It’s not enough that folks from the Birther & Death Panel set have convinced many good folks that the Census is a secret plot to steal their lawn furniture. There’s another irony waiting. Historically, the real problem with underreporting has been in underprivileged communities — particularly African-Americans and Latinos and especially in large urban areas. To that end, conservatives have worked for the better part of two decades to stop the Census from taking any steps to correct numbers in the face of widespread non-response: namely, statistical sampling. And in the face of that pressure, the current Census Director has ruled out using sampling in the 2010 Census. Read More
As we were digging in to find out more about this Christian militia in Michigan called the Hutaree, we came across a bizarre 20-minute video on YouTube in which one of the defendants “stars.” The creators seemed to fancy it as a low-budget movie, complete with what is supposed to be acting. But it’s exceedingly amateurish and disturbing (our Zack Roth calls it “shockingly puerile”). To give you an idea, the opening scene includes accused militia member Kris Sickles, who sometimes goes by the name “Pale Horse,” nearly nude with a George W. Bush mask stuck to his genitals.
Within a few hours of us stumbling across it, the video was yanked from YouTube, but TPM Reader AS had grabbed the file. We’ve posted a 5-minute excerpt here (NSFW).
It’s difficult to describe the video. Think Jackass meets The Birth of a Nation. It leaves you wondering how these immature, crude, stunted personalities end up as radicalized militants. Or maybe that explains it.
Baseball’s traditional Opening Day is Monday, although in the age of lighted stadiums and TV, the first game will actually be played Sunday night on ESPN (predictably pairing the Yankees and Red Sox). Obama will throw the first pitch Monday for the dreadful Washington Nationals, who are coming off a 100+ loss season. So we take a look back at the intertwined histories of baseball and politics, starting with this photo of Babe Ruth and George H.W. Bush, just before the Babe’s death in 1948:
The DNC has sold out of its first shipment of “BFD” T-Shirts. That and the day’s other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.
Accused Christian militia member (who appeared mostly nude in that bizarro video we posted yesterday) issues a statement: I am “not an extremist, racist or a cop killer.”
Jon Stewart, on CNN’s hiring of RedState blogger Erick Erickson. Watch.
Obama, on the vitriol directed towards him:
Well, I think, when you listen to Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck, it’s pretty apparent, and it’s troublesome. But, you know, keep in mind that there have been periods in American history where this kind of vitriol comes out. It happens often when you’ve got an economy that’s making people more anxious, but that’s not the vast majority of Americans.
It’s too early to say that Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) is in trouble in the Democratic primary. It’s probably even too early to say that trouble is brewing there (although trouble is definitely brewing for her in the general election). But Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, who’s challenging Lincoln, has to like how the early indicators are reading: he’s out-fund-raising her, the polls in their race are tightening a bit, and recent polls of the general election show him doing slightly better against the Republican field than she is doing.
In early April of a volatile year, those three positive indicators don’t add up to Halter momentum, but the absence of any one of those three would probably be enough to write off his campaign. So this one bears close watching.
The next big item on the legislative agenda in Washington is financial regulatory reform, where a familiar pattern is playing out. No Republicans in the Senate have indicated publicly that they’ll support the reform bill under consideration, but Democrats are confident they can peel away one or two or three GOPers to bypass a filibuster. Can they?
Sen. John McCain holds a 15-point lead over Rep. J.D. Hayworth in the Republican Senate primary in Arizona, according to the latest poll.