Friday Funday: Making Memories

As we remind you every year, on this particular Friday, Memorial Day weekend begins today, carrying with it the usual broad variety of meanings; the end of the school year, the unofficial beginning of summer, high school graduations, and - as usual - our one week Memorial Day vacation.

While the holiday is officially Monday, we hope that you remember our U.S. servicemembers all year 'round - those currently serving, those whose active duty years are in the past, and most importantly, those that gave their lives for our nation.

This will be a special holiday this year, the first Memorial Day since the official end of the Iraq war - and hopefully one of the last before the end of the Afghan conflict. We offer our thanks to all of those who have served, and wish this year - as we have every year - that all of our service members come home sooner, rather than later, alive and well. For those that did not make it home, this holiday was meant to make us remember their sacrifices.

To us, Memorial Day is first about remembering those who gave all for their fellow Americans, without regard for their fellow Americans' race, gender, sexual preference, age, economic status, or any other factor.

It should also be a bit about remembering those who made it home - but we then forgot about.

Sadly, many in America have forgotten the sacrifices of our service members, in the past. Korea and Vietnam are perfect - and shameful - examples of how Americans ignored those who served, once they came home.

Others in the media have strongly noted over the last couple of years - including, more than anyone else, Rachel Maddow - that although the war in Iraq is done, as a nation we still haven't publicly celebrated the return of our Iraq War vets and those vets from Afghanistan who are also now home for good.

We firmly agree with Rachel's sentiment, that there should some way to publicly remember, celebrate and thank the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, wherever they live.

Although the official position of the Pentagon is that we should not celebrate Iraq and Afghanistan until all troops are home from both wars, some cities across the nation have already decided to go ahead with their own parades - and we hope your hometown is one of those places.

Even if it isn't, if you know someone who has been a member of our armed forces, or if you see someone this weekend who served, or is still serving, thank them. All our service members, past and present, are well worth remembering this weekend and throughout the year.

As we noted last year, to us this weekend shouldn't just be about remembering. It should also be about celebrating the things many of our nation's finest gave their lives for.

In that spirit, we salute the millions of young people graduating from high school this weekend, and celebrate their accomplishments.

If you're spending this weekend volunteering your time, energy, and effort helping others? We salute you too.

As we've said previously, America isn't just a country. It's a series of communities and people tied together by common bonds, including the belief that things can always improve if we work together and believe in one another. We give each other hope to keep reaching farther; to keep working harder (and smarter);  to do the right thing, when it would be easier to do the wrong one. All of that is possible, thanks to those who were willing to give their last measure so that the rest of us might have one more day, week, month, or trip around the sun.

We hope you remember this weekend, and our service members - but we also hope you celebrate the opportunities they allowed all of us to have.

Enjoy the weekend.

We'll see you when we return June 4.

Missing The Point - Repeatedly

We've gotten more than a few grumbles from certain quarters lately - a few subscribers have even dropped their daily e-mail subscriptions - because of how harsh we've been on the Republican Party and its candidates in recent commentaries.

As is typical these days, there are those on the right who think we're "in the tank" for the Democrats, ignoring comments like our obvious - and deliberate - calling out of formerly rising Democratic star Cory Booker, in Wednesday's edition. There are also those on the left who are equally disgruntled, and who insist Obama and the Democrats haven't done enough - no matter what they have actually done.

From our perspective, we've just been telling the truth - to both of the above groups, and everyone else too. Right now, the truth is, as Vice President Joe Biden noted this week: "This is NOT your father's Republican Party."

Unless, of course, your father was a Cro-Magnon, with a penchant for beating on things.

As we and many others have noted many times recently, the un-evolved style of racism, bigotry, and classism in the modern GOP,  may be the end of their party. Unless the GOP moves away from its offensive and nativist policy positions, the simple facts of changing demographics in the United States that keep appearing in piles of studies and polls - including the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC poll -may render the GOP extinct in the not-too-distant future.

Even so, right-winger Kevin Williamson over at the National Journal attempts to avoid the GOP's recent knuckle-dragging attitudes on race, immigration, and sexual orientation by re-writing history, the way conservatives wish it were - or as Jonathan Chait says, in a way that "absolves their own ideology of any guilt."

No matter what lies conservative extremists tell themselves on this issue, it won't change the fact that their political actions - like denying an honest DREAM Act - will continue to divide factions of the GOP from itself.

This isn't the only way Republicans are driving wedges into their own party - and the country.

There are also those who keep insisting Mitt Romney's experience as a casino capitalist, at vulture capital firm Bain Capital, is a good measure of his fitness for the job of President - including Mr. Romney himself.

As we and a pile of others pointed out this week, Romney's experience maximizing profits at the expense of jobs, for a small group of investors doesn't qualify him for the job of President anymore than it did Michael Milken, back in the 1980s.

It also doesn't help Mr. Romney's position when he calls himself a 'numbers guy', and then proceeds to get all the numbers wrong on critical issues like unemployment. He also can't even explain what - exactly - he learned in business school, when asked directly, as he was by journalist Mark Halperin.

Furthermore, while Republicans keep trying to push the idea that President Obama is some kind of "tax and spend" boogeyman, the facts simply don't support them there either. As the Wall Street Journal - that bastion of liberal journalism - made blazingly clear on Wednesday, Federal spending under President Obama has increased at the slowest rate since the end of the 1950s. As former journalist and current White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told the press corps, "Do not buy into the B.S. that you hear about spending and fiscal constraint with regard to this administration. I think doing so is a sign of sloth and laziness."

On subject after subject, time and time again, Republicans and conservatives keep being intellectually lazy on nearly every major subject we can think of. [And yes, it IS making them dumber, and more conservative, as studies keep proving - which is a vicious cycle.]

This is not the Republican Party of days gone by. Those kind of Republicans could usually admit when they were wrong, and move forward, together, with Democrats and independents to make progress happen again.

Today's Republicans need to put down their metaphorical mallets, and quit driving wedges into their party, and our country.

The Unbearable Truth About Wall Street

Today's commentary may bite a bit more for some - and that may be a good thing for everyone.

In case you'd missed it, the big message that extremist political hack and well-known liar Karl Rove and his Crossroads SuperPAC is saturating the media airwaves with right now, is an ad filled to the brim with untruths and outright lies about President Obama, spending, and even Wall Street.

As Steve Benen and Jamelle Bouie both point out, the ad lies about all kinds of things - for example the Wall Street bailouts. Rove's smear blames the bailouts on Obama - when the bailouts really happened under George W. Bush.

The ad also talks about debt - but fails to mention that Mitt Romney's budget plans would increase the debt by several trillion over the next decade, while Obama's budget plans would decrease the debt by two trillion over the same period.

The ad tries to paint Obama as horrible for student loans, when the reality is that President Obama yanked out the expensive private company middlemen of the student loan industry - which made more money available for student loans. President Obama and the Democrats also have fought - and continue to fight - to keep the interest rate low on student loans, while Republicans in Congress filibustered against the Democrats, the President - and poor students.

Rove's ad lies on nearly every front - but it's easy to see why.

It's the same reason that Democratic Mayor of Newark, Cory Booker, has been tap-dancing around the issue of vulture capital firms (which are different than venture capital firms) - and the same reason Mitt Romney and the GOP keep saying we should go back to a less regulated era of Wall Street.

It is because the big-money backers of Wall Street are yanking the chains of so many politicians in our post-Citizens United era.

The problem, as President Obama recently pointed out, is that the legalized gambling that Wall Street firms like JP Morgan are still involved in, are still backstopped by U.S. taxpayer dollars - which means we pay for their losses, while they get to keep most of their winnings.

What's more, because Federal spending has in fact NOT gone up - as Karl Rove's ad also lies about - our Federal regulators are fiscally outmatched and outgunned by the modern day robber barons of Wall Street.

So what tricks do the bears on Wall Street want Congress to perform?

How about rolling over, and having the Wall Street regulators play dead? That's not hyperbole. There are nine bills before lawmakers right now designed to kill off the minor regulations that Obama, Democrats, and the Dodd-Frank bill put back in place after the disastrous market crash of 2008 - when George W. Bush was still President.

Some of the best economic experts today - including Paul Krugman and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich - have made it clear: President Obama, and frankly the Democratic Party in general, should not do any more favors for Wall Street. They agree, Obama and the Democrats should forge ahead with the fight against 'casino capitalism' - the kind of Wall Street activity that was responsible for most of the massive financial destruction around the world over the last decade.

Now, we're all well aware of the snarling and roaring (and crying and whining) that continues to come from the canyons of Wall Street any time the word "regulation" is mentioned. But the facts don't lie. Since "the market" was re-regulated, the stock indexes are doing better than ever, there's been 26 months of private sector job growth - even the economic confidence level has hit a new high.

When you get right down to it, even Republicans think we need to stand up to the casino capitalists on Wall Street. They made that plenty clear during the GOP Presidential primary, over the last year.

It's long past time for the wild animals of Wall Street to re-learn who the masters are, and who is supposed to be performing for the masses.

What All The Campaigns Are About

While some of the media is still buzzing about a gaffe made by Newark, New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker over the weekend, we're actually kind of glad Mayor Booker stepped in the deep end of politics like an amateur.

For one thing, as Ezra Klein noted, Booker's greater point - that America should be having a broad debate about the real issues of leadership, instead of having to watch distracting SuperPAC commercials about non-issues - is one we, and most people who actually care about this country, agree with.

Debates on real issues, between quality candidates that actually display the qualities that prove whether a candidate is truly ready for office, are exactly what we should be having.

In fact, at a press conference yesterday, President Obama echoed that exact sentiment when a reporter asked him about the TV and web ads attacking Mitt Romney's past tenure with vulture capital firm Bain Capital. The reporter attempted to depict the ads discussing Mitt's past as a job destroyer as a distraction - as one of those kinds of distractions like the proposed SuperPAC smear from last week.

The President responded directly, “This is not a distraction. This is what this campaign is going to be about.”

The President continued, "If the main basis for [Romney] suggesting he can do a better job [as President] is his track record as the head of a private equity firm, then both the upsides and the downsides are worth examining."

“When you’re president, as opposed to the head of a private equity firm, your job is not simply to maximize profits. Your job is to figure out how everybody in the country has a fair shot," said The President. “My job [The job of President] is to take into account everybody, not just some."

That kind of head-on debate of the details that make a good officeholder is exactly what honest voters from every political background desire. We should all demand that kind of debate, and we should definitely teach that kind of critical discussion to the next generation of voters.

In Nebraska, Democratic Senate candidate Bob Kerrey seems to have that will and energy to engage in both honest debate and teaching the next generation how such debates should work.

The Cornhusker Boys and Girls State summertime citizenship conferences for teenagers invited Mr. Kerrey and GOP Senate nominee Deb Fischer to have a debate at their annual convention in Nebraska's capitol city June 5, two weeks from today. Kerrey jumped at the chance, remarking that scheduling the first debate of the general election before an audience of high school aged kids, "sends just the right message" for the campaign.

However, after months of claiming she wanted "as many debates as possible," the inexperienced challenger Fischer, was muzzled by her campaign manager - who attempted to distract the media with an ad hominem swipe at Mr. Kerrey.

The problem is, if Fischer is really the independent-minded Republican she's already claiming she is, strong leadership - the kind that will be needed in the Senate - should come directly from her, at the top of her campaign. It should be part of the platform of who she is.

Now, we're not going to fall to the level of Mr. Romney, or Ms. Fischer's press flack, and make outright negative and spurious claims about why Ms. Fischer chose not to debate. The fact is, Fischer's decision spoke louder than anything she could have said. It says she's not ready yet - and doesn't know when she will be.

As the President noted Monday, what his campaign - what all the campaigns this year - should be about, are real issues that display the qualities that prove whether a candidate is truly ready for office. In the case of President Obama's challenger, Mr. Romney, if Romney is going to ignore his record as Governor of Massachusetts, and focus on his record at vulture capital firm Bain Capital, then Romney's record at Bain is fair game.

If someone is merely hanging on, pointing whatever direction the SuperPACs tell them to point, they're a long way from being ready to rumble - let alone take office. Governing properly isn't for the faint of heart. If a candidate doesn't know that already, once they are in the race is not the time to be learning that lesson.

When The Chickens Come Home...

When you got up this morning, if the most important "news" item you saw or heard was the death of Bee Gees co-founder Robin Gibb, we're sadly not surprised. Massive protests at the NATO meetings were something the "news" folks didn't seem to want to talk about much today. There were still a few individuals in the media talking about the SuperPAC buyout of last week's Nebraska Republican primary race - but we're not too surprised that the story of the SuperPACs and the 'Ricketts Plan' somehow slipped from the headlines already.

If newspapers were still owned by newsmen, and radio stations by radio people, and local TV stations by those who actually understand local TV news, the fact that the wealthiest men and women in America - and indeed from around the world - are buying our elections at all levels, would be the top story today, and every day for weeks on end.

That it is not shows how corrupt, bastardized, and weak our mainstream media has become. Take Wisconsin, for example.

Over the weekend, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel announced their endorsement of embattled Republican Governor Scott Walker, against the Democratic Mayor of Milwaukee, Tom Barrett. This seemed to surprise some in the national media - but it shouldn't.

In a recent story, initially published by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Walker was caught - on video - making it clear that his top priority, from the day he got elected, was to "divide and concquer" unions and working class Wisconsinites, in favor of his corporate buddies. Not surprisingly, in the video, Walker was talking with two incredibly wealthy Wisconsin businesswomen - women who control or influence companies that do measurable business with Journal Communications, the Journal-Sentinal's parent company.

That shouldn't shock anyone. For far too long now, the so-called objectivity of much of the media hasn't originated from the journalists in the newsrooms, as it should, but instead from the pinheads in the boardroom, who cringe at the slightest threat of an advertiser deciding to pull up stakes.

The position of the overly Wall-Street friendly folks controlling the Republican Party is similarly disconnected from reality. As current Chairman of the Republican National Committee Reince Preibus said this weekend, all these baseless attacks by SuperPACs would just go away if Democrats - including the President - would just give up and let Republicans win.

Priebus' comment is not only ridiculous, it's completely at odds with reality. His comment mirrors almost identically the kind of reaction regularly heard from bullies, after they receive a taste of their own medicine.

That kind of blowback is exactly what happened to Joe Ricketts and his family last week, when his chickens came home to roost. The amazingly rapid backpedaling and denials surrounding the Ricketts Plan were the effect of real news men and women shining journalistic sunlight on the disease of SuperPACs in American democracy.

We wish we could say that metaphorical bird is cooked, that you could stick a fork in the idea that SuperPACs are now going to keep the sleeze to a minimum, after the plan with Joe Ricketts' name on it, blew up in his face - but we'd be as crazy as GOP Chariman Preibus if we believed that.

Fact is, because of the Citizens United ruling, a single average, multi-billion dollar Romney SuperPAC donor is now equal to 181,000 average Obama campaign donors. That gives an overwhelming and unequal advantage in our elections to those in our society who have far more money than sense.

The advantage small dollar donors have, however, is that the media can't and doesn't need to shine its spotlight on them individually, like it can the big dollar donors who are trying to turn this nation into the Corporate-Owned States of America.

No matter what, this year's elections are going to be hard-fought battles, at every level. We just hope that our fellow media members keep the heat on those who are attempting to buy the elections outright.

Friday Funday: Truth In Media

As we've hit the end of the week, and as it's been another week of politics where we often look at the stories that make headlines and think, "What the hell," we've decided that today going to contrast the latest story about how evil the media can be, with some good news about the the media. After all - it's Friday!

First, the bad news. This is what NOT to do, if you're involved with the media.

In case you missed it, the media exploded yesterday in a flurry of massive SuperPac money numbers and political cowardice, when the New York Times announced the latest story of the right-wing corporatists attempting to buy this year's election.

Apparently, notorious conservative political media hack Fred Davis - the same guy who came up with the 'Demon Sheep' ad in California, and the "I'm Not A Witch" ad for Republican Christine O'Donnell in Delaware - tried to cook up a brand new stew of poisonous lies and smears from a leftover four-year old smear campaign against President Obama.

Davis apparently presented his storyboard to Joe Ricketts, the wealthy Republican Omaha-based billionaire, whose money bought Deb Fischer her spot as the GOP nominee in this year's U.S. Senate race in Nebraska. Davis sold the idea to Ricketts, promising Ricketts could "do exactly what John McCain would not let us do." According to legitimate sources, Ricketts was set to spend $10 million on this zombie smear campaign against Obama - that has absolutely nothing to do with the issues most voters care about in this year's Presidential election.

The media firestorm was already brewing Thursday morning as we published the day's edition, and by the time we had lunch, Mitt Romney and his campaign had already distanced themselves - albeit in a stumbling way - from Ricketts and the right-wing PR media group pushing the trash and lies.

Instead of admitting the proposal was not a politically wise move, Davis' so-called public relations firm's first instinct appears to have been to defend their actions, claiming that if Sen. John McCain had ran the same smear ad four years ago, he'd have defeated then Sen. Obama.

That was all an example of what NOT to do. Here's the right thing to do.

After the PR firm mentioned him, Senator John McCain quickly came out and proved the media hacks wrong. McCain said he was proud of his actions in 2008 - for not running the proposed trashy smear ad against Obama - and McCain agreed with Mitt Romney in condemning the proposed ad, and indeed any kind of trashy Super PAC propaganda that uses personal attacks instead of focusing on real issues. Romney's camp also reiterated - a bit more professionally - their desire to stay away from personal attacks during the campaign.

That action - shunning the propaganda and lies, even just a little - is what makes this a good moment in the media today. Because of Mitt's decision -  and the following terrified retreat by other sleazy media hacks from this trashy ad - we all may experience slightly less offensive political propaganda on our TVs and radios, at least in the short term.

There are those who think Romney just decided to lean the way the political wind was already blowing at gale force on Thursday - and looking at some of Mitt's previous comments, that may indeed be the case.

Even if it is, the key fact is that Mitt Romney did choose to push away the disgusting, hate-filled, personal attack plan with Joe Ricketts' name on it, and Joe Ricketts' SuperPAC money behind it. What's more, because of Mr. Romney's choice, the Ricketts' family businesses may actually be suffering some financial repercussions for their attempt to use our media as a platform for Father Joe's hate speech. The hatemongers were spurned so badly, even Ricketts has now repudiated the plan that still carries his name on it.

All of which proves, if more candidates would stand up against the hate ads, the hate ads would likely disappear from our media, at least for a little while.

For us, this little blow up means maybe we can actually watch - and enjoy - some TV this weekend. And that's some good news indeed.

Holding Their Noses

As Johnathan Bernstein pointed out in the Washington Post on Wednesday, if you've only been watching the cable "news" networks in the wake of Tuesday's elections, you may not have heard much about one of the most important political races of the year - especially from people who know what they're talking about in Nebraska politics.

What you may have heard about was the supposedly surprising upset by Nebraska state senator Deb Fischer, of both Attorney General John Bruning, and State Treasurer Don Stenberg, in the Nebraska Republican Primary race for U.S. Senate.

What you likely didn't hear about is an accurate accounting of how it happened - or what that race may mean in the greater context of the 2012 elections.

To start with, as any Nebraskan who pays attention to state politics knows, Deb Fischer is no Tea Party candidate. On more than a few occasions, Fischer has reached across the left-right political divide, in Nebraska's nominally non-partisan Legislature, to attempt to compromise on issues. For that reason alone, true Tea Party Republicans want nothing to do with Fischer. Everyone knows Tea Partiers don't compromise with anyone.

That didn't stop many less informed national media sources from jumping to the assumption that - because of the endorsement from Sarah Palin - Fischer was a Tea Party Republican. When it comes to Palin, reliable sources we know have made it clear: Palin's advisors saw the high likelihood of Fischer's win, due to the intra-party squabbling between Bruning and Stenberg, and Palin dropped her endorsement at the last minute, in a thinly-veiled attempt to prove the former half-term Alaska governor is still politically relevant. Any pundit who points to this race, and thinks Palin can still "pick 'em" is quite obviously a naive hack.

The Tea Party types have never been comfortable with Fischer - but Fischer hasn't always "played ball" the way the Nebraska Republican party elite have wanted her too, either. Their support for her, like their support for Mitt Romney, will likely be not truly heartfelt this year.

Before Tuesday's race, Matt K. Lewis, at the conservative Daily Caller, had a great example of who Fischer really is for the GOP - Nebraska's version of Mike Rounds, the former governor of South Dakota. Rounds got to the Governor's office when the major two factions of his party declared war on each other - and Rounds slipped into a victory.

For Republicans, the lesson of Fischer's win is simple; the internal civil war among the different factions of the party is going to cause them some serious headaches this election cycle. There are many other races around the country that are shaping up similar to the race Fischer won - and we think the GOP elite have yet to realize how vulnerable they really are.

For Democrats, the Nebraska primary is proof of a concept we've been pointing out for some time: There are serious fault lines in the Republican Party. If Democrats want to win, all they have to do is help Republicans to politically annihilate one another. In many cases, that just means Democrats should have the wisdom stay out of Republican intra-party battles, much as Bob Kerrey did in Nebraska.

For every American, the takeaway from Fischer's win should be about the money. If it wasn't for the last minute flood of outside funds that we pointed out earlier this week, it's highly likely Fischer would have lost. That fact became even more clear when looking at the county-by-county vote totals. Outside of winning the heavily rural areas of Central and Western Nebraska, the place Fischer cashed in is the Sioux City media market - where most of the late race cash was dumped.

Now, Fischer turns to face former Senator Bob Kerrey - and we have to admit we like Sen. Kerrey's chances against the untested Fischer. That said, we also acknowledge that - as our own Paul Fell has said for many years now - some Nebraskans will vote for anyone with an "R" next to their name, even the Devil himself.

Who Do These Clowns Think They Are?

Anyone who's been paying attention to the news over the last week is probably aware that, once again, some of the supposed experts on Wall Street really blew it again - especially at the massive Wall Street banking and investment firm of JP Morgan Chase.

What few Americans seem to understand is exactly what "it" these supposed finance wizards blew up - which is why we went directly to one of the people who understands the "it" of Wall Street finance, former Chief Economist to Vice President Joe Biden, Jared Bernstein.

As Mr. Bernstein explained it to us earlier this week, it helps to think of Wall Street as a giant casino - a concept we've used ourselves, previously. If you think of it that way, what Dimon and the clowns at JP Morgan did is both disgustingly simple and completely insane. In short, they made too many high risk bets - and stacked the deck against themselves.

To start with, Dimon and company made some giant bets on how corporate bonds were going to do, based on our recently improving economy. Then, to cover - or "hedge" - those bets, Dimon and company made another set of bets, in the opposite direction. So if the original bets they made were correct, JP Morgan Chase would win. But if the original bet went sour, the firm would still win, because of the hedged bets they'd made.

Think of it like betting on your favorite sports team. If your team wins, you win. Of course, if you also hedge your initial bets with secondary bets against your team, even if your team loses, you still win.

The initial problem JP Morgan had, as Mr. Bernstein explained it to us, is that after the first two series of bets, the idiots at JP Morgan set up one more level of bets - and that third set of bets, on top of the other two, is what cost them several billion dollars.

After all - if you've bet in both directions, you don't double down on only one of them. Which is, in an oversimplified way, what Dimon's company did.

The good - but somewhat scary - news is that even if JP Morgan Chase loses between two and four billion dollars, to them, it's not that much money. As several experts have pointed out, JP Morgan made $19 billion in profits in 2011. So if they lose a few billion here or there, to them, it's not that big a deal.

The big deal is that JP Morgan Chase isn't just an investment firm. It's also a bank - which means, as a bank, American taxpayers insure a massive amount of JP Morgan's money, through the FDIC. That is exactly the problem that Jared Bernstein, the Obama Administration, and Congressional Democrats tried to prevent by re-regulating Wall Street, through the Dodd-Frank reform law.

Not surprisingly, Wall Street's lobbyists have flooded Washington over the last two years, since Dodd-Frank was signed. They've overwhelmingly used Republican members of Congress to obstruct fully putting the law to work - which means that massive firms like JP Morgan are still putting American taxpayers at high risk of having to cover massively bad bets of these hybrid investment firms/banks.

There are those like Elizabeth Warren who have called for another version of the Depression-era Glass-Steagall law, which kept the regular deposit banks on one side of the law, and the Wall Street investment firms on the other. Under Glass-Steagall, the banks couldn't gamble with your money  - but the investment firms could. They had to use their own money - and they couldn't ask for a bailout.

Dodd-Frank, while not as strong as Glass-Steagall, would have nearly the same effect, if only Congressional Republicans and the Wall Street lobbyists would let the law take effect, like it's supposed to.

Right now, Dodd-Frank is like a manhole cover that isn't covering the hole. To blame the manhole cover for not doing its job would be dishonest and stupid - but that's exactly what the clowns on Wall Street, and their friends in the Republican Party, are doing.

As President Obama pointed out on The View yesterday, Dimon may be one of the smartest guys on Wall Street, but Dimon is still capable of making mistakes - including the big ones like we found out about this week. If we don't protect ourselves from the clowns on Wall Street, we can't be surprised at the outcome.

Boom, Like That

There are a whole host of subjects we'd like to focus on today - especially since it's Election Day in so many places. The recall in Wisconsin, and how the Democratic Party doesn't appear to be supporting it as strongly as they should, for example. Rep. Ron Paul kind of suspending his campaign is another example, as is the Euro Zone coming apart at the seems. Another is the insanity of Republicans blocking the full execution of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law, so they can protect their corporate Wall Street friends - all while trying to say President Obama is the one who's really cozy with Wall Street.

We'd like to focus on any of those - and we may very well tackle the gambling exploits and failures of the Wall Street "masters of the universe" tomorrow.

That said, what so much of the media and America are still focused on is still, strangely, the announcement last week of President Obama's support for same-sex marriage.

We say "strangely" because as two major polls pointed out late Monday, a majority of those questioned support same-sex Americans having the same legal rights - including marriage - as their fellow American citizens. We pointed this out last week. Nate Silver and FiveThirtyEight.com also called attention to it last week. Many others did too.

Now, both Gallup and a CBS/New York Times poll confirm again, what the "common wisdom" already was thought to be on this issue. Fifty-four percent of Americans think same-sex marriage is morally acceptable. Sixty-two percent support same-sex legal recognition including civil unions.

These facts aren't surprising to us.

Some very logical governors and progressive state legislatures have already moved forward on implementing marriage equality, including former Republican - now turned Independent - Gov. Lincoln Chaffee of Rhode Island. Chaffee signed an order on Monday that will make it the law in Rhode Island to recognize same-sex marriages performed out of state, in the same way other states accept each other's driver's licenses now - equally.

We're also not surprised Chafee made such a move. He's not afraid of the Republican Party anymore, and especially not the tea bag far-right wing of the party.

Those tea bag types have insisted that President Obama's stand with equal rights for all Americans last week will certainly doom him in the fall election. Once again, though, the tea baggers don't seem to know what they're talking about. Those same polls we quoted earlier also proved that - if the President's action will have any effect on the fall election at all - it'll likely be a wash.

Sure, we've heard of a few pastors and other religious leaders who've said because of the President's stance, they now won't support him in the fall. For every extremist religious authority figure who says they're leaving the Obama camp, we've heard of someone else who says they'll now support the President for his principled stance.

What's more, the people who are coming out for Obama's coming out? Many are big money donors, who have funding they are yanking from Republicans and giving to Democrats, including the President. Strong African-American opinion leaders are also still standing with Obama, so claims that there is some kind of a serious wedge between the LGBT and African-American communities is little more than exaggerated hype.

All things considered, when you add up all the plusses and minuses, it's beginning to look like the "gift" of bigotry that the tea bag Republicans have brought to their party may actually blow up in the face of the GOP this fall.

If it does - and we think it will - we hope we won't have to address this issue again, once the election is over.

As we said last week, America is a first class country. We should not have second-class citizens. Period.

Puppetmasters

As every American who pays any kind of attention to the news has noticed over the last few weeks, the political election season has definitely kicked into a higher gear.

In Nebraska, the major signal for that time of year is also the primary election, which is tomorrow. What Nebraskans and other Americans around the country haven't seen yet, that those with early primaries, or in swing states have already seen, is the on-the-ground effect of what the monstrous flood of unregulated campaign money can do.

Nebraskans is getting a taste of the rich trying to buy our elections right now.

Starting last week, Joe Ricketts, the wealthy patriarch of the family behind TD Ameritrade, funded a massive, last-minute political ad campaign backing GOP candidate, and current Nebraska state senator Deb Fischer. While we're not huge fans of Jon Bruning, current Nebraska Attorney General and another Republican in the race, the ads that Ricketts backed are quite obviously a big money hatchet job, designed to drive Republican voters away from Bruning.

If that kind of big money attempt and the name Ricketts seem to ring a bell with you, it shouldn't be a surprise. Joe Ricketts' son, Pete, was the bald headed braggart who got beaten soundly by Democratic U.S. Senator Ben Nelson, back in 2006, after a multi-million dollar barrage of similar ads.

While this kind of thing shouldn't surprise Nebraskans, or really any American, too many citizens have yet to see the reality of this attempt to buy our politics outright - and it is in NO way a bipartisan affair.

The non-partisan OpenSecerts.org made that clear over the weekend, when they announced that Super PAC spending is already over the one hundred million dollar mark - and nearly 90% of that spending is for Republican candidates. What's more, thanks to the 2010 "Citizens United" decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, Americans have zero legal rights to see who is behind the $121 million that conservative "non-profit" groups have spent on political advertising, so far in this election cycle.

What's more, the Center for Public Integrity has found that the two major outside political groups associated with Karl Rove - American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS - have roughly 100 major donors, with most of those being completely 100% secret.

While Republicans are certainly far and away the biggest abusers of the near-lack of campaign finance rules that now exist in the U.S. - at a generally accepted 90%-10% ratio - the Democrats have also stepped up their dark money game too. While the above the table take at Hollywood actor and activist George Clooney's recent fundraiser for the President was $15 million, the Super PAC and untraceable money originating from that event going to the President's campaign and that of other Democrats is fully expected to be worth millions and millions more to Democratic campaign coffers.

For all those Americans who think that regulations are always bad, and that - as Mitt Romney has said - "Corporations are people too,"  they need to look at what the flood of nearly unregulated money has done to our politics in America. If you're in Nebraska today, all you have to do is look at your TV or newspaper, or listen to your radio, and try to go fifteen minutes without hearing one unknown rich group of political bullies or another blasting their opponents.

As Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens said in his dissent of the "Citzens United" case in 2010, “A democracy cannot function effectively when its constituent members believe laws are being bought and sold.”

Friday Funday: Wisdom And Mothers

If it's a day that ends in "y" in an election year, around our offices, it's also a day where new political stories are popping up. And even though there's yet another gaffe from Mitt Romney that calls into question his character and personal history, and a drug recall in Nebraska which effectively leaves the state without a way to enforce the death penalty, neither of those stories are subjects we're going to focus on today.

Today begins a celebratory weekend of sorts, for our staff, and we're sure for many of you.

To start with, it's Mother's Day weekend. So... to all our mothers, all the mothers who are reading this, and to Amy, our own staff mother, we say 'Happy Mother's Day.' If you haven't gotten your own Mom - or your mother in law - a gift or card, at least call her this weekend. Even if she's passed away, just whisper a quiet thanks to her. Seriously; without your Mom, you wouldn't be reading this right now.

Today also begins a celebration of Spring, as the folks we know at the UNL Dairy Store in Lincoln are hosting another edition of P.O. Pears 'Burger Madness'. When they can be sure the weather is nice enough, the folks at the Dairy Store celebrate, and use some great Nebraska beef and UNL cheese, to cook up one of our all-time favorite meals in a jiffy. If you have the chance, and are in Lincoln today, we highly recommend you join the spring celebration, and head to the Dairy Store on East Campus for lunch, outdoors. Don't forget to get dessert too!

Of course, we'd also be completely remiss if we didn't wish our staff member Shawn a very happy birthday this weekend. As he's jokingly told us, he'll take any gift anyone wishes to send him, whether those gifts are in cash, check, or credit form. We told him we'd buy him a burger for a gift, and throw in a few pennies for every year of his age.

Lately, everyone on our staff is noticing that Father Time seems to be tossing us all more than pennies, in the form of a bit more wisdom, even as he's also giving us a few more aches, creaks, and pains to go with his timely gift.

Planting the spring flowers was a bit harder this year, true. But the look on the face of Amy's daughter, when she got to play in the rain recently, was magical. We have been incredibly proud of some graduates in our extended family this month too - though we keep asking each other, with a smile, "Didn't that one just start college a few years ago?"

It's with happiness that we mention these unpackaged gifts that age has been blessing us with lately, even as we think back to when we were younger, and Mother's Day was simply a day when we might bring our Moms some flowers we'd just plucked from the field down the road. We remember the looks that our moms gave us, as they hoped we'd grow to be men and women they could be proud of.

We're not exactly sure they meant for us to be a cartoonist, or a radio producer, or a language translator, or members of the media. But we're pretty sure they'd be proud of us for being good citizens, good mentors, and good friends - to you and to each other. We're also fairly sure they'd be glad we share with you the humor of Paul's cartoons, along with the wisdom of experience in politics and the news we deliver every weekday.

That kind of humor and wisdom may not exactly be the type of gift you can plant in the garden, or save like a favorite Mother's Day card, but we're pretty sure it's exactly the kind of gift that our Moms would want for us - and hopefully for you, too.

Do good this weekend. Take time - for yourself, and others. Enjoy your life. Find a reason - and celebrate it. Tell the people closest to you that you love them. Have fun. Eat something good.

And last, but not least, no matter where your mother is, thank her.

Happy Mother's Day weekend.

Doing The Right Thing When It's Hard

We hope you noticed the major news event that happened on Wednesday afternoon, and how the two men, vying to be our next President, both acted - or reacted.

In case you were otherwise Occupied - like the Bank of America executives - or maybe just up in the air with your own crazy life, what happened Wednesday was that President Obama finally evolved on his public opinion of same-sex marriage equality.

In short, the President came out in favor of what most Americans believe.

That's not a typo. As Nate Silver and his team over at FiveThirtyEight.com pointed out, public opinion of Americans is clearly on his side. What's more, the improving trend of acceptance on the issue of same sex marriage looks to continue indefinitely.

Unsurprisingly, the cynics and Obama-haters immediately attempted to say this action by President Obama was purely a political ploy. It's obvious, though, by looking at Mr. Obama's past statements, and his comments in his interview with Robin Roberts of Good Morning America, that the President's current position is definitely something that's evolved.

That's not to say the President's decision today was politically easy. For those people who think that it was some kind of ploy to get all the far left liberals and gays to vote for Obama, because now they'll all be happy with him? They don't know their backsides from a hole in the ground when it comes to politics.

Technically, Obama's position on same-sex marriage is the same as former VP Dick Cheney's was in 2004, a position some on the far left still think is too far to the right. Truthfully, Mr. Obama is finally where the majority of Americans is on this subject, while Mitt Romney is to the right of both former President George W. Bush and Mr. Cheney on this issue. On this issue, extreme conservatives may have really hung Mr. Romney out to dry.

We fully admit; President Obama, coming out in favor of the full legal rights of LGBT Americans to marry anyone they choose would not likely have happened without a team of people pressuring the president, for an extended period of time.

For all those who think the fight is over, however, they are wrong.

Now that President Obama has made clear that he is in favor of equality under the law for ALL Americans, regardless of race, sex, faith, age, abilities, and now - finally - sexual orientation, the next step is to get laws that codify those freedoms, much as we once did for women and minorities. That step is still a long way away.

For President Obama to make this politically courageous decision, to come out with his position on this issue, at this time, very publicly, was evidently difficult. That Mr. Obama made the decision to do so, however, is exactly what we expect in a President - someone who can make the right decision, even when it's hard. Especially when it's hard.

On the right of LGBT Americans to marry who they choose, that decision has always seemed simple to us.

No one should have their fundamental civil rights put up for a vote of approval by other people. No one should be able to tell other Americans that whites and blacks can't get married, or that citizens and non-citizens can't get married. What people do in their houses of worship is up to them. What they - and we - all do together in our shared government space is not. We should all be free to love who we love, as most religions teach.

In a country that strongly claims to believe in equality for everyone, who each of us love and who we choose to sign a legally binding contract of marriage with, should not be up for the masses to decide.

We are a first class country. We should not have second-class citizens. Period.

Still At War - But Smarter... Sometimes.

In case you missed it, Tuesday wasn't exactly a slow day in news.

On the same day Republicans in the U.S. Senate filibustered against a bill keeping student loan interest rates low for another year, ignorant extremists in North Carolina passed yet another anti-gay amendment (their third) that will also likely harm everyone else in North Carolina, as well. Mitt Romney also had heads spinning on Tuesday as he  - somehow - attempted to take credit for the revival of the U.S. auto industry. This after his well publicized op-ed piece, calling for America to "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt."

Elsewhere, Democrats in Wisconsin chose their standard-bearer on Tuesday for Wisconsin's recall election next month, while longstanding moderate Republican Senator Dick Lugar, from Indiana, was also run out of the U.S. Senate. His loss comes courtesy of the extremists and neo-cons in the GOP, after Lugar's exemplary 36 years of service.

All that happened on the same day that the CIA announced the news that the supposed next-generation underwear bomber they'd caught last week, was actually a double agent. To clarify, the guy the Associated Press and others thought was a bomber, was actually a CIA agent, who'd masqueraded as a terrorist and slipped back to the CIA with Al Qaeda's latest high-tech boomer bloomers.

Of all the stories we listed above, this last one - and the story about Sen. Lugar - are probably the two most important news items, though many in the media likely will miss them both today.

The reason why the CIA double-agent story is huge - especially in the week after the anniversary of the killing of Osama Bin Laden - is how the success of this latest anti-terrorism effort was achieved. It was done through a multi-layered approach led by old-fashioned intelligence analysis and information gathering - what military folks call "Hum Intell", or "Human Intelligence." This is exactly the same way the U.S. military caught Bin Laden - and it's a tool that President Obama and certain Congressional Democrats made important again when they took office three and half years ago.

There's been so much talk of drone strikes and advanced intelligence weapons lately - yet these two successes were accomplished by the modern version of good old-fashioned spying.

These two events aren't just flukes. As Col. Lawrence Wilkerson recently noted, military personnel have estimated that Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda's attack on the U.S. on September 11, 2001 likely cost around a half million dollars. Estimates for how much America has spent on the legitimate war in Afghanistan and the illegitimate war in Iraq run somewhere between $1 trillion and $4 trillion. Huge amounts of money Americans spent on both wars actually went to military contractors and suppliers - what the famous Republican General, and U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower called "the military-industrial complex."

These days, we call these same kinds of people "Neo-Cons" - the same kind of people that ran Senator Dick Lugar out of his job in yesterday's Republican primary race in Indiana.

Now, we're not about to say that President Obama's push for for Hum Intell hasn't been strongly resisted in some corners of the Federal government. At the TSA, policies trying to push for more solid human intelligence have often been shunted aside, in favor of buying millions of dollars in equipment, often from a different division of one of the same Neo-Con allied corporations that already sell expensive equipment to the military.

Unlike the Hum Intell successes, millions of dollars of that equipment now sits unused in government warehouses, according to a recent investigation. Meanwhile, the idiots we have allowed at the TSA have been breaking the insulin pumps of 16-year-old diabetics, and taking bribes from drug smugglers.

Even in the TSA, there have been some successes, like the TSA agents who found pieces of a gun dissambled and placed inside three stuffed animals. But the key, even there, was that it was human beings, like those favored by President Obama who foiled the teddy bear plot - not the million-dollar machines of the Neo-Con military-industrial complex.

Getting Rid Of The Weeds

As most gardeners who live in temperate climates know, every year about this time, after flowers and vegetables have begun to take root, small weeds often begin to appear. Sure, we can always till the soil, turn over the garden, add fertilizer, and even weed killer - but somehow, every year, no matter what, when everything else grows, so too do the weeds.

It's not entirely surprising then, that when our society also tries to grow and become more of what we already claim to be, that the weeds of our society also pop up.

That was definitely the case in Lincoln, Nebraska on Monday, as the City Council there openly debated enacting an expansion of their current ordinance that would broaden the protections to LGBT individuals - that is, lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered people.

As Leslie Reed of the Omaha World Herald - who reported the hearing live on her Twitter feed - noted last night, 94 people signed up to testify at the public hearing, and the overwhelming majority of them were in favor of the ordinance. Omaha has had experience with this same expansion of protections, recently adding similar anti-discrimiation language for LGBT individuals, in housing, employment, and public accommodation laws.

As Ms. Reed's reporting made clear, and as similar responses to a comment made by Vice President Biden over the weekend made clear elsewhere in America, while some Americans still want to keep bias and bigotry in the law, most Americans don't really seem to. In our experience, most Americans seem to think people are people, no matter who they're attracted to. As long as people work hard, pay their taxes, don't break the law, and generally act respectful to others, most Americans don't seem to care about a person's sexual preference. Most businesses certainly don't. As one former business owner we know used to say, "As long as their money is green, who cares?"

Those who seem to be against the fairness ordinance Lincoln is trying to pass seem to be those individuals who want to continue to have the right to discriminate against people because of their sexual orientation. Sadly, many of those people are members of the clergy, who continually attempt to justify their bigotry by hiding behind theology.

As we noted nearly a year ago, when civil marriage passed in New York state, there is a vast difference between "civil marriage" and "religious marriage." There is also a vast difference between private bigotry and public interaction. When a city or a state makes a law denying bigots, racists, and other intolerant people the right to express their hatred through hiring practices, housing discrimination, or other business dealings, that doesn't mean the hatred itself goes away.

Like spraying for weeds in the spring, the underlying hatred, bigotry, and intolerance still remains in those people who are opposed to similar laws.

As we noted last week, this is America - those people have a right to hate whomever they want. If they want to hate, within the walls of their own organizations, on their private property, among their own members, they have the right to do so.

What they don't have a right to do is discriminate when they interact with the people of our cities, states, and nation. They use our public power and water resources, our streets, our telecommunications. They benefit from our system of taxation and property valuation, and our police, fire, and EMT personnel. Even their churches, synagogues, mosques, and other religious facilities - all very much private sanctuaries - gain significant benefit from the society we provide for everyone's use.

If we are to claim that "All Men Are Created Equal", or like Nebraska, claim our motto as "Equality Before The Law", then we either have to grow and fully live up to that claim - or admit that we're hypocrites, with no real moral core, whatever religious label we claim to hold.

To us, voting in favor of a fairness amendment, as Omaha City Councilman Ben Gray testified Monday night, is a "no brainer."

Say Au Revoir To Austerity

There have been some big deaths over the past year, with some big announcements to go with them. But no death announcement was quite as big as the one that came out of the European Union this past weekend.

The economic theory of austerity - the same theory currently being championed by the Republican Party in the U.S. - can basically be declared dead after two years of proven failure in the E.U., and by the results of elections in both France and Greece.

In France, voters dumped President Nicholas Sarkozy, a man sometimes called the French 'Bush lite,' in favor of Francois Hollande, a progressive, left-leaning politician. Hollande made it clear in his victory speech that he knew why French voters, in a strong turnout, choose him in a close but decisive way. "Europe is watching us," said Hollande. "Austerity can no longer be the only option."

Hollande is pushing for an agenda that is highly likely to get passed, for several reasons. One large reason is the upcoming parliamentary elections, where it's almost a given that the new parliament will make it easier for Hollande to put his plans into action.

Hollande's agenda includes raising taxes on big corporations, adding penalties for those corporations that attempt to leave the country before paying their taxes, and increasing taxes on the wealthiest French citizens. With all the extra revenue, Hollande is planning to raise the minimum wage, hire (and rehire) more than 60,000 teachers and other public workers, and even lower the retirement age for workers whose jobs involve heavy physical labor.

In Greece, the people annihilated the two major ruling parties at the poll, both of whom had supported continued extreme austerity measures for Greek citizens. The leader of the Left Coalition, Alexis Tsipras, also made it clear that the European Union's austerity policies - lead by German Chancellor Angela Merkel - would no longer be accepted by the Greek people.

Anyone who even has a cursory understanding of macroeconomics, microeconomics, and Keynesian theory, could have seen this coming a long time ago.

In fact, Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman did.

Over the weekend, Krugman reiterated the fact that the policies Germany used to move its economy forward over the last dozen years couldn't have been directly implemented by the other E.U. nations. In fact, those policies were mostly possible for Germany only because the economies in other E.U. nations contracted, due to austerity.

Krugman's not the only one who has pointed out that government austerity - cutting government jobs, cutting tax collection, and cutting government spending - is a completely predictable failure when faced with a recession. Christina Romer, Robert Reich, and even to a limited degree, conservative-leaning economists, like Charles Kadlec of Forbes, have all echoed Krugman's warning. The lessons of Keynesian economics that all of these experts continue to point out - and that modern American Republican politicians think of as the scary monster from the deep - keep proving that austerity doesn't work.

In short, the only economic policy that the modern Republican Party in America has to offer, has now been proven an utter and complete failure over two years of use in Europe.

We can't say we also didn't pass on these warnings to Americans. We did - more than once. Even though we're not economists, the concept has always been pretty simple to us.

If anyone tells you they're looking to cut government spending deeply, and lower your taxes, but then they claim to be dedicated to funding education more, ask them where they're going to get the money. If they can't answer you with specifics - and they have no credible plans for raising revenue - then they're lying to you.

As the French might say, "Ce n'est pas la science de fusée."

Friday Funday: A Gift For Grads

This time of year seems to sneak up on us every time - like a holiday of sorts - and every year, we seem to have a similar set of mixed emotions about it.

As a staff filled with people who like learning, and enjoyed school, the month of May always means graduation for us. Paul was a teacher and college professor for many years, and as president of the Peru State College National Alumni Association, he's still involved with the school - so graduation is more on our minds than ever.

We even know a few people who are graduating this month from different schools - and if that's you, congratulations.

There has been a great deal of talk recently about keeping the student loan rates low - including a commentary by us. Contrary to what the fools on the Wall Street Journal editorial board believe, college grads need both lower student loan rates AND new jobs.

We're not going to say it's not a tough job market to be graduating into. The statistics don't lie - things are tougher for recent grads than they have been in America for a long time, as Paul Krugman pointed out recently.

Those who are graduating college should NOT follow the example offered by Mitt Romney, to attempt to borrow money from their parents to start a business if they can't find a job. Maybe that works for those who are born with silver feet in their mouths (as Texas governor Ann Richards once said), but for most Americans who actually work for a living, recent graduates will still likely have more in student loan debt than they'd like.

Still, even with all the doom and gloom surrounding college grads these days, we think it's important to note all the things that are going right.

The overall jobs numbers continue to trend upward, while the jobless claims continue to drop. Job creation is near a four year high, and two sets of manufacturing numbers - apparel sales and factory activity - are both also trending upward. Furthermore, the important thing to remember - with all the economic numbers coming out over the past 48 hours - is that the overall trend is what matters in economic news.

And in those trend lines? The news is good. Economic indicators are continuing to improve - and look to continue improving for the foreseeable future.

For those who are graduating college this month? That may mean those graduates have the best luck of all, the good fortune to graduate at just the moment when the economic recovery really begins to gain strength.

For those people you may know who are graduating from college - or from high school - this month, the best gift we think those grads can receive is the gift of hope. It's the gift of the idea that maybe, just maybe, anything is possible, now that the responsibilities of formal education are done.

As individuals who've capitalized on the education that we each received in college - even in some tough times - we have to say to those graduating: Go for it, whatever "it" is. At this point, why not?

Come to think of it, that's some good advice for everyone, graduating student or not.

Take a chance. Grab whatever opportunity you can. Make it worthwhile. And enjoy it.

Unholier Than Thou

The closer we get to the 2012 general election in the United States, the more that the arrogant, the ignorant, and the unintelligent groups of people in the United States appear to be crawling out of the social woodwork. Sadly, there are some who match all three categories.

What caught our attention today were two different stories in the news, that both had a similar theme. Both involve some stunningly poor judgement.

The first news story is about former Romney spokesman Richard Grenell. Grenell appears to have been run out of the Romney campaign this week, in large part due to the response of the bigots in the GOP.

In case you didn't know - and obviously, many in the Republican Party didn't - Richard Grenell is an uncloseted gay Republican. He is what is and he makes no apologies for his sexual orientation. Frankly, we agree with Grenell on that part of his attitude. Unless you're intimately involved with someone else, what their sexual orientation is really shouldn't be your business. Obviously, those in Mr. Romney's campaign who advise the candidate on hiring also didn't think Mr. Grenell's sexual orientation should be a big deal.

On this, we completely agree with the Romney campaign's initial decision.

We frankly thought Grenell's misogynistic tendencies, and history of poor teamwork was a much greater problem than his being gay. The bigoted extremists on the far right, however, made it VERY clear that - to them - Mr Grenell's sexual orientation was the dealbreaker. From the sound of what happened at the Romney campaign, after the teabaggers screamed, Grenell was shut out of some important meetings - so he left, knowing he wasn't wanted.

In North Carolina, there wasn't nearly as much subterfuge.

The wife of a Republican state Senator made it known publicly that her husband authored North Carolina's controversial anti-gay law, Amendment One - which is on the ballot this year - because he wanted to "protect the Caucasian race" and save the U.S. Constitution from "activist judges".

In other words, her husband, North Carolina state legislator Peter Brunstetter, is attempting to put into law racial and sexual discrimination. In the South. In 2012. In America.

What angers and frustrates us so much about ignorant, arrogant, fools like the Brunstetters and those who ran off Mr. Grenell isn't the fact of their stupidity. This is, after all, America. If someone wants to be a racist, or a bigot - or both - they can certainly do that. In fact, we'll be more than happy to endorse the rights of groups like the KKK and the Westboro "Church" mutants to publicly display their biases. At least they have the REAL courage of their convictions.

The problem we have with the twits in these two stories is their false piety. They, and those like them, almost always attempt to claim that whatever version of religion they believe, allows - or even commands - them to act abusively to their fellow human beings.

Even if we were to agree with any of their skewed and faulty arguments, where in their religions does it say they get to be the ones that hand out the punishment? Further, where does it say that their religion gets to override the laws of mankind?

Since most of these folks claim to be Christian, and most of us are acquiainted with at least the basic tenets of Christianity, we can tell you - quite clearly - that there is nowhere in the average Christian Bible that says Christians can ignore the laws of man, and become judge, jury, and enforcer of punishments they judge others to deserve.

If a person wishes to judge others in a secular way, using logic and secular rules of debate, they may certainly do so in America - and we hope they do.

But using a false version of piety to defend bigotry and racism doesn't fly in America, or Christianity - no matter how big your megachurch's piggy bank might be.