If Trump's to be believed, Obama was a terrible student at a college, and then he somehow snuck his way into a University; after that he basically grifted his way into becoming the president of the Harvard Law Review.

Trump would tell you that he's a hustler, that Obama is, and we've got to do whatever it takes to figure out what kind of semi-illegal shenanigans Obama's university experience was all about.

But here's the thing: Donald Trump has his own history of semi-illegal university shenanigans, and it appears that some of his semi-illegal shenanigans continue to this very day.

I have been encouraging folks to take advantage of the recent Congressional recess to have a few words with your CongressCritter about the proposed Death of Medicare and all the proposed cuts to Social Security and now we have an opportunity to do something on a national scale, just as we did a few weeks ago in support of Social Security.

This time, we're going to concentrate on fighting the idea that retirement ages should go up before we become eligible for Social Security and Medicare (and elements of Medicaid, as well), and that Americans should just keep right on working until the age of 67 or so. Which isn't going to be any big problem. Really. Trust us.

Now that just makes no sense, and to help make the point we have a really cool video that you can pass around to all your friends - and your enemies, for that matter, since they'll also have to worry about what happens to them if they should ever make it to old age.

"If it's not specifically enumerated in the Constitution," they say, "It must be a function of the States. And the 10th Amendment says so!"

None are tougher in their language than those living in the states located below the old Mason-Dixon line. And by an amazing coincidence, just this weekend pretty much all of those states got a bit of a "gut check" in the form of dozens of tornados that slammed into the area.

So we're going to put the Tea Party philosophy to the test today, and see just what exactly the federal government should - and should not - be doing to fulfill the Tea Party vision and to help those folks who were hit by this particular natural disaster.

Over and over and over people like me have written stories wondering why Democrats, starting with this president, don't get out in a very public way and slam Republican policies, over and over and over - especially when most Americans hate the things Republicans seem to love to support.

Turning over government to the highest bidder?

Not so popular.

Going back to a heath care system run by, for, and of the insurance industry?

Again, not so much.

Jacking up taxes and healthcare costs for you and me in order to provide another trillion in tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires?

So unpopular pollsters hardly believe it.

But there is another way, and today's story is in two parts: we're going to talk about how hard it is to get Democrats, as a group, to get loud and get aggressive, and then we're going to talk about Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, who is out there showing any reluctant Democrat just exactly how you can "grow the brand."

Of course, that 90% claim was total hooey; it turns out that only 3% of Planned Parenthood's work relates to abortions. (The federal funding for abortions part is, too; the Hyde Amendment made such funding illegal decades ago.)

When confronted, Kyl's office released a statement claiming the Senator's comments were "not intended to be a factual statement."

Sir Rev. Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, DFA, decided to have a bit of fun with Kyl, and he challenged his audience to Tweet their own "Not Intended To Be A Factual Statement" about Kyl.

I decided to compose a Tweet of my own... and then another... and before I knew it I had an entire story's worth; that's why, today, we'll be taking a taking a short break from the daily grind to have a bit of fun with a man who truly deserves it: Jon Kyl.

There was a hearing before the House Armed Services Committee Thursday that had all four Services represented; with one exception these were the same Service Chiefs that were testifying last December when the bill to set the repeal process in motion was still a piece of prospective legislation.

At that time there was concern that the "combat arms" of the Marines and the Army were going to be impacted in a negative way by the transition to "open service"; the Commandant of the Marine Corps and the Army's Chief of Staff were the most outspoken in confirming that such concerns exist within the Pentagon as well.

We now have more information to report--including the increasing desperation of some of our Republican friends--and if you ask me, I think things might be better than we thought.

If everyone's backed up on the freeway, I'm the one who will look for the longer but less crowded country road. When everyone's talking about whoever out-sang or out-danced or out-cake-bossed someone else, I'm the one with the blank face - and if there's a room full of people line dancing, I'll be the one over in the corner having a smoke and wondering what went wrong with y'all.

And that's why, while everyone else is all excited about Glenn Beck's imminent "disappearance" from the television firmament... I'm not so sure.

In fact, I can easily see a scenario that leads to a lot more Beck, and that's what we'll be talking about today.

In the course of that conversation O'Donnell said something about the recent repeal of DADT that suggests to me that he could use a short reminder of how that legislation fits into the larger view of what the LBGT community is looking for as the march toward true civil rights continues.

Luckily for Mr. O'Donnell, I am available to help him out on this one; that's why today we're going to audit "LBGT Agenda 101" - or at least the "Cliff's Notes" version, anyway.

I know that doesn’t make a lot of sense, considering the disconnect between Social Security and the deficit, but once again it’s “Continuing Resolution” time on Capitol Hill, where some use the threat of an impending shutdown of the federal government to extract concessions from the other side and some on the other side try to make points with the voters by out-conceding their opponents.

So Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, there’s a national push on to get voters to call their Senators and remind them to vote for an amendment that is a big ol’ “I’m not willing to cut Social Security just because other, ideologically-motivated people want to cut government any way they can” kind of reassurance to the voters, and I’m here to encourage you, once again, to make a couple phone calls and do some pushing of your own.

I’ve also been storing up a couple somewhat facetious random thoughts which will be the “garnish” for today’s dish; you’ll see them pop up as we go along.

Some among us have managed to turn their certainty into something that approaches a reverential calling, and you need look no further than the Supreme Court to find such notables as Cardinals Samuel Alito and Antonin Scalia providing "liturgical foundation" to the adherents of the point of view that the Constitution is like the Bible: that it's somehow immutable, set in stone, and, if we would only listen to the right experts, easily interpreted.

But what if that absolutist point of view is absolutely wrong?

What if the Original Intent of The Founders, that summer in Philadelphia, was simply to get something passed out of the Constitutional Convention, and the only way that could happen was to leave a lot of the really tough decisions to the future?

What if The Real Original Intent was that we work it out for ourselves as we go along?

That's why today we're going to be talking about Wisconsin and how workers there are fighting back against the State's Republican legislators and governor, who seem to have gone out of their way this past three weeks to govern without the consent of the governed.

It's kind of chilly today in Wisconsin, but I can assure you, things are heating up fast and it ain't because of spring.

Are the conditions decent?

Is there excessive pay?

Is there even a need for State workers?

Well, I can't answer every question, but I can sure tell you what it's like in our house and the reason my words carry the "voice of authority" is because my girlfriend has been working for the State of Washington for the past 16 years.

Bona fides established, let's get to telling the story.

They’re going to sell it to you, if they can, as a way to “lower the deficit,” but what this is really about is making the actual Social Security program work less well - because after all, if a program is popular today, the best way to make it less so is to apply a bit of “treat ‘em like their cars were impounded” to every interaction customers have with the system.

What better way to make sure that happens then to aggressively demoralize everyone who works down at the ol’ Social Security office?

The Fake Campaign, as you may recall, is fake headed for Wisconsin, to show solidarity, and we’ve fake hitched a ride on a delivery truck headed for Rush Limbaugh’s Florida broadcasting studios—but we fake found ourselves caught up in the all-too-real “Giant Grip Of Winter” that has seized the Midwest over the past week.

We’re back on the road now, but we were stuck for darn near half a day there in Wall - if you know anything about South Dakota, you know there are really only two things to do in the city of Wall: shuffle back and forth between Gold Diggers and the Badlands Bar, partaking of numerous intoxicating liquors along the way or head on into Wall Drug (the same one that’s on all those bumper stickers and signs) and partake of the finest display of Giant Jackalopia on the planet.

Naturally, the campaign chose Jackalopia, and that’s why today’s Manifesto is all about the fake impromptu five-cent-coffee-fueled Social Security Town Hall that we held in the Wall Drug Mall for several hours while we waited for I-90 to reopen.

Having made the announcement, we're already making our first campaign trip - and oddly enough, our first trip as a congressional candidate will take us to Madison, Wisconsin, where we'll link up with a few folks who, apparently inspired by me, have taken to the streets in a very big way.

When we get there I'll need a parka, a nice hat, a thermos of coffee, and a big fat Sharpie - so let me go get it all together, and then we'll be on our way.