Tuesday link dump: Visit Arizona, and die

An anti-tourism campaign, an uncanny unemployment prediction, and the unattractive enthusiasm of the GOP base

By Alex Pareene

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer likes to paint her state as a hellish, apocalyptic, desert war zone.
A paper from 1943 explains our current situation: “The pressure of all these forces, and in particular of big business—as a rule influential in government departments—would most probably induce the government to return to the orthodox policy of cutting down the budget deficit. A slump would follow…”
Media Research Center’s Dan Gainor will pay you to punch a congressman in the nose.
There is maybe a correlation between Republican enthusiasm and independent generic ballot preferences. Specifically, when the right-wing gets excited, the independent voters get scared of them.
Do you want to take the Pentagon’s secret, anonymous “don’t ask, don’t tell” survey? It’s apparently really super easy to sign up. Even if you’re not in the armed forces!