You have probably heard of the shamelessly self professed “Toughest Sheriff in America”, Maricopa County Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio. For years he has been making a PR spectacle of himself all the while running an unconstitutionally deplorable jail system, letting inmates die under tortuous conditions, and violating the civil rights and liberties of everybody in sight, especially minorities. The House Judiciary Committee has just issued a letter calling on Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to investigate allegations of misconduct by Arpaio. There are a lot of grounds for the action sought by HJC, lets look at them.

Lieberman’s numbers in Connecticut are in the tank.   In a head-to-head race Dick Blumenthal would beat him 58% to 30%.  His approval rating with Democrats in his own state is 21/70 — he has to get with the program or face an electoral wipeout in 2012.  The Ryan Grim article Klein links to says he only came in  at the end of the negotiations, in time to take credit and get his face before the camera. 

That’s the Lieberman you can count on.

The guy who pushed through a series of devastating, deficit-causing tax cuts when he was House Majority Leader in the Minnesota state legislature is now putting on a big show of oh-so-reluctantly accepting the couple of billion in Federal stimulus-package money coming Minnesota’s way. Just watch him and his act on PBS’ News Hour from last week.

I love this picture. The joy, the affectionate smooch, the playful giggle. Just made me laugh out loud when I saw it. Happy Valentine’s Day to one and all.

It’s been a long week, full of twists and turns, crankiness and anxiety, laughter and tears. At the end of the day, what we all have is our families, our friends, the people we care about…and each other.

Featuring new videos from Garfunkel and Oates and Peter Bjorn and John.

Ready yourself for the shrieks, the cries, the dittohead fury…the wingnut run on Depends: Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair told Congress today that instability in countries around the world caused by the current global economic crisis rather than terrorism is the primary near-term security threat to the United States….Blair also raised the specter of the “high levels of violent extremism” in the turmoil of the 1920s and 1930s along with “regime-threatening instability” if the economic crisis persists over a one- to two-year period.

Oh, dear. Mr. Boehner’s all sad again, because the Democrats aren’t being respectful of the minority party, like a majority party should be. Badumpcha. Tip your waiters and try the veal.

With the arrival of Senator Sherrod Brown from his mother’s wake, the Democrats found their 60th vote to pass the $787 billion Economic Stimulus bill tonight.

Since July 2008, when hotel owner Doug Manchester’s $125,000 seed-money donation to Proposition 8 was revealed, a broad coalition of labor and the LGBT community has boycotted his Hyatt hotel in San Diego. On Sunday, Bill Clinton is scheduled to deliver a speech there. He’s being asked to honor the boycott. Will he?

Poor, poor Stewart Parnell. A tragic figure, a martyr almost, whose only flaw was a little bit of sociopathic avarice. It’s almost enough to make one weep.