Time to heave ho, argues Ed Kilgore, “As the State of the Union Address and the first partisan blows of the 2014 election cycle approach, there’s a familiar character missing from the political state: the Deficit Boogeyman.”
At TPM Cafe Book Club this morning, Amanda Ripley asks South Koreans about Americans’ obsession with their high test scores in an excerpt from The Smartest Kids In The World: “When I asked if [Korea’s education minister, Lee Ju-Ho] agreed with President Obama’s glowing rhetoric about the Korean education system, he smiled a tired smile. It’s a question he got asked often, usually by Korean reporters who could not understand what the U.S. president—or anyone—would find to like about Korea’s system.”
TPM Prime members should remember to join us for a chat with Ripley this Friday at noon.
An old friend of mine, Michael Tisserand, posted this Pete Seeger remembrance on Facebook:
Romney still isn’t over Candy Crowley catching him out on Benghazi.
Because BENGHAZI!
Another Pete Seeger remembrance, from the folk musician Happy Traum:
TPM Reader JS on the ever-splendid intricacies of New Jersey politics and the fragrances of sleaze …
On “What’s the Matter with Jersey,” my only expertise in the subject is living in Newark. Most of the piece is consistent with what I see on the ground. However, near the end, the article veers off in misdirection. The peccant paragraph:
We’ve spent centuries thinking abut politics as a competition for power. We assume that a thirst for power is what animates almost all political acts. This assumption is so embedded in the vocabulary of government and the rhetoric of electioneering that we have been blinded to the possibility that another motive is exercising equal pull: greed. People can get rich, very rich, by dipping their toe in New Jersey politics.
So far today in a renewed GOP push to appeal to female voters, 1) Hannity has proposed an “adopt-a-woman” program to help alleviate any issue with affordable access to birth control; 2) Republicans – including Bristol Palin of all people – have attacked Wendy Davis as a bad mother; 3) Rand Paul has managed to hog a lot of media space with an on-going discussion of whether Hilary Clinton needs to be held to account for her husband cheating on her with a White House intern.
Meanwhile production is underway for Mike Huckabee’s neo-blaxploitation action flik Uncle Suga.
Pete Seeger and Johnny Cash – Worried Man Blues, after the jump …
GOP lawmakers: Forget about the state of the union–Duck Dynasty is here!