Who ever could have seen this coming?

Will people ever get over the strange obsession with guns?

A soccer mom who gained national attention when she openly carried a loaded gun to her 5-year-old daughter's game was shot dead Wednesday along with her husband in what appeared to be a murder-suicide, police said.

Meleanie Hain and Scott Hain were pronounced dead Wednesday night at their home in Lebanon, a small city about 80 miles west of Philadelphia.

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DNC rips Politico over bizarre story (wrongly) trying to link Obama and Roman Polanski

We wrote about this earlier. The DNC has responded in kind. Good for them. Read the rest of this post...

AP is not impressed with Obama's inaction on gay rights

For AP, whose stoic tone makes it the C-SPAN of print media, this is downright bitchy (and unfortunately, spot on):

As president, Obama hasn't taken any concrete steps urging Congress to rescind the Clinton-era "don't ask, don't tell" policy that allows gays and lesbians to serve in the military as long as they don't disclose their sexual orientation or act on it. Some former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have acknowledged the policy is flawed....

Obama also pledged during the campaign to work for repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, which limits how state, local and federal bodies can recognize partnerships and determine benefits. But lawyers in his administration defended the law in a court brief. White House aides said they were only doing their jobs to back a law that was already on the books....

Obama has expanded some federal benefits to same-sex partners, but not health benefits or pension guarantees. He has allowed State Department employees to include their same-sex partners in certain embassy programs available to opposite-sex spouses.

On Wednesday, Gibbs said the administration was working with the Office of Personnel Management to expand those benefits.

But that remains far short of his campaign rhetoric.

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Teabagger owed half a million in back taxes

Not very proud to be an American. Read the rest of this post...

Public trusts Obama over GOP on health care

New Quinnipiac poll:

Asked who they trusted to do a better job on the health- care issue, 47 percent said Obama, 31 percent said the Republicans. The president’s overall approval rating was 50 percent, unchanged from a similar survey in late July and early August.

Reminds me of a line from the Yeats poem, Leda and the Swan (one of my all-time favs):

"Did she put on his knowledge with his power"

Obama has the ability to do great things. The power to truly make a difference. Does he know it? Does he know how? And is he willing? Read the rest of this post...

Transcript of Olbermann's entire show last night, dedicated to health care and his father's recent illness

Olbermann devoted his entire show to a special comment last night. His father was recently ill, and Olbermann recounts the story, in the larger framework of our American health care system. You can read Olbermann's comment here, and Political Byline has amassed the 5 videos it took to record the whole show here. Read the rest of this post...

GOP misogyny watch

Coming from a guy who, to my eyes, looks and acts awfully gay, it's actually kind of funny that Glenn Beck is throwing stones at the way other people look. (Not that there's anything wrong with being kind of flaming. I mean, we love Lindsay Graham's boyish insouciance.)

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Pelosi: "I'm in my place: as the first woman Speaker of the House of Representatives."

The GOP House campaign committee got especially sexist towards the Speaker Pelosi earlier this week, stating that she needed to be put her in place. Today, she responded:

"It's really sad they don't understand how inappropriate that is," Pelosi told reporters at her weekly press conference. "I'm in my place: as the first woman Speaker of the House of Representatives. That language is something I hadn't heard in decades."

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Politico earns its Republican stripes, again

This time, Politico breathlessly reports that some people in Hollywood, who stood up and support Roman Polanski after his arrest a few weeks back, donated money to the Obama campaign last year.

Huh?

Gee, wonder who fed Politico that story. There are some good people at Politico - okay, one good person, Ben Smith. But otherwise, it's simply becoming more and more FOX News online. Read the rest of this post...

Chinese drywall nightmare grows - did you know they're poisoning our food too?

From the NYT. What really worries me is, what don't we import from China? And what kind of poisons have they let slip by their crappy quality control?

How about food - check out this article form the Wash Post two years ago:

Dried apples preserved with a cancer-causing chemical.

Frozen catfish laden with banned antibiotics.

Scallops and sardines coated with putrefying bacteria.

Mushrooms laced with illegal pesticides.

These were among the 107 food imports from China that the Food and Drug Administration detained at U.S. ports just last month, agency documents reveal, along with more than 1,000 shipments of tainted Chinese dietary supplements, toxic Chinese cosmetics and counterfeit Chinese medicines.

For years, U.S. inspection records show, China has flooded the United States with foods unfit for human consumption. And for years, FDA inspectors have simply returned to Chinese importers the small portion of those products they caught -- many of which turned up at U.S. borders again, making a second or third attempt at entry.

We shouldn't let a drop of food enter this country that's come from China. It's one thing to hope that my tshirt doesn't contain some poison, but food? Read the rest of this post...

The Cheneys, including Mary, are forming a company

What kind of havoc are these three going to wreak on America and the world?:

Mary Cheney, the daughter of former vice president Dick Cheney and the sister of go-to Obama critic Liz Cheney, is leaving the political consulting firm Navigators Global to start her own consulting company, and multiple sources familiar with her plans say she will not be going it alone.

"She told me she is going to be starting a firm with her dad and sister," said one friend of Mary's, with whom she has shared her plans.

For now, the only official word is that Cheney, who is expecting her second child with her partner, Heather Poe, in November, will leave Navigators Global at the end of the month.

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Now the Republicans want to impeach Obama

Seriously, what is motivating them? Is this all a show to rev up the base, which is all they have left? Or do people who write these kind of articles actually believe this crap? And if so, are they nuts? Seriously. How does a rational person come to write these kind of things? Read the rest of this post...

Thursday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

It's basketball day at the White House. This afternoon, wounded military personnel will be playing on the White House basketball court. Then, tonight, the President is playing ball with a group of the guys from his cabinet and Congress. No doubt, senior staffers at the White House spent hours trying to come up with the list of who would get to play. Here it is: Secretary of Housing & Urban Development Shaun Donovan, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. Also, Representatives Mike Arcuri (D-NY), John Boccieri (D-OH), Brad Ellsworth (D-IN), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Baron Hill (D-IN), Jay Inslee (D-WA), Frank Kratovil (D-MD, Rick Larsen (D-WA), Patrick Murphy (D-PA), John Shimkus (R-IL) and Heath Shuler (D-NC).

With the big basketball game, it's hard to imagine any other news will filter through.

The final conference report on Department of Defense Authorization does include the Hate Crimes bill. That authorization could pass in the House today. The Senate DoD bill should pass next week. Kudos to Judy Shepard for her tireless work on behalf of this legislation.

Let's start... Read the rest of this post...

Maldives cabinent to hold meeting underwater

If you had to choose one country that could be first impacted by climate change it would be the island country of the Maldives. BBC:

President Mohamed Nasheed and his cabinet will sign a document during the 17 October dive, calling for global cuts in carbon emissions.

An adviser to the president told the BBC the dive was "a bit of fun" but the cabinet intended to send a serious message about rising sea levels.

The low-lying island nation says it faces being wiped out if oceans rise.

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Berlusconi loses immunity

Start the countdown to new charges.

A controversial law granting Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi legal immunity has been dramatically thrown out by the country's top court, raising the likelihood that the media mogul will again face prosecution on corruption charges.

As the political pressure mounted last night, the 73-year-old premier lambasted the Constitutional Court judges as "red toga-wearing tools of the left" and vowed not to quit, despite predictions by opponents that the ruling could force him to resign and hold a snap election. "We must govern for five years, with or without the law," Mr Berlusconi told reporters outside his residence in Rome.

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