If America Has Talent, Why Does Piers Morgan Have a Show?

From The Wire at BUSINESS INSIDER:

Last year Rachel Maddow proved herself adept at media criticism when she took Fox News to task in a number of blazing segments over their coverage of Shirley Sherrod and the ACORN debacle.

…snip…

She appear to be back at it this week.  Except this time around her focus is not Fox News.  It’s CNN.

She is still scorching.

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Brewin’ Up a Budget

From The Arizona Republic:

Arizona State University economist Tom Rex said Thursday that raising taxes and fees would have a less negative impact on the state’s economy than the spending cuts Gov. Jan Brewer’s budget plan proposes.

The governor relies heavily on spending reductions, including eliminating health-care coverage for more than 280,000 Medicaid recipients, to close a budget deficit her office estimates at $1.15 billion for fiscal 2012.

Brewer has said she has no choice but to recommend cuts to the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System given the magnitude of the state’s fiscal crisis.

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Angling for Relevancy

From Salon:

When an even vaguely prominent national political figure sets foot in Iowa, the question is inevitably asked: Are you interested in running for president? Sharron Angle, in the Hawkeye State to attend the premiere of “The Genesis Code,” a Christian movie featuring Fred Thompson, got it on Wednesday and her response prompted this Des Moines Register headline: “Sharron Angle comes to Iowa, doesn’t rule out presidential bid.”

“I’ll just say I have lots of options for the future, and I’m investigating all my options,” she told the paper.

How can she afford a trip to Iowa to watch a movie? Is she collecting unemployment benefits? Why isn’t that lazy ass working?

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[It’s called Braque Family Triptych (right wing), I kid you not.]

Bronzo is Blue!

Poor Bronzo the Clown! No wonder he’s always sobbing. First, there was this: from TALKING POINTS MEMO:

House Speaker John Boehner told reporters Wednesday morning that he did not watch Michele Bachmann’s Tuesday night response response to the State of the Union.

“No I did not,” Boehner said at his weekly press conference. “I had other obligations.”

Burn!

House GOP leadership was not pleased when Bachmann decided to freelance, and in the days before the speech, Bachmann herself sought to recast the rebuttal, apparently hoping to reverse the impression that it was a Tea Party alternative to the official Republican response.

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The Date of the Union

From The Houston Chronicle:

There was U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, in her coveted State of the Union perch along the aisle. Wearing an eye-catching lime-green jacket, she got her brief moment of TV exposure and a handshake from President Barack Obama, as usual, as the president made his way into the august chamber of the House.

This time, though, instead of sitting in a bloc with her fellow Democrats, Lee sat beside a real live Republican, U.S. Rep. Pete Olson of Sugar Land.

The two Houston lawmakers were enthusiastic participants in the State of the Union “date night,” a bipartisan gesture prompted by the shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., earlier this month.

The pre-speech curiosity was almost Oscar-night giddy — or maybe prom-night giddy — as lawmakers over the past several days paired off.

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Disfigure of Speech

Washington (CNN) – There may be two House Republicans giving high-profile responses to President Obama’s State of the Union speech on Tuesday night, but House Majority Leader Eric Cantor made it clear that it’s the new House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, not Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, who is speaking for the GOP.

“Paul Ryan is giving the official Republican response,” Cantor said when asked at his weekly session with reporters if Bachmann’s response will step on the GOP message.

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American Gonifs

From The New York Times:

WASHINGTON — Under pressure from liberal critics, Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court acknowledged in filings released on Monday that he erred by not disclosing his wife’s past employment as required by federal law.

Justice Thomas said that in his annual financial disclosure statements over the last six years, the employment of his wife, Virginia Thomas, was “inadvertently omitted due to a misunderstanding of the filing instructions.”

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The Fine Art of Batshittery

From Andrew Romano at THE DAILY BEAST:

Michele Bachmann has certainly been keeping busy.

Within hours of winning her third congressional term in November, the colorful Minnesota Republican began campaigning for conference chair, the No. 4 position in the House GOP leadership. Why? Because “constitutional conservatives”—like her and, presumably, unlike the rest of John Boehner’s team—”deserve a loud and clear voice!” A few weeks later, news leaked that Bachmann would be traveling to Iowa for a fundraiser—and that “nothing,” according to her spokesman, “is off the table.” Asked whether she was considering a presidential run, Bachmann told ABC News “I’m going to Iowa—there’s your answer.”

Then on Friday Bachmann announced that even though Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan is slated to deliver the official Republican response to President Obama’s upcoming State of the Union address, she would be giving her own online rebuttal on behalf of the Tea Party Express “shortly after” Ryan’s speech concludes.

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