Stories to Watch: 10/27/11
Finally got around to trying an alternative to kneading bread dough today. It’s pretty easy, kind of like the way you work pizza dough. Takes a while though — more than two hours. Still, most of that time it’s just sitting in a bowl, so — physically speaking — it’s a lot easier. I’ve got the dough in the fridge and I’ll rise it and bake it tomorrow. We’ll see how that goes. Now here’s the news…
Google’s Politics & Elections Blog has a post up comparing searches for the Occupy movement and the Tea Party. Bottom line; search traffic for Occupy Wall Street is 66% higher than the Tea Party’s traffic ever was.
Another interesting trend in search traffic from the Google report: “Despite big leads in polls and search traffic for Occupy Wall Street, it is almost in a dead heat with the Tea Party for the volume of news coverage. Using Advanced Search in Google News we found that between October 7 and last week, Occupy Wall Street only barely bests the Tea Party when we examine the number of news pieces covering each movement: 29,000 to 22,000.” While I don’t have any doubt that the ‘baggers are over-covered, terms like “Tea Party-backed Senator” and “Rep. X, a Tea Party favorite” probably have a lot to do with those numbers. Wait until we have a few “Occupy Wall Street” senators and representatives to talk about and we’ll see if those stats change.
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, perhaps realizing that calling a police riot “a generally peaceful resolution” to the Occupy Oakland protest was absurd bullshit, issues a second statement saying she stands with the 99%. Mitt “The Weathervane” Romney would be proud.
Boehner says he has “great concerns” that the president is overstepping his constitutional authority to deal with student loans and mortgages without congress. But those concerns aren’t so great that he’d take Obama to court and risk being proven as wrong as he obviously is.
Mark this as the moment the Rick Perry campaign began to wind down.
Bad news for the GOP; the economy is recovering much faster than expected. Going to have to sabotage that right pronto.
This is censorship taken to a whole other level; North Korea basically exiles citizens working in Libya, so they won’t come home and spread tales of revolution and freedom.
Finally, even millionaires want higher taxes on millionaires. In other words, Republicans are “defending” people who don’t want to be defended.
Stories to Watch: 10/26/11
Geez, it’s getting cold. I’m calling an early snow this year. Wait and see. Now here’s the news…
After police riot in response to Occupy Oakland, an Iraq war vet is in critical condition after being shot in the head with a “police projectile.”
In the aftermath of the widely and thoroughly documented police brutality, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan issues a statement commending Police Chief Howard Jordan “for a generally peaceful resolution to a situation that deteriorated and concerned our community.” The gall it takes to release such a statement is, quite frankly, astonishing.
The shifting sands of Rick Perry’s birtherism shift yet again.
Fox News blames the non-existent ACORN for the Occupy movement. Seriously, that’s just lazy. It’s time to cook up a new batch of Fifth Columnists who have the advantage of actually existing, guys.
Rep. Chelsea Clinton?
The Obama administration pushes student loan reform, addressing a common complaint among the 99-percenters.
Hold onto your hat, because things are going to get stupid. The Supreme Court will begin hearing challenges to the Affordable Care Act as soon as Nov. 10. Expect the wingnuts to take to twitter shrieking about “death panels” again.
Finally, Rick Perry actually buys an ad promising a pretty disappointing rate of job growth.
