Billmon

The image I get from watching the Christian right these days is of a race car driver at the starting line, ferociously revving the engine and waiting for the checkered flag to pop the clutch.

This is all about torque, in other words. Dobson and his fellow ayatollahs want to see their Bible feyadeen absolutely frothing at the mouth — mad enough to walk through fire, if that’s what it takes, to get at those tyrannical liberal judges.

The propaganda machine has plenty of time to repair the damage. Heck, within a few months Fox News will have the true believers convinced that Harry Reid personally pulled out Shiavo’s feeding tube while Nancy Pelosi held her down. — Billmon

Free speech checked at the door By Jim Spencer, Denver Post Staff Writer

The man near the entrance of George Bush’s nonpolitical, taxpayer-financed “town hall” meeting Monday stopped Karen Bauer and Leslie Weise. He directed the two Denver women toward a man in a smiley-face tie.

“You’ve been ID’d,” the second man told them. …

[S]miley-face-tie guy said the Secret Service was coming to speak to them.

Soon, a stocky man with a shaved head, an earpiece and a red lapel pin arrived. He never identified himself as a Secret Service agent, but he did have a message.

“He said we were allowed to go in, but if we caused any problems, we’d be taken to jail,” said Bauer, a 38-year-old marketing coordinator.

Bauer and Weise will meet today with Secret Service officials to discuss their removal from the Bush meeting.

“Freedom of speech, general assembly, they’re all guaranteed under the Constitution,” said Lon Garner, special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Denver district. “We are not an enforcement arm to the president other than security.”

Garner said his agents don’t remove people from presidential gatherings unless they break the law. The Republican staff, on the other hand, may ask people to leave, Garner said. And like the Secret Service, they also wear lapel pins and earpieces. …

“This was an official White House event and not a political event,” Colorado GOP executive director David Wardrop explained.

Anyone with tickets could have attended, added assistant presidential press secretary Allen Abney.

“The White House welcomes people exercising the right to free speech,” he said.

The facts beg to differ. Bauer, Weise and Young had tickets. None acted up. …

George Bush and his GOP henchmen are living a lie.

The president constantly claims freedom as God’s gift to everyone. …

But societies that smother dissent are never free.

[via Colorado Luis]

The closest parallel I can think of to current American politics is Israel. There was a time, not that long ago, when moderate Israelis downplayed the rise of religious extremists. But no more: extremists have already killed one prime minister, and everyone realizes that Ariel Sharon is at risk.

America isn’t yet a place where liberal politicians, and even conservatives who aren’t sufficiently hard-line, fear assassination. But unless moderates take a stand against the growing power of domestic extremists, it can happen here. — Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: What’s Going On?” href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/29/opinion/29krugman.html?”>The New York Times > Opinion >PAUL KRUGMAN
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Bush “enjoys the stubborn conviction of the unreflective mind.” — Michael Kinsley

by Jeff Parker, Florida Today

Public Opinion Watch – Mar. 30, 2005 – Center for American Progress
Public Opinion Watch by Ruy Teixeira

Bush’s overall approval rating is just 43 percent, with 48 percent disapproval. In addition, his rating on Iraq is now only 39 percent approval/53 percent disapproval, and his rating on the economy is a stunningly bad 36/53, further evidence of growing public disenchantment with the economy.

Let us not forget Congress. In the wake of its handling of the Schiavo case, Congress’s approval rating has plunged to 34 percent against 49 percent disapproving.

Consumer Comfort Index Hits New 2005 Low (washingtonpost.com) By Claudia Deane, Washington Post Staff Writer

Consumer confidence has reached a new low for the year in the wake of soaring gasoline prices across the nation, with the latest Washington Post-ABC News Consumer Comfort Index standing at -13, down four points from last week and three points below its 19-year average.

The index of consumer sentiment was last in this territory in the summer of 2004, following a late winter and spring surge in gas prices that sent consumer confidence reeling until late June.

Monkey business
GOP legislators just can’t let well enough alone

Now that conservative Republicans have an edge at the Legislature, they can’t resist trying to gum up projects and agencies that are humming along just fine, thanks.

This does nothing to move Arizona into the future. …

Hey, team! You’re running toward the wrong goal line. …

Every legislative session sees its share of misguided proposals. But this year they have gone so far that you have to wonder, what’s next?