Sore losers

... and I do mean losers:

[W]e learned last week that three disgruntled Republican lawmakers – including two from Greater Nashua – actually thought it was a good idea to file a formal petition of removal and criminal complaints against 189 of their fellow representatives.

Specifically, Londonderry Rep. Al Baldasaro, Goffstown Rep. John Hikel and Merrimack Rep. Lenette Peterson filed an “emergency petition for redress,” calling for removing the 189 from office for “breaching their oath” and for their criminal prosecution for “violating federal law.”

The offense?

Voting for legislation that would reset the standard for self-defense to what had existed with little fanfare for more than three decades. They claim any change would violate their right to bear arms to protect themselves and their property.

Republicans used to whine - pathetically and without justification - that Democrats were "criminalizing policy differences." They made this fantastic claim in defense of Tom DeLay (R-screw campaign finance laws), only appropriate in the sense that DeLay himself made the phrase popular.

Now, these New Hampshire gun-toting wingnuts want criminal complaints because, in the exercise of their representation of their constituents, their political opponents voted in a way that made them cry.

Crocodile tears from fantastically ridiculous infantile crazies...

They prove yet again that many Republicans oppose the idea of democracy every time it goes against them.

Battle for second

Can anyone tell me how it is that CNN's alleged liberalism allowed the headline Romney, Huntsman tie in midnight New Hampshire vote, when President Obama actually out-polled them in Dixville Notch, NH?

Riiight, not the liberal media.

Always ready to escalate

The DNC asked people to call the RNC about health care. The RNC for its part redirected calls to the DNC to prove that planned disruption of forums is not their only weapon - they also have planned disruption of the DNC.

Given the Republicans' past illegal phone bombing of Democratic GOTV operations in New Hampshire, for which a couple of operatives were convicted, the RNC might want to rethink this. It's probably illegal.

But the Republicans don't do rethinking. They just go another notch.

Bottom line: Republicans have no interest in loyal opposition. Opposition is all they care about.

First Amendment redundancy

New Hampshire Governor John Lynch's delicacy about signing a same sex marriage bill has nothing to do with legal reality. It's all about politics, about telling know-nothings that, no, of course, legalizing same sex marriage doesn't repeal the First Amendment and can't possibly force anyone's church to offer any service to anyone they don't want to.

I don't blame him a bit.

Update (5/15): I could have read Atrios and skipped saying this, but it was a busy day and I needed an easy target. Who knew someone had already hit it?

Taking Duhbya out of New Hampshire

Here's a really hilarious fact that any baseball fan in greater Boston knows (among others): Both John Sununu (R) and Jeanne Shaheen (D) are running against Duhbya. Sununu is even trying to tie Shaheen to Bush.

Really, Republicans will say anything, no matter how much it assumes viewers are microcephalic idiots, if they think it will help them get elected. I mean, this is a Sununu!

Fortunately, New Hampshirites may be recovering conservatives, but they really really hate it if you treat them like they're stupid.

John Sununu, no sainthood - why not?

I've actually seen this ad three times on Red Sox Double Play (5-4 walk-off bunt win after trailing 4-0; maybe these boys are serious about the AL East).

The ad is so over the top that I was waiting for the punch line, but it turned out these bullshit purveyors are serious. You really can't satirize this stuff - it's already too ridiculous.

He's younger, faster, quicker. Inexhaustible, tireless, energetic. A leader. Independent and principled. Great dad, big-hearted, funny, and kind.

He's the youngest member of the Senate, but Time Magazine says, "... that hasn't limited his reach.

New Hampshire's in his blood.

Woman: "I think I'll stick with the future, John Sununu."

"I'm John Sununu, and I approve this message."

I shit you not, that's all of it. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. John's role is to walk purposefully even if he looks older than 41.

The Sununu campaign is saying this to voters: "We think you're idiots and will vote for Sununu based on all these substance-free compliments we've been hired to pay to John."

You'll notice that another 90% supporter of Duhbya has gotten the same word from his pollsters that John McCain has gotten. If a Republican runs on issues in 2008, he loses. Just in case, be sure, be very very sure not even to mumble the word Republican, since it's a dirty word.

Sununu's reaction? Patronize the voters. Yeah, he's a Republican all right.

Mature ejaculations

The punditocracy so wants the Presidential race over with. That way, they can continue to flog their myth that Iowa and New Hampshire are the one true path to the White House. And they can go back to their Beltway cocktail parties and Broderist appeals for faux bipartisanship and the sort of centrism that makes them the center of attention.

Scot Lehigh is often a guy whose writing irritates me, but not today. Today, he counsels:

Let's take a deep breath - and let other states have their turn.

Amen.

---

Note on my title: Talked with my friend Tom tonight, and he told me how much traffic he got by tagging a couple of posts with 'sex'. He has principles, not to mention a reputation to protect, and so untagged his posts, but I'll do anything for a little attention. We'll see how much comment spam I have to delete to keep from feeling as anatomically inadequate as I do every time I open my inbox.

Question for the day

Eric Alterman asks:

Did anyone at all call the Democratic contest correctly? Do actual real people really care about silly pundit predictions? How can an entire industry continue to exist when the product it provides is both unwanted and defective, and proven repeatedly to be so?

Can you even imagine Hillary Clinton ever getting to have a Sally Field moment?

Middle class

OK, my man John Edwards finished third in New Hampshire. Worse, no delegates - Clinton and Obama split those, at least so far.

We all know that Edwards talks about the middle class and that the other Democrats have picked up the mantra. But what does Edwards actually say in the stump speech he delivers every day? What are his priorities? What would he try to do?

I've looked around a bit, and I don't find that reported anywhere. There's a tidbit here and there, but if you want the meat instead of a thin broth warmed over by journalists, you'll have to visit Edwards's web site. Why?

Starting with Edwards's salient facts:

Our economy is growing only at the top: ...

Families are working longer hours, but finding it harder to get by: ...

Higher costs for the basics: ...

Powerful corporate interests have taken control of our government: ...

Losing hope for the American dream: ...

The media might judge Edwards's credibility by reviewing these. Uh, no, takes actual work.

The first three are unambiguously true. The fourth is largely true but exaggerated into black and white, while the world is grayer. It's completely within the realm of normal political hyperbole. The fifth is interpretation, also somewhat overstated but not deceitfully.

To support all five, the Edwards campaign actually provides sources. But the elite media aren't interested - too truthful, not truthy enough.

You'd think that the media, even uninterested in what the campaigns say, would at least post transcripts of the candidates' speeches for political nerds like me. But no, there's a byte shortage, and the news sites can't afford a couple of kilobytes of text while still posting their megabytes of photos on their gigabyte disk farms.

Update: With 82% reporting, Edwards now has 4 delegates.

New Hampshire's independence

If New Hampshire voters are so independent and make their minds up for themselves, why is it that Iowa has so dramatically reordered the "nation's first primary"?

Just like the rest of us, NH voters listen to the pundits (mistake!) and absorb the news coverage, and a good fraction of them look for a bandwagon to hop onto, whether they would admit it or not.

Flattery vs. challenge

Now that the candidates for President have ads on the Boston stations targeting southern New Hampshire, I'm seeing the usual mix of advertising themes. My sanity would be better served by turning off the damn TV, but it's winter, and I don't expect to be sane in the darkness.

John McCain is flattering New Hampshirites - just as one maverick to another - that they don't care what the pundits say. Hey, it could be 2000 again, and he could be only 64.

Mitt Romney is making the usual bullshit claims - there will be more change in the next ten years than the last centuries (only if Edgar Cayce was right) - as a vehicle for delivering his insincere optimism. Since he has money, he's also doing jujitsu on McCain, saying nice things and then slamming him with the Capitol dome.

Even Obama is relying on atmospherics, too. His flattery is a common dream - not bad at all.

Hillary is making an argument that she can deliver change. I respect that. Her claim that she has "35 years experience making change" sounds a little like a long career as a Masspike toll-taker.

Only Edwards is challenging the electorate to make a significant change. That's why he's my candidate.

So, Republicans are flattering you and sniping at each other. Democrats are doing better, not of course perfectly.

Flattery should make alarms go off in your head. It is almost always a signal of insincerity and and offer to trade a compliment for what the flatterer wants from you. People who vote for flatterers get the government they deserve.

And, all you idiots riding my tail in your 15 mpg full-size pick-ups when I'm already close to the car in front of me, you're included. When Dodge wants you to be ram-tough and Toyota has joined into the automotive penis-fluffing, they are kissing your ass for the sole purpose of lifting your wallet.

Too good to be true

The Plainfield, N.H., anti-tax loonies failed to notice that another of their beliefs was too good to be true. Their transparently bogus and thoroughly litigated legal theories would have conveniently excused them from paying taxes. Their new "friends" turned out to be U.S. Marshals, who arrested them.

There are other loonies:

Yesterday supporters of the Browns posted outraged messages on the couple's MySpace page. "Browns Kidnapped by US Marshals!" one posting read. On another website, one supporter wrote: "My God, it's a police state. Get your guns ready."

Apparently now, kidnap means any arrest I don't agree with, and police state means any state that has police. These people are a dictionary unto themselves, too, having learned their newspeak skills from Duhbya.

A man with backbone

Three days in jail over a dollar! My hat's off to Thomas Jensen, who at age 68 still hasn't learned to pick his battles. He is right, of course. No business, not even New Hampshire's toll authority, should be able to renounce its debts this way.

He didn't even tell his wife about it.

"Hon, about that fishing trip to New Hampshire. Turns out I was the new fish."

The Democrats in Washington ought to take a lesson from Jensen about standing on principle. They actually do have important battles to fight.

The law unto himself

Ed Brown, convicted tax evader, wears a badge. He takes for himself the right to decide which laws to obey and which to ignore. Sounds like Duhbya! Oh yeah, both are idiots, too.

Papers, please

When the police can stop you for no specific cause and, under threat of suspension of your driver's license, force you into a Breathalyzer test, the difference between America and a police state is - politeness. Yeah, there's a difference of degree, too, but that's easy to change when everyone in politics periodically goes through a paroxysm of "toughness", which the voters lap up eagerly. (Witness Iraq.)

I've been through two internal domestic checkpoints, one in Maine looking for drunk drivers, the other in New Hampshire looking for illegal aliens. I didn't match either target, but I still felt the hot breath of the law on the back of my neck.