“Sarah Palin’s political action committee raised over $1.6 million in the first half of 2011, according to a report set to be released Thursday. She now has approximately $1.4 million cash on hand despite having spent almost $1.6 million over the same period, according to Sarah PAC. But the funds raised cannot be used for a potential run for the White House in 2012.” [CNN]

“The FBI has opened an investigation into allegations that media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. sought to hack into the phones of Sept. 11 victims, a law enforcement official said Thursday.” [AP/MSNBC]

[via ThinkProgress]

First Governor Goodhair, now Crazy Eyes:

Michele Bachmann is practically synonymous with political controversy, and if the 2008 presidential election is any guide, the conservative Lutheran church she belonged to for many years is likely to add another chapter due to the nature of its beliefs — such as its assertion, explained and footnoted on this website, that the Roman Catholic Pope is the Antichrist.

So, the governing body of a church that Bachmann once attended has some unkind things to say about the Pope. This is relevant, how?

Read more »

Texas secession sympathizer Rick Perry may have warbled the Song of the South a decade earlier than we thought:

A 1998 voting guide published by a leading neo-Confederate group and obtained by Salon not only endorses Perry for lieutenant governor but also describes him as “a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.” Perry’s office did not respond to a request for comment about the governor’s possible membership in the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

However, there’s a catch in the Salon story — we’re talking about two groups, only one of which was openly secessionist in 1998. And Perry didn’t join that group.

But what the heck, let’s see what the secessionist group is about:

Read more »

“Hundreds of bars, restaurants and stores across Minnesota are running out of beer and alcohol and others may soon run out of cigarettes — a subtle and largely unforeseen consequence of a state government shutdown.” [Minneapolis StarTribune]

The extent to which Republicans are willing to damage the country’s long term health to protect the assets of the moneyed classes is truly astonishing (and sickening). Howard Kurtz, writing for The Daily Beast, reports that even as the GOP stands in absolute opposition to any tax increases that might form part of a budget package to reduce the national debt, Speaker of the House John Boehner and Viginia representative Eric Cantor have identified one area of potential revenue increases they are willing to consider. Student loans:

As Monday’s White House budget talks got down to the nitty-gritty, Eric Cantor proposed a series of spending cuts, one of them aimed squarely at college students.

The House majority leader, who did most of the talking for the Republican side, said those taking out student loans should start paying interest right away, rather than being able to defer payments until after graduation. It is a big-ticket item that would save $40 billion over 10 years

That Republicans are willing to make higher education even more unaffordable than it is now to shield their wealthy patrons from tax increases is simply astonishing and betrays a degree of irresponsibility that is difficult to fathom. As our economy becomes more and more focused on high technology and innovation and as the nation faces ever mounting challenges from emerging econmies around the world, the GOP is promoting policies that would hamper the educational prospects of our next generation of scientists, businessmen, entrepeneurs and innovators. It’s mind boggling. It’s a dagger, thrust directly into the heart of the middle class. How these people still command legions of angry followers simply defies explanation. GOP voters need to get back on their meds so they can see the world as it really is, and not as the screetching voices echoing in the hollow spaces of their paranoid minds tell them it is.