In which we add Wonkette to the regular rotation.
“Sorry! Wrong House.” – Ed Burmila (Gin And Tacos)
We live in a world where police officers are concerned that sleeping 11 year old’s pose an imminent threat to their well being. Good times!
“Romney Campaign finds new goon to love” – Ron Garmon (Wonkette)
Mitt Romney is running, and will continue to run, the most dishonest campaign in American Presidential (possibly even Electoral in general) history. I would wager that 90%+ of what he says will be outright lies and fabrications, and another 5% will be significant exaggerations of the truth.
Consequently, if he’s going to have any hope of beating Barack Obama in November, he’s going to have to empty the dirty tricks playbook, and to do that he needs men like Nathan Sproul.
“Don’t Let The Door Hit You In The Back Of The Head” – J.B.S. Riley (Doghouse Riley)
In which my alma mater’s arch-rival continues to disgrace itself by hiring Mitch Daniels to do something other than have rotten produce tossed at him in the town square.
“Everything that’s wrong with the economy these days” – Garance Franke-Ruta (The Atlantic)
Regardless of your political affiliation, it’s worth reading this.
“Elizabeth Warren for President? Democrats’ Barren 2016 Bench” – Molly Ball (The Atlantic)
I couldn’t disagree more with Ms. Ball. The Republicans’ 2016 bench is a disaster area that’s going to be even worse after Mitt Romney loses in November. The Democrats have a number of strong candidates, even if they don’t have a ton of name recognition right now. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, Colorado Senator Mark Udall, Virginia Senator Mark Warner, Maryland Governor Mark O’Malley, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, Newark Mayor Cory Booker… There are plenty of options here, and I like any of their chances against Governor Chris “Sandwiches” Christie, Governor Bobby “The Page” Jindal, Former Governor Jeb “Have You Met My Brother George W?” Bush, Senator Rand “Aqua Buddha” Paul, and anyone else the GOP tries to trot out as a reasonable candidate for President.
I think what annoys me most about this article is the continued fetishization of Hilary For President. 2008 was her shot, and she blew it. She’ll be pushing 70 in 2016, and the last time we had a septuagenarian President it didn’t work out terrifically well. It’s time to clear the field and let the Clinton era of Democratic politics die a graceful death.
“Toward a politically correct conservatism, cont.” -Ta-Nehisi Coates (The Atlantic)
But my point is I can only stop talking about racism, when it ceases to be a significant force in our politics.
Yup.
“Romney to Republican Governor: Discussing the Economic Recovery Will Hurt My Election Chances” – Tara Culp-Ressler (ThinkProgress)
The RomneyBot wants Governor Bat Boy (R-Florida) to stop saying that things are getting better, because it completely undermines his case that our blackity black black black President is the root of all our social and economic ills that has transformed our once great nation into some kind of multiethnic gay post-apocalyptic hellscape.
Unfortunately for him, he’s also going to have to shut up Governor Fox News Talking Head (R-Ohio) and Governor Google-Eyed Homonculous (R-Wisconsin) as well.
“Worsening wealth inequality by race” – Tami Luhby (CNN Money)
The fact that CNN Money can run this story is proof that progress is being made. Of course, it helps that they don’t have a comments section.
“Over two decades, Abortion rate dropped for women in their 20s because of contraception access” – Annie-Rose Strasser (ThinkProgress)
That sound you’re hearing is Cardinal Timothy Dolan and the Clan of the Red Beanie’s head gears grinding down to nubs and exploding as they try to reconcile this information.
“Montana could force SCOTUS to re-hash Citizens United” – Benjy Sarlin (TPM)
Thus forcing the Supreme Court to issue their first Mea Culpa decision, which is Latin for “We really screwed the pooch on this one, sorry about that.”
“Bernanke implores Congress to help him fix economy” – Brian Beutler (TPM)
And Congress whispered back: “No.”
“Pelosi: Obama should raise debt limit directly, go around Congress” – Brian Beutler (TPM)
Welcome to the era of the Imperial Presidency, where a badly divided Congress is willing to punt on pretty much every one of their duties above naming post offices because both houses are too dysfunctional to work together. The Democrats are gutless and spineless and playing by the rules of a game that no longer exists, and Republicans are brainless and morally defunct to the point where they shouldn’t be trusted with sharp scissors, much less the reigns of power.
“Why US conservatives have gone crazy” – Paul Rosenberg (Al-Jazeera)
Just curious, but have you noticed our President is a bit more tan than the forty-odd guys that came before him?
I think the most important point of this article is that Democrats, Bill Clinton most notably, are responsible for the increasing crazification of the Republican party. By continuing to be centrist, they’ve left the Right with less and less room to maneuver, forcing them to find voters elsewhere. They’ve been forced to draw from the fringes: the racists, the militiamen, the goldbugs, all the groups that were once shunned in American politics for being nuttier than a PayDay candy bar.
If the Democrats are going to have any hope of reducing the Republican party down to a national electoral minority, they need to be a new kind of Democrat. The politics of reconciliation have failed; it’s time for the politics of winning. It’s time to take off the kid gloves and start hammering Republicans for being the nutbags they are. Democratic candidates, especially for President, shouldn’t be afraid to drop the gloves and hockey punch someone when they get hit themselves.
Not only that, but the pandering to the center has to stop. The GOP has proven that pandering to the center is not only necessary, it’s counterproductive. If people that are too tuned out to pay attention to politics don’t want to make up their mind until election day, let ’em. Focus your outreach efforts on your core, untapped constituencies.
I want the next Democratic president to be a real honest-to-God liberal. Not a centrist that would have been a Republican ten years ago.
