In recent days, the backwash from Rand Paul's verbal diarrhea has been all over the news. After claiming that he did not support the portion of the civil rights act that applied to private business (which was where a major portion of the correction needed to happen), he was excoriated by the media (FOX News excepted), and even criticized by some Republicans as extreme. When RNC chairman Michael Steele says you don't represent the positions of the party, then you are in trouble.

What Rand Paul has done, however, is to give us a peek inside the New Republican philosophy that borrows heavily from Libertarianism, where government interference is minimized, even when it is the morally correct thing to do. That sounds good when addressing tea partiers, but it and their "let's get back to the Constitution" position bumps up against reality when they start legislating.

Once again, the governor of my new home state is showing us just how insane he is by not only signing into law a bill to permit schools to teach gun safety to grades K-5, but he struck a provision that allowed government entities to do the teaching, essentially handing it to the NRA. Apparently the 2nd amendment isn't enough for the gun nuts, apparently bringing guns into bars isn't enough - now they want to bring guns into elementary school classrooms. How long before they require guns to be given to babies as soon as they exit the womb?

Arizona is trying to up the ante on its already hate-fueled laws by doubling down and going completely unConstitutional. Since the birth of our country (and indeed - the world over), we've always made the distinction that someone born in the United States is an American citizen. This was ultimately codified in the 14th Amendment. AZ, however, is trying to pass a bill to deny citizenship to children born in the USA of illegal immigrants. Of course it will not pass the smell test the first time it's challenged in court (assuming it's passed into law, which is fairly likely, given Arizona's recent history). I assume there's some financial frustration as these children end up on food stamps; perhaps Arizona could roll back the child labor laws as well so they can start picking lettuce at an earlier age...

With this John Bircher mindset taking over the Republican party (as it becomes inundated with the Tea spill), you could expect that Republicans who don't toe the line will become pariahs. We've seen that already in the primaries; hence, Rand Paul's successful bid. However, even incumbent tea party politicians are suspect. It was the Tea Party, after all, that helped push Scott Brown into the office formerly held by Ted Kennedy. They are turning on him, however, for voting with Dems on a couple important bills. They sent him to DC to stop progress, damn it, not allow it to happen! Not to worry, though. Sen Brown (R-MA) has announced he'll be voting against the repeal of DADT. I guess sometimes government intervention (kicking gays out of the military) IS a good thing to these folks.

The primaries are still rolling, though, and they're still good for a few anecdotes. As we know, sometimes a candidate will use a song in their campaign ads. One would assume they got permission from the artist first, but apparently not in Charlie Crist's case. He used Talking Head's "Road to Nowhere" in an ad attacking Marco Rubio. Talking Head songwriter David Byrne was not amused, and has sued Crist. He's not just asking for performance royalties, though - he's suing for defamation of character. Ouch...

The weirdest one, though, is Chuck DeVore's ad. He's running against Barbara Boxer in a quixotic campaign to unseat her. In his ad, he claims to have "served" with Jack Bauer, the protagonist of the series "24". Although it's certainly tongue-in-cheek, it does "send a message" to those who like the tactics used in the show (ie: torture), in a very dog whistle kind of way.

SCOTUS nominee Elena Kagan once voiced her wariness of Conservatives back in 1987, before they all drank the Koolaide. I wonder what she thinks of them now?