January 2009
28 posts
A 40-Year Wish List: You won't believe what's in... →
hilker:
“This is supposed to be a new era of bipartisanship, but this bill was written based on the wish list of every living — or dead — Democratic interest group. As Speaker Nancy Pelosi put it, “We won the election. We wrote the bill.” So they did.”
CoS Emanuel’s words (“Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it’s an opportunity to do things you couldn’t do before”)...
When a neo-nazi says garbage like "you know what,...
jgh:
fatmanatee:
jgh:
fatmanatee:
So why do we have to explain the obvious in response to someone with no dignity and no capability to give proper diet advice?
Because most people agree the Neo-Nazi is wrong, but there are a lot of people who agree that the misogynist is right.
If people ignored the misogynist once in awhile, nobody would know what she thought in the first place. All...
The Progressive Priorities That Made It Into the... →
It’s not all terrible.
So apparently Obama is pushing to drop the family planning funding from the stimulus bill. Yet, even with this Minority Leader Boehner is still telling Republicans to vote against it. As Matt Yglesias puts it:
As with a lot of Democratic concessions on the bill thus far, what seems to be missing is the “pro quo.” Where are the members of the House saying “yesterday I was inclined to vote ‘no’ on...
An Early Observation About Obama
jeffmiller:
Every president adopts a posture, and it seems like Obama has decided to adopt a scornful disappointment with his opponents—a sneering kind of disgust with what he purports to regard as mere politicization and partisanship. He acts like his opposition is simply impeding essential efforts to fix the economy, and this will fly with some people for a short period of time. But this...
“For the record: self-confident political groupings seek converts - look at...”
– Andrew Sullivan, author of The Conservative Soul, in response to being listed as one of the 25 most influential liberals by Forbes Magazine.
Controversial CBO Report On Stimulus Turns Out Not... →
Reports of a recent study by the Congressional Budget Office, showing that the vast majority of the money in the stimulus package won’t be spent until after 2010, have Democrats on the defensive and the GOP calling for a pullback in wasteful spending.
Funny thing is, there is no such report.
“We did not issue any report, any analysis or any study,” a CBO aide told the...
“The stupid thing is that there will always be a “Jack Bauer...”
– Atrios
“That said, I don’t think he is particularly interested in appealing to those who...”
– Squashed: Postpartisan?. This is the other point i wanted to make but left it out because my post was long enough as it was. Good thing Squashed nailed it for me.
Obama's Mistake (or one of them, anyway)
body {margin:8px} .tr-field {font:normal x-small arial}(Apologies for the super long post) Yesterday, squashed posted a quote from Obama’s inauguration speech (here’s the original post). Jeff Miller had this response:
The mistake in this quote is the notion that we all agree about what it means for a government program to “work.” If Obama’s tax policies result in...
“If Barack Obama really is a secret Marxist, he’s got to be appalled by the...”
– Ezra Klein. Ha.
“A nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous.”
– President Barack Obama (via bg5000)
“Power properly understood is nothing but the ability to achieve purpose. It is...”
– Martin Luther King, Jr., “Where Do We Go From Here”
I may not be a smart man, but i do know not to get involved in an Internet shouting match about feminism. Mama didn’t raise no fool. However, i will say that when someone refers to potential perpatrators of sexual assault as mearly “bad apples”, i think that tells you all you need to know about their capacity to empathize with those on the other side of the argument. (via jgh)
Shovel-Ready Mass Transit (or lack thereof) →
southpol:
Christopher Hayes, using an insider at the Chicago Transit Authority as exemplar, reveals why urban public transit is unlikely to see any of those infrastructure-related stimulus dollars.
A sad, even shameful, situation.
Ugh, this is bullshit. This part especially pissed me off:
IL, unable to pass a capital program since 1999, has recently forfeited much of the federal transit...
“This raises a question that every Israeli and its supporters now needs to ask....”
– Anthony Cordesman, The War in Gaza; Tactical Gains, Strategic Defeat
A problem with indictments
squashed:
There are some serious charges in the indictment against Rod Blagovich—but he hasn’t been convicted of anything yet. Still…
He was just impeached by the Illiniois House of Representatives,
The U.S. Senate refused to accept Burris, his Senate appointment,
Politically, he’s done.
This is all on the strength of an indictment. There have been some pretty severe consequences—and in all...
“That was then. As president-elect, one of Obama’s first tech-related decisions...”
– Obama picks RIAA’s favorite lawyer for a top Justice post | Politics and Law - CNET News
Rafer sez: I’m really beginning to wonder who I voted for.
(via rafer) (via artistspaid)
God, I hate you people so fucking much. People who work for the Justice Department have to defend laws the...
“When Israel goes to war with the Palestinians, they go to war with Hamas. They...”
– Ezra Klein. Doesn’t seem that hard to understand.
Joe the Plumber heading to Gaza to become war... →
Haven’t they been through enough?
Israel Calls Gazans Before Bombing | Danger Room... →
robot-heart-politics:
This is not quite the same as calling individuals before their specific homes or neighborhoods are bombed and telling them that they should evacuate. I wish people would investigate more before they start making claims or assumptions.
I always thought that sounded like military propaganda. These are just the cell phone equivalent of dropping fliers.
Enough.
squashed:
A mortar just fell on a school. White phosphorous is raining from the sky over Gaza. Don’t worry. It’s justified. Hamas attacked Israel. Israel is defending itself—so none of this really matters. Sure, Gaza’s a small, densly populated area. It’s twice the size of Washington, D.C. with about three times the population. Except that the population is full of bad people who need to be held...
Taking Land Seriously →
Ezra Klein has some good thought on the current conflict in Gaza. Here’s a sample:
Palestinians see the settlements and outposts as very simple, and very traditional, land grabs. They create a built reality in which Israel controls as much land as possible, and in which Israel’s settlements act as barriers between various Palestinian population centers, thus ensuring the...