Michigan Republican wants to register, regulate reporters

Republican lawmakers across the country seem to have been supporting more and more efforts lately which directly contradict the Constitution. Now that much of the GOP establishment has established the news media as one of their favorite punching bags, I suppose it was only a matter of time before a Republican legislator tried to go after the First Amendment itself.

A Michigan lawmaker wants to register reporters to ensure they’re credible and have “good moral character.” State Sen. Bruce Patterson ... says the general public is being overwhelmed by an increasing number of media outlets -- traditional, online and citizen generated -- and an even greater amount of misinformation. “Legitimate media sources are critically important to our government,” he said.

Oh, maybe tea partiers really are kinda intolerant

From time to time we see political commentators on teevee insinuate that the Tea Party is motivated solely by hatred for minorities and their inability to accept an African-American as president. At the same time, we see other pundits claim tea parties are joyous family affairs and that their members are devoid of any intolerant beliefs whatsoever. As with most issues presented on cable these days, the truth must lie somewhere in the middle of this dichotomy. But where?

Palin was against robocalls, until she started making them

Remember when Sarah Palin used to give actual interviews to the media other than Fox? I know it's been a while, but try to think back -- all the way back to October 2008, when Palin told reporters the McCain campaign's automated robocalls "irritate" voters, and that she wouldn't use them if she called the shots.

Palin said that if she had her way, the McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee would not be flooding battleground states with automated phone calls tying Barack Obama to former radical William Ayers, as they have done over the last week.

Calling robocalls "kind of draining out there in terms of Americans' attention span," Palin went on to say voters "get a bit irritated with just being inundated" by the pre-recorded campaign calls. No kidding.