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- The big day is finally here, and all across America, true patriots are protesting the fact that they are the lowest-taxed people in the developed world, who have adequate representation at all levels of government, who are getting a tax cut from the current president, and otherwise celebrating their ignorance of economics, politics and history. Words fail, so I'll let pictures and video do the talking. Meanwhile, it's worth noting that there's real discrimination in the tax code for people who don't happen to be heterosexual, but that will surely be drowned out by protesters who, while not rich themselves, appear to be protesting the fact that rich people will be slightly less rich starting in 2011.
- I don't understand why conservatives are so eager to conflate themselves with the right-wing extremists detailed in this week's DHS report (especially when some self-described conservatives are actually advocating for domestic terrorism), but it's laughable to suggest the administration is actively targeting ideological enemies. It isn't. In fact, DHS is putting out a report on left-wing extremism in America, too.
- I can understand why some Senators, like Blanche Lincoln (D-Wal-Mart), would oppose EFCA. But I'm not clear why 2008 DNC keynote speaker Mark Warner thinks his vote -- procedural or otherwise -- hinges on an imaginary compromise bill that hasn't even reached the chamber's floor yet. Look, this isn't complicated. Either labor-friendly legislation reaches the floor or it doesn't.
- The Obama administration is preparing to release sensitive information on the "health" of the nation's 19 largest banks, as a way of demonstrating the efficacy of Tim Geithner's "stress tests" and restoring some confidence to the financial markets. Not getting the memo, apparently, is Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), who recently told a gathering that his first reaction to the crisis was to withdraw all his federally-insured money which, if everyone did this, would precipitate bank runs. Why do these people want America to fail?
- Obviously, when Republican governors like Rick Perry grandstand about "states rights" and rejecting the "oppressive hand" of Washington, they're full of it. But isn't it striking that a major politician like the governor of Texas can openly talk about state secession and hardly raise an eyebrow in the press? And yet we hear complaints from the right that they don't like being called radicals. Well I'm afraid that proposing something today that led to civil war a century and a half ago is the definition of radical.
- Remainders: Dobson denies giving up on the culture wars; the CIA plays "hide the detainees" with the Red Cross; Michael Cohen argues for bringing the Powell Doctrine back to foreign policy; Adam Nagourney buys into Tim Pawlenty's nonsense about the GOP becoming more than a mere "opposition party"; and Time looks at Reagan the FBI snitch.
--Mori Dinauer
