Things to Know - 22 August

   

1.  There is quite a kerfuffle going on at Newsweek.  Harvard prof. and contributor, Niall Ferguson, has written a cover story that apparently is full of fabrication and false premises.  It has the intellectual community of Democrats (duh?) all upset and fighting mad.  As a long-term subscriber to Newsweek (since the Vietnam War), I was already planning on letting my subscription lapse.  The news magazine has lost all its great writers, and the new editor Tina Brown, has reduced the rag to nothing more than tabloid entertainment piece. Aside from all the attention going on, I will wait for my copy to arrive so that I can see for myself.  What it should do is get some lazy Democrats off the couch and out on the hustings to get the vote out:

http://www.nationalmemo.com/the-big-lie-of-the-day-fabricating-a-failed-obama-presidency/?utm_campaign=website&utm_source=sendgrid.com&utm_medium=email

2.  The backup USA Swim Team has been revealed.  Apparently, the Sea of Galilee inspired the men to try their hand at walking on water (along with a little boost from spirited wine).  It seems that there is a running debutante party going on with the Republicans right now - one goofy stunt after another.   Let's see what happens today.  So, let's just meet and greet the team:

http://www.nationalmemo.com/six-tea-party-freshmen-behaving-badly/?utm_campaign=website&utm_source=sendgrid.com&utm_medium=email

3.  Those of you who may have missed TRMS - The Rachel Maddow Show - last night (shame on you), have a chance to see her piece on the new "NORMAL" policy on rape and incest of the Republican Party.   It's not just the Todd Akin farce, but the face of how the GOP has gone to the wildest extreme.  It is not just entertaining, but it is an education:

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/08/21/maddow-rep-akins-fake-science-is-the-new-republican-normal/#.UDOrZpkNIHY.reddit

4.  This is going to be very interesting.   At the very moment that the Republican Party is begging Akin to drop out for his calloused and offensive views, ignorance, and statement on women's reproductive system and rape and incest, ...yes...at this very moment, Governor Ultra Sound Bob McDonnell of Virginia is in charge of the GOP platform plank and is installing those very same ignorant concepts into the GOP platform for their convention.  How does this work out?   How do RomRyan answer questions?   Betcha they won't let anybody into a room where they can ask?:

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/21/g-o-p-approves-strict-anti-abortion-language-in-party-platform/?ref=politics

5.  Lipstick on a pig.   The Help Staff's winning pie recipe.  Bandini Banana Splits.   The 2012 GOP convention in Tampa.   All of these have one thing in common - fooling your senses so that you are comfortable chowing down on a plate of dung.   Romney just can't seem to exude anything except a twinge of discomfort and repulsiveness.  So, the stage managers and directors at Tampa will be selling you a load of crap wrapped up in every ruse and airbrush that they can muster up.  Too bad the guy just can't do it in real life:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/20/us/politics/romney-campaign-works-feverishly-to-project-relaxed-image.html?_r=1&ref=politics

6.  After yesterday's barrage of BIG news, today is kind of slow - hard to imagine.   Most attention is put on Todd Akin and the GOP problem on how to deal with it (they did put it in their platform, however).   So, here is the Thom Hartmann view of the news just to fill things out:

http://truth-out.org/news/item/11038-on-the-news-with-thom-hartmann-colorado-washington-and-oregon-are-giving-voters-a-chance-to-legalize-marijuana

7.  This is kind of a duplicate of #4, but it adds a bit more information.   It also provides an opportunity to write that the Chairman of the RNC, Reince Preibus, was trying to dance around the sketching board by explaining that the Republican Party platform on abortion may say one thing, but it is not the one that that is Romney's plan.   Do the Republicans accept hypocrisy as a normal operating procedure, and then see how much they can boldly get away with, or are they to be held accountable at some point?

http://www.tnr.com/blog/plank/106329/ryan-akin-romney-abortion-forcible-personhood-record#.UDOQTt47t0M.reddit

8.  This NY Times editorial should create the questions to be asked of Romney and how his VP pick and the platform that his party has given him are to be reconciled.  A gifted and creative inquisitor could make it a very bad campaign experience for RomRyan:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/22/opinion/what-the-gop-platform-represents.html?hp&pagewanted=print

9.  Thomas Friedman does a pretty good job on outlining why the real Republican Party needs to take over from the fringe loonies that have captivated a dysfunctional  organization.  You've heard me say that I wish the GeeOpee would get thrown out so that we could have an effective two-party system (at least two parties), well, Friedman does a much better job than I can do:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/22/opinion/friedman-we-need-a-conservative-party.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

Juan

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"I never eat in a restaurant that's over a hundred feet off the ground and won't stand still." 
       -- Calvin Trillin

"The average, healthy, well-adjusted adult gets up at seven-thirty in the morning feeling just plain terrible." 
       -- Jean Kerr

"Howard Hughes was able to afford the luxury of madness, like a man who not only thinks he is Napoleon but hires an army to prove it." 
       -- Ted Morgan

"It's all right letting yourself go as long as you can let yourself back." 
       -- Mick Jagger

"All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others." 
       -- George Orwell

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