Stories to Watch: 4/3/11

I made a deep dish pizza last night which was just insanely good. I used this recipe for the crust, then just winged the rest. Seriously, this was the best thing I've made in a while and I'm a good cook. Breakfast today? Cold pizza. Now here's the news...


Just a reminder, the damage to the Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant is still an ongoing crisis. I can't be the only one detecting western media getting bored with the story, can I? It'd be interesting to see a poll tracking how many Americans think the problem's been solved.


New and shameful rightwing fad: apologism for Terry Jones, whose burning of the Quran left 12 UN workers in Afghanistan dead.


Obama weighs in on the budget standoff, displaying -- as he did with the healthcare debate -- his strategy of letting things spiral completely out of control before grabbing the yoke and trying -- too late -- to pull the whole thing out of a tailspin. Leaving everything up to congress didn't work when both chambers were Democratic -- why on Earth would anyone expect it to work any better now?


The GOP's big budget plan: slash entitlements for you, keep the insanely low taxation for corporations and the wealthy. Because that's been working so well for everyone.


For example: GE infamously paid no federal income taxes last year, which is apparently too large a tax burden. Ask Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC), he'll tell you.


Finally, Donald Trump hates on America. At least, that'd be the spin if Barack Obama had said the very same thing.

Stories to Watch: 4/1/11

Hey, your shoe's untied. Quick, look behind you! Do you have Prince Albert in a can? Now here's the news...


Remember Terry Jones, the asshole who threatened to burn a Quran? Yeah, he finally got around to it and at least 12 people died because of it. There are no good guys in this story -- one book isn't worth 12 lives, so the Afghans who did the killing are assholes too. But when everyone's telling you that you're going to get people killed, you probably shouldn't burn the goddam book. What a useless, useless pile of crap Terry Jones is.


Shelly Bachmann has raised over $2 million for a presidential run so far. For the record, that money is what it's all about. When outside interests "draft" losers like Bachmann, those interests are usually professional fundraisers -- who get a cut of the take. They don't care whether or not she can win, they just know the 'baggers love her and will give her lots of money. Michele Bachmann isn't a candidate, she's a goldmine.


One Wisconsin recall is all but officially underway, as canvassers turn in "more than enough signatures to launch a recall of Republican state Sen. Dan Kapanke." Bad news for Spanky Kapanke -- they had 60 days to gather enough signatures, but they needed less than half that time. Let's hope they have that kind of success in Ohio.


In related news: Judge Sumi's temporary restraining order on the union-buster may hold the law up for weeks. Now seems like an excellent time to remind everyone that all the GOP has to do to get this passed is schedule another vote with proper notice. That they aren't tells you all you need to know about how many votes it would get on a do-over. If this thing can't survive the courts, it looks like Scott Walker's dream of crushing unions to make the ghost of Reagan smile is over.


Libyan rebels are now hoping for what sounds like is essentially a draw. Juan Cole has the latest.


Joseph Stiglitz has a must-read in which he spells out how the top 1% pretty much own America, how it warps our politics, and how it won't work out well for anyone -- even that top 1% -- in the end. It ain't pretty.


Finally, intrusive, burdensome commie gummint regulations are responsible for the lowest traffic fatality rate since 1949.