mikethemadbiologist

Both the establishment centrists and the grassroots within the Democratic party are claiming the 2006 victory as their own. But what's really terrifying is that the group which pushed the Democrats over the top probably were the utterly clueless and indesicive voters. From CNN, comes this exit…

A new Carnival of the Liberals is up at Philosophy, et cetera. My contribution is here. This is a 'meta' edition that deals with political discourse, so there are some very interesting posts over there. Check it out.

So Bush fired Rumsfeld. Big deal. He should have done it 2800+ lives ago. Lest you think this election will somehow make Bush wiser, consider whom El Jefe Supremo Maximo picked to replace him: Bob Fucking Gates. Who is Bob Gates? Oh, that Bob Gates: Robert M. Gates was the Central…

So after reading Brad DeLong's post about how the Democrats won with a 13.4% majority in the Senate (if you total all the votes cast for each party), I decided to do the same with the Congressional races, since everyone votes for a congresscritter. Before I get to the results, here's some caveats…

I was at the APHA meeting today in Boston (and I got to meet Revere from Effect Measure at the meeting!). About 14,000 people attend, including a lot of military personnel (between routine public health concerns and biosecurity, there are always a few in the crowd). At one talk that I would guess…

Already, you're seeing two competiting ideas about why the Democrats did so well in the election. This argument matters, particularly within the Democratic party, because, once again, the chicken shit loser centrist Democratic establishment is urging Democrats to move to the right. The centrist…

For those of you who are fucking morons, the car is the Republican Party. Spin all you want baby, it sucks to be the car I'm kidding about the last part of the post header. Sort of. So, what do you think the Republican spin will be? I'll have more coherent thoughts later on Wednesday.

Random thoughts below the fold. John Sweeney, R-NY, has lost. Hitting your wife isn't liked by the electorate. I wasn't a huge Jim Webb fan, but he was vastly superior to Sen. George "Macacawitz" Allen. Once again, it looks like the asshole Green Party siphoned off just enough votes to give the…

Tell these good people: Election incidents can also be reported to several national hotlines. Those reported to 1-866-OUR-VOTE will be catalogued in the Election Incident Reporting System (check out the incident map, which already reflects several incidents across the nation). Problems with voting…

Time to go vote. We need sane people governing the country, and you sure as hell can't find them in the Republican party. As Andrew Sullivan put it, "This isn't an election, it's an intervention." After years of being called traitors, weaklings, and cowards because we correctly opposed Little…

Our Benevolent Seed Overlords ask: What's the most important local political race to you this year (as a citizen, as a scientist)? For me, it's the Massachusetts gubernatorial race. Deval Patrick is poised to become the first African-American governor ever. Also, since Massachusetts has a…

...because the only things they have left are voter intimidation and cheap tricks. As described by fellow ScienceBloglings coturnix and Josh, the Republicans are calling Democratic voters and either informing them that their polling place has changed or that they will be arrested if they vote…

With less than 24 hours to go, here are my predictions for the Nov. 8 elections. The Democrats will pick up four Senate seats (and Lieberman will beat Lamont--let's face it, Lamont wasn't a very strong politician), and 26 House seats. Where I think we'll really see the Democratic tidal wave is in…

This week's Carnival of Liberals, hosted by Philosophy, et cetera, asks contributors to submit posts that "assess the state of political discourse, or the question of how politics should be conducted." So, let's talk about that state of political discourse. One problem that's always bothered (and…

On Tuesday, Massachusetts voters will have three ballot referenda to decide. Here's the Mad Biologist's endorsements. Question 1 would create a new category of licenses for food stores to sell wine, and it would allow local licensing authorities to issue such licenses. Of the three ballot…

Here's some links for you. The science stuff: Better keyboards could reduce MRSA transmission in hospitals. Here's a very good post on land development and eutrophication. From Scientific American, an article on the destruction of the world's fisheries. Fellow ScienceBlogling Jonah Lehrer…

Do remember when all those wackjob militia groups fantasized about UN Mongolian shock troops that would invade the U.S. and establish the One World Order under the control of the Trilateral Commission? (If you don't, you really missed the rightward anchor of the modern conservative movement).…

It's so hard to keep up with the Iraqi War and Occupation justifications. For those of us who opposed the Iraqi War and Occupation from the beginning, one reason was that our fellow citizens should not die to keep oil prices low. While it appears that the low oil prices never materialized, Bush…

There is absolutely nothing the Republicans won't politicize. Now, they have launched the War on Vaccination. For a decade, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a foundation dedicated to improving public health, particularly among the poor and the elderly, has funded a "Vote and Vax" program at…

Occasionally, Congress does something right. In this case, they are making research to develop new antibiotics a priority: A key Senate committee is supporting more antibiotic research and development and more research into the mechanisms of resistance at the National Institute of Allergy and…

In you're in Boston, be sure to check out two great exhibits at the Boston Public Library on Copley Square: a collection of etchings by Sears Gallagher, and a display of John Adams' entire personal library. They're both very well done, and you don't even need a library card to go see them.

Buckling under to conservative pressure to find the non-existent evidence that Saddam Hussein had, in fact, been building weapons of mass destruction, about a year ago, the Bush Administration placed online documents from the Saddam Hussein era that provided technical information on building…

One of the reasons I very rarely dive into the discussions around these parts about religion, atheism, and Richard Dawkins' latest book is because, as a moderately observant Jew, most of what is said is utterly irrelevant to my life as a Jew. To explain further, I want to turn it over Shakes, who…

Or for those of you who like more risque post titles, "Beware of the Reach Around." From the Brad Blog by way of Shakespeare's Sister: It seems there's a little yellow button on the back of every touch-screen computer made by Sequoia Voting Systems, that allows any voter, or poll worker, or…

At least on ScienceBlogs. Our Benevolent Seed Overlords have interviewed me. You can check it out at Page 3.14.

There's a very interesting article by Sheldon Campbell and Roger Klein in the October edition of The Journal of Clinical Microbiology about the pros and cons of home-testing for HIV. At first glance, this would only seem to be a good thing: after all, we use home pregnancy testing kits, so why…

Why couldn't Kerry have said this in 2004? Despite what the Washington Mandarins think, anger is the appropriate emotion. Sigh.

While I don't think arguing for or against religious particulars is something any political party should adopt a few days before an election (or should be a political issue at all, for that matter), PZ is absolutely right when he says that Robertson and his ilk should be called out for the foolish…

Apparently, this is how Sen. Macacawitz George Allen (R-VA) conducts voter outreach. Then again, he sucked on the whole body armor issue, so why would he give a damn about any soldier?

Because if I had been born in 1969, I would be 36 years old, and the Bush administration's new abstinence program which is now targeting people up to 29 years old would ignore me. Said James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit that supports sex education…