What is this? Why, it's the kickoff to 2013's Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland. Why is the nice hostess complaining about the crumbling roads and bridges? And why is the nice hostess mocking America's War On Terror? Because Barack Obama is president! And you know what happens, etc., such as "Michelle Obama gets Beyoncé." These themes will be consistent throughout the convention at the Gaylord National Hotel, and tickets sold for as much as $1,000. Next week, when you see endless clips of fresh-faced rising stars of the conservative movement saying insanely racist or just insane things into a microphone on a trade-show stage, this [...]

Welcome to the craziest moment in American politics. So, Republicans were going to force Democratic primaries in Wisconsin, alongside the six Republican state senator recall elections, by running fake Democrat candidates. So the Democrats had selected "placeholder" candidates for those primaries. Today, they announced that, since all the Republican-backed but Democrat-registered candidates have now filed to run, the Democrats won't deign to run candidates against them in the primaries, because it's a crazy waste of time and taxpayer money. Boom! Crazy right? Would you like to know more? Here is our helpful explanation of the whole Wisconsin mess. Related: this is a picture of suddenly-Democrat James Smith, [...]

One doesn't need to go to the Middle East or Northern Africa to find a people-versus-government showdown. At this very moment in Wisconsin, one of the most important labor battles in decades is already going down at the state capital in Madison.

On one side is Tea Party Republican Governor Scott Walker and a GOP legislature hell-bent on making Wisconsin "open for business." On the other side are the state's labor unions, which Walker's latest budget aims to fully field dress, gut and strap down to the hood of his car, tongue hanging out and all. Across the state, Wisconsinites are organizing for protests and vigils, [...]