January 8, 2014

Bridge Too Far

January 8, 2014 Buck Banks

Seems Chris Christie got too big for his gubernatorial britches,
When he choked off Fort Lee traffic from one of New York’s bridges.
The mayor did not endorse,
So the traffic got worse and worse,
Because New Jersey politicians are sons of bitches.

A Record High Percentage of Americans Identifies as Independents

January 8, 2014January 8, 2014 Buck Banks

42%

Of Americans, on average, identified as political independents in 2013, the highest measured in 25 years, a new Gallup poll finds. Meanwhile, Republican identification fell to 25%, the lowest over that time span. At 31%, Democratic identification is unchanged from the last four years but down from 36% in 2008.

Maine Gov. LePage Wants to Put State’s Children to Work

January 8, 2014 Buck Banks

We don’t allow children to work until they’re 16, but two years later, when they’re 18, they can go to war and fight for us. That’s causing damage to our economy. I started working far earlier than that, and it didn’t hurt me at all. There is nothing wrong with being a paperboy at 12 years old, or at a store sorting bottles at 12 years old.

— Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R), telling a trade show audience that 12-year-olds should be allowed to work in Maine, the Portland Press Herald reports.

Clinton Super-PAC Raised More Than $4 Million in 2013

January 8, 2014January 8, 2014 Buck Banks

$4 Million

Amount Ready for Hillary, a “super PAC” that is urging Hillary Clinton to run for president in 2016, raised last year, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Gates Plumbs Depths of Thesaurus to Describe Congress

January 8, 2014January 9, 2014 Buck Banks

Congress is best viewed from a distance — the farther the better — because up close, it is truly ugly. I saw most of Congress as uncivil, incompetent at fulfilling their basic constitutional responsibilities (such as timely appropriations), micromanagerial, parochial, hypocritical, egotistical, thin-skinned and prone to put self (and re-election) before country.

— Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in his new book, Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War.

Gates Tells All About Warning Not to Tell All In His Tell-All Memoir

January 8, 2014 Buck Banks

I was offended by his suspicion that any of us would ever write about such sensitive matters.

— Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in his tell-all book, Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War, about President Obama’s warning to “those of you writing your memoirs.”

Promised RNC Anti-Democrat Ad Blitz Fizzles

January 8, 2014 Buck Banks

$30

The cost of a single ad on a single radio station placed by the Republican National Committee in Anchorage, Alaska. The RNC had announced “a fresh round in an expected torrent of campaign ads targeting Sen. Mark Begich and other Democrats” over Obamacare but the ad blast “turned out to be more of a sprinkle,” the Anchorage Daily News reports.

Christie Burned By George Washington Bridge Flap

January 8, 2014 Buck Banks

To this point, Chris Christie has treated the George Washington Bridge closure story as a joke, and national reporters have regarded it as a minor irritation. The public release of e-mails among his staff changes all that. The e-mails prove that Christie’s loyalists closed the bridge deliberately as political retribution, not as a ‘traffic study’ as claimed. They display an almost comical venality bordering on outright sociopathy. And they will probably destroy Christie’s chances in 2016.

Day: January 8, 2014

Bridge Too Far

A Record High Percentage of Americans Identifies as Independents

42%

Maine Gov. LePage Wants to Put State’s Children to Work

— Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R), telling a trade show audience that 12-year-olds should be allowed to work in Maine, the Portland Press Herald reports.

Clinton Super-PAC Raised More Than $4 Million in 2013

$4 Million

Amount Ready for Hillary, a “super PAC” that is urging Hillary Clinton to run for president in 2016, raised last year, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Gates Plumbs Depths of Thesaurus to Describe Congress

— Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in his new book, Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War.

Gates Tells All About Warning Not to Tell All In His Tell-All Memoir

I was offended by his suspicion that any of us would ever write about such sensitive matters.

— Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in his tell-all book, Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War, about President Obama’s warning to “those of you writing your memoirs.”

Promised RNC Anti-Democrat Ad Blitz Fizzles

$30

Christie Burned By George Washington Bridge Flap

— Jonathan Chait, writing in New York Magazine.

Poetic Justice

Verbatim

“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.

— Jane Haman

“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.

Numerati

470

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.

$184 million

50%

38%

31%