Category: State of the Union

  • “One Nation, Under Me…”

    Among comics/comix fans, Bill Keane’s “Family Circus” is considered so blandly inoffensive as to be beneath ridicule. But I can’t let Sunday’s strip pass without comment. It begins with the adorable tow-headed kid (Jeffy?) waking up and telling Mom, “Wow! I dreamed that God was saying the Pledge of Allegiance!” Then, in the second and…

  • Trickle-up economics

    Larry Beinart has a good analysis at the HuffPost of how wrong Republican economics are for the U.S. (Bushenomics 102: Reality. One point I’d like to reinforce is this: If you want to cut taxes, cut it from the bottom up. The money will get spent, stimulating the economy. and the base of the tax…

  • If you like words and politics and history

    This may blow your mind.

  • Killing Me Softly

    “…based on authority given to me by the Constitution and by statute– I have authorized a terrorist surveillance program…” –G.W.B. 2006

  • Play the SoTU drinking game

    Catch presents The State of the Union Drinking (& Other Stuff) Game: 1. Every time Bush says “freedom”: Take one very small sip of Wild Turkey (he said it 21 times during last year’s SOTU) 2. Every time Bush mentions Jack Abramoff, Duke Cunningham, Scooter Libby or Tom DeLay: Drink three bottles of Wild Turkey…

  • Sulu’s gay

    Although I was almost inappropriately delighted to learn today that Sulu is gay, I have to confess that I’m kind of irritated at the timing. I mean, yesterday Miers withdraws, then this morning, so-called “Scooter” Libby resigns. And now here comes George Takei, pushing those stories right off the front page.

  • Appearance of Conflict of Interest

    That’s a concept we’re hearing a a lot about lately: Over the weekend the Comical ran a WaPo story reporting that the EPA’s Inspector General says there is no such thing as quid pro quo: The inspector general’s yearlong review of the EPA’s writing of a rule to manage shop towels contaminated with toxic chemicals…

  • Remembering what America stands for

    I’m reprinting this report from the AP in full: U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour’s comments during Wednesday’s sentencing hearing for Ahmed Ressam, as provided by court officials. Ressam, an Algerian national, was sentenced to 22 years for plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport on the eve of the millennium. — “Okay. Let me…

  • The president’s bike is missing

    A White House press briefing quoted at length in Editor & Publisher (via The Smirking Chimp) goes on and on in this vein: Q: The fact that the president wasn’t in danger is one aspect of this. But he’s also the commander in chief. There was a military operation underway. Other people were in contact…

  • The Mainstreaming of Vice

    I’ve been puzzling for a couple of years now about the pornification of America. Take a step back and, at least to me, it’s really quite remarkable and a bit unnerving how casually pop culture 2005 assumes everyone’s comfortable with hardcore pornography. This is especially true in sitcom-land, where porn-related jokes are a dime a…

  • RIP Hunter S. Thompson

    desiunion has posted what he believes was HST’s last Rolling Stone article up on dailykos.

  • The Sad Death of Spencer Dryden

    I’m old enough to remember when the Airplane ruled San Francisco and rocked my adolescent world, but I confess I barely noticed Spencer Dryden’s drumming between the trebly distortion of Jorma’s guitar and Grace’s Icy Bitch Goddess persona. But this post isn’t about my taste in popular music. Reading through the fan tributes in the…

  • Here are the talking points you requested

    I hope Brad De Long won’t mind my reprinting his The Social Security Party Line: Talking Points in full: I figure I might as well lay down what the party line is on Social Security: Social Security Talking Points Social Security’s Troubles Are Smaller than Our Other Fiscal Problems The projected long-run Social Security Trust…

  • Join the resistance

    Cool idea here. I signed up for the list. Perhaps you’d like to as well?

  • half tank full

    ok. I confess that since 10 pm pst 11-02-04 I have been under the covers since I began to realize with a giant stomach aching nausea that exit polls ain’t what they’re cracked up to be and I was living in a dream world. Albeit the dream world of what used to be known as…

  • Quote of the Day

    From Molly Ivins: “Sometimes, I get the feeling the whole country is being run by Paris Hilton.”