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Monthly Archives: September 2009

Legalized bribery

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Isn’t America a great country? Who needs an income when you can own your own Leadership PAC. And we’re worrying about whether Chris Dodd got a sweetheart mortgage? It looks, by the way, that Chris has backed away from the bi-partisan Leadership PAC game.

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Some good news

Saturday, September 26, 2009

The forces of reason are proposing a ballot initiative that will, one would hope, eventually bring an end to ballot initiatives in California: In the coming weeks, the coalition Repair California will begin the official process of calling a state constitutional convention, submitting ballot-initiative language to Attorney General Jerry Brown’s office. Repair California proposes to […]

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Friday Night Music

Friday, September 25, 2009

I am ashamed to admit that I thought of this song because of Tom Delay. I saw some footage of him making a fool of himself on a TV dance show, which he was doing to this tune. This song is arguably the greatest song by any one hit wonder. At least I think the […]

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Last word on Acorn and the decline of reason

Friday, September 25, 2009

For a variety of reasons I’ve had occasion recently to write a lot about the Acorn situation, both here and in a letter I recently wrote to the Day, though I really think the whole thing is sort of trivial and another right wing tempest in a teapot. Still, the recent “exposé” raise some interesting […]

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The Big Dog Writes to Me

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

And a lot of other folks of course. The email found its way to my inbox this morning. Here’s the gist: That’s why we need your help. Giving to the DSCC will allow us to recruit great candidates, build winning campaigns and make sure President Obama has the votes he needs to enact the policies […]

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Equal justice under the law

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

A Republican/conservative activist illegally films an idiot at Acorn giving absurd tax advice. Acorn loses its federal funding, the conservative is hailed on Fox, and no one suggests that the heavy hand of the law should reach down to punish the only real illegality uncovered-the filming. Another conservative illegally tapes a phone conversation among a […]

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The Jackie Robinson Effect

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Yesterday, Steve Benen at the Washington Monthly, commented on the fact that while Obama is making the rounds trying to talk about health care, the media is more interested in his answers to their questions about whether race is a factor in the opposition to his health care program, and everything else he tries to […]

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Friday Night Music-Mary Travers and friends

Friday, September 18, 2009

It’s an unfortunate fact that I often get inspiration for this feature from the obituaries. This time it’s Mary Travers, who died a couple of days ago. Mary is the Mary of Peter, Paul and Mary. It’s not easy to explain how important this folk group was for a few very critical years. They sort […]

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Extra Fuzzy Math

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Not only is Max Baucus’s Health Care Bill a massive subsidy for the insurance companies, it is a massive attack on the poor, almost guaranteed to make the poor poorer in many and sundry ways. Today, Ezra Klein highlights a provision that he, probably justifiably, asserts is the stupidest proposal in the history of man: […]

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Recipe for success

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

From the Economist: CLINICAL depression is a serious ailment, but almost everyone gets mildly depressed from time to time. Randolph Nesse, a psychologist and researcher in evolutionary medicine at the University of Michigan, likens the relationship between mild and clinical depression to the one between normal and chronic pain. He sees both pain and low […]

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