If you read me often enough, you have probably noticed that I tend to check various news and opinion sites throughout the TradMed each morning, after I’ve spent a few minutes reviewing emails and jobs sites. Most of the time, I just shake my head at the various levels of stupidity I find, not being able to quite give it the full YOU HAVE GOT TO BE F*CKING KIDDING ME! treatment so richly deserved. Then there are days like today where teh stoopid is so truly dumbfounding.

If nothing else, the #occupywallstreet protests, happening in the heart of the world’s financial center, have forced elites to reckon with their own precarious position. The New York Times does the honors today, connecting the protests to other uprisings around the globe, and making a subtle (and also wrong) point that there’s something anti-democratic about popular protest.

In the latest twist to the will-they-or-won’t-they withdraw all American troops from Iraq after December, the Iraqi foreign minister said today that there would be some post-2011 training mission approved by the Iraqi government. That may or may not be consistent with the preferred troop levels the Obama Administration leaked publicly.

Under the electoral college system, presidential elections are decided on a state by state basis. In a relatively close election it is possible for a candidate to lose the national popular vote but still win the necessary 270 electoral college votes by performing well in and winning just enough swing states. The relative unemployment condition in key swing states could thus provide a narrow opening for Obama to win.

Paul Ryan is desperately trying to resuscitate his failed plan to end Medicare by offering it as the replacement element in the long-sought “repeal and replace” strategy for the Affordable Care Act.

The Department of Justice today filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to review an appellate court’s ruling that struck down the Affordable Care Act.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) announced a roundup over the last week of nearly 3,000 alleged criminal immigrants from across the country. The action follows a recent order from the Department of Homeland Security to focus only on serious criminals in their deportation efforts. But why is the Department of Justice undermining the Dream Act?

Halliburton and other big energy companies have been successful in keeping the chemicals they are using for natural gas fracking “proprietary.” Likewise, the way in which they dispose of fracking waste water is a mystery, thanks to loopholes afforded by millions of dollars in lobbying and donations to elected officials. Sign the petition and help us force Ken Salazar to require drilling companies to disclose the chemicals they use.

U.S. Senator Scott Brown (R-MA) has been dodging questions about his stance on the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA, S811). ENDA would prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. He also mistakenly thinks Massachusetts already took care of this.

After the successful recall of two Republican state Senators, the next target by the youth/labor/progressive alliance in the state is Scott Walker. Under Wisconsin law, petitioners have to wait until Walker has been in office a year to submit a recall petition. This gives Walker and his cronies in the legislature ample time to change the recall process.