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(This week we have a guest post from JBisMe.) Once upon a time there was a brand named Smuckers. Smuckers didn’t like gay people (or men who act too “feminine”), and so it made up a lie about the importance of “family values” (or something vague and disingenuous and meaningless like that) and used that lie to [...] For those of you in Florida House District 58, don’t forget that tomorrow, February 23, is a special election to replace Michael Scionti. “Special General Election for State House District 58 is Tuesday, February 23, 2010.” Hunter Chamberlin is the Republican candidate and Janet R. Cruz is the Democratic candidate. *** Obama has posted his plan for health care [...] What do you like about Congress? If you live on the political right you may be grateful that they are doing everything they can to impede the President’s policies. But, are you happy that the Republican-controlled congresses of 2002-2006 oversaw record-breaking rises in the deficit, record-breaking increases in debt, the greatest expansion of the federal government [...] The South Florida Raging Grannies weigh in on the recent CBS advocacy ad kerfuffle. What does CBS stand for? Watch the video to find out. Or, check out the Women’s Media Center to learn more. Here’s more about the raging grannies from Wikipedia. Murray Hill, Inc. is running for Congress. Here’s their press release. Here’s a Salon article. Below is their first campaign commercial. “Following the recent Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission to allow unlimited corporate funding of federal campaigns, Murray Hill Inc. today announced it was filing to run for U.S. Congress.” Activist [...] The day before the Citizens United ruling, Lawrence Lessig gave a talk on Institutional Corruption at Stanford. The talk runs about 50 minutes, but is well worth your time if you’re interested in ideas on how to fight government and corporate corruption. More Lessig talks can be found here. Thank you David Frum for pointing out the obvious. “Republicans rage against the Democrats’ bailouts, takeovers, deficits—yet all three commenced under George W. Bush, not Barack Obama. Almost every concept in Obama’s intensely controversial health plan has at one point or another been advanced by a senior Republican, from Bob Dole to Mitt Romney. I type [...] Writing about corporate free speech in his dissenting opinion in First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti Justice Rehnquist noted that “[a] State grants to a business corporation the blessings of potentially perpetual life and limited liability to enhance its efficiency as an economic entity. It might reasonably be concluded that those properties, so beneficial [...] As if corporate influence on our politicians wasn’t problem enough the Supreme Court just struck down the provision in the McCain-Feingold Act capping the amount of money corporations and unions can spend on political ads. All you gotta do is tell Cargill that you’ll fight for their right to sell E. coli-tainted beef and they’ll [...] I lifted the title of this post from Roblimo because I think it perfectly captures the media assault on Obama. Despite shepherding a health care reform bill through Congress that almost perfectly maps onto the health care reform bill he argued for when he was campaigning, and despite having kept hundreds of campaign promises (with [...] It’s all but certain the health care reform bill will pass the Senate. The next major hurdle is merging the Senate bill with the House bill. There’s going to be some tussling between the progressive wing and the conservative wing of the Democratic party, but I think it’s most likely the conservative wing will prevail [...] Matt Taibbi’s review of Palin’s Going Rogue is spot on. “The really beautiful thing about the culture war, from an entertainment standpoint, is that it is fundamentally irresolvable. There isn’t a concrete set of issues involved, where in theory both sides could give in a little and find middle ground, reach some sort of compromise.” *** “Sarah Palin [...] Young prankster gives a speech to anti-immigrant Tea Party crowd in St. Paul MN. After cataloging the crimes of immigrants he specifies that he’s referring to European immigrants and their descendants who brought small pox, slavery, and genocide to this country. The crowd cheers anyway and joins him in his chant “Columbus go home! Columbus [...] Today I was reading Brad O’Leary’s Shut Up! America, and trying to wrap my head around his anti-Fairness Doctrine argument. It fell into place when I realized that from his perspective the airwaves should not be owned by the citizens of the US. The airwaves are a commodity to be bought and sold, and not [...] To follow up on my point in an earlier post. Krugman’s concerned that the irrational wing of the Republican (aka the conservative, tea-party movement) might become just influential enough, and win enough seats, to keep government from governing. I think this article by Harvey Cox hits on why this shouldn’t be such a concern. “But fundamentalist [...] Krugman makes a point I made last August. “The state of mind visible at recent right-wing demonstrations is nothing new. Back in 1964 the historian Richard Hofstadter published an essay titled, “The Paranoid Style in American Politics,” which reads as if it were based on today’s headlines: Americans on the far right, he wrote, feel that [...] Clever parody of Paranormal Activity in support of readthebill.org. From the Sunlight Foundation: “Congress should change its rules to require that non-emergency legislation and conference reports be posted on the Internet for 72 hours before debate begins.” Downsize DC also has a recommended Read the Bills Act. This is the first time I’ve seen Downsize DC. They promote [...] I’ve read a handful of conservative bloggers complaining about the term “saved job,” and saw this from Limbaugh - “There’s no such thing as a saved job.” – Rush Limbaugh Here’s an example of 30 saved jobs from Florida - “The Clay County School Board voted Thursday to hire back about 30 elementary teachers whose 2009-10 positions were [...] Because the Obama White House has pointed out the obvious (that FOX News acts like the communications arm of the GOP) some mouth-breathers have started claiming that this creation of an “enemies list” is downright Nixonesque. While this is catnip for the drooling masses it is testimony to how far to the right this nation [...] Foreign Service Officer and former Marine Corps Captain Matthew Hoh resigns and his resignation letter causes a stir. “I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end.” Me too! What’s the point again? Way [...] Seriously? This is the Redstate/Beck issue du jour and they oppose net neutrality? Let’s take this slowly. Net neutrality is the idea that all Internet traffic should be treated equally. This means that neither Redstate nor MSNBC should be allowed to purchase a position of privilege when it comes to how fast their site streams. By opposing [...] Tenthers are critics of the health care reform plans that argue the issue should be left to the states, and not be a federal issue. I have yet to see a tenther acknowledge the Obama administration’s tacit approval of states’ rights when AG Holder put a stop to raiding marijuana dispensaries back in March. The tenth amendment [...] Colbert schools his audience on Santa Clara vs South Pacific Railroad. “Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company, 118 U.S. 394 (1886) was a United States Supreme Court case dealing with taxation of railroad properties. The case is most notable for the obiter dictum statement that juristic persons are entitled to protection under the Fourteenth [...] Hmmm, Libertarian protests are set to take an interesting new twist. A young woman in NH straps a gun to her hip and removes her top, all in the name of liberty. “State law does not require residents to have permits to openly carry guns, and she was not charged with any firearm-related crimes. “Last week, police prosecutors [...] There’s no doubt that 75-80,000 people is a lot of people. Congratulations to the tax protesters for getting coordinated enough to get that many people to DC! With your leadership you can make America what it once was – a desolate wasteland covered with ice. But, let’s compare this to some other DC protests, shall we? [...] It just makes sense. To hate war is crazy. To hate health care insurance reform is just a bedrock American value. “This simply proves again that when right-wing (and mostly white) conservatives get angry, it’s big news. When liberals get angry, it’s just annoying.” Typically, the liberal Atlantic Online takes the position that more poor people, a weakened middle class, and less access to health care is a BAD thing. If only the majority of people had followed conservative Republican leadership then we could have finally done away with the middle class completely and turned ourselves into a nation [...] ActBlue is reporting that it has raised almost $160,000 (and is looking to reach $200K) for Rob Miller. Who is Rob Miller? Miller is running against Representative Joe “You lie!” Wilson. The money has been raised since his melodramatic shout-out during Obama’s health-care speech. *** UPDATE: Turns out there’s plenty of juice for the boor as well. [...] Clear explanation of why we need health insurance reform (h/t tiny little dots) Animated by Andy Lubershane. Yayy! Kinky Friedman is making his second run for Governor of Texas. 1 out of every 8 voters in Texas voted for Kinky last time when he ran as an Independent. This time he’s running as a Democrat. Could it be possible? Dare I even dream of a Governor Friedman of Texas? |
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