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Gail Collins in the New York Times:
Pretend you’re the Republican leadership in a smallish state with an open United States Senate seat. The opposition is running a popular, longtime officeholder whose sense of inevitability was shaken by recent revelations that he had referred to himself as a Vietnam War veteran when he isn’t one.
Your own options are:
A) A well regarded former congressman who is a decorated Vietnam War veteran.
B) A political novice who made her fortune building up an entertainment business that specialized in blood, seminaked women and scripted subplots featuring rape, adultery and familial violence. In which the candidate, her husband and children played themselves. Also, the family yacht is named Sexy Bitch.
Well, obviously, you go for the yacht owner.
Indeed, a new Quinnipiac poll shows Richard Blumenthal (D) leads Linda McMahon (R) by 25 points in the U.S. Senare race, 56% to 31%. Yeah, this is a safe Democratic seat.
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David Anderson (and it was him, this time I checked) actually makes sense:
The International Red Cross is a non-partisan, non-sectarian, impartial humanitarian organization. They were established to bring humanitarian aid to all nations. There is some controversy about the fact that they taught first aid to the Taliban terrorists recently. First Aid training is not some secret that changes the war. It is available to everyone. The International Red Cross has always helped people who were injured on both sides of the battlefield. It has helped people in disasters in almost every nation. […] I do not understand the controversy.
There has always been a certain naivete in David about how truly insane the Insane Right is. Because, deep down, David Anderson is a religious man, which I respect him for, and I think he believes all conservatives come to their conservative opinions like he has. But I don’t think he realizes that some on his side truly want to kill all Muslims everywhere on this planet, no matter if they are actually terrorists or not. And if they don’t want to kill them, they want to deprive them of all human dignity and all rights. And if they don’t want to do that, then they certainly view all Muslims as terrorists, and thus, the enemy. Couple that with a lack of compassion, a belief that the Geneva Convention is a quaint little thing, a belief that war crimes are not war crimes if America commits them, a belief that torture is American, and you get those who feel it is a controversial for the International Red Cross to train the Taliban to treat their wounded.
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The state’s driver’s education program is now being examined for what it costs taxpayers. State Sen. Michael Katz has proposed using the money spent on teaching high-schoolers how to drive on other teaching activities. Let the school tax dollars be used for math, science and other topics.
We agree. But we don’t think driver’s education should be cut. It is the most efficient way to teach teenagers how to drive safely, an important goal for all of us. Why not move the funding from taxes to a fee? Having safer teenage drivers lowers everyone’s car insurance rates. Why not use the insurance system to pay for driver’s education? Add a small amount to every car insurance bill to pay for all students — in public and nonpublic schools — can learn to drive safely. The General Assembly should authorize a study of the proposal. If it is doable, then the state can save the program.
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And now the walk back begins. Larry Sabato:
“Unlike some analysts, we have never once predicted that Republicans would win enough new House seats to take control of the chamber. They may well do so in November due to the factors with which we’re all familiar (a bad economy, sagging presidential popularity, public concern over spending and debt, and so on). But in our eyes, there has been and still is insufficient data to suggest an impending turnover.”