I found this on Facebook.

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Far more fascinating than the “jerk” comment, we already know Newt is a jerk, is the fact that the grandson of the 10th President of the United States, John Tyler, is still alive. What’s more, the former president has two grandsons alive today, 220 years after his birth and 171 years after his inauguration. President John Tyler, who died in 1862, had 15 children, more than any other president. Tyler’s son Lyon Gardiner Tyler, born in 1853, fathered Lyon Gardiner Tyler, Jr. in 1924 and Harrison Tyler in 1928, both alive today at 88 and 84.

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• August 1, 2011 -- Newt gets no respect, buys his Twitter followers
  The self-aggrandizing and mononymous Newt is complaining about the lack of press coverage for his perennial book tour camouflaged as a lackluster presidential campaign. He thinks he deserves some respect because he has 1.3 million Twitter followers. Compare this with Mitt Romney's 63K, Michelle Bachman's 24K, Tim Pawlenty's 42K. Did I forget someone? Does it matter? The point here is that Newt is obviously many times ahead of the other jackals combined, whining, "I have six times as many Twitter...
• June 11, 2011 -- Newt and his plasticine wife
  She goes this long on a single charge....

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul was detained by the TSA today and after a big hoopla the Obama Administration sided with the TSA.

Remember a similar story back in 2004 when Senator Ted Kennedy was detained because his name was similar to one on the “no fly” list?

I have to wonder, doesn’t this violate Article I, Section 6 of the Constitution which provides that members of Congress…

…shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony, and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their attendance at the Session of their Respective Houses, and in going to and from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.

Oh, the joys of living in a police state.

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• January 18, 2012 -- It’s time to use the constitutional safety valve
  I like to think of the ability to peacefully amend the constitution as the constitutional safety valve, with an Article V convention being the ultimate tool of We the People to reign in our government. This was the wisdom of our Founders. It keep us from violent government overthrow, which would be disastrous. It's probably time to make use of this legal safety valve. The ever brilliant Robert Reich explain the case for a constitutional amendment, particularly in light of Citizens United. ...
• November 30, 2011 -- The SOPA scoop
  Mike Ludwig over at Truthout has written a good piece giving us a good overview of the so-called Stop Online Piracy Act or SOPA and the PROTECT IP Act. Emphases mine: A movement to stop the bills has gone viral online. Web companies like Mozilla, Google, AOL and Facebook have come out against the legislation. Both bills would allow the Justice Department to take down sites deemed to be "dedicated to infringing activities" and both the department and copyright owners would be allowed to sue a...
• August 11, 2011 -- Mr. President tell us the truth! [Must see video]
  The United States is being plundered and extorted by the global oligarchs who seek profit at any cost. Privatized profits, socialized risk. The oligarchs are literally stealing from the elderly, students and working Americans through a system of tax cuts and spending cuts and too-big-to-fail. The president needs to stand up to this bought-and-sold Congress and communicate to the American people just who is responsible for this mess, how to get out of it and tell the truth about the reason...

I like to think of the ability to peacefully amend the constitution as the constitutional safety valve, with an Article V convention being the ultimate tool of We the People to reign in our government. This was the wisdom of our Founders. It keep us from violent government overthrow, which would be disastrous. It’s probably time to make use of this legal safety valve.

The ever brilliant Robert Reich explain the case for a constitutional amendment, particularly in light of Citizens United.

Check out this video from Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig, who is a strong advocate of substantive constitutional reform. This is good brain food.

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• January 22, 2010 -- Countrymen, take your country back from the thieves
  I cannot emphasize enough how today's Supreme Court decision, Citizens United v. FEC, has completely undermined what shreds of democracy were left and has formally confirmed what we have had for years anyway, a corporatist kleptocracy.   This ruling puts a severe roadblock in the way of reclaiming our country for We the People. This is serous stuff, folks.  It's time for all of Americans to step up and become part of a serious populist movement to take over both political parties.  We need a ...
• January 23, 2012 -- Member of Congress detained by TSA, Obama Admin sides with TSA
  Kentucky Senator Rand Paul was detained by the TSA today and after a big hoopla the Obama Administration sided with the TSA. Remember a similar story back in 2004 when Senator Ted Kennedy was detained because his name was similar to one on the "no fly" list? I have to wonder, doesn't this violate Article I, Section 6 of the Constitution which provides that members of Congress... ...shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony, and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their ...
• December 11, 2010 -- Robert Reich: Why Bill Clinton’s favorable view of Obama’s tax deal should be disregarded
  Robert Reich has a piece up on Huffington Post arguing that Obama's use of Clinton this week to convince Democrats to support his tax scam should be ignored. During the presser Obama pointed out that Clinton presided over the best economic boom our at least my lifetime.  Reich, however, points out, Clinton's economy was vastly different from Obama's. The recession Clinton inherited was relatively small, and caused by the Fed raising interest rates too high to ward off inflation. So it could ...

An interesting development today…

In a surprise move today, Representative Eric Cantor(R-VA) announced that he will stop all action on SOPA, effectively killing the bill. This move was most likely due to several things. One of those things is that SOPA and PIPA met huge online protest against the bills. Another reason would be that the White House threatened to veto the bill if it had passed. However, it isn’t quite time yet to celebrate, as PIPA(the Senate’s version of SOPA) is still up for consideration.

The online protests about the bill were surprising and large. They ranged anywhere from callng Representatives, companies, and senators to get them to change their mind, to actively moving domain’s away from and targeting the business model of the companies that supported/lobbied for the bill. GoDaddy lost well over 100,000 domains in the space of about 10 days due to their involvement with these bills, along with other various targets. Reddit in particular has been influential in turning the tide against SOPA and PIPA, and is a good demonstration of how the Internet enables Democracy.

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• November 30, 2011 -- The SOPA scoop
  Mike Ludwig over at Truthout has written a good piece giving us a good overview of the so-called Stop Online Piracy Act or SOPA and the PROTECT IP Act. Emphases mine: A movement to stop the bills has gone viral online. Web companies like Mozilla, Google, AOL and Facebook have come out against the legislation. Both bills would allow the Justice Department to take down sites deemed to be "dedicated to infringing activities" and both the department and copyright owners would be allowed to sue a...
• December 20, 2010 -- Al Franken: The Most Important Free Speech Issue of Our Time
  I applaud Senator Franken for his leadership on the critical issue of net neutrality. This issue is not getting the visibility it deserves, considering what is at stake. This Tuesday is an important day in the fight to save the Internet. As a source of innovation, an engine of our economy, and a forum for our political discourse, the Internet can only work if it's a truly level playing field. Small businesses should have the same ability to reach customers as powerful corporations. A blogge...

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Using Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers, Reagan advisor Bruce Bartlett shows that government regulation has accounted for less than 2% of layoffs where lack of demand accounts for 30% which blows away the lies being spread by @Eric Cantor and the rest of the Republican misinformation machine that the key to job creation is less regulation. There is no data to support this. Nothing! Supply has never created jobs. This lie is dogma to the right. It’s demand, stupid!

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Arizona has been taking a lot of heat, literally and figuratively.  Last year Bill Maher ranked Arizona the nation’s stupidest state. Now Gawker has ranked Arizona the worst state in the country.

The Good: Arizona has lots of natural beauty, from the dizzying Grand Canyon to, well, the areas immediately outside the Grand Canyon (Kaibab represent). That’s about it. Well, OK, Flagstaff has its moments.

The Bad: First off, it’s the middle of the goddamned desert so why is everyone there? Why is Phoenix? Ecological catastrophes, the twin brown stars of Phoenix and Scottsdale are insanely destructive, places so hot that they have mist sprayers everywhere even though there is no water there. Dreadful! The sheriff of the area is an insane lunatic cowboy wannabe who rules the town like Gene Hackman in the The Quick and the Dead. Alabama’s batshit immigration law was inspired by Arizona’s own SB 1070, a racist and xenophobic piece of legislation representative of Arizona’s roiling immigration crisis that was signed into law by the state’s governor Jan Brewer, a perky-eyed psychopath who speaks in tongues. Arizona is swiftly devolving into a dystopic free-for-all of armed mad men patrolling the state with guns, often to disastrous effect. (As witnessed in the Gaby Giffords incident — though, c’mon, you can’t blame Arizona for Jared Loughner any more than you can blame Colorado for Columbine.) Arizona is a hissing snakepit of angry old white people (they are angry because they are literally being cooked to death) yelling at the immigrants and other Others whom they fear and loathe, and it is probably going to explode someday soon into a bright ball of orange fire and we will know that either the end times have come for us all or thank god we are finally rid of Arizona.

I couldn’t have said it better myself. And yeah, why is Phoenix? That’s a damn good question.

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• August 3, 2010 -- Is Arizona SB1070 in full effect in defiance of the court ruling?
  My friend Wendy Carillo has a new video at Huffington Post showing, that despite Judge Susan Bolton's ruling, law enforcement in Arizona seems to be acting as SB1070 went into full effect. Admittedly, this video isn't conclusive. I don't know the full details and I'm not sure if the officer stopped here just based on her appearance, but, as the video claims, she was stopped for speeding.  This is Arizona. Tucson, Arizona: On August 2, 2010 around 3:15 p.m. Officer Zinn and Officer Koontz of the...
• June 29, 2010 -- From the “No Shit” file: Arizona’s illegal immigrants departure affecting businesses
  Life imitates art. It's A Day Without a Mexican comes to life. Arizona Central reports that "Arizona's illegal immigrants departure affecting businesses." These are hard lessons for stupid right-wingers cowering in irrational fear. Let's just see what happens when undocumented immigrants are chased away. Arizona is getting economic lessons on many fronts. Here are some excerpts from the story with my emphases and /*comments*/. Luis Sanchez and Marlen Ramirez, undocumented immigrants from Me...
• June 28, 2010 -- Jan Brewer is a pendeja of the first order
  In case you didn't catch this, Arizona Governor and Pendeja of the first order Jan Brewer, said, "We all know the majority of people who are coming into Arizona and trespassing have become drug mules." See folks, this is the the cloud of ignorance and utter misinformation and trademark right-wing disregard for facts under which policy and laws like SB1070 are set in Arizona. There is absolutely no remote factual basis for this utterance. But again, we are talking about Jan Brewer. Even soul...

GOP Rep Cory Gardner tells a constituent concerned about outsourcing to just find a new employer.

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• December 3, 2010 -- Qu’ils mangent de la brioche
  By the way, while Republicans vote against middle-class tax cuts to fight for the rich, the unemployed victims of the Republican Great Recession be damned. Qu'ils mangent de la brioche. ...
• September 27, 2010 -- Krugman on unemployment: “We’re suffering from a lack of policy resolve”
  Once again, the great Krugman hits one out of the park.  In his latest piece in the New York Times he debunks the right-wing myth that our unemployment problem is "structural," i.e. workers are "in the wrong places, or they have the wrong skills" and  that this "will take many years to solve." [A]ll the facts suggest that high unemployment in America is the result of inadequate demand — full stop. Saying that there are no easy answers sounds wise, but it’s actually foolish: our unemployment cri...

5,000 Americans were asked how they thought wealth is distributed in the United States. Most thought that it is more evenly distributed than it actually is and felt that it should be more distributed than that. In fact, wealth is far less distributed than they thought.

ht: mother jones

Here are 20 facts about U.S. inequality that everyone should know.

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• August 3, 2011 -- The relationship between wealth and evolution denial
  I have never understood evolution denial. Even in my Catholic daze I accepted evolution as simply God's means of creation. I don't get what the big deal is. Oh, and I really don't like when people use phrases like "belief in evolution." It's science, not a matter of belief. ht calamities of nature...
• June 30, 2010 -- Krugman: We are entering The Third Depression
  There has been a lot of buzz over the past couple of days on Paul Krugman's op-ed piece, "The Third Depression." If you haven't read it, check it out....
• May 14, 2010 -- Krugman: We’re Not Greece
  Debunking the invalid comparisons some are trying to make between Greece and the United State, Paul Krugman offers us the following... So, how do America and Greece compare? Both nations have lately been running large budget deficits, roughly comparable as a percentage of G.D.P. Markets, however, treat them very differently: The interest rate on Greek government bonds is more than twice the rate on U.S. bonds, because investors see a high risk that Greece will eventually default on its debt,...