Congress does stupid, knee-jerk stuff, in reaction to front-page stories, all the time. This one (assuming it is dumb) doesn't bother me. My favorite Congressional-reaction outrage was Dubai Ports World controversy. That one was, like the ACORN de-funding, a mostly bipartisan debacle. (I notcied no word from Glenn Greenwald about the number of Democrats joining with Republicans to de-fund ACORN.) I remember even Bill O'Reilly siding with people like Barney Frank on the need to cancel the Dubai Ports World contract, which had been duly negotiated and signed by representatives of both sides.

As a loyal Republican, I was happy simply to see ACORN rightfully smeared in the national press, to be exposed for its left-wing politics, and to re-connect the conjoined histories of Barack Obama and ACORN. That work has been done. A resounding success, too. ACORN is a political enemy, as far as I am concerned, and I just don't give a rip.

ACORN got only a very, very small amount of its budget federal funding, and what federal monies the group has gotten are infinitessimally small within the greater national public spending.

If the current de-funding bill is overturned by a federal court on Constitutional grounds, I won't much care. It's not much money, and I know that in any case, ACORN has been mortally wounded for any future public funding. That makes me happy enough.

I wonder; how much federal funding does the U.S. Chamber of Commerce get? What goes to the Hoover Institution, or the American Enterprise Institute, in federal dollars? Does the Heritage Foundation get public funding? How about the Federalist Society?

Okay, so there's a Salon letter-writer, going by the identity of "Unbannable Bastard." And he writes this:

@Orbitboy

You're arguing that we should emulate them?

No. I'm arguing that we should EXTERMINATE them and sow salt where their cities once stood.

The human species will never progress unless we begin policing our own ranks and culling the Conservatard apemen who hold back our evolution.

It's just good science...

-- Unabannable Bastard

Suppose, for a moment, that instead of "Unbannable Bastard", the commenter had chosen something like "King Whitey," and that we substituted just one word socially-loaded word -- negro -- for UB's socially-loaded term "Conservatard." Yielding this:

@Orbitboy

You're arguing that we should emulate them?

No. I'm arguing that we should EXTERMINATE them and sow salt where their cities once stood.

The human species will never progress unless we begin policing our own ranks and culling the negro apemen who hold back our evolution.

It's just good science...

-- King Whitey

I presume -- I would hope, and EXPECT -- that such a repelleant, revolting post would be taken down, and the author banned, forever. Whether or not he thought himself to be "Unbannable." I

So, To The Editors: Is there no depth-limit to the indecency allowed at Salon in the name of left-wing politics? Of course this is not a single occurrence. The particular Bastard referenced herein posts some form of violent hate speech, often threatening physical violence, on a daily basis.

I don't care all that much; I'm just asking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYY73RO_egw

Some people probably thought that maybe the President shared his wife's view; that for her entire adulthood, she had never been proud of her country.

Seriously, what kind of polling are we talking about here? A Democratic Party-funded polling organization goes around asking self-identified Republicans if they think that Obama "loves America"? Has anyone seen the poll questions? Does anyone wonder the purpose of such a poll is, or was? Is it just to ask weird, questions that have no civic importance so that provocative results can be Twittered out to the blogosphere?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704322004574475440538219178.html

It's All a Moot Point

Limbaugh wouldn't have passed the NFL's Drug Test.

-- JameyCarothers

Well, there is the owner of the Colts. Jim Irsay, the guy who inherited the team from his daddy. The daddy who packed up the team late at night and moved it out of Baltimore. Jim Irsay, whose ass was kissed by the anti-Limbaugh mainstream media (including Salon) for his own anti-Limbaugh comments.

And oh yeah, Jim Irsay has been under investigation by NFL security for years of drug abuse:

http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=1009269