Uncategorized
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More supply-side claims at GOP debate
In yesterday’s New York Times, Jon Chait got out his crystal ball: Remember the Republican presidential debate a few months ago, when three candidates raised their hands to indicate they didn’t believe in evolution? Something just as laughable is likely to happen today, at the first Republican debate on the economy. Every candidate will probably
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Bob Filner goes soundbite-crazy
Talk about trying too hard to get on the news — Rep. Bob Filner made English teachers cry during a speech against a proposed new Blackwater compound outside San Diego: Blackwater is a black mark on American democracy. We can’t let them blackmail us into this so they can blackmail democracy further. What they’re doing
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The xenophobic Swiss poster
The New York Times reported yesterday on disturbing xenophobia in Swiss politics, focusing on a poster distributed by a leading ultra-right party: The posters taped on the walls at a political rally here capture the rawness of Switzerland’s national electoral campaign: three white sheep stand on the Swiss flag as one of them kicks a
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Off-message Hillary phone bank
I got a fundraising call from Hillary Clinton’s campaign last night. During the call, the phone bank guy, who admitted he was paid, said my donation would help demonstrate her grassroots support. He then said this was important because Obama has more grassroots support to date. I’m pretty sure that isn’t in the official script.
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Response(s) to Alterman
FYI the post on Eric Alterman now has two updates responding to him.
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Eric Alterman: My enemies are evil
In his Media Matters blog, Eric Alterman often attributes evil motives to his political opponents — a tactic that the group criticizes non-liberals for on a near-daily basis. The latest example came Thursday during a discussion of President Bush’s veto of a bill that would have expanded the SCHIP children’s health insurance program: Bush’s preference
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Hyping the gas price-Bush approval link
Matthew Yglesias flags netroots activist Chris Bowers hyping a graph plotting gas prices (inverse) against presidential approval: It isn’t discussed often enough, but Professor Pollkatz regularly produces updates one of the most important statistical projections for American politics, ever: A round of semi-apocalyptic pontification then ensues: Our move off the petroleum economy is still slow,
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NYT’s suspicious Fred Thompson story
While I’m amused by the New York Times anecdote about Fred Thompson asking an audience for applause, I don’t trust it or the rest of the story and you shouldn’t either. Given the tone of Adam Nagourney’s report, there’s good reason to be suspicious that he is fitting the facts to the “Fred is lazy”
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NYT does “he said”/”she said” on SCHIP
How hard is it to try to resolve factual disputes over controversial policy issues? Too hard for the New York Times: Mr. Bush argues that the expansion is too costly and would push people who could afford private insurance onto the government rolls, steering the program away from its initial aim of helping poor children.
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SNL mocks Ahmadinejad (“Iran So Far”)
The best response to the Iranian dictator’s visit yet: The New York Times has an article today on the backstory behind the video.