The latest polling shows Romney with a tenuous lead in Michigan. There has been no measurable momentum for either Romney or Santorum. Meanwhile, Santorum could win with Democratic votes. His campaign is robocalling Michigan Dems asking for their votes. Last week David Plotz gave voice (@8:19) to an interest theory on the rise of Santorum. It goes something like this… Romney’s whole campaign has been based on the economic case against Obama. His competitive edge was supposed to be his...

Jay Rosen on NPR’s new ethics handbook: In my view the most important changes are these passages: In all our stories, especially matters of controversy, we strive to consider the strongest arguments we can find on all sides, seeking to deliver both nuance and clarity. Our goal is not to please those whom we report on or to produce stories that create the appearance of balance, but to seek the truth. and…. At all times, we report for our readers and listeners, not our sources. So our...

Sepehen Colbert reacts to a brand memo from Nabisco, a paid commercial sponsor of his show. “You think you know Wheat Thins? [Bleep] you. [Bleep] you and the cracker you rode in on.” Colbert goes on to violate one of the memo’s stipulations by stuffing seventeen crackers into his mouth. Only sixteen make a serving. With that “technical difficulties” interupt the program. Colbert returns to read an on-air apology. Watch: AdWeek: The real question, of course, is what...

From the study: Using state-level data for the period 1990 through 2007, we estimate the effect of legalizing medical marijuana on suicide rates. Our results suggest that the passage of a medical marijuana law is associated with an almost 5 percent reduction in the total suicide rate, an 11 percent reduction in the suicide rate of 20- through 29-year-old males, and a 9 percent reduction in the suicide rate of 30- through 39-year-old males… We conclude that the legalization of medical marijuana...

WSJ: In a ruling that could have broad ramifications for law enforcement, a federal appeals court has ruled that a man under investigation for child pornography isn’t required to unlock his computer hard drives for the federal government, because that act would amount to the man offering testimony against himself. The ruling Thursday appears to be the first by a federal appeals court to find that a person can’t be forced to turn over encyption codes or passwords in a criminal investigation, in...

Chris Geidner: A year ago today, the announcement about the Defense of Marriage Act came by way of a letter from Attorney General Eric Holder to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio)… Three hundred and sixty four days later, U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey S. White agreed. White — who has served as a federal judge for the past decade after being nominated by then-President George W. Bush in 2002 — issued his order and opinion finding Section 3 of DOMA unconstitutional in a case...

In a letter sent to 48 states, Corrections Corporation of America asks states to consider the “benefits of partnership corrections.” In essence, the company offers to buy up state prisons: But there’s a catch…the states must guarantee that are there are enough prisoners to ensure that the venture is profitable to the company. Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) has reached out to 48 states as part of a $250 million plan to own existing prisons and manage their operations. But...

On Friday night’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” said Spitzer: To spend prosecutorial resources on pot is ridiculous…I’d be in favor of legalized pot. Legalizing pot is the right way to go. Recently I heard a story that some odious nation is spying on its citizens. This story from the valentine’s edition of This American Life popped to mind: Last year at three high schools in Palm Beach County, Florida, several young police officers were sent undercover to pose...

Dave Weinberger has a new book out, Too Big to Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Aren’t the Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room Is the Room. He discussed it last week on On The Media: [T]he system of knowledge that we had developed for ourselves is, in many ways, a system of stopping points because the medium of that knowledge was paper and books, and for all of their glory, the links in ‘em don’t work; the footnotes are broken. When...

Apparently, same-sex marriage opponents have settled on the referendum as the only legitimate democratic means of settling civil rights issues. They have no fear about tyrannical majorities – yet (see below). Doug Mataconis calls it moving the goalposts: When the Courts started ruling against them, they decried judicial tyranny. Now that the legislatures, the democratically elected representatives of the people, are legalizing same sex marriage, they are making the argument that only direct...

Writing in response to an essay by liberal filmmaker Astra Taylor, Dana Goldstein on why they shouldn’t: Drawing upon her own upbringing, as well as on the traditions of the radical private school the Albany Free School, Taylor calls on parents and students to “empty the schools,” which force students to endure “irrational authority six and a half hours a day, five days a week, in a series of cinder-block holding cells,” she caricatures. This overheated hostility toward public schools...

Few details yet. Earlier this week, Whitney was spotted leaving a Hollywood nightclub with scratches on her arm, blood dripping down her leg and her wig askew. Remember, I Will Always Love You…

Soul Train creator and television pioneer Don Cornelius died by suicide yesterday at the age of 75. Why? Some close to the smooth-voiced television host described a man hurt and distraught by bad business decisions, poor health, and an ugly divorce that took hundreds of thousands of dollars from his children and other family members…. In 1982, he underwent a 21-hour operation to fix a congenital malformation in blood vessels in his brain. “You choose your brain surgeons for their stamina,”...

Maybe: Academy of Sciences published a study purporting to show how psilocybin, the active ingredient in what are known as “magic mushrooms” is helpful in the treatment of depression, PTSD and anxiety. Another study, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, found similar results. Meantime, researchers around the world have been experimenting with Ecstasy, whose active ingredient, MDMA, has been linked to improvements among people suffering from depression. The Academy of Sciences...

In 2009 filmmaker Casey Pugh and Jamie Wilkinson began collecting 15 second user-created scenes of the original Star Wars. The project, dubbed Star Wars Uncut, grew a devoted following, even winning an Emmy for Outstanding Creative Achievement In Interactive Media in 2010. Now, the 472 segments have been edited by Aaron Valdez and Michael Pugh into a full 2 hour remake. And Pugh and Wilkinson have posted that finished product to the web, in all it’s brilliant and ridiculous crowdsourced glory,...

An excellent 11-minute documentary explaining how the bills would work, who’s behind them and why we should be concerned from New Left Media. Meanwhile, protest works. A spokeswoman for Google confirmed that 4.5 million people added their names to the company’s anti-SOPA petition today. A total of 103,785 people signed We the People petitions asking the Obama Administration to protect an open and innovative internet. A petition asking President Obama to veto the Stop Online Piracy Act...

Wikipedia is shutting down its English language site tomorrow to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales tweeted the announcement yesterday, “Student warning! Do your homework early. Wikipedia protesting bad law on Wednesday!” “The whole thing is just a poorly designed mess,” Wales said in an email to The Associated Press. “I am personally asking everyone who cares about freedom and openness on the Internet to contact their Senators...

Mitt Romney at the debate last night: My care by getting in this race is about my belief in America and my concern that what we’re seeing with this president is a change in course for America to be become something we wouldn’t recognize. I think he is drawing us into becoming more like a European social welfare state. I think he wants us to become an entitlement society where people in this country feel they’re entitled to something from government and where government takes from some to give...

Steve Roth wonders, how do incarceration rates affect unemployment numbers? Europe has consistently higher unemployment than the U.S., but the U.S. has far and away the highest incarceration rate in the world — .75% of the population. (World Prison Population List [PDF], compiled since 1992 by Roy Walmsley of the International Centre for Prison Studies.) Only Russia comes even close, at .63%. (Canada: .12%. Australia: .13%. China .18%. Germany .09%.) Our rate is four to eight times that of...

From the Super PAC now headed by Jon Stewart, Attack In B Minor For Strings, “If corporations are people, then Mitt Romney is Mitt the Ripper.” Watch: The ad is narrated by John Lithgow, who won an Emmy for his role as a family man serial killer in season 4 of Dexter. The note and press release from Jon Stewart, who took over Colbert’s Americans For A Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow Super PAC, is below. Colbert handed off the Super PAC on Thursday in order to “announce that I am...