In their desperation to ensure that taxes are not raised on their corporate sponsors, Republicans have been successful in convincing their followers, as well as their poodles in the corporate media, that only the rich — not the poor and middle class — pay taxes.
That is not just a lie — it is a big [...]

Gizmodo:
Right now, you should be saving $25 to $50 when you buy an airplane ticket. Why? Because Congress didn’t approve a bill to keep the FAA running, which means the FAA doesn’t have the authority to collect taxes on airfare, which should mean no taxes for you! Too bad the airlines are pocketing the difference.
As [...]

New York Times:
“He wasn’t sobbing, but he definitely teared up.”- Speaker Boehner’s spokesman
At a meeting of the House Republican freshmen and their leaders on Wednesday, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room — including the speaker’s.
Representative Martha Roby of Alabama had just finished reading an e-mail of support from a one-time Tea Party opponent, [...]

Finally — the Republican Party establishment is fighting back against tea bagger insurgents. Of course, the push back is not coming from the GOP establishment in Washington, where they cower in their boots at the thought of a tea party opponent in the primaries, but from Ohio, where they want to protect the interests of [...]

Los Angeles Times:
“Everyone I talk to still believes in contested primaries.”- Sarah Palin, issuing a veiled threat to tea-bagger freshmen in the House
Sarah Palin sent a warning to freshman Republicans on Thursday not to forget the promises made to voters in 2010, adding her outsized voice to the flurry of last-minute arm-twisting before a key [...]

When I ask whether there is room for a full-throated, unapologetic fiscal conservative to get into this race, the answer has come back almost 100 percent, ‘Yes, there is’.

— Texas Gov. Rick Perry, in an interview with the New Hampshire Union Leader.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
One of the casualties of the tea party takeover last year was the North Carolina Legislature, where Republicans gained control for the first time in over a century. Since then, the tea bagger brigade has done its best to turn North Carolina, historically the [...]

After watching Sarah Palin’s performance during a recent interview with Greta Van Susteren, Palin’s resident publicist at Fox, Joe McGinnis, the investigative journalist whose book on Palin, “The Rogue,” will be published this fall, has come to the conclusion that she will in fact run for president next year:
“Right now I just can’t stand the [...]

Hey, America, who wants to see a repeat of this debt-ceiling debate next year? Let’s see a show of hands. #ThatShouldSettleIt

– David Corn, Mother Jones Washington editor, on Twitter