Campaign Consultants Put the “Con” in “Conservative”

As I’ve mentioned in The Daily Sausage on more than one occasion, the Republican party is absolutely overrun with grifters and snake oil salesmen. New York Magazine‘s Jonathan Chait has an excellent book that covers this in detail: “The Big Con: Crackpot Economics and the Fleecing of America”.

However, extolling the virtues (and there are many) of Jonathan Chait are not why we’re here.

Rather, we’re here to discuss an immensely fascinating look at what happens when conservatives pull back the curtain and realize they’ve just been hoodwinked to the tune of a billion dollars and a national election. Continue reading →

Photo Phriday: Oodles of Doodles

Somebody else's doodle Are you a doodler? An absent-minded scribbler? Do you draw the same thing all the time, or do you like to challenge yourself and scribble something new every time you’re stuck in an endless meeting or waiting through a conference call? Do you find yourself filling the page with dots, or do you stick to a corner? Do you draw animals or people, or dots and lines?

Actually, if you’re a dull-meeting-doodler, you’re in luck, says science. A study from a few years ago suggests doodlers may remember more information than those well-behaved, goody two shoes non-doodlers.

So, let’s see ’em. Grab the nearest piece of paper and doodle away. Or draw us a picture. Or paint a masterpiece. Scan it in or take a crummy picture with your phone, like I usually do. Continue reading →

My First Trial

Gavel

In my last year of law school, I was the first student at the legal-aid clinic to take a client to trial.

You wouldn’t call this a “lucky” development, exactly — but it was pretty unusual. Most law students at this clinic went entire semesters without taking a client to a trial. Years, even. It was that rare to be assigned a client whose case was at the proper stage, and who wanted to go to trial. Continue reading →

Project Runway All-Stars Season 2 Episode 3 Liveblog

Hi! This is your friendly liveblogger CaptainSnarky here with your weekly Project Runway All-Stars liveblog! Last week, the fashions sent down the runway were, well, asstastic. I mean, wow.

I have no idea what’s going on with these “designers.” It’s almost getting embarrassing to watch these sewtestants send crappy look after crappy look down the runway and garner faint praise from the judges. At any rate, their crapitude is our entertainment, so join us in the comments as we try to make sense of the damnation that walks the runway! Continue reading →

Montana, Meth Labs, and Citizens United

Frontline on PBS recently covered a bizarre story out of the West that might help answer a burning question: Does Citizens United matter?

The Supreme Court handed down the decision in Citizens United in January 2010, which declared that corporations — as associations of individuals — have constitutionally-protected free speech rights under the First Amendment. Political speech is the kind of speech that the courts have most explicitly protected in the past century, and so campaign finance laws that would limit the amount of spending by corporations on political ads (in which they express their political opinions) are therefore unconstitutional. Continue reading →