David Roberts at Grist places the blame on the Senate’s failure to pass climate legislation not on environmentalists, but on the broken political situation in the Senate itself: But step back for a moment and think about it. Climate and clean energy are incredibly difficult issues for any number of reasons. Yet environmentalists pulled together a huge coalition of businesses, religious groups, military groups, unions, and social justice groups. They got a majority of U.S. citizens on their side, as polls repeatedly showed. And — here’s the kicker — on the back of all that work, they...
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Poem of the Week
Have you ever before encountered a poem with a camel in it? I hadn’t. Man and Camel by Mark Strand On the eve of my fortieth birthday I sat on the porch having a smoke when out of the blue a man and a camel happened by. Neither uttered a sound at first, but as they drifted up the street and out of town the two of them began to sing. Yet what they sang is still a mystery to me— the words were indistinct and the tune too ornamental to recall. Into the desert they went...
Continue reading...Connecticut Senate candidate Rob Simmons wants to remind you he's still in the race
Today’s Hartford Courant, the largest newspaper in Connecticut, makes an interesting endorsement today: Former U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons has a gold-plated public-service resume. His votes over time have been in line with the mostly moderate traditions of the Republican Party in Connecticut. It is for those reasons that The Courant’s editorial board, with hesitation, recommends that Republican voters in the Aug. 10 primary choose Mr. Simmons to be their standard-bearer in the fall election for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Christopher J. Dodd. Interesting because, well, it’d be a surprise to many in Connecticut that...
Continue reading...Meet Tennessee gubernatorial candidates Basil Marceaux and James Reesor
I’m Basil Marceaux dot com, the Republican candidate for governor. I’d like to recall all permits and registrations for guns. Everyone carries guns. If you kill someone though, you get murdered, you go to jail. And uh, I’d like to put—plant grass or vegetation across the state on any vacant lot and sell it for gas so we can use it for our expenses. Also I’m going to remove all gold fringe flags from the state and apply the real flag with three stripes. I also want to stop traffic stops. Set it up like the Supreme...
Continue reading...“Joe the Plumber” likes underdogs
Don’t tell Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher this, but the horse he’s betting on is down 62-13 according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. His horse would be state lawmaker Chuck Purgason (no, not Turd Ferguson, sadly), and the race is the August 3 Republican primary for the open U.S. Senate seat from Missouri. The odds-on favorite horse in this race is Rep. Roy Blunt (no, not Roy Blount Jr., sadly), who, based on the context, I guess is a “politician like Obama.”
Continue reading...Candidate for Senate Jim Bender hates when Uncle Sam gets fat
Yum, yum, new student loan TAKEOVER that actually saves the government approximately $61 billion over the next 10 years. YUM.
Continue reading...I'm getting closer….maybe? Lamar says no to Kagan
Sure, I’m not doing so well in my bet with Lady Blaga, but, it might be skewing my way a little. Lamar Alexander, one of the nine Republicans who supported Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court, is no fan of Elana Kagan’s: In a statement, Alexander focused on Kagan’s role in limiting military recruiters’ access to Harvard Law School’s career services office while she was dean. “In denying military recruiters equal access to Harvard Law students, Ms. Kagan ignored Harvard’s obligations under federal law. Instead, she acted based upon what she thought the law should be,” Alexander...
Continue reading...Sharron Angle finally talks to reporters, runs away
You can imagine that reporters were delighted to finally get to cover a Sharron Angle press function. As we’ve noted before, she’s been pretty shy about talking to reporters at all (unless she can get some fund-raising coin out of it). Of course, this could be because she tends to say ridiculous things when put in front of anything that could record her. So, when she invited some reporters to a press function, the last thing you’d picture happening is her avoiding the press, right? Well… U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle invited local media to attend a...
Continue reading...OH NOES: Bacon spies!
You better watch how much bacon you’re eating! According to Texas Representative Louie Gohmert, the government could come after you for being a fat kid and eating all the bacon: Here’s what I would say. Think about it. The federal government has all of your personal medical records. We’ve been told that the federal government has the capability of monitoring every credit card purchase, every debit card purchase that anyone in America makes. We’re also told it doesn’t do that, but it has the capability. But once the federal government through tax dollars is paying for people’s...
Continue reading...Hey, white people: Are you scared enough of black people?
Rachael Maddow: Fox News has run with a few different stories this year that they really pushed all on their own. They weren’t mainstream news stories — they weren’t even news, really. They were Fox agenda items, all following a very, very similar narrative. There was the Van Jones controversy, with Fox morphing the president’s renewable-energy policy expert into an ex-con who served time after the Rodney King race riots — not true. The other great Fox News crusade of the past year was against ACORN, an almost all-minority community organizing group which Fox characterized as stealing...
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