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. |
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Articles from The Liberal Doomsayer |
Bye, Denny
2007-10-19 16:59:00
As noted here, we can now bid adieu to former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert (who has now taken the path of fellow House Repug Deborah Pryce, someone who actually admires this guy), and to commemorate the occasion I’d like to present the following “golden moments” (many from this Wikipedia link).Here's Dennis showing his lack of familiarity with U.S. tax codes.Hastert once said he’d donate the $70,000 he received from Jack (Still Waiting To Hear The Names Of The Dem Politicians In The Scandal) Abramoff to charity, but the name of the charity has not been disclosed.Class move to tell Colombian officials in 1997 to “bypass the executive branch and communicate directly with Congress” (try that with Deadeye Dick, Denny, and he’ll “accidentally” shoot you in the face).He typically accuses big-time Dem donator George Soros of “ancillary interests,” which is code for drug money in this case.Even better to say that post-Katrina New Orleans should be “bulldozed,” a ...
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Where The Rubber Meets The Road (10/19/07)
2007-10-19 15:35:00
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.Private tax collectors. The House passed, 232-173, and sent to the Senate a bill that would repeal the Internal Revenue Service's authority to hire private firms to collect overdue income taxes.A yes vote was to pass HR 3056.Voting yes: Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.), Robert A. Brady (D., 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 Schwartz (D., Pa.), Joe Sestak (D., Pa.) and Christopher H. Smith (R., N.J.).Voting no: Michael N. Castle (R., Del.), Charles W. Dent (R., Pa.) and Joseph R. Pitts (R., Pa.).From what I can gather, it looks like this bill, by taking private debt collection firms out of the picture, tightens up reporting by offshore entities, particularly for high net worth people.And as noted here, “sinc ...
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Nukes In the News, 2007 Version
2007-10-19 15:20:00
The latest from Working Assets...Working Assets has joined with musicians Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Ben Harper and Bonnie Raitt on a petition to Congress to prevent a costly bailout of the nuclear power industry.Please act now to help us remove a clause from a pending Energy Bill that could force taxpayers to underwrite construction of an unknown number of new nuclear power plants. Instead, the bill should fund the renewable and efficiency technologies that can solve global warming, guarantee a secure economy, and create millions of jobs.Sign the petition to Congress and stop the pending nuclear power industry bailout.It's essential that you take action now. Our petition will be delivered by the artists to Congress on October 23. When you sign our petition, you can also include your mobile number. We'll send you a text message when a vote on nuclear energy subsidies is imminent that will connect you to talking points from Bonnie Raitt and then to your Congressional representatives ...
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Twenty Years To The Day
2007-10-19 14:22:00
Then and now - give Wall Street credit for an impeccable sense of history if nothing else. ...
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Still Liking "The Surge"...Anybody?
2007-10-19 12:43:00
The New York Times tells us today that the biggest problem with trying to determine if goals are being met in Iraq is that there is no system in place to determine whether or not goals are being met in Iraq.I swear that’s what the article says; as noted here…There are bright spots in the effort to put together a functioning nation, (Special Inspector General Stuart W.) Bowen (Jr.) found: economic growth in the Kurdish north; tribal reconciliation in the western desert province of Anbar; and patchy progress in the development of local governments. Beyond that, some of the provinces are showing increasing ability to create plans, write contracts and carry out construction projects to rebuild Iraq’s physical infrastructure, the report says.A central finding of the report, Mr. Bowen said in his testimony, was that even with 32 of the teams, called provincial reconstruction teams, or P.R.T.’s, now deployed around the country at a cost of $1.9 billion as of August, the program still ...
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No "Peace And Love" For "Straight Talk" McCain
2007-10-19 11:19:00
So Repug Senators John McCain, Jon Kyl and Tom Coburn are fighting Dems Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer about an earmark of $1 million for a museum in Woodstock, NY to commemorate “three days of fun and music” in 1969, huh?Somehow I’m sure that would generate tourism revenue more than offsetting the cost over time, but the Repugs can’t be bothered with that when there’s liberal-bashing to be done, as we know.And how funny is it that “Senator Honor And Virtue” is trying to make some kind of a principled stand here over $1 million when, as noted here, he and Kyl have tried to steer $10 million to their home state for an academic center honoring the late Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist? And as also noted from the link, he…“…pushed for, and got, $14.3 million for Arizona's Luke Air Force Base inserted into the just-completed fiscal 2004 military construction appropriations conference report. The only problem is the project to acquire more land near the ...
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Reid's Dirty Deed (update)
2007-10-18 22:50:00
I'm absolutely astonished, though maybe I shouldn't be (Prof. Marcus has more, as does FDL here).I expected the Repugs and their media acolytes to try and cut Dodd off at the knees, but HARRY REID??!!I'm linking to Bob Geiger here from his post in July about the awful approval ratings of Congress being part of a long-term trend that started before the 110th was installed, but the fact remains that Reid's action is utterly unconscionable, and this is not going to help the approval rating one bit.I've said before that I'd rather there were only 10 Democrats in Congress acting responsibly versus 90 Repugs, with the 10 constantly losing but standing by their principles, I'd feel more comfortable with that than I do with this nonsense.If you want to contact Senator Reid and give him a piece of your mind, as it were, click here (I just did so a few minutes ago).Update 1 10/19: Chris Dodd is THE MAN for this (h/t Atrios) - backgrounder here.Update 2 10/19: Welcome to the party, Joe (fi ...
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Thursday Videos
2007-10-18 22:20:00
Alter Bridge ("Rise Today"; get ready to rock for a purpose - this should be our new theme song)......and Happy 81st Birthday to Chuck Berry ("Maybelline," recorded in France in 1965, at a point where his initial popularity was fading, though of course his music came back with a vengeance when oldies radio started taking off years later - truly timeless stuff from one of the founders of rock n' roll). ...
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Take My Senator, Please
2007-10-18 16:50:00
D-Mac at Philadelphia Will Do tells us here that Our Man Arlen Specter tried his hand at standup comedy last night at the Washington Improv comedy theater (and no, standup comedy at a location as farcical as the Beltway isn’t redundant, but it’s close).Wow, Dan Quayle jokes, yuks about Viagra, and of course Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Barack Obama. What a veritable “laff riot”!Well, in honor of this on-stage appearance by the author of the infamous Magic Bullet theory (as D-Mac notes), I think it’s time to revisit these other moments of “hilarity”…Here’s Arlen stating that Mike (“City Of Louisiana”) Chertoff would be “a first-rate prospect” to replace Abu Gonzales as the new Attorney General.Here’s the FBI investigating whether a member of Specter's staff broke the law by helping her husband, a lobbyist, secure almost $50 million in Pentagon spending for his clients.Here’s Arlen complaining about the Senate Democratic minority in the 109th Congress usi ...
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Watch And Learn, Sideshow Bob
2007-10-18 16:16:00
Nothing to add here, but just to say kudos to Sen. Chris Dodd for putting a hold on the FISA bill.“More and better Democrats,” as Darcy Burner says…Update: What Atrios sez... ...
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Looking Out For Their Own At Our Expense (Again)
2007-10-18 15:19:00
It looks like the Bushco beat will go on with Mike Mukasey as the new AG, seeing as how he refused to consider water boarding as torture today (nice).And the way this regime does business of course is to basically screw over anyone who isn’t in the club (the vast majority of this country) and make life cushy for the favored few, as we know. And given the comparatively blind eye Dubya and his pals have cast towards white collar crime as part of that (h/t Think Progress), I think we can count on more of the same from Mukasey (ironic to say the least given his Giuliani connection).You want the gory details? OK…The prosecution of all kinds of white-collar criminals is down by 27% since FY 2000, before President Bush came to office.Also substantially down were federal prosecutions against individuals the government accused of various kinds of official corruption. They dropped in the same period by 14%.Charges against organized crime figures were slightly up in the last year, but their n ...
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The Old Gray Lady Disses Edwards Again
2007-10-18 13:58:00
I’ve decried how the New York Times only seems to care about news concerning John Edwards if it involves something that could be spun as questionable behavior or something negative for his candidacy, but after reading reporter Mike McIntire’s story today on the involvement of the Edwards campaign with the law firm of Milberg Weiss, I’m wondering if it would be better if they just ignored Edwards altogether.As the story notes…Last year, the firm was indicted on federal charges of fraud and bribery. But the political partnership has not been entirely severed. Since the indictment, 26 Democrats around the country, including four presidential candidates, have accepted $150,000 in campaign contributions from people connected to Milberg Weiss, according to state and federal campaign finance records. And some Democrats have taken public actions that potentially helped the firm or its former partners.The recent contributors include current and former Milberg partners who had either bee ...
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So What Do We Do About Vlad, O’Reilly?
2007-10-18 10:18:00
I seem to recall that Bill O’Reilly, among others, had no trouble attacking France a few years ago when that nation decided not to send troops to Iraq (and by the way – as I’ve asked before – when is our vigorous new buddy Sarko, who we like as opposed to that old, stuffy Chirac…tongue in cheek here…going to ante up and decide to let the blood of his country’s soldiers spill in Mesopotamia as opposed to - almost without exception in terms of the military - ours?).Well, what will Falafel boy and his buddies say now that our ol’ buddy Vlad Putin, whose soul Dubya supposedly looked into a few months ago in Kennebunkport (please), has quite rightly declared the Iraq war to be “pointless”? Are we going to start dumping caviar and Stoli on The Mall in Washington, D.C.? Will there be a massive hue and cry to deny work visas to Russian software professionals (as if that would ever happen)? Will Putin acquire the nickname of “borscht boy” on “The Factor” or something ...
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Wednesday Videos
2007-10-17 23:05:00
Architecture In Helsinki ("Heart It Races," and believe it or not, this is the single from the album - I guess they all flunked the tryout for The Wiggles and decided to become a band; blame 'PRB for this one, not me)......and if you're looking to get cheered up, then keep looking (sorry)...to commemorate his 72nd birthday on Monday, Barry McGuire excoriates (yes, that is a word) "Eve of Destruction" from September 1965 (I think this was on Ed Sullivan; no word on whose idea it was to have the go-go dancers perform in a faux junkyard...as I said in September 2006, as far as I'm concerned, you could substitute Iraq for Red China and New Orleans for Selma, Alabama and the song becomes completely topical once more, keeping the anniversary of the MCA in mind here also). ...
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