Actress Patricia Heaton is perhaps known for her roles in the sitcoms "Everybody Loves Raymond" and "The Middle". She's also an outspoken conservative (not that rare a breed in Hollywood, no matter what Fox News says) who isn't afraid to dip her toe into her frequently factually incorrect political advocacy. For example, she was happy to film a commercial in response to Michael J. Fox's support for a Missouri stem cell research bill by warning against the evils of human cloning and human egg harvesting for profit.

And she's at it again, this time echoing Rush Limbaugh in castigating Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown law student who was prevented from testifying in front of Issa's panel discussing the Obama administration's mandate that contraceptive care be offered to all employees free of charge. Heaton tweeted on Wednesday to her 65,000 followers that if each of her "Tweatons" (a portmanteau that cannot be scorned enough) would just send the "Georgetown Gal" a condom, then "her parents wouldn't have to cancel basic cable and she wouldn't reproduce".

The American conservative: Keepin' it Klassy, as always.

Predictably, this set off a firestorm on Twitter, one for which Heaton may not have been prepared. I mean, really, how dare people take offense to her attacking a college student she doesn't know for daring to express concern about her reproductive rights?

Hey Tweatons: progressives are extremely sensitive and delicate. They are also humorless. Treat them gently & don't try to joke w/them.

Yeah, it's our humorless nature that's the problem. It's not that Heaton is armed with no facts, is passing judgments against others and bullying a college student for no other reason than her own ignorant views.

Mitt Romney’s hurdle in winning the love/respect/admiration/fear of his party can be summed up in one photo: It was taken by his son, Tagg (doesn’t Sarah Palin have a kid with that name?) and put on Twitter this week. It’s of Romney and his wife Ann, presumably in a hotel basement, side-by-side pouring detergent into washing machines. Mitt is, of course, wearing a starched button up shirt and jeans, which is what people who never do laundry think people would wear when they do laundry. (Personally, if I have a clean starched shirt and jeans that’s an indication I don’t need to do laundry yet.) “Nothing like the glamorous life on the road,” the intermittent front-runner’s son tweeted with the pic.

This photo comes in the same week as Romney’s tax return where we learned Romney doesn’t actually work. He is in fact, as he’s claimed, unemployed. His money…makes his money. Millions and millions. He pays a tax rate of 13.9 percent – far lower than your average laundromat owner.

Which leads me to ask: Why is Mitt being photographed doing his laundry? Were there no Dukakis tanks available?

Apparently pleased with his Average Joe “real street” cred, Romney happily explained the image to NBC News, “We do our laundry at least once a week, because we’ll be on the road for 30 straight days. Who else do you think is going to do our laundry?”

When you are a multi-multi-millionaire, I can think of millions of people who could do your laundry. Isn’t Romney taking away jobs by washing his own clothes? First he outsourced American jobs, destroyed companies while the CEO at Bain Capital – now his quirky down-homeness is denying a gig to a professional fluff and folder.

When you don’t actually think about the plight of working people, you can assume you’re connecting to their “kitchen table” concerns by saying you have to do laundry at least once a week. We all do our laundry that much. Mainly because if you’re middle-class (or the former middle-class), you don’t have weeks worth of clothes; therefore you wash clothes all the time. It’s like saying you pay your bills at least once a month. Or you fill up your car with gas at least once a week. Or you worry about money at least once every other day. For normal people, this goes without saying, but for a candidate trying to appear normal, well, let’s just say it doesn’t wash.

Speaking of which, does one really, as the GOP-dubbed “vulture capitalist” with holdings in the Cayman Islands and some Swiss bank accounts want to have oneself associated with the word “laundry”? If you’re admittedly doing accounting tricks to pay as little U.S. taxes as possible, don’t you want to avoid a word synonymous with rich guy malfeasance? “I pay all the taxes that are legally required, not a dollar more,” said Romney at the NBC debate on Monday night in Florida.

Right: Millionaire plus laundry equals accidental editorial cartoon.

What’s next for this guy? Dressing up as a pirate and walking through foreclosed neighborhoods?

Also do you really want, as a Mormon candidate, to open up a conversation about separating whites from colors?! Gah!

Continue reading »

Youth in Government is a program intended to give teenagers an up-close look at what it's like to serve in the state legislature. Each year, teenagers head to their state capitol where lawmakers and staff give them a taste of what legislating is like.

One teenager got that and more. Kansas City Star:

And sometimes a few “joking” words can land a student in the principal’s office, drafting a letter of apology.

All that resulted from a tweet the Shawnee Mission East High School senior wrote Monday during Brownback’s greeting to young people who were brought in for a closer look at the political process.

“Just made mean comments at gov. brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot,” Sullivan thumbed from the back of the crowd.

She actually made no such comments. “Joking around,” Sullivan says of the incident.

Brownback’s director of communication wasn’t amused when the tweet was spotted during the routine daily monitoring of comments on Twitter and Facebook mentioning the governor’s name.

“That wasn’t respectful,” responded Sherriene Jones-Sontag. “In order to really have a constructive dialogue, there has to be mutual respect.”

I guess it was the hashtag #heblowsalot that got his attention, because she didn't actually make any comments to Governor Brownback.

Wonkette:

Yeah, but Sam Brownback really does “suck,” and really “blows a lot.” This is well known, nationally, and to expect smart young people in Kansas to be ignorant of this fact is to want children to be born without brains.

The Brownback administration basically tried to have this girl killed, for making a joke about a thin-skinned politician, on Twitter. And now her school has been forced to force her to “write an apology,” etc. Sullivan was already liberal (she’s intelligent), but Sam Brownback has probably forced her to become a liberal leader.

ThinkProgress:

Moreover, there’s no question that the high school principal violated Sullivan’s First Amendment rights. Although public school students’ right to free speech is not unlimited, schools are generally only allowed to discipline students for speech that isdisruptive to the school’s learning environment. It is difficult to imagine how a single tweet criticizing a controversial politician during a field trip could have disrupted this high school’s ability to educate its students.

Moreover, because the school district violated Sullivan’s clearly established federal constitutional rights, she is likely entitled to have the district or the principal pay her attorney’s fees if she decides to bring a lawsuit challenging this unconstitutional disciplinary action. In other words, the district could be wise to settle this case immediately if Sullivan decides to bring them to court.

Oh, ugh. Let's not escalate this into a federal case. School districts are strapped enough, especially in Kansas. How about she just demands a letter of apology from Governor Brownback to frame for her children?

Tea party Republican Todd Akin, who refuses to meet with his constituents, has inspired them to take their questions to the web and Twitter with the #AskToddAkin campaign. The website, AskToddAkin.com allows concerned citizens to automatically send tweets that question why the representative opposes programs that help the people of Missouri.

The AFL-CIO says:

So far, he hasn’t been willing to meet with voters in his district, even though he’s been traveling far and wide to tea party meetings and fundraisers hours outside of his district. When his constituents held a town hall meeting a block from his office, he wouldn’t even contact them to decline, although he did issue a press statement saying he wouldn’t go to a “Union Hall,” calling the town hall meeting a “Rally and Protest.”

Among the questions voters can ask Akin:

Why he voted to eliminate Medicare?

Why he thinks Medicare is unconstitutional?

Where are the jobs?

Akin has a lifetime Progressive Punch score of 1.13 percent on labor issues, which is skewed by a few positive votes dealing with the erosion of workers' rights caused by international trade deals. When it comes to other issues, such as giving aid to workers hurt by those trade deals, union rights, occupational safety and health, outsourcing, protection of worker pensions, workplace rights and the rights of public employees, Akin has never voted in favor of America's workers.

Keepin' it Klassy:

One of Fox News’ various Twitter account, @FoxNewsPolitics, was hacked by a group called “Scriptkiddies.” The group sent out false information regarding the shooting death of President Barack Obama.

The tweets have since been deleted from the account and a Fox News representative has promised a full investigation into the hacking. "Scriptkiddies" does not appear to have any connection to more well-known hacking entities like "Anonymous" or "LulzSec".

In addition to just the massively poor taste, I can't help but think that Scriptkiddies wanted to tweak another Murdoch organization given the hacking that Murdoch's "News of the World" is currently being accused of.

A private detective working for Britain's News of the World tabloid hacked into voicemail messages left on the mobile phone of a murdered schoolgirl while police were searching for her, a lawyer for her family said on Monday.

Mark Lewis, of solicitors Taylor Hampton, said police investigating phone hacking by the paper had told the parents of Milly Dowler that their daughter's own phone had been intercepted illegally.

He said the family planned to sue the paper, owned by News International, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp .

The disclosure comes days after British government gave its backing for News Corp to buy out British pay-TV group BSkyB, rejected complaints the move would give Murdoch too much power and influence.

The government has announced a final consultation period until July 8 to consider further undertakings to guarantee the editorial independence of BSkyB's Sky News.

Five people have been arrested by detectives investigating assertions that journalists on the News of the World hacked the phones of members of the royal family, politicians, celebrities and sports stars to listen to their voicemail messages.

Hmmm. So Twitter isn't coming out and saying Anthony Weiner's account was hijacked/hacked, but they did take the time to send out some security tips to Congress today.

Politico:

“Some of you inquired today about the security of Twitter accounts,” Twitter’s Adam Sharp wrote in an e-mail obtained by POLITICO. “While we won’t comment on individual accounts, news reports of the past few days are a good reminder of the importance of actively protecting your account credentials.”

Sharp recommended congressional offices use strong passwords including numbers and symbols; use unique passwords for each website used; beware of suspicious links; don’t give out usernames or passwords to “untrusted third parties”; and make sure computers and operating systems are updated with upgrades and anti-virus software.

I don't know if Rep. Weiner's account was hacked or hijacked or what, but it happens often, usually because basic security principles are tossed out, or a rogue third-party app is authorized, which is why Breitbart and his minions shouldn't have gotten any attention, much less the amount they've gotten.

It's good, basic advice. Let's hope all of Congress takes it.

Tim Pawlenty needs more than Republicans to win the Presidency, but I can pretty much guarantee this tactic will fail, and fail miserably with independents and moderate Republicans.

Tweeted earlier:

Now if TPaw had been paying attention, he would have noticed that Medicare was reformed significantly by the Affordable Care Act. And if he were really paying attention, he would have noticed that our President was the first United States President invited to speak at a joint session of Parliament yesterday. Hardly a "pub crawl."

Poor TPaw just can't seem to find a message that works. Or a social media strategy that makes any sense, for that matter.

The headlines screamed: Barack Obama Discovers Cure for Cancer.

While throngs in capitals across the globe spontaneously massed to cheer the president’s astounding stamp on the history of humankind, the GOP stampeded to Twitter to spit their disgust at ObamaCure:

WTHuckabee: If you examine the anti-colonial views of the Mau Mau shamans in Kenya, you will discover that they too sought out cures for cancer. #witchdoctor

DonaldChump: I know his mother left him with this animus toward cancer, which is admirable and all. But what she didn’t leave him with was an actual birth certificate. #WatchMyShow!

SpeakerOfTheLobbyists: The American people sent us here to repeal this job-killing ObamaCure. Did I mention we’re broke? And the American people want us to cut Planned Parenthood more than cancer. #SoBeIt

Palinoscopy: ObamaCure is an outrageous blood libel, a Death Panel on the inalienable rights of our Real American PharmaCorps. to sell common sense conservative drugs. #MuslimBrotherhoodHatesCancerToo

RandAppall: The Constitution does not permit the president to Declare War on cancer without the debate & consent of Congress. #OrAquaBuddha

TheRyanBludgeonIt: We do not have a cancer problem. We have a spending on cancer problem. Cut taxes on small businesses like Koch & the free market will generate millions of new cancer cures. #AndMillionsOfNewCancerCustomers #FromPollution

aBeckalypseNow: Of course Barack Obama doesn’t want people to die from cancer. That will enable the higher birth rates in the Muslim world to sweep across this Earth like a Sendai tsunami. #BuyGold.

LieOfNewt: I loved my country so much that I had to take a new wife when my other wife got cancer. This ObamaCure is yet another secular socialist assault on my dating life.

TooMuchRush: So the Chosen One fixed cancer. La-di-dah! Well, what about the millions each year who die from heart disease, choking on half-chewed filet mignon or household falls? He’s done nothing but FAIL all of you.

GWB43: Hey! Reagan’s astrologer once told me that I’m a Cancer! That rascal 44 found a cure for me? #BringEmOn

Some interesting tidbits appearing in my Twitter and RSS feeds today, not necessarily enough for a whole blog post, but still funny, interesting and worth sharing.

Kicking off with the political-gone-insane, we have Republicans blocking repeal of the 1099 filing requirement in the health care law after whining about it so long and hard, while Kentucky citizens raised hell at the unemployment office. What would Rand do?

Narcissism loses its place in the DSM. Being ignored drives narcissists crazy. Just ask Sarah Palin.

Here's a good overview of how Comcast's evil blossomed,. Twitter is being courted by several suitors including Facebook, or so the rumor goes. Google is readying a leap into e-books, adding value to eReaders worldwide.

This last one is near and dear to me, after two tussles with my bike that left me on the side of the road hurt and bewildered. Falling off, and deciding whether to get back on -- the battle rages on.

As for me, I got back on and have managed not to fall off again for the last couple of months. But give me time. I'm sure I will. Getting back up and on the bike is the hardest part but like politics, I can't give it up.

Politico's idea of news: John McCain, Twitter genius. Because it's pure genius to tweet stuff like this:

But they don't stop there.

But it’s not just McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, who’s the GOP standard-bearer for social media. In a social media game mastered by the campaign of Barack Obama, the study found Republicans have “struck back,” with GOP senators averaging more than 5.5 IQ points higher than their Democratic counterparts.

Of the seven senators who scored “genius” social media rankings, four were Republicans: McCain — the top tweeter, Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Scott Brown of Massachusetts and John Cornyn of Texas.

DeMint is a tea party force, and Brown rode significant grass-roots tea party support to upset Martha Coakley for the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s seat last winter. Cornyn is the head of the Senate GOP campaign organization.

Wow. A Tea Party force. And a Twitter genius. Evidently the authors of the official academic study of Senators' Twitter use didn't take the gaming aspect into account when they came up with this study. Nor did they particularly care what the content was.

But hey -- props to the staffer behind the McCain account, who at least knows enough about trolling to get Politico's attention, eh? They don't really think John McCain tweets from his iPhone do they? He barely understands his Blackberry.