The Horror. The Horror.

Grover Norquist is trying to train 150,000 activists to make the pitch for
the plan. “The challenge will be to teach each of our activists to deliver the
Ryan speech," he said.

Just imagine 3000 mini-pompadors in ill-fitting suits criss-crossing each of our states, 42 per county just in Wisconsin, each one armed with AFP vetted charts, graphs and statistics standing on street corners offering to bloviate on the virtues of abandoning the poor and sick.

It's a regular Galtfest.

Crossposted at PRW

Great Moments In Messaging

Flyin' Jim Sensenbrenner defines GOP "brand" as being one of smoking rubble and horrified onlookers at convention.

Sensenbrenner says, "We got our brand back."
He says the challenge now will be to sustain the goals their achieved. He says Wisconsin will be ground zero in 2012...

A Note From the Convention

Meanwhile, Gov. Scott Walker (left) said the state is on a roll, but
Republicans need to win the recall elections this summer to keep that momentum
going.

Mrs. O'Leary said the same thing about Chicago, if only they could get the fire put out.

Do you suppose it ever occurred to Scotty, even for just one moment that, if Wisconsin was actually on a roll, there would be no recall elections?

The Cost Of Cuts In Terms of Human Lives

"The whole cost of our cervical cancer screening program will probably
be less than the care of one hospitalized patient with advanced cervical
cancer."

Walker's budget proposal will mean that more women will die. Is it fair to say that his budget kills women? Perhaps not. Is it fair to say that Walker and his cadre really don't care if more poor women die? That surely seems to be the message he's sending.

The medical director of the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene says
women will likely die of cervical cancer if Gov. Scott Walker's budget proposal
eliminating $266,400 for cervical cancer screening prevails.

"I see at least 1 - 2 high-grade lesions every day during cytologic
evaluations," Dr. Daniel Kurtycz says in prepared remarks to be given Wednesday
to the Joint Finance Committee, which will consider Walker's budget request.
"Without follow-up, there is no doubt that some of these lesions will become
invasive. Because cervical cancer takes at least two years to run its course,
sometime after 2015, we will have women dying of cervical cancer as a
predictable consequence of the funding reduction for testing in this
budget."

How long can we afford Walker's callous disregard for the working families of Wisconsin?

Fixing The Blame

My Brother always says that, if you can find someone to blame, you don't have to lift a finger to improve the situation. Now Donald Trump, The Candidate Too Bad To Lampoon, has decided to begin the blaming by pointing at Paul Ryan.

If Republican Jane Corwin goes down in defeat in the May 24 special
electionin New York's 26th congressional district, blame Republican Rep. Paul
Ryan's(R-Wis.) budget, Donald Trump said Wednesday.
Trump, speaking in the first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire, blamed Ryan's budget proposal — in particular, its controversial provision to reform Medicare — for dragging Corwin into a competitive race to replaceresigned Rep. Chris Lee (R).

"A very popular Republican woman is running for the office. She was expected to win easily," Trump said in the Granite State. "She's having a hard time defending that whole situation with Medicare."

"Too early, too soon. There was no reason for him to do it," he later said.

Just remember that Trump has really only been a political celebrity for a few months and his light is fading faster than a moth in a bell jar, even someone so politically naive can see that Pompadour Paul is putting the stink of death on his own party with his Medicare witchhunt.

Crossposted at The Paul Ryan Watch

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Let's see.

• The program is Federally-mandated so there's no chance to not provide the service yet Walker and Vos want to defund it.


• Saving $1 at the state level cuts $2 more in matching funds to provide services.


• The only people who will suffer for these cuts are divorced parents, many below the poverty line.

The tag tells the tale of shame.

Several Republican members of the Joint Finance Committee did not respond to
requests for comment.

Not So "Tough On Crime" After All

How long until the adults are back in charge?

Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm announced Thursday
that he has ordered his assistant prosecutors to continue working full-time
despite the state's plan to cut all their salaries by 20% starting Sunday.
"As public safety professionals and ministers of justice, our word is
our bond, and we are obligated to keep our promises even if others don't,"
Chisholm said in a written statement.

What Is Left After Perspective and Rationality Are Discarded?

Crazy Shelley.

Bachmann said the next generation will ask similar questions about what
their elders did to prevent them from facing a huge tax burden.

"I tell you this story because I think in our day and time, there is no analogy to that horrific action," she said, referring to the Holocaust. "But only to say, we are
seeing eclipsed in front of our eyes a similar death and a similar taking away.
It is this disenfranchisement that I think we have to answer to."

Don't forget that taxes as a share of GDP are lower than 60 years ago. It's only because Bachmann and Ryan and their ilk keep piling on working families to the benefit of corporations that individual's burden is greater.

OBL Dead

One major international criminal will now find out what his rightful place in Hell really looks like.

Celebrations may be heartfelt, but seem to be just a tad out of proportion to what we gained by his death. It's more imperative today to be on guard than it was yesterday.