What is Your State Worst At?
Chart courtesy of Pleated Jeans.
Year: 2014
Most N.J. Voters Think Christie Is Lying
54%
Of New Jersey voters think it’s likely “Governor Chris Christie was aware of the Fort Lee traffic lane closures before they happened and should resign if this is proven,” a new Rasmussen Reports poll finds. And “56% of New Jersey voters believe Christie should resign if it is proven that he approved of retaliation against an elected official who refused to support him.”
For the First Time in History More than Half of Congress Members are Millionaires
268
Of the 534 current members of Congress had an average net worth of $1 million or more in 2012. The median net worth for the 530 current lawmakers who were in Congress as of the May filing deadline was $1,008,767 — an increase from last year when it was $966,000, according to OpenSecrets.
TIME’s Politics Prediction Survey Misses the Mark
TIME Magazine has an online survey that purports to be able to assess your politics based on a series of questions that seem to be apolitical (although they aren’t really, if you read them closely). I came out 32% conservative and 68% liberal, which is about as accurate as a Rush Limbaugh commentary.
There is a final question that allows you to self-identify, so you can correct the survey results to some extent.
Take the survey and leave a comment about how accurate you think the survey is.
Oh, and if you’re a dog-lover, beware.
Why Conservative Republicans Aren’t Defending Christie
You’re going to see conservatives returning the favor he gave them over the last year. There’s no love lost between Chris Christie and conservatives.
— GOP strategist Rick Wilson, quoted by National Journal, adding that Christie “goes out of his way to be a dick to other Republicans.”
More Americans are Self-Identifying as ‘Liberal’
38%
Of Americans identify themselves as conservatives, while 23% identify as liberals, according to Gallup. But the conservative advantage is down to 15 percentage points as liberal identification edged up to its highest level since Gallup began regularly measuring ideology in the current format in 1992.
Fox News Ignores Christie’s Bridgegate Scandal – Until Shep Smith Mentions It Briefly, Invites Viewers to ‘Google It’
This is how propaganda works, Fox News-style.
Nearly six hours after the story first broke — and well after both CNN and MSNBC first covered it in detail — Fox News finally devoted a short segment to the bridge scandal during Shepard Smith Reporting.
While declining to delve into the details of the damning emails — Shep Smith informed viewers that “they’re an easy Google away if you want to take a look” — Smith nonetheless concluded that, “the emails will be trouble for Governor Christie at least in local politics for quite some time. And if he decides to run for president, rest assured they’ll end up in campaign ads. There’s no question about it.”
Utah’s GOP Governor Puts Hundreds of Legal Same-Sex Marriages on Hold
In California, after the Mormon Church in Utah effectively drove the passage of Proposition 8 in 2008, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, and Attorney General Jerry Brown, a Democrat — who is now the California governor — allowed the marriages of 1,800 couples to stand. Because of this, two classes of gay couples were created in the state: those who had legally married and those who were, as a result of Prop 8, prohibited from exercising that right. Prop 8 was later rescinded by court rulings.
(It should be noted that as governor, Schwarzenegger vetoed bills passed by the legislature that would have legalized marriage equality twice.)
Gov. Herbert’s decision to put a hold on the legal marriages appears to be motivated by politics — Utah is one of the most anti-gay states in the nation, which is saying a lot — rather than the law. The U.S. Department of Justice confirmed yesterday that it is reviewing the decision.
