December 2008
62 posts
The Left Adapts To Power; Or, Overcoming Learned...
Marc Ambinder chalks the disparity of attention from the Left between actually significant developments in the positive direction and insignificant ones in the negative up to kneejerk-ism:
The deeper dynamic, though, is this: liberal groups are used to being treated like stepchildren in Washington. They are used to being under seige at all times, and it’s going to take some adjustment to...
“An entire generation has been born, grown up, and had families of its own since...”
– P.J. O’ Rourke, The Weekly Standard
This and 11 more gems at TPM’s The Top Dozen Insights of Conservatives, 2008
“But there is a consistency at the heart of Obama’s position. He campaigned...”
– Obama, Gays and the Radical Pragmatism of the Separately Equal
Michael Sherer with some good perspective on Warren in the context of Obama the candidate.
Behavior and Taxes
shorterexcerpts:
afghanistanbananastand:
muppetpants:jeffmiller:robot-heart:
The medical cost of obesity in this country is almost $80 billion/year. If you consider just how many of those people are poor and either uninsured or receive government aid for healthcare, you can begin to see how the financial burden of health problems related to obesity and to poor diet generally cost the...
Stupid Stimulus Compromise
crazynutjob:
I found this article from this post. This bit struck me as insanely stupid:
“The biggest fear is that people will do too little,” said one Democratic leadership aide, “like a start-up that fails because it didn’t do enough.”
Obama aides hope to keep the package below the trillion-dollar mark, a psychological threshold that could carry political consequences, as they fear being...
Art and Culture In the Bush Era - Newsweek.com →
NEWSWEEK asked its cultural critics to pick the one work in their field that they believe exemplifies what it was like to be alive in the age of George W. Bush.
I agree with KD: 24 was robbed.
Everyone who reblogs this does not have an accent
robot-heart:
monkeytypist:robot-heart:
“Some of us have standards”. That’s fine; but your standards are arbitrary; so are everybody else’s. The headline “does not have an accent” is totally ridiculous from a linguistic perspective. It’s like saying “nobody has a style of dress”.
As an Australian who pronounces many of these words completely differently, I find it kind of funny that you...
“This time, though, the decision to get involved with Saddleback was actually not...”
– Obama and Rick Warren to reunite on Jan. 20
“Rick Warren will give the invocation at Obama’s inauguration. Warren is a man...”
– Andrew Sullivan on what I’m dubbing, ‘Warren-gate’ (via apsies)
“1:51 pm - The Illinois Supreme Court has rejected Attorney General Lisa...”
– The Capitol Fax Blog
Well that was completely expected.
The New York Times Tries To Kill Caroline... →
josephweisenthal:
Honestly I hate this Caroline Kennedy for Senate thing because of the brain-dead thinking on the part of everyone who loves the idea so much. It’s the ultimate use of politics to fulfill one’s own somewhat juvenile need for narrative and fantasy - something both Boomers and Gen-Y’ers are prone to (but not the ironically detached Gen X’ers), and which played such a big part in...
We only explore at equilibrium
Dan Drezner on reports that falling oil prices is putting a crimp in oil exploration:
So, let me see if I have this right:
If oil prices are sky-high, the energy sector explains that it will be slow to develop new fields, because exploration requires massive fixed investments and no one knows what the price of energy will be 5-10 years from now;
If oil prices are low, the energy sector...
The Blagojevich I remember
True story I just remembered about my still-the-governor, Rod Blagojevich.
Sometime in the summer of… I’m going to say 2005, I was walking through the annual neighborhood garage sale in the Ravenswood area Blago calls home. I think I scored a pretty sweet lamp that day. Passing the Governor’s house, I saw he had a few crappy, unmemorable items by the curb being overseen by a...
“I remember another person who had the audacity to exploit and toss aside...”
– Jello Biafra Writes An Open Letter To Barack Obama
CPS Chief to be Secretary of Education →
shorterexcerpts:
southpol:
streetsofchicago:
Let’s get one thing straight. I like Arne Duncan (CPS Chief). I think he’s a good guy.
Let’s get another thing straight. Chicago public schools are in shambles. Sure, it’s the third largest school system in the country so the size is impressive. However, articles have flooded the local news sources regarding the delapidated state of many...
CPS Chief to be Secretary of Education →
streetsofchicago:
Let’s get one thing straight. I like Arne Duncan (CPS Chief). I think he’s a good guy.
Let’s get another thing straight. Chicago public schools are in shambles. Sure, it’s the third largest school system in the country so the size is impressive. However, articles have flooded the local news sources regarding the delapidated state of many public schools as well as the...
“The celebrated openness of the Internet — network providers are not...”
– Google Wants Its Own Fast Track on the Web
This doesn’t seem good at all.
To Crazy Nut Job
crazynutjob:
I’m not actually much of a supporter of value debates. If I say that I value freedom, and letting winners win and failures fail is essential to freedom, then I apply it to the auto bailout bill, there are two appropriate debate responses. The first is to demonstrate that the bailout bill somehow is more “freedom preserving” than no bailout bill. The second is to argue that there is...
That Barney Frank Quote
jeffmiller:
Southpol defends Barney Frank from my criticism, but I think my original point holds. In America, people pursue their dreams … they aren’t handed to them. No one is guaranteed success; no one is guaranteed a job. Barney Frank may think jobs and success should be guaranteed, but he can’t credibly argue that this would be the “American” way. ”Soviet” way, perhaps. But not...
“[I]t’s hardly the American way to just let people go bankrupt.”
– Barney Frank
Compare this to the United States Constitution, Article I, Section 8: ”The Congress shall have Power To … establish … uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States.”
Let me suggest that it is, very much, the American way to let people go bankrupt. Bankruptcy...
Republicans furious at the government’s... →
robot-heart-politics:
chuckmore:
I can not overstate this enough: You guys chose a REALLY GREAT TIME to rediscover your small government roots!
And I’m sure their small government sensibilities will continue to be applied as selectively in the future as they have been in the past.
Don’t forget that the “deficits don’t matter” era is officially over too.
On this topic,...
“A government big enough to give us everything we want is a government big enough...”
– Mitch McConnell
Oh man, I was JUST about to start complaining about this exact same thing! I was all “Hey government, stop being so awesome and giving me everything I want.” Seriously, it’s almost getting annoying! DANGEROUSLY annoying. Thank God you guys finally drew a line in the sand with this...
Secretary of state salary cut for Clinton →
robot-heart-politics:
Rice makes $191,300. Congress Wednesday night rolled back the salary that the next secretary of state will get to $186,600, the salary that was in place when Clinton began her current Senate term in January, 2007. As a senator, Clinton currently makes $169,300.
I’m too Saxbe for the Senate, too Saxbe for the Senate, too Saxbe for George Tenet.
[braces for a wave...
Governors Push for Broad State Assistance Program →
notthatkindagay:
Democrats John Corzine of New Jersey and James Doyle of Wisconsin along with Republican James Douglas of Vermont testified before the House Appropriations Committee and voiced support for a two-year state assistance program totaling between $600 billion and $1 trillion; it would go for infrastructure projects, help to meet operating budgets and tax relief.
Uhm, no.
I say...
Cut up the credit card - Gov. Tim Pawlenty →
Someone should tell Pawlenty that the Hooverite candidate is supposed to be president before the New Deal guy.
Marriage, by lack of a better term
muppetpants:
I’m not an expert on LGBT issues because I think they tend to be very cut and dry. There aren’t many nuances to intrigue me—gays are people. They should be allowed to do anything people do. Own dogs, have a car, get married, have sex. These things aren’t all givens—until quite recent history, gay people weren’t legally allowed to have sex. The LGBT community is still fighting...
Marriage, by lack of a better term
muppetpants:
southpol:
muppetpants:
electricpencils:
This is pretty much what I’ve been saying for years. Great post. I don’t know why “the church” thinks they own the term marriage. I also don’t know what their god has to do with my government. Fuck, I’ve been married. It sucked. They can have it.
Because they came up with it. The government stole the term. I don’t know why the...
Marriage, by lack of a better term
muppetpants:
electricpencils:
This is pretty much what I’ve been saying for years. Great post. I don’t know why “the church” thinks they own the term marriage. I also don’t know what their god has to do with my government. Fuck, I’ve been married. It sucked. They can have it.
Because they came up with it. The government stole the term. I don’t know why the government thinks they can take...
ABC: Jesse Jackson, Jr. is "Senate Candidate #5" →
spiegelman:
This just keeps getting worse.
“It is impossible for someone on my behalf to have a conversation that would suggest any type of quid pro quo or any payments or offers,” Jackson told ABC News. “An impossibility to an absolute certainty.”
Truth is that we really don’t know if this JJJ is actually candidate 5, but everybody was assuming it before it was...
“Bail was set at $4,500, and Blagojevich was then released on his own...”
– Blagojevich free on $4,500 bail after arrest - CNN.com
I wonder if judges ever release anybody on personal recognizance hoping that they will jump bail. “Oh, crap. Blagojevich has disappeared. Whatever shall we do? I guess we’ll just have to get ourselves a governor who doesn’t suck.”
(via...
All Star Quotes from Blago
streetsofchicago:
Attached to the U.S. District Court complaint is an FBI affidavit, excerpted below, alleging that Blagojevich was caught on wiretaps noting that the Senate seat “is a fucking valuable thing. You just don’t give it away for nothing.” He was also recorded saying that unless “I get something real good,” he would appoint himself to the vacancy. “I’m going to keep this Senate...
BCS DECLARES GERMANY WINNER OF WORLD WAR II
(via The Monkey Cage, who says “This has been circulating virally and without attribution.”)
After determining the Big-12 championship game participants the BCS computers were put to work on other major contests and today the BCS declared Germany to be the winner of World War II.
“Germany put together an incredible number of victories beginning with the annexation of Austria and...
WatchIn honor of Governor Hod Rod Blagojevich of Illinois finally getting his blowdried coiff entangled in the machinery of justice, here is your moment of “It’s been obvious that this guy was a tool for years” brought to you by The Daily Show.
The Irrational Angry Left
Eschaton:
The Obama campaign didn’t exist to make me feel good, and the Obama presidency won’t either. I don’t especially like his people punching the dirty fucking hippies under the bed, but on the other hand if they manage to convince people that Obama is a sensible centrist who wants to do sensible centrist things like build SUPERTRAINS, get out of Iraq, not torture people...
“75 years seems a wee bit excessive to me, and will almost certainly bite Daley...”
– Kevin Drum on Daley’s announced plan to lease the whole parking meter system of Chicago to some funds run by Morgan Stanley for 75 years in exchange for $1.2 billion up front. Made me laugh and is the only thing I’ve read about the topic that isn’t “TERRIBLE: parking will be...
“One of my favourites among Obama’s tricks was his use of the phrase...”
– Charlotte Higgins says one of the most interesting aspects of Barack Obama’s speeches is the enormous debt they owe to the oratory of the Romans
Obama is, apparently, Cicero.
Personally, I think that’s a bit of hysteron proteron, if you know what I mean. Yet I like it.
"We Are Not Bankers"
notthatkindagay:
“We don’t work on Wall Street or for big insurance companies. We build quality cars and trucks. But we’ve been hit by the same financial crisis.
“If we go out of business, so will thousands of other businesses. If we lose our jobs, so will millions of others. Our communities will suffer. The economy will get worse.
“So Congress, if Wall Street can get help, so should Main...
“[Obama’s] going to have to be more assertive than he’s been. At a time of great...”
– Rep. Barney Frank, via TPM. (via langer)