Sunday Open Thread [8.25.13]

Yesterday was one of the biggest Democratic events of the year — the Democratic Jamboree at Cape Henlopen State Park. It sounds like the most interesting comments of the event came from Matt Denn:

Gov. Jack Markell was off on vacation and could not attend. Lt. Gov. Matt Denn gave a speech that was particularly critical of the Delaware Republican Party. He noted for the crowd that Republicans hold just one statewide office – Tom Wagner is the elected state auditor – and are in the minority in both houses of the General Assembly. He blamed that partly on policies that he said alienated minority communities and opposition to gay marriage.

“The Republican Party seems to be doing its part to make it easy for us to win elections,” Denn said.

“I feel guilty being here,” Denn joked. “I’m a proud Democrat. But I’m also a straight white guy. I’m pretty much all the Republicans have left.”

Burn!

Did any of you go? Let us know what you saw!

GOP’s lame impeachment secret: A story of manipulation — or How to Manipulate a Republican. Salon takes a hard look at what is behind the GOP’s floating of this idea in their latest Summer of Manufactured Rage:

But the second thing all these answers appear to have in common is actually even more astonishing and irresponsible: None of these politicians seem to feel any need to actually discuss the grounds for impeachment. At best there’s some hand-waving around the minor scandals of the last year, but for the most part it’s just assumed that impeachment is what Republicans normally do to Democratic presidents, just because.

The conclusions? Bill Clinton wasn’t impeached over sex (what Democrats believe) or over perjury (what Republicans claim); he was impeached because he was a Democrat in the White House. That’s enough.

Republican politicians are absolutely, completely, 100 percent terrified of leaving any room between themselves and those at the conservative fringes of their party. That’s true on both policy substance and on procedure.

So then end up promoting ideas like impeachment as more more leg of their efforts to always de-legitimize Democrats in power. Whether or not there is a real reason to consider impeachment — and there isn’t — the GOP seems always devoted to legitimizing the craziest bullshit that the base of their party gins up. And for all of their so-called outreach to new voters, this is the kind of stuff that normal people don’t want any parts of.

And speaking of the delusional GOP — even they don’t want the government shutdown that their leaders keep promising:

And this is a poll from Boehner’s office, keep in mind:

The results really weren’t close. The survey, conducted not for a news organization but rather for congressional Republicans themselves, found widespread opposition to the shutdown scheme. Among all Americans, a 71% majority rejected the idea, but just as importantly, a 53% majority of self-identified Republican voters reached the same conclusion.

Which is to say that the war between Jim DeMint’s purist crowd and the folks who actually have to stand for elections continues apace.

Homegrown terrorists — plotting to kidnap, torture and kill police officers in Nevada. So called “sovereign citizens” working to inflict some serious mayhem:

The SWAT arrests of Brutsche and Newman this week at their apartment about three miles east of the Las Vegas Strip, scuttled a carefully planned operation to draw the world’s attention to the sovereign citizen cause, Las Vegas police Lt. James Seebock told reporters. He characterized the case as a domestic terror plot.

“They were furthering their ‘sovereign citizen’ ideology by committing criminal acts toward law enforcement,” Seebock said. “The suspects believed that once the first kidnapping and execution was accomplished, they would be compelled to keep repeating their actions, kidnapping and killing multiple officers.”

Federal authorities regard sovereign citizen extremists as domestic terrorists. Authorities have linked sovereign citizen groups with violent confrontations in recent years, including deadly police shootings in Louisiana and Arkansas.