Boo-zing it up at the Rethuglican Debates

From POST POLITICS at The Washington Post:

Forget the sound bites from the stage. Some of the most memorable moments from a series of Republican presidential debates have come not from the candidates competing for the nomination but from the intensely partisan audiences there to appraise them.

In four of the most recent debates, assertive audience members have managed to make their mark on the proceedings.

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Take 2 Tablets, but Don’t Call Me in the Morning

(Reuters) – A former Alabama judge who gained attention for defying orders to take down a “Ten Commandments” monument from his courthouse said on Monday he was seriously considering running for president.

Roy Moore, a Republican who was removed from Alabama’s Supreme Court by a judicial ethics panel, said he was ready to join the 2012 race.

Because there aren’t enough clowns in the Rethuglican mix now.  By the way, Ol’ Roy may be a religious fanatic, but his campaign posters are rather unorthodox…

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Bubble, Bubble, Toil & Bullshit

From THE MINNESOTA INDEPENDENT:

Rep. Michele Bachmann was on a tear: In one of her most fiery stump speeches to date, the tea party leader told a South Carolina audience that the tax code was a “weapon of mass destruction,” that President Obama is “babying” terrorists, that the rich pay too much in taxes, that social issues like marriage and abortion cannot be put on the “back burner,” and that Fox News’ Glenn Beck can solve America’s budget deficit.

…snip…

“We are looking at a time of bubbles,” Bachmann said, referring to the housing and tech bubbles. She said that Americans are witnessing a “government bubble.”

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Making Waves

From USA TODAY (Editorial):

The people who captain the nation’s aircraft carriers are not to be confused with choir boys. They lead crews big enough to populate a small town and command firepower sufficient to decimate a large city. They must be leaders with a capital L — people of substance, savvy and gravitas, with the instinct to make sound decisions and set an unerring standard for command.

Today, thousands of sailors, former sailors and others are rallying to the defense of Navy Capt. Owen Honors, the fired commander of the USS Enterprise, arguing that he is such a leader — a first-rate commander sacrificed on the altar of political correctness because some thin-skinned weenies were offended by videos he used to inspire his crew.

There seems no doubt that Honors inspires fierce loyalty. But the image the ex-captain puts forth in the videos, made when he was second in command, hardly merits it. If you didn’t know the man’s job, you might assume that he was the class clown, indifferent to the juvenile image he projects or to the consequences of his actions.

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A Few of My Favorite Zings

To the tune of My Favorite Things (music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein):

Health care and midterms and all kinds of fighting,
Rallies and scandals, it was so exciting,
Tea party darlings were at it again,
All this shit happened in 2010.

Nothing but heartache for millions of Haitians,
While dumb old Pat Robertson hurled accusations,
John Roberts’ activist band of Supremes,
Were simply the court of a lobbyist’s dreams.

The End of DADT? That Has a Nice Ring to It!

From DNAinfo:

MANHATTAN — For Christmas this year Lt. Dan Choi got a promise ring.

Choi had sent his West Point graduation ring to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to remind the senator of a promise he made to repeal the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, banning gays and lesbians from serving openly, by the end of the year.

With President Barack Obama’s signing of a law overturning the ban Wednesday, Reid made good on his promise and returned the ring to Choi, a Manhattan resident.

“Five months after I promised to repeal DADT, I’m so happy to give this West Point ring back to Lt. Dan Choi,” Reid tweeted along with a photo of the exchange in his office.

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GOP? More Like PMS

From David Corn at POLITICS DAILY:

John McCain & Lindsey Graham: The Mean Girls of the U.S. Senate

I have a theory about human social evolution: life doesn’t progress much after high school. This week, I can thank John McCain and Lindsey Graham for providing empirical data that supports this hypothesis.

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Tweedlejon and Tweedlejohn

From Alex Pareene at Salon:

Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl explained on Fox yesterday that allowing gay men and women to serve openly in the armed forces ” is not a constitutional right as was the issue of racial segregation,” and he went on to argue that repealing the policy that bars them “could disrupt unit cohesion… and cost lives.”

That’s right: Repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” could kill soldiers.

Considering that this may very well kill people, the next Congress should probably repeal the repeal, right? I mean, it’s literally a matter of life and death. We need to re-ban gay people ASAP, right, Senator Kyl?

“I don’t have any plan in place” to repeal the repeal in the next Congress, Kyl said on Fox today.

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