The Guns Are Out, the Risks Are Real (Links)
Cheney: We Didn’t Go Far Enough Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney believes that the Bush Administration’s policies should have been pushed much further. Whores on Terror The documentation of “sexual humiliation,” sodomy, and other forms of “enhanced interrogation” conducted by U.S. personnel are too extensive to be denied or pawned off on a couple of redneck privates. Ten of Obama’s Health-Care Missteps What the White House did wrong, in no particular order. Obama Isn’t Saying the Right Thing He should be saying, “Stop lying.” At Health Care Events, Guns Are Out, and the Risks Are Real It’s not enough for conservatives to repudiate violence, as some are belatedly beginning to do. Krugman: Extreme Opponents of Health Care Unappeasable “What they hate is the whole idea of any kind of health reform and more broadly what they hate is the whole idea of Democrats actually holding the White House.” In Alaska, Palin Leaves Behind Mismanaged Health Care System—Hundreds Die Waiting For Care The situation is so bad that the federal government has forbidden Alaska from signing up new people; no other state in the nation is under such a moratorium. A Case of Affinity Fraud The peddlers of anti-progressive lies are managing to convince a certain kind of American—white, socially conservative, etc.—that the hate-mongers are people like them; and, even more important, that progressives are Those People, people not like them. Them Versus Us By 1900, the U.S. had become more diverse and densely populated, with an industrial economy dominated by large corporations, and it had became abundantly clear that government power was necessary to regulate the marketplace, provide a safety net for the poor and elderly, and protect the environment. O’Reilly gloats that Fox’s ratings are due to its ‘fair and balanced’ approach You know how when someone says, “Now, I’m not trying to be a jerk, but…”, you can be certain that what will follow is them being a jerk. Ironic Divorce Protector of traditional marriage Doug Manchester is leaving his wife of 43 years.
Pastor Urges His Flock to Bring Guns to Church (Links)
An Incoherent Truth On health care, the conservative Democrats can’t extract major concessions on the shape of health care reform without dooming the whole project. What’s Cost Got to Do With It? Costs have skewed the debate on health care much like they have the debate on climate change—as if business-as-usual on either of them will be magically cost-free. Bush Officials: Where Are They Now? A guide to who’s cashing in. A Day of Reckoning for Bush’s ‘Torture’ Lawyers Eric Holder must decide whether to pursue Bush administration lawyers and one sitting federal judge who set the legal stage for officially sanctioned torture and other degrading practices that violated fundamental principles of international law. Barack Obama is More Likely Than Bush to Get Things Right We have a fox in the Oval Office, and he has replaced a hedgehog. U.S. Guns Fuel Canada And Mexico Crimes, UK Gun Crime Remains Rare Guns smuggled from the US arm criminals in Canada and Mexico, contributing to a higher murder rate in Canada and more intense drug crime conflict near the Mexican border, according to a study. Gun Flow South is a Crisis for Two Nations A report says the U.S. failure to curb smuggling has strengthened drug cartels. Pastor Urges His Flock to Bring Guns to Church In Louisville, Kentucky, Ken Pagano’s congregation is a sign that American gun culture is thriving despite, or perhaps because of, President Obama. Winning the Ultimate Battle: How Humans Could End War Optimists called the first world war “the war to end all wars.” She Broke the G.O.P. and Now She Owns It As the Republicans’ lone charismatic performer, Sarah Palin has come to represent a dwindling white nonurban America that is aflame with grievances. Robert McNamara in Context Should the Vietnam-era secretary of defense be remembered as a public servant, hawk, technocrat, hero, or all of the above? Assassination: A Brief History Governments can bomb faceless troops of enemy conscripts with impunity, but are questioned closely about bombing photographable individuals. Numbers numb; identity humanizes. That’s the general rule. Does Religion Have a Monopoly on ‘Enchantment’? Weber linked rationalisation with ‘the disenchantment of the world,’ but is it fair to equate the lack of religion to an absence of magic and mystery? The Bachmann Comic So how is the new comic book about our favorite House GOP backbencher, Michele Bachmann (R-MN)?
‘I’m Confident She Would Make a Fine President’ (Video)
The verdict is in on John McCain’s senility judgment, and this video hurts my brain so much.
California Voters Exercise Their Power–and That’s the Problem (Links)
California Voters Exercise Their Power–and That’s the Problem Residents relish their role in the lawmaking process, but they share the blame for the state’s severe dysfunction. ‘Hyperlocal’ Web Sites Deliver News Without Newspapers If your local newspaper shuts down, what will take the place of its coverage? Law Students Teach Scalia About Privacy and the Web Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was not amused when he became the subject of a law professor’s classroom assignment on how much private information on individuals is available online. Nothing To (S)Coff At Why the two biggest U.S. tobacco companies are fighting each other. Boy Scouts Train in Post-9/11 Law Enforcement Methods Ten minutes into arrant mayhem in this town near the Mexican border, and the gunman, a disgruntled Iraq war veteran, has already taken out two people, one slumped in his desk, the other covered in blood on the floor. Cheney’s Outspokenness Correlated to Potential Book Deal The former vice president’s blitz of appearances have made him a leading conservative voice as he shops his memoirs. Fact-Checking Cheney McClatchy has turned in another commendable example of skeptical political reporting. Dick Just Wants To Be Loved Cheney’s attempts at public redemption have a logical root in his Cold War experience. Accused Palin Hacker Says Stolen E-Mails Were Public Record A surprise legal maneuver by the defense in the Sarah Palin hacking case could undermine key charges carrying the stiffest potential penalties. Why Republicans Make the Rest of Us Miserable When They Lose Out of power, they’re bigger babies than Democrats. Here’s why. If Gay Marriage Isn’t a Big Deal Anymore, Maybe The Religious Right Isn’t Either If a state legalizes gay marriage and nobody notices, can gay people still get married? What if four states do it in six weeks? Right Wing Talk Show Host Gets Waterboarded, Says It’s Absolutely Torture ‘It is way worse than I thought it would be, and that’s no joke…It is such an odd feeling to have water poured down your nose with your head back…It was instantaneous…and I don’t want to say this: absolutely torture…They cut off our heads, we put water on their face…I really thought ‘I’m going to laugh this off.’
Larry on Larry – An Interview With the King
Larry King, godfather of the softball question, published an autobiography earlier this week, called My Remarkable Journey. In the book, King finally answers all of the softball questions that have plagued our minds since he took to the airwaves in 1913.
By promising King that we’d model our interview after his “promote, don’t go for the throat” style, we were able to sit down with the inexplicably popular TV star. (more…)
You, Hannity, Levin are all Brainwashed and You Know It (Links)
Rush Limbaugh Gets Pwned by Caller: ‘You, Hannity, Hewitt, and Levin are all brainwashed and you know it.’ Southern California Is For Suckers: Behind our house was a towering tree, just loaded with bees. The Fall of Newspapers, Rise of The Daily Me: There’s pretty good evidence that we generally don’t want good information—but rather information that confirms our prejudices. Annals of Unfortunate Spellcheck Accidents: The caption described a photograph illustrating the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ General Conference, and it referred to the group’s “Quorum of Twelve Apostates” rather than ‘Apostles.’ First Amendment Will Face Difficult Trials: ‘Bad Phoenix Cops’ blogger Jeff Pataky’s home was raided by ten Phoenix police officers last month. Remember When TV News Was a No-Cry Zone? Todays new emotional media is a hybrid beast: Phil Donahue meets Charles Coughlin. Sarah Palin vs. Levi Johnston: ‘Bristol’s focus will remain on raising Tripp, completing her education, and advocating abstinence.’
Shill, Baby, Shill: Republicans and Lobbyists Looking for New Anti-Environmental Catchphrase
Republicans are searching for a new slogan to characterize the 2009 debate over offshore drilling.
Evidently, many traditional supporters of offshore oil exploration—including Republican legislators and like-minded lobbyists—secretly believed that the old phrase, ‘drill, baby, drill,’ was dangerous and devoid of meaning.
Grover Norquist, Guns, Sexting (Links)
How many guns do you own? Grover Norquist grills GOP Party Chair candidates about their conservative credentials. Harper’s posts a statistical retrospective of the Bush Administration. Bill O’Reilly: Senators Leahy and Sanders would ‘torture the hell out of Bush if they could.’ Bush’s 2005 inauguration was actually 4x more expensive per person than Obama’s. Politico lists ‘seven reasons for healthy skepticism.’ Six Pennsylvania teens face child porn charges after taking nude photos of themselves. John McCain says that Sarah Palin could be president someday. Meanwhile, Palin has reportedly hired D.C. lawyer Robert Barnett help land a book or TV deal. Gail Collins compares Bush’s long goodbye with ‘one of those reconstituted rock bands that have been on a farewell tour since 1982.’ Frank Rich examines ‘eight years of Madoffs.’
Pentagon to Cut Benefits for PTSD Afflicted Vets (Links)
Can someone please remind me why ‘Average Joes’ are supposed to support the GOP? The Bush Administration is rushing to de-regulate hazardous chemicals in the workplace and the Bush Pentagon is cutting benefits for veterans with PTSD. An American special ops intelligence officer says that the number of soldiers killed as a result of America’s torture policy ‘is close to the number of lives lost on September 11, 2001.’ Condoleeza Rice says ‘you won’t…hear from me again‘, and I’m beginning to like her more and more. Everyone is talking about Bush’s admitted ‘unpreparedness for war.’ Meanwhile, Jeb Bush suggests that the GOP create a separate ‘shadow government’. The San Diego Union Trib profiles Howard Kaloogian, a ‘local conservative’ who appeared in that ‘daffy palin ad‘. The following people don’t know history from a hole in the ground: Tom Friedman and Joe Klein. Peggy Noonan is also trying to join the ‘saying stupid things’ club. Upon leaving office, George Bush will miss ‘flying in the presidential airplane and the food at the White House,’ as well as trains, dumptrucks, and making mudpies. California officials will investigate accusations that the Mormon Church violated its tax-exemption requirements by participating in the effort to ban same-sex marriage in California. At Mother Jones, Kiera Butler interviews historian Frank Rich. Finally, am I actually supposed to care about the LA Times‘ front page series profiling the unlikely romance between a racist California murderer and ‘a thoughtful, successful Omaha woman’? Maybe critics are right that LAT owner Sam Zell is in the process of ‘eviscerating some of [America's] best newspapers.’
Keeping It In the Family, or The Death Throes of a Dynasty
Let’s think back to the primaries and recall how historic they were turning out to be. Democratic front runners Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were neck and neck in the primaries. Though it wasn’t clear who would take the nomination, we knew that we were in for an historic campaign either way.
Obama would of course overtake Clinton and became the first black Democratic presidential candidate, and by August we knew it was either McCain-Palin or Obama-Biden that would triumph. Perhaps there was a sense of relief, too, in what those two tickets had in common: neither had a Bush or a Clinton anywhere in sight.
Anne Coulter, Nate Silver, Ode To Obama
Time for a little poetic justice, everyone: Anne Coulter’s jaw has been wired shut. An unprovoked John Ziegler becomes progressively more unhinged in an interview with 538.com‘s Nate Silver. Eskimos have 100 words to describe snow, but ‘hindsight’ isn’t in Ted Stevens’ dictionary. The Pentagon agrees to not doctor images that it sends to the press. George W. Bush is shifting his minions into career positions so that Barack Obama can’t fire them. The president also issued a pardon to Leslie Owen Collier, who was convicted of poisoning a bald eagle. White House shill spokeswoman Dana Perino has stopped Googling herself because blogs can be ‘so vitriolic.’ Katon Dawson had to resign from his whites-only country club before running for the RNC chairmanship. Elementary school principal Stephen Lewis is responsible for the racist ‘Ode To Obama‘ in the Murfreesboro Post. Atty Gen. Mukasey has an (ironic?) portrait of Orwell in his office. Dick Cavett lampoons the ‘Wild Wordsmith of Wasilla’ and her ‘assault on the English language.’ The Onion discusses Mark Cuban’s insider trading charges. In New Orleans, someone gets murdered every 40 hours.
What Were Those Ingredients Again for the Peyote Chili?
This could’ve been made sincerely or sarcastically by the right or left, respectively. Don’t you just love the fineness of this line?
Press Release: Sarah Palin Agrees to Write for Owl&Bear
For immediate release:
After offering to help reshape the face of journalism in this new age—and being subsequently turned down by principled news outlets everywhere, and even Fox News (for now)—Alaska’s governor and former GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin (remember her?) has agreed to write for Owl&Bear.
Why Sarah Palin Gets My Vote
Supportive articles about Sarah Palin are excellent, and researchers should be thanked for their work.
