Conservative Court Consequences
March 15, 2012 4 Comments
Antonin Scalia’s remarks last week serve as a helpful reminder of how conservative our activist courts are.
Doonesbury on State Rape
March 13, 2012 Leave a comment
Yesterday’s Doonesbury comic provides terrifically insightful and incisive take on Rick Perry’s support for big government determining the private health care decisions for Texans. It looks like it’ll be a week-long topic, as the fun continues in today strip.
Melissa Harris-Perry on the Choice of Motherhood
March 4, 2012 2 Comments
The most recent push by the right-wing to limit birth control and to force unwanted medical procedures on women seeking abortions reminds me of how much I dislike the term “pro-life”, because most of the people in that movement are not. They presume that life begins at conception, but their commitment is selective, fading quickly when it comes to anything other than preventing women from making decisions about whether or not to bear children.
Rachel Maddow and the Language of Lefty Politics
February 28, 2012 2 Comments
The left (and sensible centrists) have been appropriately outraged over the rape facilitation legislation that various Republican state legislatures have take up of late.
Anti-abortion bills. Rachel Maddow took a look at this issue yesterday and her segment made me wonder why the Democrats aren’t better at messaging. Trans-vaginal or not, these ultrasounds are medically unnecessary elements of the Republicans attempt at social engineering. Why not call them out for forced medical experimentation, and make them address the issue of medical necessity?
Here We Go Again With the Deficit Bull
February 27, 2012 Leave a comment
My reaction to the news that House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer is “Working Behind The Scenes On Major Deficit Reduction Bill” is simple. Oh, crap, here we go again.
Image via Wikipedia
“Democratic” Senator Ben Nelson to Retire
December 27, 2011 Leave a comment
Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson will reportedly announce soon that he is retiring in 2012 and it’s hard for me to shed any tears. Yes, this may reduce the Democrats odds of retaining power in the Senate, but didn’t he already do this before, by pulling them to the right? He voted for a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, against the judicial confirmation of Elena Kagan (but in favor of Samuel Alito), for restricting individual rights to bankruptcy, against Cash For Clunkers, for disastrous trade agreements such as CAFTA. He helped delay what health reform we got, and was part of preventing the public option. We saw what happened when the Democrats had a larger majority in the Senate, and it wasn’t more progressive policy, just more of an opportunity for conservative Democrats such as Ben Nelson to call the shots.
Boehner Bails
December 22, 2011 1 Comment
Speaker of the House John Boehner has reversed course and agreed to the two month extension of the payroll tax cut. Moral of the Story: when Democrats stand up for policies that are solid in substance and strong in popularity, good things happen.
Some Fights are Worth Having
December 21, 2011 Leave a comment
When we see the GOP literally walk away from a vote on reduced payroll taxes, it’s a good thing. Not that they refuse to vote, but that Democrats are actually forcing the issue and establishing differences between the parties.
Democrats Refuse to Press Tax Advantage
December 16, 2011 Leave a comment
Talking Points Memo reports that the Senate Democrats have caved once again, allowing the Republicans to force a vote on the Keystone XL pipeline. Supposedly this was in exchange for an extension of payroll tax cuts, but does anyone actually believe that the Republicans would let those expire? Occam’s Razor would lead us to believe that the Democrats are not actually interested in pressing any political advantage in the tax debate.
The Democrats at work:
House Passes $662 Billion Military Spending Bill
December 14, 2011 Leave a comment
When both political parties come together to pass a 662 billion dollar military spending bill, can we stop pretending that either of them actually cares about balancing the budget?
Kudos on those fighting against the indefinite detention of American citizens. But why is it ethical or effective to indefinitely detain anyone? Why, when I was but a child going to school in ‘merica, , we would talk about how the evil Soviet Union did stuff like that, while we were all manly men fighting for freedom.
U.S. House passes $662 billion defense bill
Democrats Consider Tax Relief…for the Wealthy
December 14, 2011 Leave a comment
Rather than funding an extension of the payroll tax cut through a surtax on the extraordinarily wealthy, the Democrats are planning to protect those wealthy from financial sacrifice. The excuse given is that they want to avoid a government shutdown, but that is hard to accept on face value.
The extension of the payroll tax cut is good policy and good politics.
A surtax on the wealthy is good policy and good politics.
One might be tempted to think that the Democrats aren’t actually in favor of these policies, but have been putting up a short-lived fight as a show for their base.
Talking Points Memo: Dems Consider Dropping Demands As Republicans Risk A Shutdown
