Last Call For Dinesh D'Felon

GOP operative, anti-Obama propaganda filmmaker, and convicted campaign finance violator Dinesh D'Souza faced sentencing today for his crimes and got a slap on the wrist.

Conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza avoided prison on Tuesday when a U.S. judge sentenced him to serve eight months in a community confinement center after he pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance law.

D'Souza, 53, was ordered by U.S. District Judge Richard Berman in Manhattan to live in a center, which would allow him to leave during non-residential hours for employment, for the first eight months of a five-year probationary period.

Berman also ordered D'Souza to perform one day of community service a week during probation, undergo weekly therapy and pay a $30,000 fine.

D'Souza, a frequent critic of U.S. President Barack Obama, admitted in May to illegally reimbursing two "straw donors" who donated $10,000 each to the unsuccessful 2012 U.S. Senate campaign in New York of Wendy Long, a Republican he had known since attending Dartmouth College in the early 1980s.

"It was a crazy idea, it was a bad idea," D'Souza told Berman before being sentenced. "I regret breaking the law."

Sure you do.  It was especially funny when the judge played clips of D'Souza whining on the Sunday talk shows and on FOX how he was the real victim here.  Contrite my ass.

And yet the guy won't spend a day in prison.

Justice, huh?

Burning It Down In Kansas

Republicans are running scared in the Sunflower State, as both Gov. Sam Brownback and Sen. Pat Roberts are in serious danger of losing in November.  The vaunted "GOP wave" has not materialized, and instead it's what should be blood-red safe seats for Republicans that are no longer anywhere near safe.  The GOP is turning to all out war against Roberts's opponent, Independent Greg Orman.

With a two-man race now looking all but certain, national Republicans are planning a scorched-earth offensive to frame Sen. Pat Roberts’s (R-Kan.) independent opponent, Greg Orman, as a shady businessman.

Their first volley this weekend: reports that Orman represented Rajat Gupta — the former Goldman Sachs board member who incurred criminal and civil fines of more than $18 million and was jailed earlier this year for securities fraud — on a two-person board of a Cayman Islands private equity partnership. 

Kansas Republicans say to expect more information on his business dealings to come out in the coming weeks — likely as a systematic drip-drip of information, to keep the issue alive throughout the race. An Orman aide dismissed any potential damage, saying “the fundamentals of the race are still there, and that is, people are tired of the Washington dysfunction, and they’re tired of Pat Roberts.” 

The GOP will also begin propping up the vulnerable incumbent senator with support from revered national Republican figures to help him keep the seat. 

Former Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) and Arizona Sen. John McCain (R) are both stumping for Roberts in the state this week, while former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) is heading there for campaign event next week. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) are both scheduled for appearances in October. 

The need to boost Roberts’s image is imperative with six weeks to go until Election Day. Democrats pushed to get their struggling nominee, Chad Taylor, out of the race in the expectation that Orman would caucus with them. With Taylor appearing now to be off the ballot for good, recent polling has shown Orman leading Roberts in a head-to-head fight by 6 to 10 points.

McCain! Jebby! Rand!  Boy, Republicans aren't just running scared, they're flat-out terrified.  They know losing Roberts's seat will almost certainly cost them the Senate, and Roberts is in real trouble of losing it.

If Democrats can hold on in North Carolina, Iowa, and Colorado, and Roberts goes down in Kansas, it's going to be a long, long night for the GOP on November 4.

When The Rats Are Away...

Greg Sargent argues that President Obama has made a pretty massive violation of the law by not getting congressional authorization for attacking ISIS targets in Syria, but that Congress has thrown away its duties by skipping town without debating or voting on that authorization.

The Obama administration has not made an even remotely credible case for undertaking this escalation without Congressional authorization, and Congress’ refusal to hold a vote on it remains an outrageous abdication of responsibility. One also hopes the administration’s claims about terror threats are subjected to intense scrutiny. But we aren’t going to get any serious Congressional debate about any of this until after the election. 

However, one place all of this will be debated is in the context of the Senate races. Republicans have cheerfully suggested to the press that the politics of national security will again shower them with political riches, and they are running multiple ads replete with the grainy terror footage they used to such great effect back in 2002 and 2004, which is to say, at least a decade ago.

So, will our attacks on ISIS help the Democrats as President Obama displays leadership, help the GOP as they reclaim their national security credentials, help both as we rally around both the President and congressional incumbents, or help neither as a war weary nation say "to hell with all of you"?

If Scott Brown is any indication, the GOP is not going to gain much, if at all, with WARREN TERRAH ONLY GOP CAN KEEP YOU SAFE ads.

In the ad, Brown, who is trailing, accuses Shaheen and Obama of being “confused about the nature of the threat” posed by “radical Islamic terrorists” who are “threatening to cause the collapse of our country.” He then says we must “secure the border.” 

It’s true that the President’s approval on terrorism has plummeted and the GOP now holds a huge advantage on foreign policy. Republican strategists have been pretty explicit in explaining that they see this as a way to exploit a general public sense that things have gone off the rails, and polls do show high wrong-track numbers and rising worry about terrorism. If things go wrong, which is certainly possible, this could well redound to the benefit of Republican candidates. 

But for now, it’s hard to imagine that arguments such as Brown’s above are going to cut it. After all, if GOP candidates are really going to paint the U.S. response to ISIS as insufficiently realistic about the nature of the threat, then that should theoretically open them up to the question of whether they support sending in ground troops. You’d think that if the criticism continues now that operations are underway, it would be harder for them to duck that basic follow-up.

We'll see, but I'm guessing that this is going to be a wash at best for the GOP, and they know it.

StupidiNews!

• The US has begun airstrikes against ISIS targets inside Syria as several Arab countries have joined in direct support of the attack.
• A Louisiana judge has found that state's ban on same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional, but the ruling does not allow for same-sex marriages to be performed, and is expected to be appealed.
• Nearly 100 protesters were arrested in NYC Monday as police broke up demonstrations along Wall Street against the financial industry's contributions to climate change.
• California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a raft of new climate change legislation into law this month, with the eventual goal of putting 1.5 million electric cars on the road by 2025.
• Samsung hopes to dent Apple's 10 million iPhone 6 and 6 Plus sales last week with its new Galaxy Alpha phone on sale Friday.

Serious Obama Derangement Syndrome

So the fellow caught by US Secret Service agents who jumped the White House fence on Friday?  Turns out that he had a pretty substantial pile of ammo and weapons in his car, and that he's had a couple of recent arrests.

On Friday, Omar Gonzalez hopped the north fence and sprinted just past the north portico White House doors when he was stopped, Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary said.

Gonzalez carried a Spyderco VG-10 folding knife with a 3½-inch serrated blade in his pants pocket, according to an affidavit.

He allowed authorities to search his car, where police say they found more than 800 rounds of ammunition in boxes and magazines. They also found two hatchets and a machete in his car.

A Secret Service officer said he yelled at the intruder to stop. Gonzalez told a Secret Service agent "that he was concerned that the atmosphere was collapsing and needed to get the information to the President of the United States so that he could get the word out to the people," according to the affidavit.

President Barack Obama and his family were not at home at the time.

Friday was not Gonzalez's first run in with police. In July, he was arrested in Wythe County, Virginia, and charged with possession of a shotgun and a sniper rifle. He was also charged with eluding and evading arrest. In addition, police say they found a map with the White House circled.

In late August, Gonzalez was stopped while walking along the White House fence. He carried a hatchet and allowed police to search his car, where they found camping gear and two dogs. He was not arrested then.

OK, so this guy?  He needs some help, clearly.  He's a three-tour Iraq veteran, and he's obviously having some serious problems adjusting to being home.  His marriage broke up two years ago, and his family has said his mental state wasn't the best.

Needless to say, the judge at the arraignment Monday agreed that he was both a flight risk and a threat to President Obama.  Here's hoping that he can get the mental help he so clearly needs.

Our wars in the Middle East had, and still have, a cost.

The More Things Don't Change...

The corporate types on the right are convinced more than ever that this weekend's 300,000+ NYC climate change march represents the death throes of environmentalism.

The United Nations Climate Summit will begin in New York this Tuesday, but environmental activists didn’t wait. All day Sunday, they filled the streets of Manhattan for a march that featured Al Gore, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio, and various Hollywood actors. 

But they certainly didn’t act like a movement that was winning. There was a tone of fatalism in the comments of many with whom I spoke; they despair that the kind of radical change they advocate probably won’t result from the normal democratic process. It’s no surprise then that the rhetoric of climate-change activists has become increasingly hysterical. Naomi Klein, author of a new book on the “crisis,” This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate, said, “I have seen the future, and it looks like New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.” In her new book she demands that North America and Europe pay reparations to poorer countries to compensate for the climate change they cause. She calls her plan a “Marshall Plan for the Earth” and acknowledges that it would cost “hundreds of billions if not trillions of dollars.” But she has an easy solution on how to pay for it: “Need more money? Print some!” What’s a little hyperinflation compared to “saving the planet”?

Again, why do anything when you can always find a scientist who disagrees with the 97% of climate scientists who do believe we're in real trouble?

One reason the rhetoric has become so overheated is that the climate-change activists increasingly lack a scientific basis for their most exaggerated claims. As physicist Gordon Fulks of the Cascade Policy Institute puts it: “CO2 is said to be responsible for global warming that is not occurring, for accelerated sea-level rise that is not occurring, for net glacial and sea-ice melt that is not occurring . . . and for increasing extreme weather that is not occurring.” He points out that there has been no net new global-warming increase since 1997 even though the human contribution to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen by 25 percent since then. This throws into doubt all the climate models that have been predicting massive climate dislocation.

The Cascade Policy Institute, oh man. Oregon's own state-sized version of CATO, one of those "free-market" glibertarian outfits that will never run out of corporate money to shill nonsense like this. Didn't you hear?  Global warming ended in 1997, stupid libtards!

Only it didn't, but that's okay, they found a guy who said it did.

So there's no problem.

To recap, conservatives believe the science can never be settled.

Bogged Down For Good

The NY Times is reporting that President Obama's "controversial" (to say the least) nomination of Michael Boggs to a federal judge position in Georgia is deader than dirt.

The quest by President Obama to put Michael P. Boggs – who supported the Confederate flag and opposed abortion – on the federal bench in Georgia is over. 

Senator Patrick J. Leahy, who leads the Judiciary Committee, told us it had become clear after talking to his colleagues that Mr. Boggs, under fire from Democrats for his conservative positions, could not win committee support. 

Mr. Leahy signaled that Mr. Boggs should withdraw: “He doesn’t have the votes.” 

Mr. Boggs earns the unusual distinction as the first Obama judicial nominee this term to fail because of Democratic opposition. 

The deal to put Boggs on the bench was actually a Republican requirement in order to win support to break the near-permanent hold Republicans were putting on judicial nominees.  That deal has broken down, so now Boggs is getting blocked by Democrats, and it's a good thing because Boggs was basically a conservative.

Considering Congress is now out of session until after the election, there doesn't seem to be any way to rescue Boggs at this point.  Roll Call has more on the Boggs saga here, but it's all but a moot point now.

StupidiNews!

• The US Secret Service is boosting security around President Obama after two separate incidents involving intruders on the White House grounds in the last several days.
• NASA's MAVEN spacecraft has entered orbit around Mars this weekend, with the mission to study the atmosphere and explore theories on how the Red Planet lost its liquid surface water.
• US-Iranian talks in New York are centered on Tehran's nuclear program, but also involve how Iran can help to fight Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria in exchange for concessions.
• Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has admitted that tensions in the eastern part of the country are better, but there remain several violations of the cease fire with Russia.
• Researchers say new technology behind splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen could play a role in making hydrogen fuel cell vehicles more common.

Last Call For Climate Of Change

Sunday's Climate Change march in NYC was massive, with 300,000 plus people participating.  It was part of a global effort with marches in cities across the globe.  Maybe the people running our country will finally get the message as a result.

I wouldn't count on it though. 

Under leaden skies, throngs of demonstrators stretching as far as the eye could see moved through Midtown Manhattan late Sunday morning, chanting their demands for action on climate change.

With drums and tubas, banners and floats, the People’s Climate March represented a broad coalition of ages, races, geographic locales and interests, with union members, religious leaders, scientists, politicians and students joining the procession.

"I’m here because I really feel that every major social movement in this country has come when people get together,” said Carol Sutton of Norwalk, Conn., the president of a teachers’ union. “It begins in the streets.”

Climates marches were held across the globe on Sunday, from Paris to Papua New Guinea, and with world leaders gathering at the United Nations on Tuesday for a climate summit meeting, marchers said the timing was right for the populist message in support of limits on carbon emissions. The signs that marchers held were as varied as the movement: “There is No Planet B,” “Forests Not for Sale” and “Jobs, Justice, Clean Energy.”

“The climate is changing,” said Otis Daniels, 58, of the Bronx. “Everyone knows it; everyone feels it. But no one is doing anything about it.”

 And no, nothing will be done about it, as long as our leaders are giving us idiocy like this to feast on.

Truth be told, if things are as dire as the marchers believe, it’s already too late. That’s the problem with the hysterical wing of climate change advocacy. Cutting emissions of greenhouse gases won’t do the trick if we are on the edge of the climate precipice. We would have to halt all human activity that contributes to global warming and then hope nature can reverse the process.

And idiocy like this.

But public opinion surveys consistently place “climate change” at the bottom of Americans’ political priorities, presumably because most people have enough common sense to realize that giving the government more money and power won’t change the weather.

Please notice the argument is no longer "climate change is a hoax" but "there's nothing we can do to stop it if you're right, so there's no reason to do anything!"

So why bother?

PS, 2014 is shaping up to be the hottest year ever on record globally.

But why bother?
 

Barack Obama Was Never Your Boyfriend

But conservative money groups sure seem to think he is.  Or was.  Now they think women (particularly white women) are so over him and his "friends".  That's the subject of this creepy ad now playing in North Carolina.

"In 2008, I fell in love. His online profile made him seem so perfect. Smart, handsome, charming, articulate," the actress begins. Then things take a turn for the creepy: "He's on my emails and text messages, spying on me." The actress adds, "He thinks the only thing I care about is free birth control, but he won't even let me keep my own doctor."

So naturally she's going to vote for the folks that won't even let her control her own uterus.  Makes perfect sense.

At the conclusion of the ad, the actress says, "I know I'm stuck with Barack for two more years. I get that. But I'm not stuck with his friends." So far, the ad is reportedly airing in North Carolina, where Democratic Senator Kay Hagan is facing a tough reelection fight. 

The ad was made by political consultant Rick Wilson and paid for by a group called Americans for Shared Prosperity, which is headed by wealthy California businessman John Jordan. Politico's Maggie Haberman interviewed Jordan recently, and he said that his goal was "to communicate with women voters in a way that outside groups and campaigns haven't." He added, "The purpose of this is to treat women voters more like adults."

Because adults need to construct teen fantasies that the President is their boyfriend, and that they have to "break up" with him over Obamacare.  Oh, and the part where the adult conversation is that he's "spying on me and ignoring real threats" like he's an obsessive stalker with a foreign policy fetish.

Yes, that's certainly treating women voters like adults.  Besides, the not-so-subtle subtext screams, white women never really liked Barack Obama anyway, because he's dangerous (like all us black men are.)  Time to come back home to where you belong, where you'll be safe from black people, with the GOP, because FEAR FEAR SCARY FEAR FEAR BLACK FEAR.

But hey, the white woman/black man fear card works and has for centuries.

Red-Faced, Red-Handed

Washington NFL Team Nickname Defenders, meet the Daily Show.

You never had a chance.

The four die-hard Redskins fans thought the opportunity was as golden as the vintage helmets of their favorite football team: “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” wanted them to appear on the Comedy Central program to defend the team’s name, which has been under relentless attack.

The Redskins Nation citizens eagerly signed up, most of them knowing that they might be mocked in their interview with correspondent Jason Jones. But several hours into the Sept. 13 taping of the yet-to-air episode, the fans, all from Virginia, said they were suddenly confronted by a larger group of Native American activists — all of whom were in on the showdown prearranged by “The Daily Show.”

The encounter at a Dupont Circle hotel was so tense that an Alexandria fan said she left in tears and felt so threatened that she later called the police. She has told “The Daily Show” to leave her out of the segment but doesn’t know whether the producers will comply.

“This goes way beyond mocking. Poking fun is one thing, but that’s not what happened,” said Kelli O’Dell, 56, a former teacher who lives in Alexandria and doesn’t watch the show regularly. “It was disingenuous. The Native Americans accused me of things that were so wrong. I felt in danger. I didn’t consent to that. I am going to be defamed.”

If you look closely, you'll see exactly how much of a damn I don't give for these assholes being "defamed" for using a centuries-old racial slur as a team nickname.

You deserve and have earned every bit of the national humiliation given here, and that's a fraction of what Native Americans have gone through in the last 400+ years.

Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda For Grimes

Over at TNR, Alec MacGillis argues that Alison Lundergan Grimes would be winning if she had mentioned the success of Kynect in the state, and yes, she does apparently take into account the same NY Times article that I pointed out was evidence that here in Kentucky, people will never give Obama credit for anything.

No doubt, there are many GOP-inclined voters like Ms. Evans among the several hundred thousand Kentuckians who have obtained coverage under Obamacare. Their existence, and quotes like this, only confirm one of the most popular conceptions of red state politics in the minds of blue state liberals: the “What’s the Matter with Kansas” notion that lower- and middle-class white voters in these states are voting Republican even though their economic interests are far better represented by Democrats. How else to explain that a state like Kentucky could be benefitting so much from the law and yet be leaning Republican?

But this likely takeaway from the piece—like the "What's the Matter with Kansas" thesis more broadly—may oversimplify things. For starters, my strong hunch from my own reporting in the region over the past couple years—including several trips to Kentucky for a new book on McConnell—is that the Democrats’ biggest problem in Appalachia and the Upland South is not that the people who are benefitting from Obamacare or would stand to benefit from it if their states fully implemented the law are voting against their own interests, for Republicans. It is that many of those people are not voting at all.

Well, I agree with her on that part at least.  I certainly don't expect turnout here in Kentucky to be more than 40%.

No, the bigger problem for Democrats in Kentucky is the second one I identified at that free medical clinic, the political disconnect of the low-income population that stands to benefit most from the law. And this is where the scrutiny really needs to shift away from the voters and to the candidate. Alison Lundergan Grimes’s campaign has made the decision to talk about Obamacare as little as possible, even though the law has had a bigger impact and better implementation in Kentucky than just about anywhere in the country, thanks to the staunch backing of Governor Steve Beshear, a Democrat. Her campaign is avoiding the issue despite the fact that McConnell is so aware of his vulnerability on it—vowing to repeal a law that has provided coverage to hundreds of thousands in his state—that he has wound himself into comical pretzels to obscure the ramifications of his stance, claiming at points that “kynect” could survive even if Obamacare is repealed. The Grimes campaign briefly pounced on this blatant disingenuousness, but has not been nearly as aggressive pressing the point as it could have been.

Evidently, the Grimes camp worries that talking about Obamacare’s benefits for Kentucky necessarily yokes her closer to the law’s namesake, who is not popular in the state and who is constantly named in the barrage of ads that have been attacking Obamacare, virtually unchallenged, across Kentucky. They assume that talking up the law will inevitably backfire with the likes of Robin Evans. But deeply anti-Obama voters like Evans are likely a lost cause for Grimes regardless. What her campaign could dearly use is higher turnout from Democratic-inclined voters who, like many Kentuckians, have a low opinion of McConnell and who haven’t voted in the past but might just be prompted to do so with a strong pitch for the benefits of “kynect.” Grimes, to her credit, has tried to reach out to such disconnected, downscale voters with a sustained message in favor of raising the minimum wage. But why not strengthen that "I'm with the little guy" appeal even further with a forthright pro-kynect message that both appeals to self interest and highlights McConnell’s double-talk on health care?

Because of the shame factor.  People in Kentucky and especially Coal Country are literally dirt-poor.  They have been for some time, and some of the poorest counties in the state are also the most Republican when it comes to turning out.  These are folks who are proud and sick of the fact they need help.  Giving them more help is one thing.  Having them take the help is also another.  But having them be grateful enough for the help to vote for a black President's proxy?

Nope. It's easy to blame Grimes here.  The real problem is social, cultural, and racial.

Yeah, Grimes has run a bad campaign and I've said as such.  The fact that she's within 4 or 5 points speaks volumes as to just how sick people are of Mitch McConnell screwing them over.  But Rand Paul better watch out when he faces voters again in 2016 once Obama is out of office.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• All of the nearly 50 Turkish consulate hostages held by ISIS in Northern Iraq for three months have been freed in a covert operation by Turkish forces.
• Pope Francis has named Bishop Blase Cupich as the new archbishop of the diocese of Chicago, who is widely seen as a moderate, diplomatic voice in the church.
• Embattled NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says the league will make major changes to the way it handles player conduct amid a growing domestic violence crisis.
• New Zealand Prime Minister John Key has won a third term in a landslide victory, with his National Party winning 48% of the vote.
• Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba raised nearly $22 billion on its first day on the NYSE, a record IPO making the company worth north of $200 billion.

Last Call For Wanting Out

A staggering new Reuters poll out today in the wake of Scotland's secession vote:  roughly 1 in 4 Americans wish their state would secede from the union.

Some 23.9 percent of Americans polled from Aug. 23 through Sept. 16 said they strongly supported or tended to support the idea of their state breaking away, while 53.3 percent of the 8,952 respondents strongly opposed or tended to oppose the notion. 

The urge to sever ties with Washington cuts across party lines and regions, though Republicans and residents of rural Western states are generally warmer to the idea than Democrats and Northeasterners, according to the poll. 

Anger with President Barack Obama's handling of issues ranging from healthcare reform to the rise of Islamic State militants drives some of the feeling, with Republican respondents citing dissatisfaction with his administration as coloring their thinking. 

But others said long-running Washington gridlock had prompted them to wonder if their states would be better off striking out on their own, a move no U.S. state has tried in the 150 years since the bloody Civil War that led to the end of slavery in the South. 

"I don't think it makes a whole lot of difference anymore which political party is running things. Nothing gets done," said Roy Gustafson, 61, of Camden, South Carolina, who lives on disability payments. "The state would be better off handling things on its own."
Scottish unionists won by a wider-than-expected 10-percentage-point margin. 

Falling public approval of the Obama administration, attention to the Scottish vote and the success of activists who accuse the U.S. government of overstepping its authority - such as the self-proclaimed militia members who flocked to Nevada's Bundy ranch earlier this year during a standoff over grazing rights - is driving up interest in secession, experts said.

"It seems to have heated up, especially since the election of President Obama," said Mordecai Lee, a professor of governmental affairs at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, who has studied secessionist movements.

Gosh, just can't imagine what's so different about Barack Obama that would cause 60 million Americans to go bonkers and consider secession from the United States as not only a possible solution to their anti-government grievances, but as a reasonable and sane solution to them.

And yeah, it's about 30% of Republicans and 21% of Democrats, 19% of New Englanders and 34% of Southwesterners, including Texans.

Even in Texas, some respondents said talk about breaking away was more of a sign of their anger with Washington than evidence of a real desire to go it alone. Democrat Lila Guzman, of Round Rock, said the threat could persuade Washington lawmakers and the White House to listen more closely to average people's concerns.

"When I say secede, I'm not like (former National Rifle Association president) Charlton Heston with my gun up in the air, 'my cold dead hands.' It's more like – we could do it if we had to," said Guzman, 62. "But the first option is, golly, get it back on the right track. Not all is lost. But there might come a point that we say, 'Hey, y'all, we're dusting our hands and we're moving on.'"

People talking about secession like it was no more difficult than trying to choose aluminum siding or something.   We have a real problem in this country.

And that is these people vote.

Can't Discuss Civics, NCIS: Omaha Is On

Americans are exceedingly uninformed about basic civics, and that's just the way Republicans like it.

Americans show great uncertainty when it comes to answering basic questions about how their government works, a national survey conducted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania has found.

The survey of 1,416 adults, released for Constitution Day (Sept. 17) in conjunction with the launch of the Civics Renewal Network, found that:

• While little more than a third of respondents (36 percent) could name all three branches of the U.S. government, just as many (35 percent) could not name a single one. 

• Just over a quarter of Americans (27 percent) know it takes a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate to override a presidential veto. 

• One in five Americans (21 percent) incorrectly thinks that a 5-4 Supreme Court decision is sent back to Congress for reconsideration.

“Although surveys reflect disapproval of the way Congress, the President and the Supreme Court are conducting their affairs, the Annenberg survey demonstrates that many know surprisingly little about these branches of government,” said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC). “This survey offers dramatic evidence of the need for more and better civics education.”

It gets worse.  Much, much worse:

• Asked which party has the most members in the House of Representatives, 38 percent said they knew the Republicans are the majority, but 17 percent responded the Democrats, and 44 percent reported that they did not know (up from 27 percent who said they did not know in 2011).

• Asked which party controls the Senate, 38 percent correctly said the Democrats, 20 percent said the Republicans, and 42 percent said they did not know (also up from 27 percent who said they did not know in 2011).

 So fewer than two in five know which party controls the House and Senate.  Oddly enough, that 38% is about your average midterm election turnout in America.  The rest of us apparently don't give a damn enough to vote, and then wonder why things are so awful.