http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/3681923

“The Republican Party wants a new base. The Republican leadership isn’t conservative. They’re not particularly crazy about conservatives,” Limbaugh said. “I’m a fairly prominent media conservative, I get more grief than the Taliban gets. I get more grief than Al Qaeda gets. All conservatives do because we constitute a threat to the way Washington views the country. And I don’t think it’s so much conservative vs. liberal, although it is, but it’s Washington vs. the rest of the country … and Washington has a mindset and a desire for the country that doesn’t dovetail with the majority of the American people.”

When asked about the Democratic Party, Limbaugh said that he was interested in “defeating them, not compromising with them.” He added, “The Republicans are shell-shocked. The image of racist, sexist, bigot homophobe has taken hold. They think that’s what people think of them. I think they’ve lost their confidence … and they have bought into this notion of why they are hated and disliked, and they are trying to change rather than defeat the people responsible for it all. I’m about defeating them within the political arena of ideas.”

Personally, I think Republicans *are* a greater threat to the longterm viability of the U.S. as a free nation than the Taliban (the Taliban isn’t voting to take away voting rights, as one example), and it seems like more and more people are noticing that curious situation.

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/07/31/2387331/north-carolina-governor-cookies/

n Tuesday afternoon, McCrory — along with four of his security guards — came out of his mansion’s gates to deliver a plate of chocolate chip cookies to the crowd of protesters. He handed the plate to one of the activists and reportedly told her, “These are for you. God bless you, God bless you, God bless you.”

The gesture wasn’t well-received by the reproductive health activists frustrated with the governor’s recent legislative decisions. The protesters, who considered the move to be condescending, didn’t eat any of the cookies. Instead, they slipped the plate back under the mansion gates along with a note reading “We want women’s health care, not cookies.” They also began a chant: “Hey Pat, that was rude. You wouldn’t give cookies to a dude.”

Is there a gold medal for patronizing?   These seems like a solid attempt to win it.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/07/26/business/halliburton-pleads-guilty-to-destroying-evidence-after-gulf-spill.html

HOUSTON — Halliburton has agreed to plead guilty to destruction of critical evidence after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010, the Justice Department announced on Thursday.

The oil services company said it would pay the maximum allowable fine of $200,000 and will be subject to three years of probation.

The maximum allowable fine should ALWAYS be expresses as a % of total lifetime earnings for corporate citizens who can’t, it seems, ever serve prison time….which denies real people of a % of total lifetime earning