Most comments supporting the proposed Comcast/Time-Warner merger just so happen to come from groups to which Comcast has donated money or volunteer hours. John Roberts might say that's perfectly OK as long as there's no written quid pro quo, but everyone knows where their bread is buttered, and it's another reason why corporations shouldn't be allowed to get that big in the first place.
Sen. Cruz thinks Congress should strip federal courts (including the Supreme Court) of jurisdiction over gay marriage cases, presumably because they're not ruling how he'd like them to. Ian Millhiser performs a great public service in reminding us that Democrats could use the stripping-jurisdiction tool any way they'd like, too. In the meantime, I guess remarks like these are how Ted Cruz makes Scott Walker seem like a moderate.
Apparent Republican Presidential candidate Carly Fiorina thinks Congress should repeal Dodd-Frank Wall Street reforms, because REGULASHUNZ ALWAYZ BAD!!!! -- which I suppose you'd believe if you got rich running corporations badly. But worse than that, she said (in the video embedded above) that negotiating with Iran is a bad idea because "we are rewarding bad behavior by continuing to talk to them." Splendid: another Republican who thinks negotiation equals weakness. No, negotiating badly, as President Obama did with Republicans during his first term, is weakness -- but refusing to talk to your enemies at all is also weakness. But, again, folks who think you get things done by telling everyone what to do and threatening them if they don't do it would see it differently.
Glenn Kessler fact-checks Rand Paul's speech launching his Presidential campaign, and finds it fairly fact-free. People who think Mr. Paul is dumb should check out his claim that debt "doubled under a Republican Administration" and is "tripling under Barack Obama's watch." See what he did there? He pushed the buttons of right-wingers who only heard the part with the words "tripling" and "Obama" (I guess he thought it impolite to name "Bush" as the President who let it "double") and gave himself wiggle room to say he meant "tripling since 2001." Still, I prefer such cleverness when it actually does something good for people; this "cleverness" only does something good for Rand Paul.
In a possibly related note, Rand Paul campaign insiders don't foresee much of a role for his father, former Rep (and two-time Presidential candidate) Ron Paul. Paul the Lesser has good reason to keep Paul the Elder away -- Paul the Lesser tries to convince everyone he's an iconoclast, but being in the presence of an actual iconoclast like his father makes that task considerably more difficult.
Finally, Sen. Tom Cotton (E-AK) thinks invading Iran would be relatively simple, involving just "a few days of air and naval bombing" and no ground troops. Population of Iraq in 2003, which proved well-nigh impossible to occupy with 150,000 ground troops: just under 26 million. Population of Iran as of last year: just over 76 million. See? Easy, just like Iraq was! Well, as they say, being a Republican means never having to admit you're wrong.
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