We'll only discriminate for 20 years

Writer Agence France-Presse of The Raw Story notes a conundrum facing the GOP. Moderates and independents (and those even further left) are turned off when GOP candidates talk about how they will implement their religion in government. But the Fundie GOP base won't engage with a candidate unless he does talk about it.



I've written about the easy explanation for the Ryan budget approved by the GOP House. Terrence Heath delves into it to show what the GOP is aiming for. Short answer: Government should be police, courts of law, armed services, and nothing else. The Ryan budget significantly trims (with hopes of eventually eliminating) such things as:

* Justice Department
* Corrections officers
* Border Agents
* Environmental Protection Agency
* Food safety inspectors
* Air traffic controllers
* TSA agents
* IRS agents looking for tax cheats
* Weather forecasters
* Agents to do background checks on gun purchasers
* Medicare and Medicaid
* Social Security
* Welfare programs
* Transportation
* Science research
* Education at all levels
* Environment, including national parks

If nobody can make a buck off it, it won't get done.

We've heard all this before. Heath mentions it because lots of people say gutting all those programs can't happen in America. But the House approved this budget and we may be one election from a Senate and a prez. willing to go along with it.



In just five weeks from today North Carolina will vote on a marriage protection amendment that also bans civil unions. Both sides are gearing up for the battle. The anti-gay side has the usual suspects (including the ad agency that worked so well in Calif. and Maine) and a budget of a million dollars.

State Rep. Thom Tillis, Speaker of the House, was instrumental in getting the question on the ballot. Tillis recognizes it is a generational issue and he now predicts that in a generation voters will overturn this amendment. That, of course, leads many to ask, so why bother? Apparently it is good policy to discriminate for 20 years.