As my friend Shawn put it, “This is NPR, not the Onion.”
Thankfully there is a voice of sanity among Texas Republicans:
“Your letter pandering to idiots … has left me livid,” former State Rep. Todd Smith wrote Gov. Abbott. “I am horrified that I have to choose between the possibility that my Governor actually believes this stuff and the possibility that my Governor doesn’t have the backbone to stand up to those who do.”
Ouch.
Here’s an interesting calculation: Suppose that in 1929, you put $100,000 in a 401(k) fully invested in stocks. Under the 40 years of Republican presidents, you would have ended up with only $126,000. Under the Democrats, you would have amassed a retirement nest egg of $3.9 million! (All numbers are adjusted for inflation.)
There are some interesting numbers in here, worth fact-checking. I’ve always been in the “things are better when everyone is doing well” camp, regardless of where I’ve fallen on the scale.
Also, from the 
department…
Deitrick says he’s perpetually shocked that Democrats don’t trumpet their economic triumphs.
Pitch-perfect.
Great piece by David Frum (a speechwriter in the George W. Bush administration) for New York Magazine. I’ve pulled a few quotes below, but it’s definitely worth reading the whole thing.
In the face of evidence of dwindling upward mobility and long-stagnating middle-class wages, my party’s economic ideas sometimes seem to have shrunk to just one: more tax cuts for the very highest earners.
But the thought leaders on talk radio and Fox do more than shape opinion. Backed by their own wing of the book-publishing industry and supported by think tanks that increasingly function as public-relations agencies, conservatives have built a whole alternative knowledge system, with its own facts, its own history, its own laws of economics.
I refuse to believe that I am the only Republican who feels this way. If CNN’s most recent polling is correct, only half of us sympathize with the tea party. However, moderate-minded people dislike conflict—and thus tend to lose to people who relish conflict.
The conservative shift to ever more extreme, ever more fantasy-based ideology has ominous real-world consequences for American society. The American system of government can’t work if the two sides wage all-out war upon each other: House, Senate, president, each has the power to thwart the others. In prior generations, the system evolved norms and habits to prevent this kind of stonewalling. For example: Theoretically, the party that holds the Senate could refuse to confirm any Cabinet nominees of a president of the other party. Yet until recently, this just “wasn’t done.” In fact, quite a lot of things that theoretically could be done just “weren’t done.” Now old inhibitions have given way. Things that weren’t done suddenly are done.
If you live in the US and you are old enough, make sure you get out and vote today. If you don’t vote, you can’t bitch. As such, I dropped off my absentee ballot already. 🙂
When I got an e-mail from the producer of Bushisms offering me a chance to review the new Bushisms DVD, a big grin spread across my face. Regardless of your politics, our current President has certainly had some funny moments at the microphone. I’d only glanced through the Bushism books previously so I wasn’t exactly…
Our last stop in Utah was Canyonlands National Park. We did a driving tour to a number of lookout spots, but didn’t do any hiking (we’d hiked in Arches in the morning). Canyonlands had some of the most dramatic views we saw on the trip: deep, fingered canyons reaching out in all directions. I’m not…
So to follow up on Greg‘s comments regarding my stance on the war. I guess I’m somewhere on the fence. My problem with our country’s actions is not so much that we are going after Saddam Hussein, but the way we’ve done it with little regard for the UN or world opinion and what I…
I thought I’d listen to NPR on my way in to work today so I’d get caught up on the current events (yeah, I just wanted an excuse to use my new scare quotes icons 🙂 ). I couldn’t remember the location of the station, so I was scanning up the dial and ran across…
Why aren’t US politicians as eloquent as Tony Blair. He even speaks to my slipperly-slope concern – something I haven’t heard mention of here in the US.
I’m having trouble with the "Now that the war has started, we should support the troops" attitude. I don’t hold the soliders accountable personally for the invasion, I understand the soliders role and place the blame squarely on our leaders for the direction we are taking. I don’t want the soldiers to be hurt or…
Michael Moore has an open letter to the president that is a worthy read. I’m still not sure why we are going to go invade Iraq. [Note, war just started.] Aaron Swartz has some good words. Bill has also been blogging about the oil-war. I tend to agree with Enjelani’s fence straddling. I want to…
I wonder if the TV coverage of The Masters this year will include actual golf? And an Atlanta member of the New Black Panther Party has requested permission to demonstrate in Augusta next week. "He wants to protest against the triviality of this whole protest" surrounding Augusta National, Powell said. "He says there are lots…
This was sent to me by a friend today, had to share: Washington, DC (Reuters) — A tragic fire has destroyed the personal library of President George W. Bush. Both of his books have been lost. The president is reportedly devastated, as he had not yet finished coloring the second one.