First shooting a man in Reno just to watch him die. Now robbing a bank in Virginia?
From the AP …
A Southern California judge is being publicly admonished for saying a rape victim “didn’t put up a fight” during her assault and that if someone doesn’t want sexual intercourse, the body “will not permit that to happen.”
It sounds like the story and video from that Fox News ‘contributor’ (i.e., concern troll) about getting beaten up by ‘union thugs’ isn’t holding up very well.
New best practices: Next time a video gets produced by Right Wing Freak Show Inc. (RWFSI) maybe it gets submitted automatically to trusted 3rd party video analysis.
I have to say I find this disappointing. I didn’t come into this with any particular feeling that Susan Rice needed to be Secretary of State. I was even a tad surprised when someone first floated the idea to me a couple months ago. But a totally cooked up smear campaign against Rice seems to have worked. My sense was that the President was personally deeply offended by the attacks on Rice. And yet it worked. I’m curious to find out what really happened.
Also curious whether she’s destined for the NSC.
PollTracker editor Kyle Leighton looks at the recent polling to see whether the public believes President Obama has a mandate for his proposals:
From TPM Reader LF …
To Brian Beutler’s point, he is probably right that Boehner is doing the smart thing in trying to get a deal now. Let’s face it–Boehner has the hardest job in Washington. Being the Speaker in opposition to a newly re-elected President just sucks. A President is more popular than Congress no matter what, and with far more abilty to control the media narrative. Add to it that Boehner’s diminished majority, and the strength of some dead-enders, a caucus more conservative than one that he has been part of in the past, makes it even harder, and a Floor Leader that is more than happy to shiv him in the back as soon as the opportunity presents itself, makes it harder. And as Speaker, he does have to make things work in some basic fashion.
How does comedy affect politics? Just what do they do over at Comedy Central. We’re holding a Live Chat this afternoon at 4 pm eastern with Mary Phillips-Sandy, a producer at Comedy Central. Fun stuff. Get your questions in now and join us at 4 PM.
We ran this piece about a month ago, before the steady drip drip drip of Republicans started arguing more or less the same thing.
The basic argument was that House Republicans could limit Obama’s policy victories — and possibly secure some of their own — by caving quickly on income tax rates for the rich. Once the grieving process had run its course, the GOP would find itself in a much stronger negotiating position next year. Obama would still be well short of his overall revenue goal, without a mechanism to force Republicans to yield again on taxes; and the debt limit would allow Republicans to reopen their 2011 playbook and force Obama to cut social insurance programs against his will.
Since then a few things have happened to make me question this analysis: Read More
Speaker Boehner says Congress will never give up the right to regular debt-limit hostage taking.