He's like a demented meth tweaker version of Energizer Bunny

"There's been a coup, have you heard? It's the CIA coup. The CIA runs everything..."

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 07:31 AM | Comments (191)
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U.S. House candidate for MA-4...why does that sound familiar?
OH. Right.

It's Barney Frank's seat.

Earl Sholley for Congress. This video is from late last year. At 1:38 the smartypants interviewer reminds Sholley how forbiddingly liberal Massachusetts is. Heh.

And then at 2:40 hits him again with how popular health care reform 'must be' in that district.
HAH!

It is so entertaining to watch this after having been vindicated.

Thanks to Pablo.

And Bill Hudak Too [Ace]: Hudak came over to blogger's row to drum up interest in his campaign in MA-6. I didn't talk to him, as I was too focused on the current race. He had, he said, supported Brown right from the jump.

It can happen...

Posted by: LauraW at 07:14 AM | Comments (64)
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Just released.

The Supreme Court has ruled that corporations may spend freely to support or oppose candidates for president and Congress, easing decades-old limits on their participation in federal campaigns.

By a 5-4 vote, the court on Thursday overturned a 20-year-old ruling that said corporations can be prohibited from using money from their general treasuries to pay for their own campaign ads. The decision, which almost certainly will also allow labor unions to participate more freely in campaigns, threatens similar limits imposed by 24 states.

...The justices also struck down part of the landmark McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill that barred union- and corporate-paid issue ads in the closing days of election campaigns.

Advocates of strong campaign finance regulations have predicted that a court ruling against the limits would lead to a flood of corporate and union money in federal campaigns as early as this year's midterm congressional elections.

Expect more throughout the day but my initial take is regardless of how the corporate decision cuts for one party or another, more freedom and more speech is generally good.

As for overturning the blackout period on issue ads...nice to see the Court realize the First Amendment doesn't have an expiration date. The idea that ads couldn't be run precisely at the time when most people are paying attention and the right of groups to promote their message was most important was a travesty and nothing more than legalized protection for the political class.

More:

The 5-4 decision had Kennedy siding with Roberts, Scalia, Thomas and Alito. "Wise Latina" Sonia Sotoymayor shockingly sided with the anti-free speech "liberals" (as not doubt would have Souter).

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the main opinion, which reads in part that there is "no basis for allowing the government to limit corporate independent expenditures."

"There is no basis for the proposition that, in the political speech context, the government may impose restrictions on certain disfavored speakers," he wrote. "The government may regulate corporate speech through disclaimer and disclosure requirements, but it may not suppress that speech altogether."

...

"The notion that the First Amendment dictated [today's ruling] is, in my judgment, profoundly misguided,"(Justice John Paul) Stevens wrote for the others.

"In the context of election to public office, the distinction between corporate and human speakers is significant. Although they make enormous contributions to our society, corporations are not actually members of it," he added.

Thankfully AMK's coin landed on the right side the day this case was decided.

Seems like a good time to take another shot at McCain-Feingold in general. Now that O'Connor is gone, SCOTUS might be willing to take another look at McConnell v. FEC. Any smart legal types know if there's a case out there that might fit the bill? If there isn't one, I'm sure there will be by the end of the month.

Posted by: DrewM at 06:58 AM | Comments (93)
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Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:43 AM | Comments (117)
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More good news for democrats.

Stock futures fell after a new report showed jobless claims rose unexpectedly last week, reminding investors a recovery is going to be slow and bumpy.

The Labor Department said workers filing for unemployment benefits for the first time rose by 36,000 to 482,000. Economists were expecting a small decline.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 05:20 AM | Comments (173)
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Is Scott Rasmussen still Hitler?

Posted by: Ace at 10:25 PM | Comments (166)
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Happy humpday evening all. Hope everyone is recovering well from their ball dangover from last night's mass dippin'.

Pants on the Ground!!
The first hit to come out of American Idol Season 9. And the reason you should always wear belts. And of course there are already covers of Pants on the Ground.

Posted by: Open Blog at 06:38 PM | Comments (852)
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Okay.

Let me quote Chris Matthews: "You're whistling past the graveyard."

No, seriously. As he pointed out, Coakley was, in fact, part of the progressive cohort on health care, talking up the public option and demanding more than the Reid compromise.

So if that's the case, and Massachusetts really wanted just that -- how the hell did she lose?

Posted by: Ace at 05:18 PM | Comments (294)
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Good to know Babs, last time I checked CA is a state...

Wounded in Massachusetts, frustrated Democrats on Wednesday urged the White House to focus on jobs and the economy — not the health care overhaul that's now at risk — and pressed President Barack Obama to more forcefully make their case against Republicans ahead of potentially disastrous elections this fall...

FWIW, Levin is zeroed in on the Zuckerman piece...gonna be a good show today. more...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 05:08 PM | Comments (81)
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Read the whole thing Dip your balls in the whole thing.

ELMER GANTRY

Devotees turn on false prophets with a special vengeance. Obama is beginning to grate. His flip-the-switch-on, evangelical cadences at rallies sound more like a Harvard nerd doing blues imitations than Martin Luther King Jr. Purple-state presidents don’t appoint Van Joneses and Anita Dunns, or turn the NEA into a quid pro quo Ministry of Approved Culture. A healer doesn’t start in on the “rich,” “Wall Street,” the “big” oil companies, drug companies, insurance companies, or “fat-cat bankers” — especially when he has done his best to shake them all down for campaign money, hire as many of them as he can in his own administration, and arrange cut-rate loans, insider deals, bailouts, and guarantees for all of them.

ObamaÂ’s populism is beginning to sound more like a bought boxer who belatedly has second thoughts about throwing the fight he previously contracted. In short, ObamaÂ’s ideological presidency hinged on his post-racial, post-national mesmerizing presence that reassured reluctant Democrats to vote against their local constituencies.

If cap-and-trade or health care reform polled below 50 percent, a worried congressional supporter could always call in Him to charm bolting voters. But now? We have in a blink gone from Obama as the bankable 10 percent edge, to Obama as a non-factor, to Obama as a real liability. In short, why vote for an agenda as unpopular as its albatross author?

Ease up, Ripley, you're just grinding metal at this point.

From Rees.

Posted by: Ace at 04:55 PM | Comments (85)
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