What is wrong with Arizona?

Seriously, it's becoming the South Carolina of the west.

Lori Klein, Arizona State Senator, Pointed Loaded Gun At Reporter Richard Ruelas's Chest:

From the article:

"'Oh, it's so cute,' Klein said, before aiming the gun at Ruelas's chest to show off the red beam of the laser sight. Klein's gun, a .380 Ruger, has no safety, but the senator assured Ruelas that he wasn't in danger.

'I just didn't have my hand on the trigger,' she said.

Klein told the Arizona Republic that she owns a number of guns and has had 'informal' training sessions on each of them, and that she was taught gun safety by her father.

Local gun activists have criticized Klein for pointing her gun at Ruelas, however.

Rob Mermelstein, the range master of the Phoenix Rod and Gun Club, told the Arizona Guardian, that Klein's actions were 'unconscionable.'

'Whoever would do something like that needs to have a better grounding in gun safety before ever laying a hand on a firearm,' he said."

Scary Headline: Google to retire Blogger & Picasa brands - CNN.com

Google to retire Blogger & Picasa brands - CNN.com

As Rubble's 10 year birthday approaches, this was a shocking headline to read. I've been on Blogger pretty much since the beginning and Picasa has emerged as the "home base," so to speak, for my photography.

The services will remain, but the names will be changed to the blandly generic "Google Blogs" and "Google Photos." I understand their desire to unify their properties under the Google brand, but those names are so boring...

The 24 Types of Libertarian by Barry Deutsch

I am sure I am on here, but the self-depreciation center of my brain hasn't had enough coffee yet this morning.

The 24 Types of Libertarian

Unemployed former Mass. Governor, Mitt Romney, seeks your vote

Yeah, Mitt. Somehow, I do get the feeling that Obama's background might just make him a little more sympathetic to the plight of the unemployed than your background... But nice try. Argue the policies all day, Mittens, fine. Just don't try to play the "everyman" card. You are not.

Democrats criticize Romney for 'unemployed' joke - Yahoo! News

From the article:

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told a group of out-of-work Floridians Thursday that "I'm also unemployed," quickly drawing criticism from Democrats who said it showed the former Massachusetts governor and multimillionaire was out of touch.
...
"The person who doesn't take the employment crisis seriously is President Obama, who has discontinued his daily economic briefing," Fehrnstrom said. "If elected, Mitt Romney will reinstate the daily economic briefing and make job creation his number one priority."..."I will always make light of myself," Romney said during a tour of Kenny's Great Pies in Smyrna, Ga. "Self-deprecating humor is a part of who I am.""But the reality is we have a president who doesn't understand the plight of the unemployed."

An interesting look at Michele Bachmann

The Michele Bachmann show should be an interesting one through the primaries. I expect she will attack her competition ferociously, but I also suspect that she'll draw as much fire as she dishes out. She probably will not get the nomination in the end, but she may take a few people out with her. Just my hunch. This article provides a pretty decent look at where she stands at the moment as the festivities get rolling.

Can Michele Bachmann broaden her appeal beyond the Tea Party? - Yahoo! News

From the article:

Bachmann, in other words, can be flaky and prone to flights of wild assertion. But usually in ways that endear her to conservatives and drive liberals nuts. The three-term Minnesota congresswoman is a cheerful culture warrior, a pro-life mother of five (plus 23 foster children) whose upbeat lack of concern for political verities -- she delivered her own response to the president's State of the Union address -- has made her a Tea Party favorite. Think Sarah Palin, without the aggrieved victimization.


...


[In the recent debate,] Rather than coming across as a fringe figure, she looked as if she belonged on stage with the other candidates, outshining most of them and comporting herself in a way that seemed plausibly presidential. That's been the challenge that most other Tea Party candidates have failed. Other heroes of the movement, from Sharron Angle to Christine O'Donnell to Rand Paul, have often frightened ordinary voters. But on Monday at least, Bachmann did not.


...


But there is likely to be a limit to how far she can go. For all the attention she draws to herself, she hasn't actually done much in Congress. "She runs on what's wrong, not on what she's accomplished,'' said Jacobs. And several people who have worked for her, including her former chief of staff, have stated that she has no business running for president.


...


Bachmann's history of slip-ups and strange claims makes it a little hard to believe that the woman who shone in the debate is here for the duration. But Republicans are yearning to be excited. They'll make allowances. If Bachmann can keep it together a little longer, this may not be the last surprise she offers.

What will it look like when the tea party starts eating itself?

One thing the Tea Party had going for it, one thing that they will now lose as the 2012 presidential candidates are powering up, is the fact that they have never really had to run against each other. They could run around in circles, saying strange things, bashing Washington, the Democrats, the media, and even the few moderate Republican still surviving out there, but they've never had to face off against each other.

Now we have a field of presidential hopefuls and maybes emerging that have a pretty solid record of attacking hard, with cheap shots, with sound bites that treat facts as an unnecessary inconveniences, and who tend to care more about gaining widespread media coverage of their strange, outlandish comments than about the logic or even coherence of their comments, seeking name recognition more than respect. And now they are going to be going after each other, using these methods to tear each other to shreds.

The Obama crew has run one of the tightest ships in many, many years when it comes to gaffes and miscalculations from the 2008 campaign and on into the White House, but listening to the Tea Partiers, you'd think it was a ship of fools in charge. This is not to say that the current administration has been pitch perfect, and I am not talking about whether or not you agree with them politically, but they have been managing themselves in a fairly professional manner.

Still, the tea partiers and the far right latch onto any thing they can and shred away at it like a bunch of rabid sharks in a feeding frenzy. Over the last few years, they have had quite a bit of success in spite of the fact that, in traditional politics, they have made more mistakes, factual errors, gaffes, and miscalculations than any other political movement in recent history. In fact, they use what appears to be almost embarrassing amateurishness when it comes to politics as one of their biggest selling points. However, when they turn on each other, the amount of material each candidate will have to use against each other will be tremendous, and I don't even know if you can call it "going dirty" when you start by raising yourself out of the mud to take aim at those around you...

This circular firing squad will be interesting to watch. I suspect the Republican nominee will be whomever does the best job staying out of the messy fray.

The Palin-Bachmann Fight We've All Been Waiting For - Yahoo! News/The Atlantic Wire

The Palin-Bachmann Fight We've All Been Waiting For - Yahoo! News

Counterprotesters confront Westboro Baptist Church at Arlington - CNN.com

Counterprotesters confront Westboro Baptist Church at Arlington - CNN.com

KKK protests Westboro Baptist Church protesters... You know you are low when the KKK looks good compared to you. Though I do wonder about the line, "Members of the group declined to say whether they were armed." This is relevant how?