Outsourcing the GOP

by matt

Aussie hired by state GOP embroiled in immigration lawsuit - SF Chronicle (6/24/07):
Michael Kamburowski, the Australian immigrant hired as a top official in the California Republican Party, was ordered deported in 2001, jailed three years later for visa violations — and has filed a $5 million wrongful arrest lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland […]

My People Call This Chutzpah

by matt

Selling Wal-Mart: The New Yorker
Wal-Mart’s executives are angry about Democratic attacks on the company. Tovar’s boss, Mona Williams, told me, “Wal-Mart is taking care of the people the Democratic Party says it represents—the poor, the middle class. The Democrats are not taking care of them. We’re like Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society.”
Whatever bullshit-deflating skills I may […]

Dirty Hippies Take to the Streets

by matt

Photos from the San Francisco version are here and here
If you don’t go look at the photos, then this guy (and the terrorists) win.

The Gang Of Four

by sarabeth

After reflecting on the no doubt chastening experience of the midterm election, after introspecting about how to put their best foot forward, here’s the bold new strategy the Republican Party has come up with: “It’s broke, but hey why fix it?”
(No doubt, when they were debating this in their internal conclaves, the clincher was a […]

The Wheel of Life, Politics Edition

by sarabeth

You may have wondered, in idle moments, what is supposed to happen once we elect those good-looking, smooth-talking, TV-camera-genic people to Congress. How exactly do these eager public servants go about doing the people’s business, delivering to us a government of the people, by the people, for the people? The Washington Post lays […]

Racists of a Feather

by matt

South Africa:
Former South African President P.W. Botha, the defiant face of white rule at the height of the anti-apartheid struggle, died at his home on Tuesday aged 90, the South African Press Association reported.
[…]
Asked in a television interview what would have happened if the black majority took control in 1948 — when Botha’s National Party […]

Proven Wrong, Yet Again

by matt

Three plus years and nearly 10,000 comments after 1115 started, this is still the wrongest and most offensive:
I was asking if you are practicing the Jewsish faith or just claiming the heritage. I have seen many do that very thing on TV and in posts (not here, yet) so the question is valid. One can […]

Collateral Damage

by Jason

While there are certainly a lot of issues out there that would make the President a pretty unpopular guy, the recent numbers seem to show that the Mark Foley scandal hasn’t left the White House immune to the nonsense that is brewing in the House.
Many of the President’s supporters are shocked, just shocked, […]

All In Good Time

by sarabeth

In days of yore, a quaint term was applied to those among us who entered politics. They were described as public servants, probably in the quaint hope that the label might inspire some of those who went on to become congressmen and senators to actually serve the public, to act in the public interest. […]

Pocket Pope

by sarabeth

According to the Ayatollah Khamenei, the Pope is in George Bush’s back pocket:
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday that Pope Benedict’s remarks on Islam were in line with what he said was the United States’ “crusade” against the religion, state television reported.
[…]
“The Pope’s remarks were the latest chain of the crusade against […]