Rand Paul Gets It Partly Right, Jeb Bush Adds a Footnote

Sen. Rand Paul and Bong, image from Salon.com 

Senator Rand Paul (just saying that gives me the giggles) told keep-the-wingnuts-talking champion Chris Wallace that the last two Presidents could have gone to jail for drugs (odd that he didn't mention his own past drug use). While I appreciate the Wingnut Party Senator for his correct conclusion that the drug war is a bad thing, I would like to point out that he should keep talking about this because it's an important subject, and because he apparently has no freaking clue about why people get arrested for drugs.

When George W Bush¹ was snorting coke, drinking whiskey, breaking SEC regulations, and God-knows-what-all, his Daddy was head of the CIA, Vice President of the United States, and, eventually, President, although W had supposedly become a cold-turkey dry drunk by the time he was a President's son. The odds of George W Bush being arrested for anything are so small that not even a penny bet to win $9.99 at Intrade would even get close to approximating them. Obama, on the other hand was approximately 12 times more likely to go to jail for drugs than a white man.

...although Whites and African Americans use and sell drugs at about the same rates, Black men in 2003 were almost 12 times as likely to go to prison as White men. Although Black people are 12 percent of the population and 14 percent of drug users, according to Mauer and Cole, they comprise 34 percent of those arrested for drug offenses and 45 percent of those incarcerated in state prisons for such offenses.

1. Jeb Bush provided some context on GW's state of mind Friday, talking to Jake Tapper on CNN.

JEB BUSH: He is like the most focused, disciplined guy to imagine being a former president and not having an opinion on anything over the last four years, really? I mean, to have that discipline, to be respectful of the president that hasn't been as respectful of him as he should have been? Man. I could have never done that.

Either GW's smarter then Jeb and realizes he should keep his fool mouth shut after lying us into a $6 trillion dollar unpaid-for war and crashing the world economy with a recession bigger than the last 4 combined, or he's on some serious meds, the abuse of which is fast becoming the biggest addiction problem in America (20% of all Americans have used a prescription drug for non-medical reasons), and prescription drug abuse is predominantly a white suburban problem. Since we don't police the white suburbs like we do the black inner cities, we don't see as many arrests of prescription drug crimes as we do for other illicit drugs more popular in those inner cities. And, since rich white suburbs in the Dallas area probably have very little police presence (of the kind looking for drug abusers, at least), then GW Bush could be tripping on Oxycontin all day and never get busted for it. Come to think of it, that might help explain why W is painting puppies and scenes of his guilty mind reflected in a shower mirror, instead of talking to the press every time he gets a buzz on, like Jeb apparently does.

If the Antebellum Shoe Fits

Jeb's the serious one.

"All too often we're associated with being anti-everything: anti-immigration, anti-women, anti-gay."-- Jeb Bush

So, right off the bat we know Jeb Bush is a bullshitter, and no, not because he's a Bush. Because we all know that there are plenty of things Republicans are for: war, the drug war, guns, calling globs of cells people, forcing people to live as vegetables, dying in pain, living in pain, and executions, to name just a few. But Bush's point is well taken by a core of GOP moderates who might be willing to compromise on such issues in order to move America slightly further to the right.

So, yeah, Jeb, you're often associated with being anti-a-lot-of-things, but we all know about those fun things you're for, and the majority of Americans are sick of them. And while many Republicans are starting to leave the reservation/plantation/re-education center on issues like gay marriage (now I know why I lost money on Portman as Willard's VP pick), the core of the party--the people who show up and vote in Republican primaries--are just fine with being for a bunch of sick shit most Americans hate, and against things most Americans like.

Poll after poll shows that in blind taste tests, when Americans are shown the issues separated from their political baggage, they're liberals. On wealth equality, for example, Americans would much prefer a much more equitable distribution. On taxes, Americans agree with the Congressional Progressive Caucus. On abortion, Americans are pro-choice. On marijuana, Americans are for medicinal and more and more for outright legalization. Even a large chunk of the right says they're sick of war (whether I believe their bullshit is another question). And gay marriage is quickly becoming all the rage. Seems hippie punching is finally losing it's appeal. Maybe the southern strategy will be next to go?

Jed's bullshit aside, the GOP seems to be anti-a-lot-of-things Americans like, and they seem to be for a bunch of things Americans can't stand. Gerrymandering and bullshitting still manage to get a lot of Republicans elected, but they can only get them so far when they've painted themselves into congressional districts that resemble Mississippi circa 1963, or when you're national candidates have to shake an etch-a-sketch to try to make people forget all the wingnuttery you espoused to get through the frat boy hazing line/road kill cook-off known as the GOP primaries.

If Jeb Bush Keeps Talking about His Brother, We'll Keep Listening

Jeb Bush must've heard us asking wingnuts to keep talking, because he just won't shut up. He pulled a Full Ginsburg Sunday promoting his book on immigration, changing positions so often that he looked like Alex in the fast motion sex scene from A Clockwork Orange. In the midst of all his steamy bullshit, he managed to squirt out another little gem of wingnut speak that deserves a pin spot from this booth:

"So my guess is that history will be kind to my brother, the further out you get from this and the more people compare his tenure to what's going on now."

Actually, he makes a good point, if he's talking about the 8th grade history books being used in Louisiana voucher schools, which  Steven Hsieh discovered have this little tie-died bit:

Many young people turned to drugs and immoral lifestyles; these youth became known as hippies. They went without bathing, wore dirty, ragged, unconventional clothing, and deliberately broke all codes of politeness or manners. Rock music played an important part in the hippie movement and had great influence over the hippies. Many of the rock musicians they followed belonged to Eastern religious cults or practiced Satan worship.

Hippie punching never gets old with wingnuts. So, yeah, that history might be kind to W, but in the real world, we work with facts like this: despite inheriting the Little Bush Depression, with 750,000 jobs being lost PER MONTH when Obama took over, and despite massive layoffs in public sector workers never seen in any other recession, Obama has seen more jobs created during his first 4 years than Bush did in 8.

In the real world, we work with facts like this: "That leaves Bush with the dubious distinction of becoming the only president in recent history to preside over an income decline through two presidential terms." And this: "Under Bush, the number of people in poverty increased by over 8.2 million, or 26.1 per cent. Over two-thirds of that increase occurred before the economic collapse of 2008."

The most agonizing thing about the slow motion disaster that was the Bush years, however, has to be the Iraq war and his massive tax cuts to the rich. The facts non-wingnut historians will be noting about these boondoggles for centuries are horrifying:

By themselves, in fact, the Bush tax cuts and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will account for almost half of the $20 trillion in debt that, under current policies, the nation will owe by 2019. 

Any serious history of the Bush administration would have to include this: somewhere between 100,000 and 1 million people died as a result of the Bush adventure in Mesopotamia.

Any historian that treats Jeb's brother kindly should go hunting with a drunk Dick Cheney when he's loaded for bear.

Maybe The Bush Baggage Was Lost by "East, West, South and North Somewhat" Airlines?

Crooks and Liars notes that Jeb Bush doesn't think there's any "Bush baggage."

Fox News host Chris Wallace pointed out to Bush on Sunday that his brother, George W. Bush, had been "somewhat unpopular" when he left office in 2009. 

"Do you think there is any Bush baggage?" Wallace wondered. "Do you think that would be a problem?" 

"No," the former Florida governor replied. "I don't think there's any Bush baggage at all. I love my brother, I'm proud of his accomplishments, I love my dad, I am proud to be a Bush." 

First, I'd really love to see a list of what Jeb thinks his brother's accomplishments are, but expecting Chris Wallace to ask him to name a few is like expecting a pilot fish to ask its shark to add little variety to its diet.

And second, I can see the bad-lip reading of this now... "I'm proud to be a Douche."