Newt Watch - Turning Up The Crazy

Feb 13th, 2012

Image via Salon

It's understandable, I suppose, that Gingrich would be trying to beat Rick "Crazy-Pants" Santorum at his own game. After all, Santorum's star seems to be rising with the GOP base in direct proportion to his widening orbit away from both reality and decency.

But, two of Newt's recent statements are particularly unbelievable:

Defeating President Obama is now "a duty of national security" because "he is incapable of defending the United States."

Uh huh. Tell that to Qaddafi and Bin Laden.

Even more rich is this gem from Raw Story:

"At a campaign event in Suwanee, Georgia, the former House Speaker told supporters that he would bring back cheaper gas because "you can’t put a gun rack on a Volt."

Hee haw.

CPAC Round Up

Feb 11th, 2012

The annual Conservative Political Action Conference is always interesting to watch. In this election year, it's essential viewing. Coinciding with the ugliest primary battle the GOP has had in living memory as well as a rapidly widening disconnect between Republican elites and their own base, the 2012 gathering is predictably reactionary.

As TPM reports, there is a lot of gloom in the room. Reinforcing what we've seen over the last week, the elites who have hijacked the mantle of American conservatism are intent on using CPAC 2012 to reignite the American "culture wars" of the 1990s.

Who Elected The Idiots

Jan 18th, 2012
by Bill McCormick
reprinted from his terrific blog, nudehipponews

A little history for those playing along at home. In 1996 Tom Clancy wrote a book called Executive Orders. It had three very eerie story arcs that concerns us today. The first was that terrorists would use airplanes to wipe out the U.S. Government. Second was that the US Government, what there was of it, would target an individual leader in the Middle East for execution and, third, that the people would rise up and elect “common people” to public office so that real Americans could finally get represented. Before I get to those arcs I’d like to point out that while Clancy’s politics are to the right of mine he is no idiot. He is careful in his assertions and thorough in his research. He also tells one hell of a good story when he sets his mind to it. His mistake is the same as William F. Buckley’s was in the 70′s when he eviscerated Dr. Martin Luther King’s vision of civil disobedience by comparing it to rioting and looting. Both men assumed that everyone got the point, and – when required – the joke. In other words both men assumed that every conservative was similar to them.

They were wrong.

Quote Of The Day - Here and Now Edition

Sept. 8th, 2011

"Perhaps not since George McGovern’s annihilation at the hands of Richard Nixon in 1972 has a candidate’s Primary base been so alienated from the center of American political thought as the Tea Party is today. Make no mistake: no candidate who doesn’t convincingly throw the red meat to the Tea Party audiences will have a sliver of a chance of getting nominated."
-- Jamie McFadden, writing for Frum in the wake of last night's GOP debate.

Quote Of The Day

Aug 29th, 2011

"In the fevered state of our country, no good can ever result from any attempt to set one of these fiery zealots to rights, either in fact or principle. They are determined as to the facts they will believe, and the opinions on which they will act. 

Get by them, therefore, as you would by an angry bull; it is not for a man of sense to dispute the road with such an animal."
-- Thomas Jefferson

Who Elected These Guys?

August 1st, 2011

The answer has been clear for months. From The American Audacity:

"We didn't vote in 2010 and we felt good teaching our President and party a lesson. We will pay for this Tea Party revolution for decades to come. We gave the GOP and Tea Party full control of the US House and the majority of the State legislatures and governorships. Now the GOP can force their Voter ID disenfranchisement laws and supply side economics down our throats with a serving of cultural warrior demagoguery as a desert. We have no one to blame but ourselves for our own lack of participation in electing our brand of government in 2010. As for the President, the professional left opposition left him out to dry in 2010 and now they want him to kowtow to them on his knees. Fat Chance of that in the near future."

The same liberal Americans who refused to vote are pushing for the "14th Amendment Solution." Forget the fact that that would lead to months of protracted legal wrangling and a guaranteed impeachment of the President by the House. This may in fact be what this "crisis' has been about all along. Others from this bunch are actively promoting a primary challenge to Obama in 2012. The Kennedy challenge against Carter very nearly ensured the election of Reagan, but who cares.

It's long past time for the American Left to take some more responsibility for the current disaster.