Politics
drorzel | November 15, 2006Fred Clark at Slacktivist is probably the best writer in blogdom, when it comes to matters of religion and the intersection between religion and politics. This might sound like damning with faint praise, given how screechingly awful most blogospheric writing about religion is, but it's not intended that way. He's a terrific writer by any standard, and he's at his very best when it comes to religion. Supporters of liberal engagement with Christianity could do a lot worse than just pointing everyone they meet to his blog.
So, when blogdom's best writer on religion writes a post about the best…
clock | November 14, 2006Back in 2003, John Edwards announced his presidential candidacy on The Daily Show with John Stewart. Well, he'll be there again tonight - watch it! Will he do the same thing again?
Update: No, he didn't. But he said to watch his website over the next few weeks.
Update 2: Apparently, the appearance on the show moved some people to like him more and pay more attention to him. Shakespeare's Sister is one, which makes me very happy. Read what she said.
clock | November 14, 2006Home: The Blueprints of Our Lives, new book by Sen.John Edwards hit the bookstores today (I can't afford it right now but it is on my wish list for later). You can read an excerpt here, check the dates and places for his booksigning tour, see the schedule for his media appearances (lots of them, including The Daily Show and Letterman) here and discuss it here.
grrlscientist | November 14, 2006
It takes a woman to clean house properly.
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tags: politics, Nancy Pelosi, house
oracknows | November 14, 2006Light blogging today, I'm afraid. My high speed Internet access was on the fritz last night, leaving odds and ends. Truly annoying. (On the other hand, maybe it's the FSM's way of telling me to slow down a bit.)
Patch Adams, the famous doctor who advocates humor in medicine and has been known to dress up in a clown outfit, as shown in the movie starring Robin Williams, displayed a distinctly non-amusing side of his personality in a speech at Vanderbilt University last month:
Patch Adams, M.D., an unconventional doctor who became a household name through a 1998 movie starring Robin Williams,…
pharyngula | November 14, 2006Unless you're one of those god-crazed fundagelical thugs, you ought to be willing to support your first amendment rights and agree that religion does not belong in government. Sign the petition! It's the very least you can do.
Now if only they hadn't used the phrase "Sound Science" to describe scientific policy free of religious bias…
clock | November 12, 2006Pam, Lindsay, Scott, Glen and Melissa and all of their commenters passionatelly discuss the effects of Feingold's decision not to run. I suggest you read what Neil wrote (as well as some of his commenters). I only had a couple of words about it (and my commenters as well) here and here.
clock | November 12, 2006Media is already handicapping the Presidential election. As you may expect, I really like this article. Now that Feingold is out of the race, Edwards is the leftest candidate (since Gore said he's not running).
jlynch | November 12, 2006
One freedom that defines our way of life is the freedom to choose our leaders at the ballot box. We saw that freedom earlier this week, when millions of Americans went to the polls to cast their votes for a new Congress. Whatever your opinion of the outcome, all Americans can take pride in the example our democracy sets for the world by holding elections even in a time of war. (source)
Eh? We should be proud that the "War on Terror" didn't result in the administration cancelling the mid-term elections. Why the hell would Bush even mention this? Unless ... never mind.
grrlscientist | November 12, 2006Things aren't looking so good for the repuglicans .. George Bush saw his own approval ratings slip another 4 percent even while his repuglican comrades lost control of the house in the recent elections.
"These election results just confirm my belief that Americans have finally awakened to the terror that lurks among us," said an unnamed source.
Sixty-three percent of the 1,006 adults surveyed Nov. 9-10 said they disapproved of the job Bush is doing as president. The poll's margin of error was plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Even with the large Democratic gains, those polled expressed…
pharyngula | November 12, 2006Pam Spaulding suggests that this unbelievable speculation is a trial balloon:
Some big name Democrats want to oust DNC Chairman Howard Dean, arguing that his stubborn commitment to the 50-state strategy and his stinginess with funds for House races cost the Democrats several pickup opportunities.
The candidate being floated to replace Dean? Harold Ford.
Says James Carville, one of the anti-Deaniacs, "Suppose Harold Ford became chairman of the DNC? How much more money do you think we could raise? Just think of the difference it could make in one day. Now probably Harold Ford wants to stay in…
grrlscientist | November 12, 2006Two months ago, Kenneth Adelman, the former director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, received a call from the Pentagon: Donald Rumsfeld would like to see him as soon as possible. Adelman said he knew then that this meeting might be their last.
"I suggested that we were losing the war," Adelman, a longtime friend of Rumsfeld, told The New Yorker magazine in an interview posted online Saturday.
Adelman and Rumsfeld had been friends for 36 years. Adelman first worked for Rumsfeld during the Nixon Administration, and then was Rumsfeld's assistant when he was the Secretary of…
clock | November 12, 2006...is not going to run for President in 2008. A fine man. I am sure he will keep fighting in the Senate for what is good and what is right for the American people.
pharyngula | November 12, 2006I like this summary by Brian Flemming:
The Democrats won a mandate without excessive God-talk and without actually winning over evangelicals in significant numbers. The election results weaken the argument for religious pandering; they don't strengthen it.
This is not to say that we can tell the religious to just go away, but that what we should do in politics and government is continue to push purely secular values, and trust the sensible evangelicals to find common cause with what is right…just as I will vote for evangelicals who can promote progressive values in spite of their silly…
jlynch | November 11, 2006The United States vetoed a U.N. Security Council draft resolution Saturday that sought to condemn an Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip and demand Israeli troops pull out of the territory. Whoda thunk it.
clock | November 11, 2006What do you think about David Brin's ideas:
OKAY, SO NOW WHAT?
What can the House of Representatives do, all by itself? - Step#1
What can the House of Representatives do, all by itself? - Step#2
What can the House of Representatives do, all by itself? - Step#3
clock | November 11, 2006Chairman of the NC Democratic Party wants to know who would you like to see run against her.
clock | November 10, 2006I agree with Publius' final assessment of the election. Read it.
I spit my coffee (tea, actually) through the nose when I read this today:
"Sadly, it seems that the Party of Reagan has been hijacked by the neocons, the big government crowd and the pragmatists."
PRAGMATISTS? Heellllooo?
As Deborah noted when she was calling VA voters, this was not about Iraq, it was about "throwing the bums out". The word "corruption" that is being banded about is misleading. Corruption was not the top reason for kicking the bums out, courrption is just one of inevitable sub-symptoms of the greater sin of…