Federal Judge Says States’ Health Care Suits Can Proceed

U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson will allow a lawsuit filed by mostly Republican attorneys general from Florida and 19  other states to proceed. TPM has a breakdown on how these suits are framed.

The constitutional challenges to the health care reform law fall generally into two categories. In the first, states claim that their own laws trump the federal law — an argument that legal experts consider to be almost a sure loser. The second argument is that the insurance mandate exceeds the power given to Congress in the Commerce Clause. That argument is less radical than the first, but …

More Paladino Porn. Good Times!

More emails sent by New York GOP gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino have been discovered, along with his annotated comments. The comments Paladino adds to the emails don’t help his argument that all he did was forward them without looking at them, as he told me during a radio interview.

For Dick Cheney, Shooting Your Friend In The Face Face Means Never Having To Say You’re Sorry

Harry Whittington is the man then-Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot on a hunting trip. Since then, Whittington’s voice changed. There are pellets, thirty in all, lodged near his right eye socket and hairline.  Four days after being shot, doctors believe he suffered a mild heart attack. Later there was a collapsed lung. When he got out of the hospital there as an apology; from Whittington to Cheney: ”My family and I are deeply sorry for all that Vice President Cheney and his family have had to go through this past week.”

Contrary to reports at the time, Whittington and Cheney …

In Candidate Debate, Christine O’Donnell Won’t Say Whether Evolution Is A Myth

Wolf Blitzer pressed Delaware U.S. Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell about whether she still believes “evolution is a myth,” as she claimed on Bill Maher’s show.

Blitzer asked O’Donnell whether she still stands by her 1998 comments that evolution is a “myth.” “That should be decided on the local community,” said O’Donnell, who then tried to change the subject. Blitzer repeatedly pressed her for her beliefs, to which she replied, “What I believe is irrelevant, because what I will support in Washington, D.C. is the ability for the local school system to decide what is taught in their classrooms.”

She also …

Carl Paladino Was Landlord To Gay Bars; Son Ran One

New York candidate for governor Carl Paladino, notorious for gay-bashing, rented to two gay clubs in downtown Buffalo. One of the clubs was run by his son, William.  Paladino criticized opponent Andrew Cuomo’s parenting for taking his daughters to a gay parade, because gays there “wear Speedos and grind against each other.” Who knew Paladino was in the gay bar business?

…a club named Cobalt operated as a gay bar in 2004 and most of 2005 and was run by Paladino’s son, William. It was housed in a building owned by one of Paladino’s many companies, …

Jon Ralston: Sharron Angle Funded By “Blind Hate”

While the Sharron Angle campaign claims that the low polling of her opponent  is “a testament to the hatred of Harry Reid,” Las Vegas Sun columnist Jon Ralston (pictured with Angle) says hatred has a lot to do with this race, alright, but it’s hatred coming from the right.

It’s hatred that has brought this Senate race, with three days until voting begins, to a place where Angle can win. It is hatred that brought her that $14 million haul. And it is hatred that courses through the American electorate, bringing venomous and vitriolic assaults upon anyone who dares …

All 33 Miners Are Freed

Shift foreman Luis Urzua has been freed, the last miner out.

Just as the captain on a ship traditionally stays if a ship goes down, Urzua elected to be the last to come up, reaching the top at 1.57pm.

That gives the 54-year-old the unenviable world record for the number of days trapped underground in a mine – 60 days.

Urzua has spent the past 69 days ensuring his crew survived, rationing 120 cans of tuna to last the 33 miners. He also organised the miners into 12 hour shifts to get some sense of normality to their lives.…

Pat Sajak Wonders Whether Pubilc Employees Should Be Allowed To Vote

First, let it be known that Wheel of Fortune’s Pat Sajak is an avowed conservative.  He writes in the National Review that public employees like teachers and other state and federal workers may have too great an interest in the issues and thus maybe they shouldn’t vote. (h/t Mediaite)

…there are occasions in which it’s only fair and correct that a person or group be barred from participating because that party could directly and unevenly benefit from decisions made and policies adopted. So should state workers be able to vote in state elections on matters that would benefit them …

On Wednesday’s Radio Show…

• Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich joins Alan to debate today’s hottest issues, and to discuss his possible run for the White House.

• Famed attorney Alan Dershowitz speaks about the issues examined in his fascinating new novel, The Trials Of Zion.

• Actress-activist Marlo Thomas sits down with Alan to discuss her humorous and heartwarming memoir, Growing Up Laughing: My Story And The Story Of Funny.…

Jonathan Chait: If Republicans Win The House They’ll Impeach Obama

The New Republic‘s Jonathan Chait believes that if Republicans win the House they’ll impeach President Obama.

Wait, you say. What will they impeach him over? You can always find something. Mini-scandals break out regularly in Washington. Last spring, the political press erupted in a frenzy over the news that the White House had floated a potential job to prospective Senate candidate Joe Sestak. On a scale of one to 100, with one representing presidential jaywalking and 100 representing Watergate, the Sestak job offer probably rated about a 1.5. Yet it was enough that GOP Representative Darrell Issa called …

Investing In Clean Energy: Time To Subsidize?

by Stuart Shapiro

Two think tanks from opposite ends of the ideological spectrum came together today to issue a report recommending a $25 billion annual investment in clean energy.  The AEI-Brookings report recommends several methods for investing the money (h/t David Leonhardt).

This joint paper by the Brookings Institution, the American Enterprise Institute, and the Breakthrough Institute argues that the federal government should invest roughly $25 billion per year in military procurement, R&D, and a new network of university-private sector innovation hubs to create an energy revolution. The program should be financed through several mechanisms, including a low price …