Chris Matthews Hits The Donor State Issue

Wow, this is actual journalism on cable news. Chris Matthews just replayed Tom DeLay's comment that Texas gets back 70 cents for every dollar it gives to the federal government in Texas. Turns out they get back 94 cents. And the top 10 donor states are all blue, while 8 of the 10 states that take more back in taxes than they receive are red. Somehow, these "whiners" (Matthews' words) want to bitch and moan about how much they give to Washington in taxes, when the argument is much stronger among those states like California, New York and New Jersey.

This is almost never brought up on national television, and the wingnut forced to respond decided to change the subject, of course. But the fact is that the blue wealth-creating states have been dragging the asses of the red states for a long time, and it's really about time this gets some proper attention.

The Line Of Secession

With all the talk of secession in the air, Rasmussen polled Texans about it, and they found that 31% thought that " individual states have the right to leave the United States and form an independent country," and 18% answered yes to "If you could vote on the issue, would you vote for Texas to remain in the United States or to secede from the United States and form an independent country of Texas?"

Roughly one out of every five people in the state of Texas think they should go ahead and form an independent country. If you're in line at the bank with five people, one of them believes this.

Now, Rick Perry, the king of the 18 percenters, wants us to believe he wasn't calling for secession, just asserting the sovereignty of the state of Texas under the 10th Amendment. This is classic Overton window stuff, putting secession on the extreme while making this assertion of sovereignty - and by extension the belief that the President is violating the Constitution - seem banal and reasonable. But of course, this is ridiculous. The President in the stimulus package offers the states the ability to accept federal funds, with certain qualifying guidelines. States can comply to the guidelines and accept the funds, or refuse the funds. That actually is the very definition of the 10th Amendment. It's not the President's fault that, during a recession, it would be deeply unpopular not to change the guidelines. Indeed, Secessionist Perry's own legislature in Texas voted to accept stimulus money for unemployment by changing their guidelines. Which I guess makes King Richard want to secede from the Texas legislature.

Now, back to that 18% number. 18% of the voting public from the last election would be around 20 million people. Which puts the 250,000 or so teabaggers in perspective, doesn't it? Basically, that was a collection of people so angered by losing power that they want to either create their own country or forcibly take back this one. In other words, nutters.



By the way, you'll surely be shocked to know that Tom DeLay lied on national television when talking about this.

...By the way, if any Democratic elected official ever even dipped their toe in the secession water, they'd be the second coming of Ward Churchill and forced to resign. Just sayin'.

Secession Follies

This reference to secession by Texas Gov. Rick Perry has actually flipped the light switch on for some people as to the extreme nature of the rhetoric coming from the hard right. Let's be clear - for eight years, George Bush broke the economy, rang up massive debt, started unnecessary wars, wiretapped American citizens and committed torture in our name, and crickets from these folks. In under 100 days, Obama has inspired cries of secession. I guess the tax cut wasn't big enough.

PERRY: Oh, I think there’s a lot of different scenarios. Texas is a unique place. When we came into the Union in 1845, one of the issues was that we would be able to leave if we decided to do that. My hope is that America, and Washington in particular, pays attention. We’ve got a great Union. There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, who knows what might come out of that.

Earlier, I remarked, tongue partially in cheek, that Texas ought to secede for the good of the nation. But let me acknowledge the fine Texas Democrats down there who pushed back on this today. Sen. Rodney Ellis slammed Perry pretty hard, and Rep. Jim Dunnam went further:

I love Texas.

I am fortunate that my great-grandparents moved to Texas over 100 years ago, and I am deeply proud of our state.

Every 2 years, my colleagues in the Legislature and I spend time away from our families trying to make Texas a better place. I am honored and privileged to do so.

However, I am also an American. And I am proud to be an American. There is even a song I like that says that - you probably know it.

Every Texas elected official takes an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. I take oaths seriously, and that one most of all. And every day during the legislative session we pledge "allegiance" to the flag of the United States.

We even require every public school child to recite the pledge -- every day. That is "one nation, under God, indivisible."

"Indivisible."

Yesterday, our Governor had the opportunity to disavow anti-American rhetoric of secession. He chose not to, and instead he chose affirm those who believe and actually contemplate that our nation is divisible.

What do I say to my youngest daughter when she asks "why do I recite the pledge every day at school, if our Governor doesn't believe it?"

Perry has since tried to walk this back, but not many people are buying it. But if a Republican said it and it's divisive, you can be sure there are enough party leaders willing to defend him. Rush Limbaugh dug it. And Tom DeLay made up a bunch of gobbledygook to try and defend this.

Q: You can’t secede from the Union!

DeLAY: Texas was a republic. It joined the Union by treaty. There’s a process in the treaty by which Texas could divide into five states. If we invoke that, and the last time it was voted on was 1985, the United States Senate would kick us out and nullify the treaty because they’re not going to allow 10 new Texas senators into the Senate. That’s how you secede.

Chris Matthews kept asking DeLay, who's under indictment, what the hell Perry was doing inflaming the public with this kind of rhetoric, the kind that killed 600,000 people in the Civil War, and DeLay fell back on a bunch of talk about the 10th Amendment (which is not germane), and he really couldn't wriggle out of it.

By the way, this is spreading. The Georgia State Senate has threatened to secede as well.

Republicans have seriously gone around the bend. John Aravosis has this right:

The Republican party has a serious problem with extremists, not just in its midst, but among its leadership and its key allies in the faux media (FOX News) and its grassroots (Limbaugh, the blogs, and the religious right). The GOP is quite literally pushing their most extreme followers to violence. And now that they're calling on the government to ignore known terrorist threats, it's only a matter of time before something violent happens, and then the Republican party will find itself out of power permanently.

Big Trouble For Series of Tubes

We knew that Ted Stevens took bribes from Veco chief Bill Allen. We knew that the contruction worker who oversaw the renovation of his home also managed fundraisers for his campaign. What we didn't know is that the FBI taped him in a corruption sting. Until now.

The FBI, working with an Alaska oil contractor, secretly taped telephone calls with Sen. Ted Stevens as part of a public corruption sting, according to people close to the investigation. . . .

The recorded calls between Stevens and businessman Bill Allen were confirmed by two people close to the case who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still under way. They declined to say how many calls were recorded or what was said.

Until we know what is on those calls, we can't really say much. But since they're between Series of Tubes and the guy who has admitted to bribing him, they can't be good.

Considering that Stevens has been in Congress 50 years, he was probably doing what came naturally. His entire political life has been pay-to-play. The biggest surprise is that it's finally catching up to him.

UPDATE: Tom DeLay, who's already been indicted, may have more trouble coming his way, too.

Fortunate Sons

Max Blumenthal does it again with his video Generation Chickenhawk, visiting the bathshit crazy College Republican convention and asking them why they aren't serving in this war they so passionately and fervently support. "I'm more career oriented than actually serving," is my favorite excuse. Because we all know that going to Iraq and putting a target on your back isn't a career move, so there's no point in doing it, right?

This video also features the now-iconic statement by Tom DeLay that if it weren't for the 40 million children killed by abortion over the past 30 years, we wouldn't need illegal immigrants. Right, tell that to your corporate buds who don't want to pay a fair wage for labor, ask them if they'd willingly stop importing people with no rights and no recourse to do the jobs they don't want Americans to do.

And who's the guy who goes on about how "everybody has had an inclination toward members of the same sex?" Is he just dying to come out or what?

These are the future leaders of the Republican Party, by the way. Unbelievable.

Depressing Gallup Poll On Evolution

Spoon brings us this cheery bit of news from the flat earth file:

The majority of Republicans in the United States do not believe the theory of evolution is true and do not believe that humans evolved over millions of years from less advanced forms of life. This suggests that when three Republican presidential candidates at a May debate stated they did not believe in evolution, they were generally in sync with the bulk of the rank-and-file Republicans whose nomination they are seeking to obtain.

Spoon gives us the breakdown:

The partisan numbers are 68% creationism to 30% evolution among Republicans, and 57% evolution to 40% creationism among Democrats. Of course, the divide between those who attend church regularly and those who do not is far larger (74% creationism to 24% evolution among those who attend church weekly, compared with 71% to 26% the other way)

And if there's a silver lining, its in the numbers among independents:

Most interesting and underreported in stories covering this issue, however, are the numbers among independents: a full 61% of independents believe in evolution, compared to 37% for creationism--a higher belief in evolution than among Democrats.

This is welcome news since independents are the fastest growing voting block, and their strong rejection of creationism signals, as spoon rightly puts it:

but another example of a strong majority of "swing" voting population moving away from bread-and-butter Republican beliefs

This dynamic was on full display on Hardball last week when Matthews could hardly contain his disbelief that the man in front of him, the subject of his interview, was telling him he didn't not "believe in evolution."

MATTHEWS: I didn‘t think Mr. DeLay would be arguing evolution in the 21^st century. But here we go again. We‘re talking about us and the monkeys and everything.

[snip]

MATTHEWS: Well, here we are back in the Scopes trial, the monkey trial...[Gov. Huckabee] clearly said, we are not descended from the primates.

[snip]

MATTHEWS: Look, I grew up in this country, too. I know we don‘t argue about this every day. But 6o percent of the people believe, basically, the fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible. So it‘s not like it‘s an exotic position that Huckabee is taking there. Or you might have.

DELAY: Well, you...

MATTHEWS: It‘s not an exotic position.

DELAY: You‘re sitting there, and you‘re giggling about it.

MATTHEWS: I‘m giggling, because I said—I‘ll say to you on and off the air, I think it‘s fascinating that, in the 21^st century, we‘re having the monkey trial all over again. And I still think it‘s weird.

For all of Matthews' problems, I think in general he serves as a fairly good bellwether for where the movable middle in this country is and here, it's clearly "you doon't believe in WHAT!?" Not to mention the fact that DeLay bobbed and weaved as much as he could to avoid admitting he's not an evolution guy. They know they're in the fringes of the country and they know it's a problem.

Guilty of ... Wait, Lemme Get My Dictionary

Funniest thing about Tom Delay claiming that Reid and Pelosi are close to treason with their statements and actions on Iraq is that DeLay admits that he had to look up the word "treason" on the way to the interview.

He should keep rifling through to find the terms "money laundering," "indictment," "violation of campaign finance laws" and "penitentiary."

The Tom DeLay Media Blitz

Tom DeLay is currently under indictment in Texas. Most people under indictment decline to talk to the media. This one's on a book tour. The question is, why would the media enable it?

DeLay wrote a book (OK, his ghostwriter wrote a book for him), "No Retreat, No Surrender" (is Bruce Springsteen looking to sue?), that will personally enrich him as he pays mounting legal bills to try and keep himself out of jail. In the past two days, DeLay has appeared on Meet The Press, NPR's Morning Edition, and the Today Show, commenting on the issues of the day like the US Attorney scandal, Iraq, and more, all the while promoting his book. In fact, at the end of Sunday's show, Tim Russert HELD UP HIS BOOK and mentioned it by name, will a little back and forth. It's not unusual to have authors on the Sunday shows promoting their product, but is it all that normal for Tim Russert, at the end of a policy discussion with four people, to completely switch gears and start promoting a book? Did Tom Andrews get a chance to promote his upcoming projects? Joe Sestak? Richard Perle? It was highly unusual to me.

The book is certainly controversial and provocative, with DeLay stepping on everyone in government who ever come in contact with him.

[Gingrich was an] ineffective Speaker. He knew nothing about running meetings and nothing about driving an agenda.

Nearly every other day he had a new agenda, a new direction he wanted us to take. It was impossible to follow him.

[The Republican] leadership was in no moral shape to press [for Clinton’s impeachment].

It is now public knowledge that Newt Gingrich was having an affair with a staffer during the entire impeachment crisis. Clearly, men with such secrets are not likely to sound a high moral tone at a moment of national crisis.

Incidentally, those quotes come from the book, out of a Robert Novak column in yet another example of book promotion for DeLay.

Why are all of these supposedly respectable outlets giving valuable air time to Tom DeLay while he is under indictment? Why are they indirectly funding his legal defense? And who put out the book in the first place?

Sentinel HC is the publisher of "No Retreat, No Surrender." They are a right-wing publishing house who, two years ago, put out the factually challenged "The Truth About Hillary" by Edward Klein, a book rife with inaccuracies and lies. Here are some of their other titles. It's a hit list of maybe the biggest dolts in the wingnut-welfare chain:

A Matter of Character : Inside the White House of George W. Bush
Ronald Kessler: Hardcover: Sentinel HC
George W. Bush is a direct and decisive man who is much nicer to his Secret Service agents than Bill Clinton was, according to author Ronald Kessler...

America's Victories: Why the U.S. Wins Wars and Will Win the War on Terror
Larry Schweikart: Hardcover: Sentinel HC
From the Revolutionary War to the War on Terror, the American military has consistently beaten the odds. It's not luck.

Bringing the Jobs Home : How the Left Created the Outsourcing Crisis--and How We CanFix It
Todd G. Buchholz: Hardcover: Sentinel HC

Do-Gooders: How Liberals Hurt Those They Claim to Help (and the Rest of Us)
Mona Charen: Hardcover: Sentinel HC
Charen focuses on the facts to reveal exactly why liberals are wrong-and how their proposals hurt the very people they claim to be fighting for...

Leaving the Left: Moments in the News That Made Me Ashamed to Be a Liberal
Keith Thompson: Hardcover: Sentinel HC
One man's personal story of his conversion from lockstep liberal to free-thinking conservative

New Glory : Expanding America's Global Supremacy
Ralph Peters: Hardcover: Sentinel HC
Since World War II, Americans have been the world’s true revolutionaries, expanding the frontiers of human liberty by fighting and winning ...

The Arrogance of the French : Why They Can't Stand Us--and Why the Feeling Is Mutual
Richard Chesnoff: Hardcover: Sentinel HC
Imagine the fun Mark Twain would have had with France’s undeclared war on America...

The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday Is Worse Than You Thought
John Gibson: Hardcover: Sentinel HC
Yes, Virginia, there is a war on Christmas...

Women Who Make the World Worse: and How Their Radical Feminist Assault Is Ruining Our Schools, Families, Military, and Sports
Kate O'Beirne: Hardcover: Sentinel HC
A top conservative writer explores the feminist assault on our families, schools, workplaces, and military

Now, only a publishing house who prints this kind of piffle would then let Tom DeLay's ghostwriter pen a book. And they have every right to do so.

I'm just wondering why NBC and NPR feel the need to turn over their shows to what amounts to a fundraiser for a court case. And I hope Ronnie Earle and prosecutors in Texas have their TiVos handy, as anything he says can and ought to be used against him.