Maybe when you read this: The nation’s females were lambasted when asked which country had the ugliest women in an international poll. Votes poured in, with people from around the globe eager to point out how overweight, unladylike, and generally foul British women are. Major complaints centred around how many are ‘rude’, ‘drink pints of beer like men’ and ‘end up drunk in the gutter’. The UK’s (not so) fairer sex were also accused of unashamedly breaking wind and belching in public, of letting their fat hang out, were smothered in ‘bad tattoos’ and committed crimes against...
Continue reading...The Stakes
Forget for a moment about Speaker of the House Boehner or Senate Majority Leader McConnell, or the likelihood of complete legislative stalemate. Often overlooked down-ticket races have even bigger consequences that affect races for the next decade: Republicans are within reach of gaining control of eight or more chambers in statehouses around the country this fall, according to interviews with Republicans, Democrats and independent political analysts. That would give Republicans the power to draw more Congressional districts in their favor, since the expected gains come just as many legislatures will play a major role in the once-a-decade...
Continue reading...Morning Constitutional – Wednesday, 8 September 2010
Good morning, everybody. David Letterman would like to kill that Jon Stewart bastard. Now, your morning constitutional: Thousands have been evacuated from areas west of Boulder as a 7,100-acre wildfire blazes out of control. The report from BP\’s own investigation into the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill unsurprisingly focuses on blaming other companies rather than their own negligence. Fidel Castro criticizes Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for denying the Holocaust and escalating conflict between Iran the West. Taxpayers in New Jersey, as well as other places in the country, are still paying for stadiums that have been...
Continue reading...Great Moments in Campaign History: From the South, Not For the South
http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/flash/player.swf?id=4375 In 1968 and 1972, Richard Nixon\’s campaign had hedged a challenge from the racial right embodied by George Wallace by employing the so-called \”Southern Strategy:\” a series of policies with coded racial undertones (think \”states rights\” versus \”civil rights\”). However, Ford\’s more amiable demeanor didn\’t take well to that type of campaign, and with the nomination of folksy Georgia governor Jimmy Carter, he found himself against the wall in the South. While this ad only featured Strom Thurmond\’s talking head saying that Carter may be from the South, but wasn\’t for the South, in the context...
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 from David \”Yawny-Pants\” Brooks, who in his column \”The Gospel of Wealth,\” writes: The Tea...
Continue reading...The New Republic Editor Martin Peretz is a bigoted asshole
I mean, at least Fox News couches their hysterical Islamophobia in polite-speak. Martin Peretz, the editor-in-chief of The New Republic, on the other hand, eschews propriety and lets the bile just roll out: But, frankly, Muslim life is cheap, most notably to Muslims. And among those Muslims led by the Imam Rauf there is hardly one who has raised a fuss about the routine and random bloodshed that defines their brotherhood. So, yes, I wonder whether I need honor these people and pretend that they are worthy of the privileges of the First Amendment which I have...
Continue reading...Morning Constitutional – Tuesday, 7 September 2010
Good morning, folks. Mark David Chapman is up for parole again this week. Now, your morning constitutional: Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard will remain prime minister, although with a minority government, after winning the support of two key independent MPs. However, six months after its election, Iraq still has yet to form a government, which one minister is suggesting may be encouraging insurgents. The Obama administration is pressing Congress to stimulate the economy with $50B in transportation spending, $100B business tax credit, and a tax write-off for capital investments. The ideological polarization of the current Supreme Court...
Continue reading...Sharron Angle versus Alvin Greene
Sharron Angle does not believe unemployment insurance helps anyone. In an interview with conservative radio talk show host Heidi Harris (she really does only interview with conservatives, and it really does seem it’s only radio), she raised her game a little from before, where she just claimed that unemployment benefits “spoil” the unemployed: “People don’t want to be unemployed,” she explained. “They want to have real, full-time, permanent jobs with a future. That’s what they want, and we need to create that climate in Washington, D.C. that encourages businesses to create those full-time, permanent jobs with a...
Continue reading..."Well, excited and scared."
Happy Friday! Congratulations, you’ve almost made it to the long weekend. It’s an especially eventful Friday for me, because today happens to be the last day at both my current job and my current apartment. Neither of these are bad things, and in fact I’m excited about changes on both fronts. But at the same time, the transitions feel bittersweet. I like to blame my mixed emotions on being a Libra: I always have a lot of feelings even about a single situation. I know people who wholeheartedly embrace big changes and jump headfirst into the unknown,...
Continue reading...New York Times Columnist 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 from Roger \”Life of the Party\” Cohen, who in his column \”Obama\’s Post-Iraq World,\” writes:...
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