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Today is a day two incredibly different groups celebrate. Marijuana enthusiasts, who nationwide adopted a bit of 1970s high school slang from Northern California, are holding various events around the country today, because it is “4/20.” Not as well-publicized (by design, for the most part), white supremacists and other hate groups celebrate today as the birthday of Adolph Hitler. The two celebrations and the two groups have nothing in common, I should point out. I’d even bet the overlap between the two groups is almost non-existent.

April 20th is also the day the Columbine shooting happened in Colorado in 1999, but the two shooters may not have picked this day for anything to do with Hitler, they may have been one day late in their plans (April 19th is the anniversary of the fiery end to the Waco siege in 1993, and also of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995). April 20th is also, by coincidence, the same day BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil well blew up in the Gulf of Mexico.

What does it all mean in the grand scheme of things? Not a lot, unless you happen to be an astrologist or a numerologist. Or a university administrator trying to stop all the students from blatantly “sparking up” in public, I suppose. Why, you may wonder, am I even bringing up Hitler and explosions and other things that are, like, totally bumming everyone out? Well, because (sadly enough) Hitler’s in the news.

The Republicans seem to have chosen Double Down On The Crazy™ as their new campaign motto for 2012. One Senate candidate, in West Virginia, says new anti-smoking regulations are pretty much the same thing as that time when Hitler made all the Jews in Germany wear yellow Stars of David. Unfortunately, I am not making this up.

Republicans are not alone in gratuitous violations of Godwin’s Law, though, as a Catholic bishop in Illinois just said that Obama was leading America down the same path as Stalin and Hitler. Because of all those millions of Catholics Obama has slaughtered. Oh, wait, that never happened, did it? We’ll just have to see whether the Vatican has anything to say about this, or whether it’s too busy cracking down on nuns for the theological crime of militant feminism (and of thinking for themselves).

In other news this week, Ted Nugent is saying crazy things (as usual), including calling himself (bizarrely) a “black Jew at a Nazi-Klan rally,” and Michele Bachmann is saying offensive things (also, as usual), including gratuitous use of the term “tar baby” when describing our president. This is one week after a Republican declared that over 75 Democrats in Congress are card-carrying members of the Communist Party, I hasten to remind everyone. It’s easy to lose track, because the Double Down On The Crazy™ campaign is fully underway.

To put it another way: don’t expect things to get better any time soon. Campaign season 2012 is off to an insanity-laced start, folks! No wonder so many across this great nation have decided that today would be a good day to celebrate tetrahydrocannabinol instead. You can see their point… through the billowing clouds of smoke.

Every so often, Democrats play the game of politics brilliantly. Unfortunately, being Democrats, they usually forget all about it when it comes time to campaign.

Here is the best example of what I mean (the best of all time in our own archives, going all the way back to FTP[31]): four years ago, 178 Republicans in the House of Representatives voted against H.R. 1113, which was introduced in the spirit of “celebrating the role of mothers in the United States” and “supporting the goals and ideals of Mother’s Day.” Once again, in case you missed it, 178 Republicans voted against it. Here is a handy list of them, for easy reference. The Washington Post even ran an article about this vote with the headline: “Republicans Vote Against Moms; No Word Yet on Puppies, Kittens.”

Was this vote ever mentioned in the campaign? Not that we are aware. Was it turned into a stinking, steaming pile of campaign mud which was flung in the face of every single one of those 178 Republicans? Not that we heard about. Not even once. Why not? We have no answer to that, sadly.

Now, just for one tiny little minute, imagine that the vote had gone the other way — and 178 Democrats had voted against honoring moms. Picture, if you will, what the Rightwingosphere would have said about it. Extrapolate it out — how often would this issue have been raised by Republicans in campaign ads and campaign stump speeches? Our guess is: with every chance they got Windows 7 Key, until Election Day, and far beyond.

We bring this bit of history up in prelude to this week’s winner of the prestigious Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week award, Representative Pete Stark. Stark, this week, introduced legislation titled the “Women’s Options to Raise Kids Act.” You’ll immediately note that, for once, a Democrat actually came up with a catchy acronym: the “WORK Act.”

Jumping into the Mommy Wars fray, Stark is essentially daring Republicans to support stay-at-home mothers. He is essentially saying: “You want to make political hay over whether mothers who stay at home ‘work’ or not? Fine. Then put your money where your mouth is.”

The bill would allow raising children to be defined as “work” by the federal government, which would help millions of low-income women in a very tangible way. As Stark explains in his press release, Mitt Romney “was for forcing low-income mothers into the workforce before he decided ‘all moms are working moms’. I think we should take Mr. Romney at his most recent word and change our federal laws to recognize the importance and legitimacy of raising young children. That’s why I’ve introduced the WORK Act to provide low-income parents the option of staying home to raise young children without being pushed into poverty.”

This is a brilliant political move, because it puts the focus squarely where it should be: do Republicans just want to give lip service to the idea that mothers raising children is “work,” or do they have the courage of their convictions when it comes to federal law?

To put it even more bluntly: put up, or shut up.

But this sort of political tactic only works if Democrats get behind it and scream it from the mountaintops. Which, sadly, they are just not that good at doing. In other words, much like the vote on honoring Mother’s Day, if nobody even mentions it during campaign season, that it is nothing more than a futile effort, a brilliant voice crying in a roaring windstorm.

It is up to Democrats to force this issue. Republicans are never going to vote for this in a million billion years (in their vernacular, this “expands welfare”). But they also are never going to pay a political price unless Democrats hold their feet to the fire in a very public manner.

Pete Stark has teed up this particular issue, and all that remains is for Democrats to drive it as far down the fairway as possible. He can really do no more — it is now up to Democrats to flog this issue in the media every time they open their mouths in the next two months. Sadly, though, the bill only has 17 cosponsors, to date.

But for giving Democrats an opportunity (which they will likely let fall by the wayside), Representative Stark is our Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week this week. This is how the political game should be played, folks.

[Congratulate Representative Pete Stark on his House contact page, to let him know you appreciate his efforts. And contact your own representative and ask them why they haven't cosponsored this bill, yet, as well.]

Three scandals erupted this week, but none of them are particularly political in scope. The Secret Service and armed services got caught partying down in Colombia, but neither group is political in nature (although, boy, it certainly gave the news media a juicy sex scandal, complete with prostitution, to yammer about all week long, didn’t it?). The General Services Administration is still squirming through the fallout of their own party habits, but it’s hard to imagine a less political arm of the federal government than the G.S.A., really. More disgusting photos were released from a war zone, but again, this doesn’t have much to do with politics, so we’re giving all three a pass today.

There was a sexual harassment scandal happening down in North Carolina steeped in politics, but frankly, this column’s already too long, so if you’re interested in all the details, check out the local news reporting, because we’re going to save a few electrons by refraining from digging too far into it.

Instead, we’ll just hand out a few quick awards and move on. To David Parker, the North Carolina state Democratic Party chairman, a (Dis-)Honorable Mention for the way he handled it and for not stepping down fast enough. The man accused of sexual harassment did resign immediately, but that doesn’t stop us from awarding former Executive Director of the Democratic Party in North Carolina Jay Parmley the Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week, on his way out the door.

[Because he has resigned, Jay Parmley is now a private citizen and it is our policy not to provide contact information for such. However, you can always contact the North Carolina Democratic Party, to let them know what you think of the whole situation.]

Volume 207 (4/20/12)

We haven’t done a traditional discretely-numbered talking points in a few weeks here, so we’ve got somewhat of a backlog. Because of this, the talking points are kind of all over the map this week.

As always, these are offered up in the hopes that Democrats — especially the ones interviewed on television — will see the benefit in framing a few things in terms that can help them out politically. So, without further ado, let’s get to it.

   Why your boss shouldn’t have any say in your health insurance

This one is, frankly, outrageous. In the literal sense of that word: provoking outrage. This is why there are laws which “intrude on religious belief” in this country, and it’s time some brave Democrat connected these dots.

“An Oregon couple just had their children taken away from them because, sadly, they let their 16-year-old son die rather than providing him with needed medical care. The reason they did this was because of their religious beliefs. They tried ‘faith healing’ instead of medicine, and their son died as a direct result. While we can all agree that this is indeed child abuse, under a recent Republican proposal, what would happen to you if one of those parents was your boss? What kind of health insurance do you think he or she would offer you, if Republicans had their way? Republicans want to try and pass laws which allow anyone’s religious beliefs to trump basic health care for any of their employees, no matter what those beliefs are. This is precisely why Democrats killed such cruel legislation, so that you don’t have to care what your boss’ religious beliefs are, when it comes to your own health insurance rights as a worker.”

   The last shall be first

Speaking of religion and politics…

“I see John Boehner doesn’t always listen to the Catholic bishops, when they disagree with his party’s stance on major issues. The Catholic bishops wrote Boehner recently about the Paul Ryan budget which would gut safety-net spending for the poor and vulnerable. The bishops are trying to remind Republicans that Jesus said a whole lot of things about how we treat the poor, but apparently the Republicans aren’t all that interested. In a statement that ranks right up there with ‘we had to destroy the village to save it,’ Boehner said that slashing spending on the poor would actually be a good thing for poor folks, while simultaneously doling out more tax cuts to the rich. I believe the Bible talks about this sort of logic in a number of places, but I’ll leave it to the bishops to make the theological case.”

   What do Republicans have against mothers?

Beat this drum as loudly and as often as possible.

“Four years ago, 178 Republicans in the House of Representatives voted against honoring mothers and Mother’s Day. Now, Republicans are against the federal government formally recognizing that mothers who stay at home and care for their young children are performing valuable “work.” When Mitt Romney wants to pander to women, he brings up the subject of mothers and work — but when it comes to actually doing anything to make these women’s lives easier, the Republican Party is dead set against it. Does Mitt Romney support the Women’s Options to Raise Kids Act? Why not? Does Mitt support granting Social Security credits to stay-at-home moms? Why not? Would Mitt have voted with 178 Republicans against honoring mothers? Maybe someone should ask him these questions, don’t you think?”

   Gimmick? I’ll tell you what the real gimmick is…

We had two bills on Capitol Hill this week on the subject of taxes, neither one of which is going to arrive on the president’s desk. But lots of political fun was had by all.

“Republicans successfully filibustered a bill which would have more fairly taxed millionaires and billionaires — so they don’t pay a lower tax rate than a fireman, a police officer, or a member of the military. They called this bill a ‘gimmick’ even though overwhelming majorities of the public agrees with Democrats on the ‘Buffett Rule’ legislation. You know what’s the real ‘gimmick,’ though? The bit of the tax code that the ultra-wealthy use to pay half the tax rate of a middle-class worker. That is a gimmick. The way the wealthy make most of their money is taxed at a much lower rate than the way 99 percent of Americans get paid. Sounds pretty gimmicky, doesn’t it? That’s what President Obama is trying to fix, but the Republicans insist on protecting this gimmick, so folks like Mitt Romney and the Kardashians can pay half the tax rate you do.”

   Dumb ALEC

Finally some attention is being paid to a nefarious conservative group. Which — astoundingly — actually made the group change its ways (at least partially).

“There’s a group called ALEC which got a bit of attention this week, because their corporate sponsors were fleeing. They’re the folks who were behind the Florida ’stand your ground’ law. That’s what the group ALEC does — it writes ultraconservative legislation and then hands it to state representatives so they can pass a boilerplate law. Like voter ID laws designed to disenfranchise millions of American citizens, for instance. Until very recently, this group was funded by such American icons in the business world as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Kraft Office 2007 Key, and McDonalds. Now pressure is being brought to bear, and these corporate sponsors are pulling their dollars out. The group has now wisely backed off on some of the worst legislation they had been pushing, but only because they were getting such bad press. I used the word ‘wisely’ there, but that doesn’t mean they are now some sort of ’smart’ ALEC — in fact, I’d still call them a very dumb ALEC.”

   Ahh!!! The VLWC!!! Everybody run!!! In different directions!!!

Got your membership card yet? I’m still waiting for mine, personally.

“So I guess Mitt Romney thinks there is a, quote, vast left-wing conspiracy, unquote, out there in the media who all get their marching orders simultaneously each morning. This is laughable, because I have to tell you, even if all Democrats did get marching orders and talking points on a daily basis Server 2003 Key, they’d still likely have the same old ‘herding cats’ problem. I don’t know what Mitt’s been smoking this week, but it does sound like he’s getting a little paranoid, doesn’t it? Maybe it was a few minutes after 4:20 when he said that, I don’t know.”

   Seriously, though…

Put your own money where your mouth is (OK, maybe first put down the blunt).

“Two states have citizens’ initiatives on the ballot this year which would legalize non-medical, recreational marijuana for all adults. I encourage everyone to check out the Colorado Marijuana Initiative and the Marijuana Reform Initiative in Washington state. The Washington one is even running a ‘money bomb’ effort today, on 4/20, should you be inclined to support such an idea with your donations.”

Chris Weigant blogs at:

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant
Become a fan of Chris on Huffington Post
Full archives of FTP columns: FridayTalkingPoints.com
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Rick Santorum admitted  Thursday that his war chest had dried up by the time he’d reached Pennsylvania, and that his campaign  was in debt for the first time, convincing him he could not  compete against Mitt Romney in the Keystone State.

“We didn’t have a lot of money to begin with, but we were at a point where we simply had in the last couple races, really worked hard and spent money, and particularly in Wisconsin, we felt we had to win Wisconsin in order to do well in Pennsylvania, and it was a situation where we simply didn’t have the resources to compete going forward,” Santorum said on the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins radio show Thursday, his first radio interview since he suspended his campaign Tuesday. “We for the first time in the campaign had a debt.  The debt was … more substantial than I was comfortable with.”

Santorum, who said he defied the odds and ran a campaign “on a shoestring,” disclosed for the first time that in the week after his loss in the Wisconsin primary he’d   ”basically raised almost no money.

“It was a very very small trickle of funds that were coming in.  We realized it’s one thing to go out and compete in Pennsylvania.  Romney had already laid down $4 million of advertising, and we were looking at probably not being able to spend a penny on advertising.  You just reach a point where you want to compete, but you have to be able to compete, and we felt we couldn’t.”

Santorum’s strongest fundraising came after his Iowa win, and after his trifecta victories in February, when he won the Colorado, Minnesota  and the Missouri primaries. In the three days following those wins, the campaign raised  $3 million.  In February alone, it  hauled in $9 million. Its Iowa effort  ran on a shoestring, but after Santorum’s virtual tie there replica watches,  the campaign raised $4.5 million  in January.

But  trying to compete with the Romney campaign’s high-dollar spending in advertising throughout the primary and after an undoubtedly expensive  trip to Puerto Rico that failed to yield delegates replica watches, the campaign’s funds had run out.

Despite having plenty of  possibilities to praise Romney during the interview, Santorum didn’t take the opportunity,  nor did he talk about  future support. It’s widely believed that Santorum will endorse Romney replica watches, even though Romney’s name was noticeably missing from Santorum’s withdrawal speech Tuesday.

The same afternoon that Santorum dropped out of the race, Santorum adviser John Brabender told ABC News that the former Pennsylvania senator  and Romney were already in contact and an endorsement was expected.

“They had a conversation,” Brabender said. “They will have a meeting down the road. I would imagine a national endorsement would come up at that time. Clearly, the goal is to beat Barack Obama, and anything Rick can do to facilitate that, Rick will do.”

On Wednesday evening, Santorum’s biggest donor, Foster Friess, said he expected Santorum to support Romney, and he would do the same.

“There’s a lot at stake,” Friess said. “I’ve had some conversations with his people, but not with him directly about how I can help.”

(Getty Images)

GROSSE POINT FARMS, Mich. — As the accusations of bullying continued to follow Mitt Romney on the campaign trail Top Tattoo Guns, another former friend and classmate of the presumptive GOP nominee said it was a “shock” to hear the stories and it wasn’t the friend he knew Top Tattoo Inks, describing Romney as more of a prankster than a bully.

“I would say the pranking would ring true, but the bullying was just a shock to me,” Peter Maxwell told ABC News.

In a twist, it was Maxwell’s own brother Philip who joined four other men who described a troubling incident they said they witnessed, in a story first reported by the Washington Post.

The Maxwell brothers both graduated from the prestigious Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., Peter in 1964, one year before his brother Phillip and Romney.

Phillip Maxwell and the four others recounted a story of Romney as a teenager cutting the hair of a student presumed to be gay while he was pinned to the ground.

Phillip Maxwell called it a “haunting memory” in an interview with ABC News and said it was a “hack job” with “clumps” of the boy’s “hair taken off.” Phillip Maxwell even called the boys, himself included, a “pack of dogs.”

Following Phillip’s account, his brother Peter is now coming forward with his own description of Mitt Romney as a high school student.

“For Mitt to be a bully just shocks me. We grew up with him. He was the kind of a guy who would bend over backwards to do something for you and would go out of his way to help people and for him to be characterized as a bully would be the farthest thing from the truth,” Maxwell said.

Peter Maxwell describes himself as a Republican and said he voted for Romney in the Michigan primary in February and said he will vote for him in November.

Peter Maxwell said the incident, which he says Phillip didn’t reveal to him until month ago, is surprising but something to be taken into the context of the time. He also said he saw Cranbrook as quite accepting, with students of all religions and cultures, calling it a “mix bag.”

Phillip Maxwell, who told ABC News he votes for both Republicans and Democrats, said he was there, describing the incident differently.

“When you see somebody who is simply different taken down that way and is terrified and you see that look in their eye you never forget it. And that was what we all walked away with,” Phillip Maxwell said.

In what now appears to have become a debate within their own family, Peter Maxwell said his brother, with whom he speaks with frequently, has a tendency to “expound on things.”

“He kind of gets into the emotions of a situation or a moment in time and loves to expound on things,” Peter Maxwell said of his brother. “I’m not necessarily saying exaggerate, but wants to take things to a higher level and he made a comment the other day, ‘Oh God, today they would consider that almost  assault and battery.’ And I said Setting Tattoo Machine, ‘You sound like a prosecutor in Northern Michigan.’ … I  said, ‘Come on, ‘What really was it?’ And he said, ‘The kid had long hair and it wasn’t really what people were into at the time.’ And I said, ‘Let’s kind of look at it that way. Let’s not make it a national media event for an incident that happened in 1965.’”

When asked about the other men who described the incident in a similar way, Peter Maxwell acknowledged he a had already graduated and was not there, but still believed it was a prank and not bullying.

The charge of “assault and battery” is something Phillip Maxwell brought up as well with ABC News and said that as a lawyer it is how he now sees it.

The brothers clearly have different views of the incident.

Peter Maxwell said Romney liked to pull pranks, something the Romney campaign and even his wife Ann have liked to mention on the trail, but he stressed that he saw the pranks as never “mean spirited.” Maxwell recalled a culture of pranking and worse, including drag racing and underage drinking, but stressed “gay bashing” and bullying was something he never saw.

“He always had a little bit of twinkle in his eye and always, ‘OK, maybe we can make a joke out of this,” Peter Maxwell said, referring to Romney.

“I just don’t think it was a gay bashing moment. I think it was more like, ‘Let’s cut this kid’s hair. He doesn’t fit the Cranbrook profile,’” Maxwell said.

When asked if he believed it was possible that Romney didn’t  remember the incident when it was so seared into the memory of others, Peter Maxwell, who does not remember the boy in question, called it a “lapse of convenience,” but also noted how “busy” Romney has been over the last “50 years.”

ABC News’ David Muir and Barbara Lowe contributed to this story.

SHOWS: World News

CAIRO (Reuters) – The Arab League chief said Thursday’s suicide bombings that killed 55 people in Damascus were intended to undercut a U.N. mission to monitor a Syria truce brokered by envoy Kofi Annan.

Nabil Elaraby said those behind the attacks, the deadliest since an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began 14 months ago, sought to sabotage the work of the U.N. observers sent to verify a much-violated ceasefire declared on April 12.

“This shouldn’t be ignored and carries dangerous implications for the future of Kofi Annan’s mission,” he said in a statement.

The U.N.-Arab League envoy is struggling to keep alive his six-point peace plan and avert full-scale civil war in Syria. He has said the government has yet to implement the agreement properly How To Tattoo Gun, while opposition forces have also broken the truce.

The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Thursday 849 people – 628 civilians and 221 soldiers, of whom 31 were defectors – had been killed since the truce was declared Handmade Tattoo Machines, not including those who died in the latest Damascus bombings.

The Arab League sent its own monitors to Syria late last year to check compliance with an earlier peace plan Tattooing Machine, but withdrew them in January when violence intensified.

(Reporting By Tamim Elyan; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

World

Last week must have looked like a dismal week for the folks overseeing the efforts to keep invasive Asian carp out of the Great Lakes. In the face of news that their vaunted anti-carp electric barrier had suffered a mechanical failure last week and a growing drumbeat from regional editorial boards angrily noting the slowness of action to beat back the invasion, the administration’s carp cognoscenti were facing some serious beatdown.

But the federal bureaucracy attempted to change the story line with a super-slick PR move that reframed the narrative away from the snail-paced failure that has marked the carp battle to date into one of “hope.” And most impressively, they did it with a press conference about nothing.

In what would normally be a yawn-inducing announcement, the Carp Crew announced that they would be changing the process currently underway to determine a solution to the movement of the carp out of the Mississippi River system by bringing Congress into the mix sooner. According to their story, the addition of an interim report to Congress sometime next year represents a “streamlining” of the process —  something that “could” expedite things. Yowza! To desperate ears in the region concerned about the imperilment of the Great Lakes and their significant fishing economies, it seemed like a string of hope; a flash of light from a distant shore. By couching the announcement in such terms, the administration turned attention away from the negative stories that would have otherwise dominated the media landscape and even garnered some slow clapping in headlines around the region that noted the professed“speed up” of the process.

Alas, there is no speed up. There is no progress. There is no light at the end of the long, extending tunnel. The announcement that seemed to beckon promisingly to a new day, really had no content Discount White Herve leger, solace or certitude for those of us hoping for a firm and determined commitment to a real solution from the agencies spending our tax dollars.

But hey, this isn’t just my take — the Carp Czar admits this himself in the AP coverage of the announcement:
[Jo-Ellen Darcy, assistant secretary of the Army for civil works] and John Goss Cheap Missoni Dresses, Asian carp program director for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, didn’t guarantee that the revised timetable would put a final solution in place sooner.
That’s it. By bringing Congress into the mix earlier — the same Congress that cannot currently bring itself to fix crumbling bridges or put out a job plan amidst one of the worst economic slumps in our history — the administration implies that they are goosing the process. Yet the same long timeframe for studies and process before a real solution is approved and executed is still there. The press announcement was really just a hollow, implied promise. 

While I am impressed with the way the carp folks have shifted the region’s attention this week, I would rather see that sort of deft refocusing maneuver played out in re-thinking Chicago’s waterways where an array of competing needs and visions for the system need to be brought together to not only stop the Asian carp and other invasive species, but to revitalize the economy on the banks of this resource with so much potential. Instead of re-imagining the narrative, we should be re-imagining the infrastructure.

A version of this post originally appeared on NRDC’s Switchboard blog.

“Carp Coming” image by jmogs via Flickr.

Sarah Palin

We can’t say we weren’t warned. When HarperCollins announced the publication of Sarah Palin’s America by Heart, six long months ago, there were signs that it might not be interesting. The book would contain “selections from classic and contemporary readings that have moved her” and “portraits of some of the extraordinary men and women she admires.” If you translated this from press release-ese, it sounded like a clip job.

A clip job wouldn’t have amused readers who paid $5 or $6 more for this book than they paid for the deeply discounted Going Rogue. The smart thing to do with a Palin book, if you’re a reviewer or a reporter, is to skim it. Look for names that will make good headlines. Look for attack lines and anecdotes. If Barack Obama’s name appears in the text, you have a story: Sarah Palin Slams President Over [Insert Subject Here].

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But I read America by Heart the same way I read Sarah Palin’s first No. 1 New York Times best-seller: I bought it, then tore through it. Palin’s memoir, aided substantially by the ghostly talents of Lynn Vincent, was addictively readable. Tabloid-y, possibly true details on the buffoons who staffed Palin’s gubernatorial office and 2008 campaign staffs were meshed with anecdotes loaned from Jack London about life on the Last Frontier. I think Joe Biden’s memoir is underrated, but there’s no image in Promises To Keep that sticks like Palin’s memory of her husband pulling off his mask, and with it some of the flesh on his face, after finishing an Iron Dog snowmobile * race.

Keep your expectations for the new book low, and they will be met. The Palin of Going Rogue was a mystery, emerging from a quasi-hiatus in which she communicated online and in infrequent Fox News interviews to tell her life story. The Palin of America by Heart is the Palin who appears on Fox News from her home studio overlooking Lake Lucille, who gives lengthy speeches about freedom at Tea Party rallies, whose tweets get more attention than entire books by Mitt Romney.

What do we learn that we didn’t know before? We have a longer version of her reading list. The chapters of America by Heart consist of thoughts from Palin, excerpts from articles or speeches she likes, more thoughts from Palin, and occasionally some reminders of how she really hasn’t gotten over the 2008 campaign.

“Remember the 2001 interview about the Constitution by then-Illinois state senator Barack Obama that surfaced during the 2008 campaign?” She then rehashes an idea she’s repeated on her Tea Party tour. When Obama argued that “the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties,” she says, he was accidentally describing why he wasn’t fit to govern. “The epitome of progressive thinking,” writes Palin, “was Barack Obama’s promise just before the 2008 election, that ‘we are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.’ ” Palin’s “rogue” moments that the media dismissed as weird, out-of-context attacks on Obama in 2008 are now part of the Tea Party’s catechism. She even makes multiple references to “clinging,” in case anyone forgot that Obama once belittled guns and religion.

Nothing that’s happened since the campaign seems to have inspired her as much. A strange literary tic of America by Heart recurs whenever Palin starts to describe her life since leaving the governorship of Alaska. She sets a scene, describes how she got there, and then—moves on. Her run-ins with real Americans are less opportunities to tell readers what those Americans think than occasions to tell us how deeply she understands them.

“We’ve visited Walter Reed Hospital to meet mighty warriors,” writes Palin, “and I’ve twice visited Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, where wounded troops from Iraq and Afghanistan receive treatment.”

The reader knows what’s coming next. Palin, the world’s most famous holder of a degree in journalism, will introduce those warriors. She pivots immediately. “Just before my visit,” she writes, “my brother sent me a description of the American military man that I think is spot-on—with the exception that it doesn’t include American military women.” There follow 19 paragraphs reprinting the entire letter, versions of which can be found in any number of places online. The mighty warriors retreat into the scenery, but Palin really Tattoo Supplies, really appreciated them.

And the whole book is like this. Palin is not living a celebrity’s life, you silly liberals—she is living the life of the mind. She is reading books by conservatives on topics that interested her and giving HarperCollins the chance to reprint chunks of them. “Reading about the faith roots of America in Matthew Spalding’s book We Still Hold These Truths,” she writes, “I learned that Tattoo Supplies, from the very beginning, our Founders expressed a profound belief in religious tolerance.” Later, she cites Newt Gingrich’s book Rediscovering God in America. She cites not just Milton Friedman, but libertarian godfather Leonard Read. If it starts to read like one of William Bennett’s primers, she’s got that covered, because she cites his The American Patriot’s Almanac and writes that Bennett is “a pretty great patriot himself.”

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2011 Lexus CT 200h prototype – Click above for high-res image gallery
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Toyota is no stranger to being first – Japanese luxury vehicles and hybrids chief among them. Although Acura may have launched earlier, Lexus remains the only Japanese luxury marque to market in Japan. And having launched in Europe shortly after America, Lexus was also the first to challenge the European heavyweights on their home turf Replica Karen Millen Dresses, and with its LS and LFA, it remains the only non-European marque to compete at the top level.

Credit Toyota Replica Marc Jacobs Dresses, as well Discount Chanel Dresses, for popularizing hybrid technology, as it launched the Prius domestically as the first mass-produced gas-electric, whereupon it has dominated the market with successive generations. But where the Japanese auto giant has really stood apart is in the combination of both luxury and hybrid technology.

Recognizing the technology’s popularity with upscale buyers Hale Bob Dresses sale, Lexus has carved out a niche in producing luxury hybrids. In fact Chloe Dresses sale, its lineup in many European markets is comprised exclusively of hybrids. The HS 250h launched late last year as the world’s first dedicated luxury hybrid model and now Lexus is branching out again by electrifying territory previously uncharted by Japanese automakers: the premium hatchback segment. We flew out to Toyota’s European headquarters to see how development of the new CT 200h has been coming along. Follow the jump to see what we found.

Related GalleryFirst Ride: 2011 Lexus CT 200h
Photos by Noah Joseph / Copyright ©2010 Weblogs, Inc.

A four-year-old boy is among nine people who have died on Australian roads so far over the Easter long weekend.

The boy was struck by a car as he crossed a road at Port Elliot, south of Adelaide, about 2pm (CST) on Sunday, police said.

A doctor and nurse who were nearby tried frantically to resuscitate the child but he died at the scene from head injuries.

Elsewhere Discount DKNY Dresses, three crashes claimed three lives in NSW, with two deaths each in Victoria and the NT, and one in Queensland.

A motorcyclist died when her machine collided with a car in the southeastern Queensland town of Birnam, near Beaudesert, about 10.50am (AEST) on Sunday.

In northern NSW a 45-year-old woman was killed when her car veered off the road in Woodenbong about 1.30am.

Also in the state’s north, a man died when his car left the Kamilaroi Highway and struck a tree at Curlewis, near Gunnedah, about 5.15am on Saturday.

On Friday, a 61-year-old man died when his car ran off the road in Leppington Buy Emilio Pucci Dresses, in Sydney’s west.

In the NT, a fiery car crash at Alice Springs killed two people on Saturday night.

Police said a disqualified driver sped away from officers after entering a roundabout in the wrong direction White Herve leger sale, and a short time later the car slammed into a power pole and burst into flames.

The 27-year-old male driver and a female passenger, who was thrown from the car, died at the scene, while two other women and a child were injured.

And in Victoria, a man and a woman aged in their 30s died when their slammed into a tree at Ringwood, in Melbourne’s east Discount Missoni Dresses, about 3.30am on Saturday.

The Easter toll, which began at midnight on Thursday and runs to midnight on Monday Buy Christian Audigier Clothes, coincides with Operation Crossroads Buy White Herve leger, a national police blitz on the roads over the long weekend.

The high-visibility operation sees police targeting excessive speed, fatigue, driver inattention and drink- and drug-affected driving.

A total of 15 deaths occurred on Australian roads last Easter.

(EDS: The Easter road toll figures are for the period 0001 April 5 to 2359 April 9)

Acura Advanced Sports Car Concept – click to view in our high-res gallery

Devotees of the late, great Acura NSX – and that’s just about everybody Cheap BCBG Dresses, really – have been waiting patiently for the second coming that once reportedly based on the Advanced Sports Car Concept shown above, but Honda keeps on making us wait longer. While there’s still more waiting to be done Replica Emilio Pucci Dresses, at least there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, as Honda has revealed that the new NSX will make its debut in 2010. Sometime.

The second-generation Japanese supercar was anticipated for a launch this year at the Tokyo show, but we were disappointed when the Honda pavilion was absent of any such high-performance wizardry. Since the cancellation of the original NSX, TSX and Prelude Buy Bandage dresses, the aging S2000 roadster has been left all alone to defend Honda’s honor on the sportscar front Cheap Christian Audigier Clothes, while Nissan gets all the glory with the new GT-R.

The new timeline is a bit later than the 2008/2009 launch date that was originally set down by Honda CEO Takeo Fukui Cheap Marc Jacobs Dresses, but if it manages to live up to its predecessor, we doubt anyone will be grumbling. After all Herve Leger gown sale, who recalls at this point how far behind schedule the Bugatti Veyron fell before its eventual debut?

[Source: Wards Auto via eGMCarTech]

Related GalleryAcura Advanced Sports Car Concept

Salman Rushdie

“I am delighted for him,” Ian McEwan said, when told that his friend and fellow novelist Salman Rushdie had been knighted. “He’s a wonderful writer, and this sends a firm message to the book-burners and their appeasers.” It would seem that the message was heard all too clearly, and not only in Iran and Pakistan.

This is the last honors list of Tony Blair’s long premiership—and it’s not Buckingham Palace but Downing Street Replica Movado Watches, with some help from pompous committees of “the great and the good,” deliberating who else might be considered great and good enough Replica Tonino Lamborghini Watches for Cheap, that decides who will be honored. By awarding the knighthood, the outgoing prime minister has invited again the charge of “Islamophobia.” Whatever that may mean, and however true the charge is, what we’ve certainly seen is a resurgence of Salmanophobia, that other powerful force of the age. The response to his honor in London, as well as in more distant capitals, reminds us that this man can unite Muslims, conservative nationalists Where to buy Replica Franck Muller Watches, and the fashionable academic-intellectual left in hatred of him. It’s an impressive feat.

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Last Saturday was the queen’s “official birthday Fake Omega Watches,” which, along with the New Year, is when assorted gongs are handed out Discount Replica Rolex Watches, according to degree, to persons likely and unlikely. Those honored this time around included a former England cricket captain, Dame Edna (or at least Barry Humphries), rock singer Joe Cocker, and “the founders of the erotic lingerie line Agent Provocateur,” along with Sir Salman.

He himself was “thrilled and humbled to receive this great honour, and am very grateful that my work has been recognised in this way Tonino Lamborghini Replica Watches,” while others saw a belated endorsement or even recompense. Critic and former professor John Sutherland thought it was by way of apology from those who had not supported Rushdie clearly enough in his hour of need 18 years ago. “It’s astonishing that Tony Blair, among others, has been so reluctant to be seen shaking Rushdie’s hand, and here he is getting a knighthood from the Queen.”

But there are still plenty of others who have no wish to shake Rushdie’s hand, even figuratively. In the House of Islam, the reaction was all too predictable. “Salman Rushdie has turned into a hated corpse, which cannot be resurrected by any action,” Mohammad Reza Bahonar told the parliament in Tehran, where the knighthood was angrily denounced as a further provocation. For good measure, one speaker called our dear queen “an old crone.” Iran was, of course, the country where the fatwa was pronounced on Rushdie by the ayatollahs in 1989.

At points east, the knighthood was unanimously condemned by the parliament in Pakistan, our supposed ally in the “war on terror.” Many Union Jacks were burned in cities there. (As with the innumerable Danish flags burned in Muslim countries when the cartoon affair broke out, one has to admire the entrepreneurial spirit that either stocks the offending flags in such numbers as a contingency for such events or runs them up at speed.)

In Islamabad, Robert Brinkley, the British representative, was summoned to be rebuked for the “utter lack of sensitivity” in knighting Rushdie. In turn, he expressed the British government’s deep concern at the reported comment of religious affairs minister Mohammad Ejaz ul-Haq that the knighthood could justify suicide attacks. The minister later “clarified” this by saying that he meant it might seem to some suicide bombers a justification. So, that’s all right, then.

All this was familiar from the eruption over Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses 18 years ago, but the response in England was also painfully familiar. So far, there haven’t been book burnings in the streets of London and Bradford, but there has been quite enough indignation.

When Lord Ahmed was made a member of the House of Lords by Blair, he was paraded as a moderate Muslim voice. He sounded only fairly moderate when he said on television that “Sir Salman” was an outrage against Islam and that the government should have knighted journalist Robert Fisk instead. (He really did say that.)

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