The above Horsey political cartoon is from 2006 and refers the the Bush administration's abuses of civil liberties in the name of fighting terrorism. Plus ça change...
Glenn Beck discovers a new Victim Card to play -- the Future Victim. He claims Ted Cruz told him that the government could pull a Cuba and "put people in prison for speaking out" against it and that those people would include Glenn Beck. Reasons to believe Glenn's in any danger: zero. But keep this story in mind while you read the next item.
GOP Rep. Peter King threatens to pull a Cuba and prosecute Glenn Greenwald for committing journalism. For his part, Greenwald says he's not worried -- Pete doesn't have a leg to stand on and he's probably just running his mouth anyway. But generally speaking, calls for censorship come from the right, that wing of the political class being the authoritarian party. So partisan propagandists like Beck really don't have anything to worry about.
Earlier today, I wrote that conflicting poll numbers meant we'd have to wait for more data to see what the public thought of domestic surveillance. Gallup supplies that data and confirms we're against it. My faith in my fellow voters is somewhat restored -- the numbers could stand to be a lot more lopsided.
Newtown families and the Obama administration prepare for a renewed push for gun regulation. Steny Hoyer, the House Democratic Whip, says there's very little chance for any action in that chamber. I doubt that's the point. The point is to make it an election year issue and to hand losses to some of those "no" votes -- which explains why Republicans are afraid to even discuss the issue.
Eric Cantor claims that job creation is House Republicans' "number one priority." Steve Beenen takes a look at Republican priorities -- in the form of the stuff they actually hold votes on -- and calls bullshit on Eric.
Fox News' coverage of George Zimmerman's trial for the murder of Trayvon Martin continues to be appallingly racist.
Turkey's PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan says protests against his government "will be over in 24 hours." This isn't a prediction, this is a chilling promise to increase police brutality. "We have not responded to punches with punches," he says. "From now on security forces will respond differently" Remind me again why we need this monster as a NATO ally?
Republicans put immigration reform back on the rocks, proving they haven't learned a damned thing from 2012.
Finally, some Republicans can't even talk about things like Medicaid expansion without being sexist morons. For the record, men are from Earth, women are from Earth, and that stupid self-help book is from straight out of the author's butt.
[cartoon via LarsonsWorld]
