It still gives me a little thrill of happiness whenever I see this phrase: "Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA)." I don't think I ever loved being a Pennsylvanian more than the day we voted Ricky boy out of office. Except maybe for the day we voted Obama IN to office.

George Mason University elected a drag queen as Homecoming Queen last weekend. So they've gone up in my book.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/19/AR2009021901780.html?hpid=artslot

Disaster averted in California.

Budget passed by legislature and governor has said he is going to sign it, but that by no means means that disaster has been averted. I don't see many people on either side convinced that the content of the budget will do much to avert disaster.

George Allen assigned to help with GOP minority outreach??!!???!!

The next logical step, I suppose, is to appoint Cheney as the GOP's good will ambassador to the Arab street.

The GOP has moved beyond parody. Amazing.

Um, Rush, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that the guy who beheaded his wife because he didn't think she had the right to divorce him was not a liberal.

I know I'm not the only one who'd be thrilled to see Phillip Carter as the deputy assistant Secretary of Defense for detainee affairs.

Right on!

Has anyone read this?

We're incarcerating kids for cash. We are truly a pathetic society.

"I don't know who's idea it was to have former Sen. George "Macaca" Allen help with Republican outreach to minority communities, but someone clearly wasn't thinking."

Really? This is exactly what I've come to expect from this GOP. Family Matters you say? Well, Larry Craig and David Vitter feel the same way.

Now I can understand Allen, and both Craig and Vitter wanting to rehab their reputations in a direct manner, but the party's consent is appalling and offensive.

There's a good letter to Sullivan posted at http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/02/dissent-of-th-9.html. (The letters to him, like "Dissent Of The Day" are usually better than his own stuff.):

I certainly hope you don't have a favorable impression of Schwarzenegger as governor. He's going to go down as one of the biggest political failures in the state's history. ...
Other than that he has further hardened the divide between democrats and republicans (rather than transcending it, which was my hope), has alienated the voters with his bluster and innate confusion, and will leave the state worse when he finally ends his term. I can only hope Obama is smart enough to avoid inflicting him on the rest of the country.

Remember when all the smart alecs thought it was so cool for Ahnuld to run, including Jay Leno, and all the dump on Gray Davis and what a failure he was supposed to be? Just dump him, and vote in the new Republican superstar - new face of the Republican Party, etc. Now we see it looks kinda dumb, although CA was likely facing tough times anyway.

Drum has this to say, in a post about Darrell Issa now wanting tight WH email accountability:

After all, he was the bright boy who decided it would be cute to use his cell phone fortune to fund a recall of Gray Davis less than a year after he was elected, thereby making Arnold Schwarzenegger governor and turning a dismal economic mess into a complete catastrophe. No Darrell, no Arnold. That's his legacy to the Golden State.

Becca, your link doesn't work, but I assume you are trying to point us toward the two judges in Pennsylvania who took over two million in kickbacks for incarcerating juveniles for such heinous offenses as mocking an assistant principal with a parody myspace page? I mentioned it a few days ago in my roundup but a longer post is still in my inbox.

So what's with this lowest close in 6 years meme? I think it's more like the lowest close (for DJIA and S&P 500) in 12 years. In other words, it surpassed the low of 2002 and now you have to go back to 1997 to see the indexes at current levels...

Heath Shuler is no Democrat, despite the "D" behind his name. They used to be called "Dixiecrats" Is this really the best NC can do for fielding a Democratic candidate? Better luck next time, I guess.

"Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) is bad at arithmetic, too."

Oh, come now, she's only off by about $8.9 trillion. Cut the woman some slack!

Heath Shuler was no quarterback either, despite the fact that he masqueraded as one while with the Redskins.

* Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) is bad at arithmetic, too. -- Steve Benen

Not true. It's just that her "every man woman and child" doesn't include those people who... well... just don't count.

We're incarcerating kids for cash. We are truly a pathetic society.

Try this one on for size: in a country where we're increasingly letting for-profit private companies run our prison systems, what makes you think this is only happening to kids?

Heath Schuller was pretty good when he was hosting "Battle Bots" though.

Re Santelli’s rip on CNBC of the mortgage relief – typical Republican thinking. Let’s not fix the problem, let’s assign blame (preferable to someone poor) and make sure they get punished.

Today, Limbaugh compared Democrats to murderers, rapists, and "this Muslim guy" that "offed his wife's head" Classy.

Another stake in the heart of irony.

Pete Sessions cites the Taliban as a model for Republican opposition/insurgency.

This needs to be fixed - Democrats too caught up in corruption, handing Rs an issue:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j44ku9zUM9IEdkkoWbIYStDVE6SwD96EH4JO0

Santelli - among and speaking for traders - the most worthless bunch of shavers, and most of the clique that got us into this mess.

It seems all those Democrats in Sacramento have forgotten that Californians did vote for an open primary before, in 1996. The Democrats, however, only took four years to have the state Supreme Court overturn it on flimsy grounds.

http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_decline.htm

Nothing will help the state avert disaster until we repeal the 2/3rds rule or we ship all the Republicans to Utah. Neither, unfortunately, will be on the ballot any time soon.

Swordfish and salmon???? No doubt on the taxpayers' dime. How about a ballot proposition to force all politicians to eat fish and chips while the state has a deficit?

Has anyone seen a study or book or whatever comparing the various regimes in world history that got too greedy over time? Like pre-French revolution, the early 20th century csars,Bautista & US corporations, etc. The powerfull get used to power and wealth, use it to obtain more power and wealth, ensure that wealth is passed down to dumb-ass children who then expect even more until the whole thing blows up in their faces when the income ditribution moves totally to the top. Some fine points to consider are the degree they live in their own reality, the methods they use to retain power , what is the tipping point before reaching decadent failure etc. Does anyone know of something approaching am academic look at this?

Regarding the manufactured CNBC/Santelli mob scene in Chicago, does it remind anyone of the Republican Bush staffers "riot" in Florida during the 2000 recount?

These people are domestic terrorists. The sooner progressives and liberals realize that, the better.

When Macaca Ice kicks out the raps for Steele, it's gonna be da bomb!

The big WTF quote in the Santelli rant was:

"Why don't you put up a website to have people vote on the Internet as a referendum to see if we really want to subsidize the losers' mortgages or would we like to, at least, buy cars and buy houses in foreclosure and give them to people who might have a chance to actually prosper down the road. And reward people that can carry the water instead of drink the water."

Buy foreclosed cars and homes and give them to watercarriers? What a pathetic cry for more wingnut welfare.

Shorter Santelli: Billions for Wall street, not one dime for homeowners.

Newsflash for Santelli: it takes at least two parties (more if they are bundled into CDO's) to make a bad loan.

When are we going to hear the media pound its drum to prosecute the Bush administration for treason? Exposing an American spy is a clear cut case of treason and must be dealt with. Those who want to go after them for war crimes just want America to chase its tail, war crimes should be dealt with by the international courts after we convict them of treason.

The CNBC guy isn't so wild-eyed.

The idea that irresponsible borrowing is going to be rewarded is none too popular with the middle class folk either.

Put a dent in foreclosure this way.
EVERYONE applying for government aid starts by restructuring their mortgage (no fee) into a 50 year mortgage.

ANYONE could have gotten one of these. They're awful. You're on your death bed before your home is yours. No one who doesn't truly need help will agree to this.

Next, The 50 year mortgage is reduced to the current value of the home (punch down) but the bank is entitled to a percentage of any price increase in the home proportional to the amount of the punchdown. The more help you ask for, the less money you make when you sell.

Owners may buy out the bank's equity at any time they wish and MUST take out a new mortgage to cover the bank's equity once the last mortgage payment (after 50 years) is made.

Example:
Borrower's house has a mortgage of 300,000 but comparables sell for 240,000. New 50 year loan of 300,000 is still not affordable for teh owner. The loan is set to 270,000. (A loan reduction of 10%) In 2059, the owner finishes paying the mortgage and the nearby homes sell for $800,000. The owner must take out a $80,000 loan to pay for the 10% equity the bank owns.

This is the kind of help no responsible borrower would envy, but it might do the job.