Thanks to Jordan Ashby for the heads-up here.

We have our own citizenship-renouncing rich shithead in Canada named Conrad Black. Call me quirky, but I view citizenship as a bit more sacred than something you just buy and sell, y’know?

In remarks at the 2012 Peter G. Peterson Foundation, Boehner will erect the same requirements for raising the debt limit this coming winter that nearly led the country to default on its debt last August.

“We shouldn’t dread the debt limit. We should welcome it. It’s an action-forcing event in a town that has become infamous for inaction,” Boehner will say according to excerpts of prepared remarks provided by his office.

Step one: inaction. Step two:  sow chaos through action. Step three: complain of inaction. See how that works? But then the president has been pretty frugal with the coffers, so it’s an empty threat:

Treasury officials note — and Secretary Timothy Geithner made clear Tuesday — that the administration expects to be able to manage its accounts in such a way that the true deadline for raising the debt limit won’t actually come until early next year — after the fiscal cliff on January 1, and possibly after the new Congress is sworn in. Which means it’s unclear if Boehner’s threat has any teeth to it.

Not very good at his job, even by the low standards of the Republican Party.

In plain English, a woman employed by a “religiously affiliated” organization must prove to the insurer that she plans to use birth control pills for purposes other than contraception, abortifacient, abortion, or sterilization purposes, and must bear the cost for offering such proof.

This likely only applies to churches and hospitals and the like, but the language is vague and the bill does not outline how a health insurer or the public could verify the stated religious motivation of the entity. The entity simply submits an affidavit to the health insurer that says “we are religious!” Essentially, the health insurer would have to take the organization’s word for it.

All my life, liberal and conservative women have observed to me that insurance would cover Viagra, but not birth control. This bill is not just an attack on the Affordable Care Act and its associated regulations, which would establish a universal right to contraception in private insurance plans. It actually violates HIPPA.

Last week at the Guardian, Suzanne Goldenberg reported on an emerging right wing effort to attack the wind energy sector. ALEC, Americans For Prosperity, and a newer outfit called the American Tradition Institute (really!) have been propagandizing against wind power since the Obama administration included tax incentives for it in their 2009 stimulus bill. They are now actively organizing local teapublican attack squads to defeat wind farm initiatives.

None of this is about “free markets,” either, as the above chart indicates. It is about the “traditional” coal, oil, and gas-driven profit margins of the industrial sponsors of these organizations. It is the same reason we never stop hearing about Solyndra, even with solar power becoming just as cheap as any other electricity source. Because God forbid America should host the energy export businesses of the 21st Century, right?

Consumerism is a teapublican American value, while “sustainable” has become a curse word. Arizona’s recent legislation outlawing “Agenda 21″ urban planning initiatives has to be understood in the dim light of Michele Bachmann’s attempt to overturn federal light bulb laws and John Boehner’s reintroduction of styrofoam to the Congressional cafeteria. All of these initiatives were couched in “values” language, making “renewable” the new gay marriage.

Again, none of this has anything to do with free markets. It’s about hippie-bashing:

Congress failed to renew wind power tax credits last week. The effects on the fast-growing wind energy industry are expected to be devastating, including major layoffs and delayed or cancelled projects.  The current income tax credit of 2.2 cents per kilowatt hour of wind power will now expire at the end of 2012. Wind power proponents tried to get an extension added to the payroll tax cut bill but failed. They could try again but another attempt probably won’t happen until after the November elections (when perhaps they hope Congress will be friendlier to renewable energy).

Meanwhile, wind energy’s critics suffer no interruption in their socialism:

The oil-and-gas and coal-mining industries spent a combined $167 million on lobbying in 2011, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, and are also active in political giving.

The new bill, which sponsors say would end $113 billion in federal support for fossil fuels over a decade, stands almost no chance of passage.

God forbid America should invent and manufacture these new technologies while there is so much oil and coal left to burn, right? And I use the word god deliberately, because this kind of regressive politics is inherently faith-based. Its proselytizers profess a faith in unlimited supplies of cheap oil and coal to maintain the civilization of a now-golden memory. A newer, greener era of renewable sustainability is their hell.

And it makes sense, because this particular brand of politics has always been financed by the fossil fuel sector. Examples could fill an entire blog post, but two — the Koch brothers and Don Blankenship — can stand for the rest. An America with burgeoning renewable power industries actually is their hell.

Adding: Karoli wrote a great rundown on the astroturfing plan last week.

The same week President Obama “evolved” out of the gay marriage closet, congressional Democrats tried to evolve federal medical marijuana laws with a bipartisan amendment:

None of the funds made available in this Act to the Department of Justice may be used, with respect to the States of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, to prevent such States from implementing their own State laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana.

Republicans voted overwhelmingly against the bill. Democrats were in favor. But both parties are the same, etc. I’m also sure someone will remind me how awful President Obama has been on medical marijuana, but as I keep saying there is actually not much he can do to change the laws; that requires Congress.

The real question is whether party and potheads can come together — never mind the president. Medical marijuana has popular bipartisan support, and it’s a particularly potent youth issue. Meanwhile, Democrats have a huge brand problem. Ask ten Democrats what their party stands for, and they will have ten responses. Democrats have tried to hold the center by “hippie punching” on progressive issues, and there is no more visibly “hippie” issue than marijuana.

I have said before that the key to understanding marijuana politics is that cannabis culture is exactly that, a culture. As comedian Jimmy Kimmel recently reminded the president at the Correspondents’ Dinner, cultures respond to pressure, usually in the negative. Marijuana culture has suffered official repression in the United States for decades; it is not going away. Democrats should consider the possibilities.

False compassion is always dissonant. Mitt Romney says same-sex couples should be allowed to adopt children, but they should not be married. See, the important thing is that every child be raised by one man and one woman, even if their marriage is a sham:

In his most detailed comments to date on the issue of civil rights for gay people, Romney told Fox News television host Neil Cavuto, “I know many gay couples that are able to adopt children. That’s fine. But my preference is that we … continue to define marriage as the relationship between man and a women.”

Living the lie is important, kids! And Willard has long experience enforcing the lie. In high school, Mr. Lord of the Flies had other people hold someone down while he assaulted them with scissors for a heteronormative haircut. He’s the perfect candidate for the last stand of militant homophobia: Adam and Steve had better get back in the closet, no matter how fabulous they look, or there’ll be trouble.

He raised a million dollars in the ninety minutes after the announcement. I think he’s going to be okay.