Ron Paul Wins California Straw Poll, Upending Romney And Perry

By Nancy Hennen

44.9%, followed by Perry, 29.3%, Romney, 8.8%…

Rep. Jerry Nadler Introdudes Bill To Eliminate Debt Ceiling

Needed to prevent holding our debts hostage to budget cuts

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Obama To Call For Minimum Tax Rate For Millionaires

President Obama Monday will call for a rewrite of the tax code, including a minimum tax for millionaires.

…the proposal would target the top 0.3 percent of taxpayers, many of whom currently reap huge benefits from lower lower rates on capital gains and dividends, which form the bulk of their earnings. While the idea has little chance of winning congressional approval, it could help shape a populist message for Obama and other Democrats heading into the 2012 presidential campaign.…

John Boehner Gets Tea Party Challenger

David Lewis is challenging John Boehner for his seat on one issue: funding for Planned Parenthood, with Lewis calling the organization “the largest killer of unborn babies in America.” Challenging John Boehner on abortion is likely to be futile.

Dave Kern, chairman of the Butler County GOP who subscribes to the tea party, defended Boehner’s anti-abortion record.

“I have no issue on educating the public on the wrongs of abortion. But I think the young man is mistaken to try to do damage to a committed soldier in this battle,” Kern said. “His efforts could be spent more productively in …

When Is Two Plus Two Greater Than Four?

by Stuart Shapiro

Answer: When it refers to attitudes about the American Jobs Act.  While public opinion is divided on the Act as a whole, the individual pieces are pretty popular.  Steve Benen explains:

On President Obama’s American Jobs Act, for example, the public is lukewarm — a plurality are “somewhat” confident the agenda will “create jobs and improve the economy,” but support is hardly one-sided. Notice, however, what happens when respondents are asked about individual provisions:

9 Dead In Air Show Crash

Jimmy Leeward, 74-year-old stunt pilot killed; mechanical failure of the P-51 Mustang…

House Republicans Reject Obama’s Jobs Proposal; Finally Meet A Tax Cut They Don’t Like

The Republican leadership doesn’t want a proposal that rebuilds schools and poor neighborhoods and keeps state and local employees working, and offers  a reduction in payroll taxes. And why do they oppose a reduction in payroll taxes? For the simple reason that they’ll go back up again:

The GOP leaders say such a temporary reduction means taxes will go up later when the reduction expires in 2013.

“While employees would see an additional temporary benefit from this proposal in 2012,” they wrote, “they would experience a larger effective tax increase 12 months later when the payroll tax reverted back …

General Motors, UAW Agree

by Nancy Hennen

Laid-off workers hired back, improved health care and profit sharing…

RIP Eleanor Mondale And Kara Kennedy

Both political daughters gone the same day
Both 51 years old…

Jay Leno Tries To Reason With Michele Bachmann On Gay Marriage

Michele Bachmann tried to joke that she thought it was a “midlife crisis line,”pray away the gray.”  But that didn’t seem to impress the Leno audience. Jay did a great job using reason to confront unreason.

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FBI Teaching Agents That Mainstream Muslims Are Terrorist Sympathizers

The FBI is teaching counterterrorism agents that Mohammed was a “cult leader” and that charitable giving by Muslims is a “funding mechanism for combat.” (h/t Global Grind)

At the Bureau’s training ground in Quantico, Virginia, agents are shown a chart contending that the more “devout” a Muslim, the more likely he is to be “violent.” Those destructive tendencies cannot be reversed, an FBI instructional presentation adds: “Any war against non-believers is justified” under Muslim law; a “moderating process cannot happen if the Koran continues to be regarded as the unalterable word of Allah.”

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