Mitch McConnell threatens stimulus filibuster
This morning on Face the Nation, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell stated that the current stimulus package working its way through the Senate is not likely to pass. Bob Schieffer then asked him...
View ArticleObama's interesting pick for drug czar
The Seattle Times is reporting this morning that President Obama has chosen Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske to serve as head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.While a police chief...
View ArticleObama's Plan for Filibuster-Proof Health Care Reform UPDATED
Maybe I'm missing something here, but I think a major element of President Obama's health care reform strategy is emerging. I've wondered for a while how meaningful reform legislation could possibly...
View ArticleCantor, Steele repudiate Rush; wingnuts freak out (Updated x2: RedState of...
Republicans are hopelessly stuck with the same problem that has plagued them through two election cycles: a vast gulf between their base and majority of Americans. And, as we know, Obama and Democrats...
View ArticleBasic Stargazing: The Crescent of Venus (and the legacy of Galileo and Darwin)
Counting stars by candle light, all are dim but one is bright: the spiral light of Venus, rising first and shining best... - Robert Hunter, Terrapin StationAs much as I love looking at extraordinary...
View ArticleFrank Gaffney: Obama sending "coded" messages to Al-Qaeda
Un-fucking-believable.Neocon mouthpiece and conspiracy-theorist Frank Gaffney scurried out of his hole again today to spread his typically deranged propaganda on Hardball. Deranged? Yup. According to...
View ArticleBreaking: Karl Rove calls somebody a liar
This really shouldn't be an important news story. It should only be a minor story about a sociopathic con-man and the absurdity of him accusing anyone else of lying.But the talkers will be talking...
View ArticleWill MSNBC allow Scarborough to keep advocating torture?
Mornings on MSNBC are a regular pro-torture fest. Day after day, Joe Scarborough and his pals, Pat Buchanan and Willie Geist, love to yuk it up about "splashing water" on the bad buys and scaring...
View ArticleObama's Supreme Court Nominee: Turtles All the Way Down
As the progressive community gears up to fight against the inevitable right-wing demagoguery of President Obama's first Supreme Court nominee, I'm reminded of an oft-repeated philosophical allegory....
View ArticleObama reserving the right to torture? Non-denial denial from White House...
I don't have any desire to write an "Obama=Bush" diary and that's not what this is. But I think it's important to point out that the White House has failed to deny one of the most outrageous...
View ArticleMeltdown: Cornyn repudiates Rush and Newt, wingnuts freak out
The political quandary facing Republicans becomes more evident every day. The stark division between its radical base and the rest of the country would be difficult enough to navigate under any...
View ArticleSenators Kyl, Sessions don't know if Sotomayor is a racist
On the Sunday morning shows, Senators Jon Kyl and Jeff Sessions did their best to dance through the minefield laid by the titular leaders of the Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich....
View ArticleTorture Cheerleading, Brewed by Starbucks! UPDATED
For reasons I don't entirely understand, advertisers usually seem to get a free pass for the content they underwrite, even when that content is radical political discourse.But the new over-the-top...
View ArticleWill Congress investigate the CIA Iraq document forgeries?
With revelations about Dick Cheney's mystery CIA assassination squad and outrage by congressional Democrats over being kept in the dark, I got to wondering about a couple of other suspected CIA...
View ArticleUltimatum: Dems ready to shut down Baucus-Grassley scam? UPDATED x3: Reid...
You didn't have to read too deeply between the lines to figure out what agreement was reached several days ago during the Obama-Reid-Baucus healthcare meeting: Reid would not bring a bill to the floor...
View ArticleNew Wingnut Scare: Armed agents are protecting Obama!
Don't look now, but Teabaggers have discovered the Secret Service. And, no, this isn't satire.Some brave citizen-journalists are risking everything to report an alarming development: Obama is traveling...
View ArticleHelp stop healthcare lies on MSNBC
One of the reasons Republicans are often so successful at framing national debates is the cooperation of particular media figures who possess an undeserved reputation as "centrists" or "nonpartisans."...
View ArticleHoward Dean schools Morning Joe on public option strategy (UPDATED w/ videos...
Howard Dean made a brief appearance on Morning Joe today and left the hapless bunch literally enthralled with his analysis of Obama's health care reform strategy.The lead-up to the Dean interview was a...
View ArticleBaucus and Conrad endorsed reconciliation for health care reform
I was just re-reading a diary I wrote last February predicting that Democrats would need to use reconciliation to pass health care reform, and noticed an interesting quote from Max Baucus.
View ArticleMSNBC hack says Kennedy would kill Public Option (updated)
That didn't take long. Who would have guessed that the traditional media vultures would do their best to completely distort and deface Ted Kennedy's legacy? After all, Kennedy's Republican "friends"...
View ArticleKennedy: "Incremental measures won't suffice anymore"
The media is abuzz today with speculation about how Ted Kennedy's absence will impact the health care reform debate. And, as usual, the conventional wisdom is starting to coalesce around a frame...
View ArticleMorning Joe attacks and mocks Carter for comment on racism
Doesn't MSNBC (or Starbucks for that matter) find anything embarrassing about its all-white morning crew repeatedly arguing with African-Americans about the presence and influence of racism in...
View ArticleRepublicans outraged over health care signing ceremony
According to FOX News, the White House communications team is quietly discussing plans for President Obama to hold what is being called a "signing ceremony" in conjunction with signing health care...
View ArticleHell yeah, ram it through! It's good politics.
Republicans may have provided Democrats with an ideal closing narrative for health care...but only if they have the guts to use it. The GOP has obviously chosen to focus on process for the end game,...
View ArticleThe Bluebird of Happiness: Another Day of GOP FAIL
On the first day of spring, this morning, Representative Louise Slaughter convened the House of Representatives Rules Committee to set the reconciliation parameters for finally passing health care...
View ArticleMeltdown: Erick Erickson wants to oust GOP leaders
The founder of RedState, CNN's Erick Erickson is pissed off and thinks it's time to ditch the Republican leadership over the passage of health care reform. Apparently John Boehner and Mitch McConnell...
View ArticleTea Party Leaders: Repeal Social Security! Larry King: Wha?!
It's not easy to disturb Larry King. But lately even the somnambulant talk show host has been blanching at the rhetoric from right-wing guests on his show. First there was Mitt Romney's apocalyptic...
View ArticleShorter Morning Joke - March 31, 2010
MSNBC's Morning Joe (Brewed by Starbucks) has become so ridiculous that it's almost too easy to parody. Today's episode was a classic of false balance and a perfect example of what's wrong with modern...
View ArticleMSNBC host calls Olbermann "crazy," compares to Beck
CNBC host and professional "moderate" Donny Deutsch is hosting a one-hour show every afternoon this week on MSNBC. Deutsch is usually a condescending blowhard, so I didn't expect much from his new show...
View ArticleConservative faction at MSNBC continues to attack Olbermann and Maddow
It's been an interesting week at MSNBC.As I reported on Tuesday, CNBC pundit and Morning Joe regular, Donny Deutsch, was hosting the second day of what was supposed to a one-week run of shows at 3pm on...
View ArticleWhat? Ed Schultz & J.D. Hayworth find common cause on immigration reform
On his Monday show this week, Ed Schultz announced his top priority for immigration reform: massing troops on the U.S.-Mexico border.And he followed that up with a fluff interview of U.S. Senate...
View ArticleIf Millionaire Mitt thinks we should stay in Iraq, why didn't he encourage...
No two ways about it, thanks to Occupy Wall Street, America's class war will be front and center in next year's presidential election. And Mitt Romney is the perfect standard-bearer for a privileged...
View ArticleOccupy Oakland is to blame for shooting even if protesters weren't involved,...
I'm a proud resident of Oakland, but we have more than our share of violent crime here. Tonight there was fatal shooting downtown near the Occupy Oakland encampment. Multiple protesters report that the...
View ArticleHoward Dean slaps down the whining hypocrites in our political media
It's unlikely that there's a better spokesperson for our national political media's temper-tantrum over the AP/James Rosen kerfuffle than the National Journal's Ron Fournier. Fournier joined the...
View ArticleHarm reduction as a model for a universal, reality-based political philosophy
"Harm reduction" is commonly used to describe compassionate policies that address harmful behaviors by individuals:Harm reduction (or less commonly known as harm minimization) is a range of public...
View ArticleLOL. Dennis Hastert says there is no Hastert Rule, but Boehner shouldn't...
Dennis Hastert will be remembered for three things:1. Becoming an unlikely, almost accidental Speaker of the House who was little more than Tom Delay's ventriloquist dummy.2. As a co-conspirator of the...
View ArticleThe Party of Christie: GOP killing unemployment extension as revenge for...
Back in November when Senate Democrats reformed the filibuster -- breaking the GOP efforts to block almost every Obama nominee -- Mitch McConnell promised: “You’ll regret this, and you may regret this...
View ArticleCrunch time for Unemployment Insurance!! PLEASE take a minute to help today!
If extended Unemployment Benefits are to survive, this week is pivotal. Senate negotiations broke down last Thursday, but Reid appears to be pressing ahead with a bill intended to get bipartisan...
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Be not attached to the fruits of the action
I want to write a little bit about striving to be our best selves as we participate in the political process and hopefully offer a perspective on how to navigate the emotional minefield of electoral...
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Watch Howard Dean debunk Bernie's fossil fuel smear... in under 60 seconds!
Like any good country doctor, Howard Dean has always had a knack for cutting through half-truths and innuendo and bringing the discussion back down to terra firma. The reports that Hillary has...
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POLITIFACT Says Bernie's Claims About Free College Tuition Are MOSTLY FALSE
Say it ain’t so, Bernie!It was just this weekend that Bernie Sanders was given Three Pinnocchios from the Washington Post fact checkers for lying about Clinton’s donors. Now Pulitzer-Prize winning...
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Bernie Backpedals: Admits he doesn't really hold Hillary responsible for Iraq...
I can’t believe Bernie’s Charlie Rose interview yesterday isn’t getting more attention. He comes across as a petulant child and Charlie calls him out on it. I think Bernie deserves at leastFOUR...
View ArticleJane Sanders promised to release 2015 tax returns "when they are due."
The Sanders campaign is still playing cat-and-mouse with Bernie’s family tax returns. Yesterday, April 15th, was “Tax Day” so it it made sense that the Sanders released their returns then. Except they...
View ArticleFACT: Superdelegates were created to stop losing candidates from stealing the...
It’s that simple.Superdelegates do not exist so that the establishment can stop a winning candidate they don’t like.Superdelegates were created and implemented to prevent a losing candidate from trying...
View ArticleRobert Reich continues to undermine Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party
In May of this year, Robert Reich urged his fellow Bernie supporters to "work like hell" to elect Hillary Clinton if she earned the Democratic nomination for president.But while many Bernie supporters...
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For the next 57 days, let's strive for compassion
I know this sounds like a radical suggestion, but it's really not. Compassion lies at the core of what makes us Democrats. It's what motivates our struggle against suffering and oppression. It's what...
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FBI sources tell WSJ that emails may be from an account that has already been...
The Wall Street Journal is reporting tonight that the emails FBI Director Comey referenced today may all be duplicates of those already reviewed. Yes, seriously:Many of the emails were discovered on a...
View ArticleNew York Times: The FBI knew a month ago that the laptop they seized could...
The most compelling reason to suspect partisan motives for FBI Director James Comey’s vague disclosure on Friday is its timing, days before a presidential election. Well now the New York Times is...
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Robert Reich doesn't seem to know that there are non-white members of the...
In a column published today in The Guardian, Democrats once represented the working class. Not any more, Robert Reich argues that this election was a working-class rebellion. Really?Reich consistently...
View ArticleLimbaugh's rise to GOP leader continues: McCain is on board
Helping to cement the wedge that President Obama drove between the Republican Party and the American center this week, John McCain has chosen sides. The failed presidential candidate wants us to know:...
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