A SITE DEDICATED TO BAGGER JEEBUS

(h/t Wonkette)

The Tea Party Jeebus site pokes a lot of fun at the Baggers.  Here's just one example:

The text is a quote from Bryan Fischer of the AFA.

SOMETHING ELSE YOU WON'T HEAR FROM LIMBAUGH OR HANNITY

(h/t Raw Story)

With Tax Break, Corporate Rate Is Lowest in Decades
BY DAMIAN PALETTA
WALL STREET JOURNAL
FEBRUARY 3, 2012, 1:02 P.M. ET
BY DAMIAN PALETTA

WASHINGTON—U.S. companies are booking higher profits than ever. But the number crunchers in Washington are puzzling over a phenomenon that has just come into view: Corporate tax receipts as a share of profits are at their lowest level in at least 40 years.

Total corporate federal taxes paid fell to 12.1% of profits earned from activities within the U.S. in fiscal 2011, which ended Sept. 30, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That's the lowest level since at least 1972. And well below the 25.6% companies paid on average from 1987 to 2008.

COULTER VS. LEVIN UPDATE

I'm sorry to report that this conflict hasn't spread all over the place. I used LexisNexis to look for mentions of their disagreement over Mittens in Newpapers & Wires, TV and Radio Transcripts, and Blogs and only found hits in the last category:

1.	Flashback Coulter: "If you don't run Chris Christie, Romney will be the nominee and we'll lose." Atlas Shrugs, February 2, 2012 Thursday 10:05 PM EST, 666 words, Pamela Geller
2.	Levin Takes Down Coulter on RomneyCare BizzyBlog, February 2, 2012 Thursday 6:36 PM EST, 198 words
3.	Levin Takes Down Coulter on RomneyCare BizzyBlog, February 2, 2012 Thursday 5:35 PM EST, 191 words
4.	Just Because Something May Be Constitutional Doesn't Mean It's Good Policy Say Anything, February 2, 2012 Thursday 6:50 AM EST, 517 words

On Memeo, I found a blog post by Erick Erickson of Red State that sides with Levin.

I COULDN'T RESIST

Mediaite isn't running out of snark:

ANOTHER NARRATIVE CONTRADICTION

Mittens seems to be just as incompetent as all the other conservatives (e.g. here):

Faced with good news about economy, Romney dissolves into incoherence
By Greg Sargent
Posted at 10:59 AM ET, 02/03/2012
WaPo
Since Mitt Romney announced his candidacy last June, he has continually made two core claims about Obama’s economic record, each of which contradicts the other. Depending on the moment, Romney has said either:

1) Obama didn’t cause the recession, but he made it worse; and his policies have destroyed jobs.
or
2) Yes, the economy is recovering, but only in spite of Obama’s policies, not because of them.

Today, in response to the better than expected jobs numbers, Romney tried out a third line: 
The economy may or may not be recovering, but one thing is certain: Obama’s policies are preventing a “true” recovery.

IS IT ROMNEY OR IS IT PERRY?

If Romney weren't such a lousy politician, you would think Mr. Stupid Perry said this:

Mitt Romney: We Are The Only People Who Put Their Hand Over Our Hearts During The National Anthem

I guess Mittens clean forgot all about the Olympics he ran:

CHINA

Even the "Cheese-eating Surrender Monkeys" contradict Mittens:
FRANCE

WSJ TRIES TO DEFEND MITTENS

Laura Ingraham mentioned this otherwise I wouldn't have read this WSJ editorial:

Mr. Romney's failures to communicate are common among businessmen and other normal people who have the right instincts but haven't spent their lives thinking about politics.

First of all, you don't need a frigging lifetime in politics to have an output editor. Second, Mittens has spent years in politics according to this online biography:

In 1994, he ran for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts but was defeated by longtime incumbent Edward Kennedy.
In 2004 Romney authored the book Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership, and the Olympic Games.
Romney parlayed his success with the Olympics into politics when he was elected governor of Massachusetts in 2003. After serving one term, he declined to run for reelection and announced his bid for U.S. president.
Romney continued to keep his options open for a possible future presidential run. He maintained much of his political staff and PACs, and raised funds for fellow Republican candidates. In March 2010 Romney published a book titled No Apology: The Case for American Greatness in March 2010. The book debuted on the New York Times Best Seller list.
At a farm in New Hampshire on June 2, 2011, Mitt Romney announced the official start of his 2012 campaign.

COULTER V. LEVIN, DAY TWO

Hannity had Ann on his radio show, so it seems that he's relatively OK with her support for Romny Care.  Philip Klein of the Washington Examiner is definitely against her position:

Coulter's shameful defense of Romneycare
by Philip Klein
Senior Editorial Writer
February 1, 2012 8:04pm

YOU KNOW YOU MADE A MISTAKE...

when even someone as extreme as Sen. DeMint calls you out:

DeMint Calls on Romney to Reframe Comments on Poor
By David M. Drucker
Roll Call Staff
Feb. 1, 2012, 2:28 p.m.

IS THIS A FIRST?

Mark Levin has attacked this Ann Coulter column that defends Romney Care and he used her name, repeatedly.  This column has upset a lot of people, including the Freepers.

THE PROBLEM WITH MITTENS

I'm not picking on the guy just because he is at least nominally a conservative but he's politically tone deaf:

"I'm in this race because I care about Americans," Romney said. "I'm not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I'll fix it.

I suspect that Mittens doesn't know what it's like to be very poor, just like he didn't seem to know that the vast majority of people just can't "fire" their health insurance company because they are dissatisfied with the service.

On the positive side, this latest unforced error allows Newt a chance to slam Mittens.

MORE ON TURNOUT

Other people have remarked on the relatively disappointing GOP primary turnout and Nate Silver did the basic research:

South Carolina may be home to more reactionary extremists because DeMint is perhaps the biggest rightwing wacko in the Senate and that could account for the higher turnout. Michael P. McDonald dug into the Florida results and found that Newt won the districts that had a higher turnout compared to 2008.

From this we can draw a provisional conclusion: right now, there aren't that many Baggers in the GOP.

TURNOUT IN FLORIDA DISAPPOINTING

According to the Florida Dept. of State, the 2012 turnout for the GOP primary was only 1,669,462.  In 2008, it was 1,926,830.   Based on these 2 numbers, I'd say the GOP base isn't thrilled with the candidates.

CLASS WARFARE WITHIN THE GOP?

In the last 2 days, I've heard Fats Limbaugh and John Gibson talk about a divide in the GOP primary voters between (roughly) white-collar Romney supporters and blue-collar Gingrich supporters.

Some Baggers, like Judson Phillips, have lined up behind Newt, but it's not clear to me that the Baggers are still a force in the GOP, mostly because of the failure of Michele Bachmann's campaign and the inadequate fund raising by Sarah Palin's own PAC.

If the GOP loses some blue-collar support, then perhaps Kansas will return to "normal".

THE PAST REALLY IS PRESENT THIS TIME

Back during the mean times of HilaryCare, Newt and the Heritage Foundation did support an individual mandate.  I find attacks based on positions held over a decade ago suspect so I didn't mention this before now because it turns out Newt still supported an individual mandate in 2009!!!

So, the leading Not-Romney has about the same position on health care as Pres. Obama.  For a liberal, does it get any better than this?

THIS ISN'T AN OUTRAGE BUT SHOULD BE DISCUSSED

(h/t The Dish)

There's some fuss about a term I sometimes use, "Israel-Firster," and Glenn Greenwald has dived into this "issue."  

In doing so, he found a pretty interesting piece of information about Newt's Sugar Daddy, Sheldon Adelson:

In a talk to an Israeli group in July, 2010, Adelson said he wished he had served in the Israeli Army rather than the U.S. military—and that he hoped his young son would come back to Israel and “be a sniper for the IDF,” a reference to the Israel Defense Forces. (YouTube video of speech)
“I am not Israeli. The uniform that I wore in the military, unfortunately, was not an Israeli uniform.  It was an American uniform, although my wife was in the IDF and one of my daughters was in the IDF ... our two little boys, one of whom will be bar mitzvahed tomorrow, hopefully he’ll come back-- his hobby is shooting -- and he’ll come back and be a sniper for the IDF,” Adelson said at the event.
“All we care about is being good Zionists, being good citizens of Israel, because even though I am not Israeli born, Israel is in my heart,” he said toward the end of his talk. 

"WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS" HAS A NEW INTERPRETATION

When applied to conservatives, it means "Stupid within Stupid" and Palin's remarks about Newt (below) are a good example.  First of all, doing something just to piss someone else off is a bit childish. Second, there are plenty of real conservatives who think Newt is a piece of shit.  Third, liberals would be delighted to have Newt win the nomination.

PINK FLOYD & SARAH PALIN???

For those of us who are Floydies, that coupling alone is jarring but that's what popped into my mind when I heard about Caribou Barbie endorsing Newt Gingrich:

Here's former political person Sarah Palin continuing her weird quest to endorse Newt Gingrich without really endorsing him, telling weekend Fox News muppet Jeanine Pirro that Republicans should vote for Newt Gingrich now to "rage against the machine" and "annoy a liberal."

Goodness, really: "Vote for Newt. Annoy a liberal. Vote Newt."

(For those unfamliar with Pink Floyd, the song "Welcome to the Machine" is from their 1975 album, Wish You Were Here. The song is a condemnation of the crass commercialism of the music industry.)

This endorsement upset Glenda Beck who is convinced that Newt is another Republican Progressive.

NEWT IS A REALLY LOUSY HISTORIAN

David Weigel reports that he said this at one of Glenda Beck's favorite places in Florida, The Villages:

"How many of you remember that moment in 1968 when America put a man on the moon?"

We first landed a man on the Moon in 1969, not 1968.

DOES NEWT THINK HE CAN GRAB SOME OF FETUS BOY'S SUPPORTERS?

In addition to promising to ban ALL embryonic stem cell research, Newt indicates that he will take a very hard look at in vitro fertilization:

Gingrich vows to ban embryonic stem-cell research, questions in vitro practices
By Karen Tumulty, Sunday, January 29, 4:19 PM
WaPo

Speaking at a Baptist church in Winter Park on Saturday, the former speaker received a standing ovation when he declared that embryonic stem-cell research amounts to “the use of science to desensitize society over the killing of babies.”

And in a news conference Sunday, he said he would ban all embryonic stem-cell research, including that done on discarded embryos created by in vitro fertilization.

Gingrich added that he would also create a commission to study the ethics of in vitro fertilization, which has involved the creation of hundreds of thousands of excess embryos stored or discarded by fertility clinics.

“I believe life begins at conception, and the question I was raising was what happens to embryos in fertility clinics, and I would favor a commission to look seriously at the ethics of how we manage fertility clinics,” Gingrich said at a news conference outside another Baptist church here. “If you have in vitro fertilization, you are creating life; therefore, we should look seriously at what the rules should be for clinics that are doing that, because they are creating life.”

I WONDER WHY DRUDGE SUPPORTS MITTENS?

Drudge hasn't endorsed Mittens but he's more than willing to headline dirt about Newt. From the NYT:

A team of some of the most fearsome researchers in the business, led by Mr. Romney’s campaign manager, Matt Rhoades, spent days dispensing negative information about Mr. Gingrich, much of it finding its way to the influential Drudge Report, which often serves as a guide for conservative talk radio and television assignment editors and to which Mr. Rhoades has close ties.

The effort hit a peak by Thursday, when the site was virtually taken over by headlines assailing Mr. Gingrich, whose advisers said they eventually gave up on trying to persuade the Drudge staff to spare them, acknowledging, in the words of one aide, that “very little can be done.”

WHY IS IT EVEN CLOSE?

The movement conservatives are so extreme that I wonder how long before they turn into a fringe novelty movement.  Here are just two examples: Neal Boortz has been running a promo for his show in which he states that Pres. Obama is "vermin" and Bagger favorite Allen West wants liberals to "get the hell out of the United States of America."

Both these guys sound more like crazies on a public bus than responsible adults.

THE DECLINE OF AMERICA

It's not because Caribou Barbie is given time on FAUX News because FAUX is a bad joke; it is because gasbag Donald Trump was given time on Face the Nation and it's not April 1st;