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So Rand Paul is giving up entirely any notion that he is a libertarian or has libertarians everywhere, if they are to have any credibility, must publicly condemn and disown him. “The First Amendment says keep government out of religion, not religion out of government.” — Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), quoted by David Brody, speaking at a private prayer breakfast in Washington, DC. Uh, no Rand, that is not what the First Amendment says. It says, with regards to religion, the following:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof[.]

So yes, the Amendment says keep government out of religion, in that it prohibits any law interfering with the free exercise of religion. But Rand skips over the first part of the Amendment, that saying prohibiting any law respecting an establishment of religion. That means religion must stay out of government. No national religion. No law compelling people to attend religious services (attention Arizona). No law allowing people to use religion as a reason to discriminate (attention Indiana and Arkansas). Perhaps radical Christian Conservative Rand Paul means there is no law against mixing religion and politics. That's true.

WASHINGTON – Democratic Sen. Tom Carper said Wednesday he doesn’t support every single item in President Barack Obama’s budget proposal for fiscal 2016. But he’s still the only senator who…

Josh Kraushaar:

Talk to enough Republican insiders about the presidential primary field, and you'll get a common sentiment when it comes to Jeb Bush. Most strategists agree that Bush has to overcome serious hurdles to win the nomination, but they say he's a formidable candidate thanks to his deep political network and ability to dominate the competition in fundraising. "I can't see him dropping out before Florida," said one former GOP congressman well-connected to the field. But there are signs that a worst-case, crash-and-burn scenario for Bush is more realistic than even his skeptics recognize. He's underperforming in early public polls and is receiving a frosty reception from Republican focus groups. His entitled biography is at odds with the Republican Party's increasing energy from working-class voters, who relate best with candidates who have struggled to make ends meet. The Bush name is a reminder of the past at a time when GOP voters are desperate for new faces. And after losing two straight presidential elections, Republican voters are thinking much more strategically—and aren't nearly as convinced as the political press that Bush is the strongest contender against Hillary Clinton.

If they are thinking strategically, they would be more inclined to support Bush. But I feel that they thinking ideologically and are not willing to swallow an Establishment candidate that can win.

The California ballot initiative system is a progressive direct democracy plebiscite. However, it allows everyday Republicans with deranged views nurtured by the GOP noise machine to propose crackpot shit such as the "The Sodomite Suppression Act". This initiative, if enacted, would call on all Godly Californians to kill homosexuals. As such, the initiative is a tidy glimpse into the mind of the modern Republican. It also gives us a view of what complete GOP control of the government might look like.

"The abominable crime against nature known as buggery, called also sodomy, is a monstrous evil that Almighty God, giver of freedom and liberty, commands us to suppress on pain of our utter destruction even as he overthrew Sodom and Gomorrha," it begins. "Seeing that it is better that offenders should die rather than that all of us should be killed by God's just wrath against us for the folly of tolerating-wickedness in our midst, the People of California wisely command, in the fear of God, that any person who willingly touches another person of the same gender for purposes of sexual gratification be put to death by bullets to the head or by any other convenient method," the proposal continues.

If I had to give the GOP a motto that encapsulated their mission, it would be the one above. In the latest act of, "we don't give a shit about…

A new CNN/ORC poll "finds 53% saying things are going well, 46% badly. That's the highest share saying things are going well that CNN/ORC polls have found during Obama's time in office...Assessing Obama's presidency overall, 50% consider his time in office a success, 47% a failure. And for those who say his time in office has been a failure, 37% say that's been because of his own actions, while just 9% attribute it to Congress blocking the President from action...Nearly two-thirds (63%) disapprove of the Democratic leaders in Congress, while 74% disapprove of the Republican leadership. That's worse than in March 2011, when 64% said they disapproved of GOP leadership a few months after the party took control of the U.S. House of Representatives."

Well, would you look at that. The Delaware General Assembly has gone and updated their webpage with a sleeker design and easier navigation. I'm still figuring it out, but the one bug I see right away is that when you click on a particular piece of legislation, you are not taken to that legislation's URL landing page, but instead you view it in window on the main page. Now, individual URLs for specific legislation are still available and are provided as a link in the Vote Tracker below. You simply click on the Bill number and your browser will take you to that page. We have finally the first voting action on one of the bills we are following. The Senate unanimously passed Senator Sokola's Senate Bill 31 to continue to enable Teach for America to recruit and train teachers to teach in Delaware. It moves over to the House. Senator Poore's SB 33 was voted out of the Senate Education Committee on its merits, and then laid on the table in the Senate yesterday, March 24. Laying on the table does not necessarily kill a bill, but it suspends or postpones consideration of it. So I guess we need to know why, since the Bill would have implemented one of the many task forces' we turn to in this state whenever we have a problem. And the problem here was reforming the individualized education program (IEP) process, which is the way educational programs and services for students with diagnosed disabilities in Delaware public schools are determined. I have seen no explanation yet in the media as to why we are postponing considering this bill. Sen. Robert Marshall (D) has introduced legislation that will increase the minimum wage up to where it should be: $10.25 an hour. The bill calls for 50-cent, per-hour increases over the next four years until minimum wage hits $10.25 an hour by June of 2019. I'd prefer we just increase it straight away to $10, whatever games we have to play to get legislators onboard, let's play them. Most importantly, Senator Marshall has introduced SB 39 to increase the minimum wage to $10.25; and Senator Peterson has introduced SB 40, the repeal of the Death Penalty in Delaware.

In their most recent act of bipartisanship, "Democratic" Senators Coons and Carper voted in favor of a Republican amendment that sets the stage for Social Security benefits cuts.

Bill Boyarsky at TruthDig writes that the GOP is planning to use a desired War with Iran as a campaign strategy for 2016:

The Republicans want to frighten the voters into believing that the Democrats will sell out Israel and the United States. Selling this phony message is tremendously important to them as they get ready for the 2016 election. Domestically, their arguments against the Democrats are vanishing. Obamacare is increasingly popular as signups become more efficient. The deficit—the Holy Grail for Republicans—is shrinking. Unemployment is declining. All they can do is complain that Obama and the Democrats are surrendering to Islam.

House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas) claimed Tuesday that ObamaCare will cost $5 million per enrolled person. Sessions cited an overall estimate from House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price…