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Do you ever wonder why Republicans hate public education? A lot depends on which Republicans you're talking about. The Old Skool Conservatives just don't think wealthy men's taxes should go towards educating poor men's daughters. That kind of defines core conservatism. But the GOP New Skool isn't conservative; it's some kind of sick conglomeration of reactionaries, neo-fascists, racists and nihilists. They fear and oppose modern society in general; it almost makes no sense even discussing issues with them from the perspective of reason.

When Elizabeth Warren rails against what she called "backward-looking ideologues" she meant the 15-20 reactionaries who met to plot strategy with Ted Cruz at the notorious Tortilla Coast meeting Monday night, a meeting that included outright racists and secessionists like Steve King (R-IA), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Steve Southerland (R-FL), Mark Meadows (R-NC), Jim Jordan (R-OH) and, of course, Louie Gohmert (R-TX).

Although Pelosi said on Tuesday that Boehner apparently needs to humor his troops, she claimed that the chances of a deal to prevent a default tomorrow are good-- even if poor McConnell is being pilloried by DeMint, Cruz and the crackpot suicide caucus for "leading the surrender." In case yours got stuck in the spam folder, his is from the letter DeMint's Senate Conservatives Fund sent out to their supporters claiming McConnell "has made winning virtually impossible" for the far right, while McConnell and Reid were trying to hammer out a compromise that both sides could live with and that w

Please watch the Bill Moyers video above. We're going to talk a little about it in a moment. But before we do, I want to remind you who Paul Ryan is. If you had just landed from Uranus or Neptune and perused the Beltway media, you would come away thinking Ryan is a "serious" and "thoughtful" mainstream political leader. He isn't.

Yesterday the congressional Republicans, having all read and digested the horrifying (for them) polling on their a tattered brand, decided to change tactics and see if people will like them more if they demand the Democrats gut Social Security and Medicare instead of delaying Obamacare.

A number of Republican congressmembers have referred to their own colleagues as terrorists, not just privately, but for attribution. Devin Nunes famously called the teabaggers driving the GOP crazy train as "lemmings with suicide vests... They have to be more than just a lemming. Because jumping to your death is not enough," he said.

Boehner has been widely quoted in the media saying that he will not allow a default. Apparently, he will be precisely as capable of delivering on that as he has been on not allowing a government shutdown.

You've probably seen a parade of Republican clowns wooing teabaggers by insisting that the government be sent into bankruptcy unless Obama agrees to defund the Affordable Care Act. That's all their irresponsible-- and/or delusional playing for the cameras. Most of the noise has been coming from far right Confederates in all white gerrymandered districts. But Wednesday Tom McClintock was up to the same trick in California. Watch him up top. His district is very safe-- with a PVI of R+10.