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In trying to dream up a #slatepitch on the new Brad Paisley-LL Cool J collaboration “Accidental Racist,” a variety of contrarian avenues spring to mind: “Why Brad Paisley, Like Skynyrd Before Him, Is Right About The Stars & Bars.” “If You Love The Band You Can’t Hate ‘Accidental Racist.’” “Good Intentions Redeem Gag-Inducing Lyrics In Paisley-LL Collabo.” None of those headlines can sustain a valid argument.

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Fox News’ The Five argued that petitions created and signed by people calling for secession from the United States following President Obama’s re-election were justified because conservative-leaning “red states” are more financially responsible than liberal-leaning “blue states.” But data shows that secession would lead to what is being called a “Confederacy of Takers” because ”red states” tend to receive more in federal benefits than they pay in taxes, while “blue states” typically receive less. In 2011, Obama established a mechanism for people to create and sign petitions on the White House website, and if any petition receives 25,000 or more signatures within 30 days, White House officials will respond to the petition.

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The right-wing media falsely reported that Alabama-based utility companies were turned away in New Jersey for hurricane disaster relief because they use non-union labor.

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In April, the Alabama House approved a budget for 2013 that strained the General Fund and required deep cuts in public health and human services — particularly the state’s Medicaid program — in place of raising revenues. Although Gov

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Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL) has pledged to reject the Medicaid expansion Although Republican governors in Southern states like Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and Florida have pledged to reject Obamacare’s expansion of the Medicaid program — a move that will cost their states billions in federal funding and leave millions of their low-income residents without access to health insurance — new polling from Reuters suggests they may be in direct opposition with the majority of their constituents.

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States have made deep cuts to their education budgets in the years since the Great Recession, and as their budgets remained crunched by lower levels of tax revenues, more than half are spending less on education this school year than they did last year, a new analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found. Overall, 26 states will spend less per pupil in fiscal year 2013 than they spent in 2012, while 35 are still spending less than they did before the recession

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From anti-immigrant state laws in Alabama and Arizona designed to force immigrants out of the state and Gov. Rick Perry’s (R-TX) proposal to deport every single undocumented immigrant, Republicans — including Mitt Romney — are supporting harmful mass deportation policies.

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Fox Business anchor Stuart Varney debunked the theory that rounding up and deporting immigrants is a solution to economic problems – a notion that is widespread throughout the conservative media. During an appearance on Fox & Friends to discuss Greece’s efforts to round up and deport undocumented immigrants, co-host Brian Kilmeade asked Varney if deporting immigrants would help Greece’s economy and whether America should “follow suit.” Varney said that rounding up and deporting immigrants wouldn’t help Greece with its economic problems and denied that they were taking jobs from Greek citizens. He also said that we shouldn’t round up immigrants in the United States either: VARNEY: Should America follow suit, a round up of illegals here?

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A week from the 2012 Republican National Convention, Republican committee members spent Tuesday articulating and affirming the principles they stand for in a draft of the official party platform. Led by Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA) and featuring other Tea Party stars like Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and Rep.

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When the Supreme Court ruled on Arizona’s anti-immigrant law , SB 1070 — invalidating much of the law and limiting the scope of the law’s “show me your papers” provision — its ruling clarified the constitutionality of the harmful state immigration laws also but left many questions unanswered about laws in other states that went even further than Arizona’s. But in the first ruling on a state immigration law following the Supreme Court’s SB 1070 decision, the 11th Circuit federal appeals court struck down most of Alabama’s HB 56 , including the worst provisions like the state’s attack on school children: – School officials cannot ask about students’ immigration status : Under HB 56, schools were required to determine the immigration status of every newly enrolled student. As a result, students stayed home from school once the provision went into effect in late September out of confusion over the law and fear that they or their parents could be deported

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