Stories to Watch: 4/21/12

It's the weekend. Go out and have fun. Now here's the news...


An example of the extreme intolerance of the religious right: Mitt Romney's scheduled commencement speech to Jerry Falwell's Liberty University. Seems that as a Mormon, Romney isn't a "true" Christian and has no business addressing "true" Christians. So, for those of you keeping track of these sort of things, either you're a Baptist or you're the enemy.


Which means that the Liberty U cultists will have a lot of enemies in the coming years; Pew finds that one in four people under thirty have no religious affiliation at all.


Ed Kilgore on state level Republicans and activists, Mitt Romney, 2012, and 2016: "[R]ight wing leaders don’t seem particularly invested in winning the presidency — at least not in 2012. Mitt Romney is not their candidate, and Barack Obama is the perfect fundraising and umbrage-inducing foil for right-wing fundraising and base-building for a wide-open contest in 2016."


You know how all this terrible class warfare stuff is supposed to be scaring businesses away from the US? Yeah, about that...


What's it like to get a transvaginal ultrasound? "Vigorously uncomfortable."


Weird. It turns out that Andrew Breitbart was not murdered by an Obama administration afraid of his lame-assed video. The rightwing version of Scooby and the gang will have to find some other mystery to chase around for a while.


Obama fundraising is down. Here's why that's not as much of a problem as everyone will say it is.


Finally, the Lyrid meteor shower peaks tonight and, with a new moon. it should be an excellent night for viewing -- weather permitting.

Related articles

• Mitt Romney Will Give Commencement Speech At Liberty University (towleroad.com)
• Conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart died of heart failure (cnn.com)
• Mitt Romney Decries 'Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy' In Media: Many 'Inclined To Do The President's Bidding' (mediaite.com)
• CNN's Loesch tells 'foreigner' Bashir to 'go back to his own country' (rawstory.com)

Stories to Watch: 1/31/12

Freakin' hell it was warm here today. It got up to near 50. In Wisconsin. In January. This is wrong, wrong, wrong. Now here's the news...


Tonight's the big night in Florida and things do not look good for Noodles.


Speaking of Newt, he has some seriously goonish security agents.


David Brooks wrote something stupid again.


Rep. Allen West, carpetbagger.


Related: Rep. Allen West, boob.


Sen. Chuck Grassley is an ass.


Polling shows that House Republicans' hostage-taking/obstructionist strategy to win the hearts and minds of the American voter hasn't worked out too awfully well.


Finally, Remember how Romney won the Iowa caucuses -- except later it turned out that Santorum did? Heads roll.

Related articles

• Allen West Denies He Said What He Said (alan.com)
• Allen West Says to President Obama, 'Get the Hell Out of the US,' Then Denies He Said It (littlegreenfootballs.com)
• Florida Primary Preview (crooksandliars.com)
• Live blog of the Florida primary (politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com)

Stories to Watch: 9/20/11

The zucchini pancakes were great, but I had to make a whole passel to use one zucchini up. So now I have a literal pile of leftover pancakes in my fridge. This is what's known as "a problem you want to have." Now here's the news...


Today in pot-calls-kettle-black news: Rick Santorum -- who once argued that same sex marriage would lead inevitably to man-on-dog sex -- claims Rick Perry "ignores reality for ideology." Bonus fun: the argument's about a border fence and Perry's right. Rick's also really pissed at Google, because he's a clown and doesn't know how the internet works.


Speaking of Rick Perry, Public Policy Polling reports he has "an under water approval rating in Texas and he's leading Barack Obama by a smaller margin than John McCain won the state by in 2008." It's probably because they're angry at all his sponging off the state.


The Georgia Parole Board denies clemency to Troy Davis, despite the fact that many witnesses to the crime he's accused of committing have recanted, saying they were coerced by police into giving false statements, and nine people have signed affidavits identifying someone else as the shooter by name. The ACLU called the clemency hearing "a sham."


Screw the Blue Dogs.


Eric Holder says the Obama administration is still going to try to close Gitmo before election day.


Texas Rep. Wayne Christian both spills the beans and demonstrates just how poorly Republicans understand simple English. In talking about the GOP's attempts to shut down Planned Parenthood, Christian says, "Well of course this is a war on birth control and abortions and everything, that’s what family planning is supposed to be about." That's right, Christian's idea of "family planning" is "Surprise, you're pregnant!"


Occupy Wall Street has some pretty disturbing video of cops roughing up protesters.


Finally, Michele Bachmann visits a traffic-signal plant in Iowa -- one that "thrives on government-funded road projects like those Obama has promoted" -- to bitch about how much government spending has hurt the plant. Because she's smart like that.

Related articles

• Rick Santorum is mad as heck that his name is now a dirty word on the Google (americablog.com)
• Wall Street protests continue, several arrested (cbsnews.com)
• Georgia board denies Troy Davis clemency (marketwatch.com)
• Are Bachmann's Words Her Undoing? (mediabistro.com)

Stories to Watch: 9/19/11

Making zucchini pancakes to go with some fish. I don't have a recipe, I'm just going to wing it by adapting my sourdough pancake recipe. Wish me luck. Now here's the news...


The best take I've seen on Republican Rep. John Fleming, who barely manages to scratch together an existence on a mere $400k in profit a year, from Scott Lemieux of the blog Lawyers, Guns, and Money: "Again, the central premise of the contemporary Republican Party is that people making $400K+ a year are living a hardscrabble existence, while a teacher or police officer making $50K a year is enjoying a pampered life of unimaginable luxury." The worst part about all this? The morons in the Tea Party or who listen to talk radio believe exactly that.


Greg Sargent sees President Obama turning the "class warfare" charge around and putting it where it belongs -- around Republicans' necks.


Meanwhile, Obama vows to veto a deficit reduction bill that doesn't balance cuts with tax increases on the wealthy.


More bad press for Rick Perry as the Justice Dept. determines that Texas's redistricting is gerrymandering that violates the Voting Rights Act.


Bill O'Reilly seriously overestimates his own popularity.


Don't Ask, Don't Tell will die tomorrow after a long and pointless battle with reality.


Just in case you missed it, Andrew Breitbart wants to kill you. So stay frosty.


Ed Rollins, Michele Bachmann's former campaign manager and current talking head, says Shelly's got enough resources left to fight in Iowa, then she's done. Expect her to amp the crazy up to eleven, because that's been working so well for her so far.


Finally, Andrew Sullivan looks at polling and finds that Obama's plan to soak the rich looks like it's already really popular.

Related articles

• Tea Party Rep. John Fleming: Only $400,000 Left After 'I Feed My Family' (crooksandliars.com)
• Congressman Spends $200,000 a Year on Food [Video] (gawker.com)
• Feeding your family: almost as bad as paying taxes (themoderatevoice.com)
• Wealthy Republican congressman apparently pays workers less than $11,400 per year (dailykos.com)

Stories to Watch: 9/17/11

Man, does it ever feel like fall today. Now here's the news...


A horrific crash at a Reno, NV air race kills 3 and injures 50. That death toll is expected to rise, as some of the wounded probably won't recover.


Although his approvals continue to slip, people like President Obama's jobs plan.


Michael Gerson brings up a good point; even if you don't like Rick Perry or the way he ran Texas's program, HPV vaccinations are almost inarguably a good thing.


And, while we're on the subject of Perry; he likes to put himself across as a straight-talker, but the fact is that he's a windsock.


Despite GOP talking points, extending unemployment benefits does not turn people into lazy hobos.


Rick Perry leads Mitt Romney in polling for the GOP nomination. Grain of salt alert: ""For comparison, at a similar stage in the campaign in 2007, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was the leading choice of Republican primary voters (at 34%), followed by former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson (23%)." So, yeah.


Finally, John Boehner gets a primary challenge from a Tea Party/religious right nutjob. Thankfully, David Lewis probably doesn't stand a chance in hell. I don't like Boehner at all, but I like the idea of trading bad for worse even less.

Related articles

• Perry Leads Another National Poll (politicalwire.com)
• Bachmann makes health claims about HPV vaccine not 'speaking as a doctor' (thehill.com)
• Bachmann's Goof On HPV Won't Shield Perry From Tough Questions In Iowa (huffingtonpost.com)
• Tarot Politico: How Will Accusations of Crony Capitalism Impact Perry? (huffingtonpost.com)

Stories to Watch: 9/6/11

Hey, how was your Labor Day? Mine involved bratwurst, so it was perfect. Now here's the news...


Boehner and Cantor want a pre-jobs-speech meeting with the president to "discuss potential areas of bipartisan agreement," according to Politico. To translate that from Republican into English, they want to make threats, whine, and throw tantrums.


Is Rick Perry using wildfires in Texas to dodge debates? It sure seems that way. I mean, there's no logistical reason that he has to be in the state, just as there's no reason he has to be at the sites of the fires themselves. It's not like he's out there on the line, pitching in. Although, after what he's done to the fire departments in Texas, they could probably use the help.


One reason Perry might not be eager to debate; he might be forced to answer questions about why his state has the worst numbers for health insurance coverage in the nation.


This is what happens when you give Republicans everything they demand. Knock it off, Mr. President.


David Brooks continues to suck, be ridiculous.


Ezra Klein talks economy, history, Republicans, stimulus, and "motivated skepticism." Long story short, Republicans are freakin' nuts.


Mittens Romney rolls out his own big jobs plan, ahead of President Obama's speech on the same subject. You already know what's in it; it's got "GOP economic mumbo-jumbo" written all over it.


Finally, Dick Cheney is a man who is absolutely flawless in his own mind. In an interview with Wolf Blitzer, Cheney refused to admit to any mistakes at all in his eight years as VP. You know what this means, right? Getting hammered and shooting Harry Whittington in the face? Dick meant to do that.

Related articles

• Romney Just Totally Melted Down During His Jobs Speech (businessinsider.com)
• Romney unveils 59-point jobs plan (politico.com)
• GOP JOBS WARS: Huntsman Op-Ed Puts The Heat On Romney's Jobs Plan (businessinsider.com)
• GOP presidential race heats up (ksl.com)

Stories to Watch: 9/1/11

Still using Firefox 7 beta, still liking it. In fact, other than the slim memory usage, it seems identical to 6. Now here's the news...


Does Barack Obama have a secret plan to win the election by making millions of illegal aliens citizens so they'll vote for him? Wingnut Reps. Mike Coffman and Louie Gohmert think so -- and that should tell you all you need to know.


Mediaite's TOmmy Christopher thinks that John Boehner should resign for putting a Republican presidential debate a presidential address to congress. Maybe he should, maybe he shouldn't, but it's never going to happen in a million years. Roger Simon reports that the White House is "furious" with Boehner, though.


Everyone knows that Mittens Romney has a healthcare reform problem. But what most people don't know is that Rick Perry went above and beyond Romneycare, by proposing a joint healthcare plan with Mexico. I don't know enough about it to say whether it was a good idea or not, but it involves big gummint healthcare and Mexico, so the 'baggers should hate it.


Bonus fun: as Texas Ag Commissioner, Perry also praised Hillary Clinton's healthcare proposal. So Mexico, healthcare reform, and Hillary Clinton.


Condoleezza Rice simply does not care for Dick Cheney's book. NJ Gov. Chris Christie isn't a fan of Eric Cantor's hostage-taking on Hurricane Irene relief.


Surprise: it's illegal for unmarried couples to live together in Florida -- and state Republicans want to keep it that way.


The White House downgrades the 2012 jobs forecast.


Finally, so much for being the "sane Republican" -- John Huntsman's just-released tax plan is as insane and unfair as anyone else's in his party.
Joe Lieberman continues to be a jackass.

Related articles

• How Obama could be the leader in the room (cnn.com)
• WATCH: Bush Weighs In On Dick Cheney's Book (huffingtonpost.com)
• Jon Huntsman tricks billionaires into wasting money on his campaign (salon.com)
• Boehner to deliver his own 'jobs' speech (dailykos.com)

Stories to Watch: 7/27/11

A lot of things will happen if the US loses our AAA credit rating. None of them are good.


House GOP compare themselves to a street gang beating people up. Not the best PR move ever.


Cranky old Grampa McCain tells the right kids to get off his lawn for once. He rails against the Tea Party and GOP leadership on the Senate floor -- which is good -- but in the process unfairly maligns hobbits.


Boehner responds all the "rudderless House Republicans" headlines by saying that a lot of Tea Party freshmen want to force a default. Is Boehner really worried about this or is he just using crazy 'baggers to play "good cop/bad cop?" I honestly don't know.


16th minute alert: Tea Party rally-goers answer the call to show grassroots opposition to any plan that falls short of 'bagger purity. How did that go? Not well. "At the start of the rally, which was organized by the American Grassroots Coalition and Tea Party Express, there were roughly 15 attendees waiting to hear... conservative lawmakers speak," Politico reports. "By the time the senators had spoken there were still fewer than 50 tea partiers in attendance."


Meanwhile, Sarah Palin is headlining a Tea Party event in Iowa. If you figure the DCs rally and the attendance of Palin's movie, expect upwards of dozens to attend.


Although the president has ruled it out, House dems call on Obama to invoke the 14th amendment and raise the debt limit on his own.


Finally, think you aren't going to get enough drama, histrionics, and stupidity out of the debt limit debate? Cheer up, the gas tax renewal is right around the corner... So there's a another chance for Republicans to run up the deficit, so they can complain about it later.

Related articles

• Palin: American Ideals Are 'Foreign To Our President' Because Of 'His Background' (kaystreet.wordpress.com)
• Tea baggers confuse leadership with ideological purity (kansasreflections.wordpress.com)
• Republican debt plan struggles in House - Los Angeles Times (news.google.com)
• Quotes of the Day: Tea Party Members of Congress and the Looming Debt Ceiling Limit Default (themoderatevoice.com)