National

I don't have time to get into how this latest defense of Josh Duggar is perhaps the most morally bankrupt defense yet - but I have to make an observation. The most morally upright people I know are also often the least religious people I know.

May 26, 2015 Dear Fellow Republican, I wanted to make sure I let you know that there are very few guest passes remaining for the 2015 Delaware Republican State Convention this coming Saturday morning. Convention delegates and other guests are excited to welcome Republican presidential hopeful Carly Fiorina as the keynote speaker, and I'd love to know that you're going to be there with us as we launch the 2016 campaign season. Simply click the link above and you'll be able to register online, but there are only a few passes left so you'll need to purchase your ticket immediately to ensure that you have reserved space for this Saturday's event. I hope to see you this weekend! Charlie Copeland Chairman Paid for by the Delaware Republican Party

Celia Cohen fellates Ken Simpler and supply side economics once more in reporting on the Revenue Commission's findings:

They also found, as Markell had, retirees are getting a sweet deal through an assortment of tax breaks that ought to be revisited. They concluded it was fine for the state to rely on personal income taxes and corporate franchise taxes and fees as the mainstays of its revenue, although the personal income taxes could stand to have itemized deductions eliminated and the top marginal rate lowered. What they decided the state could use, though, was another steady revenue source. They identified a property tax as the best candidate, especially because Delaware has one of the lowest property tax burdens in the country. Nobody should get too excited yet about this idea, one way or the other. Here is where it pays to remember Markell's remark about the difference between the math and the politics. Other suggestions: Eliminate the estate tax. Shave the corporate income tax but nudge up the gross receipts tax. Recalibrate the realty transfer tax. There was one last conclusion to be drawn. People ought to pay attention to that Ken Simpler guy. He appears to be the driving force behind a lot of the analysis.

No shit. Eliminating the Estate Tax, cutting the corporate income tax rate, eliminating itemized deductions (like your mortgage deduction) and lowering the top marginal rate (which is already at 6.6% starting at the $60,000 net injcome)??? All horrible conservative ideas that are giveaways to the wealthy and that will further deprive this state of revenue, all the while raising taxes on everyone else.

Ed Kilgore of the Washington Monthly on that Gallup poll that showed that America is now a liberal nation.

That in itself is significant, but if you add partisanship into the mix, the change is even more significant. As recently as 2009, 31% of self-identified Democrats also self-identified as "conservative" or "very conservative" on "social issues." That was a bit of an outlier, but the number was in the low twenties earlier. Now it's at 14%, even as the "liberal/very liberal" total has spiked to an all-time high of 53%. There's been a smaller but still significant shift among Republicans from "conservative'/very conservative" to "moderate," but the overall trend is being driven by Democrats. So whatever else this means, it means the temptation for Democrats to carve out some sort of "economic liberal/social conservative" position, which was very strong in the 1980s and 1990s in some culturally conservative areas of the country (typically those with a lot of white working class voters who retained enough union influence to keep them from defecting to the GOP entirely), has now pretty much vanished. And that's evident in the fact that most "struggles for the soul of the Democratic Party" these days are focused on economic issues.

What we have here in Delaware is the Social Liberal Economic Conservative model in Jack Markell, Tom Carper, Chris Coons and John Carney.

It looks like the heavily Catholic Ireland has just become the first country on the planet to enact marriage equality by popular vote rather than by legislation, judicial order or royal decree. Probably because Irish Catholics are more intelligent and in tune with that Jesus said about homosexuality (i.e. nothing) than the conservative heirarchy that likes to look to Old Testament's Leviticus than anything Jesus Christ said.

Ireland appears to have voted heavily in favor of allowing same-sex marriage in a historic referendum that marks a dramatic social shift in the traditionally Catholic country, government ministers and opponents of the bill said on Saturday. Final results are not expected until later in the day in a vote that would make Ireland the first country to adopt same-sex marriage via a popular vote, just two decades after the country decriminalised homosexuality. State broadcaster RTE said the victory appeared to be overwhelming and government minister Kevin Humphreys predicted the margin would be two-to-one. "I think it's won," Equality Minister Aodhan O'Riordain told Reuters at the main count center in Dublin. "The numbers of people who turned out to vote is unprecedented. This has really touched a nerve in Ireland today." Gay marriage is backed by all political parties, championed by big employers and endorsed by celebrities, all hoping it will mark a transformation in a country that was long regarded as one of the most socially conservative in Western Europe.

For the first time since polling began in 1999, Gallup found that there are more social liberals in the United States than social conservatives. Gallup reported that the number of respondents who called themselves social liberals has increased to 31%, while the number of self-identified social conservatives has fallen to 30%. The number of Democrats who refer to themselves as social liberals jumped from 47% in 2014 to 53% in 2015. The number of Republicans who call themselves socially conservative has declined from 60% in 2014 to 53% in 2015.

The fifth most Republican and conservative state in the Union --- NEBRASKA ---- yes, freaking Nebraska, voted with the dirty hippies and voted to repeal the death penalty. Hey, Trey Paradee, explain that! No bother, the Republicans did for you:

Republicans offered a variety of reasons for supporting the death penalty’s end, from the high cost of administering executions to the surprisingly uncommon idea that it’s important to be consistent in support for human life. “I’m pro-life from conception until when God calls somebody home,” state Sen. Tommy Garrett told the World-Herald. “I’m not going to quibble over innocent life versus those who are guilty for what they have done. This is a matter of conscience.”

“Is there something about the left — and I am going to put the media in this category — that is obsessed with sex?” — Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), quoted by the Texas Tribune, when asked about gay rights. Only the most sophmoric knuckle dragging idiot would equate promoting equality for all, including those who are gay, with an interest in sex. Indeed, Mr. Cruz has it reversed. It has been all of our experience, proven time and again, that those who are the most homophobic are usually in the closet, having all the gay sex they can. Those promoting "family Christian values" and condemning women's rights and divorce are usually those who one to four mistresses on the side.

....and it is likely that is the way it will be. He will be released after the treatment is completed with no disclosure as to what his treatment was for, and then at the end of the summer he will announce officially his candidacy for Governor. But, despite the best efforts of the Biden camp and those who think his medical condition is none of our business, the News Journal has a poll up this morning, and the votes so far reveal that this is a matter of some debate. The question is framed in such a way that it assumes that if Beau Biden were currently in office as a public official, the public would undoubtedly have a right to know all about his medical condition.

It is Primary Election Day in Philadelphia. The current Mayor, Michael Nutter, has served two full terms and is term limited. So with this being an open election, we have several notable candidates: former longtime District Attorney Lynne Abraham, City Councilman Jim Kenney, State Senator Anthony Hardy Williams, former City Solicitor Nelson Diaz and insane crazy man Milton Street (entitled brother of horrible former Mayor John Street). Until recently, this looked like a close contest between ex-City Councilor Jim Kenney and state Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams. While labor is heavily backing Kenney, Williams is benefiting from a super PAC funded by wealthy pro-charter school businessmen. However, a recent independent poll gave Kenney a massive 42-15 lead, with former District Attorney Lynn Abraham also at 15, and no one has released any contradictory numbers.

Nine people have died after a shootout between rival motorcycle gangs in Waco on Sunday, when gunfire erupted in the parking lot of a Twin Peaks restaurant in the central Texas city.

Where is the White leadership on this? Why aren't moderate Whites speaking out and condemning this? What is it about the white community that allows this culture of violence to flourish?

I am personally loving that we have been discussing whether the Iraq War was right again, and I am loving how every single Republican, even Jeb Bush after some indecision, have declared that the last Republican President's greatest legacy was nothing but a horrible mistake that should have never happened. Paul Krugman hails the opening of a much-needed and long-postponed debate about the Iraq disaster, made inevitable by Bush 3.0. E. J. Dionne, Jr. notes in his latest Washington Post column that "other hawks would rather see the was-the-Iraq-War-right question magically disappear because they know it's a no-win for them."

"Most Americans now think the war was ill-advised. Why remind them that most of the same people who are super hawks now brought them an adventure they deeply regret? Thus did the Wall Street Journal editorial page on Friday come out firmly and unequivocally in favor of -- evasion. "The right answer to the question is that it's not a useful or instructive one to answer, because statesmanship, like life, is not conducted in hindsight." On the GOP side it may be that Jeb's blundering is very bad news for Lindsey Graham and other Iraq war supporterts and equivocators, but good news for Rand Paul.