State of the Union, Politics, Liberalism, Debt and Taxes; Republicans, Tea Party, Race and Racism

State of the Union

• State of the union address: Obama lays down gauntlet – as it happened
• 5 things we learned from the State of the Union—Will an increase in the minimum wage be enough for a living wage?
• Marco Rubio Drinks Water During GOP State Of The Union Rebuttal

Politics

• The Last Word: Ed Koch—"In an interview conducted in 2007, former Mayor Edward I. Koch reflected on his life and political career, and talked of how he would like to be remembered." NYT
• Freedom of the Press Foundation - Updates From Our Front
• Stephen Colbert touts sister's congressional campaign—"This is how I used to win a lot of arguments with her when I was a kid. Right after she makes a good point, repeat it back to her in a dumb voice."

Liberalism

• Who Are You Calling a Liberal? If Obama is liberalism's standard bearer, liberalism's in bad shape
• Fukuyama: Left Out: How do we explain the puzzling weakness of liberal populism?
• #UniteBlue: Liberals Fight Back Against Conservative Attacks on Twitter

Debt and Taxes

• GOP looks to link Obama to cuts with social media push
• Democratic Congressman Destroys GOP Hypocrisy On Looming Budget Cuts
• Don't fall for GOP's sequester bluff

Republicans

• Kurtz: GOP Swears It's Not Stupid—"Republicans are on a PR campaign to repair their image and convince voters they love women, immigrants, and the poor. But can they walk the walk?"
• Dismal Indeed: Why Dick Cheney Disdains The 'Second-Rate' Obama Team
• Former Fla. GOP chairman pleads guilty to money laundering before jury selection began—"The criminal trial of former Republican Party of Florida chair Jim Greer had promised to be embarrassing for party leaders, rising Republican star Marco Rubio and former Gov. Charlie Crist, who is contemplating a new political future as a Democrat."

Tea Party

• 'Suicide Conservatives'—"The zealots have a chokehold on that party, and they're sucking the life — and common sense — out of it." NYT
• The GOP, Fox political purge—"Republicans and Fox News are moving to purge the controversial political creatures they created."
• Crossroads effort mocked on right
• Nate Silver Calls an Early End to Karl Rove's War on the Tea Party—"Karl Rove has declared war on the Tea Party with his Conservative Victory Project. But Nate Silver just came out to explain — with math! — why Rove's project is mostly doomed. "
• Ex-Tea Party Rep. Joe Walsh insists he’s not trying to stop paying child support
• Scott Brown Cashes Out
• How A Very Smart Senator Showed Us Everything Wrong With The Modern GOP In One Week

Race and Racism

• Black History Month Has Been an Epic Failure
• Original Sin: Why the GOP is and will continue to be the party of white people
• Racial Resentment and Fox News
• Former Head of South Carolina GOP Does a Little Freelance Outreach to the African American Community—Keep the popcorn going.
• GOP Lawmaker Behind Abortion Ban: 'We're Not Going To Allow Minorities To Run Roughshod'—Two-fer-one.
• 'KKK leader' vows mass rally over renaming of Confederate-themed parks
• FunnyOrDie: White Women's Workout

Elections 2012, Electorate, College, Voter ID, Vote Machinations, Robocallers

Elections 2012

• Reporter handcuffed at Romney victory speech
• The Lost Party: The strangest primary season in memory reveals a GOP that’s tearing itself apart.
• NBC/WSJ poll: Primary season takes 'corrosive' toll on GOP and its candidates
• The 0.000063% election: How US politics became the politics of the "super rich".
• Presidential candidates face patent lawsuit for using Facebook
• Young Democrats Way Less Thrilled About Voting Than Four Years Ago
• Bill Maher's Warning to Liberals: Obama Could Still Lose to Santorum

Electorate

• Why Teaching People to Think for Themselves Is Repugnant to Religious Zealots and Rick Santorum--"Democracy cannot function without an informed citizenry, and an ignorant public is just what Santorum and his allies count on."
• Conservatives are less intelligent than left wingers and can lead to racism, says controversial study
• People Aren't Smart Enough for Democracy to Flourish, Scientists Say

College

• Santorum: Obama wants to 'indoctrinate' students by boosting college enrollment--Obama ain't buying it.
• College Doesn’t Make You Liberal--"The tendency of college graduates to be more liberal reflects to a large extent the fact that more liberal students are more likely to go to college in the first place." NYT
• Attention Santorum: 99 Percent of Republicans Expect Their Kids to Go to College

Voter ID

• Voter ID laws are growing; so are challenges
• Texas Rep. Gets Defense Of His State’s Voter ID Law Wrong
• Marchers honor historic Alabama trek to protest voter ID law--"Thousands of activists walked across one of America's most famous bridges Sunday, saluting the 1965 Voting Rights Act and calling for the rejection of Alabama's tough new immigration law."

Vote Machinations

• DOJ Opposes Florida Laws On Voter Registration Groups, Early Voting
• Local GOP apologizes for turning 1,500 away from caucuses in Kennewick--A picture of a voter suppression tactic to come this November?
• Election hacked, drunken robot elected to school board--Go Bender!
• Voter fraud retires shameless GOP official Salon
• Dog In Voter Fraud Stunt Belonged To Heather Wilson Senate Campaign Staffer
• In South Carolina, New Report Finds No Evidence Of 'Dead' Voters
• The Sins and Prevarications of The Authoritarian Right by Timothy Riley--"$688,000 and counting is the amount of taxpayer dollars the WI Republican Legislators and the Governor have paid private law firms to date to draw and defend redistricting maps designed to create a one party system and disenfranchise voters."

Robocallers

• Santorum admits robocalling Democrats in Michigan Repubican primary.
• Canada: Fraudulent election calls traced to Racknine Inc., an Edmonton firm with Tory links--This may turn out to be bigger than first thought, big enough for the Harper goverment to label it a 'smear campaign'.
• The FCC Cracks Down on Those F*$%#! Robocallers

Action Center, Earth; Bradley Manning; The U-turn President; Budget; Wisconsin; Courts and Corporations; Banks and Foreclosures; Anonymous: Boycott Sony

Action Center

• Veterans For Peace Endorses the April 15th Rally and Protest in Union Square Park--"Veterans For Peace has joined in endorsing 'Sounds of Resistance,' a concert and protest against Wall Street banks that draws the connections between militarism, Wall Street, the wealth divide and the downward spiral of the wealth of most Americans."
• Protest ALEC – APRIL 29th, 2011--A day of resistance against the American Legislative Exchange Council, "a conservative think-tank run by right-wing politicians and corporate and financial interests within the banking industry, the pharmaceutical industry, the big oil and gas industries, and others.
• 5th of November--Remember the date.

The Earth's Destiny and Our Fates are Being Determined by Approximately 500 Wealthy Men and Corporations

Bradley Manning

• Vote for Bradley Manning to be included as one of the Time 100 for 2011
• Bradley Manning case sparks UN criticism of US government--The US refuses to have a UN representative to meet with Manning.
• Bradley Manning: top US legal scholars voice outrage at 'torture'--The list includes one of Obama's professors

The U-turn president: Barack Obama's top ten flip-flops

Budget

• Government shutdown averted: Winners and losers
• CBO: GOP Budget Would Increase Debt, Then Stick It To Medicare Patients
• It’s Not Really About Spending
• Let There Be Light Bulbs
• GOP Completely Fixes Economy By Canceling Funding For NPR The Onion

Budget-Conscious House GOP To Put ‘In God We Trust’ On All Buildings--A monumental waste of money, much less unconstitutional, and besides, the Founding Fathers had a national motto: E Pluribus Unum

Wisconsin

• Scott Walker’s Election Nightmare in Wisconsin--Though Prosser has won this time, he "lost a full 50% of that voter base" who voted him in before. Scott Walker no longer has a mandate.
• Wisco county clerk whose homemade voting software found 14K votes for Tea Party judge is an old hand at illegal campaigning--Ever since Bush v. Gore, they're not even trying to hide it anymore. And anyone who Microsoft Access for government elections ought to be outright fired.
• Is Wisconsin 'broke'? Answer is in the eye of the beholder, experts say
• 84% Vote against Citizens United! Same votes nationwide will help Dems win in 2012--The people in Madison don't want corporations to be treated as people
• Lobbyist's son to return to old job in Walker administration--"The son of a prominent lobbyist is being demoted following controversy over his selection as a high-paid supervisor in the Walker administration."

Liberals Need to Take Court Races as Seriously as Corporations Do--Hopefully what happened in Wisconsin will be a wake-up call.

Banks and Foreclosures

• Banks Are Off the Hook Again--But the "little people" who aren't too big to fail continue to get screwed.
• Wachovia Paid Trivial Fine for Nearly $400 Billion of Drug Related Money Laundering--Why is this not part of the War on Drugs?
• Bank Of America Paid Nothing In Federal Income Taxes Last Year And Got Almost $1 Billion From Taxpayers
• Banks Push to Weaken Dodd-Frank Risk Rules--They know they got bailed out before; they'll get bailed out again since they're too big to fail.
• Fed-up judges crack down on foreclosure disorder in courts

'Anonymous' Plans Sony Boycott on April 16--I've been boycotting Sony for years ever since the rootkit fiasco, and the GeoHotz debacle just reaffirms my observation that this company's actions to jack up its profits hurts legitimate consumers.