Tweet of the Day

Via Nicole:

Must Reads

Suzi Parker: In Haley Barbour's Mississippi: Civil War Looms Over License Plates

Maximillio: How Ending Social Spending Will Destroy Our Economy (and Country)

Jason Linkins: Obama Faring Poorly Against Imaginary Candidate

E.J. Dionne: Deficit Hawks and The Games They Play

Will Bunch: A Reagan Litmus Test for 2012 GOP Hopefuls

Bob Cesca: Most Americans Are Closeted Big Government Spenders

Eugene Robinson: Haley Barbour's Silence Speaks Volumes

Zach Carter and Elise Foley: Republican Amendment Would Strip Funds For Obama 'Czars,' Plus Elizabeth Warren

Jamison Foser: Facts Weren't Invited To CNN’s Stimulus Birthday Party

Elvis Dingeldein: Palin Flushes Base Down Toilet

Paul Krugman: Willie Sutton Wept

ADDING:

Joshua Holland: Joe Klein's Cluelessness on Wisconsin Uprising Highlights the Corporate Media's Contempt for Working People

President Obama's Weekly Address - February 19, 2011

Winning the Future at Intel

Serious Republicans

Currently, there are over 500 amendments being added to the proposed budget in the House. FIVE HUNDRED?! Why so many? Well, here's a reason:

On Monday, [Representative Steve Womack (R-AK)] attempted to tack on an amendment to the proposed budget that would prohibit the president’s Teleprompter from receiving financial support.

This is some very serious politicking, huh? I suppose you get the government you voted for, don't you...

Len Lesser Dies at 88

HuffPo: Len Lesser, the veteran character actor best known for his scene-stealing role as Uncle Leo on "Seinfeld," died Wednesday. He was 88.

Lesser's family said in a statement that he died in Burbank, Calif., from cancer-related pneumonia.

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs!

Lose them? So be it.

That's what the leader of the House Republicans said regarding the possible loss of government jobs with draconian budget cuts proposed by the GOP. Whether you believe this is wasteful spending or not is irrelevant. These are real people. These are workers that will join the ranks of the unemployed.

This is the same John Boehner that was whining "Where are the jobs?" while pointing at President Obama in the perpetual unemployment blame game during the campaign. This is the same John Boehner that was going to do the bidding of the American people, "do the people's work" and stop wasting time on health care battles and work on job creation.

And now the Not-So-Ready-For-Prime-Time Speaker of the House shrugs his shoulders at the potential loss of jobs in the federal workforce; the same federal workforce that has been dragging down the monthly employment numbers and stagnating the unemployment rate. While private sector jobs have slowly been coming back, local and state governments have been shedding jobs. But hey, firefighters, police officers, teachers, sanitation workers, those aren't real people, right?

Meanwhile, the same John Boehner supported an alternative engine for the military's F-35 fighter jet, an engine that the military didn't want or need. Couldn't be that the engine is produced in the Speaker's home state, could it?  The bill was soundly defeated in the House today, practically evenly split among Republicans.  How many more defeats can Boehner sustain before becoming completely insignificant?

Run, Haley! Run!

Mississippi Governor Boss Hogg, who just a few weeks ago characterized the Civil Rights era in 1960's Mississippi as "not that bad" now will not criticize an attempt to honor a Confederate General who went on to become one of the early leaders of the KKK in the form of a license plate.

In the latest racially charged incident in his home state, Haley Barbour on Tuesday drew fire when he refused to condemn a proposal honoring a Ku Klux Klan leader and Confederate general on a state license plate.

"I don't go around denouncing people. That's not going to happen," Barbour, who is considering a run for the White House in 2012, said when asked about the plate, the Associated Press reported. "I know there's not a chance it'll become law."

Not a chance? We'll see about that. They sure like to top each other in the Idiot Department over at the Grand Ol' Party, don't they?

Dumbass Quote of the Day

"I believe that the videos we saw of ACORN accurately reflected the activities of ACORN and the culture of ACORN, and the videos we have seen of Planned Parenthood accurately reflect the culture and the activities of Planned Parenthood." On the funding battle, King pledged a "smackdown vote to shut down every dollar going to Planned Parenthood."...

..."Harry Reid can defend those ghoulish and ghastly and gruesome practices that Planned Parenthood is advocating along with child prostitution and illegal immigration. He can play defense on that. They didn't do very well in the Senate when they tried to defend ACORN. I don't think they'll do any better this time."

~Rep. Steve King (R-Doucheland) in the GOP's attack on Planned Parenthood to further restrict health services to women.

Battle of the Irish: O'Donnell Challenges O'Reilly

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Kenneth Mars Dies at 75

NY Times: Kenneth Mars, an actor best known for his over-the-top performance as a German playwright in the original movie version of “The Producers,” died on Saturday at his home here. He was 75.

The cause was pancreatic cancer, his family said.

In “The Producers” (1968), written and directed by Mel Brooks, Mr. Mars played Franz Liebkind, a Nazi enthusiast whose play “Springtime for Hitler” is the basis for a scheme by two conniving showmen (Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder) to bilk investors by putting on a sure-fire Broadway flop.

George Shearing Dies at 91

NY Times: George Shearing, the British piano virtuoso who overcame blindness to become a worldwide jazz star, and whose composition “Lullaby of Birdland” became an enduring jazz standard, died on Monday in Manhattan. He was 91.

The cause was congestive heart failure, said his manager, Dale Sheets. Mr. Shearing had homes in Manhattan and Lee, Mass.

I Hope He Loses His Shirt

Shirley Sherrod has filed a lawsuit against Andrew Breitbart over a video released by the conservative personality that lead to her ouster as an official at the USDA.

...The video first gained widespread public attention when it was posted on Breitbart's BigGovernment.com. The two-minute, 38-second clip was widely received as an admission by Sherrod, who is African American, that she had discriminated against a white farmer. Under immediate pressure from the Obama administration, Sherrod resigned from her position as the USDA's director of rural development in Georgia.

When a full 43-minute copy of the video surfaced, additional context turned the story into one of reconciliation. Sherrod had actually saved the man's farm and started a lifelong friendship.

Breitbart is going to attempt hiding behind the First Amendment, saying that he "categorically rejects the transparent effort to chill his constitutionally protected free speech and, to reiterate, looks forward to exercising his full and broad discovery rights."
Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I don't think slander and libel are protected by the Constitution.

Let's not forget that the Obama administration and the NAACP were quick to judge Sherrod as well, their sole basis being the edited video on Breitbart's website. But if Breitbart were actually a journalist and looked deeper into the matter instead of a vainglorious nutbag, he wouldn't be claiming he was duped. He knew exactly was he was doing and didn't care about the consequences - the rubes only get to know the first half of any tainted story before pulling out their pitchforks and torches.

CPAC's Big Tent

Texas Railroad Commissioner, candidate for US Senate representing the great state of Texas, and one of only three African-Americans at CPAC holding or running for elected office Michael Williams needs to get rid of the bowtie.

"Hey, are you Herman Cain?" the young man asked Williams, referring to another African American conservative running for federal office and attending CPAC.

I asked Williams if that happened a lot.

"Not really," he told me. "A lot of people think I'm a waiter."

Williams blamed the confusion on his trademark bowtie...

A friend with him said that on more than one occasion, people had asked him to get them a drink.

"I think it's really because of the bowtie," Williams explained.

Yeah... I'm sure it's about the tie.