The Morning Flap: February 26, 2013

These are my news headlines for February 25th through February 26th:

• Kerry defends liberties, says Americans have right to be stupid – Secretary of State John Kerry offered a defense of freedom of speech, religion and thought in the United States on Tuesday telling German students that in America “you have a right to be stupid if you want to be.”
• Rothenberg: Can Obama Put the House In Play in 2014? – It’s far too early to know whether Democrats will have some, or even any, chance to win back the House next year; candidate recruitment has just begun, the number of retirements (and open seats) is uncertain and the president’s popularity more than 20 months from now is an open question. But we do know that history, as The New York Times’ Nate Silver pointed out in a column last November, suggests that Democrats will have a very tough road to 218 seats.Going back to the election of 1862, the only time the president’s party gained as many as 10 seats was, well, never. Even in 1934, the best showing by the president’s party in House elections since the Civil War, the president’s party gained only nine seats.
• Infantile Conservatism – Pat Buchanan goes after Jennifer Rubin’s = The Washington Post’s Conservative – We outlasted the evil empire of Lenin and Stalin that held captive a billion people for 45 years of Cold War, and we are frightened by a rickety theocracy ruled by an old ayatollah?Rubin’s blog may be the Post’s idea of conservatism. Ronald Reagan wouldn’t recognize it.
• America’s Red State Growth Corridors
• Ron Johnson: John Boehner could lose post
• Poll: Hispanics heavily Democratic – Hispanics in America are more than twice as likely to lean Democratic than Republican, a new poll says.Fifty-one percent of Hispanics identified as Democrat or leaned Democrat, compared with 24 percent who said they were Republican or leaned GOP, according to a Gallup poll out Monday. Twenty percent identified themselves as independent. The rest are undecided or did not respond.
• Napolitano warns that sequester would affect border security – I thought the Obama Administration said the Mexican border was already secure and that illegal crossings had decreased?
• Dems, GOP tee up rival sequester bills in Senate as deadline nears –
• Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2013-02-25 – Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2013-02-25
• Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2013-02-23 – Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2013-02-23
• Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2013-02-24 – Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2013-02-24
• tOscars 2013 Live Commentary — Nikki Finke’s Live Snark – Oscars 2013 Live Commentary — Nikki Finke’s Live Snark #tcot
• Oscars 2013 Live Commentary — Nikki Finke’s Live Snark – Four Hours Of Unfunny Seth MacFarlane; Unnecessary Michelle Obama; ‘Argo’ Wins Best Picture #tcot