With the Iowa Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage in Iowa, it is of to the County Recorders in all 99 Iowa counties to hand out those marriage licenses to both hetero and gay and lesbian couples. But there are rumblings here and there that some of the County Recorders are unhappy with the prospect of carrying out their sworn duty. There are even some Iowa Republican Legislators who are DENYING they ever had anything to do with encouraging that discomfort felt by some of the Country Recorders. Here’s a bit of the story from the Des Moines Register:

E-mails obtained by The Des Moines Register, meanwhile, show the struggle recorders are going through.

Warren County Recorder Polly Glascock said in an e-mail to colleagues that a woman from the Statehouse called her to ask how she’d handle the gay-marriage issue.

Glascock answered that she would be required to process the applications. “She inquired as to why I thought I had to do that – it’s not a law, it’s an opinion,” Glascock wrote.

The caller was the clerk of Republican Rep. Kent Sorenson.

Sorenson, a Warren County resident who is opposed to marriage for same-sex couples, said Thursday that he did not ask his assistant to make the call.

“I’m not calling for anarchy,” he said. “I want to make it clear that I’m not calling, pressuring her not to do her job. She has to do her job. That’s up to her, the oath she took and what she feels she has to do.”

In an e-mail to colleagues, Johnson County Recorder Kim Painter wrote: “The tentacles of people who want to turn this into something it should not be – a political stunt on the 27th – are reaching out, trying to locate a recorder willing to perpetrate an act of civil disobedience in a county where the sheriff won’t arrest, and the attorney won’t prosecute.”

In her e-mail, she said that she hopes none of her colleagues “go rogue.”

No, a Republican would never encourage a civil official to refuse to uphold the law! No, never! Kent Sorenson is clearly on the record as denying anything happened, and they’ll never prove it, either! Although Republican State Senator Merlin Bartz sure seems to be suggesting that County Recorders refrrain from carrying out their sworn duties. Sure, he sues artful language in his denials. . . Republican all the way, I suppose. Here it is:

Republican Sen. Merlin Bartz of Grafton said recorders are at the forefront of the debate. “They could pull out the code book and say, –I can’t do it,’” he said.

Asked if he is encouraging recorders to commit civil disobedience, Bartz answered: “I have to decide whether or not it’s civil disobedience. If you look at the code book, it hasn’t changed.”

Sioux County Recorder Anita Van Bruggen said her personal belief is that marriage is only between a man and a woman. She said she asked her county attorney whether she must follow the ruling. “He said if you do not, you face removal,” Van Bruggen said.

Sen. David Johnson, R-Ocheyedan, said the Iowa Supreme Court set “a different set of moral standards” that conflicts with Iowans’ constitutional right to freedom of religion.

“If you believe this is wrong based on your theology,” he said, “how can you then deny your faith?”

Hey, there’s the crux of it at the end there, special rights for Christians who don’t believe in gay marriage. That’s the view State Senator David Johnson is pushing. They have no special right to work for the government and at the same time disobey the state of Iowa’s laws. No, that’s not how it works in America. Nobody has the right to a state job and also the right to disobey jobs. We voted that idea out with Dick Cheney.

If these Republican state Senators in Iowa have their way, there will be 99 jobs available in Iowa soon. Progressive job candidates should get their resumes ready.

The poll is from Public Policy Polling and shows overwhelming support by Minnesotans for Norm Coleman conceding the election and for Governor Tim Pawlenty certifying Al Franken as winner of the Senate race. Here’s a bit about the poll from Public Policy Polling’s web site:

63% of voters in the state think that Coleman should just concede the race himself. That
includes almost all of Franken and Dean Barkley’s supporters, as well as a third of
respondents who voted for Coleman last fall.

59% express support both for Pawlenty certifying Franken as the winner and for Franken
being seated immediately.

While Democrats and Republicans predictably have different views about the various
issues related to resolving the election, it’s notable that independent voters fall on
Franken’s side with 61% thinking Coleman should concede and 54% saying Franken
should be certified and seated.

“With the ruling of the three judge panel it appears that most Minnesota voters are now
ready for this election be over,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling.
“Folks seem to think that Franken is the rightful winner and that he should be allowed to
take his seat instead of the process being dragged out further.”

Yes, there will be risks for both Coleman and Pawlenty if they keep the appeals going. Pawlenty, of course, could certify the results while allowing Norm Coleman to keep his farce going, but I expect Pawlenty to keep supporting Coleman so he can appeal to the GOP base in three years. Sure, it might actually help Pawlenty win the Republican nomination for President, but it might also cost him the vote from Minnesota. What chance would he have in 2012 if he couldn’t carry his home state?

As to the poll, it is also interesting that there’s little difference in opinion along racial or gender lines. This might be partisan, but it isn’[t breaking divisively in other ways.

If this election turns out to be about religious ideology…while ignoring the real implications of electing a candidate who supports the same policies of the president who created the troubled economy we’re now enduring…it may well be appropriate to call this “The Loaves and Fishes Election”…although I doubt either will be abundant…and they most certainly wont be free.

Troubling as it is, a number of voters seem poised to place matters of morality in front of their own economic self-interest. What remains to be seen is the depths to which voters are willing to sacrifice their pocket books in deference to the religious rhetoric being bantered about by the GOP.

Perhaps the news of the decision by the government to take over the troubled mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, will provide the impetus for voters to think twice before granting the GOP another four year…on top of the eight during which the national debt nearly doubled and personal income failed to advance.

Let me attempt to make this simple. Under the Bush administration, huge tax cuts were enacted…primarily for the wealthiest of Americans. At the same time, mortgage interest rates were kept artificially low. That allowed for a housing bubble which enabled millions of Americans to borrow and spend newfound equity. It also allowed for those with capital (think those who received the tax cuts) to invest in and profit from the financial market.

Jump forward to the end of 2008. The Bush administration and John McCain favor extending the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans…arguing that we can’t raise taxes in a down economy. The problem with that logic is that the tax cuts helped facilitate the shoddy economy we have. It also allowed the rich to get richer and it allowed millions of Americans to borrow what they thought was an expanading equity in their homes. That ability to access equity served as the candy coating on an otherwise unsound economy.

However, as they say, it’s now time to pay the piper. So what does this mean for the average American? Well, it means that millions of Americans will see their home values decline, their debt increase, their access to better jobs diminish, and ownership of an expanding national debt that will have to be addressed.

And what does this mean for the wealthiest Americans under John McCain’s more of the same administration? It means that they will have benefited from years of a reduced tax burden. It means they were able to invest this and other money in a finance industry that was fueled by artificially low interest rates…w

Attention Teabaggers:

Every year about this time, the Tax Foundation calculates the date that the average American will have made enough money to cover their tax obligations for the coming year (federal, state, and local). This date is known as Tax Freedom Day. Guess what?

Tax Freedom Day will arrive on April 13 this year, according to the Tax Foundation’s annual calculation using the latest government data on income and taxes.

This is eight days earlier than in 2008, and a full two weeks earlier than in 2007…

That’s change I can believe in.

So, Teabaggers – where were you in 2008 and 2007? Oh, that’s right. Faux News and Rush Limpballs weren’t directing you to attend the “Obama Fail” (tea party) rally near you on Wednesday.

Yeah, I get it.

US Representative Steve King of Iowa is thinking of running for Governor in Iowa now that the courts there have paved the way for gay marriage in the state. Gee, this guy has a way with words. From the Des Moines Register:

U.S. Rep. Steve King said Monday that he is more likely to run for governor next year in light of the Iowa Supreme Court’s ruling last week overturning the state’s ban on gay marriage.

“When these kinds of things happen, it sucks me into the Iowa policy in a way that I haven’t been sucked into it in a while,” King told The Des Moines Register. “It’s not a predominant component. But when these kinds of things happen, does it make me more or less likely? The answer is more likely.”

Given that the gay marriage issue can’t come to any kind of vote for a long, long time, I’m thinking Mr. King is going to find himself on the wrong side of this one. But, you know, the extremists on the religious right just might give him some campaign bucks. The thing is, there are probably a few other Republicans who are thinking just like him, that fighting gay marriage is their ticket to bigger and better things. The infighting in that primary might just be horribly fierce, paving the way for a moderate Democrat.

Meanwhile, Iowans have a few years to get used to the idea of their fellow citizens marrying gayly, raising families, and being good neighbors. Someone ought to start a campaign of gay and lesbian Iowans sharing recipes with their neighbors, or something like that. Being visibly “normal” is probably important over the next few years.

As far as Steve King is concerned, why did he choose the word “suck?” Man, is he trying to be subliminal or what?

Oh, this has to make Sarah Palin upset. She bought a dress, though it is not clear whether the RNC paid for it at Bloomingdale’s or at Neiman Marcus. And she was likely all excited to go to the big fundraiser for the Republicans in the House and Senate, a black tie affair where she could wear those marvelous duds and wow the crowd with a speech full of “you betcha”. The problem is that Sarah was just too coy.

Remember that girl in High School who kept turning down the boys who asked her to the prom because she was waiting for the cool quarterback of the football team to ask her? It appears Sarah Palin pulled that trick on a whole bunch of GOP bigwigs. Whole bunches of Congressmen and Senators wanted her, but she kept dithering, and now they’ve decided to go with the tried and true Newt Gingrich. No sure how Newt looks in a dress, even if that dress is from Bloomies, but they’ve made their decision, NTTAWWT. Reported by ABC News here, but I’ll quote from FoxNews:

Sarah Palin is out and Newt Gingrich is in.

Congressional Republicans decided Tuesday to ditch the former GOP vice presidential nominee in favor of the former House speaker for the critical House-Senate fundraising dinner in June 8 in Washington. It’s the marquee Republican event to raise money for GOP House and Senate candidates.

Just weeks ago, the House and Senate Republican campaign committees were giddy at securing the telegenic Palin for the dinner. But then things grew murky. At the time, the Alaska governor’s office told FOX News that Palin was still considering the invitation and had not yet made a decision. Meantime, spokespersons for the committees insisted that Palin was scheduled and it was just a misunderstanding between the Alaska governor’s office and Palin’s political action committee, SarahPAC, that accepted the invite.

Sources familiar with the Palin snub fumed about how the governor handled this.

“She was a disaster,” one Republican source told FOX News. “We had confirmation.”

Of course, these are Republicans, so the whiney excuses abound. Evidently the GOP in Washington is pretty pissed off at Palin, who also canceled her star turn at the CPAC Ball last month. The Palin camp has been taking flak lately for being disorganized. They wouldn’t answer the phone when FoxNews called, and I’m guessing O’Reilly is getting ready to send his stalkers to Alaska to nail down the real scoop here. Until then, I suppose Sarah Palin must wait at home, watching Russia out her kitchen window, and hoping that another prince will invite her to the prom.

I just don’t get right wingers. They can take an issue that has some degree of resonance across the political spectrum, come up with a kicky idea that has PR punch, and then turn it into a steaming pile of fetid compost. (Check that – we all know that dittoheads would never compost their waste.)

You simply must check out this photo gallery from a “protest” in Stamford, Ct. over the weekend. Here’s a taste:

And here’s a link to a story on the tea party protest.

Anyone remember the post-election Brooks Brothers Riot in Miami, Florida in November, 2000 that stopped the presidential vote recounts? Yeah, these tea parties feel a lot like that.

(h/t to Bob Cesca’s Awesome Goddamn Blog)

Certainly the Republicans in the House stubbed their collective toes this week when they put forth a plan that had no dollar figures within it and no specific proposals. Politico had noted that the plan was being prepared to counter accusations that the GOP has become the ‘œParty of No.’ Politico describes the Republican train wreck:

Even before Barack Obama double-dared them to cough up their own budget, House Republican leaders were quietly drafting a set of conservative budget principles to convince voters ‘“ and their own rank-and-file ‘“ that they aren’™t just The Party of No.

Minority Leader John Boehner, Minority Whip Eric Cantor, GOP Conference Chairman Mike Pence and Rep. Paul Ryan worked for weeks on a plan, staffers say, without any serious philosophical disagreements.

But over time, Cantor-Ryan and Boehner-Pence camps split over questions of tactics and timing.

Pence, with Boehner’™s blessing, wanted to unveil an abbreviated ‘œblueprint’ Thursday to counter Obama’™s criticism and arm members with new talking points heading into this weekend ‘“ even if it meant that their plan wouldn’™t have much in the way of details.

Cantor and Ryan wanted to wait until Ryan’™s staff produced a fully-fleshed-out alternative to Obama’™s $3.6 trillion spending plan, with specific numbers on spending and tax cuts ‘“ even if it meant waiting a few more days to get it out.

Cantor and Ryan ultimately caved in, and what they got was the worst of both worlds: a thin, glossy ‘œblueprint’ that was ridiculed by Democrats and cable news anchors, and a nasty internecine scrap that culminated with one GOP aide telling POLITICO that Pence had thrown Ryan ‘œunder the bus’ in an ‘œegocentric rush’ to grab the spotlight.

Privately, some Republicans are worried that the split over the budget blueprint portends the kind of internal squabbling that afflicted the party during the height of its power at the beginning of the Bush administration.

First Republican whine? ‘œBut Politico is biased!’ Hey, guys, the freaking right wing Washington Times also makes fun of your proposed budget. As a Republican you know you’™ve really screwed the pooch when the Times is making fun of you. It is going to be harder to weasel out of this one than to merely crawl back under the partition at the airport restroom. Boehner offers the ‘œbudget,’ but it has no substance, which to most Americans seems perfectly consistent with Republican performance over the last eight years or so.

This time there seems to be infighting among the Republicans. That’™s brilliant. Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan caved in to the old guard, as represented by John Boehner (rhymes with ‘œloner’) and Mike Pence. From my outsiders perspective, rising stars in the Republican Party are its only chance of suvival over the cruxial next few years. Sanford and Jindal and Palin are rising stars bumbling around on their own, without significant help from the incompetent Republican powers that be. Now the old guard is abusing young guns Cantor and Ryan. In short, the GOP is showing itself to be disfunctional on the level of Greek tragedy. No, wait, formal definitions of ‘œtragedy’ imply a fall from greatness, and not about to imply greatness for the GOP anytime in the last 50 years. Umm, it sounds like a WWE cage match. Yeah, that’™s the metaphor!

And what’™s a meta for, anyway? It’™s just a handy thing to use to make fun of Republicans who, as usual, can’™t get their shit together. I propose a tag team cage match between Eric Cantor/Paul Ryan vs. John Boehner/Mike Pence. The winning team gets to make decisions for the GOP in the House, and more importantly, I’™ll donate a whole slew of tanning products. Sound good?

Dear Mr. DeSantis:

I read your resignation letter to AIG CEO Edward Liddy, which was published in the New York Times on my birthday, 3/24/2009. Having just turned 55, and being currently unemployed and living check to check, I thought you might be interested in my reaction.

The sense of entitlement that you express is absolutely astounding, and beyond the logical comprehension of a lifelong prole such as myself. You state:

I take this action after 11 years of dedicated, honorable service to A.I.G. I can no longer effectively perform my duties in this dysfunctional environment, nor am I being paid to do so. Like you, I was asked to work for an annual salary of $1, and I agreed out of a sense of duty to the company and to the public officials who have come to its aid…

Excuse me if I don’t choke up with sympathy, Mr. DeSantis. I have no doubt that during your “11 years of dedicated, honorable service”, you were very handsomely rewarded for your efforts, both in salary and past bonuses. I haven’t even googled your name, but I imagine that you live in a very nice home in a prestigious zip code, and that you hold title to at least one or two other vacation homes in equally toney neighborhoods. You probably drive multiple high end, imported vehicles, have multiple tax-sheltered bank accounts and financial instruments, and have never had to make the choice between feeding your family or paying the electric bill or cutting your pills in half to stretch out a medication prescription. It’s probably also safe to assume that you have a hired staff to attend to your family’s many needs and routine, mundane household chores.

So when you say:

I and many others in the unit feel betrayed that you failed to stand up for us in the face of untrue and unfair accusations from certain members of Congress last Wednesday and from the press over our retention payments, and that you didn’t defend us against the baseless and reckless comments made by the attorneys general of New York and Connecticut…

As most of us have done nothing wrong, guilt is not a motivation to surrender our earnings. We have worked 12 long months under these contracts and now deserve to be paid as promised. None of us should be cheated of our payments any more than a plumber should be cheated after he has fixed the pipes but a careless electrician causes a fire that burns down the house…

… I have to conclude that my personal sense of outrage over the bonus that you (and your fellow AIG executives) were scheduled to receive was justified. It’s crystal clear that you are disconnected from the social and political reality around you. The gravy train has been running on time for years, but by all appearances, when it ran off the tracks in 2008 your company continued to try and grease the rails for AIG executives who were already riding in first class.

Meanwhile, millions of Americans (including me) who were working as hourly wage slaves or in minimally salaried supervisory roles lost their jobs because of the recklessness of companies like AIG. So now, you resign and whine to your CEO via an editorial in the New York Times?

I’m sorry, but I just can’t feel the love for ya, Jake. As I try to figure out how I’m going to make it to next week, my sympathy meter just isn’t moving in your direction.

If you feel I’m alone in my lack of compassion for your situation, you might want to check out political cartoonist David Rees’ opinion:

Pay me $700,000 a year, or however much the AIG guy whining in today’s New York Times made, and you can threaten me with death all goddamn day. Because do you have any idea how much money that is??? Hell, I’ll let you throw rocks at me. I’ll let you poison my soup. You can slash my tires and spray-paint my driveway. AND ONCE I GET ALL THAT MONEY, I’M TOTALLY PAYING OFF SOME STUDENT LOANS AND FIXING THE GARAGE ROOF AND BUYING SOME NEW PANTS. Because that’s an insane amount of money.

I know, I know, Jake. It’s sad. To folks like you, $700,000 is chump change that can be given away in a fit of angst, and then reclaimed next April as a tax deduction. The unwashed (such as Mr. Rees or myself) just don’t understand. Perhaps you could do a little house shopping in Florida this weekend to sooth your wounded soul.

At the end of the day, though, I thank you for bringing the plight of the perceived injustice you’ve experienced to our collective attention, and I wish you luck in your job search. Sorry I have to cut this short, but maybe I’ll see you down at the local Wal-Mart and we can further discuss your anger. I hear they’re hiring part time stocking help for the night shift, and I need to rush out and get in the application line.

Best regards,

Richard Blair

There’s evidently a sizable number of Members of Congress on the GOP side of the aisle who would like Dick Cheney to go back to his undisclosed location. They are not a bit happy that Cheney decided to take on Barack Obama the other day. Evidently they have figured out that huge numbers of Americans think Dick Cheney took this country down the most disastrous path we’ve been down in a long time. From The Hill:

Congressional Republicans are telling Dick Cheney to go back to his undisclosed location and leave them alone to rebuild the Republican Party without his input.

Displeased with the former vice-president’s recent media appearances, Republican lawmakers say he’s hurting GOP efforts to reinvent itself after back-to-back electoral drubbings.

The veep, who showed a penchant for secrecy during eight years in the White House,has popped up in media interviews to defend the Bush-Cheney record while suggesting that the country is not as safe under President Obama.

Rep. John Duncan Jr. (R-Tenn.) said, “He became so unpopular while he was in the White House that it would probably be better for us politically if he wouldn’t be so public…But he has the right to speak out since he’s a private citizen.”

Another House Republican lawmaker who requested anonymity said he wasn’t surprised that Cheney has strongly criticized Obama early in his term, but argued that it’s not helping the GOP cause.

The legislator said Cheney, whose approval ratings were lower than President Bush’s during the last Congress, didn’t think through the political implications of going after Obama.

Cheney did “House Republicans no favors,” the lawmaker said, adding, “I could never understand him anyway.”

As everyone knows, the problem here is that these same GOP Congressmen were all supportive of Mr. Cheney through some really ugly times, including torture, selling out our own CIA agents, renditions, etc. They can’t run and hide from what they actively enabled, except in their dreams.

Of course, they could try exorcism.