Compassionate conservatives and the crucible of fire

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Democrats have facetiously said that Republicans think that the rich don't have enough money and the poor have too much. But the more I think I about modern Republicanism, the more I think that the statement it is literally true. Republicans believe that the poor are too well off. The modern Republican Party honestly yearns for a cleansing fire of misery and pain to sweep the land. They believe that the nation's problems are largely due to the fact that the poor are living in relative comfort as a result of the overall affluence of our society. America is the victim of its own success and has become a weak and lazy country slouching toward calamity. ...

Fox News Performs Rare Triple Face Palm

Fox News out did itself yesterday and not in a good way.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans watched a man shoot himself in the head live on television on Friday as Fox News broadcast the final moments of a car chase in Arizona. The cable news channel was playing live footage of the pursuit when the suspect leapt out of his car and began running away down a dirt track. As producers and viewers watched, the man staggered away from his vehicle, ran a short distance into the grass and then produced a gun. Shephard Smith, Fox News's afternoon anchor, was providing a running commentary as the suspect lurched away from the vehicle and viewers could hear his producers gasping in horror as the man shot himself. Mr Smith shouted "get off it, get off it" as it became clear the man intended to kill himself but the station did not cut away in time and broadcast the suspect crumpling to the ground.

Saturday Open Thread [9.29.12]

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"Many of the well-known Ohio Republicans I interviewed offered their blunt assessments only after they were guaranteed complete anonymity. That is often the Faustian bargain of political journalism in 2012: robotic talking points on the record or something resembling honesty with no names attached. The reason, though, that I am emphasizing the don't-quote-me part of the equation is that I was stunned by the vehemence of the thumbs-down-on-Mitt verdict. All but conceding the state to Obama, these Republicans were offering what may be the biggest rejection of Ohio since Philip Roth wrote Goodbye Columbus."

A Couple of Cell Phone Pics from Last Night’s Gilligan Gala

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... and some tibits from last night's honoring of the retiring Speaker of the House, Bob Gilligan: Congressman Carney gave the Speaker a Congressional Recognition, and remarked about how Gilligan gave him his first job as a Legislative Fellow. Senator Coons remarked that Gilligan was a friend, a role model and a mentor. Vice President Biden said that Gilligan was his county councilman back in the day, that he has been a state leader, and that Gilligan proved that in Delaware you're never out of reach. Vice President Biden concluded, "I'll see you at the beach." Mike Castle said that Gilligan would always beat the best people Castle could find to run against him, so Castle finally gave up.

Romney: The Master Debater?

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For years the Republicans have told all that will listen (Fox News and MSM) that Obama's addiction to the teleprompter shows that he can't think on his feet. But now the debates are upon us and the Republicans are changing their story,

The Polling Report [9.29.12]

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Hey, Republicans. We have been where you are now. The year was 2004, and we liberals could not believe that President Bush was leading John Kerry, a candidate that most of us liberals did not like but had embraced in what turned out to be a vain effort to defeat President Bush. We sought out any argument that proved that the polls were false. Those arguments were that the pollsters were sampling too many Republicans. Sound familiar? And how did that election turn out? The polls were right, much to our chagrin. The polls are right now. President Obama is winning and winning convincingly. Indeed, according to Nate Silver, there is now more of a chance that Barack Obama will win by a landslide than Mitt Romney will win at all. There is one basic fact that Republicans now and we liberals in 2004 ignore when we discounted polls: polling companies want to be right because that's their business model. If they are accurate, they get more business from media organizations and candidates. Remember, media organizations and candidates and party organizations and other organizations hire and pay polling companies and institutes to perform the polls and get accurate results. If they are skewing polls for reasons other than being accurate, then they would lose money. You should understand this Republicans. It's free market capitalism. Now, there are some polling organizations whose business model is not to be accurate but to drive narratives in the media. Rasmussen is one such example. They get paid not to be right, but to be favorable to one side. So Republicans, as always, you are so very good at projection. The thing you decry is the thing you rely on.