Atlas Bugged

Furious about them there liberal critics, the producer of this year's biggest cinematic flop, Atlas Shrugged, says the movie's two planned sequels probably will not happen.

"Critics, you won," said John Aglialoro, the businessman who spent 18 years and more than $20 million of his own money to make, distribute and market "Atlas Shrugged: Part 1," which covers the first third of Rand's dystopian novel. "I’m having deep second thoughts on why I should do Part 2." "Atlas Shrugged" was the top-grossing limited release in its opening weekend, generating $1.7 million on 299 screens and earning a respectable $5,640 per screen. But the the box office dropped off 47% in the film's second week in release even as "Atlas Shrugged" expanded to 425 screens, and the movie seemed to hold little appeal for audiences beyond the core group of Rand fans to whom it was marketed.

Aglialoro says the cruelest review of all came from the New York Times, who never mentioned the film.

ARIZONA: Teabagger Flag Granted Same Legal Protections As U.S. Flag

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has signed a bill granting the Tea Party flag the same legal protection as the American flag. Properly known as the Gadsden flag, homeowners associations are now barred by state law from banning its display.

Current law overrides any rules when it comes to the U.S. flag, the flags of any branch of the military, the state flag, the POW-MIA flag and the flag of any Indian nation. The new law will add the Gadsden flag to that protected list, that yellow flag with the drawing of a coiled rattlesnake and the phrase “Don’t Tread on Me.”

RELATED: My pal Dr. Jeff and I recently spotted the Tea Party flag flying from the upper windows of an Upper East Side megamillion dollar townhouse. Fight the power!

O'Donnell On David Barton

Watch this.

NH Teabaggers Shrug Over Gay Marriage

At yesterday's tax day protest in New Hampshire, Wonk Room's Igor Volsky couldn't find a single Tea Party activist who cares about gay marriage.

Sharron Angle Sings! Sort Of!

ARIZONA: Jan Brewer Vetoes Birther Bill, Approves Bill Restricting Gay Adoption

Today Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer drew the ire of fellow teabaggers when she vetoed a bill requiring presidential candidates to submit a birth certificate in order to be placed on the state ballot.

Brewer said in her veto letter that she was troubled that the bill empowered Arizona's secretary of state to judge the qualifications of all candidates when they file to run for office. "I do not support designating one person as the gatekeeper to the ballot for a candidate, which could lead to arbitrary or politically motivated decisions," said Brewer, who was secretary of state until she became governor in 2009. "In addition, I never imagined being presented with a bill that could require candidates for president of the greatest and most powerful nation on Earth to submit their 'early baptismal circumcision certificates' among other records to the Arizona secretary of state," she said. "This is a bridge too far."

Also today Brewer approved a bill requiring that married opposite-sex couples be given first preference in all adoption decisions. According to the bill's opponents, this may effectively mean the end of gay adoption in Arizona.

Senate Bill 1188, which was sponsored by Sen. Linda Gray, R-Glendale, would require an adoption agency to "give primary consideration to adoptive placement with a married man and woman." It permits the agency to consider a single person if, among other things, the child's best interests require the adoption by a single person or if a married couple is not available and the alternative is extended foster care. The bill applies to both state and private adoption agencies. Previously, only Utah has a law requiring priority for married couples, though several other states have bans on adoptions by same-sex couples or by unmarried couples.

A Teabagger Tribute To Crazy Eyes

At first I thought this was meant to mock her. Sadly, no.

WISCONSIN: Andrew Breitbart Tells Pro-Union Protesters To "Go To Hell"

As he prepared to introduce Sarah Palin over the boos of Wisconsin's pro-union protesters, wingnut blogger and GOProud backer Andrew Breitbart told labor supporters, "Go to hell!" Because "class warfare" (which, hello, is what the Tea Party stands for) is "un-American." Raw Story has a much better clip (non-embeddable) taken from the rear of the crowd.

Trump Speaks To Florida Teabaggers

Trump told the audience that Obama couldn't have written both of his books because they were so different. "The difference was like chicken salad and chicken shit."

Quote Of The Day - Marilyn Davenport

"Oh, come on! Everybody who knows me knows that I am not a racist. It was a joke. I have friends who are black. Besides, I only sent it to a few people–mostly people I didn’t think would be upset by it. You're not going to make a big deal about this are you? It's just an Internet joke." - Marilyn Davenport, Tea Party activist and Orange County GOP committee member, after being busted for having emailed the above image with the caption: "Now you know why there's no birth certificate."

Atlas Is Shrugging

Dick Armey's FreedomWorks ties in yesterday's movie opening with an attack on the president.

Chaos In House As Dems Almost Trick GOP Into Approving Severe Tea Party Budget

House Democrats almost pulled a fast one on the GOP today. Talking Points Memo reports:

The vote was on the Republican Study Committee's alternative budget -- a radical plan that annihilates the social contract in America by putting the GOP budget on steroids. Deeper tax cuts for the wealthy, more severe entitlement rollbacks. Normally something like that would fail by a large bipartisan margin in either the House or the Senate. Conservative Republicans would vote for it, but it would be defeated by a coalition of Democrats and more moderate Republicans. But today that formula didn't hold. In an attempt to highlight deep divides in the Republican caucus. Dems switched their votes -- from "no" to "present."

Panic ensued. In the House, legislation passes by a simple majority of members voting. The Dems took themselves out of the equation, leaving Republicans to decide whether the House should adopt the more-conservative RSC budget instead of the one authored by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan. As Dems flipped to present, Republicans realized that a majority of their members had indeed gone on the record in support of the RSC plan -- and if the vote closed, it would pass. That would be a slap in the face to Ryan, and a politically toxic outcome for the Republican party.

The bill ended up barely failing by a vote of 139-119. All Democrats voted "present."

FLORIDA: Teabaggers To Host Trump

Trump will drive the 30 miles from his mega-zillion dollar Mar-A-Lago estate in Palm Beach to talk about how high taxes are hurting the little man.

Tweet Of The day - Chris Barron

UPDATE: From Barron's personal blog.

Instead of focusing on the words of an NBA player or Sarah Palin’s teenage daughter, why doesn’t the Human Rights Campaign and the rest of the gay left stand up to the brutality of radicalized Islam? The truth is that they won’t because it doesn’t fit their ultra-liberal world view. The gay left wants to demonize any Christian in America who might not support gay marriage, they want gay people in America to believe that the greatest threat we face is from Christianity, that couldn’t be any further from the truth. Indeed it is the Judeo-Christian western world that is the only thing that stands between gay people and genocide at the hands of radical Islamic barbarians.

CPAC Leader: GOProud Was Mean To Us

GOProud's shot at being invited back to CPAC appears pretty dim, judging by the words Al Cardenas, the head of the convention's sponsoring organization.

Reviewing the recent national CPAC, Cardenas addressed the controversy surrounding participation [with a booth in the exhibit hall] by the Republican gay group GOProud. He feels “the problem is that GOProud didn’t help us any in being inclusive, because they used that platform to be quite aggressive [outside CPAC]. They started taunting some of our board members.” “The ideal GOProud participation would have been, ‘You know what, guys? This is an inclusive society. We’re as interested in these fiscal issues as you are. Fill your website with fiscal issues that you’re for and be a mainstream discusser of issues. We just happen to have a different lifestyle.’ And if they’d done that, they would have laid the groundwork for things that would have been pretty good.’”

Crazy Eyes: Democrats Want Government Shut Down So They Can Blame Tea Party

Crazy Eyes Gets Cozy With Hate Group

Yesterday Rep. Michele "Crazy Eyes" Bachmann traded compliments with Tony Perkins, the head of the SPLC-certified hate group, Family Research Council, as they discussed teabagger strategies to "take this country back."

GOP Unveils Budget That Overhauls Medicare & Medicaid, Repeals Obamacare

House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan today unveiled a long-term plan that would dramatically overhaul the way the federal government and states administer Medicare and Medicaid. The GOP plan also, of course, repeals "Obamacare."

Ryan's budget proposal aims to slash $6 trillion from the budget over the next 10 years. It would in part accomplish that by changing Medicaid -- which serves low-income families -- from a government-run insurance program to a system of block grants distributed to states. Medicare, a government-run health care program for those over 65, would essentially turn into a "premium support" program -- the government would essentially provide vouchers for health care, but the funds would go directly to the insurer rather than the consumer. The government would give private health insurers a set amount of money to cover senior citizens. The change to Medicare would go into effect in 2022 under the plan. It's a risky proposal politically, given Medicare's overwhelming popularity, but Ryan and the GOP are prepared to argue the changes are necessary.

Below is the PR clip Ryan issued today in support of his plan.