The new Netflix series ‘House of Cards’ helps usher in a new viewing experience, even if the series itself falls short as a cutting edge political thiller/satire. It’s bolstered by strong performances from the cast which offset some of the silliness that plagued the middle of the series.

There won’t be too many spoilers, so read on if you dare.

The buzz raged across the Internet back in March of 2011 soon as Netflix announced it was producing its second original programming venture. (The first was "Lillyhammer," starring Steve Van Zandt.)

The streaming giant outbid all competitors for the rights to produce a remake of the British TV political series House of Cards. Attached to the project for a whopping 100 million dollars, twenty-six episodes, two seasons, actor Kevin Spacey and director David Fincher.

I’ve been writing reviews of TV and movies on C&L for almost eight years and what I’ve loved the most about Netflix and Amazon Video on Demand is watching episodes entirely on my own schedule, as many episodes as I want. I coined the term ‘power cycling’ years ago because I soon discovered that watching four straight episodes of MI-5, Alias, Breaking Bad, Battlestar Gallactica, The Wire or Buffy (fill in your own) were much more entertaining and compelling when the viewer isn't forced to play by the network’s rules. A lot of character development and plot lines get lost in the shuffle as we wait week after week (pauses for holidays scheduling and summer breaks) for another key reveal or important moment of drama to move the story forward.

But when you cycle through them at an accelerated pace, so many more details are fresh in mind---the story and performances are far more rich and compelling than they ever could be under the older eight month scheduled format.

So here comes the wonderful Kevin Spacey playing a role that he can sink his teeth into: ruthless Democratic Congressman Francis Underwood, the House majority whip. He plays politics as effortlessly as Itzhak Perlman plays a Stradivarius and is as mean as Tom Delay. Lest we forget, the Bugman helped create the K Street lobbyist project in Washington DC. (Oh, by the way, there is a corporate lobbyist flying around the HOC set the entire series and who happens to be Underwood’s old press secretary.)

Robin Wright is Claire Underwood, his confidante, soul mate and beautiful wife. She runs an environmental nonprofit group called CWI, dedicated to bringing clean water to the Third World. Her company's own fortunes are also tied quite completely into her husband's since he's been promised the job of Secretary of State. When that doesn't happen for Francis it's not only his life ambitions that are effected, but his wife's. Their relationship defines much of what happens over the some roughly thirteen hours of viewing and Wright chews up the scenery as ferociously as Spacey. There are many other actors that play a critical role in the unfolding story lines including Kate Mara, Michael Kelly, Sakina Jaffrey, Corey Stoll, Kristen Connolly, Mahershala Ali

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Every Monday morning, C&L's own Nicole Belle joins me on my Radio or Not show for a segment we call "Fools on the Hill". We watch the Sunday shows so you don't have to, and we two Nicoles bring you the best of the best (or as is often the case, the worst of the worst).

Today, Nicole Belle brings us this:

There’s a famous phenomena in psychology known as “Flashed Face Distortion”. When a pair of perfectly attractive faces are flashed in front of a viewer, aligned at the eye level, all their dissimilarities are heightened and distorted to the point of being perceived as grotesque.

There’s a similar parallel in politics. When liberal ideas are merely flashed out to audiences, they appear distorted and unnatural, because we never get a good look at them. I blame the media in this, because for all their talk of “both sides doing it,” they rarely give us any more than a cursory glance at liberal ideas, thus distorting them completely to their viewers. I’m convinced that if most Americans got to take a nice long look at them, they wouldn’t find them grotesque at all.

But there is no shortage of conservative ideas given full coverage on the Sunday shows. Would that they appear as distorted as the short shrift they give liberal ideas.

Speaking of liberal ideas, Paul Krugman was on Up with Chris Hayes, which is enough for a liberal fangirl to start squealing in delight. But as if to reiterate the point I made above, Krugman reminds Hayes that nothing that he advocates is that radical. It is literally Macroeconomics 101. But they are completely alien concepts to the insulated Beltway Bubble.

On the other end of the spectrum, Eric Cantor tells David Gregory that he doesn’t know what the DREAM Act is any more, but he thinks we need to work on a pathway to citizenship for children. Psst….Cantor, that is *exactly* what the DREAM Act addresses.

To hear Republicans talk about immigration at all is an exercise of “Who do you want to believe? Me or your lying eyes?” Case in point: John “Build the dang wall” McCain challenging Republicans to not block giving undocumented workers a pathway to citizenship: “What do you want to do with them?”

McCain’s BFF Lindsey Graham never misses an opportunity (or a Sunday, come to that) to play partisan politics and criticize the president. Ignoring completely the infamous 7 minutes that George W. Bush read “My Pet Goat” while the worst terrorist act on our shores occurred, Graham accuses President Obama of being “disengaged” on the anniversary of 9/11 and therefore, personally responsible for the deaths in Benghazi.

And finally, the Rand family is feeling quite testy of late. While Daddy Ron is now appealing to the UN (which he doesn’t believe in) to help him take away the RonPaul.com domain name from his supporters, baby Rand is feeling that Ashley Judd hasn’t got the gravitas of a self-certified ophthalmologist to run for the Senate for the state of Kentucky.

The Nicole Sandler Show airs live Monday through Thursday mornings from 10-noon ET and is always available for listening via podcast at RadioOrNot.com. Nicole Belle joins in for Fools on the Hill every Monday morning at around 11:20 ET.

US Media Double Standard--on Uprisings In Syria And Uprisings In...the US
By Russ Baker on Feb 11, 2013
Why is torching a police kiosk an admirable thing in Syria but cause for consternation in the United States? Why is protest again corrupt central power in one country a good thing-and something to be dismissed in another? WhoWhatWhy asks....WhyWhyWhy

Thee "Blood" Items You Probably Have In Your House Right Now
By Our Roving Correspondent on Feb 9, 2013
A few things to unsettle you. Hey! No need to thank us. (Oh, and a few things you can do to settle right back.)

Radioactive Eye Glasses...Silverware...Zippers...Hip Joints...Anyone?
By Karen Charman on Feb 7, 2013
Every ten years or so, the nuclear establishment trots out a proposal to offload some of its so-called low-level waste-radioactive metals, concrete, soil, plastics, and other materials-onto the public. In the past, this idea was met with outrage and was stopped. But as the nation's nuclear garbage pile continues to grow, the pressure to release some of it into commerce-and thus our daily lives-mounts.

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It's a few weeks old, but I came across this appearance by Alan Grayson on John Fugelsang's Current TV show, and I thought I'd share, especially because he makes a good point I hadn't heard: Republicans only care about the primaries!

John Fugelsang: It is his "Second Coming," in the halls of Congress that is. But if you expected Democratic firebrand Alan Grayson to tone down his comments now that he's back in DC, you don't know Grayson!

—video of Rep. Grayson's "Don't Get Sick" floor speech—

Congressman Alan Grayson: If you get sick in America, this is what the Republicans want you to do. If you get sick in America, the Republican's Healthcare Plan is this: Die quickly.

—end video—

John: Oh you could sell those signs on E-bay. Come on, admit it! You missed this guy!

—video of Rep. Grayson on MSNBC "He's Baaack!" interview —

Alan: As I pointed out three years ago, their health care plan is: "Don't get sick. And if you do get sick, die quickly." Now we see the same thing is true with guns, in the wake of a terrible national tragedy. [Meaning, "don't get shot."] In fact, in the wake of recurring national tragedies, their answer is, do nothing. They want to instill in us a kind of fatalism and nihilism that means that we can't do anything to solve our problems.

—end video—

John: The pride of Florida's 9th district! The one, the only, ayatollah of rock-and-rollah, Democratic Congressman, Alan "Boom Boom" Grayson joins me now. Good evening distinguished Representative, and thank you for your time.

Alan: (laughter) Good evening.

John: It's great to have you back, sir. I think I speak on behalf of many who were really thrilled to have you back on Capitol Hill. After two years off, sir, how does it feel? Has anything changed?

Alan: Well, a lot has changed. The Democrats no longer have the House and as a result, nobody is doing anything, unless you hold a gun to their heads. Literally. It's remarkable to see the inaction; I just saw that directly in full force. It was 79 days since Hurricane Sandy before the Republican majority in the House was willing to do something to address the problem. 79 days when people can't flush their toilets. 79 days when people are literally living in the dark, with candlelight. And it took that long for the Republicans to do anything to help those people. It's shocking. They just cannot get anything done.

John: Well you have to understand, sir, those people live in the Northeast, not in actual America. I think that's their rationale.

Alan: I think the rationale is what it always is. The Republicans just don't want to do anything for anybody. And there's a mean streak too that I think you only recognize when you're really close up [to them]. These are people who want to kick you when you're down.

John: Like you've so eloquently described, Republicans' go-to plan for any problem facing the country seems to be at this point, do nothing. So when you see your GOP colleagues do do nothing -- now it's on gun control measures -- what do you think the odds are that when the next mass shooting happens, God forbid, will they be blamed? Will the GOP once again bow to the NRA pressure, or is this time going to be slightly different?

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Hilariously tone deaf as Nicole Wallace and Keith Ellison talk about Marco Rubio:

Republican strategist Nicolle Wallace said Sunday that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is good for the Republican Party because, as one of many attributes, Rubio "knows who Tupac is."

"He's everything we need and more," Wallace, a former aide to President George W. Bush and an adviser on Sen. John McCain's 2008 campaign, said on ABC's "This Week." "He's modern. He knows who Tupac is. He is on social media. "

Apparently to Wallace, having a Twitter account and being able to identify a hip hop artist who died 17 years ago constitutes "modern."

But in any event, it's amusing that Wallace thinks dogmatic Teabagger who thinks George W. Bush was a "fantastic" president is "everything" the GOP needs.

Good luck with that, Nicole!

Philadelphia News, Weather and Sports from WTXF FOX 29

UPDATE: One of the dead women is the shooter's wife:

A man was shot killed inside a Delaware courthouse Monday morning after he opened fire in the lobby, killing his wife and another woman before officers gunned him down.

The shooting took place just after 8:15 a.m. in Wilmington, WPVI-TV reported. Two women and two police officers were hit by gunfire during the exchange.

Police confirmed that both women died. The condition of the officers was not stated.

The shooter was identified as 45-year-old David Matusiewicz, who was due to be in court Monday morning for a child support hearing.

He previously served prison time for parental kidnapping, in a case that attracted national media attention.

Federal agents ultimately tracked him down in Nicaragua 19 months after vanishing, having told his wife that he was taking their three children to Disney World.

Let's see: Courthouse, metal detectors, armed police officers. The shooting happened anyway. Hmm. Maybe we need to do something else to stop gun violence? Nah, can't think of a thing!

This shooting was right next to the Amtrak station where Joe Biden used to commute to D.C. Jennifer Lubinsky, an attorney who was present, says on Twitter that three are reported dead -- and now she's being trolled by NRA fanboys:

Five people were shot when a gunman opened fire at the New Castle County Courthouse this morning, state police said. At least one of the wounded was a Capitol Police officer.

Wilmington Mayor Dennis Williams reported the shooter had been killed.

The shooter was killed by Capitol Police officers, according to state police spokesman Sgt. Paul Shavack. The shooter was in his late 20s to early 30s. Police are still trying to determine his identity.

The shooting began around 8 a.m. when the gunman was stopped by security at a security checkpoint inside the front door.

Ferris Wharton, a public defender and former chief deputy attorney general, said an employee of his office reported that he saw a woman who appeared to be dead in the lobby. The employee also saw bullet holes in the window by the revolving door of courthouse that is adjacent to the parking garage. Shell casings littered the ground, the employee said, according to Wharton.

“I don’t know what to say,’’ said Wharton, who has worked in the Wilmington courthouses for three decades. “I’ve never heard of anything like this happening in Delaware. It’s a wild situation.’’

Sandra Autman, deputy New Castle County prothonotary, says she and several other “hysterical staff” were holed up in their mezzanine office, one level below the lobby. She said employees heard at least five shots.

Dozens of police cars are in the area, and streets are cordoned off for several blocks around the courthouse. Multiple ambulances and firetrucks also are on the scene.

To anyone who didn't follow the whole Fox News Benghazi-Gate story all that closely, this interview ought to have them scratching their heads in confusion. What is it Senator Lindsey Graham expects to discover about Benghazi that we don't already know?

Via ThinkProgress:

BOB SCHIEFFER (HOST): I’m not sure I understand. What do you plan to do if they don’t give you an answer? Are you going to put a hold on these two nominations?

GRAHAM: Yes…How could Susan Rice come on to your show and say there’s no evidence of a terrorist attack when the Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs said they knew that night? I think that was a misleading narrative three weeks before our election.

How does this make any difference at all? Would there have been some advantage to downplaying terrorism in Libya? It's one thing to make a squawking fuss about attacks in your own country, but Libya was hardly considered safe territory. What would have changed? Would Romney have attacked Obama for an attack on American diplomats in a foreign country? I think he did that, along with Fox News and all the other right wing channels.

Graham and McCain got Kerry as Secretary of State after playing out their bogus Benghazi farce with Susan Rice. Still, he seems to be undeterred:

SCHIEFFER: Let me just make sure, because you’re about to make some news here, I think. You are saying that you are going to block the nominations — you’re going to block them from coming to a vote until you get an answer to this? Now, John McCain has already said he doesn’t think the Republicans ought to filibuster this. What will you do? You’re just going to put a hold on it? [...]

GRAHAM: I want to know who changed the talking points. Who took the references to Al Qaeda out of the talking points given to Susan Rice? We still don’t know…. I want to know what our president did. What did he do as commander in chief? Did he ever pick up the phone and call anybody? I think this is the stuff the country needs to know.

Let's say for the sake of argument that President Obama did change the talking points. What difference does THAT make? It robs terrorists of the glory they get when they actually land a punch. It doesn't change the body count or the fact that an attack took place that killed an ambassador.

Sounds like Graham is just pulling excuses out of thin air to keep a block on nominations. The thing is, he could just sit back and shut up and let Democrats do that. In Chuck Hagel's case, confirmation is likely. I'm not sure the same can be said of Brennan. Still, it seems to me that this is some kind of bogus stall to score a few more political points over something that in the end, just isn't a coverup.

Senator Graham, you might consider a different tack. This one just makes you look petty and stupid.

I don't know how to break it to Rand Paul, but the fact that he's even giving a competing response to Marco Rubio's State of the Union rebuttal for Republicans is a clear indication of the division within the Republican party between the Birch faction and the pretend-moderate faction. This interview with Candy Crowley is almost comical, particularly with regard to Paul's insistence that he won't be divisive simply because he's giving a separate response.

"I see it as an extra response. I don't see it as necessarily divisive," Paul told chief political correspondent Candy Crowley on the CNN program "State of the Union."

"I won't say anything on there that necessarily is like, 'Marco Rubio is wrong,'" Paul continued. "He and I don't always agree, but this isn't about he and I. This is about the Tea Party, which is a grass-roots movement, a real movement, with millions of Americans that still are concerned about some of the deal-making that goes on in Washington."

Baby Paul has been asked to give his response by the Tea Party Express. The Tea Party Express is just as mainstream Republican as the RNC is, except that it caters to the Birch Society side of the GOP. There's nothing independent about them. Sal Russo, who has long-standing ties back to the Howard Jarvis anti-tax, anti-immigrant, pro-corporate Ross Perot contingent, is their lobbyist/leader. Other than a deeper hate toward brown people than mainstream Republicans, there's just not that much daylight between them.

Either Baby Paul has been asked to give his response in the hope of reigniting some of the 2010 fire now for 2014, or else he's been chosen to give the point of view of those who want to deport every undocumented immigrant and send prison inmates out to pick the crops.

Whichever it is, it highlights a division in the party simply by virtue of the desire to put him out there as the spokesman for the tainted Tea Party brand. I'm sure Paul's pals at Stormfront.org will cheer him on, at least.

Go for it, Rand. You and 8 percent of the country are simpatico. That should be a great runup to 2014, pal.

In case you just thought teachers were under fire from those who want to break their unions and kill their jobs by handing them to charter schools, guess again. Every day, teachers get to walk into their classrooms and wonder whether or not one of their students is angry enough to do something like this:

A Poway student sent a threatening email over the weekend to a Twin Peaks Middle School administrator stating he planned to shoot a teacher and 23 fellow students at the school on Monday morning.

Detectives from the San Diego County Sheriff's Department investigated the alleged shooting threat Saturday and found numerous rifles and handguns in the 12-year-old student's home.

According to officials, the email threat -- which was sent to a school administrator Friday night -- made reference to 3,000 rounds of ammunition as well as numerous firearms in the planned shooting at the Poway middle school located at 14640 Tierra Bonita Rd.

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Hello, everyone, and a belated Happy New Year. Let's get right into it:

The domestic terrorism outfit known as the Republican Party is at it again. The latest: McCain sidekick Lindsey Graham threatening to hold President Obama's national security nominees hostage over Benghazi.

No More Mister Nice Blog: Nothing succeeds like Republican failure.

Ramona's Voices: Transvaginal ultrasounds are back.

Brilliant at Breakfast: The rise and fall of prog-talk radio.

And from my place: There is no f---ing spending problem. (It's the revenue, stupid.)

Round-up by Michael J.W. Stickings of The Reaction (@mjwstickings). I'll be here all week.

Send tips to mbru AT crooksandliars DOT com.