NY Times tech blogger Nick Bilton has a thorn up his ass about the FAA prohibitions on electronic devices during take-off and landing. Bilton just cannot understand why some pilots are now being allowed to use iPads in the cockpit for paper flight manuals but he cannot use his Kindle for the take-off and landing parts of the flight.

As it happens, this is one of Goldy’s pet peeves as well. Neither person seems to believe that electronic devices can affect flight safety during critical (take-off and landing) phases of flights. At least Goldy leaves it at complaining and denial. But not Nick Bilton.

Bilton decided to do something about it. You know, use science and technology to “prove” that electronic devices are safe.

What he did, however, amounts to horse shit. As I show below, Bilton, sets-up and then destroys a straw-man argument.
[Read more…]

— Politico’s top unanswered political questions for 2012

— Washington’s minimum wage goes up next week

— Goldy: “An NHL team? Fuck yeah!”

— Washington business leaders are open to a tax increase

— Seattle’s Lee Rhodes, creator of the Glassybaby, is awarded Entrepreneur Magazine‘s Entrepreneur of 2011

— TPM’s Year in Photos

Thom with The Good, The Bad, and The Very, Very Ugly.

Robert A. Niblock, CEO of Lowe’s is, Worst Person in the World.

Greenman: .

Young Turks: Police departments use drones to spy on Americans.

WI Secretary of State Scott Fitzgerald confirms his role as Worst Person in the World.

Politifact Gets Their Facts Wrong:

• Thom: Who’s fact checking the fact checker.
• Sam Seder: Politifact becomes Politi-not-so-fact.

Liberal Viewer: Detention without trial now in US law?

Young Turks: Hedge fund managers meet in secret with politicians.

Christmas goes Political:

• How the Gingrich Stole Christmas:
• Susie Sampson tackles the War on Christmas.
• The Obamas honor military families for the holidays.
  
• Mark Fiore: Twas the Night before Newt.
• Maddow: Newt’s little Virginia problem.
• Young Turks: Pro-adultery site endorses The Newt.
• Hell freezes over? Thom agrees with Newt about stopping the Supreme Court.
• Maddow: Palin on Obama’s Christmas card.
• Young Turks: Newt’s “arrest ‘activist’ Judges with U.S. Marshalls”.
• Red State Update: Divided nation Christmas:
• Santa Election.
• Sam Seder and friends with an update on The War on Christmas.
• Eric Schwartz: Christmastime in LaLa Land.
• A Christmas Carol For the Rest of Us:

Ed: Gov. Scott walker schooled by constituent on voter fraud.

Ann Telnaes: Shooting for Justice.

Thom: How Republicans, the Koch Bros & Walker could lose the right to vote.

Sam Seder: GOP lies, “Unemployment benefits encourage people not to work”.

The G.O.P. Christmas Massacre of 2011:

• Olbermann and Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) on What is going on in the house.
• Thom: The Teabagger Republicans just raised taxes on the 99%s.
• Young Turks: Republicans even lost the Wall Street Journal!
• Last Word: Boehner’s problem.
• Olbermann speaks with Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) on the ideological battle behind it.
• Maddow: The Battle Royale in GOP D.C.
• Thom: Instead of tax breaks…G.O.P. vote on a bust of Churchill, out of Wingding conspiracy theory.
• President Obama: What 40 Dollars Means.
• Alyona: Republicans cave, Democrats show they have some balls (post OWS).
• Olbermann with Andy Kroll: Why Boehner caved.
• Obama’s big Christmas gift.

DADT just got its iconic image (via Slog).

Nutcase Ted Nugent crazies his way to Worst Person in the World.

White House: West Wing Week.

Alyona: Occupy the Iowa Caucus.

Young Turks: “Fetal personhood” initiative ruled misleading.

Thom with some more Good, Bad, and Very, Very Ugly.

The G.O.P. Primary Carnival:

• Ed with Howard Dean on Newt and Mitt.
• Gingrich and Paul scare the bejesus out of Republican Leaders. Score, Mitt!
• “Any President Mr. Romney? Really”?
• Alyona’s Tool Time: Mitt Romney wants to ban PACs?!?
• Actual Audio: Donald Trump might still run!
• Alyona’s Tool Time: Bachmann is a “real person”.
• The Bachmann’s wish you a merry Christmas.
• Young Turks: Why Republicans are losing it over Ron Paul.
• Could Ron Paul destroy the Iowa caucuses?
• Alyona: MSM downplays Ron Paul’s Iowa lead.
• Ron Paul walks out on interview over newsletter questions.
• Red State Update: The Elf Who Liked Ron Paul.
• Young Turks: Ron Paul getting hate from the G.O.P. establishment.
• Ann Telnaes: Newt trims the Judicial branch.
• Actual Audio: Detention without trial now in US law?
  ‘>Newt’s newest campaign ad.
• Young Turks: Meghan McCain on the Callista Gingrich problem
• Sam Seder: Newt to gays, “vote for Obama if you want equal rights.”
• …or did he say that? Here is the video: You decide.

Young Turks: Pat Robertson, “Gays should unacquire their sexuality.

Jonathan Mann: Corporations are not people!

Matthew Thornton III, senior vice president for U.S. operations at FedEx, is thrown into ring as Worst Person in the World.

Lawrence O’Donnell: Top 5 political videos of the year.

Sam Seder: Those kooky racist Texas College Republicans are at it again!

Young Turks: Strange Kim Jon il facts.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

Carl mentioned this in the morning open thread, but I though it warranted its own post….

For many years now, the Northwest Progressive Institute (NPI) has been a strong voice in our region’s progressive activist community. One of their early projects was the NPI Portal, a set of tools to connect progressive bloggers and inform progressives.

NPI has now released version 5 of their portal, and it looks to be the best yet. You can read about all the changes here. But my recommendation is that you just go to the NPI Portal front page and check it out. The front page aggregates an incredibly useful amount of information, from news feeds, blogs, campaigns, etc.

There are numerous other cool things that I invite you to explore. I’ll just point out two that caught my attention. The first is a regional blog directory that has blogs organized by cities. It is fun clicking through and learn about what is going on around the Northwest blogosphere. Or…if you are planning a holiday in, say, Idaho Falls, check out the blogging scene in advance.

The Northwest Life page contains a lot of useful information—weather info, alerts, and useful links for anyone living in the Northwest.

Kudos to Andrew Villeneuve and his team at NPI for making a great set of tools even better.

About four years ago, I examined how party identity had changed in both the U.S. and Washington state over a two year period following the mid-term elections. Writing about Washington state in 2007, I pointed out:

We have a somewhat wacky brand of Republicanism here. My impression is that the Washington state Republican party has moved significantly to the right to such an extent that the moderate Republican in Washington state seems like an endangered species.

A graph showing party identity over time, based on SurveyUSA polling data, showed some clear patterns:

Democratic identity had increased slightly from the low thirties to about 35%.

Republican identity had declined somewhat, from about 28% down to at least 25%, and 19% by July 2007.

Since mid-2007, we’ve had economic calamity, the Obama revolution, followed by a Tea Party revolt, and the Occupy movement in response. Unfortunately, SurveyUSA has only published data through August of this year, so we cannot look at changes brought on by the three month old Occupy movement. What we can do is look at a time period similar to my four year old analysis.

What do we see?

Not surprisingly, Democratic identity peaked shortly after Obama’s inauguration—it was in the low 40s in early 2009. Then, for a one year period, Democratic identity dropped to the mid- to low-30s, before a rocky recovery. By July of this year, Democratic identity was in the high 30s, only slightly down from the post-inauguration honeymoon.

In fact, Democratic identity is about where it was four years earlier, in July, 2007.

Republicans show a decline over the same period, from the high-20s just after the inauguration, followed by a gradual (if variable) decline to about 25% by July. Really, the Republican numbers are very similar to July of 2007.

Independent identity has increased from the mid-20% to the high-30%. One reason for this is an increase in the number of people who picked an identity as a “D”, “R”, or “I”, instead of an “other” category or a no-response.

For the first half of 2007, the spread between Democratic identity and Republican identity bounced around 10%, with a huge 18% spike in July. For 2011, the spread for the first half of the year is slightly over 10%.

What does all this mean? Maybe nothing. But it is interesting that we ended the summer in about the same place we were four years ago. There have been no real gains for Democrats or Republicans.

The one big difference we see is that more people chose to identify as independent instead instead of some other category. This might seem important for the many open statewide elections we have in 2012. A lot will probably be made about it. But I don’t think its all that important.

Here is what I think is happening: the increase in “D”, “R”, or “I” identity is an artifact of the top-two primary that was implemented in 2008. It simply reflects a decline in third-party identity. After a couple elections in which third-parties rarely make it to the general election (except, of course, presidential elections) people are less inclined to identify their party as, say, Libertarian, Green, or Reform.

If correct, this hypothesis suggests that the increase in Independent identity isn’t some sort of grand political movement…rather it’s a natural outcome of the top-two primary.

Just how badly has the G.O.P. lost on the payroll tax break issue? Bad enough to lose the Wall Street Journal editorial page opinion like this:

GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell famously said a year ago that his main task in the 112th Congress was to make sure that President Obama would not be re-elected. Given how he and House Speaker John Boehner have handled the payroll tax debate, we wonder if they might end up re-electing the President before the 2012 campaign even begins in earnest.

The GOP leaders have somehow managed the remarkable feat of being blamed for opposing a one-year extension of a tax holiday that they are surely going to pass. This is no easy double play.

That’s pretty damn bad.

And if that’s one outcome of yesterday’s House Republican fiasco, today’s theater should sting at least as much.

In trying to complete a quick pro forma session of the House today, Speaker Pro Tempore Michael Fitzpatrick (R-PA) walked away while Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) implored the House to take up the bill that would extend the tax break (via ThinkProgress):

Hoyer got a few good slams in on the Republicans before turning the microphone over to Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD). Van Hollen never got a chance. His microphone was cut off, and a few seconds later, the video feed was terminated.

But the issue isn’t just about how Scrooge-like the Republicans have become for the holiday season. The other side of this story is about the collapse of Republican discipline. Speaker Boehner had a revolt among the House masses that forced him to beg-off an agreement he made with the Senate leadership and, in particular, with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) (via Politico):

While the two men have been remarkably united this year, the year-end package has prompted an unusual amount of confusion, disunity, frustration and increased finger-pointing, both publicly and privately, between House Republicans and Senate Republicans over who is at fault in the political fiasco.
[…]

“This is a colossal fumble by the House Republicans,” said a senior Senate GOP aide, requesting anonymity to speak candidly about his own party. “Their inability to recognize a win is costing our party our long-held advantage on the key issue of tax relief. It’s time for Boehner and [House Majority Leader Eric] Cantor to look these rookies in the eye and explain how the game is won or lost.”

For most of the past year, the House Teabaggers have been less of a liability than I figured they would be. But with reelection campaigns on the horizon and a distinct lack of positive accomplishments to their credit, the House Teabaggers are feeling unsettled and maybe even nervous.

Boehner will have increasing difficulty keeping the feral hordes from further trashing the Party.

Please join us tonight for an evening of politics and Hanukkah under the influence at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking liberally.

We meet at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00 pm, but some folks will show up earlier for dinner.

Ron Paul:

The rise…

and the fall…

Can’t make it to Seattle? The Tri-Cities chapter of Drinking Liberally meets tonight as well. With 232 chapters of Living Liberally, including twelve in Washington state and six more in Oregon, chances are excellent there’s one near you.

Why did the Supercommittee fail last month? There are two plausible hypotheses:

1. Republicans were unwilling to raise taxes, even on the very wealthy, because of their firm ideology as embodied by their holy pledge to Grover Norquist.
2. Republicans are sabotaging all attempts to get the economy back on track, as a strategy to defeat Obama in 2012.

Until now, it has not been very easy to falsify one or the other. But today we got a definitive answer:

The Republican-led House today rejected a Senate-passed bill that extends a payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits for two months.

The vote was 229-193. The tax cut and unemployment benefits expire on Dec. 31.
[…]

If the benefits expire at the end of the year, 160 million Americans will see a tax increase while about 2.2 million long-term unemployed will see their benefits disappear. Medicare payments to physicians also will drop, raising concerns that doctors will limit their care to seniors.

The House Republicans just raised all of our taxes. That’s a tell!

So, it isn’t about standing firm on ideology, after all. It isn’t about some sacred pledge to Grover. The Republicans are happy to raise taxes if they think it will sabotage Obama’s chances at re-election. In the process, they have been tangibly harming the American economy.

The Republicans have just demonstrated that they are economic terrorists. By putting the welfare of their party ahead of the welfare of America, Republicans have become traitors.

In a play on the holiday season, Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., held up a stocking and a piece of coal on the House floor. “Remember the lump of coal in November of 2012, folks. (Republicans) gave it to you.”

That’s about the mildest response I’ve ever heard for treason. That McDermott…he’s so moderate!

I’ve been quietly concerned that the Republican Primary Entertainment Franchise could peter-out shortly after the 3 Jan. Iowa caucus. I’m just not ready for it to be over yet.

Sarah Palin to the rescue?

In a pre-taped interview set to air tonight on Fox Business Network’s “Follow The Money,” Eric Bolling mentioned to Sarah Palin that people constantly tell him they wish she was running for President.
[…]

“You know, it’s not too late for folks to jump in,” Palin replied. “And I don’t know, you know, it — who knows what will happen in the future?”

So… good news for all those people who bought “Palin 2012″ t-shirts as a joke four years ago; they may soon be wear-able outside of Halloween parties or in ironic neighborhoods of Brooklyn.

Please, oh please, oh please, oh please!

Ask, and ye shall receive! Last Thursday, I gleefully wished out loud for Ron Paul to get his moment in the GOP spotlight:

And how ’bout that Ron Paul at 18%!?! Most of the other nutberger candidates have had their fling with the pole position…Ron Paul should get his shot, too. And to top the whole thing off like a layer of creamy chocolate frosting, we should get Rick Santorum [the] next week.

And looky here:

Newt Gingrich’s campaign is rapidly imploding, and Ron Paul has now taken the lead in Iowa. He’s at 23% to 20% for Mitt Romney, 14% for Gingrich….
[…]

Paul’s ascendancy is a sign that perhaps campaigns do matter at least a little, in a year where there has been a lot of discussion about whether they still do in Iowa. 22% of voters think he’s run the best campaign in the state compared to only 8% for Gingrich and 5% for Romney.

Romney is so unlikable that GOP voters can’t give him credit for running a persistent, reasonably professional, and not overly negative campaign in Iowa?!? Huh.

I’ll sure miss Newt as the front-runner. His reckless quirkiness, monster ego, and his deliciously rich past make him a dream opponent for Obama. Ron Paul makes a dream opponent, as well, but he has zero chance of becoming the Republican nominee. Seriously…if Newt crashes and burns, Mitt Romney is the only plausible alternative, and a lot of Republicans will be holding their noses supporting him.

(Seeing all the nose-holding, Mitt will, no doubt, assume they soiled themselves, throw ’em on the roof of the car, hose them down, and drive boldly onward to the general election.)

Yeah, I’ll miss Newt, for sure. But a Ron Paul win in Iowa has an acute payoff: GOP Mayhem! Don’t believe me? Let’s ask the Washington Examiner’s Timothy Carney, who recalls Pat Buchanan’s 1996 victory in the New Hampshire primary:

“It was awful,” Buchanan told me this week when I asked him about his few days as the nominal GOP front-runner. “They come down on you with both feet.”

The GOP establishment that week rallied to squash Buchanan. Just after New Hampshire, Gingrich’s hand-picked group of GOP leaders, known as the Speaker’s Advisory Group, met with one thing on their minds, according to a contemporaneous Newsweek report: “How to deal with Buchanan.”

No doubt, Ron Paul will be pummeled by his own party. In fact, I wouldn’t put it past them to start first thing Monday morning to head off any threat of a Ron Paul win in Iowa.

The most intriguing possibility out of all this is that Rick Santorum might get a brief stint as the next not-Mitt Romney. That would be awesome for a couple of reasons. First, every time the Republicans rally around a new not-Mitt Romney only to experience an abrupt case of buyer’s remorse, it diminishes the Republican primary process and, in particular, the Romney campaign’s credibility. That’s right…Republicans are engaging in an internal battle that can be described as (if I’m allowed to engage in a bit of hyperbole) mutual assured destruction.

A Santorum rally could also be awesome because of the timing of the Iowa caucuses. If the Republicans take out Paul before the Iowa caucuses, and Santorum hits the wave just right, he could actually take Iowa. And that would be an exquisite New Year’s gift.

I don’t know about you, but I’m just about out…so it’s off to the store tomorrow to stock up on more popcorn.

Thom with The Good, The Bad, and The Very, Very Ugly.

Ed and Pap: Corporate courts will aid GOP’s efforts at voter suppression.

Young Turks: Christopher Hitchens is dead.

Roy Zimmerman Christmas Special:

• I Won’t Be Home For Christmas.
• Christmas in Crawford, 2004.
• PeaceNick.
• Oh Amazon:
• Hula Yule.

Young Turks: Glenn Beck calls the teabaggers racist! Nutbagger Breitbart responds.

White House: West Wing Week.

Ann Telnaes: CEO pay bounces back.

Seattle police release videos they claim show Occupy protesters were violent & organized!.

Thom with more Good, Bad, and Very, Very Ugly.

Young Turks: Tim Tebow’s War on Christmas.

Sheriff Arpaio: IS illegal.

The Republican Circus Show:

• Last night’s debate in 3 minutes. (via HuffPo.
• FAUX News screws up debate candidates:
• The SNL Trump debate.
• Sam Seder: Trump fires self.
• Stephen on Donald Trump pulling out of the debate.
• The Colbert Nat Geo Wild debate.
• Another Rick Perry-ish Strong ad (via Slog).
• Ann Telnaes: Perry’s anti-gay ad.
• Rick Perry: F***-hole Strong ad.
• Actual Audio: Rick Perry’s ad.
• Young Turks: Rick Perry on work hours, Monroe Doctrine.
• Ed, Pap and Lizz: Rick Perry is the GOP’s favorite stooge.
• Daily show: Newt and poor people:
• Thom: GOP’s love affair with Dr. Strange-Newt.
• Sam Seder: Newt’s “Invented People”.
• Ann Telnaes: Newt promises to uphold the sanctity of marriage.
• Newt: Fights for traditional marriage.
• Thom: You’re a mean on, Newt Gingrich.
• Lip Reading Newt:
• Sam Seder: Newt gets mic-checked.
• Liberal Viewer: Is Newt Gingrich a felon?
• Jon tries to rason with GOP voters over this whole Newt Gingrich thing.
• Alyona’s Tool Time: Newt signs fidelity pledge!?!
• Young Turks: Ron Paul crushes Gingrich.
• Mitt’s austerity (oh…the humanity!).
• Guilianiskewers Mitt.
• Sam Seder: Mitt’s $10,000 bet.
• Mitt’s $10,000 problem.
• Christine “Not-a-Witch” O’Donnell endorses Mitt
• Jon on Mitt’s $100,000 bet.
• Wall Street Veterans for Truth: Mitt’s greed is good.
• Sam Seder: Some witch endorses Mitt.
• Young Turks: The Progressive Mitt.
• Mitt’s $100 bill problem.
• Romney vs. Gingrich & Christmas: Review of the GOP Iowa showdown.

Thom: Wisconsin recall (or don’t mess with working people).

Young Turks: Bill-O is shocked to learn that military run by government.

Newsy: No buyers for the newest Palin family reality show.

Stephen with Wag of the finger, tip of the hat.

Thom with even more Good, Bad, and Very, Very Ugly.

Alyona: Manning’s first day in court.

Real people speak out for Darcy Burner:

The Nine-year War Ends:

• Newsy: The end of the Iraq war.
• Michelle and Barack speak to the troops at Fort Bragg.
• Mark Fiore: Mission Accomplished-ish.
• Young Turks: The Iraq war is over…the real costs.
• Alyona: Back from Iraq—what we left behind.

Young Turks: Women have a Constitutional right to abortion and it’s being denied.

Alyona’s Tool Time: Congress doesn’t understand the internet.

Obama on ensuring fair pay for in-home care workers.

Thom: Who is winning the “corporate personhood” battle?

Newsy: Teabaggers defend calling Obama a skunk.

How Lowe’s Can You Go?

• Alyona: Lowe’s pulls ads.
• Lowe’s responds to All American Muslim controversy.
• Olbermann: Lowe’s versus the House of Representatives.
• Sam Seder: Muslum hating porn addict brings Lowe’s to their knees.
• Robert A. Niblock, chairman of the board and CEO of Lowe’s, is Worst Person in the World.
• Young Turks: wingdings extremists support Lowe’s.
• Alyona: Calls for a Lowe’s boycott.

Alyona: TIME’s person of the year.

Young Turks: The New York Times defective coverage of Eric Holder’s speech about voter fraud.

Thom: Even more Good, Bad, and Very, Very Ugly.

Alyona: Voters are being silenced.

Joseph Farah, the proprietor of WND.com conspires his way to Worst Person in the World.

Stop detaining immigrants for profit.

Jon on the balls on Herman, Mitt, and Barack.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

Yeeeeeeeeeee haaaaaaawwwwww! It’s Crazy Train time. We have ourselves another episode of Candidate Roller Derby tonight in Iowa.

Yesterday everyone said The Newt was leading. Today Romney has a slight lead—they are tied statistically at Romney 23%, Gingrich 20%.

And how ’bout that Ron Paul at 18%!?! Most of the other nutberger candidates have had their fling with the pole position…Ron Paul should get his shot, too. And to top the whole thing off like a layer of creamy chocolate frosting, we should get Rick Santorum next week.

Unless The Donald comes back from the dead to do a 27 December debate, this one is the last of the year, and the last before the Iowa caucus. It’s gong to be fun.

I’ll leave some updates if anything fun happens.

The debate is sponsored by FAUX news, so you can be sure this will be the bestest, craziest debate ever…in the history of debates. You can find a link to the stream at FAUX News.

6:04: I’ve saved a bag of Cheetos for this debate. Mmmm, Cheetos. Before the debate is through, my fingers will resemble John Boehner’s.

6:05: The Newt argues his electability by giving the audience a history lesson.

6:07: Megyn Kelly tries suckering Ron Paul into making a commitment to support the ultimate Republican nominee. Will he fall for it? No! And he gets a pass!

6:09: Rick Santorum takes the first shot at Newt’s “personal issues”.

6:12: Come on, Michele…just say it. “I will win the independents by hypnotizing them.”

6:13: Rick Perry is asked about his debating skills and launches into a “things I did while not debating” speech.

6:14: Jon Huntsman, “we’re getting screwed as Americans!” Umm…Santorum? Any comment?

6:16: Note to Rick Perry: The Supercommittee was created by and for Congress, not Obama.

6:18: Mitt just admitted that “there are Democrats who love America.” He’s toast now.

6:19: “Leadership is important,” says Newt, the ousted former House leader.

6:21: The moderators are taking questions by Twitter. Fine print: No more than 140 characters and minimize polysyllabic words.

6:25: The intermission pundits are bored by the civility. They want some blood! Yeah…me, too.

6:27: Mitt defends his business failures by saying Obama doesn’t realize that not every business succeeds. I take it Mitt is okay with the Solyndrra thing then.

6:29: Newt worked with Habitat for Humanity. No doubt served as their official Speaker of the House.

6:31: Paul corners Newt who is forced to admit that there are many government-sponsored organizations that do good! Heresy!

6:33: Bachmann goes into histrionics over Newt’s Fannie/Freddy contracts. Newt says Bachmann doesn’t have her fact right. Bachmann goes to Politifact for fact checking! Remarkable.

6:36: My video feed locked up with the following image stuck on my screen. I think this is worthy of a Caption Contest. Leave ’em in the comment thread.

6:45: Okay…missed some stuff trying to get the video feed back and waiting through the fucking ads. We’re back now.

6:46: Did Rick Santorum just say he will repeal every single EPA regulation?!?

6:47: Mitt Romney Flip Flops! He criticizes Obama over Solyndrra, just 20 minutes after pointing out that some of his businesses failed, and that was okay.

6:48: “The courts have become grotesquely dictatorial.” and “Misreading the American people.” I thought they were supposed to read the Constitution rather than the people.

6:51: Bachmann: “We are now at the point that we think the final arbiter of the law is the courts.”

6:53: Even Ron Paul isn’t crazy enough to do a witch-hunt on the courts (subpoena judges, eliminate courts).

6:54: Mitt: “The only people that have less credibility than Judges is Congress.”

6:56: Santorum’s certifies his extremism by picking Thomas as his single favorite Justice.

7:05: Ron Paul suggests using diplomats a little more, bombs a little less. Totally sensible.

7:07: Santorum suggests that Iranian’s “principle ideology”, “mission” is martyrdom. What a fucking ignorant bigot.

7:09: Michele says Ron Paul has given the most dangerous answer she has ever heard.

7:15: Ron Paul schools some naive warmongers!

7:17: Newt suggests the UN is a terrorist training organization.

7:19: Rick Perry has the most muddled comment ever…something about “the most muddled foreign policy ever.”

7:22: Newt gets in a super anti-Obama speech. He has some factual errors in the answer, but maybe this is what we need for him to take the primary. GO NEWT!

7:26: I am totally lost by Neil Cavuto’s rambling question to Rick Perry. Rick Perry spews an incoherent, rambling answer back. Nice play, Mr. Perry!

7:40: Wallace ask Mitt if he is a flip-flopper.

7:41: Mitt admits he flip-flopped on gay rights and choice. Ohhh…and maybe guns.

7:43: Santorum: “Mitt Romney, personally, as Governor, issued gay marriage licenses!!!” You could just hear Santorum’s anal sphincter clamping shut as he said that.

7:47: Bachmann: “Newt offered to campaign for Republicans who support…partial birth abortion!”

7:49: Michele Bachmann doesn’t have her facts right. And she misspells her first name.

7:50: The Occupy FAUX movement has arrived!

7:51: Rick Perry corrected a fact of a moderator!

7:54: Ron Paul twists his face into a little pretzel and says, “I don’t like the demagoguery…the distortions.”

7:55: That’s it!

Not to make too big of deal about it, but the Iraq war ended today.

Thank God the world is finally safe from Saddam Hussein’s nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons of mass destruction!

I mean, except for the nearly 5,000 U.S. soldiers and contractors killed in the conflict. And the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who died as a result of the U.S. invasion.

It isn’t official news yet, but the big announcement is likely coming on Thursday:

One month to the day after the start of the effort to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker from office, organizers have scheduled a Thursday press conference to provide a “special update” on how the effort is going.

And several liberal blogs and pro-recall Facebook pages said Wednesday that the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and United Wisconsin, the two groups spearheading the recall, already have collected more than enough signatures to force an election.

The effort to recall the Republican governor kicked off on Nov. 15, and organizers have until Jan. 17 to collect more than 540,000 valid signatures to force a spring recall election.

The blog New Dog Democrat reported Wednesday that more than 550,000 signatures have been collected and that organizers want to hit the 1 million mark before the deadline.

A million signatures?!? Just two weeks ago they were aiming for 750,000.

A million signatures would be, symbolically, a thermonuclear maelstrom. Even 540,000 valid signatures will be fucking huge!

Aside from likely derailing Walker’s harmful “stewardship”, and, you know…maximizing the possibility I can visit my family this summer, this is huge for Washington and other states.

The Walker episode sends a big shot across the bow of, what is almost certainly, a coordinated Republican Governor’s agenda.

For us here in Washington, what does this mean? It means Rob McKenna is put on notice. Walker made campaign promises that seemed quite moderate. Once elected, he turned to a radical Republican agenda. He cut education funding and betrayed public employees while giving out tax breaks to businesses, he did his damnedest to disenfranchise voters at the margins of society. And, in general, he steadfastly disregard the will of the people.

Would Rob McKenna really try pulling the ol’ switcheroo on Washingtonians the way Walker did to Wisconsinites? Well…if his decision to join the Republican AG lawsuit against the Health Care Reform law of 2009 is any indication…two years ago, I would have said, “absofuckinglutely!.” Now, with the events in Wisconsin, I think McKenna is forced to scale back on his agenda.

Should McKenna win next year, Washingtonians will owe Wisconsinites a huge debt of gratitude.

Update: They aren’t quite there, yet. The number of signatures gathered so far is 507,000, leaving a mere 33,000 more to gather. Practically, they will need something over 100,000 additional signatures to account for challenges and duplicates. Organizers have another month left to do that.

It’s Tuesday, and ’round here that means Drinking Liberally. So please join us tonight for an evening of politics under the influence at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking liberally.

We meet at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00 pm, but some folks will show up earlier for dinner.

News from the Republican reality show:

Can’t make it to Seattle? There are also meetings tonight of the Tri-Cities, Bellingham, and Vancouver, WA chapters. On Thursday, Drinking Liberally Tacoma meets. And next Monday there are meetings of the Woodinville the Olympia, the Yakima, and the Shelton chapters.

With 232 chapters of Living Liberally, including twelve in Washington state and six more in Oregon, chances are excellent there’s one near you.