Mittens (forms a committee to explore his viability as a candidate and fundraiser before he) throws his hat in the ring.
Obama's budget proposal calls for entitlement reform (bad idea), letting the Bush tax cuts expire on the top 2% expire (good idea), and closing tax loopholes that benefit the fabulously well-to-do (even gooder idea). Of course, there are even better ideas out there, but no one's interested in really good ideas anymore. America is 24/7 wishful thinking now. If we can't have our cake and eat it too, then we just won't have any cake at all.
A CNN poll shows that 58% approve of the deal that averted the government shutdown -- not a huge surprise given that previous polls showed a shutdown to be an unpopular idea. The winners seem to be Democrats here, since 48% give them credit for breaking the logjam, while 35% give it to the GOP. It's not the best deal ever -- in fact it's a shitty one -- but perceptions are what perceptions are and, even if dems let themselves be screwed, it seems they've hidden that fact pretty well.
Remember that Wisconsin Supreme Court election? Remember those 7,500 votes that appeared from out of the blue in Waukesha County and turned the loser into the winner? Remember the Democratic County Board member who vouched for everything and said the "numbers jibed?"
Yeah, her name is Ramona Kitzinger and this is from her official statement on the matter:
Once the canvass had been completed and the results were finalized, I was called into Kathy’s office along with Pat (the Republican observer) and told of an impending 5:30pm press conference. It was at that point that I was first made aware of an error Kathy had made in Brookfield City. Kathy told us she thought she had saved the Brookfield voter information Tuesday night, but then on Wednesday she said she noticed she had not hit save. Kathy didn’t offer an explanation about why she didn’t mention anything prior to Thursday afternoon’s canvass completion, but showed us different tapes where numbers seemed to add up, though I have no idea where the numbers were coming from. I was not told of the magnitude of this error, just that she had made one. I was then instructed that I would not say anything at the press conference, and was actually surprised when I was asked questions by reporters.This may very well change things drastically. Maybe not in this election when all the smoke clears, but in the coming recalls. The fishier this election smells, the more fired up voters may be for the next ones.
The reason I offer this explanation is that, with the enormous amount of attention this has received over the weekend, many people are offering my statements at the press conference that the “numbers jibed” as validation they are correct and I can vouch for their accuracy. As I told Kathy when I was called into the room – I am 80 years old and I don’t understand anything about computers. I don’t know where the numbers Kathy was showing me ultimately came from, but they seemed to add up. I am still very, very confused about why the canvass was finalized before I was informed of the Brookfield error and it wasn’t even until the press conference was happening that I learned it was this enormous mistake that could swing the whole election. I was never shown anything that would verify Kathy’s statement about the missing vote, and with how events unfolded and people citing me as an authority on this now, I feel like I must speak up.
Folks in Paul Ryan's home district aren't sold on his fantasy-economics porn.
A court of appeals rules against Arizona's "papers please" immigration law.
Finally, the Japanese government may reassess the Fukushima incident, reclassifying it's severity -- drastically and not in a comforting direction. The constant mantra of "it's not as bad as Chernobyl!" may finally be proven untrue.
