Welcome to The Now

But that's nothing new . I am so glad he'll be off the air (for now, at least).

Billy the Kid still has value . A setback for pro-choice . Today's new phrase is: " social impact bonds ." Kilpatrick to be freed soon .

A new, cool Mega Man comic ? Yes!! OH SWEET JESUS; YES. PLEASE, PEOPLE: STOP USING TEXT MESSAGING THIS WAY ! Save your money and stop paying for these things . That waitress knows more than you think . Worth 1,000 words (about the American justice system). Congress doing nothing may actually help the economy more than what they plan on doing .

This is the state of the GOP today. Every one of them in Congress fits into one of just four categories: sane but stupid (Scott Brown, Boehner), sane but scared shitless of having to trade in the power for a lucrative lobbying job (Graham, Lugar, Hatch), sociopathic (McConnell, Cantor), and out and out psychotics (DeMint, Bachmann). -- NCSteve 3.0 , commenting on a TPM atrticle regarding Sen. DeMint threat to Republicans who vote to raise the debt ceiling .

Cantor can't do it . Did your professor run a prostitution ring ? Cue the "conservative" anti-minority freakout . No more Sony ? Wow...

See, some people tend to write their own headlines to get readers to think a certain way before they even read the articles .

A (mental) physician who really did have to heal herself . Casey Anthony's trial is still going on . In this day and age, "sea monsters" stories should be treated as strictly fictional. Lohan is getting more publicity with her legal problems than she ever did with her movies. Didn't know gangsters in South Boston were that hardcore .

Because all it takes is a majority of the opposition (who will never like you), a good chunk of the middle (who are, at best, wishy-washy) and some estranged members of your own party to make you look worse than the last guy . I know, I know... We have to consider what was going on during the tail end of the Bush years . True. But politically-speaking, people have short memories and now a majority are past the "Bush got us into this" phase and are in the middle of the "Hey, Obama; how are you gonna fix this?" phase.

Here's hoping the ratings survive the first time he says something that rubs the left-leaning gatekeepers the wrong way.

Exercising myths . Roland Martin and Boris Kodjoe " discuss " Bishop Eddie Long. " The longer this dog plays, the more of us die !" Heh . Questionable address tag , but it's actually good cause (the sketches are being purchase to support a rape victim). Sebelius looks to African-American pastors for help on Health Care .

Both Selena Gomez and Jennifer Hudson have bee admitted (separate reasons).

Remind me not to open up an account with Citigroup . Now this could be a movie . Yankees -Red Sox . Beautiful on the outside, dysfunctional on the inside .

Everything's bigger in Texas... even the hoaxes . Repairs aren't always easy, especially in politics . US E. coli situation ? It could happen... Getting sick with it . Laurence Fishburne leaves "CSI."

Update to Anthony Weiner story: he admits to lying about the hacking, says the pic was a joke . Not that I don't think people should have defended him , but man...sex scandals make politicians do stupid things, don't they? And when they do, it makes plausible explanations look like straw-grasping. Anyway, the fallout appears to be: Clarence Thomas gets away clean; as I mentioned before, Rep. Weiner was the only one mentioning his conflict of interest. I do find it interesting that Weiner never really used this ("They're attacking me because of Thomas!") as a defense (he mostly talked about someone pulling a "prank" on him). The progressive movement just had a big voice silenced. This is why I'm always telling left-leaning people who are frustrated with the Democratic party to run themselves. Because, seriously, you think you can't do any better? John Stewart is going to be a really conflicted man tonight (or tomorrow). Stephen Corbert? Less so. F...

Well ...

Rick Santorum enters the presidential race ; go ahead and Google him! Pay it in pennies ! Yes; we're still in Iraq . Some people just cannot let go .

The focus of this episode: their district-by-district breakdown of the GOP anti-Medicare (and Medicaid) budget . Let's see how often and to what degree they promote this.

( pic via ) It would be so simple: "I misspoke about Pail Revere; let's move on." But no; she just has to insist that her version is right, and the version we've all learned in school is wrong . This stubbornness (plus her thin-skin and desire to seek vengeance against those she felt wronged her) is why having her as president would be very...dangerous.

So Rep. Anthony Weiner finds himself in the middle of a joke/scam/mini-controversy. Fortunately, we live in the Age of the Internets, where passionate an intrepid people like the challenge of questions like, "Did the congressman actually send a picture of his crotch (in underwear) to a young girl?" What has seemingly be revealed is that: Certain shady people may have had a hand in this ; and Social networking site aren't as secure as people believe . This isn't to say Weiner is wearing a halo (he's all but admits that there's a possibly that there's a picture of him in his underwear out there somewhere, leading to one theory that his personal computer or phone may have been hacked) or that some dumb media people won't be Johnny-Come-Lately . It's just that all this is rather..."interesting" timing considering Weiner is the only congressman pushing for Justice Thomas to recuse himself over a court case .