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: 2 0 54 4452

Articles from The Liberal Doomsayer

One More Time On The 109th 2007-11-20 17:09:00 There was a whole bunch of nutty stuff in last Sunday’s New York Times, and as to be expected, it has already been covered by my “betters,” including Matthew Yglesias on the latest warmongering from Fred Kagan and Michael O’Hanlon envisioning “our feasible military options” in Pakistan (we have any?), and Shakesville’s “Space Cowboy” on Tom Friedman’s utterly deranged idea of putting Dick Cheney on the ticket with Barack Obama should he win the Democratic nomination for president.But since I tend to focus on the obscure stuff at least as much as anyone else, allow me to take note of the quote from Repug Sen. Jon Kyl that appeared in this Times story of Congress departing for a two-week holiday recess…Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate, said (Speaker Harry) Reid’s decision to ban amendments (related to immigration and taxation in the thus-stalled farm bill) was typical of the dismissive treatment toward Republicans that has soured the ...

"Flooded" With Hypocrisy 2007-11-20 15:28:00 It is absolutely, categorically ridiculous that New Orleans has lost out in the competition to host one of the three presidential candidate debates scheduled for next year (one vice-presidential candidates debate has been scheduled).As noted by Harry Shearer of HuffPo here (regarding the official explanation that NoLA is “not ready”)…The city has just hosted two back-to-back major conventions, it will host two major college football games within a week, including the BCS championship and, oh, by the way, apropos of controlled chaos, the city has easily and safely hosted two Mardi Gras events since Katrina. David Stern, president of the NBA, long since knew the importance of supporting the city's recovery, engineering the league's decision to hold next February's NBA All-Star Game in New Orleans. What is it the Presidential Debate Commission, and its associated pols, don't get about expressing solidarity with a city critically wounded by the malfeasance of the federal governme ...

Eddie’s Doing A Bang-Up Job Again 2007-11-20 11:47:00 The Philadelphia Inquirer tells us here that PA Governor Ed Rendell this morning……urged a legislative committee to grow a "backbone" and finally pass a package bills aimed at curbing gun violence."Those who argue that violence is a Philadelphia problem caused by judges, police and prosecutors who do not enforce the laws on the books are dead wrong," Rendell told the House Judiciary Committee shortly after 10."It's time for us to stand up and say enough," the governor added, pounding his first.…At the outset of his half-hour before the panel, Rendell stressed that he was not attempting to attack law-abiding gun owners."I don't come here to demonize anybody. I believe we have a strong and proud gun heritage in Pennsylvania. I believe hunting is a way of life for so many of our citizens," Rendell said. "If we seek to demonize anybody here...it is to demonize criminals who use our police for target practice, it's to demonize criminals who sell guns to felons and juveniles."Even be ...

Time To Clean Up The Pen 2007-11-20 10:35:00 I apologize for maligning livestock with this post, but I have this compulsion to be a moralistic scold from time to time, and it serves my purpose.This story in the New York Times today tells us…At halftime of the Jets’ home game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, several hundred men lined one of Giants Stadium’s two pedestrian ramps at Gate D. Three deep in some areas, they whistled and jumped up and down. Then they began an obscenity-laced chant, demanding that the few women in the gathering expose their breasts.When one woman appeared to be on the verge of obliging, the hooting and hollering intensified. But then she walked away, and plastic beer bottles and spit went flying. Boos swept through the crowd of unsatisfied men.This behavior is obviously reprehensible, but I just want to point something out based on this story (actually, it’s a headline only at this point since the AP story is archived). What the headline states is that the suicide rate of young girls in ...

Monday Videos 2007-11-19 22:46:00 Minus The Bear ("The Game Needs Me" - I tell myself that every day; some days I can believe it better than others)......and Happy Birthday to Warren "Pete" Moore of Smokey Robinson and The Miracles ("Going To A Go-Go" on the 1966 dance program "Hullabaloo," and as always, I'm not referring to that great blog with Digby and Tristero; would it surprise you to find out that every single dancer in this clip ended up working for the Republican National Committee?)And as long as I'm on the subject of music, I should note the passing last weekend of Philadelphia radio legend Hy Lit, who definitely was a formative influence for yours truly when it came to developing a taste in popular music (particularly songs in the era of the prior video). He had been sick and left WOGL last year I believe, and he will be missed. ...

Two CAP Ads 2007-11-19 22:43:00 So simple, but so accurate... ...

Still Snoozing On Edwards At The NYT 2007-11-19 17:27:00 Clark Hoyt, the public editor for the New York Times, owed up to the paper’s terrible record of covering John Edwards (sort of), though he did so in a backhanded way.I think it’s odd at the very least for Hoyt to tell us that "the old gray lady" is "doing a better job than it gets credit for" when it slights Edwards versus Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama (which Hoyt admits, though he does so at the end of the column).But to try and take back the high ground, so to speak, we have this from political editor in chief Richard Stevenson in Hoyt’s column...“I don’t track our coverage by quantity; in a qualitative sense, we’ve covered him pretty thoroughly, and there is more to come.”Oh, so you'll admit that there's "more to come" on Edwards? How magnanimous of you. Care to explain why the 10-state SEIU endorsement was ignored in your print edition, though noted here at The Caucus? I guess it got bumped by another "Edwards unelectability" polling story (and here’s another s ...

Bye, Fran 2007-11-19 15:26:00 This item from the CNN Political Ticker tells us that Bushco’s revolving turnstile continues with the departure of Fran Townshend, the “leading White House-based terrorism adviser” who (if the story is to be believed) will seek part-time private sector employment (and let’s not get too distraught here, shall we?).I think I was a little hard on Townshend in this post by questioning her intelligence, though her characterization of Osama bin Forgotten as “virtually impotent” remains one of the most grotesquely stupid remarks of the year.However, something I always wondered about was why Townshend got a pass when she stated here that the U.S. would attack Pakistan if it meant getting al Qaeda, but when Barack Obama said he would go after "high value" targets in that country a couple of weeks after Townshend here, he was pummeled but stood his ground (a moment of strength that his candidacy definitely needs to revisit as far as I’m concerned).And this New York Times story tell ...

More Taxing AMT Idiocy 2007-11-19 12:14:00 (Posting may be OK today or tomorrow, by the way, but it will slow up as the week goes on, particularly on Thursday of course.)Yesterday, President George W. Milhous Bush barked at the Democratic congress as follows (from here, regarding the Alternative Minimum Tax)…"Members of Congress must put political theater behind them, fix the AMT, and protect America's middle class from an unfair tax hike."And I should note, of course, that the link above is to an AP story that appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, so of course Dubya will be cast in the most favorable possible light. Also, this Courier Times story tells us that Patrick Murphy and the Democratic Congress has already proposed a fix for the AMT, but…The bill, however, was opposed by every House Republican and faces a White House veto threat due to a proposal in the Democrat's tax plan to offset lost revenue by more than doubling taxes on hedge-fund and private-equity fund managers. The new tax hike would require those manag ...

A Quick Callout on SCHIP BS 2007-11-18 14:24:00 The following letter appeared in the Bucks County Courier Times last Thursday; I'd answer it in print myself, but I'm already working on something else...The most recent display of dishonesty around healthcare reform is just too much to take! Congressman Patrick Murphy and Sens. Bob Casey and even Arlen Specter have all sunk to a new low as they sell us out and then hide behind "the children."Forcing this grotesque expansion of out-of-control government spending down our throats is unconscionable. Bush was absolutely right to veto the SCHIP expansion bill. It is more of the same from Congress: higher taxes and spending, and a blatant move toward socialized health care.SCHIP was meant for poor children, but our representatives are trying to expand the program to include adults, and kids whose parents make as much as $80,000 a year! Congress should not be redistributing money from poor smokers to families that can afford private health insurance.Ruining the entire healthcare system in ...

Friday Videos 2007-11-16 23:04:00 The White Stripes ("You Don't Know What Love Is" - I do so! I hope they didn't "break the bank" filming this, by the way)......Happy Birthday to Joe Leeway of The Thompson Twins ("Lay Your Hands On Me")......Happy Birthday also on Sunday to the one and only Graham Parker ("Passion Is No Ordinary Word" from "Squeezing Out Sparks" in the '70s; this clip aired in '93 I believe - a ton of great songs of his to choose from)......and Happy Birthday tomorrow to Harry Rushakoff of Concrete Blonde ("Joey," featuring lead singer and bassist Johnette Napolitano). ...

A Milestone In Red State History 2007-11-16 22:33:00 Oklahoma was established at the 46th state of the Union 100 years ago today, and as a tribute (?), here are the state's two senators in action.First, that ecological scholar Jim Inhofe asks former Vice President Al Gore a question at the hearing on the climate crisis held earlier this year and then tries to cut Gore off from answering, earning an appropriate slap-down from chair Barbara Boxer (albeit a genteel one, since we're talking about the U.S. Senate and no Repug is trying to impeach a Dem president - and by the way, Babs, what's doing with that Senate Ethics Committee anyway?)Next, we have Tom Coburn telling Tim Russert that, as a medical doctor, he can tell if someone is lying from their body language.So congratulations, Oklahomans, and go out and paint the town red; just don't engage in any activity with minors or livestock that could be self-incriminating in a court of law. Just show your state pride for all to see.(After watching those two yutzes, part of me wants us to ... History

Kill And Kill Again, Smerky! 2007-11-16 17:03:00 I’m extremely late with this post I know, but this CNN story about the Supreme Court halting the execution of a Florida child killer made me revisit the issue of the death penalty in this country (made even more timely by this Der Spiegel Online story today).And Michael Smerconish provided this commercial for same that was published on HuffPo last Sunday, which believe it or not was set up in the Sunday Inquirer as kind of a rebuttal to fellow freeper Jonathan Last who actually opposes the death penalty.Though I have had problems with Last, I have to admit that he made a principled argument in opposition here. He states, however, that “the only grounds on which an enduring argument can be made against capital punishment are moral grounds.”On the contrary, however, this link to the Death Penalty Information Center page tells us that, for New Jersey alone, the death penalty “has cost taxpayers $253 million since 1983, a figure that is over and above the costs that would have been ...

Where The Rubber Meets The Road (11/16/07) 2007-11-16 15:26:00 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.HouseBush veto override. In a 361-54 vote, the House reached the two-thirds majority required to override President Bush's Nov. 2 veto of a bill authorizing $23.2 billion over 15 years for more than 900 Army Corps of Engineers water projects for purposes such as flood control, coastal protection, storm recovery and navigation. The Senate later followed suit and the bill became law.A yes vote was to enact the bill (HR 1495).Voting yes: Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.), Michael N. Castle (R., Del.), Charles W. Dent (R., Pa.), Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.), Jim Gerlach (R., Pa.), Tim Holden (D., Pa.), Frank A. LoBiondo (R., N.J.), Patrick Murphy (D., Pa.), H. James Saxton (R., N.J.), Allyson Y. Schwartz (D., Pa.), Joe Sestak (D., Pa.), and Christopher H. Smith (R., N.J.).Voting no: Joseph R. Pitts (R., Pa.)Not voting: Robert A. Brady (D., Pa.)As imp ...

On A Holiday Wing And A Prayer 2007-11-16 11:40:00 We all know that next week prior to Thanksgiving will mark the busiest travel period of the year. However, I should let you know that our government, and President George W. Milhous Bush in particular, is making every effort to ensure that our plane flights proceed smoothly and we all reach our loved ones in time to meet and greet one another on Turkey day, revive simmering hostilities, “table” them long enough to overeat, and then fall asleep in front of the TV while watching football.Well, sorta.This Inquirer story today (with the laughable headline of “President clearing way for air travel,” as if Dumbya is somehow reaching his mighty executive hand into the wild blue yonder to accomplish this stellar feat) tells us…The most significant immediate change is that the Pentagon will open unused military airspace from Florida to Maine to create "a Thanksgiving express lane" for commercial airliners. It will be open next week Wednesday through Sunday, the busiest days of Thanksg ...