the hypocrisy of supposed small-government "tea partiers"

I have no problems with conservatives. However, I don't believe the vast majority of Tea Partiers have much connection to lower-case "c" conservatism. Eisenhower, a Republican, warned the country about the dangers of the military-industrial complex, not about the threat posed to America by brown people, in his final speech as President in 1961. However, Tea Partiers have shown themselves not at all concerned with the expansion of the American empire-itself the elephant in the room regarding the ballooning debt which these so-called patriots claim to be concerned. Tea Partiers have a positive opinion of George W. Bush-a leader who had very little concern for keeping government's footprint small.

Regarding government regulation-we haven't heard much Tea Party criticism of the absence of regulation which allowed for the mining accident in West Virginia last month in which 29 people died. Indeed, the CEO of that company, completely not coincidentally, was recently at a rally in which he, Sean Hannity, Ted Nugent, and others railed at Obama, cap-and-trade legislation, supposed green "extremists", and regulation. Indeed, his company sponsored the rally. But apparently, hoping that workers don't die in industrial accidents is not a Tea Party value.

It just points out again, the absurdity of claiming that Tea Partiers are conservatives. Conservatives who truly believe in limited government would have an issue with the bill in Arizona which privileges state government over federal government on the issue of immigration. The fact that the Association of Arizona Police Chiefs opposes the bill on the grounds that immigration is better dealt with at the national than at the state level does not restrict Tea Partiers from offering empty praise to police.

As one pundit put it, Tea Partiers have an issue with small government until it interferes with "warring, wiretapping, or waterboarding."

liveblogging Tony Snow on the Late Show with David Letterman

Tony Snow is quite tall. He's taller than Letterman by an inch or so and Letterman is 6'2. Wearing a light shirt, open collared, dark jacket. But of course, once he starts talking, he's largely full of it.

Letterman asks him if any reporters who were trying to start stuff and he said there was one who was always trying to instigate nuclear match-ups (David Gregory?) between countries. Now how could a reporter, asking a question, be responsible for two countries pointing nukes at one another? That's what countries do. Policy determines whether people point nukes at one another. If you have a nutjob as leader, perhaps he might force a confrontation. Otherwise, it's not going to happen. Certainly not because of a reporter.

Letterman wonders whether Bush's approval rating (he says/asks, what is it, 30 something; Snow agrees) bothers the White House. Snow says it could be better. How to make a 33% approval rating appear not so bad.....yeah, and the sky could be higher up. What does that mean? Snow babbles on about how a wartime President isn't popular. Uh huh....so Monkey Boy wasn't popular after initially hitting Afghanistan...through '03.....starts to slow down. Yeah, it has nothing to do with a quagmire in Iraq or a storm in New Orleans. And, uh, FDR (not sure if there were opinion polls then, but he was certainly very popular). Ike I believe was at least not too unpopular, even through the political minefields of high level political service. George Washington....very popular. Kennedy, popular in the very early days of Vietnamese involvement. Bush's daddy very popular during the Gulf War in '91. So it helps if the war is perceived to be for a somewhat noble cause. Yeah, I hate those unfortunate facts interfering with Tony Snow's unpaid PR work. I guess once a hack, always a hack.

Oh yeah, then when Letterman throws him a bone noting-perhaps this is a regurgitation of a right-wing talking point-that Bush is in person a decent guy (cough cough as long as you agree with him in everything cough cough) Snow notes that there are lots of practical jokes done in this administration. Well that's reassuring eh?