the politics

newt: mittens hates holocaust survivors

One of Gingrich’s security agents stepped in front of him. When Dillard didn’t budge, the agent lifted his heeled shoe over Dillard’s bare foot and dug the back of it into his skin, twisting it side-to-side like he was stomping out a cigarette. Shocked, Dillard kept his ground and took a picture of the agent with his phone, which was quickly knocked out of his hand. Dillard slipped off his flip-flop to pick up the phone with his foot, and a Gingrich supporter kicked the sandal away.

“Don’t kick me!” Dillard said to the man who knocked away his sandal. More members of Gingrich’s security retinue approached, shoving their shoulders and chests in front of him.

“Just block him!” a Gingrich campaign aide said. “Everyone step on his toes!”

GET MONEY, TURN GAY - Songify The News (by schmoyoho)

I fucking love Robert Reich

(Source: youtube.com)

Mitt’s Office

(Source: youtube.com)

(via A View of Detroit As Captured Beneath a Photographer’s Dangling Feet - The Atlantic Cities)

Mitt Romney came alive in last week’s debates, while Newt Gingrich slumped. Romney has adopted a far more aggressive tone on the stump in Florida. Now, Romney is pulling away from Gingrich in the polls and seems all but assured of victory on Tuesday. But should the candidate really get the credit here?

A rival campaign source sends along this breakdown of the TV ad spending:

Gingrich campaign: $1,157,731 
Winning Our Future (Gingrich super PAC): $2,232,074
Total pro-Gingrich: $3,389,805

Romney campaign: $6,933,904 
Restore Our Future (Romney super PAC): $8,455,383
Total pro-Romney: $15,389,287

These ads are likely reaching, and affecting, a lot more Floridians than the debates did, and their messages are far more pointed — both Romney entities’ ads are overwhelmingly Gingrich-bashing. A similarly lopsided air attack in Iowa had a similar effect on Gingrich back in December, when the New Mitt had not yet emerged in debates.

"Mitt Romney is the storybook presidential candidate. He’s successful, good-looking and a family man, to boot. Yet one of this political season’s enduring puzzles has been the former governor’s consistent inability to bond with voters. It’s been suggested that Romney’s robotic persona may be to blame — and perhaps the analogy isn’t far off. Much as people are repulsed and disturbed by automatons that mimic humans closely but imperfectly, Romney inexplicably turns voters off despite looking like the textbook image of an American president. Roboticists call this unsettling effect “the uncanny valley” — and Romney is stuck deep at the bottom of it."

The Uncanny Valley: What Robot Theory Tells Us About Mitt Romney

Flipper’s Greatest Flops: Starring Mitt Romney & Friends

(Source: youtube.com)

Virginia state Sen. Janet D. Howell (D-Fairfax) doesn’t think much of a bill that would require women to have an ultrasound before undergoing an abortion.

When the proposed legislation came up for a preliminary vote in the Senate Monday, Howell offered a floor amendment that just about floored her colleagues.

“Prior to prescribing medication for erectile dysfunction, a physician shall perform a digital rectal examination and a cardiac stress test,” Howell said, reading the amendment aloud. “Informed consent for these procedures shall be given at least 24 hours before the procedures are performed.

“I just think we should have a little gender equity here,” Howell added.

The amendment failed, though not by much, in a 19-21 vote.

"Country music is hypothesized to nurture a suicidal mood through its concerns with problems common in the suicidal population, such as marital discord, alcohol abuse, and alienation from work. The results of a multiple regression analysis of 49 metropolitan areas show that the greater the airtime devoted to country music, the greater the white suicide rate. The effect is independent of divorce, southernness, poverty, and gun availability. The existence of a country music subculture is thought to reinforce the link between country music and suicide. Our model explains 51% of the variance in urban white suicide rates"

JSTOR: Social Forces, Vol. 71, No. 1 (Sep., 1992), pp. 211-218

nationalpost:

Mitt Romney in commanding lead as Florida polls open
Florida’s Republican voters go to the polls on Tuesday in a high-stakes presidential primary election, with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney holding a commanding double-digit lead in polls over rival Newt Gingrich.

Florida is the largest state to hold a presidential primary so far this year and a Romney victory would give him a big boost in the state-by-state battle to decide who will face President Barack Obama in the November election.

Polls opened at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. local time. Most of the state is on Eastern Time, except the western Panhandle region, which is on Central Time and where polls will close an hour later.

(via ilovecharts)

(via Florida Primary Overview and Forecast)

thenewrepublic:

What do voters really think about Romney’s wealth?

“Among Beltway liberals, there is currently an unquestioned assumption that these attacks will work in the general election: that Romney’s wealth and business background are indeed major political liabilities. But talking to people like Lavallee, Strietback, and Field made me wonder: Would such attacks really stick? Is it actually possible to win an election by portraying your opponent as a plutocrat? Or will many American voters respond to Romney’s financial success with a simple shrug?”

-Alec MacGillis, “The Guy Who Fires You”