Midday open thread: Custer's last stand

Here's Custer. But where's his birth certificate? There comes a point where you just have to applaud the crazy. Yesterday, a member of the Republican Party's executive committee slammed Gov. Yvette Martinez (R-NM) for having the audacity to meet with tribal leaders. Why? It dishonors the memory of George Custer of Little Bighorn fame. Who knows, maybe they'll give this guy a speaking slot next to Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Anyway, to the links. But really, how can they get better than this?

• Jerry Nelson, who gave his voice and puppeteering skills to make several Sesame Street characters come alive, passed away yesterday at age 78. The show won't be the same without him.
• Paul Krugman, on Paul Ryan and the link between Rand and the gold standard:
  

  In early 2011, Mr. Ryan, newly installed as the chairman of the House Budget Committee, gave Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, a hard time over his expansionary policies. Rising commodity prices and long-term interest rates, he asserted, were harbingers of high inflation to come; 'There is nothing more insidious that a country can do to its citizens,' he intoned, 'than debase its currency.'

  Since then, inflation has remained quiescent while long-term rates have plunged ' and the U.S. economy would surely be in much worse shape than it is if Mr. Bernanke had allowed himself to be bullied into monetary tightening. But Mr. Ryan seems undaunted in his monetary views. Why?

  Well, it's right there in that 2005 speech to the Atlas Society, in which he declared that he always goes back to 'Francisco d'Anconia's speech on money' when thinking about monetary policy. Who? Never mind. That speech (which clocks in at a mere 23 paragraphs) is a case of hard-money obsession gone ballistic. Not only does the character in question, a Galt sidekick, call for a return to the gold standard, he denounces the notion of paper money and demands a return to gold coins.

• And given that, is it any surprise that the Republican Party's platform calls for a commission to look at restoring the link between gold and the dollar? Rand's ideas aren't just consuming the Republican Party's views on taxes and social services; they're striking at the very heart of monetary policy. It's really bizarre stuff.
• Just what exactly is Vitter doing on Twitter? Such a diaper dandy, that one.
• It's a possibility that Mitt Romney might not appear on ballots in the State of Washington, as Rachel Maddow explains. If that does happen, it wouldn't affect the top of the ticket because Romney has just about as much chance at winning Washington as Obama has at winning Oklahoma. But it might depress Republican turnout to some degree, which would be great news for Democrats running in statewide and congressional races.
• Newark Mayor and rising Democratic star Cory Booker is, as expected, weighing a run against New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. If he does, you can bet it will be the most-watched gubernatorial race in the nation. Obama 2.0 and all that.
• Proving once again that neither member of the Republican ticket has any shame about race-baiting regardless of anything resembling veracity, Paul Ryan made the same old lying claim about welfare-to-work waivers:
  

  SPRINGFIELD, Mo. ' Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan says President Barack Obama wants to ease work requirements for welfare recipients even though that claim has been largely debunked by independent fact checkers.

  Ryan told donors at a $1.2 million fundraiser in Missouri on Thursday that Obama wants to strip the work requirements from the welfare reform law. Ryan says it showed the president wants to promote dependency on government as a solution to economic woes.

  Is it true? No. but who cares? Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are white, and they're here to convince you that Barack Obama is a foreign, Muslim-sounding black man of indeterminate heritage who wants to give your tax dollars away to indigent minorities. But no, that's not racist at all!
• Former Virginia Republican Congressman Virgil Goode has submitted more than double the number of signatures required to get his name on the presidential ballot under the byline of the theocratic far-right Constitution Party in his home state. With Virginia expected to be close, that could be very bad news for Mitt Romney, which is why the Republican Party is going to challenge the signatures:
  

  Goode said Friday that he submitted more than 20,000 signatures on Wednesday and collected at least 1,000 in 10 congressional districts. The former state senator and congressman said he doesn't believe a Virginia candidate has been denied ballot access after submitting as many signatures.

  "We're hopeful, but we'll find out on Sept. 4th for sure," he said.

  Goode said Republicans mounted a challenge that kept the Constitution Party off the ballot in Pennsylvania, even though more than 34,000 petition signatures were submitted.

  "I'm sure they are looking not just there but in every state they can," Goode said.

  Losing Virginia again would be almost a death-knell for Romney: it would require him to win Ohio and Florida, and at least two from among NH, WI, IA, CO and NV. Not a good situation to reach 270.

1:55 PM PT: Governor Susana Martinez of New Mexico, not Yvette. Apologies.

1:55 PM PT: Governor Susana Martinez of New Mexico, not Yvette. Apologies.