Beautiful Horizons

Wisconsin's Tea Party GOP hates America

This sinister scheme is amazing in it's openness and arrogance:

The Wisconsin legislature is finalizing a bill to close ten Department of Motor Vehicle centers located in Democratic districts within the state. The money saved will be used to extend operating hours at DMV centers in Republican districts. These cuts come on the heels of new voter ID laws that require voters to present a state-issued photo identification card at the poll booths.

Is Clarence Thomas the biggest beneficiary of "Weinergate" ?

Anthony Wiener has - to my knowledge and despite the insinuations by FOX News about "contact" with  underage girls - broken no laws but he's proven himself to have next to zero judgement for a high-profile politician, in emulating the behavior of an adolescent obsessed with his own privates on Twitter. 

The narcissism and hubris he displayed is as disturbing as the parallel public obsession with his pathetic and embarrassing activities in some absurdly assumed "private" domain. I think, given that he's opened up a Pandora's Box of publicity about his personal habits, he needs to resign and let the rest of us get on with our lives, as should he. 

But my distaste for Wiener's behavior is out-distanced by my disgust at his letting his private demons destroy some valuable political contributions he has made.  And I wonder whether the timing of Weinergate has anything to do with the fact that Memorial Day weekend he was using the same social media he abused as a...uh...horny jerk to push for an investigation of Clarence Thomas' ethics violations - violations that actually impact the integrity of the nation's highest court:  

What is already in the public record is shocking, to say the least, in that it involves potentially  20 years of violations of disclosure rules by Thomas, whose wife was bringing nearly $800,000 of income into their family home, unbeknownst to the public, while conducting very public advocacy on issues that are sure to come before the court, namely, healthcare reform.

So Weiner goes down for being an asshole while Thomas skates over the thin ice of overt corruption and coverup?  More HERE.  

Recommended reading - Stiglitz on income inequality & Bator on the "debt crisis" hysterics

Nobel Prize winner & former chief economist for the World Bank Joe Stiglitz has a great piece up at Vanity Fair, no less, on how growing income inequality in the US destroys the social fabric - DanO referenced this as well in his good post below, but I wanted to call specific attention to recommending the entire piece.And I also want to recommend Harvard political economist and former consultant to LBJ and to the Treasury Dept, Francis Bator's  commentary at the Financial Times,  stating flat out "There is no US federal debt crisis (as distinct from a governance crisis and tax-phobia crisis.)"   Here & here.  

Oh, and in that vein I'll also flag some great news: In 2010, CEO pay went up 27%, while worker pay went up 2%.  Things are looking good!

The GOP truly has gone even crazier in the wake of their mid-term gains...

  Kevin Drum  has it:

"A growing swath of conservatives apparently thinks that states can seize control of all federal healthcare spending just by banding together and getting Congress to agree. They also apparently believe that states can require taxes to be paid only in gold or silver bullion. What's next? Now they believe that the House can pass its own budget, H.R. 1, without agreement from either the Senate or the president:"

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said at a press conference that Republicans would consider the Government Shutdown Prevention Act on Friday. The bill would make H.R. 1 law if the Senate fails to pass a measure “before April 6” to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year.

....“We’re serious. We want to take care of this problem so we can get on about the business of this nation and get Americans back to work,” Cantor said.

"By Republican standards, I guess this actually does count as serious. But that says more about modern Republican standards than it does about the meaning of the word 'serious.'"

The 2nd Amendment

Pop Quiz - identify the respective authors of the  following quotes regarding intent of the founders in establishing the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution:

1)  The Second Amendment exists "to guarantee the rights of states to form militias, not for individuals to bear arms." 

A. President Barack Obama

B. Barbara Streisand

C. Huey Newton

D. Robert Bork

E. Arizona Congresswoman Gifford

2) The NRA's interpretation of the 2nd Amendment "is one of the greatest pieces of fraud, I repeat the word 'fraud', on the American public by special interest groups that I have ever seen in my life."

A. Michael Moore

B. George Clooney

C. Chief Justice Warren Burger

D. Ralph Nader

E. Robert F. Kennedy

Answers below the fold:

Thank God we live in a country...

...that wasn't founded by raving anti-private property communists, like this guy:

Reasons not to celebrate a comeback if you're a GOPer - #1

The (growing) Latino vote.

Good election post-mortem

Marc Schmitt at American Prospect.

Biggest Election Casualty: Keynesianism

    Peter Beinart over at the Daily Beast outlines the case, here.  

Two cheers...

for "defeat."