The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach

Category: politics

  • The conservative contradiction

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    mongreldogs
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    In reflecting on Rand Paul and his ever-changing principles, the Lexington Herald-Ledger makes an interesting point about all the small-government types.  Perhaps it says less about the ranters who are leveraging widespread dissatisfaction into cynical grasps for office, and more about the contradiction lodged deep within democracy itself. In fairness, many of us are guilty…

  • The President and the Ring

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    mongreldogs
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    I hate to turn into just a site that reposts The Daily Show but sometimes they’re spot on.  The continued failure of President Obama to live up to his pre-election rhetoric on the rule of law is the most galling development of his administration. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p /…

  • Beautiful encapsulation of Glen Beck’s mendacity

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    mongreldogs
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    Delivered, of course, by Jon Stewart: Mr. Beck lives in a cloistered world of paranoid delusion that is impervious to a priori evidence that contradicts his world view This is in response to Glen Beck telling his audience that no one but Fox “dared” show the footage of Israeli commandos repelling onto a boat and…

  • Seconded…

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    mongreldogs
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    This piece from the Atlantic captures my feeling pretty close to exactly, re: the recent Rand Paul flap on the Civil Rights Act and his alleged “courage”.  In particular, the conclusion: Now, after the police dogs, night-sticks and fire-hoses have been beaten back, Rand Paul wants to reopen the question, while, to be sure, claiming that…

  • Stabilizing US Debt

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    mongreldogs
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    Everyone says they could balance the budget if they were in charge.  Few understand what would be involved.  I just played a neat simulator that actually allowed me to explore what different policies would do. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any easy way to post the results, but I did a screen-capture hatchet job:…

  • A fantastic visual response to “Show us your papers” in AZ…

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    mongreldogs
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    From the cartoonist Lee Judge ( http://media.kansascity.com/images/cartoons/judge/04-2010/judge_04272010_700.jpg)

  • How to Lie with the Truth — and how to counter it

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    mongreldogs
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    A meme spreading like wildfire throughout the rabid right is that “47% of Americans don’t even pay federal income tax.”  Clearly it’s time for another tax cut for the uber-wealthy in the interest of “fairness”. David Leonhardt wrote a piece in today’s New York Times exploring this.  Short version:  The number is true… and meaningless. …

  • 16,500 : a “mistake” so egregious as to be a lie

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    mongreldogs
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    Where did the rabid right get the figure of 16,500 new “IRS agents” that (they claim) will be required to enforce the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act? They made it up. Really.  It came from nowhere.  In fact, the IRS will add few or no agents, and perhaps hardly any staff at all. …

  • Deep pondering

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    mongreldogs
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    Does this story serve to expose the hypocrisy of the Republican Party’s self-proclaimed credentials as the “party of family values” (in that the RNC paid for an evening at “a bondage-themed nightclub featuring topless women dancers imitating lesbian sex”)?  Or does it serve to expose the hypocrisy of the equally fictional Republican claim to being…

  • Comment of the Day

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    mongreldogs
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    There’s a thread at Lawyers, Guns, and Money linking to another story about some people who want to see “Confederate ancestry” recognized as a legitimate group for ethnic protection, and who are using Box 19 of the Census to do it.   Commenter kommrade reproductive vigor says: I guess I’m supposed to fill in Confederate Southern…