Rep Bachmann should have been more careful. She had to have known that, if pared down on both ends, the intent of her statement could be purposely taken out of context and used against her. True, she may not have intended her use of “armed and dangerous” to mean, literally, that she desired her constituency to take up arms against the government. But had she been more careful with her

But really. Be civil. That’s what’s important. Well, that, and a clean planet — even if that means gas at $5 a gallon, and the price of food and clothing doubling. Energy and food costs don’t show up in inflationary stats, anyway, you see. So it’s almost like they don’t exist! Move along. Nothing to see here.

Those facts? The intimation, through a graphic featuring Jared Loughner, that vitriolic rhetoric from the right-wing is the proximate cause of the Tucson murder spree — and will be the cause of future violence, as well. Radley Balko: It’s a powerful image. I saw it at the gym on a number of muted televisions, and it stuck with me. It’s also complete bullshit. […] This is just an egregious assault

TEA Partiers? That’s so last month. The GOP establishment will take it from here: Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and other Republican leaders are launching a new effort Thursday to reach out to Hispanic voters. The Hispanic Leadership Network is meant to help Republicans and conservatives listen to the Hispanic community and, in the process, figure out how to win more of their votes. Hispanic Republican candidates had some big

“EPA vetoes water permit for W.Va. mountaintop mine”: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is making good on a 9-month-old threat and revoking a permit for West Virginia’s largest mountaintop removal mine. The agency said Thursday that Arch Coal’s Spruce No. 1 mine in Logan County would cause irreparable damage to the environment. The nearly 2,300-acre operation would bury 7 miles of streams. EPA says it would likely hurt downstream water

And they’ll decide when a human right is violated, thank you very much. Adam Bitely: Speaking on Wednesday, Bob King the President of the UAW, announced that it would be aggressively moving forward on organizing workers at Honda, BMW, Toyota, and Hyundai, among others. Seeking to come off as a benevolent representative of the typical “disenfranchised employee”, he informed the automakers that he seeks to be a friend and not