I'll be doing a series of radio shows this week and next week to discuss my book, Blowing Smoke: Why the Right Keeps Serving Up Whack-Job Fantasies about the Plot to Euthanize Grandma, Outlaw Christmas, and Turn Junior into a Raging Homosexual.

Monday, 11/1

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have been keeping the Rally to Restore Sanity schedule under wraps, but they had to reveal it to the Park Service in order to get a permit. And the Park Service revealed it to the world.

From the Christian Science Monitor:

November 8, 1994. It was a slaughter. In one night, Republicans seized 54 seats in the House and eight seats in the Senate, capturing Congress for the first time since 1954.

The newcomers, many from the South, were predominantly white, male and angry. "You're going to have a difference in style," predicted an Atlanta-based Republican pollster. "With the Southern Republicans, you get a more aggressive, assertive conservatism. This is a conservatism that has been built on confronting Democrats and liberals, not accommodating them."

Conservative leaders credited Rush Limbaugh, king of angry white men, with propelling the Republican revolution. "He was the standard by which we ran," said former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, invited Limbaugh to deliver the keynote at its orientation for new lawmakers. Limbaugh encouraged the newcomers to stay mean: "This is not the time to get moderate. This is not the time to start trying to be liked."

Read the rest of the article at CNN.com

As this grim election stalks up to us--so close now, you can hear its claws click against the stone--the simmering rage and frustration on the left has become a hot frenzy, and my fellow bloggers are snarling and nipping at one another's heels.

The question that divides us so bitterly is whether to support the Democratic party in its moment of desperation or to thrash it for its many failures.

How did Nevada Senate candidate and Tea Party favorite Sharron Angle raise an impressive $14 million dollars in three months?

Elementary, my dear Watson.

I'm not a witch. I'm nothing you've heard. I'm you.

-- Christine O'Donnell, Republican for Senate

I'm not a witch either. Like Christine O'Donnell, I'm you. Indeed, I'm much more you than Ms. O'Donnell. I'm so you that if you weren't you, you would think that I was you. In fact, the only thing holding me back from actually being you is you, if you get my meaning.

Who said that Republicans have no plan? They just released a bold 21-page manifesto called "Pledge to America" that promises extend the Bush tax cuts for the rich and repeal the Democrats' health care plan among other revolutionary initiatives that will transform the country back to exactly the way it was two years ago.

Almost one year ago, I wrote a post titled What's the Matter with New York? about the fierce battle between moderate Republican Dede Scozzafava and fringe conservative Doug Hoffman to represent New York's 23rd congressional district. Scozzafava dropped out of the race and endorsed the Democratic candidate, who prevailed in the election.

The furor over the Islamic center near Ground Zero has led many to conclude that the right wing has rediscovered its passion for Muslim-bashing, and some predict more to come. But what strikes me most about the recent outburst of Islamophobia is its exceptionality. Nine years after 9/11, the once preeminent obsession of American foreign policy and Republican politics had been all but forgotten. Even the attempted bombing of Times Square failed to generate much rage from the right.

Late Saturday night, the California Highway Patrol stopped 45-year-old Byron Williams as he sped towards San Francisco. Wearing a bullet proof vest and armed with three guns, Williams opened fire on the officers. After a 12-minute firefight, CHP troopers subdued and arrested Williams.

A New York Times article today expressed concern that governments around the world are enacting austerity measures too soon, recalling that FDR's premature tax increases and spending cuts in 1936 snuffed a shaky recovery and pushed the country back into depression. Paul Krugman has repeatedly made the same point in his columns.