What is more surprising is the governor’s sudden emphasis on K-12 education. The budget we sent him funds education at a higher level than the governor recommended just a few months ago, when he proposed a 10 percent cut. The governor communicated numerous priorities during session, and we did our best to accommodate him. It would have been helpful if the governor had shared this new-found emphasis with us before the budget was finalized.

Florida House Speaker Dean Cannon (R – Winter Park), reacting to a new strategy crafted by the Republican Party of Florida and Gov. Rick Scott to deflect criticism of the state’s budget. The relationship between the tea party governor and the Republican-controlled legislature continues to erode.

If you weren’t among the select few invited to Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s (R/Tea) ceremonial re-enactment of the signing of the hot mess that is this year’s state budget at a gated, tea party haven retirement community in the most land-locked part of Florida, we can help.
There is no reason for anyone to be [...]

I love that smell of emissions.

- Sarah Palin at the Rolling Thunder rally in Washington, D.C.

30%

Amount by which Rush Limbaugh’s ratings have slipped since November, according to new Arbitron research. The Sean Hannity Show is also down by 28%.

Maybe you heard this recent assertion, which swept through rightwing media outlets: Raising taxes on high income earners can’t solve the federal deficit problem because the deficit is higher than the entire taxable income of Americans who earn more than $100,000. But you likely didn’t hear that it’s not true.

Here’s what the Wall St. Journal said in an editorial, which got the ball rolling.

According to Internal Revenue Service data, the entire taxable income of everyone earning over $100,000 in 2008 was about $1.582 trillion. Even if all these Americans – most of whom are far from wealthy – were taxed at 100%, it wouldn’t cover Mr. Obama’s deficit for this year.

And here’s what the WSJ said when it was pointed out by FactCheck.org that they were wrong.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the total taxable income of Americans earning over $100,000 in 2008 was $1.582 trillion. The correct figure is $3.4 trillion.

The projected deficit is $1.645 trillion. You do the math.

But Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Ok.), apparently can’t, because he repeated the false claim on a recent FOX News Sunday segment, with an added twist about the futility of including those who net between $100,00 and $250,000 after deductions. The point was to show that the deficit problem can only be solved by cutting spending, not by also increasing revenues. People who are not mathematically — or ideologically — challenged see that it will take both.

Pres. Obama is proposing $2 trillion in spending cuts and $1 trillion in additional tax revenue over 12 years. Seems reasonable to us.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Months ago, Lawrence O’Donnell correctly predicted the day on which Donald Trump would admit he was not running for president — that day, May 16, being the deadline for NBC’s announcement that they had picked up Trump’s reality show for another year. The fact [...]

Part of the series, Assault on Florida.
On Friday, we asked who ordered Sumter County, Fla., deputies to bar Democrats from a town square where Florida Gov. Rick Scott was holding a bill-signing event.
Now, via Jonathan Turley, we know:
Apparently, it was all the work of a poor misguided staffer, Russ Abrams, a $60,000.00 a year [...]

Transcript here.

So the question is, “Should only straight judges be allowed to rule on gay rights issues?”
…ethicists disagree on whether retired federal judge Vaughn R. Walker, 67, should have disclosed his 10-year relationship with his partner before presiding over the challenge to Proposition 8, the 2008 California ballot measure that reinstated a ban on same-sex [...]

If you guessed that 25 percent of Americans are gay, you would be wrong, but you would be in agreement with a majority of the country, according to a new poll from Gallup:
Anti-gay activists debunk assertions that 10 percent of the population is gay. They claim it’s more like 2 percent — which prompts the [...]