Tidbits

The first Republican debate, which was to be hosted on May 2 by NBC News and Politico, has been postponed until September, it was announced Wednesday. The reason? Not enough candidates.

**********

Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, at a Christian supremacist conference, stated that Americans should be forcibly indoctrinated at gunpoint: “I almost wish that there would be, like, a simultaneous telecast, and all Americans would be forced -- forced at gunpoint no less -– to listen to every David Barton message, and I think our country would be better for it. I wish it’d happen.”

[David Barton is a very scary guy. He's known as the commander in chief of Glenn Beck's Black Robed regiment. Follow this link to an anti-Barton site, Liars For Jesus, to find out just how scary.]

[More, from Think Progress:

Appointed by several State Boards of Education and governors to “oversee the writing of history and government standards for public school students,” Barton is revising history textbooks in multiple states. In Texas, he’s ensuring books exchange biographies of George Washington, Thurgood Marshall, and Abraham Lincoln for the role of Jesus “in America’s past.”]



**********

The two houses of the Ohio Legislature approved a far-reaching bill on Wednesday that would hobble the ability of public-employee unions to bargain collectively and undercut their political clout.

They sent the bill to Gov. John R. Kasich, a Republican, who lawmakers said would sign it in the next few days.

[It will not become law for 90 days. In Ohio, the voters can force a referendum on the bill by getting 6% of the electorate to sign a petition. They're mobilizing to do just that, and it looks as though 6% will easily be obtained.]

**********

This from one of the leaders of the "loyal opposition":
Jed Lewison, Daily Kos

On today's broadcast of "Jay Sekulow Live," Rep. Michele Bachmann called in to talk about the overlap between the Tea Party and the Religious Right. But toward the end of discussion, Bachmann turned her attention toward President Obama, claiming that he is intentionally making Americans poorer:

"I think that the agenda that we have seen - we know that sixty-three percent of all households have seen a major decline in their personal wealth, a decline in their personal income, and an increase in their debt level. That's all attributable directly to Barack Obama's principles. I don't think it's by accident we're seeing people struggling and we're seeing redistribution of wealth. I think Barack Obama is getting exactly the outcome that he hoped for.

"All of us, I think are perhaps giving the President too much credit thinking, well, he probably just doesn't understand that liberalism actually makes people poorer. I actually think that this is what the President wants. I believe that he wants to see redistribution of wealth because if you ever notice, the President seems to be angry and irritable and sarcastic about people who have succeeded in the United States and job creators. Those seem to be the two sectors that he most wants to punish."

**********

Click this link. It's an astonishing view of the Dow Jones from Clinton's inauguration to today.

**********

[From Barbara Morrill at Daily Kos]

Allen Greespan really said this:

Today’s competitive markets, whether we seek to recognise it or not, are driven by an international version of Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” that is unredeemably opaque. With notably rare exceptions (2008, for example), the global “invisible hand” has created relatively stable exchange rates, interest rates, prices, and wage rates.

Henry at Crooked Timber compared it to saying, "With notably rare exceptions, Russian Roulette is a fun, safe game for all the family to play."

[Greenspan, just quietly fade away -- please]

More criticism of Greenspan here.


**********