Month: April 2009
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Party before pork for Minnesota GOP
I think Matthew Yglesias overstates the case against political science in this post about the solidarity Minnesota Republicans have shown in standing behind Norm Coleman: It’s worth remarking a bit on the incredible solidarity the Minnesota GOP is showing with their colleagues’ broader interest in obstructing the inevitable here. Representatives John Kline, Erik Paulsen, and
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Newt Gingrich’s Twitter media domination
I think it’s hilarious how much press Newt Gingrich is getting out of his stupid Twitter feed. I can see why it’s great for reporters — they seem cutting-edge (they read Twitter!) and they get a quote without even making a phone call — but can someone remind me why we care again?
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Steele: Democrats want to destroy savings
One of my pet peeves is the way that political figures often insinuate that their opponents want some bad outcome that might result from their opponents’ policies. For example, in an email to supporters today, RNC chairman Michael Steele claims that part of the “liberal Democrats’ agenda” is to “destroy the savings of millions of
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The arrrrbitrary nature of pirate politics
In the wake of the US military’s dramatic rescue of an American captain from Somali pirates, pundits and reporters are hyping the political implications of what should be considered a trivial foreign policy event. For instance, Ezra Klein argues nonsensically that it proves Obama is not like Jimmy Carter: Over the weekend, Navy Seals equipped
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Maddow on MSNBC: Still cable news
Any liberal who has blamed the terrible quality of cable news discourse on its domination by conservatives should be reading Bob Somerby’s most recent series of articles on the vapidity of Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC show, which has become attracted a great deal of attention from liberal elites and media types. The inescapable conclusion of reading
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The double-edged pirate sword
I’m sure the Obama White House did not require much persuasion to leak word of the President’s role in approving the successful anti-pirate operation off the coast of Somalia, but I’m going to guess they won’t be so quick to take credit the first time some military operation goes bad. As the administration will soon
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The othering of Barack Obama
A few days, I pointed out that the way that conservatives are making allegations against the administration that are rooted in the continuing misperception that President Obama is a Muslim — for instance, the nonsensical allegation that the liberal academic Harold Koh (President Obama’s nominee for State Dept. legal adviser) wants to institute sharia law
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Orrin Hatch quotes from Disney’s Robin Hood
TNR flags a proud moment in the history of the world’s greatest deliberative body — Senator Orrin Hatch quoting at length from a cartoon (Disney’s “Robin Hood”) in a speech against the Obama budget a few weeks ago: Mr. HATCH. Madam President, a couple weeks ago the Obama administration released an outline of its budget
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Klein is wrong on Bayh and Nelson
Yesterday Ezra Klein made the claim that “if you had run an algorithm using past voting records to predict last night’s roll call [on the budget], you wouldn’t have ended with Nelson and Bayh on their lonesome” voting against the bill. Instead, he argues, they did so in order to obtain favorable press for breaking
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The bizarre Koh sharia myth
Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick debunks the absurd claim that Harold Koh, the dean of Yale Law School and President Obama’s nominee to serve as legal advisor to the State Department, wants to institute Islamic sharia law in this country’s courts — a claim that is based on a single person’s recollection of a talk Koh gave