IMPALIN’ — Stop Sarah Palin for President in 2012

div class=”dkimg-c”a href=”http://campaigns.dailykos.com/signup_page/electionsdigest”img src=”http://images1.dailykos.com/i/user/73/Elections-MorningDigest.jpg” alt=”Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest banner” height=”100″ width=”550″ //a div class=”dkimg-cap”Want the scoop on hot races around the country? Get the digest emailed to you each weekday morning. a href=”http://campaigns.dailykos.com/signup_page/electionsdigest”Sign up here/a./div /div bLeading Off/b: p• a href=”http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/450236c030684960a392905f6ed1a5cd/NM–Congressional-Redistricting/”NM Redistricting/a: Late on Thursday, the judge hearing New Mexico’s congressional redistricting lawsuit issued a ruling, selecting a compromise map supported by GOP Gov. Susana Martinez and a coalition of Democrats. However, other Democrats favored a different proposal that would have made the swingy 1st District bluer, and some Hispanic advocacy groups favored a plan that would have increased the Latino presence in the decidedly red 2nd CD. So any or all of these parties could conceivably appeal. We’ll bring you a full analysis shortly, but in the meantime, you can view the new map a href=”http://www.nmlegis.gov/lcs/redcensus/red_datamaps.aspx?ID202=187963.2″here/a or below:/p div class=”dkimg-c”iframe width=”425″ height=”350″ frameborder=”0″ src=”http://maps.google.com/maps?f=qamp;source=s_qamp;hl=enamp;geocode=amp;q=http:2Fwww.nmlegis.gov2F11Redistricting2FCD_187963_2.kmzamp;ie=UTF8amp;t=mamp;vpsrc=0amp;ll=34.166232,-106.026069amp;spn=5.668121,6.048209amp;output=embed”/iframe div class=”dkimg-cap”smalla href=”http://maps.google.com/maps?f=qamp;source=embedamp;hl=enamp;geocode=amp;q=http:2Fwww.nmlegis.gov2F11Redistricting2FCD_187963_2.kmzamp;ie=UTF8amp;t=mamp;vpsrc=0amp;ll=34.166232,-106.026069amp;spn=5.668121,6.048209″ style=”color:#0000FF”View Larger Map/a/small/div /div bSenate/b: p• a href=”http://www.nbc-2.com/story/16411746/mack-easily-leads-gop-field-in-senate-poll”FL-Sen/a: A new poll from Republican pollster TelOpinion Research finds Rep. Connie Mack at 39%, with the rest of the field far behind. George LeMieux is at 6, Mike McCalister at 5, and Adam Hasner at just 1. (Craig Miller was not included.) TelOpinion founder Bill Lee says he’s not working for any of the candidates—or, with some odd specificity, any super PACs. (So does that mean he might be working for a 501(c)(4)? A 527? Who knows.)/p p• a href=”http://bostonherald.com/news/politics/view/2011_1229brown_medias_pulling_punches_with_warren”MA-Sen/a: Hah, man. Tell me Scott Brown doesn’t sound truly pathetic here:/p blockquote“It’s all fluff. It’s all fluff. Gimme a break,” said an exasperated Brown about the media’s coverage of Warren, a former Obama administration official. “I just think that if you’re going to find out where people stand, you gotta ask them tough questions like you guys ask me every single day. Every single day of my existence I get tough questions from you guys.” pBrown stopped short of accusing the media of a liberal bias — a complaint often lobbed by conservatives such as former Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann — but suggested Warren has the backing of a purported media “machine.”/p p“She’s going to have every advantage. … I don’t have a machine behind me like she will, and she does clearly,” Brown said. “It would help if you guys would ask her some tough questions, too, and ask her about how she would vote on things and why.”/p /blockquote p• a href=”http://politicalwire.com/archives/2011/12/28/rehberg_leads_tester_in_montana.html”MT-Sen/a: So Republican pollster McLaughlin amp; Associates is out with a survey of the Montana Senate race, and they find GOP Rep. Denny Rehberg leading Dem Sen. Jon Tester 46-40. It isn’t clear who paid for the poll, but what’s even weirder is the PDF itself—it’s just bizarre-looking. James: “It looks like an e-mail chain letter from 1996.” Me: “It looks like a print-out you’d find in the hatch from LOST.” Daily Kos Elections commenters: “Max Baucus’s approval is at 48-43 with this crowd? Shah, right.”/p p• a href=”http://www.wowt.com/news/headlines/Bob_Kerrey_Not_Ruling_Out_Senate_Run_136356253.html”NE-Sen/a: Former Sen. Bob Kerrey says he expects to make a decision about whether to run for the seat of the guy who replaced him, Sen. Ben Nelson, in the next 10 to 14 days. Not only has Kerrey not run for office since 1994, but he hasn’t lived in Nebraska for over a decade. Meanwhile, another Democrat, Lincoln Mayor Chris Beutler, wouldn’t rule out a bid, but sounded very unlikely, saying: “I believe I can best serve people by continuing my term as Lincoln’s mayor.”/p p• a href=”http://www.politickernj.com/52876/tea-partier-prepares-us-senate-run”NJ-Sen/a: Somehow we missed this piece of news from a month ago (you’ll forgive us, won’t you?): Tea Partier Anna Little, who had long been talking up the possibility of a Senate run, set up a “Little for Senate” a href=”http://annalittleforsenate.com/”website/a, though the Newark Star-Ledger reported that she a href=”http://blog.nj.com/njv_auditor/2011/12/field_is_clearing_for_kyrillos.html”wasn’t formally declaring/a a bid just yet. Little said she wanted to wait until the outcome of redistricting before deciding whether to pursue a rematch against Dem Rep. Frank Pallone, so she should be able to make up her mind now. a href=”https://twitter.com/#!/Politics1com/status/152186585599852544″Politics1 tweets/a that she has now in fact switched over to the Senate race, but I’m not seeing that confirmed anywhere else./p p• a href=”http://www.examiner.com/libertarian-in-charlottesville/exit-interview-part-i-senate-candidate-tim-donner-withdraws-from-race”VA-Sen/a: It’s been a long time since there was any reason to hold out hope that George Allen might get teabagged to death, but whatever slim chance remained almost certainly evaporated on Wednesday. Wealthy businessman Tim Donner dropped out of the race, after spending (he says) about a quarter million dollars of his own money. Donner a href=”http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/31/980693/-Daily-Kos-Elections-Morning-Digest:-5-31?detail=hide”had previously said/a he’d only chip in a million bucks to his campaign, which really didn’t seem like nearly enough to make a difference to me—but he also ran headlong into a GOP establishment that’s firmly lined up behind Allen./p pbHouse/b:/p p• a href=”http://castrovalley.patch.com/articles/ellen-corbett-exploring-run-for-congress-in-2012″CA-15/a: I guess that was some bad information: Back in September, after state Senate Majority Leader Ellen Corbett created an exploratory committee with the FEC, the East Bay Citizen reported that she a href=”http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/09/22/1019077/-Daily-Kos-Elections-Morning-Digest:-9-22?detail=hide”wasn’t actually planning to run/a in 2012. Rather, the Citizen’s source said, she was laying groundwork for a 2014 bid, when she’ll be term-limited out of her current post, and when 80-year-old incumbent Rep. Pete Stark might retire. Well, it now looks like Corbett iis/i in fact considering entering the race this cycle, which would set up a battle in the Democratic primary against Stark, who has said he plans to seek re-election. (Side-note: California’s top-two primary system largely means the end of incumbents losing primaries as we know it, but the 15th is blue enough—67% Obama—that it’s quite conceivable that both Corbett and Stark could advance to the November election and face off a second time, if she pulls the trigger.)/p p• a href=”http://www.bakersfield.com/news/local/x1797587382/Political-Notebook-Another-candidate-to-join-5th-District-supervisor-race-Florez-silent-on-Congress-candidacy”CA-21/a: Well, at least he’s not saying “no”: Former state Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez, the strongest potential Democrat to run in this open seat with state Sen. Michael Rubio bowing out, isn’t returning phone calls from the press asking about his intentions. He’d long ago said he was considering the race, so I can only conclude this means he still is./p p• a href=”http://www.scribd.com/doc/76737608/Isadore-Hall-for-Assemembly-Release-Announcement-12-28-11″CA-44/a: Whoa, this is a surprise. Assemblyman Isadore Hall, who had been running in the Democratic primary in the new 44th CD, abruptly decided to switch gears and seek re-election to the Assembly instead. Hall was facing not one but two incumbents: Janice Hahn, who’s only been in office since winning a special election in June, and Laura Richardson, who has been facing serious ethical issues pretty much since she was first elected in 2007. Still, it seemed like Hall had a plausible path to victory here, given Richardson’s extreme weakness and the fact that Hahn represents a href=”https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Alsvry-H7IrgdE9Gd3VKeFNhUGszd3NHREg4YWlUN3camp;hl=en_US#gid=4″only a small fraction/a of the 44th./p pIn a statement, though, Hall said that the initial maps from the redistricting commission were what drew him into the race, but the final maps altered the district’s boundaries and encouraged Hahn and Richardson to run here—and that he didn’t want to “engage in an expensive intra-party war.” Of course, he’s known this for some time—since August, in fact—so I’m guessing he figured he’d try things out but found the sledding to be tougher than he’d hoped./p p• a href=”http://mycn2.com/politics/nky-update-koenig-runs-for-re-election-not-congress-shawn-baker-s-1st-fundraiser-for-senate”KY-04/a: Republican state Rep. Adam Koenig, who had considered a bid for the open 4th CD, says that he will instead seek re-election to the state House./p p• a href=”http://www.politickernj.com/back_room/john-adlers-wife-was-short-list-cd-3″NJ-03/a: A nameless source tells Politicker that Shelley Adler, the widow of ex-Rep. John Adler, was reportedly courted as a candidate to take on the guy who beat her husband last year, GOP freshman Jon Runyan. But Adler’s hometown of Cherry Hill was moved out of the redrawn 3rd CD, so that seems very unlikely. (John Adler, you’ll recall, served here for a single term, then stunningly died a few months after his loss at just 51.)/p p• a href=”http://www.northjersey.com/news/passaic_morris/122811_Passaic_County_Freeholder_Director_Terry_Duffy_explores_run_for_Congress_against_Garrett.html?page=all”NJ-05/a: Even though Rep. Steve Rothman took a pass on challenging GOPer Scott Garrett, other Democrats are taking a look at the race. One is Terry Duffy, the freeholder director of Passaic County. (”Board of Chosen Freeholders” is New Jersey’s awesome name for county legislature; the director is chosen by the board annually.) Politicker a href=”http://www.politickernj.com/53497/passaic-freeholder-exploring-5th-district-run”also mentions/a a few more possible names: Assemblywoman Connie Wagner (a href=”http://www.facebook.com/groups/146538828789505/147168558726532/”who’s being touted/a by state Sen. Loretta Weinberg), state Sen. Bob Gordon, and former New York Giants linebacker (and hall-of-famer) Harry Carson./p p• a href=”http://www.politickernj.com/53499/dccc-offered-rothman-1-million-challenge-garrett”NJ-05/09/a: Hmm. This is a bit thin, to say the least. Some unnamed Politicker source claims that had Steve Rothman run against GOPer Scott Garrett in the 5th, “the DCCC was willing to commit $1 million without even seeing a poll and would have gone to $2 million if Rothman was competitive.” Leaving aside questions about illegal coordination (which this kind of offer would constitute), I find this whole thing dodgy because the only reason to blab like this now is to try to ding Rothman. Since neither the D-Trip nor Rothman can actually respond to a story like this, it’d be pretty easy for someone with an agenda to put this out there in order to heighten the (phony, in my view) narrative that Rothman isn’t a team player. Pretty lame, if you ask me./p p• a href=”http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2017113778_redistricting29m.html”WA-01/a: It certainly seemed that way at first blush, but now Washington’s new map is really starting to feel like an incumbent protection plan. Not only was Republican John Koster—the Snohomish County Council member who very nearly beat Rep. Rick Larsen last year and was a href=”http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/06/973720/-DK-Elections-Daily-Digest:-5-6?detail=hide”planning on a rematch/a this cycle—moved out of Larsen’s 2nd CD and into the open 1st, but the 1st was made a lot swingier, enough to act as bait for Koster. He now sounds a href=”http://myemail.constantcontact.com/John-Koster-to-run-in-newly-created-Congressional-District-1.html?soid=1102448204144amp;aid=DJeOiqwogVo”all but certain/a to make the race, saying “it appears that I will now be running” in the 1st CD. (I assume is just a small hedge in case the legislature changes the lines before passing the congressional map. The lege can actually do this, but it takes a two-thirds vote to make any alterations, and by law they can only make minor adjustments, so more likely than not, what we have now is the final map.)/p pA Koster win in the 1st is a real possibility, which would likely give the state a five Democrat, five Republican House delegation—pretty remarkable for a state that went for Obama by 17 points and hasn’t gone for a Republican on the presidential level since 1984. (Yes, Washington even voted for Dukakis!)/p p• a href=”http://publicola.com/2011/12/29/looks-like-i-will-now-be-in-the-new-1st-congressional-district/”WA-01, WA-10/a: Meanwhile, on the Democratic side, PubliCola takes note of reactions to the new congressional map on the part of two potential candidates. One is Suzan DelBene, who performed very well despite a brutal headwind against GOP Rep. Dave Reichert in the 8th last year. She’s been a href=”http://publicola.com/2011/08/05/delbene-considering-another-run-for-congress/”thinking about/a a second run, and on Wednesday a href=”https://twitter.com/#!/SuzanDelBene/status/152173046361362432″she tweeted/a: “Looks like I now will be in the new 1st Congressional District.” So it sounds like she’s interested in joining the crowded primary field there./p pAnother response comes from former state Rep. Brendan Williams, who we mentioned as a possible opponent for Denny Heck in the Democratic primary in the brand new 10th. Williams immediately took a shot at Heck, saying: “Wonder what chances are for a candidate who doesn’t just mouth platitudes about middle-class values but is actually PART of the middle-class, with published POSITIONS on all issues.” PubliCola also reminds us that Williams “resigned from the legislature in anger in 2010 because the Democratic caucus wasn’t liberal enough for him.” Williams says he’s being encouraged to run, but that he’s “underwhelmed by the idea of being one of 435.”/p p• a href=”http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2011/12/29/rep-liias-out-of-u-s-house-race/”WA-01/a: State Rep. Marko Liias is dropping out of the Democratic primary in the 1st CD, since his hometown of Mukilteo was moved into the 2nd CD and Edmonds, where he’s from originally, is now in the 7th under the new congressional map. While I’m sure this is disappointing to Liias, in the end, it may not be such a bad thing. He’s only 30 years old and has strong progressive credentials, but he was facing some very stiff competition in the 1st District race and hadn’t raised much money. But he could go very far in the state legislature, or potentially run in the 7th when Dem Rep. Jim McDermott, age 75, retires./p pbGrab Bag/b:/p p• a href=”http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-spivak-recall-20111227,0,894634.story”Recalls/a: Joshua Spivak, the proprietor of the excellent a href=”http://recallelections.blogspot.com/”Recall Elections blog/a, has a guest op-ed in the LA Times recapping the year’s recalls. Recall fever went way beyond Wisconsin, Arizona and Michigan: There were at least 150 recalls at all levels in 17 different states in 2011. An impressive 75 officials were bounced from office and another nine resigned rather than face voters again. Spivak also a href=”http://recallelections.blogspot.com/2011/12/year-in-recalls-150-recalls-in-2011.html”has more statistics/a in a companion blog post. A sample:/p blockquote• Recalls were held in 17 states, in 73 separate jurisdictions.br / • The state with most was Michigan, with at least 30 recalls.br / • 30 mayors faced recalls.br / • 17 recalls were school boards.br / • 11 were state legislators (by far the record — the previous high was 3 in one year).br / • 52 were city councilmembers.br / • One local prosecutor, York, Nebraska County Attorney, faced a recall.br / • 34 jurisdictions held recalls on multiple days.br / • Three jurisdictions adopted the recall./blockquote pbRedistricting Roundup/b:/p p• a href=”http://images.dailykos.com/i/user/303419/WA_map.html”WA Redistricting/a: Our usual Google Maps overlay of the new district lines:/p div class=”dkimg-c”iframe width=’550′ height=’350′ frameborder=”0″ src=’http://images.dailykos.com/i/user/303419/WA_map.html’/iframe/div And our a href=”https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Alsvry-H7IrgdE9Gd3VKeFNhUGszd3NHREg4YWlUN3camp;hl=en_US#gid=46″population redistribution chart/a: div class=”dkimg-c”iframe width=’550′ height=’420′ frameborder=’0′ src=’https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en_USamp;hl=en_USamp;key=0Alsvry-H7IrgdE9Gd3VKeFNhUGszd3NHREg4YWlUN3camp;single=trueamp;gid=46amp;range=A1%3AK25amp;output=html’/iframe/div The highlighted numbers give you a sense of exactly how much of an incumbent protection map this is. They go neatly along a diagonal, something you don’t often see, and except for Adam Smith, every incumbent already represents at least 68% (and in most cases, much more) of the constituents in their new districts. p• a href=”http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/28/1047701/-Chicago-Wards-Redistricting-Contest-Entry?detail=hide”Redistricting Contest/a: MattTX is the first person to submit an entry in our a href=”http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/20/1044334/-The-2011-Daily-Kos-Elections-Redistricting-Contest:-The-Second-City?detail=hide”new redistricting contest/a, where we’re asking you to draw a new map for Chicago’s city council. It’s some pretty impressive work—check it out! And remember that your entries are due by Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 11:59pm Central Time./p pa href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/P-4Ce5wJW02XKe8VHLdieKW5hJ4/0/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/P-4Ce5wJW02XKe8VHLdieKW5hJ4/0/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/abr/ a href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/P-4Ce5wJW02XKe8VHLdieKW5hJ4/1/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/P-4Ce5wJW02XKe8VHLdieKW5hJ4/1/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/a/pdiv class=”feedflare” a href=”http://feeds.dailykos.com/~ff/dailykos/index?a=FKcW8Bxlq9s:vkvmZOzJ6-Q:H0mrP-F8Qgo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/dailykos/index?d=H0mrP-F8Qgo” border=”0″/img/a /divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/dailykos/index/~4/FKcW8Bxlq9s” height=”1″ width=”1″/

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Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest: New Mexico judge decides on redistricting map

pJust in time for New Year’s Eve revelers, the FDA has approved what “a href=”http://www.aoltv.com/show/chelsea-lately/185647″ target=”_hplink”Chelsea Lately/a” (Weeknights, 11 p.m. EST on E!) dubbed “the emother /emmorning after pill.”/ppa href=”http://television.aol.com/celebs/chelsea-handler/469266/main” target=”_hplink”Chelsea Handler/a explained the pill was comprised of “aspirin, caffeine, and a medicine to calm your stomach. Amazingly, it reportedly works in 15 minutes as well./pp”So this will replace the Egg McMuffin,” she quipped. When she went to her round table for discussion, the women realized that they had perhaps become immune to hangovers. Liz Carey said it was because she was an alcoholic, while a href=”http://www.aoltv.com/celebs/sarah-colonna/752358/main” target=”_hplink”Sarah Colonna/a figured out what step they were missing./pbra href=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/30/chelsea-lately-round-table-hangover-pill-video_n_1175839.htmlRead More…/abr a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/tv-canada/”More on Television/a pa href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/wgyXTB8l__AvCXhX4myV0KYKvpk/0/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/wgyXTB8l__AvCXhX4myV0KYKvpk/0/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/abr/ a href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/wgyXTB8l__AvCXhX4myV0KYKvpk/1/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/wgyXTB8l__AvCXhX4myV0KYKvpk/1/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/a/pdiv class=”feedflare” a href=”http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?a=b1fN58xWFLw:eu7R9HpiGxE:yIl2AUoC8zA”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?d=yIl2AUoC8zA” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?a=b1fN58xWFLw:eu7R9HpiGxE:F7zBnMyn0Lo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?i=b1fN58xWFLw:eu7R9HpiGxE:F7zBnMyn0Lo” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?a=b1fN58xWFLw:eu7R9HpiGxE:V_sGLiPBpWU”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?i=b1fN58xWFLw:eu7R9HpiGxE:V_sGLiPBpWU” border=”0″/img/a /divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/huffingtonpost/raw_feed/~4/b1fN58xWFLw” height=”1″ width=”1″/

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‘Chelsea Lately’: Round Table Discusses FDA Approved Hangover Pill (VIDEO)

pWorking in a tattoo parlor can be a lot like working as a bartender or a hair stylist. When people are in that chair, they tend to open up about their lives. Sometimes it’s to vent frustrations, but sometimes it’s to share amazing stories of modern miracles. That was Sarah Churman’s story on “a href=”http://www.aoltv.com/show/ny-ink/8638130″ target=”_hplink”NY Ink/a” (Thu., 9 p.m. EST on TLC)./ppSimply by happenstance, her husband heard about the a href=”http://www.envoymedical.com”Esteem hearing implant/a, a surgery that would implant what she described as “an inner ear prosthesis” and restore hearing. So they talked about it, and then his widowed mother decided that she wanted to cash out her savings to pay for Sarah to get the surgery./ppWhile it may be the obvious answer, Sarah said the sound of her daughters’ voices is her favorite sound in this new hearing world she finds herself in. The independence of not needing her husband as an interpreter has given her self-confidence a boost as well./pbra href=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/30/ny-ink-sarah-esteem-hearing-implant-video_n_1175796.htmlRead More…/abr a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/tv-replay/”More on TV Replay/a pa href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/g5ksA0bBers2nLe3geoCTBnLy2E/0/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/g5ksA0bBers2nLe3geoCTBnLy2E/0/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/abr/ a href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/g5ksA0bBers2nLe3geoCTBnLy2E/1/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/g5ksA0bBers2nLe3geoCTBnLy2E/1/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/a/pdiv class=”feedflare” a href=”http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?a=HlkpAQGk-38:rflCEGp67sA:yIl2AUoC8zA”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?d=yIl2AUoC8zA” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?a=HlkpAQGk-38:rflCEGp67sA:F7zBnMyn0Lo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?i=HlkpAQGk-38:rflCEGp67sA:F7zBnMyn0Lo” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?a=HlkpAQGk-38:rflCEGp67sA:V_sGLiPBpWU”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?i=HlkpAQGk-38:rflCEGp67sA:V_sGLiPBpWU” border=”0″/img/a /divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/huffingtonpost/raw_feed/~4/HlkpAQGk-38″ height=”1″ width=”1″/

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‘NY Ink’: Sarah Talks About Implant That Restored Her Hearing (VIDEO)

div class=”dkimg-c”img src=”http://images1.dailykos.com/i/user/1054/PerryWide.jpg” alt=”Rick Perry” height=”267″ width=”550″ / div class=”dkimg-cap”They saved George Bush’s brain (Jeff Haynes/Reuters)/div /div pIf you can all bear with me here, today we’re going to pretend that Rick Perry has a chance in hell of winning the nomination for (anything outside Texas). That allows us to pretend, in turn, that the stuff he says has relevance, as opposed to being just whatever red-meat-for-the-base he happens to come up with in that cavernous empty skull of his, which in turn allows us a bit of relief from having to take Newt Gingrich seriously. Really. emNewt Gingrich./em/p pSo here’s yet another of Perry’s Deep Thoughts for Iowa Republicans. These will all be printed in a brightly colored pop-up book after the Perry campaign is over. (I’m betting the execution-themed pages alone will be worth the twenty dollars.)/p blockquoteRick Perry on Wednesday criticized President Obama for not arranging a parade to welcome U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq, accusing him of not properly thanking the military. p”It really disturbs me that nearly after nine years of war in Iraq that this president wouldn’t welcome home our many heroes with a simple parade in their honor,” Perry said at a campaign stop in Iowa. “Maybe it’s because this war is unpopular with the Democrats. I don’t know. But Mr. President, our soldiers come first. And it comes before party politics. We need to welcome our soldiers home. Give them that parade. Give them that pat on the back. Tell them thank you for the freedom that we have.”/p /blockquote pYes. That’s exactly what we need to do for our returning soldiers—have a parade. Welcome back, troops: Sorry about the lack of jobs, sorry about all those Republican attempts to screw you out of your healthcare, but Perry would have at least done the honest Republican thing and had a big ol’ victory parade in strikehis/strike your honor. Here, welcome back: Have a float./p pI admit perhaps I might be out of touch, but I can’t imagine a lot of soldiers really want, after spending gawdawful years of their lives in Iraq, to be forced to march around some city streets for a while so that some people feel a proper sense of closure about the whole thing. Me, I’d rather just be allowed to go the hell home already. And what about all the troops that came home earlier? What about the troops still in Afghanistan, many of them shuffled emfrom/em Iraq?/p pMore to the point, you can imagine what would happen if Obama did have a “Mission Accomplished” event for/with the troops. The outrage among Republicans would be deafening. Fox News satellites would be exploding left and right just from the bile. (Note to self: hmm. An upside.) How emdare/em Obama politicize the end of a war that good Republican warmongers are still peeved about ending. How emdare/em he use the troops as props. Blah blah blah, outrage outrage outrage, now let’s go to Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity and Rick Perry to tell us all how offended they are./p pIf you want to thank a soldier, here’s some ways to do it. Protect and expand their healthcare benefits. Pay them better. Give them body armor without them having to take up collections from their family and friends to get it. Send them a “Welcome Home” card with five hundred bucks in it, for crying out loud./p pAnd don’t get them involved in nine-year “cakewalks” based on bizarre ideological gambits, but that goes without saying./p pa href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/5xETIwZ4vlBX7jbqFzYpfzScSJk/0/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/5xETIwZ4vlBX7jbqFzYpfzScSJk/0/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/abr/ a href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/5xETIwZ4vlBX7jbqFzYpfzScSJk/1/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/5xETIwZ4vlBX7jbqFzYpfzScSJk/1/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/a/pdiv class=”feedflare” a href=”http://feeds.dailykos.com/~ff/dailykos/index?a=CK_Bx_uBEbI:P5KY2higH2c:H0mrP-F8Qgo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/dailykos/index?d=H0mrP-F8Qgo” border=”0″/img/a /divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/dailykos/index/~4/CK_Bx_uBEbI” height=”1″ width=”1″/

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Rick Perry: Obama is bad for not throwing a parade for the troops

pAs anyone who has ever glanced at HuffPost Weddings knows, we’re big fans of weddings. Whether they’re real, a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/18/wedding-movies-8-of-our-fa_n_1102334.html” target=”_hplink”fictional/a, a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/03/wedding-ceremonies-6-non-_n_1018712.html” target=”_hplink”underwater/a, a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/19/groom-treks-to-wedding-st_n_1158345.html” target=”_hplink”over land/a, or a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/21/wedding-videos_n_987921.html” target=”_hplink”viral/a — you name ‘em, we’ve gotten emway/em too excited about ‘em./ppNevertheless, we’re scratching our heads over the BBC’s annual a href=”http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16203296″ target=”_hplink”Faces of the Year 2011: The Women/a roundup, in part for what seems like an odd emphasis on, well, weddings. The feature, published online Tuesday, spotlights 12 famous women who “made the headlines” in 2011. Among them: a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/02/prince-albert-charlene-wedding-photos_n_889321.html” target=”_hplink”Charlene Wittstock/a, the a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/05/spain-duchess-of-alba-weds_n_995825.html” target=”_hplink”Duchess of Alba/a, and a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/06/pippa-middleton-birthday_n_950016.html” target=”_hplink”Pippa Middleton/a (a a href=”http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16200429″ target=”_hplink”slightly different version of the list/a the BBC created for UK readers also includes Kate Middleton’s wedding dress designer a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/29/sarah-burton-kate-middleton-wedding-dress_n_855299.html” target=”_hplink”Sarah Burton/a)./ppSince the list went live on Tuesday, it has a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/12/28/bbc-faces-of-the-year-2011-women-sweetie-pandagate_n_1172353.html” target=”_hplink”drawn heat/a from a href=”http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/12/28/pandagate_sweetie_appears_among_the_bbcs_female_faces_of_the_year” target=”_hplink”several/a a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/dec/28/pandagate-bbc-tian-tian-december” target=”_hplink”media/a outlets as well as outrage from the Twitter-verse, perhaps more for its inclusion of a female panda (!) as one of its selections than for its apparent preoccupation with all things bridal (not surprisingly, the fury has exploded into the Twitter trending topic #a href=”https://twitter.com/#!/search/realtime/%23pandagate” target=”_hplink”pandagate/a). Still, in a year when women made incredible strides in a wide variety of fields, it seems odd that the BBC should devote so much digital ink to celebrating women whose biggest achievement was getting married–or being in the orbit of a famous bride (it’s worth noting that the a href=”http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16200433″ target=”_hplink”male equivalent of the list/a did not include any grooms or groomsmen). As a href=” http://jezebel.com/5871634/” target=”_hplink”Jezebel.com/a cannily observed:/pbra href=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/28/bbc-faces-of-the-year-2011_n_1173410.htmlRead More…/abr a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/kate-middleton/”More on Kate Middleton/a pa href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/r_TvegenNq2yATPx38RGsGNBAx8/0/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/r_TvegenNq2yATPx38RGsGNBAx8/0/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/abr/ a href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/r_TvegenNq2yATPx38RGsGNBAx8/1/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/r_TvegenNq2yATPx38RGsGNBAx8/1/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/a/pdiv class=”feedflare” a href=”http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?a=BXIDoKxUzdI:E41-hT5A470:yIl2AUoC8zA”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?d=yIl2AUoC8zA” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?a=BXIDoKxUzdI:E41-hT5A470:F7zBnMyn0Lo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?i=BXIDoKxUzdI:E41-hT5A470:F7zBnMyn0Lo” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?a=BXIDoKxUzdI:E41-hT5A470:V_sGLiPBpWU”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?i=BXIDoKxUzdI:E41-hT5A470:V_sGLiPBpWU” border=”0″/img/a /divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/huffingtonpost/raw_feed/~4/BXIDoKxUzdI” height=”1″ width=”1″/

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BBC Faces Of The Year 2011: Pippa Middleton, Charlene Wittstock, Duchess Of Alba, Sarah Burton Among ‘Famous Faces’

div class=”dkimg-r”img src=”http://images2.dailykos.com/i/user/30549/starbursts.jpg” alt=”starbursts” height=”249″ width=”275″ //div On Monday, it was Rich Lowry at the emNational Review/em a href=”http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/286653/we-dont-have-our-team-field-rich-lowry”whining/a because the Republicans haven’t fielded their “A-team” for the 2012 presidential contest. Now, William Kristol, the legacy heir of the godfather of neo-conservatism, has a href=”http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/time-choosing_614768.html”joined in/a: blockquoteAnd it is a moment, as you prepare to cast your vote, for others to reflect on whether they don’t owe it to their country to step forward. As this is no time for voters to choose fecklessly, it is no time for leaders to duck responsibility. pNow is not a time for leaders to engage in clever calculations of the odds of success, or to succumb to concerns about how they will look if they enter the fray and fall short. Now is a time to come to the aid of our country./p /blockquote pMost of the candidates have been at one time or another in the past four months at the top of the polls, only to see their stars fall as they opened their mouths in the 13! debates or as unpleasant details from their past have hit the media by design or (cough-cough) serendipity. Unappealing? When did emyou/em first notice, Bill?/p pTo give weight to his call, Kristol quotes from Alexander Hamilton and even that bête noire of social conservatives Tom Paine, both of whom were in their time about as direct as can be imagined. He himself beats around the bush. At least Lowry posits a name, Bobby Jindal, while acknowledging the impossibility of that possibility because the Louisiana governor has hitched himself to the fallen star of Rick Perry. But Kristol seems to believe that throwing some chum over the side will attract the shark the party so desperately needs./p pIf Kristol emreally/em wants somebody else, why can’t he tell us who? Sarah, Jeb, Paul Ryan? Michael Ledeen? He may not want to tell primary voters how to cast their ballots, but surely he could tell us who emhe/em would vote for in the Iowa caucuses or the primaries in South Carolina, New Hampshire and Florida if he had more than the choices who will actually be available. Don’t be feckless, Bill, don’t duck responsibility./p pa href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/TYbe8XK_pZb7J2cLZiBsQOWpbuI/0/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/TYbe8XK_pZb7J2cLZiBsQOWpbuI/0/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/abr/ a href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/TYbe8XK_pZb7J2cLZiBsQOWpbuI/1/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/TYbe8XK_pZb7J2cLZiBsQOWpbuI/1/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/a/pdiv class=”feedflare” a href=”http://feeds.dailykos.com/~ff/dailykos/index?a=zDVmLeMRAIw:u35_Eetf2rs:H0mrP-F8Qgo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/dailykos/index?d=H0mrP-F8Qgo” border=”0″/img/a /divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/dailykos/index/~4/zDVmLeMRAIw” height=”1″ width=”1″/

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Bill Kristol adds his voice to the clamor for a new GOP candidate. C’mon, somebody, anybody, please

pWhen Sarah Dawson agreed to go on a treasure hunt with boyfriend Hayden Sanders she never imagined the prize would be him./ppThe hunt ended at the Hamilton Gardens lake yesterday where 15 of the couple’s friends and family had gathered at Mr Sanders’ request. At precisely 11.30am they produced a large sign saying: “Sarah, your family say yes, my family say yay, what do you say?”br //pbra href=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/22/marriage-signs-from-out-o_n_1165742.htmlRead More…/abr pa href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/oi_2R_8kq_WI_4utbXIUDH6h2TU/0/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/oi_2R_8kq_WI_4utbXIUDH6h2TU/0/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/abr/ a href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/oi_2R_8kq_WI_4utbXIUDH6h2TU/1/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/oi_2R_8kq_WI_4utbXIUDH6h2TU/1/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/a/pdiv class=”feedflare” a href=”http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?a=UIPtTRQL5-g:EhaDMs63Pu0:yIl2AUoC8zA”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?d=yIl2AUoC8zA” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?a=UIPtTRQL5-g:EhaDMs63Pu0:F7zBnMyn0Lo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?i=UIPtTRQL5-g:EhaDMs63Pu0:F7zBnMyn0Lo” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?a=UIPtTRQL5-g:EhaDMs63Pu0:V_sGLiPBpWU”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?i=UIPtTRQL5-g:EhaDMs63Pu0:V_sGLiPBpWU” border=”0″/img/a /divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/huffingtonpost/raw_feed/~4/UIPtTRQL5-g” height=”1″ width=”1″/

Originally posted here:
Marriage Signs From Out Of Left Field

div class=”dkimg-c”img src=”http://images1.dailykos.com/i/user/1054/WhiteHouseXMasCard2011.jpg” alt=”White House holiday card, 2011″ height=”317″ width=”550″ / div class=”dkimg-cap”The anti-Christmas card Fox News is freaking out about now. (White House)/div /div This story combines three of my least favorite things—Fox News, Sarah Palin and the War on Christmas—so I’m already breaking into hives just thinking about it. But here goes. Via a href=”http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/12/fox-sarah-palin-freaks-out-white-house-christmas-card”emMother Jones/em/a, the serious reporting of a href=”http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/no-christmas-in-white-house-holiday-card.html”Some Guy at Fox News/a: blockquoteThe official White House holiday card makes no mention of the word ‘Christmas’ and instead focused on Bo the First Dog based on the wishes of the First Family. pThe front of the card features Bo the First Dog lounging by a fireplace. Holiday greenery is draped over the fireplace mantle. Holiday presents are placed on a table underneath a poinsettia – instead of a Christmas tree./p pLos Angeles-based artist Mark Matuszak told the LA Times that he was asked to create the card by the White House social secretary./p p“They wanted to do an inside shot, something home related,” Matuszak told the newspaper. He said one of the ideas was to focus on the Obama’s family dog. “So we thought, let’s put Bo in front of a fireplace.”/p pFormer Alaska Governor Sarah Palin told Fox News amp; Commentary that she found the card to be a bit unusual./p p“It’s odd,” she said, wondering why the president’s Christmas card highlights his dog instead of traditions like “family, faith and freedom.”/p p“Even stranger than that was his first year in office when the Christmas ornaments included Chairman Mao,” Palin said. “People had to ask that it be removed because it was offensive.”/p /blockquote pAll right, we’re just going to toss out that last sentence. Go look it up on Google, if you want. I’m not touching it, because revisiting that would likely result in me driving a railroad spike into one or both eyeballs, just to dull the pain. Let’s talk about the rest of it./p pThe premise here is that, after first being a href=”http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/13/1044611/-Conservatives-cant-decide-between-defending-Christmas-and-hating-Obama?detail=hide”too Christmas-loving/a, now this card is not Christmas-laden emenough/em. To you or I it may look like Thomas Kinkade ate a box of candy canes and pooped out a tranquil interior scene, but to the forces of Christmas Outrage it is deeply suspicious because there is a emdog/em in the scene when there should have been a Jesus, and there is a poinsettia instead of a Christmas tree, and there’s just something off about it, in their minds. A suspicious number of books, perhaps, or maybe one of the chairs is facing towards Mecca. I don’t know, because I am not fucking insane./p pI am now going to enumerate just a few reasons why this line of attack is, indeed, quite gleefully insane. If there is ever a court hearing to decide whether Sarah Palin or Some Guy at Fox News should be committed for the safety of themselves and others, I shall submit all of this as evidence./p pFirst: White House Christmas cards that do not feature the human inhabitants of the White House a href=”http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/reliable-source/post/white-house-christmas-card-2011-as-usual-not-a-person-in-sight/2011/12/15/gIQAFBrlwO_blog.html”are historically commonplace/a. This is for a host of reasons; leaving politics out of it would be one. You can imagine what the above scene would look like if President Obama was in it: Oh my goodness! How dare the fellow empoliticize/em the season by, you know, being in his own White House Christmas card! (As that last link shows, putting politicians in holiday greeting cards is fraught with peril.)/p pSecond: Let us examine what other major institutions deem to be appropriate cards for the season. Institutions such as, let us say, Fox News itself, the perpetrator of this newest challenge to all our sanity via ginned-up (emphasis on emgin/em, here) seasonal outrage. The a href=”http://thedeadline.tumblr.com/post/14524912276/and-heres-the-fox-news-card-notice-fox-ahead-of”Fox News card this year/a shows an anthropomorphic fox (get it?) winning a sheep-driven sled race over fellow participants ABC, NBC and CBS. There are no Christmas trees: The only decoration is a bit of holiday bunting./p pNow, if this does not scream “family, faith and freedom” to you, then you would presumably be correct. No doubt the inside of the card is chock full of holiday messages like “I love Jesus” and “Merry Christmas or go to hell,” but I question the sincerity of Some Guy at Fox News having a well-choreographed cow over the depiction of an animal on a holiday greeting card, or of Sarah Palin wondering at the terrible unusualness of said cards, when everybody knows official Christmas cards have to have pictures of your family holding Second Amendment-sanctioned firearms while giving a group hug to the baby Jesus in a nativity scene painted by Norman Rockwell’s better, more faith-oriented cousin./p pNot to be outdone, the Fox Business card features emtwo/em anthropomorphic foxes a href=”http://thedeadline.tumblr.com/post/14524584228/this-years-fox-business-network-greeting-card”roasting the dead, plucked and skewered NBC peacock over an open fire/a. The cartoonish murder of your perceived enemies? Now that’s the Christmas spirit! Or it would be, if there were any Christmas trees there either. Or families. Or faith. Or whatever./p pSo it would seem that, in an affirmation of everything everyone with even a pea-sized fragment of brain in their heads already knew, holiday greeting cards come in a wide variety of themes. Each year I get a wide assortment myself: Many of them feature trains, or snowy outdoor scenes, or fireplaces with bright red stockings, or just some photograph of wildlife frolicking (well, desperately trying to survive) in the winter snow. It’s all very sweet, and I almost never question the faith and/or family bonds and/or commitment to America hinted at or not hinted at in those cards, by those that send them to me. Again, this is because I am not fucking insane./p pThird: I don’t have a third. I don’t care anymore. I didn’t care in the first place./p pbr / bH/bere is what I would like the takeaway lesson to be, from this and every other emWar on Christmas/em story ever devised and presented to us as the outrage-against-Jesus-and-families-and-patriotism-of-the-week. They do not mean it themselves. They are transparently, flagrantly lying their asses off about their “concern” for all of these things. They know full well what they are saying; they know full well how ridiculous it is; they do not actually believe a word of it. The story was written because Some Guy at Fox News had to come up with some small bit of silly, stupid propaganda to make their viewers feel warm and grumpy inside. Sarah Palin was called for a quote because Sarah Palin can express feigned outrage over absolutely anything, at any time, and does not need to know even a single small shit about the subject before pronouncing her conclusion on it; the Other Guys at Fox News will run with the story, even while fingering their own animal-sporting, pro-peacock-torturing holiday cards, because that is what they do./p pNone of it is real; none of it is earnest. It is simply another spot of charming Orwell-poking propaganda, a fib for the sake of entertainment. It is as choreographed as a ballet, and as skillfully executed as a sixth grade reenactment of a Charlie Brown Christmas Special presented in the school gymnasium./p pBut it makes crabby, paranoid kooks around America feel better about themselves at night, so fine, whatever. Yes, Virginia, there is a War on Christmas. Now go to sleep already.br //p pa href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/o9yv_G_bkptGVFKALPWzugbx5X0/0/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/o9yv_G_bkptGVFKALPWzugbx5X0/0/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/abr/ a href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/o9yv_G_bkptGVFKALPWzugbx5X0/1/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/o9yv_G_bkptGVFKALPWzugbx5X0/1/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/a/pdiv class=”feedflare” a href=”http://feeds.dailykos.com/~ff/dailykos/index?a=5b-acJftg7I:RSCTsYMMsPY:H0mrP-F8Qgo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/dailykos/index?d=H0mrP-F8Qgo” border=”0″/img/a /divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/dailykos/index/~4/5b-acJftg7I” height=”1″ width=”1″/

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Fox News: White House cards prove Obama hates Christmas

In December, the majority of Americans spend a great deal of time and energy preparing for a holiday that celebrates the birth of a child. Given this focus, this seems like an excellent time to ask how America’s children are faring.bra href=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-damaske/in-this-season-of-giving-_b_1162559.htmlRead More…/abr a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/christmas/”More on Christmas/a pa href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/gV4ysTlY_4RhFTqRv9xQ7rbl0pc/0/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/gV4ysTlY_4RhFTqRv9xQ7rbl0pc/0/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/abr/ a href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/gV4ysTlY_4RhFTqRv9xQ7rbl0pc/1/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/gV4ysTlY_4RhFTqRv9xQ7rbl0pc/1/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/a/pdiv class=”feedflare” a href=”http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?a=VOMn6ywDzqU:bbRAJ8hF6Og:yIl2AUoC8zA”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?d=yIl2AUoC8zA” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?a=VOMn6ywDzqU:bbRAJ8hF6Og:F7zBnMyn0Lo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?i=VOMn6ywDzqU:bbRAJ8hF6Og:F7zBnMyn0Lo” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?a=VOMn6ywDzqU:bbRAJ8hF6Og:V_sGLiPBpWU”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?i=VOMn6ywDzqU:bbRAJ8hF6Og:V_sGLiPBpWU” border=”0″/img/a /divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/huffingtonpost/raw_feed/~4/VOMn6ywDzqU” height=”1″ width=”1″/

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Sarah Damaske: In This Season of Giving, How Are Children Faring?

div class=”dkimg-c”img src=”http://images2.dailykos.com/i/user/191280/mccainpalin2008_joshualott_reuters.jpg” alt=”McCain Palin” height=”255″ width=”550″ / div class=”dkimg-cap”Is the guy who nominated Sarah Palin for Vice Presidentbr / really qualified to give advice like this? (Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)br / nbsp;/div /div If House Republicans continue blocking the payroll tax extension, 160 million Americans will see their taxes go up 10 days from now. But that’s not what has John McCain a href=”http://www.rollcall.com/news/payroll_tax_cut_standoff_begins-211210-1.html?pos=hftxt”really worried/a: blockquoteSen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) echoed those concerns in an interview on CNN tonight, warning a resolution to the standoff must be found. p“It seems to me that Republican leaders and Harry Reid and the Speaker and Congresswoman [Nancy] Pelosi should sit down together with the administration and figure out a way through this,” the Arizona Republican said. “It is harming the Republican Party. It is harming the view, if it’s possible, any more of the American people about Congress. And we’ve got to get this thing resolved.”/p /blockquote pWell, sure. House Republicans are making the Republican Party look bad. But let’s be fair: it’s not like Senate Republicans have done much better. Like their House counterparts, they’ve had at least four months to get their act together on the payroll tax extension, and the best they could do was agree to a two-month extension. And even though it’s been clear for a long time that the House would be a problem, it’s only now that you’re only hearing tough words from guys like McCain./p pThe thing that really caught my attention here is that the thing McCain seems to be most worried about is the fate of the Republican Party. Sure, House Republicans are harming it. But if John McCain wants to talk about harming the Republican Party, I’ve got two words for him: Sarah Palin./p pBut whether John McCain or House Republicans have done or are doing more damage to the Republican Party isn’t something that most people care about. What they care about is making sure that Congress doesn’t raise their taxes while the economy is still in recovery. And if Republicans cared more about that, we wouldn’t be facing this stalemate now. The American public would be better off, and so would the GOP./p pa href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/9QhEL40tf3FS1-V88DRzDLo1xRE/0/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/9QhEL40tf3FS1-V88DRzDLo1xRE/0/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/abr/ a href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/9QhEL40tf3FS1-V88DRzDLo1xRE/1/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/9QhEL40tf3FS1-V88DRzDLo1xRE/1/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/a/pdiv class=”feedflare” a href=”http://feeds.dailykos.com/~ff/dailykos/index?a=iCN_tEnylcI:OhEGJu1mvvA:H0mrP-F8Qgo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/dailykos/index?d=H0mrP-F8Qgo” border=”0″/img/a /divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/dailykos/index/~4/iCN_tEnylcI” height=”1″ width=”1″/

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John McCain is worried House Republicans are making the entire Republican Party look bad

div class=”dkimg-c”a href=”http://campaigns.dailykos.com/signup_page/electionsdigest”img src=”http://images1.dailykos.com/i/user/73/Elections-MorningDigest.jpg” alt=”Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest banner” height=”100″ width=”550″ //a div class=”dkimg-cap”Want the scoop on hot races around the country? Get the digest emailed to you each weekday morning. a href=”http://campaigns.dailykos.com/signup_page/electionsdigest”Sign up here/a./div /div bLeading Off/b: p• a href=”http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/harrisburg_politics/Showdown-expected-in-PA-House-over-new-Congressional-map.html”PA Redistricting/a: Jesus. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything that makes me want to reach for my puke bucket like redistricting. (In this line of work, they issue you one of those on your first day on the job.) The craven selfishness is completely appalling, particularly among Democrats who make deals with Republicans to protect their own sorry-ass personal interests. The latest episode is just disgusting beyond words:/p blockquoteNow it seems that House Republicans don’t have the support to pass a map drafted by Republicans that appears to protect GOP incumbents and snag several Democratic seats along the way. pArm twisting was underway late last week with Philadelphia Democratic City Committee Chairman and U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, D-Philadelphia, calling Democratic state House members from the Philadelphia delegation, asking for a vote for the congressional redistricting plan, according to Capitolwire news service./p pbBrady and U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Allegheny, in exchange for concessions in that map that helped them, said they would round up votes to pass it./b And now they were hearing from House Republican leaders in Harrisburg that they needed more votes, because going into this weekend, and today, the map lacks the House votes to pass it./p pThe way Capitolwire’s Peter DeCoursey sees it, two of the four most liberal urban members of the U.S. House are lobbying their fellow urban Democrats to pass a congressional redistricting that masses the largest number of urban Democratic voters into the smallest number of districts./p pbWhy? Because it helps Doyle and Brady—giving Brady more white Democrats along the Delaware river, protecting him against future black primary challenger./b (Folks who know how beloved Brady is among African American voters may question that theory but it’s interesting nonetheless.)/p /blockquote pIf the GOP map is going to fail, blet it fail/b! Indeed, Republicans a href=”http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/16/1045905/-Daily-Kos-Elections-Morning-Digest:-Rob-Cornilles-job-creator-credentials-looking-pretty-phony?detail=hide”had a tough time/a passing their proposal in the Senate last week, largely due to parochial reasons. If that’s going to sink their plan in the House, then that would count as a huge victory! There’s no reason in hell for Brady and Doyle to act as Republican whips, except for utterly base self-interest. That’s just grotesque./p pbSenate/b:/p p• a href=”http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/senate-races/200219-emilys-list-endorses-bysiewicz-for-liebermans-seat”CT-Sen/a: After what seemed like a long delay, EMILY’s List finally endorsed ex-SoS Susan Bysiewicz in the Democratic Senate primary. Bysiewicz entered the race all the way back in January of this year, and between then and now, EMILY had tapped a number of a href=”https://emilyslist.org/what/candidates/”less-prominent candidates/a while keeping Bysiewicz on their lower-tier “On the List” ranking./p p• a href=”http://www.wickedlocal.com/newton/features/x645110232/Newtons-Robinson-dropping-out-of-Senate-race-to-run-for-Congress”MA-Sen, MA-04/a: One more minor Democrat has left the Senate race in the face of the Elizabeth Warren juggernaut: engineer and anti-nuclear activist Herb Robinson, who has decided to drop down to the open MA-04 contest./p p• a href=”http://hoekstraforsenate.com/press-releases/2011-12-09/new-mi-poll-shows-hoekstra-maintains-commanding-lead”MI-Sen/a: Not really much to see here (which probably explains why we missed it when it first came out about ten days ago), but a weird new poll from the Michigan Information amp; Research Service (aka MIRS) shows ex-Rep. Pete Hoekstra dominating the GOP primary. He’s at 84%, with former judge Randy Hekman at 10 and former State Board of Education Chair Clark Durant at just 6. If you add those up, you’ll notice a bizarre problem MIRS seems to have: The numbers total 100. That means zero undecideds, which is obviously garbage. So, while I don’t doubt that Hoekstra has a big lead (other polling has shown this), it’s almost impossible for me to take a survey like this seriously./p p• a href=”http://www.politico.com/blogs/david-catanese/2011/12/brunners-debate-switcheroo-108068.html”MO-Sen/a: This is so pathetic. Rich guy (and third wheel) John Brunner challenged his GOP primary rivals Sarah Steelman and Todd Akin to a series of debates—but now Brunner’s refusing to participate in a January debate that both of the other candidates have agreed to. Brunner whined that the debate schedule should be set “on the respective campaign’s terms, not news or broadcast outlets,” but Steelman’s camp fired back hard:/p blockquote”Sarah will debate anywhere and anytime. If Mr. Brunner needs his own set of special rules to make it happen then that is fine. Sarah will debate with no rules and that’s fine too. But just to set the record straight, we have been calling for a debate since the beginning of October.”/blockquote pSteelman’s politics may be odious to me, but this is the kind of talk I actually really respect on the campaign trail. John Brunner: Master of loser-speak. Sarah Steelman: Knows how to talk smack like a winner!/p p• a href=”http://www.omaha.com/article/20111216/NEWS01/111219755″NE-Sen/a: Is Jon Bruning less intimidating to Republicans than Ben Nelson? A report in the Omaha World-Herald says that wealthy bank chair Sid Dinsdale is reportedly considering an entry into the GOP primary field, but that his decision may hinge on whether Sen. Ben Nelson seeks re-election. That means that Bruning, the nominal but badly dinged-up frontrunner on the Republican side, isn’t exactly scaring Dinsdale off, but Nelson—not exactly undamaged himself—may well be. Pretty interesting place to find ourselves in, and if this report is accurate, it dovetails with the theory that GOP Gov. Dave Heineman’s half-hearted claims that he isn’t ruling out a Senate bid is really just a bit of saber-rattling to get Nelson to bow out./p p• a href=”http://blog.nj.com/njv_auditor/2011/12/field_is_clearing_for_kyrillos.html”NJ-Sen/a: Roxbury township Councilman Tim Smith says he won’t seek the GOP nomination for Senate, and a pseudonymous columnist for the Newark Star-Ledger (”the Auditor”) thinks that state Sen. Michael Doherty is also unlikely to run. That clears the way for state Sen. Joseph Kyrillos, who the Auditor expects to announce “shortly after Christmas.” Kyrillos would face Dem Sen. Bob Menendez in the general election./p p• a href=”http://www.wfaa.com/news/politics/Craig-James-is-running-for-US-Senate-135864628.html”TX-Sen/a: ESPN analyst and former college and NFL football player Craig James has confirmed he’ll run for the GOP Senate nomination, filing his candidacy paperwork on Monday. Not only does James face long odds against some serious heavyweight opponents—LG David Dewhurst, former Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert, and former state Solicitor General Ted Cruz—he’s also not particularly well-liked. My Daily Kos colleague Jake McIntyre explains:/p blockquoteLong story short, he’s widely loathed by significant numbers of college football fans—particularly those in West Texas—for using his position at ESPN to get celebrated Texas Tech coach (and lovable lunatic) Mike Leach fired. Leach was fantastically successful at a program that had never been worth much, and put Tech on the map. pJames’s untalented douche of a son played WR at Tech under Leach, and constantly complained about a lack of playing time. James himself would call Leach to complain about his refusal to play junior./p pOne day, James begged out of practice with a possibly-concussion-related headache. Leach sent him to rest; Junior claimed (falsely, it appears in the fullness of time) that Leach had him locked in a small equipment shed. He complained to Daddy, and Daddy hired a PR firm to push an anti-Leach narrative. At the same time, James leaked untrue anti-Leach stories to credulous ESPN journos. All this eventually led to Leach’s firing, which enraged most Tech fans—and the bulk of the CFB blogosphere, who loved Leach and hated James. James sucks as an announcer, and was an essential part of the a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Methodist_University_football_scandal#Death_penalty”SMU death penalty scandal/a of the mid-’80s./p /blockquote pMeanwhile, Democrats a href=”http://www.kltv.com/story/16355673/former-dem-lawmaker-sadler-announces-for-senate”have found a replacement/a for retired Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who dropped out of the race late last week: former state Rep. Paul Sadler. Sadler served in the state House from 1991-2003 and is currently a href=”http://www.windcoalition.org/about/staff-directory#paul”executive director/a of a wind power lobbying group called the Wind Coalition. Sadler says he’d been a href=”http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Former-rep-files-for-Senate-filling-Dem-void-2412813.php”contemplating a run/a ever since Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison announced her retirement… which means he’s been thinking about it for almost a year, since that was in January. He certainly was quiet about it, because I don’t think anyone had heard his name come up before yesterday. In any event, he said that Sanchez’s decision to drop out is what tipped him into the race./p pbHouse/b:/p p• a href=”http://www.tammyduckworth.com/2011/12/19/labor-organizations-representing-thousands-local-w/”IL-08/a: In response to a large local branch of the IBEW a href=”http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/14/1045159/-Daily-Kos-Elections-Morning-Digest:-Pennsylvania-Republicans-unveil-new-congressional-map?detail=hide”announcing their support/a for Democratic rival Raja Krishnamoorthi last week, Tammy Duckworth just unveiled endorsements from 11 mostly local labor unions representing “thousands” of workers./p p• bKY-04/b: There’s been a lot of motion in the ocean as far as the GOP primary field for Geoff Davis’s seat is concerned. (Davis, you’ll recall, just announced his surprise retirement late last week.) Here’s a run-down on who’s in and who’s out:/p blockquoteState Rep. Alecia Webb-Edgington: a href=”http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/9168c2e184644464860cff7dafa794cb/KY–US-Congress-Kentucky/”In/a pFormer Mitch McConnell chief-of-staff Hunter Bates: a href=”http://www.rollcall.com/news/Hunter-Bates-Kentucky-4th-district-Geoff-Davis-Congress-211177-1.html”Out/a/p pBusinessman Kevin Sell: a href=”http://cincinnati.com/blogs/nkypolitics/2011/12/17/sell-will-not-run-for-congress-in-2012″Out/a/p pFormer Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson: a href=”http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20111216/NEWS01/312160087/”Out/a/p /blockquote pAnd despite this district’s deep red hue, quite a few potential Democratic candidates are emerging from the woodwork. Three of them tell the Louisville Courier-Journal that they’re a href=”http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20111216/NEWS01/312160087/”considering the race/a, Grant County Judge-Executive Darrell Link, former Gallatin County Judge-Executive Kenny French, and state Democratic Party vice chairman Nathan Smith, whom we mentioned as a possibility when the news of Davis’s retirement first broke. Meanwhile, reporter Amanda Van Benschoten rattles off several more names:/p blockquote[L]ongtime Campbell County Commissioner bKen Rechtin/b, the lone Democratic county commissioner in Boone, Campbell and Kenton counties; Edgewood attorney bPatrick Hughes/b, who has previously run for Kenton County judge-executive and now works in the office of Attorney General Jack Conway; and bLinda Klembara/b of Fort Thomas, president of the Kentucky Women’s Network who previously ran for state representative./blockquote p• a href=”http://www.startribune.com/politics/statelocal/135776953.html”MN-06/a: This is certainly unusual: A senior Republican state legislator is stepping down from a leadership post due having an affair with a staffer—but in the case, the lawmaker is a woman, Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch, the first woman to hold that position. Koch is saying that she’ll serve out her term in the Senate, though at least one fellow Republican senator gunning for her old leadership job a href=”http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/12/18/hass-on-koch-situation/”thinks she should resign/a from the chamber entirely. This is getting filed under MN-06 because Koch had been considered a href=”http://www.sctimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011112150055″a possible successor/a to GOP Rep. Michelle Bachmann if she decides not to seek re-election this cycle. That is almost certainly off the table now./p pMeanwhile, Roll Call’s Abby Livingston a href=”http://www.rollcall.com/issues/57_76/2012-Redistricting-Make-Bachmann-Seat-Iffy-211139-1.html”mentions another pair/a of possible Bachmann replacements that we hadn’t heard about before: state House Majority Leader Matt Dean and state Rep. Chris DeLaForest. We name-checked a few others a href=”http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/06/22/987524/-Daily-Kos-Elections-Morning-Digest:-6-22?detail=hide”back in June/a./p p• a href=”http://www.sunherald.com/2011/12/10/3625693/potential-palazzo-challengers.html”MS-04/a: This is quite interesting: Former Democratic Rep. Gene Taylor, who held down some stunningly red turf in Mississippi for over two decades with aplomb before finally getting turned out in 2010’s red storm, isn’t closing the door on a comeback bid. Despite his long tenure, Taylor is only 58 and says “anything’s a possibility,” though he’s caring for his ill father, which would augur against another run./p pBut if Taylor does decide to make a go of it, he may get a boost from a potentially serious internecine battle on the GOP side. As we noted a href=”http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/06/1042699/-Daily-Kos-Elections-Morning-Digest:-Texas-Republicans-tearing-themselves-apart-over-redistricting?detail=hide”a couple of weeks ago/a, Republicans are starting to badmouth the guy who managed to knock off Taylor last year, Steven Palazzo. Since then, the drumbeat’s gotten a little louder, with Roll Call reporting that Palazzo has been asking congressional staffers to handle a href=”http://www.rollcall.com/issues/57_71/heard_hill_steven_palazzo_staffers_tapped_odd_jobs-210881-1.html”personal chores/a like babysitting and moving—which would be a violation of House ethics rules against using staff for members’ “personal benefit.”/p pSo it’s unsurprising that some GOPers are considering a primary challenge. We previously mentioned state Sen. Michael Watson (who is just 33), but the Biloxi Sun Herald’s Geoff Pender adds another potential name: Attorney Brian Sanderson, who he says “helped head Gov. Haley Barbour’s Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts” and describes as “well-connected.” (Sanderson is also pretty young, 38.) Additionally, because there’s no pleasing `em, local teabaggers are saying they’ll put up a candidate against Palazzo, too. The filing deadline a href=”http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/25/1010607/-Daily-Kos-Elections-2012-Non-Presidential-Primary-Calendar?detail=hide”is Jan. 13/a and the primary not long after, March 13, so we’ll get a sense of this field very shortly./p p• a href=”http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2011/12/new_barbell_district_tilts_in.html”OH-09, OH-11/a: While we’re on the topic, Ohio’s latest (and final) map did include one key change: It made the re-drawn 9th CD even more unwinnable for Dennis Kucinich, who had been thrown into a primary with fellow Dem Rep. Marcy Kaptur. So now the rumor mill is suggesting that Kucinich might instead try to seek re-election in the majority-black 11th, home of Rep. Marcia Fudge. Fudge had already drawn a primary challenge from another black politician, state Sen. Nina Turner, so it’s possible that the two could split the African-American vote in the primary and let Kucinich emerge victorious./p p• a href=”http://hotlineoncall.nationaljournal.com/archives/2011/12/christiana-wont.php”PA-12/a: This is a surprise: Up-and-coming Republican state Rep. Jim Christiana, who first expressed interest in a possible congressional bid a href=”http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/09/27/1020481/-Daily-Kos-Elections-Morning-Digest:-Why-does-anyone-pay-attention-to-FreedomWorks?detail=hide”months ago/a, will not run in the redrawn 12th. This district, which will pit two Democratic incumbents against each other in a primary, was also all but custom-drawn for someone like Christiana, which is why his decision not to run is so unexpected. However, Christiana’s only 28 years old and has a long career ahead of him—and it’s also possible that he’s clearing the way for state House Majority Leader Mike Turzai to run instead. (Turzai got crushed by Dem Rep. Ron Klink in a 1998 run for the 1990s version of the 4th CD, a partial predecessor to this district.) Right now, though, the main GOPer in the race is still attorney Keith Rothfus, who very nearly beat Dem Rep. Jason Altmire in the old 4th last year./p p• a href=”http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_215575.asp”TN-03/a: Late last week, businessman Bill Taylor announced he’d run for Tennessee’s Third Congressional District as a Democrat. This very red seat hasn’t been held by Dems since Marilyn Lloyd retired in 1994, and you can guess what happened to an open seat in the South that year. But Taylor may be hoping for the eventual Republican nominee to emerge damaged, thanks to a brewing primary on the GOP side. If you’ve been following this race, you know that GOPer Chuck Fleischmann is facing a challenge from a young but well-funded Weston Wamp, son of Zach (the guy who held the seat between Lloyd and Fleischmann)./p p• a href=”http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Nick-Lampson-running-for-14th-Congressional-2412979.php”TX-14/a: Democratic ex-Rep. Nick Lampson, who had long sounded interested in making another comeback bid, filed paperwork to run in the open 14th Congressional District yesterday. And guess who delivered those filing papers? None other than Daily Kos Elections’ own a href=”http://trowaman.dailykos.com/user/trowaman”trowaman/a—aka Joseph Vogas—who’d been spearheading a a href=”http://www.facebook.com/DraftLampsonforCongress”Draft Lampson/a effort. Trowaman isn’t a staffer but made the four-hour drive to Austin as a favor to the campaign. Pretty cool, huh? Anyhow, Lampson represented a large portion of the various versions of the district we’ve seen this year (both in the legislature’s map and the court-drawn map), back when it was known as the old 9th during his first turn in Congress. Assuming the final map bears some resemblance to either of these maps, Lampson definitely has a shot, even though the district would still be quite red. a href=”http://candidates.texasgop.org/offices/united-states-representative”Ten Republicans/a have filed to run here so far, so it’ll be a while before we know who Lampson’s opponent will be./p p• a href=”http://blogs.caller.com/political_pulse/archives/2011/12/troiani_announc.html”TX-27/a: Former Brownsville city commissioner Anthony Troiani says he’ll join the Democratic field in the 27th CD./p p• a href=”http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/53146046-90/former-republican-speaker-utah.html.csp”UT-02/a: Another Republican resigns to run in Utah: This time it’s state Rep. David Clark, a former House speaker, who plans to seek the open 2nd CD seat. (Last week state Sen. Dan Liljenquist did the same.) Clark will be joining a whole bunch of other GOPers, whom Robert Gehrke of the Salt Lake Tribune helpfully lists out:/p blockquoteThe Republican field includes conservative activist Cherilyn Eagar, author and former Air Force pilot Chris Stewart, former Air Force official Chuck Williams, businessman Howard Wallack, and Navy and commercial pilot John Willoughby. Former NFL defensive lineman Jason Buck also may join the race./blockquote pbOther Races/b:/p p• a href=”http://www.goerie.com/article/20111216/NEWS02/312169889/State-Sen-Earll-won%27t-seek-re-election-in-2012-”PA-St. Sen./a: A little down in the weeds, but good news for Democrats: Four-term Republican state Sen. Jane Earll won’t seek re-election next year, which is worth noting because her Erie-based district is almost certainly the bluest seat held by a GOPer in the entire Senate. (Adam B a href=”http://www.dailykos.com/comments/1046870/44321207#c443″has a good suggestion/a for a possible candidate: Dem ex-Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper.) Republicans have a 30-20 edge in the chamber, though, so it’s a long march back for Dems./p pbRedistricting Roundup/b:/p p• a href=”http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/arizona/politics/article_a1652260-2825-11e1-89f0-001871e3ce6c.html”AZ Redistricting/a: According to reporter Howard Fischer, Arizona’s redistricting commission is getting close to finalizing a congressional map, which makes sense since the chair of the panel, Colleen Mathis, a href=”http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/22/1038915/-Daily-Kos-Elections-Morning-Digest:-Jan-Brewer-might-try-to-impeach-Colleen-Mathis-again!?detail=hide”had previously set/a an informal deadline of Christmas for signing off on new plans. You can check out all the various proposals a href=”http://www.azredistricting.org/Maps/Proposed-Changes/default.asp”at the commission’s website/a./p p• a href=”http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/12/panel_to_decide_which_nj_congr.html”NJ Redistricting/a: New Jersey’s congressional redistricting efforts got underway in earnest on Monday, as the panel responsible for coming up with a new map finally convened. We haven’t seen any proposed maps, but this is what the latest scuttlebutt says:/p blockquoteThe Democrats’ initial map will put Garrett (R-5th Dist.) and Lance (R-7th Dist.) together, according to the sources. And while it’s less certain what the Republicans will do, they’ll probably put Rothman (D-9th Dist.) and Bill Pascrell (D-8th Dist.) — whose hometowns of Fair Lawn and Paterson share a border — in the same district. pBut members of both sides privately conceded that it is possible, even likely, that the final map will have what is called a “fair fight” district, where a Democrat and Republican are thrown together and either could win./p pPatrick Murray, the director of polling at Monmouth University, said that is the most likely scenario. And he agreed with the matchup of the conservative Garrett and the liberal Rothman, the scenario that has been making the biggest rounds recently in political circles./p p”I think something like a Garrett-Rothman matchup seems like a very high probability because I think it will appeal to John Farmer,” Murray said. “It will pit a Democrat against a Republican. And it won’t threaten the most senior members of our delegation.”/p /blockquote p• a href=”http://www.mydailysentinel.com/view/full_story/16821834/article-House-and-Senate-approve-Ohio-redistricting-plans”OH Redistricting/a: Gov. John Kasich signed Ohio’s revised congressional redistricting plan into law last Thursday, right after it passed through both chambers of the legislature with shameful numbers of Democrats voting in favor of it. Meanwhile, Ohio Democratic chair Chris Redfern a href=”http://www.rollcall.com/issues/57_76/ohio_democratic_party_chairman_chris_redfern_miffed_lack_dccc_help-211169-1.html”is blaming the DCCC/a for the failure of the petition drive to place the first map that Republicans passed in September on the ballot for a referendum. Redfern says he asked the DCCC for money to fund the effort but they refused—and the D-Trip isn’t denying it, either./p pThis supports my a href=”http://www.dailykos.com/comments/1044881/44250740#c374″pet theory/a that most of the remaining members of Ohio’s Democratic congressional delegation were actually okay with the map, and therefore the DCCC’s hands were tied, since it can’t really go against the wishes of the incumbents who pay the dues that fund its mission. That’s still no excuse for the ODP, though, which—if it was sincere about pursuing this referendum—should have put the pedal to the metal. What’s more, it doesn’t explain why Democratic legislators voted ien masse/i for the latest map. There was no call for that at all. They could have at least let it pass with a non-referendum-proof margin and hoped that a rich benefactor or motivated union would come and save with day with a second petition drive. The fact that they gave the GOP their votes despite getting bupkes in terms of revisions suggests to me that the fix was in, regardless of Redfern’s attempt to shift blame to DC./p pa href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/eV0Rjf4US7Xq6Hp4W4sJLmwgCug/0/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/eV0Rjf4US7Xq6Hp4W4sJLmwgCug/0/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/abr/ a href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/eV0Rjf4US7Xq6Hp4W4sJLmwgCug/1/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/eV0Rjf4US7Xq6Hp4W4sJLmwgCug/1/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/a/pdiv class=”feedflare” a href=”http://feeds.dailykos.com/~ff/dailykos/index?a=HYiAgYxJhNE:rko8tL_mr8g:H0mrP-F8Qgo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/dailykos/index?d=H0mrP-F8Qgo” border=”0″/img/a /divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/dailykos/index/~4/HYiAgYxJhNE” height=”1″ width=”1″/

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Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest: Pennsylvania Democrats collude with Republicans on redistricting

pWASHINGTON — Located less than a block from K Street, the aptly-named Lincoln Restaurant will host more than 30 Republican lawmakers and scores of the city’s best known GOP lobbyists on Wednesday night at a fundraiser for Mitt Romney. But the main attraction at this party isn’t going to be Mitt Romney./ppInstead, it’ll be Romney’s eldest son, Tagg Romney, 41, a private equity manager who has recently taken a more active role in his father’s campaign. And judging by the numbingly-long a href=”http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/PPM170_romneydc.pdf” target=”_hplink”list/a of co-hosts, most of whom are under 40, Tagg’s party is a hot ticket among members of D.C.’s shiny Republican social set./ppThere’s a good reason for this: unlike the vast majority of Washington fundraisers, this one actually seems like it might be fun. Among the congressional hosts are some of the most gregarious guys in the House, like Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) and Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) — they also happen to be among the youngest. The lobbyists, too, represent the “livelier” side of K Street, people like Sam Geduldig, former staffer for Speaker John Boehner; former Bush State Department aide Sarah Lenti and former National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Ken Spain./pbra href=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/13/mitt-romneys-son-tagg-to-woo-young-gop-donors_n_1144965.htmlRead More…/abr a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/gop/”More on GOP/a pa href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/AgVYBxQLnSXbM5FsAW01hO033FY/0/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/AgVYBxQLnSXbM5FsAW01hO033FY/0/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/abr/ a href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/AgVYBxQLnSXbM5FsAW01hO033FY/1/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/AgVYBxQLnSXbM5FsAW01hO033FY/1/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/a/pdiv class=”feedflare” a href=”http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?a=TBj_EfIBBCk:yG7BKsx9mUo:yIl2AUoC8zA”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?d=yIl2AUoC8zA” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?a=TBj_EfIBBCk:yG7BKsx9mUo:F7zBnMyn0Lo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?i=TBj_EfIBBCk:yG7BKsx9mUo:F7zBnMyn0Lo” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?a=TBj_EfIBBCk:yG7BKsx9mUo:V_sGLiPBpWU”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?i=TBj_EfIBBCk:yG7BKsx9mUo:V_sGLiPBpWU” border=”0″/img/a /divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/huffingtonpost/raw_feed/~4/TBj_EfIBBCk” height=”1″ width=”1″/

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Mitt Romney’s Son Tagg To Woo Young GOP Donors While Dad Hits Up Former Wall Street Rivals

div class=”dkimg-r”img src=”http://images1.dailykos.com/i/user/151025/goposaurinheels.jpg” alt=”" height=”184″ width=”275″ //div The Republican Party has a complicated relationship with sexism. Yes, Republicans patted themselves on the back in 2010 for a href=”http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/06/27/879595/-Republicans-discover-the-F-word?detail=hide”realizing that chicks can run for office too/a. But a href=”http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/11/07/918365/-The-Year-of-the-Woman-that-wasnt?detail=hide”when voters went to the polls/a, it turned out they weren’t that into those Republican women after all. pAnd then, earlier this year, some Republican women in the House of Representatives had themselves an adorable little a href=”http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/06/23/987964/-House-Republican-women-insist-theyre-pro-woman-too?detail=hide”consciousness-raising session/a to insist that (a) they are also “pro-woman” despite their full-throated support for anti-woman legislation; and (b) they’re not all as stupid or obnoxious as Sarah Palin./p pAnd when she first jumped into the race, Michele Bachmann insisted sexism in the Republican party a href=”http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/27/1038659/-Michele-Bachmann-thinks-there-may-be-sexism-at-work-after-all?detail=hide”was a thing of the past/a—until she started plummeting in the polls, at which point, she decided sexism might be a barrier after all./p pThere are about five bazillion reasons Michele Bachmann won’t be her party’s nominee—and at least four bazillion of them have nothing to do with sexism. But this National Public Radio a href=”http://www.npr.org/2011/12/13/143623862/iowa-evangelicals-ponder-which-gop-candidate-to-back”interview/a with Christian conservative voters in Iowa—Michele Bachmann’s supposed base—sums up quite nicely why Michele can’t be her party’s presidential nominee. Nor, for that matter, can any other Republican woman:/p blockquoteRUSSELL: But gender is an issue for some, like Santorum supporter Molly Gordon, an evangelical homemaker from Sioux City. pbMOLLY GORDON: Frankly, I am a woman, but I’m not sure I’m comfortable with a woman as president. Women are just - I just don’t know if we’re cut out to lead./b/p pRUSSELL: One influential conservative went so far as to say evangelicals might have coalesced behind Michele Bachmann if we were talking instead about a Michael Bachmann./p /blockquote pMolly Gordon emshould/em be a Michele Bachmann supporter. But in a cruel, ironic twist of fate, the very voters to whom Michele emshould/em have the most appeal—the uber-conservative uber-evangelicals—are the exact same voters who believe, as Molly Gordon does, that a woman doesn’t have what it takes to be president./p pThe reality is, despite all that Mama Grizzly nonsense, Republicans really don’t want to send a woman to do what they firmly believe is a man’s job. Which is why (among the many other reasons), neither Michele, nor any Republican woman, will ever get anywhere near the White House.br //p pa href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/-fLLQrjK0DIfmWZBA-KO3tnWApE/0/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/-fLLQrjK0DIfmWZBA-KO3tnWApE/0/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/abr/ a href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/-fLLQrjK0DIfmWZBA-KO3tnWApE/1/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/-fLLQrjK0DIfmWZBA-KO3tnWApE/1/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/a/pdiv class=”feedflare” a href=”http://feeds.dailykos.com/~ff/dailykos/index?a=gdpLnp-D4K4:C-l9aXHDrxg:H0mrP-F8Qgo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/dailykos/index?d=H0mrP-F8Qgo” border=”0″/img/a /divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/dailykos/index/~4/gdpLnp-D4K4″ height=”1″ width=”1″/

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Why Michele Bachmann will never be the Republican presidential nominee

pbr Holidays just aren’t the holidays for us without a little extra Kermit in our lives. With the new movie out in theatres (read a HuffPost High School blogger’s review of the soundtrack a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-yu/review-the-muppets-origin_b_1118487.html” target=”_hplink”here/a), emThe Muppet Christmas Carol/em on our snow day DVD lineup, and, most importantly, the power of YouTube, we’re getting the spirit of the season this week — Muppet-style. /ppCheck out the slideshow below for our favorite Muppet Christmas song (”Ode To Joy” as performed by Beeker), our favorite random Muppet clip (their audition for emStar Wars/em!), and our favorite Muppet mantra (Miss Piggy on “Snackcercising” this break!)./ppWhat’s emyour/em fave Muppet — or cartoon — holiday staple? Sound off below!/pbra href=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/13/the-muppets-sing-ode-to-j_n_1145066.htmlRead More…/abr a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/fun-stuff/”More on Fun Stuff/a pa href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Z60iGgqcTOcSa5ZH_OS2_qZT-as/0/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Z60iGgqcTOcSa5ZH_OS2_qZT-as/0/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/abr/ a href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Z60iGgqcTOcSa5ZH_OS2_qZT-as/1/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Z60iGgqcTOcSa5ZH_OS2_qZT-as/1/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/a/pdiv class=”feedflare” a href=”http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?a=dI7GFMD87wM:n6BSDoStSvw:yIl2AUoC8zA”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?d=yIl2AUoC8zA” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?a=dI7GFMD87wM:n6BSDoStSvw:F7zBnMyn0Lo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?i=dI7GFMD87wM:n6BSDoStSvw:F7zBnMyn0Lo” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?a=dI7GFMD87wM:n6BSDoStSvw:V_sGLiPBpWU”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?i=dI7GFMD87wM:n6BSDoStSvw:V_sGLiPBpWU” border=”0″/img/a /divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/huffingtonpost/raw_feed/~4/dI7GFMD87wM” height=”1″ width=”1″/

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The Muppets Sing ‘Ode To Joy’! (And Audition For ‘Star Wars’)

div class=”dkimg-r”img src=”http://images2.dailykos.com/i/user/1054/RichardII.jpg” alt=”King Richard II” height=”341″ width=”250″ / div class=”dkimg-cap”a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_II_of_England”Wikipedia/a helpfully points out that Richard IIbr / was “probably not insane,” so that’s a plus.br / nbsp;/div /div I suppose it should not be much of a surprise, but many of the serious intellectuals of the Republican Party (don’t snicker, they’re very sensitive) are still, at this late date, pining for a new savior-candidate. Someone to save them from the current field, including their past savior-candidates. Foremost among them appears to be Bill Kristol, who is one of the founding members of the current Republican Brain Trust, a thought that depresses nearly everyone in the world aside from Bill Kristol. pKristol points approvingly to an analysis that uses charts and whatnot to prove that it would be possible, in theory, for some savior-candidate to jump in the race somewhere around Valentine’s Day and save conservatism from the current crop of sorry losers. From there, he rubs bacon on himself, climbs to the top of a four-story hotel, and dives towards the swimming pool, a href=”http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/gop-s-valentine-s-day-option_611730.html”just to prove to you bastards that he can./a/p blockquoteSo (as I argued a year ago—and several times subsequently), why not the best? Ryan-Rubio 2012? pAnd don’t think, by the way, that Ryan and Rubio are too young. One of the first references to Valentine’s Day in connection with romance is in Chaucer’s Parlement of Foules (1382). Chaucer wrote:/p blockquoteFor this was on seynt Volantynys daybr / Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make. p(“For this was on Saint Valentine’s Day, when every bird cometh there to choose his mate.”)/p /blockquote pThis poem was written to honor the first anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia, who were married less than a year later, when each was only 15 years old. Yes, I know the reign of Richard II didn’t turn out so well. But the first 20 years or so weren’t bad—and Ryan-Rubio would only have to govern for 16./p /blockquote pThere’s a fine line between conservative intellectualism and the scrawled notes of people high on illegal substances, but usually spelling suffers in the latter case, so I think this one counts as intellectualism. Here Kristol is using a Chaucer quote to note that back in the 14th century King Richard II married at age 15, which proves that Paul Ryan isn’t too young to be president because things under Richard went fine, at least up until the time when they didn’t, and if it was good enough for the inbred monarchs of 14th century Europe it probably would work for us too./p pIf the “intellectual” part of this argument escapes you, say because you were perhaps looking for Kristol to explain why his painfully silly fellow “intellectual” Paul Ryan would make a good president in spite of his notable inability to add numbers together, or what on earth the arranged marriages of teenaged royalty has to do with the presidential campaign cycle: The “intellectual” part is managing to wedge a bit of Chaucer into there, so shut up./p pI have quite frequently opined on the state of conservative intellectualism in the past, and how illustrative that Paul Ryan, Bill Kristol, Charles Krauthammer and others are held up as the deepest thinkers of modern Republicanism. You may recall, however, that one of Bill Kristol’s defining contributions to recent politics was none other than a href=”http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2008/10/10/palins-talent-scout.html”the supposed “discovery” of one Sarah Palin/a, one of the conservative saviors that he still pines for, even to this day:/p blockquoteIn June 2007, a cruise hosted by the political journal The Weekly Standard set anchor in Juneau, Alaska. Standard editors William Kristol and Fred Barnes then lunched with Governor Sarah Palin. It was a moment of discovery to equal Hernando Cortez’s landing at Veracruz./blockquote pThat description seems a bit hyperbolic, although I suppose if you wanted to more directly compare the discovery of Sarah Palin to the introduction of smallpox to the New World, I could get behind that. In any event, the sort of people that intellectual giant William Kristol praises as fellow intellectual giants should, at the least, give a person pause. The fellow who is currently pining for Paul Ryan to come save conservatism from the wreck of the current campaign season was previously pining for Sarah Palin to fill the same role. That right there should prove blunder enough for most people, but it is hard to discredit the undiscreditable, and so the merry, smarter-than-you ship of Kristol sails merrily on to its next destination. Paul Ryan it is.br //p pa href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/BPfJIS0uru84fNoDwBf93tdE_os/0/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/BPfJIS0uru84fNoDwBf93tdE_os/0/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/abr/ a href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/BPfJIS0uru84fNoDwBf93tdE_os/1/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/BPfJIS0uru84fNoDwBf93tdE_os/1/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/a/pdiv class=”feedflare” a href=”http://feeds.dailykos.com/~ff/dailykos/index?a=0s-45sMOBgo:iIPP8kVDSAY:H0mrP-F8Qgo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/dailykos/index?d=H0mrP-F8Qgo” border=”0″/img/a /divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/dailykos/index/~4/0s-45sMOBgo” height=”1″ width=”1″/

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‘Serious’ conservatives still looking for a savior

div class=”dkimg-c”img src=”http://images2.dailykos.com/i/user/191280/GOP-PrimaryDebate.jpg” alt=”GOP 2012 Debate” height=”100″ width=”550″ / div class=”dkimg-cap”Talk about it here. Watch it live on ABC or a href=”http://caucuses.desmoinesregister.com/”desmoinesregister.com/a.br //div /div pspan class=”update”a name=”20111210192750″ href=”/story/2011/12/10/1025385/-Saturday-Night-Liveblog-7:-ProfessorGingrich-vs-Mandate-Mitt-(and-four-other-Republiclowns)#20111210192750″b 7:27 PM PT/b/a:/span Michele Bachmann brings up TARP, yet another thing that she opposed from the very start but was too incompetent to actually defeat. (Suddenly I’m having flashbacks of Sarah Palin’s TARP support.) She then says some people on the stage supported TARP without naming names. And she also clips coupon./p pspan class=”update”a name=”20111210192925″ href=”/story/2011/12/10/1025385/-Saturday-Night-Liveblog-7:-ProfessorGingrich-vs-Mandate-Mitt-(and-four-other-Republiclowns)#20111210192925″b 7:29 PM PT/b/a:/span Stephanopoulos says the Yahoo! audience wants more background on Mitt Romney’s support for health care mandates (and I think Gingrich’s as well)./p pspan class=”update”a name=”20111210193248″ href=”/story/2011/12/10/1025385/-Saturday-Night-Liveblog-7:-ProfessorGingrich-vs-Mandate-Mitt-(and-four-other-Republiclowns)#20111210193248″b 7:32 PM PT/b/a:/span Romney: “States can do whatever the heck they want.” He says he likes MassCare, if other states want to follow it, that’s great, he says it’s a good model. Steph asks if he means mandates. Romney says sure, if they want to. He also mentions exchanges as something states might want to do. That was a mistake: in mid-2009, Romney specifically said he was “glad” that President Obama had copied MassCare’s exchanges in the national plan. That really destroys the substance of Romney’s argument for state’s rights. His argument is really about surviving the GOP primary./p pspan class=”update”a name=”20111210193445″ href=”/story/2011/12/10/1025385/-Saturday-Night-Liveblog-7:-ProfessorGingrich-vs-Mandate-Mitt-(and-four-other-Republiclowns)#20111210193445″b 7:34 PM PT/b/a:/span Gingrich says he realized the mandate was bad when he realized that if you can mandate health insurance you can mandate that people must buy anything. That’s a total B.S. answer. But the difference with Romney is that Gingrich never actually signed a law that created a mandate./p pspan class=”update”a name=”20111210193545″ href=”/story/2011/12/10/1025385/-Saturday-Night-Liveblog-7:-ProfessorGingrich-vs-Mandate-Mitt-(and-four-other-Republiclowns)#20111210193545″b 7:35 PM PT/b/a:/span Rick Perry has his best answer of the debate. I won’t bother with the details, but the key thing is that he didn’t use a single number in his answer, and spent the entire time talking about what he wants the federal government to not do. That’s really what he’s best at: doing nothing. He shouldn’t talk about anything else./p span class=”update”a name=”20111210193826″ href=”/story/2011/12/10/1025385/-Saturday-Night-Liveblog-7:-ProfessorGingrich-vs-Mandate-Mitt-(and-four-other-Republiclowns)#20111210193826″b 7:38 PM PT/b/a:/span blockquotea href=”https://twitter.com/rebeccadnc/status/145707222054346753″@RebeccaDNC:/a So to @MittRomney…$1500 is a ‘little band-aid’ and $10,000 is a quick bet?/blockquote pspan class=”update”a name=”20111210194107″ href=”/story/2011/12/10/1025385/-Saturday-Night-Liveblog-7:-ProfessorGingrich-vs-Mandate-Mitt-(and-four-other-Republiclowns)#20111210194107″b 7:41 PM PT/b/a:/span I want to know what Diane Sawyer smoked before this debate. She seems high as a kite./p pspan class=”update”a name=”20111210194302″ href=”/story/2011/12/10/1025385/-Saturday-Night-Liveblog-7:-ProfessorGingrich-vs-Mandate-Mitt-(and-four-other-Republiclowns)#20111210194302″b 7:43 PM PT/b/a:/span Oh, Kaili just reminded me that Sawyer said she had a cough. So maybe she’s hopped up on NyQuil. Anyway, we’re now in the closing argument round of the debate. And some random dope named Rick Santorum is talking. He’s nowhere in the polls, which probably means he’ll be leading the field in two weeks time./p pspan class=”update”a name=”20111210194350″ href=”/story/2011/12/10/1025385/-Saturday-Night-Liveblog-7:-ProfessorGingrich-vs-Mandate-Mitt-(and-four-other-Republiclowns)#20111210194350″b 7:43 PM PT/b/a (Kaili Joy Gray):/span The liveblogging continues in a href=”http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/10/1025384/-Saturday-Night-Liveblog-8:-ProfessorGingrich-vs-Mandate-Mitt-(and-four-other-Republiclowns)?detail=hideamp;via=blog_1″the next thread/a./p pa href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/VKEGGCJuRemUsraq2MXsbHTRCO8/0/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/VKEGGCJuRemUsraq2MXsbHTRCO8/0/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/abr/ a href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/VKEGGCJuRemUsraq2MXsbHTRCO8/1/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/VKEGGCJuRemUsraq2MXsbHTRCO8/1/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/a/pdiv class=”feedflare” a href=”http://feeds.dailykos.com/~ff/dailykos/index?a=ndbtUt9cBsM:-t2N2NXvhcw:H0mrP-F8Qgo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/dailykos/index?d=H0mrP-F8Qgo” border=”0″/img/a /divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/dailykos/index/~4/ndbtUt9cBsM” height=”1″ width=”1″/

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Saturday Night Liveblog #7: Professor Gingrich vs. Mandate Mitt (and four other Republiclowns)

p(Reuters - By Sarah McBride) - Consumers spent a record $1.25 billion on Cyber Monday, according to comScore, highlighting how much people love shopping online./ppBut another group is in just as much of a frenzy over online retail: venture capitalists, who invested a record $2.39 billion in online shopping this year, according to Thomson Reuters data. That’s more than double last year’s $1.06 billion, which in turn was almost double the prior year’s investments in the sector./pp(For a graphic on venture capital investments in online retail, click a href=”http://link.reuters.com/bec55s” target=”_hplink”here/a.)/pbra href=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/09/e-commerce-venture-capita_n_1138751.htmlRead More…/abr a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/small-business-news-and-trends/”More on News and Trends/a pa href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Day8lGP1mZHTtNAQTYrucTMbkCo/0/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Day8lGP1mZHTtNAQTYrucTMbkCo/0/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/abr/ a href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Day8lGP1mZHTtNAQTYrucTMbkCo/1/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Day8lGP1mZHTtNAQTYrucTMbkCo/1/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/a/pdiv class=”feedflare” a href=”http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?a=v6lIgdIowpM:NDvRYel004Q:yIl2AUoC8zA”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?d=yIl2AUoC8zA” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?a=v6lIgdIowpM:NDvRYel004Q:F7zBnMyn0Lo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?i=v6lIgdIowpM:NDvRYel004Q:F7zBnMyn0Lo” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?a=v6lIgdIowpM:NDvRYel004Q:V_sGLiPBpWU”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?i=v6lIgdIowpM:NDvRYel004Q:V_sGLiPBpWU” border=”0″/img/a /divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/huffingtonpost/raw_feed/~4/v6lIgdIowpM” height=”1″ width=”1″/

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E-Commerce Venture Capital Sky-Rocketing This Year

pIt looks like Russell Brand will definitely be on Santa’s “nice” list this year./ppThe performer showed up at a href=”http://abc.go.com/shows/jimmy-kimmel-live” target=”_hplink”Jimmy Kimmel Live!/a on Wednesday to promote his upcoming show with fellow comedian Sarah Silverman./ppBut instead of shelling out some cash for these hot tickets, Brand said, fans are encouraged to “a href=”http://www.russellbrand.tv/2011/11/love-x-change/” target=”_hplink”donate your love (not sexual)/a” to one of six local charities in Los Angeles. /pbra href=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/08/russell-brand-on-jimmy-kimmel_n_1137871.htmlRead More…/abr a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/video/”More on Video/a pa href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/2Eey31EfMGl8f2ij5WbON6Qiu4o/0/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/2Eey31EfMGl8f2ij5WbON6Qiu4o/0/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/abr/ a href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/2Eey31EfMGl8f2ij5WbON6Qiu4o/1/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/2Eey31EfMGl8f2ij5WbON6Qiu4o/1/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/a/pdiv class=”feedflare” a href=”http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?a=0GuFjC9AStI:3FYJDn1ewiQ:yIl2AUoC8zA”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?d=yIl2AUoC8zA” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?a=0GuFjC9AStI:3FYJDn1ewiQ:F7zBnMyn0Lo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?i=0GuFjC9AStI:3FYJDn1ewiQ:F7zBnMyn0Lo” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?a=0GuFjC9AStI:3FYJDn1ewiQ:V_sGLiPBpWU”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?i=0GuFjC9AStI:3FYJDn1ewiQ:V_sGLiPBpWU” border=”0″/img/a /divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/huffingtonpost/raw_feed/~4/0GuFjC9AStI” height=”1″ width=”1″/

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Russell Brand On Jimmy Kimmel: Comedian Talks ‘Love X-Change’ (VIDEO)

pNow we know how she does it, i.e., attend two red carpet events in the same night: wearing the same outfit./ppBut who can blame Sarah Jessica Parker, who toted along hubby Matthew Broderick to both the Valentino Garavani Virtual Museum launch party and the New York premiere of “New Year’s Eve” last night? We doubt we’d be the ones trying to pull off a quick costume change in our limo. Not that we have a limo./ppSarah Jessica looked lovely in her patterned dress, statement jewelry, loose wavy hair and gold pumps, posing with Valentino and Broderick and then later at the Ziegfeld Theatre for the premiere of her new movie. /pbra href=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/08/sarah-jessica-parker-valentino_n_1136044.htmlRead More…/abr a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/sarah-jessica-parker/”More on Sarah Jessica Parker/a pa href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/4pYp8zA2IidNztn_At9n_ymC7hE/0/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/4pYp8zA2IidNztn_At9n_ymC7hE/0/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/abr/ a href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/4pYp8zA2IidNztn_At9n_ymC7hE/1/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/4pYp8zA2IidNztn_At9n_ymC7hE/1/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/a/pdiv class=”feedflare” a href=”http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?a=GwaQWlD4tT0:IG8W13eacl8:yIl2AUoC8zA”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?d=yIl2AUoC8zA” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?a=GwaQWlD4tT0:IG8W13eacl8:F7zBnMyn0Lo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?i=GwaQWlD4tT0:IG8W13eacl8:F7zBnMyn0Lo” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?a=GwaQWlD4tT0:IG8W13eacl8:V_sGLiPBpWU”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?i=GwaQWlD4tT0:IG8W13eacl8:V_sGLiPBpWU” border=”0″/img/a /divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/huffingtonpost/raw_feed/~4/GwaQWlD4tT0″ height=”1″ width=”1″/

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Sarah Jessica Parker: Two Events, One Dress (PHOTOS)

div class=”dkimg-c”img src=”http://images1.dailykos.com/i/user/191280/newtgingrichoutsider.jpg” alt=”Newt Gingrich” height=”256″ width=”550″ /br / div class=”dkimg-cap”Sigh./div /div No! Bad emTime/em magazine! Bad a href=”http://ideas.time.com/2011/12/05/the-myth-of-the-stature-gap-could-newt-be-the-next-fdr/#ixzz1fhwt6amr”Jon Meacham/a! blockquotestrongThe Myth of the Stature Gap: Could Newt Be the Next FDR?/strong/blockquote pNo. I’m sorry for this, but if you don’t catch columnists in the act, they never learn. The entirety of Meacham’s brief argument is that a lot of people hate Newt Gingrich’s guts, but a lot of people hated FDR too, so hey, maybe Newt would make a great president like FDR. No, really. Some of the more picturesque rubble amidst the resulting devastation:/p blockquoteIt is a perennial lament, one we are hearing anew as the Republican nomination race closes in on the actual casting of votes, and every candidate appears small if not fatally flawed. The past always seems somehow more golden, more serious, than the present./blockquote pI am going to go out on a limb here and say that a presidential season that has seen the likes of Sarah Palin, Donald Trump, Rick Santorum, Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann all hailed as reasonable choices for President of the United States is, in fact, less serious than the norm. Note that I am not even including perennial crackpot Ron Paul in that mix, because compared to Sarah Palin, Donald Trump, and the guy who didn’t know China already has nuclear weapons, crackpot Ron Paul is more serious./p blockquoteFranklin Roosevelt was hated by a large number of Americans in real time; some people actually celebrated when word came of his death in April 1945./blockquote pYes, we call those people Newt Gingrich’s “base.”/p blockquoteBut by the September-October debates, Newt had grown impressive “by standing back and offering a Wise Man’s view of the political shenanigans onstage and in Washington generally./blockquote pI think that’s a bit like saying “compared to all these coconuts, that is one smart monkey.” When Newt Gingrich responding to every question with a snide comment about how stupid you are to ask him that question is considered “a Wise Man’s view,” perhaps our unseriousness is even more severe than we suspected./p blockquoteIf not quite F.D.R. — and who is? — George H.W. Bush proved a fine president, and he looks better and better as the years pass./blockquote pNegatives for George H.W. Bush: that whole Iran-Contra thing; a generally substanceless term; was quickly forgotten; raised an idiot son. Positives: did not attempt to destroy the economy, government or free world. If he looks “better and better” in comparison to modern standards, it perhaps only because a lukewarm Pop-Tart tends to look far more appetizing when compared to a bowl of used motor oil and syphilis./p pNow, if the title of the piece was “Could Newt Be the Next George H.W. Bush?”, sure, knock yourself out. I think invoking FDR in this context, however, is the sort of thing that makes the Baby Jesus cry./p pAs charitable act, I’m just going to chalk this one up to a momentary brain spasm on the part of Meacham. Maybe his dog is sick or his car is in the shop and he had to put something together in three minutes or his editor was going to reassign him to the Bachmann campaign bus. But if every despised ethics-scandalized confirmed-adulterer resigned-in-disgrace politician is potentially the next incarnation of FDR, then we’d be swimming in FDRs by now. It’s much less of a stretch to suspect that a celebrated jackass might just be a celebrated jackass.br //p pa href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/jXI150AB35kRABDM14NllSM7nq4/0/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/jXI150AB35kRABDM14NllSM7nq4/0/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/abr/ a href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/jXI150AB35kRABDM14NllSM7nq4/1/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/jXI150AB35kRABDM14NllSM7nq4/1/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/a/pdiv class=”feedflare” a href=”http://feeds.dailykos.com/~ff/dailykos/index?a=RFqQw3jKOhs:Yrhv1f1vgBM:H0mrP-F8Qgo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/dailykos/index?d=H0mrP-F8Qgo” border=”0″/img/a /divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/dailykos/index/~4/RFqQw3jKOhs” height=”1″ width=”1″/

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When headlines attack: ‘Could Newt Gingrich be the next FDR?’

pa href=”"Paul Krugman/a says the only presidential candidates who can meet basic GOP requirements are the clueless or the cynical:/p blockquoteThe Washington Post quotes an unnamed Republican adviser who compared what happened to Mr. Cain, when he suddenly found himself leading in the polls, to the proverbial tale of the dog who had better not catch that car he’s chasing. “Something great and awful happened, the dog caught the car. And of course, dogs don’t know how to drive cars. So he had no idea what to do with it.” pThe same metaphor, it seems to me, might apply to the G.O.P. pursuit of the White House next year. If the dog actually catches the car — the actual job of running the U.S. government — it will have no idea what to do, because the realities of government in the 21st century bear no resemblance to the mythology all ambitious Republican politicians must pretend to believe. And what will happen then?/p /blockquote pWhat will happen? More of the same wreckage and carnage and brigandage we’ve already seen so much of./p pa href=”http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-schiller-who-is-the-one-percent-20111204,0,1375958.story”Bradley Schiller/a is yet one more “expert” asserting that class warfare was started by people on the bottom instead of people on the top. The Occupy movement gets his attention, but the Koch Brothers, Paul Ryan, the Chicago school of economics, Ronald Reagan and the Heritage Foundation? Nowhere to be found./p pa href=”http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/an-unfair-fight-for-renewable-energies/2011/12/02/gIQA9lWrTO_story.html?hpid=z3″Arnold Schwarzenegger/a steps back into the limelight for a second:/p blockquoteFederal investment is critical to the success of the renewable energy industry. That’s not a new idea. The same was true for coal, which would not have been economically feasible without tax exemptions and incentives. It was also true for offshore oil drilling, which was deemed unprofitable without royalty waivers and favorable packaging of federal leases. pImagine what the renewables industry would look like if the federal government leveled the playing field and showed the same dedication we have in California. Our green sector is the brightest spot in California’s economy, having grown 10 times faster than any other business sector since 2005. Today, one in every four jobs in the U.S. solar industry is in California. One-third of U.S. clean-tech venture capital flows into our state. Nurturing the green-tech sector was the right thing for me to do as governor, and it is the right thing for the federal government to do./p /blockquote pIt’s a good thing a href=”http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2011/12/newt-gingrich-sad-politics-has-gotten-so-nasty”Kevin Drum/a didn’t have a mouth full of tea when he read emNational Review/em’s account of Newt Gingrich lamenting the lack of bipartisanship in Washington:/p blockquoteIf there’s a single person in the country more responsible than Newt for the poisonous state of partisan politics in America today, I don’t know who it is./blockquote pBriton a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/04/new-york-spider-us-private-healthcare”Laurie Penny/a writes that a spider bite in New York gave her insight into the devastating impact of the U.S. health-care system:/p blockquoteIt’s not just the 59 million Americans living without health insurance and unable to access treatment for everyday maladies without crippling expense. It’s the millions more who dare not risk a dispute with their boss for fear of losing their medical cover, who expect to remortgage their homes in old age to meet the costs of failing health, or who live in fear of bankruptcy should they develop a chronic condition or have an accident. pThe notion of a society that sanctions companies to profit from sickness feels barbaric enough, without then forcing ordinary people to choose between medical treatment and the financial future of their families./p /blockquote pConservative a href=”http://patriotpost.us/opinion/mona-charen/2011/12/02/where-ron-paul-is-right/”Mona Charen/a signs on with the late Milton Friedman and Ron Paul in favor of legalizing drugs:/p blockquoteIn 2009, there were 1.7 million drug arrests in the U.S. Half of those were for marijuana. As David Boaz and Timothy Lynch of the Cato Institute noted, “Addicts commit crimes to pay for a habit that would be easily affordable if it were legal. Police sources have estimated that as much as half the property crime in some major cities is committed by drug users.” pDrug money, such as booze money during Prohibition, has corrupted countless police, Drug Enforcement Administration agents, border patrol agents, prosecutors and judges. Drug crime has blighted many neighborhoods. America’s appetite for drugs has encouraged lawlessness and violence in many neighboring countries, most recently in Mexico, where its drug violence is spilling north./p /blockquote pa href=”http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/columns/the-platform/editorial-newt-s-too-cute-on-how-he-made-his/article_6d7caa16-da6b-5aa2-ab9b-f85bb4d2711b.html#ixzz1fdy3oV8h”The St. Louis Post-Dispatch/a:/p blockquote[Newt Gingrich's] is a brazen brand of glibness, a willingness not merely to shade reality but to ignore it altogether, a verbal dexterity that enables him to alter the direction of the conversation and change the subject before you know he’s gone.br / He is Richard Nixon intoning, “I am not a crook.” He is Bill Clinton insisting, “It depends on what the definition of ‘is’ is.” He is Monty Python’s Michael Palin claiming of a a href=”http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/columns/the-platform/editorial-newt-s-too-cute-on-how-he-made-his/article_6d7caa16-da6b-5aa2-ab9b-f85bb4d2711b.html#ixzz1fdy3oV8h”dead parrot/a “He’s not dead, he’s resting.” pConsider a conversation he had with Sean Hannity of Fox News last Wednesday night. Mr. Hannity is an infotainer who is neither equipped nor inclined to challenge Mr. Gingrich’s assertions. He allowed Mr. Gingrich, who has made millions in the influence-peddling racket since leaving the House in January 1999, to deny that he’d ever been a lobbyist./p /blockquote pMassachusetts-based columnist a href=”http://www.creators.com/opinion/marc-dion.html”Marc Dion/a doesn’t think much of Barney Frank:/p blockquoteAs a reporter, what I got from Frank was a significant amount of rudeness, an amusing amount of arrogance, several bad jokes and a number of quotes that teetered between defiance of capitalist principle and simple ignorance of how money really works. … pI watched Frank get cheated by bank and mortgage sharpies, too. Put a politician, either liberal or conservative, in a room with six bankers, and the pol comes out without his wallet and, more importantly, without your wallet. Bankers do not bank, investors do not invest and speculators do not speculate for the benefit of the masses, and a politician who thinks they do will find his constituents sleeping under cardboard./p /blockquote pa href=”http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/ict_sbc/x-men-films-are-multiethnic-but-exclude-indiansquot;”Eric Olson/a wonders why the multi-ethnic X-Men series, after five films, has still not included a single American Indian:/p blockquoteWhy is the popular culture inclusion and treatment of an ethnic group that makes up less than 2% of the American population important? It is not simply an esoteric question of representation within a pluralistic, democratic society. It is essential and pragmatic because these are the stories and images that the American people, especially young people, associate with reality./blockquote pa href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/zBmqWAmuoJRP75Dkya5NFnnUhis/0/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/zBmqWAmuoJRP75Dkya5NFnnUhis/0/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/abr/ a href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/zBmqWAmuoJRP75Dkya5NFnnUhis/1/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/zBmqWAmuoJRP75Dkya5NFnnUhis/1/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/a/pdiv class=”feedflare” a href=”http://feeds.dailykos.com/~ff/dailykos/index?a=Oajysu-I1_8:TGUiLLHy6Qw:H0mrP-F8Qgo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/dailykos/index?d=H0mrP-F8Qgo” border=”0″/img/a /divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/dailykos/index/~4/Oajysu-I1_8″ height=”1″ width=”1″/

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Abbreviated Pundit Round-up: The cynical and clueless compete for GOP nomination

pNEW YORK — On Nov. 21 emNew York/em magazine hit newsstands with dueling pieces, one titled “How the GOP Went Mad,” by former Bush speechwriter David Frum, and the other titled “The Self-Loathing of Liberals,” by contributing editor Jonathan Chait. The cover also teased a Frank Rich essay on JFK, a profile of Arianna Huffington, and a column on Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s handling of Occupy Wall Street and the Zuccotti Park raid. /ppIt was a a href=”http://nymag.com/nymag/toc/20111128/” target=”_hplink”politics-packed print edition/a, joined by an a href=”http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/11/sarah-palin-scolded-furious-roger-ailes-foxnews.html” target=”_hplink”online scoop/a that afternoon detailing how Fox News chief Roger Ailes scolded Sarah Palin for announcing she wouldn’t run for president on Mark Levin’s radio show instead of the cable network that pays her salary. Those stories helped bring in 800,000 unique visitors on Nov. 21, the magazine’s highest web traffic day of 2011. /ppSo it makes sense that editor-in-chief Adam Moss would want to better showcase the magazine’s increasing national political coverage online during the 2012 campaign season. On Monday, emNew York/em will launch a new politics channel, “a href=”http://nymag.com/politics” target=”_hplink”Early Often,/a” that bundles together each issue’s political content, along with daily posts, a feature called “number of the day,” videos, and pieces culled from the magazine’s archives by writers like Slate’s Jacob Weisberg, emTime/em’s Joe Klein, and emMs./em magazine co-founder and feminist icon Gloria Steinem. /pbra href=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/04/new-york-magazine-politics-early-often_n_1128044.htmlRead More…/abr a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/magazines/”More on Magazines/a pa href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/WjEmJm4JRU6YxCA3utNeekk_0xQ/0/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/WjEmJm4JRU6YxCA3utNeekk_0xQ/0/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/abr/ a href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/WjEmJm4JRU6YxCA3utNeekk_0xQ/1/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/WjEmJm4JRU6YxCA3utNeekk_0xQ/1/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/a/pdiv class=”feedflare” a href=”http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?a=25vFV-7dyio:ilbVw-TGaoU:yIl2AUoC8zA”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?d=yIl2AUoC8zA” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?a=25vFV-7dyio:ilbVw-TGaoU:F7zBnMyn0Lo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?i=25vFV-7dyio:ilbVw-TGaoU:F7zBnMyn0Lo” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?a=25vFV-7dyio:ilbVw-TGaoU:V_sGLiPBpWU”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/huffingtonpost/raw_feed?i=25vFV-7dyio:ilbVw-TGaoU:V_sGLiPBpWU” border=”0″/img/a /divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/huffingtonpost/raw_feed/~4/25vFV-7dyio” height=”1″ width=”1″/

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New York Magazine Launches Politics Channel ‘Early Often’

div class=”dkimg-c”img src=”http://images1.dailykos.com/i/user/426/APR_1204.jpg” alt=”" height=”353″ width=”550″ //div pVisual source: a href=”http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/”Newseum/a/p pa href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/opinion/sunday/dowd-out-of-africa-and-into-iowa.html”Maureen Dowd/a gets out her cerebral microscope and goes hunting/p blockquoteNewt Gingrich’s mind is in love with itself. pIt has persuaded itself that it is brilliant when it is merely promiscuous. This is not a serious mind. Gingrich is not, to put it mildly, a systematic thinker./p pHis mind is a jumble, an amateurish mess lacking impulse control. He plays air guitar with ideas, producing air ideas. He ejaculates concepts, notions and theories that are as inconsistent as his behavior./p /blockquote The GOP, looking up from the trough where Perry, Bachmann, Palin, and Cain wallow in such self-congratulatory ignorance that the members of Pink Floyd want to shout “you really do need an education,” sees Newt as a ismart guy who still agrees with us/i. The truth is that Newt is only smart enough to play the GOP. Even so… pa href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/opinion/sunday/bruni-and-now-professor-gingrich.htm”Frank Bruni/a sees Newt’s sporadically functional cranium as his biggest problem in securing GOP votes./p blockquoteIt’s Gingrich’s braininess — or at least his preening assertion of such — that doesn’t quite fit, breaking the Republican pattern of late. How does an ostentatious know-it-all fare so well in a party supposedly hostile to intellectuals and intellectualism? pThe candidates who surged before him are to varying degrees yahoos. They proved it anew last week. Michele Bachmann seemed to be under the impression that we had an embassy in Iran, and Rick Perry was definitely under the delusion that the voting age in this country is 21 instead of 18./p /blockquote Bruni comes to the conclusion that Republicans are after an “intellectually muscular” candidate who can debate President Obama. To which I say 9-9-9. Nothing about this season has suggested that the GOP is in any way after someone with two neurons to rub together. What they’re looking for is not a skillful debater, it’s a bully. And no one is a bigger bully than Newt. pa href=”http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-gop-primaries-winner-washington/2011/12/02/gIQAviitKO_story.html”Dana Milbank/a thinks it doesn’t matter if Newt wins or the Mittster pulls it out, because both represent victory for politics as usual./p blockquoteIt may be Mitt Romney or it may be Newt Gingrich, but from the point of view of this town, it doesn’t matter: Neither poses a threat to our way of life. Our hometown industry — a commission-based economy in which the local citizenry helps the powerful get what they want from a too-big government — will survive. pWashington’s win was not always assured. Michele Bachmann would have taken a whack at big government, when she wasn’t trying to convert the residents of Dupont Circle to heterosexuality. Rick Perry would have slashed large chunks of the federal government, once he remembered what they were. Pizza man Herman Cain, had he not been weighed down by accusations of extramarital toppings, probably would have brought the whole place to a halt./p /blockquote Rest assured, K Street, Newt would be a president of the lobbyists, for the lobbyists, by the lobbyists. Just don’t forget: he expects to be paid. pa href=”http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-republicans-like-newt-gingrich/2011/12/02/gIQAlkrWMO_story.html”Kathleen Parker/a proves that she still gets the same marching orders as every other conservative columnist by describing Newt using the instantly trite “sinner who has been saved” phrase. nbsp;She then sifts many tea leaves and finds that her every idea about this Newty-surge (which she completely failed to predict) contains a keen insight. No wonder she likes Newt./p pa href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/opinion/sunday/riot-gears-evolution.html”Chi Birmingham and Alex Vitale/a explain how the decay of respect for the first amendment right of assembly and racing technology have generated a feedback loop that has left protestors facing off with police wearing gear that seems to have been lifted from sci fi movies about invading lizard men./p pa href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/sunday-review/have-american-police-become-militarized.html”Al Baker/a follows up with a related piece about what happens when civilian police adopt military tactics./p blockquoteBut beyond… symbolic and formal similarities, American law and tradition have tried to draw a clear line between police and military forces. To cast the roles of the two too closely, those in and out of law enforcement say, is to mistake the mission of each. Soldiers, after all, go to war to destroy, and kill the enemy. The police, who are supposed to maintain the peace, “are the citizens, and the citizens are the police,” according to Chief Walter A. McNeil of Quincy, Fla., the president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, citing the words of Sir Robert Peel, the father of modern-day policing. pYet lately images from Occupy protests streamed on the Internet — often in real time — show just how readily police officers can adopt military-style tactics and equipment, and come off more like soldiers as they face down citizens. Some say this adds up to the emergence of a new, more militaristic breed of civilian police officer./p /blockquote pa href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/opinion/sunday/douthat-the-decadent-left.html”Ross Douthat/a outdoes himself with logic tangling that would make the Gordian knot cry uncle. While he continues to be unable to understand the Occupy movement, he spends this week declaring that the unions in Wisconsin and environmental activists working against Keystone XL are “decadent” because they’re only trying to help workers and the environment and not also… well, that’s not clear, but the problem is surely that they’re not doing enough for downtrodden millionaires. It always is./p pa href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/opinion/sunday/friedman-this-is-a-big-deal.html”Thomas Friedman/a reminds us that the deal between the Obama administration and the car industry to raise mileage requirements to 54mpg is important. And it is./p blockquoteThis is a big deal — a legacy deal for Obama that will make a significant, long-term contribution to America’s energy, environmental, health and national security agendas. p…/p pNaturally, the E.P.A.-haters hate the deal. They focus on the increase in vehicle costs that will phase in over 13 years — and ignore the net savings to consumers, plus the national security, innovation, jobs, climate and health benefits. These critics are the same “conservatives for OPEC” nbsp;who, after Congress agreed in 1975 on a 10-year program to raise the fleet average mileage of American cars from 15 m.p.g. to 27.5 m.p.g., got together not only to halt mileage improvements in American vehicles during the Reagan administration, but to roll them back. This helped to drastically slow U.S. auto mileage innovation and ultimately helped to bankrupt the American auto industry and make sure the United States remained addicted to oil./p /blockquote Unfortunately the mileage increases mandated in this new compromise don’t start to kick in until 2017. Meaning there’s plenty of time for a fresh round of knuckleheads to screw the country nbsp;the same way they did in the 80s. pa href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/opinion/sunday/our-microbiomes-ourselves.html”Carl Zimmer/a wonders about the ethics involved in living treatments./p blockquoteManufacturers already add beneficial bacteria, called probiotics, to a range of foods. But regulating a microbe is trickier than regulating a molecule. Probiotics can multiply inside us, and can later escape to colonize new hosts. When a doctor prescribes engineered microbes for individual patients, the ethical questions will extend far beyond them, to their families and communities./blockquote pTip o’ the hat to the New York Times this week. After an achingly bad stretch of Sunday opinion pages, this week has several that are well written and worth reading. Thanks, folks. In addition to those cited above, a href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/opinion/sunday/internet-access-and-the-new-divide.html”Susan Crawford/a has an interesting bit on the digital divide, a href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/sunday-review/the-junking-of-the-postal-service.html”Elisabeth Rosenthal/a looks at a Post Office drowning in junk mail and wonders if this is what we need, and a href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/opinion/sunday/school-lunches-and-the-food-industry.html”Lucy Komisar/a raises serious issues about the relationship between the food industry and what goes into most school lunch programs. All three are articles worth reading./p pa href=”http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/12/03/2530633/americas-obsession-with-missing.html”Leonard Pitts/a wonders why one missing white woman is instantly national news./p blockquoteFor anyone who has a loved one missing, Godspeed the day of that person’s safe return. Or failing that, Godspeed the bitter satisfaction of knowing his or her fate. To have someone you love vanish is, one imagines, a special kind of hell. p…/p pIf all you had to go by was NBC or CNN, you’d never know that over 335,000 men and boys went missing last year or about 230,000 African Americans. You will see no coverage of them on national news. Nor, for that matter, of older people or less attractive ones./p pWhile the effect of this bias is to deny the worth of anyone who is not a pretty young white woman, a case can be made that it does pretty young white women no favors, either. The driving force of that bias, after all, is a narrative that depicts them as damsels in perpetual distress, helpless little things under constant threat from the harsh vicissitudes of a big, mean world. With apologies to a certain Oscar-winning song, it’s hard out here for a white woman./p /blockquote If we have to have a 24 hour news cycle built on sensationalism, can’t we at least find a new sensation? pa href=”http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/11/how-the-collapse-of-a-scientific-hypothesis-led-to-a-lawsuit-and-arrest.ars”John Timmer/a unravels a fascinating story of bad science, mistaken results, and death threats. A story of how the scientific system worked, but not without some hard blows landed all around. It’s also a prime example of how scientific results get validated or invalidated, not by people trying to exactly reproduce the original work, but by trying to take the next step. Well worth reading./p pa href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/4H79IXXwEeqk2UCuqwqyRA9-kto/0/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/4H79IXXwEeqk2UCuqwqyRA9-kto/0/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/abr/ a href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/4H79IXXwEeqk2UCuqwqyRA9-kto/1/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/4H79IXXwEeqk2UCuqwqyRA9-kto/1/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/a/pdiv class=”feedflare” a href=”http://feeds.dailykos.com/~ff/dailykos/index?a=kSIpHnQlswA:eQ9irgY10bM:H0mrP-F8Qgo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/dailykos/index?d=H0mrP-F8Qgo” border=”0″/img/a /divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/dailykos/index/~4/kSIpHnQlswA” height=”1″ width=”1″/

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Abbreviated Pundit Round-up: Gingrich’s Brain Edition

div class=”dkimg-c”img src=”http://images2.dailykos.com/i/user/151025/Herman_Cain_-_Jason_Reed_-_Reuters.jpg” alt=”" height=”357″ width=”550″ / div class=”dkimg-cap”So long, Herman. Thanks for playing (Jason Reed/Reuters)/div /div Oh, Herman, we hardly knew ye. pIn the most entertaining “I’m quitting” press conference since half-term Gov. Sarah Palin quit her job because only dead fish go with the flow, Herman Cain announced he’s dropping out of the race to spend more time sleeping on the couch./p pIt was fun while it lasted though, wasn’t it? So many fond memories. Herman’s “Imagine there’s no pizza” video. His “joke” about electrocuting immigrants who try to cross the border. His insistence that we can’t invade countries that have mountains. His confusion about Libya. His confusion about China. His confusion about what language is spoken in Cuba. (Hint: It’s emnot/em Cuban.) His ever-changing stories about the women who come up to his chin. His secret friendship with his special lady friend. And, of course, his SimCity-inspired tax plan for America./p pSo, what was your favorite Cain moment?/p pspan class=”update”b10:46 AM PT/b (Jed Lewison):/span Cain says his suspension is “Plan B.” Something tells me he’s quite familiar with Plan B…/p pspan class=”update”b10:47 AM PT/b (Jed Lewison):/span Cain says “Plan B” is that he will “continue to be a voice for the people. That’s why today we are launch thecainsolutions.com.” He says he “will still be promoting the biggest change and transfer of power out of” DC since America’s founding … 9-9-9./p pspan class=”update”b10:49 AM PT/b (Jed Lewison):/span Cain says “I will be making an endorsement in the near future,” but doesn’t say who it will be other than that it won’t be President Obama. Duh./p pspan class=”update”b10:52 AM PT/b (Jed Lewison):/span I wonder who Cain will endorse? I suspect he wants to help Romney, given his past history, but I also can’t imagine he’d endorse Romney because his supports don’t like Romney. Someone who can pull support from Newt Gingrich without taking much from Mitt Romney … maybe Rick Santorum or Michele Bachmann?/p span class=”update”b10:53 AM PT/b:/span div class=”dkimg-c”img src=”http://images1.dailykos.com/i/user/151025/Cole_tweet.png” alt=”" height=”177″ width=”500″ //div pa href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/2Yz2CyA_43Noyh7vZXAZZtsZrn0/0/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/2Yz2CyA_43Noyh7vZXAZZtsZrn0/0/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/abr/ a href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/2Yz2CyA_43Noyh7vZXAZZtsZrn0/1/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/2Yz2CyA_43Noyh7vZXAZZtsZrn0/1/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/a/pdiv class=”feedflare” a href=”http://feeds.dailykos.com/~ff/dailykos/index?a=zy9D6mxpeww:_fJrBHAN9Ts:H0mrP-F8Qgo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/dailykos/index?d=H0mrP-F8Qgo” border=”0″/img/a /divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/dailykos/index/~4/zy9D6mxpeww” height=”1″ width=”1″/

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The Cainwreck ends: Herman Cain ’suspends’ presidential campaign

div class=”dkimg-c”img src=”http://images1.dailykos.com/i/user/191280/hermancain_cnbcdebate_110911.jpg” alt=”Herman Cain” height=”212″ width=”550″ /br / div class=”dkimg-cap”Even Herman Cain’s own website knows he needs cheering up./div /div Jed already showed you Herman Cain’s a href=”http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/02/1041739/-Herman-Cain-website-launches-vicious-assault-on-husbandless-accusers?detail=hide”Women for Cain/a site, meant to show that all of these cruel women making naughty allegations about Herman were just “jealous,” “unstable” and “husbandless.” pBut there’s another side of Cain’s website as well. A gentler side that encourages you to, well, a href=”http://www.hermancain.com/encouragement”encourage him/a:/p blockquoteEncouragement for Cain is the official page where supporters are invited to show their support, communicate their prayers and voice their vote for Herman Cain. Please take a moment to write Mr. Cain a note sharing why you feel it is important for him to stay in the race and become the next President of the United States of America! The Left is trying their best to discredit him because they fear him. We must unite and show Mr. Cain that he is not alone in this fight, but that WE THE PEOPLE stand firmly beside him and behind him./blockquote pWe have to remember the real victim, here, in all these tales of sexual assault and decade-plus affairs. That victim: Herman Cain, and his dream of becoming supreme ruler of all he surveys, etc./p pI’ll say it right now: Mr. Cain, please don’t drop out. Our country needs you. Your party needs you. Hell, emI/em need you. Do you know how difficult it is for us to make fun of Mitt Romney? It’s like laughing at a potted plant. Sure, maybe you could dress it like a little business executive and wheel it around like it was firing people and selling their businesses off for the scrap value, but that’s a hell of a lot more work than just counting down the hours until the next woman you’ve known accuses you of being a repulsive, sorry example of humanity’s worst failings./p pWe already lost Donald Trump. We were never granted Sarah Palin. Bachmann and Santorum we’ve got, but let’s face it: They’re not going anywhere. There will be plenty of time for Newt later. Right now, we need emyou/em./p pSo please, share your thoughts with Herman Cain. Put your encouraging words below, and perhaps we can be the inspiration that allows him to soldier on in these times of hardship. Please, Herman. For the sake of the nation, please don’t drop out. You want a job, right?/p pa href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/IqtZDMKPK9XeO7cEGiRhJ2jjRnE/0/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/IqtZDMKPK9XeO7cEGiRhJ2jjRnE/0/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/abr/ a href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/IqtZDMKPK9XeO7cEGiRhJ2jjRnE/1/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/IqtZDMKPK9XeO7cEGiRhJ2jjRnE/1/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/a/pdiv class=”feedflare” a href=”http://feeds.dailykos.com/~ff/dailykos/index?a=EaHO3HvLJjA:yykIDLT7lxk:H0mrP-F8Qgo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/dailykos/index?d=H0mrP-F8Qgo” border=”0″/img/a /divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/dailykos/index/~4/EaHO3HvLJjA” height=”1″ width=”1″/

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Send words of encouragement to Herman Cain