First Cuppa Coffee – Monday, March 26th, 2012: Really Big News Edition

There are plenty of big stories in the news today. Mittens is in San Diego raising dough.  The Supremes are taking testimony on Healthcare Reform. And there are polls: UT San Diego has a poll up saying that voters support the Pension Reform Initiative, while the LA Times has voters overwhelmingly supporting Gov. Brown’s new and improved tax increases.

Here are developments on stories that you might have missed:

Local GOP crank stirs the racial pot...  Tax fighter Richard Rider, pontificating over at SDRostra, wants us to know that “When It Comes to Murder, Black People Should Most Fear Black People”. He’s got the facts, Jack. He looked it up on Wikipedia. So all you people crying the blues over the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, should be yelling at the “Black Leadership” about Black on Black crime. Why does Rider say this? Because that’s what GOP Gnomes do when they’re backed into a corner—change the subject. And Zimmerman’s lawyer is now out there trying to convince the news media that his client used the term “f*&^ing goon” as a term of endearment while talking on his cell phone about the hoodie wearing Martin. As opposed to “f*&^ing coon”, which is something we’re sure even Richard Ryder would never say…. Also, Fox TV has apparently removed branded ‘Fox’ hoodies from their online store.

The drug connection to the Afghan murder spree…  The media’s gone through their whole playbook looking for a motive behind the massacre of 17 civilians in Afghanistan; Robert Bales, the soldier accused of the crimes, has been variously painted as depressed over personal finances, angry at being posted for a fourth time in a combat situation, or suffering from undiagnosed head injuries.  But the real cause might have something to do with last week’s Pentagon orders for an “emergency review” of the military’s use of a notorious anti-malaria drug called mefloquine.  The drug, also called Lariam, has severe psychiatric side effects including psychotic behavior, paranoia and hallucinations. It has been implicated in numerous suicides and homicides, including deaths in military. The Army nearly dropped use of mefloquine entirely in 2009 because of the dangers, and now only uses it in limited circumstances, which happen to include battlefields in Afghanistan.

Jimmy Kimmel on the GOP War on Toys… Responding to the Romney campaign’s Etch A Sketch slip, Newt Gingrich held up the children’s toy while on the stump last week, saying, “You have to stand for something that lasts longer than this.” “I’m sure his ex-wives got a good laugh at that one,” late night host Jimmy Kimmel joked. “If Mitt Romney is an Etch A Sketch, Newt Gingrich is an Easy Bake Oven.”

The apocalypse is now…   In the two years since passage of the Affordable Care Act, Republicans have voted to repeal or defund the law at least 25 times….which is understandable if you look back at the apocalyptic claims (follow link for list of whoppers) made during the initial battle for passage of the law. My favorites:

SEN. TOM COBURN (R-OK): “I have a message for you: you’re going to die soon…When you restrict the ability of the primary care givers int his country to do what is best for their senior patients, what you are doing is limiting their life expectancy.” [12/1/2009]

 REP. LOUIE GOHMERT (R-TX): “I would hate to think that among five women, one of ‘em is gonna die because we go to socialized care.” [7/15/2009]

SEN. RICK SANTORUM (R-PA): Health reform “will destroy the country” because, “in the next year or so,” America will have to “dramatically cut the military because we can’t pay for it.” [10/23/2010]

The all-new GOP anti DUI legal defense…  Former Wisconsin State Senator Randy Hopper has had his share of troubles.  He was re-called. He got caught having carnal relations with a lobbyist women who happened not be his wife.  But he beat the bad newstrifecta after being found innocent on a DUI charge last week.  A jury found him not guilt was found not guilty on a charge of drunk-driving, after mounting a court defense that his arrest in October was the product of a conspiracy by the public employee union members who had successfully worked to recall him from office earlier last summer.  While he was probably legally drunk (3 ½ beers), the police officer who pulled him over (in response to a 911 call from another driver) was out to get Hopper because of his vote to eliminate collective bargaining powers for most state employees.