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lies (and the lying liars who tell them)
President Obama gave a brilliant speech Wednesday night. If you didn’t watch it, do so (you can watch the video here). And it appears to have had a significant impact on public support for health care...
View Articleon the anniversay of 9-11
[I meant to write this on Friday – the eighth anniversary of the attacks of 9-11 – but I got distracted by the whole Joe Wilson matter. And it was 87 degrees in Seattle so I didn’t really feel like...
View Articlesnl on wilson
Last night NBC debuted a half-hour Thursday night version of Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update. The opening sketch was a great take on last week's "You lie!" outburst by Rep. Addison Graves(yet...
View Articlethe obama nobel peace prize
What passes for a political “dialogue” in this country has become so distorted by what one wag has described as the “over-the-top, tween-girl-at-a-Jonas-brothers-concert-hysteria” of the right, that I...
View Articlethoughts on the peace prize
France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, probably summed up best the sentiment underlying the unanimous decision of the Norwegian Nobel Committee:"By awarding [President Obama] its most prestigious prize,...
View Articlethe great myths of ronaldus magnus
Can you imagine how the right-wing noise machine would react if President Obama: Increased federal spending as a percentage of the economy to levels previously seen only during World War II.Tripled the...
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election 2009
So, what are the big lessons to draw from this week’s off-year election?Despite all the inane media chatter, one lesson you SHOULDN’T draw is that this represented some kind of stinging rebuke to...
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hannibal lecter's zombie army invades new york
I started writing these blog posts (and their email predecessors) to keep my head from exploding during the Bush years. I thought I could get on with my life and largely ignore politics with President...
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deficits vs. unemployment
Let’s take a little test here to see if you have what it takes to be a political pundit. Look at the following two charts, each of which puts a recent economic metric into historical perspective, and...
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dithering
[another excellent Tom Tomorrow cartoon]Last month, the Vice President from those missing years, Dick Cheney, interjected himself into President Obama’s deliberations over Afghanistan, accusing him of...
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health care costs
As we seem to be approaching the end game for the current effort at health care reform in Congress, it is worth reviewing what the debate is all about. As I outlined in a blog post back in August...
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unhealthy politics
The continuing health care debate in Congress has highlighted some seriously dysfunctional elements in our nation’s politics. The inherently anti-Democratic features of the Senate (where the 500,000...
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underpants of mass destruction
Last month, on December 4th, my friend, Strategic News Service publisher Mark Anderson, posted on his blog part of one of our email exchanges which included the following in the context of global...
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nihilism
President Obama’s first State of the Union address last night was brilliant. If you didn’t watch it, do so (you can see it here). I’m not going to summarize it here. But there is one point I’d to...
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out of control
In a new historic benchmark of obstructionism, one Senator, Republican Shelby of Alabama, has put a “blanket hold” on all of President Obama’s appointees awaiting confirmation in the Senate unless he...
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an irrational climate
“Here's my conclusion: the only strong evidence we have that Oklahoma Senator James M. Inhofe isn't a clown is that his car isn't small enough."That line came to mind this week as Inhofe, the leading...
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stimulus success
It was a year ago this week that President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), also known as the “stimulus bill.” He had been in office for less than a month.In late January...
View Articleprogressivism
What can I add?From The Daily Show.The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10cRage Within the Machine - Progressivismhttp://www.thedailyshow.com/Daily ShowFull EpisodesPolitical HumorHealth...
View Articleboehner vs. boehner
You might recall my previous account of Republicans leaders demanding that President Obama agree to the creation of a deficit reduction commission ... until President Obama agreed to it. Here is Senate...
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the filibuster follies continue
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) actually voted against the jobs bill before he voted for it.Here is a screenshot of his Senate Web site (courtesy of Matthew Yglesias):The HIRE Act, which he supported,...
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reconciling ridiculous rhetoric
I have to give Republicans credit. They, and their right-wing noise machine, sure do a great job of OUTRAGE!!!! They can get OUTRAGED over all kinds of things, from the absurdly trivial and...
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president romney's first year
In early 2008, the presidential front runner for the Republican presidential nomination, John McCain, suffered a heart attack. Although he recovered fully, he had to drop his presidential bid, leaving...
View Articlethe bipartisan health care reform law
I agree with Vice President Biden that this week's enactment of historic health care reform legislation was a big ... er, deal. It's an achievement the whole country should be proud of.In my post last...
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the health care myths continue
I get a lot of right-wing emails. A large part of that is because of these posts. Friends send my posts to their right-wing friends or relatives (whom I refer to generically as “your right-wing...
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