WHAT SEAN HANNITY WON'T TELL YOU...

Texas, the wingers favorite Free Market Fairy State, is in deep financial problems:

Legislature likely to cut deep to meet possible $25 billion budget gap

12:59 AM CDT on Monday, October 25, 2010

By ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News
rtgarrett@dallasnews.com

AUSTIN – Texas faces a budget crisis of truly daunting proportions, with lawmakers likely to cut sacrosanct programs such as education for the first time in memory and to lay off hundreds if not thousands of state workers and public university employees.

Texas' GOP leaders, their eyes on the Nov. 2 election, have played down the problem's size, even as the hole in the next two-year cycle has grown in recent weeks to as much as $24 billion to $25 billion. That's about 25 percent of current spending.

The gap is now proportionately larger than the deficit California recently closed with cuts and fee increases, its fourth dose of budget misery since September 2008.

ILYA SOMIN: POLITICAL IGNORANCE IS RATIONAL

Somin blogs at The Volokh Conspiracy and has argued that political ignorance is rational:

...voters have incentives to be “rationally ignorant” about politics because the extremely low chance that any one vote will be decisive means that there is little payoff to acquiring additional knowledge.

I suppose FAUX News and Fats Limbaugh only help his argument, which in the end seems to be little more than that we should all trust in the Free Market Fairy.

EXTRAORDINARILY IRRESPONSIBLE

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) told Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday that the House GOP are willing to let the United States go into default.   This is the most destabilizing comment I've ever come across from a national politician.  I can't imagine anything worse for American businesses than to be faced with this huge threat to the American economy.

I WAS WRONG AGAIN

I wrote below that I believed the stimulus package was as large as politically possible but now I think that I (and Pres. Obama) were wrong.  David Dayen at Firedog Lake observes that that a larger stimulus bill could have been passed through the reconciliation process, just like health care reform.

THE NOONAN BLASTS THE SNOW SNOOKI

Mort Kondracke calls Palin a "joke" and Peggy Noonan goes straight for the jugular by calling Palin a "nincompoop."   Pass the popcorn!!!

THE MOTU ARE THE ONES WHO REALLY ARE OUT OF TOUCH

spencer at Angry Bear has a nice post about adulterer Jack Welch, former GE CEO:

Jack Welch on CNBC
Posted by spencer | 11/04/2010 05:34:00 PM
It was fascinating watching Jack Welch on CNBC this morning.

He kept talking about how we needed to sacrifice to balance the budget.

But at the same time he kept pushing that the Bush tax cuts had to be preserved.

I kept wanting to ask Welch what he was willing to sacrifice to balance the budget.

He sure seemed like he was the typical CNBC host or guest that was quite willing to ask others to sacrifice but did not offer to make any sacrifices himself.

So my question is Jack Welch, what are you willing to sacrifice to balance the budget?

For some, the sick poor will have to do the sacrificing (h/t Atrios):

Texas Considers Medicaid Withdrawal
By EMILY RAMSHAW
Published: November 6, 2010
NY Times

Some Republican lawmakers — still reveling in Tuesday’s statewide election sweep — are proposing an unprecedented solution to the state’s estimated $25 billion budget shortfall: dropping out of the federal Medicaid program.

OK, MARK LEVIN SAYS "JUMP TO IT" AND WHO LISTENS?

 Levin had Joe Miller on his radio show yesterday and urged his listeners to call the NRSC and urge it to support Joe and like magic, Sen. Cornyn, head of the NRSC, sends out an e-mail to donors:

The National Republican Senatorial Committee sent out an e-mail Friday morning urging donors to help U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller.

Miller currently trails the "write-in votes" category by more than 13,000 votes, but the potential for errors by write-in voters makes that margin less certain than in a conventional race. Sen. Lisa Murkowski ran a write-in campaign to retain her seat after losing the Republican primary to Miller.

Sen. John Cornyn, the NRSC chairman, asked supporters to donate to help Miller with expenses during an anticipated "lengthy recount."

"We need to get Joe the resources he needs to win the vote count. Because we need Joe to join our fight against Barack Obama," Cornyn said in the e-mail.

Sen. Jim "Waterloo" DeMint's PAC is  "currently exploring exactly how it can assist Miller, the Republican nominee, on the fundraising front in what is expected to be a costly and drawn-out ballot-counting process. " (h/t David Weigel)

IF OLBERMANN HAD TO GO, WHAT ABOUT SEAN HANNITY?

This list is from the FEC:

HANNITY, SEAN
, NY 11743

PIRRO, JEANINE F     VIA PIRRO FOR SENATE INC
	02/17/2006	-2100.00	26020273535

HANNITY, SEAN
OSYTER BAY, NY 11771
FOX NEWS/BROADCASTER

GOMEZ, JOHN B MR.     VIA JOHN GOMEZ FOR CONGRESS
	05/01/2010	2400.00	10930984497
	05/01/2010	2400.00	10930984496

HANNITY, SEAN
OYSTER BAY, NY 11771
FOX NEWS/TALK HOST

MANY INDIVIDUAL CONSERVATIVES HELPING ELECT LEADERS EVERYWHERE (MICHELEPAC)
	08/31/2010	5000.00	10931302436

HANNITY, SEAN MR
LLOYD HARBOR, NY 11743

PIRRO, JEANINE F     VIA PIRRO FOR SENATE INC
	10/28/2005	-2100.00	26020052975
	10/28/2005	2100.00	26020052975
	10/28/2005	4200.00	26020052975

Total Contributions:    11900.00

SO MUCH FOR THE VAUNTED RASMUSSEN

The Baggers always brag about how accurate the Rasmussen polls are but the truth this time seems to indicate that that is just another conservative delusion.

Rasmussen Polls Were Biased and Inaccurate; Quinnipiac, SurveyUSA Performed Strongly
By NATE SILVER
November 4, 2010, 10:41 pm

The 105 polls released in Senate and gubernatorial races by Rasmussen Reports and its subsidiary, Pulse Opinion Research, missed the final margin between the candidates by 5.8 points, a considerably higher figure than that achieved by most other pollsters. Some 13 of its polls missed by 10 or more points, including one in the Hawaii Senate race that missed the final margin between the candidates by 40 points, the largest error ever recorded in a general election in FiveThirtyEight’s database, which includes all polls conducted since 1998.

Moreover, Rasmussen’s polls were quite biased, overestimating the standing of the Republican candidate by almost 4 points on average. In just 12 cases, Rasmussen’s polls overestimated the margin for the Democrat by 3 or more points. But it did so for the Republican candidate in 55 cases — that is, in more than half of the polls that it issued.

Rasmussen seems to have gotten its reputation for two good years, 2004 and 2006:

Rasmussen’s polls — after a poor debut in 2000 in which they picked the wrong winner in 7 key states in that year’s Presidential race — nevertheless had performed quite strongly in in 2004 and 2006. And they were about average in 2008. But their polls were poor this year.

FATS LIMBAUGH MUST BE TAKING DRUGS AGAIN...

That's the only explanation I can come up with to account for this incredibly stupid remark:

Rush Limbaugh, taking issue with a statement Karl Rove made Tuesday night about the “lesson” learned in nominating O’Donnell, argued that both Angle and O’Donnell lost because they were abandoned by party elites.

“Christine O'Donnell could have won were it not for all the backbiting after her primary victory,” Limbaugh said on his radio show Wednesday.

HERE'S WHERE WE NEED A WAR ROOM

Prominent wingnuts like Michele Bachmann  and Glenn Beck have been complaining that Pres. Obama's upcoming trip to India is far too expensive although there is no reliable estimate of the cost.  The WH should have people all over this "issue" to make sure everyone knows the wingers are full of shit.

IS MARCO RUBIO A DARK HORSE FOR 2012?

Mark Levin thinks Rubio would be a terrific Presidential candidate in 2012 and John Gibson also spoke very highly of Rubio.  Levin definitely represents the movement conservative branch so I'm wondering if Rubio will be the Bagger favorite?

THERE'S NO POINT IN EVEN TALKING WITH THE GOP

When this is their main agenda:

McConnell: GOP's 'only' option is to defeat Obama in 2012
By Michael O'Brien - 11/04/10 09:16 AM ET
The Hill

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) will say Thursday that defeating President Obama is Republicans' "only way" to truly halt his agenda.

McConnell's comments are a doubling-down on his remark last week that Republicans' top priority during the next two years would be to defeat Obama.

"Over the past week, some have said it was indelicate of me to suggest that our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny President Obama a second term in office," McConnell will say Thursday during a speech at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

"But the fact is, if our primary legislative goals are to repeal and replace the health spending bill; to end the bailouts; cut spending; and shrink the size and scope of government, the only way to do all these things it is to put someone in the White House who won’t veto any of these things," the top Senate Republican will add.

POST-ELECTION PUNDITRY NARRATIVE

I listened to the election coverage by NPR and the BBC's World Service and I was struck by how one conservative meme has taken hold among the pontificators, namely that reducing the deficit is the most important issue for most Americans.

According to the national House exit polls, this simply isn't true:

WELL, AT LEAST I TRIED...

I donated some money to Tarryl Clark because I thought she might be able to beat FAUX News Freakshow Michele Bachmann but that's not going to happen.  I HAZ A SAD!

AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM

Baggers go on and on about "American Exceptionalism" and I've only once gotten a clear explanation from a poster at POLITICO: America isn't subject to the normal proceedings of history and that means, among other things, that American will never be eclipsed on the world stage.

Today Fats Limbaugh gave his own definition:

If you want police citing you for eating too much trans fat, vote Democrat. If you want death panels in your health care legislation, vote Democrat. If you want higher health care costs, vote Democrat. If you want to believe that we are not a great country -- and Michael Kinsley today writing in Politico actually says we're not a great country and never have been and he's all ticked off about people who say we are, the exceptionalism thing is overdone. And he illustrates how he totally misunderstands what American exceptionalism is. He ought to listen to me. American exceptionalism is not that we're better people. It's not that we're any different DNA-wise. It's not that we're special. It's not that God has chosen us. American exceptionalism is this: The history of the world is oppression, tyranny, authoritarianism, control, dungeons, and prison. The history of the world is people living in squalor. Check it. The history of the world is human misery. The United States is the exception. And why?

Not because we're better people but because of our founding documents and the notion that our freedom is part of our creation, that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, among them life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. Our Founding Fathers codified our very existence in our founding documents. Our Founding Fathers wrote a Constitution that limits the freedom of government, that limits the reach of government. That is what is exceptional about America. Sometimes the whole phrase "American exceptionalism" is lost. Try to look at it this way. There's a standard, whatever it is, and then there's an exception to the rule. We are the exception to the rule of humanity. The rule of humanity on this earth has been torture, imprisonment, squalor, totalitarianism. We're the exception to that rule. Human freedom. That's what American exceptionalism is, and it is at risk.

ONE OF THE BETTER WONKETTE HEADLINES

Study: Boozing Bad For Society, Eat Mushrooms Instead

by Riley Waggaman


Gawker took the trouble to provide the list:

Alcohol 72
Heroin 55
Crack 54
Crystal meth 33
Cocaine 27
Tobacco 26
Amphetamine 23
Cannabis 20
GHB 18
Benzodiazepines 15
Ketamine 15
Methadone 13
Butane 10
Qat 9
Ecstasy 9
Anabolic steroids 9
LSD 7
Buprenorphine 6
Magic Mushrooms 5
Getting high on life 0

IF ANYONE TELLS YOU THAT PRES. OBAMA HASN'T DONE ANYTHING...

direct them to this comprehensive list of achievements.

SOMETIMES I CAN'T KEEP MY MOUTH SHUT

I was canvassing a likely voter and in the side yard were two other men.   One of them started to speak to me as I waited for the likely to check if others likelies were home and pretty soon the exchange became heated.   The Bozo told me he doesn't vote because it's a complete waste of time and followed that up with something else along that line.  I think I said "Good," meaning I was glad he didn't vote.  He then continued with some statements about money but I wasn't sure of the point he was trying to make.  When he said "I wasn't born yesterday" I said "yes you were."

That really pissed him off and he began telling me over and over again that he was a veteran, as if that made his case (whatever that was) stronger.   He stood up and asked me my age and then if I had served in Vietnam (he claimed to have done so).  I told him the truth - no, I had a high number - and he then sat down.

CRAP I MISSED

ABC News decided to hire wackjob Andrew Breitbart to do some election night agit-prop and Master David Brooks thinks people are more worried about "values" than the economy.

I'm worried that ABC News has ditched its responsibility "value."

GOTV TIDBITS

After 5 days of canvassing for Gabrielle Giffords, it doesn't seem like there's much, if any, of an enthusiasm among Democratic voters.  Overall, this district is moderate even though the GOP has a registered voter advantage and this is a hint how a nation-wide Bagger candidate will do with people who think Mark Levin's a wackjob.   If Giffords wins, that means Levin and the Baggers LOST.

I was a little surprised that about half the people who received vote by mail ballots hadn't sent them by the deadline.