Briefly

From Digby this morning:

The Republican Party has officially endorsed its backing for Arizona-style state immigration laws, adding into its platform language that such laws should be "encouraged, not attacked" and calling for the federal government to drop its lawsuits against the laws.

On O'Reilly last night the guest host, a typical Fox anchorette sporting blonde hair and a cigarette voice browbeat the typical liberal counterpointers, a nice butchy blonde who couldn't stop grinning, and a nice young black woman from New York City. All Miss Marlboro had was "this whole Akin thing is manufactured by the liberal press to distract the voters from what they really want to talk about, namely, Obama's failed economic policy." She brooked no back talk. "Women want jobs," she said over and over. "Particularly married women with children." Those young singles--she brushed them aside with the sneering assumption that one day if they're lucky they'll find husbands for their children, at which point they'll likely turn Republican.

Given that it is a fact that the Republican Party made a conscious commitment, on 1/20/09, to never find any place of compromise with Mr. Obama, surely it follows that if his economic policy is a failure, the Republican Party shares that failure. It is a fact that the Democratic Party even with small majorities in Congress has never had the political strength to overcome the filibuster. It is a fact that once the Republican Party gained majority in the House, its primary efforts have been a continuous string of anti-abortion bills--which have lead to the reasonable judgement that the Republicans are waging a "war on women."

Republicans have entirely lost their credibility with African-Americans. Romney's appearance at the NAACP convention simply confirmed all the assumptions black people reasonably make about Republicans. The current Republican rejoinder, that Romney was just giving the NAACP some bitter medicine, which they should have accepted as it was in their best interests, is just more paternalism in a different key.

This is all the Republicans have. They are the party of paternalism. They are the expression of the patriarchy. Their deepest, true-ist slogan should be, "Don't Worry Your Pretty Head." If that kindly pat/smile doesn't do the trick, well, it's on the roof with ya.

It couldn't be much more obvious. The Republican Party is right now being as "honest" as it can be, with at least a third of the group supporting even Mr. Akin's medieval medical science, as well as similar notions concerning climate science and the whole of biology.

From Doghouse Riley this morning:

And it just happens, then, that he [Akin] slid all the way down the slope. If there's no exception for rape, according to the Republican party, no exception for incest, none for viability, genetic disaster, or the life of the mother--until it's the mother of Rick Santorum's children--then say so. If there is, then on what basis? If there is, then the termination of a pregnancy is not murder.

They also intend to wage a war with Iran as soon as possible.

Really, any questions?

Friday Update: Compared to the hot issues of immigration, women's rights, and climate change, pure economic theory is of necessity pretty grim stuff--there is the taste of metal in the mouth after a few paragraphs, and the mind yearns for something... sports highlights, previews of coming attractions... anything... But as Paul Krugman points out, the GOP is remarkably aiming at returning to the gold standard as well as segregated lunch counters and back alley coathanger abortions:

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/23/golden-ferrets-i-mean-fetters/

There was a bit on the news last night about the continuing Romney whine that not only do they pay over 13% in taxes, but--as well--they are "pay" over 10% a year in charitable contributions, much of that in tithes to the Mormon Church. This remarkable conflation of two very different things offers an insight into the Romney (and Republican) way of looking at the world. It's of a piece with the common conservative whine that "over 50% of 'them' don't pay any taxes," and the complaint from millionaires that, in absolute terms, they are paying more than enough.

All of this is profoundly egocentric and self-serving. In Romney's whine about his charitable giving percentages he is also conflating charity with tax obligations, and indeed, suggesting that taxes are charity. This is a pernicious idea at the heart of a great deal of right wing cant. "We don't want to pay for them." It entirely ignores and dismisses the plain fact that all of us benefit from our joint efforts, and the rich most of all.

It is tragic that a serious Presidential nominee is so deeply misguided, and a Romney Presidency will bring disasters on us all.