All the News that Can Be Got Between Noon and Noon-fifteen

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banking, consumer protection, GOP, Health care, Humor, Medicare, Michele Bachmann, paleontology, Ryan plan, voting rights

I know that the fine business of news reporting once upon a time was an honorable craft. I know that because I have heard and read about Edward R. Murrow and I remember Walter Cronkite. You know, reporters who actually spent time tracking down a story that was important.

Today, we have almost none of those types at least in the media. It’s all a dog and pony show now. Make sure it’s got all the bells and whistles, keep it short, make the video entertaining. Fluff it up.

One of the reasons that I was for an early resignation by Anthony Weiner, was not because of the hideousness of his crime, but because he would prove to be a distraction since the media would opt for the easy story–sex sells, and we all know it.

Weiner shares the spotlight with the trial of a mother for the death of her child. For several hours a day we are informed of the last detail of mom and dad’s testimony as well as about the new forensic science of “smell”. (There is a sealed can of “death” odor in case you missed it.)

Given these propensities, it comes as no surprise that the crazy Bachmann woman is getting just loads of press since the “debate” of a couple of nights ago. Albeit, some suggest that her bar was lower than a master limbo dancer could get under in the first place, but she got high marks for “having a command” of the facts, and being aggressive. Somehow that has catapulted her into the race as a viable candidate.

I suggest that this is only in the minds of the media asswipes who muse over such things while sipping that appletini at a long lunch. She’s fun, controversial, and easy to cover. The fact that if you were to look at her numbers nationally, she ranks in the barely negligible range, is of no matter. It is important that she is looking good in Iowa.

Well, let me inform you that Iowa is, nowadays, no bellweather of Republicanism. It is a rogue state of insanity produced by the strange animal known as caucus. See, we don’t all go to the polls and vote here in our primary. No, those of us who have a few hours to waste, go and sit with a bunch of other people with time on their hands (or very very serious interests in who gets the nod), and we argue, and argue and argue until the “caucus” for that district reaches a consensus. Since many of the folks are neighbors and friends, well, you can see the possibilities. Bottom line, caucuses wildly don’t reflect the average voter in the state. They do represent very special interests.

That Bachmann will do well in Iowa’s caucuses is correct. That it means much of anything is entirely another thing.

So, in the interests of not getting all wacked out of shape over this Bachmann “surge” let us recall that the woman is an idiot, second only to that fine piece of work, the Wasilla Witch. If you need reminding, then take a look at this list of Bachmannian crazy. Surely the domkoffs of the GOPpery are not this insane? Or stop by Politicususa and read their summary of the lady’s right-wing evangelical nuttery.

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 It probably goes without saying to the crowd that comes around here to read the news that the Ryan plan is awful–simply awful. It screws the elderly and no amount of saying it doesn’t will change that fact. Republicans are simply lying when they claim otherwise. What the CBO tells us, is that worse, it will raise costs astronomically. A good report on all this at Crooks and Liars today.

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Let me see if I can remember this correctly. Once upon a time banks had no regulation to speak of. This was back in the Bushy years. And they overreached, and then the entire economy teetered on the edge of destruction. Now the GOPers are determined that the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency shall have no money and nobody to run it, because banks need to be left unfettered to do their thing. Yeah, makes sense. Once again, the Rethuglians in Congress show us just how little they are interested in people. Who would think that anyone would be against protecting consumers except the fat cats who are trying to screw them–oh yeah, that would be the Repuklicans wouldn’t it?

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Couldn’t resist this little gem fromPolitical Irony:

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We’ve been reporting here now and again about voter suppression laws being enacted in GOP controlled states throughout the US. USA Today has done an editorial on the subject, calling a spade a spade. Again, there are no real issues with voter fraud here or anywhere. This is just a GOP dirty trick to suppress largely Democratic voters who are students, poor and the elderly. Note that in no case do these new suppression laws address absentee voting which is universally considered more open to fraud, but which the GOP deems most likely to be cast by Republicans.

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And just cuz you need to know this stuff, some stuff on evolution and the failure of mankind to make much evolutionary progress in the last 40-50 thousand years, go read this great article. It’s a great new book by one of the leaders in the field of evolution and man. It’s called the Origin of Our Species.

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What’s on the stove: chicken cacciatore, salad, bread