Mike Huckabee: Rick Perry timing ‘bad form,’ ‘tactical blunder’  —  Mike Huckabee is giving a big thumbs-down to Rick Perry's campaign rollout, telling Fox News that the Texas governor's decision to announce on the day of the Iowa straw poll is a big “tactical blunder.”

Romney gets in heated exchange with hecklers at Iowa State Fair  —  Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's (R) exchange with a few hecklers turned into somewhat of a shouting match while he was stumping Thursday in Iowa.  —  Romney faced aggressive inquiries with a liberal bent at the top …

Tim Pawlenty And Rep. Michele Bachmann Rumble In White Hot Debate Exchange  —  Perhaps the most heated exchanges of tonight's Fox News debate happened 20 minutes into the show, and, shockingly enough, it involved some sharp barbs from typically placid Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty.

Pelosi names three House Democrats to complete debt panel selection  —  Washington (CNN) - House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi on Thursday appointed Reps. James Clyburn, Xavier Becerra and Chris Van Hollen to the special congressional committee on deficit reduction, completing selection …

USPS proposes cutting 120,000 jobs, pulling out of health-care plan  —  In an attempt to stem its financial hemorrhaging, the U.S. Postal Service is seeking to reduce its workforce by 20 percent, including through layoffs now prohibited by union contracts.  USPS also wants to withdraw …

Coming Home  —  Well, I guess she is interested!  Professor Warren, thanks so much for coming here and engaging with the BMG community.  You read it here first, folks. - promoted by david  —  Growing up, every decision for my family involved a careful calculation about how we could pay for it …

‘Drunk’ man pees on 11 year old on JetBlue flight  —  It was plane madness.  —  Chaos erupted on JetBlue's red-eye flight from Portland, Ore., to JFK yesterday when a drunk allegedly urinated on a sleeping 11-year-old girl.  —  The youngster was traveling with her sister and dad …

All The Anti-Gay Rhetoric From The GOP Presidential Debate...In Under 2 Minutes  —  The GOP presidential candidates reiterated their opposition to same-sex marriage during Thursday's debate in Ames, Iowa, even as the majority of Americans now support marriage equality and 11.4 percent …

Wisconsin's Warning to Union-Busters  —  Five months after Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin pushed through a law stripping public unions of their bargaining rights, the Republican Party has paid a price.  Two of the state senators who backed the law were thrown out of office by voters on Tuesday and replaced with Democrats.

Tea Party Rep: Bank Should Have Known I Wouldn't Be Able To Repay $2.2 Million Loan  —  Tea Party aligned Georgia Rep. Tom Graves (R), who castigates Washington for fiscal irresponsibility, reached an out of court settlement Wednesday after he was sued for defaulting on a $2.2 million loan …

Sesame Workshop Statement on Bert and Ernie Petitions  —  Bert and Ernie are best friends.  They were created to teach preschoolers that people can be good friends with those who are very different from themselves.  —  Even though they are identified as male characters and possess …

Conditions of Chinese Artist Ai Weiwei's Detention Emerge  —  HONG KONG — Ai Weiwei, a prominent Chinese artist and dissident, said on Friday that he had been kept in a tiny room throughout his nearly three-month detention last spring and watched 24 hours a day by shifts …

England Used to Be a Country of Men  —  With London succumbing to looters and muggers, it's time to ask what happened to the once-manly English people.  The August 9 issue of the Daily Mail, for example, includes a photo of a young man taking off his pants on the street as an impatient looter waits …

Completing the Theft from the Social Security Trust Fund  —  The Catfood Commission rump report made it crystal clear that the political and financial elites have no intention of ever paying off the bonds held by the Social Security Trust Fund.  You thought you were paying excess FICA taxes …

Op-Ed: Shout down the Sharia myth makers  —  NEW YORK (JTA) — The threat of the infiltration of Sharia, or Islamic law, into the American court system is one of the more pernicious conspiracy theories to gain traction in our country in recent years.  The notion that Islam is insidiously making inroads …