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: 8/10/11

I had a cable guy come out and install a new box. Worked great for a bit, then the cable sputtered and died, cutting in and out with greater frequency until it finally went out altogether. I called the company and they told me it wasn't the new box, it's an area-wide outage. What are the odds? At least I get my internet through the phone company. Now here's the news...


Polling on the new "super-committee" on deficit reduction, CNN has good news, bad news, and (arguably) good news within the bad news. The good news is that 63% want to increase taxes on the wealthy, the bad news is that 57% want "major cuts in domestic spending." The good news within the bad news is that people obviously have no idea what domestic spending actually is. "Nearly two-thirds say no to major changes to Social Security and Medicare," we're told. So the good news within the bad news is that the deep cuts in domestic spending everyone wants are impossible -- which is good, because they would be stupid. Through the process of elimination, soak the rich it is.


Polling the same issue, Gallup finds that everyone wants compromise -- except the 'baggers.


Senate party leaders have announced their picks for the super-committee and one of Harry Reid's choices is characteristically idiotic. Fake dem Max Baucus will sit on the committee, making certain that conservatives have most of the votes on the Senate side. Was Joe Lieberman busy? Can't anybody here play this game? (For a differing opinion, check Steve Benen -- but I'm pretty sure liberals will wind up cursing Baucus before all is said and done).


The word of the day on Wall Stree is "Yikes!"


RNC head Reince Priebus says that the GOP's poll numbers are nosediving because people don't like Obama. No, really.


Finally, John Nichols calls BS on GOP triumphalism over the recall elections last night. You don't lose two senate seats to a recall and get to declare yourselves the winner. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin agrees.

Related articles

• Murray: All is on table in debt "super committee" (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Baucus added to debt super committee - msnbc.com (news.google.com)
• Awaiting Nancy Pelosi's picks for deficit committee (sfgate.com)
• Dow Jones Closes Down More Than 520 Points, Ninth Worst Point-Loss Ever (huffingtonpost.com)

Stories to Watch: 8/2/11

Burgers tonight -- inside, in a skillet, because there's no way you can imagine what it's like out there now. It's a freaking sauna. And it looks like rain. Now here's the news...


Biden's alleged "terrorists" comment brings down an avalanche of victim cards. Remember it the next time one of these clowns calls a Democrat a Marxist.


Tiny pinhole of sunlight in the debt limit deal: Nancy Pelosi gets to appoint the House dems on the "super-committee" and she says she's not appointing anyone who'll allow cuts in entitlement benefits.


The Economic Policy Institute has issued a report finding that the debt limit deal will cost 1.8 million jobs in 2012. And, now that the debt ceiling stupidity is behind them, Democrats think it's time to focus on jobs. Too late, guys. Too late.


Joe Lieberman is insane.


Returning to yesterday's theme, the stock market hates the debt limit deal.


The Republican commitment to America can only go so far. Asking that their fundraising doodads be American-made is apparently too far.


Hate-porn writer Pam Geller's new book is eerily similar to Anders Breivik's crazy-assed manifesto.


MSNBC's Rachel Maddow isn't going anywhere any time soon. The network extended her contract until 2014.


Finally, Rick Santorum is Glenn-Beck-level crazy.

Related articles

• Joe Lieberman: We Have To Cut Social Security So We Can Fight Muslim Extremists (alan.com)
• Rachel Maddow Signs Multi-Year Contract Extension at MSNBC (aoltv.com)
• Stocks extend fall as Senate votes on debt plan (marketwatch.com)
• Wall Street on Debt Deal: So What? (foxbusiness.com)

News Roundup for 1/24/11

After retiring, Joe Lieberman plans to celebrate his re-election

-Headline of the day-
"Lieberman to retire in 2012 but 'confident he would have won' a fifth term."

Joementum's quitting the whole governing business because he wants to retire to Sussex Downs to keep bees. Or something like that.

Whatever the reason, it's super-important that you know it isn't because he didn't stand a chance in hell of being re-elected. That's just a horrible lie made up by commies, terrorists, and the 66% of Connecticut voters who say they'd replace him.

Of course, you might be asking what difference it makes. If Lieberman's retiring, why would he even bother to speculate on an election that's never going to happen?

Ego, young grasshopper. Ego. (New Haven Register)


-Because that's just too short-
Rush Limbaugh pegged hypocrisy meters nationwide when he critiqued President Obama's State of the Union speech in advance:



"I know a lot of you don't want to watch this... I'm like you. Who wants to sit there and listen to somebody lie for an hour and fifteen minutes?" Rush asked.

I know what you're thinking and it's not fair. Rush's show is three full hours, so there's a difference. (Mediaite)


-HotD-
"78-year-old woman gets death threats after Beck shouts conspiracy."

But remember, it's completely irresponsible to say that rightwing hate talk inspires violence.(Raw Story)

Griper Blade: No John, 'The Surge' Didn't Work

Last week wasn't John McCain's best week. A market meltdown exposed the shortcomings of McCain's ideology of deregulation and set him back on his heels. With 83 Wall Street lobbyists working on his campaign, McCain not only found himself in the position of being a Washington insider running against the Washington establishment, but as a Wall Street insider running against Wall Street. That didn't work so well. It was a gaffe-filled week for McCain-Palin, with both the candidate and running mate scrambling to find some sort of footing in the new political landscape.

In fact, the week was so bad for McCain that conservative columnist George Will took him out to the woodshed on ABC's This Week Sunday, telling the panel that he blew it on the economy.

"I suppose the McCain campaign's hope is that when there's a big crisis, people will go for age and experience," George Will said. "The question is who in this crisis looked more presidential, calm and unflustered. It wasn't John McCain, who, as usual, substituting vehemence for coherence said let's fire somebody and picked one of the most experienced and conservative people in the administration."

On the same show, Sam Donaldson wondered if there wasn't something wrong with McCain's head, asking if McCain wasn't "getting his talking points confused" and saying that "I think the question of McCain’s age is back on the table."...

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Afghana-What-Now?

I came across this after writing a morning post about how little talk there was about the future at the RNC last night.

Matt Yglesias makes an interesting observation regarding another ignored issue:

clipped from yglesias.thinkprogress.org Tuesday night’s three GOP headliners — Fred Thompson, George W. Bush, and Joe Lieberman — all get through speeches that don’t mention the war in Afghanistan at all.

Griper Blade: The Future is not Welcome at the RNC

One of the measures of how well the Republican National Convention went last night is whether it knocked the Sarah Palin stories off the front page. Or, at least, changed the tone from scandalous to... I don't know, something other than scandalous.

So the first thing I did when I logged on this morning was check the top headlines at Google News. Headline #1; "High-profile teen pregnancies in spotlight." The first sentence; "The revelation that Bristol Palin, the 17-year-old daughter of GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, is five months pregnant puts teen pregnancy squarely in the spotlight again this summer."

Mission most definitely not accomplished. Despite Fred Thompson's assertion that "the selection of Governor Palin has the other side and their friends in the media in a state of panic," blind panic isn't the vibe I'm getting. I think the word Fred was searching for here is "glee."

George W. Bush managed to accomplish what most of the party preferred -- to both be there and not be there, giving a relatively short address via video. I don't know that having GWB on a giant screen, distributing talking points like Big Brother was all that great an idea, but what's done is done.

And making the headliner Joe Lieberman was almost inarguably a mistake. He's about as exciting as reading a dictionary. Worse, he topped off a night of "Yay for Sarah Palin!" with a weak endorsement. Newsweek's Adam Kushner calls Lieberman's address "languid," "pleading," and "placid." The guy is famous for being boring. The RNC seemed to recognize this fact by making Lieberman's speech as short as Bush's...

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Griper Blade: The Man Everyone Loves to Hate

OK, so now we've got an official Democratic nominee. As the roll call vote unfolded, the State of New York stopped the voting and Sen. Hillary Clinton moved that they forego the vote and nominate Barack Obama by acclamation. The motion carried and Barack Obama became the party's nominee.

Tonight, Barack Obama will speak to a crowd at Invesco stadium as the party's nominee. After this stupid-long campaign so far, it seems crazy to say it, but the general election is nearly underway. At least, in an official sense. Party nominations have become formalities in recent elections, tightly scripted and choreographed, without unpleasant surprises.

So, for all intents and purposes, we have a Democratic presidential candidate, a Democratic running mate, a Republican presidential candidate, and a big ol' honkin' question mark. Who is McCain's choice?

Signs point to Lieberman, but signs can be (deliberately) misleading...

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