Stories to Watch: 1/9/14

While it's pretty much indisputable that the Christie administration deliberately caused traffic nightmares on the George Washington Bridge, it's no longer clear who those problems were meant to punish. The first working theory was that it was meant as payback to the mayor of Fort Lee for not endorsing Christie for reelection. But another possibility arises that a state senator was the target -- for not backing Christie on what looks like a court-packing scheme. That's just how petty and pointless this whole thing is; it's hard to tell who exactly it was meant to hurt. If you're going to send a message of retribution, maybe make sure it's not confusing gibberish.


Noticed a bunch of new followers, so a quick explainer on how these headlines posts work: hover your cursor of the links to preview the headlines as a tooltip.


The problem Republicans face going into 2014: everyone's pretty thoroughly convinced that they're all heartless dicks -- and rightly so.


Just a reminder about how books by conservative talk radio hacks become bestsellers -- rightwing groups by their books by the truckload and give them away for donations the way PBS hands out tote bags. No one actually goes out of their way to buy this crap. In fact, you've got to wonder how many people who get these premiums actually read them at all.


Speaking of rightwing crackpots who are "bestselling authors," Glenn Beck's in trouble with the 'baggers, because he doesn't want gays burned alive in ovens.The GOP Civil War pits ugly against ugly.


Gallup finds a record number of voters identifying as Independents. But does that actually mean anything? Just because you don't identify with a party doesn't mean you aren't left or right. A huge chunk of these "independents" are actually consistently partisan voters.


This is why we have environmental regulations. It's not because lefties hate corporations; just like traffic laws don't owe their existence to people who don't like cars. It's because a functional society needs laws.


Is anyone going to believe the GOP's expressions of newfound love for the poor?


Finally, a memorial to the LGBT victims of the Holocaust is unveiled in Israel.


[cartoon via Truthdig]