It’s not just an article of faith among many in the Republican Party that the government by some rule of nature/psychology/economics can’t be a solution. This idea has morphed into a commitment to make it impossible for government to properly function, preventing it from ever being a solution. The conservative philosophy about the role of government has transitioned into an active effort to realize a self-fulfilling anti-government prophesy, as the proposal for smaller single-issue bills and the RIENS Act demonstrate.

Here at home, we should be studying these activists, learning from them and their organizing strategies, for, as Micah Sifry noted today on twitter: “Egypt shows what might have happened had the young people who supported Obama used the internet to empower themselves instead of him.” If we pay attention, maybe we will have a second chance, maybe we will find our voices and join them.

Today’s issue of Louisville, Kentucky’s Courier-Journal has a front page article that helpfully explains many jobs in the area must be filled by illegal immigrants because no American has applied for them.

While opposition to marijuana prohibition has risen in recent years; yet under Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration New York City has dramatically stepped up its marijuana arrests. The NYPD now spends a huge amount of police time and money arresting people for low-level marijuana offenses.

Many of you who closely followed the national debate leading up to the Affordable Care Act of 2010 know about Wendell Potter. He’s the former VP of Communications at health insurer giant CIGNA who resigned his head PR job in May 2008 after he came to believe his job and the industry he was shielding were morally offensive.

Egypt’s military dissolved Parliament and suspended the Constitution today, meeting two key demands of the protesters in Tahrir Square. The military said they would hold onto power for six months, or until elections were held. Constitutional changes would be offered in a referendum.

Haley “Jim Crow Mississippi Wasn’t That Bad” Barbour was on Faux News Sunday this morning defending his wingnut credentials in the wake of his poor performance in the CPAC straw poll — and this slipped out.

That Twitter thing works for British protesters just like it did for Egyptians. It could happen here.

In his song “American Tune,” Paul Simon dreamed of “the Statue of Liberty, sailing away to sea.” I wonder if it will find a more fitting home in the Nile Delta?

Politicians love to announce their love of the Constitution, but a vote this week put the happy talk to the test. Perhaps not surprisingly, there were a lot of failures.