From Mustang Bobby I’ve learned that Fox News is going to let the entire Republican presidential field take the stage in their two debates.

(CBS News) Fox News announced another change to its August 6 Republican presidential candidate forum on Tuesday, removing the requirement that candidates clear at least one percent in an average of national polls to qualify for the second-tier debate.

To what end? Is this because their core audience was threatening to turn off the TV if the entire Republican Clown Car wasn’t allowed on stage? Is their core audience even in the economic range needed to adequately support higher ad fees? Does the “get off my grass!” crowd even leave their homes to buy stuff for fear their lawns will get trampled? Or perhaps it’s an effort to get the younger, more hip, and more loose with their money crowd to watch the Keystone Pols?

You know, it just doesn’t seem to be a viable commercial move on the part of Fox.

Oh, wait. Fox ain’t commercial, they’re propaganda. My bad.

(BBWW) At any rate, the Koch brothers, for whatever reason, are phobic about publicity and they go to great lengths to hide their connections to seemingly independent and grass-roots movements.  I’m sure they have their reasons; not everyone likes the limelight.  But you would think that if they believed their causes were noble and good for everyone in America, they wouldn’t go to such great lengths to keep it under wraps.

Modesty is one thing, and anonymity is admirable when you want the focus to be on the result rather than the benefactor, but it almost sounds like they know what they’re doing is nefarious and that they’d be ridiculed or even prosecuted if the bread crumbs led back to their lair.

I couldn’t have written it better myself.

(Booman Tribune) I love the writing here. But I don’t really think of it as a slow, almost imperceptible process. Certainly, you can trace the long, slow progress from Goldwater to Gohmert. But there have been sudden tectonic slips that have jolted the crazy forward.

I think one of the less appreciated legacies of the Bush administration is that they made Republican ideology incoherent. One moment the GOP was calling for the liquidation of the Department of Education and planning to let Medicare “wither on the vine,” and the next moment they were giving us No Child Left Behind and Medicare Part D. One moment they were closing down the government because they wanted spending cuts, and the next moment the vice-president was telling us that Ronald Reagan proved that deficits don’t matter. One moment Bush was campaigning on a more humble foreign policy and the next moment, if you weren’t with us, you were against us. The Bush administration was awful from every perspective you might wish to view it, and that includes the movement conservative’s perspective.

But movement conservatives were nonetheless willing to go along with the Bush administration and defend it with the harshest, coarsest, most vituperative language and rhetoric. As they unlearned logical consistency, they also lost the ability to think clearly. Logic became a kind of threat.

So, that was the first real tectonic slip. The next came in late August and September of 2008 when, first, Sarah Palin was selected as John McCain’s running mate, and then the economy completely collapsed. It became almost immediately clear that Sarah Palin was a colossal moron who had absolutely no business on a presidential ticket. It also became clear that John McCain had no idea how to deal with the financial crisis, as he suspended his campaign, unsuccessfully tried to skip a presidential debate, and called for an emergency meeting at the White House where he had nothing to say.

This forced the conservative movement to defend both McCain and Palin is ways that no sentient human being should ever defend other human beings. I believe the experience caused permanent collective brain damage to the entire Republican community. Arguing that Sarah Palin should be a stroke away from the nuclear football will do that to a brain, and a political party.

The final straw, however, was the decision to oppose every single thing the president tried to do. They turned him into a monster when he was never a monster. He became the Kenyan socialist usurper. That was a decision that Mitch McConnell made before the president was even sworn into office. And the result was that the Republican Party started rejecting their own ideas and labeling them communist plots to destroy the country. At that point, with all the bad habits already ingrained, the party just lost control of its base.

They hadn’t governed according to their “principles,” and they had ramped up the fear of the Democrats to such a height that the base decided that they were facing some existential crisis.

Basically, the big steps were ideological inconsistency followed by epic failure which both required people to defend the indefensible which broke people’s logical brains and respect for the truth which then caused them to respond to manufactured fear with rebellion against their own puppet masters.

You will have to go read his post to learn what writing he loves. It is a pretty good metaphor he linked to, but I liked his step by step analysis of the decent of the Republican Party into madness.

This cannot be stressed enough; the Republicans in the House of Representatives changed the rules in a naked grab for power and control with no thought of actual leadership or benefit for the country.

I think this post over at Booman Tribune by Geov Parish really nails the truth about the damage done to the Republican Brand.

A lot of students didn’t get why this couldn’t be resolved (“Can’t the president just make them do it?” “Don’t they know that people are suffering?”) or why other countries never have something like a government shutdown (cue explanations of the strengths and weaknesses of our unique government structure, and the purpose, when it works properly, of checks and balances). Several students had parents who are public employees for the city or county; they were worried that their dads would be laid off. (“Those are separate budgets, so, no – but in the long term they get affected by the money that filters down from the state and feds.”) And so on. After about 20 minutes of listening to this, a small kid up front raises his hand and asks, simply, “Are Republicans stupid?”

Let me get one thing straight; when a thirteen year old can ask that simple of a question, it goes a long way towards showing that the Republican Party has screwed itself. Geov is right, kids have a bull shit detector. It is obvious from this story that the Republican bullshit is not being accepted by kids. Understand, this is the impression of a future voter. And do not think he is alone.  This impression is at an age when it will damn near be indelible.

And since to be Republican is to be associated with Conservatism……..

Yeah, the Republican Party/Conservative movement is screwed. I cannot help but wonder if this means they will be wondering the political wilderness for decades and decades.

Update: Yeah, go ahead, throw a frivolous lawsuit at me because I forgot a title to this post. Well, I fixed it now, so bugger off!

Eric Cantor given control of House in late night rule change by GOP.

And now we know why the GOP cannot get anything done in the House of Representatives; they are bickering over who’s in charge like children in the playground at recess.

However, the rule change pushed through in the dead of night without any oversight or debate instead put the authority to proceed into the hands of the majority leader in the house, Eric Cantor. This is the same Eric Cantor who is known for having gutted anti-corruption and bribery legislation. And now, he runs the show. Even House Speaker John Boehner can not bring it up to a vote.

This rule change was uncovered by Maryland Representative Chris Van Hollen, who brought it to the House Floor late last week, as you can see below.

This needs to stop. Our country’s welfare is at stake and these Republican Bozos in the House are playing power games.

(MSNBC) Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signed harsh restrictions on abortion into law on Friday, setting the stage for a court battle with pro-choice groups over the new requirements.

The new law would require doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at hospitals within 30 miles of where a procedure is done and mandates ultrasounds for all women before the can get an abortion.

Planned Parenthood and Affiliated Medical Services has already filed a suit challenging the law, arguing that it violates the constitution’s guarantee of due process. Women in Wisconsin are already forced to listen to a presentation and wait for 24 hours between that appointment and actually getting an abortion.

Two of the four clinics in the state have said that they would have to shut down because of the law, leaving Wisconsin’s women with dramatically reduced options for essential reproductive care, particularly in the large rural part of the state.

Congratulated a friend on living in a state that mandates sexual assault.

Her: “Thank God for missing parts!!!”

Me: “Oh, I bet they figure out a way to criminalize that as well! Can’t have you women folk messing with the natural way of things! Be Pure or Die! That’s the Republican motto these days.”

(Roll Call) Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., announced on Wednesday that she will not seek re-election in 2014.
In an 8-minute-long video posted on her website, Bachmann detailed her decision, which she said had nothing to do with the recent investigations into her failed presidential campaign’s finances.
“After a great deal of thought and deliberation, I have decided next year, I will not to seek a fifth congressional term,” she said in a straight-to-camera delivery.

What? No claim of wanting to spend more time with her family?