Mitt Romney, Fair and Balanced Edition

post from Talking Points Memo on 16 March 2012 10:00:45 PM. © Talking Points Memo

Mitt Romney is stepping up his presence on Fox News as the primaries drag on. (Special Romney/Fox chart included!)[...]

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NCAA Game Band Chant: 'Where's Your Green Card'
Player is From Puerto Rico

post from Crooks and Liars on 16 March 2012 10:00:40 PM. © Crooks and Liars

Remember when people were conscious enough not to say things like this out loud, knowing that most people would be disgusted? Gee, I wonder what changed? Via Buzzfeed:

When Kansas State's point guard Angel Rodriguez went to the line, a chant of ?Where's your green card?? rang out through the crowd. (It can be heard at 2 and 17 seconds in the video.) Reporters on the scene identified it as having come from Southern Mississippi's band. Thankfully it was short lived.

Martha Saunders, president of the University of Southern Mississippi, issued this statement:

"We deeply regret the remarks made by a few students at today?s game. The words of these individuals do not represent the sentiments of our pep band, athletic department or university. We apologize to Mr. Rodriguez and will take quick and appropriate disciplinary action against the students involved in this isolated incident."

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The GOP 'War on the 20th Century'

post from US Politics | AMERICAblog News on 16 March 2012 10:00:19 PM. © US Politics | AMERICAblog News

Lets recap, only two weeks ago, Rush Limbaugh though that Daryl Issa's War on Contraception was going so well that he decided to up the ante and turn it into a War on Women. His advertisers have deserted him and we will soon find out how many stations have pulled the trigger on the 90 day notice period his standard contract requires to drop him..

We have come to expect atrocities like the 'mechanical rape' ultrasound bill from states like Texas and Virginia. But now we have the Governor of Pennsylvania trying to get in on the act, telling women to 'just shut their eyes' if they don't want to see the pictures produced by his own mandatory rape law.

Just how far does the GOP want to wind the clock back, 1970s? 1960s? Just how old is the base that all these wars are intended to pander to?

Rick Santorum seems to be thinking 1930s would suit him fine and has launched a Comstock style War on Porn with the usual gang of hate groups (Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, etc). He is confident of success too, "Together we will prevail".

Is there any positive development of the 20th Century that the GOP has not declared war on yet?

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Would You Rather

post from Firedoglake on 16 March 2012 09:01:54 PM. © Firedoglake

Would you rather have a GOP that goes so far off the conservative deep end that it implodes and becomes a powerless fringe party, or a GOP that pulls itself back from the brink and starts moving back towards the center?[...]

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Sunday Classics preview: Souvenirs of two
concerts -- intriguing chamber curiosities by Camille Saint-Saëns and Fritz Kreisler

post from DownWithTyranny! on 16 March 2012 09:00:19 PM. © DownWithTyranny!

Fritz Kreisler, composer (yes, composer): The "Kreisler String Quartet" (Kreisler and Thomas Petre, violins; William Primrose, viola; Lauri Kennedy, cello) plays its namesake's Scherzo à la Dittersdorf in an EMI recording made in London on April 7, 1935.

by Ken

There's a story attached to this charming little piece, which I encountered in an online review by MusicWeb International's Göran Forsling (which I found on the Arkiv Music website) of a Kreisler CD reissue that included this very recording:

An oddity is the scherzo "in the style of Dittersdorf," played by the Kreisler String Quartet, an ad hoc group assembled to record Kreisler's String Quartet. One of the members was William Primrose, who remembered the sessions. It turned out that there was going to be a blank 78 side and producer Fred Gaisberg suggested that Kreisler write a filler, or arrange one of his pieces for quartet, which he did at once in his hotel room with Primrose waiting. He then rushed the score to the copyist and the next day it was recorded.

No, this isn't actually the Kreisler "chamber curiosity" of the post title. In the click-through we're going to hear the impudently striding finale of the Kreisler String Quartet itself, from that April 1935 recording by the "Kreisler String Quartet."

Yes, we still have much work -- or rather play, I hope -- to do on the epic opening scene of Saint-Saëns' Samson et Dalila, but it's been a curious week with two concerts, of very different sorts under very different auspices, that nevertheless somehow seem to want to be talked about together. With luck by Sunday I'll figure out how to do that. As it happens (by way of showing how everything in the universe is interconnected), one of them featured an early yet decidedly underperformed chamber work by none other than our man Camille Saint-Saëns!

For tonight we're going to sample a pair of chamber works that were featured on those two programs. First, as noted above, we're going to hear the finale of Fritz Kreisler's String Quartet in A minor, which was played Tuesday night by an ensemble of string-quartet all-stars in a Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center concert that featured six players from six different modern-day quartets -- two violinists, two violists, and two cellists. Then we're going to hear the lovely slow movement from the aforementioned chamber work by Saint-Saëns, the Piano Quintet in A minor, Op. 14. which was played last night as the climax of a joint program by pianist Xiayin Wang and the current incarnation of the historic (celebrating its 66th anniversary!) Fine Arts Quartet.

FOR TONIGHT'S SAMPLES OF THE MUSIC
HEARD IN THE TWO CONCERTS, CLICK HERE
#

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Colbert: The Real Victim Here is Rush

post from Crooks and Liars on 16 March 2012 09:00:02 PM. © Crooks and Liars

Colbert Takes Up For Limbaugh Being Attacked by Democratic 'Plant' Sandra Fluke

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After taking up for Rush Limbaugh and opining on how terrible it is that advertisers are leaving his show in droves and noting that Limbaugh couldn't possibly be sexist because "he even judged the Miss America pageant," Colbert took up the Fox mantle that Limbaugh is the real victim here.

COLBERT: Now the real victim, the real victim here is Rush. This whole birth control controversy started with that Georgetown law student, Sandra Fluke, whose testimony was no fluke.

Cut to Eric Bolling, Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly and Laura Ingraham talking about how this was all an evil liberal plot against Limbaugh by the Democrats.

COLBERT: Ah yes. She was run by powerful people. She's a pawn. I mean, what's the alternative? That a 30-year-old woman had her own thoughts and feelings about reproductive rights? Come on! What do you take me for? A girl?

Sadly, most conservatives may not realize that Colbert was joking in this segment if this study from a few years ago is any indication.

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Popular Culture (TeeVee) 20120316: David
McCallum

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 16 March 2012 09:00:00 PM. © Docudharma - Front Page

David Keith McCallum, Jr. is a wonderful actor who has been on TeeVee for decades in either bit, supporting, or starring roles. Most folks would not realize that he is 78 years old, because he looks much younger. He is a Scot, being born on[...]

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Rick Santorum as pro wrestling lobbyist Yeah,
that happened.

post from Daily Kos on 16 March 2012 08:40:03 PM. © Daily Kos

Let's get ready to buuuuuuuuuumbleeee.
In today's visit to the spooky psychedelic carnival that is Rick Santorum's sleeveless life, we stop in front of a dimly lit tent labeled The Time Rick Santorum Successfully Lobbied To Deregulate Pro Wrestling. Dare we enter?

Beginning in 1987, Santorum's mission, as dictated by the WWF, was simple: Get the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission out of the ring. There was no need for state officials to act as referees, because wrestling was a spectacle, not a sport. Nor did it need the state to supply timekeepers, announcers, and doctors?the promoters could take care of that. [...]
At the time Santorum dismissed suggestions that his deregulation bill would open up the industry to abuse. If anything, he told the Inquirer, it would give his client an added incentive to keep wrestlers healthy.

And by "healthy", we mean deaths, doctors administering steroids, and the rest of the mess that resulted from the McMahons' consolidation of the wrestling industry. As for Rick, he did his job well and with gusto:

[Irvin] Muchnick described the deregulation push in detail in a 1988 piece he wrote for the Washington Monthly. Although he didn't talk to Santorum for the article, he said got a call from him shortly after it was published. "It was like asshole central," he remembers. "He was slapping his knees and laughing and reading lines out loud, which at a minimum showed a certain cynicism about the whole thing. But also, it was just very juvenile. I'm sure he didn't expect to be running for president at that point."

Yeah, I'm not real surprised that "asshole" is the first word that comes to mind when someone describes a conversation with Rick Santorum. And I'm sorry, but this guy just continues to creep the hell outta me. He used to be a big wrestling fan, but isn't so much now, apparently:

"Professional wrestling matches, as bizarre as they were and are, at least began as morality plays," Santorum wrote in his 2005 book, It Takes a Family. "Good guys, literally wearing white, fought bad guys, literally wearing black." And as in any good morality play, Santorum argued, there had been a Fall: "Today, professional wrestling is more about titillation than ever. The violence has been sexualized."

Yeah, Um ... Mr. Santorum, if you're getting overly turned on by watching pro wrestling, I think that's maybe something you need to keep to yourself. Though it does explain a few things. Actually, it explains a lot of things.

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Daily Kos Elections Polling Wrap: Mitt Romney
looks like a narrow favorite in Land of Lincoln

If this perpetually unpredictable Republican presidential primary has taught us anything, it is that four days are tantamount to a lifetime as it relates to the horserace and any notions of "campaign momentum."

That said, as we head into the weekend before the potentially pivotal Illinois Republican primary, you'd probably rather be Mitt Romney than Rick Santorum.

GOP PRIMARY POLLING:

NATIONAL (Gallup Tracking): Romney 36, Santorum 28, Gingrich 13, Paul 10
NATIONAL (Rasmussen): Romney 37, Santorum 28, Gingrich 17, Paul 10
NATIONAL (YouGov): Romney 28, Santorum 24, Gingrich 21, Paul 10
ILLINOIS (Rasmussen): Romney 41, Santorum 32, Gingrich 14, Paul 7
ILLINOIS (We Ask America/Fox Chicago): Romney 37, Santorum 31, Gingrich 14, Paul 8

GENERAL ELECTION TRIAL HEATS:

NATIONAL (Rasmussen): Obama tied with Romney (46-46); Obama d. Santorum (49-43)
NATIONAL (YouGov): Obama d. Romney (48-44); Obama d. Paul (48-42); Obama d. Santorum (50-43); Obama d. Gingrich (51-41)
ARIZONA (Rasmussen): Romney d. Obama (51-40); Santorum d. Obama (45-44)

A few thoughts, and a worthy link to read, after the jump.

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Ryan Budget to Include Federal Workforce Cuts to
Pay for Defense Trigger

Next week, Paul Ryan will introduce the Republican budget, which we already know will set a discretionary spending level roughly $20 billion below the spending cap negotiated in the debt limit deal. We also know that it will include the premium support[...]

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