Midday open thread

post from Daily Kos on 19 October 2012 03:00:04 PM. © Daily Kos

Today's comic by Mark Fiore is Undecided Flakes:
What's coming up on Sunday Kos ...
- Are we 'Better Off Without 'Em?' A live Q & A with author Chuck Thompson about Southern secession, by Susan Gardner
- GOP cranks up class warfare again with tax break plans. Time for a wealth tax, by Meteor Blades
- Get the transcript: Mitt Romney and the Republican Party's antipathy toward reality, by Laurence Lewis
- Voting rights, voter suppression and bullies at the ballot box, by Denise Oliver Velez
- What an angry Black man actually looks like, by Shanikka
- Are debates fact-free zones, by Dante Atkins
- Mitt Romney's Foreign Policy Follies, by Jon Perr
- Corporate U: Higher ed the Bain Way, part 2, by Mother Mags
Last week's book review of Chuck Thompson's Better Off Without 'Em: A Northern Manifesto for Southern Secession spurred the comment section into overdrive in a passionate discussion of the book's premise. This coming Sunday, the author will join us live in a Q & A at 1:30 PM PDT/4:30 PM EDT that will initially address some of the points made by commenters in that review, and to take questions from users in real time. .
Nice:
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee raised $29.2 million for the third fundraising quarter of the year, its biggest filing period in the committee?s history, officials told POLITICO.
Prayers, good thoughts, crossed fingers, whatever ... send them her way:
The Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot in the head by Taliban gunmen in Pakistan has recovered to the extent that she is now able to stand with assistance and communicate in writing, medical officials at the British hospital where she is being treated said on Friday. [...]
The 14-year-old Pakistani student, shot on Oct. 9 in the Swat Valley, has become an icon of resistance against the Taliban, advocating that girls have access to education. Her case has generated widespread interest among the local and international media, as well as among public officials and complete strangers worldwide offering to help her.
Nothing to see here, move along, everything is under control:
TransCanada Corp. has temporarily shut down its existing 2,100-mile Keystone pipeline after tests showed possible safety issues, a federal agency said Thursday.
It's so rare that a Republican makes a joke that is funny, it seems worth mentioning:
"I was a '73 graduate. I should have been '72, but I stayed an extra year to work on our party rating."
-- West Virginia U.S. Senate [candidate] John Raese (R), quoted by the Daily Athenaeum, on attending West Virginia University.
A fine Friday news roundup on the Kagro in the Morning show, plus polling from Greg Dworkin. What's up with Gallup? Romney kills financial disclosure tradition. Is the OH Sec. of State flipping SCOTUS the bird? An arrest in VA over GOP election shenanigans. And in WI, ALEC poster boy Thompson is caught underwriting Iranian uranium mining! And hey! Last day to vote for nominees in the 2012 Stitcher Awards!
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