Stories to Watch: 6/18/12

Pretty much every possible decision SCOTUS could hand down on the Affordable Care Act. Also: many of the people who benefit most from Obamacare don't even know it.


GOP responses to Pres. Obama's new immigration policy are as nonsensical as they are self-serving. For instance, they claim Obama jumped the gun because they were going to do something -- despite the fact that they obviously weren't.


GOP Senate candidate Eric Hovde is just as big of a jackass as we've come to expect Wisconsin Republicans to be.


Were you one of the rightwing nutjobs who donated to George Zimmerman's legal defense fund? If so, you are once again proven to be a chump.


John King of savewhitepeople.com is the next Fred Phelps. Not the first time I made that comparison.


"Debate Prep," starring John Kerry as Mitt Romney.


Is Gallup's sampling method out of whack?


Finally, Michigan gynophobes seem to be sparking a movement -- just not the one they'd hoped for.

Related articles

• Mitt Romney mum on Obama immigration policy shift

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• Bullet-ridden outhouse displays picture of Obama at Montana's GOP convention

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• Obama and Immigration: Why the Right Thing to do Was Also the Smart Thing

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Stories to Watch: 2/20/12

Heads up: I probably won't be blogging at all Wednesday, because I've got an important errand to run that'll probably eat up the whole day. Now here's the news...


Gallup gives Rick Santorum a substantial national lead over Mitt Romney. But the latest poll in Michigan shows his lead there has completely evaporated. It's now a tie.


Meanwhile, Rick's spending a lot of time "clarifying" the stupid and insane things he says.


Republicans sure do love their racism, don't they?


23 years, 500 episodes -- I think The Simpsons must be the most successful spinoff in the history of television.


Republican voters definitely do not want a brokered convention.


Romney's Super PAC blew through $14 mil. last month.


Finally, Santorum says liberals are "anti-science," because we don't want to use up the Earth's resources in a big hurry and pollute everything. In other words, if you don't want to do something that science tells you is absolutely stupid, that means you're against science. Black is white, up is down, and Rick Santorum's a freakin' genius.

Related articles

• Romney Making A Comeback In Michigan? (outsidethebeltway.com)
• Why a Republican Political Savior and a Brokered Convention Is Unlikely to Happen (themoderatevoice.com)
• Rick Santorum Leads National Polls, But When Will The Roller Coaster Stop? (VIDEO) (huffingtonpost.com)
• Talk of Brokered Convention May Be Just That (thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com)

Stories to Watch: 12/29/11

We'll probably get snow tonight. Too late for a white Christmas, but you take what you get. Now here's the news...


Charles Johnson explains why a Christmas Day tragedy probably wasn't the "honor killing" the right so desperately wants it to be. It's worth a read if only to see the phrase "the internet's dumbest man" applied to Jim Hoft. It pays to remember that Johnson was a wingnut blogger before he wised up, so he knows how these people think.


And, of course, the haters haven't taken Johnson's post very well.


Speaking of the internet's dumbest man: Hoft takes a Pew poll and runs with it, apparently without actually looking at it. Hoft's big takeaway is that, despite the OWS protests, people still don't like socialism. The problem is that the most respected political label in the poll is "progressive" -- and in Hoft's world, those two words are synonyms.


Newt won't go down the birther road.


Someone needs to tell Rick Santorum that there are married poor people.


I'm starting to wonder if Rick Perry has early Alzheimer's. It's one thing to forget a federal agency, but it's another to forget something that happened to you personally. I'm being serious here. I hope he gets himself checked out.


Things that make you wonder: Gallup has a poll out showing that the person who's ideology fits most closely with those of Americans is John Huntsman. Yet Huntsman can't buy the time of day from voters. The person least like the average is Barack Obama, who still leads in almost every poll. Long story short, I don't think this is a very good poll.


Also from Gallup, Democrats beat Republicans on the issues of taxes and unemployment.


Ron Paul is a conspiracy-theorizing nutbag, which makes him fairly typical of the right.


Finally, in real danger of becoming a one-term senator, Scott Brown decides it's time to play the media victim card. Unfortunately for Brown, Sarah Palin probably wore a hole in it.

Related articles

• Rick Santorum vs. Rick Perry: Former Senator Attacked On Earmarks By Texas Governor (huffingtonpost.com)
• Huntsman on Iowa absence: 'They pick corn in Iowa' (sfgate.com)
• Rick Perry Draws A Blank On Key Supreme Court Case Overturning Texas' Anti-Gay Laws He Defended (thinkprogress.org)
• Lawrence v. Texas: Another Perry Oops Moment. (themoderatevoice.com)

Stories to Watch: 11/21/11

Running a little late today, but I got the headlines together. Now here's the news...


Newt Gingrich tops a new CNN poll at 24%, with Mittens following at 20%.


The media are up to their old tricks with the failure of the super committee; i.e., "both sides are equally guilty." Greg Sargent calls them on it.


A lot of lefties are happy with the committee's collapse. They should probably cork the champagne though, since I'm pretty sure the automatic cuts are never going to happen.


Old news, but I skipped the weekend to celebrate my birthday; lobbyists spell out their PR assault on the Occupy movement.


Gallup finds that, compared with last month, there has been no change in support for the Occupiers. On the downside, more are critical of the approach.


Boehner blames the super committee's failure on -- who else? -- President Obama. Smarter and more realistic analysts will point their fingers at Grover Norquist.


Finally, Pamella Geller has snapped completely. According to her, Butterball turkeys are part of the secret Islamification of America. No, really.

 

Related articles

• Steve Kroft To Grover Norquist: 'You've Got Them By The Short Hairs!' (crooksandliars.com)
• Grover Norquist, the tax lobbyist with an iron grip on the Republican party (guardian.co.uk)
• Grover Norquist: GOP leadership has promised him no Super Congress tax increases (dailykos.com)
• Grover Norquist's hold on the GOP (cbsnews.com)

News Roundup for 9/21/11

Surprisingly, people like this got healthcare reform all wrong

-Headline of the Day-
"In U.S., Significantly Fewer 18- to 25-Year-Olds Uninsured."

Remember that whole healthcare socialism thing that was going to destroy America? Turns out it doing a really lousy job of destroying America. The National Center for Health Statistics reports that a million more people between ages of 18 and 26 are insured now, but they're the government so they probably lie.

Time to double check. Gallup called up about 90,000 people and found, sure enough, the numbers between 18 and 26 are on the rise. "The provision of the Affordable Care Act that allows children up to the age of 26 to remain on their parents' plans appears to be having an immediate effect on the number of Americans who report they have health insurance," they report. "Since it went into effect in September 2010, the percentage of 18- to 25-year-olds who report being uninsured has significantly declined by four percentage points."

So what's the rightwing, teabagger, super-uber-patriot response to this news?

Silence. See, when something proves them wrong, it's like it never even happened. (Gallup)


-How to get things done in Washington-
Turns out, it is possible.


Click to embiggen

Turns out the term "rarer than hens' teeth" is only a slight exaggeration. (Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal)


-Bonus HotD-
"Poll: Two-thirds of Americans want taxes raised on the rich."

If this is "class warfare," then one side is seriously outgunned. (Raw Story)

News Roundup for 4/13/11

You gotta give them points for consistency

-Headline of the day-
"Poll: Plurality of Republicans say don't touch Medicare."

Paul Ryan's plan to save Medicare by destroying maybe brave and bold and visionary and not-stupid in the eyes of many pundits and talking heads, but in the eyes of voters, it's none of those things. Democrats don't like it, Independents aren't bug fans, and it turns out that even Republican voters aren't super excited about the whole idea.

Gallup finds that wile 34% of GOP voters think we have to either "completely overhaul" or make "major changes" to Medicare, 61% prefer either "minor changes" or leaving the thing alone altogether. For the record, the most pro-Ryan stance would be "completely overhaul," which accounts for just 14% of Republican respondents. Like I said, they aren't super excited about this.

See, it works like this: Republicans are all about the courage it takes to make tough choices -- so long as those tough choices are being made about someone else. When it comes to themselves, they just can't get enough of that gummint-run, commie single-payer healthcare. (Raw Story)


-In [closely] related news...-
Ryan's big Randian vision of a nation unburdened by seniors with money suffers a tiny setback as some Republican House members get skittish about voting for it. Turns out that they thought all the Tea Party "SAVE MEDICARE!" crap from last year was for real and the bait-and-switch isn't going over very well.

According to the report, "Whether they're new lawmakers in formerly Democratic seats or House veterans who represent districts with large elderly populations dependent on Medicare, a significant number of Republicans realize that embracing the Ryan plan may be one of the most treacherous votes of the year... So rather than taking a strong stand, they're hedging during the leadup to the roll call."

"Hedging during the leadup to the roll call" is fancy-talk for "getting all wishy-washy about which way they'll vote." Politico talked to quite few GOPer offices and got a chorus of "dunno" and "we're still looking it over." Caught between pressure from party leadership and the interests (and votes) of their own constituents, many House Republicans are finding the courage to stand tall and announce in a courageous and clear voice, "I'm undecided as of this time. No comment."

Really puts a lump in your throat, doesn't it? (Politico)


-Bonus HotD-
"Did Obama Put Biden to Sleep?"

Maybe -- for about a second. Still, let's remember this. I'm not sure what the veepee does all day, but apparently it really wears you out. (Political Wire, with video)