Today's Dispatches From The Stupid Party

From the "booming" State of Texas, where they sure know how to keep the public safe, boy howdy:

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas House approved a batch of bills Saturday to further soften gun laws that were already among the country's most firearms-friendly, allowing college students to carry handguns in class, putting potentially armed marshals in public schools and exempting the state from any future federal bans on assault rifles, high-capacity magazines or universal background checks.

Nullification and handguns in classrooms all in one legislative session!  Those are some busy Republican peckerwoods down there!  And while he's at it, the Peckerwood-in-Chief, Gov. Rick "Hair" Perry, wants to make a historical atrocity analogy about the Boy Scouts and The Gays (hint:  it's all about having the courage to discriminate!).

Speaking of nullification, let's see what Rethug Gov. Brownshirtback of  Kansas is up to:

... dozens of states are considering bills that attempt to nullify federal gun laws. One such bill became a law last month in Kansas. It exempts “Made in Kansas” guns from federal regulation and makes it a crime for federal agents to enforce federal law.

Attorney General Eric Holder recently wrote to Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, saying the law is “unconstitutional,” and that the U.S. is prepared to sue Kansas to prevent the state from “interfering with the activities of federal officials.”

Now, Brownback has fired back.

In a letter to Holder yesterday, Brownback wrote: “The people of Kansas have clearly expressed their sovereign will. It is my hope that upon further review, you will see their right to do so.”

Let's see... if it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it must be John C. Calhoun!

Finally, to Mr. Calhoun's cradle of secession State of South Carolina, where Appalachian Trail hiker "Gaucho Mark" Sanford may be on the verge of winning (or not) tomorrow's off-year Congressional race in a heavily Rethuglican district.  We hear from the estimable Charles P. Pierce (again) about how the disgraced former adulterer Governor could possibly, er, pull it out:

This has become a tribal conflict, and Mark Sanford's tribe is bigger, that's how. Most of the god-bothering yahoos were quite upset with Sanford's intercontinental sins of the flesh but, deep in their lizard brains, they know what counts and Sanford gave them the proper totem to hate and soon, the fever swamps resounded with whooping and hollering and chanting and the reek of burning entrails. This is not political. It is theological. It is not people going to the polls. It is people, maddened by thirst, wandering through the Sinai screaming their prayers into the undying sun.

Hate and stupid:  forces to be reckoned with in today's New Confederate/ Rethuglican/ Stupid Party.

Gaucho Mark Returns To The (Campaign) Trail

When last we saw long-distance hiker and former South Carolina Gov. Mark "Gaucho Mark" Sanford a few years ago, he had tearfully admitted his affair with an Argentinian woman, and thus damaged his rising political fortunes.  "Hiking the Appalachian Trail" became the euphemism for having an illicit affair, since Gaucho Mark used that as an alibi for traveling to Buenos Aires for trysts with his mistress.

Now we note that he's running for the newly-vacated seat of Rep. Tim "The Tom" Scott, who was appointed to the Senate after Jim "Demented" DeMint left for greener pastures.  The likely Democratic opponent, Elizabeth Colbert Busch, happens to be the sister of humorist Stephen Colbert.  Gaucho Mark is trying to claim that while "I failed in my personal life," his public life as Governor was exemplary.  Uh, not so fast.  He's got some 'splainin' to do about expending State funds, as the link above notes.  We have no faith in the Rethug primary voters of South Carolina to reject Gaucho Mark, but hope he's sent hiking in the general election.

(photo:  Juggling balls isn't as hard as juggling a wife and a mistress)