Norah O'Donnell of MSNBC talks to a 17 year old girl in line at a Sarah Palin book-signing. The girl is whereing a tee-shirt saying "The U.S. Government handed out $700 billion in bailouts and all I got was this lusy T-shirt". O'Donnell asks the girl if she was aware that Sarah Palin supported the bailouts (which is true). The … Read More
Foxx’s Latest Stupid Statements
During a debate on the House floor today over designating 21 miles of the Molalla River as "wild and scenic," Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), who opposes the legislation, tried to claim a progressive environmental record for her party. "Actually, the GOP has been the leader in starting good environmental programs in this country," said Foxx. She didn't say what those … Read More
Is The Sarah Palin Newsweek Cover “Sexist”?
From Sarah Palin's Facebook page, posted last night: The choice of photo for the cover of this week’s Newsweek is unfortunate. When it comes to Sarah Palin, this “news” magazine has relished focusing on the irrelevant rather than the relevant. The Runner’s World magazine one-page profile for which this photo was taken was all about health and fitness — a … Read More
This Week’s Newsweek Covers
U.S Edition: International Edition: Says it all. By the way, Christopher Hitchens nails Sarah Palin Bible Spice in Newsweek. An excerpt: The Palin problem, then, might be that she cynically incites a crowd that she has no real intention of pleasing. If she were ever to get herself to the nation's capital, the teabaggers would be just as much … Read More
Symbolic Tea Party Protest Going Symbolically Wrong
So the tea partiers boarded the corporate-sponsored buses to come to Washington DC today to let their Congressmen know that they don't want socialism blah-blah-blah. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn, who fell out of the right wing crazy tree and hit every branch on the way down, was the one who called for the protest. She's not known for her truthfulness when … Read More
Election 2009: “No on 1” Loses In Maine
In May, Maine became the fifth state to approve marriage equality, and only the second state to approve gay marriage through the legislative process. Yesterday, sadly, a narrow majority of Maine voters turned back the clock. In a stinging setback for the national gay-rights movement, Maine voters narrowly decided to repeal the state's new law allowing same-sex marriage. With 87 … Read More
Election 2009: NY-23, NJ, and VA Thoughts
Republicans took back the governor seats in New Jersey and Virginia yesterday. Some have said that those two races were referendums on Obama, especially the Virginia race, since that state voted for the Democratic presidential candidate for the first time in a long time. I don't think one can make those kinds of conclusions about Obama based on a governor's … Read More
What’s Obama Done For Me Lately?
Many conservatives and many liberals have taken up the meme that Obama really hasn't done that much in his first year. Esquire's John Richardson shoots this down. A healthy excerpt: These days, the argument that Obama hasn't accomplished anything may be the only example of real bipartisanship in America. Here's the conventional wisdom in a single paragraph: Three hundred and sixty-four … Read More
Election Day 2009
I actually saw someone with an "I voted" sticker. The New York Times has a nice write-up of three elections to watch, since they (supposedly) foretell the political winds. Personally, I think the story is already written on what these elections mean: We're seeing a complete break-up of the Republican party — and all-out political war between the purists (the … Read More
Teabaggers Turn On GOP
Oh, my. Look what they have created. In Florida and Missouri and elsewhere, the tea baggers are attacking Republicans candidates for being "DC insiders". Put another way, they are splitting the Republican party. What does this mean for Democrats? Well, the Democratic Party was never going to be the choice of teabaggers. But the further the GOP moves to the … Read More
How Many Republicans Are Out There?
The answer may surprise you. There's a lot of meat to this Washington Post-ABC News poll. The Washington Post leads with the most relevant to today's political debate: health care. Specifically, people are warming up to the public option: On the issue that has been perhaps the most pronounced flash point in the national debate, 57 percent of all Americans now … Read More
The New GOP Website Launch
It's buggy and ugly. It crashes. But Marc Ambinder compiles the other things wrong with the launch: Top Ten Reasons Why The GOP Website Relaunch Is Fizzlin' 10. In a section devoted to "future leaders," there were none. 9. In the subsequent rush to get up a "future leaders" page, they choose "you." 8. The last GOP accomplishment cited on … Read More
Who Opposes Victims Of Rape Getting Their Day In Court?
I don't expect Republicans to be in favor of all, or even most, of the things I support. But really, this seems like a no-brainer: In 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones was gang-raped by her co-workers while she was working for Halliburton/KBR in Baghdad. She was detained in a shipping container for at least 24 hours without food, water, or a … Read More
Then and Now
February, 2004: Elizabeth Blackburn, an outspoken advocate of human embryonic stem cell research and therapeutic cloning is fired by the Bush administration from the President's Council on Bioethics because of her dissenting views. This week: Elizabeth Blackburn wins the Nobel Prize for Medicine for her pioneering work on cancer and aging.
Quote Of The Day
On Saturday, Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) discussed the direction of the GOP in an address to the Republican Northeast Conference in Newport, RI. McCotter, who serves as the chairman of the Republican Policy Committee in the House, chided conservative “ideologues” for controlling the party. McCotter explained that these individuals want to “purge” opponents “all the time…because they’re nuts.” He then … Read More