Politics
drorzel | March 9, 2008Physics comes through at the ballot box:
Stunning many who considered the district west of Chicago reliably Republican territory, Bill Foster, a physicist and Democrat, won a special election on Saturday to fill the Congressional seat that J. Dennis Hastert, the former speaker of the House, held for two decades.
[...]Mr. Foster defeated James D. Oberweis, a dairy company owner, in a contest for the 14th Congressional district, a long swath that runs from the far western suburbs of Chicago nearly to the state's Iowa border. He will fill the remaining months of Mr. Hastert's term.
Mr. Foster…
pharyngula | March 8, 2008In a special election and against long odds, Bill Foster has been elected to the house of representatives from Illinois. Not only is it another addition to the coming Democratic conquest of Washington DC, but the guy is a physicist. We need more scientists stepping into political leadership!
clock | March 8, 2008The Repubs are stoking fear and violence as that is the only thing left for them on which to campaign. Thus, we need to keep the Dems in the news and campaigning (and thus media forgetting McCain) and the people excited about them and constantly hearing liberal frames for at least a couple of more months:
Of course, the goal of the Republican Party is to win the election and that is the purpose of launching their violent rhetoric: to frame the election in such a way that defeats the Democratic candidate. The stakes however, are much greater than just who wins or loses the White House. If…
oracknows | March 8, 2008Yesterday was annoying.
It started out hearing about the vaccine injury case conceded by the government in a story on NPR on during my drive into work. As I walked through the clinic waiting area on the way to my lab, the TVs in the waiting rooms were all on CNN, where--you guessed it!--there was more ignorant blather about how the government supposedly had "conceded" that "vaccines cause autism." I'll give the Polings and the antivaccinationists who are trying to use their case (with, apparently, them as willing accomplices) as a propaganda tool, they're good propagandists. Try as I might, I…
gregladen | March 7, 2008... Because they are concerned about that "who's going to answer the phone at 3:00 AM" thing.
while the consensus is that the 3 a.m. ad helped Clinton, it has also drawn criticism as a tactic that ultimately benefits John McCain, particularly if he is to face Obama in the general election. In essence, Clinton has now turned the debate about commander-in-chief readiness into a contest of résumés. And the conventional wisdom is that John McCain -- ex-fighter pilot, former POW and war hero -- wins.
But that's not necessarily the case, say senior military officials and political analysts. In…
pharyngula | March 6, 2008We do have a Drinking Liberally chapter here in lovely Morris, so if you just happen to catch this in time, the beer will be flowing at the Old #1 bar downtown at 8:00. We will talk and argue; personally, I want snarl about Holy Spirit Hillary. Someday, can we please have a president who doesn't babble about magic ghosts? Pretty please?
gregladen | March 6, 2008This just in via my Newsmax.com newsletter:
WASHINGTON -- Officials in Michigan and Florida are showing renewed interest in holding repeat presidential nominating contests so that their votes will count.
The governors of both states are now saying they would consider holding a sort of do-over contest by June. So are top officials in Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign.
That's a change from their previous insistence that the primaries their states held in January should determine how the state's delegates are allocated.
Clinton won both contests, but the results were meaningless since the…
gregladen | March 5, 2008Brokered Conventions do not happen too often these days. This is partly because everyone remembers 1968 as a nightmare. But we also have to remember 1968 as a key moment in a kind of revolution that happened.
A very large number of voters today do not necessarily know what this is about. I've pulled together a selection of old videos (from YouTube, of course) that show some of the key events and give a feel for the day, mainly related to that fateful year and some of its consequences. These are not flashy or slick and for the young modern mind this will take some work to watch and…
gregladen | March 5, 2008At least, according to Clinton:
Asked on CBS's "The Early Show" whether she and Obama should be on the same ticket, Clinton said:
"That may be where this is headed, but of course we have to decide who is on the top of ticket. I think the people of Ohio very clearly said that it should be me."
pharyngula | March 5, 2008A couple of small towns in Vermont passed an unenforceable law to declare Bush and Cheney criminals. I like it. Personally, I favor something more like Megan's Law, in which Bush and Cheney would forever after be required to register with local law authorities where ever they go, with their names, photographs, addresses, and a list of their offenses made public. (I'm actually not a big fan of Megan's Laws, but if we're going to publicly track one kind of monster, I think far more wicked monsters should be subject to the same penalties.)
gregladen | March 5, 2008The Obama Surge may still be real, but it has hit the hard rocky shore of the Clinton Campaign in Ohio and Texas. Or has it. I heard an alternative theory explaining the patterning of the election last night that I think is pretty interesting.
This was related by Chris Matthews during election coverage on MSNBC last night, and sorry to say, I did not catch the name of the person who came up with this idea. Simply put, it works like this:
Among typical mostly white Democrats who are working class and middle class, there is a fixed percentage, not a surging or shifting percentage, of support…
gregladen | March 5, 2008Voters told urologist Barney Maddox to piss off, leaving incumbent and former school teacher Pat Hardy in her position on the school board representing District 11. The people of that Texas District were too smart to be fooled by an excessively expensive campaign by Maddox who spent over $120,000 to Hardy's $10,000.
Incumbent Mary Helen Berlanga, also challenged by a hard right winger in her own party (Lupe Gonzales) appears also to be holding her own in District 2.
[source]
pharyngula | March 4, 2008It's good to hear that God has retracted his endorsement of Mike Huckabee. That's one pious fraud out of the race.
There's still one more servant of theLord in the running, though, and I'm still conflicted about it. I'll vote for him, alright, but contrary to the assertions in that link, his pious musings have elicited a peep or two of protest from this nonbeliever.
revere | March 4, 2008Americans work harder than Europeans -- often two or three jobs -- and even the well paid don't get much vacation. Most of us don't have vacation houses, either. But we aren't Republican Presidents. Ronald Reagan was one of the most famous vacationing presidents, spending a whopping 335 days of his presidency at his ranch in Santa Barbara. That's almost a full year of eight not out of the White House.
Compared to George W. Bush, though, Ronald Reagan was a workaholic. Bush just made his 70th visit to his ranch at Crawford, Texas, and has racked up 452 days. That's than 25% more than Reagan…
pharyngula | March 3, 2008We now have an estimate of the cost of the Iraq war. Remember when our administration was blithely proposing that it would require a few billion dollars?
The authors present a damning "Nightline" transcript in which one official, Andrew Natsios, blandly told Ted Koppel that Iraq could be completely reconstructed for only $1.7 billion. (With the war now costing $12.5 billion a month, Natsios' estimate would have been accurate if he had stipulated that it would pay for four days' worth of reconstruction. Which, considering the delusional nature of most of the Bush administration's pre-invasion…