Romney May Not Take All in Florida Primary

Much was made of the “magnitude” of former Governor Mitt Romney’s recent win in the Republican Presidential Primary in Florida. However, it may have been much ado about nothing. Rachel Maddow pointed all this out days before the Florida Primary, so I decided to fact check her. As Ms. Maddow accurately reported, Florida ran up against the arcane and mechanistic RNC Delegate Selection Rules and the punditry followed like the mythical lemmings off the bluffs into the sea to drown. The Florida delegation has just 50 delegates to award in its primary because it held its primary before April 1, 2012. Had the Florida GOP followed the rules for delegate selection mandated by the Republican National Committee (RNC), Florida would have been able to award 99 delegates per the normal “winner take all.” Florida may also have a RNC Convention delegate problem by holding its primary before April 1, 2012 because the RNC Rules also mandate that for any such early primary that the delegates be awarded on a proportional basis. [More . . . ]

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Award-winning film director arrested a public hearing on Capital Hill

From Huffpo:

Josh Fox, director of the Academy Award-nominated documentary "Gasland" was taken into custody by Capitol Hill police this morning, along with his crew, after Republicans objected to their presence, according to Democratic sources present at the hearing. The meeting of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment had been taking place in room 2318 of the Rayburn building.

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Matt Taibbi sizes up the GOP

Matt Taibbi is at his best as he describes Mitt Romney versus Newt Gingrich:

They may be shit for choosing a good candidate for the presidency, but say this for the Republican primaries: They're fast turning into the most luridly entertaining political spectacle of our time. In an inherently conservative, bottomlessly moneyed, scrupulously stage-managed electoral system designed to preclude chance or weirdness from playing any part in determining our political future, the unthinkable is happening: real drama. This isn't part of some clever but inscrutable master plan, put on by the hidden hands who run this country, to fool or distract the masses. This is an unscripted fuck-up of heroic dimensions, radiating downward from the highest levels of our society, playing out in real time for all of us to watch. Our oligarchy has thrown a rod.

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