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31 May 2011 09:53

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Politics: Michele Bachmann: Sarah Palin and me friends, not opponents

  • We’re friends. And I don’t consider her a competitor … I think there’s enough room for a lot of contenders. And I think there’s no question in 2012, the Republicans will field a wide bench of contenders against President Obama. And I think the comparison will be very favorable.
  • Rep. Michele Bachmann • Trying to offer a retort to the idea that she wouldn’t be able to run for president if Sarah Palin were to run, presumably because the politicians are so similar that they’d hurt one another’s chances in 2012 (though Bachmann, let’s be honest, has a lower profile). “I compare myself to Barack Obama. Not to any of the other Republican candidates,” she claimed. Bachmann, who benefited in her 2010 run from a Palin endorsement, was on various news programs this morning. source

30 May 2011 19:33

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Politics: Why we’re taking a break from more Weinergate news

  • At a time when the GOP is playing games with the debt limit, a member of the Supreme Court is refusing to recuse himself from matters he has a financial interest in, and middle class incomes are stagnant, many want to change the subject. I don’t. This was a prank, and a silly one. I’m focused on my work.
  • Rep. Anthony Weiner • Trying to draw a line in the sand on this whole Weinergate story, which has certainly gotten a bit crazier over the past day. The Atlantic Wire has a roundup of the story, which has gotten to the point of farce. CNN also got Weiner on camera today, where he seemed at least a little annoyed to be taking the questions. But ultimately, though, this piece of evidence (grabbed by Soup) is the strongest against Weiner doing anything wrong. Also, has anyone noticed how Mediaite has kinda gone crazy over this story? We love the site and everything, but they got a Photoshop expert to analyze the photo. A bit much, eh? They’re not the only ones, but you know what, we’re going to leave this mess alone for a while. The EXIF data is good enough for us. source

30 May 2011 15:43

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Politics: ABC reports on fraudulent service claims, medal fakeries

  • They’re going to come out of the woodwork. This is like Christmas for a phony.
  • Former U.S. Navy SEAL Don Shipley • Speaking to ABC News about fraudulent “war heroes” seizing the opportunity of Memorial Day for a little beginning-of-summer fakery. A couple of ABC reporters, Lee Ferran and Vic Walter, have reported that the incidence of people lying about serving in the military has gotten much worse since the death of Osama bin Laden at the hands of SEAL Team 6. It’s also reported that five people have been charged with claiming to be medal winners, or illegally wearing military service medals in 2011. We’ll admit, we had no clue it was illegal to wear a service medal that you didn’t earn, but beyond the legality of it, we think we can all agree — this is a disgustingly manipulative, lowly brand of fraud to be perpetrating. source

30 May 2011 15:13

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Politics: Hackers attack PBS over WikiLeaks documentary

  • WikiSecrets The title of a PBS Frontline documentary, which examines the massive cache of classified materials exposed by WikiLeaks, as well as the detained Bradley Manning. It’s been viewed as unfavorable to the organization.
  • Tupac lives! The fraud story the folks at PBS found splashed on their website, after hackers sympathetic to WikiLeaks and Manning attacked the site. As it turns out, he’s been living with Biggie in a house in New Zealand all this time! source

26 May 2011 16:14

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Politics: Disney abandons plan to trademark “Seal Team 6”

  • then In the aftermath of the killing of Osama bin Laden, when most people were either earnestly celebrating, or having thoughtful discussions about why they weren’t, Disney was trying to trademark “Seal Team 6,” the name of the unit that did the deed.
  • now With the Navy applying for trademarks on both “Navy SEAL” (nobody ever tried to trademark “Navy SEAL” before?) and “Team 6,” Disney has scrapped their plans, citing “deference to the Navy.” We think the initial idea sort of discredits that notion. source

26 May 2011 10:31

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Politics: Paul Ryan doesn’t care if Medicare leads to his political downfall

  • I don’t care about that. Now is not that time to be worried about political careers. Sincerely, I will be fine if I lose my House seat because you know what? I will know I did what I thought was right to save this country from fiscal ruin.
  • Rep. Paul Ryan • Saying he’s more concerned about the future of the country than his own political career. Dude … cut with the theatrics. You’re a rising star in your own party. And your district is in a conservative part of Wisconsin. The odds you’ll get voted out of office for this mess — even after it dive-bombed in the Senate for going too far/not far enough (if you’re Rand Paul)? Slim to none. So, we’re glad that you’re at least owning the consequences of your Medicare plan, even if it is controversial. source

26 May 2011 02:08

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Politics: Scott Walker is becoming very unpopular

  • Watch out, Walker: If a recall election were held today, you’d get booted faster than you can say “Gray Davis.” source
 

26 May 2011 00:15

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Politics: Sharron Angle isn’t running for Congress after all

  • NO you won’t have Sharron Angle to kick around anymore source
  • » She’s sitting this one out: After declaring a run for the recently-vacated House seat in Nevada, former Senate candidate Sharron Angle is withdrawing her candidacy. Why, you ask? Well, Nevada’s special election laws are vague, and there was some dispute as to how the election would unfold. Angle was hoping for a jungle-style free-for-all, as that would allow her to bypass a primary, but a recent court decision puts the state GOP in charge of nominating a candidate. Because of her embarrassing loss to Harry Reid last November, Angle isn’t very well-liked by the Republican establishment, and there’s no way they were going to nominate her. She hasn’t ruled out a run in 2012, though, so we may not have heard the last of Sharron “Some of you look a little more Asian to me” Angle.

25 May 2011 23:25

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Politics: Yes, MSNBC was right to suspend Ed Schultz

  • Un-ED-cceptable: MSNBC is giving Ed Schultz a one-week, unpaid timeout for calling Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham a “right-wing slut.” And good for them. Obviously, Laura Ingraham’s sex life is completely irrelevant to her political views, but more importantly, the use of the word “slut” as an insult implies that having many sexual partners is something bad, something to be ashamed of. This is exactly the kind of antiquated, 1950’s-era thinking that progressives have been trying to move past for the last fifty years, and for Schultz to resort to that kind of base rhetoric is not only offensive and inappropriate, it’s counterproductive to the cause he claims to champion. If anything, we say he got off easy. source

25 May 2011 16:54

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Politics: Sen. Max Baucus calls for quicker Afghanistan withdrawal

  • The President has announced that this July will mark the beginning of a transition of security responsibility to Afghan forces. However, in my view the transition plan is too slow. We need to begin handing responsibility of security to Afghan forces immediately and aim to have most US combat troops out of Afghanistan by the end of next year. We should leave behind only a small force to hunt down and kill terrorists in Afghanistan, and to help the Afghan military perform their duties.
  • Senator Max Baucus • Calling for both a quicker withdrawal of troops, and a quicker transfer of responsibility from the U.S. military to Afghan security forces. That these conversations are starting to crop up is unsurprising; the death of Osama bin Laden, the ostensible reason the U.S. entered Afghanistan to begin with, makes this the most politically opportune time to voice such sentiments. And while the concerns in leaving quicker are by no means negligible, with a government as steeped in corruption as the Afghanistan’s is, and under a leader like Hamid Karzai (famously volatile, takes bags of money from Iran, once threatened that he might join the Taliban), what is the ultimate definition of success for the U.S. involvement there? source