Archive for May, 2010
Moral Of The Story
If you take Joe Sestak‘s win over Arlen Specter in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary, Blanche Lincoln being forced into a runoff with Bill Halter in the Arkansas Democratic primary, and Democrat Mark Critz‘s clear victory over Republican Tim Burns in the Pennsylvania special election to fill Jack Murtha‘s House seat, the moral of the story [...]
Mass Media Delusion
The media seems to have pledged their allegiance to the proposition that Arlen Specter lost to Joe Sestak yesterday because of a strong voter backlash. But it wasn’t a backlash against self-admitted turncoat opportunists — who made no bones about the fact that “My change in party will enable me to be reelected” — it [...]
Bet You Didn’t Know This
Shaun Mullen at Kiko’s House: Specter … changed his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat in 1965 to challenge the incumbent Democratic district attorney in Philadelphia for his first electoral victory before changing back to Republican in his Senate bids… How long will he stay a Democrat this time? Is he more likely to change [...]
Parsimony
Mark Souder has been, for almost 16 years now, one of the staunchest “family values” Republicans in Congress: The Indiana Republican … has made the “fight to uphold traditional values” the centerpiece of his professional life. His official website declares, “The family plays a fundamental role in our society…. I am committed to preserving traditional [...]
Rhetoric Gone Wild
Senators Jeff Merkley and Carl Levin have a post at The Huffington Post, titled “It’s Time to End Risky Gambling on Wall Street“. As best as I can make out, though: • They do not propose a system of riskless gambling to replace what we have now. • Nor have they invented the risky sure [...]
BP’s Strategy Pays Off
Here’s a perfect illustration of why BP doesn’t want the outside world — that would be you, me and Uncle Sam — to have a halfway accurate estimate of the amount of oil gushing from the Deepwater Horizon disaster site. It has something to do with the perceived corporate benefits accruing from fooling some of [...]
The Incomprehensible Utah Nuthatch
I challenge anyone to make sense of Senator Orrin Hatch‘s logic in this exchange. He’s talking to right-wing talk-radio host Laura Ingraham, and the question is if he understands the kind of rage that spurred Tea Partiers to drive Republican Senator Bob Bennett from Congress: HATCH: Yeah, I do. And I’ll tell you why because [...]
Oh Snap!, SCOTUS Edition
The Supreme Court yesterday handed down a 5-4 decision that minors can’t be sentenced to life without parole if they haven’t killed anyone: The Supreme Court has ruled that teenagers may not be locked up for life without chance of parole if they haven’t killed anyone. By a 5-4 vote Monday, the court says the [...]
On The Evolution Of The Deepwater Horizon Spill Rate Estimate
For some reason, BP thinks it is in their best interests to pretend that the continuing Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is just a trickle, and not a torrent. I imagine this stems from their conviction that, without their cooperation, it will be pretty much impossible for anyone to ever come [...]
Impressive BP Double-Speak (Coming Soon)
BP managing director Bob Dudley was on MSNBC at 1 pm EDT, talking to Andrea Mitchell, and he put on as impressive a performance of sustained fast-talking double-speak — double-time double-speak, if you will — as I’ve ever shaken my head at. No doubt there will be transcripts of the juicy parts soon enough. Look [...]