Stories to Watch: 5/13/14

Turns out that it's actually possible for Chris Christie's bridge scandal to get even worse.


I certainly hope this is the stupidest, most ignorant statement I'll read this week; Marco Rubio admits that climate change is happening, but says that it's silly to assume it's human-caused because of a mere "handful of decades of research." Consider the amazing dumbfuckery of that phrase -- "handful of decades of research." I'd nominate Rubio for stupidest member of the Senate... if it weren't for the existence of Sen. Ron Johnson, who would lose a battle of wits to a boat anchor. Still, Marco's runner up.


Related: a new study finds that the tipping point is now and that the thaw of Antarctic glaciers may now be irreversible. Keep in mind that people like Rubio admit that climate change is happening, but that we shouldn't do anything about it. Instead, we should all fuck off and literally die, because only a "handful of decades of research" says we can do anything about it. Climate deniers are far, far more evil than the people who denied until it was undeniable that smoking causes cancer. They know better. They know their lies will come with a massive death toll. But they just don't care, because they think they can make a few extra bucks by putting off avoiding all those deaths. Like I said, evil. Beneath contempt.


Of course, this sort of stupidity really is a party-wide phenomenon. Case in point: a Georgia Republican Senate candidate says the gender pay gap doesn't exist because it's never happened to her. This is the level of genius that has them believing that if it's cold where they are, it proves global warming doesn't exist. Needless to say, this is the same sort of reasoning babies use when they cover their face with their hands and think they're hiding -- i.e., they can't see you, therefore you can't see them. It's like they're from a different planet where logic was never developed. Or (and this is far more likely) they hope we are.


I love it when conservatives call Democrats "elitists." Check out the swanky legal bribes Republicans get from the American Enterprise Institute. They're so afraid of what this would look like that they've kept it a secret. It was only through the investigative efforts of the Center for Public Integrity. We're the elitists, yet they're living like French royalty in the last days before The Terror.


In case you missed, Karl Rove is the lowest of the low. Not exactly news, I know.


A filing snafu means that longtime Michigan Democratic Rep. John Conyers is probably going to have to run as a write-in candidate in the primary.


Michael Sam rookies jerseys are selling like hotcakes.


Finally, a nutjob group called "Operation American Spring" says that between 10-30 million 'baggers are going to converge on Washington Friday to drive Pres. Obama and Democrats out of Washington, so if you see a news story about ten or twelve crackpots with misspelled signs, that'll be them.


[cartoon via McClatchy Newspapers]

Stories to watch: 5/12/14

Pretend neocon intellectual Charles Krauthammer warns House Republicans not to turn the BENGHAZI!! hearings into a "political circus." Of course, this is like warning Disney not to turn Dumbo into a movie about an elephant. There has never been a time that BENGHAZI!! wasn't a circus.


It's one of those good news/bad news things. FCC chair Tom Wheeler makes changes to his plan to gut the principle of net neutrality. The bad news is that, as Kevin Drum points out, he's only pretending to tweak his plan. The good news however, is that pressure from the public and internet companies has made the pretense seem necessary at all. The momentum is clearly ours here, let's not let up now.


Moyers & Company reports that Bill Clinton's "welfare reform" effort created a system rife with racial bias and all-around failure. The failure of welfare reform is not a new story, but it pays to revisit it from time to time, if only to take away two lessons -- if you meet Republican BS halfway and take it seriously, you're headed for disaster. Meeting someone crazy halfway is halfway crazy. Second, if you try to appease Republicans by throwing them a bone, they're not going to suddenly love you. You can fight them or you can ignore them, but you can never work with the GOP and be their friend. They plain aren't interested. In their minds, Democrats shouldn't just be opposed, they should be punished for daring not to be Republicans.


In Virginia, Republicans lose ground in there War on Women, as the restoration of reproductive freedom begins.


The climate consensus  vs. deniers, portrayed hilariously accurately.


Finally, Senate Republicans' obstructionism is so out of control that they've managed to block a vote on the Keystone XL pipeline -- which, as you'll recall, they're supposed to be for. These people are toddlers.


[cartoon via Truthdig]

Stories to Watch: 5/9/14

It's all but official: the House BENGHAZI!! circus will be an all Republican affair.


The concrete industry alone is responsible for 5% of global CO2 emissions, making it a greenhouse polluter on a massive scale. One possible solution: say hello to hempcrete.


Perpetual clown Louie Gohmert takes to the floor of the House to compare gay rights advocates to Nazis. Everything's freakin ' Nazis to these guys and they trivialize the Holocaust on pretty much a daily basis. Republicans really need a history book with more than one page, just for variety. Obamacare's like Pol Pot, government regulations are like Vlad the Impaler -- stuff like that. Mix it up a little, guys. Absurd hyperbolic stupidity is no fun if it's also monotonous.


Republicans really need to stop believing their own horsecrap. In this episode, Iowa Attorney General Matt Schultz releases a report after a two-year investigation into voter fraud and winds up proving that it almost never happens, that it couldn't possibly make the difference in an election when it does, and that voter ID would do little to stop it when it does happen. If he'd just demogogued the issue instead of trying to prove it exists, he wouldn't be looking like such an anti-American, vote suppressing, democracy-hating, would-be tyrant right now.


The FBI is investigating racist anti-government welfare queen Cliven Bundy's supporters. Turns out that when you threaten federal agents with guns, shove them around, and kick their dog, that's kind of illegal. Send them to Gitmo.


Pope Francis calls for the "legitimate redistribution" of wealth. This sends conservatives into a fullblown, red-baiting tantrum. Didn't have to be Nostradamus to see that coming.


Finally, a judge strikes down Arkansas' ban on marriage equality. I wish Wisconsin would get on the ball here and legalize the 21st century. This is getting embarrassing. Instead, we're just legalizing corruption.


[cartoon via McClatchy Newspapers]

Stories to Watch: 5/8/14

Stupid Republican meme of the day: the kidnapping of schoolgirls, general violence, and bloodshed by the Nigerian religious fanatic group Boko Haram is all Hillary Clinton's fault, because of reasons. It' s all very, very stupid, but it could be worse -- they could be saying she engineered it to distract from BENGHAZI!! Although, I'm pretty sure it's just because that little conspiracy theory hasn't occurred to them yet.


And about the BENGHAZI!! hysteria theater super-serious and sober House Select Committee investigation: it's looking more and more like the GOP is going to try to impeach their second Democratic President in a row. It's like they get so worked up over their own bullshit that they just can't help but overplay their hand.


So why the big BENGHAZI!! fit at this articular moment in time? Because Republicans have quietly accepted that they've lost the Obamacare fight forever and they need some other manufactured mass panic to distract their marks from their failure.


Fox News' Geraldo Rivera stages a "man on the street"-style interview -- hilariously incompetently. This has been another episode of Fox Interviews Fox and Discovers Fox Agrees with Fox.


A bipartisan pair of FCC commissioners are making sure that the fight to save net neutrality isn't over.


Meanwhile, voter ID is dead as dead can be in Pennsylvania.


Finally, what seems to be a good day for Scott Walker is really just a breather. While an appeals court allowed an injuction against his corruption probe to be reissued, it's likely not the final word. Which is a good thing, because if it's allowed to stand, this ruling would be Citizens United times a million. "If sustained, this ruling is the death of campaign finance law as we know it in the state of Wisconsin and across the nation," one of the lawyers involved in the case said. "It will now be possible for a political candidate to personally conduct a campaign — soup to nuts — without disclosing a single campaign contribution." If it weren't for naked corruption and dirty tricks, Republicans wouldn't stand a chance in elections.

[cartoon via McClatchy Newspapers]

Stories to watch: 5/6/14

A new front in the GOP Civil War: Republican senators don't want Republican senators to run for president in 2016. The argument against a run from the Senate is that Washington is so toxic to voters that a senator doesn't stand a chance. The problem with that argument is that Hillary Clinton, who's far and away the current favorite, is just as much a creature of Washington as any of them. When you look at the GOP senate frontrunners -- Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio -- it becomes obvious that the argument is less about DC and more about the Republican Klown Kar. GOP Governors like Jeb Bush or Scott Walker aren't guaranteed losers (they're just extreme longshots), so their boosters trot out the "toxic Washington" argument as a smokescreen.


Republican congress critters are busy elbowing each other out of the way to get on Boehner's select committee on BENGHAZI!! That's truly bizarre if you this about it; GOP opportunists fighting over the scraps of an imaginary scandal. Harry Reid says there won't be a Senate panel, surprising no one.


Mozilla, the organization behind the popular Firefox browser, offers the FCC  a credible third way to maintain net neutrality.


The Stanford University endowment divests all investment in coal. "Moving away from coal in the investment context is a small but constructive step while work continues at Stanford and elsewhere to develop broadly viable sustainable energy solutions for the future," Stanford president John Hennessy says. While they don't give away specifics of their investments, the endowment's total worth $18.7 billion -- with a B -- so the divestment could be very substantial. According to Wonkblog, Stanford is the "twelfth and most prestigious university to divest under pressure from foes of fossil fuels. There's a surprisingly successful divestment campaign going on out there and it's flying under the radar. Here's hoping it's not too late.


Sen. Jay Rockefeller calls out Republican racism.


Finally, the Koch brothers attack the Columbus Zoo of all places.


[cartoon via Truthdig]

Stories to Watch: 5/2/14

Boehner decides to waste everyone's time with a House select committee probe into BENGHAZI!! The most pathetic part of all of this is that the story that triggered the latest outbreak of BENGHAZI!! fever has already fallen apart. This is going to be a three ring circus, with bullshit in every ring.


We got some good jobs numbers this month -- although not so good as they might seem.


Wisconsin Republicans make themselves a national joke with a convention vote insisting the state has the right to secede from the union. A lot of Wisconsin soldiers died for a cause that held the exact opposite -- that no state has the right to secede -- and these Tea Party fuckwits are pissing all over their graves. Because "patriots" renounce America when things don't go their way, I guess. I am so tired of these whiny intellectual lightweights who pretend to be patriots but are willing to kill Americans (i.e., "tyrants") and abandon the country if it suits them. They're just children having a tantrum because a black Democrat is in the White House.


The Republican plan to wipe out the Tea Party.


So, are white Republicans really more racist than white Democrats? Prepare to be whatever the opposite of surprised is.


Finally, a Satanic monument will go up in the Oklahoma capitol and it looks like something off a Black Sabbath album cover. While I appreciate the First Amendment argument behind the move, the way to turn Oklahoma into a more enlightened state is probably not to convince conservatives that they're literally battling Satan. You want conservative voters to stay home, not to run to the polls in a blind panic. Still, cool statue -- so metal.


[cartoon via TruthDig]

Stories to Watch: 5/1/14

Wisconsin Rebublicans say they won't try to patch their voter ID law before the election, because there isn't enough time. The law was struck down because of its blatantly racist nature and fixing it to pass constitutionmal muster would mean rewriting it so that it didn't disenfranchise minority voters -- i.e., eliminating the whole purpose of the law. If this ruling survives an appeal, expect the voter ID effort in the Badger State to quietly die. If it's not keeping minorities away from the polls, what would be the point?


Antonin Scalia goes the extra mile to prove he's a terribly incompetent Supreme Court Justice.


House Republicans release a survey showing that the number of people with health insurance is much lower than the 8 million Obamacare signups would suggest. One tiny little problem: it's bullshit. "The survey was so incredibly rigged to produce this result, it was a joke," said a source in the company that produced the report. "Everyone who saw it knew exactly what the goal was." Jonathon Cohn compares the GOP's approach to Obamacare to their approach to BENGHAZI!! -- i.e., the narrative isn't being adjusted to agree with the facts, the facts are being adjusted to support their obsession with a predetermined narrative.


Netflix is not giving up on net neutrality. Neither should you.


A South Dakota Republican freaks out about gay buttsex.


Finally, Seattle will have a $15 per hour minimum wage -- the highest in the nation. Expect conservatives to ignore how the city fails to collapse into economic chaos.


[cartoon via McClatchy Newspapers]

Stories to watch: 4/29/14

The United Church of Christ is suing North Carolina, arguing that the state's ban on same-sex marriage violates the church's First Amendment rights. That's right, a christian congregation is suing because banning marriage equality violates the church's religious freedom to perform such ceremonies. Just a reminder that the shrieking bigots who say they speak for all Christians do not and that religious liberty is restricted when religious ceremonies are criminalized, not when they're allowed. The haters have the argument 100%, completely bass-ackward. UCC is the denomination that the pilgrims of Plymouth Rock founded, by the way. You don't get any more American than that.


The Tea Party simply will not give up on the "death panels" lie. The truth is that it's fostering entrepreneurs -- which is kind of surprising from something that's supposed to be runaway naked Marxism.


Now that Don Sterling is functionally kicked out of the NBA, Fox News is in total panic mode. And it's not hard to understand why -- Cliven Bundy goes down in flames, Sterling goes down in flames. Hell, that's their business model and suddenly everyone's realizing it's hate. What do they do now, stick to reporting facts?


And it's not just Fox, other rightwingers are rushing to defend Sterling. Because if a billionaire can be brought down through his intolerance, what hope is there for the less influential bigot? And of course, there's the obligatory conspiracy theory.


But despite the fact that conservative racism has been big news lately, WingNutDaily founder Joseph Farah goes on the radio to insist that "you just don’t find racism" in the Republican Party. Meanwhile, the head of the Repudblican Party of Illinois apologizes for comparing Pres. Obama to "the offspring of a donkey and a zebra, black and white legs, rest all donkey."


Finally, Cliven Bundy's supporters are reportedly setting up armed checkpoints -- because some fucking nutjob sore-loser sticking an assault weapon in your face is liberty. And the right calls teachers "thugs." I'm against drone strikes, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't starting to see the attraction. Someone needs to shut these goons down.


[cartoon via McClatchy Newspapers]

Stories to Watch: 4/28/14

Remember when Harry Reid called Cliven Bundy supporters "domestic terrorists"? Yeah, they decided to respond to that percieved insult by proving him right, because 'baggers are smart like that.


If you're wondering what the next rightwing victim card freakout will be, this seems like a good candidate: Google has announced it will no longer feature ads for "crisis pregnancy centers." These centers are basically one big lie meant to misinform women about abortion. They can't lie to frightened, worried women anymore -- how terrible.


People believed that Obamacare meant that everyone would literally have a microchip embedded in their bodies. And not just a few nutjobs -- the lies have kept people who would benefit most from even considering signing up. I don't know whether to be angry at Republicans for being such shameless liars or disappointed with the people who believe them for being so limitlessly gullible, so I guess I'll do both.


Speaking of shockingly gullible Republican dupes: a look at life at the Bundy Ranch.


High school graduation rates reached a record 80% in 2010-11 -- I guess because Obama's Department of Education and those crazy moonbat ideas from teachers union thugs are all so terrible.


Not even the rightwing National Review can stomach Sarah Palin's self-promoting nonsense anymore.


More than 4% of death row inmates are likely to be innocent. Supporters like to say that the death penalty protects people. But when the state is literally killing innocent people , the idea that this is protecting those same people is ridiculous horseshit. The death penalty is human sacrifice, plain and simple. It didn't have a place in the 20th century, let alone the 21st.


[cartoon via McClatchy Newspapers]

Stories to Watch: 4/22/14

Today's Earth Day headline, courtesy of National Journal: "Not a Single Republican Has Mentioned Earth Day in Congress Since 2010."


Global warming will hit Florida especially hard. Might be a good time to stop voting for Republicans there.


Sonia Sotomayor's dissent in today's Affirmative Action ruling pulls no punches. She is not happy -- and she's completely correct.


Republican Senator John Boozman of Arkansas undergoes emergency heart surgery. He's expected to make a full recovery.


Is Republican opposition to marriage equality crumbling?


The conception mandate in Obamacare is actually very popular.


Finally, Canada's middle class surpasses America's for wealth, while a new study shows that one in three US deaths is the direct result of income inequality. Pointing this out is, of course, "class warfare" -- except the last time inequality was this bad, angry French mobs dragged guillotines through the streets looking for the "job creators." I'll take the "let's do something rational to fix this" approach over actual class warfare any day.


[cartoon via McClatchy Newspapers]

Stories to Watch: 4/17/14

A new study out of Princeton University finds that the United States is no longer a democracy, but an oligarchy. Try to act surprised. Class warfare? We already had that war. the rich won. What the right calls "class warfare" is actually more in line with what the Chinese used to call "counter-revolutionary" -- i.e., trying to undo the new order and restore the previous system.


 Related" Dick Morris says the popular vote is just a way for Democrats to steal elections. You know, by being all counter-revolutionary and everything.


Obamacare signups are now at 8 million -- way over the target of 7 million. And that problem where the young "indestructibles" decide not to sign up? Yeah, that didn't actually happen. "This is good news—very, very good news," reports Jonathon Cohn. Well, it's good news unless you're a Republican and politically invested in America's failure -- then it's not good news at all.


A rightwing PAC shuts down after an uproar of it's offensive name -- "Boats 'N Hoes PAC." At this point, if Republicans want to convince people that they aren't waging a War on Women, it would probably be wisest to avoid any mention of anything remotely female ever again. They clearly have no idea how to talk about women respectfully.


You might want to go through your Facebook and see if you ever liked anything from General Mills. The food giant argues that liking a brand online means you can't sue them if you get a bad batch. This seems like marketing suicide to me -- why on Earth would you ever like one of their products now?


American ex-pat whistleblower Edward Snowden embarrasses Putin by putting him on the spot on live TV.


Finally, New York City is considering raising their minimum wage to $15 an hour.


[cartoon via Truthdig]

Racism, inequality is literally in the very air we breathe

Raw Story: A study released by the University of Minnesota this week indicated that people of color are exposed to air that is 38 percent more polluted than the air breathed by white people.

In an interview with The Minnesota Post, the study’s lead researcher, Julian Marshall, an associate professor of civil engineering at the University of Minnesota, said that “the main [factors in how polluted the air breathed in was] are race and income, and they both matter. In our findings, however, race matters more than income.”

When Marshall compared the exposure gap between high-income Hispanics and low-income whites, for example, the nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations were still higher among high-income Hispanics.

“We were quite surprised to find such a large disparity between whites and nonwhites related to air pollution,” Marshall told The Minnesota Post. “Especially the fact that this difference is throughout the U.S., even in cities and states in the Midwest.”

That income inequality is a factor in the purity of the air you breathe is nothing new. When it comes to polluting industries, people are protected by their wealth and power — you’re never going to see an incinerator or a fracking site move in next door to a multi-million dollar mansion. This is one of the ways in which income inequality is a very real problem that creates very real dangers. It’s not about people being “jealous” of rich people — despite what Republicans and blowhards on Fox News tell you — it’s about very real dangers that people at the bottom of the ladder face every day. If we really were a society dedicated to equality, the poor person’s health would be as much a concern as the rich person’s. They voices would be equal. But they aren’t — and people are literally and inarguably suffering because of it.

The disparities in race paint an even darker picture. There, it’s not as much about income, but about status. People of color breathe dirtier air because they’re automatically lower on the societal ladder, regardless of income. These are both very real problems and the people who bring them up aren’t just bellyaching. Conservatives who talk about free market solutions should take a closer look at what this market does and ask themselves if the people at the bottom rung — measured by income, race, or both — are by any stretch of the imagination free.

Or are they just worthless peasants in a nation that’s increasingly governed by a new aristocracy based on income and a racist class system? When working people have to literally consume the waste of the rich, calling those working people “free” is a ridiculous joke.

Here’s your “trickle down economics.” That’s not money that’s trickling down.

Stories to Watch: 4/15/14

Republicans are clawing their own eyes out in fake outrage over news that the Obama administration is adjusting census healthcare tracking. "They'[re trying to cover up what a trainwreck Obamacare has become!!!" the right is shrieking with ear-piercing hysteria. Sarah Kliff points out a big, big problem with this argument: "What's being missed here is that the Obama administration will use the new survey questions to collect data for 2013, the year prior to Obamacare's health insurance expansion," she writes. In other words, the Republican Outrage of the Day is the same as what every other Republican Outrage of the Day -- carefully packaged horseshit.


If Republicans were really interested in convincing people there is no War on Women, they'd actually wage war on women like Phyllis Schlafly, who inexplicably seems to despise her own gender.


The situation in Ukraine is rapidly deteriorating.


Florida Republican Rep. Ted Yoho tells an African-American constituent that he's not "100 percent" sure the Civil Rights Act is constitutional. I'm not 100 percent sure Ted Yoho has a functional frontal lobe.


This one's sure to generate an avalanche of victim cards: following an antisemitic mass shooting in Kansas, CNN crunches the numbers and finds that rightwing extremists have been more dangerous and deadly post-9/11 than Islamic jihadists. We told you so.


Finally, a few tax day facts from ThinkProgress.


[Cartoon via Truthdig]

Stories to Watch: 4/14/14

From Michael Tomasky at the Daily Beast, where the headlines says it all: "The GOP Just Screwed Ukraine Out of Billions to Hurt Obama." Republicans can stop pretending they're foreign policy geniuses now. They can also stop pretending that they give a damn about Ukraine. Like BENGHAZI!!, Republicans only care about Ukraine to the extent that they can use it to bludgeon the president. This would make Putin their ally, while they insist he's America's foe. If politicizing the conflict means actually making the situation worse, then they'll go ahead and sabotage it -- despite the fact that such an action could come with a death toll. Republicans are not good people.


Mike Huckabee says that sometimes he thinks people in North Korea are freer than Americans. This is the most hyperbolic thing anyone on Earth will ever hear in any one's entire life, by a factor of about a jillion. it says a lot about the GOP base that the way to win their hearts is to say things that are unbelievably dumb. Needless to say, the Huckster also dives into the stupid end of the pool on the subject of marriage equality as well.


Apparently, Pinterest is for godless, hellbound heathens. Conservative Christians often create "Christian alternatives" to mainstream sites, warning that using the original version will somehow harm your family. It strikes me that this is less of real concern and more of a way to rationalize stealing an already successful idea. It's a con. I'm waiting for the Christian alternative to Resume.com, where you can safely peruse people's work histories without being subjected to all that graphic porn people put in heathen resumes.


A conservative "rising star" compares Stephen Colbert's satire of rightwing blowhards to racist blackface acts -- because that's not unbelievably offensive and insensitive at all. It takes a conservative to make an offensive argument while playing a phony victim card. Again, these are not good people. And they wonder why people keep saying they're racists.


An incident where a nutjob threw a shoe at Hillary Clinton inspires a new conspiracy theory that's taking the right by storm -- "shoe trutherism."


A University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh professor reminds everyone that when it comes to jobs, Scott Walker has turned Wisconsin into a smoking crater.


The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office revised it's estimates and projected that the Affordable Care Act will cost even less than previously forecast -- by a significant amount. Like $100 billion less. This is bad news for Republicans, because good news for America is always bad news for Republicans.


Texas Gov. Rick Perry's got himself some very serious legal trouble.


Finally, marriage equality gets a foot in the door in Ohio. A federal judge rules that the state has to recognize marriages performed in other states. It's not the full recognition of the right that comes with performing ceremonies in Ohio, but if past cases are any indication, it's the beginning of the end for inequality there.


[cartoon via McClatchy Newspapers]

Stories to Watch: 4/11/14

Pres. Obama calls out Republicans for their efforts to steal elections by suppressing the vote. No Republican will ever convince me they love freedom while they back voter suppression laws. It would be a lie.


The story about a Wisconsin Republican caught on video discussing illegal campaign tactics has moved quickly since it broke yesterday. State Senate president Mike Ellis's campaign has already ejected a staffer in an attempt to get the story under control. When that didn't work, Ellis announced he would not seek reelection. I'm guessing that's not going to work either.


Joan Walsh on how Stephen Colbert's move to CBS puts "Papa Bear" Bill O'Reilly in his place.


This could turn out to be a new front in the GOP Civil War; religious conservatives warn the Republican Party not to hold it's 2016 convention in Las Vegas because it's Sin City and all. You have to wonder how that makes billionaire casino magnate and top GOP donor Sheldon Adelson feel. The religious right may be biting the hand that feeds.


A free clinic for poor and uninsured residents in Arkansas is closing its doors because -- post-Obamacare -- it no longer has any customers. This is what Republicans want you to believe is a "train wreck."


Yet more evidence linking fracking to earthquakes.


Finally, neocon pundit Charles Krauthammer declares the BENGHAZI!!!! nontroversy over -- and the right loses it in response.


[cartoon via Truthdig]

Stories to Watch: 4/10/14

The Hill runs a story on Maine's Indie Senator Angus King, sayng he's dropping hints he may caucus with Republicans if the Senate switches. If it were true, it wouldn't actually have any impact on control of the Senate, so it's more of an "adding insult to injury" sort thing than an actual injury. In any, Josh Marshall files the story under "BS" -- it just doesn't make any sense.


Billionaire media mogul and Fox News owner Rubert Murdoch makes conservative heads explode by saying that he "could live with" a President Hillary Clinton. Across the nation, a confused cry rises up: "But... but... what about BENGHAZI!!!!"? Obviously, this opinion of Clinton isn't exactly shared by the rest of the wingnuts.


A Justice Dept. report finds the Albuquerque Police Department exhibits a "pattern or practice of use of excessive force" in an investigation of the killing of 23 people over the course of four years. There are some departments in the US that are so riddled with thugs and goons that it would probably be easiest just to fire everyone and rebuild from the ground up. Albuquerque PD may be one of those departments.


Nancy Pelosi says that the GOP is avoiding immigration reform because of race. “I’ve heard them say to the Irish, ‘If it was you, it would be easy,'” the former speaker said during a news conference. Prepare for a blizzard of rightwing victim cards.


Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is resigning.


Limbaugh says that the choice of Stephen Colbert to replace David Letterman means that CBS is out to destroy middle America -- as if a filthy rich rightwing blowhard is completely in tune with the Average Joe.


Finally, a Republican Wisconsin state Senator is caught on tape discussing illegal campaign coordination between himself and a PAC. It seems like once every couple of weeks, we get wind of one of these crooks trying to steal an election. The Wisconsin Republican Party has become a swamp of political corruption. I no longer have any faith that our elections are free and fair. At this point, we're practically Florida.


[cartoon via McClatchy Newspapers]

Privatization fail: WI public schools outperform private voucher schools

This is all actually very simple; public schools don’t have to turn a profit. Many private scools do. For the record, cost + profit is greater than just cost. In order for a for-profit to compete with a nonprofit on a cost basis, the for-profit i going to have to cut corners — i.e., what conservatives spin as “efficiency.” Here we see the results of these efficiencies; a half-assed education program that’s the predictable outcome of taking money away from actual education to line the pockets of pointless middlemen and bean counters.

So the proper way to accept this news is, “Well duh, of course…” If you’re having a different reaction, maybe you didn’t go to public school.

[photo by Bart Everson]

Stories to Watch: 4/8/14

An informal study confirms what you already knew about the power of your voice in Washington -- if you're not filthy rich, no one gives a hot crap what you think This is now a democracy in much the same way that Burger King is a steak house; it's kinda-sort like one, but really not one at all.


Louisiana Republican Rep. Vance McAllister is having a very bad day after getting caught on vdeo making out with a staffer -- and then venting via text message about it to a complete stranger. Whether any of this dents his reelection chances remains to be seen, despite having run as a hyper-moral super-Christian. Louisiana voters have been very tolerant of moral hypocrisy in the past.


It's Equal Pay Day and as President Obama signs executive orders doing what he can about closing the pay gap between male and female workers, the right goes into overdrive denying that a pay gap even exists. You have to wonder who they think they're fooling here; half the populaton knows a pay gap exist, because they're subject to it. They do this about everything -- racism, homophobia, sexism, etc. They try to convince the victims of discrimination that the discrimination doesn't exist. It's not only a massive waste of time, but it only serves to further alienate the people they're already having trouble with. Want to convince female voters there's no Republican War on Women? Try something other than telling them they're imagining things when they point out inequalities. That'd be a tremendous step in the right direction right there.


Conservatives engage in yet another retreat from the promise to repeal Obamacare. That actually makes two today.


Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker says he plans to finally finish college. I'd say it was an election year stunt, but Scooter says he wants to wait until the right courses become available online, the signs are favorable, and the stars are aligned correctly -- i.e., he wants to talk about it, he doesn't really want to do it. So not so much an election year stunt as it is pretending to stage an election year stunt.


It's a battle of wits between Attorney General Eric Holder and Republican clown car driver Rep. Louie Gohmert. You didn't have to be a psychic to predict how that turned out.


Finally, support for Windows XP ends today. While I doubt it'll be an immediate problem, I'll probably spend the weekend trying to set up a drive with Ubuntu -- just in case. Guess I should've done that last weekend.


[cartoon via McClatchy Newspapers]

Stories to Watch: 4/7/14

Here's hoping that Maine's Democratic nominee for the US Senate represents the future of the Democratic Party.


It's official: Florida's gun laws are so weak and useless that they've become what might be the most pro-criminal state in the nation. If you run a drug cartel and you need to get a bunch of assault weapons like right now, the Sunshine State is your go-to.


Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says that polling shows 70% support his union-busting law. PolitiFact says otherwise. If it weren't for flat-out lying, Republicans wouldn't be able to say anything good about their policies.


Heavy rains, flooding hit the American southeast -- i.e., the "red states" where people are most likely to be climate change deniers.


Maybe it's just my opinion, but if you don't get emotional about the subject of torture, then there's something wrong with you. When it's the other way around, that's what mental health experts refer to by the deeply technical term "healthy."


That Chattanooga VW plant where workers were bullied by Republican anti-union pressure might be getting a union regardless of how those workers voted.


In a case pitting Bobbie Jindal against free speech, free speech won. When it comes to blathering on endlessly about liberty, Republicans are champs -- but when it comes to actually standing up for liberty, they really suck a lot. Case in point.


The President continues to put extending unemployment benefits center stage.


Finally, in a sign of the way the Supreme Court is moving, the court refuses to hear "a case filed by a New Mexico photography firm sanctioned for refusing to take a same-sex couple’s wedding photos." Every day, we see more and more evidence of how this civil rights fight has been all but won.


[cartoon via Truthdig]

Stories to Watch: 4/4/14

A former colonel and Medal of Honor winner points out the obvious -- if every one's armed during a mass shooting like the one that occurred at Fort Hood, that's a bad thing, not a good thing. "The situation that existed at Fort Hood the other day, in a circumstance in which everybody has weapons, could very easily result and probably would have resulted in an enormous mass fratricide, and you would have this all the time," Col. Jack Jacobs told a gun lobby tool on MSNBC. "Arming everybody in a civilian situation like at Fort Hood would result in a terrible, terrible tragedy, larger than this one." The shorter version: when bullets are flying, more gunfire does not make the situation safer. Duh.


Good news for cable news talking heads who love pulling stuff out of their butts: the motive of the Fort Worth shooter may never be known -- they may be able to engage in baseless speculation forever. I know, it was violent video games!


Eric Cantor talks about jobless benefits and gives no indication that he has any clue as to what the benefits are even for. Seriously, if you didn't know he was bullshitting, you'd naturally assume he was just stupid.


Meanwhile, the perpetually buffoonish Rep. Louie Gohmert stuns the world by saying something both lucid and rational.


If there's a silver lining to the Republican War on Voting, it's that the GOP is all but admitting that their base is drifting off into demographic oblivion and they have absolutely no confidence of being able to win future elections fair and square. Unless Republicans change their positions to become more relevant, voter suppression efforts are pretty much that party's death throes.


Paul Ryan admits that Republicans can't come up with anything as good as Obamacare.


Finally, despite the best efforts of God-fearing Republicans to preserve inequality and discrimination, Ohio may be the next state to fall under the Iron Boot of the Homosexual Menace. Courage.


[cartoon via McClatchy Newspapers]