Ruth Marcus writes a pretty good article in the Washington Post about the crack pot conservatives running as teabaggers in the upcoming midterm elections like Rick Barber. After watching Barber's insane political ads she concludes her article with this:

As to the video, Barber was unapologetic. "We can't be so naive to think that just because we live in America that can't happen to us," he said. "We are being fed a socialist agenda spoon by spoon, and we don't see it coming. In Germany, when Hitler was first elected under the Socialist Party, no one would have thought in a million years it would have gone where it did."

I would not have thought in a million years that this kind of thinking would be inside the conservative mainstream. If it is not, it is time for rational conservatives to speak up.

I would not have thought in a million years that a Washington Post writer would have no clue about the history of the conservative movement. Does she not realize that there was a fight for the soul of that movement between William Buckley of the NRO and Robert Welch of the Birchers? Barry Goldwater refused to dismiss the Birchers as wackos entirely because they were useful like the teabaggers, but he did attack Welch.

Rick Perlstein's: 'Beyond The Storm:'

The attendees fell into two camps. Buckley and Kirk said they were ready to write the Birchers out of the conservative movement altogether. Goldwater and others canceled accommodation. He thought there were a lot of 'nice guys' in the Society and not just 'kooks' and that it wasn't time to precipitate breaks in the conservatives' fragile movement.

They settled on a compromise. National Review would attack Robert Welch, not the John Birch Society. Goldwater would take the line that Welch was a crazy extremist, but that the Society itself was full of 'fine, upstanding citizens' working hard and well for the cause of Americanism.

Haven't we heard the same thing from Newtie and Rove about the teabaggers? Sure, they have racist signs and say racist things, but it's only a few people.The rest are great Americans. Right wing extremists have populated the conservative movement since it began. It's only when a Democrat is elected president that they freak out and expose themselves to public view. That's why I came up with the idea of writing our new book. I thought what was happening should be documented. The 'Whiplash politics' practiced by the conservative movement as soon as Obama was elected, (The Tea Party folks) which is really the GOP now was just another chapter in their checkered history. Ruth Marcus should know that. I often wonder if the MSM is just too scared to write about the tea party people or conservatives because they were traumatized during the HCR town hall meetings last summer. They were shocked by the vitriolic insanity that was splashed across the nation. Here's another tip for Ruth. Conservatives rarely abandon their wingnuts. They may attack a Michael Steele once in a while, but they will never forsake a conservative transmitter like Coulter, no matter how far out they get.

Anyway, please support liberal authors and buy this book.

Oh, and Dean Baker takes her down because she doesn't know jack about Social Security either.

Scarborough and the Scum Sucking Bottom Feeder

TRACY CONNOR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Prepaid cards that unlock one of the raunchiest X-rated sites on the Internet are being peddled by bodegas and newsstands across the city - even to underage kids, the Daily News has learned.

On Scarborough Country last night, Tracy Connor talked about how she broke the story. transcripts here

Joe, the crack interviewer that he is, asked this riveting question.

SCARBOROUGH: And why would somebody go out and buy these porn cards? What is the attraction of them?

Well Joe, the answer is, it's porn!

CONNOR: Well, normally, you have got to give your credit card information to get on to an Internet pornography site.

Penny Nance of the Kids First Coalition had some choice words for Peter Shankman, spokesman for the Pre-Paid Porn Card

SCARBOROUGH: Penny, did you call—is it true that you called these people in the pre-interview scum-sucking bottom-feeders?

NANCE: Hey, I might have said that, but I meant it in the nicest way possible.

Video

SHANKMAN: I have yet to see—I have yet to—I‘m sorry. I didn‘t interrupt while you were calling me a scum-sucking bottom-feeder.

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Rick Santorum is very concerned that President Obama is not handling the "Muslim threat" well enough and is considering a run in 2012. He was asked if Palin was qualified to be president some day and he told the press that Sarah Palin has some 'splainin' to do.

Asked if he thinks former Gov. Sarah Palin, R-Alaska, is qualified to be president, Santorum demurred:

"No, I'll let the people decide that," he said. "I think, you know, she's done a lot to draw attention to herself that's positive. She's done some things that, you know, certainly are going to cause her to have to do some explaining if she runs for president. But right now I think she's on a roll, she's having a good time, she's having an impact, which look -- if you're sitting here out of office, the thing you want to do is have an impact on the direction of the country right now, if you're not governing things. And she's having an impact."

Palin is so entertaining for Man-Dog Rick. What a joker that Sarah is. He says that he'll be of great help in the 2010 midterms and he wants to weigh in on the important matters. You see, conservatives like Santorum destroyed the country for eight years and want another crack at finishing us off.

Man-Dog speaks:

Though Santorum has publicly sidestepped questions about his intentions, his friend and political adviser, Deal Hudson, told me that Santorum has informed his closest associates that he is very likely to declare his candidacy.

“[Santorum] said he was not considering running a few months ago,” Hudson said, “but he has grown so concerned about the direction [President Barack] Obama is taking the country that he told me he wants to get involved.” Santorum “believes that Obama is weak on the Muslim threat and he is convinced that it’s going to turn around and bite him badly,” said Hudson.

Hudson, who has advised President George W. Bush and Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain on Catholic issues, and who maintains close ties to leaders of the evangelical right, told me Santorum has become preoccupied with issues of national security. “He believes that Obama is weak on the Muslim threat and he is convinced that it’s going to turn around and bite him badly,” Hudson said.

No doubt Santorum will bring to a 2012 national race the same kind of success he had as a Senator from Pennsylvania in 2006.

Republicans are already deluded enough as it is. Santorum's on another level, where someone who was recently turned out by voters and currently holds no office can convince themselves they'll be attractive to voters on a national scale.

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Andrea Mitchell asked a Villager health-care panel on her show today to discuss how Harry Reid can get to 60 votes with the public option since the "Gang of Four" refuses to budge and threatens to kill health-care reform entirely.

Mitchell: And Ruth Marcus, what do they do, how do they water down the public option to make it acceptable to some of the moderates but placate some of the more liberals?

Marcus: Well, it's the "and still placate some of the more liberals" is the hardest part. You're dealing with a very complex Rubik's cube really at this point because every time you change something to please someone, you're annoying someone else and potentially losing his or her vote.

But the public option, I think, could be scaled back. There is already something that Sen. Carper from Delaware is working on in terms of allowing it to take effect perhaps more quickly in states or immediately in states which have very high costs and other states could opt in. There is Sen. Snowe's old trigger option that one could still pull the trigger on, so there are ways of doing it.

I think that in the end it is possible to mollify enough of the centrist Democrats, perhaps even a Republican -- now that seems awfully remote. The president, I think, is going to have to tell the left wing of his party and the balking liberal Senators that it is crazy to pull down the entirety of health care over this one issue which the president has already said is not the be all end all of health reform.

It's always the liberals who need to compromise their positions to the conventional wisdom of the Villagers. The Gang of Four are all righteous and virtuous while liberals are out-of-control hippies who act like barking dogs. How dare they want to produce a real reform measure that could eventually provide true competition for the health care industry and that will help lower overall health care costs? Outrageous!

Remember, Marcus was being a concern troll the day after America elected Obama to the presidency with a mandate to overhaul health care and wrote a column telling him to not to govern from the left.

Yet the experience of President Bill Clinton's rocky early months -- remember gays in the military? the BTU tax? -- suggests the steep political price of governing in a way that is, or seems, skewed to the left. This risk is particularly acute for Obama, whose opponents have painted him as a leftist extremist. The good news is that his advisers seem exquisitely aware of this trap and determined not to fall into it.

As David Sirota wrote:

The standard lie about Clinton's failures aside (it was NAFTA, stupid), the last sentence is particularly odd. Obama's "opponents have painted him as a leftist extremist." Yet, that supposed "leftist extremist" won the largest presidential mandate in the last generation.

And somehow, having done that, we are supposed to believe that means he should tack to the right.

Say what?

Email Marcus and ask her why the Gang of Four aren't the real problem, since 56 other Senators are fine with the public option: marcusr@washpost.com

Win or lose for Obama, my doctors have won and I'm going to take a few weeks off after the election. The C&L Team have done a wonderful job during this wild time. C&L's traffic---which has always been great, has skyrocketed and that's a tribute to the dedication of the people helping me out and the readership that comes to play everyday. From the site monitors to the posters to the video team, guest bloggers and emailers. My hat is off to you. I really do have to take some time to heal the nerve damage that has plagued me for a long time.

We're up to 2 am every night trying to keep it going and then back it at the crack of dawn. I got to tell you, the mornings are rough for me, but who really cares? We all have our own problems to deal with. I'm just filling you guys in so you know what's up when I take a break. The site will motor on... I wonder if I can really unplug. I mean, really. Nicole yells at me all the time to take a break. (And I had to make a visit to the dentist today. Two teeth pulled...lol)

Hopefully the new C&L site will be up and running by next week and as we know---it's crunch time.

A Tiny Revolution: It's repentin' time in heaven. "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin

AlterNet: Paying through the nose for gas. Oil companies, speculators and OPEC played their part, but ruinous Bush Administration policies have compounded the crisis.

Radamisto: Strict Constructionist Scalia cites "urban legend" in his dissent on Gitmo prisoners ruling. The Bush administration, realizing that federal judges will now be reviewing their "secret" evidence against detainees, have asked if they can cheat rewrite the evidence.

Talk To Action: Crackpot anti-gay sociologist finds friends in Russia

The Opinion Mill's Sunday Bookchat asks: Are we living in Nixonland or Reaganland? What is the difference between liberal books and conservative books? And what can we do about all these private militias?

Mugsy's Rap Sheet is inspired to attempt compiling a master list of McCain flip-flops and gaffes, which may require several full time employees to keep current. Readers are invited to contribute. A valuable resource for such an ambitious project would be the blogosphere's foremost authority on the fumblin', stumblin', bumblin' McCain, Jon Perr, who already has documented plenty of stupid remarks, idiotic assessments, reversals, backpedaling, chickensh*tery, dumbass predictions, the rare double flip-flop, many out-of-touch moments, and much more.

culturekitchen: Fear of a Black Planet

Balloon Juice: Breaking News - The Pentagon Hates America and BUSHCO hates our military

House of the Rising Sons: They say the truth will set you free, but will it get you elected?

Crackpot Press: A temporary presence...

cab drollery: A lot of us are working less than a full job, earning less than a full salary, and of course giving up a lot of things that are being priced out of our reach.

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: left voice, Where's the Outrage , Richieville, Spontaneous Arising

CNN is reporting that Crack Convicts will be on the loose today...Or something...It's on every 10 minutes or so...Not that I'm against harsh penalties for drug dealers, but when the Indiana Voter ID case gets no press at all--that bothers me...

Warning: video contains graphic content

I don't have a translation for this but you don't really need it. A Japanese journalist recording on camera the carnage in Burma was shot at point blank range by a uniformed gunman.

Times Online (UK): Footage capturing the last, terrible seconds of Kenji Nagai’s life has been aired on Japanese television – horrifying a nation and raising official suspicion that the 50-year old photo-journalist was murdered by Burmese troops (writes Leo Lewis in Tokyo).

The shaky, indistinct moments of footage appear to show Nagai, who was on the edge of a crowd of panic-stricken demonstrators, shoved violently to the ground by a soldier and shot dead at point-blank range.

The crowd flees, leaving behind a visibly agonised figure believed to be Nagai – dressed casually in shorts and flip-flops – on his back in the street. In his right hand is a video camera, held above the ground to protect it from the fall.

A loud crack is audible as a soldier points his rifle at the prone figure before launching himself at the dispersing crowd of protesters. Read more....

The Right's Field:

Senator Sam Brownback sexually harassed his colleague, Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, earlier today.

It started off innocently enough as he made small-talk with Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, mentioning, in passing, that senators often take off their ties when negotiating bills behind closed doors. Klobuchar needled him about it.

Klobuchar: "Ties off?... But I don't wear a tie."
Brownback: "I could say ‘dresses off' but I won't."
Klobuchar (laughing, blushing): "Not while you're running for president."

First, eww. Second, I'm sure the Gannon-Coulter defense, "He didn't actually say she should take her dress off" will be brought up by Brownback's supporters who will refuse to see this as anything for which he should be condemned.

A mountain out of a molehill? Perhaps. But I sure wouldn't be happy about a colleague making a crack like that in front of me.