When libertarians meet racists

You have to wonder what will happen when the fans of the least gummint possible face their xenophobia and racism.

Which will win: The demand for a weak federal gummint and for individual freedom (not to mention a congenital aversion to the requirements for such as carrying ID cards), or the demand that we lock down the borders and keep people (of a certain colour) from going where they want to go (and where these people don't want them to go).

Actually, no contest. Unfortunately, cognitive dissonance doesn't make these people's heads explode, and the racism and xenophobia win out, hands down.

What's truly absurd is the demand that Latinos show they're entitled to be in the good ol' Yoo Ess of Aye ... when they've been here far longer than the white Europeans, and no one demanded IDs of the whites as they came over and took all the land....

The "I know you are, but what am I?" school of politics

So in the wake of Arizona's "pass laws" legislation against anyone who the police have a reasonable suspicion of being Latino, Rush Limbaugh and the RW echo chamber are busy charging Obama with being racist for saying that he hopes the groups that supported him in 2008 will continue to support him.

And in the wake of Dubya's (mis)handling of Katrina, the RW fans of strong and effective federal gummint, that is to say, RW talk show hosts Sean Hannity and Mark Levin, are criticising Obama's response to an oil rig blowout that is threatening vast areas of the Gulf Coast. Their complaint is that Obama isn't doing enough, soon enough ... when in fact the U.S. Coast Guard and various agencies have been doing their best to contain the spil, and the vaunted private industry -- British Petroleum and Halliburton -- have been unable to stop the leak or contain it, not to mention badly underestimating the size of the leak. Also, it was the Republicans that were pushing for more oil drilling off the coast and saying that it posed no hazard.

This is typical Republican policy: The "I know you are, but what am I?" taunt. They think the public has the long-term memory of nematodes, and the intellectual capacity and level of knowledge they themselves have ... that is to say, that of the elementary school students they act like. They know that they hate gummint, and think it can't be relied on to do anything properly, but this doesn't matter when they want to accuse Obama of what they did ... without even waiting for the facts to develop. They don't mind of their various attacks on Obama are mutually inconsistent; what matters is to attack Obama for their own failures. And strangely enough, it's working with their base; the base just laps it up.

"Drill, Baby, Drill!" continues unabated, though.

It's actually stomach-churning.