In an effort to further flesh out his mysterious list of 99 problems, Jay-Z has released a track called "Open Letter" that addresses a couple of his more recent predicaments.
Conservatives thought they were going to win the 2012 Presidential Election. Instead, they were trounced by Barack Obama for the second time, sending the party off to search if not for its soul, then at least for a way to win a major election. The GOP has long been hostile to anyone that isn't rich, white and male, and with the country trending against that demographic in just about every way, the GOP needs to rethink what it stands for and who it wants to stand for it. It is, the thinking goes, the only way that they can stay competitive on a national level in a post-Obama landscape.
Everything that happens on Earth is the work of God. Hurricanes? God. Earthquakes? God. Michele Bachmann not coming anywhere remotely close to winning the GOP nomination for president? God. Bachmann not paying her campaign staffers because they refuse to sign nondisclosure agreements? I hate it to say it, but that's God's will, y'all. Win some, lose some (to God).
The Daily Show returned to Comedy Central last night with a well-rested and well-fired-up Jon Stewart at helm champing at the bit to blast Republicans for all the things they've fucked up while he was away.
House Republicans have re-elected Rep. John Boehner as the Speaker of the House, once again.
If you're one of those Democrats who's been riding a huge schadenfreude high since November 6, you probably took news of South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint's retirement in the customary way. With the online equivalent of going "WHOOOOOOOO" out of a limousine's sunroof, after doing a shooter with one of those awesome names like "Sex Intercourse with Boobs Outside."
If you thought that the militantly insane factions of the GOP would feel beaten back by Barack Obama's resounding re-election victory, you were probably wrong. For example: Nine state lawmakers in Wisconsin say they are supporting a bill that would allow federal officials to be arrested for implementing Obamacare in the state. One of those nine lawmakers is state representative Chris Kapenga, who seems incredibly bad at his job.
Welcome to the sleepy little east Texas town of Jasper. Home of charming organizations like the Knights of the White Kamelia (KKK) and the Hardin County Republican Party, it is also the town where, in 1998, three white men dragged James Byrd, Jr. three miles down an asphalt road, before eventually decapitating him. Welcome to Jasper, Texas.
Last month, the watchdog group Better Georgia managed to record nearly a full hour of a four-hour closed door meeting of Republican state senators which was convened by Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock) to discuss President Obama's efforts to brainwash Americans on behalf of the United Nations.
And we would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for those meddling "urbans."
When I tell people my father is a black Republican, many of them look at me curiously, as if I've just told them I was raised by mermaids. I assume they're surprised not only because much of my personal politics sit decidedly left of center, but also because black Republicans, who made up only 2 percent of the delegation at this year's Republican National Convention, have become somewhat of an urban legend, a phenomenon you might hear about on the news from time to time but will never encounter yourself in real life. On top of their rarity, America's black Republicans must also contend with the fact that some of their most notable comrades come off as either unserious or downright unhinged. For every levelheaded Colin Powell in the public eye, there is a man like Herman Cain, whose bid for the GOP's presidential nomination earlier this year was more circus sideshow than political campaign.
The GOP is pretty racist. I could list examples, but we'd be here for the rest of eternity. This week's particular "widely believed racist conspiracy that some old, white Republican was dumb enough to say in public" comes from Mitt Romney co-chair and ex-George H.W. Bush chief of staff John Sununu, who said that Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama because Powell disagrees with Romney's foreign policy. Wait, no, it's because they're both black.
Several days after a man was spotted in Harrisonburg, Virginia, allegedly discarding several completed voter registration forms in a private home accessory store dumpster, deputies in Rockingham County arrested a 31-year-old Pennsylvania resident affiliated with the Republican Party of Virginia and charged him with multiple felonies in connection with the incident.
In a 2010 letter [pdf] signed by Paul Ryan and obtained The Nation through a Freedom of Information Act request, the GOP's VP nominee — a major opponent of President Obama's healthcare reform — asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to use Affordable Care Act dollars to fund a new health center in his district.
