Stories to Watch: 11/18/11

Occupy Congress! An idea whose time had come along time ago. Better late than never.


Have you seen those clips of Occupy Wall Street slogans projected onto the side of the Verizon Building? Meet the projectionist.


David Mooney, chief executive officer of Alliant Credit Union in Chicago and former JP Morgan Chase exec, tells the ugly truth; "I don't say this lightly, but the consumer is simply an income stream and exploiting that is the purpose of the banking organization." They don't work for you, you work for them.


Did Newt Gingrich -- Newt Freakin' Gingrich -- really think he could get away with pretending to be a Washington outsider?


Occupy Memphis and Tea Party members meet. The body count was zero. In fact, they discovered points of agreement.


Herman Cain said something stupid again.


Journalism ain't what it used to be.


Michele Bachmann said something stupid again. Now with extra irony.


The super committee remains super-useless.


Finally, Louie Gohmert did something stupid again.

Related articles

• Why Newt Gingrich Is Surging Now (usnews.com)
• How Can Newt Gingrich Possibly Live Down His Past? (outsidethebeltway.com)
• WATCH: Jon Stewart Mocks 'Zombie' GOP Frontrunners (huffingtonpost.com)
• Being a Washington insider has made Newt Gingrich a wealthy man (csmonitor.com)

Stories to Watch: 1/27/11

Got out and blew off the walk and driveway today. There wasn't much, but I wasn't in the mood to deal with a shovel, so internal combustion it was. When I got inside though, I noticed I was out of breath (the snowblower's not power-assist) and it got me to wondering, was using it really any easier? Oh well, it didn't take as long, so I'll take it as a win. Now here's the news...


It's official, the Illinois Supreme Court puts Rahm Emanuel back on the Chicago mayoral ballot. Early voting begins Monday, so right under the wire.


Biden's communications secretary, Jay Carney, will replace Gibbs as press secretary.


Mike Pence rules out a prez run. Don't worry though, King of the Wingnuts Jim DeMint may take a whack at it.


Sarah Palin says says President Obama "needs to remember that, uh, what happened back then with the communist U.S.S.R. and their victory in that race to space." What happened? Sputnik cost so much money "that it resulted in the inevitable collapse of the Soviet Union." Looks like Sarah and Shelly Bachmann had the same history professor. They should ask for their money back. Also, don't miss a really painful metaphor involving donuts.


Mark Sanford and Evita are at it again. Henceforth, he's barred from using the phrase "sanctity of marriage" ever again.


It's stuff like this that leads me to conclude that Harry Reid is just awful.


Finally, the CBO chief reiterates what the right doesn't want to hear: the healthcare reform law will reduce the deficit.

Griper Blade: Yes We Did

The world is celebrating this morning. In Kenya, there's dancing in the street and a national holiday. In Japan, the toast of the day is "President Obama, Banzai!" (I say we take that one). But it's Chicago that's the temporary center of the universe and they were cheering last night as Barack Obama and Joe Biden lost the title "Senator" and became "President-Elect" and "Vice President-Elect."

The fight didn't last very long -- when Ohio went Obama, it was over. He had more than 200 electoral votes in his pocket at that point and a solid 77 west coast votes in the bank. When Virginia went blue, the extremely improbable became the all-but impossible. AP gave Obama Florida, McCain conceded, and it was over...

[CLICK TO READ FULL POST]