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03 Jan 2011 10:15

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Politics: Why RNC chairman Michael Steele has no chance of being reelected

  • $20M the amount of debt the RNC will carry into this year – which is massive and will hurt Steele
  • $10M the amount of debt the fiscally-minded RNC will likely carry into the 2012 presidential year
  • $2M the largest amount of debt the RNC has had in a presidential year (in 2000) – until now source

02 Jan 2011 23:06

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Politics: Max Headroom: Darrell Issa has newfound power, car alarms

  • This guy wants to kill $200 billion in government waste: Rep. Darrell Issa is ready to take a hacksaw to the federal budget in an effort to kill waste in a number of organizations, including the EPA. As the chair of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Issa will have the power to do just that (along with many other things). Fun fact: Issa is rich because his company invented the Viper car alarm system, which features his voice telling people to get away from your car. We want Issa to do the same thing with wasteful spending. “Step away from the pork!”
  • Liberals: scared of Darrell Issa Not everyone likes the idea of the car alarm dude having this much power. Rep. Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the committee, is one of Issa’s fiercest critics, as MSNBC (and this Politico dude with a kinda weird accent) remind us. You can see the fear in their eyes.
  • Libertarian-a-Palooza John Stossel is probably one of the most well-known libertarians who could be called a journalist. Ron Paul is the current face of the libertarian movement. We don’t know the other guy, but he’s libertarian, too. They just keep agreeing with each other. It’s kinda weird.

02 Jan 2011 21:15

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Politics: House GOP plans useless, ineffective Obamacare repeal vote

  • You’ve seen that the more people learn about Obamacare the less they like it. So we will put forth a clean repeal bill of Obamacare, and you’ll continue to see us make that fight because that’s what the American people want us to do.
  • Rep. Michele Bachmann • Speaking about the House GOP’s plan to vote on a repeal of the health care bill – before the president’s State of the Union later this month. Between this and the reading-the-Constitution thing, the GOP is big on symbolic measures that waste everyone’s time, aren’t they? Then again, the Democrats did something similar with the tax compromise, so maybe we should just hush. source

02 Jan 2011 12:25

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Politics: Tea Partiers upset because they get upset about everything

  • Choice quote of the freaking day: “For them to legislate when they’ve collectively lost their mandate just shows the arrogance of the ruling elite. I can’t imagine being repudiated in the way they were and then coming back and saying ‘Now that we’ve been repudiated, let’s go pass some legislation.’ ” That’s a Tea Party dude, Mark Meckler of the Tea Party Patriots, ripping Democrats for taking advantage of their lame-duck session to get some actual work done. Then after ripping the Democrats, he ripped the GOP for letting it happen: “The Republicans, frankly, have been a disaster. They stood strong on some things, but the only reason they stood strong is because we stood behind them with a big stick.” Nobody cares, Mark. Stop whining. (thanks inothernews) source

02 Jan 2011 00:18

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Politics: Joe Miller: I don’t have Lisa Murkowski’s phone number

  • In his first interview after announcing his concession, in the very first question, Miller dropped the kind of land mine that ensures it’ll be hard for him to be elected dog catcher in Fairbanks. Seriously? You’re not going to call because you don’t have her number? Stop being a loser and call the woman already. E-mail her if you have to. Use Skype or FaceTime or something. Oh wait … see this page right here? There’s a list of all of her offices, with their phone numbers. It’s a holiday weekend, but we bet that if you called one of those offices on Monday morning, Joe, they might get you in touch with the Senator. Just a hunch.

01 Jan 2011 10:22

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Politics: Chicago mayoral race: Danny Davis chooses not to split the vote

Davis, who’s been very critical of Rahm Emanuel’s mayoral run, is out. This is smart, because he’s putting his energy behind fellow black candidate Carol Moseley Braun, a former senator. source

31 Dec 2010 19:18

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Politics: Joe Miller: I didn’t lose election, but the system won’t let me win

  • The time has come to accept the practical realities of the current legal circumstances.
  • Joe Miller • Admitting what’s been clear for about two months – he lost. What’s annoying about the phrasing of this statement was not that it congratulated Lisa Murkowski for her win, but suggested that he was only giving up because he didn’t stand a chance of winning an appeal. As does this phrase: “I accept that criticism knowing often doing what is right is not what is easy or popular. We were not successful in that endeavor, but it was a worthwhile one.” Get over yourself, Joe. You lost. Be a man instead of a jerk and call Lisa. It’s unbelievable that you haven’t been willing to call her to congratulate her. source
 

30 Dec 2010 20:22

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Politics: Reciting Constitution on House floor will have “no practical impact”

  • Reading [the Constitution] on the floor of the House will not make the country more like you want it to be, unless your problem with the country is that you thought the Constitution should be read aloud on the floor of the House more frequently.
  • Ezra Klein • On the GOP’s requirement that all proposed laws in the next Congress be prefaced by a reading aloud of the Constitution. Klein calls the move, seen by some as an attempt to appeal to the Tea Party, a “gimmick” that will have “no practical impact” on how members legislate. Kevin Gutzman, history professor at Western Connecticut State University, agrees: “This is the way the establishment handles grassroots movements… once they’ve humored [Tea Party sympathizers] and those people go away, it’s right back to business as usual.”source

29 Dec 2010 20:48

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Politics: Sarah Palin’s gubernatorial e-mails still haven’t been released

  • 14 separate delays on the release of Palin’s official e-mails as Alaska governor
  • 10/08the initial date of the first request for e-mails (made during her vice presidential campaign)
  • 05/11the expected date of the e-mails’ final release – why did this take so long, anyway? source

29 Dec 2010 19:56

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Politics: Christine O’Donnell: The Establishment set me up! Seriously!

  • I have faith that our supporters and the general public will see right through these thug tactics. This is simply an Establishment trick to stop the anti-establishment Tea Party movement in its tracks.
  • Christine O’Donnell • Regarding reports that the FBI is investigating her for election fraud. Protip: Have a second career besides being a candidate so you can ensure that you aren’t spending campaign donations on rent and other expenses. It’s wasteful, Christine. We like Wonkette’s take on the matter: “Isn’t it strange how a person who has earned no income over the past half-decade and yet is not living on the streets could be charged with any kind of financial fraud? Same old lamestream FBI bullshit.” True ’nuff. source