Archive for February, 2010
VA GOP Legislator: Disabled Children Are God’s Punishment
The rhetoric of anti-abortion groups is often a bit incoherent. They believe that children are both blessings and punishment.This statement was particularly vile: State Delegate Bob Marshall of Manassas says disabled children are God’s punishment to women who have aborted their first pregnancy. He made that statement Thursday at a press conference to oppose state […]
Monday Open Thread
USA! USA! USA! How about that hockey game? The US men’s hockey team beat Canada for the first time since 1960. This caused a bit of strife in my household, but don’t worry everyone came out o.k. and no one had to sleep on the couch. Rick Santorum hates gay people more than he loves […]
Help Me Understand What This Year’s CPAC Straw Poll Means
I’m really not sure what to make of Ron Paul’s victory in CPAC’s straw poll. And, make no mistake, it was a pretty big victory. Nate breaks it down: But the most revealing result from CPAC 2010, one that didn’t surprise me but ought to wake up national political reporters, is this one: Ron Paul […]
How the Media Gets Suckered by the Media Lobbying Complex
Sebastian Jones writes an excellent piece of investigative journalism — The Media-Lobbying Complex — documenting the various (and many) undisclosed conflicts of interest that seem to power much of the media narrative: President Obama spent most of December 4 touring Allentown, Pennsylvania, meeting with local workers and discussing the economic crisis. A few hours later, […]
Bayh-partisanship: Reform Congress
Evan Bayh may be a mediocre legislator but since he’s announced his retirement from the Senate, he’s been a strong voice for Senate reform. He wrote an op-ed that appeared yesterday in the NYT on the subject. He correctly diagnoses the problem with money in politics and the “permanent campaign:” Perhaps from this starting point, […]
Healthcare NOW!
On Friday, I was able to leave work a little early and visit a healthcare rally held in Newark. The event was a stop on an 8 day march from Philadelphia to Washington. The march is called The March for Melanie in honor of an activist from Philadelphia, Melanie Shouse, that recently lost her battle with breast cancer.
Melanie’s death certificate certainly said that the cause of death was breast Cancer, but it was just as much caused by a lack of healthcare.
Bipartisanship In Action! — Both Schwarzenegger and Rendell Think the GOP is Playing Politics Over the Stimulus
They were both on ABC This Week this morning and Schwarzenegger was particularly pointed in his criticism. He might as well have been describing specifically the behavior of Mike Castle showing up for every stunt check event from ARRA in Delaware:
Innovating to Zero
This is a talk by Bill Gates at the TED conference discussing the need and the challenges of getting enough renewable energy to power not only those who are energy rich now, but those who need to be energy rich. He does a nice job here, I think, in contextualizing the problem, then spends a good deal of time talking about Terrapower.
Bill Maher — Teabaggers are a Cult
Awesome. This is from the New Rules segment this week: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCr6LdGAPl0[/youtube]
Tips on Handling Climate Change Deniers
Speaks for itself, I think. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5nNbPWYHOA[/youtube]
Weekend Open Thread
Happy weekend everyone! I hope you’re enjoying your relatively snow-free weekend. Are you ready for an open thread? Let’s roll! Tiger Woods has started his apology tour. One blogger put together a handy flowchart to determine if that apology is intended for you. My answer was “no.” Remember the miraculous story of the man who […]
UPDATED: Schools + Student Issued Laptops + Webcams = Spying At School and At Home
UPDATE 02/20/10: This isn’t looking good for the school district. District spokesman Doug Young acknowledged yesterday that officials had remotely activated computer webcams 42 times, but only in an attempt to recover missing or stolen laptops, and never to spy on students. He said families had not been notified about the possibility that the cameras […]
Liar Liar Pants On Fire
Mike Castle has been on the defensive lately. He’s become the posterboy for Republican hypocrisy, especially the “trash and grab” strategy of trashing the stimulus while showing up to take credit for projects created by the stimulus. He comes off as quite defensive in this WHYY interview: Castle also defended himself against accusations that, while […]
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