February 2011
1 post
“In his third term of office Mubarak has still not picked a vice-president. The...”
– One Foot on the Moon by Amos Elon | The New York Review of Books
January 2011
24 posts
1 tag
It doesn't really matter what Obama says
He’s a leftie. Therefore, he hates America.
Here’s John Boehner oh so earnestly confused as to why Obama just doesn’t understand how great America is.
BOEHNER: Well, they — they’ve refused to talk about America exceptionalism. We are different than the rest of the world. Why? Because Americans have — the country was built on an idea that ordinary people could...
“Conservatives are trained not to use the language of liberals. Liberals are not...”
– The “New Centrism” And It’s Discontents
“The government fails the people of New Orleans when they are hit by a hurricane,...”
– Thomas Frank
What's $100 billion between political enemies?
Steve Bell, Visiting Scholar at the Bipartisan Policy Center:
Republicans risk over-promising and drastically under-achieving. Simple arithmetic condemns most of the $100 billion and “back to FY08″ ideas.
Without wanting to be a curmudgeon on the subject, I still fall back on simple numbers.
The United States will spend approximately $450 billion on “non-security” discretionary spending...
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“Stupormarket is The Seldoms’ new dance theater work about the economic blowout...”
– Stage 773
I can’t be the only person who wants an animated gif of this performance with which I can “settle” all future economics debates on tumblr.
“You need to understand how insidious this bill is,” Gohmert said. “This was...”
– Congressman Gohmert On Healthcare: This Was Written By Smart People | Capitol Annex
Probably the best hope for a repeal strategy. Blame shit on smart people.
Repealing Health Care Reform: Bring It On
Jonathan Chait:
Ahead of a vote on repeal in the GOP-led House this week, strong opposition to the law stands at 30 percent, close to the lowest level registered in AP-GfK surveys dating to September 2009.
The nation is divided over the law, but the strength and intensity of the opposition appear diminished. The law expands coverage to more than 30 million uninsured, and would require, for...
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“The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that repealing the reform...”
– The Truth and Consequences of Repeal
Same as it ever was: the deficit is a campaign issue, not a governing priority.
“I don’t think the right’s rhetoric is responsible for the shooting in Arizona....”
– Tone Versus Substance
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“Calls to Twitter and YouTube were not returned on Thursday.”
– FoxNews.com
“The Tea Party Express endorses “The Constitution Made Easy,” a translation into...”
– The battle over the Constitution
Jared Lee Loughner released after not breaking any... →
TUCSON, AZ—Jared Lee Loughner was released from custody this afternoon when it was determined that the suspect—accused of a shooting spree that left six dead and 14 injured, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords—had not technically broken any Arizona state laws. “While Loughner is clearly a deranged madman who, with this heinous, tragic act, has proved to be a danger to himself and others, he...
“[F]or the past two years, many conservative leaders, activists, and media...”
– Interesting Times: It Doesn’t Matter Why He Did It - George Packer
It's best if crazy people don't find their...
Something David Neiwert has been saying for some time:
When the conservative movement’s True Believers are fed a steady diet of extraordinary warnings intended to induce a paranoiac, panicked fear — They’re Destroying America! They Want to End Your Liberty! Health Care Reform is the End of America! — and simultaneously fed a diet of suggestions that the solution is simply...
“We are again dealing with difficulties in a contentious, partisan time. We are...”
– President Bill Clinton, Op-Ed on the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing. Apropos to the day’s events. (h/t Dave Weigal)
“I think it’s important for all leaders, not just leaders of the Republican Party...”
– Representative Gabrielle Giffords on Violent Political Rhetoric, March 2010 « Student Activism
(via Sarah Benincasa on Facebook)
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Republicans to Spend $1.1 Million Reciting... →
Dear House Republicans:
For this kind of scratch I will recite the constitution every day for a year and broadcast the video live on humptheframers.com.
With all appropriate respect,
South Pol
Unemployment: Time to Celebrate
crazynutjob:
New claims made a significant push below 400k today. Since I’ve been making a big deal about this level for over a year, I felt it appropriate to set aside time from my vacation to comment on this. This is a number worth celebrating. For how long, I could not say. My view is pessimistic to be sure. And there are other aspects of the labor market not worth celebrating. The unadjusted...
The Debt Ceiling Phony War
Jonathan Chait:
Republicans and Democrats are already posturing over a vote to raise the debt ceiling. As you watch Democrats lacerate Republicans for risking the full faith and credit of the U.S. government, keep in mind that they all voted against raising the debt ceiling when Republicans held the White House:
Democrats in control of Congress, including then-Sen. Obama (Ill.), blasted...
“During the early years of the Kennedy Administration, Congress passed an...”
– Via Jonathan Cohn
I am already worked up about debt ceiling stuntas, but who doesn’t love a good debt ceiling anecdote.
December 2010
43 posts
“Imagine a military analyst who joins in 2001 at age 25, perhaps in response to...”
– Rortybomb
“The whole process, in which senators facing time pressure to get things done...”
– Obama’s Second Act? by Michael Tomasky
Can someone smart come up with a plan to have a lame duck congress all the time?
1 tag
“As for whether or not Barbour can survive a higher-profile controversy on the...”
– Garance Franke-Ruta
HAaaaaaaahaaahahaaaa haaaaaaaahaaaaaa
[wheeze]
Haaaaaaaaaaaa.
House Redistribution
jasencomstock:
AZ+1, FL+2, GA+1, NV+1, SC+1, TX+4, UT+1, WA+1,
IL-1, IA-1, LA-1, MA-1, MI-1, MO-1, NJ-1, NY-2, OH-2, PA-1
%$#@! +25
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Last Barbour note
Digby and others argue that Barbour is too smart to misspeak, and that this is pure Southern Strategy tactics at work, cooking up some of that tea party resentment to boot.
Thomasky:
Barbour may be an ignorant liar, but he isn’t stupid. He’s allegedly running for president. He knows who votes in Republican primaries in his presumed region of strength.
“I just don’t...
1 tag
“Barbour is not dumb. If he’s being a revisionist about race in...”
– Dave Weigel
You know what would make people stop saying conservatives are on the wrong side of the Civil Rights movement? Getting on the right side of the Civil Rights movement.
This concludes todays #DoNotElectBossHog content. Probably.
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Haley Barbour Link Day Part 3
The watermelon thing - Ben Smith:
Unlike some politicians, Barbour has never staged a public soul-searching on the subject to draw a line under it, but a reader emailed to point out an anecdote that will loom if he runs for president. The context is a 1982 New York Times article on Barbour’s challenge that year to the octogenarian incumbent Democratic Senator, John Stennis…
This...
1 tag
“We just sat on our cars, watching the girls, talking, doing what boys do. We...”
– Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, on watching a 1962 speech that Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave in Barbour’s hometown of Yazoo City. (via officialssay)
Only one of a ton of choice quotes in this story.
(via firthofforth)
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I nominate Haley Barbour for President of...
Image from The Citizens’ Council: Organized Resistance to the Second Reconstruction:
Today, Matt Yglesias read a cover story about Haley Barbour in the Weekly Standard so that you don’t have to. Thanks, Matt.
In the article, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour reminisces fondly about the ‘Citizens Councils’ of the 1960s, implying that they were an antidote to racism, holding...
Obama: still a centrist
James Kwak:
So no, I don’t think Obama is abandoning his principles for political advantage; I think these are his principles. And while I’m upset at him, I’m upset at him for being wrong on the policy level, not for abandoning anything or selling out. I think a lot of the bitterness on the left comes from people who thought he was more progressive than he is, and now feel betrayed. As I said...
“Democrats have some things they want to do, but in addition to satisfying their...”
– The Decline of America | Mother Jones
Yeah how’s your day going there?
Gail Collins writes a thing about John Boehner... →
Besides the crying gap between men and women, there’s also one between Republicans and Democrats. On the one hand, you have the folks who can’t afford tears because it makes them look weak, and on the other, the people who are presumed to be tough and hard-nosed, for whom crying is an attractive sign of complexity.
Boehner is opposed to extending unemployment benefits for the jobless, and...
Jon John: Cornyn and Thune
lemkin:
Reporter 1: Senator Thune, I was just looking at the list of earmark requests that you requested this year [in the Omnibus spending bill] and it adds up to over a hundred million dollars Thune: I support those projects, but I don’t support this bill [to which my own earmarks are attached; I do not support it because of earmarks.] Reporter 2: Going through this bill, there is earmark...
1 tag
“My belief, for what it is worth, is that city dwellers cannot understand the...”
– James Buchan
Enjoy your confused, inauthentic existence, 51% of humanity.
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