[cardinal43]

I just don't know, but it sure is fun to watch (from afar, in another country).

What the hell, it's fun to watch from the other side of the US.

[Parallax]

What the hell, it's fun to watch from the other side of the US.

I was thinking the same thing.
The Threes Stooges may be long gone, but we still have political candidates...... and Congress.

[deadwolfbones]

Public Policy Polling: Trump takes the lead

Only 38% of Republican primary voters say they're willing to support a candidate for President next year who firmly rejects the birther theory and those folks want Mitt Romney to be their nominee for President next year. With the other 62% of Republicans- 23% of whom say they are only willing to vote for a birther and 39% of whom are not sure—Donald Trump is cleaning up. And as a result Trump's ridden the controversy about Barack Obama's place of birth to the highest level of support we've found for anyone in our national GOP polling so far in 2011.

Trump's broken the perpetual gridlock we've found at the top of the Republican field, getting 26% to 17% for Mike Huckabee, 15% for Romney, 11% for Newt Gingrich, 8% for Sarah Palin, 5% for Ron Paul, and 4% for Michele Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty.

Among that 23% only willing to vote for a birther Trump is cleaning up even more, getting 37% to 13% for Huckabee and Palin, and 10% for Romney and Gingrich. He's a lot weaker with the 38% who say they're perfectly happy to vote for someone who's dismissed the birther theory- with them Romney leads at 23%, with Huckabee at 18%, Trump at 17%, Gingrich at 10%, and Palin at only 7%.

I'm still pretty skeptical that Trump's going to run but if he doesn't someone who taps into the same sort of hard, hard right sentiment he's appealing to right now will get their votes- it's hard to imagine these folks voting for a more centrist candidate like Romney or Pawlenty. And that means there's a very serious contingent within the Republican Party that's less concerned with beating Barack Obama than having a nominee who gets them fired up. That suggests many GOP voters have not learned the lessons of Nevada and Delaware and that Obama may survive despite his weak approval numbers because the Republicans end up defeating themselves.

[deadwolfbones]

ROFL

Speaking in New Hampshire, Rick Santorum was tripped up a bit when a student asked him if he knew that the choice of his campaign slogan, "Fighting to make America America again," was borrowed from the "pro-union poem by the gay poet Langston Hughes," the New Hampshire Union Leader reports.

Said Santorum: "No I had nothing to do with that. I didn't know that. And the folks who worked on that slogan for me didn't inform me that it came from that, if it in fact came from that."

When asked a short time later what the campaign slogan meant to him, Santorum said, "well, I'm not too sure that's my campaign slogan, I think it's on a web site."

Never change, Santorum.

[larryinlc]

Tea Party rally in Madison today didn't go so well for Sarah. I understand that Andrew Breitbart told the crowd to go to hell four times because they were drowning him out.

YouTube - Tea Party Rally Madison April 16th

[deadwolfbones]

Marilyn Davenport, a Tea Party activist and member of the Orange County Republican Party's central committee, is drawing fire from people in her own party after circulating a racist email depicting President Barack Obama and his parents as chimpanzees. In the email: "Now you know why — No birth certificate!"

"Oh, come on! Everybody who knows me knows that I am not a racist. It was a joke. I have friends who are black. Besides, I only sent it to a few people--mostly people I didn't think would be upset by it."

UPDATED: Racist Orange County Republican Email: President Obama and His Parents Are Apes - Orange County News - Navel Gazing

[ihasa]

Might as well start drawing up the secession plans now. The regressives aren't interested in reason, debate and democracy; they want to turn back history, and slave-owning privilege has wormed itself into their DNA.

Give them a state of their own, seal the border, and sit back and watch. Make it one that is far from other population centres, so you can take them out with neutron bombs if they turn aggressive.

I'm kidding of course (I think!) but maybe a form of UK-style devolved government may end up being the only solution for the regressives if they continue in their 'race to the bottom' of politics and discourse.

[deadwolfbones]

I just can't believe someone used "I have black friends!" as an excuse for racism in this day and age. Truly stunning.

[ihasa]

I'm sure by 'friends' she doesn't really mean 'gardeners'...

[Nesster]

So is this a sign of some fracturing within the Movement? Jan the Governor vetoes birther and gun bills:
Arizona governor vetoes birther, campus gun bills - Yahoo! News

PHOENIX (Reuters) – Arizona's Republican Governor Jan Brewer on Monday vetoed two controversial bills, one mandating proof of U.S. citizenship to run for president, the other allowing guns on college campuses, in a clear setback for conservatives who control the state legislature.

Brewer, who grabbed headlines a year ago when she signed a get-tough state law cracking down on illegal immigrants, vetoed the bills in an announcement late on Monday.

The so-called "birther bill," would have made Arizona the first state in the nation to require presidential candidates prove U.S. citizenship by providing a long form birth certificate, and other forms of proof including baptismal or circumcision certificates, to be placed on the state ballot.

"I never imagined being presented with a bill that could require candidates for president of the greatest and most powerful nation on earth to submit their 'early baptism or circumcision certificates' ... This is a bridge too far," she said..

A former Arizona secretary of state, Brewer said she did not support designating one person as "gatekeeper to the ballot for a candidate," as it "could lead to arbitrary or politically motivated decisions."

We'll see if Arizona Republicans override her veto...

[Nesster]

DOG OWNERSHIP TO BE OUTLAWED

For much of the past decade, the Iranian government has tolerated what it considers a particularly depraved and un-Islamic vice: the keeping of pet dogs.

During periodic crackdowns, police have confiscated dogs from their owners right off the street; and state media has lectured Iranians on the diseases spread by canines. The cleric Gholamreza Hassani, from the city of Urmia, has been satirized for his sermons railing against "short-legged" and "holdable" dogs. But as with the policing of many other practices (like imbibing alcoholic drinks) that are deemed impure by the mullahs but perfectly fine to many Iranians, the state has eventually relaxed and let dog lovers be. (See the top 10 animal stories of 2010.)

Those days of tacit acceptance may soon be over, however. Lawmakers in Tehran have recently proposed a bill in parliament that would criminalize dog ownership, formally enshrining its punishment within the country's Islamic penal code. The bill warns that that in addition to posing public health hazards, the popularity of dog ownership "also poses a cultural problem, a blind imitation of the vulgar culture of the West." The proposed legislation for the first time outlines specific punishments for "the walking and keeping" of "impure and dangerous animals," a definition that could feasibly include cats but for the time being seems targeted at dogs. The law would see the offending animal confiscated, the leveling of a $100-to-$500 fine on the owner, but leaves the fate of confiscated dogs uncertain. "Considering the several thousand dogs [that are kept] in Tehran alone, the problem arises as to what is going to happen to these animals," Hooman Malekpour, a veterinarian in Tehran, said to the BBC's Persian service. If passed, the law would ultimately energize police and volunteer militias to enforce the ban systematically.

Iran: Dog Ownership to Be Outlawed Under Lawmakers' Plan - Yahoo! News


Oh wait, wrong country

[ihasa]

So is this a sign of some fracturing within the Movement? Jan the Governor vetoes birther and gun bills.

Hopefully the start of a swing back to some form of common sense. Hope it catches on.

[GeneV]

Hopefully the start of a swing back to some form of common sense. Hope it catches on.

When Jan Brewer starts to look like common sense, we are in trouble.

[jeffkrol]

Tim Pawlenty and Michele Bachmann have both appeared before Iowa’s Family Leader, a religious right group that has hosted a seminar that compares being gay or lesbian to second-hand smoking. The Family Leader is inviting all presumptive presidential candidates to speak at the group’s events, and some reporters have started to ask those candidates if they share the views of the group. ThinkProgress caught up with Pawlenty and Bachmann recently and found that neither candidate had much of an answer to the question, “Do you think homosexuality is a health risk?”

The seminar, called “The Second-Hand Effect of Same-Sex Marriage,” asks, “Think two people of the same gender ‘loving each other’ is pretty harmless to the rest of society? Think again! We will share the REAL results of that lifestyle.”

And, “We’ve all heard that second-hand smoke is bad for our health. But how does homosexual activity compare? This seminar exposes the health problems directly linked to homosexual behavior, and reveals how it affects the rest of society.”

Pawlenty, Bachmann unsure if gays as harmful as second-hand smoke | The American Independent

[GeneV]

Pawlenty, Bachmann unsure if gays as harmful as second-hand smoke | The American Independent

After looking over that site, I'd say the only real health risk remotely tied to gay sex is more caused by the failure of society to recognize gay unions. Unprotected, casual sex-- whether between people of the same sex or different sexes--is arguably a health hazard. Now, does making a sexual activity taboo and not possible within a recognized partnership make it more likely or less likely that sex will be more casual and less protected?