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First is the perfect storm of a decade of deregulation that has lately expressed itself in the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. We hope people remember this and the coal mine disaster and the recession when they listen to all the Tea Party types and libertarians masquerading as regular Republicans as they begin campaigning for getting rid of the horrible, intrusive government. It’s estimated that the financial crisis caused by the Wild West on Wall Street cost American households some $17 trillion dollars in net worth between 2007 and 2009. As cartoonist Stuart Carlson said in the caption to his May 10th cartoon, “How’s that hands-offy, non-regulatey thing workin’ for ya?”

Along with that, if you need proof, we are already seeing campaign ads here in New Hampshire with some of these Republicans harping on about government spending and their plans to go to Washington to institute “sensible” or “compassionate” or “common sense” cuts to the government, just as you may have also heard in other states during the recent primaries and special elections. Well, just what exactly are they going to cut in order to balance the budget? If they aren’t specific in answer to that question then they are engaging in a kind of lying and if they don’t know or won’t acknowledge the following facts then you at least should know that defense spending accounts for 23% of the budget. It seems unlikely that Republicans are planning to cut that. Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security account for another 39% of the budget. They would likely love to abolish all of that but they’d never tell you so. If that’s their plan, they should be made to say it out loud so everyone (especially all those retired people who make up a large part of Tea Party audiences) knows what they are voting for. Another 17% of spending is required by various laws. Which of those would they repeal? Interest payments are 5% and you can’t skip them and President Bush’s TARP “bailout” plan is 4%. That leaves a whopping 12% in other discretionary spending. Even if they cut that entire 12%, it won’t come near to what they even admit they want to do. These Tea Partiers and their Libertarian hangers-on should be forced to be specific about just where they are going to balance the budget (which we just have to point out once again was in fact balanced with a surplus when President Bush took office) before they get your vote.

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And as if we didn’t already have enough to worry about, an Arab American was just crowned Miss USA. A pro-Israeli website pronounced it was “a dark day for America” and Daniel Pipes, one-time advisor to presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, worried about “the surprising frequency of Muslims winning beauty pageants.” Yeah, that keeps us awake at night too, Dan! Topping all that though was Debbie Schlussel, coined a “conservative blogger” in the source we saw, though we’ve never heard of her, who accused the winner of being a radical Muslim because she shares a family name with someone in Hezbollah. She also accused the new Miss USA of deceiving the infidels (that’s us) in order to “further the cause of jihad” because, after all, everyone in America gives blind trust and obedience to anyone in a tiara. Frankly, all these nutcakes should be thrilled. Don’t they realize how hard it is to hide a bomb in an evening gown or a bikini? Here’s an Arab American who has bought into the American dream enough to participate in some of the most wretched excesses of our popular culture and that’s STILL not enough to make Stoopid America happy. We’re doomed.