$10,000 thoughts about tomorrow night's DEBATE

As you diligently prepare to watch the GREAT DEBATE, at what point do you think Mitt will offer to bet the President $10,000 that Barack can't name the capital of the Cayman Islands? (Hint: Mitt's father's name is in it.)  And will Mitt take Donald Trump's advice to birther-ize the debate?  Finally,, don't you think the evening would be much more interesting if Stephen Colbert were the moderator?    Almost forgot:  Rush Limbaugh has already taped his show declaring Romney to be the overwhelming winner!

Today's political news: The view from the rear

What a week, huh? The thundering herd was on the move - backward.  The photo will give you a strong sense of it.  We scooped up a few bits of evidence to close out the week.  Here I go  again:

Romney foreign policy advisor  Richard Wiilliamson  was quoted in the Washington Post as saying the  Middle East would be a kinder, gentler place if Mitt were president.   "There's a pretty compelling story that if you had a President Romney, you'd be in a different situation,"  he said, explaining that  Muslims would have liked him much more than Obama.  I'm not sure what to make of that so I'll move on.

Paul Ryan, who has referred to Mitt as his running mate,  says that when Obama talks about  pulling together to improve  America, he's dishonest.  Why?   Yep, the president's  pro-choice position that "panders to the most extreme elements of his party."

Ryan, an absolutist who insists there should be no exceptions for abortion, said, "We're all in this together - it has a nice ring. For everyone who loves this country  it is not only true, but obvious. Yet how hollow it  sounds coming from a politician who has never once lifted a hand to defend the most helpless and innocent of all human beings, the child waiting to be born."

Plunderbund noted that Ohio Board of Education president Debe Terhar,   a Tea Party activist, has been named the co-chair of the Educators for Romney coalition, whatever that is.    Terhar was appointed to the board by Gov. Kasich, ostensibly to  bring enthusiasm and fervor to the state's education interests.  If this works out,  she'll doubtless be named as the football coach at one of the state universities.  But first she'll have to finish the laundry

 It could change, but as we write, those  efforts to remove Obama from the Kansas  ballot may have fizzled.  A Kansas man who petitioned the state to to deny him a spot on the ballot has withdrawn his petition within a few days before the Kansas Objections Board was to act on it.  The petitioner is a devout birther and had a friend in Secretary of State Kris Kobach,  likewise a birther who  was prepared to honor the request on grounds that Obama hadn't proved that he  was an American.
By the way, Kobach is  on the  Romney immigration advisory team. (It never ends with Mitt!)

What was that memorable line from the Wizard of Oz?  "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.")

Good.

Romney: the closet birther in him emerges

That McMitt Romney is a real card, don't you think?.  In Michigan,  where I  don't question that  he was born, he quipped that no one has ever asked to see his birth certificate.  It broke me up.  We can always use a bit more humor on the campaign trail.  Even when it calls attention to the demonic  question about President Obama's birth certificate, which Romney's birther pal Donald Trump  refuses to let die.  My only response is: I will send you a copies of my tax returns if  you agree to send me yours.  I will even include  a photo ID. Funny, huh?  C'mon.  Be a sport.

Fair question for Detroit native son Romney

Yippee!   We can all relax and move on to less important matters.  Mitt Romney has released his birth certificate showing that he was born in Detroit.

Or was he?  Hmmm...

Unlike his good friend Donald Trump, a prominent but  moronic  birther who continues to hound President Obama without stern dissent from Mitt, I will rise above the cursed battle and take the Republican candidate's word for it if he can identify Al Kaline  and Dizzy Trout.

,

An ugly chimp photo, birthers unite

The California Republican committeewoman who emailed this disgusting photo to some GOP friends has apologized, describing herself as an "imperfect Christian lady who tries her best to live a Christ-like honoring life".

With some of Marilyn Davenport's critics howling for her to resign, a few of her allies have rushed to her defense. They argue she's not like the sort of person now accused of being a racist. One , Orange County State Rep. Tim Whiteacre. a right-wing conservative himself (aren't they all in Orange County?) described Davenport as a "petite grandmother originally from Kansas" who spent some of her time teaching Bible study classes.

Nice try, defenders of the faith. But Davenport, a Tea Party activist, did take the time to forward the email to others who might find it as humorous she did. The photo's caption said, 'Now you know why - no birth certificate."

That settles the argument for me. If not, as they claim, a racist, at least a birther - the inspired cover story for racists. Obama is photo-shopped in the lap of chimpanzees (Get it?). Why would she send it to friends without believing the hoax is true. C'mon, you imperfect Christians!

Davenport should realize that she's not, as Alice once remarked to Toto, in Kansas anymore. These days words travel in a blink, and the perp must be held accountable. Even so, she says she will spend some time hunting down the "cowardly person" who leaked the picture to the media. That part I find bizarrely funny.

Birthers: Presidential politics (minus) 101

When the new media sensation Donald Trump, straining to be a presidential player, and the other birthers continue to make jackasses of themselves with the whole world watching, we can only respond:

Is that all you got?

Overheated Arizona lawmakers: the real cut-ups

JUST WHEN YOU think the birther crowd can't provide us with more pratfall comedy, along comes the Arizona legislature with a new test for one's birthplace when all else fails: circumcision. (Stay with me on this. I'm not making it up.) The lawmakers down in the desert sun this week added that infant event to the clues that will validate a presidential candidate if he doesn't happen to have a certified birth certificate. That, of course, will send snoopers through hospital records to find you-know-what.

Can you imagine what the TV anchors will be reporting for the breaking news hour?

"Hospital records today verified that Candidate XYZ was circumcised on March 21, xxxx. His office issued a statement saying the discovery should put to rest his rivals' suspicions that he had violated ancient religious laws and could ably carry out his duties as a bona fide American president."

But shouldn't male candidates be afforded equal proection under the law that, for obvious reasons, would not be a peekaboo burden for female candidates? Probably. But you must understand that this didn't occur to the deep thinkers in the Arizona legislature after a day in the Arizona desert. Besides, as Rep. Carl Seel of Phoenix, who introduced the law, assured us, the bill had nothing to do about the hoopla over President Obama's birthplace. "This bill," he purred, " is about the integrity of our elections. " But being of the same political class as Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl, one wonders whether he really meant that to be a factual statement.

OK, you want to play silly? How about an IQ test for any Arizona male who runs for office. It might show that only the lowest third of that crowd got elected this time. o

Congress: The ugly week that still is

WELL, IT'S BEEN AN ugly week for America that will live in infamy for the Republican Party. A government shutdown, which may be hours away as I write this, will further divide the nation to the raw between the Tea Party/social conservatives and everybody else. And if that hasn't been enough for those hoping that something good may yet occur, the country's biggest egotist, Donald Trump, once again noted that there are many things about the Teabaggers that he likes. He also assured us that if he should decide to run for president he would doubtless be the best candidate for the job and the best president America has ever had . Toto , we're not in Kansas anymore.

Nothing is ever what it seems to be these days. Some observers have noted that Trump's reckless showboating about President Obama's birthplace is merely his way to boost the ratings of his TV show. As one who has fallen into bankruptcy four times,Trump has made a fanciful entry into the birther ranks that represents a fifth bankruptcy, this one a mental collapse into lunacy.

As far as the fight over the Federal budget is concerned, it appears to boil down to an attack on Planned Parenthood and women's health programs, including the end of cancer screening. That seems to be a preposterous way to bring a nation to its knees. But all of those comfortably fed GOP white guys stepping before the cameras to assure gullible Americans that they merely want us to rise triumphantly from deficit are not only lying but also showing little courage to resist the mindless conservative goons who have stripped the House of Representatives from Speaker John Boehner. They are hopeful of pleasing their masters (including the Koch brothers) with servility and dedication to a plantation society.

The Martians have landed on Capitol Hill and we're quickly learning that they are a ruthless bunch of otherworld creatures for which we have found no means as yet to return them to their original planet. They are loaded with cash and insist that God is on their side. At least, for now.

Last night, I withdrew from their scandalous world to listen to the late Luciano Pavarotti on YouTube. He was a remarkable artist whose restorative gifts will be around long after the Capitol Hill mob moves on. It's a reminder that unlike those Martians up on Hill, not all human beings are our enemies

Donald Trump: He stoops to conquer

DONALD TRUMP may have advanced his presidential aspirations on The View this week when he added his name to the list of birthers challenging President Obama to release his birth certificate. And you think that only semi-literates stoop that low? Trump is the biggest egotist in the public arena today, so he may yet dump himself into the GOP race.

That would increase the number or Republican White House wannabes to at least 39 if you count every lightweight with at least a gleam in his or her eye. In fact there are reports that some Republicans are starting to worry about the cumbersome size of the field. My tax exempt solution would be to place each name on a separate sheet of paper and toss them from a skyscraper aerie. The lightest sheet will be the last to hit the ground. The name it bears will be the obvious choice to win the GOP nomination - uncontested.

FOOTNOTES: For a rational view of Gov. Kasich's irrational plan to privatize the state liquor department, check David Hess's comment on my post on the topic. Hess is a former colleague in Columbus and Akron who covered Capitol Hill for Knight-Ridder Newspapers and is the former president of the National Press Club. He usually doesn't take prisoners....Good news this week for U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown. Republican Ken Blackwell, who was demolished in his bid against then-candidate Ted Strickland in the 2006 Ohio gubernatorial race, says he is seriously considering challenging Brown. Could Brown be that lucky?

Anti-health reform mobs: Nullification next?

THE WORD FROM OTHERS:

The New York Review of Books has an essay by Michael Tomasky, the editor of Democracy: a Journal of Ideas, that has a sobering look at the growing clout of the Tea Party mentality that is partly fueled by racism. Saying that it's unlikely that the reaction would be as hatefully demonstrated if the Democrats had elected a white president. He writes:

"We can't measure this, and I'm not sure what good it would do us to know even if we could. What we do know is that this movement is backed by corporate millions, powerful media organizations, such as Fox News, and votes in Congress, and that it will be around for some time, advancing new scandals and lies. The next phase in all this, if health care passes, might well be 'nullification' lawsuits or resolutions in states that don't want to have to implement Obama's reform."

Tomasky notes that South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty have "intimated" that nullification would be the best course of action. (Sounds to me like the kind of stuff that was going around in South Carolina in the years leading up to the Civil War.)

THE BONUS ONUS remains very much alive, no matter where you look today. Even the Tribune Company, the mega-media owner of the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and TV stations, is arguing in bankruptcy court that its $66 billion in bonuses were important to

"incentivize"(God, how I hate the word!) its management. David Carr takes up this silliness in his The Media Equation column in the New York Times.

"Let's say that a group of corporate executives uses scads of debt to take over a struggling company, sells off some profitable assets, lays off thousands of employees while achieving miserable results. And then less than a year after saddling the company with $8 billion in debt, they opt for bankruptcy.

"You'd expect them to walk the plank, or at the least, spend a good stretch of time in the naughty corner. but you wouldn't expect the top 700 managers to collect $86 million in bonuses. But that's just what might happen at the Tribune Co.

(By the way the guy defending incentivization (!) is the Tribune Co.'s chief financial officer, Chandler Bigelow III. That's not the sort of name that would head a Laborers Union.)

Thanks to Talking Points Memo for alerting us to the judicial setback for the wacky California dentist/lawyer Orly Taitz, who has been one of the national ringleaders in challenging President Obama's birthplace. Taitz is a birther who has been challenging Obama's legitimacy wherever she could park her lawsuits. But U.S. District Judge Clay Land (Georgia Middle District) decided he had had enough of her nonsense and fined her $20,000 for misconduct. Should you question the logic behind the fine, here is, in part what he wrote:

When a lawyer files complaints and motions without a reasonable basis for believing that they are supported by existing law or a modification or extension of existing law, that lawyer abuses her privilege to practice law. When a lawyer uses the courts as a platform for a political agenda disconnected from any legitimate legal cause of action, that lawyer abuses her privilege to practice law. When a lawyer personally attacks opposing parties and disrespects the integrity of the judiciary, that lawyer abuses her privilege to practice law. When a lawyer recklessly accuses a judge of violating the Judicial Code of Conduct with no supporting evidence beyond her dissatisfaction with the judge's rulings, that lawyer abuses her privilege to practice law. When a lawyer abuses her privilege to practice law, that lawyer ceases to advance her cause or the ends of justice.

Taitz: A birther born in Moldova

DO YOU FIND find it ironic that one of the national leaders of the birther movement to disprove President Obama's birthplace is a California dentist/lawyer who was not born in the U.S. but is a native of Moldova, the former Soviet Republic? Her name is Orly Taitz and she is described as a rabid litigant among birthers. She earned a law degree from an online correspondence school. Her sidekick in this ridiculous mayhem is a lawyer named Charles Lincoln, who has been disbarred in three states for his way of doing legal work.

Evolution, a thousand years from now

AS A MUCH-NEEDED escape from the political front, I have just finished reading a piece in The Teaching Company magazine on evolution. No, I'm not taking up the shopworn debate on intelligent design. Rather, I wanted to turn the key on the lock that has isolated me from a serious understanding of what is generally called the biotech revolution, a daunting term in itself. So you won't come near getting any expertise from me on the subject. But I at least really tried to understand, if only superficially, what science is talking about in tracking the path of humans from pre-history to the billions of uprights who walk the earth today. Some escape, huh?

The magazine featured a course by Prof. Lee Silver of Princeton University and the descriptive outline - here's where I have to inch forward carefully - turned to such terms as gene sequencing, FISH (Fluorescence in Situ Hybridization), DNA microarray and molecular clock, with great strides in the field since the Human Genome Project was completed in 2003. If you've stayed with me so far, there is good news to report.

It seems to me that if notable scientists are still delving into the past to extend the curve into the future, we're in luck. It tells us that we are, at this moment, still evolving and the world will still be around for us to evolve in. That , of course, is hypothetical at this point, but on the upside for all humanity.

I have no idea where that will take us because there is no certain accounting for nuclear bombs, birthers, tea baggers and William Kristol . But Darwin did provide some clues by telling us that we will adapt like his finches. Well, no, we won't turn yellow or purple each spring, but you get the point.

Since I won't be on hand to admit my mistakes, I would suggest that a human being a thousand years from now will probably have a fleshy rectangular niche in his ear where he safely and permanently implants a cell phone, much like a pacemaker. TV remotes, too often misplaced under last week's newspapers, will be passe. One will be able to switch stations by activating a tiny device that develops in the tongue and will always taste like a root beer float. And hips will have shrunk on frequent flyers to accommodate centuries of squeezing into airplane seats. Really basic stuff, if you think about it.

But remember: These alterations will only occur if evolution is sustained by an active planet itself. We can hope. On the other hand, a worst-case scenario would have human beings returning to life in the treetops. By the looks of the noisy Neanderthals at the town meetings on health care, some among us are getting a head start.