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19 Jul 2010 11:24

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Politics: Sarah Palin tweets something, and everyone stops everything

  • Peace-seeking Muslims, pls understand. Ground Zero mosque is UNNECESSARY provocation; it stabs hearts. Pls reject it in the interest of healing.
  • Sarah Palin • Tweeting a message about the whole to-do surrounding a proposed Islamic community center and mosque a couple blocks from Ground Zero. Then she tweeted again. “Peaceful New Yorkers, pls refute the Ground Zero mosque plan if you believe catastrophic pain caused @ Twin Towers site is too raw, too real,” she wrote. Now it’s a top item on Google News. Granted, it’s generated a huge controversy in New York City, but why wasn’t it really given national play until Palin said something? source

18 Jul 2010 22:26

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Politics: Max Headroom: Mitch McConnell embraces “Party of No” rhetoric


  • Mitch explains himselfSenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says it’s honorable to be the “Party of No” (and proudly so). He makes a lot of arguments here, but the most annoying one is the one about the FCC regulating the internet. How the hell did net neutrality turn into that description?

  • Alvin Greene stays steady The most awkward Senate candidate in the history of the world actually managed to hold it together for six solid minutes today during a speech to his local NAACP. Which is honestly better than we’d do. We’d turn into a puddle of sweat quicker than that.

  • Mark Williams is an idiotAnd yet, CNN continually brings him on their network. Roland S. Martin is having none of Williams’ incendiary remarks with their loopy logic and moronic conclusions. If this guy is one of the leaders of the movement, the movement needs a new leader or two.

18 Jul 2010 20:34

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Politics: Tea Party Express leader Mark Williams validates NAACP’s concern

Williams wrote a satirical letter to Abe Lincoln about “the Colored People” that praised slavery. Now he’s officially out of the National Tea Party Federation. Idiot. source

18 Jul 2010 10:34

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Politics: Joe Biden’s bullish on Democratic prospects in the midterms

You know … basically the opposite of what Robert Gibbs said like a week ago. Also, is it just us, or does Biden strike a King Hippo pose here? source

18 Jul 2010 09:21

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Politics: Financial reform: It has huge rewards for Obama – later on

  • It will have relatively little positive effect on 2010. It’s something Obama can take to the voters in 2012.
  • Rutgers University political scientist Russ Baker • Noting the limited political windfall financial reform will have for Obama in the near-term. On top of the complexity of the 2,300-page bill itself, it’s something where the benefits will have to touch consumers before it becomes clear how important the bill is. “It will be a long time before people get a sense that somehow their debit cards are better protected than they were before financial regulation reform was passed,” Baker said. source

18 Jul 2010 09:18

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Politics: Biden’s presidential campaign nicked: A big #O(&ing deal?

  • $219,000owed over
    violations source

17 Jul 2010 19:50

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Politics: A “Tea Party caucus”? Many Republicans won’t go THAT far

  • I don’t know about that. I’m not sure I should be participating in this story.
  • Sen. Bob Corker • Responding to the idea of joining a potential Modern Tea Party Caucus in the Senate. Who pitched this idea? None other than Rand Paul, who hasn’t even been elected yet. That said, it’s gaining a little traction – Michele Bachmann, shortly after hearing about Paul’s idea, applied to make a similar caucus for the House. Paul’s optimistic it could happen. “If we get another loud voice in there, like Mike Lee from Utah or Sharron Angle from Nevada,” he says, “there will be a new nucleus” for promoting Tea Party principles. Which is a big “if,” by the way, because they still have to win their elections. source
 

17 Jul 2010 16:15

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Politics: Thanks SEO: Gene Weingarten laments the lost art of headlines

  • Newspapers still have headlines, of course, but they don’t seem to strive for greatness or to risk flopping anymore, because editors know that when the stories arrive on the Web, even the best headlines will be changed to something dull but utilitarian.
  • Washington Post supercolumnist Gene Weingarten • Explaining how newspapers have had to suck the life out of their headlines in pursuit of eyeballs. “Putting well-known names in headlines is considered shrewd, even if creativity suffers,” he writes. Personally, we write our headlines with some focus on SEO, but we’re totally willing to get out of the way of a good joke. One paper that does a good job of mixing SEO and classic headline art is The New York Times, probably because they can afford to. And SEO doesn’t mean you can’t be clever. See the headline Weingarten put on his story: “Gene Weingarten column mentions Lady Gaga.” source

17 Jul 2010 11:54

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Politics: Obama thinks Republicans have disdain for the poor

  • They’ve got no problem spending money on tax breaks for folks at the top who don’t need them and didn’t even ask for them; but they object to helping folks laid off in this recession who really do need help.
  • President Barack Obama • Trying to cast the GOP as the party of the rich. The crux of his argument is that the party pushed through the Bush-era tax cuts for the rich, but are unwilling to help out the unemployed in their time of need. Or another way to put it – the GOP prefers to allow a trickle-down from the rich to the poor, while the Democrats would prefer that the government help the poor. However, it’s worth pointing out that while Bush cut taxes, he also extended unemployment – with GOP support. So take from that what you will. source

16 Jul 2010 11:12

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Politics: As Obama begins his vacation in Maine today, three things

  • one You got financial reform through both Houses, ready to sign, but nobody knows what it is.
  • two You’re polling at some of the lowest levels of your presidency right now, so don’t get too comfy.
  • three The oil spill is at a very critical juncture, so you better be ready to get back down there. source