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150 Years later, the Republicans surrender to the Confederacy
Republicans officially declare the Confederacy deserved a chance to win.

THE WINNER — from moosevlt at flickr.com

All this messy business of Civil War could have been avoided.

A group of Republicans in the House and Senate are proposing an amendment to the Constitution that would allow a vote by two-thirds of the states’ legislatures to override any federal law they did not agree with.

The proposed constitutional amendment, a tea party favorite, is being touted by Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) in the Senate and co-sponsored by Sens. John Barasso (R-WY) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT). In the House, Reps. Rob Bishop (R-UT), Morgan Griffith (R-VA) and Paul Broun (R-GA) are leading the charge.

Oh, sure there may still be slavery, but from their perspective, Obama wouldn’t be President.

A two-thirds vote of the States is, of course, already one means of bringing about a Constitutional Convention, but why do that when the Kochs can buy off a state legislature for less money?

It never fails to gnaw at me how much the GOP claims to love the Constitution, so much, in fact, that they constantly endeavor to change it.

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Truthdig Radio: How the U.S. Co-Opted Human Rights
On this week’s show we hear from Reagan Assistant Secretary of Defense Lawrence Korb on our imperial military budget, and James Peck tells us how the U.S. co-opted human rights. And we send Reese Erlich to Cuba to find out how Raul Castro’s economic reforms are affecting the island’s world-famous music scene.

On this week’s show we hear from Reagan Assistant Secretary of Defense Lawrence Korb on our imperial military budget, and James Peck tells us how the U.S. co-opted human rights. And we send Reese Erlich to Cuba to find out how Raul Castro’s economic reforms are affecting the island’s world-famous music scene.

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Fox Business Host Falsely Claims Baby Boomers Will “Bankrupt” Social Security “In A Couple Of Months”

Fox Business host Andrew Napolitano falsely claimed that the retirement rate of baby boomers is “going to bankrupt the [Social Security] system in a couple of months.” In fact, the level of Social Security revenues and benefits were specifically modified in 1983 to account for baby boomers’ retirements, and the program is projected to remain completely solvent and pay full benefits until 2037.

Napolitano: Boomer Retirements Will “Bankrupt” Social Security

REP. JEFF FLAKE (R-AZ): I think people understand that, you know, in 1950, there were about 16.5 workers for every retiree. Now there are just less than three. And you can’t continue to provide entitlement programs like that.

NAPOLITANO: And 10,000 baby boomers retire and join Social Security every day of the week. I mean, that’s going to bankrupt the system in a couple of months at that rate.

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Social Security Is Projected To Be Fully Funded Until 2037

Strengthen Social Security: “Social Security Can Pay 100% Of Promised Benefits For The Next 25 Years.” From “Frequently Asked Questions About Social Security,” by Strengthen Social Security:

Is Social Security going bankrupt?

Social Security will never go bankrupt. Its major source of income comes from the contributions of workers and employers; as long as there are workers, Social Security will have income.  Even if Congress took no action, Social Security can pay 100% of promised benefits for the next 25 years and more than three-quarters of benefits after that. Around 2037 there is a modest funding gap requiring modest increases in revenues to guarantee everyone 100% of promised benefits. Social Security has faced far worse financial problems in the past, but Congress has never failed to act to ensure full funding of benefits. [Strengthen Social Security, accessed 5/11/11]

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Rand Paul: If You Believe In A Right To Health Care, ?You Believe In Slavery?

Conservatives have slung all kinds of hyperbolic, outlandish, and phony attacks on attempts to provide health care to all Americans over the years, but tea party darling Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) may have taken the cake today when he equated universal health care with slavery. Speaking at a Senate Health, Education, and Labor Committee hearing, Paul argued that if you believe people should have a right to health care, you believe in enslaving doctors, nurses, and hospital janitors:

PAUL: With regard to the idea of whether you have a right to health care, you have realize what that implies. It’s not an abstraction. I’m a physician. That means you have a right to come to my house and conscript me. It means you believe in slavery. It means that you’re going to enslave not only me, but the janitor at my hospital, the person who cleans my office, the assistants who work in my office, the nurses.

Basically, once you imply a belief in a right to someone’s services — do you have a right to plumbing? Do you have a right to water? Do you have right to food? — you’re basically saying you believe in slavery.

I’m a physician in your community and you say you have a right to health care. You have a right to beat down my door with the police, escort me away and force me to take care of you? That’s ultimately what the right to free health care would be.

Watch it:

Setting aside Paul’s healthy police state fever dream, by Paul’s logic, the Pope supports slavery. In November, the pontiff called health care one of the “inalienable rights” of man and said, “Justice in health care should be a priority of governments and international institutions.”

Paul is himself a (dubiously accredited) doctor, as he mentions. But while he bitterly condemns government spending, he’s also complained about the government cutting payments to doctors like him. Perhaps that’s a form of slavery too.

Haley Barbour To Flood-Stricken Mississippians: You?re On Your Own

In the past week, the Mississippi Delta has been hit hard by flooding in the Mississippi River. The rising water wiped out crops, forced families out of their homes, and caused river-front casinos to shut down, costing the government up to $13 million a month. The Associated Press reported that the damage in Memphis was estimated at $320 million, but that “the worst is yet to come, with the crest expected over the next few days.”

Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS) –- instead of pledging to do everything possible to help the people of his state deal with the flood -– called for the federal government to declare a flooding disaster, moved his furniture out of his lake house, and told flood-stricken families to rely on their friends to get to higher ground because the state wouldn’t help:

As the water rose, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour moved furniture out of his lake house outside Vicksburg on family land that was inundated during the 1927 flood. A week ago, he urged residents to flee low-lying areas, saying that the state wouldn’t assist the evacuations and that people should help one another secure their property and get out.

With Barbour’s staunch opposition to efforts to reduce climate pollution — which is driving the extreme flooding — it’s probably a good thing for America that he took his hat out of the ring for the presidency late last month.

Cross-posted on the Wonk Room.