May 8

How corrupt is Penny Pritzker, Obama's Sec. of Commerce nominee?

Another brilliant choice, Obama.

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Charles Ramsey: 'Take that reward and give it to' the kidnap victims

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Don't Cry For Him, Argentina

So, this is what passes for "family values" in South Carolina's 1st district: 

They decided to elect over a smart lady and successful businesswoman a guy who politically was three years ago like Eva Perón: Still in the public eye but deader than a doornail. The man, for want of a better word, they elected to warm his old seat: Lied to staff and his constituents that he was hiking the Appalachian trail when in reality he was fucking his mistress in Argentina, on the taxpayer dole... during Father's Day weekend.

While admitting he made a mistake, he nonetheless brings his mistress onstage with him along with the kids he abandoned on Father's Day weekend. Because of this, the NRCC cut Sanford adrift. Sanford, while doing absolutely nothing to rehabilitate himself, then violates his ex wife's wishes, for which he has to appear in court tomorrow on trespassing charges, by breaking into her house to watch the second half of the Super Bowl with a son that he suddenly remembered having, saying he did it, "because as a father I didn't think he should watch it alone."

He was nearly impeached and saved, inexplicably, by the Democrats, after his own party initially drew up 37 articles of impeachment against him in 2009. He was, however, censured.

Channeling Clint Eastwood, Sanford then had a debate, that he lost, with a cardboard cutout of Nancy Pelosi. Last night, South Carolina's 1st congressional district showed the caliber of its family values by electing Sanford back to Congress by nearly ten percentage points, simply because he was the one that had the "R" after his name, making SC-1's voters the very stupidest in planetary history. And they reelected this assclown after it had been established that his own ex wife couldn't trust him and his own party had abandoned him. 

Well played, South Carolina, well played.

Fuck accepting the will and listening to the voice of the people: They elected Mark Sanford back into Congress. That is all you need to know about the mental and moral decay on the part of Sanford's and SC-1's constituents. They sold out their so-called Christian family values for petty partisanship.

Wow. Just... wow.

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We're #1! The U.S Has The Highest First-Day Infant Death Rate In The Industrialized World

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On Day Stock Market Sets New Record, Conservative Group Floats Impeaching Obama For 'Wrecking The Stock Market'

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Pentagon: Estimated 26,000 Sexual Assaults In Military Last Year

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Take your bat and ball and go home - Famous squirrel-frying gourmand Mike Huckabee is in contract negotiations for his radio show, and Limbough-like is threatening to quit. Please Gomer, overplay your hand. (Politico)

Speaking of Junkie Limbaugh - Cumulus Media CEO Lew Dickey reported a $2.4 million dollar decline in revenue associated with Junkie Limbaugh's syndicated talk show. Dickey has reported millions in losses associated with Limbaugh in previous quarters as well. Buh-bye! (Media Matters)

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Andrew Friedman reports the awful news (is it ever good news?):

The news that CO2 is near 400 ppm for the first time highlights a question that scientists have been investigating using a variety of methods: when was the last time that CO2 levels were this high, and what was the climate like back then? There is no single, agreed-upon answer to those questions asstudies show a wide date range from between 800,000 to 15 million years ago. The most direct evidence comes from tiny bubbles of ancient air trapped in the vast ice sheets of Antarctica. By drilling for ice cores and analyzing the air bubbles, scientists have found that, at no point during at least the past 800,000 years have atmospheric CO2 levels been as high as they are now.

That means that in the entire history of human civilization, CO2 levels have never been this high.

Of course they haven't because humans have never quite been this self-destructive.

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 15,000 for the first time ever today. Because socialism.

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GOP Refuses to Even Debate the Federal Budget

Senate Republicans are quietly killing the chance that anything other than continuing resolutions will be used to fund the government for the foreseeable future.

Senator Ted Cruz kicked things off yesterday.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) slammed Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) for being a "schoolyard bully" on the Senate floor Monday, after Cruz blocked an effort to move forward on budget negotiations Republicans in the House and Senate have demanded for the past four years.

And Mitch McConnell made it official today.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) objected Tuesday to Sen. Patty Murray's (D-WA) request to begin House-Senate conference negotiations to resolve the differences between the two budgets the chambers passed.

McConnell objected because Murray declined to pre-set ground rules that the outcome of the negotiations not raise taxes or lift the debt ceiling. In other words, McConnell and Republians want to establish the rules in advance so that they can't lose the debate.

This is not about voting on a budget. This is about reconciling and debating what should be included in it. The Republicans are objecting to even debating what should be included.

If only President Obama would display some leaderly leadership and lead, or take Mitch McConnell out for a beer, the Republicans would agree to begin debating the budget, right? Of course.

There are nice things out there and this is why we can't have them.

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RUSH LIMBAUGH, NATURALLY, IS VERY CONCERNED ABOUT WHY BARACK OBAMA ABDUCTED AND RAPED THOSE CLEVELAND GIRLS