Progressives
mikethemadbiologist | September 7, 2006Damn. Just watch the ad. That is how you hit back against sliming. Now if only Democratic consultants would do this more often...
mikethemadbiologist | September 1, 2006
Here's what the mayor of Salt Lake City, UT said yesterday. You would think he's one of those Northeast liberal elitist, latte-drinkin' types...
Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Jackson:
A patriot is a person who loves his or her country.
Who among you loves your country so much that you have come here today to raise your voice out of deep concern for our nation - and for our world?
And who among you loves your country so much that you insist that our nation's leaders tell us the truth?
Let's hear it: "Give us the truth! Give us the truth! Give us the truth!"
Let no one deny we are patriots. We…
mikethemadbiologist | August 28, 2006The NY Times has an article about how real wages are not keeping pace with productivity increases. Quoth the Grey Lady:
With the economy beginning to slow, the current expansion has a chance to become the first sustained period of economic growth since World War II that fails to offer a prolonged increase in real wages for most workers.
That situation is adding to fears among Republicans that the economy will hurt vulnerable incumbents in this year's midterm elections even though overall growth has been healthy for much of the last five years.
The median hourly wage for American workers…
mikethemadbiologist | August 17, 2006I've been meaning to write a comprehensive post about why there is such anger among some Democrats towards Lieberman. Fortunately, Anonymous Liberal Staffer at MyDD.com has a great post describing exactly what I was thinking. I'll turn it over to her/him:
Since 9/11, Republicans from the White House to backbenchers like Jean Schmidt have mercilessly implied that Democrats are traitors who are undermining their country every time they question the President -- and it was in joining them that Joe Lieberman lost it all...
"We undermine the President's credibility at our nation's peril,"…
mikethemadbiologist | August 8, 2006So says the Hartford Courant. Lieberman is precisely why the Democratic Establishment perpetually has its collective head up its collective backside: an incumbent senator loses to a no-name challenger whose only previous political experience was in local government. The challenger was massively outspent and did not have over a decade's worth of political favors to call upon. And Lieberman still lost. Instead of taking the hint, he plows on in the name of a cause I can't fathom. Overwhelmingly, his party and the country reject his stands on Iraq, social security, and popular culture,…
mikethemadbiologist | August 7, 2006I'm swamped with work, and I plan on linking to this post from the old site, so I've resurrected this from the archives of the Mad Biologist.
I go away for a meeting and vacation, and the most important court case regarding evolution in a decade is decided. Of course, I liked the outcome, so maybe I should go on vacation more often...
Anyway, there's no point in rehashing the Dover decision: it was exceptionally well-written. An added advantage is that it was written by a laywer (obviously). Since our political system is chock full o'lawyers, having a laywer restate the arguments…
mikethemadbiologist | August 6, 2006Here are some posts I collected off those internets you might find interesting:
The NSA literally doesn't have enough electricity to run all of its equipment. At least, it will be harder for them to violate our freedoms. Maybe there is an upside to global warming...
An interesting take on upper middle class subsurbs. I'm not sure I agree, but it is interesting.
A nice takedown of the Bush Administration's economic 'accomplishments.'
Juan Cole gets all Dark Lord of Mordor on your ass. Seriously, he proposes a very interesting hypothesis. Given all of the ridiculousness Little Lord…
mikethemadbiologist | August 3, 2006It appears that some Lieberman supporters are so frustrated by the internet support for Ned Lamont, they are not only attempting to provoke violence at Lamont events, but are actually behaving violently. From Matt Stoller (italics mine):
A large man, around 50 years old or so, then started screaming at Ned, "Are you an Al Sharpton Democrat, or a Bill Clinton Democrat?" Ned was trying to answer, and the gentleman kept yelling. The Lamont press secretary tried to intervene, and meanwhile, the people behind the counter who owned the restaurant were horrified and embarrassed. Then Ned Lamont…
mikethemadbiologist | August 1, 2006I was going to write a post about the Lamont insurgency in Connecticut, but thankfully, the NY Times editorial staff pretty much covered everything I wanted to say. Instead, I'll discuss something else that's going on here: the beginning of the end of single-issue politics in the Democratic Party. Mark Schmitt describes this well (italics mine):
They aren't looking for the party to be more liberal on traditional dimensions. They're looking for it to be more of a party. They want to put issues on the table that don't have an interest group behind them - like Lieberman's support for the…
mikethemadbiologist | July 28, 2006See, I can actually say nice things about Republicans (dogmatic conservatives, on the other hand...although I always did think Jack Kemp was honest and sincere, if crazy). Former Republican Congressman Pete McCloskey has called for a Democratic Congress.
No, I'm not making this up. His statement, by way of Seeing the Forest, is below:
THE NEED FOR A DEMOCRAT MAJORITY IN THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES IN 2007
I have found it difficult in the past several weeks to reach a conclusion as to what a citizen should do with respect to this fall's forthcoming congressional elections. I am a…
mikethemadbiologist | July 23, 2006From Paul Waldman's book Being Right Is Not Enough--What Progressives Must Learn from Conservative Success:
But the stance of those in the Radical Religious Right toward homosexuality is unlikely to change anytime soon. Since they believe the Bible absolutely prohibits homosexuality, they don't see any room for compromise. As American opinion evolves, their views will grow further and further from the mainstream. Whether it takes ten years or forty years, there will come a day when gay Americans have full legal rights, and antigay prejudice becomes a hallmark of fringe thought. At some…
mikethemadbiologist | July 18, 2006Josh, at Thoughts from Kansas, has a superb explanation of why the blogospheric left has largely remained silent about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
Matt Yglesias has been pondering why the left half of the blogosphere doesn't write more about Israel. My answer is simple: Everyone involved sucks.
The Palestinians were terrorists for decades, and killing children and other non-combatants is never, ever acceptable. Accidents happen, and we forgive accidents. But targeting non-combatants just isn't OK. So they suck.
But they have fair complaints: their situation is horrific and something or…
mikethemadbiologist | July 3, 2006Kos should definitely be given credit for creating the political site DailyKos. But unfortunately, skill sets don't always transfer. His political analysis suffers greatly from, well, not to put to fine a point on it, his ignorance of political events before 1992. I say this because Kos often seems to have internalized Gingrich-era talking points:
Libertarian Dems are not hostile to government like traditional libertarians.
But unlike the liberal Democrats of old times (now all but extinct), the Libertarian Dem doesn't believe government is the solution for everything. But it sure as heck…
mikethemadbiologist | June 19, 2006I've always had a problem with the internet 'progressives.' I have never liked the term progressive, particularly since I'm not ashamed to call myself a liberal (here's one reason why). I haven't blogged much about the YearlyKos convention and ensuing controversy (being a lefty blogger, albeit a small one, I suppose I am the actual subject matter of much of that commentary). But a couple of posts have really made it clear to me why I'm not excited at all by the internet progressives.
It's the same reason I'm not excited by the mainstream Democratic Party as a whole: they don't seem to…