Date: 2010-02-09 18:54 Subject: Republicans Behaving Badly: the Tea Party Security: Public

Exhibit 1:

"Capping the first full day of the meeting, right-wing instigator Joseph Farah spent much of his dinner speech questioning whether President Obama was born in Hawaii and casting doubt on whether the president was legitimately elected.

"The media, the politicians ... all say, no, it's all been settled. I say, if it's been settled show us the birth certificate. Simple," Farah's said, as his remarks were cheered by the roughly 600 activists gathered in Nashville for the event."

This guy may have spent the last year in a room with no TV or internet.

Exhibit 2:

"Tim Tancredo, the opening speaker at the first National Tea Party Convention called President Obama a "committed Socialist ideologue" who was elected because "we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote."

You know, like we had in the 50's in the deep south.

As a democrat, I would like to see Sarah Palin and the Tea Party take over the republican party.

Date: 2010-01-26 18:54 Subject: Borowitz - Leaked excerpt from State of the Union Security: Public

"My fellow Americans, let's be clear: if you wear your pants on the ground, and your hat to the side, you run the risk of looking like a fool," Mr. Obama will say.

So far, early GOP reaction to the President's speech has been muted, if comments by House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) are any indication.

"Quite frankly, we were opposed to pants on the ground until he was," Rep. Boehner said. "Now we're for them."

http://www.borowitzreport.com/index.aspx

Date: 2010-01-21 09:18 Subject: Are taxes too high? Security: Public

Here are two graphs that help answer the question. The first one shows the "misery index" which is the sum of corporate, individual, sales, social security and value added taxes. The US appears twice in the chart, once slightly above the median (New York) and once below the median (Texas).

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_wNnxpE79lMQ/Sf31CbEf58I/AAAAAAAAASM/Y_k-ij7dwBw/s1600-h/misery+index+taxes+chart.gif

The second one shows the historical top marginal tax rate:

http://www.truthandpolitics.org/top-rates-graph.php

The graph ends around 2002, but it should be clear that for many years the top rate was 70% or higher. By historical standards the current rate is quite low.

Conservatives would have us believe that high taxes are removing incentives for business formation and expansion. If so, the problem is (1) less here than in many other countries, and (2) less than it has been historically. I don't buy it.

Date: 2010-01-07 12:05 Subject: How to commit political suicide Security: Public

The Huffington post reports the results of the latest polls in CT:

"More than 80 percent (81 percent) of Democrats now say they disapprove of the job Lieberman is doing with only 14 percent approving. Among Republicans, 48 percent disapprove of the senator with just 39 approving. And among independents, 61 percent disapprove of Lieberman's antics with just 32 percent approving.

"It all adds up to a 25% approval rating with 67% of his constituents giving him bad marks," the study concludes. "Barack Obama's approval rating with Connecticut Republicans is higher than Lieberman's with the state's Democrats."

"Lieberman is not up for re-election until 2012 and there is some speculation as to whether he will mount another bid. If he does, there will be plenty of questions raised about who exactly constitutes his base. It's hard to imagine Democrats in the state willingly turning over their nomination to the man who spurned them on the president's chief legislative item (in addition to campaigning for John McCain in the 2008 presidential election). But Republicans, who are well aware of Lieberman's largely progressive stance on social issues, aren't necessarily enamored with him as well."

Date: 2010-01-03 20:54 Subject: Who Knew? Security: Public

I've read a lot about the WWII era, and this is the first story I've ever come across about female Nazi sympathizers ("Blackshirt women") in England during the war. I knew there were Blackshirts, but I assumed they were all men -- surely women would have too much sense to be involved with that kind of shit.

Date: 2009-11-20 13:15 Subject: Kansas Coach Mark Mangino should steer clear of Peru Security: Public Tags: going to hell

http://tidedruid.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/mangino.jpg

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/11/20/fat.dead.humans.peru/index.html

Date: 2009-11-13 08:00 Subject: What to make of this? Security: Public

A few weeks ago I pointed out that high smoking rates appear to be concentrated in republican states.

Now I see this map from the NY times, which shows that the highest concentration of uninsured children are in republican controlled states.

I'm not sure what to make of this. I guess it means the republicans have become the party of the poor (because of the high rates of uninsured) and stupid (because of the high smoking rates). But is it possible republican policies are somehow responsible for these negative outcomes? The fit seems too exact to be a coincidence, but the direction of causality isn't clear.

Edit: In any case, it's pretty clear that republican states are among those that would benefit the most from health care reform in general and specifically from a public options. Republicans seem to sacrificing the interests of their constituents on the altar of political ideology.

Date: 2009-11-12 07:48 Subject: One down, three to go Security: Public

For some reason the background in the O'reilly picture made me think of evwhore.

Date: 2009-10-22 19:30 Subject: Proof that smoking kills brain cells Security: Public

In the first column, percentage of adult smokers, ranked from highest (Kentucky) to lowest. In the second column, percent voting for McCain in 2008. States won by McCain are coded red.

Date: 2009-10-20 08:03 Subject: Performance report Security: Public

Since I called the market bottom on March 12, my motley collection of individual stocks have done well:



I'm thinking this might be a good time to take some money off the table, esp. on Dow and GGWPQ.

Date: 2009-10-12 07:08 Subject: Heisman Watch Security: Public

The three candidates for the Heisman this year are Tim Tebow, Colt McCoy and Jimmy Clausen. Tebow is the front runner in the ESPN experts' poll, but Clausen has gone from "not on the map" in the preseason polls to third place now. He has a lot of momentum.

However, I would like to suggest a dark horse candidate. Barack Obama. True, he isn't actually a player and hasn't completed a pass all year, but his obvious athletic ability and his potential to make an impact should make him a clear choice for the award.

Date: 2009-09-12 18:57 Subject: Space station Security: Public

Great animation of the international space station. I had no idea it had gotten so big.

Date: 2009-08-30 09:24 Subject: An example of Media Bias for those who don't know it when they see it Security: Public

"In January 2006, when Newsweek wrote up the indictments of Jack Abramoff, the GOP kingpin lobbyist, the magazine's headline read: 'A Washington Tidal Wave: Members of Congress rushed to give back money,' suggesting the influence peddling scandal was a bipartisan 'Washington' problem. The Newsweek article stressed the public would likely 'remain appropriately skeptical of both parties.' Time used the same kid glove approach: 'Jack Abramoff built a power network using the rich and naive. Washington may pay the price.' The Washington Post falsely reported Abramoff had 'made substantial campaign contributions to both major parties,' and NBC's Katie Couric insisted, 'Democrats took money ... from Jack Abramoff, too.' All four MSM organizations dutifully mouthed GOP spin about a bipartisan scandal and ignored the plain fact that not one Democrat had accepted tainted contributions from Abramoff, not one Democrat had been indicted, and not one Democrat was under investigation for accepting Abramoff money."

--Eric Boehlert

Date: 2009-08-28 18:04 Subject: The Chinese translation of my book is now available. Security: Public

Now if I can just get everyone in China to buy a copy, I should be set for life.

Date: 2009-08-18 08:47 Subject: A pattern forms Security: Public

Last week schmengie and I had a discussion about whether the right was more likely to precipitate violence than the left: I said yes, he said both side have nuts capable of violence.

In the last few days, some evidence in favor of my point of view:

Man shows up at health-care protest with assault rifle.

Protester at town hall with 9mm pistol.

True, just being armed doesn't mean they are ready to open fire. But violence is more likely than if they weren't armed.

Date: 2009-08-14 15:58 Subject: Second Chance Bullshit Security: Public

I'm not buying all the noise about Michael Vick "paying his debt to society" and "deserving a second chance." To me, a second chance is for when you have too much to drink and do something stupid. Or lose your temper and do something stupid. That is, for a momentary lapse of some kind.

Vick was involved in a criminal enterprise over several years of his own free will. His conduct was vile almost beyond measure. It is clear to me he is a bad person, not a good person who just made a mistake. I don't believe he deserves a second chance at all.

Apparently he's going to get one anyway. We'll see what he does with it.

Date: 2009-08-14 08:48 Subject: This used to be easi(er) Security: Public

Anyone know of a good way to transfer money form Full Tilt to Pokerstars?

Date: 2009-08-13 13:11 Subject: A modest proposal Security: Public

I think we've reached the point where we can't live together. By "we" I mean the conservative minority and the rest of us. There is no common ground for rational discussion, and there is the increasing likelihood of violent confrontation. My solution? Let's carve out a group of states, covering most of the midwest and most of the deep south, and designate it as "conservative America." The rest of the country would be "rational America." Conservative minorities from the rational states could all move to conservative America, where they could elect their own president and outlaw abortion, sex education, contraception, homosexuality, affirmative action, non-christian religion, taxation, welfare, medicare, medicaid and MSNBC. Non-conservatives in those states could move to "rational America" if they didn't approve of the conservative society.

I'm joking of course, because this could never happen. But it sure seems like there are such wide political divisions in our country and such little rational dialog that we might all be better off if it did.