Republicans Have Better Values. Or Do They.

Do 'Family Values' Weaken Families?
If you want to find stable two-parent families, bypass Palin country and go to Pelosi territory.

The paradox is this: Cultural conservatives revel in condemning the loose moral values and louche lifestyles of "San Francisco liberals." But if you want to find two-parent families with stable marriages and coddled kids, your best bet is to bypass Sarah Palin country and go to Nancy Pelosi territory: the liberal, bicoastal, predominantly Democratic places that cultural conservatives love to hate.

The country's lowest divorce rate belongs to none other than Massachusetts, the original home of same-sex marriage. Palinites might wish that Massachusetts's enviable marital stability were an anomaly, but it is not. The pattern is robust. States that voted for the Democratic presidential candidate in both 2004 and 2008 boast lower average rates of divorce and teenage childbirth than do states that voted for the Republican in both elections.

Red states also receive more federal funds per individual than blue states. Not unsurprising. Conservatives have convinced a large portion of middle and lower income whites to vote against their own best interests.

Right wingers fuel outlandish Obama, SWAT takeover theories

Perhaps the right is rattled by the SWAT team they believed had been called up to disperse a tea party demonstration in Quincy, IL, but which turned out to be local police in body armor clearing the street to enable President Obama's motorcade to pass through. But whatever the cause, they're now seeing the specter of SWAT teams everything.

On Friday afternoon, for example, a headline at the Drudge Report proclaimed, "Obama Sends SWAT Teams to Oil Rigs..."

It linked to a CBS News story from the previous day which reported, "Mr. Obama, speaking at an event for the 2010 National Teacher of the Year, said he had been receiving frequent briefings on the situation and that he is prepared to use the resources of the Department of Defense if necessary to deal with the oil spill. ... Mr. Obama said SWAT teams were being dispatched to the Gulf to investigate oil rigs and said his administration is now working to determine the cause of the disaster."

Rush Limbaugh had already pounced on this story and woven it into a conspiracy theory . He told his audience on Thursday, "I didn't hear this myself, but I have been informed that President Obama is sending SWAT teams to the Gulf oil rigs. SWAT teams? I'm waiting on audio sound bite confirmation of this, but why in the world would you send SWAT teams to Gulf oil rigs? Oh, I know! Obama probably thinks the tea party blew up the rig. That's what it is. (laughing) ... We had this call from a guy out there who said nobody's talking about whether this was an act of sabotage because I guess they can't prove it, but they're going to send SWAT teams down there?"

Drudge did not link to any more current story to provide a better explanation of the president's remarks, but a Friday column by Ed O'Keefe at the Washington Post, which explains, "The department deployed SWAT teams from the Minerals Management Service to inspect 30 drilling rigs operating in the deepwater sections of the Gulf of Mexico. Inspections should be completed within the next week, according to an Interior Department spokeswoman. Inspectors will check to see whether the rigs have conducted blow-out preventer tests and inspect related records."
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The key here is that the teams were sent out by the Minerals Management Service, a section of the Department of the Interior which "plays a key role in America’s energy supply by managing the mineral resources on 1.7 billion acres of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). This includes managing Renewable Energy Programs as well as Offshore Oil and Gas Leasing in Federal waters."

Although ithe acronym is not entirely clear, "SWAT" in this context could simply stand for "Swift Action Team," or it might represent something similar to the "soil and water assessment tool" used by the Department of Agriculture to monitor complex watersheds.

There are also references online to the Obama administration creating a "SWAT team" within the Office of Management and Budget to set performance improvement targets.

Limbaugh, still the talking head of conservatism, has become a Gulf Oil Spill Truther - telling his listeners its probably an inside job coordinated by environmentalists and the gov'mint.