Today we get our first reader contribution!
- From Twitter user@MoplopJC: The US is wealthier than Europe because of our cities. (Washington Post) A lot of the issues we see in politics today can be traced to the urban/rural divide, especially in states with major cities.
- The soft tyranny of low expectations (Gin and Tacos)
- GOP Senate candidate John Raese compares smoking ban to Jews being forced to wear the Star of David in Nazi Germany. (Huffington Post) As a Jewish person who lost distant relatives in the Holocaust, there are few things more offensive to me than denigrating their memory by comparing the Holocaust and Nazi Germany with some mundane piece of public policy. Lets reserve the Nazi rhetoric for when there are, you know, actual Nazis.
- The Secret Service has forced the agents involved in the Colombian prostitution scandal to resign. (Huffington Post) As expected.
- Is Obama in trouble with young voters? (The Atlantic) Someone once told me that if you were conservative at 20 you had no heart, and if you were liberal at 40 you had no brain. As I approach the halfway point between the two, I am finding that the former is absolutely true, and the latter is absolutely false. So, to answer the question of the article: unless the GOP comes out in favor of legalizing pot and lowering the drinking age to 18, as well as providing free college tuition and contraception, I don’t think the President is in trouble with young voters.
- Austerity is destroying Spain, and the rest of Europe (The Atlantic) And yet, this is exactly what the GOP is calling for.
- The GOP’s real war on the Lilly Ledbetter Act (The Atlantic) Is there anything related to women the GOP is actually for at this point, other than making babies and sammiches?
- New scandals with the UC Davis pepper spray incident (The Atlantic) Finally, an instance where the GOP could actually make a case that a union is doing more harm than good. Unfortunately, the union is sticking up for a cop that pepper sprayed a bunch of dirty hippies with an illegal weapon. Decisions, decisions.
- The real campaign finance problem: constant fundraising. (The Atlantic) Money may not be the root of all evil, but it is most certainly in the dirt in which evil thrives.
- The unspeakable F-word: Filibuster (The Atlantic) The tyranny of the minority is alive and well.
- Obama to GOP: Abide by debt limit deal of face a Government Shutdown right before the election. (TPM) Well, this oughta be fun.
- Obama seated in Rosa Parks’s Bus (TPM)
- Nancy Pelosi Op-Ed: GOP has a long standing opposition to judicial review, until now. (Chicago Tribune) Of course they do. NANCY SMASH FOREVER.
- Allen West calls Democrats Communists, refuses to say which ones are actually Communists. (ThinkProgress) Worth noting: in the article, West refers to “Communist, Progressive, Marxist, Socialist, Statist”, which are five fairly unique and specific terms which don’t really mean the same thing at all.
- Sen. Feinstein puts a hold on NRA Concealed Carry bill (ThinkProgress) Good for her. Concealed Carry laws are among the more odious legislation pushed by the NRA.
- GOP Rep. Tiberi defends tax hike on the poor. (ThinkProgress) You know, it’s possible that lower income individuals don’t pay a whole lot in taxes BECAUSE THEY DON’T HAVE ANY FUCKING MONEY, YOU COLOSSAL ASSHOLE. JESUS TITTYFUCKING CHRIST.
- Tom Watson: News Corp operated like “shadow state” (The Guardian)
- Are we on the deck of another Titanic? (Al-Jazeera)
- Liberals have forgotten how to make the religious case for liberal causes (Al-Jazeera) Also, it could be that current liberal social policies aren’t really square with the Bible or most other holy books. Then again, most holy books haven’t been updated in a few thousand years, so we’re probably okay there.
- The German Pirate Party could bring a European coalition (Al-Jazeera) I’m interested to see how this progresses. It could mean very big things for the internet.
