Here’s Ron Paul’s take on Newt Gingrich. Of course, Paul considers showing Newt with Nancy Pelosi incendiary, and quotes Rush Limbaugh as if he were someone with a right to be outraged over someone else’s hypocrisy and moral infidelity. The ad does point out just a few of the many reasons we should all hate Newt but it doesn’t answer the question of why Ron Paul is going after him. I mean, of all Paul’s fellow primary contender whack jobs, why Newt? Did Paul produce negative ads about Bachmann or Cain? Maybe some Ron-ulans can enlighten me here.
I’m so scared of this anti-Wall Street effort. I’m frightened to death.
— GOP strategist Frank Luntz, quoted by Yahoo News, noting the Occupy Wall Street protests are “having an impact on what the American people think of capitalism.”
A new Harvard research paper concludes that “racial animus” cost President Obama three to five percentage points of the popular vote in the 2008 presidential election. Racial bias was found in two ways: Some Democrats stayed home rather than vote for Obama and a similar number who wouldn’t have voted turned out for Sen. John McCain. However, that was partially offset by an increase in turnout among black voters. “The cost of racial animus was not decisive in the 2008 election. But a four percentage point loss by the winning candidate would have changed the result in the majority of post-war presidential elections.”
The unemployment rate for November, as the U.S. labor market strengthened, adding 120,000 new jobs. The jobless rate is now lower than at any point since March 2009, when it was 8.6% as well.
Still say Mitt Romney has the better shot at beating President Obama in 2012, despite Newt Gingrich’s recent surge to the front of the GOP presidential race, according to the latest National Journal Political Insiders Poll.
Before the debate this week on extending the payroll tax holiday, Republicans used to insist that tax cuts paid for themselves:
CARLY FIORINA (R-CA), FORMER U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: Let me just propose something that may seem crazy to you. You don`t need to pay for tax cuts. They pay for themselves.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: You need policies like an extension and making permanent the `01 and `03 tax cuts. They will be paid for because they create economic growth.
SEN. JON KYL (R) ARIZONA, second ranking Republican in the Senate: You should never have to offset the cost of a deliberate decision to reduce tax rates on Americans.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
MADDOW: You should never have to pay for tax cuts. Tax cuts pay for themselves. That was Jon Kyl then.
Here`s Jon Kyl now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KYL: I`ve never said that all tax cuts always pay for themselves.
From the first moment he burst onto the public stage with his jazzy hands, high-pitched feminine voice and sibilant s’es, Marcus Bachmann has registered at about an 11 on a scale of one to 10 on gaydars across the nation.
Marcus BachmannAdding fuel to rumors that he is closeted is the fact that he has made his living, in part, from one of the saddest rackets around: convincing gay Christians that they can be, or need to be, “cured.”
Here’s the rule, and you can take this to the bank: Heterosexuals who are secure about their own sexuality are not obsessed with homosexuality. People who are happily straight are apathetic about the mechanics of gay sex. They do not make it their life mission to suppress gay rights. They don’t spend every waking hour figuring out new ways to oppress gay people, and they never send their families out to picket funerals with signs that say, for example, “God Hates Fags.” And, especially, they don’t try to “cure” homosexuality with “pray away the gay” schemes like Bachmann’s.
Now, in the latest gaffe in her presidential campaign, Marcus’ wife, Michele, appears to have spilled the beans about their marriage. At a town hall in Waverly, Iowa, Rep. Bachmann was questioned about marriage equality by Jane Schmidt, a high school student:
JANE SCHMIDT: Then, why can’t same-sex couples get married?
BACHMANN: They can get married, but they abide by the same law as everyone else. They can marry a man if they’re a woman. Or they can marry a woman if they’re a man.
Trump’s renaming of Lake Ontario has created a litmus test —
Yield, and rename it Lake America, at Donald Trump’s behest,
Like Google and Apple, which already capitulated,
Changing the name just like Dear Leader stipulated,
But there’s one defiant holdout — the original mapping site, Mapquest.
“They’ve invested heavily in AI labs. They’ve invested heavily in data centers. So, the first family has a financial stake in this industry, and as a result, the president of the United States is compromised.”
— “Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) on Monday said President Trump will likely not heed calls from technology leaders to implement guardrails on the development of artificial intelligence because of his family’s investments in the industry,” NewsNation reports.
“Young Americans today have never witnessed Congress authorize a war, they’ve never seen a U.S. administration balance its books, they’ve never watched a well-funded and empowered state department operate, and they see only mistrust between allies. They assume the situation is normal. It is not. … The real cost of forgetting the pre-9/11 world is not a country that has changed, but one that no longer knows it could be different.”
“We’re working through some political issues in Israel. I think we agree with them on the end state. They just have a crazy election, and that makes them a little irrational in certain regards.”
— Jared Kushner, quoted by CBS News, on the lack of progress in Gaza.
Reuters has documented at least 470 targets of retribution under Trump’s leadership – from federal employees and prosecutors to universities and media outlets. The list illuminates the sweeping effort by the president and his administration to punish dissent and reshape the government.
“Iranian strikes have damaged or destroyed hundreds of buildings and other structures at bases across the Middle East, and caused about $184 million worth of damage at U.S. diplomatic facilities, according to a Pentagon watchdog report,” the Washington Post reports. “The inspector general’s report to Congress on Operation Epic Fury — the Trump administration’s name for the war with Iran — also details the extent of U.S. munitions shortages, in the first comprehensive public accounting of the war, which is now in its seventh month.”
Half (50%) of U.S. adults say they are either very concerned (23%) or somewhat concerned (27%) about the possibility that AI will cause the end of humanity, a new YouGov survey finds. Another 39% of Americans say they’re not very concerned (21%) or not at all concerned (17%) about an AI apocalypse, while 11% aren’t sure.
A majority of Americans ages 55 and up and a majority of Republicans of all ages support the use of Flock technologies in their communities, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted from August 28 to 31. Split by age, party, education level and gender, no other demographic group had a majority of support for the cameras. Among age groups, younger Americans were the least likely to support Flock, with only 21% of respondents aged 18 to 34 in favor of the technology.
About one-third (31%) of Americans strongly or somewhat approve of how the U.S. Supreme Court is handling its job, according to the latest Economist/YouGov Survey, while 53% disapprove. Almost all Democrats disapprove of the Supreme Court’s job handling (12% approve and 79% disapprove), while most Republicans approve (63% vs. 26%). Republicans who say they’re MAGA supporters overwhelmingly approve of the Supreme Court’s job handling (73% vs. 19%), while non-MAGA Republicans are more closely divided (49% vs. 36%).
