Well, the coffeemaker at Starbucks across the street was working, so it may be a localised hell vortex just in my office's kitchen.

It looks like the RNC is considering a purity test . . .

[link]

WHEREAS, President Ronald Reagan believed that the Republican Party should support and espouse conservative principles and public policies; and

WHEREAS, President Ronald Reagan also believed the Republican Party should welcome those with diverse views; and

WHEREAS, President Ronald Reagan believed, as a result, that someone who agreed with him 8 out of 10 times was his friend, not his opponent; and

WHEREAS, Republican faithfulness to its conservative principles and public policies and Republican solidarity in opposition to Obama’s socialist agenda is necessary to preserve the security of our country, our economic and political freedoms, and our way of life; and

WHEREAS, Republican faithfulness to its conservative principles and public policies is necessary to restore the trust of the American people in the Republican Party and to lead to Republican electoral victories; and

WHEREAS, the Republican National Committee shares President Ronald Reagan’s belief that the Republican Party should espouse conservative principles and public policies and welcome persons of diverse views; and

WHEREAS, the Republican National Committee desires to implement President Reagan’s Unity Principle for Support of Candidates; and

WHEREAS, in addition to supporting candidates, the Republican National Committee provides financial support for Republican state and local parties for party building and federal election activities, which benefits all candidates and is not affected by this resolution; and

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Republican National Committee identifies ten (10) key public policy positions for the 2010 election cycle, which the Republican National Committee expects its public officials and candidates to support:

(1) We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama’s “stimulus” bill;
(2) We support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run healthcare;
(3) We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation;
(4) We support workers’ right to secret ballot by opposing card check;
(5) We support legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants;
(6) We support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges;
(7) We support containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat;
(8) We support retention of the Defense of Marriage Act;
(9) We support protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing, denial of health care and government funding of abortion;
(10) We support the right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership; and be further

RESOLVED, that a candidate who disagrees with three or more of the above stated public policy positions of the Republican National Committee, as identified by the voting record, public statements and/or signed questionnaire of the candidate, shall not be eligible for financial support and endorsement by the Republican National Committee; and be further

It's kind of sweet that they take the 8 out of 10 thing so literally. Almost like it was a verse out of revelation.

Hey! Fake AP Stylebook is mocking us!

KO said yesterday that Reagan would fail that Reagan test.

Attack of Literacy!

t-shrit, on sale for $12!

(1) We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama’s “stimulus” bill; Unless they are in control of the government apparently. Both parties suck at this because cutting the budget in any significant way is really, really hard. Does anyone want to cut back on social security, weaken medicare, or make big cuts to the defense budget?

(2) We support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run healthcare; Unless it's Medicare or the VA. Not to mention government run healthcare isn't in the bill. The public option and exchanges are government run insurance and aren't mandatory.

(3) We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation; What energy reforms? Cap and trade is to some extent market-based. This should be do they support carbon emission controls or not.

(4) We support workers’ right to secret ballot by opposing card check; I don't know enough about this issue to have a good opinion

(5) We support legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants; A reasonable stand

(6) We support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges; Do they want to increase troop levels in Iraq and violate the agreement with the Iraq government negotiated by the Bush administration? What does victory mean in Afghanistan? Russians can tell you that increasing troops isn't the only factor.

(7) We support containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat; Whatever that means.

(8) We support retention of the Defense of Marriage Act; Reasonable stand. I disagree, but at least it's specific.

(9) We support protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing, denial of health care and government funding of abortion; The purpose of health care reform is to expand coverage, the current system already is effective at denying and rationing care. Perfectly reasonable to oppose government funding of abortion though, though I think the current house legislation goes beyond that to blocking private funding too.

(10) We support the right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership; Perfectly fine. I agree that the second amendment cannot be ignored, though I might quibble with a few points where I don't think there is a violation.

A couple of actual specific stands and a bunch of hot air. Meh.

It's kind of sweet that they take the 8 out of 10 thing so literally. Almost like it was a verse out of revelation.

You gotta love that "WHEREAS, President Ronald Reagan also believed the Republican Party should welcome those with diverse views;" is in the same document.

I imagine the Democratic purity test would be.

(1) We agree to call ourselves Democrats.

I think that's about the extent of what you could do.

We support containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat; Whatever that means.

We're going to turn a big glass jar upside down over Iran and North Korea and then slide a piece of cardboard underneath to make sure they're contained.