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- I'd go even further than Greg Sargent in criticizing radical interpretations of "constitutionality." If you take the view that the 10th Amendment invalidates legislation you don't like, then you're saying that Congress pretty much can't make any laws; that is, Section 8 of Article One -- "The Congress shall have power To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States" -- is just a load of nonsense.
- It's possible that Veronique de Rugy cares deeply about the bulk of America's taxpayers and the "potential tax increases we are all facing" when the Bush-era tax cuts expire, but that's hard to reconcile with her focus on the estate tax, taxes on dividends and capital gains, and the alternative minimum tax. In what sick world do wealthy people who have spent the past decade making themselves richer deserve to be lumped together with people who, at best, have struggled over the same period?
- It would be insulting to conservatives to call today's right-winger "conservative." Some examples: Jim DeMint's desire to bar homosexuals and unmarried pregnant women from teaching in public schools; Glenn Beck's insistence that slavery "started with seemingly innocent ideas"; and the right-wing blaming the victims of homophobia who are driven to suicide because of pervasive harassment. This is nothing less than the desire for legally-sanctioned dehumanization.
- Weekend Remainders: Tom Friedman's dream candidate is already in the 2012 race; Rand Paul doesn't actually care about deficits; rudimentary arithmetic eludes Eric Cantor; the notion that America's great cities don't matter is perennially annoying; never have I wandered a college campus fervently wishing to be packing heat; and why/how was Christine O'Donnell ever allowed to become a public figure?
-- Mori Dinauer