Well, I don't suppose New Yorkers keeling over at 104 degrees can be blamed on the tea party (why, the character of Texans is strengthened by 104 degrees of adversity), but just about every other top headline in the Times this morning appears to be about the depredations of right wing extremism.
Apparently we were right about right wing extremism and Norway. Echoes of Oklahoma City -- right down to the use of ammonium nitrate fertilizer.
The Norwegian police on Saturday charged a 32-year-old man, whom they identified as a Christian fundamentalist with right-wing connections, over the bombing of a government center here and a shooting attack on a nearby island that together left at least 91 people dead.
The police said they did not know if the man, identified in the Norwegian press as Anders Behring Breivik, was part of a larger conspiracy.“We are not sure whether he was alone or had help,” a police official, Roger Andresen, said at a televised press conference, adding: “What we know is that he is right-wing and a Christian fundamentalist.” So far Mr. Breivik has not been linked to any anti-jihadist groups, he said. ...
... The police and other authorities declined to say what the suspect’s motivations might have been, but many speculated that the target was Mr. Stoltenberg’s liberal government.
...“The police have every reason to believe there is a connection between the explosions and what happened at Utoya,” the police said. They said they later recovered explosives on the island. ... NYT
When do we accept that we have more to fear from the rot within than from foreign "terrorism"?
The breakdown was the second time this month that Mr. Boehner had walked away from the table with Mr. Obama after word of their private talks was leaked to the news media, provoking protests from Republican lawmakers and antitax conservative groups.
“I’ve been left at the altar now a couple of times,” Mr. Obama said. “And I think that one of the questions that the Republican Party is going to have to ask itself is, Can they say yes to anything?” ...NYT
The Republican "no" comes from a deep -- and deepening -- well of ignorance and self-flagellation.
A report released Friday by the Pew Research Center found that the Republican Party has made tremendous gains in party affiliation among whites since President Obama took office. This would be understandable if the largest gains were among the wealthy, but they weren’t. They were among the poor, the young and less educated — many of the same people who would be adversely affected by G.O.P. policies. (Blacks held relatively steady, and Hispanics fell.) ...NYT
The party isn't doing well among Americans in general, according to Nate Silver.
A new CNN poll finds that 55 percent of voters have a negative view of the Republican Party, tied for their second-highest unfavorable score since CNN began asking this question in 1992. The Republicans also achieved a 55 percent unfavorable rating in a poll conducted in April 2009, although the party’s all-time high, 57 percent, was recorded as the House of Representatives was in the process of impeaching Bill Clinton in December, 1998....For Republicans, meanwhile, there is the possibility that the party’s unfavorable rating, which is up 7 points since March, will continue to grow as it asserts an agenda whose popularity is questionable, especially on issues like changes to entitlement programs. Their favorable rating, 41 percent, is well below that of Democrats in 2007 or Republicans in 1995 after winning control of Congress in those years, leaving the G.O.P. without a clear mandate....NYT
It is not out of the question that Democrats could lose the White House but take back control of the House of Representatives.
