[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqxCCLr3Fa4&w=560&h=340] It\’s been awhile since we checked in with Nevada Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle. In the video above, taken at a tea party rally last year, she openly mocks a Nevada law that mandates health insurance coverage for \”autism\” (air quotes hers). She says: “Take off the mandates for coverage in the state of Nevada and all over the United States. But here you know what I’m talking about. You’re paying for things you don’t even need. They just passed the latest one, is everything that they want to throw at us now is covered under...
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On Teresa Lewis and the Problem of Capital Punishment
Last night, Teresa Lewis was executed in Virginia. The news stories I\’ve seen all lead with the rarety of the death penalty being applied to a woman: Lewis was the first woman executed since 2005, and only the 12th in the 34 years since the death penalty was reinstated. There are questions about whether Lewis\’ execution will lead the way to more women on death row being executed, but that\’s not the most salient piece of the story. What matters more are the circumstances of her case and whether they merited the sentence received. There is no...
Continue reading...Who wrote the Republican's "Pledge to America?"
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640 Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Well, it turns out that if you open the PDF version of the Republican\’s \”A Pledge to America,\” their follow-up to the 1994 \”Contract With America,\” you learn that the author of the document was not, actually, some staffer in House Minority Leader John Boehner\’s office,* but none other than Brian Wild. The Hill: Huffington Post’s Sam Stein reports that Wild, as a lobbyist at the Nickels Group, “was paid $740,000 in lobbying contracts from AIG, the former insurance company at the heart of...
Continue reading...Colbert on the Hill
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640 Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Stephen Colbert (yes, that Stephen Colbert) was on Capitol Hill this morning testifying about immigration and jobs before a House Judiciary subcommittee. I just watched the hearing, and it was rather amazing. Above is a video of his opening statement.
Continue reading...New York Times Columnist Line of the Day
If you’re one of the four-or-so frequent readers of this here blog, chances are you also occasionally check out the New York Times op-ed page. You may even know the names: Thomas “Friedman’s Just Another Word For Nothing Left to Lose” Friedman, Gail “The Colander” Collins, Nicholas “The Dark Crystal” Kristof, &c. This is a daily feature dedicated to these folks: one line that is either awesome, funny, insightful, intelligent, ridiculous, or utterly divorced from reality. I hope you enjoy. Today\’s is a little bit of a departure, as while it appears in Paul \”The Little Professor\”...
Continue reading...The emotional and financial toll of the Hyde Amendment
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=15141054&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=1&color=00ADEF&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0 Hyde: The Status Quo Is Not OK from Center for Reproductive Rights on Vimeo.
Continue reading...Morning Constitutional – Friday, 24 September 2010
Good morning, everybody. Lady Gaga\’s meat dress will be made into jerky for archival purposes. Now, your morning constitutional: Senate Democrats give up trying to vote on extension of Bush tax cuts before the November elections. Senator Mary Landrieu has pledged to block the confirmation of President Obama\’s new budget director unless the administration ends the moratorium on deep-water oil drilling is lifted. Ireland\’s economy contracted by 1.2% in the second quarter of the year, surprising analysts who had expected it to grow. British Queen Elizabeth asked if money earmarked for schools and poverty programs could be...
Continue reading...Smart Dolphins
Cool interview in NYT the other day with Diana Reiss, psychology professor/dolphin researcher. This anecdote kind of floored me: Let me tell you a story. One of the first dolphins I ever worked with was Circe. I’d bring her a fish when I wanted her to do certain things. If she didn’t do them, I did a “time-out” where I turned my back and walked away. Well, there was a certain type of fish that Circe loathed because it had a spiny tail. So I accommodated her by cutting the spines off of the tail. One day,...
Continue reading...Delaware Republican nominee for Senate Christine O'Donnell not so much a fan of birth control (surprisingly)
So, we’ve learned that Christine believes in abstinence, and definitely thinks that masturbation is immoral, so, it’s of no surprise, then, I guess, that she’s also no big fan of birth control. In fact, she calls condoms “anti-human.” What? In a 2006 interview on Fox News’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” the devout Catholic contended that condom use is “anti-human.” “And what … if the population is increasing, so what?” O’Donnell said. “People aren’t bad. When did humans become a bad thing? Why is it that we have to, you know, stop people from getting pregnant?” Priceless. Wait, there’s...
Continue reading...Kentucky Republican nominee for Senate Rand Paul sees Hitler around the corner
Jason Zengerle from GQ recently had a sit-down with Senate candidate Rand Paul, who has said some crazy stuff so far in this campaign cycle, and, well, Paul didn’t disappoint: Just fifteen minutes earlier the candidate whom Paul came out to support was likening the current Speaker of the House to a former Soviet dictator, so I ask if he thinks that’s what the press might be referring to when they say the Tea Party is extreme. He leans forward and smiles. “Well, I think whether or not your analogies are over the top, whether you might...
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