There is a lot of attention being given to this quote by Sonia Sotomayor:
A wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.
Do you think this is a racist quote? What is your definition of racist?
As usual, [...]
I want to say this before I know more. Let’s evaluate her the same way we do everybody else. It’s gonna get rough. It should get rough. Hopefully people will be respectful and to the extent they are not, they should be ignored. If you search back on this blog, I was respectful to both [...]
It is well known that I find the Republican party detestable. Any party with the support of Coulter, Hannity, Limbaugh and Glen Beck will never get my support. So don’t get too excited, Righties.
But I am seriously getting bummed out with the inept notion that any problem has a legislative solution. It effects me most [...]
I can’t think of any other explanation. If you listen to Cheney or the guys at Powerline, the only impression you can be left with is, if torture works, we should use it.
Obama may be criticized for trying to thread the needle on this one. He doesn’t want to start a witch hunt on the [...]
First let me say that micadelic, the Right-leaning commenter on this blog, is someone I know in real life and he is a very nice person. I don’t hate him in real life. But I HATE him in “cyberspace”. Here is why.
There are people I almost instantly like and respect and I’ve been thinking about [...]
My opinion on dissent has not changed — it is a good thing. Actual debate is always good. And right now some actual debate is occurring. For example, Krugman, who I like, doesn’t like Obama’s bail-out plan. Neither do some other economists I read and listen to. I think Obama has gotten a wide range [...]
I think that if Obama is kind and respectful to the leaders of Venezuela, North Korea and Iran it will be a good thing. Diplomacy is an art. The Bush foreign policy doctrine was a joke. Call them names, ignore them, demonize them — WTF did that get us?
Obama is obviously going for a “speak [...]
JUST LIKE IT DID FOR THE LAST 8 FUCKING YEARS UNDER THE WORST PRESIDENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY.
It is fucking ridiculous that the goddamn Right Wing thinks we are going to forget the last 8 fucking years. If you disagree with the approach Obama is taking — GOOD! That means we might be on the right [...]
I am proud of Obama already. He is closing Gitmo and he is unreservedly renouncing torture.
Good on ya!
I am, of course, very, very happy that Barack Obama is taking office. I think he is going to be a great President. He is smart and shown excellent judgment so far. I think we elected a very good man and I am optimistic that he will point us back in the right direction.
With that [...]
The ATF, let’s just say, does not strike one as the most reasonable organization in the world. They are oh-so-serious and important and protecting us all from something or other THAT IS VERY DANGEROUS.
Like, you know, me. I’m an amateur scientist who enjoys launching high-power model rockets. The ATF, in their infinite wisdom, treats the [...]
With a tip of the hat to mnphenow, here Keith Olbermann makes the point:
There are rumors that Sanjay Gupta may be nominated as Surgeon General. I don’t have a strong opinion on it (yet) but I do have to take exception to this article he wrote: Why I Would Vote No On Pot.
It’s not a bad article — he lists the health benefits of marijuana as well [...]
You homophobes are ridiculous. No one is harmed by same-sex marriage. It is not required that you be comfortable with the choices made around you by your free fellow citizens. I don’t approve of half the shit you do, believe me.
I think it is a dying viewpoint — that same-sex marriage is “bad”– and these [...]
First let me say that I think most people who didn’t vote for Obama are being gracious and hopeful that we will live in good times in the coming years.
It’s funny to me, though, that the general sentiment I’m sensing from the disappointed Right is that they need to hold on to their checkbook. They [...]
I often say “bless you” to people, like when they bring me a cold frosty Summit Extra Pale Ale. I like the phrase, even though I’m an atheist. But I just want to take a moment to say THANK YOU JESUS! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
The United States of America [...]
We can look at this in terms of moral ideals or we can look at it in greedy terms of pure capitalism and either way we come to the same answer: we all do better when we all do better. Financially, it’s just obvious: you get a better standard of living and a bigger GDP [...]
These people clearly can not be trusted with governance in the nation’s highest office. They’re too stupid or they hire people that are too stupid and either way, they’re fucked.
She vowed – as she has many times — that if she and running mate John McCain are elected, they will nix such fat that’s tacked [...]
Phil Plait is miffed and I totally understand why. Every time he posts about the latest anti-science bullshit in the news, some dumb shit whines about how Phil should stick to science and leave politics alone.
Science IS politics. In the US, the federal government pays for nearly 100% of astronomy research.
Further, politics on issues involving [...]
Andrew Lahde, whom I have never heard of, apparently made a bunch of money betting against the sub-prime market. He recently closed his fund and wrote a “Jerry McGuire” letter saying so long and fuck you, basically.
He concludes the letter by talking about how the this nation has its head up its ass in regards [...]
Collin Powell, that left-wing socialist un-American loon has done it again.
On Palin:
I don’t believe she’s ready to be president of the United States, which is the job of the vice president
On the rat-bastard Republicans:
I’m also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be [...]
This is fascinating: Christopher Buckley, son of William F. Buckley, founder of the National Review, resigns from the National Review because he endorsed Obama on a blog:
Obama has in him—I think, despite his sometimes airy-fairy “We are the people we have been waiting for” silly rhetoric—the potential to be a good, perhaps even great leader. [...]
Study finds that nearly all recent McCain TV ads and one-third of Obama’s were negative
McCain thinks he can scumbag his way into office. Norm Coleman apparently thinks the same thing. When will they learn? Those scary ads about how scary the other guy is with wolves howling and facts set aside for sensationalistic lies DO NOT WORK.
First of all, Dear Republicans, quit treating your candidate like she is a delicate flower. If she is, she ain’t qualified to be VP. Tonight should be a knock down drag out fight. Biden should not have to be careful to make sure he doesn’t bruise the delicate flower. All the women I debate with [...]
From The Political Animal:
If you want the next four years looking just like the last eight, then I am not your candidate. But if you want real change - if you want an economy that rewards work, and that works for Main Street and Wall Street; if you want tax relief for the middle class [...]
A friend sent me this. We’ve all seen that Palin clip by now. I think it is maybe the first time that SNL was able to use a quote word for word and have it be absolutely hilarious. Jack is mad and he should be.
I would forgive Palin for having one bad moment. We all [...]
Palin is a liability to McCain and the US of A. She is the intellectual equivalent of George W. Bush. She is not educated, not informed, not intellectually curious, not quick on her feet and completely inappropriate for the job of President. It has nothing to do with her being a woman. I’m glad that [...]
Reports the BBC:
US President George W Bush has defended a rescue package to tackle the worst financial markets crisis for decades.
…
Mr Bush said the measures required the US “to put a significant amount of taxpayer dollars on the line…But I’m convinced that this bold approach will cost American families far less than the alternative,” [...]
Over at 2 Focus Inn there is a post of an email forward comparing Palin and Obama. Look, Righties, we know that Obama is running against McCain. YOU invited the comparison between Palin and Obama because you keep harping on this incorrect notion that Obama is inexperienced. McCain is old and his VP choice has [...]
A major cause of the health care crisis in America is that millions of dollars are spent every day by health care providers and medical insurance providers arguing. Talk to any doctor. They spend tons of money managing the crushing bureaucracy of insurance companies. The insurance companies do this on purpose because they ultimately have [...]
(From the LA Times)
“You can put lipstick on a pig,” Obama said. “It’s still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It’s still going to stink after eight years.”
For the McCain campaign, the comments were a not-so-subtle reference to Palin’s comments at the GOP convention. She asked [...]
Let’s see, a high-level recap of the things that happened under the Republicans over the last 8 years:
1. 9/11
2. Katrina
3. The credit crisis
4. The closely related housing crisis
5. Iraq
6 Afghanistan
7. $4 gas
Now the government just nationalized Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac — another example of deregulation at work.
While the Democrats are deeply flawed in [...]
Let’s give him a break, he’s old after all. Really old. Like approaching the average life expectancy old (which is 77.8 years). But his speech last night was confusing as hell. I can’t sum it up better than this article from the Guardian:
At the biggest moment of his political career, he delivered a flat, stupefyingly [...]
1. Executive experience is required to be President!
But McCain doesn’t have any!
Neither does Obama!
Neither does Biden!
But Palin does, 18 whole months of it!
2. Foreign policy experience is required to be President!
Obama doesn’t have any!
Neither does Palin!
Both McCain and Biden do!
3. Washington insiders are bad.
McCain is a Washington insider!
So is Biden!
But Palin isn’t!
Neither is Obama!
But see [...]
(That is an embed from CNN, we’ll see if it works.)
It’s funny (but painful) to see CNN actually ask and demand answers to hard questions. The McCain campaign has no answer as to why they have a different standard for Sarah Palin than they do for Barak Obama when it comes to the necessary foreign [...]
As you know by now, Obama officially has the nomination of the pro-death Democratic Party. Money is flowing into his campaign from the radical homosexuals, God-haters, and baby-killers all over the country.
Yes, we on the Left love death. We want to spread death as far and wide as possible. That’s why we support war in [...]
I wonder — didn’t Sarah Palin talk to her daughter about safe sex? Did she talk to her about birth control? Apparently the abstinence approach didn’t work? That’s odd.
Note: I’m not picking on her daughter. I did many stupid things at that age, too. I do wonder if Sarah Palin’s views on birth control put [...]
Holy incompetent police state, Batman, the city of Saint Paul, Minnesota has completely lost its fucking mind.
Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman was unlawfully arrested in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota at approximately 5 p.m. local time. Police violently manhandled Goodman, yanking her arm, as they arrested her. Video of her arrest can be seen here.
Perhaps you’ll [...]
PZ points out this little gaff.
Sarah Palin is asked:
Will you support the right of parents to opt out their children from curricula, books, classes, or surveys, which parents consider privacy-invading or offensive to their religion or conscience? Why or why not?
McCain’s nomination of Palin as his VP is very interesting. First of all, the Republicans don’t know what to think. They were not very happy about it at first, but they must have gotten their marching orders because they are coming around.
Republicans are weird, though. Take, for example, this quote:
Palin brings traditional political strengths—such as [...]
The Minnesota Independent has a fairly damning summary of Sarah Palin. The worst part is she seems to favor teaching creationism along side evolution:
The volatile issue of teaching creation science in public schools popped up in the Alaska governor’s race this week when Republican Sarah Palin said she thinks creationism should be taught alongside evolution [...]
I think this is a great ticket. Obama got where he is because he is smart and well-spoken. Biden is where he is because he rose to prominence in the Senate. I’ve heard people joke about how this should be the Biden-Obama ticket. That would be fine too.
When I think about what the most [...]
From an interesting article at People for the American Way (via The Minnesota Independent)
“Barack Obama’s choice of Joe Biden sends a clear message, true Christians need not apply in the Democratic Party,” said Dr. Gary Cass, Chairman and CEO of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission. “Instead of picking a true Christian, Obama, a fake evangelical, has [...]
Lord knows WTF the problem is with supporters of Hillary Clinton. Your candidate dropped out of the race! Obama was never disrespectful to Clinton. Get over yourselves.
“Touchy, touchy, feely, feely,” said Rick Stafford, a superdelegate and a leader of Clinton’s Minnesota campaign, of the purpose of the late-night meeting. “People need to express their feelings [...]
I do. I care because the rat-bastard Republicans are trying to make Obama look like an elitist. McCain could buy Obama 100 times over. McCain doesn’t know how many houses he has! If the rat-bastard Republicans want to stop this utter inane nonsense about how Obama is an elitist, we can just let this issue [...]
Iraq is a mess. If things improve and Iraqis get their country under control and implement peaceful, representative, secular government no one will be happier than me. I have never had the goal of watching Bush and his administration fail. Even if Iraq does improve and stabilize, it will not in any way excuse Bush [...]
Coleman is running the same ad over and over with some angry old lady Democrat saying that Franken is a bad, bad man because he said off color things in his career as a comedian.
I have no respect for Coleman. But, c’mon, man, is that the best you’ve got? There is not a single mention [...]
Obama: “Hi, I’m a Mac”. McCain: “Hi, I’m a PC.”
There are some similarities between these politicians and the Mac/PC war. People who favor PCs really don’t like how much people who like Macs like their Macs. I’ll never quite understand this. Now the same thing seems to be happening in the presidential race. McCain and [...]
I know that Republicans are not evil and yet they constantly act like they are. The latest example is this off-shore drilling nonsense. If you think the solution to $4 gasoline is off-shore drilling you are an idiot. The Republicans want to increase off-shore drilling to make it seem like they are doing something. They [...]
From Political Radar:
“What Senator McCain neglected to mention was that during those thirty years, he was in Washington for twenty-six of them. And in all that time, he did little to reduce our dependence on foreign oil,” Obama said. “So when Senator McCain talks about the failure of politicians in Washington to do [...]
Rep. Michele Bachmann is just not very smart. She’s also an evil See You Next Tuesday but this post is about the former, her utter lack of intelligence.
The Minnesota Independent is reporting that Bachmann slams Democrats for not passing a bill for a tax credit for solar and wind energy. The funny part — she [...]
It occurs to me that getting elected and being a great leader are two different things. Both these candidates right now, McCain and Obama, are in the process of trying to get elected. They can’t lead if they don’t get elected. The electorate is fickle and hard to predict. Many are uninformed on issues and [...]
H.R. 6615: To provide for the transport of the enemy combatants detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to Washington, D.C., where the United States Supreme Court will be able to more effectively micromanage the detainees by holding them on the Supreme Court grounds, and for other purposes.
I love how these guys adore the Supreme Court when [...]
Here’s the problem: people on the right have a caricature view of Obama and people on the left have a caricature view of McCain. If your only info on Obama comes from Powerline and your info on McCain comes from the Huffington Post, you are not getting good information.
Neither of these men are perfect. They [...]
Let’s ask 2 questions:
1. In retrospect, was it a good idea to invade Iraq?
2. Given that we are in Iraq, what is the best course of action?
My answers: 1) Of course not. It represents a complete failure of foreign policy. This is universally agreed upon with the exception of the ultra-wacko-wing of the Right wing. [...]
Your Deep Thought for the 4th of July — the notion that Saddam Hussein was such a clear and present danger to the US that we needed to spend 3 trillion dollar and sacrifice 5000 soldiers to dispose him is insane. We should not be in Iraq. McCain, nice guy that he is, will continue [...]
Isn’t it amazing? During the 1st round of the election in Zimbabwe Tsvangirai won a slim majority of votes. In the runoff he got only 10% of the vote. I guess a lot of people changed their minds?
Shouldn’t someone kill Mugabe?
We have 2 good presidential candidates in Barack Obama and John McCain. I like John McCain more than I ever liked Bush and I like Barack Obama better than either Al Gore or John Kerry. These are two good candidates and two good men.
Now it’s inevitable that the extremists in either party will sling mud [...]
The folks at Effect Measure have a great post on the war on science and they make a very tangible point:
The attack on the science has two components. The first is the most obvious: to use what appear to be scientific arguments to cast doubt on what the scientific community deems valid arguments about climate [...]
This sucks. Tim Russert was one of the best guys out there.
Micadelic said:
What I am pointing out also goes to why you Obama cultists are so clueless. You all do not understand America, or the American electorate. You elitists long for this country to be something that (hopefully) it will never be. You don’t understand the majority of “gun-loving, bitter, religious, stupid people” that must be [...]
It’s sad to see that U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum has trouble with context switches. Yes, 8 years ago Al Franken wrote an off-color piece for Playboy. She said:
“As a woman, mother, a former teacher and an elected official, I find this material completely unacceptable,” McCollum told the Star Tribune.
I bet you don’t subscribe to Playboy [...]
People keep trying to bring up Obama’s “inexperience”. I have two objections to this. 1) He is a very accomplished person professionally and 2) Why is it, all of a sudden, that people think the only ones capable of being President are career politicians? Who else has direct foreign policy experience except people in government? [...]
Here is my new revelation: we’re doing this wrong. What we are doing is expecting a rational compromise to come out of political warfare. We are expecting the compromise to occur on the global level — lots of righties, lots of lefties and hopefully something gets done somewhere in the middle.
That’s wrong. What we need [...]
I really can’t add much to this article at the Minnesota Monitor: Rightwing blogs decry Obama’s meeting with imam Bush kissed except to try to point attention to it.
I have a challenge for conservatives and middle of the road Republicans — give Obama a chance. Just give the man a chance. John “Bush 3.0″ McCain represents nothing more than a minor tweaking to Bush’s policies on Iraq and the economy. When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. I know the far right could never vote for Obama but many of you that voted for Bush and were disappointed owe it to yourselves to listen to Obama and give him a chance to earn your support. I don’t agree with Obama on every issue. It’s not required that you agree with a candidate on every issue. Separate the person from the political party and give each candidate a fair shot at your support.
This Hardball is entertaining.
It’s a key point and it is good that Matthews pushed it: appeasement does not mean “talking to”. It means giving up something in hopes of avoiding a conflict. Neville Chamberlain tried to appease Hitler by signing the Munich Agreement, conceding part of Czechoslovakia to Hitler.
John F. Kennedy said “Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate”. I agree with him. I think Bush is a dumbshit.
Stung by criticism that his Monday letter explaining a veto of legislation to ban a fire retardant and a known toxin in children’s toys was “riddled with inaccuracies,” Gov. Tim Pawlenty yesterday acknowledged factual misstatements and apologized.
But he still stands behind his veto:
And so, the governor altered his reasons for vetoing the bill which, he [...]
Government should leave us alone. That is the cry of libertarians and Republicans. Government should leave us alone. It’s one of those statements that, in my mind, is almost meaningless because all of us, libertarians and Republicans included, see the need for government. The political conflict that we have is because people see the need [...]
Yet another Republican hypocrite: Vito Fossella drives drunk, has a long-term affair and fathers a child by his mistress. Yet he is so full of “family values” that he shuns his own sister because she is gay.
So apparently he can’t love his own sister because of his religious beliefs but he can fuck around on [...]
Thank you, micadelic, for one of the most inane analyses I’ve seen of the Expelled issue:
i just wonder why, if mr. pz is so smart, he’s doesn’t realize he was used as part of a pretty clever publicity stunt. expelling him from expelled! and then he rushes to the nearest computer to breathlessly report how [...]
I’m not usually a proponent of violence, but it is time for Robert Mugabe to step down and it looks like he is preparing to use violence to override the will of the people. The people of Zimbabwe have taken enough of this crap. Mugabe has destroyed Zimbabwe. It’s time to destroy Mugabe.
Can some conservative please help me out? Our government, in their infinite wisdom, passed a law that Medicare cannot negotiate with drug companies. Someone please tell me how this is consistent with conservative ideals of free markets?
As an aside, in defense of socialized health insurance, I’ll quote this little gem:
Administrative costs for Medicare are 2-3%. [...]
Micadelic said:
And, in another post, you said that universal health care is fiscally conservative. Dude, that is laughable, and yes, insane.
No, you’re bad at math. Right now we have a situation where millions of Americans without health insurance get no preventative care at all. So they wait until they are very sick before they go [...]
Go check out this podcast or watch this video. Susan Jacoby talks about her new book, The Age of American Unreason as well as my favorite topics like secularism and politics. She also wrote the very excellent book Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism.
Lots of people like to portray secularists as angry atheists. Listen to [...]
Jim said:
One thing? OK, here’s one thing where the liberal viewpoint can be considered mentally insane: supporting affirmative action while ostensibly opposing discrimination.
Thank you!
Well, affirmative action is corrective. It’s not meant to be a permanent thing. You’ll recall that a lot of the wealth built during the first half of our history here in the [...]
From the Ann Coulter school of psychiatry:
“Based on strikingly irrational beliefs and emotions, modern liberals relentlessly undermine the most important principles on which our freedoms were founded,” says Dr. Lyle Rossiter, author of the new book, “The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness.” “Like spoiled, angry children, they rebel against the normal responsibilities [...]
Just search my blog for “Pawlenty” and you’ll see I do not like the man’s politics. Britt Robson at MinnPost has a nice article that illustrates this: Pawlenty: My way or no highway, from which I quote.
I remain hopeful we can overcome the politics and rhetoric of this debate and pass a bipartisan transportation bill [...]
After the Pawlenty administration took over, I noticed that MNDot got much more heavy handed in terms of inconveniencing drivers in the Twin Cities. It seemed that the word to the road crews was: get the work done and we don’t care who you piss off. So now we have exits closed with no warning [...]
We need the progressives, the liberals, the Democrats and the democrats to stand up, give Hillary Clinton a big round of applause and then put all of our efforts into Barack Obama, the next president of the United States.
And Dear Bill Clinton, I know you owe your wife big time for the muck you dragged her [...]
The Star Tribune is reporting:
Apparent gaps in White House e-mail archives coincide with dates in late 2003 and early 2004 when the administration was struggling to deal with the CIA leak investigation and the possibility of a congressional probe into Iraq intelligence failures.
These guys are fucking criminals. How amazing — during all of these controversial [...]
micadelic had once asked:
Curious then, would you be more likely to vote for an apparent true believer like Obama or an obvious panderer like Hillary? I ask this seriously as I do think that Hillary appears somewhat insincere and phony in religious settings. Or do you just have to throw religion out the window totally [...]
I wrote and lost a long post about this. Thankfully I don’t have to rewrite it because someone else has written it for me. Nick Coleman has an oped piece that speaks exactly to my point. His is called Gussets, public servants both let Minnesota down.
There was nothing “routine” about the bridge, including its inspections. [...]
I have to point out the funniest comment I’ve read today. From PZ’s post I really don’t understand Republicans:
As the punchline to the old joke goes, “I didn’t say she was having sex, I said she’s f**king goofy.”
Posted by: Mark P | January 16, 2008 7:14 PM