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Every time Michelle Obama does something to push for our children to be a little healthier the right goes ape shit, instantly associating it with socialism. Here’s Drudge right now:

The article linked by the image reads as follows:

Michelle Obama said Thursday that a pledge by the Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants and its sister chains to serve healthier meals is a "breakthrough moment" for the industry.

Darden Restaurants Inc. is pledging to cut calories and sodium in its meals by 20 percent over a decade. Among promised changes for children, a fruit or vegetable side and low-fat milk will become standard with kids' meals unless a substitution is requested.

No more French fries for the little ones unless an adult asks for them.

"With this new commitment, Darden is doing what no restaurant company has done before," said the first lady, who joined executives of Orlando, Fla.-based Darden for the announcement at an Olive Garden restaurant in Maryland, just outside Washington.

How dare she want our children to be healthier and maybe live longer! Just like that socialist Laura Bush. How dare she want out children to learn, or that socialist Nancy Reagan, who wanted our children to stay off drugs!

This is how ridiculous America’s right-wing is and it gets worst. Just read this one.

In 2007 Rick Perry signed an executive order in Texas requiring all public school girls to get the vaccine Gardasil, which protects against the sexually transmitted disease HPV. The decision caused outrage on all sides of the political spectrum and Perry later had to rescind the order.

Gardasil is manufactured by Merck. During Monday night’s Republican debate, Michele Bachmann went after Perry over the executive order and tied it to money Perry had received from Merck. Perry claimed that he only received $5,000 from the drug maker, but it turns out that’s not the whole story:

As for the claim that Merck has given a $5,000 dollar contribution to the governor's campaign, that is true, but not the whole story.

Perry also received $6,000 from Merck's political action committee during a different re-election campaign.

Texas Ethics Commission records show he has accepted $29,500 from the Merck PAC during his entire tenure as governor, $22,000 of it prior to his 2007 order.

There’s also the story of Mike Toomey, Perry’s chief of staff. Toomey was the chief lobbyist for Merck and a state legislature before working for Perry. He also gives big to his buddy:

Toomey himself, has contributed more than $48,000 to Texans for Rick Perry during his decade in office.

If you can’t beat them, change the system so you can!

Here’s the story. The electoral college is mandated by the Constitution as the way to determine the winner of presidential elections, but it’s up to each state to decide how to apportion their electoral votes. Traditionally, states have chosen a winner-take-all system, because that maximizes the state’s clout. Indeed, that’s why large and close states such as Pennsylvania, Florida, and Ohio are so important in presidential elections.

But now, as Nick Baumann reports, Republicans who control Pennsylvania government after the 2010 elections are pushing a scheme to apportion electoral votes by Congressional district (as Maine and Nebraska currently do). The effect would be to basically make Pennsylvania a marginal player in the 2012 election. After all, most House districts (including those in the Keystone State) have lopsided partisan majorities, so they wouldn’t be in play, and parties would be unlikely to devote serious resources to try to pick off a couple of electoral votes in the swing districts — and even less unlikely to devote the massive resources it would take to capture the two remaining at-large votes, given that it would be far more efficient to use the money in much smaller states with more (winner-take-all) electoral votes up for grabs.

Last week during his address to Congress, President Obama talked about our crumbling infrastructure. One project he highlighted was the Brent Spence bridge, which connects Cincinnati to Northern Kentucky. This bridge is a part of the most major north/south corridor in the United States  - I-75. It is a vital part of transportation, meaning it’s a vital part of commerce. If it were to be unexpectedly shutdown, it would be a nightmare not only for the greater Cincinnati area, but far a large portion of the eastern United States.

The following day this area got another warning about the deteriorating bridge. In Louisville the I-64 bridge crossing the Ohio River into Indiana was suddenly shutdown because of cracks.  The video on this page shows the traffic nightmare commuters experienced yesterday morning from the closure of this bridge.

While our leaders have spent the past decade engaged in extreme partisan warfare, America has fallen apart. We have a Republican Party that looks at replacing these important parts of our infrastructure and economy as being “pork”.  Remember this scene?

If you watch Fox news or read the right wing blogs, that’s exactly what you would think. Yesterday Fox ran this clip of Hoffa warming up the crowd for President Obama:

The “let’s take these son of a bitches out” is the big part the right is focusing on. You can see that by just looking at this thread on memeorandum or by reading Drudge:

But is that what Hoffa really said, or did Fox go into some creative editing? If you guessed creative editing, then you are the winner. Here’s the context Hoffa was talking in, which was conveniently edited out by Fox:

HOFFA: Everybody here's got to vote. If we go back and keep the eye on the prize,let's take these son of a bitches out and give America back to America where we belong! Thank you very much!

The big buzz today has been the change in the GOP Presidential field. Essentially we are now looking at three candidates. Here they are in this screenshot from the HuffPo:

So the three we have to watch out for are Romney, Perry and Bachmann. All three of them are scary and can pose a possible challenge to President Obama, but one really stands out. This is one that I have warned of before - Michele Bachmann (see here, here and here). Still, I hear countless on the left saying there is no way Bachmann will get the nomination, let alone win. I have to disagree with these people and our changing political landscape is all the evidence I need.

First off there were dozens of races last year the pundits and politicians thought a fringe candidate wouldn't win, yet we ended up with a lot of "Tea Party" candidates in Congress. This should have been a wake up call to people on the right and left, but it wasn't. Instead they still look at candidates like Bachmann and feel there is no way she can win.

So how can this all go against the left? Let's start with the primary. First off we have Rick Perry and Mitt Romney, both of which don't have the best records in terms of conservative values. Bachmann places a lot better and her lack of actual leadership can actually prove to be a plus against these two.

According to a tweet from CNBC, Ruppert Murdoch is reportedly considering stepping down as CEO of News Corp.

It's interesting this tweet came on the even of Murdoch's much anticipated testimony before the U.K. Parliament today.

In other News Corp news, Rudy "9/11" Giuliani has decided to throw 9/11 victims under the bus to support his "friend". What a low-life scum this guy is.

Bob Cesca has posted the following chart, showing how the share of income labor sees is at a historic low:

What's interesting is how much the share dipped during the Bush years. During Clinton's term, the rate was on the rise, after a substantial fall during the Reagan and Bush 41 years.

So what does all that mean? Trickle down works!

Of course the trickle down I'm talking about isn't the one Republicans push. Instead it's one that see's the wealth of America rapidly decrease as the money trickles down to the mass population.

And speaking of Republican economics, this highlights another problem. Look again at the big dip in the Bush years. Republicans constantly told us how bigger tax cuts to corporate America would mean more jobs and better wages. Care to re-think that position?

In a world of supply side economics, the equating factor is simple - if the people have more money then they will buy more goods. Instead Republicans want you to think that if the big corporations have more money, they'll hire more people and put out more goods, even if those goods won't sell. It's that kind of thinking that will keep us in a recession and cause our middle class to keep declining. It's that kind of thinking that the media and right wing has pushed for years and so many Americans now buy into it, despite the historic numbers showing something totally different.