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By Barbara Walters $19.77
By Christopher Hitchens $16.19
$20
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 AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais
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President Barack Obama and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer have had their differences, especially over the issue of immigration and Brewer’s push to pass SB 1070 last month. Well, after Thursday’s encounter at the White House ... (continued)
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 youtube.com
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Although she categorically denies the story, Nikki Haley, a GOP up-and-comer who’s angling to replace scandal-tainted South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, is now obliged to answer to rumors that she herself has dabbled in extramarital relations.
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 Wikimedia Commons
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California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is again attempting to eliminate the state’s welfare-to-work program as his Republican administration tries to cut spending while not raising taxes, a move intended to save $1.6 billion at the expense of 1.3 million poor people.
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 Flickr / renfield
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Even in cases of sexual abuse or rape, a strict abortion law enacted Tuesday in Oklahoma requires women to undergo a sonogram, during which the doctor has to turn the screen to face the patient and give her fetal development details.
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 AP / Charles Dharapak
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Florida Gov. Charlie Crist’s political prospects took a sharp downward turn after he man-hugged President Barack Obama in February 2009. And the emergence of the tea party movement—not to mention the boost it has given Crist’s main rival for election to the U.S. Senate ... (continued)
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 AP / Seth Perlman
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So, having been fired earlier this month by Donald Trump for failing to execute a Harry Potter-themed task to Trump’s standards on “Celebrity Apprentice,” former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is back to the far less glamorous work of slogging through his own corruption trial. (continued)
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 Center for American Progress
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Some key details have cropped up, in the form of a 2007 suspicious-activity report filed by North Fork Bank, that show how former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer got busted, and then ousted, for his, er, active involvement in the Emperors Club VIP prostitution ring.
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 Flickr / sskennel
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Looks like pursuing opportunities outside her former gubernatorial post is paying off for Sarah Palin. After she shopped her pitch for an “unscripted” television show about Alaska around heathen Hollywood, a winner, Discovery Communications, appears to have pulled ahead of Palin’s other suitors ... (continued)
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 youtube.com
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We keep trying to read the tea leaves each time news or rumors about Sarah Palin’s blossoming media career hit our radar—i.e., does this mean she’ll be too busy to run for, you know, president? What would it mean for her chances at the White House, for example, if she were to appear in a television show about Alaska she created with the help of reality TV megaproducer Mark Burnett?
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 Wikimedia Commons / Phil Konstantin
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We’ve known for years that Jerry Brown would run to succeed Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2010, but the former two-term governor waited until Tuesday to make it official. In his announcement video, Brown promised not to raise taxes without ... (continued)
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 AP / Richard Drew
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New York Gov. David Paterson, who took the state’s top post after Eliot Spitzer stepped down amid a prostitution scandal in March 2008, announced Friday that he won’t continue his campaign for election this November—a development that comes as Paterson is caught up in a scandal of his own. Now, who’s up for the job?
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Politicians try all the time to use popular culture to their tactical advantage, but attempting to tweet their way into the hearts of Americans can invite certain pop-cultural comebacks, as a clip from Sunday’s “Family Guy” episode demonstrates.
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 cosmopolitan.com
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He’s already the stuff of “SNL” parodies, so Massachusetts’ newly minted Sen.-elect Scott Brown might as well go ahead and drop the “-elect” part from his title. Brown sent letters to state officials Wednesday prodding them to get on with the election certification process so he could be sworn in Thursday.
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 AP / J. Scott Applewhite
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Those who can, do, and those who can’t ... become pundits? Although she has disparaged the media many times in recent memory, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is joining the Murdochian empire at Fox News as a contributor and commentator, according to The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz. (continued)
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 http://gov.ca.gov/
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What’s to be done about California’s budget woes? Well, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is cutting way back on spending on such superfluous concerns as “health, welfare, transport and the environment,” according to the BBC. But really, this’ll hurt him more than it’ll hurt ... oh, never mind.
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 Wikimedia Commons / xrmap
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The New Jersey Senate has reportedly scheduled Thursday for their vote on whether to legalize gay marriage. Timing will be key in determining the outcome of the issue in the Garden State. Gay marriage advocates have a sympathetic governor in office for only another two weeks.
Posted on Jan 5, 2010
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 AP / Seth Perlman
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What’s a deposed Illinois governor to do, now that he has more time on his hands and is facing, you know, criminal charges? When it comes to Rod Blagojevich, in case there was any doubt whom we were discussing, he’ll spend time on “Celebrity Apprentice” with Donald Trump and others who became famous for their forays into showbiz.
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 AP
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Colombian officials were blaming the rebel organization FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, for the death of Luis Francisco Cuellar, governor of the country’s southern province of Caquetá, on Wednesday. Cuellar had been kidnapped Monday night and was found less than a day later with his throat slit.
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Since President Barack Obama has reportedly decided to linger in Washington for a few more days to make sure Congress passes a health care bill before Christmas Day, he has a little time to play with, or so it would seem ... (continued)
Posted on Dec 22, 2009
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 Wikimedia Commons/The Boss~Live!
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Gay marriage advocates in New Jersey can count The Boss among their supporters. On Wednesday, Bruce Springsteen posted a statement on his Web site saying that he “couldn’t agree more” with Gov. Jon Corzine’s assessment that the marriage-equality legislation that’s under consideration in the Garden State represents “a civil rights issue that must be approved to assure that every citizen is treated equally under the law.”
Posted on Dec 9, 2009
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 thenewliberator.wordpress.com
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South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s affair with an Argentine may have exacted a personal cost and made him more vulnerable politically, but it looks as if his conduct won’t cost him his job. A panel of his state’s lawmakers have decided his indiscretions don’t merit impeachment.
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California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger apparently isn’t one of those Republicans who believe that growing international concerns about climate change stem from a vast left-wing conspiracy. Here, he takes stock of the climate-related challenges his adopted home state may face and what’s to be done about them.
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Strange but true: Even after leaving office this summer well before her term as Alaska’s governor was over, Sarah Palin’s “executive experience” still strikes Mike Huckabee as valid evidence of leadership that would put her above Barack Obama in the former Arkansas governor’s estimation, were he to be faced with those two choices at the polls.
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 thenewliberator.wordpress.com
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Looks like South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s extramarital activities, which were brought to light last summer after a faux Appalachian Trail excursion (by way of Argentina), aren’t going to be wiped from the record anytime soon. Sanford is now looking at 37 ethics charges, at least a few of which appear related to his affair.
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 bobmcdonnell.com
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A year ago, Virginia surprised the nation by skewing blue in the presidential election, handing Barack Obama a key win below the Mason-Dixon Line. However, this trend didn’t extend into the 2009 gubernatorial race in the state, as the majority of Virginians voted in favor of conservative Republican Bob McDonnell on Tuesday.
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 Wikimedia Commons / Daniel Nicoletta
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California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has changed his tune about Harvey Milk Day, signing a bill on Monday to make May 22, Milk’s birthday, a day of official commemoration for the slain San Francisco supervisor and gay rights activist.
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 dipity.com
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With Ted Kennedy’s death, the Democrats fell one vote short of the 60-seat threshold needed to stop a filibuster in the Senate. But now the governor of Massachusetts has named former Democratic Party Chairman Paul Kirk to temporarily fill Kennedy’s seat, giving the Democrats a major tool in the fight for health care reform.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — President Obama was the first Democrat to win Virginia’s electoral votes since 1964, and his drop in the polls has already had a powerful influence on the direction of this year’s contest for governor.
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 AP / Jeff Chiu
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The former president has thrown his considerable political and fundraising heft behind San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in the race to succeed Arnold Schwarzenegger. Newsom is up against California institution and former Gov. Jerry Brown.
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 thenewliberator.wordpress.com
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Although he’s been trying to hang tough as South Carolina’s governor ever since this summer’s infidelity drama unfolded, Mark Sanford has some new impediments—60 of them, to be exact—that could keep him from serving out his term.
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 vanityfair.com
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Although the world at large has yet to find out exactly what spurred Sarah Palin to vacate her post as Alaska’s governor this summer, her almost-son-in-law Levi Johnston pipes up (surprise!) in the latest edition of Vanity Fair, helpfully offering that Palin’s plan had something to do with money. This kid is on a tear.
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The pressure on South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford to resign hasn’t let up since his revelation earlier this summer of his extramarital escapades in Argentina, but for his part, Sanford says he’s staying put for the remainder of his term, thank y’all very much.
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 Flickr/Ambidanze
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Here’s a, um, creative way to funnel some money into a broke state’s coffers: Hold a California-themed garage sale, starring actor-turned-Gubernator Arnold Schwarzenegger. The governor has added a personal touch to some bigger-ticket items, such as automobiles, by signing them in an effort to clear out the state’s storage sheds and bring in the cash. What’s next, a Golden State bake sale?
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 thenewliberator.wordpress.com
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Looks like Mark Sanford’s days as governor of South Carolina could well be numbered. Despite his public shows of contrition and creative application of biblical themes to the particulars of his life, Sanford can’t seem to get past his Argentine assignation, as least in the eyes of his detractors—one of whom is the state’s No. 2, Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer.
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 washingtonpost.com
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Has the world gone mad or is Sarah Palin a trendsetter? Florida’s Republican Sen. Mel Martinez has announced he will step down after Congress’ August recess, claiming that his priorities of “my faith, my family and my country” suggest it’s time for him to retire from public life. Rumors are circulating that “family problems” are behind his premature exit.
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Stephen Colbert bids goodbye to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, just the way she might have done it. Check out this clip from last night’s “Colbert Report.”
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 Flickr / buddhakiwi
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When she announced her resignation from office earlier this month, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin mentioned mounting legal bills stemming from various ethics investigations as one reason for her decision; now, she may not be able to tap into a legal defense fund set up to help her offset those costs.
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In this clip from Sunday’s episode of “Meet the Press,” Sen. John McCain goes into Papa Bear mode to defend his former running mate, Sarah Palin, but his show of support seems a little strained at times—as when he says “I don’t think she quit,” for example.
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 twitter.com/AKGovSarahPalin
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Sarah Palin’s popularity within the Republican Party seems to have taken a hit since her startling resignation announcement on July 3, which may point to deeper rifts within the GOP, or may indicate that a presidential run may not be a wise choice this time around.
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 AP photo / Dan Joling
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Having startled allies and detractors alike with her resignation announcement last Friday, Alaska Gov. (for now) Sarah Palin got back to work Tuesday, signing a bill, doing a little Eskimo dancing and deflecting questions about her political plans.
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Three prominent members of Sarah Palin’s Republican cohort—Karl Rove, Mike Huckabee and her successor, Alaska’s Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell—weighed in on this week’s “Fox News Sunday” to give their takes on the outgoing governor’s possible reasons for quitting and wonder whether she hurt or helped her chances to stay in the political spotlight.
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 msnbc.msn.com
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At the end of this month, Sarah Palin will no longer be Alaska’s governor. The Thrilla from Wasilla made her announcement on Friday, sparking speculation that she may be preparing to run for president in 2012—or that she was compelled to resign for less opportune reasons. Updated
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 thenewliberator.wordpress.com
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Despite Gov. Mark Sanford’s public mea culpas and hopeful Scriptural references, it seems that several prominent figures from South Carolina’s Republican ranks are putting the heat on him to devote himself fully to his family—and we all know what that political parlance means.
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 Illustration from Flickr / CJ Sorg and South Carolina Governor's Office
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South Carolina governor and anti-stimulus crusader Mark Sanford has vanished. Sanford gave his staff and security team the slip four days ago and managed to miss Father’s Day without alarming his wife, who also doesn’t know where he is. “He was writing something and wanted some space to get away from the kids,” she explained to AP.
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 AP photo / Charles Dharapak
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — When Charlie Crist, Florida’s popular governor, announced this week that he would run for the U.S. Senate, it was the best news the Republican Party has had in an otherwise unpleasant year.
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 whdh.com
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Hey, everyone—same-sex marriage is now legal in Maine! Take that, Miss California! There are rumors that New Hampshire may be next, leaving Rhode Island as the last bastion of heteronormativity in all of New England.
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 weblogs.cltv.com
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Disgraced former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich had high hopes of recouping his public image—or at least making a little cash—by joining a gaggle of “famous” people willing to do anything to stay in the limelight (putting it generously) in NBC’s reality show “I’m a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here!” But alas, those dreams have been dashed.
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Stephen Colbert is a big fan of the National Organization for Marriage’s “Gathering Storm” ad—“It is like watching ‘The 700 Club’ and The Weather Channel at the same time!” But now the storm is hovering over Colbert’s own state, and he’s getting nostalgic for more traditional times of yore.
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 wn.com
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Only 24 hours after pleading not guilty to racketeering and fraud charges on Tuesday, former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has accepted a reality television deal to be one of 10 contestants competing in “I’m a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here!” As if his hair was destined for anything but television stardom?
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 vowelmovers.files.wordpress.com
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Riffing on a Teddy Roosevelt quotation, former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich maintained his defiant (or delusional?) stance to reporters outside Chicago’s U.S. District Courthouse after pleading not guilty to 16 federal criminal charges on Tuesday.
Posted on Apr 14, 2009
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