My last - I hope - post about Rick Santorum...but no promises.

Zealots…!  What are you going to do with them?  You can’t please them.  No matter what you do, all they want is to set things on fire, riot and kill people.  Crazy knuckleheads…

Iraq is slowly descending into chaos as US influence wanes, largely because the two major divisions of Islam, Sunni & Shia, still haven’t come to terms with a 1,500 year-old dispute over who should be the successor to the prophet Muhammad as caliph of the Islamic community.   This dispute threatens to tear apart, not only Iraq, but undermines the entire Muslim world, from Pakistan and Indonesia across the Middle East and on into Africa.  Literally millions of people have died in this titanic struggle over something that is otherwise utterly irrelevant to their day to day lives.  It’s a particularly poisonous brand of madness peculiar to religious struggle and has played out in rivers of blood over the centuries and in spite of human advances in every other area of endeavor.

Afghanistan too is embroiled in a frenzy of anger, killing and chaos because some dim-wit soldiers didn’t have enough sense to recognize that starting a bonfire with a bunch of tattered copies of Islam’s holy book would likely upset the locals.  This most recent demonstration of ignorance and bloated hubris by military types notwithstanding, the response – a crazed and savage week-long riot and killing spree – is all too common when the Afghans and Muslims in general feel that someone somehow disrespected the Koran, or the Prophet or any number of other totems.  Killing in god’s name carries a badge of honor that is almost incomprehensible to the modern West where we tend to opt for more sophisticated justifications – our “national interests”, for just one example.

As we watch with contempt the mullahs huddling in the back rooms of temples across the Middle East and acting as the power behind the erratic Amadinijads of the world, we congratulate ourselves for being above that – we unabashedly spend our time in the more modern pastimes of consuming everything is sight, drowning in the cult of celebrity and proclaiming freedom and liberty across the land.  We could never abide reclusive mystics and seers telling us how to live or what to think or how many times a day we should pray. 

Cut to Rick Santorum, leading candidate for president in America in this year of 2012.  This is a man who stated without shame that he doesn’t believe in the separation of church and state, one of the bedrock principles of the constitution.   He stands in front of the media and distorts the position of the current administration, inventing  hostility to religion that isn’t there, inventing conflict in the hopes of foisting his particular, twisted brand of theocracy on the ignorant.  The question of how this man can even exist as a major political figure in America in the 21^st century may be studied for years.   Yet today he almost wins the primary in Michigan preaching an incoherent brew of suppressed hatred and fear of women, the danger of birth control, unlawful carnal knowledge and the crumbling edge of the cliff leading to mandatory Christianity, home schooling and a butter churn in every kitchen operating by a barefoot and pregnant woman. 

This is a man with no joy in his life, regardless of how many children he has.  Were he to be forced to choose to govern by the strictures of the old testament or the constitution, which would he choose?  The righteous who are primarily guided in life by these 2,000 year-old metaphorical stories almost always live a life of fear and hatred, shame and the suppression of all of the bacchanal impulses that constitute the great joy of living.  Like a repressive mullah in a sweater vest, Rick promises that if he is elected he will govern with the wisdom of David if only we will all live the Christian life he envisions for us – where we promise to not have sex for fun and hate those who we have a duty to hate.

Even more dangerous is Santorum’s – and all of the republican candidates’ – bizarre and irrational support for Israel.  It doesn’t seem to be based on any reasoned geopolitical consideration – instead it is required because little baby Jesus was born in a stable in Bethlehem and played out most of his doomed existence along the Eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. 

Why does Santorum want to bomb Iran to a pile of cinders and broken glass?  Not because of any imminent threat to the United States; rather to protect Israel and an Israeli government too intransigent to stop building apartment buildings in the West Bank. 

Why does his foreign policy prominently feature our armed forces as the point of the spear – the default for solving the vexing problems of the world in the 21^st century?   For that matter, what motivates Newt Gingrich’s equally belligerent design for America’s place in the world?  Is it Old Testament biblical “smite thine enemies with the mighty sword of righteousness” rhetoric?  Is it any less dangerous than Amaninijad jabbering on, denying the holocaust or the overheated “Great Satan” nonsense coming from many of the religious leaders around the world? 

The other day in a widely reported speech, Santorum contemptuously ridiculed Obama’s call for an educated citizenry, practically spitting as he called him a “snob” for urging education as a path to a better life.  You have to scratch your head and wonder what could motivate him to take that position.  Could it be that a flock of the ignorant are more easily led over the cliff – would be more accepting of a Santorum government that dissects the constitution until there’s nothing left but the right to bear arms?  How long would that last if you were not a good and obedient Christian soldier?

Maybe I’m over-reacting; maybe the only reason Rick is still politically relevant is a deep-pockets supporter enabled by Citizens United, (an achingly ironic title to a disastrous decision, in my opinion).  Under previous circumstances he would have been rendered irrelevant and be at home in his "workshop" in the garage with the latest Glamour magazine by now.   But that is the crux of why his continued presence is so disturbing.   In its befuddled attempt to support “free speech”, the Roberts court has – perhaps unwittingly, perhaps not – allowed and enabled this cartoon character to make a legitimate run for the presidency of the United States. 

He lost last night, as it turns out, and he isn’t nearly as scary in the light of a new day.   Romney is scary in his own way – as a cross between George HW Bush and Thurston Howell the 3^rd – but if I had to choose I would leave the male version of Joan of Arc to wander the country looking for a bonfire.

“In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own. It is error alone that needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.”

I’ve been trying for three days to write about the change in tone of the presidential campaign, about the sudden prominence of the culture war, and about Rick Santorum particularly.  But every time I get started, some new blast of hyperventilating rhetoric more absurd and purposely provocative than the last is reported and I am flabbergasted anew and left speechless with wonder that some significant percentage of my country actually believes and supports this self-righteous and ignorant biblical blather.  And to further confuse me and give me pause, somehow it is the same party that is constantly complaining about big government and government controlling our lives that is expressly supporting the most intrusive policies and demanding that the government they purport to hate get more involved in the private lives of those other citizens who they obviously hate even more.   Huh…???

 It’s a race to find the edge of the cliff and it has continued during this brief pause in the campaign festivities between the delegate-free caucuses and beauty contests in Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado, won by the surging Rick Santorum, and the Michigan primary on the 28^th.  When they say Santorum is campaigning like a man possessed, they mean it literally, as he can’t seem to stop himself from going off on sputtering, pissed-off rants like a deranged and savage Elmer Gantry.  Santorum wants to outlaw contraception along with abortion.  He also thinks prenatal screening should be discouraged, if not outlawed entirely, because it can lead to abortions.  He is adamantly against pre-marital sex, women in the military, lesbian marriage, and women in church without hats.  And while he’s at it, he is in favor of a theocratic government where we all live by his particularly twisted values and home school all children, eliminating public education.  This is clearly a man who has never tried to help an 8^th grader with their algebra homework. 

Meanwhile small groups of tiny-penis republican legislators are working to require intrusive and mandatory ultra-sound for women seeking an abortion and defining “person-hood” as the instant sperm meets egg and therefore subject to further restriction on abortions which are heretofore, legal.  This person-hood horse shit means that birth control pills which prevent a fertilized egg from adhering to the uterus constitute abortion.   Are you kidding me?  It’s hard to take seriously except these people are clearly serious.   Mitt Romney is probably listening to Santorum’s sputtering stump speeches, sees that he has somehow “surged” in the polls and is now ahead of him and wants to turn to the camera and say, “You people realize this fucker is nuts, right?” 

There is only one explanation; desperation.   Nothing else explains how a nut-cup like Santorum is suddenly the front runner.   It’s like the Nazis using the V-2 on London; they had nothing to lose and everything to gain so who cares if it’s indiscriminate?   We’re losing so to hell with it.  Set loose the hounds!   On second thought, maybe there is another explanation.   It could be that the average republican voter is so godsmacked by the endless and nightmarish campaign that they have pulled the covers over their heads and are just hoping for morning.  Meanwhile the bug-eyed fanatics, misogynists and end-of-times true believers have taken the reins and are now driving the buggy.  It’s still headed the edge of the cliff but now the drivers don’t care.

I never thought I would yearn for the arrival of a new Barry Goldwater but I find myself wishing – for the sake of the country – that some normal republican would emerge from the choking, toxic cloud that seems to be enveloping us all.   If Santorum is the nominee he might win a dozen states.  Ironically, Romney might even do worse, as there is essentially nobody who is enthused about him except maybe chubby savior, Chris Christie, whose own enthusiasm serves to cover up his ambition, if only the Jenny Craig thing would work.   And poor John Boner; he’s a hyper-partisan prick but he’s not stupid.  He has to be spending his evenings chasing the ice cubes around in a glass of his good scotch and wondering how they could have so badly overplayed their hand and gone from November 2010 to the current disaster.

Yep; the lunatics are running the asylum, at least for now, and there’s not enough lithium on the planet to calm them down long enough for the hair on the back of their necks to lay flat.  With Michigan looming ahead like a dirty bomb in a train station, it’s only going to get weirder.   I know one thing; if I was a woman I would be going door to door in my neighborhood and making damn sure my sisters got the message, were registered and ready to vote when the time came. 

An open convention suddenly looms large...

It’s official.  The republican party has given up on the quartet of knuckleheads currently running for the presidency and is pinning its hopes on an open convention in Tampa in August.  Why do I think that, you may ask?  Well there are any number of reasons, ranging from the wide spread dissatisfaction with the former presumptive nominee, Mitt “Spit the bit” Romney to the sudden rise in the national polls of clearly unelectable religious fanatic, Rick “The Saint” Santorum.  There are now loud whispers about an open convention and names are bubbling to the surface as potential saviors like the bloated bodies from a month old shipwreck.

Speaking of which, noted train wreck Sarah Palin has emerged from semi-seclusion and, while excoriating Obama in a blast of typically incoherent gibberish, coyly dropped hints that she “is available” and “not ruling it out” when asked – again - if she was still interested in political office.   This could be interpreted as a sign of the apocalypse but since we’re trying to keep this a secular affair, let’s characterize it as something only slightly less ominous – confirmation of the likelihood of a republican convention in hot and humid Tampa this summer so thick with sweaty and deranged freaks, cartoon characters speaking in tongues, and corporate bag men it will remind terrified viewers of a grisly and feverish dream one might have after bingeing for a weekend on vodka, potato chips and peanut M&M’s.

The news today was once again overflowing with positive economic indicators and as anecdotal evidence I offer this; a long time friend of mine who owns a marina near Fort Lauderdale, Florida has swarms of pleasure boats descending on him this year already when two years ago he was half empty all summer and near given up for dead.  Yes sir, as surely as tomorrow is the day after today, the economy has finally turned a corner and is gearing up for a sustained surge of momentum which, if carried through the summer, all but dooms the tattered remnants of John Boner’s tea party army to an afterthought and tosses it into that special corner of irrelevance and ignominy reserved for the Edsel, New Coke, men’s platform shoes and fashionably blatant cocaine paraphernalia. 

The hideous weeping and obscenity laced and bitter tirades emanating from Capitol Hill are enough to disturb whales migrating up the East Coast.  Give it another couple of months and the finger pointing and blame distribution will be in full flower along with the cherry trees along the Potomac.  And the thought of having fucked up a chance to grab the White House and insure a republican majority in both houses has clearly driven the architects of treasonous obstructionism as a lifestyle to the edge of madness.  Today Bitch McConnell – in a desperate fit of pique worthy of a 7^th grader – has proposed that any employer be able to decide to not offer insurance to cover anything with which they have some kind of issue based on their deeply held convictions.  Right - like he has any that aren’t out front with a “For Sale” sign on them.   

They have hitched their wagon behind the donkey-like hierarchy of the catholic church and it’s idiot-savant presidential candidate, Rick Santorum, thinking there has got to be some traction to be gained by furiously harrumphing and posturing over the alleged “war on religion” being waged by their most hated Baptist, Barack Obama.  While the original pronouncement handed down by Ms Sibelious was heavy handed bureaucrat arrogance and typically tone-deaf, the amended position announced subsequently has satisfied all but the most Vatican-ized of the flock and really is no longer an issue. 

If these pompous and ignorant men want to pontificate on issues of women’s health and figure that’s going to be a winner for them, I hope they stick to that strategy right up until the ship is upside-down and heading for the bottom.   While Santorum is in the upstairs bathroom with the new Cosmo, millions of women who might otherwise agree with some of the more sensible parts of a traditional republican platform are going to go into the voting booth and pull Obama’s lever – so to speak – and will practically guarantee him a second term. 

So I personally am hoping for an open convention in August replete with hair-on-fire speeches about Armageddon and all manner of an impending Sodom & Gomorrah-style disaster if Obama is re-elected.  Floor speeches by the likes of Palin and Christine O’Donnell and Sharon Angel mixed in with red-faced torrents of hyperbole – maybe throw in some Glen Beck and Rush Blowhard, mix in a few old line fascists like Henry Kissinger, Cheney and Rumsfeld – all overseen by the chubby little devil, Karl Rove, would make for fascinating theater.   It would be like that time I ate the bad clams only with less vomiting…

It's the Culture War, stupid...

Is it a coincidence that a raging republican grease fire erupted this week over various aspects of the great cultural wars we are all witnessing in this second decade of the 21^st century?  After all, over the last 30 days there has a been a slew of positive economic news coming from every direction except Greece, undercutting presumptive nominee Mitt Romney’s reason for being and causing a massive rethinking of the whole 2012 presidential race in musty republican basements and country club bars across the country.  Combined with Mitt’s miserable results in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado and his less than triumphant win in the Maine caucus, his presumptiveness and electability are seriously in question.

Suddenly there is controversy and high profile outrage everywhere.   The Obama administration’s tone deaf and arrogant back hand to catholic health care providers over providing insurance that promises free contraception started things off and the republican congressional leadership, candidates and intelligentsia couldn’t pile on fast enough.  This was suspiciously coincident with a drop in the unemployment rate to 8.3% and the addition of 243,000 jobs in the last monthly report.   There is suddenly not as much talk about jobs.  Republican media outlets – are you listening, Faux News – went all Joan of Arc, declaring the awful negro was declaring war on religion, with Newt especially jabbering his usual bombast and claiming once again Obama’s intent to rule over a secular, socialist, anti-colonial, version of Denmark.

Ironically the same people howling over government intrusion in private “matters of conscience” over contraception pissed all over themselves reacting to the 9^th Circuit Court ruling California’s proposition 8 unconstitutional in banning gay marriage.  The brave republican constitutional scholars seem to have missed class the day they were talking about the equal protection clause and are screaming again about how allowing gays and lesbians to get married will ruin the sanctity of marriage and lead to millions of little homosexual children trying to indoctrinate their teachers and all the local townspeople and threatening us all – like Children of the Damned.    

The fact that the republican big guns are hammering Obama is more evidence that, 1.) almost no one wants to see Romney as the nominee.  He’s a walking empty suit spouting platitudes and meaningless gibberish and has no visible convictions.  #2.) none of the other candidates stands a chance to beat Obama.  I mean, seriously; President Santorum?  President Gingrich?  Nobody wants that.   3.) the only hope for desperate republicans and their corporate keepers is to have a brokered convention and draft someone currently sitting on the sidelines, hoping that in this day of 30 second attention spans and cocoon-like selfishness, the excitement and media somersaults that would follow such a thing would be enough to energize right-leaning independents and get the republican based enthused and voting. 

If the Maine caucus is any indication, way more republicans are staying home to watch TV than are interested in getting out and enthusiastically campaigning for someone.   In Maine you had a couple of thousand hearty souls brave the cold February night to vote in almost equal numbers for Romney and Uncle Ron Paul, a low turnout even by the pathetic standards of the last few primary events .  Total numbers for Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado was about 300,000, making Santorum’s “huge comeback" highly suspect.  Neither he nor anyone else is generating the kind of positive buzz that indicates building momentum.  It appears as if most republicans know in their hearts that they don’t have a winner in the group so they’re heaving a heavy sigh and letting the far right religious fanatics and social engineers do the heavy lifting.  But they won’t be enough to elect anyone.  These are the same people who start a fresh will every time Harold Camping has a new hallucination.       

After his nearly meaningless victories last week, Rick Santorum is declaring that it’s a two-man race between him and Mitt, that he’s the “real conservative” and the man best able to beat Obama in the fall.  Of course, he has to say that and it’s scary to think that even he believes it, let alone any of the pointy-headed autocrats that make up the moneyed interests of the party.    They know damned well he can’t win.

The far right of the party brought out their favorite attack Yorkie at the CPAC conference over the weekend, Sarah Palin, who delighted the crowd by tossing big chunks of red meat to them in the form of the standard criticisms of Obama mixed in with some “take our country back” racial code that had the audience practically holding up their lighters and cheering for an encore like the drug addled crowd at a 38 Special concert.   But most of the country is immune to Palin’s putative charms and understand that, fundamentally, she’s an ignorant opportunist and publicity whore and not much more.  She has all the political heft of Katie Perry.   However in her speech even she acknowledged that they got nothing so far and encouraged the party faithful to carry the torches on to Tampa, (an extremely desultory rallying cry if ever there was one), so that the one true hope can emerge. 

Unfortunately she’s probably thinking of herself.  Those same republican power broker guys sitting in front of the half empty bottle of scotch aren’t yearning for her to throw her straight-jacket into the ring anymore than they want varsity debate captain and angry beaver, Newt Gingrich to stagger out of western Florida this summer.  No, the smartest guys in the room want “none-of-the-above” and they’re hoping that John Boner, Bitch McConnell, Boy Wonder Eric Cantor and budget wonk and tea party poster boy, Paul Ryan can inflict enough damage between now and then by continuing to nip at Obama’s heels and pee on his leg every time he stands still that they can garnering a twisted coalition of social Nazis, immigrant haters, anti-tax crusaders, trailer park right wingers and half-mad government dismantlers that will support that one guy – any guy – who will end the torture and torment of a second Obama term.   Wake me up on Labor Day to see what happened.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

A US mistake trying to stop the Syrian slaughter

The international community is still trying to come to terms today with the failure of the resolution that attempted to deal with the continuing slaughter of citizens of Syria by strongman Bashar al-Assad.   Security Council members China and Russia both objected to the final language in the draft resolution that, judging from Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton repeated statements on the matter, originated with the US along with angry members of the Arab League who see their earlier struggles playing out again in central Syria.  Liberal champion Clinton and the State Department over-reached in helping draft the UN resolution by insisting on inserting language with the phrase “regime change”, thereby alienating two members of the security council – Russia and China - with restive populations they may also need to suppress and who aren’t anxious to put themselves in the position in which Assad currently finds himself.   Every time Hillary steps up to a microphone with her pinched lips and starts talking about regime change in that strange monotone I cringe. 

Hillary, honey, everyone knows the end game, whether it is Gadhafi in Lybia, Ben Ali in Tunisia or Assad.   You’re being kind of ambitious – and needlessly so – by first requiring a recalcitrant Security Council to agree to extremely harsh sanctions and throwing in an, “Oh-by-the-way, that includes regime change”, for good measure.  That’s like asking a girl for a threesome on the first date. Why not start with a cease fire?   Maybe throw in some UN peacekeepers.  But essentially demanding Assad’s head on a Pike was a bridge too far and counterproductive as it turns out.  Principles are fine but haven’t you ever heard of realpolitik – that exercise is unashamed political pragmatism so ruthlessly demonstrated by Nixon & Kissinger, thereby codifying it in the contemporary American foreign policy guidebook? 

Now Assad is free to go on mercilessly shelling Homs and killing his citizens at the slightest provocation.   Assad has to feel like he’s cornered; Iraq – while still struggling to keep its feet, is ostensibly a democracy now and a threat by its very existence.  Turkey to the north is a NATO member and the closest an Arab country comes to being ally of the West.  And of course, Israel is the stone in his shoe to the south.  He’s desperate with good reason and is doomed long term.  His repressive reaction to his country’s version of the Arab Spring blew up in his face and his savage doubling down has not tamped down the demonstrations.  Why can’t we show some finesse? 

There is a long history of the United States blundering in foreign policy matters – the proverbial bull in a China shop.   Witness the Bush administration and Saddam’s Iraq.  This administration has actually shown admirable restraint as the uprisings swept across North Africa.  I shudder to imagine what Bush, Cheney and their band of overwrought neo-con geniuses would have reacted as a very important ally in Egypt erupted and Mubarak was dragged off to jail.  The much criticized semi-intervention in Lybia worked out perfectly and we have been able to stifle our most intrusive impulses and let things unfold even though old war horses like John McCain led a chorus of highly partisan bitching and the republican presidential candidates attempted to take shots even as the policy was succeeding. 

Obama has also played his Iran cards almost perfectly, again, counter to normal US over-intrusiveness.  When the post election riots and demonstrations developed, the US offered encouragement to pro-democracy forces but not so much as to piss off the Mullahs unnecessarily.  We recognized that the only lasting way to have the hoped for “regime change” there was for it to develop organically.  That is was forcefully and viciously put down was an unfortunate result but only round one - it clearly laid the groundwork for future opportunities.  We have shown great patience in dealing with the fiery and unstable government leaders there while the right wants to dust off the nukes and obliterate them.  

 One of the great strengths of China has been its willingness to be patient and understand that what it wants to happen doesn’t have to happen tomorrow.   We need to develop that ability to see over the horizon and understand that it may take three or four strategic moves to achieve what the impatient chest-beaters want to happen yesterday. 

That’s why the clumsy handling of the Syrian resolution was surprising.  Of course there is a certain amount of urgency attached to the reports of people dying in the streets by the hundreds.  But all the more reason to read the room, understand that our requirement of regime change would undermine the ultimate end, and set our sights on some intermediate result, like a cease fire, to end the killing and relieve the pressure on the badly out gunned democracy protesters.  

All of this is taking place with the stability of Iraq crumbling as 1,000 years of tribal mistrust and animosity overwhelm the fragile political structure artificially put in place after our forceful and ill-considered experiment in regime change there.   The irony is stark and the lessons clear to anyone paying attention.   Call it gunboat diplomacy, nation building or peace enforced by bayonet; it doesn’t work.  The only instance of it working was in two countries that we completely destroyed and which had little choice but to accede to our wishes.   We all pray that the situation after world war two won’t be replicated any time soon so it’s time for us to abandon the idea – and indeed, the very wisdom - of forcing our notions of how countries are governed and by whom.  That’s none of our business – Uncle Ron Paul is right about that.  We should focus on getting the killing stopped and trying to help cooler heads solve problems without slaughter.

Hillary standing at a microphone, the stern schoolmarm, lecturing China and Russia about their veto of the Security Council resolution, is a foolish waste of time.  We should know they don’t care what we think and, moreover, get pissed off for having to hear it.  Maybe she’s tired; it’s been a tough three and a half years.  If that’s the case maybe she should take her threatened retirement early and let’s try it again.

Romney Trumps Gingrich and other news of the day

Trump endorsing Romney is pathetic in the same way that all these guys suddenly wearing Yankee hats appeared after they won the world series a few times in the 90’s; nothing like backing a winner to make yourself look like a winner as well – or it seems that way to losers.  That seems to be The Donald’s thinking.  After blustering about entering the race himself if the party didn’t choose someone to his liking, he waits until the winner – for all intents and purposes – is chosen and then he decides Mitt’s got the right stuff and Newt’s fired.  

Apparently not understanding how stupid this sounded, in his endorsement he said that, until recently he didn't know Romney well but after spending a couple of hours with him over cocktails, he was able to discern – with his abnormal super-powers – that Mitt’s that guy that he’s been looking to emerge.  Never mind that Mitt’s been running since December of 2008.  Trump has had a revelation and that means it must be the truth handed down from above.   It’s a measure of how awkward Mitt is without a script in front of him that he called the endorsement “a delight”, once again appearing like Doug Neidermeyer sucking up to Dean Wormer. 

In other campaign news, Rick “The Saint” Santorum, in an increasingly desperate attempt to galvanize and organize the rats jumping overboard from Newt Gingrich’s sinking cruise liner, is repeating previously discredited notions first propagated by noted medical expert, Sarah Palin, regarding so-called Obama Death Panels.  He’s finding an eager and attentive audience in James Dobson and his ultra conservative Focus on the Family, a band of raving, delusional Book of Revelation fanatics who believe that Obama has a 666 tattoo somewhere on his body. 

Saint Rick, bless his heart, continues to promote his own version of the dystopian future envisioned in THX1138 – well, minus the drugs, I suppose.  The way Gingrich’s campaign has morphed into Sherman’s march to the sea, it might be a worthy play; the conservative base still can’t abide Romney; his support consists of the 33% of the republican party descended from the Rockefeller wing plus the same gotta-back-a-winner pea-brains who latch onto anything that will validate them so they don’t feel like losers.  The rest are up for grabs.   

Newt isn’t getting any traction and has that whiff of slightly bad clams about him.  You’re not sure if you should throw them out but you also don’t want to eat them.  Ron Paul’s campaign has gotten stranger with every passing day – I thought he might have a chance in a libertarian, wild-west state like Nevada but he’s barely on the radar there, has no media coverage and more and more seems like he doesn’t give a shit.  So maybe Santorum can cobble together a coalition of sorts and at least impact the platform – maybe some additional budget money to build orphanages for all of the unwanted children that will result from the no-abortions- ever, no contraceptive, no pre-natal care, no sexual education, all abstinence / all the time, criminalization of pre-marital sex plank he’s carrying up to his own personal Gethsemane like it’s the one true cross and his alone to bear.  Or something…it could happen…

Also today, in the least surprising political development since Roosevelt was elected to a third term, John Boner derisively and insultingly scoffed at the increase in jobs reported today by recalling the hallowed reign of amiable dunce, Ronald Reagan, who inherited a similarly damaged economy and managed to turn it around, reducing the unemployment rate by 3.5% in the same time period that Obama has reduced it by 1.7%.  

Never mind the enormous structural difference in the US economy between then and now and the impact of increased productivity and globalization. Forget that our current problem is made exponentially more profound because it is founded in housing, the great underrated driver of job growth over the last 2 decades.  And ignore the huge defense build-up under Reagan that started us down the deficit path in the first place.  No, Boner’s job is spin the numbers in as negative a way as possible as often as possible and refuse to cooperate absolutely.  My guess is the republicans will find a reason to obstruct Obama's HARP II initiative to allow more home owners to refinance on some deficit-reduction grounds while ignoring the stimulative effects of hundreds of dollars in increased spending money in the hands of the miserable middle class.  

If only the democrats would cooperate, John laments – if they would get off their asses – we would have millions more jobs by now.  This is, of course, a laughable fiction made all the more preposterous by the recent history of the republican congressional leadership acting like children and fearing any hint of cooperation in the face of the clamorous tea party hamsters.   So, another day, another bit of political gamesmanship, another supreme act of cowardice from a man who may go down as one of the most cowardly and treacherous speakers in the history of the House of Representatives.

Finally, in the wake of the Susan G. Komen backward somersaults trying to extricate themselves from a monumental public relations disaster, we find the administration making a horrible and equally stupid public political mistake and one that is all too typical of do-gooder liberals trying to ram something down the throats of someone to whom they feel morally superior.  Requiring religiously affiliated health care organizations to, “require their private health-insurance plans to provide contraception, including abortifacients and surgical sterilizations in violation of Catholic teaching.”  I’m sure this seemed like an even handed application of the new health care rules – technically, it is.  However, as an example of completely tone-deaf and clueless bureaucratic stupidity, it’s off the charts.  What is gained and what is potentially lost?  Catholics, as a group, supported the original health care initiative as an outgrowth of its tradition and laudatory concern for the poor.  This desire for social justice is deep at the heart of catholic doctrine.  As much as I loathe the hierarchical nature of the church as expressed by the arrogance of the Vatican, and hate the contraceptive policy of the church, they have a right to it – one protected in the constitution.   

The Supreme Court has recently ruled in Hosanna-Tabor that a religious organization has broad latitude when it comes to its employment policies so the issue is probably moot.  But to make matters worse times two, this year the court is also set to take up the entire issue of the Obama Health Care law and, oh by the way, there’s an election in which you might want some of those catholic votes you seem to have dismissed in a rather cavalier fashion.  Stupid, stupid, stupid…a classic overreach by a bunch of knot-head apparatchiks and one they very well might live to regret.