A couple of months ago one of my most loyal readers and political opponents introduced into the comments section of this blog the ideas of one Lyle H. Rossiter Jr., M.D.. Dr. Rossiter, a psychiatrist, published a book in 2005 entitled, “THE LIBERAL MIND: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness” in which he went to great lengths to “prove” that liberals are clinically, mentally ill. Being very stingy with my time and money, I was not going to invest either fully in this book. Fortunately, Dr. Rossiter gave me a wealth of excerpts on his website from which to draw conclusions. Even with that said, I could only bear to read a small portion without regurgitating the turkey sandwich I had for lunch. Dr. Rossiter gets off on the wrong ...
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Catching up on my summer fun reading, I came across a great political thriller, The Ghost Writer, by British author, Robert Harris. The book is now also a good Roman Polanski movie by the same title that will be available on Netflix August 3. My guess the reason it didn't last long in the movie houses is because of the ruckus about Polanski in media this past year and the US effort to get him back to stand trial for past sins. But Polanski is a good filmmaker.(Remember the classic, Chinatown, another political thriller, with Jack Nicholson?) Truth is stranger than fiction. While this is a work of fiction, it doesn't take too much googling to discover there are a lot of factual stories backing Harris' thesis up that Adam Lang, the ...
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I've been on kind of a tear against the media lately, so I think it's worth pointing out when a media outlet does it right. KPHO in Phoenix covers SB-1070 -- otherwise known as Arizona's "papers please" law -- and finds out two very important points: Republican election-year fearmongering is wrecking the state's economy by driving away tourism and top people in Governor Brewer's office stand to benefit from from the law, which goes into effect tomorrow. Yeah, it turns out that if top politicians tell you you're going to get your head chopped off if you go to Arizona, people don't want to go to Arizona. I imagine you're as surprised by that fact as I was. And it reminded me of how conservatives echoed Mississippi Gov. Haley ...
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This is big, big, big, for multiple reasons. One solar is actually clean; nuclear power, besides radioactive wastes, has a high CO2 footprint from the massive number of cubic yards of concrete in construction, from the uranium mining, etc. Two, especially given Obama's "nuclear blank check" loan guarantees, with much of that blank check likely going to foreigners, too, solar is cheaper on the government wallet. Then why isn't it getting more boost? Because there's not a lot of deep pockets behind it, for one thing. Even wind power has more, starting with GE.
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 I remember very well when Jean-Claude Duvalier of Haiti was criticized worldwide for spending millions of dollars on his wedding at a time when poverty, unemployment, and hunger were running rampant in his country. That kind of a display was an obscenity, all things considered.
So is this kind of a display. While it may be true that Bubba is no longer the President, his wife is still a senior official in the Federal Government-and in America today, unemployment, poverty, and even hunger are running rampant. I did not vote for Bubba in 1996 because I thought that he was Reaganesque-he knew how to talk to the common schmuck, but he didn’t really know, or care, how the schmuck got along. Bubba’s embrace of NAFTA, and the ...
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FOX's African-American audience -Headline of the day- "Only 1.38 percent of Fox News' primetime viewers are African-American." Howard Dean caused a minor outrage flareup when he accused FOX News of being racist. This wouldn't have been news at all, since it's like saying water's wet, but Howard went and said it on FOX News. This was, of course, the worst thing ever... Or the most obvious thing ever. I guess it depends on whether or not you're FOX News. Dean got a little backup for his claim from a likely source -- the facts. While researching an article for the New York Times, Brian Stelter twitterpated a tidbit of data he'd found: African-Americans made up just 1.38% of FOX's primetime audience. Which is weird, because Glenn ...
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I put Obama critics in seven groups: Demented, Divisive, Dutiful, Discerning, Disillusioned, Disappointed, and Dedicated. (Of course it had to be an alliteration.) Note: The links are representative statements within each group, not a profile of the people themselves. While I am satisfied with the broad categories here, I didn't want to slice the political bologna too thin. The examples are intended to be representative, not inclusive. So hopefully you will add to the examples and possibly suggest other groups. The Demented are a large chunk of the Teabaggers, all the birthers, anyone who equates Obama with Hitler, all those who accuse him of hating America and being a racist, and so on.They are the newest and noisiest group that ...
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We’ve all had it with them. They took a supermajority in the Senate, and they tied it in knots. Somehow, the election of 2008 wasn’t enough, as it was decided that 39 or 40 Rushpubliscums (with the help of their equally scummy comrades, like Ben(edict) Nelson and Blanche Lincolnocon) would control the business of the entire Senate. Does anyone remember back a few years ago, when Frist was threatening a “nucular option” because he couldn’t push Chimpy’s radical wingnut chopices theough the Senate to the Federal Bench? Compared to now, the Senate was a whirlwind of legislative activity THEN. Then, of course, it wasn’t good enough for the hypocritical Rushpubliscums, who NOW use the exact same tactics to tie up just about EVERY ...
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