WaPo wizwonk Ezra Klein, Thursday:

I wish we could all agree to stop jumping on things like Mitt Romney saying “I’m also unemployed.” It’s pretty clear from the context that he was making a joke. Jokes sometimes misfire, or read strangely when pulled out of context and printed in the paper. In the interest of having our candidates speak like something other than robots, we should cut them some slack.

Well, um, no.

We actually try to be somewhat fair in our mocking, so when we took up Mitt’s remark yesterday, we made sure to note that — as reported — his audience appreciated his joke as given.

And then we proceeded to provide Mitt a new orifice.

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We’re not sure we’ve heard something like this since Bush I:

Mitt Romney sat at the head of the table at a coffee shop here on Thursday, listening to a group of unemployed Floridians explain the challenges of looking for work. When they finished, he weighed in with a predicament of his own.

“I should tell my story,” Mr. Romney said. “I’m also unemployed.”

The folks around the table joined Mitt in a hearty round of laughter, and then Mitt left to resume his life as a wealthy former leveraged-buyout mogul, while everyone else stayed behind and realized they were still screwed.

Romney: ‘I’m Also Unemployed’ [NYT]

Nine Republicans Myths
that Every Progressive Should Be Able to Counter:

U.C. Berkeley economist Brad DeLong has been daily bumping and updating a post on his blog that provides counter-arguments to a growing list of Republican talking points. He keeps the list so he won’t be caught off guard by an unexpected question the next time he’s asked to appear on TV alongside a conservative opponent. Personally, I think it’s a great idea that progressives be familiar with counter-arguments to common conservative talking points, and develop some talking points of our own. To that end, I am presenting a list of rebuttals to nine very common, but very misleading, or outright false, GOP talking points. Read more »

“Representative Anthony D. Weiner has told House leaders that he plans to resign his seat after coming under growing pressure from his Democratic colleagues to leave the House, said a top Democratic official and two people told of Mr. Weiner’s plans.” [NYT]

After Michele Bachmann won Monday night’s debate by not seeming as batshit crazy as we’ve come to expect, political journalists have been churning out instant backgrounders. The best so far, by general acclaim, was published yesterday by BeastWeek’s Michelle Goldberg, who provides some details that may not be familiar to those of us who only started paying attention after Bachmann managed to out-crazy Tweety.

Take, for example, the celebrated Bathroom Hostage Crisis, which deserves pride of place in any Bachmann bio:

A few dozen people showed up at the town hall for the April 9 [2005] event, and Bachmann greeted them warmly. But when, during the question and answer session, the topic turned to same-sex marriage, Bachmann ended the meeting 20 minutes early and rushed to the bathroom. Hoping to speak to her, Arnold and another middle-aged woman, a former nun, followed her. As Bachmann washed her hands and Arnold looked on, the ex-nun tried to talk to her about theology. Suddenly, after less than a minute, Bachmann let out a shriek. “Help!” she screamed. “Help! I’m being held against my will!”

Bachmann was serious. She called the police. And the police investigated. Finally, the DA blew it off. Seems her captors were just a couple of nice ladies who wanted to ask questions. Just like they said.

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Maybe some of the rest of you have already heard about this ad for the special Congressional election for California’s 36th district (or have the El Ay Stinquers seen it?) but when I saw this my mouth opened a few inches and a wheezing noise of shock came out. The ad, attacking Democratic candidate Janice Hahn, was created and aired by an independent expenditure group called “Turned Right USA” in support of GOP candidate Craig Huey.

If you can’t make it all the way through it, the ad features Ms. Hahn as a stripper performing for two black gangsters who are rapping repeatedly, “Give us your cash bitch,” because apparently Ms. Hahn had supported a gang intervention group working with youth in LA, and she had the audacity to call for two LAPD officers to be removed from their Watts beat after numerous complaints about them harassing people in the community.

Get ready for a lot more of this shit in 2012, kids, thanks to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision.

Oh, by the way, we’re about to add chills to our fever:

What may be the science story of the century is breaking this evening, as heavyweight US solar physicists announce that the Sun appears to be headed into a lengthy spell of low activity, which could mean that the Earth — far from facing a global warming problem — is actually headed into a mini Ice Age.

Bear in mind that the science is inconclusive — while it’s well-established that the Earth experienced a “Little Ice Age” from 1645-1715 the last time the Sun went somewhat dormant, NASA will only say that “the connection between solar activity and terrestrial climate is an area of on-going research.”

And, well, it doesn’t leave humanity off the hook — we’re doing our best to fuck up our environment in a million other ways, with or without the Sun’s help.

Earth may be headed into a mini Ice Age within a decade [The Register]