Who thinks burdensome regulations are killing the economy? Which candidate is seeking your vote based on a policy of freeing corporations from the onerous and burdensome regulations that are choking off economic growth in America?

See if you can tell by playing this week’s- Who said it? Kovach or Carney?

Millions of Americans are out of work and looking for jobs. Businesses trying to grow face the barriers of skyrocketing employee benefit costs and unnecessary delays caused by the government.

Kovach or Carney?

Ensuring that the federal government does not unfairly burden small businesses is a priority of mine. I will continue looking for common sense ways to reduce burdens on small business owners…

Kovach or Carney?

We should also continue to reduce burdensome and unnecessary regulations on small businesses without compromising the basic health and safety standards we need.

Kovach or Carney?

If a business can overcome these barriers they must then overcome the hurdles of cumbersome regulations and an overly complex tax code which causes way too much uncertainty for a business to start, expand, or create new jobs.

Kovach or Carney?

A new Majority Opinion Research poll finds Newt Gingrich leading Mitt Romney, 32% to 23%, followed by Herman Cain at 14%, Ron Paul at 6%, Rick Perry 5%, Michele Bachmann 4%, Jon Huntsman 3%, “someone else” at 4%, and no opinion at 11%.

If Gingrich wins Iowa, he will be the nominee. Hahahahahahaha. It is so beautiful a thought that tears are coming to my eyes. With just 36 days until the Iowa caucuses, First Read sums up the state of the race:

“1) Mitt Romney remains the overall favorite — with his money, campaign staff, and poll position — but he hasn’t been able to pull away from the field, and he’s a TV ad away from being all-in in Iowa; 2) Newt Gingrich, fresh off from his New Hampshire Union Leader endorsement, has emerged as the latest Romney alternative, but the question is whether he can survive the next 36 days; (none of the OTHER anti-Romneys has lasted longer); 3) Rick Perry’s campaign appears stuck in neutral, though he did receive an endorsement from controversial Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio; 4) Ron Paul keeps on doing his thing, and is enlisting college students to help out his Iowa ground game; 5) Herman Cain is trying to bounce back from his foreign-policy stumbles and those sexual-harassment allegations; and 6) with all the twists and turns that we’ve seen so far, the next five weeks (and beyond) promise to be a wild ride.”

“Bottom line: We don’t know how Romney is denied the nomination, but we also don’t know how he gets there, yet.

A true shame: Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) will not run for re-election for a 17th term. He’ll hold a press conference at 1 pm ET to discuss his decision. The Boston Globe reports that “the new district in which Frank would have had to run next year was a major factor in his decision. While it retained his Newton stronghold, it was revised to encompass more conservative towns while Frank also lost New Bedford, a blue-collar city where had invested a lot of time and become a leading figure in the region’s fisheries debate.” Barney Frank had a quick wit and was truly unafraid of taking the fight to the Republicans, unlike many Democratic cowards in Congress. He will be missed.

I guess Iowa Republicans have not given up searching for the “not Romney”.

But seriously folks. How about those Republicans? Crazy, right?

And this concludes my “first lazy post back from vacation.” A slightly less lazy post might be forthcoming and might not be depending on how shitheaded and Republican John Carney sounds today.

This is on air in Australia. It needs to be on air in the United States.

To quote George Takei:

When people talk about same sex marriage, what is often forgotten in the politics is that, fundamentally, this is about love. The young man you see in this video finds the love of his life, and it shouldn’t matter what the gender of his spouse is. Please watch, reflect and share this message. Marriage equality–it’s time.

With any luck, you got to sleep in late and indulge in a pot of coffee and maybe biscuits and gravy for breakfast. If you are having a fairly leisurely day (or need something to read on your iPad while waiting for your loved ones to emerge with their Black Friday haul) here you go:

The Origins and Future of the Occupy Movement — from the New Yorker. There’s also a neat sidebar on how Zuccotti Park came to be ground zero of the occupation.

Lest We Forget: Why We Had A Financial Crisis — from Forbes, of all places. The rightwing and corporate effort to deflect responsibility for this mess continues full force and needs a routine corrective.

UC Davis Pepper-Spray Incident Reveals Weakness Up Top — from the Matt Taibbi at the Rolling Stone. Taibbi (via Glenn Greenwald) place the militarization of the police as a result of the WOT. I think that is dead wrong — the militarization of the police started in the WOD. The difference being that the police state is clearly being aimed at everybody — not just communities of color where that kind of oppression is easily approved of.

How the GOP Became the Party of the Rich — also from the Rolling Stone.

Have you read anything else this week that the rest of us should?

Extra credit: How did Black Friday get its name?