The Liberal Doomsayer My blog deals primarily with national politics in the U.S. as well as, on occasion, local politics in Pennsylvania. From time to time, I may have something to say about sports and entertainment as well. I try to interpret information that shapes the news and provide context to current events. I am definitely left of center politically, but as far as I'm concerned, neither major party is perfect. Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 27 0 62 5011

Articles from The Liberal Doomsayer

Where The Rubber Meets The Road (12/21/07) 2007-12-21 16:17:00 As reported in last Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer, here is how Philadelphia-area members of Congress were recorded on major roll-call votes last week.(By the way, it seems that the Inky is now going to save space by not mentioning the names of our elected representatives unless they vote no or don't show up for a vote - must be a cost-cutting measure.)HouseIntelligence budget: In a 222-199 vote, the House approved the conference report on an estimated $48 billion fiscal 2008 budget for the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies.A yes vote was to pass HR 2082.All Philadelphia-area Democrats voted yes. All area Republicans voted no.More information is available here.Defense budget: The House approved, 370-49, the conference report on a bill authorizing a $696.3 billion military budget for fiscal 2008, including nearly $190 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.A yes vote was to pass HR 1585.All Philadelphia-area representatives voted for the bill, except Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.), who vote ...

Doomsy's Do-Gooders And Dregs (2007 - Pt.1) 2007-12-21 12:28:00 Yep, it's the time for "year-end" lists once again, and I'd better start getting this wrapup for 2007 together because I have a lot of stuff, and I hope you enjoy it; it will probably take me up to New Years Eve to get to it all, so here goes.(Probably unacknowledged hat tips to Atrios, The Daily Kos and others - sorry about that).Money-Grubbing Jurist Of The YearThat would be Hangin' Judge J.R., who complained that he wasn't making enough money as Chief Justice, pulling in what he thought was a paltry $165K a year (here).The "OK, Falwell's Gone - Time For You To Take The Hint" CitationPat Robertson said a terrorist attack would take place this year here (only a few days left to go; geez, I thought only the Dems supported al Qaeda - smirk).Do Gooder Of The Year NomineesThe two FCC commissioners appointed by Dems, Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps, for supporting a Net Neutrality provision in the AT&T-BellSouth merger deal here.Dregs Of The Year NomineeFCC Chairman Kevin Mar ...

Maybe Guns Are Worse After All, Smerky 2007-12-20 17:48:00 This quote from Michael Smerconish appears here…Single-parent house- holds pose more of a threat to safety than firearms.This was such a cosmically stupid observation that it has stuck with me all this time, and will continue to do so I’m sure.With that in mind, I’d like to present this story that states the following……new research overturns a commonly held belief that families fractured by divorced parents become inferior havens for children compared with stable homes."My findings that parenting practices are unrelated to divorce appear to fly in the face of accepted wisdom," said Lisa Strohschein, a sociologist at the University of Alberta in Canada.Some divorced couples may overcompensate for a split-up by focusing more attention on their kids, which could partially explain why divorced and married households scored similar child-caring marks.Now I have a question with this right away because 5,000 kids from two-parent households were involved in the survey, with only 200 ...

A Note On The 110th 2007-12-20 14:02:00 First the corporate media narrative from The Robertses (here, in a column about Iran, and I would say the right-wing outcry in response to the latest NIE saying they’re not building a bomb has been fairly venomous - another lesson for we in the progressive "blogosphere")…The Bush Administration, backed by allies in Israel and Europe, is trying hard to spread an unwelcome message: Don’t take the good news about Iran seriously.They make a compelling case, but a lot of folks don’t want to listen, not at holiday time, not when a weary and dispirited Washington has so much bad news on its plate. Even Republicans can’t wait for Bush to leave town. America’s costly commitment to Iraq seems endless. The housing market is tanking. Congress is useless. Lots of tunnels, not much light.I can think of at least two columnists who are pretty “useless” also, by the way.However, I thought this news report on the 110th as they depart was pretty even handed, though; yes, they capitulated ...

No "Mo" From Holy Joe 2007-12-20 13:10:00 Before I get to the main subjects of this post (Senator Honor and Virtue and the cretin pictured and referenced in the title), I’d like to take a minute and dissect this blog post from Matt Bai of The New York Times in which he starts out discussing “sock puppetry” (i.e., someone online masquerading as an impartial observer though they actually support a candidate – I had to relearn that myself some time back), but then takes some random reader questions…Diane Montana says: I just spent a week in Iowa, and unlike Mr. Bai, I did get a sense of what Iowans are thinking. How? I asked them. Health care and a big distrust of Washington is on everybody’s lips. Iowans are fairly mild mannered, but there is much frustration and anger there. And they are not big on gossip. They would prefer to talk about policy.Why didn’t I think of that? Actually, Diane, we reporters talk to lots and lots of voters, but only the less industrious of us would try to pass that off as a good sampling ...

It's "Elephant (Poop) In The Room" Day! 2007-12-20 11:31:00 (A reference to the title of Sen. Scumbag’s column in The Philadelphia Inquirer…).It looks like Little Ricky witnessed “The Mittster”’s speech on faith, religion and why he secretly wants to be a Baptist as well as a Mormon based on this Philadelphia Inquirer column of Ricky’s today, as ponderous and uninteresting of a literary byproduct as you can imagine.My limited tolerance for vapidity and egomania as well as current holiday shopping requirements do not permit me the time and opportunity to properly dissect this steaming heap of fecal matter, but I’ll focus on two cringingly obvious samples of Santorum’s screed that merit a response...Romney's speech was thoughtful and courageous. Unlike John F. Kennedy in 1960, he didn't cop out and say his faith does not matter.Now we all know that Santorum didn’t even bother to read the speech I posted about here, the one in which JFK said “I believe in a president whose religious views are his own private affair,” “I b ...

Wednesday Political Stuff 2007-12-19 21:55:00 As we watch this compilation of "Faux News" nonsense concerning John Edwards and Barack Obama, I would ask that you remember that FDR once said, "I welcome their hatred," and I'm sure you know who the "they" was that he was referring to......and speaking of the "pin head," here's a seasonal message from the Edwards campaign. ...

Wednesday Videos 2007-12-19 17:41:00 Major technical difficulties for your humble narrator today, but I hope to be back to the blogging thing tomorrow.In the meantime, please enjoy "Christmas At The Zoo," by The Flaming Lips......and Celebrity Bric-A-Brac Theater's "The First Christmas." ...

Tuesday Videos 2007-12-18 22:53:00 Black Francis ("Captain Pasty"; by the time you think about it, it's over)......Happy Birthday to Keith Richards ("Dead Flowers," performed with "The Lost Highwaymen" introduced by Vince Vaughn)......and now, seasonal stuff; Dolores O'Riordan of The Cranberries with Westlife ("The Little Drummer Boy," from 2001 at The Vatican)......and the second-from-the-original Christmas episode of "South Park" with Santa vs. Jesus (all kinds of bad words here; I think the subtitles actually make it funnier). ...

Tuesday Political Stuff 2007-12-18 22:49:00 "Falafel Boy" is K.O.'s "Worst Person In The World" today...again (God, what an awful thing to do to a vegetable starch product - #4 here, for those of you keeping score at home)...(My vote, though, goes to Kevin Martin for this.)...and "The Pap Attack" tells us exactly what Chris Dodd fought against along with all of us in our opposition to granting telecomm immunity. ...

John Edwards - The Movie 2007-12-18 10:10:00 Yeah yeah, I know, but I thought this was kind of neat - oh and, by the way... ...

All Hail "Doddmania"! 2007-12-18 08:17:00 I support John Edwards of course, but Chris Dodd stands tall right now for this (h/t Atrios). ...

Monday Holiday Stuff 2007-12-17 22:51:00 The Ronettes ("Sleigh Ride"; another nice home made You Tube video - can't wait for that rematch of Phil Spector v. the people of the state of California next year, by the way)......and a punk "White Christmas" (seriously, people, take it easy, OK?)Both of these tunes were recorded by Arthur Fiedler of The Boston Pops, by the way, who was born on this day. ...

The Next Wave Of Offshore Programmers 2007-12-17 22:36:00 In today’s world news, file this under “Bedtime for Bharat” (with Vivek Paul playing the role of “The Gipper,” I’m sure; hey, if they could write the complete works of Shakespeare, as the legend goes, then what's a few lines of C++ or Javascript?).God, and that poor mayor died when he fell off a balcony fighting them; as George Clooney so memorably told Harvey Keitel in "From Dusk Till Dawn," "life really sticks it in and breaks it off sometimes." ...

Smerky Serenades "Senator Civility" 2007-12-17 22:11:00 In yesterday’s Philadelphia Inquirer, Michael Smerconish brought us the following here…This was (Arlen) Specter as Pennsylvania elder statesman, anxious to deliver a message about the need for civility and compromise, not shrillness and contempt. He spoke like an ideological moderate fed up with the left-right extremism too often seen on the split screens of America today. And he thought the future should have more of the camaraderie so evident in New York City that night."The importance of courtesy and civility is critical at all levels - international negotiations, national, state and local government. This weekend is exactly the kind of time when we should all reflect on how much we have in common and how much harder we should try to get along."And then came this key line:"If you can lift a glass together with your colleague from across the aisle on a Saturday night here in New York, you can lift your pen with that same colleague across the hall on Monday morning in Philadelphia ...