Archive for February, 2009
Depends on the Definition of Very
Summers warns that stimulus battle not yet over – AP (2/8/09): “Those who presided over the last eight years, eight years that brought us to the point where we inherited trillions of dollars in deficits, an economy that’s collapsing more rapidly that in any time in the last 50 years, don’t seem to be in [...]
The Binyam Mohamed Brouhaha: Update
The international flap over the torture of Guantanamo detainee Binyam Mohamed has taken an unexpected turn. Last week there were allegations that the U.S. government had threatened to end intelligence cooperation with Britain if a report containing seven “sensitive paragraphs supplied by U.S. intelligence services” about Binyam Mohamed’s torture were made public by two British [...]
Wake Up Call?
How can one tell when the Republican Party is moving firmly into the lunatic fringe of ideas when it comes to the economy? How about when business associations start warning Republican senators that if they support a filibuster of the stimulus package – as most of them seem to be eagerly lining up to do [...]
Ungrateful Bastards, Take 2
First, it was the damn Iraqis who didn’t appreciate all our sacrifices to bring them freedom, liberty, democracy and all manner of good things. Who didn’t appreciate all our sacrifices, and weren’t shy about saying so. This bloody ingratitude much puzzled our otherwise much-loved former president. Now, the Afghans are following in the Iraqis’ footsteps. [...]
Republican Party’s New Vision, Going forward
(1) How bankrupt is the Republican party, how totally bereft of any sane notion of what role to play in our polity? Eric Cantor, the second-ranking Republican in the house — an under-assistant John Boehner, if you will (nullus) — articulates the party’s new vision, going forward: “Just say no!” To everything Obama proposes. Including [...]
What Economic Crisis? — Masterpieces of Denial
(1) Pretty Good Senator Jon Kyl emphatically denies that we have much of an economic crisis on our hands. He thinks President Obama is just being careless with dangerous rhetoric when he describes it as a crisis that could escalate into a catastrophe. In his weekly radio and Internet address on Saturday, the president praised [...]
Ideological Corners
President-elect Obama (1/9/09): QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President-elect. I’d like to follow up on that. Larry Summers, as you said, is up on the Hill right now, and we’re told he’s getting an earful from some Democrats who say their plan just isn’t big enough. And I know you’ve resisted putting a number on it, [...]
Michael S. Steele Investigated By Feds
Sounds very much like the Republican National Committee should adopt some kind of vetting procedure for candidates for the Chairman’s post. If newly elected chairman Michael S. Steele (apparently, the S. doesn’t stand for Sleazeball) had been vetted before the election, maybe the RNC wouldn’t now be wiping egg from its face with a very [...]
What Consequences?
If a Martian spaceship landed in your backyard over the weekend, and someone came out and said: “Take me to your leader!”, who would you take them to? Obama or the three Republican senators who wield power over him: Collins, Specter and Snowe? After all, the nature of our political reality seems to be that [...]
The Seersucker Conspiracy
I wonder if Ben and Susan’s Great Bipartisan Circle Jerk arrived at the 58-42 split between spending and tax cuts based on the number of Senators on each side of the aisle, assuming that their pal in seersucker Norm Coleman‘s lawsuit will be successful over Al Franken? That’s Nelson second from the left, Collins third [...]