We're Really Fucked
mikethemadbiologist | October 17, 2006A while ago, I posted about "The List", which was a list of gay Republicans being shopped around to various news media, of all political persuasions. I noted that this was going to get really ugly. Well, someone just outed Republican Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho. And if the allegations are true, then he lived a very pathetic, closeted life.
I knew this was going to happen. It's going to get really, really ugly. I don't think it's done yet, either.
And there are potential political ramifications too.
If the allegations prove true, Craig will probably still keep his Senate seat. But this…
mikethemadbiologist | October 12, 2006Yesterday, the Department of Justice approved a merger between AT&T and BellSouth without any conditions, a consent decree, or judicial review. AT&T would control half the land lines and the U.S., and it's no secret that AT&T wants to crush net neutrality. And in a rare display of bipartisanship, Democrats and Republicans have opposed and criticized the DOJ's ruling. Contact your congresscritters, and tell them that this merger sucks.
mikethemadbiologist | October 10, 2006There has been an argument by some liberal hawks that once we entered Iraq, it was our obligation to fix it (the whole "Pottery Barn" metaphor). This always honked me off because I knew from the get-go that this whole thing would go sideways. Nonetheless, there was a brief window after the fall of Saddam Hussein to get things to a stable enough point where we could declare Democracy and leave.
If we Bush had prevented the looting of Baghdad, restored some basic services, and held elections when Gen. Garner (ret.) had wanted (over a year before they were actually held), mabye this whole…
mikethemadbiologist | October 9, 2006One of the things about growing up a few decades ago as a Jewish liberal Democrat in Virginia is that I was forced to meet people who were very different from me (this is a good thing). Thus, I always find it astonishing, simply because it is so foreign to my own experience, how some people can have so little actual contact with those who are different from them.
Over at DailyKos, diarist Geiiga describes what happened while she was interviewing her fellow congregants at her Topeka, KS church--the subject was "what do you pray for?" (italics mine):
Yesterday, in the late morning, I was out…
mikethemadbiologist | October 6, 2006What's truly terrifying about the Bush phenomenon--at this point, it really can't be called a presidency like any other--is that the 36-40% that think he's doing a good job can vote and own firearms. Seriously, my conception--and I would argue most liberals, moderates, and some conservatives--of what a president should do fundamentally differs from the diehard Bush base. Take it away Jon Stewart (the part at 2:30 is brlliant):
mikethemadbiologist | September 29, 2006I had always hoped that my take on the Reign of Little Lord Pontchartrain was overblown. But even I have never thought it could lead to civil war. coturnix writes:
Many of my friends and neighbors have not experienced, like I did in Yugoslavia of the late 1980s and early 1990s, the gradual transformation from a nice, sweet, proseprous, freedom-loving country into a bunch of thugs duking it out over land and religion. Tito was dead for ten years. Prime Minister was Ante Markovic. Thousands of small businesses were starting up every week. Small people were getting rich. There was ebullience…