The Confederacy of Takers
Dana Milbank
The Washington Post

President Obama’s opponents have unwittingly come up with a brilliant plan to avoid the “fiscal cliff.” They want to secede from the union. If Obama were serious about being a good steward of the nation’s finances, he’d let them.

(snip)

Red states receive, on average, far more from the federal government in expenditures than they pay in taxes. The balance is the opposite in blue states. The secession petitions, therefore, give the opportunity to create what would be, in a fiscal sense, a far more perfect union.

Among those states with large numbers of petitioners asking out: Louisiana (more than 28,000 signatures at midday Tuesday), which gets about $1.45 in federal largess for every $1 it pays in taxes; Alabama (more than 20,000 signatures), which takes $1.71 for every $1 it puts in; South Carolina (26,000), which takes $1.38 for its dollar; and Missouri (22,000), which takes $1.29 for its dollar.

(snip)

Depending on how aggressive a fiscal hawk he wishes to be, Obama could also try to offload onto the Confederacy of the Takers North and South Dakota and Montana ($1.73, $1.49 and $1.58 in benefits, respectively), but this would probably only work if Canada agreed to allow overflight rights for American aircraft to reach the West Coast states of Washington, Oregon and California (88 cents, 97 cents and 79 cents on their tax dollars, respectively).

It goes on, it gets better, read it all: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-the-confederacy-of-takers/2012/11/13/d8adc7ee-2dd4-11e2-beb2-4b4cf5087636_story.html?hpid=z2

I've seen a lot of concern about Scott Brown getting a chance to win Kerry's seat in a special election if Kerry takes an administration post.

Don't be concerned, and here's why.

Back in 2003-2004, when Romney was governor of MA and Kerry was running for president, the law said the governor could appoint a successor.

The MA legislature changed the law to make sure Romney couldn't appoint a successor in the event of a Kerry victory. That's why there was a special election when Kennedy died; the law had been changed.

But if Kerry gets tapped for a Cabinet post, you can be sure the MA legislature will change the law back, so Patrick can appoint a successor and we won't have to deal with another Brown campaign. It won't even take an afternoon.

They didn't do it in 2010 after Kennedy because, well, it never occurred to anyone that they would need to. Now, we know, and the law will change back if Kerry leaves. We won't have Scott Brown to kick around any more.

On edit: even if they don't change the law, Brown still has to run again, and it won't be easy the third time. His act has gotten incredibly stale around here.

The bill was a completely non-controversial cost-of-living increase in veterans benefits that has always passed both chambers unanimously.

The hold screwed up the timing of its passage, put the whole bill in peril, and would cost real veterans real money if it failed.

Well, fuck that guy. It passed.

Senate Passes Bill Boosting Payments to Veterans
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2012/11/13/us/politics/ap-us-veterans-benefits-increase.html?hp&_r=0

A reminder if you forget, or the story if you missed it: http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/17539-the-scum-of-the-earth-gop-senator-blocks-bill-to-increase-benefits-for-veterans

http://punditshaming.tumblr.com/

Trust me. This will give you joy.

Republicans ‘Test’ For Voting Fraud, Wind Up In Custody
TPM

Two Republicans in separate states were taken into police custody during the past week for allegedly attempting to test how easy it would be to commit voter fraud.

Two Republicans in separate states were taken into police custody during the past week for allegedly attempting to test how easy it would be to commit voter fraud.

In Nevada, 56-year-old Roxanne Rubin, a Republican, was arrested on Nov. 2 for allegedly trying to vote twice, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. The newspaper quoted a report by an investigator with the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office that said Rubin “was unhappy with the process; specifically in that her identification was not checked.”

Rubin allegedly voted at one polling location in Henderson, Nev. on Oct. 29 and then went to another voting location in Las Vegas to try to vote again. Poll workers told her records indicated she had already voted, but Rubin allegedly told them she hadn’t. A poll worker reportedly overheard Rubin tell another man that she had “signed my name differently, and they did not ask for ID.” She was arrested at the Riviera Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and charged with a category “D” felony.

On Tuesday in New Mexico, a Republican poll watcher was taken into police custody after also apparently trying to test the system. According to the Las Cruces Sun-News, the man voted, then obtained a second provisional ballot and announced he was simply “testing the system to see if people could get away with voting twice.”

The rest: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/11/republicans_voter_fraud_tests.php?ref=fpb

I love the smell of Fail in the morning.

It really does smell like...victory.

"Rove spends more for Republican candidates than the NRSC and the NRCC. He's running things. Rove is definitely a problem."

-- GOP strategist Rick Tyler, quoted by BuzzFeed, on the power of Karl Rove in the Republican party.

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2012/11/08/quote_of_the_day.html

- Rachel Maddow, on the fury of the dark-money barons of the GOP.

Perfect.

I hate to have to say this, but it's true: the Secret Service agents guarding the president best eat their Wheaties for the next four years.

For the Radical Right, Obama Victory Brings Fury and Fear
The Southern Poverty Law Center

When the word came in last night that Barack Obama and the Democrats had won national elections in something close to a landslide, millions of Americans went to bed, satisfied that even if their candidate didn’t win, democracy had survived. The lopsided results made it clear that this election had in no way been stolen.

But not so at Ole Miss, which last month marked the 50th anniversary of deadly segregationist riots. Shortly after midnight, several hundred mostly white students protested furiously, reportedly yelling anti-black racial slurs and throwing rocks at passing cars. An Obama/Biden campaign sign was burned before campus police broke up the crowd in Oxford. There were apparently no arrests or injuries.

The reaction to the re-election of our first black president from the radical right — and that seemed clearly to include some University of Mississippi students — ranged from sputtering rage and name-calling to calls for a new Southern secession, mass emigration to Europe, or even the break-up of the United States. There was one thing large numbers seemed clearly to agree on: The changing racial demographics of our country, expected to lose its white majority by 2050, was key to the result.

(snip)

Non-Islamic domestic terrorism in the United States shot up in the wake of President Obama’s first election in 2008, spurred by fury over the “socialist” president and the racial change that he represents in the American population. Now, given the reaction from the radical right to last night’s election results, that seems likely to continue — or to get even worse, as racists and right-wing radicals seethe.

The rest: http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2012/11/07/for-the-radical-right-obama-victory-brings-fury-and-fear/

Clear eyes, cool heads, gun hand free.