In other news, the former superintendent of the Upper Big Branch mine, which exploded in 2010 killing 29 people, has been officially charged with conspiracy to defraud the government. According to the Associated Press, this includes disabling a methane gas monitor, falsifying safety records and using code words to tip off miners underground about surprise inspections, among other things. More here.

Another GOP clown car debate will take place tonight at 8 pm EST on CNN featuring the Worst Political Team on Television.

Predictably, the Republicans came out against the president’s proposal within hours of its introduction and are employing the usual talking-points and rhetoric to criticize it.

Senate Finance ranking member Orrin Hatch (Utah) — who may be content for tax reform to wither on the vine this year in the hope that he becomes Finance chairman in 2013 — slammed the proposal as “a set of bullet points designed more for the campaign trail than an actual blueprint for fixing our tax code.” [...]

Romney also criticized Obama’s tax plan.

“He is proposing today a corporate tax plan which I understand sounds like he’s lowering taxes but in fact he’s raising taxes — raising taxes on businesses by hundreds of millions of dollars,” Romney said today during a campaign stop in Chandler, Ariz., USA Today reported. [...]

Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), argued the plan is part of what the GOP contends is a failed record on the economy.

“First it was a stimulus bill that led to fewer jobs. Then it was a health care bill that led to higher costs. Now it’s a ‘framework’ for corporate tax ‘reform’ that isn’t focused on protecting jobs, small businesses and families. This isn’t a record of success,” Stewart said.

Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck struck a similar cord, raising concerns that the plan will hurt small businesses.

Ironically, the Republicans have been calling for lowering the corporate tax rate for years, but now that the president has proposed doing so, they have to come out against it because their corporate masters aren’t interested in eliminating loopholes and special deductions.

This places the Republicans simultaneously in favor of loopholes and exploits, and against lowering taxes.

This is no accident. And Senator Orrin Hatch may actually be correct when he says this is designed for the campaign trail, but my response to that would be “Yeah. What are you going to do about it?”

The Republicans have done a thorough job of convincing themselves that President Obama’s election was a function of affirmative action, and that he’s a weak and feckless politician who wouldn’t know what to say if he wasn’t reading from a teleprompter. And unfortunately for them, this fictional version of the president does not reflect the real man who, along with his closest advisers, is ready to beat the Republicans over the head with their own talking points.

I don’t see the president’s proposal actually being signed into law as it stands, but it will effectively demonstrate once again whose side he is on and whose side the Republican Party is on.

I wonder how many people in Mississippi realize they receive nearly three times as much back as they pay in taxes. Do they realize those liberal heathens in the northeast are subsidizing them?

The Republican-controlled Committee on House Administration has denied a request to broadcast the testimony of Georgetown University Law student Sandra Fluke on the health reform law’s mandated coverage of contraceptives at a Democratic Steering and Policy Committee event. The event was organized by House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in a bid to allow Fluke a second opportunity to speak on the issue after the young woman was barred from the all-male panel by Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) at last week’s House Oversight and Govenrment Reform Committee hearing. According to Pelosi’s office, this will be the first event in which the House recording studio has not covered an event.

Darrell Issa claims he did not allow her to speak because his panel was about religious liberty, not birth control. However, denying the right to broadcast Fluke’s testimony during an entirely separate panel a week later clearly demonstrates that this was all about keeping women down and had nothing to do with liberty.

A Democratic lawmaker in Georgia is responding to a Republican-backed effort to prevent women from receiving abortions 20 weeks after fertilization with a tongue-in-cheek measure that seeks to limit men’s health care choices: legislation that “would limit vasectomies only to men who will die or suffer dangerous health problems without one.” “Thousands of children are deprived of birth in this state every year because of the lack of state regulation over vasectomies,” said Rep. Yasmin Neal (D) explained. “It is patently unfair that men can avoid unwanted fatherhood by presuming that their judgment over such matters is more valid than the judgment of the General Assembly, while women’s ability to decide is constantly up for debate throughout the United States.”

I didn’t either, but that’s what Indiana State Representative Bob Morris (R) tells us. He read about it on the internet.

State Rep. Bob Morris (R) wants to kill a resolution honoring the Girl Scouts because they are a “radicalized organization” that promotes “homosexual lifestyles” and funds Planned Parenthood.

In a letter to his fellow Republicans on Saturday, Morris said he would refuse to support a resolution celebrating 100 years of the organization because “after talking to some well-informed constituents, I did a small amount of web-based research, and what I found is disturbing.”

The letter, obtained by the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, says that the Girl Scouts of America and the World Association of Girl Guides “have entered into a close strategic affiliation with Planned Parenthood,” though “you will not find evidence of this on the GSA/WAGGGS website—in fact, the websites of these two organizations explicitly deny funding Planned Parenthood.”

“Nonetheless, abundant evidence proves that the agenda of Planned Parenthood includes sexualizing young girls through the Girl Scouts, which is quickly becoming a tactical arm of Planned Parenthood,” Morris wrote. “Planned Parenthood instructional series and pamphlets are part of the core curriculum at GSA training seminars.”

After talking to some well-informed constituents, he did a small amount of web-based research, and what he found was disturbing.

Translation — after talking to some nutjob supporters who believe we never landed on the moon, he visited World Net Daily or some religious fundie website and took in everything he read there as fact.

As he admits himself, you won’t find any evidence of the malevolent connection between the Girl Scouts and Planned Parenthood, or their plan to turn an entire generation of girls into lesbians, but he read about it on the internet therefor it must be true!

He didn’t stop there though.

He continues that the Girl Scouts also let in boys “who decide to claim a ‘transgender’ or cross-dressing life-style” and, in general, promote being gay. “Many parents are abandoning the Girl Scouts because they promote homosexual lifestyles,” Morris said. “In fact, the Girl Scouts education seminar girls are directed to study the example of role models. Of the fifty role models listed, only three have a briefly-mentioned religious background – all the rest are feminists, lesbians, or Communists.”

To recap — The Girl Scouts, in cooperation with Planned Parenthood, are promoting cross-dressing, abortions, feminism, homosexuality, and communism. There was no mention of birth control, but I’m sure that’s handed out at the door in gift bags at Girl Scout meetings.

The obvious question remaining is who the fuck voted for this man?

[Virginia Governor] McDonnell is backing away from his previous wholehearted support of the measure. Earlier, he told ABC News he supports “the concept that a woman should have all of the information possible before she makes a decision about terminating a pregnancy.” Now, his office has clarified that he will “review” the bill if it passes the General Assembly.

He could still sign it, but it doesn’t appear to be on the same fast-track to passage as it was late last week.

If Santorum can hold it together and not not lean too heavily on the Satan and Muslim switch, he could end up winning both Arizona and Michigan. If not, Romney can overtake him and lock down two more states — but only if Romney doesn’t get all jittery and spastic (see also I Love Lamp).

Knowing Santorum’s style along with the surge-and-fade trend of this process, it’s probable that Santorum will crumble under pressure and his numbers will fall accordingly. He’s already on the downslide in Michigan.

So what am I saying here? If you’re interested in seeing who the nominee will be and who President Obama will run against in the Fall, watch tonight’s debate.

I have no idea how to feel about this. While my food choices are based partly on health and partly on concern for the well-being of agricultural animals, it’s likely I would actually eat this kind of chicken. I’ve always said that I would eat more animal products if they were humanely raised and their deaths were painless. Plus, I eat chicken anyway, even though I don’t eat any pork or beef. So maybe.

But it’s really too early to know what kind of chemicals they’d pump into a brainless chicken to keep it alive. The photo on Sullivan’s site shows a chicken rigged up to tubes and suspended by a metallic rig, so it’s very likely it’s being injected with some kind of hormones or other awfulness. Ultimately, I think I’d rather eat an organic, humanely raised chicken over this Frankenchicken product.

During an event in Michigan today, GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney — in response to a question about the Simpson-Bowles fiscal commission — admitted that budget cuts slow down economic growth. “If you just cut, if all you’re thinking about doing is cutting spending, why as you cut spending you’ll slow down the economy,” he said.

But his logic falls apart between the lines. He’s actually making a case for spending cuts AND tax cuts. As we know, such a plan would hurt economic growth, increase the deficit and, well, not much else other than making rich people richer.