Republican civil war

Rep. Kingston (R-GA) is the one on the rightIt would be a very alternative universe, indeed, if Georgia Republican Congressman Jack Kingston were ever looked at as anything other than a hard-right conservative-- except of course if you compare him to other Georgia Republicans.

Michael Needham first started appearing on the pages of this blog just over a month ago, in a story about how the Republican Party is being Cruzified. Needham is a spoiled, slimy little operative for the right-wing extremists around Jim DeMint and his Texas protégé, Ted Cruz.

Joshua Holland, author of The Fifteen Biggest Lies About The Economy and a senior producer for Bill Moyers, has been spectacularly scrupulous in exposing right-wing talking points about the economy.

Earlier today I got into a bit of a revery about my days working at the Rainbow Cattle Company and the Cinch in San Francisco. What I didn't get into is that it was part-time work and the pay didn't even cover my meager pre-gentrified Mission District rent. Without food stamps… well, I don't know what I would have done. Certainly not start a record label that led to eventual payments of millions of dollars in taxes into the U.S. Treasury.

I have a crazy old ex-boss why still calls from time to time, usually to harass me about politics, which he sort of follows from time to time. His father was a ward boss in the Bronx when FDR was president and later a municipal judge. My friend is a life-long Democrat, although he loves Rudy Giuliani "for keeping us safe" and because he's a HUGE fan of "stop and frisk." He constantly berates me for "your boy Obama" no matter how many times I tell him I voted for the Green Party candidate, not for Obama. And his ideal Democrats are Bill and Hill. He loves the Clintons.

Can you guess which political party these 2 are leaders of?Conservatives report that they weigh more than liberals report weighing. That isn't just because more liberals are starving and poor or because conservatives are selfish, greedy bastards who inevitably all turn into Chris Christie and Rob Ford.

Monday morning, the Washington Post noted that the big money GOP Establishment groups, particularly the Chamber of Commerce and Rove's Crossroads have not opened the financial spigots for the Republican Party to the extent they have in the recent past, "spending dramatically less to help

People pay less attention to politics in one-party states. And with the decline of the Louisiana Democratic Party following the 1964 Civil Rights bill, that state has become more and more of a right-wing Republican bastion. African Americans dominate one (of 6) congressional districts, LA-02, basically New Orleans and the black neighborhoods on the north side of Baton Rouge, 80 miles away. That shockingly gerrymandered district attempts to pack as many African-Americans (and Democrats) into one district as possible and it is 63% African American (the state is 32% African American).

In his attempt to fool low-info New Jersey independents and Democrats that he's a moderate and not really a conservative, Chris Christie may have inadvertently convinced conservatives across the country. He was reelected governor of New Jersey last week-- while voters rejected his agenda and specifically overturned his veto of a bill raising the minimum wage.

I know just where to go for some Inside-the-Beltway convention wisdom and yesterday I found out that momentum has swung away from House Democrats and towards House Republicans-- they're tied at 39-39%-- because Obama's image has suffered due to the amateurish roll-out of the Affordable Care Act website. The GOP-directed media frenzy over the website worked. And now it's time to get back to reality.