There was a time in this country where the poor went to poorhouses, where they were treated like chattel and had no real opportunity to pull themselves out of poverty. Progress changed all that. Programs like unemployment insurance, welfare, food stamps, and Social Security gave Americans an opportunity to survive with at least a foothold to a better life.

This is what Republicans hate. They want the poor to stay poor, to be enslaved to Republican corporate masters, to be grateful for whatever scraps are tossed their way. With that in mind, consider teabagger racist candidate Carl Paladino's latest proposal:

Paladino laid out several plans that included converting underused state prisons into centers that would house welfare recipients. There, they would do work for the state — "military service, in some cases park service, in other cases public works service," he said — while prison guards would be retrained to work as counselors.

"Instead of handing out the welfare checks, we'll teach people how to earn their check. We'll teach them personal hygiene ... the personal things they don't get when they come from dysfunctional homes," Paladino said.

Of course, this is the same guy that thinks bestiality and racist photoshop jobs are fun to email other people, and has no problem using eminent domain to stop the mosque.

I thought teabaggers believed in less government, not more. But Paladino wants to conscript the poor to work for the state and live in prisons in their off time, use state power to confiscate land and the right to build on that land because he doesn't like the religion of the owners of said land, and has no problem with sharing his somewhat twisted fantasies via email.

Fortunately, Andrew Cuomo has a comfortable lead over both GOP candidates, but if Paladino keeps spouting off this stuff, Cuomo might win by the biggest landslide in New York history.

Maine Politics has the story about how this wackiness is spreading:

An overwhelming majority of delegates to the Maine Republican convention tonight voted to scrap the the proposed party platform and replace it with a document created by a group of Tea Party activists.

The official platform for the Republican Party of Maine is now a mix of right-wing fringe policies, libertarian buzzwords and outright conspiracy theories.

The document calls for the elimination of the Department of Education and the Federal Reserve, demands an investigation of "collusion between government and industry in the global warming myth," suggests the adoption of "Austrian Economics," declares that "'Freedom of Religion' does not mean 'freedom from religion'" (which I guess makes atheism illegal), insists that "healthcare is not a right," calls for the abrogation of the "UN Treaty on Rights of the Child" and the "Law Of The Sea Treaty" and declares that we must resist "efforts to create a one world government."

It also contains favorable mentions of both the Tea Party and Ron Paul. You can read the whole thing here.

Dan Billings, who has served as an attorney for the Maine GOP, called the new platform "wack job pablum" and "nutcase stuff."

Despite the document's crazy content, Maine Republican Party Chair Charlie Webster insisted to the AP that all of the elements in the platform are things that Republicans support. He claimed to the Press Herald that these issues reflect the values of working-class Mainers.

Click here to download or view in WMP.

Colmes: Where are they more right than the republicans?

Zell: Nowhere

Colmes: Where do you feel the Democrats have it over the Republicans?

Zell: I don't know where they do right now.

Notice he doesn't say "we", but "they." He should stop masquerading as a Democrat, but FNC will exploit that point to their viewers of course. I mean to be a life long democrat and not believe that they have any redeeming qualities in the party platform says a lot about him.