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October 2013 Archives
Gail Collins has an interesting column about why it is that the Republicans have lost it over Obamacare. There are many reasons for the hysteria, of course -- it's one...
Over at In These Times, Michelle Chen reports about an engine of economic inequality you may not have considered before: taxpayer-funded government contracts. She writes: The progressive think tank Demos...
We've heard about all the political madness this week, and all the needless pain and suffering that's being inflicted on the nation by the lemmings in suicide vests. But there...
I am hardly the first person to point this out, but in the context of this week's political madness, it bears repeating: it would be difficult to exaggerate the role...
"Jolene" is a classic Dolly Parton song that's been covered by everyone from Patti Smith to Miley Cyrus. And no wonder: it's one of her most powerful recordings. But then...
So the week drags to a close. Somebody let me know if there's a breakthrough in Washington this weekend. I don't plan to watch CSPAN. Go Dawgs and Go Braves!...
I've been wondering when it might sink into the DC consciousness that at some point the federal government shutdown will start affecting grants-in-aid to states and localities, and the essential...
So long as House Republicans maintain the initiative in the current fiscal fight, we're all living in Robert Costa's world. His latest missive from Boehnerland (entitled "The Emerging Offer") suggests...
In another fine item at Wonkblog today, Ezra Klein interviews University of Washington political scientist Christopher Parker, who's done considerable research on the Tea Party, and particularly its attitudes towards...
Maybe it's the shutdown news tedium, or the first travel-free weekend in a while, but I've got a really bad case of Friday Fever today. Can't wait to get moving...
After days and days of MSM analysts blaming the government shutdown on "partisan gerrymandering" by Republicans that insulated their House members from public opinion, somebody had to point out the...
There may be deeper dynamics of the current fiscal fight that are eluding me or that only Politico-style digging in the dirt can expose. But Jonathan Chait sure seems to...
It's unusual that a sitting governor's comments are so inappropriate that they fluster an interviewer, but clearly, PA Gov. Tom Corbett is himself unusual. I'm beginning to understand why this...
As a follow-on to the discussion of the disproportionate number of people needing health insurance living in states governed by Obamacare- and Medicaid-hating Republicans, National Journal's Ron Brownstein offers a...
Ta-Nehisi Coates has been asking some troubled and troubling questions in the wake of a New York Times analysis of Obamacare showing that the new program could actually increase the...
So Republicans made an attack on Obamacare the central justification for a government-wide shutdown on the very day open enrollment for the new exchanges proved what an incredible demand there...
It's the 56th anniversary of the launching of Sputnik, so unavoidably we're going to have us another day of music about outer space. Fortunately, there's a lot of material to...
WaPo is confirming that the unidentified woman at the center of today's bizarre and scary incident at the Capitol was indeed killed by police gunfire. No news about motive just...
Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli really, really didn't need a federal government shutdown. He was already trailing Terry McAuliffe in every recent poll. He already had a questionable ticket and...
The ever-insightful John Judis of TNR has a sweeping analysis of the origins and significance of our particular moment of political history that you don't have to agree with entirely...
It's not clear whether the reference to "Calvinball"--that fabulous game in the cartoon strip Calvin & Hobbs where the rules are made up by the players on the fly--in this...
This is breaking news that's not very clear at the moment, but here's the latest from WaPo: The U.S. Capitol Police sent out this message a short time ago: "SHELTER...
It's good to be home, albeit after a five-hour flight and two-hour car drive in the wee hours. Here are some midday treats baked up right here in California: *...
So U.S. Rep. Martin Stutzman (R-IN) has become not only a poster boy for alleged Republican "nihilism," but a punching bag for the president: President Barack Obama didn’t mention the...
The dishonesty and cynicism underlying the House GOP's new tactic of passing "piecemeal" appropriations for very popular programs and then acting like it's Democrats who thought of this whole shutdown...
As part of my "No, They're Not Nihilists" morning, I'd point to Ross Douthat's latest column, which squarely identifies another source of conservative frustration and disagreement on how to achieve...
If the abnormal-psychology analysis of "nihilists" or blundering terrorists is the wrong way to look at what House Republicans are up to right now, what's the right way? I'd say...
The rapidly spreading progressive CW about what House Republicans are doing is that they are "nihilists" who have blundered into an impasse and have no clue how to get out....
I'll be featuring some of the music of Elmore James today, as recorded by various folk. Reflecting the likely trajectory of the day's news, here are the Allman Brothers performing...
Here at the most distant gate available at ATL, preparing for a five-hour flight, I'm rarin' to go home. But here are some final items of this maddening day: *...
I guess the good thing about having a Democratic president who is occasionally too friendly to bankers is that he can talk to them about keepiing their Republican friends from...
Today's deep dive article is by Wonkblog's Dylan Matthews, wherein he makes the case that the government shutdown is James Madison's fault. No kidding. But I'm less interested in Matthews'...
As I've indicated earlier, my experience of the government shutdown saga has been affected by the fact that I'm with family members who pretty much keep MSNBC on in the...
There's a lot of confusing talk surrounding the current fiscal fight in Washington about "partisanship" and "hyperpartisanship" being the culprit, with or without the false equivalence premise that people in...
Delta Airlines willing, I'm headed back to California tonight, and returning to my regular blogging schedule and machinery. Wish I could make a similar return to normality in the news....
Marvellng like all of us at the obsession of conservatives with the destruction or disabling of the Affordable Care Act, TAP's Paul Waldman looks and thinks ahead: The question is,...
The heavy hand of a freshman senator named Ted Cruz on the tiller of the U..S. House of Representatives has justifiably drawn a lot of attention the last couple of...
So at the risk of getting ahead of myself here just a bit, the appropriations crisis is merging with the debt limit crisis. And as everybody's favorite source for GOP...
The juxtaposition of manufactured crises over appropriations and the debt limit wasn't the only story yesterday, of course: there's the juxtaposition of both manufactured crises with the real-life beginning of...
So with just sixteen days left before the Treasury Department's October 17 deadline for raising the debt limit, the possibility of separate dispositions of two separate Republican hostage-taking incidents has...
Another ominous day of Shutdown Week, perhaps turning into Default Month. Thanks, GOP. Here's Peter Gabriel with an appropriate musical theme: "Digging In the Dirt."...
Sorry, folks: I thought I had published a Day's End four hours ago before rushing out for a family dinner, but it seems to have disappeared. Ugh. Well, I do...
Since I've indulged in some less-than-cheery speculation much of the day about how the shutdown crisis might unfold over time, I'll close today's substantive blogging with a happy fantasy presented...
Totally aside from what happens in the government shutdown and debt limit battle in terms of winners and losers (like most rational observers, I figure the GOP will eventually have...
After worrying about the impact of false equivalence reporting of the government shutdown saga this morning (which I more succinctly described in a tweet as "false equivalence promoted by high-exposure...
I've been sitting around watching MSNBC this morning (in the company of my brother, an IRS employee who can't go to work today), and it's obvious the shutdown will last...
Well, you'd figure this would be Politico's kind of day, and sure enough, there's plenty of fun stuff to read in the Insider's Daily this day. The latest is actually...
If you accept my premise that false equivalence is the main weapon Republicans have in their government shutdown ambivalence, then the morning headlines fingered by Think Progress' Rebecca Leber represent...
My very favorite piece of unintentional comedy today (among many nominees) is a Tal Kopan piece at Politico channeling Chris Christie's macho posturing about how he'd solve the government shutdown...
One of the fascinating little wrinkles of the government shutdown saga is the sudden decision late last night by House Republicans to request a House-Senate conference over the CR--something the...
If you follow the back-and-forth on the tube today, the thing to watch is the GOP effort to surf false equivalence about the government shutdown Republicans have provoked in order...
A lot of the talk from progressives (and I plead guilty to doing this myself on occasion) about the government shutdown and/or the impending possibility of a debt default suggests...
As we enter a period when a government shutdown could morph right into a debt default, it's probably a good day for some Apocalyptica music. Here's "Harvester of Sorrow:"...
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