Pres. Obama’s percentage of popular vote higher than GWB ever won

Steve Benen:

With the tabulating of the popular vote in the presidential election nearly complete, Taegan Goddard has a line this morning that rings true: “The election was close but not really.”

That sounds about right. President Obama finished with 332 electoral votes — more than 60% of the available total — which points to a clear victory. And what of the popular vote? As of this morning, there are still some votes on the West Coast and Arizona to be counted, but Obama has about 62.3 million votes, while Mitt Romney stands at about 58.9 million votes. In percentage terms, that’s 50.6% to 47.9%.

Given the number of outstanding votes remaining in California, we may yet see Obama’s popular vote margin go from 2.7% to 3%, but that’s roughly where things currently stand.

I mention this because there was some question last week about whether Obama’s 2012 totals would fall short of George W. Bush’s totals. They did not. This year, the Democratic president topped his predecessor in raw popular vote and electoral votes — and this applies to Bush’s victories in both 2000 and 2004.

»READ MORE»

News Roundup for 7/18/12

Rep. Marsha Blackburn thinks you're really nosey

-Headline of the Day-
"RNC Finds One Republican Who Doesn’t Believe Romney Should Release Tax Returns."

Mitt Romney's released about five minutes worth of tax records and that's enough! My God, what does it take to sate your blood lust? Ten minutes? Fifteen? Can't you see the poor man's done enough? For the love of God, all he wants to do is run your entire country! How much do you really have to know about him?

That's the way the Republican National Committee wishes people would talk about Romney's tax returns. The problem is, that's the way no one's talking about Romney's tax returns. Even Republicans are going on the teevee and wondering aloud what the heck the deal is. They have to get everyone off this tax return kick and back to hating President Obama -- so they got Rep. Marsha Blackburn to talk about Romney's taxes. Because they're smart like that.

"[W]hen it comes to tax returns, it’s my understanding that the governor has released the same amount of tax returns as Sen. McCain had released," Marsha said on a conference call with reporters. "And quite frankly, what the American people are talking about is not tax returns, what they’re talking about is jobs and the economy"

A couple of problems here. One, the American people most definitely are talking about Romney's tax returns -- if they weren't, you wouldn't be talking on this here conference call -- and two, McCain kind of didn't really so much win. Using McCain as your yardstick for what people expect from their candidates isn't really all that wise. The report points out that "John Kerry, Al Gore, George W. Bush, Bob Dole, Bill Clinton, and Michael Dukakis all released many years of tax returns" and some of those guys won. There is no list of winners as chintzy with their returns as McCain and Romney.

Sorry. (Talking Points Memo)


-Who is Willard Mitt Romney?-



Wouldn't you like to know? (Truthdig)


-Bonus HotD-
"Report: Voter ID Laws Put Undue Burden On 10 Million Voters."

Let me translate that for you conservatives out there -- "Voter ID laws work exactly as intended." (Talking Points Memo)

Stories to Watch: 5/16/12

Any pretense to democracy in the Republican primaries just died.


People think Mike Huckabee's a nice guy. People are wrong.


Kucinich is done for this cycle.


Shareholders sue JPMorgan.


House Republicans waste everyone's time by passing their doomed "Go Ahead and Slap Around Lesbians and Immigrants" act.


George W. Bush will publish a book on how to build an awesome economy. No, you read that right.


A phone interview with Howard Dean ends unexpectedly.


Mitt Romney's pretty sure people will buy the argument that Bain Capital created jobs. Now, if he could just decide how many he wants to pretend it created...


A new poll shows Obama and Romney in a dead heat in Wisconsin -- illustrating what a super-great idea it would be for the DNC to let the grassroots recall network wither on the vine.


Finally, Mittens gets expert advice on how to act like a human.

Related articles

• The Bain beast returns

  ---

• US election 2012: Mitt Romney attacked over Bain Capital in new Obama campaign ad

  ---

• 'Divide and Conquer' May be Good Politics, But it's a Lousy Way to Govern

  ---

News Roundup for 4/30/12

Don't you dare accuse him of telling the truth


-Headline of the Day-
"Inside the Mitt Laden Smackdown."

Last week, the Obama campaign put out a video suggesting that Mitt Romney wouldn't have dropped the hammer on Osama Bin Laden. Obviously, this was terrible. Mittens is not happy with it.

The problem, of course, it's Mitt's kneejerk messaging strategy -- i.e., everything Obama does is wrong. This puts him in the situation of having criticized the president for doing the sort of thing that eventually got Osama.

"In line with the late Bush administration policy and messaging on OBL, Romney repeatedly said that the US shouldn’t focus on hunting him down," writes Josh Marshall. "The point wasn’t that OBL was off the hook but that we shouldn’t be focusing on this one guy. Romney followed by attacking Obama in 2008 for suggesting that he would unilaterally send American troops into Pakistan to kill bin Laden. In both cases, Romney was doing little more than repeating the strategic or political orthodoxy of the GOP leader of the moment, in the first case George W. Bush in 2007 and then John McCain in 2008."

If Mittens says he wouldn't send troops into Pakistan to kill Bin Laden, how is he supposed to get into the situation where he gives the order for troops to kill Bin Laden in Pakistan? Romney specifically ruled out doing exactly what it took to get the guy. So when the President said Romney wouldn't have killed OBL, he was just taking the man at his word.

In other words, Mitt's getting bent out of shape because President Obama is not calling him a liar. That might be a first. (Talking Points Memo)


-I'm a terrible person-



I thought this was hilarious. (Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal)


-Bonus HotD-
"Depressed Bin Laden thought about ‘al-Qaida' name change, White House says."

Unfortunately, "The Apple Dumpling Gang" was already taken. (Yahoo! News)

Stories to Watch: 4/25/12

Rained pretty much all day. I was going to replant some ferns, but that's out now. Maybe this weekend. Now here's the news...


President Obama sits down for a fairly long interview with Rolling Stone. One revelation: global warming will be an issue in the 2012 campaign.


Religious nutjob Bill Keller warns that voting for Romney will "Lead 1 Million Plus Souls to Hell." No word on how you're supposed to avoid this, since he doesn't like Obama either. I guess we're literally damned if we do and damned if we don't.


When did Republicans decide they needed to sabotage President Obama's first term? On inaugural night.


President Obama says he will veto CISPA.


Did you like George W. Bush's economic policies -- you know, the ones that left our economy a smoking ruin? Then you're going to love Mitt Romney's economic adviser.


Capital punishment is put down in Connecticut.


Mitt Romney has spent $18.50 for every vote.


The "ex-gay" movement takes a major blow.


Finally, Blue Dogs get what's coming to them.

Related articles

• Romney, Obama fighting for the young vote (blogs.ajc.com)
• Fox News' Gretchen Carlson calls Obama appearance on 'Late Night with Jimmy Fallon' 'nutso' (thegrio.com)
• Obama To Romney: No Etch A Sketching (thinkprogress.org)

News Roundup for 3/22/12

Rove makes an appearance on The Colbert Report

-Headline of the Day-
"Karl Rove: Bin Laden killing was no biggie."

Republicans just can't let President Obama have nice things. If Obama does something, then it's automatically terrible -- unless you can't possibly spin it that way. In that case, it's trivial.

Karl Rove proved that today in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal. In it, Rove uses a 17-minute Obama campaign web movie to point out that the president is just God awful -- unlike that fella Karl served under.

Anyway, Karl's biggest challenge was making the death of Osama bin Laden seem like one of those not-automatically-terrible-so-it-must-be-trivial things and he hit kind of a dead end. There's no way he could do it. Scratch that; there's no way he could do it honestly. This is Karl Rove here, so he quickly overcame this problem.

"As for the killing of Osama bin Laden, Mr. Obama did what virtually any commander in chief would have done in the same situation," Karl writes. "Even President Bill Clinton says in the film 'that’s the call I would have made.' For this to be portrayed as the epic achievement of the first term tells you how bare the White House cupboards are."

Tiny little bit of a problem here: that's not exactly what Clinton said. What Bill said was, "He took the harder and the more honorable path. When I saw what had happened, I thought to myself, 'I hope that’s the call I would have made.'" Contrary to what Karl wants you to believe, Bill's not saying it was an easy decision anyone would've made, he's saying it was a hard decision.

And would Karl's boss have made that call? Here's GWB on the subject: "I truly am not that concerned about [Osama bin Laden]. I am deeply concerned about Iraq... I really just don’t spend that much time on him, to be honest with you."

So I'm going to go out on a limb and say no. (Plum Line)


-The Distracto DeVille Deluxe-



"Guess it's back to calling women sluts, then." (McClatchy)


-Bonus HotD-
"Ann Coulter Says It Is Now Time To ‘Go After’ The Obama Children."

Ann who?

Oh yeah... She's that one woman who used to say deliberately offensive things for a living. The troll lady... You know...

Man, I thought she'd be insane and homeless by now. I guess I was half right. (Wonkette)

Stories to Watch: 1/21/12

OK, I'm back. I've still got a little work at the end of the driveway, where the snowplow got me last night, but otherwise I'm set. Luckily, we were spared the larger portion of the mess, which passed to the south. Now here's the news...


Nate Silver has Gingrich 8 points up as South Carolinians head to the polls, giving him an 82% chance of taking that state. A big part of the story here: Mittens sucks at playing defense.


And it's not just South Carolina. Romney's numbers are nosediving nationally, as Gallup has him down 10 points in one week. He's still in the lead, but the media's beloved "momentum" narrative is becoming a "stalled momentum" narrative.


All of this has to make Democrats happy, since Newt would be an astonishingly poor choice as his party's nominee. In fact, don't be surprised if Team Obama starts talking about Gingrich more than Romney. It'd lend Newt's campaign more legitimacy and drive the rabidly anti-Obama -- led by their jerking knees -- to Gingrich. It's what I'd do, anyway.


Huckabee goes birther.


Many on the left want to make the Citizens United ruling a campaign issue, drawing parallels to Romney's Bain past.


Some of the Justice Department's evidence against Megaupload is sketchy. Meanwhile, people who used the service to store legit files are screwed -- making government anti-piracy efforts even less popular than they were before.


Ghosts on the campaign trail; top billing on South Carolina's Republican Primary ballot goes to Michele Bachmann, followed by Herman Cain. They'd already qualified for the ballot before they dropped out and the names are listed alphabetically.


Finally, the three little words every Republican candidate has so much trouble saying; "George W. Bush."

Related articles

• In Conn., Romney Wins GOP Fundraiser Straw Poll As Voting Underway In South Carolina (newyork.cbslocal.com)
• Gingrich's Race Baiting Strategy Pays Off in S. Carolina (littlegreenfootballs.com)
• Early Voting Starts Saturday Across South Florida (miami.cbslocal.com)
• Derailing the Romney Express (capitolhillblue.com)

Stories to Watch: 10/6/11

Another gorgeous day. Going to have to do something about all the leaves soon, though. I actually kind of like raking, if the weather's nice. A good excuse to get outside and just do a pleasant and undemanding chore. It's all very zen. Now here's the news...


In the Massachusetts Senate race, Republican incumbent Scott Brown decides that being a dick is a real smart move. He might consider a strategy that involves more friend-making and less enemy-making in the future, since the 'baggers plan to cut him loose.


Republicans want President Obama's blackberry messages in a Solyndra probe. It would be poetic justice for the president to tell them, "What George W. Bush said."


Scientific idiocy in the pages of the Wall Street Journal? Imagine my shock.


Lindsey Graham plays the victim card on Rick Perry's behalf. It seems that you can't get away with racism in the south anymore and this is a terrible, terrible thing. Or something. Serious, I can't make heads or tails of this argument.


Jobless claims seem to be holding pretty steady, hovering "near levels normally associated with improving labor market conditions." Economists said this is "yet another sign the ailing economy was not falling back into recession."


Westboro Baptist Hate Cult are now officially clowns.


The health insurance industry jumps aboard the campaign to save healthcare reform.


How to hand down the death penalty -- without a trial.


Finally, Bank of America's decision to charge a fee for debit cards is beginning to look Netflixian in its stupidity. The bank's website may have actually been brought down several times by all the customers rushing to close their accounts. Of course BoA won't confirm this, other than to say that traffic has been heavy lately.

Related articles

• Scott Brown May Have Just Lost His Senate Seat (buzzfeed.com)
• Scott Brown On Elizabeth Warren 'Keeping Her Clothes On' During College: 'Thank God' (mediaite.com)
• Poll: Massachusetts Senate race heats up (politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com)
• Bank Of America Debit Fee: D.C. Woman Gathers 137,000 Signatures In Protest (huffingtonpost.com)

News Roundup for 9/1/11

Turns out this is illegal

-Headline of the Day-
"Justice Department Tougher On Abortion Protesters."

People who yell at ladies outside women's health clinics are shocked to discover the President Barack HUSSEIN Obama isn't as willing to look the other way as the Oh-so-Christian GWB was. See, it seems there's a law against that sort of thing and people have been breaking it -- a lot. According to the report, "Under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE Act, the Justice Department's civil rights division has filed eight civil cases since the start of the Obama administration. That's a big increase over the George W. Bush years, when one case was filed in eight years."

The FACE basically makes it illegal to keep people from entering a clinic, but it also includes penalties for trespassing. Clinics have used the trespassing provision to create a "buffer zone" to keep the nuts away, but the Bush administration had a bad habit of not giving a fuck. Now the free ride is over.

"There's been a substantial difference between this administration and the one immediately prior," says Ellen Gertzog, director of security for Planned Parenthood. "From where we sit, there's currently much greater willingness to carefully assess incidents when they occur and to proceed with legal action when appropriate."

Now would seem to be a good time to point out another news story of the day: the US ranks 41st in the world in terms of infant mortality, which -- for the record -- is just awful.

Want to save some babies in real numbers? Put down the aborted fetus signs, quit the Republican Party, and become activists for real healthcare reform.

Just sayin'. (NPR)


-Moammar and the monster-
Qadaffi gets some really solid advice from a fellow human rights violator.


Click to embiggen

Actually, that doesn't really seem to be working for Dick. (Truthdig)


-BonusHotD-
"Arizona GOP Fundraiser Remembers Giffords Shooting With Glock Raffle."

Pure class... (Wonkette)

News Roundup for 8/4/11

History's greatest educator

-Headline of the Day-
"How Bush Killed Bin Laden: What’s Really In Huckabee’s 9/11 Cartoon."

Mike Huckabee is a man who thinks of the children. And so it only makes sense that he puts out cartoons that help the little tykes understand history. In one video, kids learn how Ronald Reagan saved America from black thugs in t-shirts that said "DISCO" on them and Franklin D. Roosevelt wasn't around to fight WWII. You know, real accurate stuff.

And so it is with 9/11 and terrorism. In case you've forgotten, the story goes like this: a bunch of Muslims attacked America, because they hate our freedom and because they were Muslims. Then George W. Bush yelled at them with a bullhorn and gave birth to the PATRIOT Act atop the pile of rubble. Liberals, of course, hated the whole idea because they like terrorists and don't like to make people mad, so they just wanted to forget 9/11 ever happened.

But not George W. Bush! He did a bunch of intelligence stuff and some stuff happened for a while that no one really needs to know all that much about and then, lo and behold, Osama bin Laden was dead! Yay for Bush!

Thank God we have Mike Huckabee to set the record straight. (Talking Points Memo)


-Cartoon time with Mark Fiore-
Hey kids, with all the fightin' and feudin' and fussin', wouldn't a little "bipartisanship" be nice? Well, we're going to find out how bipartisanship in Washington works Yay!


Click for animation

Remember, bipartisanship means never having to say you're sorry for breaking someone's kneecaps with tire iron. (MarkFiore.com)


-Bonus HotD-
"Obama Turns 50 Despite Republican Opposition."

Onion headlines are often amazingly accurate. (The Onion)

News Roundup for 5/19/11

President Obama

-Headline of the day-
"The 'death hug' strategy."

If you've been paying attention to early Obama campaigning, you've noticed something a little strange -- the president has been praising possible '12 GOP opponents. Mitt Romney got a nice thank you for laying the groundwork for healthcare reform, as did Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels. And John Huntsman got a big round of applause for all the awesome work he did in the Obama administration.

You see what's happening here, right? According to the report, this "sort of political maneuver has colloquially become known as a 'death hug' for the frequency with which Obama and his allies have used it against Republicans." See, it seems the Obama administration looked out at the nutjobs who'll likely make the difference in the GOP primary and decided to use them. It's fiendish, in a fun sort of trollish way; don't paint your opponents as to far to the right, congratulate them for being so far to the left. Since "the left" has become synonymous with reality, this will leave only the frootloops unpraised. Then sit back, watch the crazies pick off the candidates you least want to run against, and win easily next November over the Bachmann/Cain ticket.

"Imagine it's 2003 and George W. Bush is praising certain Democratic presidential candidates, noting key areas of policy agreement with those candidates, and in one case, noting that one of the candidates was a member of his administration," Steve Benen explains. "Do you think this might affect the attitudes of Democratic primary voters about those candidates? I do."

Like all the nuttiness you've whipped up since Obama was elected, GOP? I hope so, because you're gonna eat it. (Political Animal)


-Cartoon time with Mark Fiore-
Hey kids, wanna know what it means to be American? let's ask the...




Click for animation

Stand up and salute! (MarkFiore.com)


-Bonus HotD-
"What Bachmann is thinking about as she considers a run for president."

Let me take a stab at that!

I'm guessing it's "..." (MinnPost.com)

News Roundup for 5/5/11

Jane Corwin

-Headline of the day-
"Blogger Who Punked Gov. Walker Mocks Campaign Rival With Fake Website."

Go to JaneCorwin.org. Do it now. Shut up. I don't care. Just do it.

Ok, so that was weird, huh? Corwin is a Republican is running in a special election to replace the naked Craigslist guy (yeah, this thing is fun on all sorts of levels) and I think you've probably already figured out that's not really her site.

According to the report, "The site was registered by Paul Fallon, publisher of The Buffalo Beast, under whose aegis blogger Ian Murphy tricked Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) by pretending to be billionaire libertarian financier David Koch during a telephone call in February." Yeah, you remember that guy... Now he's running as a Green for the naked guy's office too (I almost said "naked guy's seat," which would've been terrible).

Anyway, if you go to the site, you learn fascinating things about Corwin (she wants to make soup out of old people, she has a "comprehensive pandering strategy," etc.) and find that she's endorsed by Moummar Qadaffi, Donald Trump, and Kim Jong Il.

The lesson here: if you're going to start buying domain names for your campaign, make sure you grab all the dot-net, dot-org, and dot-whatevers. Otherwise, people will think that less-than-reputable characters like George W. Bush are your Facebook friends. (The Atlantic, via ShortformBlog)


-Cartoon time with Mark Fiore-
Hey kids, you probably heard that they got that Osama bin Laden guy -- now here's the story in cartoon form! Yay!



Click for animation

Wow, Uncle Mark's idea of hell is exactly the same as mine! Weird... (MarkFiore.com)


-Bonus HotD-
"Exxon Makes $30.5 Billion, So GOP Votes Unanimously To Give Them Tax Breaks."

If we don't give these tax breaks to small businesses, they'll never get off the ground. (ThinkProgress)

News Roundup for 5/3/11

Whew!

-Headline of the day-
"Public 'Relieved' By bin Laden's Death, Obama's Job Approval Rises."

After going to Afghanistan and personally beating Osama bin Laden to death with a lamp, President Obama is only seeing a mild bump in the polls. Then again, it's still early. Pew took a look at public's reaction and finds that "relieved" is the most common emotion attached to the event, with 72% using the word to describe themselves.

Overall, the president's approvals stand at 56% approving and 38% disapproving, compared to a 47%/45% split last month. Not surprisingly, Independents make up most of that, with approvals rising 10 points to 52% from last month.

But here's the weird thing: Repblican number have shifted in a way I can only describe as goofy. In April, 16% approved of Obama. In May, 16% approve of Obama -- identical. But last month, 81% disapproved, while today, 79% disapprove. So you can not get a Republican to switch from disapprove to approve. You can only get them to switch from disapprove to no opinion.

Kind of makes them seem like stubborn jerks, doesn't it? (Pew Research Center)


-No comment-



(Reddit)


-Bonus HotD-
"Rep. Peter King: We Should Still Use Waterboarding Because That's How We Captured Bin Laden."

Except it's not. (ThinkProgress)

News Roundup for 4/25/11

Barack HUSSEIN Obama, shown hating Easter with a Muslim bunny

-Headline of the Day-
"Even for Fox, a Cheap Attack."

Fox News is breaking the super-important news that President Obama "failed to release a statement or a proclamation recognizing the national observance of Easter Sunday, Christianity's most sacred holiday."

Why? Probably because he's a secret Muslim terr'ist. Obama issued proclamations recognizing "Ramadan, Eid-ul-Fitr, Hajj, and Eid-ul-Adha" -- all crazy Moozlim holidays -- but nothing for Easter. He also "failed to release a statement marking Good Friday," which is the worst thing ever.

"George W. Bush was in office for eight years," comments Steve Benen. "How many Easter proclamations did he issue? Zero."

Dear Sweet God... Dubya was a secret Muslim terr'ist too! In fact, it's worse than that. Charles Johnson looked back further and found that "Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush -— none of them issued official Easter proclamations."

Reagan? A terr'ist? By now, the US is obviously a secret caliphate!

America is clearly doomed. (Political Animal)


-And Mittens is the "serious" candidate-
The GOP presidential field is made up mostly of attention whores and teabagger frootloops. Which makes Mittens Romney kind of stand out. He's the "not crazy" one.

Well, that branding isn't going to work in today's Republican Party, so Romney decided to fix the perception that he's an elitist (i.e., someone who knows what the hell he's talking about).

In an op-ed for the New Hampshire Union Leader, Mittens wrote that President Obama is engaged in "one of the biggest peacetime spending binges in American history."

There ya go. He's no longer handicapped by the embarrassing appearance of competence. (Plum Line)


-Bonus HotD-
"Walker: Too Many Recalls 'Makes It Very Hard' To Get Things Done."

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker simply does not care for recall elections.

For the record, this opinion is a fairly recent development. (Talking Points Memo)

Stories to Watch: 4/9/11

Man, is this ever one gloomy Saturday. Must be April. Now here's the news...


No government shutdown, Planned Parenthood and the EPA remain funded. 'Baggers are furious, freshman 'bagger reps are less than enthused.


Steve Benen points out that Reagan signed Planned Parenthood funding too. Of course this doesn't matter, since the 'baggers worship a different Reagan than the real one.


Another day, another rip on the talking heads' narrative that Paul Ryan's budget porn is "serious."


Thank Donald Trump for this one: the right is starting to consume itself over the birther goofiness. WingNutDaily cheers on attacks against Rush Limbaugh for not being birther enough.


In Wisconsin Supreme Court race news, incumbent Prosser hires George W. Bush's recount lawyer, while challenger Kloppenburg hires Al Franken's. These people don't come cheap.


A "minor incident" at a Washington state nuclear plant forces the evacuation of 25 workers. Now seems like a good time to point out that a "minor incident" at a wind farm probably requires someone to climb up there and poke the turbine with a broom handle.


Finally, Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl explains his claim that 90% of Planned Parenthood funding pays for abortion services. In a statement released by his office, Kyl explains the figure "was not intended to be a factual statement." This is the definition of a deliberate lie. That's pretty much the whole problem everyone had with it in the first place, Jon.

News Roundup for 2/24/11

Wow, they just lie to everybody, don't they?

-Headline of the day-
"Records Say Fox News Chief Told Employee to Lie."

OK, this one gets a little complicated right off the bat. Turns out that Fox News big Roger Ailes wanted to a keep secret that would've hurt a buddy. See former bigtime publisher lady Judith Regan was having an affair with corrupt Bush Homeland Security appointee Bernie Kerik. Bernie Kerik got busted and Ailes told Regan to lie to investigators, because it would've embarrassed then-presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani, former Mayor of NYC and current Nosferatu impersonator. See, Rudy had suggested Kerik to Bush, because he was trying to set him up as a hero of 9/11.

This all unraveled pretty quickly and the only real question was who the Fox exec was who was ordering Regan to lie. Now, affidavits show it was Ailes. Now, Roger's in trouble because this is a legal technicality commonly known as a "crime."

But don't worry, Ailes is a really, really rich guy and the only time a really, really rich guy goes to jail is if he pisses everyone off -- like Bernie Madoff. Ailes has only pissed off little people, like you and me, so he ought to be fine.

He can go back to doing what he does best -- lying to everyone else. (New York Times)


-Well that worked out well...-
Lisa Fitzgerald works as a counselor in the Hustisford school district. It's a nice area, kids are little pricks -- nice job, actually. So you can imagine how she must've felt when she received a layoff notice from the district.

Seems that uncertainty about the budget is forcing schools to drastic extremes -- everyone in Hustisford got the notice because, without a new budget, they aren't going to have any money. This school will have to shut its doors. And, since Wisconsin Republicans refuse to negotiate anything, the fault for these layoffs can be laid at their feet.

This is especially bad news for one of the players in the standoff. Senate majority leader Scott Fitzgerald is Lisa's husband. That's right, Scott just basically canned his own wife.

I'm guessing he's sleeping in the garage for a while. (Talking Points Memo)


-Bonus HotD-
"Texas Resident Arrested on Charge of Attempted Use of Weapon of Mass Destruction."

Surprisingly, it's not George W. Bush. (US Dept. of Justice)

Stories to Watch: 2/5/11

I'm making sourdough pancakes tonight. I've got some blueberries I need to use up and it's time to feed the starter, so breakfast for dinner it is. Now here's the news...


Top leaders in Egypt resign, but Hosni Mubarak remains in office. The Egyptian people say that's not good enough.


The White House backs a transitional government led by handpicked Mubarak puppet Omar Suleiman. I'm guessing this is backing the wrong horse. Especially seeing how he's just survived his first assassination attempt.


House Republicans decide to take on Planned Parenthood. And doing a shitty job of it. The next time a GOPer tells you they're completely focused on jobs, go ahead and laugh in their face.


As long as we're talking about Republicans and abortion, this is just awful. I sometimes wonder why Republicans aren't constantly ashamed of themselves.


This is likewise just awful.


Finally, if George W. Bush goes to Switzerland, they'll arrest him. So he ain't goin'.

Stories to Watch: 2/4/11

After blogger's post editor ate two consecutive blog posts, I decided it was maybe time to find some sort of HTML editor. I liked Scribefire for Firefox a lot, but the version for Chrome was just awful. I tried a Chrome extension and uninstalled it again after one post -- it added a whole bunch of pointless, useless code to everything. I finally went with Kompozer. We'll see how that holds up. I actually had to go online to see how to get it to spellcheck. Can't believe that's not the default. Otherwise, good so far. Now here's the news...


Gallup finds that Barack Obama is more polarizing in year two than in year one. The most polarizing president in history? Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush.

In a move that's going to really tick off a lot of the neocons who'd convinced themselves he was the greatest, Sen. Rand Paul calls aid to Israel "welfare" and says we ought to cut it out.


After Mubarak's staged "counter-protest" turned violent, Egyptians go right back to calling for him to leave office. Hundreds of thousands say they won't leave Tahir Square until he's gone.


The right is trying the same bullshit they pulled on ACORN with Planned Parenthood.


She-who-shall-not-be-named-in-February fails to get that unmentioned name trademarked. Expect a poorly thought-out Facebook post attacking the US Patent Office.


Finally, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' conflicts of interest deepen every day.

The Moment Operation Iraqi Freedom Ended

A story I'm unwilling to let go overlooked by this blog.

That's it folks, Operation Iraqi Freedom has officially gone out of business. Peace out, y'all.

How Not to Lose an Election

Frank Rich writes in his weekly column that Obama and the Democrats are about to learn "How to Lose an Election." In short, he believes Democrats are making a mistake in running against Bush. He points to President Obama's assertion that the GOP is "betting on amnesia" and argues that this isn't exactly a bad bet.

Betting on amnesia is almost always a winning, not a losing, wager in America. Angry demonstrators at health care town-hall meetings didn’t remember that Medicare is a government program, and fewer and fewer voters of both parties recall that the widely loathed TARP was a Bush administration creation supported by the G.O.P. Congressional leadership. So many Republicans don’t know Obama is a natural citizen — 41 percent in a poll last week — that we must (charitably) assume some of them have forgotten that Hawaii was granted statehood. The G.O.P. chairman is sufficiently afflicted with amnesia that he matter-of-factly regaled an audience with the counterfactual observation that the war in Afghanistan, Bush’s immediate response to 9/11, began under Obama.

The president is also wrong when he says that every single current G.O.P. idea is a Bush idea. Many are not. And those that are not are far more radical.

It's good point, but one that's undercut by the following point and ignores the reason why people have these misconceptions. First, if everyone's forgotten just how much they hated Bush, they're about to rediscover that relationship. The GOP is nearly unchanged since Bush was in the Oval Office and what changes they've made have been a shift toward crazier, as Rich points out.

Second, the reason that people believe all these things is because Republicans keep lying about them. They just repeat things over and over and over until enough people believe them. If Democrats start doing the same thing, only truthfully, the effect should be the same. Republicans aren't magic and messaging isn't a one way street.

Democrats could easily counter these lies by always telling the truth -- even when not asked. Ask a Republican, "What's your favorite color?" and they'll answer, "Well, as you know, the stimulus was a complete failure and tax cuts have been proven to increase revenues..." Democrats should do the same thing.

Only with facts.