Occasionally I hit the sidebar at Brilliant at Breakfast.  This time I got Princess Sparkle Pony, who reads Politico so I don't have to:

Politico's "Arena," where important questions are met by talking points and press releases from a diverse group of hacks, lobbyists, publicists, and other compulsive faxers, today asked if it was "refreshing" that John Boehner and Mitch McConnell had promised an agenda of total, nihilistic obstructionism rather than "the usual platitudes about bipartisanship and working across the aisle."

For a change they got hardball:

Is this question a joke? When one of the country's two major political parties announces that it has no intention of joining in trying to solve the major problems the nation faces, that is an obvious scandal. POLITICO is enabling U.S. decline by implying otherwise. No country with 10+ percent unemployment, decaying infrastructure, major wars to fight and educational and health crises can survive the sort of political extremism for obstructionist purposes that the GOP is willfully and proudly engaging in. Only the super rich who want mansions in enclaves at home or abroad benefit from this.

Americans of all persuasions have said they do not want this, but media outlets continue to use fake "debates" like this for marketing purposes.

That would be Theda Skocpol, sociology and government professor.  (She has a Wikipedia entry.)

(Princess Sparkle Pony is now Peteykins, but the blog is still Princess Sparkle Pony.)

I also popped into "Doghouse" Riley, because I never remember that Bats Left/Throws Right is not a baseball blog.

Oh, and McCarthy of Echidne of the Snakes on media consolidation and why NPR is no help.