I vote for number three

Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin issued a statement today explaining why the state's strict new voter ID law is no problem.

There are more photo ID’s currently issued than there are registered voters in Wisconsin.

As I see it, this statement can be interpreted several ways:

1. Walker thinks everyone in Wisconsin already has an ID.
   
2. Walker thinks people who don't vote also don't drive.
   
3. Walker thinks sixteen year olds can vote.
   
4. Walker is dumb as a post and believes all of the above.
   
5. Walker believes we're dumb as posts and will believe one of the above.
   
6. Walker is play a dog whistle game with the paranoid right and wants them to think Democrats have been stockpiling multiple IDs to commit massive voter fraud.

Obviously, he hates freedom

Ronald Reagan was once the president of that Screen Actors' Guild, so it is safe to say he's the favorite labor leader of conservative Americans. But if such a thing even exists, who would you say is the conservative movement's second favorite labor leader? Take a minute. I'll give you a clue. Probably only older conservatives will know the name--cold war conservatives. If you said the man who Reagan called "one of the world’s greatest labor leaders," anti-Soviet activist, Solidarność leader, and eventually president of Poland Lech Wałęsa, buy yourself a drink.

Now, of all living labor leaders, who would be the most problematic one to join the Occupy Wall Street protesters? If you said the man who Reagan called "one of the world’s greatest labor leaders," anti-Soviet activist, Solidarność leader, and eventually president of Poland Lech Wałęsa--well, you dont deserve another drink, because it was a gimmee, but put a paper unbrella in that drink because that's who's flying to New York this week.

"How could I not respond," Walesa told a Polish newspaper Wednesday. "The thousands of people gathered near Wall Street are worried about the fate of their future, the fate of their country. This is something I understand."

A former shipyard worker who led Poland's successful revolt against Soviet communism, Walesa said "capitalism is in crisis" and not just in America.

"This is a worldwide problem," he told the Lublin-based Dziennik Wschodni newspaper. "The Wall Street protesters have focused a magnifying glass on the problem."

About that King quote

Rep. Peter King (R-NY), the former IRA supporter whose main claim to fame these days is holding endless hearings to demonize American Muslims, does not like the Occupy Wall Street protesters. That hardly makes him unique among Republicans. GOP presidential contenders, talking heads and members of Congress have been lining up to condemn the protesters. But something King said the other day has me curious. Appearing on Laura Ingraham's radio show, after calling the protesters "anarchists," "anti-American," and a "ragtag mob," King went on to say this:

We have to be careful not to allow this to get any legitimacy. I'm taking this seriously in that I'm old enough to remember what happened in the 1960s when the left-wing took to the streets and somehow the media glorified them and it ended up shaping policy. We can't allow that to happen.

That comment has been floating around FaceBook today in poster form. Notice, he's not talking about the culture of sixties protest. He's not upset about drugs, sex, and rock and roll. He's talking about the actual policies that the sixties protesters pushed into the mainstream.

I need to ask you Mr. King, which of those policies do you think were so bad. Was it ending segregation and expanding equality for African Americans? Was it allowing younger people to vote? Maybe it was equal pay for women. Or cleaning up our air and water. Or perhaps it was the demand that we end a pointless war that had already killed and maimed tens of thousands of young Americans and appeared unwinnable. Which of those things do you find so horrible Mr. King?

My wife says--and I agree--that many middle aged conservatives seem to be motivated by nothing more than bitterness over their experiences in the sixties and seventies. They were out of step with the prevailing culture of that time and they want to retroactively take revenge on it by undoing the accomplishments of those years. They pretend that there are principles behind their actions, but it's really just emotional payback for some. In the same interview, King called the protesters "a bunch of angry 1960s do-overs." It looks to me like it is King who wants a do-over on the sixties.

Why would a conservative be against that?

The often confused Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) thinks President Obama's jobs plan is a secret plot to keep gays from getting married, or something like that.

This may be, uh-uh, something nice he’s throwing out for uh gay folks that are living together so he can tell them actually you’re better off not getting married, uh because there’s a marriage penalty here.

Or maybe it's an attack on straight marriage.

If you’re the head of a single household, you have an exemptions at $225,000. If you're all other cases $200,000. So it really penalizes married individuals ... But if you want to get divorced it is good news for you

No, it's definitely about the gays.

Now, of course, the founders, uh they all understood marriage to be between a man and a woman and um that's the way the history of the country's been.

Or, whatever.

This president, according to the power to, as the old saying goes, the power to tax, the power to destroy, takes a shot at uh conven-- traditional, conventional marriage.

Since Gohmert has so much trouble keeping even one thought clear in his head, I suppose it would be futile to point out that it is congress--specifically, his branch of congress--that has the power to tax (and destroy) and not the president.

Stop the presses!

OMG! Sudden, breaking, really, really, REALLY important news!! Chris Christie still isn't running for president!!!

We now return you to stuff that matters.