There You Go

Your modern Confederate Republican Party.

Congratulations, Voters of the Texas 1st Congressional District

You must be so proud to have Louis Gohmert representing you.

Taibbi on DeMint

Here's a great piece by Matt Taibbi on the whole Jim DeMint resignation clown show.  In an article full of great quotes and useful insights, I especially liked this one:


'DeMint's departure was not exactly mourned on the Hill. ("He's the biggest douchebag in Washington," is how one congressional aide explained it to me, "and this is the douchebag capital of the world."'

Zhdanov Was a Leftist of Sorts

Freddie deBoer's reflexive condemnation of Zero Dark Thirty is emblematic of this particular brouhaha.  It may well be that this film portrays a vile message that defends the use of torture, though reports from those who have seen it vary.  My issue is the preemptive pile-on.  Go see it.  If you think it's evil, condemn away.  But doing that without seeing it, based on what you think might be in it, completely subverts your case.  It reminds me of the Falwellians who protested The Last Temptation of Christ.

Becoming Unpersons

Here's a very nice, in-depth article from Dan Froomkin on the great uncovered story of the 2012 election cycle:  the complete disconnect from truth by the GOP.  In it, he quotes extensively from Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann, who published a book earlier this year (It's Even Worse Than It Looks:  How the American Constitutional System Collided with the Politics of Extremism) that delved extensively into this issue.  As a result, these two centrist Beltway insiders have been completely shunned by the establishment media, whose mindless and gutless aversion to doing anything beyond "both sides do it" prevents them from giving air time/column inches to anyone who actually describes what's going on with the Republican party's anti-truth jihad.

Balloon Juice has a much-used tag, "Our Failed Media Experiment," and if ever there was a perfect example this is it.

Because Attacking the UN is More Important

than ratifying a treaty to benefit the disabled.

Class War, In a Nutshell

Krugman spells it out, in the context of any "grand bargain" emanating from Washington.