Category: politics
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Raw Deal
TR had the Square Deal. FDR had the New Deal. Harry S has the Fair Deal. Barack Obama will have the Raw Deal. So a debt-ceiling “deal” has been reached. Going in to this, the President was willing to compromise but had a few lines in the sand: What did he get? None of these. …
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Can seeing a US flag turn you Republican?
And if so, what can be done about it? A study referenced in Discover has the provocative conclusion that seeing a small American flag while completing a political questionnaire can induce the respondents into being more Republican, even up to 8 months later. Is our society doomed by our optic nerves to surrender to the…
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The debt ceiling and the 14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment is more-or-less the Swiss Army knife of the US Constitution. It defines citizenship, extends constitutional protections to state constitutions, and so on. Lately, it’s become popular to posit that it also holds the key to avoiding a default of US credit. Specifically, Section 4 reads 4. The validity of the public debt of…
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National Constitution Center endorses torture
Well, by extension. They’ve invited John Yoo to participate in a forum on “A Conversation on Civility and Democracy in America” — apparently without a blink of irony, too. Yoo, you might recall, is the author of the infamous Torture Memos, that said the United Stated could and would abandon its obligations under the Geneva…
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Currently Reading: First Quater 2011
American Scripture by Pauline Maier Consider Phlebas by Ian Banks Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowel
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Sometimes the worst thing is saying, “I’m sorry”.
So, last Saturday (Sep 11), a paper in Maine ran a story about the local celebrations at the end of Ramadan the day before. It was a pretty innocuous piece, a typical fluff article about local culture. Then the Internet happened.
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Nice metaphor
Neil Irwin explains the current dilemma faced by the Fed by extending a metaphor promoted by guest host Christopher Hayes on Monday’s episode of The Rachel Maddow Show: The Fed is in charge of watering the fields but has exhausted its usual reservoir system. Anything new will be risky and the Fed leaders tend to…
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Political snark of the day
Regarding the fact that Fox News will now have a front-row seat at the White House briefing room: Fox News is a propaganda outlet, a detail everyone seems to know, but which is apparently impolite to say out loud. The network’s proponents will likely argue a front-row seat is warranted because Fox News has a…
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Political snark of the day
I stole the tagline from a commenter at Political Animal and the picture from a public domain image at Flickr, and put it together using the motivational poster generator at Big Huge Labs.
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Quote of the Day
Why did the stimulus go wrong? In the end, we took a soapbox racer to a go-kart track and then realized we were competing against actual cars. Great analogy — and better analysis — by Ezra Klein.