In case you missed it, here’s January’s top 10.

#10.

#9.

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What a nightmare this Conservative Political Action Conference has been. I can’t imagine how Republicans think this is going to play well with people who are genuinely struggling with actual problems.

• From Mother Jones: John Bolton at CPAC: The Benefits of Nuking Chicago:

“The fact is on foreign policy I don’t think President Obama thinks it’s a priority,” said Bolton. “He said during the campaign he thought Iran was a tiny threat. Tiny, tiny depending on how many nuclear weapons they are ultimately able to deliver on target. Its, uh, its tiny compared to the Soviet Union, but is the loss of one American city” – here Bolton changes his tone subtly to prepare for the joke – “pick one at random – Chicago – is that a tiny threat?”

Bolton wasn’t the only one who thought this was funny. The room erupted in laughter and applause.

• Thinkprogress: Joe the Plumber suggests some congressmembers should be shot

JOE: “Back in the day, really, when people would talk about our military in a poor way, somebody would shoot ‘em. And there’d be nothing said about that, because they knew it was wrong. You don’t talk about our troops. You support our troops. Especially when our congressmen and senators sit there and say bad things in an ongoing conflict.”

He also wants to slap anyone who “talked treasonous talk about America,” though that presumably doesn’t extend to Republicans wanting the President to fail.

• Speaking of which, Thinkprogress has another interview in which Tom DeLay joins Rush Limbaugh in openly hoping for Obama’s failure

Is there some context that should make me less frightened by this news?

The 25 bank failures in 2008 also depleted the [FDIC's] deposit insurance fund by $15.7 billion during the fourth quarter to $18.89 billion.

The 25 banks that failed last year, before the worst hit — out of thousands in operation in the United States — nearly halved the government’s deposit insurance fund.

from the San Diego Reader

from a former Republican:

One of the chief economic advisers to their then Presidential candidate repeatedly referred to those feeling the pain of the recession as a nation of whiners while suggesting it was all in their heads, and now, as it is blindingly obvious that we are in serious, serious trouble, the leading lights of the opposition party are spending their days getting economic advice from a handyman who could not figure out that because he made significantly less than 250 grand a year he would not be having his taxes increased, taking their political advice from a radio loudmouth, holding panels at their annual conference discussing how Al Franken and ACORN are ruining Democracy, and spending their days questioning whether or not our President is actually an American. Meanwhile, as the DOW looks like it will dip below 7000 on more horrible economic news, the grass roots movement of the party is throwing “tea parties” to protest attempts by the opposition party to address this crisis.

When you hear the wingnuts talk triumphantly about their little tea party today, that is the appropriate context (from the comments: “Remind me, was the original tea party a demonstration against 95% of the colonies getting a tax cut?”). I honestly don’t know how anyone with half a brain still identifies as a Republican or conservative. These guys seem intent on doing to the conservative brand what they did to the name liberal brand, only much more effectively. This is a bankrupt movement.

UPDATE: Cole posted in his comments as well:

Yes, the Democrats are not perfect, and they not only do not have all the answers and should accept much of the blame for where we currently are.

But christ on a crutch, one side is trying to stave off armageddon, the other side is fomenting civil unrest, saying no to everything, and seems to honestly think the path to the future requires little more than a judicious use of twitter and some hip-hop appeal. We have to make a f—ing choice here as our system is a binary construct, and it isn’t even close, so knock it off with the bulls—.

As one reporter observed after the briefing, “Did you notice all the questions about taxes came from reporters making over $250,000 a year, especially the TV guys?”

Check out BREAKING: Press Corps Incredulous That Obama Budget Reflects Campaign Promises at fivethirtyeight.com. Silver points out how the press corps has soaked up every bit of Joe the Plumber rhetoric as if it were somehow textbook economics.

(CBS’s Chip) Reid: On jobs, which is the big complaint up on Capitol Hill right now from Republicans, that this plan is a job-killer. I mean, the $787 billion plan was all about jobs, more than anything else. And now you have a plan in place that — how can you possibly tax people making people over $250,000 something like $667 billion over the next ten years and not have a downward effect on jobs?

Gibbs: Well, Chip, how did it work in 1994 and 1995 and 1996 and 1997?

I understand that conservatives view returning the highest tax brackets to Clinton-Reagan levels as “wealth redistribution.” What I don’t understand is why slashing taxes for the upper-class, which puts more burden on everyone else, isn’t also considered wealth redistribution; i.e. Obama proposes wealth redistribution, but Bush didn’t. I ask this question honestly, assuming there is some attempt at an intellectually honest distinction.

from the Lincoln Journal Star

from the Omaha Reader

Dave Heineman deserves some credit for approaching the incoming stimulus funding like an adult rather than resorting to the shallow grandstanding we’ve seen from other governors like Bobby Jindal. It’s completely within a person’s rights to politically oppose something, but good for Heineman for accepting what has happened and moving forward in the best interests of the state he’s governing, deflating some of the more ridiculous Republican talking points in the process.

You can now follow my twitter feed in the sidebar column. While I don’t mean to downplay the awesomeness of this, my Twitter updates are not what I was referring to when I alluded to my best idea ever.