Todd's Mischief Blog

Distancing conservatism from “birthers” may not be as easy as it seems Trump is strutting like a peacock over the release of Obama’s long-form birth certificate. Not surprisingly, even this does not quell the birthers, as indicated by Trump’s promises to now investigate the document . So leave the kooks to themselves. For the rest of us, the issue is put to bed and we can all move on, right? Maybe not. Having the birth certificate released ought to make it easier for Republicans and Tea Partiers alike to distance themselves from the birther movement. As the 2012 presidential campaign season opens, it would be nice to focus on important issues like the economy, foreign affairs, and entitlements. But don’t be surprised if you hear charges of racism lobbed at the president’s political adversaries once more. Already, left-wing pundits say that it was racism in the Tea Party that gave rise to the birther movement. Even if they are willing to admit that birthers were a Clinton Machine creati...

Glenn Beck doesn’t like to be accused of looking for “ booger bears ,” so I won’t. The top story today on Glenn Beck’s…well, almost everything is about proposed State Department form DS-5513, “Biographical Questionnaire for a U.S. Passport.” Glenn is weirded out by some of the questions that it asks—and there are some weird ones—but the speculation he engages in because of it sounds like a part of the FEMA camp conspiracy theory that he worked so hard to debunk .  “Why doesn’t Gov want you to have a passport?” his website asks. On radio, Glenn put it this way: “Who is it that won’t be qualified—or won’t be allowed to get a passport to leave the country?” That the form would only be issued to “some” applicants is not a relief to Glenn but a sign of the ominous because, as the form states, “failure to provide the information requested may result in … the denial of your U.S. passport application.” Ya think? “Who are they trying to trap here?” Glenn asks. Enemies of the president, he ...

While the Middle East is realigning, Obama says, "No it's not." Since anti-government protests began sweeping the Middle East and North Africa since late last year, President Obama has been living down to the tongue-in-cheek definition of a politician by trying to jump in front of every parade. The one glaring departure from this pattern--if you can call it that--is Libya, where Obama and the UN are apparently out for the hide of Muammar G/Kh/Qadhafi . The contrast becomes all the more stark as these same groups hold back from Syria and Côte d'Ivoire. Responding to questions about all this, President Obama in an ABC News interview stated , “Each country in this region is different. Libya was a unique situation.” That answer is unsurprising, since the only point the White House has remained consistent on since protests began erupting in nearly every Middle Eastern and North African nation is that they are all completely unrelated. I am not convinced, however.  Lik...

Who I blame for the government shutdown. It sure would be impressive if I could write page upon page exploring why the looming government shutdown would be the fault of this party or of that. My prose would probably be littered with terms like political grandstanding, finger-pointing, deadlock, stalemate, or at the very least controversy . Of course, if I wanted to blame Republicans, I would need a ream to provide ample space to contort facts to my forgone conclusion. Or, if I were a devoted centrist, I could probably use several pages to assign blame all around. But all this supposition is just me burning words. I blame the whole affair on Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats of the 111 th Congress. Had they, with their unbeatable majority, passed the budget by the September 20 th deadline, there would be no talk of government shutdown. As it is, last December, Democrats voted to put the whole thing off until March—well into the 112 th Congressional term. As for the argument th...

Just how big is the federal government? The government keeps getting bigger and bigger, and there are few who would debate that. There are those, however, who would debate that it matters. Well, does it matter? Let’s see how big the problem is: Money How much money the government controls is generally how the size of government is measured. A cynic might simply declare the government controls all the money since they can print it and tax it back. Besides that, there is some debate about how exactly to measure government by defining “spending” and “tax cuts” and so forth. However, if one just wants a fairly straightforward answer, just look to Barack Obama’s proposed 2011 budget, then take your pick as to which figure says it best: 2011 Budget of the United States * (not yet enacted) Total revenue              $2.17 trillion Total expenditures      $3.72 trillion Deficit   ...