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The Secret Service is investigating an Arizona police officer over a picture he posted on Facebook that appeared to show President Barack Obama riddled with bullets.

Peoria's Sgt. Pat Shearer admitted to KNXV that he took the photo of several young men -- possibly minors -- posing with guns and an Obama "Hope" T-shirt that had been destroyed by gunfire. The photo went viral after Shearer posted it to his Facebook page.

"Another trip to the ranch," read the caption on the photo, according to Phoenix New Times. Comments on the photo included, "Damn it feels good to be a gangsta," and, "They look like Gangsta's huh?"

Two of the young men are holding what appears to be assault rifles and another is sporting a pistol.

"I don’t think that the shooting of that T-shirt is that big of a deal," Shearer said. "It was more of a political statement."

"It’s not like they were going to go out and shoot the president," he added.

The officer has since removed the offending photo from his Facebook page.

"We received information about a possible policy violation today involving one of our employees," Peoria Police spokesman Jay Davies told KPHO. "We were contacted by the Secret Service."

Peoria police are investigating whether Shearer violated their social media policy, which says, "posting information regarding off-duty activity that may tend to bring an officer's reputation into question is strongly discouraged."

Shearer has been with the department for 14 years and remains on duty.

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This is a small piece of what was a fairly long and heated exchange between Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney, but the essence of the disagreement is in this clip. Santorum believes RomneyCare eliminates him as a viable opponent to Barack Obama because it is the foundation for the Affordable Care Act aka ObamaCare. This is because in Rick Santorum is now channeling Michele Bachmann and screaming from the mountaintops that repeal of the Affordable Care Act is the 'defining issue of our time.'

Not income inequality. Not jobs. No. Excluding people who have pre-existing conditions is the defining issue of Rick Santorum's time. Oh, granted, he couches it in the grand language of "top down government-run health plans" and the like, but he gives himself away a couple of times.

Let's break this one down as it unfolds, because there are many moments worth looking at, particularly Rick Santorum's lies and Mitt Romney's elegant defense before he remembers he's supposed to hate what he created.

The Elegant Defense

This will make a lovely ad during the general election campaign, don't you think?

ROMNEY: Rick, I make enough mistakes in what I say, not for you to add more mistakes to what I say. I didn't say I'm in favor of top- down government-run health care, 92 percent of the people in my state had insurance before our plan went in place. And nothing changes for them. They own the same private insurance they had before.

And for the 8 percent of people who didn't have insurance, we said to them, if you can afford insurance, buy it yourself, any one of the plans out there, you can choose any plan. There's no government plan.

And if you don't want to buy insurance, then you have to help pay for the cost of the state picking up your bill, because under federal law if someone doesn't have insurance, then we have to care for them in the hospitals, give them free care. So we said, no more, no more free riders. We are insisting on personal responsibility.

Either get the insurance or help pay for your care. And that was the conclusion that we reached.

SANTORUM: Does everybody in Massachusetts have a requirement to buy health care?

ROMNEY: Everyone has a requirement to either buy it or pay the state for the cost of providing them free care. Because the idea of people getting something for free when they could afford to care for themselves is something that we decided in our state was not a good idea.

That more or less sums up the Massachusetts plan and the Affordable Care Act coverage and consumer provisions. Here comes Santorum with the leap on it...and yes, I was screaming at him in real time -- bad for the blood pressure.

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If anyone was hoping that this birther movement was dead and gone even after wingnut and discredited birther in chief Orly Taitz has has been fined $20,000 for a frivolous suit in Georgia, it seems Taitz is not going away quietly and she's got some wingnut judge in Georgia doing his best to help her stir up trouble in the upcoming presidential election as well.

Rachel Maddow spoke to Georgia Democratic Party Chairman Mike Berlon about the continued effort to keep President Obama off of the ballot in the upcoming presidential race and whether anyone ought to take those threats seriously.

Here's more on the judge's ruling -- Georgia judge orders Obama to appear in court for hearing on attempt to keep him off ballot:

A judge has ordered President Barack Obama to appear in court in Atlanta for a hearing on a complaint that says Obama isn't a natural-born citizen and can't be president.

It's one of many such lawsuits that have been filed across the country, so far without success. A Georgia resident made the complaint, which is intended to keep Obama's name off the state's ballot in the March presidential primary.

An Obama campaign aide says any attempt to involve the president personally will fail and such complaints around the country have no merit.

The hearing is set for Thursday before an administrative judge. Deputy Chief Judge Michael Malihi on Friday denied a motion by the president's lawyer to quash a subpoena that requires Obama to show up.

As The Huffington Post noted, it's unlikely we're going to see President Obama showing up in court any time soon -- Obama Birther Case In Georgia Unlikely To Bring The President, Despite Judge's Order:

The White House appears prepared to ignore a recent ruling by Georgia Deputy Chief Judge Michael Malihi that would require President Obama to attend a birther hearing in Fulton County, Ga., on Thursday.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney outlined Barack Obama's weekly agenda on Monday, noting that the president is scheduled to hit Las Vegas, Denver and Detroit on Thursday in a whirlwind tour to talk middle class job creation.

That's not likely to sit well with Malihi, who last week rejected an effort by Obama's legal team to quash a subpoena that would require president appear in court that day. The complaint, like many others of its kind, claims Obama isn't a natural-born citizen and therefore can't be president.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports on Malihi's decision to deny the administration's efforts to counter the subpoena: [...]

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On this Wednesday evening's The Situation Room, CNN's newest anchor and Wall Street apologist Erin Burnett did her best to do a bit of concern trolling for the ultra-rich in America to try to convince the viewers that it really doesn't matter all that much if we raise taxes on the wealthiest among us, because it won't make a dent towards doing anything to solve our debt and deficit problems.

There are so many things wrong with this segment, it's hard to know where to begin, but I guess I'll start with just who Erin Burnett thinks should be responsible for solving the problems with our deficit. At a time when we've got record income disparity which has been getting worse for the last four decades at least, she doesn't think that we should fix that on the backs of the rich. The people she wants to solve it are our seniors and the middle class and the poor.

And no one is claiming that raising taxes on the rich alone would solve the problem, but it would be a huge step in the right direction to getting America back to a place where we still had a middle class and weren't just becoming a country where you've got nothing left but the ultra-rich and the very poor.

Blitzer asked Burnett about President Obama's statement in the State of the Union Address that millionaires should be paying a minimum 30 percent tax rate and that we should be following "the Buffett rule" where no millionaire or billionaire is taxed at a lower rate than their secretary. Burnett responded by saying that she asked some "experts" for their opinion on this and they claimed it would only "raise about $41 billion a year."

I sent this on to our group here at C&L and Jon Perr who has written so much on this topic sent me these items in rebuttal to Burnett's hackery.

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Some fairly astute analysis from the younger, smarter Bush brother on the growing problem Republicans have with courting the Hispanic vote, and the electoral implications that has now and will have in the future. The only problem is is that party would have to do a complete 180° from the present self-destructive course they're on. Basically Jeb Bush is telling them they can't be what they are and continue to win elections.

JOHN KING: You say you do that at your peril. What's the future as a national party for Republicans? Your brother got 41 percent of the Latino vote in 2004. John McCain slipped to 31 percent. If that trend continues, sir, five, 10, 15 years from now, will the Republicans even be able to compete nationally if they don't repair this breach?

JEB BUSH: Well, I mean, this is an oversimplification, but I don't think a party can aspire to be the majority party if it's the old white guy party.

So, clearly, there are new constituencies emerging in our country. They're making a difference in our communities, a positive difference. The tone of the message, the message itself needs to be focused on where the changing demographics of our country are. And so, absolutely, if we do nothing to try to reach out to voters that believe in our values, but feel turned off by the rhetoric, that is the dumbest thing in the world to do.

And my guess is that there's a growing awareness of this. I sense the candidates as they have campaigned in Florida have begun to understand that a little better.

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Here we go again. Mitt Romney doesn't seem to care much that there are people out there actually debunking his lies even if we can't get our talking heads in the mainstream media to do it, because he just repeated another one during this Thursday evening's debate on CNN.

Romney repeated the lie that his tax rate is "closer to 45 or 50 percent" although he walked that back a tiny bit during the debate and used the number forty instead. Here's more from Think Progress -- Watch Mitt Spin: Romney Claims His Real Tax Rate Is ‘Closer To 45 Or 50 Percent’:

During an interview with Univision, Romney was pressed on whether it was fair for him to pay about 13 percent of his income in taxes — as he did in 2010, according to his recently released tax returns — when many middle class families pay far more. Romney proceeded to claim that his actual rate is “closer to 45 or 50 percent.” To justify his figure, Romney relied on his belief that “corporations are people.” When Univision’s Jorge Ramos asked Romney if his 13 percent tax rate is “fair,” Romney suggested adding the maximum corporate tax rate (35 percent) to his personal taxes to calculate his real rate [...]

Romney glosses over the fact that he is not a corporation and doesn’t pay corporate taxes. Additionally, most corporations pay far lower than a 35 percent rate. In fact, many profitable corporations pay nothing at all.

In the alternative, Romney suggested that his tax rate should be considered “almost 40 percent” because he gave a substantial amount of money to charity, mostly to the Mormon church. Romney should be lauded for his charitable contributions — and received a tax deduction for them — but charitable contributions are not taxes.

Transcript via CNN of his comments during the debate below the fold.

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Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney says he doesn't coordinate with the super PACs that support him, but apparently he doesn't coordinate with himself either.

During the CNN-hosted debate in Florida on Thursday, the former Massachusetts governor couldn't remember an ad attacking Newt Gingrich, even though he approved it and his campaign paid for it.

"You've had an ad running that says Speaker Gingrich calls Spanish the language of the ghetto," CNN moderator Wolf Blitzer told Romney.

"I haven't seen the ad," Romney replied. "I'm sorry I don't get to see all the TV ads. I don't know. Did he say that?"

"No," Gingrich objected. "I said we want everybody to learn English; I didn't use the word Spanish. ... So I would say that as much as Gov. Romney doesn't particularly like my use of language, I found his deliberate distortion equally offensive."

"I doubt that's my ad," Romney insisted. "But we'll take a look and find out. There are a bunch of ads out there that are being organized by other people."

In fact, Blitzer did return to the subject after a few other questions.

"We just double-checked and it was one of your ads," Blitzer explained. "It's running here in Florida on the radio, and at the end you say, 'I'm Mitt Romney and I approved this ad.'"

While Romney had the support of the Republican audience for a large part of the night, that tidbit of information was met with groans and boos.

"Let me ask the Speaker a question," Romney spoke up, trying to salvage the moment. "Did you say what the ad says or not? I don't know."

"It's totally out of context," Gingrich said.

"Oh, OK, he said it," Romney interrupted. "Let's take a look at what he said."

In a 2007 speech, Gingrich did say that bilingual education should be replaced "with immersion in English so people learn the common language of the country and they learn the language of prosperity, not the language of living in a ghetto," according to a fact check from The Washington Post.

Gingrich had not specifically used the word "Spanish," but it was widely perceived to be aimed at Spanish speakers. The Georgia Republican eventually apologized for creating "a bad feeling within the Latino community."

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It's true. Mitt Romney really does like firing people. With a somewhat condescending tone after Newt Gingrich paints a grand picture of his dream of a moon colony (not that it wasn't a bald pander or anything), Mitt lets him know that corporate investors would guffaw at him right before they fired him. The joy Mitt gets out of saying "you're fired" just shines through. Channeling his inner Donald Trump, perhaps?

BLITZER: We're going to move on, but go ahead, Governor Romney.

ROMNEY: I spent 25 years in business. If I had a business executive come to me and say they wanted to spend a few hundred billion dollars to put a colony on the moon, I'd say, "You're fired."

The idea that corporate America wants to go off to the moon and build a colony there, it may be a big idea, but it's not a good idea. And we have seen in politics -- we've seen politicians -- and Newt, you've been part of this -- go from state to state and promise exactly what that state wants to hear. The Speaker comes here to Florida, wants to spend untold amount of money having a colony on the moon. I know it's very exciting on the Space Coast.

In South Carolina, it was a new interstate highway, and dredging the port in Charleston. In New Hampshire, it was burying a power line coming in from Canada and building a new VHA hospital in New Hampshire so that people don't have to go to Boston.

Look, this idea of going state to state and promising what people want to hear, promising billions, hundreds of billions of dollars to make people happy, that's what got us into the trouble we're in now. We've got to say no to this kind of spending.

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Outgoing Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank is preparing for his new role as a married man.

NECN reported on Thursday that Frank will tie the knot with his longtime partner, Jim Ready, in a ceremony in Massachusetts. The couple has been together since 2007.

"Look, I have a partner now, Jim Ready," Frank told PBS' Charlie Rose earlier this month. "I have an emotional attachment. I’m in love for the first time in my life."

Even though same sex marriage is legal in Massachusetts, the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) means that gay couples do not have true marriage equality.

"It is, of course, somewhat ironic that because of DOMA and because Barney is a federal employee, Jim won’t be eligible for any of the benefits that any other spouse would be able to get," Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders executive director Lee Swislow told The Associated Press.

"I think it’s always positive when public figures are role models in these critical societal institutions."

Frank, 71, announced in November that he would retire at the end of his current term. He has served as one of the most prominent gay members of Congress since 1981.

(H/T: Metro Weekly)

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Lawmakers weren't the only ones doing business on the Kentucky Senate floor on Tuesday.

State Senate President Pro Tem Katie Stine (R-Southgate) had brought an African blackfooted penguin named Paula as a part of her presentation for a resolution honoring the Newport Aquarium.

"Are we talking about the penguin that just defecated on the floor?" state Senate President David Williams (R-Burkesville) asked.

"Actually, senator, I believe that's your desk," Stine replied.

"Well, let's see if Miss Kentucky can top that!" Williams quipped in reference to an upcoming appearance by pageant winner Ann-Blair Thornton.

(H/T: Gawker)