, rebuild, and refocus.

They didn't talk with me, and they may not want my vote or my advice. I did, however, offer some unsolicited advice to South Dakota Democrats, so it seems fair that I do the same for Republicans. I believe this post will be much briefer than the missive to Democrats. This post will  hopefully be more pithy, parallel and alliterative.

First, instead of trying to guarantee a gun for every hand, the GOP should promulgate policies that will help working class Americans regain their ability to put a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage.

Second, instead of protecting those who benefited from it, work to undo the damage caused by what Adam Posen describes as "a corrupt capture of a big chunk of our political and economic system where a lot of legislation, regulation, and corporate decisions were directed to maximizing the benefits for the few people in charge of financial firms."

I suspect that this advice applies to Democrats as well. They, however, do not seem nearly as beholden to the NRA nor did they run a candidate for President who was going to build a garage with an elevator.

Quotation Of The Day: Republican Party Devoid Of Soul

From former Republican presidential candidate John Huntsman in this Daily Telegraph interview:

"The party right now is a holding company that's devoid of a soul and it will be filled up with ideas over time and leaders will take their proper place,"

Quotation Of The Day: Republican Party Perception And Reality Edition

From this Daniel Larison post at The American Conservative:

Regardless, it’s also important to understand that those conservatives interested in a political vision of “rugged individualism, privacy, [and] minimal government” had no major party candidate available in this election. The younger cohorts of voters have never encountered a Republican ticket that supported these things in practice. When it has been in power, the Republican Party they know best has been the fiscally irresponsible, welfare state-expanding party of unnecessary wars, torture, and intrusive and illegal anti-terrorist measures. The modern Republican Party is the party of the entitlement status quo for current beneficiaries, the national security state, and an ever-expanding military budget. That is hardly promoting “rugged individualism, privacy, and minimal government.”

As I have repeatedly said, I am troubled by the "unnecessary wars, torture, and intrusive and illegal anti-terrorist measures . . . the national security state, and an ever-expanding military budget." Equally troubling is the fact many of the current entitlements go to corporate welfare which Republicans nearly unanimously support.

I don't think Democrats have all or even most, of the answers, but perpetual war, torture, the expanded security state, and corporate welfare are a noxious mix that prevent me from ever seriously considering myself a Republican.

Person Who Helps Determine What Goes In Nation's Textbooks Claims People Who Voted For Obama Racist Maggotss

Given some of the hyperbolic reactions that South Dakotans have had to Obama's re-election, (sorry, I can't bring myself to link to Howie's site to back up my point about hyperbole) one should have expected that Texas would do it much bigger. Hardin County Republican treasurer Peter Morrison wants to separate from the Untied States:

"Let each go her own way," he writes, demanding an "amicable divorce" from the U.S. and from the "maggots" who re-elected President Obama.

Evoking the history of Confederate soldiers who refused to surrender after Gettysburg, Morrison, 33, calls for Texans to fight "in hopes that Providence might shine upon our cause."

Morrison is particularly angry at Asian-Americans and Hispanics who backed Obama, accusing them of voting on an "ethnic basis."

"'They' re-elected Obama," Morrison wrote. "He is their president."

Given that I don't know who chairs the Democratic or Republican parties locally, I really shouldn't care what a racist Texan writes in a "race-heavy newsletter."

On the other hand, "Morrison was chosen by former State Board of Education Chairman Don McLeroy to help screen Texas public school textbooks."

It's taken as an article of faith in the education community that Texas has a disproportionate impact on the textbooks used the nation's schools. Even Fox News says so:

Since Texas is the second largest consumer of textbooks in the U.S., publishers often create a book that meets Texas standards and then sell the same version to school districts across the country.

I hope Dr. Blanchard has posts some back up material to help South Dakota history teachers remind students that the Civil War was about slavery and nothing else. I have no desire to parse the sentence: "Everyone who voted for President Obama is a maggot." I don't want to use that sentence as an example of a metaphor either.

Morrision's ideas, however, may make my job as a debate coach easier. Last session, Representative Steve Hickey pushed through a resolution urging schools to teach the Bible. Romans 13 poses some interesting questions about succession or "separation."

1 Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.

The Bible also has that pesky little reminder that everyone is created in God's image; it's tough to see how people created in God's image and who did their duty and voted are "maggots," but I don't live in Texas and I'm not a Republican.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/11/08/4399621/hardin-county-gop-official-wants.html#storylink=cpy

STEM Politicians Showing Themselves Penny Wise But Pound Foolish

Because Republican governors borrow bad ideas so frequently, this Florida news item frightens:

Highly distinguished universities, such as the University of Florida and Florida State University, could charge more than others. Tuition would be lower for students pursuing degrees most needed for Florida's job market, including ones in science, technology, engineering and math, collectively known as the STEM fields.

The committee is recommending no tuition increases for them in the next three years.

But to pay for that, students in fields such as psychology, political science, anthropology, and performing arts could pay more because they have fewer job prospects in the state.

Dan Luzer points out that the plan makes little economic sense:

. . . .Florida’s economy is largely based on international trade, tourism, and agriculture.

It’s unclear how this proposed policy change would help Florida’s actual citizens. The chief benefit seems to be allowing colleges to raise money without the legislature appropriating additional funds. That might be fiscally useful in the short term, but it fails to address the long-term problem with the state’s public higher education: the state isn’t providing the institutions with the money they need to continue operating.

It also seems puzzling to charge more for people who want to major in psychology, political science, anthropology, and the performing arts. Those classes are, in general, actually cheaper for a university to teach and administer than classes in sciences, engineering, and technology, which generally require expensive materials and laboratories.

I know that English majors are a pesky lot. Some may be free thinkers, or, God forfend, atheists. Even the liberal arts majors who are atheists, however, spend their lives trying to live out a Biblical injunction from Philippians 4:8:

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

I haven't seen anyone engineer virtue or honesty. The mathematical formula for beauty hasn't been developed.  In my cynical nature, I wonder if the STEM folks just want to get revenge on Walt Whitman for this poem:

When I heard the learn'd astronomer;
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them;
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;
Till rising and gliding out, I wander'd off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.

Still Another Summation Of Why I Can't Be A Republican

Michael Gerson, "the head speech writer and a senior policy adviser to President George W. Bush" sums up succinctly why the contempoary Republican party is not conservative, why it should not call itself the party of Lincoln,  and why I can not be a Republican in the current climate:

Yet a Republican ideology pitting the “makers” against the “takers” offers nothing. No sympathy for our fellow citizens. No insight into our social challenge. No hope of change. This approach involves a relentless reductionism. Human worth is reduced to economic production. Social problems are reduced to personal vices. Politics is reduced to class warfare on behalf of the upper class.

A few libertarians have wanted this fight ever since they read “Atlas Shrugged” as pimply adolescents. . . . I do believe that Republicans often parrot it, because they lack familiarity with other forms of conservatism that include a conception of the common good.

But there really is no excuse. Republican politicians could turn to Burkean conservatism, with its emphasis on the “little platoons” of civil society. They could reflect on the Catholic tradition of subsidiarity, and solidarity with the poor. They could draw inspiration from Tory evangelical social reformers such as William Wilberforce or Lord Shaftesbury. Or they could just read Abraham Lincoln, who stood for “an unfettered start, and a fair chance, in the race of life.”

Instead they mouth libertarian nonsense, unable to even describe some of the largest challenges of our time.