Now that the Dow is 60 percent higher than when Obama took office and the jobs picture is getting better every month, Republicans have a problem. They can't simply talk about how terrible the economy is, because all the headlines are saying it's getting better.

So Willard introduced a new twist. The economy is recovering from the Bush/Cheney Recession, he said, but not because of Obama.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said today President Barack Obama’s policies have harmed the U.S. economy, hindered its recovery and may cause damage for years.

“The Obama administration’s assault on our economic freedom is the principal reason why the recovery has been so tepid,” Romney said in a speech at the University of Chicago the day before the Illinois primary, which polls indicate he’s favored to win.

“If we don’t change course now, the assault on freedom could damage our economy and the well-being of American families for decades to come,” he said.

One wonders which "assault" on our "economic freedom" Willard finds most worrisome. Do you think it's the historically-low taxes, the record corporate profits, or the health care law that was modeled after his own, that doesn't take effect until 2014?

At any rate, I'm sure the answer is more tax cuts for rich people. And of course, fewer regulations.

“Day by day, job-killing regulation by regulation, bureaucrat by bureaucrat, he’s crushing the dream and the dreamers,” said Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts and co-founder of the Bain Capital LLC private-equity firm.

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No, Rick, it's not the government's job to create jobs. It's the government's duty to prevent you from getting contraceptives, to insert vaginal ultrasound probes to make you rethink your decision to have an abortion, and to subsidize your tuition at a for-profit charter school! (Oh, and to do the bidding of what his pals in Opus Dei and C Street tell him to do.) Seriously, that crap may play in the far-right fringe voters that make up your party's primary voters, but you really think the rest of the country wants to hear that particular tune?

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said in Illinois on Monday that he was not concerned about the unemployment rate because it wasn’t the government’s duty to create jobs.

“We need a candidate who’s going to be a fighter for freedom,” he said during a campaign speech, “who is going to get up and make that the central theme in this race because it is the central theme in this race.”

“I don’t care what the unemployment rate’s going to be,” he continued. “Doesn’t matter to me. My campaign doesn’t hinge on unemployment rates and growth rates. It’s something more foundational that’s going on. We have one nominee who says he wants to run the economy. What kind of conservative says that the president runs the economy? What conservative says I’m the guy, because of my economic experience, that can create jobs?”

“I don’t know. We conservatives generally think that government doesn’t create jobs. That what government does is create an atmosphere for jobs to be created in the private sector.”

"Doesn't matter to me"? Spoken like someone collecting a big fat wingnut-welfare paycheck.

BradBlog - Paul supporters at MO GOP Caucus entertaining as always;

Good as You - Little Ricky hates the gays better than anyone;

Lawyers, Gun$ and Money - more proof Nobel Peace Prize sillier since Kissinger won;

No More Mister Nice Blog - the blood on Marco Rubio's hands;

TBogg - Bristol Palin begs for 15 more minutes.

blogenfreude blogs at Stinque, has a cat, and will ban Farmville if elected.

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Love was in the air this St. Patrick's Day as the Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs took a break from play for a marriage proposal

A break from the usual clichéd marriage proposals at sporting events. The NHL has really been breaking down barriers lately, almost alone among major sports leagues. Witness this You Can Play video just released.

IMPORTANT SITE NOTE: Remember when Patrick McHenry tried to humiliate Elizabeth Warren at a committee hearing? We believe Patsy Keever is about to turn the tables on North Carolina's tiny little reactionary. If she beats him, Congress will suffer one less corporate shill. Her straight talk and commonsense are refreshing, and not what voters in western North Carolina are used to hearing from their current Congressman. Please join us on Tuesday (tomorrow), when Patsy will be joining us for a live discussion online here at CrooksandLiars.com -- 2pm in North Carolina/11am PDT.

Open thread below...

Here's a good one from New York's early punk scene. Got a favorite punk song?

And if you're in the mood for classical, our sister site Newstalgia has The Parrenin Quartet playing music of Martinet - 1957.

D.I.Y.: The Blank Generation - The New York Scene (1975-78)
	Artist: Various Artists Price: $35.00 (As of 03/20/12 05:25 am details)

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A Republican candidate for governor in Montana also turns out to be an expert on "illicit pleasures" like gambling, drugs an prostitution.

In a recent interview, Neil Livingstone, who bills himself as a counterterrorism expert, admitted to The Associated Press that he had been on a yacht where his wife was "the only non-hooker on board."

While mention of that incident was scrubbed from from the biography on his official website, the Montana Cowgirl Blog uncovered a 1997 manual Livingstone wrote to advise business travelers how to solicit prostitutes and find drugs.

The chapter (PDF) on "Adult Entertainment Districts" has recently been passed around among concerned family values Republicans in Montana.

"Never give the hooker your real name," Livingstone writes. "On the one hand, some experts say that you should never take a hooker back to your hotel room or apartment, as this invites trouble. On the other hand, your hotel is the safest place for a tryst."

"Select a high quality brothel," he advises. "Patronizing a high quality, and therefore generally more expensive, brothel or escort service is always preferable to picking up a bar girl or streetwalker."

Other sections warn that "double pleasure can be double trouble" and to avoid "places that charge by the hour."

The guide goes on to give businessmen an education on dealing with illicit drugs while traveling.

"Be aware that drugs in some countries are purer than those in the United States," Livingstone says. "In many countries, especially in Asia, narcotics are not cut as much as they are in the U.S. Thus, doses are much stronger."

"Moreover, if you are visiting a nation in which drugs are plentiful and relatively cheap, resist the temptation to do too much," he adds. "This is a sure formula for disaster."

Speaking to the AP last week, Livingston did not explicitly deny that he had personal experience with prostitution and drugs.

"I am not recommending prostitution to anyone, nor did I say I engaged with prostitutes," he said.

(H/T: Karl Frisch)

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What a mess. It seems the Missouri Republicans had their hands full trying to deal with Ron Paul supporters this weekend at their caucus in St. Charles county -- Missouri Republican Caucus Meltdown Caught On Tape:

YouTube user ‘ IamBrandonElliott ‘ caught the republican caucus meltdown in St. Charles County caucus held in St. Peters, MO. A crowd, of more than 1,000 people at Francis Howell North high school could not agree to a rule that no recording devices be allowed and would not agree on who should lead the caucus.

St. Peters Police cleared the caucus after the unrest started. There never was any voting for delegates for any candidate. St. Peters Police arrested two men for trespassing, after being warned repeatedly to leave the school. They were released on summonses.

Police Intervene, Arrest Ron Paul Backers at Missouri Caucus:

Police and organizers shut down proceedings at one of Missouri’s largest caucuses today, as Ron Paul supporters feuded with local GOP leaders.

“It’s like the Hatfields and the McCoys around here,” St. Charles County’s former GOP chairman told ABC News, after police arrived on-scene with a helicopter and removed Paul backers.

In St. Charles, an exurb of St. Louis and one of the state’s largest GOP counties, Paul supporters sought to elect their own chairman and adopt their own rules when proceedings opened — both of which are part of standard caucus rules and procedure. But as they argued with the caucus chair, Paul supporters held video cameras — against caucus rules, according to a GOP official who was there — and things became contentious.

“It turned into a little food fight within the caucus, between the caucus chairman trying to control the caucus and certain elements, I guess with Ron Paul, trying to be heard,” said Tom Kipers, a former chairman of the St. Charles GOP, who attended the caucus at Francis Howell North High School.

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An Occupy Wall Street protester says police gave demonstrators little warning before kicking them out of a New York City park overnight and that officers beat many of them during the arrests.

After NYPD raided Zuccotti Park on March 17 2012, about 100 people were arrested. Among them a young girl suffering a seizure and panic attack as she was being brought to the bus. The cops not only handle the situation wrongly, carrying her by the head as she's seizing, it also takes 17 minutes until professional help arrives. Protester standing outside the barricades had to make the 911 call to get EMT to come .

The videos above apparently show occupy activist Cecily McMillian, who was once profiled in Rolling Stone Magazine. Initial reports from the scene indicate that police broke her ribs; and just as troublesome, were further reports that police denied McMillian access to the outside world while in the hospital early Sunday morning. She apparently was denied a phone call to her lawyer or doctor, as well as access to her friends who had followed her to the hospital.

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Our friends over at News Hounds flagged this segment from Saturday's Cashin' In on Fox News and par for the course on that show, they opened it up with attacking the poor and those suffering from the economic consequences of the recession and were demonizing a program that provides badly needed economic stimulus and the people who are using the program.

Fox News Attacks Food Stamps: Food Benefits For The Poor Are “Inherently The Problem”:

Yesterday’s Cashin’ In was another thinly veiled effort to make poor people look like welfare queens – and to make the Obama administration look like welfare-queen enablers. The vehicle this time was some government advertisements for food stamps. As a recent editorial in the Los Angeles Times noted, more than 1/3 of those eligible for SNAP (food stamps) benefits are not receiving them. Furthermore, the program was originally pushed for by the grocery industry because it bolstered household consumption and shored up the retail economy. But none of that information was provided by “objective” host Cheryl Casone. She announced, “The government is now marketing entitlements.”

Go read their post for a complete overview of the segment which I don't want to just copy and paste, but I'll just highlight a few of their points here:

Christian Dorsey was one of only two supporters on the panel. As usual, he was terrific. “Hopefully, this is destigmitizing something that doesn’t need to be stigmatized at all,” he said. He also pointed out, “In order to get food stamp benefits, you have to be working or looking for work, you have to be a dependent child, or you’re elderly, or disabled. None of those are shameful circumstances. The reason we’ve spent so much more on food stamps is because we had a really big recession where we increased poverty… This is a really efficient program. Low administrative costs, and money goes to people in need. They spend the money at private businesses, and that spending multiplies by at least 50% in economic activity.”

And of course Jonathan Hoenig was doing his usual Libertarian flogging of the "welfare state" when he touted this nonsense:

Rather than contest Hoenig, she “quipped,” “Maybe that’s a great diet plan for all of us to go on food stamps.” She was referring to ads talking about how food stamps help people stay healthy.

John Layfield spoke up. “I certainly hope not… You can’t spend this for sugary drinks… These people have nothing else to eat if you don’t give them this. The problem is, that many people are in poverty.”

Hoenig said, “Look at Mississippi. One in five people there are on food stamps. It’s the fattest state in the nation six years running.”

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A sample video from Restore Our Future.

I wonder how SCOTUS will rule on this so-called "gray area." The Citizens United ruling seems to indicate that when in doubt, rule in favor of corporations expressing themselves through hefty donations:

Reporting from Washington— A "super PAC" that has spent more than $35 million on behalf of Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has accepted donations from federal contractors despite a 36-year-old ban against such companies making federal political expenditures.

At least five companies with government contracts gave a combined $890,000 to Restore Our Future, the pro-Romney super PAC, a review of federal contracting records and campaign finance data shows.

Other super PACs, including Republican-allied American Crossroads, and Priorities USA Action, which backs President Obama, have language on their websites warning that federal contractors are not allowed to make donations.

Restore Our Future does not list the prohibition on its website.

Several contributors — including a Florida aerospace company that has contracts with the Defense Department, and a Boston-based construction company that is helping build a Navy base — are taking advantage of a legal gray area created by the Supreme Court's 2010 ruling in the Citizens United case, which said that independent political expenditures could not be regulated based on who was making them.

Federal courts and the Federal Election Commission, which is responsible for enforcing the federal contractor ban, have yet to decide whether it is still valid. That leaves the legality of such contributions in question, though several election law experts believe the ban will be found unconstitutional.