Politics
pharyngula | November 10, 2006Several people have brought this cartoon to my attention. I don't get it.
So Bush and Rummy are being rewarded for their incompetence by getting to hang out with the octopuses? Or does the cartoonist just hate cephalopods, and is illustrating their torment? (They do look kind of pissed).
pharyngula | November 10, 2006According to the mealy-mouthed Jim Wallis, anyway, the recent election was a defeat for the religious extremists and the secular Left, and a great victory for moderate and conservative Christians. Fortunately, we've got Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden to administer a corrective, or I'd have to throw a snit and go start piling faggots for the long-postponed atheist revolution. Since they've got it under control, I guess I can let it pass. This time.
But Wallis does join Amy Sullivan on The List.
clock | November 10, 2006
Some ideas from two years ago (August 26, 2004):
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I posted this on www.jregrassroots.org and on the One America Committee blog (formerly JRE campaign blog) on March 06, 2004:
Primaries: Most small parties do not have primaries. They decide their nominees at Conventions or in smokey backrooms. No TV for them. One of the big parties usually has an incumbent President or VP who is a de facto nominee. Even if that party has a primary, it is of no importance, thus no TV.
Those parties that have competitive primaries need to set a date for…
mixingmemory | November 10, 2006There's an interesting statistical comparison between the 1994 Republican victory and the 2006 Democratic victory at the Columbia stats blog. From the post:
The Democrats' victory in the 2006 election has been compared to the Republicans' in 2004. But the Democrats actually did a lot better in terms of the vote. The Democrats received 56% of the average district vote for the two parties in 2006, whereas the Republicans only averaged 51.6% in 1994.
The post also has some comments, and links to papers, discussing the fact that Democrats got a higher percentage of the vote (nationwide) than…
j7uy5 | November 10, 2006A good site to sample world media outlets, and to see what they have to
say about the USA, is
href="http://www.watchingamerica.com/index.shtml">Watching
America.
href="http://www.watchingamerica.com/diewelt000010.shtml">
src="http://blogster.com/host/images/65751436601.jpg" alt=""
align="top" border="0" height="219" hspace="0"
vspace="0" width="279">
Die Welt, Germany
Right-Wing
Extremist Viciousness Punished
I actually don't agree with the anaylsis published in Die Welt
(The World).
They think that the fall of the Republican Party began with the Terri
Schaivo matter. …
clock | November 9, 2006Some more good post-election analysis:
Amanda
Tristero
Tristero
Digby
Digby
Digby
Publius
Melissa
Paul
Echidne
Echidne
John
Neil
Jonathan
clock | November 9, 2006If you have not received the e-mail from the Center for American Progress, it is here, under the fold:
MEMO
To: Interested Parties
From: John D. Podesta, President and CEO, Center for American Progress Action Fund
Date: November 9, 2006
Re: The End of the Grand Conservative Experiment
There is a longer-term significance to the 2006 election that transcends the shift in Congressional control and the collapse of the Bush presidency and its capacity to govern.
The post-Goldwater/post-Reagan conservatism has been discredited as a governing philosophy, and simultaneously, a new progressive…
clock | November 9, 2006Just check the Wikipedia for the information on Senate seats up for (re)election in 2008. Democrats should really make a killing then.
You can also check their pages about House races, gubernatorial races and the Presidential election.
clock | November 9, 2006Politicians Sweep Midterm Elections
Rumsfeld: 'My Half-Assed Job Here Is Done'
Republicans Blame Election Losses On Democrats
Write-In Candidate Thought He Had Enough Friends To Win
Voter Turnout Reaches All-Time Low Of 17
pharyngula | November 9, 2006All right, stop it now. This is getting ridiculous. Tuesday, we watch the Republicans collapse in the elections. Wednesday, Rumsfeld folds up and goes home. Today, Allen concedes, giving Democrats the Senate. What next? Tomorrow, Bush and Cheney are abducted by aliens, who broadcast the anal probing to the whole planet's television networks? The day after, it rains ponies?*
Am I missing a good bet by not buying any lottery tickets?
*OK, this one might be a little splatty and meaty and not so nice, unless they were magic flying ponies. I'm thinking it could happen right now.
pharyngula | November 9, 2006Watch the initial "cautious optimism" about the "'Rats" (that's the Democrats) descend into outrage at the Commies and perverts at this election discussion from Tuesday night at FreeConservatives. Not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach.
clock | November 9, 2006Carnival of the Liberals #25 - the Metapolitical edition - is up on Philosophy, Etc. and Richard has picked some fantastic winners for this week's carnival.
clock | November 9, 2006As easily predicted, the 2008 presidential election is starting today. Apparently, Villsack is announcing today.
drorzel | November 9, 2006Well, it's not really much of a round-up, as that has a connotation of completeness, and this is pretty scattered. But, really, if I'm your only source for political links on the Web, you need to get out more. This is just a collection of links to a few things that I thought were particularly worth reading in the aftermath of Tuesday's election.
Brad DeLong on the size of the Democratic mandate. Thirty-two million Americans voted for Democratic candidates, compared to twenty-four million Americans who voted for Republicans. I think those numbers should get wider circulation.
Matt Yglesias on…
oracknows | November 9, 2006I was sitting in my office around 7:45 AM yesterday morning, going through my messages and mail in preparation for a long day of animal protocol and grant writing interspersed with meetings, the radio playing in the background. It was Curtis and Kuby, the usual talking heads show with a conservative paired with a liberal that I listen to when I get up, on the way to work, and even in my office if I'm not operating, in clinic, or otherwise out of my office in the morning. Bret Schundler, former candidate for Governor of New Jersey was being interviewed about the election results and the loss…
clock | November 8, 2006Some good post-mortems:
Dave
Amanda
Ezra
Mike
Christy
Publius
Echidne
Atrios
Chris
Rick
Kos
Glenn
Glenn
Jason
jlynch | November 8, 2006Now that it looks like the Senate is controlled by the Democrats, it is time to finally unveil our evil plan:
1. Mandatory homosexuality
2. Drug-filled condoms in schools
3. Introduce the new Destruction of Marriage Act
4. Border fence replaced with free shuttle buses
5. Osama Bin Laden to be Secretary of State
6. Withdraw from Iraq, apologize, reinstate Hussein
7. English language banned from all Federal buildings
8. Math classes replaced by encounter groups
9. All taxes to be tripled
10. All fortunes over $250,000 to be confiscated
11. On-demand welfare
12. Tofurkey to be named official…
jrosenhouse | November 8, 2006One of the main themes coming from the punditocracy in the wake of yesterday's election is that the Democrats are making a mistake if they think anyone likes them. This was strictly an anti-Bish result, apparently. If Demcrats start following those lunatic lefty impulses they're prone too, they'll quickly find the country rebelling against them. So much more important that they be bipartisan and centrist.
Mike the Mad Biologist and Firedoglake already have good discussions of this issue (available here and here respecitvely.)
I would only add to their analyses that precisely the same…